Brenda Irani’s Journey to Conscious Living

Transcript

Introduction: Meet Brenda Irani

Hello, I’m Helen Cumins and this is Mallorca Living, a space dedicated to those who are dreaming of making Mallorca their home. Today I’m here with Brenda Irani and we’re going to hear about her journey to Mallorca. Let’s dive in.
Brenda, thank you for being here with us. Thank you so much for having me. Yes. So, we met a long time ago and it was at a digital marketing workshop that I was doing and that was just before you were about to open your business. So, we’re going to hear more about that. But before we start on that topic, I’d love to hear more about your background and how you got here to Mallorca.

Brenda’s background in the U.S. and move to Europe

Okay. Well, I’m American if you can’t tell from my accent. I grew up in sort of central Connecticut, just a couple hours outside of New York City and lived in many actually quite a few different places in the US. I met and married my husband in New York City and then we made a journey to London because he had a position there and so that brought us to Europe.
Okay. And you have three children? I have three sons. Yes. Three boys, right? And where are they in the world? They’re like all over the place now, which is a challenge. One is in New York City. He’s working there as a proper adult. One is just finishing up his last year of university, IE in Madrid. And one was living on the island, but he decided he wanted to go to boarding school, which was not my idea, his idea. He is studying now at Andel, which is a couple hours north of London.

Okay, very good. So, just to take us back to the US, you grew up in Connecticut, what was your profession? What did you do?

I went to the University of Connecticut for undergraduate and post university I moved to DC and I took a job in government consulting. My journey with my career is kind of like all over the place because I more picked opportunities I thought were interesting as opposed to a linear career path. When I was in DC I read this article about an organization called Teach for America. I got very inspired by it. It was basically finding recent college graduates who are very keen to retrain as teachers and enter under-resourced areas in the country in rural and urban areas. So I joined that organization. That took me out to Los Angeles where we did all of our training. We spent a few summers there and then I taught in Houston, Texas for two years.

Okay. It’s a two-year program bit like the Peace Corps. So once I finished that program I decided to work for the organization in New York City and that’s what ultimately brought me to New York. While doing that I decided I would apply for my MBA and I got that through Columbia University and then I switched entirely into sort of financial services new product development.

Okay. And where did you meet your husband along that journey? Oh gosh, that’s an interesting story, but we won’t go into that. But yeah, I met him just basically through friends through friends in New York. Yes. We met each other at a party that he was hosting. It was a very kind of a funny story, but he was an analyst and they worked so much as analysts, at least they did back in the 1990s. They didn’t know a lot of people. So he basically told his friend, “I’ll pay you €20 for every woman you bring to my party.” And I was one of the women. Isn’t that funny? So I didn’t know about this, Helen. It was not I was not part of that deal, but that’s how I met my husband. It’s a crazy story.

Well, I’ve met your husband. He’s quite an entertaining guy, right? He is. He loves to tell that story. He tells it a little differently than I do, but I’m sure. Yeah, he says, “I paid for her.” That’s horrible.

Very good. So you moved at some point then from New York to London and continued working? At that point were you raising a family or did you continue? Yeah. So then on our honeymoon my husband broke it to me that we were probably moving to the UK to London and at that minute I had just started my job because I just finished my degree and just started a job at American Express. So I was not that keen but then we did it and right away we started our family and I spent a good like 20 years smothering with my kids. So that was in London.

Finding a dream home in Mallorca

So what brought you to Mallorca? We always travel quite a lot. My husband’s from India, I’m from the US and so we didn’t have a specific place all the time. So we would go to lots of different places and we just found ourselves continuously coming back to Mallorca on holidays for family holidays and we just really enjoyed it. It had just a good mixture of things like it had interesting people. It had the town of Palma which we really like but also we were out in the countryside and obviously the nature part of it and it was just an amazing little family retreat to have.
Do you keep going back to the same place or did you explore the island? Yeah. So, on one of our holidays, we just said, “Hey, why don’t we go just for fun, look at a few places just as a sidebar activity, and then, you know, 30 properties later, our estate agent was like, ‘Oh god, she’s got us in the car. She wouldn’t let us out.'” And then we saw so many places and we’re about to kind of give up because we hadn’t really found the place that we liked.

