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Everyone loves Buddy “The Cake Boss”Valastro. My kids, my wife, and all my nieces and nephews became a lot more interested in my television work when they heard I had interviewed Buddy. “What’s Buddy really like?” they all wanted to know. “Is he that much fun in person?” “You think you could take us to meet Buddy?” Everyone wants to meet Buddy Valastro. In fact, every day at Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey, where Buddy and his family run a fourth-generation bakery, hundreds of fans wait in lines that wind out the door and down the street to get closer to the Cake Boss brand and Buddy’s magic. His personality is big, and he also has a talent for making the kind of signature cakes that have made him and his family very comfortable financially. It’s true that the success of Carlo’s Bakery is known around the country because of the TLC Cake Boss TV reality series. But it’s too simplistic to assume that Buddy’s brand is all about the TV show alone.The larger question is:What are the factors that put Buddy in a position to get the TLC series that has helped turn him into such a highly successful and potential brand empire? The answer to that question will show that Buddy Valastro’s story is not about making cakes. It is about making dreams come true and being obsessed about doing what you do with passion and dedication. Be True to Yourself Buddy’s brand is really hot, but he’s no superman. Buddy doesn’t change into a costume and play a role as a super baker when the cameras start rolling. He’s never tried to be someone other than 17 Buddy “The Cake Boss” Valastro Baking Cakes and Living Dreams Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11/11 11:27 AM Page 17 who and what he is.That’s one of the many reasons for the success of Buddy Valastro’s brand. When I sat down with Buddy for our One-on-One television series, it became clear to me why Buddy’s brand is so successful. He was the same guy on my show as he is on his own: upbeat, positive , passionate, engaging, and most of all, down to earth. Buddy, who at thirty-three is a very experienced baker, took charge of the family business at the tender age of seventeen when his father died. Regardless of his celebrity status, he said that, at heart, “I’m still a baker, and I respect the profession. I want people to realize that they hurt the small business person when they go to a big box store like Costco and buy a cake the size of a tire or a pie baked a month ago. People don’t realize that choosing mass-produced foods and the decline in quality and the closing of small shops are all related.” Despite his fame, Buddy is still a small-town baker. The Cake Boss series also features Buddy’s extended Italian American family, who play a huge role at Carlo’s bakery and help solidify and humanize Buddy’s brand as a real family guy who happens to be a reality TV star. In the end, Buddy’s pretty clear about who he is and where he comes from. “I am proud to be from Hoboken, and I would never want to live anywhere else. I am proud to be from New Jersey. I am proud of my heritage.The way you see us on the show is exactly how we are at home. We can be loud. Sometimes we yell and scream at each other. But we’d rather be yelling and screaming in the morning so we can still sit down and have dinner together after work. That’s better than keeping things bottled up, and then we’d have nothing to say to each other later.” Family is at the core of Buddy Valastro and the Cake Boss brand. Vision It was Buddy’s father who passed on to him the vision of what a bakery can and should be. “I was born into this business and practically have icing in my blood,” he says. He recently told NJ.com that he took his father’s “old-world techniques and styles and added my own flair—the fondant, the sugar flowers, the modeling 18 YOU ARE THE BRAND Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11...

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