NK Podcast: Leading H.E.R. Way

34: Sarah Chianese: Embracing Chutzpah in the Kitchen and Beyond

• Nikisha King | Speaker & Certified Coach • Season 1 • Episode 34

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Ever wondered what happens when a fashion maven steps into the world of haute cuisine? Dive into the incredible story of Sarah Chianese, a trailblazer who seamlessly transitioned from the fashion world to an esteemed executive chef.

Here are three captivating takeaways from this flavorful episode:

1. Embracing Fusion:
Sarah's journey embodies the fusion of passion and talent. Discover how her Italian heritage and Brooklyn upbringing ignited her belief in food as the ultimate expression of love. Explore her mantra, 'mangia and enjoy,' a delicious testament to her roots that'll leave your senses tingling.

2. Courage to Redefine Success:
Uncover the power of saying 'yes' and embracing humility in the pursuit of success. Sarah's story exemplifies how a service-oriented mindset and unwavering courage helped her challenge societal norms, redefining success on her terms. Learn how she lives by the motto 'do it with chutzpah or don't do it at all', a guiding force in her inspiring journey.

3. The Heart of Authentic Connections:
Join us as Sarah and I delve into the significance of genuine connections in both life and business. From wedding summits to book clubs, we emphasize the importance of authentic relationships. Discover our shared mission to empower women in the wedding industry toward financial freedom.

Tune in for a delectable conversation brimming with resilience, authenticity, and the art of savoring life's flavors. Let Sarah Chianese's story inspire you to embrace your uniqueness and pursue your passions with unwavering determination.

How to Connect with Sarah:


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Nikisha King:

Welcome to the Nikisha King podcast, leading her way, where we uncover the extraordinary within the everyday, celebrating the human, evolving and resilient spirit in all of us. I'm your host, Nikisha, and today's episode is a culinary journey of inspiration, transformation and passion. We're honored to have Sarah Chianese, the executive chef and owner of Manja and Enjoy, as our special guest, but let me tell you, Sarah is not your average chef. She's a creative force who's taken an unconventional path from the fashion world to the world of catering. And oh, did we mention her famous dad? But shh, let's keep that between us.

Nikisha King:

In this episode, sarah opens up about her remarkable journey, the secret ingredients behind growing an amazing team, and her philosophy that life should never be tan and bland. She's all about adding joy, flavor, spice and everything nice to every aspect of her life, and she's here to share her wisdom with you. So, whether you're a food enthusiast, an inspiring entrepreneur or simply someone looking to infuse more zest into your life, you won't want to miss this conversation with Sarah. Tune in and get ready to savor the flavors of life because, as Sarah says, let there be joy, flavor, spice and everything nice. Thanks for joining us and get ready to be inspired. Now let's dive into this delicious conversation. Hello, gorgeous, welcome to episode 34 of NK podcast. Leading her way and in part of our gratitude series, we're speaking to Sarah Kianazi and the owner and founder of Mange and Enjoy our amazing catering company. Hi, sarah, thank you so much for being with me today and spending some time with our audience. It's a blessing to have you.

Sarah Chianese:

Oh, lovely Nikisha, it is beyond a blessing to be here. Believe me, I am utterly grateful for you, for everybody listening and for life in general.

Nikisha King:

So good, and today, what we're going to speak about? I want you to tell us what we're speaking about, because you say it amazingly.

Sarah Chianese:

Go ahead All right, everybody, it has to do with no tan and bland meaning. First we were talking about food and I was like no tan and bland anything. But it's really no tan and bland about anything in your life.

Nikisha King:

Exactly Let there be joy, flavor, spice and everything nice, which I love. By the way, when I heard this, it's a reminder no tan and bland which I love, because one of like, when you eat your food should not be tan and bland and if you do have food that you should definitely go check out, mange and enjoy and see what they have. It's amazing. Food is about enjoyment. Yes, we need it, but you still can add some flavor to it and make it really good, so I love that. Now in you starting your journey, in having your business today how did that come about? Were you always in love with food? What was your beginnings like?

Sarah Chianese:

My beginnings were in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on a step stool with a cast iron pan for older siblings and me literally like three years old cooking potatoes in that cast iron pan for them and because I've always really loved food and so I'm literally a little kid standing on a step stool at this cast iron pan patiently because I'm a tourist and, like I, was the only one in the family who had the patience to cook them I would make these perfectly cut slices of potatoes and pan fry each and every one of them till they were golden brown, put on the salt, put on a paper towel and by the time I was done cooking all of them, all my siblings would walk by and take one and eat one. So by the time I was done I had like one or two pieces of potatoes at the end, but everybody was fed and I was happy. And then in the I'm going to be revealing about how old I am, but in the late 80s I used to cater with this amazing woman, jan Wagner, who she was great. She was from Knoxville, tennessee, and she'd have like greatest localisms and she'd be like come on, sarah, we got to get this out on the table. They're hungrier than cows on concrete. She was just amazing, but she was incredible. So she was my mentor in that respect.

