“A jour­ney of a thou­sand miles must begin with a sin­gle step.” ~ Lao Tzu

The Pref­ace

Dur­ing the fall of 2009, I attended a week-long lead­er­ship work­shop in North Car­olina.  This was a won­der­ful learn­ing and growth expe­ri­ence, and one I still hold close to me today.  The day I arrived, I sat next to a young woman, unknown to me at the time.  Our group that week was small — 7 par­tic­i­pants.  And our time together was also, very much a “get­ting to know you at a deep level” expe­ri­ence. Good, good stuff.

Back to that young woman, though.  Her name…Angie Kenny.   A soul-filled per­son, sup­port­ing the growth of a  local hotel in neigh­bor­ing Greens­boro.  We con­nected over that week together, and have con­tin­ued our friend­ship and sup­port of each other since that time.

A few months after this work­shop, Angie shared with me that her real pas­sion was bak­ing.  Not only that, she was going to give it a shot — going after her dream (awe­some, isn’t it!).  And that’s exactly what she did — and today, nearly two years later, she has a thriv­ing busi­ness, Zen Cat Gluten-Free Bak­ery, ser­vic­ing the Greens­boro area and the world!

Her motto:  Gluten-Free + Vegan + All Love (so, so fit­ting for this lovely soul!)

Read below as Angie shares a part of this jour­ney toward her true peak.

Angie and Zen Cat Gluten-Free Bak­ery

I am a dreamer.  I’m also a Gem­ini, so I like to do a lot of things and dream up a lot of ideas.  I like to learn things to help me grow and to just have an expe­ri­ence with life.  I’ve moved away from the thought that you “choose one thing to do and do it”, career-wise.  I wasn’t con­scious about this phi­los­o­phy until I looked at my job his­tory.  I’ve had expe­ri­ence in inte­rior design, farm­ing, film­mak­ing, serv­ing after­noon tea, assist­ing a bril­liant CEO and now work­ing in a bakery.

This is not a sta­tus list; it’s from where I’ve trav­eled so I value it as a snap­shot of my life.  I also see the tra­jec­tory of my choices.  One deci­sion to learn a new skill set (read: over­come fear or reser­va­tion) became a step­ping stone to the next learn­ing expe­ri­ence.  I only had to apply (basi­cally) one thing:  my heart.

Most of the “adult” career or job choices I’ve made were led by my heart and not by social pres­sures or a dol­lar sign.  Sure I wrote down the pros and cons of each move (I am an ardu­ous list maker), weighed options, took a deep breath and took a dive…

My cur­rent posi­tion in life is no excep­tion.  I am a baker.  I own Zen Cat Gluten-Free Bak­ery, and I started this busi­ness from my heart and with a few busi­ness skills picked up from my pre­vi­ous – full-time, salaried, with ben­e­fits! -  job at a very suc­cess­ful hotel and restau­rant company.

My heart and my tummy moved me!  I had to go gluten-free a few years ago, which is not an easy lifestyle change.  I was hun­gry!  I couldn’t find any good cookie to eat and worse, I wasn’t able to eat my grandmother’s most deli­cious pump­kin cake.  I knew that if I was look­ing for some­thing good to eat, then there were oth­ers out there look­ing for the same thing.

I real­ized that in help­ing myself to a good cookie, I could help oth­ers.  I would help oth­ers in open­ing a bak­ery busi­ness.  AND, I wanted to touch every­one, not just those who are gluten-free and vegan.   

This became part of Zen Cat’s mis­sion state­ment:  to cre­ate great desserts and bak­ery prod­ucts that are gluten-free and vegan (did I men­tion vegan??), that are more health­ful and that appeal to every­one.  I want to bake with mind­ful­ness, with love.  I want love and well-being to be the ingre­di­ents, along with organic sugar and fair trade cocoa.  You don’t have to be gluten-free or vegan to enjoy Zen Cat Bakery’s Oh Snap! Triple Gin­ger Cookie…you just have to love a good cookie! 

What this expe­ri­ence has brought me thus far:  joy, sweat, tears, hap­pi­ness, fear, sur­prise, fatigue, dis­ci­pline, deter­mi­na­tion, many friendly faces and love.  All those things you get when you are fol­low­ing your path of heart.

There are 2 things that keep me going

1 – When I ask myself “Can I do it, can I run a bak­ery busi­ness?”  I remem­ber my husband’s reply when I asked him this ques­tion early on:  “You are doing it”.  Present moment les­son for me.

2 – Curios­ity.  My CEO friend empha­sized the act of being curi­ous in life.  Ask ques­tions, find answers.  This helps in fig­ur­ing out new recipes, new mar­kets, busi­ness strate­gies, and of course what makes me tick, what makes oth­ers tick.   

For good mea­sure, there’s a 3^rd – My dreams and ideas keep me going:  What’s next?  How can I grow the bak­ery?  What new health­ful cre­ation will peo­ple love to eat?  And the inevitable:  what comes after the bak­ery, what’s next on my life’s journey?

Angie has recently began sell­ing her deli­cious baked goods through Etsy, open­ing the world up to her yummy treats!! (check them out — they are a delight!)

I’ve tried sev­eral of her prod­ucts, and have JUST received my sec­ond batch of brown­ies (my favorite!!).   From the pack­ag­ing, to the per­sonal note of thanks, to  the care and love I know goes into every­thing she bakes — Angie has cre­ated amaz­ing and deli­cious baked goods that sat­isfy a gluten-free diet, while not sac­ri­fic­ing taste that some might expect from gluten-free food.  I eat these just because they taste great!!

Keep up with Angie by vis­it­ing Zen Cat Gluten-Free Bak­ery, lik­ing her Face­book page, and buy­ing her deli­cious­ness on Etsy!