And did you know what you were looking for at that point? Not really. I mean I didn’t really know but then I knew it when I saw it. So interesting. So the place that we ended up buying, literally all we did was drive through the gateway and I was like this is it. And my husband’s like don’t say a word. I just I don’t know. It just spoke to me. It was like a mixture of it was very private. It was very beautiful. It was tranquil. And I hadn’t even seen the house. It was not to do with house. It was the land.

But isn’t it incredible? You It’s something in your intuition or sixth sense that you just know because it was interesting when we bought here, my husband had exactly the same literally coming up the drive was like, “This is it.” And I was like, “We haven’t even seen the house yet.” So he’s intuitive, right? So he just felt it was the right place. That’s how I felt. And then of course we saw the house and it’s a finca. I’ve been in your house. It’s absolutely beautiful because you’ve developed it a lot and we will talk about that. But proximity-wise it’s very close to the town of Santa Maria. Yes. And you’re kind of halfway between. Which town do you gravitate more to? Definitely Alcudia, I guess it’s because it has a quite a significant sort of expat or international population of people living there. People have relocated there so a lot of interesting people live around. They do they do and it’s brought in a lot. I think originally it was quite yachty, boat oriented but I think now it’s drawing a lot of different people.

Yes and do you go to the market on a Saturday in Alcudia? I play a lot of tennis so it’s a little bit as I do tennis on Saturday mornings but I usually try and do the tennis then go to the market after but we do when my husband’s here because he likes to go. We usually do it.

How have you found when you found the house did you have to do a lot of work with it? No. And that’s because I mean it just so happened that the house was pretty new and the style of it I really like because it was sort of a mixture between being new and old if that makes any sense. It’s kind of contemporary but with a more traditional edge to it. And the couple that built the house, she was an artist and he was a designer. So they had a good sense or maybe that’s why when I came through the drive I liked it. I’m not sure. But so we didn’t have to do too much. We put in a tennis court because we’re sort of a tennis family. We did a little bit just to make it more suitable for us because they were just a couple. We were family of five.

Transition from holiday home to full-time living

And did your boys when they moved here did originally did you use it just as a holiday home or did you move directly? Yeah. Originally it was just a retreat for the family when we had off time. In the UK you get quite a lot because you have the summers off and that kind of thing. But then in 2018 our sort of life circumstances changed. Two of our children were kind of on their way out. One was in boarding, one was at university. And so our youngest was 10. So we said, “Let’s make a life change. Let’s just do it.” And so we had already had the house. It was easy. And so we just relocated.
You relocated? And from a business perspective that was possible. Well, my husband, the reason we were able to leave is he decided to leave his job. And so originally at first he was just tinkering around but eventually he started up his own fund, his own business. His own business. Yeah. Okay. And your son, your youngest son. Did he go to school here locally? He did. He not too far from here. He was at Queens College. Queens College. And how was that experience? It was great. I mean having a very small school was interesting because you really get to know the other children. But I think that the trickiest part was it was in the middle of COVID. So he was at the school happily for a couple years and then COVID hit and here they were very very strict. I mean the kids were wearing masks for two years. Yeah. And no activities, no sports, and I think he got fed up with that and was disillusioned by it and he came to me and said, “Can I please go to boarding school?” And I’m like, well, I never heard him say that, but anyway, he was serious about his life.

And what age was he when he went? He was 13. 13. Wow. So, he comes home every for his holidays. Yeah, he just left yesterday. He’s here quite often. I think he feels that Mallorca is home. His home. Great. And do you feel Mallorca is your home? Absolutely. I love it. I just feel like I’ve just integrated so easily. It was crazy easy. I’ve made friends like immediately and I feel like some of those people are like my best friends ever. I play tennis so there’s a lot of tennis groups and things that easily integrate you.

Do you speak Spanish? I speak some Spanish. Yeah, I’m always learning trying to learn. So I’m endlessly but with my business I have to speak quite a lot of Spanish and of course I hired a lot of people who speak Spanish. Great.

