A New Chapter
The year was 2011.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it would be the year that would change my life.
At the time, I was just a small-town girl trying to navigate job searching in a new, and very overwhelming, big city. I was filling out thousands of applications, taking hundreds of phone interviews and going on countless in-person interviews. It was overwhelming in and of itself, but add in a new city and, well, let’s just say I was frequently that girl crying in a corner on the subway (if you have ever lived in NYC you know exactly what I’m talking about). There were more mishaps than I care to a remember, but a few in particular stand out as ones that drove me to subway tears. For starters, there was the time, on one of the very first NYC interviews that I went out on, that I ended up in the middle of the Bronx when I was meant to be downtown (figuring out the subway system may or may not have been even harder than finding a job). Then of course there was the time I was sent to an address of a brand’s mail box at the UPS store rather than their actual office (by the time I got to the proper address the day was almost over and so was any chance I’d had at that job). But the icing on this misshapen cake was the time I had to get to an interview on the 27th floor of a building with only one working and very old (read- slow) elevator. Did I mention it was also lunch time? Needless to say, waiting for the elevator along with employees, visitors and every delivery person within a two block radius, meant stopping at every single floor (yes, every single one) on the way up, was a painful process that took longer than the actual interview (mostly because I spent much of the interview time on an elevator just trying to get to said interview). And all this on top of the regular stresses that come with job searching and being young, broke and living in New York City. Suffice it to say, I needed a mental break.
Which is precisely how blogging entered the picture. I’d vaguely heard of it before and even saw a blog or two popping up on the inter webs. So I thought, why not? I like writing and photos and have lots of hobbies I enjoy talking about. Why not write about food, fashion and the new city I was calling home? And that’s how, in September 2011, Runway Chef was born. Dave came up with the name (“runway” for the fashion and”chef” for the food), I secured the site (on Blogger), got myself a (insanely hideous) logo and wasted no time diving right in. Because, you see, in a way, blogging wasn’t really all that new to me.
Long before there was the blog, there was my Live Journal and MySpace (Anyone know how Tom is doing these days??). Before that it was a newsletter (Kids Business) that I printed and mailed to subscribers (aka my family that I forced to subscribe). And before that it was good old fashioned journals. In some way, I’ve always been writing, creating, documenting, sharing. It’s in my blood at this point. It’s a part of who I am.
Of course, over the years my platforms have evolved. My topics have somewhat changed. My presentation has gotten more sophisticated. New, better logos and designs replaced old, outdated ones. I incorporated more and more topics. I’ve moved from paper to Live Journal to Blogger to Wordpress to Squarespace. My traffic increased. I started to get comments, and emails, and invites. I started to get noticed. I got better photography equipment and started to take better photos. I started to make money. I started to realize that this could really be something.
Almost a decade later and that thing I thought would save me while job searching has become my actual job. It’s become my business and my brand. It’s given me a life I used to only dream about. It’s allowed me to do things I never thought would be possible. It’s pushed me to the edge and pushed me to be better. It’s allowed me to be creative for a living. It’s given me the freedom to do what I love. It’s kept me growing, learning, changing, evolving. It’s saved me time and time again. It’s changed my life.
But, as I’ve done many times in the past, it’s time to evolve again. After all, if you stay in one place, you’ll only stay in one place. And if we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.
Runway Chef has treated me better than I could have ever imagined. It’s taught me so much, it’s been there for me when I feel like I had nothing left, and it’s given me something that was all mine, something I could be proud of, something no one could take away from me. It’s a part of who I am. Which is what makes letting it go so hard.
But the truth is, it’s time. It’s been time for a while now. I no longer talk about just food and fashion. I’m tired of explaining to people that no, I’m not a chef in a restaurant, and no, my site name has nothing to do with runways in an airport. The name “Runway Chef” started to feel a bit dated, childish, even kitschy in a way, and I felt silly telling people what it even was. The truth is, I’ve evolved as a brand and as a person. I’m not the same broke, lost and overwhelmed girl I was almost 10 years ago. I’m not Runway Chef anymore.
But that doesn’t mean Runway Chef isn’t a part of me. In some ways, I think it always will be. After all, you never let go of something that changed your life.
So, this isn’t a goodbye, but rather the closing of a chapter in a book I’ll be placing back on the bookshelf. Maybe one day I’ll open it back up, but for now, it’s time to dive into a new chapter in a new book, the one of Alyssa Ponticello Co. and Good Taste Creative Co.
While brand names can come and go, your name is with you forever. No matter how you change and evolve, it will always represent YOU and your personal brand, which is why I chose to change my site, and brand, to my name. And the fact that my Italian last name feels very on-brand for the “la dolce vita” lifestyle that I’m always trying to live and share doesn’t hurt, either. While I’ll always treasure my original brand name, and Runway Chef will always hold a special place in my heart, it felt like it was time to embrace a name that encompasses who I’ve become and everything that this platform has evolved into. It’s time to start a new chapter in a new book. I hope it’s one you’re as excited to read as I am to write it!
Welcome to the new alyssaponticello.com.
