The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
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Join us every week as we celebrate the unsung heroes of our local business community and explore the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship in our area. Tune in to The Alimond Show and get ready to be inspired, informed, and motivated to support and nurture the businesses that make our community thrive.
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The Alimond Show
Alyssa Sobecki of The Difference Baker - From Food Allergy Struggles to Allergen-Free Innovator: Building Safe Culinary Spaces, Expanding Business Horizons, and Embracing Personal Wellness Practices
Imagine transforming a personal struggle into a beacon of hope for others. Join us as we feature Alyssa Sobecki, the passionate force behind The Difference Baker, a sanctuary for those battling food allergies. Alyssa's story begins with her own undiagnosed food allergies and inflammatory conditions, experiences that fueled her mission to create a safe dining environment. Her family's harrowing encounters, including her husband's frightening anaphylactic episode, only strengthened her resolve to carve out a niche in the allergen-free culinary world. Through this episode, discover how Alyssa's journey of resilience and dedication has blossomed into a thriving business, providing peace of mind and delicious options for the allergen community.
We also delve into Alyssa's ambitious plans for the future, focusing on growth while staying true to the bakery's roots in faith and community involvement. With eyes set on expansion across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia regions, Alyssa envisions catering to universities, hospitals, and airlines with her unique blend of bakery delights and bistro-style offerings. Her aspirations extend beyond just business success; she aims to empower other entrepreneurs through consulting, sharing her expertise in establishing allergen-free commercial kitchens. Listen as she outlines her strategic vision for scaling the business towards a potential buyout, with a keen focus on maintaining quality and control.
Beyond business, Alyssa shares her personal wellness practices that help maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle. From meditation to ice baths, Alyssa emphasizes the importance of self-care routines for mental resilience, especially for those with dietary restrictions. She speaks candidly about embracing the present moment and fostering gratitude, offering insights into her mindset that have helped her navigate life's challenges. This episode isn't just about business growth; it's a testament to personal growth and finding beauty in every moment, encouraging us all to appreciate the small steps towards larger goals.
My name is Alyssa Sobecki and I am the owner of the Difference Baker. We specialize in feeding the allergen community, so we own a bakery that's certified free from seven of the top nine allergens.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, that is a lot of allergens. I know a couple. I think it's peanut allergy, soy allergy. Can you tell me what the other ones are, for those of us who are not?
Speaker 1:familiar, of course. Yeah, so wheat gluten we kind of combine both of those Peanuts, tree nuts, soy sesame, fish and crustacean. The two allergens that we do have in-house are eggs and milk, but we keep them very separate. We have separate equipment and we serve a lot of kids and families that have anaphylaxis to both of those. So we feel safe. It's in-house but we feel safe serving Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That is incredible, because sometimes I feel like that's kind of hard to keep under wraps for some places like cross contamination. You make sure you don't have any of that, which I think makes you stand out so much, especially having that variety of the allergens, like nine of them. I didn't even think I heard of some of those, so you guys have that on lock. Tell me a little bit about how that began and how that started, why you got into this industry.
Speaker 1:Give me a backstory on this, yeah, so that's really a loaded question. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.
Speaker 2:No worries.
Speaker 1:I was sick my whole life, ever since I was an infant, and really no one got to the bottom of it until I was in my early 20s and I was diagnosed with food. Allergies have a lot of inflammation, inflammatory markers. They diagnosed me with, you know, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, which all could have essentially been celiac disease or the start of celiac disease. I was never diagnosed with it because I went off of gluten and I felt so amazing and in order to get the diagnosis you have to be still on gluten and I wasn't willing to go back on it. You said nope, nope, nope, nope. And then you know my kids. Two of my kids have food allergies. My one youngest has anaphylaxis peanuts, amoxicillin, penicillin and gluten. He's been hospitalized for twice. So yeah, it's really my life story, it's our family. And then my husband. Two years ago he was at a brewery with a bunch of you know, a bunch of our friends and family, and he went into anaphylaxis after having a beer what?
