Soup Therapy

Soup…that was my vice. I’d venture to say that it was my meditation. When life got crazy, I grabbed a handful of veggies, bottles of spices and a vat of liquid and went at it. No matter what chaos ensued at home, I focused on soup therapy and stirred my way to calm. That is the truth.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many nights I spent souping once I moved back in with my parents but it was a lot. So much so that I ended up making more than we could manage to eat, refrigerate, or freeze. Still, I didn’t stop. Instead, I began delivering. For weeks I’d show up at my family’s doors with my meditation in a bowl. I traded my soup for their adult conversation full of strength, positivity, and support. I needed it and them, and they knew it.

Truthfully, it impacted all of us. Fair or not, I relied heavily on them to help me find my next step and they handled it beautifully. Constantly walking the delicate line between offering guidance and becoming a crutch with ease. I knew I had a solution based family, but how they handled this was remarkable. Beyond a brief recap, we never spent a moment, dwelling on my domestic abuse past. I was in counseling for that. Instead, we focused forward and as a result, they came up with my perfect solution, starting a soup company.

Now, some of you might find the idea irrationally huge considering what I had just gone through. However, I didn’t. I thought, leaving my abusive significant other (SO for short) was huge, becoming a single mom to 4 babies overnight was huge, but being gifted a solution to never be there again, was freedom. Freedom in the form of independence, monetary stability, personal growth, and responsibility to guide my own life. They, my family, established my plan for freedom.

From that moment forward, I immersed myself into the entrepreneurial world focusing all of my attention on my new business venture, owning a soup company. With little experience and tremendous drive I quickly learned the how to’s, networked, found rental space, picked up used items, and borrowed family help for preparations. Then, March 24, 2013, 5 months after I left my abusive SO, I officially announced my spot in the local farmers market as, V-lish Vegan Soup Company.

With little money to invest upfront and no extra hands on deck, my rockstar family stepped in yet again to volunteer. Despite having busy lives of their own, they filled in the all major supportive roles: employee, babysitter, investor, and confidant until my business was up and running successfully, which didn’t take long. About a year in, I was able to find a more appropriate location and pay my employees. In the blink of an eye, V-lish was a known local brand. We were selling in the major markets and festivals, preparing food for health food stores and colleges, and collaborating on brand condiments for restaurants. It was incredible! I successfully souped my way to freedom.

Though years later, I gladly failed out of the business, I’ve never forgotten the true freedom I gained from the experience and the drive it took to accomplish it. I mean it when I say, I worked that goal with a fixed discipline and drive so intense it wasn’t until I looked back years later that I realized I hadn’t looked back at all.