Violeta Edelman Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. Each week we talk to the coolest culinary personalities around. Extra emphasis on cool today, because today's guest is Violeta Edelman of Dolcezza Gelato, the D.C. based company that has grown from one location to a national brand.
Violeta joined me in the studio to talk about her fascinating journey from self-aware Buenos Aires teenager to ice cream entrepreneur and mom of three. She's one of the most centered folks I have ever met, and I can't wait for you to get to know her. I also happen to love Dolcezza Gelato, so it's always a pleasure learning about the person behind a favorite brand.
This episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is supported by Whole Foods Market, where you can find lots of Cherry Bombe's favorite female-forward food and drink brands, like Anjali's Cup. Anjali's Cup was founded by Anjali Bhargava, who wanted to put something into the world that would "nourish the body, nurture the soul, and taste divine." How lovely is that? Anjali uses organic Hawaiian turmeric and ginger for her Resilience Turmeric Elixir and for her Anjali's Chai Masala. You can mix the Resilience Turmeric blend in hot or cold water or milk for a comforting nutritious drink. And Anjali's Chai Masala can be brewed with black tea. Both blends can be used in lattes, smoothies, coffee, baked goods or more. You can find Anjali's Cup at select Whole Foods Market locations in the New York area or by visiting wholefoodsmarket.com. Part of Whole Foods' mission is to feature local brands, so be sure to seek out what's local and special at the Whole Foods Market nearest you.
A little housekeeping, early bird tickets are on sale for our 2023 Jubilee Conference. Jubilee is the largest gathering of women in the food and drink space in the U.S., and our conference is taking place in New York City on April 15th. It will be our 10th in-person Jubilee, which I cannot believe. Jubilee is a beautiful day of connection and community, and we've had incredible speakers in the years past, including Ina Garten, Padma Lakshmi, Nigella Lawson, Madhur Jaffrey, Joy the Baker, Ruth Reichl, Sophia Roe, so many great people. If you'd like access to the early bird ticket link, be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at cherrybombe.com.
Before we get to today's guest, a little disclaimer: in addition to ice cream, we talk about some natural mind-altering substances. Just a little heads up. Now, let's start the show.
Violeta Edelman, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Violeta Edelman:
Thank you for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm so thrilled you're on the show for the first time.
Violeta Edelman:
Me too.
Kerry Diamond:
Thank you for coming all the way from D.C., you're here with your beautiful family, it was nice to see them. And your youngest daughter, I mean she literally is a mini-me.
Violeta Edelman:
She is, she's my mini-me and she is a ball of fire, too. She's our baby, also my last one, so we treasure her.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. We're going to talk about a lot of sweet things and a lot of serious things, because you have had a fascinating life and I would like to go back to when you were 20 years old. How did you wind up at an ayahuasca conference in the Amazon?
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah, that's a very interesting story. So I think I was a precocious, kind-of-mature little girl. When I was eight, nine, I started to write poetry and it was all very profound, life-and-death stuff. And then by the time I was 15 years old, I think I was very much disenchanted with a lot of things like a lot of teenagers are. But for me it kind of went deep, and I decided to immerse myself into a lot of spiritual stuff. So I started doing all kinds of things like sweat lodges, and I did a 10-day meditation silent retreat when I was 19.
And I did meditation and yoga and different breathing techniques and energy work. Anyway, it felt like a normal progression going to an ayahuasca conference. And I was very much looking for meaning and looking for answers. And I was disappointed with bad boyfriends and bad relationships and not feeling fulfilled. Not just from relationships, but also from myself, not really understanding what was important and then trying to figure it out... My place in the world. So, that's how I ended up in the Amazon jungle when I was 20 years old.
Kerry Diamond:
Where were you living at the time?
Violeta Edelman:
I was living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. That's where I'm from.
Kerry Diamond:
Beautiful city.
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah, so fun and vibrant. And I was trying to finish my degree in communication and I was working for a talk show; I was a producer. I had a very fast life and I took a plane and went to the Amazon jungle. Before I went there, I set up an intention. So I ask the plant, because it's a medicine, right? This is a medicine that is used for millennia, by the shamans of the tribe to heal. So the idea is to set up an intention, and mine was to find my soulmate, so…
Kerry Diamond:
Just that.
