Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Episode 9 - Wanda Fox - People, Food, and Conversation
Wanda Fox is a true entrepreneur who left corporate life, ran a flower farm, and now has a successful grazing table catering business that offers her the ability to get to know people and have great conversations that allows her to service her clients and grow her network the way she loves to. Join me to hear about Wanda’s journey.
Leighann Lovely 00:19
If you are an HR professional business owner or at the operations level trying to understand what people want. You may be struggling, our systems have been shocked practices have been questioned and culture is the leading conversation. Let's learn how culture is created, sustained, and why it should be the leading conversation when discussing hiring, training and retention. This is the foundation of any business and it's time to address it. So tune in to Let's Talk HR humanizing the conversation. We tackle topics that influencers of change need to understand and struggle to overcome every day, such as where to start, and what the new workforce wants and how to attract and keep positive momentum going. I'm your host Leighann Lovely
Leighann Lovely 01:06
Wanda Fox is a people person she loves to entertain. So her passion really falls with people food and conversation. She likes to know what makes people tick, and what their talents and gifts are sharing your story is a form of therapy. She found that if you engage people in conversation, especially over food, it relaxes them, and conversation flows. After following her passions, she found her way to starting her grazing table catering business using high end artisan products. Along with that she makes her own black walnut charcuterie boards to showcase the food food became her artistic outlet, she uses food as her painter's palette. However, in between all of this, she also worked in a public school setting, there more than ever is where she saw in the younger generation and young adults, a need for something to reduce stress and anxiety. And in 2018, Wanda started researching mental wellness, and found the company, Amari global, the mental wellness company. This brought all of her passions together today to talk to her about her journey to where she is today. Wanda, thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited to talk with you about your journey and where you are now. So thank you.
Wanda Fox 02:35
Hi, Leighann, It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me on.
Leighann Lovely 02:39
Yeah, so why don't you start out by telling us a little bit about yourself?
Wanda Fox 02:45
Well, as we talked before, and my passions are kind of twisted, but they do have a pattern. My passions are people food, and conversations. So with that, I like to find out what makes people tick. And in order to find out what makes them tick, you have to engage them in conversation. And oftentimes by conversation of around food that kind of opens the door.
Leighann Lovely 03:15
I love that because you're absolutely correct it Yeah. You get a you gets you what what is it the old saying the old added adage, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach,
Wanda Fox 03:30
Your stomach, I think that might be a little bit true.
Leighann Lovely 03:36
Yeah, absolutely. You get you get some great food and you know, great conversation going never hurts to have a really good glass of wine in your hand or a great beer, whatever your your preferences. And yeah, the conversation definitely flows. So you and with that being said, you, you actually have an event catering company, Fox and company. Why don't you tell me a little bit about that?
Wanda Fox 04:05
Well, ironically enough, I don't appear that way now, but as a young adult, and as a young kid, I was incredibly shy, painfully shy. So now I kind of gravitate towards that person that I see standing on the sidelines extremely uncomfortable, which is in the ground would swallow them up. And I found because I love to host in my own kitchen. 60 people in my kitchen doesn't rattle me. But if you bring that shy person into the kitchen and give them a job, you can see the inclusion and you can see their shyness and their it just go down. So I love food. I love preparing food. I love everything about it. And it took me a long time to decide on the grazing table concept, but that kind of pulls my creativity talents together. And it was the wow factor. And that is what, boy from technology and on our phones, I'm like, I want something that will cause people to come into the room and go, Wow, look at that. And then you start engaging over food. And then the conversation starts.
Leighann Lovely 05:21
Right. And often, you know, the beginning of that conversation or our, you know, the openers, the starters. But as the evening goes on, those conversations become more and more authentic.
Wanda Fox 05:35
Absolutely correct. Or if not, right, then they lead to a friendship, where that will develop.
Leighann Lovely 05:41
Right, awesome. So how long have you been doing doing that?
