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The Curation by Nour Hassan
The Curation, formerly Radical Contemporary, is a Digital Curator and Podcast based between Cairo, Dubai & Jeddah. We curate everything from art, fashion, and design, to culture, wellness and tech to present you with only the best brands, founders, products and pioneers.
The Curation by Nour Hassan
Dara Ghosheh: I Was Never The Popular Girl
Dara Ghosheh took the ice cream scene by storm, at the very first shop opening the line was endless and the Egyptian sweet industry was transformed by the brand’s infectious and creative concoctions! This week our founder Nour Hassan speaks Dara Ghosheh herself on the podcast, a mother, creative, entrepreneur, ice cream specialist and so much more.
Dara shares her inspiring journey from growing up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as a Palestinian family, to becoming an entrepreneur in Cairo and becoming a mother. Throughout the episode, she discusses the challenges of maintaining quality, the power of branding, and the importance of balancing personal and professional life while navigating the magical world of ice cream and treats.
• Discusses early life and cultural influences in Jeddah
• Shares her transformative experience at AUC and in Cairo
• Explores the entrepreneurial leap that led to creating Dara's Ice Cream
• Highlights the importance of quality ingredients and branding
• Reflects on expansion, success, and returning to her roots with the opening of the Riyadh store a full-cirlce moment
• Addresses the impact of mental health and seeking support in entrepreneurship
• Emphasizes the balance between professional ambition and family life
The perfect episode for the Holidays, to watch with the family and to get inspired for the new year 🍨🍦✨🤎🍪🎙️🎧🤍 #thecurationpod
Action. Welcome to the Curation, a show for the culturally curious. This is your host, noor Hassan. Each week, I'll guide you through a curated edit of the finest in art, fashion, design, culture, luxury, wellness, tech and more. This is your go-to space for discovering trailblazing ideas, untold stories and meaningful conversations with innovators and creators who are shaping our world. There's no gatekeeping here, so sit back, tune in and let's discover only the best together.
Speaker 2:Creator Baker. I start with this. I start. This is my first start.
Speaker 1:We discovered that we actually have a lot of things in common.
Speaker 2:I mean, I wasn't raised in Riyadh, but I don't feel strange.
Speaker 1:Your.
Speaker 2:I love that Were you popular in school, and there's cocoa and chocolate in the world, but you made me nervous, I'll give you the tea now.
Speaker 1:I love that Were you popular in school, and if not, explain?
Speaker 2:No one told me that no.
Speaker 1:No, really. And then you became Dara's ice cream.
Speaker 2:The most popular girl, the most yes.
Speaker 1:Action. I'm now sitting with Dora Ghoshay you said it right Okay, the founder of Dora's Ice Cream. I've been doing this interview for three years Since we met in Guna. Since we met in Guna. I met Dora in Guna and I told her you're a bucket list guest. I want to do an interview with you on my podcast. So first of all, our signature question. I want to ask you who is Dara Ghoshay today?
Speaker 2:Okay, I feel like I have seven years of work left, but I didn't find where I am today. But today, if I ask who is Darawasha, there are several people in one Sister, friend, business owner, creator, baker that's my name.
Speaker 1:Your answer is very nice. Honestly, Hassan, a lot of people like to put themselves in a certain box, Like I'm a mother.
Speaker 2:Or I'm an entrepreneur, but you said a lot of things box. I feel like women play many roles. We women have many roles to play in our day. No one can play many roles except women. I feel like we're much stronger than anyone else. And maybe the girl, maybe she's not a mother, but she's a woman who works and loves her job, and you'll always find that women have more emotions and tenderness, so you'll find that she can play many roles and she can play them all in a balanced way, right.
Speaker 1:Look, the most thing I'd like to ask my guests is their morning routine. What do you do in the morning? What do you do when you wake up? I feel like this question tells you everything you need to know about your guests. So I want the details. I want your details the moment you wake up what's your routine? Sometimes I get up from bed.
Speaker 2:I don't wake up. What's your routine?
Speaker 1:Sometimes I sleep from the bed.
Speaker 2:I don't wake up Grease in the arms. I sleep from the bed.
Speaker 1:I wake up and boom A lot of days I always oversleep.
Speaker 2:That's something I do. I always like to start my day with a workout. So the first thing I wake up I run to get dressed and go to exercise. So I exercise in the morning. The first thing I drink is the espresso shot coffee. One espresso, not a double we start like this.
Speaker 1:This is my first thing.
