We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rolando Diaz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rolando, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Confidence and self-esteem are two things that are not easy to feel. The childhood and life style I had most certainly had a huge part in how that was developed in my life, and you might be thinking I grew up in conditions that allowed me to build that, but the truth is that negativity, poor living conditions and though circumstances can have an enormous impact depending how you receive them; I learned or maybe its just my style but I thrive with challenges because every time a difficult situation comes into my life that confidence and self-esteem kicks in allowing me to see things with the lenses of everything is possible attitude.
I understand there are rules and a process for everything and we always want to follow and not break them but in order to make big changes and break a broken cicle sometimes those rules and proceses must be a least bend to get us out of that shell where that confidence comes from, believing in your self can be a frase that gets used lot when it comes to talking to someone but applying it is different thing and most of the time the person saying it to you also has issues with confidence.
So its a personal feeling, feeling confident with a sharp knife on your hand while your dice an onion will avoid a cut, but that same principal applies with everything else once you feel confident about everything you do the self-esteem follows flawlessly.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
A creative mind always loves to create as a Chef of course food is a big part of it but creating concepts or different ways to make people feel special is my focus. My wife and I started Marnas Catering in 2011, we mainly focus on weddings now catering over 100 per year, but besides the food the most important part of it is too make sure that we can create good memory during the celebration because that is what the customer will remember the most “the way we made them feel during that very special moment in their life” that is ultimately the rush we love.
As we continued our growth, in 2016 we purchased a food truck to serve a more relaxed style of cuisine focus in Costa Rica’s street food items and to break a little bit the routine of catering weddings, we visited breweries and different festivals as well weddings for late night snacks, there we met a different clientele and enjoyed driving it around but we decided to sell it 2021 and focus on the rest of the Marnas concepts in Minnesota and Costa Rica, we love being able to travel back and fourth and still continue to create memories for clients.
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?
Vision is one of the most important aspects for me, because we need to be able to see it before is formed, it is almost like stepping into “unrealistic” future that seems almost unreasonable or imposible to accomplish BUT if you have the vision and can see it happening piece by piece in your mind it flows nicely.
Inspiration is also a big part of everything you do in your everyday life because everything we do unintentionally has a motive behind, now doing that with inspiration and something you believe in gives you a long lasting battery life.
For me my Mother Marna who passed away in 2010 due to leukemia at 43 years old was a though pill to swallow because she was mom and dad and a very amazing human being who was the most important person in my life besides my wife Nicole and 2 boys Evan and Noah.
So a lot of my inspiration came from loosing her and wanting to spread her name everywhere I could, spread happiness and inspire others who go through that pain but try to teach that you can turn negative and hurtful moments into very powerful tools that will help you break through any wall.
Balance is something that I learned recently and now know that it is a very important piece of to have a clear mind.
Go take that trip with the family, go have a drink with your partner even in the busy times, close the laptop and turn on your out of the office.
Yes we must grind and work hard long hours because everything takes time and effort and nobody is going to do it with the same passion as you, but it is so important to stop and relax, let the brain rest, clear your mind remember what inspires you, the reason behind why you are working so hard and understand that tomorrow isn’t guarantee and you can be so consumed with the vision that you start to ignore your surroundings including the fun of doing things with friends or family, those times gives you purpose and doing things with a purpose it is really all it matters.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Once your reach a certain part of growth in a business, that brings more responsibilities, more staff and more problems, Many times I felt like running away and tossing everything straight in the highway to hell, so overwhelmed that the brain makes you want to throw the towel and say forget this why do I put my self through this pain, a 9-5 working for someone is much easier; But lets not forget that if it was “easy” everyone would do it.
So I leaned to have balance as I mentioned before but also I scroll into old photos of what vision I had and how happy I felt when it came together and now that im living through that vision that I once wished I could make happen I cant be ungrateful because it comes with a heavy load.
So yes balance, inspiration, remembering why you are doing it but also learn to expect it because it will continue to happen, the only thing that changes is the way you see it but since you expect it you are always ready for those moments.
Contact Info:
- Website: marnaseatery.com marnascatering.com marnasbakerycr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rolandodiaz007/
