Abby Jimenez

Welcome to the shit show. Things are going to get weird. It's your fave villain, Kale Lowry. And you're listening to Barely Famous. Happy Friday, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Barely Famous Podcast. Today, I'm sitting with Abby Jimenez. Welcome to Barely Famous. Thank you. Congratulations on your new book, Say You'll Remember Me. Yes, thanks. I'm so excited.

I love that though, because I think a lot of times we find owners that don't want to really share in the creativity they want. It's their way and they don't allow sort of the creativity to flow. But I love that. So you opened the second location in Minnesota, and then now you have three locations?

Yes. So then two years after we opened Maple Grove, we opened Woodbury. And every time I open a bakery, I have to be physically in the kitchen running that store for one to two years to get it up and off the ground. So it's very... time consuming. It's very exhausting. You know, you have to fully train that staff.

It was a little bit easier when we opened Woodbury because we already had Maple Grove 45 minutes away. So we're able to share staff. And it wasn't like I had to train a team from the ground up on how to do, you know, the recipes and how to bake and how to run the store. So after I got Woodbury up and running, I was like, you know, I think I'm done. Like, I don't want to open any more locations.

I'm really happy with the three that we have. I really wanted to just step back and enjoy my kids and get back to things that were my hobbies. You know, I've been so busy for so many years. And I got back into reading. That's what I got back into.

It sounds like it was a nightmare.

So like when people tell me your books got me out of my reading slump or your books introduced me to reading, that is the greatest compliment that people can give me because I understand what that means. Like that escapism to be able to lose yourself in a good book is it's priceless. And I lost that for a really long time because I was working so much.

There was for many, many years after when I finally opened an inline store, I couldn't even have the kids come to the bakery because I would have like a PTSD response. I'd be like, I can't have them here because it was so hard. It was just so stressful.

Before he walked in, we were talking about I don't go anywhere other than working and maybe an occasional trip. I'm a homebody, right? They were like, we got to take you to dinner. We got to do this. I said, there's nothing that I need to do that's not in a book. I can read about characters doing those things. I don't need to do any of that.

Um, before we get into all of your books, can, is there a secret to creating a cake or a cupcake that both looks very pretty and aesthetically pleasing and also tastes really good? Because I think a lot of times we see these like really cool elaborate cakes and then you cut into them and they're not that great.

I think the thing for me, like one of the secrets to my success, I guess you can say, is I don't really know the rules. So I just do what works. And it's the same thing with the cakes. Like I think a lot of people have, you know, the mantra like, OK, you know, it has to be all from scratch or it has to be all organic. Um, and that's not necessarily true.

Like maybe, you know, the recipe that's going to taste the best is one where you start from scratch, but then you dump some pudding mix into it. You know what I mean? And that's, what's going to taste best. And I wasn't baking like somebody who went to culinary school. I was baking like somebody who just really likes cake and wanted to make a really good cake.

And a lot of times, you know, those church cookbook recipes that are, you know, these amazing, incredible recipes are really things that have cool within them. You know, just that have like jello in them, you know? Basic ingredients. Yeah, they're poke cakes, you know, where you pour some condensed milk on top of it. Like, you know, those are the recipes that I find myself gravitating to.

So those are the recipes that I baked when I started Nadia Cakes. And then as far as like making it look good, that's just practice. Okay. You just have to practice, you know? There's a lot of really easy cake decorating techniques that you can do that are pretty easy for beginners that make it look like you know what you're doing, you know? Yeah.

And there's so many videos out there that you can find for those. But I just say like, use your own taste bud compass and bake and cook what you like, you know, because if you like it, other people will probably like it.

What do they measure with your heart? Measure with your heart.

Yeah. It's kind of hard to measure with your heart for cakes because it is very chemistry based.

But I would imagine that that sort of like when you're facing adversities and just challenges in life, that probably gives you a little bit of grit to go off of when you start to write books. Right. Because you you have different perspectives and, you know, through different phases of your life.

Okay.

And if you measure wrong, it will mess up your cake.

One time I tried to make brownies and it, I put them in the oven for 45 minutes and it still came out like pudding. I said, I'm definitely missing something here. So I'm definitely, I'm not a baker, but. I love a good cake. That's for sure. So you transitioned from The Three Bakeries to 2019. You come out with your first book.

Yes. So in 2017, I had been reading a ton and I decided to start writing. I'd always written in high school. I was in creative writing for many years. But when I graduated, I couldn't afford to go to college. I had to go right into the workforce. I went into retail and food service. And, you know, I always thought, like, to be a writer, you had to have some sort of background.

You had to be a journalist or a blogger. You had to have a degree of some sort, you know. I didn't think you could just write a book and get, you know, really good at it and write a good book and get published. So I just started writing creatively. It was a really terrible dystopian YA romance that I was writing.

Why do you say it was terrible?

Oh, because it was. And I'm telling you, like, it was so terrible. And sometimes people are like, no, we want it. I'm like, you don't want it.

You wouldn't even like maybe revise it and put it out there now?

No, it was in third person. So it was written. I mean, the whole thing would have to be completely rewritten and it was 300,000 words long. It was complete word vomit. It was terrible. And I queried this to a literary agent who actually got back to me and she was like, you need to get some critique partners. So I was like, okay.

So I went online and I searched and I found a site called Critique Circle. And the This site, when people ask me, you know, like, what is your number one advice for budding authors? It's Critique Circle. Because every resource that you can imagine is on that site. They have forums for everything. How to self-publish. How to write, you know, quippy dialogue. Where to put action beads.

You know, how to build tension. Anything you can think of, they have forums for that. And it's a tit-for-tat community where you run your chapters through and people critique it. And then you, in turn, critique their chapters. And in order to get the credits to submit your chapters every week, you have to, you know, do enough critiques to get the points to submit your own.

Yeah, I definitely learned. I don't want to say I learned resiliency more that I learned I am resilient. Yes. You know, just I had a lot of setbacks in my life and, you know, losing my job unexpectedly, you know, while pregnant was definitely one of them. And I just... tend to bounce back, you know, really quickly from things like that.

So it's a very active site. You have to be really involved, you know, helping other people with their stories in order to submit your stuff to get help. And I started submitting this terrible dystopian YA romance. And then like right away, people were like, wow, this is a terrible dystopian YA romance. Yeah. And they were like, but your dialogue is really good. So I decided to trunk that book.

