Cake Therapy
Cake Therapy is a heartwarming and uplifting podcast that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. Hosted by Dr. Altreisha Foster, the passionate baker, entrepreneur and advocate behind Cake Therapy, this podcast is a delightful blend of inspiring stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode takes listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking.
Cake Therapy
Haley Larson's journey through creative entrepreneurship, burnout, and rediscovery.
What happens when your viral cake creation becomes your identity, but your soul is calling you in a different direction? Minnesota cake artist Haley Larson, known online as the "infamous turkey cake lady," shares her refreshingly honest journey through creative entrepreneurship, burnout, and rediscovery.
Haley's path winds from art school with a ceramics degree to high school teaching, before finding a new creative outlet in cake decorating alongside her mother. Her realistic turkey cake creation catapulted her small business into unexpected viral fame, leading to television appearances and overwhelming demand. But as orders piled up and migraines took hold, Haley faced the crucial realization that not every opportunity aligns with true purpose.
"I was taking on orders that were really stressful for me," Haley reveals, describing the tough decision to scale back Hala Sweets to preserve her joy and mental health. This pivot allowed her to expand Hala Happy, her digital marketing and design business, creating clearer boundaries between creative work and creative play. Her story offers powerful validation for anyone questioning whether stepping back might actually be stepping forward.
Throughout our conversation, Haley illuminates how art and baking serve as therapeutic tools for managing anxiety and physical pain. "When I'm in a decorating zone, I'm not thinking about all these things that are worrying me or stressing me... I'm just in a moment," she explains, echoing the core mission of the Cake Therapy Foundation.
For creative entrepreneurs feeling stuck or overwhelmed, Haley's advice cuts through the noise: "Start, just start. And it's OK if you feel unready." She encourages listeners to embrace uncertainty, be selective about opportunities, and allow your business to evolve alongside your personal growth. Listen now to discover how finding your authentic voice might be the most important ingredient in your recipe for success.
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3. Buy The Book: Cake Therapy: How Baking Changed My Life https://a.co/d/76dZ5T0
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Welcome to the Cake Therapy Podcast a slice of joy and healing, with your host, dr Altricia Foster. This is a heartwarming and uplifting space that celebrates the transformative power of baking therapy. The conversations will be a delightful blend of inspirational stories, expert insights and practical baking tips. Each episode will take listeners on a journey of self-discovery, emotional healing and connection through the therapeutic art of baking. There's something here for everyone, so lock in and let's get into it.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, welcome back to the Cake Therapy Podcast with me, your host, dr Altricia Foster. Today I'm excited because we have a fellow Minnesotan on the show. Her name is Haley Larson, and you'll get to know Haley in a deeper way. I know that we see Haley online she runs Hala Happy and Hala Sweets but who really is Haley? What gets her going? What moves her? What's next for her here in Minnesota? I want to first, though, pause to acknowledge all of our new listeners and I want to big up all of our subscribers. Yes, I have to bring my Jamaican over that, you know. I'm extremely happy for, you know, our listenership and our viewership on YouTube and other platforms where you may find us, and I'm just grateful. I'm grateful that you are here to help increase your knowledge around alternative art forms that people use, you know, as therapy. I want to encourage you all, though, to you know, keep leaving us comments and tell us about the episodes that moves you and episodes that you learn the most from, and then thank you for the support. You continue to support the Cake Therapy Foundation. Your listenership, does you know, is one step into supporting the Cake Therapy Foundation. Your listenership, does you know, is one step into supporting the Cake Therapy Foundation, but not only that. You know, just go to our website. It's wwwthecaketherapyfoundationorg. Learn about us, learn about the work that we're doing in the community. And, like I mentioned earlier, our guest is Haley Haley Larson. She's the owner and the cake decorator of Halle Sweets. She's a teacher, she's an artist, she's a communications coordinator and a social media consultant. I didn't even know that about her, right. So I see her and I know that she's a Minnesota cake artist, but I knew that there were like levels to this lady. So I'm really excited to really learn more. She loves crafting visually stunning, mouthwatering, delicious treats. That's what she said. She brings joy and warmth to her community through the custom cakes and the sweet treats that she makes. So we will learn about all of this in conversations like when did she start baking? What's her preference, you know, or does she even have one? So we are really delighted to have Haley on the show today.
