Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathy Santangelo
Hi Kathy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Park City Granola Company was founded in 2017 and I purchased it from the original owner in 2022. We’ve maintained all the original recipes and baking processes — all by hand — and continue to produce the products in Park City, Utah. The idea I had in mind when making the purchase was to jump into something totally new, something small enough to manage while thinking creatively about how to take the business to another level – whatever that is – and to have the pleasure of doing it all in my favorite mountain town. I’m a skier and when I was about 25 I felt I had discovered this awesome ski town in Utah when my friend and I, both flight attendants at the time, spent a winter skiing different mountains in Utah every day we had off. We were both transplants from the south and east, and that spring of 1993 stuck in my memory as a really great time in my life. So I kept coming back to Park City to ski over the years, solo and with my family, and now it’s 30 years later and I bought a local granola company. Life can be very unpredictable!
I love the business. It’s very satisfying to produce a delicious, healthy product for the community, and then to start reaching a little outside the community, too, because people try the product while they visit Park City, and then they order it online when they return home. I have a whole vision of where we will be one day — our own kitchen, maybe a store front, playing great tunes while we bake, sharing stories — good people making good products and coming together for good times. My airline career has always had a social component to it, and I like that. I want this business to also have that component, along with other opportunities — small jobs for young people, retirees, workers with challenges. Figuring out the answers – how to improve the business, how to maintain business quality while planning growth — is a meaningful challenge, and I like that.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We’ve had our share of small struggles. Since I purchased the business from the founder, some of the kinks were worked out already, but it was and still is a very small business, so you have to pretty much do everything, and that is not easy. We are primarily a wholesaler, but our online component is retail, and that generates two different elements to the business right from the start.
Designing an affordable operation is a challenge in Park City; it’s an expensive town for rent and operational aspects for any business. I’ve been blessed to meet some amazing people who have really helped me through these struggles. Additionally, raw material prices can fluctuate, and we want to keep our price point affordable for customers. That’s a challenge when olive oil inflates 110% in a year!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think I am professionally most proud of my time as an airline leader. It was a time in my career when I really gave a lot of myself, helped people, developed people, did really good work for the airline, held accountability, and learned a lot on the job. It was strategic. I had an amazing team under me and worked for impressive leaders. It was a good time in my life, and I was really proud of the work I did. It was personal as much as professional. It mattered to me to be a good leader and a good person, and it still does. I think that is just how I’m wired.
One of my specialties is hospitality. I like customer service and enjoy good hospitality, both giving it and receiving it. That is definitely the southern in me — being from Louisiana. I notice detail, and appreciate attention dedicated to making things just right. This takes good planning, and training, and some creativity. And mostly, it takes caring. Really caring, genuinely caring makes you a better employee, a better leader, a better business owner. These all go together to really deliver for the customer.
I’ve been working a long time and I think I’ve loved every job I’ve had. My career has mostly been dedicated to the airline industry where I was hired as a flight attendant after college and enjoyed 8 different jobs of increasing responsibility. I did operations management, training, mentoring and staff development, strategic design and implementation, workforce management and reliability, company goal achievement, budgeting, project management, and sales — all things that prepared me somewhat for owning a small business. I worked with superior people, enjoyed excellent teamwork, and really grew in my knowledge and capabilities as a company leader and representative.
I’ve also had the experience and benefit of traveling all over the world, which at this point in time I would also include as a specialty. It’s nice to work in an industry that affords such quality of life both during my work time and my off time. I think traveling has broadened my perspective of humanity and life and cultures, and it’s been a wonderful life experience. Every place I visit is my new favorite place. I love visiting a different culture, observing and learning how other people around the world live, what they value, and how they navigate the world.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
There is a series of podcasts called “How I Built This with Guy Raz” where he interviews business owners and discusses how they built their businesses. I love listening to these stories, which can be motivating, educational, and sometimes just plain fascinating!
There are many business and leadership books I’ve read over the years, too, which have been instrumental in helping me develop as a business leader. I like The Economist as a world news source. I enjoy reading novels, mostly fiction, which can also inspire creativity and expand personal understanding.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.parkcitygranola.com
- Instagram: parkcitygranolaco
- Facebook: Park City Granola Co
