‘Dare Greatly’

Business minor and entrepreneur urges students to set aside perfectionism in TEDxUTAustin speech

A cake sat untouched on the stage in Hogg Memorial Auditorium.

Frosted smoothly, it looked almost too perfect to cut. But for University of Texas at Austin junior Reese Saliceti, the cake was not meant to remain untouched. It represented a lesson she learned through years of creativity, setbacks, and persistence.

Saliceti, a Plan II Honors and sociology major who’s also pursuing a business minor from the McCombs School of Business, spoke March 7 at the ninth annual TEDxUTAustin conference. The event brought together speakers from fields including architecture, medicine, music, and history to share ideas tied to this year’s theme, “Polaris,” which represents direction and purpose.

Saliceti is the founder of Dulce Custom Cakes, a business she started as a teenager that has grown to serve weddings, birthdays, and quinceañeras while building a large social media following. That success helped earn her a place on the TEDxUTAustin stage. Her talk focused on creativity, perfectionism, and learning to take risks even when failure feels unavoidable.

Her story began years before she stepped onto the TEDx stage.

While she was growing up, creativity was part of everyday life in her family, Saliceti said. “We had this unspoken rule in our house,” she said. “If you didn’t have something and you wanted it, you had to figure out how to make it yourself.”

Her grandmother baked custom cakes for family birthdays, and Saliceti often helped in the kitchen. Eventually, she began experimenting with baking on her own.

“I can remember thinking one thought very clearly,” she said. “I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m sure I can try to figure it out.”

That mindset was tested when she was 13 and received her first paid cake order. The design included a small golden elephant topper that she struggled to re-create.

For weeks, her attempts failed. The fondant collapsed or dried as she experimented with different techniques. Eventually, after searching through tutorials online, she found a solution that worked.

After she delivered the cake, the experience left a lasting impression.

“That rush of dopamine that you get when you finally accomplish something,” Saliceti said. “I was on top of the world.”

The success encouraged her to continue baking. Over time, what started as a hobby grew into Dulce Custom Cakes.

But as her work gained attention, the pressure to succeed also grew.

“To me, perfectionism sounds like that little voice in your head that whispers, ‘I’m not doing enough,’” she told the audience.

Saliceti said that pressure eventually began to affect the way she approached her work.

“There was this fear of failing that began to outweigh my excitement to try,” she said.

That fear became even more difficult during a challenging period in her life. Saliceti said she lost her grandfather and struggled with academic setbacks at the same time.

“When you have so many people that are looking up to you, there’s this guilt that I’m not who everyone thinks I am,” she said.

Her perspective began to change after reading a quote about Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, often referenced by researcher and author Brené Brown. The message emphasizes that recognition belongs to the people willing to step forward and try, even if they fail.

The idea resonated deeply with Saliceti. When she received her University of Texas class ring last fall, she had two words engraved inside it: “Dare greatly.”

The phrase serves as her reminder that mistakes are part of growth.

One example from her baking career illustrates that lesson. While decorating a Godzilla-themed cake, Saliceti accidentally misspelled the name and wrote “Gozilla.” The photo unexpectedly gained attention online and attracted thousands of new views.

“Failures shouldn’t be as scary,” she said. “What we think will happen after we fail isn’t always the reality.”

Looking back, she said the mistake helped her realize that failure often leads to opportunities people do not anticipate.

Today, Saliceti balances her baking business with a busy schedule at UT. She serves as a resident assistant and is involved in several campus organizations, including Texas Orange Jackets, the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute’s FoundHER program, Texas Consult Your Community, and the Texas Student Media board. She also mentors a middle school student through Plan II KIPP and supports first-year Plan II students as a peer mentor.

Standing beside the cake on stage, Saliceti reminded the audience that both success and failure are temporary. If success does not last, people learn to appreciate it. If failure does not last, it becomes easier to try again.

In the end, the cake represented that message, so she cut into it.

“Cakes are meant to be cut,” Saliceti said. “They’re meant to be a little bit messy. And so are we.”

Story by Catalina Lopez