Episode 39: Love Her Shop - From Side Hustle to Million Dollar Venture.

In this episode, I sit down with Adreana Alvarez, founder of Love Her Shop, and her son Adrian, founder of Eras Shorts—their story is the kind that reminds you why family businesses really are unique.

Adreana started with a problem every active mom recognizes: leggings that were overpriced, see-through, or constantly sliding down mid-workout. With encouragement (and engineering-minded problem-solving) from her husband, she built a better option—then built a movement around it. What began as pop-ups at gyms and farmers markets became an online explosion during COVID… and before she fully realized it, she’d sold over $1M out of her garage.

But this isn’t just a “quick growth” story. It’s a community-first story—rooted in her dad’s journey from a third-grade education to building restaurants that became gathering places, and carried forward through Adreana’s decision to create a brand that is high quality, affordable, and purpose-driven. The name Love Her came from a moment outside an ER that reframed everything: this business wasn’t just a brand—it was a mission to give back to women.

Then there’s Adrian—watching his mom print labels, pack orders, and make post office runs—and realizing, “If she can do it, I can learn it.” He takes what he learned in the warehouse and on sourcing trips and applies it to his own niche: affordable team shorts that help underfunded teams look and feel unified. And yes—he shares how Eras Shorts has been successful enough to help him pay for college while he still pursues broader business experience.

We also get real about what it’s like to work with family: the code-switching, the boundaries, the respect, the conflict, and the pride. Three generations deep, the common threads are clear: fearlessness, values, and the decision to put people at the center—without losing the business fundamentals.

You can find Love Her Shop on line by visiting the website, www.lovehershop.com

00:00 – The garage-to-growth moment
Orders explode overnight, and Adriana realizes the side hustle is turning into something real.

02:05 – Meet Adreana + Adrian: three generations of entrepreneurship
Introductions, family-business roots, and how entrepreneurship was “normal” in their household.

10:05 – The origin stories: restaurants → promo business → Coca-Cola lessons
Adriana’s dad builds community through restaurants, Adriana builds and sells her first business, then learns distribution and operations at Coca-Cola.

28:25 – The COVID pivot: severance gamble → online launch → $1M wake-up call
Bootstrapping the website, community activation, and the surprise discovery that sales crossed a million.

40:20 – Purpose + product: engineered leggings, accessible pricing, giving back
Stitching-as-contour, high-quality/low-price commitment, tariff transparency, and the “Love Her” mission moment.

54:10 – Eras Shorts + working with family: building a brand, boundaries, values
Adrian’s team-short niche, funding and growth, paying for college, and how they code-switch between family and business.

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Transcript

 Hi, my name is Steve Fleming, CEO of River City Bank, which was founded almost 50 years ago as a leader in a family business, myself and a longtime board member for the Capital Region Family Business Center. I understand firsthand how incredibly important family businesses are to our economy and the unique challenges they face in sustaining from generation to generation.

I think that you'll find this podcast series informative, entertaining, and even humorous at times. That's why our family business, river City Bank is proud to support this podcast. I hope you enjoy today's episode. 

I got my first order and then I went to bed, and the next morning I woke up and I logged into my website and I had six orders, and I remember feeling like, oh my gosh, this is so cool.

Like I have six orders, and I had my little bags and everything, and then it just kind of took off every day. There was like a minimum of 10 orders. Then my new minimum was 20 orders. I would get a stack of orders and labels, and I would like put little shelving in the garage. I kicked my husband's cars out of the garage and they would help me because there was days that it was just a lot.

From there, it just kind of blew up.

Hello and welcome to a Seat at the Table Trials and triumphs of Family Business, brought to you by the Capital Region Family Business Center, helping family businesses to grow and prosper. I'm Natalie Mariani Kling, your host, and a fourth generation family business member. I am so excited to join you around the table for real conversations about what it's like to grow up in, become a part of and navigate the complexities of a family business.

Special thanks to another family business, river City Bank for their generous support of this program. Today we talk with Adriana Alvarez of Love, her shop, who took a mom's side hustle to the masses in less than five years, and will speak with her son Aiden of Aris Shorts, who watched his mom and saw an opportunity to create his own success.

The entrepreneurship genes are three generations deep in this family. And you'll hear how though they have run different businesses, the inherited values that drive them and the traits that make them successful. Business owners are much of the same, even if seen from slightly different perspectives.

Welcome Adriana and Adrian to our podcast. I am so excited to share your story today and I'm gonna introduce you, Adriana. But Adrian, I would like you to introduce yourself because you are Adriana's son obviously, but, but introduce yourself for us. 

Yeah, my name's Adrian. I am Adriana's son obviously. I go to, currently go to Santa Clara University.

I'm a sophomore there and I study accounting and I am the founder of Aero Shorts, uh, which you guys will find out short enough. 

Awesome. And Adriana, you are the founder of Love Her Shop. Yeah. It is an athleisure wear company that's thrived in the leggings market and has only been in business for about eight years.

Yeah, eight years, right. Um, but online since 2020, so like, we're going into year six. Okay. Awesome. And I wanna give people a quick picture of how successful your business is, and then we're gonna dive deep. So the short version is that you were a working mom. The only time you could fit in a workout was four 30 in the morning, which all of us moms can relate to.

And you were working out with a group of moms. And as encouragement, your husband bought you two pairs of very expensive brand name leggings, a brand we would all recognize and you were excited to wear them. But the first time you wore the first pair, you noticed that during the workout when you bent over, you could see through them.

Mm-hmm. And then the second day, you wore the second pair and they were sliding down the whole time. You had to hold them up. And so out of frustration, you threw them in the trash. Your husband finds them in the trash and says some version of what the has happened here, and you express your complaints.

And then he says. That you should make your own leggings and he's serious. Yeah. And you took it seriously and within three years you were selling a million dollars of leggings out of your garage. 

Yeah, it almost feels like by accident. But everything definitely did start from a problem and a problem that needed to be solved.

And to be honest with you, had he not had his engineering background, 'cause I'm a dreamer, but I don't think I am the planner and the engineer and the analytic thinking kind of person in the relationship. But he is and he's like, it's doable. And you're just give me a list of all the things you hate about the current legging market and what do moms like you and the women you're working out with need.

And it was really the way he posed the question that kind of got me started thinking, I'm like, wait, maybe I can create something. So it kind of just started by accident, but it, it really did take off and it worked out great. 

So let's go back to the beginning because entrepreneurship has definitely come through the DNA, not only to you, but also to your son, Adrian, which we're gonna hear about.

And it really started with your dad. He was born in America, moved to Mexico, came back to America with a third grade education. Yeah. Started working in the restaurant industry, worked his way up to manager, and then opened his first restaurant in Marin. Right? Yes. 

And I feel, I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to grow up with an entrepreneur that he just lived his life not knowing what he was doing as an entrepreneur.

And then us, myself, my siblings as children, just watching, just thinking that that is what's normal and that we, we really thought every household in America, this is how it. Worked. You, everybody goes to work with their parents when they come home from school and you just create something. So I'm very, very happy and very lucky that my father, he opened up the doors of entrepreneurship.

He let us sit in his restaurants. He let us absorb everything like a sponge from a very young age. I remember my first like core memory from a child. I was probably like four years old, but I remember sitting in the booth like shining all of the silverware and getting it ready and feeling so much pride in like even being that small part of the family business.

And it really, if it wasn't for my father, just kind of like out of need, having to. Do what he had to do and establish a business. I'm really bummed that I never really got to ask him like, what made you wanna be an entrepreneur? But I think in knowing a lot of what I got to see growing up, I know it was just out of need.

He didn't have a plan. He just needed to make money to feed his family and to give us opportunities. And I know that's what was his launching pad, which is different than why I started my businesses. 

Yeah. And it, it's such a common story of our first gen founder, family members. Yeah. Who do often come without the education.

They don't have masters, they don't even have a college education and they're starting these businesses. One thing I was thinking about your dad is that he started his first restaurant in Marin of all places, which I can't imagine the rent was cheap even back then when he started. Do you have any sense of how he financed his first restaurant?

It was actually, he used to work for a guy named Sid. He was a really successful restaurateur in Los Angeles. And um, Sid really took my father under his wing, almost like a surrogate son. And my dad really worked for him as if Sid was his father. And I think. He saw that my dad was willing to put in so much into his business and elevate his brands, that I think it got to the point where he did ask my father like, what do you want for the next chapter?

You've helped me establish and grow my businesses. And I think that's when my dad, um, told him, my dream is to one day have a restaurant like yours. I don't want, you know, 10 restaurants like you. I just want one. And, uh, it was definitely Sid giving him his, I, I guess you would call him like an angel investor to help him start his first brand.

And he was the one that said, well, you know what? I've kind of saturated the LA market, Arizona, Texas, all the other states. I think you should go up north. And there's this little town, uh, up in Marin where there's money and there's people that are open and willing to, you know, accept a, a Mexican restaurant, try that place.

And if it wasn't for, for him working hard enough to have another entrepreneur invest in him, that also wouldn't have started the trajectory to where we're at now. 

Wow, that's really cool. So he would go on to open four restaurants. Right. And I think one thing that that hit me as you were talking to me about them is that they were all really community supported.

Yeah. And there was a, there was a real, there kind of love and joy amongst the people. And that's something that, that you grew up in. So tell us about, a little bit about how that community aspect inspired you to want to. Create something like that in your life? 

I think when I go back to like the memories of what I remember and what makes me happy when I was younger is not only being a part of my own family, but I feel like we branched out and we touched other people's families.

I remember baptisms being held at our restaurant weddings, baby showers, and then those families kept coming back and then they went from knowing us as like, oh, you know, the owners of Don Ponchos or Las RAs to then knowing us by our first names. And then it was like, amiga, we're having a new, you know, this chapter and, and my father, he was such a workaholic that his work became his playground, his home.

When people were going, even like you heard of families going through like financial struggles, my dad was the one that was like, you know, let's send a little care package. This family's having, you know, some medical issues with the mom. Let's just send them dinner tonight. And I feel like he was doing that.

Out of like really hi. The way he connected with these people, keeping that connection strong and in return they would give the love back. And I think that's one of the things that like makes me the person I am today. I am that kind of person where I do care a lot about my friends and family and I'm the one that's willing to like go a little bit extra because that was how I was raised.

And it gave you this idea of wanting to be a business owner. When were you conscious that you wanted to be a business owner? I, 

I think when I was in high school I knew that I wanted to be a business owner because I was kind, I was probably like the only freshman in high school that had a job and was bringing in income and then I was bringing my friends with me to work at my parents' restaurants.

And we were like the ones that had, I realized we had. More freedom than the other kids because we had money. And unfortunately, I mean I, I'm, I wouldn't say money is happiness, but money does give you freedom. Where we were the girls that were like, well, let's go to the mall after afterwards. And we weren't really like having to ask for a lot of permission of like, can I purchase this?

Can I get a ride here? I mean, I had my own car when I was in high school. I had her jobs. And I love that sense of freedom. And I remember feeling like, wow, is this what it's always gonna be like if I just make my own money? So I think that's when I knew freedom, the first taste of freedom. 

And then in college you were standing in line at a coffee shop.

Yeah. And there was a woman in front of you having a little bit of a tough time ordering what she wanted in English. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And tell us about that story and how that led to your first business. 

Yeah. So she was the customer in front of me, she was having trouble ordering and the cashier was trying to ask her like, what size do you want?

What kind of milk? And, and she was like kind of struggling, but I noticed that she had a Spanish accent. So I just like quickly jumped in and I was like, oh, I can help you. And I was speaking Spanish with her and I was telling her, well, what is it that you're looking to order? And then we started joking around and she was laughing and I helped her out with her order.

And we kept talking after she ordered, and then she went on her way. And then the guy that was standing in line behind me, he tapped me and he was like, Hey, you're very comfortable. Like helping strangers and you speak really well Spanish and what do you do? And I'm like, oh, I'm just a college student. And he told me, well, I'm actually looking for bilingual people like you that don't have a hesitation at talking with strangers.

And I'm like, okay. And at first I was like, okay, creep. But this guy was, then he tells me, he's like, I actually work for Ate, um, the beer and I am here meeting with our distributor and I'm looking for a promotional team that will go into Latino grocery stores and we build the displays and we're just looking for bilingual Latinas to come in and run promotions on the brands.

And I'm like, oh yeah, I could do that. Like selling beer to guys. That's a no brainer. Like I remember doing this at my dad's restaurants growing up and um, he was like, well, yeah, there's, if you know more girls like you that are bilingual, and I'm like. Every single girl that I'm in college with right now.

So I kind, he was like, all right, meet me, you know, tomorrow at this address in this parking lot. And I know it was like super sketch, like now thinking back when I tell the story, even like to my kids or my nieces and nephews, I'm like, don't ever meet somebody in a random parking lot by yourself. But it worked out for me.

I ended up starting by being kind of like, sort of where I would hire other college students. And then we did so well with Ate that then Miller Light and Coors Light, and then Al Quila and then Southern Wine and Spirits also heard about us. So we got them as a client and we were doing Kuper and Jim Beam and I kind of just blew up.

