[IDDBA Series] Baking Success: A Strategic Approach To Personal and Professional Well-Being

Odette D’Aniello is the Founder and CEO of Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated retail cake boutique. The company has received numerous awards, including winning Best of Western Washington several times. With experience in the food industry, business strategy sales, and marketing, Odette has obtained additional skills in product design and brand development, event management, and team building.

She is also the Owner of Dragonfly Cakes, the wholesale sister company to Celebrity Cake Studio, designing, developing, and manufacturing delicious handmade and clean-label petit fours, tea cakes, and mini desserts. Beyond her entrepreneurial ventures, she hosts the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where she shares insights from successful individuals in the food and beverage sector.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[6:28] Odette D’Aniello discusses her bakery journey and recounts 25 years of experience in the industry
[9:43] How decision-making impacts teams, families, and long-term success
[11:32] The concept of ikigai and its four key components
[18:15] How core values influence business culture and daily decisions
[20:26] Odette talks about goal setting and developing a long-term vision
[22:52] Tips for identifying decision-making criteria
[27:27] The importance of aligning personal well-being with business decisions
[31:43] Why entrepreneurs should reflect and seek outside perspectives before making major choices
[36:07] Mindfulness techniques and reflections for business professionals
[41:14] Using the EOS framework to balance short-term operations with long-term vision

In this episode…

Running a bakery — or any small business — is like juggling a dozen tasks at once. You make critical decisions daily, but how do you know they’re the right ones for your long-term vision, family, and well-being? Are your short-term wins pulling you away from what matters most?

Seasoned bakery entrepreneur Odette D’Aniello has developed a values-driven framework for decision-making, anchored by mindfulness, goal setting, and prioritizing well-being. She encourages business owners to reflect on their origin stories and long-term vision, using tools like the Japanese concept of ikigai to align passion, profession, mission, and vocation. By setting boundaries that protect family time to pausing before major decisions and embracing uncertainty, entrepreneurs can balance ambition with fulfillment.

In this episode of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, Heather Prach interviews Odette D’Aniello, CEO of Celebrity Cake Studio, about aligning personal purpose with business decisions. Odette shares how values-based leadership fosters clarity, resilience, and long-term success. She also discusses techniques for goal setting, mindfulness practices, and balancing professional growth with family priorities.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Quotable Moments:

“Decision making is easy when your values are clear.”
“We transformed our lives from being workers to being creators and business owners.”
“What is life without fun?”
“You cannot go about a day just like winging it because there’s just chaos.”
“Be curious, because it could be an adventure.”

Action Steps:

Clarify your personal and professional values: Defining what truly matters helps guide consistent, long-term decision-making rooted in your well-being.
Create a 10-year vision for your life and business: Starting with the end in mind helps prioritize actions and focus on intentional growth.
Use the concept of ikigai to find your purpose: Identifying what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what pays helps align work with passion.
Develop a decision-making framework: Clear criteria rooted in your goals and values reduce overwhelm and build confidence in your choices.
Incorporate mindfulness before major decisions: Reflection and presence help you see the bigger picture and make more informed, calmer decisions.

Sponsor for this episode…

Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated cake boutique.

Celebrity Cake Studio has been baking joy into all of their artistically designed cakes and desserts for 21 years.

They are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers that help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives.

They have received numerous awards, winning Best of Western Washington for many years in a row and various small business accolades.

To learn more about how you can celebrate yourselves or the ones you love, visit www.celebritycakestudio.com or email them at info@celebritycakestudio.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:03

Welcome to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where we feature top bakery and specialty food entrepreneurs from around the world and share stories and tips on how to create a successful life in the baking world.

Heather Prach: 00:23

All right. Hello everyone! Today’s webinar strategies for Long Term Success in the Bakery Business. We’ll begin in about one minute. So while you’re waiting, be sure to register for upcoming webinars at The Advocate.

