I was positive I wouldn’t be accepted to Vermont's biggest farmers market when I first applied 6 years ago. I’d had my business for 4 months at that point. I’d done online Christmas and Valentine’s Day drops, and that’s it. I had no tent, table, tablecloth, sales gene, or any idea what I was doing. And then I got in.
Are marshmallows gluten free? Yup! At least, all of ours are. Everything we make will always be 100% gluten free (including our kitchen!). The deal is: I'm a classically trained pastry chef who's NOT gluten free. In order for us to release ANYTHING, it must be "gluten free but you'd never know it."
Don’t get me wrong, I love cake, but I also love living in a world where we’re not limited to what’s expected. Obviously, as The Marshmallow Girl, I’m all about wedding marshmallows. Whether through whimsical wedding favors or s’mores tables, here’s ideas for how to incorporate magical marshmallows into your big day.
The other day I was at UPS dropping a bunch of wholesale orders off when the woman behind the counter said, "I really hope your boss knows how much you do."
I laughed, "well, I'm my boss... but I needed this validation today!"
This “advice” (quotes cuz BAD) leaves out most of the story & puts the onus of our joy externally: finding something/someone outside of us to finally make life easy, make us happy, make life feel like sliding down a slide. Yes, the easy gets easier, the fun gets more fun, the happy gets potent, but I promise you, owning a business will also put all your problems under a spotlight & ask “so, whatcha wanna do with these?”
The event started off slow. WTF. This was supposed to be a blow out. I put in all this f’ing work and prep and effort and it’s going to be slower than a f’ing farmers market? This has to be a joke.
The more examples we have of this being possible--not even just 6 figures, but 6 figures sustainably, humanely, joyfully, kindly--the more the collective mental model shifts.
People will be dicks sometimes. It’ll maybe be one comment every couple weeks, but it’ll come. That’s about them, not you. Can you imagine having the audacity to say something shitty/belittle/talk down to a MARSHMALLOW vendor on a Saturday morning at an idyllic farmers market? Those who don’t lift us up are not our people. As they walk away, let their words leave with them. This is a skill, it takes time to cultivate. But I promise it’s cultivatable.
Am I a high achiever? Sure. Do I have big goals and bigger dreams? Totes. But outer success is not worth sacrificing my inner peace. For me, they MUST coexist. I refuse for these to be in opposition. And in my experience, the latter feeds the former in ways I never could’ve imagined.