Sarah Chianese:

Regarding teetering about, she was my first steps with that and I really loved it. We did it for a few years. We were doing this in Woodstock, new York, and then she moved to Hawaii and she was like Sarah, you can keep going, you go ahead. Now you got it. You made for this. And I was like, oh man, this is before internet. So I wasn't like not, you know catering supplies, just order it and web restaurant store is going to deliver you all the things you need. There was nothing like that.

Sarah Chianese:

So I was young, in my early 20s, and I was like, can I do this? And it wasn't as accessible as it is today If you start a company. So I pondered and I decided against it and said, no, I'm going to go to my one of my passions at the time, which was started production company, and I started production company instead. So I did that for 20 years, amongst many other things, and came back to this, because this is really cooking is the production that everybody walks away happy from. You're feeding people my direct form of love on a plate to each and every single person who's eating it. That's how I came back in 2012. I shut my production company down and came back to food, and Martha Frankel coined the term manja and enjoy for me, cause, you noticed, every time I feed people I would say that, which means eat and enjoy. Manja is eat in Italian.

Nikisha King:

So good. When you were making a transition from your production company back into catering, were there any moments of doubt? Were there any moments of uncertainty? Were there any moments that made you go? But somehow you did it? I want to know about that moment, that transition moment.

Sarah Chianese:

There have been many transitional moments throughout my life. Okay, and I am not one to say I doubt I can make this happen, it's just not in my makeup. I went with full fervor into it. I just let every single time I would make a full blank stop, transition into something else. I would go all the way. That's my personality and that's definitely my diligence and persistence and perseverance and like headstrong way of saying. This can happen. Everything is possible, almost. Some things aren't. I can't fly, but there are. That day it was the I used to.

Sarah Chianese:

I was working in the fashion industry at the time and I was watching models faint and they were fainting from starvation. I'm going to I'll get emotional because it broke my heart and all I wanted to do was feed them. This is the last, like several years, of my production company. I was doing New York Fashion Week and they and the people would scream and the producers would say model down, not like Mary fell, let's go get her help, model down. They had brought her off and bring out a new one and it was cause she didn't eat.

Sarah Chianese:

So there was a lot of things wrong with that picture for me and I said this is not the kind of production I want to be working on. This is not who I am, this is not what I believe in and I need to feed her. And then I said I need to feed everybody. I really do. That is the story I want to tell, not the production story of making like the beautiful sorry fashion fashion world. But my motto for that was making the beautiful more beautiful, because we were making this glamorous look to an industry that I thought was pretty ugly. If you're starving your models and screaming model down when they go down, so that has a relationship to food with me. No one can starve themselves and the models shouldn't have to look that way in order to be up there putting on some clothes either. I went back into food.

Nikisha King:

Hmm, and when you went back into food, what was your? How did you get clients? What did you do? Since you were in production and you did that, do you feel like some of your catering clients came from that world, or no? You started all over again, from scratch.

Sarah Chianese:

I roll over again from scratch. I was living in Westchester County, new York, at the time. Dobs Ferry and I was commuting to the city for New York fashion Finished that one. They said model down. That was my last straw and I literally went online the next day, looked for chef jobs. I didn't want to work in a restaurant and I saw that somebody needed a personal chef, which is very different than a private chef or a chef.

Sarah Chianese:

But I took that and I went straight into working for this family, just to start and keep bills coming but getting paid and took to them for a little while and then I said, yep, this is what I love to. It reminded me that it was what I passionately love to do. It was a very challenging family. They had very. All the people in the family had totally different dietary concerns and preferences and I was like, all right, if I can juggle this, I can juggle it for this many people. Then I could do it for 25 people. That I could do for 50 again and then I could start doing it for large events and I just went cold throttle.

Sarah Chianese:

That was how it started, but I went straight into larger events after that. Because large events don't scare me, I produce very large events. Same sort of thing, just in the kitchen.

Nikisha King:

What's the difference between a personal chef and a private chef?

Sarah Chianese:

Okay, good question. A lot of people ask this Personal chef works for a family. You're at their whim. I call it like slave work. I really don't. I'm not fond of personal chefing, unless you're madly in love with the family and they treat you well. At the snap of a finger for a personal chef, they want you to go out to the Hamptons and they're having a party tomorrow and they're just telling you about it now and there's all of these. You have to deal with that attitude For people. There are so many beautiful families who do have personal chefs and there are a lot of celebrities who have personal chefs and I'm all about that. So I'm not saying that everybody who wants personal chef is like that, but I just refuse to ever get treated that way. So I was like no, I'm not doing that Private chef. You are the chef. Someone hires you, you review a menu plan with them, but you come in and you do what you are hired to do. You execute it and you're out.