And I was like, all right, I'm going to lean really heavily on what I know I do well is my dialogue. I'm going to write a contemporary romance. I'm going to switch to first person. I'm going to do dual POVs because I really love dual POVs in a romance. And I started writing the Happy Ever After playlist. And immediately it took off on that site. People were

loving it and I had people from other genres because there's all different cues you know like there's like the thriller right you know group there's the mystery group there's the romance cues I had people outside of my genre reading my book which is a really good sign means that it was like universally liked so

I got really encouraged at the reception I was getting and I decided to query that book to a literary agent and got an immediate reply. I was so excited. She loved it, asked me for the full manuscript, which was not done. I had five more chapters that were very roughly written but had not been edited and I was like, can I have until tomorrow?

So you finished it the next day?

I stayed up all night and edited the final chapters as best I could and sent them to her and uh, by the next day I ended up getting, I had an agent.

Do people know this about you?

I don't know if they do. Have you ever talked about this? Maybe like a little bit, you know, but I mean, I'm very tenacious. And when I get into something, I, it becomes like my entire life. Like I, I, I get very, very into my hobbies. And, and, and the thing that I always say is if you love something, it'll get easy to practice it, right?

That's how you get really good at things is just by practicing it. So I just was literally on critique circle practicing my craft for a whole year.

And when you say hobbies, did you have, you had the goals to be a published author? No. You didn't? No. You were doing this as a hobby? I was just doing it for fun.

Never in my wildest dreams, pun intended for the new book, did I ever imagine that I would be a published author ever. I never thought.

The next day after you submitted the final manuscript for the Happily Ever After playlist, you had an agent.

I had an agent. And then that was the last time that it was easy for me. For like a whole year.

Because then you published a book, I think, almost every single year after that.

Well, even just getting a book deal, it took almost a year for me to get a book deal. So I got an agent really quickly, but then the next nine months was nothing but rejections. I had queried six agents total. I got my first pick agent on the first try, but then the other five agents that I queried, I got rejections from all of them for the next month and a half.

Then we were in submissions to publishers and I got nothing but rejections.

I wonder how they feel about that now.

I think I can guess. Um, but it was, it was, I don't think they knew what to do with my books. Cause the thing is, is they are funny.

They're so funny. And they're so realistic, which I'm like, I have not read another rom-com that is so realistic with the banter, with the humor, with the, you know, anxiety, all the real life struggles put into a, I've never read a book like yours.

Well, and they kept saying the rejections, kind of the general consensus was we're looking for lighter fiction. Like I think they were looking for fluffier romances and mine had some really serious topics in them, you know, and I don't know if maybe they didn't know where to put them. I did get a revise and resubmit from one top five publisher. And when I turned it in, she ultimately declined.

And I think that was the first time I really saw that in myself.

She didn't want that even after I revised it. And she did offer me a three book bakery romance series. And I actually turned that down because I didn't want to be pigeonholed. Like I understood the tie-in, I'm a baker, but I didn't want to write. I wanted to sell the books that I was writing.

I very much, and this comes from a place of privilege and I recognize that, but I did not need to become a published author at any cost. That wasn't my end game. If I was going to be a published author, it was going to be on my terms and with the books that I was excited about writing. I didn't want to sell my soul

Right. And that's been true, sort of for everything that I've done ever since, you know, and when you started this cake business, or this baking business from your house, how did you sort of launch that into because that was before social media really hit its peak, right?

writing bakery romance, you know, fluffy bakery romance books, which there's nothing wrong with those, but these were the books that I wanted to write. I don't want to get burnt out. I don't want to get bored. I want to write the books that I'm continuously excited about. And the tone of my books is what I was excited about. So I turned it down. I think my agent, I felt really bad.

I was like, she's never going to make any money. She said, this poor woman, she's been on the wrong horse. And then I had submitted, by this time when I was in submissions, I actually wrote the friend zone. So I wrote the happy ever after playlist first. And then I wrote the friend zone while I was in submissions.

And then we started leading with that book as a first in my series because it came first chronologically. And I submitted both of them into the Romance Writers of America Golden Hearts competition. And they both scored low. And one person actually marked... the happy ever after playlist as not a romance in an attempt to get it disqualified.

I was like, she think the category was, I don't know, but it's so clearly wrong. I don't know. It was weird. And I just was like, nobody wants these books. They're terrible. They got low scores on the, on the RWA competition. And my agent's never going to make any money. And she's like, And then we ended up getting, nine months in, ended up getting an offer for a three book deal. Okay.

And then we got another offer the next day, like out of nowhere. It was like they just came out of nowhere. The books went to auction and I ultimately ended up choosing Forever Romance, which is my publisher now. Love them. I've been with them through my whole journey and we've got many more books that I'm contracted for with them, which is great because I like to write connecting characters.

Did you always know that you were going to do that? Because that was one of the questions I had is that, you know, the only other series that I know that does that is like The House Made by Frida. And even that is like, that's a series where yours are sort of, oh, I guess Kennedy Ryan does it in her books where it's like interconnected. Where did you get that idea from? I just love that.

I love that. I love it. Your entire audience loves that book.

Yeah. So what I did was I sat down and I googled uh, cakes Palmdale. And then every listing that came up, usually those websites have a free listing that you can put your business on. So for a whole day, I just sat down and Googled cakes, Palmdale, birthday cakes, Palmdale, cupcakes, Palmdale, uh, fondant cakes. And I added my business to every single free listing that I could add it to.

I love it when you find the title of a book hidden in the book. I love it when you get a little glimpse of a previous character. I love that we get to exist in the same universe. Even if I don't bring back characters every single time, we're still in the same universe. And if you love the universe, you get to see these little tidbits. And I'm going to keep doing that.

It's sort of like... maybe I hope that no one takes this the wrong way, but like a reality show when you follow the different groups of people. And so you get a glimpse of this person's life or that person's life. It's, it's sort of like that. And I love it. I think it's great.

I'm going to keep doing it.

Yeah. I hope so. I love it so much. So then you, you get the next deal or no, the next offer the next day. And is that also with forever publishing? I think forever was the first offer. And then I got completely separate.

And then I got a second offer from a different publisher and I chose forever. Okay. Um, and then, yeah, so that just, you know, brings us to now.

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I do one book a year. One thing is I'm very cognizant of not getting burnt out. I got really burnt out on the cakes. Like if I never decorate another cake for the rest of my life, I'm so tired of baking. I'm so tired of cake decorating. If I am baking something in the kitchen, my kids are like, mom's baking, what's going on? Because I don't bake anymore. I got so burnt out on it.

And that really sucks because I love baking. I mean, clearly that's why I got into cake decorating because I loved it and I lost that love for it and it never came back, even with distance. So I'm very cognizant of not doing that with the books. I told them I don't want to publish more than one a year. And they were fine with it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I write...