Violeta Edelman:
... just that! Just simple as that, right? Yeah. And then I landed there and then I took a cab in Manaus, Brazil. And I went to this very crappy hotel that was horrible, where we were all meeting, the people from the conference. And I sat in the front steps and this guy was smoking a cigarette next to me, and he started talking to me and we talked about life and who we were and what we were doing there. And I was like, "He might be the one."
Kerry Diamond:
The first person you meet.
Violeta Edelman:
Of course, I was completely biased, and I set up this intention to go here and find my soulmate. And then I'm approached by this handsome guy and I feel a connection with him, so that's what I thought. And he ended up being the love of my life.
Kerry Diamond:
That is pretty funny…
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah. That's wild.
Kerry Diamond:
... and amazing at the same time. Go back and tell us again what ayahuasca is, because I think that might be a new term for some folks, some of you out there might know it. It's definitely the first time we've ever talked about it on Radio Cherry Bombe.
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah. So ayahuasca is a mix of two plants that grow in the Amazon jungle. And so shamans take these two plants, historically; now it's done by Westerners as well. The conference that I went to was not organized by shamans; it was an anthropologist with a PhD in Harvard. Basically you mix these two plants, you brew them, you make like a tea, and you drink it. And it's a psychedelic plant. That basically what it does is we have a molecule in our bodies that is called DMT. It is said that it's released when we dream at night. And so what ayahuasca does is it exacerbates the release of DMT. And so you have strong hallucinations that come with the most profound lessons you've ever had in your life. That's pretty much what it is. So that's what I was doing.
Psychedelics are having a renaissance right now. And there's all these studies here in New York at NYU and John Hopkins and UCLA and Michael Pollan came out with his, How to Change Your Mind book and series on Netflix. So the conversation is changing and I truly believe that psychics are going to revolutionize mental health. And we're all going to be taking psychedelics in 10 years from now. And hopefully that's going to make us more integrated in this world.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you have been so ahead of your time, in so many ways as we are going to learn. So you meet Robb [Duncan], you fall in love, you travel around, you have an amazing experience. You return to Argentina. Tell us what happens next.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes. I went to Argentina because he was the love of my life and I wanted my family to meet him. And so we went back to Argentina and then he decided to move down there with me, went back to Portland, sold his two vintage cars, packed everything moved down there with me, with his bike and books and drum. And we lived there for a year. We decided to get married.
And then the economy collapsed in 2001 in Argentina, one of the many times, but that one was particularly bad. There was looting, fires. The government seized your bank accounts. You couldn't get your money out of your bank accounts. We had five presidents in 10 days, people were dying on the streets. So Robb looked at me and he was like, I think we should go back to The States and save money for a year. And then maybe we can come down again and have a life here. And so we came to The States, he went back to his software engineer job, that he did not like, but we felt like financially it made sense. And we ended up in Washington, D.C., because he was working for the government.
Kerry Diamond:
You got some challenging health news at some point. Was that when you were back in Argentina or here in The States.
Violeta Edelman:
We got married and two weeks later—I was 23—and then I found out that I had cancer. I had cancer in my uterus, and it was a shock obviously, because we were so young and it came out of nowhere. But everything in life, it was another big teaching lesson. It was just a moment to, first of all, figure out how important the role of a doctor is and how much that relationship with the doctor and the trust in the doctor, but then advocating for myself as well. They wanted to remove uterus, and I wanted to have children. So I decided not to. Something happens when you're so sick. And I feel like only people who go through those things understand, which is that everything becomes extremely trivial. Your worries about what you're wearing or the argument that you had the day before or money stresses... Just they disappear.
And the only thing that you're focused on is your health and try to be better. And I had my mom and Robb, who were my guardian angels, which is the other aspect of being sick. Having somebody who loves you there, helping you changes everything. And then Robb had to come to The States because he already had a job line up and I had to stay there until my cancer cleared. And then I was able to move back to The States and it helped me also to slow down.
