Ruth Kinsler, owner of A Stroke of Luck Catering joins us this week to continue her inspirational story. Ruth shared with us more of her story and some wonderful things she has been doing with her community and seniors in a nursing facility. She talks with us about some of her delicious baked goods and soups. It's definitely a mouth-watering podcast you'll want to sink your teeth into. Ruth hasn't allowed life's circumstances to get her down, she's pivoted and tweaked where she needed to as she continues to Change the Rules. Check out her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mystrokeofluckruthie for ways you can order some of Ruth's delicious goodies.
Guest Co-host: Kris Parsons: kris@parsons-pr.com
Kris' Website: https://parsons-pr.com/
Podcast Guest: Ruth Kinsler: ruthie901@Comcast.net
Ruth's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/mystrokeofluckruthie
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:02
Welcome to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too. Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:16
Good morning, everybody and welcome to our podcasting studios in scenic Woodbury, New Jersey, our engineer, Taylor is manning the controls and keeping us on the straight and narrow. And we're here today with two guests, we have our co-host, Kris Parsons we'll let her talk in a couple of minutes and we're bringing back Ruth Kinsler with an S not a Z okay. And Ruth is going to continue the story that she started with us last time. But let me start a little bit by going back and telling you about why we are doing changing the rules as a podcast. And the reason is that we're cluttered with too many rules in our life. And I think Steve Jobs was one of the people that said, You can't live somebody else's life, you have to live yours and you can't live it if you're following everybody else's rules. You know, most rules were set here because other people wanted to control what we did. Okay? And only when you take those rules and sift and sort through them and figure out how you're going to make them work for you. Do you become free to be you? And you got to remember as we go through this, that being creative here is not about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself. So Kris Parsons and Kris starts this introduction about the liveliest host, and I'm not the liveliest host I'm the most caffeinated.
Kris Parsons01:44
This morning Ray is a little over-caffeinated. That's because our last podcast had a coffee person on it.
Ray Loewe01:51
Yeah, so Kris introduce yourself. And then I'll let you introduce Ruth with an S, not Z.
Kri Parsons01:59
Yes. Hi, everyone. I'm Kris Parsons of Parsons, PR. And I have been with Ray for a while now doing a lot of fun things, exciting things. And it's always an adventure with him. And I'm always thrilled to be working with him because he takes me in many directions. But Ruth, I don't know a lot of you maybe remember maybe a lot of you have because Ruth had the most likes and followers of her podcast. Her podcasts was here about a year ago. She has an amazing story, a very inspirational story. And actually, whenever I'm feeling down in the dumps, I go back and listen to her episode. Ruth was a very active businesswoman. She had a fabulous career, enjoyed life, and traveled to the fullest. She has many friends great family, life was really, really good for Ruth until one day at age 52. Right? Yeah, 52 she was blindsided by a stroke that paralyzed her from her chest down. Having to pivot, right, that if you listen to her story, which is very inspiring, I encourage you to listen to the whole story, it would have been very easy to curl up and give up. But not Ruth. She plowed through rehab and now walked into the studio with me. And she started a new catering career from her experience. And she named it a Stroke of Luck. Talk about a positive way. So I think we brought Ruth back just because we want to hear her story again, but also to see how she has changed a little bit and what has happened in her life since then, and what she finds inspiring, and how do you keep that positive attitude?
Ruth Kinsler03:33
Well, first of all, I just want to thank you both for having me back again. I have to tell you, I went back this week and I listened to some of the previous podcasts and to think that I have or I never thought that I was of that caliber of inspiration. Listening to them?
Ray Loewe03:53
Oh, yes you are.
Ruth Kinsler03:54
I know but just listening to them. It really it struck a chord with me and it you know, it really touched me. So I want to thank you for sort of opening my eyes and letting me realize that I do have a story and I do have the capability to you know, maybe be an inspiration to some.
Kris Parsons04:11
Yes, she's very humble too, she's very humble.
Ray Loewe04:15
Well, okay, I'm sure so lots has happened. So you know, you've had this stroke, you're, you know, in a hospital, you can't move. Uh, you know, your job is not going to be the same. And, you know, you made one quote when we did our pre-interview, let's get that on the table really early. And that is that I don't focus on what I used to be able to do.
Ruth Kinsler04:38
Very, very important. As if I did focus on those things then like Chris said, I would be home curled up in a ball sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself, but that's just not in my makeup.