So coming up in the webinar series tomorrow, January 11th, we have a rebroadcast from Data Essentials predicting trends before they happen. Discover how data driven insights are revolutionizing food trend analysts, giving you the foresight to stay ahead in the dynamic world of food and beverage. From plant based revolutions to social media fads. Learn how to spot the next big flavors before they hit the plate. We look forward to you joining us on these upcoming webinar series events.

You can find more or register at the Ida app or on our website. We also have coming up. Sign up for the next in-person charcuterie exam at Ida 2024. That’s happening in June in Houston, Texas, just before our show. If you can’t make the in-person event, our virtual exam registration option offers a year round opportunity to take it whenever your schedule allows.

So apply now at Ida under the Professional Resources tab selecting charcuterie Salumi certification. So with that I want to welcome everyone. My name is Heather Prach. I’m the vice president of education and Industry Relations at the IDDBA. Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar, strategies for Long Term Success in the Bakery Business.

As always, please submit your questions using the Q&A button and I’ll try to answer them at the end of the presentation. The recording of this webinar will be available to members to view in the iddba.org. So now I would like to introduce you to Odette. Odette I should have worked through your last name.

Is it D’Angelo? D’Aniello D’Aniello. So Odette D’Aniello. With over 25 years of experience in the specialty food industry. She’s now the founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, Inc. under the brand Celebrity Cake Studio and Dragonfly.

Dragonfly Cakes. This is a company that makes delicious and beautifully designed desserts for various occasions and markets. She is also the host of Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, a show that features inspiring stories and insights from entrepreneurs and leaders in the bakery and specialty food industry. So, Odette, thank you for joining us. And I’m going to kick it to you now.

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Odette D’Aniello: 03:00

Thank you. Thank you Heather. Thank you for having me here. Hi everybody. This is.

Thank you for. Participating in this webinar. Today we’re going to cover Baking success a strategic approach to personal and professional well-being. My name is Odette. I own a bakery, retail and wholesale bakery in Tacoma, Washington, and soon in Tucson, Arizona.

And I am going to be sharing with you my experience in running my own bakery with my family for 25 years. So a lot of these webinars that Aida offers, they the reason why they had asked me is because I personally have experience in running a bakery. So I’m not I’m not necessarily selling anything else except my share, just sharing my experience. So thank you for being here. So our first this this series is for 12 months.

And it’s going to be about personal and professional well-being, mainly because as business owners, we really need to take care of ourselves and our decisions are necessary, are very important in how our team flourishes and also our families. And it impacts a lot of people. So but decision making can be very dicey. We can make decisions that are just maybe for the minute, you know, right for the minute, but not necessarily for the long term. So we really need to meet to know how and how to frame our decisions so that in the long term, everybody benefits from it.

And I wanted to start with this quote by Roy Disney. Decision making is easy when your values are clear. So in this webinar we’re going to be really formulating what that how to clarify those values so that we can anchor our decisions accordingly. So our agenda for today I’m going to it’s a 45 minute webinar actually it’s maybe 30 minutes if we go through it faster. So I can give you back your time.

I’m I broke it up into times. So my we’re going to discuss about my journey in the bakery business. And we’re going to talk about you and your journey and your passions and values are the ikigai or that means your life’s purpose and also identifying your core values. And we’re going to also think about goal setting with the end in mind. So we’re going to really reach out to ten years from now.

What do we want our lives to be like? And then we want to establish this decision making criteria to really frame our decisions in everyday life and also in our business. And then some techniques to pause and reflect before making decisions, and also some mindfulness techniques to calm our brains. Lastly, we’ll want to evaluate the impact on community and stakeholders. And five minutes we will be open to Q&A.

Or if you are not live with us, you can also just send me an email and we can go over your questions. So to start my journey of transformation in the bakery business. So really my family has been in this bakery business for forever. It’s been three generations. It started with my great grand uncle Lola, who’s there cutting his cake for his 70 70th birthday.

And that was me standing in front of his bakery in his little showcase. We. It was Christina’s Bakery in Mabolo, Cebu. I was five years old and I was I was scared of cameras. I guess that was the first time I ever saw a camera in my life.

