We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meme Gonzales a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meme, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

If I could go back in time, I would have started my business sooner. I launched my Vegan Food Truck in June 2021. Being a plant based woman myself I often struggled to find good tasting healthy food. I also had trouble locating fast and convenient food. I love to eat and as I started making better meals for my family I wanted to share that with the world. I don’t think that I would have changed anything about my experience except the vendor that I purchased my food trailer from. I had a lot of setbacks and obstacles to overcome from purchasing from him.

Meme, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My journey started back in 2016. I had a deep desire to be healthy. I have worked in healthcare for over the past 20 years and I often saw severe health cases and deep down within me somewhere, I knew that there was a correlation between the food that we ate and disease. As I started to dive deeper And research I realized that that deep feeling that I had was correct. I started with watching Dr. Sebi’s lectures on YouTube. Then someone recommended a book by Dr. Llaila Afrika called African holistic health, I read that book within a week. Since then, I made a conscious effort to take care of myself holistically. That’s where my journey truly began. I now have a burning desire to provide food that taste amazing that you don’t have to compromise on the healthiness of it. There is a belief that if something is healthy that it does not taste good and I’m here to tell you and show you otherwise. I don’t use any harmful or toxic ingredients in my food. There is a difference between being vegan and plant-based. Vegan food is not necessarily healthy. Plant-based food is healthy. I don’t put anything on my truck that I wouldn’t feed to my family. Our fresh juices are seasonal fruit and I only utilize fruit that has seeds. I use avocado oil for cooking and I heavily prefer fresh ingredients over canned ingredients. Our jackfruit is bought fresh and not canned. My Food Truck is family operated, and the thing that I am most proud about is that my children are all educated on the importance of being healthy as well as being entrepreneurs.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes, several books. The first one that I would recommend is African holistic health.

The second one I would recommend would be Good vibes good life by vex king.

The third that I would recommend would be Secrets of the millionaire mind by T. Harv Eker.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first purchased my Food Truck I had several issues with the vendor that I purchased from. The first issue was he did not meet our contract deadline. The truck was suppose to be ready the first week of April however, I didn’t receive it until the third week of April. There were so many issues with the truck. He did not build it to meet requirements and so I failed my inspections twice I had to go back-and-forth countless of times to have him rectify things that were not done correctly. This was extremely frustrating. Even after I passed my inspections, I still had mechanical issues such as the truck being overloaded and slicing up the tires. My gas lines were not installed properly, and so flames were bursting through the nozzles of my burners. Although I was frustrated, I knew that I had to fix the problems and move forward because the mission was greater than any obstacles. I eventually got all of those things fixed and my truck was completely functional by January 2022. A lot of the issues I had to just simply work through, and continue to operate, even though my truck was not in great condition.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goddesssgarden.com
• Instagram: goddesssgarden_food_truck
• Facebook: Goddess’s Garden