Speaker 2:Welcome, my friend Haley, to the show. Haley, hi, welcome, hi hi. I'm really excited to have you on today. Let me tell you this like I've watched you do your work and I love everything that you do. But then one day I was scrolling through your feed and I recognized that Kaylee does something else that she's passionate about and our listeners are going to hear you talk about a la happy right. That's the other arm of your business. So I'm excited. I love you. I love your business, so I'm excited. I love you. I love your work. Your personality shines through your branding. I didn't recognize until I found out the other arm of what you do. Then it started to make sense about your page and everything. It just shines through. Who you are comes through and your personality is too. So before we dive into our you know the conversation, how are you doing? You know Minnesota is very gloomy today, but tell me how you're feeling well, I will say.
Speaker 3:I woke up and the gloom hit my mood. I was like what is this? Sometimes I I like like a rainy day, I'm like let's's be productive, and she's like I don't know what this is. So I did a little cleaning Usually makes me feel good Got my coffee, which I never have. It's all lately, so I'm doing good now. Yeah, I feel like it's been clear up and I'm really excited to be here. So thank you so much. It feels kind of unreal because you're so amazing and in all the work that you're doing, and so I'm appreciative, I'm happy, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited to have you too. So similarly for me. I went for a walk this morning and it was gloomy and I was like, oh my God, minnesota's fall is here already, so I was a little bummed, but I'm hoping that it does warm up. So, miss Haley, I mentioned, you know, in our introduction that you're an artist, but let's paint that picture for our listeners, you know, give us a bit about your upbringing and your first introduction to art or baking on a whole.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, I think so. My upbringing I have been an artist since I was a kid. I love art. I would say, beyond art, my favorite thing is learning. I love to learn. So if I could go, I always say this if I could go back to school, I would knowing who I am now. I would go back in a heartbeat. I just say I want to learn everything, I want to try everything. Well, not everything, I'm not like not skydiving not things like that.
Speaker 3:Why not skydiving, though? No, no, no, no, no, no. Life-threatening events, no, but other things, yes, and so I feel like I was always a pretty creative kid and, um, I actually I went to school for art and continued and followed that after school, and my mom and my dad are both creative, um, in in different ways, and so I feel like I got a lot of that from them as well, and my mom is also a baker, so that's where some of that comes in, and so, yeah, it just always stuck with me. I also feel like I've always used art as a really nice outlet, so I think, whenever you're like stressed or in a mood or in a zone, I feel like I always gravitate towards art, and I always gravitate towards like putting something on paper or like physically doing something creative.
Speaker 3:It's yeah it's hard to do that and not become more joyful afterwards or not be like, oh, that was fun, or you know, and so I've just always stuck with it and I still. I mean that's what I mean, I know there's hola sweets and hola happy and they're both kind of artistic in their own way, and so we've got this decorative side with the cakes and then Holla Happy, and it's just kind of branching out now and I'm feeling a little bit more confident in like more of the digital side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go, go, girl, because I see it and it looks good. I can see your passion. It's something you love and I pick that up. So when I started baking, like a few years ago, I had my mom in the kitchen. So I'm a new baker, I'm a newer baker I was, and my mom in the kitchen and I saw where it improved our communication. I talk about that in my book briefly what is baking with your mom like and how does that? You know your bond, because I know it improved our bond as a mom and daughter, but what does it do for you?
Speaker 3:I think, I think it absolutely did so my mom, when I was younger. I have an older sister as well, and when we were younger she would take us to Lynn's cake and candy store.
Speaker 1:So if you're not from.
Speaker 3:Minnesota. It's like the cake store and we would stroll through the aisles, pick out our sprinkles and our theme, and so I think it kind of just like kept with us. And then when I, um, when I started baking with my mom, she well, let me back up a moment um, I started baking, so my mom is a retired teacher. She's a fax teacher retired fax teacher. So family and consumer science or home Mac, whichever you want to call it yeah, and she retired. The same year. I left teaching and started Holla Sweets.
Speaker 3:So we started this all together and so I had moved in, back in with my parents when I was older.
