Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Shindo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Robert , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

My parents mean the world to me. They always give me all the love in the world & support me with everything that I have ever wanted to do, from playing basketball to breakdancing to wanting to be a chef.

My parents have a saying that they always tell my brother & I, “Reach for the stars,” which means to never set your standards low & push yourself to get as far as you possibly can or want to, they always want me to put my all into everything that I love doing it. If I love what I am doing, they are always there to be right by my side & give me all the support any one would ever need.

For example, when I was playing sports, they would be at every game, sitting in the stands & cheering me on. When I was breakdancing, they would watch me practice in front of the house & tell me I was such a great dancer (even though I know I wasn’t!!) & would stay there for hours while I would practice. When I started my career, I realized I did it because I grew up always watching them cooking those delicious homemade meals. Being a chef/business owner, you do make many mistakes & what I respect the most is my parents will keep pushing me even when I am down & feel like I can’t do it any more & they will always be honest with me & tell me what they truthfully think about the decisions I make for my company or the taste of my cooking/baking.

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

Well to start off I am Robert Shindo but almost everyone calls me Bobby. I am the Chef & Owner of Chiisai Cakes LLC, which is a small dessert business that has cookies, candy, drinks & ice cream. Some of the items that I make are Banana Pudding Cookies (The ZEF), Strawberry Vanilla Bean Cookies (Strawnilla), Mint Chocolate Chip (Mintos), Pineapple Ice Cream With Li Hing Mui Layers (Hala Kahiki), Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream (Cr*ck Cream), Homemade POG [Pineapple, Orange, Guava] Juice (‘Ono) and Sour Candies Tossed In Li Hing Mui Powder.

Chiisai in Japanese means small, so I do not make a lot of larger desserts but there occasionally might be a special here and there might be a larger dessert item. One of the main things that I am very proud of is kind of simple but to me it means a lot & that is just simply taking the risk, quitting my job of being General Manager of two restaurants & starting my business.

I am quite tattooed, almost my whole body, with that being said, what I think sets me apart from others is one of the reasons behind my business. Which is, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” due to my appearance I have always been judged before they get to know who I am. I know a lot of people in the culinary world is tattooed all over the place & I hear it all the time, “Everyone in the kitchen is tattooed” “Isn’t tattoos part of the uniform?” From my side, people do not know that I am a chef when I just walk down the street and those are the ones that I am talking about. So, with my business I let my creations speak for me & then when people actually meet who created their desserts & they see the presentation of everything, it changes their view of me. I put my heart into all of my cooking/baking & I just want to make everyone & their stomach happy.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the beginning of 2022, at the time I was working as a General Manager, managing two restaurants a the same time and working around 90 hours a week, my father had major back surgery. My father and mother own their own electrical company and over the years all the physical work has just did work on his body. Then a few months after his surgery my mother got into a major accident, which caused a brain injury and put her into a coma. When that incident happened, it was a real reality check for me and showed me anything can happen at anytime and that I needed to start being with my family, because family always comes first. Luckily, my father’s strong and was able to heal while helping out my mother and my mother was able to recover very quickly. However, these major events, put everything into place for me, instead of working 90+ hours a week, working every holiday, never seeing my loved ones, I am able to be there for my family, make sure they are doing well, help with their business and concentrate on my business as well.

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

From my point of view, it is not just one strategy, it is a mixture between social media and knowing people, for growing my clientele. It could be different for others but for me it is working very well.

Social media is a huge part of a lot of peoples lives now, so by promoting online and being consistent helps out a huge amount. Social media is actually mind blowing because you can have no followers and then just post one thing and that one thing can go viral overnight, you just have to find that one thing to catch people’s attention.

What I mean by “knowing people” is, people always talk and by people talking that is the easiest and cheapest way of advertisement. So you have to just remember to always take the chance to speak to people because you never know who can help you out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ChiisaiCakes.com
• Instagram: @Chiisai.Cakes
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/chiisaicakes
• Email: [email protected] Text: (747)230-6465