Meet Morgan Wilke

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan Wilke. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Morgan, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is something that I, like many women with blooming businesses, have faced. When it comes to subverting your worries about being good enough, I think its important to lean on those who support you and your vision. We need to focus on feeding the energies that will drive us forward, not only in business, but in our personal lives as well. The road to success is long, and discouraging at times, it can be helpful to look back and see how far we have come.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My company The Kitchen Witch AZ makes artisanal culinary goods, right now we only sell our delicious jams, jellies, and fruit butters. However as I look to the future, I want to dip my ladle into other delicious artisanal products; pickles, spices, sauces, syrups. The possibilities I see in this space are limitless. Although the culinary space is ever-evolving and there is so much competition, I just try to focus on what I do best, being creative in the kitchen, making balanced and unique flavors come alive.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think my curiosity has brought me to many unique places in life; if you’re interested in something, try it out. If you remember loving something you did as a kid, revisit that experience. I remember fondly my grandma teaching me how to make jam once as a kid, it was so exciting for me, although she didn’t realize at the time what an impact that made on me. It’s those small acts of love by others that can help shape our path in life.

I did always love being in the kitchen, learning how delicious things are made, However, I actually went to school for a Fine Arts Degree not a culinary arts degree. But I use that degree in art in my culinary business all the time! Whether it’s the patience, I learned to do what I didn’t think I could accomplish, or designing the labels for our products and marketing.

We all have a path in life, and we go through various experiences (good or bad) for a reason, the lessons we learn along the way can lead us to great places, especially if you are brave enough to step onto trails less traveled.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Over the past year my small family of three went through a lot… My husband and I were caring for our young baby, we had just moved into our new house and then all of a sudden my husband lost his job. Although we had gone through this before as it is common in his field, it all became a lot scarier with a little one in our care. Thankfuly we did have my side business The Kitchen Witch AZ, which was something fun I did to bring in some extra money, But I really had put the business FAR to the side after having our son. So we had to now rely on a side business that was essentially on life support. We focused really hard on it to make it grow, we have pushed ourselves to the limit to bring back The Kitchen Witch bigger and better than before. We now are making this a viable option for a fulltime income, not only for us but our loved ones as well. We can see more clearly now the real potential of this little dream I had, and we are working tirelessly to build our ‘jam-pire’ as we jokingly call it.

We were tested to our limits at that time but we have come out on the other end stronger and more ambitious than ever, that’s the kind of growth and improvement that money can’t buy and is earned the hard way. I do not look at that time of crisis with any sort of fondness, but I sure as hell appreciate it.

We have much more to do, the work has only just begun. But I am glad to say we have a really strong foundation for the big moves we have planned for the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thekitchenwitchaz.com
• Instagram: thekitchenwitchaz