“Get used to being uncomfortable. You have to feel uncomfortable to get to new levels, because it’s something you haven’t done before. It’s ok to feel uncomfortable. That means you’re doing something right.” – Labria Strong
Sisters Shaquasia Coleman and Labria Strong are co-owners of Juice Crush juice bar in Conway. They are both from Myrtle Beach and attended the University of South Carolina (USC). Shaquasia earned a degree in public relations, and later, two masters of business administration degrees, and Labria earned a degree in public health. Labria is also a real estate agent on the Grand Strand.
Interview
Transcript
Shaquasia Coleman
My name is Shaquasia Coleman, and I’m from Myrtle Beach.
Labria Strong
My name is Labria Strong, and I’m from Myrtle Beach.
Sara Sobota
Okay, what do you do for work? And where are you currently working from?
Shaquasia Coleman
We are entrepreneurs, and we are currently working from our storefront location in Conway. Our business is named Juice Crushed
Sara Sobota
Okay. How long have you had it?
Shaquasia Coleman
We’ve been inside—well, we started the business in May 2020. And we’ve been inside of our storefront since September 2021. Almost 3 years in the storefront. Four years in business total.
Sara Sobota
Okay, and your official job title is CO-owners?
Labria Strong
Yes.
Sara Sobota
Okay. Great. How did you end up in this field? And how did you hear about it?
Labria Strong
So, we actually started creating juices, cold-pressed juices, and smoothies for our mother, who was diagnosed with colon cancer stage four. We noticed she never… she didn’t have an appetite after Chemo treatments. We wanted to make sure she was able to get her nutrients somehow.
Labria Strong
So, I have a public health background from the University of South Carolina. So, I looked into juicing and making smoothies, adding protein a little bit more, because she would drink but not eat. And so after she unfortunately transitioned in 2018. Shaquasia and I decided that we needed to continue to juice and make smoothies just because of all of the health benefits that we read up on. And during COVID, all of our family and friends decided that they wanted to juice and have our smoothies and we kind of went from there.
Sara Sobota
So, where are you blending? And you’ve told me the story before, and I have written about it before. You had public health and Shaquasia; you had business, was that the blend? Tell me about your, yeah, college degrees. Did you both go to, you both went to USC.
Shaquasia Coleman
Yes. But our career paths totally took a different turn. In college, I went to school to get my degree in Public Relations. And then, I received a job opportunity to work in student housing. So, I worked my way up through undergrad from maintenance girl outside to at least a manager, to Assistant Property Manager to working in a corporate level. While in college at the University of South Carolina. Labria, it was a bit of nepotism, she used to work for me as one of my community assistants at a student housing property in Columbia, which started her career in real estate. She’s a realtor here in Myrtle Beach.
Shaquasia Coleman
So, we started in property management, which helped us a lot with business because we’re managing million-dollar assets for someone, you know, and making sure that everything’s running smooth and orderly, on a property side. So, it’s helped us tremendously with business. I also have an MBA as well; two MBAs. So, it helped a lot. You know, our backgrounds helped us a lot with becoming entrepreneurs, it was not easy, but it’s been a smooth run so far.
Sara Sobota
That’s great. And that was the next question: What background did you have that helped you land that role? You kind of talk through the stages that you went in. This is going to be maybe a little tricky, but can you walk us through a typical work-day?
Shaquasia Coleman
Yeah, that is gonna be tricky. And then to go back to how we blend it, the recipes, I don’t know if you’re going to access that before. But we came up with we were looking at the elements in the community, that people we know that their high blood pressure or diabetes, you know, we were looking for the fruits and vegetables to help out with these certain elements.
Shaquasia Coleman
And then, we got with one of our sorority sisters, who was a doctor in Internal Medicine. And she went through all of our recipes and told us to add this or add that to, you know, make sure they get more benefits out of that one particular juice. So, that’s how we came up. We had juices, ABC, D, and G. And then, we went through, got with her and then we started making names for everything. So, it all flowed together while we were getting Juice Crushed together.
Sara Sobota
So you created it for your mother, but then it sort of evolved with input from experts.
Shaquasia Coleman
Because of our mom, it was simple. You know, we just wanted her to get basic nutrients, we didn’t know what we were doing. So, it’ll be some carrots here and this and that there. Make her a smoothie. But as time went on, and we saw that there are people who are actually needing this and that and this, then that’s when we were getting more creative.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, right.
Shaquasia Coleman
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Sara Sobota
So, your audience for your business or your demographic is nearby but also broader.
Shaquasia Coleman
Right?
Sara Sobota
Okay.
Labria Strong
Because we all know someone who is in some type of health issue, you know. If you go into a room like and you say, hey, who knows someone who is battling high blood pressure, everyone kind of raised their hand or someone who’s battling or, you know, has fought cancer and overcame, you know. So, someone knows someone that is going through some type of health issue. So we can relate to everyone in that aspect, right? Um, so it kind of just made it seem like, “Hey, I know what my maternal mother and grandmother and you know, were facing and what they went through.” And then I talked to a neighbor, and they have similar issues. So, we were all kind of, you know, fighting this together and trying to make sure everyone is healthy.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. The next question is, can you describe a defining moment in your creative journey? A project that made a significant impact of you— on you, or something you produced that really showcased your creativity? Yeah, it’s probably hard to pin down one thing.
