Cultivating Change Through the Power of Food with Heather Emerson

Heather's mission is to change food by strengthening local food systems so everybody wins: the community, our health, and our planet!

 In 2016, she founded Prep To Your Door in an effort to make that a reality. The company serves Austin and Houston organic, farm-to-table meals in zero-waste packaging. All products are plant-based, gluten and dairy free.

Heather has spent the last 17 years rebuilding her life after being incarcerated for one year. Her promise upon release was to grow, be honest, and do good things. She’s been named on Forbes, Austin Under 40, and graduated from Harvard University in 2020.

For more information visit Prep To Your Door. To try out a meal click here!

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Transcript

Mary Harcourt: 0:05

Hi and welcome to Ready Set glow, a podcast where I interview entrepreneurs, brands and idealist, people and the stories behind it all. Discover what it took to get started, lessons learned along the way, and the advice they have for you starting on your own journey. So join me and my guests as we talk about all things business, beauty and brands. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt of Cosmo glow, as we discover the stories behind the names. My guest today started a zero waste food delivery service in the Austin, Texas area, the company is called prep to your door, we talk about how she got started in that field of interest, what we can all do to support our farmers and food workers while also adding nutrients to our body. And we dive into some lessons learned along the way on the road to entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Heather, thank you so much for being a guest tonight, you have such a cool and amazing business. I can't wait to talk about it tonight. Tell us who you are and all about your business.

Heather Emerson: 1:16

Thank you for having me. It's so lovely to be here as well. My name is Heather and I founded a company called prep to your door. And we do organic plant based meals delivered right to people's doors, which I always say is not that interesting in itself. But the most special thing about our business, I think is that we are zero waste the way I like to kind of give the overview there is think about sustainability, not just for the planet, but also for our bodies. So we really are a wellness brand out our heartbeat. We prepare food with a lot of intention, different herbs, a lot of different purposes, a lot of super foods to really give vibrant lives to people in the planet.

Mary Harcourt: 1:59

I love that I'm sold. I mean, how did you get started in this?

Heather Emerson: 2:04

Well, it was an accident, like utmost good things. I think that's kind of how that happens. But my me personally, the business started six years ago, right? And the business started because I was making these meals for myself. And when I met my husband, who was just an acquaintance at that time, he was like, wow, you're great. People would pay for these. And he's he's such an entrepreneur, he's like, we should do this. And I'm like, I know I want it. I've been wanting to do this. I just I'm I'm like totally I don't know how to do this. Like, I mean, just the thought of starting my own business was like, Oh, I just It gave me so much anxiety, pitter patter heartbeat, like just thinking about it, because I just felt so knowledgeable about it. That's kind of how it started the the to go back in time, like rewind even more, you know, that was a much longer journey. So in 2004, I was released from prison, I would spend 12 months in a federal facility for a drug conviction. And I was like so broken, tried to like, do what I could in terms of jobs. waitressing bartending is really bad waitress, by the way, and just so happens that Whole Foods was having this hiring fair in the now what we know is the flagship store in downtown Austin, where the headquarters are and it was the most beautiful start ever been in it looks a lot different now. This is, you know, pre Amazon days. But anyways, they had a hiring fair to open that store. And so what happened was they ended up hiring a lot of people with zero experience like myself in the food industry, because they needed to, like have bodies in the store. And so I got hired at the smoothie bar. And so I worked at the smoothie bar. Well, at that time. The smoothie bar was at the front of the store and right next to the smoothie bar connected was the raw vegan food bar. And I never heard of raw vegan. I had never met a vegan until I worked at Whole Foods. Like that's how little I knew about food. And so again, think of me in this broken place on a bag of medication from anxiety, sleep meds, you know, antidepressants, anti viral medicines, like my immune system was shot, my mental health was in the dumps, like I was just in a really bad place. And I also ate like, really, really bad food and I was pretty miserable. And this raw vegan who was working at the raw vegan bar was like, go vegetarian, like it's gonna change your life. And he wasn't saying that because he don't think he was saying that because I needed it. It was more like I just kept asking him so many questions about raw veganism. I just thought what is this? Like? It's you're not cooking any food, like you don't eat any cooked food like really? And he told me all about it. And I was like, okay, he's like, just go vegetarian. You're gonna see some benefits just from doing that. And he was right. I got off all my medications. I lost a bunch of weight. And I was like, holy crap between that and hearing everybody's conversations in the store about sustainability packaging, exploitation of farmworkers, composting, I just realized food can change the entire world, whether it's what you eat, or what you buy, how much you pay for that item, because of how the workers are treated. I mean, it just everything's connected. Everyone touches food, and we can change the world. I mean, one of the things that I heard at that time was, if you really want to end world hunger go vegetarian, because over half the world's vegetables, grains, go to feed livestock. So if we rerouted that to hungry people in the world, we would literally end world hunger. So I was just super inspired. And obviously a believer in plant based lifestyle at that time, and it just never left me. And so when Fast forward again, six years ago, when I met my husband, and I was making these meals, it was because they were in, they were in glass, like I will not let plastic touch my food. It's going to be organic. I don't want pesticides in my food, like all of the things, no gluten, no dairy, because we want it to be anti inflammatory. So that is kind of how I accidentally got into food, and by accidentally have a business about food now.

