We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Avery Grundmeyer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Avery below.

Avery, appreciate you joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My parents have always no matter what encouraged me to do what I love. When i told them i didnt want to go to regular college i wanted to go to New York City instead and go to pastry school they didnt think twice about supporting me through that all the way. My mom has always been my sidekick and now sometimes gets more excited to try out a new recipe than I do! My dad has been my best friend ever since i was a baby. When i told him i wanted to open a storefront for my bakery he never once doubted me but held my hand and told me we would do it together and he hasnt left my side since. They both push me to be the best I can be and never fail to cheer me on through all my wins and fails as well through this baking journey!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I fell in love with baking when I was little, My grandmother was a baker and I would always help her out during the holidays to bake the things we needed. As I grew up and when my grandmother passed away, she handed down her mixer to me to use for my baking. That mixer was my very first mixer and i still have it to this day along with some newer ones! It reminds me daily about the amazing line of bakers I have in my family and how that love can be passed down. As i grew up I started spending my summers working for bakeries around New Orleans, and I soon realized that my favorite thing to do was make cookies. So in 2017 I started my LLC, Just Eat Me Sweets, on a limb to support my love of baking. I never thought it would go far until I was in my senior year of high school and I decided i wanted to go to New York City to become a pastry chef and open a bakery. I soon went to New York to per-sue that dream and came back to NOLA soon after with a vision to open my bakery by my 21st birthday. My company is mainly a cookie business but also sweets of any kind that can make people smile and make their tummies full! I think what sets me apart from other bakeries is that I do this to make people smile. I never started this business to make money. My main focus is having people smile and express how yummy the cookies taste. I also think what sets me apart is that I treat my clients as friends. Every order means the world to me and I love telling my clients that. It truly is the reason I get up and do this every day because of the support I have from my amazing customers. The main thing I want to accomplish with opening my storefront is to show people of any age that dreams can come true. Dreams can always come true if you wake up every single day and put in the work to get to where you want to be. I don’t do anything for the bakery unless I know it will make my clients smile.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think the most effective way to grow your clientele is to treat them with the most respect. I always always always treat all of my customers like they are my friends. I always always treat all of my customers like they are my friends. I love to talk about the customers’ hopes for my work and their visions for the projects I do. I love walking into a store with a friendly atmosphere. I hope to keep this my goal with every customer that steps into Just Eat Me Sweets.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have always been very hard headed and never really could understand where other people were coming from. When I started baking cookies in high school, I would come to school and tell people this is what I wanted to do for my life. I also expressed that I wanted to open a bakery and do the unheard of. People would push me down and tell me I would fail any chance they could. But I always took that criticism as fire under my butt to push myself farther and go the extra mile to show them that I can do it. I was never able to get away from that and to this day I still have criticism. I always use that as fuel to keep going and prove them wrong! I think a lot of times in life you will have criticism, but you will never be able to say you did it if you didn’t push yourself to get there. I always wake up everyday ready to go the extra mile because I know it will pay off at the end.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @justeatmesweets