Episode #61: Amy Lacey
Amy Lacey, owner and founder of Cali'flour Foods, is a resilient leader in her many roles as entrepreneur, best-selling author, and autoimmune advocate. In 2010, Amy was diagnosed with lupus, becoming one of 50 million+ people suffering from an autoimmune disease in the United States. No longer able to enjoy pizza night with her family, she set out to reimagine her favorite foods and created a no mess, no stress, cauliflower pizza crust to satisfy her cravings without sacrificing her health. Out of a mess, her message was born: healthy eating should taste as good as it makes you feel.
One Mother’s Day, Amy Lacey’s kids sent her out for a spa day while they processed 300 pounds of cauliflower as a gift to her. Not your typical gift, but there was a very good reason for it: Amy is the founder of Cali'flour Foods, and demand for her healthy cauliflower pizza crusts (and other products) had exploded. Amy developed the recipe for this crust in her own kitchen after determining that she would need to make nutrition and lifestyle changes to manage her lupus diagnosis. On today’s episode, Amy and I talk about the physical and emotional challenges that her health presented, and how inventing a tasty, healthy pizza crust that she and her family could enjoy helped restore “normalcy” in her life. We also discuss the moments of pride (and some heartbreak) that come with running a business, her recently released cookbook (Cali'flour Kitchen), and what’s next for Cali'flour’s delicious lineup.
“Once I started getting a lot better, I started paying it forward. I started helping others. And that helped me even more.”
Here are some of the things Amy and I chatted about:
Her move to Florida (which she could have never anticipated) and the healing she feels there
What led to her lupus diagnosis, and the treatments she tried initially (and their side effects)
The “rock bottom” she experienced post-diagnosis when she realized life was totally different
Why she started researching nutrition and the idea of food as medicine that can heal the body
Becoming a certified life coach as a way to help others, which in turn helped her as well
Her desire to bring normalcy back into her life, including the tradition of “family fun night”
Going from a mess in her kitchen to a cauliflower pizza crust that people actually really liked
Sharing a customer’s story on Facebook, watching it go viral, and seeing sales skyrocket
The challenges that came with the company’s rapid growth, and how she handled them
Choosing to let her CEO position go, which was heartbreaking but necessary for her health
Her new role as the chief innovation officer, which lets her focus on playing with recipes
Her pride at being a woman-owned company in the food industry, which is dominated by men
The reason cauliflower is so great (from someone who, five years ago, didn’t like even like it)
How she came to the decision to use the whole head of cauliflower in the company’s products
What’s next for Cali'flour Foods, and what separates the company from its competitors
What 2020 holds for her, now that she is able to pick and choose where she spends her time
“I want to inspire people to realize that food can be medicine no matter what condition they have, whether it’s depression, autoimmune, cancer. It can help. It may not cure, but it certainly helps.”
Support for this episode comes from Cali'flour Foods. Cali'flour Foods makes delicious cauliflower products like pizza crusts, flatbreads, and frozen pizzas. Their products, which are low-carb, low-glycemic, gluten-free, and grain-free, are for people who don’t want to sacrifice flavor for health. To learn more, visit califlourfoods.com, and get 10% off your order using the code MADEVISIBLE at checkout. (Code can be used one time and is valid for any order.)