Conversations with the Inspiring Cassidy Ceresa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassidy Ceresa.

Cassidy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started cassidyeats as a place to share all of my tips, tricks, and recipes on how I lost ~40 lbs. Over the years, it has evolved into so much more! Once I moved to Denver, I started sharing more about restaurants and new places I would try along with sharing more of my personality with my audience, and here we are! I am so proud of the community of (mostly) women we have on my platform. I saw this quote a few years back and it really resonated with me:

“Instead of begging for a seat, build your own table”. At this table, we don’t judge one another.

I have always been the go t0 friend about how to do the most random things. For example, I literally just received a note from a colleague asking “If I wanted to get multiple food trucks in San Francisco, how would I do that?” To nobody’s surprise, I knew the answer! In my opinion, one of my greatest attributes is my resourcefulness. I love learning. I will try hundreds of moisturizers until I find the right one and I can explain to you each of the reasons 1-50 didn’t work for me. Same thing with cooking, new restaurants, home decor, you name it! I became such a strong cook because I started experimenting in the kitchen. Can you air fry pork chops? Why not see if it works? I would rather fail 1,000 times than take no chances at all because those 1,000 failures are where I’ve learned the most and grown the most.

On cassidyeats, that’s what I’m doing on the daily. Throwing ideas at the wall and trying them out to see what sticks.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I went to college to become a high school English teacher. It was all I ever dreamed about doing and could picture myself in my own classroom helping high school students find and pursue their dreams. I graduated from college and couldn’t even get a single interview! I was defeated and thought to myself, “why don’t they know how great I would be?”. Looking back now, I am so thankful I never got an interview. All that experience was doing was pivoting me towards Denver and my life in Colorado and now I can’t imagine things happening any differently.

Your greatest strength is that nobody else is you. I get it, it’s never fun to feel like you don’t fit in. This may surprise some people, but until this point in my life, I always felt like an outsider! It wasn’t until I hit my stride in my career and created this Instagram community that actually likes me for ME that I realized everything happens for a reason. I know, cliche, but it’s true! Trust your path. Try 1,000 things. If none of them feel right, try 1,000 more.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into cassidyeats story. Tell us more about the business.
Professionally, I work for a 100% remote tech company that has employees all over the globe. I’m on the People Team overseeing our new hire onboarding and culture and engagement programs and absolutely love it. If you can’t tell, the community is one of my favorite things in this world. With a community, you are stronger and more resilient. The more you open up and lean on your community, the more powerful you become.

Cassidyeats has always been a hobby (one that I am overly passionate about) that evolved into a business. I could have never predicted that I’d be in this position with both Cassidyeats and professionally and certainly wouldn’t have been able to do either if I had gotten a teaching job!

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
Stay curious and ask as many questions as you can.

I started noticing a ramp-up in my career when I asked ‘why?’ about so many things. I’m sure I annoyed my manager at the time, but if you can understand how an entire big picture works (like a company for example), you’ll be more valuable, spot gaps or needs, and be able to present solutions because you have all of the pieces.

As far as networking, don’t discount any interaction with anyone. A lot of people don’t like to engage unless they know there’s something in it for them. Have a conversation with someone who you know can do nothing for you. That’s the thing, today they might not be able to do anything for you, but in five years, when you see that they are the head of a department at a company you would love to work at, you will have an in.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cassidyeats.com
• Phone: 815-228-1792
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cassidyeats

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