Rebel Boss Babe Spotlight: Raveena of Just Cakes Bakeshop

Hi all!
My name is Raveena Oberoi and I am the Owner of Just Cakes Bakeshop! First and foremost, thank you so much to Sukhmani for reaching out to me for an opportunity to share my story! It means so much, and I am excited to share.

I get asked quite often how I started this business - what was my passion or belief behind everything, and what motivates me. Going back over the years, it’s been enlightening to see how I’ve transformed as a human through this passion medium of mine.
It all started when I was about 16 years old. I was a bright kid, but I didn’t really get along with many of my classmates. I often felt alone and isolated, even though I was hanging out with the “popular kids”, I didn’t really have a voice. I have also always been quite crafty. I remember as a kid, my mom would always bring home craft sets for my sisters and I to play with instead of watching tv or using the computer. So, every day after school I was always doing something - looking up a new project on Youtube, cooking or baking something, writing...and so forth.
One day, my mom brought home a cake decorating kit. Naturally, my sister and I both baked our own cakes. I fell in love instantly. I loved the ability to create something so beautiful and delicious out of nothing, and I was hooked. I spent hours and hours online, watching the greats (aka. CAKE BOSS) and slowly teaching myself how to get better with every cake. Every single day after school was spent baking and caking and decorating, and practice was the one thing always on my mind. Caking for me had the power to be cathartic, it was my stress relief. It was my one thing I looked forward to most in my days.
I started to bring my passion to school, making all of my school projects in cake form. My growing abilities in the world of cake gave me enough confidence to be able to evolve from my shy, timid self and start creating a voice for myself.
After high school, however, I moved to Vancouver (UBC) and lived in a dorm room. This meant I had no kitchen. I didn’t have my stress relief anymore. Needless to say, I was miserable that year, and without my cathartic passion in my life, I broke down numerous times. Caking had such an influence on my life, and I had experienced that power exponentially when it was taken away from me.
Fast forward another year, I had got an apartment with a friend with a small kitchen. I started to take orders from friends and family over the weekends to help pay for living expenses, school, and so forth. Eventually, through word of mouth, it was like I had a full time job! It boggled my mind that so many people thought I was good enough to bake for them, and as a result, my confidence in myself soar and allowed me to make some big decisions.
In my final year of school, I had that huge predicament of utilizing my degree or going forward with my passion. It was in one of my final Career Counseling classes (how fitting, right) that my professor asked me why I felt this huge pressure on myself to make a decision between two loves in my life. Why wasn’t I being open to opportunities in both? What was my end goal? The realization that one person does not need to adhere to just one personality or way of life was a huge one for me, and after that realization, I harnessed everything I could inside of me to make sure I was utilizing the opportunities coming my way as best as I could.
So, I got a job working as a behavior interventionist right after I graduated. I also was treating my cake business as a full time job still. This mean very little hours of sleep, always on the go, and sacrificing down time. But to me, it was all worth it - I was figuring out what I most wanted in life and the steps to get there.
A few years before this, I had a crazy dream of traveling to Paris, France to practice pastry. I didn’t think it would ever come true. I was at a point in my life where I was sleeping 3 hours every night, exhausted beyond measure, and questioning why I was doing this to myself. That I could just make my life easy and pick one thing. But one day, on a whim, I applied to a pastry school in Paris. And one day, totally unexpected, I was accepted.  This was one opportunity that was staring me in the face telling me I had to go for it. So I dropped everything and flew to Paris.
Paris was the most magical experience of my life. It allowed me to get re-inspired and to truly delve in a world that I had merely dreamt about a few years before. It allowed me to first-hand experience the life that I thought I wanted for myself. It solidified my passion in such a way that I will always be grateful for. I found my true backing for this passion - to create edible art and resonate with all walks of life through this very art.
I returned to Canada, and immediately got to working on my next big dream: a Bakery, in the heart of the Lower Mainland, bringing the beauty and class of fine pastry to the mainstream. It was ambitious, but I wanted to open before a year of being back from France. My most monumental moment in my life is the day we opened for business: July 18 2017. Just shy of 11 months of returning from Paris. I did it. And if this girl from small-town Abbotsford, British Columbia could do it, so can you.
Here is my advice to you. Find your passion. Do everything and anything to find you. You deserve that. You deserve to wake up every morning and absolutely fall in love with what you do. Believe that you have the capacity to find that something, and believe that you’re going to smash your goals whatever it takes. Be open to it all. Be open to the possibilities of what can be achieved if you just try. Be open to giving you a chance for you.  It all begins from within.