Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Cristina Ferrare - Former Fashion Model, NY Times Bestselling Author, TV Host & Entrepreneur

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Welcome to another episode of The Radcast! In this episode on The Radcast, host Ryan Alford talks with Cristina Ferrare, Former‌ ‌Fashion‌ ‌Model,‌ ‌NY‌ ‌Times‌ ‌Bestselling‌ ‌Author,‌ ‌TV‌ ‌Host‌ ‌&‌ ‌Entrepreneur‌.Cristina talks about her experiences as a model, and a public figure in her early years that molded her into the person she is today. She also talks about controversies in the past where she had to search for the meaning of life, and how she coped up with it.Ryan and Cristina also discuss how different it was promoting her brand from the past compared to today, where social media is accessible to everyone. Cristina also reveals how she transitioned from a supermodel to a professional cook, as well as how her passion for cooking started. She shares her biggest challenges after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and how she managed to stay positive during that time, and more...Cristina’s quick take on keyword trending topics;Plant-basedGMO’sFood CartsAlcohol-free CocktailsLearn more about Cristina Ferrare and how her business Flourish started: https://cristinaferrare.com/ . Follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @cristinacooks.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com Like, Share and Subscribe on our YouTube account https://bit.ly/3iHGk44 or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

And I remember I was having like an out-of-body experience thinking, okay, I could either walk off right now or I could sit and face the music. And I decided to do that. It turned me around in another direction and brought new opportunity. And that's where I found my happy place. And that's where I found what I now realize where my little baby seeds were planted for passion. Because you have to have a passion for what you do. You're listening to the Radcast.

If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. I'm excited today. I've got a charming, a charming woman that I was excited to talk to. And she might not know why, but we're going to get into that. But Christina Ferrari, great to have you on the show. Thank you. I'm so excited to be on the show.

And when I heard that you wanted me to come on, I went, what? I couldn't believe it. So I'm flattered. Thank you so much. Well, hey, you know, you hit a few topics. I had some people turn me on to you, and I was starting to read about you. I read little inserts from your books, and there was this bitty of connection points. And I was like, you know what?

We say if it's radical, we cover it. And you know what, Christina? I think you're pretty darn radical. Oh, thank you. Thank you. So best-selling author, past known for being a model, written books. You're a cook. You're a chef.

You've got your hands in all kinds of things, don't you? Yes. You know, we started at a very young age. As you go through life, I look at my life as a book and chapters in a book. Each part is a learning part. There are good things that happen to you along the way and pretty, can I say, shitty things? Oh, yes. Please. This is the rad cast. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm going to go from life to peace. I'm always trying to pretty can i say shitty things oh yes please this is the radcast okay christina all right i'm always trying to edit myself oh please don't no editing on the radcast and then you know you have to pick yourself up and move on because life is a series of events and

you know good stuff bad stuff and you know know, that's how I conducted my life. I know. It's been obvious. Like, I see that from what I've read and from afar. And that's what I admired about you is it seemed like you, I don't know, there was an energy about you that I really, really appreciated. And as we chatted before the episode, I could feel it even more. So, dude, let's start from the beginning. I know, I mean, you've had such a great career. You've done a lot of things.

But maybe let's, you know, our 40 minute podcast, we could only we could just talk about your accolades and everything you've done. But let's let's at least set the stage for everybody about Christina. And, you know, I guess your condensed life story. I don't want to shortchange it, but, you know, I do want to build towards today and talk more about your recent books, which was where I saw some connection points. But let's at least tell everybody more about you if they haven't already heard. There's probably a lot of our listeners that have heard of you, a lot of executives that we work with, but I'd love to talk a little bit about your story. Sure. Is there something you want me to start from the beginning? You know, you get the highlights, you know, get the highlight version, you know, you know, your favorite moments. How about that? A lot of favorite moments in my life,

but I'll start with, you know, Cleveland, Ohio. I was born there. I'm a good Midwestern girl. I was brought up there, so I had all the values of home and family. My parents were immigrants from Italy. Actually, my father was stationed in the war in Italy. We moved to Cleveland, and by the time I was 14, my parents moved to Los Angeles. And then, long story short, I came home from school one day. My mother was having lunch with a new friend she made, and she said,

