- If you need a cake, I got you.

- [Jason] It's not something Sharon Strickland does often, leaving a comment on a post that had absolutely nothing to do with the post.

- I rarely look at the news.

So I just seen it and I just seen a bunch of people commenting.

I'm like, let me just let these people know if they need a cake, I got you.

- [Jason] Sharon's random comment, closing in on a hundred likes with multiple responses and a phone call from us.

- The only way you're gonna get what you want in life is if you just shoot your shot.

The only thing that somebody can say is yes or no.

If you get a yes, great.

If you get a no, move to the next door.

That door wasn't meant for you.

- [Jason] As we soon learned, Sharon is gifted at self marketing, social media, and promotion by just being herself.

What is this?

- Right now we are looking at a one tier six inch cake.

It is very colorful, very cute like me.

- I love her personality.

It's so bubbly.

How she is like on her Instagram is how she is in person.

- [Jason] It's that bubbly personality and creating something unique that has gotten her noticed.

- I walk up to random people in the store.

I'm like, if you ever need a cake, come to me "The Cake Florist."

They're like, "Oh, do you have a card?"

Yes, I have a card.

I have what you need.

- [Jason] Sharon has branded herself as "The Cake Florist."

- It's not just, oh, I'm just ordering the cake.

No, you're ordering the cake from "The Cake Florist."

- Sharon is amazing at what she does.

- So I have flavored profiles.

My flavored profiles go as like my brown butter cinnamon roll profile that comes with brown butter cinnamon roll cake, cookie butter filling, crunchy cookie butter bite crumble, caramel glaze, and a cinnamon spice buttercream.

So it's like tailored.

It's not like, oh, I want a vanilla cake with sprinkles.

No, we do it up.

- [Jason] And in case you hadn't already noticed, there's a decidedly pink theme around her.

Pink!

Pink's your color!

- Pink's my color!

- [Jason] Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, Sharon was what you'd call a creative.

- I grew up in a performing arts school.

I liked singing, playing the piano, and I took art very serious.

I like painting and I like drawing.

So that carried me all throughout my life.

- [Jason] But growing up wasn't always easy.

- I've been struggling with depression since I was a little kid.

I used to get bullied in school a lot.

And anxiety came from overthinking a lot and hearing what the bullies would say, because I didn't fit a certain aesthetic or I didn't look a certain way, or I didn't have a certain materialistic thing.

It would get to me and it just grew throughout life and it just became like a jacket of anxiety.

- [Jason] Through her creativity and faith, Sharon's work to keep a positive mindset, putting her artistic skills to use as she started learning how to do hair and makeup.

- I moved to Charlotte in 2018 and I moved here to go to Paul Mitchell School of Hair.

- [Jason] But when COVID hit in 2020.

- The Vid!

- [Jason] And with everyone stuck at home, work dried up.

- I came home, I started baking for fun as a way to help with my anxiety and depression, and it just grew from there.

Baking has been so very therapeutic for me.

- [Jason] She never took a class, never went to baking or cooking school, but it was the creative part of the process that sparked a new passion.

- It was the decorating part that where it sparked.

I was like, "Ooh I like this."

I can make colors, I can make shapes, I can make flavors.

- [Jason] Sharon incorporates real flowers into her cakes or can create flower shapes with frosting.

- I literally asked her, how do you do that?

And she could barely even, she can barely describe it.

So I know that that's like something on a whole nother level that she does.

- So we are going to take our flour and you can do this at home, you can do it in a car, you can do it.

Don't do it at your job, but yeah, do it in the kitchen.

- [Jason] And uses edible ink and sheets to wrap her cakes with various designs.

- Now, these edible images, I create myself using AI.

So you try to go on Google, you not gonna find this image 'cause I made it.

- [Jason] She even created one on the spot for PBS Charlotte.

- Add to page.

We're gonna make this bigger.

Put it in the center.

So now we got a whole picture.

- [Jason] This is edible, edible paper.

- This is edible paper.

And what you'll do, you'll go ahead, peel it off.

- [Jason] Sharon invested in cameras and lighting and quickly gained a social media following with over 27,000 Instagram followers.

She also teaches online classes and appeared on the NBC Peacock Show, "Baking It."

- Social media transformed my life.

Just me posting things and talking about it like I treated social media like it was my own TV show.

- When Shay and Deborah Corley got married in 2022, they hired Sharon to do their wedding cake.

- Obviously for a wedding, you want your cake to be like a wow moment.

And she definitely delivered.

- My wife Deborah, she picked out this flavor and she was like, "This is the one."

I picked out one flavor and I'm like, "This is the one."

And she was like, you know what?

I could do something for the both of you.

- [Jason] Shay and Deb want to do things a little different.

So instead of the traditional cutting up of the cake and handing out pieces at the reception, they had Sharon create separate take home slices for guests to enjoy.

- So everybody had like their own personal cake.

It was awesome.

- And everybody enjoyed it.

Honestly, our guests really liked the fact that that was their take home favor.

It was a piece of cake and everybody loved it at the end of the night.

- [Jason] So impressed by her work, Shay and Deb hired Sharon again for Shay's birthday.

- I'm a huge sneaker head.

She made a birthday cake, which was like a sneaker cake, a Nike shoe cake.

It was really cool.

- [Jason] And then had her create a Paw Patrol themed birthday cake for their daughter.

- I like to do my cake's different.

If a client brings me a cake that I've already done, I'm not gonna do it the same.

I'm gonna do it better.

- Like this is somebody who is just, has passion for this and I feel like you're just drawn to people who have passion for what they do.

It makes you like it even more, honestly.

- [Jason] And that little girl once bullied and riddled with anxiety is doing much better now, thanks to her faith, self-confidence and creating something people enjoy.

- If I could go back and talk to my little self, I would tell her that things get better.

To just keep going.

Keep your head up and keep your faith strong.

Even when you feel like you can't see the road ahead, just keep walking.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep, just keep going.

Yeah.