298 The TRUTH Behind the Restaurant Scene with 'The Best Chef in Toronto'
Doug McNish
Author of The Classics Veganized
Doug McNish is an internationally award-winning Executive Chef, Father, Husband, Passionate Vegan, Restaurant Consultant, best-selling Author, passionate educator, celebrated activist and pioneer of society’s plant-forward future with over two decades of expertise launching and developing successful businesses in the food industry.
In this episode, we chat about...
Getting your first kitchen job at 16 years old, loved the hustle
Addiction and the struggles of working in the industry
Your rock bottom at 20 years old
Working for many notable vegan restaurants, in hospitality, at resorts, etc.
Making the shift from Employee vs. Entrepreneur - how did you know it was time to step out and build your own brand?
Starting your own farmers market stand at Brickworks, rising in popularity, writing a book, open a public kitchen - and then reaching burnout and giving it all up
The Business You Have Today and What's CURRENTLY lighting you up?
Your health and self love journey - you know the value of feeling clear, healthy and vital in order to push forward in business!
The highs and lows of entrepreneurship & More
To connect with Doug:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You're listening to the visionary life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Reidl.
Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth, in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode. It's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us, you know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime, but perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down inside of you. It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in.Hey, visionaries. Welcome back to the podcast. today. I'm sitting down with someone who is so awesome, so vulnerable. So Real.
His name is Doug McNish, and you might know him because he's an internationally award winning executive chef. He's a passionate vegan who used to run a public kitchen in Toronto. He's also worked for many notable vegan restaurants. He's a best selling author. So you might have his raw and vegan cookbooks. He's a celebrated activist and pioneer of our plant forward future. He's currently working on some really exciting big projects. And my goodness, Doug magnet has served people like Drake and Rachel McAdams, and he is just awesome. He's been on a journey. So his childhood was not necessarily the best as he describes it. But when he got his first kitchen job at 15, or 16 years old, he kind of found his his thing he felt like he was at home and finally had an outlet that was nothing like his schooling. So he ended up dropping out of high school and went on this journey of being in the hospitality industry. Doug has suffered with addiction to painkillers he, you know, has been dealing with alcoholism, and recently quit drinking. But all along that journey, too. He's been pushing his career forward. He's been private cheffing he has been consulting, writing cookbooks, like has had such a notable career. And he actually was voted best chef at one point in Toronto, which is so badass. And his mission is to make veganism more accessible. So gosh, this podcast goes all over the place. Like we obviously talk about his early days in the kitchen and how he knew he wanted to devote his life to cooking and cheffing.One story that we don't share is how he went vegan. He actually was dating someone a long time ago who showed him a video and he just kind of flipped a switch and said, That's it like I'm done with this. But ultimately, Doug has had a very nonlinear career path, which I know so many of you can relate to. And he's kind of done a lot of things and has hustled and has had farm stands at the farmers market. He's opened his own restaurants before and served brunch at them. He has worked in hospitality and for a lot of Toronto's Best healthy plant based vegan restaurants. And ultimately, today, he is also on a self love Journey and really figuring out how to heal his inner child and uncover the layers of who he is at his core. Doug is super raw and real on Instagram. So I would encourage you to go follow him there. And this is really a story of navigating the highs and lows, but continuing to realize that life is a journey. And we're never done learning who we are at our core. And that is most important, not your career. Right. So I think you're gonna love this episode, we will put all of Doug's links in our show notes today. And yeah, I just can't wait for you to listen. So enjoy the episode visionaries. And we will see you on the other side.
Doug, welcome to the visionary life podcast. I was just sharing with you off air that your work has kind of been in my realm since attending the Canadian School of Natural nutrition and there's a huge PLANT BASE focused through that school and I know that's something that you have really carried through your entire career, however, to kickstart, I'd love to rewind the lens, go back to your teenage years and talk about one of your first jobs which you describe as feeling like I finally found something out
was passionate about I found my vocation when I got my first job in a kitchen. So can you kind of Rewind, give the listeners a little bit of context to what that felt like when you had that first job working in a kitchen?
Well, you know, it's funny because I was groomed to be a lawyer. My dad was a lawyer and a justice of the peace and I came from that world. But I started working in a restaurant, and I just, I felt at home, I just felt like, wow, this is where I meant to be. And I started excelling pretty quickly. And there was just this amazing feeling of, you know, starting with produce on the table, and whatever, you know, whatever. Have you reading a recipe, throwing it together, and then having someone taste that and enjoy it and love it and come back in the kitchen and say, Oh, my God, that was good.
