Chef Maria Kemp With Beyond Decadence, Inc.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for ABC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Wbrc Open for Business. And today’s guest is Chef Maria Kemp with Beyond Decadence. Welcome, chef.

Chef Maria Kemp: Well, thank you. I love the emphasis you put on chef. That was very.

Lee Kantor: Cool. Well, that’s it. I’m a big fan of Chef, so I want to give you your due.

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I’m really excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Beyond Decadence, how you serving folks?

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well Beyond Decadence started as a dessert catering company. And then in 2020, when the world blew up or imploded, the most common word was the word pivot. But I adapted. The word morphed because I thought pivot was so overused. And so I morphed the business to focus on providing services in the form of D, E, and B, which stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Training and team building Activities for Corporations.

Lee Kantor: So what have you always been a chef? Has this been a lifelong pursuit or is this also a morph?

Chef Maria Kemp: I love that you used my word already. No, I didn’t start as a chef, actually. I spent about 20 plus years. I usually round up and say a million in the IT world. And then when I was becoming an empty nester, it was time to make a transition and to follow my passion. And I enrolled at the French pastry school in Chicago and left it behind.

Lee Kantor: So what was that like, that transition to go from corporate, which I would imagine has a lot of rules and a certain lifestyle to chef, which is a different, different set of rules and a different lifestyle?

Chef Maria Kemp: Right. It was a huge transition because I had spent, you know, 20, 25 years working as a consultant for Fortune 100 Fortune 500 companies as a senior IT consultant. So you go from all that structure and rigor and processes and procedures, you know, work being a contractor, but also working for some really large corporations to now you’re in your, you know, your student uniform. It wasn’t called your chef whites you know, yet at that point and learning all the ins and outs do’s and don’ts about becoming a pastry professional. So you go from the I wasn’t in the board room, but you almost say like the board room to the kitchen. So it was totally, totally different.

Lee Kantor: Now, what drew you to pastry? Was that something you were always doing on the side that was like kind of a one of your own passions for yourself throughout your life? And you said you want to go all in or what attracted you to that industry?

Chef Maria Kemp: Yeah, I don’t think I was much different than most little girls. You know, I started in the kitchen with my mom, you know, as a kid, you know, learning how to bake and, you know, lick the beater and you know, you’re going to get some vanilla. There’s raw eggs and that. And I’m still here today. And, you know, spending all that time in the IT world and then just, you know, being at a point in my career where I was becoming an empty nester and can pursue something I was passionate about instead of being, you know, as focused on providing for my daughter. And it was it was a huge transition. But I’d always loved to bake. And I had actually baked, you know, as we call it, on the side, just for fun and hobbies. All through that time I was an IT consultant and I was like, Wow, I really love this. But you know, I needed to stay the course to be a to provide for my daughter as a single parent the best way that I could. And contracting was the best way to do that in the IT industry.

Lee Kantor: Now, were you afraid that transitioning from a love of something so much to a profession of that same thing was going to, you know, maybe make you not love it as much? Because a lot of times the business stuff isn’t the fun part. You know, the baking is the fun part and the creating is the fun part. But running a business around it isn’t as fun.

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, I love how you delicately put that. It’s the best way to kill a hobby is to turn it into a business. And yeah, I mean, at first I wasn’t as worried about that. But then when I got into it and saw there was so much more than just, you know, baking an occasional pie or cake or cookies or cheesecake and taking it into the office. Now, you know, I’m providing customer service. I’m dealing with deadlines and trying to get customers to adhere to deadlines, especially in holiday seasons and then all the back end business, part of it going out, finding customers and courting them and wooing them and pricing and just all the ins and outs that, you know, you don’t have to deal with when you’re doing it as a hobby became, become, became and become front and center. When you’re an entrepreneur and it’s now your livelihood.

Lee Kantor: So going through that. Did you have any experiences that were like, okay, I can do this? Or were there some kind of epiphany moments where you’re like, okay, this is the right path for me to go on?

