How does a single mother of seven raising her children on food stamps and Medicaid become the Salsa Queen? Adam Nugent and Kate Strong welcome Salsa Queen to the podcast! She talks about how she was able to take her dream and, with the power of a positive, persuasive personality, create a multi-million dollar company. Learn more about her inspirational story and how the desire to be something greater can lead to accomplishments beyond your wildest dreams.
Listen and subscribe now!
In this podcast excerpt, Salsa Queen shares some of her personal challenges after immigrating to the United States and how her Salsa Queen brand finally came to be.
AN: How did, this whole venture start?
SQ: I came to the United States over 30 years ago with a dream like lot of people. A lot of people dream of being successful or just living a better life.
Unfortunately, when I came here to the United States, I went to the high school, to enroll myself. I didn’t speak the language. They were asking for some kind of paperwork. I thought, “Maybe they’re asking for legal papers,” so I never went back.
I became a single mother. Unfortunately, my baby passed away of leukemia. At Primary Children’s Hospital, I met my first husband, who is the father of six of my kids. Things didn’t work out after a while.Then I got remarried again, and things didn’t work out. I thought, “Okay, my dream of becoming a stay-at-home-mom is not working out for me.” At that point, I really wanted to be independent. So, when I met my third husband, he is the one that inspired me. He’s like, “Hey, what would you like to do?” That was the first time anyone had ever asked me that.
He knows that I love cooking. In my culture, we show our love through food. So, I told him, “I want to make salsas. That’s what I want to do.” And I’m sure he rolled his eyes, but he has always been very, very supportive. So he said, “Okay, well, salsa it is.’ He threw me on Facebook and did a little shout out about me selling salsa, and people started ordering them from the beginning.
AN: Was it called Salsa Queen from the beginning?
SQ: Actually, that’s kind of a funny story. My husband said, “What about Salsa Queen?” I said, “You’re crazy. That’s never going to happen. It’s so cheesy.” But then I went to a networking event and they asked me, “Hey, what should we put you under so we can remember who you are?” And I was like, “Uh, Salsa Queen.” So, I came home and I’m like, “Okay, Salsa Queen it is.”