your daughter is pretty. Have you ever thought of maybe perhaps modeling? So I ended up at the Nina Blanchard Agency in Los Angeles, which is the equivalent to the Ford Agency in New York. And I was 14 years old, And by the time I was 15, Max Factor put me under contract to them. And I was their spokesperson for over 20 years, which is a very long lifespan in a model's life. But at 18, I moved to New York and I I moved to New York and I happened to go,

you go on go-sees and I have a, Oh, I forgot to say, I was put under contract to 20th century Fox as well. At the time I was 16, I did a movie called the impossible years with David Niven, which was the radio city music called big attraction. And my life started to expand from there. So when, by the time I got to New York, I went on the go and sees, I happened to walk into Francesco Scurullo, who was the photographer who did all the Cosmopolitan covers. So he says, I do covers and I submit them every

month to magazine. Would you do one? I went, yeah, well, sure. And then he decided he was going to do eight pages in vogue for me and just send it over to vogue three months later they came out at the same time and i never looked back it was like boom right the minute that cover hit the stands and the the vogue magazine came out everybody was who's this new girl who's this new girl? Who's this new girl? And because I was dark and not blonde and not flat chested, I was different. So I was able to command a lot of attention. I became a commercial spokesperson. I traveled all over the world, met the most interesting people. And I married for the first time at 19 years old to a lovely man who's been a friend of mine for over 40 years, but it just didn't work out.

And I had a couple more after that. I had one more after that. After that marriage, I stayed in New York for career. Again, you make stupid money at that time, and you have to be really careful, you know, because you could get so out of control. But I was very grounded in my ways. I would come to the studio. I would bring food for everybody. I would, you know, I was always on time, always professional because basically I didn't want people to say anything bad about me. I want everybody to love me. Right. So, um, well, that sometimes that doesn't work out. Yeah. Can't please everyone all the time. No.

But, okay, where am I in this saga? See, I'm having a brain fart. Oh, yes. My husband just walked in and he stuck his head in and he said, it's John. So John, when he says John, is John Florian. Yeah. I saw that name and of course remembered the, I mean,

I always thought it was back to the future, you know, being a product of the eighties. Yeah. Well, you know, I remember distinctly it was during the trial. It goes,

John was arrested at that time for allegedly he was acquitted by the way, for buying and selling cocaine. And we were in the middle of the trial and we went to see a movie. We wanted to see Back to the Future. I had two small children and I had to, you know, try to have some sense of normalcy for them. So we went to see a movie and we're sitting there and the whole place is packed, packed. And we just quietly went and sat down. And all of a sudden, this car comes on. And my little girl shouts, hey, mommy, look, it's daddy's car. And so everybody in the theater just stood up and started cheering.

And I thought, well, this is weird. He's being accused of cocaine. And everybody's like, but the car had a personality of its own, a legend of its own, along with John. I'm making light of it, but it was, you know, our whole life overnight just turned upside down. And it was very difficult because I had two small children, nine and six years old. And we were followed everywhere by the paparazzi people were screaming at us we couldn't go out it was awful and we ended up in New Jersey it's it's very funny because the house that we had was bought by the the Trump organization for

the golf course that's the one in Bedminster that was our home. And so you could get an idea of the lifestyle that I was living at that time, which was quite heady, I have to admit. I was very young. I didn't quite know how to handle everything because I just did it. And like I said, it was a terrible time. It was a very sad time. And it was a stressful time. And our marriage couldn't survive the stress after 11 years of marriage. There are a lot of things. I don't know if you've seen any of the documentaries on TV with the DeLorean car.

There's been three now. It's been a while, but I have seen at least one of them. And, you know, it messed with everybody, with all of our heads, my head, my children's head. And it was it was a difficult time. But, you know, I have a great family. I took the kids. I came back to California. I restarted my life. I was very fortunate and blessed to be able to get a job, excuse me, right away with a morning television show. And it happened when the head of the Olin Operated Stations here in L.A. was watching me on Phil Donahue, who had me on to talk about the DeLorean trial. But I was promoting a book at the time.

