Monday, June 28, 2010

Cake Pops and Broadway

My sister-in-law had invited my youngest daughter on a trip to New York City for a graduation gift and I jumped at the chance to visit my favorite city and market my Cake Pop business. Our second night in town, we attended the musical, Promises Promises, which stars Sean Hayes and our family favorite, Kristin Chenoweth. We have followed Kristin's rise to stardom, because we have a mutual friend with her. Before the show began, I dropped off a dozen of Cake Pops to her at the stage door, name dropping our mutual friend. By intermission, my friend had sent me a message telling me that Kristin LOVED the Cake Pops, so after the show, we went back to the stage door to see if there was any chance that we could meet her. The stage manager, said that she definitely wanted to meet me. Meet me? Really? I have to say that Kristin Chenoweth is as warm and adorable as she appears to be. She loved the Cake Pops so much that I dropped another dozen off to her and one for Sean Hayes the next night. In fact she liked them so much, that she ordered for the whole cast and crew, even saving a couple of dozen for her interview with Rosie O'Donnell and for co-hosting with Regis!

I also met with Bobbie Thomas, of Bobbie's Buzz on The Today Show. What an fabulous young lady and the Brand that she has built on her expertise in showcasing new things and businesses is unlike any other. She's simply amazing! http://bobbie.com/

One of the contacts I made was with the owner of Swank Productions, Maya Kalman. Loved her and her staff! They had all kinds of ideas on how to incorporate our Cake Pops into their events. I can't wait to work with them! Check them out at http://www.swankproductions.com/

Coming up, we will be "sweetening" the Twilight Eclipse movie premier at a local event on Wednesday and Thursday night. We are making "Team Jacob" and "Team Edward" Cake Pops. If you follow us on Facebook, you can see the photos once those are done.

This business has opened doors and opportunities for me and my family to meet some of the most amazing people, not all of these people are movie and television stars. Some of the most fascinating have been just regular people that have a great story. I am so appreciative of every one of my customers.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Year One

When I started my business over a year ago, I thought that I would blog about starting a business, but starting a new business took up so much time that I didn't have time to blog. So much has happened in this first year of business, that I thought I would hit some of the high lights in my first official blog.

In September 2009, I was invited to participate in an Emmy Awards Style Lounge by the good people at Secret Room Events. It was a great opportunity and a chance to spend some time in one of my favorite cities...Los Angeles. It was a very hot afternoon at the SLS hotel in Beverly Hills, but the celebrities didn't care, they LOVED the Cake Pops.

Since then we have worked with several celebrities and some pretty impressive event planners, such as Big Dog Productions (Jay Leno's company) who ordered Christmas gifts from us. Paris Hilton's party planner order "hot" pink Cake Pops with a white "P" monogrammed on top for her 29th birthday party in LA. The same event planner ordered some for the Jimmy Kimmel Live show too. These are just a few of the celebrities that we've had the privilege of working with.

During our busiest time of the year, Christmas, we were approached by BRIDES Magazine about featuring our Cake Pops in an upcoming issue. We gladly shipped a couple dozen to their New York office. Believe me, when that May issue hit the news stands, I bought 2 copies. We are still receiving phone calls and emails from exposure.

In May this year, we were fortunate enough to be involved with an International event on the lot of Warner Bros Studios. It was so much fun working with their Special Event Dept. We made 2,500 Cake Pops for their event, customizing them with special colors and longer sticks.

We have also had the pleasure of doing a fundraiser with Rob Thomas' Sidewalk Angels Foundation last fall. It wasn't as big of a fundraiser as I had hoped it would be, but in this economy, anything can really help. It was fun to meet with Rob and do a quick photo shoot with some special Cake Pops that we had made for him and his crew.
We have also made donations to some awesome local charities and events, such as Taste of the Ozarks to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Heart Ball, which supported the American Heart Association.

I definitely could not have had this successful of a year without the support of my family and friends, especially my husband, Darryl.

So much has happened over this 1st year of business and I'm sure that I'm missing something, but I just wanted to catch up, so that going forth from here, I can write about current happenings. After all, it's the small things in between the larger than life things that sometimes matter the most.