 Hey everyone and welcome to the questioning podcast episode 3 where we look at how the process of questioning influences not only our own lives but also the lives of others in a positive way usually. And today I have a very special guest that I'm super excited about James Kavanaugh, entrepreneur and presenter. Yeah. Is that right word? Yeah. Perfect. I nailed it. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited as I said and very happy we're doing this. So there's a bunch of questions I want to ask but from what I know of your story the first big thing that or this is a really word but the first thing that kind of broke you through to all the people and the social media as far as I know it's with Snapchat. Yeah. Yeah. I got into Snapchat. I was all my friends were honest and I wasn't and I was like I'll give it a go and like I didn't really know how to use it or what to do like it was kind of a I seen people were kind of like YouTubeing or sorry using it as like a form of YouTubeing like documenting their day to day life and then I love the idea that everything expired after 24 hours and it was just you know everything disappeared and so I said I'll you know I'll give it a go and all I used to do was scare my boyfriend William I'd scare him around the house and jump out and people loved that because he gets really animated when he's scared and I just love scaring people so that's all I used to do and I remember like it was just it was people just loved it and I remember I sat up you know in Snapchat saying a Sunday by the following Sunday at like 10,000 followers 15,000 20,000 30,000 and this is just from scaring him so he always likes to remind me that he's the reason I can now do what I do and so but then besides the scaring stuff I was also just documenting my life I started to document me and William cooking at home and which led to us and starting a food business together because people were like oh we'd love to eat your food why don't you sell it on a food market and so we were almost being guided by this new path and by what our followers were telling us they wanted to see and what they wanted us to do so I definitely wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Zaptas well I would be alive that sounds really weird and but I would it wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for Zaptas right it really opened up a lot of doors I from what I know of your story there was a moment because you were working like a proper good job public relations yeah and there obviously was a moment where you were like maybe it's time to let go of that and move to this direction which probably started as a hobby yeah how how was that transition um well I guess I was kind of I was working in pure advertising for like seven years at this stage six seven years and I was kind of becoming tired of it and I kind of wanted to do something new maybe a different career and just coincidentally at the same time I started to get a following on snapchat and because I was I had an audience brands then approached me and wanted to do ads and so I was starting to be offered the same amount of money that my job was paying me but for a lot less work so I was like hang on I can be like full-time me and the fact that I can kind of you know call my own hours and maybe work less means I can work more on like Corabini which is my food brand and it just freed up a lot of time you know I could do a couple of um like ads on my channel um but then that would free up a lot of time you know it would enable me to be able to set up my food brand and do that so that transition was weird it was weird for my parents as well because my parents were like what are you doing like leaving your job where you're like you know paid every month the same and you have security and you know you can you have a pension and I was like I'm leaving for Snapchat you know I have followers who will look after me they didn't understand it at all um so yeah that transition was weird just it was more weird because Snapchat was so new and no one had ever really left their well no one I knew anyway who ever left their full-time job for Snapchat following like everyone's heard of YouTubers and stuff but this Snapchat thing was weird so it was very uncertain I didn't know what was going to happen I kind of thought I would maybe like ride it out for a few months and then go back and work again in a 95 um but no I'm like four years later I'm still surviving not only surviving I presume but yeah that's kind of one of the questions I wanted to ask as well is I mentioned that one of the keywords for this podcast is questioning and I imagine there was that moment of you looking at your job and seeing so I don't as most people regular jobs I mean even that is quickly aside I know that any work is work it's like not easy it takes time and effort but still probably there was a moment where you looked and you're like if I can do something else why would I do this so so how did that questioning process look which make you eventually decide like I'm going to do it like was that process happening yeah how long I guess it happened as in when did I decide to leave my job and just like how did that process look so let's say there's someone who is in a similar position they're getting 80 fees yeah so so how is it was it a difficult process for you or how did it go it kind of I always say when people are like oh I want to leave my job I want to pursue this or I want to do that it's like it's weird it's like the universe just gives you a push and it's like there's not there's no like defining time or there's no like right time to do it you are just pushed like I was pushed out of us and into into into you know what I was doing I didn't really think about it for a long time or consider anything which is kind of how my life just goes anyway I kind of make rash decisions really quickly but it just it's weird it just felt right and I think I think that the great the best things come from like being put you're putting yourself in a vulnerable situation and being you know put in a scary situation which is no real job and you know for a while I was