[IDDBA Series] Clear Is Kind: Setting Boundaries for Professional and Personal 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:

[1:52] Odette D’Aniello shares her family’s multi-generational bakery story
[5:44] Why boundaries blur in family-run bakery and specialty food businesses
[9:18] The friction between creative expression in baking and business decisions
[12:40] Work-life balance struggles for bakery owners
[18:10] Odette talks about customer relationships, community expectations, and pressures for free products
[23:30] The importance of self-care practices such as meditation, exercise, and play
[28:01] Communication systems with clients to prevent misunderstandings and manage feedback
[29:38] Delegation strategies through EOS and putting the right people in the right seats
[30:46] How mindfulness and meditation support self-awareness and boundary setting

In this episode…

Running a bakery or specialty food business often blurs the boundaries between personal life, family obligations, and customer demands. Long hours, creative passion, and constant requests can lead to burnout and resentment. How can entrepreneurs protect their well-being while growing a thriving business?

Odette D’Aniello, an experienced bakery owner and entrepreneur, emphasizes the importance of setting and maintaining clear boundaries. She shares practical tools such as the “whole cake” life balance model, the Eisenhower Matrix for time management, and her personal FEWGGS (focus, exercise, water, greens, gratitude, and sleep) self-care routine. Odette highlights the role of mindfulness and meditation in building self-awareness, encourages clear communication systems with clients and employees, and underscores the value of delegation by putting the right people in the right roles.

In this episode of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, Karen Hansen interviews Odette D’Aniello, Founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, about setting boundaries in the bakery and specialty food industry. Odette also explores the role of self-care in preventing burnout, the challenges of family-run businesses, and strategies for managing customer expectations while protecting personal well-being.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Quotable Moments:

“Being clear is kind, unclear is unkind. Communicating your boundaries gives others clarity in relationships.”
“Owning a business is fun. Really? No, really, it is fun. It’s the 99%.”
“When you’re saying no to others, you’re saying yes to yourself, and that’s super important.”
“Play is super important to our development. When the brain relaxes, creativity and new ideas form.”
“Setting boundaries is really a form of self-love. It creates compassion and motivation to protect yourself.”

Action Steps:

Establish clear business and personal boundaries: Defining what is acceptable in work and personal life prevents burnout and sustains healthy relationships.
Prioritize self-care through daily routines: Practices like meditation, exercise, hydration, and sleep improve focus and resilience for handling entrepreneurial demands.
Delegate tasks to the right people: Matching roles with individual strengths increases efficiency and morale while freeing leaders to focus on priorities.
Communicate expectations transparently with clients: Clear policies on timelines, orders, and feedback minimize conflict and ensure satisfaction without overextending resources.
Build a supportive professional and personal network: Surrounding yourself with peers and friends provides accountability, encouragement, and perspective during stressful times.

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.

Karen Hansen: 00:23

Hello everyone! Clear as kind setting boundaries for professional and personal well-being in the bakery and specialty food industry will begin in about one minute. While you’re waiting, be sure to register for upcoming webinars at eidsborg. Tomorrow we’ve got food! The biggest influencer Sakana.

Deep dive at 11 a.m. central. And then at 1 p.m., we’ve got transformative innovation in deli snacking with Sami Kestenbaum, founder and CEO of Pretzel Deli Associates, Cheesemongers and enthusiasts. Get your study caps on. Registration is open for two in-person charcuterie professional certification exams this year. The first is on June 8th at the IDDBA Show in Houston, Texas, and the second will take place at the American Cheese Society Conference in Buffalo, New York on July 11th.

Reach out to education@org for more information. Welcome everyone. My name is Karen Hansen, education assistant at IDDBA. Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar.

Clear is kind. Setting boundaries for professional and personal well-being in the bakery and specialty food industry. A couple of reminders. Before we get started, please submit any questions using the Q&A button and we will answer as many as possible at the end of the presentation. The recording of this webinar will be available to members to view on it.

And now I’d like to introduce Odette D’Aniello. She is the founder and CEO of Celebrity Ventures Incorporated, and I will let her tell you the rest. Odette, thank you for joining us today.

Odette D’Aniello: 01:52

Thank you. Karen. Hi, everybody. Thank you for being here for this. excuse me this May webinar series kind Setting Boundaries for Professional and Personal Well-Being in the Bakery and Specialty Food Industry. I started offering these webinars this year. The first one was in January, and it’s been I’ve been doing it monthly.

