When Life Hands You A Bunch Lemons….
Make Lemonade and Share Some With Your Friends
I learned how to cook at home…my Mom taught me. It was fun and it was pretty simple. We grew our own veggies and fruits … they were soooo wonderful. We had our own chickens and ducks …. about farm fresh and free range…LOL
When I went to college I had to support myself…no silver spoon for this gal.
So, I was 18…had some retail experience, but really didn’t like working as a cashier. A job opened up in my college dorm for a kitchen assistant…WOW…. This was IT….I knew how to cook…right???…
Visions of great home cooked meals danced before my eyes… I could make better food than they were serving already…I could make a difference… I applied for the job…..got it…and found out I knew NOTHING about commercial cooking… I was in shock…
Big difference between cooking for 6 people and cooking for 2000…
Big difference between cleaning 50 pound cases of carrots, potatoes and onions and going out to the garden to get 3 lbs of fresh veggies to clean for dinner….
Big difference between using a 12 inch frying pan and a 3 foot Swiss tilt skillet to fry up onions and potatoes….
As tough as it was…as lost as I was…
loved it…stuck it out and I learned…
And I got really good…
And then I graduated from college… I went work in an office and was a proper employee…9-5.…40 hours a week… processing insurance claims…this made my Mom really happy…
But, I was slowly getting more annoyed by the day … I didn’t like working in an office… I had a lot more fun working in a kitchen… LOVED the teamwork… LOVED the camaraderie… LOVED learning new things… LOVED experimenting… LOVED creating… LOVED teaching… LOVED seeing people eating and enjoying themselves…
So I decided to leave office life forever…to become a chef…. My mother and my family thought I was nuts…women don’t work in kitchens… For that matter a lot of restaurant owners didn’t think that women should work in kitchens either….. Didn’t matter…..I was going to do it….no matter what….. And I did….was it EASY…??? Nope…. Was it really rewarding…You bet it was…
30 years later… I thought it would be nice to work for myself… Guess what…. My Mom and my family thought I was crazy …. Why on earth do you want to work for yourself..??? Go cook in someone’s kitchen….let them pay you….says my Mom…. Hours spent cooking in the kitchen… about 60-70 a week Days spent in the kitchen – 6 per week…sometimes 7 if my staff called out sick
Holidays…can I take your order please???
Sick time…have a fever…just finish the rush hour….then you can go home…you need to be here early tomorrow anyway…big function for 500 people…but…no but’s….we’re busy and you need to be here…..
Owner decides not to pay the bills any more… Restaurant closes and 40 people are unemployed…..
Where’s my salary Mom..???
Where’s the return on MY investment of time, blood, sweat and tears in YOUR business???
Where’s my severance??? What about health insurance…???
The economy stinks….kitchens are closing all over the place…hotels are downsizing…people are cooking for themselves again (frightening thought)… and it’s time to make some major decisions…BIG DECISIONS….
Ok…here’s the real scoop… I didn’t just learn how to cook… I trained for years to become a professional chef…
After I spent 10 years piddling around in offices and low rent kitchens… I decided to invest in myself and go to the best culinary school in the country..
The Culinary Institute of America is to cooking what Harvard is to business… I applied to the CIA….I was accepted…and I had to wait to get started for 6 months… I was living in Italy when I got accepted to go to the CIA… Nothing better than learning how to cook Italian food in Italy…WOW…. Then reality set in…I had to find a way to pay for this education….so I packed up my bags…said ciao Italia….headed back to the States….to upstate New York….to my bright new future….
I scrambled for 4 months working 20 hours a day…7 days a week to earn the $10,000 cash I needed to pay for my first year there….I did anything and everything I needed to do to make that happen for myself…worked as a maid, a grocery stock person, a pizza cook and pulled a full work week at the local Italian hotspot…crazy…right…???
