We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alicia Boyd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alicia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
It was a big, life changing risk to decide to pursue Humble Hearts Catering & Events as a full time profession. I was in a position, in my personal life, where I had just become a cancer survivor. I had a good job and was moving up the career ladder throughout my company. But I was still unfilled. Humble Hearts was on the back burner of my mind but I was still longing to be a business owner and I was longing to do it through catering. For context, hospitality runs through my heritage and food has always been my passion. Any chance that I had to cook for my friends, family and co-workers, I took it. So because that love was starting to grow again, I was having more conversations about bringing Humble Hearts to the front burner, on simmer, and seeing if this could be a real thing for me. So in 2018, we started taking events again, just to test the waters and the water felt good. It felt natural and it felt like home. So we continued to take more events in 2019, so much so that Humble Hearts was feeling like a full time job even though I already had a full time job.. We were putting more and more processes in place to be completely compliant. Our team was having serious conversations about doing business full time. And that was exciting and scary. Very scary. For me, how could I think about leaving my nice job that helped me bring in consistent income to take care of my family? How could I think about taking a risk like this when I just was not too far shy of chemo treatments and all that comes with that process? The safe decision for me to make was to keep my job, do Humble Hearts as a hobby and enjoy the best of both worlds. But for me, that option wasn’t safe, it seemed draining and limiting. Because I knew in my heart that I would never be satisfied. No matter where I work, I would always find something wrong and feel like I needed to move on to learn something else. So at the end of 2019, I made the decision to leave my full time job at the end of February 2020 to pursue Humble Hearts full-time. February 2020, one month before the whole world changed as we knew it. So now, Humble Hearts was on full boil and we had no choice but to make it work. And we did! We came up with ingenious ways to survive and service clients and we worked hard with integrity and grit to continue forward with something that I only dreamed could happen. And today, through all of the trials, changes and uncertainties, Humble Hearts is five years old and still moving forward.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am Alicia Boyd, wife, mother, inspiring author and owner of Humble Hearts Catering & Events. Having my own business has always been my dream. Specifically, since I was young my goal was to become a chef. I often cooked by my grandmother, aunt and mom’s side and fell in love with being able to be so creative with food. I also loved the atmosphere this type of hospitality created. My families’ home felt so warm, full and fun. And I wanted to create that for others. Thus, Humble Hearts Catering & Events was born because you have to have a humble heart to serve others. Cooking for others is very personal, intimate and relational. And that is what Humble Hearts now represents.
Humble Hearts Catering & Events is a boutique company that offers off-site catering services for intimate and mid-sized events in Maryland’s Upper Eastern Shore, Northwest Washington D.C and surrounding areas. Our main focuses are social, weddings and corporate events. The mission of Humble Hearts is to curate superior culinary experiences through service, attention to detail and presentation. My vision for Humble Hearts is to cultivate a company that values relationships as well as the total hospitality experience for clients and their special events. And that’s something that I’m very proud of. Our processes and approaches are based on building relationships with clients, vendors, staff and other businesses. As we take the time to connect with people, we have the chance to elevate the clients’ experience with care and creativity, from beginning to end and beyond. This approach has really set us apart and helps us build a company that others can trust and build a community that others want to be a part of.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I feel like I’m walking a resiliency journey in this season. At the end of 2022, Humble Hearts had some major changes, leaving me the sole owner of Humble Hearts Catering & Events. This entrepreneurial journey now looks different for me from what I envisioned it would when the business was first started. But I think through this transition, I had to take the time and opportunity to look at myself and do some hard self evaluations about who I was, how I wanted the business to move forward and how I want to be as a business owner and person. Some days are overwhelming because there is a lot to manage and learn behind the scenes that keep the business thriving. On the other side of the coin, there has been growth because I get to keep building something I love with new purpose and perspective and I’m learning new things about the business and myself. For me, life has always been a journey of changes, growth and lessons. The unexpected can happen at any time and it takes courage to make decisions in how we process those changes, growth and lessons. And it is not always easy to take that journey but I have come to find that it is a worthy one to take. I’m excited to see who I will be in this season and what new purpose will grow in and out of me.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson I had to unlearn and still unlearning is trying to do things in my own strength as a business owner. One of the biggest misconceptions about being a business owner is that just because it’s your business, you can do what you want. That is so very far from the truth. If you desire to build a business on integrity and purpose, there is a certain mindset that comes with that and I had to learn that. You have to be accountable to business partners, clients, vendors, state agencies and the list goes on. I walked around many days feeling the pressure, responsibility, unknowingness and excitement that entrepreneurship fostered. I felt like I was always in a space of working on the business and working in the business. In my mind, it was my sole responsibility to move the business forward because there were so many sacrifices being made. And I didn’t want to come off as ungrateful to those sacrifices . So I worked hard, long, burned out and frustrated to grind out solutions and ideas to help the business grow. For me to be in that mind frame, it wasn’t healthy for anyone, especially me. So when I finally had the chance to reset, refocus and regroup, I had to first admit my insecurities, shortcomings and why my thinking moved in that direction. I invited accountability in for me as a business owner to make sure my words and actions lined up with my values. And if needed, my accountability team could check me on the actions I took. I daily have to give myself grace to be okay with not knowing everything it takes to run a business and that failure is a part of the process. It’s how we move past the failure that matters. Once I began to step out of my own way and invited my support team into that level of vulnerability, I was able to make decisions from a healthy and purposeful place. I was able to empower and equip my team with the tools they needed to work towards a vision and mission they valued and believed in. I still work very hard in what I do daily but the change has been my perspective in how I accomplish the work. And for me this lesson has shifted my business and life for the better through communication, development and community.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.humbleheartsevents.com
- Instagram: hhcateringandevents
- Facebook: hhcateringandevents
Image Credits
Petite Cranberry Jerk Chicken Croissants, Spinach & Artichoke Frittata & Petite Cinnamon Rolls with Edible Flowers- credit Willow Roots Photography Chicken Salad Puff, Charcuterie Cup, Smoked Salmon Deviled Egg & Salad Roll Plate- crédit Chelsea Blanch Photography Kombucha Cheesecake with Honey Almond Granola & Edible Flowers- credit Madison Berlen Photography