Christina Arriola

I attribute my success to passion, first and foremost. I truly believe that if you don't love what you do, it's going to be really hard, especially in the culinary industry which demands long hours and is physically and mentally demanding. If you love it, you can overcome the difficult days. Beyond passion, I've discovered that I have a soul-fulfilling purpose of wanting to help others. Whether it was through teaching, disaster relief work, or giving back to communities, I've found that there's something so fulfilling about knowing that beyond the immediate moment, I'm giving something lifelong to that person. That passion to give back has given me the drive to succeed beyond just loving what I do. It allows me to do my best and to succeed at what I'm doing because I'm being so fulfilled inside.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't give up and follow your passion. A lot of times we think things should be easy because we're passionate, or we think things should be easy in general in life, but that's not always the case. I've had moments where it felt so much more challenging than I would have liked, but perseverance has allowed me to continue on beyond the difficult days. We're so quick to say 'this was too hard, it made me cry, I don't want to do this anymore, I'm done,' and it happens so many times in the culinary industry. But having that perseverance, not giving up just because I didn't like my boss or something about a situation, combined with having passion, is where I see people at their most successful points. Don't give up has been probably some of the simplest but most valuable advice I've received.

As a young female in the culinary industry, I'd say make sure that you love it and have your passion. Don't give up. And learn who you are as a chef or culinary person. There's a lot of things that you can do in this industry - we are not just restaurant workers. Find what makes you unique. Maybe you're very artistic so your plating can shine, maybe it's photography, maybe it's growing vegetables and understanding flavor profiles, maybe it's restaurant design and the front of house aspect. A lot of times we can get tunnel vision thinking we have to be a restaurant chef, executive chef, and own a restaurant. I don't think that's for everybody. It wasn't for me at all, yet I was still able to use my degree, cook, travel the world, and work with amazing chefs because I found my niche, which is helping others. Learn who you are, especially as a female, because as a female we can get very pigeonholed into 'this is who you will be.' When we learn who we are as a person, we can shine our own light in that aspect.

I think the biggest challenge in consulting is finding clients, especially since I'm not actively marketing and working mainly through word of mouth. Once you have a client, the challenge is making sure that I'm able to give them something that is valuable. Each person is unique, and each business is unique, so I don't want to cookie-cut what I did with one business for another business. I really want to make them stand out in their own way. I want my clients to have value when they speak to me, not just feel like they paid for somebody to tell them what they already know. That challenge of looking at each situation with fresh eyes and providing real value is something I focus on constantly.

The values most important to me are honesty, integrity, and self-love. We have to be honest, not only to those around us but to ourselves - about our capabilities, what we're actually able to do and take on. I think integrity of self is crucial, having integrity of the product you're going to deliver and showing up in your best self. That means how you are at home is going to show up on the outside. If you're not at your 100% because of lifestyle choices, that isn't going to give you the advantage. And something I wish we would learn more of is self-love. Especially in this industry, we go so hard - working 16-hour days, doing doubles, working 12 days straight. At what point does that battery become so depleted that you're not able to truly give your best? I need rest, I need self-love days, I need to pour back into myself. If we don't give ourselves some self-love and pour back into ourselves, we start to become empty, and that's when it's harder to have longevity because we get burnt out. If we can pour back into ourselves and love on ourselves, we can show up even better because we have a full battery, a full cup to pour from.