Today we’d like to introduce you to Eboni Dionne.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Eboni. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My personal inspiration that set me on the course that I am on today, I have to say was greatly motivated by my father. When I was 6 months old, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). A degenerative autoimmune disorder that quickly progressed. My fascination with the morbidity, mortality, the human body, how it works and most importantly how one’s mental attitude affected their health has always intrigued me since a child.
My dad was a brilliant man, an Aerospace Engineer, and had received a job offer shortly after his diagnosis to NASA. Due to the poor prognosis and lack of access and knowledge of alternative care, he allowed his depression to overcome him. I found myself as the recipient of his hurt, pain and regret. My parents divorced when I was 8-9 years old due to the emotional and physical abuse he inflicted on me. I know that it was his inability to cope with his dire prognosis, but it definitely created scars that as an adult that I had to learn to heal from.
As a young girl I remember that I would study as much as I could about MS, and eventually went to school to study Pre-Med. After visiting several medical schools and along with the changes that life took me on, I decided that I didn’t not want to just push pills. So my pursuit of a medical degree was put on hold. A few years after I completed my undergraduate program, I went back to earn my Masters in Public Health, to fulfill my quest to improve the world around me.
During this time, I was married had my son, and was living a most ordinary and expected life in so many ways. Since I was a girl there was always this part of me that was very sad, hurt and constantly fought feelings of abandonment. (Classic “Daddy Girls” issues). I remember that I never prayed for love, money, or success. Above all things I used to pray for wisdom. I knew that if I were wise, that the money, love & success would naturally fall into place.
The adage “be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it” could not be further from the truth for me. Wisdom is not just granted by some Fairy-God-Mother, and poof, magically I am the All-Knowing-Sage. Wisdom is earned, through trial and error. Sometimes it felt like all I had was more “error” than anything else.
I have sacrificed and lost so much over the course of my adult life. Marriage, home, cars, life savings, and peace of mind were all taken, disintegrated, or wasted. My health was the catalyst for me to begin to approach my life differently.
In 2011-2012, I came down with pneumonia. It took me more than 6 months to get over it, on top of the other multiple chronic health conditions that I was at the time suffered with. Such as severe cystic acne, IBS, acid reflux, severe seasonal allergies and multiple sinus infections plagued me throughout the years. My doctor was putting on maintenance medications before I was 30, with no plan of removing me from them.
I knew that was not the life for me to live. With the support of friends and during the month of December 2012, the vision of my catering business was born and I also started my journey with giving up meat during this time. I went on a cold-hard fast of no meat for 30 days and to fast from sunrise to sunset. Fasting during holiday season and while traveling to New Orleans (my favorite Foodie City) was not a task for the weak or wanting, but it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself.
Prior to that month, you could not have persuaded me to give up meat. I am a true Southern Girl and Texan. I have eaten every part of the pig except for the oink! There was no way I was going to give up meat.
But one thing time always does, is it brings about a change. I knew I had to change something. Because my mental, emotional, spiritual and physical state were in crisis mode. So I gave it up, with the thought that it was only a choice, and at the end of 30 days, I will learn to eat healthier maybe even less meat, and hopefully many of my ailments would begin to heal. If I wanted to eat meat again it would also be my choice, so there was no big deal and thoughts of deprivation never affected me.
After my fast ended I still continued to not to eat meat, until I just had to have some Chick-Fil-A. That was the worst thing I ever ate in my life, I had to spit it out and threw it away. It tasted so disgusting, all I could taste were the antibiotics. My feelings were hurt a little bit, then I got over it and realized that being a vegetarian was not the end of the world and the doors of food possibilities actually expanded. I would have probably never tried so many different types of foods and cuisines that I love so much today, if I were still eating SAD (Standard American Diet).
In 2013, after my personal health change, I knew more concretely in the direction I want my life to go and how I could assist people with managing their health through diet. I went back to school to receive my certification as a Holistic Health Coach. Combining both my compassion as a healer and passion as a culinary artist is the cornerstone of not only my professional practice but my personal life.
In 2001, the day after I graduated from college, my father passed away. My grandmother told me that, she visited him in the nursing home and told him that I had finished school. He smiled for the first time in a long time and he passed away that evening. Although, he was not able to be the father in my life that I know in his heart that he wanted to be, I know that he loved, loves me & I feel his presence in my life to this day. He was only 47 years old when he transitioned. Today at 38 years old I have been able to live a much richer and vibrant life than he was afforded. So I live each day in remembrance and dedication to the life that he was not able to live. Unfortunately, I was not able to help my father, but his life was not in vain, because I think that I am much better because of the challenges of my childhood I had to learn to heal.
In 2015, I was at the breaking point on my corporate job, the stress of dealing with petty office politics, working for people who cared more about the bottom line then taking care of their employees, and the acknowledgement that I can only serve one master. I’d rather be the master of my own destiny than to, hope, beg, or pray that one day the people I worked for would finally treat me/their employees fairly. So I quit, without the best of plans except I KNEW that is what had to be done.
The ups and many downs of being an entrepreneur are not for the faint of heart. Owning my own business opens me up to vulnerable in ways that are not possible when one is sheltered on a corporate job. Many times, I have wanted to quit or give up, but then I realize there is no alternative that would satisfy my spirit. So I dig in and do the work of putting myself on the line to be judged and prayerfully accepted when sharing my heart and passion with the world.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Langston Hughes poem “Mother to Son” comes to mine, especially the one line “My Life Has Been No Crystal Stairs”. That is definitely true when starting a Vegan Soul Food and health and wellness business in a city also fondly known as CowTown.
