This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey there, thanks so much for tuning in today. I hope you are well, whatever part of the world you're in. I hope you're working on something you're excited about. I hope you're building more of your own security so that you can do more of what's important to you. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. Today is our Throwback Thursday segment
where we take a look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now recently we have featured the founder of Not Your Mother's Resume, you have to say it like that, Not Your Mother's Resume, who doubled her business since we first featured her as well as the co-founder of Australia's leading dental blog, Turning Brush Heads Across the Country. Now today in our latest feature we'll hear from Carrie Buchanan, she is the founder of the Bombshell Baking Company. Carrie is a full-time social worker who also earns up to $4,000 a weekend traveling to conventions selling her Walking Dead themed sugar cookies among other concoctions. So what has happened since we first featured Carrie more than a thousand days ago? Let's hear more from her
and I'll come back at the end to wrap us up. My name is Carrie Buchanan. I am in Canton, Ohio. My side hustle is Bombshell Baking Company, a home bakery that specializes in custom designed cookie art and I was on episode 725. Bombshell Baking Company is a small home-based operation. I do have a separate bakery kitchen that I built
in my new home and I used to do a lot more. I used to do cakes, cupcakes, cake pops and I scaled down to just custom sugar cookies featuring designs of the customer's choosing, character themes, birthday themes, pretty much the pretty cookies you see on Pinterest I can do. I got started back in 2013. I was a newly divorced person with two teenage daughters and was looking for a way to pick up some extra money. I'm a social worker by trade and I was single for the first time and feeling a lot of stress and anxiety about my financial situation. I've always
been a creative artistic person and had started making these muffin-sized stuffed and topped cupcakes for my daughter, her friends, for people to say thank you when they would you know do something special for me and then I started giving the cupcakes cute little names like cherry bomb and pink lady and my boyfriend at the time suggested that I should start selling them at a local market or a local community event every Friday, the first Friday of every month downtown Canton called first Friday. So I thought that's an interesting idea maybe I can make a couple extra bucks a week so I did and the next thing you knew people wanted to place orders so I started just doing these specialized cupcakes for people for parties for events. My business really got big when I started traveling to comic book conventions particularly Walking Dead themed comic book conventions. They discussed that on my episode 725 on how I turned my love for the Walking Dead into a successful business but it was here that I would sell large quantities of custom sugar cookies designed in Walking Dead horror themed and I was doing $4,000 in a weekend and I was able to you know really make a name for myself on the convention circuit. It is extremely time consuming and a lot of work but that year I did a lot of a lot of business. I have always kept my job as
a social worker. I have never intended to take my business bigger or get a bakery space. There have been a few friends that I have in the bakery industry and I have sold items out of their bakeries but that is not something that's ever been a dream of mine. I have so many friends that are in the bakery business and I just do not have the time and energy to put into that. It is extremely grueling. You work 7 days a week, 16 hour days, turning 50 next month and that's just not a
direction that I have for my life. It is okay for something to just stay a side hustle. I think that's really a message that I'd like to make sure people understand. Not every side hustle has to become a business. It's always been a wonderful part of my life but I have found that I have a tendency to take everything I love, take my hobbies and turn them into work. So my life becomes less
hobby and play and fun and more everything I do in my free time is work. So scaling back has really been an important component of me minimizing my burnout so that it's something that I enjoy doing. So in order to keep it fun, like I said, I've really cut back on the number of orders that I take. I'll take orders maybe two weekends out of a month so that I don't get all tired, burnt out and start to hate it. I know somebody out there just needs to hear what Kerry said. It's okay for something to stay a side
hustle. Not every side hustle has to become a big business and let's also give her credit because maybe it is a side hustle. Maybe it's not a big business, quote unquote, but she can make up to $4,000 a weekend selling her Walking Dead themed cookies and other delicious baked goods. So I think that's pretty awesome. Thank you, Kerry. Thanks for being a role model to us. And listeners,
the Bombshell Baking Co is on Facebook at facebook.com/bombshellcupcakesinfo. You can also find her at your favorite Walking Dead convention. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories. If you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thanks for tuning in today. I've got a new episode
coming up tomorrow and every single day, you can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to Side Hustle School. From The Onward Project.
