Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jamila Muhammad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jamila , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

My biggest risk to date is opening my retail location. I’ve literally talked about owning a bakery for over 10 years (since I worked at Disney as a pastry cook 1). I had to finance my business myself because I could not attain traditional loans. I decided in January of 2020 to work out of a commercial kitchen to gauge what my revenue would look like doing this full-time. Soon after I found myself outgrowing the commercial kitchen situation and started researching retail locations. The one in the Oviedo Mall is ideal because it provides the opportunity in a local area (I live in Oviedo) at a reasonable rent. Why I took the risk: My children! I found myself frustrated raising my daughters alone to be there for them and school activities they have and needed the ability as their only parent to be there for them. This was a necessary and needed risk,

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 decided after some personal issues that I needed to have a career that provided for myself and my daughters potentially if I were alone. I decided to follow a wild dream of going back to school for Baking and Pastry Management at Valencia College here in Central Florida. Shortly after going back to school, I started affirming I wanted a job at Disney. In May 2012 I achieved this goal and was a pastry cook 1 in the Park Event Operations Kitchen at Disney in Epcot. In that kitchen, I was approached one day and asked if I could make gluten-free chocolate cookies from one of the culinary chefs. No, I never had, but I knew this would set me apart and attempted the recipe anyway. They turned out great! I started to become an “allergy person: and I had an opportunity to try different flours and ingredients as the opportunities arose. This gave me the confidence to do these things on my own and develop my own recipes for myown business I now had at local farmers’ markets. I now do gluten-free, plant-based/vegan, and keto specialty diets at my bakery. I also cater to special diets not listed when requested. I love that clients can have the things they love again! I have a dairy sensitivity so I can understand the need for having things you crave most. I am most proud of the fact that my special diet desserts taste AS GOOD or BETTER than my traditional desserts at the bakery.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Consistency! The fact that people once they crave an item from my bakery it will be the item each time they order or visit. I pride myself in the recipes I’ve developed and purposely use the same quality ingredients over and over to make sure things are consistent. I also am consistent as possible with the times I am available for customers. I make it my purpose to provide excellent customer service and when possible to exceed expectations for them. Repeat customers make my day!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There is a Youtube Video by Eric Thomas that really made a deep impression throughout my entrepreneurial journey. He talks about a man who approaches another businessman he finds successful and asks how he does it. He tells him to meet him in the morning a the beach he shows up in a suit and tie ready for business. The man takes him out in the water little by little and then eventually where he is under the water struggling to breathe. He eventually pulls him out to the shore and asks him how bad he wants to breathe. He says badly! The businessman explains that’s how bad you need to want to be successful, as bad as you wanted to breathe. I use this motivational video to remind me that at one time I wanted to be where I am now to the point even of the same analogy of wanting to breathe. We cant ever let go of that passion to succeed as business owners. Sometimes it’s small steps, sometimes it’s big steps but I’m always working towards moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://milasfrontporch.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/milasfrontporch
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/milasfrontporch