Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / Episode 20: Hayden Slater, Founder Pressed Juicery

Transcript

Episode 20: Hayden Slater, Founder Pressed Juicery · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:02
Speaker 1: What Shag and Hurdler's Emily a body here, welcome back?
0:05
Speaker 2: Is it just me?
0:07
Speaker 1: Or September absolutely insane and flying by so fast and
0:10
Speaker 1: it's only just begun. Fall is my absolute favorite time
0:15
Speaker 1: of year. I am so ready for this humidity, just
0:18
Speaker 1: to be out scars, to be in football, to be
0:21
Speaker 1: on and most importantly, not to sweat within four.
0:25
Speaker 2: Minutes of leaving the apartment all the things.
0:27
Speaker 1: Also to wear sweatshirts and leggings in all the coziest
0:30
Speaker 1: cozy active wear that's been tucked away for the past
0:33
Speaker 1: few months, which brings me to this quick shout out
0:36
Speaker 1: to the sponsor of today's episode, Good American, co founded
0:40
Speaker 1: by Chloe Kardashian and Emma Gred in twenty sixteen. The
0:43
Speaker 1: brand recently released an activewear line that comes in sizes
0:47
Speaker 1: extra small to four X. Head on over to Good
0:50
Speaker 1: American dot com slash Emily use the code Emily GA again,
0:54
Speaker 1: that's Emily GA for twenty percent off plus free shipping
0:59
Speaker 1: over one hundred through October thirty first of this year. Today,
1:03
Speaker 1: I sit down with Hayden Slater, the co founder of
1:06
Speaker 1: Pressed Juicery. You'll hear us talk about this in the episode.
1:09
Speaker 1: But Slater and I met late last year recording an
1:11
Speaker 1: episode of ABC's Motivated podcast, which was before Hurdle was
1:16
Speaker 1: even a thing, and upon sitting down with him and
1:18
Speaker 1: hearing his story, I knew, eventually we definitely make some
1:21
Speaker 1: magic of our own.
1:22
Speaker 2: So here's Hayden's stick.
1:24
Speaker 1: He went to college at New York University and then
1:26
Speaker 1: moved to LA to work in TV production. All the while,
1:29
Speaker 1: he told me that he was living off of a
1:31
Speaker 1: diet of fast food and was in a constant fog
1:34
Speaker 1: of sorts and just kind of had a low point.
1:37
Speaker 1: He knew he needed to make a change, and so he,
1:39
Speaker 1: on a whim, inspired by his college yoga teacher, Chris Carr,
1:43
Speaker 1: decided to take some time off and travel to Southeast Asia.
1:47
Speaker 1: It was there that he did his first juice cleanse,
1:49
Speaker 1: which was meant to be five days and ended up
1:52
Speaker 1: lasting for thirty. Personally, I cannot imagine not eating for
1:56
Speaker 1: thirty days, but hey, to each their own.
1:59
Speaker 2: During his trip, later.
2:00
Speaker 1: Lost sixty pounds and when you return to the States,
2:03
Speaker 1: he not only wanted to keep up this healthy lifestyle,
2:06
Speaker 1: but he also wanted to share this amazing feeling with
2:09
Speaker 1: so many other people and met my friends.
2:12
Speaker 2: Was the beginning of.
2:13
Speaker 1: What would become Pressed Juicery. I love Hayden's story. Press
2:18
Speaker 1: Juicery has more than seventy locations around the country, and
2:22
Speaker 1: a large part of that, I would argue, is because
2:24
Speaker 1: he is so so passionate about wellness and bringing great
2:28
Speaker 1: quality products to his consumer. The guy is so into
2:32
Speaker 1: all of the things, like all the trends. He told
2:35
Speaker 1: me he tried leech therapy, charcoal everything. We talk about
2:39
Speaker 1: all of that in today's episode, and also what it
2:42
Speaker 1: was like investing every last penny of his savings to
2:45
Speaker 1: start the company in a twenty two square foot broom
2:48
Speaker 1: closet of sorts in West Los Angeles. There's a lot
2:51
Speaker 1: of good stuff to go through, so I won't keep
2:53
Speaker 1: you here any longer with this intro. As always, connect
2:55
Speaker 1: with the podcast on social at Hurdle Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
3:00
Speaker 1: Do me a huge favor. Also, I loved how much
3:02
Speaker 1: this was happening last week. Take a screen grab of
3:04
Speaker 1: the podcast when you're listening, post that with some of
3:07
Speaker 1: the things you've learned on your Instagram story. Tag me
3:10
Speaker 1: tag the pod. I'll repost it from the Hurdle account.
3:13
Speaker 1: Also sign up for the newsletter at hurdle dot us
3:16
Speaker 1: and shoot me an email if you want to say hi,
3:18
Speaker 1: share a hurdle moment, you know the drill Emily at
3:21
Speaker 1: hurdle dot us. And that's it. Let's get to hurdling.
3:38
Speaker 1: I'm sitting down today with Hayden Slater. He's the founder
3:42
Speaker 1: and CEO of Pressed Juicery. We're here in Los Angeles
3:46
Speaker 1: and Santa Monica. I couldn't be happier, awesome.
3:48
Speaker 3: I'm super super stoked here here when there's probably a
3:52
Speaker 3: little bit better than New York.
3:53
Speaker 1: I will say, in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, I think
3:56
Speaker 1: the real feel was like one hundred and fifteen right.
4:00
Speaker 1: It's much nicer here. And I'm also learning on this
4:03
Speaker 1: trip that everyone calls this the west Side. I'm like
4:08
Speaker 1: really digging the west Side now, I know west Side.
4:11
Speaker 2: West Side, west Side.
4:12
Speaker 1: He did and I actually met, I mean maybe he
4:16
Speaker 1: was eight months ago, feels like forever. We sat down
4:19
Speaker 1: on a podcast at ABC called Motivated and it was
4:23
Speaker 1: fun and we connected there and through our time there
4:26
Speaker 1: and hearing a little bit about his backstory and how
4:28
Speaker 1: Pressed Juicory came to be.
4:30
Speaker 2: When I was concepting hurdle.
4:31
Speaker 1: It was kind of a no brainer that at some
4:33
Speaker 1: point or another we would sit down and do this ourselves.
4:36
Speaker 3: We'd reconnect and chat.
4:38
Speaker 2: So we're reconnecting and chatting today.
4:39
Speaker 1: What I would love to start out with I feel like,
4:42
Speaker 1: you know, you hear about juicing and you think of
4:46
Speaker 1: like maybe this certain kind of person who like loves
4:49
Speaker 1: to drink a juice.
4:50
Speaker 3: There's this kind of mindset around juice that you're either
4:53
Speaker 3: super granola and you're making funky, green looking juices that
4:57
Speaker 3: just taste like salads in a bottle, or there's the
5:00
Speaker 3: alternative of which it's kind of like a jamba, which
5:03
Speaker 3: is like lots of color and lots of fancy names,
5:05
Speaker 3: but they really kind of masked what the ingredients are.
5:08
Speaker 3: And when we started Pressed, it was kind of we're
5:10
Speaker 3: all born and raised in la which is kind of
5:13
Speaker 3: the at the center of health and wellness, and what
5:15
Speaker 3: we wanted to create was this kind of kid in
5:18
Speaker 3: a candy shop where there's something in a bottle for
5:20
Speaker 3: everyone wherever you are on your journey, whether it's an
5:23
Speaker 3: almond milk that's day free, whether you know it's green
5:27
Speaker 3: juices and you know large selection, whether it's even just
5:30
Speaker 3: like fun fruity combinations that anyone could kind of walk
5:34
Speaker 3: in and find something that they like and speak to them.
