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Dana Pollack of Dana’s Bakery – Sweet Success

Dana Pollack of Dana’s Bakery – Sweet Success

November 19, 2018

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What if your job was making people happy at the most special moments of their life? Can someone make a career change at 30, follow their passion to build a very successful business with dozens of employees, and win major accolades as a business leader —all without a business degree?Dana Pollack, CEO and Founder of Dana’s Bakery (which revolutionizes the traditional French macaron with an authentic American twist),joins Socialfly founders Stephanie Cartin and Courtney Spritzer in the MouthMedia Network studios for a conversation about her journey to success, a surprise, and a brainstorm.

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Stephanie Cartin

Stephanie Cartin is a serial entrepreneur, investor, podcast host, community builder, and a champion for women founders. She created the Entreprenista League, a community for women founders, to provide resources and support necessary at all business stages. She’s also the Co-founder of Socialfly, one of the first social media marketing agencies, as well as Entreprenista Media and Pearl Influential Capital which was recently acquired by Cherub. Stephanie has shared her journey managing her health challenges with Multiple Sclerosis, Infertility, and a complicated pregnancy and is an advocate for women going through similar challenges. Her story and businesses have been featured on the Today Show, Bloomberg and Forbes. Consider Stephanie your biggest business cheerleader. 

Courtney Spritzer

Courtney Spritzer is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, author, and community builder with a passion for creating brands and platforms that empower women to lead, grow, and thrive.

In 2012, she co-founded Socialfly, a leading social-first digital and influencer marketing agency. Over the course of a decade, she helped scale the business into an award-winning agency working with Fortune 500 brands and emerging startups, building a powerhouse team and culture along the way. In 2024, Socialfly was acquired.

In 2018, Courtney launched the Entreprenista Podcast to spotlight the stories of inspiring women founders. That passion evolved into Entreprenista Media in 2021, a media platform and community supporting women entrepreneurs at every stage of growth. She now co-leads the continued expansion of The Entreprenista League, a membership-driven community and ecosystem for founders.

As an angel investor, Courtney supports female-led and mission-driven startups aligned with her vision for a more inclusive and equitable business landscape.

She is the co-author of Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista’s Guide to Using Social Media to Grow Your Business (2015), a strategic guide for leveraging social platforms to drive business success.

Her work and ventures have been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and The New York Times. She is committed to championing visionary founders and helping build the next generation of impactful, community-driven businesses.

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Highlights

  • Dana’s former career at Muscle and Fitness magazine
  • Her light bulb moment – when she asked for a raise and was declined
  • Faced with screen of oily men working out—asking will she really do this the rest of my life
  • Photo industry in transition, switching digital wanted to do something different after 10 years=–what would she want to do
  • Realizing she loved baking and entertaining
  • Dana realized she should get formal training, and within a week enrolled in culinary education and quit job, and broke up with boyfriend
  • Everyone except for her mom thought she was crazy to do this at 30 years old
  • Never anticipating what it the bakery became
  • How she knew could always pick up work in editorial world, but never had to
  • Found a job as pastry cook while going to school to get experience as fast as possible
  • Never went to business school, learned largely online basics of starting a business
  • How her mom helped her, no investors or partners, bootstrapping
  • When she photographed macaroons like sexy perfume, people were drawn to them
  • Using American flavors instead of traditional macaroon flavors
  • Social media as marketing helped people find out about them all over the country, then Dana hand-delivered and was not making a lot of money because the cost of delivering
  • Collaboration with Drake for Valentines Day
  • Favorite flavor is the “Mallomac” – a Mallomar bar without gluten
  • Biggest mistake made in packaging  — $60k of unusable branded inventory
  • Making a formal business plan vs. getting things done
  • A surprise for Dana and idea for a new flavor!
  • The challenge of hiring the best talent
  • Why she has no partner to date
  • Why it is best to hire people who are better than you are at skills
  • Being at 35 employees
  • Typing and email answering assignments with new employees
  • Expanding the operating and offerings
  • Why showing up is such a major thing
  • Marketing strategy
  • Partnership with Dylan’s Candy Bar
  • The Mookie – a macaroon inside a cookie
  • How an Instagram contest created a new product
  • The rainbow black and white cookie
  • Looking at ROI of every dollar spent
  • Organic social media posts have always worked, preferring marketing dollars for ad words and FB ads
  • Sharing her entire days on Instagram
  • Planning days, every day is different, the importance of the calendar in phone
  • How Dana doesn’t have a set schedule every day
  • Running personal and business Instagram accounts, and how running a business account like a personal account speaks to the brand
  • Dana’s most used apps
  • How helpful people are, and why being willing to ask for help is huge
  • Being able to recover by recognizing when something goes wrong in the business
  • A brainstorm for a new flavor idea for the holidays
  • And, a big accolade as a business leader without a business degree is a credit to her team

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