The adventure continues…
The journey we’ve been on over the last few years – and even longer if we count all the time we spent thinking about Nirvana Soul – has been nothing short of magical. We worked hard, we rolled with the punches, and it finally happened. Nirvana Soul is open!
However, the last couple of months have been a rollercoaster of emotions and drama we could have never anticipated. We’ve been tested in more ways than one. On a personal/professional note, I got promoted at my day job! (YAY!) For those of you who have followed along from the beginning, you know how monumental this was for us. I went from fired and completely lost to VP of Marketing. Talk about the power of faith and resiliency! Since then it’s been a whirlwind of added responsibilities, some expected and many not, which sadly has meant less capacity for Nirvana Soul.
(And fewer updates. 🙈 It’s been about a week and half since I could finally come up for air at work and actually write. But no worries! I’ll get you all caught up.)
In addition to our regular programs and calendar of events here at NS, we’ve also been contacted regularly for collaborations and promotions. We are so happy to be a business in this community that other businesses and people want to work with! We’ve had inquiries about mentorship, jobs, pop-ups, social media posts, college curriculum, consulting, speaking, events, and more. Not being able to respond or take action on all of these opportunities has been incredibly difficult. We wish we could do it all, and we’re quickly learning that we can’t. That’s a hard pill to swallow for a group of people so excited to be here and who want to help everyone live their dreams the way we get to live ours. This will continue to be a challenge, but fingers crossed, help is on the way soon. 🤞🏾
For Jeronica’s part, she and the in-store team have also had their hands full keeping the shop safe, healthy, and chaos free. Not only are we getting busier as the days get warmer, we’re also coming across more folks who are anxious to sit inside and less willing to take no for an answer. 😬 Well, we’re happy to share that we are officially a fully vaccinated team! And SURPRISE: we are open to limited indoor dining as of Tuesday, May 11! 🎉 Here are the rules to start:
Indoor dining is available in the mezzanine and stage tables only
Limit each table to two (2) people from the same party
Masks must be worn when not drinking or eating
Table time will be limited to 45 minutes per visit
Our team must clean the tables between diners
We expect to loosen these rules soon as things open up a bit more. Let’s try this first and see how it goes. We appreciate your patience as we work it out. Things are slowly, but surely, getting back to normal!
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In other news from the last two months, we experienced one of the scariest moments ever just a few weeks ago when one of our baristas went missing. (Even writing that took me back to that horrible place of thinking the absolute worst, but hoping for the best.) He was in great spirits the last time we saw him before he went missing, even coming by to celebrate a teammate’s birthday on his day off. The next day he was scheduled to open and never showed up, which was completely uncharacteristic. As the morning went on and we couldn’t reach him, we knew something was wrong. It took another nearly 30 hours or so before he was found.
This event could have been so tragic – and in many ways it still is – but our barista returned home safe and unharmed because of the persistence of our community that shared, searched, prayed, and believed. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your help. It meant the world to us. 🙏🏾
Meanwhile (and I’m going to take a sharp turn here to lighten this up for a moment), we are still in the process of starting our own roastery. You might recall that an opportunity to take ownership presented itself to us just a few months ago. We had some options, including continuing with our existing roasting partner, bringing a micro-roasting machine onsite to our shop, or joining a roasting co-op. But, you know us… we did the hardest thing! We decided to go all in 100% on our own roastery! We’re crazy people, but it’s working so far, right? 😄
More crazy? We’re starting to look into a second location! (Whoop whoop!) We’re only at the very beginning of this search and starting right back where we did with #sofashop: calling phone numbers on vacancies that seem like a good fit. We do know that we will be staying in San Jose though! This city is gigantic and beautiful and there’s so much more to do here. We can’t wait to share our progress with you. Let’s do this!
And with us taking on more, it has been so fulfilling watching our team grow and find themselves at Nirvana Soul too. A couple of our teammates recently initiated what will become our music program. The space Nirvana Soul is in used to be a hub for open mics and live music, and it was always our intention to bring that into our organization as well. Now we can! The world obviously is much different than it once was, but that won’t stop us from making these events happen. Thankfully, they’ll be designed and executed by our in-house team who we are elated to support in bringing this program to life. The talent we get to work side-by-side with is such a blessing. Feels like we have a front row seat to greatness! We’re excited for you to see what they have in store.
Now, onto more hard things / another sharp turn.
We had a minor social media crisis recently. Jeronica and I work hard to nurture safe spaces for all both in-store and online, and this might’ve been the first time we couldn’t immediately figure out how to do that. So we did what came natural to us: we were supportive and helpful.
Yet, an old photo on our Instagram received comment after comment (from informative to angry) asking for it to be taken down as a more public showing of our support. For our part, we simply believed the matter needed to play out in the appropriate channels with authorities equipped to handle it. But how could we reconcile all of that with creating safe spaces?
Ultimately, we decided to take it down. It wasn’t a rushed decision or one made from fear. We leaned into our mission and values of bringing people together, and it became clear that this photo was creating unnecessary division. If removing it brings comfort to those impacted and spares our followers and customers confusion, then we could see beyond our own limited involvement.
(Weird silver lining? This all occurred on Mother’s Day as we were spending precious time with our mom, and we really, really needed her.)
The thing about Jeronica and me being so deliberately visible, and subsequently making our team so visible, is that personal grievances against any of us can make Nirvana Soul – the brand and platform – a target. (So weird to think of ourselves that way.)
If we had any protocol for being bombarded with negative comments before, it was to leave them up. What typically was the case is that the comments or reviews were about the customer experience with Nirvana Soul, or our coffee or other products, and we believe folks should feel comfortable sharing when we miss the mark there. We’re not in the habit of deleting anything. Only on one other occasion did we receive unsolicited private messages about a member of our team, and it was a simple report and block situation. We hadn’t thought much beyond that.
But allowing outrage to play out in the court of public opinion on our company page just doesn’t make sense. And responding in any way to the aggrieved parties only fans the flames. Nirvana Soul is an intentionally safe and joyful place, and we will never compromise on that, no matter the circumstances.
So with this incident, we feel better prepared should something similar (heaven forbid) happen in the future. The answer isn’t to retreat; it’s to trust our values and make the call we feel is right. We will always be kind and inspired. We will always consider our customer experience first. We will always be trustworthy and accountable. This is the deal we’ve made with ourselves and with you.
Whew! That was a lot! 😅 It has truly been an adventure, y’all! And just like we tell our team, we’ve never done any of this before. Dealing with a pandemic, constant requests we can’t follow up on, missing people, a sudden change to our roasting situation, and social media fury were things we never really considered! It helps to remember that none of us are going to do any of this perfectly for the simple fact that we aren’t perfect people. It’s ok if who we are doesn’t work for everyone. We just have to do what we think is best, and oftentimes, it’ll be flat out wrong. But we’re still here for the long haul and getting stronger everyday.
What keeps us going is our amazing team and customers who are always so gracious and encouraging. The joy you feel and share with us is the reason that we’re here. We will stay on this wild ride with you as long as you’re with us.
And here we go being all grateful again. We’ll keep it short and sweet this time: Thank YOU!
- Be’Anka
ps. Our entire team is taking the day off next Tuesday, May 18 for our first annual company beach day! 🏖 Heads up that the shop will be closed.