Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alicia Hommon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alicia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My industry hero is Alton Brown. I have followed him since the very first episode of Good Eats I saw as a college senior who loved to be in the kitchen from a young age. A vocal music major at the time, I had no idea what the future would bring to me and just how big of an impact He’d have on me. There are two things I love best about Alton Brown: His honesty, and his openness. Honesty, because from the first time I’d seen his show, to interviews and book signings, he has always portrayed himself as just exactly who he is…unapologetically. I don’t doubt he has made a few mistakes along the way, we all do, but the fact that he has never, by my estimation, bowed to the temptation of media to squeeze himself into a “marketable” box, has given all of us goofy, sciency food nerds hope that one day we can be recognized for the gifts we have too. His openness has made an impression on me, because in my industry we are secret keepers. My business is a gluten free business, and some days it feels like the race is on to make the next breakthrough in tasty gluten free food (emphasis on the tasty!). Alton Brown is a teacher and a scientist. Yep, an entertainer and chef as well, but rather than hold his education and the secrets he’s learned in a locked vault, he’s shared them with the world. That’s the type of entrepreneur I’d like to be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Baking for the first half of my life, though a giant piece of who I was raised to be, had always been something I’d taken for granted. I think I just assumed that every little girl and boy grew up next to their mom, dad, grandpa or aunt rolling out pie crusts and kneading bread by the time they were six years old. I graduated in 1999 with a degree in music that I was unlikely to ever use after being hilariously traumatized by my first experience in front of a group of 4th grade music students. So I found myself a few years later, married and broke with a little baby girl who needed a birthday cake, and I thought…”I can do this myself.” I find it interesting that God will use something you don’t even like to bring you to the place you were born for. I’m not even a fan of cake, but He used the desire to provide something special for my children’s birthdays to lead me to the place I am now. From building a commercial kitchen in my garage to create custom cakes for my community, to an opportunity to design, decorate, and build a cake for the one and only George Strait (quite the confidence builder), to opening my first brick and mortar storefront, I’ve been on a wild ride of entrepreneurship for the past 15 years. As we prepaired to open our storefront in Gladstone, MO, a miraculous story in and of itself, I had the opportunity to work with Shae Bynes of Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur, and it was with her that I discovered my passion for entrepreneurs and communities and what it could look like to give back to others what I’ve learned. We are in our seventh year with our brick and mortar storefront, having survived the pandemic, and I’ve stepped out of full time operations, passing the rolling pin on to my daughters and a young lady who I consider my daughter. These days I get to participate in community leadership through the Chamber of Commerce, community planning through the local city Planning Commission, raising up and encouraging entrepreneurs as a part of the mentor team for Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur, and Consulting and Strategizing with leadership teams about how to bring greater harmony and unity to their community and organizations.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

When I first cast the vision to my potential landlord for how I would build my bakery, I was so arrogant! I remember my catch phrase at the time was “if I just build community, my business will build itself”. If I….If I…. The truth is, as we focused on loving every customer that walked through the door, through thick and thin, the community was building us. When the world shut down because of Covid-19, I sat around the dinner table with my family and told them “If we close, we’ll never be able to reopen. If we stay open, every one will have to work for free.” I then closed my eyes and waited for them to vote. My family unanimously voted for keeping the bakery open, and so we went to work, down every other employee but them. Looking at many families in our community not working and suffering financially, we prayed and felt we should be baking and giving away loaves of bread to anyone in the community who had a need. We decided that if the bakery were going to shut down, we’d go down serving those who had become our extended family and friends. Here comes the good part: Remember when I’d said if I build community, then the bakery would build itself? As we began to come in to work every day, with the doors locked and a tiny table full of packaged baked goods for sale and loaves of bread to give away, one day into the next and the next people in our community would knock on the door. Some we knew, and some we didn’t. We’d open the door, and they’d hand us cash, checks, or stuffed envelopes, one envelope even contained a family’s stimulus check. Every single one of them said the same thing: “We love you, thank you for all you do, and we want you to still be here when this is over.”

I’d love to take the credit for how we survived the pandemic, but the simple truth is, when we choose as entrepreneurs to love our customers and community the best way that we can, our community will rally around us when the going gets tough.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The most valuable piece of advice I’ve ever had given to me for managing people and maintaining morale came from a time of prayer one day. I had been spending some time complaining to God about certain “annoying” traits employees tend to have when God stopped me in my tracks. He whispered this question in my heart; “what if you were the kind of employer to them that I am to you?”. I was initially offended by that question, God as my employer? How cheeky! Then I started really thinking about it. As a believer, He has employed me, asking me to follow what is known as the great commission. So I began to look at my employees differently, with a heart of love and how can I serve them rather than seeking out what I can get out of them. When I started considering their needs, their gifts, their talents and assigning tasks and shifts according to that rather than my needs and the business’, not only did our business begin to grow, but those annoying habits stopped showing up, and I got to see my employee’s creativity released in a way that me holding tightly to every decision and detail never would have allowed. Today we are better organized, have a happier atmosphere, and are much more creative than ever before.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thelaughingplacebakery.com
• Instagram: thelaughingplacebakery
• Facebook: thelaughingplacebakery
• Other: tiktok: thelaughingplacebakery

Image Credits
Headshot: Joel Schneider Photography Candids: Alicia Hommon