So I maximized like when you would Google those things in the weeks following, I'd be the first result. So I had people start calling me, um, Did it, you know, everything by myself. I did all the deliveries, all the consultations, all the decorating, all of the baking. I did what now takes four full-time people in one of my bakeries to do.

really quickly so I'm always really you know careful to give myself lots of breaks and you know stay excited about what I'm working on and it's been working for me I have so many ideas in my head for future books like do you write them down where do you put them or you just keep them in your head I have a google doc like a running google doc like book ideas and sometimes it's just one line like

two sisters bury a body, like just like one line. Um, you know, and other times it's like actual, you know, small synopsis is, you know, or ideas or, you know, or concepts. Um, but like right now, say you remember me as my seventh book, I've already written my eighth book. It's completely done.

I was going to ask. So when you're writing, do you, are you writing one per year or you're publishing one per year or is it one in the same? It's one in the same. Okay.

So at any given time, Every year I have a book due on January 15th. That's my due date every year to turn in my books. So at any given time, I'm promoting the book that just came out. I've already written the book that comes out the following year and it's in edits. Either I'm editing it or my editor is editing it or it's in proofreading or it's in edits.

And then I am working on the book that's going to get turned in January 15th of 2026.

Okay. So cause I read that you have, this one just came out, you have one for 2026 and one already in the works for 2027.

Yes. So the one I'm working on right now, I'm five chapters in is my 2027 book that will be due January 15th of 2026.

That is so cool to me.

So it's, it's a constantly your hands are in three different books at the same time.

sort of, that's how I read though. I read a physical copy, a Kindle book, and then one on audio. So I think that works. Three is good. Three is a good number.

I feel like if it was any more, I have like a hard time separating my brain from, you know, that's a lot of characters to try and juggle, but yeah, I'm really loving the next one and the one that I'm working on. I'm very excited about the one I'm working on my, my ninth book.

But you have your books have sold over a million copies, one and a half million copies, which is incredible. How does that feel when you think about that? Or do you ever think about it? Oh, I think about it a lot.

I'm very blown away by it. So like one ongoing theme for me is like me just sort of stopping where I'm at and looking back and going, what the heck? Like when I became a cake decorator, I was a retail manager. I ran a New York and company. Okay. I was not at all. I was not a baker.

I had worked in food service, but as a server, like, you know, or running a drive-thru window, I was never in the kitchen. I, I, if you would have told me a year into me baking cakes out of my house, I was going to be a cake decorator. Okay. Selling cakes out of my house with a very successful home-based cake business. I would have been like, what? Yeah.

And I feel like that happens to me with the books. Like if the me of right now were to like hop back 10 years ago, you are going to have this huge writing career and you've sold over a million books and you're published in 28 languages. I would have been like, what? I would have thought I wrote a cookbook or something. I mean, would you do that? It doesn't even interest me at all.

And I really do love cooking. I don't love baking so much anymore, but I really do love cooking. So, you know, sometimes I'll throw some recipes into my books, you know?

And that just sort of like, you know, does it for me, but. I would never have believed you in a million years that I would be sitting here talking to you about my book that was number one on the New York Times in two categories. I would have been like, what do you mean?

I did all that by myself while I had three kids that I was also... Taking care of at the same time. It was very exhausting. I'm sure it was. I developed severe carpal tunnel while I was doing the cake. So I had 40% nerve damage in my right hand, moderate to severe carpal tunnel on my left.

Like when I saw that, I already knew when I read the book. Here's the thing. When I read most of your books, every single one, I'm like, this is my favorite. Oh, this is my favorite every single time. So I knew when I read this one, I was like. this is going places. How do you, do you ever look back and you're like, okay, this is my best work or this is my favorite.

And then the next time you write it, you're like, okay, this is my best work. Or do you feel that way about your own?

Uh, they're all very different for me there. It's, they're all just so different for me. Like for example, just for the summer, um, I slogged through writing that book. That was the hardest book for me to write. I just, I wasn't feeling it. I kept sending it to my editor. I'm like, I don't know. I don't think it's very good. And she was like, what do you mean? It's great.

And it turns out it's like my highest rated. It was really a breakout book for me. I mean, people loved it. It was just like universally adored. And I was like, really? Because it didn't occur. I thought that that main character was not going to be as relatable being that You know, she had these very unique circumstances where she was in the foster care system. And I just thought...

people aren't going to relate to that, but I think what they related to was the toxic mother. I think everybody has somebody toxic in their lives and we don't know what to do with them. And that made people feel very seen. Um, now with this book, so you remember me, this book was so easy to write. Like it just, there's some books that just absolutely flow out of you, like part of your world. Okay.

I wrote it in two and a half months, just like, you know, just flowed out of me. Those are the best. Like when you write a book that's just so easy to tell that story and you don't get caught up on things and it's just easy to write it. That was this book for me. I loved every piece of writing this book, editing this book.

I was excited about getting back to these characters and I don't, you don't always feel that way.

Sometimes the book comes back for edits and you're like, Oh God, I have to read this again. you know, it's like, and I really loved writing this one. It was just, it was just a very natural story for me to tell.

Going back to just for the summer with the foster care and the toxic mom was me. So when I got to that part, like those parts of the book, I mean, I sobbed like real tears, ugly crying. Cause I was like, this is me in this book. Like it was the, I remember texting the group chat. We have a book club group chat. We have a book club online. I remember like

remember exactly where I was and how I was feeling when I read those books. So when you say they're not relatable or you didn't think they are, they are, they really are. And also I think part of your world too, it's relatable. And I, and I, I could see why it took, it was maybe easy for you because that one was so, so good as well. It was so good.

They're all different, but one thing I will tell you is I am having the best time writing them. Like I genuinely love what I get to do. I have so much fun doing it and that is just a gift. Yeah.

And I ended up going to the doctor after a year and a half of this, just my hands hurting and waking me up in the middle of the night. And, you know, had it looked at. And I thought he was going to give me like the shots or give me a hand brace. And he was like, no, you need surgery. Like I went in on a Monday and I was in surgery on Friday.

Absolutely. And you get to see your books in other countries and written in different languages. And I saw, I think it was on your, it was either your TikTok or your Instagram when you went to El Salvador. And there was, that is so cool to me. I think your fans really connect with that because you are so personable towards them. And I think that, you know, readers love that.

Yeah, I tell people because oftentimes I'll get like a message or somebody in my reader group will be like, I saw you somewhere and I didn't want to say hi. Just say hi. Just say hi. I'm super friendly. And like I'd rather you come and let me know that you recognize me and like, you know, say hi to you. You know what I mean? It's totally fine to approach me. I'm not going to bite you.