Mary Harcourt: 6:21

I mean, but it makes so much sense. I agree with that. I'm gluten free, myself and my husband's lactose intolerant. So we are always looking for many menus and recipes that are like dairy free, gluten free. I think it's becoming almost a sad state of how they processed food these days. I always say I don't know if I'm actually allergic to gluten. I think I'm allergic to what Monsanto sprays on the fields. And that's my reaction. And so it makes so much sense. Maybe you didn't know where to plug in at first. But being around that environment, a Whole Foods, which was the leader and still is in many ways of understanding how to bring the most nutritious, fresh, healthy food to you. And you were able to capitalize on the opportunity that was presented to you and put it in a nice little business. I think it's great. I lived in Los Angeles for a long time, and I was a vegetarian for 10 years. I never really miss meat. I never missed it. It was never like, Oh, I could really go for some I could cheat on my diet tonight. Like it was never like that I never miss food. And I love vegetables, and I love greens. And then we moved to Texas. And that story gets complicated because there's such a different variety of greens here that I wish you guys delivered to my area because we're I'm like craving green crunchy salads that are healthy, nutritious. Everything I get is loaded with bacon cheese, ranch dressing, and croutons and wilty lettuce. And it's so hard. So I could see how this is such a really big need. And in this area, you're in the local Austin area, then you also outreach to Houston I believe.

Heather Emerson: 8:01

Definitely this is where people come and visit and eat barbecue for a reason. We're a big cattle state for a reason. You know, people love their meat here. And the thing about that is that I actually am very proud that most of our customers, our total meat eaters, like they order our service because they just don't know what to do with vegetables. Actually, I always say like, the least impact you're going to have is just feeding a bunch of vegans. No offense to the vegans I love vegans I was a vegan for a while I'm not any more. I love vegans, they fight for what they believe in, they live by what they believe in. But also the real change comes with small incremental shifts in the way the relationship that you have with your food, regardless of what you identify as your main diet. So what brings me a lot of joy is getting those text messages from customers where their little kids will start eating the vegetables out of the jar because that's what Mommy and Daddy were doing. And that's generational.

Mary Harcourt: 9:07

So let's back up a little bit what exactly how does prep to your door work

Heather Emerson: 9:12

pretty standard go online and order with all of our mission and values you can read more about the story and and why we do what we do. I think what makes us a little different than most services is you know we don't have any commitment. So you go online you'd pick you know we want a one time order you want to subscribe it's your choice. You want one meal do you want 31 meals your choice. Regardless of what you do what you order, we're going to be instant communication with you and trying to be your your support. Along the way. We love feedback. We love to hear how you're using the meals or if you don't care for a meal. We want to hear that too. We deliver in zero waste packaging and you just leave that out on your porch and we'll swap it out. So think of like the milkman, nothing goes in your trash, nothing even the paper materials that including your delivery, just put that back in your bag on your porch. And we will make sure that it is responsibly composted. So, no more wish cycling, no more trash, like we take that burden off of you. That's so cool.

