Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed, Itiona Scott.
She was only 14 years old when she lost her mother to cardiovascular disease–a disease that kills around 695,000 people in the United States every year and one that disproportionally affects African American women and other People of Color. The culprit? Bad eating habits, overly processed foods, and a lack of information on eating right and correctly reading the ingredients on the back of the product label. Using that loss as a catalyst, Itionia launched a line of heart-healthy salad dressings and marinades and aimed to fix the American diet one sale at a time.
Essie Marie was created to impact the heart health epidemic within the women and minority communities. Founder, Itiona Scott shares how her mother's death became the motivation for her company.
Topics Covered
- Why Essie Marie is different.
- How did Essie Marie Start?
- How we got into Whole Foods
- What are the flavors?
- Future aspects of the brand?
- Where can we find the product?
More on Essie Marie
Essie Marie prides itself on being the only African American woman owned heart-healthy dressing and marinade brand in it’s category. Itiona plans to take Essie Marie products national, to help as many people as possible fight against the silent killer, heart disease.This family recipe salad dressing is tasty, healthy and the perfect addition to any family gathering.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan MacDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And start planning their own. Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them
how they are running their companies, and speak with nod
profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now,
sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to
their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
My guests on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The featuring gas
Is today is a therapist turned heart healthy food entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Shown.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your Scott will shining the spotlight on her se Marie
Sally Dressing Companies so others can learn more about her
heart healthy and delicious products handcrafted from a very own
kitchen that is saving lives. She's based in Chicago. Their
products are vegan, heart head healthy, low sodium, dairy free,
gluten free, and delicious dressing marinates and sauces are shown.
(01:06):
Your Scott never intended to make history by creating something
to help people suffering from such a preventable disease. Heart
disease it's affecting black people and women by astounding numbers.
Please welcome to Money Making Conversations masterclass are shown your Scott.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
How you know me, Scott, I'm great, Thank you, Thank
you for having me. Rashaan.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, let me just because we're talking about heart disease.
I remember you know that it's a silent killer. They
always say heart disease. His affects everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'm not trying to turn this into a dog show
because I want to talk about you know, her salad
dressing and she's an entrepreneur and how she's she's trying
to grow her brand and her brand is tied to
salad dressing, but she's figured out a way to not
only serve a great product, but also serve a great product,
and how that can also help you live longer. Heart
disease is a fact is the leading cause of death
(01:58):
for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic
groups in the United States. One person dies every thirty
six seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease, about
one hundred and about six hundred and fifty nine thousand.
Let me get that number correct, About six hundred and
fifty nine thousand people in the United States died from
(02:20):
heart disease each year that's.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Won in ever four deaths.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I'm making this statement, was something personal motivated you, that
motivated you to create this line of salad Dresden?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yes, absolutely, losing my mom when I was fifteen and
feeling helpless. I felt helpless in that moment. You know,
she complained she was normal that day, totally normal, normal activity, cooking,
doing the usual household chores, and that evening she was
just like, I need some air. She didn't know what
it was, but she couldn't breathe. And then all of
(02:56):
a sudden she collapsed and said, you know, the last
thing she said would make something of yourself. And that
was the last time I saw her and heard from her.
So yeah, now that that impacted me, and it was
a negative thing that impacted me in a positive way.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Right, because you didn't know and when did you find
out what the you know, the act exact reason for
her death and how did that affect you? Because you
had to there was an educational period you had to
go through to know it wasn't your fault. It was
something that you know, somebody, some people said the word
God's will or her time and you know, there's a
(03:33):
lot of cliches come out when people die unexpectedly, and
so how did that whole period of a guilt, frustration,
sadness manifests itself until you being an entrepreneur who has
an award winning salad dressing right now and Marinate talks, Well.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
It really it changed me. You know, the sudden impact
of losing her change me. You know, it was eye
opening and it was just something that made me realize, like, wow,
there's something you know that I need to do. You know,
I need to make something of myself number one. That's
what she said. So at that moment, I took nothing
for granted, Like everything was intentional, even finishing high school
(04:13):
in three years. Games were over and so, you know,
being helpless in that moment, I felt like I needed
to be in healthcare. So I looked into becoming a nurse.
That wasn't it, And so I found therapy and that's
that's where I found my need to help other people.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I love what you said. This got your nursing, wasn't
it the nurse that wasn't me? Why?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Why?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Why?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Why not nursing? You know, because you said it's so
quicknt that wasn't me nursing?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah, it is extremely It's not as easy as it looks.
