When life throws you a curveball, sometimes the best response is to bake it into something sweet. Just ask Olympic medalist Dee Dee Trotter and her culinary counterpart, Jessica Vinziant from Taste of Gold Bakery. Our latest conversation is a rich tapestry of their individual stories, weaving together athletic triumphs with the art of vegan pastry design. Together, they've crafted a partnership that's as delightful as their confections, proving that when women support each other, the result is nothing short of delicious.
This heartwarming episode is a celebration of the unexpected twists that can lead to life’s most fulfilling moments. Dee Dee’s journey from the track to the kitchen showcases the power of being open to new possibilities and friendships, while Jessica's military background and baking prowess illustrate the courage it takes to pursue your passions. Their stories are not only about their personal drives but also about the shared laughter and deep understanding that comes from true companionship. Tune in and be inspired by these two dynamic women as they share their dreams, their obstacles, and the strength they draw from one another.
Dee Dee and Jessica are baking with purpose. So if you've ever needed a sign to invest in yourself and nurture your passions, let this be it. Join us for a slice of inspiration, and perhaps, discover your own recipe for success.
Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Share the episodes and let's chat in the comments.
Support the Cake Therapy Foundation:
1. Cake Therapy - Cake Therapy (thecaketherapyfoundation.org)
2 Buy Me A Coffee : The Cake Therapy Foundation (buymeacoffee.com)
3. Buy The Book: Cake Therapy: How Baking Changed My Life https://a.co/d/76dZ5T0
Follow Sugarspoon Desserts on all social media platforms @sugarspoondesserts
When life throws you a curveball, sometimes the best response is to bake it into something sweet. Just ask Olympic medalist Dee Dee Trotter and her culinary counterpart, Jessica Vinziant from Taste of Gold Bakery. Our latest conversation is a rich tapestry of their individual stories, weaving together athletic triumphs with the art of vegan pastry design. Together, they've crafted a partnership that's as delightful as their confections, proving that when women support each other, the result is nothing short of delicious.
This heartwarming episode is a celebration of the unexpected twists that can lead to life’s most fulfilling moments. Dee Dee’s journey from the track to the kitchen showcases the power of being open to new possibilities and friendships, while Jessica's military background and baking prowess illustrate the courage it takes to pursue your passions. Their stories are not only about their personal drives but also about the shared laughter and deep understanding that comes from true companionship. Tune in and be inspired by these two dynamic women as they share their dreams, their obstacles, and the strength they draw from one another.
Dee Dee and Jessica are baking with purpose. So if you've ever needed a sign to invest in yourself and nurture your passions, let this be it. Join us for a slice of inspiration, and perhaps, discover your own recipe for success.
Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. Share the episodes and let's chat in the comments.
Support the Cake Therapy Foundation:
1. Cake Therapy - Cake Therapy (thecaketherapyfoundation.org)
2 Buy Me A Coffee : The Cake Therapy Foundation (buymeacoffee.com)
3. Buy The Book: Cake Therapy: How Baking Changed My Life https://a.co/d/76dZ5T0
Follow Sugarspoon Desserts on all social media platforms @sugarspoondesserts
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 to the Cake Therapy podcast, your slice of joy and healing. Today's slice of joy comes to you from Atlanta, this all-female powerhouse, one a military vet and the other one of the famous Olympians in the world. Yes, today we speak with Olympic gold and bronze medalist, world-renowned 400-meter sprinter, keynote speaker, the one and only Dee Dee Trotter, and her partner. And her partner is also in the house, which is Jessica. She's the executive chef at Taste of Gold Bakery. So welcome, guys, welcome.
Speaker 2:Yes thanks for having us. I know we're excited, I'm excited. I was telling Jessica and Dee Dee before we started that I'm like 100% Jamaican come with the track rivalry. But we're also big fans of Dee Dee and you know what I love about the Taste of Gold is like. When I saw that Dee Dee was making desserts, I thought, you know, it was a traditional one-woman show, but then I found out that she had a partner with her and I don't love anything more than just women collaborating with each other, because they talk a bit.
Speaker 2:They speak so bad about us, right guys, that we can't work and live together, so I'm really excited to have both Dee Dee and Jess with us today Awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having us. It is so exciting to be on your show First off. One up to Jamaica, alright one up for my fans from Jamaica. I've loved Jamaican fans for all my entire career, so thank you all for the year of support and love like hands down my favorite fans around the world, yeah we love you.
Speaker 2:So, jess and Dee Dee, I feel like we got lucky today because we have a two for one, two powerhouse women, you know, on this one show. I'm really grateful For you. I would like to know a little bit about your backgrounds, I mean, and what makes this partnership, this work, relationship work between you and Jessica. The questions for both of you Go ahead, sis, okay.
Speaker 4:So I think the biggest thing that makes me and Dee Dee a powerhouse when we work together is that when we do it one, it feels like we're closer to God. When we work with each other, it feels like the right thing to do. There's never any hesitation. We're always wanting to help each other, we're always wanting to bend over backwards for each other and we just have fun like first and foremost fun. If you were ever in the kitchen with us and we say this all the time we need to try by, we need a camera crew, we are a hot mess, oh my God.
Speaker 4:All of that hot mess and love and laughter into whatever it is that we're doing, whether decorating, baking the cake, tasting the cake, trial and error. Let me tell you something Dee Dee always says that we're soul mates, like we're friends always, and we put that into what we do. So that's what makes us what we are and what we give out to the world. You got it now, sis.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I remember meeting Jesse. We ran culinary school. We went to the Art Institute of Atlanta and we were in the same cake decorating class. It was well, we ran a few classes together. But I really became aware of her in the same space when we were doing dishes. One day in the back and she was telling she asked me about doing a cake for one of her friends outside client. And I was like, yeah, girl, you got to do this, you got to do that. And we were just talking it through and we were just we were literally washing dishes and we were laughing, right, just so silly.
Speaker 3:So after that it took us to reconnect through one of our we have a mutual mentor and we ended up reconnecting through there because I was hard as the executive pastry chef at Druid Hills golf club and they were like we don't have a team here. So I'm like I got to build a team. So I reached out to the mutual mentor we have and she's like, oh, I know exactly who would be great for this position. So I gave her a call and this, this woman let me tell you she was already doing a lot in her own individual business and she's like I will make this work and she's like I'm going to get my, I'm going to finish one thing here, I'm going to get over there and I'm going to help you. Like she's like, I know you're over there by yourself, I got your back, I'm coming Right. And I was like oh, thank God, please, it's not a one man show but I'm running it.
Speaker 3:So she comes in and immediately, like it was I do call us soulmates. There's this connection between two people where you don't have to say anything. They know what you're thinking, they are your right hand, You're their left hand. I cannot say something and she knows exactly what I need. I can think something, as you know exactly what I thought. So you know, we just have this energy and next thing, you know, it became this amazing workplace synergy and we just I mean, we click and we started creating and the creations became more and more detailed and more, more we got to do our own thing.
