Adina Eden Mizrahi was 18 when she took $100 and sold her first piece of jewelry. 11 years later, Adina Eden is a multi-million dollar brand, sold in every major department store and worn by millions of people around the world.
Links
Adina’s favorite books (affiliate links):
- Ride of a Lifetime by Bog Iger: https://a.co/d/gVIkx9g
- Finding Me by Viola Davis: https://a.co/d/dVer28c
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: https://a.co/d/cj8FzjN
Find Adina on the web:
- https://www.instagram.com/adinaeden_
- https://www.instagram.com/itsadinaeden/
- https://www.adinaeden.com/
Sponsor
Transcript
Victor M. Braca: Your jewelry has been worn by Ariana Grande, the Kardashians, Madison Beer, Cardi B, so many more.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I was literally making jewelry from scratch and reselling it to people from 18.
Victor M. Braca: You started with $100 in your parents’ basement and you’ve grown it to a multi-multi-million dollar brand.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I want to be able to sign my own check. I want to be able to live a life of financial freedom.
Victor M. Braca: Your jewelry can be found in every major department store from TJ Maxx to Nordstrom to Bloomingdale’s.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: You go on Instagram, it’s like, what’s going on? Madison Beer tagged you in a photo. My phone just starts blowing up. The whole website almost sold out. We made Forbes 30 under 30. To everyone who said we were going to fail, to everybody who doubted us, to everyone said, “You don’t have money. You’re not going to make it. You’re just immigrant kids.” We made it.
Victor M. Braca: How do you break into big-box retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdales with zero industry experience? How do you get your jewelry on celebrities like Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, and Madison Beer? How do you turn $100 into a worldwide business that brings in millions of dollars per year?
My guest today is Adina Eden Mizrahi, and she shares amazing insights on how she navigated building her business, Adina Eden, as an 18-year-old who just wanted to make $6,000 a year to cover her college tuition. In our conversation, Adina took us back to the beginning: how she felt like an outcast among her peers in school, how she was motivated by her parents to become an entrepreneur, and the story of how she learned how to craft custom jewelry from YouTube tutorials.
She takes us into the moment when Madison Beer posted a photo with one of her pieces and the skyrocketing number of orders that followed. This part was insane, by the way. And Adina also tells us what it’s like to be recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, which is something that every young founder strives for. I’m Victor Braca and Momentum is where I dive deep with exceptional leaders to uncover the key decisions, defining moments, and lessons that propelled them to success and how those insights can inspire your journey forward.
And let me tell you, if you’re interested in learning how to turn a passion into a multi-generational business, how to navigate a complex industry as a first-time founder, or the journey from a side hustle to a powerful, truly truly worldwide multi-multi-million dollar brand, you’re going to love this episode. Let’s get started.
Adina Eden Mizrahi, welcome to Momentum.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Thank you.
Victor M. Braca: You built Adina Eden, formerly Adina’s Jewels, which, you know, you started with $100 in your parents’ basement, and you’ve grown it to a multi-multi-million dollar brand, and I’m so excited to get into your story. So, are you ready for this?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Absolutely. Let’s do it.
Victor M. Braca: Okay, let’s do it. So, tell me about how you started. Were you always entrepreneurial as a child?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Always.
Victor M. Braca: Okay, tell me about that.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Growing up, I always felt like I was destined for greatness. I was bullied a lot as a kid and I didn’t really have many friends. So, I had a lot of time to think, to ponder, to decide what I wanted to do. And for me, the biggest thing was I wanted to leave behind a legacy that would forever be remembered.
And I chose to name Adina Eden after me because it was also named after my grandmother who I was named by, but because I wanted my name to be a household name and to be remembered. When I was young, a lot of people did not know my name for good reasons. I was the immigrant girl. I was a Gamachi. I was overweight and I was a loser. And so for me, I wanted to leave behind a legacy where people cherished my name, where people looked at my name proudly, where I represented this community in a beautiful light.
And so starting off from a very young age, I was always selling things. My mom would get me stuff from her office; I would flip it for cash. After simchas, I would take candies, put them in my locker, sell them to my friends. Go to the gas station, buy lollipops for 25 cents, sell it for a dollar. And that was really how I just felt good about myself. And so I said, why not turn this into a real thing one day?
Victor M. Braca: My question for you is, what motivated you to make money as a 10, 12-year-old?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, it’s a great question. My parents were both working—they were always working. They struggled a lot during our childhood and I just always felt like if I had my own money and I didn’t have to ask my parents for money, that would take a little bit of a load off their shoulders. And so that’s exactly what I did. I told them, “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself. I can buy lunch with my own money. I could figure things out on my own. You don’t have to shell out that extra dollars for me.”
Victor M. Braca: Oh, wow. Do you think that if you grew up totally comfortable getting everything that you desired, you think you would have been in the same position?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I don’t know because I obviously did not sit in those shoes. So, it’s really hard to know. But I would say that I think when I look at other entrepreneurs who I’ve come to know or other businesswomen, men, one thing that really seems to be across the board the same thing amongst all of us is that we all did not come from money.
So I find that if someone comes from money, they don’t have such a need to go and hustle the way that one would if they didn’t. And a very big part of the reason why I hustled so hard is because there was a very big sense of discomfort. And so if you’re comfortable, there’s no real need to step out of your comfort zone and make something of yourself. If you have a wealthy parent or if you have a family business, it’s very very different. Why go start your own? Just go into the family business, work your way up, and one day, you know, sit as CEO.
But when you don’t have that, when your parents work for people and seeing them stay in the same position year after year after year and never growing, you look at that and you say, “I don’t want that for myself. I don’t want to have to beg for money. That’s mine. That’s due to me. I don’t want that. I want to work. I want to be able to sign my own check. I want to be able to live a life of freedom, of financial freedom.” And that’s exactly what I did and that’s exactly what I brought my brother in to do after.
Victor M. Braca: And your parents encouraged you on that journey, right? Immigrant parents are usually very skeptical about going and starting your own business or following your passion.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I was passionate about jewelry. I wasn’t just going and opening a business where I was going to start this massive wholesale company that was going to sell to every brand and every company. I was literally making jewelry from scratch and reselling it to people from 18.
Victor M. Braca: Young.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. So my parents were not hesitant even though you would expect them to be. And I think the real reason why they weren’t hesitant is because they both believed in me and knew that I was going to turn this into a real business. I did not think that. I thought this is going to be a side hustle. This is going to be a little thing.
I’m in college. I’m the first one to have went to college in my family on both sides and to have graduated. For me, that was very important. And I wanted to set that standard for my siblings, for my cousins. And so to me, I just thought this is going to be something to help me pay for college because my parents couldn’t afford to pay for CUNY. And it ended up turning into this massive business where my entire family is now involved. And that’s something that I did not anticipate. They saw the future. My parents saw that in me—what I couldn’t see in myself. And that’s the beauty of having such amazing, incredible parents is that they knew I was going to turn this into something big.
Victor M. Braca: That’s great. And it turned into a family business, which I love. You know, it sounds like you’re very passionate about having employed your family members, cousins, aunts, uncles, whatever it might be. And that’s something that’s got to be very gratifying.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: It’s super gratifying because as hard as it is sometimes to work alongside your siblings and cousins, it’s amazing to see how one simple move, one step, one decision literally was the catalyst to all of this. And that’s something that very few people can really say. And Adina Eden is a true family business.
Victor M. Braca: Love it. You started the business with $100 when you were 18 years old making your first pieces of jewelry and it soon later turned into millions and millions of dollars per year in sales. I mean, you didn’t have the grandiose vision from the beginning that this is what it would turn into.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No.
Victor M. Braca: And so, tell me about the scaling in the beginning. I mean, how did you go from selling door-to-door to selling now online and in retailers all over the world?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, it seems like it was an overnight thing, but it’s not. Not at all. No, this is—first of all, Adina Eden has been around for 10 years. So, I started this when I was 18. Today, I’m 29.
I started this in my bedroom and then in my parents’ basement. Set up a whole entire thing. I had just turned 18. My parents did not let me get my license until I was 18. That’s like the immigrant mindset. And so, I was going to college. I had my own car. I had my own free time. I was passionate about jewelry. My parents told me, “We’re going to pay for your first semester and after that you need to figure it out on your own.”