Starting a plant-based lifestyle during COVID

So that’s a good opener to what we want to talk about next is your business. So tell me about the journey to setting up Simply Son Bra. Okay. Well, it all started during the quarantine because I was you know we all had a lot of time and I really felt like the world was ending really. So I started to think a lot about okay how could I make my family healthier? How can we be healthier? How can we be more sustainable so we’re more respectful of the planet and all of our actions and how it impacts the larger world.
So I started doing a lot of research and funnily enough I came across your sustainability edition of your magazine and that was one thing that helped to spark me to start doing just looking into what are the things what can we do. So what’s happening on the island? Yeah, what’s happening on the island? But what can we do? What can we do to make ourselves healthier to make sure that in case we come across a virus or whatever that we would be able to handle it, but in addition to that, how can we help make the world a cleaner, healthier place with all that’s going on with the environment?

So when I started doing all this research, I discovered that the number one thing really that we can all do, that each of us can do, certainly as a family, is to change the way we eat. Changing the way we eat makes a giant difference, bigger difference than almost anything else that you can do. What does that mean? It means moving towards a more natural plant-based diet really. And in trying to buy or eat organic, right? So, agriculture, a lot of people don’t realize, but agriculture is one of the greatest polluters. It also causes deforestation and species extinction. It pollutes the land, air, and waterways. There’s so many ways and I’m talking mostly about animal agriculture but also normal agriculture produce because obviously when you’re spraying the air and all these things it’s a pollution. So I decided we were going to be plant-based.

Creating an organic farm & sustainable family life

But in addition to that, I decided I’m going to start a farm. I’m going to have an organic farm so we can grow all our own food and we won’t have to go to grocery stores. And you were very lucky because you had a lot of space. I was lucky because we had some space and a lot of room to do that. So I kind of went all in. I put in a really nice organic market garden. We put in a chicken enclosure. We had bees put in five hives. We put a whole field of solar so we can use renewable energy.
And you had a well. We did have a well. We had to install very large water tanks because if anything happens to your well, everything dies on your property. So, you needed to be able to store water and it has happened quite a few times. So, good thing that you needed to use that storage of water. Absolutely. Because obviously things die within like days.

So, Brenda, I’m fascinated. How do you learn about all of that? Because I’m somebody I would love to do that. I’m so jealous of all my friends who grow their own vegetables and herbs and everything. So, if you’re a complete beginner, which I think you were more or less, where do you start? I mean, I guess, it was funny because I was reading recently the podcast of the CEO and they interviewed Richard Branson from Virgin and he said he’s like, “You don’t need to know everything. You just need to find the people that know everything.” Okay. And that was really my tactic because I’m like I don’t know. I mean obviously I’m reading about it and I understand the larger concepts. So I just went about like how do I found the best permaculture person. So I just it was lucky that I had a gardener who is very into kind of very natural ways of doing things. So he’s quite connected around the island. So I started with him and he brought me quite a few different people and then just found the people that know about these things. Right.

And that’s how I did also what I did with the cooking. Like I found chefs. I wasn’t cooking it myself. I just I think I’m more of an idea person, but the hands-on daily thing is not for me. So you find good people around. I try and find good people. Yes.

How she built Simply Son Bra: from home kitchen to deli in Santa Catalina

So your initial idea was you want to feed your family a more healthy diet, have a positive impact on the environment. Exactly. And utilize the beautiful land that you had around your property. Exactly. And that was obviously a significant investment as well financially. It was a huge investment. Yeah. And I mean I was lucky that my family was supportive of it and they I don’t think now I would question myself. I would question myself but back then they were all like yeah great. That’s a great idea. Let’s do that. Let’s do that. And so I thought, oh wow.
I wanted to make the idea sustainable as well. But the main thing is I once I started doing it for myself, I just thought, you know, everyone should live this way. And a lot of people started asking me questions and we were growing a lot. And so I, like I said before, I found a few just very good chefs and I said, “What could you do with this?” And so we started creating meals and people started ordering. So you had an abundance from your garden and you wanted to see what what can we do? So you didn’t have a kind of a business plan in mind at that moment. No. As I said before, I’m not a linear person at all. I go that way then move that way.

So at that point I said since people seem to like it and I started selling the meals to people, people were ordering. Anna Vonovich who I think lives not too far away. She ordered from me at one point. So we started to make these meals. People were ordering and then eventually my husband’s like, “Look, you can’t do this out of the house. It’s crazy. People showing up all the time. We got chefs in the kitchen all the time.” And so he said, “Find a place somewhere else to do this.” And so then that was really the business idea. So that gave birth to starting Simply Son Bra as a real business.

