Episode 009 – Daniella Park of Baketivity
“Say yes to everything. Most times it works, and sometimes it kills you, but it always gives you lessons.”
– Daniella Park, Head Baker at Baketivity
Learning is often simple. The hard part is unlearning the limitations others have placed on you.
Meet Daniella Park, who left school at 16 with severe dyslexia and nothing but a business plan.
“I begged my parents and teachers to just give me a chance,” she recalls.
That chance paid off. Today, Daniella is a successful entrepreneur and the head baker at Baketivity, where she’s cooking up a revolution in hands-on STEM learning.
“Baking ignites all five senses,” Daniella explains. “It actually makes the perfect classroom in your brain.”
Daniella shares her journey and how Baketivity is turning kitchens into classrooms. She reveals her secret ingredient for success: “Say yes to everything. Most times it works, and sometimes it kills you, but it always gives you lessons.”
Want to try Daniella’s approach to learning? Use code OPENED10 for 10% off your Baketivity subscription.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the Open Ed Podcast
00:26 Meet Daniela Park from Baktivity
00:59 The Baketivity Experience
02:14 STEM Learning Through Baking
06:03 Daniela’s Personal Journey
09:34 Baketivity’s Unique Approach
11:41 Engaging Kids in the Kitchen
22:03 Life Lessons and Advice
29:06 Join the Baektivity Community
Links:
Transcript
00:00 Introduction to the Open Ed Podcast
Charlie Deist: Welcome back to the Open Ed Podcast. I’m Charlie Deist, and today I’m joined by Daniella Park from Baktivity, a really cool and innovative company. Daniella, welcome to the show!
Daniella Park: Thanks, Charlie. Thanks for having me.
00:26 Meet Daniella Park from Baktivity
Charlie: Daniella, I get the sense that you’re wearing multiple hats at Baktivity, including, appropriately, a chef’s hat. Can you tell us a bit more about what Baktivity is and your role there?
Daniella Park: That’s the glorious thing about Baktivity. It’s a family-run company, and when you join, you think you’ll do one thing, but it evolves. I came in as their spokesperson, but now I’m the chef behind the scenes, creating recipes for the boxes. I also help film how-to videos, manage the team, and connect STEM learning to the recipes.
It’s a dynamic team where no one wears just one hat. We all get down and dirty because kitchens are crazy, and we absolutely love our kids and little bakers. Everyone wants the best for them, which makes it a joy to do anything for this company.
00:59 The Baktivity Experience
Charlie: You mentioned the boxes, which seem to be at the core of what you offer. It’s a subscription service, right? And I think you have a lot of customers in the homeschooling community or people building their own à la carte educational experience. Can you tell us more about what people actually get in these boxes?
Daniella Park: I love this because everything you need to learn, have fun, and create family memories comes in a box. But Baktivity is completely thinking outside the box, which I always find funny because it comes in a box!
You get pre-measured ingredients, which means less mess and fuss for parents. This allows you to focus on learning. Whether it’s for a child interested in cooking, which is really popular right now, or to incorporate STEM learning, we’ve got it covered.
Nicole on our team, who has an education background, creates colorful and interesting math and science lessons that tie into the recipes. With baking, you’re actually engaging all five senses. This creates the perfect classroom in your brain because everything you’re learning, seeing, and doing stays with you.
In a traditional classroom, you can’t move around or experience things with all your senses. But when you’re baking, whether you’re more left-brained or right-brained, you’re connecting on multiple levels. For parents educating at home, this is invaluable because no one knows their child better than they do.
By getting all five senses fired up, I promise you, those lessons stick. They’re fun, memorable, and easy for parents. We want to make your life a little easier because we know there are so many layers to doing it yourself. I really take my apron off to all the parents who are taking this on.
02:57 STEM Learning Through Baking
Charlie: It’s becoming conventional wisdom that people learn better when there’s a concrete experience they can wrap their head around, rather than just abstract formulas on a chalkboard. I remember in school, people would always ask, “When are we actually going to use this in real life?” With baking, you’re actually solving real problems, like converting measurements or halving a recipe. It gives you that impetus to go through the process beyond just going through the motions.
Daniella: Absolutely, Charlie. The way you just explained algebra – if they could do that in a classroom, it would help at least 20 percent more students. Explaining that algebra isn’t just math, it’s actually solving a problem in a practical, creative way – that’s the life skill you get with Baktivity.
In Australia, we say “maths” instead of “math,” but the principle is the same. It’s about explaining concepts in more practical ways. That’s what makes these lessons stick and gives kids those important life skills.
06:03 Daniella’s Educational Journey
Charlie: Can you tell us about your own educational journey and how it brought you to where you are now?
Daniella: At sixteen, I was severely dyslexic – still am to this day. If I don’t practice spelling my name and writing it down, I go red in the face because I can’t spell it out loud. I was really left behind in the school system.
Thankfully, I had amazing teachers who noticed that I’d gotten all the way to high school without being identified as dyslexic. I was very articulate and well-behaved, so I got away with a lot. But once I reached my senior year, I could see that I wasn’t going to survive – not with my confidence, not emotionally.
It was hard sitting in a classroom, watching all these kids read books and participate when all I had were my verbal skills. I wasn’t allowed to be tested on that – I had to write everything down like everyone else, and I knew that wasn’t my strength.
But somehow, I found confidence deep down. I left school with a business plan and begged my parents and teachers to just give me a chance.
08:19 Starting a Business at 16
Charlie: That’s fascinating. Can you tell us more about how you ended up with that gig with Malaysian Airlines at such a young age?
Daniella: It’s really simple – you just do it. No story. When I’m going to do something scary, I don’t give myself time to say, “Oh, but they might say no” or “I’m so young” or “This is my first time.” No story. Just pick up the phone.