Mary Harcourt: 10:14

The fact that you're not a subscription is, I think, really, really, really cool because it gives people a chance to try you especially I'm not the best cook, newsflash. And if I had company coming in town, I would make sure I had meals that were delivered so that it looked like I cooked or we had delicious food. But also, when I don't have company in town, I'm fine to cook provide for myself. So I think it's great that you offer both subscription and non subscription. I think that even like capitalizes the entire market. So it isn't any pressure, as much as it's a great opportunity that when you're looking for something nice and fresh, it is delivered to your door. So what is your take on plastic, since you mentioned that nothing, no food will touch plastic that you eat.

Heather Emerson: 11:03

While we don't serve food and plastic. Sometimes, even from the farms, there will be some plastic. So I can't really say that the food we serve doesn't touch plastic, but we really try to eliminate that. And the reason why is because every single week, the average American is consuming about a credit cards worth of plastic. They're finding it in our tissues. They're finding it in our placentas when the when the babies, you know when babies are born. And okay, so what's the big deal? Right? So what? Well, the microplastics, because they're so small, and they're not always visible to the naked eye. That's how they get in our cells. That's how they disrupt our hormones. That's why we have like rampant autoimmune things going on. Like in addition to our poor diets, there's microplastics. So I don't know about you, but I know a lot of people I know a lot of women who are so healthy, they work out, they do, you know, regular cleanses, they eat really clean, and they still have autoimmune disease. And it's more than likely, I would say, because of environmental pollutants, and microplastics. Right. So all of these are hormone disruptors, all of these are basically toxins in our body. So our promise is that when you get our food, you're not going to get any of that single use plastic, that is just not our thing. Everything we have, we want to be

Mary Harcourt: 12:28

reusable. I love that. So are you do you do meats? Or is it all vegetables?

Heather Emerson: 12:34

At this time, it's all vegetables. You know, and the reason why is is both my personal story of being plant based, and also the environmental aspect. You know, if you look at the carbon footprint of a vegan diet versus traditional, the standard American diet, I mean, it's off the charts different in terms of your carbon footprint. So our plant based promise is for health for us and the planet. However, two things number one, eating meat I do not think is going to go away. And I think that's like something that that a lot of people don't want to hear a lot of people who are like really, really passionate about veganism, they don't want to hear. And I totally relate like, it's really sad. Like, it's really sad, like animal agriculture, I really want to acknowledge that with like all my heart and soul. If Paul McCartney has the famous quote, If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian. And I think it's true, I think our hearts would break. So I want to acknowledge that. And I still don't think that is gonna go away from hunters to just like, you know, think about like, globally, how a perfect example is like Siberia, like people in Siberia eat bear, because there's nothing else growing in the nine months of winter that they have, right? Like they have to like Harvest meat, dry it and eat this way. So like think about sustainability, think about what we would do hundreds of years ago, like what was the most sustainable, natural way that in which we ate, when you look at it from that way I don't think needs going away. The other side of that is the way in which we do animal agriculture today is really horrid in so many ways, not only for the animals, but for the environment. And there's a lot of data coming out right now showing that if you have regenerative farming, ranching in particular, you can actually so when you look at carbon footprint, and you see like, oh, veganism has like barely any carbon footprint, and eating meat has this much carbon footprint. It's huge. The graph is like so exponentially different. That's because it's taking into account the animal agriculture industry as we know it today. What it's not doing is taking into account regenerative agriculture. And the reason I say that is because regenerative agriculture actually does the opposite. It actually sequesters carbon. And the reason why it has to do with the soil the way that we if you rebuild the soil, improves our water, it sequester more carbon. Like it's crazy, like we can reverse climate change using animals as a way to do that. So there's research showing this.

Mary Harcourt: 15:19

I'm not familiar with the term what is regenerative farming

Heather Emerson: 15:23

right now you see, mono crops want mono crops are like when you go and you you drive down Texas and you see like rows and rows and rows and rows of corn, that's a mono crop. And most of the time, they're growing soy, wheat or corn because those are subsidized from the government. In a natural, healthy ecosystem, everything grows together. And this plant is giving the minerals that this back into the soil that this plant needs to really, you know, grow. And so anyways, after years and decades of mono cropping, the soil is completely dead. And you'll see it on. I mean, not just like, nothing will grow there anymore, but the water won't go into the ground, the water just like runs off. It's crazy. It's like the earth can't do its job. So regenerative agriculture can look a lot of different ways. I'm not an expert on it, but it has to do with basically like growing, stagnating different crops, making sure you're always giving back to the soil and using animals and, and their, their poop, right? Like they're, they're part of the system of like, think of full circle to rebuild the soil. So everything starts in the soil. This all has to do with soil from water runoff to nutrients in our soil that then gives back to the the foods that we eat the vegetables that we eat, it's all you know, in this beautiful circle of life. So that's regenerative agriculture, and like a really, really layman's terms. And anybody out there who's an expert on it, I apologize if I messed this up. I haven't really, I'm not really well spoken on it. But I know for a fact that there's research that shows that it's essentially more effective than being vegan in terms of environmental impact. All of that to say that right now, while we are plant based, for sustainable reasons, the more research that comes out to show that this was actually a way to have a greater impact on climate change. But using basically eating meat and using meat, we would add that to our menu, because what's good for you is good for the planet, what's good for the planet is good for you. Everything is connected to one another. And I think that's kind of what we want to do with people is help them rediscover their relationship with their food. I love

Mary Harcourt: 17:39

that. And your mission is to change food by strengthening a food system. So does this play into it all of just strengthening the food system zero waste, making yourself a little more healthy with eliminating the things that can be toxic to your digestive system?

Heather Emerson: 17:57

It goes a lot further like you've Yes, starting with the human because again, why did I go vegetarian, it was not for animal rights. It was not for sustainability. It was because I was very sick. And I heard the message from this human that like my life could be different. And I went for that. So you always start with the human. Once the health transforms within us, we're able to think clearly we're able to be more connected, we're able to be more vibrant. Start with humans, and think about the whole picture in that same sentence or same thought think about how everything is connected and impacted. So how do we strengthen food systems, we first and foremost, we have got to pay livable wages to the people that serve us. So right now, if you look at any restaurant, their servers in Texas make $2 an hour, they solely rely on tips, they pass that completely under the customer. And that means that sometimes servers will go home with like $10 on a five hour shift. So you start there, you take into consideration all the farmers that are doing the hard labor. Right now the average age of the farmer is almost 60 years old. And that's because it's a dying industry, because nobody wants to be a farmer because you are completely reliant on the weather. You don't have insurance that the insurance does not cover there's no government help or insurance that covers any type of weather related like crop annihilation. So you're basically living below the poverty line and high rates of suicide and alcoholism run in that industry. So how do we love our farmers? How do we appreciate the people that are the reason that we're alive today? And they're keep going away because their kids keep selling because their kids inherit the land and they're like, screw this. I don't want to be a farmer like I just saw my parents like slave their whole life away. I don't want to do that I can sell this piece of land for a few million blacks and like go do something else. And what happens is back to Monsanto, those are the big agriculture companies that are feeding us. And they have full control over our health over our future and over our children's future. And this keeps happening, small farms just keep going away. So we start with the humans, we respect the farmers, we respect the animals, we respect the environment. And if all of that is in sync, everybody wins. And that's my goal is to really create a company that prioritizes every part of the food system, not just the price, because that's how our current food structure industry is set up. It's just like, what's the cheapest thing? How can we get this the cheapest and the longest shelf life? Well, that means poisons in our food. Bottom line?

Mary Harcourt: 20:50

Absolutely. And I think it may have started not so scandalous. But as we tried to get it lower and lower and cheaper and cheaper, more of these chemicals started funneling in. And now we're left with this stuff that I mean bodies rejected, it leads to illnesses, I totally am on board with it. I've watched way too many food documentaries to not be aware of what's happening. So I love that you have that as your mission and understand it. And that is like the cornerstone of what you base all of your decisions on. That's so great.