Victor M. Braca: Really?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. And so I said, “That’s fine. I got it. I’ll take care of it. I’ll figure out how to make the money.” And so I was babysitting and I was saving up money and I said, “I’m not going to take all the money that I have, but let me start with $100.”
I took $100. I went to 47th Street. We live in New York. It’s the best district in the world. And I went there, started buying some stuff. I came home, watched YouTube videos on how to clasp jewelry, how to start a necklace, how to close a necklace, all of that. I bought the proper tools. I got everything I needed. And I remember coming back home on the train and saying to myself, am I really going to do this? Like, will anyone ever even buy a necklace from me? But I said in my head, like, if two people buy a necklace, I made my $100 back. If three people buy a necklace, I profited. And that’s all I needed to know.
Victor M. Braca: That’s great.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I said, if just three people buy a necklace from me, I profited. And now I turned this business into a positive cash business. And so before I knew it, three people bought a necklace in the first hour of opening my Instagram.
Victor M. Braca: Wow.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: That’s something that I never expected. So I literally remember it was August. I was going into my next semester. I was already planning on how am I going to pay for this? I remember it was like $1,500 I had to pay for the first down payment. I didn’t have a credit card. I didn’t have a debit card. I didn’t have a bank account. I told my mom, “Put it on your card and I’ll pay you back in cash. I promise you I’m good for my word.” And she’s like, “You got it.”
And like my parents always knew if I said I’m going to pay you, I’m going to pay you. And to this day, any vendor, anyone that I speak to, if I tell you I’m good for the money, I’m good for the money. If I don’t have it in my pocket today, I’ll have it in my pocket tomorrow and I know I’ll get it. And so that’s also a sense of confidence that you have to have in business.
Victor M. Braca: Did you always have that?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Always. Always. So even when I was a nobody, even when I was a loser, even when I was the fat girl, I always had my confidence. And that was something that nobody could take away from me. That was in business. That was in the way that I looked and the way that I felt and everything.
And so I opened up my Instagram. At the time, most Instagrams were just sunset photos and bloggers. And I said, why not monetize it? Why not turn it into a business? And I think I was one of the first few people who made an Instagram for a business page. Instagram didn’t even have that feature. It was a personal account. I put my phone number in the bio. There were no DMs. There was no instant messaging. There was none of that. This was like the first few years of Instagram, 2015.
Victor M. Braca: Yeah, just came out.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Just came out and basically people started texting me. I started taking the jewelry to their house. I started showing them my pieces, telling them, “What would you want? What do you want me to make? I can do whatever you want. I have the beads. I have the pearls. I have the chains. I can make anything you want.”
One thing grew into another into another. My brother was just finishing high school and I told him, “I really think we should take this business online.” Online was just starting to really become like the worldwide web. It was becoming huge. Like people were really shopping online. It wasn’t just going online to watch YouTube or stuff like that. It was really becoming a shopping experience buying online. No matter what you were buying, you could literally buy anything online. And I said, “Why not buy jewelry online?”
And so what started off literally in my parents’ basement and stayed in my parents’ basement for the first two years of our online business turned into the Adina Eden that you know today.
Victor M. Braca: So I want to just sum up what you said. You learned on YouTube and you made your first many orders—probably hundreds—made to order. You custom made so you measured people and you made something tailored to them.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes.
Victor M. Braca: Every necklace was a different size, had different beads. It was like every necklace was really unique unless you wanted the same thing. Is that what set you apart in the beginning?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I think so. Also, I think what set me apart was the quality that I was using. So, I knew that my pieces were going to be a little bit more expensive, but I was investing in better quality. And I think today, we invest in better quality and our prices may be a little bit higher, but we have the best jewelry and our quality speaks for itself.
Victor M. Braca: I hear your confidence coming out. It’s great. I know you were passionate about jewelry, and I know that you were brought up with an entrepreneurial mindset, but really, what was it that inspired you to start your own business as opposed to getting a traditional job? I mean, you were making money babysitting. Why not just continue babysitting? That would have covered college.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, my first job that I ever had—like a real job—was in the summer. I was 15 years old and I was promised $1,000 cash at the end of the summer. It was a playgroup for 2-year-olds and basically I just had to take care of them, watch them, put them to sleep during the day, feed them, basically be a counselor for 2-year-olds. And I loved it.
But what I didn’t love is having to wake up super super early, having to find a ride every single day to that job, which was far—it was nowhere near Deal—finding a ride back, and then also having to deal with a boss because I had my own ideas and I felt like, “I think this might be better than what you’re telling me to do,” but I was afraid to voice my opinion and say what I thought. And from then I realized that I wasn’t meant to be a follower. I was really meant to be a leader.
And from when I was a child, I always strayed away from the rules. I was a good student. I was a good kid, but I always looked at things and I felt like I found the flaws in many of the ways that we did things and felt like things could be done in a much better way. And so after seeing my parents struggle for many years—my mom was a working woman from before I was even born. At the time that wasn’t really a thing. Women didn’t work. It was very very novel. She did it because she had to. I think I was in one of the first few homes I grew up in where there was a dual income home. Today it’s much more common, but 30 years ago that was not the case.
Victor M. Braca: Interesting.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: And I just felt like I didn’t want to have to work for people. I saw my parents really struggle. Everything was for them. They worked for people and their whole lives were dedicated to these people. So we really had to a lot of times fend for ourselves. Our parents were not around. And being the eldest, a lot of the responsibility fell on me. And I think that’s why today I am who I am because I learned to be a parent from such a young age.
But I just felt so bad for my parents because they were immigrants, because they weren’t fluent in the language or because they had an accent that set them apart from their colleagues and from everybody else. And they were just stepped on for not being American, you know. And I said that’s not going to be me. I’m going to start my own business. And shame on me if I’m going to hire people who are just American.
And today in my company, I have more people who are immigrants than I do people who were born in America. And that’s my way of giving back because I saw what my parents went through. I saw how my parents didn’t get the promotion, how my parents were belittled, bullied, and I can’t allow that to happen. And I’ll always be a voice for immigrants.
Victor M. Braca: Love that. How many people do you employ today?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I won’t give the specific number, but we’ve had many people come and go throughout the years and we have a pretty nice-sized team.
Victor M. Braca: That’s great. And you started the company solo. You were running it solo for over a year. What went into the decision to bring on your brother Meyer? And how did the business start to grow when you guys came in as a duo?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So I felt at a certain point like I needed the help and the business mind. I was good at business and I still am for sure, but I felt like I needed someone who was good with numbers, someone who was good with online. Like, I’m not a tech-savvy person. I’m the old way. I’m old-fashioned. I’d rather write it on paper and that’s how I like to do things. People who design, people who are creative, they’re not good with the status quo. I needed someone who was going to be able to sit behind a desk from 9 to 5, or from 9 to 6, 9 to 7, which he does. And basically see: what’s the cost of goods? What’s the profit? Are we making money? I wasn’t really able to tell you what I was profiting because everything was just a mishmash, you know?
So, I felt like I needed some stability. I needed to know what was really going in. What was my profit? Every little thing in business costs you money. Whether that’s the MetroCard to go to the city and the MetroCard to come back, the coffee that you buy when you’re in the city—everything adds up. And that was the part that I wasn’t realizing as I was building my business. And so going to a trade show and spending $1,000 for the day, was that worth it for me if I was only selling $1,500 that day? You get what I’m saying? Because if I couldn’t make it on that day, I had to hire someone to be there, right? But then the goods cost me money. So I needed to know, was that day profitable? Did I break even? Did I lose money? Is this something worth it for me to do later on?
So I brought my brother in and I was like, “Listen, I need to know. I need my whole business broken down from A to Z.” And he’s like, “Yeah, I could do that. No problem.” I was like, “But one second, why don’t you get involved? I already have a customer base. I already know what I’m doing. I already know what people want.”
I’m following the trends. I’m very intuitive to what’s going on around us and I’m kind of gaining followers on Instagram and building this social following. Why don’t you get involved and let’s take this to the next level. My brother is very very smart. He’s just not a people person. I’m someone that I could do podcasts, I can talk to people, I can—people resonate with me with my story because it’s not your classic typical story. It’s the underdog who becomes the person who becomes the Goliath at the end of the day. And that’s what I felt set me apart from everyone.