And this was my second year in college and I, we were making really good money. I, so I did drop outta college and I was like, I'll be right back girl. I never went back. I just kind of blew up and, but then I knew that that was me and my personality. I'm really fast. I'm very like. A DDI have to keep moving.

I'm not the quiet. Like silent, sit back and kind of like analyze them more of like, yes, let's hit gas and go and see what happens. And that business went very well and it was a lot of fun. We got paid a really good money to promote other brands and I got to understand brand promotion. Brand activation. I got to learn on the job and then I realized I got to learn things that I probably wouldn't have even been able to learn in my managerial economics classes exactly in the university.

And that brand went, went really well. And I had that brand until I was about 25 years old. When my second son was born, that's when I realized Adrian was really small. And I remember coming home. Right after having my second son, and he was about four years old, and I came home and he was playing with the promotional knickknacks that we give away at these events, and I thought to myself, Ooh, I can't have my children grow up in an alcohol, heavy alcohol promotional environment.

So that's when I decided to get, go into my mom era and sell the brand. And I went off to look for a job in corporate America, 

lest we underestimate the promo girls. Yeah. Oh my God. You built this into a business that you were able to sell? 

Yes. Yeah, I sold profitably. Yeah. I sold the brand and walked away with a good chunk of money.

That was I, I mean, now thinking back on it, I didn't plan any of it and I was really young and very unaware. I'm just happy that I. Didn't throw away the opportunities that I was given. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 

And I, I love this next part where you decided that you wanted to be, you wanted to work, get a job, and, and be a little bit more of a, have a kind of a stable position with your babies.

Mm-hmm. And you said to yourself, you were gonna work within one mile radius of where your kids were in school. And I just love that you literally got in the car mm-hmm. And drove a mile and wrote down names of businesses. 

Yeah. I've always been like, very intentional. And I feel like a lot of people around me are always like, girl, what are you crazy?

But. I always try to plan as much as I can, or at least try to like, put it out there that this is what I want. If it doesn't go that way, fine, but at least I had like a trajectory of what I wanted it to be. I knew that if I wanted to be super involved in my kid's school, I knew that I wanted to be PTA president one day, and then I knew that I wanted to be one mile away from them.

I wanted to drop 'em off every day, pick 'em up every day, and I wanted to just be available for my kids were my number one. So I literally got in my car. I, this was like before, like we had like all the maps. I, I remember printing it, MapQuest, yeah. And doing like a little circle. And thank goodness that we live near an industrial area.

And I remember going around and applying to all these jobs and I happened to, and I remember also I wanted to work for some reason, I just felt, I, I feel like my energy's a little bit more like stronger and more male energy. And I knew that I wanted to work more in an environment with more of a male team.

And I ended up getting a job with Odd Walla, which is owned by the Coca-Cola company. And I did get a position where I was the only female in that office and I managed all male route sales representatives and I was handling all of their operations. Amazing. 

And you, so you learned so much in that role, and you were, you worked for Coca-Cola for how many years?

14 

years. Yeah. And they really, Coca-Cola, I feel like was the best education I got in my lifetime. They really poured into me and gave me the behind the scenes education on brand distribution, direct sales, distribution. I learned so much while I was there and unbeknownst to me, everything that I learned there, I'm using now.

At the time, I just wanted to be like a model outstanding employee and I had so much to prove being the only female manager, but I'm glad that I took it and I absorbed it all in because now it's paying off. 

So about 14 years in, that's about, or maybe a little bit less than that. It was about the time that you, that your husband found the leggings in the trash.

Yeah. 

Yeah. I was still working for a Walla and I had, that's why I had to wake up early because I was in charge of the sales team that would leave the distribution, the nodes like at 3:00 AM So I had to be alert and awake and available for my team. I think it was probably like three years before, um, a wallah shut down that I started the brand.

It was very side hustle status. It was, I started with one legging. I was doing pop-up shops. I was doing in-person events. I became really well known in the small gym workout environments, like Kaya Fitness is an all women, kind of like a franchise business. And they were inviting me. Then California Family Fitness, I got to be in their stores.

So it started off really small and very in person and very direct to consumer. Um, and it went very well. Until 

Adrian, I wanna ask. Yeah, right. Adrian, I wanna ask you, do you remember when your mom was working full-time at Coca-Cola side hustling leggings and, and how did that look to you? 

Yeah, from at that, from an at-home point of view, I remember leggings being in our living room, in our garage.

I would go downstairs and there'd always be something new. Orders would be printing a labels, just like thrown around and seeing it as a little kid. I was very interested in like finding out what my mom was doing, finding out how she was doing this, the side hustle and her job. It was definitely interesting to look at at first, but I was pretty proud of watching it, seeing happen.

Yeah, I bet. And was it, did it feel like a big shift when she started doing the legging side hustle? Did it feel like things, did you notice a shift in your, I don't know, in the house or in your mom? 

Definitely in the house, but not in my mom. She was still strong. She was still resilient. She still did her job, came back and would work on love her.

Not the biggest change, but she was definitely strong for pushing through both of that and doing multiple things at the same time. 

Yeah, very. And getting dinner on the table. 

Yes. Yeah. 

Amazing. So then you side hustled for about three years, and then COVID took away the opportunities for all the pop-ups shops and going to the gym and you would, after Zoom school, when the boys got off of their zooms, they would come help you.

You started packing out of the garage and taking online orders. You had a website up in, I think three months, is that what you said? 

Yeah. I found out that Coca-Cola was killing off the brand that I was managing in early stages of COVID. So they did offer all of us a severance package, and at that point I had to make a choice.

Do I take the severance package and put it in savings and go get another job, or do I do something terrifying and invest it in myself and see what happens? So I'm like, you know what, let me just. Let me just try something. If I blow this whole severance check, well at least I'll have a great story to tell.

So I did that. I said, okay, I'm gonna pull the trigger and purchase more product. And I started my online story. It was totally bootstrapped. It was not the cutest website, but it was very intentional. And the moms that I had built the community with, oh my gosh. That's when I learned that moms have power.

Like girl, be scared of a mom because a mom can get her community together. And it wasn't until I launched my website, I just sat and like, I remember turning it on and thinking like, and then I went onto my Instagram and I said, Hey girl. Hey ladies, I know you. You guys usually shop for me at a popup shop, but I just activated my website.

This is the website if you guys are interested. I'm shipping out of my home. And I sent that on a, I didn't even do a reel, I just sent it on a story. And I turned on the website and I just sat there on the page that you can see if people are on your website. And then I remember seeing the first person and I'm like, oh my gosh, there's somebody on the website and then it's like five people on your website.

Six people seven. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Like there's actually people on the website. I got my first order and then like nothing happened. And then I'm like, okay. I packaged the order. I kind of learned with that first order, like all the steps that I had to do. And then I went to bed and the next morning I woke up and I logged into my website and I had six orders.