5:37
Speaker 3: And it's kind of that there's there's no rules to
5:40
Speaker 3: drink a juice a day, a juice a week, a
5:42
Speaker 3: juice a month, whatever it is that works for you,
5:44
Speaker 3: just incorporate it. And that's kind of been our whole
5:47
Speaker 3: kind of belief from the beginning.
5:49
Speaker 1: And so Press Juicery now has and please correct me
5:53
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, sixty five locations nationwide.
5:55
Speaker 3: So we're almost at seventy one now, Oh yeah, update
5:59
Speaker 3: from the lot time I checked away Press story locations.
6:02
Speaker 2: That's exciting. And what cities are you in?
6:04
Speaker 3: So we are pan California into Vegas, Seattle, Hawaii, and
6:10
Speaker 3: then on the East Coast we are most of New York, Brooklyn,
6:14
Speaker 3: and Boston.
6:16
Speaker 1: I get excited every time that I'm like looking to
6:18
Speaker 1: see where the newest Press Juicery is, and I feel
6:21
Speaker 1: like there's like one I didn't know about.
6:22
Speaker 3: Right, I feel like there's ones I don't know about it,
6:25
Speaker 3: but we do ship nationwide. Go to awesome that you know,
6:28
Speaker 3: wherever you are, if there's not a store close by,
6:30
Speaker 3: you can kind of still access products.
6:32
Speaker 1: How does one get into this idea like I'm going
6:36
Speaker 1: to start a juice company. I want to hear a
6:38
Speaker 1: little bit about your backstory, where you come from, give
6:42
Speaker 1: me the lowdown.
6:42
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, So, as I mentioned, I'm born and raised
6:46
Speaker 3: in LA and you kind of think anyone who's from
6:48
Speaker 3: LA it's just like this health break. And that absolutely
6:52
Speaker 3: was not the case for me. I was kind of
6:56
Speaker 3: the opposite. I was almost like this fast food junkie
6:59
Speaker 3: for most of my life and really just accepted that,
7:02
Speaker 3: you know, having no energy, it was normal, and that
7:05
Speaker 3: not really connecting that what you eat affects so much
7:09
Speaker 3: of kind of how you feel and what you do,
7:11
Speaker 3: and you know, all that good stuff. So I went
7:14
Speaker 3: to college in New York. I was a film and
7:17
Speaker 3: theater major at NYU, I lived, I was in a
7:22
Speaker 3: dorm for about six months and then realized dorm life
7:25
Speaker 3: wasn't for me and kind of really kind of stayed
7:28
Speaker 3: around campus, so mostly around Union Square and soho. But
7:32
Speaker 3: when I started I had a required yoga class, and
7:35
Speaker 3: no college kid wants an eight am yoga class. But
7:39
Speaker 3: in walks this beautiful blonde with just energy that you
7:42
Speaker 3: could like feel and you know, she kind of opened
7:45
Speaker 3: my eyes to yoga, but she also opened my eyes
7:48
Speaker 3: to all these words that I had always heard but
7:50
Speaker 3: didn't know much about, macrobiotic food, yoga, chanting, you know,
7:54
Speaker 3: long story short, She went to Nyu, who fortunately was
7:57
Speaker 3: diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and kind of
8:00
Speaker 3: had this epiphany of if I can't control what's happening
8:03
Speaker 3: in my body, I'll take control of what I can.
8:05
Speaker 3: And that's kind of what started her journey with juicing
8:08
Speaker 3: and food and as a performer. She would, you know,
8:11
Speaker 3: put a song on and dance every day. And it
8:14
Speaker 3: is her name's Chris Carr. She kind of documented the
8:17
Speaker 3: whole thing. It's called crazy Sexy cancer, and she really
8:20
Speaker 3: was for me, not only the definition of survivor, but
8:24
Speaker 3: studying under her a couple days a week and just
8:27
Speaker 3: seeing her always carry a bottle of juice, that green
8:31
Speaker 3: juice like really just had an effect on me. And
8:34
Speaker 3: it was kind of around that time I started, you know,
8:36
Speaker 3: incorporating juice, primarily green juice, into my routine. I don't
8:41
Speaker 3: want to say it changed everything, but I often say,
8:44
Speaker 3: you know, it was the first step. You know, It's
8:46
Speaker 3: like you drink that green juice in the morning, and
8:48
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I wanted to work out, I
8:50
Speaker 3: wanted to eat clean. It was the beginning of kind
8:53
Speaker 3: of this you know, you make better decisions, and this
8:57
Speaker 3: realization of just how much it aft your everything in
9:02
Speaker 3: such a positive way.
9:03
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a barrier to entry in green juicing,
9:07
Speaker 1: but totally like for me. I was standing in a
9:11
Speaker 1: juice shop the other day and the way that they
9:13
Speaker 1: were on the shelf, they said, so, on the right
9:17
Speaker 1: are the juices that people that quote don't like green
9:21
Speaker 1: juices will like. And to the left are the green
9:24
Speaker 1: juices for the people that really like green juices.
9:28
Speaker 2: Right, I'm like, still skewing towards the right.
9:31
Speaker 3: I get it.
9:32
Speaker 2: I look for the sweeter green juice.
9:34
Speaker 3: But you know what, that's good because it's that's totally
9:36
Speaker 3: fine because you're still getting all your leafy greens with it.
9:38
Speaker 3: And it's kind of again like to each their own.
9:40
Speaker 3: You know, wherever you are, you incorporate something that works.
9:43
Speaker 3: One of my favorite things at Press is watching people
9:46
Speaker 3: kind of come into stores. I don't like green juice.
9:49
Speaker 3: I don't like the way it looks it. I don't
9:50
Speaker 3: like it, and it's kind of kind of understanding why well,
9:53
Speaker 3: you know, most of them haven't ever tried it. It's
9:55
Speaker 3: just the idea of greens in a bottle is doesn't
9:58
Speaker 3: sound exciting, right, but it's always awesome to kind of
10:02
Speaker 3: watch them take that first sip and be blown away
10:04
Speaker 3: that you actually can make a green juice taste really good.
10:07
Speaker 2: I love it. Okay, So you were drinking green juice
10:11
Speaker 2: getting onto this healthier train after this eight am yoga class. Yep,
10:17
Speaker 2: And then what comes next?
10:18
Speaker 3: I finished NYU, I moved back to La I was
10:21
Speaker 3: working at HBO and being in production. It was mind
10:25
Speaker 3: blowing how quickly everything I had learned in the positive
10:28
Speaker 3: had had vanished. You know, you're working long hours, your stress,
10:31
Speaker 3: and I quickly fell back into kind of those old habits.
10:34
Speaker 3: I never went abroad in college, which was a huge regret.
10:38
Speaker 3: And when one of the shows I was working on wrapped,
10:40
Speaker 3: I essentially bought a one way ticket and spent about
10:43
Speaker 3: seven months in Southeast Asia. It was kind of like
10:46
Speaker 3: my E pray love moment. Yeah moment. It was my
10:49
Speaker 3: hurdle moment for sure. And you know, when I landed,
10:52
Speaker 3: Thailand was one of the first places I went to
10:55
Speaker 3: and I attempted a five day juice cleant, kind of
10:58
Speaker 3: inspired by Chris and what she had kind of introduced
11:01
Speaker 3: me to, and I was so, you know, blown away
11:04
Speaker 3: by how good I felt. After five days, I kind
11:07
Speaker 3: of decided to keep going, and I ended up making
11:09
Speaker 3: it to thirty days, which of just juice, just juice.
11:13
Speaker 3: There was actually a veggie broth we got at in
11:15
Speaker 3: the evening sometimes, but it was not as good as
11:18
Speaker 3: it was pretty use a lot.
11:20
Speaker 2: Of weight I did.