My name again is Odette D’Ainello. I’m the founder and CEO of Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, and we have two brands, Celebrity Cake Studio, which is our retail brand, and Dragonfly Cakes. Here’s a little bit about me. I was born in the bakery business. My grandma, my my grand uncle Lola started a bakery in Cebu back in 1940, something after World War two.

And since then, you know, we moved to Guam where I learned how to decorate cakes in my uncle’s bakery. And in 1998, we opened up a bakery in Lacey, Washington, with my family, with my sister Marianne, who is my partner. And we’ve been partners for 25 years. And my husband David. My brother, who has since passed, was also part of the family business.

And so as as I’m presenting this, I wanted to remind everybody that I am part of you, your group, and and I’m in the weeds with you, or I’m in the bakery with you because I actually actively running a bakery and a specialty food business that’s distributed nationwide. So, you know, when I’m offering these webinars, they’re really a a contribution to an industry that has really helped me and my family. So I create these webinars with a lot of joy. I so I’m glad that you’re here. So this this topic that we’re going over today is clear is kind, unclear is unkind.

It’s from a book by Brene Brown, Doctor Brene Brown, Dare to Lead. And it’s really about the whole concept of it is that when you communicate your boundaries to others, It gives them some clarity about where and how to deal with the relationship with when they have a relationship with you. So it’s very it’s a kind thing to to know what your boundaries are. And so that’s, that’s something that I really was speaks really close to my heart because I come from a culture, the Filipino culture, where boundaries often blur because we’re very familiar familial and very tribal. So a lot of times it’s very hard to say no to when people ask to for favors or anything like that.

And you, you end up, you know, a lot of times just in a quandary about, you know, whether or not to take care of yourself or whether or not to take care of others. So I think that’s being clear is kind. So excuse my PowerPoints because I made them and I’m not a professional PowerPoint maker. So the first thing that we want to talk about is that, you know, it’s part of the industry. You know, being in the bakery and specialty food industry does present some unique challenges.

A lot of times the dynamics there’s a there’s a blurring of professional and personal boundaries. And I want to go over some ways that this can happen. So when we start, a lot of people who start a specialty food industry or a bakery business, it’s because they’re really passionate about it. And when we’re passionate about our craft, we view it as an extension of our personal identity. You know, this is our style.

This is our passion. And then it makes really it makes a sometimes challenging to separate personal decisions, you know, based on emotions or, you know, sound like financial or strategic. Frameworks. So it’s just really difficult sometimes when it’s just, you know, it’s it’s a heart based industry. Right.

So we want to make sure that we’re aware of that that you know. Yeah. It does, it does. It is personal sometimes that, you know, this is our creative expression like when because it is, you know, a specialty a bakery, a bakery especially like for example, cake businesses. Right.

This it’s creative expression because it’s not just cake, it’s art in a lot of bread bakers and a lot of cheese makers, a lot of people who are creating food. It’s it’s creativity. It’s a it’s a way to express creativity. I don’t know if you guys have ever read the book Babette’s Feast, but is that Dennison? There’s a movie about it.

It’s a beautiful, beautiful story. And, you know, this is she was this woman who that was. Her mode of creativity was to to to cook. So I hope you guys can read that book, but it really speaks to about, you know, about how food can be a source of creative expression. And because of that, it can be hard to detach our personal creativity from business strategies.

And sometimes there’s conflicts, right? So we want to make sure that we’re aware of that. The next way that boundaries can blur, and I can really speak to this from experience, is that a lot of these specialty and bakery businesses are family run, and we’re it’s very common. And while this can foster, you know, closeness and a shared vision, it can also blur professional boundaries. And, you know, there’s decisions can be made because of family dynamics or personal relationships versus business considerations.

And that, you know, my sister and I, we’ve been in business. We’ve been in business together for 25 years, and my husband has been in it for the whole time. And, you know, my husband and I have been married for 31 years, and our main baker is our cousin Wallace. Right. So.

And he’s been with us for 25 years. And how do we do that? Like, how do we how do we stay close as a family, but yet run a business that has so many spatulas in the air? It’s because we have boundaries. And I want to I want to talk about how we do that.

And also this industry can create a really an imbalance in work life. Right. So there’s a it’s bakery especially. It’s so super demanding. There’s early mornings, long hours.