Wanda Fox 05:46
Actually started in 2015. And the reason I wanted to go into that actually was a flower farmer. And I did use that for my therapy as well. But I wanted something that was more lasting than that. I did classes on that there was a long story to that. And I'm like, I want something that is more encompassing. And that's why I finally went into the grazing table concept. And my vision was an old world painting where you see these tables just laden with food. Like, that's what I want to do. So it took me a while to pull that out of my brain. And then I started making my own big serving boards, I'm like, This is what I want to do is create food became my painter's palette.
Leighann Lovely 06:38
That's, that's awesome. And you know, right now I'm starting to get hungry. And I'm starting to think, oh, wow, I wish I could see a picture of what this looks like. Because, you know, you walk into these elaborate, you know, parties, or you walk into these, and the grazing table now is the the really popular excite well, I shouldn't say it before the pandemic, that was, you know, the thing that everybody loved, unfortunately, the pandemic kind of slowed that down a little bit. I think it's now coming back, where everybody loves to just be able to walk up, grab a couple of things, and you have that huge selection of all of these different and people stand around and talk.
Wanda Fox 07:21
Yeah, they do. And the fun part about this is, when you're served to plate and sit down dinner, you know exactly what you have. And you just again, but with a grazing table, the whole concept was how do I put this together? So I walk through it, it's a pairing of foods, different flavors, different textures, I show them how to put it together. That's kind of the conversation, the engaging part. That's what gets people to start talking. And then they're like, Oh, my goodness, I would not in these foods. That's what opens the door.
Leighann Lovely 07:57
That's awesome. Now you mentioned you were, you're also a flower farmer.
Wanda Fox 08:03
I was I thought I could do it all. But I did do that for several years, I designed for my own design work, also sold on some high end farmers markets over on the North Shore. And that's when I just really, really started understanding the need for some form of therapy using your hands. Then it's hand mind coordination. And then out of that came the adding in the other component of the food.
Leighann Lovely 08:35
So okay, you said you thought you could do it. So I don't even know what it what is a flower farmer? Look, what does that look like?
Wanda Fox 08:43
Okay, so if you buy flowers, you probably go into a shop and buy them. And that's, that's there. So I grew up on a farm in Virginia. And I wanted to gravitate to I never wanted to be on a farm when I was a kid at home, and then I left and my commercial work corporate work to me away from that. But flower farming is well just think about this year, if I had had to do flower farming this year is cold and wet, it would have been really difficult. And then that involves bringing in your greenhouses, which I was not growing greenhouses at that time. So it's a lot of preparing the land, same as farmers. It's doing a lot of seed work, it's doing a lot of transplant work. You think taking care of a dog is a lot making sure the food and water taking care of a flower farm because then you have to be so careful of insects and bugs and but I raised them organically. So I did graze on them because I wanted them on the table. So Wow. But there was a beauty and that because I grew them. I designed them. I sold them I interacted with my end customer. So there was a story in that from Field to Table. And I knew the whole story
Leighann Lovely 10:00
Okay, so the here's Fun, fun facts. So I have a friend who is actually lives on a farm and he he sells flowers every year. And when I went in to buy my flowers this I go out to buy my flowers from him now. And it's like an hour drive. But you know, I'm dedicated to supporting, you know, obviously my my network, my friends, you know that. And when I walked in there, he had these little pods. And I'm like, what are those? He's like, Oh, those are praying mantis pods. And I'm like, interesting. And he goes, Yeah, and and I saw him all over. I'm like, Why? Why do you have so many of these? And so what you just said growing organic, you have to get rid of the bugs you have to see, because do you want one of those? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess I do. So I'm assuming that you probably did things like that. Right.
