We recently connected with Jesse Garcia and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jesse, thanks for joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I was raised by my mother in a single parent home. She provided the foundation for me to be the man I am today. My mother comes from a difficult upbringing. My grand parents weren’t the people they ended up to be later in life, their early decisions resulted in my mother developing a learning disability that resulted in illiteracy. Now I don’t want you reading this and feeling bad, one thing about my mama is that she is a fighter, she never let her disability hold her back from anything. This is one of the traits she passed down to me. No matter what the circumstances may be, fight! This has helped me tackle numerous problems on my journey to success. Even when I get knocked down I just keep getting up, dust myself off, and keep trying. This is just one of many things I have gotten from her. One of the biggest contributions she has given me is raising me to be able to take care of myself and not depend on someone else to do it for me (I.e a woman). She made sure I knew how to cook, clean, wash, fold clothes etc. Basically equipped me with the basic survival skills I would need to navigate the world. These lessons ended up unfolding my current career path as a chef. Even to this day she calls and makes sure I’m handling my business and that I’m taking care of myself. The love of a parent(s) is one of the most powerful motivations in the world. It makes you want to get up everyday and just be somebody they can be proud of, somebody that they don’t have to worry about when that time comes. Outside of providing a better life for my mama as a goal; the other is simply providing her peace of mind that no matter what, when it’s her time, I will be okay and continue to take care of the family and make her proud.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into health and wellness as a vegan chef six years ago. Around this time the Netflix documentary “What the Health” had come out. I was sitting at two hundred and sixty pounds, high-blood pressure, with a poor relationship with food, and atrocious habits. I had decided then that I would get myself together starting with my eating habits. It took a couple months of trial and error but I had finally decided to go vegan cold turkey. To this day it has been one of my saving graces, dropped a hundred pounds and reduced my blood pressure to normal. Around this same time I had met another vegan chef who I would help from time to time. Eventually he asked me to help him build the business and I’ve been cooking ever since. Now I have two ebooks full of delicious recipes, a plant-based cheese sauce that’s the best in the world, a podcast dedicated to health and wellness in all aspects of life, a meal prep service for those who want to eat plant-based but don’t have the time, and a baked good service that is also vegan. The biggest aim for me is to help people lean towards a healthier lifestyle. Now I’m not a person who’s going to preach to someone about going vegan or judge them for what they choose to eat, after all vegan is not a sustainable lifestyle for everyone in my opinion. However, I do encourage people to do what’s best for them and their body no matter what that may look like for themselves. I rather guide someone to the water and let them decide if they want to drink or not instead of trying to force them. I think that’s one of the things that sets me apart from a lot of others is that I actually care about what I do and I pour a lot of passion and love into it yet I don’t push it on people if that makes sense. When you taste my food or hear me talk about health related issues you can taste it and hear it. Nowadays I feel like its rare in this line of work, too many people are doing it for a money grab instead actually trying to help people do better for themselves. I truly want people to be able to enjoy great food and live a long prosperous life in the most healthy way possible.

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

As I stated earlier in this interview I use to be two hundred and sixty pounds and high blood pressure from poor eating habits. When I decided to get my health together and go vegan it was all new to me. I mean in the most elementary of ways, it was might fast time eating foods that I would’ve stuck my nose up to. My first meal was buffalo cauliflower tacos, now this may sound delicious to a few but it was my first time eating cauliflower and avocados. I know you may be reading this and being like “what!?!” but yes, I was a very typical meat and cheese type of person. In order to get over it I had to rewire the way I think. I had to tell myself that it was good before eating it. That way if it was bad afterwards then I knew I just didn’t like it. I understood that if I went into it with the mind frame that it was disgusting then I would look for something to be wrong as opposed to going into it with a positive mind frame where I wouldn’t be looking for anything but what I thought. Now this was my first step towards weight loss, after all it starts in the kitchen first. When it came to the gym, nothing was foreign to me, I loved the gym growing up and its definitely always been apart of my life. However, this was the first time in my life that I was actually very heavy and very out of touch with gym life. I had hit a point when I started back that I was really just going to quit and accept that this was my life. It was beyond difficult and my body was fighting me tooth and nail. I had to really sit back and be real with myself that this wasn’t me. I decided then and there that no matter how hard it was, I was going to continue to fight until I was where I wanted to be. Six yeas later I’m glad that I chose to stand on business and be resilient in that tough time, no telling where I would be if I didn’t.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

So what’s funny is that I actually get asked this question a lot. When I was growing up I was apart of this foundation called the “I Have a Dream Foundation”, it was a foundation that helped kids with school work, life lessons, critical thinking etc. I appreciate and cherish everything this foundation did for me, it helped me in my most critical years when I could’ve made some very bad decisions for myself. As alumni of the program I would go back and give my time to help the kids there. Around this time I got very cool with a student from SMU who would volunteer there as well. When I had decided to go vegan he had brought one of his friends up there to talk to the kids about healthy eating. Of course, since I had just started eating better I got cool with his friend and we exchanged information. From there I would support his pop ups or lend help whenever he asked. Now I’m the type of person who doesn’t offer to do anything for things in exchange. If I offer help its because I genuinely want be of help so every time he would offer to pay me I would turn it down. I would help then go straight to work. One day we met up and talked about a few potential items, this is when he asked me to help him build the business and he’ll match what I was getting paid at my current job. The rest is history! From the Dallas Farmers Market to a brick and mortar in Irving, Texas. Whenever I think about how everything unfolded it was definitely divine timing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thetruthsauce.com/
• Instagram: @Jessthetruth7
• Facebook: @Jessethetruth7
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@growthhealthwellnesspodcast
• Other: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFMVGsUgcY/PrpzUSKHLIoyQ7TDvGNuCQ/view?utm_content=DAFMVGsUgcY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

Image Credits
Jesse Garcia