But I didn’t have the other strengths. And I think the biggest biggest thing in business is to know that if you lack certain skills, don’t be embarrassed by it. I’m not good at math. I was never good at math. I failed every single math class from sixth grade onward. I needed my brother. I needed that financial CEO money person. And that’s what he became. And today he just shows me the final reports. I tell him, “Bring it down to me like I’m 5 years old. I can’t do the Excel. I can’t do the pie charts. Just tell it to me simply.” And that’s what he is. And he’s a genius in that. I’m not.
So I told him together, creativity and book-smarts, we could bring together a world that is unstoppable, unbeatable. And you’re my brother; I trust you more than I trust anybody. I don’t want to hire a stranger. I don’t want someone who’s going to steal money under the rug from me because I wouldn’t know. But I trust my brother.
And together we learned how to build a website. We learned how to get professional picture shots. We learned how to make descriptions, how to price items with what the market is pricing it at, not just bringing out a price from nowhere, you know what I mean? How to start creating UPCs and SKUs, how to build a system around organizing our products. And that’s where he came in. That’s where together we took this from a simple basic going from house to house to packing, picking, shipping orders worldwide.
Victor M. Braca: Did Meyer say yes right off the bat or was there a little bit of reluctancy before he joined the business?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, there was a little bit of reluctance. He was like, “I don’t know anything about jewelry. I don’t want to know anything about jewelry. I don’t care about jewelry.” And he felt like he wanted to make some money first and work for somebody, which he did. And I think after about 6 months, he’s like, “I don’t want to work for anybody ever again. You’re right. I—this was my first job.” I had my first job at 15. He had his first job at 18. And he’s like, “I don’t like this. I don’t want this. I don’t want to take orders from somebody who doesn’t even care about who I am, who’s just giving me the bare minimum paycheck. And I’m not passionate about what I’m doing.”
And so I told him, “Meyer, you don’t have to know anything about the jewelry ever.” And to this day, Meyer really does not know much about the jewelry. He’ll know the basics. He knows the categories. He knows what works the best. He’ll give me those insights, but if I show him a necklace, he really won’t know if we sell that or not. He’s not—he’ll know a few of the products. He doesn’t know really what we stand for and like those type of things that we sell and what the market trend is, but he knows enough to help run the business. And he’s the mind, the brain. He’s also that person who’s like, “Adina, take a chill pill, relax. There’s a way to do things. It’s not just you going and running and saying, ‘I’m going to do this, do this, do this’.” He’s that voice of reason that kind of helps put into perspective what we really want to gain from this, because if it were up to me, I just wouldn’t stop, right?
Victor M. Braca: Tell me about the grind in the early days. I mean, working until 2 a.m., working out of your parents’ basement, and you guys ran a very small team fulfilling orders by yourself in the beginning. So, tell me about how that was for you.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, I loved it. I had nothing else to do. I had very few friends. I really didn’t have a social life. I just finished high school. I was in college in CUNY. There weren’t really many people that I knew. To me, this business was my social life. It was my life. It was my best friend.
And I loved it. I had no problem with it. I was really good in school. School felt really easy for me. I really didn’t need to put so much time apart for CUNY after finishing such a rigorous curriculum at Flatbush. So CUNY seemed super easy and I had the time. My brother had the time and we were just so passionate about it.
I can’t explain the feeling of getting an order and just literally running downstairs to the basement and packing it. It’s so magical. You post a picture, an order comes in within the hour, and you’re shipping it out within 10 minutes. And I used to say like, “Meyer, should we wait an hour before we pack it or wait till tomorrow? People are going to think we’re crazy. They’re going to get an email saying your package shipped 5 minutes after they placed their order. We seemed really desperate.”
But he’s like, “Adina, why not? Don’t you get so excited when you place an order and all of a sudden it says your order shipped?” I’m like, “Honestly, yeah.” And then you’re waiting by the door to get your package. I was like, “You’re right. Let’s do that. Let’s be known for printing your order out within the same hour that you placed your order.”
And to this day, we print orders so quickly, so many times a day because we just have that in us. When the pandemic started, we had to send all our employees home and we had to do all the shipping again. It was literally déjà vu. Back to day one. I was like, “Meyer, I feel like we’re in the basement again.” And my little brother was helping us, my sister was helping us. Schools were shut down. Everything was closed. And I was like, the only difference is my brother Joe is not 5 years old anymore. My sister Esther is not 10 years old. But like, we’re doing this and we’re having the best time. And that’s literally what we were doing. We just kept printing orders and packing it.
To this day, I work in the warehouse where we pick orders, where we pack orders, where all the jewelry sits because it’s my baby. Because I love my jewelry, because I’m passionate about what I do and I don’t care to sit on a floor without being the CEO. Meyer does not sit on the same floor as me. I’m sitting with the warehouse staff. I don’t have to tell you how it looks: the mess, everything that’s going on around me, the chaos. But I love it. And I wouldn’t want to be any other place. I look at my jewelry. I catch the mistakes. I see what’s going on. I’m there every single day. And when you love what you do, it’s not a chore. No matter how far your office is, it’s not a chore.
Even though I gave birth eight weeks ago, I’m still working full-time every single day. After a week of giving birth, I was back. I was pregnant with twins. From the first day that I found that I was pregnant, I was working.
Victor M. Braca: That’s because you wanted to, not because your boss was calling you back into the office.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Correct. Correct. And Meyer was so stunned by that because he’s like, “Are you sure? You’re carrying twins. You’re doing IVF. Are you sure that that’s okay?” And I was like, “I love what I do. This is what makes me happy. It’s taking my mind off of the worry.” And that’s what I’m saying. Like if you love what you do, it really doesn’t matter the circumstance that’s going on. You’re there. You’re showing up every single day.
Victor M. Braca: Beautiful. Who was your first employee and when did you start to build a team around the business?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So my first employee was my cousin. Really? Yes. He was also in college. We lived on Quinton and 23rd. Brooklyn College was literally right there, on Bedford and Avenue H. So it was really close. He would go to college, then he would come pack orders. We would print the orders, pick the orders, and set them up on the table for him the night before. And then he would come and pack it all and wait for FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS to come and pick up. And that was basically it.
But that was almost a year after we had already started. And at some points it became too much. Like, we couldn’t physically pack the orders ourselves. It was way too much.
Victor M. Braca: Great problem to have.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes, it was a great problem to have. So Meyer and I would do as many as we could until 1 or 2 in the morning. Then we would pick the rest up. We would have maybe two, three eight-foot tables set up and he would come and pack the rest. Then we would do it again. We’d get home from school, do the same thing. And we just kept doing it. And we hoped that it would never end, and it didn’t.
Victor M. Braca: Did you ever find it difficult to delegate or to relinquish control? I mean, at this point, you have somebody else who’s not you or your brother controlling the customer experience. How did that feel to you?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, it was very, very hard at first, and it took Meyer and I a very long time to relinquish that control. We were definitely micromanaging. Our employees hated us, but it was really very hard to let go of that control because we were the ones doing everything from day one. It was like birthing a child and now taking care of that child, raising that child, and then letting that child leave the home. It’s very scary.
Victor M. Braca: Love the analogy. So true.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: It’s very scary and it’s like that’s why parents are so worried when they marry off their children because it’s like, “Who are you giving them off to?” And so we would tell our employees, “Okay, we’re going to give you control, but if you need help, we’re here.” And we really were always just an office away.
It did take us some time and it did take us a lot of trial and error and many employees basically threatening to quit if we weren’t going to stop micromanaging. And I think that’s what really showed me: there comes a point where you have to trust your employees, and if you know that you hired the right people then you can trust them. And that’s another very big thing in business. We made the mistake of hiring too many people too fast to the point where we knew we couldn’t trust those people but we needed those extra hands. We didn’t have the time to vet and to check who they are. And so that’s what also made things very sticky and messy.
But when you operate on a much smaller team with much more capable people, I don’t have to go into the office every day and I know that things are getting done. So I have a great warehouse manager. I have a great customer service team and I know that they’re getting the job done. Yes, there are times where customers may reach out. Yes, there are out-of-the-ordinary circumstances which I’ll get involved with, but 99% of the time I’m not needed.
Victor M. Braca: Which is a great sign of a healthy business. It runs like a well-oiled machine.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes.