Speaker 2:I like to eat without breakfast. Then I go to exercise, I pick my coffee, my match, go to the gym and finish I pick my coffee, my matcha, my snacks and I go to the factory, in the factory where I work. This is exactly how my day starts start. If I don't wake up early, I won't be able to finish what I have to do. My day won't be smooth. So I changed my mind. I like to wake up early. I like to stay up late at night, even if I'm at home watching TV.
Speaker 1:I like to stay up late.
Speaker 2:But I changed my life. Tv nothing, so I like the night more, but I changed my life to be able to work and be more productive. Honestly, it made a lot of difference to me. I know that health is different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were talking before we started that I tried to join the 5am club and, honestly, I did it for a month, dora, so this is good. Yeah, I told you good, it's more than enough. I want to go back a little bit. I want to talk about your background, because we discovered that we actually have a lot in common, but I really liked what you said. You're Palestinian, but you grew up and was in Jeddah, saudi Arabia. Can you tell me more about your experience growing up in Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 2:My mom and dad are Palestinians, but I was born in Jeddah, but I was born in Jeddah. I feel that people always have an idea that Jeddah I was born in 1988, so Jeddah was different from today but when I look back in the years, I feel that my childhood was nice. My school was nice. I didn't feel like I was missing out.
Speaker 2:My lifestyle was good, the food and services. In Saudi Arabia I really had a nice life. And another thing is that we were Because my family is from Palestine, so every summer we would summer for three months. We used to spend the summer with our family, who comes from Quds in Jordan. We used to spend the summer. We didn't know how to go to Palestine I mean, I was a kid once in Quds, but other than that we used to spend the summer in Jordan and we used to gather and the family and my cousins and my father has 12 brothers and sisters. Wow, mashallah, so we are a big family. The balance between Saudi Arabia and Jordan was very good. We used to come to Egypt to travel. My father studied in Egypt.
Speaker 1:In Cairo University.
Speaker 2:Yes, because Abdul Nasser was a Palestinian. He studied engineering At Cairo University, so he has a connection to Egypt and Alexandria, and my uncles also Came to Egypt, so Egypt was always there. We had the pyramids and the Alexandria walls. These things were also part of my childhood. So I think that I Enjoyed Saudi Arabia and I think that I took a lot of think. I enjoyed Saudi Arabia and I think I took very nice things from Saudi Arabia. And even when I came to think about the expansion the first expansion because we were outside Egypt it was in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, and now we took a shop also in Jeddah. So I think I spent I think 8 years I didn't go to Saudi Arabia and when I went it was a very emotional trip. I stayed I think eight years I didn't go to Saudi Arabia and when I went it was a very emotional trip.
Speaker 1:Because it brings back memories. I mean, I'm imagining and we'll talk more about this topic. You expanded to Riyadh and now you have a shop in Riyadh and this is huge, not just because you're an entrepreneur and an Egyptian brand, but your background gives the topic a second level of emotion, something, as they say, a full circle moment. You grew up in Jeddah and now you're opening a daughter's ice cream in Jeddah.
Speaker 2:I think if I go I could get very emotional it is and the nice thing is that when you leave school and go and come back, your friends I mean everyone goes and lives a new life and forms his family. But three summers ago I got together with my friends who were with me in the Saudi school when I was little. So we're back to reconnect now and we're going to Riyadh and my best friend, she's living now in Riyadh. So I'm very lucky that when I go to Riyadh I don't feel like I'm alone. I mean, I wasn't raised in Riyadh, but I don't feel like I'm alone.
Speaker 1:The people I love are around me. You felt like it's home again. Yes, now I want to ask you something. You went back and said you grew up in Jeddah. I grew up in Jeddah too, so this is how we connected. After you finished school, how did you decide to come to AUC in Egypt? I want to know a little about this experience, because I felt like it was the beginning of a lot of things. It's true.
Speaker 2:It's really the beginning of a lot of things. As I told you, my father had a lot of connections with Egypt. So when my older sister decided to study, my father was very interested in science. So she said, no, you have to go to the American University and the American University is good. So I will take my older sister. So I was always my older sister's example. I mean, I am very close to her. So she went to AUC and entered and she wanted to go to Mass Comm actually and she entered to join the Mastcom actually and she entered political science. So when my turn came, she told me to go to AUC and she told me to try to join the Mastcom and I actually joined the Mastcom. But when I first came to Egypt I was living in Zamalek and the university was in Tahrir. So it was the best years.
Speaker 1:Because what year did you entered the?
Speaker 2:university in Egypt 2006.
