Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Ashton.
Alyssa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Almost everybody calls me Lys. I have a background in Marketing, but I spend the majority of my spare time baking for friends, family, and any events those two groups invite me to.
I moved to Texas about three years ago. EVERYTHING I have experienced in the last decade of my life has led me to create dolysh to share with you.
When I was younger, I worked for a family friend’s boutique. That was when I realized that it was written on my heart to someday run a business.
At first, I thought my business would be a boutique coffee shop. Throughout my high school years and earlier college years, I would create coffee shop menus, and find wholesale retailers online for the clothing portion of the boutique.
Sometimes, it was at the forefront of my mind, while other times, it would drift away for me to focus on my education, friends, and family.
Some years went by and I forgot about this dream as I focused in on my college career. In school, I baked at least three times a week.
My cookies were as soft and small as possible. Think bite-sized. Baking that frequently was my hobby, but since my health is incredibly important to me I couldn’t eat massive cookies all day every day to keep up with my baking addiction.
Then, I moved to Texas.
I continued baking, but it wasn’t as frequent.
Once my marketing career started, my client base was comprised of business to consumer, chef-driven companies. It was incredible.
I spent the majority of my time cooking, creating content, marketing, engaging, so on and so forth. I made cookies for friends here and there.
But of course being the Texans that they are, they requested larger cookies– They wanted MORE– so I generously obliged.
I began making my cookies larger and larger. Friends would make remarks that they were the best coffee shop style cookies they had tasted.
They told me to sell them, but I was focused on my marketing career and thought nothing of it.
Fast forward to a year later, I’m living in Dallas. Everyone I come in contact with tells me to start a business, and I’m talking about people from ALL different walks of life: business owners, entrepreneurs, employees, you name it.
Their comments always blew my mind, so naturally and curiously, I continuously asked… What type of company should I run?
Their responses were always the same. They would say they weren’t sure, but that my competence and passion were enough to just run a business and I should do it sooner rather than later.
At this point, the repetition and frequency was loud enough that I knew I needed to take this seriously. I began my brainstorm. I went through all the possibilities and I tried to find as many reasons to veto ideas as possible because if I were to run a business it has to be something I could do all day every day.
I love to work, but what do I want to work on? I tell my dad this story, and everything comes full circle.
He reminds me of my dream to have a coffee shop and boutique from when I was younger. I was shook, and realized he was right. I did want to do that, but in order to do that now, I would need to learn and be a barista for a minute. I felt that I couldn’t wait for a year.
My gut was telling me sooner, not later. This led me to ask and internalize the following questions: what was a skill I already had, that I was already successful with, that I could experiment with endlessly every morning…
I’m on a trip to big bend with some friends when the idea finally lands. Keep in mind this is 8 months later of strong consideration for why none of my ideas were going to work to start a business.
I explain all of my brainstormings to a friend. Jokingly, I say I should quit my job and run a cookie business, honestly… before I could admit that it was a joke, the snowball started slamming down the mountain and things began to click into place rapidly.
My friend was excited and exclaimed that this could seriously be the idea.
Cookies are all I ever bring to our gatherings, and it’s a majority of the content I post about on my Instagram.
I started realizing all the different ways that this was exactly the right answer for me. I had finally figured it out with a single, off-the-cuff joke.
About a year ago when Christina Tosi’s episode was released on the Netflix series Chef’s Table, I had recorded her introduction on snapchat, labeled it as “It’s me…”, and sent it to all of my closest friends.
That clip shot straight into my memory, and I knew I had to dig it up. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Christina Tosi talks about how she had just finished up her education. While she was ready to finally begin her career, she wanted to go back to the drawing board and figure out what it is that she could see herself waking up to do every.single.morning. The answer she came up with was to bake cookies.
This is me, this is my life story too, and I technically had the right answer all along.
