Angela of Salud, Worth the Drive

Sometimes the moments that change our lives don’t arrive as opportunity. They arrive as fear. A diagnosis. A close call. A realization that the people we love are fragile.

On this episode, Michael sits down with Angela — founder and owner of Salud Juice — for a conversation about health, culture, family, and the unexpected path that led her from studying history at California State University, Long Beach to building one of Long Beach’s most recognizable wellness brands.

What started as a daughter trying to help save her father’s life after a major heart scare became something much bigger: a business rooted in care, community, and intention. Angela shares how a $5 juicer, years of research, and a determination to make health accessible helped create a ripple effect that now reaches everyone from yoga moms to longshoremen at the Port of Long Beach.

This episode explores the intersection of food, identity, masculinity, wellness culture, and entrepreneurship — and how changing one person’s habits can quietly transform an entire community.

From growing up between Fresno, LA, and Long Beach… to roller skating at Frisco’s… to fighting state regulations while trying to stay true to her mission, Angela’s story is raw, funny, deeply human, and unmistakably Long Beach.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Sometimes the things that change our lives don't arrive as opportunity. Sometimes they arrive at fear, eternity, realization that the people we love are fragile. And in these moments we start asking bigger questions. Questions about health. About purpose. About what we put into our bodies, how we care for people around us and what really matters in life. And suddenly life feels unpredictable. For Angela, helping to save her father's life, became something much larger. A business rooted in just not just in wellness, but in care, community, and intention. There's something powerful about someone choosing to slow down and create something real. Today I'm with Angela, founder, owner, and operator of Salute. So where'd you grow up?

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Oh God, that is a loaded question. As you know, my family's from Fresno.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Fresno, yes!

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, Fresno, or the no-no, as well as the Fresno.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

The city of No Good.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

The City of No Good, yeah. So my parents are from there. Um, they moved into like West Cobina area. Okay. Uh that's where I was born. And then when my parents split, uh, we went back to Fresno for a couple of years.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

I was like five or six. And then I ended up in LA for the longest span of time until the lake would long be carry.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

So I don't really have any places.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Like LA.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Like Westchester? Okay. By LAX.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Uh Westchester, Marina Del Ray, Blah, Pliant El Rey, we moved around that area.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So you've been a South Bay person in the life.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a small amount. That was from like eight to like twelve or thirteen.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Okay. And then you went, you what high school did you go to?

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Uh St. Joseph.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

St. Joseph's. Okay, I hate you too, because uh Tara said she was uh Wilson.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Yeah, what were you?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

I I did not grow up here. Um but we sponsor and we do a lot with the uh best school in the area, Long Beach Polly.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Oh Polly, yeah, Polly is a great school. My mom gave me a choice of two all-girls schools because she said I was boy crazy. So I can either go to Mr.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Was she was she lying? Or were you boy crazy?

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Maybe I was, I don't know. I was 12. How do you know at that age if I'm boy crazy? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Apparently you said you said something to set your mom up.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

You can either go to Notre Dame Academy for Girls in LA, or you can go to St. Joseph Academy for Girls in Lakewood and you live with your dad, and I chose my father's nice. Yeah, that's why I was there. So, yeah, so that's like the timeline. So I can't really say that I've been a part of a city longer than like a couple of years, other than like Lakewood Long Beach. I think I'm from here.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

So this is your home.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

This is my home, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah, and it's the same thing for me. I haven't lived here my whole life, but the moment I got here, I was like, I was even driving through the city with my wife, and we were on like fourth and magnolia. And I was like, this feels like Fresno.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

And she's uh she thought that's not a good thing. And but it made me feel at home. And I think the main thing was the mixture of diversity and like like uh having the food made by the people who actually make the food.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Um, I will say I feel like spoiled, not spoiled. I mean, I've worked in hospitality in this city since I was 14. I was a hostess at Ruby's on PSH and Second, which doesn't even exist anymore.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

I remember it though.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, but I worked there and then I was an expo person. Then I called myself a fountaineer. I made the like the splits and stuff. And then after that I worked at Frisco's, which also doesn't exist anymore at the traffic circle.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

I went in there quite a bit. Did you really? Quite a bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Yeah, I was a roller skating waitress there for a couple of years. And then I moved to Open Sesame and worked there for almost a decade.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Is that where you met Taro?

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yes, that's not where I've met all of my friends. Like I'm still friends with all. I'm going to my friend Rena. Happy birthday, Rena. It's her 50th. Well, it was her 50th, but her 50th birthday party this coming Saturday. Nice. And I've known her for about 20 years now. She was actually, I met her at Open Sesame and she was my wedding planner as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Wow. Okay. I just saw some recent pictures of that.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Of my wedding.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

I think it was your birthday, and uh Tara posted something.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Okay, so you get their high school, you go to college.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Cal State Long Beach.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Cal State Long Beach.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Degree in history.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Because you wanted to be professor, yeah?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Okay. So I think we'll do.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

I think he'll just be like old quirky professor, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Okay. Well, you could do it. I just had a uh graduation photo shoot with a guy who's 67 years old and just got his degree in psychology.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Wow. See, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

No. You live your life, you figure out the truth.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

There actually aren't any rules. We've been making them up since the dawn came. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Time doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

We didn't choose to be born. No. And for most of us, we don't choose when we die. Everything in the middle is just some we're just making it up until we die.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Why not just do the things you want to do? It's true.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

It's true. So anyway. History.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

To salute.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Yeah, so my senior year of history. Uh, I keep thinking we're going somewhere and I'm waiting for the destination.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

