Chef Alina’s Gluten Free Inspiring ReLaunch

Speaker: 00:00:00

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: If you know what you're here to do and who you're here to help with, you have to just take the leaf to do it, you have to do it. Like if you believe in yourself enough, if you don't, who's going to write like if you don't believe in yourself enough to who's gonna believe in you.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:00:13

Welcome to another episode of the ReLaunch podcast. And wow, you, you all are going to be in for a treat. I only wish that we could all be in the same location as this podcast show goes down. Why is that? Because there are some things in life that are so sweet. And I'm talking not only to the sweetness of the nature of conversations, but also how sweet it is, when you bite in something that is just so incredibly delicious. That you're like I want more of that. Well, today you are going to get somebody that has had an incredible relaunch. In that specific direction. Her name is Chef Alina. She is an award winning chef who has appeared numerous times on the Food Network. 20 years ago, she began making a name for herself, and winning awards as a chef and owner of the Sturbridge Baking Company, and also the sweet Kitchen and Bar. But after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and needing to adopt a gluten free lifestyle, Alena turned her focus to re formulating her award winning recipes to be gluten free. And now she creates and teaches online baking, and actual cooking courses around these incredible, incredible, yummy recipes. And here's the thing, for those of you that have been thinking like, Hey, maybe I should try eating a little healthier, eating a little bit more of what you're hearing out there, like gluten free, we're gonna get to the bottom of why this could actually impact your life more than anything else. So chef Alina, welcome. I am so excited to have you here on the relaunch podcast.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:02:27

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Well, so

Hilary DeCesare: 00:02:30

your your story is probably one that we're hearing more and more about where people are realizing that they can't eat certain foods that they don't even realize that certain foods are giving them issues and they're it's actually directly affecting their their health. But before we jump into how you came up to be this, you know, incredibly talented chef, Alina, the baker, can we go back to your significant relaunch story that actually really changed the trajectory of your cooking world?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:03:09

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah, so I mean, as you mentioned, I was at a conventional I guess we'll call it chef for 20 some odd years and owning bakeries and restaurants and known mostly for all the things that have all of the gluten, I want all my awards and everything, we're all for desserts and breads and like all of the gluten things. And I you know, I've always been interested in like health and fitness. And so I knew about gluten free cooking and always had, you know, dabbled a little bit more I have my businesses because of customers, but I was diagnosed now it's going on almost sounds like me about eight years ago, with an autoimmune disease and told that one of the best things I could do would be to go gluten free for my inflammation and for my, for all of my symptoms. So that was like a huge change. For anyone. It's a huge change. Like anybody knows, I'm sure there's lots of people listening, like food allergies, and food sensitivities are such a big thing. And but when you're told that for a lot of people, it's like a punch in the stomach, like, What do you mean, I have to change my entire, like, how a shop, how I cook all the things I love. I think actually, for me, it probably wasn't as devastating it is as it is for some people because I'm a chef, I was like, Okay, well, I'll figure it out. Like I knew that there was a way it doesn't have to be horrible witch, for everybody that's gotten better. Now over the last, you know, decade. I like to think that I'm a part of that, but that it's gotten a lot better and a lot easier.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:04:39

So what if it let me ask you, let me let me ask you a question here. You get diagnosed with this eight years ago, but was there I mean, were you living with this your whole life? Is this something that came on later in life? Well,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:04:54

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: so I was signed Hashimotos which is thyroid, autoimmune disease, and I had been diagnosed with low thyroid have hypothyroidism where I was in my 20s. So yes, my when I was like 19, but never with Hashimotos, which I, which I may or may not have had the entire time. And so as I had been on medication for years, but I've always been an entrepreneur and overachiever worked my butt off. So I always thought I'm tired and the brain fog and all these things were just because I work myself too much.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:05:22

And for those that don't for those, for those that don't know how she Moto, can you tell us a little bit about that? And then we Yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:05:28

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: so it's a it's an autoimmune disease. In almost all autoimmune diseases. What it is, is your immune system thinks some thing in your body, whether it's a hormone, an organ, something is foreign, and your body attacks itself. So with how she motos, my body is constantly destroying my thyroid. So then you're producing less thyroid hormone and your thyroid runs your entire metabolism, it runs everything, your hormone, your whole endocrine system. So the symptoms are there. And it is one of the most under diagnosed diseases in women in the world. It's getting better, but it has been very under diagnosed for a very long time. For a long time. It was one of those diseases where Doctor would say it's all in your head and like, because the symptoms are brain fog and fatigue, they crossover with a lot of other

