WELCOME 2021!!
Firstly, I wanted to share my deepest gratitudes for all the support! Whether you shared my posts, liked my page and/ or placed an order with me; I am beyond grateful for you supporting my dreams and being apart of my starting orders! Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement! It was a lot of work to put in to just get up and going. I am so excited to see what this year has in store for my business and for me!
Secondly, I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and celebrating the new year! While, it was definitely a different kind of year to end and our “normal” celebrations were nonexistent. I hope you got to spend time with family and friends whether in person or virtually. I hope you felt loved and shared love; that you laughed and cried happy tears. So many have been impacted in such harsh ways. My hope for the new year for the country and the world is that we see that we are all blessed if we have a home and food to eat. If you have the means to help others, volunteer and/or donate, please do!
I took a small break from working to spend time with my boyfriend and my family! It is such a nice feeling to have the chance to step away and be with family. Coming from an industry that doesn’t really value that culture and is open pretty much 365 days a year makes me appreciate the holidays so much more!
Here’s to an ABUNDANT 2021!
YEAR ONE – 2020
What a year?! It was a rollercoaster in so many ways and yet it was probably the most healing and connecting years I have had. I spent a lot of the year working on behind the scenes things for my business.
Learning on how to build a website and many little things in between
And to be honest I was scared to tell anyone about it. I was like it is not perfect. I need to do this and this and this and the list goes on. I realized that it was never going to be “perfect” and I will always be working to improve it, so why not just share it!
Inner work around worthiness and being scared to show up
I had so many limiting beliefs around money, business and myself. I held myself back because sometimes we find justifications in excuses or beliefs that truly don’t serve us!
Learning about social media
And still feeling lost some days and other days feeling pretty great about the content
Working through how I wanted to show up
Like what products I wanted to sell, what I truly want to do and reconnecting to my internal desires
Trying to determine the how to make money
Research on monetizing blogs, videos and legal documents
It was a lot and at times it felt like I had so much more to learn. I would falter and not show up because it was overwhelming and felt like I wouldn’t be able to “catch up”. Also, the excuse of what was happening in the world made things all the more challenging.
Yet, I have learned so much about how to make my website, designing fun pretty graphics and how to show up for my business. Deciding to show up fully and be able to give myself grace. Realizing nothing was going to be perfect when it just starts and each day a new thing will grow or change.
Reflecting on 2020, showed me I could have stepped up sooner and been successful. Yet, after deeper contemplation I realize that all things happen at the time they are meant to happen. If I had start earlier, I might have missed things I learned before starting. So many things influenced my decision to finally and fully jump in.
Why I chose to start a business?
I have seriously dreamt of owning my own business since 18 or 19. I wanted the freedom to do the things I enjoy, I wanted to be able to make the choices on what to do, I didn’t want to work for some else my whole life. I have always had this feeling that I was meant for so much more and I was unsure how to figure out what that was.
I created a few business plans for a variety of business ideas. While I wanted a business, I had convinced myself that it was costly, it was going to be hard, that I need so many years of experience. I had so many limiting beliefs around success, money and being worthy. One thing I learned is that it is all connected. Our successes and failures, our happiness and sadness and everything in between is connected to our inner world – OUR BELIEFS.
I believed that I needed all of these external things to validate that I was good enough to have a business, to be successful and to make six figures.
While the learnings and experiences from all my previous jobs have helped me learn new things and challenged me. I also realized I learn so quickly and I typically stayed longer than I needed to in positions. I had this view of staying in a job for a certain amount of time because it looked good on paper, it made me more hireable because of longevity and to buy a house you have to have a job for at least 2 years. I stayed in many jobs for these reasons or for the money.
With this I was able to get a new car and finally buy a house! I worked really hard to excel and learn and grow into who I thought I needed to be to have success and wealth. What no one likes to tell you is that nothing is ever guaranteed. You could lose your job, you could get sick and be unable to work, you could have a major accident, you could be apart of a global pandemic and the list goes on. I waited and waited to do my own thing because of timing; if I just learned enough or had enough experience or had enough money.
After losing my job at the end of 2019, I felt so lost. I identified myself though my work. I felt hopeless like I would never find a job again. I worried about money and how I would pay my bills. I just couldn’t see how to go forward. I knew there was a reason this all happened. That the universe had something bigger for me. I started to reflect on my journey. Everything is happening as a means to move you closer to your path and purpose, it is when we get off track that things get really crazy.
It is about the trust in something bigger knowing the plans for us and us creating the life we want on purpose. Not just letting things happen to us.