I was a hyperactive workaholic, young woman, and it was the first time in my life that I didn't work. And the first time in my life that I didn't have an agenda. And that opened up a whole other search, my search for meaning and the answers that was part of my journey. That was very important at the time, just to figure out who I am when I'm not this persona that is working or when I'm not Robb's wife or where I'm not all these roles that we assign to ourselves. And Robb was there to support me. And that was extremely important too. He gave me the space to discover who I was,
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me, why D.C.? Folks might be surprised that you come to the U.S., why did you settle in Washington, D.C.?
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah, it happened to be because Robb had a job there working for the government and I quickly got a job at National Geographic and I started being an associate producer there. And so it happened that is the capital of the documentary. Discovery and National Geographic are there. So it worked out for me.
I also hadn't finished my degree, which I was working 10 hours a day in Argentina. So I was doing it very slowly. And when I came here, I remember having an interview with Discovery Channel first, before National Geographic. And they looked at my resume and they were like, "Oh, you don't have a bachelor's degree." And it was such a shock, just the realization of such a divide that there is, if you have a degree or you don't. And I was like, I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to finish my degree. So I went back to school, I worked for Geographic. Robb was working for the government, but we were still both trying to figure out how to do something together. We still had that dream that started in Buenos Aires the first night that we were down there, that Robb had the idea of open Dolcezza.
Kerry Diamond:
The idea started back then?
Violeta Edelman:
The idea started the first night that we landed in Buenos Aires after traveling together for three months in Brazil.
Kerry Diamond:
And why gelato? What sparked that?
Violeta Edelman:
Because we have a lot of Italians in Buenos Aires. They opened gelaterias on every other block, if you go to Bueno Aires there is this huge culture of gelato. People order it by kilos. And so Robb had Argentine gelato, what we call Argentine gelato, that first night. I took him for a walk, we went to Freddo, a very well known gelateria at the time. And he looked at me and he was like, "This is amazing. I've never had this kind of gelato, I've been through Italy many times, but this is different. And we should open a gelateria in The States."
And I thought he was crazy, but we were young and naive. And we had a lot of ideas and we weren't really thinking about the consequences. And it was like that special time in which you just go for it and things happen. And so eventually we continued talking about it and it evolved into something more concrete. And then when we moved back to Washington, D.C., he didn't like his job. He wasn't feeling good about his future. He kept insisting with this idea and convinced my mom and my stepdad to help us.
Kerry Diamond:
Did he work around you to convince your mom or were you all in?
Violeta Edelman:
Not really, we were all in. I'm very close to my mother, extremely close. And my stepdad was a businessman in Argentina and with all the economic upheavals that we've had, he was tired of investing in Argentina.
Kerry Diamond:
Your mother does play a big part in this. And we'll talk about that in a second. But did you say that you already had the name back in Argentina?
Violeta Edelman:
So the name came from my dad. And my dad was the creative director of McCann Erickson, an advertising agency. And so that was what he did for a living. And we were traveling in and my dad lives in Italy and we were traveling in Italy together. We were on a train and we told him the idea for the store. And he said, “Hey, what about Dolcezza?” So that's where the name comes from.
Kerry Diamond:
And what does that mean?
Violeta Edelman:
“Sweetness” in Italian.
Kerry Diamond:
Beautiful. Let's talk about your mom. So you're in D.C. You're going to do this gelato business. Your mom does something very interesting.
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah. My mom took a one-week course on how to make gelato and came and thought that we could open the store, which is completely insane. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. We had to roll up our sleeves and just figure it out. And like I always said, right now, it's very funny to tell, but it was very painful at the time. We had to learn everything from scratch. And I was still trying to finish my degree. And Robb was still working as a software engineer because we didn't have money to support ourselves. So it was a very hard two years.
Kerry Diamond:
And you put the money that you did have into the business. So if I have this right— money from you, money from your family—you had $100,000 to build out the space. What happens next?