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know a lot of people say, you know, like
I would love to be a doctor, but I am
not the person you won't cut on you, okay, because
I just don't have that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's it's like it's it's it's a couple of things
I could not do in life. You know I would
want to do it. One is being a pilot. You
don't want me landing your planes. It's something about coming
in and holding it steady. And a surgeon. You know,
I could probably be a dentist, but I'm surely sure
a couple of cavities would.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Run me off, you know. Oh yeah, it's pretty. So
you went into therapy.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
When you say therapy has a broad meaning there what
type of therapy did you go into?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I went into with the you know, physical occupational therapy
is licensed occupational therapists, and so I'm very creative in
that aspect. That's why I'm an entrepreneur. But I love
to help people too, so that fit right into what
I needed to do, you know, because occupational therapy is
usually your creativity to help people with deficits. You know
(05:49):
what I'm saying, Rather it's mental, Rather it's physical. Rather
it's you know, anything you can really help the kids
with autism and special needs. It's so many different facts
that occupational therapy working. So yeah, so I found my
love there. You know, my mother, my mother in law,
and sister in law are registered nurses, and they used
(06:09):
to always complain.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
About their jobs, right right, Well, you know, an interesting
thing about it is that when I hear this conversation
that you're given and thank you for calling on the show,
money making conversations about is that you know, when you
start talking about salad dressing and you hear the word
because everybody wants your salad dressing to be great and good,
and these are the words that run people away when
(06:31):
they hear them. In their minds, it doesn't taste good
because we're so mentally. I'm talking about the racial African
American community, especially, they hear words like vegan, a dairy free,
low sodium, gluten free.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's not gonna taste good. You know, Am I telling
the truth?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I promise you you are.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Low sodium black people hanging up on you. I'm telling
you right now, We got to have our salt. Okay,
we got to have our salt.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
That is so true.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Now, but Scott so so tell everybody why too much
salt is bad for you?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Though so much salt is bad for you. For one,
it swells you up inside, it increases it helped. I'm sorry, Noah, no, Noah,
I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I don't want to talk.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Okay, in your blood vesketles and the help which decreases
them out of your blood flow, you know, which increases
your blood pressure. So that's that's that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And that's where the silent killer comes in, right that
we are talking about, you know, because you hear these
statements all the time.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
He was he looked so healthy to me. He was
just out and we were laughing.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And unfortunately, and when you reminisced back to your mom's death,
she was doing everyday tours.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
She was just living.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Life and then she said I can't breathe, I need
to get some air, and she passed away.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So so we walk through life feeling good and ignore signs.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yep, yep. It's it's really like a gentle swelling that
you don't really recognize, you know, And so they say, oh,
you have biable person, like, really, I do you know
you don't really feel it. It's a it's an internal
gentle swelling that's coming from that sodium. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You know, I don't want to shy away from the
reality of the food is a good product. It's it's
very popular, it's being sold online. But we have to
say why it is also valuable to you as a
health product, you know, like you know, people recommend you know,
they say, take an aspiral date, keep it. You know,
people say that, and you know, I always keep a
(08:43):
cough drop in my cabinet at home. With my throat
feels a little sore, I pop a cough drop in
a minute. I always tell people I'm not gonna wait
till I get sick. I feel kind of like it's coming.
I call that preventive. And so I look at what
you when I when I'm reading about your product, when
I hear these terms about you know, this is something
that you didn't you created, but you didn't intend fully
(09:05):
understand the impact it would have on people. I'm sure
you're getting a lot of testimonials about how how the
food your salad dress is impacting people's lives.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Absolutely. Yes, I get pictures from customers all the time,
and then you know, it's just it's inspiring. Actually what
keeps me going, you know, for people to give me
the feedback of why they like it, how they like it,
and how they're using it and how it's benefiting them.
So that's it lets me know that the whole purpose
(09:35):
is being you know, is being you know, created here
because that I created it for people, not really for myself.
I do use the product and I love it, but
I really created it for others to benefit off of it.
And like when my mom passed, I didn't know that
it was the number one killer. Like that's it's not
talked about enough. You know, it's the number one killer.
(09:55):
Even despite COVID, it's still the number one killer. Every year,
there like so many new diagnoses one twenty five million
new diagnoses to cardiovascular disease related ailments. That's that's that's crazy,
And a lot of it is because of lack of education.
People don't realize that they can have good food that
(10:16):
tastes delicious without all that junk in there. You know,
we have a lot of products on the shelf that
are salad dressing the mayor needed are loaded in chemicals,
loaded stuff that shocked me that I didn't even know
when I started the product that that stuff was in there,
like stuff you can't pronounce stuff. They using grass fertilizer.
But yet we wonder where all the dialysis centers are
popping up in our community. Why is that no one's
(10:39):
really talking about what we need to have in our
diets each and every day to stay healthy. You know
what we need to be eating each and every day, well,
you know, to keep our pressure and tact.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, I'm one of those bad people. I'm not gonna
lie I I I you can line me up. I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna sit on the show like
I'm a saint. Now you know, I gotta admit I'm
one of those people that eating that.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Like you said, some ingredients you can't announce the words.
That's me. I look at it.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I've never I will tell you this, miss Scott. I've
never looked at a bottle, picked a bottle and looked
at the back, I looked the front. If the color
is right, I said, that's been a great I shaked it.
I shake the salad dressing and go it moves in
the bottle pretty good. Or I heard that name or
that brand, I'm I'm it's it's in my it's in
my basket.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I've never turned it around there with okay.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I totally get it, and you know what, and it's
okay because that's what most people are doing. And that's why,
that's why, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Why you on Money Making Conversation master Class, that's what
that's gonna tell the truth. I have to bring up
somebody who can slap me in my forehead and say stop,
I'm here to stop the madness here.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, how did you create this product?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Let's let's talk about the dreamy, Let's talk about the
dream We talked about the saturdays, talked about the inspiration.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
How did you create this product? And who helped you?
You know, I know, you know. We all start with
all in vinegar based on different things.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
And the vinaigrette is like the number one if you
don't know how to make it a chalad dressing all
in vinagrette, right exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's it. Yeah. But my mom, my mom was a
young lady. I had a huge family. I come from
a big family to I'm one of fourteen. I'm actually
number thirteen of fourteen from the same mom and dad.
So my mom cooked every day every day. She made
these healthy. They weren't healthy home cooked meals that were delicious,
so her products, or I would take them to work,
like the salads. I would take them to work, and
(12:36):
the coworkers love product. Like I was a salad girl.
Like I had to bring that to every function we had.
They wouldn't let me leave. Was like I heard stuffle, like,
don't let her lead till we get the recipes. Stuff
like that. So pretty much my mom recipes. I just
made them heart healthy recipes from the home cooked meals
that we would have every day. I made them heart
(12:57):
healthy and made them, you know, delicious. You know, I
wanted them to still taste good, because no one wants
to eat a healthy product that doesn't taste good consistently, you.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Know, absolutely. That's why I mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Because of the fact that we tend to run, and
we I mean include we meaning Rushan McDonald tend to
run for things that we feel doesn't taste right or
not doesn't taste it doesn't have a taste. We grew up,
we grew up to know or we're used to eating,
and we rejected immediately, don't even give it a shot. So, so,
(13:31):
but you have a brand, you know, how did you
start mixing the right ingredients? I guess I want to know,
you know, because you I'm assuming you started in your
home kitchen.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Correct, Yes, Well, the product the recipes are my mom's.