Chef Maria Kemp: I knew it was the right path for me to go on, but I learned a lot. And you the best way to learn what to do and what not to do is just to dive in and do it, you know, because you can either jump into something. And I believe with my faith, you know, you make you God will either bless it or correct it, but you have to make a step and take an action with the information that you have at the time, the best possible choice. So I had lots of gotcha moments. Some were good and some were not. But I can see now, now that I’m many years past that initial bakery, how those became woven into the fabric of who I am and have absolutely bailed me out and saved me in situations I faced, you know, now in my business in general.

Lee Kantor: So how has wearing that it hat for so long impacted your, you know, your pastry business? Is that where this emphasis in the D and B came in where you’re trying to kind of morph them those two careers together somewhat?

Chef Maria Kemp: Well, the IT background saves me every day because I’m you know, I’m very comfortable, you know, doing a lot of the technical things behind the scenes that, you know, other entrepreneurs, you know, may not be because I spent so many years in that. But the D and B came in through actually, it began with the request of a client at the time. I always have to stop back and remember where it started, where they said, you know, we really want to work with you this year as a pastry chef, and we’re doing this celebration for Juneteenth, and we would love it if you could figure out a way to bring in, you know, the desserts into our Juneteenth celebration and kind of give us a history lesson, too. And so that’s where it started. And then it grew from there as I had my ear to what was going on in, you know, in society, in the business world, where diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging were starting to come to the foreground. I said, okay, you know what? I’m kind of tired of baking for production and doing catering and dealing with orders. So the first customer had this idea, I think I can take it even further. And I walked away from the catering side onto the services side. And it’s it’s been really a rewarding experience.

Lee Kantor: But you must have been doing something, though, for them to even approach you about this. Was there something that you were doing that was attracting that type of a client to you?

Chef Maria Kemp: I believe it started. I go, I’m going back because that’s back a few years now. I was starting to do the team building when the pandemic hit, and I was aiming those. At first I was doing private baking experiences virtually online to the general public, and then when I got certified through an organization, I started offering it to corporate clients for team building. And then that particular client latched on to, you know, you’re a little bit out of the box thinker, a divergent thinker, and we want to think divergently and do something a little different this year. And it was just a marriage that came together and didn’t end in divorce.

Lee Kantor: So. So what are those conversations look like when you’re you’re explaining to your clients that we’re going to take pastry and baking and then we’re going to combine them with D and B, and this is what the outcome will be when we you know, when I hand this over to you or we do this together.

Chef Maria Kemp: Right. First, it’s a little bit of confusion. You know what my daughter and I call the puppy dog head tilt where they tilt their head and they’re kind of like, Mm hmm.

Lee Kantor: Interesting.

Chef Maria Kemp: Yeah. They’re like.

Chef Maria Kemp: Are we going to bake something or are we going to cook something? Are you. Are you a French trained pastry chef or a trainer or both? Yeah, there’s just yeah, there’s all the confusion, like, how are you going to merge the two together? But I just did it for the BMW Supplier Diversity Exchange. They hold that every year. This was year 11 and I was a breakout session speaker, so it was the first time I got to do the full program where it’s very interactive and people were confused walking in. They weren’t sure, but they knew there was going to be dessert, so that was enough to lure some in. So part of my master plan, but when they went through the session, then they they got it. They understood it. So basically what it involves is I call it a dessert presentation, interactive dessert presentation to help bring new understanding to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Because I found when I use the word baking, then people think we’re going to bake, we’re in a kitchen and they’re trying to wrap their head around it. Their brain is going down a rabbit hole trying. Trying to figure out how are you going to do that? I’m looking at my chef jacket and then they’re not dialing into how it’s actually going to take place.

Chef Maria Kemp: So I start calling it a dessert presentation where I use the desserts to help bring that new understanding. And people still are a little bit confused because it sounds like a shark tank idea, but no one’s ever done this before and there’s not anybody doing it in the marketplace. So it is new and it is very hard for people to figure out how are you going to do that? But you can show diversity, equity versus equality, inclusion versus exclusion, belonging versus not belonging through desserts and make that an interactive experience. Because when you bring food into it, you know, adults are just as excited as a kid getting a lollipop or a balloon. They’re like dessert, what are we going to eat? You know, and very involved and engaged and interactive and enthusiastic and focused on what’s going on. What am I going to get? Did they get more than I did? What did they get? And they they it helps the concept resonate because I can show all of those aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through desserts. And that’s what no one is doing now.