Victor M. Braca: So, Adina Eden was very early to the Instagram and influencer marketing game. Tell me a little bit about that and how that shaped the early days of your business.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So influencer marketing was really starting to pick up and I think we got really really lucky because we stepped in at the right time. Imagine buying Bitcoin when it was a dollar, right? That’s all I can say. That’s what we did with the influencer marketing. We really walked in at the right time. We did not say no to anybody. We gifted everyone. We were just very very open-minded about everything.
And I think that’s what set us apart as a brand because there are many brands today who won’t work with certain people who have a certain amount of followers. “If you have less than 100,000 followers, we’re not working with you. If you have x amount of followers over a million followers, we’ll give you X, Y, and Z. If it’s less than that, we’re giving you a different product.” Very rigid rules. And we didn’t want that. Meyer and I said there are no rules. People reach out, give them jewelry.
At the time, I was telling Meyer, “This jewelry cost us a lot of money and I don’t feel comfortable just going and giving it all for free. Sometimes they may not post, they may not tag us… that’s very risky.” And Meyer’s like, “Adina, it’s the name of the game. You got to do it.” And it was hard for me because I was like, “No one gives me anything for free. Why should I give it to them for free?”
I kind of started getting used to it when I saw the impact that it was having. When I saw how one person can post a picture of your necklace, tag Adina’s Jewels, and the followers you got, the orders that came in, the new customer base… it was crazy. It was something that doesn’t exist anymore today. It really does not. It was so amazing to see. And as it started to trickle and just keep going, it was amazing. And I told Meyer, “I think this is the point where there’s no going back. We are forever going to be this brand. We made it and we will continue to make it.” Like, that’s it. We made it. And it was crazy.
Victor M. Braca: Love it. And on that note of influencer marketing, your jewelry has been worn by people like Ariana Grande, the Kardashians, Madison Beer, Cardi B, so many more. Were any of those placements a turning point for you guys?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Absolutely.
Victor M. Braca: Tell me.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So before the full influencer marketing really started, Meyer some way somehow got in touch with Madison Beer’s agent, which I think was her mom at the time.
Victor M. Braca: Really?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. And basically he said, “We’d love to send Madison Beer some of our stuff. We’ll even drop it off. And would it be possible if she could tag us, mention our brand, something along those lines?”
And she said, “Listen, I’d love that, but I can’t make any promises.” Because people like that usually get paid really big bucks to post. And so, we put a whole thing together. We made a beautiful package for her. One Saturday night, I’m home doing nothing as per usual because I didn’t have friends, and my phone just starts blowing up. I was like, “What’s going on?” I go on Instagram and “Madison Beer tagged you in a photo” and if I tell you what happened overnight was something out of a movie.
It was insane. The followers, the people who were coming to the website—the website crashed. The amount of sales that were coming in. I remember calling my brother. I’m like, “Where are you? Come home right now! Do you see what’s going on?”
He’s like, “Yeah, I see. I’m on the way home right now. We need to discuss. What are we going to do? How are we going to handle this?” He’s like, “Adina, trust me, I’ve been waiting for this moment. I’ve been preparing us.”
I was like, “Are you serious?”
He’s like, “Yes, I got us. Don’t worry.”
And it was our name necklace. It was a personalized piece and basically was all cut to order. And I was very afraid of the cut-to-order because it’s just sticky. It’s messy. It’s “wait for someone else to make this piece.” And you know, it was not normal. Just the whole website almost sold out. We were in shock.
That was when I said, “Meyer, we need to start getting goods at a better price. I can no longer make pieces by hand. That’s over.”
Victor M. Braca: You were still making pieces by hand?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: At that point, some pieces were still being made by hand. I was like, “This is over. I can’t do this anymore. We need to start getting manufactured goods. We need to find factories. We got to get goods at a great price. No middleman. It’s time for us to start traveling.”
I was 19, maybe 20. Meyer was 18. We were young. My parents were like, “You’re not going nowhere. One of us has to come with you.” I mean, you know, what Jewish girl is gonna travel by herself with her brother? It’s unheard of. And so my mom said, “I’ll come with you guys.” It was a weekend, Friday to Sunday. She came with us. We started going to look for vendors. There was a show in Miami; there was a show in the JA in New York. We started to find vendors and we started to really understand that there’s a whole entire world out there of jewelry. We were just so focused on New York, on the Diamond District.
There was a whole… and like, for me as a Jewish girl who grew up in a bubble, I was like, “This is crazy.” I was starting to come out of this bubble in college, but not to this extent. That’s when I saw there’s a whole world out there. That’s so eye-opening. And that’s what really changed the game for us. We said, “Let’s go direct to the source.” We could start buying those MOQs. We could bring in that quantity, no problem.
And that’s what we started doing. We started building and building and building and every single day we were uploading new products. People said, “What’s new?” “Here’s what’s new.” There’s new products coming in every single day to this day. Non-stop.
I don’t know how I made it through college. I just don’t know how I was still doing this. All of this, my brother and I did not take a dollar out of the business. It all went back into the business.
Victor M. Braca: Yes. Wow.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: We didn’t take a penny out. We were living at home. We really didn’t have expenses. Our friends were traveling the world, studying abroad, and we were just hustling, hustling, hustling. I remember looking at my brother and saying, “We’re like soldiers.”
And he said, “That’s exactly what we are. We are soldiers. We’re just so focused on one thing right now and that’s to get our family out of this rut and eventually one day give our parents financial freedom and build something for ourselves far bigger than we ever could have imagined.”
And like I said, I started this business literally just because I needed $3,000 every six months to pay for college. That was it. And to think that something like that turned into what it is today was God’s plan, I guess. Unbelievable.
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So, your jewelry can be found in every major department store from TJ Maxx to Revolve to Nordstrom to Bloomingdale’s, Kohl’s. I mean, the list goes on. How did you guys break into retail?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, it’s a crazy story, very unexpected, something we definitely were not ready for or prepared for. On our website, as we were building our website and as we were perfecting our website, we kind of saw that a lot of websites have a wholesale part where you could reach out if you want to buy wholesale. And so we said, “You know what, let’s just do it. Might as well, no big deal. If someone reaches out, they reach out.”
One day I was on the email of the wholesale—again, you have to understand, we had tons of different emails: wholesale@adinaden.com, info@adinaden.com, help@adinaden.com, and I was on all of it. I was the customer service. I was everything at first.
Victor M. Braca: Everything. You took on so many identities.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: We took every identity. Every response was with a different name in the bio: “Hi, my name is Sarah. How can I help you?” Like, you know, you have to play the game. Fake it till you make it.
And so it’s like 7:00 at night and I see an email. A wholesale submission comes in from Nordstrom. And basically this Nordstrom jewelry buyer found us on Instagram and she said, “I love your jewelry. I’d love to reach out. I’d love to set up a meeting and see what we can do.”
Victor M. Braca: They came to you?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes.
Victor M. Braca: That’s rare.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. So, we didn’t know that wholesale is a whole game and that there’s brokers and there’s agents to help you get into these accounts. We were just minding our own business. I remember we had just that year signed the lease on our office. So up until this point, two years we’re working in the basement. We said it’s time to move out. My mom’s like, “Get out of here!” The boxes, the bags, everything was coming to my parents’ home. FedEx, UPS, DHL, every single day parked outside our house multiple times a day doing pickups—massive bags. We said, “We’re either going to get reported by the block or my parents are throwing us out. It’s time to go.”
So, we got a beautiful office on Avenue M. We were like, “We don’t know if we’re going to be able to pay this. This is real expense. What are we going to do?” It was really scary.
So, we had just basically started in this office space. We get this email. I call my brother. He’s like, “I don’t believe you.”
I’m like, “I swear!”
He’s like, “You think it’s fake?”
I’m like, “I don’t know. It seems legit. Let’s answer back. Let’s see the story.”
She answers back. We set up a meeting in the city. We rent out an office space—like, who are we? We’re not going to have a showroom in the city. And these people are thinking we’re this massive massive company run by huge big-time CEOs. And then I pull up and she’s like, “Wait, you’re Adina?”
I was like, “Yeah.”
And she’s like, “I don’t know if I should be happy or scared. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
And I was like, “I don’t know. I think it’s a good thing.”
She’s like, “No, I think it’s a really good thing.”
I’m explaining to her that I do the business with my brother. Meyer was scared to be in the meeting. He’s like, “I don’t know. I feel like I shouldn’t be there.” And literally it was such an amazing meeting. She selected like 50 styles and she said, “I’ll get back to you on how we should place the order.”