It just resonated with my heart.
And I think you kind of described in a previous interview, like you were never really that great in school, and maybe the lawyer path never really called out to you. And I very much feel the same. Like I didn't do well in school. I, you know, came from a family of professionals. But for me, same story. Like when I first got my job in a kitchen, I was working at Moosewood new skis, I finally felt like, I'm active and like I'm stimulated, and there was just something about it that made me feel more alive than sitting reading a textbook. What was it about working in that environment that really resonated with you initially, you know, I've never been my whole life. I've never been the boy, the man, the guy that likes being told what to do. And, you know, saying, you're only going to be successful, if you're sitting in this seat for this amount of time, you have to do this work this way. And if you don't get this grade, you're not going anywhere. And this just didn't resonate with me. It didn't work for me. I mean, I came from an educated household. I, you know, Jeopardy was on every night, like I did the New York Times crossword when I was, you know, 678 years old. So it wasn't a matter of intelligence, it was just a matter of like, if I don't feel good today, or I don't want to do this today, why does that determine the rest of my life. And
the restaurant was just an outlet for me to be creative, to be able to season things to be able to cook them to be able to, you know, like I said, Turn a case of peppers into a sauce. It was just, it, there was so much creativity, so much fun. You know, you're just a young teenager, and you're with this motley crew of people of of, you know, various socio economic, various ethnicities, you know, you're working with people who have been in the business 20 years newbies, it's just this, this motley crew of sort of like pirates, if you will, and, and it's just fun, hard, scary sometimes. But at the end of service, when all the customers are happy, you just have this. Ah, I love that. And so, huh. And it's so cool, because I think careers like getting into the food industry or entrepreneurship, they really allow us to self Express and nurture that creative muscle, but oftentimes, our traditional education and going into more corporate jobs, we almost like shut that part of ourselves off, or we're not really told or trained how to tap into that and how to look at, you know, in your case, a fridge full of ingredients. And imagine what you could do like a lot of people feel stifled when they look in their fridge. And I just think it's such an important reminder that not everybody thrives under the same conditions. And that for some of us, exploring that creative muscle, whether it's one year 15, or 35, or 55, can feel so freeing, almost. And oftentimes, it does nudge us to want to pursue our own entrepreneurial path because we know we can be unlimited with that creative muscle. You know, I'm a big hip hop fan, and I follow Drake's crew. You know, Drake is arguably one of the most successful Canadian artists of all time. And Oliver khateeb is one of his crew. And he's a he's a creative guy. And he posted something on Instagram as a couple years back, and he got an award for the work he's done. And he basically just said, success isn't linear. And I responded, and he gave me dogs back and we actually do and a couple times back and forth, and but it's true. Success isn't linear. There's no like, this whole idea of get the family get the white picket fence. Life is not like that. Right? Maybe we can make life like that. And if that's what you want, if that's what makes your heart happy, go for it. For me, it's not what makes me happy, you know, and there's there's ups and downs, right? There's some years where you're gonna make a bunch of money, you're gonna feel great. There's some years you're like, shit, how do I pay the bill?
That's right, no matter where you are in life, like whether you're have 100,000 in the bank 100 million or $100, it's like that. So I think that's, that's really important for people to remember.
So true. And I like to you share that that can happen at any stage, right? Like, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, as people who are pursuing the creative path, sometimes we just have to be okay with the risk that comes from staying in business, right? Like, you might have had a very good year last year, that doesn't guarantee that everything's going to be status quo, you're not going to get the same paycheck year after year. That's just not how it works. There are ups there are downs there in betweens, and I think that's just like a, you know, a risk that we're okay incurring. And that's part of the journey, like you say, it's not linear, so you can't expect it to beso and you know, you add, the longer you do it, the more you understand that you'll be okay, right at the beginning, it's certainly scary as all heck. And it's, but the longer you do it, the more you get used to it, the more you're like, Okay, I'm down right now, next month, I'll be out. And I know that your journey has not been linear either. So kind of going back to your teenage years, your 20s, I know that the kitchen culture can promote some bad habits, the kitchen culture can push you to maybe drink more, smoke more, and maybe just pick up some unhealthy things that don't necessarily send you down a path of health. So I'm curious, can you just describe like what unfolded in the decade after you decided to start working in a kitchen and pursue that as your vocation? How did things go? Share some of the ups and downs that occurred? Yeah, well, you know, I know I know, a lot more at the age of 40 than I did at the age of 16. And, you know, cortisol, adrenaline, things like this, they they're spike, you know, it's a very high stress environment. And, you know, in health terms, that means high cortisol, high adrenaline, and not present, I didn't even know that word existed back then.
