NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Melissa Ben-Ishay

Episode Date: January 14, 2024

Melissa Ben-Ishay built her own company, Baked By Melissa, after being fired from her advertising job. What started from humble beginnings has now grown to stores in three states plus nationwide delivery. In the time since, she’s expanded her reach on social media by making irresistible salads, which inspired her new book, “Come Hungry.” 

Which song? Eye of the Tiger? Yeah. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And I was like walking. I could like put myself back there. Melissa Beneshai. How are you? Great. What's our drink here? Cold brew.

Cold brew. Excellent. You've got stores all over New York, New Jersey, Boston. People order your cupcakes from everywhere in the nation. Melissa, how did you become the queen of a cupcake empire? Baked by Melissa. Well, that's a loaded question. I love cupcakes and I love to bake and create. It's my love language. If I loved you for a two-year period of time or longer, I would bake for you.

When did you start baking? Oh, I started baking as a little kid. I had to pull a chair up to the kitchen counter to see over it. With your mom? Yeah, both of my parents. So you go off to Syracuse University. You follow your brother, right? Yes.

I followed my brother, like, everywhere. Everywhere. He's a few years older? He's three and a half years older than me, yes. And we founded Baked by Melissa together. How does that happen? Because I've heard the story. You tell the story a lot.

But I'm wondering, like, did you guys, when you were kids, did you think maybe one day we'll start a business? Yes. So my, I come from an entrepreneurial family and then I was actually working in advertising when I was 24 years old, I was fired because I wasn't good at my job. And wait a minute. Cause you weren't good at your job. Oh yeah. I wasn't passionate about the work. I didn't care. You didn't care. You weren't into advertising. I was not, no. So you get fired.

You call your brother. Yes. I went back to my cubicle to pack up my personal belongings. I picked up the phone. I called my brother. What does he say? He said, are you crying at this point? I was, yes.

I was very upset. And I called him. He said, what's up? I said, I got fired. And without hesitation, he said, don't worry. It's the best thing that ever happened to you. And I called him. He said, what's up? I said, I got fired. And without hesitation, he said, don't worry. It's the best thing that ever happened to you. Come to my office. So I took a taxi and we smoked a joint.

And then, you know, he said, go home, bake your cupcakes. We'll start a business together. Literally go home, bake your cupcakes and we'll start a business. Which isn't strange. That's like how, you know. It's how he thought. Yeah. He said, you know, think of other flavors.

At the time I was very well known for baking my tie dye cupcakes. Even with that. For friends though, right? Yeah, for friends. And I never thought it could be a business. But I went, I stopped at the supermarket on the way home from his office and I came up with four flavors and I baked them. You got a meeting with a caterer the next day. Yes. You didn't really have like a business yet. That's right. So he wound up calling me that same day after I was fired. I pick up like,

hello Melissa, this is Ben Zion, Allison's caterer, thick Israeli accent. I'd like to bring you to my house for a tasting. I'm like, oh my God. Okay. That's when we came up with the name and a logo. I wanted the company to be named Baked, a natural extension of myself at the time. My brother insisted it have a personal tie. So we settled on Baked by Melissa and his business partner created the logo in like five minutes. And it's the logo that we have right next to us now. The same logo. Yes, and then I went home, I printed out the logo, I got white pastry boxes from the Clover Deli, which was the deli across the street from my apartment.

Blew the logo on and went to the tasting. Like a fake box, well not fake, but a box with like this newly made logo. You're just kind of faking it. Yeah, fake it till you make it. That's what they say. It worked. You have to embody of baking it. Yeah, bake it till you make it. That's what they say. It worked. You have to embody the person you want to bake.

We're having coffee. Are we going to be able to have a cupcake at some point? Of course. Okay. Not yet. We'll wait. It is like nine in the morning. But I'm all about cupcakes. There are some flavors that are more breakfast-friendly.

True, right? Pancake, or chocolate pancakes. Chocolate pancakes, or jelly, you know. You start out delivering the cupcakes yourself. Oh, yeah. On the subway.