And I remember feeling like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. Like I have six orders and I had my little bags and everything. And then it just kind of took off every day. There was like a minimum of 10 orders. Then my new minimum was 20 orders. And COVID was such a weird time. 'cause I feel, I felt like we time traveled, like all the days became one.

You don't remember. Like events that really happened, birthdays or anything, but everything just blended in. I remember my kids, I would set them up to go to their online school. After school. I would get like a stack of orders and labels and I would like tell the kids like, Hey, this is how I, I, I put little shelving in the garage, I kick my husband's cars out of the garage and they would help me like, because there was days that it was just a lot.

And I remember we would put the tubs together and I would drive to West Sacramento and drop 'em off at the, the United States Postal Service. And from there it just kind of blew up. I didn't realize it had blown up though. I just, I remember I kept purchasing, the money was coming in. I never touched that money.

I never really looked at that money. And it wasn't until I went in to do my taxes or the early 2021, that's when my CPA, she was like, what are you doing? She's like, are you running this as a sole prop? Oh my gosh, you're gonna pay so much in talk. Do you even have money to pay these this much in taxes? And I was like, how much do I owe?

And she was like, girl, you sold over a million dollars. You're gonna owe majorly. And she's like, well, let's look at your accounts. And we logged in and she's like, oh girl, you got money to pay these taxes? No problem. Wow. She's like, but now we gotta set you up. She's like, you need to get an attorney. You need to get an accountant.

You need to get a c, a different CPA that can handle larger scale business. I do personal not business. And she kind of like hooked me up. And within like a few months, maybe like a month and a half, I started looking for a warehouse and a distribution center, and that's when it kind of just took off from there.

So Adriana, I. Was thinking about this, and I mean, I know a ton of moms who would die to have that kind of just crazy fast growth. Mm-hmm. I think that it has something to do with the community you built before you went online. Yes. And. I wanna know your perspective on this, because also every company out there is trying to sell to moms.

Yes. Every company out there knows that moms are powerful. Mm-hmm. But it is very difficult to get, you can't just say that and then go after moms and then have it work. Right. So what was it that you did? What was the secret sauce? I think 

it was the three years prior that I would wake up every Saturday and Sunday morning and go set up at farmer's markets, at pop-up shops, at local gyms.

I was literally selling wherever people would have me and I, it was the conversations I was having with the in-person buyers, the moms and I would go and set up with my goddaughter and my niece, and they were younger, they were like high school students at the time at St. Francis. And I remember. The moms coming up to me, having conversations with me and then with my nieces and then just being like, I love that you're doing this and you're teaching these young women, you know about business.

And, and then those moms would go and have other conversations. And then I remember I had one customer, Lisa Gonzalez from Channel three, she came to one of my pop-up shops and she was like, Hey, somebody gifted me a pair of these leggings and they were amazing and I had no idea you were local. And I came to buy some.

So she came and we kind of like became friends And I, next week she came again and she was like, so I love that second pair and I need some more for a gift. And then she was like, can I do a story on you because I, I love what you're doing. So she, I really do thank her a lot for like te being the first person to actually tell my story on a broader level.

'cause I think she was one of the main reasons we kind of catapulted two on a local level that then just took off on a national level. 

And we haven't really shared with the audience yet. Tell us what's different about your leggings Yeah. And the purpose behind them. 

Yeah. So my leggings are not your typical soft loungy yoga leggings.

My leggings are definitely the ones that will, they're for performance. So you can do, uh, women run marathons. And my leggings, they also, my leggings are more for a real woman's body shape, so they're gonna have contouring and they're also going to hold you up and hold you in. They also, with the stitching, I was very intentional.

Uh, even when I was first designing the leggings, I remember talking to a friend that is, he did, he is a celebrity makeup artist. And I remember telling him like, he did my makeup once. And I'm like, man, you did good things with my face. Like, how did you make it look like leaner and longer? He's like, girl, it's just contouring.

Contouring will take you along a lot of places. And I, I remember just joking with him, but I was like, Jeff. Could you, could I contour like legs and a booty? And he was like, yes girl, you can. And I remember him telling me like, it's stitching. Stitching is your contour. So hit that stitching where it needs to show like the de the definition of a muscle or where you want the lift of a booty to start and to arc and to go up.

And that was a big game changer I think for our leggings because they are intentionally engineered. Like every stitch, even where the pocket lands, even where the waistline hits it definitely is to not only give you a high performance legging, but also to enhance your shape. Um, amazing. Wow. 

Okay. So that makes a big difference.

And also you've also mentioned that. I love that when you were young, you didn't really identify as Latina or any, and, and it, even though you guys had a, a restaurant that was, it was Mexican food, right? That was, 

yeah. Yeah. It's crazy because like growing up in Marin, we were literally the only Latin family in the community.

And when they had like, um, I think it was like Earth Day or it, there was a festival that, a parade they do every year, and I think the only two Latinas they could find were me and my sister. So we would represent the float that had all of Latin America on it. And I seriously, for years, when I was younger, not until I moved to Sacramento, I didn't realize that we were.

Mexican. I just thought me, my mom, my dad, and like a few of the employees just had a secret like work language. And it wasn't until we moved to Sacramento that I got, I love how diverse Sacramento is because that's when I realized like, oh wait, I'm part of a group. But I was so immersed and like accepted and loved by a different group that I'm so happy that my childhood was started and rooted there because I think it also made me have that same train of thought with.

Other demographic with other nationalities. I'm the one that's like, yes, I wanna try your food. Yes, I wanna see your cultures. Yes. I wanna know why you celebrate things different than we do. And even in our, like in our product development, I have a line that's called the the Latin line, and we have a sanita line and we have a line that kind of brings my consumers if they are looking for something that's Latin inspired.

I even have customers that they bring their ideas to me based on what it is that they are into, and we create it. 

And I feel like you've brought that sense of community mm-hmm. That is such a strong part of the Latina culture Yeah. To this business. And it and it, it, you feel that from the business? Is that, do you, do you get that?

I do. Do. Do you think that that was a part of kind of the secret sauce? 

Uh, I do only because I feel like when we get our, we have customers that have been with us since even before we had a website, and they follow our journey and we go and do our lives and they will vouch for us as if they're like paid representatives of our company.

They'll say, I remember when you started and you did this, and, and I feel like that's the best like signature stamp of approval you can get from your consumers when they feel confident enough to want to vouch for something that there is, they don't have any, any, any money in this game or any, anything in it, but they really do love the brand and it's become like a, a sisterhood.