Hilary DeCesare: 00:06:16

we always have Right, right. Right. Okay, so So you end up so Yeah, exactly. You're just another one of those brain fog. So I'm always tired. I'm always feeling rundown. Yeah, kind of sounds kind of sounds like every day of our lives. But there is an actual, there is an autoimmune disease that finally what what did take place? Was it a blood test? Was it Oh,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:06:42

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: what happened was as I was running my business, so I was still having my business when I was diagnosed, and I was running my business. And I started to have memory issues. Like I started forgetting, called Full on conversations I'd had with clients, we did catering, and we had an event space, and I would forget whole conversations. And I was trying to hide it from my staff. I was trying to hide it from my clients, because I was like, I'm losing my mind this whole time. I'm still thinking it's because you're overtired. It's because you work too much, whatever. And then it got to a point where it couldn't anymore. And I had to tell told a couple my managers only You guys gotta help you got to cover for me because like, I'm forgetting stuff. And so then I went, Yeah, and had blood tests done. And that was when they told me. And so then I continue to run my business for another few years.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:07:25

And so here you are, you have the brick and mortar, you're doing all this, you know, cooking and things are but things are still going really well. Yeah. And then And then what happened.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:07:37

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: So I had it was it was big. That was a big restaurant, I had 30 Something employees by 1000 square feet, it was a big, popular place. But I just between getting that diagnosis, my son was in high school, and I opened this my first bakery when he was six months old. So his entire life I had been working as an entrepreneur, yeah, he really grew up in my businesses. And I just kind of had that that moment, I think that a lot of people have where I was like, What are you doing? Like, I don't want to work 100 hours a week anymore. And in this bit in the restaurant business, maybe not for everybody. But if you're type A if you really, if you love what you do, and you're detail oriented, like you can't just pass it off to other people. Like, you know, I didn't have to be there. My mind was like, I was always there. And I decided I didn't want that life anymore. And so, yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:08:26

okay, but this your health is starting to get to you, you're starting, you know, you're you're having all of these these health issues. Your son, was there a moment where you looked at your son? And you're like, dang, yeah, well, he

Hilary DeCesare: 00:08:36

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: had two years left in high school. And I was like, I don't like, I don't want to miss the last few years that I have to go to all of his lacrosse games and to do all the things and to like, I just want a better life. I want to be able to, you know, I want a better schedule. And I don't want the amount of stress that a restaurant has a lot of stress, even when you're doing well. It's a lot of stress with horrible margins. So I Yeah, so I closed my business, and I did consulting, so I wasn't sure what I was going to do at that time. This is 2017. So the whole online world was a thing. But for people that do in food, it was mostly food bloggers, right. There wasn't like all the courses and all this stuff that we do now that digital marketing wasn't really a thing yet. Maybe it was starting to be but maybe for software, not for what we do. So I thought, well, I'll do consulting, so I started consulting for restaurants and bakeries. I would go help other people open or like write menus and these kinds of things. And also our food blog on the side. So I started doing that a little bit. And that's a really, really hard road to go the food blog route. You rely on app a lot of advertising dollars that you don't have control over. It's all about ads all over your site, which is a consumer hate. When I'm looking at a recipe I don't want to see every other paragraph and ag but if you want to make money there has to be an add every other paragraph. So I kept doing the consulting thing and then I started I got I've always Get into personal development, but I kind of just was like dove headfirst into personal development, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs do anything is a big changing point for a lot of us.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:10:09

But what did that look like for you? When you say I dove headfirst into personal development? What did what exactly did you do? The first

