We caught up with the brilliant and insightful LaToya Cross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

LaToya, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I manage my own social media for a few reasons. The first being that I can’t really afford to hire someone to manage it for me! The other reason being that I am actually more creative than I give myself credit for so it’s actually quite enjoyable to market on social media and create content. At some point in my journey I would absolutely love it if I had a designated person to manage the content and marketing on my business page. I’m also very open to learning more about social media marketing even if I do get the opportunity to bring someone on. Half the time I don’t really know what I’m doing, but having someone that KNOWS what they’re doing and understands things like algorithms and frequency of posts and aesthetics, well to me that is the ultimate goal.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My mom was an entrepreneur for most of my childhood and the thing she loved most was cooking. She baked, catered, attended bizarres and holiday markets and volunteered at church functions. She even had us going door to door selling cookies at one point!

When she wasn’t preparing for an event, she was just cooking and baking for family friend gatherings. She was very adamant about us helping in some way or another. We all ( there were 4 of us at the time) had a specific task that became our own. Mine became peach cobbler. No matter what the occasion, my mom always had a peach cobbler ready for dessert. I was taught step by step how to make the crust, the peach filling, how to roll out the crust and prepare the cobbler for baking. This went on for years. I got so used to making them, that I no longer needed her assistance. I just knew when a cobbler needed to be made, it was my responsibility and my contribution.

I carried this tradition on into college and became the peach cobbler girl, making cobbler for the holidays and small gatherings. I even started selling them on campus for Thanksgiving and Christmas (I’ve got the flyer to prove it).

After college, my go to for any gathering was cobbler. Before I could even offer, requests would come in. That was my thing! I made it my own and the rest is history. My mom now prefers mine over hers, but there’s still something about her cobbler that I love. Every once in a while I ask her to make me one. Eating it is so nostalgic. It’s amazing. My mom is the reason LaPeach exists and she’s one of my biggest fans.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele would have to be word of mouth. Hands down. It’s very powerful!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think marketing that I make homemade goods helped to build my reputation within my market. Everyone loves homemade and baked from scratch. It fascinates people sometimes that others would go out of their way and take their time to create something so good, which further entices them to try out your product.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lapeachcobbler.com
• Instagram: @lapeachcobbler
• Facebook: @lapeachcobbler