Speaker 2:at 50 years old oh my goodness, this is something that can probably or maybe develop later on in life whether you think like oh, I'm good, I can eat anything.
Speaker 1:It's like surprise, no you can't, it can, yeah, and it could be. Just that was the tipping point. Yeah, for him, you know, um, which is I'm a firm believer of that I think he was just so inflamed, his body was like nope and I had to give him my son's epi pen. Thank god I had it. Oh my goodness that's scary, yes, it is. So then he was diagnosed with celiac disease. His sister has celiac disease, so you know there's a lot of genetics there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah well, I think this is incredible because I feel like a lot of people maybe sometimes feel left out with some of the delicious foods and treats that you can have, but you're like I can't have that because I don't know, like they say that they don't have that. But what if there's cross-contamination? I feel like with your stuff, because you've experienced it, your family has experienced it, you take this like super and I'm sure you've got like some protocols. Tell me why it is important for you to include people who maybe have trouble finding places or they don't trust other places, to Not give them an anaphylactic shock with the food that they're serving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. For me, I think the simplest way to answer that is I feel like I'm doing my mission, period, end of story.
Speaker 1:I think that a lot of times we don't look at life as turning our messes into our message and kind of providing, you know, a solution to others based on the pain that we're going through. And you're right. I mean, you know, we've got when we've had to travel with three kids, especially when they were younger, and myself having food allergies. I have a separate suitcase because you literally can't eat anywhere, you can't eat in the airports, you can't eat on the airplanes. That's so hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you, a lot of times when you go to other countries, a lot of the places don't know they are getting so much better because there's so much more awareness around this right, but I'm talking like you know, 15, 18 years ago. So you know, god put it on my heart several years ago when we were in a financial position to either pay off the mortgage or open up this bakery. And I'm like I am not opening up a bakery, like I know nothing about food establishments, I want nothing to do with it. But honestly, it kind of turned. It morphed into this Okay, this idea had legs, and then we started talking about it and then my husband was fully supportive in his family, in my family, and we were all, like you know, this is going to happen. This is what we have to do. This is what we're going to do. Yeah, and I met zero resistance. We literally thought about the idea the beginning of May.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we were open by November 7th of 2019.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you had a goal. You accomplished that. That is like a key component, though, like having somebody who supports you and has your back. Sometimes it can be a little bit complicated when two people maybe aren't on the same page or in agreement with that. So I think that you got pretty lucky there.
Speaker 1:Right, I did, absolutely, I'm blessed with my family and my husband. There's no doubt about it. And in regards to protocols, because it's my business and I treat it like it's my family's home and our table. I don't even like source ingredients that are on the same manufacturing lines as the allergens that we're free from and I really try not to have any allergens in the facility at all, like as much as I can avoid it and I'm not just talking to the person you know who's at the front desk Like. I make sure I contact their legal team, I get all their disclosures and everything, everything I go above and beyond.
Speaker 1:Above and beyond, because I know I need to yeah, absolutely no.
Speaker 2:This is like I feel like people undermine that. Sometimes they're like, oh, it's just a little bit of peanut, it's okay, it's like no, you don't understand like this can literally like kill me, correct? You need to know that and having more awareness of that, I think, is so important. So I think what you're doing is incredible. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'd like to talk to you about your team. How many people do you have on board with you? What kind of people do you like having around you and in your facility?
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that question. So I have a lot of my family. Actually, all of our staff is our family, of my family. Actually, all of our staff is our family, and you know both my kids, my two older ones. They both work at each bakery. We opened up a second location at George Mason University.
