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Living The Red Life

Multi-Million Dollar Project Executive Turned Passion Into a Bakery Empire

16 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What inspired Keshia to transition from corporate projects to baking?

0.031 - 5.797 Ray Gutierrez

I feel like everyone can bake. What makes you and your style, your approach so unique to the craft?

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6.058 - 26.801 Keshia S. Davis

Baking is a science and an art, but definitely a science is very specific and you have to have a certain level of discipline. At least for our business, there's a lot of emotion tied to our customer base coming to us and helping them celebrate their most important life's occasions.

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27.382 - 31.908 Ray Gutierrez

You come from the corporate world. What are you teaching others about what you learned in the corporate world?

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31.928 - 41.341 Keshia S. Davis

You're going to hear a lot of no's in your life, no matter what you're trying to do. But in business, there are going to be a lot of obstacles that you'll have to overcome.

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41.722 - 53.88 Ray Gutierrez

You're hustling, but you're also creating the cake. You're DJing. Doesn't it lose a little bit of like the aura? I was like, I'm supposed to be behind the door. Like, you're not like that at all. Yeah, you're like front facing in it, literally in it.

53.92 - 70.082 Keshia S. Davis

No, I actually love what I do. So I love my life. Getting up, pouring into people, being an example, and people seeing me doing what I do. I think it's probably the bigger message in itself.

71.277 - 94.905 Rudy Mawer

my name is rudy moore host of living the red life podcast and i'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue pill take the red pill join me in wonderland and change your life welcome back to another episode of living your legacy podcast the red life edition for inside success i am ray gutierrez joining me today is another amazing powerful woman but

95.543 - 118.075 Ray Gutierrez

There's a reason why. And I'm a little biased because we're both DJs. So she's already one of my favorites. Keisha S. Davis, how are you? Welcome. I am doing great, Ray. Thank you so much. I apologize for calling you Keisha S. Davis. You are not a ship or a cruise ship. I keep calling you like a boat. You are not a boat, ma'am. Sometimes I can move like one.

118.612 - 124.24 Ray Gutierrez

We literally just wrapped up your episode of Women in Power. Quite a small chaos there, but we got through.

Chapter 2: How does Keshia blend her baking and DJing passions?

159.061 - 175.668 Keshia S. Davis

And then I'm running this great bakery in Philadelphia, in North Philadelphia, and how I want to take it to the next level and make it a national brand. We're already trademarked. So, you know, I'm just really trying to do that. And so that's what you're going to learn about in my episode.

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176.93 - 178.513 Ray Gutierrez

So bakery, baking.

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179.783 - 188.215 Ray Gutierrez

Is it quite a business to get into? I feel like everyone can bake. What makes you and your style, your approach so unique to the craft?

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188.476 - 217.297 Keshia S. Davis

Baking is a science and an art, but definitely a science that is very specific. And you have to have a certain level of discipline to get into baking. And... Yeah, some stick-to-it-ness. Because the first case that I baked when I was 12 did not come out right. It was a disaster. Sure. But... Everyone falls on their first jump. But I kept trying.

217.838 - 232.178 Keshia S. Davis

And I've actually started baking more, more recently. So I'm naturally a cook and I have some other talents. And so I do cake decorating and all that. But baking is a science.

232.358 - 242.933 Ray Gutierrez

Let's talk about your entrepreneurial journey. You come from the corporate world. What was happening in the corporate world? Did you enjoy it? What did you learn about yourself? What are you teaching others about what you learned in the corporate world?

242.913 - 268.397 Keshia S. Davis

So I've been in sales. I've sold a lot of things from large IT systems to I mentioned being a telemarketer in college. I learned that resilience is key. Right. You're going to hear a lot of no's in your life. No matter what you're trying to do, but in business, there are going to be a lot of obstacles that you'll have to overcome.

268.978 - 281.796 Keshia S. Davis

And so that is easily translatable into running a small business because resources do not abound like they do working for a $13 billion food company like I worked before. Holy moly. Yeah.

Chapter 3: What challenges did Keshia face in her entrepreneurial journey?

385.304 - 406.444 Keshia S. Davis

Or I love when I'm helping people reminisce about a time they can, you know, their eyes are closed. Yeah. And they're, you know, they're or they're dancing and they're older people dancing like they danced 50 years ago. That feels good. But it's the emotion that is tied to the music. Same thing with baking.

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407.245 - 424.022 Keshia S. Davis

And at least for our business, there's a lot of emotion tied to our customer base coming to us and helping them celebrate their most important life's occasions. So very similar. Very similar.

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424.923 - 430.448 Ray Gutierrez

What is your philosophy when you're crafting? Do you feel like you bake or cook better when you're angry, happy, sad? Yeah.

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432.233 - 459.242 Keshia S. Davis

Or when I just got to get it done. So when I'm more of a person that works very well under pressure, sometimes it might blow up. But if I just got to focus and get this cake done, or if I got to, you know, If I have a short window of time, I got a 20-minute set. Oh, I'm going to bang that 20-minute set out, DJing. We're talking DJing.

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459.282 - 464.869 Ray Gutierrez

Unless you're a 6 o'clock in the afternoon DJ and the room is empty, you don't want to be that DJ playing the bangers at 6 in the afternoon. Don't do that.

465.009 - 479.368 Keshia S. Davis

Right, right, right. No one likes that DJing. Right, right, right. But if I've got, you know, a couple weeks ago I did a wedding that kind of the band played way too long and I only had a few minutes to play. So I had to kill it in 20 minutes.