Heather Emerson: 21:24

Yeah, I'm actually really glad that you mentioned that it wasn't so cynical, because I'm not trying to talk about a conspiracy theory or anything of the sort over here. I do think that when people introduced pesticides into farming, it was a really positive thing. It was a way for farmers to improve their revenue, because they were so desperate to like have a successful crop. And I think it was also thought they thought it was a win win, because it's like, look, we can feed more people, right. So that is a narrative that you'll hear a lot of times now. Now, you will still hear that narrative from people who use pesticides, because they'll say we need this much food to feed people. And I'm here to tell you that is a false narrative. Because half of the food that's produced goes in the trash, we do not have a food production issue. We have a food distribution issue. We can work with farms support organic farming and get that food into everybody's bodies, we'd be fine. Does that make sense? Yeah, so

Mary Harcourt: 22:24

talk a little bit more about that. Because you do hear both sides, you say you talk to one person, they say we have enough food in our country alone to feed the entire world. And then you talk to another person. And by 2028, we're gonna run out of food completely, and everyone's gonna starve and die. How do we fix and change what's going on right now when you say that there's so much food waste, what's the fix for that,

Heather Emerson: 22:46

basically, in the next 30 years, for sure, at the rate we're going our souls will no longer produce food. And that is not any false narrative that is scientifically proven, because soil is dead, and it can't grow anything. Right now, if you go and eat an orange, just just buy an orange and eat it, you have to eat eight oranges to get the same nutrients that you would have got in an orange six years ago, because our soils are so depleted. It's serious. And that's why people alike will have to take vitamins like you kind of have to because it's just not in our food anymore, because it's not in our soils anymore, because we're screwing up our soils. It's also true that we have enough food right now to feed. I don't know if we have enough to feed the world. I cannot say that I know worldwide, we have enough to feed the world. It's not getting to the right places. But I know that half of the food worldwide is thrown away. I think in America, it is 40% of food. So in fact, a lot of food waste happens overseas, not here, because that's why ours is a little lower. And the solution there. There's some really, really cool companies coming out that are diverting food waste. So an example of that there's a company called copia, they're based out of San Francisco. And what they do is they'll pick up your food every single week, and they'll distribute it to nonprofits and food, food banks. They're trying to go nationwide, I they might be already but here in Austin, we actually have two companies that I recommend. One is Keep Austin fed. And that's a nonprofit that does exactly what cobia does, but they just do it for free. We worked with them for many years. And the other one is called to good to go. And everybody needs to download this app. It is a place that you can go on and buy last minute food or food that's about to expire or go to waste for like, I don't know, 30 cents on the dollar. So like I played around with it and like there's some really cool places, y'all there's like some cold pressed juice spots and you can go in and get their juices that are amazing. They're just like they can't have them on their shelf anymore. We do it at prep to your door and some of our customers they're like yeah, use your service and then I saw you into too good to go. So I got a few More at a discounted rate, like it's, it's really cool and it keeps food out of the trash, right? Like, it's just a way to like sell it last minute. So those are two ways. But back to the farmers, the farmers, I mean, one time I ordered a bunch of it was either pecans or peaches from Fredericksburg, and I got a invoice on the back of like some grocery receipt that he had in his wallet. And he was like, here you go, here's $80 Pay me send me a check in the mail. And I'm like, we had to go and pick it up. Because he didn't, he didn't deliver. And that was his accounting process. And I'm like, Oh, no small farms, they just don't have the ways to set up like an accounting department and like a QuickBooks and have like a full time delivery driver and work the relationships and tell them about this brand new cilantro, they just got in like they just don't have that. And half the time, you can hardly order from them. Because what was available last week is not available this week. And so there's just there's real issues with getting the food from the small farm to people's plates. And that's why a lot of times crops will go bad. So it's something you can do as a consumer a way to be a part of the changes support businesses that use farm to table like us. And there's plenty of restaurants in Austin you can support doesn't just have to be us use local CSA boxes. A lot of times, you'll have CSA programs that aren't just from one farm. They'll pull it from multiple farms. So they'll get those that cilantro from that one farm and they'll get the limes and lemons from somewhere else. And best thing you could do is just meet your local farmer, just find out who's growing in your area, go introduce yourself and tell them you appreciate them because we can't have them go away.