Ray Loewe04:52
Yeah, and we're gonna steal that quote. probably put it on a coffee mug because I think it's who you are. And, I think some of that comes from your internal makeup, some of that comes because well, it all comes to some extent because of your mindset and your internal makeup but it's because you actually sat down and said, You know, I'm not gonna feel sorry for myself, I'm gonna make some things happen. And that is why you do have a story to tell. So let's go back and talk a little bit about the invention of the company Stroke of Luck, and what happened there and then some of the things that happened during the pandemic, because I think I want listeners to understand that, you know, sometimes you come up with this great idea. And it's really a great idea, it's still a great idea, and it's gonna happen, but things happen that make you pivot constantly. And the luckiest people in the world have this common trait. And that is that they're constantly reinventing themselves because life is constantly changing. Okay. And we have to remember that tell us a little bit about building your bake shop at home, where it's going, what are some of the things that you had to go from there?
Ruth Kinsler06:12
Okay. So, after my incident, it was probably a year, maybe a year after the incident, I realized that I was just not one. I couldn't go back to work. But I still wanted to be doing something that was giving back to others. I was so grateful to the rehabilitation center that forced me and pushed me to work hard to be able to be independent. On my own walking, I walk with one cane, now I went from a wheelchair, went from a bed to a wheelchair, to one cane now. So I'm very, very proud of myself for that. I had to come up with something that I enjoyed doing, I didn't want to do something just because I wanted to stay busy or earn a little extra cash. So I decided I wanted to do something that I loved and that I could help somebody in a way. So I came up with this idea that I loved to cook, I always enjoy cooking, and I was pretty good at it. So I started this business called a Stroke of Luck Catering, basically a lot of baked goods, but I do a lot of comfort foods. And I decided I was going to give a certain percentage of my proceeds back to McGee rehabilitation center. little plug there,
Kris Parsons07:27
they deserved it, they deserve
Ruth Kinsler07:28
They deserve it for sure. So that's what I did. I started my Facebook account a Stroke of Luck Catering, and I said, you know, all my, some of my proceeds are going to be going back to McGee and I was surprised at how successful it was. Um,
Ray Loewe07:45
Can I stop you for a minute? Because there's another element here that I think we want to get in, you know, the laws were not totally in favor of you doing this were they? They were not. And I and it's changed.
Ruth Kinsler08:02
Yes just recently, the home bakers Association, made it completely legal for home bakers to sell out of their homes.
Kris Parsons08:09
There were a lot of home I think there were a lot more people doing things cooking and baking at home during this.
Ray Loewe08:09
So you were very limited when you started, you know because we always comply with the law. Right? Exactly. Change the rules to comply with the law. And okay, so that's one of the positive things that occurred in the world out of this mess that we had. Okay, so. You know, and what do you do? You
Ruth Kinsler08:34
It's unfortunate because when you are a baker at home, you're not allowed to as clean as you are. And as much as you follow the rules, you're still not allowed to sell your items at markets. What do you call those things?
Ray Loewe08:49
a flea market or farmer's market farmers
Ruth Kinsler08:51
I had a brain fart there. Farmers markets and stores, local stores in your community, you know, you're just sort of limited to a friend's family. You keep your money down your, costs down close to your you know your sell price close to your expenses, then you have to consider the proceeds that I give away. So I had to be very, very careful about how I ran the business.
Ray Loewe09:15
Okay, so now you're more free than you used to be. But there were some other things that happened in yours. Oh, tell us a verse of the story.
Ruth Kinsler09:22
Well, after your mean with COVID
Ray Loewe09:25
Yeah, well, the whole idea you started with the stroke then we had the bakery then we had COVID.
Ruth Kinsler09:35
And I tell you like like your last guest. I mean, it really slowed down. People were very, very fearful of any kind of, you know, communication, especially purchasing food from somebody that they didn't know or from somebody you know, somebody whose kitchen so for a while it was a little tough there and you know, people would say just put it on the front step and I'll leave you money in the mailbox or You know, people were pretty scared and then eventually got really, really slow. So again, once again, I was sitting around and thinking, this isn't for me. I continue to post things and try to market myself but I decided to take a part-time job. And I am currently also doing my bakery but working in a nursing facility, assisted living facility doing part-time and I absolutely love it. I love the seniors. I love the fact that they're faster than me.
Ray Loewe10:31
Us old people do okay, you know.
Ruth Kinsler10:33
They do they amaze me. And, you know, they inspire me.
Ray Loewe10:38
So here you are you had to do another pivot in here. Okay. And this is important, because, you know, too many people say, you know, I'm going to start my bakery. Okay, it's not working. So I failed. And that's not true at all. No, not at all. Not at all. And it just means that you have to do some tweaking, change the rules a little bit, you know, make them work for you. And now not only are you back baking, but you're also doing something else that you love to and.