Speaker 3:So if you're out there and you move back with your parents, it's a blessing, it's going to be okay and I think it did improve it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I know we definitely got on our nerves but, like I also, I wouldn't trade any of those moments I feel like it's something that you don't get when you're, when you're grown up and you're, you don't get that kind of time. When you're grown up and you're, you don't get that kind of time. You know it's, it's, it was just every day I got to bake and work with my mom and put her music on and, yeah, it's just something I wouldn't change and I feel so lucky that I I've gotten to do that with her and I call her the head baker of Holla Sweets. She does. She would do all of it when we were like rolling and really going for it, and so I would say, like you said, it was really definitely bonding and kind of nostalgic right, something I get to look back on and be like wow, I spent like three years baking with my mom exactly, and the thing about it is not a lot of people get to say that.
Speaker 2:You know that they get to rebuild or strengthen these relationships in our older years Because I had my mom like with me right after my first child. You mentioned that both your parents, that you've been surrounded by art for all of your. You know your life and you are not. You're an artist. You know you talk about this creative background and you taught art to high schoolers, but I'd love to hear from you a little bit more about your art background and how did you transition to baking and what inspired Alice Lee.
Speaker 3:So, okay, my art background. So I am I think I think you call it like a serial entrepreneur. I've always like I, like I always started things. I was the kid. So if you're a kid out there and you're thinking, you're the ones where you're always starting things and stopping them or getting really into a hobby and then you know quitting it's not a bad thing, you're just trying things out. And that's who I was.
Speaker 3:I was like really into, like you know, painting, really into drawing. And then, um, I got really into ceramics. So I went to to the university of Minnesota and I graduated with an art degree in ceramic. So you know, what are you going to do? And, um, I ended up meeting a wonderful artist at the Uptown Art Fair who had just broken her arm. Sad, she broke her arm, but she's wonderful and her and I connected and she asked me to be her art apprentice and so I ended up traveling the States with her and learning about the art shows and she really inspired me to kind of go for it with art. So I started a ceramics business, started doing, um, uh, the art fairs and kind of moved into that.
Speaker 3:During that same period I was working, um, as a paraprofessional in schools. I had worked with kids, kind of you know, like your, your study job. I've always worked in some sort of education or with students and I randomly applied for an art teaching position and got it. I wasn't it's like I had no license. I was like let's just see, you know. And I taught high school for four years and I really fell in love with the process of creating there and seeing kind of the excitement and the joy that students got from doing something they didn't think they could do or being surprised by the thought they could put behind something and put out there.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, as I was teaching, I was teaching a lot of drawing and, you know, kind of dabbled in different things. You teach whatever they give you. Yeah, you're doing this, you know. And during the summer I had a little bit of time and that's when I needed like a new outlet. I was like I don't want to go home and draw after I've been drawing all day Right, you know, drawing every single day, you know however many hours. And so I was like let's try something new and baked a cake with my mom, decorated it. It was a disaster. It was the worst cake you've seen. It was like. It was like if you took a cake out of the oven and immediately frosted it. Right, it was dripping Like I didn't know anything.
Speaker 2:Is that what you did? That's what happened Did you do that.
Speaker 3:I don't know as it happened it was. I have a picture. I'll have to send it to you. It's not one I dropped, but it's like this dripping. It's what everybody probably does around their fridge. You know it's. It's what everybody probably does around their first. You know it's it's a mess, and but I had so much fun doing that with her and so we just kept going and then I realized, oh, you can be kind of creative, right, this can be my new outlet while I'm teaching and this is really fun, but not only that.
Speaker 3:You can like make cool things with cake, right. Right, you can try to make realistic stuff. You can try like to make lace or there's, you know, candies and like all these things that you can do, part of that process, and you have a really cool big canvas that you created and so, yeah, it's just another form of art. So I just I feel like I've always done that, and then you know then what happens as that kid who grew up and still stayed a kid and started all those hobbies and stopped them, I started Hala Happy, and so I started to miss the drawing and I missed that pen on paper feel and I miss fluidity and the freeness of creating on something different than a cake. You know, I like the process of creating, but I don't like baking. So if you were to ask me if I'm a baker, I'd be like no, I'm not, I don't know. I don't know the science, I don't. I follow the recipe and maybe change a few things, but don't call me for baking science. I'll help you decorate, you know.
Speaker 2:So what sparks your creativity when designing a cake or anything?