I just made them hard healthy which oh okay, I
took the bad stuff out and put good stuff in.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Okay, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
What what would you consider the bad stuff you took out?
And I'm not saying it bad in a bad way.
We're trying to turn a meal that's really good into
a healthy product.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Right absolutely, yep.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Okay, So we know low sodium, it probably had salt,
and you turn that into what type of salt would
you have used with this kosher.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Salt or what do you do?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Mineralized mineralized pink Himalayan sea salt, which is beneficial to
the body. It's not going to cause you.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's not more, that's not more than. That's not more.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
You know, you know, I grew up on that little
that little blue blue salt body right right, that's me,
that's me.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I know.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It is you. You you lost me a Himalayan. I'm
gonna just say you right now, you lost in Himalayan.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Sorry. I love it.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I love it, but Lord knows I needs.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
To be This is something that that needs to be
on my table because of the fact that you're telling
me rashand your we're over sixty. You should look at
your guide differently, Okay, just because you get up and
you think you're looking fine in the mirror when you
when you're looking when you're leaving a house. Yeah, so
your blood pressure, which I do go to the doctor
twice a year.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I do that. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, as you get older, you know you want
to be you know, you start thinking about beeting God
as you get old.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I have on Let's see how feel I can hold off.
It's just neat.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And so through. Yeah, that's the yeah, I mean, yeah,
we do it. Sometime have to say, Okay, I gotta
do better. You know, I gotta do that. And I'm
not saying to say, don't have what you like every
now and then, but on that normal, consistent, everyday basis,
we gotta we gotta really start putting some you know,
we got to start like really being involved with what's
going on and going into our bodies. You know what
(15:50):
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Now you also have a marinade. You have a salad dressing.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And because I didn't, you know, I looked up because
I knew it was coming to the show that I
looked up some things you doing. So these salad dressings
also can be put on sandwich that used as a
sandwich spread as well.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yes, it's like you know, people have sent me recipes
with all kinds of stuff they've done with them. But
they are dressings and marinates like you can marinase or salmon,
your shrimp, your chicken in them, and I mean just
delicious and still add any additional like onion powdered garlic
powder if that's what you want, but it just really
changes the flavor and makes it something delicious. And more importantly,
(16:46):
when you use in ours, it doesn't have all those
chemicals in it because see a lot of those chemicals
the stuff they use in grass fertilizer stuff like that,
Like why is that even in food? You know? So
that's one main important thing that you know, you don't
want to just be poor stuff on us. You go
make this beautiful salad. Now you got all this stuff
out of this dressing bottles, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You know?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
And I'm not saying don't have ranch every now and then. Okay,
well I'm.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So if you lived as long as I've had lived,
then you've had ranch too much?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, ranch and just it's you real, shure you ranched out.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Okay, it's time to look at it, look at your life,
and you're eating habits from a different way.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And that's what this episode is about.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
This reason I brought you on the show because I'm
talking about being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Planning your life a well, planning your life is also
how you eat, and how you eat determines whether you
can have a good day. We saw that COVID impacted
the minority community more than any other community. And what
was it tied to high blood pressure? Uh, overweight, you know,
pull eating habits. And so we were attacked the first
(17:58):
by COVID and so and so. I feel it's fortunate
that now you've made something available that doesn't doesn't doesn't
attack our palate to say, oh, this is not good,
but this is something that people are now finding value,
not only a good food that you've created, a good
salad dress, a maritage that you've created, but something they
(18:20):
can enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, absolutely, I can't. Like, people don't want to leave
the house, Like when I make it at home for
family functions and they're like, I know you got that salad.
That's apple peacan salad day, you know, and you can
switch it up. You know, different recipes are on our
website at se marine dot com, so you can you
(18:42):
can get those recipes and switch them up any kind
of way you like. But people literally like, I know
you made my salad, right, I know that I'm kind
of way I became salid lady. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh you're so enjoyable to interview, you know, I.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Making rashaan. Oh my god, you've been cutting up.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Well I've been ranched out. O't time for me to
change my eating abbit. But it started somewhere, Misscott. In
regards to the recipes, were the foundation. You changed them up.
I've took some of the line, as you say, the
word bad things out of the recipe and made them
health conscious.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
This used the word health conscious into the recipe.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Now you okay, it had what was that transition step
to put it in a bottle and then take it
to a store and then they put it on the shelf.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Talk about that, right absolutely? So you know you have
the recipe. We all have recipes, right, so you just
create the recipe and then once you create the recipe,
packaging is so important, you know, making sure whatever it
is you're selling, if it's some bakery, if it's if
it's potato chips, if it's stuff that goes in bottles,
(19:56):
you want to make sure that you have it up
to whatever it is. Your competition is, you know, you know, So.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Did you go in the store looking at your competition
looking at their packaging?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
What were your idea to say? Okay? Because I'm telling you,
in the salad dressing world, it's a lot. I mean it,
Believe me.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I go down that aisle and like I said, I
just look at the bottle that has the nice color
on it or familiar brand name, and then I pick
it up and I'm good. I cannot tell you why
I bought it other than the fact that name sounds familiar.
