On the Job: Fired From Her job, She Launched a Cupcake Empire

>> We started Baked by Melissa in 2008 when I was fired from my job in advertising. I actually picked up the phone in my cubicle, called my big brother. I went straight to his office from being fired and to cheer me up, he said, "Go home, bake your cupcakes. We'll start a business together." We always wanted to go into business together. So the night I was fired, I baked 250 cupcakes, four batches. And I sent them into work with my best friend's little sister. She was interning at a PR agency. The owner of the PR firm loved the cupcakes and put me in touch with her caterer. And the rest is history. We never really had a business plan. We had opportunity. After doing events with the caterer, I would go on tastings and people would place large orders. We knew we had a product that everybody wanted and loved so we decided to open in the Union Square Holiday Market. We had a booth that was branded Baked by Melissa and people lined up. We sold out every single day. That's when we saw the opportunity to open up our very first retail location. Caf Bari which is where I was doing my baking had this little pick-up window that they didn't always use. And that's what we turned into the very first Baked by Melissa store location. I was fired from my job in July of 2008 and we opened our first storefront in March of 2009. We also heard from people all over the country that they too wanted to get Baked by Melissa. So in April of 2010, shortly after we opened our second store location we developed packaging and started shipping our product nationwide. We did market research. We ordered other baked goods to receive and to see how that came. We learned, we researched, and then we developed. And we tested. It definitely did not happen overnight. But you've got to start somewhere. Today we have 14 retail locations. And we ship our product nationwide. Three of those 14 stores are not in Manhattan. There's one in Long Island, one in New Jersey, and one in JFK Airport. Today we know that every time we open a new store, it contributes to our eCommerce. There are plans to open Baked by Melissa locations in new markets. Since we started Baked by Melissa, we've sold over 100 million cupcakes and we know that we celebrate over 50,000 birthdays a year. I love working hard and I love cupcakes. Cupcakes are my favorite thing in the world. I can never a life of coulda, woulda, shoulda. I had to do everything I could to do what I love every day. To make Baked by Melissa a reality.

1. At its very conception, who do you feel played more of a leadership role in creating Baked by Melissa, Melissa or her brother?
2. Do you feel Melissa has reached level 5 in the leadership hierarchy? Provide an example of why you feel she has attained this level. If not, provide reasoning for the highest level of leadership hierarchy you feel Melissa obtained.
3. What leadership traits, or physical, social, and personal leadership characteristics does Melissa exhibit? What are Melissa's strengths?