Now, she’s asking me all these questions. “Are you EDI efficient? Are you this? Are you that?”
And I’m like, “I don’t know anything. I’ll get back to you. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never heard of these acronyms.” And I remember writing everything down for my brother. And little does she know my brother Meyer is in another room in the same building. And he’s like, “Adina, don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.”
That night we’re Googling “What’s EDI?”, “What’s this?”, “What’s that?” just to understand what it means. And we told her, “We’ll get back to you. We’ll get everything in order.” And that’s when my brother’s like, “We need a warehouse manager. We need someone who has experience. We can no longer hire someone and us train them. We need someone who knows what they’re doing.” And that was our first real big-time hire. That’s a big salary, a big paycheck, and we’re still not getting anything, basically. That’s a scary thing to sign up for.
Now at this point, you’re paying rent. You’re hiring a big-time guy. Nordstrom didn’t even fully place their order yet. It’s all in the works. This could all fall apart. What happens if influencer marketing dies tomorrow? What happens if Instagram goes out tomorrow? You know, where does that leave us? And that’s when we started to understand it’s time to build a brand. Adina Eden needs to be something that people come back to. We need customers that are going to stay with us for life. We need customers that are going to grow with us.
So, we started to really take the brand seriously. And that’s when we said, “Okay, Adina’s becoming the face. This is how we’re going to do things. We need someone to help us with marketing. We need someone to help us with Instagram.” Now we need to really build a team and we need to relinquish control and we need to understand the name of the game. How do you play this game? It’s a very very scary, dirty, tricky game.
How do you do it by being Jewish, in a small community, a tight-knit community? How do you open yourself up to this world, this very scary, cruel world, and still be in Brooklyn, still be this community girl, and stay true to yourself, true to your values, true to your modesty? Tough. Very tough. And that’s when things really started to shift. And I realized I need to know who I am, and I got to stay that. And it’s really really hard because when you open yourself up to this world of influencers and money and power and fame, you can get lost in it very easily. I know people who have gotten lost in it.
I remember having to always say, “Friday is Shabbat. I come back home. I’m with my family.” There are certain things you stick by. That’s home base. And it was crazy. Nordstrom placed their order and they sold out in less than two days.
Victor M. Braca: Really?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes.
Victor M. Braca: Wow.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Fully. The entire collection was gone. And with that, Adina Eden broke into retail, basically. Then the wholesale submissions skyrocketed.
Victor M. Braca: So you guys had your direct-to-consumer online. You had your retail locations. Did you have any brick-and-mortar locations yet?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No. At the time, we did not really have any brick-and-mortar.
Victor M. Braca: And how did you get into that?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Like I said, when I first started off by doing pieces by hand, I was very much with the community. And I do have to say thank you to the community because if it wasn’t for the community, I wouldn’t have gotten Meyer involved. This community is such an amazing community because they do stand by you. And if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
I always said I felt like I wanted to give back to this community by doing that—a lot of the people in the community do prefer to shop in-store, especially with the mom-and-pops. And so I felt like let’s have a store here, let’s have something small, a little concession just to keep those community customers happy. And so that’s what we did. We rented in a hair salon and then eventually we had a small little store on East Fifth and now we have our store on East 4th. We opened up a store in Soho. We had a store in Dumbo.
But listen, at the end of the day, there’s nothing like online. And yeah, there was a point after the pandemic where people did want to shop in-store. And so you had to be really smart and know like now’s the time, get your foot in the door, do a brick-and-mortar, sign a lease for 2 or 3 years and get out. You have to know when to get in and when to get out. That’s really a very big thing in business that the books are not going to teach you, the professors are not going to teach you, the textbooks are not going to teach you. That’s experience. That’s a gut feeling and you have to trust yourself. If you doubt yourself, if you have to ask somebody, “What do you think? I’m not sure,” you’ve already failed.
My brother and I looked at each other and we said, “We need to get a store.” And when it was time to leave, we looked at each other and we said, “It’s time to go.” Straight up.
Victor M. Braca: You guys knew.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: We knew. You know, right? You feel it deep inside. You say, “Let’s wait another month. Let’s see what happens.” And then we looked at each other and we said, “Time to get out of here.”
Victor M. Braca: You sound very intentional with your business. You’re not just going with the flow, but it sounds like you guys reevaluate: “Okay, we have a store. Take a step back.” Like you said, you like to have a bird’s-eye view. “Let’s reevaluate. Where are we now?” Did you guys have five-year plans, 10-year plans?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No. No. We didn’t have a business plan. We didn’t have any plan. It was bootstrapped.
Victor M. Braca: Bootstrapped. Wow.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Completely. We didn’t know from those terms. We didn’t know what any of that meant. People looked at us and they’re like, “We don’t know how you’re making the money you’re making, how you’re doing what you’re doing, how you’re running this business.” People said this is like by the will of God. This does not make sense. This needs to be studied. Like this does not add up. You should be failing right now.
And it didn’t make sense. A lot of people looked at us like we were crazy. And the truth is maybe we weren’t supposed to be successful, but there was something about us. I think it was the fact that we were driven, we were passionate—the perseverance. We just didn’t give up. And I think a lot of failed businesses are when you’re just about to make it and you give up. People give up just when they’re about to turn that corner.
We were so ready to give up so many times. I can’t even tell you. I mean, a worldwide pandemic came and went and different presidents and just the economy and anything and everything you can think of. And the fact that we still stand today is because my brother and I both made a promise: we will never ever give up. If this ship is literally sinking, we’re staying on it forever. We’re not going anywhere. Even if we end up with no office, even if we end up with no employees, it’s me and you to the end. And that’s something that many businesses don’t have. My brother and I, we hold hands together for everything in life. And that’s something that I think really brought us to where we are today.
Victor M. Braca: Unbelievable. I love that. And you don’t see that everywhere else.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No, you really don’t. We’re not jealous of one another. We don’t envy one another. We care about one another. We’re in it together. My success is his success and his success is my success. If my pocket is filled, his pocket is filled. And that’s how we look at it. And so when you become one, there’s no stopping you.
Victor M. Braca: Adina Eden brings in tens of millions of dollars per year. But I want to know from you, what was the biggest setback of your career building the business? And how did you overcome it? What did you learn from it?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: There were several different setbacks that we’ve had. Some of which didn’t really take an effect, didn’t really impact the business. Some did. And that’s with every business because every business owner is going to make mistakes. That’s how it is.
I touched on it a bit earlier, but we grew very very fast. When that snowball effect started to roll, we were growing exponentially. It was like we needed 20 packers. We couldn’t fulfill orders. We needed 10 customer service agents. We needed two people on social media. We needed so many different things. We needed two photographers, photo shoots, models. The payroll was growing like this. And now one scary thing about payroll is no matter how much you make, payroll could put you out of business.
And I think we were growing so fast. We were hiring so quickly. We didn’t know what type of people we needed. We didn’t really realize that not everyone has our best intentions. You know, not everyone is there because they love the job; they’re there for the paycheck. And it took us a couple of months to realize maybe we hired some of the wrong people. And so we kind of had to take a step back and decide who stays and who goes. And it was scary because you’re now operating on a smaller scale, but the sales are still coming. The social media has to keep running. The Instagram needs the 10 stories a day. It needs the three posts a day. So what are we doing? Who’s going to help us?
And so that was a really big setback because we kind of had to regain our footing with a different team. But they were a stronger team and we felt like we needed to unify the team. And that’s where the CEO and the founder come in because if Meyer and I are not united, no one’s going to be united. And so we had to show them a really strong front and show them, “Listen, we’re here for you. We’re united. We see eye to eye on everything. We want the same for you. Our doors are open. Come and ask us questions. Don’t do things and then come and tell us that you made a mistake.” Office drama, just anything and everything. There’s a lot of things you don’t realize when you’re going to start hiring people.
And so I think that really was one of our biggest setbacks. And also learning how to maneuver after the pandemic because we were one of those businesses that boomed during the pandemic. And so now it was like not everyone is sitting home anymore. Not everyone is on social media anymore. People are back to work. Life went back to normal. How do we adapt? How do we readjust?
