We recently connected with Cristal Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cristal, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To me, it depends on how one defines success. To some, success is based on a monetary level, and to some success is based on social status.. to me, success is defying the odds, standing strong when you have so many reasons to quit, making a change, the dash in between your birthdate and your death date being something to be proud of. For me, it takes determination, motivation, and definitely tenacity. Knowing that you will probably fail way more than you succeed, but deciding to continue anyway.. that to me is what makes a person successful.

Cristal, 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?

I’m certain my start up isn’t like most. In 2022 when my son was a typical seven year old, he kept asking for things.. can we to go here, can we do this.. so finally, he asked to go to Disney World. I thought it would be a good idea to teach him how to earn a dollar and good work ethic at an early age. So, I decided to do a one day lemonade stand. I made a post asking people to stop by and support him, and little did I know that soon the entire city would rally behind me, Cam(my son), and the idea of what I was trying to accomplish. Before I knew it, we went viral. In only about a two week time frame we had over 500 facebook shares, a police motorcade to the stand, a newspaper write up, and even local stores volunteering to stock our lemonade. At that time, Cam’s Lemonade was born. Out of left field would be an understatement, as my full time job is Respiratory Therapist . This was far off course for me. However, I jumped at the opportunity to be able to spend this time with my son and teach him valuable life lessons.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This summer I decided to do a one day, 2hr event in which I brought in 2 kids ages 6-10 to try to teach them skills like I’m trying to teach my now 8yr old son. Things like math skills, communication, shaking hands, confidence… So I put out a flier encouraging kids to “apply” by sending my their resume.. which was simply a paper telling me what they wanted to be when they grow up and why….
Well someone felt it befitting to report the event to the Alabama Department of Labor suggesting I was laboring minors, and the event had to be cancelled.
Needless to say I was initially devastated, but that would soon be turned around. Cam and I went nationwide for the incident. As a result we ended up being on all the local news stations, FOX NEWS out of NY, Newsmax, The Washington Post, Inside Edition, USA Today, and several others. People were enraged at the malice of someone and quickly showed their support to us. NFL player Baron Browning even sent us to Disney World, all expenses paid! So we literally took lemons and made lemonade. And in only 1 year, we are going in the stores of 15 Piggly Wiggly supermarkets!! This is just the beginning!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For me it has been word of mouth, social media, working local markets, and once we went nationwide the customers really just sought us out.

Contact Info:

• Website: Camslemonade.com
• Instagram: Cams_lemonade
• Facebook: Cam’s Lemonade