How can you learn if you're hungry?" Margo Newkirk, one half of the dynamic duo that is Blend of Soul, asked this during our conversation. Margo Newkirk and Kiera Gardner set out to make healthy smoothies accessible to underserved areas in North Carolina. Though they began in Durham, their dream and focus has expanded to include more products and more areas across the state through pop-ups, local pick-ups, and home delivery services. Through their brand and products, they educate people on healthy food habits through tasty products and a little bit of soul music. Watch them grow at https://blendofsoul.com/

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Which is a whole nother topic that I go into, but, I'll spare it for today.

Be stay tuned for that. Margot Kira, thank you so much for being with me today.

much for having us. Hi. Hi everybody.

really came to be as this joint project that you guys have going.

That's how it really kind of started with my food. And I was like, Ooh, I would love to have a smoothie. Let me walk around and find a smoothie. And she's like, babe, I don't think they have a smoothie. And I'm like, what? And I like walked around the entire food hall, no smoothies, no healthy options. So we left and we were riding down 40 listening to Beyonce and Jay-Z, for inspiration.

And, we literally were just listening to music and I was like, why don't we make our own cold press? Jesus, why don't we change? Like, why don't we, you know, and when we started, we didn't know of any, um, black owned, especially black female owned juice companies. And now obviously now we see a lot of it now, but then when we started.

Yes. So she's looking at me like, you gotta be, you're crazy, right? Like, there's no way we're gonna be able to do that. And I don't like, no. So I'm like, well, technically, like we're gonna do it. I think it's gonna be great. And it's all about confidence. It's all about understanding the backstory, the history that we have with food, our culture.

So in the black community food, I'm a nurse, so I'm always in a public health, double dual, degree. So I'm always talking about disparities in communities and, African Americans, we have a huge, huge disparity when it comes to food, whether it is food deserts, that's the diet we eat just culturally and historically.

Like we're not gonna, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it right? That's right. And we're gonna do it well. And so we did our research. I have my background and my degrees, like I did my research there. Margo's amazing she's a phenomenal, I call it a. But you're self-taught. But she curates and creates amazing, she's an amazing creator.

So together we really put our heads together and just Blend Of Soul was created. We took pieces of our soulful roots. So I always think about my mom cooking on Sunday lists to Anita Baker and Mary J. Blige, and a Gladys Knight. Yeah. Like, it makes me think of that.

And we're foodies. Yes. So we love to eat, but it's all about what we're putting into our bodies that make it. And zeroing in on those foundational elements, is really, really key and that's exactly what we talk about with educating about juicing. So it's a full circle moment. So I love mm-hmm.

definitely gonna dive into that. It here in a second cuz I'm liking the shirts. I'm like, I'm liking the vibe here but just really quick,

going back to kind of the disparities element of black people in our relationship with food here in America. One of the things that you guys did to kind of reach people where they were, was go to these pop-up markets, one of which being the black farmer's market, which for people who are not in the triangle, the black farmer's market every two weeks, alternates between Durham and Raleigh, a location in Durham and a location in Raleigh.

Because accessibility is really a big thing. It may be you, easy for people to get to a Durham Food Hall or a Morgan Street Food Hall or something like that. But during the pandemic, people weren't going to places like that. That's just the reality. So how are you getting the juices to people's doorstep?

yeah, yeah. So pretty much, how we try our best to,

offset the disparities in the community and things of that nature. Um, during this time, we donated a lot of our product. Yeah, we did, we did. Especially during the time,

do you remember? I think it was back when like the you remember, like everybody was on strike. It's like, no, like people weren't getting paid. The bus drivers were on strike, the cafeteria workers were on strike and things of that nature. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

So as a community, we teamed up with different partners and we were able to provide, at least even not maybe two or three days worth, but even at least a day's worth of food. Mm-hmm. for, a child or food for, a teenager or whatever, school-aged children mm-hmm. , because that is important.

How can you go to school and focus if you're hungry? Yep. You can't do that right. That's why they tell you during the state mandated test that, we used to have to take, was it EOG, EOC whatever they're called. Yeah. Yeah. They always used to tell you, Hey, make sure you eat something.

So that was one of the ways. Another thing was when we do, when we were able to pop up at the markets that weren't closed during the Pandemic some of the markets accepted SNAP and E B T or Snap, I think is what it's called. Yeah, yeah. WIC or something like that. So that was, that was actually a big help, especially for the black and brown community.

I can't begin to tell you how many people, once they saw that sign at whatever market we had, Once they saw that sign and we explained the process and they were like, oh, okay. They were actually able to purchase more because they didn't have to use their own money.

