We recently connected with Kate Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Kate, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was fortunate to grew up in the restaurant industry. I watched my parents sacrifice throughout my whole life to operate their restaurant 7 days a week. It was inspiring to see their grit and perseverance to provide for their family. I knew that the food and hospitality industry was what I wanted to pursue as my career. I got my bachelors in Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University, where I was able to intern in Nanjing, China and study Culinary Arts and Pastry in Italy. After graduating, I moved to Kansas City with my fiance (now husband) and was eager to start a career in a fast-paced kitchen environment. After a year and a half of job searching, I had an interview that changed my life. A hiring manager gave me the feedback: “We are impressed with your resume, but we just don’t think you’d fit in with the boys”. I was in complete shock. I didn’t know if it was 2017 or 1917. Women deserve the same opportunities in the workplace. After that experience, I took a position at a culinary school that felt like a dream job. Up until one day when my role was severely reduced when a new director took over the department. He often would prevented me from doing my job and would frequently say “we’re going to let the big boys take care of this sweetie”. Again, in complete shock, I immediately resigned from my position and started my own business a week later in hopes to create a work environment and business that was positive, open-minded, and inclusive. I quickly learned that if there wasn’t space for me, I had to create space for myself. It just so happened that by creating space for myself, I was able to create a space for others and I couldn’t be happier with the team I have around me.

I really never thought I would own a bakery. I am a very creative/visually artistic person so it felt more like a fun hobby to me at the time and not a job. I made macarons as gifts for brides at a part time job I had and they would always ask me where they could purchase them. I decided to give it a shot selling them at a Christmas shopping event and sold 3000 macarons in 2 hours. I immediately knew that I had to grow this business. No one else in the Kansas City area was specializing in French Macarons or pushing the wedding industry to serve anything other than cake and cupcakes. It was like I stumbled onto a trail and blazed right through it. Less than 6 months into my business, we opened our first retail location and had booked 35 weddings. 2 years into the business and in the peak of COVID, I opened my restaurant, Butterfield’s. I knew it would be a successful concept and I knew that people were losing their jobs. I was able to create an inclusive work environment and keep my team employed through unknown times.

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?

Hi, I’m Kate! I’ve always had a passion for food and art so this is truly the ultimate dream career. There’s nothing I love more than getting to create beautiful edible art with my hands. Plus getting to work alongside my incredible team and partnering with fellow local businesses is the biggest cherry on top. I got started in the food industry by being raised working in my parent’s restaurant at a very young age. I then got my Hospitality Management degree from Oklahoma State University and studied Culinary Arts and Pastry in Florence, Italy. It was there that I fell in love with French Macarons and made it my mission to bring that same authentic quality to Kansas City. Kate Smith Soirée specializes in alternative wedding desserts that steps outside the norm of traditional wedding cakes. I love everything that makes our couples unique and using the creative process to showcase that through a perfectly curated dessert display. After serving hundreds of couples, it still never gets old getting to work with each couple’s unique vision and bringing it to life! It’s my goal to show couples that you don’t have to serve cake if you don’t want to and there is a whole world of desserts out there! And aside from the wedding world, I love to spread kindness and be part of any and all celebrations, living out our motto “Stay Sweet, KC”.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My two biggest pieces of advice that kept me in business and my team intact through the worst labor crisis: treat your team like human beings and say thank you. Sounds easy, right?

The workplace environment is highly outdated. There are still managers and owners that think employees should put work first and go above and beyond their responsibilities without compensation. Remind yourself the next time someone requests off to spend time with their family or calls in sick. They’re human beings just like me and you. I’ve created a relationship with my team where they feel like they can be open and honest with me with just about anything. They understand that there’s a mutual respect and they also understand that when the business succeeds, they also benefit. I take my staff out frequently to thank them for their hard work and to strengthen their team bond, but honestly it’s the simple words of “thank you” that makes their whole day. Never underestimate the value of praise.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I can’t stress how incredibly important to network and make connections. No one in this world knows of every opportunity, solution, or knowledge of an industry. I started this business out of my home and every professional connection I made, has opened a new door for me. I’m also a firm believer that fellow professionals in your industry are not your competition, they’re your colleagues. Collaboration over competition all day, every day. I can’t count the number of times my “competition” has helped and supported me when I needed it through every milestone. I’ve called on their knowledge and solutions countless of times and they can always rely on me as well.

Here’s the power of a single connection: From selling my product at a Christmas shopping event, I met a wedding venue owner who invited me to participate in a styled shoot to market my macarons to engaged couples. From that one connection, my foot was in the wedding industry and 4 years later, we are serving over 100 couples a year. After that shoot, I hit the ground running by attending networking events and participating in more collaborative styled shoots to get more content and meet more vendors. Just by word of mouth, we were able to book 35 weddings in our first year of business. I quickly ran out of production space in my home and through one of my connections, I found out about the Lenexa Public Market. It’s a food hall concept built for small local businesses to incubate their concepts until they’re ready for their own brick & mortar. That’s how I was able to start out small and really focus on growing the business and concept. Only a year and a half later, I was able to open my second concept, Butterfield’s and 4 years into the business, I’m getting ready to expand into a second bakery location.

Even though I have established my business as an award-winning bakery, I still continue to network by getting involved in the community. I serve as a Board of Director for the Chamber of Commerce, I’m a member of Les Dames D’Escoffier, and frequently work with non-profits and schools to give back to my community. It’s only been positive for my business and my professional development because I get what I put into it, so I always give it my all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katesmithsoiree.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/katesmithsoiree
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/katesmithsoiree

Image Credits
Annie Liu Photography Claire Ryser Photography Mariam Saifan Photography Espy’s Photography