So there were a lot of things that we had to really do. We rebranded. We did a lot of things to really put ourselves in a different category from where we first started. We didn’t know anything. We weren’t tech-savvy or business-savvy, and then we learned and we educated ourselves. And that’s something that a lot of business owners won’t do. They say, “No, no, no. We do things the old way. We’re not going to do the new way.” But we had to really quickly learn that if you’re not going to do things a new way, if you’re not gonna mix the old with the new, you’re going to fall off the face of the map and you’ll be very quickly forgotten about because every day another brand is coming out. Every day another person is making jewelry.
And so you need to be set apart. You need to set yourself apart from absolutely everyone. And you can’t do it just by having the prettiest pieces because guess what? China will copy you tomorrow. You can’t be just the one who has the best quality because someone else can have the best quality. You can’t just be someone who is posting new products every day because I have news for you: people could post a picture and they don’t even have the product. You have to set yourself apart. You have to have the quality. You have to have the pieces. You have to have the goods. You have to have the team. You have to have the customer service. You have to have the shipping team. You have to have the product. You have to have it all. You have to have it from A to Z 100%. And if you don’t, you’re failing. You’re gone.
Victor M. Braca: It sounds like you guys still run the business as a startup, you know, while you might have a big team, you’re small and nimble and you’re able to adapt quickly. You guys rebranded. I want to ask you, what’s it like being recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 list?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I mean, it’s crazy. I never thought it for a million years. Honestly, I never knew what Forbes 30 under 30 was until about a year prior to being listed.
Victor M. Braca: Really?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. I remember Kylie Jenner posted that she made Forbes 30 under 30. I didn’t know what that was. I Googled it. I came up to Meyer’s office. I showed it to him like this. I said, “This will be us next year.”
He’s like, “Get out of my office. You’re crazy.”
I told him, “I promise you this will be us next year.” I had a crazy interview with a massive team in Dubai and one of the questions that the reporter asked me is, “Why aren’t you on Forbes 30 under 30?”
I said, “I don’t know, you tell me.”
Three weeks later I get an email. They had just started submissions and I said, “I’m not going to put a submission for myself and I’m not going to ask my husband to do it or people to do it. I’m not doing that. If people don’t do it from their heart, I don’t want it.”
It was a really great interview that I had and I got an email. Now, I work from A to Z. I didn’t look at my email the whole day. I only deal with the urgent stuff like primary and I’m so hands-on-deck that I that day didn’t even look at my computer. It’s like 11:00 at night. I remember I was living in the city at the time. I come home. I’m finally sitting on the couch. I look at my email. It says “Forbes 30 under 30.” It’s like, what’s this? I click it. It says, “Hi, you’ve been nominated for Forbes 30 under 30. We’d like to set up an interview.”
Now, I knew they get thousands and thousands of submissions a year. I didn’t think they would set up an interview with everyone. So, I felt like I already had gone another step. I forwarded to Meyer. He’s like, “It’s fake.”
I’m like, “I think it’s fake, too.” I was like, but you know what? It doesn’t hurt. Because nowadays, you really don’t know the emails you get with all the scams. I answered back, set up an interview. She calls me up the next day and I was like, “Meyer, I think it’s pretty legit.”
He’s like, “Okay.”
Then she said there’s going to be a second interview. I told him, “I’ll have you in on the second interview.” We had the second interview. They send us an email: we have to respond to these 15 pages—the whole thing: how much money you make, how many employees you have, the whole thing. They want to know everything. So I told Meyer, “You’re the CEO, you fill it out. I’m the face. I don’t deal with this. I deal with the jewelry. I’m the creative. You deal with it.” Like, you and the CFO, you’re taking care of it.
And I remember it was Yom Kippur. We filled it out. We submitted it and we said, “Be’ezrat Hashem, whatever happens happens.” We asked her, “How are we going to know when?”
She’s like, “You’re not going to know till the day it’s posted.” That’s it. So we find out when it’s going to be posted that night. I didn’t sleep. I kept refreshing the Forbes 30 page. Refreshing. Refreshing. 5:00 a.m. it releases. They only released the first person, the top of the list. So, I thought only one person gets listed in that category in retail. So, I said, “We didn’t make it. It is what it is. Close the phone. Go to sleep.”
I think at about 5:30, my husband wakes me up. “Adina, Adina, you guys made it!”
I told him, “Isaac, stop lying. Come on. I saw it. We didn’t make it.”
He’s like, “Adina, look at my phone. You made it!”
I was like, “What are you talking about?” All of a sudden I look at it and I see a picture of me and Meyer and I was like, “I don’t believe this.” We made Forbes 30 under 30. Two kids from Brooklyn, New York. Immigrant parents. We were made fun of. “Your dad’s from Syria. Your mom’s from Israel. You’re a Kamachi. Kamikaze Japanese. What are you? Who are you?” We made Forbes 30 under 30.
To everyone who said we were going to fail, to everybody who doubted us, to everyone who said, “You don’t have money and you need a father who has a credit card with endless spend,” and who told us you’re dumb and you’re not going to make it and you’re just immigrant kids… we made it. And I have news for you: power is not always with the money that you have. It’s with the reputation that you build. And the reputation and the respect that my brother and I have built over these 10 years from 18 years old has opened up doors for us that not any amount of money in the world could. And that’s something that very very few people will ever understand.
Victor M. Braca: Love that. What a gratifying feeling. Also, what a way to realize what you’ve accomplished. Aside from Forbes, you’ve also been recognized on the Young Jewish Professionals 35 under 35 list, the Brooklyn College 30 under 30 list. You’ve been featured by the New York Times, New York Magazine, CNN Business, and so many more. What advice do you have for young people who are entrepreneurial, who have that spirit, who look at somebody like you who started a business when you were so young and you’ve grown it to what it is today, and they maybe they feel intimidated or they feel like they’re not as good as you. What do you say to them?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I wasn’t as good then as I am now. I had no experience. It’s important to know that I knew nothing. And I think it’s so important to just start bootstrap. If you’re going to perfect it and you’re going to build a whole plan and you’re going to do this and do this and do this, you’re never going to start. It’s just procrastination. And one thing I realized is when you’re afraid to embark on a new journey, you’re going to find a million reasons why not to start.
And so that’s why I said, you know what, the first step was opening the Instagram. I didn’t have the jewelry. I didn’t even go to the city yet, but I opened the Instagram. I said, “Let me get the handle. Let me have that Adena’s Jewels handle. I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow. I’m going to forget. Someone else might get the name. Let me get the handle.” And that’s how it starts. It’s from the small things. I can’t go back today and rebuild built—I can’t tell you that I went back and built this whole plan because it would be a lie. I didn’t build this. I didn’t know where I was going to get to.
And I think that’s the beauty of where we are today. You could start any day. You could finish school tomorrow and you could start with whatever it is. Whether you like to paint, whether you want to sell clothing, whether you like hair accessories, whatever it is, if it’s a business, it’s a service, if you want to sell something, if you’re good at something, just start. It’s so easy to procrastinate. It’s so easy to say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” No, no, no. Stop. Put your phone down and do it today. You don’t need your friends’ support. You don’t need your family’s support. You just need yourself. If you believe in yourself, if you’re confident in yourself, you don’t need anybody else.
You also don’t need a logo or a business plan. I didn’t have a logo. We didn’t have a logo until we started the website, right? You don’t need a website either, by the way. I did not have a logo. We literally made the logo on the fly. It doesn’t matter. Just start. If your product is good enough, if your service is good enough, it sells for itself. And if you’re honest and if people love you, you’ll be fine. You have nothing to worry about. Whether you want to keep it in the community or you want to take it out, just start. Don’t let anything hold you back.
Victor M. Braca: That’s my favorite favorite piece of advice that I’ve learned from the podcast way back from the first episode. This is episode, I think, like the 27th one I’m filming or whatever it might be, and every single guest from every level of success has echoed that in some capacity: Just start. You’re not going to be ready. And I could tell how much you learned on the job. You didn’t know what to do when Nordstrom emailed you.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No, we did not. I remember us calling people and asking them, “What do we do?” or going on Google, going on YouTube. I mean, the truth is today you could just go on TikTok and they could teach you. You could do ChatGPT. We didn’t have ChatGPT. Every caption, everything that we wrote, we did it by ourselves. You don’t know today how lucky we are. Everything is just at our fingertips. If you just set your mind to it, you’re really unstoppable.
