Perzen Patel is on a mission. Sure she’s the co-founder of a curry paste company, and loves nothing more than hearing that “ding” on the Shopify website (seriously… who doesn’t! That little ding is dopamine in a sound!), but what she really wants to do is shift Kiwi’s perceptions about Indian food.

The idea many of us have of Indian food is an easy takeaway curry, with food that wouldn’t be most Indian’s normal everyday food. Those curries are rich, and often served with Naan bread. And more often or not, there’s a mild butter chicken somewhere in the stack of curries.

Perzen wants our understanding of Indian cooking to move past takeaway foods, and make it about the rich flavours, aromas and tastes that she experiences every day as an Indian living in New Zealand. Much of her marketing is based around the education of what sort of food she eats, and how she makes it possible to cook it all while running Dolly Mumma, working full time in another position and raising a young family. 

In pursuit of helping Kiwis become informed, Perzen’s now a food writer for The Spinoff, sharing the stories of her own learnings around food, and how she had to learn to cook after she got married, trying to impress her mother-in-law in India

I’m lucky enough to work with Perzen as part of my content coaching programme, and I am often floored at the amount of hard work, dedication and focus she puts into her passions. If anyone can turn New Zealand into a country where Butter Chicken and Naan takes a back seat to homemade curry with a Roti, it’s Perzen

Enjoy this episode learning about how Perzen’s marketing her small business and what she has planned for it. 

In this episode we cover:

• Why Perzen started Dolly Mumma
• What Perzen had to learn about Indian food
• Why she’s on a mission to educate as she sells her products
• How she’s using her writing to grow her business
• How she juggles everything including marketing
• What’s next for Dolly Mumma. 

Important Links

Check out her curry pastes here

Read Perzen’s columns on the Spinoff

Buy your copy of Be a Spider, Build a Web

Download the free workbook

Become a part of the MAP IT Marketing facebook group

Register interest for Rachel’s content coaching programme

Rachel’s YouTube Channel

Join the My MAP IT Marketing Strategy School

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