Adapt & Elevate: The Business Strategy Behind The Blind Kitchen | Debra Erickson - Part 1

Welcome to Spark & Ignite Your Marketing, the podcast where real conversations meet real strategies. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly Branded. With over 25 years of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic, attract the right people, and build businesses that light them up.

Over 7 million adults in the U.S. are blind or visually impaired, and for many, the kitchen becomes one of the most intimidating and inaccessible places in their home. In this powerful episode, Debra Erickson, founder of The Blind Kitchen, shares her remarkable journey of losing her vision, enrolling in culinary school, and building a purpose-driven brand that empowers others to cook with confidence. From adaptive kitchen tools to the emotional impact of regaining independence, Debra’s story is one of resilience, innovation, and heart. We discuss the power of accessible marketing, the mindset shifts required to lead with purpose, and why thoughtful design isn’t just inclusive, it’s also strategic. If you’ve ever felt like the odds were stacked against you, this episode will reignite your courage and remind you that your story has power.

Three Key  Marketing Topics Discussed:

1. Accessible Design is Good Marketing: Debra emphasizes that accessibility isn't just a moral responsibility; it’s a smart business move. She shares how making simple changes like adding image descriptions can help businesses connect with more customers and build brand trust with underserved audiences.
2. Building a Brand Around Purpose and Identity: The Blind Kitchen is rooted in Debra’s lived experience, creating an authentic brand that resonates deeply with her community. She explains how clarity of purpose helped her build emotional connection, credibility, and a loyal customer base.
3. Marketing by Listening and Testing: Instead of relying solely on outside experts, Debra now listens to her gut and watches the data. Through trial, error, and a willingness to pivot, she’s learned how to refine her strategy and invest only in what actually moves the needle.

Follow Debra:
Debra Erickson | LinkedIn
The Blind Kitchen | Facebook
The Blind Kitchen | Instagram
The Blind Kitchen | Website

Transcript

Beverly: 0:09

Did you know that over 7 million adults in the US are blind or visually impaired, and that access to adaptive culinary tools is one of the top barriers for independent living for them. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand Clarity at Wickedly branded. And with over 25 years of experience, I've helped hundreds of purpose-driven entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic and boldly bring it to life so that they can magnify their impact in the world. And today. Somebody is impacting their world. It's amazing. Today's guest is doing so much to help people who are blind go in the kitchen. Debra Erickson is the founder of The Blind Kitchen, a revolutionary business offering adaptive culinary tools and education for people with vision loss. She's an educator, innovator, and culinary powerhouse on a mission to help people cook safely. Confidently and independently regardless of their vision. Debra, welcome to the show.

Debra: 1:11

Thank you Beverly. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.

Beverly: 1:14

I'm so excited to have this conversation first. I love to cook, so we are gonna have a fun conversation. There's no question. So talk about your journey, like how did you get here? What was that spark that happened that said, the blind kitchen needs to exist.

Debra: 1:27

There absolutely was a slow ember, not exactly a spark, okay. But once the spark hit then I could not do it anymore. So I've not always been blind. I've retinitis pigmentosa, even though it started at 17, I lost the majority of my vision in my early. Fifties. And so I had taught adults and I knew I wanted to teach, so I went to the Oregon Commission for the Blind and got my skills, my cane skills, my braille skills, my adaptive devices, how do you get around in the world without being able to see. Wonderful staff there that were able to help me with that. And I was taking a class called meal Prep, which is also important for any adult to be able to care for themselves and live independently. So I was taking this class and a light bulb went on in my head and I thought I would like to teach this. I knew I wanted to teach adults. I'd done that before and I thought I could teach this, and then the light bulb went off because I really didn't know how to cook. I raised two boys and. The youngest is six foot five now, so I did something right, but it was mostly reading the backs of cans and boxes. That's how I operated. I'm one of 12 children and seven girls, so we didn't get a lot of mom one-on-one time in front of the stove. So I just really didn't really know how to cook and was not a particularly good one. But I was enjoying my time in the kitchen with my instructor so then I thought. How do you learn how to cook at this age? And I'm very skills-based as well. And eventually after mulling it over for a couple of weeks it became like I need to go to cooking school to learn how to cook. And so people thought I was nuts, how are you gonna do this? And I didn't have a clue how I was gonna do it, but, I do a lot of other things. How do I use my phone without. Being able to see it, how do I, take a bus, how do I walk, to the parking lot? It can be done, but I just do it differently than most people. So in culinary school proved to be the same thing. I was the only blind student and I got through it. And I graduated in June of 2019, so March of 2020 came and went. I was loving teaching adults. Oregonians that were legally blind how to cook, and then COVID hit. Everybody was confused what was safe to be in a room with someone not to be in a room. Teaching cooking remotely didn't seem particularly safe. If I'm not with you hand on hand, how can I keep you safe? So I basically was paused for about a year and a half. That is how the Blind kitchen came to be. It's like I started to pull all the information I had done.'cause culinary school is very demanding and very challenging. I didn't have time to come home after Eggs week and organize everything and put it all together. I just whipped onto Soup and Sauces week, after that. So it was a gift for me to be able to organize it all. And that's how the Blind Kitchen came to be.