Victor M. Braca: Love it. Aside from not starting and from hesitating and procrastinating, what’s the thing that most young people get wrong when starting a business?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I think what people get wrong is that they think they need a lot of capital. Like I said, we started with nothing. $100 is really not money. People think that they really need a lot of money, and that’s not the case. Unless you’re selling refrigerators and you need to fill up a whole showroom, I don’t really think you need a lot of money. And I think that’s the part that people get wrong is you don’t have to go and hire someone for $10,000 to help you make a logo. You don’t—not until you’re established. I won’t tell you that Meyer and I haven’t done that. We did, but not when you’re first starting out. Only when you can afford it is when you need it.
This actually goes to the best thing that Meyer taught me. I love my brother for this. When we first got our office space, I told Meyer I want us to have the nicest desks. And he told me, “Adina, today we cannot even afford the 8ft tables from Staples, but we’re going to get them. When we build this business, we’ll have a gorgeous oakwood table that costs $10,000.” Not today.
And I have news for you: we just got those tables a few years ago. Not $10,000, but a beautiful table, right? Because we didn’t have the heart to spend $10,000 on a table. No matter how much money we made, no matter how successful we became, we sat at an Amazon $128 desk with a $200 chair—because you do need a comfortable chair, I will tell you that. You do. But let me tell you, you don’t need to be a CEO sitting in a $10 million office. A real CEO starts off on the ground level. And so you don’t need a lot of money to start a business. Start off small, grow, stay within your capacity.
And the best thing is when you start with your own money, it’s only on you. And it’s only going to stay with you. Because if you take money from your parents, if you take money from somebody else, people will say it wasn’t your money. It wasn’t you who did it, it was them. When it’s your money—my $100 that I babysat—I’ll never forget those kids that I babysat that I got that $100 for. No one could ever take that away from me. That’s my story. People could take my story, they could flip it, make it their own. I’ve heard a lot of people taking my story, making it their own. My story is what made me who I am today. And you need to take that and ride with it because your story is your brand. It’s your face. It’s your headshot. And nobody could take that away from me. So, you really don’t need a lot of money. Take the bare minimum and start and build as you go. You don’t have to be on level 10 before you even reach level one. Start off small.
Victor M. Braca: What would you say to an entrepreneurial young woman who is worried about balancing parenthood and professionalism?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So we live in a day and age where you can hire help and that’s something that I am not going to deny to the end of my days. I have a nurse. I have a woman who helps clean my home. Do I do everything in between? Absolutely. Am I there for my kids 24/7? Absolutely. Do they come before business? Do they come before any meeting, before any interview, any podcast? Yes. My family comes before anything and everything.
However, I also need to stay true to who I am. I’m not going to lose what I’ve built and who I am because I became a mother. I think that’s a mistake that many women make and one day their kids get married, they leave their home, and now they’re sitting in a big house and they’re like, “Who am I? What do I do?” I don’t know who I am without my children, but I have a whole life that I built before I had my children and they’re going to have their own beautiful life and I’m not going to be involved in every aspect of their life. And so I have to have my own life.
And so that is why I have my help. I have my job. I’m working from home until my kids are older and until I can bring them with me to work, which I can’t wait to do. They have a set area for them. And that’s the beauty of being your own boss because my parents couldn’t take me with them to work when they had to work. My mom had to leave me home after 6 weeks because that’s maternity leave. So I don’t have to do that. I have the luxury of staying home for as long as I want with my kids, but I would love to go back to work when the time is right because I want to, not because I have to.
So, you don’t have to confuse the two. They can work in harmony without any issue. Don’t be afraid to have a business and to be a mother. Great advice. Also, women, we’re capable of everything. I mean, women run the world. I’m sorry to say it.
Victor M. Braca: No comment.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: No comment. So, in my opinion, we can do it all. And yes, it may be hard. It may be tiresome. Those first few years of a child’s life can be hard when running a business, but it’s worth it. It’s validating. And I don’t know any woman who has ever said, “I can’t do it.” We all can do it. If you want to do it, you can do it. And so, don’t be afraid and don’t let it steer you away from doing your own thing because you can hire help. And if you can’t, you can make it work. If you love what you do, and that’s what I say: if you love what you do, you will not sleep at night. I had I can’t even tell you how many years of sleepless nights. To this day, I don’t sleep like a normal person at 10:00 p.m. because all I’m thinking about is my business and the next idea and the next thing we can do and what’s the next thing that I want to say and what’s my next piece of advice and what’s something that I’ve learned today that I want to share with people tomorrow, you know? And so when you’re an entrepreneur, your life changes. When you’re a mother, your life changes. And together, I think it’s the best combination. Unstoppable.
Victor M. Braca: You’re known to say yes to every charity that asks. My question is, why do you value giving back so much?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I learned from a very young age—and I’ll say thank you to Flatbush for this—you won’t get if you don’t give. And that’s not really the only reason why I give, but I have a very big heart. I’ve been blessed to have a very big heart. And I think given what I went through in my life, I have a very strong sensitivity towards other people. Very few people were sensitive towards me. And I learned to see people and understand why they do the things that they do.
So, I knew a lot of times that the girl that was being mean to me in school would go home and was not getting love from her parents. That’s why she was taking it out on me. So, I learned to pity her, to feel bad for her, to care for her, even though she was putting me through hell. And I learned that throughout life. And that’s why as a boss, my employees come to me and tell me anything and everything about their life because they feel like they can trust me along with my friends, family, etc. And strangers on Instagram, believe it or not, reach out to me all the time and tell me things about their life and feel comfortable enough to share with me.
Victor M. Braca: Really?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. Now, when it comes to giving back, I know what it was to miss out on things. I know what it was to not be able to afford to go, for example, on seminar with Flatbush and need help. I know what it was like to not be able to go on certain trips or experience certain things because my parents simply couldn’t afford it. No, I never went hungry. There was always food on the table. There was always heat. There was always electricity. But the luxuries we missed out on. And that’s a little selfish to say because some people don’t even have the necessities.
And so seeing what I went through in my life, I kind of felt like I never wanted anyone to ever go through that. And for me, the only reason I really ever wanted to be successful was to give back. I don’t care for money. Like I said, I care more about my name, about my reputation, about my legacy, because I can’t bear the thought of my children going to school and being ridiculed for who they are, for their last name, or because their parents are immigrants. I’m American-born, so is their father. But I can feel and I can say my kids are so lucky that they’re going to have everything they ever wanted. If there’s another child that can’t have that and I can help them, then shame on me for not helping.
And so, it’s not always a monetary donation. A lot of times we’re donating jewelry or a gift card. And that can help to raise money. Whether it be women who are struggling with infertility, whether it be families who need food for Passover, whether it be women who need help to buy wigs or whatever it is, giving back to me, that makes me feel complete. It makes me feel whole. It makes me feel like what I’m doing has a purpose because jewelry is vanity at the end of the day. It’s vain. But giving back, that’s something you cannot explain. It’s not tangible in the sense that you can hold it. You can’t feel it with your hands, but you feel it in your heart. You feel it in your soul.
And when I help people, I feel like there’s a reason that I’m here on this earth. I don’t think I was brought to this earth to make jewelry, but I think I was brought to this earth to help people, to share my story, and to use my story for good. I could have turned into a very bitter person. I could have went on a very different path, and I chose not to. I chose to use my story as a form of growth to help people. And so, you don’t only help people by giving back with money. You help them by also sharing your story.
And that kind of goes into me currently joining A Giving Hand, which is a beautiful organization that is helping couples that are struggling with infertility. I myself struggled with infertility for about two and a half years, my husband and I. And it was very taxing and it took a major toll on both of us. And to share my story on my Instagram and help even just one person to let them know that they’re not alone on this very lonely journey for me means everything. And maybe that makes my journey all worthwhile. I don’t regret what I went through. I’m not upset. I’m not angry at God for what I went through because I saw how people reacted to the way that my story helped them. And I said, I guess God let me go through that because I have a voice and because people look up to me. And going through that made me a part of this cause.
Victor M. Braca: What’s it like going through infertility?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I think it’s one of the hardest things I ever went through and I’ve been through a lot of things in my life, but infertility was the hardest. It’s a struggle that you can’t really explain. It’s an uncertainty that’s very taxing on a person. It’s sleepless nights. It’s worrying beyond end. It’s phone calls, it’s doctor’s appointments. It’s ultrasounds, medication, injections. It’s basically giving your body to science, having no control over yourself. That’s basically what it is. And it’s not knowing if you’re ever going to be a parent. If a child that you’re ever going to have will be your child. And it’s saying, I had a whole plan. I wanted four kids. I wanted to space it out every two years. And now it’s just like, “God, just give me one. I’ll be happy if you give me one.” That’s what infertility is. Changes your whole life. Changes your whole plan, the whole infrastructure of your life.
