Speaker 1: My next guest. Four. We go way back, just because
Speaker 1: it back over back to the Steve Harry Morning Show days.
Speaker 1: Her grandmother advice is the best. She followed her grandmother's advice,
Speaker 1: it's best to do one thing and do it really,
Speaker 1: really well, and equipped with her mama's knack for bacon.
Speaker 1: She's the owner and created force behind Camic Cakes LLC.
Speaker 1: Camic Kicks is a chain of gour mat cupcake bootteats
Speaker 1: which originated in Jacksonville and two thousand and fourteen Andrew
Speaker 1: extended the brand to incorporate ice cream and form Camic
Speaker 1: Cakes Creamery. Uh. She extended his brand to incorporate ice
Speaker 1: cream and and and all kinds of ice cream like pineapple,
Speaker 1: upside dow cake, apple pie. For now they're pudding, uh,
Speaker 1: but become, which is my all time favor. By the way.
Speaker 1: She's also been featured on The Best Thing You've Ever
Speaker 1: Ate eight. When I saw that episode with the with
Speaker 1: the red velvet and then the butter of a calm
Speaker 1: in between sandwich, I'll please welcome to believe the money
Speaker 1: to make conversation my girl A long time, long time
Speaker 1: uh since the Steve hard Morning Show days. Ms Andre, Yes,
Speaker 1: you great great way. You know, I'm not broke. I'm
Speaker 1: not I have following along the wayside. The first people
Speaker 1: I knew I was got dressed up. Extra people that
Speaker 1: saw me back in the day. Now to go, No, Rashaw,
Speaker 1: still gotta going going up. Here's the beautiful thing about
Speaker 1: our relationship. I got to see you at the early stages.
Speaker 1: And at the early stage it was about put getting
Speaker 1: your brand out, samples, sharing samples, anything you can do
Speaker 1: to get on the morning show. Usually lets the Steve
Speaker 1: Harry Morning Show team sample your product. You know, it
Speaker 1: was always you know, and Monica was one of your
Speaker 1: big fans. She Monica Bars now yeah, one of the
Speaker 1: executive producer. These current exactive producers of Steve hard Morning
Speaker 1: Show introduced us and created the relationship. So tell us
Speaker 1: about you know. I mentioned your grandmother, then I mentioned
Speaker 1: the natural talent. But you was in the corporate world
Speaker 1: prior to all this, starting state government, right out of
Speaker 1: high school, out of high school, head four jobs. Like no,
Speaker 1: I'm not Jamaican, but right out of high school I was.
Speaker 1: While in high school, I was a cashier at the
Speaker 1: grocery store. Then I wanted to see what was happening
Speaker 1: over in the bakery department. So another store hired me
Speaker 1: as a cake decorator. So I worried at two grocery stores. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: before let's let's I love when people just slide past,
Speaker 1: just say anything about baking in college. Didn't say anything
Speaker 1: about the corporate job, state job, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: sudden somebody hired you to be a cake decorate. Well, yes,
Speaker 1: but I always baked so as a little girl starting off. Yeah, always, always, always,
Speaker 1: So that was just something that I didn't you could
Speaker 1: just automatically just knew how to decorate, you just know,
Speaker 1: I mean, it took practice so over time, just like
Speaker 1: I remember. I don't know they still do, but I
Speaker 1: remember the little Wilton course that you could take, like
Speaker 1: at Joean's Fabric. So I took those courses. It was
Speaker 1: just something I always wanted to do. Just whenever I
Speaker 1: had some downtime, I would just get in there and
Speaker 1: just kind of tinker around in the decorating. Just being
Speaker 1: able to write a name, decorate cakes, do wedding cakes,
Speaker 1: all these different colors and get it right. The piping
Speaker 1: and piping that's not your boy, you're barking bake, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, but well, I mean that's not I mean,
Speaker 1: there are people who are a true artist, and I
Speaker 1: realized that that wasn't really my forte. I'm like you,
Speaker 1: I'm more of a baker. But I enjoyed the artistry
Speaker 1: of us. I wanted to learn it, and as I
Speaker 1: learned more about it, I realized that I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's really the I want to go down. But so, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I did that. So cashier Kate decreator my dad
Speaker 1: had back in the day, I guess now we call
Speaker 1: the food trucks, but he had a business very similar
Speaker 1: that worked with him, and I worked with the state. Okay,
Speaker 1: So and I went to school. Well, it is the
Speaker 1: beauty of all those things you're talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: the food truck, cashier, all these things really prepared you
Speaker 1: for being an entrepreneur, Yes, because you had to learn that.