doing a bit of freelance pure work still because I was like trying to pay bills as well and but I find when you put yourself in a situation like that where you are vulnerable or it's a bit scary like help comes and like you attract jobs and it just comes to you in a weird way it's like um yeah I don't know if I wish you wash you but it's a bit like the universe is like helping you or something that's what I was about to say and that's my experience too in an interesting way and and I try to avoid how do you say kind of those very subtle realms or things which are hard to grasp but the kind of universe helping us I just can't get rid of it it's like it's like everything happens for a reason and like I was just in the right place at the right time like I set up snapchat as an accent like not really planned and so I believe and at the same time I was becoming sick of my job and then there was just this other door opened a really unusual door and I went in and it was great was there you mentioned your parents looking at your decision and saying like we don't understand what is this and I think we're getting to a point where if somebody says I'm a youtuber or an instagrammer say people are like okay I know what that is but especially a few years ago I think it was more to many people it was like what is this like is this a job are you serious yeah did you get a lot of that and how was it for you yeah I did and it was at this it was at the kind of there was a couple of other people like in in Ireland who were who were getting followers like big enough followers on Instagram and stuff that they were starting to do this full time starting to kind of just be themselves full time really and so there was kind of a little network of us who were all doing the same thing at the same time so it was kind of good to like be like are you still okay like are we all okay doing this together and so it was nice that there was like a community like that but yeah it was weird at the start because it was just so unusual and to explain to people and especially if you get in a taxi or something and the man is like what you do and you're like oh god I don't even know how to explain to myself what I do yeah I always lie oh I do I always say I work in advertising right because it's just yeah and then unless maybe it comes from the conversation I guess yeah exactly um because it is just a weird thing like I I you know I have a you know people who watch me every day and sometimes I do ads and that's how I make my money like it's just strange still to find it strange to grasp speaking of it I'm curious to ask because you're very well known especially in Ireland and I spent some time with your brother who's also known and so many times I stood there taking pictures for someone else of him with that person yeah and a few times we met that happened as well especially in the big event took us like so long to walk a short distance because everybody wants to stop and say hi yeah how does that feel to to have people to know me and I experienced that a little bit as well the thing is I do initially I started off with martial arts and only that part of community knows me yeah but I do get sometimes people approaching and they feel like they know me a hundred percent yeah I'm like well I guess I kind of know you because you know me yeah it's kind of an interesting dynamic so how's that for you being known and people feeling familiar to you and yeah you know the people it's um like what I do and I think being self-employed can be quite lonely even though I've a following and it's I still feel lonely at times like I'm on my own a lot of the time so when I go out and people stop me and stuff I kind of reminds me that there's people out there who watch me otherwise I'd kind of forget I think um but it's it's really nice you know that people are so I've never had a bad experience with someone it's always just been someone telling me like that they love watching my stuff and they I you know made them smile when they were feeling bad or whatever so that it's always just lovely people saying lovely things I don't know how you how yeah I don't ever get bothered by it it's it's always really lovely yeah actually now that you said it I I think I feel the same way like sometimes people are cautious like can I really say hi to you yeah absolutely it's taught yeah so and they're they're they're the ones that you know they enable me to do what I'm doing so yeah it's always so lovely to see them in real life and now that you said it too I did experience that as well where you mentioned that can become a bit lonely because I spent so much time in front of the camera especially during the last year when I travel so I not always I would be surrounded by people I know and when I came back to my country I realized I'm starting to miss like direct connections with people it feels like you're talking to the camera I'm connecting with people but it's different yeah it's uh it's nice to yeah have real connections totally yeah the real people is important too moving on one of the subjects is the food industry or I don't know whatever to call it it's a it's a whole scene I initially thought that it happened only much later the transition to putting your hands into the whole realm of food but it seems from what you're saying that that that was actually quite an early thing so can you tell a little bit about how did it happen so William he went to this cookery course called the Balimulu cookery course which is like kind of one of the best cookery skills in Europe and he had just finished again it's like the universe working in mysterious ways I was getting sick of my job I accidentally got a following he had just finished the Balimulu cookery course so he was cooking a lot at home so I was kind of filming scaring him but also filming us cooking so it was all working like together so because that was going on people were interested in in our food and wanted us to start a blog so we started sharing recipes online we started doing way more cooking stuff online then we started selling food at markets because people were like we'd like to actually eat your