And I love my readers. Like I'm so fortunate. I have the best readers.

readers I can feel the energy difference when I sometimes I host other authors events and I can feel the difference in other authors crowds versus my crowds yes and and my readers are just so fantastic oh I can imagine and I keep every single thing they give me so if I get if somebody makes me something or I see you have like a jar I've got a jar for all of my friendship bracelets um

Every friendship bracelet goes in there. I put all the things that they send me on display and actually we're building a library in my basement so that I have all the room for all of these books and all these things. And my library is just going to be covered in all the little things.

I love that though. How do your kids feel about this? Do they just, they're like, Oh, mom's an author.

Um, they're very proud of me. Um, they kind of, they're like, you're just my, you're just our mom though. Like they, you know what I mean? Um, I think it kind of makes them laugh that like people think I'm cool and they're like, we know the truth. you're not that cool mom. Um, no, they're really proud of me.

And I've been taking my youngest Maya on book tour with me, um, which has been a lot of fun. And you know, she really likes meeting my readers. She's been doing like crowd interviews at some of my book events.

Yeah. That's so fun. She plays the piano, right? Okay. I have seen her on your socials and I think that's so cool. And you know, bringing her on tour is really awesome. It is. Yeah. That's really cool. Did they have any interest in writing? None of them do really. Okay.

Yeah. Maya, of course, is going to be a musician. I mean, she already is a musician. My middle child wants to be a doctor. Okay. So she's like pre-med. Okay. And then my oldest is going into school for accounting and business management. You have to be so proud. I am. I'm very proud.

But like most of all, the fact that I've been able to give them a very different upbringing and childhood than I had. is, and I think you probably identify with that is the, like the greatest reward of all, because I did not have a family that could afford to put me in music lessons or creative writing classes or send me off to college. You know what I mean?

And when I was recovering from the surgery, I was getting unemployment. I remember if I would have waited two more weeks. Mm-hmm. to go and have this consultation with this doctor, I would have fallen outside of my previous employment window to actually qualify for unemployment, or I'm sorry, not unemployment, disability. So I was getting a disability check during this time.

And speaking of creative writing, you talked to, or you posted a video about your teacher, your professor. Yes. And it went viral. Yes. And then you guys had an emotional conversation. How, what about him compelled you to want to do the video in the first place?

Okay, so what happened was I had been looking for him for a few years, but I couldn't remember his first name. I just knew he was Mr. House. I didn't know his first name. And I had actually called my old school, but he didn't work there anymore. And the person I spoke to, like never heard of him, didn't, you know, was no help.

Well, I got a bin of photos and like memorabilia that I had left in my dad's attic and my dad was cleaning out his attic. So my dad sent it to me and I was going through it and it was a poetry book that I had been published in when I was 16. and Mr. House's name was in there, his full name. I was like, oh my gosh, okay, I have a first name and a last name now.

So I put him on social media, and I was like, does anybody know?

I'll cry right now.

I know. I've cried so much, and I actually met him last week in person. Are you serious? I swear to God. Did he come to one of your signings?

He did.

So I put it on social media, and within, I'm not kidding you, minutes, they found this man. OK. And it was like my dad was the principal at the school and he's still friends with him. Like it was like one of those types of connections, like a very close connection. And she shared my information and it all happened super fast.

Like it happened within like an hour or something. And so she gave my information to her dad. Her dad gave it to Mr. House. Mr. House. They didn't tell him everything. They were just like, hey, a former student would like to talk to you. He didn't want to tell him like, no, she's a bestselling author now. Like this was the only actual like real schooling she had for writing was your class.

And so my kids were so invested in this story and my daughter was at work. So I was like, I should record this call so I can show it to Naomi when she gets home. And so I recorded the call of me calling him and it was just like this incredibly emotional phone call and it went totally viral.

And I realized like when I was thanking him, I was like, I feel like teachers need to see this because I feel like teaching is such a hard. I don't know why this is emotional. Because it should be. They don't pay them enough. No, they don't. They are so... Especially for kids that have rough childhoods.

I was horribly bullied in high school. I had a really awful... My teen years were terrible. I ended up actually not even finishing my senior year. I went on independent study because I had to work full time to be able to afford to live. Okay? And... So like, this was like a 30 minute phone call that I had with him. And I was about halfway through it.

It was the first time in a year and a half that I was actually able to breathe And I had a check coming in and I didn't have to worry about money. And I told my husband, like, what are we doing? People that do what I'm doing have a bakery or they have a daycare. And my husband was like, why don't we open a bakery? And I just thought that was the most banana pants idea ever because what do we know?

And I realized like this man appreciates this call. Like this made his entire career worth it to hear what I had to say. Like, and he's retired. He's two years retired now. And he had no idea. Two years.

Oh my gosh.

That I carried the impact of his class with me. Mm-hmm. to now, like it's huge. And so I asked him, I said, would you be okay with me sharing this? And he was like, absolutely share it. So I shared it. And of course it went totally viral. Um, and thank you. you know, just to hear him say that he was proud of me, you know what I mean?

Like I have a complicated relationship with, with my mother, you know what I mean? And to be able to just have somebody say like, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of what you became, you know, you did good. Um, so anyway, I had an event in Seattle and, uh, He, he went, so he has a son that lives in Seattle and he's like, I'm going to be there. And so he came, we gave him like the full VIP experience.

My husband ran out and got him and brought him to the green room. And I got to hang out with him for like three hours. It was the most just full circle moment. I totally cried when I saw him. It was like instantly, I was like 16 again.

I never thought I was going to cry in this interview today. I know. Oh, my gosh. And so now he fully understands, you know. Oh, yes. first of all, who you are and, and did he remember you?

Oh yeah. He remembered, um, well, I think he also remembered my car because I, I actually drove the 1966 Dodge Dart convertible that I wrote into this book. I drove that when I was 16, when I was in his class. I saw that on your social, the one that you bought, you bought one.

Oh my gosh. And he also had a Dodge Dart. So, um, I think, I think he like vaguely remembers impressions of me, but it was, I mean, it was almost 30 years ago. This was long and he had a lot of students. Um, but it was just so cool. Like just meeting him was just so full circle. I think for both of us, it was very full circle.

I'm sure that was one of the highlights of his entire life too, which is incredible. When I first started this podcast, it seemed like I had to figure it all out on my own. Scripts, setup, filming schedule, logos. I was so overwhelmed and every day seemed to introduce a new decision that I did not know how to answer.

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I mean, I didn't even go to college. I didn't go to culinary school. Neither did my husband. You know, we had no street creds other than we were just managers. We were retail managers. Right. He convinced me that we could do it. So we went to the bank and tried to get money. But it was 2009, and nobody was loaning any money.