Speaker 3:So I think it depends. So if I'm designing a cake for a customer or friend, you know I might get a theme. I do like working with themes, um, and sometimes I like know right away what I want to do. Like I've I see something that's inspired me, um, whether it's online or outside um, or it just comes to me. You know, like those shower moments where you're like, oh, I should do this or yeah, this would be really cute.
Speaker 3:For example, one of my friends she just had her third baby and I get to make their cakes, and so what inspired me? For one of them it was the theme was a poop bear theme, and my mom had made me a poop bear cake when I was younger and we still had those like vintage little poop bear, like toppers, and so I was like, well, I'll make that. You know, like I can use this and recreate it and whatnot. So inspiration can kind of pop from anywhere. It could be from something I've wanted to try. I also really like to work with color schemes. So if someone gives me that, I can have a lot of fun with that. Or just like music too, like you know, a mood or a flow, I feel like anything can inspire you. It doesn't have to be one thing you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, no, I absolutely get it, because when I sit in my cake design world like you're bombarded with a myriad of you know inspirations and things to inspire you to do cakes, and it's for me like anything drives me Music. I could hear one line and I'm like, okay, there it goes. So I think for most artists, I think that's you know, they find inspiration. Well, true artists find inspiration from anywhere. I absolutely believe that. So not everyone is lucky enough to ever design a cake and get a viral moment. Okay, so some of us will bake and bake and bake and our art never goes viral. So you call yourself infamous turkey cake lady.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the.
Speaker 2:I'm the turkey cake lady. It's me she says Tell us about this infamous turkey cake.
Speaker 3:It's the cake everyone loves to hate it's. I grew a lot from this cake. It was I don't know, so my mom and I actually made this, so I had been trying out like realistic cakes and I, you know, I made a banana and everyone was like, why are all these bananas on your feed? Like it didn't make sense. And I made you know a couple other things, and the turkey just happened to blow up online. And I will say, though you know, if you're looking for your work to blow up, you never know because, yeah, I posted that, like every year, and like last year it went even bigger than that one, so you just don't know. Um, and I forgot your question. Well, where was I going?
Speaker 2:I wanted you to tell me about the turkey cake, like what made you do it? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So we just did it for a challenge, I think, just for fun it was, and it was for um, it was we were gonna have it just at like our Thanksgiving, like our family, just for fun, and um, yeah, I posted it online and it was just to try new things. You know, we got to use fondant and uh and um, brush on color. It was really, really artistic, right. You're you're creating it, you're painting on it and it was kind of a cool challenge to make it look real Like. I think at one point we burnt part of the font and we used like cocoa on it and like random things.
Speaker 3:But I say this that I did not do this like just out of nowhere, right, like there's tutorials on there that can help you and you can learn. So you like find this online. There's so many people and then you just kind of try your own. You know, yeah, so I didn't make this up. I did was not the first to do a turkey cake, but I tell you I was. I was one of the first, probably to get that much uh, frustration around a cake. I was like people were so mad and thankfully my content is not personal, right. I can't imagine feeling I. Look, I didn't feel personally connected to this turkey, so we're all good.
Speaker 2:What were the reviews? When people walked in and they saw that you made a turkey cake first of all, did they think it was a real turkey Were? They trying to get me. So tell me a little bit more about the response.
Speaker 3:So, okay, we made a couple. The first one we made it was a friend. A friend of ours requested this, so they brought it to an event and so the video you can see them like slicing into it. I mean, that's not even me, so I didn't actually get to see all these reactions. It was, you know, at a party, you know a get together, and then the one that I made for family. They knew it was like happening, so I don't think they were like that excited. They're like, okay, another cake, you know. But I think at the party it probably went well. I wasn't there, but I think a lot of people were really excited about it because it's different, you know, it's like, oh wait, this is a cake. You know, some people thought online it was pretty gross though. So you know, to each their own, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the turkey is cute Me. I personally would not try it because I'm not into intricately carved cakes. So please don't call me Call Hayley. Call me call Hayley, Because I cannot do that. It's really not my art. You know my form of the art, you know. I love also that you mentioned that you know you didn't do this on your own, you did it with your mom. And then there are tutorials out there because sometimes people see you know, see your success, quote-unquote if people see you know what viral, viral moments are and it's successful in its own right, and they think that you just you're, you know you're uber creative and you just this, just came out of the ether, not understanding that they too can do some research because most of us are out here doing the research.
