Turning a Love into a Profession

That’s all that we live for. Why should we be fated to do nothing but brood on food? Magical food, wonderful food, marvelous food, fabulous food.

Oliver!

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin'?

I recently caught up with Jean Duane, a friend from my Denver book club. When we first met, we were both in the cable industry but our paths had never crossed—even though it’s certain we’d both attended the same industry conventions and events.

But it is still a small world. As soon as Jean had read our book, she emailed me with an interesting revelation: Jean’s husband, Mark, went through training at IBM with Will Bashan, a gentleman now living in Steamboat Springs and one of the stories in our book. Not only that, Will and Beth attended Jean’s and Mark’s elopement party. When the Bashans moved to Boston, Jean and Mark lost touch with their friends, as too often happens. Now, thanks to our book, they’ll soon be connected again!

In my May 5 blog, I shared that Jean went from being a business development executive in the cable industry, to a role as business planning consultant and college instructor, before creating her new business from scratch. Like some of the stories in our book, she was quite disciplined and put her well-honed business skills to the test as she turned a love of cooking and a need to treat her chronic health problems into a winning business.

As a business consultant, Jean often advised her clients on the creation of successful business plans. You can rest assured that winning a contest was not among her suggestions.

Yet that’s exactly how she got her cooking business off the ground. 

Cooking came naturally to Jean. When she was growing up in Kentucky, her mother cooked lovely dinners that would have dignified any magazine cover.  Jean describes her mother as an inventive and adventurous cook who welcomed her into the kitchen to both cook and experiment.   

The family diet was comprised of meat, potatoes, breads, home grown vegetables and dessert.  But when Jean’s father suffered a heart attack, her family became vegetarian over night. For Jean, who had frequently gone on ‘fruit and vegetable’ diets in her teens, the transition was fairly painless. 

Not so for her parents, who equated meat with prosperity.   

But since her father’s health improved dramatically with the new diet, it wasn’t about to change. Instead, Jean and her mother focused on cooking imaginative foods that didn’t include red meat but were still mouth-watering. And it didn’t end there. A few years later, Jean learned she was dairy intolerant and began adding dairy-free recipes to her cooking repertoire.   

After high school, Jean put her calling to cook behind her as she left home to pursue her degree in communications. She went on to work for IBM, and describes her time there as one of career growth and “growing up” professionally. After 14 years, Jean left so that she could focus her energies on earning an MBA with an emphasis on finance and marketing. 

With her new degree in hand, Jean began working in the telecommunications industry—landing a job at one of several cable companies that once headquartered in Denver—and put her new know-how to work as she conducted critical business analysis, planned new business activities, carried out feasibility studies, and demonstrated the viability of new revenue streams for her employer.  

Jean also shared her extensive subject matter expertise by teaching undergraduate and graduate business classes at Regis University in Denver. In addition to these academic classes, she also drove the concepts home as a SCORE volunteer. SCORE, a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), educates entrepreneurs on the formation, growth and success of small businesses.  

Jean was led to volunteer for SCORE when, in response to 9/11, President Bush asked Americans to volunteer. Little did Jean realize that she was in fact preparing herself for a midlife lane change. After all, the consolidation of the cable industry was in full swing at the beginning of this decade and, as a result, the opportunity to have a long-term job in the industry that you loved was dwindling for all of us.  

Volunteering for SCORE and teaching at Regis turned out to be a lifeline when Jean’s company was purchased. Both experiences made it easier to be an independent consultant—the path that many businesspeople opt for as they find themselves “in transition.”  

But a funny thing happened when Jean had some quiet time. The condition of her personal well-being can into full focus. If you’ve read our book, you’ll know that health is one of the topics Jane and I explore in our book—the need to be of clear mind and sound body when contemplating a lane change.  

Jean suffered from chronic health problems for years and it wasn’t until she was out of the corporate rat race that she focused on finding the key to a healthy life. Shining the light on her body’s dysfunction and wanting to use her love of cooking as a tool to good health, she attended the Boulder, Colorado School of Natural Cookery in 2005. 

The philosophy of this particular culinary school is that cooking is an “intuitive art where process teaches us who we are with food.” Its curriculum is founded on the understanding of the theories and techniques of cooking—no recipes are followed and all diets and cuisines are embraced. 

While completing her culinary studies, Jean also endured much poking (98 needles’ worth) and prodding to determine the cause of her malaise—and discovered she was allergic to gluten in addition to dairy.  

