This year I’m giving my kids the gift of honest failure and lessons learned gracefully.

The holiday season for parents becomes a delicate balance of needs versus wants with lists blurring those lines. Wishlists and to-do lists and holidays lists being influenced by friends, family, social media and the world around us. My parenting style always focused the season on experiences and not physical gifts, and this year will be no different. Every interaction with your kids is a parenting moment. A teachable moment. Your actions and your reactions have a significant impact on your children. It’s why I was focused on my reaction in the face of serious adversity. After 2 years of owning Juice Mafia, we quietly closed the business. Wait, let me rephrase that. I am publicly sharing with everyone that I failed. MISERABLY. SPECTACULARLY. BIGLY?

My constant attitude of gratitude has led me personally, professionally and spiritually further than I ever could have dreamed. I am abundantly blessed in a million different ways and previous challenges I’ve experienced always seemed minor when compared to the struggles of others. My children have seen me with a range of emotion, including faux-mom rage that comes “out of nowhere” after being asked numerous times to clean up. But this defeat hit hard, emotionally, financially and mentally. Heading into the holiday season, where my gratitude ethos is on steroids, I wanted to share with them those range of emotions while balancing the reality of stress that this decision, and the journey leading up to it, has had on me. They of course had a million questions. Nothing says accountability more than being called out by your kid when they’ve eavesdropped on one too many conversations among adults. Or when your living room looks like a tossed together mountain of inventory from the store. To answer all of their questions, and maybe even convince myself, I decided to focus on what I’ve learned from the experience. I even made my own holiday list of lessons learned. 

1. Passion is not a business plan. I’ve love to promote and embody a healthy lifestyle and we’ve loved Juice Mafia since they first opened at the Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood. I’ve long been a crunchy granola homeopathic naturalist. I cook healthy for my family most of the week (Shabbat excluded). I make my own deodorant. I pay attention to country of origin before buying ANYTHING! Heaven forbid you should offer me a disposable water bottle. I’d be insulted that you think I would harm the environment while I hurry to clutch my reusable bottle. I believe most children’s ailments can be cured with honey, coconut oil, garlic or breastmilk. I compost for goodness sake! I’m telling you, I am certifiable (nuts or all natural. Your choice.) So when the option to purchase the business came up, I jumped at the opportunity. I naively thought that passion for the product and wellness industry would somehow be enough to turn around a struggling small business with so much potential. Spoiler alert: Passion is not a sustainable business plan. From now on my passion for all things health and wellness will be funneled through my Instagram account where I can share my favorite Trader Joes finds, and share some of the kookiest ways I like to be earth and environment friendly. Spoiler alert: you’ll soon see my post offering up my overflowing bag of empty toilet paper rolls, to be used in a million new ways. Preschool menorahs coming to a classroom near you!

   