Speaker 1: That's why I would tell people what you did in
Speaker 1: your early twenties really prepared for what you're gonna do now.
Speaker 1: I really I always hold that true because all those
Speaker 1: skills sets that you mastered, because you have the master
Speaker 1: the kid. And even though your mom said, grandmother said
Speaker 1: do one thing really well, really well. But but but
Speaker 1: I would say, now you're doing multiple things really well
Speaker 1: under the guise of an entrepreneur. Yes, I mean, but
Speaker 1: you know it's hard. We're more critical on ourselves. So
Speaker 1: from the from you know, I see it up close,
Speaker 1: and I often wonder I'm like a man really doing
Speaker 1: it really really well. But at that time, I only
Speaker 1: focused on that one thing, and I didn't let all
Speaker 1: these other things just right. Right, So camic cakes name
Speaker 1: because of your dog, my daughter, Camillo. I just chopped
Speaker 1: off the last three lessons, and so that then became
Speaker 1: a business. Okay, Now when you came into my life,
Speaker 1: where were you there with your business? I was three
Speaker 1: stores in it. Just moved to Atlanta from Jacksonville, Florida.
Speaker 1: UM opened the store on Peachtree. So Naive didn't borrow
Speaker 1: it across from doctor Donuts. No, we don't talk about
Speaker 1: donuts when we're talking about I'm just trying. I dropped
Speaker 1: our Peatree headed to linux Ball. Yeah, and so I
Speaker 1: dropped by all the time I go. For those who
Speaker 1: have been in Atlanta for very long time, that's where
Speaker 1: Justice was. Yes, across the street from you too much.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I came here from Jacksonville, didn't think
Speaker 1: I was gonna move. I was so naive, really off
Speaker 1: to turn them, and I thought I was just gonna
Speaker 1: open the store and commute maybe twice a month back
Speaker 1: to it. I got here and I stayed with about
Speaker 1: three outfits and figured it out. So and so. So
Speaker 1: now when I met your three stores, I'll just want
Speaker 1: to start a business and moved to a state like Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: You have to have a certain amount of courage, a
Speaker 1: certain amount of planning. Can you talk about that, that
Speaker 1: whole process of that first store, the first store. So
Speaker 1: I think courage is I remember my Angela said, if
Speaker 1: you don't have courage, you really can't do practice any
Speaker 1: of the other things. So UM, I think urage is
Speaker 1: the main one. But that very first store. I don't
Speaker 1: know how much time I have, but if I just
Speaker 1: just talk started UM Candy Cakes. Prior to that, I
Speaker 1: was in corporate. So I transitioned from UM state government
Speaker 1: to corporate. My daughter was born. About a year old
Speaker 1: into it, she got really sick and we had to
Speaker 1: rushed to the well, not rushed her to the hospital.
Speaker 1: She she went in for what we thought was just
Speaker 1: a simple perceived While recovering from ad nois being removed
Speaker 1: in councils. She flat behind. She had to be rushed
Speaker 1: to I see you. Things just happened so quickly, like
Speaker 1: what's going on. Um. She didn't wake up until two
Speaker 1: days later. But after she woke up, it took some
Speaker 1: time to get her back on track. So throughout that process,
Speaker 1: I realized that I can't maintain this whole time job.
