 Welcome to the Leaders Mindset where we have illuminating conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, and community builders who are having an impact in the world around them and how they're building the teams and being the leaders they need to be to make that impact a reality. Today I'm here with Sarah Ramthon. She's the founder of Real Prep Meal Prep. She's been a personal trainer, a fitness competitor, and now an entrepreneur. Welcome and thank you for being here Sarah. Thank you. So let's get into it. Tell us about Real Prep Meal Prep. What were you doing before you started Real Prep Meal Prep? How did it start? What was the catalyst? What really got you started doing it? Before I started the company I was doing personal training and nutrition coaching for four years at Snap Fitness in Boulder City. And when COVID shut down the gyms I had tried to rebuild my clientele when they opened it back and then they shut us down again. So during that time I was still training a few clients out the park or at home and I needed to figure out a way to make more income. So I started feeding my clientele. And it was really just a plan to hold me over through the time that I couldn't work in the gym. And I started training them and they got very passionate into their results. Real quickly they started getting quick results faster than when I was training them in the gym and they were cooking their own meals that I was assigning to them. So my clients started telling me that I should start selling them to other people. So they suggested to put them on social media. Next thing I knew I was selling to Henderson and Vegas too and I'm from Boulder City so I just kind of ventured out further and further. After that from October to January I decided to legalize the business. And I got all the permits. I got all the paperwork done and I put us into a commissary kitchen come February. So again I still wasn't sure where it was going to go. But I thought well it went well at home and let's just give it a shot. And then from there I really just grew the moment that I became a real company and I started really advertising on social media, posting, talking about it, sharing my own results with my own food that I now make into meals for other people. That it really just happened naturally and organically. I honestly don't think that I at first had the intentions of it becoming anything other than to hold me over through COVID. I do believe that the company has chosen me over the time. Next thing I knew I was selling to doctors, nutritionists, bodybuilders that are famous, Olympians, fighters, jiu-jitsu artists. The list goes on and on and I really wanted to create a company that had no gimmicks. That was where my passion started where I felt that I could do something different being an athlete myself and eating at the companies that were provided to me. I would notice that my results would go backwards or my meals weren't always right dialed in and I would start to decline in results. So when I created the company it was a very big passion of mine to create the real deal meal prep. Yeah I think one of the things that's super impressive is how you grew from word of mouth through social media and now your clients span the gamut from folks who just want to eat a little better up through your athletes which is really impressive and then you have all these partnerships as well. And what is it that you're doing that that attracts all of these people to you because when you look around on social media when you look around there's dozens if not hundreds of people doing meal prep here in the Las Vegas Valley. What makes you special? What makes it unique about what you're doing that is attracting so much attention from people who are really serious about their meals? I think that there's a few things that make me stand out which would be one like I said the gimmick free. The no sugar, the no gluten, no dairy, no flour. So anybody who really knows a lot about nutrition knows right away that for fitness goals or health goals those are going to be the first things that coaches are going to cut from your diet or even doctors. So people who are educated are going to see that and know instantly oh I want to try that then people who don't know these things I educate them I talk to them I get calls all the time and I love to take those calls. Another thing that sets me apart that I notice upon watching my other competitors is that I do this with my customers. I constantly I'm a normal person I go up and down and wait I'm a female when I'm stressed I want to eat I I don't know I'll have that movie night with my kid or my friends and and I just go off the rampage and and then the next day I get back on I'm right back out that treadmill and I'm right there showing my meals and I confess this stuff to all of my clientele I tell I post it I tell them oh you know I did buy it last night so today I'm going to work harder today I'm going to lift heavy today I'm going to do that I constantly I'm sharing this stuff with people so they're not only watching or getting inspired but sometimes they're they're learning and being educated they constantly I have many people who constantly comment on these things and they're like thank you so much I'm going to get up and go to the gym now too um I'll put up there I'll be filming my cardio and I'll tell them you know I'm on doing my cardio who's with me today and I'll get many people they're like me me me or I wasn't but now I am you know and so I've seen those comments yeah so so I mean I didn't really know that that was going to happen but I just started sharing the lifestyle because I live the lifestyle myself so I see how everybody does all these stories and all these things all day long and I was like maybe I should just start kind of sharing how I do this how I did it what I do when I mess up what happens when I sit on the scale and I'm 10 pounds up overnight it seems like even though I know it probably took me two months to get that 10 pounds and the multiple choices I got me there but I admit that or when holidays are coming I always diet down with my audience during holidays to show them that when we're expecting that 10 pound weight gain we can actually turn it into a 10 pound weight loss and then we can really enjoy that eating of the holiday because we've worked to get there so I do things like I set goals with people and I'm like okay this week I know that I'm going to Thanksgiving and I want to eat the pie I want to eat the jelly I want to eat everything on that table I'm going to eat it I already know this so for the week of coming up to I tell everyone okay guys I'm going to lower my carbs I'm going to keep my cardio up and I'm going to do this I'm going to have that day we're not going to go backwards and I share with them my weight I post it I tell them and then I share with them after the cheat often I drop two pounds after the holiday because I dieted going into it so when they see that these results work a lot of them copy me they do it with me and they'll tell me they'll like I said they write me they call me they'll tell me I'm going to try that I'm going to try that and they all get these great results and so they kind of learn mirroring what I'm doing and I think that makes the difference the holidays are coming up so follow Sarah now and then you will have lost weight by the end of the holidays instead of gained weight yeah yeah you know you can and or at least we can maintain you you know and if we do put on a few pounds we're going to get it right back off and that's what I tell people I fall off all the time multiple times a year I fall off but my only trick and the best advice is I get back on yeah you're you're so open and genuine on your