Meet Arisabel Ottly

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Arisabel Ottly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Arisabel below.

Arisabel, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?

After several months of consistently attending vendor events, promoting my business, and fulfilling orders, I experienced a month where I did not receive any new orders. This period was particularly discouraging due to a previous event that had a poor turnout, causing me to contemplate shutting down and quitting altogether. However, my family provided unwavering support, and I had a close friend whose birthday was approaching, she requested a large order. I decided to gift her the order as a birthday present. Although I did not receive any payment for this order, the support and opportunity reignited my motivation. This experience encouraged me to increase my social media presence, reach out to potential clients more frequently, and showcase my creativity. As a result, I was inspired to introduce “birthday trays” as a new menu option.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My name is Arisabel Ottly and I come from a household where if you want it, you have to work for it. My business was started and is completely managed by me. I’ve always loved cooking/baking and i wanted to do something to make money. In my small city there are a lot of people my age often offering the same services, I wanted to be different. Tanghulu became a trend on tik-tok around February and i tried some out for myself, not too long it became something i fell in love with. After making some for my family i decided i wanted to sell some at school & after tremendous support i was deeply encouraged to start my own business. After much research and trial and error I decided to make candied fruit (Slightly different and thicker than Tanghulu). My brand is Afro-Latina owned and ran. I am a creative person always finding ways to differentiate myself from other people in my line of work, always open to criticism and always improving my brand.

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?

First, resilience is absolutely crucial. You need to be able to bounce back from setbacks and keep moving forward. Just like how I got back on track after my rough event turnout. Maintaining the determination needed to succeed is essential. Second, creativity is a game-changer. Always striving to be different than your peers and seperate yourself from competition is key.
Lastly, building a strong support system is vital. Surrounding myself with people (family and friends) that believe in me and my vision.

For those just starting out, my advice is to stay resilient, keep your creative juices flowing, and lean on your support system. Keep hustling and you’ll see the rewards.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

Honestly, an ideal client for me would be someone who’s decisive and ready to communicate. I love when people bring their ideas to the table but also trust in my word. A good sense of humor and a positive attitude always make the process smoother, too! When you already know what you want to order beforehand it makes the process run smoother and saves me a lot of time asking questions for specifics!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/admiredfruut/