Speaker 3:You know like it was kind of like we need to step into this a little more. It became obvious that we were creating gold.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:As we started making these gold nuggets, we were like we just have it. So, yeah, you know, we went on this journey where Jess went on to sheets. He has a beautiful fiance. Can I put it out there, sis? Yeah, she told me she has a beautiful fiance and their life journey took them away from Atlanta for a little while.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I just kept building and then everything just didn't seem right without her, honestly, and so I had a really big opportunity with one of Atlanta's top realtors and she was having a party at Brandy Hunter. I'm just gonna put her out there. She's the bomb. We had an event with Brandy Hunter and I had this opportunity to do this amazing cake and I called her and I said, hey, I need your help, and she's like I got you, I'm gonna drive. This girl says she would drive 10 hours to come. I said no, ma'am, but that's how dedicated she was. She's like I got you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And so she dropped we get to, we get her to Atlanta, and we had this amazing. It was just like everything came back together almost instantly, instantly, no hesitations. Everything just fell together perfectly, and from there it was just like come on, man, we got to do this, sis.
Speaker 3:We got to do it, we got to do it. And it was like jump on, jump on board, come on board. And she says I need you to come on board to taste the gold bakery train and she's like I'm already there. You didn't see my bags, they're under the cargo. I was like.
Speaker 3:I didn't know, I didn't see them, so it was like that. And then there is no better chemistry than the one I have with her, like it literally makes doing what you love even more of why you love it. And that is just to put it simply.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, that sounds so amazing. But what is it, jess? What is it about your upbringing that makes you, you know, commit to a friendship and a relationship like this, that you have this synergy and this cohesiveness, that you'd say like, yeah, I'm on it, I'm ready, like tell me a little bit more about you.
Speaker 4:I feel like Well one. I grew up with two sisters, so I've always been the middle child and I feel like in my life I've always been looking for balance, harmony, just kind of that. People pleaser, but how do I make myself happy?
Speaker 4:When I met Dee Dee and we started talking or we exchanged the words of our life, it was so similar Even though, she was a professional athlete and she did certain things in her life me being a veteran, an international traveler, we realized we were going through the same things in life even though there's a small gap in age. It was like are we sisters? Like have we crossed paths before this?
Speaker 4:We have another life with each other. It just felt right and it, just as my journey grew with God, it just became more and more clear Like this is a woman that I deserve to have in my life and she deserves to have me. And what better way to make sure we always blossom, we flourish, that we do not fail. It feels easy committing to Dee Dee and she's always open and welcome to whatever it is that changes. She adapts to change, she's resilient. So as my life started to change, in my relationship and having to move away, we made sure we stay connected. And when I was traveling full time, when I was working overseas full time for seven years, I lost a lot of friends. It was like out of sight, out of mind. They forgot about me and their life kept going on and no one checked up on me. When I left to move overseas again, me and Dee Dee still stayed in touch and she would reach out like hey, I haven't heard from you. Where are you at, sis?
Speaker 4:Like what's going on, and I would like that girl loved me. That girl loved me, and that's what just made me feel like you know what I could give her this. I could give her this, because it's not hard to do it. There are times, of course, we're going to bump heads, but we always work those things out and they just make me feel like you know, this is a relationship that I value in my life, so I'm going to keep it.
Speaker 2:And if you need my help.
Speaker 4:I'm going to help you. It's not like she's making me find my life a way. She's willing to work with whatever time that I have. You know what I'm saying Like no, can you be here?
Speaker 4:And it's like you know, no, I can't right now. It's OK Cool, she doesn't hate me for it, she doesn't bash me for it. She understands those things. And I think, ultimately we're always looking for someone to understand us and accept us for who we are, and I have that with Dee Dee. So it just makes sense to commit, it just makes sense to be there. It just it makes sense. I'm not going to make it difficult, that's all.
Speaker 2:So, dee Dee, my question for you that you know, after a woman gets to a certain level of fame because you are famous in my eyes, right, and I'm sure to a lot of people it's hard to have people breach that circle. It's like no new friends. Yeah, how did you get to a place where Dee Dee Trotter, olympic gold medalist, bronze medalist, who's already affirmed a circle around her Because now you need protecting? How did you allow Chef Jess to come into your space and what was it about her that made you put your guard down?
Speaker 3:So I love this question because it gives me a chance to kind of tap into the true roots of who Dee Dee Trotter is right.
Speaker 3:So, I am, and always, prayerfully, I will always be a humble person. I did not come from rich backgrounds and I grew up what I would call a moderately struggled kid Two clothes that don't fit, little food, little, it's just. I didn't grow up in a way that, no matter what status I ever achieved, what I ever feel, I could not open myself up to people in any kind of way, and I'm a Sagittarius. That says something. So my personality is to really just be a lover and to love people and to just be open to new relationships. That's just my natural way of living and no matter how much fame or how much status I ever acquired from being a professional athlete, I never changed that about myself.
Speaker 3:You can ask almost anyone who ever met me. Even at the peak of my career, even carrying gold medals, even in the midst of receiving a medal, I walked through the Olympic Village and from the oldest person to the youngest person, you can have a hug, you can hold my medals, we can take a picture. I'm never going to tell you, no, I'm just that kind of person. So it was easy to let Chef Jess into my space, because I am a trusting person and I'm a loving person and then, until you show me otherwise, and then I'll close off doors and I'll make the adjustment. I should say, whatever adjustment is necessary to meet you where you are, but with her I never had to worry about that. She possesses a similar spirit as me. Like she said, we have a similar a bring, a similar background, some degrees Like we walk the same. We walk the similar path to get to where we are today and that journey actually connected us instead of and it made us it was almost like instant non-biological sisters.
Speaker 3:It was very, very, very. It was very odd and it was weird and it was like kind of like, do I trust this person this much? And it's like, yeah, I do. And it's so weird and I'm just like I'm not going to block the love I feel, I'm not going to, I'm not going to let fear of what could happen outweigh the potential of what could happen in the most beautiful way. So I definitely embraced the opportunity and if it backed Friday, I was like, well, it was worth the risk, you know, because I'd rather have this beautiful experience with this person, even if it's for a short time, than to not have had it at all. So I'm glad that it was real. I'm glad that it was genuine. I'm glad that it was more than what I ever expected it to be.
Speaker 1:I didn't think.
Speaker 3:I would meet a soulmate, a friend soulmate, at 40. I didn't think that was possible Because, like you said, you know, usually by age 40 or so, even at some point, you've got a pretty tight circle around you and you got your fab five or you're you know, you got your handful of people. You know, you fool, went on a normal basis and that's usually it. But with her it was like no, I'll take all of you because all of you is awesome. So no, it was no challenge at all and I think that's just because I'm me. I'm a chameleon of sorts. If you put me around enough British people, I'll be like hello, how are you Darling, how you doing? Okay, darling, put me around. I mean, I'm telling you I'm a chameleon, I go with the flow. I don't know how. Why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love how intentional you are about each other, which is really really good. I can see that, so that's really really exciting for me. So I have like a question for you, Deedee. You played basketball, you ran track in high school. When, and who saw that you were a track star? How did you know? How did you choose? How were you able to say, okay, I'm gonna do track?