Lee Kantor: Can you share how that occurs, like in the session, or is it some proprietary methodology you only reveal at sessions?

Chef Maria Kemp: I’ll share. I’ll share a little snippet. How about that?

Lee Kantor: All right. I don’t want to give it away, but I also want to make people understand that this is a different way to achieve the same outcome, right?

Chef Maria Kemp: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have a video clip which I’m going to be sharing on LinkedIn, which shows part of the session, the same one I’m going to share with you because people do need to see it or they don’t understand it for a diversity, for example, you can show diversity. If I give, if I give a group desserts, maybe they don’t all have the same dessert, they don’t all have the same flavor. They may have different amounts of desserts. They may have different tools to eat that dessert with. And you might think, well, that’s kind of simplistic. Well, no, not really, because think about when you’re putting food in front of people and a luscious dessert, they’re looking around to see, oh, what did you get? What? What? Oh, you got more than I did. It’s a very simple way. Just that’s just the diversity piece. There’s still the other pieces, the E, the I and the B that that can be done with as well. And let me tell you, food resonates. Don’t we all fall asleep watching the Food Network most nights or the greatest British baking show. So when you put dessert in the hands of individuals and then start bringing the concept and the definition together with it, it starts to take on more meaning because then they start to experience what individuals may feel like based on work situations, teams, departments and what’s happening under, you know, in those areas. And it’s just a tip that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Lee Kantor: And that’s something that people learn better when they connect the dots themselves. And you’re having breadcrumbs lead them to a place, but they have to connect the dots and they’re seeing it and that that will help them get that. Aha. Oh, I get it Now you know where it resonates and it kind of sinks in a little bit more I think, than as opposed to being told.

Chef Maria Kemp: Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what was so rewarding. After spending four months putting together this presentation and and mapping out and planning, there’s that it background coming in for detail, you know, of mapping it all out of the flow and how everything had to work together. So it was seamless and the message was understood and watching those light bulbs go on above people’s head like, Oh my goodness, I get it. I understand it now I know how it feels. And that didn’t feel good. And we felt bad for them and we were going to do. And hearing the conversations that resulted was just amazing. And you know, in the presentation I had what I call a three ingredient recipe or three ingredient approach, where I started with dictionary definitions because there’s so much misunderstanding or lack of understanding of what diversity is, what equity is, what inclusion is, what belonging is. People think they know, but they don’t always know. And sometimes they’re afraid to say that they don’t know because we’re all supposed to get it. But it is very confusing. So it started with the definitions then did the audience participation section, which is what I just explained about distributing the the desserts and then wrapped up with the little short baking demonstration to help further illustrate why it’s so. Port and why you have to do things correctly in order to reap the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce and the benefit actually that it has to the corporation. And there’s real dollars and cents behind that.

Lee Kantor: Now, who have you determined who that ideal client, that perfect fit client is for you yet?

Chef Maria Kemp: You know, that’s a really tough question to answer. And I’m digging into that even further because as I look at the different industries that have expressed interest or, you know, that I’m beginning to work with and have conversations with, they don’t follow any particular industry. Like, I can’t say it’s all banking, it’s all automotive, it’s all this, it’s all that. But starting to look at what are those common threads between them. It’s typically going to be an organization that, you know, has someone in a Dei leadership manager or I can’t think of the other term right now capacity and is active in their efforts and is bold enough to say, you know, what we’re doing may not be working and we may need a fresh approach. And that’s where the beginning of where I can come in to help them. The other common threads will start to reveal themselves as I get a little bit deeper into conversations with the corporations.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this a presentation or is it an ongoing training? Is it both, or are you still kind of figuring all that out?

