We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andre Whatley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andre below.
Andre, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
My generosity comes from my grandmother. Growing up seeing her being so kind to everyone, planning family reunions, giving to the homeless and help our friends/family who was in need. So it just stuck with me as I grew, once I was able to get settled in Dallas that’s when I really wanted to tap into feeding the community.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a private chef & owner of DreEats Meal Preps. I started off doing meal preps when I first moved to Dallas selling them while working full time at Frito Lay the headquarters in Plano, Texas (2017). Private Chef life just grew slowly over the years but lately my focus has been meal prepping. Ive meal prepped for NFL players, NBA players, MLB players, high school football team and now working with an elementary school providing fresh meals for their breakfast and lunch.
Honestly, I’m most excited about this new project cooking for kids, I’ve always wanted to find a way to get healthier meal options for schools so this is a great start. I have control over the menu and im staying away from fried foods. I’ve been excited about being able to run this business successfully and grow within the state of Texas.
My focus is to be able to make healthy meals more affordable but also savory. Im blessed so far to be able to make it this far. So ima continue to bring flavorful meals with always fresh ingredients.
Each Month im rotating my menu so that you don’t get tired of the same-things, Ill be shipping meals in different states soon as well!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think one important skill that you would need to have in being an entrepreneur in the culinary field is being okay with having slow seasons meaning be PATIENCE with the growth of your business. With patience you can set short term goals and long term goals so that when you’re working on your long term those short term goals will get accomplished during those slow seasons.
I truly believe that social media can make so many things happen for your business so if you can market yourself on these apps like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook you’ll start to see your business pop up on peoples pages. It helps me a lot as I continue to grow my business.
lastly ill say three qualities that will be most impactful: Customer Service, Consistency and Patience.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
My current challenge would be marketing my meal prepping business and also content. Lately I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t been consistent with posting anymore. I feel like the more I interact with the people the more people are supporting. This challenge of mines is causing slower seasons when it can be simply handle by posting more of me cooking.
As the world get more locked in with social media the more unique things people want to see, unique in a way were people love to see what a chef do everyday or what he’s eating for himself. So Its important that I get more involved with going live, hosting cooking parties on live, create family friendly recipes & make a post for everybody; just those little things can make a big impact on my business
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yourchefdre.com
- Instagram: @yourchefdre
- Facebook: Dreeats Culinary Services
- Linkedin: Andre J Whatley
- Twitter: @yourchefdre
- Youtube: Your Chef Dre
- Yelp: Your Chef Dre
- Other: Google Reviews: Your Chef Dre TikTok: @andrewhatley4
