Daily Inspiration: Meet Destiny Hernandez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Destiny Hernandez.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
For as long as I can remember, I was always in the kitchen cooking with my dad or baking with my mom. We would watch countless episodes of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” Good Eats,” Masterchef,” Rachael Ray, Emeril Lagasse, and much more. By the time, I went to high school, I decided to take the culinary art classes they had to offer and expand my horizons. I fell deeper in love with all things food and was encouraged by my instructor, Chef Rodriguez, to push myself because the sky was the limit.

From then on, I really dove into the world of baking, cooking, and creating all kinds of foods. Baking really became something I genuinely enjoyed and felt passionate about, so I started having little “bake sales” and catering to family parties. Fast forward a few years down the line I had my one and only son, Mason. Because my fiance was stationed 4 hours away and I decided to remain in our hometown, balancing work/mom life became a huge task. Luckily, business was really starting to kick off and it quickly became my primary source of income, I quit my 9-5 job and focused on my passion.

I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been in the position really understands what owning/operating a business entails, especially first starting out. Investing is the primary (and in my opinion most crucial, yet difficult) aspect of starting out, and continues as you expand your craft/sales/business. Everything from customer service, advertising, marketing, finances, scheduling, creating, designing, and spending hours in the kitchen creating the best recipes I possibly could be all me. Everything is definitely trial and error. There were plenty of times where I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and I wanted to give up.

I’ve learned plenty of lessons along the way and figured out what works best for me. After a good 3-4 years of hard work and determination, more than 2M people have seen my work, I have over 30k supporters, and I have successfully fulfilled more than 8,000 orders. I wouldn’t be where I am now without the support of my fiancé, community, friends, and family.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It most definitely has been a roller coaster of ups and downs over the past 4 years. Starting out is of course slow, repetitious, competitive, and financially draining. After gaining clientele, marketing, and perfecting my craft, I’ve found things to go much more smoothly in recent times.

Very early on in my career, I found it hard to say “no,” I would often bite off more than I could chew and find myself overworked with a massive workload, underpaid, and overbooked. With those stressful situations, deadlines, and sometimes failures, those lessons brought tremendous growth. I quickly learned to manage my time accordingly and appreciate my work, in the sense of profitability.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Destiny’s Delicacies specializes in custom cakes, cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries, and all types of sweets and treats for any occasion. My work is something that brings me immense joy, pride, and a sense of accomplishment. I LOVE what I do and even more so, I love the satisfaction I receive from my customers.

I truly believe I bring their “dream cakes” to life. I work one on with each of my clients to ensure I interpret their vision in the most accurate way I can. Everything down to flavors, colors, fillings, designs, toppings, etc. is discussed directly with the customer. I believe Destiny’s Delicacies stands out because there’s technically nothing I can’t do, as cocky as that sounds, the customer asks and they receive!

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Being in the food industry, we already have high expectations when it comes to safety, health, sanitation, restrictions, etc. We have certificates we must maintain to keep us up to date with all policies, food safety, temperatures, information on storing food, workplace cleanliness, and much more. COVID-19 has definitely put an emphasis on these high standards already implemented upon us, bakers/chefs.

Many small businesses suffered from the pandemic, financially, physically, emotionally, mentally, we were all affected in a multitude of ways. The most important lesson I took from these hindered times was, the community is everything, the support you receive from genuine people all around you is really what makes this world go round.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/destinys_delicacies_/?hl=en
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/DestinysDelicacies/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/desdelicacies