Soul SiStories
Soul SiStories was born out of a mutual desire to bring forward hope and healing through sharing our lived experiences. Hope is embracing life despite adversity. Hope is our reason.
Soul SiStories
From ICU To Pop-Ups: Building Donut Kitty
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What if a family joke became the blueprint for a second chance? We sit down with Ryan and Anne-Marie Villiers to unpack how a terrifying early brush with COVID—coma, code, and the long climb back—sparked the creation of Donut Kitty, a design-forward donut and coffee brand built to deliver delight in small, perfect moments. From a father–daughter trip to Iceland and late-night street-cart “kitties” to a home kitchen filled with test batches, their story blends craft, grit, and a refusal to give up.
Ryan shares how a career in digital design shaped a brick-and-mortar vision: a lighter, yeast-raised donut inspired by malasadas and beignets, finished with handmade fillings and glazes that are balanced rather than cloying. Coffee isn’t an afterthought; it’s curated to pair with each bite. Hear how they source and roast blends like the versatile Cat Box, plan for on-site roasting, and design an experience where music, color, and playful merch turn a purchase into a memory. Anne-Marie opens up about becoming a patient advocate, navigating insurance, and finding strength she didn’t know she had, then channeling that resolve into pop-ups that tested brand resonance, improved average order sizes, and sparked social buzz.
Beyond tactics and tasting notes, we explore the engine of perseverance: giving yourself space to feel hard days, taking the first imperfect step, and choosing community. You’ll leave with a rare, practical look at how to validate a food concept, pair coffee like a pro, and build a brand that bridges digital and physical without losing its heart. Most of all, you’ll hear how hope can look like warm dough, bright fruit, and a cup brewed to meet it halfway.
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Welcome And Why Donut Kitty
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Soul Sistories. Hey, hello, and welcome to Soul Sistories. We just had such a fun conversation, an enlightening conversation with Ryan and Anne-Marie Villiers, the owners and founders of Donut Kitty, and with amazing story of perseverance and uh a whole stepping into that world of COVID, which hit them hard. And boy, talk about perseverance. God, that was just inspiring, right?
SPEAKER_05Was right. Come along with us as we listen and learn more about their story and about their yummy treats.
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, here we are with Ryan and Anne-Marie Villier. We are so excited to have them here with us. We just had the opportunity to try their fabulous product, Donut Kitty. We were able to hit one of their pop-ups in LA, and that was so much fun. So that's exactly who they are. They are the founders and owners of Donut Kitty in Southern California. It's a fairly new pop-up where they've created all of this wonderful product and all the merch and stuff that goes with it because they're designers as well as foodies and creators in all sorts of areas. They're super entrepreneurial. They've been partners in life since college, I think. They've been together for a long while. And this venture, what's that? High school for me. So high school for high school, okay. They go back to the celebrated 31 years. 31 years. That's a good time. And they still like each other. Not only they still like each other, but they're in business together now. And uh this venture, what we are so attracted to when wanting to talk with them is this venture came directly out of the COVID shutdown, and which was the COVID era was pretty complicated for these two and their family. And I'm sure they're gonna talk about that. And so here they are, just jumping into the world in this beautiful way. So our hope through word with these wonderful two is hope through perseverance, which absolutely defines them and who they are. Welcome, Ryan and Emory. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08Thank you. We're we're excited to be here, and thank you for having us.
Meet Ryan And Anne-Marie
SPEAKER_01Thank you for saying yes. We we can be a lot, so we appreciate you being willing to jump in. So I stated the um hope through topic, hope through perseverance, but what we'd love, and it's a it's a big ask, but could you kind of give us the the story of what brings you to this moment where where Donut Kitty is popping up uh all over the place? What's the journey that got you here?
From Design Career To Family Joke
Iceland, Late Nights, Tiny Donuts
SPEAKER_08Um, sure. Do you mind if I start? No, go ahead. Yeah, so it's uh it's it's a long, complex story, of course. It's um, you know, very personal and and very uh um in line with where we have been as a family and just who we are as people, uh, how we got here. You know, a lot of it started with a joke, a lot of it started with uh just um rough times and and trying to get through COVID and illness to find ourselves in a place where we're trying to bring back joy, find joy, find something simple that we love, and just do it, you know, cut out a lot of the stress of the corporate world and focus on something that just makes us and more importantly makes the other people happy. So the the journey starts, I guess, from my career. Um, you know, my background is in design. Uh, you know, I led uh design, digital innovation for many major studios and corporations here in Los Angeles. Um, my uh passion is in art, is in creating beautiful user experiences that are really compelling and interesting and fun. You know, and I and I from that rolled it into my uh company, my agency, where we built those for for other companies, um, digital apps and and uh experiences that blend the analog and the digital. Uh, because I've always just found that fascinating, you know, how you can get somebody to interact on all these screens that are incredibly available to us, but then also take that into their into the real world and into their lives and come off the screens and still celebrate um and promote the experience that they're having. So that's kind of the the background that that started this journey. Um, but really where it it started to grow legs was in a trip that my daughter and I took to Iceland. Um, Iceland was a joke, a family in joke, where when my daughter, my youngest daughter, Parker and I would get frustrated with Anne Marie or frustrated with uh Parker's big sister, we would just say that we're running off to Iceland. So for her 13th birthday, um her treat was that we ran off to Iceland together, a a daddy and daughter trip. I mean, that's very cool and amazing. It was it was an amazing trip. I mean, if you have the opportunity to go to Iceland, um, go to Iceland. It's like it's otherworldly, it's so beautiful. There's so many things to see. Reykjavik as a town is a wonderful town. Um, but getting out into the wild and seeing these surreal landscapes is it just shows you the beauty of Mother Nature. It's it's it's really transformative. Um, so we would stay up late and we would chase the northern lights and we'd be up till two or three in the morning, and then we'd come back to downtown Reykjavik. And there was a guy selling donuts in this tiny little cart. And and uh they