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

Alright, Cheyenne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

2015, my junior year in high school, I attended my very first culinary class and that was when the passion in me grew, the gift began to brighten and the dream began to take form, The name of my business came to me around that time! Of course, I had to do some research to make sure the name I wanted originally wasn’t already taken, and it was but I immediately came up with A Taste of Exquisitry. Fast forward to 2017, I was in college for my baking and pastry diploma, I decided to attend school because I didn’t want to be another baker and own a bakery. I wanted more for myself and wanted my business to be something different, not your average, everyday thing. The college went in depth into the difference between a baked good and a pastry and before attending I assumed a good dessert just looked good and tasted good but to be a Pastry Chef there was alot more to it. The beauty and intricate design of a pastry and the flow of erotic flavor combos is what drew me to this profession, learning about the European take on desserts roped me in. Not to mention, my desserts are heavily influenced by the European technique and style. While in college we had to “create” a business that needed a website, business cards and with having to create those things I needed to know colors, font, theme, and I wanted a slogan.
Looking at my desserts and knowing that I wanted a fine dining, plated dessert restaurant, helped answer some of the questions and how I wanted the business to be presented answered the rest. Knowing these details moved my business up a pedestal and closer towards success
At that moment, my business started to develop character. I created bases for all my desserts and with that foundation, I began to build my most elaborate desserts, making sure the desserts were how I envisioned them to be. From the flavors, components/ composition, to difficulty, and execution
2022 it was time to really start investing in my business and spreading awareness. With that being said, there was much to research, starting with which company I wanted to purchase my LLC through. I spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting each company and finally settled on one. When that was finished, I joined a bunch of groups titled “vendors in Michigan” “pop-ups in Michigan” on my social media pages to find places to present my craft.
2023 my logo was made! I met this person doing my first pop up shop and she was very helpful! By the end of 2023 my business was spotted at 8 different pop ups throughout that year and the feeling is surreal! Because this idea started as a dream and is now being executed!

Cheyenne, 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?

It all started with watching Cupcake Wars and Cake boss almost every day. Fascinated by these elaborate ideas, I began to write my own and that is how my business began to manifest. We make cheesecakes, cakes, brownies, mousse, torts, tarts, cupcakes, gelato and we are making our way into food! The services we provide are catering for parties/events, single serve/household desserts, weddings and soon meal prep! I am hoping to get into markets sometime next year! Also, a lot of these desserts are low calorie, low sugar and low-no salt! We are actively working our way into sugar free desserts, the goal is to accommodate almost everyone’s health concern, because everyone deserves a good dessert with the guilt.
What sets my business apart from others, is the fact that we care! Desserts should not just be a sugary mess that’s bad for your health and teeth, it should be enjoyable! I often have people tell me ” I shouldn’t be eating this” while munching on a cake slice from the store and seeing that there is more guilt than pleasure in eating a dessert blows my mind.
My business is here to eliminate that! A side note, I am reading books on digestion and the physiology of the body to fully understand the levels of things we need to ingest that could potentially harm us or make no impact on our body or simply bring out that natural energy we need. And with that I plan to become a Holistic Nutritionist and get my license, because our body deserves better, and my desserts are a part of that plan and so is meal prep!
One thing to know is that A Taste of Exquisitry is going to be the next big thing! Next year I will be starting my garden so that I can guarantee fresh ingredients with no extra additives, so we can fully experience a true dessert!
On another note, the slogan for my business is “To be Different and Bring Different” and we abide by that so we can constantly out do ourselves. When it comes to supporting my business, we do encourage everyone to get out their comfort zones and be willing to at least try new things.! We will be introducing food items and desserts that stray from your average and would love for people to come out the box a little. We always have samples and always in need of tasters! If you would like to become a taster just send us a Dm on one of our social media pages with your location and a list of your allergies and we’ll get back to you!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that there isn’t a need to go hard everyday! There are seasons for everyone and sometimes it’s not your season. I’m not saying you should be unproductive during that time, but stressing and forcefully trying to push your business will cause you to over exert yourself in the long run. Instead take it as a break and focus on a different aspect of your business that could put your business in a different lighting. What brought this upon me was the fact that I was stressing, hardcore. I developed all my dessert ideas and started running with them, constantly coming up with new ideas and flavor combos then taking them to pop up shows to sell. With doing these pop ups, as a dessert vendor the demographics were off and sometimes I would only sell 5 items in 6 hours. With going through this often I needed to sit and think, but I didn’t want to do that because in my mind, the time I need to sit and think I could be using as action to get my business out there and that is when my guilt began. The pressure and stress was constantly attacking me and the real of it all was that I was trying to build the foundation/ support beams of the business while also attempting to spread awareness at the same time and it wasn’t getting me anywhere! instead I was overwhelmed and over stimulated. I had to sit down and set a ultimate goal that would really shake things up, then create the steps to successfully achieve that goal and in doing those steps, my foundation would be complete. This took me time to realize because I was constantly trying to move the business by making different desserts and the whole time, that wasn’t the answer! In actuality, the business needed to be relocated and put in a better atmosphere, where the demographics were on a different scale! All in all, it wasn’t my season to sell but it was my time to build a stronger base and acknowledge where my business needed to be in order to thrive, owning a business is only as great as its support beams. You’ll know when it’s your season!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I am in the process of trying out new methods. Lately my best source has been social media, I’m able to reach a wide variety of people in a short about of time. Another way is having deals! That really draws the people in for me. Some of my desserts are $8 so every 5 months or so I do a 4 for $15, my menu be composed of desserts that require the least amount of time to make and I try to keep different flavors to please majority of the audience. Another way is when I go to events/ pop-up shops I go around and introduce myself to the other vendors and encourage an exchange of business cards along with samples

Contact Info:

• Website: tasteofexquisitry.my.canva.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ataste_of_exquisitry?igsh=NGdhNjh1cDdiOWpi
• Other: tik tok
  https://www.tiktok.com/@atasteofexquisitry?_t=8o23tKq2clw&_r=1