May 29, 2024 • 41 mins
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Nekter Juice Bar has carved out a niche in the competitive healthy fast casual sector by excelling in five key areas: a commitment to high-quality, locally sourced, and organic ingredients; an innovative and ever-evolving menu with unique offerings like superfood smoothies and acai bowls; an exceptional customer experience with knowledgeable staff and an inviting store design; perceived value for the Gen Z consumer by aligning with their values of health, sustainability, and authenticity; and the ability to stay relevant by continuously adapting to changing trends and engaging with customers through social media. By delivering on these fronts, Nekter Juice Bar has built a loyal customer base, particularly among health-conscious Gen Z consumers, and stood out in the crowded market.
📈 Learn More ~ https://www.revernetworks.com/restaurant-power-index
Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry.
Nekter Juice Bar has carved out a niche in the competitive healthy fast casual sector by excelling in five key areas: a commitment to high-quality, locally sourced, and organic ingredients; an innovative and ever-evolving menu with unique offerings like superfood smoothies and acai bowls; an exceptional customer experience with knowledgeable staff and an inviting store design; perceived value for the Gen Z consumer by aligning with their values of health, sustainability, and authenticity; and the ability to stay relevant by continuously adapting to changing trends and engaging with customers through social media. By delivering on these fronts, Nekter Juice Bar has built a loyal customer base, particularly among health-conscious Gen Z consumers, and stood out in the crowded market.
📈 Learn More ~ https://www.revernetworks.com/restaurant-power-index
Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Turn up the volume and subscribe nowto Rock My Restaurant, the podcast setting
your brand on fire for you,coming to you live every week. Branding,
marketing, innovative tech, don't getleft behind. The future is now.
(00:21):
Welcome back to another episode of RockMy Restaurant. Today is going to
be a blast. We are postNRA and yes we have recovered ourselves.
So Tammy, how are you doing? You say recovered? But look at
my voice. So for everybody outthere, I had a little too much
fun and I went to the showthree out of the four days. That's
(00:43):
good, and took a nap everyday and went to parties every night.
So, man, you're living thelife. I'm telling you, you're living
the life. I just wish Icould do that. Well, here's the
thing, Paul, As you know, I'm single and have no children,
so I get to go seper going. So what was the what was the
takeaway from the NRA. It wasinteresting looking at some of the booths and
(01:07):
I was talking to a friend ofmine, you may know him, Christopher
Seebs. He says, you know, there's three new pos companies that popped
up in the on the trade showfloor that we hadn't seen before, and
it really is crazy how many POScompanies exist or trying to exist. And
I think what that tells me isthat there's just not a product out there
(01:27):
that's perfect for everyonebody. Yeah,yeah, what about with Devour what's any
did you guys do anything cool?Yeah? We went to well, actually,
I've got some really cool stuff theretoo. We went to the RTN
event, you know, Restaurant TechnologyNetwork, and Shelley was recently named to
the Vendor Advisor Council. So nice. Okay, it's kind of a cool
(01:49):
thing to do. I got thechance to do it a couple of years
ago, and really it's a greatway to meet people and network and she
was pretty excited about it. Ilove that. Well. I think key
here is you know, when youlook at the industry right now, networking
is one of the things that hadbeen obviously missing for many years, and
now we're back into it. Sowe're seeing a lot more events. We
(02:09):
have some special announcements coming up forthe fall and the summer. Rock My
restaurant will be at the Prosper eventin August, and that is going to
be really cool because we'll have afull studio for Saver lots of shows.
Yeah, it's going to be reallycool. You're going to be there though,
(02:30):
I'm going to be there. Yeah, actually both of the companies that
I work with, both companies willbe there, so okay, perfect,
Well you're going to have to bethere because we're going to host a show
there. Fantastic, or we're goingto get some actual rock elements. Maybe
I can get maybe and get theguys at Rock and Bruce to come.
Then we'll do that. We'll havesome we'll have some guitars on set,
(02:50):
we'll bring in. We've got amusician coming in to play, and we're
gonna we're gonna probably do a liveintro with a rock musician is what I'm
thinking. Yes, yeah, afull live intro. Well, I'm super
excited about this. Are you goingto Consensus next week? I am going
to be in Austin. Well,our team will be there too. We've
(03:10):
got a list. I'm co hostingthe John Deaton for Senate. You know,
I don't know if you know JohnDeaton, but he's a he's a
big he's a big blockchain guy.So he's been you know, very very
uh instrumental in the ripple case andhe's making him bid to go against Senator
(03:31):
Warren so I'll be hosting a fundraiserin Austin with him. So yeah,
it's gonna be cool. Hey,listen, we have got an amazing guest
today. Awesome. It is goingto be so cool and I think everybody's
gonna love it. We're going toget into some deep dives on it.
Uh, it's gonna be awesome.But what is the topic. Well,
(03:53):
today we're going to talk about howhow do you stand out from the crowd?
All right, I like it.Well, if you think about standing
out out from a crowd, thenyou have to think about kind of the
better for you concept because this isone of the things that's been in the
industry fast casual sector for quite sometime. Today is going to be very
interesting. And we've got Alexa Paronand she's going to be She is the
(04:15):
co founder and chief visionary officer ofNectar Juice Bar. Now we've had Steve
on many times, but Alexis isthe first time she's been on one of
our shows. So we got tobring her in and give her the full
transition. Welcome into the show,Alexis, Thank you so much. I'm
excited to be here. I'm goingto have to show Steve up a little.
(04:36):
Probably. Well, I'm excited tohave another lady on the show.
So it's nice to see you too. I don't well, Steve, Steve
is always fun. But I'm gladyou got you know, we get.
I like to see the executive teamcome in from brands like this because,
you know, seeing the full ideathat comes around a brand. You know,
(04:58):
it's not always led by one person. Everybody knows that there's always some
support and or co founders or teamleads that have really kind of built that
brand. And obviously, you,as the co founder and visionary officer of
Nectar, give us kind of arundown of what you guys are doing right
now. Where are you today?Oh gosh, we're so busy, you
(05:21):
know. Growth is it's you know, we're kind of trying to look at
and we've been a very steady growingbrand for you know, we kind of
try to limit ourselves not over overdothe growth factors. So we're growing about
fifty ish stores a year. Wow, And okay, all right, I
(05:41):
got I think that's steady, steady, not really growing about fifty stores a
year as you know, we're takingit slow, only fifty a year.
How do you keep up with fiftystores a year? What's the total unit
count now on Nectar? I thinkwe're oh, gosh, you know,
it's funny. I want to sayaround twenty three right now? So or
(06:01):
sorry, two hundred and twenty three. Cut two hundred all right, two
twenty three? Mostly? Is itmostly West coast? We are? You
know, we we are expanded.We're nationwide now, but yes, the
majority of our stores started California,Arizona, Texas kind of but yeah,
we're all the way out to NewJersey now. So it's really cool.
(06:23):
So I have a question for youbecause I've been into your stores many times
and I always see, you know, it's one of the brands that I
feel like has been able to kindof cut through the noise, which is
kind of our topic today. Andyou guys always have this what I have
called many times the X factor.You know, it's this something you can't
(06:44):
put a you know, you can'tpoint to it, but you just know
it's there. You have to tellme what it is. What is it
that makes me when I walk intoa Nectar? I mean, there's a
handful of brands that do it.Sweet Green has this. You know,
if you look at the salace sector, these guys have it. You look
at what's happening with Chipotle, likethey have the X factor, but you
don't see the X factor in brandstypically under a thousand units. They because
(07:10):
they're still finding their way. Whatis it that has made you guys so
different? You know, I Iprobably have a very different answer to a
lot of people, but I loveto say that are just the integrity of
our brand. You know, There'sthere's so many different variations in this healthy
space and juice bar and everything,and I think that like what we've done
is I think there's like two categorieson the side of us, and we
(07:32):
sort of own the middle. Andthat's you know, there's really healthy places
that the food may not taste great, and then there's the places where it
tastes good but it's just glorified icecream, you know, and we have
real food that actually tastes amazing.And I think that's that's the X factor,
right, Like that's it's a hardthing to do, and I think
(07:53):
our you know, our branding isa pretty you know, I have to
give Steve a lot of credit forlike the branding side and everything's just it
kind of comes together. But theintegrity and sort of the mission behind it
is I think, what you know, it's an authentic thing. I noticed
that you guys had catering. I'mnot sure is that typical in your space
(08:15):
because when I think about that that, I think my girlfriends would love to
know this exists, and you knowfor brunch parties, baby showers, those
kinds of things. So talk tous about what you do with catering and
is that different in your space.Yeah, it's a hard thing, and
mean it took us a little whilebecause you know, you're delivering frozen product,
fresh product, you know, sojust getting it in people's hands was
(08:37):
kind of like trying to figure thatout. But it's amazing, right to
be able to do. We justdid on Instagram like this, like you
know, the charcuterie boards and thegrazing boards, but like one with asa
ebols with all the fruit out andit's gorgeous, you know, I mean,
it's such a beautiful presentation. It'sit's healthy. When people eat it,
they have more energy instead of wantingto do it to get a nap.
(08:58):
So it's such a great way tolike pull it in. But yeah,
it's take it. You know,it's frozen products, so there's a
time constraint on all that. Soit's it's that's definitely something that our competitors
maybe haven't. Well, yeah,it's interesting you mentioned AlSi ebols. So
I'll tell you a quick anecdote.My girlfriend was here last week with her
two kids and her fourteen year oldhere from Wisconsin. On her list of
(09:20):
things to do in California was havean assai ebowl. That's so awesome.
I love that. I hope shewent to Nectar. So I would ask
you, like, is that ademographic you're going after? Are you guys
looking at gen Z because I thinkthey're looking at you. Yeah, I
mean obviously we know like gen Z, and I think I think the Instagram
(09:43):
world of social media everything like beautifulfood, I think feely good when you
eat something. I think all thosethings. But more importantly, I really
think the beauty of the food andassay bowls are just pretty. You know.
We have Pataia product that's this likehot vibrant and it's naturally naturally that
color, you know, and soit's just it's it's cool. It's looking
(10:07):
at the Instagram page right now.It's some great you guys do a great
job with this in terms of themarketing component, and uh, you're right,
I mean this is an easy Ifeel like this is an easy thing.
You're cheating a little bit you havebecause you have really good, uh
you know, photogenic food and itlooks like you have some great I don't
(10:28):
know if that's a marketing if thoseare marketing models or not. But I
like their sunglasses. I know,aren't they so cute? I I've got
on Tuesdays? Isn't that you werepink on Wednesdays? I like it?
I like it. Now what areyou teaching us? Here? Are you
doing yoga as we're watching this?I'm teaching breath work? Yes. Yeah.
We started a wellness series just toreally loop in the lifestyle aspect.
(10:50):
So I'm also a yoga teacher,so it was just kind of fun to
just allow you know, other there'sother aspects of wellness than just what you
eat, so we kind of wantedto That's something that we've seen with a
lot of different brands, is thisconnection to lifestyle. And you know,
a handful of brands can do it, you know, whether it's the health
and wellness side, something that integratesinto social, something that integrates into you
(11:16):
know, the gaming sector. There'sall sorts of things that you know that
we're seeing with brands growing in thatway. Was that something intentional for you
guys or was this, Hey,it just is a natural evolution. You
know, it's kind of it wasan It was intentional in the sense that
when we you know, the wholeidea of like drinking a juice or getting
these like real we're all so busy. So it was like, how do
(11:37):
we make real food into something youcan grab and go right without all the
preservatives and the crap. And itwas something I found in my own life
and then shared. So that wassort of And then, you know,
Steve and I were married in anotherlifetime and we were out to dinner with
our kids and some gentleman stopped usand was like, I got to tell
(11:58):
you this. Your juice has changedmy life. I started drinking your juice
every morning, I've lost weight,feel amazing and wow. So those components,
it's like, we're not just sellingjuice, We're actually we really are
a lifestyle brand, Like it canmake changes and I think that that feel
good component it does run through youfeel good when you eat. Is there
anything that you guys are are consideringthat would start to maybe move you into
(12:24):
other sectors of retail or I'm justthinking when I look at lifestyle brands,
sometimes there's almost a natural match,you know, for it to do.
You know, you're talking about wellness, health and wellness. I mean I
could see a whole thing about that, you know. I like where you're
going, like yoga mats and allright, well let's hear it. You
have something to say, I cantell it. Oh no, I mean
(12:46):
I just I think that, yeah, there's a lot of areas we've entertained.
I think it's just trying to figureout and maybe AI can help us
with that, but trying to figureout exactly what what avenue to go because
what we do, we do itso well and so you don't want it's
such a you know, it's likewe have our bottled juices already. You
(13:07):
know. I'm kind of a nutritiongeek, and I think there's just a
lot of there's a lot of roomfor growth. So it's almost one of
those like there's too many options,So trying to figure out what makes the
most sense for us to expand into. But I think it has to fit
our integrity and it has to besomething that really does make people feel better.
And you know, so it couldbe anything. But yeah, you
(13:28):
know, what were the growth tacticsfor you? Do you feel that really
made or put Nectar Juice Bar onthe map? You know, was there
something that you did early that said, oh man, this is kind of
what propelled us into a growth cycle. I mean, I think generally speaking,
(13:48):
it's like keeping things simple, keepingthings very easy. Easy. You
know, you walk in, there'sthere's familiar drinks on the menu, There's
you know, not an overwhelming menu. We looked at in and out.
I'm like, you know, that'sthat's a standard, right. I Mean,
they're never not busy, and it'sbecause it's it's we have so many
decisions already in our life. Youdon't want to walk in and be like,
(14:09):
I'm overwhelmed by this menu. Sothat was kind of a big thing.
I think, just yeah, makingit easy, making everything taste good,
making and then bringing in you know, our technology we have. We
have quite a bit of users onthe app. We were kind of first
in our space to really bring inthe app and do the rewards system.
I mean, I think we havethree million users on our app. Do
(14:31):
you have Order Ahead? We do? Yeah, so that was a big
one, especially during the pandemic,you know, that was that is such
a great thing walk in and thensince then, yeah, I mean I
think fifty percent of our users areare using the app to order ahead to
you know, door dash whatever.So that's been a great, a great
(14:52):
thing. You know, just segueinto that, like how do we make
it more accessible, especially because itdoes take time. We are hand crfting
everything you order, so it takestime, so it kind of eliminates the
wait time for people. It's great. Yeah. I always say it's either
coupons or convenience for the apps,and you know, I think that the
(15:13):
app too. For you. You'vedone some exciting partnerships outside of the space.
I think I read something about Nintendoand I forget the other one,
but I'd love to hear you talka little bit more about that and then
if the app is a place wherethose partnerships could come to life longer term.
Ooh, well, we did youknow we did? One of our
(15:33):
favorite ones was with two Face cosmetics, which they reached out to us.
It was so random, you know, it was like never would have thought
about that, but it did sowell for us. It was just another
way to get eyeballs on the brand, you know, and it's like we
you know, of course we hadto make it like beautiful and you know,
pink and like hot pig Instagram.Yeah, yes, absolutely, and
(15:58):
so so it was just such awell yeah, I mean, I think,
just a different layer and then addingin that cool factor, right,
I mean, I think that's thatdemographic that is using cosmetics, and there's
such a big thing, especially onTikTok and everything. So it just that
was a great layer. And thenI think, gosh, that would be
interesting how it lives more permanently.I mean, I think the right partner
(16:22):
when you know we partner. We'repartnering right now with Patia Plus on some
really cool we're doing a giveaway areally fun vacation. I was kind of
thinking, like Charlie and the ChocolateFactory, like how do we do this
golden ticket? And they're a permanentpartner for us, so it's kind of
a no brainer. They're doing amazingthings in the s both in the space.
(16:45):
I've never heard of Pataya, SoI think if you've got three million
people in your audience, that's agreat way to get that brand out,
Like they should be doing some marketing. There's the Avocado Commission and the Banana
Commission and milk industry. Yeah,there's so many I know, there's so
many things you could bring a lotof success for them. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean we've been partnering since thebeginning, so they're very you know,
(17:08):
very appreciative of the partnership to beginwith. But but yeah, it's
it's just it's nice and they're doinggood things. You know, Nicaragua,
they are like taking care of singlemoms and you know, the farmers are
really doing a great job of takingcare of that. So it's fun to
partner with other brands that have thatvein of integrity of doing good, you
(17:32):
know. So there are definitely longterm potential partnerships there with the with the
health and wellness you know, focusof a brand. Many you know,
many people would say, all right, there's been kind of these growth sectors
and spurts and some you know,I think some brands have tried to kind
of cross over, which is kindof almost like a meet, you know,
(17:52):
kind of Hey, I'm going todo that too, I'm going to
add it to my menu. Butyet, you guys have really focused on
that, zoning in on the healthand wellness factor in your brand integrity side
of things. Do you feel likethis limits the potential for growth or does
this just double down on really dominatinga sector of you know, the industry.
(18:15):
Yeah, I don't feel like we'veever been limited. I think,
you know, even as you lookat food trends, I mean, things
come and go all the time,and what makes us able to hold steady
is it people always come back toreal food. You always remember, you
know, I felt really good whenI was drinking right, and no matter
what like you could be you know. I mean in my nutrition program,
(18:37):
we studied all these different diets andI was laughing at like how many.
I'm like, gosh, I've beenthrough quite a few too, right,
like vegan and then you go ketoand then you know, yeah, and
the people that are unhealthy in thoseveins are the ones that are doing like
the frozen foods and the convenience items, the things loaded with preservatives, and
people that do well are doing itfrom a health of whole food perspective.
(19:02):
Right, they're eating real food.So nectar has always been real food.
So it just we don't get pulled, we don't get sidelined. We just
we can own it. Right.And I think that we started here.
We're like you mentioned, there's brandsthat have tried maybe and it just doesn't
work. You already think of nectaras healthy. We're some of these other
(19:22):
brands, they just that's you know, you know what you said. What
is the best of I'm looking atthe let me bring it up on screen
here the detox cleanses. Okay,And first of all, I love it
when brands come together with almost CpGstyle products. But I'm looking at this,
and I'm looking at the one daycleanse and the two day cleanse,
(19:45):
and then you have you go allthe way into the three and five.
What is included in each one ofthese cleanses. If I go with the
one day, what do I get? So you'll get the six bottles.
I think you kind of see themon the photo. You start in the
morning with your celery duce, yourdrink kind of a lemonade green juice throughout
the day, and then you endon a nut milk to kind of get
you through. But yeah, it'sjust it's like stopping stopping eating food really
(20:11):
makes you aware. It starts togo, oh gosh, do I snack
throughout the whole day? Do I? You know? My one friend was
like, I didn't realize how manyof my kids goldfish I was eating until
I was cleansing, right, andthen you you know, you just it
just really resets you. It resetsyour palate. At the end of a
cleans you're like, wow, I'mnot craving sugar. I feel very content
(20:32):
and I'm craving fruits and vegetbles,although a lot of people are like,
I can't wait for a burger atthe end of the clip. Oh for
sure. Okay, so how doyou she used to make an NRA version
right post NRA and market it tothe all the seventy thousand people that went
there. You go, that wouldbe that would be right? How are
(20:53):
you, Alexis? How are you? So? Is this shipping all around
the country right now? Nope?Well we're shipping it to our stores.
So you have to purchase. Youhave to be in a nectar okay to
get it all right, So graban in store only is there any plan
to maybe create something that would beshippable you know, so we did ship
back in the day and it justgot so expensive. And then now with
(21:17):
the plans to grow, you know, with our fifty stars a year,
we're gonna we're gonna be everywhere,so everyone will have access to it eventually.
Right, Well, that actually bringsup a really good question, So
talk about the delivery only locations,like what are the unit economics of this?
And are you franchising? So isit there might be people out there
that want to franchise. Yeah,so we are franchising I think one hundred
(21:38):
and seventy of our stores or franchisemaybe even a little more. And the
delivery only Actually, it's such acool way for us to test a market,
to get in markets we're not andjust kind of do it in kind
of an easy way. You know. It's it's kind of fun to see,
you know, what is the responseto actor in some of these markets
(22:00):
were not in yet an infel right, and I think, yeah, it's
just been. It's been. It'sgood because we're still able to train and
have like the integrity of our productthrough door dash in these locations. So
we're yeah, it's working really well. You've got one location or maybe two
(22:22):
in locations here in Florida. Iwas looking at Coconut Creek, that one's
up on lines, and then yougot one up and like near Boca,
so I could pick up a cleansefrom one of those locations. I'm thinking
about a cleanse here, Tammy,Yeah, you're after NRA. I don't
blame you. Yeah, I meanEnare was a brutal and I did meg
beforehand, and frankly it's it wasmy birthday. So now we're going to
(22:45):
the desert for the weekend, soyou're just keeping it. Go one long
cleanse, Alexis, Okay, we'llfigure that one out. Paul, we
could probably ship you one. Okay, Well then there you go. Hey,
we're going to continue this conversation.I do want to take a short
break for our sponsor, and wewill be right back here with Alexis Para
(23:07):
from Nectar. Devour is making iteasy for QSR and fast casual brands to
tap into gen Z's love of foodordering without heavy fees or technology investments.
It's all at your fingertips. Expandfood ordering into digital realms like video gaming,
streaming and esports entertainment. Learn moreat devour dot io today. All
(23:30):
right, here we are again backhere with the CVO Alexis Para coming in
from Nectro Juice Bar. You guys, of course, have been doing some
pretty amazing things. Tammy, Iknow we're going to talk about gen Z,
but I want to dive in alittle deeper on that. What do
you think? Absolutely so, that'sa digitally native generation. They approach everything
so differently. So how are youattracting those guys to your brand? Well?
(23:56):
Obviously social media is such a bigpiece, and I think we did
did we touch on it before?Just about the beauty of our products,
you know, bringing that in theapp. I mean obviously we have such
a great app, we have rewardskind of just yeah, I mean we
have to be digitally capable, right, so we have we have all the
(24:17):
users on our app, We've gotInstagram. I do think the collabs are
such a great way to like,you know, they're they're seeing it in
different ways. I wish we hadmore presence on TikTok, but I'm not
about to. Like you know,that was actually one of my quest is
you know they're on Snapchat, they'reon TikTok is huge in our space.
(24:37):
So are you guys primarily focused onInstagram? We have been. Yeah,
it's definitely something where it's just Idon't know, maybe we need to hire
someone younger. Yeah, someone foryou. Yeah, I can get you
one of those. Listen, youguys are in the right spot because you
can probably pull some talent out ofHollywood and they would probably just love to
(24:57):
do something like that. I wantto get into the fast casual sector.
This is one of the things thatyou know is kind of near and dear
to my heart. I'm and onething that I'm I've been watching. I'm
finishing a second portion of a bookthat I wrote on this called The Chipotle
Effect. It was about a decadeago when I wrote the book, and
(25:18):
it was all based on the fastcasual industry, and a lot has changed.
You know, we've kind of hadthis fast casual two point zero craze,
but really the domination of fast casualhas just taken over. So that's
good. But do you feel likethere's going to be any setback with the
current economic conditions? You know,when you think about price and listen,
(25:40):
you know, nectar is not Iwas it's definitely not a low end brand,
so you're not you're competing with someof the you know, pricier concepts
out there. Do you think thatis a potential setback or a challenge in
the near future versus now, ifwe can hold our own, we're going
to win this in the long run. Yeah, I mean, you know,
(26:00):
it definitely is on everyone who's mind, right, especially in California and
minimum wages increase, which we knowthat's a big topic, you know,
I think we have to everything's goingup, right, so it becomes sort
of like, how do you putyourself in front of people enough to remind
them that we feel good when wemeet Nectar instead of going somewhere else.
(26:26):
Yeah, I mean, I thinkit really does rely on the branding and
getting out there, and it's attention. You're right, You've got to have
that attention because you know, it'sthis is something we've talked about in some
of our I set them on advisoryboards with brands and we get into this
topic all the time. Is andthe point that I often make will be
(26:48):
listen, if you can win theattention zone in whatever category you're in,
there's always going to be a numberone and the number two and number three
may struggle, but that number oneone is going to win it. You
know, even in tough times,even when price is being taken on the
menu, when consumers are spending less, the one brand that catches the most
(27:10):
attention is the one that is goingto get that occasion. So right now,
I'm like, whatever you guys cando create attention around the brand.
So and you guys have the perfectvehicle. I think you know when you
look at just the look, thefeel, the vibe, the you know,
the X factor, it's all inthere for sure. Yeah, I
(27:32):
think you know it's it's staying relevantand if if people are voting with their
you know, you're taking your tento fifteen dollars and you're like, what
am I going to do with thistoday? Right? It may be less
less less frequent with the way thingsare, but I don't know, I
feel like with in this in thefast casual, we are that lower price
point. You know, we're notin comparisons to say, like a full
(27:53):
meal. Yeah, h for sure. Yeah, because if you do have
meal replacement, you know concepts whichI think a lot of people have started
to do now in lieu of Youknow, my wife and I were talking
about it. She's a physician andshe gets into and she's a holistic physician.
She hates writing prescriptions. She's adoo if I don't know if you
(28:14):
guys know what that is, buta doctor of ustopathic medicine, even though
they're MD quality, they don't likethe process of medication. They want to
try to heal everybody through you know, pure simple food and exercise is what
it boils down to. And shestarted talking. We've got into this conversation
and she was talking a lot aboutthat patients that are coming to her that
(28:37):
are on these GLP medicines. Youknow, she's trying to move them into
real food and just doing these thingsthat are meal replacements in creating a new
you know, really just a newregiment, you know, of how to
do your daily life. Man,that is so hard do you find that?
Now? You guys are in California, so it's all beautiful people,
(29:00):
so everybody is on everybody. Thereare beautiful people. Yeah, but when
you get into some of these otherareas, it's people are struggling with way
they're struggling with, you know,you know, just not feeling good.
About themselves. They're struggling with allthese problems. Do you feel like you
would you address that any with whatyou guys are trying to do. Absolutely,
(29:22):
I mean again, I think wetouched on it before, and I
love that your wife is a dealbecause I'm a big fan of that.
Like, you either pay now oryou pay later, right, I say
that to some of my friends arelike, well, I don't have the
time or I don't have the energy. Well, it's like you have to
make the time to have the energybecause it is such a snowball effect.
The worst we eat, the lessenergy we have, and then that flips
on us. So the better youeat, the more energy is more.
(29:45):
Then you are walking more, youknow, you get your steps in.
That's where it is. It doesgo back to this whole lifestyle aspect and
I'm I'm I preach it. Iprobably drive everybody I know crazy talking about
it, but it's true, right, Like it's like, I feel amazing.
I turned fift this year and Ifeel I feel no different than I
did, you know, ten twentyyears ago. You know, So it's
important, it's it's it's it hasit has a big impact. And yeah,
(30:10):
you got me on their own topicbecause I could talk to Yeah,
you could go forever. All right, Well, we're going to spend because
we do talk a rest, youknow, branding, marketing. I think
you guys have hit it out ofthe park, Tammy. Let's go dive
in a little bit more in theAI side, because she teased on that
for a minute. And there issomething that is happening around personalization around AI.
(30:30):
I'm finding it now in all kindsof apps that I'm using. You
know, I guess what are youguys going to go with here on AI?
How are brands doing AI? Well? I mean it is kind of
cool. You know, you typein like oh, I mean even on
my phone. I was like,you know, you type in anything and
it gives you this full I meanit's kind of scary. It's kind of
(30:51):
scary how much information you can getjust like that quickly. But I love
it because then you can cater youryour marketing, you can target that even
a little clear. For us,we're able to pull such great information.
We have real time data on what'sgoing on in our brand. I mean
that's that's huge because that's our hardestthing. It's like to really understand where
(31:12):
your brand's going, you need tohave good data and and good analytics.
And if AI is giving us that, it's it's actually it's kind of mind
blowing. But I love it.I mean in that part, I love
and I love being able to target. I mean, who doesn't want where
we know we're all we all gettargeted. You say one thing to your
phone and the next thing, youknow, you have you know, an
ad imagine that, Oh wow,but it's yeah, we know that was
(31:37):
happening, and I started wishing forthings out lide. There you go.
I used to call it the secret. Now it's just Alexa. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Iyeah. And I love that because it's
like, you know, I'm like, oh, I need to research some
new things, and I'll just sayit into my phone, like look at
there, I got I know exactlywhat brands are you know, targeting all
this, So it's cool. Youthink you're going to get to the place
(32:00):
where you walk in and your drinkis ready and nobody pays. They just
facial recognition, they know you're olderand you walk out. I mean,
I grew up with Terminator and allthese like crazy movies, so that I
do have a little fear bubble bubblingup with all of that, So I'll
be honest, but who knows it'llbe Hopefully it's all good stuff. Well,
(32:21):
I would love to throw this questionin there and ask you, as
a female in the industry, youknow, what has it been like for
you and do you have any advicethat you would give to young women on
your path? Yeah? You know, fortunately, I early on connected with
some incredible women, and I thinkin the food space, especially got it's
(32:45):
so rad how everyone just rallies aroundeach other. And then even still I
have people reach out to me andI'm connecting them with people, and I
don't know that is that. Ithink that the women in the space are
just beyond amazing and to be ableto connect, So I think it's all
about paying it forward, right.We all kind of live live through our
early days and people will talk tome like, oh god, I remember,
(33:07):
I remember that, and and likewith fondness, you know, you
kind of forget all the headaches.But I just as a as a female,
it's it's incredible to be able toto share. And I think I
would say to anyone starting out,find your people, find people who understand
exactly what you know you're going throughbecause nobody knows unless you're in the space.
(33:30):
It's yeah, yeah, for sure. I think the key here is,
you know, when you look atbuilding brands in today's you know,
in today's world you need that mentorkind of that tribe of mentors is what
I use. I have, youknow, a whole crew of people that
I call and talk to you aboutdifferent scenarios and you know, challenges and
(33:52):
successes that are very significant. Ithink in being able to grow a business.
That is one of the things thoughwith rest that is probably the most
unique to me is the willingness ofoperators in the space to share. I've
been blown away by that. SoI tell people this, Paul, I
say, a consumer has twenty onechances to eat out and that's if you
(34:15):
just call breakfast, lunch, anddinner, yeah, per week. Right,
So it's not like buying a car. So we don't have to cut
throat each other. Because even ifthey love nector, they are not going
to have nectar three times a day, seven times a week unless they're on
a cleanse. So your brand isa little different, but generally they're not.
So why not elevate everybody like helpeach other. And I'm famous for
(34:39):
trying to connect people. So that'sreally cool. Ye, Well we're going
to get into our obstacle course sectionAlexis. So this kind of a bit
of a fun game where you youknow, as a leader, as a
restaurant operator and as a founder,you always have these things coming at you,
(35:00):
an obstacle course just constantly. You'reready for this, You're ready for
that. Then there's an opportunity.Now there's a challenge. You know,
it's like putting out a lot ofsmall fires and then forest fires. So
with that being the case, whatwould be two challenges and one opportunity that
you would say is facing Nectar JuiceBar today. Well, I think with
(35:25):
every brand, one of the biggestchallenges is like when to bring on more
people, When to bring on youknow, we sort of had we thought
we were bringing on the right people, you know, I mean human capital,
let's face it right like that.That is everybody's biggest challenge, I
think, So knowing when to staffup for growth, knowing when I mean
(35:46):
I think passion over experience sometimes hasled us in a much better you know
it end up finding better people.So so that was a big one,
and I think we've made some bigmistakes along the way in bringing in people
who we thought knew more than us, and they did it, you know.
So and then okay, another challenge. Oh gosh, it's so hard.
(36:14):
I mean, I think as youyou grow work we are a community
based juice bar, even though we'renow a franchise brand, right, So
the challenge is helping people create thatcommunity as they open multiple points. But
yeah, like how I don't thinka lot of operators really focus that much
on their local communities, and youknow that's the thing that wins every time.
(36:38):
Well and yeah, and as wegrow, it's like we don't know
that community and relying on them todo that, and so how do we
assist them and help them? Andyou know, our first stores, I
was out pounding the street, youknow, pounding pavement, handing out drink
cards, talking to people about it. I mean, it's a very grassroots
component of what we do. Sothat that would be another one. Okay,
(37:01):
Wait, did I do the twochallenge? You got the two challenges?
Now the opportunity opportunity, God,there's just so much opportunity. I
mean, I think I probably haveto go back to TikTok. We're going
to have to figure out how toreally appeal to all those guys all have
some kids. Maybe you could sendsome products, make some videos. Yeah,
you know, I tried to havemy friend's daughter who has like I
(37:22):
think one hundred thousand followers on TikTokto get the product all the time,
and she made something, you know, and I'm like, but what do
we do with it? Because wedon't really have that avenue. So all
right, I'm going to go howin the marketing get some micro influencers.
You know, we'll get them outthere because especially I mean you with your
particular category, it's a hot category, so and you and it adapts to
(37:44):
the right kind of consumer base aswell, so you're in the right spot
for sure. This is going tobe fun. Listen, Alexis has been
great having you on the show.Thank you again for stopping in. We
appreciate it. Tell Steve we saidhello, and all the people at Nectar
we we love the concept for sure. So I can't wait to get back
to a Nectar juice bar. Nowfor all your sports, I know we
(38:06):
need to get you a juice Itsounds like you guys both need juices,
So we'll figure that out. Butthank you for all your support over the
years. Yeah for sure. Wellit was great having you. Thanks for
stopping in. Thank you, niceto meet to meet you. Okay,
so let's get into uh So.First of all, another great UH interview.
I think I love to see Ilove to see women founders me too.
(38:28):
I don't those What is the deal? We don't have enough of them?
And I mean we really try hardto try to bring them in too.
I know your producer Lisa Pepe isgreat and she's really focused on that
and really tries. And I thinkI saw on LinkedIn recently a friend of
mine posted there's just not enough womenpodcasters are on podcasts, and I said,
what about this one? So wegot them. Now we're we're rolling
(38:52):
in there. I think the keyhere is, you know, when you
when you have those great stories,you know that you can and then those
people can help maybe foster other youngladies to think like that, you know,
because really, at the end ofthe day, you need you got
to have the right mindset, youknow, And that's a hard thing,
(39:14):
you know, especially in the entrepreneurialworld because it's mostly male dominated and it's
the startup founders, it's all men, right. There's very few women I
can think of, like Christina Pathspotyou know. But I go to a
lot of these events, especially onthe technology side, and there really isn't
a lot of women. And that'spart of why a couple of my girlfriends
(39:35):
we created the women's group that we'rerunning to do exactly that. Well,
listen, you guys listening in rightnow. If you know of a great
female founder that's out there, oran entrepreneur, or maybe someone in the
space that you just feel like isreally killing it, let us know.
Just send a note to us,which is just producer at Sabor dot fm,
and that hits all of our producers. They can go out and research
(39:59):
it for a guest on the showshow and of course it's always fun to
break all that down. Make sureand visit our new website. We've updated
it so we've got all kinds ofcool new stuff. All the new shows
are on there, which is justSaber dot fm. You can catch us
on iTunes, Spotify now on YouTube. YouTube has been doing really well with
(40:19):
this show too. We've been gettingquite a few view over there. For
sure, this will probably be atop show. I bet for sure.
Once that you put those sexy juiceyou know photos on there and you have
you know, some cool tagline,We're gonna win this. This is going
to be a good one. I'mgoing to promote this one in my women's
group on LinkedIn too, so we'llcool. All right, Tammy, We
(40:40):
will see you next week and definitelyhave a great time. I always do
you travel all over the world.I know my trips. I'm done though,
I'm done. Next trip is personal. Good for you, good for
you. We'll take it easy.Okay, all right, guys and ladies,
gentlemen, all of you guys listenin maybe watching here on the YouTube
(41:00):
channel. Make sure and of courselike and subscribe right now. Take just
that one second to do that.It does help the show and it helps
us understand what you guys really like. To listen and watch here on Rock
My Restaurant. We'll catch you nexttime.
Turn up the volume and subscribe nowto Rock My Restaurant, the podcast setting
your brand on fire for you,coming to you live every week. Branding,
marketing, innovative tech, don't getleft behind. The future is now.
(00:21):
Welcome back to another episode of RockMy Restaurant. Today is going to
be a blast. We are postNRA and yes we have recovered ourselves.
So Tammy, how are you doing? You say recovered? But look at
my voice. So for everybody outthere, I had a little too much
fun and I went to the showthree out of the four days. That's
(00:43):
good, and took a nap everyday and went to parties every night.
So, man, you're living thelife. I'm telling you, you're living
the life. I just wish Icould do that. Well, here's the
thing, Paul, As you know, I'm single and have no children,
so I get to go seper going. So what was the what was the
takeaway from the NRA. It wasinteresting looking at some of the booths and
(01:07):
I was talking to a friend ofmine, you may know him, Christopher
Seebs. He says, you know, there's three new pos companies that popped
up in the on the trade showfloor that we hadn't seen before, and
it really is crazy how many POScompanies exist or trying to exist. And
I think what that tells me isthat there's just not a product out there
(01:27):
that's perfect for everyonebody. Yeah,yeah, what about with Devour what's any
did you guys do anything cool?Yeah? We went to well, actually,
I've got some really cool stuff theretoo. We went to the RTN
event, you know, Restaurant TechnologyNetwork, and Shelley was recently named to
the Vendor Advisor Council. So nice. Okay, it's kind of a cool
(01:49):
thing to do. I got thechance to do it a couple of years
ago, and really it's a greatway to meet people and network and she
was pretty excited about it. Ilove that. Well. I think key
here is you know, when youlook at the industry right now, networking
is one of the things that hadbeen obviously missing for many years, and
now we're back into it. Sowe're seeing a lot more events. We
(02:09):
have some special announcements coming up forthe fall and the summer. Rock My
restaurant will be at the Prosper eventin August, and that is going to
be really cool because we'll have afull studio for Saver lots of shows.
Yeah, it's going to be reallycool. You're going to be there though,
(02:30):
I'm going to be there. Yeah, actually both of the companies that
I work with, both companies willbe there, so okay, perfect,
Well you're going to have to bethere because we're going to host a show
there. Fantastic, or we're goingto get some actual rock elements. Maybe
I can get maybe and get theguys at Rock and Bruce to come.
Then we'll do that. We'll havesome we'll have some guitars on set,
(02:50):
we'll bring in. We've got amusician coming in to play, and we're
gonna we're gonna probably do a liveintro with a rock musician is what I'm
thinking. Yes, yeah, afull live intro. Well, I'm super
excited about this. Are you goingto Consensus next week? I am going
to be in Austin. Well,our team will be there too. We've
(03:10):
got a list. I'm co hostingthe John Deaton for Senate. You know,
I don't know if you know JohnDeaton, but he's a he's a
big he's a big blockchain guy.So he's been you know, very very
uh instrumental in the ripple case andhe's making him bid to go against Senator
(03:31):
Warren so I'll be hosting a fundraiserin Austin with him. So yeah,
it's gonna be cool. Hey,listen, we have got an amazing guest
today. Awesome. It is goingto be so cool and I think everybody's
gonna love it. We're going toget into some deep dives on it.
Uh, it's gonna be awesome.But what is the topic. Well,
(03:53):
today we're going to talk about howhow do you stand out from the crowd?
All right, I like it.Well, if you think about standing
out out from a crowd, thenyou have to think about kind of the
better for you concept because this isone of the things that's been in the
industry fast casual sector for quite sometime. Today is going to be very
interesting. And we've got Alexa Paronand she's going to be She is the
(04:15):
co founder and chief visionary officer ofNectar Juice Bar. Now we've had Steve
on many times, but Alexis isthe first time she's been on one of
our shows. So we got tobring her in and give her the full
transition. Welcome into the show,Alexis, Thank you so much. I'm
excited to be here. I'm goingto have to show Steve up a little.
(04:36):
Probably. Well, I'm excited tohave another lady on the show.
So it's nice to see you too. I don't well, Steve, Steve
is always fun. But I'm gladyou got you know, we get.
I like to see the executive teamcome in from brands like this because,
you know, seeing the full ideathat comes around a brand. You know,
(04:58):
it's not always led by one person. Everybody knows that there's always some
support and or co founders or teamleads that have really kind of built that
brand. And obviously, you,as the co founder and visionary officer of
Nectar, give us kind of arundown of what you guys are doing right
now. Where are you today?Oh gosh, we're so busy, you
(05:21):
know. Growth is it's you know, we're kind of trying to look at
and we've been a very steady growingbrand for you know, we kind of
try to limit ourselves not over overdothe growth factors. So we're growing about
fifty ish stores a year. Wow, And okay, all right, I
(05:41):
got I think that's steady, steady, not really growing about fifty stores a
year as you know, we're takingit slow, only fifty a year.
How do you keep up with fiftystores a year? What's the total unit
count now on Nectar? I thinkwe're oh, gosh, you know,
it's funny. I want to sayaround twenty three right now? So or
(06:01):
sorry, two hundred and twenty three. Cut two hundred all right, two
twenty three? Mostly? Is itmostly West coast? We are? You
know, we we are expanded.We're nationwide now, but yes, the
majority of our stores started California,Arizona, Texas kind of but yeah,
we're all the way out to NewJersey now. So it's really cool.
(06:23):
So I have a question for youbecause I've been into your stores many times
and I always see, you know, it's one of the brands that I
feel like has been able to kindof cut through the noise, which is
kind of our topic today. Andyou guys always have this what I have
called many times the X factor.You know, it's this something you can't
(06:44):
put a you know, you can'tpoint to it, but you just know
it's there. You have to tellme what it is. What is it
that makes me when I walk intoa Nectar? I mean, there's a
handful of brands that do it.Sweet Green has this. You know,
if you look at the salace sector, these guys have it. You look
at what's happening with Chipotle, likethey have the X factor, but you
don't see the X factor in brandstypically under a thousand units. They because
(07:10):
they're still finding their way. Whatis it that has made you guys so
different? You know, I Iprobably have a very different answer to a
lot of people, but I loveto say that are just the integrity of
our brand. You know, There'sthere's so many different variations in this healthy
space and juice bar and everything,and I think that like what we've done
is I think there's like two categorieson the side of us, and we
(07:32):
sort of own the middle. Andthat's you know, there's really healthy places
that the food may not taste great, and then there's the places where it
tastes good but it's just glorified icecream, you know, and we have
real food that actually tastes amazing.And I think that's that's the X factor,
right, Like that's it's a hardthing to do, and I think
(07:53):
our you know, our branding isa pretty you know, I have to
give Steve a lot of credit forlike the branding side and everything's just it
kind of comes together. But theintegrity and sort of the mission behind it
is I think, what you know, it's an authentic thing. I noticed
that you guys had catering. I'mnot sure is that typical in your space
(08:15):
because when I think about that that, I think my girlfriends would love to
know this exists, and you knowfor brunch parties, baby showers, those
kinds of things. So talk tous about what you do with catering and
is that different in your space.Yeah, it's a hard thing, and
mean it took us a little whilebecause you know, you're delivering frozen product,
fresh product, you know, sojust getting it in people's hands was
(08:37):
kind of like trying to figure thatout. But it's amazing, right to
be able to do. We justdid on Instagram like this, like you
know, the charcuterie boards and thegrazing boards, but like one with asa
ebols with all the fruit out andit's gorgeous, you know, I mean,
it's such a beautiful presentation. It'sit's healthy. When people eat it,
they have more energy instead of wantingto do it to get a nap.
(08:58):
So it's such a great way tolike pull it in. But yeah,
it's take it. You know,it's frozen products, so there's a
time constraint on all that. Soit's it's that's definitely something that our competitors
maybe haven't. Well, yeah,it's interesting you mentioned AlSi ebols. So
I'll tell you a quick anecdote.My girlfriend was here last week with her
two kids and her fourteen year oldhere from Wisconsin. On her list of
(09:20):
things to do in California was havean assai ebowl. That's so awesome.
I love that. I hope shewent to Nectar. So I would ask
you, like, is that ademographic you're going after? Are you guys
looking at gen Z because I thinkthey're looking at you. Yeah, I
mean obviously we know like gen Z, and I think I think the Instagram
(09:43):
world of social media everything like beautifulfood, I think feely good when you
eat something. I think all thosethings. But more importantly, I really
think the beauty of the food andassay bowls are just pretty. You know.
We have Pataia product that's this likehot vibrant and it's naturally naturally that
color, you know, and soit's just it's it's cool. It's looking
(10:07):
at the Instagram page right now.It's some great you guys do a great
job with this in terms of themarketing component, and uh, you're right,
I mean this is an easy Ifeel like this is an easy thing.
You're cheating a little bit you havebecause you have really good, uh
you know, photogenic food and itlooks like you have some great I don't
(10:28):
know if that's a marketing if thoseare marketing models or not. But I
like their sunglasses. I know,aren't they so cute? I I've got
on Tuesdays? Isn't that you werepink on Wednesdays? I like it?
I like it. Now what areyou teaching us? Here? Are you
doing yoga as we're watching this?I'm teaching breath work? Yes. Yeah.
We started a wellness series just toreally loop in the lifestyle aspect.
(10:50):
So I'm also a yoga teacher,so it was just kind of fun to
just allow you know, other there'sother aspects of wellness than just what you
eat, so we kind of wantedto That's something that we've seen with a
lot of different brands, is thisconnection to lifestyle. And you know,
a handful of brands can do it, you know, whether it's the health
and wellness side, something that integratesinto social, something that integrates into you
(11:16):
know, the gaming sector. There'sall sorts of things that you know that
we're seeing with brands growing in thatway. Was that something intentional for you
guys or was this, Hey,it just is a natural evolution. You
know, it's kind of it wasan It was intentional in the sense that
when we you know, the wholeidea of like drinking a juice or getting
these like real we're all so busy. So it was like, how do
(11:37):
we make real food into something youcan grab and go right without all the
preservatives and the crap. And itwas something I found in my own life
and then shared. So that wassort of And then, you know,
Steve and I were married in anotherlifetime and we were out to dinner with
our kids and some gentleman stopped usand was like, I got to tell
(11:58):
you this. Your juice has changedmy life. I started drinking your juice
every morning, I've lost weight,feel amazing and wow. So those components,
it's like, we're not just sellingjuice, We're actually we really are
a lifestyle brand, Like it canmake changes and I think that that feel
good component it does run through youfeel good when you eat. Is there
anything that you guys are are consideringthat would start to maybe move you into
(12:24):
other sectors of retail or I'm justthinking when I look at lifestyle brands,
sometimes there's almost a natural match,you know, for it to do.
You know, you're talking about wellness, health and wellness. I mean I
could see a whole thing about that, you know. I like where you're
going, like yoga mats and allright, well let's hear it. You
have something to say, I cantell it. Oh no, I mean
(12:46):
I just I think that, yeah, there's a lot of areas we've entertained.
I think it's just trying to figureout and maybe AI can help us
with that, but trying to figureout exactly what what avenue to go because
what we do, we do itso well and so you don't want it's
such a you know, it's likewe have our bottled juices already. You
(13:07):
know. I'm kind of a nutritiongeek, and I think there's just a
lot of there's a lot of roomfor growth. So it's almost one of
those like there's too many options,So trying to figure out what makes the
most sense for us to expand into. But I think it has to fit
our integrity and it has to besomething that really does make people feel better.
And you know, so it couldbe anything. But yeah, you
(13:28):
know, what were the growth tacticsfor you? Do you feel that really
made or put Nectar Juice Bar onthe map? You know, was there
something that you did early that said, oh man, this is kind of
what propelled us into a growth cycle. I mean, I think generally speaking,
(13:48):
it's like keeping things simple, keepingthings very easy. Easy. You
know, you walk in, there'sthere's familiar drinks on the menu, There's
you know, not an overwhelming menu. We looked at in and out.
I'm like, you know, that'sthat's a standard, right. I Mean,
they're never not busy, and it'sbecause it's it's we have so many
decisions already in our life. Youdon't want to walk in and be like,
(14:09):
I'm overwhelmed by this menu. Sothat was kind of a big thing.
I think, just yeah, makingit easy, making everything taste good,
making and then bringing in you know, our technology we have. We
have quite a bit of users onthe app. We were kind of first
in our space to really bring inthe app and do the rewards system.
I mean, I think we havethree million users on our app. Do
(14:31):
you have Order Ahead? We do? Yeah, so that was a big
one, especially during the pandemic,you know, that was that is such
a great thing walk in and thensince then, yeah, I mean I
think fifty percent of our users areare using the app to order ahead to
you know, door dash whatever.So that's been a great, a great
(14:52):
thing. You know, just segueinto that, like how do we make
it more accessible, especially because itdoes take time. We are hand crfting
everything you order, so it takestime, so it kind of eliminates the
wait time for people. It's great. Yeah. I always say it's either
coupons or convenience for the apps,and you know, I think that the
(15:13):
app too. For you. You'vedone some exciting partnerships outside of the space.
I think I read something about Nintendoand I forget the other one,
but I'd love to hear you talka little bit more about that and then
if the app is a place wherethose partnerships could come to life longer term.
Ooh, well, we did youknow we did? One of our
(15:33):
favorite ones was with two Face cosmetics, which they reached out to us.
It was so random, you know, it was like never would have thought
about that, but it did sowell for us. It was just another
way to get eyeballs on the brand, you know, and it's like we
you know, of course we hadto make it like beautiful and you know,
pink and like hot pig Instagram.Yeah, yes, absolutely, and
(15:58):
so so it was just such awell yeah, I mean, I think,
just a different layer and then addingin that cool factor, right,
I mean, I think that's thatdemographic that is using cosmetics, and there's
such a big thing, especially onTikTok and everything. So it just that
was a great layer. And thenI think, gosh, that would be
interesting how it lives more permanently.I mean, I think the right partner
(16:22):
when you know we partner. We'repartnering right now with Patia Plus on some
really cool we're doing a giveaway areally fun vacation. I was kind of
thinking, like Charlie and the ChocolateFactory, like how do we do this
golden ticket? And they're a permanentpartner for us, so it's kind of
a no brainer. They're doing amazingthings in the s both in the space.
(16:45):
I've never heard of Pataya, SoI think if you've got three million
people in your audience, that's agreat way to get that brand out,
Like they should be doing some marketing. There's the Avocado Commission and the Banana
Commission and milk industry. Yeah,there's so many I know, there's so
many things you could bring a lotof success for them. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean we've been partnering since thebeginning, so they're very you know,
(17:08):
very appreciative of the partnership to beginwith. But but yeah, it's
it's just it's nice and they're doinggood things. You know, Nicaragua,
they are like taking care of singlemoms and you know, the farmers are
really doing a great job of takingcare of that. So it's fun to
partner with other brands that have thatvein of integrity of doing good, you
(17:32):
know. So there are definitely longterm potential partnerships there with the with the
health and wellness you know, focusof a brand. Many you know,
many people would say, all right, there's been kind of these growth sectors
and spurts and some you know,I think some brands have tried to kind
of cross over, which is kindof almost like a meet, you know,
(17:52):
kind of Hey, I'm going todo that too, I'm going to
add it to my menu. Butyet, you guys have really focused on
that, zoning in on the healthand wellness factor in your brand integrity side
of things. Do you feel likethis limits the potential for growth or does
this just double down on really dominatinga sector of you know, the industry.
(18:15):
Yeah, I don't feel like we'veever been limited. I think,
you know, even as you lookat food trends, I mean, things
come and go all the time,and what makes us able to hold steady
is it people always come back toreal food. You always remember, you
know, I felt really good whenI was drinking right, and no matter
what like you could be you know. I mean in my nutrition program,
(18:37):
we studied all these different diets andI was laughing at like how many.
I'm like, gosh, I've beenthrough quite a few too, right,
like vegan and then you go ketoand then you know, yeah, and
the people that are unhealthy in thoseveins are the ones that are doing like
the frozen foods and the convenience items, the things loaded with preservatives, and
people that do well are doing itfrom a health of whole food perspective.
(19:02):
Right, they're eating real food.So nectar has always been real food.
So it just we don't get pulled, we don't get sidelined. We just
we can own it. Right.And I think that we started here.
We're like you mentioned, there's brandsthat have tried maybe and it just doesn't
work. You already think of nectaras healthy. We're some of these other
(19:22):
brands, they just that's you know, you know what you said. What
is the best of I'm looking atthe let me bring it up on screen
here the detox cleanses. Okay,And first of all, I love it
when brands come together with almost CpGstyle products. But I'm looking at this,
and I'm looking at the one daycleanse and the two day cleanse,
(19:45):
and then you have you go allthe way into the three and five.
What is included in each one ofthese cleanses. If I go with the
one day, what do I get? So you'll get the six bottles.
I think you kind of see themon the photo. You start in the
morning with your celery duce, yourdrink kind of a lemonade green juice throughout
the day, and then you endon a nut milk to kind of get
you through. But yeah, it'sjust it's like stopping stopping eating food really
(20:11):
makes you aware. It starts togo, oh gosh, do I snack
throughout the whole day? Do I? You know? My one friend was
like, I didn't realize how manyof my kids goldfish I was eating until
I was cleansing, right, andthen you you know, you just it
just really resets you. It resetsyour palate. At the end of a
cleans you're like, wow, I'mnot craving sugar. I feel very content
(20:32):
and I'm craving fruits and vegetbles,although a lot of people are like,
I can't wait for a burger atthe end of the clip. Oh for
sure. Okay, so how doyou she used to make an NRA version
right post NRA and market it tothe all the seventy thousand people that went
there. You go, that wouldbe that would be right? How are
(20:53):
you, Alexis? How are you? So? Is this shipping all around
the country right now? Nope?Well we're shipping it to our stores.
So you have to purchase. Youhave to be in a nectar okay to
get it all right, So graban in store only is there any plan
to maybe create something that would beshippable you know, so we did ship
back in the day and it justgot so expensive. And then now with
(21:17):
the plans to grow, you know, with our fifty stars a year,
we're gonna we're gonna be everywhere,so everyone will have access to it eventually.
Right, Well, that actually bringsup a really good question, So
talk about the delivery only locations,like what are the unit economics of this?
And are you franchising? So isit there might be people out there
that want to franchise. Yeah,so we are franchising I think one hundred
(21:38):
and seventy of our stores or franchisemaybe even a little more. And the
delivery only Actually, it's such acool way for us to test a market,
to get in markets we're not andjust kind of do it in kind
of an easy way. You know. It's it's kind of fun to see,
you know, what is the responseto actor in some of these markets
(22:00):
were not in yet an infel right, and I think, yeah, it's
just been. It's been. It'sgood because we're still able to train and
have like the integrity of our productthrough door dash in these locations. So
we're yeah, it's working really well. You've got one location or maybe two
(22:22):
in locations here in Florida. Iwas looking at Coconut Creek, that one's
up on lines, and then yougot one up and like near Boca,
so I could pick up a cleansefrom one of those locations. I'm thinking
about a cleanse here, Tammy,Yeah, you're after NRA. I don't
blame you. Yeah, I meanEnare was a brutal and I did meg
beforehand, and frankly it's it wasmy birthday. So now we're going to
(22:45):
the desert for the weekend, soyou're just keeping it. Go one long
cleanse, Alexis, Okay, we'llfigure that one out. Paul, we
could probably ship you one. Okay, Well then there you go. Hey,
we're going to continue this conversation.I do want to take a short
break for our sponsor, and wewill be right back here with Alexis Para
(23:07):
from Nectar. Devour is making iteasy for QSR and fast casual brands to
tap into gen Z's love of foodordering without heavy fees or technology investments.
It's all at your fingertips. Expandfood ordering into digital realms like video gaming,
streaming and esports entertainment. Learn moreat devour dot io today. All
(23:30):
right, here we are again backhere with the CVO Alexis Para coming in
from Nectro Juice Bar. You guys, of course, have been doing some
pretty amazing things. Tammy, Iknow we're going to talk about gen Z,
but I want to dive in alittle deeper on that. What do
you think? Absolutely so, that'sa digitally native generation. They approach everything
so differently. So how are youattracting those guys to your brand? Well?
(23:56):
Obviously social media is such a bigpiece, and I think we did
did we touch on it before?Just about the beauty of our products,
you know, bringing that in theapp. I mean obviously we have such
a great app, we have rewardskind of just yeah, I mean we
have to be digitally capable, right, so we have we have all the
(24:17):
users on our app, We've gotInstagram. I do think the collabs are
such a great way to like,you know, they're they're seeing it in
different ways. I wish we hadmore presence on TikTok, but I'm not
about to. Like you know,that was actually one of my quest is
you know they're on Snapchat, they'reon TikTok is huge in our space.
(24:37):
So are you guys primarily focused onInstagram? We have been. Yeah,
it's definitely something where it's just Idon't know, maybe we need to hire
someone younger. Yeah, someone foryou. Yeah, I can get you
one of those. Listen, youguys are in the right spot because you
can probably pull some talent out ofHollywood and they would probably just love to
(24:57):
do something like that. I wantto get into the fast casual sector.
This is one of the things thatyou know is kind of near and dear
to my heart. I'm and onething that I'm I've been watching. I'm
finishing a second portion of a bookthat I wrote on this called The Chipotle
Effect. It was about a decadeago when I wrote the book, and
(25:18):
it was all based on the fastcasual industry, and a lot has changed.
You know, we've kind of hadthis fast casual two point zero craze,
but really the domination of fast casualhas just taken over. So that's
good. But do you feel likethere's going to be any setback with the
current economic conditions? You know,when you think about price and listen,
(25:40):
you know, nectar is not Iwas it's definitely not a low end brand,
so you're not you're competing with someof the you know, pricier concepts
out there. Do you think thatis a potential setback or a challenge in
the near future versus now, ifwe can hold our own, we're going
to win this in the long run. Yeah, I mean, you know,
(26:00):
it definitely is on everyone who's mind, right, especially in California and
minimum wages increase, which we knowthat's a big topic, you know,
I think we have to everything's goingup, right, so it becomes sort
of like, how do you putyourself in front of people enough to remind
them that we feel good when wemeet Nectar instead of going somewhere else.
(26:26):
Yeah, I mean, I thinkit really does rely on the branding and
getting out there, and it's attention. You're right, You've got to have
that attention because you know, it'sthis is something we've talked about in some
of our I set them on advisoryboards with brands and we get into this
topic all the time. Is andthe point that I often make will be
(26:48):
listen, if you can win theattention zone in whatever category you're in,
there's always going to be a numberone and the number two and number three
may struggle, but that number oneone is going to win it. You
know, even in tough times,even when price is being taken on the
menu, when consumers are spending less, the one brand that catches the most
(27:10):
attention is the one that is goingto get that occasion. So right now,
I'm like, whatever you guys cando create attention around the brand.
So and you guys have the perfectvehicle. I think you know when you
look at just the look, thefeel, the vibe, the you know,
the X factor, it's all inthere for sure. Yeah, I
(27:32):
think you know it's it's staying relevantand if if people are voting with their
you know, you're taking your tento fifteen dollars and you're like, what
am I going to do with thistoday? Right? It may be less
less less frequent with the way thingsare, but I don't know, I
feel like with in this in thefast casual, we are that lower price
point. You know, we're notin comparisons to say, like a full
(27:53):
meal. Yeah, h for sure. Yeah, because if you do have
meal replacement, you know concepts whichI think a lot of people have started
to do now in lieu of Youknow, my wife and I were talking
about it. She's a physician andshe gets into and she's a holistic physician.
She hates writing prescriptions. She's adoo if I don't know if you
(28:14):
guys know what that is, buta doctor of ustopathic medicine, even though
they're MD quality, they don't likethe process of medication. They want to
try to heal everybody through you know, pure simple food and exercise is what
it boils down to. And shestarted talking. We've got into this conversation
and she was talking a lot aboutthat patients that are coming to her that
(28:37):
are on these GLP medicines. Youknow, she's trying to move them into
real food and just doing these thingsthat are meal replacements in creating a new
you know, really just a newregiment, you know, of how to
do your daily life. Man,that is so hard do you find that?
Now? You guys are in California, so it's all beautiful people,
(29:00):
so everybody is on everybody. Thereare beautiful people. Yeah, but when
you get into some of these otherareas, it's people are struggling with way
they're struggling with, you know,you know, just not feeling good.
About themselves. They're struggling with allthese problems. Do you feel like you
would you address that any with whatyou guys are trying to do. Absolutely,
(29:22):
I mean again, I think wetouched on it before, and I
love that your wife is a dealbecause I'm a big fan of that.
Like, you either pay now oryou pay later, right, I say
that to some of my friends arelike, well, I don't have the
time or I don't have the energy. Well, it's like you have to
make the time to have the energybecause it is such a snowball effect.
The worst we eat, the lessenergy we have, and then that flips
on us. So the better youeat, the more energy is more.
(29:45):
Then you are walking more, youknow, you get your steps in.
That's where it is. It doesgo back to this whole lifestyle aspect and
I'm I'm I preach it. Iprobably drive everybody I know crazy talking about
it, but it's true, right, Like it's like, I feel amazing.
I turned fift this year and Ifeel I feel no different than I
did, you know, ten twentyyears ago. You know, So it's
important, it's it's it's it hasit has a big impact. And yeah,
(30:10):
you got me on their own topicbecause I could talk to Yeah,
you could go forever. All right, Well, we're going to spend because
we do talk a rest, youknow, branding, marketing. I think
you guys have hit it out ofthe park, Tammy. Let's go dive
in a little bit more in theAI side, because she teased on that
for a minute. And there issomething that is happening around personalization around AI.
(30:30):
I'm finding it now in all kindsof apps that I'm using. You
know, I guess what are youguys going to go with here on AI?
How are brands doing AI? Well? I mean it is kind of
cool. You know, you typein like oh, I mean even on
my phone. I was like,you know, you type in anything and
it gives you this full I meanit's kind of scary. It's kind of
(30:51):
scary how much information you can getjust like that quickly. But I love
it because then you can cater youryour marketing, you can target that even
a little clear. For us,we're able to pull such great information.
We have real time data on what'sgoing on in our brand. I mean
that's that's huge because that's our hardestthing. It's like to really understand where
(31:12):
your brand's going, you need tohave good data and and good analytics.
And if AI is giving us that, it's it's actually it's kind of mind
blowing. But I love it.I mean in that part, I love
and I love being able to target. I mean, who doesn't want where
we know we're all we all gettargeted. You say one thing to your
phone and the next thing, youknow, you have you know, an
ad imagine that, Oh wow,but it's yeah, we know that was
(31:37):
happening, and I started wishing forthings out lide. There you go.
I used to call it the secret. Now it's just Alexa. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, Iyeah. And I love that because it's
like, you know, I'm like, oh, I need to research some
new things, and I'll just sayit into my phone, like look at
there, I got I know exactlywhat brands are you know, targeting all
this, So it's cool. Youthink you're going to get to the place
(32:00):
where you walk in and your drinkis ready and nobody pays. They just
facial recognition, they know you're olderand you walk out. I mean,
I grew up with Terminator and allthese like crazy movies, so that I
do have a little fear bubble bubblingup with all of that, So I'll
be honest, but who knows it'llbe Hopefully it's all good stuff. Well,
(32:21):
I would love to throw this questionin there and ask you, as
a female in the industry, youknow, what has it been like for
you and do you have any advicethat you would give to young women on
your path? Yeah? You know, fortunately, I early on connected with
some incredible women, and I thinkin the food space, especially got it's
(32:45):
so rad how everyone just rallies aroundeach other. And then even still I
have people reach out to me andI'm connecting them with people, and I
don't know that is that. Ithink that the women in the space are
just beyond amazing and to be ableto connect, So I think it's all
about paying it forward, right.We all kind of live live through our
early days and people will talk tome like, oh god, I remember,
(33:07):
I remember that, and and likewith fondness, you know, you
kind of forget all the headaches.But I just as a as a female,
it's it's incredible to be able toto share. And I think I
would say to anyone starting out,find your people, find people who understand
exactly what you know you're going throughbecause nobody knows unless you're in the space.
(33:30):
It's yeah, yeah, for sure. I think the key here is,
you know, when you look atbuilding brands in today's you know,
in today's world you need that mentorkind of that tribe of mentors is what
I use. I have, youknow, a whole crew of people that
I call and talk to you aboutdifferent scenarios and you know, challenges and
(33:52):
successes that are very significant. Ithink in being able to grow a business.
That is one of the things thoughwith rest that is probably the most
unique to me is the willingness ofoperators in the space to share. I've
been blown away by that. SoI tell people this, Paul, I
say, a consumer has twenty onechances to eat out and that's if you
(34:15):
just call breakfast, lunch, anddinner, yeah, per week. Right,
So it's not like buying a car. So we don't have to cut
throat each other. Because even ifthey love nector, they are not going
to have nectar three times a day, seven times a week unless they're on
a cleanse. So your brand isa little different, but generally they're not.
So why not elevate everybody like helpeach other. And I'm famous for
(34:39):
trying to connect people. So that'sreally cool. Ye, Well we're going
to get into our obstacle course sectionAlexis. So this kind of a bit
of a fun game where you youknow, as a leader, as a
restaurant operator and as a founder,you always have these things coming at you,
(35:00):
an obstacle course just constantly. You'reready for this, You're ready for
that. Then there's an opportunity.Now there's a challenge. You know,
it's like putting out a lot ofsmall fires and then forest fires. So
with that being the case, whatwould be two challenges and one opportunity that
you would say is facing Nectar JuiceBar today. Well, I think with
(35:25):
every brand, one of the biggestchallenges is like when to bring on more
people, When to bring on youknow, we sort of had we thought
we were bringing on the right people, you know, I mean human capital,
let's face it right like that.That is everybody's biggest challenge, I
think, So knowing when to staffup for growth, knowing when I mean
(35:46):
I think passion over experience sometimes hasled us in a much better you know
it end up finding better people.So so that was a big one,
and I think we've made some bigmistakes along the way in bringing in people
who we thought knew more than us, and they did it, you know.
So and then okay, another challenge. Oh gosh, it's so hard.
(36:14):
I mean, I think as youyou grow work we are a community
based juice bar, even though we'renow a franchise brand, right, So
the challenge is helping people create thatcommunity as they open multiple points. But
yeah, like how I don't thinka lot of operators really focus that much
on their local communities, and youknow that's the thing that wins every time.
(36:38):
Well and yeah, and as wegrow, it's like we don't know
that community and relying on them todo that, and so how do we
assist them and help them? Andyou know, our first stores, I
was out pounding the street, youknow, pounding pavement, handing out drink
cards, talking to people about it. I mean, it's a very grassroots
component of what we do. Sothat that would be another one. Okay,
(37:01):
Wait, did I do the twochallenge? You got the two challenges?
Now the opportunity opportunity, God,there's just so much opportunity. I
mean, I think I probably haveto go back to TikTok. We're going
to have to figure out how toreally appeal to all those guys all have
some kids. Maybe you could sendsome products, make some videos. Yeah,
you know, I tried to havemy friend's daughter who has like I
(37:22):
think one hundred thousand followers on TikTokto get the product all the time,
and she made something, you know, and I'm like, but what do
we do with it? Because wedon't really have that avenue. So all
right, I'm going to go howin the marketing get some micro influencers.
You know, we'll get them outthere because especially I mean you with your
particular category, it's a hot category, so and you and it adapts to
(37:44):
the right kind of consumer base aswell, so you're in the right spot
for sure. This is going tobe fun. Listen, Alexis has been
great having you on the show.Thank you again for stopping in. We
appreciate it. Tell Steve we saidhello, and all the people at Nectar
we we love the concept for sure. So I can't wait to get back
to a Nectar juice bar. Nowfor all your sports, I know we
(38:06):
need to get you a juice Itsounds like you guys both need juices,
So we'll figure that out. Butthank you for all your support over the
years. Yeah for sure. Wellit was great having you. Thanks for
stopping in. Thank you, niceto meet to meet you. Okay,
so let's get into uh So.First of all, another great UH interview.
I think I love to see Ilove to see women founders me too.
(38:28):
I don't those What is the deal? We don't have enough of them?
And I mean we really try hardto try to bring them in too.
I know your producer Lisa Pepe isgreat and she's really focused on that
and really tries. And I thinkI saw on LinkedIn recently a friend of
mine posted there's just not enough womenpodcasters are on podcasts, and I said,
what about this one? So wegot them. Now we're we're rolling
(38:52):
in there. I think the keyhere is, you know, when you
when you have those great stories,you know that you can and then those
people can help maybe foster other youngladies to think like that, you know,
because really, at the end ofthe day, you need you got
to have the right mindset, youknow, And that's a hard thing,
(39:14):
you know, especially in the entrepreneurialworld because it's mostly male dominated and it's
the startup founders, it's all men, right. There's very few women I
can think of, like Christina Pathspotyou know. But I go to a
lot of these events, especially onthe technology side, and there really isn't
a lot of women. And that'spart of why a couple of my girlfriends
(39:35):
we created the women's group that we'rerunning to do exactly that. Well,
listen, you guys listening in rightnow. If you know of a great
female founder that's out there, oran entrepreneur, or maybe someone in the
space that you just feel like isreally killing it, let us know.
Just send a note to us,which is just producer at Sabor dot fm,
and that hits all of our producers. They can go out and research
(39:59):
it for a guest on the showshow and of course it's always fun to
break all that down. Make sureand visit our new website. We've updated
it so we've got all kinds ofcool new stuff. All the new shows
are on there, which is justSaber dot fm. You can catch us
on iTunes, Spotify now on YouTube. YouTube has been doing really well with
(40:19):
this show too. We've been gettingquite a few view over there. For
sure, this will probably be atop show. I bet for sure.
Once that you put those sexy juiceyou know photos on there and you have
you know, some cool tagline,We're gonna win this. This is going
to be a good one. I'mgoing to promote this one in my women's
group on LinkedIn too, so we'llcool. All right, Tammy, We
(40:40):
will see you next week and definitelyhave a great time. I always do
you travel all over the world.I know my trips. I'm done though,
I'm done. Next trip is personal. Good for you, good for
you. We'll take it easy.Okay, all right, guys and ladies,
gentlemen, all of you guys listenin maybe watching here on the YouTube
(41:00):
channel. Make sure and of courselike and subscribe right now. Take just
that one second to do that.It does help the show and it helps
us understand what you guys really like. To listen and watch here on Rock
My Restaurant. We'll catch you nexttime.
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