The Real Juggle with Yandy Smith-Harris & Cynthia Adams

Jackie P Taylor:

Good afternoon and welcome to this episode of The Real Juggle. I am so excited to be in the Dancing Crave in Atlanta in the underground section. And I am here with Yandy Smith Harris.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Hey.

Jackie P Taylor:

And Cynthia Adams, co owners of this exquisite location. So how did this idea come about to start a restaurant?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Oh, my gosh. I have the skincare store next door and I have been spying on this space. Someone else had this space and they were going to open up a breakfast bar and, um, they were in contract. And then one day I walked by and there was an eviction notice on the door. And I was like, this is my opportunity. But I know nothing about the restaurant business, so I wanted some help with, um, someone that's been in this space and knows the business. So she's a, uh, family friend, and she's been in the business of, um, the food service and accommodation business for a very long time, over two decades. So I thought that she would be the best person to talk to and collaborate with.

Jackie P Taylor:

So when you think about your background and kind of what brought you to working with Yandy, how did this happen? Did you just kind of walk down the street and say, hey, Yandy, this restaurant thing, how did this come about?

Cynthia Adams:

No, it's like Yandy said, um, I was looking into actually investing and opening up something. And so, um, you had a conversation and she said, hey, we should open something down here. Actually, they had a space right next. Door next to Yale. And she thought that it would be great. And so we came over, we liked the space, and we just got together and just made it happen. Wow.

Jackie P Taylor:

So now, um, have you always been entrepreneurial because your background is in food service, but you've kind of navigated to different careers?

Cynthia Adams:

Uh, yeah. Um, well, it wasn't always in full service. It was actually i, um, did some health care. I did a variety of different things. Yeah. But I've actually been in the restaurant business again. Once I got into that, I just pretty much stayed on that line.

Jackie P Taylor:

Officially open in two weeks. Like a couple of weeks, you'll be open to the public. What is the style of the cuisine? Because I'm feeling a vibe just by your decor here. What's going to be the vibe of the spot?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

So it's good. Um, it's kind of, I would say Caribbean soulful, French.

Jackie P Taylor:

It feels very Brooklyn. I'm feeling like I know Trinidad.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

We're both from New York, so we brought a little bit of the New York bodega style here, too, with our menu. It doesn't look like a bodega by any means with the crystal chandeliers. However, you know how you walk in symbol digging? In New York, you can get a salad, you can get a beef patty, chicken patty. You can get, um, sometimes a gold chain. All of that as well. But we wanted to give you, like, a large array of food to choose from, but we happened to find an exquisite chef. So then she's like, what about lamb chops? What about seafood egg rolls? What about hennessy based the barbecue ribs? And I was like, okay. Yeah.

Jackie P Taylor:

So you have the whole vibe. So now you mentioned Yale, the, um, skincare line. All right, for the record, how many businesses or enterprises do you have that you're doing?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Too many.

Jackie P Taylor:

So I already before I went and grabbed my complete set, so I'm going to be that's why I have my complete set for you. Uh, and then you have this, um, and then obviously, you're loving hip hop days. You are always definitely exuding that whole entrepreneurial about my business vibe. Do you consider yourself a serial entrepreneur?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I, um, think I just like to create I like to create business spaces for people, to engage people, to commune and convene. Um, I love, um, creating happy spaces for people. So, like, when you walk into the skincare store, you feel like you walked into the Garden of Eden when, um, you walk in here, usually. So we had a big grand opening, and then we did, like, um, a week and a half, almost just, uh, a restaurant run for the week. And any given moment, you could be pulled out your seat to dance. Cynthia, uh, and I walk around and grab people to dance on the dance floor. We normally have a DJ or a band. Our waitresses are told, this is unorthodox. Grab people out, dance. I, um, think we just want to create a happy space. I think, um, the food could be good, the store could look nice. But the way you make people feel is what's most important. And we really want you to leave here feeling a certain type of way.

Jackie P Taylor:

That's really good because in the real juggle, we talk about outlets that people need just to kind of get through your day to day and get through your challenges. I always like to ask because you guys are doing amazing things. You can follow you guys both on Instagram and on social media, and it's just like, goals, right? The wonderful things that you guys have accomplished. But I always like to talk about your juggle. So behind the scenes, how do you hold it together? What is your juggle?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Oh, my gosh. Someone told you I hold it together. I don't hold it together. This is just a look. Every day is different. Every day the juggle is different. People ask me all the time, how do you balance it off? And I always say, that is a myth. You don't balance it.

