I Bet You're Wondering How I Got Here...

I'm a firm believer that everything happens the way it's supposed to, so being the CEO of Brooklyn Trap Bakery had to be part of God's plan from the beginning. I'll spare you with the details of my childhood, frankly I don't remember much of it, but somewhere in my late 20's life felt like it was unraveling.

With a shiny new title in a newly renovated jewelry store, I was making the most money in my life and paradoxically miserable. If the morning gauntlet of commuting from Brooklyn to Jamaica Queens wasn't draining enough, pressure from corporate to achieve sales goals added levels of stress no one should truly have to endure. That's the nature of the beast I suppose; "how high is high?". Success and Greed always seemed like two wings on the same bird to me and I wanted off that flight.

On April 1st, 2016, I handed in my 2 weeks' notice. I worked for this company 9 years and 8 months, and you know what my District Manager said to me? "I saw this coming". Clearly, I was offended. I took the statement two ways. One, he felt my performance declined due to me mentally being checked out. Two, he knew I was in a no-win situation, and I'd eventually opt out. I'm inclined to believe the latter was true. So off I went.

I moved from Brooklyn to Maryland, long story, and nothing got easier. I became insurance licensed... Hated it. I got a summer job canvasing... Hated it. I was a merchandiser and order writer for Pepsi... Meh. I never realized just how much I was spending nor how quickly my money was disappearing until I found myself over drafting my checking account weekly just to put gas in my car.

One day I went to buy a chicken biscuit from Chick-fila, but my card declined. I thought to myself "Self!" and myself said "Yerr"! Let's hit the ATM and take out $100; surely the bank knows what's up and my check will be deposited on Friday. ATM was like "Nah". I'm pretty sure that was truly the lowest point of my life to date. It started raining and I was sitting in my car, broken, broke and hungry.

Tell me why I opened my door and found a folded $20, soaking right outside my car! I'm not sure if I cried or if my face was wet from the rain but that was the most important chicken biscuit I ever had in my life! Won't He do it?

I know this sounds like it has nothing to do with baking but I'm setting the stage; bear with me. These are clearly desperate times.

I lived in Maryland for about 9 months and decided to move back to New York after accepting a job with a life insurance company. By now you should know... hated it. Nothing felt like it made sense. Every move felt like a dead end. At this point I would spend most of my days sitting in my dark room drowning in silence. I don't remember the day or the timing of the next set of events but let's just say God was moving.

I got a phone call from a jewelry company about a job I "applied for". I put "applied for" in quotations because I truly don't remember submitting this application. The owner of the company told me the job was in Juneau Alaska and I thought to myself, "self" and myself said "yerr"... why would anyone apply for a job in Alaska? The entire offer included a free round-trip ticket, salary, paid living expense, a shared vehicle plus commission! Clearly this was too good to be true soooo I took the offer. LOL

Let's just skip to the part where I didn't get paid for an entire month, Alaska is quite expensive and I worked 12-hour days. You know where this is going, right? Hated it. Sidebar: I love Alaska. Absolutely beautiful state. Okay, back to the story.

One day a very eccentric lady walks in the store and inquired how it had been for me living in Juneau. My response to her was "cinnamon raisin bread is $6... how happy can anyone truly be here?".  She asked for a piece of paper and proceed jot down a recipe for homemade bread. Knowing nothing about baking I ran to the grocery store and purchased all the things on her list. The manager, Fernando, inquired if I were a baker and I proudly told him "NAH, B... I'm broke". We shared a quick laugh and to my surprise, Fernando was a Mexican baker prior to accepting the Manager role of this jewelry store. That was the start of an unexpected mentorship between him and I.

In the summer of 2017, I baked something new every week until my contract expired in October. All of my confectionaries had been jokingly posted to Facebook under the title, Alaska Trap Bakery. Interest grew and upon my return to Brooklyn that October, I opened a Cash App account under the tag $Trapcake and the rest is somewhat history. Well, sort of...