Heather Robertson is a first-shift frosting supervisor at Cheryl’s Cookies. She started her career in 2015 as a temporary associate, spent years splitting her time between Cheryl’s main production facility in Westerville, Ohio, and its gluten-free kitchen in Columbus, Ohio, and now oversees about 40 people in her current role. Heather is also a mom to an 18-year-old son, Austin.
We talked to Heather about her employment journey, her mentor at Cheryl’s, and the relationships she’s made while at the company.
What initially drew you to work for Cheryl’s?
I live in Westerville, so I was looking for a job that was close to home and was a good fit for me and my family. And I didn’t want to jump from seasonal job to seasonal job; I was looking for something more permanent.
I was on a mom’s Facebook board, and it said Cheryl’s was hiring, so I thought I’d see what it was about and maybe work through the Christmas holiday. And then, after I started, I thought, this is something I can actually do long term. This will work.
Every day is something different — different cookies, different issues — and that keeps things exciting.
Heather Robertson, frosting supervisor, Cheryl’s Cookies
Were there any signs early on that this might turn into a long-term job?
I began working here in September 2015, and after only two months management chose me to start going down to the gluten-free facility in Columbus [Ohio] and be part of that team.
Why do you think they believed you were ready to take on more responsibility so soon?
My flexibility. I was able to work in multiple departments. I had started in frosting and been taken to packing, and I picked that up very, very quickly, and they felt like this was something I could pick up quickly too.
What kind of work did you do in Columbus?
All kinds of things. I was a baker. I ran the packing line. I helped supervise when our manager wasn’t there. Basically, I was supervising before I was a supervisor.
Heather Robertson (left) with food production manager Brian Wolford and second shift supervisor Narayani Kattel.
Have you had someone who has been a mentor to you in your job?
Tracie Loudermilk, our packing supervisor. I started in frosting, and she pulled me out of frosting almost immediately and took me to packing, in a spot where I could learn how to run a packing line. Then she promoted me to a packing lead, and after a couple years of doing that she taught me how to do what she did. She was really patient, really helpful — she’s been here a long time and knows the business really well. She taught how to be a good lead.
She’s also a mom, so she understands working as a mom. We’ve become friends as well as co-workers over the years.
What do you enjoy most about working at Cheryl’s?
Every day is different. I’m not sitting at a computer punching in the same numbers all day long. Every day is something different — different cookies, different issues — and that keeps things exciting.
I like to be up and about, talking to different people, and I’ve learned a lot about the people I work with, the men and women I supervise. I like the people who work with me.
When Agnes Saghatelian first started attending industry trade shows as president of her family’s baking company, she saw firsthand how male-dominated the food industry was.
“Men, primarily, would approach me and say, ‘Can I speak to your president?’ And I’d reply, ‘I am the president,’ and their eyes would just fly right open with surprise. Then I’d hand them my business card, they’d look at it carefully, and then say, ‘OK!'”
That actually didn’t come as much of a surprise to Agnes. “My mother dealt with that same situation for years, and when I’d attend shows with her, men just assumed that there was a man standing behind my mother who was doing the job. The truth is, there wasn’t — it was all her.”
Passing the torch
Agnes is a third-generation owner of the Valley Lahvosh Baking Company, which was started in 1922 by her grandfather, Gazair Saghatelian, a master baker in his native Armenia. For 100 years, the Saghatelian family has been creating deliciously different breads and crackerbreads in Fresno, California, all in the same location, 502 M Street.
Gazair had six children, and when he died in 1982, his daughter, Janet, took the helm of the bakery, with the goal of carrying on the family business. She did, splendidly.
1922: Founder of Valley Lahvosh Gazair Saghatelian1960: Janet Saghatelian showing off the bakery’s namesake bread1983: Agnes and mom
Under Janet’s watchful and creative eye, she put the company on the map with the heart-shaped cracker. After that product became well-known, she created other shapes, including stars, minis, and trees.
Agnes spent her childhood helping her mom out in the bakery, and after graduating from Fresno State in 1993, she knew exactly what she wanted to do: “Go to work, officially, for my mom and our business.”
She worked closely at her mom’s side until the latter’s passing in 2010, at which time Agnes became president of Valley Lahvosh Baking Company. “For all those years, I was my mother’s sounding board and confidante, and her closest advisor, so I was prepared to take the lead after she died. But, wow, I had huge shoes to fill.”
Behind every great business is a greater woman
Counter culture: Agnes stands behind her family’s century-long breads
Agnes is celebrating her own anniversary this year — 30 years with Valley Lahvosh Baking Company. But, looking back, she realizes how challenging things were.