Speaker 1:So you basically followed the campus of the university in Tahrir and it was the best campus. Yes, honestly, and all the vibes of the students. You took the experience of Egypt Really, all the people when I feel like they come, people fall in love with that entire lifestyle. But tell me more about. Were you culture shocked?
Speaker 2:at first it was difficult because when you grow up in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia has different traditions.
Speaker 2:It has more services and you have more services and plus when a girl goes out and lives alone. Right, and you have more services and plus when a girl goes out and lives alone. It's not easy. It wasn't easy and, of course, at first I had a lot of plastic surgery, I'm not going to lie Because we were eating. I was eating food. I didn't know what I was eating, so I was trying different things. I didn't have the Egyptian immunity, as people used to say, of course, but I was. I mean, I loved Egypt when I mean at first it was shocking for me, but the Egyptian people, I think the only one who is brave, I mean who always feels that. I mean when I first came, when I first entered, when I first came to the university, one of my friends, noran, took me and introduced me to her friends at school. I had a big circle and I felt that I was being followed by people.
Speaker 1:The typical experience in Egypt is that I also came to AUC because, as you said, I came to Egypt to enter the American University. In Egypt there was also a friend of mine who knew me from many people. At first you feel strange, but after a short time you feel like you know everyone. You know all the streets, you know all the places to eat and suddenly you're part of it.
Speaker 2:Al-zamalek's life is very beautiful From Tahrir to Al-Zamalek, Walking on the Nile, and you enter the old buildings of Tahrir and the art culture that exists in Tahrir and the art culture in Tahrir. I think it was very enjoyable but no, I lived the best life. I was blessed to come to Egypt and the experience of Egypt and the people of Egypt and the university itself and the activities that are present in the university. So there are a lot of things that shaped you up, so in a good way.
Speaker 1:I want to know, as an entrepreneur, when did you feel that you had a mule for this entrepreneurial mindset? I mean, of course, there is a moment in your study or after I felt that I, for example, don't want to enter a corporate life, or I want to be an entrepreneur, I want to start my own business. So I want to know that, basically, the beginning of the door is ice cream. Where did it go?
Speaker 2:okay, it's funny that I never imagined being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I love your answer.
Speaker 2:I mean, my goals were to be in a multinational company and be a big marketer. I didn't even want to go to an agency. I mean to be in a marketing agency. No, it wasn't like that. I wanted to be a corporate. I wanted to be a marketing manager and make a difference in life. But I never thought that I would be creating something bigger when I came, and I didn't think about it as an entrepreneur, and I would enter the business world and be an entrepreneur in the women business world, entrepreneur in the women world. But I felt that what happened is that I graduated from the revolution. Honestly, I'm telling you the story, no filter. I graduated from the revolution and, because I'm not Egyptian, it was very difficult for me to find a job. I was trying to a startup and, because I'm not Egyptian, it was very difficult for me to find a job. I was trying to find a job but there was a struggle that I didn't find myself or found a job.
Speaker 2:I started working for a startup. I liked the idea a little bit. Then I worked for CSR a little bit. Then I realized that I'm working for no purpose. I'm just working and that's it. At that time, I started exploring the story of ice cream. My husband told me that he wanted to explore this. I heard there was ice cream in the course. That's how it started. The conversation was in front of a place in Milan. In Milan, he told me what do you think? And I said I want to do this, why not? And I went and started this story. Before that, I used to love eating ice cream as any normal person, but I used to. I mean, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used to, I used. I was in the ice cream bar with my father in Saudi.
Speaker 1:Arabia.
Speaker 2:And Saudi Arabia had at the time Baskin Robbins, and there was ice cream Marble Slab, at the time Fattah, and there was the classic soft serve chocolate and vanilla. So on Thursday it was something that was a miracle for me that I had to eat ice cream. If I didn't eat ice cream there, would be a problem.
Speaker 2:I love that, for example, the kitchen is very important in our lives, right, my mother was always my memories of my mother standing in the kitchen and doing things for us I don't know why, or there's a guest at our house, or things like that Kitchen is a symbol of love. I know the love that she shows us.
Speaker 2:Everyone expresses their love in a different way, so my mother used to cook for us, or she used to make us pastries or something. My part in the kitchen was that I like to make cookies and sweets since I was little, I wasn't into the things that I mean. I liked to see her cooking, but I wasn't really into sweets.
Speaker 1:Which is the cooking, which is the word savory, the things that are the sweets.