Speaker 2:You don't need to call us to ask us how you can go to YouTube. It's there for everybody in Google. I'm really happy that you mentioned that you didn't do this all by yourself and encouraging others to go to those mediums. That's there for people, accessible for others to design.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a lot out there.
Speaker 2:Stephanie and I were yeah, there's too much out there sometimes.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is a lot.
Speaker 3:It's like, if you have a design, to me it's not necessary to really copy someone else's design, because there's so much knowledge out there that you can really dive into, to become successful or to create your own thing you can learn little parts of things and then put it together, right, you can just continue to just like grab and learn and like take in all this information and try it, and I feel like that's kind of what you know. That turkey cake was for my mom and I were like let's just try it, like let's, let's see if it works, and it did so, you know yeah, yeah, so it was.
Speaker 2:So I did notice that you've kind of, I would say, redirected yourself and your energy, you know, from cakes to to how happy Cause. Like I said, I love seeing your feed, but I do. I've noticed that you've kind of slowed down. Is there still a pause on custom cake orders, and what eventually led you to that decision to kind of slow down a bit? And what does your business model look like for you if you, you know, if you're back up and running?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's, you know that's a good question. And so, really, what? What happened was, you know, after you know, turkey cake city, here, here. And then we had a lot. We were fortunate to get featured on Twin Cities Live with many other Minnesota bakers who were absolutely wonderful and it was really busy.
Speaker 3:And so I did what you should never do Just, I said yes to too much. Right, I was like, yeah, I'm going to do, I'm going to try this, and I wanted to try all these things. And I got my mom and I were starting to hit that burnout, right. We were, we were doing things and weren't getting the joy from it, and we were, um, and I was taking on orders that were really stressful for me and and I think it's something that really important to remember is that not every, not every opportunity is one that you have to take. You is that not every opportunity is one that you have to take. You know, not every opportunity is your path or serving what you need, and I think I've learned that.
Speaker 3:And so I started to do weddings and those would stress me out. You know I would like this has to be the most perfect cake out there. You know it's their day and got to the point where we looked at the business model and I'm like, okay, I need to start charging more and like these are going to be my clients. And then I took a moment and was like, well, is that what I want? You know, is that who I want to work with? Is that where I want my space to be in? And it wasn't. I really kind of like I love the joy that I can bring my friends and family and I kind of missed that and I feel like everybody deserves to have a happy cake, something that excites them, you know, or like a happy dessert, and it shouldn't have to be unreachable. And so I was like I need to like bring that back into to my core.
Speaker 3:And that's when I started to do some pop-ups more so, and took a little bit less of those larger cake orders and really slowed down for our like mental health sake too. Like it was too much. Yeah, it was way too much and it's really it's a lot of work. And so we took a step back, kind of reprioritized what I wanted to do, and so right now I still take on custom orders, but it's only like two a month and, yeah, it's really little and it's usually only an order. That's like I know what's going to bring me joy, them joy, every. You know it's what's going to be fun, right, how am I going to find that again?
Speaker 3:You know, and I, sometimes I, when I'm taking those orders, I still get lost. So I'm in this like space of trying to rediscover who I am again and you know what, what's my purpose here? And so Paula Sweets has really taken a pause, or, you know, it's not really a step back, in a way, it's kind of a step forward and where we want to go next. It's just a pause on where we've been, and so there's still a lot I have to figure out. I don't have it solved, you know, and you don't have to have it solved, and that's okay, and your business can change and grow with you, and I think that's really important that you can, you can do that. It doesn't have to be one thing um, yeah, yeah, yeah, and so yeah, absolutely, it's just yeah, it's, it's, it's there, holocaust, we didn't go any, we're not, we're not gone. Um, I still, I think one of my goals that I've had on pause is to get a cake decorating class online, because I did some in-person ones and really liked that, brought my teaching back a little bit, but there's something that's like pausing me from doing it and so, you know, just working through those things and, um, shifting gears to holla happy, you know that started to ramp up a little bit because my priorities have shifted.