So what to do about it? Surely Jean could take what she had learned, adjust her own diet and go on with life. Instead, she decided to make her life’s mission showing others how to cook “without.” 

Now how about that contest? 

Dovetailing quite nicely with Jean’s new life purpose, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine sponsored a national Dream Job Contest. Contestants were asked to submit a 500-word essay describing their dream job and what steps they had taken in the past to make it come true—such as taking classes to develop new skills, launching a sideline business or identifying an untapped market. 

Entering the contest forced Jean to synthesize all her ideas and achieve the clarity necessary to move forward. 

The sponsors selected three winners—Jean among them—from more than 3,500 entries and awarded prize packages valued at between $16,500 and $21,500 to help them transform their careers into the dream jobs they described in their winning entries.  

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.  Julia Child 

After winning the contest, Jean turned the burners on high and immediately put her business skills to work. During her consulting days, Jean had read, revised, or written over 200 business plans, so she knew the recipe to a good plan. She gave herself three years and a certain amount of money to get the business off the ground. 

So what exactly is her business? Check it out at Alternative Cook: Jean is establishing herself as a credible expert in the gluten-free/dairy-free lifestyle and her website is a one-stop-shop for just that.

Jean’s website has recipes, articles (like “Strategies for Snack Attacks”), resource links, and information about ingredients and where to find them. She’ll even convert one of your favorite recipes to a gluten- and dairy-free masterpiece. 

Jean also wanted to put all her talents into play…not just developing recipes, cooking, and teaching—but also singing.  

Most of her revenue comes from instructional cooking DVDs and streaming videos. Jean, who sang Big Band for 11 years, augments them with her own songs. And, in producing these products, she’s discovered she also has a flair for film editing, storyboarding, and food photography. 

Her acting skills, however, needed improvement. After working on her first cooking instruction DVD with a film-maker, Jean says, “It was obvious that I wasn’t Rachael Ray.” So, she signed up for Improv classes and started developing her “persona.” The Jean you now see in her products is more animated and relaxed in front of the camera.  

Jean recently met the producer of the PBS show, Life Wise, and was asked to appear as a guest chef on several of the show’s cooking segments. Obviously, her acting classes and new-found comfort in front of the camera have paid off!  

She also credits her “Circle of Love”—an intimate group of telecommunications executives—with helping her get her business off the ground. Thanks to their connections, Jean was asked to produce a Public Service Announcement and to create several cooking demonstrations for Comcast’s Video on Demand. 

Jean’s business doesn’t rely solely on her website. Her four DVDs (Chocolate, Italian, Mexican, and Kids’ Meals) are also retailing through the distributors, NutriBooks, Integral Yoga, and Amazon. Jean is going on a promotional tour this summer, with plan to speak at 11 Vitamin Cottage stores through Colorado and New Mexico. She’ll be a guest instructor at the Great Gluten Escape camp in Dallas, having recently taught at the Blue Sky Ranch in Tucson. 

A cookbook, Delicious, Delightful, Delicacies—Gluten-free/Dairy-free Baking, is scheduled for release later this year. 

Jean’s website is unique in many ways, but with her songs—available on her DVDs and downloadable from the website—she is attempting to empower people to feel good about this lifestyle. “We want people to feel like they live with an abundance of alternatives and that they can even sing about being gluten- and dairy-free,” Jean says. “One of the songs, ‘Grateful for Alternatives,’ is a round that children could sing together.”  

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon, or not at all. Harriet Van Horne 

Having recently seen Jean, I can attest to two things: she is positively glowing…and she’s lost weight. 

She shared that her weight loss came easily. “You know the look, when someone looks bloated or just “puffy.” It’s just another indication that the body isn’t processing something. Now, my body is its correct size effortlessly…an indication that I’m finally eating the right foods for me.” 

Jean is thriving in her new environment. Besides the challenge, she says she feels “touched by the number of people who have offered their expertise and time.” Yeah, we can all use a little help from our friends, can’t we? 

I asked Jean how her husband, Mark, has dealt with the dietary regime change. She says he calls himself the “accidental gluten-free vegetarian.” To Jean’s deep satisfaction, “he says he loves the way I cook and feels like I have added years to his life.”  

And Jean? She’s happy to report that her business is tracking according to her well-laid plan. Sounds like she’s found a recipe for success.

Now, what’s the recipe for your life?

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