At age ten, we moved to Guam, and that really started my interest in cakes, because when we got to Guam, my family became workers of my uncle’s bakery. I was a bread slicer and then it moved to me decorating cakes, and from then from age ten. And they say that, you know, by age ten we really find our true passion in life. And I was lucky enough to find that in cake decorating, and mainly because when I touched icing, I just felt like it was it was a calming balm of the chaos of the bakery. You know, to decorate a cake is just so relaxing and just so calming.

And from, you know, for a ten year old. That was my refuge, right? So I absolutely loved it. Now, moving forward, I moved from being a worker. You know, I, you know, I my self-identity was based around working.

But when I realized that, look, I can go to school and I was I went to college, went to school, I became a teacher. And that’s the reason why I’m doing this webinar. I’m hoping that, you know, I can hopefully teach something. I do have a degree in it. And I, I wanted to really figure out how to transform my life from being a worker to being a creator, because that is what we all are as human beings.

We are all creators. And so at age 28, my sister and I, my family started a bakery business in Lacey, Washington. And from there we transformed our lives from being workers to being creators and business owners and. Gosh, you know, being a being a business owner is quite challenging, but it’s also fun. And the kind of person that you become from having a business, it is a an incredible.

Wonderful adventure. So with that, I, you know, created a family. There’s my son and my daughter and my husband. And that was my whole focus, was to be a mom and to have a flourishing business. And, you know.

That really transformed my life and how my decision making process was formed from that I was. Just I want to be a mom, and I want to have this amazing business where I can express my creativity. And also help other people and, you know, have employees and help my community. And that’s. That was my journey.

So now. But what about you? What about your journey? Like what is your story? And what is your narrative?

How did you end up being in this industry? The international dairy, deli and bakery industry. How what was your narrative? Did you go into it because it was just a job, or did you go into it because you were passionate? You know, you’re passionate about cheese or were you passionate about cake, or were you passionate about just running your business?

Like, did you inherit a business? So like really think about what your narrative is. Also define what your long term success looks like. What does success look like to you? Does it?

Is it is it about making money? Is it about, you know, having a very successful exit, or is it about really making an impact? For me, my long term success was I wanted to raise my children to adulthood and, you know, to for them to be happy, thriving young adults and have a great marriage and have a great partnership with my sister. That was what I wanted to be. That’s how I wanted my life to look like.

And all my decisions revolved around that. So that’s something that really is, is what we can really think about when we’re making decisions. Also like figure out how does your decision making align with your personal values. Do you is this something that you really care about, or is this something in alignment with who you want to be in the world? You can ask yourself those things.

So how do we find out what our values are? I took a class or I took a seminar. I love seminars and you know, I always learn from them. So one of the classes I The seminars I took was about finding your life’s purpose, and this seminar was anchored in the word ikigai, which in Japanese means life’s purpose. And what is it that truly excites and energizes you in your in both your personal and professional lives?

And there’s four parts to ikigai that I wanted to go over. And they come with certain questions. So that’s something that we want to really think about. What is our life’s purpose? Because when we know our life’s purpose, we can say no to a lot of things, or we can say yes to a lot of things, because then, you know, you know, I find value in this or I don’t find value in this.

So the first part of ikigai is, what do you love? What do you pay to get to do? What would you pay to get to do? And when you feel the most joy and what are some things that you put you in flow and what gives you energy and what do you enjoy doing, even if it goes unrecognized? So I have been decorating cakes since I was ten.

And even if I didn’t get paid to decorate cakes, I probably would still decorate cakes just because I really enjoy it. And it brings me to a calm place and it’s beautiful and creative. You know, I would pay to do that. I would also pay to garden. And you know, I not ironically, I not surprisingly, we’re opening up a garden venue because I love to garden.

So we’re going to meld my two loves of cake and gardening into a garden venue. And so I’m super excited about that. And that’s in Tucson, Arizona. Stay tuned. And although we wanted to ask what are you good at?

What do others depend on you for that only you can do? What is it that you can do that, you know. Nobody else can. And what skills or talents come naturally to you? What do you excel at even when you’re not trying?