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You talk about a lot of real life topics. I mean, infertility. cancer, all kinds of things. What inspires you to do that in your books?

It's different for every book. So in yours truly, I wanted to write about kidney donation because I myself had a bout with kidney disease. I'm since in remission. I'm healthy.

You've lived a thousand lives. I know.

I feel like sometimes that my life is a show and the writers have to keep like changing things up to keep it interesting.

Everything that comes out of your mouth.

I'm like, wait, what?

I know.

I know. It's just wild. It's sometimes when I do an event and they read my bio, you know, like they'll read my bio and I'm like, man, I did a lot of stuff like that. That sounds exhausting. Who's she? Um, you know, it was like over the course of 18 years, but yeah, I had a bout with kidney disease, um, in 2020. It was very scary. Um, Things were not looking good.

So we got a small business loan for $5,000 from the SBA and ended up charging the rest of the entire opening $125,000 on our credit cards.

And fortunately, we found a medication regimen that works for me and put me in remission. But it's always been important for me to talk about organ donation in general. It's something that I talk about organically in almost every single one of my books because I deeply believe in it. And I thought, you know, what would make this hero even sexier than he already is?

But if he donates a kidney to the heroine's brother. So that was, you know, the reason for that theme in that book. And then, of course, I wrote social anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder into Jacob because I deeply understand that. I also deal with anxiety. You know, it just depends on the book, you know, why I want to write about what I want to write about.

But, you know, for See or Remember Me. I really wanted to write a book about making memories and also losing them, you know? And also I really wanted to write a hot veterinarian. That's been in my heart for a long time.

Please share with us why you picked a hot veterinarian. I mean, I know that you've written about other doctors, so maybe you just needed a new career.

I just think that a man taking care of animals is just, I just have this vision of like a very handsome man holding a baby animal. Like, come on.

Like what? There's nothing hotter than that. Actually, I have, um, my chicken, one of my chickens got stolen yesterday and, um, I, my, he's not my dad, but I call him my dad and, uh, my children's father went over and he's holding my chicken. So I'll have to show you that before you leave. So yeah, I would agree that hot men with animals are, I mean, come on. Yeah. I love that.

But what inspired pooter the cat?

even know where i got the idea okay well i knew that i needed her to meet him in a veterinary setting right okay uh so i needed her to be bringing an animal in and i thought you know wouldn't it be funny if the kitten had no butthole um no i like actually pitched this to my editor uh And, you know, but I was in New York. I was at the Archer Hotel.

To open the bakery.

To open the bakery, yeah.

We're on a very, you know, fancy swanky outdoor patio drinking like a mimosa or something. And I was pitching her this book idea and I was like, so there's this woman and she finds this cat and it has no butthole. And she was like, okay. And I'm like, do you trust me? She's like, I do. No, I just thought it would be, you know, funny to give this cat, you know, sort of a unique health condition.

So that is literally how you went from running a bakery, being a mom, doing all of it in one house, to opening your first location.

And to see, I think it's very telling of who these two are as people, you know, he's very into rescue, very into alleviating the misery of the animals that he takes care of. And she's somebody who believes in the faith of the internet. You know, she believes in the people of the internet. She believes in humanity in general. They have very different mindsets.

And I just thought that was a situation that really showcased that well. Uh, and I like that he comes off, uh, not very well.

Yes. You know, I also really appreciated that, but I liked how it was very realistic. Like you come across people every day, one who believes in, you know, the internet and the good in people and then other people who are a little bit more cold and jaded. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like that's so realistic. I personally loved that.

Is there any other inspo from like family, friends, anything like that for your characters or, or situations?

Yes. I wrote out, you know those advance checks that you get?

Uh, the house that I wrote into the book was my grandfather's real house.

in Glendale.

So it was very easy for me, like with the apartment over the garage, it was very easy for me to write that entire universe basically, because it was my childhood. I grew up there. I grew up going to the beach. I grew up going to Santa Monica Pier. I grew up running around California and going to In-N-Out and, you know, so those things are very easy for me to write.

Yes.

Like the ones with 0% interest for 12 months? Uh-huh. Well, we had very, very good credit. We weren't making a ton of money. Actually, we were descending into debt the entire time I was working out of my house. I think we had almost $20,000 in credit card debt just from living, like fixing the car and buying groceries and paying medical bills.

I remember early in my writing career, my editor told me, you always want to write your books in either California or New York because it's easier for a global market to recognize those places. Like we all know what New York and California looks like. And I ended up veering way off course and writing most of my books in Minnesota.

Which is now, I think, I think I've done more for Minnesota tourism than anything else. I mean, I would definitely go.

Yes.

It's beautiful. I mean, we chose to live there. We, you know, could have lived anywhere. We were literally looking for anywhere to live and picked Minnesota and we will stay there. I love Minnesota. I think another... Doesn't Geneva Rose live in Minnesota? She lives in Michigan, I think. Or Wisconsin. No, I think she's in Wisconsin.

Oh, okay. I was way off then. Sorry about that, Geneva. If you ever come on the podcast, I apologize. Same vibes. Same vibes. But I do appreciate all the seasons, though. That's one thing when I... I'm not a West Coast girly. I just, you know, I go there for work, but I'm not a West Coast girly. I do like...

As much as I complain about the winters in the wintertime, I like that we have spring, fall, summer, winter, you know? So that's a good point. So how do you name your characters also? Uh, you know, it depends on the character's personality.

You can name one Kale if you want. Okay. You know what? I named, I named the sister in this Geneva and I, and I didn't actually name it after Geneva Rose. I just thought that's a pretty name. And I named her Geneva and I spelled it with a J like Geneva does. And so Geneva said, now she has to name a character in her book after me. And do I want to be a villain or, or a murder victim?

That is, wait, that is so cool that you're connecting with other authors over books and stuff. That's so cool. Yeah.

I've made so many great author friends. Like the, the community is just so, has been so supportive to me and just so amazing. And I try and do that for the authors that are up and coming also because I was so green and new to the author universe.

Like, you know, most people, I think by the time they get a traditionally published book deal, they've been in those trenches for like a decade, a long time.

And I did it really fast. I started writing. I was on Critique Circle for a year in my five to 10 year, one year boot camp and got published really quickly. And I didn't have those author relationships. I didn't know anybody that could give me tips or tell me how to do things or give me heads up about things. So I try and be that for other authors and try and lift up other authors coming after me.

Are you on Kindle Unlimited or on Kindle? Some of my books are on KU. They cycle them in and out. Okay. Uh, so you just kind of have to see which ones are there. I think maybe the part of your, part of your world is there right now.