Ruth Kinsler11:07
And I also bake and bring it in and I treat them to all my cupcakes and my goodies. Oh, yeah. No, they love you. And it just keeps me It keeps me motivated. It keeps me you know, doing learning. I'm still learning making new recipes. And I try it out on my coworkers and the residents and they love it.
Ray Loewe11:24
Okay, so where is all of this taking you? Do you think?
Ruth Kinsler11:28
I'm not sure, Ray? I mean, that's the honest answer. I'm looking forward to the fall because menus change in the fall. soups are one of my number one seller, so I'm really looking forward to changing things up and really pushing that aspect of it. I'm doing my very first catering job for 40 people on Saturday, since the pandemic. So things will continue to peak. Right. You know, we pray that that happens. But I'm still continuing to I'm going to continue to work part-time and get the enjoyment out of the elders and the seniors at the resident home.
Ray Loewe12:08
Well, that's because you're a multi-dimensional person see. I think let's talk soup for a minute so what's your best soup?
Kris Parsons12:15
Ray loves to eat.
Ray Loewe12:18
And I love soup and you know, soups or maligned. You know, they're one of the best foods in the world.
Ruth Kinsler12:24
They are and it's really one of my favorites to make. My favorite soup is the creamy potato soup. It's the biggest seller. Amazing. Really good. So I do want to apologize because my intention was to bring you in some cupcakes this morning and I got so busy. That it didn't but
Ray Loewe12:44
you know you can look at my waist over here and say hey, yeah. With a soup later on.
Ruth Kinsler12:52
Yes, I promise I'll make that up for you. But I do the potato soup. I do the mini meatball soup. I do a lemon chicken soup. It's I mean, I just try with different things and I have a whole crew that will order my soups every week. You know and I am looking forward to that.
Kris Parsons13:07
And that all comes back to sort of what we're all talking about this whole connection right the COVID got us unconnected. Soap is a great connector soup and salad and soup every it's a comfort food. It helps us people love to talk about it. Love to have it there soup parties. I know people have soup parties.
Ray Loewe13:24
Oh yeah, they're soups and different breads. And it's a great way to connect. So we need to create a new feature on our coffee on Thursday. Where Ruthie comes on and gives us the soup menu for the day. And all you got to do is to stay on for five minutes. Because if you stay on any longer than that we're all going to drool.
Kris Parsons13:45
And if anybody misbehaves, we say no soup for you,
Ruth Kinsler13:49
right? And all of my soups come with homemade biscuits by the way.
Kris Parsons13:54
Say you better get your order in now.
Ray Loewe13:56
How do we order stuff from you?
Ruth Kinsler13:58
Oh, well, I don't have a web page yet. But I do have a Facebook page is called a Stroke of Luck.
Ray Loewe14:03
Okay. And what is there a menu posted there?
Ruth Kinsler14:06
There's photos. There's pictures of everything that I do. I do take special requests
Ray Loewe14:11
And how far advanced do we have to order?
Ruth Kinsler14:14
Oh, just a week, a couple of days, a couple of days. And by the grace of God, I drive so I can deliver. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's you know, that's one thing that I'm just truly grateful for that I've been given the opportunity to keep moving and that's what I'm planning on doing.
Ray Loewe14:33
You know, the whole flavor of our show is changing here. Okay, I can't handle all these. Well, the last podcast we did we talked about coffee, right? In an essence with your muffins. Right? We should we're going from like coffee, to muffins, to soup.
Kris Parsons14:48
Should we change this to a Food Show?
Ray Loewe14:50
Yeah, you know, instead of changing the rules, we'll say changing the menu and we can do this. Okay, so the reincarnation of the Soup Nazi only you're the nice one and the muffin lady and you're going to do this and meanwhile, you're doing some things with seniors. What else have you learned from this process about you?
Ruth Kinsler15:15
I just learned that I'm a fighter. I learned that I'm a fighter and I never thought I was before I just, you know when something like this happens to, you don't have time to think. And if you think too much, then it's going to take you in another direction. You know, you just have to, you have to dig deep. And I'm a spiritual person. I believe that the, you know, the Lord above is the one that gave me my second chance in life and I'm just gonna go with it.
Ray Loewe15:45
Okay, now there are other things you're doing to you know, see most people What did you tell him? Well, let's talk about a supper club. Oh, I took good notes.