social media and that translates into what you're doing with the company because I know that no gluten no sugar is not just a sticker you put on your meals like some companies do it's the truth you you are are very disciplined about what you put in there and you're disciplined with your processes as well can you tell us a little more about how you prep the meals what what your thought process is how you how you get this to serve your customers so they know exactly what they're getting so when we when we prepare the meals everything is measured in my company so all the way down to every recipe of the proteins big thing that we do make sure that we do is we keep our fats very low I keep all oils down we use only organic avocado oil and we use like one teaspoon per 10 pounds of meat so this is not enough to tamper with anybody's results or fats that they're counting in a meal my meals come as low fat as I can keep them so same thing my vegetables they have no oils my carbs no oils no butters no no they're any of that so everything is is clean as I can get it for you and as low fat as I can get it for you from your chicken to your sirloin it is trimmed before cooking so we're not cooking the fats and letting that oil get onto your meat either and and not only is it trimmed before cooking but you have these beautiful spreadsheets that you have and everything is measured weight and calculated so that everything is 100 percent precise that if you're supposed to have four ounces in that meal four ounces of protein in that meal it's four ounces of yes yes this is something that my company is very legit on we weigh every meal out to the portion if you're ordering and we cook to to we cook to cooked weight so like when I'm doing the calculations night before I have to add shrinkage into this there's companies out there that you order a four ounce chicken and when you get it if you're someone who's counting everything you might weigh that and it's going to weigh two and a half to three ounces and you call a company say I thought I got the four ounces they'll say well that was the the raw weight well I was trying to order four ounces cooked you know like wait a second and so my company I serve and cooked weight every protein has a different shrinkage I learned and over the time I've had to dial those percentages in so an easy math chicken shrinks 50 percent if I have 100 pounds ordered I'm cooking 150 pounds to land at 100 pounds cooked so I can serve my customers their cooked weight tell us why it's important that if you order four ounces you don't get less than four ounces or six ounces or whatever it is because I didn't know this till you and I talked in a little more detail why is that really important so the reason that is very important that our measurements are spot on in my company and the passion behind it is that I myself have been through my own fitness journey I once was 180 pounds then I got down to 120 I got down to 50 to 60 pounds I had right in between I started dieting very hard and when I became the personal trainer and athlete I did a nutrition coaching I learned about calories and macro balancing and how to count everything versus my burning or my food intake so when I am dieting personally I'm counting everything that four ounces of meat matters because if you cut you know even one to two ounces of something or you're lowering my carb or raising my carb you're throwing my numbers off by 200 calories potentially 150 100 it doesn't matter if I eat 21 meals of yours a week and my meals are off 100 calories that's 2100 calories that you have changed my meal plan for that week of total calories I need to take in whether it's a surplus or negative so if it's a negative then I am now suffering a lot more than I should be during that deficit that I plan to be in which then can lead to the plateau of me now cheating I got a binge I got I'm going crazy I'm yelling I'm frustrated you know the psycho comes out if you're too hungry and that's something I teach my clientele when I start helping them diet down is I will do two week check-ins with them until I have them where we're not at that borderline crazy so tampering with someone's numbers is a huge deal especially if they're trying to lose weight on the other hand if somebody's up you know 2100 calories a week they weren't planning that could be a two pound weight gain when we were supposed to go down two pounds so so measure your food or have Sarah do it for you so you've had a lot of success doing this in your own life your clients have had a lot of success what are some of your favorite success stories from your clients I have I have a lot of good ones I think my favorite success story I had a client named Ernest and he was my first diabetic and I told him right away I've never done this but I met him out of Best Buy and I was carrying some personal training cup and I was getting a new phone and and he asked me you know what do you do and I told him I was training he's like I've been on a mission so over the time period that I learned to work with Ernest and to not to mess with his sugar levels and put him in danger but trying to lose weight and then we lost 75 pounds safely and he actually ended up lowering his insulin to almost 25 percent of what he was doing before and so I think for me that was definitely a big experience emotionally and also confidence because I was intimidated to take him on and I admitted that to him right away and then I said you know but he was checking his insulin all day so we were making sure that we were safe when I started putting muscle back on him we started checking make sure we weren't spiking him too high we learned which carbs spike him more than other carbs so we really dialed it in personally he was one of my I think most emotional journeys because I really he changed his entire life and I still coach him today it's been three years now that's fantastic it it shows just how much you're in a partnership with your with your customers even if you are preparing just preparing their meals and you're not coaching them just how much of a partnership you have with them to make sure that they succeed yes I think everybody's journey that I work with is very emotional and they all have their own story of how they lost themselves what happened who died in their life who passed away what divorce what it it's always so emotional and I'm so passionate to help people that I get involved in that and so when my clients lose 10 pounds that's their first goal 10 20 30 we have these milestones I'm I'm in tears like I'm crying for them because I know how hard they work for it and they call me on the bad days they call me when they're when they're so hungry sir I don't think I'm gonna make it till tomorrow okay let's get you a yogurt it's okay calm down you need a yogurt you know like and so going through it with them has really enlightened me it's really softened me to to feel that passionate because I can relate to them to having my experiences and going through the 50 pound weight loss that now when I'm working with especially women who are more emotional those the tears that they cry throughout the journey to lose that weight it's I can completely like sit there and I remember this I remember this and it's gonna be okay and I walk them through it and so the bond with my clients starts to feel more like a family versus client or friend it's becomes people that I am out to protect or help them and they're all an emotional journey they all touch my heart yeah we only need to look at your Instagram to see that yeah they're they inspire me so much so there's a lot of technical work involved a lot of math in what you do to make sure you serve your clients in this way and help them be successful yes what are some