Victor M. Braca: You’ve been able and you are actively able to give back and succeed in business at the same time. But what do you say to somebody who feels like they have to choose between doing good and doing well? Doing well in business and doing good work in their life.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: There’s no choosing. No choosing. No, you can do it all. If you want to, you can do it all. I don’t believe that the two are separate at all, honestly.
Victor M. Braca: And you’ve merged them. You’ve fused them in Adina Eden.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes, we have. And we’ve done so beautifully. You don’t have to choose one over the other. And I think that they should be merged because you don’t have one without the other. Truthfully.
Victor M. Braca: Love it. Simple answer. Simple but true. I want to do a couple rapid fire questions. Do you have any favorite books or resources? I know you learned on YouTube originally, but do you have any favorite books? Anything that you find yourself going back to or that shaped your journey?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: So, I read about two books a week.
Victor M. Braca: That’s a lot.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. Since I got pregnant, I couldn’t, but I’m actually starting to get back into it. Knowledge is power. Education is very important.
Victor M. Braca: When do you read? On Shabbat usually?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I have Audible. I listen while I work. And then I read a book on Shabbat.
Victor M. Braca: That’s great.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. So my favorite—I have many many books that really stand out to me. But if I’d have to name a few: Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger, Disney CEO. Excellent book. Something that I really resonated with as the company was growing. Finding Me by Viola Davis. She’s a great actress. Crazy coming-of-age story, how she grew from complete and utter poverty to becoming a very very big actress on How to Get Away with Murder. Tuesdays with Morrie—absolute one of my favorite favorite books of all time. I think I go back to that book every time I feel I’m losing touch with reality, I’m losing touch with myself, with who I am. Tuesdays with Morrie is a great book to show you what life is really all about and don’t get lost in all the dust.
Victor M. Braca: Beautiful. We’ll link all of those in the show notes. What’s the worst piece of advice you hear all the time?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: There’s so many. I mean, a lot of times people give you bad advice because they want you to fail and they’re afraid of you outshining them. I think that’s what I find really to be when people give you bad advice. But I also think some bad advice that I’ve received was, “Keep your business small, don’t grow.”
Victor M. Braca: Wow.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: “Stay in the community.” And I said, “Absolutely not.” They said, “You won’t know how to deal with the world outside.” And I said, “Watch me.” And I did.
Victor M. Braca: That’s pretty ridiculous advice. And I love how you just flipped it on its head. If you had to start all over again, what would be your first step?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: If I had to start it all over again, I wouldn’t go to Instagram. I would go to TikTok. It’s the first thing. The second thing, I’d still work out of my house again. I’d always stay in jewelry because that’s what I love. And I would probably start off by being the face as opposed to becoming the face after.
I was very afraid to show myself at first because I was still overweight. I wasn’t so confident in myself. I felt like I didn’t have nice clothes. I don’t think that really matters to people. I think people want the authenticity. They want to see the real you. I think it’s true. And I think if I were to start all over again, I’d start exactly where I am.
Victor M. Braca: Beautiful. Should people follow their passion?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Look, you got to make money. You have to survive. Not every girl needs to make money because in this community, the idea is you could get married and your husband can provide for you. But I’m against that because I think that a lot of homes today do need dual income to survive. Expenses are crazy. I mean, the economy is scary and you don’t know where you could be tomorrow. And I think that if you have a skill, if you’re passionate about something, go for it because even if you don’t monetize it today, there’s always an opportunity to monetize it. And if you don’t need the money today, you may need it tomorrow. And if you’re already honed in on your skills and you’ve already mastered what you’re doing and you love it, there’s always a way to monetize it.
Victor M. Braca: Love it. So, I think you should follow your passion for sure. Okay, great advice. What would you pinpoint as your momentum moment? The moment where everything started to turn around, that tipping point for you?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: When Madison Beer posted and tagged us. That was the turning point. No other way to say it.
Victor M. Braca: From there it just exploded.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Yes. That was the turning point because the minute she posted, the followers came in. Everyone wanted to be wearing our jewelry. There’s not a person who didn’t want to be wearing our jewelry. And that’s how we made it—is that everyone wanted Adina’s Jewels. Everybody wanted that. It was like Christmas, Hanukkah. They were telling their parents, “That’s what I want. Don’t give me anything else. That’s what I want.”
Grandparents were reaching out to us. “Hi, how can I purchase on your website? My granddaughter said that this is the only thing she wants.” Influencers were reaching out: “I want the necklace that Madison Beer posted.” Agents, stylists: “Hi, how can we get this on Miley Cyrus? Hi, how can we get this on Billie Eilish? Hi, how can we get this on Khloé Kardashian?” It was just that was the moment. That was the tipping point. Like, that was the whole thing. It was everything we worked hard for up until that moment. It was worth it.
Victor M. Braca: And was that the point where you realized that you used to be the girl who didn’t fit in, who was an immigrant, and now everybody wants your jewelry?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Everyone wants your jewelry and everybody wants to be your friend. And the people who bullied you now want to sit on the same table as you.
Victor M. Braca: How do you navigate that?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: You navigate it by keeping a very tight circle. And I always say it: people who have a lot of friends, they’re not true people. Close circle. Your ride-or-die people. Quality over quantity. Always.
Victor M. Braca: Beautiful. Is there anything you think we didn’t cover? Anything else on your mind?
Adina Eden Mizrahi: I think what I would say is to all the first-gen Americans really: it does not matter that your parents may not speak the same language, that there may be a language barrier, that you may not have the same amount of money as your friends, you may not have the same house as your friends. Don’t ever let that discourage you from following your passion, from doing what you love, and from being who you are.
For so long, I was very embarrassed by who I was. And that led me to miss out on so many opportunities. And I think if I would have taken those opportunities, many more doors would have been open for me. So don’t be embarrassed by who you are. Don’t be embarrassed by where you come from. Because a lot of the times nobody knows what they’re doing. So pretend like you know until you know what you know. And then you’ll be fine.
Victor M. Braca: Beautiful. Adina Eden Mizrahi, thank you so much for coming.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Thank you for having me.
Victor M. Braca: This was a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future.
Adina Eden Mizrahi: Thank you.
Victor M. Braca: That brings us to the end of another insightful episode of Momentum, this time with the inspiring Adina Eden Mizrahi. Thank you so much for watching until the end and I hope you enjoyed hearing about Adina’s journey as much as I did. I just want to share a couple of my top takeaways from this conversation.
First, the power of starting small and staying resourceful. Adina’s story is a testament to the fact that you don’t need vast resources to begin building something significant. All she started with was $100 and an eagerness to learn new skills. And look where that got her.
Second, the strength found in family and partnership. The evolution of Adina Eden was significantly shaped by the partnership Adina formed with her brother Meyer. In the cutthroat world of business, Adina says she loves how no matter what, her and her brother will always trust each other and stand side by side, which I just think is so admirable.
And third, early adversities and setbacks shape who you are as a person. Getting bullied as a kid in elementary school encouraged Adina to create a positive legacy and build something she would be proud of. These early experiences motivated Adina to prove her bullies wrong and make a name for herself when everybody told her she couldn’t. I think the lesson to take from that and from this entire episode is to be intentional about turning your setbacks into opportunities. We see this time and time again with Adina’s story and it very clearly propelled her to where she is today.
Thank you again to Adina for sharing your story with us. Guys, you can check out Adina online at AdinaEden.com. You can find her at @AdinaEden on Instagram. Be sure to check out my conversation with Lori Kassin, the founder of LK Jewels. Lori, just like Adina, started her jewelry company as a teenager, going door-to-door selling pieces, and she currently serves thousands and thousands of customers across her three brick-and-mortar locations. To listen to that episode, you can search “Momentum Lori Kassin” anywhere, or click the link in the show notes.
With that said, guys, thank you so much for listening until the end of this episode. If you enjoyed, please leave a like, leave a comment, rate the show five stars wherever you’re listening, and I’ll see you next time.
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