And what activities and leisure and work in work life that come easily to you? And also, what activity do you excel in in your social circle, workplace or community? So I love to chit chat and that comes naturally to me. I love to learn more about what people do and say. So I started a podcast and because I love to chat and I’m good at it and I like to learn.

So that’s why I have a podcast. And also one another part of you guys, what do you what can you get paid for? What would you be doing if you were not in your current job? You could also translate this to business. What would you be doing if you were not in your current business?

Can you make a good living doing this work in the long term. What does the competition look like for you and can you spot a niche? What parts of your current job or business come easily to you? And are you already making a good living in your line of work? So you know we can all dream to be underwater basket weavers.

I actually that was actually a class it in Guam at the university, I think. So but do you really can you get paid to do that? You know, so really think about what can you get paid for and what does the world need. What can you do or offer that would bring meaning to others? And what problems in your society would you like to help solve?

Will this work still be relevant a decade from now? And what is the world lacking? How could you be more involved in your community? So after Covid shut down, I saw and it really bothered me that a lot of small businesses bore the brunt of the closure in the shutdown. And it really bothered me that we lost connection with each other.

So that’s why I started so many different things. You know, I started groups, I made sure that we stayed in contact with friends. My opinion is that the world needs more connection. And so I that’s why I have this webinar hoping to connect with you and hoping to help just because you know what we can all need. We can all use each other’s support.

So the intersections of ikigai. So is what you love. Plus what you what you’re good at. Sorry for the misspelling. What you’re good at is your passion and what you’re good at and what you can be paid for is your profession and what you can be paid for.

And what the world needs is your vocation, and what the world needs and what you love is your mission. So your ikigai is your passion and your profession. Your vocation and your mission equals your purpose. So for us, for me and my team at Celebrity Gourmet, we have the passion for cakes and we help people make their milestones memorable. And that is something that we can get paid for, right?

And the world needs connection. So that is all. That’s just kind of that’s our life’s purpose. So we want to be able to help people connect with other people, to share our love for our for our art. And, you know, just something that you can really think about.

It’s like, what is it that you do that you know that you’re passionate about, that you can get paid for? What are you really good at and what does the word mean? And just think about what your life’s purpose is because that is really important in making decisions. So here it is I, I redid the slide so you could see all the intersections here. What you love and what you’re good at it is equals your passion.

What you’re good at and what you can get paid for is your profession, what you can get paid for, and what the world needs is your vocation and what you love and what the world needs is your mission. Next is what are your core values? Your core values are beliefs and priorities that guide you in your organization’s behavior. What do you stand for? What do you care most about?

How do you want to be in the world, and how does that align with your personal and professional life? How does that impact your business, your team, your community, and your industry? So it’s Celebrity Gourmet or I’m Sorry. Here are some examples of some core values. I’m not going to read them, you know, because these are all just like how what matters to you personally and also what matters in your organization.

So really think about your core values before you know you make that decision because you could really just, you know, say no to a lot of things when it doesn’t align with your core values. And saying no is important, just as important, even more important than saying yes. So Celebrity Gourmet, we our core values are integrity, excellence, growth, mindset, being transparent, creative, fun and teamwork. So integrity. We radiate positivity and do the right things no matter what.

Excellence. We strive for excellence through detail oriented, organized and conscientious work and growth mindset. We are proactive problem solvers with a can do attitude. Transparency. We show up authentically every day.

We are honest, direct and candid. Creativity. We encourage individual creative expression and foster an open, creative environment. Teamwork. We rely on our team and collaborate enthusiastically.

And fun. We thrive on enthusiasm, laughter, and fun. So what we try to do is, you know, make decisions is fun. Do we want are we having fun? Because if not, then, you know, let’s find something else that’s more fun.

And I know that’s like some, some, you know, organizations say that shouldn’t be a, you know, criteria for decision making. But for us, it is because what is life without fun? So know your core values and then, you know, think with the end in mind. What is your goal? And envision what you want in your life, both professionally and personally.

