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

Opeyemi , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always had a love for food as long as I could remember. Growing up my family gave me the nickname FFO (for food only) because I loved food so much. With my baking business I started out doing cakes. After about 3 years, I felt burned out and no longer enjoyed doing cakes. I remember I was on a flight and I had a really delicious cookie. The thought came to mind that maybe I should try baking cookies and see if I liked it. I was never a fan of chocolate chip cookies, therefore I challenged myself to create one I would enjoy. According to my family and friends, I hit a home run. Those cookies were the first chocolate chip cookies I actually enjoyed eating. Family and friends insisted I would be doing the dessert world a major disservice if I only kept my cookies for them. From there I went to on develop more flavors and began selling them at work and online.

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

I would always bake for friends and family. My baking was more broad back then (cakes, cupcakes, cake pops etc). I remember growing up, my favorite part of any party was the cake. I was always intrigued by how a couple of ingredients and techniques could create such a masterpiece. I’m 2015, I decided to to take my love for cakes to the next level and enrolled in the prestigious French Pastry School in Chicago IL for cake decorating. I began baking and decorating elaborate cakes for customers. After about 3 years, I experienced burnout and decided I needed to switch gears. I had a very delicious cookie once on a plane and curiosity made me want to see if I could create a delicious cookie of my own. It became a hit among family and friends and I started developing more cookie recipes and more orders. I quickly realized the cookie lovers are a big deal and the market was wide open to fulfill their taste buds. I realized that not everyone likes cakes but a large number of people loved a good cookie. I went on to develop a total of 14 flavors. I take pride in what I do and i believe that results speak for themselves. I come from an immigrant family (Nigerian) where doing anything outside the “normal” profession is usually frowned upon. I am extremely proud of myself for being able to forge my own path and doing something that brings me so much joy.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson that I had to unlearn was that always people pleasing will wear you out. I am a people pleaser by nature so it was hard pill to swallow that everyone is not my audience and not everyone will like. I had to learn that as long as I stayed true to my values, put out great products and provide my customers with the best experience I could, everything else was out of my control and I have to be okay with that.

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

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been marketing on social media and in person taste testing. Social media helps me reach people all over the country that I wouldn’t normally have access to. In person tasting is such a major component for my business. Many people see cookies and think it’ll be like something they can buy in the store or it’s a typically. Once they actually taste it, I get so much joy watching their facial expressions change and they end up buying on the spot and/or placing an order online.

Contact Info:

• Website: frostedbyope.com
• Instagram: @frostedbyope
• Facebook: Frosted By Ope

Image Credits
Images are from me.