Speaker 3:I, I wanted to move out of my parents. I, I wanted to move out of my parents. I I wanted to, uh, to hit that next step and start to have different goals and, um, I learned a lot from Hollis sweeps. Um, I learned that maybe my, my business might need to be a little less creative, right, a little less? Um, be a little less creative, right, a little less time, you know, like that physical creativity so that work can stay work, Still fun, still creative. But not take all of it from me, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you mentioned. You mentioned joy like several times. How, how important is it for you to find joy in this space, as you are expressing yourself and, you know, in the cake space. And then how do you, how do you pull back your artistry because you said maybe you need to not put too much in your art?
Speaker 3:explain that a little bit yeah, I think, I think it's important to be happy with what you're doing and if it it's, and you know, and not to say you can't, you don't need to be happy all the time. But I don't want my work and my life work to to make me not happy, right, like I want to be able to. If I'm not having joy in this, then how can I give it back, right? If I'm not filling my cup up, how can I continue to put it out there? It's just going to become sad and depressing.
Speaker 2:And we don't want that, you know.
Speaker 3:And so I think part I think it's really important, it's important to be mindful of that, but also, like, again, you don't have to be happy at 24 seven. It's okay to like be frustrated and have all of those feelings. That whole range is good, you know, yes, yeah, but I think seeking joy and fulfillment and a way to create that impact is important to me personally. And then it's the other part of your question. You're going to have to remind me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you would mention no, you would mention no, you would mention that you know you feel like that, moving forward, you may, you may have to pull back your artistry, and I'm like wondering. For an artist like myself, it's usually hard, it's difficult for me to pull back once I get a constant idea. So I'm trying to figure out like how would you do that?
Speaker 3:okay, okay. So so to pull back your artistry? I wonder if it's not. It's not lessening myself as an artist, but it's creating more art for me. So you know, so like.
Speaker 3:So, right now, in what I made, most of my job is digital marketing, but it's also creative, right. I get to create, like stickers and food trucks, you know, signs and all these things that are really creative for a client, right, and so it allows me to have these boundaries, right. This is for work, and I'm not creative in a way that is draining to me, whereas, like, I might be doing email, you know to me. Whereas, like I might be doing email, you know newsletters and social media posts for clients, which I get to be creative, but it's, it's right, it's tapped at what your client wants or your customer wants, and so then, how I think that works well for me is because it doesn't take all my creative juices, right. I'm focusing on the end product and then I can be done with work and still use what I want, like, do what I want to do and try something new.
Speaker 1:So I could, I could decorate a cake with all the glitter.
Speaker 3:I want I could, you know, create squiggly lines everywhere and it'd be fine. That's for me. So I don't think it's lessening myself as an artist, but more just being like OK in a job, in a career, keep me going forward. I need to make sure I have some sort of boundary between myself and my creative self and my job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. You know the foundation, the Cake Therapy Foundation. It's my baby.
Speaker 3:Over here.
Speaker 2:I like promote. Like wellness, baking, you have to feed your soul and if you have to feed your soul, I'm telling you choose my art form and promoting mental health and wellbeing. And in my research I found out that you struggle with migraines and I would love yeah, so I would love to know how you balance. You know your mental health because, like cakes and art, it's a struggle for many. Do you lean into the arts for your mental health and talk to me a little bit about your experience with migraine and how it helps you to kind of focus on your own personal self?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. Well, I'm so sorry for anybody that has migraines. I did not know, like, how debilitating they can be until I started getting them. And I got them out of nowhere a couple of years ago and, you know, went through the process of trying to get you know anything to help and still going through the process. So I still have migraines. And this is when I was still baking a lot and so I would be in the kitchen with an ice pack wrapped around my head. You know decorating and baking and just like sweating. You know it was so bad and taking it.
Speaker 3:Migraines is not a blessing. No one should have them. Okay, so with with migraines, they, um, they really taught me they needed to slow down and I really needed to take care of myself, um, put a lot of a lot of self care and and and change what I was doing a little bit. So that's also kind of part of where Holosuite slowed down too is. I started getting migraines and I couldn't do what I was normally doing, and so that's hard when your body is preventing you from doing so, or your mind your body, or your mind, right, your, your mental health and they're they're preventing you from doing what you want to do and you don't have the control, and that can be really hard and so um.