Violeta Edelman:
Well, we had a million issues with the space. Honestly, it was from the time that we signed the lease. It was this Russian landlord, that was just a handshake. We had no contract, nothing. His daughter was like a palm reader that worked upstairs in Georgetown. We got the space and we hired this contractor who completely ripped us off and disappeared with half of our money. The only reason we were able to finish was because we found another contractor in Georgetown that had never built anything commercial that had a crush on my mom. And he basically front us $90k that we paid him in two years. So the whole thing was just very...
Kerry Diamond:
What happened to the contractor who ran off with your money?
Violeta Edelman:
We found him and he claimed that he had cancer. And I honestly, I can't even comment on that..
Kerry Diamond:
What a mess, okay.
Violeta Edelman:
But he never gave us the money. He wasn't licensed. That was another one of our great mistakes. What we decided to do. We wanted to replicate an Argentine gelateria, so we bought all the machines in Argentina. We bought all the furniture in these flea markets and we brought it in containers. When they came here, we lower everything to the basement. Wisconsin Avenue, Georgetown, we had to stop the traffic and do this big mess.
And then we realized that we didn't have three-phase in the building and our electricity and our machines required three-phase electricity, which was another $30,000. And Pepco, the electric company, had to come and do some work that took another two months. And then once we had our machines there in place, one of the machines broke and I had to hire this guy, Milo, who came to fix it. And he was like, “Well, the manuals are in Spanish. I can't fix the thing.” We bought all the machines in Argentina that no one wanted to touch. So there was one problem after the next. And on top of all that my stepdad also had cancer. At the time he was diagnosed with cancer. He was the business…
Kerry Diamond:
He had advanced cancer.
Violeta Edelman:
... He had really bad cancer. He had colon cancer with metastasis in the liver and in the lungs. And they told him he was not going to make it. He did eventually after two years of chemo and three surgeries and 80% of his liver removed, which was another story for another podcast…
Kerry Diamond:
We should do something good for some people right now. And remind folks, if you are, I think it's 45 or older now, you should go get a colonoscopy.
Violeta Edelman:
100%. Everybody should check on that for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm glad he was okay. Because, I know he's been a big part of your life.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes, exactly. So anyway, it was one problem. After the next he was supposed to be the business mind and with him being sick, I found myself doing PnLs and balance sheets on notebooks and counting money and trying to figure out what it meant to have a business very much on our own.
Kerry Diamond:
I know this sounds like a very adventurous, but it was a really hard time for you. I mean, you have told me, you basically spent the first two years crying.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes. I cried every night and I was like, “What the hell am I doing?” Just like, I don't know if we're going to make it. We were undercapitalized. My stepdad was sick in my living room. Robb was still very unhappy because he couldn't quit his job. And it was just one problem after the other. But I like, I always said we had an incredible reception. We had a lot of people who like our product. And that was the thing that kept us going.
Kerry Diamond:
You've said before the silver lining was your customers.
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah, exactly. We had lines out the door and that's why we knew that we had to keep going and that we could make something out of this.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about the second store. We're skipping a few steps, but I want you to tell folks, I don't always tell people who come on the show that they should write a memoir, but I hope you know that at some point in your life, you do need to stop and write a memoir because…
Violeta Edelman:
We've been talking about it for so long.
Kerry Diamond:
... So many incredible things have happened to you. There's almost a sense of magical realism to your story. Tell everybody how the second store came about.
Violeta Edelman:
So we had this customer who loved our gelato and one night invited us to have dinner with him and his family. And by the end of the dinner, he gave us a big check and told us to open store #2. And I wasn't even thinking about store #2, I was still crying every night and I was just not able to fathom the idea of another location. That's how we opened store #2 and then store #3 was with our friends... my friends from National Geographic who loved the concept and said, "Here are my savings. Go and open another store."
Kerry Diamond:
You didn't even ask for that. Unprompted, your friends just came to you.
Violeta Edelman:
They wanted to invest.
