Starting a Business is No Cakewalk

their jobs. Well, today we talked to a baker who lost hers, but instead of looking for a new job, she's creating her own. The sound you're hearing is the start of a new business just getting sort of. It's a sound of a standing mixer making chocolate chip cookies. So they're just salted chocolate chip cookies. It took me like two months to get this right. My had to try something here. They are not just salted chocolate chip cookies.

They are a masterpiece, lovingly and maybe obsessively concocted in Meg's kitchen. Meg Dawson, I'm thirty years old, I am a baker, and I own operate and bake at Doss butter House. Oh my god, I know it's not good to eat on an audio, but this is one of the best cookies right now in COVID. Meg is baking in a commercial kitchen where she lives in rural Charlotte, Vermont. Doss Butterhouse is her first business. She just started selling

baked goods for pickup and delivery. She's been baking for a long time, but for the first time she is doing it her way. Cookies are so controversial. I think that melted butter in a chocolate of cookie is like the only way to go. It's a consistent bake every time. She cares a lot, and it's clear when you taste her food that it just feels like this is a person who's deep in a creative process. They're still gooey

in the middle with crispy edget like that. It's just like a perfect cookie every time, and people are like, cream your butter. As we set up top. The restaurant service industries, they've taken a huge hit during the pandemic, and Meg, like many people who worked in culinary, had their career a bit derailed by the pandemic. But instead of looking elsewhere for a job, she's doubling down and frankly thriving. You really you don't seem like you're wasting

much time in this pandemic. Um. I'm so grateful to be able to make cookies like like it's like my six year old child's dream. Like you can work with cookies and chocolate your entire life if you wanted to. For money, people will pay you to make cake. Isn't that awesome? Okay to hear more about my story and how she got here taking this leap of faith with Doss Butterhouse. I sat down with her outside the kitchen.

Are you going to make hear me a sound? With her two black cats, Hobart and corners like the mixer and cornishan like the pickle. She lives here in Charlotte with her fiance, not far from the kitchen she bakes in. She definitely found her place in this tight community here. But she's originally from the South. I was born in New Jersey, but I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Yeah, definitely a weird kid. Definitely have been cooking my whole life. I was like that weird kid that would like bring

risotto to like a potlock in sixth grade. That's so weird. It's super weird. But people loved it. It's cheesy, it's delicious. Me grew up in a household of cooks. Her dad cooked, her mom cooked, But my grandmother was like an amazing half amazing, Like she would watch Julia Child and then go into her kitchen and make that for dinner. Like she would be like ironing, watching it and then being like I can do that, and then just start making like she was like a five star chef. She was

watching Julia Child, you were watching her. Yeah, yeah, basically. So even though Meg was the weird Risotto kid, she said, she went to a pretty nerdy high school and fit right in there. School where for your senior year you pick your own mentorship at a job. In the real world, most people would do their mentorships at like a doctor's office or like a law office. And I asked if I could do it in a restaurant, and they're like, sure, whatever you want. That was like my first intro into

like actual kitchens. So you love cooking, but you've never been like in the food culinary kitchen world. What was it like when you get thrown into the fire. It was a totally I mean, when you cook at home, it's a totally different experience because you're cooking for yourself and so you can screw up as many times as you want to. But when you're cooking in a kitchen, and especially in like a small, like family owned thing,

it's like you can't really mess up. That's their money, that's somebody's business, and there is a slim margin of error. And where that might have been a daunting environment for a regular teenager to step into, Meg was hooked. I loved it. I loved being in a kitchen. I loved working. I loved I know this is gonna sound stude, but it makes you feel important, Like it makes you feel like you're doing something for a reason, and like that was kind of the first time that I felt like

I was good at what I was doing. Meg played sports in high school, but said she was never the best on the team. She was a good student but usually got bees. But in the kitchen, she felt like she excelled and she felt right at home and accepted they thought it was cool that I was the weird Risotto kid. I mean, like if like it felt right. She started off college at BU. She then transferred back home and went to University of Virginia. While working at

two restaurants. Basically worked like forty hours a week at two different jobs and went to school. And then I graduated and immediately moved to New York. What you got there? She applied for about twenty five jobs and restaurants before she even got one break. I've got a job working with a really amazing pastry chef. I never wanted to do pastry, like I was always uh cook and I never thought pastry was where I was going to go.

