The Power of Saying Yes

In today’s episode of Chef with Purpose, I share the story of how I booked my first client as a personal chef. (Spoiler alert! My first client was a professional athlete.) Even though I wasn’t familiar with at least 60 percent of the ingredients my client preferred, I decided to say yes and give it a shot.

As a personal chef, you don’t have to pretend to know everything and it’s okay to ask questions. Being a chef isn’t just about the food–it’s about being a person your client wants in their home. You’re a real person with a personality and you can use that to set yourself apart! Listen in to hear my story and learn about the three things you can do right now to shift your course and start saying yes in your personal chef business.

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

• How I booked my first client as a personal chef

• 3 things to do to gain momentum and clarity in your business

• What being ready actually means

• What matters more than the actual food you’re cooking

• Why you should show up like an in-demand chef, no matter the result

Featured on this Episode:

• Ready to book your next summer sizzling client? Click here for my guide on how to get your next 5 clients!

• Interested in becoming Fully Booked? Check out my A-Z program on how to market, sell and set up your cooking practice so you can become fully booked - Join the Waitlist HERE. Course is scheduled to open mid-September 2022.

• Take a listen to to podcast, and leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcast, take a screen shot of your review and a surprise will be headed your way!

• Transcript

  Hello and welcome to the chef with purpose podcast. I'm your host, Stephanie Heller. This podcast teaches personal chefs, nutrition experts and at home cooks how to become fully booked while growing your purpose, profit and passion. Good food is just part of the puzzle. I'll show you what to offer and how to market so you can become fully booked and help people through your food. Now let's get cooking. Hey Chefs, welcome to episode number one, the power of saying yes. So on this episode of the chef with purpose podcast, I'm going to share with you how I booked my first professional athlete as a personal chef and, more importantly, how you can do it too. I want you to listen in for the three things that you can do right now to shift your course and start saying yes. Once you do, the doors will magically start to open, your business will have momentum and clarity and you'll be on your way. So we're going to talk about the story part of how I booked my first professional basketball player. This was over thirteen years ago and it is a funny, interesting story that I like to go back to a lot because I think it has a lot of good lessons and I often feel empowered when I think of it, and I know that you will find yourself in the story too. So we're going to talk about how small things have a big impact and saying yes even if you don't think you're ready. We all think being ready is a feeling that you're going to have, like you're going to feel ready and then you do it. But being ready, I find, is actually a decision. You decide you're ready, whether you feel it or not, and then you're taking action for what you want to create. So those two things are a big part of it. So in two thousand and eight I was my first year as a full time personal chef. I was this is before the Internet, before I mean there was the Internet, but before facebook and instagram and everything was so big. I would go around pinning my business card to the back of restaurants and stores and coffee shops that I liked. You guys remember those weird bulletin boards in the back that had everything you can imagine on it, dog walkers, massage places, acupuncture, like any random stuff, and I would go put my personal chef card on these boards. This was my one of my ways to market and what would happen is these boards would get so thick because cards would be piled on top of each other. So when you would want a good spot, you would go and take some other people's off, move them around and put yours in a really good spot. How many of you have done that? Are you shaking your head laughing? Now? Let me know. I remember doing that quite a bit and I thought it was actually a waste of time. I thought nobody looks at these Um, this is really dumb, this isn't gonna work. But one day out of nowhere, I got a call that said I found your card at and it was the restaurant that I put it at. It was a Vegan restaurant in Scottsdale, and this woman said, I'm a chef. Also, I can't cook for one of my clients anymore, so I'm looking for a replacement for myself and can you come and meet me for an interview? I found your card. So I was like okay. I mean, she told me her name. I didn't know you know anything about it. I was just ready for anything. So the small things have a good impact. I went to meet with her and she told me like who she was. She didn't tell me who she cooked for, but she told me about the job, why she was leaving and she wanted to know more about me. She wanted to see my portfolio. I didn't even have a portfolio, I didn't know what it was, but I basically printed my website out from what I had online, put