 Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Stepping Up. I'm your host, Daniel Dubois. This week, we continue to feature young St. Lucians who run their own businesses. As a matter of fact, families who run their own small business in the communities where they reside. This week, we feature two young individuals from Cicero who have used their talents and passion to make a living and to touch the lives of various persons in their communities. Kadeen Severin was born and raised in Cicero castries and is the owner of All You Need and Andes. After growing an interest in culinary, she attained an associate's degree in food preparation at Sal CC after working in the industry for a few months. The pastry aspect intrigued her so much that she decided to further her education at Johnson's and Wales University in Miami where she received an associate's degree and degree in pastry and food management. She returned home and All You Need was created. Four years later, she's launched Andes, the savory sister, and she can't wait to see what will happen and what love and vibe it brings. We went out to meet K this week. Let's take a look at the interview. Thank you so much for saying yes. So I'm going to allow you to introduce yourself and let the audience know a little bit more about you. I am Kadeen also known as K. I own All You Need and most recently Andes, which is right behind us. I am in the field of culinary arts and pastry, so that's basically what our businesses do and that's basically it. If you saw the photo shoot, I was like, this girl is my spiritual sister because it was just like, you could see that, you know, thinking in the same vein as everybody else. It was just so different and deliberate and in your work, you know, I'm your biggest fan. I've been following you from since when you went to Sa'afa together and she did the hospitality program and now you should see her cake. So let's talk about All You Need first and let's talk about, I know you went to a really good school overseas. So let's talk about your education and how you decided to open All You Need. I wouldn't say I specifically decided to open All You Need because it just happened. Someone asked for a cake while I was on vacation from university and I just started making cakes, the wood spread and when I eventually came back home, my mom said just put a name to it and just get it done because we're already in the business. So that's basically how it started. I always wanted something with a simple name, maybe like need or bread or butter and then when I spoke about need, my mom came up with the rest of the name All You Need. And it's genius and the need is K-N-E-A-D as in for need. We also want to expand eventually so anything we put into it, it comes under all you need because you can do cake classes, bartending, anything because it's still ties in with the name. Right, so you talk about expansion, I see you have your nice little rustic little booth behind us, can't wait to taste the food. So let's talk about the expansion to Andes. The expansion to Andes happened because I have always dreamt of having a café so that's my, well what I could afford right now, that's what I could afford right now, humble beginnings. So I believe that you just start where you are, you do what you can. So my dad came up with the vision to build it and he designed it, he came up with the concept, he built it with a few of his workers and the name Andes is after my grandfather, my father's father and he always cared about rustic food, fresh food, fresh Caribbean food and I still wanted to make it fancy because that's how I am and I still wanted, I didn't want the environment or the area to depict how the food should look because people seem to think that because of the area that we're in, the food should just be the standard you know bacon, soul fish or cocoa tea or just a bread and ham or something. We can still do that but we can also do other frontier things that you would see, you would think that you can only find up north already be a copy set but you can get it here as well. And I think the vision to think outside of the box and bring gourmet food, really good food, I'm talking about chicken wings and waffles, it's okay as we wrap up, I know that your parents were very instrumental in helping you and just right across the road you also have your cousin Devon. So let's talk about the genesis of that family business and your dad you said is a woodmaker and a builder so you could see from the rustic and even your house is so artistic as well and the gym so let's talk about the collaboration of family and background in the community as well. Everyone knows my family is very close, everywhere I go my mom, you will see my mom behind me at the front of me somewhere. So it's a family business and I've always wanted to keep it that way that's that's who I trust and I feel like there's there's someone in my family that can do everything there's there's someone for everything that we need so my father is a builder he's an architect he does all the building my mom is more of the personality I'm not everyone is I'm not the friendliest I don't have the sweetest personality I'm kind of to myself so my mom takes care of the customer she does she delivers the orders etc etc and my cousin is into fitness so it's just a circle a small circle right now that we're hoping to build up it's it's what we want and it's what is what we're trying our best to do because we're very very close-knit family my parents are retired someone has to do the work I don't think it should be my parents must be so happy yeah so happy to do everything together I mean my cousin and I are the last to left so someone has to do my parents can't do the work anymore I'm happy that you have that support with your family and everything but a lot of entrepreneurs their stories and they walk does not revolve around getting so much support from family so what do you have to say because I'm sure when you went to study and come back all of this was probably just like I don't know if it was ever in the plan no but what do you have to say to young persons like me and anybody who's