He said, you could come on the show, but I need to ask you a couple of questions about John. I said, okay, well, you know, I have a gag order and I can't really talk about stuff but he says, well, I promise, you know, we'll talk about the book and then I'll ask you a question. So he opens up the show but, you know, he's in the audience with that microphone when he sticks in everybody's face

and he says, the first thing out of his mouth is, John DeLorean is guilty of giving your kids cocaine, and how do you feel about it? He sticks the microphone in front of this lady, and she starts talking about how he's ruining the youth of America and how can I stay with such a man? And I remember I was having like an out-of-body experience thinking, okay, I could either walk off right now or I could sit and face the music. And I decided to do that. So by the time it was over, it took about 45 minutes, and I had like four minutes to promote my book. But I just felt it was over it took about 45 minutes and I had like four minutes to promote my book but I just felt it was important but to to talk about it but without giving away anything that

would get me in trouble in the courts so um uh the oh the president of the oh no station happened to watch me on that and he was replacing a person on the AM Los Angeles show, which was the morning show here in LA, with a new host. And he said, she's feisty, that one. I'd like to have her, I would like to hire her to come out. So I went and I met with them and I realized that I had to, you know, earn my own money because we were financially wiped out the government came in and took everything all of my money all of john's money everything i was broke and um i realized that you know i had to step up i had to support my kids and move to la my family was great my brother my sister my mother my father every you know my my close friend close friends. I have to say I had one left because along with everything else,

our friends, they were like cockroaches. They all went away, which really shocked me. It was like, wait a minute, what? You know who your friends are when things are not so great, right? Yeah, sure do. And then I was able to put my kids in school, support them, support myself. And what was great about it was here I am, a girl from Cleveland, because it was the morning show at the time in L.A., the biggest market in New York, in L.A. Everybody who was anybody was promoting a movie, a film, or a book.

So I got to meet every single major movie star, every famous director, writer, medical expert, everything that would all come on the show to promote what it was they were doing. So I couldn't believe it. You know, like when Jimmy Stewart would sit there and I'd go, Oh my God, this is Jimmy Stewart. I can't believe it you know like when Jimmy Stewart would sit there and I'd go oh my god this is Jimmy Stewart I can't believe it it was um it was a wonderful time I stayed there for six six years and then kept you know when that was over with you know it's like oh my god what do I do now but you know what you have to figure out what am I going to do now but as disappointing well I know why I left because I

met my Tony Thelmopoulos we've been married 37 years and after um I met him uh you know we had two children and then I decided that when I had my second child I wanted to just stop and raise my kids because I was I was gone a lot and in the mornings And so I decided I was going to do that. But then after a while, when the kids went to school, I got really bored. And it's like, oh, my God, what am I going to do now? But opportunities keep happening for you. And it's always important to, when a door opens for you, to walk through it, even if you don't want to, because you never know who you're going to meet, where you're going

to go, what's going to change the trajectory of your life. And I decided that, and that's the way my philosophy has always been. I always step through that door and, um, I'm always surprised and it's always in the direction I'm supposed to be going in. So I just go with it. I love it, Christina. There's a lot to unpack there. I do want to, I want to focus forward, but I also want to just ask that. I'm a curious creature, you know, like, you know, like looking back and sometimes you talk to people and it's not in a, it's not necessarily negative, but you're like almost surprised how little you feel like they've lived, you know, in their life, like how simple it is. And in some ways you admire that simplicity and happiness.

And I hear you tell your story and I hear seven lifetimes, you know, like, you know, like the amount of living you've done and it fascinates me. And I always want to, you know, like go like you've described what it was like and you've described those emotions, but like looking back, is it just, is it a blur or is everything like, obviously I know, you know, some things are brighter than others, but like, is it just like, do you feel like you've really lived? Yes. This sounds like, you know, I just feel like life coming out of you, you know, like in a positive way and like living and experiencing so many different, you know, sagas of life. Well, the thing is, is a lot of people are paralyzed when bad things happen to them and they don't know what to do. I was never that kind of a person because I realized that I needed to move forward.

And I also realized, too, for me, I needed to be independent. I needed to make my own money. I needed to have my own freedom. And that gave me freedom. But the joy that I received from that I had having children and having my husband and the support of, of, you know, my family. So that just kept me going forward. I've had some pretty hard knocks, you know, where I've been fired from jobs that devastated me, especially my last one, which was for the Hallmark Channel called Home and Family. which was for the Hallmark Channel called Home and Family.

We started that originally in 1996, and then it came back again in 2012, and they hired me to come back on. It was two hours live every day. I loved doing this show more than I've done everything else. You know, I've hosted with Regis many times, and I did Good Morning Morning America I had my own shows but this this was very special because I got to go into everybody's living room every day for two hours and my kids could come to the set with me and it was so joyous I loved everybody I worked with and then six six five years into it, I started feeling kind of weird. And I would come home and my husband said, are you okay?

You're missing, you're not really listening. And I'm going, what do you mean I'm not really listening? I've been doing this for 20 years. What are you talking about? So he said, no, there's something that's a little off. And sure enough, one day I said to oh i know what it was so this is what happened all at once my mom who had alzheimer's passed away right after that i was fired like three weeks later i was fired out of the blue and when i asked the head of the network

and the executive producer why are you doing this? The ratings are great. And I said, because I thought of myself as like the mom of the house. I really believed this was my house. I really believed that these people I worked with, all 75 of them, were my family. I really did. I should have known better because that's not the way business really is. You know, you make your pretend family yeah um

but um i said why are you doing this and this is what they said okay this is what i heard no this is what they said and this is this is what i heard because you're old okay you're old. And that, I can't tell you what that felt like because it was like, I've never experienced that because as a woman and a successful woman and then being the position I was, that never occurred to me. And would never occur to me because I was old that I would be fired. to me because I was old, then I would be fired. It's like, first of all, you can't say that to me because you're, you know, I'd say that's against the law. You can't say that. You know, and I said, you do realize the demographic for Hallmark is 50 to death. You do realize that, right? And he said, well, yeah, you're too old. We want to bring in a younger demographic. I said, kids today

don't want to sit for two hours and watch, you know, somebody, you know, knit something. I said, you can't do that. So wait a minute. Did you give me, oh, oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Somebody just handed me something. It's like, shut up. You're talking too much. No, you're not. You talking this is fascinating um it it I can't tell you what that did to my spirit and my psyche and and I just couldn't get over it and I you know it's fine for a day but then I just broke down completely I had a massive like nervous massive nervous breakdown which I never do. Never, never.

I've never done in my life. But after about my kids, my two younger kids came home. Oh, not at that time. But I was crying and crying and crying and crying. And then I said to Tony, I can't get over this. This is not normal. This is what I'm feeling is not normal. Everybody's got, you know, everybody's been fired from a job I have too. There's something going on.

Something's not going on. So long story short, I'm exercising. The whole family, we went to exercise. They put me on this machine that rattles your bones. And when I got off, I had a terrible headache that lasted for three days. So I said, when I got home from there, I couldn't get up the stairs because the room was spinning and everything. I said, I need to go to the hospital. Something is off.

So I go to the emergency room. And because I was complaining of headaches, they did a PET scan. And I was told by the doctor, who is a dear friend of ours, who had a cardiology there said i'm gonna take care of christina so he came in and uh when he came in he walked over to my husband he's a good family friend now he takes my husband's hand and he starts to cry and i went and then my husband starts to cry he hasn't heard anything yet and i went am i dying i saw you guys doing i said stop it stop it right now what are you doing tell me so i have uh multiple myeloma you know which is like i guess the disease du jour now since our dear colin powell pat you know not had it anyway

so everybody's now talking about multiple myeloma but but at the time I said, okay, I don't like the word multiple and I don't like myeloma because that indicates some kind of cancer, correct? And they said, yes. So I said, well, what is it? He said, it's the cancer of the plasma of the blood cells. And I went, well, that's not good. But I have to tell you, Ryan, when he said that to me, I didn't get scared. You know, you should get a cancer diagnosis and you fall apart. I didn't get scared.

