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

Alright, Kelsey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Whimsy Charcuterie actually started as Whimsy Picnics, an idea born from a tired and defeated nurse during the pandemic. In 2020 I was still a fairly new RN working in dialysis giving treatments to patients in the ICU. The work was interesting and fulfilling and I thought I would continue working in dialysis for the remainder of my career. When the pandemic hit I quickly went from loving what I did as a nurse to dreading waking up every day to go to work. I was working over 80 hours most weeks, was on 24 hour a day on-call rotations throughout the week and was at an all time low mentally. In addition to my own mental health depleting, I saw the mental health of my loved one’s declining as well. I knew we needed a safe way to spend time together and gain that human connection that seemed to have disappeared overnight due to quarantine restrictions. That’s when the idea for Whimsy Picnics was born. I launched a business providing luxury picnics, set outside, so that people could enjoy spending time with their loved ones in a safer, socially distanced environment. It wasn’t long before I realized one of the things that brought people together and helped them feel connected during their picnics, was the sharing of a meal. There is something personal and intimate about passing around a plate (or in this case, board) of food with the people you care about. Serving food to each other, sharing which ingredient is your favorite, those are the moments where connection is happening. I found myself drawn to not only the beauty of the connection that these boards were providing, but also the beauty of the board itself. To arrange the ingredients in a way that was pleasing and surprising to anyone who saw it brought me so much joy! I decided when I moved to Idaho, to be closer to family, that I would move full time into creating these grazing boards and it is one of the best decisions I have made.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Kelsey! I love to try new things and want to experience as much of the world as possible, and that manifests in the choices I make as a business owner. Since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated by science and planned on going into a science based career. Of course, when I was a child I was convinced that my career would be working as an astronaut for NASA, not as an RN. But I landed in the field of nursing and while it has been rewarding and incredible, I soon realized how much I was missing expressing myself creatively. My mom was one of the most incredible and creative women I have ever known, and she passed that creative quality along to me. Whimsy Charcuterie fulfills my desire to create and grow in my craft, while providing a special meal and experience for my clients to share with those who they loved. I pride myself in creating unique charcuterie and grazing boards that are not only beautiful but delicious, and I am always looking for new ways to serve my clients with a unique product!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I started my business in December of 2020 I knew nothing about social media. To this day my personal instagram has less than 400 followers and I rarely post there. So when I started my business, I realized that if I wanted to grow I would need to start learning how to grow my social media presence through a business account. Instagram has been my number one platform for doing just that, and I would estimate that about 90% of my bookings have come through Instagram. My advice for anyone starting or trying to grow a community and audience on Instagram is consistency! Consistency has been key in my account growth. I try to post everyday, which isn’t hard because I love connecting with the community I’ve built! My second piece of advice is utilize as many of Instagram’s features as possible. It is no secret that Instagram is constantly changing and evolving to keep up with an ever changing world. Utilize new features when they come around! Use as many different features as you can to encourage engagement from your audience. My last piece of advice might be a little controversial, but there’s no shame in running a great targeted ad campaign! I mostly ran ads when I was first starting out, but the ROI was invaluable! I would pay attention to my page insights, choose posts that shared details about my products or made an announcement, and choose the posts that performed best organically to be used as ads. This led to more messages and website clicks which led to more sales!

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

Since I started my business during a time when most states were operating under strict quarantine rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram was the number one way I was getting my business in front of new people and booking clients. Since moving to Idaho in Spring of 2022 however, I have made a push to network in person and have found that I am booking more new clients this way than I am booking through Instagram! I think there is something so powerful about making a face to face connection with someone new. It is so much easier for me to show my passion for this business and for potential clients to make a decision on if they want to work with me. My business is not just about the products and services I offer, but the customer service and human connection I can provide.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.whimsycharcuterie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/whimsycharcuterie
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@whimsycharcuterie www.pinterest.com/whimsycharcuterie

Image Credits
Sage and Honey Photo