So they were so excited. They, yeah, they were excited, you know, they were like, you know, I can't afford it. Whatever, whatever. Mm-hmm. X, Y, and Z. And I'm like, okay, well let's, let's see how this works. And it worked out very fine. So moving forward, we're actually researching

How it goes, see how it goes. And it went well because people were, at these markets, they were hot. Cause we started with May of that time, so it was hot. So that played into our favor because now they came to the, our tent. And then we were able to kind of educate a little more, especially when people were asking us question.

How's that gonna gonna change? And so, Margo used to say, we always would joke and say, well, she's always like, oh, she's going in the nurse mode. But it's because, it's embedded in me. Helping people is just a piece of me and overall, it's the piece of, what, I wanna change something. I want our community to be educated on what we're eating. And because diet is the root of a lot of these diseases. Everything you see it says like diet, right? Change your diet. Right? If it's a heart, something going on with your heart, it's low sodium.

So different things like that. It's just pieces that people are like, Ugh, like I don't want to eat this. What is this? But the key with our juices is, okay. This, when we were creating it, we were like, okay, think about your mom and dad. Are they gonna eat it? Are they gonna drink it?

And so now he's oh, you got my juices. And I'm like singing a different tune. But that's why, and it's rewarding because it's like you took something where they're not even thinking about it. They don't even want it, right? They're like, oh, that's healthy. I, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Nope. Nope. And it's like, oh, okay, that's healthy.

Oh, this is good. And so they don't even think about the healthy piece now because it's the taste is first. Taste is before anything else. People don't think about all the good stuff, especially people that have never, tried it. So it's rewarding. It's very rewarding to know that the flat farmer's market helped this get to this point.

guys brought up something that is very, very important and I think that definitely needs to be discussed here, right? So a lot of times when

So boutique services, higher price point type products, right? But you guys specifically mentioned that you want to be accessible to people who are on SNAP and WIC. So back in the day, and I'm not that old, but back in the day, I was working as I guess like a program assistant, for this like food and nutrition program out of the Cooperative extension back in my hometown.

But people would not recognize what their benefit was because they didn't know how to cook the food or prepare the food. Right. So they would have workshops that was kind of our Cooperative extension office came in between because we would host these workshops where we would know in advance what the farmers were bringing that weekend, and then we would come up with a recipe, cook that recipe, give it to people, say, Hey, this is taste good,

cool. This is how we made it. This is really doable, this is a three to five ingredient thing, right. But again, this is how out of the way we're going to not only make healthy food accessible, but also make people understand what the benefits are. And then three, make it taste good. Because if people walked in and stuff didn't taste good, we knew they weren't gonna go buy it.

We knew even if it was with their benefits, we knew they weren't gonna go buy it. Right, and so in a lot of ways, you guys are taking out that middle step or bridging the education with the accessibility, because now people don't even have to prepare it. They just go and they just buy it and it tastes good.

and you have like life. It's not the same.

Like that's just, you don't have the same 24 hours, right? And so, that is also a big benefit that you're giving people, who are buying your products. And I think I just wanted to point that out. I think that's really unique and a really good value proposition.

because the idea was, okay, are we gonna do a brick and mortar or are we gonna do a food truck? Well, we tried kind of tapping into the brick and mortar, like not doing it, but we saw the pandemic asking questions and talking to people and you know that were in our circle that have brick and mortars and

So, cuz that's, we love to travel. So I think the creativity piece came when we thought about, we said, you know what. We have our juices, we have our wellness shop. People know that about us. Mm-hmm. . Um, but let's tap into the real, I would say the true tea. The real tea is being able to curate amazing food and, we didn't wanna do too much, right?

We wanted to keep it very small, very minimal, very simple. Mm-hmm. . So that doesn't confuse people because, Make people anxious, right? Overwhelmed. They do ,so that's, the menu is literally minimal. Very convinced. And that was a strategy because we even see when we're at markets, people are trying to pick and they're like, I don't like, what's your best one?

Okay. Protein bites great. You getting your protein Asahi bowls, you're getting all of it. You're getting everything in one little bowl. And then it's to go. Because that was the key with our food truck. And then also like you can stand there and talk. Yeah and Kiki with us if you like.

Even higher than, raspberries and blueberries and things of that nature. Very good for you super full of antioxidant. Cancer fighting, all the good stuff that you need. And also to go with this Asahi bowl you have, different toppings to go with it. Some people like coconuts, you can get bananas, fresh fruit, things of that nature.

So we'll have those options as well. And we'll also, we're also curating smoothies. We're also in the lab curating smoothies. So we'll have a couple of smoothies options to begin with. We'll have a green. And then we'll have just like a regular, kinda like a, it's like a basic, kinda like a regular basic one.

And then we also have our protein bites as well. Something quick on the go, to give you a little bit of energy to start your day or the power through that workout you need. And then also, what else did you say? We really do. That's really, those are really, really the, the gist, the gist of it.

