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

Hi Alexis , thanks for joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

Knowing everything that I know now, the first thing I would do faster is find my niche and find my target audience. In the beginning I spent a lot of time trying to market my product to any and everybody just because I knew I had created a high quality juice. That honestly didn’t mean much to an ordinary consumer. But if I took my time and only seemed out the health conscious individuals who mainly consume cold pressed juice I would have picked up a lot faster.

Alexis , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My business was conceived in a place of pain but grew into a space of pure abundance. I developed So Pressed in a basement apartment 4 years ago in New Jersey. I took a leap of faith and made a transition by moving to Charlotte, NC. I researched fruits and vegetables and formed about 10 juice recipes that target the digestive system. Our juices serves many purposes along with targeting your gut health such as boosting the immune system, lowering blood pressure, and increasing your energy.
My passion for juicing is deeply planted within me. There is a art of combining fruits and vegetables and changing its form to give a different look to what healthy eating should look like. At So Pressed we want to educate our clients in every way to pay attention to what we feed our bodies. Majority of disease develop in the digestive system, what we put in there will determine the way we function throughout life. As I continue to educate myself by doing the research and developing different recipes, I find that we can live much longer lives simply by changing our diets and using food as medicine.
My goal for So Pressed is to provide healthy food choices to all people who do not have access or are limited to healthy options. Most of us don’t ever realize how many toxins we encounter on a day-to-day basis. When we step back and think about all the pesticides, additives, chemicals, and artificial ingredients that are in the food we eat and water we drink, it can be pretty overwhelming. Stress also creates toxins, something most of us feel weekly, if not daily. Toxic clutter builds up, clouding your body and mind, often leading to fatigue and poor digestion. So how do we fix this issue? Detox! Drinking clean, cold pressed fruit and veggies is the best way to give our bodies a well-deserved rest from stress and toxins. Every juice contains vitamins and nourishments your body needs for the short period of time you’ll be detoxing.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I moved to Charlotte in February 2020 and the covid pandemic followed not too long after. Initially I was completely devastated knowing that I just moved to a new city with the intensions of launching my business and the entire country just got shut down. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to reach new clients and develop these relationships early on. But I turned a negative into a positive rather quickly and started using my new apartment as workplace for myself. I turned my second bedroom into an office/content studio. I used the kitchen for juicing and the bar area to show off my juicing techniques while recording these session to post on social media. I grew a following from just the people in know in NJ to people I didn’t know at all in NC. 2020 was my planting season and now I’m watching my seed grow.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

There was a period of time during the pandemic that I struggled with sales due to being a new business in the area. Social media kept us afloat for some time but bringing in new customers in across Charlotte and surrounding areas was difficult. I thought of a marketing idea and it turned out amazing. I used Canva to make a door hanging flyer that I would hand deliver to local residents. Super cute, non expensive way to market using the old door to door method. I gained a great amount clientele from doing this.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sopressedjuice.com
• Instagram: sopressedjuice
• Youtube: @sopressedjuice
• Other: TikTok: @sopressedjuice