In ten years, in five years, two years, one year and also in a month. So both professionally and personally. Mainly because you want them to be alive. So I started with ten years because I wanted to be far, you know, far in the distance. So in ten years, you know, when I first opened the business, I said, well, in ten years my kid would my, you know, my oldest child would be ten years old.

I want to make sure that I was present for her and her little brother at school. So I, you know, when and how I, you know, how I anchored this choice. Was that I would vet all kinds of, like, business decision making based on it. So when somebody had asked me to open, for example, a bakery like that was an hour away, I said, well, in ten years, if I had this bakery, would I have been the primary caregiver of my children, or would I have been sending them off to daycare or a nanny? And it was it was clear to me that that was not going to be something that I wanted to do.

And, you know, personally, it was not my goal, although, you know, it’s fine for others. But that was my goal was in ten years, I wanted to look back and say, you know, I took care of my kids and it’s fine if that’s not what you want or other people want, but that’s what I want. So I really defied, you know, my, my business objectives. And they acknowledged how they contribute to my personal fulfillment over overall vision of my life and our lives and my family’s lives, my team’s life and also the community’s life. Like I, you know, we as a, as a family business, have to consider each other.

I know that there’s a lot of people who maybe listen to this webinar who are not in family businesses. Maybe you’re a corporate owned, but you also have to find personal fulfillment in what you’re doing. And also know that even if it’s just a job that you’re doing that you that it contributes to your overall vision. If you want to be a leader, for example, like this fulfills you because you’re becoming a leader or you’re learning. I think that’s perfect.

That’s great. So be very clear about what you want. You know what the end that you have in mind. And then establish your decision making criteria. Really define your clear criteria for decision making that’s aligned with your personal and business values and goals.

Now that we know what our life’s purpose is, what our core values are, and also what our long term goals are, now that we have this this framework, we can have a decision making criteria that really aligns with our personal and business values and goals. You know, for example, you can be asked like we were we were asked for example, to participate in. other TV shows. We were asked multiple times because we have been in business for 25 years. This is before the Food Network was very popular.

We were asked to participate in competitions and that would have taken us away from the bakery first of all, and then it would have taken me away from my kids, and I had to watch them and take them to school and all that. So that was a no. And, you know, we would we would be asked to do so many things and we’d be like, okay, well, is this going to help us, you know, reach our goal of having an aligned family life and aligned, you know, like aligned marriage? Can we take care of our ailing parents, which we did? You know, these are things that we really thought about.

It’s like, is this the right thing for us? So that’s something that we really need to know, that we all need to think about as business owners and also professionals in the industry. Like what is this? What are we doing? Is this.

Is this really in alignment with what we want in our lives? And is this contributing to our well-being? And then we want to refer to these criteria when faced with choices, to ensure that it aligns with our long term vision. You know, when we were when we were running our bakery, one of the things that my sister and I had to do was take care of our father who had cancer. And you know, her, my and also my sister was just having, you know, just had her children also.

So we have children and we had an ailing, you know, we had ailing parents. So we really had to figure out, okay, where does the business sit in the narrative of our lives currently? And we had to really think through what is our first priority. Like the first priority really was to make sure that our parents that my father’s care was taken care of. So we really made sure that he was, you know, in a good space and that decisions were made that we so that we could attend to his chemotherapy sessions and radiation.

So he was, you know, we took care of him for nine years. And, you know, and when we make decisions like when he was in hospice, for example, we had to make a decision to not participate in whatever shows that we needed to participate in for our marketing, or we had to close our store because, you know, he was sick. So these are things that we had to do. And I think a lot of us, what’s not acknowledged in the bakery business or any kind of business, actually is the personal lives of people and how we have to pretend like we’re not going through shit or stuff. You know, we cannot pretend.

We have to recognize that we’re human beings, and that sometimes we really have to make decisions so that we ourselves can thrive as human beings and not just the business itself. So we had to shut our doors because our father went into hospice and customers begged us to make their cakes and begged us and cried because he was in August. It was the, you know, the hottest, the very busiest time of the season. But we had to forego the revenue. We had to forego a lot of opportunities because our priority was to make sure that our father lived at the end of his life in peace.