11:21
Speaker 1: I think that's probably the first question that I mean,
11:23
Speaker 1: you must get that.
11:24
Speaker 3: All the time I lose, I lose, I lost a
11:27
Speaker 3: grip away. But more than that, it was the first
11:30
Speaker 3: time in my life I had that I had ever
11:32
Speaker 3: felt so good, like my energy, my clarity. Like I
11:35
Speaker 3: remember one point looking in the mirror and like my
11:38
Speaker 3: eyes were like breaking me out, like they were just
11:40
Speaker 3: so white. And it was kind of like that aha
11:43
Speaker 3: moment of like, oh, this is actually what you're supposed
11:46
Speaker 3: to feel, Like.
11:47
Speaker 1: I'm immediately thinking about like how many juices I can
11:50
Speaker 1: grab from the fridge downstairs and see like the whites
11:53
Speaker 1: in my eyes just change it.
11:54
Speaker 3: In the next twenty four us go you got you know,
11:57
Speaker 3: you get there.
11:58
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're in Thailand and you're choosing for thirty days,
12:01
Speaker 1: which is an impress It was.
12:03
Speaker 3: It was pretty incredible, But that experience kind of inspired
12:07
Speaker 3: the rest of my travels. I went and did a
12:09
Speaker 3: silent restreat for three weeks after that and lived in
12:12
Speaker 3: an austrom and you know, I kind of just learned
12:17
Speaker 3: so much over these past over those months, and you know,
12:20
Speaker 3: when I came back to the state, I really wanted
12:23
Speaker 3: to kind of take all this newfound knowledge and pursue
12:26
Speaker 3: it professionally. You know, how do I kind of take
12:29
Speaker 3: this feeling that I'm feeling and share it with others.
12:31
Speaker 1: I find it really interesting because when we started this story,
12:34
Speaker 1: it was like I loved fast food. You're probably I mean,
12:38
Speaker 1: even in college in New York at different times, there's
12:41
Speaker 1: all that temptation there. And then you come back to
12:44
Speaker 1: the West Coast, you're at HBO, and it's like, I
12:47
Speaker 1: feel like this type of trip is like a really
12:50
Speaker 1: big step.
12:51
Speaker 3: Oh it was life changing, and I really I know
12:54
Speaker 3: it sounds dramatic, but I came back a different person. Yeah,
12:57
Speaker 3: Like everything about me was my interest at change, Like
13:00
Speaker 3: what excited me was different, and you know, it was
13:03
Speaker 3: just kind of like there were so many aha moments,
13:06
Speaker 3: especially even being by yourself, you learned so much about
13:09
Speaker 3: kind of who you are and what's important to you.
13:11
Speaker 3: But it came back and it really kind of inspired
13:14
Speaker 3: me to kind of pursue something that excited me more
13:18
Speaker 3: than what I was currently doing at the time. And
13:20
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of partnered with two of my
13:23
Speaker 3: childhood friends who, you know, we all had the same
13:26
Speaker 3: passion for the product, but kind of different reasons for
13:29
Speaker 3: why we wanted to pursue it, and we kind of
13:32
Speaker 3: held hands and just, you know, clueless to what we
13:36
Speaker 3: were doing, launched press Fuse.
13:38
Speaker 1: Sorry, so when you came back, were you still technically
13:41
Speaker 1: employed by HBO?
13:43
Speaker 3: I left right before I left HBO, prior to leaving
13:47
Speaker 3: on my trip, my intent was to come back to HBO,
13:51
Speaker 3: which I never did.
13:52
Speaker 1: Okay, And so how does one just begin a company?
13:58
Speaker 1: I feel like, and I honestly think think so many
14:00
Speaker 1: people have ideas and things they're passionate about. I mean,
14:05
Speaker 1: I know that I jumped a hell of a lot
14:07
Speaker 1: of hurdles just to start this podcast, but I think
14:09
Speaker 1: that so many people have these ideas for what maybe
14:12
Speaker 1: would be their version of the Next Press Juicery, and
14:15
Speaker 1: I don't know the first place to start, So.
14:17
Speaker 2: How did you know where to start?
14:18
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I'll answer that, but real quick I
14:21
Speaker 3: want to say to that because it's something I'll often
14:24
Speaker 3: think about. I think the biggest hurdle is getting out
14:27
Speaker 3: of our own head. You know, we always think that
14:29
Speaker 3: we need to have all the answers, and it almost
14:31
Speaker 3: keeps us or prevents us from taking the first step
14:34
Speaker 3: into starting something. And this idea with Prest was we
14:38
Speaker 3: all had this passion to get the product out there.
14:40
Speaker 3: We were clueless to what we were doing. None of
14:43
Speaker 3: us had prior business experience, but we didn't let that
14:46
Speaker 3: intimidate us, right. We kind of we approached this as
14:50
Speaker 3: let's use this kind of naivete in our advantage, Like
14:53
Speaker 3: what do we as consumers of juice? What doesn't exist?
14:58
Speaker 3: And how do we create that?
14:59
Speaker 2: So how do you make the first juice?
15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah? It was tough. We literally each put thirty thousand
15:05
Speaker 3: dollars of our own money, so we had a pool
15:07
Speaker 3: of ninety thousand dollars and with that we got some
15:10
Speaker 3: web designers to kind of start helping us build the
15:13
Speaker 3: back end. We bought our very own our first juice bread,
15:18
Speaker 3: and we got a cupcake shop in La Here to
15:22
Speaker 3: give us their kitchen at night. It really was just
15:25
Speaker 3: trial and error.
15:26
Speaker 2: Whose idea was that to get the kitchen the cupcakes.
15:29
Speaker 3: We just needed to get a place to produce it.
15:31
Speaker 3: And we didn't realize at the time that finding kitchen
15:33
Speaker 3: space is impossible. Yeah, we were introduced to these guys
15:37
Speaker 3: and we just said, hey, can we use it at night?
15:39
Speaker 3: And they agreed. It took a long time before we
15:43
Speaker 3: could get juice to taste good. It was a lot.
15:46
Speaker 3: You know, you think it's such an easy form you
15:48
Speaker 3: just throw produce in a machine and it comes out delicious.
15:51
Speaker 3: Now there's like a real science to it, right that
15:54
Speaker 3: we learned over time.
15:55
Speaker 2: And did any of you have any besides all loving
15:59
Speaker 2: juice in any and have any sort of culinary background?
16:02
Speaker 3: Zero? None of us at all. You know. I kind
16:05
Speaker 3: of came from pressed with this mentality of like my
16:07
Speaker 3: own journey and figuring that there were a lot of
16:09
Speaker 3: people who had their own struggles and how do we
16:11
Speaker 3: kind of get product like this to them. Carly, my partner,
16:15
Speaker 3: had unfortunately just lost her mom to cancer, and by
16:19
Speaker 3: no means that she thinks she was going to cure
16:21
Speaker 3: a remedy the world of disease. But this idea that
16:24
Speaker 3: four or five pounds of produce is not doing anything
16:26
Speaker 3: bad for you. And Hetty had a four year old
16:29
Speaker 3: son at the time, and this idea of kind of
16:32
Speaker 3: masking you know, nutrients with what she called like a
16:35
Speaker 3: cool looking apple juice was really exciting to her. So
16:38
Speaker 3: it was kind of like, you know, it was we
16:40
Speaker 3: didn't realize even at the time that as the three
16:44
Speaker 3: of us represented such a large audience. You know, if
16:47
Speaker 3: you look at kind of preventive medicine and children and
16:50
Speaker 3: then you know individual journeys, like there's a lot of
16:53
Speaker 3: people that can kind of relate to that.
