Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sabrina Falquier, founder, and CEO of Sensations Salud, located in San Diego, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Sensations Salud, LLC is all about empowering in both English and Spanish. I focus on awakening the senses around ingredient acquisition and food preparation while empowering people to better health through nutritional knowledge and culinary literacy. I do this work in varied settings, including hands-on culinary events, cooking demonstrations, recipe creating, and speaking engagements.

My customers are incredibly varied, and I love that. I educate medical students, health professionals, athletes, food service professionals, community members, wellness retreat guests, and employees for large and small companies.

Tell us about yourself

I am Sabrina A. Falquier, MD, CCMS, a board-certified internal medicine, and culinary medicine physician. I am bilingual and multicultural, born and raised in Mexico City to Swiss and American parents. This lens has shaped my work tremendously - knowing that our unique background, culture, taste, cultural experience, and historic expectations shape our health tremendously. I was a primary care doctor at a large multi-specialty medical group in San Diego, California, for almost 16 years and in 2021 stepped into culinary medicine consulting fully. I felt my passion and desire to permeate culinary medicine further was so great that it needed to have my full attention.

I am motivated regularly by seeing the joy and enjoyment and 'aha' moments when people gain culinary literacy, no matter the stage of life. I love the pleasure on people's faces as they realize that from their hands, they have created delicious meals that are fantastic for their bodies. I love people seeing that 'healthy' doesn't mean sterile or boring food. I love seeing the full arc of learning and discussion that takes place while gathering ingredients, cooking together, and sharing a meal around a large table.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

When I learned about culinary medicine in 2016, I was struck with the concept of bridging the silos within healthcare: the silos of doctor, dietician, chef, and health coach, to name a few. And I now am living in that space of working in a community with all of these entities and providing space of empowerment and health promotion throughout the healthcare system and in varied communities. I am seeing my vision of primary care providers truly taking place in a space of empowerment. I love to be a part of an international community that is like-minded. And I am incredibly proud of playing a role in creating a sense of community within culinary medicine.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

The hardest piece initially was trusting myself to take the leap of faith to leave the 'comforts' of the known: the known paycheck, the security of working for a known medical group, the safety of doing what I had gone to school for from age 3 to age 30. And then knowing that it was time to leap. I was ready and yet not ready because...whoever is ready to leap into the unknown.

The hardest part over the first six months was finding who I was without the doctor's white coat, without my office, and without the medical group name behind me. I felt naked and vulnerable - yet - even in the times of most uncertainty, I knew, and still know, that I was on the right track. I continue to learn that all business skills are learnable skills. I am a well-established doctor. I have culinary medicine expertise under my belt. I have the experience. I have found my voice in this new space. I have an ever-increasing network. With all of that under my skin, I enter each day (well...most days) with my head high and ready to take the steps needed for that very day.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Ask: Keep asking questions. Always.
  2. Act: Don't wait until you have it all figured out before getting started or getting your work out into the world. It is so easy to procrastinate and keep editing...everything...from something tiny, such as a social media post, to a proposal, article, or presentation. Give yourself deadlines - even small daily ones - such as: 'I will spend one hour on this, max' - set a timer, finish, turn in, and then be done with it. Out into the world is better than tucked away endlessly waiting for 'the perfect version.'
  3. Ground Yourself: Remember what grounds you and keep doing it regularly. For me, it is my early morning routine of meditating for 20-30 minutes and journaling for 30 minutes. If I skip a couple of days, I start feeling off. Some days the time I spend on this is shorter - yet, I still show up and do it. So, consistency and grace on this grounding piece, just like with all aspects of this entrepreneurial journey.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

There are no 'shoulds.' Let yourself have a space where you can listen to your gut, your inner voice, your intuition - whichever term feels right for you. There is a lot of noise and voices in the world that are bombarding us regularly. It is really easy to feel we 'should' do something with our lives or stay a course because that's what we said we would do when we were 20, or 15, or any age. Or because we are making people around us proud, or life feels 'fine,' or you've checked all the boxes of what you 'should' accomplish in your lives. If you feel pulled towards something - play with that, and explore. Let yourself see what that pull is about. Perhaps it will lead you on a gorgeous unknown life journey, as it has for me. Is it always easy? Not at all. Yet I can tell you that I feel alive and in the driver's seat of this one precious life.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.sensationssalud.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sensationssalud/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sensationssalud/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sensationssalud
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/38d76OQ

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.