The story behind the soap opera “A Dona do Pedaço”, about the woman who became a millionaire selling cakes

Dona do Pedaço left us with water in our mouths and our eyes teary with the adventures of Maria da Paz, the boleira who turned her life around. With a very simple origin, she would never have thought that her work, selling cake from a cart, could be the beginning of a very reputable chain of stores.

Therefore, today the awesome.club tells the story of Cleusa Maria da Silva, a Brazilian businesswoman who is a real woman. Her life inspired the creation of the character Maria da Paz, played by Juliana Paes. This story can be touching and make us admire the most beautiful and sweet dreams! Get ready!

In addition to two boleiras with similar names, both had simplicity in their lives in their trajectory. They worked as a maid and Cleusa was the third generation of boias-frias in her family.

In her childhood, on Cleusa’s family table there was only bread, water and pasta. There was no salt, for example. They lived on a farm in Bandeirantes, Paraná, but when her father died, things got even tougher, as her mother and ten young children were evicted from the house. From then on, the whole family worked as a cold worker, including the children. They lived in a two-room house that housed ten people, with only two bunk beds.

Cleusa saw herself at that time as someone dissatisfied with that situation, but always a dreamer. She worked for a few years on the farm, in various roles: cutting cane, weeding soybeans, picking cotton, always walking on a macaw stick.

Inside her was a conviction that life would change, someday. After a phone call from her uncle, offering to help take care of one of the children, Cleusa ended up moving to her relative’s house in São Paulo. In the new city she got work in a house with many employees. She worked as a domestic, as a maid. The family that hired her also had a driver, a treadmill and a housekeeper.

The social differences she observed on a daily basis fueled her desire for change, so Cleusa reconciled work with resuming her studies and decided to enroll in the supplementary school at night.

Cleusa’s trajectory is so inspiring that the production of Rede Globo sought her out in one of the stores to learn more about the story of the poor girl who changed her life working with the sale of cakes.

The beginnings in the bakery were a little different for Maria da Paz and Cleusa Maria. While in fiction Maria da Paz grew up beating cake with her grandmother Dulce, Cleusa entered the profession practically by accident.

After the phase in São Paulo, Cleusa moved to the interior of São Paulo, went to live in the city of Salto. She had already finished eighth grade at school and started working for a loudspeaker company. At work, she ended up befriending the manager and his wife, who baked cakes to sell. This lady ended up becoming her boss, as one day she broke her leg and asked Cleusa to make a 35 kilo wedding cake. The woman taught him how to make the cake and, sitting in a chair, she explained the entire recipe. Cleusa had never made a cake before, because in her career she never had a party, because cake, for her and her family, was a luxury. At that time, his mother and grandparents were still working as day laborers.

That’s how they started making cakes together. Cleusa didn’t have the money to buy a mixer, but her mistress gave her one. After two years, she made a deal and with the money from the termination she opened her first store, named Sensações Doces. The space was 20 square meters and she worked from Sunday to Sunday, morning to night.

In the first year, the company had no employees. Cleusa did everything from making the cakes to selling. She never imagined she could go this far, but she won the mark of one of the 50 largest franchises in the country, in a list released by the ABF (Brazilian Franchising Association).

Without perhaps even realizing it, a client came up with an idea she had never heard of before: franchising. He was so convincing that Cleusa ended up taking a course on the subject in São Paulo. Fifteen days later, the same customer ended up buying the first franchise. In the company’s first two years, it had more than 50 stores in this model.

Presenter Ana Maria Braga was also involved in Cleusa’s life, who at that time had her store, but somehow sought to remove her mother from her life as a cold-blooded worker. While watching the morning show, Cleusa jotted down a prestigious candy recipe. It was this tip from Ana Maria that made the change in her mother’s life: in less than six months she was making the recipe to sell at her daughter’s store and no longer had to come home from the farm with a dirty face. The presenter has already declared to be an admirer of Cleusa’s talent and determination.

Another curious fact was how the name of the company came about, which had the support of a manager. When trying to register her trademark at the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) she noticed that a company had asked to refuse. Only later did she discover that the company was Nestlé, which registered Sensação chocolate. Cleusa was scared, but she needed to think of another name and she even spent sleepless nights with this restlessness.

The manager of her store called her, showed her a napkin that said Sodiê and asked her if the name didn’t mean anything to her. The employee found the solution and told her that the word was the union of the first syllables of the names of Cleusa’s children: Sofia and Diego. The businesswoman was very excited about the idea.

Cleusa is a successful woman and was able to change the lives of the whole family. Her attitude was to include the brothers in the management of the company. She also bought a comfortable house for her mother. The effort in managing the business led to impressive numbers: its franchise brand has more than 300 stores in Brazil and two in Orlando, Florida.

After so many years of work, his company is recognized as one of the largest in its segment, being the largest franchise specializing in artisanal cakes in the country. In addition to internationalization, Cleusa began an expansion in the delivery and savory segments, with the creation of Sodiê Salgados Café, led by Diego Rabaneda, son of the businesswoman. The goal is also to sell wholegrain and vegan snacks.

In addition to having inspired the global success of Walcyr Carrasco, Cleusa was invited by SBT to participate in the Bake Off Brasil program and challenged the participants of the culinary reality with a test that could awaken in confectioners the elaboration of authorial cakes that were sales success, such as business creations.

With so much experience gained, Cleusa was also invited by Nestlé to be a judge in the contest that chose professionals in the field and awarded them for the best birthday cake of the century.

Do you know any woman with a story as inspiring as that of Cleusa, who gave rise to the character of A Dona do Pedaço? Comment with us! Who knows, maybe she will be the subject of an article of ours in the future?!