Nikisha King:

Got it. Personal chef pretty much kind of stays with the family for a time being. Private chef is actually being hired to cook for an event or something and then that's it. They go on to their next. Ah, got it. I was debating which one do we need, but then I see what you mean by personal chef. But yes, I would hope the person take care of me. I don't want to tell you. You tell me what we're going to eat. This is our restrictions. We're up for it. I got it. Now you started back into the personal chef. After that you went on to big events. How did you find your first client for this big event?

Sarah Chianese:

Oh gosh, I wish I can remember that. Do you remember who the client was? I wish I did. That's a great question. If I had known that question was coming, I would go back in my archives and find out what that was.

Nikisha King:

But I do know.

Sarah Chianese:

For example, a year later in 2013, I moved back from West District County back upstate to Woodstock, new York, and the film festival was happening. I've been involved in the film festival, producer. I actually produced a film that was involved in the Woodstock film festival as well. For many years I was involved with different film festivals through my production work and the Woodstock film festival.

Sarah Chianese:

When they found out, I moved back to Woodstock and they knew I was cooking. They were like oh my gosh, do you want to cook for the VIP? Was that the? Where was that? Anyway, that was in Woodstock. They had a big building that was just for all the filmmakers and actors and producers and whoever else that they invited. I don't even like the word VIP, but it was their VIP suite and I had to cook throughout the day for 100 to 150 people throughout the day at the four day strike, and it was essentially volunteer. There was zero budget to that. So I was like all right, here's one way to get in front of a whole bunch of people. And I did that, and then I got a press article out of that and then the phone calls just wouldn't stop coming in. So good.

Sarah Chianese:

So that's basically how the larger events started happening.

Nikisha King:

So, in other words, you said, yes, not getting paid, but newing it. That moment in time there was a benefit, there was some form of benefit. And when you said yes, and being there and serving for four days, oh my God, and throughout the days I know people who listen now I'm like I couldn't. But that's what this is when you're starting a business is not about what's easy, it's really not. It's about putting the elbow grease in it, and it depends on how you see it, because someone's going to see it as hard. But you said, no, this is what I love doing, so I'm going to step up. I'm going to say, yes, these are people I knew from my production times and I'm going to deliver and I'm going to be amazing. And then that pretty much equal press and your business flew from there.

Sarah Chianese:

Absolutely Very well recaptured, I must say.

Nikisha King:

Yes, like that is so good. You know what I mean. That's what owning a business is really about when you're willing to serve without all your ego, without all your fears, anxiety, and you can actually. I mean it just comes with rewards, but you don't know that until you do it.

Sarah Chianese:

You said a key word there ego.

Nikisha King:

Share a little bit more, go ahead.

Sarah Chianese:

I am so glad that you even mentioned that word. It's also one of the reasons why I wanted to get out of the production world, because there's a lot of egos you have to juggle. Whether you're a producer or you're a chef handling weddings, you're a therapist, like one way or another, you got to deal with so many beautiful personalities and I say beautiful personalities, no matter how ugly they're acting, there's still a beautiful personality in there. Right, you do have to juggle the egos, and we women in our businesses, if it's not, we could be proud and prideful of what we produce, but take ego out, and that's exactly right. It's like I could have said to them no, you got to pay me an exorbitant amount because I am worth it. That's the pride, that's a prideful statement, but the ego is taken out when you say I am worth it, and that's why I'm going to do this, for me and for everyone who's going to enjoy my food.

Nikisha King:

Yes, exactly that's the humbling heart compared to the ego, right, the ego's thinking. I'm value, I'm worth it. You got to give me what I'm owed, but humble goals. I know I'm worth it, I'm capable and I'm going to do this because the people who are asking and the people I'm doing it for I appreciate and I'm going to show my appreciation through the gift that was given. It's really how business is and a lot of people struggle with that, but it's understandable because when you look at social media and all of the content we receive, sometimes it's very materialistic. We have a fashion high and world where you need to be this thin and it's not normal. But somehow it became normal and there's so many beautiful women who are capable and have amazing skills, but they don't know it yet, not yet.

Nikisha King:

And that's why I love being a coach, because I can see them in their full form. But they don't see it yet. But I'm just here to guide them on that journey so they can have their beautiful aha moment and then serve from that place.

Sarah Chianese:

Yes, I'm better than you. I'm telling you you are such a beautiful gift for doing that, and anyone who comes in contact with you, who gets coached by you, who listens to one of your podcasts, any message that they're receiving from you is all about that love and that you're rooting for everybody.

Nikisha King:

I am, because you're amazing. They're amazing in every way, yes, every way. When people speak to me, when they just show up, when they're just standing in front of me and I've not spoken to them, I'm like, oh my God, I wonder what their story is. I'm like always curious, right, that's the fun part of my life, that is the joy that I get, and a lot of people give that to me. Being raised and living in a world where you have news and is always negative, you think the worst of everyone, but at one point, something shifts and it depends because you have to choose it. It's an actual, conscious choice. When I chose to see the good and the abundance, oh my God, my love for humanity changed. Yes, and there's so many more good than bad, and I do my best not to put myself in the bad, but I'm grateful that my spiritual being knows when something's off, and that's our primitive brain. Yes, so it protects me, but at the same time, it doesn't make everyone out to be an enemy, amen.

