I was born and raised in DC, and I've spent most of my career in youth-focused work, from youth violence intervention to working as an assistant principal. I loved it. But one day I was leaving a nail salon and saw a vacant space. Out of sheer curiosity, I called the landlord just wondering what the rent would be. The landlord wouldn't tell me the price until I told him what I'd do with the space. I was stuck, so I just randomly said, “I'm going to open a spice shop. Can you just tell me the price?” Just to get him to answer. He told me the price, and I said I wanted it. I didn't have a business plan or any financials. But he decided a spice shop sounded like exactly what the neighborhood needed.
I left my job a month and a half later, and I've been a full-time spice girl ever since. In the past eleven years, I've been to 43 countries, traveling the world for spices and inspiration. About four years ago, I decided I needed a bigger space. I happened to see a vacant auto body shop in northeast DC with garage doors—very industrial, very unlike DC commercial real estate—and I fell in love. It was dilapidated and looked horrible to most people, but I immediately saw it painted black, surrounded by shipping containers. I saw it exactly as it is now.
I redeveloped that block into a strip mall I call Black and Forth, with the idea of going back and forth with Black business owners to sustain brick-and-mortar locations. I offer an exchange model with women who pop up regularly with their own businesses and rent shipping containers, well below market rate, for hair salons, nail salons, and esthetician studios. We have a farmers market every Sunday and host free business classes twice a month, taught by friends who are experts in everything from bookkeeping to media training. The rest of the space I just give out for free. For the entire 11 years, it's always been from a community servant standpoint, showing up for people the way the community has shown up for me.
As a small team, we have to stay incredibly nimble. We started using Google Gemini when my team was juggling so many different responsibilities at once: managing emails, fielding sponsorship inquiries, things that came in all day, every day. The goal was to summarize inquiries, help her respond in ways that felt personalized, and even quickly create assets like flyers for the farmers market.
As a business owner without a Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer, it’s just me at the top, so I turn to Gemini all the time for ideating. Gemini helps visualize what’s in my head, and helps other people see it, too.
I recently used Gemini to help me design the concept for an event at the Spice Suite for the 250th anniversary of America, with top chefs from around the world coming to DC. I knew I wanted it to feel like a bonfire, but upscale, like a cookout. I put all those ideas into Gemini, and it generated a gorgeous image, exactly what I needed to share with the PR person.
It's increased my capacity to do more things. Stuff I would have put off for when I had a lot of time, like designing a product, imagining what an event could look like, I can now do in between tasks. It doesn't take long.
People keep coming back not just because our products are amazing, but because it feels good to support this business. That’s all I need to know right now. I try not to overthink it. It’s like parenting; I’m not here to tell the business what to do. I'm just here to guide it and trust wherever it’s going.