Hilary DeCesare: 00:10:16

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: thing is I grew up in a family where that was very big. My grandmother, who by that time had passed away was lightyears ahead of all of us into she would just she's laughing somewhere now everything I'm doing. So was it foreign to me, but I've never really like, wrapped my head around it seriously. And so I don't even remember how or where someone recommended to me. Actually, one of my sales reps that sold had had been a sales rep that sold food to me from a restaurant. That's all twice me. Recommended Mike Dooley. I don't know if you know who he is. But he started notes from the universe. And I started following him and he was coming to do a three day weekend thing at Kripalu, which is a big yoga like retreat plays out in the Berkshires, which is where I grew up. And so I just decided I was gonna go, it was called playing the matrix I don't know I didn't even know that much about it said it was gonna go. And that was life changing. And he's one of the people that he was in the original secret. And he wasn't teaching things that were new to me. I mean, I haven't. But I think for a lot of us, like when it starts to hit you, it just hit do everything hit different, everything went to different. The whole the whole premise of that program that he teaches is that happiness is something you just decide to be. He's like you don't everyone thinks that's what I get him to be happy with. He goes no wake up and decide you're gonna be happy. Just because not everything's perfect in your life doesn't mean you can't be happy. And he has this whole thing that gets you to that point.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:11:38

I also think shuffling that. We can hear things over and over and over. And when you're really ready to hear it like that message. Like wake up today and be happy. It's your choice. You were ready to hear that, right? We're and a lot of times, it can be the simplest twist on something that all of a sudden it's like, Oh, my God. Now I understand that concept. Yeah, I remember this whole like I there was a Albert Einstein quote that said, I, you know, you can't solve a problem at the level, the conscious level it was created. And I remember when I heard it, I was like, what? I have no idea. And then it all of a sudden hit me as I was explaining something you can't solve a problem, or have a vibration at a lower level than where you're trying to go. And I might didn't even know I could finally hit so I get that. So you're you're now in you know, you're in this event. And it's starting to click, it's it's 2017. And then what happens? So

Hilary DeCesare: 00:12:42

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: it just means that so then of course, I just started seeking out more things like that. And it just made me I think that moment was when it really made me realize how much the power of mindset like how much your mindset is everything. And by making a few small shifts, how I saw even if all people around me didn't believe it, how much I saw my life change, like how much things were changing by just being more positive. By unfortunately, as they say, creating some distance between some of my friends that were more negative. I'm still friends with them, and I still love them. But I need to keep it arm's distance because I can't be around that. Negative that negative energy all the time because it's contagious. Okay.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:13:18

I know we have so many things to talk about. But I've got to say, yeah, that is so hard, isn't it when you're

Hilary DeCesare: 00:13:25

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: united? You don't even have a conversation. I think people think you have to have if I didn't have a conversation I just kind of pulled back a little I'd always been busy so people are used to it. I still see well we'll get together a few times a year I'll have a party you'll be invited whatever but I just can't see you all the time and every week and hang out because I can't be around that negativity.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:13:43

Truly you talk about draining. It's like a leak. I mean, and I you know I've had to do the same where you're just like I can't do it. Yeah, I want to be in that positive vibrational space. I want to be there I don't want to be down here in the blaming and talking negative about the roles right for me.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:04

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah, I do everything right. Right. Instead of just totally

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:08

the gossipy Forget it. That's like so not my not my jam. So you end up okay. So at this point, you're now taking toxic people out of your life. You're taking, you know, these these self improvement types of courses really embracing this. And then what goes down. So

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:28

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: then I stumbled across another, a life coach online and started taking summer courses and did this New Year's resolution course. That's not really about resolutions. It's kind of anti resolution. It's about it making goals more than resolutions make it but goals that you can move and that if you don't hit the exact goal, like that's the problem with resolution.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:51

And that's the problem with a lot of times goal setting.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:14:54

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah, and I think through the course of that then I just decided I seen so I had been watching what was going on online and started watching her. And she had built this insane business online only using Facebook barely had a website like, multimillion dollar business, nothing in the field that I do at all. But I was like, she has a membership. And sometimes like, why couldn't I do that with what I get? Why can I do that with food? Like I need to figure out how to do this with food. And so I had put that in the back of my mind, I need to figure out a way to create courses, I need to figure out a way to create a membership, but I've never seen anyone do it in my space, other than, you know, like, masterclass or something, which isn't really the same as becoming a personality. And again, like so this whole journey for me, it's been a lot of serendipitous things like people quoting my path. So I was still working, doing some consulting, and this is out during COVID at this point. And I stumbled across somebody in a Facebook group, someone asked a question, it was an intergroup, about like, online courses or something. And somebody said, if you want to make $50,000 in a week, what do you do? And some guy answered, He said, I sell some recipes. And I was like, Wait, why? Talking to everyone? What's the recipes like as a food while they're free, but I'd been doing that this whole time kind of building my website up just whatever. And so I asked him, What are you talking about? He was very generous and told me Well, his wife had this business and he had courses. And so I started looking into that. And I was like, Okay, so I've modeled a little bit of that model, a little bit of this life coach, like, threw together, started a Facebook group, and decided I was gonna go all in and stopped. I had one big consulting client left, and I was like this, give me my last consulting client. And I am going to go all in on creating courses and figuring out how to create a membership. I just got

