Meet Angelica Atondo of Matilda’s Pastries by Design in North Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica Atondo.

Angelica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Angelica Atondo and for 13 years I was a news anchor for Univision SPANISH TV network in Arizona and then in Chicago Illinois. I have wrote 2 inspirational books called “El secreto para lograrlo” ( the secret to achieving) published in 2012 and sold 100,000 + copies in Mexico and US, I also wrote “Superare Mujer” a guide for women to go from weak to powerful within yourself. While working as the main news anchor in Chicago Univision affiliate I invested in a restaurant that after 4 years turned into a small chain of 6 restaurantes in Chicago and Metropolitan area. After retiring from TV and wanting to be closer to my family (they live here in Arizona) my family and I move to Scottsdale. I am married to a wonderful man named Edgar Nava, originally from Mexico too and we have 2 beautiful daughters.

While deciding what we wanted to do for business In Arizona I started baking some goods for my daughters race for student council at school and found out I am pretty good at it hahaha (I’ve never had time before to bake, being a need anchor is pretty much like being a doctor, you don’t own your life and your days depend on what happens in the world) so back to the baking, I started doing it as a hobby in September 2017, by November my husband and I registered Matilda’s Pastries by design and we started a home based bakery. We have been blessed enough with Matilda’s and now you can find our pop up shops at Nordstrom’s in Fashion Square and Chandler mall. We also make the Phoenix Mercury players Bday cakes and we are much honored that the WNBA stars love our creations. On October 2018 I joined the Discovery Channel family with my show called “emprendedores” (means “Entrepeneurs”) it is a business make over show in Spanish that airs Sundays at 7pm. At Emprendedores I help small business owners to take their businesses to the next level.

Besides my family and Matilda’s, you can always find me at Cortney’s Place, an organization that I hold dear to my heart, it is a Day program for adults with intellectual disabilities. I seat on the board of directors but my favorite part is being with our students and sharing moments with them. This is a program that everyone should know about in Arizona because it truly makes a difference in families that have someone with special needs.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No! All the roads I have taken in life have been full of learning lessons. Being a news anchor was very hard on the personal side, I was a single mom that was never around in the afternoons, and I will only see my daughter in the morning when I drove her to school and some days to have dinner with her but it was very difficult, that is the reason why I retired from news.

In the world of a small business owner every single day is different and full of challenges but I have learned that if I don’t take the risk of walking on bumpy roads for a few years and learn I won’t be able to enjoy the success that comes when you overcome an obstacle.

One of the hardest times I lived was when my daughter my mom and I had to move to Chicago for my job, I was away for 6 years, I missed every single important event on my family and friends lives, I was on the other side of the country, with an awfully cold weather and far away from my loved ones.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Matilda’s Pastries by Design – what should we know?
Matilda’s is a very new company, we specialize on dessert bars for events and custom made cookies. Quickly our clientele has keep coming back to us because they love that we don’t use any artificial flavoring on our desserts and we give them a very personal and Latino taste to them.

Our signature cookies are the Mexican Wedding cookies on 3 dif flavors, Dulce De Leche, Pecan and Strawberry. I am very proud that together as a family we are growing Matilda’s, my husband and I do all the baking, my mom help us out and my oldest daughter is the best sells rep ever!

We are already looking for a commercial space to become a commercial bakery and be able to get our sweets to all the super markets.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I’ve always operated on a mindset that if I can imagine it it’s because I can achieve it. I learned that on a very early age, at 12 when I started my career on media at a radio station in Mexico. So I think God gave me a strong dose of self-confidence and faith at an early age and since that moment that I asked for an opportunity and I was given it, I haven’t stop asking for opportunities to succeed in anything I want to do. I also think that there is no book that tells you in what order or how you need to achieve things in life, we are all different and our timings is different, I found I wanted to be a news anchor when I was 12 and I achieve it at 18. Here I am at 34 finding out that I want to be the best Latina pastry chef in the US, will I make it? I don’t know, but at least every single day I am trying it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.matildascookies.com
• Phone: 3129954893
• Email: angieatondo@gmail.com
• Instagram: Matildas cookies
• Facebook: Matildas cookies
• Twitter: Matildas cookies
• Yelp: Matildas cookies

Image Credit:
Cortneys Place. The girl in the weelchair with me it’s Cortney Carpenter.
My daughters names are Farah and Natalia Nava.

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