Whisk Management – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, I sit down with Kristina Malone, the passionate force behind Kristina’s Kitchen and Kristina’s Cakery in Millville, DE. With roots in hospitality and a heart for her community, Kristina shares her entrepreneurial journey—from launching a café during the height of COVID to becoming a go-to spot for gluten-free and vegan baked goods. This conversation is packed with real talk, valuable insights, and plenty of inspiration for anyone building a business with purpose.

We chat about:

• Kristina’s background in hospitality and the spa industry and how it led to café ownership

• What it was like opening her business during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Lessons learned about managing a team and yourself as a business owner

• How she’s grown her brand to include a successful bakery alongside the café

• Creating gluten-free and vegan offerings that truly serve her customers’ needs

• The importance of listening to and serving your local community

• The dynamics of running a business with your spouse and how to make it work

Support Kristina! Follow the cafe or the bakery on Instagram Check out the cafe or the bakery online Give Kristina's Kitchen and Cakery a visit! Check out Santa's Letters, her non-profit

Support Blayre & The Pod! Follow the pod on Instagram Follow Blayre's biz, Flouretta Sweet, on Instagram or check her out online And, as always, be sure to leave us a review and tell your baker friends about us!

We're BACK with Part Two of my business relocation and glow up story! Join me as I fill you in on the nitty gritty details of this complicated process and what I'm learning from them. 

This episode, we continue the journey and I'm spill ALLLL the tea on:

• The process of applying for and speaking at a public zoning hearing and how I was faced with some opposition
• The endless back-and-forth with our favorite person, the health inspector
• Hiring and working with an Architectural Designer to come up with plans for my studio
• Getting things situated with alllll of the local municipalities that need to approve my business plans here in NH
• Where I am in the process now

If you want to watch my public zoning hearing for yourself, check it out here! My section starts at 1hr 24mins

Support the pod: -Follow WM on Instagram -Leave a review and be sure to tell your baker friends about us! Support Blayre: -Follow Flouretta Sweet on Instagram -Flouretta Sweet Website

As Beyonce once said, "lemme upgrade ya"!

If you really think about it, most of our time as business owners isn't spent doing the thing we actually are in business for. Instead, we're spending our time marketing, e-mailing, creating invoices- ALLL of that back end work that helps keep things moving AND keeps our clients HAPPY! Today's episode is going to help you take a deep dive into your processes and hone in on some ways to better cater to the people who keep our lights on and keep our toolkits stocked with endless mini offset spatulas. 

Mentioned in this episode:

-Dubsado - Blayre's Client Management System -CakeMemes4U -NoVendorMeal -Bakey Bakes & Disco Sugar

Support the Podcast on Instagram! Follow Blayre's biz, Flouretta Sweet!

Luxury is in the details, and nobody embodies that more than today's guest!

On this episode, we're welcoming the supremely talented Alexandria Carmona from Toronto's Finespun Cakes. Not only is she a true sugar flower wizard, she's also an expert at creating romantic, flowy, and DELICIOUS luxury wedding cakes (and she can teach you how to do the same thing!).

She joins Blayre in the studio to discuss:

• How she entered the whimsical world of sugar flowers and how she remains known for them to this day
• How she grew her business and opened her brick and mortar studio in the middle of the pandemic
• The way to build a trustworthy team
• Her classes and tutorials and community through YouTube and her Finespun Cake Academy
• Her tips on how to break into the luxury wedding space and how she builds luxury experiences for her clients

Support Alexandria! On Instagram By visiting her Website Learn from Alexandria! Finespun Youtube Channel/Free Tutorials Finespun Cake Academy (use code WHISK30 for 7 day free trial + 30% of first month!)

Support the Pod! On Instagram Visit our website Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify!

WE'RE BACK WITH PART TWO OF THE PRIDE MONTH SERIES!

Last episode we talked about some changes you can make in your business to make your space safe and more inclusive. This week, we're inviting Blayre's past clients (and friends!) Calvin and Orin Macon Phillips onto the pod to hear about their experience planning a wedding as a Queer couple.  We're discussing:

• The good, the bad, and the ugly of searching for inclusive wedding vendors
• Calvin & Orin's tips for planning a wedding that was unique and special to them
• What you can do to show allyship to clients in minority groups
• How to celebrate and uplift Queer love and joy

Contact Calvin with your questions!

Support the Pod! On Instagram Online Blayre's Business Instagram and Website

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH, WHISKTAKERS!!!

Here on the Whisk Management Pod, Pride is 365, baby! And this month I'm bringing you not one, but TWO episodes that will help you foster genuine inclusivity within your business!

Today we're talking about the work you should be doing as a business owner if you want to make your business a safe space for Queer clients.  We're discussing:

• Some basic Queer terminology that you might want to be familiar with so you're not making assumptions about your clients (or people in general)
• How to practice allyship and center the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community
• How to make your space (be it a brick and mortar business or the digital space in which you occupy) SAFE.
• What to do when you face backlash for making a statement on where you stand (because trust me, it will happen!)

So get out your pencils, paper, gel pens, and glitter, because this episode is full of helpful tips and LOTS of homework. 