Jackie P Taylor:

I, um, base the show on that. I started my first episode, and I said, there is no such thing as balance, because balance assumes that you have everything together. Andy on the day that my hair is done, my kids are acting up on the day that my kids are good and work is going well. I'm looking to mess or I'm eating to something I don't need to eat. Yes, it's a juggle.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

It's a juggle. And honestly, even in life, it's a juggle with work. So some days the babies get 20% of me and work gets 80%. Some days the husband gets 50%. Babies get 50%. Every single day. The juggle changes and the balance changes. So it's not balance. Balance means it's an equal plane, so it's equal stale. There's never that. It never will be that for anyone. I think the key, um, has been prioritizing. I think some days I have to prioritize my children over everything else. And I can't come to the restaurant. I can't come to the store. I can't shoot today. I have to take Skyla here. I got to do this with a mirror. I got to do that. Or some other days I got to go out of town and I got to speak at this engagement, or I have to do this and my babies get a little piece of me on FaceTime. And I think for us mothers, it's important to shun off the Montego and be okay with what our balance looks like for that day, that month, that year, and, um, dismiss those feelings of inadequacy or I'm not being a good mother to my children, or I'm not being a good wife. I think those things just look different for different people, and it's unrealistic, I.

Jackie P Taylor:

Think normalizing, obviously, mental health awareness, but also normalizing what parenting really looks like as part of this discussion. Now, when you move to Atlanta, tell me about because we talked about it, it was sort of, like, divine for you to make this move. It was somewhat abrupt. But you felt driven, right?

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah. So I really moved here to Atlanta, really on faith, a hope and a prayer. And on faith, um, having faith, knowing that everything will work out again in God's. Perfect timing. And was it a struggle? Absolutely. It was a big struggle moving here. Not having no family, no friends, no job, nothing. Just getting to you, hall, packing up my kids and saying, let's go.

Jackie P Taylor:

So what did you do? Because I hear stories about people who say, I started my business on $100, or I actually got in the car and just went out on Face. But literally, where did you live and how did you support yourself and your child?

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah, well, I found my house online. I've never, um, seen the house. I've never seen that. I found it online. I contact the owner. He said the house was there.

Jackie P Taylor:

So you did site unseen?

Cynthia Adams:

Site unseen, yes. Just checked up everything and sent a security deposit in the mail.

Jackie P Taylor:

Oh, my God. That's insane. I hear her stories of you getting property, and then you open the door and that's all that's there.

Cynthia Adams:

Thankfully, it was nothing on the inside because with no furniture or anything, it was a house. And from that day forward, I just knew that, um, pretty much there was no turning back for me.

Jackie P Taylor:

So you knew no one. You went out on face. The house had a roof, but tell everybody what happened within like three or four months, because I'm just floored.

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah. And three or four months. Well, actually, when I got here the next day, I went out looking for a job. And thankfully, I did land a job the next day. I was actually working at JC Penney's in the shoe department, making 6000 hours. And so I actually stayed on that job. And just from there, I just started thinking of other ways that I can generate income being a single mom. And so I started doing other things, like here and daycare and just different things.

Jackie P Taylor:

You were enterprising you didn't just sit back and wait for somebody to give you something?

Cynthia Adams:

No, absolutely not. I've never been that person. I was always a go, uh, getter, always a hustler, and always found my way, even though I struggle. And um, like I was expressing earlier, I have a very strong spiritual connection. And I think with my spiritual connection, with my higher power, that's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me never wanting to give up, no matter how hard the struggle is. And each day, even again, through a struggle, got orders out steps, he orders my steps. And that's what keeps me going.

Jackie P Taylor:

So what do you do, Yandy? Because we all have those days where you are overbooked, you have a ton of meetings. Do you ever have the day where you're like, I cannot get out of this bed?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I do. Cynthia will call me.

Cynthia Adams:

She does.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

She gets up and I'll say, today I'm getting out of the bed at 02:00. Because sometimes we go two weeks straight coming in at 03:00 in the morning. Um, for me, I have to always make sure if I'm here or next door, I got to rush home to put my kids to bed. I got to be up at six in the morning and take them to school after that. And the running back and forth. Sometimes I dropped the kids, put them in the bed, come back down after that. Sometimes I am expensed. So I have to say, you know what, friday I'm going to take a morning off. I'm getting a better too. There's never really a time when I could just be in bed all day.

Cynthia Adams:

Right.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

But I would definitely say, I need a morning.