Speaker 3:I'm gonna make a long story short because you would have to do a whole project on that one question. I have always been fast. I was fast when I was eight years old. I was fast when I was seven years old. I was beating my cousins in the streets, beating my whole, my brother's entire little junior pro, junior pop football team. That raised that girl. Yup, zoom bye, beat them all the time. Go cry. Yeah, a good beat by a girl. Yes, you did go cry. Stop sign the mailbox. I tagged you up, you're done. That was how Barefoot no Shoes, phoenix Arizona, stop sign the mailbox got them. Like that's how we did it.
Speaker 3:Okay, so in growing up I always knew I was fast. It was never a question. My grandpa, my grandmother, everybody knew it. Kindergarten, I was always the athlete of kindergarten, all the way through my entire life. She's the female athlete of the school. Yes, I was. That was my life. So I already knew it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just did not like outdoor sports. I got skin sensitivity, I got asthma. I just I'm just not. I honestly don't know if I'm built for that, but I guess I was. But I didn't feel like I was.
Speaker 3:So I tried to stay away from the running part because, I mean, to be honest, track and field is most sports punishment. So what we do is hard, it's tough and it requires you to have a lot of mental and physical stamina and endurance for a lot of difficult training. And I just was more of an indoor sports person. So I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do basketball. And then that was my love, basketball with my love, my go-to, my thing. So you couldn't tell me nothing. My first boyfriend was Wilson Jet, which is the name of the basketball company. Like I just that was me okay. So I literally had no other thoughts about track and field. I just was the fastest kid on the court and I mean you've never seen anything faster on a basketball court until you saw me running on the court. So that's how that kind of trickled 96 Olympics were in Atlanta.
Speaker 3:People kept giving me Jackie Jonah Kersi figurines and I'm like this is great, thanks guys. Huh, not gonna run. And then finally everyone kept saying that girl is fast, we gotta get her on the track. You gonna run track. I said I'll run in high school. Take a breather. Oh, my gosh, relax.
Speaker 3:So I made a commitment to run when I got to high school. I did not run prior to that. I started high school track and then some of my best friends that are still my friends to this day, literally I have friends from the age of 15 that I still hang out with like two weeks ago and they were running track. They were really into track, and here in Atlanta the summer track programs are really big and they were just into this whole thing. So it became if I wanted to hang out with two of my best friends I literally had to run track with them, because that's all they did the whole summer. They would be gone to these little track nights and I'm like this is too hot. So I was like I got eggs. Look, I'm gonna do my milk for this. So I literally just couldn't feel myself in it.
Speaker 3:So, I did it with them and I started getting into the lifestyle of the whole track and field summer thing. And I did it two years with them and then they were ahead of me in school. So when they went to college I stopped. I said no, thank you. I went back to high school track, high school basketball, basketball was my focus and I did cheerleading in football season. So those are my three sports and I was more focused on basketball than anything else. I did get scholarship offers in track and basketball and I was state champion in track and field. I was also like tip off club basketball offensive player of the year, tip off club basketball defensive player of the year. I was a very good basketball player as well, so my goal was to play ball and it wasn't until senior year that I and I'm gonna share this part of the story because I think it's important there's a lot of athletes who don't know that there is a process to getting recruited.
Speaker 3:I've been up in an era where, when you get a letter, I thought that nowadays it's very different. There's social media, there's all these things that have that. In the early 2000s and they sent me all these letters and I would put them in a shoebox one for track, one for basketball and I let them sit there. I was thinking like it's gonna be on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The coach is gonna come to your house, they're gonna knock on the door, they're gonna tell you how great you are and they gonna say we gonna come watch you at a game and then they gonna come recruit you. That's what I thought was gonna happen, because that's what they do, right? Nobody in my family had ever gone to Division I college had ever gone to play, you know, division I sports. So no one had any. You know, they didn't have a checklist for this. And the school I went to, respectfully, they didn't have a checklist for it either. They were just handing me the letters. And then here you go, another one and I was like, great, now I have five letters but no direction. So my letters, my interest letters, literally sat there, most of them unopened. I was just like, oh cool, michigan, okay Florida, okay Duke, okay Tennessee, like they just sat there and I thought they were coming to me. So I almost literally missed out on my entire blessing.
Speaker 3:And it wasn't until our basketball team went to state. We got fourth, we got put out early. Getting put out early actually put me in position to go to an indoor meet that they used to have here at Georgia, the Georgia indoor track and field meet. My coach class like yeah, girl, go on over there. I got you in there, just go run. I'm like coach, I just finished playing basketball. He's like it's all right, girl, just go in there. I got you in it. I said okay.
Speaker 3:So I go to the track meet and I break the indoor 200 meter record just straight off the basketball court, not even like 48 hours off the basketball court, no track training, nothing. I just went in there, broke the indoor record and the University of Tennessee coach was there at the meet. So she comes running down the stairs and she I'm walking off the track. She literally meets me running down the stairs. I'm walking up the stadium and she says what school are you going to? She was like what school are you going to? I was like I'm going to Tennessee and she was like for basketball. I was like, kinda See, when I didn't get the calls or the responses. And this is the message for all you young athletes out there open the letters, call the coaches, communicate. I know that sounds like common sense. But for those of you who don't have the guidance, who don't have the people in your corner who know how to stay there.
Speaker 3:You have to reach out to the schools. That is their attempt to reach you as the letter. Then you have all the way up. Okay, new flash. I know it sounds so simple, but I had already applied to Tennessee. When they didn't come knocking at my door, I said that don't stop me.
Speaker 1:So me and my mom. We got online.
Speaker 3:We applied, I got accepted. I was like I told you I was going to Tennessee, baby, since I was 10, I ain't playing around, I walk on the team. They gonna stick about me. That was my attitude. They gonna see about me.
Speaker 3:So, I had already been accepted, I had already gotten in, I didn't have the money. Let's go back. I didn't have the money, so we gonna figure that out when we got there. But then she comes up and she's like let's talk. And she's like what would you say if I say I pay for your school and you come run for me for one year and I introduce you to Pat Summit? I said man, would you say your name? Once again I said let's talk. That is how I ended up in track instead of on the basketball court and how I ended up at Tennessee. And it all started just from people saying that girl, fast shoes, she show is fast on that basketball court.
Speaker 2:So we almost didn't get the announcement because when we heard like there's DD coming out of Tennessee, someone popping off at Tennessee, and we're like who that? You know, we don't have access to the internet that much so we were like everybody's hearing the buzz.
Speaker 2:So we heard that you were coming, so it was crazy. I know that's a good perspective and insight to share with the up and coming professional track and field participants, but you for you, jess, I'm interested to learn about your story and your journey to the military, like how did you get there? What propelled you into that?
Speaker 4:direction. Oh man, I didn't want to join the military. I knew I wanted to be a dating girl, but I just thought women in uniform, oh, they look like guys and I'm a girl. I don't want to look like a guy, very immature standpoint on it, right, but I didn't have a lot of support in trying to, I guess, shape and mold who I wanted to be and how to get there. It was very much just go to school and you'll figure out the rest.