There was a peace that came over me and said, just stay calm. I'm with you. We're going to get through this. So I said, first of all, what's the prognosis? How long do you have? He says, you have two to five years. And I go, no, no, no. I rejected the whole thing. He said, that's not happening. He said, you can come back on Thursday. This was a Monday. And we will do, we'll start the test. I go, no, you're not. I'm staying here tonight. You're going to start tomorrow. And he said, stay off the internet, which I didn't. I went on the next morning. I said, okay, this is the plan. I'm having stem cell. That was it. He said, don't you want to talk about it? I said, no, we're doing a stem cell. Everything that I read about, this is what we're doing. I'm in an early stage. We can do this.

we can do this so I was able to contact the head of research of the myeloma found not the myeloma foundation but the head of research for myeloma at city of hope and I contacted her and she's been my doctor ever since I had a stem cell May 4th 2017 and I've been in remission ever since but I was supposed to stay in the hospital for a month I was out in two weeks and that's going to get into the whole eating thing now because the way that I've always eaten and and um um I believed in that food is medicine for your body but it can also kill you because you know it has pesticides and processed and the whole thing and that's why cancer diabetes all these diseases are out of control now because of the american diet that we have you know to the diet that we have so uh well i have to ask you though what

you're a damn fighter like where where does that come from though i've heard that you've told three or four different stories but out of every single one of them i it's a theme coming through and i always ask people like you know because not everyone is that way you know especially in today's society seems like everyone's kind of goes the other way where did that come from uh i'm italian number one okay all right it starts there um you know what i don't know where that really comes from. It just, I know that it's always served me well, but my, my girls call this side of me, Christina Panari. That's their like evil twin.

It's like whenever somebody, you know, backs me up, or if I have to do something that they'll go, mom, you know, Christina Panari came out today and I had to assert myself to in order to get what it was that I needed and she they said you know it works they used to get frightened every time they saw Christina come out and they would leave but um I think it's just a survival mode that I've always had because I enjoy everything I do. And like, if you'd ask me, like now, if you could go back and change one thing, would you change it? And I would say, no, absolutely not. I don't sense that in you. That's why I wasn't even going to ask that. I don't sense that. I know, but I don't, I don't, I don't know. I don't sense that you'd change

anything, but I, cause I feel like you've learned and you've rebounded. If you were someone that dwelled, which I don't sense in you, I might ask that, but I can tell you don't dwell. You're a problem solver. You're a fixer, a fighter, whatever it is. I don't even know you, but that's what I sense in you. I think it's important. well i think it's what i've learned in life uh very young and i believe that failure or what you perceive as failure to be is opportunity disguised as deep disappointment you know so you know i made that up by the way did you really all right we're gonna circle that one that that's gonna make we do highlight clips from these that That's making the highlight clips and going to be a quote.

And if you see that on my personal page, I will obviously give you credit, but I love that. But I believe that. And every single time, and I'm not exaggerating or lying about this, every single time

one of those bumps in the road happened always turned out to be the best thing that happened for me because it turned me around in another direction and brought new opportunity. If that hadn't have happened, I wouldn't have met my husband. If I hadn't gotten sick, I wouldn't have written the book. Or if I hadn't written the book, I wouldn't have come up with the idea for the food company that we just started. So everything turns out for a reason. And when you look back on it, did it hurt? Did you cry? Did you do? Yeah, I did all of that. Did I get mad? Did I? Yeah, I also believe in letting your feeling to show your true feelings

and you don't have to hold anything back. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to be mad. It's okay to, you know, to, to, to act not cruelly, but it's okay. Not, not cruelly, but badly. As long as you're not, you know, physically hurting anybody or saying, or, or your words, you have to be careful with your words too, because those are hurtful. But those are all life lessons. And, you know, somebody said to me the other day, you ever plan to retire? And I go, no. I said, because when you retire, you just stop. You know, you stop. I can make I can make something.

I don't want to stop. You know, we're all and I know you've heard this this line before, but we're all works in progress. We are. I'm not on my last chapter yet of my book of my very long wonderful life's book and one of my favorite books in the world is a book that tony gave me when we were dating from a greek poet called kava kava kava fee he was a great poet and he wrote the poem ithaca you know and it's you know it's about it's about life's journey it's, you know, it's about, it's about life's journey. It's not about collecting things. It's not about having things or it's about, you know,

getting out there into the world and going through the journey in life and seeing where it takes you and how it changes you and the people that brings it to your life. So I love that. Let me ask you, let me ask you a question. I don't frame this appropriately. You're a beautiful woman. You are. You were a model. You're still a beautiful woman. How do you look? You were a fashion model. superficial, but yet there's this layer to you that's so much deeper than beauty. I mean, are you a realist in that you look back and you know it opened doors, but then you ran through them? But like, what do you think about when you think of beauty and how the role it played in your life? I have to tell you again, honestly, that when I was young I I knew I was pretty but I never thought I was beautiful

and I was oh I'm too fat I'm too you know I this is this is off but um I I knew that I was but I didn't I didn't feel like it but when I look back at those photographs and stuff, I go, holy cow, I was beautiful. I didn't realize it then, you know, but I think the cooking the thing like that and stuff things like that so um but I also I wasn't stupid I also knew the power that I had which I had a lot of at that time because of the way that that I looked but um again when I look back on it, I think, wow, I could have done more with it. I could have done so much more with it. But I didn't. And, you know, I look at myself now at 71 years old and, you know, it's hard. I look at myself in the mirror and, you know, I've got makeup on.

You take all this off, this isn't so perfect, you know, but it's okay. I'm okay with who I am as a person. And I believe that even though I am aging and I don't have that power anymore, my daughters have it now. And it gives me great delight to sit back and watch them do that, you know. But they're like I am. They don't think of themselves that way. They're very much into the same things I was, about family and cooking and home. Oh, that's true beauty then, is what I would call that. My wife is the same way.

I do want to transition to food. One of the reasons your story really attracted to me, not only just the depth of it and the layers, but, you know, what you've turned to with the nutrition business now and Flourish. So I definitely want to hear more. I know the health, you know, your health inspired a lot of that and other things, but certainly transition to that and what that journey's been like. When I was in the hospital convalescing, I was trying to finish the book, and I was writing all of these recipes. I realized that what I wanted to do for the next chapter of my life is something that I've really been preparing unwittingly all of my life for.

Because when I was a child, as little as three years old, I was always in the kitchen with my mother and my grandmother. And I was always cooking. And that's where I found my happy place. And that's where I found what I now realize where my little baby seeds were planted for passion. Because you have to have a passion for what you do in life no matter what it is you decide to do um so i can remember playing in a sandbox with a bucket and water and sand and i would put like the sand in the water and pretend it was pasta water like my nana would do with her pasta and i put these little plastic um bowl you know those

little you don't remember you're too young uh they were uh bowling bowling pins made out of plastic oh i remember those come on i'm not that young and then i would pretend it was the possum i would cook and i would have all my neighbor friends come over and we would pretend and our house was always filled with music and people every weekend so I associated food with happiness and family and noise and music and that's you know that's what always lived inside of me so I wanted to become a dietician that was my first thing I want you know I got I was sidetracked by coming home from school one day and this woman saw me. But that's what I wanted to be as a nutritionist. So what I love is the lure of the kitchen.

I love the science of the kitchen. I love how things come together. And I've studied everything about nutrition since I was a little girl. So now all of that, what I've been through all the years with all the talk shows I've done, because I've always said if I do the show, they said one thing, they say, what is it the one thing you want to contribute? And I said, I want to do the cooking. So this is what I did.

And that's my way of reaching out to people. That's my way of showing love to people, you know, is by feeding them. So when I decided I was sitting there, I go, I want to start a food company because I want people. People aren't going to go on diets. People are going to stop eating fried chicken and they're not going to stop eating ice cream and pizzas and potato chips. They're not. They're just not. I like all those. Well, who doesn't? So I said, how can I bring all of these foods to people that they can eat without injuring their bodies, right? First thing you have to do is you have to make the decision to cut out processed sugar and hydrogenated fats, period. That's all you need to do. So now we're going to reinvent your recipe and how you're going to make these foods. And you substitute your processed sugars with natural ones like stevia or

monk fruit, which is made from plants. You could do that. And I've come up with recipes, even desserts, chocolate mousse with no cream, no dairy, and it tastes like chocolate mousse. And potato chips and fries and all of these things that you can have by cooking it in a way that's clean and eating organic. Now, everybody's screaming, well, it's too expensive. It is not too expensive. All major supermarkets carry organic foods now. And maybe there are four or five cents, maybe 25 cents more than what you pay for the ones that's sprayed with chemicals. And there are plastic bags and things that are killing you and killing your family. So, you know, so you pay a couple extra dollars more for organic food. If the food's not organic, I won't put it in my mouth.

