We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Neysa Garcia-Muhammad a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Neysa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

Recently, we sat down with one of our current clients, Parnass. He’s the owner of Talat Market in Atlanta and they do Thai food in a completely modern and imaginative way.

We asked him what he likes about working with us and he told us that we were the first agency to ask him what he really wanted.

He had done so much press over the years as they were building out their brand and growing it from a pop-up to a neighborhood staple. So, I was really surprised that in all of the interviews, photoshoots, and features we were the first to go that deep.

As a result, we were able to tell the incredible story of their journey, the people who supported them along the way, and the legacy they want to leave for the future.

It was an amazing collaboration. We’re so excited to give more restauranteurs the opportunity to get visible with that level of vulnerability.

Neysa, 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?

We’re Neysa and Tabari, and we’re the husband and wife duo behind Ginger and Carrot Productions. Our story is a whimsical, windy road. We’re a pandemic couple and the owners of a pandemic business. We met right before the shutdown and kept seeing each other as everything was slowly coming to a screeching halt.

At that time, we were both really unhappy with our previous careers and had a lot of conversations about financial freedom, time freedom, and being more creative. We didn’t know exactly what that looked like, but the intention was set. Both of us were long-time hobbyist photographers. I did a lot of product photography and portraits while Tabari was really into making short films.

I (Neysa) had landed us a photoshoot with Little Bear in Summerhill (a must-visit if you’re ever in Atlanta) and Tabari was going to join in to support me in my first gig.

That way was mindblowing because it was the first peak at what it could look like to build that life we were dreaming of. It was creative, collaborative, and fun, and we got to do something we both love. We learned that we actually work really well together and that same day we came home and started the business.

Moments like this are the building blocks of our relationship, one of us will say something or share a thought and something clicks. It’s like we know it’s the right thing, it feels super aligned, and then we go for it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

This pivot was a recent woo-woo, intuitive decision.

We actually recently had a pivot in our business from commercial/product photography and videography to restaurant videography. Even though we got our start there, we slowly got more and more e-commerce clients because they always need the work and we were eager to grow our business as well.

Over time, we stopped having fun in our business. We were growing and it was exciting, but we weren’t enjoying the work that we were doing especially the work that our clients at the time really loved.

That feeling of “something isn’t quite right” was so strong and we couldn’t shake it.

Finally, I had a conversation with our now fractional CFO, Shaneh F Woods and she reflected back to me that I light up when I talk about food and restaurants. I was going on a rant about how all I ever want to do is have incredible meals with incredible people and that I missed the social currency of restaurants. I used to be a server years ago and like many, transitioned out of it for a “grown-up job”. It’s just that something was pulling me back to it.

I told Tabari about my epiphany and we looked back at all the work we did that year and which clients, projects, and assignments were the most fun. By far, it was restaurants.

We loved going into their space and watching them work, we loved the food, the process, and being able to show them how amazing they were. They have an incredible resilience that we can relate to as pandemic businesses and it brought us back into a world that we loved but in this super empowering way.

Within a week of that decision, we started working with Talat Market and got into conversations with a few more awesome Chefs since then.

It feels so incredible to have a level of clarity around the work that we do and who we do it for.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I have more badges on audible than a dedicated girl scout. I love listening to books while note taking and many of the books I listen to multiple times for them to really sink in.

The three books that changed my life forever are We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers, You’re a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, and most recently Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (I was also given the recommendation to read Profit First For Minority Business Enterprises by Susanne Mariga, so that’s next on my list).

What these books all have in common is that they’re disrupters in their industries, they believe in dreaming big and reject a lot of the typical finance advice that is usually given.

As POCs, it’s really easy to assume that you’ll be in a box if you are visible, that you can’t make more money, that you can’t serve high-quality clients, or that you can’t even be successful as yourself.

There’s a lot of messaging out there that implies that you need to become someone different to be successful. The truth is that you have to be yourself so bad or it’s not gonna work.

You need to have a deep level of self-awareness to know what you’re amazing at, what people love about you, what sets you apart from the rest of your industry, and the right strategies to take to grow your business.

Just because something works for someone else doesn’t mean you should do it that way. Just because we were taught one thing for generations doesn’t mean that those teachings are gonna take us where we need to go moving forward.

Being an entrepreneur taught me to open my mind and expand my thinking, deepen my desires, and strengthen my vision. As long as I’m following my North Star, I’ll be ok.

Contact Info:

• Website: gingerandcarrot.com
• Instagram: @gingerandcarrotprod
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neysagm
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neysa-garcia/
• Other: If you want to chat further, our doors are always open at calendly.com/gingerandcarrot

Image Credits
Parnass and Rod – Owners of Talat Market in Atlanta, Ga
Farm Burger in Decatur, Georgia
Little Bear in Atlanta, Georgia
Boom Chicka Pop popcorn (personal shoot in our studio)