We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matina Muntaqeem . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matina below.

Matina , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think to be successful, you need discipline, creativity and a great team. I think it’s so easy to get distracted and lose focus on what your bigger goal is that its very important to stay disciplined. When I first started growing my business I would try to still make time to hang out with my friends and then come home and lose sleep because I needed to prep for juice orders. I would be so exhausted! I learned early that in order for me to grow my business for what I had visioned to do, I needed to stay as focus as possible even if that meant skipping out on a little bit of fun. It will be worth it in the end!

Matina , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Matina Muntaqeem and I am the owner and founder of Perfectly Balanced. My story behind PB (perfectly balanced) is quite interesting because I never had intentions of starting my own business, I did not have this highlighted on my bingo card, thats for sure lol but I’ve always been into a more healthy lifestyle, I love researching and learning new things, I enjoy having full creativity over projects, so my brand really fits me quite well.

I am a firm believer of the saying “things happen to you in life for a reason”. Now, we may never know the reasoning at first, but eventually things will start to unravel themselves.

When I was 30 years old , I was pregnant with my first child and I had a bit of pregnancy complications, one being I suffered from high blood pressure throughout my pregnancy, which resulted in having to get induced weeks before my due date because of my high blood pressure. As I mentioned earlier I had a pretty healthy lifestyle so I had never experienced high blood pressure as long as I did when I was pregnant. The doctors let me know that once I delivered my daughter, my blood pressure would go back down to being normal, and months and months went by and my blood pressure never went back to normal. My daughter was about a year and a half when my primary doctor suggested multiple medications to help elevate my blood pressure. Let me stay that their is nothing wrong with taking medicine prescribed to you to help your situation but as a 30 something year old, I didn’t think medication was for me. In my mind, I was too young to be on multiple medications. So I went home and I researched natural ways to reduce high blood pressure and the first thing that came up was beets. I was skeptical because from what I remembered in my younger days when I tried beets they weren’t the tastiest, but I was determined to reduce my blood pressure to avoid having to take multiple pills every day. and possibly having to deal with the side effects from it.

I knew that I wouldnt be able to flat out eat beets everyday but when one of the options were juicing beets and it still had the same effect, I was sold. I went out to my local Tj Maxx got a cheap juicer for maybe 40 bucks, went to Mom’s Organic that was right next door to Tj Maxx, got a couple beets, went home and started juicing. Within a few weeks of consistently juicing beets I had noticed a decline in my pressure and also a decline in my weight which was not in my plans but I also wasn’t mad about shredding some extra pounds lol

I eventually researched other produce that matched well with one another and I started creating my own blends from there. Fresh juices, no added sugars or preservatives, just fruits and veggies. I would post my finished juices on Instagram not thinking anything of it, I was just posting to post because thats what you do on social media as a regular person like myself, until I would have numerous messages asking me about my progress with juicing, am I selling these juices, can I do classes on juicing etc. I was shocked and flattered because I really didn’t think people were really paying attention or interested. in the juices I was posting. I was really only making juices for myself, my boyfriend and daughter, the thought of making juices for others hadn’t crossed my mind. So Months went by and I was still getting the same messages from different people, that my boyfriend suggested I actually take it seriously and start a business out of it. It wouldn’t hurt to try. It did take me a couple weeks to actually decide if I wanted to do that but in the end I decided to give it a try and I announced my first juice pop up and within the first three hours I had sold out of everything! From that point Perfectly Balanced had taken off.

Now, I wont sit here and say that business has been perfect because there will always be some downs to it, but when you are truly passionate about your craft you always find ways to improve and elevate.

My main goal from creating these juices and what I am most proud of is the education I get to offer, whether you purchase from me or not. I want people to know that you are able to naturally heal yourself with proper diet change, incorporating your daily nutrients and minerals and to go back to feeling good about yourself.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the most important lessons Ive had to unlearn thus far is not asking for help when I know I need all the hands on deck I can get. I’ve always been a very independent person with a mindset that I can do everything on my own, I dont need the help and I definitely don’t want to be a burden on anyone. But once I started my own business, I quickly learned that the only way you succeed in a business is to have a team and if you dont have a team you have to reach out for help, especially when the help is being offered.

When Perfectly Balanced started to get noticed and I would get invited to be a vendor at events, I would literally be up for almost 24-36hour, shopping for produce, prepping, juicing, cutting labels etc when I could have reached out to my friends and family to elevate a few things from my plate. Whether that was washing the bottles, cutting labels and placing them on the bottles, etc. Any kind of help, helps me to keep providing excellent juices. So to be successful in a business, you have to ask for help!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think the transition from becoming a new mom and starting a new business with no business experience within a year has been quite the pivot for me. I have learned many things within myself that I didn’t think I was capable of. They both have been challenging but also so rewarding, that I honestly cant’t complain.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @perfectlybalancedjuice4

Image Credits
Wiz Productions instagram @wiz_productions