“At the beginning of taking charge, and I think I can speak for anyone who takes over a family business, there’s self-doubt, anxiety, and some trepidation about being able to handle the job. I think that’s natural, but the only way to make it work is to dive in and continue to move forward,” Agnes advises.
She also recommends anyone who’s starting or taking over a business, whether it’s a family one or not, to listen to what people have been saying for years.
“To succeed, it is vital to have self-confidence and to trust your instincts. You just need to stay motivated, be in a healthy and right frame of mind, and make sure to keep investing your time, money, and energy in the company, its people, and its business partners.”
For Agnes, that has meant expanding the company’s relationships, looking for opportunities within the food world. Valley Lahvosh sells to a variety of industries, including food service for hotels and restaurants, and retail (including grocery stores), and also manufactures for other private labels.
Family ties
Agnes has also slowly acclimated her own daughter, Danielle, to the business. “I encourage her to do anything she wants in her life, even if that doesn’t include working here,” Agnes stresses. “She’s only a teenager, but she does help out and asks questions about what’s going on.”
More importantly, Agnes hopes that she’s setting a good example for her daughter. “I think she sees how much work I put into the business,” Agnes says. “I also think she’s becoming aware of all the responsibility I have, as well as how accountable I am to all the work and to our wonderful team that I lead.
“At the beginning of taking charge, and I think I can speak for anyone who takes over a family business, there’s self-doubt, anxiety, and some trepidation about being able to handle the job.”
Agnes Saghatelian, President, Lahvosh Baking Company
“I think she also sees that, as a single mom, I am juggling being the head of the company with being the mom of our household. My daughter sees how much work I do on a daily basis and after hours. I know how important it is to make sure she gets the right amount of attention.
“There are times, though, when I’ve had to be honest with her, after some really long days, and just tell her that mom is tired. But I think this is important, to make time for her and to make sure we do things together. I’m lucky that we communicate well. I just hope I’m doing things that make her proud.”
On a roll
Does Agnes think her mom would be proud of her and where she’s taken the business? “Oh, she would be so proud. Oh my gosh, she was my biggest supporter and cheerleader,” Agnes says fondly. “My mom would have loved every second of our 100th anniversary celebration that that included special sales and store hours, a party, and a proclamation by the mayor of Fresno!”
A lot has changed for the century-old company that Janet didn’t get to see, including all the beautiful photographs posted to social media featuring charcuterie boards and the clever ways they show off their hearts, stars, and tree shapes.
“Mom would get such a kick out of all the wonderful comments people leave. She’d be thrilled with it all, and that makes me so happy.”
Dr. Noelle Cutter started on a path to the sciences because of her curiosity as a child, she says, and she has parlayed that desire to find answers to life’s questions into a career in cancer research and education.
Cutter’s specialty is molecular biology, focusing on epigenetics, or changes that occur in DNA when people get cancer.
Cutter conducts research in a lab at Molloy University.
Initially, however, she intended to specialize in space science. That all changed in 2006, when her 18-month-old nephew, Louis, died just six weeks after being diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood brain cancer.
Cutter, at the time, was a researcher at Brookhaven National Labs in the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, investigating the effect of space radiation in causing cancer in astronauts. “I had accepted a position at MD Anderson [Cancer Center] in Houston that would allow me to continue the same sort of research I had started,” she explains. (MD Anderson collaborated with Cutter’s lab at Brookhaven on the impact of radiation on DNA.) She and her husband, Paul, were already scouting out apartments in Texas.
Louis’ illness upended all that. They agreed that it was important to stay in New York, close to her family. “It was an easy decision,” she says. “It was just, ‘This is what we need to do right now,’ and it was the best decision I made. It really changed my trajectory.”
Cutter had applied to several PhD programs, and, in addition to MD Anderson, Stony Brook University on Long Island had offered her a graduate assistantship. She accepted that and was able to pursue her cancer research there while helping her brother and his family.
Channeling curiosity
That childhood curiosity has never left Cutter, 41, and she channels it in her work, seeking answers to what triggers cancer and how we can detect and treat it faster. Her efforts have been rewarded with several National Science Foundation grants, and she has coauthored a number of peer-reviewed cancer research papers.
Now, she is an associate professor of biology, chemistry, and environmental sciences at Molloy University in Rockville Center, New York, where she enjoys encouraging undergrads to follow their own scientific curiosity. “Giving that curiosity to students is almost as joyful. Now, I can sit back and watch students make discoveries and learn new things,” she says. “I really love working with students, and it’s very similar, I think, to being a mom, that kind of nurturing atmosphere.”