I would say the challenges are 2 fold, internal and external.
Fear, anxiety, doubt, financial resources and lack skill sets outside of my knowledge base have been my internal obstacles. These have taken the skills I teach my clients as a health coach of being mindful, set specific action plans, employ problem solving skills, learning to ask for help when needed, and accepting that there may be some problems that just aren’t solvable at the moment.
The external obstacles are attributed a lot to the fact I am in a true growth marketing DFW and my services are very niched. There is enough people I believe in my marketplace to sustain my business, but I have struggled with the marketing and retention of skilled B2B contracts that are supposed to provide those services/tools has been very difficult. I have hired several companies in various capacities to assist with developing a strong marketing plan. Sadly, almost all of them failed to deliver their promise.
It is a struggle to be seen relevant when everyone is screaming for the same attention. I am by nature more introspective. Although I know the importance and understand the trends of social media users; I struggle to keep up like I should with posting about myself.
I am a worker bee, and when the mic is on and it’s time to be on stage I shine, so I don’t naturally seek daily validation if I’m doing a good job in life. In my everyday life, I really like to keep to myself. That doesn’t work with 2017 social business dynamics. I am a people person, so social media feels a bit removed, so it’s hard to share with a blinking cursor like I would with a flesh a blood person in my presence. I’m such a dichotomy that I irk and laugh at myself at the same time!
Please tell us about reBirth of Food.
I am a health coach and chef and I specialize in Vegan & Vegetarian Soul Food. I offer a wide range of services between your dinner plate and medicine cabinet.
reBirth of Food services includes: full service catering, weekly meal prep, & private and group cooking classes.
Journey to a Dream services include: 1:1 and group health/nutrition/lifestyle coaching, personalized meal & exercise plans, & Lecture/Training on nutrition and chronic disease management.
I am most proud that I am able to be in the forefront of this global awakening that we are all experiencing, and that I have had obtained the skills, knowledge, discipline, and experience to assist those who are brave enough to heed the calls of change that is being asked of us to make.
What sets me apart from others, is that I have a unique skill set of knowledge on how the body works on cellular level, the artistic vision to create edible works of art that also functions as medicine, and the compassion and authenticity to inspire those around me to be the best they can be.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
The first memory that comes to mind is my middle school home economics we were put in groups of four for kitchen day. It was at the end of the semester. Our major project assignment was for us to collectively make a meal/dish together. Most of the other students did BASIC dishes, like pizza with store bought crust and sauce, or cookies. I was, like, NO! We are going to make a REAL meal! I assigned the menu to my group.
I snuck a whole frozen chicken out my mom’s freezer and took it on the bus and carried around until I could get in her class. I wouldn’t really call it sneaking if she wasn’t home when I left…
I was going to make fried chicken. I’ve watched my mom and grandma a 1000 times! Who knew chickens took HOURS to unthaw?? Who needs to PRACTICE cooking chicken?? I can’t remember everything that was on the menu, but I know I assigned mashed potatoes, green beans or corn and something else.
My teacher is trying to be kind and patient with me. She has me put the rock hard frozen bird in the sink. Which was like carrying a bowling ball around school, cuz that plastic bag I had didn’t make it past the bus stop. Mind you this is middle school, so the time between 1st period and 3rd period are not in the least enough for my poultry boulder to thaw.
Now I have watched my grandma hack through a chicken in 30 seconds flat. I knew that it shouldn’t take me more than a minute then, Right? WRONG!
If that bird wasn’t dead when I got it, it’s poor soul was definitely departed and would’ve haunted me if given the opportunity due to the pure carnage its carcass suffered. I had ZERO knife skills to begin with, using essentially a butter knife to cut through a half solid bird. The sight was not pretty at all! This class was a double period class and I barely got the bird cut by the end of class. My partners finished their dishes.
All of my other classmates had cooked and eaten theirs and my mutilated chicken scraps were just going in the oil.
How hot is grease supposed to be when you fry? Yeah, I was not quite sure of that either. So at first it was too cold, then it got too hot and started burning my chicken.
She let me stay during lunch to work on it. By this time, I look like I Love Lucy, in that scene were here and Ethel were in the chocolate factory and the ‘ish starts hitting the fan. Except I had no Ethel because my classmates had abandoned me to my own antics, and it was flour instead of chocolate.
I was so over my head, and I was cursing myself the whole time. By the time I finished I had the worst looking half cooked chicken in the world! Who knew chicken breast took that long to cook?? I sure didn’t! It was a hot mess. I can’t remember what grade I got. I like imagine that my teacher had mercy on me and gave an A for effort… Since I’ve seem to have forgotten that part it’s most likely that I didn’t get anywhere close to an A! LOL I do think that she ended up passing me, but that whole day was a fiasco from jump!
That has been the story of my life! Dream big, act without always having the best plan, and go all in or nothing. But the rewards have been that grace always prevails in my life at the end of the day. As I have gotten older, the dreams have not gotten any smaller, but I have gained a lot of wisdom, and my ability to make smarter plans has helped to a degree to minimize the chaos!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ChefEboniDionne.com
- Phone: 682-230-8774
- Email: ebonidionne@journey2dream.com
- Instagram: @ChefEboniDionne
- Facebook: @ChefEboniDionne
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