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Name: Becky Krinsky
Business: Recipes For Life
Location: Chula Vista, California, U.S.
Industry: Personal Services
Reason for starting? I have been cooking my entire life, and I knew that every day in the kitchen could teach us a lot about life. Life is like a kitchen, and you are the chef of your own life. In order to start a new recipe, we need a pinch of salt here and a tablespoon of water there. Similarly, making a positive move in your life requires small, but powerful changes. We need to just add a little bit of self-confidence to tackle your greatest fear. Or just a touch of empathy to be able to handle what seems to be an unsolvable dispute. All these lessons can be learned from this simple analogy, and I found that, for once, I could give myself the voice I needed to reach a wide variety people. Every day, I strive to help out another person who fell victim to self-indignation. Many times, our lives may seem to be at the lowest of lows. But we are the chef’s of our lives. We get to decide how to cook our meals. And being able to empower people like that is, to me, the most fulfilling work I could do in my life.
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How do you define success? Success to me is when I can empower people to make a positive change to their lives. I have women who come to me, living in imploding relationships, paired with a self-destructive outlook on their lives. For these women, this much too common scenario is a tragic coffin which clouds their view on the world. For me, it’s an opportunity. These women have so much potential, but often the single strongest impediment to a successful and happy life is yourself. So being able to lead clarity into troubled lives is success. Being able to see a change in someone’s face from the time they come into the room to the time they finally understand. That’s what I call a success story.
Biggest success: February of 2016, Cancun, Mexico. It was the biggest of its kind. Over 10,000 motivated students were actively engaged in what, to me, was the most successful conference to date. Funnily enough, the conference was on success, and my goal was to show just what that should mean to high schoolers in today’s day and age. The kids were so focused and were really captivated by the different perspective I was bringing to them. After the conference was over, we spent close to an hour over the set time answering specific questions related to the student’s lives. It was just amazing to see that our future is truly bright.
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What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? My biggest challenge has always been the money. I didn’t start Recipes for Life to make money, but rather to help people in need. Sometimes, these very people who are brushed off by other self-help ventures because they have limited resources, are the ones who need to help the most. My satisfaction comes from tapping into each and every one of my clients’ potential. However, this comes at a great cost. My time is spent in this, it’s my devotion, however, my financial success does not show this to be true. I have made money through sponsorships, conference ticket sales, book sales, one-on-one counseling and merchandising, however, nothing that compares to what other people in the same industry are making. Every day I’m calling to look for new sponsorships, new conference opportunities. I also write for various local newspapers across 20+ cities, but I am always looking for more lucrative positions with these outlets.
Family is always first for me, so when I have to choose between a conference opportunity or my son’s graduation, I will undoubtedly always be there for my family. This situation actually happened to me, the same day my son was graduating college, I had the opportunity to host a conference in Tijuana. I didn’t regret my decision then, and I don’t regret it now. I know deep down, that I could never truly help others have a better life, if I didn’t first attend to be present in my own life. I need to be there for my kids, and that’s something I will always prioritize above all else. The quote “It takes one to know one” is something I take very seriously, because I get many questions on family issues and dealing with kids.
Who is your most important role model? My mother, who inspired me to write my book, Woman of Valor, is my single-most important role model. She fought ovarian cancer for a rough 5 years, all of which I was by her side. What amazed me was her ability to fight, even after all the hardships she was going through. She showed me that no matter how bad things are, they are never as bad as our mind makes us see them. We can always find the strength to go out and try again and again, and we always have the ability to make a change in our lives. It’s on us to look out for ourselves, and my mom was the perfect example of this.
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