Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Gonzalez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Kimberly, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I would have to say that the skill of resilience is something that the unpredictability of life has give me the choice to develop. Growing up I desired perfection, order, answers, and had a very narrow and rigid worldview. I really struggled mentally and emotionally with the unpredictability and fleeting, delicate nature of life. As i’ve gotten older and experienced so many things beyond that rigid worldview I have been both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by life’s ups and downs, twists and turns. Most of all I have learned how so much is indeed out of our human control and knowing. How do you move forward with purpose when so many things that you experience are out of your control? I think resilience, which is defined as the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties, grew in me when I faced different challenges once I opened up to lean on strong relationships, be more open to outside perspectives, and a deep desire not let challenges keep me from contributing to the the world in the ways that I could. My love of learning has helped develop the skill of resilience because the entrepreneurial life is full of challenges and therefore the opportunity to learn something new everyday. I look up to and and try to learn from resilient people whose creativity, relationships, and values have helped them manage and navigate big life challenges. Bake Up, my bakery business started as a way for me to put my effort to contribute to the world something I felt brought joy to people, brought joy to me, I was decently skilled at, and that would offer daily opportunities to learn. It certainly has, and it certainly continues to.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My name is Kimberly Gonzalez. I’m 34 years old, and live in Acton, California with my husband Mario. I started my micro-bakery Bake Up pastries in August of 2014. The past ten years of Bake Up has been filled with lots of learning and development both personally and professionally, lots of delicious treats, lots of collaboration with local, independent small businesses from coffee shops to, to boutique pop-up events, to treat carts, to local farms, and our local farmers market. I think that what we offer is unique in the ways we source our product, developed our recipes, and how we share them locally with our coffee shop partners, seasonal pop-up events, our local farm shop, and our local certified farmers markets. Our real good treats as well call them, are intentionally made not just to be sweet for sweet sake, but made to feel worth every bite, highlighting flavor and texture by incorporating whole grain flours and farm direct produce, and by making the majority of our doughs and fillings from-scratch, in house. We are famous for our pocket pastry tarts, cookies, coffee cakes, granola, and marshmallows. Our mission is to be a bridge of connection to the quality and flavor of beloved sweet treats made with intentionally sourced ingredients. We love collaborating with other local small businesses and creating moments of joy where we can, and look forward to continuing to do that more this year.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that have been most impactful on my journey have been consistency, resilience, and learning to trust my gut. My advice to folks early on their journey is to start where you are, don’t expect to perfect, but do expect to face challenges and learn from them, try to bring creativity and curiosity into the places that feel like you are hitting a wall, ask questions and listen to people you look up to in order to learn, take advantage of the many free resources available to test out different ideas or interests you have, make taking care of yourself and your own responsibilities priority over how things appear or how you would like them to be, let what lights you up lead you, learn to trust that if something feels off it probably is, and undercommit and overdeliver.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I have lots of practice feeling overwhelmed, and have developed different coping mechanisms to help me get through those moments. Learning to take better care of myself and making that a priority helps me to have the strength to meet overwhelming moments or seasons. Regular yoga practice, even if only in small bits has been so helpful in building strength physically, mentally, and emotionally. Eating nutrient rich foods, drinking water, and taking a little break to find joy in good food and treats helps fortify me to face overwhelm. Making time to talk with close family and friends and sharing what is overwhelming you is always helpful to get out of your head. Breathing techniques, singing in the car, humming, and getting out excess stress energy with a few jumping jacks or a little dance have come in handy in particularly stressful moments.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bakeuppastries.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bakeuppastries/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakeuppastries
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BakeUpPastries
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bake-up-valencia?osq=bake+up
Image Credits
Cameron Epand
Moonstone Media
LillyRo
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