I'm Darian Slayton Fleming, and thank you for joining me on get what you need and feel good about it. Do you find it difficult to ask for what you need? Do you frequently feel misunderstood? Do you have a problem or cause that you would like to learn to manage more effectively? What makes it so hard for us to tell each other how we feel? And how do we speak up for ourselves so we get what we need and feel good about it? How do we do this respectfully, so that we honor the needs and feelings of others? Together, we'll explore tips, strategies and resources that, when used mindfully and consistently, will improve our results and enrich our relationship. Hello and welcome back. To get what you need and feel good about it. I'm Darian Slayton Fleming and this is episode nine of this podcast. Today I have with me Katie Zino, the entrepreneur and owner of dazzled desserts in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. Welcome, Katie. Thank you for joining me.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

Just to get started, would you tell us the name of your business again and the website? And tell us what inspired you to begin this business of dazzled desserts?

I started dazzle desserts in 2020, shortly after the world shut down due to the pandemic. I have a website, dazzledes.com, and I'm on social media. My son was born Christmas of 2019, and he was born eleven weeks early. So we spent 63 days in the NICU, and then I endured a big neck fusion in the fall of 2020. It was a big recovery. It resolved a lot of symptoms I was going through. I really wanted a good cookie. I couldn't leave the house. I had a premie that couldn't go anywhere or see anybody. And I always turned to baking as my stress reliever. It was something I didn't really have to think about, and I would just go and make something. And so as I was playing with recipes, I have a genetic condition called Ellers download syndrome. And with that, a lot of people also have mass cell and pots and autoimmune problems as well. And with that comes a lot of various allergies. And I have a lot of friends that have various food allergies and that also wanted just a good treat. And so I started playing with cookie recipes and figuring out if I could make them vegan or wheat free or sugar free just to offer them something different. And I decided to start selling them. And it took off really quickly. And so I pulled back and I found a commercial kitchen nearby. I took a business class and got a grant, started selling more. And then between all of this, I was still caring for my son. I had a few more surgeries, so I had to have many breaks in between because I was still dealing with a lot of my health issues. And then through all of that, I kept just trying to learn more, like how to run a business, how to expand. It's been difficult. And the basis of it came from is that I have been unable to find employment because of my health issues and because of the care needs of my son. So I needed something that would work within the hours and capabilities of what I do. And so I run a production kitchen, which allows me to fill orders kind of in a preorder basis, which I can then plan for, which is easier for me than a storefront or set hours mostly doing catering and wholesale options. Right now you have had a lot.

Of challenges, and you've told us about many of them. And it seems like your business really arose out of a need that you had and that you discovered other people had. And it had a comfort aspect to it and a need to it. And so you also talked about your son and the need to also work your hours around being able to care for him as well as yourself. And it seems like a lot of businesses grow out of a discovered need, and then you find other people and you develop a market and a clientele. So how has that been going, building your clientele?

It's definitely been a more slow growth, and part of it was purposeful because of life circumstances. In the middle of all of this, I have been going through a divorce, and that's been extremely challenging, shifting into single parenting. So I have been not as aggressive towards events or marketing per se because I really had to focus on my home life. But things are finally starting to stabilize. Right now, I have been working with another local business owner at Karina's Bakery in Beaverton to sell some of my vegan cookies, as well as working at her bakery. And we've been doing events together this past year, which has been a lot of fun because we both are passionate about changing the dynamic of disability in the workplace. I've been able to kind of focus on a vision to license out what I'm doing so other people in a similar situation can open up their own production kitchen in their own area to provide cookies. And it's more simple than a full run bakery because it is just cookies for right now. Looking to fill wholesale accounts. So right now I'm focusing on coffee contracts, and I'm hoping to meet with a company next month to discuss getting into their coffee drive through locations, which has kind of been the vision the whole time, to create a sort of consistent order to employ more people and to provide entrepreneurial skills and leadership skills to other people, which has been a. It's been a journey in figuring that stuff out for myself so that then I can replicate it for other people to do it as well.

That's really awesome. And this is the holiday time of the year. And in November we featured Karina Comer and now Katie. And what a great partnership and good networking. And it even opened up some opportunities you might not have expected, like doing events together. I'm interested for people who are interested in entrepreneurship and starting their own businesses. Where did you take your business class and where did you get that grant?

I went through Mercy Corps Northwest. I'm not sure if they're still doing the IdA grants, which is basically a savings account that you save 1000. They give you 5000 over three to six months. There's also misto, which is micro enterprise services of Oregon. They do offer an IDA and they have a lot of resources for small businesses. I spoke to Score, which is nationwide, and they provide small business mentorship. But my best resource has been vocational rehab. I was able to get a business mentor paid for by vocational rehab. That kind of walked me through all of the pieces that I didn't know because I originally was thinking about taking more business classes. But after talking to the business advisor, he said no. He said, I figured a lot of the stuff out on my own already and there was only like a few pieces that I just needed help with. And due to my disabilities, I just needed things broken down a little bit more in bite sized pieces to grasp fully and then find ways to adapt it for myself. But there's a lot of good resources. The other great one is joining your local chamber of commerce. They have tons of resources and networking events, and that's been really vital in meeting people in my community and learning about events. That's been a lot of fun. I'm hoping to tap more into that this next year.

So was this cookie business a dream or a necessity that grew out of your experiences?