Speaker 2:So I was already I started making cookies and I was already into started making cookies. You were already into sweets.
Speaker 1:And sugary.
Speaker 2:Even our neighbors. When they see me in Jordan, they tell me we remember the cookies that you used to make when you were young, so I used to love. I used to find myself In the fact that I Create something Bakery or things like that. I didn't yet understand the story of ice cream, so when I went and started studying and exploring, I started to. I mean, I set the path that I would open the shop and you took these courses in Milan. I took them in Italy, in a place called Bologna.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you basically went to the ice cream place, to the place that makes the best ice cream in the world, and you took the courses there. Right, and I really liked it, when I moved to your stores, that you put your story like snippets from your story in the store. How much do you like ice cream? How much did you start discovering flavors? And then the topic became a brand. But when you finished, what made you call it Dara's Ice Cream? Because I really like, personally, kanour. When someone calls the brand by its name, because I feel it's very personal, something that makes me feel like, oh my God, I mean, it's cozy, I don't know how to explain it At first.
Speaker 2:I didn't decide on the name, dara. My husband chose it. He wanted to reflect, as you said, that I am behind the brand. I was worried about the name at first. Will people accept it? I wasn't thinking like you were thinking or like he was thinking, but in the end, the brand reflected on itself. I reflected on the brand and the brand reflected on it. So it was a right decision to take it.
Speaker 1:And Hasan. As you said before, the name Dora wasn't very common in Egypt and people were confused Dora, sara, tara, but I think there's a lot of Dora Now the name has appeared Inspiring. You made me an inspiration. Okay, I want to get into the brand Dara's Ice Cream. You have the most famous branding, honestly, in F&B. You chose the colors. The colors are amazing Pink, hot pink, popping. I really feel like you're one of of the most people in branding in the market and I'm not just saying that because it's recognizable, the brand you immediately feel in summer there's a vibe. In winter there's another mood you take every season and you make it a story. So I want to know what's the inspiration and what's the thought behind this, because I feel it's a big part of it. So I want to know what's the inspiration and what's the thinking behind this topic, because I feel it's a big part of the success of the brand.
Speaker 2:Okay, we, I'm just Background marketing. Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:I want to flip your ice cream necklace Perfect, okay.
Speaker 2:Guys the details.
Speaker 1:Okay, go go Libra Libra. Exactly, I have issues the details.
Speaker 2:Okay, go go libra libra bzabt and the issues okay. Um, I think inna ana ashan, ana darest shway marketing wa. I enjoy marketing da sa'ad gddan fil branding wa I have amazing marketing team. Aadin ma aina dulwati ya gama thank you.
Speaker 2:Homa nisabaha bisa'adouni um ana ana. I think that after seven years, you understand your brand better. You learn from the challenges that you face in marketing and the positioning of the brand. But I think what moves our branding is that from day one, we wanted it to be genuine, fun, happy. So we know how to reflect what people want to feel when they look at our brand or when they open Instagram or TikTok. There will be this feeling. So we worked based on that. We worked based on that. We learn every little bit from the marketing plans that we put, what things work, what things don't work. We like to do something to get interns and make them start working with us so we can learn new things from them. So this is something that is different with us, and I think we always have something in the company that we are open for new ideas and we're open for new ideas and we're open for discussion. So this always makes your branding stronger than anything else.
Speaker 1:Yes, I feel like you also have something very useful. I mean, I always go in. I'm still telling you, your TikTok is amazing. It's so interesting the segment you try Ice creams Every little bit. You find ice cream so interesting. It's a good thing. Ice creams, ice cream I think you guys come up with, I don't know what to say. Ice cream cookies amazing, the best cookies in Cairo. I mean you left us a little bit in the ice cream, we lived in it. And then we went into the cookies Amazing, the best cookies in Cairo. I mean I don't know if I should say thank you or not honestly. And then the cakes amazing. And then there was the idea of the cookie box, and then I mean the brand.
Speaker 2:I actually have a sweet tooth.
Speaker 1:I have a serious sweet tooth and my audience knows I think I made an episode about this, but I have a serious sweet tooth and in Cairo there was a time I didn't find a chocolate chip cookie and that was a big problem for me.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I'll give you the winter menu it was an issue.
Speaker 1:The chocolate chip cookie was a story in my life. When I travel to New York or London, I always have to look for the best chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 2:So finally, I decided to find it at your place. Thank God, thank God, thank God.