Sarah Chianese:

And Robert Derman I don't know if you're familiar with him, but Uma Derman's father. He was speaking in the city one time and he was talking about how all human beings are just giggling, gurgling globules of bliss on the planet. If you look at it from above Earth and it just put a picture in my mind of all these giggling, gurgling globules of bliss all over the globe, and if we treat something like that from our hearts and that really is the core of everybody. Because if you look at any baby born in the world and you say, oh, my goodness, this delicious little thing hasn't been painted by any outside forces yet. It's just this little delicious, yummy thing. That's basically who we all are, and then things happen, but we are, at core, those giggling, gurgling globules of bliss.

Nikisha King:

So true, such a good one. So if you have a saying, do it hutzpah or don't do it at all.

Sarah Chianese:

Again, I just love that you bring up these things. That is my mantra and it comes from. If I may tell where it comes from? Yes, okay, mr Joseph Larufa was my high school band teacher. This man has totally transformed my life and he is the core of who I am.

Sarah Chianese:

By this one line he used to deliver and also his whole being was so passionate about music, and I love, love music. Music is a big part of life. It is color in life. Like that helps that you can't, and bland music is bursting with every single color that you could possibly think of see, feel, touch, smell, taste. Music is wonderful.

Sarah Chianese:

So, anyway, he would be in the band room and he's really this great, short little Italian guy and he would yell at us all the time. But I like that, like straightforward, direct authority, didn't give you any room to disrespect him whatsoever, nor should anyone ever do so. He was an amazing human being and he would always say to us he would stop us and go hey, I'm sorry, that was a smacking me, smacking the back of my hand. He'd go do it with chutzpah or don't do it at all. And I remember the first time I'd hear him say that.

Sarah Chianese:

First of all. It was interesting to me that he used a Yiddish term, chutzpah, but he was New Yorkers, were surrounded by everybody, so right on. But that was such a perfect word for it because it means to the point of audacity. Almost that's what chutzpah is really. Mission of it. And he'd be like do it with chutzpah, don't do it at all. That summed it up for me. Life became very clear to me at that, in that moment, and that's how I live my life every day, because if you're going to do it, do it all the way or don't.

Nikisha King:

So true. And let me ask you this did you have moments on your business journey where you thought something wasn't going to succeed and you stopped, or did you say, nah, let's just do it, go all out and let me try it and see what happens?

Sarah Chianese:

I always go all out. Let me try it and see what happens. And Monja, it enjoys. Specifically, I've never gotten to a point where I was like this has got to stop because something ever went wrong, because I have a ridiculously high standard. I meet those standards and always might. Then very next job, I want to exceed that standard. That is who I am, because of Mr LaRufa's personality. Also, my family they're amazing, my ancestors of all. It's always about striving. You just strive forward and you soar. No one is lackadaisical about anything in my family and they've taught me my parents thank God they're both here with me and I love them so much. But the main message that they've given me is you never stop learning.

Nikisha King:

So good, share who your dad is, so everyone can know.

Sarah Chianese:

Oh, goodness gracious, my last name is Pianese, so funny. I don't usually reveal this and I don't have a problem doing so, but I don't usually go there. My father is Dominic Chien-Ese. He is an actor. He's been acting as far as well-known movies since the 70s, starting with Godfather 2, all the way to current. He is still working. My father is 92 years young, plus his heart. He's going to be 93 in February, but he is also mostly, I would say, most. He was Johnny O'Lane and Godfather 2, had many movies and theater and film and TV and all that between. But he became the household name during the Sopranos and he was Uncle Junior on the Sopranos was his character, so any of you Sopranos fans out there.

Sarah Chianese:

Yes, if you ever see my face, you'll be like oh yeah now I see it like ah, she's Uncle Junior with lips, that's amazing, but that's where you get your hoods put from.

Nikisha King:

You get it from your mentor, but the pushing, the moving, the not stopping, the not fear doesn't stand in your way and I think that's no way my mother either.

Sarah Chianese:

Let me tell you so. My mother is. She is a firecracker. Same thing. She has transformed her life throughout life. She is always learning, she is always educating, she's always teaching. She's done everything that she could. We grew up in mass poverty as children, and she would work three, four jobs to make it work. So she's a huge role in me as well. And her parents, my grandparents. I couldn't imagine life without them in our lives. I don't even know if I'd be alive without them, honestly. So it's really, it's generational. My kids do the same.

Nikisha King:

They're amazing too. That's amazing because it passes down right from generation to generation. As you do manga and enjoy, you have a team, correct? Yes, indeed, so you remember when you started building your team.