16:56
Speaker 1: So you are making juice in the back of this
17:00
Speaker 1: upcake shop and people are to make a website. I mean,
17:05
Speaker 1: I think I think the craziest part also about like
17:07
Speaker 1: this already, this idea that people are helping you make
17:10
Speaker 1: a website is like you didn't even have like your
17:13
Speaker 1: first viable product.
17:14
Speaker 3: We had nothing, I remember, So I remember at one
17:17
Speaker 3: point we were on the phone with our web designers
17:20
Speaker 3: and they said, okay, we need to know the prices,
17:22
Speaker 3: how much are you charging for the juices? And I said, oh,
17:24
Speaker 3: let me look at our notes and I literally hit
17:27
Speaker 3: mute and I looked at Carly, my partner, was like,
17:29
Speaker 3: I don't know what we should charge. What do you think?
17:31
Speaker 3: And she was like, I don't know. Eight dollars and
17:33
Speaker 3: I was like that feels way too high. I was
17:35
Speaker 3: sending five and she was like that feels too low.
17:38
Speaker 3: And we literally looked at each other and we're like
17:40
Speaker 3: six fifty Okay. We unmuted and like that was the
17:43
Speaker 3: price of the product. Yeah, you know, and and and
17:46
Speaker 3: truth like we didn't realize still later on, a lot
17:49
Speaker 3: of our product was costing more to make than what
17:51
Speaker 3: we were selling it for. But it was a number
17:54
Speaker 3: that again as we as consumers excuse me, would pay regularly,
17:59
Speaker 3: Like that was a number where we felt we could afford. So,
18:03
Speaker 3: you know, just just going with the gut really help.
18:06
Speaker 3: But kind of going back to those early days, I mean,
18:09
Speaker 3: I would you know, we had this cupcake shop. I
18:12
Speaker 3: would make juice from like ten pm to four am
18:15
Speaker 3: every day with two guys from Craigslist load up my car.
18:19
Speaker 3: What does that.
18:20
Speaker 2: Ad even look like? What does theslis add for? Like?
18:23
Speaker 2: Please help me make some juice.
18:25
Speaker 3: Juice makers wanted. It was something like that, you know,
18:30
Speaker 3: and then I'd load up my car. We got a
18:32
Speaker 3: broom closet in West la Essentially it was twenty two
18:35
Speaker 3: square feet. We took the door off, put a dutch door,
18:39
Speaker 3: a single fridge, and I would make juice, bring it
18:42
Speaker 3: to the shop, and Carly would work it. And that's
18:44
Speaker 3: kind of how it all started.
18:45
Speaker 1: You told inc earlier last year. You told them, and
18:49
Speaker 1: I read directly from the story. When the FDA inspector arrived,
18:53
Speaker 1: I assumed that I'd just tell her about making juice,
18:56
Speaker 1: who I was, the history of the company, et cetera.
18:59
Speaker 1: I walked her through production line at every station. She
19:02
Speaker 1: took notes seriously but didn't speak, And at the end
19:05
Speaker 1: she said, what you're currently doing requires me to shut
19:08
Speaker 1: you down.
19:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, son, talk to me about that, the fun, the
19:12
Speaker 3: good memories. Yeah. So what happened with that was we
19:16
Speaker 3: Press was expanding. I think we had like four shops
19:18
Speaker 3: at the time, and we had run into a little
19:21
Speaker 3: hurdle prior to that with the Health Department, which was
19:24
Speaker 3: a big learning for us. And so what I had
19:27
Speaker 3: decided to do was I'm going to be proactive. I
19:30
Speaker 3: don't really know everything we're doing, but let's reach out
19:32
Speaker 3: to the FDA. Let's just let's calm them up, let's
19:35
Speaker 3: invite them in, and let's learn if we're not in compliant,
19:39
Speaker 3: what do we need to be doing or what should
19:41
Speaker 3: we be doing differently.
19:42
Speaker 1: It's like, also, how does one just reach out to
19:45
Speaker 1: the FDA these I find so many questions.
19:49
Speaker 3: There was, Honestly, I don't even remember. I think I
19:51
Speaker 3: like tasked someone to find an FDA contact, and we
19:54
Speaker 3: just like kept googling and leaving messages. And you know,
19:57
Speaker 3: I don't know how often fd it gets calls of hi,
20:00
Speaker 3: you know, Hayden Sliter from pres Juice, we'd love to
20:02
Speaker 3: schedule a visit.
20:05
Speaker 2: I'm assuming not that often.
20:07
Speaker 3: I would probably agree with you on that. But it
20:11
Speaker 3: really was one of the overwhelming, daunting, scary, but one
20:17
Speaker 3: of those moments where when we overcame it, we worked together.
20:20
Speaker 3: They gave us the ability to kind of be, you know,
20:23
Speaker 3: work with consultants to get us kind of compliant with
20:26
Speaker 3: all the FDA regulations such you're learning, you know, how
20:30
Speaker 3: do we kind of take this and always implement it
20:32
Speaker 3: into the foundation of who we are and So when.
20:35
Speaker 1: You started, because obviously we're talking about web development, you
20:39
Speaker 1: right off the bat, we're shipping nationwide.
20:42
Speaker 3: So we launched in our stores and we started shipping
20:46
Speaker 3: I want to say, within like the first six months,
20:48
Speaker 3: which was very ambitious. Yeah, and you know, we probably
20:52
Speaker 3: were not ready when we launched that. But look, sometimes
20:56
Speaker 3: you just make a decision and it forces you to
20:59
Speaker 3: kind of of figure it out. You know, when all
21:02
Speaker 3: of a sudden nationwide shipping is available and you're getting orders,
21:05
Speaker 3: you don't really have the time or luxury to kind
21:08
Speaker 3: of move back. You just kind of go and you
21:10
Speaker 3: keep trial and error until it starts working.
21:12
Speaker 2: When you launched your first Presucory location, how many different
21:17
Speaker 2: types of juice were in the location?
21:19
Speaker 3: Sixteen?
21:20
Speaker 2: And how many types of juice do you have now?
21:22
Speaker 3: So close to forty? Wow? But a rotating kind of
21:25
Speaker 3: seasonal menu, so maybe closer to thirty. But then there's
21:29
Speaker 3: kind of always we try to work with the seasons
21:31
Speaker 3: and bring in limited time offers.
21:33
Speaker 2: And after that six months when you started delivering nationwide,
21:37
Speaker 2: was it all of the introducees?
21:39
Speaker 3: Yes?
21:40
Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, that's insane.
21:42
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I think I think the way we had it,
21:46
Speaker 3: I do honestly don't even think we were charging people
21:49
Speaker 3: for shipping at the time. Then the amount of money
21:52
Speaker 3: we were losing was crazy. But you know, it's kind
21:55
Speaker 3: of one of those growing pains when you don't have
21:56
Speaker 3: any business experience, you don't really know much about numbers
21:59
Speaker 3: or well, you just kind of do what feels right. Fortunately,
22:04
Speaker 3: our stores were performing really well, which helped us kind
22:07
Speaker 3: of become profitable and expand.
22:09
Speaker 1: And it's interesting what you said about sometimes you just
22:12
Speaker 1: make a decision and then you've got to roll with it.
22:14
Speaker 1: I feel like it's almost like when you made that
22:16
Speaker 1: decision to go to Thailand, it was like, well, this
22:19
Speaker 1: is paid for, We're going to do like I'm gonna I'm.
22:22
Speaker 3: Here totally, And I think sometimes like that's what life's about.
22:26
Speaker 3: You know, I said earlier, You've got to get out
22:28
Speaker 3: of your head sometimes because I think that creates the
22:30
Speaker 3: biggest obstacles. Sometimes you just got to go with your gut,
22:34
Speaker 3: take the first step, and trust in the unknown.
