We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexus Davis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexus, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Where it all started?

It all started before I knew it started. I would prepare food for myself as I moved out on my own at the age of 16. Living with my former boyfriend in his mom basement. His mom worked very hard and let me stay in her basement and welcomed me around her entire home. Well I never needed an handout or wanted to be anyone burden and truly appreciated her being so motherly when she didn’t have to; I offered to give her money. Well she told me I can just contribute to her home, and so I did.

I would spend $500 on groceries every week any extra cash I had I would help with family gatherings as they had them often or I would treat his mom to Red Wine which she turned me on to and would always make different dishes while my ex boyfriend sister in law baked sweet treats. With this, I was able to practice meal planning ; meal prepping, and of course experiment with flavors and other dishes I wasn’t familiar with.

Well that relationship ended a year and a half later. I remember his mom saying to me you will be great and I believe in you. She actually helped me leave her son: She told me how well I could cook however, that went over my head at the time. She told me not to give up considering I was a full time undergrad at Bowie State University. At the time I was majoring in music business but kind of confused myself with the intensive cooking I was doing. I simply found my passion.

I would prepare dinner for self and take left overs to work and my co workers would literally crowd around me considering the aroma of the flavors is BOLD ! I remember the Dentist walking through the hallway going to work on a patient and stopped by the kitchen saying who got the whole office smelling like a date night. My eyes got HUGE! Thinking back this is when I knew I had a business plan; of course at that time I wasn’t to aware of how I would turn cooking into a business.

Taking lunch to work quickly turned into a side hustle. I remember making my first pan of Seafood Macaroni and Cheese. That quickly turned into making pans of those consistently. With this it allowed me to target my audience, I figured I can cater people holidays events birthdays and any other special occasion. AND I DID ! I would prepare side dishes for co workers during the holidays , I would bring extra lunch with me and would be paid for it. At one point, I remember making more making side dishes on the side than I did working at a dentist off 12 hours a day 6 days a week.

Fast forward from then “2015” to “2017” I am not a mother and now something has to shake. I figured I start building an online presence considering I didn’t know many people that would support me by buying dinners. I learned of influencers and collaboration and I went for it. Someone sent me a funny promotional video “Odawq” posted on IG and I said he is it. I planned a weekend to do promo with him. Prior to the promo I wanted to do, I had signed up as a vendor at a hair networking pop up shop and everyone truly loved BossnFlavors. I still have my very first live review.

This motivated me ALOT! After the pop up I had food still available, I hit the streets and was going to corner stores in the city trying to promote my brand and sell the food. Well I met a guy while doing so that didn’t want food that wasn’t fresh and I knew he was my target audience just from his demeanor. His favorite food was Alfredo he said no one can make it good and the conversation went blur at that point I knew I would change his mind. He mentioned if it was good he was going to make his whole crew pull up on me. I pulled up on him the next day, which was the same day I had the promo set up. I had the crock pot with me so it was still hot and fresh out the pan. I let him see me make his box of food, and on the spot live review “ IM THE ONE THE FLAVORS THE ONE” He called me back a few hours later wanting more.

By this time, I already had dropped the food too Odawq for the promotion, I circled back to the city to drop off another box of Alfredo to my customer.

Within 30 mins of dropping the food to Odawg he posted the review and when I say my following went from 78 to 1300 In 3 hours it was unbelievable. I had over 99 messages. I didn’t know what to expect from that promotion. I went to the grocery store I stocked up on to go containers and more ingredients. I had to call my grandmother and ask for some cash because it was so unexpected. I ending up cashing out $1100 in 2 days making Alfredo. I got so tired of making Alfredo I remember telling my Godsister I gotta find something else to make cause this not going work. It got so bad I couldn’t even stomach Alfredo anymore. I got tired of tasting it and smelling it. Imagine making the same thing everyday for 7 weeks or longer.

Well I quickly formulated a plan to sell dinners and have a set menu for the weekends. This was the greatest thing I could’ve did for my professional development as an entrepreneur.