We even during like hardships, like when during the LA fires, my whole team was like, let's see if we can help, you know, if there has to be women that lost everything. And, and my team was the one that was like, okay, we found a nonprofit that's doing a whole giveaway and let's go ahead and ship a bunch of our product out.

So it definitely is. That's, I think, the best part of owning a business. It's beyond the money. You have to be doing it for a reason and for a purpose. And even our name, our name, love her. I didn't have a name for this brand for months, even before I thought about making it into a brand. The name came from by accident.

After I had dinner one night with my husband in Sacramento, we were leaving the restaurant is when Viva's was still open. We were walking in front of the emergency room in front of Sutter to go back to our car. And there was a woman outside of the emergency room that I, I heard her on the phone. She was asking for a ride home and she needed a safe place to stay.

And I kind of heard her conversation, so it got my attention. And I looked over and I, I looked down and I realized that like she, she was released like in what was like scrubs and like the little tie gown. And it looked like she had been through some like. Physical. There was something like she had been hurt or hit in her face.

And I remember just feeling really bad and asking my husband, like, did they really just release her in in that? And he's like, well, sometimes if people were had blood on them or were hurt, they have to cut 'em out of their clothes. And, and I, I like, I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I remember telling him, okay, wait, go over to like crazy Mary's, let's like go get something.

I, I went in, I got like, I remember it was like palazzo cell pants and just like a sweater. And I'm like, let's drive back over there if she's still there, I wanna give her this. And we drove up, we pulled up, she was still sitting on the curb and I jumped out and I walked up to her and I was like, hi, I just bought this clothes.

It's, you look like a size medium. There's a receipt in the bag. The store's down the street if it doesn't work. I just wanted to give you some clothes to change into if you wanted it. And she opened the bag and she looked up and the only thing she said to me was like, she was like, thank you so much. I just finished praying right now for just another human to just show me a little bit of love.

Oh, and like that hit me. I don't know why I got like, I got so emotional. I started crying and then I ran away from her. I dunno why I ran. I ran and I ran back to the car and I got in the car and I remember telling my husband, babe, I got it. I know what my purpose is. It's not just gonna be a brand, it's gonna be a purpose.

I wanna call this business love her and I wanna give back to her. I wanna give back to women in my community. And we've done that for, since our first quarter. We look for nonprofits that serve women, women with children, cancer patients. And I cut a portion of our proceeds back to nonprofits. 

And 

you do 

that on what can't be a huge margin because you have committed to your customers that you, I think your, you said your most expensive leggings, $35.

Yeah. And that was the one thing that I created a brand that I myself would've wanted to purchase as a mom. Even if you do make good money, you're not trying to spend a hundred dollars on a pair of leggings. You, you still have sports, you have food, you have groceries, you have activities, you have things for your home you have to spend on.

And I just kind of wanted something that felt, I felt happy about, like luxurious, like I had something that was good quality, but I didn't break the bank. So yeah, I've committed to a high quality, low price point brand, and I've, thankfully, I was like, this year. We made it through COVID. I never had to raise prices this year.

Tariffs were a thing, and I remember like watching all these brands immediately the moment the words tariffs came out in the media, everybody was like, oh, prices are going up. And then I was like, wait, hold up guys. Like how are prices immediately going up? I know you're sitting on product that you purchased prior to tariffs hitting.

So then I remember having this conversation with my team and they were like, you know what, Adriana, why don't you just go on live and tell the customers that, that it's all kind of like something you're gonna try to carry. So I remember going on live and letting my customers know like, Hey girls, like I know everybody's hearing the work tariff.

I know everybody's being more conscious and aware and holding onto their money. I know layoffs are a thing, but one thing I can commit to you is I know that I have enough product back here to last us six to eight months. That product. I will never raise the prices on you. 'cause I purchased it prior to tariffs.

I am, I'm, I'm committed to keeping the pricing down as long as I can. And here we are coming to the end of the year. I still have never raised my prices. That one day that I did release that and I released it with the letter to our customers, I was shocked to see that my customers showed me the love back.

We got, we, we did like a $35,000 sales in one day based on just communicating that to my customers. 

Amazing. That's such a good story. Okay, Adrian, so you're watching your mom build this thing from her garage and you're no dummy. You see the dollars coming in and the sales coming in, and tell us how that inspired you and what you built from that.

So my story starts off as an employee, I love her. I would usually just package the orders, help making the post office runs. I would see my mom doing all of this. I would go with her to sourcing shows, to like find manufacturers and materials. And I kind of just seen her do all the work and everything.

She did kind of just gimme the opportunity to really like, have a role models to follow. And I was like, if she could do it, sure I can also follow in her footsteps. And that kind of led me to trying to find something that I could do in the clothing realm. And I found and and landed on shorts. 

And you had gone with your mom to trade shows.

You understood trying to find the right fabrics and the right vendors. Is that right? 

Yeah, I would go to her to sourcing shows and we would just find different fabrics, different materials, and I would see how she picked up her fabrics and I would try to look around and just like touch things, ask people like what is this?

What is that? Um, what kind of like fabric is this? And. I would just find fabrics that I would like keeping 'em in the back of my brain for when I would make my own business. 

Did you have in your head, I wanna be a business owner? 

At first, I had no clue what being a business owner was, but seeing my mom do it, I kind of thought if she could do it, I definitely could learn from her.

And then when she started making love her and love her, started getting big, she got her own warehouse. I was interested and I was like, mom, can you teach me how to be, do make a business? Can you teach me where to start? How do I create a business? And from there on, I just kind of found her, found something, found a, that reason to make something.

And I found shorts, being an athlete, being a student, I lived in my shorts and I was like, shorts should not be expensive. And that's kind of where I started mine. 

And how did it, you were a volleyball player, right? 

Yeah, I played basketball and volleyball in high school. 

Okay. And what did you notice in those?

Arenas that there was kind, it seemed like there was kind of a niche there too that you identified. 

Yeah, I would go to these tournaments, I would play against teams. And I noticed a lot of teams, a lot of under underfunded teams would have different types of shorts. Kids would be wearing Nike and Under Armour shorts or they just wouldn't be matching.

And I kind of saw then that teams needed a reason to pay for lower affordable shorts, more affordable, more, same style, same, same texture, same feeling, but still need that team short to look like a, or like a team and not just some people that came together to play volleyball. And that's when it really hit me that teams need this low niche for more affordable shorts.

And I remember one tournament, I came back with my dad and I told him, Hey, that team doesn't have the same types of shorts. And he was like, that's a good idea. You should find something to do about that. I kind of went off on that. 

And how did you sell your first team shorts or uniforms? 

What did that look like?