22:42
Speaker 1: A quick break to give the sponsor of today's episode,
22:45
Speaker 1: Good American a little bit of love, I cannot stop
22:49
Speaker 1: wearing their Mesh Warrior crop cover up sweatshirt around the
22:52
Speaker 1: Upper East side. Every single time I wear it, I
22:56
Speaker 1: get stopped by someone to tell me how much they
22:58
Speaker 1: love it.
22:59
Speaker 2: Me too. If mesh isn't your thing, that's cool.
23:02
Speaker 1: They've got flattering picks for everyone in every size. Their
23:06
Speaker 1: collection spans extra small to four X. I've also got
23:10
Speaker 1: one other confession. I have never in my life worn
23:14
Speaker 1: a full pants to tank top workout jumpsuit. But I
23:17
Speaker 1: tried on their curve sculpt jumpsuit last week and felt
23:21
Speaker 1: like a freaking superhero. Just food for thought. Had on
23:25
Speaker 1: over to Good American dot Com slash Emily use the
23:28
Speaker 1: code Emily GA for twenty percent off plus free shipping
23:33
Speaker 1: over one hundred dollars. Again, that's Good American dot com
23:35
Speaker 1: Slash Emily use the code Emily GA for twenty percent
23:38
Speaker 1: off plus free shipping over one hundred dollars.
23:42
Speaker 2: Let's get back to it.
23:56
Speaker 1: I'm back here sitting with Hayden Slater, the CEO and
23:59
Speaker 1: found of Press Juicery. Obviously, starting any company can be
24:05
Speaker 1: mega overwhelming, of course, when you were kind of hitting
24:09
Speaker 1: the ground running at the beginning with Press Juicery, and
24:11
Speaker 1: then we can, you know, get to how you kind
24:13
Speaker 1: of handle your day to day now. But what were
24:15
Speaker 1: you doing to keep yourself grounded and not totally a
24:19
Speaker 1: complete stress ball.
24:21
Speaker 3: Honestly, I wasn't. I wasn't balanced, and it really did
24:25
Speaker 3: create a lot of problems. I mean, when you start
24:27
Speaker 3: a business, it becomes a baby and it needs to
24:30
Speaker 3: like eat, and you need to feed it, and it
24:32
Speaker 3: cries and boops, and it's like, you know, there's just
24:34
Speaker 3: no opportunity to stop and breathe, and you really do
24:39
Speaker 3: for me at least, you kind of have to give
24:42
Speaker 3: up everything in that kind of first stage to just
24:45
Speaker 3: dedicate your all to it because it's required, you know,
24:48
Speaker 3: you got to learn the ins and out and really
24:50
Speaker 3: kind of be available twenty four hours a day, especially
24:53
Speaker 3: kind of what we were doing, because we really operated
24:56
Speaker 3: twenty four hours a day. We would make use at
24:58
Speaker 3: night and our stores would run a day and then
25:00
Speaker 3: deliveries went out in the afternoon. So there wasn't enough.
25:02
Speaker 3: There wasn't like time to kind of find any type
25:05
Speaker 3: of self care, incorporate any of that.
25:08
Speaker 1: So did the balance come when you started to let
25:11
Speaker 1: other people have a hand and take them their responsibility.
25:15
Speaker 3: There's kind of ebbs and flows in business. I do
25:19
Speaker 3: feel it's always exciting but it's also that can be
25:21
Speaker 3: extremely overwhelming at times. And you know, during some of
25:25
Speaker 3: kind of the more stressful times, I remember, I'd wake
25:28
Speaker 3: up in the middle of the night at like two
25:30
Speaker 3: three am and need to like leave my house to
25:32
Speaker 3: just like walk to kind of calm myself down. There's
25:35
Speaker 3: so much on my mind.
25:36
Speaker 2: Where were you living? I was in Venice, Oh, you know,
25:39
Speaker 2: like the good part of Venice, like.
25:41
Speaker 3: By a beginning, so you know, but I've got a Rottweiler,
25:45
Speaker 3: so we were just like cruise and you know too.
25:47
Speaker 3: But I do have to say, like I remember, I
25:50
Speaker 3: was lose so much sleep and there was kind of
25:52
Speaker 3: this moment of this like realization of you got to
25:56
Speaker 3: just let go. You got to trust in the unknown,
25:58
Speaker 3: you gotta trust in the team. It's okay to make mistakes,
26:01
Speaker 3: you will learn from them. And the second I did
26:04
Speaker 3: that and started really incorporating more balance in my life,
26:08
Speaker 3: it's almost like everything else fell into place and just
26:11
Speaker 3: took off.
26:12
Speaker 2: So how did you do that?
26:14
Speaker 3: Well? I think you know, something that I'm really proud
26:17
Speaker 3: of is I feel confident in leading this organization and
26:20
Speaker 3: to where we're going. But I also have no problem
26:23
Speaker 3: admitting my weaknesses. I've never been one to kind of
26:27
Speaker 3: I know everything and this is what we're doing. And
26:29
Speaker 3: I've kind of from day one created a collaborative atmosphere.
26:32
Speaker 3: Let's roundtable, let's kind of hear from everyone, and let's
26:35
Speaker 3: make decisions on what the team feels is the best
26:37
Speaker 3: way to go. Definitely, you know, and I think that
26:40
Speaker 3: that letting go mentality of like I don't need to
26:44
Speaker 3: know everything really kind of helped us as we kind
26:48
Speaker 3: of started building, you know, that foundation.
26:50
Speaker 1: What was it like when you kind of went beyond
26:54
Speaker 1: the priceless job posting to like actually starting to acquire
26:58
Speaker 1: true employees is for your business?
27:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember it perfectly. We brought someone who had
27:04
Speaker 3: experienced making juice and it kind of gave us, you know,
27:10
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, our product kind of started coming
27:12
Speaker 3: up to where the levels it needed to be lessened consistencies,
27:16
Speaker 3: and we started expanding on the menu. You know. We
27:20
Speaker 3: brought on an operator who really was like more of
27:23
Speaker 3: a partner to us than anything else. Had a really
27:26
Speaker 3: strong retail background, and what he did was he kind
27:30
Speaker 3: of took this idea and this kind of very small
27:33
Speaker 3: concept and helped us create a business out of it,
27:37
Speaker 3: so really started focusing on the back end, really started
27:40
Speaker 3: hiring experience people from Jews. Every opportunity that we had
27:45
Speaker 3: to invest in the team, we did, and I think
27:48
Speaker 3: that is kind of what really helped us propel and
27:51
Speaker 3: kind of be a leader in the space. Was really
27:55
Speaker 3: kind of you know, I mentioned that collaborative atmosphere, but
27:58
Speaker 3: every opportunity just invest and getting people around the table
28:02
Speaker 3: who believed in what we were doing and really could
28:04
Speaker 3: kind of add experience.
28:06
Speaker 2: Do you know how many employees you have now?
28:08
Speaker 3: We have over eight hundred. Wow, Yeah, it's a lot.
28:13
Speaker 3: I think we started with four.
28:14
Speaker 2: That's insane.
28:15
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:16
Speaker 1: I think some of the most successful companies really place
28:21
Speaker 1: a stress on how they handle that company culture. So
28:25
Speaker 1: what would you say are some of the ways that
28:28
Speaker 1: you kind of foster this positivity in your office environment,
28:32
Speaker 1: in your stores, kind of keeping that consistency whether you're
28:36
Speaker 1: you know, in Venice or you're out in New York City.
