Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Miller.
Hi Lindsay, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I came to Houston after undergrad to attend law school. I realized pretty quickly that I did not want to be a lawyer, but real estate interested me.
After law school, I begged for a commercial real estate gig from local legend Ed Wulfe and worked with the great team at Wulfe & Co. for a few years learning the trade. I moved on to working retail properties with Transwestern, had some great years, and won some awards for retail leasing.
In 2008 came the economic downturn and in November my first of three daughters (Matheson) was born. The retail Commercial market started to soften up in 2009 – 2010 when my second daughter (Berkley) was born. I endured 2010 paying for a nanny for my two little ones and earning less and less commission.
My husband and I decided it was time to escape the city and head to the burbs to get more houses for our growing family, so we moved to the Champions area.
I flirted with Commercial Real Estate every once in a while but started looking for something I could do while being more of a Mom.
My parents had started a vineyard and winery near Tyler, TX so I took a job as a wine broker for a local niche distribution company, it was fun meeting with local restaurants and pushing interesting wines. That played out for several years until the business failed.
Between 2011 and 2019 I kept an eye on the Commercial Real Estate market anticipating a return after my third daughter (Sawyer) entered elementary school. That happened in the fall of 2019 and I started reaching out to my network and building inroads for my return.
Some real opportunities were on the horizon in early 2020 and the market looked good. Then Covid came along, all of a sudden all of our kids were home and commercial real estate was dead.
I had planned to be working again and was now a full-time tutor making sure my kindergartner and her older sisters were logging into classes on time. I am a productive person, I am best when I am busy – I had to do something constructive to stay sane.
I have always had a sweet tooth, when we lived in the Heights I prided myself on knowing the best bake shops. When I was expecting my first, my sister and I spent an entire day collecting my personal favorite baked goods – Petit Fours from Moellers,, Black and Tans and Chocolate Pecan Drops from Three Brothers, Chocolate Chip from Epicure and Tiny Boxwoods, Fluffernutters from Revival Market, White Alfajors from Rustika, and Macarons by Petite Sweets.
I strived to make great baked treats for my kids based on my many favorites. When the world stopped in 2020, to stay sane – I decided that I was going to learn to master the fickle and failure-prone Macaron.
My husband tells people that it was a strange time. “Lindsay is a determined person. When she decided to master Macarons, we sort of lost her for about 6 weeks. Our house hummed with the sound of he Kitchen Aid mixer from morning until midnight. Every evening our trash can was filled with pastel Macaron shells she had cursed during the course of the day.”
After a month and a half of jumping back and forth between the French, Swiss and Italian methods – I had a process. I started handing them out to friends who were pleased.
One of our favorite restaurants, Bonfire in Tomball, started a farmers market during the lockdown and let me make and sell Macarons. I did this as much to try and draw people to the restaurant during those difficult times as to gauge interest in my Macarons.
We added a couple more farmers’ markets and had decent success, but we loved the markets. During 2020 most vendors at Farmers Markets had been laid off, or had salaries reduced and they had pivoted, gotten creative, and kept churning. It was inspiring to see and talk to them and it kept the notion in my head that I was fortunate to pursue this and should pursue it well.
I just kept going, adding flavors, adding a website, marketing locally on Instagram and Facebook. I started having fun making pictures for social media and a few of them got reposted by national accounts. More and more people were dropping into my feed for orders. It’s been fun and I’ve grown and innovated, by stenciling Macarons with personalizations, corporate logos, now we are making Macaron cakes, which people seem to love.
All of it has been fun, one thing I didn’t anticipate was how much joy my customers’ stories would bring me.
My customers spend a lot of effort deciding on the perfect flavors, colors and personalizations they want for someone they are seeking to honor. Inevitably, directly or indirectly they are telling me why this person means so much to them. I get to help honor them and I love that. The pictures come back to me of those moments. They are heartwarming and i am truly proud of my tiny part in them.
I spent an entire evening on the phone with a Mom planning 6 months ahead for a birthday macaron cake for her child, a birthday would mark a year of her child being cancer free. This needed to be a perfect cake, but she spent as much time explaining how the year and its struggles had affected her family – they were tighter than before and would never go back.
A woman called me for an order for a 94th birthday party. – she wanted to surprise her sweet grandfather with little impressions of his past on each macaron, that he had worked for Cadillac, that he wore the cutest plaid sweaters. I got to figure out how to make plaid macarons!!! I got a sweet picture of a guy in a truly cute plaid sweater, with a wide grin holding my macarons. An absolute delight for me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The whole enterprise was borne out of struggle, my corporate career plans had been subverted again, and we were in an unprecedented time of health and economic uncertainty. My outlet was a difficult little round meringue cookie and getting it right.
There is nothing easy. – to run the tiniest of businesses you need to have some mastery of website skills, marketing, digital payments, supply chain all on top of mastery of your craft. If all of that comes together organically – you have a chance.
You are not going to make everyone happy, I’ve gained a sense along the way of which customers want me to expand upon their ideas and which want tight control. I had to learn this the hard way – there were a few customers who specifically did not appreciate my deviations and I thank them for the lesson.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am very proud of getting over ON the notoriously difficult macaron.
Perhaps the greatest compliment I have received comes from a customer of mine who travels often to France and has a penchant for macarons. She orders often and informs me when she can’t have a Tiny Temptations macaron she will settle for her Parisian substitute.
My little niche of customizable macarons with logos, sentiments, and names really generates some buzz.
Due to my lack of formal culinary training, I didn’t have good traditional sense of the macaron. This led to me experimenting with what some consider irreverent flavors, such as Dill Pickle, Flaming Hot Cheetos, Marzipan, Funnel Cake, Maple Bacon, Powdered Donut, etc.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Currently, I am a cottage baker, I got my start by trying. There is a whole world of women who are displaying their craft online – as I started I reached out to them about online presence, macaron difficulties, suppliers, techniques, etc.. to a person they were always eager to correspond and support, answer questions and encourage. I contacted bakers with an online presence from South Korea, upstate New York, Denmark, and Italy. I am now one of those people others reach out to. You just have to be bold and ask.
Pricing:
- $25-$40 per dozen Macarons depending on customization
- $95-$175 per macaron cake depending on style.
- Macaron towers start at $175 with a deposit for the tower base
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tinytemptationsmacarons.com/
- Instagram: @tinytemptations_macarons
- Facebook: macarons_tinytemptations
Image Credits:
Headshots by @SoniaAlexandriaPhotography