I just won't eat it. And if you want to eat meat, that's your thing. I don't eat meat because it's a cruelty thing in my head. I always think that you're eating fear, you know, or you're eating – and then plus, you know, they're pumped with all kinds of hormones and things like that. So I just don't eat it. So anyway, but I love hamburgers but you know

you gotta miss a hamburger now but but you know what there are members of my family who eat meat and so i have to um i have to prepare them in a in a way but that they could eat it without raising cholesterol or having too much fat and stuff like that. But my food is delicious. And I decided when I wanted to start in this food company, as you know, when you start a company, you have to start small because I want to do everything at once. I want to do this big company. I want to have soups and sauces and grab and go. And so I

said, okay, I need to focus. And I started with granola cereal because everybody was saying your granola is so good, you should market it. But it's not that easy where you walk in to the store and say, oh, you put my stuff on your shelf. No, it's been an odyssey. We've been at this now with Flourish, our Flourish company for four years. And now we're just starting to get our sea legs because, you know, there's a lot of moving parts to starting a business and a lot of mistakes that you make as well. But we started with that and we ended up on Amazon. We're in a major company here, a major health food store in L.A. called Air One. And we just made it on to Walmart where you can order from Walmart.

And we're starting to expand. And my dream, this is my dream, is I want to have a food company where I can have everything, you know, all your sauces, your soups, the recipes, salad dressings, everything that you will have in your everyday life that's organic, it's gluten-free, some of it is vegan, but all the foods that, you know, no GMO, kosher, all those things that will feed your body and help keep you healthy. Because, you know, there's the environment. You talk about cancers, you know, there's hereditary. And then there's also, you know, the environment. There's a lot of factors that go into it.

But you have to help your body to be able to help itself. And then what I would like to do is eventually in success, I'm praying that somebody will come and buy my company for $500 million. You and everyone else. But we'll buy out my company. And then the next phase is I wanted to be the give back phase, you know, where I want to start a foundation or I want to build a building at City of Hope where it, you know, they have cancer research. They do that, but a myeloma foundation, myeloma and Alzheimer's, because that's the other thing that, well, they don't do that there, but because it's a cancer research hospital, but those are the things I want to do. I want to be able to help with research for multiple myeloma

and you need money to do that. But I believe I could do that if there's success with this company. So this is my little dream and start out small. And hopefully, you know, I'll live long enough to be able to see my dream come true. But if not, I know I'm putting good things out there. So it's okay. So I know this question kind of spans both the company now, and then obviously your past, but like, what's been maybe the most surprising change? You know,

you came up through media, you know, as a model and magazines, and then you were in media on the news as, uh, you know, on TV every day. And then now running a company dealing with media, with your products, things like that like what's been the biggest surprise or the biggest change to you uh in just over the overall media landscape as you've come through it uh i realize how difficult it is it It's not easy. You know, and it's an everyday thing. And it takes up sometimes a good portion of my day, which, like, I'm going through a phase now where I actually resent it. But I'll get over it. It's just a phase.

And I'll get back to it. Because the other day I said, that's it. I'm not doing this. I'm not going on Instagram anymore. And my husband just shakes his head because he knows how I am. And then, you know, four or five days a week goes by and I'm back to doing what I was doing. But it's difficult.

That part I find difficult. It's just so complex too. There's so many channels now, right? I mean, it's like you've got Instagram and you've got Facebook and you've got TikTok and you've got YouTube and you've got, you know, and I guess those are almost like the channels now. Much like back in the day, it still is NBC, CBS, ABC, but it's just so many variables now, right? Yeah, but it really takes a village too.