weren't the most fantastic donuts, but they he was in the right place at the right time, right? He was hitting the bar crowd, he was hitting the late night crowd, he's making these tiny little donuts, and you just kind of watch them move down this trough of oil and they would fry, and they just would kind of hit at that time of night. So we'd get back into town and we'd had just kind of affectionately started calling them kitties. Let's get good, let's go get some of those kiddies tonight. Those were so good. Um, so moving, evolving the family in joke when we got back from Reykjavik. It was no longer that we were going to run off to Iceland because we did that. It was, oh, we're just gonna start our own donut shop called Donut Kitty, and that's gonna be our our um you know, our future. That's gonna be our our sanity, getting away from the craziness of everything that was going on in the family and life and what everything else. Let's go start a Donut Kitty. And it was just a joke, like it was nothing that we were ever serious about or ever thought we would do. Um then of course the pandemic hits. And as you know about my background, our background, uh I was an early adopter. You know, in March of 2020, I heard about this cool new bug, and I thought, hey, let's let's give this a shot. Oh god. Um, so uh I I I remember it vividly because it was right after my birthday. Um on March 20th, I'd cooked dinner and I didn't feel well. Uh, I didn't eat dinner with the family because I was just so terribly exhausted. Um I we went to the hospital or went to urgent care the following weekend and the you know, they ran all the tests that they could. It was very early, you know, in the pandemic, they didn't know anything. Um, and the tests that they ran, you know, they came back and said, well, you don't have the full flu, so you probably have COVID, but we don't know yet. Um so they they you know recommended that I isolate and that we just follow the protocols that were being adopted at the time, which we did. And, you know, in my knowledge, my thought was, okay, if I have COVID, which they eventually confirmed. Uh, you know, my my knowledge of being sick over my lifetime, having colds and flus and whatever was once the fever breaks, then I should be okay. So if I could just ride out the fever, I'll be okay. And that was kind of the the biggest mistake that I made at that time. You know, we didn't know how serious the the pandemic was going to be or how serious the illness was. So I was riding out 105 fever um and dehydrated, not eating, my kidneys were going into failure, having horrible hallucinations and and fever dreams.
SPEAKER_01And this is all while you're home, you're home.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, this is all while I was home. This is in in the 10 days leading up to when it took for me to get to the hospital. Uh so I wrote it out. My fever broke, um, but it only broke to like 102. So it didn't really come down a lot. And by that time, I was so weak, I couldn't even get bad of bed. And Anne Marie had noticed that the food that she would leave me outside our door was just piling up. So she, you know, knocks on the door and says, I think you need to go to the hospital. And I just at that point kind of nodded yes. Um, from that point, the last thing that I remember was the paramedics, you know, asking me to walk downstairs, and I was like, Yeah, that's not happening. Um, so they they carried me downstairs. Um, the next thing I remember is being in a gurney with the doctor over me saying, Okay, we're going to intubate you. Do you know what that means? And in my head, my thought was, oh, great, I'm gonna get some sleep. Oh, god you know, because I was liking likening it to my knee surgery at that time. I'd had I'd had knee surgery because I I blew out my end my uh MCL. And um my thought was, well, I had really great sleep when I had that done. So this is just gonna be a great sleep. I'm gonna wake up rested and better and uh and and great, let's let's do that. Um the next thing I know, I wake up uh seven days later, five days later.
SPEAKER_02Five days.
COVID Hits And Hospital Crisis
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Um, having been in a coma, um, having uh run through every experimental treatment that they had available at the time, um and I wasn't feeling any better. Uh and the the the really kind of uh disturbing thing for me because I find a lot of humor in in gallows humor. I have a very dark sense of humor. But one of the things that I noticed was that the the nurses as they would come in um had a very disturbing look on their face. They they uh were very surprised to kind of see me or very distant. And at first I thought, oh, well, they're just being cautious because of COVID. And then finally I asked one of them, and she was kind enough to be extremely honest, like brutally honest with me. And I said, you know, why is everybody asking acting so weird when they come into this room? And and she just blurted, Oh, we thought you would be dead. Um and that and that took me aback. That that like really kind of shocked me, like that that's how sick I was. Like that's when it really hit me that that's how sick I was.
SPEAKER_01So, Ryan, let me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put a pin right now on what you're saying because I want can we just turn to Anne Marie real quick? Because I want to know, Anne Marie, what is up the up to this point, what is this for you? You've got to be feeling incredibly powerless. Frightened. I mean, I can't even imagine. What is this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. So um when Ryan went to the hospital, you know, I knew he was sick. Um, but I didn't think that I would get that phone call that said, we're intubating him. And to me, to me, from what I know, not a doctor, but that's almost the kiss of death, right? I mean, so that was really difficult. And I thought, okay, how am I gonna tell the kids this? Because they were home. You know, one was already in college, so they, you know, college had shut down. So those were some difficult um conversations to have. And then it was just, you know, it was a I don't know if I slept at all during that time frame. It was the constant check-in with the hospitals every time the new shift would come in, what's going on, what's the updates? You know, I've this is the era we will remember in which he's allowed in the hospital. No, no, we weren't allowed. And not to mention, you know, prior to him even going to the hospital, you know, for 10 days, he is in our master bedroom with the door shut. You know, I'm knocking on the door. He had his cell phone, but as you can imagine, he was so sick. Many a times he wasn't responding to me. So I'd be calling, you know, family members, like, what do I do? He's not, you know, this, that, you know, and all this other. Like we have on Ryan's side, we do have a doctor in the family. So she was trying to assist me with some things, but uh yeah, it was just a very surreal time. Um, never thought I would find myself in that type of situation. Um, thankfully, uh he definitely, you know, came through it. It was a long process, came home with oxygen. Um, so that was very difficult to see that he could barely even walk up the stairs. And it took the kids and I everything we had to carry, like his oxygen tank, you know, up the stairs for him.