I think I've had that before, okay, and then I
get it them out not that based on memory. So
(20:39):
you're battling, you know, people who are tied to tradition,
people who are tied to.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Not wanting to change.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And also people don't experiment that much in this salad
dressing lane, so they.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Speak to what they know and that's it, you know,
And so going the brand is yeah, it's you got
to really be involved intuitively, Like you have to do
it on purpose. Like people they're so used to their
brand that they've been buying for years. When they come
in the store, they so they're just focused on getting
what's on their list.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
You have to fund creative ways to introduce them to
your flavors, you know, doing the store prom.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Okay, let's stop right there. When you say creative ways
to introduce them to your flavors, how did you do that?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yep? We do a lot of store promos. In store promos,
you know, we go out to community events. My passion
is talking to people in the community because I like
to educate with this product, because that's why I was
creating a memory of my mom who died of power disease.
Essie Marie was my mom. So this product was created
with a purpose to educate the communities about heart disease
(21:48):
and alternative delicious alternatives, right and what you're what we're
used to? Like you said, Rashon, Yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
No, no, let's let's slow everything down here. Okay, who
did you tell this idea to to say, you know something,
I think I can get into sally dressing business. And
did they say go for it or they went girl?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You crazy?
Speaker 4 (22:13):
What? What? What? What?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
What statements did you get at the box?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Well, well, people, they harassed me for it. So I
told my husband, I said, look, I need to do
something meaningful with this. I need to do something meaningful
with this. And you know, he knows I'm an entrepreneur
of my heart, like I've done lots of stuff in
the past, but he, you know, he understands my passion
of losing my mom and stuff like that. So you
know he's like, Okay, well we can just try it,
(22:37):
you know. So when he gave me the green light,
I said, let me just get the planning you know,
everything starts with the plan. So first and foremost, whatever
it is you want to do, you want to write
it out right. Step down, look at your competition, make
sure you have it all together. You know, find out
the rules and regulations of that product. You know, because
everything you make can't just be putting the stores. You know,
(22:59):
being in Whole Foods is a big deal for us here.
Whole Foods has a whole separate list of standards. Like you,
every product that you see and want can't be in
Whole Foods, and so that landing in is major. You know,
it's just like a major accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Okay, So how did you? Okay?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Because you know, I don't want to miss these steps
because you know you we know it's major. You're an
African American female. You know you're a therapist. You know
you're not a you know you're not trained in making
salad dresses. Set for a living. You didn't get a
recommendation letter from a competitor that make salad dressing. I
got this salad dressing. Did you do you have to
(23:40):
give them a sample to taste? Do you come in
for a tasting session?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
That's what happened. Whole Foods is opening in Chicago in
a local community in Englewood, and they were looking for
entrepreneurs and so you know, they was like, oh, you
don't live in the area. No, you don't fit. So
I guess they needed to meet a or something. I
was like, I was like, okay, God, if that's what
you want, then I won't be there because they said no,
you know. But then they called me back and.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Was like, miss got you funny? Okay, whatever, right, because
I don't live in this zip code? Did you walk
out there with some attitude?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
I was just like, I was like, okay, God, I yesterday,
my time.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
You know?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
It so funny.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
First of all, I enjoyed this interview if I haven't
laughed as much in a long time, because I could
just see you walk out of that mad as heck
went home, said some fancy words to your husband about
what you thought of Old Foods.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Right, okay, let me tell you how you look.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And so they called you back. They called you back.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
They called me back for samply for a tasting. I
went down to the corporate office, because it always starts
with the corporate if you want to get your product
in doors and what have you?
Speaker 1 (24:54):
How many how many bottles did you take down there?
So a couple of them to throw at them, Jessica,
They said, no.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
What you I mean? I took a ready bate salad
and I had a couple of bottles, you know, the
top ones that people loved, and they were just extremely impressed.
It was extreme and like we we've outsold all their
major brands and we're still doing We're still doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
And you know, being an African American one, I've received pushback,
major pushback. But I'm gonna I'm just not that I'm
not cut from that cloth. That's gonna stop. So I
don't care. You could put me on the bottom shelf.
I'm gonna tell my people where to find me at.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm just crawl in the store. I'm on the bottom shehelf.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
You see a bottom and so and so. Yeah, Wow,
you know this is we having.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
A lot of fun and I'm enjoying this interview with you.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
The beauty of your story is starts sad, but wow,
it's proven to be a blessing to so many people.
And and and you know, because they say put you
on their bottom shelf, and then you start going up
chef shelves.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
When they came back and told you, you know, people
seem to like your se Marie, what did that?
Speaker 3 (26:09):
What did it bring to It's just like, you know,
if you were a musical artist, you driving and then
you hear your song on the radio.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
I think that would be comparable to that. When you
got that call right.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
From home promise you. It's crazy, like they were like,
you outsold all the major brands we've had for years,
and like you know, like the first month and stuff
like that. So that was just like mind blowing. I
was like, Okay, people like this stuff, they really like this.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So the next step of question, I'm sure my audists
and go, okay, what what will help you to expand?
What is stopping you from going across country and leaving
the Chicago market because your product is selling so well.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
In that in that regional marketing, what's the next day
we're looking.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I'm open to investors, you know, investors to help expand
a brand because you know, it's a multi billion dollar
industry and I'm the only black girl doing this and
people love it. They love it, so it's kind of
like I want to give people something that's helping them.
You know, it's not just a product that's delicious and
taste good. It helps people, you know. That's my that's
(27:14):
my reason and my wife wanting to do this. You know,
because no fifteen year old or anyone younger than me
my sister was fourteen, should have to move their best
friends right to something they didn't even know existed in
their parents, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
So, but you can't, but you can't order and you
do ship out of state.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Correct, Oh yeah, we ship nationwide. We shipped to every
state so far. We get repeat orders all the time.
We ship a lot in Atlanta, ship a lot in Texas, California.
You know, Tabitha Brown is a big supporter. She comes
to Chicago and she looks for us and both foods
that just really do that blew my mind, right, it's beautiful.
(27:53):
But yeah, so that's it's just been an amazing experience
and something like it took my husband by word when
like you know, he has the whole separate things of
what he loved to do, but he didn't expect for
it to do what it's doing now. So what's stopping
me is mainly you know, like I said, going into
other investing if I had a great investor, would be great.