Kerry Diamond:
Yes. Incredible. Yeah. Tell us what changed operationally when you started opening more stores because you and Robb were doing everything.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes, we were doing everything. By that time, Robb had quit his job and he was full-time in the kitchen. Robb was the one that first completely got lost into the world of farmer's markets and chefs, and really changed our gelato. When we first opened, it was very Italian. And when Robb got involved, finally, it became extremely seasonal and chef-driven and he came up with 250 flavors in two years. So he finally found his passion and we were both able to be at the store full time. And that really changed things for the better. And then growing the business and realizing that the cash was there and that we were more stable. So we were at a different stage in the business and we started to enjoy it. We started to enjoy the growth and the challenges, and it didn't feel as precarious.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about this gelato for a second. We do have some in front of us that is softening somewhat. Thank you for bringing it. I'm a big fan of your product, and you know that. That's sort of how this came about. I forget who introduced us to you first, maybe Maya Oren? Could that have been? Maya, thank you, for the introduction.
Violeta Edelman:
Perhaps, yes! Of course, yes, Maya!
Kerry Diamond:
And I remember going down to D.C. for the Women's March and Maya saying to me, "You have to go to Dolcezza, it's women owned. I think you'll really love it." She knew I loved ice cream so much.
Violeta Edelman:
That was such a march. Oh my gosh.
Kerry Diamond:
That was such a march.
Violeta Edelman:
I will always remember it. I went with all my daughters and my friends. And it was such a special moment, by the way. I just wanted to do that.
Kerry Diamond:
That was an incredible collective moment.
Violeta Edelman:
Incredible, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And I did come and get ice cream.
Violeta Edelman:
Good!
Kerry Diamond:
The cherry on top of a very special day. You said that your gelato was very Italian and it sort of transformed over time. What does that even mean? It was very Italian. And what did it become?
Violeta Edelman:
When you go to a classic Italian, they have the same 20 flavors that they've had for the last decade.
Kerry Diamond:
Decades!
Violeta Edelman:
Or 50 years, yeah! And so there's a pistachio, the nocciola, the bacio, and the lemon. It's this very specific set of flavors that they focus on and they master them and they're amazing, but no one is innovating. At least at the time, things have changed now.
When we decided to use local produce, there was no one in D.C. using fruit to make ice cream at the time. It was not something that somebody had thought that was a good idea. They were using purees and mixes with the milk and the cream. And we went and bought strawberries at the farmer's market. And we decided that we were only going to make strawberries during strawberry season.
Kerry Diamond:
It's kind of radical.
Violeta Edelman:
At the time. It was. And so we had people coming in and saying, "I want strawberry." And we were like "In May we have strawberries, but it's October. So we don't have strawberry, but here's what we have." We also discovered that there were so many different kinds of fruit, like apples are out there. And what happens to the fruit when it rains. And we met this incredible farming community around us, in the Mid-Atlantic, who we've been purchasing produce from for the last 20 years. Now, there is a farm, Agriberry Farm in Virginia. Now it's like third generation from when we started running the farm.
Kerry Diamond:
And knowing you're probably very good friends with all these people.
Violeta Edelman:
Very good friends. They're our dear friends that we've known for many, many years.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us, what is your #1 flavor today?
Violeta Edelman:
The #1 flavor is mascarpone and berries. It's interesting that that's the #1 flavor because when we launched it in Whole Foods nationwide, we were afraid that people were not going to really know what it was. And it became the top seller. And it's a mascarpone gelato with a berry sauce that we make.
Kerry Diamond:
What is your favorite flavor?
Violeta Edelman:
My favorite flavor is banana split, which is not the American banana split. It's the Argentine banana split. It's a banana flavor with dulce de leche and chocolate chip. And it just goes back to my childhood, I think for most people. So that's what I used to eat when I was a kid, watching cartoons on Saturday morning and I still love it.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there a flavor that breaks your heart? Because it hasn't done better.
Violeta Edelman:
We make so many flavors. And flavors are meant to come and go and flavors are meant to be there for a while and then leave space for some new flavors. So, cycle of life.
Kerry Diamond:
What is the state of the company today? I'd love to know how many locations, how many employees, distribution, who owns the company? All that.
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah. So today we have six locations in Washington, D.C., brick and mortar. We have a program of 100 restaurants that we make gelato for in Washington, D.C. And we sell gelato in 3,000 grocery stores nationwide.
Kerry Diamond:
Can we just stop for one second? All the listeners out there. I mean, knowing what you came from and what you built. I mean, incredible, Violeta.