SPEAKER_08I mean, it took me 45 minutes to get up the stairs.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, when he came and when he came home, I was like, I don't know if they should have released you. I mean, you were still so incredibly winded and everything, but you know, back then they needed the bed. You know, in our local hospital, he was the third one that entered uh for COVID. Uh, so I kind of consider it a blessing that he got it so early because there was so much attention on him. And I really do believe that probably saved his life.
SPEAKER_01And I've seen some of the videos, Ryan, that you posted at that time in the hospital when you were actually getting better, quote unquote, and how incredibly weak you were. And I remember the point you were making in those videos, which was like you wanted everyone to know this is the reality of what this disease is and what it's doing. Anyway, so okay, pin unpolled. Thank you, Anne-Marie. Let's go back to you, Ryan, to continue.
Anne-Marie’s Vigil And Advocacy
SPEAKER_08Yeah, so so I mean, just to put a fine point on what you said, there was so much misinformation at the time. It was very important for me for people to understand how serious the disease was, right? Because I didn't take it as seriously. I thought, you know, this is going to be something that sh certainly impacts the United States, impacts the world, but is it going to impact me personally? We were healthy. We had literally spent the summer before hiking up mountains in Germany. You know, we were, you know, we don't had any, didn't have any pre-existing morbidities or diseases or anything that would have put me in a category where I thought that, oh yes, I'm going to be super susceptible to this. But I was, and a lot of people were that weren't expecting it. Um also to go back to the topic today and not to gloss over Anne-Marie's contribution during this time, when we talk about perseverance, her perseverance in uh figuring out the path forward when her partner in life, somebody who we've been with since we were children, been together since we were children, to be able to figure out, to set that aside and the emotion and the hurt and the fear that goes with that, to set that aside and to be a patient advocate and a communicator to the family and the person who is railing back against the insurance companies who don't want to pay the three quarters of a million dollars in medical bills that we ended up getting.
SPEAKER_06Wow.
SPEAKER_08You know, the the that was the really the the first bit of amazing perseverance, right? Because it would have been very easy for Anne Marie to just fold up and to internalize at that point and to focus on the grief. But for for me and for her family and for everybody around us, she became this rock, which was in incredibly admirable and not a quality or trait that I see in a lot of people. I don't know that I could have done that. Like that that was amazing.
SPEAKER_05Did did you know that that was in Anne Marie?
SPEAKER_08No. Actually, we would joke that that was not in Anne Marie. You know, there's a statistic out there that in a disaster situation, 10% of the people will immediately react, right? And they'll figure out what they need to do, and they're the survivors. 80% of the people can be guided and they'll maybe survive if they're lucky, but they can they'll panic first and then they'll figure out what they need to do. The bottom 10% is are the people who just immediately die, right? They're they're so they're so uh caught up in the panic and the chaos that they can't act and they die. And we always used to joke within our family that half of us were 10%ers and the other half were 10%ers, and you got to figure out who was who, right? Because there's some of us who worry a lot more than others. Um, but to see that I was wrong about that with with regard to Anne Marie and that she is definitely in a 10%er that is going to figure out the the path forward was was amazing to see. Like it was it's an incredible quality to see come out of a person.
SPEAKER_05So it sounds like, and I I want you to finish your story, but it sounds like in this in this family where there's these 10 percenters, maybe the 10 percenters who are not what you thought was the top were only letting you be at the top because that is important to you. But I'm shattered they were able to get there.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I mean, she's very generous that way, right? We the other family joke is that you know, I'm she's vanilla and I'm the other 30 flavors. But but and and we do say that jokingly, but she's always been very generous or generous about letting my big personality be my big personality and not making me feel bad about that. You know, like when you're a creative, um it kind of it kind of comes with the you kind of sign up for it, right? It it's just part and parcel of who we are. And Anne Marie, not so much being a creative, um, could feel threatened by that or could accept it. And she has always just accepted it, which is I think why we've worked for well, it's 31 years married, but I put in time served, which is which is 36 years.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you earned it. I I'd claim all 36.
SPEAKER_01So to that to that point of being a creative, Ryan, I mean, this this donuty venture is not your first entrepreneurial venture, right? That we've understood that you've um dipped your toe into a variety of creative outlets, and it's just your way to find a way to make them happen.
