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

Rosa, 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?

Hello! My name is Rosa LePelch and I’m the CEO/Founder of Rosa Bakes, an 100% plant-based bakery located in Chantilly, Virginia. We currently operate out of a shared commercial kitchen facility, therefore, we don’t have a storefront quite yet! We specialize in gourmet desserts like cakes, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and donuts. Everything we make is vegan (down to the sprinkles and even food coloring), and we even use organic and non-GMO ingredients.

I’ll first start off by telling you a little bit about myself! In high school, I always enjoyed eating healthy and loved the way my body felt when I would consume mostly fruits and vegetables. I took a health class with Mr. Bigus and knew from that moment, I would pursue a degree in nutrition. Fast forward a couple years, and my younger sister, Valerie, wanted to become a vegetarian. My mom immediately rejected that idea and told her, “what I cook, you’re eating.” So I lost all hope of becoming a vegetarian or even vegan myself. Around 8 years ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. At that time, she was deciding on whether or not she should go the holistic route, or opt for chemotherapy. She ended up going with both options, and for that reason, my family and I implemented a few things. To begin, we adopted a plant-based diet and tried alternative therapies like reiki. It was around that time that my mom and I started to get into meditation, yoga, sound healing, and things of that nature.

My mom and I always had the biggest sweet tooth. At a young age, I always enjoyed helping my French/Canadian grandmother make her authentic French bread and all types of delicious baked goods. My mom is Peruvian and she would often make a typical Peruvian cookie called “Alfajores.” I loved watching her and enjoyed assembling the cookies and, of course, eating them. I come from a family of 5, so I also loved helping my older brother Alex with his home ec assignments which included baking different types of desserts. He would often make cookies and told me that if I wanted some, I’d have to help clean. Genius.

Rosa Bakes was born when I was attending the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). While I was attending NOVA, my mom, younger sister, and I were vegan. As I mentioned, we had a sweet tooth and there was never anything local to us to go enjoy. We often found ourselves traveling to Washington D.C. for all the good stuff! Well, we also got tired of making that commute, so I started to experiment in the kitchen. One day I made donuts, and my mom told me, “Rosa, why don’t you sell these? Start with your friends and see what they think!.” So I did exactly that. I sold a few boxes to my friends but I wasn’t serious about it because it was my dream to attend Virginia Tech. Thus, I was pretty serious about my academics. I wanted to make sure I maintained my GPA and completed enough credits to transfer in. At that time. I was also working at Lifetime Athletics and Trummer’s On Main, so I didn’t want to dive into my business quite yet. I received my Associates in Science at NOVA and then a Bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, concentration in Dietetics at Virginia Tech.

I was originally going to become a Registered Dietitian (RD). Once you graduate, you must do an 8-12 month unpaid internship in order to be able to sit for the RD exam. Since there were only two internships in the area, I applied to only those two. Everything out of state was extremely expensive and there was no way I was going to do that. I didn’t have much experience in field of Dietetics besides taking the courses that I needed. Northern Virginia is also a very competitive area and because of those reasons, I didn’t get in. I also told every one that I wouldn’t get in and the universe gave me exactly what I had put out. So, in 2020, I started to think. I needed to find a way to make money and this was the perfect chance to actually give my business a shot. After many discussions with my family, I decided that maybe becoming an RD isn’t for me. At the end of the day, I want to help others transition to a plant-based diet. While a credential may make me look more credible, I realized that I didn’t necessarily need that credential to do what I wanted. There are other ways to build credibility and saw that through the vegan influencers I was following at the time.

Ultimately, I saw the opportunity and ran with it. There aren’t many vegan options in Northern Virginia, especially, Centreville. Thus, I started my business out of my home in Centreville and eventually moved into a shared commercial kitchen facility in Chantilly. But we aren’t just any vegan bakery. We are different from others as we don’t heavily sweeten our baked goods. During my mom and I’s trips to D.C. and other spots in the DMV, we found that the desserts were just way too sweet for us. Many of our customers, believe it or not, aren’t even vegan! Many of them have a family member, friend, or loved one that are allergic to eggs and/or dairy. It makes me so happy that we are able to provide for those who miss having dessert for their birthday, special occasion, or just when they want something sweet!

I’m most proud of myself for not giving up til this day. During my time at Virginia Tech, I was lucky enough to be able to take a 6-week, 3 hour class ran by Millstone Kitchen, a brand-new commercial kitchen in Blacksburg. Here, I learned how to write a business plan, how to meet food safety requirements, legal and accounting information, how to successfully market our business, and information on financing and loans. While this was a solid foundation, I really didn’t know what it was like to actually run a business. There have been SO many learning curves for me. It really is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done thus far. I wear all the hats in business and it gets incredibly difficult for me to do that. I wouldn’t be here today without the support from my family, especially, my older brother Alex. I love them so much and I’m so lucky to have them by my side.

