Two years in Colorado: A week in the life of a starry-eyed vegepreneur

Two years ago today Dave and I had Thanksgiving Dinner at Candle 79. It was our last Manhattan meal as New York residents. The days following we packed our belongings and wrapped up our life in New York before hitting the road for our new life in Colorado.

Today I’m enjoying a quiet Saturday morning (I “slept in” until 5:30!), surrounded by cats, sipping coffee, and enjoying a few hours of peace before going into the kitchen to begin food prep for a vegan holiday cooking event I’m doing at NOOCH vegan market in Denver. I’m quietly reflecting on the week that just transpired. It was a week that just felt…normal. And felt good. I am living and working the life I planned over two years ago when I launched this crazy idea of self-employment as a vegepreneur at Go Vegan with JL | JL Fields Consulting, LLC.

A week in the life of a starry-eyed vegepreneur

I took Monday off from work (not a bad way to start a week, right?). I have adjusted my work-week, as much as possible, to Tuesday – Saturday since I am inevitably teaching a cooking class on Saturdays or traveling to a veg festival. I value work-life balance (and it’s one of the reasons I decided to be my own boss!).

Tuesday Dave and I had a planning meeting for a new project (announcement coming in a few weeks!) and Tuesday night we met friends at Phantom Canyon Brewing (where I had this cauliflower and kale salad with tofu)

before going to the library for a Pikes Peak Writers event on book marketing. I may not have mentioned here that I founded a new group, Colorado Springs Nonfiction Writers, in September. We already have over 50 members! I made this PPW event a meet-up for our group and it was really informative. And speaking of Pikes Peak Writers, I’m honored to join the PPW 2015 conference faculty in April:

BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING YOUR DREAM: Nuts and Bolts of Non-Fiction Writing
Presented by: JL Fields

If you want to learn how to build a writing profession and live the scribe’s life, this is the workshop for you. Do you want to turn your life’s passion into a writing reality? We’ll provide the blueprint for building your dream.
• Lay the foundation: as my Finnish world travelling cousin says, “tienaa rahaa kotona” – or, write what you know – or want to know – and incorporate it into your current profession, blog, or other creative outlet.
• Erect the frame: develop a plan of action to break into traditional and nontraditional freelance writing.
• Fill the house (with books!): from crafting the nonfiction proposal to agent and publisher queries to self-publishing versus traditional publishing, assemble all the parts to begin writing the pages of your first or next book.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m.  I am adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership where I teach cooking classes, have created content for plant-based cooking/eating/lifestyle videos, do food coaching, and I get to lead executives on hikes when they are in town for leadership training. It was very cold and icy this week so we had to pull out the spikes.

But all three morning hikes were stunning.

Tuesday morning I made a point to pack a combo lunch (whole foods + convenience): raw baby spinach,  slices of baby bella mushrooms, leftover home-cooked umami beans, and canned tomatoes.

Heated up in the microwave for just a few minutes, it was a perfect at-my-desk meal…

…because I spent most of the day on the phone working with consulting and coaching clients.

Wednesday I received a very special delivery.

The advance copy of Vegan Pressure Cooking! I was over the moon and was struck by home much I cherish my coworkers. See, just a few months after moving to Colorado I became a member of Epicentral Coworking. I maintain an office there so that I can be surrounded by freelancers and freethinkers and have my own sense of a work community. (I also produce the quarterly Vegan Pop-Up Market at Epi, as well as teach my classes and host events for the Colorado Springs Nonfiction Writers.) My coworkers shared their enthusiasm about the book on Epi FB page and popped into my office to take a peek. It was sweet.

Thursday after the CCL hike and food coaching sessions I rushed home to make a quick risotto (with peas)

for the Castle Rock Vegans potluck.

I enjoyed meeting other vegans and a few of us checked out a new store, Animals Rock, where we picked up a fun animal-themed items. From there I drove to Boulder for a really interesting focus-group type of event that the Earth Balance folks at Boulder Foods put together with handful of vegans.

Friday I was up early again for CCL food coaching…

Tofu Scramble at The Cliff House

…before launching into a busy administrative day (making copies of recipes for today’s demo, invoicing clients, developing an outline for a new cooking class for a client, marketing my next Food for Life class, reconciling my business accounts…) but I did take an hour out of my day to talk to a group of University of Colorado students who were visiting Epicentral. I was invited to join three other coworkers to talk about our entrepreneurial paths.

It was a lunch and learn and when I came in they asked, “Are you the vegan?” Uh huh. They handed me a vegan sofritas burrito from Chipotle. Score!

I ended my Friday by grocery shopping for today’s holiday demo. ‘Tis the season for Earth Balance!

I wanted a quick Friday night meal because I was on a mission: curl up on the couch with my cats to watch a holiday favorite – The Family Stone. I decided to get adventurous. I dumped the contents of the Earth Balance Mac & Cheese into my Instant Pot, added some vegan butter, a bit of soymilk and nearly two cups of water. I set it to pressure cook for five minutes (natural release) and, what do you know,

it worked!

And now it’s time to get in the kitchen. I’m preparing a vegan roast, potatoes and gravy in advance to pass out, with recipes, at NOOCH. I’m also going to demo a quick and easy Cranberry Soy Curl salad.

Have I mentioned that I love my job?

It’s been an incredible two years. I moved here with a dream of becoming a vegepreneur: writing, cooking, coaching, and consulting to make the world better for animals and humans. After twenty-four months of adventures, successes, failures, learning (learning, learning!), friendship, clarity, and focus I can tell you this: I wouldn’t change a thing.

Tags: vegan coloradovegan colorado springsvegepreneur

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