And as the mom of four young children, including twins — Lily, 12; Jack, 10; Lucy, 10; and Isabel (Issy), 8 — she helps run a home (along with her husband, Paul) where there’s plenty of curiosity and energy, too. “My oldest, Lily, is now getting really interested in the sciences. It’s a really nice thing to witness firsthand and to see a lot of the same things I thought myself at that age,” she explains.
Cutter’s kids are also very athletic. They love soccer and swimming, which is no surprise, given that their mom is an Ironman athlete and a marathon runner — she trains eight hours a week, and up to 20 hours a week when it’s closer to events — who played soccer at Molloy as an undergrad.
Studying athletes
Her latest research interest, Cutter says, draws on her background as an athlete. “We know that people who are physically active have a lower likelihood of developing cancer in their lifetime,” she explains, “but there seems to be a point where those who are ultramarathoners, Ironman athletes, multiple marathon runners might actually be at an increased likelihood of developing cancer.”
She’s interested in studying the stress pathways of high-level athletes. “Not just your normal everyday exercise, but someone who’s really racking up the miles and the pounding on the body,” she notes, adding that research shows “the kind of stress and inflammatory response we see in cancer survivors.”
The Cutter family (L-R): Lucy, Noelle, Jack, Paul, Issy (with dog Lennon, a German Shorthaired Pointer), and Lily.
Cutter says that while some really interesting research exists on the topic, there’s not enough. “I was like, ‘Oh, why is that?’ And so there’s my curiosity, right down the rabbit hole,” she says.
With so many hats — mom, researcher, professor, athlete — which one does Cutter enjoy wearing most? The answer is swift. “I think at different times, it’s different answers. But the hardest but most rewarding job is being a mom. It consumes every decision that I make — ‘mom’ always comes first.”
When Dina Colombo’s freshman son told her what happened at his high school wellness day in the spring of 2018, she was stunned. “Mom, we had this guy talking to us, and he was totally marketing the Juul,” he told her. The rep had taken out a Juul vape to show her son and his friends, who said he told them, “This is the iPhone of vaping. It’s totally safe, and the FDA is going to approve it any day.”
Dina Colombo (left) and fellow PAVe member Dorian Fuhrman (right) with then-Congressman Thomas Suozzi.
Two friends had gone home to tell their parents and soon the three moms were on the phone together. They researched vaping, and what they discovered shocked them. “The nicotine in one device is equivalent to one to two packs of cigarettes,” Colombo explains. “So while the vape may not have tobacco, it has a high concentration of nicotine.”
The form of nicotine is designed specifically for a smooth inhale, “and then you get like an instant high because there’s such a rush of nicotine in the nicotine salts. It hits the bloodstream and the brain faster, which makes it more addictive,” Colombo describes. “They were not stupid when they created it; they knew what they were doing.”
Colombo, who sits on the board of directors at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., knew she needed to create something too. She, along with two other mothers of students from the high school, formed an inspiring alliance to take on Big Tobacco and the vaping industry.
Spreading the word on vaping
In October 2018 — six months after that assembly with the JUUL rep, which was the impetus to launch Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes (PAVe) — the moms corralled experts and set up an informational meeting called “We Got JUULed” and some 250 parents showed up.
The three sons and moms also took their concerns about the proliferation of vaping to a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C. The boys told the FDA that people were using JUULs in bathrooms at school and charging vape cartridges via their laptops because they look like USB sticks. Kids were even vaping in the classrooms — there’s clothing designed to disguise vapes. “So they kind of educated the FDA on this,” Colombo says.
Members of PAVe, including its founder, Mimi Boublik (in T-shirt) with Mayor Bill DiBlasio when he signed the bill to ban flavored vapes in New York City. In July 2019, PAVe testified against JUUL before a House panel in Congress.
Today, PAVe is a national advocacy nonprofit run mostly by volunteers to educate parents and kids about the dangers of vaping. And those dangers are real, despite misinformation campaigns online. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nicotine “can harm the developing adolescent brain” and “Using nicotine during adolescence might also increase the risk for future addiction to other drugs.”
In 2019, PAVe worked with then-mayor Bill DiBlasio and other politicians to support the bill banning flavored vapes in New York City, which went into effect in 2020. “Getting the bill passed was the proudest moment,” Colombo says. “We like to say Big Tobacco and JUUL messed with the wrong moms!”
Balancing and prioritizing
Colombo is partner, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer of GreyLion, a private equity firm in New York City, and she’s passionate about her work. She’s also devoted to her two college-age kids and her large Italian family on Long Island. Her husband, Gregg, is from a big, close family too, so there are lots of get-togethers.
When you sit down and talk with Colombo, you notice right away that she oozes calm. She’s friendly, and you feel you know her, even if you haven’t met before. How does she find time for everything and seem so relaxed?