I can't remember. Um, you have a lot of strong friendship connections in a lot of your books. What, what inspired you or, you know, compelled you to write that? to write those types of relationships?

I really love a good friendship in the book because the friend can deliver things that the reader is thinking. Okay. It's a writing technique. You know, you as the reader can be getting really frustrated with the main character, and if you've got a really good friend in there, the friend can be like, you are being ridiculous. Okay, okay.

So we were not doing well financially, but we had really good credit. We always paid our bills. So we had a really big line of credit to tap from over several different cards. So we sat down and we wrote all the advanced checks out, $125,000. And we did it all at once because we knew as soon as we start doing it, that the banks would start to lower our credit limits.

And, like, say the things that the reader is thinking, which I think helps alleviate frustration in a book. No, the friend really just serves...

a lot of different functions, you know, to say the things that the reader is thinking, to help, you know, guide and shape the story, to get things that would be otherwise in the head of the character, gets it out onto the page into dialogue, which I think is more fun to read than reading, you know, just the thoughts of a character. And then I just really love a good, strong female friendship.

Yeah. Like I just love it. Girl power.

The next book also has another strong female friendship. My eighth book, which is called The Night We Met, comes out this time next year. And that's interconnected to Say You'll Remember Me. Yeah. So in Say You'll Remember Me, Xavier's got a friend group. Jesse, Chris, Mike.

Okay.

So then the next book will include them. So we're following this friend group all the way through. I love this friend group. I love this whole universe.

I love all the universes. I mean- I can't. I'm so excited. I hope that I can read an ARC copy of that one. So let me know if you need me to be a, what do they call them? Beta reader? Oh yeah. I don't know what the difference is between ARC copy and beta reader.

So an ARC reader isn't really, an ARC reader is just reviewing the book.

Okay.

A beta reader is actually contributing to like changes in the book. Like a beta reader would read it and go, Ooh, I didn't like that. And then tell you, and then you would change it. How do I become one of those? I mean, do you want it? Some people don't like to be in that stage of it because you're not reading a final copy. So there's going to be issues. It's going to have grammar problems.

You know what I mean? It's not a very clean copy. It's kind of like a more work in progress type draft. So sort of like critique circle. Yes. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like I would love that process. Yeah. I mean, it's very different than being an arc reader because an arc reader, you're just reading for enjoyment to give your opinion on it, you know, for, for social media purposes or whatever.

And it's more of a finished copy. You know, maybe there's like some grammatical errors or things like that because it isn't entirely edited. Sure. But when the book is in beta reads, it still is very much a work in progress. You could read a

In the final. Is it possible, and maybe you don't know, maybe you do, if you are in the beta process and then they decide not to publish it at all?

Not to publish the book at all? Yeah. It's pretty rare I think that that happens. That would be pretty rare because typically, at least for my process with my publisher, I don't even write anything until I've gone over the entire concept with my editor and she's 100% on board, signed on, likes where I'm going with it.

Um, and then once I've written a first draft, she gets the first draft and then reads it. Um, you know, and then if she wants changes, I change it. You know what I mean? So there's a lot of back and forth. Like when I say I write a book and I can write a book in two and a half months, um, that's just a first draft, right? There is many, many layers of edits that it goes through.

We knew we had to do it at once. And we spent five months opening up Nadia Cakes in construction. And during those five months, we paid the minimums on the $20,000 worth of credit card debt we already had and then the $125,000 that we had written out. And the day we opened our bakery, we were so broke. We didn't even have cash to put money in the register to make change for customers.

Many layers of beta reads and advisory reads that I put my book through and sensitivity reads that I put my book through. And often even the arcs, when the arcs go out, they haven't even completely gone through those.

Like the sensitivity read is the very last thing that I put my books through because I want my sensitivity reader to read every single change that the book is going through to tell me if I need to change anything else. And when you say sensitivity read, what does that mean for the listeners? Um, sensitivity reader will go through and flag things that maybe are outside of your normal experience.

So you don't realize that it might be offensive or you don't realize that, you know, you might've said something that might rub people the wrong way. So I have a really great sensitivity reader that I use on all of my books and she will read, like I said, the very last round of edits. Like when,

Like right before we're probably going to proofreading is when I will send it to her because I don't want there to be any additional changes that she has not laid her eyes on. And it's not a foolproof system.

You know, obviously not everybody is going to pick up on every single thing because with so many people reading your books, you know, one thing that you might not even think of might be very different from somebody else's experience and might rub them wrong. But it's the due diligence. I always try and do my due diligence.

I have advisors on every single one of my books to go over the more difficult topics in my books. Depending on what the book is, like for Part of Your World, there was a theme of emotional and mental abuse and domestic violence. I had three domestic violence advocates.

read that book to make sure that I got the language correct and that, you know, the things that I was depicting were harmless or, you know, perhaps providing a roadmap out for people. Um, and again, you don't always get it right. You try though, you don't always get it right.

Um, and it's something that I've really started doing, especially after the friend zone, you know, I didn't know what I didn't know when I wrote that book and it's become a big part of my process to make sure that I, um, put out books that are authentic and accurate and harmless.

No, I think that's my ultimate goal. Yeah. And do people know that you do that? Have you ever talked about that?

you know, asked a cardiologist about that. Oh, she was actually speaking to, you know, a memory care nurse, you know, it'll just say the person's name. Um, but every single one of my books, I get advisors, sensitivity readers. It's very important to me in a big part of my process.

I love that. I respect that a lot. Um, do you have a favorite character from any of your books? Any, all seven of them? I really liked Tristan in this one, the, the sassy, uh, brother. Yeah. Yeah. I love him. I thought he, I could relate to every single character in this book for some, you know, in some capacity, but what also was it Alzheimer's or dementia?

I don't know if they're one in the same.

They are different. They present differently. I know that they kind of have like the same outcome and yeah, people get them mixed up, but in this book, it is early onset dementia is what the mother is struggling with. But I think if, you know, you know, somebody with Alzheimer's, you're going to find a very similar journey there. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I had an advisor who was a memory care.

She was in memory care for 20 years, memory care nurse. Um, so I, you know, messaged her throughout the entire process of writing this. And I, I think one thing that I've really taken away from this book is caregivers felt very seen reading this book, caregivers and people in long distance relationships.

I think if you've ever experienced either of those two things, this book will really speak to you.

I mean, people definitely resonated with the long distance relationship. um, relationship. And I couldn't imagine being in one, but it really put things into perspective for me because I had never, I never really had been in one.

That's how broke we were. And we opened immediate success. People lined up around the building, all the people that came and sat in my living room and held my baby while I filled out their order form. And the people that came and got their wedding cake and then a year later were getting their baby shower cake, they all came to support.

