Tag Archives: Pamela Sutton

The Big Enough Company

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Interview and Photography by Pamela Sutton

The Big Enough Company: How Women Can Build Great Businesses
and Happier Lives, by Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams

Thought-provoking interview with Adelaide Lancaster, inspiring women entrepreneurs toward purposeful businesses – and happier lives!

Women choose to strike out on their own for a variety of reasons…

… creative freedom.
… a new challenge.
… escape from corporate.

… a sense of personal accomplishment.
… a childhood dream.

Why then do so many women find themselves feeling lost halfway down the path of entrepreneurship and disillusioned by a business and life they no longer love. What happened to that promise of freedom? Happiness?

Much like a flourishing bonsai tree, carefully pruned and shaped, the ultimate goal of an entrepreneur is to grow a business and life we love. Adelaide Lancaster and Amy Abrams, co-authors of The Big Enough Company: How Women Can Build Great Businesses and Happier Lives, are whole-hearted advocates for women entrepreneurs. After interviewing over 100 women, Adelaide and Amy learned that disenchanted entrepreneurs may need to snip away old, conventional business ideas. By shaping our own ideas of success, women can find real purpose and happiness in their business and everyday lives.

Conventional wisdom aside, Adelaide and Amy dared women to define their own ideas of success, and find out why bigger isn’t always better.

To read more about The Big Enough Company, subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

Jameson Ginger and Pear Coffee Cake

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Words by Michelle Gayer
Photography by Pamela Sutton

Jameson Ginger and Pear Coffee Cake (Because Jameson is good at all hours.)

Jameson Ginger Syrup

  • 1 cup Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 cup Jameson Irish Whiskey
  • Scraped Vanilla Bean pod

Bring all three ingredients to a simmer. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Take off heat and let sit for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Oatmeal Streusel

  • 4oz Cold Butter
  • ½ cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 cup All Purpose Flour
  • ¾ cup Rolled Oats
  • Pinch of Salt

Cut your cold butter into ½ inch cubes. Mix all ingredients until crumbly.

Flat Icing

  • 1 cup Granulated Sugar
  • 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons of Jameson
  • 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract

Whisk everything together until smooth. Add more sugar if too runny.

Crème Fraîche Cake

  • 8oz Unsalted Butter
  • 2 cups Granulated Sugar
  • Zest of 1 Lemon
  • 1 Vanilla Bean, Scraped. (Save your pod!)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 10 oz Crème Fraîche (or sour cream)
  • 2 ¼ cups Cake Flour (sifted)
  • ¾ teaspoon Baking Powder
  • ½ teaspoon Salt
  • 1-2 Ripe Bartlett pears, peeled and sliced

Cake Instructions:

Cream butter, sugar, zest and vanilla bean. Add eggs one at a time. Scrape your bowl! Add half of your sifted dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add Crème Fraîche and mix on low until combined. Scrape your bowl again! Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Scrape your bowl one last time!

Pour batter into well-greased medium large bundt pan. Layer pears evenly on the top and push them down slightly so they are nestled in the batter. Sprinkle chopped candied ginger over the pears and cover everything with oatmeal streusel.

Bake at 375 degrees F. until cake tests clean when you poke a toothpick in the middle. About 45 minutes. If the top of the cake is getting too dark you can cover it with tin foil for the remaining time.

After Baking:

Allow cake to cool slightly before flipping it out of the pan and upside down onto the serving platter. Poke holes in the sides and the bottom of the cake and brush generously with the Jameson syrup. Repeat brushing it with the syrup every 15 minutes, 3 times. Save the remaining syrup for serving.

To Serve:

Flip cake onto your serving platter so that the streusel is on the top. Drizzle with flat icing. Top with more candied ginger.

Drizzle a small amount of Jameson syrup on each slice of coffee cake.  Enjoy!

Want more sweet treats? Subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

Krista Tippett: The Wisdom Seeker

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Words by Megan Smith
Photography by Pamela Sutton

It’s unusually muggy for a September day in Minneapolis and hair around the city is paying the price. Krista Tippett’s red locks (so I’m told by her assistant) are no exception. Which is why when she darts in the back door of the large Minneapolis studio, behind schedule, she’s apologizing profusely for her tardiness.

Maybe it was just the light from the floor to ceiling windows facing Hennipen Street behind her, but I swear that this mother of two and recent White House Humanitarian Award winner standing in front of me in her smart black sheath dress, wedge heels and September hair, was also donning a halo.

