Meet Lydia Parrish

 

We recently connected with Lydia Parrish and have shared our conversation below.

Lydia, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

It’s an interesting thing. I had low self esteem growing up. I was bullied in every arena I found myself in. For a long time, I coped by people pleasing and acting as a sort of chameleon. Big shocker, that lead to more low confidence. I didn’t see myself as the unique individual I truly was.

I ended up going in counseling when I was 21 years old. I have spent the last several years with my therapist and found my self esteem and confidence there. I got real, raw, and honest with myself. It was a tearing down and a reconstruction. The more I trained myself to view the world and myself differently, confidence and self esteem made their way into the core of who I am.

Mental health matters. It’s not a trivial trend or buzz word. If you’re willing to do the work, you truly can change your whole life trajectory.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Sourdough started with motherhood. I was learning about the world of intentional living and many of the lost arts of my great grandmother’s generation. A friend of mine gifted me Agatha, my 60+ year old starter. My first loaves turned our like communion bread. You could have clobbered someone with those things. I’m determined by nature though and I did not stop trying. After two years of effort, my loaves started coming out not only delicious but visually appealing.

Blue Willow Cottage started with a Christmas Tree and a china pattern. I did a special holiday design of a pine tree in one of my loaves, My husband pushed me towards selling and I agreed. I was meant with enthusiasm when I posted the loaves on social media and found myself in need of a business name.

Blue Willow is in honor of my grandmother, Emily Cannon. She instilled so many values within me, including a love of heirloom quality. She always served us on her Blue Willow China set, one that I have now inherited. The idea of heirloom quality is a huge part of our mission statement. We take care of good things, we honor old traditions, and we don’t lose sight of what matters. For us, that means honoring the long fermentation process that makes sourdough sourdough. It means using organic ingredients. It means thoughtful packaging and presentation. It means taking care of the souls that come our way. They matter to us and we want our product to reflect that.

We have two locations. We are at The Melissa Farmer’s Market every Saturday year round. We also run our farm stand in front of our cottage in Howe, TX as a pick up location for during the week. My husband runs our booth at the Denison Farmer’s Market in the summer while I am over at Melissa. This is a huge expansion from where we were just over a year ago selling a couple loaves a week on Facebook marketplace.

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?

1. Mentorship. My father, Jeffrey Petersen, taught me how to run a business. I took a course that he designed just before I baked that Christmas Tree Loaf. That course and what has developed into his mentorship has been crucial to the success we have achieved thus far. You have to have at least a little bit of know how and someone to guide you along the way to cut down on some of the stress of entrepreneurship. Seek those people out! Be it Facebook groups, someone you know, or a course that you take. It’s a beautiful thing to not know it all.

2. Grit. You have to keep going even when it feels like you’re losing. I hit my most formidable wall before I found the success I was working towards for a year. I truly thought my business was about to die. I found the window and climbed through. It is absolutely necessary that you are not dependent on passion as a motivator. You must pursue discipline, grit, and accept that working for yourself is not easy. It all comes down to you. Show up for yourself.

3. Self confidence. I learned when I was 15 and publishing books that the people you casually know will not be your supporters. As a young teenager, that crushed me. As a 26 year old, I understood that I needed to go find my customer base. They wouldn’t be from my Facebook friends list. I don’t think I would have been able to do that without truly believing in myself and my unique skill set. My advise would be to find that skill set, hone it, and believe in it. Then put it on display.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

My space. I work out of a 900 sq foot cottage that we love but are quickly outgrowing. I have three fridges stuffed in here, a professional bread oven on the way, and very little room. We are praying through are options right now but they all cost a good amount of money. We’ve applied for grants and are looking forward to a fruitful season but we are definitely stuck for the time being.

In my dream world, I have an entirely separate room that is a dedicated baker’s kitchen. It is hard to have our home kitchen mixed with our work space.

However, challenges are an opportunity for growth. That’s the reframe I keep in the front of my mind whenever I get frustrated. It’s also been a great way to keep my overachieving self from growing too quickly. We want to keep this business for a long time and sustainable growth is a huge part of that.

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Lydia Parrish

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