Academy spotlight: Books, baking & pivoting to products with Amanda from Bookish Bakes

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Today’s talking point:

In this episode, I am joined by Amanda from Bookish Bakes, a wonderful baking subscription box inspired by books. Amanda is a member of the Busy to Boss Academy and she joins me to share her story from baking and blogging as a hobby through to taking the leap into starting a new business.

In this episode, I’m introducing you to Amanda from Bookish Bakes. Amanda joined the Busy to Boss Academy with the aim of developing her food blog and recipe creation business. But she’s made a huge pivot to a product-based subscription box that combines two of her greatest passions – books and baking.

What we talked about:

Every Busy to Boss interview starts by talking about why we do what we do. Amanda and I discuss the fact that your personal why doesn’t have to be ground-breaking or life-changing.

Amanda then shares her journey from blogging to business and pivoting from services into products. She started food blogging back in 2014 while living in Australia and experiencing depression. It was a way to re-ignite a childhood passion and connect with loved ones back in Canada. She says “baking really brought me back to life in that time”.

After a break from blogging when she moved to the UK, Amanda started her food blog again in 2018. Although this re-kindled her love for baking again, juggling a growing blog with her full-time job soon led to health problems.

Amanda explains the difficult decision she faced choosing between her job in marketing or the blog she was so passionate about.

“I went to the GP and he said I had to choose. I was going to have to choose between marketing or do this new thing, do blogging and take that leap or I was going to end up with hospitalisation”

Joining the Busy to Boss Academy

We chat about Amanda’s decision to join the Busy to Boss Academy: she was feeling isolated during the pandemic and overwhelmed by trying to make the blog financially viable. “I wanted to feel less stressed out and I wanted to feel less overwhelmed and over-run because I knew where that led and it was nowhere good”

“Being away from Canada and my support system was really difficult, especially during the pandemic. I have an incredibly supportive partner, but sometimes you just need that friend and female connection and someone who understands being in business and understands the mindset challenges you’re going through”

from services to products

Amanda has been on one of the biggest journeys of any of my Academy students: leaping from a service-based business to creating a product-based business. She says this is because the food blogging scene in the UK is “night and day” from North America. “Food and recipe creators are super under-valued here. Brands haven’t really quite caught up yet.”

Amanda admits she had the idea for something like Bookish Bakes nearly 10 years ago, but it seemed wildly out of reach. “I always wanted to do something bookish and it just never panned out,” she says.

She shares some of the biggest challenges around starting a product-based business, including dealing with some legal loopholes to setting up a food-based business.

The pay-off has been worth it, though.

“I feel like it’s what I’m meant to be doing. The feeling I have working on bookish bakes is a completely different feeling to any other career paths I’ve had before.”

celebrating the wins

Amanda shares some of her proudest achievements since joining the Busy to Boss Academy. While starting Bookish Bakes was at the top, she says feeling able to take time off without guilt is also a huge win.

“I had such a fear starting it that I would fail again because I felt that off the back of the blog not making it and not feeling as if I could continue it as a business, I had that fear that I was going to fail and the fact that I did it anyway is just mind-boggling to me. Two years ago I wouldn’t have even thought that was possible.”

“I took four full days off over my birthday this year. Four full days. And I only thought about work twice. That has never happened to me before. That was a crazy feeling.”

“I try and celebrate my wins a lot more, even if they’re small.”

Make sure you follow Amanda and her Bookish Bakes journey on Instagram!