Surviving, Long COVID, And Resolve
SPEAKER_08It's it's yeah, it's I mean, I'm always gonna be busy, right? I'm always gonna be doing something because that's what's in me. You know, I have to be creating. I'm I'm a person who doesn't wait for the path to come to me. I build the path that I need to to uh that I want to go down. Um, so I'm I'm in the hospital, they tell me they are expecting me to be dead. Uh the I I questioned the nurse on this, and she's like, oh no, your heart rate dropped to 20, and we coded you. We brought in the cash the crash cart. Um and it was just by grace of them giving you some dopamine that it brought your heart rate back up, and we were able to save you. So the nurses who were on the rotation and were coming back around weren't were expecting somebody else to be in that bed. They weren't expecting to see me, which was it was frightening. You know, it was it was really scary to hear. Um, and I think it really it really hit home how how uh deeply serious the uh the disease was and the pan and and the pen how deeply serious the pandemic was going to be. So flash forward, I get home, I start to recuperate. You know, the first part of that is denying any weakness that I'm feeling in myself, right? Like I I was still on isolation, even coming home, but um I wanted to get up as much as I can. I wanted to push myself, I wanted to get on the Peloton, um, I wanted to try to rehab my body as much as I could because I was I was sick of being that sick guy in bed. Like I was I was done with it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
Prototyping The Perfect Donut
SPEAKER_08Um, and as I started to come around, we started to get more energy. Uh we just kind of came back to those family in jokes and back to Donut Kitty and said, you know, can we even make donuts? You know, I I'm I'm a pretty good chef on my, you know, for for foods for dinners and meals and and all of that, but I never really tried to make a donut. So, you know, the the blessing of all the the isolation during the pandemic was the ability to really focus on, hey, let's try to make a donut. And it will be our donut kitty. It won't be anything. Like we're not at this point trying to make a business out of it, but let's just, you know, we have nothing to do. Let's try to make donuts. Everybody's doing sourdough. Well, you don't want to do that. Let's let's make donuts. Um, so we we tried a bunch of different recipes and you know, they were good, but nothing that we liked. You know, I like cake donuts. We don't like Like heavy fried donuts. So we started thinking about well, we really like malasadas that are popular in Hawaii. And of course, we love beignets. So why don't we go down that path? Kind of a yeast donut that's a little bit lighter, that's fluffier, that's not as sweet. And then maybe, maybe we do fillings and glazes and stuff that are handcrafted, homemade, and that's what makes it a really interesting donut. Um, so we started going down that path and were able to develop a recipe. What was it like 13, 14 recipes that we tried that kind of blended the malesada with the beignet to create a lighter donut and uh really felt like we had the start of something. Um, you know, at the same time, as much as COVID impacted my health, you know, it impacted the family, it also impacted my my digital media agency. You know, our client base was entertainment and retail, both both of which got wiped out in during the pandemic. So so uh, you know, seeing that there was going to be a long path on the horizon to rebuild that business, um, my thought was well, while we're rebuilding that business, maybe there is something in this donut kiddy concept. And the promise that we made to each other is we'll pursue it until it doesn't make sense, right? Every step of the way, we're going to we're going to model it out, we're going to see if it could be profitable, we're going to see if we have a product and if people actually like it. And if anywhere in there it doesn't make sense, then great. It was fun for just kind of us. Um, but as we started to create the business model around it, we found, oh, wait, this kind of makes sense. Like you can build uh a business around a singular product um and brand it in a way where financially it can make sense. You can actually be profitable on that. And you can create a donut that is in and of itself versatile, where you focus on the fillings and the glazes and all the things that really give it a robust flavor, and there can be profit in that. You can actually build a business around that. And now you could bring in coffees and a roastery and do all these other things that round out the business and make really make it make sense. Um, and then of course, the creative and artsy side of me, branding side of me, says, Well, now we can go in and we can do merch and we can do branding and we can do all this limited run uh merchandise behind the brand that attract people to it because who knows what a donut kitty is, but they they know that they like the the aesthetic and now they want to give it a try.
SPEAKER_05So I want to share because how I first learned of this donut kitty, it was a pop-up on Facebook, and I don't live in California, so it popped up and I thought, I don't know much about coffee, but I'm gonna order something here. So I think you had three kinds of coffee, and I really just looked at the pictures, pictures on the coffee package, and I picked which one I thought I would like. I I got uh cat box blend, is what I thought. Yes. So that came within just a couple of days, which is rare and get shipping and across country. So it came within a couple of days with a handwritten thank you note and a cute little sticker. And I thought, okay, this is some really good customer service. I liked this. And then I would continue to see pop-ups about your pop-ups and donuts. And I was confused because I thought, donut kitty, but I'm having coffee. What is donut kitty? And I started seeing all these pop-ups with donuts, and I was very jealous that I didn't get to have donuts. So still waiting for that. But last month, when I was flying, literally on the plane flying to California, I saw something that said you were gonna be at a pop-up, having donut kitty with your merchandise and donuts and coffee, and called my sister and said, Hey, can we go to this? It's only a half an hour away from you. Can we be there? So we did. And that's when we got to see you and talk to you about this business. So I would love for you to talk because you you went to Iceland, you thought about these donuts, you created donuts during this pandemic, really kind of a bonding activity for your family when all this craziness was going on. And now you're shipping coffee across country across country. I don't know where else. You're having these pop-ups that was fantastic for us to be there. I want you to talk a little bit about these pop-ups and what you're doing at these pop-ups and how you're bringing your product to us.
Business Model And Brand Vision
Coffee Pairings And Roasting Plan