Speaker 1: I had to let that go. My husband at the
Speaker 1: time ended up taking on a part time job just
Speaker 1: to help me. End me still wasn't enough. So daughters
Speaker 1: out of the hospital. Now we're doing therapy during the
Speaker 1: daytime at nighttime. I ended up taking, uh, basically a
Speaker 1: minimum wage job. I was thinking that I was an
Speaker 1: hour working at a clerk in a hotel, um, a
Speaker 1: night auditor at a hotel, and um, so that was
Speaker 1: the graveyard shift. I had a lot of time on
Speaker 1: my hands, Like I mean, I just literally had to
Speaker 1: stay away. But during that time, as I got closer
Speaker 1: to her getting better, I said, will I go back
Speaker 1: into the corporate or will I do what I love
Speaker 1: to do? So I started working on this business plan,
Speaker 1: just put it together. I adn't have a dime in
Speaker 1: my name just but I just started putting this business
Speaker 1: playing together, and um, when it was time to open
Speaker 1: the first store, I had this business plan at this
Speaker 1: idea had great products based off of what I cheered
Speaker 1: with people in the feedback I had gotten back, um,
Speaker 1: and no one to help fund it. I went to
Speaker 1: family members and like, you stupid you that money? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get real crazy, gonna make a living selling cupcake? Okay.
Speaker 1: So anyway, when ended up happening was we had. The
Speaker 1: only thing we had to our name was a lot
Speaker 1: of first little started home and so refinance that home
Speaker 1: took out a little bit of money enough to really
Speaker 1: we had to pay off some bills that was part
Speaker 1: of guarantee UM, but it was enough to just buy
Speaker 1: some used equipment. I mean we literally painted the walls ourselves,
Speaker 1: and just enough to get those doors open. After we
Speaker 1: got those doors, I've only had five hundred dollars to
Speaker 1: my name. This had to work. The only employee and
Speaker 1: my husband at the time at taking off some time
Speaker 1: from his job, so we had to so UM, got it,
Speaker 1: got it opened on our very first end. Because I
Speaker 1: had to feel every I was the dishwasher, I was
Speaker 1: the baker, I was the decorate. I was everything. I
Speaker 1: was the PR person and I sent out a press
Speaker 1: release to every outlet. I mean, I googled how to.
Speaker 1: I was part of the but you were three stores
Speaker 1: in when I met you, and so I am when
Speaker 1: I sit out that press release. I was able to
Speaker 1: get UM the Morning News to cover us on our
Speaker 1: opening day. And because of that UM coverage, we sold
Speaker 1: out like within three hours the opening and then congratulation
Speaker 1: you know hit since then, Now you have those stores
Speaker 1: in the Jacksonville you one store in Jacksonville, Tistle Town,
Speaker 1: and you have stores in Atlanta at Buckheads, Findings, Camp
Speaker 1: Creek and and do you manage to get to all
Speaker 1: those stores or how do you do? Not on a
Speaker 1: daily basis, I don't manage. So do you zoom? How
Speaker 1: do you manage those stores? UM video conference? I don't
Speaker 1: do that? But no with help UM. Good managers trying
Speaker 1: to stay And that's that's key, right, it is the key.
Speaker 1: Now I know we're about there in this break, We're
Speaker 1: going to go to the next break. Now do you
Speaker 1: have like something like a secret secret recipes that you
Speaker 1: have to like bake the doll yourself and then they
Speaker 1: go do it? How does that work. So in terms
Speaker 1: of how we bake, we have recipes that we use
Speaker 1: and um, I mean they're secret to us, right, They're
Speaker 1: not in a cookbook. Right. What I'm saying is that
Speaker 1: you know, like certain like the cocoa cola got, the
Speaker 1: recipe have to be made like I would say that
Speaker 1: we have reached that stage because I saw the best
Speaker 1: thing that you could eat. You know, I just saw you.
Speaker 1: They just said a little little flower. No measurements, but
Speaker 1: they measurements. Actually I shared it. Great, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: Girl's all she said about I'd calling my girl because
Speaker 1: they go way back at three stores in that's's doing
Speaker 1: fantastic business. I'm happy to have home. I'll show money
Speaker 1: making conversation with at my camic cakes when we come back,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that ice cream. I didn't know you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you were doing ice cream. Came out to Rashan.