Yes. Everything. I baked every cupcake we sold. I was doing it from my apartment. I was cold-calling caterers, following a script that my brother helped me write. Like, hi, this is Melissa from Baked by Melissa. I'd like to bring you a free tasting of my cupcakes. And I just felt like I was lying to people, but I was, as my brother constantly reminded me, you are Melissa, Baked by Melissa. And

now I know who I am and I've earned my confidence, I think, through experiences, but we've been in business for over 15 years. Did you plan to be CEO? No, I did not plan to be CEO. I never wanted to be CEO. It kind of happened by accident. Shame on me though, in hindsight, for not wanting to be CEO of my own company. That bears my name.

Who better than me? Something happened where our CEO at the time couldn't be our CEO anymore. Yeah, he got in big trouble. And we had an emergency board call at 6 p.m. that evening. I took it from home. And without anything, I get on the phone. They're like, so Melissa will be CEO. You know the business inside out at this point. Yes, I do. I do. I absolutely do.

I think I learned at one point that the only thing I can really control is the way I respond to the things that happen that are outside of my control. And that was like a turning point in my life. I remember that next morning walking to the subway, listening to Rocky, like to pump myself up. Like I knew, I knew it was going to be incredible because when you feel so far outside of your comfort zone that's when the growth happens I mean and and I've been lucky to be pushed outside of my comfort zone again and again and again in many different ways which song I have the tiger yeah I could like put myself back there.

And we were up all night like crafting what we were going to say to the team because it was very excited. Such a good visual. I can see you. You're like, I got this. But like deep breaths. I've heard you say that as a leader, you kind of have to surround yourself with the people that know the things that you don't know. Yes. So I don't know anything. I don't believe that.

But that's really how I approach it. I don't know anything. And the truth is, there are things that are black and white, and then there are things that are gut. Because I became CEO on December 5th, 2019, right before my holiday season, our best time of year into Valentine's day. And then the world stops. And then we were hit with a global pandemic. You closed all your stores. Yes. It was crazy actually, because nobody, nobody was telling you what to do.

Not our president, not the governor, like nobody. So we closed all of our stores and we changed our marketing messaging. And I'm really big on my customer. She is predominantly female. Her name is Jordan. She's just like me. I like, we named our customer. Yeah, we have a couple of different customers, but Jordan is our really big customer.

And we have to be connecting with her in everything that we do. And our marketing messaging at the time, what it was like end of February, March, it was like, you know, go party with Make by Melissa. So I like got my team in the conference room and I was like, this doesn't work. Like nobody is going out and celebrating. Nobody's partying. So we changed our marketing messaging to like, if you can't celebrate in person, send cupcakes. And they did.

You have two kids now two kids seven and five two girls seven and five how has how has that changed things I mean you know

the moms out there are going to want to know how has motherhood changed this you oh my god in all the ways

motherhood gave me confidence as I said i obviously don't prioritize big by melissa the way that i once did i mean it's a top priority but my kids take top top yeah they are my every i would do anything for them and i'm really i'm very lucky to have a partner in my husband he's very hands-on he also works for big fun yeah yeah the director of technology take a sip of coffee I don't want to keep you from your coffee it's good it is good you're all over social media yes and so good people think of you as cupcakes but you do have a salad side. I do. With the social media and the salads

or the recipes, when I saw the engagement and the millions and millions... Like on TikTok. Yeah. I knew exactly what the opportunity was and I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass me by. I had enough confidence

to just enjoy the ride and trust the process. And if the goal is right, it will all fall into place. Is there a salads by Melissa coming? There is. I knew it. It's called come hungry because that's what everyone all like my mom would always say, no, don't bring anything. Just come hungry. This is a new book. It's a book. It's a book. It's a cookbook. All salads? It's mostly salads. There's a dessert section. It's how I eat, honestly. My food philosophy is that if you get your nourishment from mealtime, you can indulge in dessert. Can we do a lightning round? I'd love lightning. Okay. Breakfast or dinner? Dinner. Favorite flavor of cupcake?

Cookie dough. Last one. What inspires you? Everything. My team and my family inspire me to be a better person. Like, we live in an age where, like, you have to consciously turn it off to, like, stop being inspired. On that note. Cheers.

Cheers. Thank you so much thank you can i have a cupcake you can have as many as you want yay cupcakes thank you thank you oh my gosh these look awesome cheers cupcake cheers oh my god that's good