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

Kayla, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents always supporting and encouraging my artistic journey is something that I believe they did right, leading me to where I am today. Growing up I would always draw, from people to scenes, to even the classic drawing with crayons on the wall. From there I was in art school, from middle school through college. I was trained in traditional art, learning how to render still lives and people, in a variety of different 2D media. In high school I was able to further explore my interests in portraiture and figurative work, through drawing, painting and clay sculpture. Along the way I had other hobbies (almost as expensive as painting) such as jewelry making and crochet. I was always supported in getting the supplies I needed, from craft or specialty stores, to learn and teach myself these skills. I even was able to open up an Etsy shop for my jewelry when I was 13, and I was even able to reboot that business, with better quality items, in the past couple of years.

When I entered college I decided to pursue game design, in a sense combining my love for traditional clay sculpture in high school and video games. This was a field that wasn’t on par with the rest of my classmates nor was it a traditional career path, such as something medical, law, or computer science related. My mother made a point for me to pursue a career path that makes me happy, so I wasn’t forced into 4 years of something I didn’t want to learn about. Both of my parents supported me on my unorthodox choice in college major, and I’m grateful that they were both open to my career choice, even though they are both from the baby boomer generation.

During my childhood, my mother had a business, mainly where she made cakes for any occasion. I think the joy and curiosity that comes from baking has been instilled in me since then. I would have my matching pink checkerboard apron and chef’s hat combo, and I would make tons of cookies in my Easy Bake Oven. And so throughout my life, I feel like baking has been almost as much of a constant for me as traditional art, as it’s an art of its own. I would help my mother decorate and set up cakes at different venues, giving me a view of what goes into catering as a business. I also was able to explore baking on my own, trying out and creating my own recipes, and even selling cakes during high school for a small profit. Now I’m blessed to say that I have a growing business with my mother, combining our passions for creativity through baking, decorating, event planning, and floral design.

Kayla, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In my professional career, I want to be a 3D environment and prop artist for games, yet currently I am a baker and entrepreneur, co-owning a small bakery business with my mom in Fayetteville, North Carolina. While the game industry is going through a rough time right now, and finding an entry level job is tough among all of the layoffs and few job openings, I am pursuing my other passion of baking. I’m able to still pursue art but just in a different format; it brings me joy at the end of the day.

My business with my mom is called Blender & Baker; she’s the Blender, I’m the Baker. We offer baked goods such as a selection of cakes, cupcakes, pies, and macarons. We also create silk and fresh flower arrangements and event planning services. A one stop shop for big events like anniversaries or weddings!

My mother has over 30 years of experience in the baking industry, as well as owning several businesses that also offered event planning and floral design. So now that I am back living with her, I wanted to be able to actively learn from and work alongside her, which is different from just watching and sometimes helping like I used to do growing up. I’m currently in charge of social media management and image, marketing, and branding, so I’ve taken on a lot of new skills in the past year.

It has been such a blessing being able to work with my mom and collaborate creatively and professionally with her. It has also been fun connecting with people in our community from this business, something that probably wouldn’t have happened this fast without Blender & Baker. We’re originally from Baltimore, Maryland, so putting our name out there is a great way to also plant some roots here.

We currently take and have completed several orders for occasion cakes and floral arrangements. Our event planning skills have yet to be shown to Fayetteville. We are vending our desserts out of a store local to us and are also trying to network and see if we can collaborate with other local businesses as well. In the meantime, we’re looking to show up as a vendor at upcoming events, and get our signature dishes out there, like our “Wine Cake” (non-alcoholic), “Carrot Cake”, “Browned Butter Apple Cake”, and our “Banana Pudding with Homemade Vanilla Wafers”. Original creations and flavors you can NOT get elsewhere.

I can say that I’m proud to take on this journey of starting a business; and also doing it with someone who knows what they’re doing! At times I feel overwhelmed but I cannot be more grateful to try and make a living through one of my passions, all while adding new skills to my resume every week. It is also super empowering to be a women-owned and black-owned business, considering the year that it has been so far here in America.

If you’re local or close to Fayetteville, NC, we would love to get in contact with you and provided “Freshly Baked, Perfectly Planned” services from Blender & Baker!

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

With building our audience on social media, it was honestly a real challenge. Not saying that we’re super big on social media or anything, but each day is an effort. Frankly, when I started out, I was concerned about the number of followers we had but now I’m just making sure to stay present; I think being present is the biggest thing. I currently run Facebook and Instagram pages for Blender & Baker, and I’m hoping to branch out to TikTok and Youtube at some point.

What has been super helpful for me though is scheduling our posts through Meta Business Suite. I can maybe take a day to schedule multiple posts for the week, just so that we can have 2-3 posts per week. I eventually hope to have a post every single day, but unfortunately as a small business, we don’t have that much content. I also have been using Chat GPT a lot to help me plan my posts. Though I’m not super proud of using AI because it feels like a crutch, it can be super valuable to have when you’re juggling other things in your life, or facing a creative block. In addition,

I feel like I tend to write more professionally and straight-forward, but I lack a fun or friendly tone when writing for social media. Using AI to help plan these posts helps a ton! I also never take anything straight from the AI responses and post it directly to social media. I always have a hand in it to make it sound more natural, less cheesy, or fitting more closely with our brand image. It also is useful for me to bounce ideas off of for writing or design work, since I’m working solo on this part of the business. For example, if I have an idea about something, I can pitch it and it could give me a list of pros and cons to my idea, as well as give me other ideas. Again, not something I like to use a lot or try to depend on, but using AI can be helpful when you’re in a pinch, creatively.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is definitely having others experience your work. Whether someone tastes a cake I made or enjoys a drawing I sketched, I love seeing those reactions! Even if the reactions are exactly what I want, I love getting the feedback just as much. I want to know what I can improve upon to make an experience better for people. I take into account how people feel with everything I make. I want to put smiles on faces with whatever I do, that’s the goal. If I can’t then that’s something to take into account and then keep pushing forward. But the joy, excitement, and amazement (and criticisms) from people who consume my crafts is definitely the most rewarding aspect of creating 24/7.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blenderxbaker.wixsite.com/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blenderxbaker/
• Facebook: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-thompson-art/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-thompson-art/
• Other: My personal 3D portfolio: https://kaylers.artstation.com