Cydni N. Mitchell (aka Cyd) is a Bakery Consultant and the Sweet Business Coach behind Sweet Fest®.
Based in Atlanta, GA, Sweet Fest® is an online hub that supports the business needs of the Sweet Community in the areas of professional development, marketing, branding and web design.
By trade, Cyd is an Accountant & Financial Analyst with a master’s degree from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Operating under the umbrella of The Invested Foodie, LLC, Cyd has established numerous brands to help meet specific business needs in the Sweet Community including: The Sugar Coin Academy, an online business academy for business owners in the baking and sweets industry; The Ultimate Sugar Show, Georgia’s largest baking and sweets expo held in Atlanta, GA; and Sugarwebspace, website templates for the Sweet Community.
Cyd and The Invested Foodie suite of brands have also been featured on Food Network, the Cooking Channel, Holiday Kids Baking Battle, the Pastry Arts Podcast, The Round Table Talk Show, The Forrager Podcast, Gift Biz Unwrapped Podcast, 11 Alive, Culinary Local, Hits 92.3 Online Radio, Fox 4 Southwest Florida, Avalon's Cakes School, and more. Publications such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), Marietta Daily Journal, Simply Amazing Living, My Vinings/Smyrna have also featured Cyd and The Invested Foodie brands.
In addition to being a freelance content creator and blogger, Cyd is also the business blogger for the Retail Bakers of America and a Columnist for American Cake Decorating Magazine. In her free time she also enjoys watching Netflix and coming up with easy dessert recipes to share online.
Get to know Cyd of Sweet Fest
The History of Sweet Fest
In 2014, Sweet Fest® began as a global, sweets only directory focused on connecting Sweet Lovers with Bakers and Sweet Makers in their community. Our original mission statement read:
"Sweet Fest® is a meeting place for Sweet Lovers and Sweet Makers™. We understand that there are millions of Sweet Lovers searching near and far for their next favorite sweet treat, and meanwhile there are tons of Sweet Makers™ in the kitchen whipping up sweet deliciousness to share with those Sweet Lovers. The Sweet Community consists of both Sweet Lovers and Sweet Makers™ who share a love of all treats sweet.
Sweet Fest® was created to bring the Sweet Community together by: (1) providing information on local Sweet Spots in your area, (2) helping to facilitate promotional deals which are mutually beneficial to both Sweet Lovers and Sweet Makers™, and (3) by coordinating fun and amazingly tasty events in which Sweet Lovers and Sweet Makers™ have an opportunity to interact."
Images from the Original Sweet Fest Directory from 2014-2016
However, by 2015 it had become obvious to our founder, Cydni Mitchell (aka Cyd), that Sweet Makers didn't only need a way to connect with potential customers in their community, but they also needed help with understanding the fundamentals of managing and growing a business. That is when the mission of the company shifted gears to focus more on supporting the business side of the Sweets Business.
It was a tough decision for Cyd to shutdown the Sweet Fest® directory. However, she felt that she could be of better use to the Sweet Community by helping train Bakers and Sweet Makers in business matters such as sweet business pricing, marketing and branding. You see...she figured that providing a platform for potential customers to find Bakers and Sweet Makers in their community was great, but it wouldn't make a difference if that Sweet Spot couldn't keep the lights on because the owner didn't know how to price their menu to cover their costs and include a profit.
Which brings us to today, Sweet Fest® is still the same company that focuses on helping Sweet Business owners. However, the method has changed just a little since our first post on Instagram back in 2014.
The ultimate goal of Sweet Fest® is to equip Bakers, Sweet Makers and Food Entrepreneurs with the resources to start and grow profitable food businesses. We strive to meet this goal by (1) providing access to free or affordable business trainings that support business education and (2) connecting our Foodie Community with brands who provide quality tools that support your business growth.
This resources, articles and links provided on this website to help the Sweets and Foodie Community understand the business side of the sweets and culinary business.
Learn how to run a profitable foodie business!
The baking & sweets industry is full of invaluable resources to learn how to bake, decorate and do amazing things with sugar. However, there are very few talking about how to run the business side of a cake and sweet treat business. That's where the Sugar Coin Academy comes in. Join the Sugar Coin Academy and start learning how to think like a true sweet boss!