Speaker 1:Get a job.
Speaker 4:You'll figure out the rest. So I never wanted to join. But I just happened to be on a huge military installation and it was everywhere and I was rebellious against it. I think I was working at Sears and the law or recruiter walked up to me and I was like I'm not going to war, like what. You know what war looks like on TV. I'm not shooting a gun, I'm not going out there. And he was like it's not about that. He's like it's not about that. We'll pay for you to get in shape. We'll pay for you to go to college. What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, I don't know, but I want to be more than this. So, little by little, he just kept convincing me that it's not about going to war, it's about investing in yourself and figuring out what you want to do in life. So somehow he got me the sign of contract. Now I'm in, I'm going in.
Speaker 4:I was a pharmacy technician. I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't in shape, but I tried my hardest. I knew that I didn't want to stay in poverty. I knew that I needed medical, I needed dental, I needed clothes on my back, I needed a vehicle to get around. I knew those bare minimum things. How else am I? How else am I going to do it? I'm working them all. I have so much more potential than that. So I was active duty for five years. I ended up getting out and I went overseas, to Afghanistan, in support of the military, and I just started making goals for myself. I want to make this much money this year. I want to help my mom, I want to help my sisters, I want to give back. So how do I do that? Instead of going to get there, I stepped out of my shell or cracked out of it.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 4:I became a people person. I started networking with people. I learned how to speak to people. They loved me so much it was like, hey, we want you to work here, let's train you how to do this. And I started to grow Throughout their growth. I wanted to travel. I live on the other side of the world In a raid zone where there's a war literally right outside this wall. I need to start experiencing life.
Speaker 4:So I got a passport and I said whoever wants to come with me, I'll pay. I just need to get a passport and get some time off.
Speaker 2:No one wanted to do it.
Speaker 3:So you know what.
Speaker 4:I'm going to do it myself because I can't wait. So I started traveling. I started letting what I was doing for a living feed into my travel experiences. I went to 15 different countries on my own and I just did it. So from there I just started to grow into this different one. It was a birthday that I was in Afghanistan and I fell into a depression. And there the food is so bad it's like prison grade food and I did this for seven years.
Speaker 4:My health is deteriorating. I can see it in my face, I can feel it in my body and I decided to order a little conventional oven, some mixing bowls. I would go to the cafeteria and go with my purse, I would put little tablespoons of butter in my bag, little cream cheese, little packets of salt and I said I'm going to do something today. So I baked. I baked like my first set of cupcakes, never baked before, and they were good.
Speaker 4:They were so good and I'm a fan. Most birthdays coming up, somebody's birthday gotta be coming up. I figured out everybody's birthday in my office and I started baking cupcakes for everybody, with this little bitty oven and Just the joy that came to their faces from just somebody baking something different for them, somebody remembering them and just celebrating them. It changed my whole perspective of how to care for people. Yeah, and that was never the intention. I just wanted to do something good. It's marked something inside of me where I was like I might be done traveling. I need to figure out a school to go to. I want to learn how to bake, even if it's just being better at home. Wherever that leads to, it's gotta be good, because I'm good, right, if I'm good, it can be good.
Speaker 4:All right so my seven-year venture overseas had come to one in, I decided Let me put the starting map. I Didn't know anybody in Atlanta. I knew it was black and it was probably gonna be for me, right? So I wrote it and I became a pastry chef. I became a culinary chef first. I loved it so much I said I'm gonna be a pastry chef too.
Speaker 4:I've always been self driven. I didn't necessarily always have someone in my corner rooting for me, but whatever I wanted to do, my family did support it and they were like oh Lisa, way, yeah, you want to do? I knew I had to be more than my surroundings. Yeah, and that's what's always driven me to do more and come into more, even if I feel like I can't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 4:Never know what you're really capable of until you try yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm hearing a lot of parallels in. Indeed, I'm bringing in yours, jess, and here's the here's. Here's another thing that's fascinating me. Like I used to walk bare feet, my mom used to join socks together, to suck together so I could match the school uniform. I migrated, I picked a place on the map. I migrated to Washington DC University with nine hundred dollars, no place to live. So I'm like a lot of parallels, you know, and I can. I can really relate to the stories of your life, right, and I'm. There's so many women like us out there who have similar stories, yeah, and there's so many women like us who are afraid to even do it. Just do it, yeah. What is your message to a girl? This is what both of you you know because you're leading in your space. What is your message to that girl?
Speaker 3:You only and I know this sounds so cliche, but you only live once. There is, if there's something in your heart that you want to do, if there's something in your mind that you want to do, if there's something in your spirit that you want to do, you get one life to try it. I didn't say Succeeded, I said you get one life to try, try it, just try it. I mean, just go for it, like all you got to do is try it. Now, sometimes you're gonna try, it might not work out, but at least you tried it. And that is my. That is what I'm not only tell Women that are trying to. You know, explore, you know Taking that jump, taking that risk, going out there and trying to get after their, their ambitions and their goals.
Speaker 3:But this is just a universal message, because I think trying has gotten lost Amongst people. There's so much fear about failure that trying has become some type of kryptonite for people and If you are not trying, you've already failed. I say this in all of my motivation messages If you are not trying, you've already failed and you'll be facing something a lot worse than failure. You'll be facing regret, and that is something that does not go away easily. Regret can last you a lifetime, and Failure only lasts as long as it takes you to get back up and try again when you failed. If you start over and try it again, failure is gone and now you've proceeded to try it again, it does not last that long, but regret can last you forever.
Speaker 4:So Give it a try, just try and failure To carry out for what you're saying. Failure is an answer as well. It will give you the answer to what you need to succeed. Oh, right we have this impression, because we have social media, that everybody else is doing something that is editing Real life looks like failure. Yeah, an answer right, yes, like Dede said, you just gotta try. We got to get out of our own head. And we have to try because there's so many answers and failing. All the right answers are in the feeling.
Speaker 3:Yes failure is the blueprint for success. That is that part. That is what I say, that is what I believe, that is what will go down. You can put it on my head stone. Mm-hmm. I said failure was the blue blue print, the her success. There would not be any gold medals, there would not be any bronze medals, there would not be any, there wouldn't be a taste of gold bakery. There wouldn't be any of these things were it not for multiple failures. Yeah, failures taught me what I needed to know in order to succeed. Every failure became another stepping stone in the right direction, and it's just how you, it's how you internalize failure that will determine whether it becomes a positive force in your life or a negative.
Speaker 4:Your life, yeah, so right.
Speaker 3:Who said it was failure? It's perspective, right, mm-hmm Winning is perspective, and it's again another part of my message that I do use in motivational speaking. Everyone talks about the gold medals. The gold medals, yeah, the gold medals are great, but most people in their life they'll go through their entire life and never have a gold medal like moment right. So, whether it's a real life gold medal or something that's equivalent to a gold medal, whether you're like the top in your, your industry or the Number one person in your, in your field or whatever these gold medal opportunities present themselves and you may never get one, that means you lived your whole life as a failure.
