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

Hi Elisabeth, thanks for joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

While I’m always looking for ways to donate a piece of my sales to causes I believe in, I think my real work starts with the products that I DON’T sell.

For me, one of the hardest parts about life in the food industry is product waste. Growing up as a preacher’s daughter in the South, we had to rely on the community to keep our pantry full. It was so important to be grateful for what little we had, and not let anything go uneaten. Fast forward to my time as a corporate caterer in Chicago, and we literally had to weigh our uneaten food by the ton so we could keep track of how much perfectly edible food was being thrown away every day. It broke my heart every time, and I knew that once I finally had a business of my own, I was going to do things differently.

Today, I’m proud to donate 100% of all unsold EMB products to Higher Ground Youth & Family Services in Anaheim, CA. They’re an outreach program who offer care and support for at-risk youths and families in need around the Anaheim area. Higher Ground distributes my donated baked goods across their facilities, including some senior care homes with which they’re affiliated. And every once in a while, I get to hear a wonderful story about someone who hadn’t had a Snickerdoodle in years, but absolutely loved one that they enjoyed from me.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am that EMB is able to virtually eliminate its product waste while still brightening the days of people who really need it. It’s the kind of win-win solution that I wish was a standard throughout the rest of the industry.

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.

Elisa Marie Baking is a cottage law scratch bakery in Orange County, CA. We offer artisanal cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, and scones that are made with fresh local ingredients and based off of family recipes that I enjoyed growing up in Kentucky and Oklahoma. It’s the culmination of my eight years as a professional baker, but also a deeply personal celebration of the bakers that came before me in my family. I wanted to bring something into the world that kept their memory alive, and stood as a reminder for people to stop and enjoy the things in life that are made simply and with great love.

Just about every EMB product is a story from my past. For instance, my chocolate chip cookie recipe is the same one my mom made for me when I was a little girl. My Raspberry Bismarck cake is based on the donut that my Papaw (that’s “grandfather” for y’all) had to have every night. It’s that kind of close family connection that I think makes me stand out, both as a baker and a bakery. I want these delicious little pieces of my past to connect my customers to their own memories and stories. To take them back to their Grandma’s kitchen, or help them remember just how much joy a bit of butter and sugar can bring. The way I see it, life is a series of moments, so why not make a few of those moments just a little sweeter when you can? That’s EMB.

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

Social media’s been a vital part of EMB’s existence and growth. I don’t have a physical storefront for people to visit, and my weekly markets are in different places all over SoCal, so social media is the only place where I can regularly connect with people about my business. It was an opportunity I couldn’t waste, and today, I feel very fortunate to say that my audience is a little more than ten times the size it was when I first started. If I had to attribute that to something, it would be truthful storytelling, consistent posting, and a variety of different types of content.

The first thing I had to wrestle with was the kind of story that EMB was going to tell. I knew it was going to be a personal one, so when I post, I try to dance on the line between personal and professional. I can’t be afraid of telling good stories, even if they make me look a little dorky. The truth is, I AM a little dorky, and I’ve found that the more authentically I can present myself, the more people will pick up what I put down. I say forget trying to look so put together and cookie-cutter. Identify what makes you unique, and wear it on your sleeve.

I’ve also gotten a lot of value out of maintaining a consistent posting schedule. Not only does it give your brand a pulse and keep you in people’s feeds, it challenges you to do more with the time that you have. After all, you’ve got 3-4 posts to put together, so you need to go out there and do some things worth posting about! For me, that’s developing a new product, or releasing preorders for an upcoming event, or literally anything else that I’ve got going on. It’s different for everybody, but it keeps you on your toes creatively, and allows for the possibility of discovering something about yourself that you didn’t even know was there. Which can then turn into a post in and of itself! It’s a cyclical kind of thing.

Lastly, I try to give people as many content options as possible. You never really know what’s going to catch on, so we do a little bit of everything. Video, raw images, a little graphic design here and there, it’s all good. Plus, we pair every post with good written copy. A trick I’ve learned is to err on the long side, but say everything that you want people to know within the first sentence or two. That way, everything that’s important is above the fold and easy to grab, but there’s always a little extra for people to take in if they want. If all this sounds a little daunting, don’t worry. I am by NO means an expert at videography or graphic design, but you’d be surprised how far a Canva Pro subscription and a few free classes on YouTube can take you!

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

I’m a self-taught baker with zero formal training, and that’s come back to bite me in the butt a few times in my life. Not in any singularly huge moments, but in a series of little gut checks that might’ve made it a little too tempting to throw my arms up, walk away and forget I ever wanted to bake for a living. For one thing, when I was just starting out in Chicago, it was totally normal for me to work 18-hour days across two jobs just so I could pay my own way. Even worse, we didn’t have a car at the time, so I spent an additional chunk of time shuttling on trains and busses through some pretty rough parts of the city.

Then there were the more specific moments. Like day one of my very first baking job, when I took a full-size speed rack around a corner a little too hard and spilled about a thousand brownies all over the bakery floor. I was mortified. My chef’s jaw hit the floor, and all he said was, “Well, I guess no one’s getting brownies this week”. I excused myself to the bathroom for a good, long cry, and it took everything I had just to pull myself together and get back on the line.

There was also the time I got to try out for a job at a major restaurant in downtown Chicago. I found out the hard way that the tempo of a real professional kitchen was no joke. I was in the weeds the whole time, I couldn’t plate with any consistency, and when my pastry chef asked me for two cups of sesame seeds, I came back with about a pound because I didn’t measure in dry cups. Needless to say, I was one of the first cuts that night, and I never heard from them again.

Life’s thrown a lot of these kinds of tests at me. In fact, that’s kind of what life does to everyone. But looking back on them now, I think the most resilient moments of my career were when I was at my lowest, ready to break, but I was able to hold on for one more day. Every last one of those “one more day” days made something stronger and more capable out of me. They are the reason I have a business of my own today, and why I get to spend a little time answering questions from awesome people like you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elisamariebaking.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elisamariebaking/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElisaMarieBaking
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elisamariebaking
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/elisa-marie-baking-placentia