food then we were doing supper clubs and so we were doing like pop-up dinners and stuff and then from that it was kind of like we were doing market accidental market research because we got to know what people liked what people didn't like what people loved what people hated and then we decided we wanted to start a cafe so we haven't we haven't sat the cafe we're planning on doing it this year but we've been kind of for the past five years doing all of these events and these things and almost like practicing and getting ready to like open up and so it's it's like I said he had just finished the course so it was like very serendipitous and very like perfect timing and and then Penguin Ireland who actually published John's book as well approached me and William and said would you like to do a cookery book and so we were like oh yeah okay but that wouldn't have happened like if we hadn't built that following you know so early on and I think we would have been waiting years to get a you know a book deal and but that's the beauty of kind of all social media and and creating our own channels because you can you can kind of almost very fast build an audience if you've got something to say you know and so that's that's kind of how that happened and then we brought out the book which was a crazy it took a year to make and it was it was very surreal like we were doing or you know if two weeks of photo shoots and doing all these things that normally would take maybe 10 years to get up to the level to be able to do something like that so it's really like oh my god then we won best cookbook of the year which we were delighted about and it really didn't think we got on our first cookbook and it's not really helped and yeah it sold out kind of nearly everywhere so yeah it's a bit of mad five years but this year we hope to open up the cafe it's interesting for me because many conversations I have I noticed kind of a pattern that in the past one of the in the previous generations one of the dreams for many people was kind of the dreams which most people know what they would never go for but having a restaurant or a cafe these days especially when sometimes I do work with the kids in school like tops them and etc and these days it's all about becoming a youtuber and or the influencer but so you're kind of getting to experience both but looking at the current generation many are interested it's kind of like a dream to become for a youtuber or an instagrammer or or whatever for the younger generation but it's such a tricky question at the same time I guess it's difficult for them to imagine what it really is they just see the impact that the person has or or they feel a connection with them and I guess they want to be that person themselves but do you ever does ever someone come to you and say I want to be a social media person and what do you say to those people or yeah I do a lot of stuff in schools and someone comes say how do you become how do you get a following and it's like don't ask that question ask you know what am I passionate about what do I love doing do I love doing comedy sketches do I love you know making cool videos do I love doing makeup tutorials you know you need the passion first and then if you're really if you're good at it and you know have something to say then the following will come after that but you can't skip to the following bit first and you can't you know if people want to be famous or want to be well known what are you well known for so it's I always say to people find a passion and then if you're really good at it and blah blah blah then the following will just naturally come you know you can't there's no shortcuts I don't think you have to have something passionate about you have to be passionate about something I really liked also when you said and use the word vulnerability you mentioned it in a bit of a different context but would you say being allowing yourself to be vulnerable opening up through social media would you say that's a part of it or yeah I guess like you really are putting yourself out there to be talked about to be criticized to you know be trolled to be complimented be loved and so you kind of are look you're completely opening yourself up to people and I don't think you can really build you know like an online following if you are kind of if it's about yourself without kind of opening up your life and letting people in letting people see you mentioned what's known these days as haters and obviously I've been on the social media myself I know that it's inevitable it's unavoidable to to get someone who doesn't like you and I almost have a saying that if somebody hates you that means you're doing something wrong you know but what's your approach if somebody is showing negative emotions towards you like do you have like a specific way to deal with it or yeah and like I'd like to be like it never affects me but like you know I could get 100 nice things nice comments and then one is not nice and I'd come you know constantly the one but I just over time the time I spend being sad about something is getting smaller and smaller so like where something would bother me for hours you know maybe three years ago it just bothers me now for 10 minutes so it's like it's just something you get used to and you have to call I always think like in general we receive like 80% of love and goodness and then maybe 20% bad just as a ratio in my head that's applicable to me so it's like why pay any attention to the 20% concentrate on the 80% of love you receive from people and that goes for people who don't have a following it's like and they're just work or they're family or whatever you know we all have we all you know you know have altercations and work or you know fights with friends or something bad is said to us or you have an argument with someone online but like don't take don't pay too much attention to that 20% just look at the love you get I agree that's something I like to remind myself because as you said like especially when I'm tired on those days I tend to be more sensitive to the hating comments and as you said it gets easier and easier because you get