No destination.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Okay. Um, yeah, so I have a degree in history. Um, and my senior year of college, my uncle passes away. He was he went into cardiac arrest two years before that. And he was in a vet okay, so I like say I said coma, but just recently I was talking to a girlfriend about it, and she was like, oh, he was in a vegetative state, not a coma. He wasn't a coma. He would um this is getting bored because he would blink, he would cry, he would do certain things, but the way my dad described it as, you know, there was so much damage to like he's a car guy.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

That's even scarier. Yeah, that's scarier because he's awake.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah, but like we're not sure how conscious he was, though, you know. My dad said that the wires melted together.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

That's the way he described it. Uh, like I said, very I don't I know he used to be sad, but heart issues.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Heart issues.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

And then he passed away in that vegetable like I'm gonna say cold because I can't say it sounds awful. Yeah. He was in a coma, passed away in that state. My dad had like a a a heart attack at the at the uh funeral.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Oh my at the funeral? Yeah. Literally at the funeral.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Like he was like, uh, wouldn't go in because we're Mexican and we don't believe in doctors, which is a whole other thing. But just sitting in the parking lot, you know, and then his brothers are going, what's going on? And we kind of have to admit to everybody that he's been having heart issues and he's too afraid to go in for it. Um Hi Tara.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Um and this is your the your bow ready to graduate Kelsey Long Beach is going down.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

And then uh finally, you know, a couple weeks after that, he um having those heart issues again. My stepmom drives him to the ER and says, Um, we're not leaving until you go inside. The pain got so bad he got out, threw up, she locked the door and said, Well, now you have to go in.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

And then they found 70% clogging in four of his arteries, and like it was like within the week he had a quadruple bypass.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Okay, so did your dad have like everyone else's dad's diet, like just ate what he wanted and did what he wanted?

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Or I mean it's hard because like I said, we're we come from a Latin culture, right? And my dad was one of nine. Like he ate his cereal with coffee. He never knew when he was younger, he never knew that cereal with milk was even an option. Yeah. He always drank with coffee. You know, they they um they got the bottom of the barrel as the butters. So it's like a combination of that, but also now that I'm a business owner, because my dad and my uncle were business owners, I'm now understanding stress level and how that played a large part of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Cortisol levels. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

I wasn't a business owner at the time, so the only thing I could, I'm like, control my controllables. What can I control? I can control diet, I can control, you know, trying to get my dad uh to eat healthier, um, which is one aspect of it, obviously. Because then, you know, I'm looking through his fridge and he has like, we used to use country croc, which is just vegetable oil. Yeah. That's not even butter. Yeah. But it's cheap.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

It's what you can afford. Yeah, I think that's what it is. It's like social economic at that point.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Uh percent.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

It's it's I think that's why healthcare is not just necessarily unreachable by the financial standpoint of insurance and stuff like that, but it's unreachable in the idea of we are told to go to Jag the Box because you can get a meal for $4.99 or whatever. You were you're especially in Fresno, before Impressno. You're destined to go to McDonald's because it's cheaper. Matter of fact, I just read something McDonald's is gonna start an all-you-can-eat plan.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

And they already got like six.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

But like you pay like 60 bucks for a month and you get all these, which is gonna cause more trouble for people in their art. But is that it's it's not only social economic, but it's also cultural.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

The type of foods you eat in certain cultures, I mean, especially uh this one, yeah, is fast food. It's American burgers.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

You said this one, and I thought you meant male, because it's also not even just um cultural, but it's then it comes into gender.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

You know, my dad, after his heart attack, he was trying to eat healthier, and his friends would make fun of him for having a salad. Yeah. Because it's too feminine. Health is feminine.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

He is very feminine. Like I always say to my staff, I'm like, the yoga moms coming in, love the yoga moms. They're not an accomplishment to me because they're gonna come no matter what. The blue-collar long short men that come in and they have their regulars, they come in fully tatted, big beard, kind of looks like you. We're afraid, we're like, I don't know, and then they're like, hi, can I get a summer night? I'm like, yes, we did it. We are breaking the boundaries of gender, like gender boundaries on health.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah, that's great because I've never thought about that, but it's it's 100% true in everything, even comes down to coffee. Like guys order coffee. I've seen things where it's like, you know, you have to order the black coffee because if you order any of the fruofy drinks, it's not masculine.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

What show do we both watch? Yellowstone or what?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Yeah, it's probably something like that. Like, it's like, are you kidding me? Like, you know, you want that uh seasonal pumpkin spice latte.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Yeah, but you have to get a black coffee because you have to get a black coffee because you're a man. You have to go to Tommy's burgers because you're a man. You're not going to Simply Salad. Shut up, Simply Salad.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Simply salad, yep. So your uncle, heart issues, your dad, heart issues. Yes. You, like me, have to have control. Um so when that happens, you had to gain control how.

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah, and it's the only thing I could control, which was okay. I'm like, I'll fix it. Like, you know, I'm also the oldest, you know, that's the whole oldest daughter in the lat family.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

I'm like, I'll figure it out. I'm gonna figure it out. Don't worry, I'm gonna figure it out. And so, like, I started making up juice because I was like, how do I get him the most nutrients without him realizing it? Throw an apple in it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

And then we went salute to his health. Salute salute.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Okay, so salute comes the name.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah. And I just be like, sorry, dad, I know it doesn't taste good. Just gulp it down. Put a straw in it, gulp it down.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Okay, so how did you start the the juicing itself?

