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

Lionel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken. 

An empowering home birth was the catalyst for taking risks I‘d been fearfully avoiding. Everything I needed to succeed was ingrained in me, I just needed to trust myself. If I was confident enough to literally birth a human being on my bedroom floor, anything else should be a breeze. I put my anxiety and doubt to the side and started my ascension into entrepreneurship. People describe it as a leap, but you can lose footing when jumping. I took the stairs. The initial goal was just to make it off the ground. My childhood bestie had a vegan food delivery service that she no longer had the time for. It was a no brainer to ask about restructuring and reopening her business. I changed daily deliveries to weekly and created a few menus to rotate before I started posting on social media. In my mind, I only needed one order to win and did. That one order paid for the food used and gave me the pictures I needed to legitimize the business to get more orders. Within 3 months I had consistent clientele. When the Pandemic hit, there was no space for doubt with mouths to feed. Instead of getting scared we had to get smart. We doubled down on the business and froze prices for our clients even though the profit margins were decreasing with gradual inflation. Refocusing on retaining customers vs retaining profits was the formula that carried us through. We weren’t balling out of control, but we were able to get a kitchen, rebrand and expand our delivery area. Leveling up has been an exciting journey so far. Getting accustomed to risk-taking is what gave me the confidence to open our current kitchen and food truck. Believing in my ability and trusting my instinct drives me to keep going. No doubt there are more risks, obstacles, and adventures to come, but I’m ready for them.

Lionel, 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?

Mama’s Vegan Cuisine is a Virtual Kitchen and Food Truck cooking up all your classic favorites, but Vegan. We serve Atlanta and surrounding cities. Meal Prep, Family meals and Catering are all available. We started in Miami during the pandemic in an effort to share the health during an outbreak. Our mission is simply to serve delicious cruelty free food to our communities. Feed your cravings, transform your health, save some animals, and support a family business; it’s a one stop shop! We offer meal prep for those that are transitioning or those just looking to introduce more plants into their diet. We also encourage our clientele to let us know what they want veganized. As a Haitian American it’s important to be able to preserve culture within Veganism. Oxtail, Goat, Lambi, and soul food… let’s make it and still sustain the limited resources of this planet. Let Mama’s Vegan Cuisine feed you a forkful of cruelty free, plant based flavor. Pick Up or Delivery (Grub Hub/Uber Eats/Doordash) available.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A huge lesson I had to unlearn is doing it all on my own.. As an entrepreneur it’s easy to get lost in sauce. They say if you want it done right to do it yourself but you can’t do everything. Get help! Find people you can depend for even small menial tasks to free up space for you to tackle the big ones. I found myself extremely burnt out after my first year because I wouldn’t lean on anyone for anything. The quality of my product started slipping as a result. I was missing out on marketing opportunities, messing up orders, even my mental health became strained. Inviting people into my vision is the best thing I could have done for myself and my business.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Customer service is key!!! We aren’t just serving food, we are serving up love and community. We are always willing to go over and beyond! We have delivered with balloons, welcomed babies, veganized Nana’s recipes, special requests are welcomed. Our dedication to our customers is not just appreciated but reciprocated. We wouldn’t exist without them.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.MamasVeganCusine.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mamasvegancuisine?igshid=NDk5N2NlZjQ=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mamasvegancuisine?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Food pics: Credit: Amelia Design LLC