Mary Harcourt: 26:42

Oh, absolutely. I love how you broke that down. That makes so much sense because it is so true. Sometimes as someone that works in an office setting, you can't quite grasp why if they're growing food, they can't sell it. But I also know how much it takes to run a business. And there it's so multifaceted. And you do need people for certain departments. And that makes total sense where it doesn't pay to have someone sit in the front office and type of invoices. But on the same hand, if you don't have someone that's typing up those invoices, you're writing that on a receipt saying send me a check. So that really makes sense. How do you guys find do you work with specific farmers? Do you work with a lot of farmers? How do you find all of your vegetables and fruits that you work with?

Heather Emerson: 27:26

We work with 14 farms across the state and that number is growing because right now we work with exclusively organic farms, but we actually want to go a step further and prioritize regenerative farms. A lot of regenerative farms are more ranchers and animal agriculture. But there are a few really cool, mostly vegetable farms that are doing things like permaculture and I don't even know all what that means. So please forgive me. But But look at permaculture, I have looked it up before it it's really cool. It's like very, very intentional growing. So right, that's our list. And then there is there are a couple of distributors based out of Austin that just work with small farms. And it's so cool. So we work with them to for farms that don't have a way to get their stuff to us. There is a small company that like, rounds it all up and delivers it to restaurants and businesses in Austin. So we work with them, all of our farmers that we work with, we like to know as much as possible, we had a woman that used to work for us who in her previous role, she was a buyer for one of these distributors. And so she knew like every farm in the state, and we kind of adopted those relationships because she was a part of our company for a while. And so I'm really proud to say that we like to know our farmers. We like to know, you know who they are, why they do what they do. And I can't say that everyone has so so much of a different story. They're usually just like, salt of the earth really good people.

Mary Harcourt: 29:05

All right, completely agree. So you have this business you started six years ago, and you're doing amazing things. I am excited to try your food. I totally would use you if you were in Meijer area of service. What is the most fulfilling part for you?

Heather Emerson: 29:21

Um, well, it depends on the day. Every day is different when I'm sure people out there who work in startups like you, Mary, you probably know what I mean. Like, it's just you have to wear every single hat that's needed for the business to move forward. So, you know, I can tell you what that looks like right now. Every single week we are launching a new recipe every single week. We are creating these amazing new recipes in our kitchen two days a week, like two days a week. It's solid recipe development days, and it's bringing me so much joy and the flip side of that is you can't just quit Eat something really great and not talk to your customers about it right. So like working on that communication and storytelling and like trying to tell them why this is so great, just to have like a little full circle moment here. And I was telling you about that raw vegan bar, which next to in Whole Foods we just actually launched, and we're calling it the radiant raw bar menu. And people can order raw vegan food delivered to their door now through our service. And we're making all those recipes. And all those recipes are like close to 20 years old, like I used to watch them make this stuff. And, you know, I don't know the exact recipe, I'm just doing my own version of it. But it's really, really cool to see and watch those numbers climb. We launched it like three weeks ago. And every single week those order numbers have doubled for those items. So I know that it's something people want. And like, I don't know that people really know that it's raw vegan, per se. They're just like, This is great food and I want great food.

Mary Harcourt: 30:58

Well, yeah, it's obviously people are reordering it going whatever we had, make sure you get that one again, if and if the orders are going up every week. So that's great. How do you guys pick your recipes? Are these recipes you're doing like a seasonal thing? Do you add them to your website you add them to that's the food that you've been service? How does that all work with recipes,

Heather Emerson: 31:18

the way that the service is set up is the menu does change every single week, like our our rotate, we have a rotating meal section. And so that's because we want to number one, keep it exciting for you. Because anytime you make a lifestyle change, you don't want to get bored. That's like the worst thing you could do, and especially with your food, so it's exciting for the customer. But equally, this is where I'm talking about your health and sustainability totally connect, because what that allows us to do is to prioritize what's in season, which allows us to prioritize higher nutrients because it hasn't been in transit for three weeks before it gets to us. It's like fresh out of the ground. So there's a state sustainability link. And then from there, what does that do for our local farmers? Well, that supports our local farmers because what they had this week isn't the same as last week. Well, that's okay. Because what's on our menu isn't this isn't the same as last week, right? So like, this is what I mean by changing the food system like changing the way we look at our meals. Sorry, you don't need your mango mango pina colada fruit bowl in the dead of winter in Texas, like that came from Thailand. No, or wherever it came from. Right? Like it's not, it's not from here. So like, how can we prioritize like what's in our local community what's in season, because that's actually best for your body, it triggers your body to know like, oh, I need to cool off because this is a cooling food or oh, I need to warm up. This is a warm food. So one more link to your body? And how can your body knows how to respond? So yeah, our menu does change every single week, and it all like domino effects to a positive outcome.