And that is something that, you know, was very important to us. So recognize what it is about you and your life that you want to consider when you make a decision. Right? So that’s super important. Now align your purpose with your decision making.

So your explore how your professional mission aligns with your personal sense of purpose. So a lot of us we just want to make money or we just want to, you know, get promoted or just have, you know, the biggest organization the most. But really, does that really contribute to our lives? Is there is that in alignment with who we want to be in the world? Because, you know, you can have the biggest business, the most successful, whatever it is.

But you can also be a very miserable because of it, because you are not in alignment or that you’re not anchored to really who you truly are as a human being. So that’s something to really consider. And then ensure that your business activities resonate with a deeper meaning that contributes to a sense of fulfillment. So our you know, the reason why we’ve been in business for so long is because, first of all, we love what we’re doing. No truly do because I, you know, if somebody asks me to decorate a cake today, I would because I love it and I’ve done it for so long and I find it fun.

And so and the deeper meaning in that is that I was a worker. Right? And my sister and I were both workers, and we transformed our lives into creators. And that whole narrative of transforming our lives from, you know, being a worker to being a creator really has meaning, gives us a lot of meaning, because then it contributes to the lives and the identities of our children and our team and our community. So we really have that, you know, having a this bakery, even if it’s just a cake bakery, you know, you think that it’s just a, you know, you just make cake.

No you don’t. we contribute to the lives and the happiness of so many, many people? And you know, when you see a cake that’s just beautifully made just for you, you’ll know, like my sister made me a birthday cake one time that, you know, she recreated the Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist, and I nearly cried. She it was so beautifully done. So we really have we’re aware and being aware of what it is about what you’re doing in business, in your career, in your life that has a really deep meaning.

Does it, you know, does it fulfill you? Does it transform you? Does it make you better as a leader? Does it make you better as a person? Are you happy with it?

Those things really contribute to your well-being. Now. this is important because I am a lackadaisical, not lackadaisical. I delayed decisions and that may be a negative, but it’s also been a positive. So take a moment to pause before significant decisions.

When I have to make a big decision, I really stop and think through all of the iterations of that decision. I go and look to see the negatives and the positives. I’m not one to just, you know, make a leap. I really think through it. And then I sleep on it.

And then one day I wake up, I’m like, I know exactly what to do. And that requires a lot of reflection. So I reflect and then I consider various perspectives. I ask a lot of people because I’m a learner and I read books. I get references, I you know, I ask professionals or not professionals.

I ask random people about the situations that I really want to see what their perspective is because there’s something if there’s something that I’m not seeing that to see if there’s something that I’m not seeing, that they can see. So, you know, to open up a business, to acquire a business, to close a business down, I really, really reflect on it before doing something. So pause and reflect before you make a decision and also consider all the perspectives out there. I once I once was invited not in. Yeah, it was invited.

I had a friend who owned a flower company, a florist shop. You know, we do wedding cakes years and years ago. And she asked me to share a new space with her. She wanted me to rent out this very, very expensive retail spot in Tacoma because we’re in Lacey. And she said it’s an up and coming building.

And she said that she will do a flower shop. I’ll do the cake shop. On the other side. And, you know, I was like, wow, that’s a great idea. But then I drove there many times and nobody was around.

And then I was super excited. But then I knew something was not truly right about my excitement. Like I wasn’t seeing straight. And then I ended up attending an event. And this woman who was who had a business in the area.

I had told her, I’m like, oh, I’m considering opening this retail space. And she said, why? No one’s ever going to be there. It’s going to take ten years for people to go to that area because it’s it is a up and coming. But do you have enough capital to support ten years?

And I said, no, I don’t I don’t have the capital to wait ten years, like ten years of rent and no customers. No I couldn’t. So it took that one conversation to, you know, to for me to say no. And unfortunately that person went bankrupt soon after like within eight months because there is literally nobody going to that spot. So that’s the benefit of considering various perspectives and then embrace uncertainty and curiosity.

