As a small business owner who manages a writing career as a book author in progress with Socci Books Publishing and connecting local people and businesses from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with DMV Shorts Magazine, I nourish my entrepreneurial ambitions and keep my dreams alive a little bit each day.
To pay the bills, I do a bunch of interesting things including being a brand ambassador and promotional model for national brands. Over the weekend, I went to Total Wine in McLean, Virginia to do my regularly scheduled brand ambassador work and a very young woman happened to come see me at my demo station. She surprised me when she said she wanted to taste a sample. Honestly, I was getting ready to card her. I needed to find her mother…
This young woman laughed and called over the manager to vouch for her. They both laughed and the young woman proceeded to tell me she owns a business and was doing her own demo in the front of the store. A bit skeptical of someone her age owning a spirits business, I smiled politely and allowed her to tell me more. She walked me over to a nearby endcap when, to my amazement, the entire thing was floor to ceiling covered with her products – YANA Wellness spirits. My jaw dropped to the floor.
I briefly considered dropping to my knees a la Wayne’s World style and declare I wasn’t worthy, but that would have been too theatrical. After all, I had literally just met this young woman not two minutes before. I decided to keep my silly Wayne’s World moment to myself and instead, asked if I could do a selfie with her as I went over to peruse the names of some of her drinks.
Of course, when I saw the word “Margarita” on her drink, my heart melted. That’s my daughter’s name. This woman definitely had me at Margarita.
We spoke for a few minutes, but I had to return to my station because I needed to get back to work. And throughout the evening, I couldn’t stop wondering more about this young woman. Really, she looks like she’s about ten years old with her pure, fresh face and cheery personality, but looks can be deceiving and I knew there had to be more to her than the initial impression I gained from a two-minute interaction.
After she graciously allowed me to do a selfie with her, I asked if I could tag her on Instagram. Only then did I learn she owns multiple businesses, including the Yana Wellness and Creative Studio in Washington, D.C.
She is also a proud second-generation Asian American. I did more research on Ariana Fleishman and learned a host of incredible things. This diminutive powerhouse is far more important, big, and newsworthy than she would ever admit.
If you spend just five minutes talking with her as I did, you’ll see she has a charming, chirpy, cheerful, upbeat, pleasant personality. She’ll be the last person to tell you the importance of all she has already built, gained, and amassed in her incredibly short professional and entrepreneurial career so far. Most people I speak with are so full of themselves—with braggadocio as their middle name. Most people will throw in your face that they are award-winning, blah blah. Not Ariana Fleishman.
Ariana Fleishman, known on social media as Ari Tokes, has already been featured in Cannabis Magazine. In a story published on their website on December 15, 2025, Ariana is touted as a small business owner and entrepreneur who has broken the boundaries by being the first all-woman owned and operated small business with spirits that contain THC, the main component of the cannabis plant.
All of this only begins to scratch the surface of all Ariana has done.
Even before I had a chance to do this research on her and her business as I was busy working my own demo, I knew there was something unique about Ariana. The fact that I just so happened to meet someone so young who owns a spirits business was an incredible coincidence.
I suggested to her that she should host an event. She told me she already sponsors a lot of events each month. I told her it would be a great idea for the community to meet her personally and talk to her, the same way I was able to do at Total Wine. She playfully called me silly, but it’s not every day you get to meet CEOs. Most CEOs are unapproachable, stuffy individuals who literally talk down at people. Ariana is astonishing because she’s the opposite of anything typical you might ever see as a CEO. Ariana is definitely one to watch.
I hope to talk to her more in 2026 and get more details.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.