We were lucky to catch up with Regina Boykin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Regina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

This is what I think it takes to be successful. I remember being in culinary school thinking that success is all about what you do, but that isn’t the case being successful is about what you know because knowledge will take you further than what you could ever do. In this life, you can go around doing a whole lot of things, but if you don’t Know anything relevant to the field that you’re in or the field you were trying to pursue what good is that going to do with you?

It’s important that you understand the people who are around you, the people you interact with in person or social media. They are in your life for a reason whether you know it or not. For me when I was younger I thought that people were telling me things because they didn’t have confidence that I knew what I was doing, but in reality, they were just trying to input knowledge and information in me. You must understand that a closed bank account can take in any valuable deposits. You have to have an open mind to receive knowledge and information that’s going to help propel you forward in business as well as every day life.

Once I begin to open my mind up and realize that I needed to gather as much useful information as possible then things really started to change because I began to use that information and soak everything up like a sponge and anything that was not useful to me, went in one ear and out the other. I begin to apply that knowledge to the business aspect of things. There were numerous people that helped me throughout culinary school as well as throughout my culinary career. One person in particular over the years was Ms. Paula Alford; just a wealth of knowledge, experience and an information powerhouse altogether. She really helped me to understand that there are people in business who are here to pour into you as much knowledge and information as possible to help you succeed and it really helped develop my view and bring things into focus.

Regina, 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?

This journey started out kind of different than you would expect. I was a single mom of 3 in culinary school and working part time at a local restaurant. I needed a way to earn extra money so since I already enjoyed cooking and baking and everybody loved my cookies; I decided to start there. I would start baking at midnight and finish around 6 AM. The cookies would be packaged, labeled with the current date and time, a “use by” date, my logo, and I would take the kids and we would go around to all the local shops and sell cookies. At that particular time I was under the name Just Baked. The cookies were really a big hit with all the locals. After talking with one of my good friends from Culinary school, Adrienne, we got together and decided to get a booth at a flea market and we were selling desserts together on the weekends. Fast-forward a little bit and I started attending church with one of the ladies from the restaurant and it was there I met the love of my life, Doug. Eventually, Adrienne and I were able to use the kitchen and space in a small storefront for a little while, but then we both moved, and me and Doug got married. After some time had passed, I switched my culinary program over to art and graduated with an Associate of Arts. Then my focus shifted to my marriage, raising the kids, making sure everybody finished high school and I just begin to put myself last. This is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about because this often happens to us as moms and women in general because we are natural givers and caretakers , the key is when we recognize this we just need to pivot, or adjust and start taking better care of ourselves. And with that being said, this is where the new journey begins. This was at a time in my life where my lab numbers were not very good, I was overweight, and I was just not feeling the very best about myself when I looked in the mirror, not to say, I didn’t love myself because I did. I was just not, my healthiest version. So my dietitian suggested that we switch up my diet and I went vegan. So I started doing research about healthier food options and different herbs and started healing my body from the inside out and it really made a difference; this is when “Honestly Vegan” was born. Then someone that I was in water aerobics with reached out to me about preparing food for her and her son since she had a pretty busy schedule and she realized that meal prep services would make it easier for her. She also knew that I had been to culinary school, had worked at a restaurant and that I also had my ServSafe Certification. This is how my personal chef services began. I started with one client and ended up with six. Not only was I doing meal prep services I was also doing catering and I even got back to baking and decorating birthday and anniversary cakes too. I was helping clients meet their weight loss goals, A1c and cholesterol goals as well. I worked with clients who were doing low carb, keto, and plant based diets also clients who didn’t eat beef or pork, clients allergic to nuts, gluten & shellfish. Throughout the process I have written two cookbooks and I am currently working on a third. I have come to realize I don’t have to categorize or label myself as “vegan” or “plant based” or “vegetarian” which was all the phases I had gone through; but instead I wanted to be mindful of how I was fueling my body, choosing what works best for me, staying true to myself and my beliefs, and so “Chef Gina B” who is a “Flexitarian” was reborn. I “FLEX” in and out, I try my best to eat healthy, to be physically active, to be aware of the treatment of animals and mindful of the importance of our planets resources, but I’m human, I err, I make mistakes, I fall short, but I keep going, I don’t give up, I don’t quit and I allow myself the same GRACE that I extend to others. once again, the journey changes. While sitting at home one night, God was speaking to me, He speaks to me often, but this is the third time He has given me the same message, which is “There is more that I require of thee”. He has called me to minister to His people. Which I am currently already doing because I am a Sunday school teacher, but this is just another level of teaching that I gladly accept. It’s funny because the first two times He said it to me I was like, nope! Get somebody else to do it, lol! But this time I am listening. So that is where I am in my journey now, I am currently in Bible school. I am no longer cooking for clients, but I still do events for my church, my previous church called upon, family, and friends. Like I said, I am currently working on cookbook number three, and inspirational book and a daily devotional.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I will never forget this as long as I live because it happened so fast. I remember I had posted a video on TikTok of my vegan pulled pork recipe which I made from banana peels. Now I’ve made this from banana peels many times before and posted it on Instagram & Facebook but I had made banana pudding for church and just had way to many peels that I didn’t want to waste it so I thought why not, right? What harm could it do? So I thought. I posted that video and it went viral and it had almost a million views, 60,000 likes and I gained 0ver 7,000 followers in just over a day but at the same time the negative comments were so harsh. I honestly stood on the deck and some of the comments had me in tears. My husband Doug told me why are you concerned about people who don’t add nothing to your life or your bank account. I also even reached out to a really amazing content creator, Levert Bassman, who gave me some great insight and I’ll pass along the same to the next person. Don’t get discouraged, hold your head up & keep going and most importantly why are worried about people’s opinion who don’t even have access to your phone number. It was what my husband said and that last part that Bassman said that did it for me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

True story. I was getting ready to prep meals for the day and I was getting the ingredients together and then the stove went out. So once I called somebody about that I knew I had a countertop convection oven and a crockpot but needed something else. So I went Walmart and got a 2 burner cooktop; ran to pick up my grandson from school ended up with the tire going flat but I was able to make it back to Walmart to get the tire fixed. Let all my clients know what was going on and that deliveries that day would be 30-45 minutes late. Made it back, started cooking using the countertop convection oven, 2 burner cooktop then when outside and fired up the gas grill and the flatop grill, got everything delivered, refunded everyone half of their money back for their meals being late and gave them an offer for a free dessert for the following week as my way of apologizing and thanking them for their patience and understanding throughout the whole situation.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Chef_gina_b
• Facebook: Honestlyvegan
• Other: TikTok chefginab

Image Credits

One Click Photography