At 16, I had no business starting a business, but it was real fun and I learned a lot. I thought, “Who should I contact?” and decided on Malaysian Airlines. I researched until I found out that EAs in companies buy all the gifts and have connections to all the important heads of every department.
I picked several corporate companies that had EA emails available on their websites, put together a lovely little package, and sent them out to introduce myself. I think I got a 90% return rate on that.
Even when I started my cupcake business, Buttercream Lane, I used creative tactics. I’d make incredibly detailed cupcakes, put them in clear boxes, and walk around the business district of Sydney, pretending I was on a delivery. Everyone would stop me, asking where I got them from and if I had a card. I’d give them a cookie instead of a card and ask for their email, giving me control over contacting that potential client.
The key is to do the work for your clients. That’s what Baktivity does too – we don’t trouble you more than necessary. Everything’s pre-measured, the learning booklet is printed and ready – we don’t make you go to the website and download things. Life’s busy enough as it is.
13:41 The Importance of Making Mistakes
Charlie: I’m thinking back to my own schooling. I remember making a wild rice recipe supposedly from Native Americans, and I remember the time my buddy and I made churros for a Spanish class. We ended up scalding ourselves with the hot oil because we deviated from the template and tried to make a donut instead.
Daniella: I love that, Charlie! That’s exactly what you should be doing – making mistakes. I tell my kids in class all the time, “Now’s the time to make mistakes. I’m here to teach you how to troubleshoot.”
Don’t you think those skills for open learning are so much more important than sticking rigidly to a curriculum? Instead of saying, “Here’s what you must learn, you must get it right, here’s your tick or your cross,” we encourage experimentation.
If you put in too much sugar or butter, we say, “Hmm, let’s see. Try this, this, and that.” Then when they come back and say it worked, they’ve learned something valuable. Now they know what to do when they make a mistake in a recipe.
Just make mistakes. Please make mistakes. It’s even a version of the scientific method – trial and error, testing hypotheses. These are crucial skills for learning and life.
21:53 Engaging Kids in Learning
Daniella: In today’s world, where kids are often fixated on screens, my heart aches for parents trying so hard to keep them away. It’s almost impossible to do that right now. But finding something that engages them, where they’re learning and we can still incorporate some screen time productively – that’s key.
For example, we have a YouTube channel where they can learn skills like kneading dough. When they engage with something longer than a 15-second TikTok, you don’t understand what that does to the cells in their brains. They’re suddenly lit up, made stronger. It’s like working a muscle in the gym.
That’s what we’re trying to do with Baktivity. We want them engaged longer because they’ll need these skills for their jobs, for family life. When we’re making these boxes, when Nicole is developing the education content, when Goldie develops the graphics – we want every little inch of that booklet or experience to educate, create a memory, and be fun. Because I’ve learned more things when I have fun.
25:35 Advice for Parents and Kids
Charlie: What advice would you give to a 16-year-old who maybe has a passion or is looking to take an uncharted course?
Daniella: I recently had a similar chat with my 16-year-old nephew. He’s going through the decision of whether to leave school or stay. He’s working as a laborer on weekends to earn money and get used to life outside school, and he absolutely hates school. But he’s the smartest kid you could ever imagine – articulate, thoughtful, great at engaging in conversation.
I told him to keep one of the bricks he’s moving. I said, “When you’re at the place you want to be, I’m going to gift you that brick. We’ll put it in your office and paint it gold.” He was surprised, and I explained, “You’re learning something now. You just don’t know what you’re learning yet.”
So my advice is: Don’t give up just because it’s boring right now or because you’re stuck in the school system. Find creative ways outside of it. If you have to stay in school, find things like Baktivity to do on the weekends. It will spark your joy again. You’ll see how smart you are, how intelligent, and what new things you can learn.
For kids who have the opportunity for open education, engage as much as you can. Join live classes, attend talks, meet people. If you’re interested in a job, ask your parents to reach out to that person. You’d be surprised how many people would be happy to have you come in and experience a day with them.
I said yes to everything. Sometimes it worked, most times it did, and sometimes it killed me, but it always gave me lessons. Just say yes. Don’t worry about the fear or the lies you tell yourself that you can’t or shouldn’t. Say yes, work out how to do it, ask for help, and just get it done. That skill has gotten me everywhere I wanted to go, beyond what I could imagine, and made me a resilient person.
28:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Charlie: What I take away most from this is the idea of saying yes to everything and not letting the dictates of the people around you determine your future. And of course, as Eli from Baktivity would say, “Let’s make it big.”
Daniella: Yes! And as his brother Mini always says, “Bake the world a better place.” They’re just such gorgeous people, them and their partners and families. Do you know their kids even test my boxes? When I do a recipe, they’re very good at giving feedback. Even the CEO’s kids test the boxes and tell me what they think. That’s why I say it’s not just a pretend family business. They’re really involved, and there’s just so much love poured into this.
Charlie: So for people who want to learn more, they can go to baketivity.com, that’s pretty much spelled like it sounds. Anywhere else you’d want to direct them? Social media or otherwise?
Daniella: Yeah, definitely. There’s BAKETIVITY on Instagram. We have a private baking group on Facebook, again called BAKETIVITY. Please join it because even if you want to ask questions about family meals or you’re baking something and need help, we’re all inclusive. Join the baking family, ask us what you need. We want to help you on your journey in the kitchen because the kitchen’s the heart of the home. So definitely pop in.
Charlie: Right on. Alright, Daniella, thank you again for taking the time. This has been an amazing conversation. I feel inspired. I’m going to be saying yes to more things.
Daniella: Yay!
Charlie: Thanks again, and let’s bake it big.
Daniella: Thanks, Charlie.