it in these clear folders and brought it over. She also called at Sunday, like Sunday evening, and she was like can you meet me now, and I would normally say no or, you know, schedule it when it was better for me. But I was really in the habit of saying yes to everything and beginning to see that the small things have a big impact. Saying yes, even if I didn't feel like it and showing up, or even if I didn't know who she was or what this would lead to. Those things add up to have a big impact. So when I met with her, she told me what they were looking for. How many days a week, how many meals? It was a very specific diet plan, um very specific ingredients that had to be ordered or purchased, that whole foods are very clean eating diet. And he was a professional basketball player and his family was living here to his wife and his two kids and they were looking for basically a full time Jef. So I was really excited. She still didn't tell me who it was. She took a picture of me to send to them, which I thought was very weird at the time, but I was still into it. I was just open and willing to say yes. So they asked me to come in for a cook test, and this comes to my second point. The first one is small things have a big impact. The second one is saying yes, even if you think you're not ready. Remember, I talked about in the beginning. Being ready is not actually a feeling, it's a decision, a decision you make on purpose. If we waited all the time until we're ready, most everything would never even happen. So if you find yourself having things coming your way or wanting to create things and you think you're not ready, ask yourself why and why are you choosing not to be ready? Also, be honest and like if you are meeting with somebody where you maybe don't feel prepared or you don't feel like the expert, ask questions. You don't have to pretend to know everything. I definitely did not know anything. I probably didn't even know six the ingredients they wanted me to use, like Combo and types of seaweed and dull say and all embouche plumb vinegar like. I didn't even know what any of these things were, let alone how to cook with them. But I did my research and I asked good questions and I didn't pretend to be a know at all or an expert when I wasn't. What I was was I was flexible, I was honest, I was direct and I showed up with a very hungry desire to learn, and that's what was important for this client. So most things that you do in your life you may not think that you're ready, like having kids or getting married or starting a business. You want it to be this perfect time and everything to be working out and you have millions of dollars in the bank and then you'll do this. But you actually become ready by deciding, committing and doing the actual thing, not just thinking about it or waiting for the time to be right or for the stars to align. The more experience you actually engage with in life, in things and activities, not just the thinking and the mulling around and deciding. That is not being active, when you actually engage in the doing, the gaining of experience and knowledge, you will start to feel more comfortable as time goes by, as you get more experience and as you keep saying yes and gaining more confidence. Then you will decide that you're ready and you get to decide. So you become ready by doing the actual thing. But the truth is you get to decide when you're ready. Nothing outside of you, no certification or permission from somebody else. You decide. So I went there for my cook test. I had less than twenty four hours to prepare. I purchased all the food on my own. I did not ask for reimbursement, I didn't ask for a budget for anything. I put a menu together in like two hours based on the requirements, and it wasn't like fancy, crazy food, but it was definitely from scratch, maybe even more. Nothing came out of a jar or a box. We I made everything Um from scratch on site. I didn't make anything beforehand. I knew she would want to see me cook. I didn't know, Um, who would actually be there and watching, but I know that that was a part of it. That was the experience. They just they didn't want to see food being dropped off. They wanted to see the chef in action and in talking about being comfortable, depending on what services you guys are offering now or if you are Um right before the point of knowing what to offer, decide that you want to be a part of the experience. It's not just about food. In fact, food, you will see as you get going and continue on this journey, is a small part of this. It's the medium with which we provide the service, but the actual thing is the experience that you're providing, how you're making them feel, the results you're helping them get and everything that goes with it, not just the food. So I knew they would want to see me. They're cooking and I did recipes and stuff that I'd never done before, so I was really out of my comfort zone, but I said yes, even if I did not think I was ready, and I showed up in the best way I can. So that is number two, saying yes if you're not ready, and number three is when all these things are in process and when you're putting yourself out there and you're getting, you know, random, what you think is