I got into school…paid in full for the first year…dove into my classes…learned everything I could learn from the masters of the industry…and I slowly started developing into a really fine chef….first year done…top of my class…off to do my practical on-the-job training at a local restaurant…as their Executive Chef…man…
I was so proud of myself… Then I found out that I knew NOTHING about being an Executive Chef….what on earth had I gotten myself into this time…??? I had a crash course in business systems, payroll, inventory and stock control, scheduling, labor management, human relations, menu writing and recipe development, sanitation, server training…oh yes…and I still had to COOK….6:00 am to midnight…7 days a week.
Did I learn??…you bet…Did I make lots of mistakes???…you bet…Did I make a lot of the same mistakes twice…Nope I spent a year working at that restaurant…I transformed from a newbie executive chef wannabe with great cooking skills to a seasoned pro who now had incredible people skills, business management skills and a full service, over deliver attitude about business that got the restaurant awarded “Best Restaurant of the Year” …..
Was it easy???….Nope…. Was it worth it???…You bet it was…
I went back to school so that I could complete my last year and collect the prize… my diploma
4 weeks short of graduation I got hurt really badly on the job…
I had to take a leave of absence from school so that I could rest enough to heal…
I couldn’t work either…that was a dark time… I got into my own head and listened to the voices that were asking why I was doing all of this craziness…just so that I could get hurt…what difference did it make if I never cooked again…better to go back to an office…no more blood, sweat, pain and tears
I almost didn’t go back to school… One of my instructors got a hold of me…and really let me have it…
He said…
“If you quit on this Rose…you will quit on everything else in your life when the going gets tough and you don’t like the results that you are getting. Can you live with yourself knowing that you are a quitter…???”
“Are you so stingy that you are not willing to share your God given gift for food with the rest of the world…??? You might not be able to see your own greatness and gifts…but I can…never, ever, ever give up on yourself and your dreams”
I graduated top of my class…
Went to work for some of the finest hospitality and food service organizations in the world…
Competed and won in the Culinary Olympics in 1996 …
Met and masterminded with some of the finest culinary and business minds in the country….
Trained and coached hundreds of cooks
Served tens of thousands of meals to customers from all over the world
Started my own culinary consulting service….
Would I have been able to do that if I quit….??? Nope…
Was the price I paid to be able to do that worth it…??? You bet !!
The cost of that education was at least $40,000….the value …. priceless
In 1996, I was working at one of the largest hotels in New York City.
One day a friend of mine said to me…Rose…you need to come to a meeting with me tonight….
Well….that was the beginning of my introduction to Network Marketing…. I went to the meeting…was blown away by the products…the energy and enthusiasm of the people there… And…when they explained the compensation plan and leverage to me… I knew that I would be able to make a million dollars in no time flat and open my restaurant….
So I said ….YES….I’m in …Sign me up !!
Only one problem…I really didn’t have the time to work the business properly…
Well…actually another problem…I was working so much that my circle of friends had shrunk ….so I didn’t have all that many people to talk to about my business….
So…I brought a whole bunch of the products to my mother…told her all about them…how great they were…and that THIS was going to be my new business…. She almost lost her mind….She asked me if I was crazy….
I know that NOTHING like this has ever happened to you…
My friend who brought me into the business said that he would build my business for me just as long as I bought product….hmmmm…betcha you haven’t heard that either…
Long story short…I still use the products…13 years later.. they are still awesome…
I earned about $300 total from that business…..very short lived my business was…
But…I learned about personal development from that company….
So I started reading…and listening to tapes…and watching videos… and I started going to personal development seminars….
How does the saying go… once a mind has been stretched it never goes back to its original size…
I still read, listen and attend every training seminar that I can go to…
I invest in myself constantly…..I will never stop…..
