We were lucky to catch up with Tracy DeVore recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tracy, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
This is a really good question! Especially because currently, we are having to rely on our resilience in light of the fact, that just a week ago we were ousted from our shop location of 8 years with just 30 days notice, at our busiest time of the year! My father once said to me, when things get hard, or if things get bad, it’s just like riding a horse (he was a farmer/teacher/horse breeder/cattle rancher). You pick up one leg (boot) at a time, and get back on the horse, and just keep going. I believe I was bucked off a horse one time, and afraid to get back on. With him telling me this, I did get back on, and kept on going. And that’s what we are doing now. Currently, we luckily have found a new shop location, just a block from where our previous location was. We had looked and looked and were becoming discouraged, as rents are so high everywhere. We are going to restructure our days/hours and give it our all because the rent is higher, but we feel lucky to have even landed anywhere. We love our Eagle Rock community, and the cards, by chance or destiny, fell together. We will be reopening just after the Thanksgiving holiday.
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?
Knowrealitiypie is a hand crafted, gourmet, artisan pie shop. We are quality, not quantity driven, making unique and traditional pies in a variety of seasonal flavors with our award winning flavors. We are 11 time KCRW Pie Contest winners, with a tiny shop located at 1578 Colorado Boulevard, in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. We use high quality ingredients, and hand make our mini pies, slices, hand pies and galettes, each morning we are open. We make savory pies and quiche as well, and folks can walk into the shop when open, but also order whole pies online with some advance notice. We invite everyone to “Know Real Pie” because there are a lot of imposters out there, ie, crummy pies, and we want folks to have the best pie experience possible. In addition, we are taking Christmas/New Years/Gift Card and pie orders online.
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?
Perseverence, Creativity & Passion, Honesty. Without any of these, your business will not succeed! Never ever give up on your dreams, and tap into your creativity and channel that into your business. We channel our creativity into our unique pie flavors. Be honest with yourself and your limitations, but also with your customers/audience because they deserve nothing less and should expect more.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me, was to raise me to become a hard worker, even at a very young age. Pay for your own things and way through life, and that hard work will bring personal rewards in the form of happiness and joy that you are independent, and can make your own way through this life not having to rely on anyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Knowrealitypie.com
- Instagram: Knowrealitypie
- Facebook: Knowrealitypie
- Twitter: Knowrealitypie
- Yelp: Knowrealitypie
Image Credits
Photo credits Kelly Deco & Tracy Ann
