Lifelong Entrepreneur Emily Frisella Talks Success

  • Photos by:
    Emily Frisella
  • Published on:
    September 5, 2018
  • Reading time by:
    4 minutes

Emily Frisella

Emily Frisella. Age 36 living in St. Louis, MO.  Emily is an Amazon best selling Author of The Fresh Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook with her second book releasing in September, Clean Eating Chef, Creator of Fit Home & Health, Co-host of the iTunes top-rated Food in Session Nutrition Podcast, Founder of the Women in Business Workshop, Voted Top 5 female entrepreneurs in St. Louis, MO, public speaker and COO of 44Seven Media, wife and thrice over dog bulldog momma.

Emily Frisella has a passion for all things health, fitness, personal growth and development of myself and helping others.

Growing up in an entrepreneur household Emily knew that she too wanted to be an entrepreneur.  

"Becoming an entrepreneur was almost as if it's all I truly knew"

Emily Frisella

Emily took her first job at 14 years old to save money to open her first brick and mortar business.  She purchased the building and surrounding property when she was only 20 and opened a flower shop, luxury gift boutique, tuxedo & wedding rental company.  Emily built that business for 5 years then sold it to move to a new city.  

"Many see entrepreneurship as a high gloss lifestyle when the reality is it's a total lifestyle that you craft and will be a roller coaster of highs, lows, celebrations, and stress but in the end, there is nothing else in the world you would rather do."

Emily Frisella

 

1. In the beginning, what motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family.  I never knew what a “9-5” was my entire life.  I saw first hand what being an entrepreneur was through my parents and I was fascinated from an early age. I knew that I wanted to work for myself to be my own boss and in control of my own future. I wanted to have the ability to provide for my family as well as my employees’ families as well.

2. Tell me about your first entrepreneurial experience as a kid.

Growing up on a farm we didn’t have much traffic going through our area but my sisters and myself were determined to make our own money because my parents would never allow us to waste money on video games and gumball machines so we wanted to have our own quarters to spend. I was 6 years old. We spray painted a “lemonade $.25” sign on the side of a piece of plywood and asked my dad to take it up into the hay field and lean it against a hay bale to advertise.  We were about 2 football fields away from our house and we stood in the field trying to flag cars down, our driveway was about 1/4 mi past where we stood so if we thought we saw a car slowing down we would have to sprint back to the house to tend to our little red wagon we made into a lemonade stand.  We only made 1 sale..to my grandparents who tipped us each $1.  Lesson learned: location is everything. haha.

3. How have your entrepreneurial motivations changed since you first started?

I feel this is common among young entrepreneurs as I started with my first brick and mortar company at 20 years old.  It began with making money as my motivation as I had seen the life entrepreneurship could afford you but I realized within 2 years that it requires countless hours of tapping into your endless passion and to truly help others first then the money comes after that.

4. Describe to me the most exciting minute of your entrepreneurial journey

It would absolutely be the day I saw my first published cookbook in print. It was a dream and goal achieved.  I remember holding it and just staring at it and the whole room just went quietly in my mind, I took in the feel of the paper and the smell of the fresh print. It was so surreal to see my name and photo printed on a book cover that was on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for the entire world to see.  It honestly took me 3 days for it to sink in that this was a reality.

5. What does a day in your life consist of?

I am a night owl so I don’t wake up until around 8:30 am.  I wake up to prepare for the day then work for about 2-3 hours in my home office then I will head to the gym for an hour.  After the gym I run any errands I have that day then come home and shower and prepare for afternoon meetings, appointments and calls, head back into my office until aroun6 pmpm then make dinner for my husband and myself to eat at 7pm, clean up the kitchen and do any housework then work from the couch while snuggling our 3 bulldogs until around midnight then I get ready for bed and then once in bed I’ll work for another hour or so.  I feel most producitve and creative in the evening hours so I have naturally become a night owl.  I am a huge lover of listening to podcast and audio books and reading so to fill in the spaes of my day during my drive time or while working I’m always listening to something to try to learn more.

6. What inspired you to write ‘The Fresh Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook?”

I have always been an athlete all my life.  And my mom and grandmas were amazing in the kitchen.  Once I graduated college and quit playing volleyball I realized I couldn’t eat like I was use toon the farm because I wasn’t working out 2 hours a day anymore and I started to gain some weight.   I wanted to lose weight and get healthy so I looked into a clean eating lifestyle and wanted to find some recipes to help me adapt to this lifestyle.  When I went to the bookstore to look at books and magazines all I found were crazy recipes that were so labor intense, called for wacky ingredients I never heard of or knew where to find them or the recipes would be so expensive to create.  The idea was born at that moment.  I went through many tiral and errors for a couple years then finally started writing “The Fresh Farmhouse Cookbook- clean eating comfort food” I wanted to make recipes anyone could create that would be budget friendly with easy to find ingredients you could find at any local grocery store.   I used my favorite recipes growing up on the farm as inspiration for my cookbook.  I wanted to create healthy dinner, sides, smoothies, snacks and sweets recipes that you’d truly enjoy eating because lets be real- if “diet food” tastes like garbage there is no way you’ll be successful on your diet.

7. Discipline and creativity: are they two forces in opposition, or are they complementary?

I think it’s forces of opposition.  As a creative your mind is constantly flooded with ideas and future projects and it can be easy to want to jump on them right away and get them moving but you have to have the discipline to follow through on current tasks and projects at hand.  The way I have found a good mesh for this is by doing “brain dumps” I keep a notebook in my car, office and a list on my phone of any ideas I have for any aspect of my brand. The moment I think of it I write it down. Then I will marry those lists into a master list.  I find that once I get the ideas out of my mind to a place that I can revisit later and no longer have to worry about forgetting them I can remain focused and disciplined on my current work and then once I complete my current jobs I can visit my brain dump list and start acting on my thoughts and ideas.

8. You have a team working for you, what would your advice for someone who is looking for a team? What do you recommend for them to look for?

I love my team so much!  They are all young, vibrant, hungry, hyper creative and a great energy!  Hands down best advice I ever received is hire for a character because skill can be taught. I feel very fortunate to have the amazing group of people I do. They work so hard behind the scenes to produce a great product for my company and brand. I couldn’t do it alone.

9. What sacrifices have you had to make during life as an entrepreneur?

Every career requires sacrifices no matter if you make $7/hr or a milion dollars a day. You are always giving up something for your career/business.  My personal journey has been giving up vacations/trips for the last 6 years, missing family parties & the freedom to take time away from social media.  So much business and branding is done with social media so when you own a company you can’t go MIA for days of end. You have to stay relevant and able to keep offering quality content and help to your friends and followers.  Think of it like a fruit stand- when it’s filled with fresh fruit daily, people will come to get all the best fruit and will know you have the best stuff daily.  If you fill your fruit stand once then wait a week or more to fill it again, the fruit will spoil and no one will want to visit it because they have learned that you don’t provide the best produce there is.  Same with social media- stay fresh and provide the best and people will come.

10. How would you describe your work style during the days?

Loving, Doing, Learning & Leading.  Slow mornings and fast days. I love my mornings with my husband then to work in my office quietly to ramp up for a hectic and productive day.  Listen to podcasts & books and working to help others with their goals in health, fitness & business. I never have a set schedule as the needs of my business & brand can change on the daily so I practice a flexible work/life style versus a rigid balance.

 

Check Emily on Instagram @Emilyfrisella

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