Violeta Edelman:
Incredible. Thank you. Yes. It's been an incredible journey. It's been a beautiful, amazing rollercoaster of beauty, and I'm very proud of where we are. I think we trust ourselves deeply. And I think there's something about that kept us together. And I think the family business aspect of it helped a lot. I think if I would've been alone, it would've been different. But having Robb and my mom and my stepdad, and eventually my sister worked with us and Robb's brother... We always joked that we were like the mafia. We kept bringing everybody in.
Kerry Diamond:
The gelato mafia.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes. So I think that had also... And again, the investors, people supporting us. So that was part of the success story, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
If you are a listener in D.C. and you have not been to Dolcezza yet, I really want you to go visit maybe this week, this weekend, and definitely tag us and let us know what you get. But for those listeners, not in D.C. or the D.C. area, tell me where folks can find you.
Violeta Edelman:
So they can find us in Whole Foods nationwide, as well as Foxtrot [Market]. And we have an exclusive flavor with them. So you can try our incredible collaboration as well as so many others. The Fresh Market, Natural Grocers, Giant Food...
Kerry Diamond:
I'm sure you could look at the website and find other locations.
Violeta Edelman:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
But it's such a beautiful product. Who owns the company today?
Violeta Edelman:
We own the company still. We have investors, but we're majority owners—me and Robb.
Kerry Diamond:
How about employees? How many employees do you have?
Violeta Edelman:
We have 100 employees right now. So that's the team.
Kerry Diamond:
And how are you dealing with all the issues that everyone else is dealing with? Not enough employees, supply chain issues. What's the story at Dolcezza?
Violeta Edelman:
So in terms of staff, we've been very lucky and I feel like we've had the best team we've ever had right now. I know there are issues out there, but for us it's been good. We've always empowered from within. So my Chief of Operations started as a barista 10 years ago. My Culinary Director started as a scooper when he was 16; he's 30 right now or a little older. He's about to get married. Our partner, Dimas [Rodriguez], was our first employee. He was our ice cream maker. And he's our partner today. My driver, Jaime [Rivera], has been with us since day one. So we've had that luck of just having this very strong team that has been with us for a very long time. Right now, I feel like we had an incredible team. And I think that it has a lot to do with our focus on people.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you deal with the seasonality of ice cream? Because Washington, D.C., gets pretty cold.
Violeta Edelman:
We are also a coffee shop pretty much. And we love coffee and we've been always very interested in the third wave of coffee. We used to come to New York when, back in the days before Blue Bottle or before any of the third wave coffee shops and go to Joe: The Art of Coffee in SoHo and loved it. And so we started buying coffee from Counter Culture and Stumptown and all those great brands. And we became a coffee shop in part because we love coffee. And in part, because of the seasonality.
Kerry Diamond:
You gave a talk with Robb, and you said, "It's not okay to open a business without knowing what the hell you're doing." And I heard you say that. And I was like, "I don't know that Violeta actually really believes that." Because you wouldn't be here today, if that were the case.
Violeta Edelman:
You know you're absolutely right. When I said that I was making fun of myself. I pretty much said in talk, I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so don't do that. But no... That was the meaning of that.
Kerry Diamond:
There's something to be said for naivete.
Violeta Edelman:
Absolutely. There is there's all these times in our lives, we have different strengths and weaknesses and naivete is a beautiful thing when you're young.
Kerry Diamond:
How have you changed as a business person?
Violeta Edelman:
The core of who I am is the same at the core of everything is just those values of being a good person, being honest, treating people with respect, giving a crap about what you're doing. All those are there. I've changed a lot because the growth of the business faced me with different challenges that I embrace and I had to learn. So I had to learn different phases of the business at different stages.
When we launched the CPG business, I had to learn that whole thing, which was new to me and I'm still learning. We opened the factory. I had to learn what it meant to have a gelato factory and the build out and the machines and what was required. When my stepdad became 90 years old, I had to learn financials. And that was extremely important. Until a couple of years ago, I wasn't so involved in the numbers. And I think I became a much stronger business person now that I look at numbers almost every other day. So that's how I've changed.
