We were lucky to catch up with Asif Chowdhury recently and have shared our conversation below.

Asif, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

It all started when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and I wanted to help her get better. During this journey health became my passion and I left my corporate job as an insurance adjuster to open my own juice bar business. A year later my nephew, Lulu, died from brain cancer and that passion became an obsession. I wanted to help as many people as I could to take control of their lives rather than waiting for the last minute where it is much harder to turn back from. Here at Lulu’s we provide high quality, freshly made products and exceptional customer service.  We empower our customers to make lifestyle changes through a holistic approach for a long-term change on their health and well-being.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I came into the health food industry all by chance as I noted before. Initially it was only to help my mother who had cancer and then my nephew who also passed away from cancer. Prior to starting this business, I was in the insurance industry working as an adjuster. It came to a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore because I felt like I was in a dead-end career that was not fulfilling to me. So, I resigned and wanted to pursue having my own business. I started researching about health and educating myself on all the products we use and their harmful effects. I realized no one in my immediate circle cared about it as much as I did, so I wanted to have a store where people who are interested can go to for delicious smoothies and knowledge to empower themselves in their health journey. Health is the utmost importance for us and all ingredients we use contributes to healing of your body. All of our produce is organic, freshly made to order and are mostly made in house. What I am proud of the community that I’ve built around this store. I have an incredible staff and my customers wants us to do well just as much as us. Beyond the quality foods, here at Lulu’s, we provide a human experience. We created a community where we all care about each other even beyond food. When you come in to our store you will feel like you are home and we will treat you like family.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I was first trying to open this business, I had no clue about anything. I had zero experience with opening a business and I had no mentor to help or guide me in the right direction. I had to figure out everything on my own. There were multiple challenges that I had to face when I was opening the store from the town giving me a lot of issues to landlord not cooperating with me. The biggest challenges that I had to face was that I had no money and no bank was willing to take me as risk to borrow money either. I had to borrow whatever I could from my family and I worked at a towing company 14 hours a day to get as much money as I could to get everything done. There were multiple times I had the feeling that it was never going to happen and I just had to give up on my dream. Something inside me told me to keep pushing and so I did and here I am 8 years later.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had so much fear of failing when I first started this business that its very difficult for me to let go of control. I tend to put my 2 cents into everything even though now I have managers in place to do the work. I had to unlearn all the fears that I held onto from the initial experience that I have to let go to continue growing this business. I realized I can’t get to the next level with the mindset I had to get myself where I am at right now. Since I have trusted my staff, things have been improving drastically. Although we have much more improvements to work on, we are still headed to the right direction.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lulusjuicebarli.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulusjuicebarli
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lulusjuicebarli/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lulus-organic-juice-bar-lindenhurst-2