Speaker 3:So now my self care day is I. I'm a lot easier at myself. So the other week yeah, the other week I had like a Monday of Mondays, you know, and I now know myself enough where I'm like I'm not going to get anything productive done, and if I do, it's going to take me three hours versus, you know, 45 minutes, and so it's not worth my time. I should rest, reset those three hours and then come back. And so I think I think it's really important to do that and, however you take, that mental health time or that self-care time is really kind of what's up to you. Like, I mean, I've had days where, yeah, I've put it into my art or I've gotten creative or done my own projects, but I have days where I'm like I just need to be horizontal.
Speaker 3:I just need to lay on the couch and I just need to like be out of my brain for a little bit, like I don't want to think, lay, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just lay. So you know, I talk about baking as a form of therapy in our foundation and it's really something I truly believe in. Right, I connect with it so much because it saved me, you know, from postpartum depression. It's done all the it's magic on me. What are your thoughts? And do you think that baking or decorating or any art form can be used as a therapeutic tool, because it's what I'm espousing?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I mean a thousand percent. So I I have had anxiety most of my life and I have a really, really busy brain, so you might not know.
Speaker 3:You know anybody could be out there having this brain right, where your thoughts are just constant. They don't. You're always ruminating, you're thinking of things and baking, absolutely. When I'm in a decorating zone, I'm not, I'm not thinking about all these things that are worrying me or stressing me or or or feeding this anxiety or whatever you're going through. I'm just decorating, I'm just in a moment, and that can be the same with other forms of art too. So with with drawing or painting or creating online, you know, there's so many ways to be creative, I think.
Speaker 3:I think you're focused in a moment and on physically doing something that you're getting your attention on and you're hitting that zone where you're, you're just flowing. You know you're just flowing. You know you're flowing. You're not thinking, and I think it absolutely helps. I think it would. If you haven't tried it, you should, but it like, needless to say, it could be. You know you could still get frustrated, right? If your cake's not turning out, but then you're not thinking about all these other things, right? You're thinking about your cake that's melting right in front of you.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, that is true, Because for me, I do get burned out too. So when I hold this space to speak to like artists and, you know, cake artists, people who do traditional art I'm happy when I hear someone admit and say yes, Because for a while I felt like I was alone, because like baking is such a lonely art space to exist in and I sometimes I'm like I can't do Instagram. I'm not baking your cake, Let me be. So I, you know, I'm happy when people are so authentic in this space and say, yeah, we do get burned out, but it doesn't mean that we don't love it, it doesn't it doesn't mean that it doesn't help with our own mental wellbeing, Absolutely I think.
Speaker 3:I think that's important because, especially when you talk about online, I feel like that that's really hit me too is that we still love it and it still is hopeful, right Internally and in our lives. But, like you said, I'm not baking that cake. Nobody talks to me Like I just want to do something here, Right, and because if you're doing it for your own health and your own space, right, it might not. You don't always want to feed into all these things.
Speaker 3:And then you can also get really caught up online and I think a lot of us can get caught up in the comparison and like, oh, I want that, or I wish I was like this, or why don't I have this many followers? And and really it takes so much strength to just say that doesn't matter, Right, it does. It's okay and it's okay to be in the space that I'm in and I'm where I'm supposed to be and I'll just keep putting my stuff out there if I want to and how I want to. Right, it's okay not to continue to follow every new thing that comes. I think I think my favorite bakers and and you know friends that I've made online are those that are really, really authentic and and sharing, all those things where you can relate and you're like oh, I feel that too. I'm not alone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what advice would you give to our listeners, which are a lot of young girls? What would you tell them? You know you've tried, you know you've had these business hella sweet, hella happy, and you're putting all of Haley into them. What kind of advice would you give to someone who's looking to turn their passion into a business?
Speaker 3:Let's see. I would say probably a few things. You know. I would say start, just start.
Speaker 3:And it's OK if you feel unready, it's OK if you feel like you're not where you want to be, it's OK if you're not at the level that you feel like you'd like to be. But you have to start, because if you don't try right and you don't put yourself out there, you're just kind of in this frozen zone, right, and nobody gets to see the wonderfulness that you are. And so if you don't share it, you know it can't build and be okay with making things you don't like it. We, you know it can't build and be okay with with making things you don't like and getting feedback and really just take those things in and don't take the feedback to heart. Right, you don't have to take all the feedback, right?