Beverly: 4:12

First of all, you're a badass.

Debra: 4:13

Thank you.

Beverly: 4:14

I feel like, you had your vision, didn't have your vision. You're like, not only don't wanna learn how to cook at 50 something. And then you're like, okay, no, I wanna go to culinary school and then, you know what? I wanna teach others in this really cool way of evolution for you? I'm sure you were scared and there was obstacles and all the things like talk about how did you overcome some of that? As a person who just wants to start a business, which is already hard, but as a person who has now this added layer of complexity of not being able to see.

Debra: 4:45

Yeah. I'm telling you, culinary school was easier than running a business. Yeah. With running a business. I would say the biggest challenge are. Computers, the internet, not my being able to use a computer. I'm not great at it. There's a lot of people with vision loss that are a lot faster and more savvy than I am, but I can get around and there are so many websites and forms that are inaccessible to me. And that to me that's frustrating because I wanna be able to do, you may get on the website and I use just a keyboard to get around. I don't use a screen, I don't use a mouse. My computer talks to me, and I use keyboard commands like, control C is copy, control V is paste. I use thousands of those, and those are the same two I use to cut and paste as well. But sometimes I'll get on and it'll say button. Button. I don't know if I'm adding something to my cart, taking it out, logging out. I have no information and I really pride myself on my independence. I'd love to have an assistant, but that costs money. But I don't want people doing things for me if there is a way to do it myself. And it's very frustrating. There's nothing I can do at that point, except that there are. Services. There's a service called I Ran. It's a visual interpretation service. And what they do is for a small fee and they actually have a human being can remote into my phone and look out my camera in real time if I'm at the airport or something like that. I also have the meta rayban glasses so that they can actually look through my glasses. So now I can be hands free. It's paired with my phone. But they can actually remote into my computer with my permission and help me fill out those forms.'cause they can see what's on the screen, they're seeing what I'm not seeing, but they can help me overcome those hurdles. I'm lucky to live in an era where that technology exists that would've been unheard of 20 years ago. And so I really try to be resourceful and access resources, but please take a moment. There are different businesses and things that can help you make your website accessible for people with vision loss.

Beverly: 6:45

Yeah, one of the things that's just really good for SEO in general is to do alt tag designer images. Like just describe the images so the person who comes to your website can hear what is on the website. There's very little things you can do to at least make it. In general, accessible for people who can't see because they're listening to your computer describe what's on the page, right? So I think that's really powerful for business owners to understand, to make something accessible Also, is. Part of your marketing, which is great.

Debra: 7:12

Agreed. I'm definitely going to go and give my money to the person who's doing their best to make their website as accessible to me, a blind consumer. They're gonna get my money every time.

Beverly: 7:24

I love that. Yeah. If you're like considering me in the process, then yeah, I am gonna consider you as an option for sure.

Debra: 7:29

Exactly.

Beverly: 7:31

If you're isolating me, why would I give you the time of day? It's like closing the door in your face. That's not okay. do you have a story of how your business, the Blind Kitchen, has really helped somebody overcome some really deep challenges and help them find joy in the kitchen?