So we're working on all those things. But those are
(28:16):
just the only two things.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Well, I'll tell you something. Thank you for calling in
on Money Making Chemisation Masterclass. An amazing product. It This
has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass hosted
by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests on
the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
(28:39):
Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Keep winning.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan MacDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And start planning their own. Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
From around the country, talk to celebrities and ask them
how they are running their companies, and speak with nod
profits who are making a difference in their local communities. Now,
sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets to
their success on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
My guests on Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The featuring gas
Is today is a therapist turned heart healthy food entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Shown.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your Scott will shining the spotlight on her se Marie
Sally Dressing Companies so others can learn more about her
heart healthy and delicious products handcrafted from a very own
kitchen that is saving lives. She's based in Chicago. Their
products are vegan, heart head healthy, low sodium, dairy free,
gluten free, and delicious dressing marinates and sauces are shown.
(01:06):
Your Scott never intended to make history by creating something
to help people suffering from such a preventable disease. Heart
disease it's affecting black people and women by astounding numbers.
Please welcome to Money Making Conversations masterclass are shown your Scott.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
How you know me, Scott, I'm great, Thank you, Thank
you for having me. Rashaan.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, let me just because we're talking about heart disease.
I remember you know that it's a silent killer. They
always say heart disease. His affects everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'm not trying to turn this into a dog show
because I want to talk about you know, her salad
dressing and she's an entrepreneur and how she's she's trying
to grow her brand and her brand is tied to
salad dressing, but she's figured out a way to not
only serve a great product, but also serve a great product,
and how that can also help you live longer. Heart
disease is a fact is the leading cause of death
(01:58):
for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic
groups in the United States. One person dies every thirty
six seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease, about
one hundred and about six hundred and fifty nine thousand.
Let me get that number correct, About six hundred and
fifty nine thousand people in the United States died from
(02:20):
heart disease each year that's.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Won in ever four deaths.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I'm making this statement, was something personal motivated you, that
motivated you to create this line of salad Dresden?
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Yes, absolutely, losing my mom when I was fifteen and
feeling helpless. I felt helpless in that moment. You know,
she complained she was normal that day, totally normal, normal activity, cooking,
doing the usual household chores, and that evening she was
just like, I need some air. She didn't know what
it was, but she couldn't breathe. And then all of
(02:56):
a sudden she collapsed and said, you know, the last
thing she said would make something of yourself. And that
was the last time I saw her and heard from her.
So yeah, now that that impacted me, and it was
a negative thing that impacted me in a positive way.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Right, because you didn't know and when did you find
out what the you know, the act exact reason for
her death and how did that affect you? Because you
had to there was an educational period you had to
go through to know it wasn't your fault. It was
something that you know, somebody, some people said the word
God's will or her time and you know, there's a
(03:33):
lot of cliches come out when people die unexpectedly, and
so how did that whole period of a guilt, frustration,
sadness manifests itself until you being an entrepreneur who has
an award winning salad dressing right now and Marinate talks, Well.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
It really it changed me. You know, the sudden impact
of losing her change me. You know, it was eye
opening and it was just something that made me realize, like, wow,
there's something you know that I need to do. You know,
I need to make something of myself number one. That's
what she said. So at that moment, I took nothing
for granted, Like everything was intentional, even finishing high school
(04:13):
in three years. Games were over and so, you know,
being helpless in that moment, I felt like I needed
to be in healthcare. So I looked into becoming a nurse.
That wasn't it, And so I found therapy and that's
that's where I found my need to help other people.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I love what you said. This got your nursing, wasn't
it the nurse that wasn't me? Why?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Why?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Why?
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Why not nursing? You know, because you said it's so
quicknt that wasn't me nursing?
Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yeah, it is extremely It's not as easy as it looks.
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know a lot of people say, you know, like
I would love to be a doctor, but I am
not the person you won't cut on you, okay, because
I just don't have that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's it's like it's it's it's a couple of things
I could not do in life. You know I would
want to do it. One is being a pilot. You
don't want me landing your planes. It's something about coming
in and holding it steady. And a surgeon. You know,
I could probably be a dentist, but I'm surely sure
a couple of cavities would.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Run me off, you know. Oh yeah, it's pretty. So
you went into therapy.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
When you say therapy has a broad meaning there what
type of therapy did you go into?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I went into with the you know, physical occupational therapy
is licensed occupational therapists, and so I'm very creative in
that aspect. That's why I'm an entrepreneur. But I love
to help people too, so that fit right into what
I needed to do, you know, because occupational therapy is
usually your creativity to help people with deficits. You know
(05:49):
what I'm saying, Rather it's mental, Rather it's physical. Rather
it's you know, anything you can really help the kids
with autism and special needs. It's so many different facts
that occupational therapy working. So yeah, so I found my
love there. You know, my mother, my mother in law,
and sister in law are registered nurses, and they used
(06:09):
to always complain.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
About their jobs, right right, Well, you know, an interesting
thing about it is that when I hear this conversation
that you're given and thank you for calling on the show,
money making conversations about is that you know, when you
start talking about salad dressing and you hear the word
because everybody wants your salad dressing to be great and good,
and these are the words that run people away when
(06:31):
they hear them. In their minds, it doesn't taste good
because we're so mentally. I'm talking about the racial African
American community, especially, they hear words like vegan, a dairy free,
low sodium, gluten free.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's not gonna taste good. You know, Am I telling
the truth?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I promise you you are.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Low sodium black people hanging up on you. I'm telling
you right now, We got to have our salt. Okay,
we got to have our salt.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
That is so true.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Now, but Scott so so tell everybody why too much
salt is bad for you?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Though so much salt is bad for you. For one,
it swells you up inside, it increases it helped. I'm sorry, Noah, no, Noah,
I'm sorry, guys.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I don't want to talk.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Okay, in your blood vesketles and the help which decreases
them out of your blood flow, you know, which increases
your blood pressure. So that's that's that.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And that's where the silent killer comes in, right that
we are talking about, you know, because you hear these
statements all the time.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
He was he looked so healthy to me. He was
just out and we were laughing.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And unfortunately, and when you reminisced back to your mom's death,
she was doing everyday tours.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
She was just living.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Life and then she said I can't breathe, I need
to get some air, and she passed away.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So so we walk through life feeling good and ignore signs.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yep, yep. It's it's really like a gentle swelling that
you don't really recognize, you know, And so they say, oh,
you have biable person, like, really, I do you know
you don't really feel it. It's a it's an internal
gentle swelling that's coming from that sodium. You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
You know, I don't want to shy away from the
reality of the food is a good product. It's it's
very popular, it's being sold online. But we have to
say why it is also valuable to you as a
health product, you know, like you know, people recommend you know,
they say, take an aspiral date, keep it. You know,
people say that, and you know, I always keep a
(08:43):
cough drop in my cabinet at home. With my throat
feels a little sore, I pop a cough drop in
a minute. I always tell people I'm not gonna wait
till I get sick. I feel kind of like it's coming.
