Hello and welcome to our first ever episode of the greater Denver chapter of NACE podcast. I am your host, Jared judge, Director of Marketing and Communications. And I am joined today by our president, who also happens to be the owner of Denver's only nut free bakery. Deseret Kelly of the bakery Cake Company. Welcome to the podcast and congrats on our first episode,

Jared, and thank you so much for putting this all together. It was just amazing.

I am so excited. I love nice. I was a member of nice back when I was in Milwaukee. And it was literally the first thing I joined when I moved to Denver just about four months ago. And I can say it's already like paid off. I'm I'm having so much fun and I love hanging out with you guys. But that's not what this episode is about. So I want to I want to first ask you about what are your hopes for our podcast and how it can help all of the event professionals in Denver and Colorado as a whole

has so this is actually a really good question because I hadn't thought of it before. I just heard about this podcast idea maybe a little over a week ago and look at you you are already like on top of it and making it happen. But what we're hoping to do is interview our members interview our sponsors. Let people know a little bit more about the happenings in NACE the people in Nice, how do we support each other what benefits we have? And what what's in it for better?

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm sure there are gonna be a lot of listeners who are current NACE members, but there are also going to be a lot of listeners who have never heard of nice, and they might be wondering what is nice and what it stands for. Do you mind just diving into that? Just briefly?

No problem. NACE is the National Association for catering and events. And it started Gosh, a long time and Gatto I believe New York Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and just a bunch of catering professionals getting together and it used to be very, very heavy in caterers. Nowadays, it's a lot more of event professionals. And one thing that Brian brought up, is our organization does feel so authentic. It's like it's not about appearances. It's about learning about you. What do you need? Who do you want to meet? What's your struggle right now have have really known anybody that's had the same struggle, and how can we work through this? It just, you know, when we all work together, and we all have a kind of a place where we know everybody, it just makes everything so much better. You don't feel quite so alone in this whole business.

Yeah. That's awesome. And I totally feel that way too. Like instantly, I moved to Denver, September of 2022. It is now February 2022. But when I moved to Denver, join NACE. All of a sudden, I didn't feel alone in my move, because I didn't really know anybody else here. And I joined nice, and it was like, I've got friends. And also and now I feel like I've got a family too. It's so cool.

Just adopted you instantly. And we met your Milwaukee family from nice back home and real and yet, we are not given him back too bad. Bye bye.

Oh, that's so sweet. What kind of people join this.

So lots of people. I think it's pretty much event industry specific. But we have caterers. We have ographers. We have balloon artists. We have the electric violinists. We have bands, DJs. entertainment companies, the lighting, which those are sometimes the same thing for rentals. So many different things. Anything that that is required for a party. We pretty much have the professional that provide that.

Yeah, even the owners and managers of venues, wedding planners, corporate event planners. So it's not just business owners that join nice though, is it could you tell us about some of the employees of businesses that join as well?

Yes, so we have a lot of sales representatives that are in our organization. So sometimes the business owner like BDJ linens or letaba they they have their sales rep Jenny marks she is part of our NACE nation. And she just renewed and we're so excited to have her companies like Yvette rent the sales manager is a member as well as a couple of they just like fails people paging coding in and out of charge

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Very You're cool. And I'm hearing a lot of really cool names strap. I also heard you say for the first time nice nation, I love that it has a good ring to it. I might, I might start using that from now on. Yeah. What are some of the benefits that all of these business owners and employees get from being a part of something like nice?

Well, not only the camaraderie and the support system, but you also get a spotlight on our Facebook, you now need to be featured on a podcast eventually, there's a lot of members and only one Jared said, we're gonna have to probably help you out. There is. Gosh, I wish I would have written these down because off the top of my head, so Harvard, let's say there are drawings, our meeting so and so all of the nice members that show up, you get to put in the jar for the dough prize. And there are Let's sing. What else are we talking about?

