We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Rubenstein recently and have shared our conversation below.
Danielle, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I get my work ethic from my dad, who recently passed away last October. About 18 years ago, my mom became ill and was not able to work anymore (cutting her income out of the equation), My dad took over the financial responsibility for the entire family which included my two sisters and I. Even though I was young at the time, I could see that having only one income with a family of 5 put stress on my mom and dad mentally and physically. Every day, I watched my dad go to work (sometimes when he wasn’t feeling his very best), make his money, come home to be the best husband he can be and support his three daughters by showing up to every sport game we had or extra curricular activities we were in. It seemed like no matter what life threw at him, he picked himself up, put a smile on his face, and was there for his family financially, physically and emotionally. The lesson I took from his work ethic was to make your money but don’t forget that there is a life outside of work to live. Live your life and try your best to be present.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
A quick little back story, I was about 9 years old and my best friend and I would love to bake/make different items in her moms kitchen (cookies, cinnamon rolls or smoothies). We would film ourselves on a VHS, pretending we were on a cooking show. We would give a step by step instruction on how to make our treats. We had a blast!
Fast forward 15 years, I worked for a preschool as a teacher and I was in charge of the cooking creation portion of the day. All the kids loved this part of the day! There smiles warmed my heart as I watched them make their food creation. My role as the instructor was, I would instruct the kids showing them step by step instructions on how to make different foods. We made mini pizzas, pretzels, cookies, and more.
One day I had an idea that I wanted to be apart of children’s parties by offering cooking creation services. Not sure what I wanted to do with that idea at the time but a year after I decided I wanted to be able to make treats for kids parties. A few years went by and I’ve been apart of so many birthday events where my dipped treats and cakes have been apart of.
Even though my love for making treats and cakes is still there, this year I recently switched over to focus on beignet catering, where I actually get to make this yummy French donut at parties! As the catering grows I’m excited to see where this journey will take me.
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?
By following my intuition (that little voice in my head that is telling me to go after what I want) has allowed me to gain these three skills/knowledge.
First one is being creative. While working on orders, some customers gave me free range to create designs that fit their theme. By my customers allowing me the freedom my creative side was born.
Second skill would be confidence. When I first started making treats I was doing it for fun. As I began creating more treats for more customers my confidence was slowly building. My customers feedback was very important to me as I have high standards on how I want my products to look and taste. The love they had for a product I was making really warmed my heart.
Third skill would be patience. There where times I would get so flustered because my chocolate for my treats wasn’t melting properly or I forgot to add an ingredient to a baked good. These lessons allowed me to step back and ask myself how can I solve the problem.
My grandpa would always say to every problem there is a solution!
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
When I feel overwhelmed, I take a step back and ask myself what I need at this moment to make myself better. That may look like grabbing myself a cup of coffee from my favorite coffee shop, take a drive to the beach, have lunch or dinner with a friend, lay on the couch with takeout and my favorite movie on or just take a nap. Putting myself first has been such a game changer and is always a priority. Find what makes you calm and happy and do it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Dededoit
