Om Sweet Home: A Career Path Diversion
There’s no place like Om.
Truly, there isn’t. Not when you’re a celiac vegan whose options are already limited. And the options I do have are often loaded with questionable ingredients I’m not even sure are meant to be ingested in the human body. Even if you’re not celiac or vegan, you’ll still love Om Sweet Home because no one turns down baked goods, and most people are concerned (to some degree) about the quality of the food they put into their bodies.
Om Sweet Home mini chocolate chip cookies (V + GF)
This is a lesson to all of you turmoiling twenty-somethings: your career path is not linear.
Om Sweet Home was a passion project for Dawn Pascale. Before embarking on this journey, Dawn worked in the corporate world for 25 years. Sounds like a safe career, right? Stable job, stable income, stable benefits. IT was, until she was let go. The truth of the matter is it doesn’t matter what job you choose, there’s always a chance it could be taken from you in the blink of an eye, so you better be passionate about it.
Turmoilers, take notes. Dawn didn’t let this hurdle in her career paralyze her. As a twenty-something, your career can be this confusing, tumultuous road to navigate. You’re going to face a lot of obstacles throughout the ride and you may even need to detour a few times (ok, a lot of times) while you’re driving. But the most important thing is that you keep driving.
After being let go, Dawn thought long and hard about what she wanted from her career. She knew her comfort zone—the corporate HR world—would always be there. So she walked away from corporate America and leaped into something a bit riskier, less stable, but more fulfilling. I’m convinced the universe sends you signs. A few months before getting let go from her corporate job, Dawn had booked a cooking class set for February 14, 2013. Going into the class unemployed, she had somewhat of a revelation. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Om Sweet Home is run by an absolute boss babe.
Not only did Dawn start her own bakery business, she created her own healthy vegan butter too. This cruelty-free butter isn’t like the others on the market—which are more closely “shortening” than butter—it’s made mainly from coconut and a few other pronounceable ingredients. You can order it from her website or find it at your local health-food store. It’s used in all of her baked goods, and to the haters who will say it’s photoshopped not the same, you’d really never know dairy-free butter was in your cookies. You’ll be too distracted by the absolute party in your mouth to even notice the swap out.
She planted the seed and continues to watch her business blossom.
In addition to her online shop, Dawn has a brick & morter in Cliffside Park, NJ, where she not only sells her own goodies, but also supports other small businesses. Think: Vegan Rob’s snacks, Yeah Dawgs vegan hotdogs, and Bari & Betty’s gluten-free & vegan products. It’s all about community, relationship building, and #LocalHelpingLocal. You can also find Om Sweet Home products in local cafes and markets like, Organico (Ramsey, NJ), Bwe Kafe (Hoboken + Jersey City, NJ), Zucchini Bar (Newark, NJ), Perelandra Natural Food Center and more.
Maintaining the success of your small business requires creativity, diversification and reaching consumers in unique ways.
That’s why Dawn also offers cooking classes! You can do a 2-hour individual class or a by-the-hour group session for a fun night out. Bring some wine, bake some sweets and learn a thing or two in the process. Sounds like the perfect GNO if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway.
The coolest part about her classes is that they’re catered entirely to you. All you have to do is tell Dawn what specific baked good you’d like to learn how to make, and she’ll take care of figuring out a delicious and healthy way to make it from scratch. Then, she’ll share her wizard baking knowledge with you and your clique.
If you’ve learned anything from Dawn, I hope it’s this:
You might have career plans, but life has others.
If you have a passion, pursue it.
Don’t let a bump in the road wreck you. Some challenges are simply blessings in disguise.
Dawn Pascale is the boss babe behind Om Sweet Home.
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