Welcome to Season 19 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. We’re talking with Kristen Boschetto, owner and GM of Boston Baking, to learn how generations of baking experience can lead a midsize bakery straight to the future. Sponsored by Tutor Intelligence.
In our first episode, we meet Kristen, a fourth-generation baker leading a second-generation bakery.
Learn more about this season here, and tune into Troubleshooting Innovation on Apple or Spotify.
Joanie Spencer: Hey, Kristen, thank you so much for joining this season of Troubleshooting Innovation.
Kristen Boschetto: Nice to be here. Thank you so much. I’m excited.
Spencer: I am so excited too. I’ve been following Boston Baking on LinkedIn for a long time, and this is a really cool company, and I feel like there are a lot of layers that we can unpack. And I think you personally have a very unique and interesting perspective as second generation of the company, but fourth generation of bakers, this is really cool that you’re the first person I’ve met like that. Okay, so I think the best place for us to start is at the beginning. And just if you wouldn’t mind just giving me a quick history of the Boschetto family and your bakery lineage.
Boschetto: It’s a long history, so I’ll try to do my best to condense and consolidate. So, my great grandfather emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s and he brought over his family. He landed in the north end of Boston, and he needed to provide for his family, so he did what he knew best, and that was to bake.
He opened up a corner bakery in the north end, and he started serving the community with fresh baked Italian breads, cookies and sheet pan pizza. And that just became a staple in not only the community but also the restaurants and then the markets in that area, as well as neighboring areas. My grandfather and his brothers followed the family legacy, and they opened their own retail bakery in a suburb right outside the city. And they had a full-on Italian bakery, again, following the footsteps serving the community as well as the local markets and restaurants, but not only with breads, but they expanded their products into cookies and cakes and specialty Italian baked goods as well. So that’s kind of how the family legacy started. It was from my great grandfather, and then evolved into my grandfather, and then eventually my uncles, and my dad followed suit as well.
Spencer: That’s kind of like the classic American dream…
Boschetto: It really is. And I honestly never thought I would, you know, follow in their footsteps. But, you know, here I am, 20-something years later, doing what I love. So, it’s a great story. It’s a great lineage. I am so honored to be a part of it, and it’s really inspiring, to be honest, because there’s not a lot of multi-generational family businesses, especially in the food industry. So, I feel very privileged and proud to be able to continue on with this legacy, you know, brought over by my ancestors.
Spencer: Okay, so how did it go from your great grandfather and grandfather’s bakery to — it kind of like it hit pause — and then the second bakery started.
Boschetto: Yeah, so as I said, there’s a lot of layers. It’s a multi-layer, generational business. So, my dad was one of six children, and of the six children, three of them decided to continue on with the family legacy and open their own retail bakeries. It took my dad a few careers and a couple of different adventures in life for him to figure out that this was his calling.
In the late ’70s, he opened up his first retail bakery, and he followed in his family footsteps and started serving the community with, once again, fresh product. But my dad was a little different, so he did not want to be chained to the bench like he saw not only my uncles, but my grandfather, but his grandfather as well. And the hours weren’t conducive to, you know, family life, and he wanted to be more involved in raising the family. So, he needed to figure out a way to scale up his operation so he could focus on more manufacturing and running the business. So, what my dad did is, he sold that bakery and he opened up a wholesale bakery, and he found opportunities to sell frozen baked goods. Now, we always made frozen fresh product into hotels, in-store bakeries, which that did not exist. If you wanted to get a baked good or a pastry or a cake, you went to your local bakery; you did not go to your supermarket. You didn’t go to your club store. So, my dad really pioneered that in this area, in the regional area, and he went to these in-store bakeries that had limited bread selections and offered them more of a fresh pastry, sweet item. So that really kicked us off into scaling, growing the business, manufacturing. It evolved us into kind of this next pathway forward. So that was really interesting for me to see kind of that evolution, you know, through my dad, and to see the struggles that he faced, you know, through growing the small retail bakery to now taking those resources and then growing this larger wholesale bakery. So, it was really interesting just to kind of watch him go through that.
Spencer: Yeah, it’s almost like a plot twist. And I really like that. It sounds like everybody like in every generation — and then your uncles — they all wanted to be bakers, and they all kind of did it their own way, in sort of the same vein, in that opening up a retail bakery. And then your dad kind of twisted it up a little bit and went in a totally different direction.
