Meet APRIL GEYER | Scrum master and dessert blogger

We had the good fortune of connecting with APRIL GEYER and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi APRIL, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
In more than one avenue in my life, I felt that self competition has helped me succeed tremendously. For the most part, I never felt the need to compete against others. Others had different circumstances, different education, different support structures, and the competition would never be fair. By only competing with myself I have been able to project myself forward in multiple careers and hobbies because not only am I working on just myself, I am also not distracted by the successes and failures of others. I don’t have the anxiety and worry of whether or not I succeed in comparison to others. I can focus solely on my own journey to make myself the best version of myself day in and day out. Instead, I use others as an inspiration to motivate me and as a support system in the same way I am there for them and hope I inspire and motivate them. Because, once I start competing with others, I start to trend backwards because I start comparing, and that’s not healthy for me. Focus on yourself, and the success will come.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My career has been a wild one. I went to culinary school for baking & pastry arts and was working as a pastry chef in Boston’s finest restaurants and hotels. It wasn’t until I was laid off from my dream job where I had to look inwards and decide the pastry career wasn’t for me anymore. I didn’t want to work weekends or holidays anymore. I wanted to be able to keep moving up without sacrificing my personal life. I no longer wanted to wear the 60-hour work week like a badge of honor. I wanted more than a week of PTO and 401k matching. I wanted something better for myself. So I went back to school for a quick certificate and completely changed careers. It was terrifying and grueling, and now I am scrum master for an amazing company with great benefits and I actually love it. However, I did miss baking and pastry so I came up with the idea of writing a dessert book. But who wants a dessert book from a nobody? Also, how can I write a permanent book where I can’t update as I tweak the recipe? So the book was out and blog writing was in. I taught myself food photography with the help of foodtography school and started creating videos to please Instagram and TikTok. Anything you put in front of me I jump in with 100% effort. And here I am pretty good at food photography, terrible at social media (but trying really hard!), and the world’s most okayest dessert blog writer, perfectly happy.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
So I live in Boston which has some amazing things to do. First, as an escape room lover, we’d be bustin out of an escape room followed by dinner and amazing cocktails at the Baldwin Bar in Woburn. We’d also check out my favorite French pastry shop Colettes after we have brunch at Terra in Eataly. We also have to go to the MFA, museum of science, and aquarium of course then dinner outside at Bar Mezzana or Banyan Bar & Refuge.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to shoutout my father, my husband, and my best friend who helped me through 2 career changes and support my attempt at a small business. I would not have made it without the ability to cry and hyperventilate to these people.

Website: 12-kitchens.com

Instagram: @12kitchens

Other: TikTok: 12kitchens Pinterest: 12kitchens

Image Credits
All credits go to me, April!