I call that preventive. And so I look at what
you when I when I'm reading about your product, when
I hear these terms about you know, this is something
that you didn't you created, but you didn't intend fully
(09:05):
understand the impact it would have on people. I'm sure
you're getting a lot of testimonials about how how the
food your salad dress is impacting people's lives.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Absolutely. Yes, I get pictures from customers all the time,
and then you know, it's just it's inspiring. Actually what
keeps me going, you know, for people to give me
the feedback of why they like it, how they like it,
and how they're using it and how it's benefiting them.
So that's it lets me know that the whole purpose
(09:35):
is being you know, is being you know, created here
because that I created it for people, not really for myself.
I do use the product and I love it, but
I really created it for others to benefit off of it.
And like when my mom passed, I didn't know that
it was the number one killer. Like that's it's not
talked about enough. You know, it's the number one killer.
(09:55):
Even despite COVID, it's still the number one killer. Every year,
there like so many new diagnoses one twenty five million
new diagnoses to cardiovascular disease related ailments. That's that's that's crazy,
And a lot of it is because of lack of education.
People don't realize that they can have good food that
(10:16):
tastes delicious without all that junk in there. You know,
we have a lot of products on the shelf that
are salad dressing the mayor needed are loaded in chemicals,
loaded stuff that shocked me that I didn't even know
when I started the product that that stuff was in there,
like stuff you can't pronounce stuff. They using grass fertilizer.
But yet we wonder where all the dialysis centers are
popping up in our community. Why is that no one's
(10:39):
really talking about what we need to have in our
diets each and every day to stay healthy. You know
what we need to be eating each and every day, well,
you know, to keep our pressure and tact.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Well, I'm one of those bad people. I'm not gonna
lie I I I you can line me up. I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna sit on the show like
I'm a saint. Now you know, I gotta admit I'm
one of those people that eating that.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Like you said, some ingredients you can't announce the words.
That's me. I look at it.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
I've never I will tell you this, miss Scott. I've
never looked at a bottle, picked a bottle and looked
at the back, I looked the front. If the color
is right, I said, that's been a great I shaked it.
I shake the salad dressing and go it moves in
the bottle pretty good. Or I heard that name or
that brand, I'm I'm it's it's in my it's in
my basket.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I've never turned it around there with okay.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I totally get it, and you know what, and it's
okay because that's what most people are doing. And that's why,
that's why, that's.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Why you on Money Making Conversation master Class, that's what
that's gonna tell the truth. I have to bring up
somebody who can slap me in my forehead and say stop,
I'm here to stop the madness here.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, how did you create this product?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Let's let's talk about the dreamy, Let's talk about the
dream We talked about the saturdays, talked about the inspiration.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
How did you create this product? And who helped you?
You know, I know, you know. We all start with
all in vinegar based on different things.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
And the vinaigrette is like the number one if you
don't know how to make it a chalad dressing all
in vinagrette, right exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's it. Yeah. But my mom, my mom was a
young lady. I had a huge family. I come from
a big family to I'm one of fourteen. I'm actually
number thirteen of fourteen from the same mom and dad.
So my mom cooked every day every day. She made
these healthy. They weren't healthy home cooked meals that were delicious,
so her products, or I would take them to work,
like the salads. I would take them to work, and
(12:36):
the coworkers love product. Like I was a salad girl.
Like I had to bring that to every function we had.
They wouldn't let me leave. Was like I heard stuffle, like,
don't let her lead till we get the recipes. Stuff
like that. So pretty much my mom recipes. I just
made them heart healthy recipes from the home cooked meals
that we would have every day. I made them heart
(12:57):
healthy and made them, you know, delicious. You know, I
wanted them to still taste good, because no one wants
to eat a healthy product that doesn't taste good consistently, you.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Know, absolutely. That's why I mentioned that.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Because of the fact that we tend to run, and
we I mean include we meaning Rushan McDonald tend to
run for things that we feel doesn't taste right or
not doesn't taste it doesn't have a taste. We grew up,
we grew up to know or we're used to eating,
and we rejected immediately, don't even give it a shot. So, so,
(13:31):
but you have a brand, you know, how did you
start mixing the right ingredients? I guess I want to know,
you know, because you I'm assuming you started in your
home kitchen.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Correct, Yes, Well, the product the recipes are my mom's.
I just made them hard healthy which oh okay, I
took the bad stuff out and put good stuff in.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Okay, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
What what would you consider the bad stuff you took out?
And I'm not saying it bad in a bad way.
