We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tyefia Miley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tyefia below.

Tyefia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

“Back in 2019 on my own personal fitness & lifestyle journey I came to realize the lack of available and affordable healthy meal options in my community. So the defining moment for me was when I was hungry one day living in Jersey City, NJ and I was tired and didnt feel like cooking after a long day and working out, so I got on Uber Eats and I noticed that the options available were either not my desired cuisine, or too expensive for my liking. I felt like I could get a better bang for my buck getting a 5 for 5 deal or something lol. Which put me in between a rock and hard place because I’m on a journey, I’m committed, and I had finally reached a milestone where I actually WANTED to eat healthy. So what do I do? I remember being so disappointed that the options were so limited & unaffordable for US. So that’s when I knew what I had to do.”

Tyefia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

“Sure. I am a 30 year old mom of 3 so I believe this helped drive me into my passion for cooking because it helped me stay consistent.

I was raised in a small town called Raeford, in North Carolina by my great-grandmother, who would keep me in the kitchen with her as her little assistant. Even though I would mainly just pass her ingredients it stuck with me for some reason so I always give credit to her.

Career-wise, there wasn’t much of that in Raeford, so at 18 yrs old I decided to move back to my hometown, New York. I knew I could dream as big as I want there while acquiring new skills and gaining experience. Here’s a little backstory.

My first offical job was as a hostess at Dave & Busters in Times Square. Shoutout to the gm Chris, who took a chance on me even though I only had McDonald’s experience. I loved the position but I already had sights on making my way into the kitchen. However it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be to get there. Females weren’t I guess ideal for the intensity of the kitchen duties in such a high trafficked area.

Long story short, I would end up working at several restaurants including BB Kings, Maision Kayser, Bowlmor Lanes, Ikinari Steakhouse, Taim and more, amongst different positions such as serving, bartending, barista, party-planner, manager, and chef.

Eventually, I became over-worked, under-paid, and unappreciated so I took my skills, experience, and wisdom and started my own business, Tyes Kitchen. It first started as a plate sale of delicious soul food but it took a turn when I took a sudden turn in my lifestyle.

Fitness was introduced into my life which requires commitment and quickly I learned that I knew all about food but I nothing about nutrition. I ended up gaining a healthy relationship with food and it changed my life for the better.

So I became a certified nutrition coach, and I of course, couldn’t ethnically continue serving people foods that didn’t help them thrive. It then became my soul mission to not only serve people healthy but delicious meals but also teach them how to create a healthy but unrestrictive lifestyle that is sustainable forever. To be their BEST self.

I believe I have a revelational understanding of health and wellness through my own personal experience & experiments yes, but combined with being certified internationally. So I think I am uniquely set apart from others because of this and the passion I have for crafting amazing dishes altogether.

I am amazed and proud at how many people I’ve helped so far when once upon a time I knew nothing of nutrition, nothing. Through my meal service business I’ve made over 6,000 meals for others to help them eat healthy and control their portions while providing consistency. They say the food is so good that you can’t even tell it’s healthy. Which is the goal lol.

Through my coaching services I help woman, specifically mothers and busy individuals create a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable forever. It never ends like a diet does.

I want potential clients, customers, followers, and fans to know that it is not important about where you start. It is however, important about where you end. I want yall to know that there are people out here who REALLY care.

My brands purpose is based on human sustainability, freedom, and happiness through health & wellness practices.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

“Good question. During covid like many, I was thrown off track and had no job since I worked in the restaurant industry at the time. I had also just been evicted from my apartment of 5 yrs due to falling behind on rent payments, so my family & I were staying at a relatives house in Queens in her basement.

I was determined to keep a healthy mindset through all of this because I have kids who are watching me. Thr basement was a complete mess but with the help of boyfriend at the time we fixed it up to decency and bought what we could to sustain down there like 2 appliances, food, water, and my desktop computer that we used to watch TV.

I still continued promoting my meal prep service on social media even though I didn’t think people would buy in the midst of covid lol. Which was totally understandable, but they did. I was still running my business from that small basement and had created a digital cookbook too to help sustain.

Now it wasn’t booming in production but it helped us stay afloat a bit and most importantly gave me hope.”

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

“To keep things real. I started funding my business with food stamps. During covid they were giving it away like candy so I took that as confirmation really.

Along the way I met someone special named Fikree, who taught me all about financial literacy. Together we began to build my credit and then I started building business credit to grow & scale my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TyesKitchen.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/tyesmealprepkitchen
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/tyeskitchen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/tyefia-miley-836a18109