Sarah Chianese:

Yes, I do that. Woodstock Film Festival, for example, was literally me and then, volunteers. The Woodstock Film Festival always has volunteers. I was a volunteer coordinator for them one year and we had 100 volunteers. So I was given a handful of volunteers who I still I'm still in touch with to this day. I love them.

Sarah Chianese:

They were so helpful but it was only a handful and you're dealing with kind of doing something that really required a full team. I had to be that full team. It was the first time I felt my body break after working so hard it was after that weekend.

Sarah Chianese:

But the team that started forming was okay. I would get service staff to help me and then I would get a chef here and there. And then my son joined our team. My son has been working with me and running this company for the past almost a decade and he is the aesthetics director where I taught him how to do the pretty, the pretty work that you might see in some of my work, and then he took it on and just has a whole new level of it. So his fine art is within the plating. You'll see these beautiful platters Like that's my son's work, and then he's trained four people since then as well.

Sarah Chianese:

So we have a team of six now who can do that work and it's very recognizably manjid and joy style, which I would love to spread to the world. In fact, my business may take a refocus, by the way, and it has to do with that, and my daughter's a fine artist and a dancer, a performer. So art is extremely important to all of us and it will have to do with color and food. If we go back to that, we could talk more about food and color and why.

Nikisha King:

I love that when you started to build your team. Was that nerve wracking or easy?

Sarah Chianese:

It's not nerve wracking. I had to learn how to delegate out, so I wasn't doing everything. That's a big thing for any of us as business owners to have a trusting member that you can pass along any duty to, no matter what it is, whether it's administrative or it's creative. If you have people that you can trust, you do it bit by bit. You don't have to slam everything down on their lap at once and set them up for failure. You don't want to do that. You want to impart your knowledge and your wisdom, because those do different things and then lead them along the way to where they carry the torch. And that's what my son did. He took over a certain aspect of the aesthetics aspect regarding that, and then others were inspired by them and they wanted to become part of the team. They said I want to learn how to do this and they would study what he would do and then they would start joining his team.

Sarah Chianese:

We just had an event a couple of weeks ago where we have one of our she's not a chef, she's an aesthetics team member. She started with us working on a wedding in Jersey that we did and she was studying what my son was doing and she worked on that wedding just as a person who makes things beautiful with our edible flowers and microgreens and things like that and all the little kuchimans that we add to our grazing tables. And she is not a chef, she is an artist on the plate. She learned by my son's example and my son learned, of course, from my example, and the list goes on. So some of our other chefs they were many different hats and we start building the team.

Sarah Chianese:

But it all has to do with trust and love. You got to deliver the duties with love, because if you do it in any way, it's not going to be manifested the way you want it to be manifested. And the question is very particular. I got to be super loving in my delivery of how I would like things done or people will walk out of it.

Nikisha King:

That's the Brooklyn side of you. I know that Brooklyn side real well. You got to tame it. I love that you said that about trusting. I believe there's a lot of small business owners that I meet and just because they're small or they have that word, sometimes they feel like they have to do everything and no one can do it like them. And sometimes it's hard because when they have that mindset, they're going and they still try to find someone to bring on as a team member, but they really can't because that mindset holds them in place. Therefore, no matter who they bring on, they're always going to struggle. The person's either not good enough, they're not learning quick enough, and it's not really the person, it's the mindset that you can only do it the best way for your company. And they don't realize. Once again, they're amazing skill people out there. I work with some of them and I am grateful they can do it better than me.

Sarah Chianese:

Exactly. I feel like my son is better than I am. I really do, and that's beautiful. If anyone takes what you do and elevates it, that's the gift. That is a gift. And if it's for another company, if we go out, we consult with the company on how to build certain things, the way we do them, and they do it better than me right on. I did my job because they're doing it better.

Nikisha King:

Exactly yes, you want your kids or you want the people you're teaching to be better, because that means that they've learned great skills from you and then they were able to make it their own. And I feel like a lot of business owners out there. They don't get to enjoy that gift because they're either burnt out or overwhelmed, exhausted, because you're not allowing that gift to be given to them. And I asked about the team, because there are so many people you know what, hiring people so hard you can't find the right people. And sometimes I want to say have you checked who you are and how you show up? Are you checking you first to make sure you're in the right mindset? Are you the right person to have a team? Are you ready for a team? It's ready for a team doesn't mean you have a lot of work and you're overwhelmed. It doesn't mean that ready for a team means I'm willing to serve my team members. I want them to do well while working with me. I want to be able to support them with the company I'm building, because that's what it is when you build.