We're trying to turn a meal that's really good into
a healthy product.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Right absolutely, yep.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Okay, So we know low sodium, it probably had salt,
and you turn that into what type of salt would
you have used with this kosher.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Salt or what do you do?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
Mineralized mineralized pink Himalayan sea salt, which is beneficial to
the body. It's not going to cause you.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's not more, that's not more than. That's not more.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
You know, you know, I grew up on that little
that little blue blue salt body right right, that's me,
that's me.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I know.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
It is you. You you lost me a Himalayan. I'm
gonna just say you right now, you lost in Himalayan.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Sorry. I love it.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I love it, but Lord knows I needs.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
To be This is something that that needs to be
on my table because of the fact that you're telling
me rashand your we're over sixty. You should look at
your guide differently, Okay, just because you get up and
you think you're looking fine in the mirror when you
when you're looking when you're leaving a house. Yeah, so
your blood pressure, which I do go to the doctor
twice a year.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
I do that. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, as you get older, you know you want
to be you know, you start thinking about beeting God
as you get old.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I have on Let's see how feel I can hold off.
It's just neat.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
And so through. Yeah, that's the yeah, I mean, yeah,
we do it. Sometime have to say, Okay, I gotta
do better. You know, I gotta do that. And I'm
not saying to say, don't have what you like every
now and then, but on that normal, consistent, everyday basis,
we gotta we gotta really start putting some you know,
we got to start like really being involved with what's
going on and going into our bodies. You know what
(15:50):
I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Now you also have a marinade. You have a salad dressing.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And because I didn't, you know, I looked up because
I knew it was coming to the show that I
looked up some things you doing. So these salad dressings
also can be put on sandwich that used as a
sandwich spread as well.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Yes, it's like you know, people have sent me recipes
with all kinds of stuff they've done with them. But
they are dressings and marinates like you can marinase or salmon,
your shrimp, your chicken in them, and I mean just
delicious and still add any additional like onion powdered garlic
powder if that's what you want, but it just really
changes the flavor and makes it something delicious. And more importantly,
(16:46):
when you use in ours, it doesn't have all those
chemicals in it because see a lot of those chemicals
the stuff they use in grass fertilizer stuff like that,
Like why is that even in food? You know? So
that's one main important thing that you know, you don't
want to just be poor stuff on us. You go
make this beautiful salad. Now you got all this stuff
out of this dressing bottles, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
You know?
Speaker 4 (17:07):
And I'm not saying don't have ranch every now and then. Okay,
well I'm.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So if you lived as long as I've had lived,
then you've had ranch too much?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, ranch and just it's you real, shure you ranched out.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Okay, it's time to look at it, look at your life,
and you're eating habits from a different way.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And that's what this episode is about.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
This reason I brought you on the show because I'm
talking about being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Planning your life a well, planning your life is also
how you eat, and how you eat determines whether you
can have a good day. We saw that COVID impacted
the minority community more than any other community. And what
was it tied to high blood pressure? Uh, overweight, you know,
pull eating habits. And so we were attacked the first
(17:58):
by COVID and so and so. I feel it's fortunate
that now you've made something available that doesn't doesn't doesn't
attack our palate to say, oh, this is not good,
but this is something that people are now finding value,
not only a good food that you've created, a good
salad dress, a maritage that you've created, but something they
(18:20):
can enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Talk about that.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, absolutely, I can't. Like, people don't want to leave
the house, Like when I make it at home for
family functions and they're like, I know you got that salad.
That's apple peacan salad day, you know, and you can
switch it up. You know, different recipes are on our
website at se marine dot com, so you can you
(18:42):
can get those recipes and switch them up any kind
of way you like. But people literally like, I know
you made my salad, right, I know that I'm kind
of way I became salid lady. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh you're so enjoyable to interview, you know, I.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Making rashaan. Oh my god, you've been cutting up.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Well I've been ranched out. O't time for me to
change my eating abbit. But it started somewhere, Misscott. In
regards to the recipes, were the foundation. You changed them up.
I've took some of the line, as you say, the
word bad things out of the recipe and made them
health conscious.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
This used the word health conscious into the recipe.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Now you okay, it had what was that transition step
to put it in a bottle and then take it
to a store and then they put it on the shelf.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Talk about that, right absolutely? So you know you have
the recipe. We all have recipes, right, so you just
create the recipe and then once you create the recipe,
packaging is so important, you know, making sure whatever it
is you're selling, if it's some bakery, if it's if
it's potato chips, if it's stuff that goes in bottles,
(19:56):
you want to make sure that you have it up
to whatever it is. Your competition is, you know, you know, So.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Did you go in the store looking at your competition
looking at their packaging?
Speaker 1 (20:08):
What were your idea to say? Okay? Because I'm telling you,
in the salad dressing world, it's a lot. I mean it,
Believe me.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I go down that aisle and like I said, I
just look at the bottle that has the nice color
on it or familiar brand name, and then I pick
it up and I'm good. I cannot tell you why
I bought it other than the fact that name sounds familiar.
I think I've had that before, okay, and then I
get it them out not that based on memory. So
(20:39):
you're battling, you know, people who are tied to tradition,
people who are tied to.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Not wanting to change.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And also people don't experiment that much in this salad
dressing lane, so they.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Speak to what they know and that's it, you know,
And so going the brand is yeah, it's you got
to really be involved intuitively, Like you have to do
it on purpose. Like people they're so used to their
brand that they've been buying for years. When they come
in the store, they so they're just focused on getting
what's on their list.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
You have to fund creative ways to introduce them to
your flavors, you know, doing the store prom.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Okay, let's stop right there. When you say creative ways
to introduce them to your flavors, how did you do that?
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yep? We do a lot of store promos. In store promos,
you know, we go out to community events. My passion
is talking to people in the community because I like
to educate with this product, because that's why I was
creating a memory of my mom who died of power disease.