So you found a location in Santa Catalina. Santa Catalina, and the idea was basically from farm to fork, right? Yes. And we wanted to use organic produce. We wanted to source a lot of it from our property, but also get, you know, use a lot of local suppliers as well.

So, you’re living daily yourselves from what you produce on the farm. Pretty well, at that point, yes, we were doing more, but now because obviously the business is growing and agriculture is very difficult to manage. Exactly. Right. And we do things in a very natural way, not in a kind of an industrial way. So we’ve found a lot of good suppliers too and we are eating we eat a lot of the food that the business is providing. Okay. So that’s mostly what we’re eating now.

Navigating business setup & licensing in Mallorca

So you bought the premises in Santa Catalina, I think, and then you started the renovation. Tell me about that because I know you went through that’s when I met you. Yeah. But I also know you went through a difficult time. It wasn’t an easy process, right? To bring it to life. Tell us why. What were the issues?
Nobody told me that rule here on the island seems everybody seems to know that I didn’t know at the time was that everything costs twice as much as you think it’s going to cost from the estimate and it will take you twice as long. So, that of course happened. So that’s good advice to anybody thinking of doing a project on the island. Tell you again: it’s going to cost you double and take twice as long as you estimate. Okay. It’s a good place to start. Exactly.

But I mean we were very inspired by the location. It was previously an interior design location and it was just really beautiful. So I thought I could create something very interesting here even though I was just a food business. But during that process we’ve had quite a few hiccups because you know licensing, planning and the way it works in Mallorca is when you start your business you can start and apply for all your licenses and they give you two years to acquire licenses. So you’re legally allowed to begin your business before you technically get them and your architect or your engineer is meant to be guaranteeing that you will get this license. So that’s how we started.

But somehow my engineer kind of went awol and he just disappeared and the council was sending him tons and tons of letters saying we need this documentation, we need this information, we need these things and he never responded to them and I didn’t know because he was getting all the communication directly. And then eventually we get this notice that went to my lawyer saying you’re going to have to vacate the premises. And so this is right when my business was starting to pick up and I was creating good energy and I was so happy how things were going and I had a good team and I thought oh my god no and so they shut us down.

Overcoming shutdown challenges with resilience

Oh my god. They shut us down. So I had to go and find that engineer and say what happened and you have no idea when it’s going to reopen because they tell you could be a week, could be three months and then the police come they say oh normally it’s taking at least six months. These kinds of things take six months and I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh.”
But it wasn’t anything he did wrong. It was more that the paperwork wasn’t submitted. Right. And can I ask you, was it that there was more regulations or requirements because it was a food business? Was that part of the issue or was it the actual premises itself? What was the issue? It was maybe a combination, but they had some issues with information about how we were using the bathrooms and it was something to do with how much energy we were using because I of course put in this sort of Rolls-Royce kitchen, which was ridiculous, but we have all like top appliances for everything because at the minute I thought maybe we’d do big production cooking. And it just used a lot of electricity and so I think there was push back on that then they were using too much electricity so that was one of the issues so we just basically cut back on some of our usage. But it was all things I couldn’t resolve until you go through this legal process.

And what happened how long did it actually take then? It took like three months for that month and then previous so it wasn’t six months and it wasn’t a month it was three months. And you had to close at that moment and all your team you continue to pay. Absolutely. Because finding good people in Mallorca is hard and so I have this amazing team and I thought I can’t let them go and if even if I just I can’t even do something hybrid. I was scared they would just leave. So I just said we just keep going and we relocated to the house. I said let’s do test kitchen and we can try recipes and do some research.

And you came through it. You got through it. We got through it. We got through it. And I have to say it’s normal here. I remember when I set my business up, I had a similar not the same but kind of a different thing but also a hiccup and kind of I had done so much and then I had to go back to the drawing board do a lot of things again and it’s I think it’s almost like a test to see your resolve. Are you really committed to this project or not? Isn’t it? It’s like a test from the universe. Is this really what where you want to go?

