We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katrina Sluder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katrina below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Katrina with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My work ethic comes from my grandma and my mom, they were and always have been strong women with a strong work ethic. Growing up I watched them work themselves to tears, working for every goal they had and never giving up.
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 story starts as a single 21 year old pregnant mom. Scared of the world, and worried about her and her daughter’s future. I was fresh from the military and working as a correctional officer at Menard prison, knowing I had to figure things out on my own I started what originally was a candle making side gig, to make extra income
For my daughter and I, and slowly incorporating baked items, soon realizing I had a hidden talent and love for baking. So I started researching and discovering recipes and just kept going. Within 2 years I started staying home with my kids and baking full time. With determination and a strong sense of work ethic I kept growing and learning more , long nights and a lot of traveling, there were days I almost gave up but I chose to keep going and I’m so thankful I did! Here I am over 8 years later I went from just doing orders here and there to running a small bakery full time! I can only hope to grow from here and see where life takes me! I’m so thankful to have a husband who supports me now and pushes me to continue even on my hard days.
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’d say, the three areas of knowledge that has helped build my success story is keep God number one, don’t give up on the hard days and that success can not happen without failures so keep going. Advice I have is stay humble, and don’t get jealous of others. A hundred people can do the same thing but yours will always be different and there are enough customers for everyone!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My number one challenge is trying to get my bakery fully operational outside of my home. I worked with banks for over a year and it was just road block after road block so my solution was to renovate a portable building and turn it into a commercial bakery building
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Sarah green the blessed lens
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