Well, for me, yeah, for? Oh, yeah, no, I'll take over from there. One of one of the biggest benefits that I've gotten from nice, and I know that others just like me have said this is all of a sudden you get a community of people who are in the same industry as you. Like, I don't know about you, but from my experience, starting my own business and being in the events industry, start it feels like you're on a lonely island, like you are doing something different than everybody else. There's not many people in your family who who do this, or in your friends circle who do this. And you go on this lonely journey. And it feels like you just don't have the support that you need. Like, obviously, your friends and family support what you do, but they don't get it.

Right. Oh, is that so true? Because I've been talking to my husband, Matt cake. And he'll be like our Harun. So as a glaze note her you know, but and even like business, and generally No, he is my business partner. Like he has extensive involvement, as he greets me talk about when I need it. So having people who are like minded on that same journey is hugely beneficial. Absolutely.

Right. And nice just gives you that, like, you don't have to do anything extra, you just joined. And you are surrounded by people like you in the same industry as you're doing different things, but they get it they're in the trenches, right? And who they can provide the shoulder to cry on when you need it. They can provide you those boosts those tips that you need, like how do I generate more leads for my business, you and I were just chatting about that before

just picking your brain on that one. So

to me, that's, that's what nice is all about, it's like supporting each other in the ways that we need to be supported when we need to be supported in a way that nothing else gives you.

Right. And then also as a member, you can be part of the board of directors, which is a huge benefit for your career, not only with credibility, but the board spends a considerable amount of time together and you you get like that extra level of camaraderie. And I mean, it just not only does it help you on like a mental level to have people who have your back, but also, you know, it does, it does breed referrals as well. And which is the best form of marketing.

For sure. I don't want this podcast to be just about nice. Although if you're listening to this, and you're and you're not a nice member, you should definitely join go to good nice denver.com To learn more about our chapter. But one of the cool things I think about this podcast is it's an opportunity for us to get to know members of the events industry local to us. Like we all see the names at all the events that we do, like, you know, I haven't done that many in Denver yet. But I'm sure I will see your name at many of our events, the different BBj linens. The cool part is to know the stories behind those businesses to know the people behind those businesses. And if it's alright with you and our listeners, I would like to get to know Deseret Kelly, that'll right now.

Yeah, I've been hearing for Buddy. Well, a lot of people don't know that my background is not in culinary. It's actually I have an undergraduate degree in molecular biology and a master's degree in business. So which is kind of a strange combination until you think about it in the capacity of being a bakery owner. So the bakery opened 16 years ago, almost 17. Now oh my gosh, had been around forever. And honestly, I was going to go into like pharmaceutical sales, or it wasn't I didn't even think about having my own business. And in the process of getting my MBA, my little sister calls me and she says, Guess what, I'm getting married and I was like, it's fantastic. And I had just been giving some cake decorating tips and I had made a cake for barbecue and they were like so right now So I said, Well, let me make the living cake and she was like, would shave it, that would be awesome. And so I hung up and I went, Oh, poop, that old fella do that. So I started taking some classes, and I just started where everybody does just at the hobby stores taken those classes. And I loved it. I was, you know, I've always been very artistic. But I never wanted to be the starving artist. So I decided I would go with like math and science deciding to do a career that way. And it just cake decorating was easy. For me, I was just a little I don't know if you want to call it talented, but I took to it very, very easily. And so my personality is like, if I didn't like something I am all in I am there I am doing it like 24/7. And I guess this is also kind of the trend of an entrepreneur, they like work from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed and you get up and you do it again, and you crawl home at 11 at night and you get up and go to work by seven and it just it's a thing. And it's just very common character trait. So it's almost my downfall. So. So anyway, my teacher says you should teach cake decorating. And I was like, Well, let me see I'm working full time I'm getting my MBA in the evenings. I don't have enough to do, so why not. So I took on this one store and then a tip in a second. And then I chipped in a third. And so by the time I graduated with my MBA, I had three stores, I was teaching cake decorating, too. And I had a business plan, you know, yay, that, that I can take to the Small Business Association and get a loan. And so I basically went in there with all of these, you know, research projects, market projects, or, you know, projections, financials, all these things I put together during the course of my classes, and said, Give me a little, and they will look through it. And they're like, Okay, great, that one question for you. And this one just blew me away? They said, Is your husband going to work in the bakery with you? Or is he going to keep his job or pay your bills? And I was I was thorough with? Did you really say that? And honestly, they were just, they were being shown us that there are just you're not going to make a profit for two to three years with a new business. It just is how it is with any business ever. And so what they were concerned about was if we were going to be able to keep our home or not. And they didn't say it appropriately. I took it a little bit, probably defensively, but I wanted the loan. So I said no, he's going to keep his job. Thank you very much. So anyway, got the loan built the store opened on June 21 of 2006. It was a long journey. So if you are building a physical space, let it be known that it's going to cost three times as much as they actually projected. And it's going to take at least twice if not three times as long. And so by the time I opened it, it was just like, I am so sick and tired of these guys, these contractors, I was just like almost ready to throw something. Anyway, so we opened and we actually had the concept that you could actually come in and decorate your old cake and spinning the Makary. And so we had blank cakes. So we had to sew icing and and it was it was really a fun concept. We had over 70 children coming through the store in any one weekend for birthday party. So it was really great. But then we got to your like seven. And we couldn't make an decorated cakes. Like people were just like coming out the woodwork for our cakes. Because, you know, we would get a phone call and they'd be like, I have called for other bakeries and no one would make the in 3d Toilet cake.

