Ep. 31 Vanessa Drews: From a Tweet by Prince to Starting a Cheesecake Business
What do cheesecake and music legend Prince have in common? Vanessa Drews. Vanessa is the owner and founder of Cheesecake Funk, and she credits Prince for giving her the motivation and inspiration to start her business. Before starting Cheesecake Funk, Vanessa would make cheesecakes in her free time for friends and family. While working part-time at Paisley Park, Prince’s Minnesota home, she would bring in cheesecake and leave it in the fridge for guests, musicians and staff. Everything changed when Prince tweeted about Vanessa’s cheesecakes and started advertising them on event flyers for concerts at Paisley Park, inadvertently giving them their Cheesecake Funk name. From that moment forward, Vanessa knew she had something worth sharing. With careful planning, Vanessa left her career as a paralegal and began baking cheesecakes full time for dessert menus at restaurants and for individual orders. In this episode of Flip Your Script, Vanessa shares how Prince’s outward support was a surprise to her and how he taught her the importance of owning your craft and trusting in your ability. Host Kristi Piehl and Vanessa also discuss the gritty work it takes to start a business, Prince’s favorite cheesecake flavor and how you can find the motivation to flip your script in a less than 280 character tweet!
CLOSING QUOTE
“I just always have this pressing instinct of trust. Trust that I can make it happen. Trust that if I put forth the things in place to make it happen, trust that it will happen. That’s the main thing, trusting in my own ability and not giving up on the ultimate goal, and trusting the ultimate goal will one day happen.”