Sofya Stearns Of Izabella’s Gourmet Chow: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Take time for yourself and not become overwhelmed.
Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked on Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50s.
How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?
In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.
As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sofya Stearns.
Sofya is the founder and CEO of Izabella’s Gourmet Chow. She teaches international cooking classes to kids and adults, “Cooking with a Twist.” During each kid’s class, kids are exposed to the world through cooking. Every dish is always made from scratch, and every child walks away with the knowledge of culture, art, history, geography, music, dance and the language of each dish’s origin. Sofya teaches classes to Down syndrome & Autism groups and offers classes on nutrition tailored to those communities. In addition, she is working on developing a series of classes for families who have loved ones battling an addiction. Sofya also teaches etiquette classes for kids and professionals.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born in Moscow, Russia and was blessed to be born as a twin. We were raised by our mom and her parents. When we were sixteen, my family had to escape from Soviet regime leaving everything behind and immigrating to Chicago. My twin and I finished high school, and at first it was hard since we didn’t speak a word of English, but it was a great experience, we learned how adept quickly to new surroundings. After graduation, we moved to CA with our mom and grandmother and attended Monterey Community College, as we couldn’t afford anything else, and then moved to Washington DC to attend George Washington University graduating with a degree in international marketing and finance with a minor in business law.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Don’t wait until tomorrow if it can be done today.” My grandmother always said it and when I was little, the saying didn’t really make much sense to me, but as I got older, this really helped me to prioritize and get things done. Don’t ever wait, if you wish or have a desire to accomplish something, do it NOW. Don’t ever wait for tomorrow because tomorrow will bring you something else.
You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
- I always believed in the uniqueness of my business and tried very hard to disregard all the negativity that came from others. I heard it all, “Your classes are a joke, nothing but the babysitting services for moms.” “Why would I pay you to teach my kids to cook,” etc. Believing in yourself and your ideas!
- If you have passion for something, it doesn’t feel like hard work. Passion and hard work pay off!
- I always had and still do, have the most amazing support system, without who, I wouldn’t be as successful as I’m now. My husband, Jeff; my 12 years old child, Izabella; my mom, Natalya; and my twin, Olga, are the biggest fans — my wall. I also had my biggest fan, my stepdad, Tony, a brilliant businessman, who passed away in April 2020. Every class I teach, I dedicate to him, to his memory. The support system is a MUST!
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?
I was a marketing manager in the rail industry prior to opening my business. Two of the most favorite things I loved about the job, were a chance to travel internationally and memories from my childhood travelling by train with mom and my twin on summer vacations.
And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?
Cooking was always my hobby; I was always in the kitchen “helping” grandma. By “helping” of course, I mean asking to try baked goods she was making. And then when I got older, I developed a passion to try making new dishes but with my own twist.
Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?
After Izabella was born, I was blessed to be a stay home mom; raising my child healthy and making homemade meals for the family became a key. Education was also a high priority, I wanted Izabella to be bilingual like me, and have appreciation for art, music and books. The trigger was, in addition to teaching Izabella, I also wanted to teach her friends.
What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?
A few months shy of Izabella’s third birthday, she started preschool. I would be lying if I said I wanted her to start preschool, but I was told she needs to be with kids of her own age. So, with a shattered heart, I decided that a half-day, twice a week, would do. As it happens, she started to make friends and I started to meet her little friend’s moms. I loved having people over, so with my child’s new friends we would always bake something. Parents loved it, and kiddos even more. One of the moms gave me an idea to start giving cooking classes to kids. My first reaction was, “Oh my, I never taught a child,” but she convinced me. I contacted a few moms who were teaching art and science classes for preschoolers, my child loved those classes, and asked if I could use their mailing list. I was totally excited to get 8–10 participants for the morning class and 9 participants for the afternoon class. Participant’s parents were so interested that they were asking me for my website and the schedule going forward. The funny part was, at that time, I had neither.
How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.
Never did I think seven years ago, I’ll be so successful, and my business will move in so many different directions. I teach after school programs in various public schools. I’m starting to teach in private schools. Since COVID, I’m heavily involved with Down syndrome organizations in Chicago and Pittsburgh. I teach classes for Autism Pittsburgh. I have developed a diet -for Down syndrome communities and offer it to them FREE of charge. I teach etiquette classes for kids and professionals. I have my own column MOM2MOMS at the magazine, Northen Connection. I collect money for less fortunate; organizing virtual classes with 100% of all proceeds going to a country at war, in the past it was Ukraine and Israel. I’m developing a TV show for kids and in the middle of writing three books.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have a support group and not just one person. My husband and my child are my biggest supporters, they are always there for me no matter how much work I put into my business. My mom and my sister are always here to support me with their kind words and compliments and so as my true friends. AND my dear, dear stepdad, who from day one was my biggest supporter and always believing in me.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?
Perhaps being recognized and written about in 6 magazines and interviewed by 2 TV stations. And to be honest, I’m humbled and blown away every time I get approached. Everything I do comes from the bottom of my heart. And by sharing my stories, I also know that I have a chance to bring awareness to various topics I care deeply about.
Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?
Unfortunately yes, even though I knew in my heart this was an amazing concept. Seven years ago I was killing it with sold out classes, but like in any business, sometimes there is a dry spell. There were different reasons for it, a conflict with another school activity, illness, sibling’s activity, my schedule wasn’t a right fit and on and on. I absolutely knew not to get too bummed about it, however, easier said than done. One evening, when I was teaching a zoom class for one of the Down syndrome organizations I felt down, that week wasn’t the best money wise, the director told me, “Sofya, I just have to say, thank you for what you do, you saved our community during the darkest times, COVID.” I knew right the way, that I had to snap out of it and force myself to see a light at the end of the tunnel. People do appreciate what I do. Businesses have ups and downs, it’s the nature of the beast. Mind you, it only happened a few times and I feel blessed for it. What I also want to add for the people who are reading this interview, don’t ever give up on your idea. Everyone is different, everyone likes different things in life, and just because someone tells you your idea perhaps is not worth developing, there is even a bigger audience who will think that your idea is brilliant.
In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?
I didn’t before, it all happened while I was developing my business, I was very, very lucky in this prospect. My family and so many parents who down the road became my friends, loved my classes so much, they became my advocates.
Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?
Don’t be afraid to promote yourself. With a background in marketing, one would think selling and promoting is easy — which it is. HOWEVER, when it comes to your own business it’s not that simple. Seven years into it, I have mastered that skill. The key is, believe in what you offer and what you do. Be proud of what you do and people around you will start promoting you as well.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?
- How much I had to be creative and adapt over time to new clients, new marketing, recipes and etc.
- Ignore the detractors.
- Make sure you have passion for what you do.
- Take time for yourself and not become overwhelmed.
- Can’t please everyone. I say — don’t even bother trying.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Be compassionate. Care for others. Don’t judge. We all make mistakes, learn to forgive. Stay away from poisonous people. Don’t ever give up — you will regret it. Learn to ask for help.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. 🙂
Any of the iron chefs from food network. Would love to meet Alex Guarnaschelli, Geoffrey Zakarian and Michael Symon.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow me on every social media there is, Tweeter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Sofya Stearns Of Izabella’s Gourmet Chow: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.