Kerry Diamond:
I had so much fun doing research on you because you've had such an interesting life and you and Robb really seem to have a great partnership. And you said in another talk that you have a truly equal partnership in the house and in the business. And I was thinking about that. I don't know that I have a lot of friends or even relatives where the chores, the housework, the childcare are evenly split; it always seems to fall on the woman disproportionately. How do you and Robb do it?
Violeta Edelman:
Just to give you an example. Robb puts our youngest, Luna, to bed every night and he cooks every night and he does dishes every night. But that's just a very small example of our daily life. I think more than anything, Robb is an emotionally mature person and he doesn't put his agenda first. That doesn't mean that at different times of our lives we've done that because we have, I think it's an ever evolving partnership in which the key to being equals is communication.
Kerry Diamond:
It's not always easy to ask for what you need or want in a relationship.
Violeta Edelman:
It's not always easy because first you need to figure out what you need or want. I think that's the first step. And for that, you need to have space. And to have space, you need your partner to give you space, and your family to give you space. And I think that's the core of everything. So I think Robb and I have always understood that since our ayahuasca days. That the relationship with ourselves had to be the priority, and then the relationship with each other, and then the relationship with our children, and ultimately the relationship with the business.
Kerry Diamond:
And that takes work. It's not something you can take for granted.
Violeta Edelman:
A lot of work. And I think Robb understood, and I understood that was the priority for us from the very beginning. And so we nurtured that very much.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you take care of yourself mentally and physically? It's always been important, but now so more than ever.
Violeta Edelman:
I sleep well. I eat well. I exercise, I meditate. I do yoga. I travel. I take time to have dates with my husband where we're not talking about the business. I take time to spend with my children and really pay attention to them. I also smoke cannabis and I occasionally do psychedelics. And that really helps me as well.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you have time for all that? I mean, you've got three kids, this huge business...
Violeta Edelman:
We are very busy, but we take the time. And I think it's also having an incredible team, like I mentioned before, at the business people that I can depend on. That's important. And the other thing is, again, what do you prioritize? How do you use your time? Right? There's nothing more important nowadays we're bombarded with information and stimulus. I don't spend a lot of time on social media, for example, that's not something I do.
I wake up and I take 15 minutes every morning to meditate. It's 15 minutes, nothing else. I try to hit the gym three times a week, and I don't schedule meetings during those times. On Friday lunch, I have a date with Robb and it's sacred. And, so, you make time.
Kerry Diamond:
How long did it take you to get to that place? As you explained to us earlier, you've always been a seeker, a centered person, but is this something that's evolved over time where you really had to carve out this time to take care of yourself and your family and your business?
Violeta Edelman:
Yeah. I think everything there are different phases in life. When I had babies, it was absolutely impossible. I have three small girls and I spent a decade, I feel like, having babies and nursing them and not sleeping. And that was not a time for me to have time for myself. I wasn't in a good place, perhaps mentally, and I feel like I was a little bit of a monster when I was sleep deprived. But that's how it was and that's what was required.
And so I think now my youngest is six years old and we got to a point in which... hey, we are in the groove again! We can enjoy, we can go to Costa Rica and try to learn how to surf! Or do fun things we haven't done in a while. So it all depends on the stage of your life. And it's not always easy, but even in the midst of everything, I think when it was 5:00 a.m. and I was walking a baby and I was exhausted, I try to keep perspective how grateful I was to be able to look at the sunrise and be alive and be breathing and be on this planet for such a short period of time. Try to keep that into perspective. And then you still have that center of that comes a lot from gratitude.
Kerry Diamond:
What would you say for folks today who want to open their own business?
Violeta Edelman:
I would say if you have a passion, follow it. Because like I said, life is short and try to do what your heart or your mind calls for, go for it. And don't look back, but make sure that you have enough money. The storms that are coming and make sure that you have help around you, that you're not alone. Even if it's a colleague, even if it's a mentor, whatever it is, somebody that you can vent, or you can ask questions.
Kerry Diamond:
You chose a very crowded category. That seems to just get more and more crowded by the day, ice cream and frozen treats. How do you navigate that? I mean, do you put blinders on and just not pay attention to what others are doing?
