Daymara Baker
CEO, Rockin’ Bakers
Acting COO, Interform
About me: My personal motto is “We can do this.” No matter what obstacles come my way, seeing others’ ability to overcome their challenges and looking my business challenges in the eye builds my courage muscle every day. The energy, support and tenacity of being a “womanpreneur,” along with a clear understanding of the human needs, gives me the confidence and trust to start and restart a new day every day.
Lives in: Fayetteville • Works in: Springdale
Best Career Advice: “Even when you’re falling, keep fighting.” This was my father’s way of telling me that we must give our best every day, despite adversities and push-backs. Maybe it’s the resilience in me, but when I know I’ve given my best, I’m not afraid of falling or failing because I also know that I’ll bounce even higher. After decades on this earth, I see his advice taking a different meaning, “keep fighting” as looking for new opportunities or different ways to achieve my destination.
Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Overestimating my capabilities. My confidence and high self-esteem, compounded by friends telling me “If anyone can do this, it’s you,” lead me to believe that I could launch a social enterprise without all the required experience to run a profitable commercial bakery. My passion and desire to help others blinded me.
Call to Action: Embracing neurodivergence still presents a great opportunity for any company to improve its impact, diversify its talent composition and grow its revenue. There’s a need for a two-way solution as we cannot continue to expect all the weight to land on neurodivergent people to learn how to fit our neurotypical social norms.
What Keeps Me Motivated: As a social womanpreneur, training and giving adults the opportunity to contribute, learn new skills and thrive was the core of starting my bakery Rockin’ Baker. It was challenging juggling the cost of production and sales with the demands of working with neurodiverse adults, yet the rewards and all that we have learned together, their successes and their job placements kept me going.
TOP 100 WOMEN OF IMPACT IN ARKANSAS 2023
A Women’s Foundation of Arkansas Initiative