I thought like, I'll take this for a couple of months, I'll figure out what I want to do, And turns out I loved it. For Meg, this was a new medium she could express herself with, like cooking, but more organized. It made it really fun to be creative. I could take these very specific ratios. It's like, you know that, like this plus this plus this makes this like a very specific it comes out the same every time. From that, you can kind of morph it into what you want

to do. So she kept working in different kitchens, each time picking up on more aspects that helped her understand the business more and more, and she eventually found her way to Vermont, where she ended up landing a huge gig running the bakery and an esteemed farm and restaurant in Charlotte, where she could only make a menu based off of what was seasonally available at local farms around her. To have to think, like that is so great for your brain and it's so great for creativity. You thrive

when you have constraints to work with them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like having parameters where it's like, okay, like you only have rhubarb for two weeks. Good luck. By the time she got into the swing of things at this farm restaurant, Meg already had a decade of experience. This was a great job, but by this point she knew enough about baking and about the business itself to start concocting her

own ideas. I felt like there were parts of myself that I was like tamping down constantly, which is just what you do when you work for someone else. Is like you're constantly doing what other people tell you do, and that's part of the job. Meg was running the kitchen here when COVID hit, and like most restaurants, hers pivoted to pick up and delivery and they were slammed.

It was especially now when she got overworked that she started squirreling away ideas for Doss Butterhouse a dream bakery where she had the freedom to make what she wanted to make, which had like sprinkles and like salt and all of these things that like I loved um and especially like during COVID it was almost like a coping mechanism of like being so insanely busy that I wanted to cry, and then coming home and like thinking about what I would do better if I did it myself.

And then late she got hit by a rogue wave. Even though the restaurant had one of the best season had ever had, they started letting people go. Yeah, they laid off a huge part of their staff, including myself. There were a lot of really amazing people that I worked with. It was really surprising and really sad. Yeah,

it kind of sucked. What were your initial feelings when you think I can conflantly say a workaholic, Um, well, suddenly without a job and a job that you were very intimately tied to running this entire kitchen, I I kind of and this, I don't. I know that a lot of people wouldn't do this. I basically, within like three days, was like, Okay, I've been thinking about Doss butter House. I guess I'll just make dossboter House a thing. She did make Doss butter House a thing, in case

you're wondering. The awesome name is inspired by German pastries and her love for pretty much all things German. I was really inspired by like Grimm's fairy tales with like the gingerbread House, where it's just like a big plable house full of butter instead of candy, because I don't like candy. I like better. Meg was laid off in October, so she was looking down the barrel of starting Dust

butter House in the holiday season. I knew that the big thing I wanted to do was Thanksgiving, though, because I knew that Thanksgiving was like, it's a huge thing in Charlotte. It was a huge thing at the farm. The farm where she had just worked sold about sixty pies that last Thanksgiving, which is a lot for this little community. I just kind of started putting the word out that, like, they're still gonna be pies in Charlotte. Nobody worried this is gonna be fine. Dust butter House

is here to say Thanksgiving. Suffice to say it did. And so we had a hundred thirty pies. You as yourself. Dust Butterhouse sold more pies over double what we made the farm the year before, full restaurant that you had

worked out before. She started doing events, gathering equipment and researching, licensing, learning QuickBooks, all the things you've got to do to start a business, and the whole time baking like a madwoman, posting up at a local restaurant that lets her bake in the kitchen and set up a table for pick up at the front door. So what was the initial response. I think people loved it. I have a lot of repeat customers, like every week repeat customers, which is really

really nice. Besides loving her community and wanting to serve them on a personal level, she was making her first awesome decision as a business owner. The farm she worked at was known for their pastries in Charlotte, and that went away. Meg was now filling a gap in the market in the best way possible. Yeah. When I started, it was like I want everybody here to know that, like pies are gonna be fine. You're gonna have pies and you're gonna have cookie boxes, Like no one is

going to forget about you. We'll get back to our store in a second. First, a word from Express Employment Professionals. A strong work ethic, takes pride in a job well done, sweats over the details. This is you. But to get an honest day's work, you need a response, You need a call back, You need a job. Express Employment Professionals can help because we understand what it takes to get a job. It takes more than just online searches to land a job. It takes someone who will identify your talents,

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the job. Back in the kitchen where we started this episode, Mega's finishing up baking and putting together some orders for pickup during the holiday season. Her pies blue people away and the community is really rallying around her. Now, even six months in and the variety of pastries she's putting together today is mouth watering. These are like a nutty and current ruggle off. This is the lemon poppy orcott case. These are the chocolate brownies with hazel nuts, and there's

like hazelnut praline kind of throughout it. She's of course got those insane chocolate chip cookies from earlier with big flaky salt on them. She's got a crazy delicious banana bread cake with milk, chocolate, butter cream and hints of coffee. Oh, the pecan tart. There's candies, two more oranges in it. Um a little bit of time and a little bit of honey. And these nice little cardboard boxes tied up with thread. They look like you're giving away a little presents.

People treating themselves. It's hard right now. It's hard out there. Just as we're talking, a woman comes in to pick up her order. Her name is Charlotte. He's getting lemon poppy cake and the banana bread cake. My family is addicted to Meg's baking so inventive. It's like, I can't even fathom how delicious everything is and how creative. I would say my favorite was Thanksgiving magnate a chocolate silk pie that is literally the best thing I ever ate.