random, things coming at you and you don't know what to say yes to. It's your job is to keep believing in yourself and in Your Business, on the service you want to provide, hide and showing up and behaving like an in demand chef, no matter what the results. So my cook test was good, it was okay. It was good enough that they actually hired me to come back, but they actually didn't eat a lot of the food. The wife was playing tennis. She came in for maybe, I don't know, four to eight minutes, she looked at the food, she barely ate anything and then left. She didn't even say anything to me, and the kids were in and out. It wasn't like everyone just sat there and ate and I got immediate feedback. I actually didn't get any feedback. The chef that brought me into cooks test me was like, okay, just leave all the food. You can go and we'll let you know, and I was like okay, but I knew it was my job to keep believing and keep showing up like an in demand chef, no matter what the result. So I didn't get a lot of positive verbal feedback and yes, I was like a little nervous and wondering, but I kept going back to I believe I can do this, I know I can help people. Um, somebody out there wants my services. And what I really thought mattered and it reflected how I showed up in these clients homes. So if I was thinking I'm not good enough, I can't cook a lot of fancy food or I haven't cooked for any, Um, really wealthy people before, that would have affected how I showed up. But since I was like pre paving myself in my mind that I can do this, I'm going to figure it out. They invited me here. Um, no matter what the result is, I'm going to keep believing in myself. That's how I showed up. I was prepared, I had a smile, I was open minded and I was the person that they wanted in their home. This isn't also a really important concept that I want to introduce to you guys? It's being the person that these clients want in their home. And again, this has maybe has to do with actual food product. Eight percent has to do with who you're being, your personality, the words you're using, the vibe you're giving off, all of this matters more than the actual food, because people want a nice, friendly Um, easy going, enjoyable person in their home as their chef. Even if they're not home. They still want you to be all those things. So be the person that they want in their home. And I did that. No matter what the feedback I got, even if it was can you redo this, or this isn't clean, or I want more of this, whatever it was, I always came back to being the person they want in their home. And what I also want to offer to you is, even if you may be nervous or scared or not sure that you can pull it off, just being your authentic self also gives you an edge. That is what lets you differentiate yourself from other people, from regular food delivery drop offs. Being a real person and having a personality and knowing that you're there to be of service and that this is your passion and you want to make their lives easier. That goes a long way. So number three is your job is to keep believing and showing up and behaving like an in demand chef, no matter what the results of either it's a cook test, when you're meeting with a client in their home, whether you're explaining your services on the phone, it's your job to keep believing. So let's do a quick recap. The small things have a big impact. That's number one. All these things will combine and add together and start to compound. Remember that. Number two, say yes, even if you think you're not ready. Remember being ready is not a feeling, it's actually a decision. Engaging in the experience, saying yes anyway and getting better and better at it, you will feel ready automatically. And number three, it's your job to keep believing in yourself, in your service, who you could help, and showing up and behaving like an in demand chef, no matter what the results, no matter what feedback you get. If, even if you don't get the Yes or they say this is too much, I don't want to move forward, or this won't work for me, I don't like the menu, doesn't matter. You keep showing up like you're in demand. So ask yourself, as we and this podcast, how can this apply to me right now? Which of those three things it maybe one and baby all. which can you apply to your life and your business now? I guarantee you, once you do, you'll be so happy when you see the results coming up, but also you'll feel differently when you're engaging with your business, it won't feel like such a chore. It'll start to get exciting, you will start to look forward to things and then the magic starts brewing. Okay, chefs, hope you have a beautiful day. I'll see you guys soon. Hey, guys, if you're done waking up each day saying I don't know what to do first to fill my cooking slots, I have the perfect thing for you. Grab a copy of MY FREE PDF guide fourteen daily marketing prompts four personal chefs to get their next five clients. It shows you exactly what to do each day to stay on track. UNMOTIVATED, with simple prompts to get you in front of your champagne clients consistently. GO TO CHEF DOT Stephanie Heller Dot COM SLASH CHEF DASH prompts to get your free copy today. I'll also give you the link in the show notes.