Hilary DeCesare: 00:16:50

chills when you said that. Because you really have to take that you know that that leap of faith, right? I talk a lot about head heart highest self three HQ, your headquarters a yo. And sometimes you've just got to get away from the head of like, what the heck am I doing? I don't know, any obstacle

Hilary DeCesare: 00:17:09

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: leave. It's so much a big part. Every time you launch right now, every time you do a launch, you have to have faith, and you're scared every time there's I'm really gonna do some work like last time. What about all my numbers? And you're like, you just have to believe and like, you have to have faith,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:17:24

unwavering faith, unwavering faith, and you did that. But that's

Hilary DeCesare: 00:17:29

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: the mindset aren't being answered or you can't get sucked back into the the worry and the stress because doesn't help anything. It doesn't solve any problems.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:17:36

Oh, in fact, it actually propagates more of that. Yeah. Right. I mean, we know that to be like, true scientific proof evidence that what you think ends up being your reality. I mean, it happens. So we better not be thinking like, oh, no, what's going to happen with this launcher? You know, oh, this is so great. Okay, so now, you're, you're in the process. And did you know that you what, what kind of recipes going to do old school type of recipes that had all the gluten?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:18:06

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah, so what I decided to do was for the first thing, I was like, Okay, well, first thing I'll do is an e book, because that's easy. So I'm going to take recipes that everyone's known me for that my bakery, my restaurant famous for me creating ebooks. Some of them are on my website already. And I was like, okay, but I have to do some that you can't get there. I'm gonna sell it. And I started this Facebook group. This is at the end of April 2022. And, okay, so

Hilary DeCesare: 00:18:31

we just jumped Hold on, you went from 2017 to 2022. During that time, what were you doing? Were you educating yourself? Yeah,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:18:39

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: I was doing consulting. And in the meantime, in the background, which I think is what I always tell people to do, if you're not sure is I was doing my consulting and everything. And then I had one long term consulting job for like, almost two full years for really high end, private pay Alzheimer's and dementia unit was actually was an amazing job. And I that was kind of a passion project for me. And wildlife was, which was good during COVID Because it was like the only places that shut down how I only be doing restaurants, I probably wouldn't have had any work. So again, I got lucky, which is great, because for the previous 30 years of my life, I didn't have a lot of luck. It was just a lot of hard work and pushing. And the whole time I was doing that in the background. I was still you know, putting some recipes up on my website and kind of slowly growing my social media knowing I was gonna do something but not what and I joined a lot of groups online, gluten free groups, other people's groups, and I just became active in them. So we always do McCain active and um, it was research. I see what people were looking for people were asking for start conversations. Now Little did I know because I didn't know anything about anything back then. It was the best thing I ever could have done because I was giving Facebook's algorithm a footprint and all those people that I connected with and connected with me once I started doing my own stuff Facebook threw them at me because for two years I had been doing this I didn't really know that but now I now I know What?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:20:01

Can I tell you something right? There is a golden nugget for people right there, get involved, get involved, because you don't even realize what the algorithms will do for you, it tracks

Hilary DeCesare: 00:20:10

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: that you do and everyone that isn't that is that is interacting with you. And so then you share interests and things in common. As soon as you start doing anything, it's going to bring them all towards you. And so I had been doing that the whole time. So I think when I started Microsoft Health, I did still have my page from when I had my restaurant. So I just converted that over. So I already had a decent audience on there. And surprisingly, a lot of people that use that on my restaurant now are gluten free, which is funny, but actually not that we're going