And so at the end of it all, you know, at the end of service, you want to chill out, and most people, you know, the business is changing now, thankfully, but most people, they don't know what to do. So they drink. And alcohol is is pushes away, the pain pushes away, that fear pushes away everything. It floods our brain with GABA, it makes us feel good in the moment.
But there's also a lot of downside to that. And I didn't understand that I didn't know that I had, you know, now I'm sort of dealing with it, I had a very traumatic childhood. And so coming home, you know, it felt good to be numbed. So it's sad, I learned how to drink really early, you know, at the age of 19, I could easily put back a 16 ounce of whiskey, and I would wash it down with a dozen beers. You know, and I am not proud of that. It's just, you know, it's my journey. And what happened to me.
And the restaurant business is a beast, the food business is a beast, it's all encompassing. Thankfully, it's changing now, a little, but it is a very, it's a very difficult business model to change in the long term. And I think one of the biggest issues is people need to get paid properly. And that comes down to food having to cost more, so we need to make more money. So it's this whole dichotomy of what do you do? You know, so?
Yeah. When did you get your first taste of entrepreneurship in this industry? Because sounds like when you started out, you were taking jobs working for other people, which is such a good way to build out your confidence and your career path. I'm curious, was there a moment that you felt like the light bulb kind of went off? And it was like, Oh, I'm gonna be in charge and do consulting or start the restaurant or, you know, when did you get that first little hit? That's a really good question. Um, I remember exactly when it happened. I was the executive chef of a wellness retreat and Bancroft, Ontario.
And
I was told that I was to, we were doing juice cleanses for people. And I was told that I had to remove all the seeds from all the apples
before juicing them because they were toxic or something I don't remember. And I didn't want to.
And I remember the owner who was my boss, you know, I had actually gotten requested to go on TV for the first time. And it was just this whole path of you know, she said to me, Doug, I think you should become self employed. You're very talented. It's obvious that you you want to carve your own path. I was staying there beautiful resort. You
Before area of Canada, I was with my then girlfriend, who is now my wife of 12 years, Candace. And I remember sitting out on the porch that night with her, and we were drinking some wine. I think.
I don't drink anymore. But we were, we were drinking some wine. And I said, You know what, Candice, I gotta do this. I don't. I don't, I think here what it takes. If I have to stand outside Kensington Market in Toronto and sell kale chips, that's what I'm going to do. And lo and behold,
I had a cookbook contract at that time. So I had my first cookbook contract already. I was writing it. And lo and so I guess it was six months later, I incorporated my first company and
I made kale chips in my apartment in Toronto, and
I was on my way, I didn't know what that meant. But I was on my way. So there was no like, elaborate business plan. Like you didn't write out all the financials and have this like crazy, you know, here's what the journey is gonna look like. It was like, I'm just gonna make kale chips and see if I can sell them period. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, there was a progression. There is a there's a high end hotel in Toronto called the Windsor arms Hotel. Celebrity hotspot, you know, Drake was there, Elton John Tommy Hilfiger. And what happened was, they were all traveling to the hotel. And they wanted vegan. And yeah, and the chef's at the hotel had no clue what that was. This is 2011. So we're going back, you know, 12 years now. And I was the guy, you know, to a certain degree, I still am. It's, there's, there's that little ego coming out.
And they contacted me to do a menu for them. So that helped. That was, you know, some revenue and but then the cookbook was coming out. And then I had an opportunity come to me to do the Brickworks farmers market.
