"Direction is more important than speed" - Kathy Johnston - Chief Chocolate Officer - Mirzam Chocolate Makers

Show notes

This week with Kathy Johnston, Co-Founder and Chief Chocolate Officer of Mirzam Chocolate Makers (www.mirzam.com)

Kathy Johnston lives and breathes chocolate. The New Zealand native moved to Dubai three decades ago where she met an Emirati brother-and-sister duo who were launching a chocolate business. Kathy joined them and they opened the first Mirzam in 2016.

Kathy’s title Chief Chocolate Officer covers everything from recipe development and marketing to fixing machines and cleaning tables. In this episode she walks us through the amazing story of Mirzam Chocolate Makers, what keeps her up at night - and even at daytime, and how she found the tiniest piece of chocolate hidden in her Mum’s kitchen cupboard.

The main learnings from this conversation are:

• Make sure you do what you’re passionate about. Follow your values.
• Direction is more important than speed.
• More patience brings you to better places. Take 24 hours to think about it.
• Have an SOP for crapy moments
• Be proactive and talk to your shareholders and teams
• Find yourself a “work therapist”
• Sleep well.

Tune in and listen to a great female leader and entrepreneur who conquers the Middle East with heritage, storytelling and of course, chocolate.

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© From Doubt to Drive Podcast, owned and operated by Aperitivo International B.V Recorded on April 9, 2024 via Zoom in Dubai, UAE (Kathy Johnston) – Bandarawella, Sri Lanka (Mario C. Bauer) – Amsterdam, Netherlands (Florian Schneider),