Hilary DeCesare: 00:20:39

to talk about this. You I want to hear your opinion on. Why is it that there are so many people that are finding out that they need to go gluten that they're you know, celiac disease? I'm hearing more and more, all of these, you know, literally, I'm dairy free. I'm you know, I only do this, there's so many why is that right now? Why are people having to, it's a combination of

Hilary DeCesare: 00:21:05

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: things. So there's a huge amount of us for which it's 100% legitimate, there's some people that I think do it because they think maybe it will help or they think it's a you know, a fad or whatever. But which is unfortunate because that gives the people like our legitimate like a bad rap for a long time and restaurants, people wouldn't take food allergies. And seriously because they thought people were just being a pain in the neck. Or part of it, I think is is better testing better knowledge, better research that doctors but doctors never before we tell people to unmute diseases, maybe if you went to alternative doctor, right, I would tell people to change their diet for inflammation. But that's all changing now, because there's more and more research. And I think because the symptoms are things that again, crossover with a million other things. My body hurts, I'm tired. People think it's because we're out of shape, or because of working too hard if you can, there's so many other things that could be causing that you feel like crap all the time when you get used to feeling like that that before. We didn't know. And now there's just more and more research. So I think that's really why you're seeing it more. It's more research. And again, social media, some of the good things about it is people learn about things faster, and the news and research and everything spreads

Hilary DeCesare: 00:22:09

faster. So you decide, okay, I'm going to focus in on gluten free, it's going to be recipes, and you actually do cooking courses. Okay, sure. Because I started

Hilary DeCesare: 00:22:20

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: the I decided in, again, when I was when I was doing that at the beginning of 2022, I was doing that New Year's resolution thing. And you have to make a list of 111 things that you want to do over the course of the year. And they can be everything from enjoy a coffee on a beach for sunrise to like a resource outrageous goals on that. So one of my goals I set was to publish my ebook by my birthday, which is at the end of May. And then I kind of put it away and didn't think about it, but just kind of kept working on everything. I ended up and I had started my group in April, I ended up releasing my ebook The week before my birthday. So

Hilary DeCesare: 00:22:58

of course you did. Of course you didn't. It

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:01

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: didn't hit me until I did that, oh, I put that on that list that I was gonna do it. But right. There's less work because less work those

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:08

lists have this clarity plan.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:11

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: And then I decided to do some class. And then after I did my first class, I was like, Well, I really want to do a membership. But I'm going to I need to have

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:19

how many people showed up to your first class? How many you have?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:24

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: 30 or 40?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:25

Okay, that's a hell of a good first class girl. Okay. And did you did you enjoy it as much as you thought you were? Yeah.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:23:35

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: I love teaching I always have because I've taught all the Iron Lady interns and culinary school kids and everything. So I've always I love to and I just I love what I do. And I love food. So yeah, and I yeah, I love it. And so I did the first one and then decided that I would do a membership and so I started polling instinctively I'm hard my whole life. I guess I've always wanted other people's opinions. I've gotten better now about not really caring so much about that. But it actually was a blessing in disguise because I started asking in my group before I even knew that that's a great strategy. What kind of content do you want to see? What kind of classes would you want? Would you want a membership? If I was to have some sort of a membership? What would you think would be worth a month like I was asking all these questions and then just decided to go for it I didn't have I was like screw it. I'm gonna do again model this after this white coach, who her yearly membership, which was you know, is like 100 times the cost of mine. But the way she ran it was that every month she released new content and if your private membership, you can get all the new content. And I was like, Oh, well if I do it that way, I don't have to have stuff done ahead of time. I don't need a roadmap. I don't need anything. I just create new classes every month. So I just started doing it and I had by August I probably had 60 or 70 members in my membership. And but I still really didn't know much what I was doing