Boschetto: He went against the grain of the family. He did that for sure, and that seemed to be, you know, a common thing for my dad, a common pattern for him. But, yes, you know, keeping with family traditions and values and all of those values that my grandfather and his grandfather instilled at an early age, he then brought that into his business ventures. So that was really the framework and the foundation of the business. And really it helped make decisions for him. It helped, you know, form what is today is those initial values, and they’re so important to us.
Spencer: That’s amazing. And I think it also is really cool to be groundbreaking in that entry into the supermarket bakery. Because you’re right, it was probably like around the ’90s — like mid-90s, maybe? — when in-store bakeries really took off. And I’ve talked to a couple of bakers in other regions that saw that white space. So that’s really cool that your dad was able to create those opportunities.
Boschetto: But then our story doesn’t end just there. So, as I mentioned, there’s a lot of layers and complexity to our story and to our framework of how we came to be today. So my dad, in the mid-90s, made a decision that he was going to sell his Boschetto wholesale accounts and business to one of my uncles’ bakery, and from there, he made the decision that he was going to streamline and only produce one item so we could create some efficiencies. And the next big venture that he saw was going to be bagels.
No one had a bagel. At the time, it was an ethnic product. So, he said, ‘You know, I’m really going to capitalize on this. I can streamline my operation. I will make a small investment for big rewards.’ And that’s exactly what he did. We ended up selling off all of the accounts, changing the name to Boston bagel, in keeping with our heritage and how we started in this industry, and we had one product line. And it was excellent for years because we sold a novelty item. We could create the market price. We created a value-add for these supermarkets and for these local businesses, and it was excellent.
And then midway through the ’90s, early 2000s bagels turned into a commodity. And we were never a commodity business. That just wasn’t who we were. We knew who we were. You know, we were more of a quality type bake shop.
So, I had graduated in ’01, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew the baking industry. I grew up in the baking industry. That’s all I ever knew. You know, if I wasn’t at school or at sports, I was in the bakery with my dad. I was sitting on the bench, decorating cakes, mixing cookie dough. Back then, it was exciting for me. I enjoyed doing that. I enjoyed seeing the customers and seeing a smile on their face when we would provide them with a birthday cake, you know, for a child, or for their mother, or a milestone that they were celebrating, and we were part of that, you know. I loved that part of the business; that really excited me. So, when I had graduated, I asked my dad if I could have a job. And he said, ‘Of course, what do you want to do?’ And I didn’t know. I had graduated with a degree in business, which is kind of general. I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to do something in finance. I don’t know if marketing, sales.’ He said, ‘Okay, but if you are going to work in this business, you’re going to learn the business from the ground up.’
So that’s exactly what I did. I learned sanitation, I learned baking, I learned mixing, I learned processing. I learned shipping, I learned logistics, and then I learned the front end of the business — the administrative tasks — and then I learned finance, and then I learned strategy. What is strategy?
So, I learned from the ground up, every single stage and step that is involved in curating this business and growing and sustaining this business. And one of the most valuable lessons my dad taught me is relationships. You build relationships in every single aspect of the business, starting with the line workers to the vendors, to your partners — customers — we call them partners, to leadership team. That was very, very important for me, anyways, to kind of learn those lessons from him, and it helped shape me and my job, and, you know, help me when I’m forming decisions or, you know, trying to acquire a new account or even penetrate some new business, but just really getting back to relationship building and how important that is. And making someone feel good and special, you know, throughout every stage of the process.
Spencer: I love that you kind of described that journey and what your dad said you had to do in order to come into the business. Because I’m always so curious about that. With family-owned companies and family-owned bakeries, like they all, every family has a different set of requirements, I guess, for how they bring in the next generation. I’ve heard of some who say the next generation has to spend a year working somewhere else before they can come work at that company, or they like you have to start at the very bottom and learn every single aspect, from the most basic to the most complex. So, I’m glad you brought that up, because that is something that I’m always curious about.
Was there a moment where you were like, ‘Okay, this is it, I’m here and I want to stay and I want to keep going.’ Or did you ever question it kind of the way your dad questioned it?