SPEAKER_08Yeah. So, so a couple of things in there. The coffee came out of the desire to highly curate everything about this business, right? We really wanted to be an experience. Um, so we had initially planned to not really have baristas in shop, not really to uh to have a lot of fancy coffee drinks like a Starbucks or or anything like that. Um, you know, that we would bring in like Nespresso machines and we would just have whatever coffee offerings that they have, and that would be the pairing. But as we were continuing to model out the business, what occurred to me was we really need to treat the coffee as important as we do the donut. You know, we put so much time and effort into developing the donuts and the fills that we really need to do that with the coffee as well. And once we kind of settled on that realization, then it was okay, well, if we're gonna do that, then we're roasting our, we're sourcing and roasting our own greens, right? We're gonna create our own coffee blends that are going to be coffees that we love to drink personally, but also coffees that pair well with our donuts. So the cat box blend, that's that's the workhorse blend, right? You can eat it with something a little bit sweet, you can eat it with the the strawberry filling, the blueberry filling, and it kind of balances that out really well. Um, our darker blend, which is uh Laputa chat, uh, that is our our darker roast. It's a like a French roast, espresso roast that goes great with um with chocolates and creams and the donuts that are a little bit richer. You know, then we have our medium roast, which one of our associates helped develop because she really likes medium roasts. That again is another workhorse, but is a little bit lighter, not as heavy. Um so if you're eating a heavier filling donut, uh, you have something to drink with it that's not going to add to that. Um, so we wanted to be really mindful then about how we curate these blends. Um, and then as we expand, bringing the roasteries into our brick and mortars so that every brick and mortar, the coffee is going to be roasted on site and will change out regularly so that we continually have these coffee pairings. And you have coffee that is fresh. That's that's no more than you know, a few weeks old, if not a few days old. Um so that's kind of the concept. Now, with the pop-up, you know, we've been very fortunate to raise capital for our brick and mortars. Um, we are still raising capital for our brick and mortars, uh, because based on our business model, we don't want to, we don't want to start with one brick and mortar. We want to start with multiple brick and mortars to give us a good footprint so that we can expand to places like the the East Coast. Um, I mean, we have definite plans to get to the East Coast. And we want to be very mindful about the path that we that we follow to get there. The pop-up was uh an interim solution while we're raising capital for the brick and mortars. Uh, we wanted to prove out the concept because there was the question of, well, we like what we're making, but does everybody like what we're making? Um, we wanted to prove out the brand. We thought it was cute. We thought there was a lot of fun stuff going on with the brand, but how does everybody else feel about it? Um, and we wanted to get the name out there. Uh and with our pop-ups, we've been able to accomplish all three. Um, unfortunately, I don't know that the pop-up is going to make it to the East Coast uh anytime soon because you saw the setup and it's it's a pretty complicated setup for a for a pop-up food booth. Um, but uh but there was a lot that went into it to kind of reflect where we want to go with the brick and mortars and what we want the experience to be and what the merchandise will look like and what the product will look like. Um, and now we've gotten a lot of customer feedback that says that that's just reaffirming, hey, you have something here, so let's just keep growing it. Every pop-up we're trying to show and plan something different. So that you know, it's it's about growth, it's about showing, yeah, that we're that it's exactly that it's versatile, that people are responding, and that we can say, okay, hey, look, that first pop-up we went out, we were only coffee and donuts. The coffee did exceptionally well, the donuts did well, people responded to the brand. The next one, it was about uh increasing the average order size. So we brought in merch, we brought in more fillings, um, and we were able to see the brand start to grow. This time it was about social and getting um the name out there. And we saw so many people uh reposting us, talking about us, celebrating the brand. So it was really great to see how this evolution is really kind of quickly starting to take off. So every time we we go out and we do these pop-ups, um, it's it's it's about that additional bit of learning and it's about that uh additional bit of what we can bring to to um to the to the brand and to the experience.
SPEAKER_01I'm not it's I'm not surprised at all that you guys are getting traction. I mean, it really is a good product. I I've really enjoyed it, and I just the whole look of it, the feel of it, the vibe of it is is great. But so here's the thing though many, many people in the world have ideas, even great ideas. Very few actually put the feet to those ideas to bring them forward. What is it about you two and your family? Because I know that at least one of your daughters is part of this venture, also, right? What is it about you guys that drives you to actually make the thing happen? This is a lot of work. Let's let's not pretend, right? This is a lot of work. So what is it that fuels you?
SPEAKER_08It's a lot of work. For those who can't see, I'm showing her my my uh, what is this? My hydro flask with all the donut kitty stickers on it.
SPEAKER_01Which are super, super cute.
SPEAKER_08What is it that makes this work?
Pop-Ups As Proof Of Concept
SPEAKER_02No, with with Ryan, um, it's pure it's just pure and simple tenacity. I mean, he gets a hold of a project and get and he he doesn't quit until it's done. He has a lot of momentum behind his ideas and what he likes to do. And that's a very that's a rare treat uh in in many people. They don't um, you know, they go, let's go do this. And then five minutes later, it's out the window. Ryan gets a hold of a concept and he just runs with it and he always takes it across the finish line. Sometimes, much to uh my chagrin when all the stuff is all over the house and whatever the case may be. But uh that's one of his best qualities is that he really uh sees something across the finish line and he is he his intention to detail, which I joke has been passed on to me because you know I see things now and I'm like, oh my God, that is done, you know, half-assed part in my French. You know, they could have put so much more into it, but it's because of what he's instilled in me. So I have such a critical eye now because of him.
SPEAKER_08And and I think for Anne-Marie, it's been the support, right? Like, how many wives would say to their husbands, oh, you want to make donuts now? Like, okay, like let's let's go make donuts. You know, it's such a dog leg from what both of our careers have been. You know, it's it's you know, my background is in entertainment and is in new media and is in all these technologies that are being developed today. Um, so to to say, hey, let's try out this donut thing, I a lot of wives would say, Yeah, no, like that's that's crazy. Um, but she doesn't, you know, she she listens to the vision, she might not always get it. Um, but once she starts seeing it be produced, she's like, Yeah, I I really didn't have a doubt. I just didn't know which way we were we were going with it, you know, and then and then to have her come out and and help set up the pop-up and to work the fryer and to do all those other things, you know, a lot of wives would be okay, I'm gonna be supportive, but I'm not gonna get back there and actually work the thing. Um, you know, she's been happy to do that as well, and and has been a huge part of the success that we're starting to build with that.
SPEAKER_05Um to be a taste. Sorry, how fun to be the taste tester?
