We had the good fortune of connecting with Giannys McNeill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Giannys, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The thought process behind starting my own business was not a straight line at all! 5 years ago if you told me I was going to leave my corporate job, start my own business and really be my own boss, I would have said “you’re crazy!” It wasn’t until I started my own wellness journey, I realized how neglected our community is when it comes to overall health (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual). As I learned more and more on how to reach optimal health, I thought how great it would be to share this with others to help them reach it too. Falling in love with fitness and switching to a completely whole-food vegan lifestyle was where the thought of Hustle and Brussel emerged. Corporate world wasn’t fulfilling. It felt like my own personal goals kept getting pushed off to the side for someone else’s goal. A lot of people started reaching out for help on how to get healthy and that’s when I knew I had to do more to directly impact people in a positive way. Once I met my husband, Darius McNeill, he really laid the path for me going full-time into starting my own business. We thought of all the ways we wanted to help our community through Hustle and Brussel and his non-profit, McNeill Ripple, and started it all!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Let’s start with, anything worth going for is never easy!! The challenges will always keep popping up but every time you push forward and get through it you feel so amazing like “YES I DID THAT!” When we see our clients feeling better, loving themselves, loving our food, working hard, crushing their goals, it’s so rewarding! That’s what keeps us overcoming all of the challenges!

Hustle and Brussel doesn’t cover just 1 area of health, our goal is to be an amazing resource for the whole spectrum of health. Right now we are established with healthy vegan meal preps, meal plans, nutrition education and fitness routines. We know that’s not where it stops for us! We are consistently working on a way to add more so we can give back much more. It takes discipline, learning how to retain all this information and apply it in everything we do. It can be from learning how to create simple store bought items at home with whole-food natural ingredients to learning a new type of workout to see how the body responds. Our foundation is based on our beliefs of a whole-food plant based nutrition, getting fuel from the sun, breathing techniques, getting active, proper sleep, hydration and meditation. Focusing on each of these key factors is what will elevate us mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually as an individual and a whole community!

The biggest thing we’ve learned so far is to keep an open mind! Never stop learning your craft, never stop growing and know that your vision/end goal can change a bunch of times as you continue forward. The most important thing we believe in and what set’s us apart from so many others in this field, is we whole-heartedly care to learn everything about anything to continue helping as many people as we can. There isn’t 1 set way to help everyone. We have to keep learning to see how we can do things better each time. That’s what makes us so different. We believe in being students as well as the teachers. We will keep evolving, knowing that our end goal is always to bring balance, order, justice, righteousness and truth to our communities!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend came to visit then I think she knows to bring out her workout clothes! We love being active and first stop would be to Buffalo Bayou or Hermann Park to get in a nice workout outside. Playing some frisbee has been a great way to get some sun and get our heart rate up for sure. After, we would have a nice little picnic with some delicious vegan treats. I’m constantly trying to show my friends and family the latest and tastiest vegan foods, so a picnic while enjoying some warm Houston weather is absolutely the way to go! Since moving down during corona, that limited how many places I’ve gotten to explore but it’s absolutely benefitted all the amazing recipes we’ve created at home. Knowing me I would come up with a complete 5-course meal for us to prepare for dinner! We would make some refreshing juice and chill on the balcony after just chatting and laughing for sure! The next days would be full of exploring the coffee shop scene, looking at the amazing architecture here in Houston and taking a drive down to the beach! In between all that I know she’d make the best camera-women and filming all the content for our lovely Hustle and Brussel fans and clients!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have to start off with my husband Darius! Without his unconditional support on all my crazy ideas, Hustle and Brussel would still just be a thought and not yet have come to fruition! He listens to all my ideas, gives me the best advice on how to keep moving forward and walks beside me on the whole journey no matter how many times I change directions. Whether its love, encouragement, a listening ear or someone to proof read whatever I’m working on, he’s there. I been really blessed with a partner who is as dedicated to me and our purpose as he is. It’s been through the relentless encouragement from him that has pushed me beyond the fear, a lot of doubt and wavering confidence that sometimes comes with the territory of going after your dreams. Your love and support is appreciated beyond words my love!

The rest has to be my support system back home. My Mom for giving me the lovely gift of being as creative and as ambitious as I am! My mom and dad really let me explore whatever it was that interest me from a young age without pushing one set direction on me. Through that I was able to figure out on my own what it was I really wanted to do. They have just been amazing and encouraging each field I explore more of!

To all my amazing friends who have stuck by my though this journey, been there for some of the lowest times and picked me up to tell me to keep going. So many of them believed in me and my vision before I could see it for myself. Shout out to my crew – Marz, Kirsten, Tiff, Patty, Monique, Dannaqa, Brenda, Chanise, Erica, Julia… For all the hours you have heard me talk about my dreams, told me you believed in me no matter whether it was Fitness, Nutrition, Vegan Recipes, and for all the help each of you have provided throughout the years… I APPRECIATE EACH OF YOU!

Website: www.hustleandbrussel.com

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