Meet Allyson Perry

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Allyson Perry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Allyson, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.

My relationship with burnout is a lot more intimate than I want it to be and I’m learning how to balance the chaos within myself and my life. Right before COVID started, I was proud to be the “side hustle Queen” just trying to grow her baking business mostly through word-of-mouth. For about 4 years, I worked as a lyft driver and I got the opportunity to meet some amazing people. I always had a mini photo album of some of my previous baking orders because everyone loves a visual representation of your work. In between driving Lyft and baking, you could have found me working at a laundromat, tutoring my cousin at math, cleaning Airbnb’s, going to school in the evenings and briefly worked as a bail bondsman. For a few months I was able to balance most of my workload but bit by bit God started removing what didn’t serve me and I changed my availability for the other positions. It all came down to baking and attending school which was a very manageable schedule to work with.
Every time I’ve chosen to pursue my business full time, God always provided the clientele I needed to push my business forward. Anytime I felt overehlemed with work, I had to make a priority list of my task and labeled the importance according. Similar to the Eisenhower Matrix, I had to figure out what was more important & what had a higher level of urgency in my life. Whenever I will get close to burn out, I realized that I have to go outside and just take some deep breaths for a while with some uplifting music. The right music can really help you flow thru any workday. When I’m dealing with mental struggles like negative self talk, I start praying to God for grace and patience thru my day and help me find any solution.

When we give ourselves time to reflect about what we can and cannot control it can help some of your stress fall away naturally. If you do push yourself past burnout, please understand your body and God will sit you down physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually if you don’t heed the warning signs.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

This year, I celebrated 10 years of selling homemade baked sweets through my business Allykat Kreations. I’m passionate about creating unique cupcake flavors, adorable kid’s birthday cakes, logo sweet for corporate milestones and events and recreating my favorite sweets from my childhood. I love to get creative with my cupcake flavors and how I layer them in such a small bite. A few of my favorite flavors are Strawberry Cheesecake, Andes Mint, Key Lime Pie, 24Karrot, Banana Pudding and Pineapple Upside Down cupcakes. The most requested kids cakes are the cupcake Pull-A-Part & number cakes because they’re easy to give away to the kids. Recently, I’ve started using more natural dyes made from vegetable and fruit powders, driven by concerns about the health effects of artificial dyes on children.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of baking for companies like Delta TechOps, Subaru of America, and ZanziBar Atlanta in Sandy Springs. I’m excited about the prospect of working with more businesses and event planners as I continue to grow my B2B connections!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Growing up in SW Atlanta, I had the opportunity to learn golf at John A. White golf course thru The First Tee of Atlanta program. Before we could start practicing golf we had to understand the nine core values of The First Tee and in life; Confidence, Courtesy, Honesty, Integrity, Judgement, Perseverance, Respect, Responsibility, and Sportsmanship. The core value that connects with my journey the most is Perseverance. Whether it was a bad tee shot on the 1st hole or missing a deadline due to procrastination, You Have To Keep Pushing Thru! A lot of things we go thru in life aren’t in our control so learning to release control & trust God’s plan for me, is most important thing to remember!

A year ago I decided to leave the Engineering world of work and with it being my second time taking this leap of faith, I thought I knew what to expect. However, God’s plan had a few more lessons I needed to learn but I was motivated to become a full-time Entrepreneur and not feel miserable working for someone’s business; that was the key to finding my path in life. With every lesson God sent me, I had to learn how to give myself a lot of grace but that was not without a stubborn fight initially. I put Philippians 4:13 on all my business cards and flyers because I truly believe God will give you the strength to keep pursuing your dreams and passions.

Three months into my journey I had to make a tough decision and temporarily stop accepting orders. When I say I lost EVERYTHING, kitchen to bake in, a place to live and eventually the car I was sleeping in for 4 months but without my ability to be adaptable I would still be in that situation now. God continued to protect me and my business while I sat and reflected on any and all changes I wanted to make in my life and my business. I’m grateful for the time to reflect even when it didn’t feel like a blessing at the time but between reading the Bible more and studying multiple aspects of building generational wealth, I became even more motivated to grow my business and future businesses.

Since May I’ve been blessed to have a kitchen and place to stay while I build my business and I’m so grateful for my loyal customers who were patiently waiting for my return! I also want to give a special shoutout to my 96 year old granddad who has always been a huge supporter of my business. I always try to send him samples of my sweets and pictures of my work because I know he understands the life of an entrepreneur and how bad I truly want to live my life baking sweets that make people happy!

Being adaptable in life and business is crucial for consistent success. Yes, breaks are needed to help regroup mentally and sometimes physically but while you rest, making sure you’re learning something to improve your craft! Since 2020, I’ve invested in multiple courses and books to help me grow in business, baking & personal development because moments of rest are meant to be teachable moments and opportunities for growth!

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it’s more important to invest in improving the skills you’re not strong in because being a master of one skill can limit your ability to know when and how to grow. My family raised me to be as well rounded as possible because they knew being good at one thing wouldn’t help us thrive as adults. They were right! I was learning how to be a leader thru Girl Scouts, attending the 21st Century Leadership Program and thru learning golf with The First Tee of Atlanta. I was also immersed FBLA and STEM programs that helped connect me to my Engineering & Entrepreneurial careers.

The summer before my senior year of high school I participated in a Computing Camp at Georgia Tech that encouraged us to invent or innovate an invention to improve our everyday life. My partner and I won the Innovation Award with AT&T and we’re giving the opportunity to compete amongst Graduate students at a Women in Technology conference in Tennessee. Our invention placed in the competition and we were awarded scholarships to attend the annual Grace Hopper Conference that year. I wasn’t the coding type of engineer but my partner was so I was in charge of R&D and she did the coding for our invention. Without proper exposure and being connected with programs centered around what I wanted to learn, you’ll never know what can come from just putting yourself out there.

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