We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Johany Torres-Maya. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Johany below.

Johany , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My parents are my heroes, I know it sounds cliche. However, the life-changing events they’ve gone through and how they persevered, make me so proud. My dad was in a tragic accident when I was 8 years old. The accident left him blind in one eye, he suffered memory loss, loss of smell and partial taste, and could no longer work, or drive. Through all of his adversities, he still managed to live his life to the fullest. He taught me how to cook Puerto Rican food, managed to take me to museums, zoos, the beach, and even how to get around the city by foot or public transportation. By the time I was old enough to drive, I didn’t need a GPS I knew the city so well. My mom is an immigrant from Guatemala. She owned a bakery in her early 20s, but unfortunately, after a devastating earthquake, she lost everything and had to come to the U.S. Both of my parents taught me to be resilient, that no matter what obstacles you are faced with tomorrow is a new day. I’ve applied that throughout my life and my business. Some days are tough, they can’t always be great but be grateful to be alive & healthy the rest will work itself out.

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.

My name is Johany and I was born and raised in Chicago, currently living in sin city, Las Vegas! I started baking when I was a kid, my mom used to own a bakery and taught me a lot of the fundamentals. I would help make buttercream and sugar flowers. After high school, I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue a career in baking and decided to try something else. I got into the medical field and became a certified nursing assistant for a few years and then became a psychiatric assistant. After I had my 1st daughter, I decided to resign. Not only was I not happy with my career but I wanted to raise my daughter and not miss her first steps. I was fortunate enough to have the support of my husband and while he held it down, I started my baking business at home. After 3 years of ups & downs, trial and error, wins and losses, I started getting the hang of how to run a business, how to decorate cakes, and make edible art! I started working with event planners, and even a few celebrities. I decided to open up an Instagram account in 2016 and started posting all of my work. My work started to go viral and business opportunities started to come in. When covid hit, I was offered to teach online for 2 separate companies. Since in-person team-building events or work outings were not an option. I was hired to teach online classes for companies. One example is during December since work Christmas parties were all canceled, I would host online Christmas parties, for companies and would teach them how to make cake pops. We would even have a cocktail hour and to keep the fun going we would have competition against employees (kinda like cake wars) it was so much fun!! My online classes took off and there I was teaching bankers how to make cake pops! I’m now teaching full-time and also creating content for companies like Walmart & Joann Fabrics, Im blessed to have such a supporting husband and now be able to raise both of my kids at home and do what I love!

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

I started my Instagram in 2016 with absolutely no idea what I was doing. Honestly, it took me a year to understand what I wanted my page to be. After a year I started to take photography classes, bought better equipment, and turned my page into fun video tutorials to inspire new bakers. When you first start you have to dive deep into what is your purpose, and what is it that you want people to understand when they come to your page. Once you can answer those questions you’ll have a pretty good foundation to build on.

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

Being unique creating my edible art! I love to think outside the box, I love to create unique edible art that hasn’t been seen before. It makes me stand out and my supporters recognize my work right away.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joscakes_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joscakestore?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joscakes?_t=8esgzqDuLni&_r=1