Holidays and Blessings

The holidays are upon us beginning next week and then comes Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. This will be a quite different holiday season than most of us are used to. Large gatherings are the norm and lots of hugs and kisses are always part of the holidays.

I am reflecting on 2020 as I write this, thinking about 2021 and I feel incredibly blessed and grateful for my health, my family, and my company. 2020 has been a challenge to say the least and yet we are still moving on with our daily lives knowing that this will get better. I give thanks that myself and my family have stayed free of COVID-19 but also pray for those families that have lost loved ones during this pandemic and have to feel this pain during the holidays.

I felt inspired to write a book recently because for so many years my customers and friends have told me to do so, that my story would be worth reading. So, I started two weeks ago and it is coming along nicely. I hope to be able to self-publish it in 2021. Believe it or not I was never a huge fan of chocolate and when I embarked on this business journey of food manufacturing this is where I was led to. I started out as a food bar in 2006 and I launched my first  Righteously Raw Bar at EXPO West in March 2007. Being a raw bar it had a short shelf life and so I went back to the drawing board and the following year. Righteously Raw Chocolate was the premier new raw chocolate at Expo West (the stock market had just crashed in March). I showed up with three of my first bars, Maca, Goji and Caramel at $5.99 each. My only competition was selling at $14.00 a bar and we kicked ass that year and for many years after! We were the first to come out with a superfood chocolate bar that was more affordable than anything in the marketplace. We wanted to sell it even less expensive however the cost for all the certifications and high employee costs in California prohibited this right out of the gate!

Within two years we launched The Acai Bar and then in 2011 we launched The Rose Bar. My daughter has passed suddenly from a drowning accident right after I launched in 2008 and this company and my customers saved my life. I created The Rose Bar in Jaymie’s name to inspire others to get up and live your life after tragedy. Our loved ones want this for us and are with us every day cheering us on. There is a beautiful inscription and a silhouette of my ANGEL inside every bar.

I am so blessed, and I look forward to many more years of my company growing and continuing to deliver great products to my wonderful, amazing customers around the globe. You are what makes me smile every day and what gets me up every morning even when I just want to lay in bed and be sad. Your loyalty is what gets me pumped every day and I will never forget it. This holiday season I am praying for all of you that you have the most beautiful and loving holiday season and that you can feel my LOVE for you today. I am sending HUGS and LOVE to all of you and I hope you too will feel the blessings that surround us every day.

Sincerely, Audrey