SPEAKER_03 11:12

I okay, I have a degree in history, right? So, like, I am research backed. Like, I love research. I'm gonna research the crap out of everything, everything. So I started researching juice. I found cold press juice. Um, there's this, um, there's this doctor, um, doctor, oh my gosh. I haven't said his name in so long, I forgot it now. Uh Garson, Garson Therapy. Um, he has a facility in Mexico. Supposedly, okay, look. I don't know anything, okay? I'm just telling you what I've read. There's a conspiracy that he was murdered because his therapy was so like profound with cancer patients that they had to murder him.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Whether that's true or not, I'm not saying that's true.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

No money, no money in health.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Yeah, exactly. Because if you can if you can cure cancer. So he started with this personal therapy. He has a facility in Mexico. They do cold press juice and coffee enemas. Those are like the two like major factors of um. So I was like, okay, cold press juice, that's what I'm doing. So um cold pressure juice juicers are expensive. So I found down the street from my house on Fourth and Walnut, that's where my apartment was, there was a garage sale. Somebody was selling a Jack Lane juicer for five dollars.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Jack Lane. Yeah. He lived where I went to high school, Morro Bay, California. And him and his wife, Elaine Lane.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

No, I hate that.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah, that's her name, would come into my family's shop and yeah, he and he was as awesome as you would imagine doing all the push-ups and everything. But small world, so a Jack Lane juicer.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Jack Lane juicer at a garage sale. I would bring my dad juices out of my apartment. Yes. But then when I would make him juices, so this is how it's this is how it started, right? I made him juices, I worked at open sesame, and then I would bring my little jar, and I'm so like, I'm all about like make it pretty. So I'd get those like a wide mouth uh uh mason jar.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

My dad would have his little juice, I would make it over mine, take it to take it to work because I'm you know, I'm all about eco-friendly and all that. But then my girlfriend started going, ooh, what is that? Ooh, what is that? And that's really what started it.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Like, oh, I worked with you on Tuesdays. Um, can you make me one? Like, I'll give you five bucks. Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

So at that point, I know you said your dad would just gulp it down. Yeah. Like gulp it down, but yeah. Were you starting to play with flavor? Or or were you just like, whatever's healthy?

SPEAKER_03 13:32

No, I had to play with flavors because I need gateway juices.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

You know? Yeah, yeah. No one's gonna drink a green juice if they've never they don't have a palate or green or anything other than like even fruit. Like if they're it's even hard to know for people to stomach.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

So I definitely, one of my girlfriends that worked with her named Roxy, who's still one of my best friends now, um, she's sh extremely picky. So I would have her taste test on my juices and she's like, disgusting, like, and I'm like, okay, let me add a little more of this, whatever. And that's how I came up with a lot of my flavors. Um, is that a lot of the girls that opened Sesame were very health conscious, so it didn't matter to a lot of them. But once I started getting into like more of my picky customers, I started having to come up with like some recipes that for uh of for everybody. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So you're developing the flavors, you're developing. Are you still considering the health benefits of all of this?

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Yeah, that's what's hard because like you want people, it's like with kids, right? Like, I can't give a kid green juice, I have to mix it with apple juice.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

So we have like when I consider my gateway drugs, you know, the summer nights, the other beet one.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Summer nights is carrot or glemon. You might not be able to taste the carrot enough, but it might acclimate your palate a little bit more to carrots. And then you can move on to something a little bit more earthy, like shrub farm has more beet in it than the other beet one does. Yeah. A lot of people that have told me I hate beets. I've never had, I've never, you know, read a beet I like. They can drink the other beet one, start getting acclimated to beat, switch to shroot farm, have a little bit more beet. And then I just kind of went from that to like cucumber, which is cucumber apple lemon, but it's mostly cucumber. So then you're getting away from the sweetness. And then you have things like the straight up and the straight down, which is straight greens.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

One has lemon and one has lemon ginger.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

You're also dealing with the environment of flavors because people now, with the sweet tooths and stuff like this, juice is relatively sweet. Yeah. But because they have so much other sweetness factor with sugars and syrups and stuff like that. Their palate is off.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

100%.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Their palate's at a thousand sugar.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

When even an apple is sweet to someone like me, because I'm not a sweet guy.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Me neither.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

So you're not a squeeze guy?

SPEAKER_03 15:52

Uh wait, you said sweet or squeeze?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Sweet.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

I'm not a sweet guy.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Yeah, I hope.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

But but it it's it's the idea that you're competing with these other places, like I I hate to say it because San Luis Bispo is where me and my wife went to school, and Jamba juice, which juice map came out of uh there, and everyone's like, oh, it's it's it's healthy. It's good. No, it was a milkshake.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah, no, it's Sherbert.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

It's a milkshake.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

But they jumped on the health bandwagon of all that. So you're competing with desserts in the juice market, so you have to educate.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yeah, it's an I think it's I was that actually that wasn't what I was gonna say. That was my response. It's like it's an educational thing where like our staff has to know like we don't put preservatives in it, we don't have any added sugars in it. You know, it's just straight, it's it is what you get, you know. That's there's nothing more than that. It's not sugar coated.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

Yeah. Okay, so great product, right? Dad's feeling better.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Right? Dad's still doing well.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yeah, that's the way.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Right? Because he changed he changes thinking the about stuff, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:59

He's on a whole other level now. He takes collagen every morning. Nice. She makes water every morning with collagen and chia seeds in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

He does his little prune juice, he's probably talking too much, but he does his little like prune juice, prune juice detox like every quarter. Like he's just he's on a different level. I mean, he got it.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Do you think that was you helping with that? Do you think it was the scare?

SPEAKER_03 17:20

A hundred percent. Yeah, it was the scare, you know. It's also like I said, it's that masculinity where before it was like, I don't do that. And now there, you know, he works at the port, he's a longshoreman, and he is working with the scariest, burliest dudes down there. And he gets into a truck and he sees a salute sticker with a dashboard. Yeah, you know, or some of the guys know that his daughter owns Salute and they're like, Eddie, like these huge scary, like, Eddie, dude, Peter tell me your daughter owns Salute, dad's sick. And my dad's like, yeah, I'm just Angela's daughter all over.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

So so you change the culture in your dad.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Right? And now your dad's changing the culture in these longshoremen. Yeah. So you can physically, you can literally see the ripples of the $5 Jacqueline Lane juicer.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Yeah, no, I know.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Throughout Long Beach, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Well, I made it like conscious effort with the packaging. Like the bottle is like a hefty, like apothecary-looking bottle. The label's black and white. It's not pretty, it's not pink, it's nothing. It so a man will feel okay having that in his hand, you know? Because for me, it's very important for men to jump on the house bandwagon. And women are always gonna do it. Women are gonna buy anything that's pretty and cute.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

But I hate to say it's caveman brain. I look at it and I see the ingredients listed. Also, that's this, this, this, this, got it. Yeah, perfect. The name's an added benefit, like you know, some of the great names like soil and green. It's so which every time you post it, I'm like, it's people!

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Soil and green is people.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

But but it's funny, and so it it does make it more approachable in that end.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Now, when it comes to your packaging, it's still glass, but with government and um people overstepping and people trying to get involved. Yeah, how are you having to evolve as a company with pasteurization and uh stuff like that?

SPEAKER_03 19:04

It's funny that you bring that up because I'm in the middle of fighting the California Department of Public Health.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Because they're trying to re they're trying to redefine what wholesale versus retail is. So I have my own stores, I only deliver to my own stores. I'm not selling wholesale. I have full control over how long they're sitting on a shelf, which is only four days. Um, but because I have multiple stores, now they're trying to say that I've been wholesale. So they are trying to get me to switch over to something that uh not pastization. There's another process called high pressure processing. Yeah, yeah. And um, so that is probably what they're gonna make me do. And like fighting to the nail, yes. I I I like ethically don't like plastic, yeah, and I don't want to. HPP actually doesn't affect me because I feel like from a health perspective, I'm still okay with HPP, but you have to use plastic to do HPP. Yeah, the plastic part's really the part that is gonna I'm gonna probably announce it. If they make me do it, I'm gonna announce it and hold myself up for a week in depression because I'm gonna be that sad about it. Because my whole this is the whole reason why I got to this business. When they gave when they gave me the phone call and told me, I was like, you guys, I'm opening up more stories out of this business model, and now you're telling me that I'm gonna have to switch everything to plastic. So I have a couple like um plans up my sleeve. I want to start like a full recycling program to make sure every bottle I'm still gonna incentivize people to bring it back. And I want to have our own salute recycling program where we're taking it to partnering with the recycling program and taking it there. Um but yeah, it's tough, man. It's tough jumping through all the hoops. You never know what policies they're gonna put on you.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah, but that's kind of a it's it's hurting business. Yeah, it's slowing your growth.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Um all for what reason? Is it they think it's health? They think they're protecting people.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Like uh the five log production. So it's like salmonella, listeria, like all those. But at the same time, that's what you get that same problem with like fresh fruit, you know. So it's just hard. I understand to a certain perspective because people are probably uh you know taking advantage of it. But um but yeah, I mean what it's because if I was doing it out of my house for my friends, it's different. But once you start mass producing something, because I don't want to be in every neighborhood in Long Beach. I just literally love this city. Like I love having an excuse to go to Vixby and an excuse to go to you know Belmont Shore and like and being able to spread because I feel like our our besides the product, our custom our employees are happy. And our customers tell us like we feel so happy when we walk into your stores. So we're not just spreading health through the nutritional uh of our product, we're spreading health through mental health too, you know? Like I want everyone to feel included, I want everyone to feel seen, and that's customer to my cu to my employees. Well.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

So your culture in the business is just as important.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

So to have these like little mini cultures, like mini examples of what like human interaction should be, like in every corridor of Long Beach, just sounds amazing to me.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah, and I think bringing the joy, I mean, joy through juice is pretty pretty spectacular.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Joy through juice.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

The alliteration. Joy through uh patent pending, yeah. Michael Farmer. No, uh so business has grown exponentially as as of lately as well. Because I remember uh having to go drive all the way down to Fourth Street, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:41

All the way down. Like it it is though. I agree because I live up here now. Yeah, but that's the whole reason why I want to be in every corridor. We don't leave our neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

We don't. We don't.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

We moved up here to we've been open for 10 years, and we moved up here to Bixby, and people were like, What's salute? Yeah. I'm like, what do you mean? We've been in the in the city for 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Well and the only reason I knew about used Retro Road, because I went down there and I was like, oh, okay, and then we stopped. And but that was the issue, is I had to drive all the way over there. Yeah, but downtown, basically. Um but see that's the other thing that that kind of sucks. Like you're growing, so you're in every neighborhood, so you're bringing help to every neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

But then the government is like, nah, nah son.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Yeah, so I have to work within their bounds, and that's fine. I I you know, you know, as an entrepreneur, you have to adapt. Yeah, they're gonna throw something at you, and like your best, your best asset as an entrepreneur is just to adapt.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

And keep moving. You just have to pivot.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Speaking of adapting, what was it like when you opened your first store?

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Oh my god. I mean, it was fine, I guess. I was 26, so I was young and had nothing else better to do, you know, than be at the shop and clothes seven days a week. Because what so my partner owns the attic. Uh my previous partner, yeah, uh, Steve, who's still one of my closest friends.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Like I shout out the attic. Shout out Nona Marcado.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

And Nona's, yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Um, and dish out tipping apps if you're not on it.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Um, but yeah, he is my uh he was my GM at Open Test Me. He invested, he believed in me when at a time that he probably shouldn't have. He joked that he was gonna claim me as a loss. Yeah, he's like, I gave you that chuck a change and I just claimed you as a loss because I didn't think I was ever gonna see it that way.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

This is my server at a restaurant that's bringing in juices and bottles.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Dude, he he either saw something or capability. Yeah, so that's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

He's he loves people, and when he finds somebody and he sees potential, he will go all in for those people. And there's a big group of us that all know that about him, and like I'll like whatever he says, I say yes. I'm like, whatever, Steve. Whatever you want from me, I will be there no matter what. I love you so much. Yeah, shout out Steve. But actually, that's funny. I feel like I should have said had to say that because what I was gonna say is he would have never let me cut my hours. I was too afraid to even ask him. So we opened seven days a week. We only closed two days a year because he's like, What do you mean? A day off? You just started. What are you talking about? So he's also pushed us really hard.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

I mean, it's also as an entrepreneur, it's it's the self-push too, right? Totally. You quit your 40-hour a week job to work 120 hours a week. 100% and make less money if you start up.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

I made such good money. Yeah, I paid my way through college in cash.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Like, and then I came and then I got paid. I mean, based on how many hours I was working, probably like six dollars an hour. I have no idea. Too depressing to think about it.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

So, with all that, yeah, why was it worth the drive? Why was it worth it for you to open that first door?

SPEAKER_03 25:46

I don't know. Honestly, to this day, I feel like I just blacked out and did it. I feel like I've always wanted to have a hub of community. Like my whole life, I I love people. I am like recharged with people. If I'm not around people enough, I get depressed and I'm like, what's wrong? Like, oh, I haven't seen a human in like four hours.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

I'll just go to my one of my shops and like annoy them, you know. Like, they're like, Why are you here? And I'm like, Can you just talk to me for a second?

SPEAKER_00 26:11

But do you keep that? Like, like with me, I love people and I'm in people and I like having conversations and I love being involved. Yeah, but then I have to go home and do nothing.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

100%. Oh, yeah. No, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Like, don't freaking talk to me for about six hours.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

I definitely have to recharge like that too. Yeah. But I do love community. I also like, I also love the idea, like I said, of spreading a certain like um culture, you know? And for me, it was always like, I just burped. My husband says they smell like hot dogs. No, well.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Quit eating so many hot dogs. Leading cause of colon cancer, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

That's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Down on the hot dog water.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

But anyway, back to the serious note. I I had this idea. Okay, I was 26, so I didn't know what I was doing. I'd never been a manager before. So if you speak to any of my employees then, they might not have the same idea of me as now because I had no idea what I was doing. Did I know to communicate? I have I had no idea. Did I know to make a sidework sheet? Had no idea. I would say, though, in the last 12 years of doing this, I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot of how to communicate with people. Um, I've learned a lot about boundaries. I've learned a lot about employees that don't have boundaries that I have to protect them to have because they're my workhorses. Like I know all of this stuff now. So I feel like I and I'm not perfect and I don't, I'm not there yet, but I'm trying to create this like mini-hub of what's possible between customer or customer staff and management. I don't want a toxic environment. No, I want my employees to be able to clock in, have a good time, make their money, clock out.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

But boundaries are important in that because people take advantage and you have to be able to, and I think boundaries demand respect.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

Totally. And that's the thing, is like I always say, like, set a standard and stick to it. You know, we set a standard, we communicate that standard in the beginning, and then there's consequences if you don't meet that standard. That's it, though. And we've never asked you to do anything that wasn't already expressed to you that needed to be done.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

You know, it was disclosed at the beginning type of thing. Job descriptions are very clear. So, but yeah, so I for me, it was like I wanted to have a space that people can come and just like be themselves.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

And I really feel like I have some employees that start off a little rigid and then they come out of their shell because our regulars from the beginning are loud and they dance and they sing and they, you know, they are completely themselves, and I want to be able to walk into our space and be exactly who they want to be.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

They're definitely salute clientele.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Yeah, totally. Yeah, like I love like what I'll be in the office, I'll look at the cameras, and like one of my employees and like a couple of customers are like dancing, and I'm like, that's why I did it. Yeah, that's why I did it. I just wanted to create a community.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

So you've developed your community off of that first store. Did you feel like that was it? And then at that point, were you like, I need another store? Like, what caused store number two?

SPEAKER_03 29:03

I just like I just kept saying yes. Like, none of these stores I've seeked out. A little bit fixed me, I was like lightly looking, but like, so for the Belmont, I would they were already one of my wholesale customers.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

So then, but then the health department shut me down because they're like, you can't wholesale raw juice. So you either HPP or pasturager juice, which I didn't want to do, or you have to do retail.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

So then I switched to retail. The whole reason why I did retail is so I could stay raw.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

So I had to pull out of my uh wholesale accounts, Belmont being one of them. Concurrently, Belmont was trying to start uh have a juice bar move into their space. That was kind of taking a little bit longer than they wanted. And then I opened. So Jeff, the owner of the Belmont, came over to 4th Street, chatted with me. I he didn't know I was him and he didn't know I.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

And then he left, and then he came back. He's like, Oh, sorry, I I was supposed to come in and ask for Angela. And I was like, Oh, I'm Angela. And he's like, I'm Jeff, I own the Belmont. Do you want to move in? And I was like, shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Of course I do. And that was like four months after we opened.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:05

We opened two stores one in February and one in like November of the same year. It was absolutely awful. Like, I had no idea what I was doing. I honestly felt really bad for my staff because I think I stretched them. I did.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Were you splitting staff?

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

So you had same staff working in different locations, doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

I yeah, it was. We didn't have a delivery van. Like Gage, who still works with me now, he was delivering out of his like purple scion. It was one of our first delivery guys. Oh wow. It was just hodge of podge. And I think I was really um traumatized. That's why I waited so long to open another one. But then I got a couple of good managers, um, and they started creating systems and they started creating onboarding binders, and they started, you know, all this stuff boundaries were set. I'm not the same age as my managers anymore. I'm older than them now, so they look at me as an actual owner and not the same age as them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Does that take pressure off of you?

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, it does, a hundred percent. Yeah. Because I'm the kind of I was an employer, I'm an employee first.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

I my comfort is washing their dishes and you know, cleaning their space. Yeah. And I and I have to learn how to like remove myself without the guilt of being like I'm not helping them and remembering that I'm hiring them for a job. Yeah. And I'm paying them for that job, and I don't need to do it for them in order for me to feel like I have birthed in the company. Yeah. So it was a very gradual, like, step out, step out.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

I'm the same way. It drives me crazy. I like babysit, like, oh well, let me see what you're doing there. Let me see. And you have to let go in order to let the stress of you leave.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

And you hire them for a reason.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

You hire them for a reason, and that's to take pressure off of you.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Exactly. But you hire the right people too. You're almost doing them a disservice by being right next to them.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

True.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Because they they know what they're doing. Yeah. And it's also like my best managers are like, I they've never vocalized this, but like semi-offended when I'm like showing up. They're like, why are you here?

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Why are you micromanaging me?

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

And I'm like, oh shit, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

And and sadly, I think a lot of companies do that, and then they lose the trust of their employees, and their employees no longer want to work with them.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Because now I oh, I don't want to go there. The box is always hanging over my shoulders.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Yeah, it is. They lose their empowerment. Like, where's their power in their role? You know, they have they have no empowerment in their role. If you're just always there, like, did you make sure to do this? Did you make sure did you check that? Where's this? No one, it's like, let him also, you gotta let them swim too.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

No, no independence in that. Although it's funny because now some of these employees will do the job better than you.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

My I tell I like always joke with my managers. I'm like, if you guys ever needed someone, like someone called out, yeah, I am a liability to that company now. I do not know how to bring people up anymore. And it's I'm glad I don't. I'm glad I don't because I would. I'm glad I don't because I would do all of their jobs still.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

It's hilarious to me because it's now a big social media thing where a manager will be like, who closed last night? And then the owner will be like me, and they're like, oh, yeah, it's great when it's trash.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

So the ability to trust employees in that is a part of the growing within a business.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Now, you never had like a preconceived notion of how big it could be? Or are you just riding the wave?

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Well, I think it's like I think now that I have the right management team, I'm like, oh, I can get bigger.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

That's really what it came down to. That stupid John at Steelhead has been ti I love John, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

We love John, by the way. We will say this. We love John.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

John has become like, he's like a Steve now to me, where I'm like, you're my brother for less. I like I will die for you. But he's just taken me on under his wing. Do you want to do this? I'm like, yes. He's like, what, do you want to do this? I'm like, yes. Now I'm opening two stores of him.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

But we need that courage from sometimes other people, right?

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

In order to do that.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Yeah, he believes in me more than I believe in myself.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Which we need that. Totally. I mean, yeah, I would never have been the photographer I am today if someone just didn't say swim, do it. And I think that's a big part of it. I'm gonna circle around and we're gonna go and get some juice.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

But uh I will also say I keep shouting out all these men. Like, my husband is there too. My husband also, every single one I've been like, are you sure I should do this? He's like, Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Which is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

Because he's gonna have to take the brunt of all of the But I mentioned, I mentioned to uh our neighbors who are friends of ours.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

I was like, Oh, Angelo, it's blue's gonna be on the show. And they're all, oh, that's great, you should get her husband.

SPEAKER_03 34:49

Angelo is more famous than me. So he can't go anywhere without somebody asking for his autograph.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Well, this guy's he was uh one of the head graphic designers from Enjoy Skateboards. He did also so he was in the skateboard world.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

And I was all, of course, you'd want me to have him on. 100%. I go, his wife's freaking killing it, but you want me to have him on. Alright, cool, cool. I go, down with the patriarchy. Down with the patriarchy, that's all I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Yeah, no, he doesn't need to be. I'm not even gonna say his name. Nobody needs to know his name.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

All the no, don't even look. Don't Google it. Don't Google it. It's not worth the Google. See, this is great. This is my kid's school right here. And he should just come and get juices. This is IVA, shout out to IVA Intellectual Virtues Academy. Oh, oh, a bunch of brainiacs over here at a charter school here in Long Beach.

unknown 35:34

Nerds!

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Frickin' nerd! That's my kid. He's freaking nerd, but he's he's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

So, if you were if someone were to come up to you today and be like, I'm gonna start a juice bar, what would you tell them? Would you tell them run?

SPEAKER_03 35:51

I would tell them, like, because the thing is, it's like, yeah, no, I would tell them not to. I would tell them to try something that has a higher profit margin with a Volker's shelf life.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

Because our prop because it is a labor of love. Like, it's my little labor of love. My husband's always like, oh you're a little company, because I can I it it is just me. Like the the the two should be a lot more expensive than it is, and it already is so expensive. Yeah. But I'm not gonna raise the prices because then it defeats the whole reason why I'm doing this, which is accessibility to health.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Yeah. So which is true because like, you know, the reason people eat McDonald's is because it's cheap.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

And it's easy.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

That's that's really the problem, and that's why uh people with less money end up being less healthy. That's an issue.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

I know, I hate it. Yeah, so you can't stand it.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Overall, from start to finish, yeah, was it worth the drive?

SPEAKER_03 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

No, your business.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

No, absolutely. Well, I wouldn't have met my husband.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I wouldn't have met all these amazing people. Um, I feel very fulfilled in my business. Like, I love, I mean, I'm still growing it, you know, so I'm I obviously love it. Um, yeah, I mean, this is what I've always wanted.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

And the health benefits, right? Your dad? I mean, that's freaking amazing.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Those are like the base goal.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Like that was your catalyst, right? And your catalyst just sent you to where you are now, and now you're actually reaping the benefits of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

I mean, uh, my dad aside, I've had customers tell me, like, I was able to get off my medication by changing up like you know, I did a juice cleanse, and then I started coming in here incorporating this and this. I started getting more used to these these flavors, I changed around my diet, and you know, I've now been able to get off my medication for this autoimmune disease or whatever it is, you know?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Um, what dri what drives you to do it?

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Honestly, I just I just want people to be the best version of themselves. Physically and mentally. I mean, that's my that's my drive in life, period. Like if anybody like needs my help with anything, I'm there because I just we we're not on this earth very long. So it's like we're the time is ticking, you know? So it's like all of us are trying to just be happy and whatever the definition of success is, whether that be family or just being healthy or you know, whatever, we're all just trying to move toward that. So with salute, I'm able to do it, like multiply that, right? Like I'm able to have good managers, instill good um, like good culture into the employees. The employees can then do that to the customers, and it's this like well-oiled machine of happiness.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yeah, I think that's why we got along. Like the first time I met you, I wanted to punch you because I hated you.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Yeah, I know, me too.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Well, love language is hate.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Me too.

SPEAKER_03 38:39

I love me too. Tara said that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Still, you took it along really well because your love language is bullying and hate. Anytime you hate me, I'm like, I was like, if I don't, if I treat you really nice, that means we're not close. And so if I if I treat you a little attitude, it means we're close.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

But uh, Tara has a question for you.

unknown 38:59

What?

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Is it a recording or recording of a question?

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Oh, I didn't even send my text. It was gonna be the rock rolling his eyes. But okay. So Tara here has a question for you. And let me play it loud. What gets you out of bed every morning? Let's go. So uh that's my question for you. But Tara, of course, who's a much better human than the both of us.

SPEAKER_03 39:26

I think she really is.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

What gets you out of bed in the morning? Yeah, but we have to be because she's so sweet and so nice. Yes, that I feel we have to bully everyone around her.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

And sometimes we have to bully her to stick up for herself.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

I know. I feel like the most time that I'm yelling at her is I'm like, stick up for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

You're like, holding your guns.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

You're worthy.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

You got it.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

You got it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:47

And and like even stick up for yourself. This is meta, but you should be sticking up to me yelling at you.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yes, yes, on a on a lower. Yeah. So she would like to know what gets you up every morning.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Oh gosh, what gets me up? I don't know. Yeah, I'm a big dreamer. Like, I live like 10 years ahead, you know? So for me, like, you know, people might see me be like, You already have three stores. I'm like, I barely have three stores, you know? I want, okay. Can I tell you what I want?

SPEAKER_02 40:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Okay, remember in Charlie and the chocolate factory?

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

There was the little girl, her dad owned the factory, and he had the office up top.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

I want more.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

I want more she would sing up. I want to feast. Yes. I want to be.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

But there was the very beginning where she was looking for the golden ticket, and in she was in her dad's factory, and he had all of his factory workers at the bottom opening all the chocolate. And his office is on top with a window looking over his factory. That's what I want. And I want to walk in and see my factory, and everyone's happy and getting paid well, and then I have my managers.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

So you're not necessarily Veron uh, what's her name? Oh, yeah, Veronica. You're chewing Violet, Violet. Violet.

SPEAKER_03 40:54

Well, it wasn't her.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Or it was a Verucca Salt.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Verucca Salt.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Verucca salt, yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

No, you want to have the the ability to provide for all those people.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

Yes. Oh my gosh, yeah. Like everybody had a manifestation book, and in my manifestation book, it was like, and my employees all get two weeks paid vacation every every year to do whatever they wanted, like paid by a saloon, you know? Yeah. At the time it was a kava bar. That's what my manifestation journal was about.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

But I love kava. Uh I love that because that's the way I view life, and I think life's not worth living unless you're helping, unless you're doing things, and that's why I surround myself by people that do that, and that's why I ask you to come on, because you can get your point across, and why you're getting your point across gets my point across.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

We exist to help.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

100%.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

And I think small business does that perfectly. We have something that we know can help others, and so we put it out there in the world. And all we want is good. Whereas other companies forget about that. They forget about the people. And and this is me, and everyone can say I'm anti-corporation. I am. I'm anti-corporation. I think if you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage so that the the federal government has to kick in and help them, you're not paying them enough. And which means you shouldn't get all these things. So I don't shop Walmart, I don't shop Target, I don't go to these places because they don't have my ideals at heart. Right. And my ideals are people. People need to benefit from what we do. If you're causing harm, get out of here. There's no use for you causing harm. But what you do in your business by creating that culture, what you do with with the juices by promoting health is important. And it goes with who we surround ourselves with, right? Other business owners that are like-minded.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

And our friends that want to do more for the community.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

To a hindrance almost to themselves. Right? It could hurt their business, but they want to do something bigger and better.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Give me a shout out. Three businesses in Long Beach that you want to promote.

SPEAKER_03 43:00

Oh, well, I mean Steelhead, because I just love John so much.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

John is Steelhead.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Um, obviously the Attic.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

The Attic. Tara shouted them out, you get another.

SPEAKER_03 43:09

Oh, good. Okay. Well, still the Attic.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:11

Um This is tough.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Nona Mercado was shouted out by Tara.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Okay, well, that actually is good because now I can pick two other ones.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Yes. She also shouted me out just as a. Yeah, she already did it. She already did it. Yeah. Oh, you're telling you Tara coped out? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

I'm just saying this is Fate Studios. Um anything down on 4th Street? Oh my gosh. Well, Lewis, of course.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

Lewis just in general. Yes. As a human.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

And then Lola's and Dolores.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

But like Lewis.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

Um, okay, honestly, Castin. Cast has been my hero since I mean, she's been on that block. She was OG on that block. She believed in that block before all of us food service people did when it was just vintage.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

And you She'd make that a coffee shop. And I don't know what the timeline is, but I think she was probably around my age too when she started because that's been there for like 30 something years.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

So Kasten, love Kasten. Um, she doesn't know that. I've never told her that, but she is like one of my heroes.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

See, that's what I love about the business community here in Long Beach is we support each other. Small businesses support each other. It's rare when you find a business kind of sniping another business. Totally. It's always, oh, I love what they do. Like, I mean, come on, Lola's, I'll eat there once a week. Um seeing what he's done with, you know, the recipes he's got. And of course, for California, we gotta have Mexican food.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

Um, he's also just the best human.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Yeah, the best hugs. I get the best hugs from that man. They're so good. And I'm not a hugger.

unknown 44:46

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 44:46

But I will I will succumb to a hug.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Yes, yeah, no, you're right. They're so good.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

So I love him. What we can do to give back and stuff like that is I always support those businesses and I always shop those businesses, and I support those people. Like these little shout-outs are important because sometimes they won't hear it. And when you hear from your customers, that's one thing because your customers are gonna sing your praises because wait, maybe I'll get a discount, or maybe I'm gonna do this, maybe I'm that.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

I never thought that.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

But other business owners who are in the trenches with you when they give you a compliment or a shout-out, it means the world because they're just like us, they're doing the same thing. Um, yeah. Was this worth the drive?

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Totally. I mean, I just love talking to you. I would have done this without the cameras. We've done this.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Wait, there are cameras? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

We've done this without the cameras.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

Yes, but but we but what we say usually just us, it's talking trash. So I'm glad I can get to the bottom of what salute is.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

And it's it's it's more of a feeling now.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Oh, 100% it's a feeling.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Yes, it was it was good to have the juices. Like, I have to pick up one for my wife right now. Um but now knowing the heart behind the company. And I think when you know the heart behind the company, you want to support that company a lot.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

What little piece of advice would you give to an entrepreneur trying to get into business right now?

SPEAKER_03 46:03

I think, okay, like I'm 12 years in, right? I have my managers, and I'm like able to do this with you on a Monday, and it looks so fun, right? So a lot of entrepreneurs look up to people who are already 10 years, 20 years out, and they're like, oh, why can't that be me? You know, so for me, I feel like what you need to know is it's gonna suck for so long. And there's gonna be very lonely days, but they're gonna be worsened in the end. But like a lot of people don't, like once it's boring or once it's lonely, they're like, oh well, I must be doing something wrong because that entrepreneur I'm looking at, who's 20 years out, is just lap and loundering. They're not doing all the stuff I'm doing. But nobody really stops to think about the fact that we've all been up at 2 a.m. I remember Instagram just started when I um started Salude. And I would come home after a long day of juicing and bottling and delivering and be on Instagram and see everyone's pictures at the pike. And I went, This is so worth it. This is so worth it. Angela, don't forget this is worth it. Like, this is worth like you not having the the 20s that you know you were supposed to have or whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

But now you can have the life that they can't have.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Yeah. Because of what you've been young. I'm like, I either work really hard when I'm younger and be a little bit softer later. Yeah. Or I'm soft now and I work really hard later.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

And I figured when my joints don't hurt and I can work hungover.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

True.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

Start like work hard then.

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:33

But yeah, I think but for the most part, just like you're not alone in the fact that it's super hard.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

Like we're all struggling, and don't forget that. Like in your hardest, darkest moment, don't forget that all of us who are entrepreneurs all had super dark, hard moments. Yeah. More often than not, you just see our highlight reel. So you feel very alone in your struggle, but we're all there.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, and just uh, I think even from that standpoint, I've had employees uh who we paid for the health insurance, we paid for their uh great salary. They were technically making more money than we were as owners, and have them yell at me that I got all the money. Because they don't know. They don't know you're paying the mortgage or the lease on a building. They don't know you're paying for all the bottles, they don't know you're paying for all the product, they don't see all that. All they see is what they're given. And I think that separates two classes of people there's working people and there's entrepreneurs. We need all of them.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

We need all of them, but it's when you can look deeper and understand all the intricacies that are going on within a business that can make you understand if you want to truly be a business owner or not.

unknown 48:48

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

Because it's once you know how the sausage is made, it's pretty gross. And it's a lot harder than what people think.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

So thanks for being on.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

Yeah, wait, are you leaving me here?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

No, you're gonna help me get juice.

SPEAKER_03 49:00

Okay.