Speaker 1: That's when I moved to Chicago during the talk show
Speaker 1: with Steve Harvard. Here we'll come back a lot more
Speaker 1: fantastic looks great took one of the main conversations coming
Speaker 1: right back. Yes, yes, this Roshan McDonald and you're listening
Speaker 1: to money making conversation radio show podcast. Uh, Spotify the
Speaker 1: most Spotify not correct you. I'm growing, girl, I'm growing.
Speaker 1: You can hear me in California. You can hear me Louisiana.
Speaker 1: You can hear me in South Carolina. You can hear
Speaker 1: me in North Carolina. Of course, you can hear me
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, which is most important because that's where
Speaker 1: I'm based. Camic Cakes. I wanna call it the camic
Speaker 1: Cake queen camic Cakes. You know you got five stores
Speaker 1: when I met you here three yes, and um, and
Speaker 1: we've had more. But you know, well, it's all about
Speaker 1: understanding your model, right, correct, and so you can miss
Speaker 1: hall here now. Now, before I left, Oh, before I left,
Speaker 1: you are, we were George doing cakes. And I want
Speaker 1: to get something straight. Now, you do more than just cupcakes.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that first. So I make sure your brand,
Speaker 1: how big your brand is? So when we started started
Speaker 1: off as a cupcake bakery only, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people may ask at the beginning, why just cupcakes? Why
Speaker 1: I just focus on that one the area. Well, one
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to do is I wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that I did something that was controllable and I
Speaker 1: could actually see as being scalable too. So that's why
Speaker 1: cupcakes and um. Since then we've incorporated cakes because we
Speaker 1: just heard it over and over again. But I want
Speaker 1: you all to do my birthday cakes. So we added
Speaker 1: in the cakes, and we started doing a line of buntcakes.
Speaker 1: So we added in layer cakes. Then we did the bunkcakes. Um,
Speaker 1: and then there's a separate line of cakes that my
Speaker 1: own personal brand is called Underhall Living. It's a mixture
Speaker 1: of cakes and flesh, fresh flowers and um, the ice cream.
Speaker 1: So why have I seen you on all these cooking shows,
Speaker 1: these judges? Come on? Now you got the personality of
Speaker 1: this hall you think, Yes, you do, you do. You're fantastic,
Speaker 1: a great small articulate. Why am I seeing you on
Speaker 1: these I don't know. I would love to be on.
Speaker 1: Why I'm seeing the reality TV world? And came you
Speaker 1: said we're gonna make it. I've had a couple of
Speaker 1: knocks on the door, but nothing else particular. What was
Speaker 1: gonna happen? Because you're you're small. I'm very small and
Speaker 1: see that you can get it too. Now let's talk
Speaker 1: about the whole process of because you know we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, because I looked at you, what do your
Speaker 1: list of my girls? And the girls is a very
Speaker 1: I won't say, it's kind of like a premium lie. Yes,
Speaker 1: every cake is thirty nine dollars with liquors or liquors.
Speaker 1: And now now I asked you by German chocolate kkey
Speaker 1: because that's my favorite, be selfish, and you said, what
Speaker 1: about German? So the thing about German chocolate Kate, one,
Speaker 1: it is expensive to make. So from the business side,
Speaker 1: you're always looking at your food costs for everything, and
Speaker 1: any other part is people either love coconut, I hate coconut.
Speaker 1: So for us, just through the Camy cakes that we
Speaker 1: learned that that flavor is a mediocre seller. Now you
Speaker 1: have a Delilah Yes yes, Hattie Yes, Lola, Lucy Monroe
Speaker 1: ro yes say yes. And Ruby is a buntcake? Yes
Speaker 1: it is. Now how Ruby stands out as a bunkcake. Well,
Speaker 1: they're all these are three layer cakes that they are,
Speaker 1: but they're all six inch cakes. So they're all personal cakes.
Speaker 1: And that's all I need. All I need is still share.