“I think that if there’s a secret, it’s just to constantly reprioritize what’s on your plate,” she says. “And I think it’s important to show my kids that you’re passionate about work and you’re passionate about things outside of work.
All smiles! Dina and her family: husband Gregg (left) and children Luke and Sabrina.
“You have to be really honest with yourself on what matters to you and your family and work,” she adds, “and recognize that you can’t be in two places — or work on two things — at the same time.”
When you ask Colombo how she recharges, she says it’s with family. “One of the things we love to do when we’re all home is something called ‘I Love New York Day.’ We just walk around town, we’ll try something new — it’s an unplanned day. We love the Rangers, the Yankees, and will go to a Knicks game if we can,” she explains. “’I Love New York Day’ is something that we cherish, and we always have, since the kids were little.”
It was clear early on that Rebecca Soffer was destined to be a storyteller. “I love learning about people’s lives,” she says. “Everybody’s got a story…well, I just want to know all the stories.”
It’s refreshing for people to hear from another person who’s in the muck with them and who isn’t scared to talk about this stuff in a way that’s really comfortable.
Rebecca Soffer
Cofounder/CEO, Modern Loss
Soffer graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2005 and then got a job as a producer on “The Colbert Report.” She found she loved it. “I veered in a different direction and went into political satire versus straight journalism,” she explains. “I found it to be very journalistic — you can’t really ridicule or laugh at something unless you understand it really well.”
That career path was turned on its head, though, when personal tragedy hit.
Soffer was only 30 when her mom was killed in a car accident. Four years later, her father died of a heart attack while on vacation.
Those sudden, profound losses left her reeling.
A place for grievers to gather
She and her friend, Gabrielle Birkner, who lost her her father and stepmother to homicide, went on to cofound Modern Loss, which combines understanding and direct talk, reaching out and fostering a global online and in-real-life community of people who can help each other through their own experiences with loss.
“There was a white space that needed to be filled in the conversation about grief and loss and resilience building, and creating community around it,” Soffer says. “We knew it would resonate, and it did.”
Soffer and Birkner started Modern Loss in 2013 as an online publication, and in the intervening years, it has developed into so much more.
“I could not have foreseen what it would grow into,” she says. “We boiled a big pot of pasta and threw it against the walls, and fast forward 10 years, and there are thousands of original essays on the website by all sorts of people about all facets of the grief experience.”
Soffer speaks to attendees at the End Well symposium in San Francisco about the value of talking about grief and loss.
“There’s enormous value in examining these things through a licensed psychological and clinical lens, but I’m not that person,” Soffer says. “I think it’s also refreshing for people to hear from someone who’s moving through the muck with them and who can make it clear that they aren’t alone in this crazy landscape.”
Soffer manages to juggle all this, plus her role as host of “Light After Loss,” the Facebook Live series presented by 1-800-Flowers.com, with raising two young sons, Noah, 9, and Elliot, 6. (She doesn’t sleep much.)
“My kids are used to me doing my thing,” she says with a laugh. “They tell people, ‘Mommy talks about death every day!’ It’s a normal topic. I’m a big proponent of being open with children about grief and other hard topics.”
How to turn an idea into a business
Does Soffer have advice for people who have a passion and want to turn it into a fulfilling business, as she has?
“Yes, don’t do what I did, which was create it first and then wonder how it will be sustainable later,” she says, wryly.
Bottom line, she says, is do your research, but “if you feel you have something to say in the world or something to create, then you need to do it. I highly recommend doing your very best to drown out naysayers who are not trying to lift you up but rather are just trying to bring you down.
“There is certainly something to be said for whether a business is sustainable or whether a venture is logical. But beyond that, if it is, and if you believe in it and can afford to take the risks associated with jumping in, then carpe diem,” Soffer stresses.
A devoted mom: On left, Rebecca with son Elliot in San Francisco; on right, with son Noah in Guanajuato, Mexico.
When the hat juggling becomes too much, Soffer gets outdoors, cycling, hiking, or skiing. “It’s not even like I view it as a leisure activity,” she says. “It’s taking care of my mental health.”
She also takes her sons camping every summer: “I love teaching my kids things that I used to do with my parents as a kid. That’s one of my favorite things to do. It’s a ritual that connects two important generations in my family that will never meet in person.”
Carol Brenneman and her late husband, Terry, opened Lickity Split Café in 1997, along with their daughter, Laura. Since then, the popular Englewood, Florida, dining establishment — with its booths designed like vintage cars, rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia adorning the walls, and a menu that features 32 flavors of homemade ice cream — has earned a reputation as a local favorite. But that’s not the only reason people flock there.