Jackie P Taylor:

Talk about a time in your life Yandy where you just felt like, okay, I've been putting the work in, but I feel like things are moving and they were like divine ordered stuff.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Yeah. I think my whole life has been that just like when you think about the humble beginnings that so many of us as black women have where we come from, what could have been so many of us. I know I was born during the crack era, during the drug era. It definitely hit my family. But so many of us have been able to, I don't know, push through, push past. Um, but one thing that I don't know where it comes from, probably my mother and my father. But I've always been a dreamer. I've always been a visionary. And then something with me. When I dream, I can see it. I'll even speak it. So even before I had this restaurant, I would say things like, I'm going to own the block. I'm going to own this block. When I came here, all of the spaces were empty. There, um, was an ice cream, uh, parlor and a barber shop down there. And I was like, this side of the block is going to be my block. I'm going to own the block. And then because I spoke that so much, when this space became available, I was like, oh, this is just pain in the way for what I already said. I'm on the block next door to my store. There's a space that's available. And I want this to be now, I want it it's going to be a TV show that we're going to shoot here called Amateur Night at the Underground. And I want the next door to my store to be the editing office for the TV show. And that's like a whole vision I do. And then what happens is when I start to see these things and believe it, it always happens. When I left, I started, um, out in the business as an Internet violator. And I remember my mom was like, when you're going to get a real job? You graduated from Howard with a degree. When are you going to get a real job? And I'm like, mom, this is a real job. I'm like, I'm going to tour the world with this job. I'm going to be Misty's manager. I'm going to work with Busta. Now I'm an intern. Talking like this. And I was like, I saw what Mona, who was my boss at the time, I saw what she was doing. I saw what Chris Whitey was doing. And I said, oh, that's going to be me. I was like, I worked just as hard. I'm just as great. I wasn't at the top of my class. I didn't have anything that checks to say you belong here, or yes, you do this or this, this is why. No, I didn't have any of that. But I just had this will to work hard. And I knew that with that, if we had to be to work at ten, I was going to show up at nine. If my boss was there past seven, I was going to be with her till after seven. Um, to show that I was the one for the job. And it, um, always was like that. So then when the lady's first Horizon tour was the first store that I did, that was missy, Beyonce, Tamia, alicia Keys, um, and there was, I think, little Mo. And, um, my boss couldn't do all the dates. She was like, you're going to be the manager on duty. And Missy travels with 30 something dancers. Back of the house engineer, front of the house engineer, a DJ. Like there was like 40 something people had to manage on this tour. And once I was trusted with that tour, then I started going overseas on the road. And I just always thought, like I said, I was going to do this. So when I was walking to places, they're like walking into this room, this little girl. I was probably at this point 23, 24. And they're like, hi, who are you? I'm Missy's manager. I was like, I had already been saying it anyway. And then the same thing when I got on Love and Hip hop, I first was a part of the creation, and then I was a producer. But then when crazy things happened, we felt like we needed a woman that, um, got in this hip hop industry by her own stripes, not because she was connected to a man. And we were interviewing people. And Mona goes, I think you should do it. And I'm like, I'm not made for TV. I don't wear makeup. I barely do my hair. No, so you can be okay. So I got on TV and then it was like my first day or so. At first I was like, no, just take me background. Then I got shot and I got comfortable. I was like, oh, I'm going to be the star of this show. And it's crazy because I never feel comfortable being on TV. But every time I try to quit, they're like, no, we need you. They offer me more money. And I'm like, I don't want to be. I'm moving. I'm leaving New York. But we need you in Atlanta. So it's like every single time I try to quit, it's like, no. And it's again, because I spoke this into existence. So now I think God is like, you got to live up to it. You already said this. What it's going to be? So now you got to do it. So I'm very careful about the things that I say. Very careful.

Jackie P Taylor:

I don't know if you guys have read the Felicine Prophecy. I'm big on that. It's all about the manifestation and, um, what your thoughts, what you think. Not only what you say, but what you think actually becomes your reality.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

And it's biblical. Like in the Bible, it says, believe it, pray it, and then you'll have it. Sure, if God says it, so it is. But the problem is people get caught up on the and then part. You hear and then and you think it's the and then tomorrow or and then in the next hour, 1000 years, like a day. So when the and then part, he didn't say believe, pray. You have it. Believe, pray. 

Jackie P Taylor:

Although if you’re listening to this and you're struggling, it's not, um, going to take a thousand years to get out of your slump.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

It doesn't have to. But there is a waiting process if things don't just happen immediately.

Cynthia Adams:

Yes. What we have to realize is that everything happens like I was saying earlier, everything happens in God's perfect timing. So a lot of times when we are going through different challenges in life, we want to get out of things so quickly. We want the success, we want to succeed. We want everything right then and there in the now. Even like my story, which is a whole lot different, but everybody has their own story. But in my story, it was a long journey. Yeah, it was a very long journey.