Chef Maria Kemp: No, it’s no, I’ve got that figured out. I figured that out in the four months of planning. And then when I did the two back to back sessions at BMW, I saw very clearly then. It’s kind of funny you ask that because I was having a conversation with the client about doing it for them and we thought we could do it virtually. But then after I did it in person, I’m like, There’s no way this can be virtual. It has to be in person because this isn’t about me making desserts and shipping them to someone and telling them what to do. It’s my expertise, my background, my experience and everything that I bring into the equation that helps helps it be effective. Um, but yeah, it definitely has to be in person to have that interactive experience. I like to call it an interactive dessert presentation because when I put the word dessert in there, people’s ears perk up. They’re like, Ooh, I think I’m interested in that. Even if I’m just hungry, I’m interested. But then they get the additional benefits when they attend. So it is an interactive presentation. It’s not a keynote speaking opportunity. It’s not packaged it up and send it to them. It’s not virtual. It’s an interactive presentation or breakout session.

Lee Kantor: And then how many people does it work optimally for that?

Chef Maria Kemp: Can that can vary. Like for BMW, we planned on 100 per session because, you know, there’s there’s certain logistics that I have to make sure or are planned for in advance. And when all the planning is done, then it’s, you know, it’s easy from there and planning is easy and a comfort area for strength for me. So that was that was the easy part. But you know, we did 100 there. Could it go a little bigger? Yeah, it definitely could. I wouldn’t want to do, you know, like 500, 600 or anything like that, maybe 150, possibly 200. But that also depends upon the the venue and the space that the organization or corporation has the event taking place in as well, and the limitations that they may have on time. Because the more people you have, the more time it’s probably going to take. So there’s a lot of factors that would play into that.

Lee Kantor: And then the people who are attending, they’re going to eat something and yes, but they’re not necessarily going to make something, right?

Chef Maria Kemp: No, exactly. Thank you. Good question. No, they are going to eat it. You know, when I tell them they can, because we have to go through all the all the information and the teaching portion of it. And then then they do get to eat it and they love that part the best. But no, they’re not making anything at all. This is not that’s why I call it an interactive dessert presentation. So it doesn’t, you know, have the air that you’re going to bake something, you’re going to cook something, you’re going to get your hands in there and do anything to create anything. It’s a presentation. And then I share the recipe for the dessert they enjoyed via my link tree after. So if they want to go home and make it, they can. But it’s not in the session.

Lee Kantor: Now, what compelled you to get certified through BBQ and be a certified business owner? Oh yeah.

Chef Maria Kemp: Absolutely.

Chef Maria Kemp: I actually contacted I don’t remember if I contacted someone from there or one of my friends was certified through. Through GW BC and I was able to attend the national conference last year in. Or was it was it Nashville?

Chef Maria Kemp: Nashville. Right.

Chef Maria Kemp: Nashville. Yeah. And I attended the conference even though I wasn’t certified yet, You know, I was like, oh my goodness, this is phenomenal. You know, it’s a sea of women business owners or, you know, businesses that are primarily, you know, the majority of women owned and making all the connections, going to the expo, going to the events. And it just the engagement and even the webinars and seminars and all these things that they had available, I was plugging into, you know, as I was going through certification, maybe even before I was, you know, finally fully certified has been phenomenal. It’s just it was another opportunity to meet other women who, you know, are kind of pioneers like me. We’re all charging for it and selling a product or a service and believe in what we do and love finding individuals who are on that same journey and same path as we are. And it’s just been phenomenal. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve attended and the connections I’ve made. There were actually women that I met at an event in Charlotte, the tables of eight at Ally, and I wasn’t even certified yet. Then I got certified in July of this year and they came to Greenville and came to my session at BMW. So that was really very cool.

Lee Kantor: Wow, That’s very supportive and collaborative. Right now, if somebody wants to learn more about Beyond Decadence, what is the website? What is the best way to connect with you?

Chef Maria Kemp: The best way to connect with me is you can always go to the website, which is beyond decadence, dot com. It’s the word beyond and then the word decadence, which is on the screen behind me. I’ll tilt a little bit so people can see it if they’re watching the video or you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m all over social media, especially LinkedIn, and I’m under Chef Maria Kemp, and I would love to connect with you and tell you more about these interactive dessert presentation. The title I’m still running with right now because I do like it is Die and Be Powered by Dessert. Kind of had a little automotive theme for BMW, but I like it and I think I’m going to stick with that title for a while.

Lee Kantor: Well, chef, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Chef Maria Kemp: Thank you. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you on the next time on GW BBQ. Open for business.