And I took it. And I started with a six foot folding table, I'll never forget green shift delivered six cases of product, it was like $1,500, it was like the most I'd ever spent on something, you know, green packaging, because it was very important to me to be green. And I made almond Parmesan cheese, and I made tomato, raw tomato sauce. And I did it all out of my apartment at Queen and John, downtown Toronto, and started selling at the farmers market. And you know, one table turned into two to two tables turned into three, you know, one cooler product turns into two. And I did that for five years. And I think I wound up I had eight tables and 16 coolers. And I had a staff of I had a staff of four or five running that alone. And we were generating over a couple $1,000 a week. It wasn't it wasn't it was good, you know, right place right? Time was crushing it. Mm hmm. That's so cool to just imagine, like the journey of like, one table to two. And like you were literally just following kind of your gut at that point saying like, okay, there's obviously demand for this, where you also like starting to see your community build, you obviously had a group of strong supporters. But in thinking about who those customers were like, how were you gathering them? And what kind of community did you feel in that moment? Well, when I first got into it, you know, I've always been about it for the animals, but health has really always been paramount to me and who I am and what I believe in. And when I was younger, I had lost 100 pounds and going vegan and but also, you know, exercising and eating properly back then there wasn't beyond burgers and all this sort of process nonsense. So I was eating lentils and brown rice and kale, and doing smoothies and
2000 Well was when my first book came out, and it was raw, my first two cookbooks were all raw vegan, and so 2000s between 2010 and 2013
was the height of the raw movement. And we're just it was very in a niche and cool and you know, there was Julianos in LA and there was pure food and wine in New York and Matthew Kenney had always been someone I looked up to and Chad Sarno as well, I love those two, I think they're two of the most talented chefs in the world. And
I started doing my thing. You know, I started making burgers from sunflower seeds and carrots and raw ketchup and raw Big Mac sauce and raw pizza and tacos and and, again, this Farmers Market stacking them up on a table, you know, I'd have 50 boxes of kale chips stacked up 10 bucks a pop. And they were we sold everything. We sold everything. We had lineups going down to the back of the farmers market and I just couldn't effing believe it. And this is raw food, right and smoothies and
Um, so building a community and meeting people,
you know the Brickworks Farmers Market I'll always be grateful for because they really gave me a shot and allowed me to shine and do my thing.
And it was just a beautiful experience. And, you know, I'll never forget that it was just a slow, slow build, and, and just meeting people. And, you know, Rachel McAdams would come and just like, it was just cool. You know, you never know, you never know who you were gonna see and what you would experience and it was just, it was really awesome. You mentioned kind of being at the pulse of the raw food movement. And when that was trendy, how much do you attribute the growth in that period to right place, right time versus actually I just worked really effing hard. Like, do you ever think about the balance of that? Because you always hear like, well, you obviously have to, like, you know, take advantage of what's trending. But you weren't doing that strategically, you know? No, I didn't understand marketing. At that time. I didn't. I didn't know there was a market list still. No, I.
I loved raw food. I was first introduced to it. When I ran a restaurant downtown called live in Toronto, they're no longer in business.
But the magic that I tasted, and the health I experienced, eating that way really inspired me. And then I ran a fully raw food restaurant called Raw or in poor credit, Ontario, and it's still there. Shout out to Jimmy and hula.
But no, you know, it wasn't it wasn't just the raw food thing. It was also were the people, people were becoming more intelligent. And it was the height of the farmers market craves, people just really wanted hyperlocal they were sick of all this, you know, poisoned bullshit food, pardon my French. And so I was there, you know, here's this, you know, young, 29 year old chef, and
passion, right? Passion is everything, you can go somewhere. And you know, if the cooks making your food have passion, and I, when I tell you, you know, you hear these stories of people saying, I used to work 16 hours a day, I literally did that for years and years and years, I would get up at 230 in the morning, and start packaging kale chips. So we could go to the kitchen and pick up all the food at 430 in the morning, to be at the farmers market for 630 in the morning to set up. And, you know, so passion, and just this desire to to show the world that this food can be good. I think that was that was my motivating factor.
After your few years at the farmers market, you're probably getting a lot more opportunities because you're super visible at that point. What was like the next major milestone in your career? Was it opening your own public kitchen? Was it more cookbooks like share some of the things that actually started to unfold as that journey progressed? Hey, visionaries, are you an entrepreneur that started your business to feel the freedom that it can bring? I know, that's certainly one of the reasons the main drivers actually why I decided to take the leap, leave my corporate marketing management job and to start the visionary brand. So we start the business, we crave the freedom, but then we kind of get bogged down in things like too much responsibility, and we have decision paralysis. And it's really challenging to figure out where to put your time and energy and how to not stay up all night, worrying about your marketing worrying about whether this business is ever going to feel easy and take off. Well, what if we told you that you could enrich your weeks and your days with a community of devoted passionate, impact driven and health and lifestyle anchored entrepreneurs, like you don't want to just build a massive company that supports you financially and that supports your well being. You also want to do it in a way that supports being your best self feeling healthy being around people who are like minded with shared values. I know for me that eating well and making sure I'm accountable to my workouts and being around amazing driven positive women who lift me up and cheer me on rather than bring me backwards. It has been essential to my success. Over the last seven years, I've gone through phases where I felt lonely and disconnected. And I can tell you that those have been the worst months in my business. So that's where we want to talk about the mastermind presented by the visionary method and the magnetic life. So my business partner Emily Elliott is a certified mindset and success coach and myself being a professional marketing coach. We've collaborated and we've created what we believe is the top mastermind for female entrepreneurs like yourself, if you are feeling a strong
long call for connection and you want accountability to get through your launches and to make sure your marketing plan is on track and you want to space to ask questions about hiring virtual assistants and knowing when the right time is to launch that next offer versus scale your existing one, you're definitely going to want to be part of this group, it is weekly elevation, we are calling you forward to your highest version of your CEO self. But we're also going to be there for you through the lows and the challenges. Maybe you're a new mom, maybe you are going through some sort of relationship struggles, you know, this is a place to be your full self. We are not just entrepreneurs in silos who just work like workhorses all day, we have stuff going on. And let's make a space where that's accepted. And let's make a space where we challenge each other, to be better both in and outside of our office. If you are interested in applying this as a very intimate small group, head to Kelsey rydell.com/mastermind. Or you can just head to Kelsey rattle.com and click the coaching drop down, we would love to have you apply, I'll jump on a call with you give you the full overview of what this space is like we meet every single week, and we cannot wait to see your application come through. Yeah, with the farmers market, it got to a ceiling where I couldn't do anything else. I was renting kitchen space from other people. So I embarked on a journey and I opened public kitchen in 2013. And it was a I didn't know anything. Business really i i was scared shitless to be honest.