Hilary DeCesare: 00:24:55

or you're cooking out of your own kitchen at your house or yeah in

Hilary DeCesare: 00:25:00

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: my kitchen, I have previously designed we are in the process of building a house. And I had already planned to design it to be able to film because I thought I was gonna be doing like just social media content and I wanted to be so I could film. But then the real kind of, I guess the the launch on top of the launch, like what really changed. Everything was right around that time when I was just starting to fumble through membership. Preston, who was the guy that originally said he makes $50,000 a week, reached out to me on Facebook and sent me a message, sir, you want to FHL and I was like, What the heck is that? And where is it? I don't know. He's like, it's been two weeks. It's in Florida, and still didn't tell me much about it. And he said, Go if you come, Lauren and I are hosting a mastermind with all people that are in food, courses course creation and stuff, and most of them are eight figure earners, seven figure earners. Yeah. And I was like, I don't care what the conference is. And I don't care how much it costs. I'm gonna go if it means they're inviting me to their hotel room to go to this mastermind. Exactly. I need to hear anything else, if I can sit with them for an hour pick their brain, because she didn't have any cooking background or anything. She was a homemaker that created this amazing business doing cookie decorating horses. That was like, well, they can do it. I can do it for that whole year. I kept saying to myself making the right to do it like

Hilary DeCesare: 00:26:18

that. I that is that that's a mantra of mine, too. I look and I say if somebody else has been able to do it, then if we're all considered, you know, we literally we all have the brains we have it we can all do it your limitation I have a huge so you went to for those that don't know, funnel hacker live?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:26:38

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: Yeah. But mainly because I knew I would get to go to this mastermind with them. And that whole I get on the plane. So I have to tell you like it's a long story. But I have to tell you like all these little stories, because it's just also

Hilary DeCesare: 00:26:53

serendipitous, like you said, no

Hilary DeCesare: 00:26:55

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: matter what you believe, you know, one of the things that I learned early on in like the personal development thing was like kind of leave yourself open to everything you never know who you're going to meet when you never know like get up at Mike Dooley actually said that in his name, like get up and go get even if you don't need to do go get a job for at the grocery store or something. Because you never know who you're gonna end up talking to in the line, whatever. So my plane ticket to Florida was changed three times my flight, the airport I had to fly out of the time of my flight. I get on the plane they sit down and there's a guy sitting next to me the seat between us and go fly. I don't usually talk to people on a flight we both pull out our laptops. And for whatever reason I think I saw his screen or something and I don't even know when or why. But I said to him I said already we're going to Orlando for you going for busy. So I'm going for a conference and I said it was all mine. What are you going for fun liking why? Oh, so am I so what do you do? He's like, I'm a funnel builder. I was like, Well, I don't even know what a funnel is. And we started talking turns out our kids go to the same school well his kids go to school my son graduated from private school around here he lives like five miles for me down the road. Like all these things so and turns out that he's one of the like best in the industry. Like he's built funnels for these people with like million multimillion dollar funnels. So we touch base a little bit throughout the course of the conference a few times like message like hey, how you liking it, you know, whatever. And the conference blew my mind like the speakers it was all personal development. It was like Ed my let Jamie Kern Lima and like all open my eyes a bunch of people I actually had never heard before that I was just like, I left there like what? And I came home and said to my boyfriend, I was like I told him about like meeting Joelle and everything. And I was like, Yeah, I said, Man, I wish like, I feel like so Oh, the other thing that happened is while I was there at Funnel Hacking live of course they're selling coaching and I had a pivotal moment when I was there that I just had this thought in my head it's going to cost me more money if I don't sign up for this coaching than if I do like it's a bigger risk now to the little thought in my head was I kept weighing it out a week for one day because the way that they sell you know coaching and this is Russell Brunson big coaching program and but it's all about building funnels and digital marketing, why didn't know anything about it. And that time I'm thinking I can't afford to hire like I can't hire a phone call right now and they don't do it. So I signed up I bet the bullet I literally that point was making $10,000 a month. And so if I sign up for the coaching that would eat into like that there goes a third of that money I'm making and I still have to pay to like software and whatever else but I was like it's gonna it's it's a bigger risk not to do it than to do it because I don't know what I'm doing it it's gonna take me way longer if I try to figure it all out on my own. And I got home and was talking to my boyfriend and told him about dwelling and then he goes you know, you should just go which is funny because he doesn't really believe in all this stuff to see at all to the same

