Ep. 45 - Why Katie Dortmans Burned the Ships and Built a Niche Business Nobody Saw Coming

You don’t stumble into a skull‑cleaning business… unless you’re Katie Dortmans. What started as watching her brother boil deer heads in the backyard turned into one of the most fascinating niche businesses we’ve ever featured — and one of the most unexpectedly inspiring entrepreneurial journeys you’ll hear this year. Katie went from a secure corporate job with a pension to running a full‑time skull‑cleaning operation powered by dermestid beetles — the same beetles used by museums like the ROM. She built her first colony in a 10×11 shed, took drop‑offs in a wheelie bin beside her house, and slowly grew a reputation for immaculate work that hunters across Ontario now swear by. But the real story isn’t the skulls — it’s the leap. Katie talks openly about the slow burn of passion, the moment she realized she couldn’t keep one foot in the corporate world, and the mindset shift that pushed her to “burn the ships” and bet on herself. No leave of absence. No safety net. Just full commitment. And then there’s the art. The part she hid for years. The part she never showed her face for on Instagram. The part that eventually pulled her into her first art show and forced her to admit: she’s not just an entrepreneur… she’s an artist. This episode is weird, wonderful, and wildly motivating — proof that the most unconventional paths often lead to the most fulfilling work.