But it was like would you like the lid to be made of a chocolate chip cookie?

Charlie's

so um, so we have real well known for doing things that nobody else would and so, you know, it it's just been a real wild ride and and now that, you know the capacity was such that I had to make a real tough decision whether to lose my lobby for birthday parties or you know, do those off site and increase my capacity and I just decided that increasing my capacity is where I wanted to go. And so we moved our decorators out into the lobby and made that workspace and we did our party's offsite like at people's homes. And then COVID hit and sort of squash the whole birthday party thing. Started doing kid It's paired with videos. And so our gingerbread house kit is just hugely popular at Christmas time and everything. And then, you know, we just basically do our custom cakes now.

Wow. That's awesome. What a what primary like occasions are your cakes for?

Well, half of our revenue is based mainly on weddings. And so that's mainly our bread and butter. It just seems like well, they their books so much earlier than a birthday cake ins and so they get kind of first priority if they book the book. And that's what we do. And then the rest the other 50% is basically occasion cakes between birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, continuous.

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, first off, congratulations on, like, having all these difficulties thrown your way, getting insulted by the SBA. And, and still choosing to persist. Like that is amazing. You know, I think that's a common theme between a lot of entrepreneurs and people in the events industry is like, we are adaptable, we can pivot, we can roll with the punches. And we always kind of have the end goal in sight. So whatever is thrown our way we can deal with it. So I think that's awesome. Congratulations on your your persistence.

Thank you. And I think it's just you know, comes hand in hand with professionalism and keeping your head cool. And using a little bit of business strategy and acumen to get through whatever comes your way. Yeah, for sure. And you have a support system, like the nice nation.

Yes, nice nation. You mentioned your undergrad was in science, how did you how did you acquire the business skills necessary to launch and grow your business?

I did have an MBA, I was working on it while I was taking my cake decorating classes. But one thing that I realized is, you know, book work is not the same as experience wirelessly. I mean, I, I rely upon it heavily, especially with the financials and you know, just knowing your numbers from here to there. He said, Just just call it some numbers out of me. I was like, Okay, I gotta answer this, this platform and this platform and this platform. And I just, you know, I'm really a technology nerd. I like to make them all to talk together, meet them all work. But as far as the business acumen, you just have to experience a there's there's the base, core things that you need to know from, you know, book work, but then there is, there's a lot of experience a lot. I did have a business consultant, right about, I guess, seven years in, and she stayed with me for about five years or so. Just doing all kinds of things like the first couple weeks that will then just watched everything, and then started giving instruction, because then we're hyperinflations man to be changed. Eric, and this is crazy. If he website to the menu to nine hours to where things were cat everything.

Yeah, that's awesome. Why? Why would you have gone out of your way to to have somebody help you with your business? Like, why not just do it all alone?