Since 2018, Lickity Split Café has been fulfilling local orders for Fruit Bouquets, and, since 2019, for Shari’s Berries. And last year, it received a top performance award from 1-800-FLOWERS.COM for the work it did during the Mother’s Day rush.
We talked to Carol, 74, and Laura, 53, about how their partnership with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM got started, why they think their business has been so successful, and what it’s like working together as mother and daughter.
How and when did 1-800-FLOWERS.COM approach you about starting to do orders for Fruit Bouquets?
Laura Brenneman: In 2018, they contacted us through our Facebook page. I didn’t even believe that it was real; I thought it was a scam. But after looking into it, I said to Mom, “I’ve got this person that says he’s the CEO of 1-800-Flowers, and he wants to see if we would be an outlet for Fruit Bouquets.” We thought, this is crazy. How would they even find us, here in this little town? So, we looked him up, and we were like, “Holy cow!” We called back and he sounded like such a wonderful guy, and (with) such a great company. It seemed like a wonderful opportunity, and we thought, well, what a great thing to try.
What did they tell you about why they chose Lickity Split Café?
Laura: He said he liked what we were doing with our Facebook page. It had a lot of positive messages on it, and generally, as a rule, I try to put positivity out there. It wasn’t all just business; it’s never all business with us – it’s very personal. You have to want people to feel good about whatever you’re doing because you’ve got to put good in the world.
We treat every order like it’s a gift that we’re personally sending somebody.
Laura Brenneman
Co-owner, Lickity Split Café
Carol Brenneman: It’s more than just about our café. It’s more than just about the fruit bouquets and the berries. My husband years ago used to always say, “It’s not about the food; it’s not about the product you’re selling. If you don’t take good care of the people on both sides of the counter, you won’t have good business.”
How do you approach the work you do for Fruit Bouquets and Shari’s Berries?
Laura: We treat every order like it’s a gift that we’re personally sending somebody. If I’m not proud to take it to somebody, I’m not going to take it, because that’s somebody’s gift. We want to make sure that it looks right, that it’s nice fruit — we handpick 90% of our fruit — that it is of good quality, and that the person receiving it is going to be happy with it. Because if they’re not happy, then there’s no point in it.
Shanna Brown (left), who has worked at Lickity Split for nearly a quarter century, and Laura Brenneman show off a creation for Fruit Bouquets.Making Shari’s Berries magic (L-R): Angel Larch, Carol Brenneman, and Hannah Durett.Peyton Peluso, the niece of Carol Brenneman, assembles a fruit bouquet.
Between running the café and handling orders for 1-800-Flowers.com, how are you able to stay on top of everything that needs to get done?
Carol: We have a really good team. One woman, Shanna Brown, has been with us since she was 16. She just turned 40 and had her first baby, and works full time and has for that whole length of time. She’s a great employee and friend, and just an amazing person. And she’s just like a sister.
And we have several other people who have been with us for years. It takes a team to get this stuff done.
What is it like working together as mother and daughter?
Laura: It’s wonderful. We’re best friends. We’re a really good team. And the people here are like family. Some of them actually are family. It’s a true family business.
Carol: My niece, Peyton, works for us too. She’s been here for a lot of years. And when you’ve got people that get along and care about each other, then you care about the business, and that means a lot.
Kaylin Jensen started A Blonde and Her Bag from a single birthday gift she made for a friend and has grown it into one whose products are available in boutiques across the country and shipped all over the world.
“It just brings me so much joy,” says Jensen, whose employees include a manager, a marketing and promotions manager, and two bench jewelers. “There’s this very famous quote by Madeleine Albright: ‘There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.’ That always resonated with me so much. There’s enough business and enough jobs out there for every single woman, and we should really be bringing each other up.”
Kaylin Jensen (middle) with showroom manager Serena Helmenstine (left) and jewelry crafter Yuliya Poletai. (Photo by Jin Han )The showroom at A Blonde and Her Bag. (Photo by Jin Han)
The offices of A Blonde and Her Bag, which are in Sausalito, California, have a definite woman’s touch, and the culture is all about girl power. They have Champagne Fridays. They do Pink Wig Wednesdays. The company’s showroom is awash in pink.
The former U.S. secretary of state would be proud.
“I just adore all the women that work for me. We have a lot of fun together, and always celebrate every little milestone in such a big way,” Jensen says. “It’s all about the company you keep and the women you keep around you — and that’s part of the growth.”
Desperate times…
The growth of A Blonde and Her Bag has been slow and steady, and undeniable — and is something Jensen, 37, never could have envisioned back in 2008 when she was working in commercial real estate.
