We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Donovan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

Never gave up on me. Growing up in a single parent household in one of the most crime infested and poorest neighborhoods in NYC my mother instilled in me to chase my dreams and to take things as a lesson learned vs. a failure if something didn’t go my way. She didn’t give up on me when I dropped out of High School in the 10th grade, didn’t give up on me when I was hanging with the wrong crowd and doing things that I should not have been doing which led to me being stabbed and left for dead. Though it all, she believed in me so much that she did everything in her power to ensure that I didn’t waste the potential I had that only she saw and today has come into fruition. The impact that this has had in life and career has been helped build up a sense of fearlessness to achieve anything I set my mind too.

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?

was born and raised in an impoverished community in the South Bronx part of New York City where we had limited resources and so the benefit of the foods that we consumed was not something that crossed our minds but when nit did it most definitely changed my life.

I was raised in a single-parent home where my mother did everything she could to food on the table and that’s where I learned the power of entrepreneurship yet another valuable lesson learned.

My favorite artist Jay-Z has a line in one of his songs… “I lived a life you can write a book on” well that’s me. I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and after a few years of doing things that in hindsight were bad decisions went to a para-military school for bad youth and I got my GED in the hopes that I can possibly get into a community college.

At the age of 19 I was brutally stabbed and left for dead but as I always say was one of the best things that happened to me. That was my wake-up call to get out of the Bronx and that started the trajectory of where I am today.

I joined the Air Force and while being embedded in the military life and the physical demand that is required I got into health and that’s where I learned the power of food and the impact it had on labeling your body to perform at an optimal level.

Furthermore, I discovered juicing which was the fastest way to get nutrients into your body, and my love for that world grew! After my time in the military, I was a government contractor and spent most of the time plotting a plan to create a juice business.

First, it started off by making juices for friends/families to having a vision of opening a brick and mortar store and that was the onset of who we are today Nips Juice House.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Adapt and pivot! I recall in my time in the Air Force when I arrived to my new duty station and upon arriving I was introduced to about 8 young Airmen and was told you are their supervisor! I was 22 at the time and their age ranged from 17-21 so I was essentially a kid supervising kids lol My first thought was..ok this is the military I’ll just rule with an iron fist..that didn’t work. What I found what worked was that if I adapt to each individual and pivot my leadership style to each person that I would get a positive response. I have carried that same style into business where most of my employess fall around the same age group and this ensures that there is comfortability and trust which in turns allows us to maintain a high morale. Sprinkle that with a bit of genuine positive energy and treat them with respect will ensure that they’ll have your back.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

The E-myth revisited by Michael Gerber is a book that has giving me the most insight on how to properly set your business up for success. It speaks to working on your business vs. in it and introduces the concept of creating systems and processes to scale your business while speaking about entrepreneur misconceptions .      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nipsjuicehouse.com
• Instagram: nipsjuicehosue
• Facebook: nips juice house