Right? Well, it's really hard to read the label on your incentive bottle. I think we talked about that the other day. So I mean, this woman had the same level of education as I did, but it's easier for someone to analyze a situation. And also, if you're really well versed in helping businesses kind of lean down, cut extra expenses get more efficient, so that you can be more profitable. That's your area of expertise. That's something that you know, like me, my area of expertise is not only making cake, but also like managing people managing relationships, operations, or just steaks, fixing the toilet, those types of things. So it's nice that to get someone who can look at it and give you a little bit of strategy and give you a roadmap.

Yeah, where are you? That's super helpful. And I also have several business coaches myself. And I'm in in a mastermind, you mentioned that you're currently in a mastermind to it. Would you mind talking just briefly about what that's all about?

Yeah, so I net, I read the book Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and I say read it. I mean, I listen to Tim in the car on Audible. But in there, it lays out sort of the foundation is of a mastermind. And what is really great about a mastermind is it's a group of sort of like minded individuals who are given some of the same direction in life as you maybe different types of businesses, but somebody you can count on to say, no, no, look, you're just blown out there right now. You need to act way, probably take a step back, analyze the situation, you know, with them, I actually do your goals as well. So like every quarter we try to get together go over goals, see if we're on track, see per meeting them. And then also if you have like some big Perabo either at home or at work, whatever, and you need people to, you know, have your back or just be a sounding board and you don't want necessarily, or whatever you need help with to be public knowledge is amazing to have a core group of, you know, three people that you can bounce your ideas off of, and ask what you know what you should do in this situation. So,

yeah, that's awesome. So it sounds like you're committed to growth, you're very goal oriented. Why, what what drives you? Like? Why not just sit in the backseat and coast along? Like why always striving for why strive for better?

Oh, that isn't great question I, when I never thought of before. I'm very big into personal development, especially just as management, if you're if your head is in a negative headspace, all your decisions are going to be made from that place. And you end up not making very good business decision. Gosh, I, I feel why niche. If you're not growing, you're not really going anywhere, you're not doing anything, you can't support others, you can't. Like I have, I have eight people that work for me. So like, their rent and their mortgage depends on my decisions. So I don't leave decisions at all. I don't go in the right direction. If I don't grow, then I can't, I can't help them. I can't help her family. I can't help my community. I can't help a nice nation. I can make sure that we're all we're all headed upward.

Yeah, that's beautiful. And what I gather from that is your people oriented, like it's not just a selfish motivation. It's, you're in this to help people both have an amazing event that is enhanced by a delicious and beautiful cake. But you're also in the business of growing your staff, helping them with their personal goals, helping your community helping your nice nation. And to me that's, that is illustrative of the events industry at large, like we are all people people. Like, right, right, we're nurture. We're nurtures work, we care. Like, we don't just do this, because we want to make millions of dollars like no, we want to help people have the most special events possible. And we want to help our fellow events, industry professionals, be the best they can be and have the best lives that they can. So absolutely, that's awesome. Yeah. We only have about 10 minutes left. So I wanted to ask quickly, a while ago, we had chatted that your current goal is to price yourself in a higher end market. So yeah, so I also want this podcast to be practical. How? How are you doing this? And how can others who listen, pivot towards a higher priced market so they can make more and do less work?

Right? Well, one thing about a higher priced market is you have to bring better value as well. So you can't just say, Oh, my cakes are now three times as expensive as anybody else's, you have to you have to show the value. And a lot of it has to do with track record to you, are you responsible? Alright, do you have a good rapport with everybody? Do you have a good review rating on Google. And then also, you have to make all of your marketing come in line with that market as well. So you can't have a website that looks like poop and expect to get you know, 1000s and 1000s of dollars for one client, it's just not going to happen. You also have to have your social media and look really good to my accountability group would probably take me the task of this one. But you know, they're right. I have a lot of cell phone pictures, big social media. So I need to, I need to upload we're working on that one. But everything needs to come in line with that position in the market.

Yeah, that makes sense. Because people, if they're paying premium for for a product, the experience doesn't start at the product. It starts before then it's their perception of you as soon as they land on your website. Does this give them an expensive vibe and I'm not saying expensive in the way that like, a negative way but like it should feel premium to match the experience that they get when they pay money.

So right, right, yeah, absolutely.

There's a lot to that. How do you prioritize what to start with?