Speaker 3:Yeah what that means is your perspective of winning is slightly skewed and you need to readjust and remember that winning is perspective. That's why people ask me about the bronze medal. The bronze medal to me, while it may have been third at the Olympics, for me it was a first-place experience. It's my different shade of gold. That's how I Winning. That was the best I ever ran in my life.
Speaker 3:I came back from the knee injury. I came back from three years of three years of failure, three years of disappointment. Everybody said I should have retired after my knee surgery. I was done. I had lost my contract. I was. I was living. It was tough. Yeah, when I crossed the finish line in third place, the last thing I felt like was a loser. Winning at that moment became about perspective. What did it take to get here? Yeah, after sacrifice to get here. Well, I digress. Will I downgrade? Well, I define my failure as a loss. Or will I define my failure in this situation as a success? And I chose to go the other Route. That bronze medal is a different shade of gold, baby. You better believe it.
Speaker 2:So you know, as I hear you speak, dd, I can, I must, I will like where did that come from? I must, I will, where did that all come from? And then I'm once I hear where that came from for Jess, I want to know, like what I mean from DD, I want to know what that means for Jess.
Speaker 3:you know, in this partnership, I Can, I must, I will was developed in the darkest place, in the lowest place of failure. At that point, in 2008, 2007, I was on top of my career. I was looking to go to 2008 games and claim the gold medal. It was in my sights, it was. It was a realistic possibility for me and I don't think anyone ever discredited that. That being the reality, and I and I was trying to step into my purpose at that point and I got hit with the knee injury and I still made the Olympic team in 08, but I did not. You know, I did not meet the goal, right? Yeah, so I go home.
Speaker 3:I have this knee surgery that supposed to in my career. It has a 90% failure rate at the time. This knee surgery nowadays is probably Just like a snap in your back on the track, but at the time it had a very, you know, long recovery time and the probability of being able to compete and run the way I used to was very low. But for three years I would fight to get back to the top and I was fighting the wrong way. At first I was fighting physical strength. Oh, I got to work harder. I got a train harder. I got to find a new Weight coach. I got to do. I just was. I was trying to finesse and manipulate the physical system, but it wasn't about the physical, it was a mental game.
Speaker 3:It became getting getting back mentally tough because over that time, when I was losing all those races, I was also losing confidence. I was losing the least in myself. I was losing courage, I was becoming fearful, I was becoming driven by fear and driven by doubt and those things started to push out any belief and any confidence I had in myself. So when you get to that point, you know it doesn't matter how physically great you are when you step on the line, if you have no confidence and you have no Belief in yourself, your performance is going to reflect that. So what was happening? Three years later? I was actually healed, but I was still running like I was a deer, being chased by a lion or something. I was just. I was scared right, but I didn't know, I was scared.
Speaker 3:I didn't even recognize that fear was on me. I didn't even recognize that doubt was in me so deep that it had pushed out all the belief in my life. And so when I realized this, I woke up one day. I was going to church, actually, and I had found a new church home in Orlando, florida, and it was just the messages weren't geared towards sports or anything like that, but it started to just reinstill in me what I grew up as I'm a preacher's kid. My dad was a preacher. I grew up in the church until I was about maybe eight years old, but those things had got kind of lost and church started to kind of reignite some of the inner strength that I actually used to get to any type of greatness at that point. And so I started to go through this mental checklist and I realized I was weak mentally. The tough athlete that I was, I realized I was mentally weak. So one day I woke up and I kept hearing this voice, little voice in my spirit. It just kept saying don't give up. I kept losing races, I kept getting my butt handed to me and I was about to give up one day.
Speaker 3:I'll never forget the moment I was at the pre-fontane track classic and it's one of the biggest meets in the United States, it's one of the biggest international meets and it was getting ready. I was getting dressed, I was sitting in my hotel room I literally had one leg in my in my uniform and my agent calls me and he says hey, dede, don't come to the track. And I was like what's going on? Like what are you talking about? I'm getting dressed. He's like no, don't come to the track. They kicked you out of the race. And I was like no, but hold on a minute, because the race is only a few hours from now. So, like how can they kick me out of the race? I'm already in. Like I'm conferring to be in a race. He was like no, I've been fighting with these guys all night. I've been arguing with them all night. They have given your lane to someone else and basically they're going to give you first place prize money to go home. And I said I don't need the money, I need the race.
Speaker 3:Now this is in 2008, when I have a shattered knee and I'm trying to make the Olympic team. I'm struggling already. I got enough on my plate. This is my last opportunity to try to get some running in while my knee is messed up, trying to make this Olympic team. And I remember him saying that's all I can do I'm sorry, dede, I tried. And I remember hanging up the phone.
Speaker 3:I remember like all these tears and anger and frustration started to like build up. And I wasn't a cryer. I was never a cryer about track. Now you put a basketball in my hand, I'm going to cry, I'm going to be like why y'all play too much out here in the street, like I'm going to be feeling some kind of way about basketball, but I've never really cried about track, right?
Speaker 3:So I feel the anger and the frustration and tears starting to build up and I remember this little voice in my head. It said you can, you must, you will keep going, don't give up. And so I called him back and I was like hey, mark, yeah, get me a race anytime, any place, any city, any state, I don't care, I just need one more shot. And he's like I got you, I got you. So he calls and gives me a race in Claremont, florida, a place I never heard of, never been before. I was like okay, you suck to the parameters pretty tight. And I was like, I mean, I went out there and I ran. I ran better than I had been running with the injury. Now it would take me three years to rehear those words.
Speaker 3:I heard him then. I heard him again once before and I just kept calling it the voice, like this, this, this is voice and just just you're going to, you're going to. This is going to resonate with you, because I told this story at graduation in my valedictorian speech. I I had this moment where I just kept saying it's the voice, is God is speaking, he's speaking to me. This is the voice and it was never really clear until I was at my lowest point and my back was against the wall. I have one year left in my contract.
Speaker 3:If I don't run, if I don't get back to running after my knee surgery in 2012, if I don't get back to something, it's over for me. 2012 will be my last year. There'll be no more tracking field for me. It'll be done. There'll be no more contracts. There'll be nothing for me. So my back is against the wall.
Speaker 3:If I don't do something now and at the most lowest point, I start to hear the voice, but then it comes in more clear and it was I can, I must, I will keep going. Now, I had been hearing this before. I just kept saying it was some type of voice, and it wasn't until it was super clear in 2012 that I said, oh, I wrote it down. See, that's the problem. We always try to remember stuff. Just write it down, get it out your head. And I was like, oh, I'm off to write this down. So I wrote it down and I did it in color pens, color pencils and markers and I put it on the wall, on the door, when I was walking out the door every day. So every day, I would see the sign I can, I must, I will, I can, I must, I will. I just said over and over again I can, I must, I will, I can, I must, I will.
Speaker 3:Every day, every day, and I started speaking life into myself and speaking positivity into myself and speaking the opposite of everything that was trying to take me down, so everything that was telling me to quit and give up. I started to say, no, I never give up. I can, I must, I will. Everything that says you don't believe, I believe, I believe, I believe. Everything that says you're not going to make it sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. I just started spewing all of these things and every time I said it yeah, down, so I would write it down. So next thing I know, I woke up one day with a wall that said never give up. I believe I can, I must. I will sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. You got this, like all of these positive opposites of what life was trying to tell me wouldn't happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And they became my emergency responders Whenever I felt fear, whenever I felt doubt, right to the moment when I walked on the track in the finals of the 2012 Olympic Games where nobody said I would ever be. After three years of loss, three years of failure, three years of disappointment, they said I can't talk about it, y'all.
Speaker 2:Your plans, new DD we knew, we knew.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean even to the last minute, when the starter says on your mark, fear and doubt tried to show up in that moment and said you know, false start. I never first started in my entire career. Why would that automatically pop into my head? Because fear and doubt is relentless. Fear and doubt is. I mean they are. They are up all night, they don't sleep, they stay on point. They waiting for you to have a moment of weakness, to slip in and try to take your dreams from you.
Speaker 3:But I was ready, see, I have been training, I have been looking at it every day, reading every day, preparing myself every day. I was tight in. I was tight what? No, getting in. And I figured out then one thing that I didn't know. That I figured out then was that the only thing more powerful than fear and doubt is belief. When you believe, fear and doubt cannot exist in the same space. It does not. It's not possible. So when you feel yourself with belief, fear and doubt will flee. So while I'm standing on the line, the man says run and take your marks and the fear says you're going to fall. I said, oh no, you can go watch the video. Right now I start saying I can do all things through Christ. That strength is me right out loud on the track 100. All those people on all those cameras, I don't care. I got 49 seconds to make something of myself and I'm not going to let fear and doubt take it from me. So the word of the day is y'all believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can, I can, I must, I will so try to feel in the military. So like worlds apart. Right, there's two women who are contributing to the growth and development of their own country. You both ended up at the Art Institute in Atlanta. Why baking, why baking?
Speaker 4:Um, you know, I ask myself that all the time and I have to stop asking myself because I don't have anything to say about this too.
Speaker 3:So when you finish, I will. I have to cap this off, Go ahead.
Speaker 4:Go ahead. Let me tell you, it's been a battle between baking and cooking, Um, or just just being in the kitchen. I don't feel like I chose it. I think God told me that's what I had to do, and there's so much more in store for what it is that we have to do what we're called to do, and if there's a process, right, we think it's one thing, but God's perspective is different hours, right. So you feel something much bigger than you when you're doing it and it's like why? Why me? You know I could be doing something else I could be doing my little nine to five, that's easier.
Speaker 4:You know, being an entrepreneur is hard. There is no starting salary.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know there are no guarantees. So I got that a lot Like why me? And it just turned into what is it that you want me to do? What is it that you need me to do? What do I need to say as to today? Yeah, and I'm okay with that Um and introducing um DDS like emergency responders, that I can, I must, I will eat. You know, it can be that big or it can be a daily struggle. You know there are always, there are always things that are here to distract you being vegan, because we make good stuff, we make great dessert, you know. So I'm being like 85% of the time and then when Dede steps in the kitchen, it's out the window.
Speaker 2:I got a piece, I got a piece I got a try.
Speaker 4:This I got a critique. Yes, so every day I still have that struggle where I have to tap into what. I'm called to do as a vegan and she's open to that. You know, you do you. However that looks, I support you as long as it takes like gold, yeah, yeah, and I can, I must, I will in the mental yeah, today I have to create something that's vegan.
Speaker 4:I have to leave by example with my diet. I have to lead it, you know, by example doing these things and Not fear that I'm gonna lose out on an opportunity Right or a customer Right. They don't be good. A whole community out there, yeah, they need for me to set my game up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because, like it sounds like in the moment when you were asking what, what am I supposed to do, that you got your answer. That you're called your ministry is going to be the vegan desserts, correct? That's.
Speaker 3:That's where I need to chime in because, okay, so this, this woman is a blessed and fully Ordained in the world, and we can that cooking. When I tell you now, coming from a person who is not vegan, I have adopted a lot of vegan Attributes, thanks, thankfully, to Jess's integrating of this type of delicious food into my life. So she is an amazing savory chef. Her calling I personally believe that her calling is to take the health and wellness of Eating and restore it to our broken health and lack of health and healthy food industry, as I mean. Okay, so Somewhere in her life path she's gonna be the reason that we can go to the store in the term organic is not needed anymore. I mean, we've lived all over the world where, when you go to the store, what is organic? They say organic, what do you mean? Well, now, when I'm back in America, I'm like, okay, food with less poison, food with less toxic, that's what you're trying to say, but most, a lot of places in the world, they don't even know what that means because they're not providing an alternative that's not natural or not Healthy or not packed with something poisonous for you. So what Jess is going to do on a bigger scheme is Is why I had to have her on my team, because I would love, when she steps into this, change the world in the way that you eat.
Speaker 3:It is going to be under the taste of gold umbrella she is so gifted in and vegan culinary vegan pastry is more challenging for her and and it's because it is more where she has to like, think and focus and work. But you should see her on her, on her savory side. It's like it's like watching a magician, just, and I mean she's just so in. It's like it's like water flowing and and. So when I saw her pastry skills, I said, wow, you are an amazing pastry chef, like and and I was like we got it, we got it, we got to do something with this sis. And she's like, yeah, I love pastry, but I also love. I was like, look, there's no blood, there's no blood.
Speaker 3:Let's just do it. Let's just do it. So I don't have a cap on what gold tastes like. Baby, I'm not a. We start when we start, we end where we end. I just, I just need us to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Go, we in that thing, we in the race. We're starting with pastries, where that branches out to. I am fully open. She is the executive sous chef of taste to go bakery but she is also in head of the vegan department. Department is undefined. I didn't say vegan pastries, vegan pastry department, short vegan department, is where we are. So if we do a little something in this, and that that's just what we do, because gold has no, I mean.
Speaker 4:You heard it.
Speaker 2:It's just department, honey. It is just department undefined.
Speaker 3:Labels are so tricky.
Speaker 2:Here's this. I get the taste of gold. Okay, I get it. Yes, why did DD Trotter Go to bake what made?
Speaker 3:you bake. I have always been a baker. When I was running stops on the mailbox, I was easy baking of it. I, that was the same cooking like cooking. Cake with a lamp was like Magic boy. You couldn't tell me none. I popped that little cake in that little lamp box and come out with that nasty little cake and I was still trying to make you cute I. Just something about it was just always there for me. I've always loved it.
Speaker 3:I can remember, literally I can go back to the age of 10 when I really fell in love with um, with both two things basketball and and cake. I'm just gonna start with cake, because it was more of a cake thing. And I mean from there I I took on the little challenges of you know the birthday parties and the baby showers and the bridal showers and the, you know the weddings of my friends and family, and I just did that for years and I always did, and I started doing it more on a serious level and I guess I could say maybe around 2005 or 2006 I would go out and like, buy all the stuff to do Table decorations and event planning. I actually thought I was going to go into event planning when I retired from track and field. So I actually was like Building a whole inventory, like right now, if you say, did I need a baby shower? But like, girl, I got you. Let me go to my basement real quick. Like I'm, like I can go, just don't. I'm telling you, like what you need, you need a baby shower today. I got you girl. So, like we have this.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know, I had this innate Um designing and uh to design and create and to bake. But I've always been a person that um Uses my hands, and I get that from my dad. He was a barber, he was uh, you know, he was uh, he could build things and I think I just picked this up from him. So I've always been very good with my hands. So, creating, making and and it just so happens that it was baking and decorating is where I kind of set my sights.