28:39
Speaker 3: I think it's a couple of things. I think one,
28:41
Speaker 3: more than anything, transparency, Like how do we always just
28:44
Speaker 3: be transparent? Because I think building trust internally externally everywhere
28:50
Speaker 3: is like crucial. I kind of had this realization that
28:54
Speaker 3: not everyone will always share the same excitement or passion
28:57
Speaker 3: that I have as a founder. But it's so important
29:01
Speaker 3: that people here want to be a part of the journey,
29:04
Speaker 3: you know, want understand like how all of our hard
29:08
Speaker 3: work is really affecting people in such positive ways. And
29:11
Speaker 3: I think when we're really transparent and everyone can kind
29:13
Speaker 3: of understand their role and the and all this positive
29:17
Speaker 3: change we're making, it kind of I mean there's your
29:19
Speaker 3: culture right there.
29:21
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, totally.
29:23
Speaker 1: I want to know a little bit more about your
29:27
Speaker 1: personal routine because I feel like when you've got a
29:30
Speaker 1: company of this size to oversee on the regular, you've
29:33
Speaker 1: got to have some semblance of a routine of your
29:36
Speaker 1: own that helps you keep your mind in check. So
29:39
Speaker 1: tell me kind of what a typical day looks like
29:43
Speaker 1: for you.
29:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it varies often for me. The morning
29:47
Speaker 3: kind of you know, five am to like noon one
29:51
Speaker 3: is like my prime time, you know, I'm up. I
29:53
Speaker 3: usually will like work out first thing in the morning.
29:56
Speaker 3: I try to hit up a hype with the dog,
29:58
Speaker 3: or I'll go boxing, you know, some way of just
30:00
Speaker 3: like starting me off it. I feel that like the
30:03
Speaker 3: workout makes a huge difference kind of leading into the
30:05
Speaker 3: next you know what's to follow, you know. I try
30:09
Speaker 3: to get to the office around eightish, and like I said,
30:12
Speaker 3: it's kind of the first four or five hours where
30:15
Speaker 3: I'm really on it. I participate really heavily and kind
30:19
Speaker 3: of the real estate the marketing is. I'm really passionate
30:22
Speaker 3: about the story, the brand, all of that a lot.
30:25
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's really hands on here. It's one
30:28
Speaker 3: of those we've kind of transitioned from startup into kind
30:31
Speaker 3: of a mid sized company. But the truth is, like
30:34
Speaker 3: we wear startup ats. Everyone kind of helps out everywhere,
30:39
Speaker 3: even the senior team. We're really small but nimble. It's
30:43
Speaker 3: not like one of those organizations where head of retail
30:46
Speaker 3: only touches retail. Like I want you exposed in a
30:48
Speaker 3: part of everything. So every day is different in terms
30:51
Speaker 3: of like what I'm involved in. The beauty of business,
30:55
Speaker 3: which I always say is you wake up every morning
30:57
Speaker 3: to a different fire to put out. And it's really
31:00
Speaker 3: I never realized my whole life how how much I
31:03
Speaker 3: would like fall in love with business. You know, I'd
31:06
Speaker 3: always been a creative. I'd always been writing and producing,
31:08
Speaker 3: but like you, you wake up to a different hurdle
31:11
Speaker 3: every single morning, and you have to creatively like what
31:14
Speaker 3: are the options and how do we maneuver and how
31:17
Speaker 3: do you know? And there's something really fascinating about kind
31:19
Speaker 3: of how you how you kind of work through that.
31:22
Speaker 3: So it's hard to say this is my you know,
31:24
Speaker 3: but that's kind of every day is so different, you know,
31:26
Speaker 3: on a personal level, it really for me is about balance.
31:29
Speaker 3: I work hard, but I got to find time for
31:31
Speaker 3: me outside of work, you know, finding creative projects that
31:35
Speaker 3: aren't work related. I'm fueled by the outdoors. I got
31:39
Speaker 3: to be in nature, So I'm constantly traveling up to
31:42
Speaker 3: the Pacific Northwest trying to just it. Really, I find
31:46
Speaker 3: is helpful on the health and wellness side. I'm kind
31:49
Speaker 3: of a guinea pig to everything.
31:51
Speaker 1: You know, what is like what is the trend that
31:55
Speaker 1: you have dialed into lately?
31:57
Speaker 4: That is just really Oh, there's so many are so
32:02
Speaker 4: like embarrassing to say, no, please look I'm in LA
32:05
Speaker 4: so like we're very experimental and there's kind of everything.
32:08
Speaker 3: I'm fascinated by ozone. I'm like, I do the kind
32:11
Speaker 3: of intravenous ozone regularly.
32:13
Speaker 2: Right now, Explain that to someone who doesn't know what
32:16
Speaker 2: the hell you're talking.
32:17
Speaker 3: They essentially withdraw a small bag of blood. They infuse
32:20
Speaker 3: it with ozone, so you watch it go from like
32:23
Speaker 3: a dark, dark red to a vibrant, like bright red,
32:27
Speaker 3: and then they kind of bring it back into you.
32:29
Speaker 2: That's the most lay thing I've ever heard.
32:31
Speaker 3: Well, you didn't hear what I was gonna say. Next,
32:33
Speaker 3: I've kind of I've started experimenting with leech therapy, which
32:37
Speaker 3: has been really really interesting. You know, there's this idea
32:41
Speaker 3: of how important it is to kind of get blood
32:43
Speaker 3: out of your system so you can kind of regenerate
32:46
Speaker 3: more new blood. Women clearly do it regularly, men don't.
32:51
Speaker 3: So you know, you can give blood or you can
32:53
Speaker 3: kind of work with leeches, but I think there is
32:56
Speaker 3: something really beneficial to kind of giving your body the
32:59
Speaker 3: opportunity to build new Where does one go to get leached?
33:03
Speaker 3: There's spots all in la You guys, you know Google
33:07
Speaker 3: that Google and it pops up.
33:09
Speaker 2: You just gotta you just gotta know what do we
33:12
Speaker 2: do before Google?
33:13
Speaker 3: Man, I don't even.
33:14
Speaker 2: How to make how to make jews, how to get leached.
33:17
Speaker 3: I'm literally like the worst Googler. I'm like, do your
33:20
Speaker 3: Google question for you? How do I find. You know,
33:22
Speaker 3: it's like I think that there's like a person writing
33:25
Speaker 3: back to.
33:25
Speaker 1: Me I love it. Well, maybe there is, Maybe there
33:28
Speaker 1: is a little bit possibly. What I want to know is,
33:31
Speaker 1: at this point in your career, if you take a
33:34
Speaker 1: step back and think about the interactions you've had, what
33:39
Speaker 1: has been one of the best pieces of advice that
33:42
Speaker 1: you've been offered while building press juicery.
33:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's so many. You know. Something that
33:49
Speaker 3: became really clear early on is people would always say,
33:52
Speaker 3: do what you love and success will follow. And it's
33:55
Speaker 3: kind of like, yes, screw you when you sit at
33:57
Speaker 3: the top of your empire. But if this has kind
34:00
Speaker 3: of been such a learning for me that this truly
34:03
Speaker 3: was a passion project, something I really believed in. Never
34:07
Speaker 3: did I imagine when we started that it would turn
34:09
Speaker 3: into what it has. Being grateful, you know, I think
34:12
Speaker 3: as a business operator, we always want to harp on
34:15
Speaker 3: areas we can improve, But I think it's equally as
34:17
Speaker 3: important to celebrate the wins and successes, trusting in the unknown.
34:22
Speaker 3: It's okay to not have all the answers at the
34:25
Speaker 3: end of the day. How do you define success? Someone
34:27
Speaker 3: said to me recently going to sleep knowing you using
34:30
Speaker 3: your abilities and strength in a way that help others.
34:34
Speaker 3: And I really kind.
34:35
Speaker 1: Of love that someone said to me recently that success
34:38
Speaker 1: is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself.
34:41
Speaker 1: And I think that was like really profound because I
34:44
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, when you strip away all of the
34:47
Speaker 1: things that we are so inundated with regularly, which is
34:51
Speaker 1: obviously everybody else's input on social media everywhere and just
34:56
Speaker 1: daily life, it's like, how do you feel about what
34:59
Speaker 1: you did today?