of your favorite tools that you use technical or otherwise to get your work done I'm a big spreadsheets nerd I love my spreadsheets I have spreadsheets galore folders after folders after folders even like my I have clientele that I do their strict nutrition plans we are redial and we measure everything exactly the way their coaches have written it or their doctors and dietitians I get those onto the spreadsheets and I calculate them from there I work back and forth with my partnerships on spreadsheets that are on these more elite plans then from there yes I do all of the math I transfer it from my website into a sheets folder and I calculate certain send all the numbers the meats the flavors the proteins the carbs the vegetables and I separate them all I organize them all into sizes and the calculations that is probably the hardest part of the computer work that took me a long time to learn and even some weeks I'm still need a little assistance every once in a while if I get stumped but now I finally going closer to two years into this I now hired a programmer about six months ago and he's been building me a program where now it's transferring over and it's doing the reorganizing for me where before I did that manually I dragged everything and moved it because of course the website doesn't just send it in order for you it comes in the random order that it was ordered in so I have to reorganize it so that's been a big time saver I was spending my order window closes Saturday night at 8 p.m. and I would be on the computer till midnight or 1 a.m. calculating we've had some chats yes and that was normal for a year and a half and then I yeah it was it was really crazy and so now it's gotten down to where it's about an hour of time with the system built and I want to emphasize when she talks about doing all this math we're not talking about doing this for like 10 meals you're you're going out and you're you're building these spreadsheets because you're going out and you're you're buying hundreds of pounds of food every Sunday right you you you need to know exactly how much you need to get yes I do I cook fresh weekly yeah it's all I buy product fresh every single week based upon my orders so that's part of why I have the order window closing so I can calculate it know what I need to purchase there's not a lot of margin for error here otherwise you're gonna have to throw things the moment that there's an error now that further in I now have backup in the freezer I've portioned out pounds of each protein so if we have a shortage boom we can pull from the freezer before it turned into gotta go I'm running the store I'm gonna go get it I'll be back and then you know real quickly we realize okay well that takes an hour and so more efficiently now I have backup proteins of everything on stock all the time and now you're in a big commercial kitchen too you're not just doing this out of Boulder City anymore correct I'm now in my second commercial kitchen I started off at Slice Commissary on Pecos in Henderson and that was really great I loved it but it was the start of my company where I didn't own everything yet so I needed to rent I needed to even rent pots and pans and that was a commissary that provided everything you would need and not sheet pounds everything you can rent it all so I started there it was a smaller kitchen it was within that first year that I saw we were going to outgrow the size of the kitchen already and we were running into losing room in the freezer or fridge with the other companies that were working there also so I ended up moving us over to Vita kitchens on Cheyenne which is an old grocery store an old Albertsons so it's huge and there's multiple and many kitchens in there and the walk-in freezers are the size of a room or bigger and you can there's plenty of growth space there's yes there's there's a good amount I've seen I do have other companies in there two other meal prep companies are in there too and we're all friends we're all family we all give advice we talk like it's so cool to be that's part of like it's very inspirational to be around them because they've been there you know they're four they're six to eight years into their companies and one of themselves or anywhere from 12 to 1500 meals a week the other one sells anywhere from eight to a thousand so it I can see how much potential there is for me in there and I can even see that even if I get to 1500 I'm still in a home base yeah that's great to hear because that's not something you and I talked about one of the things we talk a lot about on this show is founders mentoring founders so it's great that you found people in your same industry and there's enough room for everybody even in the same kitchen to be successful that you're you're all helping each other out yes we do and we actually send people referrals we send each other referrals too because our companies have different niches so like mine is more so on the health fitness side and then some there's a more one of them is still fitness and then the other one is more lifestyle and just kind of learning healthier but still fun meals still some dairy stairs still some flour and so we all have different audiences so if I get the call and it makes more sense to send them that way I do and then when they get the calls for fitness competitors or doctors or people on specific plans they call me the customers call me and they say I called this person they sent me to you so it's almost it's every few weeks that I get a call that one of those companies sent someone to me and then I try to return the favor too that's fantastic so what else is different about running this business than what you've the kind of work you've done in the past what's different about it well before the personal training all of that I started off I did 10 years of serving in food restaurants and I was management so I I started running um I ran a restaurant called pit stop in bowler city and I worked there for 10 years and that employer bob had taught me so many things that I'm using in my company today he put me in charge of the Cisco orders he taught me how to do the banking he taught me how to count my inventory how to load how to pre-plan how to order extra in case they're out next week things like that I feel like I use all of that so it's very different now in the sense that I'm doing my own business and I really took all those years of restaurant experience with my nutrition coaching and my diet coaching or personal training and I put it all together to create real prep meal prep so I guess the main difference is that instead of somebody else in charge I'm now in charge and calling the shots and the ideas are mine and when my employees have ideas too I love to talk about them and implement them too we try all kinds of things all the time and all the time we're improving our techniques that's great it sounds like you had a really great mentor in the restaurant business who helped you and now you're mentoring your team yes to be successful as well so tell us about your team who's on your team where did you find them okay so I've gone through um I now have been probably up to about 10 employees over this time which I generally now have five at all times and then I have my call in employees I started off with a my first employee was the one that I started off at home with and he was an old friend from junior high I've always had a friendship with him over the years because I was adopted and he was an orphan in st. Jude's as a child and so when he went back his mother got custody of him back I kept in contact with him all these years will when I started like posting you know does anyone want to come help me he raised his hand and so he was a childhood friend of mine that