I want people to know that Rosa Bakes is here to cater to all kinds of people. Vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, or not, I promise you, you cannot tell a difference. I want to show people that you can still enjoy the same things we all know and love just without any cruelty involved. I want people to start questioning their food choices as our lives quite literally depend on it. Concentrated animal feeding operations are not sustainable. The things these innocent sentient beings have to go through is absolutely horrendous. Not to mention, consuming animals and their byproducts aren’t good for our health. In fact, it’s quite detrimental. There is evidence-based research to prove it to us. I could go on and on about this, but I will leave it that. As we grow and expand, we would like to offer more gluten free and Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) options. Meaning, desserts made without refined sugars, oils, and flour.

I’m incredibly grateful and blessed to being what I do today. It’s not easy, but nothing in life is. Thank you all so much for your support and for taking the time to read this to learn more about me and what we do.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I strongly believe that in order to help others, you need to first help yourself. You cannot, I repeat, cannot serve others if you’re not in a good mental space or even giving your physical body the proper rest it needs. One of the luxuries of working from home is, well, working from home! You don’t need to get up and drive somewhere and get all prepared for your work day. I loved this idea. There were times where I would roll out of bed at 3-4 am, change my clothes, and immediately get straight to work in my kitchen. This killed me. I didn’t give myself the time I needed before starting my work. I got so unhappy and eventually really hated my job, for many reasons. The first thing I’d do is prepare a hot cup of coffee which was just not a good start to my day (though it felt like it at the time). Luckily, I drank my coffee black, without sugar or creamer. Sometimes I would opt for a WFPB option (no refined sugars and oils). Not to mention, I would eat the extra donuts I’d prepare. With that said, I started to give myself the time in the morning to make my bed, meditate, and make a healthy nutritious breakfast.

One thing that really helped me was listening to the audiobook, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra MD. Though this wasn’t a book solely on business and entrepreneurship, you can apply it to all areas of your life. Later on, my friend Robel gave me a book called “Think Like a Monk” by Jay Shetty. While this book isn’t meant to train you to literally dress up in orange robes and sit on top of a mountain for several hours meditating, it’s also extremely helpful in all aspects of your life. Jay teaches us how to train our minds to become less judgemental, anxious, and how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, in order to access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. After reading his book, I totally fell in love with it and wanted to learn more about his life. Every morning from there on out, I would listen (and still listen) to his “On Purpose” podcast, where he interviews many successful individuals from all walks of life, as they can teach us something. Even if the individual works in a field that is the complete opposite of ours, they can teach us something. He would often have successful business women/men on the show to talk about their life and their journey. Jay, of course, also has his own episodes where he shares his own wisdom. I hope to be on his podcast one day :) Fingers crossed! Lastly, I also listen to Dr Rangen Chatterjee’s podcast, “Feel Better, Live More” where he would often do the same thing. According to Dr Chatterjee, “when we are healthier we are happier because when we feel better we live more.” I just think that’s beautiful and I’ve learned so much from him and his guests. My friend Han also reminded me of Sadhguru and the wisdom he shares.

If you want to get more into the business side of things, youtube is pretty helpful. My brother Alex put me on to “UpFlip” on youtube. His channel is all about educating business owners how to achieve success by interviewing people who have done so themselves. I watched one video where he was interviewing a bakery owner and this gave me a good idea of what it’s like to run one. I’ve also looked a little bit into Gary Vee and Brad Lea. Lastly, thanks to Alex and my uncle Patrick, I’ve also utilized the help from the Small Business Administration. The closest one to me is the GMU campus. Definitely check them out if you haven’t!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Reaching your local community is one way to build your social media presence. I would often post in all the vegan related Facebook groups in the area and even food related groups in the DMV. Utilizing hashtags on your posts is also important to reach a wider audience. I think being consistent with your posts is also important as it shows people that you’re really on a mission to serve. Tiktok and Instagram reels are really in right now. Even though my sister is tiktok famous, I haven’t quite figured it out myself, but I’m working on it! Keep in mind that our attention spans are quite short so you don’t want to make your content too long and boring. Really take advantage of the trends that are popular on tiktok and reels. If a lot of people are using a certain sound/song, use it! Mimic others that are successful on social media. Sometimes it’s easy, other times it’s hard, but just remember that you will continue to learn and grow as you do it. It also doesn’t have to be perfect… I often struggled with this. Just put out what you think is best and trust the process. I promise you, people aren’t hovering over your content with a magnifying glass, pointing out it’s flaws. Lastly, have fun with it and be yourself! I get that it’s scary to put yourself out there on the internet. People are going to judge you no matter what you do. Might as well have fun with it!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rosabakes.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rosabakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosabakes
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosa-lepelch-361096137/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosabakes
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rosa-bakes-chantilly
• Other: https://www.happycow.net/reviews/rosa-bakes-chantilly-223814