By the thinkBIG Team
Despite selling her range of gluten, wheat, yeast and dairy free cakes and biscuits to clients such as Qantas, David Jones and Singapore Airlines, Rowie Dillon – creator of the Sydney based kitchen Rowie's Cakes – is not a formally trained baker.
Nor is 43-year-old Dillon a trained writer, yet her recipes feature regularly in Australian food magazines and she is close to finishing her first cookbook.
A passionate believer in creative visualisation, for Dillon it's less a case of what you know and more a case of what you believe, you can achieve.
"If you want to succeed you need the stamina of a jaguar," says Dillon. "You need to believe without any disbelief that you can do it."
Dillon conceived the idea for Rowie's Cakes in 2001, shortly after injuring herself when she fell onto a pot bellied stove, severely burning both her hands. "It was like the universe telling me a message," she says. "Like a force coming down and saying: Stop! I'm going to incapacitate you for a bit so you can actually think."
With three months off work to recover, Dillon was free to consider her future without the usual distractions of her advertising job.
It was during this time she wrote the story for Rowie's Cakes, mapping out a detailed vision of where she wanted the business to be in the future.
"You need to start with the end in mind," says Dillon. "Picture what it would be like at that point, how it would feel. No one's telling you what to do, you're creating...I was going to be Australia's next Sara Lee."
Yet it wasn't until Dillon encountered another unforeseen setback that she decided to set Rowie's Cakes in motion.
In September 2001, Dillon was told her position at a Sydney advertising agency was being made redundant. The agency offered Dillon one month to find another job, but having already decided she didn't want to be there, she chose to leave the next day.
That evening, a liberated Dillon took off her shoes, walked into the water at Balmoral beach, threw off her sunglasses and screamed out to sea.
Dillon then walked to her friend's house and announced she was starting Rowie's Cakes.
Within days of her decision, she was already baking. "I was worried about how I was going to acquire income," she says. "There's no such luxury as 10 days off—that's just 10 days lost to achieving the dream."
By November Dillon had secured the greengrocer.com account and was supplying to local cafés and restaurants. Taking last orders at midnight, Dillon would deliver her cakes by 6am and then set to work on finding more clients.
"It's one thing to dream and another thing to execute," says Dillon. "I've got the ability to do both."
According to Dillon, the difference between dreaming and executing comes down to planning, passion and persistence. "If you really believe it, plan it out correctly and push yourself, you can do anything," she says.
But it hasn't all been smooth sailing, and Dillon admits to having endured some difficult times.
"There have been a lot of tears along the way," she says. "I've had nights at home baking where I've thought—how am I going to do this?"
When faced with a challenging situation Dillon says it pays to stay committed to your end goal and keep on pushing yourself.
"Set backs?"asks Dillon. "There's no such thing. You need to be relentless in pursuit of success... It only takes one or two breaks to get some momentum."
Dillon says the ability to remain focused on her vision is driven less by selfbelief, and more by her unwavering belief in the brand itself.
"My body is a machine for the brand," says Dillon. "I'm the vehicle, I'll drive it there."
In April, Dillon will take the brand further than it's been before, travelling to Singapore and London to investigate options for exporting.
Having never been overseas, Dillon is excited about her trip but says she'll return home quickly to invest time in other projects; her recently released savoury pastry mix, publishing her cookbook and launching a new biscuit.
Dillon confesses to always striving for more, but hopes her ambitious goals are a positive influence on the team.
"I raise the bar all the time," she says. "Sometimes the production manager has to say 'slow down, let's consolidate'. I hope I'm inspiring to work with...I like to think I am kind."
Even after the success of her business, Dillon still keeps the original story she wrote for Rowie's Cakes, and the letter R in her logo is the same R she hand painted during her first week of business. Nearly a decade since beginning her journey, today Rowie's Cakes bakes 70 hours a week and employs over 15 staff. Reflecting on how much of her story has eventuated, Dillon says anyone can achieve their dream if they follow 'the three Ps': planning, passion and persistence.
"And start with the end in mind," she reiterates with a knowing smile.