And right now I'm a one-woman show along with my husband to keep our investment tight and everything. And eventually, I need help to do the Instagram. And I don't even understand TikTok, so I don't understand that. So I'm not sure. Although I hear it's something you should be doing. It's booming. It's booming. to be doing but um it's booming it's yeah it was a year ago i i would tell you it was coming but it was mainly 15 year olds and now i'll tell you it's here so do i have to dance or something

no you don't have to dance i don't dance and i'm verified and have all the time believe me you don't see i'm 65260 you don't want to see me dancing so But I have a good TikTok following, but I do more factual. I call it infotainment. Edutainment. Yeah, I have no idea. I have to look into it. But right now, that's what I'm doing right now. And especially now during the holiday times, love this this time of year and it's

taking me away from all the things that i love to do so i i have to find i have to find balance balance is really important in life because then you start to lose your sensibilities if you don't you know talk about um food for thought you know i know it, I know you've got a lot of books out there, but that's a lot of, you know, the recipes of different things that you were just talking about. Where can, what's the best place, Amazon, things like that? Where can everybody keep up with all your books and you? Yeah, Amazon carries it. The book has been out for like six years now, so it's in the final phases of it., I'm starting also this for Invent on it for three years and to bring it over by the crate was going to cost about $3,000 to bring everything over. Now they raised it to $20,000.

We can't put that out. I have to charge $200 for a skillet. Who wants to do that? I can't do that but I'm going to come out with a skincare line which has CBD oil and it's fabulous. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah.

Working on that is, yeah, CBD's been all the rage these days. It seems to be going in everything. Well, it helps me a lot too when I was going through all that body pain when I was going through all my chemo stuff. So that really helps. It does. Well, we do a little section that's called rad or fad. So you can even think of it in simplest terms as good or bad. But I call it rad or fad.

I give you one word. You tell me rad or fad. How about that? Okay. First word, plant- tell me rad or fad. How about that? Okay. First word, plant-based. Rad or fad? Oh, it's so rad. We've got some layups here.

GMOs. Yeah, it's rad. Yeah. Well, it's bad. Non-GMOs would be rad. GMOs would be fad or bad. No, no. GMOs's bad. Non-GMOs would be rad. GMOs would be fat or bad. No, no. GMOs is bad.

No, I meant it's non-GMOs. That's why I hesitated. I had to think of it. How about food carts? Seem to be like trending. I think it's just bad. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, yeah.

See them around. How about alcohol-free cocktails? I think it's rad. do i do i hope it's not a fad because i know a lot of people have you know the drink that'll probably be better for them so i'm gonna say it's rad i like it yeah cool christina where can everybody keep up with you and everything else what's uh the best place to keep up with Christina Ferrari? Well, you could go to Christina Cooks, which is no H in Christina. Then our food company, because I want to get this correct, because I always get it wrong. I don't know why.

It's Flourish underscore, it's Flourish, F-L-O-U-R-I-S-H underscore body, mind, soul. And there you can see everything that we do with our granola cereal and all pictures and all thousand different ways that you can eat it. Because, you know, I try to get people to think outside the box there where you can, you know, find other ways to use granola other than pouring milk on it. Or as I like to say, thinking outside the bag, you know, and then I'm on Twitter at Christina Cooks and my website, which is Christina Ferrari, www.christinaferrari.com. Christina. And soon to be on TikTok. Yes. Soon to be on TikTok. Yes. Inspired by the

Radcast. Christina, you've been lovely. I really appreciate your time. I think our guests are going to find this really insightful. Your story is really amazing. And I love the fight you have in you and, you know, true beauty. Well, thank you. And I have to tell you, you're so easy to talk to. You're so chill and laid back. And I really appreciate, you know, every your questions and really having me on because I'm still shocked that you had me on. But I'm very grateful.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Christina. Hey, guys, you know where to keep up with us. We're at the Radcast.com. Search for Christina Ferrari. Search for Flourish. You'll find all the content for today's episode. You know where to find me.

I'm at Ryan Alford on all the platforms. We'll see you next time on the Radcast.