Essie Marie was my mom. So this product was created
with a purpose to educate the communities about heart disease
(21:48):
and alternative delicious alternatives, right and what you're what we're
used to? Like you said, Rashon, Yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
No, no, let's let's slow everything down here. Okay, who
did you tell this idea to to say, you know something,
I think I can get into sally dressing business. And
did they say go for it or they went girl?
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You crazy?
Speaker 4 (22:13):
What? What? What? What?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
What statements did you get at the box?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Well, well, people, they harassed me for it. So I
told my husband, I said, look, I need to do
something meaningful with this. I need to do something meaningful
with this. And you know, he knows I'm an entrepreneur
of my heart, like I've done lots of stuff in
the past, but he, you know, he understands my passion
of losing my mom and stuff like that. So you
know he's like, Okay, well we can just try it,
(22:37):
you know. So when he gave me the green light,
I said, let me just get the planning you know,
everything starts with the plan. So first and foremost, whatever
it is you want to do, you want to write
it out right. Step down, look at your competition, make
sure you have it all together. You know, find out
the rules and regulations of that product. You know, because
everything you make can't just be putting the stores. You know,
(22:59):
being in Whole Foods is a big deal for us here.
Whole Foods has a whole separate list of standards. Like you,
every product that you see and want can't be in
Whole Foods, and so that landing in is major. You know,
it's just like a major accomplishment.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Okay, So how did you? Okay?
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Because you know, I don't want to miss these steps
because you know you we know it's major. You're an
African American female. You know you're a therapist. You know
you're not a you know you're not trained in making
salad dresses. Set for a living. You didn't get a
recommendation letter from a competitor that make salad dressing. I
got this salad dressing. Did you do you have to
(23:40):
give them a sample to taste? Do you come in
for a tasting session?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
That's what happened. Whole Foods is opening in Chicago in
a local community in Englewood, and they were looking for
entrepreneurs and so you know, they was like, oh, you
don't live in the area. No, you don't fit. So
I guess they needed to meet a or something. I
was like, I was like, okay, God, if that's what
you want, then I won't be there because they said no,
you know. But then they called me back and.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Was like, miss got you funny? Okay, whatever, right, because
I don't live in this zip code? Did you walk
out there with some attitude?
Speaker 4 (24:17):
I was just like, I was like, okay, God, I yesterday,
my time.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
You know?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
It so funny.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
First of all, I enjoyed this interview if I haven't
laughed as much in a long time, because I could
just see you walk out of that mad as heck
went home, said some fancy words to your husband about
what you thought of Old Foods.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Right, okay, let me tell you how you look.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
And so they called you back. They called you back.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
They called me back for samply for a tasting. I
went down to the corporate office, because it always starts
with the corporate if you want to get your product
in doors and what have you?
Speaker 1 (24:54):
How many how many bottles did you take down there?
So a couple of them to throw at them, Jessica,
They said, no.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
What you I mean? I took a ready bate salad
and I had a couple of bottles, you know, the
top ones that people loved, and they were just extremely impressed.
It was extreme and like we we've outsold all their
major brands and we're still doing We're still doing that.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
And you know, being an African American one, I've received pushback,
major pushback. But I'm gonna I'm just not that I'm
not cut from that cloth. That's gonna stop. So I
don't care. You could put me on the bottom shelf.
I'm gonna tell my people where to find me at.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm just crawl in the store. I'm on the bottom shehelf.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
You see a bottom and so and so. Yeah, Wow,
you know this is we having.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
A lot of fun and I'm enjoying this interview with you.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
The beauty of your story is starts sad, but wow,
it's proven to be a blessing to so many people.
And and and you know, because they say put you
on their bottom shelf, and then you start going up
chef shelves.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
When they came back and told you, you know, people
seem to like your se Marie, what did that?
Speaker 3 (26:09):
What did it bring to It's just like, you know,
if you were a musical artist, you driving and then
you hear your song on the radio.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
I think that would be comparable to that. When you
got that call right.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
From home promise you. It's crazy, like they were like,
you outsold all the major brands we've had for years,
and like you know, like the first month and stuff
like that. So that was just like mind blowing. I
was like, Okay, people like this stuff, they really like this.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
So the next step of question, I'm sure my audists
and go, okay, what what will help you to expand?
What is stopping you from going across country and leaving
the Chicago market because your product is selling so well.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
In that in that regional marketing, what's the next day
we're looking.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
I'm open to investors, you know, investors to help expand
a brand because you know, it's a multi billion dollar
industry and I'm the only black girl doing this and
people love it. They love it, so it's kind of
like I want to give people something that's helping them.
You know, it's not just a product that's delicious and
taste good. It helps people, you know. That's my that's
(27:14):
my reason and my wife wanting to do this. You know,
because no fifteen year old or anyone younger than me
my sister was fourteen, should have to move their best
friends right to something they didn't even know existed in
their parents, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
So, but you can't, but you can't order and you
do ship out of state.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Correct, Oh yeah, we ship nationwide. We shipped to every
state so far. We get repeat orders all the time.
We ship a lot in Atlanta, ship a lot in Texas, California.
You know, Tabitha Brown is a big supporter. She comes
to Chicago and she looks for us and both foods
that just really do that blew my mind, right, it's beautiful.
(27:53):
But yeah, so that's it's just been an amazing experience
and something like it took my husband by word when
like you know, he has the whole separate things of
what he loved to do, but he didn't expect for
it to do what it's doing now. So what's stopping
me is mainly you know, like I said, going into
other investing if I had a great investor, would be great.
So we're working on all those things. But those are
(28:16):
just the only two things.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Well, I'll tell you something. Thank you for calling in
on Money Making Chemisation Masterclass. An amazing product. It This
has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass hosted
by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests on
the show today and thank you listening to audience now.
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
(28:39):
Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Keep winning.
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