Speaker 2:Okay, congratulations, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yep. We partnered up with Sodexo and we're on campus there and hopefully opening up more locations in the next coming months.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Hopefully I'm months, oh, um, hopefully about that after this. Yeah, hopefully, um, but you know we just have a core, a core team that has really been with us since day one. They really have, um, my recipe developer, lauren cats, has been awesome, hands-on. She's created, she's. She owns her own gluten business, but but she was a huge part of establishing all of our recipes. We have dry mixes. I think in some way or another, we've all either have someone close to us or we all suffer from food allergy or an intolerance or whatever. It is autoimmune. Absolutely, I think that's important.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. I agree with you 100%. And then, why did you choose to have family on board? I want to know, like, was it just like okay, you guys are here, come on in.
Speaker 1:I think it was just, you know, when we were opening up the bakery, my son, christian, was in a transition, you know, and he really wanted to find something and he's always crazy about where he eats. He's like deathly afraid of getting sick and he's always been like that, ever since he was a little kid, and this was just a huge part of him, who he was, and his life, yes, of him, just in general. So seeing him flourish every day and just be so comfortable has been a gift. And then my daughter kind of happened the same way.
Speaker 1:Um, she, you know they, they asked us to open up George Mason and she had just graduated and she's like I'll come work for you. So it's really, it's actually been like pretty organic, um, and I support, I support them fully. Like if you feel like you need to go and do something else, like I 100 just want you to be happy, yeah, but my son's going nowhere. My daughter, on the other hand, she may dabble in corporate america for a little bit and then she'll realize and be like you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm going back to big I'm just kidding. Oh no, she will you just gotta let them like okay, go ahead free to fly you're. I'm here for you when you come back, you know if you do Exactly, exactly, I love that?
Speaker 2:No, that's sweet, I love it. I'd like to ask you about the locations Like when do you know, as a business owner, how do you know when it's time to like, grow, like for other business owners out there who, when it's time to get another location, like financially and all of that Because it's kind of scary, right.
Speaker 1:So I have a different take on this. I have a different perspective. So, as a business coach and consultant, I'd say your P&L is your number one right. Study it, know it. Know where the growth is, know your market. Make sure you're not going after a saturated market. And my mom, christian faith-filled woman hat, is going to say that when you're ready and when your business is ready, it's going to happen. You really don't play a big part in that. Yeah, I don't, I don't believe you Like you're not in control of that part, right?
Speaker 1:I don't believe so at all. I pray for the right people to come to me and when the doors are ready to open, then they're going to open, and I'm certain of that, which is happening as we speak. Literally, love it, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about the locations where, hopefully, will you be opening next Like. Is it going to be out of state or around Virginia?
Speaker 1:We're going to try and expand throughout the DC Maryland region. Yeah, just because I can drive there. Right, I still have. My youngest is 15 and in school at Virginia Academy and I'm very involved, very involved. So that's like my second full-time job.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I need to be able to, you know, be around. But yeah, just in the DMV area, I don't know exactly where and I don't know with who, but we have several huge companies that we're in conversations with right now and I just I can't disclose it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's totally good, but it's definitely going to be in this area and you know, I think our niche at this point and I'm saying I think because I don't know and I don't control anything but I do believe that God is calling us to universities and maybe hospitals and airlines where we can just help feed people who are at sporting events.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we just need money to build a big commercial kitchen to be able to feed all these people.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I love that and, from what I understood, it's like a lot of bakery stuff, but I think that I saw like there was a bistro, correct? Me if I'm wrong, talk to me about that. Because, like, that is awesome, that it's not just like desserts, because sometimes you know you want some substance in your tummy.
Speaker 1:I am a Jersey girl through and through. I love a stromboli, I love pizza, I love pretzels, so we have really. Lauren has done a fantastic job developing our bread, like where you literally wouldn't miss bread anymore, and it's allergen free too, actually. So, yes, we have baguettes. We kind of have like a Subway meets a bakery, like a deli kind of Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've partnered up with Boar's Head and we, you know, we do sandwiches to go. We do breakfast sandwiches. We have like cheesy biscuits that you would miss like when you go to Red Lobster or whatever.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:So yeah, we do offer a variety of bistro stuff and I would say that's probably the most important. That's probably the most important aspect about this business that I don't want to lose. I don't want to lose allowing people to come to our location and be able to eat.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like a sandwich, a piece of pizza, freshly fried donuts, jelly donuts, apple fritters and all of our fryers are even allergen free. So that's one part of the concept that I'm really as a business owner. I'm going to hold on to that and make sure that we have that everywhere we are.