used to it's like I've seen this negative comment a hundred times it's like it starts to become repetitive eventually yeah but there are days where I'm a bit more sensitive and I get caught of course yeah it's like I it's like anyone you know but then I keep reminding myself it's like if there's 10 things happen that are good there's a natural tendency to focus on the one thing which happened bad totally remember the good things yeah and also these people would never say anything to your face in real life it's just online so don't worry yeah try try I try not to care about it but sometimes it you know gets me especially if you're feeling hungover yeah one more thing I wanted to ask you about is probably I heard this over some conversations you and John gave together maybe you read a bit about in the book but what I overheard is that it seems like you had a kind of a I don't know what's the right term but let's say difficult teenage years yeah can you tell more about that yeah I got but I got really badly bullied in my first school and it was because I was gay and the there was a lot of homophobic people in my school the first school I went to and it really made me go inwards and it made me not want to be friends with people and it made me kind of hate school hated life because when you're that age and you're going to school if you're having a bad experience in school that's your whole life you go in at 9 a.m you leave a four and you those are the years you start building friendships and you kind of you sell these to start building an identity but when you're bullied you're suppressed and you're not able to do any of that so that was a rough few years and it took like a good few years to overcome that and become myself again and but I then was sent to boarding school and I was re I was accepted like straight away yeah and like I did I didn't um I made the decision not to hide who I was or hide my sexuality or anything like that when I went down like I remember someone was like are you gay I don't know what it is with teenagers and the obsession with like sexuality and like you know are you gay or whatever it's like what you wouldn't ask someone to be straight it's so like it's so weird to know um so yeah I remember someone asked me straight away and I was like normally I'd say no god no I'm not um but I said yeah I am and then I think once I self identified that and said that's what I was did nothing on me then right they're like oh okay you're gay yeah do you know there's nothing they can do then so then I found I became really happy and built loads of friends and la la la so yeah for the what for the first couple of years I was yeah it was terrible but it seems like it passed definitely yeah and in a way not that I can condone bullying but it I think it taught me a lot of things and it's made me I now don't stand for bullying and I try and like discourage it when I go to schools and things like that and I think it's toughened me a bit as well you know so I don't I don't um regret any in my past or whatever yeah it would have been nice to not get bullied but I think it may have added something to to who I am now you know I think I think all of these experiences make us who we are today yeah yeah I guess from what I know of yourself is it seems like it's one of your superpowers owning 100% of who you are how you are and I guess that applies to everyone but I like what you're saying that as soon as you started completely saying like it is like that like what's the big deal and yeah everybody goes along it is true the way you say superpower I think once someone is 100% themselves they are the best version of themselves and when they just are completely who they want to be there that's the time that they can do anything almost and that goes for anyone who's anything do you know what I mean like if you look at like I know someone like Conor McGregor like he's such an individual character like and he's 100% him and no one else and you know the same can be said for loads of actors and people like that and musicians and I think once you're once you own yourself you can do anything yeah that's okay to ask and obviously tell me if you can always cut and etc I'm just I'm interested to ask was it difficult for you to question and I know it's you just said yourself it's not a big deal anyway but I imagine that at that year in the teenage years it's maybe like so am I different or maybe it's like a regular question I don't know yeah but was that a difficult process for you to kind of discover yourself no I people are always like how did when did you know you were gay and it's kind of like when did you know you were straight do you know it's when I first started to be attracted to humans there were male so I denied it to myself for ages and thought it was a phase and you know because as like I think things are a bit different now but growing up like the word gay was used as an insult so it was you know if it's oh my god you're such a faggot you're so gay this is so gay we got homework today it's so gay so like when you hear something like that constantly being used in the negative why would you want to be that why would you associate want to associate with that so it's something I tried I thought I could change it I tried to make myself be attracted to girls but just didn't work and so yeah I guess when I when I first started to to be attracted to humans there were male humans so I knew straight away but I did try and suppress it and deny it I remember a good friend of mine I did like he was the first person a while ago but he was the first person who said that he's he's gay and I was like oh tell me more I was just interested to learn everything like because it was new to you yeah and I did ask that question he was like well I was like when did you first know and he's like he was looking at the paper and there was some swimmer apparently like a lot of guys live him yeah tom daly is this probably yeah and he looked at the picture and suddenly he goes like oh there's something there oh my age was he uh I think 14 or something oh right okay yeah can I ask you what was it for you or I think I was