Speaker 1: I gotta share my little six there's enough to share
Speaker 1: or about six people. But I mean the whole concept
Speaker 1: is it's your own personal cake. Absolutely, Now, how did
Speaker 1: that concept come about? It came about because I love
Speaker 1: edible arrangements and I like the idea and I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to talk up another brand, but I just like
Speaker 1: that whole concept of them receiving something that looks beautiful
Speaker 1: but still edible, and it is there are very attractive yes,
Speaker 1: and um, I just and of course you know I
Speaker 1: love Kate, but I also love flowers and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to combine the two and I just thought it
Speaker 1: would be a beautiful kift you. I love you hitting
Speaker 1: all hotspots. You know, our relationships started with cupcakes, then
Speaker 1: you went to the cakes and the ice cream. How
Speaker 1: did the ice cream? Ice cream? Ice cream came about? Again,
Speaker 1: listening to our customers. It would come in and said,
Speaker 1: I wish you had ice cream with my cupcake. Really yes,
Speaker 1: and that is literally how it came about. Now you
Speaker 1: have let me just talk. Let me go through some
Speaker 1: of these flavors here. You know you got the butter,
Speaker 1: which is standard. Great, great, you know that's my all
Speaker 1: time And can I briefly describe how we make a
Speaker 1: describe so it s notis with the deacons. Of course
Speaker 1: we use George stop cans PACs because depending on where
Speaker 1: you from. I'm from Dirt Roads and Florida, So so
Speaker 1: that's why I pronounced it the way I do. But
Speaker 1: so it starts with that and we toast them with
Speaker 1: butter and then once they come in so it's just
Speaker 1: in his but so that's that's that's the base because
Speaker 1: I love that sweet salt. Yeah, dig in there, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And in the base of my ice cream. I it's
Speaker 1: a very simple thing to make, only about three yes,
Speaker 1: and it's so um the base of it. To get
Speaker 1: that buttery taste, we add a little butter, milk and butter,
Speaker 1: making my favorite corn bread and butter my refrigerator. Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: I love So let's go through some of the incredible
Speaker 1: flavors that you have. Butter because sweet potatoes, pineapple upside down. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's crazy good. Okay, but now there putting the classic
Speaker 1: strawberry saltic caralmel, carrot cake, lemon meringue, lemon gender, bastasio brittle.
Speaker 1: That sounds good. Mocha, get it a little coffee flavor too,
Speaker 1: very cherry chocolate. It's all ice cream that you can get,
Speaker 1: camic cakes, creamery, chocolate, cherry, and it's a chocolate cherry
Speaker 1: almond or just almond, chocolate cherry almond. Three words he
Speaker 1: lines pie, fridge toasts, vanilla, peanut colata. Just gives you
Speaker 1: want to get drunk on, you know, drunking a little
Speaker 1: ice cream right there, blueberry cheesecake, which can't go wrong, cheesecake,
Speaker 1: apple pie, mint chocolate, and almond brittle. Now okay, now
Speaker 1: how did you get to all them? Those flavors? The
Speaker 1: rivling basket around, just playing around like when you enjoy food.
Speaker 1: When you enjoy food, it's it's like a science project.
Speaker 1: You just get in there. You just keep playing with
Speaker 1: flavors and matching flavors. And just now she has she
Speaker 1: has one location in Jacksonville that's telsel Town and she
Speaker 1: has four locations. This is camic Cakes where you can
Speaker 1: get ice cream, the cupcakes and the cakes. Well there's
Speaker 1: the creamer. That's where we make all of the ice
Speaker 1: It's Murders right around the corner from Santrust Park right
Speaker 1: absolutely might be going over there. They she cold doesn't
Speaker 1: bother me. A lot of people ice cream ice cream,
Speaker 1: especially when it's good. Now, when you go in there,
Speaker 1: that's just can you get the cupcakes in the cake
Speaker 1: in the Smyrner location. My boys coming to the Calforn
Speaker 1: New Years We're gonna we can go with that radio
Speaker 1: four grown We're gonna five grown men walking in there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna come in there and get the cupcakes, the
Speaker 1: ice cream, everything, and then Camp Creek, Vinings and Buckhead.
