Meet Athena Riley

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Athena Riley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Athena below.

Athena, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I draw my resilience from my parents, especially my mother. They are first generation immigrants in the United States and I watched them overcome challenges of a new country with limited English. While my dad worked and my mother was stay-at-home, they taught me hard work, overcoming challenges and change, and prioritizing my needs from my wants. The most transformative years were watching them bounce back from the recession after losing nearly their entire savings and my dad’s job. It really tested our family to have to work together to pay for our basic needs. To this day, people say I have an A-type personality and I agree. I get it from my resilient parents who have taught me to always plan for rainy days.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Although I’m the Founder and Owner of Joyce Restaurant, my time spent there is more limited now as I continue to focus on my full-time career and being a mother. My husband is the brains and heart of the restaurant, focused on running the operations. If you dine there, you’ll most likely see him. My role today is handling the “behind the scenes” work, which is mainly finance and marketing.

When we were setting up Joyce, I played a much more significant role in managing the project and designing the restaurant. I’m very attuned to the energy and flow of a space. It’s why I love dining at other restaurants and exploring homes. I’m embarrassed to admit but attending open houses has become a weekend hobby of mine. It’s always interesting to see what you can do with a space. While I’m not naturally creative, I do have a keen editorial eye. I worked closely with our interior designer, Lauren Waters who was instrumental in bringing my vision to life. She was able to assemble the initial concept while I was deeply involved in making decisions on the details.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

“Working hard isn’t always enough.” I learned early in my career that it’s important to build relationships and network. Your hard work only gets you so far but at the end of the day, it’s people who will lift you up so you need to make sure you are nurturing those relationships and cultivating new ones.

“Celebrating someone’s success, does not take away from your own success.” I grew up being very competitive and at times was taught to make others look small so I could look big. Under the right mentor, I learned that it feels better to project positivity. If you can be happy for others, that energy will come back around.

“Never lie.” My best friend always jokes that I often sit under the truth moon. I never want to get comfortable with lying. Taking accountability for mistakes takes more courage and it’s much more admirable.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

Currently, my guiding stars are are my husband and my pastor. In many ways, my husband and I are opposite. Having an A-type personality can be a gift and curse. I often get lost in the future and am not as good as being present. He’s really good at helping me manage my stress by reminding me to focus on the things I can control. My pastor has been key to my spiritual wellness. Being an entrepreneur, there are a lot of unexpected challenges and you can feel the weight of every decision. One wrong step is costly, but racking up learning debt is part of the journey to become successful. In his messages, he reminds us that there’s always a plan and I’m grateful for that message. I can’t hear it enough these days!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Joycela.com
• Instagram: Joyce_dtla

Image Credits

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