ARCHDALE, N.C. — There are not a lot of people who would do what Monica Moyer did.

After growing up in Martinsville, Virginia, and graduating from Winston-Salem State University, Moyer embarked on a successful career in banking with Bank of America. And then, after 15 years of that hard-earned success, social media changed everything.

“I was sitting on my bed, one night, scrolling through Facebook and I saw that Archdale Bakery was for sale,” Moyer said. “And I just sat there and pondered and I was just like, ‘I can’t afford a bakery, right now, I can’t do that.’ But something just told me – God told me – to reach out to the owners.”

Okay, so social media was just the catalyst. Moyer developed a passion for baking while working in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother. So she left the security of that banking job to open Archdale Bakery. On March 1, 2020. Oh, boy.

Within a few weeks, she had to be honest with herself and ask, “Why did you really do this? Was it the right time?”

Still, she was able to develop a nice customer base, at least for a while. Things finally began to look more difficult, six months in.

“I would say just after summer, September,” Moyer said. “Not have that summer business, everything’s starting to slow down, everything’s starting to get worse, you don’t have as much foot traffic. So, that’s when I was like, ‘Do I go and get a part-time job at night?’”

See how things turned out – and, some of the sweet treats Moyer makes from scratch each day – in this Project 2021 profile.