like Jesus I think I was like 12 or 13 like quite young um it's funny like gay people used to say like when they're going through like the Calvin Klein underwear they see like the torso and they're like hang on but like you know society where it it is very a heterosexual society so when you're when you're brought up you know from a very young age your aunties and uncles are like do you have a girlfriend do you you know so they're always so you're brought you're by that being pressured upon you the whole time you you constantly think you're wrong or why are different badly um so yeah it did take a while to to accept it but I knew I was yeah I remember that process was there in me as well when I actually it's it's interesting that the way it happened but some of the best friends or actually the most awesome people I had in my life started to turn out one of them is gay and another one is gay and I was like oh the best people are gay this is crazy obviously in a good way but uh but then when I started to feel like this is it's there's a lot of people that I don't know that are gay that are gay or maybe some are still questioning themselves I started to question myself and when I would talk to people initially there was what you said and that's actually the thing that happened with my the friend the first friend that we talked about that that I mentioned I he was visiting me and I was oh we're gonna go to a strip strip club I was making fun I was like oh we're gonna go to strip club and this and that and that and then one time I'm like so how's do you have a girlfriend and he's like probably he got frustrated that I keep talking about that he's like well it's difficult to have a girlfriend when you're gay and I know that that's when I started to question myself when I had that habit like like you said like most of people you're like hey so do you have a girlfriend and I suddenly realized that's in a way that's not a good question to ask yeah it's personal and some people just aren't comfortable like coming out or anything like that so yeah I think but but I mean like even that the fact that we already are seeing someone right it's better right that's don't automatically presume people are gay or hatches actually right yeah right so I keep reminding myself yeah I guess I got it actually became normal but but it's I realized it's just silly to just presume someone is into women yeah or vice versa but also like you know it's about context you didn't mean any harm yeah of course you're not you're not calling someone a faggot like you know like bullies would call it hot did call me in the past so you're not coming out from a bad place one of the questions is also about you mentioned you go to schools you meet children and are there do you get often reached out to by teenagers who are maybe struggling with the question then how's that a loss like I and it's kind of like I feel I don't feel like I'm equipped and often to like help someone and I feel a bit like oh I don't know like sometimes like 14 15 year olds girls and guys would mess with me saying I'm struggling with my sexual value my parents are like my parents suspect I'm gay and I don't think they're happy and you know I feel a bit of a bit of a weight when that one you know people mail me and I often I'm wondering am I giving the right advice or whatever but I just try and like I get back to anyone who asked me kind of questions like that and just try and help them as much as I can but I always say you know you need to kind of surround yourself with like nice people and try and look for the one friend even you know who you can talk to it's grand like messaging someone online and so I think a real-life connection and trying to like just identify a friend in your group who you could maybe talk to or tell how you're feeling or whatever even if it's about your mental health or your sexuality or whatever I think yeah so I always try and try and tell someone like that if they mess with me online it's like I give them a little advice maybe how to come out or how to deal with the come to terms with who they are but always try and like talk to a real-life person sounds like a good advice I guess when I look it seems like the world is changing in a good way at least that's my impression like even in movies and TV shows it's almost like I do think sometimes that maybe it's calculated like in every TV show these days there's and I love that it is there but it's like there's one single gay couple yeah it's cool but also I guess I presume they're just calculating and thinking like okay we'll get more audience or whatever yeah but part of me is also happy because it's not like oh look it's like this is something unusual it's but it's these days it's more like it's just part of the narrative it's becoming more and more there's nothing unusual about this yeah well it's representation that's what it is and I guess TV shows and stuff like that are just really reflecting actual society do you know when you're growing up like TV is so white it's so heterosexual it's like whereas that's not really society so I think it's it's more actually reflective of how we are as as the world today so do you personally feel that progression that it's there's no more is that questioning disappearing of so is this okay is this not okay or does that still come up quite often what is that also that guy sorry I mean like I think in the past you mentioned like gay would be a word yeah a negative word these days it seems more and more that it's like in the past or in the past or oh look they're holding hands yeah this is strange or used to be the same with even races in my country because it's small country post-soviet and when I was little if you would see a black person you're like oh look it's a black person they're not in a negative way but you're just like this is strange and now it's like who cares yeah it's normal there's nothing about it yeah is do you feel like the world is reaching that I think certain parts of the world are there's still certain parts of the world you can be killed if you're gay or you know put in prison but Ireland is very progressive it's