2. No matter how much business or entrepreneurship experience you have, none of that relates to food and restaurant ownership. Over 30 years of business acumen, owning several successful businesses and serving in leadership roles that have analyzed and approved budgets with multiple commas. THROW IT ALL OUT THE WINDOW. None of that matters. A huge shout out to all of my friends that boldly take the risk to own and run a restaurant. The market volatility of fresh, quality produce reinforced my desire to source as local as possible (insert Fresh from Florida advertisement here) but also kept me up many a night. Next time you are in the grocery store, be appreciative of the ability to be able to purchase fresh produce. Many people don’t have that opportunity, either because they don’t have access or can’t afford it. Many of us take for granted that we can buy a package of strawberries whether they are $2 or $6/lb. When you need 10-12 lb a day, it matters and restaurants can’t do surge pricing on their menus. Being in the business of selling perishables? Not for the faint of heart. I cringe when a banana goes bad at home, though I quickly turn it into some flavor of vegan nice cream. Quality ingredients matter, or at least it does for us and the customers we loved serving. Next time you complain about the pricing of a restaurant menu, consider the ingredients. Cheap food is cheap for a reason and I remain adamant that you and your body deserve better. In the end, there was just so much uncertainty in the restaurant business that I really hadn’t accounted for. Trying to compete against the corporate giants with their big, fancy marketing budgets was more than the P&L could take. I’ve long been adamant about only eating at small business restaurants and have never taken eating out for granted but now I really have a new appreciation. Next time you hear me request to have certain things removed from my order it’s not just because I am picky, it’s because I know the ingredient costs a lot and I don’t want to be wasteful! Avocados aren’t cheap so if I am going to take it off my salad anyway, why even have it in the first place? Environmentally sensitive and thoughtful to the bottom line of the small business owner! Double win!
3. Sometimes appreciation for your customers keeps you going longer than you should. I don’t know what I loved more- friends who supported us by being a customer or customers who turned into friends. Either way, I am thankful for both and did our best to hang on, knowing that our loyal supporters were counting on us for easy, healthy, delicious options. The team created a menu that offered creative and clean options you couldn’t find anywhere else. I was motivated to fill a gap in the market- creating family friendly options that you could fill your fridge with. Our homemade peanut butter and almond butter were neighborhood favorites. IYKYK. We took pride in what we did because we knew how much it mattered to those who supported us. Ultimately we needed more customers to survive, because being the “best kept secret in town” is literally the worst thing to hear when you want everyone to know you’re there. There was nothing more gratifying than getting text messages from friends who stopped by (even though I made it clear I am never there), getting tagged in social media posts from customers who love us back, or running into someone and having them tell me how much they love it. Can’t pay the bills with the warm and fuzziness of valuing customers and the feeling being mutual. I am sad I might lose touch with some of the people I came to briefly know over the years. I am even more sad that our awesome team won’t get to see their favorite customers anymore. The frequency by which our employees knew the orders of regulars was really special. I am going to miss knowing the bonds that were created in the space we occupied in Hallandale. While I was rarely there, I did enjoy stopping in to check on things and striking up conversations with whomever was there at the time. I might not like networking but I sure do love talking to random strangers that patron my place of business. That’s what small businesses are- hubs of community. I encourage everyone this holiday season to seek out those restaurants and stores in their neighborhood that foster that sense of community we need more of in this crazy, upside down world. 
4. STAY IN YOUR LANE! Wait, were you surprised to learn that in addition to my full plate of jobs and boards that we went and bought a juice bar? Or the fact that we’ve (but really mostly Grant) spent nearly two decades honing our laundromat owner skills? The most expensive lesson I learned through this is really coming to understand my skill set. What I am really good at and what I am clearly completely incompetent at. Call me for anything related to being a Jew, housing, nonprofits and leadership. Anything else? NOT MY LANE! That said, I am still happy to talk about all things homeopathic, just not from a business perspective. 😉

   

