00:03I love candy but don't tell my dentist that because he would not be too happy
00:07with me. Although I do keep him in business so maybe it's okay in the end.
00:18My name is Dana and I am the owner of Dana's Bakery. I never use the Easy Bake Oven but
00:25I
00:25always love baking even as a little girl and bake with my grandma I would always try out
00:29new recipes. It's always been a passion of mine. I just never thought about doing it
00:33for a living. I went to school for photography. I actually got my BFA and I've
00:37been working as a photo editor for the last 10 years. One day I just had a
00:41moment and I'm sitting in my cubicle and I am editing muscle men and speedos and I
00:47literally said out loud is this what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life and the
00:51next week I quit my job.
00:56We make French macaroons in really fun American flavors so we took that
01:00traditional French macaroon and we kind of put a spin on it. Birthday cake, champagne,
01:05candy corn, red hots, peanut butter and jelly, fruity pebbles, orange creamsicle.
01:11I kind of use the macaroon as my vessel. Whatever I gravitate towards, whatever tastes
01:15good to me, any fun flavor combinations, we'll see how we can turn that into a
01:19macaroon. And it takes a lot of skill to make them. But so everything's done by
01:23hand so making macaroons is not necessarily like making a cookie where
01:27you're just kind of putting it on a tray and sticking it in the oven. There's
01:30about 16 steps that go into making a macaroon from making the meringue to
01:34folding the ingredients together. You have to know how to pipe so they're really a
01:38force to be reckoned with and kind of have to respect the macaroon.
01:45Dylan's candy bar was one of our first big wholesale accounts and it's always been a dream
01:50of mine to be in here. I'm still so excited to this day. It's terrifying to take that
01:55leap especially to leave what you've been doing for years and start your own thing
01:59and everyone thought I was crazy. I do what I think is right and hopefully it works out
02:03in the end and if it doesn't you learn from it. I don't have a background in business so
02:07that's something that I've really had to learn and every day it's a new challenge.
02:11Tons of holy shit moments but once you get there you learn how to figure it out.
02:16You move on from the next and then when you start getting comfortable again you
02:20go through it all over again which is a great thing because it means that you're
02:23growing.
02:27One piece of advice that I would give is being a business owner you need to make
02:30hundreds of decisions daily. You can't harp on things for too long. You can't go back and
02:36change it. Sometimes they work out. Sometimes they don't. If it doesn't work
02:39out you learned from it and it only makes you stronger. It makes you a stronger
02:42business person. I get to wake up and I get to do what I love. I feel so blessed
02:48that I can create a team of people to have around me that help and support me.
02:53We've become family and I hope that it shows in what we do and it translates to our food.
02:59What is it that they say? They say if it's not scary it's not worth doing. Those types of
03:04challenges are really important in life. That's how you strive for greatness.
