Meet Neysa Garcia-Muhammad

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Neysa Garcia-Muhammad. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Neysa below.

Neysa, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

My purpose is something that continues to reveal itself to me overtime and evolve as I get to know myself in this lifetime. I used to think that my purpose had to be something that was a huge mission that everyday I was working towards. When I started entrepreneurship, I began thinking about my purpose…to tell stories, to break glass ceilings, to help others do the same. As the mission of my company, Ginger and Carrot Productions continues to grow…I’m learning that my purpose is simpler and unrelated to what I do.

It’s an expression of myself.

In 2024, I started coaching and offering strategy services. I was excited to take my purpose and mission and package it up into something that I could share with others. What I realized is that, what I was put on this planet to do is something that I can’t help, but do. It’s not about my career, or my work. It shows up whenever I’m showing up. My curiosity, my ability to see the through-line…my unwillingness to “let sh*t slide”. That articulates my purpose. It’s not about the work. Society creates work and decides what’s needed, so how can my purpose be defined in those parameters?

How could I possibly be defined with such limited borders? My purpose is more about what I’m like in my natural habitat. It’s to be a light, it’s to be a reflection of the truth, it’s to be a clarifying energy in the room. I tend to be difficult to ignore for that reason and I’m still learning about the grooves and ridges in my purpose.

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?

I’m the founder of Ginger and Carrot Productions. Alongside my husband, we co-produce content, short films, and marketing assets for companies that value inclusivity. I also teach beginner food photography classes in Long Beach to help people take beautiful photos of food and beverages to share with their friends. Our work has been published in the cookbook, My Creole-Cali Kitchen, written by Chef Ryan Rondeno. That book went on to be featured in Bon Appetit, Epicurious, and Cuisine Noir.

I write a personal Substack called the Inner Work of Branding, where I do deep dives on culture and media along with my personal essays. We also produce a series on Youtube called Cook Til Done which explores the personal journey of Chefs and founders through their relationship with food.

For the past 4 years, we’ve been helping diverse founders, brands, non-profits, and thought-leaders show up authentically online, and in real life. Our work has touched everything from product photography to 1:1 coaching and brand strategy. The mission has always stayed the same as the work evolved with the constant change of our industry. Our work can be found at Gingerandcarrot.com and for folks who want to work with us, they can jump on our calendar at calendly.com/gingerandcarrot

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The first thing that came to mind is my ability to pivot. Building a business is like a game of Tetris, you’re constantly trying out different things to see what actually fits you and your clients. That’s how you build expertise. Pivoting often gets a bad rap because people associate that word with being flighty or having a lack of commitment, but in actuality it’s the cornerstone of resilience. When something isn’t working, make one small change at a time until you figure out what does work. That’s the most important skillset to have.

Secondly, building self-awareness. Knowing who you are, what you believe in, where your strengths are, and what your boundaries are is the job of a CEO. This is the reason no one on the internet can actually tell you how to build a business because they don’t have this information about you. Build a company around your weaknesses so you can stay in your strengths. Know what you’re not willing to do so that you can last. Understand where your triggers are so that you don’t burn everything down just before you’re building momentum.

The third skillset is listening. Listen to your intuition, listen to your body, listen to your trusted advisors, listen to your clients. Just listen and take in the information. All of your solutions and ideas are on the other side of taking the time and energy to really listen.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is the first book that came to mind. In the book, he talks about the “Upper Limit”. It’s like your invisible glass ceiling on how much good you can actually tolerate. It’s an interesting take because we see people sabotage all the time and draw conclusions like money corrupts or too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing.

Gay Hendricks explains that it’s our job to find our glass ceiling and keep expanding it so that we can grow our capacity for goodness and success. There’s no limit on how much positivity we can have in our lives and it’s more important to prepare for success than to anticipate failure.

I love this book because it’s not the typical business book and the client stories will absolutely blow your mind. Reading it made me feel like I was solidifying my success as an entrepreneur.

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Image Credits

Photos taken by Ginger and Carrot Productions

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