Nikisha King:

A business is not about you, and a lot of people are in that mind frame, where they're in survival mode. Survival mode is always an eye situation. It's not a weed them, it's always eye, and when you're in an eye mode you're not able to see anyone else. So how can you ask for this gift of a team when you're in survival mode, right, yes, and it's amazing because no one usually see it and I usually can hear it and I'm just like how do I help them bring awareness to this eye? How do you get out of eye and go? How can I serve? Because I've learned in my book that I read a happy pocket full of money. When I give open, heartly, like when I'm giving from my heart, no matter what, I'm going to get it back 10 full and it never will come from the person I'm giving.

Sarah Chianese:

Right.

Nikisha King:

I can give you. But I don't want anything from you because I know and I'm not looking for anything, I just know it's not like I want it. I'm looking for it. It's going to come from somewhere else that I had no idea it's coming and it's going to be amazing. Yes, even meeting you. We met through a book, more wedding summit in August and we didn't meet one on one. We met, we were in a group and we were on a panel and we were chatting and my spirit spoke to Sarah and when, sarah I don't know how, we got on a zoom, but you know me we somehow was like we're getting on a zoom, we're going to connect and that was it for us. But it's because when you show up, your spirit shows up and people can see it, they're attracted to it and it's really this.

Nikisha King:

All of what I'm doing now is the buy product of me. Keep pushing forward on my business journey. There were many days I didn't want to keep going. There were many days I can went and got nine to five. I have my masters, I have two of them, I can easily have men like I don't want to do this. I'm going back to the workforce, like corporate America. But something just kept me pushing, just like you. I guess it's that generational love. Keep pushing, keep moving, keep doing. Yes, I love that quote do it, hutzpah, or don't do it at all, like yeah, and that's how I feel.

Sarah Chianese:

Just do it, don't do it at all, and he used to also say just do it. Before Michael Jordan and Nike point the phrase, he used to also say when kids would be like, he'd be like make that, I see, blow it. And kids would be like I'll try. He goes don't try, just do it, don't do it at all, don't try. He would be like don't try. Everybody's like just try. No, there was nothing about that. Just try, just do it. And that is true.

Sarah Chianese:

Now you had mentioned a couple of things about the eye, and I remember watching something that you had put up about the. Why do we do what we do? If we? It's something that I speak about as well, about personal mission statements. There's personal mission statements in life and there's business mission statements, which every business should have. It's not just for, not for profits. Like everybody have a mission statement why are we doing what we're doing? And you had mentioned that when the eye comes out of it and it becomes why is not all eye related? Then it becomes a beautiful thing. You really are putting out the best messages out there about everything that you said. It's fantastic.

Nikisha King:

Thank you. I learned that I didn't. I wasn't always in that mind frame, but when I did my transformation, I learned that. And it's so interesting because when I started my business, deep down, my why was always to help young girls and women on their financial journey or in the journey of being independent. That was always it, but I didn't know how to make that possible. I didn't know what I had to do, that. I didn't know what that looked like for this brand that I'm building, but I remember it was. It was always showing up. I was my first coach asked me what my why was, and it was so amazing that I said that. And the one she asked me that was 2016, 2017, and I started my business 2009. So it was always in my core. But, like now, my mission, especially in my focus formula company is to help women with financial freedom to earn their first 100K, especially in the wedding world.

Nikisha King:

Because, as creatives, that whole starving artist, I want to annihilate that. It doesn't exist. Everything around this is artistic the colors on your wall, it's paint, but it's art Like. It's the thing that gives us some form of joy. It can shift our energy. In a second. You walk in a heavy, dark colored room, you will feel a little bit heavy. You know what I mean. So starving artist is a thing I don't believe in and I love the artist I work with and I want, I don't want, but my mission is to help them whatever their desire, make it come through, but have financial freedom. If you're going to do a business, do it with it. And you're right about the personal statement. Do you have a personal statement?

Sarah Chianese:

Yes, I have quite a few.

Nikisha King:

Thank you, you want to do it or don't do it at all.

Sarah Chianese:

It's love-based. Okay, I know Cross is kind of like straightforward, a little brash, a little harsh to some people and they're wow, she seems like a little tough cookie. I'm the softest, like mushyest cookie in the inside, not necessarily guessed from my external appearance. I always said I had the compassion of a nurse, but I don't like other people's bodily fluids and so I'm a germaphobe and things like that, so I can never be a nurse. But that really is my spirit, right. I have a very nurturing spirit. So really it is to be loving to others and to help others and to create joy and memories for others. It seems very simple. It's not like a big mission statement with all kinds of highfalutin words. They're very simple words and it's actually far simpler for us to be able to do those things, although some people find it very complex to be able. How do you give love? If you don't know how to receive love, how can you give love? And so it's all in the relationship between that. But that's like a whole other podcast, right? So it is to provide vibrancy. It is to provide any kind of hope or feeling of being loved or cared for. Is my mission to be able to provide any of that for another.