becoming you know we had the marriage referendum and it won by like a landslide I think so it's it's a nice place to be I think as I was saying the certain parts of the world where you can be locked up if you're gay or and and it's the same with like women's rights and stuff like that there's so many parts of the world that are like almost regressing as well like if you there's certain laws being passed now in in in Donald Trump's America that you know it's winding back the clock and you know there's there now you know there's religious freedom acts that are is anything but religious freedom but that allows people just to discriminate against LGBT people or like hiring LGBT people so there's it's weird to see and like if you look at the Supreme Court in America that's all now Republican conservative type people and they're trying to wind they're trying to restrict say choices on women who want abortions they're they're trying to restrict all those choices so yeah it's it's funny to see certain parts of the world that have gotten so far another winding back and it's yeah so Ireland is quite progressive and it's a quite nice place to be if you are LGBT or whatever but yeah we had the marriage referendum won by landslide then we had the referendum for abortion that got passed and now women can choose what they want to do with their bodies so there's loads of things like that that's been happening that's really Ireland is such a tiny country but it's like a beacon of progression I think at the moment yeah it's a nice place to be yeah very happy UK is similar or UK is similar yeah yeah it will be they they they have free choice and then they have marriage equality yeah I know sorry I know that Ireland and UK I got into trouble sometimes when I compare the countries but there's so much similarities like there are yes I was just thinking also too I was in Leeds many times because my brother lived there it's not a known city but and also a friend of mine from Birmingham and he was speaking highly of that it's there's a lot of gay bars and everything so I was wondering whether it's similar that UK and Ireland are kind of progressive so that's cool yeah one of the things which I consider that like a harmful thought or that I bumped into is where people think it's a choice do you think that's that idea I mean is that do you think that's like a lack of education or yeah I think I think maybe it is a lack of education but it's like when I was younger why would I choose to be something that people hate you know I would if I could have chosen glad I didn't because I'm happy with who I am now but I would have chosen to be straight if I couldn't yeah with easier way easier why would you choose this like hard life so yeah yeah I yeah it's definitely a choice yeah of course but is there are there any stereotypes that you're you still get upset about where people like I guess that is kind of a stereotype an old stereotype like it's a choice which is silly it's not but are there any stereotypes that frustrate you or do you know I'm quite lucky in that I don't really come up against a lot of homophobia anymore or a lot of kind of people trying to say something bad about gay people so I don't really have any you know this isn't that noisy really it's nice yeah but I mean if you asked me and you know another gay guy and maybe Chechnya or certain parts of Russia where you know people are being killed over there for being gay at the moment it would be very different and but I'm just I'm very lucky I think to be here in Ireland yeah um last question out of that realm again I'm curious person yeah ask me anything thank you worldwide in the LBGTQ yeah we're the whole alphabet right I know ABCDEFG I keep like the world level are you being sometimes invited to represent some of it or do you connect with the worldwide scene of that movement or how is that yeah like I'd be asked sometimes to come to schools and do talks and and like that's where I really kind of can see change happening like schools now like are doing like projects on like LGBT you know they're doing LGBT inclusive week where they do projects on well-known gay people or activists or whatever would you say that's Ireland or even outside of Ireland I would say I like because you know online you can see what's happening in the in the world you can I kind of see certain parts of America are doing it or um there are you know definitely the UK is quite similar so they're they're doing it there as well but um from going to schools you really get a flavor of um of the of of what's going on at the acceptance levels as well as it's getting really high almost yes it's nice and and sometimes so you occasionally are invited to talk about that and yeah and and just I guess show that like there's other gays and they're fine and they're they're you know because I think maybe like a little first year seeing you know some like me 30 come into the school and do a talk it's kind of like oh there's life after being bullied you know I mean yeah yeah I think with any local beer whether racism or anything I like I used to kind of have this joke per se where any racist doesn't know personally any person of the other race yeah don't know anyone if they would know like even I almost I almost don't want to say on record but yeah of course so strange thing about my dad he would sometimes in the past he would make some racist jokes and I would be like the whole family me my brother and my mom would be like yeah why are you doing this but the thing is what I discovered was funny and interesting was that he wasn't really racist but he would he probably picked it up from the older generation exactly yeah but then but then sometimes he'd be like oh Louis Armstrong such a good singer like dad he's you know he's black like and you're like why would you go against but like oh no he's different I'm like what do you mean like how can he be different I know yeah and and eventually a funny point came where like for example his brother's daughter so my cousin it got married to a black person and then the more it went it just became harder and harder for him to make any racist jokes because