I started with my own team. I made 10 designs and I picked one design and I went to my team, my high school team was my senior year and I told 'em, Hey, it's my senior year. I decided to make these shorts. I would really love it if we wore them this season. We were a championship winning team and I thought it'd be a great way to put my, my brand out there while having my team, my friends wear it.

And we wore it that season. We went on to to win and it was great. That's where I mainly started and teams started picking up, started seeing us wear our shorts, and they started asking, where are those from? Where are those from? And it was great 'cause I could tell 'em I actually made them. And then you need shorts.

I had something, we throw it off with 10 shorts and now we have about 90. So it's been going pretty good. Wow, 

wow. And have you marketed primarily to sports teams? 

We started off first with volleyball teams, but as we've grown now, it's pretty much. All types of sports, any types of athletes. I work with three of other, my founders, my friends, they're all different types of athletes.

So they're wrestlers, they're basketball players, football players, they, they know all the other types of sports, like what athletes would like, what, what athletes need. And I kind of work with them to kind of make my shorts tailored to any type of athlete or any type of kid in general for lounging athletes wear.

And that's kind of what we based it on. But a lot of people wear shorts now, which I love. Not just volleyball, but a lot of people. I love that. 

How did you originally fund your business? 

I originally funded my business, putting a lot of my money in. Just most of the money I've made working at Lover, anything my mom would pay me, I kind of just put it back into the eras.

I only started off with to making 10 shorts. The 10 shorts were pretty, pretty easy to make. They didn't cost that much, but it was most of what I had. And I had 60, 60 shorts of each of each kind. So I had 600 shorts in total and I sold all of 'em. And when I realized I sold all of 'em, I. I was like, I can definitely make something out of this.

And everything I, I sold, I put back in, I bought more shorts and the cycle just kept going and I realized that this could really grow. And working with my mom, she, she taught me along the way, like anything I could do, anything I could make, she let me use some of her warehouse space, which is great. And it kind of just kept spiraling from there and growing alongside her was really great to see that happening.

Adrian, we talk a lot about, on this family podcast, there's, the business is just hard no matter what you do, right? That's right. Yeah. And then you layer on family. 

Mm-hmm. Which 

is a different dynamic. And for the majority of our listeners who are also parts of family businesses, you guys have your own companies, but you've worked so closely in developing those and you are, you've lived together in part while doing that.

Right. And, uh, how do you. How do you guys navigate the challenges of business and family? You know, like having a disagreement about work or about money or about and then having to be at family dinner together? 

Mm-hmm. It definitely is interesting. Uh, I wake up, I see my mom over breakfast in the morning and then two hours later I'll see her at the office and it's like two different people.

I see my mom and then I see like a business owner. I see like a worker. And then it's definitely different, a different interaction. I'm definitely talking to my mom in a business sense, very open-minded, very listening to what she says both at home and at the office. It is her space. She does let me use her warehouse, so I do respect her for that and I give her thanks for that.

But I do kind of see her as my mom and in a sense, my boss when I'm at work, 'cause she does help me in a lot of the things I do. I am at university, so I am far away, so she does help me. Manage my company when I do like while I am remotely. So she de, I definitely see her as more of a boss figure and more of like a, a role model in, in my eyes and mainly a mentor and also love being my mom.

And Adriana, I'll ask you the same question and, and with your husband too because I know him being an engineer and you guys have a very supportive marriage it sounds like. And so how do you navigate challenges in communication or business? 

You know, it's funny 'cause sometimes we'll have conversations and I can tell when we're, um.

In boss mode or when we're in family like mode and there's, it's hard to separate that. 'cause there's even times where we will go on vacations and we'll be like really relaxed and like happy and on the beach and then, uh, a business question pops up and we kind of all look at each other like, okay, let's, let's handle this.

And then let's get back to that. But I feel like all of us know how to like code switch. We know how to be in family mode. And then if a conversation that needs to be had at that moment is business, we code switch into work mode where I even, I can tell my tone of voice changes when I'm talking to either my husband or my son about something that's work related.

And I can feel their tone of voice changed with me too. Like he's very strong when he, I give him an opinion and he's like, you, you don't, I don't agree with you. Like, mom, this is my demographic. I am my demographic. Almost like he gives me the stay in your lane kind of thing. Mm-hmm. And I respect that because I don't see him as my son at that moment.

I see him as a fellow entrepreneur. So I think we both have to be aware of, like, he talks to me like. Like a fellow entrepreneur at times, and I a hundred percent respect that. And then when we're out of that environment, then he's back to being my kid and I'm asking him to take the laundry out of the the dryer.

Yeah. 

And Adrian, I, a little birdie told me that you have been so successful in your business that you are paying for your private college education. Is that accurate? 

Yes. Errors has been really good to me. I've been trying to work at it Santa Clara and it has been really good to me that it has been allowing me to pay for my college so far, which is really good and I can't wait to keep that up.

That's amazing. Santa Clara has taught me a lot and I'm glad that my business and my school can be both be part of my life and that's like the most valuable thing to me right now. 

Do you want to be an entrepreneur going forward? 

I want to continue being an entrepreneur as long as I can. I do have an internship in accounting for next summer, so I'm still trying to see the world of business.

Hopefully college can give me a sense of that. Not just through being an entrepreneur, but also seeing the whole world of business and understanding business in general, uh, especially in the Silicon Valley, but. I do want to be an entrepreneur for as long as I can be, and I hope I can be. When I grow up and when I enter the real world, I can still have eras and still work on eras like my mom did when she had, she still worked and had love her.

That's the, that's the vision I have for myself is continue to bring eras to the future. 

What motivates you to stay in school and to want to get more wider experience outside of a already very successful business? 

Yeah. My mom mentioned how she dropped off her. She dropped out her sophomore year, and I'm just in the middle of my sophomore year, so it definitely is different for me.

I want to stay in school just to learn more about business in general. My dad pushes heavy on the college aspect and how I should experience college. I should learn and not just be solely dependent on learning from like as an entrepreneur's point of stance, but I definitely wanna understand like the world of business and also have a job and understand what it's like to have a job.

And working for myself and others is just an all around sense of business in general. And I just wanna really get out there and experience all that for myself. 

And I hear you're paying your younger brother to be part of the business. 

Yeah. I'm trying to get my little brother Aiden more into the business.

He's a sophomore in high school right now, so he went to the same high school I went to and I'm hoping he can really get more part of the company as he grows. I want him to be the next face of the company. I want him to be the new demographic he tailors toward, but I really am trying to get him into involved into the business and hopefully one day run it with him alongside me.

So cool. Adriana, so you have your dad who's very successful in business, you who have been very successful in business, your son who's already successful at business. What do you think are the inherited traits that have been a part of that success? 

A hundred percent being fearless. I think for my dad, him being fearless came from a different point.

