Destiny and the RBA board
Amie attended IBIE in 2019 where she attended Bronwyn Weber’s piping class. She jumped at the chance to learn from the best of the best, she said. She has an academy at her shop and asked Bronwyn if she’d teach a class. She said yes and the two of them spent a lot of time working on what classes she would teach, but then Covid hit and they had to cancel. Years later, Scott Calvert contacted Amie because someone had thrown her hat in the ring to become an RBA board member.
It turns out it was Bronwyn who nominated Amie. The first RBA board meeting she attended, Bronwyn introduced her to John Lupo and she said, “That’s the guy who did ‘how to organize your bakery’ from Grandma’s Bakery! It was the most fabulous presentation that I never forgot. I STILL refer to the handout. He was hilarious and his information was so great. He reached out recently to congratulate me on my new position and I was able to tell him that story about how much his class from all those years ago meant to me.”
Why she recommends joining RBA asap
Amie believes the amount of knowledge within the RBA is astounding.
“$200 for membership dues when I was first starting out was a lot for me. I just didn’t put two and two together about what the benefits would be. Now I realize that was the dumbest decision ever (to delay). Now I tell potential members that joining RBA was the single best decision I made as a bakery owner. It’s a no brainer. I don’t know how or why I didn’t put that together initially to become a member right away even when budget was tight. It means you don’t have to reinvent the wheel because these people (fellow members) have all been through it.”
I couldn’t believe the amount of knowledge among members. As soon as I joined RBA, I’d pick up tips here or there or members would share resources and vendor contacts. It’s all so valuable.”
Goals for RBA
Amie points out that the RBA Connect forum is a wealth of information already, but they hope to add more live and interactive components. For example, RBA Roundtables (expanded so B2B conversations can happen even more).
She also aims to elevate the RBA brand. That’s her background, actually: marketing and branding and working in creative services (before opening Amie Bakery).
“The RBA brand can be elevated and we need to capitalize on what we do; all the education we already provide is invaluable and we need to promote that more.”
Case studies by members for members will reinforce how RBA is helping people already and can help other business owners who join.
“If you don’t watch webinars or go on bakery tours, etc., you won’t get as much out of your membership. But the direction I’d like us to head is in more active engagement–pulling people in more so they feel actively engaged with what we have to offer.”
Amie also believes RBA needs to increase engagement and revenue in order to do even more offerings, like putting on shows. She says one thing feeds the other.
Amie’s “Ideas Guy” nickname
Amie’s nickname at her bakery is “Ideas Guy.” She says she has ideas at all hours of the day and night and that includes ideas for RBA. She believes it’s helpful to put the whole dream out there and then see what sticks.
“We’re so lucky to have Marissa as our executive director.”
Amie and Marissa have a weekly call and have started a running list to keep their momentum.
“I am super curious. Even if it’s social media, or attending shows, or reading publications, or talking to other people–I get so inspired. I’ll try anything once. A lot of ideas that I thought would be great turn out not to work. Or sometimes even as the “ideas guy,” I can see it’s not going to work even before trying it.”
“Once I’m inspired by something, I say I think it could have potential to be great. Then we pick it apart, and sometimes try it. But either way, you have to think it through to the last step to know if it’ll work.”
For RBA, Amie has a lot of ideas–many of which are from her previous corporate career and also from building Amie Bakery from scratch.
“I’m very good at bringing vision to reality, like with the idea for Amie Bakery. “Concept to production” was key in my previous career in documentation, a client would come to me with a concept of what they wanted and then I could bring it to that tangible, final piece. I’ve always been very visual like that.”
Baking from scratch
Amie’s pastry instructor told her she wouldn’t make money when she first had the idea for Amie Bakery. She refused to believe it, though. It ended up resonating with the Cape Cod community where clientele were willing to pay a higher price for made-from-scratch items.
Amie says it has grown more difficult as costs have gone up and profit decreases.
“I’ll always stick to this core mission, though. I understand some bakeries do that, and I have no problem with it–it’s just not how I wanted to do things on a smaller scale.”
Amie already had a home in Osterville, Mass., so that’s how she chose her location when deciding it was time to leave her corporate career to run a bakery. Finding a building ended up being a bigger challenge, though. When a location became available in the perfect spot, she jumped at the chance.
The miracle of baking
Amie said she’d go to a party, and always be focused on what the food and beverages were, not networking and small talk. Her dad used to say that her eyes were bigger than her stomach. She looks back now and attributes those as signs pointing toward her destiny of running a bakery.
Even when she doesn’t feel like baking, she shared that once she starts, it always feels so therapeutic.
“It’s a miracle. The eggs triple in volume. I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s miraculous! Eggs are miracle workers. I cannot believe you can make a cake. The awe never goes away.”
What the next couple of years will look like for Amie
Amie hired a new executive pastry chef in March and is planning on having her run the bakery so Amie can focus on RBA and writing a book and focusing on the brand/business side of Amie Bakery.
Thoughts on the current RBA Board
Amie believes the RBA Board is a great team, and she’s in awe of the expertise assembled. The vice president gives her a lot of hope for what is to come for RBA.
“Anthony (DiNardo) is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He has a really strong business sense of where RBA should be going. He’s a great asset for helping the business move forward.”
“Looking around the room at our retreat in Ann Arbor–it’s mind-bending to me the kind of expertise we have.”