Wanda Fox 10:53
Like it's a farmer's friend. Yes. Yeah. But then the other thing is, depending on what your soil is, your soil lends a lot to that. So there's a there's a whole education process behind that. Yeah, I grew up on a crop farm and a dairy farm. So we weren't so concerned about the end product looking perfect with a dahlia with no insect bites in it. So yeah, it gets, it got kind of tricky,
Leighann Lovely 11:22
Right? Yeah. So no, I'm gonna have hopefully, I'll have, you know, and it was one of those pods anywhere from 50 to 250. He said, like, what am I going to do with but apparently that's, you know, one of those pods produces, and it'll cut back on the amount of you're right that, you know, my dahlias, I have dahlias, that, you know, I actually have to get those in the ground. I finally can, again, but all my, you know, flower and I look at him. And I'm like, Oh, they're so beautiful. Except they've got bug holes, you know?
Wanda Fox 11:58
Yeah. And then the other thing, we had a lot of honeybee hives around us, so we had a lion prairie land. So things that I supported the honey bees,
Leighann Lovely 12:08
Right? Oh, how fun. So okay, yeah, so you went from Flower farming now to, you know, your catering company. And now you are you're engaged in another very interesting that lens again, because I'm hearing a common thread in everything that you're you're kind of talking about things that are are helping with the mental health, the doing something with your hands, that's also create, you know, create creative, there we go getting that word out. These are all things that are lending to your mental health things that are keeping you busy and kind of in a healing way. So now you, you your most recent you are with Amari global. So tell me, you know, who were they and, and what are you doing with them.
Wanda Fox 13:01
So it does look ironic that I've cut up ping pong all over the place. But you're right, there is really a common thread going through that. And that came from my own background, my own history mon health, I am a mom, I have two adult children. So we learn a lot. When we raise our own children, I did work in an education system. So I got to see everything in mental wellness, from the kid that was crushing it to the kid that needed assistance to special needs. So then I learned there is a common thread running through the mental wellness. We all have it, it does not discriminate. And oftentimes we hide behind a facade. But then after doing my own research, and I was basically a holistic person I grew up on our own food that we grew on the farm. And we think we are doing the best we can in the system and societies that we're in. But nonetheless, our gut needs a little bit more nutrition that we're we're giving it and then that is when I learned that directly affected the brain. But I didn't know all of that it went back to me having a compassion for people and people that felt lost and were looking for solutions. And that is when I learned that there was a whole lot more to mental wellness than what I thought. And oftentimes we think of mental wellness or mental health is somebody that deals with mental health concerns. But mental health can be anything from distress and anxiety that can go out into the classroom. There can be underlining cursors or precursors I should say from perhaps food sensitivity, but it can come it can manifest itself in many ways. And what I found if we address the root cause cause holistically, then we can, as we say, if you address the root cause and the gut brain microbiome, you can actually rewire the brain. And we've kind of proven that. And then I just became so fascinated with it. And like that, this helps me. And it's all about conversation. It's all about talking to people, well, then why can't I pull all three of these things together? So that's kind of what I did.
Leighann Lovely 15:28
So this is this company is, is this an all natural supplement or what what is?
Wanda Fox 15:36
Well, it's actually was built out of a passion of love. So Amari is Latin, and it does mean to live. So it was created by an incredibly successful businessman who fell through the cracks with his own health and well being after he built several billion billion dollar companies. So from that, he sought out the best minds in the industry to create a holistic product. So without going deep into it, we have no fillers, no sugars, no caffyns, no colors, no dyes. And we have a kid product. And that really became my passion is to work with the young children going into high school, going into college, where with my own children going into college, I saw the stressors. And I'm like, Well, what can I do to help that? How can I offset that, and then the passion just kept growing deeper. And without going deep into this, you know, where we are with suicide rates? And I'm like, what is causing that? How can my voice lend help and support to that? So that is why I became so passionate about that, and working with some other platforms around this, as well as like, I do have a solution, I do have something that will support. So I just incorporated that into more of my passions of who really is wonderfox? And what are your passions? And how can I help humanity? That maybe it's only a few people, but it's a ripple effect?
