Meet Jasmine Macon of Charlotte, North Carolina

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Macon.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
I became a small business owner to write my narrative and to share my joy. Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure or happiness. That’s exactly what Beyond Amazing Donuts represents. Every Saturday at my pop-ups, people can find comfort, satisfaction, and togetherness at a time when our surroundings seem to be more turbulent than ever. In sharing my scrumptious creations with my community, I also share the joys I experience, challenges, and how I grow daily. Recently, in my journey, grief has been at the forefront of my mind. In late 2021, I lost someone incredibly special to me, my fiancé Ajibril, and his absence is felt daily. One of my biggest challenges has been finding balance, beauty, and lightness in my entrepreneurial journey while navigating through the sudden loss of Ajibril, my biggest supporter and best friend. It was, and still is, the grace of my community that keeps me encouraged and pushing forward. Even before this experience, I believed people appreciated my truth. Expressing my everyday obstacles as a black pastry chef on Instagram as Confectionsofamartian has allowed me to embrace the good, the bad, and the ugly. This journey has been a collective effort; it goes beyond donuts for me. It’s being able to feed people my authentic self and being accepted even when I think I am unworthy. People enjoy my story, but it’s their story as well.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Recently, I have experienced the personal loss of a loved one and other significant professional shifts that have impacted my ability to maintain the capital that I earned and intended to utilize for the benefit of my business. My challenge is to get my business in a healthy financial position to thrive without depending solely on the funds I pour into it.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Overall I want to take my customers on a journey with me. Introduce them to local farmers, chefs, artists, and creatives in our community that influence my creations. I want to cultivate a space for all beings to connect and release to become a part of a longer story. Hence, my business is called Beyond Amazing Donuts; my love for this pastry transcends just how good they are.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 crisis?
While working as the pastry chef at Leah and Louise, we opened and closed temporarily when the pandemic started. Like many restaurants, we shifted our menu offerings to be suitable for curbside pick-up and online orders. I was going through this transition. I saw the importance of staying one step ahead and finding creative ways to still operate under unexpected conditions. Finding resourceful avenues to maintain amidst the crisis was tough, but listening to consumer needs during that time was crucial.

Contact Info:

• Website: beyondamazingdonuts.shop
• Instagram: Confectionsofamartian and b.a.donuts.clt
• Email: badclt@beyondamazingdonuts.shop

Image Credits
Please on Instagram tag: Jasiatic Anderson, Sara Cox -ingridandviviphotography