Debra: 7:47

Yeah. So I would have to say the emails that really hit me closest in the heart are emails from, and I'm not gonna be ageist or sexist, but I'm gonna say it anyway. In my business, in my experience, it's generally older women who used to be. The cooks for their family. They did Hanukkah, they did birthdays, they did Thanksgiving, and then because of age related macular degeneration. Yeah. Glaucoma. Diabetic retinopathy. Now they don't know how to get back in the kitchen or didn't know how it didn't seem possible. How can you possibly go into a kitchen where there's hot surfaces hot. Food, sharp knives. Mom, you'll cut yourself. We'll take care of it. Yeah. Mom, you've toss a salad and it's not cut up the stuff for your salad. You just get to toss it. so they lose a huge part of their identity, something that brought them. And you said you love to cook and I am guessing, I don't know this to be true, but it's part of your love language. That's how you expressed your love to people. It totally is. What if you couldn't do it anymore or thought? You couldn't do it anymore. And certainly there are men, we have a grilling and barbecue collection because in my world, I'm from Indiana, all those kids and stuff like that, the women did the inside work, the men did the outside, work, and that included grilling. So there are a lot of people in this world, they'll say, oh, grandpa's eyes aren't as good as they used to be. That don't identify as blind or visually impaired. And that's fine. I'm not here to. Put a label on it if you don't want it. But if you are having problems seeing, there are tools out there, and I'll give you an example. One, it's a talking thermometer, so if you're outdoors, it's nighttime, you're grilling. Chicken, it needs to be cooked to 1 65. And if you're having a hard time seeing that, Thermometer and you gotta get your eyes close to it. And if you could get that information through your ears from an arm's length away, why not do that? It's just not that expensive and it's so much more. Hygienic and safe for everybody involved?

Beverly: 9:38

I'm a smoker, not like a smoker of cigarettes, but I smoke my meats and I have one of those digital thermometers that it just bings me when it's on my phone. There's some fancy ones out there, which is amazing, which makes it so much easier'cause. You gotta do it low and slow when you're doing the smoking. And I don't have the patience to sit there the whole time. I'm gonna go do the other things and come back and check on it if I need to. It's so fascinating to me. I talked about this a little bit with one of my other clients. She's a deaf interpreter. And I had a boyfriend who in high school who his parents were deaf, but he was not. And when I went to their house one day, like when you ring the doorbell, lights go off in their house and like all these things happen because they can't hear. So they use their eyes as their primary. Sure. And it sounds like it's almost reverse for you. You're using your ears as your primary, so Exactly. The sounds of things can be your triggers.

Debra: 10:24

And when I found there's not answers for everything out there, I can't devein a shrimp, there's no way. It just doesn't happen. I destroy it. But I can buy shrimp That's already deveined, yes. There's a way generally, and now especially with these visual interpretation services, I can't speak to deafness or being a wheelchair user or the different challenges, but I can speak to vision loss and there's usually a way to make things happen, but we just have to do it differently. Exactly what you were describing.

Beverly: 10:52

It's interesting because for me, I have a very minor, situation with my left eye, I have keratoconus, which is the filling of the cornea. So my left eye is essentially the worst kind of astigmatism you can have. Like I just see like general shapes. and color, but I don't see detail in any way, shape, or form in my left eye. So as this has deteriorated over time, they say I can have a cornea transplant, they can say there's other options when it completely fails and things like that. But it's been stabilized for a while, but it really, for a couple years was. Failing very quickly. And I was like, what if I lose my sight?'cause I design and write for a living. What am I gonna do if I can't see? And I never thought about the kitchen, but you're right, the matriarchs of the family are the cooks, it is our love language. And it's community, it's family. It's so much,

Debra: 11:38

oh, it's history, it's sharing stories, it's culture, it's everything.

Beverly: 11:43

And I feel like. I would really be devastated to not be in the kitchen. My mom always says, I have a really great blog post about this for my listeners, if you go to my blog, it's the secret ingredient is love and I make things with love. Like I pick it from my garden and I pull it in and I cut it up and it's you're serving up a plate of love in this particular thing so I love this. I love this so much Debra I have accommodations now for my vision. Like I have a really big monitor. So I can see better on my iPhone. There's accessibility where you can make the font really large and the color contrast more and things like that. So I'm already using some of the accessibility things just for my left eye issue. And I've often wondered what will happen if it completely fails, and what if it happens to the left eye or the right eye? Or what if I get some other thing that happens to my right eye? Your vision is incredibly important. The world is made for people who see, not necessarily people who don't see.