interested in picking up their passion and trying to make it a viable living what's your message for young persons I tell everyone just start because I feel like that was my my era with a lot of my life I'm a deep thinker I'm an over thinker I write everything down I need to know where is this going how do I do this before I start something so when all units started it was completely out of the blue I never planned for it it just happened so it was rough for me because I need I need to know everything I want to know where is this going how is this going I'm gonna make it money this and that but it just happened and it's been a great success so I would just say don't wait for all your ducks to be married that's never going to happen to this day there are so many things that I wanted and I still don't have it things that I felt like I needed before I would start a business I still don't have it but the business is very successful and you will you will get supported along the way my support is endless I get support from a lot of strangers the the strangest people will just come up to me telling me they follow the page people call me all the time asking for ideas or asking for help if a cake and that's what I wanted because that's not what I received at the beginning so it's very easy for me to assist and I know people feel like maybe they might not get the support but they'd be surprised to realize you really actually just have to start you just have to start if you have one cake mixer cake pan do the cake for your your sister your aunts so much it will it will it will happen it just takes time and another part of it too um okay there's so much artistry in your cakes and the way you go about doing it I can imagine the hours and the time you put behind it so that's a skill because my mom isn't a cake still but it's just the artistry and the time and the patience and it takes a lot to do that type of work you know so I just want to say kudos to you thank you for allowing us to enter your space today and let's know what's what's on the menu at Andy's on Andy's today well this morning we sold that pretty early I know a lot of people were upset we had chicken and waffles so it was honey glazed chicken with waffles and we also had blueberry pancakes with a citrus blueberry sauce we had what else we had we had a classic bacon salt fish with cucumber I can't even remember we had french toast with berry compote and I think that we had muffins as well what's compote again compote is basically just a fancy word for jam just a fancy word it's jam things like that keep you make people coming the authenticity behind it the realness the honesty behind it so I'm saying like yeah I'm gonna definitely come for chicken and waffles next week so what do you have for lunch for lunch we have classic sauce that's our biggest seller right now we also have coconut curry shrimp we have chicken and dumplings that's another classic that my mom is doing um what else do we have we have grilled fish and we have guava barbecue wings that's another classic that we have as well so yeah that's basically it we're just trying to make basic food fancy yeah not basic but allowing people because sometimes you know because not all the time you have money you say but not all the time you want to go up north for food right not all the time like there's this new place this joint in and Kaldisar the ribs is like amazing delicious it's not too expensive so it's nice that we could start to decentralize our food options and opportunities so thank you very much for that you're welcome thanks for having me all the best and I can't wait I'm gonna need some sauce COVID-19 is a new pandemic disease as declared by the world health organization it is transmitted directly by respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes or indirectly through rubbing the face with contaminated hands there is still no specific treatment or vaccine against COVID-19 and as such the farming community should adhere to some special recommendations limit the number of crew members to only essential persons practice frequent hand washing and cleaning of all boat surfaces limit contact with the public keeping a safe distance between each person limit unnecessary conversation with customers and pairs during the sale of fish wash hands frequently with soap and running water or use 60 to 95% alcohol-based hand sanitizer until water and soap are available sneeze and cough in a flexed elbow or into a tissue immediately discarding the used tissue into a bin and wash hands with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer until soap and water is available and avoid close contact with persons having respiratory symptoms more than ever before your important role as gatekeepers of Saint Lucia's nutritional health and food security should be taken seriously when you exercise these precautions you not only safeguard your health but also continue to allow all Saint Lucia's access to freshly caught fish and other seafood remember it is our responsibility to ensure our nation eats fresh Saint Lucia's best thank you so much k and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors Devon Brown is the owner of No Pain No Gain Fitness an up-and-coming fitness establishment located in Cicero the community where he was raised he's also case cousin following his graduation from the Sahara Simmons Secondary School Devon discovered two of his passions motorcycles and fitness he was able to build gym equipment out of welded strap iron as he explored the complexity of human physique his motorcycle gave him the adrenaline he craved while teaching him the importance of airing on the side of caution no pain no gain fitness has evolved into an entity that encourages individuals to be their best physical self while serving the wider community through its lift foundation an arm of the NPNG fit that aims to empower disadvantaged groups let's take some time to look at the interview i'll allow you to introduce yourself to the audience yes people always get my name twisted but yes i am Devon Brown i am the gym instructor and gym owner and also the CEO of lift foundation