We recently connected with Thomas Fooshee and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Thomas thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My small home side business started out as a hobby that provided a creative outlet for me. I am a professional firefighter for the City of Chandler in Arizona. A couple years ago I took a class at a local cooking school and learned how to make macarons. Loved it so much I took a royal icing sugar cookie class which really peaked the interested of my artistic side. The artistic part of me is not something that I have visited in a while.

I made cookies for the firehouse for the holidays that year and around spring time I had friends asking me to make cookies for baby showers and birthdays.

I was booked for months between my firefighting schedule and baking orders. I would post pics of all the orders and my IG caught the eye of casting agencies. I was pitched a few shows and got on season 1 of Silos Baking Competition. Being the least experienced baker on the show was a little intimidating but I ended up winning my episode and finishing second in the finale.

Now I have expanded into collabs with a filipino restraunt that carries my cookies and started to expand into cakes. I have a couple wedding cakes on the books this Fall. Right now just letting the business grow organically and see where it goes.

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

My name is Tom Fooshee, 48 years old, from Phoenix Az. Lived in Az my whole life, graduated from ASU in 1999 and was hired by the City of Chandler in 2000. Married 2001 and kids in 2003 and 2005. I have 2 daughters that are 18 and soon to be 20 both going to ASU.

How I got into my side business? I ask myself this fairly often lol. It was not something I was planning to do thats for sure. I started baking a few years ago for a couple reasons: lack of local bakeries in my area and it provided a nice creative outlet.

Through me posting my baking creations on my IG people started asking me to make stuff for them and it grew from there. The more I posted the more reach I received and I started getting more and more orders. From there is has just grown to where its at today.

What am I most proud of? That is hard to really pin point but I think I can tell you what makes me the most happy. During the process of my baking business growing organically I was able to find out how much support from my friend circle I really have and it is amazing. Two years ago when my wife and I went to Sams Club to buy my mixer, if someone told us what was in store for us I would not have believed them.

What sets me apart and what would I want clients/follower/fans to know? The biggest thing that sets me apart for most home bakers is my appearance and background. Being 260lb gym rat, tattooed firefighter who bakes is very a typical. Especially because most of what I do is dainty, flowery or cute.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This actually just happened recently. I am extremely blessed to have continued inquires to order my custom sugar cookies that I provide for birthdays, graduations, baby showers etc. But I also have personal goals of wanting to do other things and become a more diverse home baker. I wanted to learn cakes, cake decorating, pastries and explore more flavor combinations at a deeper level.

With my work schedule at the fire department and being booked months in advance I did not have any time to set aside and try to learn anything new. So we actually had to drastically reduce our numbers of custom cookie orders to open up some time to learn and experiment in different areas of home baking.

As I said before I am very blessed and I was asked to do a couple wedding cakes over summer. I knew this would stretch me but in a good way. Especially since I knew I wanted to go in that direction. Right now I am learning and developing in that area and preparing to enter that world.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This is a very good question. I feel the thing that helped me build my reputation within the market is my relationships with people.

Most people understand I am not trying to pay the light bills with my profits and that when I do something I will always put my heart and soul into it. I believe having and maintaining good relationships with others is the key to my success. There are hundreds of bakeries and probably thousands of home bakers out there but people will order from you because they want to support you. I am always very thankful for every inquiry and order that I receive because of this. Buying from any home baker is not very convenient. Usually have to order, wait and eventually figure out some sort of pick up. So when a person is willing to do all that to order something that I baked I am extremely humbled.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @beefcakebakeraz
• Facebook: Tom Fooshee
• Youtube: Beefcake Baker