CANVAS REBEL INTERVIEW: Meet Amanda Wilbanks
Have you heard the news? Our Owner & Founder, Amanda Wilbanks, has been featured on Canvas Rebel for her inspiring conversation and story. Discover the inspiration Amanda brings through her storytelling:
Meet Amanda Wilbanks
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Wilbanks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?
I’ve always heard if you can’t sell to your friends and family and get them to love your product, then how in the world can you sell to anyone else? I believe this is true to a certain extent. I sold insurance at State Farm prior to starting Southern Baked. We were taught to call on our friends and family first to get comfortable with selling. If you have a great product and your friends and family have a need, why not approach them and sell to them? After all, your friends and family care about you. They are usually invested in your future and want you to be successful, right? It’s my personal opinion, that as long as someone has a need for your product, you are never wrong to reach out and try to satisfy their need with the benefits of your product.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Although she grew up in an Appalachian family where recipes were traded like heirloom plant cuttings, Amanda Wilbanks never envisioned herself as the CEO of one of America’s premier pie companies. Her legacy of delicious Southern baking became a career in 2011, when her mother-in-law taught her how to make an incomparable, melt-in-your-mouth, all-butter pie crust. Within a few months, baking turned from a hobby into an obsession, and Amanda’s husband – whose waistline was rapidly expanding – suggested she either stop baking or start selling her delicious creations.
As a result, Amanda launched Southern Baked Pie Company in 2012 with nothing but $400, a knockout pie crust recipe, and a dream to share the joy of fresh-baked pie with the world.
Today, that dream is a reality with four retail locations across Atlanta and thousands of pies shipped nationwide every day. Together with her dedicated team of bakers, Amanda has created a gourmet selection of sweet and savory pies, and the world has taken notice. Since the doors opened ten years ago, Southern Baked Pie has garnered features on Oprah’s Favorite Things, The Today Show, Southern Living Magazine, Food Network, and more! Named one of the best pie shops in America by Thrillist and Mashed, Southern Baked proudly ships traditional, made from scratch pies nationwide so that everyone can celebrate life’s special occasions, big and small, with pie.
Amanda approaches every role in her life with passion and joy. She is also a wife, mother to three young children, a cookbook author, and a guest lecturer.
The thing she is most proud of is the smiles she sees on her customers faces when they take a bite of her pies and share a story of what the pies remind them of. Pies are nostalgic and comforting. Pies bring people together.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
We’ve provided a consistent product every time and never compromised on quality. This truly is the key to keeping a good reputation in business. People want to eat an apple pie at Christmas and then enjoy another on the 4th of July and everything taste exactly the same. People love consistency.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I opened two stores at once in the early years. They opened within 1 month of each other in high rent areas. That was not the plan. This was a huge cash outlay in a small amount of time. At the time, we were a small fish in a huge pond. We had very little brand recognition because we were new to market. This led to some very tough months. Instead of focusing on all the money we were bleeding out, I focused solely on how to establish a presence in both communities we opened within. I started boots on the ground efforts to increase the sales. We went door to door within each community, introducing ourselves to businesses. We started building relationships the old fashion way, by standing outside the store doors and sampling/talking to everyone that walked by. We ASKED for people’s business and support – If you don’t ask, you will NEVER receive. When most people would have panicked and crumbled, I went into action and did what I had to do to bring in the business to the stores.
We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Canvas Rebel for featuring Amanda & her business. And of course, a big thank you to all of our customers for your continued support. We look forward to sharing more delicious pies & stories with you in the future!
Check out the full article here:
Source: Canvas Rebel
