The Van Leeuwen ice cream empire brings in $300,000 a day

Plus, phrases emotionally resilient people use

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE Friday, August 18, 2023 CNBC Make It Life helps you lead a healthier, richer and more fulfilling lifestyle. By Aditi Shrikant Ben Van Leeuwen went from 1 ice cream truck to a multimillion-dollar brand  Since starting out with his partners in 2008, Ben Van Leeuwen has watched his company grow from a single ice cream truck into a multimillion-dollar business capable of bringing in upward of $300,000 a day from its scoop shops alone.    The idea to make and sell his own ice cream came to him after seeing a Mister Softee ice cream truck. "That's when subconsciously and consciously everything clicked," he says. "I was like 'Huh, I'm really into good food, but I want that food to be normal and accessible.'"   "New York City was a city then and remains a city now where people respond to and are excited by people who try to do things in the best way possible," Ben continues. "So I said, 'Let's reinvent the ice cream truck.'"   The truck was a hit on day one. Customers immediately started lining up and Ben was approached by a local Whole Foods representative who asked if he and his partners did wholesale.    By the end of that first summer, Van Leeuwen had three trucks operating in New York City. The same year, Van Leeuwen opened its first brick-and-mortar outpost in Brooklyn.    That decision changed the trajectory of the business. "Literally within three hours of opening that shop, we said, 'We are never building another ice cream truck,'" Ben says.    Now a household name, Van Leeuwen has nearly 50 scoop shops in seven states, and its pints are sold at nearly 10,000 grocery stores, including Walmart and Whole Foods. Read More Watch: How I built a $300,000-a-day ice cream empire called Van Leeuwen See how Ben Van Leeuwen transformed his vision of a gourmet ice cream truck into a nationwide chain of scoop shops. See More How to Talk to People: 3 phrases that show you're emotionally resilient If you're an emotionally resilient person, you're probably very deliberate in your response to painful experiences, Cortney Warren, a Harvard-trained psychologist wrote for CNBC Make It. You might allow yourself to grieve for what you've lost, remember what you are grateful for and focus on what you can control in the moment.   If you use any of these phrases every day, you are probably more emotionally resilient than most:   1. "I can get through this." Emotional resilience is associated with grit, mental toughness and an understanding that you can face adversity without letting it break you.   2. "Life is hard."  It helps to have a basic understanding that life isn't always fair, and that everyone experiences emotional hardships. Accepting this truth helps you not to take it personally when you encounter bad luck.   3. "This, too, shall pass." Resilient people believe that setbacks and challenges can feel horrible in the moment, but that nothing in life is permanent. The pain may not go away entirely, but you can work to make it feel less damaging over time. Read More Speed Read: "The Body Keeps the Score" When Bessel van der Kolk released his book "The Body Keeps the Score" in 2014, he didn't think it would be such a mainstream success.    It has remained on The New York Times bestsellers list for more than 245 weeks, and for at least 27 of those weeks, it was No. 1.    Van der Kolk is a psychiatrist and researcher who has worked with trauma survivors for more than 30 years.   His book seeks to educate readers on how trauma shapes the body and brain, and possible effective treatments, like neurofeedback therapy and yoga. It is scientific, specific, and discusses some of his clients' more horrendous experiences.    One of the biggest challenges trauma survivors face, he says, is people denying their experiences.    "What traumatized people suffer from is that people don't believe them or people minimize it or say, 'it didn't really happen,'" van der Kolk says. "People go through terrible things and the world around them says, 'just get over it, keep moving, it doesn't matter.'"    While he feels most readers use his research appropriately, van der Kolk is wary of people using their own pasts to dodge accountability.   Someone could, for example, think that "'because I'm a victim I don't need to follow the rules,'" he says. "To use your terrible childhood as an excuse for your bad behaviors is somewhat troublesome."     In other words, someone who is a victim can also be a perpetrator. That is an uncomfortable truth, van der Kolk acknowledges. "A lot of people who have been victimized behave quite badly themselves," he says. "This is not a saint versus sinner situation." Read More Upside Stephanie Harrison of The New Happy for CNBC Make It Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend  and subscribe. Unsubscribe Digital Products Manage Newsletters Feedback Terms of Service Privacy Policy Join the CNBC Panel © 2023 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal.   900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632   Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis.   Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS