Episode 044: Authentic Leadership: Emily Winston on Boichik Bagels and Scaling a Business

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I knew it was technically possible to make the bagel I want to eat,” shares Emily Winston, founder of  Boichik Bagels in Berkeley, California. Growing up in suburban New Jersey, Emily cherished the days when her father would bring home H&H bagels after a long day of business in New York. When H&H went out of business in 2011, Emily was devastated and became determined to recreate the bagel that she had longed for. After 5 years of trial and error, Boichik Bagels was born. Emily joins host Mike Horne in conversation to talk about her experience creating her perfect bagel and how she scaled it into an efficient business model. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Emily first figured out her bagel recipe, she was not thinking about using them to launch a career. Since she had a master’s in mechanical engineering, owning a bagel shop was never anything she had anticipated. After a lot of encouragement from her friends to pursue her passion, Emily began to get involved with the Bay Area’s rich entrepreneurship food scene, taking business classes and doing extensive networking. While she began with pop ups, Emily quickly realized that people would actually pay money for her bagels. This ultimately inspired her to invest in the necessary equipment to make bagel production more efficient and eventually led to the opening of her own shop. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tune into this week’s episode of the Authentic Change Podcast to learn more about how Emily turned passion for bagels into a full scale and successful business.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Quotes:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I never grew up thinking I was going to have a bagel shop. Not in a million years would I have guessed that I’d wind up where I am today.” (2:15-2:21)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Eating a lot of bagels was very much part of our standard family tradition. Sunday morning, my dad would go out to the local bagel shop, buy a bag of b