I am incredibly passionate with just about everything I put my mind to. But the joy I experience baking for people, and experiencing their reactions to the cookies is something else. I experimented for a weekend before I landed on the recipe that I knew was right. I made A TON of cookie dough. I shared the cookies with anyone I came in contact with, and everybody was blown away. They all had variations with their own spin, but basically, they all wound up saying “When you told me you were starting a cookie company, I believed in you and was excited for you, but now that I have tried the cookie I know you’re going to be successful. This is a damn good cookie”. I cannot wait to bake for as many people as possible so that I can bring as many smiles to people’s faces as possible.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The business only just started in July. The most difficult part is trying to wear all the different hats at this point. It’s only me until I can figure out how to scale from the business and financial side as those are not an acquired skill of mine just yet. Thankfully, I have the creative background backed by my marketing skills and psych degree, but juggling every different aspect requires a great deal of discipline and motivation. I did have an investor at the very beginning, but I was nervous to take money from someone before I had made a few mistakes on my own. I’ve since learned that when the business is ready for an investor I’ll be looking for someone who can control the business and financial side so that I’ll be able to put more effort towards doing what I love… BAKE COOKIES.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the dōlysh story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m the visionary, the baker, the designer, right now I am everything. I pour my heart and soul into every recipe I’ve conjured up thus far. The cookies honestly get even better with each new idea. I spent a weekend figuring out the ideal recipe, which has since been the foundation for all the cookies that I now build off of. Let’s take the toasted mallow for example, it has my take on a graham cracker for the base. There’s a richness to it with molasses, the honey lightens it up for that traditional graham flavor, but then you get hit with a campfire like smoke. The cookie is then topped with a chocolate coating and hand torched marshmallows. Other fan favorites would be the circus cookie (think frosted animal cracker), spiced maple pecan sugar cookie, and the pantry cookie (it has it all, no joke).
With only being in business for a few months, there’s plenty to be proud of. The business took off easily and was already generating revenue for the first month. I’d say if there were a list to be proud of it would be all the generosity that my sphere of influence has come to offer and this new outlet for meeting and encouraging. Everybody’s willing to help and do what they can to see this business succeed only fuels the excitement and passion. In addition to all the kindness and support, the cookies are obviously the biggest pride producer. Big cookies are on the rise, they’re the perfect content for our beloved millennial Instagram crowds. What sets Dōlysh apart from other competitors would be the depth of flavor, texture, and size of the cookies. They’re around 5.5 ounces, which if you’re familiar, is the size of a google home mini (that’s huge, guys). Each cookie has a perfectly crisp outer layer with a gooey center. Once they set the texture maintains a cookie dough-like consistency in the center with the still crisp outer layer. The flavor is always a perfect balance between sweet and salty, but the depth of the flavor also just depends on which cookie you’re going for. Don’t take our word for it. Experience it for yourself. Seriously. It’s epic.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I’m not sure how much I believe in luck. What is luck when you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing? I think the seed for this dream was planted long ago, and every little path I’ve gone down has led us to this point. My intuition is strong and I’ve learned to obey that instinct along the way. I feel that God has been guiding me towards this for the majority of my life, but this dream became unavoidable and much more persistent once I had moved to Dallas. When finally took that leap of faith He has done nothing but provides thus far. I’m working arduously every day on anything and everything that comes my way, but it doesn’t feel like work yet, and I’m not sure that it ever will. There’s obviously going to be difficult days–I won’t say I haven’t experienced those yet–but there’s always someone there ready to jump in and help problem solve.
Pricing:
- $4/classic cookies (chocolate chip, m&m, cinna-doodle, sugar, oat)
- $5/gourmet cookies (toasted mallow, circus cookie, etc)
- The more you buy, the bigger the discount!
Contact Info:
- Address: 167 Turtle Creek Blvd
Ste 103
Dallas, TX 75207 - Website: dolysh.com
- Phone: 48088866339
- Email: info@dolyshcookies.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/dolyshcookies
- Facebook: facebook.com/dolyshcookies
- Twitter: twitter.com/dolyshcookies
- Yelp: yelp.com/dolyshcookies
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