Speaker 1:Finally, but I want you to tell us a little bit more about the homemade approach. I feel like all the things you have, I feel like the team and you and everyone in the kitchen together, but, like you said, it feels homemade, not artificial. I want you to talk more about the flavors. How much each flavor is so unique and, at the same time, really like if it was made at home.
Speaker 2:I don't know how to make it at home. Okay, I'll tell you when I started, I started from a very small kitchen. I spent a whole year at home making recipes and I'm testing and I'm getting the feedback from my friends and neighbors and the family. Cookies were one of the most important things that you had to have at the shop, because I used to tell you when I was young, I used to make them. So I'm like you. I love cookies. I have sweet tooths too.
Speaker 2:But when I took the course in Italy and I discovered that the world of gelato, the world of ice cream, for some cream, I discovered that I don't want to put just a mix in a machine to make me ice cream Right. So I decided after this trip in 2014 that if I want to do something, it has to have passion, it has to have an idea, not something easy to do, and that's it. It has to be a trial and error and we try it and burn it. There are things you do like you're from home. So I decided that when I make a brand, I won't use anything artificial.
Speaker 2:I will make everything from scratch, everything. That's what I think distinguishes us. Another thing that distinguishes us is that we really care a lot about the ingredients, I mean not any ingredients and that's it. I mean there are a lot of flavors that I stop at because I didn't find the right ingredients, or when we had a problem in Egypt in the import. I, for example, as we were talking about the Belgian chocolate story.
Speaker 1:We need to get into the Belgian chocolate story. My husband is obsessed with your Belgian chocolate ice cream and you know this. He has an addiction called Doris. Belgian chocolate and vegans can't. Belgian chocolate is a must, so there was a period when it disappeared from the market. So you just explained it to us.
Speaker 2:Or you explained it to him. Obviously, there is no cocoa at all. We have a problem with cocoa in the world and a problem with chocolate in the world. Oh wow, so I'll leave it. The world's biggest chocolate and cocoa crisis. Oh wow, so I made him a stock sorry, abdo, but no, he really.
Speaker 1:So this was a period where he was like Nour, can you look for me in Gourmet? We can't find him, can we look for him in? Eventually it came back and this was like it was a celebration at our house, but you made me nervous. I'll give you tea now, actually it makes a lot of difference.
Speaker 2:I feel like generally all people have a plan B, but with my ice cream or my bakery, I feel like plan B option is not for me. It's better to stop the item than to lower the quality or the ingredients. So this is something. This is something. This is something very unique.
Speaker 1:You can't get close to our ingredients. No, I mean generally. I wanted to get to you Because there are a lot of ice cream brands in every part of the world and in Egypt, but even the tourists, my friends who come from abroad I always take them, for example, from you and they feel a difference. They feel that this feel like a world class flavor level, certain. And now, because you told me, everything is made from scratch, it makes sense. But when you stop flavoring, for example, because you feel that the ingredients are not at the level, that's a mess. And, by the way, my father-in-law is obsessed too. Law is obsessed.
Speaker 1:Hameya, I love your Belgian talk. So if the other one doesn't work, we need too much pressure. But anyways, I wanted to ask you an important question. You're an entrepreneur. You built a very big brand, very recognizable, and you made branches in every area, and I want to know how the expansion plan was done. You opened it in Guna and in the coast and, of course, in Cairo. You had a plan from the beginning to start with a huge expansion and you started in Zamalek, right?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you. Everyone thinks we started in Zamalek, but it's not true. Really, the first branch was in Galeria, because I chose the first branch to be close to my house. I was still a mother at the time when I opened the branch and I had a baby, so I had to be close to the branch. We didn't have an expansion plan. The main plan was to be a branch, a boutique, an ice cream shop, and that's it. When we saw its success, we thought that we need to expand our shop. We said we will expand in October and we will have two locations. After the first six months, we decided that it's not just going to be a small boutique ice cream shop. We will expand. And we started the expansion plan. It was 2018. We started and then I got an idea. I was supposed to open in a gathering but it was late, so let's try the beach, why not? And I started. I feel like what's this? It's nice that someone can open and be close to the community and have a different neighborhood.
Speaker 1:When was the first beachychelles store in Seychelles? It was so crowded. No, I mean, I love it.
Speaker 2:It's my favorite shop. Really, you're asking me if it's Seychelles because I have memories there. I love it. It's one of my favorite shops.
Speaker 1:I remember the first time I went to the semester UCLA, there was an ice cream store. There were tables we would stand as students. We would stand for an hour in the queue. The first time I saw this in Egypt, it was at the daughter's ice cream. People were standing with the kids and everyone, everyone was in the everyone for an hour. I felt like it was a community it's not just an ice cream store. When did you feel like you achieved this in your brand.
