Meet Dolly Meckler | Entrepreneur & Digital Creative

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

Hi Dolly, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The end goal for me is having the space to always be learning. I never want to feel bored, comfortable, or underutilized. I’ve had a number of typical 9-5 jobs where I’ve gotten burnt out. I felt very burned by corporations, that my skills weren’t used efficiently, and that I had so much more to offer that my bosses and workplaces weren’t seeing. It got to the point where things felt too complacent, like what I was doing wasn’t satisfying enough and I wanted more of a challenge. I felt like I needed to do something radical to shake things up, so I quit my job in 2019 without a plan, and set out to do freelance work. I opened my own consultancy doing social media strategy for my own clients, and only a few months later, the pandemic hit and the world stopped. Companies weren’t sure what their futures looked like, and freelancers were the first to get cut from budgets. I was out of work in March 2020, and used that as an opportunity to spend time creating. Like so many others, I took up baking and baked my very first loaf of challah bread, which to my surprise turned out beautifully. I posted my bread on Instagram and was met with dozens of followers who asked if they could purchase a loaf. I thought to myself…wait a second, “I know how to build a brand,” and my bread business Challah Dolly was born. Between freelancing for 5 years and running a bread business, I was constantly learning. Learning how to execute things on my own, how to connect dots, and how to think outside the box. It really opened up my world and taught me how important taking risks and being open to just learning how to do something on my own really is. At the end of my career, I hope to look back and say “I really tried it all, and I learned so much along the way.” I’m very open-minded when it comes to work. If I’m curious about something or find a learning opportunity, you can be sure I’ll find a way to get involved.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I think my career has had a lot of phases. I started with a focus in entertainment and when that wasn’t serving me anymore, I decided to shift my energy into lifestyle and food. I think the throughline of my work has always been storytelling, but the subject of my stories or the industries that I’ve worked in have been fairly fluid. I’ve learned that every single experience is an opportunity to learn something new and maybe even change the course of your career. There are no such things as wasted experiences or throw-away jobs. People always like to ask me about my time working at HBO where I used to run social media for Game of Thrones. It was such a specific and special moment in culture and time, and I’ll cherish those experiences. I got that job through networking and building a relationship that I made online. It was such a great lesson that networking often leads to a job, even if it takes years to get. It’s a slow burn! A more recent achievement would be running my own freelance consultancy. It’s a very cool to lesson to myself that I was able to financially support myself completely independently. And I can’t talk about my career without mentioning my bread business Challah Dolly. It opened up my world! I took a pandemic side project from doorstep to wholesale to nationwide within 7 months and spent $0 on advertising. I figured out how to scale production and how to build a brand with no prior experience in the food industry. Challah Dolly was profiled in Forbes, The New Yorker, and Time Out New York, all from a 100% organic social strategy. I’m so proud! I’ve never felt like I need to stay within any lines or boundaries when it comes to my career. Anything I believe I can achieve!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My entire family (my mom, dad, and brother) has been very impactful on my career. Everyone in my family is an artist and entrepreneur. My dad is a musician turned graphic designer, my mom a fashion designer and pattern maker who has run multiple businesses, and my brother is a mathematician, entrepreneur, and multi-media artist. My brother and I were raised to always “do what you love,” and a career will follow. We were encouraged to lean into our strengths and to never quit anything we begin. Watching my mom run her own businesses for 20+ years was formative to my understanding of what a career could look like and she taught me a lot about running my own businesses. To me, it seems my dad has never felt defined by a career which is very cool. Do what you love, and that’s who you are! You’re not your job. And most recently, my brother has taught me a lot about how important having time and freedom outside of work is to put energy into things that are meaningful to you.

Website: https://www.dollymeckler.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dollymeckler/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dollymeckler/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dolly

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HelloDollyTelevision