It can make, you know, very challenging for owners to maintain a home life that’s, you know, sound and balance with family dinners ready because, you know, there’s orders to be made and you have to stay, you know, at work Friday nights to finish all of those orders and then deliver Saturday and Sunday. So yeah, we know that this can definitely blur boundaries, and it can also result in personal sacrifices for the sake of the business. So one of the stories that I wanted to tell is this little one with a little hat, that’s my son. His name is Aspen, and he was born, actually, I was pregnant with him when I was looking at business, purchasing a business that was competing. The name, the name was Cake Studio.

And we had a another company, Celebrity Bakery. I was eight months pregnant when I was doing due diligence, and on the day that I was supposed to sign the papers, I. I was pregnant. I was like about to deliver. So but I was taking out an order and a nurse had said, who was?

The mom said, you know, honey, I think you are. You’re you’re going through contractions. I think you need to go to the hospital. So I closed the store down and called my husband and I said, we gotta go to the lawyer’s office. I have an appointment and call the lawyer’s office and said, look, I am about to go to the hospital and I need to sign the papers.

Can you have it ready for me? Like super fast. So I go there and, you know, I was I was going through contractions, go to the lawyer’s office, sign the papers and then went to the hospital, delivered my son five hours later, and then a day later I was at the bank. And so my son was born the day that Celebrity Cake studio as a as a merger between two companies was bought. I mean, that is like I don’t know if that’s work life balance or work life chaos, but you know, that was my story.

And also another way that boundaries can be blurred is that customer relationships we build strong customer relationships with, you know, in our in our industry especially where if we’re in a town and we’re in there for a long time, you know, so everybody knows you, you’ve done all their cakes or they do for every occasions, like all the cops get their donuts from you every morning and then you know you want it. You become very close to people. And then there’s also the, the constant asks of, you know, free this and free that and donations here, donations there. And then you end up just, you know, giving away the bakery because you’re trying to maintain your relationships. But then is that really, you know, viable in the long run.

So with that, that’s that’s something that we need to be aware of. And also it’s really hard to handle feedback sometimes, especially when we’re passionate about what we do. And gosh, gosh, Yelp and Google. I said, you know, I, I love this whole graphic. I made that graphic and it says I said no to fondant.

Mainly because we had a customer who, you know, sent a complaint to the Better Business Bureau because we put a little piece of fondant on her cake and she was unhappy about it. So it was just, yeah, it’s fun. Owning a business is fun. Really? No, really, it is fun.

It’s the 99%. That’s fun. The 1%? No. So handling feedback, make sure.

Don’t personalize it. It’s not about you. So I want to just, you know, preface this entire talk by, you know, my whole philosophy of owning a business and owning especially a bakery and specialty food business, that life is as a cake. It’s like it’s a system, right? So this is an entire cake that we have.

We like all our actions and our and our decisions are interconnected. Did, and I look at it as slices of cake in my life. Right? So and I look at it like, what? What parts of my life are being fulfilled and what parts of my life need attention.

So like this, this. And I got this from there’s a website I forgot the name of the of the site that I got this from. But the eight parts of life, right? So there’s personal and there’s friends, there’s money, there’s play, community health and there’s work. And then you can create these, you know, circles and then color it in and see which slice of cake you spent a lot of time with and which side, you know, slice of cake.

You you need more attention to pay, pay more attention to. We want to live our life as a whole cake and not in lopsided pieces. And that’s what happens when we lack boundaries, right? So if you work too much, then you neglect your health. Or you neglect your family or neglect yourself.

So, you know, there’s everything is interconnected. And every decision that we make affects other places in our life. So we have to very be very aware of that. So we like, for example, we recognize that high workload. For example, you can sacrifice a lot of other parts of your relationships and friendships.

Now there’s a I love this story about filling your jar with large rocks first and then the pebbles. So, you know, we want to like the large rocks. If you start with a small pebbles, you know the large rocks would never fit because the pebbles will fill the rocks first. And the small pebbles are the small, little tiny priorities that don’t really matter. And ultimately, there’s so many things that don’t matter.

But what really matters are the big rocks, right? Your personal health, your personal well-being, and your mental health, your relationships with your family, your children, your spouse, your friends, your community. Those are long lasting things that matter. So make sure you fill your jar with large rocks first, and then the pebbles. And the major large rock that I definitely want to focus on is self-care and personal boundaries.