Execution, Merch, And Social Lift
SPEAKER_08Yes, absolutely. Well, the day the the days in the kitchen where we're testing new fillings, like she's always like excited to come home and go, Oh, you did the the um the ginger peach, like, oh my gosh, this is so good. You know, so it's it's it's great to be able to bounce those things off of off of her and you know, our daughters and the people who are just kind of passing through to see, okay, is this something that's gonna work for us? Um to circle back to the COVID discussion, a lot of this started to get born out of, you know, we went through this tragedy, you know, this this thing that we're still dealing with, you know, personally, financially, um, emotionally. It's something that we're still and even health-wise, you know, I'm I'm I'm certainly in the long COVID camp. Um you know, so it's something that we joke that COVID is the gift that just keeps on giving, you know, because it because it does in so many ways. Um but as I as I came out of it and I was starting to push myself, one of the things that both of us tried to do to help this whole thing make sense was to speak to other people who uh were getting COVID, who were starting to be hospitalized, and to walk them through the questions to ask, how to deal with their insurance companies, those the symptoms to be aware of and to look out for. Uh, and just taking what we had been through as a way of educating and informing others at a very critical time in this nation's and in this world's history, so that they could better manage and didn't and maybe wouldn't have to go through the things that we went through. And in that, you know, I can confidently say there are probably about three or four lives that we saved. People who we insisted they get to the hospital or looked at spec specific types of treatments or avoided specific types of treatments that weren't making sense or getting vaccinated once those were finally available. All those things that people were resistant to or didn't understand or simply hadn't heard of um were important for us to help our journey through that tragedy, tragedy make more sense. And I think it becomes part of the perseverance story, right? Because you you have to pick yourself up by the bootstrap sometimes, as hard as it is. Um, you have to be able to find hope and meaning and purpose in everything that you go through because that's what powers the the things that come next.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_08You know, it's it's the the ability to persevere through something that is so scary and so life-altering um to be able to use that to find yourself forward and not just hide your head in a hole, right? Because that's you know, I I won't lie, I've I've had that inclination a lot. I think we both have that you just you just want to lock yourself in a closet, you want to hide away, you don't want to deal with any of it. And it's I think okay to give yourself those moments and to acknowledge that you feel that way, but ultimately you have to take that and find your inner strength to push forward. You know, so that was that's that's kind of the foundational path um that got us to where we are, right? The the tying COVID to Donut Kitty is kind of a an odd leap and it's it's it's a weird way to connect the dots, but there is a foundation in that that you have to find within yourself this ability to continue forward, even if it's not the path that you were expecting, so that you can um not just survive but but begin to thrive again.
SPEAKER_05Right. Um so oh, sorry, go ahead.
What Drives Them To Ship Ideas
SPEAKER_08Well, one last thought of that, and it kind of goes back to your question about how do you put the rubber to the road. Um being an artist, I've taught a lot of art classes, both at the collegiate level, um, but but but even more so at the uh um at the like grammar school um level. You know, when my daughters were in school, I was always asked to come in and teach them art classes. And one of the things that I would always do is I would ask them, I would ask the students uh to tell me what the sk what they thought the scariest thing for an artist was, the most horrifying, you know, evil, scary, uh intimidating thing that they could think of. And you'd get all these crazy answers, you know, monsters, Frankenstein, spiders, whatever. Um, and then I'd hold up a blank sheet of paper. And I said, this is the scariest thing for an artist. It's a is a sheet of paper that has nothing on it because it's that impetus to want to put something on that paper without knowing what you're gonna put on that paper, or the fear that it's gonna be terrible and you're not gonna like it and it's gonna be wasted effort, um, is the thing that holds us back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And you have to be able to take that first step. And then once you take that first step, every step beyond that is so much easier. Right. Like it's it's um, it's a it's a hard path. And I've recognized that just in managing artists and managing creatives, that it's a lot of times it's hard for them to get past that on their own. But once you can get past that, whether you're nudged or whether you find your inner strength, every step beyond that comes becomes a lot easier.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I hear you. I hear you. As a as a as a writer, I can uh attest to this as well, that blank page.
SPEAKER_08Typing that first character.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Then it starts. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And sometimes it's just anything. You just put it, put it on the paper and then let it come from there. Like get yourself over that hurdle of it's gotta be gold, the first thing that you write it, right? It could be total crap.
SPEAKER_08I can tell you every painting I've ever done starts with a fantastic idea, the best idea I've ever had. Then I start painting it, and it's like, oh my god, this sucks. Like, I'm I'm gonna be embarrassed. I gotta burn this, like nobody can see this. And then you push through it, and at the end you're like, oh, this is fantastic. Like, I'm I'm freaking Da Vinci, like this is great.
SPEAKER_05Let me just route back to this hope, this idea of hope, right? And you talked about hope through perseverance, and many people go through horrific experiences. 2020 was horrible for many people. Um, many people did not see a glimmer of hope, whether it, you know, they didn't find it, it wasn't presented to them. It sounds like you guys have offered hope to other people who have kind of gone along that journey. I'm curious, and and I don't know if you want to answer this together or each each separately, but what gives you hope?
Teaching Perseverance And First Steps
SPEAKER_02That's a good question, especially in light of what's going on right now. Um, you know, I'm gonna maybe answer this a little bit differently. Ryan and I are very much into experiences. When we do something, we like it to be fully immersive. We want to really like experience it. We'd rather do something fun than, you know, I don't know, just sit sit at home. So, you know, when we go out to dinner, sometimes we're very strategic about where we decide we're gonna go because we really take a look at the menu and we want to know what pairings are going with it or if there's entertainment. And, you know, I find hope in that they're still at the basic human level, people still want to have these experiences and they still want to get out of their house and enjoy life. Um, so donut kitty, you know, the concept of it is that we want people when they walk in the store that it's I'm not going to Winchell's, I'm not going to uh, you know, DK or whatever, Dunkin' Donuts. I I want to go to Donut Kitty because wow, there's music playing, there's cute merch, there's things to do in the store. The kids like all the graphics, all the colors, all the fun. Um, so that's where I find hope is that still providing experiences and things to do for people.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Cool. How about you, Ryan? Oh, I'm hopeless. There we end. No.
SPEAKER_08Um you know, I I find hope in as much as I can be a cynic, um, I do believe in the fundamental goodness of people.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And I think that I think that that wins over the over the long term. You know, it certainly doesn't feel like it now hasn't felt like it for a while. Um but I think that that uh I think that that uh that that wins that that that history leans towards good um because if I didn't believe that then what are any of us doing here? Like what a miserable existence it it would be. You know, so as much as we can bring good and we can try to be good people, you know, even through our imperfections learn from them, become more self-actualized. You know, I I I believe very um very firmly in the hierarchy of needs. And the more that we can get past just the struggling to survive tiers and the basic needs tiers and we can focus on arts and education and creativity and being just better people. Yes um that's what gives me hope because the more opportunity we give for everybody to get there, the better we become as a society and as a planet. So I I have to hope that that that's the direction we're moving despite all the hate and vitriol we see these days.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Amen to that amen to that all right so on that note how about we jump into our fun and silly little rapid fire questions. How about that? Just let's do it throw a little whimsy out there. Okay. All right uh this is ah gosh I could keep talking to you guys forever. This is I'm this is riveting to me.