And it was an amazing five years. I was an amazing five years. My first cookbook, by that time had one best Vegan Cookbook in the world. So that gave me some recognition. I started doing more television, more local television in Toronto, and in Canada. And then I got a second cookbook deal. And then I started doing more consulting,
developing menus for hotels, other restaurants. And
public kitchen was a beautiful thing. It really was. And you know, we built this Sunday brunch, that just you know will always be in my heart and all the people I used to go out and see and just shoot the shit with and just talk to us. It was an amazing thing. Did I ever make a damn dollar note? I paid myself $30,000 A year and I broke even or no, I lost money. But you know, I learned a lot. And I will never forget that time.
And you know, in 2018 it was just my first son had been born. My first son, my only son had been born and he was a young guy. I never saw him. I never saw my wife, I had put on a ton of weight. I wasn't in a good place. You know, I helped open another restaurant, I had just one best chef in Toronto, there was all these beautiful things on the outside. But on the inside, I was a hurt soul. And I needed to close public kitchen and that point in my life, I just had to and started doing a bit of work on myself. So that's how that those next five years went. Did you know what your next kind of career project was going to be? Or did you just know that like, this was not sustainable? It was almost like that visceral feeling of I am unwell. And if I keep doing this things are going to end poorly. I will figure it out moving forward. I remember walking down the street one day and I was texting with my wife and my heart wasn't beating right. And it was like the stress and the like i i mean i did i people say they don't take a vacation. I think I might have taken one or two weeks off and about seven years. But other than one or two weeks off, I went seven years no one stop and it wasn't sustainable. Um, you know, I had this amazing opportunity in downtown Toronto, a restaurant called mythology, we had a four hour waitlist. It was it was, you know, the hottest restaurant in the city.
But, and like I said, I had been one best chef in Toronto. But I was missing something inside and I took some time to myself. I took a course called Light reboot with a friend called Kimberly Carol. And it taught me about vulnerability and meditation and sort of, you know, finding yourself again, you spend seven years developing this character and this persona, and
it's not who I wanted to be, you know, it didn't feel authentic. So did the course took some time really went deep into meditation. And you know, I guess as it stands today, five years later, that was just the tip of the iceberg. I thought I was healing myself already. Oh yeah, I'm good. I can meditate now. Yeah. But that was just the tip of the iceberg back then. So no, I had no idea what was next on
I'm
no idea what was next I just let it go, I let it go into the universe. See what what happened. There's definitely this part of entrepreneurship that is like the journey of self discovery and like, deprogramming yourself in order to become the most like pure actualized version. It's like, what are all of the things that I've just like layered onto myself in the first 20 or 30 years of my life that now I'm trying to like, strip back and be like, who am I and it is interesting, in a way, and I hear this a lot through the podcast and the guests that we interview, it's like, the journey of professional development is only as quick as your journey of personal development. And sometimes when they're misaligned, you just like you have to slide back. So yeah, it's always fascinating to hear business owners say like, sometimes it boils down to the personal journey, because that directly impacts where you're going next in your career. And that work never ends. Like, once you start it, you're just constantly unlearning the habits that you've maybe picked up or really just on this never ending journey of like, who am I and what am I here to do? Or who do I want to be? Where were you seven years ago? Kelsey, I needed to hear that seven years ago? Yeah.
