Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabriel Edwards. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gabriel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I have always wanted to own my own business, but the catalyst was a conversation with a friend, while eating Tuna Tacos at Next Cafe on South Beach. The desire had always been there. He asked me a simple question, “Do you want to get paid every week or do you want to get paid every day?” Let me give you the backstory for that conversation. About a year prior, I had moved to NYC from Miami and I was in a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend at the time. I went to see her for
her birthday and maxed out my credit cards on flights, hotels, and a gift. I decided to show up and surprise her but to my revelation she already had plans with her friends that didn’t include me. It was a harsh reality check for me, and it stung. I mean, my emotions felt like I had been gut punched by Mike Tyson. I was in the ring barely holding on and since I was in Miami, I was prepared to make a bunch of bad decisions to help ease the pain. Emotionally, I mean the way I felt at the time, I was at rock bottom. The next decision I made altered the course of the rest of my life. I called up a friend of mine from college who I am still friends with to this day. I said, “Hey man I’m hungry, I want some tacos,do you want to go to South Beach? There’s this spot I’ve been wanting to eat at.” He could hear it in my voice, I mean this guy was one of my go to therapist friends who I would dump all of my problems on especially from this relationship. He was my personal Dr. Phil without the huge therapist bill. On another note, friends are cheap therapy,but they don’t always give you the best advice. My personal recommendation is to hire a professional. In this particular case, this advice was life changing.

Now my friend is an amazing chef and at the time he was cooking for some high-level athletes. He would always invite me to come and be a part of the cooking, but since I was in this roller coaster of a relationship, I couldn’t see things clearly. We sat down and I ordered the food, and I was venting, as usual, getting all of my frustrations out.
He listened with a smile on his face. I remember thinking, “I don’t know what that smirk is about, but I need to get this all out.”
He looked at me and said, “G, let me ask you a question. You are doing all of this stuff trying to impress this girl way too much to be honest, complaining about your credit cards and how broke you are. Even though you have a full-time job, how often do you get paid”?
I said with a lot of air in my chest, projecting that ego, “Every two weeks.” He burst into laughter, and I just looked at him with disgust. My anger was misplaced if you can understand it from my perspective.. I’m thinking, “Dude, you are kicking me while I’m
down. I was thinking, if this isn’t friendly fire, then what is?” We are both from the south and people in the south take their time to think before making decisions. Since I was acclimating to New York, moving at a faster pace, I was becoming impatient with where he was going with this. It didn’t help that he was laughing at me. He proceeded to tell me, it was a good thing that what happened, happened because now I’m at a crossroads where I need to make a decision. Little did I know at the time, two months later I was going to lose a job, a
promotion actually, that I had worked so hard to accomplish.
He said to me “G, I get paid every day from the gigs that I do, that job I work at I get paid every week, so literally I get paid everyday while you are waiting to get paid every 2 weeks. What don’t you understand? We went to the same school and come from the same place and have the same opportunity. You’re just not taking advantage of it because
you are chasing some woman, who does not have plans to be with you like that. I mean look at what’s happening right now. Instead of you being with your girl, she’s out with her friends and you are with me on her birthday. So, which means either, A she’s already got dessert planned or B you are just going to go running to her as soon as she calls you. Like
you always do. Nothing hurts more sometimes than hearing the truth. Then he hit me with a question. “Do you want to get paid every week or do you want to get paid every day?”
I replied, “Everyday, that’s a no brainer, I get paid everyday. He replied no you go to work everyday you do not get paid every day. Big difference. That was my light bulb moment
“So, what are you going to do about it?,” he questioned. You got all this talent, and you aren’t using it, wasting your time at a job that you hate, that’s crazy if you ask me. Learn to depend on yourself, you are depending on everyone else. That’s not how it works G.” Little did I know that within 2 months of having this conversation, my life would change for the better. I would get fired from the job that I actually hated but was comfortable at, and begin to take the first steps in starting my own business.

Since I had the extra time I began to focus on what I wanted to happen, I used that extra emotional energy and instead of complaining about what just happened. I focused on what I wanted to happen instead. If I truly wanted to work for myself what would that look like. I took a deep dive into what is known as personal development. I heard a quote by this guy Jim Rohn that I never forgot “ Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”. I worked hard on that job but I didn’t work hard on myself and they still let me go. I made a promise to myself that I kept, I would never ever put myself in a position where someone could take that from me again and jeopardize my livelihood. I started to come up with a plan, by studying the marketplace and finding the gaps. What isn’t being done, or what could I do better, I knew that I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, I just needed a different approach and I found one.