SPEAKER_08If you look I I have my my skull here. If you keep us talking I'm gonna break into my hamlet stability.
SPEAKER_01Makes me think of what is it in um oh what is that movie with uh Jamine Garofalo. She's the bowler with Ben Stiller. Oh yeah yes what is that movie? I love that movie. Mystery men. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_08Mystery men.
Hope, Experiences, And Community
SPEAKER_01Yeah bowling ball with her dad's head anyway if you haven't seen it. Great movie. Okay here we go rapid fire. All right so you know walking out to the pitcher mound watching walking out into the stage there's music playing it's your walk in song what's your walk in song oh we belong well together together yeah we belong by Pat Benatar. Yes yes Pat and Neil who have a new children's book out how much do you love that? I I love that the two of them okay that's your do you have individual ones or this is only a shared thing huh?
SPEAKER_08I will survive by Gloria yes right there I mean sex dwarf comes to mind but I I don't know a little soft cell yeah a little soft cell I love you guys it might not be something more melodramatic. Yeah oh bonivar yeah yeah yeah yeah bonivar you know the music it's played in the moda movies policy would be the song it's very sad and weepy yeah you know we're we're talking about like morbid humor my my Spotify playlist started as the songs you play at my funeral like it literally it literally and Marie hated it she's like why is this your death playlist I'm like because like they're the songs that like resonate with me you want you want me as a playlist this is it and they're all like just weepy sad like horrible indie songs I will say having planned a funeral or two I would have appreciated somebody freeloading the work.
Rapid Fire: Music, Books, Movies
SPEAKER_02There you go so okay as we ask these questions then you could do uh an answer together or individually however you so what book changed you oh gosh well I just quoted Anne Rind Ayn Rand but that didn't change me no I I really didn't like her um understandably so yeah uh I mean Hamlet we we talked about Hamlet I I I really resonated with with Hamlet Shakespeare um of Meissman men uh a simple uh a simple piece you know if we're talking about um fiction and literature you know if if we're talking about uh nonfiction um eric hoffer that's one I think everybody should read uh the true believer okay what a rich collected collection you you want to know you want better insight into the mentality that is driving um these subversive political movements today eric hoffer is the the guy to read rock on what do you bet you Ann Marie any ideas on your book you know that's also a running joke in the family having having been um an English major reading for me I took the opposite approach it's the last thing I want to do anymore I have no desire to open up a book I know that sounds really bad um but on that note I am a big Shakespeare person I mean I love Midsummer Night's Dream it's like one of my all time favorites um other than that you know a good rom com is always is always good for me in terms of a book so I just like easy light reading I don't get as heavy as as Ryan does I like an escape so give me your hands if we be friends and Robbie the storm ends okay manual that yeah yeah I write enough employee handbooks and do policy that I'm not really uh interested in reading got you okay so then what movie lives rent free in your brain? Oh Hudsucker proxy that shot there's a there's a lot um the holiday um is one of my any Christmas movie for you yeah any Christmas movie uh for me um and I hate to say it and I hate to admit it but a lot of Adam Sandler movies I just absolutely love um yeah but yeah any Christmas movie for sure you like the slapstick yeah I like the slapstick yeah for sure release the great outdoors it gets me every time when the bear runs in Ryan's like I can't believe you laugh so hard every single time that happened but I just love that scene that's awesome so what did you love doing as a kid that you still love doing today that's good throwing rocks at my neighbor I think Diana just lost it just thinking your poor neighbor if they listened to this I know so that's why our window is brought in is that where they're coming from I mean for me it's art right I I grew up an art I was born an artist.
SPEAKER_08I mean some of my earliest memories were sitting down with like McDonald's comics and and images that I'd find and I would just draw them from sight. And it was just to me I I never understood why other people couldn't do it because it was just so easy for me. So I mean that's something I still love to do today.
SPEAKER_02With McDonald's comics you know this sounds kind of sad but I don't know if I do anything on a regular basis that I used to do as a kid. However if I did um it would probably be roller skating that was kind of like my jam I used to love to go roller skating even just in the neighborhood but yeah I don't think there's anything that I did as a kid that I still continually do today. I don't I don't think there is clean clean yeah the OCD part of me that I inherited yeah yeah donut kitty roller night yeah there you go yeah with the disco lights and everything I'm down in a little ario speed wagon where I'll send my Sherona yes I'm all in tell me when and where I'll be there that's kind of a vibe definitely is look I can we can see the light bulbs going off right now. Okay what color is hope black I mean because everything's black that's all I wear is black no this is funny because I'm partly synesthetic so I do assign colors and flavors to things particularly like numbers um I don't I don't get a sense for hope blue maybe blue okay I think for me it would be of course it's my favorite color but would be like a burgundy or a wine color that would be hope for me I mean if we go into symbolism it would be blue or green if we go into like religious symbolism if we go into literary symbolism yeah okay blue green burgundy I think and black it's whatever it is in black black everything is black.
SPEAKER_05So what in the world is lighting you up right now the sun currently I mean our daughters yeah that's my answer that's an easy answer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah the kids family yeah yeah to see them you know everybody always asks me oh don't you miss when your kids were little and yeah to a certain extent I do but I really am enjoying this phase you know seeing them as adults and thriving and doing what they enjoy and the fact that they can stand on their own two feet um to me that that is amazing.