Sarah Chianese:

Like I said, many different aspects of my life have changed over in so many ways. I was in education, I was working with youth and many aspects, many of which are kids who were either disadvantaged in any kind of a way or not cut out for school, and I opened up an alternative school for them and things like that, and I worked with the New York City Department of Education on alternative learning for JFK and the Bronx, especially at school, because I saw that they were ignored. And that has a lot to do with my brother my brother amazingly gifted, artistic, incredibly like still to this day one of the most talented UMBs I've ever met in my life, and in Brooklyn, in the schools that were in the public schools, they just didn't recognize him. They thought he was a troublemaker. Back then they probably would have been like, ah, put him on Ritalin, he'll be fine. And he was just kicked out of every school he ever went to and he is one of the most brilliant people and one of the most artistic people and just incredibly talented in so many ways and he was not recognized and I did make that a mission in my life to make sure that I was never gonna unrecognize somebody, child or elder.

Sarah Chianese:

I always loved elders. Too great respect for elders.

Nikisha King:

Such a good one. I guess that's why I Spirits speak to one another and we're both from Brooklyn, so maybe it's a Brooklyn spirit thing. We don't know. Like we, just we love taking care of people, we love seeing people, and someone having a hard shell isn't a deterrent for us, for me it's never been a deterrent. People who have hard shells. I'm just like, oh, this is. It's always feels like this is home. I know that very well and behind that, I know how soft you are.

Nikisha King:

So I will give you all the grace in the world, because I know your heart is pure.

Sarah Chianese:

Yeah, that's great, that's beautiful.

Nikisha King:

I don't know if it's just our nature, but that's who we are. We always had to protect ourselves because where we were raised, oh yeah. But at the same time we're very loving because we know what that is.

Sarah Chianese:

Yeah, because if you're in such a big place like that, brooklyn's huge, it's Fort Lauderdale City in America, I think I don't know. I remember seeing that on Maccatter there was that sign that said Brooklyn, fort Lauderdale City in America. I was always like that's pretty cool. But anyway, the idea that you grow up in an environment that has so much going on around you at all times and there was a lot of danger surrounding us at all times and you had to learn quick. We were so not sheltered especially. Yes, I am a Gen Xer, so I've got that whole Gen X thing where nobody was watching over us at all, ever. But for all the generations thereafter as well, if you over shelter your children, you're setting them up for some sort of failure down the road. You've got to expose them, you love them, you protect them and you expose them at the same time.

Sarah Chianese:

So when we were growing up in Brooklyn and you have so much going on around you, your eyes are always aware and you can see things behind you, on the side of you. But we also had so much joy because there were street fairs and there were parties and there was music all the time and food from every culture at every end of every block, no matter where you are. You was able to smell something from somewhere else and you're meeting all kinds of different people and you're going over to your friend's house who their mom's cooking this? And you go to somebody else's house and they're living with their grandparents and they're making that, or there's music going on and that on that terrace what do you call them? Fire escapes. Right, you have fire escape music going on in the battle of the boxes back then. And the fairs, like the fairs in Brooklyn, where you're celebrating all the different cultures and all the different people. And what happens?

Sarah Chianese:

you lock up with somebody like you and I kind of locked up and we meet on that summit you recognize each other, and it doesn't have to be the same cup of tea for anybody else, but you recognize the color of a person, meaning their vibrancy, their vibrant colors. If we were to bring that back into the food world, of why color is so important, if you think about food, if you have eight different colors on your plate, do you know what the food the colors represent? Take a guess what that means.

Nikisha King:

I just thought it depends. It's healthy. Bland food is not healthy. You need colorful, bright, vivid food. That's true. Nutrients, yeah.

Sarah Chianese:

Exactly so. It's the nutrients. You got it on the head Head on the nail. Nail it on the head. There you go. Yes, color is literally nourishment. That's throughout life. So if you have a plate that's filled with color, not only are you getting nourished, it's far more exciting to look at and then it's gonna taste good. If we're making it, it's gonna taste good and I'm praying that everybody who makes food please make it taste good, people. Ha ha, ha, ha ha.

Sarah Chianese:

Thanksgiving's coming up right. And how many times have you gone to Thanksgiving and you look at the spread and it's literally all tan, the one I would say like holiday meal, that there's like almost no garlic in it, unless you're making it a certain way, like you add some to it. But if you think about Thanksgiving food, like, is there any garlic in anything? Maybe you have some garlic mashed potatoes, right, but that's not traditional, not If there's no garlic in the food. Why, unless you have an allergy, that's different? Gosh, I feel so bad. That's the saddest allergy out there If you can't eat anything from the garlic.

Nikisha King:

Ha ha ha ha, but I get it. I get it about the colorful plate. That was a good analogy in regards to our world. The United States of America being diverse, diversity is where it gets its riches from. That's why it's one of the wonderful countries to live in. It's our diversity that creates that, and it's that when some people don't realize that, you know what I mean. That's how we came about.

Sarah Chianese:

We've been mixed.