Speaker 3:Um, and as I got more and more into designing the cakes for my friends, I just started trying to get more advanced with it. I'm like I've looked a little basic last time. Let me try this and let me try that. And I remember my first like step out into, like, like a cake that wasn't like from a box. It was, um, my best friend's baby shower and, uh, she wanted elephant cakes as she was a delta. So I bought this elephant cake mold and I spent hours piping star Starburst to design the elephant's clothes and make them look like. Oh, I did two of them, two elephants at that, and so I have a picture of this. Recently I found it. I was like, oh, I have to post this on instagram.
Speaker 3:Post your first cake and then your latest cake boy is gonna be a dramatic difference, but it was so Fun to do that and I was like that was so fun.
Speaker 3:I had a great time like I moved and for being in the kitchen like slaving over this, and when you don't have piping skills. Let me just tell you that was hours of piping and for, like a rookie, it was hours of piping, piping. I was like man, that was hard, but I still had fun. So I just kept getting deeper and deeper into it and, year after year, I do more elaborate cakes. I went to try to build three tier cakes and, you know, just started getting more and more into it. And then, um, in my year, when I knew I was going to retire 2015 I knew 2016 would probably be my last go around I said I had to start thinking about you know, what are you going to do? I knew I had my nonprofit, that I had started running for the people. I knew I had that, um, and I knew I wanted to, you know, really grow and develop that. And I said, okay, I have my nonprofit, but what else do I want to do? You know I and I was like I've always wanted to bake. Let me, let's explore that. So I started baking again. I started bringing all the snacks to the track. That was not good for usc at the time. They were my little tasters and they were not shy and, um, they started building the confidence like these are great. And they were like you should take this to the shop. And so I did a couple of uh, put your pastries in the diner, type of things. And, um, I ended up moving from LA before I actually did any of them. But I went on the tastings and they were like, yeah, we want to order this and that every week. And I was like, okay, let me let you know. And I took a job that moved me to switch a land.
Speaker 3:So, as an international motivational speaker, which is another one of my passions, I'm a passionate person. Yeah, I'm a chameleon. I like to that. I just am who I am. I'm a speaker, I'm a motivator, I'm a chef. I had athlete, never former, just retired, yes, and then, so you know, these things are, um are just, you know, part of who I always am. It just took me to have the opportunity to, you know, say this is what I want to do. And it actually kept taking missed opportunities to really finally focus in. Um, covet is what boomeranged me right into Uh, or slingshot me, excuse me right into culinary school. I said I ain't got time for this, no more. Covid came. Thank y'all. This is the excuse I need to get on the path I really want to be on. And boom, just like that, went to school during Covid I said this is it's. All I needed was a break from the world. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So who is inspiring you, um, jess, and who's who inspires you, dv and who inspires you?
Speaker 3:Jess. Oh, I got the answer for this one. Go ahead, you got one.
Speaker 4:You go, you go.
Speaker 3:Okay, so, um, I've had a couple of great inspirations. Um, my past inspiration used to be, uh, the great, legendary Pat summit from university of tennessee, one of the greatest coaches to ever live. Um, she inspired me to to grow into the beast Mentally that I, that I became as an athlete. It was just through her, her awesomeness, um, but my current motivation, the person that inspires me, the person that kind of Makes me want to be better, is my coach, coach carol smith Gilbert from university of georgia. Now she's at uga.
Speaker 3:Now, um, this woman is amazing. She just keeps breaking boundaries. I mean, um, from being one of the first black female head coaches to, you know, uh, achieve so many monumental steps in the in division one sports, um, but just just the continuation of her greatness, as I continue to watch her rise, ascend excuse me, ascend to the top. She's just Grateful and she's just awesome and she continues to motivate me and inspire me every day, just by living her regular life. So that is, it's completely, um, a parallel world. Obviously, track and field and in baking, um, but it all requires a certain amount of focus, determination and, you know, a certain amount of go hard. That, uh, if you, if you, if you not, if you think you know, making a cake ain't gonna have you on your feet, for, you know, sometimes 48 hours, uh, you gonna have to have some resilience, it's so. So some determinations, yes yeah.
Speaker 3:Has to be intact.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's a constant, a walking billboard of what, um, you know, greatness after 40 can look like and how you know there's there's. There's no cap On on how great you can be when you're just you know, like I said earlier, when you just try it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love that. I'm happy that you said you know the parallel Um, because usually when I I struggle thinking about who inspires me, it's like, well, who's done something like me in my line of work? It inspires me and it can be anybody.
Speaker 4:Right you know, and I struggle just pinpointing one particular person- to this line of work, yeah, throughout my years of just living and meeting people and just seeing how your friends can change. There's one person that comes to mind and I've been telling Dee Dee about her more and more. Oh yeah, because we just had a one-year anniversary. Yeah, but one of my really good friends, bosch Turner, and I've watched this woman, young woman, just flourish from being at her bottom, wanting to, unfortunately, take her own life and build herself back up to the woman that she is, and she has just started her own ministry. Um, it's been one year and she invited me into that and I was saved during her opening of her ministry. So we celebrate our anniversary together and just seeing her go into ministry, going into God's word, feeling like why, why me, I don't want to do this.
Speaker 4:I don't want to. You know, preach to people about the word. You know we're shunned upon. I'm so young but she has overcome so many things and she's still going and, as she's in my corner and I'm in hers, she makes me believe in myself and get closer to God and whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing because, yeah, I trust those voices that you hear that your life. Write it down.
Speaker 4:That's God talking to you, yeah she's teaching me how to tap into that, tune into that, and she's been a huge, huge inspiration for me to just keep pushing, not knowing where I'm going.
Speaker 1:Being.
Speaker 4:But just go take that step at that endurance. So, yeah, she would be my biggest inspiration during this journey. So I am.
Speaker 2:You know, I see that the anchor is holding in both of your lives. Christ is really the solid rock in your spaces. Yep, and what just do you want your legacy to be? You know, at the end of it all, what? What is your legacy?
Speaker 4:Um, I think my legacy in the end of everything is a to believe in yourself, believe in God, trust the inner, you and what that feels like, what that sounds like?
Speaker 4:Um, how to walk in those steps of like what feels right no matter the outcome, um, what feels right, knowing that the best that you want to be and the best that you want to receive out of this life, you can have that. You can have that, you can attain that, you can work for it, you can contribute to that. Leave this world a better place than how you found it. Don't just be here to use that resources Give something back List in that purpose.
