Melissa Ben-Ishay: Baked by Melissa CEO and Founder

Hi everyone, I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief contact officer of Who What Where, and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers. We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life. Today, I'm joined by the founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, Melissa Bameshaj. Back in 2008, Melissa began selling cupcakes out of her New York City apartment, hand-delivering them all over town. Today, she's grown that business into a certified sensation with 14 retail locations in New York, one in Boston, and a massive e-com business shipping treats nationwide for every gifting occasion. Baked by Melissa is known for bite-sized cupcakes in specialty flavors like Thai Dye and Cookie Doh, and has sold over $250 million to date. As of late, Melissa has also become known for another reason when her salad content on TikTok went completely viral. Whether she's slinging cupcakes or Green Goddess salads, Melissa is known to share some seriously tasty treats with the world. But, back before she was leading a multi-million dollar company, and even before she was baking out of her New York City apartment professionally, she was actually working in advertising as an assistant media buyer. When she was unexpectedly fired from that job, she was devastated. But, it also set her on what one can only describe as quite the fortuitous path. Now, on Second Life, it's Melissa Beneschei. All right, Melissa, you ready? I'm ready. Okay, so on this podcast, we like to start at the beginning. What did you study in school, and much more importantly, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? I went to Syracuse University, I studied child and family studies. I didn't know what I wanted to study, and that was the school I got into at Syracuse. I knew I wanted to go to Syracuse because that's where my brother went. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, except for happy. Aww. So, child and family studies, yet your first job out of school was at an ad agency. I could make a joke about how that was probably actually, at least the child piece of it, directly applicable in some ways. But I'm curious about how you made that leap, and specifically what drew you to the wonderful world of advertising. When I was in college, I enjoyed myself. I learned quickly that my GPA might not matter when I graduated. Like, if I get to put my GPA on a resume, I don't know. Last marking period, freshman year, I got all A's and 2B pluses, and I tried really hard and it was great. And then I guess I had a realization at one point, like, screw this. So for three and a half years, I had fun. I went to the classes I had to go to to get the grades, but there were many that you didn't have to go to. And I just relaxed and had fun and didn't really have a care in the world, quite honestly. And it came time to figuring out what I wanted to do after college. I wanted to live in Manhattan. I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. Manhattan is my city. And I remember looking at people walking up and down the streets when we would go in for dinner with my parents. I wanted to be able to walk in the street of Manhattan and know where I was going. And so I needed a job to be able to achieve that goal. Advertising definitely sounded cool. And I thought by getting as many interviews as I could, wherever I could, it would be a good opportunity to walk into an office and see what it's like. And so I did that. And I accepted one of the first job offers I got. And I was a sales assistant for a media company, which was like the worst job ever. It was like the office, like boring. It was like data entry. The sales guys would come back from lunch drunk. So seven months into that job, I actually wound up getting the job in advertising that I was then fired from. So talk to me a little bit about that world because the advertising world, there's so many different aspects to the industry. There's so many different responsibilities. What side were you working on? So I had a very close friend from college who was working at Deutsch advertising as a media planner, an assistant media planner. And we were friends. We hung out and she said, oh, Deutsch is awesome. The environment is cool. The people are cool. When there's a job opening, I'll let you know. And then there was one. And it was for an assistant media planner on the Tylenol account. And I got the job and I started working there. And the environment was cool. The people were cool, but the work itself was not for me. I wasn't passionate about it. And quite honestly, I didn't know how to be good at it. You have to want to succeed. You have to ask questions. You have to be passionate. And at the time, all I wanted was to find the job I was passionate about that I felt fulfilled from at the end of each day. That job wasn't it. And like a year and a half after I started, I was fired. So I really believe that some of the skills that you learn, whether it's through internships or some of those entry level jobs, that those skills you don't know that they're important at the time, or at least I