Fast forward to 2001…September 11, 2001
The Twin Towers got demolished and so did the economy in New York City…
By December 2001…the hotel that I was working at as Executive Chef was losing over $1.3 million a month in cancelled reservations and banquets. I got canned along with three other “overpaid” department heads…Merry Christmas…
I sat down and regrouped…and made a decision that I would find a way to prevent this from happening to me again…. I went to work at a casino in Connecticut….as their special events chef….people were afraid to travel outside of the country…so they got into their cars and drove…the casinos were making a killing….and I had a job…
I also started to really dig into the internet…I never forgot the lessons I learned about leveraged income…and the world wide web was opening up all sorts of interesting ways for people to do business in a new way…
I learned how to use the computer…who knew that I would have to learn how to use a computer….they never taught me that in culinary school…sheesh…
Fast forward to 2006…my Mom… got very ill….she needed help so I took off almost a year to be with her and take care of her while she was recouping from multiple surgeries….
I also needed to earn some money…I had been reviewing lots of stuff on the internet about “work from home” opportunities…so I started looking for something that made sense to me…
Guess what ….I found it… I found a direct sales opportunity….high upfront profits… with a marketing system that did 90% of the work for me… all I had to do was follow up with people that said they were interested and they would join my team …. PERFECT !!! I was IN !!
It took a while….lots of calling….lots of expensive leads…lots of time…but I qualified and I started making profit sales… But…as things go…the company went pfffftttttttt…. No more product…no more commissions…no leveraged residual income….
My Mom got better and told me to go back to New York….
And I got seduced into working in another kitchen that belonged to someone else….. Trading my TIME…my LIFE…. for someone else’s dollars…. But this time … it was different … I had tasted the sweetness of working from home…of earning in one hour what it took me all week to earn in a kitchen… of helping other people get started on their journey to freedom… And I LOVED that taste…. I was OBSESSED with having another taste….
Sunset September 29, 2008…Madison Ave…NYC….Rosh Hashanah
Exhausted…up to my eyeballs in sweet and sour brisket, carrot tzimmes and gefilte fish…
The gal I am consulting for comes downstairs into the kitchen …. Sales are way off from the previous year…if this keeps up… the store is closing…. Have to cut back on ordering and create a new menu with low-cost high margin food…. And…I need you to fire two of the cooks…you have to cover their shifts….
This is NOT what I wanted to hear…I LOVE my staff… they are the backbone of that kitchen…without their hands and feet…I am NOTHING…. I negotiate a deal with her…I keep my guys….I take a pay cut…
I get home and I start learning about Twitter….that night…
4:00 pm December 24, 2008.…Christmas Eve….
Closing up the store… Phone rings….the store is closed for the next 4 days…no point in opening it up…sales are way down and the Upper East Side has gone away for the holiday….
Christmas Day… on the computer Tweeting my lil fingers off… Went into Facebook and started learning how to set it up the right way… Plugged into some Mike Dillard info that I had…started rereading everything… Found Ann Sieg and Renegade University…wooHOO…
Started learning about Squidoo and HubPages… Started opting into every internet marketing guru I could find…. Man…. did I get a lot of emails….
Found Mari Smith, Carrie Wilkerson, Nancy Marmolejo….started reading and learning
Found Frank Kern, John Reese, Derek Gehl, Dan Kennedy…started reading and learning
Found Eben Pagan, Jay Kubbasek, Jimmy Davis and Dennis Karganilla…bought some product…started learning
New Year’s Eve 2008.…
Store is closed again for another 4 days…..
Wash, Rinse Repeat………night after night after night after night
February 1, 2009, 8:30 am….
We regret to inform you that the store is closing permanently… You will be able to collect unemployment. Thank you for all of your hard work. I cannot pay the bills….I will be filing bankruptcy…
How do you like your lemon…??? Oh….I prefer lemonade….
I was put on this earth by God to make a difference in the lives of other people….
I am claiming my birthright of happiness, prosperity and freedom …
I am here to help as many other people as I can claim their inheritance….
Do it NOW….lemonade tastes best when you make it with the ingredients of YOUR choice…take the time to set yourself up for success…
I am looking for people who are looking for me…I can help If I can’t….I know someone who can… No hype…no income claims…no fluff…no stuff…
Just the truth about what it takes to get you to where you want to go….
I am OBSESSED with the sweet taste of this batch of lemonade… Come have a glass with me ….