We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yatandria Tenise Cabiness. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yatandria Tenise below.

Hi Yatandria Tenise, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

My first client was from word of mouth. I’ve always been the friend that would cook for all the gatherings, often times I would run into people who I didn’t recognize or remember but that knew me from tasting my food at gatherings. That’s kind of how things started for me. I was super excited, I was able to use my catering equipment that I had purchased, but I had no idea what I doing when it came to charging the right price. I was just excited to get my first gigs.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My first job was at the age of 15, frying fish at a friends of the family restaurant. I started working back of the house (kitchen) in my early teens, later in life to find out the real money was in the front of the house (serving and bartering), but I started as a host and quickly moved into serving. I mastered the craft of serving and selling I made great money, but the bar is where I really wanted to be so I started studying alcohols, wine and beer because of my knowledge I was given a chance to fill in behind the bar at my job when they needed a bartender once and my blew my general manager away. Later while working on my craft I learned how to balance my cocktails, which was very important, when it comes to mixology. I have created bar menus and competed in a few bar competitions. First place in Atlantas 2018 Ketel One Moscow Mule Contest.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Catering (Cabiness Catering) and Bartending (Drunk Auntie Cocktails) was something I did on the side outside of my main job. Once the pandemic hit I decided to put those things first. There has been many ups and downs, times I’ve wanted to return to work full time, but I’ve learned from the bad days and decisions. I’ve just learned to keep going, and to be creative, never stop learning and growing and to be wise in my decision making, don’t overthink but take time on every decision every quote and client you decide to take on.

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

Sometimes as entrepreneurs you’re just super excited to get work, and you sometimes just take whatever comes your way. Once you recognize your worth you begin to unlearn taking any and everything. Often times less is more.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Forfoodiesonly478 drunkauntiecocktails Mothersbreakfastbbq
• Facebook: For Foodies Only
• Linkedin: Yatandria Cabiness
• Twitter: @forfoodiesonly
• Yelp: Mothers Breakfast and BBQ