He had to be fearless 'cause there were no other options. Like it's almost like you, you become fearless or you die. For me, I had the option to be fearless because I saw fearless people and it didn't really click until I was in high school. I was like, wow, it must have been hard for them. They didn't speak the language that well, they didn't have any education and I think it was kind of like a, a nod and a like an honor, like to have been raised by people like that, that I said I would be s.

Doing such a disservice to my past generation. And I wanted to honor them by taking a piece of that fear, putting that fire inside of me and showing them like, Hey guys, you are a big part of my next success in my future. And I feel like Adrian, he's a different kind of fearless. He's a fearless, but also very aware of the realities in life.

I'm a little fearless, reckless, and he's fearless, but calculated. And he takes a really good look at like all the pros, all the cons. So it just keeps getting different type of like, uh, conquering fear as the generations go. 

And I'm curious too about your, the inherited traits of. People and community, because I know you had told me, Adrian, you have been very, it seems very natural at talking to people and students and parents and, and getting people on board.

And so there's a real sense of honoring others, honoring community. How has that, how do you think that's played a role, Adriana? 

Ooh. I think it's played a role. He teaches me, like I watch and I grow through my kids, which is so weird now because you would never think as a parent one day they're going to be the ones that will be the teachers.

But, um, I've watched him and I feel very lucky that he actually got to get educated by the Jesuits because I feel like that made him a man before he was. I saw him in my eyes as a man. He's very big on the sense of community, sense of brotherhood, sense of loyalty, and he's brought that I, I hear him say, you know, like men for others, and I feel like he's taught me that too.

Like you have to be, it's not just about you and yourself in your bubble. You have to have a greater purpose, a bigger purpose. I feel like for a minute I forgot that, and it wasn't until I looked at him and I saw how he was living his life that I'm like, yeah, it is bigger. It is not just me and my small community.

You have to do it for others. 

That is something that I think has really hit me about your story is that it's not just that you made a great product, you were driven by a purpose to serve people who were not going to be the ones who were buying a hundred dollars leggings and. There's something really interesting, I think, and for you too, Adrian, in a time where our culture sort of run by these luxury brands, you know, this sort of every marketing strategy is, is aspirational.

Meaning you're supposed to want something you can't have. Mm-hmm. And I think what you guys have done is you've connected with people and you've actually given them something that betters their life. Something that is quality at a, at an accessibility that is realistic and that's made you so relatable.

And I think it's also been such a point of differentiation for both of you in your businesses, that it's not just about higher margin is better or you know, how can we, how much can we get for this product? It's, you have to really balance your margins with purpose. Yeah. Right. How committed am I going to be to making this accessible to people?

And I think there's. Something there for companies to learn right now, I think that we have, that there is power in bucking the system of this kind of traditional mindset business of profit over people. I agree. Because I think you guys really have created businesses that A absolutely are profitable and I think grow and have grown because there's a commitment to people.

So I'm curious as to both of your reflections on that. You know, it seems, it's how I'm seeing it from the outside, but how do you feel about that? 

I don't know. What would you say yours? 

I'd say definitely putting people over the profit. 

Yeah. 

I think through making a business, I've, a lot of people have come up to me saying, is this your business?

Is this who you are? Is this what you make? And I really enjoy people coming up to me. And the more people that come up to me, I ask them like, yeah, how do you know? And they fall more in love with my story and I enjoy, yeah. Acting people, they talk with me like that. And I've found to love that interaction with people more than I do that the actual selling profit to them.

Yeah. And I think for me it's, I want my customers to always feel like they're on the winning end. Because I remember as a consumer, I still am dedicated and I go hard for the companies that would make me feel like that. Yes. If I walked away from a transaction feeling like, oh my gosh, I just totally like came up on something like really amazing at a great price.

I wanted to replicate that feeling. So I try to make sure that my customers always leave with that feeling of, we did a transaction. But yes, girl, you got the winning end of that transaction. 

That's really cool. I love that. I also wanted to touch on Adriana. You and I had a great, I think, very transparent conversation, and I think this really is something that family businesses experience.

Mm-hmm. Which is you work really hard to create the business that you create to create the growth that you create and then your kids. Take it on, or they do their thing and it's like, Ugh, that was so fast and easy for you. 

I'm not gonna lie. I know what the politically correct answer of a mom is supposed to be.

Like. I'm so happy that it was so easy and I did the groundwork. Girl, I'm not gonna lie, I wish he would've struggled a little bit more, only because I feel like I became who I was through the struggles because of the struggles. 'cause it was so much harder. But I cannot hate on that. I think he's just very smart and he took all the tools and he absorbed it like a sponge.

And the reason he made it look easier is because he didn't over. Obsess and overanalyze the things that I was over obsessing and analyzing. And I had kind of like sh shown behind the curtain, all the failures to him. Unbeknownst to me he had seen all the failures, so he already knew where to weave and Bob and swerve.

But yeah, like low key. I was a little bit like, oh, why did he get so much success so quickly? Because I remember him telling me he came to the office one day and he was like laughing at me and the girls, and I was like, do you think you could ever do this? He's like, girl, I see you and your employees having fun listening to music.

This isn't that hard. And I remember being so offended and I was like, what do you mean it's really hard? He is like, I could do this. And. So a little part of me was hating on him for, but at the same time, I'm so proud of him for actually really paying attention and watching and avoiding all of the the mistakes that I did.

And yeah, 

he was listening and then going the other way. Do you think that your dad would have felt that way about you seeing how. Quickly you rose to success, even though it was a totally different industry. Yeah. Yeah. 

I feel like my father, if he were still here with us today, he would be so proud and he would just be, I think it would've blown his mind to know that he was a cattle catalyst for me, and not only me, but like he touched my child's like future.

He, he, I know my dad would be proud and I know my dad would be okay with the fact that he made it easy for me. I don't know why at my generation I wanted it to be harder for him. 

Well, I, I would say it is different because it, it is a different time where you could grow something online really quick and then, and that's a little bit easier to replicate than going from a restaurant business to a clothing business, which you really had to start.

All the way from scratch. Yeah. Like you didn't know anything about clothing or fabrics or all of that, so I, I think it's also, it's an interesting reflection on the time we're living in too. Yeah. Because we all want internet businesses. Every teen wants to be a YouTuber, you know, everyone wants to be an influencer because it seems easier, it seems, and it is, obviously you've done a great job in the technical pieces of knowing how to do things so much better than our generation, Adriana.

I mean, I'm probably older than you, but like, at least we didn't know about SEO and we didn't know about, you know, optimization and all, all the things. But, but I think it is in some ways easier for your generation, right? It's a little bit more like your language and probably a little bit easier to replicate.

