We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kiara Doaty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kiara below.

Hi Kiara, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I’ve wanted to be my own boss some kind of way since I was a child, but never imagined this would be it. I can remember exactly how this business venture came about. It was December 2019 and I posted a picture on social media just showing off treats I made that night for my own two spoiled pups because I thought they were cute. The responses were overwhelming and I really wasn’t expecting it, considering I had been making homemade treats for a few years prior to that. It was so many people saying they would love to buy some, but it was one comment that literally still drives me. To this day I have not met the young lady that commented and said, “Invest in yourself sis!” I prayed about it and the decision to go for it just kept tugging at me.

I instantly knew I wanted to make them affordable and stick to the same healthy treats I was making for my own babies. All natural treats were so expensive and a lot of them aren’t truly all natural. I wanted to be different so I started doing a significant amount of research online, talking with my vet, and spending hours in local stores reading packages. It took about a week or so to come up with a name. I’m a true geek and live/breathe everything about being a Social Worker so I started off with the word equality because I wanted it to be something everyone had access to and looked at all the synonyms for it. I was reading something from a human behavior article and the world magnificent showed up a few times so I started looking at synonyms for that, but it just wasn’t working lol. I started really overthinking it so I walked away to rest my brain and start over fresh the next day or so. In the mean time I knew my mission had to be about the consumers being pleased in every aspect and not crafting over the top products that take away from the quality. This is what triggered “delights” because it means to please greatly and in the food world it signifies “pure, uncomplicated pleasure”. I was stuck on the word magnificent still so I played around with it and wanted something pet related like waggy so I switched the “m” to a “w” and came up with Wagnificent Delights. I created my own logo using my Circut which was short lived because it definitely wasn’t the best lol. Then I spent some days just looking into the most effective way to do packaging and equipment to actually produce what I was marketing. I quickly figured out that buying the cheap products like the mill grinder off Amazon to make my own flour was a mistake and wasted too much money. I had to play around with several recipes before I got it right and gave away a lot of products as my way of testing before I actually started selling anything.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I got into this business simply by having others express their desire to be able to give healthy treats to their pets. I knew that stores carried a vast array of treats that they were seeking, but they trusted me and I felt the need to share what I was producing for my own pets. Wagnificent Delights provides freedom, creativity, equality, and a true experience. Each customer is free to create their own treat and be as simple or adventurous as they please. We offer a base price that only changes depending on the amount of ingredients they select. Our consumers know that the ingredient/flavor they select will actually be used and not contain any artificial substitute. It’s such a joy having customers return because they are satisfied and share how their dogs/cats now refuse to eat the treats they were normally buying from the store.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For a whole year I only sold products through my website. That following year I noticed that a lot of small markets were happening and I figured I would try it out. I quickly realized that people like to put a face with the name, share stories, converse, and feel appreciated. I fell in love with being able to shake hands and play with the animals that were consuming the products. Although it’s a strategy within itself, I have never seen it as such because the interactions are so fulfilling. So if I had to advise a strategy at all, it would be find one that makes your customers feel appreciated.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is very tricky because the algorithms to reach your target audience is forever changing. The best thing for me was finding social media marketing tools that pretty much do the work for me. There are so many platforms to pick from, so just make sure you pick the one that meets your needs the most.

Contact Info:

• Website: Wagdelights.com
• Instagram: Wagnificent Delights
• Facebook: Wagnificent Delights
• Yelp: Wagnificent Delights

Image Credits
Doffee Photography