She excuses herself for a moment, and while I finish slicing coffee cake for our afternoon chat, her footsteps echo across reclaimed flooring as she makes her way through the upstairs loft. Minutes later, she’s back on the couch beside me, shoes in hand. “I always have my shoes off here in the office” she confides.

I feel like I’m settling in for an afternoon with my sister.

Trying to tell the story of Krista Tippett within the confines of allotted magazine space is like trying to eat an elephant during lunch hour. Impossible. Her journey is vast and deep and complex, and her interests range from science and politics to history and Netflix show marathons. Her career path has taken enough twists and turns over the past three decades to send a resume writer running for the hills.

Yet, Krista remains grounded, real, funny,  sweet. She’s wickedly smart and keenly observant. And her laugh is as contagious as her humility.

Interested in reading more about Krista Tippett? Subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

Difference

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Words and Photography by Pamela Sutton

Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing
by Bernatte Jiwa

What if your business turned into wild success overnight all because of a story—your story?

Bernadette Jiwa is a freelance brand story strategist and author of best-selling marketing book Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing. The Difference Model is a new way of marketing: brand storytelling. No longer is marketing about tactics or labels; it’s about creating meaning in the lives of our customers through the art of storytelling. An engaging, true story that moves people to act, and fall in love with your idea. Jiwa sums up her short, but powerful book as one that “turns the old Marketing Mix model on its head. The businesses that have wildly succeeded in the past decade have done it by understanding their customers first, which enables them to create products and services for their customers.” By learning to see through the eyes of our another, Difference shows us how to transform our company from something that works from a distance to becoming a part of our customer’s own narrative.

Subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here to read more from Bernatte.

Imogen Cunningham

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Words by Pamela Sutton & Laura Zolman
Photography by Imogen Cunningham

“So many people dislike themselves so thoroughly that they never see any reproduction of themselves that suits. None of us is born with the right face. It’s a tough job being a portrait photographer.” – Imogen Cunningham

The turn of the 20th century in America was not quite ready to embrace working mothers, let alone an avante-garde photographer. Yet over the span of a 70-year career, Imogen Cunningham, with her artistic talent and willful independence, overcame the obstacles of a steeply patriarchal society, a male-dominated photography industry, and the critics of her day. Known for her botanical, nude and portrait photography, she became one of the finest and most sought after photographers in American history.

To read more of this article, subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

Creatures of Habit

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Words and Photography by Pamela Sutton

Whether we realize it or not, we spend most of our day on habitual autopilot. This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, habits actually can provide a lot of freedom. We type emails effortlessly without glancing at the keyboard. We enjoy a bike ride because we pedal without thinking. We can multitask at work or while caring for our children, and get up in the morning, heading straight to the kitchen with no other thought than “strong coffee, please.”

Although habits can be a good thing, most of us have some habits we’d like to break, and new habits we’d like to make. Understanding how habits work allow us to become more productive and achieve greater success in both our personal life and business―whether we want to diet, start running every morning or create a more productive working environment.

In his New York Times Bestselling book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life, Charles Duhigg dives into scientific discoveries surrounding habits and reveals human potential. We meet Eugene, who learned to create new habits after memory loss. And discover how Michael Phelps won a world record even though his goggles filled with water. We are given insight into how organizations, like Starbucks, have achieved success by embracing organizational habits, or “routine.” And how Target knew a teenage girl was pregnant, through her buying habits, before she’d even told her parents.

To read more of this article and the full interview, subscribe to CAKE&WHISKEY magazine or purchase the single issue here.

The Athena Doctrine

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Words by Pamela Sutton

A healer, protector of justice, wise peacemaker, reliable and selfless warrior; what attributes will define business in the 21st century world? Could “feminine” values really transform our careers? The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future, co-written by John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio, keeps one eye on the present and focuses readers forward into the business paradigm of tomorrow.

Extensive research reveals a worldwide culture shift in values: both men and women are identifying and esteeming “feminine traits” over the traditional “masculine traits.” Research shows, when it comes to leadership, policy, and innovation, those who adopt feminine attributes are more successful and the people who apply them are overall happier.

What social theorist and marketing sage John Gerzema writes in The Athena Doctrine is more than just a research report. Filled with inspiring stories of innovation and optimism about the future of business, Gerzema believes the juxtaposition of Athena traits and the modern businesswoman can improve our career paths, society as a whole, and our daily lives.

Recently I had chance to talk with John, who shared with me more about The Athena Doctrine and why it matters to you.

To read The Athena Doctrine review, purchase the Issue 3 single issue here.

