Certify CNY

THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES

The past year and a half have given us a heavy dose of grief and pain, both collectively and personally. But from that grief, joy and beauty have emerged in a multitude of ways. Tykemia “Ty” Carman knows something about that. Her business, Crave Dessert Studio, was born in 2015 from the grief and pain she felt after losing her mother.

In her own words, “It was a wakeup call for me. Life is short and I needed to do something, so I started dipping strawberries. I didn’t set out to create a business. It was totally unintentional. I was getting miserable and grieving, and I threw myself into it.”

Tykemia is completely self-taught in baking, the kind of person who will work at something until she’s mastered it. “I will study something until I’m the best at it. I watched YouTube videos over and over again.” Eventually, Tykemia realized that what started out as grief could actually be a full-time business. She built her business up enough that she was even able to leave her full-time job in marketing. “I’m going to make it by any means necessary. For me, it’s about the hustle, about taking $20 and flipping it into $200. I quit my job and my hustle was so good that I made it work.”