didn't know that they were important at the time. But they're actually like quite foundational and helpful. And you can continue to use them in a variety of ways as your career progresses. I'm wondering if you were learning anything in those formative years, whether it was something good or what not to do that you have taken with you as you've moved ahead in life? I learned a lot in those first years of my career. And it took time to really get the learnings because I just remember going to my supervisor, she wanted me to like draft an email to the client and then she would correct it. And I remember saying like, why don't you just send the email yourself? Like it probably came across as very rude. But I didn't mean it that way. And so what I learned from that experience is what not to do. Like I felt it was unjust that I was fired at the time of being fired. But in hindsight, it wasn't. And I think I didn't want to be successful there. They had met with me a couple of times and told me that I wasn't doing my job, but it didn't click. It didn't register. I didn't understand what I needed to do. I was never meant to be successful in that role. And that experience was one of the greatest learnings of my entire career. And I think back to those days all the time. So tell me about that moment though, when you were let go, were you surprised? Did it have a big impact on you? Did you feel like whatever about it, where was your head? So I was surprised. It was a Wednesday at like 10 a.m. And at Deutsch, they have like a loudspeaker and they call me to HR over the loudspeaker. And I thought I was getting a promotion and they fired me. And the reason that they cited for firing me was just bullshit. Like it wasn't true. It was like Melissa leaves early and I don't. I never left before 5 p.m. So I felt that it was very unjust. And the truth is they needed a reason to fire me. And that's okay. I went to my brother's office crying. He had just moved into his very first office in Manhattan and he's an entrepreneur. And he told me, don't worry, it's the best thing that ever happened to you, the great big brother that he is. He didn't even like hesitate. And he said, I got to go home, bake your cupcakes. We'll start a business together. And that wasn't crazy because at the time I was already known for baking my Thai Diet Cupcakes. And our goal in life was like start a business together. That's what we did. The family vacations, we would like hang out on the beach, try to think of new business ideas. I mean, so I went home and baked four batches of cupcakes. What flavor were you thinking about it in terms of business? And I'm curious about just sort of where your head was about, okay, like I'm going to go and make a move and this is going to be my next thing. Or was it just like I'm self soothing and I'm going to bake a bunch of these cupcakes just to give myself something to do? What was the context of all of that? So I'm one of those people who is always doing something. If I'm sitting, I'm just like, hmm, like what am I supposed to do? So it was great. Like I left the office. I'm in Monterey Hill right near my apartment, like trolling the aisles. Brian told me to make, you can't start a business with one flavor because I was making my tie to cupcakes. He said, come up with other flavors. So I was like, ooh, I love candy. And at the time, crumbs was like all the rage. Oh yeah. And they had the big muffin sized cupcakes. And for some reason, like I always thought they were stuffed, but they were never stuffed. There was never something inside. I was like, I'm going to make stuffed cupcakes. And I decided on s'mores, yum, peanut butter cup, yum, cookie dough, and then of course tie-dye. And so I went home and I baked these cupcakes, like big normal size, I guess, cupcakes. I did it first and foremost to keep my mind occupied because I am accountable for my own happiness. And I think it would be much easier to go home and just feel sorry for myself. But by keeping myself busy and doing something that makes me happy, it was the first step in getting over that really shitty thing that happened, being fired. And yes, Brian said, let's start a business. He's my big brother, my best friend of what we always wanted to do. Yes, let's do it. Did I think it was going to happen? No, freaking I did it. But anyway, my best friend's little sister was staying with me for the summer and interning at Alice in Broad PR. And Alice in was like a celebrity to me at the time. I think she was on like an episode of The City. Yeah. You know, a woman who started her own business. So Carly was staying with me. And I said, Carly, bring these cupcakes into work with you. And you'll make friends because all girls love cupcakes. And like in the back of my mind, my goal was for Alice and to see the cupcakes. She brought the cupcakes into work the next morning. She's like texting me off the hook. Oh my God, everyone's obsessed with your cupcakes. And she's like, I'm not going to be in a cupcake. And she's like, I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. I'm not going to be in a cupcake. 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