Speaker 2:No, that's great. I think that you have like exactly what you know you want to have and people to have an experience when they go with you guys and I think that vision is so clear and I think that's so important and great that you have that and you're doing everything in your power you can to accomplish that.
Speaker 1:I'm trying girl. Yeah, you're doing great.
Speaker 2:Keep going, girl, bossing it. I would like to ask you where you see yourself in the next five years with your business. Obviously, there's growth and expansion, but maybe adding something different, something else more people on board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in five years. Essentially, I would like to become a bigger concept and have someone buy us out. Okay, yeah, yeah, and really my heart is in consulting and helping other businesses grow. Yeah, and you know, the commercial kitchen space is a very dirty space and what I mean by that is when you're coming to, you know, or when you're thinking about trying to develop, let's just say, a gluten-free company or a peanut-free company. It's very hard to source a shared kitchen that you can bake out of and work out of and source ingredients out of. So I would say that's probably where the next phase of this business is going to go, phase of this business is going to go, and you know that's going to be a business in and of itself, right, because I'm going to have to control the ingredients that they're sourcing from and what's going in and out of these kitchens.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you about that, like would you still have? Because? You know, sometimes companies get like bought out and they totally change or it's not the same. So have you given that thought I have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so essentially I would love to hold on to the control and mitigate all risks and have about four or five large commercial kitchen spaces throughout the United States to serve all of these major countries. Yes, and then on top of that, maybe a part of that, having the consulting part, where there's a part of that kitchen that is certified free from and it's shared kitchen qualified.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, and now you're getting into consulting and stuff. I would like to know what did part of that journey come about while you were doing this, or is that something you've always had like a background?
Speaker 1:in. I was a coach and consultant for a short period of time, but it is definitely who I am at heart.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it comes naturally to you and you just know like this is where you thrive. I love that. What do you like to do in your free time, when you're not like managing all of this, handling this and that and the kiddos? What do you like to do to stay sane, I guess, is my question. Yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so your mornings are everything. So I get up and meditate, go in my sauna, do the ice bath, journal and work out. Those are the things that I do not skip at all.
Speaker 2:And your skin looks great. So something in that combination is working. Thank you, I don't know if I can go into the cold water, but it's the best Kudos, I don't know. I get so cold all the time, I guess once you're in it.
Speaker 1:It is the best and it's a mental game every time. So I've been doing it for almost four years and it doesn't get easier. But Good to know. I just heard a statistic, like two weeks ago, and I can't remember where I heard it from. Yeah, I was listening to I think it was a Joe Rogan podcast, actually and what he said was every time you go into the ice bath or you do something that you absolutely do not want to do, but you do it anyway and you get that mental brain win, a part of your brain grows what, and it's one of the only things that generates brain win. A part of your brain grows what, and it's one of the only things that generates brain cells.
Speaker 2:Like the gray matter in your brain. That's insane. I always thought you couldn't, I know, but this is like. This is crazy. I'm going to have to look this up a little bit more and be like what I want my brain to grow some more. I feel like it's shrinking sometimes with all the things going on. I know, but this is good to know. Thanks for sharing that yeah of course.
Speaker 2:Is there anything maybe that I have not touched on or that I've missed that maybe you want to share with the audience in regards to yourself or your business or anything?
Speaker 1:You have got great questions. I feel like we've kind of covered it all Really Okay.
Speaker 2:Good, I just want to make sure yeah Cool, do you guys offer, I guess, catering Would that be something that households or wedding people want to Nope and nope, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So if you think about catering, you have to think about an element where you have to stay on top of keeping it hot, keeping it cold, staffing people at the events. It's a whole other business and right now especially, you know, opening up right before COVID being shut down for six months, like the economy. I mean, we're it's. You know, it's this concept, I know this concept is very hands-on. Yeah, if I could double myself, then maybe we could, you know, start to do something like that. But we do offer pick-ups, so we'll do events all the time, but they pick it up, which is great and it's self-contained, made by you guys, made by us.