Violeta Edelman:
No, I do pay attention. We try every ice cream that there is, and we're always doing research. Yesterday, we had three different ice creams. We went from soft serve to a traditional ice cream to gelato. So, research, always. Trying new stuff, always. But I think that the core of what we do is that we make a great product.
Kerry Diamond:
I read that you were part of an educational program at General Assembly. Some folks might know what that is on how to build a brand that people love. I would imagine it's more luck than anything. Is that something you can teach?
Violeta Edelman:
I don't know if it's something you can teach, but going back again to what I was saying. If the core of what you're doing is product, and you have the right values, I think you have a better chance to create the brand that people love. I think we're in the age of personal branding and I think everybody's spinning everything all the time. And I think everybody's exhausted at the same time.
I think that as long as you're doing something that has quality, and that's what we always aim for doing the best of the best. I just sent my Chief of Operations to Italy because we went to a gelateria that blew my mind. And I was like, "How are you making the pistachio? Because I need to learn this." So as long as you're laser focused on quality and you have the right values, I think you can create the brand that people are going to like.
Kerry Diamond:
What's next for Dolcezza?
Violeta Edelman:
We always want to grow. I figure out that while ago that we're widely entrepreneurial and that what excites us is to take things to the next level. I think that's the key to life, right? Is just finding new challenges and embracing them and learning and enjoying while you're doing it, no matter what you're doing. So we want to open more stores. We want to grow our CPG. We want to do more flavors. Our fun and collaborations and keep growing our e-commerce and just see where it takes us.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you think you'll have more physical locations across the country?
Violeta Edelman:
I want to. The pandemic was really hard. And then after the pandemic, now we see that things are back or even better than pre-pandemic. I still do feel, like I said, if you're doing something with quality, it sustains, whatever is coming. And after everything that I went through, I even believe in that more and more. So I do think I want to open more locations.
Kerry Diamond:
And you personally have had such an interesting journey. I'm so curious, what's left for you? You've got decades and decades ahead of you. What's on your bucket list? What would you like to do in the years ahead?
Violeta Edelman:
I want to continue growing spiritually. Like I've always done. I want to go back more into that now that I have more time and space a little bit. I want to learn how to surf. I've been trying to surf for the last two years.
Kerry Diamond:
How's it going?
Violeta Edelman:
It's going okay. It's a lot of work. I'm playing the uke. I want to write, you mentioned a memoir. I would love to write. I've always enjoyed writing and I want to find the space to do that. I love to travel. That's something that Robb and I always prioritize and it just nurtures us so much. And just getting out of the routine and how important that is. I always want to try to be aware of what habits I need to break to continue growing. And I want to be a good mother and I want to be a good wife and I want to be a good business owner. And I want to see my kids grow and become whomever they want to be.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, Violeta, thank you so much. You are such a beautiful person inside and out. I'm so thrilled. You came on the show and shared all this with us.
Violeta Edelman:
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Kerry Diamond:
And on top of that, you brought ice cream.
Violeta Edelman:
I know! And by the way, we have two new flavors here that we're launching nationwide with Whole Foods, peanut butter mash and coffee & cookies. And they're amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my gosh, three of my favorite things. Peanut butter, coffee, and cookies. So, we’re going to break into some ice cream and thank you again. Everybody, go find Dolcezza and try some of this beautiful product.
Violeta Edelman:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Violeta Edelman of Dolcezza Gelato for joining me. As Violeta said, Dolcezza has multiple locations in Washington, D.C. and can be found in stores across the U.S. If you love ice cream as much as I do, be sure to check it out. Visit dolcezzagelato.com for more. Thank you to Whole Foods Market for supporting today's show. If you enjoyed today's pod, check out past episodes with other ice cream queens, including Hallie Meyer of Caffè Panna and Pooja Bavishi of Malai. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe. That would make me very happy. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe Magazine. Our theme song is by the band Tra La La. Thank you to Joseph Hazan, studio engineer for Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center. And thank you to our assistant producer, Jenna Sadhu. And thanks to you for listening. You're the bombe.