We want to prioritize self-care and maintain physical and emotional well-being. You know, it’s really important that we set aside time to take care of ourselves. My sister sets aside time for her workouts. She absolutely has to workout. I set aside time for my meditations.

I set aside time for travel with my family because that keeps my brain, you know, motivated and happy. I also, you know, set aside time for relaxation and and hobbies and play. You know, we want to we want to have play in our lives. Because play actually research has shown that play is where creativity comes from. You know, when the brain is not tied up in a knot from all the stress, when it’s the brain is like, relax.

Then new ideas can form new neurons and synaptic connections can form. And I say those like 50 cent words, because I had just attended the Science of Consciousness conference in Tucson. And yeah, play is super important to our development and our, you know, and maintaining our well-being as human beings. And then part of my big thing is meditation. Meditation, you know, reduces your blood pressure.

Meditation clears up your mind, relaxes your body, gives you perspective. You have a moonshot view. A moonshot view is when you’re looking from the moon at your life and you’re like, oh, you know what? That Yelp review, that really didn’t matter. I shouldn’t lose sleep over that.

You know, that Better Business Bureau complaint about a piece of banana cake? It’s maddening, but it’s actually hilarious, you know? So those kinds of things just, you know, you get better perspective when you’re when you meditate and then communicate boundaries clearly to others. I know that this this, this slide has a lot of words, but I’m not a slide maker. I’m a baker.

Tell you that, right? It established clear communication channels and policies with your clients, your employees and family members regarding expectations, working hours and acceptable behaviors. So we have a system. I don’t know if you guys all know it’s called iOS Entrepreneurial Operating System. And we have, you know, mission, vision, goals and our mission.

Yes. Mission. And yeah, so definitely my brain. So anyway, we have all of those. Clear framework for our businesses.

Our. Yeah. So that people know exactly what we’re expecting. We do not you know we do not accept no backbiting. We don’t accept, you know, just any kind of negative kind of energy put into the business.

And the way the business runs is not acceptable for us because we want to create just a very clear place so that people can create and feel safe. Right. We also want to communicate our business hours And order deadlines and response times. It’s all on our website. You know, it’s all on our website.

What happens? Here we go. When we make a cake, for example, we send a text and we say, do you like it? You don’t like it. And if you don’t like it, what can we do to make it better?

And so then people are not, you know, called in from, you know, after leaving the bakery to correct things. So we want to make sure that people are, are especially our employees and our team are not in a frazzled mode. So we have their communication with our customers, their communication with our employees. And then we also implement workplace policies that respect personal boundaries. We have designated break times, which, by the way, is the law.

And in policies for addressing work related communications outside working hours, we have end of day notes. We have all kinds of ways to make sure that we are communicating every single minute. And you know, another way to have clear boundaries is to delegate and have really good time management, right. So I, I went over this in my last webinar, The Eisenhower Matrix. I don’t have to go through it with you, but it’s like, you know, the important and urgent.

Do them right then. Not important and urgent. Delegate them. The important and not urgent. You schedule them and the not urgent and not important.

Delete them. And you know, for that last one, those are the distractions. Those are the times on TikTok. Those are the times on, you know, scrolling through cat videos. And then like, for example, the important urgent do them like do your, you know, deadline for whatever whatever is urgent currently.

You know if there’s an emergency, do that. Make sure that that’s done and delegate tasks that don’t need to be done right away. But they must be done right. Your books, your financials, those need to be done. And those need to be delegated to the people that need to do it and schedule the not urgent ones.

We schedule our quarterlies, our annuals, our meetings. Right. So we schedule those and then make sure that you understand that you know, both family and employees and your team, that just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean that you’re the right person to do it right. Just make sure that you prioritize that. And practice assertiveness and boundary setting techniques such as saying no when necessary, delegating tasks that exceed personal capacity, and communicating personal needs and limits asserted lead to others.

Okay. Don’t be afraid to say no. Just say no. Because, you know, a lot of times when you’re saying no to others, you’re saying yes to yourself. And that’s super duper important.

You know. And assess. Set aside time periodically to evaluate how well your boundaries are holding up. You know, just say, well, you know, how are my relationships? Are they, you know, are they solid?