Speaker 2:Trust us, yeah.
Speaker 1:Ingredient label on it and they bring it to their events, and we do that often.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. That's good. That's just as good. Just bring it on over.
Speaker 1:Exactly Heat it up if you need to. Exactly Do it as you want, period Done.
Speaker 2:Exactly and you get the safety of knowing that you guys made it and you know that I like God, she knows she has kids who had this, her husband had some issues, she's had issues. Oh yeah, like I think that that makes you stand out a lot actually, because you know firsthand what it's like. And having those scares and being that person like does it have this, does it have that, and you don't want other people to have to feel like ask that they probably go to you and they don't even ask because they're like we know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hurt, but I mean we still do and I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean I love it. I love being able to kind of put you know parents' minds at ease or people's minds at ease. I mean the rate in which people are getting diagnosed with food allergies is insane right now. So it's new to a lot of people and it will always be new to a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember a lot of people like back then we used to eat bread. Why are you guys suddenly like you guys are crazy, you're making up it's like? No, it's true, like this is a legit thing going on? Yeah, I mean, the way that we process our food has changed, which causes these issues that maybe you guys didn't have back then.
Speaker 1:Our soil is not as clean our air is not as clean. Yeah, our lives are very stressful, so it's going to. You know it's. What do we do? We eat, it's our bodies are are gonna behave and, and, and our defense mechanisms are going to react through our skin, through, yeah, our reactions to food, because of all the inflammation yeah that's going on inside exactly, and we are what we eat.
Speaker 2:So whatever we're putting in, if it's not clean, well we're gonna break out in pimples or our skin's not gonna look good which is not your case at all. Your skin skin looks so good. I can't like stop staring at it.
Speaker 1:I'm like what's this? Oh my gosh, you are so sweet. No, it looks so good. Thank you, Like it looks so smooth and just.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. I know I'm like going crazy, but I love skin stuff.
Speaker 1:I love you. You can tell me that until the cows come home, I'm telling you right now that it looks good Like it's like okay, I'm going to describe it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm sorry, I have to say it because I love it. It's not oily and I have oily skin but you have like it has a glow, but it's not oily, it's like dewy, it's beautiful. Keep doing whatever you're doing, girl Ice bath and sauna. Okay, here you go again with that ice bath. I thank you All right. Well, I'm going to ask you. My last question that I like to ask everybody is do you have a quote or a saying that inspires you, or maybe something that someone's told you in your life that you're just like wow, I think about that a lot, or that pushes me or that inspired me? Would you mind sharing that with us?
Speaker 1:A quote or a saying. You know, I'm going to go with my driving belief, and that is to surrender to everything that is going on in front of you and do not look at it as being negative, because we always look at things in the moment and in reality as what we expect it to be. Yeah, and that's the problem. Yeah, because that's the problem. Yep, because that's when it becomes negative, that's when we manifest negativity, that's when we experience negativity. And if you are in the moment and you are so aware and you're like man this sucks, but it's beautiful Instead of six months from now being like man that sucked, but now it's beautiful. Yeah, to be able to do it right now With that mindset is huge and it takes a lot of work. I work on it every single day and I pray about it every day, but it's just like you know, a muscle gets bigger and bigger and bigger the more you work it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that is so true, because sometimes I feel like we want to be in control of stuff and sometimes you have to understand that you don't have control of that. You got to let that go and just enjoy the process, those little baby steps that you took to get to the bigger picture of it all, amen, and not look back at it as like, oh, it was like, hey, I learned that, exactly right. Yes, so thank you for sharing that with us and sharing your inspirational quote I love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me absolutely.
Speaker 2:This was awesome yay.