Speaker 1: That's straight came cakes. Yes, okay cool. As a particular
Speaker 1: reason why it was that just a launch location for
Speaker 1: or the smarting location, it was, it was, and it's
Speaker 1: very close. I mean, we have a store in Binding
Speaker 1: Candy Cakes. So when we opened the creamery the creamery,
Speaker 1: the intentions were was just to do ice cream. But
Speaker 1: again our customers said differently, where the like, they're just
Speaker 1: one exit up where the cupcakes right here, right now,
Speaker 1: So we incorporated the cupcakes. But you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I love this in this conversation, this interview, I call
Speaker 1: it the conversation because of the fact that you actually
Speaker 1: listened to your custome, you listen to your customer, and
Speaker 1: you and you enjoy the conversation that you have with
Speaker 1: your customer, right do so? Would that be saying, uh,
Speaker 1: you have social media is a free delivery on your cakes?
Speaker 1: If somebody can order online. Talk about a little bit
Speaker 1: about the business side. So on the on the candy
Speaker 1: cakes side, there it. We we have social media, the
Speaker 1: biggest one being Instagram. That's the one that we're most
Speaker 1: active on. And we're on Facebook. Uh and Twitter, but wait,
Speaker 1: we're not that big on Twitter. But yes, we are
Speaker 1: on social media. Listen to our customers for sure, and
Speaker 1: then we get the feedback through social media site. And
Speaker 1: then delivery wise, um, most of our deliveries through candy cakes,
Speaker 1: their catering deliveries, and then the living cakes those are
Speaker 1: the delivery cakes. It is all incorporated in that crisis
Speaker 1: on this you within a certain ratio driving radius. Yes,
Speaker 1: don't be an Athens trying to get free delivery. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is correct, George. You Jack, if you're trying to
Speaker 1: get it down in understand that because it's about it
Speaker 1: about being able to maximize your your profit more right,
Speaker 1: when the businesses to make money, not the business makes
Speaker 1: you happy, right, because well you all understand. But you know,
Speaker 1: if it's if it's outrageous the request, it has to
Speaker 1: be a charge added to that. It here's the only
Speaker 1: thing that I always asked, you have a cake? How
Speaker 1: do you how do you maintain the the the quality
Speaker 1: when you deliver in your cake is not upside down
Speaker 1: or it's not bounced around when you how does that
Speaker 1: packing package? Just make sure it's packaged properly and making
Speaker 1: sure that it is delivered cool. It's the most important
Speaker 1: thing to deliver a cool cake because cake that's room
Speaker 1: temperature is slightly more it's kind of bo it's gonna
Speaker 1: now I'm just I'm just asking on the course so
Speaker 1: so so so they so you say, keep it up
Speaker 1: right side up? Yeah, of course. The first I just
Speaker 1: working at off just throw stuff, you know, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so when yeah, on the shipping side, we freeze the
Speaker 1: cakes yes, so yeah, okay, and then we put them
Speaker 1: on dry ice and they're in insulated packaging, lots of packaging,
Speaker 1: and it has deeply delivered within a certain time frame.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and all that all that is all good business.
Speaker 1: So here she is, she's at my show. She's at
Speaker 1: my show. She's talking about her life and the journeys
Speaker 1: you made came and cakes is by far uh business
Speaker 1: that has has come along. If we talked off fair.
Speaker 1: There has been some downpoints of business decisions, but but
Speaker 1: the bottom line is you're still in business, you're still profitable,
Speaker 1: you're still moving forward. Now, can I ask a favorite?
Speaker 1: I might ask a favorite because I'm I'm a baker, okay, Um,
Speaker 1: I have what I call on my Facebook Baker Spotlight.
Speaker 1: Why I bait I feature that I thank you. You
Speaker 1: know you're you're an amazing First of all, the fact
Speaker 1: that that I can reach back and make that offer
Speaker 1: because that people I post the cake, they go crazy
Speaker 1: and they shared around and thank you for coming to
Speaker 1: my show. Appreciate your your friend, and it's great just
Speaker 1: saying that you not have a home where you can
Speaker 1: promote your brain. Put your brain out there and anytime
Speaker 1: you have any specials, come to me. I'm putting my
Speaker 1: fan club list strictly for Atlanta area and I kept
Speaker 1: you get the word out because you want them. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Cama Cakes Rashan McDonald's featuring her on Bigger Spotlight