I've kind of mentored over years now especially later on in life that we've been adults um but he started the company with me came in worked for me you know we we worked so hard between the two of us doing it all and he moved into the kitchen with me too and then from there I my best friend her daughter needed a job so and her daughter had started to go on the wrong path and so I said you know I'll I'll I'll give her a shot I've been on the wrong path before and I've had employers give me chances and I'm I'm let's take her let's see if we can turn her direction so I took her under my wing she's now been my longest term employee and she's my best one of my best employees and she has had a full turn around um which that's been an emotional journey too because I've watched her go from where we started to where she is now and I'm very proud of her um then from there another one was school connections I do um I did get some applications turned in from social media Facebook so one of my chefs is a Facebook hire and he's been he's a great employee too and basically from that it's basically mostly been people I know or word of mouth and then now yes I I also hired um two other guys off of Facebook my one of my drivers now contacted me off of Instagram as I post on there that I'm looking for employees so now my company is growing to where it's not just close people I know anymore it's now strangers and people I have to build trust with my company trust with coming in and carrying my product and representing so how is that how was that made you up your game as a leader to start working with folks that you don't already have a personal relationship with well when I worked at the restaurant like I said for the management um before I became a manager there I was uh I got turned into he nominated me to be the restaurant trainer so when I left pit stop I had trade every employee on that floor by the end of my 10 years so I was already used to taking a stranger and teaching them the way of how it's done here this and that learning to push them motivate them turn it into a game make it fun you know a lot of when I'm cooking I feel kind of like I'm in a video game so I do everything in a certain order I've got all my pans lined up I'm hitting this one I read my recipes hit them all one at once and I kind of if you can kind of program yourself into like this groove then you just you start to get a good feel for things so um it's it's made me grow working with new people I guess because I'm I'm a very shy person too so I kind of have to it's definitely been something I have to practice and work on so but I've done well and I did earn the position at that job and gave me the confidence to be able to do it with my own business it sounds like you're doing great it sounds like your team is doing great it sounds like you're helping them grow in the right direction to help your company grow in the right direction so so all right let's play a game okay all right this game is called this or that okay I'm going to ask you a series of questions I'm going to give you a this or a that when you hear the question just answer with whatever comes in what's the first thing that comes into your mind so it could be this or that or whatever comes into your mind we're not too formal about it here okay this or that this or that okay you ready sure all right sarah ramathan this or that your time begins now digital or analog digital dogs or cats dogs yankies or red socks yankies incorrect sweet or spicy not gonna lie sweet okay good to know halloween or thanksgiving I love to dress up halloween I've also win the contest three times in a row no we're gonna have to get some of those pictures for for b-roll for this east coast or west coast west sunrise or sunset sunset downtown or the strip the strip dress up or casual dress up instagram or tiktok instagram yeah I thought you were gonna say that yeah I tried tiktok but I just can't get the groove that's okay there'll be something new in another year yeah so we'll all get caught up with that all right you're so driven you're so focused to succeed and serve your clients but you weren't always that way you've been through a transformation yourself what what what can you tell us about that transformation and how you got to where you are today so my transformation started about six to seven years ago and I I weighed about 180 pounds and I knew that I was getting thick and I was my thickest and I was really wanting to lose 10 pounds because I had tried to lose weight before and I just failed within like the first week and and so I was surrounded by my sister and one of my friends at the time and they were eating vegan and so they kept talking to me about eating plant food and this and that and so I was like you know maybe I'll try like just a little bit and at the time of my life I didn't eat any vegetables at all I was a very picky eater I was very picky with textures I didn't like skins on things I was like I was the typical little kid that was like not going to touch that just because it looked funny not because it tasted bad but because I was I had like a phobia about foods and textures and so I was weird about vegetables um so I started practicing some of that plant life and my friend was blending his making blends and my sister too so I was like I could I could drink that I don't really want to eat it but I found that I could drink it so it started off in little stages of just trying to drink my vegetables and start to eat eat better then I started I bought this garage cell bike my son I think at the time was about four and he was just learning how to ride a bike so I was like maybe I'll just buy a garage cell bike and ride around town so I did I got like this 60 dollar bike up the street and and I started riding everywhere with him and next thing I knew I was like super motivated and I lost that 10 pounds and then I was like maybe I'll try to lose another 10 and maybe I'll try to lose another 10 and I got all the way up to between the 50 and 60 mark and then in that first year of my journey I went from riding the bike and I have a swimming background from high school and I swam for 15 years for the Boulder City team and so I was like oh well maybe I'll start swimming again and so I'm teaching my son swimming I'm putting him in swimming lessons so now mom's swimming with Drayden and I'm also cycling with him too and from there like I said I was serving tables at that time so I had customers that would come right in on their crazy bikes those skinny wheel tire ones and you're like what are these weirdos doing in those outfits you know you're like watching them you're like look at these guys and everybody's giggling at them and they know that they look silly they all know and and they started talking to me you know what are you doing because they started know that they saw that they saw from in that six months I lost that 60 pounds they were like what the heck is they started asking what am I doing I'm riding this garage cell bike blah blah and then they were like we'll rent you a bike let's go on a ride okay I went on this ride and I didn't know on these skinny tires I was so scared and I did one ride with them and I got hooked next thing I knew I was in the bike shop getting my own road bike and then I was buying Drayden a road bike too you know 10 miles turned into 20 miles turned into 30 miles my son at age six was riding his bike for 30 miles with no brakes at that point those that new community of friends that I had that were motivational people to me that were encouraging the fitness they were like Sarah you're cycling you're swimming you got one more thing to do and that's running and you should do a triathlon to finish out your one-year bang and I'm like you guys