Mary Harcourt: 32:56

I love it. What a great explanation. So you're a speaker, what are the topics you speak about? When you go to these events,

Heather Emerson: 33:04

I get asked to speak a lot for either a women's convention, a school in service day, like I've had a few different scenarios and I try to tailor them to the audience. It always ties back to my personal story which I shared with you that I was incarcerated and like all the lessons that have come with that. And the other thread that it comes into that is entrepreneurship. So I guess you could say it's it's, you know, overall umbrella. It's an inspirational talk, I really want people to know that one decision you make can change the rest of your life. It's transformational for your life and your future sometimes. And so, never give up. Your thoughts are not real, your thoughts are can be your worst enemy. And we can rewire our brains. I certainly have to I have to do that today. I'm pretty sure every single day, there's a thought that's like, what are you doing? Heather? Why do you think you can own a company? There's just this evil voice I think that we all have. And so when I speak to people, my hope is that like I think give these really, really dark and resilient examples of how life can be when you tune in. And when you believe in a lot of different ways. Every speech is different. I basically want everyone to walk away with knowing we're really not that different. We really are very, very similar all of us.

Mary Harcourt: 34:29

Absolutely. Well, it's I feel like a part of being an entrepreneur. And I think you learn this along the way is that no one has any clue what's the next step is nobody has a set plan on a through z. It's all like, Hey, here's where we are. Here's where we'd like to be. Now let's go figure out how to make that happen. And I think once you can kind of digest the fact that everyone around you is going through the exact same thing. You can settle Knowing like, oh, it's not that none of us have a clue or doing. We just don't know what's around the corner. But we're all getting ready for whatever that is. And we will tackle it and win and be successful and make it through that time in the period. But yeah, I don't think any entrepreneur is like, oh, yeah, I know exactly the path I'm on. Because if that's their thought process, they're probably either missing out and cutting themselves self short of what they're capable of, or they're gonna miss this amazing opportunity of something they hadn't even thought about.

Heather Emerson: 35:32

The secret to entrepreneurship is literally just like tackling your demons, I think when they ask you a question of like, how did you do this thing? Like, your answer is somehow, the end all be all, it's like, so different for you like, it doesn't mean that it's applicable to anybody else's scenario. It's literally just your story. And so the power in that is just believing in yourself, and just not giving up.

Mary Harcourt: 35:54

Absolutely. And it's all learning less than everything that you learned, I love what you said earlier, of just, you're kind of just talking about your past and who you are, like, you didn't know where you're gonna end up. And here you are. But it's so true. The point I wanted to bring up was like, You are not your past, but you do have control of who you want to be in the future. And if you harp more and pay more attention on building yourself into whatever version you want to be in the future, it's so much stronger than focusing on what you were in the past. And I feel like that's something that you've done well to overcome is an I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort and work to work through that. But you focused on hey, I can be this amazing business owner, and you're not going to have it all figured out. None of us do. But I'm gonna give it everything I have, and never quit, and line up all the challenges and knock them down one at a time have a zero waste food company that delivers healthy, nutritious food to our customers so that they can have an enjoyable meal that hopefully they go on and reorder again, versus Hey, I came from this background and shoot, there goes my life.

Heather Emerson: 37:06

Oh my gosh, that is such a great point like that. That is what one of my topics was like, if you do nothing else in your life, please tell your own story. Don't let anybody else tell you who you are. Because for me, that would mean like you're a high school dropout. You're a convict. You're this you're that you're you know, and it's like, I reject all of those labels. And there's a different way to tell that story. Right? Like, yeah, I'm a high school dropout. But like, once in a really tough situation, right? Like, what about that story? And yeah, a convict. But like, Oh, if you knew that story is, you know, it's like there's tell your own story. And don't accept any label that does not lift you up, light you up and tell your future in a different way. Absolutely. That