I think you’re absolutely right. I think anybody who starts a business and thinks it’s going to be easy is crazy. Yeah. Anywhere in the world. Anywhere. Anywhere in the world. But it’s even more complicated in Mallorca. Yeah. And the food business is a particularly horrible business actually because it has so many more regulations and there’s like a million things that can go wrong. So I don’t know how I ended up in the food business. It was more from what I was telling you. But it’s not like I sat and thought I really want to be in the restaurant business. No. So it was not like that. But I do think the food issue is huge. It is actually a big cause of a lot of problems in the world. And I think if we can rectify how we eat, it could make a giant difference to the environment to ourselves to our own health and living healthier. Absolutely.

What is Simply Son Bra

So tell us now within your business what because you have different parts to the business. So just explain to us what what is your business? What is Simply Son Bra? So Simply Son Bra at its core is a food business. We create beautiful amazing dishes that are really tasty but very very healthy. We think about like all the ingredients everything that goes into the food where we’re sourcing the supplies from every part of it. It’s very thoughtfully done and it’s freshly produced every day, right? Yes. It’s freshly produced daily. So that’s kind of the core.
But because we have this beautiful space, I wanted to expand what we’re doing. So we offer completely free just a co-working space. So we let people come and they can eat through the day and work. So I like the environment of having people around. Because we’re not like a restaurant, so we’re like a deli, isn’t it? Yeah, we’re like a deli. But we’re doing a lot more catering now, too. So we do a lot of catering.

Expanding into catering, events & community building

For me when I do our day retreat. So it’s fantastic collaboration because I can go, you tell me what you have prepared and then we order and collect the food. So it’s a fantastic facility to have that available so easily.
Yeah. And then you’re serving really healthy, tasty, freshly produced food because of course if you’re doing something in your home, you wouldn’t be allowed to produce food and sell it, let’s call it. Absolutely. You’re obliged really to buy food in from an official licensed business. Yes, of course. As an official business, you have to do that. Yeah.

So the catering is becoming quite big, just growing a lot now. We’re getting a lot of people just ordering from us for their yachts, for their villas, for their dinner parties, and for retreats. A lot of retreats as well.

But then in addition to that now I’ve started forming a lot of collaborations and partnerships with artists around the island and I’m doing it through the Beehive Art Collective.

Collaborating with local artists & Beehive Collective

I love these. They’re wonderful. They are amazing. We wrote an article about them many years ago. I think more or less around 2020/21. You should interview them. Yeah. They’re beautiful. I mean it’s a wonderful project. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what they do?
Yeah. So the Beehive is an art collective. They have relationships with many artists all around the island. All living on the island, not necessarily from Mallorca, but living here now and inspired here. So I know Katherine Kirk who’s one of the main two ladies. I know her very well. And in fact, the house I live in used to be her house. So I’ve had a relationship with her for a while.

And so when I came up with the idea of forming these collaborations and partnerships, I went to her and I also have a very good friend who’s a designer. And so she’s putting out her home wares and that kind of thing. So I went to my friend as well. And then through Katherine and the Beehive they’ve brought in sort of vintage furniture. We have sculpture artists. We’ve got fine artists. We’re now we’re starting to do slow fashion which is very cool. So we’re selling kind of like everything for the coffee table. You’re almost like a lifestyle store. And you do all of this within the space. Within the space. Yeah. Because we have a really big space. So it’s good.

And it’s terrific for the customers because the space is changing all the time. Every time you come in, it’s different. It’s got different art. It’s got different sculptures. It’s got different items. And do you do events around that? You host events yourself? We do it now every two to three months. We change over the entire shop, which is a lot of work for the ladies. But then we always have an event that goes with this. So, we’ll have an opening. I think I sent you the invitation last time. And we just give free food out and let people come and roam around and we always do a little bio on each artist. So, you can read about their journey and who they are and what they do.

And for me it’s great because it really extends our circles of people who know about us because, you know, marketing is a challenge. You have to people have to get to know who you are and what you’re doing and getting people through your door. I think that’s the key, isn’t it? And to give them an additional reason to come to see you. Exactly. So now maybe some people come for the product, but then they end up buying food. Or vice versa, they come for the food and they say, “Oh, wow. That’s a really cool dress. I’m going to buy that.”