Nikisha King:

You know what I mean. There's negativity in it, but the other side to it, the positivity. We are a melting pot. We originated as a melting pot. You had indignation people here first.

Sarah Chianese:

Yes.

Nikisha King:

Then you had Europeans who brought in slaves, which were black people. We started melting Like you can't go back. That is history. You can't go back to something that didn't exist. Right, Like a non-colorful country.

Nikisha King:

That's what makes us so special? Because, like you said about Brooklyn, you go anywhere on those four corners there's a bodega, a restaurant, is African food, indian food, west Indian food, haitian food To have that is a gift, because I live now in Jersey and we don't have that. I miss all of that. I'll pay a lot of money just to get my West Indian food from somewhere. It's a gift that you don't realize. Until you leave it. You don't realize what you have. That is exactly it. Like you said, it's the flavor, the spice and everything nice.

Sarah Chianese:

Everything nice. Everyone knows where they're from to appreciate what they had or to explore, but they don't have in their life too.

Nikisha King:

Exactly. To wrap it up, let me ask you this In your journey of being in business, femonja and enjoy what are at least two things you're most grateful for People.

Sarah Chianese:

It's really all about the people. I mean, that's a really general answer. I just realized. It's from, of course, anyone who's enjoying it, anyone who's helping me create it, our team, and then there's also the farmers. Our local farmers are mind-blowingly amazing. Anyone worth the day of a farmer's life In the Hudson Valley, new York. We have amazing farmers, but there's farmers everywhere, all across our state. The local farmers, as opposed to the big conglomerate farmers, are absolutely incredible and they can choose to do something else. They can choose something easier, but they're dedicated to this. There's a lot of reasons. I mean, think about it. They're creating life from whether it's a plant or an animal or whatever it may be, and then they're continuing life by having it be feeding people throughout the way. That, whoever's eating it Our farmers I'm incredibly grateful for.

Sarah Chianese:

So I would say, definitely, it's all people related, but I'm grateful for and I guess from my roots I would say my Brooklyn roots of being exposed to so many different foods. It's just young age. I have an incredibly scary good sense of smell. That because it helps me cook, because I don't eat meat I don't know if you know that I'm a lifelong. I haven't never eaten meat or chicken or things like that, and I'm on and off again pescetarian for my life. But the I don't know what roast beef tastes like. I'm supposedly I make the best meat people have ever tasted or the best chicken anyone's ever tasted. I've never eaten it but I could smell it and it's from growing up in Brooklyn and smelling the Jamaican beef patty place and then next door the Indian place, and then down the street is the Jewish deli and then you got the Italian pastry and the little pizza. Guys, it is a matter of being able to smell and taste. So I'd say I've been very grateful for my schnaz, and good old knows.

Nikisha King:

That's so good, thank you. And when you brought the farmers the thing about it that I didn't realize restaurants, yes, but when I think of catering, it never dawned on me that you guys have partners, are farmers. That's where you go get your good tomatoes and greens and all you don't go to like to stop and shop at me or hopefuls, like you're not going there to shop, right, you know. And that when you said that was like wait a minute, you're right, like you have these great partnerships, I was like, oh, that's so good to know. But I'm like I need to meet more people because I don't know any farmers.

Sarah Chianese:

I need no farmers so I can connect, you know look, there's a lot of CSA's in the area and even in Brooklyn. I mean, you go to the farmers market. You go to the one union square in the city oh my gosh, awesome. So you go there and there's all these different farmers. Come in and they set up their booths and you can get those yummy little gooseberries. You go to union square and get a little pick of those berries, walk around with a pipe and pop them in your mouth. There's local farmers in the city and they do rooftop farming even, and you can get, you can grow your own herbs. I mean, you could be your own local farmer to some extent, right.

Nikisha King:

You can. I just choose not to. That's more work. You're not somebody else.

Sarah Chianese:

Yeah, you have other skills. I have no navigational sensibility whatsoever. I'm like the most navigational each person in the whole entire world. But I have other skills.

Nikisha King:

That's how it works, Exactly the skills I was given. I'm going to use the other ones. I will be happy to pay you for them. Well, Sarah, thank you so much. Thank you for your time, Thank you for sharing with us your journey, how you have so much hutzpah, how you are adding flavor to life not only food, but to life Truly appreciate you and thank you for sharing the gratitude of your journey.

Sarah Chianese:

It's a bold weapon. Thank you kind of.

Nikisha King:

Yes.

Sarah Chianese:

Bless you. I know you guys can't see it, but I am blowing her a biggest kiss in the whole dark world because she's amazing. Thank you, Nikisha.

Nikisha King:

Thank you, sarah. Thanks for spending time with me today and if you received an aha moment in today's episode, hit the follow button and share a review. But, more importantly, if you have a friend who will truly benefit from today's episode, click the three dots and share this link via text. You never know how this small action can help someone tremendously. See you next Tuesday and have an amazing day.

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Nikisha King-Hidalgo

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