No, it's true words of wisdom. Yeah. And I think it's something that we all learn whether it's through like a rock bottom moment, or just like an epiphany in our life that like when you feel that stuckness, that stagnancy, it's time to hold the mirror up to yourself and be like, what's going on here, it's like, you know, I'm not gonna ever make more money or impact more lives or be able to express my vision. If something is like, truly, I don't know what the word is misaligned, or blocked or just, you know, energetically, you're ignoring it. Yeah. Or bad feeling. Yeah. What are some of the like, I know, you mentioned meditation and taking a course. And I know, you're very passionate about health and wellness, and taking care of yourself, what are some of the rituals and routines that over the past five years you have prioritized, and that have actually made a really big impact and keeping you well and motivated?
Well, you know, the last five years of my life have been interesting, tricky, challenging. Um, I would say that I did make some changes.
But at the same time, I didn't make changes. And, you know, as I sit here now, doing this interview with you on Thursday, August 3 2023, it's actually only been of recent, where I've sort of come to terms and I guess it's like, you're coming to God moment, in a way. And just saying, like, well, what's going on?
You know, I moved to the United States from Canada, the end of 2022, November 2022. And
I was just suffering, and I didn't even know I was binge eating. I've been a binge drinker my whole life, I don't think that's really ever been not been a thing, I definitely wouldn't classify myself an alcoholic in any way, shape, or form. But, um, you know, my relationship with alcohol has always been 15 Drinks not to, um, you know, like, down eight beers, and then three shots of vodka, smoke a joint. And that's not healthy. And, you know, but I think that the last five years have taught me, I've started to teach me some of the lessons.
And,
you know, march 6 of this year, I was diagnosed with diabetes, type two.
And, you know, in February, here, here in the States, I suppose my ankles were hurting my joints, it wasn't sleeping, my skin was awful. And, you know, you always say, Well, this well, that there's always an excuse. At least there was for me, well, it's this and it's bad. And and I'll start tomorrow. And March 6, my doctor emailed me the results, and I, I couldn't fucking believe it. I couldn't believe it. Like, I sat here in shock and I cried.
Having said that, that's what I needed.
I'm the type of guy who has had to learn the hard way. Many times. I believe God, the universe, whatever entity you believe in, they, you might not look like what they give you, but it's there for your own benefit, you know, and it was that day that I decided to start making a change. And
so now work working out is a non negotiable. Getting my steps in non negotiable laughing smiling, dancing, non negotiable, journaling, meditation, presence aware
fairness, and you know, just trying to be good and do good. And there's always bad in this world, right? We always have to remember that there's always bad turn on the news. It's the first thing you see, it's the thing that sells, right social media, same thing. It's the thing that sells.
But really just trying to look at the good as best as I can. And that doesn't mean I'm gonna go live on a mountain and you know, and live in Koreatown, but kudos to those that do because you know, I'm not judging. I'm just trying to do the best I can now. And,
you know, since March 6, I've lost 6263 pounds, and wow, yeah, I'm on my way to losing 100 pounds this year, and just putting on a ton of muscle, and I'm just trying to heal that little boy inside of me. I think that's also the next step of my journey.
Well, first off, congratulations on the journey and and, you know, embracing what could be a devastating news, but also then saying, This is what I needed to hear to make necessary changes, I think sometimes it is those moments that our eyes become wide open. And we're like, Okay, this is the moment that I'm going to make a change and figure something out. And so it was like your life flashes before your eyes, which can be really scary, especially when you have a family. And it's beyond just you. I'm curious, in making these health changes, how has that impacted your drive towards your work? Have you noticed any correlation as you've made these changes, healthwise, to just like the way you show up as an entrepreneur as a consultant, in any way? Yeah, I mean, I think,
you know, when you focus on your nutrition and your sleep and your water intake and your mindfulness, you're more alert.
You know, you're not tired. Sorry, I was tired. And so you know, you're, I definitely can handle more more at once.
In terms of presence, yeah. I mean, I try not, I try to really do my best to listen not to respond. But really to try and hear what the other person has to say. Especially in business. I think that's one of the most important things we can do I, I actually find it very difficult now to sit in a business meeting with someone who's on Instagram, on their bank accounts, you know, doing that, while I'm talking to them. I've actually made it a practice. Now, if I see that, I stopped talking. No, yeah. So yeah, so generally speaking, just overall, it's much better. And I'm super grateful for that.