5. Know your bandwidth. In the end, I could have made it work, if only there were more than 24 hours in a day. It would probably have to be at least 24 more hours a day b/c in this imaginary world with extra time I’d like to spend more time with friends and family too. My desire to learn, be challenged and follow my passion is what motivated us to buy the business. Turns out that even with all of the support in the world, I just didn’t have any time to do what I really wanted and needed to do to make it everything it could be. Having great employees is one thing, but nothing replaces the TLC of an engaged owner. I spread myself too thin and the end result is the abject feeling of failure, a very expensive lesson and way too much leftover fancy nuts. In less than a week I sorted through over 700 lbs of nuts and shared them with family and friends. I also jarred over 2 dozen almond butter and peanut butter. But most importantly, I rescued over 120 ounces of peanut butter that fell overboard during the move. Not for human consumption, but it’s not going to waste, obviously. Dogs of friends are going to be super thankful for that unfortunate incident. 
6. Never mix business with emotion. Yes, you can (and should) be passionate about whatever business you are involved with, but keep off the rose colored glasses because they’ll do you no good. I really, really wanted to save this brand that we had been loyal customers of for so long that I threw warning signs out the window. I didn’t think I needed to have a 3^rd party subject matter expert like Andy Cagnetta help me with the process. I didn’t know what questions to ask about an industry unknown to me and relied on an existing relationship with the other party to move forward. Bad move. If you ever consider doing business with someone you know and especially when you don’t, hire an expert! Obviously that’s in addition to your attorney, whom you should never, ever do business without. Major shout-out to our attorney, Keith Silverstein, without whom we don’t sign a thing.
7. Stand by your principles, but be prepared for the backlash. When we purchased the store, it wasn’t kosher. Achieving kosher certification was important to us. Not just because we keep kosher and it wouldn’t make sense to be a part of something you can’t enjoy. Not just because we wanted to share the store offerings with friends. But also because we saw an opportunity to bring the concept of keeping kosher to an audience that has probably never know what it even meant. We were proud to share our culture with long-time customers. We made changes to the menu better reflecting our developing niche and to adhere to kosher guidelines. Some customers were not thrilled with the changes and made anti-semitic comments, one even suggesting that vegans don’t support Israel and therefore wouldn’t support a local, Jewish owned establishment that was so outwardly so. Dial it back a little was the hint. I would never be so pessimistic to believe that. Then I thought they might be tight. Nothing could have prepared us for the avalanche of hate we received for our response to the October 7th massacre, where our friends and family were violently and randomly tortured, raped, murdered and kidnapped. On October 8th, we went all in. We so wanted to stand by our tribe. We wanted to support volunteer efforts and encourage Jewish and Israel pride. We ran promo after promo in support of our loved ones, raising money for local efforts and feeding volunteers. For that we faced online boycotts, ugly comments on social media and one in store altercation that thankfully ended without violence. I was shocked that people could be so hateful towards a small business that was looking to support their community. I remain completely dismayed that something that is so clearly, universally wrong could somehow be twisted into political opinion. I knew the business would take a hit when we refused to back down. If that’s why we didn’t succeed then at least my children know to never cower in fear to bullies. Always stand up for what’s right and promote love and peace. Even if others despise you for it, you stand with your head held high. 
8. Don’t be afraid to take risks, but know what you are getting into. This was by far the riskiest business decision my family and I have ever had to make. It was done knowing the value of every dollar that’s been saved by us over the decades and how hard we’ve worked to be able to grow and pursue business goals. 
9. Perhaps the most important lesson of all. No matter how sour the lemons are, there’s always an opportunity to make the sweetest lemonade. Everything happened so fast with the business closing. The end result was the aforementioned mountain of Juice Mafia inventory and merchandise sitting in my living room. Knowing that the environmentalist is me was going to make sure that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, goes to waste, I recruited my girls to join me on what I can only describe was a flurry of mitzvah making the day before Thanksgiving. I started making mental notes and reaching out to family and friends to see who could take what. With the leftover inventory from the store, we were able to spread holiday cheer around the community. We delivered over 250 pounds of food to the Dorit and Ben J Genet Kosher Cupboard. I gladly gave away bags of nuts, seeds and nut butters to friends and family. We’ve already gotten the most delicious chocolate pecan pie back from a neighbor, so the good keeps on going. That large pile of random odds and ends that really belong in a commercial kitchen? I started to stress a little bit on what to do with that. Who would use tons of measuring cups and different sized food grade measuring containers? How long would it take for me to find the right place to rehouse all of this? Then, in what can only be described as an “HP moment” I saw a mom posting on Facebook. Apollo Middle School, located right here in Hollywood, just launched their pilot culinary program. The students were in need of a variety of items, including many that I was desperate to rehouse. It uplifted an otherwise stressful, heavy experience and turned it into a bucket filler. One that I was so proud to share with my girls. The extra nosh box inventory was packed and sent to a variety of people we are thankful for; local Hollywood fire stations, Hollywood Police headquarters, the ER staff at Memorial Regional and others. It was the perfect way to take an otherwise incredibly stressful time and turn it into an opportunity to be grounded in gratitude,  making the best of the situation and paying it forward. 

In the end, the sting of defeat will slowly subside but the lessons learned will propel me forward. Leading with authenticity, staying in my lane and committing everyday to being a good role model for my family. So this holiday season, I’m sharing these gifts with my kids. They can’t unwrap them but they won’t end up in a pile in the corner of the room. It’s a gift I hope will stay with them and help build resiliency as they go through their own challenges. I know that it has for me.