Leighann Lovely 17:19
Wow. Right? I go back to, you know, a saying that. And I'm probably going to say this wrong, because it's not in front of me, but I cannot help everyone, but one person can help someone. And if we all have that mind frame of, you know, just assisting with one person or trying to, you know, help just one person, we as you know, community as a society, we would be able to help give a lending hand would be able to make a difference in our world, our society. And you clearly have a passion. Are you open to talking a little bit more about where that driver comes from? Where, where did that originate? What, you know? Did you experience it yourself? Was there somebody in your family?
Wanda Fox 18:16
Well, I like to think we all have things in our back office that we don't put out there. But growing up and then as I got older, I learned a lot more about my background about my ancestors and things that they dealt with. And I'm like, wow, what if they had had these options? What if this had been available, and I will say a lot of this is based on ancient wisdom, and herbs. But what is bringing it to the forefront is modern day science. And that is where the two things are blending together. So with my own health, and then with, we're a family of four, we're all on the products. And we have just seen such massive changes within ourselves. And then the testimonials and the ones that speak to my heart the most are when we can bring a child in school struggling, we can bring them out, give them confidence, we can bring them from the back row to the front row, we can take the stress and the pressures on college athletes and college students alone is horrendous. And these days and it's like if we can give them something that we know will support them and make life easier. Make them crush their goals. For me myself. I lost a lot of weight. But the biggest thing I saw in myself was confidence. And it's like I've got this I know that I can go out there with my with my event raising tables. It's my passion. I don't need a stranger anymore. I'm no longer that kid that was shy leave me alone. Just let me and that's why I gravitate toward So I might be doing it in executives, I might be talking to a mom, again, I'm not that clinical person, I'm not that pharmacist, it's my passion. I've been there, I've walked that road, I think I have something that might help. So that's kind of what it is. And when you were talking about little cliches, and, you know, we say that to the world, you're one person, but to that one person, you're the world, right? And it's like, so who can I help today?
Leighann Lovely 20:31
Absolutely. Part of the reason that, you know, I created this podcast, part of the reason that I tell my story, I, part of the reason I talk about my story, which is I think, the reason you and I connected in the first place, is because I'm out there talking about my mental health, I'm out there talking about all of that stuff. My passion is to, to let people know that they're not alone in this. And if we were all able to follow our passions, I think that we would have a much more Well, as you, as you say, conversations, we'd have a lot more open, honest conversations with people. And if we were doing that, on a regular basis, I think that we would find that we are in a much happier open society. Of course, you know, there are always the, you know, the, the other side of that, that not everybody wants to have great conversations. But
Wanda Fox 21:35
Well, that's true. And you know, the world is a big place, there are a lot of people and can we reach everybody. But there's one thing that sticks out in my mind so much there was something that was on the news last year, very much. So it did not end well. But when I went back and watch those videos of leading up to the end, I saw hand signals of this young person. And I picked up on it, because it was that it wasn't a signal. Like a recognizable signal. But it was a signal of something that she was doing with her hand. And I'm like, I reckon that's fear. And I think what that's one of the things that I wanted to do is just put things out there to educate people to open their minds, broaden their horizons, to look for other options, other opportunities, other solutions. Maybe it's somebody that is desperately looking for a solution. But I think a lot of it is just listening and watching. And when the time is right. They'll approach you because you've opened the door for the conversation.
Leighann Lovely 22:46
Right? Yep. So if somebody wanted to reach out for you reach out to you for well, your catering, your catering services, or for more information about Amari global, how would they go about doing that?
Wanda Fox 23:05
Okay, there's a couple of sites that I have to tell you this first, because you're from Wisconsin. Yeah. A lot. A lot of my product comes from Wisconsin. Oh, really? Yes. There's a lot of cheeses created in Wisconsin. Yes. There are. One company that I sourced my bacon from that is second to none. It goes on every table. So yes, Wisconsin is well represented on my grazing tables.
Leighann Lovely 23:31
Oh, well. So what is your reach? What were you where do you typically,
Wanda Fox 23:38
I'm in Northern Illinois. So I stretch into the city. Predominantly, the city was my area, and then I stretch up into the Lake Geneva area and into the northwest suburbs.