So kind of fast forwarding to where you're at today. So you're doing media, you're doing brand collabs, you have options for menu and kitchen design consulting on your website. I'm curious out of all these projects, like what is something that's currently lighting you up? What's exciting for you these days to pour into, give us a snapshot of what you're up to these days? Yeah, I'm a bit of an anomaly in a sense that I do many different things. And I have a lot of skill sets. I've built up sort of this entrepreneurial mind that you know, believes it understands business and that part of the world. So I do restaurant consulting, and that's either private or with someone and we market together. Last summer of 2022. I did that for the restaurant in the Cayman Islands, called the Edgy Veg. Yeah, so that was really challenging, really cool opening up in the Cayman Islands. I'm, I'm currently part of one in Charleston, South Carolina called neon Tiger. I'm currently part of a group in Canada called Aviva restaurants.
And I have some of the things that I work on to privately but the biggest thing I'm working on right now actually, that is super exciting is I'm a finalist in a competition called XPRIZE.
Two years ago, we submitted an application to create either the world's next piece of plant based chicken or fish. We were shortlisted to the top 35. We got a $10,000 grant. We went to town for a year and a half, working on developing this piece of plant based fish. Originally, we were doing herring.
And in April of this year, I was meditating, I finished my meditation, I opened my email, and
it said, you're a finalist. We were like holy shit. So we got a pretty good chunk of money to scale this up. And we have a chance of winning. There's only six teams left. We're Yeah, we're working on a whole cut piece of whitefish. What's cool about this is it has to be nutritionally equivalent price parity, and even better for the environment than than traditional fish. So that's what's keeping me pretty busy these days.
But yeah, I do a whole bunch of stuff too, but extra
is really is, you know, July of 2024 is the finals and top prize is $7 million. Holy crap that could be game changing, like that's insane and to be even in the top six like that is an accomplishment in itself, I can imagine just how proud you feel already. But looking at what's possible in the next year or so is pretty exciting, obviously keeping you very motivated. For sure, for sure. I'm worried dancing it really well, the fishes. You know, I can't say much. I'm under NDA and all that sort of stuff. But it's advancing really well. It's tasty.
As we kind of wrap up here, I'd love to just ask you a couple questions about your entrepreneurial personality type and the motivation there. I know you say you're always trying to improve as a human trying to get better at life and business and relationships. So I'm curious, is there a skill right now that you're currently focused on up leveling or cultivating for the first time? I think myself, I think that when you're when you're overweight, as much as I was, I was 100 pounds overweight, and you use food and alcohol to push away the feelings.
You don't love yourself. And I think loving myself has to come first. And, you know,
loving myself, how can you love anyone else if you don't love yourself first. And that's something that's come to me recently, and I'm sticking with that feeling. And I'm continuing to honor and nurturing as best I can.
That can be such a wake up call for some people who, when they think do I love myself? And then you say like, No, when you're eating to comfort yourself, or binge drinking, like you're just adding a buffer between you and self love and saying, Nope, not today. Build up the wall, grabbed me the buffer and like, let's just numb the situation. What are some of the things that you found to be most impactful for loving yourself or supporting yourself through learning to love yourself? No, well, I'm still really this is really As of recording. I'm only a couple of weeks into it to be on. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So it's telling myself every morning I love myself, grin to myself, you know, praying to God, whatever God is to you. Right? It could be the Christian god of version of God, the universe source, whatever it is, I think, understanding that, you know, we're all in this together all of us and not in the COVID sense, but literally, we're all in this together as human beings. And I think, you know, vulnerability is huge, huge. As a man. I was never taught that, you know, I was taught Don't Don't cry, what are you doing? Don't cry, hold it in. And you know, I'm gonna swear, but that shit, right? Don't hold it in. So I've cried every day for the last two weeks, and you know, it's getting easier. It's getting easier and easier and easier. So vulnerability and just practice, practice. Like you want big muscles, you want big shoulder muscles, you train the muscles, right? You want to be vulnerable. You want to love yourself, practice.
Such good advice. So to get advice. Final question here. I know that you know, you're not shy about investing in yourself and like bettering yourself. Is there something that you can think of over the last 10 years? 20 years? That has been one of the best investments you've made in yourself as a human being and what was that?
That is a great question.