first off let me tell you I've had surgery on both Achilles tendons I don't run I don't like from here to that wall it's way too far it's gonna hurt so but the idea got planted and I'm kind of one of those people like if you turn the trigger on I'm gonna try so I started running I literally had to run street light to street light and I would have to stop because I would be in pain in my ankles crying sometimes because it was emotional and I just wanted to do one mile and I could not get my body to do it well I just kept trying street light to street light to street light and the next thing I knew I was running one mile then I started joining the kids team at my son's elementary school where they do a running program before school with the children they earn tokens every time they do a lap that's a stamp thing and then when they get 100 then when they get whatever however many miles they earn tokens so it was the school that I grew up in and with my surgery I actually had doctor's notes that excluded me from running in PE so I actually had memories of being the timer for the mile runs and so it was very emotional for me as an adult to be back on that field now I'm trying to run and I'm doing it and then I built up to one mile two miles five miles I did my first 10 mile run once and then so I trained about three months that I had that notice for that triathlon that my group threw me in I trained so hard and I got my miles up my speed up and I did that first race and it was the the anniversary of my one year of my fitness journey and I landed third place on the podium and I still I still have those feelings like I can't believe that happened and that was really that was kind of the moment that I I guess I was changed inside to realize that I had a knack for this I had it was the time that was when I changed my career path my direction I saw how many people I was inspiring people were writing me for personal training now they that was like that was encouraged too by the people that were surrounded by me watched me do my journey and their belief in me that I could inspire other people and so finishing that year that way was definitely in that moment that that that feeling of attention of that that pride and that was the moment I guess I my passion turned where I was like I want to help people and I want to train people I want to teach people how to transform themselves too and you know that it I just went that direction I didn't there wasn't a plan there wasn't a I'm gonna lose weight I'm gonna become a trainer I'm gonna do this it was I was just along for the ride but I just kept doing the work one step at a time yeah for what sounds like an amazing year and I think uh I think the community here is better off for you having done that thank you so all right where do you want to take real prep meal prep what's the goal with your company is there one so there is many goals some of them are just short term getting to certain meal counts you know right now you know hitting those 500s as we've been doing great now you know like I said knowing the potential of the companies that are beside me and cheering me to they're at 800 1500 so I can see that if they can do it I can do it too and I just have to continue to find the people that are in in need what I have and they so the goal for my company really is to help as many people as I can and one by that is not just athletes not just my awesome Olympians and my pro fighters and these guys that are super cool it's the heart behind the company the made with love quote for my company is the passion to help people with their life journeys and struggles whether it be addictions or food addictions or you know drugs or being overweight diabetes all of the hell I have I have customers with celiac disease people with allergies that are I mean list of endless allergies and so my company being that we accommodate all of those needs I can help those people they I constantly get calls of people calling me that you know they have these health issues my mom my grandma my it could be them or they're calling for someone else to ask about my food and so that's the passion behind it is being able to help those people and I've had people like almost in tears telling me you know I can't find anywhere that I can eat safely and I have these restrictions I can't eat anywhere and I'm like you can eat here you can and they know immediately right away when they start digesting my food that there's no gimmicks because they're not going to get the reactions they're not going to get inflammation their their pain will start to lower as their information lowers from my food their their cholesterol I had one guy call me within a couple of months he was down 300 on his cholesterol and and he was only eating two meals a day you know and five times a week not seven days a week so even the small changes have created large changes internally for some of my clients and like now I have more multiple diabetics and they you know we accommodate to their needs their low carbs their vegetables only or half the carb that comes with my meal will even do that if they you know we will adjust each meal to customize it for each person and their needs whether it's a fitness goal or a diet goal or a health goal or a doctor's warning goal those are my most emotional yeah I've certainly seen you've had amazing results with athletes and competitors and that kind of thing but I think the folks you're talking about are really the impact you've had with your clients and in the community is is the results you you're having people with just improving their health yeah yes you know I I did start with the fitness community because that's what I knew and that's what I was doing and those were the connections I had as I got further in I started working with firefighters and policemen and then next thing I knew they were sending me doctors and I and then I now I have four doctors on board that I cook for them their offices and their clients and then I have nutritionists that are writing the meal plans for these people for their health needs or fitness goals and I cook like I said they send them to me on spreadsheets and I do all the math and I create their meal plans to exactly what that nutritionist wrote or that doctor has written so in a sense when I'm working with them this is the moment where food becomes medicine and this is where the moment where we're really helping somebody and we're changing someone's life I have a family of three diabetics mom dad and daughter and they've been ordering for me now for over a year and they order 40 meals a week for the three of them and they they order weekly they call me they're like I can't believe how much results we've had we're actually losing weight we're we all feel better none of us are getting spikes in our you know they it's made it where they can live again and they don't understand how to cook their food that way or how to do it or they don't have the patience or the time I think it's a combination of all for that family but it can be life changing for these guys is who need the help or don't have the time but they have dietary needs and that they have to follow or they're in trouble you know and not in trouble with anybody but in trouble internally and some of these guys they're facing you know being told that you know they've got if they don't stop this way of living that they're gonna go downhill real quickly and they some I have customers that call me in such fear and then it's really cool because it's it's weeks when they call me telling me that they're feeling better it's two two weeks sometimes the first week they call me already ecstatic that they can't believe it I think the results speak for themselves with everyone who your clients from