But you’ve built a nice community around Simply Son Bra which I think was a big part of your vision, right? Absolutely. Yeah. To create the sense of community because now we’re collaborating with so many different businesses on the island, artists on the island. And our customers, I mean, they’re like an amazing group of people and they’re so nice. I mean, they come in, they’re so appreciative of what we’ve created. I think people were drawn to the idea and to the concept because it has a good soul or heart. I just think so.

Because at that moment, because now it’s probably much more common and there’s a lot more in social media and everything, but at that moment there wasn’t really anything on the island with this concept of growing organic plant-based food and then creating with really good chefs amazing food and then being able to have it in your own home. I mean, it was just something new and different. Yeah. I think in bigger cities they had more of that kind of concept of being able to come in and buy purchase beautiful food that you can bring home. Yeah. We’re kind of like the whole foods of Mallorca. But yeah, I think at the time, and I think it’s still quite a unique concept because of the care that we put and we change our menus all the time. Nobody does that. I mean, I go to restaurants I’ve been going to for like a decade and you still have the same menu. Maybe it works for them. Obviously, they’ve worked it out. It works well. But we change our menus like every few weeks.

And what is it? You have a head chef, is it, that creates and innovates for this? I have a little chef team and she’s always inspired by what is the seasonal produce at the time and then of course the seasons itself like in summer what do people want to eat they want to eat fresher things more salads things like that so we focus on those foods and of course all in summer you get so much beautiful produce you want to highlight a lot of raw foods but then winter you want more soups and more curries more stews.

Is this a different thing, do you do cookery classes? We’ve started to do them yes. We started last year and I am planning to do more, but it’s just hard work to do. I mean, I have to find external chefs because my chefs are just too busy that they don’t want to do it and it’s an add-on to what they’re already doing.

So I do have an idea that I want to do like a plant-based challenge to a lot of the top chefs on the island and I want to get them to come into my shop, create an amazing meal just using plants, you know, because a lot of top chefs are using everything and so just to see what they can come up with and then we would have people come for dinner. And zero kilometer as well? Yes, which would be really special and we are so lucky in Mallorca with the talented chefs. Absolutely. Yeah, there’s amazing chefs all over the island. So it would be really fun to get to know them too. So I think that would be my next project.

Mallorca and conscious living

So how long are you now in business? Well, I guess we set up technically in probably 2021, but we didn’t really open the doors until 2023. Yeah. And how is it going? It’s good. Yeah. I mean, outside of the few hiccups which were painful because they’re really expensive for the business, now I feel like we finally getting our feet under us and a lot of people are getting to know us and creating these partnerships really helps in these collaborations and we see a way forward of integrating a lot of different ideas into it. Not just food, of course food is the main thing, but you know around community, about health, around learning and so that’s the vision.
Have you noticed a change in Mallorca in terms of this kind of topic and attitude and values? Yeah I mean I think a lot more people are becoming aware and more conscientious about what they’re doing and what they’re eating and what they’re feeding their families. And so I think even I mean I’m not telling everyone they should be 100% plant-based, but I mean even if you make a small change, it makes a big difference. It makes a big difference for your own health and does make a big difference to the environment. So I think that. And you feel better. You do. And you eat less because when you eat really nutritious things you’re just not that hungry because your body feels happy, but you’re also fueling in a good way. Exactly.

Have you any connection with the schools here and education? No, not right now. But that’s a good idea. I’ll put that on the back burner because I always think that if the kids start at a very young age and then they take that education with them because it’s habits. It’s like if you form the habits early in life. That is very true. We do have events on the farm and always kids come and they love it. I mean, I can’t get them to leave at the end of the day like they really enjoy roaming around the garden and planting things and seeing the produce. And a lot of kids are shocked. They thought broccoli came from the grocery store. They’re like, “What? It’s a plant.” You know? Yeah. It’s really funny. So maybe that’s a good way to connect with some of the schools to show where the produce is being produced from and so on. Yeah.