Speaker 2:Recently I was talking to a woman and she suddenly found a woman who was pregnant and she told me I was coming to you when you opened Waterway and you were pregnant and your team was getting me in and making me skip the line because I was pregnant and this is my daughter. She's five years old, so this story is very influential. I felt that I didn't just make a connection with people in schools or adults or people of my age. No, I the connection is growing From one she's pregnant and she was eating my ice cream and then this girl was sitting. I mean, the love for the brand and the ice cream is continuous.
Speaker 1:I love that and I want to know what was the most challenging thing you went through as a daughter. In the entrepreneurial process, I mean in the business itself, in this whole journey, what was the most challenging thing you went through?
Speaker 2:The challenge wasn't just. I mean, we go through different challenges every day. I feel that this makes the work a little more enjoyable. They don't work on a routine basis. Every day there is a different challenge. Either in the operation, in the factory, in marketing or in finance. There is something happening. It's not a normal day, but I feel that since a year ago, I have a little inner challenge, something that I personally felt that I was a little lost. So I tell you that since a year or a year and a half, when I came to expand outside of Egypt, it happened to me like a problem. I started to lose my focus and my energy and my passion. So this is what happens when you don't do something. So I acted fast. I mean, I was complaining or I didn't understand what was happening. Am I giving up on my dream happening? Am I giving up on my dream or am I giving up on my company or my team?
Speaker 1:but then that was the burnout, I think.
Speaker 2:I was burning out. Definitely. I started to lose and I didn't know what was happening and I didn't understand myself. So I went through this and it was not nice. I was giving up on creating something. I didn't know how to create something. I think I doubted myself.
Speaker 1:When you felt that this was happening, the first thing you did was, for example, you asked for help from someone, or you found someone to help you in a way, or you acted with yourself.
Speaker 2:I was complaining to myself and my friends that I didn't know how to do something. I was complaining. I wasn't acting Honestly. I was complaining for two months and I was tired and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:And I wasn't solving anything.
Speaker 2:I was just complaining and I had a doubt Of myself, the confidence. You're doubting yourself, you're not trusting yourself, you're not believing in yourself and you're the leader.
Speaker 1:You're the one who leads in creative and innovation and all these things In products. So I felt that if I didn't fix this issue In myself, you're leading in creative innovation and products. So I felt that if I didn't manage this myself, something might happen to the brand.
Speaker 2:Look, I didn't think about it that way, but I was. I had a little bit of this thinking, but my team was helping me and was with me, but at the time I felt I needed help, yes. So I went to a career coach. She helped me a lot. She helped me adjust my work, she helped me try to balance my life. She helped me see how I fill my cup so I can give back. So I learned a lot and she really helped me and she really made back stronger than before. So it's normal for someone to go through different challenges, but it might not be daily challenges. It might be more of a personal thing.
Speaker 1:It's great that you mentioned this, because I feel that people, especially in business, have challenges like product or finances or things like that, but no one ever talks enough about the founder. If he's in a crisis or in some sort of doubt, what's going to happen? And also, you brought me to my next question the balance. You're a mom, as we said at the beginning. Who's your daughter? You're a mom, you're a friend, entrepreneur. You have a lot of things in your life. So do you believe or do you believe in the story that we can make a balance or not, and how do you do it? Do you make a balance in your life between being a mother and having a business?
Speaker 2:the balance is not an easy thing, and when you teach me there are two things I learned first of all. This is not an easy thing, and when you teach me that there are two things I learned. First of all, I always thought that I'm being judged by others.
Speaker 2:I mean it always comes, like the mother or the child, that I'm a bad mom or people watch me, of course, that I'm not always there for my kids, or I'm not attending or I'm not focused, or I'm not always there for my kids, or I'm not attending, or I'm not focused or I'm not doing things. So then you reach the point where you don't have to think about what people say about you. The important thing is you, your children yourself. How is it leave people's words and leave judgment if you keep thinking? When a person keeps working on these ideas, it doesn't solve the real question, what is the real question in your life?
Speaker 1:And you ask yourself personally what's the reality, what happens?
Speaker 2:The reality is that I'm not the first woman to work. This is what my friend always says when she complains Sorry, but you're not the first woman to work in the world. All the women work. All the Egyptian women work, all the Arab women work, Exactly. I mean, you're doing something nice, you're impacting, you make nice ice cream and all these things and you're very successful, but I'm sorry, there are a hundred women who work.