you know the competitors all the way right to the folks with the health issues that that really need you and you're delivering for them right away yes so who is someone you admire as a leader or in business I look up to a lot of people I have a lot of mentors now that is something that I seek in friendships and in business partners I have a I have a list so I I don't know if I want to say one name because then I'm leaving out the other 10 but I do feel there is one that really stands out to me and his name is Dana and he is Jay Cutler's manager and Jay Cutler is a huge phenomenon in the Olympia and has a great big name and if you know anything about the industry everybody knows who Jay Cutler is I even know who Jay Cutler is yeah and so I got a hold of Dana after I did Jay's first show and I told him all about my products and since then he's kind of been a mentor for me if I have a business struggle I talked about it he gives me ideas he tells me about his adventures same thing when I have you know Iris Kyle from the powerhouse she's another 10 times Olympia and best in the world and she gives me business advice of what she's learned over the years being a woman in business and I have multiple I I don't even know where to start with the list of people that have supported me and pushed me and given me the ideas of who to pursue and what connections and when somebody gets on board of me they see my enthusiasm they feel it too they try the food they get the results and then that person becomes a believer and they start they send me to who they know or isn't that and you know I I definitely have a lot of good people in my court now and you know like you mentioned about the partnerships I'm up to 21 partnerships now seven different gyms doctors you know different agencies even even got into a best western so you know it's been and all of those guys are mentors to me they all see my passion my drive and for some reason it makes them want to help me you know I don't always ask them like hey can you give me advice but more so they they're attracted to that they these are successful people that are attracted to people who are trying to get there too and they see that so I feel like I have a lot a lot of support from very good people that's really great how have your views on leading a team changed after meeting some of these mentors and what you've learned from them one of the biggest advice is I think that I had to kind of transfer form starting with a personable employee time and you know they kind of have told me you know I've got a lead away from hiring friends or family or this or that and that you know that that'll be a struggle sometimes you know they think it's okay to be late or they you know just just they get a little more flexible because they're your friend so I do see that and that that has been something I've had to work on is kind of changing that of like I'm your employer I'm not your friend even though I still want to be your friend you know like I'm like okay so I'm like I have to find this fine balance of like listen I love you and I care about you but I also have to like reprimand you if I need to I have to also you know set you straight if we're you know if you're doing something multiple times after being told not you know then so there's all of that that's been that's been one of the biggest things that I think I'm working on now is really separating the line of like you know when we're in here we're all business and that's it you know no outside know this know that we're strict business if you need to talk to me outside of course I'll take I'll talk you know but that's been interesting it's a hard lesson for a lot of leaders to learn yeah so you're not alone in that yeah it's uh it's been working with employees and the staff and getting them to stay or long term that's been definitely one of the hardest challenges is getting the staff problem a lot of a lot of companies are having right now what was one of the best mistakes you've ever made and what did you learn from it hmm best mistakes I ever made that's a hard one I feel like they're all there I just can't think of it but let me try well best mistake not when I'm drawing a blank it's like I know there's one in there I just think of it at the moment we'll come back to that before we're done you'll probably think of something yeah I'll try so maybe this will help so you're having a lot of success right now you've been through a huge transformation over the last few years but what keeps you up at night what are the what are the really significant challenges with your company and in your life that you're thinking about staff staff yeah staff is usually you know are they all going to show up in the morning do I need to have my backup person on call you know sometimes they'll give me a little hints like in the week like oh like they'll tell me something weird happened and I'm like oh that might be the sign that they're gonna call out on Sunday and so I'll usually kind of go ahead and get someone in line for that mostly it's it's staffing complications that will stress me at nighttime is you know is everyone gonna show up if I have like my biggest week come in or a big order week come in then it's then I'm gonna have that like okay everybody needs to show up on time we can't be behind schedule we gotta get those orders out I want to be on time for my deliveries all these things are so important to me where for the staff you know they they push and they try to make those timelines but it's it's not the same type of it's it's my baby not there yeah it's one of the things about having a business is no one's ever going to care about it as much as you care about it and that's just a reality that every entrepreneur has to come to grips with yeah and they don't realize like you know if they're one hour late or three hours late how much of an impact that has on the business how much it sets back the company to get our meals out on time by two o'clock in the afternoon and it's a big setback if somebody's missing for two or three hours you know and you're a little bit of a planner so I bet that bothers you a little bit it does it's a hard one I have a good attitude so I I do keep you know generate when they come through the door I'm not mean or anything I'm just like hey come on let's get going like let's get on the floor let's go and then from there it's like we all go into overdrive to get speed us up but uh yeah that's definitely I think that's always that's always the is everyone gonna be on time like that sometimes goes on my mind before I go to bed is there any other area you feel like you need help with in the business I have definitely had to learn to delegate out my jobs because it started off as a one man show and then the company outgrew me and it keeps doing that so I keep putting people in new positions new jobs new things and then it grows more and then I'm like uh-oh now I'm on overdrive and burning myself out again I've got to hire someone else out now for this job I'm doing and some a lot of these are outside jobs I do all of my design work all my banners I designed my logo I design every billboard every just every advertisement that you've ever seen I sit there and I design it for hours on canva and so then I you know I I constantly have to remind myself to step back and that I have to have breaks and I can't work seven days a week 24 hours a day which I can easily do if I don't check myself um so that's been now I've been starting to hire people outside of the kitchen now to do my outside jobs such as like I said the spreadsheet building the template for that um I now just hired a social media manager she's been working that count for a few weeks now and we've been practicing and connected all my