Career profiles of amazing and inspiring women!
We recently had the opportunity to chat with Megan and Coral of Allergy Reality. These two women both have children with food allergies and have come together to create a space where people can educate themselves about celiacs disease and get encouragement, support and recipes. With a cook book (The Formula Cookbook), an educational gaming app that teaches you had to eat allergen free, a youtube page for recipes and product reviews and thousands of followers on social to engage with daily these two women have their hands full! We were excited to talk to them and find out how they manage to handle all of that along with other jobs.
What did you do before Allergy Reality?
Megan: I went to culinary school in Italy and started my own business as a personal chef and caterer. I got an opportunity to work for a restaurant consultant company. Its a international company and I was their test kitchen chef. Creating recipes for different restaurants and then traveling to the restaurants to help open them up.
Coral: I have done many different things. I was a dental assistant for 5 years and then started getting chronic migraines. I needed to switch to something where I was working in a dark room, so I stayed in the medical field but switched to ultra sounds. I scan babies all day everyday, well actually twice a week, and I love it! I have four young kids and my youngest daughter got diagnosed with celiac disease after being misdiagnosed with cancer and a bunch of other more serious conditions so we were thankful that it ended up being celiac disease. After I found out what she had I googled it and there was a lot of negativity online and on social media. I wanted to change that and be a voice for celiac disease. I wanted to educate and create some hope and light around the disease. I started a platform called Serving Celiacs and shared my journey on there and through Serving Celiacs is how I met Meg. Meg was a chef for my Serving Celiacs community. The class that she did went really well and we thought that we could help so many more people. Thats really how Allergy Reality came about.
What would you say is the hardest thing about owning your own business?
Megan: Balance for sure! Managing our time and figuring out how to be most efficient. We are both mothers and we have other jobs so we are constantly evaluating what our goals are and what we want out of this.
Coral: It's great that we have each other. Through the highs and lows we are there to encourage each other throughout this journey. It's important to have someone saying, you can do this!
What is the biggest break you have had within your business?
Megan: We have had a lot of little ups along the way that have kept us motivated. A mini breakthrough here and there that have really kept us going. Throughout this journey one of us at different times has been like, is this worth it? And then we will have this little breakthrough that gives us the motivation to keep going.
Coral: We had this trip to Utah that was great. There were a bunch of things lined up for us to do out there and people recognized us and asked for our autograph and that felt incredible. Being out in the world beyond our little bubble and knowing that we are really reaching people for people was very motivating.
What advice would you give to your 14 year old self?
Coral: The sky is the limit! If you say you can do it you will. If you say you can't do it you won't. You can have big dreams in life and you CAN do it. You have a purpose in life.
Megan: If you want to do something then try it out. I have had different jobs and paths and I love that. You don't have to work a 9-5 or work a job you don't love. You have to have a passion for what you do. Follow what you love to do and do it fully.
Whats next for Meg and Coral?
Megan: Well I'm pregnant with my third child and Coral has a million things going on so right now we are trying to figure out what we want to do next. We have some things in the works but we are in a transitional place right now. We have only been in business for 1 year which is crazy to think about all we have done in such a short time. We are praying about it and want things to naturally progress where they should.
Coral: We know business plans are huge, but our families are also huge. We have learned a lot about what we can do as well as what we can't do. So the next few things we have lined up are really focused around doing what we are good at.
A big thank you to Megan and Coral for taking the time to chat with us and we wish them the best in all of their future endeavors. You can follow their journey on instagram and facebook @allergyreality and on their website: www.allergyreality.com
Photo Source: @allergyreality