That year, of course, is when the housing market crashed, sending Jensen into unemployment. After being let go, she struggled to find her niche, and to make ends meet. Five years later, a friend of hers was celebrating a birthday, and Jensen couldn’t find an affordable gift — “I went to boutiques, and a small necklace would be three, four hundred dollars” — so, mostly out of desperation, she decided to make one herself. After spending hours watching YouTube videos, she had something that resembled a necklace — but she was less than confident her friend would like it.
“To my surprise, she actually loved it,” Jensen says. “And she not only wanted more for herself but for her friends and family.”
A Blonde and Her Bag was born.
The next level
Jensen credits her boyfriend at the time, Phillip Evangelatos, with encouraging her to turn her hobby into a business. Evangelatos steered her to WEV (Women’s Economic Ventures), a business network that provides a range of resources for women entrepreneurs in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Through WEV, Jensen enrolled in a 14-week crash course, and she came out of it with a comprehensive business plan.
Her biggest piece of advice for other aspiring businesswomen? “Write a business plan that allows you to look, plan, and think about every aspect of the business before you put a single cent into the idea,” Jensen says. “For that, the WEV program set me up for success from the very beginning.”
With a plan in hand, Jensen took to the streets — literally — selling her wares at craft fairs and the like. She debuted A Blonde and Her Bag the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show on April 7, 2013 — and it was a rousing success.
“That first Sunday, I made $5,000. I even got a wholesale account,” Jensen remembers. “And I was like, gosh, maybe there is something here and maybe we can bring this to the next level.”
More wholesale accounts followed, mostly with small boutiques, and soon Jensen was doing street shows up and down the California coast.
The early days of A Blonde and Her Bag: Selling merch out of a booth at art shows.
With her business starting to take off, Jensen sought guidance from someone who had carved a similar path. She found it from Clare Briglio, an interior and jewelry designer. The two met through Briglio’s role as a consultant with a local mentorship program called the Small Business Development Center.
“Clare was instrumental in my business growth from 2013 to 2017,” Jensen says. “She by far helped me thrive in wholesale above and beyond anyone else.”
Jensen met her future husband, Eric, in 2016, and he urged her to go searching for bigger accounts, so she jumped into the large wholesale circuit. Not long after, she reached agreements with retailers like 1-800-Flowers.com and Belk to buy and sell her merchandise in bulk.
Now, it was official: Jensen had taken A Blonde and Her Bag to the next level.
Global inspiration
A Blonde and Her Bag makes handmade rings, bracelets, earrings, anklets, and necklaces, many of which are adorned with beads, Swarovski crystals, and semi-precious stones. The pieces can be worn, as the website states, “to lunch with the ladies or into the evening for a special occasion.”
The inspiration for many of Jensen’s designs comes from one of two main sources: her travels and her mom, Cyndie Fox.
Regarding the former, she says she’s visited at least 64 countries, and the impact many of them have had on her and her design aesthetic is hard to measure.
“Going into different boutiques in all these different countries, there’s so many different materials and ways of thinking,” Jensen explains. “And if you’re traveling for leisure, you’re in a different state of mind. You’re relaxed, and then you come back and you’re not only refreshed, but you have all this inspiration of new colors and new things.”
Jensen and her mom, Cyndie. (Photo by Joseph Alan McCalip)
Of all the places she’s been, Jensen singles out five in particular that have influenced her work the most: Cannes, France (“I just love the style there”); Berlin (“very sophisticated and simple”); Vietnam (“lots of beads and crystals”); Rio de Janeiro (“I love how they incorporate metals with semiprecious stones”); and Spain (“very delicate and dainty…jewelry you could wear all day and into the night”).
Mother knows best
Then there’s Cyndie, whom Jensen cites as her greatest creative influence. She was a stay-at-home mom, and one of the things Jensen treasures most about her is how she passed her love for crafting on to her daughter.
“We were always making things. If we had a birthday, it was all about the DIY,” Jensen recalls. “I wouldn’t have the ability to DIY and have the brain to come up with new things [without her].”
Looked at a certain way, it’s an example of a woman helping another woman — in this case, a mother mentoring a daughter. That is something that is very near and dear to Kaylin Jensen’s heart, and is a big reason why A Blonde and Her Bag is the thriving business it is.
Because, on the flip side of Thatcher’s quote, there’s a special place in heaven for women who support other women.
It’s almost cliché to say people do their best thinking in the shower, but that’s just where Maya Malik says she was when she got the idea for her business, The Cotton & Canvas Co.
“I noticed that there was a demand for giftable, personalizable products at an affordable price that no one was really offering, nothing simple and unique that you can use every day — a timeless product, essentially,” she says. “After doing a lot of research, I saw there was definitely a market for this and no one was fulfilling that demand at that time.”
We wanted to put out something that consumers would be excited about and would be their own, and they could show off and use.