Balancing business, farming & family life in Mallorca

So Brenda, what is a typical weekend in Mallorca for you? Oh, okay. Yes. Well, it’s always different because it depends on who’s in town and with my family. And we have a lot of friends coming through, but I always play tennis. I always try to work in my garden every weekend. Yeah. Are you quite hands-on with the garden? I love to be out there. I spend a lot of time. I mean, I do have a farm manager and she’s overseeing the market garden because obviously we constantly changing things over, planting and that kind of thing. But I do all the harvesting. So because I love to go through and see what’s there, what’s not and taking notes and things. So I always spend time in my garden and just spend time with friends, whatever is happening at the time. Everything’s always changing in Mallorca. Yeah.
So you entertain a lot at home? We used to entertain a lot. A lot. But my husband’s sort of now in and out of Mallorca so when he’s here we do. But when it’s just me, less so, I would say. Okay. And do you go to your business every day? Almost every day. Okay. Yeah. We’re open six days a week now. So I try to pop in. I think Wednesdays I don’t generally go, I just spend one day in the garden and meet with the gardeners. So it’s really a full-time project for you. Yeah, it is very full time.

So looking back now because I know when I met you first you had so many beautiful ideas, it was really a beautiful vision in your head. How does the reality compare to the vision? I have to say I love doing this. I just love it. I mean, I don’t know if it’s exactly the vision, but directionally it’s quite close to what I wanted to do, which was to teach people about food, provide an easy way for them to eat differently, to create community, all these things. It maybe not exactly the way I thought it would be, but they’re all coming to life. And I just love my team. I have an amazing team and by the way, they’re all women. My farm manager is a woman. All my chefs are women. So I have an all girl gang team. So that’s been terrific. And just my customers, I’ve just met so many people.

And so there’s a whole richness of life. I mean, now my husband’s like, I’m never going to be able to extricate Brenda from Mallorca. He’s never going to get me to leave. I’ll be holding on to the trees. I just love it. I will always be here I think.

The joys of living on the island

And I always say that too in the 22 years that I have been in Mallorca. You may not get rich here on the island financially. Yes. But there’s a richness of life. Yes. Which I would never exchange and it’s very unique. I don’t think a lot of places offer that actually. I think it’s quite a unique thing, having lived in different places. I do think it’s a unique thing.
And do you feel rewarded and fulfilled by the contribution you’re making to Mallorca? I do. You know, I used to work a lot in the deli, so I would be behind the counter, but now I’m kind of less so because I’m trying to now really push marketing and other things. But I do want every once in a while go and work. And it’s funny because people come to me and they’re like, I’m driving all the way from Campanet every single day to eat your food. And as soon as they find out I’m the one who started it, the founder, they’ve got like a million questions. They want to talk to me and I’m just like, “Wow.” I mean, people really resonate and really respond to it. So, it makes me feel really good and that they recognize the specialness of what we’re trying to do because it’s not easy what you’re doing. No, it’s bonkers. I mean, no one would. I’m probably the only person who would do something like this. Yeah, it’s not a good business idea at all, but it is something I do feel like it’s really making a difference and that for me that’s the most important thing. And the business is starting to pay for itself and I think it’s on the right track. I feel good about that. That’s a big relief.

Is there anything about the business that you wish you had known?

Final thoughts & advice for people dreaming of moving to Mallorca

Yes. So many things. I think I probably I would have been a little more careful about the amount of money that I put into the business. I’ve put in a crazy amount that I don’t know if we’ll ever get back. But I don’t know, I’m just looking at the bigger picture and saying that it is a special beautiful place that we created and I used so many different energies and people as part of it so I feel like it’s been a real group project with all the inputs and I think it’s very special. It’s a special place.
Do you think it’s one of the biggest things you’ve done in your life in terms of your legacy? Um, of course I’ve raised my sons and my family that’s important to me. But I feel quite proud of it. For me I kind of tick that box that I did something where I feel like it was a special thing. So yes in that way. Of course I would think about the next thing or whatever I would do after this but I’m not there yet and we still have a lot of work to do in the business and I hope that it’s a part of the Mallorca world for a long time and it inspires others. Yeah, I think that’s really important. Yes, absolutely. And working in collaboration with a lot of other people on the island has been amazing and people in the food industry. So yeah, that’s been fun.

