We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chantelle Kirstie Leon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chantelle Kirstie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Once day during my class breaks at CSUF, I was thinking about what my business name could be. I wanted something that included my name (CK is my nickname), but also included my cake jars. After brainstorming, I came up with the name Jar’d Up by CK. This name was cute and simple. It made sense because I am the one who is making the cake in the jar. Ever since February 12th, 2020, Jar’d Up by CK has been the business’ name and I don’t plan on changing it any time soon!

Chantelle Kirstie, 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 have always had a love for baking since I was a little girl. I got my very first Easy Bake Oven when I was in elementary school and ever since then, I have been obsessed with baking. I loved baking cookies and cupcakes during my free time, and would watch marathons of Cake Boss.

As I got older, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into the baking industry. As much as I loved it, I wasn’t sure where to start or how to make it work.

When I was 18 years old in my very first semester at CSUF, I started to make cake jars for fun. I thought this was such a unique and fun way to eat cake! This was just a hobby, but I turned it into a little side hustle within a few months.

I started posting my cake jars on my Instagram and classmates started to purchase them! Every week, I would bring cake jars to school and hand deliver them to each of my classmates. My cake jars started to get popular and eventually students who I didn’t even know were messaging me wanting to buy cake jars. There was a point in time where I was known as the “cake jar girl” at school.

After my cake jars grew popularity, I would bring huge bags to school filled with cake jars. I would walk all over campus with these heavy bags and go class to class, making sure I deliver each and every cake jar.

Seeing my hobby turn into a side hustle made me realize that I could actually make money with a bakery. At the beginning of my second semester in college, I decided that I was going to try to really make this work.

Flash forward to February 12th, 2020, Jar’d Up by CK was born!

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

I had to take a huge pivot when COVID-19 hit. I had just named my business in February of 2020 and was so excited to get my home bakery started.
In March 2020, everything started to close and shut down. Therefore, I wasn’t able to bake and bring cake jars to classmates and friends anymore. During the lockdown, all of my classes moved online and I lost my job. It was a very rough time and I didn’t really know how to make money.

Instead of putting Jar’d Up by CK on hold, I decided to push through and continue baking. There was so much sadness in the world so I thought that making cake jars and bringing them to people can put a smile on their face.

I continued to take orders through Instagram and I ended up building a client base all over Orange County. I took caution at home when baking and made sure that I did no contact deliveries to my clients’ doors.

Even though this was a very rough time, I am very happy that I was able to still focus on the growth of my business while making others happy with cake jars!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have always loved social media! Social media is so important when it comes to business. In fact, majority of my clients find me from Instagram.

At the beginning of 2023, I made a goal to focus on Jar’d Up by CK’s social media. I really wanted to grow the account so I can reach more potential customers. I started to create content by using Instagram reels. I would film myself baking, stocking up on ingredients, and setting up my booth at my farmers market.

Flash forward to now, I just hit 10K followers! By staying consistent and true with my content, I was able to gain new followers who are also in the baking industry, and gained new clients!

My advice to anyone just starting out on social media is to be active every day and stay consistent. It takes months of consistency in order to see growth. Trust me, just trust the process!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.jardupbyck.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jardupbyck
• Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/jardupbyck
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/9cuLwSyzCq