479.348 - 503.373 Ray Gutierrez

You're still DJing weddings? Good for you, man. I cannot wait to get back to my CDJs. I miss it. I miss that environment, being in that world and seeing the room hustle, like seeing the bartenders, the bar backs, the bouncers, having the host escort people to the VIP room. And you're just in the flow. And you're just like, man, I cannot believe I control this energy. I'm just a weird nerd.

503.433 - 506.436 Keshia S. Davis

Control the energy. That's right. The DJ controls the energy.

506.416 - 518.617 Ray Gutierrez

Talk about what it's like to spin on vinyl, what it's like to have crates, to be a Serato DJ. Just because we're DJs doesn't mean we're the same. I don't see DJs and she's on Seratos. To me, this is real DJing.

Chapter 4: How does Keshia ensure customer satisfaction in her bakery?

576.481 - 585.718 Keshia S. Davis

So I actually organize my crates by BPM. So I might be like 70 to 90 and then 90 to 100. So I'll do that.

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585.738 - 593.072 Ray Gutierrez

I call that energy pockets. This energy pocket, my mids and my highs and then peaks and then launchers.

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593.052 - 597.759 Keshia S. Davis

Yep. And then sometimes it's just a vibe. So I am vibe crates. You know what I mean?

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597.779 - 610.176 Ray Gutierrez

Those are my favorite ones. Yeah. And then you're just, sometimes I don't even know what the artist name is. I'm just looking at the energy. I'm like, oh, I put this in this pocket. I already trust myself that three days ago when I was that person pre-planning this version of myself, that I'm in safe mode.

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610.637 - 612.54 Keshia S. Davis

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

612.56 - 622.113 Ray Gutierrez

So talk about some of the pre-planning that it takes or even production planning, product managing, that connecting all of your worlds into one that is you, the producer of your reality.

622.554 - 622.654

Yeah.

622.634 - 651.882 Keshia S. Davis

Yeah, it costs a lot of money to run a bakery. Ingredient costs are high. And so really have to plan at a granular level at this point just to make sure there's not a lot of waste. So coordinating teams with the back office and making sure that our baking teams have the right things they need to make at the right time so our decorating teams can get done and the cashiers get it out the door.

651.862 - 668.33 Keshia S. Davis

So it's quite a bit of coordination there. To get the customer their cake when they order it. Yeah. It's not like widgets. It's not like, yeah, your widget is back order. So get your cake for your niece's birthday party next month.

Chapter 5: What lessons did Keshia learn from her corporate experience?

883.714 - 894.966 Ray Gutierrez

All good. But how would you educate someone like me that's like, yo, what's up, DJ? What up? Love your bakery. Like, let's talk. You could still do whatever. Yeah. Yeah. 40, 14. It doesn't matter.

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894.98 - 903.491 Keshia S. Davis

Design is you're taking care of yourself. Self-care is like a real thing. For sure. Oh, you taking care of yourself. Talk to yourself nice.

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904.552 - 907.195 Ray Gutierrez

Yeah, still working on that. Good self-talk. Still working on that.

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908.317 - 926.218 Keshia S. Davis

You can do it, even when it gets hard. There's a reason why you're doing what you're doing. So focus on that reason, and that should help you get through it. And when you're not moving... you're dying, right?

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926.339 - 932.049 Ray Gutierrez

Very true. That probably explains why I'm always so jittery. What is your DJ name?

932.07 - 936.638 Keshia S. Davis

Oh, my DJ name is DJ Mystique. Nice. So that's M-I-S-S.

937.36 - 940.586 Ray Gutierrez

Right on. There's a lot of mystiques out there, but you're DJ cool.

940.606 - 943.431 Keshia S. Davis

That's a different one. No, no, right on. Changing colors with the crowd.

943.495 - 962.587 Ray Gutierrez

No, no, no, you're not. Do you sometimes get creative and kind of just like DJ out of your bakery wagon and be like, all right, I'm going to deliver from nine to five, but from five to two in the morning, I'm going to be DJing out of this truck? No. No. You've got a whole sorority that's going to be your fan club chasing after this wagon. Like I really envision.

Chapter 6: How does community involvement shape Keshia's business ethos?

1013.897 - 1016.979 Ray Gutierrez

Yeah. You're like front facing in it, literally in it.

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1017.8 - 1038.406 Keshia S. Davis

No, I actually love what I do. I'm out here. I have a t-shirt that says I'm doing all the things. All the things. Yeah. So I love my life. Right on. Getting up. pouring into people, being an example, and people seeing me doing what I do, I think is probably the bigger message in itself.

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1038.426 - 1048.962 Ray Gutierrez

Where should we take this conversation? Anything else you'd like to add? Anything else that we feel like we may have missed in the interview session that you want to make sure you say in the podcast before we wrap up?

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1050.224 - 1054.35 Keshia S. Davis

I feel like you covered everything. I think you got a lot of my personality.

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1054.432 - 1057.756 Ray Gutierrez

Yeah. How can people find you and follow your journey?

1058.077 - 1068.149 Keshia S. Davis

Find me on Instagram. So you can find the bakery at Cakes by Denise's dot com. Have a cookbook coming out soon. So I did not want to forget that.

1068.309 - 1069.731 Ray Gutierrez

Right on. Let's plug your book, please.

1069.911 - 1086.948 Keshia S. Davis

It's Denise's Delicacies with Chef Keisha. So and then look for me on Eat This TV. I'm going to be starting my second season of a baking demonstration show on Eat This TV. So that's 12 episodes.

1087.089 - 1095.344 Ray Gutierrez

Are we already fighting for ratings between the two apps here? Are we already doing this? Yeah. I love it. You can find her on Inside Success TV or what other app?

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