I started my inner work journey on setting intentions and desires for myself in the beginning to middle of 2019. I had been talking about starting a business and I had set the intention on wanting to leave my job because of the stress and overworking. So my reflections brought me back to my goals and now I had to determine how I would get there. I was a Pampered Chef Consultant and was like I can start there. I still applied for jobs and got interviews, yet nothing seemed right. This one job I had gosh I want to say 4 and almost a 5th interview when in my body it didn’t align, something felt off, I loved the place and probably would’ve made around what I was making before and yet it just felt like I was going to fall back into the same patterns. I would have been there to help fix and grow and develop people and recipes. While those are things I love doing I realized again I would be giving myself to another company. In my body and my soul I couldn’t jump back into that. I hadn’t really healed and released all the anger, stress and hurt from the previous job. I knew me too, if I took that role I would have poured my heart into it and continued to forget about me and my boyfriend and the life I wanted to build.
So out of this my business was born. I started more introspection to find what I wanted to do and really set intentions on the path I wanted my life to go. I was excited and scared. Exquisite Epicure was born and now is growing and changing every day!
My First Business Plan
My first business plan went into development at about age 20 or so. I was working 2 to 3 jobs (honestly don’t remember). I had just finished my culinary degree and was taking a break from school. So I took on more work hours and was just working from like 8 or 9 in the morning to 10 or 11pm every day. I very rarely took time off and very rarely was sick. One day my lower back started to bother me when bending over or turning. Then the pain moved up my spine to my neck and I could barely turn my head it caused so much pain. Slowly working its way down my left leg until I could barely walk on it. I didn’t know what was wrong. I had to go to my chefs and tell them what was wrong. I didn’t know if I would lose my jobs because now I couldn’t do my job, working in kitchens is demanding on you mentally and physically.
Thankfully, my chefs were completely understanding and told me to go to doctor to see what wrong. My mom had brought us to chiropractors in the past and she really liked the one she sent me to. I made my appointment and I remember being so nervous. The nurse was like your blood pressure is a little high and she was like it’s probably just nerves. The chiropractor came in to do his initial assessment and I got xrays done. Had to come back the next day. I was sure that this was just the way it was going to be. That possibly I would have to give up my career and my passion for a less on my feet job. I couldn’t fathom what that would be.
He told me the lower vertebrates were compressed on the left side causing my nerves to be pinched which is why I was in pain and my neck wasn’t as curved as it should be most likely because I had to stand and look down for my job. He ultimately said that my body’s state was that of someone at least 10 years older than me. He assured me that since I was young and as long as I followed the care plan I could get back to optimal strength. Along with proper lifting and building my core and back muscles once I was recovering. I ended up having to take off time from work and limiting my activities for a few months and I will say it felt worse before it started to feel better. He said that is because our bodies naturally want to return to “normal” so it was retraining the muscle to have a new normal. I went from literally thinking I wouldn’t be able to walk again to a few months later starting to feel like myself again. While it was one of the most painful times in my life, I am so grateful to say that I was able to heal and get back to my old self.
It was through healing that I learned to cherish the fact I was getting better. He told me about starting his own practice. We talked about food and business. It was there that I had gotten the idea for my own business because through my experiences at work and wanting to follow my passion. I didn’t want to take this for granted because I had already felt like I could’ve lost my ability to be a chef. Though that business didn’t come to fruition it did put me on a path to learn more about owning a business and finances through management roles.
What I learned?
In the last year, I have done what feels like years of inner work. Around business, worthiness, love, self love and my body. I went from a job that cared only for what you could accomplish and how much and didn’t care if it to 80 hours a week to get there. To a me that has learned to honor my body and my mind. I have grown so much and let go of so much! There were definite struggles and worries. 2020 was a year of challenges for all of us. I wasn’t affected to terribly much by the stay at home order as I am naturally a homebody like 97% of the time anyways.
I learned:
Strength
Courage
Resilience
Love
Grace
Compassion
Understanding
Letting go
and mostly how to Surrender!
It took me a long time to understand the true meaning of surrendering. I thought it meant I had to give up or not try. When in reality surrendering is a practice of following your inner compass, of letting things happen in the moment instead of seeking to control the outcomes. It is doing the things that bring you joy and happiness instead of constantly forcing yourself to do more. Surrender is about letting the moment be exactly as it is and seeing the moment for what it is; not seeing the potential it could be or how it could be worse. It is about being present and learning to let go of the past and the future. Knowing that following your dreams and passions will bring you to the place you are meant to be. Understanding that good and bad things happen to show us how to grow, how to love deeper, how to be more aware.
FOOD, CLASSES AND WAYS TO WORK WITH ME!
Whilst this post was more about me and my journey, I would love to hear about the things your learned in 2020 or around starting your business!
I love supporting others as much as possible, so please share your business information and I will follow you!
If you are in need of Cooking Classes or an In Home Private Chef Experience please check out this page!
I would also love to see what you cook at home or help answer any questions about food, diets and nutrition!
Sweet Treats for Sale!
Of course if you want to know more about me or any part of my story let me know!
Thank you again! Until next time! Sending love and positivity!
Alexia
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