Boschetto: That’s a great question. I never questioned it. I never did. I knew this is what I wanted to do because I enjoyed being here. I enjoyed going to work. I never had ‘Sunday scaries.’ I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth. I enjoyed every single aspect of the business, every aspect of my job, if you want to call it a job. I felt privileged to be able to have this opportunity to work for a family business, and that family business was mine. And I mean, I want to make sure that I’m able to continue on with this legacy. I mean, it really either ends with me or it continues with me. So that’s a lot of pressure, but I welcome it. I really do. This is all I ever wanted. I guess I may not have realized it, but it might be just all I’ve ever known.
Spencer: So tell me about growing up in a family of bakers. What are some of those childhood memories, like, how did baking fit into everyday life?
Boschetto: Yeah, well, first of all, there were always sweets around. I mean, no matter what we did, there was always an abundance of sweets. And depending on who prepared the sweets, there was always a lot of opinions. So, you know, whether Uncle Joe prepared it, or Uncle Bob or Uncle Tony, it was their own kind of iteration, and everyone had opinions. It was always delicious. But, you know, ‘This is too sweet,’ or, you know, ‘You put too much salt here.’ It’s just, it’s a stereotypical Italian family. Loud, passionate, you know, always a lot of food around. But it was a wonderful way of growing up. I mean, I grew up with my uncles and my aunts. My grandmother lived with us for, you know, a number of years, and that’s what I knew. You know, my house was the house that my friends would all come to. I was raised by my father, so he was a single dad raising me, as well as building the business. So, I also kind of saw him balance between, you know, raising a child and being very involved. You know, he was my coach to the different sports that I did. He was at every parent-teacher conference. He would take me to the doctor. I mean, he was very much a staple in my life. And then he was also building this business.
So, family values and family is very important to me. It’s very deep rooted. So, yeah, so family was always around, because he did need the help. So, my grandmother was there, my aunts and my uncles and everyone is very loud. But loves, loves not only baking, but cooking. You know, cooking was a huge part of the culture, you know, of our upbringing. I actually tend to cook more so than I do to bake. You can make more mistakes in cooking, and no one will know, but in baking, everyone will know it. But yeah, so that’s how it was, you know, growing up. And I worked in my uncle’s bakeries as well. I didn’t just work in my father’s bakery. Actually, my first experience working in my uncle’s bakery was I walked in and he gave me a toothbrush. And I honestly didn’t know what to do with the toothbrush. I said, ‘Uncle, I’ve already brushed my teeth.’ He goes, ‘No, no, you’re going to wash the floor with that.’ He said, ‘That’s people’s first impression of when they walk in.’ And I thought he was joking, but he was not. I just learned that sense of quality and discipline at a very young age, and that kind of set the standard for our family business. I mean that cleanliness is so important, it’s people’s impression, you know, not only quality of the food, but quality of how you know your cleaning practices are, quality of how your cases look, quality of how your product looks. So, you know, those values were just instilled in such an early age, and they just became part of our standard discipline and routine.
Spencer: Wow, that’s hardcore.
Boschetto: Yeah, that was fun.
Spencer: All right, so, do any of your other siblings work in the company?
Boschetto: Yes, my youngest sister works at Boston Baking. She currently is on maternity leave. She just had her third child, so she is out of the office temporarily. But yeah, but it’s so much fun working alongside of her and having her part of the of the business, and hopefully someday she’ll want some ownership and participate more in a leadership role. So that’s what I’m looking forward to.
Spencer: Do you have any other extended family who are in the business?
Boschetto: I do. My uncle joined us about six months ago as our CFO. So, he took a different path than his brothers. He went into the finance world, so he’s been working about 30 years in multimillion dollar companies, so heading up their finance team, acting as CFO. And about a year ago, he approached us with this opportunity to help scale and grow the business and support us in more of a financial framework. So, we came to terms about six months ago. He joined and he has jumped right in, two feet forward. So, he is really on the ground running, implementing new systems, processes to help support this new growth. So, he’s been an instrumental part in what we are trying to do for our next phase. And my aunt joined us not too long ago as well, and she’s working alongside of him, supporting more of the finance administrative tasks. So, it’s super fun. I get to work with my dad, my uncle, my aunt, my sister every day. So, I really enjoy that part of my job.
Spencer: That’s awesome. Okay, so I’m interested in hearing about the dynamic that you have with your dad. I think the father-daughter work dynamic is a very interesting one, and I’m always curious about the nuances that come with stepping into leadership with someone that you grew up seeing as an authority figure. You know, I just find it fascinating that — and I have so much respect for generational bakers who step up into leadership — and as children in the home, it’s like, ‘Because I said so’ and ‘You have to do this because I’m your mother, I’m your father, you have to do this,’ and you respect that authority. But then in the business setting, as you sort of move up, how do you strike that balance? Is it hard to sort of find your voice?