Because if they’re not, I’m sure that there’s a boundary. That boundary line that’s being crossed somewhere and explore what that is. You know, there’s like friends that may or may not be, you know, clear about, you know, your time and their time, right. So being late all the time and you know you’re okay with it sometimes. But then again, you know, is it really okay.

But you don’t say anything about it. Now you’re upset and now you’re resentful, and you don’t want to see that person. And then the friendship decays. So it is just a domino effect. And then be open to adjusting them as needed to accommodate changes in your situations and priorities.

Sometimes it’s worth talking about it. Sometimes it’s worth telling somebody, look, you’ve crossed my boundaries and sometimes it’s just not. They’re just not the type of people you don’t want to spend time with anyway, so you can just let that thing go and it’s probably better for you mentally. So that’s just my personal opinion. And then seek like a community, you know, seek support and accountability.

I’m part of an organization called EO and it’s entrepreneur organization, and we’re a group of business owners. And we you know, we meet all the time and discuss personal, business and family. If you’re, you know, you can go online and find EO Entrepreneurs Organization and and see if that works for you. If you are an entrepreneur or there’s other industry groups that you can find and just maybe be accountable and have, you know, have a mastermind that, you know, talks about your goals. And this is a picture of me and one of my EO forums, and that’s Tom Douglas.

We actually had a, an experience in his place where you you cook like they taught us how to cook. It was very simple food, but it was it was really fun because he passed by and we took a photo with him. And then don’t hesitate to reach out and help if you’re struggling to maintain healthy boundaries. You know, just therapy is great. I’m just going to say, you know, find out if that’s something that can help you.

I mean, if if not, have good friends, talk to them and say, you know, I feel really badly about this thing. You know, this thing that happens and then search what part of that relationship, you know, that may have, you know, have boundaries crossed. It’s just good to talk about it. It’s it’s not good to keep it inside. It’s just good to just talk about it because then you realize that you’re not alone.

There’s actually other people who feel the same exact way, and to be mirrored is just really healthy and good for all of us, because that’s all we want as human beings is connection. And mirroring is the main way we connect with each other, right? And in my last slide, because I love this and I made it, it’s called the choice to live in joy is a choice to love yourself. And that’s about it. Thank you for spending time with me.

My name is Odette D’Ainello. I host Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, which has since been on pause because I’m opening up a a A tea house, actually, here in Tucson, Arizona. It’s called Himalaya Garden and we offer our dragonfly cakes there. So I have a bit of an adventure and but I do I do have 28 episodes on my podcast with bakery owners who are women from around the country and around the world, actually. And it’s really fun to just listen to their stories.

My contact info. And you know, if you want me to just coach you and talk to you. I am here. My email is Odette@celebritygourmet.com. Or you can find me and find me on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much.

Karen Hansen: 25:53

Thank you Odette. That was really informative. And I think something we all need to pay more attention to is setting boundaries. What are what are some practical self-care practices that bakery owners can incorporate into their routines to ensure they maintain personal boundaries and prevent burnout?

Odette D’Aniello: 26:12

So I have my own that I presented last my last webinar. It’s called fugues. If you contact me or look at the last webinar, I have a slide on it. So it’s f e w w g g. So focus.

I meditate at least an hour a day. E is exercise. I you know, currently our exercise. My husband and I do ballroom dancing, but I like to go for long walks. You know, I swim sometimes.

You know, those are really important. So exercising at least two minutes a day. 20 minutes a day. W is for water. I drink about 60oz of water, which I measure every single day.

I used to have a spreadsheet and all this, but I don’t anymore. It’s just I just keep it in my head. And I write a lot of things that I write about. It’s like, what is, you know, three pages? What are the things I’m grateful for today or what happened today, and it just gives me a bit of perspective.

And then the G is for greens I eat like four servings of greens or you know actually it’s just greens. I could drink it or I could eat it. And then the other G is gratitude, which I can incorporate in my journal. And the S is sleep. I track my sleep with an Oura ring.

I just I haven’t been sleeping well at all because of projects that we’re doing here. And that’s what happens about, you know, it happens, but it’s good to be aware. It’s like, look, I haven’t had enough sleep. I need to make up for it. So that’s where I am.

That’s what I do.

Karen Hansen: 27:49

Excellent. See another question here. Could you provide some examples of effective communication strategies for setting boundaries with clients, especially in situations where feedback might be personal? Yeah.