Leighann Lovely 23:51
Oh, okay. Lake Geneva? That's, that's right. In my backyard. Yeah. Right. It's not hard at all. No, not far at all.
Wanda Fox 24:00
But a lot of my clients have been downtown Chicago corporate companies.
Leighann Lovely 24:04
Right. Okay. Excellent. So, yeah, if somebody wanted to do you have a website and this is all going to be obviously on our on my show notes so that somebody could you know, take a look at the show notes and, and be able to find you there.
Wanda Fox 24:21
So the easiest place to find me for my catering. It's really simple. It's my last name, Fox fo X and company. So Fox letter in company.com. There's a story behind that name as well. I married the fox. So that's kind of my umbrella behind all of that. And then the easiest way to find me, Amari is I am on LinkedIn under one so I post a lot of educational information on there a lot of engagement. There's other ways ways to contact me, but they're all be interlinked.
Leighann Lovely 24:56
Yeah. Okay perfect. And like I said, I will post those in the shownotes, and everything else, so I have a question of the season that I am asking everybody. And this one, this question I find really interesting. Because I, there are times in my life where I think, if I could go back, would I change anything? What I what I and usually, I think, no, I would not change the trajectory or the path, but what I give myself advice, you know, to help myself so wildly interested to hear what your answer is, if you could go back to your younger self and give yourself advice, when would you go back to and what advice would you give yourself?
Wanda Fox 25:49
It's easy to answer now. I'm older. And I know how painfully shy I was. So the first thing would be, get rid of that. You lose a lot of opportunities when you're so painfully shy. But learn to use your voice. Your voice is your power, as go back. And that's why I gravitate to that young person is. But I have the means now to know how to deal with that. But not to be so shy, the world won't gobble you up and learn to use your voice.
Leighann Lovely 26:29
That's great. And and you're you're very right. There's a lot of individuals out there that? Well, there's a lot of individuals out there that stay quiet on purpose, not necessarily because they're shy. But they are introverts by nature. They choose to listen more than they talk. My husband is one. And he's not shy. And then there are the individuals out there that are too shy. And I just want I have to be honest, I can't imagine you being a shy person. You were just told to change. Yes, I know. But and then there are the individuals who are truly shy and and given the opportunity. I have met, obviously, individuals from all walks of life, given the opportunity for the for them, or if they were given the opportunity, saying this all wrong. But let me try again. If they were given the the opportunity, they're so wildly brilliant, many of them are so wildly brilliant. They're just under recognized because they don't have that. Well, I've just never been a shy person. So I don't know what they what they don't.
Wanda Fox 27:50
Well, you mentioned something about your husband not being shy, but he likes to listen, well, I do find that that is incredibly valuable, right, we need to listen. But in the Listening is when you learn the questions to ask to draw them out. And then when you start drawing them out, when you talk about them being brilliant, and incredibly shy. When you find their passion and their trigger points, then you literally something like that can change the trajectory of someone's life. It's like, wow, she really believed in me, I really can't do that. And I think that's the passion behind everything I do, is drawing that person out, to believe in themselves. And to find that confidence. And it's not. It's not always an easy job to do. It's, it's a process. But that's my passion. And then I see the end results. And I can see what happens. There's this young man, I know he was incredibly shy all through school. He grew into college, and from college, he went on to manage a $28 million job. And that same young man is going to be road tripping now for three or four months. He's like every goal I set, I crushed I met it. And so that's the growth that you want to see in a person and it's because you believed in them. And you encourage them and you gave them the tools and the confidence to get there.
