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

Hi Chelsea , 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?

Mini-Me Confections… My business name is inspired by my oldest daughter Aria, My literal “Mini-Me”. She is a straight clone of myself, its a little freaky.
When I started this I was a mother of one who found this life passion for cookies out of nowhere that I was molding and creating into my own. This was my first true success in life that I had accomplished from start to finish. I knew the name had to be meaningful, and stand for something I loved or something that made me happy and inspired me. Your business name sets the tone for the rest of your journey.

My daughter is my life, my inspiration, my reason that I am alive today, I owe my entire life to her little self and she doesn’t even know it. One day ill be able to tell her how much having her and wanting to be the best role model for her has inspired me to be the best version of myself possible, to push myself harder than I ever thought I could, to accomplish the impossible, to prove that no matter what life has handed you, you can make something good out of it.

I wanted to have a legacy to leave her, something to make her proud, something that would support her, give her confidence in life. I wanted to show her that life has no boundaries, that nobody or anything can hold her back and if she works hard enough she can achieve anything.
The only way I knew how to do that, was to name my business after her so every time I questioned whether I could do it or not, was it too stressful, am I too tired, can I make this successful, am I going to fail? I could look at my business name and be reminded of WHO and WHAT I’m working for. To remind me of the big picture, and not what had me in the moment.

So every time I see “Mini-Me Confections” I am grounded, I am inspired, I am wrapped in love , I am strong and confident and I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

If we go back 3 years ago, I had never decorated or baked a cookie before in my life and if you would have told me I would own my own cookie company that ships worldwide I would have laughed in your face. I never dreamed of a cookie shop, I never dreamed of going to culinary school, or owning my own bakery, not working outside of the home, I didn’t dream of baking cookies all day or acquiring a skill that would change my life, I never thought of using art as a source of income, I never thought for this is a life that I could have or build for myself.

Cookies took me by complete surprise and ended up fulfilling my life in a way that is almost unexplainable.
Before Mini-Me I was a young 19 year old single mom, who worked in retail management and I worked non-stop to just survive with the bare minimum. To say I felt defeated by life at that time would be an understatement, I didn’t go to college, and I never graduated high school , didn’t have a reliable car or a car at all most of the time. I worked to pay for childcare, there was no money to save for a house, or a car or anything. I barely had enough money to live on my own. I had never owned my own home or apartment, I was always living with family or I was homeless living with friends.
When I first started making cookies, I even bought my ingredients with food stamps. Thats the life I had.

I have always been artistic, ever since I was young I was either creating my own story books, practicing my script and calligraphy, oil painting with bob ross, utilizing pastels, and any medium I could really get my hands on and I would draw anything and everything.
The first time I was introduced to cookies I was 26 years old, my aunt and I were decorating thanksgiving cookies and it was something so fun that I was drawn to it instantly and I just had to learn more about them and practice them… I was shocked that you could make cookies at home that people would buy! No job- no car- and I can make this at home and I don’t have to go anywhere or ask anyone for favors?! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED and that was the start of my business.
I was instantly addicted to perfecting the cookies and icing so I had the base for creating a gorgeous cookie. Face timing my aunt, you tube videos, instagram , I found other cookie people who helped share their knowledge online and I learned EVERYTHING I possibly could. This process took me about 9 months to have a product that I was PROUD to give to others. That is daily baking and practicing getting the right icing consistency, decorating anything I saw that I liked on Pinterest, and slowly posting my creations on facebook.
I received a few orders, and in February of 2020 I opened my own Etsy shop and the dream just took off.

I created DIY cookie kits and they became a top seller in under 3 months of being on their platform. I had daily business overnight and it just never stopped. All on my own, I had created a product people liked, a product they enjoyed sharing with others and a product that made a difference and stood out at events and kept the customers coming back. My life changed just like that, in a second. my business had grown to the point where I hire holiday help,i produce bulk orders of over 600 cookie kits at a time, I have built a commercial kitchen into my home where I can work without debt, I host in person and virtual cookie classes, I am able to create and provide for my customers and my family from my own home and ship cookies all over the world. I wake up everyday and I bake cookies and create beautiful character cookies, wedding favors, birthday activity kits, holiday cookies for Santa and anything else my customers can dream of.