Ruth Kinsler16:00
I did. Oh, that's so funny that you remember that? I did. I live in a condominium complex. There's 500 units. And I just felt like I needed to bring the community together, there was so much negativity regarding I don't know if either of you have ever lived in an HOA, but there's just always some negative things. So me and four of the other residents got together, we decided that we were going to host what's called the supper club on the Delaware because we live right on the Delaware River and we overlook this beautiful Yacht Club. So we started doing that we start doing that on Wednesdays, we're going to do it every season, winter, spring, summer, fall. And we just get all of our, all of our residents together, you have great dinner overlooking the beautiful Delaware with your neighbors and your friends, and you're allowed to bring, you know, family outside of the community. So it's just a nice thing for everybody to get to know their neighbors now that it's safe to do people are dying to get out and to communicate and to you know, one on one to actually see faces and feel emotions and
Kris Parsons17:03
and we decided to spread positivity. You know, it says it seems corny sometimes but it really is necessary and when you practice it, practice positivity. It becomes a habit it becomes natural.
Ray Loewe17:14
Well, I think again, this is part of your story. The story you didn't know you had exactly. But it is your you're a people person, you're out there, you're not going to sit still. Things happen to you. Okay, so what? Okay, you go through it, you do what has to do, and you go on to the next positive thing. I love the supper club. And guess what? The supper club? You can have soup? Oh, yes. You know we get this cold winter day when nobody wants to drive. We'll just do soup, right?
Ruth Kinsler17:46
Our first one was a pasta night and our next one is going to be a good old-fashioned Texas barbecue.
Kris Parsons17:52
We'll see. And that's why I think I like what's happening here with changing the rules and our coffee hours on our cocktail hours. You know, Ruthie he didn't know she had a story she was and I didn't know. And then when she saw how many people liked it and followed her and how we're asking her to do this again. You know, it does build confidence, like wow, I guess I do matter. I have a story. And it's a story that helps others.
Ray Loewe18:12
So you know I can see fortune muffins developing. I like that idea. You know, I've always wanted to write fortune, a fortune cookies. You ever, you know, they're so bad? We have a new forum here. You know, we'll break the muffin apart and out will pop a new fortune for the day.
Ruth Kinsler18:29
how about I make the muffins and you write the fortune? Oh,
Kris Parsons18:33
He's got some good ones. One of my favorite ones of Ray is, Let's just assume I'm right, I'll make everything easier.
Ray Loewe18:42
Okay, so I think we've kind of brought you up to date in terms of what you're doing. Do you have any visions about some of the things that maybe you would like to do now that cropped up out of all of this stuff that's going on?
Ruth Kinsler18:57
Well, I've always always wanted to have my own storefront. And I'm still I'm not backing down from that hope and dream that someday that's what I will do. I love to feed people, I guess you can see the tie in between the supper club, feeding the residents and the seniors at my long-term care facility, and then the Stroke of Luck Catering. So I guess food is something that I'm you know, I'm in love with and I just want to share it with people.
Ray Loewe19:23
So I'm hoping that it has something to do with that. Well, you'll have it there's only so much question you'll have it. It's a question of just when and you know, we learned from the last podcast we did on coffee that reopening coffee shops is it's not quite on time yet. So keep the dream. Keep the basics going. Which you have you know you have. You have your bakery, you've got your system set up. And uh, there's no doubt it'll happen and we'll do a podcast for the grand opening from the storefront Taylor will wheel out his portable podcast, and we'll deal with this. Alright, okay, we're kind of near the end of our time. Why don't we would Kristine make some closing remarks? And then we'll come back to you and let you make some. All right.
Kris Parsons20:14
Yeah, great. Well, it's always fascinating. It's always fascinating to talk to you, Ruth. Ruth is a good friend of mine. But also I get inspired every time I talk to her. So thank you for coming. I know you've been very busy. So this is great. And I want to encourage all the listeners to go back to her podcasts or original one. And you'll see it, they're all listed on the website, theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com, long, long website. But still, it's one more theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com. See everything that we have to offer. And please join us, we'd love more people to come because as you can see from people we're interviewing, here, we're getting inspired every day. And we'll get Ruthie to come on coffee someday, and we'll all be able to place soup orders.
Ruth Kinsler20:56
I love that. Thank you so much for having me. I really, really was, I was nervous. I told Kris, I was a little nervous to come back today. Just because, you know, the result of the pandemic really did hit a lot of people really hard.
Ray Loewe21:10
It's so important that you're willing to tell that story because, you know, everybody's been in this thing. And those words together, those of us that bounce back, you know, into say, Okay, I'm going to find a way are going to be here and are going to be happy and the vision will keep going and, you know, again, I want to just come back to these two things. You know, maybe I do have a story. And I think everybody ought to think this way. Yes, I think I think you know, what's the story that you have. And the second and this is really important is I don't focus on what I used to be able to do. And Ruth, thanks for being you. And thanks for being an inspiration to all of us. And muffins and soup. Right? Yeah.
Ruth Kinsler21:53
Thank you both very much.
Ray Loewe21:54
All right, everybody, have a great day. And we'll see you in a week with another great guest.