Meet Brittnie Johnson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittnie Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brittnie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My Resilience comes from beating the odds and overcoming every obstacle that has been thrown at me, which was set to in a sense end anything that God has had for me. I have experienced multiple challenges in my life, especially in my most recent years after having my son in March of 2018. I spent more than half of my pregnancy in the ICU as my son was considered an IUD Baby, (a child housed in the womb with an IUD). After he was born, I was one of the very many unfortunate mothers diagnosed with a very severe case of postpartum depression and after becoming a single mother on his very first birthday, I shortly after, about a year later was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer.

During my first of many surgeries my left vocal cord was sliced, and I was left with vocal cord paralysis. Shortly following that diagnosis, I had a life-threatening bacterial infection and pneumonia (due to aspiration) and of course after 2 more surgeries, my cancer returned in 2023. I underwent radiation in November of 2023 and have since encountered many more unfortunate events, but I say all that to say, I have never given up knowing that God has never failed me and that I am bigger and stronger than anything that has come my way.

My son is now 7 and a strong beautiful autistic boy, teaching me so many new things daily. I am the owner of Party at Britt’s LLC and Bee’s Sweets Pittsburgh which both showcase my cooking and baking abilities. I spend most if not all of my days creating incredible specialty treats and baked goods which I feel has truly given me purpose to be able to serve others and do for those outside of myself.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Hi, I am Brittnie Johnson. I am the owner and Creator of specialty cakes and treats with Bee’s Sweets Pittsburgh. I am of course located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have been invested in baking for 14 years now. I am a self-taught baker, I am now 37 years old, and I started at age 23. I’ve experienced many ups and downs and moments of just plain defeat, but I’ve never given up. I started solely with cupcakes and had a customer take a chance on me with a cake, and while I’m sure it may have been the worst cake I’ve ever made at the time; I am now creating the best cakes and treats that I’ve ever created throughout my career. The faith that my clients have in me and my artistic abilities has truly given me a whole new lease on my faith in myself.

I create birthday, wedding and celebration cakes but also become more creative with items such as cupcake bouquets, The greatest thing about being a custom treat creator is that I have the ability to create whatever it is that comes to the client’s mind. I am not your grocery store baker, if you want shoes, a bouquet of flowers, a cartoon character, I am your girl!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three qualities that were most impactful to me were the ability to fail, my willingness to learn, and my willingness to try again! Without fail, I would not have gained the needed experience to get better and try other methods to truly better my craft, customer service skills and my overall business. I am self-taught, so it took a lot of patience, lost money, failed product and faith in myself to get to where I am today.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

The number one obstacle that I’m facing is the cost of product rising at an alarming rate. It not only frustrates me as the owner when prices have to stay competitive and fair, but it’s also frustrating for the customer who also has to deal with that change. Having a specialty product is not always a must, yet it’s a highly wanted thing. So, it leaves the door open for a lot of things to become problematic due to cost. In my best efforts to overcome this, I remain focused on getting the best product at the best price for what it’s worth. I also give the customers additional options to feed their Specialty needs to make it more cost efficient for them. (I.E. Instead of a cake, why not do a cupcake option that offers 12 cupcakes decorated in the same colors/themes/etc.)

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All the images and items were created by myself

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