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Meet Nephresha Singletary

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Nephresha Singletary.

Nephresha, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After I graduated from college in 2006 I was having the, “what do I want to do with my life?” questions and a big thought literally just dropped in. “I love to cook, and I love to teach people how to do things… why don’t I teach people how to cook!?” And my business idea was born. I loved working at Starbucks through college, and the recession hit, so I decided to pursue a job in management, and did a little bit of work on my business on the side. In 2014, I decided to leave management and put more focus on my business, and so began the real hustle.

As I began to market myself more heavily, people also began to hire me for catering, meal delivery, and private chef jobs. I accidentally became a chef! I also stayed with Starbucks part-time for a while, started driving for Uber, and got into serving for supplemental income. One thing I am really proud of, as challenging as the lifestyle is, is building my business while working gigs that allow me a certain level of freedom for growth, vs. working full time in a soul-sucking career that doesn’t allow room for my dreams.

One thing I have a real knack for in my lessons and in my cooking style is making delicious food that happens to be nourishing and healthy. And without really intending to I ended up specializing in dietary restrictions like vegan, paleo, and gluten-free cuisines. As I taught cooking classes and lessons, I got such a sense of joy from people having “Aha” moments about cooking and eating well. I have always loved food studies, personal development, and helping people, so I decided to enroll at the Institute for Integrative nutrition in 2017 and received a certification for Health Coaching.

Through my work as a health coach I’ve learned that poor eating and lifestyle choices are more of a symptom than the actual issue, so I am working with my coaching clients as more of a life coach, because if you dig in and fix what’s really not working in your life, taking better care of yourself physically becomes a natural byproduct.

Has it been a smooth road?
This has been a very challenging road filled with some of the best, and worst, days of my entire life. Though I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s has felt like I’ve been in survival mode for most of the last few years… scraping to get by so I can keep my dream and hope alive. I’ve lost friends, made a ton of sacrifices and even more mistakes, had some serious bouts of depression, but I’d travel this journey again a million times over. When you are growing your own businesses, there is no one and nothing to blame for the successes and failures. It’s all on me.

So there’s this fine line of pushing myself to be better, while not beating myself up for my mistakes and shortcomings. I made an agreement with myself when the business wasn’t pouring in as I had hoped early on. I promised myself I’d stick this out for ten years. If, after ten years, I wasn’t able to be financially independent solely from the income of my businesses I could choose to walk away. I’m only four years in, and to be fair I decided to focus more on growing my life coaching practice only two years ago. So even when the hustle has me exhausted, I will continue to keep pushing.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
As Coach Nephresha, I serve my clients through three pillars: Health, Cooking, and Life. As a health coach, I work with clients one on one in my Ditch Dieting Program, a program that helps them to overcome poor eating and lifestyle habits and create sustainable weight loss.

As a cooking coach, I teach customized private cooking lessons in my clients’ homes, and I teach cooking classes at BLVD Kitchen in Sherman Oaks. As a life coach, I help women step into their greatness in my Thank you, Next! Program, which is a one-on-one program that helps women to end the cycles that keep them playing small and accepting the status quo in their lives, as they learn to harness the power that they have inside to turn their dreams into reality.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
What gets me excited is seeing more women like me in the personal development field.

Just like a lot of industries, the vast majority of influencers who are well-known are men, and/or White. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a man or being White, of course, but I look forward to seeing more books and resources created by women of color.

We are not being served as much as we should be in this space because there are different history and a different set of challenges we face. Being the change, I want to see continues to drive what I do. I want to inspire women, especially women of color, to step into the space of living life on purpose with power and intention. I plan on being one of those well-known voices in the personal development space.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Jerome Shaw, Rene Rodriguez

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