It came from boredom and severe postpartum depression. And then the business came about. Because I've tried other businesses in the past. I've been a real estate agent. I've done small business marketing. I've done executive assistant to nonprofits. I've done a lot of nonprofit work and legislative advocacy, which is really my passion, is legislative advocacy, but it doesn't pay. And the only way to get paid doing it is to either become a lobbyist or get paid by a company to lobby for them. And I'm not willing to do either. So the idea was that if I could create a paycheck for myself, then I could devote more time to legislative advocacy without subscribing to a particular viewpoint, because my primary focus has been rare disease patients and laws that impact people that are low income or dealing with complex disease management. But for me, I saw other cookie companies popping up during the pandemic, and I was like, running a cookie company is not that complicated. It's cookies. And the idea was that no one's going to die if I can't make your cookies. There's no big pressure to like, the world isn't going to end if you don't get your desserts. So it was a low pressure job in a sense, but I was not aware of how much mental work I would be going through over the years to learn how to be a business owner and how to run a business in a company. And the personal growth that I put on myself to do more and be more, and I think that was the more difficult part to grasp. Going through all the health struggles is one piece, but then to really push yourself to be the better version of yourself is challenging, especially when life gets really hard.

You have great insight and you have a quote, which I'm also going to include in the closing. To achieve greatness, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. And it sounds like you have just been really living that vision, determined to make this work for you as a whole package lifestyle, to make the hours and the job work for you and your family, and to learn things about running a business. And I too benefited from an Ida account and starting my business. And just to highlight that for a minute, they are probably in every state, and so if you do a Google search, just do a search for Ida accounts. So, Katie, did anyone try to discourage you from doing what you're doing?

Yes, a lot.

Can you tell us about that?

One of the groups I had reached out to, I don't believe it's the viewpoint of the organization. I believe it was the viewpoint of the individual. But it was somebody I was working with to get advice on my business. And they didn't think what I could do was possible because I had so much stuff happening in my life and they wanted me to wait until my life was more stable. And I was like, if I wait until my life is stable, I will never get anywhere in life because I've had over 33 surgeries. I'm 33. My surgery started when I was 15. I average about one to two every year, and it's just a part of my life, and I've had to learn how to get around that. And then I also have a special needs autistic child that takes a lot from me as well. And I have to find ways to feed my own growth and my own soul within all of that. And if I waited until things were better, I would be waiting my entire life. But it was hard. It was not easy. Other business owners, friends, people that just didn't see the point, didn't see what the point is in trying, because, yeah, it is hard. It's a lot easier to just do a lot less and get a disability check. But for me, that check is very small. It does not cover even a month's living expenses. And that level of poverty is something I have been fighting so hard to change, because I'm tired of that story in my life. I felt really empowered connecting with my current business advisor. He has been vital this past year in educating me and encouraging me, and he showed me how I could turn a cookie company into a platform for empowering others, which was really what I wanted to do, because there was a few times I thought about putting the business down because it just was too much. It was a lot. And he really showed me how I can change that and how I can use this for more. And that really lit the spark inside me again and got me excited about it again, that I can use this for more. And there was also the discouragement of advertising that I'm a disabled business owner, advertising about my health stuff. And while I'm sure that it is a turn off for some, for the many, that it's not, and the people that reach out to me saying that I'm encouraging them to try more and do more, and they come up to me at events and they're like, hey, I also am a zebra. I also deal with a chronic illness, and so it's really great to see somebody who's like me doing this. And I think that's where the power lies. And then, of course, connecting with Karina, that's been life changing.

How are you overcoming the challenges and the discouragement? So connecting with Karina and having someone to network with, are there any other tidbits that you can share about what's helping you overcome the challenges?

I think giving yourself time to grieve, giving yourself time to fall apart, finding friends that are supportive helps. Taking the time to yourself to remember why you're doing it and really just connecting with we have one life to live. We have one opportunity to do what we want and to create our own story. And so you ultimately get to decide what story do you want in your life? And if you want to change a paradigm in your life, it's going to bring challenges because you're changing something. But I think taking it moment by moment, even hour by hour, on the worst days, it helps. And then soon that hour turns into half a day, turns into a whole day, turns into weeks, turns into months, and then you turn around and look, and you're a brand new person that's done a lot. And I think reminding myself of that too. Sometimes I struggle because I see how much more I have to accomplish and I forget that there's already been so much.

This was such a wonderful interview, and you have so much insight. And do you have any last words of encouragement for our listeners? Anyone who's starting a business trying to decide if they want to stay in their business, feeling discouraged or even feeling hopeful? What would you like to share with our listeners?

I think it's important to put your oxygen mask on first. And if you need to take a break, if you need to pause, it's okay. I think taking care of yourself and taking that walk or sitting in your car for an hour to breathe or listen to music is okay. And also remembering that you won't get everything done in a day. There's always tomorrow. So just do your best. That's literally all you can do and all anyone can ask of you.

Katie, thank you so much. I would like to close by reading the quote you submitted one more time. To achieve greatness. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Thank you for joining me.

Katie, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. This was a great opportunity.

So listen for Katie's interview here and check the show notes for her resources and her website. And I look forward to sharing another episode with you in January. Take care everyone.

The only way to do this is we're hope not hate. Hope will surely triumph in the end. Hope, not hate when each stranger isn't.

Thank you for joining me today on get what you need and feel good about it. Remember, when you speak up for yourself assertively, you will get what you need and feel good about it. You will also be showing respect for yourself and for the other people in your life who are important to you. Until next time, try thinking about it like Stephanie Lahart says it. Say what you mean. Mean what you say, but don't say it. Mean.

The only way to do this is with Hope, not hate.