Maya Malik
Founder and CEO
The Cotton & Canvas Co.
At that time, in 2015, Malik was CEO of two companies, one a wholesale wedding and special event supplier and the other a designer and manufacturer of dessert table decor. But she wasn’t happy.
“I was completely overworked, working countless hours on managing the team in the U.S. and then managing a team abroad, in India,” Malik says. “So, I just decided, having gained so much experience and knowledge from that experience, that I was interested in starting my own business, and just kind of seeing where it goes.”
With her husband, Zia, by her side, Malik launched Cotton and Canvas in 2017. Its beginnings were humble: The company was initially based in the living room of Malik’s parents’ house in Orange County, California, and its product catalog consisted of just a few offerings.
Success comes quickly
“Right off the bat, it just took off,” Malik says.
One day early on, the company received 200-plus orders. That caused a significant amount of chaos, especially since many of them had to arrive at their destination within two days.
“We had a printer set up in the living room, and we were fulfilling all these orders,” she says. “The entire living room, sofa, both rooms of the house were filled with orders.”
From the start, though, fortune, it seemed, was on Malik’s side. Around the time she was launching her company, grocery stores were starting to eliminate the use of plastic bags. As one of the first products Cotton and Canvas sold were canvas totes, the timing could not have been better.
“We wanted to put out something that consumers would be excited about and would be their own, and they could show off and use,” she says. “And then, for gifting purposes, [we wanted people to be] able to send a really cute message to their loved ones that was something different than the regular ‘Miss you, love you’ sort of thing.”
Products available from Cotton and Canvas span a wide range of sentiments, from the inspirational (a wall hang that reads “Darling, Believe in Yourself”) to the clever (a “You Guac My World” shoulder tote) to the downright hilarious (a makeup bag with the words “This Bag Contains My Face” on it). As the website proclaims, “We believe in positivity. Beauty. And little bit of humor.”
Photo courtesy of The Cotton & Canvas Co.
When it first launched, Cotton and Canvas offered only black print on all its products, but soon customers were asking for color — and that meant upping the small investment the Maliks initially made in the business.
“After seeing what the customers wanted, we had to put in more and more and more, and it worked out for us,” says Malik, who points out that almost 80% of the products her company sells are made in the U.S. “But the challenge was keeping up with consumer demand, offering what our market wanted, and making sure we had the funds to meet the demand, and then fulfilling the demand.”
Evidence of the company’s growth abounds: Malik moved headquarters out of her parents’ house and into a Los Alamitos office space in 2019, Cotton and Canvas now boasts seven employees, and sister company Zen + Zuri, which produces unique handmade pieces of jewelry, was launched in 2021.
Of course, Malik, 34, could not have done it without her built-in support system — namely, her family. Zia is president, and handles the marketing, accounting, and purchasing for the company. Her parents, both of whom are in their 70s, help with packing and shipping.
“They’re definitely there for anything that needs to be done day in and day out,” Malik says.
And there’s a lot that needs to be done. The company just recently launched its Laser Collection featuring laser-cut acrylic products that all come personalized.
“We can now convert our original designs into drink stirrers, place cards, and a ton of other products — we’re not limited to just canvas products anymore,” she says.
Speaking of drink stirrers, Cotton and Canvas recently fulfilled a big order of them for a rather high-profile client: the Golden State Warriors.
“The general manager of their team reached out to us, and she wanted something to celebrate their success as the (NBA) champions,” Malik says. “We actually did multiple orders for them: one for when they got into the playoffs, (one for) the Western Conference final, and then (one for) their championship.”
(While Malik says she is happy to do business with the Warriors, she does make it clear that, being a native Southern Californian, she is, in fact, a Lakers fan.)
New addition
Being the CEO of two companies is one thing. Being the CEO of two companies AND a new mom is an entirely other thing. In October 2022, Malik became a mother for the first time, giving birth to a boy named Zayaan.
Malik at work with her son, Zayaan. (Photo by Karen Quan)
Keeping everything on track at work and at home requires quite the balancing act. But Malik is quick to point out she is not doing it alone.
“I have a really supportive husband. He is my co-partner in this business. We started this together before we were even married,” she says. “So, I have an endless amount of support from him and my family, my parents.
“I’m very fortunate. Even right now, my little one is coming to work with us, six to seven hours a day. So, that’s how I manage being a mom — all the feeds, all the female mom stuff, along with managing our team at the office as well.”
If that all sounds like a lot to handle, that’s because it is. But if anyone is up to the challenge, it’s Maya Malik.
