We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyiamoni Legacy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kyiamoni thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I started off in the culinary industry at 14 years old. It began when I was given a homeschool project on what homemade desserts I can make out of a pumpkin. They very first pastry dish I created was pumpkin bread. Before the project I never knew becoming a pastry chef was my gift. I started with no culinary experience or training. Giving that I wanted to pursue a career I had absolutely no knowledge in, I had to learn everything from trial and error, experience and failure. Early on in my career I struggled with creativity block, successfully frosting buttercream onto the outer edges of my cakes and last but not least wrapping fondant onto my cake with a clean finish. One night I had a two tier wedding cake due the following morning and I almost didn’t make the due date due to my buttercream work not being that great. I repeatedly frosting the cake and scraped it off majority of the night while crying out of frustration. I was 16 years old at the time. My greatest teacher was experience. Experience is the only thing that helped me progress my skills, discover my strong suits and open my mind to think outside the box when it came to being as creative as I am today.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Kyiamoni Legacy. I am a 20 year old pastry chef who entered the culinary industry at just 14 years old.
Before I was a pastry chef I was a regular kid. I went to public school all the way up until the 7th grade because of behavioral problems.
During my 8th grade year I was given an assignment on what desserts can be made from a pumpkin. The very first dish I created was pumpkin bread and my career took off from there. I went from creating pound cakes, breads and pies to creating my own cake recipes, homemade frosting and cake decorations. I like to say I didn’t choose baking, baking chose me.
As I progressed throughout the years I found my style in cake decorating to be an abstract museum cake style as the public would say. I love to take risk and let my creativity take over on my cakes. I have won many of awards, magazine articles, new appearances ebook appearances and more.
I provide cakes free of cost for children of special needs or families having a hard time making ends meet. The joy I’ve bought to dozens of families is worth far more than any award.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started my Instagram and Facebook account back when I first began my journey at 14 years old. Building an audience came organically fast because everyone wanted to support my talent as a young entrepreneur. Maintaining and getting my name out there even more started with consistent day to day post, use of hashtags and communicating back and forth with my supporters.
Building a relationship with my audience on a personal level consisted of me sharing my personality the bad the good with my followers.
I recommend building a personal relationship with your supporters as it helps customer loyalty, consistent engagement, shares and more
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
What helped me was providing high quality goods, consistently maintaining the image of my cakes, communicating back and forth with my customers/ potential customers and most importantly building a relationship with my audience.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/abakursdreamhouse?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyiamoni.brown.5
- Other: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@houseofdreamsbakery?_t=8WZWMoAeFLu&_r=1
Image Credits
Kyiamoni Legacy