Leighann Lovely 29:28
Right. Right. Completely. And you know, again, going back to my husband, he's he's a complete introvert but you put him behind a DJ stand. He DJs he does hip hop, he scratches, he does hip hop. He also does weddings, and you put him behind there and he's like us he's got like a split personality completely, like alive and he's in his room of like, I know I'm good at that. And I'm going to just mean he can turn out a quiet, completely neutral room into every single person standing up and jumping up and down. And you're like, what just happens? So you're, that's his talent that right? He right? I watched him take a it was a group of engineers. Okay, so we all know engineers have a tendency to have that pretty subdued, subdued personality, you know, highly intelligent in the beginning of the night, they're all coming up saying, Hey, can you tell how does this equipment work? And he's like, seriously, listen to the music, like, how many times do I have to explain all the equipment work? And by the end of the night, they were that song, jump, jump jump. By the end of the night, I saw these engineers and not young engineers, I'm talking, you know, like, the average age in the room was probably 50. And they were jumping up and down saying, play another one. And I'm going, Oh, my God. What just happened? We're in the twilight zone. And he's, you know, the, the person running the events, like, you need to turn off the music. And he's like, Yeah, I'm trying, but I keep getting, you know, all these people keep requesting another song. They were singing, trying to sing karaoke. And I'm just like, Oh, my God.
Wanda Fox 31:23
So for him, that's the power of music. Yeah, that's what I see in my Grayson table. It's breaking down those walls. And he come in a human.
Leighann Lovely 31:33
Yep. That's right, everybody. You know, I've seen a post on LinkedIn, what is your superpower? And it's truly everybody has, every single person has something. Some people may not know what it is yet. either. They're young in their career, or they just haven't figured it out. And it sounds like one a you enjoy. You enjoy talking to people and helping them figure out what it what their superpower as everybody has something. And when you when you identify what that is, it's amazing, because then you can really leverage that use that to your benefit to the benefit of others. And you know, yeah, it's, it's amazing.
Wanda Fox 32:27
I absolutely. And I think you could, you could have changed someone's life for the absolute better, because they're like, she believed in me. Right. So then you just instilled belief in them. And that's, and that's, that's the part I love.
Leighann Lovely 32:44
Absolutely. And, yeah, absolutely. That's brilliant. And we need more people like you, we need. And I know a lot of a lot of business professionals who will offer Hey, I'll be a mentor to you. I will, you know, and that's what we need in this world?
Wanda Fox 33:01
Well, it does. And there are a lot of people that I think that are stepping into that role, because there is such a massive need for that. And when you surround yourself with people that have that mindset, I mean, they become a mentor to you. But then in turn, you can take that same, and you can pass it on to someone else. So I mean, like you I feel like you would be someone's mentor and podcasting these days is taken on a whole new level. So I was working with a young man the other day actually interviewing him for something else. And he works with young adults teaching them podcasting. And I mean, back in when I was a teenager, there were while technology is not what it is today. So there are so many things that if we just open up those avenues, well, this is something you could do. And I think that's where the mentorship is huge is showing young people. Because we don't come with knowing everything, you have to walk the road. So you can go back and say, well, this might be so I think that's what you're good at doing too is giving people other options and interviewing people and bringing this out like, wow, look at who Leanne just interviewed, I want to go do what they do.
Leighann Lovely 34:17
Well, and I get I have a lot of I've had quite a few people come to me and say, Hey, I've got one it was my granddaughter I've got you know, my my daughter or my son. They don't know what they want to be when they grow up. Even though they just went to college and have a degree Will you will you talk with them? Will you interview them and see what they what they're interested in and I'm like, I'll talk with them. But I can't tell them what their what they want to be when they grow up. I can tell them what the world has to offer. And I can walk them through the steps of how they can hone in on what they want to be. And I've done that a lot. I've done that a couple of times and said okay, here's here's where you You should start to focus. Here's with your degree, here's what you can do. And sometimes, you know, with the degrees nowadays, you know, you can get a degree in economics or you can get a business degree and you can, you can go anywhere, you can do anything. So I've definitely done that, for a number of individuals, a number of young people who just recently graduated.
Wanda Fox 35:25
What are the things that I find so useful with that when you're talking about young college students? And that is a that's a huge stressor, what do I do now, it's like to sit them down and say, Tell me what you love to then further man on LinkedIn and say, go follow somebody who's doing exactly what you want to do. And let them just be on the side just watching because you can learn so much, just watching someone and maybe what their degree is, it's not what they really want. But you know what, no one could ever take that piece of paper away from them, they have a degree.