Speaker 2:So, get over it. It's a wake up call. I love that. It's true. She's my best friend, she's the one who cured me another thing. She told me another thing I learned if you think I'm perfect and I'm perfect today I have to be perfect at work and perfect as a mother. What is perfect? So I have to be perfect at work and I have to be perfect as a mother. But what is perfect? And then the second thing if you have days, you will balance more in your work, and days you will balance more in your work. So the cup doesn't have to be always full, so you can put a little bit here and a little bit there.
Speaker 2:But a real balance it's relative and something my mom always tells me. I think my mom loves the kitchen, so she always tells me Do what you love. In the end, it sounds If you didn't know how to do what you love and To succeed in, you didn't know how to succeed in your life with your children and you can go. You want to do something and you don't do it because of your children and in the end, your children will move on and they will be successful in their own life and you will not have something left out of it. So it's okay for someone to work and it's okay for someone to take hours from his time and from his children's time and gives a little bit of his work. It's a balance, according to every person and according to every life.
Speaker 1:I liked your answer too, honestly because I think it's not idealistic. You told us the truth. You can't always have it all perfect, but this is the truth, this is the reality. So I want to know what's next for Daughter's Ice Cream. I think we're all waiting for the winter season. I'm the first one. I can't wait.
Speaker 2:Okay, this year the world is a little bit. It's a little bit sad because winter is coming and Ramadan is coming Right. So we are overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:In creation.
Speaker 2:We are doing nice things In winter Manual Aziz Bakery cinnamon roll. We are always. We take the things from last year To see what people liked, what we want to add. So we work on that and at the same time, we are working on Ramadan. But the biggest thing, people liked it, what we need to add to it. So we work on that and at the same time, we're working on Ramadan. But the biggest thing we're working on right now and it's a milestone for us all, for the company, for Leah and for the team is the new factory we're building a new factory, wow.
Speaker 2:So this will be one of a kind An ice cream factory, but made in a different way than any factory that was made before. They put in a lot of effort, they brought consultants from abroad. We all worked together to finish the factory and create new items and create new novelties and grow more in the market. So that's the plan.
Speaker 1:Plan the coming 10 years wow, honestly, for me, the thing I like the most is the behind the scenes. So I'm excited to make ice cream Dora's ice cream. It's the best thing in the world. Of course I'm going to do it we're going to have a special visit.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have a special visit, thank you. So the last question in the podcast Is curated by Dora, so I want to know what curation that you can share With my audience. What things in your life Do you feel like you're improving everything Like food or tips, or anything in Dora's life that you feel like I need coffee?
Speaker 2:I love coffee, I'm a coffee lover and you're the number one you'll always find in my bag any sorts of supplements. This is something you always walk around with coffee supplements, vitamins this is something I always walk around with Coffee supplements. What?
Speaker 1:supplements. Do you Vitamins, Vitamins I mean.
Speaker 2:Vitamin C, something for the cold immunity? Do you have supplements which are just in case? Just in case.
Speaker 1:Homeopathy.
Speaker 2:I'm obsessed with it too. You'll always find homeopathy in my bag. Perfume I love perfumes.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite perfume?
Speaker 2:I get very tired. What is it now? Perfume I love perfumes.
Speaker 1:What's your favorite perfume? Interesting, what else am I obsessed with? Do you like matcha? I like matcha, of course.
Speaker 2:When I look at it and run. There must be two things in the bag of the gym Two cups. One holds the matcha and the other holds the flat white Wow.
Speaker 1:It's a double trouble. It must be.
Speaker 2:A double this coffee and matcha. I love having that's the first thing. I love having the first thing on a day.
Speaker 1:So I can continue like this, and I didn't ask you, but I have to ask you right now what's your favorite? Doris ice cream flavor.
Speaker 2:Vanilla, chocolate and coffee fudge. I like them all oh my God, vanilla is my favorite? I don't like vanilla, my favorite.
Speaker 1:The basics. It's your, the basics.
Speaker 2:It's a special vanilla, honestly.
Speaker 1:Okay, anything else in your edit that you?
Speaker 2:want to share Anything else that you feel I should share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anything else that you feel I should share. What is it? I don't mind, but I mean, every time she does, she will go work out what is it? Oh, okay, this is a fun fact, I did it.
Speaker 2:I think I make my schedule Around the exercise. I have to do it at 8am, 9am I remember there was a shoot. We will not cancel it and you cannot go to your workout.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry for that okay, so into your favorite workout pilates well strength strength.