My life after cookies, at 30 is more beautiful than I could have ever thought. Mini-Me Confections is going into its 4th year of business and I have never looked back! Owning my own business makes me feel fulfilled, and it makes me feel empowered as a woman. I feel unique, and strong, and I know that all my hard work is what got me here, all my tears, all the hardships, every person who doubted me, every sacrifice , the time from my children, the late nights, the mistakes.. all of it together got me here and I share what I know because I am determined to teach those attributes to not only my daughters, but to other young women. Who may find themselves in a not so “goals” place in life. I want to show other women that you can create, you can succeed, and you can build anything you want. My days are not just baking and shipping cookies all day, but filled with joy and creativity and inspiration and challenges, No day is the same and everyday I am learning, growing, both within myself and my business.

I hope that when you enjoy cookies from Mini-Me that you can feel the love and hard work that is poured into every single part of the process. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way <3

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

Growing your social media is SO important, it’s how the world works now and it’s a way to reach literally everyone you know and even everyone you don’t all in one place! I can be intimidating and scary but you just have to go for it! It can be such a fun and uplifting hobby and attribute to your business. I think a very important part to establishing and building your social media presence is to pick a “theme” or a “vibe” that you want to be known for , finding your place in the social media world can be overwhelming but narrow it down to what you love most about yourself and what you can post about organically without having to think too much is a great place to start!

For me- it was my ” Not so average baker look” and colorful cookie scheme and my rough road to starting my business that I am super open to sharing is what I wanted to share most and what I felt like I was open with and able to relate to others with the most. How to grow yourself and your business from nothing- and then over the top unique cookie content.
You won’t find plain pastels, or crisp cut all white instagram but that is exactly what draws people to ME and MY SHOP! That my cookie content is different, that I have bright pink or green hair, that im covered in tattoos, people find that such a shocker when it comes to what they think a “baker” should look like and so I have fun playing into that.
I share my daily life and all parts of my business on my tiktok with 75k people after just 1.5 years on the platform, my instagram just hit 11.5k all because I am myself, and I share what I love to do and what makes me happy.

Find something that makes you, YOU and run with that, build on it, emphasize it, share it, be proud of it and find others who love that about you! Take the chance on yourself and post to that business page more, post the reels, make a tiktok, show your process and be yourself.

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

For me, it has been utilizing third party advertisement, through my Etsy platform , that really helped me be a top searched shop, got my listings higher and in top view, I am on the facebooked marketing for etsy and overall paying for advertising is still necessary but I dont think its the only way to do it anymore. It is still a hugely effective way of growing your business especially when you have no experience.

Second, if there is anything I cannot stress more it is to utilize your social media platforms in every way possible.
I LIVE stream on TikTok daily, and that has grown my business so much more. There are people who are all over the world using this one app, and you can reach all of them. You encounter new and potential customers every day with people just scrolling and looking for something to watch. There are people everywhere who will be interested in what youre doing, how do you make something, are you packaging an actual order or sharing where you purchase things , anything and everything has a platform now.
I think the best part of the live videos and reels etc, is that you get to share yourself with your customers, so many places you know nothing about who owns it or makes your items or where they come from , what type of life do they live. Thats all different now, you can know almost everything about someone just from watching their page. And your business page is the same, a customer is more likely to buy from me instead of the millions of other cookie people, because they like me for me. They like my personality, or my life views, my hair color, or that im just a regular mom with life struggles making it through life just like they are. My customers have connected to me in a personal way, and for that reason alone they will come back and continue to shop with me and share my business with others.
You can make true friends and a supportive customer base through social media, just being yourself and doing what you love!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mini-meconfections.com
• Instagram: MiniMeConfectionsCG
• Facebook: Minimeconfections
• Other: TikTok- NotUrAverageMawma

Image Credits
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