it's like well he's surrounded by these people and he sees like there's nothing to really joke about so I guess that exposure is yeah a lot of it's just ignorance and it's people just you know homophobia and racism and all that it does stem from ignorance and and sometimes you know innocent ignorance as well and you know true you know so but luckily now as I said on tv there's more representation so people are being opened up to loads of different types of people so that's why it's important I think in in soap operas or movies or whatever to have you know gay people or trans people or people of color and as many different types of people so people can get used to it because they exist I remember years ago I lived in Switzerland and again it's like 10 years ago so it was still a bit of a different time and for me I just started traveling seeing other cultures races and and I saw small kids of various races growing together because it was like a beacon for a lot of different cultures coming in that particular city and and what it was interesting for me is to see that for them there was no difference for their whatever skin color it's like they didn't see a difference and I looked at thought that's so cool you know I wish I had that yeah growing up and then and then you're you don't question whether different races are different you question like why would anyone be weird out about someone being a different race yeah so yeah I think that yeah it is nice and slowly coming to a wrap up of everything so would you say the cafe is the next big thing for you and in your personal life in your career or is there anything else that you're excited about I think our brand Corabini is like the next big thing and that kind of encapsulates a lot of things I think like I'd like to have a cafe I'd like to also have a Corabini home where it's range and like a home range like candles and like okay and pots and pans and linens and stuff like that so I'd love it a kind of home where range and cat so noisy and and I'd like to have like some maybe products like Corabini food products sold in supermarkets so there's we have lots of ideas what we want to do with it but at the moment we're trying to look for like a premises so we can have a headquarters you know somewhere to operate from because at the moment it's just from our house or you know we do food demos or we don't we're a bit homeless at the moment in terms of our business you know we need somewhere to base ourselves so that's the next the next thing is finding a place and do you consider sometimes that that's kind of a okay actually two more questions yeah yeah yeah probably they're not too long yeah so one is five years ahead do you do that thing where you're like that's how I envision myself five years ahead or I wish I did that because I think it's helpful to do that but like five years ago I couldn't I couldn't have told you like the stuff I've gotten up to to know that right now but I think now that like because you know beforehand I was working for other companies I was working for you know I was working in different jobs and I felt like I was always working for someone else now I'm working for me and I feel like now I'm at a place where I can kind of actually plan my life I don't think you can kind of plan your life you know when you're in your early 20s but I feel like now I can actually maybe put a five year plan in place so you don't have that vision of five in five years I imagine myself doing this now I do in five years I imagine me having a cafe and I'd like to live down the country near the sea and I'd like to have chickens and like I have like a farmhouse that's my dream actually that reminds me of you went through that school of cooking balimelu so you went to the same school yeah right and how if we can quickly touch that such a yeah how is that because I think if this is for the record I think you're we spoke with your mother where she mentioned that you were not like necessarily into cooking before that like yeah like like you were it was like your thing where you're like oh this is completely no I was obsessed with food and eating and I knew what I knew the kind of business side of food but not necessarily the cooking so but I was like hang on I actually want to know how how the cooking side of stuff works so I went down and I fell in love with it and I almost like because what I was doing I was so busy before I went down with like jump around like hosting things presenting things I was working on a tv show Ireland's Got Talent I was doing loads of random stuff so it's been all over the place and then I went down it was three months in the middle of the countryside in the middle of nowhere and you just spent all day cooking and you're surrounded by a farm animals and it was like you just hear the birds you live in a little cottage for three months so it was almost like a a retreat you know it was like it was like I went on holiday for three months so it was gorgeous like did that inspire you to consider in five years be a little bit that's what I want yeah kind of give me a bit of a flavor for actually I don't want to live in a city I want to live in the country yeah and the very last question I think it's a nice question to ask anyone especially who has achieved some of their dreams and went down some some path so that question is if you would give advice to your younger self 10 15 years back what would that advice be from your adult self to your young self I would I would I wish I was myself sooner you know I'd tell myself to own you much sooner because I feel like I'd be even better now to know if I got to be myself from age 13 instead of having to wait till I was about 17 to be happy and to be myself so I would have just said fuck everyone who hates you and just be you like way quicker yeah and if anybody wants to find information about you in case they let's say that's the first time we're looking at and hearing you so where should you I'd say look on my Instagram that's where I put everything like I put stories up every single day and it's James Allen Kavana yeah well thank you so much great to talk to you yeah thank you