Here are the amazing Queer Folx/Organizations referenced in this episode: Tess Feiler, Sarah Katherine Davis Photography, Kim Williams Weddings, Dolly Jaye, Human Rights Campaign

Support the Pod! On Instagram Online Blayre's Business Instagram and Website

Today we introduce Pastry Chef and #1 fan of the pod, Aaron Davis! Aaron is not only a wildly talented pastry chef, cake artist, and baker, but he's a personal friend of Blayre's and has so many awesome things to share with us today.  In this episode, Aaron and I are talking about:

• His personal and professional growth since graduating in the middle of the Pandemic, and how he's honing in on finding what brings him joy in his career
• His experience navigating his own mental health journey in an industry that stigmatizes it and how we can prioritize our own mental health 
• How it doesn't matter where you start in your career, it's the intentional steps that you take from there that will lead you to where you want to go
• Ways to seek creative inspiration for your art from unique places
• Aaron's experience on Holiday Baking Championship AND Holiday Wars and how they differ

Support and follow Aaron on Instagram!

Check out these mental health resources for Hospitality Professionals: CHOW- Culinary Hospitality Outreach Wellness The Burnt Chef Project Focus on Health Restaurant After Hours Open Path Collective- Affordable Therapy for those without Health Insurance

Support the Pod! Follow us On Instagram Follow Blayre's business, Flouretta Sweet Visit us online Mentor Sessions are Here! Click here for more information about how to work with Blayre one-on-one

Sometimes, business ownership isn't all sunshine and roses. Today we're talking about what happens when you've girlbossed for so long that you can't possibly girlboss ANY LONGER.  May is Mental Health Awareness month, so I'm bringing you some episodes to help remind you that there's nothing wrong with a little pausing, contemplation, and focusing inward. So if you're feeling like turning off the alarm, rolling over and hiding back under the covers when it comes to running your business, this episode is FOR YOU!

In this episode:

• Blayre shares how she's had to mentally (and physically) rearrange her expectations and priorities for 2024 after a VERY slow booking season and some big life changes
• Commiseration for the wedding vendors, what the heck the Engagement Gap is, and how you're DEF not the only one experiencing low bookings (and it likely isn't your fault either!!!)
• How to find contentment when things are hard, and what to do with a lull in business or a lack of work
• Recognizing growth when what you thought you wanted has shifted

ALSO, MENTOR SESSIONS ARE HERE!

Maybe you've been wanting a extra set of eyes to look at your socials, branding, or website. Maybe you need help starting an LLC or discussing logistics about an in-home kitchen, finding your brand voice, or breaking into the wedding industry. Or maybe you've just been wanting to sit down and pick Blayre's brain! Now is your chance! Book a free 15-20 minute discovery call here and fill out the inquiry form, then we'll chat about what it is you want to work on specifically! Can't wait to meet you!

Support the Pod

• Follow on Instagram or visit our website
• Check out Blayre's biz instagram or website

If at first you don't succeed... Learn from that shit and keep going!!!!! In today's guest episode, we get to chat with a true Macaron Princess. Crystal Arvelo is no stranger to making things work (I mean, she chose one of the hardest confections in French Pastry, taught herself how to bake them in the middle of the pandemmy, and started a business selling them locally AND Nationwide). 

We're talking about:

• Client transparency and the art of pivoting when things aren't working
• The story of how Crystal had to close her brick and mortar shop in order to find a better location to serve her customers
• How to market depending on your own unique business model
• Not being afraid to just START, but also being smart about business choices and how to learn from your failures and mistakes (hint: failure isn't bad!)

Stay up-to-date with Crystal and the exciting future of Colorful Macarons: Follow them on Instagram Follow them on Facebook  Check out their Website Stay up to date with the pod! Follow WMPod on Instagram or visit the podcast website Follow Blayre on Instagram or check out the Flouretta Sweet Website Join the Whisktakers Society!

We're back back back again! It's first episode of Season 2 and this one has ALL of the information, facts, figures, and fun stuff for people who enjoy research.

In this episode we're diving into the strange, beautiful and dangerous world of AI Art. I bet many of you have seen AI images creeping into client inquiry forms and infiltrating your Pinterest boards and Instagram feeds. While they may seem like something straight out of a fairytale, do you really know HOW these images are generated and the ripple effect that generation has on art, culture, and society as a whole? Well buckle up, because you're about to find out!

We'll discuss:

• What AI art is and how it's created
• Some examples of AI Art models that you may be familiar with
• The negative impacts these models have on us as creatives AND the society as a whole
• How to protect YOUR art and IP that has been shared online and in the public domain 
• How to spot AI art and what we can do when we're faced with these images when they pop up in our corner of the industry 

ALSO, BIG NEWS!

In the beginning of the episode I introduced the new community extension of the podcast- The Whisktakers Society! This is a place for bakers, cakers, sweet creatives, and small business owners alike to interact, uplift, and support one another. If you've got a question, want to share a win or something new happening in your business, then what better way to ask or celebrate than with your peers!

To join us, click this link!

Other links discussed in the episode: AI Vs. Artists: The Biggest Art Heist in History (YouTube Video) Sasha Luccioni's Ted Talk on AI Art's Impacts on Society (Youtube Video) Hugging Face- Ethical AI Community for Coders News Article discussing the Artist's Database being used to sue Midjourney Database of Artists used to train Midjourney AI Spawning AI- Data Governance for AI Spawning AI- Opt Out Extension for a web browser Have I Been Trained- Check to see if your work has been used to train AI models here University of Chicago- Nightshade and Glaze programs Is it AI- website that allows you to verify if a photo is/is not AI

To Further Connect with us:

• Follow the podcast On Instagram
• Visit the WMPod Website
• Follow Blayre On Instagram
• Visit the Flouretta Sweet Website
• Leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts