(Archive) 24. Carly de Castro of Pressed Juicery, the retail darling of the tidal wave of green juice, on how their roots in a broom closet have kept them grounded.

Carly de Castro is a seasoned health and wellness advocate who started Pressed Juicery with one mission in mind: to make high-quality, nutrient-dense products that were convenient and accessible. After working a stressful career in film publicity in New York that was beginning to take a toll on her health, Carly moved back to Los Angeles and reconnected with childhood friends Hayden Slater and Hedi Gores, who both had similar revelations, and the trio founded Pressed Juicery in 2010.

With zero formal experience whatsoever, they launched a business that has maintained its staying power and is still kicking ass. It can be done. Hear how Carly and her partners have navigated sometimes scary waters and maintained their position as retail darling of the juice biz and managed to find balance and harmony within the partnership as well. It’s kind of a juicy fairy tale.

After a brief discourse on potty training and Zoe’s theory on birth order and behavior, we got down to business.

· Carly’s path was not always wellness-forward. But when her Mom got sick while Carly was living in NYC and she started spending time taking care of her, Carly was learning to understand food-as-medicine and she herself getting super healthy, juicing. She did a BluePrint cleanse a few times (thanks, Carly!) but was surprised to not see anything like it locally in LA. She started making it at home for her mom and the seed of an idea was planted.

· After such an intense experience caring for her mom, Carly realized that LA was calling her back, and away from NYC. She decided it was time to harness the power she was feeling from her new health regimen and figure out how to share that power with the locals. The question was just how. Seeing BluePrint at Whole Foods in Tribeca made her realize it was indeed possible to do, and it brought her to tears. Us too!

· She teamed up with two friends who shared a similar vision for bringing wellness to the masses. The plan was there was no plan, just a drive and a passion and a healthy dose of hustle.

· A broom closet with a whopping 22 square feet was their first location. You can imagine investors drooling over their amazing revenues per square foot. They’ve since expanded to spaces that can hold actual people AND cleaning supplies—over 70 locations. Press on, gang!

· Pro tip: If the health department tries to pull some permit shizz and shut down your business, it’s super helpful to be pregnant when you show up in their office.

· Pricing their juice was a crap shoot that paid off. They didn’t have a magic formula, but the goal was to democratize juice and price it so that everyone has access to it. Their membership program was born out of this vision. So much birthing.

· Another discourse on the state of the healthy food market. Fun fact: we all love Paleo Puffs. We bought a shit ton of them at Erewhon, however did not find the much hyped Coconut Girl ice cream sandwich. Erica is still pissed about this.

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