Posted Under: Entrepreneurship, Our Heroes

Today under the “Our Heroes” series we are talking with Julia Swenson, an employee turned successful entrepreneur.  After working in investment banking for 3 years, she decided on a new career path and followed her passion for food. She enrolled in culinary school and began a career in Pastry and Baking, once she decided not to pursue an MBA. Today she runs Julia’s Kitchen, a catering company that continuously challenges her creativity… Here is what Julia’s journey from Corporate to Catering:

DD: Who are you and what kind of corporate job were you at?

JS: My name is Julia Swenson and I am the owner and executive chef of Julia’s Kitchen, a catering company based in Santa Monica, CA, and established in November 2008. I’ve had a passion for food and cooking for as long as I can remember, at least from the time I was helping my Italian-American grandmother prepare meatballs in her New Jersey kitchen at age five. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve always had an affinity for numbers, which is why I majored in economics and why after graduating from a small liberal arts university I worked in Manhattan at JPMorganChase for the investment bank on the foreign currency derivative trading desk. I was exhilarated to be next to the derivative trading floor, surrounded by so much of what moves our economy. At the time, I thought it was my dream job, and for a short while it felt as though it encompassed everything  that I wanted.

However, after three years, the work was simply not challenging enough, and I realized that I wasn’t crazy about understanding how treasury yields affected fixed income bonds, or what the delta and gamma positions in my portfolio totaled. I didn’t think I had to be fulfilled at every turn, but the only satisfaction I got was when I would come home and conduct in the kitchen. This snowballed into something more than a habit, and on most evenings and weekends I would experiment with different dishes and baked treats.  I sensed there were certain limitations in my career path, that there was a glass ceiling that would be increasingly difficult to break through. I realized much later that I was craving an expression of my creative side. At the same time that I left investment banking, I decided to move cross-country from New York to Los Angeles. My first job in LA was downtown at an insurance company. After nine months of frustration, I again found work as a Sr. Financial Analyst at a video game company that owned many studios and franchises that I grew up playing. I was still willing to give myself the chance to explore my interest in numbers, thinking that maybe my work in the kitchen would remain a personal activity. So the idea of following the financial path of a game from inception to release and beyond appealed to me, because I would be paying close attention to expectations and actual performance. This part of the job actually did excite me, but most of my time was spent with absolutely nothing to do. Not an ideal situation for an ambitious young woman on the move! In any given month, I probably worked (I mean “actual work”) an average of 8 hours a week, but I still sat at my desk for all 40 hours. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been bored out of my mind and completely miserable. And if that weren’t enough, since I was in finance, socializing and creativity were discouraged, leaving those fundamental parts of my personality yearning for more. One saving grace came a year into the job. The mobile games division which was still in its infancy needed extra hands and eyes for business development. I let my boss know that I wanted more work, and luckily I was allowed to share my time with the mobile group. I found it to be a great change of pace and I truly enjoyed the projects I was working on. After another year helping out the mobile group, I was hired as Manager of Content Strategy and Acquisition. I enjoyed what I was doing but realized that if I wanted to continue on this path, I would have to get an MBA. After I polished my essays and filled out my Graduate School applications, I knew that something didn’t feel right, that a part of me had always wanted to go to culinary school. Before I knew what I was doing, I had applied to the California School of Culinary Arts Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena and was accepted right away into their Patisserie and Baking program. I knew wholeheartedly that this was what I was meant to do. I forfeited my graduate school application fees to follow my passion and began a career in Pastry and Baking in the spring of 2008. In November of 2008, I began my catering company, Julia’s Kitchen.  I’ve had so many people come up to me asking why I chose catering as opposed to working in a restaurant or hotel, or at a mom and pop bakery.  I tell them that, for me, catering offers a challenge with each new client: from working in a foreign kitchen constantly, to, most importantly, creating a new menu for each of my clients. Rather than growing tired of making the same dishes every day for a season or for a year, day-in day-out, I get to experiment as much as I want.  There is something exhilarating about the newness of a job, and even though it can be overwhelming to think of all of the challenges ahead of me, I try to meet them all head on.  It’s a great feeling to overcome great odds while really loving what I do.

DD: What made you leave the job? When did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur & why?

JS: My previous boss/mentor taught me a great deal. He was the first employer I ever had who challenged me intellectually and professionally. He involved me in complex projects and got me to think about how ideas are communicated and received. We were working on corporate strategy and licensing for the mobile games division of Vivendi Games, so it was my job to research popular TV and film titles, gauge their success on the mobile platform, and create and modify complex financial models that would determine if the project would be profitable. It was actually great work and I loved the job. During one of our business dinners, I made a comment to my boss that I often got frustrated working in a team environment because others didn’t approach projects with the same intensity and commitment that I did, and I also didn’t like having to wait on others in order for me to do my job. He’s a brash, shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy, and he responded, “If that’s the way you feel, then you should own your own business.” I could have been put off by his comment, but it only served to challenge me and get me thinking seriously about my career. I always wanted more out of every job that I had, and I didn’t really like working for anyone else. In all honesty, I wasn’t very good at taking orders from others, and my boss’s comments definitely got me thinking that maybe becoming an entrepreneur was a viable, tangible, and appropriate possibility.