35:00
Speaker 2: Where do you sit with that? I think that's really special.
35:03
Speaker 2: What would you say to that point?
35:06
Speaker 1: Thinking about the people that have given you really great advice?
35:09
Speaker 1: If you were to give someone a book, what book
35:14
Speaker 1: would you give them?
35:16
Speaker 3: There's so many out there, you know. I'm like a
35:20
Speaker 3: pretty spiritual guy at my core. I think the four
35:23
Speaker 3: agreements goes along the way with people. You know, for me,
35:27
Speaker 3: you can't always kind of connect your personal with business,
35:30
Speaker 3: but I think the more you do, the more you're
35:33
Speaker 3: able to accomplish more in an authentic way to yourself.
35:37
Speaker 3: I'm a big fan of all the business book you know,
35:40
Speaker 3: jobs and losing my Virginity Brandson and you know Facebook.
35:44
Speaker 3: I mean all of those books have kind of been
35:48
Speaker 3: inspiring me, but I think ultimately, you know, advice that
35:53
Speaker 3: I think is so important. Early on, when I started press,
35:56
Speaker 3: I visited with a handful of my friends' parents I
36:00
Speaker 3: really admired as business people to get advice, and every
36:04
Speaker 3: single one of them had such you know, different looks
36:09
Speaker 3: and outlooks on kind of what to do and how
36:11
Speaker 3: to approach it, and so early on I really realized
36:15
Speaker 3: there's no right or wrong. You know, listen to people,
36:18
Speaker 3: but really kind of no one knows the business or
36:21
Speaker 3: what it is you're trying to accomplish better than yourself.
36:24
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, sometimes we look to others
36:27
Speaker 3: for kind of reassurance when like you really got to
36:30
Speaker 3: just like look inside, because it's all there.
36:32
Speaker 1: How would you describe yourself as a leader for your company?
36:38
Speaker 1: Oh good question, And not how you think that other people,
36:42
Speaker 1: not at someone else's perception of how you are as
36:45
Speaker 1: a leader, but your perception of how you are as
36:47
Speaker 1: a leader.
36:49
Speaker 3: You know, I think I was my first response is
36:52
Speaker 3: I was going to say, I think people I'm a lunatic.
36:54
Speaker 3: You know, if I could have everyone come to work
36:56
Speaker 3: barefoot every day, I would There's like a no suit
37:00
Speaker 3: an office rule we have or a US company. But
37:03
Speaker 3: I think in truth to answer that, I believe that
37:06
Speaker 3: I'm really a big part of the heart, soul, passion
37:10
Speaker 3: of the organization. By no means do I have all
37:13
Speaker 3: the answers, and I definitely make a lot of mistakes,
37:16
Speaker 3: But there's something that inside of me that is so
37:20
Speaker 3: you know, pure and true to what it is we created,
37:24
Speaker 3: you know, almost eight years ago that I think still
37:27
Speaker 3: you know, is just as kind of bright today as
37:30
Speaker 3: it was when we started.
37:31
Speaker 2: Over the past eight years. When you think about all
37:34
Speaker 2: of the ups and down, what would you say is
37:38
Speaker 2: one of your favorite failures from that experience that's taught
37:42
Speaker 2: you something great.
37:43
Speaker 3: There's there's so many. First that comes to mind was,
37:47
Speaker 3: you know, you said something about the FDA. Earlier. Prior
37:50
Speaker 3: to that, we had met with the Health Department and
37:51
Speaker 3: unfortunately got shut down, and you know, we were a
37:55
Speaker 3: six month old company. We got some legal counsel here
37:59
Speaker 3: in LA and their advice was, you know, maybe you
38:02
Speaker 3: should just pack your bag. You know, it was your
38:05
Speaker 3: six months, six months old and you've already kind of
38:07
Speaker 3: had an incident in the health department. We don't have
38:10
Speaker 3: we don't really know how you'll recover and hearing that
38:14
Speaker 3: not even for a second was that an option. But
38:17
Speaker 3: what I But But the important part is when we
38:19
Speaker 3: finally got reopened almost three weeks later. Uh, it was
38:23
Speaker 3: the strongest day of sales that we had had to date,
38:26
Speaker 3: And it was kind of just this memory of you've
38:29
Speaker 3: built something really special. You know, don't let the kind
38:32
Speaker 3: of negativity ever intervene with like the work, and you
38:35
Speaker 3: know in the positive change that this company has the
38:38
Speaker 3: potential to make.
38:39
Speaker 1: So I personally am like hoped on going to Press
38:43
Speaker 1: Juicery for the Freeze. So when did you innovate to
38:48
Speaker 1: get to that next level? Because were you realizing that
38:51
Speaker 1: there was just the want for something like that?
38:53
Speaker 3: So Freeze is like, I'm proud of everything this team
38:56
Speaker 3: has done, but Freeze is really something I believe is
38:59
Speaker 3: it's still revolutionary.
39:01
Speaker 1: Also, I feel like we should establish that Freeze is
39:03
Speaker 1: pretty much frozen juice that resembles software.
39:07
Speaker 3: Correct. It is a plant based software derived from just
39:11
Speaker 3: produce essentially, right. So you know, I had the opportunity
39:16
Speaker 3: to meet with some of the big boys early on,
39:17
Speaker 3: you know, the Cokes and the Pepsis and the Starbucks
39:20
Speaker 3: and I kind of kept hearing this reoccurring mention of
39:23
Speaker 3: you know, juice thrives on the coast, but there's still
39:26
Speaker 3: a huge market in the middle where it's still daunting
39:29
Speaker 3: and intimidating. And my takeaway from those conversations was we
39:34
Speaker 3: got to educate people. And education is no longer do
39:38
Speaker 3: this because it's good for you, because people don't want
39:40
Speaker 3: to cold. Education is through trial, and that's kind of
39:43
Speaker 3: where I had this light bulb go off, where if
39:45
Speaker 3: the bottle is still intimidating, I know that soft serve
39:49
Speaker 3: machine is not, you know, and if I can create
39:52
Speaker 3: something that's that has the same integrity of what our
39:55
Speaker 3: jews has but literally could compete with a fro yo
39:59
Speaker 3: or ice cream cat category, like, what an incredible way
40:02
Speaker 3: to educate people that, like, you know, high quality nutritious
40:06
Speaker 3: food can actually taste great. And so so much of
40:10
Speaker 3: that was what drove us to kind of the two
40:12
Speaker 3: and a half years of R and D to get
40:14
Speaker 3: freeze lung.
40:15
Speaker 2: I feel like now everyone's trying to freeze.
40:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a tough one to produce when there's no
40:22
Speaker 3: binders and no sugars, Like there's some proprietary stuff that
40:26
Speaker 3: allows us to do it, and you know, I think
40:29
Speaker 3: it looks in all honesty, I know people don't believe
40:32
Speaker 3: me when I say it, but kudos to all. Like
40:35
Speaker 3: I know how hard we work at Pressed. I have
40:38
Speaker 3: so much admiration and respect for anyone who is working
40:41
Speaker 3: to get better for you options out there.
40:43
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting and it's something we haven't really
40:46
Speaker 1: touched on yet. But I mean over the last eight
40:48
Speaker 1: years in general, the boom inducing has just been real
40:52
Speaker 1: like it's something that people are looking for, It's something
40:55
Speaker 1: that they want. What do you think really sets what
40:59
Speaker 1: you guys that Pressed Juice three have to offer apart
41:02
Speaker 1: from the other guys out there totally.
