I found my passion through pursuing what makes me smile.
I think the most interesting thing is that I started in a job that everybody thought I was crazy to take because it didn’t pay anything. And I always had this connection to food and I wanted to move to San Francisco, two things seemingly unrelated. I lived in Arizona, and I just kept telling my family “I’m moving to San Francisco.”
And a week before college graduation, Williams-Sonoma came to campus and interviewed and they said, “Yeah, if we hire you, it’ll be for a training program for no money. And you’ll start in our retail stores.” And I said, “I don’t care. It’s going to get me to San Francisco.”
A week later, I got a phone call saying, “Come to San Francisco.” My parents weren’t so on board, asking me, “What are you doing? You’re going to work in a retail store?” But it turned out to be the most amazing training! I learned about all of the products. I learned how to choose knives and cookware, and I’m laughing because I talk to people about these things all the time now, and I represent so many of those brands.
But it reinforced my desire to cook for a living, too. I was talking about these things and was so passionate with customers about it. It really actually was phenomenal training. And from a business standpoint too, I was running a two and a half million dollar store at age 22 and it was fantastic. So basically, the thing to take away here is that what everybody thought was a bad idea for me, was actually the best place to start.
And everything I did from there, every time I said yes to something, I just kept saying, “Is it around food? Does it feel like the right decision for me?” And every single step I took has helped lead to where I am today.
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