right so i know that you're in charge of the gym you know i know that you do an amazing job as a fitness instructor let's focus on the lift foundation what exactly is that let's let us know a little bit more about that lift foundation is very new first of the block um it is coming from my heart of me wanting to help and to give back to my neighboring communities you know and um you know people come and support the gym now you find the very same mothers and fathers and teachers and doctors that come to the gym you know we we want to help their kids especially in that time like now so we always try to give packages to them you know equipped with school stuff for them and we've done quite a number of schools like this is our primary you know and slurry primary and this is all right so your focus is to support schools i guess from vulnerable communities yes with um supplies for them to be able to to get their education yes right so about how long how how how old are you guys since you say that it's um relatively new the foundation yeah this year you know this year nice this year nice this year okay good well i wish you all the best in that and i hope that you could hopefully reach a nationwide audience with what you guys want to do but let's talk about no pain no gain now we stand in this amazing space it's this wooden it looked like something out of the 80s or 90s i don't know how to describe it but talk about the location of the gym and let's talk about how it all started the gym is located in Cicero um beautiful location in spite of some of the things you might hear people saying is a wonderful area we have this the Cicero primary school which is opposite the gym and then we have andes also we have k who does her pastries right opposite the gym so the structure everyone loves the structure you know we use pallets and it's all natural everything is done out of pallets you'd be surprised even the the washroom the separation is pallets and we designed the gym in this specific way because i want to deal with patients with asthma you know to keep it very airy so you know it was built for this specific reason right right even right now i don't even have to leave those lights on because we have enough light coming through the ventilation is something that's oh yeah definitely yeah yeah so how old are you guys and you know what are some of the plans you have for the future uh jimmy's been going on for a long time but i've launched it full time three years now yeah full time i've been here working here from five in the morning and i close at seven in the evening so as we conclude what is it that you want to tell singlutions about you of the lift program um as an entrepreneur just you know in terms of your because i read your bio and you told me that you know it wasn't an easy journey to reach here at all at all so let's zone into that a little bit and and let's reflect it has been a struggle honestly because i don't think we've been taught to to push our own you know in solution that much so i struggled working for companies working for people and i don't last very long you know honestly not that i have a bad attitude but every time i step into an area i always see this can be done better and when i give my two cents i always clash with the manager or somebody so i said you know what i think it's time that i start my own thing and this thing i'm starting is what i'm passionate about i can do it for the rest of my life that is my driving force when i wake up in the morning i know i'm coming to help say daniella because daniella wants to lose weight so this is what i love to do i love that smile so i can imagine that you probably live a very happy life because not everybody gets to see and i think that's one of the things um that people forget about entrepreneurship is about charting your own course and being your own boss and having your own being your own boss comes with the territory of it's it's a hard work but it's very very very rewarding in the end oh yeah oh yeah and i have to add that i got help from family you know they were able to come together and to put things together help put up the structure and what's not i guess in this case father who didn't father did all i need to have a conversation with case father it's amazing it's beautiful you know so i had that extra help yeah and i don't think as a young man if i didn't get that extra help and push i don't think i would ever get to this level at all you know what i mean so final words from you mr brown um our fitness instructor extraordinaire well right now we have covid right numbers are increasing and we are asked to stay home you know but i believe that there is there there are limits right we i also think that this is a good time to we need to boost our immune system so you don't have to come to a gym to exercise but i want to encourage everybody to exercise you know do do some crunches at home do some push-ups do some squats to keep your immune system strong so that we can fight against this covid thing all right so well you all heard it from the man himself um telling you and you guys could access it just let them know how they could contact you on facebook instagram if they're interested in wanting to join your fitness program yeah uh you could check me out on no pain no gain fitness on instagram right my number is on the page um i think you can see the background of the gym if you want to join it you know it's very spacious the ventilation you know it's it's it's nice um everyone gets screened you know hand sanitizer you could wash your hands so it's perfectly safe and the most important thing it's scheduled so you can schedule your time when you come in if you don't want anybody at the gym i can do that okay so we have limited amount of people on the floor at any given time nice well thank you very much you're welcome that's it for this week's installment of stepping up i'm your host Daniel Dubois and if you're interested in being featured on the show or you know someone who wants to be featured shoot me an email at stepping up 758 at gmail.com see you next time keep safe and until then don't forget to keep stepping up