Yeah. I've never been in one either.

Well, you did a great job. And then how do you feel about if it was to become a movie or a TV show? Um, would you also get a say in who's casted or, you know, the type of characters that are cast and people that are casted for characters?

You know, I think authors have varying degrees of, um, participation in their books. There's some authors that just sign their rights away and don't want anything to do with it. They don't want to have anything to do with the screenplay. They don't want to have anything to do with the casting.

I read this back in November on my way to Spain and finished it in literally 24 hours. So, and I think everyone in this room has already read it too. Oh my gosh, thank you. I'm so excited for you. But before we talk about Say You'll Remember Me, can we start from the beginning and how you sort of entered into becoming an author and in the book world? Okay, I guess how far back do you want me to go?

I feel like for my readers, I should have a lot of involvement because I want to stick with the integrity of the story that I told and, you know, make sure that the readers are going to get the most out of the movie. So I would try to be really involved.

But the reality is that even if you are very involved, even if you have producer credits, even if you're writing the screenplay, at the end of the day, whoever owns the rights to that movie can do whatever they want.

So do you feel like that would make it harder for you to want to give up rights to any of your books? It does.

And I'd really want to make sure that whoever I sell it to is on the same page is committed to making the kind of project that I in telling the story the way it should be told. Yeah. Because that it just sucks so bad when you watch a movie for a book that you loved, and it's not good.

Well, and I was going to say some, all of the books that I've read of yours, the banter is so necessary for the entire book that if you remove any of it, it would change. It could change the entire dynamic of, you know, the movie or, you know, how it connects. I don't know.

I would, I feel like if I was writing rom-coms or any type of book that was turning into an adaptation, a movie, TV show, anything, I would want it to be so close to the actual book. And you have so much banter and like real life stuff. struggles in, in sort of intertwined that I, I just, I, I'm with you on that. I completely agree. Yeah. It's easy.

They just need to lift my banter out and plop it down. They have to say it verbatim. Some of the quotes and the banter, they have to. Yes. And I feel like the way that I write my books is sort of cinematic to begin with. Like it's very easy to picture it in your head. It just feels like you're kind of watching a movie anyway.

If you could give one piece of advice to a woman starting over in their life, whether it's their love, their career, just life in general, what would it be?

So three months after that, or I'm sorry, three weeks after that, my husband quit his full-time job.

I think you should do what you love and then figure out a way to monetize it. So if you're, if you really like paper quilling, get really, really good. Oh, you know what paper quilling is? No. It's so pretty. It's like paper art. Um, you know, that's, that's just a very niche random thing. Okay.

If you like charcuterie boards, if you like crocheting, if you like, you know, whatever the things that you like, get really good at it and then figure out how to monetize it. Okay.

But don't burn yourself out because Nadia Cakes and you got burnt out. Okay. And where can people, just for all the listeners here, if you have not been to a location, where are the locations of your three bakeries?

There's Nadia Cakes, Palmdale, California, Nadia Cakes, Maple Grove, Minnesota, Nadia Cakes, Woodbury, Minnesota, and we ship nationwide into Canada.

Shut up.

Oh, I actually didn't know that.

Yes.

So we can order in Delaware?

Yeah. It's a little pricey because we do have to overnight the cupcakes frozen and that's pricey, but it is available. It's possible. It is possible.

Yes. I was like, you have to quit because I can't. if I don't get help, it's going to fail. I can't get to anything. I couldn't get to invoicing. I couldn't get to working with the city to get a sign put on the back of the building. I couldn't do anything other than just bake the cupcakes and put them in the pastry case because we were so busy.

I would love to have a book club event and maybe we could get like themed... Cupcakes, right? Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah, they can do that. Okay.

And where can people find you on social media? I am on TikTok. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. I have a really active Facebook group. Okay. It's called the Abby Jimenez Discussion Group or something like that. And there's a lot of giveaways in there. They usually get first access to tickets. It's a free group. It's not like a Patreon or anything.

And that's probably the best place to be to follow me for the most up-to-date stuff and the most interaction with me.

Okay. And some of your books are on Kindle Unlimited. You can get Abby Jimenez books anywhere. You can buy books, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, anywhere you can buy books, right? Your local library. Yeah. Oh yeah. Local library, local bookstores.

I would say sign up for my emails. Oh yeah. Okay. Because you get an instant auto reply with a bonus chapter for part of your world in it. It comes as a PDF. Okay, cool. Yeah. And it's, it's free. I don't spam you a lot with emails. So sign up for my emails. Really good way.

Will people be able to see your book signing schedule on your website or anything?

We do update my website, but usually my book tour stops end up in my reader group first. I like to get my group first access. So that's a really good place to be. A second good place to be would be to sign up for my emails because I will send out any tickets that are still available. But I have to say my events are selling out in like – Two minutes.

Yeah.

Like it's, it's actually kind of wild. There is, you know, there's a lot of times virtual events that you can sign up for, even if my in-person events are sold out. Perfect.

Thank you so much for coming on Barely Famous.

I loved having you. Thank you.

So fun.

So my husband, who had our only 401k, he had our health insurance, the only reliable paycheck, quit his job after three weeks and became the CFO of the company.

How was that in terms – and obviously you don't have to get too personal, but I have a very similar situation to that where you are able to not retire your partner, but basically pivot them. And I get a lot of hate for it. They're like, but he should go do something else.

Like was that ever like – was there ever like an ego thing or, you know, like a struggle there with, you know – because I feel like there is like – How do I say it? And you don't have to get into too many things, but did people ever look at you crazy? Like, okay, you're doing this, so now you're opening a shop, and now what does he do?

Or did they immediately, they were like, okay, this is their business together?

More, you know, I have to say... the thing that I think about when I think about that situation is if my husband had been, um, like a victim of the patriarchy, you know what I mean? If he had been intimidated by my success, if he had been, and he's not, my husband looks at it like if my wife is successful, our family is successful.

And he, he jokes sometimes cause we have three daughters that his entire job in life is to raise up the women in his life. And he does that. And because of that, we have a very nice life. You know what I mean? And, and he is a very, very smart man and has, uh, different skill sets than I have. He's got a very analytical brain. He's, you know, obviously he's the CFO.

He's really good with the financials and, and seeing like broader picture. And I just want to be the creative. That's the thing with me is I'm just, I'm the creative in all things. So no, I'm really glad that my husband, you know, didn't succumb to, I guess, what are sometimes cultural norms, you know, that he's got to go out and he's got to do his own thing.

He was more than happy to, you know, say, Hey, she's got the good idea. Let's do that.