Jackie P Taylor:

So that being said, obviously, all these wonderful things and you guys have the tools and means, right? You focus, you vision, you’ve got ways to make sure that you manifest success in your life. Let's talk about some of those challenges. So what's the biggest challenge that you've had to deal with in your life when you think I mean, I'm sure we all have several, but if you had to choose, what was the biggest thing that almost threw you off but you said, you know what, I'm going to pull myself up or you tapped into…

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Yeah, I went through a horrible depression. I, um, would say after I had a mirror when I had my son, when I was pregnant with my son, that's my first born, I was told, um, at seven months, he had a kidney malfunction. So I knew that I would have to deliver him early because they had to have surgery on his kidney when he was out for two months. So my son had to be born I think it was like a, um, month early, maybe three and a half weeks early. But then, um, leading up to that, I would say a week almost to the day that my son had to have surgery on his kidneys to a little two month old baby. The Fed came to my house looking for my best friend, who at the time was my boyfriend. And I had his son sleeping in the bed with me, as well as our son. And when they came to my house, guns ablaze, I was like I was so confused. Like, what are you guys here for? That's why I'm so connected to even, like, Brianna Taylor and the tragedy that happened to her because I always feel like that could have been me. I remember when they kicked down my wedding kick down the door, but they busted my house looking for him. And I had this image on TV, just like you said, like Andy the worker. She went to Howard. She was an intern, and she came up to do with the stripes on her own and entertainment. But I knew that this would hit the blogd, right? I knew that this was going to hit the blog.

Jackie P Taylor:

I would mar your reputation.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

And I felt like it was going to ruin my career. I felt like it was going to ruin my reputation. But then also, the man that I'm in love with and the man who's the father of my child, I felt like we were all scarred for the rest of our life with this. And then, um, of course, it hit social media, and exactly what I thought it was. Oh, she stayed. She's a liar. It was this. That's how she got her started. This was her career. And I just felt like I wanted to hide in a rock. And then on top of that, the next week, I have to see my baby get put to sleep to have surgery. And it was horrible. It was so much happening. And, um, then I had to figure out how I was going to raise this baby by myself. And just thinking about I was a new mom. He had already had a bigger son, so he was really helping me with everything. So I, um, went through a horrible, horrible place. So bad that I couldn't even create breast milk. Like, my body, my mind, everything was just wrong. And I remember being so sad. You know how sometimes you get to I don't know if either of you know, but sometimes you get to a place where you can't cut on the lights, you can't get out of bed, you can't wash, you can't brush your teeth. It's like before.

Jackie P Taylor:

That's what I was asking. How do you get yourself up?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I didn't I didn't get myself up. I remember my, uh, mom saying, come on, get on your knees. We're going to pray. And I was like, I won't pray. You're just so sad and so tight, you don't even want to pray. And I remember being there, and I was like, no, there's always tomorrow. Today you feel like this. I'm telling you, next year, this day, you will not feel like this. I guarantee it. And she's like, you got to pray. So I did that because I listened to my mother still. And then there was a group of women that while the world was judging me, people were calling me names. I deleted my social media. I remember there was a group of women that came to my rescue that took me out the bed, took my clothes off, washed me up. You need to open your mouth. Let me brush your teeth. Spit. Okay, come on. No, you're not getting back in the bed. We're going to walk to the door. You'll get some fresh air. This is why there's a tribe of women that, uh, I just respect so much and love so much because they really put the lowest they're at my lowest. My mother, of course, as well, they're at my lowest. And I think I always talk to girls and women like, you need a tribe of women. You need women that can understand you, that when you are but bare and, uh, naked, they can wash you and clothe you and give you the strength that you need. So with that love and with that prayer, I was able to eventually figure out how to live in this new space. I had to figure out how to be a single mother. I had to there was no other option. I couldn't die because I had to live for this baby, and then I had to live for the future, for this moment.

Jackie P Taylor:

Right. You have people in your life around you who saw this.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I did. When you were to see past, I could not see past that moment. And it was such an important revelation where my mother said, this is here today. It will not be your tomorrow. And I had to understand that and grasp that. And then later on, things occurred. Things have happened. And I remember that moment. I go back. I've never been that sad or that broken, but I do remember that moment. I remember those words, this is your today. It won't be here tomorrow. So, um, that pushes me through when I have those moments of like, oh, this is shaking my boots because I know, um, this is today. It will not be my tomorrow.

Jackie P Taylor:

And that hard time was sort of like building that muscle for you to give you the rest of the hard times. Like you said, you're not going to be without hardship in life. But how do you kind of come through? What about you? What would you choose is like, the one thing that was.