Mary Harcourt: 37:53

brings me back to like salon days, I sold my salon a year ago, when my girls had a stressful day. And you know, and I was lawn is a fast paced environment, we don't always eat on time. And that can make us come in cranky. And then you never know if your appointment runs over and you had dinner plans. And now you're in this really just tight schedule. It's stressful, but you can work through it. And I would always help them through. When people come in. It's like, how are you doing today? Oh, my God, I'm so tired, I'm overwhelmed. And I'm super stressed out, and I just I got a lot going on. And then they go into their appointment, because you just gave that person, all they know about you is that you're overwhelmed. You don't have it all together, you're stressed out. And their perception of you is wow, this girl is gonna give me a service and I'm paying X amount of dollars, wow, I should have gotten somewhere else where you could have those same issues and have a stressful day, like every day, a little has a little bit of stress and at some way more than others. But the tone changes when they come in and go, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm making it through the day. And I'm very thankful that you're here and I'm here and let's give you the best service ever. Two completely different narratives, the same story, same person living that same day. But that person and they can react and go, you know, I think she was having a pretty stressful day. But she did a great job on my service. And I'm going to book with her again, because I know that she had a lot more going on that she didn't tell me about but she also gave me every minute of my appointment. And I respect her for that. And I used to always tell my girls like make sure that the ammo you give the people is good ammo, because they're going to remember those five things you say about yourself. So it's either five negative things, and they have a terrible experience or five positive things and they're gonna have a wonderful experience. But all of that was the tools, the words and the sentences you gave them. So make some good ones. What has been your proudest accomplishment in your business so far?

Heather Emerson: 39:46

My first proudest accomplishment was winning the fav sustainable business in 2019. And then in 2020, it was hitting seven figures of revenue. And then in 2021, I would say Like the height of my like, oh my god was being listed as Forbes next 1000 Up and Coming entrepreneurs that was like, what I'm on Forbes what like this was a business we started out of our studio apartment like, didn't know what we were doing. And then the what the most recent one was, I was named a senator 40 culinary arts and events category which like to win in that category in this city like this is a Food City. And so every year, it just keeps getting better and better. I do not know how we're going to top that. But I'm excited about the future and just super, super honored, super blessed. I don't know I had this moment. Recently, I was on my parent's land. And there was this flock I don't know if it's called a flock, but it was a flock of turkeys. They were just walking around, and it was in the dead of heat. This like 100 and something degrees. And like, they were just eating the grass, eating the bugs out of the grass, eating the grasses. And they've stayed really close together. And I looked at that flock of turkeys and I was like, Holy crap. Like, that is all they need to survive. They need each other and they need the land, they need that they need food. And I was just like, okay, like, all the stresses of my business, all of the oh my god, you know, the overachiever? Me I have to do this, I have to do that. Like none of that shit matters. I need my family, my community and love and I need food. And I have both of those things. So like 10 out of 10 My life is a 10 out of 10.

Mary Harcourt: 41:35

I love that. That's so good. And what a great reminder, I always think of it too, which first off, those are some amazing accomplishments. So congrats. That's you're doing that you're doing big things. I'm glad that people are acknowledging you for that. I think it's super cool that I know you have a book coming out. I don't know if you want to talk about that. The book

Heather Emerson: 41:52

was set to release this year. Now. It may be next year, it may be in five years. I don't know all the writers out there. I know you feel my pain. So that's where that's at. But I am very excited about it. It is a really powerful story. It's a memoir of my life. Right now. The title is breaker prison. My story of incarceration and turning trauma into triumph. That whole title and tagline might be, but you can follow me on social media. It's at the heather Emerson and the company is called prep to your door. That's the handle on Instagram at prep to your door little teaser. We are doing a rebrand and that whole company name might change. So stay tuned. But follow us now and you'll see all of that and yeah, shoot me an email. If you ever want to collab. I love to support nonprofits. I love to support sustainability causes. It's Heather at prep tutor.com.

Mary Harcourt: 42:47

That wraps up today's episode. For more information on our guests. You can find them at Mary harcourt.com under the episodes tab. You can always find me on Instagram at Mary Harcourt underscore and at the Cosmo glowlight I hope you enjoyed today's episode and many more to come