Cultivate a mindset of curiosity towards uncertainty and being a business owner and being, you know, a highly ambitious professional. We sometimes can really opt to control situations like we want to know the outcomes. We want to make sure that all the decisions that we make has the very best outcome. But we know all the contingencies. But you know what?

We just can’t predict future. We’re just, you know, although I say I’m psychic sometimes I’m not all the time. So we can we want to cultivate a mindset of curiosity towards uncertainty, just, you know, Really. Instead of viewing an unknown as a threat. Approach it with openness and willingness to explore new possibilities.

And I’m going to say this because this is a this is a key thing. I think that would that would illuminate this whole point. When my kids were little, I took them to the East Coast and, you know, coming from Seattle. So and then we had a flight delay in Detroit, and I had a three year old. My son was three, my daughter was six.

And the flight kept getting delayed and delayed. And then finally my son was so upset because she was he was super tired and he was waiting to get on the plane. And the plane just kept saying, oh, in one hour and one hour and one hour. And then finally, like at 11 at night, they said the flight was canceled. And so my son burst into tears.

And my daughter. who she said, you know what? When she he she told him, hey, buddy, when you when there’s a surprise and things like, you never know, like, sometimes things don’t go your way. Be curious because it could be an adventure. And then he stopped crying because then he’s thinking, oh, this is going to be an adventure.

And it was because we ended up going to a hotel and there were two beds, and he was able to jump from bed to bed. And he also had his very first experience of room service. So to him that was an adventure. So being curious towards uncertainty and, you know, things don’t go your way. It could be an adventure.

So think about that. And mindful techniques right to calm the reactive brain. So being a business owner. It is not easy. I know that you know that it is not easy.

And there’s so much chaos out there and there’s so many things going on, you know, between customers, between, you know, vendors, employees, the government regulations. There’s just so much. So one of the things that is really important for me is to ground myself, and that is through mindfulness exercises. I’ve been a meditator since I was 21, and I have had the most incredible experiences with it just because it has taken me off. It has taken me off of that reactive mind.

So mindful breathing exercises, box breathing, you know, with, you know, breathing. Five breaths. Across five breaths. Down I breath across. And then five breaths up.

Box breathing. That really works for me. And I also do a lot of make intentional breaks to center myself and promote clarity and thought before making a decision. So I, you know, when I have to make a decision on like taking an order or, or like, you know, something that is super like it’s not super critical that that it can make or break because I will need to take more time for that. But when I have to just take a yes or no, I take a walk.

I say, okay, I want to take a walk first, and I center myself and I really like, clear my mind, look at the birds, look at the trees. And then I know I’m like, oh, okay, I’m going to, I’m going to take this order. I’m going to deal with this customer this way, or I’m going to deal with this employee this way. And that has helped me and consider meditation and mindfulness practice. I am, you know, I, I do a lot of like meditation modalities.

I’m very into mindfulness just because when you own a business, you have to like you cannot. You literally cannot go about a day just like winging it because there’s just chaos. You just be taken by the waves of chaos. So I practice Theravada meditation. It’s it is mindfulness meditation.

And then I also do creative visualization. I attend a lot of, of meditation retreats that has kept me really grounded and happy most of the time. So that is something that you may want to consider. So mindfulness meditation, there’s creative visualization, which I am super into. I draw my goals and then I when I’m really, really upset, I close my eyes and I put myself into the picture as if I’m already there.

So that’s how I that’s how I do it. So with that, our last slide is we also want to evaluate the impact on the greater whole. We want to consider how does our decision impact our ourselves our family our community and our stakeholders. Should I expand my brand across the country and have to take investment? You know, how will that impact your well-being and how will that impact your family?

And how will that impact your community and your employees? And then also assess how your personal vision aligns with creating positive outcomes for both your business and your broader environment? You know, make sure that everybody’s whole and then seek input from trusted team members or advisors before finalizing decisions, and embrace a culture of continuous improvement by being open to feedback and iterating on decisions when necessary. Don’t be afraid to be wrong and, you know, walk it back and change your mind. So with that, I wanted to say thank you for being here.

