S01: Immigration, Entrepreneurship, and Cake with Jenny Hernstad

Right After Breakfast

Jenny Hernstad is the founder of LA SmashCakes. Which is an awesome alternative to an ordinary birthday cake. They are a chocolate dome filled with mixed gummies, then decorated with chocolates and candy. Jenny has been a chocoholic all her life, so it just made sense to start creating exciting and fun chocolate SmashCakes. Jenny creates any SmashCake from soda bottles, donuts, cupcakes to themed birthday SmashCakes. Each SmashCake is unique and hand made, allowing her to be incredibly creative and specific with the design

I’m so pleased that I was able to talk to Jenny, not only about how passionate she is about her SmashCakes, but also about growing up in South Africa and coming to the United States. Jenny was raised in South Africa and her father had a textile business there. But becoming an entrepreneur and creating new work that makes you happy is very difficult.

Jenny found that her best chance at happiness was to move to the U.S. and try to create a life and a business that gave her fulfillment. It was a reminder to me that so many people are just like Jenny, and continue to move to different countries and leave their families behind to try and pursue their dreams.

Find Jenny Online:

Website - https://www.lasmashcakes.com/

Instagram - @lasmashcakes

Some Questions I Ask:

• What are the differences between trying to start a business in the U.S. and South Africa? (09:02)
• Where did you get the idea to start making SmashCakes? (11:06)
• What is your involvement in the business outside of making the cakes? (13:33)
• How have you tried to reach out into the community so people know your business exists? (14:03)
• Why be an entrepreneur and not just work for somebody else? (16:53)

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

• How to balance all aspects of a business when you do everything
• The hardest part of Jenny's business
• Two skills that have been transferrable to any job
• Why entrepreneurship can be hard but not always stressful
• Where to get inspiration

Music Composed by John Zarcone

Sudio Sweden link to Regent Black headphones: https://goo.gl/5UGe1d