Speaker 4:Purpose doesn't have to be this big thing that you're called to do on this grand scale. Every single day there's an opportunity to live in your purpose to contribute in a way that you can contribute. If that's making my best friend laugh today because she's been down and out, I gave my purpose today Give, give, give.
Speaker 2:That's what I want my legacy to be about.
Speaker 4:Giving back the best way. I know how to and how that makes people feel good and you make a difference. We need more than in this world.
Speaker 2:We need it Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I lead a nonprofit called Cake Therapy Foundation DD. It's a space where I'm teaching just girls to bake, just bake through their trauma, because I went through some things and that baking thing saved me. So I'm teaching girls who've been impacted by the justice system, the foster care system just how to bake and just release some things.
Speaker 2:I, you are a legend on the track. We know your track and feel legacy. Tell me about DD's, dd Trotter's legacy at the end of it all, what does that look like and what is your message to the girl?
Speaker 3:So I'm twice blessed, because my track and feel legacy is the foundation of my life legacy and it has nothing to do with the running. It's the journey that God put me on when I started. Running had nothing to do with the running, I just had to stop running to see that, you know for. So for 13 years I ran. In. The physical mindset of this is the occupation, it is a job.
Speaker 3:That legacy was created out of hard work and determination, right, but what came out of that? When I was no longer running, when my body's broken, when I can't stand up for 10 hours, when I was swollen, when all was said and done, what was left behind? What was the truth? The truth was a story that allows me to resonate and reach people at their deepest level, when they want to give up, when they want to quit, when they're uninspired, when they're unmotivated, when they feel like they want to not be on this planet anymore, when they feel like they have just literally. I've literally had people tell me if it wasn't for the message you shared today, just a few weeks ago, I did not want to have my life. And when you have these, when my true blessing from all the years of running is the story that it created through the struggle, through the trials and tribulations, through the difficulties, through the failures. It was the winning, and the medals are just figments of a bunch of rewards that didn't actually have any real weight. The real weight is being able to change someone's life by telling them your most vulnerable moments and reaching them on a level that says, look, yeah, I was a winner, yes, I was a winner. Bypass that, I was a loser, I lost, I was down, I was out, I was broken.
Speaker 3:I was weak, I was terrified, I was fearful. I was, I didn't believe in myself. I'm everything you are, but let me show you how to get out of that, and that is the message that God gave me to share with people. The running was just a gateway to a real life situation that has been giving the gift that keeps on giving. People say, oh, running you're over. Like, yeah, I stopped running years ago, but I keep running because the running is a gift that just keeps giving.
Speaker 3:Every time I step onto a stage, or every time I step into a room, like just right now, I'm talking to somebody right now and I'm telling them that the legacy I leave behind is you can, you must, you will keep going. Yeah, for dreams. Don't give up. You've got this Like. It is just a matter of continuing to try and to fight every day. Fight every day to have the purpose that God has put in you and your purpose, like Jess said, it doesn't have to be to change the world. It just might be to change one person, change one life, change your own. It doesn't even have to be such a grand scheme, but I think what people are missing now is that your legacy only has to be as big as your heart, like just start there, just start there, and so whatever in there give it up.
Speaker 3:Let's try that you can't take it with you, you can't take it with you.
Speaker 2:I know I didn't have no intentions for church this morning, but China came and it came right. So let me ask you, you ladies in like trying to wrap up in the interest of time here is what do you hope for? The taste of gold bakery? What is?
Speaker 3:your hope. Oh, I think we should both talk about the yeah, you both Okay. Okay. What I see for taste of gold is we're more than just food. Our motto is greatness has a taste right. So we are trying to create a new look on desserts. Oftentimes a dessert looks pretty. It doesn't taste very good. So we're trying to change that dynamic.
Speaker 3:But the future for me, in my mind, is we're mobile. We have multiple locations. We are serving the community. We are not just serving desserts and food. We are giving back. We're able to donate, we're able to create foundations and organizations that help kids, like you're doing with cake therapy. We're bigger than just food, and that's because that's just how my heart is. I would love to see my nonprofit somehow intertwined in what we do with taste of gold and just make it all one big of who we are and never put a cap on it, like people always say oh, but this is what we do, yes, but this is what we need. So I'm always looking to feel the need, feel the gap, and what I think you're doing with cake therapy, dr Foster, is just amazing. I love that. Thank you. As soon as I knew about what you were doing, I'm immediately like how can we help? How can taste?
Speaker 4:of gold be involved.
Speaker 3:You know what can we do to help make that even more impact, for more visible, more powerful, and even with our own time, how can we get involved and see? That is the big picture I have for taste of gold. We serve food, we service the community, we service. We change the way that beautiful foods are seen, as they have a great taste, as well, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4:You said it all. I'm not going to have much to say Outside of this is just the first time the world has seen us through together collapse. This is just the first time. There are going to be so many other times that the world sees us on so many different platforms, because what you're building, dr Foster, it's great, it's greatness and just with some hard work and dedication and having the right people speak and help elevate that platform, we will be back.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you will.
Speaker 1:We're going to be, greater we're going to be better we're going to be blooming.
Speaker 4:And we're going to invite so many other young women to just open up and do more and that is amazing Letting people know that this can take place. We are not competitors, we work together, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we're just going to go on. Yeah, here, yeah, exactly, we're women who are baking with a purpose and we're hoping girls to unleash their inner champion. Right, yes, to unleash their inner champion. Here you go. You're using all the models, just go. You got my notes, girl. I'll make sure I've been up since six. I'm coming, I'm coming. You know, I'm ready, I'm coming. Absolutely, absolutely, I'm coming. Girl, I'm coming.
Speaker 2:Like this has been amazing. This has been amazing to me when I wrote my book this year and I thought about how am I going to? You know, I'm, my name carries no weight, I have no claim to fame, I'm just a lot. His wife, candy and Kennedy's mom, right. And I'm like how am I going to use what I have and what I got to change the way girls start seeing themselves? And then I'm an introvert at heart. So I'm like podcast, like this was God. That girl got a podcast. And I'm like, no, I'm like no, god, no podcast. But when the hard things and the hard messages come to me, I put them out to the world Like a podcast is coming. I have no choice now but to have a podcast. And then I remember Didi in my explore page and I was like I have to get her on my podcast Because I knew there was so much more to you.
Speaker 2:I wanted to hear the story and then what? There's a, there's Jeff, there, it's two of them doing this Double trouble. Yeah. So listen, I'm this is my first dual doing having two guests at the same time and I'm truly honored that it was you two. I'm I'm excited. I'm excited for the future of taste of gold. It's awesome, I get it, you know you. You know you get it. Taste of gold. Hey, yeah, and we're baking with a purpose and it's been awesome having you here today. I'm really appreciated. And to our guests thank you for joining us. This has been your slice of joy and healing as a mother. The whole cake today, guys, not just the slice, the whole cake today. So thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for having us. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you for tuning in to the cake therapy podcast.
Speaker 1: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 notifications and if you haven't subscribed yet, 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 today. Thank you so much for joining us today, thank you. Thank you, for your support will go towards the cake therapy foundation and the work we are doing to help women and girls. We'll see you next time.