As far as like website or social media or where if you wanted to target that market?

Yeah, if you're if say, you know, I actually I, I'm in the electric violin market, and I'm competing against a lot of $100, electric violinists here in Denver.

To Say it ain't so.

Yeah, well, I also priced myself at a premium way, but say, say I was $100 Electric violinist, what would be the first thing you would tell me to do to get myself into the premium market?

Well, the first thing would be like 100 bucks doesn't even cover your gas money. You have to narrow your pricing has to be in line because it if your product is priced under your next competitor, people are gonna think there's something wrong with you like, what's wrong with Why are you so cheap? And so where are you want to position yourself in the market, you have to do your price analysis, you have to call your competitors and ask them what they're charging. And you can say who you are, they may tell you, and they may not like in the kink community, I can call cheery over cake and say, Hey, what are you charging Bernie an inch round? And she'll tell me, I'll tell her, we'll be like, Oh, we should, we should look that up. You know, it's just it's not a problem, where some industries there are competitive, and they will, they will not tell you or an event even tell you something wrong. So you can secret shock them, or how to friend call them. But you need to know what your competitors are charging. And then you have to decide, okay, where are your competitors in the market? Do I want to be in line with them? Or do I want to be just underneath so I wouldn't be perceived as higher than then. Also, you just have to do your research, like those premium ones that are charging the 1000s and 1000s of dollars for whatever it is you do? You need to look at their websites, look at their social media, what is it saying is a you know, what is their timeline? What is your timeline need to be? How do you want to present yourself to your clients? That's awesome to just do your research first. Good. That's

great advice. And I loved that you also mirrored our theme of collaboration and connection. Because even though you you, theoretically are competing with that other bakery, you're still collaborating. There's the collaborative spirit, which is just beautiful.

Yeah, well, I mean, I have a an abundance mindset for business. Because there's so much business out there, there really is there is no reason to be hostile with each other. So there's a bakery right across the street from me, it's fully gluten free. She calls me all the time asking me questions about pricing, which reminds me any banquet owe her an email. But yeah, it's just, it's nice, because if you guys work together, you will win.

For sure, that's something I share a lot like I coach a lot of musicians on marketing and the business skills of running a music business. And that's one of the first things we address is abundance, mindset versus scarcity. We are not competing against each other, we are competing against the couple at their wedding who is not having a cake, or, you know, the opportunities that we didn't create. Like not eight, there's there's more gigs and more opportunities for us available than we ever thought possible. But it does come from an approach of we got to market ourselves, we got to charge what we're worth, and we have to showcase that we are a premium product.

Absolutely. And the charging when you're worth is so important. For my industry and specific. There were a lot of homemakers that came up over COVID I don't blame them. But no, everybody needed to make some money. But when you are killing yourself for $2 an hour, you got to ask yourself, you know what the worlding they were?

Yeah, yeah, you're not you're worth way more than $2 an hour. anybody listening to this? Like, right, anyone? Anyone. So awesome. Well, this podcast, I love the direction we're going with this. I learned so much about you. I learned a lot about nice. I learned a lot about Denver as an events industry. And I hope our listeners did too. If they wanted to find out more about you, where would they find information about you and the makery?

Yeah, my website is www dot that makery.com That's Ma k ry. Our Instagram handle is that makery cake co because there's a lot of bakeries around y'all. Oh my gosh, it's crazy. So the maker cake call and then same protect that. And Facebook's just the maker Eco Vegan I've had it for so long I didn't realize that the word cake needed to be in my business name. When experience

Yep, we all have our our war stories. Awesome. Well, thank you and congratulations on being the first guest of the greater Denver chapter of nice is podcast. This was so much fun. I can't wait to interview all of our members. If you are not a member and you're interested in joining our chapter or just learning more about it coming to one of our events, which non members are invited to as well. You just have to have to go to Nice denver.com That's n AC e denver.com. And I would love to see you and personally greet you at our next event. So thank you so much for tuning in to our first ever episode of the greater Denver chapter. Nice podcast will workshop the title and we will see you on the next one. You know go crush your next event and we'll chat soon.

cheering for you

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