I had to research how to do pop ups considering, my first one was not structured at all. I had to research everything; how to make sure certain dishes are done, how to know when to put chicken in the grease very basic things I had to Google. I would have to call my grandmother and ask her for help over the phone. At the time, she didn’t really have an idea of what I was doing and neither did I but she knew I was up to something so she would help. I remember when she gave me her macaroni and cheese recipe she said to me “ im only giving this to you because I don’t want you to be messing them people food up I don’t know you to be doing all that cooking “ I said okay grandma me either but I’m doing this.

Selling dinners became my thing. I called myself the Queen of Winter Pop Up. I was out in the snow storms selling my dinners. When restaurants was closed I was in my home preparing food and driving in inches of snow that was extremely dangerous driving in. I had a plan and was on a mission to get my business of the ground. The city truly motivated me.

Selling dinners flourished to catering private events , traveling all around the world to compliment tastebuds. My first experience on the road was to do a pop up in ATLANTA. This was the best experience BossnFlavors had at that time. This motivated me a lot as well.

Experiencing traveling to cook made me want to keep traveling to cook so I would find ways to need to be in other states. I did a giveaway on Instagram after the promo and picked a winner that didn’t live in the DMV AREA. I ended up traveling to Philly to deliver her giveaway date night meal “ thinking back to the dentist telling me I had the office smelling like it was date night” I do still have the video of the date night giveaway.

This has been a journey and I am forever grateful. I’ve released a song on all music platforms since the start of BossnFlavors. I’ve stocked my seasoning in a Grocery Market in SW, DC. I’ve cooked for Eazy E daughter Reemarkable, and so much more to be thankful for.

It was a lot to grow with this brand, however; we been growing and learning together..

Alexus, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The biggest problem I solve is bland flavors. Food that isn’t art. Presentation is super important if it doesn’t look good no one will notice it and if they notice it it’ll be with a frown on their face and that’s never a vibe I want my guest to experience.

As mentioned before. I got into the culinary industry simply by catering dishes for events of all kind and growing to sell dinners and become a private chef.

I believe my very bold and savory flavors is what set BossnFlavors aside. I am not a Garlic Powder , Salt and Pepper kind of chef so making my own seasoning sets my brand aside as well. It’s still full of flavor but 100% salt free. I had to research different flavors in my favorite store bought seasonings and really make flavors into my own.

I am most proud of my entire empire. Traveling to cook , cooking for celebrities and influencers, stocking shelves in stores with my products, partnering my children fruit and drink company with my brand is also something I’m very proud of. Generational wealth is building while I build my brand. It’s been a pleasure to work with other artist through my journey as music and food coupled together is always a vibe. Being able to manage artist and see through their artist development journey has helped BossnFlavors expand to BossnEmpire.

Make sure you stream She Cooks by Gio out in all music platforms.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Funding BossnFlavors hasn’t been the easiest. Although I am not as far as I would like to be with the brand we’ve come this far by accepting donations and simply turning my passion into a hustle. I would host raffles and have cash app entires that would help me cover the cost of most things. In the very early stages I did have a full time job however, then I didn’t invest much because, I didn’t know exactly where we were going or even what I needed to invest in other than the basics to sell dinner.

This side hustle became my lively hood. It became how I fed my children and how I kept a roof over our head. We at one point for 3 months lived in a hotel. BossnFlavors funded the cost of our room everyday at a rate of $106 a day. I would stay up for 16 hours plus selling dinners from my room to fund my lively hood and the cost to keep BossnFlavors going.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building a social media presence organically isn’t the easiest to do and surely takes time. The best thing I could’ve did was spend thousands of dollars over the course of 4 years on promotional reviews. This allowed me to gain a new audience from other creator platforms. I would do what I call outreach and put my business cards on people cars, doors and even in hand.

I am competing in 2023 Fave Chef with Carla P Hall and during the duration of this competition you’ll see the different measure I’ll go to promote my brand and attract a new audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.bossnflavors.com
• Instagram: Www.Instagram.com/bossnflavors
• Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/bossnflavors
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bossnflavors?s=21
• Youtube: Www.YouTube.com/bossnflavorss