Leighann Lovely 36:01
Right, well, and the interesting thing is that I started going to school for computer programming. Actually, my first, my first I started going to school for accounting. Then I started going to school for computer programming, then I switched my degree to business with an emphasis in human resource management. So it's, it's ever changing. You know, I shouldn't say it's ever changing. It's a lot of college students, they choose their degree, way before they have any concept of what they want to be what they want to do. Unless, yeah, right. And nobody gives them guidance.
Wanda Fox 36:44
And I completely agree for my son, an educator, his said, college will help him find his direction. On the flip side, my daughter is an educator, and in her middle school, they have all of the trades listed, and they show you what you can make as a tradesman. So I don't want to come on here, just as college only in the world we live in today, the doors open for entrepreneurs, the door is open for tradesmen, and we seriously need those. So that's why I encourage people don't just feel like it's one track. And this is what I have to do. And if I don't, I'm a failure. I do seriously encourage people to reach out to people in your community. If someone wants a job with me and watch, I would absolutely allow them to come do that. Maybe they find out that's absolutely what I don't want to do. I like what someone told my son. After he poured concrete for summer, he said that was the best thing you could do. You found out you didn't want to be concrete labor. That's not to say we don't need concrete laborers. And we do. That just wasn't his passion. Right? So I highly encourage go shadow someone. If you think you want to be a flower farmer, go see what's involved in the flower farmer. It's not all roses.
Leighann Lovely 38:10
Right? Right. Oh my gosh, that and what you said, you know, go shadow. I work at a staffing company. If you want to go try out a couple of different jobs come and be a contractor for for six months and try out a couple of different jobs. They're going to be entry level because you don't have a ton of experience in different things. But entry level nowadays is not $12 An hour or $6. Now or when it was my first job? Yeah, actually, I think $4 An hour was my first job.
Wanda Fox 38:42
But I think it is probably the best time that they could invest in their in their future self is to go job shadow and go talk to people. And then that comes back to being shy. You have to learn to talk. Even if it's just go up to someone and say can you tell me about your job? You can sit and listen.
Leighann Lovely 39:02
I don't know how we got on this tangent, but it was fun. Well, wanted this has been an awesome conversation and you've definitely had a very interesting path and continue to from Flower farmer to catering company to now with Amari global are they do they? What how do they identify? Are they they're not pharmaceuticals? Are they there?
Wanda Fox 39:31
We are not pharmaceutical we are actually trademarked as the mental wellness company. We are completely holistic. So no pharmaceuticals,
Leighann Lovely 39:43
no pharmaceuticals, no drugs
Wanda Fox 39:45
I will jump back real quick. It's like how did I get to be where I am? I did work corporate America. high stress, high anxiety, anxiety. I didn't have any of these things up at my disposal. So I saw that side of it. So it can be for anyone. It could be for, you know, the executive that's just crushing it burning the candle at both urns. It can be for the athlete it can. Yeah, it's like I said, we all have mental wellness. So, yes, I've been there on that. And prior to becoming a flower farmer, I did the corporate. So yeah,
Leighann Lovely 40:21
Yeah, you definitely have an awesome background and an interesting path. So I really appreciate you coming on and talking with me today about that. And and like I said, you check out the show notes for how to reach out to Wanda if you're interested in talking about her catering company, or if you're interested in learning more about the product that her company offers for mental health, wellness, and, you know, again, want to thank you.
Wanda Fox 40:47
Thanks, Leighann I think we could talk for a long time so we'll chat again.
Leighann Lovely 40:51
Yes, we definitely will. Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.
Website – https://www.foxncompany.com/
LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wanda-fox-14b497146/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wanda.fox.7
Podcast - Life Empowered Podcast - https://redeemandrestore.org/category/podcast/
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mental wellness, people, passion, shy, flower, conversation, person, table, grew, wanda, farmer, food, talk, company, lending, common thread, learn, degree, grazing, amari
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