Bryan Ford
New Orleans, LA USA
"Whatever talent you have, cultivate it and let people know you have it. If you don’t let people know you have it, they might not find you."
Career Roadmap
Bryan's work combines: Food, Entrepreneurship, and Being Creative
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If you have a craft or a talent that you're passionate about, work hard at it, cultivate it, and then make sure people know you have it. Create professional social media accounts or a personal website so people can find you and see your work. Opportunity won't arise if people can't find you. You don't need any kind of degree to become a successful baker but I do believe that accounting knowledge is essential for becoming an entrepreneur in any field.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Accounting
Loyola University New Orleans
Certification
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Growing up, I was a very talented soccer player and wanted to someday play professionally, but my immigrant parents couldn’t afford to send me to the critical camps and programs.
2.
I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I followed in my mom’s footsteps to become an accountant.
3.
After an accounting internship, I got a job with KPMG—one of the Big Four accounting organizations—but I was miserable.
4.
I wanted to open a bakery but needed to save the necessary startup capital, so I went back to accounting—despite working hard at it, I failed the CPA exam 13 times in a row.
5.
I was offered an opportunity to transition into the restaurant industry, which helped improve my outlook—I kept baking, too, but still needed money before I could revisit the idea of opening a bakery.
6.
When I finally passed the CPA exam, I still wasn’t happy and felt as if something was missing, so I quit accounting less than a year later.
7.
I made an Instagram account to showcase my bread—at first I was just playing around with it, but then I tailored the account to be more professional in hopes that opportunity would arise.
8.
My Instagram video of sourdough pan de coco launched my career as a baker—I now have tens of thousands of Instagram followers, a recipe blog, and a book deal.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
You can't open your dream business without money.
How I responded:
I worked as an accountant, so I truly believed I couldn’t open a bakery without any startup capital. I was miserable working as an accountant and trying to save capital, so I quit and started posting my baking on Instagram, which eventually led to a career.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I'm a child of immigrants who unfortunately struggled financially. I was a talented soccer player and wanted to play professionally, but my family couldn't afford to send me to the critical camps and programs to get to that level.
I was miserable at my Big Four accounting job and didn't do well on the CPA exam. Food and cooking had always been a passion in the back of my mind, so I made the switch to become a baker but it took a while to save the necessary startup capital.
I had student loan debt and also needed to save money to open up my bakery, so I forced myself to stay in a job that I wasn't happy or feeling fulfilled at.