Hilary DeCesare: 00:29:54

guys now. Not

Hilary DeCesare: 00:29:56

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: as much as I wish he was but I'm hoping I'm starting to change I'm starting to do He was mine, I think a little bit. But he said to me, Oh, just go talk to me. He goes, you're just hauling go document goes, you don't know. I said, Can I think I'm like, I wish I could hire him. But there's no way I can afford him like the people he builds funnels for, like, there's no way that I can afford for him to build me a funnel. And he's like, just, like, go have a meeting with Jim Collins even he says, so I did. And we met locally. And he told me it's like this the first time I've ever had an in person meeting with a client, because most of his clients are all over the world, whatever, not yours, like he's never met anyone else that does this. It's here. And, you know, I guess, which is what Matt's point was to me, he's like, you know, you never know what your kids were at the same school, you know, just whatever, maybe he'll help you out. So he gave me a pre he told me it was $4,000. And

Hilary DeCesare: 00:30:45

he would build the funnel. He's probably like, first off, I have to tell you, I also work with Joelle. Yes. Now, just recently, and so be careful with what you say. Because if you really, you know, definitely don't say it, but I do. I do. We will do a huge shout out to Joelle and and unbelievable, yes,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:31:07

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: whatever he told me it was it was around that it was like just to build the first funnel, right? Which I still don't know what that meant. I didn't know. I'm like, okay, there goes a whole bunch more of my money. And, and then he's like, but you also are gonna need someone to help you Facebook ads, you know, Facebook ads, but same thing I came on when I was like, Okay, it's a bigger risk of five

Hilary DeCesare: 00:31:26

stars to be that, like, you know, you're walking up the mountain, it's like, wait, you you also need this, and you need that. And don't forget this. Well, he's so

Hilary DeCesare: 00:31:33

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: good. And he laid out what he did. And like, you know, and and for both of us, I think it was a, it was one of those and we were put in each other's path for a reason. Because Because I also brought a lot of clients to him now. And like he was, you know, we both grown. So I think that I think maybe he saw that when he took a chance on me and like helped me out because I think he saw the potential because he saw what I had done. I

Hilary DeCesare: 00:31:55

just had the Abba song, you know, take a chance on me. So that's it. That, how awesome is that? Okay, but we, right now I need to if you have a message out there for what you're doing for what you've been through, and what you've now created. And we haven't even talked about the success, the massive success, but

Hilary DeCesare: 00:32:16

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: that was the turning point is after hiring him, and my whole life changed. After deciding, I think the biggest thing was, I had been so afraid for so long to hire other people to help me because I didn't Well, I don't even know what to tell them I need them to do. And I don't understand enough of it, to be able to tell someone what to do, which was part of having the coaching at the same time. So I can understand a little bit of the background. But that leap of faith was what changed everything is and I think that's the message is that if you really believe in whatever it is that you have to teach people and to help people like I knew that I could change, it seems silly, because it's food. But for people with food allergies, it is truly life changing. Like if you if they can finally have the things that they like to eat, if they can figure out a way to do it, that doesn't break the bank, if they can figure out a way to do it when you have kids that the whole family will eat the same thing, right. And I knew that I could help so many people and I knew this is what I like wanted to do, and that this was so important to me. And if you know what you're here to do and who you're here to help with, you have to just take the leap to do it. You have to do it. Like if you believe in yourself enough. If you don't, who's going to write like if you don't believe in yourself enough to who's gonna believe in you? Well,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:33:27

you know, what I love about what you're doing is that not only are you out there, teaching people how to cook gluten free, incredible recipes, like you said, and I had a daughter who had a gallbladder surgery when she was like 13 not overweight, completely healthy. And so I had to change the way I cooked for her and I mean, it was a bear I didn't know what to do and the other side of the family they didn't want to eat that food and so I admire you so much. But here's the thing, not only are you doing that, but you're passionate as you said you love to teach and now you're impacting so many more people because of the ability to have this online business and you've got funnels now girl you didn't know anything about funnels, you didn't know right and

Hilary DeCesare: 00:34:17

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: that's where they started to notice right after the first one I think we moved pretty quickly because again but it comes down to the idols have done a lot of that background work right so when we finally did launch a funnel and start doing Facebook ads, it moved faster for me than maybe for some other people because I had created this footprint and I hit done and because I love what I do and I'm always out there working like I'm in my groups all the time I'm really active that i i made everybody else's job easier, right the paid stuff works but the paid stuff works better if you're doing the organic stuff because then that then that pays off his gas on the fire. And so I was able to create that gas on the fire that I went all the sudden it was just like that was The launch from going here to the strat like I couldn't believe it was happening I'm like, Is this really happening right now? Like

