Meet Cassandra Stillman | Pastry Decorator and Microbusiness Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cassandra Stillman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassandra, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
One piece of conventional advice that I disagree with is “the customer is always right.” One thing most business owners are not aware of, is once someone announces that they’re looking to start their own business, suddenly everyone around them thinks they’re qualified to give their opinion on how they should go about it. It took me a long time to figure out that just because a family member, friend, or customer makes a suggestion, that doesn’t mean it’s the right suggestion to follow. Before starting my own business, I worked heavily in customer service so the slogan “the customer is always right” might as well have been one of the ten commandments. This might be true for customer centered corporations, however the small business game is very different, especially if, like me, you are not starting off with any capital. A small business owner has to do what is right for them and what makes sense for them financially, physically, and psychologically. For example, when I first started my business, I only provided decorated sugar cookies. The reason for this was because, for one thing, they’re hard to come by in San Diego, and I was also going to school so I did not want to bite off more than I could chew. I had a number of customers and family members tell me I NEEDED to start doing cakes, cupcakes, pies, etc… as well. I caved under that pressure and spent tons of money on tools and equipment that I needed in order to expand my menu. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the idea that I was offering items that were not profitable for me and I didn’t enjoy making them as much as the cookies. Expanding my menu so quickly was not a sound financial decision and it took me a while before I was back to being profitable. I learned the hard way that it is easy for people to give their unwarranted opinions without realizing the reality of what they’re actually asking of you. So I had to stop, regroup, and go back to my roots; doing what I wanted to do rather than what my peers wanted me to do. Now, my business is more profitable than ever and I contribute that to taking care of my own needs rather than the “wants” of my peers and customers.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
What sets Panthera Pastries apart from the rest of the bakeries that offer decorated cookies is one, the nonprofit side of it, and two, all of my designs are delicious and hand made. Cookie decorating is surprisingly laborious so most places that offer them use short cuts like rice paper prints on top of dry, bland cookies. Panther Pastries, on the other hand, offers one of a kind hand made pieces of art that just so happen to be incredibly tasty. When I was younger, I attended an art magnet school where my artistic side blossomed. I did a lot of painting and illustration and always knew that I would be some sort of artist when I got older. However, I never thought I’d be a “food artist.” When I was 19 years old, I got a job in the bakery department at Albertsons where I quickly gravitated to learning the fundamentals of cake decorating since it was the only artistic solace I had in an otherwise underwhelming job position. I quickly flourished and outgrew the skills the bakery department had to offer me so I moved on to bigger and better things: cake decorating for VG’s Donuts in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. VG’s is known in the coastal San Diego community for being one of the most prestigious cake decorating bakeries in the county. Learning their techniques was definitely a challenge, but living up to their artistic disciplinary standards was one of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned as an artist. Perfection is obtainable, as long as you have the physical and psychological discipline to do so. I still carry this lesson with me in my own work and it has allowed me to reach what sometimes seem like the impossible standards my customers expect of me.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Being that I am a huge animal conservation advocate, if it were up to me, I would take my best friend to some of the incredible animal sanctuaries San Diego has to offer such as the San Diego Zoo in downtown, San Diego Zoo Safari Park in North County, and Lions, Tigers, and Bears in East County. I am one of those people who greatly prefer taste over “hoity-toity” presentation so I would take them to one of the many delicious “hole in the wall” Mexican taco shops around San Diego. I would also probably take them to the Yellow Deli in downtown Vista. Their food is always extremely fresh and organic and the environment and art murals are really cool. Some parts even make you feel like you’re in the shire from the Lord of the Rings. As for drinks, North County in particular has a great selection of micro-breweries that offer many different types of beer and seltzers so I would probably take them to Belching Beaver for their to-die for peanut butter stout or Stone Brewery since they offer so many different types of good seasonal beer and the environment of their Escondido location is really cool. My favorite brewery was Wavelength in downtown Vista because they had a great selection of beer and the owner also combined his love of science with it like I do with the animal welfare side of my business. Unfortunately, they, like many other breweries, did not survive the COVID shut down.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give a shoutout to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance for giving me the inspiration to create a successful nonprofit business. I have always had a love of animals so I got a job working at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park for a couple of years. Learning about their conservation efforts on a daily basis gave me the insight to tie together my talents for pastry art with my dream to end animal cruelty. There is a staggering increase of people from the Gen-X, Millenial, and Gen-Z generations that want to do more to give back to their community and San Diego has a large number of different bakeries and “cakeries” to choose from, so the nonprofit side of it has definitely helped boost my success. To date, Panthera Pastries has contributed over $1,000 to different animal sanctuaries and rescues both locally and across the world and I hope that number only continues to grow.

Website: www.pantherapastries.com

Instagram: @pantherapastries

Facebook: @pantherapastries