Boschetto: So, it was very hard, especially at the beginning. You know, I knew our boundaries. I knew that I worked for my dad. In working for him, I was put in a position in sales when we were Boston Bagel. And I was struggling. It was the early 2000s. Dr. Atkins came into play and said that carbs are horrible for people. You know, Dunkin Donuts came out with a bagel and turned bagels into a commodity.
So, I was striking out left and right and closing accounts and opening leads. So, I really thought, really hard, you know, what can we do to turn this around? I don’t want this to end with me. So, I put a business plan together, and I presented it to my dad, essentially, and I suggested that we expand our product offerings, we tap into our family history of baked goods, and we offer more than just bagels and diversify.
But in doing so, we need to change the name. And let’s change the ownership. Let’s give me a little bit of ownership as well. I was very nervous presenting this to my dad, but he didn’t give it a second thought. He saw how much thought and effort that I put into, you know, doing my research in putting this presentation together, that he said, ‘Absolutely.’ It was right then and there, in that meeting, in the conference room, he called the lawyer to see if the name was available, which it was. The lawyer drew up the papers, and the very next day, we were Boston Baking.
And the next week, I had a meeting with a big retailer. So, it was then that I did get the confidence. And I think he had more confidence in me as well. He always knew it was there, but he wanted to see it. He wanted to see it that I could prove, not only to myself, but to him, that I am in this. I am very much committed. And not only committed short term, but long term.
You know, I was in my 20s. I was living in the city with my friends, so at that, that was a turning point for me. Instead of, you know, going out to the happy hours after work on Fridays, I was getting in the truck and driving to one of our now national accounts. You know, it was very pivotal for me. So if I am going to see this, you know, grow into something, then I need to be a part of it, and I have to show not only my dad, but at the time, my employees, how committed I was, that I wasn’t just Bob’s daughter, you know, coming in, taking over ownership, and just making all of these demands. But I am working alongside of them to help grow this business.
Spencer: And I do think for me, I would guess that it’s even harder for a daughter coming in, like you have more to prove. Women, we always have to prove that we earned our seat at the table in any scenario, really. And then family businesses, like the next generation coming in, regardless of gender, there’s this level of proving that you earned your spot there and that you’re not just the owner’s daughter or the owner’s son. But I think when you put those two together, it’s really challenging. Like I just feel like you had to probably run twice as hard as everybody else, to prove yourself and to overcome any stereotypes or erroneous assumption that people might make.
Boschetto: Yes, that is 100% accurate. Yes.
Spencer: You were able to take on a piece of the ownership and you, I mean, like, I’m blown away that you achieved this name change in like, a 24-hour period.
Boschetto: It was impressive. At the time, I guess I didn’t really think of it that way. But as you do some reflection, it is impressive that we were able to accomplish all that in a short period of time. And it really, you know, took the company to the next level, 100%.
Spencer: And that says a lot about the prep that you, all the work that you put in prior to that in order to make that change happen so quickly. That’s very, very impressive. So yeah, how do you how do you like, what lessons did you take from your dad as you were growing in your position? And then what are some of the things that that you figured out how to develop your own style?
Boschetto: Sure. So, my dad is very disciplined. He was a collegiate athlete. He was a single dad, as I mentioned. So, he was very routine, very disciplined, but he was a people person. First and foremost, he cared about people, and that was really important, because I’m more of a results-driven person. I need to see the results. I’m very competitive by nature. I challenge myself. I’m always questioning myself. That is really what I got from my dad. And then I put my own spin to it as well. So, I’m more of a strategic thinker. I’m more results-driven. But how do you kind of blend the two to create this recipe of success? And I think that that is what we have done so well together, is that collaborative approach is, you know, we just we listen to each other. We may not always agree, but we listen, and then we make decisions that are best for the organization, and we respect those decisions. So that’s critical is, you know, respecting the decisions that are made and how we were able to get to the decision. So, the whole process in getting there as well.
Spencer: He’s currently, he’s still CEO, right?
