Her Story
About Isabella
I'm originally from Brazil, where my father was a chef and we owned restaurants as a family business. I went to school for hospitality management in Brazil and never wanted to be in the back of the house. When I moved to New York, I was a captain for Ciprianis, and one day when the chef was short-staffed, I went to the kitchen to help him and I loved being in the back of the house. From there on, I went to culinary school and became a chef. Over my 30-year career, I was a food and beverage director for Flying Food Group, where we catered for all major airlines here in Hawaii. I came to Hawaii in 2008 with Whole Foods when they opened the first Whole Foods store in the state. When COVID hit, I got laid off because there were no more flights. I took a couple years off during COVID to figure things out and spend time with my kids. Now I sell vacation ownership with Marriott, where I conduct 90-minute presentations for clients and handle high-ticket sales. I also help customers with vacations and upgrading their ownership.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Isabella
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say it's a combination of everything - not giving up, hard work, and all the influences that I had in my life, both personal and professional. One of my biggest accomplishments is coaching people. When I was a chef, getting my sous chef or executive chef to do the menu as good or better as I could do, that was such a high for me. When I get a team that I can trust and I can walk away from them, knowing that everything's gonna be done because they're trained well and they take pride in what they do - that's one of those things that I really value.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, be prepared, always have the tools - whatever certifications, whatever you can get to make you better and give you better tools for the job. But don't give up. You know, if you have a bad day today, who cares? Tomorrow's gonna be better, and you just shake it off. If it didn't sell today, tomorrow we're gonna sell, right?
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say integrity is the first one. Also, the ability to shake it off - don't let things really get to you, because life can be so hard, and if you cannot bend, and if you're not able to adjust, then you're gonna break pretty easy. So just being able to adjust to the situation is important. We have to be able to adjust to the situation in everything, right? That's the job.
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