We were lucky to catch up with Dianne Hancock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dianne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 2012, I was laid off by my corporate job wherein I was personal assistant to the Vice President of traffic engineers. After a futile period of job searching for a year and a half, my partner told me to figure out what I wanted to do and that we’d make it happen. I immediately decided upon becoming a personal chef as I knew I was damn good at cooking. And we all want to do or discover that one thing we’re really good at, right?

I was very fortunate that I had a friend who was already a personal chef and had been so for a few years. She cooked meat, but assured me that there was still a place for me in the Ft. Worth/Dallas area even though I wasn’t going to cook meat. She took me under her wing and was an excellent mentor. I’m forever grateful for that and pay it forward as often as I can. I got to hang out with her while learning her processes and how she did things, which helped a lot and saved me quite a few steps.

My next step was to build a website. Because I was beginning this venture with no capital, it was a DIY website. Not perfect, but it was something at least and I learned a lot about the necessity of well thought out SEO.

Ok! Website launched. Now what? Business cards! And now we wait, and we wait and we wait. In the meantime, I did all of the food demos I was invited to do, such as Williams Sonoma, etc. I solicited business from the neighbors in my condo building, mostly so I could practice. And when invited to be a demo chef for the newly launched Blue Zones project, I did that as well. I also started taking food photos and putting them on FB and IG.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve been plant based this time around since early 2000’s. Meat has always grossed me out. I’ve always found it to be too visceral with all the bones, gristle, etc. My love for animals is a factor as well. I went vegetarian the first time when I was 19, but I didn’t know anything about it and ultimately ended up becoming a “carbotarian”. Pasta is vegetarian, right? Needless to say, that wasn’t very sustainable.

Fast forward to early 2000’s. My daughter and I were sharing a house and she told me she wanted to go vegetarian and I told her I’d do it with her and we’ve never looked back. I already enjoyed cooking and was good at it, so I began learning how to cook vegetarian, sourcing recipes and devouring blogs. Reading…. Learning….. ….Researching

Cooking is a spiritual practice for me and is also something that calms my mind. It serves as meditation for me and I believe that all of these things allow me to infuse my food not only with good flavor, but good energy as well.

Honestly, it took about 3 years for my business to get off the ground, but when it took off, it really took off. More and more of my clients wanted vegan food. Although I had never cooked vegan before, I headed that way with my business. It was a natural transition for me and not one that I found difficult at all. After having been cooking mostly vegan for awhile, I had more and more clients requesting WFPB, (whole food plant based) and/or WFPBNO, (whole food plant based no oil) which sent me off onto another journey of learning and has shaped me into being an all around plant based chef.

Clients come to me for different reasons, and it’s usually one of three things: illness, desire to eat healthier, but don’t know how, or just plain lack of time to prepare healthy meals.

My target client has revealed themselves to be meat eaters who have never eaten plant based before, but for whatever reason find it necessary to do so at this time. They are always, aways amazed at how good plant based meals can be and marvel over the fact that “they don’t miss the meat.” Throughout this process I have learned that if your food tastes good, people will eat it, meat or not. Flavor comes first.

What sets me apart from others is that I cook plant based meals only. I know lots of chefs who will tell you, “sure I can cook vegan,” but for me- it’s my speciality. It’s the only way I cook. I am considered a subject expert in my field.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What has helped build my reputation in this market is:

Being passionate about my particular field, which means always learning and growing

Knowing and understanding what I’m doing

Focusing on the things I do really well

Consistency in the products (meals) I put out

Flavorful food is of utmost importance

Anther thing that has helped is the fact that I’m one of few in the DFW area who focuses and specializes in plant based meals

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

In addition to social media the best source of new clients for me are always word of mouth, repeat business (which has oftentimes fostered new client avenues and excellent web SEO.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.plantlovepersonalchef.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantlovepersonalchef/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/plantlovepersonalchef

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Ana Gallegos Photos