Boschetto: Yes, he’s very much involved, yes. And I just got promoted to general manager, so I’m now sort of taking this next step in my career, now, second to my dad. So, it’s a big step for me. It’s a different position for me in the organization, but it’s just the next step in our succession to Dad can really elevate to that visionary-type role of which he loves so much.
Spencer: So yeah, I guess I you know, I need to clarify, just for the listeners, that while we are going to be learning a lot about Boston Baking through your perspective as the second generation, he’s not uninvolved. He is still very much leading the like, leading the company overall.
Boschetto: He is. He is.
Spencer: Okay, so I have one more question for you. And I like to ask this of bakers, and I like to ask it in the podcast, sort of at the beginning, and then we might reflect on it at the end and see if the conversations maybe change your response. But if you were to put all of the monikers that describe you into a word cloud, so like mom, daughter, leader, baker, which ones would show up as the biggest, and what words would they be? I mean, I’m just like, saying those as suggestions, but like, what words would go into your word cloud, and which ones would be the bigger ones, and then how would you say that the combination defines you?
Boschetto: Sure, that’s a great question. First and foremost, I’m a mom. I’m a mom to my daughter, and that is the biggest reward that I have. It is the most challenging role that I do have. But the reward is just so fulfilling, and I would not change a single moment that I have with her. The challenge I do have is the balance. So, because I am a leader in this organization, so how do you kind and I’m known as being a leader. So how do you find that balance between — because there are distinct roles, a mom and a leader in a business owner, a mentor, a friend — how do you find that balance? A sister, an aunt? It is challenging, but if you have core values, that’s what guides you in those decisions. That’s what guides you in everything that you do.
Spencer: How do you think that when you put it all together, if you put all those words into a word cloud, how would you say those words kind of define you?
Boschetto: Oh, define me. I have to think about that one. I mean to me, I think it makes me a well-balanced person. Just being able to have all those different layers and complexities, it makes me more understanding of people’s situations. It makes me, you know, relate to situations in a in a different way. It brings more compassion and empathy into, you know, how I may approach certain situations. It makes me think before I speak. How are my words or my actions going to have an influence or an impact on somebody else? And I hope when they have any encounter with me that they have, they leave having a positive impact and that they leave feeling good about themselves. I try to even just smile at somebody, and that can change the whole trajectory of their day. So, it’s important that I make other people feel good about themselves. That’s important to me.
Spencer: Okay, I’m over here, like, taking notes for myself. I like all of those things that you said, and a lot of those I could honestly be better. I could do better at.
Boschetto: I can do better as well. I mean, that’s in a perfect scenario. But I just, I try to do a lot of reflection.
Spencer: I gotta say, talking about the challenge that comes with balancing that, especially as a mom and a business leader, I’m in that same boat all the time, only I have a son. So then I have that mother-son dynamic, and he’s 16 now, so it just throws in a whole new layer of complexity.
But I will say, I think one thing that we should give ourselves more grace on — I know it’s just hard when you talk about finding balance — balance is so hard as a working mother in any profession. When you’re in a leadership role that requires so much time and commitment, it makes it even harder. And I think we need to remind ourselves that quality is just as important as quantity, and that our kids are watching us. And you know, we talked about how you grew up and the things that you saw in your family and the values that your dad has and how those have applied to you, your daughter is looking at you and seeing those same things. And so I think your daughter is probably learning a lot just by watching what a badass her mom is. So, keep that in mind.
Boschetto: I hope she feels that way.
Spencer: I have no doubt. I bet she does.
Boschetto: Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate that.
Spencer: Well, Kristen, that really wraps it up for this first episode. It was really fun getting to know you and hearing about your big Italian family. I’m kind of jealous about growing up with all that amazing food.
Boschetto: Oh, thank you. Thank you. This was fun, and thanks for listening to my story.
Spencer: Absolutely! And so I’m really excited for the conversations that we have going forward. We’re going to talk about culture as a business practice. I know Boston Baking is known for its culture — and I see that on LinkedIn, like it’s your culture is very clear and evident — but we’re going to look at it as how it benefits the business. We are going to dive into how you did go from ‘Bagel’ to ‘Baking’ and a mid-sized bakery with large scale product development. We’re going to look at technology infrastructure and production efficiency and how that has supported growth for the company, and we’re going to kind of take a peek at the future of Boston Baking through your eyes as you lead this company into the future. So, for now, Kristin, I’m just gonna say thank you, and I cannot wait until our next conversation.
Boschetto: Thank you. Likewise.
