We recently connected with Alexia Cardenas and have shared our conversation below.
Alexia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
Starting a bakery business of custom decorated sugar cookies and later an online cookier supply shop was a big risk for me. I’ve always baked and been in the kitchen with my mom for as long as I can remember. The baking, for me, is the easy part. The decorating, not so much. It all started when I was scrolling through Instagram and came across cookie flooding videos. They looked so satisfying. After a few clicks and swipes, I came across Kristin from Grunderfully Delicious’s instagram post with her holding a key. She just got the keys to open up her own cookie studio where she would hold Cookie Decorating classes. I called my husband right away and asked if he wanted to go with me. He said yes and I quickly signed up! I took my first class, October 2018 and life hasn’t been the same since! I was immediately hooked and wanted to learn all the techniques and own all the proper cookie supplies. I took a cookie class every month with my husband (I called them date night’s :-D). I began baking and sharing cookies with everyone and started earning clients and business. Fast forward a year, another cookier, Corianne with Cookie Couture, who I became IG friends with, posted a story of her working on scribes-which is a tool us cookiers use. I commented on a story in November 2019, where she posted about making scribes and I told her, how it looked fun and relaxing. She responded with, “you should make them and I’d buy them from you”. Well those words rang so loudly in my head and I just ran with it! About a month later I presented her with 2 designs and she LOVED them!!! She ordered stock for her shop and then shortly after I created my own online shop with a ton of other custom designer scribes. The orders were flying in and I was in total shock. I never thought that I would ever start my own online cookie supply business. That was just the beginning of my small business story. I went from being in 2 major cookier shops to then also being a part of 2 seasonal boxes with The Sugar Art-another huge business in the industry.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a mom of 3 and wife to my high school sweetheart. I got into the cookier industry from a video I scrolled and found on Instagram back in October 2018. I started with custom decorated sugar cookies October 2018. In December 2019 I began teaching cookie decorating classes. In January 2020 I started my online cookier supply shop and added other sweets. I feel what sets me apart from others is my “happy”. I truly love what I do! I wouldn’t continue if this didn’t make me smile. I won’t take an order that doesn’t make me happy, because it wouldn’t be fair to me or my client. When I create and design the scribes I make-I always do it with a happy heart. I pour happiness into everything I do. My mom always said never to cook angry, because it will come out into your food and make it not taste good. That stuck with me and I follow that in all aspects of my life. I don’t do things angry or mad. I am most proud of that. What you see is what you get with me. I truly feel like a Happy person and love all things happy. That is why my logo has a smiley face on it. I love to make people happy and am a huge people pleaser. I take pride in all the details and will only carry items in my shop that I actually use and think are useful to others-and not to mention cute.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think what helped me build my reputation was just me being myself. I’ve always been a person that has had something to say. I was nicknamed by a friend “expect something back Lex” for that reason. It’s hard for me to not comment on things, or not have something to say about everything. So it came natural for me to chat with people in comments and DMs. I’ve made many friends through this business that I’ve never even met!! Once I discovered the cookier community, all I would do in my spare time would be to watch stories and videos and I would love to comment. I would comment on people’s stories and began making friendships with like minded people! I would also love to help out with giveaways and donate items from my shop. One time I donated a prize to a giveaway and unexpectedly gained 1000+ followers overnight from that one giveaway. It was a really great feeling. I love to talk to people and that is easy and fun to do when you’re communicating with people that understand cookies/baking and enjoy discussing it too!
Have you ever had to pivot?
I have my own Event Planning company. I was doing that for over 10 plus years. My schedule was very busy, and my kiddos were small. Right around the time I started falling in love with cookies and working more with it and then opening up my online shop, the world shut down and events came to a halt. I quickly pivoted to running my baking business and my online shop full time while putting event planning on the back burner. I’ve always been taught to work hard and be the best I can be. So when it came to switching gears, I kept going and worked hard to grow my small business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.happysweetsandtreats.com
- Instagram: @happysweetsandtreats
- Facebook: @happysweetsntreats