Speaker 2:I like pilates, but uh, I think I'm a strength girl.
Speaker 1:Strength. Okay, perfect, can we do what's in your bag? Do you have your bag?
Speaker 2:I'm an unorganized person. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Oh, hamela, one cord, faizal, I'll know what's in her bag. These are, like we're not really strangers.
Speaker 2:Okay, we can do one second Okay. So I really am a mess.
Speaker 1:I stranger's course, okay. Okay, so you. So you're not really a mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love your wife, ms ms. I think the bag is beautiful.
Speaker 1:First of, all, thank you okay okay, my favorite chewing gum?
Speaker 2:oh it's. I get it from saudi, actually it's coffee you have to try it.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting. Okay, organic coffee too.
Speaker 2:Vitamins uh, this is homeopathy whoa, vitamins, protein bar, oh nice okay, bubble gum okay lip gloss.
Speaker 1:She has the dior guys. It's um 38. I love this one, this is such a good one.
Speaker 2:This is. This is a nice perfume, it's.
Speaker 1:I love it so much. Oh, my it's amazing Protein bar.
Speaker 2:No, I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, so Valaya from Delina guys Mascara Needs and another one.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's Parfum de Marly Valaya. Oh, it's Tohfa Pink. I love it. Pink pen, pink pen on brand Walini.
Speaker 2:Lip liner.
Speaker 1:Makeup right. Lip liner makeup. Makeup by Mario. Okay, wait, I know the lip liner color by Fredo gypsy water.
Speaker 2:I love it. It's a hand cream.
Speaker 1:Okay, so her lip liner is Johnny makeup by Mario. Show me this gypsy water super good. By the way, can I tell you something your bag always has?
Speaker 2:lenses and a leg, just in case I oh gypsy water Super good, by the way. Can I tell you something? Your bags, lenses, there's always lenses.
Speaker 1:What's a leggy then. Just in case I drop my lenses. Guys, how is all this in the bag?
Speaker 2:I don't understand my tissue.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Tissue napkins.
Speaker 1:I need what else? I'm not the vitamin. I told you I always walk around the company.
Speaker 2:They don't trust me. Oh my God, I love it. Such an unorganized person.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys, so you have all of Dara's beauty tips and what's in her bag. Thank you for this. Okay, so that was a mary poppins bag super funny, I loved it. Thank you so much, guys. And to halos, you have her skincare you have the the perfume. You have everything, okay, so I have what um, we're not really strangers has alex, so it's a, it's a card deck. Okay, what's this game?
Speaker 2:It's, literally, it's a card deck game.
Speaker 1:Let me see which question would work for you.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Mمكن Bس, أنا أخترت لك واحد خلص, خلص, أخترت لك واحد أحسن, okay, were you popular in school? And if not, explain, okay, wow, because you're popular now. This is a tough question.
Speaker 2:I was popular in school. Okay, to be honest, I think that I wasn't popular in elementary school and I had a situation that I still remember. I'll tell you. It was a difficult situation, but it happened. It was the 13th of January and I had a girl's college class. We were girls in the first Saudi school. So I remember my mom made me a table. I wanted to eat the girls' class. We were girls only in the first Saudi school.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I remember my mom made me a table. I remember her table. She made chocolate cake with M&M's, tuna sandwiches, tuna. She made pastries. I remember she made a lot of things Salad, a very delicious table, and I remember it. No one showed up. What? No one showed up. And I remember that Christmas. I didn't forget it. I was 13. No, no, it was a very bad Christmas and I was very annoyed. And then my mom Took me to a school. At that time, mixed and international schools started. I started going there and I started to become very popular later. So at first my life was very bad. In college I wasn't actually Really AEC, aec. I was expected to be a student with my friends and we were the only ones Really AUC. But I think that in school I was very popular and I enjoyed it a lot. In college I was the first two years, with myself, you know, but I was living a life that I was happy with.
Speaker 1:And then you became Dora's ice cream, the most popular girl, the most.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much for doing this.
Speaker 2:I loved it. Honestly, you're one of the most guest.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I was excited to be on the podcast, and then we have to talk. My sugar craving Won't end. I'll send you the winter stuff I'll give you the best Thank you, dora Pleasure.
Speaker 2:We're done. Thank you, dora. Thank you, noor Pleasure. By the way, I enjoyed it a lot.
Speaker 1:We're done, woo, we made it through.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I loved it.