DD: What did you do to break the corporate jail? How did you prepare yourself for the employee to entrepreneur transition?

JS: I had reached a point in my career where, in order to progress to the next level, I was going to have to go back to school to get my MBA. I researched all of the top universities in the area, fortunately a large number since I live in LA, and started the application process. My heart wasn’t in it; I mean, I knew it was a path to follow, but I was doing it without thinking. I had always been kicking around the idea of going to culinary school, so I filled out one more school application, at Le Cordon Bleu Colleges of North America, Los Angeles.  In less than a week my life had changed. On Sunday, I partially filled out the application. On Monday, the admissions office called me to set up an interview for Tuesday, where I was accepted on the spot. Up to that point I had been following a path that was set up for me without really asking myself whether this was what I wanted. In this instance, it seemed like life was trying to tell me something, and everything suddenly just felt right. I took night and weekend classes while I was working at the video game company. Coincidentally, the company where I was working was amid a merger with another video game company that decided to shut down the mobile games division. I used my subsequent unemployment status and severance to start the business. On the one hand, it was a risky move, but I knew that going into it – everything that’s worth anything always is. On the other hand, it was the perfect time to take such a risk, with all the general uncertainty of the economy, and before I missed out on the opportunity, I wanted to at least see if I could make it work. I love what I’m doing – it’s challenging, it’s difficult at times, and it’s extremely rewarding to follow my passion. Even on the difficult days I still go to bed feeling accomplished, always with a smile on my face, and this is the first time in my life that I’ve ever been able to say that.

DD: What are your Top 5 (or more) tips for employees who want to be entrepreneurs but are hung up on something?

JS: 1) I think the number one deterrent is fear, so my first point is to throw caution to the wind. Fear can often paralyze us from doing what we want to do. But the reward can far outweigh the risk. You never know if you’re going to succeed unless you try.

2) I read an article recently that discussed how entrepreneurs should go with their gut. The article went on to provide examples about polling customers. Even though the customers in the study said they preferred one thing, when put into practice they didn’t necessarily select that preference. I find this counter-intuitive advice to be true to a certain point: in the way I do business, in the decisions I make, in the marketing tactics I use. If you poll ten different people, they may tell you ten unique things. Consider the source and take them with a grain of salt. You’re never going to be able to please everybody, so go with your instinct.

3) Don’t give up. It may be easier to throw in the towel, but every time that the future has seemed uncertain or I think that things could be a lot better than they are, something really great tends to happen. There are plenty of times I could have given up, and I’m so happy that I didn’t. Catering consists of a lot of hard work, a lot of determination, and a lot of patience, but I find it’s well worth it.

4) The answer is always yes to any challenge. You have to meet challenges head on. Owning my own business, I’ve always tried to be adaptable and flexible. If someone were to come to me and ask me to do an event double my capacity, I would tell them yes and smile, then later figure it out, whether that means renting a larger kitchen or hiring more staff. You’ll never know your limitations unless you push yourself. It’s important to be confident and courageous. When my normal, comfortable range had always been a dinner party for twenty, 300 seemed like a daunting task. I never thought that with just myself, I would be able to do a party for 300, but I proved that I could do it. Somehow I found the ability to accomplish that, and now it shocks people when I tell them the size of my largest event. When my response is always yes, I consistently surprise myself.

5) When looking for help, the people who seem the easiest to find and who seem like the perfect match may not be that way during a crisis. Relationships take time to develop. Remember that nobody will ever be as committed and devoted and flexible as you are when you own a business. Be careful about relying on others because at the end of the day it’s your name and it’s your reputation on the line. While this may add a bit of pressure, it gives me strength and makes me less vulnerable just being prepared for every challenge.

DD: How are you now? Are you still in the same business, and how do you feel?

JS: I’m still in the same business and I’m very devoted to it. I still love what I’m doing and I’m still growing. It’s not easy to start a business during a recession but I feel that my focus, determination, and commitment have gotten me through the hard times and my business is stronger for it. The whole enterprise is a process; there is no finish line. I’m always thinking about how to improve the business. It really has become a big part of my lifestyle and I’m constantly thinking about my company’s niche, what sets it apart from other catering companies. Every day that my company grows, I feel that I grow with it.

DD: Wow Julia! Thank you so much for sharing your story with me! It has been a pleasure hearing about your adventure from corporate employee to entrepreneur and owner/executive chef of a catering company! What a journey! I wish you all the best with Julia’s Kitchen and thanks again for sharing your story and for creating such delicious catering options!

JS: Thank you, Devesh, for supporting entrepreneurs like me who had everything going for them in the corporate world minus the one thing that makes them happy: passion! I am grateful for all of the experience that I have gained over the years which enabled me to start my own business and I am now happier than ever with Julia’s Kitchen. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

DD: Julia Swenson everyone, corporate 9 to 5er turned executive chef and entrepreneur. Her words of advice really struck me: “The answer is always yes to any challenge.” Good advice for entrepreneurs and others alike who are just trying to find their way in the world. Give yourself a challenge; that way life will never be boring!

Success to all!!