I realized that this would work because of a few reasons: there were a few big meal prep companies out at the time, that only catered toward fitness clientele. That was my proof of concept, that was the only thing I needed to understand to make this work. I asked myself this question “Has this been done before”? In addition it was the only thing that I could think about and talk about to all of the people in my inner circle at the time. I remember taking notes on my iphone that I still have to this day of exactly how it was going to work, I wrote out the big picture first, then I would hone in on the details. Anytime that I had an inspiring thought I would write it down otherwise I would forget it. Also there is a basic understanding if you have a goal and you want to begin exercising; fitness and food go hand in hand. You can never outwork a bad diet if you want great results. Also I understood that my approach was unique enough that I had found a niche in the market, very few people are doing both. Most trainers aren’t chefs and most chefs aren’t trainers. Once I understood this I never looked back, this was my specialty that helped me to stand out amongst other colleagues. It didn’t represent competition amongst other trainers, but rather collaboration. I could solve a problem for them and their clients, thus increasing value for everyone. It was a win win, “ a no brainer” as one of my previous Australian colleagues put it.

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 started cooking because of my insatiable appetite for food. I had a childhood friend at the time whose grandmother let me wash dishes in her restaurant in Atlanta, Ga. The fact that I got to be in the kitchen and behind the scenes was more than enough for me. It was the summer of 96 and I was this 15 year scrawny kid who knew that he wanted to be a chef mainly because I enjoyed eating so much and I wanted to learn how to make the same exact food that I was in love with. Little did I realize at the time that the opportunity she blessed me with, that level of exposure would change my trajectory moving forward. I admired the fact that she had her restaurant in the historic part of downtown Atlanta and that her faithful followers loved her and her establishment. It set me on the path that I am on today, it wasn’t my first cooking job but it was the first kitchen that I ever stepped foot into. That opportunity set me up for exactly what I do today, by transforming lives from the inside out. I have a unique dual nutrition and fitness approach to weight loss which comes as a result of me carefully blending my passion for food and personal training with my corporate chef experience. I make delicious and healthy food that keeps my clients on track to hit their goals. One of the things that I am most proud of is me getting over the fear of failure, the doubt, the uncertainty, the what if this doesn’t work out mentality. Taking the leap of faith, believing that I could do it, acting as if and investing in myself has been a very humbling and rewarding experience.

I got into specifically what I do right now out of being at the right place at the right time ( which didn’t seem that way at first). I was a struggling trainer working at a luxury gym in New York City. One of my clients for whatever reason decided to look me up on linkedin and found out that I had culinary experience. She then asks me if I could cook for her family a few days a week, because she didn’t have the time. I asked her if I could bring her a sample of food to the gym to see if she liked how I cooked prior to jumping off the deep end. She agreed and a few people saw this transaction actually take place. One nosey big mouth trainer at the gym who happened to be my friend, started inquiring and word got out that I possessed a skill set as a chef, the rest is history.

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

A book that I read in college that began to open up my thinking. One of my favorite entrepreneurial books would be Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kioysaki. I learned about the 4 quadrants and passive income vs active income. At the time I wasn’t making any money. I was a broke college student, so the philosophy sounded great but the application did not come until much later.

Also, after being terminated from my job years ago, I decided to go to Youtube University and type in motivation. I was presented with someone that I considered a business mentor who helped to correct my faulty thinking at the time. His name is Jim Rohn and he said something in particular in one of his speeches that made everything click and it has stuck with me to this very day. I quote “ work harder on yourself than you do on your job, if you work hard on your job you can make a living, if you work hard on yourself you can make a fortune”. He helped me to realize that it was possible, I learned part of his story. He was a farm boy from Idaho who knew how to milk cows, he wasn’t very valuable and he didn’t make alot of money at the time. He worked on himself through a process called personal development, and ended up living in Beverly hills California. One of the primary lessons that I learned is that value is the name of the game, not how much money you make an hour. I was stuck on that back then, if I could only get to $25 an hour I would be wealthy is what I thought at the time. His funny little way of putting things helped me to realize that it wasn’t the money that was important, it was the value that I was providing that mattered, not the money. If I worked on myself and became more valuable, I could make more money. Being able to transform my thinking and awareness has helped me to make a tremendous shift not only in myself, but in the value that I provide and the things that have come as a result of it.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth and storytelling in addition to being able to connect with people through leveraging my current network. Using what is already available right in front of me. Not being overly aggressive but I have realized that my success in business has come from people that I communicate with on a weekly basis, not from social media, or anything else but from people that I already know. They typically recommend me to someone or know someone who can benefit from what I do. What I have begun doing recently and unexpectedly is giving a referral fee which incentives the referrer. Which leads to more leads or potential clients. Since I am getting the referral from a credible source I already have a foot in the door. Once I am able to connect and provide value I can typically acquire a new client and that has been the biggest source of new clients for me personally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thefitchefstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitchefstudio/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fitchefstudio