Speaker 3:You're going to get a lot of advice. You don't even have to take mine, but you're going to get a lot of advice. And listen and take the one that serves your path, right. Take the one that you feel serves where you want to go and explore that more. Explore the opportunities that you want to take and there's might be really cool opportunities that come your way and like everyone's like yes, this is it, keep going, going. But if you don't want that, that's okay. It's totally fine not to take everything and and to really take moments to pause. We kind of center yourself and and remind yourself what you want, you know, and and go go with the flow a little bit, even though the flow is scary and unpredictable, and let the business with you, you know, hopefully that's helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, Go with the flow a little bit. Where does Haley see herself flowing to? You know, for Halle. Sweets and Halle Happy in the next two years.
Speaker 3:Okay, the flow is flowing. The flow, okay, the flow is flowing.
Speaker 3:The flow is flowing. I will say I'm in a very unknown spot right now and I'm trying to sit in the unsettlingness of that flow, but I think it's going towards more me. So right now I'm really focused on who am I? Can I bring back, like that, that child in that inner me a little bit more? And where's that going? And right now I feel like a lot of it's going into finding my voice a little bit more. Finding my voice online and in person and where I want to go with that. And then I also want to continue to do that in my businesses, so to be a space where I have that voice and I can give others their own, to speak out with what they want to. You know and those weren't really great words on how I said that, but I, you know, finding it, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:And so, like with Halalla happy, I have really wonderful clients and I've been able to kind of hone in and who I want to work with, and I get to work with a lot of really great organizations and non-profits who are making such a huge impact, and that's the same for holla sweets. I want to, I want to do that same thing and whether that's doing more classes where others can learn and then they can share vulnerable in their baking, or you know any of that, but I tell you the flow is still, you know it is flowing you've caught me.
Speaker 3:I thought about this too when I was, you know. When you reached out for the podcast, I was like, well, I'm not really baking. I don't really know what I'm doing right now yeah and that's where I'm sitting. I'm sitting in this in your 30s unknown space and saying it's okay to be here yeah, it's okay to be here.
Speaker 2:Listen, um, I loved talking to you. Um, this has given me an opportunity to get to know you, you know, on a deeper level, as a fellow Minnesota artist, and I've enjoyed it. I hope our listeners also, you know, enjoyed hearing from you. Tell them where they can find you.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you can find me on Instagram at hollasweetsmn. Or hollahappy, so it's H-A-L-L-A. Fun fact, that's H-A from Haley, l-a from Larson, so it goes to my name. Or hollahappycom, so there's a couple of little spots that you could find me at and follow along and say hi.
Speaker 2:Yeah, say hi. She is very personable, she's accessible. I am, I'm a accessible, I am a fan, I'm a fan of Haley's and she knows that and I tell her. But as she continues to seek to find her voice, you know, we're both encouraging you, our listeners, to seek to find your own voice and find your purpose and keep baking, and I'm hoping that this has been a slice of joy and healing for you.
Speaker 2:I'm extremely happy to have had Haley here and I'm encouraging you all to subscribe, as you're listening, yes, and to all our subscribers, I want to say thank you. I want to thank our partners who continue to donate and support the Cake Therapy Foundation and buy us a coffee. Buy us a cake therapy foundation and buy us a coffee. Buy us a coffee. If you buy us a coffee, every dollar goes to the girl, because this is the work of the girl and I want to thank you all for joining and I want to thank you all for listening and hailey for being here. So until next time. This has been the cake therapy podcast. Thank you been the Cake Therapy Podcast. Thank you, ellie. Thank you. Today's mindful moment is that cooking is a meditation. Each chop, each stir is an opportunity to practice presence.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Cake Therapy Podcast. Your support means the world to us. Let us know what you thought about today's episode in the comment section. Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and if you found the conversation helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, follow Sugar Spoon Desserts on all social media platforms. We invite you to support Cake Therapy and the work we do with our foundation by clicking on the Buy Me a Coffee link in the description or by visiting the Cake Therapy website and making a donation. All your support will go towards the Cake Therapy Foundation and the work we are doing to help women and girls. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next episode.