The Model Activist: Summer Rayne Oakes

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Words by Pamela Sutton
Photography by Jacklyn Greenberg

“I’m the person who likes to take the machete to clear the path so other people can walk it.”
Summer Rayne Oakes

Our altruistic passions can become our career.  And while we may not understand the path to create this, it is possible to use ingenious ideas and passionate activism to impact the world. Because where integrity and inspiration meet is the key to successful social entrepreneurship, and a business, without a doubt, can be built around a passion when one puts a value on principles and knowledge. Summer Rayne Oakes has proved just that, finding her niche in the sphere of environmental sustainability and creating a profession without losing the soul of convictions.

As a child, Summer Rayne’s backyard in Northeastern Pennsylvania sparked her curiosity for the natural world. No one could have known that this budding brown-haired scientist, with her nose perpetually in a brightly-bound yellow National Geographic, would eventually become a modern-day ethical bohemian, honored as the World’s First Eco Model, and create an environmental social platform through a most unlikely avenue: the fashion industry. And yet, she did.

Read the full article: Subscribe or purchase an issue here~!

Ms. Small Town USA: Minnesota Photographer

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Words by Pamela Sutton
Photography by Kelly Reed

“Because how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

– Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Minnesota morning, my fingers wrap around my coffee mug as the low light dawns. The lakes freeze over and the land disappears beneath a slow, bright quilt of snow. My kids cheer. Frost patterns the panes that hold out this display of cold. I still feel trapped. The seasons shift slowly to thaw. The days turn to the longest of the year; verdant, flowing, the water moves again. I live confined where others vacation. But a summer sun rises and I rise with it.

I cannot change my circumstances but I can change my perspective.

Since childhood my camera has been cathartic. So I did what I knew. I began to use my camera to literally photograph the hell out of my life. Within the lens I rediscover that I can create beauty from the mundane. The ordinary becomes sacred art. And so, my photography business is born on the ashes left by my journey.

At the heart of Main Street, I meet with my clients in the warm coffee shop. Here, I am reminded of the tightly woven networks that naturally exist in small towns. There is a powerful common history here. Everyone knows each other or they are related. My friends have roots here. My competition has roots here. I am the outsider embarking on territory where I may or may not be received. However presumptuous, attempting to compete with other photographers has never been my ambition. I am reminded of Ayn Rand when she said that “a creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve not by the desire to beat another.” What I need is to create, to connect and to be part of something greater than myself.

Here is a story I can grow within: where business, community and friends meld. How can I learn to see the beauty here in the frozen nights? What can business teach me about catching the days amid dirty dishes and little faces? Madeleine L’Engle whispers in my ear that “we do live, all of us, on many different levels.” I hear her. I believe her. But confined in my Circle of Quiet, it is hard to believe that “the world of imagination is more real than the world of the kitchen sink.” Still, some day’s success is simply enough money to help with groceries and clothing, to put my daughter through dance or to buy books or fishing lures for my boys. This is equally real.

Hands down the biggest challenge I have faced is not related to small town life. It is treating my business like a job instead of an obsession. It is finding balance between work and being mom to my kids. It is choosing between client deadlines and laundry, between social media promotion and “what’s for dinner, mom?”, between working late and rising early. Some days I spin while my kids run in circles and tug on my legs. But what will be important when I look back at this season? If I am so tired I cannot read “Little House on the Prairie,” what does it matter if my house fits in a magazine? If I do not slow down to smile as my children momentarily huddle together under a warm blanket, what does a business mean? For me, having a successful business is equally about spending time with my children and providing a home where they can know they are loved.

Working from the corner office in my home, it is difficult to separate business from family life. I am in the process of bringing to fruition the dream of a studio space by restoring a floor in a rare, historic building with wide open space, with wood floors and large windows for natural light, with a downtown Art District feel. There are days I have had to pinch myself at this opportunity! I believe art is a valuable tool that can help a community grow as it brings people together, further enriching it for everyone. I am eager to use this space not only for my business but to share with others who gravitate toward the arts. I would especially love to see young people use this space as a haven where they can come to freely foster their creativity.

I still miss the energy of the city and the transitions of travelling; Winnipeg, New Zealand and Mexico are memories. Winters feel punishingly long, dark and cold, but coffee tastes best on a cold morning. Good business in a small community is greater than myself. It is to know and love my neighbor, and build my community. It is the reason I get up every morning and the measure by which I determine success. Because Annie Dillard is right that “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” I never intended to start a small photography business in a paper mill town on the border of Canada. I am slowly waking up to discover the art of contentment, no matter what my circumstances.