And also it's still business, so it's, it's really you. I would say you also really created something. From scratch in terms of the demographic and the creativity and the idea and the, you know, but what's your, what's your reflection on all of this? 

Yeah, basically just watching my mom start her business, she set the like groundwork for how to start it.

I would watch her do orders. I did the orders. I'd watch her manage all the website. I would learn from the website doing daily, daily operations in the warehouse. I would learn from that and kind of just watching her, how she ran her business, and then adding my own touch to it. Adding my own like personal touch.

Like I do funny videos on our Instagram. I do something that appeals more to like my demographic, what I think would, my demographic would appeal to. Um, just I think like my, a different touch to it, kind of just how I went about on it. 

Yeah. Yeah. And the belief in yourself, as you said, Adriana, the fearlessness, but also just the, I I think that's something that's inherited kind of through osmosis too, is just that belief like, oh.

You believe in yourself. Oh, you can believe in yourself. Oh, you could. Your intuition could be right. Yeah. You can make decisions that you have like no business, you know, making from an outside world perspective, right? Yes, and it can be successful. Which is so cool. So we always end these podcasts with this guy Raz question, which Adriana, you should share your experience with Guy Raz because you, you and I like, I feel like two degrees away now that I know you.

Yeah. So I have always loved stories and storytelling, and I've always loved to listen to entrepreneur stories. I think every time I meet an entrepreneur I always ask them like, tell me what was the story? How did it happen? Don't leave out the failure part. Yes. Um, so I discovered his podcast a few years back and I remember even before I started my business, I would listen to the stories and be so inspired.

And last year I got the opportunity to be actually on his podcast and not only on his podcast, but I got to be on his podcast with the legendary woman with Norma Kamali. She is an icon when it comes to fashion and probably being one of the only women that still 100% owns her multi-billion dollar brand.

And being on the show with her and being able to, you know, tell her, you know, this is a current. Areas of struggle for me, and I'm at this point of either I do or I die. And her having shared her experience and kind of like taking me under her wing with giving me her real thoughts, has just kind of like been the catalyst for the next level of my business.

So I'm very thankful that there's even podcasts out there that I, I think he does this podcast knowing that it helps people. I don't think he realizes that it actually is a turning point for a lot of entrepreneurs. Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. 

And if you had to share your biggest challenge so far, or, or a time when you felt like maybe you wouldn't make it, can you share that with us and, and how you got to the other side of that?

One of our challenges was definitely the point where we did hear about the tariffs. And even during COVID, I, when there was a, a, a production issue, I realized quickly that. I was going to put in my order, but then I started hearing all over the news that there was issues with all the boats that were bringing over the product and sea containers being trapped.

And I remember feeling like, oh no, I just threw all my money at doing it online. And now I had a byproduct. And I remember reaching out to my vendors overseas and saying. Does my stuff need to come on a boat? Like is there any other options? And the girl was like, well, there is one other option, it'll cost a little bit more, but it's, if you buy this amount extra, then you can kind of like wash out the extra cost.

But if you wanna put it on a plane, you can throw it on a FedEx plane. And I was like, yes, let's do it. And I'm so happy that that problem happened because that problem is the reason why I was able to not only always keep stock, but then I was able to release new product while big companies like Lululemon, Nike, Adidas, were having product issues.

All their stuff was sitting on sea containers in the middle of the ocean in another country. While my stuff was just, I'm small enough and I'm agile enough as a, as a smaller brand to make moves that they couldn't make. Yeah. So I feel like that was a very important part for me and that was a big part of my success.

Yeah. That's an interesting thing about, uh, thing to think about when we talk about scaling our companies. Right. Because there, there comes a point where you're like, the Titanic, it's way harder to to man to, to maneuver. Yeah. And there is 

something be they have to think about their planning like a year in advance.

Me, I'm, I have my product in three months, so if something is trending right now, I'm like, let's do it. 

Yeah. Yeah. You're nimble. Mm-hmm. That's, yeah, that's a huge asset. Okay, so going back to Guy Raz, our ending question is, do you think that the success of your businesses, Adrian, are more to do with the luck that's come your way or the hard work?

Ooh. Well, I think for me I would, I would say 50 50. It would have to say, I would even say like. Not only luck, but also risk a hundred percent if I didn't have all the steps that were happening at the time that I launched my brand happening. Like if COVID wouldn't have happened, who knows if I would've been this successful?

'cause COVID is what pivoted me to go into the online market. I did put in a lot of hard work. So I would say 50 50. I'm not gonna take a hundred percent credit and say hard work is what always makes you successful. 'cause I've known people that have been the hardest workers and if they just happen to not have that one person, that one thing, that one moment that happened, it wouldn't have happened.

So I would definitely say 50%, I would be luck and 50% would be hard work. I don't know about you. What do you think about your business? 

I would say for you, I'd say a hundred percent hard work. Aw. 

You're, 

you're a mom and you also be, and you're also a business owner. I've seen you get up like really early and make breakfast and still go to work.

I think that takes a lot of hard work and I see it from a different viewpoint. 'cause I am at home. I see both your sides. But for me, I'd say. Mainly luck and mainly lucky for you to show me how to become a business owner at so young, lucky for you to be such a good role model and show me all the events, bring me to big time events like sourcing shows and showing me how to get into the door of the world of being an entrepreneur.

So I'd say luck and really thankful for you. 

Oh, thanks babe. Good answer, Adrian. Good answer. Okay, great. Anything else that either of you would wanna share about family business 

or No, I, I would probably just say like family business is not easy. It's definitely hard, but if you're willing to all come to the negotiation table and take everybody's personality into account, you're gonna be successful.

Yeah. Awesome. Adrian, any final words? 

Doing it with family is so much better than doing it alone. I wouldn't do it with anyone else. I love working with my brother. I love working with my mom. It's great at the end and I love doing it. I hope to continue doing. 

Fantastic you guys. Thank you so much. Your story is so important, uh, not just for family businesses, but business and the way you've created such a purpose-driven high quality products.

Uh, it's very inspiring. So thank you for being here with us today. Thank 

you for sharing our story. 

Thank you.

Thank you for listening to a Seat at the Table trials and triumphs of family business. If you like what you heard today, please be sure to subscribe. Post a positive review and share with another family business owner. For more information about the Capital Region Family Business Center, visit cap family biz.org.

That's Cap family BU s.org. You can also follow us on Facebook at Capital Region Family Business Center and on Instagram at Cap Fam Bizz, BIZ. If you know of other family businesses that have a story to share, please contact the Family Business Center at info@capfamilybiz.org. That's BUS. We're grateful for the support from River City Bank to make this program possible and special thanks to Guy Roz from how I built this for a wonderful closing question that's become one of our favorites.