And it looks like. We have Q&A or no. Everybody will just need please just send your questions to me. This is my contact. You can if you want a coaching session.

If you want to chit chat with me about, you know, a thought process, just send me an email. I can I can walk it with, walk it through with you. And then you can also listen to my podcast or connect with me on LinkedIn. So I’m available for you anytime. Thank you so much.

And thank you, Heather.

Heather Prach: 40:55

Thank you, thank you Odette. Thank you for all of your sharing and personal sharing. That was really great. So thank you. I do have a couple questions for you.

So one, how do you balance short term objectives with long term vision for your bakery business.

Odette D’Aniello: 41:14

For me, I go with the long term first, and then I deal with the debt with the day to day. So we really have to make sure, first of all, that the day to day is taken care of, right. We have processes we use. EOS which is entrepreneurial operating system. So we have that.

We have an entire, you know, rubric for making decisions on the day to day. And then we base our we base our decisions on the day to day on that so that it gets us to our long term goal. I hope I answered your question right.

Heather Prach: 41:52

Yeah. No thank you. One more. How do you communicate your criteria to your team? So you went walk through some of the personal decision making and your process.

But how do you communicate that to your team to ensure a consistent approach to their decision making.

Odette D’Aniello: 42:07

So we really have we have a very clear core values and mission statement that we post all over the place, and that’s what we cover in every meeting. So that’s how we communicate it to the team. And it’s also in the way we act towards each other. Right. Right.

Heather Prach: 42:23

And if you didn’t see you got a little shout out in the Q&A. So I want to give credit where credit is due. So you get a great webinar shout out. But with that we’ll go ahead and wrap up today’s webinar on behalf of the DBA. I’d like to thank Odette for her wonderful presentation and for all of you for joining this session.

If you’re interested in presenting or sponsoring an ID DBA webinar, please contact us at webinars at. Or visit our webinars page at org under the Trend Center. Our What’s in Store 2024 is here. So we launch that on December 31st. So entering a new year armed with expert analysis market performance, forecasted trends, and hottest flavors, and much more.

So check out what we put out as the Bible to the industry, which is called our What’s in Store. It’s under the Trend Center on our website. So take full advantage of this member exclusive resource. And thank you for everyone for attending and for your continued support of the IBA. Have a great rest of your day and thank you, Odette.

We will see you next month as we continue this series.

Odette D’Aniello: 43:31

Thank you for the shout out.

Heather Prach: 43:35

Thank you. Bye bye.

Odette D’Aniello: 43:36

Alright. Thank you. Bye bye.

Speaker 1: 43:55

There’s no better venue for a brand like ours to be able to invite customers, find new customers Worth and show them our wares. I mean, this is this is a great a great venue, a great show.

Speaker 2: 44:10

It’s been a tremendous joy to be here and something for a small company, a family business where you come meet people. And we’ve met some really good retailers, right from Trader Joe’s, Sam’s Club to, you know, smaller retailers. But everybody’s been very welcoming and they’ve had we’ve had some really good conversations. You get to, you know, get from a large audience. Right.

They all come to us. We don’t have to go everywhere. We’re in a, you know, central location. And what’s nice about it is every year it goes to a different spot in the US where we can reach more customers.

Speaker 3: 44:43

We’re very proud to be part of IDDBA because it has opened us a lot of opportunities in retail and in-store bakeries to present our macaroon lines to key buyers. For me, at IDDBA is like attending the best bakery show of the year in the USA. So many opportunities. It’s really my favorite show.

Speaker 4: 45:05

The foot traffic has been high for all three days. The breadth of people in the industry, whether it’s retailers, brokers, manufacturers, it was great. I mean, there’s it’s a well-attended show.

Speaker 5: 45:20

Yeah. We love participating in the debate because we think it’s a great opportunity to matter. Very good people to discuss about to develop our product in the market in the United States. And then I think it’s maybe the seven years we participate to the IDDBA. We are very happy to be here.

Outro: 45:48

Thanks for listening to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.