Debra: 12:38

A thousand percent. And they say that your brain uses about 70% if it's available bandwidth and it processes through vision. So when you lose your vision or your brain. Isn't relying on it as much because you don't have that access, then that makes me rely on my other senses more. My hearing didn't get better. Yes, I'm done doing any better on hearing tests. My taste didn't get any better. I'm not doing any better on taste tests, but I rely on it a lot more. Yeah and you can definitely get through it. There's no doubt about it, but it is a very. Visual world out there. Vision is everything, even the way we talk. I'll see you later.

Beverly: 13:16

Yeah.

Debra: 13:17

Just eyeball this for a minute. Oh. I hear that in recipes all the time. Yeah. Even our language. I can only speak for myself, but I believe this is true of most people with vision loss, you can say, hi, it's nice to see you again, and I'm a hundred percent fine with it. That is the way we speak in our society. But some people trip all over themselves, and I appreciate that they're sensitive and say, oh man I wish I hadn't said that. I'm so sorry. you don't need to apologize. We say it too. Nice to see you, Beverly.

Beverly: 13:42

Don't even think about those kinds of things. What is, one thing that you wish people would know about what it's like to be blind that they maybe aren't as aware of? We talked a little bit about social media, how do you do your marketing, but, just in general, what do you wish there were a little bit more, aware of.

Debra: 13:58

I think there's a lot of fear around even approaching the subject of blindness. That I'm gonna sue you or you're gonna hurt my feelings somehow if you recognize that I carry a long white cane, there's probably a clue here. But people will go at all different kinds of angles to avoid the subject. And I think you can't avoid the elephant in the room. It is true. I appreciate when people come up and have a conversation with me.'cause sometimes you can be the only person in a crowd. I don't know. I'm not gonna interrupt your conversation. But I'd love to be invited in. And I think that's a thing that if you can just say, Hey, you over there. With the white cane.. Would you like to join us and, oh yeah. I was listening to you and I have an idea on that too. But the one thing I would say is that if I am interacting with you, let's say I go to a party and you come up to me and you say, do you mind if I ask you about your blindness, which is perfectly acceptable because then I can give you permission or I can say, no, I prefer not to. I think the answer that I like the best, that feels most comfortable for me is, yes, we can talk about my vision loss, but it's not the only thing I wanna talk about. Oh, I love, let's talk about other things too. That's so good. Someone else told me that and I thought that's perfect that, yeah.

Beverly: 15:05

So let's talk about other challenges and how you've overcome them. You mentioned in your application, finding reliable help has been your biggest challenge, which you are not alone. That is a thing. So how have you navigated that challenge in your business specifically?

Debra: 15:19

It's all about putting feelers out there. Knowing people who know people. I haven't done the automated thing that feels like this business is a little too niche for that. People would freak out if they found out later that the owner was blind. I think there needs to be awareness of that. So that's how I've been able to do it. But people just have lives. They have children that, oh yeah, I can do that. I can come in three days a week and help you do your packaging and shipping. Because the way my business works, it's the blind kitchen and people purchase the things online, or they get the free tips and stuff in the blogs, which is fine too, but if they decide there's a tool they'd like to try or that might help them solve a problem in their kitchen, they purchase it and now it has to be packaged and shipped and mailed to them. And my talents are, I'm a teacher and I'm a cook, and that is where my talents are best. Not wrapping packages, although I have to do it to have this business. We have to do things when we own a business that we really wish we could pay someone else to, but. Sometimes that can work and sometimes not. And that has been difficult to find someone consistent because it's not like I can tell you Beverly, go pick the aerator off the top shelf. Yeah. What's the aerator? Because I've named all of these tools to reflect their function. Okay. So it, it might be called something, somewhere else, but i've been very vision focused with the blind kitchen that, everything's as blind friendly as possible. They have, the names reflect their purpose.

Beverly: 16:42

That's good marketing too, by the way. You said that going to culinary school was way easier than being an entrepreneur. So what is one belief or mindset shift do you think you've made in order to keep going as a business owner?

Debra: 16:55

I've had to learn to rely on people and ask more than I want to, than I'm comfortable with. Yeah, it's always been my way to try and just go forward and figure it out for myself. I can make this happen or whatever. And that's not very efficient when you're running a business. Yeah. And you don't already have the answer. So I think I've had to learn to be more dependent on other people to help me do. Quick problem solving. And that's not my comfort zone, but people don't resist. They're happy to help as a role.

