We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amelia Rose a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amelia, appreciate you joining us today. Day to day the world can seem like a tough place, but there’s also so much kindness in the world and we think talking about that kindness helps spread it and make the world a nicer, kinder place. Can you share a story of a time when someone did something really kind for you?

A woman came up to the booth at the Little Italy Holiday Market – it was the first market we’d ever done exactly a year before – and told me she was one of my OG customers. I used to deliver to her every week during the pandemic. Not gonna lie, I teared up when she told me she’d been following me from the start and was so proud of how the business had grown.

Amelia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

During quarantine, I wanted to spread joy without spreading COVID. Some friends were laid off, furloughed, or were just plain depressed (and goddamn, who wasn’t?). I wanted them to have something to look forward to. Every week, I’d pick one of them, ask what their favorite cocktail/drink was, turn it into a dessert and leave it on their doorstep. I’d announce the flavor on Wednesdays and deliver Saturday/Sunday. It snowballed and I was getting 50-60 orders per week. Soon it was named one of the best businesses born during COVID by Yelp and it was featured on an episode of 90-Day Fiancé.

The thing I’m most proud of through all of it is that it came from a place of wanting to make people happier during a truly dark time. I shed a LOT of tears over things I fucked up and felt an immense amount of pressure and anxiety over wanting to do my best. At the same time, Drunk Confections kept me sane even when it was insanely busy.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I fucked up a lot. A LOT, you guys. My friend once asked me, “Is it still giving you joy?” But personal joy was never the goal. Money was never the goal. Even having a reason to drink and eat cake was never the goal. The desire to improve was always in the back of my mind. To puzzle together what people were looking for, what would make them happy, what creative solution I could come up with for how to get tequila into whipped cream and have it stay firm… that’s what kept me going. So when I dropped that custom key lime pie or the top half of a chocolate Skrewball cake slid off and crumbled… joy was never the end result. My very practical, voice-of-experience advice is to lean in when you fuck up, because you will fuck up. Necessity is the mother of invention. Release the panic, take a breath, and figure out how to make a key lime pie in under two hours.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I was very lucky. This started as a passion project that I didn’t need for income. The stakes were low. I knew that if I wasn’t having fun with it, it wasn’t worth doing. With that in mind, the website has a lot of Mean Girls references and swear words and my quirky humor is now part of the branding. Sorry not sorry. You’re not gonna please everyone, and the people I don’t please are ridiculous because I’m hilarious.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drunkconfections.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drunkconfections/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drunkconfections/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/drunk-confections-san-diego