She also raised about the scones, which she says live up to the Doss Butterhouse name, Like you know, there's like a stick of butter in each one, but it's so worth it. Yeah you don't care, Yeah, exactly, It's really good. Do you pick up every week? I do? I do. This is such a great addition to the area to have this quality of pastry and cakes and inventiveness. You know, there's nothing like this around here. So what Meg is doing is fantastic. Charlotte really lingers for a

few minutes, box in hand with endless compliments. Meg is standing about ten feet away while Charlotte turns from me to her, raving about her food from the New York area, and this is the kind of stuff like you go to New York City and buy and pay sixty dollars. I can see that Meg is kind of rubbing her hands together, smiling out her mask and saying thank you. It's kind of obvious that she's a little uncomfortable. It's like, I really recognize, like, not only you so talented, but

the quality and what you're doing is amazing. Yeah, yeah, how do you feel now that you're finally making these things you've been creating in your head this whole time and seeing people buy them? It's so complicated. It's such a complicated emotion because I have always worked in a basement, and like I would meet people that would be like, oh my god, you're the baker. Oh that's so exciting,

and like that's really nice to hear it. But it's like it's really overwhelming when it's oh, what you mean is you you were removed from the customer for all these years? Yeah, and so like that. It's like the face to face interactions. I mean, I get really uncomfortable when people like even say like I like your shoes. So when it's something that like you've put your heart

and soul into, like your whole life. I mean, like even Charlotte earlier today she was she was telling me how much she loved all your food, and she's very emphatic about it in front of you. How did that make you feel? Well? While she was saying all that. I don't know if you saw me, but I was like basically like up against the wall. Yeah. I almost cried then too. It's hard it's like really great, but it's also it's scary because it's I think it puts a lot of pressure not to fail, and I'm somebody

who really really tries hard not to fail. So it just like adds on this other level of like, now they know who you are, your business is you? What do you think? Will you buy my stuff? Like? What do you do? You like my stuff? Do you like me? Because my stuff is me? So it's like you need that response like you in order for your business to continue. It's like you need be able to be like, yes, I like your stuff and I'll buy it. So, like it's not just putting yourself out there, it's so much

more than that. Meg Dawson has taken a huge risk venturing off on your own and starting a business in any time. Covid Aside is kind of a crazy thing to do when you look at it on paper. There's so many new skills you need to learn just to do the thing you started the business for in the first place, and then still anything can happen. But Meg, that's what working in restaurants has always been for her, chaos,

except this time it's hers. I have never felt more creatively free I've never felt more connected to the farmers that were like I'm using, I've never felt more connected to my other friends who have businesses. So far, I haven't screwed up too big, but like, I know that that's on the horizon um and I just have to be like ready and okay with it. Maybe it's not surprising she's got such a good star. Meg's always thrived under constraints, figuring out how to express herself within the

parameter she's been given. That's just her personality, But I think there's something in that we can all take a piece of. This pandemic has totally changed our fundamental understanding of work and what we do. It's put a lot of us without work, or made us see that those jobs we thought would always be there could go away at any time. That's scary, But the reality is jobs

aren't going away. They're just changing inevitably, and that leaves each of us with a choice to be afraid of this big, scary, changing world or figure out how to evolve and thrive within it. A lot of us, maybe even you listening, we found ourselves out of a job and thinking about doing something totally different, making your own job, and then immediately thinking it's too risky. Who knows what the world will look like even a year from now.

But the thing is doing what you love for work has always been risky and always will be and anything could always happen any time. Yeah, that is owning a business is is you're just constantly pivoting and constantly looking at what worked and what didn't and moving forward like you have to move forward. Life is just uncertain and stressful.

And even with all the stress of starting Duss Butterhouse, when Meg is feeling overwhelmed, do you remember something she was told during her first big pastry job back in Manhattan, words of wisdom from her baking mentor Caitlin. The first time I burned an entire batch of cakes, she threw it away and she goes, it's a lesson in loss. It's just cake. And I think about that like every day, anytime anything is going bad. It's like I am like

a child. I'm playing with cookies all day, Like this is the best job, Like how many people get to do that for on the job. I'm otis gray to see all of Meg's amazing pastries and follow her business as it grows, find her on Instagram at DOS Butterhouse. We'll put a link for this in the description of the show. Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. This season of On the Job is produced by Audiation. The episodes were written

and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive producer is Sandy Smallens. The show is mixed by Matt Noble for Audiation Studios at The Loft and Bronxville, New York. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Find us on I Heart Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard, please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time. For more inspiring stories about discovering your life's work, Ariation