Somebody had asked me that last week, is because we like the accessibility is huge. If you think about it, so we offer store pickup, we offer local delivery, we offer shipping. Okay? Shipping's gonna be a little more, because you have to think you have a perishable item, right? So you're not gonna be able to send that through snail mail, right?

Like you have. That has to be fast. Even in cold weather, you still try to push for it to go fast. Now once we ship it, it's in the, it's in the gods of the, of the packaging people. Right. hands of the packaging people. But um, but we strive for that and so people that are outta state, they're like, Ooh, like.

But the key is, you wanna start with your community on out. If your community is, can't get access to you, that's a wake up call to you, right? Like you need to kind of re reevaluate and so, we had to make sure that before we started expanding that we had a core, as I say, a core brand story.

Like people understood who we were, they knew what we stood for, they understand, you know, the backstory, what you sell, you know what you have. And then, but also I talked to her about all the time, that people reach out to us and they're asking about social media, and my biggest question that I ask them is, who are you besides that?

Like, what else? Because there's, people wanna identify with different pieces. Somebody might not do plants, right? But they might love that you're a part of the environment and you love that, right? And that's your thing. And so I think that all together, that's kind of how we gear towards the food truck route because we're like, okay, we know that we do food, we know that we do cold press juice, and we do that.

Well, okay, we do wellness shots, we do that well, okay, so let's keep building on those foundational elements and just, and doing it well, exactly.

touched on a really important thing, which is developing a core brand message,

Right? So, people are less surprised when Elon does something or less surprised when Pinky Cole does something because they know who these people are at heart. It's really not a surprise that Elon is embracing the chaos that is him owning Twitter, because that's always how he's been.

He's been known to gravitate to chaotic type of industries where he's kind of shaking things up and he's always in the news and things like that. And then for Pinky Cole, it's no surprise when you see her at a graduation and she's like, yeah, I'm giving her LLCs. Like that's what she's about.

a whole lot of personal stuff, right? Or at least anything that could potentially be like, off-putting to someone. But now I'm super open about the fact that I care about the environment. I'm super open about the fact that I care about sustainability. But back in the day, I would've never, ever talked about that.

And so one thing I will say, and I hope people don't get upset with this. I know if people are, music artists are like, oh, I hate when people tell me who I sound like, but realistically, lemme just put out there. You guys remind me a lot of, the Flies tea, where it's like this hiphop inspired tea brand and instead of hip hop, you guys are like a soul music inspired, like fresh juice brands.

and you'll definitely talk about the other parts, but the big thing with creating, I think I didn't want to be, she always makes me laugh and she's always like, oh, she's in laugh. But the big thing is I wanted to be different. Mm-hmm. , like, I didn't want the typical like, cliche kind of names right?

I mean, that's fine like no shade to that. But like we, I didn't want that for us. That's not our style. And we talk about brand message, but brand aesthetic. Mm-hmm. is key and huge. Right? So if you, so it reminded us. I'm a nineties kid right. So if you think about it, and we love nineties music retro, so even our logo is retro.

Right. It gives you a funky, funky, unique aesthetic.

But that's another story for another day. But the creativity came because I said, you know what? I want to be different. I don't wanna be the basic cold press juice place that people just, go. I want it to be a space that's safe for people that look like us. Mm-hmm. that's safe for people that you know are allies, say for people that are even opposite.

They may not, they just want something healthy. I want our space to be open for everybody, and I think that, with creating our juice names, we thought about our culture. Mm-hmm. music makes us, that's us. When we're cleaning, when we're creating, when we're talking, when we're gathering, we're friends.

You know? But it's, it's just educating, people that are not in the black community. No, they're not in the culture. And not in the culture. Like, this is inspired by Erica Badu. This is inspired by Alex Isley. This is inspired by, like all these different women that we love, and we really identify with.

So I think we're creating that just really, that's how I took off. Right. With naming, I think also, with that being said, I think also for us, one thing I always say is that when we show up, like you are gonna know who shows up every single time. Yep. You're gonna know who shows up every single time.

Authentic. Yep. There you go. Authentic. Being authentic. Yep. Being authentic. Mm-hmm. . And that's what I think, that's what, that's another thing that, I think that's another reason why people like really Robin, they love, honestly like, really like Beyond the juice. Beyond the juice. We, we've had so many customers just come up to us.

Don't like, know nothing about juice, but they catch our vibe that, you know, we're friendly. Like we're super friendly, like we, this is us. Yeah, this is us. Like this is a real deal. We extreme, like we're extremely prideful with our customer service. We do something wrong. We try our best to make it right in that instant.