What about moving here and living here? What kind of insights could you give to those who are dreaming to move here but haven’t quite taken the step yet? Yes. I think it’s always scary to take a new tack in life, right? There’s a lot of things you have to start over with. You have to create a new friendship group, new community, you have to feel comfortable in your environment, all those things. And I felt those things when we were moving in 2018 when we’d already been here. But it was unbelievable. As soon as I came, I just felt it was so easy. I don’t know what it was, but I just felt at home almost instantaneously, which is, I think, unusual. And I think the island has an openness to it that if you tap into it, you’ll feel very very good here. And there’s so many different interests and different ways that you can do that. You can do it through sport. You can do it through a passion. You can do it through being part of different communities that exist.

So it is interesting because you’ve lived in New York, you’ve lived in London, some of what people would consider the most amazing interesting places to live in the world and how does Mallorca compare? Oh, I mean hands down I would prefer to live here for sure. I mean for me it just maybe because I already live there and I’m not in that stage of life. I think when you’re just starting out you really want to be somewhere that’s very driven and career oriented. But then as you become more confident in your life and what you’ve done, then you want a place where you can just be at peace and you could do things that you really always wanted to do and give you that little bit of space. And it’s not about being better than that person or earning more than that person. It’s about connecting with your inner voice that’s telling you your intuition of what’s important for you and what drives you. And so when you connect in with that, I think you just feel good, don’t you? I mean, I think you found that too. Absolutely. Yeah. All you’ve been able to accomplish.

Yeah. No, I think when you can find a passion project where you can also make a contribution to the island and the people who are attracted to live here makes a difference, too. Absolutely. So, a final word on any advice for those thinking of coming here to the island? Come with an open heart and an open mind and follow your intuition. I think you won’t be unhappy with things that you did. You’re more unhappy with things you didn’t do. Absolutely. Yeah. It is always you have to be brave to take that initial step and it’s a wonderful place to raise kids. It’s a safe place. It’s a place where you can really connect with nature like what you’ve done. I mean that’s incredible. And somehow you can maybe tie in your passions with your life’s work, right? Yes, absolutely.

Yeah. I mean, I suppose you have to be at a certain stage of life to do that, but I think young people think a lot more about this kind of thing than than we did maybe growing up at our age. But combining your passion with something that you know can develop you as well. I think that’s what’s different about the younger generation. They’re not waiting to be more mature, more financially secure or whatever. They’re doing it now. And I meet a lot of them in my shop. They come, all these people moving from all around the world very young. I met a lady the other day. She’s an architect from Iowa and I was like how do you do your job here and she worked out a way that she’s contracting with her company and now she’s taking on other things and I was like that’s super brave. I mean she was like 23 or something. We had Naomi who you know, she’s also a lawyer in the US and basing herself here in the north of the island. So it’s possible. You can make it happen if you really want to. Yeah, absolutely. And I applaud people who are trying to do it. I mean, that’s very brave. I think it’s a little bit less brave for like me because we’re like kind of end of more end of career situation, but following your heart and you can’t really go wrong. Yes, absolutely. Mallorca is a good place. Absolutely.

Brenda, before we finish, we always have our little quickfire questions. So, I want to ask you, beach or mountain? Which is your preference? Mountain. Mountain. And sunrise or sunset? Sunrise. Sunrise. You’re a morning person. And summer heat or winter calm? I would say summer heat. Summer heat. Siesta or fiesta? Siesta. Siesta. I wasn’t sure about that one for you. I’m sure you like both. Ensaimada or pa amb oli? As long as they’re organic, right? They’re organic. Pa amb oli for sure. Palma and south coast or north coast? North coast. North coast.

Very good. Brenda, thank you so much for being here today and I want to wish you continued success in your really inspiring business, Simply Son Bra. If our listeners haven’t been there yet, please go along visit and enjoy all the wonderful aspects of what you’ve created which is really truly inspiring. Thank you. Thank you so much Helen. Thanks so much for having me and for inspiring me with your first edition of your magazine and for keeping tabs on everything. I really appreciate that being supportive and where it’s possible that we can collaborate. I always have had this philosophy since I’ve had my business that we can all benefit more by sharing the abundance and there’s enough for everybody, right? Absolutely. I think that is key, right? People are not your competitors. They we all help each other be better. So, yes, absolutely. And we make the island better as a result, which is beautiful.

So, thank you so much, Brenda. I look forward to seeing future growth and projects as you continue to grow and flourish and prosper on the island. Thank you. Thank you very much.