We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Brooks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.
Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later
I don’t have any regrets! In fact, as I have grown older, I have come to appreciate the roads that have led to my current season. I actually started a custom cake business many years ago, called LKO Creations. I am mostly self taught, so I spent years practicing different techniques and finally decided one day to give it a go. I came up with a business name and just started taking orders from friends and family, coworkers, etc. I worked in the Oil and Gas industry, and really loved my job, so baking was just something of a hobby. When life threw the curve ball of divorce, I really tried to up my game and take more orders, but that is the first big lesson I learned, pricing. I was barely covering my cost and getting frustrated with the lack of growth. Going into 2020 and all that it brought to our current way of life, I decided to close up shop and made peace with the fact that maybe this wasn’t for me. Fast forward about 7 months and I was remarried, and had moved about an hour away from my job. My husband became an Owner/Operator and that meant he was gone from home about half the month. If the kids needed me, I was, at best, an hour from them. We knew the best choice was to leave my corporate job and stay home so I could be available. (I should add, one of our girls is considered special needs, so a medical event could happen at any time. Being close was imperative). Without much to keep me busy at home, I got back in the kitchen and quickly realized how much my heart missed creating amazing food. Twelve 28 Bakery was originally going to be a dessert bar back when LKO Creations was created. I envisioned branching out to create something more elegant and moody, but when I closed LKO, the dream of Twelve 28 went dark. As I sat in my kitchen in December of 2020, it seemed that Twelve 28 was always meant to be the leading lady and not the supporting role. I just started having fun and getting my groove back over the next several months. I believe that I am right where I am supposed to be and that God’s timing is always perfect!
Jennifer, 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?
Twelve 28 Bakery was born as an ode to my oldest daughter and the woman she has helped me to become. I was a young mom, and trying to raise a child as a child myself has been challenging to say the least. Twelve 28 Bakery was birthed in 2020 at the end of one of the hardest years for our society. Oddly enough though, it was actually one of the best years for me, personally. I was stronger than I’d ever been, and for the first time, I felt comfortable in who I was. As a mom, I had overcome incredible odds having spent the previous two years healing from a toxic and abusive marriage and coming into my own ready to take the next step. I got remarried in September and a month later, left my oil and gas admin job to stay closer to home for our special needs daughter. With no children at home during the day, I reignited the flame of baking again. My faith in God is important to me and my family, so embarking on this endeavor was not something I stepped into lightly. Previously, I ran a side-hustle type baking business in an effort to get practice and exposure. It definitely helped but I also learned so much about how I needed to present myself (my brand) and how to run my business in a way that actually paid for my time and talent. I am self taught as most of my education has stemmed from watching YouTube videos and making messes in my kitchen. This past year, I was privileged enough to have been accepted into the Baking and Pastry Program at my dream school, the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio. In January 2022, I began the Spring semester and absolutely LOVED every second. It was much more challenging than I anticipated (I have been out of school for well over 15 years) but I finished the semester with amazing grades and more fuel than ever to pursue my passion. Unfortunately, I’ve had to take a step back due to the medical needs of our special needs kiddo, but I am holding out hope that one day in the future, I will be able to return and complete the degree! I’ve spent the last two years really focusing on building my brand and what I represent. From the photos of my product, to the logo, to the colors, I have really been intentional about what story I want to tell with my business. I have held many positions in my corporate career in many industries, one of which being the marketing/PR side. This experience allowed me to learn the importance of building a brand that stands for something and shows the world who I am and what I have to offer them. Twelve 28 Bakery isn’t just a bakery with the latest over-sugared trends, we are a from-scratch kitchen where love and care are poured into every delectable morsel. We understand that patrons have endless choices when it comes to bakers and cake-makers, so when we are given the opportunity to be a part of a person, family or business’s special moments, we don’t take it lightly. The exact same love and care that I put into the cakes and cookies I baked as a child for my family during the holidays is the same that I pour into everything that leaves my kitchen. The legacy of Twelve 28 isn’t just about pursing a dream, my goal is that it honors my daughter in a way that transcends generations, I’d love for her kids to one day be a part of what I am creating now and carry on the love for family and community.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Twelve 28 Bakery wasn’t my first baking business. Several years ago, I started a business called ‘LKO Creations’ and fit it in the nooks and crannies of being in the oil and gas business, being a Mom and wife. My clients were mostly friends and family, I don’t think I actually sold anything to a stranger which was a blessing and a curse, I suppose. I have always been emotionally attached to what I create but I think I was even more fragile back then. I didn’t have a clue about product cost, pricing,branding or how to run a baking business. On top of that, I was dealing with turmoil at home. My husband at the time was mentally and emotionally abusive and, to complicate things more, he was involved in a workplace accident that sent our world spinning. His recovery and rehabilitation became the number one time drain in my life. For a year and a half, every move I made was for him, which only intensified the abuse. I tried to do more and more cakes in order to help bring in any kind of money since I couldn’t go to work outside the home. In November 2017, it all came to a head and I had no choice but to make one of the hardest decisions of my life and leave him. I had to do what was best for my kids and myself and that meant going into survival mode. All of my passions and dreams were put on indefinite hold while I worked desperately to rebuild my life and get my girls and I back on the right side of things. We needed to heal and we needed God to put us back together. Two and a half years of working on my emotional, mental and physical well being saw me heading into 2020 with hope and full of joy for the future. I made peace with the fact that I just maybe LKO Creations wasn’t meant to be anything more than something I poured myself into as an escape. I shut the whole thing down and leaned into the stillness of that season of life. The world was closed for business and I was enjoying the quiet. The beauty of being still is listening to your own heartbeat and getting real and raw with your innermost self. My life was slowly coming back together, when I decided, I was meant to give this a go again. This time, I was going to put my heart and soul into my business. I resolved to give it a bigger purpose and to have faith in myself to build it from the ground up. Needless to say, two years later, I couldn’t be more proud or humbled by the leaps and bounds growth I have experienced.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
For me, it has been word of mouth recommendations. I don’t spend any money on ads or marketing, although I know it may not stay that way forever. So far, every bit of business that has come my way has been through the recommendation of customers, family and friends. I treat all of my clients with respect and as if they were family, so when they share my name with others, it is truly an honor. Genuine authenticity has served me well. Being true to who I am, what I have created and serving others is the recipe I won’t deviate from. I won’t try to sell someone I am not or a product I am not proud to present.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.twelve28bakery.com
- Instagram: @twelve28bakery
- Facebook: facebook.com/twelve28bakery
Image Credits
All photos taken and edited by me