Thanks
to Erin McKenna, the celiacs, vegans, and nut and dairy allergic people of the world can enjoy baked goods like donuts, focaccia, sandwich bread, muffins, bagels,
and beyond. In many ways, Erin McKenna’s Bakery (formerly known as BabyCakes),
can be credited with kicking off the gluten-free craze. Erin now has storefronts
in NYC, L.A., and at Disney World, and has authored three cookbooks (her newest one is on all things gluten free bread). Her tremendous career is
the result of unexpected twists and turns, hits and misses, missteps, and
meditation. Ahead, she shares her journey, and some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Your dream job doesn't always pan out the way you expect.
“My dream job was to become a costumer on
Saturday Night Live. I thought that most of the humor of sketch comedy was in
the costumes, and I just got such a kick out of it! So, I got into fashion and almost immediately I saw what it was, and it was just not for me. I really
missed waitressing.”
You know your dream is real when you're ready to sacrifice.
“I really struggled, because I felt way too
old to go back to waitressing. It felt like a step down, and I had spent so
long trying to get this fashion job. It
was a really competitive job [to get] at the time, and I had worked my butt off! But, when I got there, I was just unhappy. I saw everyone around me really advancing
in their careers, and I knew that my mom really wanted me to have some
corporate job, so it was a hard decision to make. Eventually, I decided to
quit and went [back] to working at restaurants. Almost immediately, I got happy, and that’s
when I had the idea for the bakery.”
You have to trust your heart and listen to your gut.
“The feeling that the bakery gave me when I
thought about it was like what people describe as falling in love. And, I knew I couldn’t be wrong. I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to go
with this. I knew that that strong feeling right in my stomach was pulling me
from other space and time.”
You don't need to know how you're going to get there.
“I didn’t know how to bake, really. I knew nothing about business. I had never had a credit card. I had
defaulted on my student loans when I was 20, like everybody else. All I knew
about the restaurant industry was basically service.”
Sometimes you'll have to figure everything out from scratch.
“I didn’t know about Google at that time,
maybe it didn’t really even exist yet? I remember looking so hard for a cookie on
the Internet that would not be made of ingredients I wanted to avoid, and that
was also gluten-free and dairy-free. There was one cookie on the web, and the site was dead. Also, there were
really no cookbooks out there that were gluten-free and vegan.”
Persistence and passion pay off...
“So, I committed to spending every single
day doing at least one thing that would push forward the whole business.
Figuring out the basic gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, vegan flour base
required the most patience, and was the most intuitive of all. I would change it
by the tablespoon for the flour and some stuff by the teaspoon. It took me
about six months of [testing] every morning before I went to work and after I got home at
night.”
...And, make success taste so much sweeter.
“When
I finally nailed a dough recipe that was vegan, egg-free, gluten-free,
dairy-free, and soy-free, I was just like SO proud — Oh my God! I was at the restaurant where I worked at the
time, and I just felt like the richest person on the planet. I was like, I'm gonna be so rich! You don’t understand how amazing
my life is about to become!”
Find ways to stay calm and focused, even when it's a challenge.
“I
found something called Japa meditation, and I do 15 minutes every day. I
still have to force myself to do it — it requires that sort of commitment that
working out does, or going to do yoga. I
think it takes 10 minutes to really clear my head, and then I just enjoy five
minutes of no thought. I don’t try to figure anything out, I'm not there to
have inspiration, I'm not there to change my mood, I'm just there to completely shut off for five minutes. And, that really ends up changing my mood and making me feel more connected,
open, flowing, and focused.”
In the end, do what makes you happy.
“I
would say find what makes you happy and inspired, and find a way to either
intern at it or make money from it. It’s okay to make your money doing something
that you think might be boring, if it’s going to support you moving forward in
your goals and inspirations. If you have a job that is going to support you
financially in painting, or making clothes that you're going to sell on Etsy, or
whatever, then it's worth it. And, go to
that job not angry at the people. Go with a genuinely good attitude in
recognition that this is something that’s helping you realize your dreams.”