We were lucky to catch up with Katie Lubeck recently and have shared our conversation below.
Katie , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Keeping a steady flow of creativity can certainly be challenging, but inspiration is everywhere if you just look for it. I am constantly drawing inspiration from the amazing online community of bakers and makers, as well as challenging myself to look at things in new ways. For example, I have often looked at kids’ pajamas and bedding and other textiles and thought to myself, “That would be such a cute cookie!” I also pay attention to nature and other art mediums and often try to figure out how to apply the colors, designs, and textures I see to cookie form.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am Kansas City born and raised and thoroughly midwest through and through! After attending college at K-State, I was a middle school teacher for five years before becoming a stay at home mom to my two elementary aged daughters. I began my cookie decorating journey after a freak accident left me home bound for 6 weeks and I needed something to fill my time. I took a cookie decorating class to learn the basics, and grew my skill set from there by practice and watching countless videos on multiple social media platforms. I absolutely love getting to create custom works of art for people’s most special life events- ones their eyes and tastebuds can enjoy! It’s definitely a craft that takes countless hours of practice, learning, and mistakes to perfect, which makes the end result incredibly satisfying.
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?
Persistence, attention to detail, and being ok with taking a risk. My first few attempts at decorating cookies were absolutely disastrous! I looked at all the perfect cookies I saw all across social media and truly thought I would NEVER attain that level of skill. Luckily, it was something I was just very interested in, so I kept at it and slowly but surely got better. I think one of the things that helped me improve is that I am naturally very detail oriented. I paid close attention to the techniques I was trying to learn and more than once scoured the internet to find answers to my questions. In addition to being naturally detail oriented, I am also naturally risk-averse, which made putting myself out there very uncomfortable. I’m glad I did, because the pay-off has been far better than I ever could have imagined.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
The cookie and baking community online is incredible. It is so full of wonderful, generous, and creative people who share their skills, struggles, techniques, and wisdom so freely. These are people, most of whom I’ve never met in person, who encourage me and cheer me on and provide incredibly valuable knowledge. I think many of them would agree with me when I say that an individual’s success is largely a group effort!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.cookieartkc.com
- Instagram: Cookieartkc
- Facebook: Cookieartkc
Image Credits
Tiffany Ervin Photography