41:03
Speaker 3: It's the Pressed promise. We kind of created this Press
41:08
Speaker 3: promise we call it, and it's really make it delicious,
41:11
Speaker 3: make it nutritious, make it accessible, make it affordable, make
41:14
Speaker 3: it for everyone. And yeah, you could look at it's
41:16
Speaker 3: just words, you know, and delicious and nutritious are of
41:19
Speaker 3: course crucial. What we obsessed over is accessibility and affordability,
41:26
Speaker 3: and I think that is what really differentiates us from others.
41:30
Speaker 3: If you look at the landscape of Cold Press Juice,
41:32
Speaker 3: I mean some market itself from nine to twelve dollars
41:35
Speaker 3: a bottle. You know, it's just not a realistic price
41:39
Speaker 3: point to kind of get into your every day purchasing habit.
41:43
Speaker 3: We launched it pick fifty. We've just recently dropped down
41:46
Speaker 3: to five without compromising products at all. If you look
41:50
Speaker 3: at how Starbucks has trained our country, you know, five
41:53
Speaker 3: dollars is an appropriate price to pay for bevery if
41:56
Speaker 3: we can kind of replace themes with four to five
41:59
Speaker 3: pounds of produce. Just think of the white space that
42:02
Speaker 3: we could kind of get through the amount of people
42:04
Speaker 3: that can access this high futures this product.
42:06
Speaker 1: But I also think is interesting when you walk into
42:09
Speaker 1: a press juicery and I'm thinking about my experience in
42:12
Speaker 1: other places where I would buy juice. No one else
42:15
Speaker 1: is letting me taste anything.
42:16
Speaker 2: I think that's good.
42:18
Speaker 3: Look, we want everyone to try everything. Yeah, and you
42:20
Speaker 3: know people think I you know, just say to say
42:22
Speaker 3: it again, Like, I do believe that anyone in this sector,
42:26
Speaker 3: we should be working with each other to help. You know,
42:29
Speaker 3: everyone's kind of got their different market. Like to those
42:32
Speaker 3: who can afford a twelve dollars juice, there is amazing
42:35
Speaker 3: product out there. You know. We just want to focus
42:38
Speaker 3: on the majority of people that that's just not realistic.
42:42
Speaker 1: Aside from drinking your greens and juicing, what are other
42:48
Speaker 1: and leaching what are other?
42:51
Speaker 3: Now I kind of regret saying that.
42:53
Speaker 2: Never regret. This is an open and honest space here.
42:56
Speaker 1: When you think about your diet, what are some things
42:59
Speaker 1: that you've tried to be mindful of on the regular?
43:01
Speaker 3: For me, more than anything, just balance. You know, I'm
43:04
Speaker 3: a human being. I'm gonna eat kind of you know,
43:07
Speaker 3: everything creates different I want to and I'm a foodie
43:10
Speaker 3: at my court, like I love sitting around a table
43:12
Speaker 3: with friends and family and just having great food. It's
43:17
Speaker 3: just balanced, you know. Again, you start. For me, I
43:20
Speaker 3: start my day with the greens juice. It gives me
43:22
Speaker 3: permission to make littal mistakes. It gives me the ability to, like,
43:26
Speaker 3: you know, and this idea of oh well start on Monday.
43:30
Speaker 3: We got to get over that. That's that doesn't work,
43:32
Speaker 3: you know. It's just every day, it's just you know,
43:35
Speaker 3: and don't overthink it. Just just do the best you
43:38
Speaker 3: can do. And I think when you make those baby steps,
43:41
Speaker 3: that's where it becomes long lasting.
43:43
Speaker 1: When I sat down with the woman from Sacara Life
43:47
Speaker 1: a few months back, they said, they said, and they
43:50
Speaker 1: were on the podcast and they said, you are what
43:52
Speaker 1: you do like ninety percent of the time, So there's
43:54
Speaker 1: going to be that ten percent.
43:55
Speaker 2: Like you're gonna.
43:56
Speaker 1: Go get a bag get and some cheese on a
43:59
Speaker 1: date Friday night. I'm in la I haven't been yet,
44:02
Speaker 1: but I've got less than twenty four hours to get
44:04
Speaker 1: to in and out before I get on the plane
44:06
Speaker 1: and go back to New York City.
44:08
Speaker 3: It's like saying I'm not going to go to New
44:09
Speaker 3: York and get a raise on aster. Yeah, like that's
44:11
Speaker 3: just not going to happen.
44:12
Speaker 2: You got to do it.
44:13
Speaker 3: I got to do it. I'm going to do it.
44:16
Speaker 1: You are looking back at the guy who just booked
44:20
Speaker 1: his trip island and you're in his head right now.
44:24
Speaker 1: What kind of advice do you offer the guy that's
44:27
Speaker 1: going through the thick of his Hurtle moment at that time?
44:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, honestly none, because I think that that
44:35
Speaker 3: openness to just explore and take the first step. I
44:38
Speaker 3: think anything I would have said could have clouded that,
44:41
Speaker 3: and my kind of ability to just you know, take
44:44
Speaker 3: a step in the unknown was so important. I think
44:48
Speaker 3: had something been put in my head at that time,
44:51
Speaker 3: it could have shifted or altered my experience.
44:53
Speaker 1: No one's ever said nothing that's really interesting. What about Okay,
44:58
Speaker 1: I'm going to pivot a little bit. A piece of
45:00
Speaker 1: advice now eight years in that you wish you knew
45:03
Speaker 1: from the get go with Press Juicery.
45:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, honestly the same. Yeah, I'll tell you why.
45:08
Speaker 3: In all truth, I think everything happens for a reason.
45:11
Speaker 3: You know, every mistake, every hurdle, everything I did wrong, Like,
45:15
Speaker 3: we needed to go through those experiences to kind of
45:17
Speaker 3: get to where we are today. So there's there's nothing
45:21
Speaker 3: I would change. I really do believe that there's there's
45:25
Speaker 3: something bigger than me kind of guiding how this is
45:27
Speaker 3: all meant to go and be an end and all
45:29
Speaker 3: that stuff.
45:31
Speaker 2: Thanks five year goals for Press. Yeah, what's on the radar?
45:35
Speaker 3: You know, it's really do what we're doing. I really
45:37
Speaker 3: believe so strongly and passionately about getting high nutrition to
45:42
Speaker 3: as many people as I possibly can. So whether it's
45:46
Speaker 3: through you know, wholesale channels are continuing to open retail stores,
45:50
Speaker 3: or you know, we launched our e comm direct to consumer,
45:54
Speaker 3: I just I really believe in the positive impact that's
45:57
Speaker 3: such a simple introduction of a product. Can do I
46:01
Speaker 3: just want to kind of keep growing it.
46:02
Speaker 2: I love it, Aidan, Thanks for sitting down with me today.
46:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is awesome. Thanks for kind of letting you
46:08
Speaker 3: share the story of Brest awesome.
46:11
Speaker 1: Please take a moment to leave a quick review by
46:14
Speaker 1: clicking the link with the description to this episode. We
46:17
Speaker 1: all face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear
46:20
Speaker 1: about yours. Reach out to me at Emily at Hurdle
46:22
Speaker 1: dot us. Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter
46:26
Speaker 1: at Hurdle Podcast Aidan. Where do they find you? Where
46:30
Speaker 1: do they find Press Juicery?
46:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, pressjuicry dot com at Press Juicery, all the typical stuffs,
46:36
Speaker 3: all the places you'd look to find a brand. Press
46:39
Speaker 3: juiceres there and Chalkboard. Check out the Chalkboard because it's
46:43
Speaker 3: an awesome platform to just get, you know, info on
46:47
Speaker 3: all kinds of health related topics.
46:49
Speaker 2: Perfect.
46:50
Speaker 1: I am at Emily Abodi. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you
46:54
Speaker 1: guys next time.