counts and she's doing all the things watching my insights and the days and the things and she starts talking about it I'm like this is a whole nother language I had no idea and she's like this is the day you get your traction this is when we post I'm like you know what that's you you've got this and so she's now working on that side which is going really well and we're uh that that's a big job I work social media a lot it definitely tires me it drains me yeah I think that's that's the way it is for a lot of us so yeah I'm so how do you stay calm how do you stay centered when you're under stress or feeling a little anxiety one way that I calm especially after the tornado kitchen days is I go home and I force myself to lay down even though I still want to spin and go and go and go I force myself to lay down in the dark for an hour or two just lay there um you know otherwise it it affects my health and this last year you know I was overworking on overdrive too much and I you know had some health scares with the doctor my my thyroid crash and I had to be put on thyroid medication and my cortisol and drainals were through the roof which made it impossible for me to lose weight when I would keep trying and because my hormones were off so that was the first thing the doctor was like you have to cut back somewhere you have to you need to lay down you have to detox you got to come down from all of this and and I was like okay okay they're like otherwise you're just gonna it's just gonna get worse so for you know for the past three months that has been a blessing in disguise is um being told that from the doctor and has forced me to take the step backs that I needed so I can propel the company such as even now I don't stay all day in the kitchen anymore I set myself my staff up and I leave them to cook I work the whole first round of meals with them on Mondays and I leave at 11 they finish out till 2 they load the cars they go these little things have kind of made a big difference and now my health is back to taking those moves so I see now too how overworking and trying to do it all by myself is is detrimental to my health and my mentality and I'm trying to help other people and I can't do that if I'm not functioning properly I think that's great advice because especially in the entrepreneurial world and I know I find myself doing this as well is when the stress starts to hit the answer the answer we come up with is often I gotta do more I gotta find a way to do more and I think your advice is great for entrepreneurs or leaders who are in high stress environments or have a lot of plates spinning a lot of things going on is to take a minute to take you know 20 minutes an hour whatever whatever you need and to get just to try to clear your mind a little bit I think it's fantastic advice because for entrepreneurs especially it's it's often the opposite is the solution we land on and I lay there until my head stops spinning sometimes it's 30 minutes sometimes it's three hours and I will just spin and spin and spin from the day and then the other thing I do is I go to the gym that's my other stress relief I kind of had a feeling that was in your yeah so that's another one I I do go to the gym I stretch I do my cardio I do my lift my weightlifting and then I do yoga sometimes too if I'm really having a day and I need to hear the sounds and the darkness and the whole thing like sometimes I need the extra so I kind of just I just do those there I have a few of those me things and I make sure that I do them because when I stop doing them then I don't become happy and then my goals start to fall down and then like I said I can't help anyone when I'm not being my best self so I have to remember to love me first and that's hard because I love everyone else so much that I will toss me to the side and so I've learned that like I said a couple times now in this business that I have to remember that I have to be up on the top of the list too and that that's been definitely eye opening for my health and then also to lead by example that's great advice so what is coming up for real prep meal prep and for Sarah what what are you excited about that's coming up so we have a couple events coming up we love to do events so that's what I do sometimes to propel the business especially if I have a slowdown in growth I'll put myself out there I'll go do the farmers market I know you do yeah so and you know it might not be my favorite thing to do but it helps grow the cells it helps make connections it helps me really connect with the normal people walking around that are looking for this I don't know they're looking for it or they see it and they're like oh wow you know they get inspired just by walking by that's been I'm always seeking events or opportunity so I don't done events at the doctor's offices now I've done them at drip bar I've done I'm at torture gym ground opening elevation you know I go to all the ground openings I go to any gyms that want to bring it to their members I give their members you know a code for they can if they're a member of that it's a perk for the gym now that they have a meal prep company and those are we oh then I do shows too so coming up we're about to do a best damn CrossFit they do a competition every year and we this will be our third year doing it and we go to it and we put up the big tent because it's an outdoor event and all the competitors they're throwing all their CrossFit weights and then we're giving the samples and then when they're done eating they come over like monsters and I'm like I got the microwave don't worry and a microwave and meals for all these guys and so they won't eat until towards the end I've learned now doing it twice in a row it's about I come now with that chest ready because when they're done they're coming for the meals and we do that those are fun and then I have a snap fitness one coming up as well and I have Steve Carr coming up which is another big body building show and I have the Samson show and Cutler they are all coming up boom boom boom real shortly here all right well we'll get we'll get stuff linked up so people can find out where they can come and see you if they if they want to see you and taste some of what you what you've cooked so all right I have a couple more questions for you but I'd like to take care of the the administrative stuff before we get into the last couple questions so is there anything else we should know about Sarah Ramthon and real prep meal prep I think you covered most of the most of the things I think we covered a lot so yeah I don't think I don't feel like I have anything inside me that I was wishing you okay well I always want to give you a chance so where can everyone find real prep meal prep where can they find you so the the location that we're at is on Cheyenne 1030 Cheyenne and we're centered behind the reef business in front of us they're on the backside then generally I'm online so through my Instagram real prep meal prep or Facebook real prep meal prep is how many new customers will contact me and my number every every way to contact me is on my website as well real prep meal prep net and we most of us people call honestly I think I get more phone calls than I do emails which I prefer anyways usually if I get email I return it with a call because I like to give the person ability I like to show someone that my company cares for them you know though right mean I have this and I have that and I'm like this is a phone call I'm not going to write this person back there's no way and it sounds like it sounds like something needs a little personal touch to make sure you're really serving them mm-hmm yeah I like to talk to them I like to hear their stories and I love when they call me back too in a week or two and they're like oh my gosh I'm dropping weight now and they couldn't lose weight before and you know all of the things it's very personable and I think the phone calls I always take the phone calls like those are my favorite that's great what is someone who is someone or what is something you're grateful for definitely my son my son he he's my biggest inspiration he changed my life and he saved my life and I have a commitment and promise that I made to him and that is behind that is my own personal background and his experiences and my experiences that had led me into changing my life and turning it around and wanting to help other people instead of being destructive as I before these years and my son I lived in a more destructive life and I was an angry child with my adoption so my biggest inspiration is my son and changing the patterns that I grew up in as a child and the things that I went through and making sure that I make some of those things right in my heart for him so I would say Drayden is my biggest motivation I could tell that when we look at your Instagram we can see how much how big a part of your life he is and how big a part of his life you are and how much fun you guys are having together and you've even got him helping out with the business and he just always seems so excited to to be involved with what you're doing so yeah he's he's definitely like my mini me we do everything we we work out together like I said we did the swimming the cycling if he does a sport I join it I don't even always know what I'm doing but but I try and he loves it and I coach him even if I don't really know I'll read the rules of the sport and I'll teach him the stuff that he needs to know and um yes he I did bring him into the business this summer he turned 13 years old and the Southern Nevada Health District allows you to work your immediate family at the age of 13 in the kitchen and although he's not allowed to touch the ovens but he can do the prep work he comes so for the summer he worked the Sunday and Mondays and he would come in and he would peel potatoes is the first job I started teaching him then I bought him these cutting gloves that have metal in them so you can't cut through the glove then I started teaching him how to chop the potatoes and I got the glove so if his knife slips it's not going to go right through his hand and so we made it very safe for him to learn how to chop hard potatoes that for his little size he could be put in his whole body because the mama can't get it through you know and I'm like okay like so and then I've taught him how to kind of put the oomph in there and now he's cutting all his potatoes but these yams that we're working with some of them are they're big and they're hard and so from there he um then he learned how to do the rice so he starts the jasmine rice the brown rice he knows how to pour it on the pans now safely and he one of his favorite things and I think it is part of um I'm a very intricate person and I get very dialed in if I'm focused on something like if when I'm even when if I'm cutting an onion it's like very um what was the word the very oh I can't think of the word right now but it's very oh it's right there so when I it's peaceful like it's I feel very like in the zone so I notice that with him too he likes to trim the sirloin I don't know why but he has he gets joy out of getting all the fat off and then cutting it into perfect cubes and so every time we come on he's like mom can I please chop the sirloin so he gets his potatoes he so now it makes him faster at that because I'm like well you have to get to it before Edgar gets to it so now he races there gets the potatoes da da da da so now he's like the super efficient worker he's super cool to watch on the floor because he's everywhere and he's like just this little mini beast on the floor and he chops the sirloin and then and then on Mondays I started bringing him in he was already familiar with weighing food on scales because I've been doing that for years for myself so and he used to help me when he was little too he would sit there and weigh my meats with me and we would do it together and we would you know we started making him mini meals and whatnot and um that's how so when I put him in the company he was weighing the meats with us he was you know mixing the vegetables and he was preparing the meals too and I didn't expect to go that far but he was really loving it all summer and I saw a whole change in his personality his manners his motivation his his confidence in himself really changed this summer and I really think it was work involved it's amazing what a little a little success and a little a little accomplishment can do yeah to turn the amount of responsibility that I can see he now he's more like I got this you know versus kind of like quiet and shy he's more confident excellent what advice would you give to future leaders especially young women who are starting or thinking about starting a business my advice to give to anybody is if you have a passion inside of you that you know is something you want to do and pursue and you don't care what it takes to get there is to do it even if you don't have the money you start small you start mini you start at home you know you you don't have you don't have to have the full plan in place you have to have the footsteps in place one step after another so I think my biggest advice would be if you have a passion a niche for something that you really want to do do it and don't be afraid and then every time there's an opportunity you jump on it it's scary you know I take risks all the time I don't always know if it's going to work I invest in things you may or may not come back but I I think somewhere in the big picture it comes back but you know that's that's the biggest thing is um the opportunity seek opportunity it does not come to you it may sometimes you know someone might notice you and pick you up and come and say you know we want to do this or do that or highlight your company okay you know I've had a couple of instances like that but a lot of them I have seek myself I have pursued those relationships I I reached out to Iris Kyle I walked up to her at the show and said please let me feed you I promise you I know what I'm doing and she's looking at me let me prove it to you so she did she said okay all right like you know she asked me all the questions I told her I could do it and I did it and now I've been feeding her going on two years and her clients at her gym you know same thing with all of those guys I've had to prove myself to them so when you believe so strongly in something even if you're afraid to walk up and tell someone you still just do it I even if you're shaking even if you're crying inside because you're panicking like just do it and that's that has been the biggest growth for me through this company is being brave you know even on the way to this talk I was in the car I had to self talk to myself I had to prepare myself emotionally you know it's scary and it's there's a lot of facing your fears when it comes to believing in your product and chasing it well you've been fabulous today thank you thank you for being here I I knew you were nervous about this because we talked but I would never know you were nervous about this watching you on camera here today and I hope we get to see more of you on camera and and have you do more speaking but I want to thank you for being here today this has been wonderful so much so much insight for us thank you for having me I also want to thank litigation discovery group for allowing us to use part of their space as our studio today and thank all of you for watching the leader's mindset whatever you're going to go do today make sure you have an impact