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

Brooke, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I had been involved in baking for 11 years prior to starting my own blog, baking for a restaurant in Palm Springs, CA called Jake’s. We moved to Austin, and so after leaving Jake’s I knew I wanted to still do something with my love for baking as a creative outlet for myself. One of me friends told me I should start a baking blog and instagram account, so on a whim almost two years ago I did. I built my whole site myself and had one recipe up when I launched my blog and my instagram. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist and when I decided to launch I wasn’t expecting to gain traction right away. I figured I’d launch it and then kind of learn what I was doing and perfect it before I gained a following, but within a few days I had already gained a few thousand followers and some good traffic to my blog. I kind of panicked because I knew how to bake and put out good recipes, but I knew nothing about photography and blogging or anything tech related. So I stayed up late into the middle of the night for at least the first few months watching tutorials and youtube videos learning how to do it. Now looking back, I am grateful I had no idea how much I didn’t know or I don’t think I ever would have felt ready enough to do it all.

Brooke, 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?

I am a self taught, or rather taught by my Mom, baker. I have always loved to bake and share whatever it is I made with others. My Mom was always really talented when it came to baking and so I kind of just grew up watching and learning to love it myself. As I got older and started a family of my own I realized that baking and serving/sharing food with others is definitely my love language. I wanted to host parties just so I could have a spread of food out for everyone to eat and love. After a few years of baking I started to realize I was actually really good at it. People would always compliment my stuff and ask for my recipes. So when I found myself in a position to start, I started my blog. I wanted everyone to be able to have access to not only my recipes, but also the tools to be able to get the recipes to turn out correctly.
As I’ve grown a following on instagram its been so rewarding to be able to actually help people feel good about themselves in the kitchen as well. I get lots of messages from people asking me specific questions and sending me pictures to help them figure out why their cookies may not look like mine, or if their roll dough looks like the right consistency. It’s the best feeling to be able to walk them through how to change something and then see the results. I want everyone to feel successful in the kitchen.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is a tricky and ever changing thing, and while I definitely know everyones path and opportunities are different, consistency is key. From the day I launched my instagram account, I have only taken a few days off from posting. I wanted my followers to know from the start that I was here to serve a purpose, sharing recipes and helpful tips, and I wanted them to be able to trust me. I spend a lot of time making sure to engage and ask questions to hep build relationships with the people who follow me.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

About six months ago I thought I was going to take a step back from spending all my time blogging recipes and start to work on a cookbook. It has been something that I’ve had on my mind since I started. But right when I was about to start I had a reel that went viral on instagram. I knew that it was a good momentum and that I needed to let go of the cookbook and focus on my social media while it was growing so rapidly. So I put all my extra time into creating reels and didn’t let up once or take a break for over 100 days. I knew the growth would eventually die down, but I also knew I needed to take advantage while it was in my favor. It allowed me to get enough traffic on my blog to start earning revenue, and gave me some other job opportunities as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: thesaltedsweets.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesaltedsweets/