Meet Jessica Gaddy

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Gaddy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic was crafted long ago. I was an only child living with my father, a single dad, and his parents. Being the only kid in a household of 3 successful adults showed me at a very young age what working hard looked like. As soon as I was old enough to work I got a job, and not just one but two. I was a hostess at a local restaurant and worked at a shoe store my senior year of high school. Even during college I had a job at a large retail company to keep me busy. After college I immediately got an office job and kept the part time job in retail just for fun, and it stayed that way for the next 15 years. Once my corporate job salary increased and scheduled changed to a 4-day work week I finally left part time work. It was quickly replaced with food blogging and professional photography since those gigs could be done in my free time. Then the pandemic came along I thought it was time to reevaluated my purpose. With restaurants closed and businesses being short on funds blogging & photography wasn’t something that fit in that landscape. Cooking and baking had always been a passion of mine so I thought it was time to try putting my creations out into the world with my own business, Finicky Foods. Three years later here we are.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Currently I am working full time, taking photography gigs and building Finicky Foods brand awareness. What I am focused on most right now is taking FF to the Waxhaw Farmers Market every Saturday, stocking up the shelves at our 13 retailers, and exploring more ways to get our food into people’s hands.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Determination
2. Realistic Goals
3. Self Care

I think all of these areas are needed in order to be the best version of yourself if you plan to take on a new business idea. Having the determination to keep going no matter how hard it gets will push you through the tough moments where you ask yourself “why am I doing this”, “should I just quit”. While it’s fun to dream, having realistic goals is important to keep your milestones into perspective. Finally, self care is by far the most important. For me, so many days have gone by where I didn’t treat myself positively, didn’t drink enough water, didn’t eat healthy food and ignored every sign that I was overworked and overwhelmed. In order to be successful in anything, you first have to be successful at taking care of yourself, mind and body.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

Following the piece of advice in the last question, learning how to put yourself first is extremely difficult and I finally found my way towards what that looks like in the last few months. Eating healthier foods, meal prepping, planning ahead, drinking water, eliminating processed foods have all been a new addition to my journey. In just three short months I have been freed of 15 pounds and counting. Learning to not feel guilty for taking a day off is still challenging but it’s getting easier the more I tell myself “it’s okay”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.finickyfoodsnc.com
• Instagram: finicky.foods
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finickyfoods

Image Credits

All photos by my photography business: Shrimp & Grisettes Studio www.shrimpandgrisettes.com