Exercise. Oh, like the time spent on exercise, or is it the money for a gym membership or something? You don't need a gym membership. Yeah, you don't you don't need a gym membership. Exercises like this. At the beginning. It sucks. It's hard. You don't know what you're doing. It hurts your last. But consistency, consistency consistency. Even if you can only do two push ups or one pushup or none. Maybe you need to do push ups on your knees to start. Start that way. Go slow build it up. This morning. I walked I worked out. I banged off 20 Push ups on the sidewalk in front of the neighbor's kid. Love it. I couldn't even do one pushup six months ago. So
for me, exercise I have to do it. It's cathartic. It gets all this like get out of my head into my body. And for the rest of the day. I'm good to go and you know never again well I sacrifice I now booked my life and my meetings around my exercise. If someone's not available, too bad. That's my exercise time.
Oh, that is such a hot tip to like book your essentials first that take care of you and build your work schedule around rather than opening up your every day and just saying oh okay, you can fill my calendar however you want and if I have time to go to the gym then I will I like I really think we need to reverse it.
and like put in those non negotiables, whether it's an hour or 30 minutes, this is me time. Nobody ever gets the block from eight to 9am, or whatever you need to do. All of us can find an hour. All of us. I was just scrolling on Instagram a couple months ago, like what am I just spent 45 minutes scrolling on Instagram should be downstairs doing push ups. Amen. Yeah, all of us can find an hour, you know, it's just a matter of starting, and going slow, taking it slow. And before you know it before, you know what you're lifting heavier, your muscles are coming in, and you just, your mental clarity is just boom, you feel great. Yeah, and starting in any journey can be challenging. Entrepreneurship is hard. I know you've said that many times and are very vocal about it. For somebody listening, as we close out here who is feeling like they're in a hard season of business? And I'm sure you've been through them too. Do you have any advice? Or what would you share to somebody who's just in like, the depths of feeling like nothing is working? This feels hard. I don't know when this is going to end. Everything is temporary. The pain, the pleasure, what we consider to be what we label as human beings is bad. What we label is good. It's all temporary, all of it. So yeah, it sucks when you're in it. Right? I'm actually in something right now, too. And it, I'm having to bring myself back to presence all day, every day. Yeah. But I know, I know that next month is going to be different. And the month after that it's going to be different. And so it's temporary. It's not forever. And the last thing is remember that those times when we have to struggle, those times when we don't have enough money, or you know, we think we're not enough, that's when we have the ability to learn the absolute most we don't learn when everything's okay. We don't learn when we have an extra 10 grand, we learn when we're 10 grand down, right? And the people are like, well, you pay me right and you just you you find a way, whether it's cutting out Starbucks coffee, or canceling Netflix or buying conventional lentils over organic lens, like whatever it is you need to do. Do during that time. And you know, it's not forever. I got a great piece of advice a long time ago, and it was go sort of like, live like no one will live for a short time. So you can live like no one will ever live for the rest of your life. And I did that a couple years. I lived on 800 bucks a month. And it was it was hard, man. It was hard. But all these years later, you know,
I'm making a lot more than $800 a month.
Yep. So it's the short term sacrifice sometimes, but having the long term vision of like, what's this all for? Right? Yeah.
So good. Well, Doug, thank you so much for sharing your journey and for just opening cracking open with us wide open. Really, we really appreciate the vulnerability and just sharing the realness of entrepreneurship. I think all of us can benefit from hearing more stories like that and just knowing that we're not alone. So where can people find out about your work? And where can they connect with you if they want to touch base right away? Leave us with all the links. Yeah, I'm I'm active on Instagram. So everything I do is my name is Doug McNish. I'm really active on Instagram. That's my favorite platform. LinkedIn, Doug McNish.
I do not do Facebook anymore. Twitter it or as it's called now, x. I know.
Once a month, I send a tweet out I don't know I love Twitter. When I first started, that was my jam. But now once a month, they tweet. My website is done. maintenance.com. But really, Instagram and LinkedIn are the two platforms I use the most. And I'm pretty responsive. If anyone ever has a question about anything, I'm happy to share what I can. Amazing. We will link all of that in the show notes and to all your work and your cookbook. So thank you so much, Doug, for being on the show. And we wish you all the best. Thank you my friend. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of visionary life. I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis. So it would mean so much to me. If you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either iTunes or Spotify. It just takes a second. And if you don't want to rate the show, you can also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice. tagging me at Kelsey rival. I'll catch you in the next episode. Hey, visionary, I want to quickly interrupt this episode to ask you if you've been curious what it's like to work with a private business and marketing coach. If you're a business owner and you feel like your marketing plan is all over the place. You haven't figured out your search engine optimization or your SEO strategy. You have no idea what your social media marketing plan is, and you are not doing so well on the self Express content fronts. I call these the marketing trio. It's the three S's
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