Since December 2019, Olivia Carney — also known as That Charcuterie Chick — has been sharing mouthwatering displays of cured meats, rich cheeses, and other flavorful foods on Instagram. In fall 2022, the north New Jersey-based social media influencer’s first book,The Art of the Board, hit shelves, offering dozens of board ideas ranging from a dinner-themed Taco Tuesday display to one fashioned from Thanksgiving leftovers.
We spoke with Carney about her passion for creating captivating meat-and-cheese presentations, some of her favorite items to include on boards, and other elements that can help turn any gathering into a next-level event.
What led you to specialize in creative charcuterie boards?
Olivia Carney, practicing the art of peek-a-book.
It stems from my childhood and special times I spent with my family growing up. It was always a staple of Friday nights in our home — before we’d either head out to dinner or do stuff with our friends, we would throw some crackers and cheese on a board and just laugh and enjoy ourselves.
As I’ve gotten older, I started seeing some incredibly artistic boards featured online, like heavily thematic holiday boards and abundant, self-serve grazing tables, and I was so inspired to share some of my own — and experiences my family and I have shared over the years. That’s how That Charcuterie Chick was born.
What did writing The Art of the Board involve?
It was about a year-and-a-half process. I cared so deeply about making sure this book not only provided innovative and artistically stimulating recipes but also ones that felt approachable to people who don’t have all the time in the world.
It’s 75 seasonally inspired snack boards, and it also has recipes and cocktails; it’s really everything you need for stress-free entertaining year-round.
What specific types of boards are featured in it?
I have an amazing board called the Harry & David Gift Basket Board that is based off their Grand Signature Gift Basket. It’s always so wonderful to receive these beautiful gift baskets, full of crackers and cheeses and charcuterie. I tell you how to build a perfect board from just what is in the basket, step by step — how to take the different jams and relishes, the cheese, and create this beautiful piece of food art.
What is your favorite holiday, and what board would you serve for it?
I love Halloween, and one of my absolute favorite boards in the book is Halloween inspired. For that board, I hand-carved a skull into a round of brie cheese. Then, I took tiny eyeball candies and put them in the olives. I also candied some blueberries and put them in a small witches cauldron to make it look bubbly. The holidays create the perfect opportunity to get creative and try something new with boards.
Boo-yah! How’s that for a Halloween charcuterie board?
Are there any unique international elements you like to include on boards?
One type of charcuterie I use fairly often is soppressata, a very fatty, dry cured pork salami of Italian origin. It’s super flavorful and very delicious, almost decadent.
One that is underappreciated, at least here in the States, is jamón Ibérico. I tried it when I was visiting Barcelona with my sister a few years back, and it was incredible. It comes from farm-raised pigs in Spain, and it’s unique to that region.
For something that’s palatable to a large audience, I love Parmigiano Reggiano. It’s aged for such a long time that it starts to form these protein crystals that add an extra special crunch.
“Consumers are more interested in authenticity and originality than the idolized perfectionism of the past.”
Olivia Carney, That Charcuterie Chick
In addition to putting out a sensational charcuterie board, how can people successfully entertain guests at a dinner party or during the holidays?
If you’re hosting people and you’re creating this beautiful spread, bring in other elements to create an environment that feels really exciting and immersive. Think about other things that might add a special touch, outside of what you’re serving as food.
For example, people will appreciate a specialty cocktail crafted specifically for that holiday or your theme. In my book, I have a smoked rosemary and Riviera pear bourbon spritzer, using Harry & David Royal Riviera pears, which is really fun. It’s really simple; you just make a pear simple syrup and then add some bourbon and ginger ale.
Cured meats have been around since the 15th century. Will we ever get bored of displaying them on boards?
Reading this book is a window on to the world of charcuterie boards.
We can if we don’t introduce ourselves to new flavors or change things up a bit. But if you incorporate interesting foods — [such as] Roquefort, a French blue cheese that’s incredibly decadent and pungent, in the best way — they will continue to be really special and an awesome way of serving food. It’s about thinking, “How can I introduce myself to new textures, flavors, international foods?” That creates this really cool experience for your guests.
What advice would you give people who hope to build a brand like That Charcuterie Chick?
The strategy behind creating a beautiful aesthetic varies across social media platforms. Instagram is very aspirational. The content you find on there is more sophisticated and purposeful. I talk a little bit in the book about finding your natural light and arranging your food to tell a story. What’s important with food photography is making sure it feels natural and not overly processed looking and edited, because food is beautiful on its own.
Social media has changed so much over the past couple of years. Consumers are more interested in authenticity and originality than the idolized perfectionism of the past. It’s so important for you to just be who you are and share what you’re good at, and if people find value in that, or find that relatable, they will want to be a part of that. Gone are the days when we look at this perfect representation of what your day might look like or what your food might look like, because that’s not really achievable. Show your authentic self, and people will gravitate to that.