Odette D’Aniello: 28:01

So communicating with clients when we when we have let’s just say for us, right? We do a lot of big events. And, you know, wedding cakes are, you know, super big deal. So we have a we have a system of communication where we’re very clear about things on our website, first of all. And then when people order, we’re very clear about following up and following through.

And then we ask people, you know, we ask people if they have they they fully understood our terms. We make them sign documents. And then if then we send pictures to them, if we don’t, if they don’t like it or we don’t like it or they don’t like it, then we ask clarity of we ask them that we that we need to hold on one second. Maulana, I can hear you. Sorry.

My daughter is getting ice water and I can’t hear myself speak. So anyway, I. Yeah, we just constantly are either texting them or communicating. We have a text. You know, we we have a text system because we have a bakery phone.

So we’re constantly talking to them or texting them and make sure that we’re that we’re fulfilling the way we need to fulfill. And for wholesale orders, we have entire systems for them.

Karen Hansen: 29:27

Okay. Delegation and time management are crucial aspects of boundary setting. Can you share some specific techniques or tools for effective delegation in a bakery setting?

Odette D’Aniello: 29:38

Yes. So we have a really good system. It’s called EOS. And we have a there’s a concept in EOS called the right people in the right seat on the bus. So we have to make, you know, we we analyze people’s strengths.

Right. So what they love to do what they’re good at. And then we put them in the right seats. So then we can delegate to them. So I definitely don’t like certain doing certain things.

And I don’t do them because I’m not good at them. But then there’s other people who like them, you know, particularly like social media, right? So I have an entire team that does that. I like to do it for my own personal, but not necessarily for the bakery daily, on the daily, because I don’t have the time for that. But there’s also, you know, bookkeeping that’s delegated to somebody who loves it.

And then finally, you know, things like things like that, we delegate. So there’s the important thing is to have the right people on the right seats. Okay.

Karen Hansen: 30:38

In your experience, what role does mindfulness and self-awareness play in setting and maintaining boundaries?

Odette D’Aniello: 30:46

So for me, I’ve been a I’ve been meditating since I was, let’s just say 32 years, 32 years. And what it has brought me in, in my life is that it has created a space of love for myself. And that’s what boundaries are. Setting boundaries is really a form of self-love. So when you when you meditate and you see yourself from a grander perspective, you see yourself in all your faults and all the things that you’re trying to do, you know, running around, trying to do your best.

And it gives you a lot of compassion for all the efforts that you’re putting in, and that gives you motivation to set boundaries around it. So a lot of times when we’re not aware of who we are, we just don’t know where we start and stop with others, and we use other people’s, you know, appreciation or attention as a way to validate ourselves. But when we self validate by closing our eyes and literally being in silence, you know, we don’t need other people’s validation. We can just have our own and be respectful to ourselves and to others. So it’s really a form of self-love.

Karen Hansen: 32:01

Okay. Building a supportive network is vital for maintaining boundaries. What advice do you have for finding and cultivating that support system?

Odette D’Aniello: 32:10

So I am part of entrepreneur organization. So that’s really, you know, been my my way of getting support as a CEO and founder. That has been fantastic because there’s other people who are going through the same, you know, thing as I’m I am personally that’s for professional. Personally, I have a group of friends that I’ve known since I was a child from Guam. You know, we we met in seventh grade and there’s about ten of us, and we’re still good friends.

And they support me in so many ways. You know, like, for example, when a chef quit in my new venue, they all flew in and they cooked with me. And, you know, we just support each other. And that is really important because they also mirror, you know, who I am and who I’ve been, and that has been super helpful in maintaining my own perspective about, you know, the reality that I’m in, like, you know, things come and go, but, you know, there’s there are people and places who see you in your true light. And that’s super important to have in your life.

Karen Hansen: 33:17

All right. I’m not seeing any other questions coming in. So thank you so much. On behalf of the DBA, I’d love to thank you for this very helpful webinar audience. If you’re interested in presenting or sponsoring an ID DBA webinar, please contact us at webinars at or visit our webinars page under the Trends Center tab.

Thank you everyone for attending and for your continued support of the DBA. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you Karen.

Odette D’Aniello: 33:48

Thanks everybody.

Guest Speaker: 33:50

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

Guest Speaker: 34:05

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 in front of a large audience. Right.

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

Guest Speaker: 34:38

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

Guest Speaker: 35:01

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 here.

Guest Speaker: 35:16

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

Outro: 35:38

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.