Cynthia Adams:

The one thing for me that was the hardest and I'm going to say this without getting emotion.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

No, you're not going to get emotional.

Cynthia Adams:

No, I'm going to try not to. But the one thing for me and that's why I love I absolutely love the relationship with Yandy and her mom. Because the one thing for me was my mom was losing my mom. 

Jackie P Taylor:
That was the three of us. My mom is like my best friend.

Cynthia Adams:

Mom was like, my very best friend. That was really the hardest. But the only thing in that because I want to really fast forward. The only thing with her past was that through me, it's work. It threw me into work that I wasn't going to do this.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I knew that you would.

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah. But it just really threw me into working. And sometimes you have to everybody agrees differently. So for me, I worked a lot.

Jackie P Taylor:

That was her spirit, helping to get you through. Yeah.

Cynthia Adams:

I worked a lot. I worked hard. And mhm so just not to have to think. And so with that, like I said, it was just a lot of work. A lot of work. A lot of work. Just to say business.

Jackie P Taylor:

You kept moving because you felt like you might, um, fall apart.

Cynthia Adams:

Right. Just to keep from breaking, I would say yes. So the hardest thing was definitely losing mom. Definitely the hardest thing. But again, I turned the pain into progress. I turned it into passion. Just knowing that I have to keep putting one step in front of the other.

Jackie P Taylor:

She would be so proud of you. I didn't even know you before then. And I'm like just hearing the story, I'm like, wow, like, you said that's in God's perfect time.

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah, but everything, again, in God's perfect timing, perfect time.

Jackie P Taylor:

I'm going to do a rapid fire to lift us. Okay. So coffee or tea?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Tea.

Cynthia Adams:
Tea. I don't like coffee.

Jackie P Taylor:

I think I know the answer to this for you; a lot of people or a coveted crew?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

A lot of people. I know you weren't expecting that. I was not a lot of people.

Jackie P Taylor:

So are you an extrovert? Like a true extrovert?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I am, for sure.

Jackie P Taylor:

Wow.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I love being around a lot of people. I love people.

Jackie P Taylor:

What about you now? 

Cynthia Adams: 

Me? I love people. I do. I really love people. I have a, um, big heart from people, but I like to be in my own space.

Jackie P Taylor:

I know I'm looking at her like, you like people.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I find the joy in being with people. Traveling alone, never.

Cynthia Adams: 

I absolutely love being by myself.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I never want to travel by myself. I don't want to go to the movies by myself.

Jackie P Taylor:

That's interesting. Okay, so the last question is what energizes, um, you? Is it a song? Is it a person? When you're in that and you just do this one, uh, thing, what gets you up?

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Definitely several songs. I am that girl. I can be anywhere at any given moment. You put on the right beat all.

Jackie P Taylor:

Right, give us a song. Um.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Drop it low. It's going to go down. I'm going to drop it low for sure.

Jackie P Taylor:

Uh, okay.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

No matter where I am, I could be in class, I could be here at the restaurant. I could be at my store. You put on that right beat I'm going to take a moment.

Jackie P Taylor:

So you're in a business meeting, and then all of a sudden…

Yandy Smith-Harris:

Me is I don't work for anybody in any capacity. So no matter where I am, I could do what I want to do. Nobody can tell me I cannot drive it like it's hot in the middle of my meeting if I want to, because most likely I own the business.

Jackie P Taylor:

Okay.

Cynthia Adams:

I think the same thing music. Same thing music. Yeah. I'm not a dropper.

Jackie P Taylor:

Don't know. I heard something else from Mother's Day weekend.

Cynthia Adams:

Uh, um, yeah, I did. I had a really mean two step. Yeah. But I think music music really energize me. Music motivates me. Music keeps me encourage. Yeah, definitely music for me.

Jackie P Taylor:

But I still enjoy talking to you guys. I got some tips.And I thought I didn't need another friend. You reach a certain age.

Yandy Smith-Harris:

I met some of my best friends within the past three, four, five years. Definitely never stop making friends, because also, you never stop growing. And a lot of my growth has come from people that I've had around me. So don't close that door. Don't close that door to growth and making new friends, because people could change your life.

Cynthia Adams:

Yeah, and I agree with that. I don't have a lot of friends, actually. I have very few friends, people that I would consider my friends. Right. But it's always good. Like you said, to open a door, you just never know. She and I became friends, and where we are, we can help each other on so many different levels.

Jackie P Taylor:

I'm so happy to meet my fellow Brooklyn New Yorkers have this conversation. I appreciate you guys, and thank you so much for joining us this week. For the real Juggle.