If we can't make it right in that instant, we'll make it up to you. We will like that is. That is, yet we are very big on that. And it translates in our business, in our brand. Look at our juices, look at the names. The branding, the funky website, the social media. It's vibrant. It's vibrant, it translates and it translates to our products and the rest of our.

I have to have music, we have to have music going. Cause it's so quiet out there and it's like if you're outside, sometimes you're far away from the next person. So people will walking be like, oh. Or they do have like an artist out there and they're like 20 and so we can't like enjoy them because you can't hear.

And so we're. We're gonna change that. We're gonna bring our own music, and sometimes the director or whoever's overseeing, it's like, oh, can y'all just the music? Right? They'll ask us, we're like, yeah, we the music be the dj. But I think that's true too. That is very, very true about being authentic.

And one thing, when I was reading her ebook, one thing that she said is it's not followers it's your community. Mm-hmm. . So, a lot of times she's like that, if even changing the wording of that. And I was just like, that's true. I like that. And if it was profound, because I don't see people as my followers.

I see you as, we call it the tribe, the soul tribe. Our soul tribe. You're in our soul space. That's what we say, welcome to our soul space. Like, you know, this is our, you know, you're a part of that. And even if you have different views than me, even if you have different thought, we want everybody to have a voice.

With class. Right. And as long as you do it, you know well. Mm-hmm. And I think that with our social media, I love that we do a mixture. It's like, we're plant moms, we love plants. So we teach people how to garden and have their own fresh produce. Mm-hmm. and what that looks like. And you could just do it in the backyard like so people don't think it's this elaborate greenhouse that you have to have.

It's like, no, we literally have a box, garden in the backyard, and we're showing people, this is how you build it. This is how you do it. We're showing you the process. So I think that being authentic is very true, very key. And that's usually how people. They rock with us for that even before the juicy.

guys brought up a really important dichotomy in how people think about consistency. So from a social media standpoint,

But the other half of that is like making your actions match your words more often than not, right? It's not to say that like you're not gonna have a bad day as a business owner. It's not to say you're not gonna have a rough day as a business owner. It's not gonna say that, there aren't other factors affecting your life outside the business that could impact how you show up in a space.

There's not to say that at all, but you guys made the point of like being consistently authentic, being consistently aware and keenly aware of your aesthetic and how you show up virtually and in person. And that to me is so important. I think like one of the things that was important for me early on, like as a photographer, was like, people need to know what to expect from me, right?

I was telling her the other day how, people all reach out to us about social media and they ask me cuz I usually kind of oversee our social media. Um, I don't know. I just, I don't know how I got that role.

I just was doing it and I liked it, so I just kept doing it. But people ask, and like I said earlier, like the key is they're asking me all these little meticulous questions about, oh, like, how do I, like what if I want this many likes or this, this, this, and how do I, and I'm like, look, I'm not the person to talk to about like.

Even me, I was like, wow. Like I didn't even, I still to this day, don't, I still gotta like figure out how. . But like, I think that, people are so caught up in that and it's like, that's not how we operate. Just like yesterday we posted, like we posted a fire juice photo.

We were like, that's the one, that's the one post. You know, but it's not like, it's not like every day. And that's what I was telling this lady. You don't have. they always say You, you should post every day. Mm-hmm. . But one place that I show up every day though that has worked is Instagram story because people look at our story before they look at our posts, and I figured that out.

And the true meaning of social media was to have fun, like mm-hmm. . Now it's like people are turning into bus. Everything's business, right? But it's nothing wrong with posting something. That's nostalgic. That's fun, that makes you laugh. Like that's why TikTok has done well, because the range, like, oh my gosh, you have funny videos, you have cooking videos, you have cleaning videos, you have everything.

Some people can't show up every day like me, I'm a full-time nurse. And I'm a travel nurse, so I can't realistically show up and post on my feed every day. That's not realistic for me and for me, that doesn. Translate. Well, you know, you need to give people time to miss you a little bit, right?

Like, you know, it's just like a relationship. It's like we right here all the time. Like, I need, I need some space. You know, I need little space. I love you but you know, and so it's the same thing, like we, that was kind funny with metaphor, but like, it's still the same, you know, it's still the same concept.

You know, we didn't, we weren't, didn't have this perfect brand story and perfect brand aesthetic. But we knew, okay, our brand stands out because of this. We knew that, okay, we're funny and people love seeing us together. Cause we crack up, we cut up, we post bloopers. When we're trying to do serious videos for grants, we post that People have a ball, they laugh.

They're like, y'all hilarious. But it's because that's us. That's important. We're being us. So that's important. Just be yourself.

is a beautiful note to end on. I appreciate you guys so much for hanging out with me today and sipping on whatever y'all are sipping on. I hope y'all save some for me, and I just want you guys to know that you guys are always welcome here. Oh, we love it. We love it. Yes, you. You guys are always welcome here.