Hilary DeCesare: 00:35:06

so chef Alina, you know, are you do you have a better what I call lifestyle of success for yourself now? Are you still under it our 100 hour weeks?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:35:16

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: No and the thing with the online world to his like, you know you hear everybody every kind of hates on it a little bit because people make money while I'm sitting on the beach. I'm like, Okay, you do make money by setting the beach, because you work your ass off for two weeks before you went to the beach. It's not like we don't work, right. And people will have this thing that they think we don't work. It's a lot of work. But it's a lot of work that I love. Like, I love my audience. I love my community. Like I love going live and talking to them and doing classes with them like that is fun for me. Am I sometimes exhausted? Like again, I just did. I just did a launch and for the last week like I'm exhausted and I'll be exhausted do the next week because whenever you do there's a lot of computer stuff and the other stuff I don't know much love but you have to do. But I still love it. Like I love it and it makes me so happy because you see all the people you're helping and all the people are so excited and like it, but it's a completely different. Okay, I don't like the word work life balance. We just talked about that.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:36:15

What is the lifestyle of success that you really want? Is it sad to me? Yes,

Hilary DeCesare: 00:36:20

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: it is. It is it's your overall lifestyle because it's not gonna be balanced. Sometimes you have more time family, sometimes you have to dig in more to work. But well

Hilary DeCesare: 00:36:28

as I call it, the relaunches are happening right? Yeah, lunches are knocking you down. How are you going to get through those if there are global relaunches personal business? It's kind of like all right, so how am I going to get through this transition? And have it actually be a good transformational month for me? So where can people find more about you?

Hilary DeCesare: 00:36:50

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: So my website is shuffled lynda.com. And it's a Li Na, I'm sure you'll have it on the show notes. Yeah. And then on all social media, I'm at chef Alina E with an E on the end of it. Because there's other chefs with the same first name as me, which is baffling because my name for a long time I never met anybody else with the same name. But well, and

Hilary DeCesare: 00:37:08

we will definitely let people know that's shuffling out with an A. And also, I know that your membership, where do people is that the Facebook area? Where do they find really my

Hilary DeCesare: 00:37:21

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: biggest my audience is, is on Facebook is definitely my biggest audience. That's where my demographic is. That's where my demographic already hangs out. So meet them where they are. That's another thing I think any business person needs to look at. I think Facebook is so underrated for a lot of businesses, if your demographic is women between 35 and 70. They're on Facebook, and they don't want to go a million other places like they're on Facebook. So Facebook, I focused on the most I mean, Facebook kind of has always been a thing anyway. And then Instagram as well. I'm doing a little more with Instagram now. But really Facebook is where you find that's where I am is my audience hangs out. So it's where I hang out. So I have the group that I started in 2022 gluten free baking secrets, tips and tricks, that's my big group. We're gonna hit 90,000 people this week

Hilary DeCesare: 00:38:11

was so awesome. And I mean like, shout out to you. me

Hilary DeCesare: 00:38:17

Chef Alina Eisenhauer: please. And then I have another my Facebook page as well. And then I have a private group on Facebook for my members. But you can also you can find all that information on my website. Terrific.

Hilary DeCesare: 00:38:27

Chef Alina, thank you so much for being here. And again, not only are you delivering these incredible healthy recipes, but you're also kind of you merge in the self development that next level which I you know, end up just loving so much even the tips and the strategies of working with certain people getting rid of other people in your life. Yes, thank you for delivering that message. And everyone I want you to go visit chef Alina get involved because it's not just recipes. If you're gluten free, they are unbelievably yummy. Great. Who doesn't? Who doesn't love like I've seen some of these recently, and I know that we both work with you know, an incredible gal Kristin, goalie Goldilocks. And she has taken pictures of these images like oh, I only wish I were there. So next time I'm in the area, I will be there. But again, everyone thank you for tuning in. And I look forward to seeing you back here next week. And remember, it's about ready set relaunch. Where are you today? Just like you've heard chef Alina and where do you ultimately want to be tomorrow? It is your choice and everyone has the ability to relaunch now. Take care everyone we'll see you next time.