SPEAKER_08Beautiful yeah I mean that's the best accomplishment of all I mean we do all these things professionally um for for any number of reasons but the true accomplishment is being able to raise smart functional human beings that are self-sufficient and who are ready to um you know help be a better part of this world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah just be good people in the world be good people of the world yeah yeah super satisfying okay you talked about what color hope is what does hope sound like oh that is a really good question what does hope sound like I mean the cheesy answer is like like uh choir singing heavenly angels I mean I'm not a I'm not a religious person but that's the first thing that comes to mind.
SPEAKER_02I mean it's a gorgeous sound whoever you are it's inspiring yes yeah I would have to say it's through music too um there's certain songs that resonate with me that whenever I hear it it puts me back I'm very I I I like music and I always attribute my parents to that because there was always music in the house. And I it just takes me back to certain times of my life and I go that's exactly where I was that was what I was doing. So to me hope sounds like certain certain eras certain types of music certain individuals that sang certain songs that's I think big for me.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05Okay so your uh hope through is perseverance so fill in the blanks perseverance is what well of course it's never giving up yeah right even when you want to give up yeah yeah it's it's not giving up um you know one of the things that COVID really taught me is to honor myself and honor my own feelings right to give myself the days to to mourn and to be grateful and to feel sorry for myself and to process all the emotions that I was feeling but also not to dwell on that.
Hope, Small Joys, And Finding Them
SPEAKER_08You know and and and it and when you give yourself that permission it becomes easier not to dwell on it. Right? Because you're not you're not holding it in you're not bottling it up. You're saying hey I accept what I'm feeling today and it's valid and it's fine and I'm going to let myself feel it because then I'm not gonna feel it and I can move on. And that makes it much easier to persevere through times like that. Not saying that it's easy in any in any means whatsoever, but it does give you the strength to say, okay, I felt that way yesterday today it's time to move forward and do something that's for me. And maybe I'll feel that way again tomorrow. But today now that I've processed that a little bit I'm going to design a sticker I'm gonna design a logo or I'm gonna work on a business plan or I'm gonna create a recipe I'm gonna do something that brings me a little bit of happiness and that pushes the the positive things in my wife forward while acknowledging the negative things as being there but moving beyond them. Yeah yeah yeah light and shadow yes yeah can't have one without the other okay how about this one that's us light and shadow that's the that's the title to the book about our marriage there you go all right finish this one uh family is um essential complicated yeah frustrating loving life saving quality of that life saving yeah fun yeah it's all of that yeah I mean it's you know it's a weird there's a weird dynamic there because family can be a very broad term yeah you know the the family that I had post COVID is not the family I had pre-COVID the family we had pre-COVID you know tragedy I think brings out I any extreme event whether it's tragedy whether it's success whether it's whatever I think can can sometimes bring out the true color and nature of people. Yeah and it's through those times you have to recognize that family is the family you make and the family you choose. It's not the family that was necessarily given to you. And if you can honor that then family does become essential right family is it's your support system it's everything that you need it's the the love that you carry with you and and the the family that you thought you have that doesn't support that was never really your family to begin with.
SPEAKER_02Amen okay wrap it up here one more creativity is what Ryan my husband since I have zero I live vicariously through him yeah I mean yeah to me it's it's life right like I I will always be creative to my dying day I want my death to be creative you know I just I just uh I just you know just yesterday and this maybe this is too soon and maybe you'll want to cut this from the podcast but the guy who wrote Jesus take the will died yeah in a plane crash you know and as tragic as that is I love the irony on it Jesus didn't take the will yeah or maybe he did if that's what you want to argue yeah you know one way or another but there is some irony in that that I appreciate and I hope that I am able to go out as creatively and as ironically as that yeah maybe that's not something you want for your podcast I don't think we can top that I don't think we can beat that but we do we do have to wrap up with the one big one because this is essential to what we're talking about what we're doing and it is hope is hope is what will carry you through yeah moving forward yeah just you know getting up every day and facing the challenges because you know nobody said life was was going to be easy and it certainly isn't but you have to find the hope for all of those you know great you know moments. I think just the other day we were having a conversation and you know I was feeling really frustrated and I look at Ryan and I'm like why does life just have to be so hard you know it has to be so hard all the time and his response was oh so we can enjoy you know all the good times.
SPEAKER_05Yeah so I I was thinking as you said that yes life is hard and then you could have a good cup of coffee with that donut there you go there you go there you go the small pleasures that make it all worthwhile.
Where To Find Donut Kitty
SPEAKER_01You guys we just really have to thank you for taking this time with us it was um enlightened and uh it truly was a pleasure talking with you and getting used to you guys as well.
SPEAKER_05I would love to though before we wrap it up because we will share this with everybody we want to know how can people find you so if they're looking for donut kitty do you have socials do you have a website?
SPEAKER_08Oh yeah of course donutkitty.com is the website um our merch and coffees are available there as well as announcements about our brick and mortars and our pop-ups uh and then our social is original donut kitty on Facebook and Instagram so you can find us there as well um those feature announcements about our pop-ups but also secret menu items um things that you're not going to find online so that if you do come out to a pop-up you'll be a little bit more in the note we'll share all that out with this podcast and I can attest I walked around with a super cute donut kitty keychain everybody get your merch you won't regret it it really is adorable and a little bit subversive I love it always thank you guys for being here with us everyone Ryan and Marie check out donut kitty and we'll see you next time thank you thanks for joining us today on Soul Sistries and thanks for sharing stories with us.
Closing And Audience Connect
SPEAKER_01We'd love to hear your stories as well and keep the conversation going absolutely keeping the hope going. So we're really hopeful that you'll connect with our guests as well who have great stories to share. Go ahead and follow them in various social media platforms or live venues wherever it is that they're performing and sharing what they do.
SPEAKER_05We would love to have you follow us on all of our social media platforms, subscribe and rate as that will help us get our message of hope out to others.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening to Soul Sisteries