I love that. And so when you were in there full time, your husband is helping you then, then what's next? Did you go on cupcake wars after that or before you got into the first bakery?

No, so we opened our first bakery, and it is in L.A. County. So it's 60 miles north of Los Angeles, and a lot of those Food Network shows actually film in L.A. They film in the Hollywood studio sets, right? So I started to get calls for shows, and I got a call first from TLC for Fabulous Cakes. It was just a documentary-style show of us making a really fantastic, fantastic cakes.

So we did that first. And then they ended up using us for another season. So we did two seasons of Fabulous Cakes. And then the producer from that show ended up going to Cupcake Wars. And he called me and was like, your cupcakes were the best that I've ever tasted. You totally have to audition for the show. So we did. And we ended up getting casted. I was on season four. That was so stressful.

Because I've got a long history of many different endeavors. I'm a Cupcake Wars winner.

I can imagine.

I would never recommend going on a competition show. The stakes are very high. It was exhausting. People ask me all the time, would you ever do one again? I would not do one again. I would judge one.

Yeah. Oh, that would be fun.

That would be cool. I'll go and I'll be the nice one. I'll say all the nice things. But it was very stressful, very exhausting. I did end up winning. So won $10,000, got to slap Cupcake Wars winner and everything. And to this day, I mean, gosh, that was like 13 years ago or something.

Yeah, it was 2013.

Yes. It was so long ago. And to this day, it still gives you the creds. Like people hear that and they're like, oh, it's good cupcakes.

Yes, that's what I wanted to talk about. Exactly that. So you have a bakery in Palmdale, California.

I think people that I've seen online, obviously, I know you as an author, but we'll say like author and Cupcake Wars winner, you know, author and, you know, from Food Network, which I think is so funny. Like they really hold on to that.

Yeah, they do.

But you also put it in your books. I do. Which I love. I think that's so cool.

You know, I think people either love that or they hate it. But I will say I did not become successful by having bad ideas. And also people really like the tie-in. Like they like to do the Abby Jimenez, Nadia Cakes pilgrimage. They'll come down and they'll go to the shop and I sell signed copies in all of my shops. And we make a cupcake for each book every year.

So like right now there's a say you'll remember me cupcake. So people like to go and have the full experience. And I write other small businesses into my books because I like to support small business.

Yeah.

You know, so why wouldn't I write my own in there?

No, absolutely. I think it fits right in. I love a good crossover. So I think it's great.

Yes. That was my first location.

It's like a little Easter egg. If you know me, then you kind of get a giggle when you see it. And if you don't know my background, then it just fades into the background and you don't get the reference. Right.

I love it. I think it's so cute. You went from the first location to the second location. When did you open the one in Minneapolis?

So we were open for two years in Palmdale and then decided we wanted to open up another location. But at the time, cupcake shops were everywhere in California. I mean, you could throw a stone and hit a cupcake shop. It was really expensive to live there. We didn't really love where we were living. Like high desert, it's hot. You know, it's like 110 in the summer. And then you don't get the seasons.

Okay. And your second location is in Minneapolis?

You don't get snow in the winter. It's just like bitterly cold, but there's never any snow. And we really wanted to live somewhere where there were seasons. And we decided we were going to take a cross-country trip to decide if there was another state that we wanted to live in. So we took a five-week, 23-state cross-country trip.

Suburbs of Minneapolis. And then I have one in the suburbs of St. Paul, but I started really humble beginnings out of my house in 2007.

That's so fun.

My kids all get car sick, so we puked across the U.S. And then... Ended up in Minnesota and really loved it. My husband had worked for room and board prior to us, you know, starting Nadia Cakes. And they would always talk about how great Minnesota is, how much they love the culture. And they were always so nice. Like the room and board people were so nice.

And, you know, we're like, okay, when we get to Minnesota, we'll look really seriously at Minnesota. And I remember when we got there, we got, it was August. Yeah. And I remember driving over the state line and pulling up to like a fast food place and getting out of the car and just being hit by the most stifling heat. We were there during- In Minnesota? In Minnesota.

And now that I've lived there for 13 years, I know how uncommon that is. Like maybe you'll get four or five really muggy days, but for the most part, our summers are really pleasant. And I just remember it was so hot. And I was like, I thought this place was cold. And we stayed for three days, really fell in love with the Maple Grove area, which is a suburb of Minneapolis.

And then three months later, packed up our house that we had lived in in eight years. Lived in for eight years and moved to Minnesota in the winter. And nobody, we didn't know anybody there. We had no friends, no family. Just on a whim. We're like, we're doing it. Yep, just packed up the house and just left. And it was the hottest winter that they'd had in like 100 years or something.

So I was pregnant with my third baby in three years and I lost my job six months pregnant and took some cake decorating classes at the local Michaels and ended up deciding to start a small cake business out of the house just to like buy groceries until I figured out what I was going to do. Cause we couldn't afford for me to not work.

It was the winter where it barely snowed. It was like 80 degrees in March, which is unheard of. And I was like, it's not that bad here. Yeah.

I thought it was cold. You were in for a ride of your lifetime. Yes. I've heard about the winters in Minnesota. So I could imagine that when the next winter rolled around, you were probably like, this is a little bit different.

I feel like for the first five or six years, every winter people will go, well, this isn't a normal winter. This isn't a normal winter. We had a polar vortex. Well, this isn't a normal winter, you know, or you get a winter that snows a ton. Oh, this isn't a normal winter. They change every year.

Every single year. I feel like that in Delaware too. It's a peninsula. So you never know what you're going to get. You know what I mean? Let's talk about health and children's vitamins right now because typical children's vitamins are basically candy in disguise and I hate that. They're filled with two teaspoons of sugar and unhealthy chemicals and other gummy junk that kids should not eat.

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So you opened the second location there, but how do you manage a bakery on the other side of the country?

We have really good people. We pay them very well and we treat them very well. And all of our store managers have been with us. Actually, we had our very first employee ever from the Palmdale store. She was with us for 15 years. And she just left to go work for Disneyland, which was her dream. So I left after 15 years with us. So we have a really high retention. People stay with us.

And that, turned into two years of me running a cake business out of my house with a newborn one year old and a two year old all in diapers. It was a nightmare.

Our store managers have all been with us over 10 years each. So that enables me to be more administrative and not have to be physically in the bakery. But- I always say that if you empower people to do their job and support them in doing their job and allow them to be creative in the job, you're going to get more out of people and they're going to be happier working for you.

You know, more than half of the recipes are no longer my own. These are things that the staff has created. You know, they get a fun idea and they make it. And I think that's what keeps Naughty Cakes exciting and keeps their job exciting for them.