We were lucky to catch up with Learnel Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Learnel, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Before I started my catering company, I had about ten years of catering experience. I moved back to Florida to continue to pursue my executive chef career when I was faced with rejection due to me being “overqualified”. For the first time in my culinary career, I’ve never heard that before. Two straight months of hearing I was “overqualified” the thought immediately came to me about catering and how much money was in it. I wasn’t a caterer per say but I knew how to cater. I had the experience. I went to visit a friend in Atlanta and he is a business owner. Rite before I was about to leave, he started talking about federal EIN. I had no idea what he was talking about so I went home to look it up. I instantly became interested and intrigued with starting a catering company. I researched what was necessary to open and start a catering company and began doing so step by step. I first obtained my federal EIN number. Then applied for my catering license. Then I found a web designer to create my website. From there I printed business cards and I was ready. At lease I thought I was. I began marketing my catering company in every way possible. I would design flyers and put them in peoples mailboxes until a police offices almost arrested me and informed me it was a federal offense touching someone’s mailbox. Luckily someone contacted me to do an event for 125 guests. I created a menu, the client agreed to the menu and price, the rest was history. I Literally purchased all my equipment as I needed it. Each event, I purchased something different that I would need. It worked perfectly. I was figuring things out as I went along. It was scary but it was a learning experience. I had enough experience to wing it and it paid off. A lot of my clients were obtained by word of mouth. They were appalled with the level of service my staff and myself provided.

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

This was never my dream!! This was never my destiny!! I was in my third year of residency at med school when a life changing choice changed my life. My premature, 8 week early son was born and I was faced with the decision on being a full time father or a full time med student. I’m an immigrant from Jamaica living my dream. Straight A med student. What else was I to do? I tried both. One was asking and requiring more of my time and energy. Before I ruined my GPA, I withdrew from med school to become a full time father. While at home, I missed school terribly so I enrolled to obtain my MBA since I was only a few credits shy. At the time, le cordon bleu had opened a new college in the area. I seen the commercial and was immediately hooked. I took a trip to the school for a tour. At the end of the tour, I was I mesmerized. I immediately applied to the school. When I reached home, the school called me and told me I was accepted. The rest is history. I fratduated top of my class. I worked for Disney. I won a externship to Germany for nine months. The best culinary experience of my life. I studied in Trinidad for six months. Different parts of France for two months. I ran various restaurants in NYC, Florida, Pennsylvania and many more states. We focus on international cuisines hence my travels and different exposures with various foods from all over the world. I’ve been a professional chef for 13yrs. I am extremely passionate about food, about this industry. Reasons why I go above and beyond for my clients. I’ve been in the hospitality industry well over 15yrs. This is my life. Taking care of people is the main reason why I enrolled in culinary school.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Funding my business all came by accident. I was working as an executive chef through the New York City circuit where I was making great money. I was able to save and have a decent cushion for my move back to Florida. I had no intention of saving my money to start a catering company. That was literally the last thing on my mind. My personal savings became the funding for my catering company as I needed certain equipment for certain events. It all worked out at the end as the more events I booked, the less equipment I needed because I racked up on everything from the beginning.

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

Social media is a hit or miss. It’s either people are going to love what you post/present or they will hate it. I’ve always been passionate and I aim to please. With the companies I’ve previously worked with, I was heavily trained. I also was classically French trained and went to a French culinary school. I work in Italian restaurants for eight years so I had a certain niche about plate presentation. I always wanted to get that wow effect. I wanted the dining room to talk about how beautiful the plate looks. Picture perfect food was defiantly what I was aiming for. To this day it’s still what I aim for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alimentsdelearnel.wixsite.com/mysite
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/aliments_de_learnel?r=nametag
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alimentsdelearnel
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/aliments-de-learnel
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/nUXit0qivsb