Beverly: 17:22

Over the years, I have been better at leading and delegating and letting go and all the things which you have to do to grow, like just period, you can't do it all. But it's hard,

Debra: 17:32

you know, Beverly, it's funny you say that because, Once I was asked what did I learn growing up? And, we always have adventures as children growing up, being adults, getting in relationships. And one thing that I was very clear on, I don't know the moment it happened, but I was pretty young and I had seen women. Being forced to stay in relationships because they were dependent financially or whatever, and so into relationships that weren't good for themselves. And it still happens around me. So I made the decision, I'm always gonna be independent. I'm gonna be financially independent. I don't know what your paradigm is of the universe, but the universe said to me, okay, you wanna be independent? Let's see. You do it without vision There was a lesson in this for me, I was doing it to an unhealthy degree where I was shutting people out or not listening. When I should have been They say every problem comes with a gift in its hands. Sure. And I think that was its gift for me was, okay, slow down. You don't have to do everything.

Beverly: 18:29

So I went into being an entrepreneur, kicking and screaming like I was not intentional about my entrepreneurship. I married an active duty army soldier and I had to move every three years. At the time, it was 2011, 2012, and there wasn't really remote jobs. And there I wasn't able to find a VP of marketing job, just anywhere. You have to know people and network and so I start, I really created a job for myself. I could go anywhere. I could be in Italy and still help people, is really what the goal was. And maybe to help a couple other military spouses have a job too.'cause it's really hard. To follow your soldier and still keep a career. But here's the vulnerable part of it is I was an only child and I was always so doing myself and having control of my life and I knew it was gonna happen next. And I was 35 when I got married, so I was significantly older than the average person and certainly not. Codependent with anyone and had my own idea of what things were like, and I had, my own house, my own car, my own life. I hear you on this, like be careful of what you think you have or what you want to have. And boy, the universe, God, whatever, will. Teach you some other lessons of what that looks like. That's a great story for sure. About like the gift and the curse at the same time

Debra: 19:45

exactly.

Beverly: 19:45

So reflecting on your journey, it's been since it sounds like just before COVID, when all this kind of started, right? What's one thing about how you run your business now that's very different from when you started?

Debra: 19:57

I am quicker to recognize when something isn't working. cause you get people out there that give you advice and they're the experts in this. I'm not an expert in marketing. I'm not an expert on website design. I'm not an expert on videography or graphic design. And I think when I first started, I even though flags would go up do I really need to spend that much money? Do I really need to spend that much time? Now I'm more quick to say. We try it. I'm willing to do it once a quarter instead of once a month now. And then, and let's see if the numbers change. So I feel like I'm taking more control, things where I felt like I had absolutely no knowledge. I know a little bit about marketing because I've engaged in it. And that's been a gift because I find that I'm pretty good at it,

Beverly: 20:41

trusting your instinct, your gut and then measuring, that's huge. Just measuring the results. Don't just throw it at the wall and say, okay, like actually measure, tweak, adjust. I always joke that we're mad scientists over here like test B, like we're always trying to test to make sure it's working and then tweaking it till it's just the best it can be. Our clients don't have a lot of money to spend on marketing. Like there are small business entrepreneurs who are usually by themselves, solopreneurs trying to do it all. And so every dollar matters. So if it's not working, you gotta stop that. You can't just be throwing good money after bad, like that's not okay. So that's good. I love that. It's incredible insight. for our listeners who are maybe like feeling a little bit stuck about that, like about marketing and what that looks like for you, like you're not alone. So many people have. Tried things didn't work, had to measure all the things. And if you're looking for more strategic help or more clarity or confidence and momentum, I really want to invite you to set up a free clarity call with me. You just have to go to wickedly ready.com/call and we'll uncover what's working, what's getting in the way, and how to move forward. Maybe just that one next step that could help you push forward to that next vision you have for yourself. You just don't have to do it alone. So I just wanna invite you personally to gimme a call and let's chat.

21:53

Hey there, you've just finished part one of the Sparking Night, your marketing episode. How are you feeling? Excited, inspired, but we're just getting started. Next Tuesday we're dropping part two, and you won't wanna miss it. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, so you'll be the first to know when it goes live. Until then, take a breather, let those ideas simmer, and we'll see you next week.