Shaquasia Coleman
I mean, so our creative journey lately. I’ll give you an example. And then I’ll go back to that last question. Because I don’t want to keep jumping over for your questions, we are. This is something that we just had done while, for the storefront, well, we had it done for our Myrtle Beach location, but we’re no longer going there.
Sara Sobota
Okay.
Shaquasia Coleman
So, we had to come together to put this whole together with our artists who did all the painting. We made sure we had certain elements or elements from Juice Crushed, like the orange or the actual, just the names we have on T-shirts, like Juicy. Juicy Baby is something we have on the shirt, of course, juice crush, and then crushing it down at the bottom. But it’s a social media wall, and people are attracted to colors. So, we got what are and of course, we got the cancer statement that everyone says, “Detoxin’,” but we got what our artists who did our first wall, and she did a couple of other items for us to create this wall, just so we can get people in for our marketing, our marketing aspect. Because again, like I said, people are attracted to colors, and they’re attracted to social media, and they’re attracted to pictures.
Sara Sobota
Yeah.
Shaquasia Coleman
So, it’s been a huge hit. That’s the latest thing we’ve done a lot of, you know, I’m just trying to pinpoint some other things that we’ve done. But that’s the most latest thing that we have. But as far as creativity, our day-to-day, it’s kind of hard, the two of us, I feel like I don’t get enough sleep. So, we tried to touch one thing we always do is touch base with each other in the morning. Because listen, you need to make sure we’re both alive and well ready. So that’s number one. But we always make sure to give each other grace until at least eight o’clock, you know, because maybe I’m at the gym early, or she’s out doing something, or she’s working on real estate work in the morning. But we typically get here around 9:30, we set up, and we have orders that meet us at the door online, or they are here at 10.
Shaquasia Coleman
But throughout the day, all day, if we don’t get our work done any outside things that we need to get done before we step into the store. It just won’t happen. So typically, we are on our feet for almost 12 hours just juicing and making orders and meeting with customers, and there are people who come in who want us to do, you know, coping and opportunities or want to partner and things. So, we’re busy and on our feet for the entire time the store is open, and then afterward.
Sara Sobota
So, what are the hours of your store? 10 am to…
Shaquasia Coleman
6 p.m.
Sara Sobota
Six, so yeah, yeah, wow. Okay.
Shaquasia Coleman
We tried to open earlier because you want to meet that crowd, but it just wasn’t a hit for us. We know we know that we started at eight o’clock when we first opened up, and we probably could have gave it some more time, but it just wasn’t working for us and our schedules.
Shaquasia Coleman
So it’s like, you know, you have to do what works for you as an entrepreneur, and we’re passionate about something, you’re gonna make it work. But 10 o’clock was like when we started noticing that our customers were coming in and the lunch crowd.And a lot of people love the Grab and Go method here. So, you know, we love that as well. They put their orders in, they got this ready, come and get it. And that’s that.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, that’s great. Okay.
Shaquasia Coleman
And then we go home, go to the gym and start all over again, and do it again. I’m normally, personally, I’m in bed by midnight. I don’t know about her.
Labria Strong
Depends on the day.
Shaquasia Coleman
Yeah, our days. Just cuz that’s all we know. You know, when people come in with us ask them what they have gone out for the weekend. And we tell them we’re living through them because, you know, we understand the first five years you’re gonna be in tune and focused on the business, and then after that you can feel comfortable hiring people but I love that we’ve made our names known ourselves and we didn’t have anybody in here, you know, either tearing down a reputation or it’s solely on our back. So we appreciate that.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, that’s a lot. Okay, so let’s say that someone is watching this video and they want to be you. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role like yours?
Labria Strong
How can I serve it? You know, I feel like the generation now is solely like always on the phone and you know, they’re not having that person-to-person interaction as much as you know, we had to where you had to like five minutes before you can get like an unlimited plan, but people by people, and you know, Shaquasia was always telling me this one when I was working for her, you know, people will come back to you if you make them feel good. Or if you make them feel like I’m being attentive to your needs, right?
Labria Strong
And it also ties with me being dual career in real estate when you are paying attention to what your clients or customers are asking for. And you can say, “Hey, how about this,” or “Let’s try this.” We’re making sure we speak to everyone who comes in here we are, you know, we make sure that they feel if they spend their money here, that is actually worth it. And they didn’t feel because you know, a buyer’s remorse, as you can say. So, customer service is definitely huge. Number one, number one, for sure.
Shaquasia Coleman
And Time-Management. Time Management is super important. Because, you know, we have a background with dealing with people on a daily basis, being in property management and real estate. So we are, we know that time is valuable for not only them, but for us as well. And we hate to have anyone waiting longer than like 20 to 30 minutes because it’s, I mean, it is juice, so they understand it’s gonna be a little wait, especially if they didn’t put their order in. But if it’s longer than that, then I feel totally bad. You know, we’re always apologetic. Wee make sure we make up for it in other ways.
Shaquasia Coleman
But time management is key, I don’t want anyone to be waiting on me longer than they need to. So making sure you’re getting things done in an orderly fashion and on time. And that’s that. So those are two important, important things. And then being very detail oriented, that’s awesome as well, like social media is so important when we’re putting up posts and content that we’re being specific. And letting them know those two are those couple of key words because people their attention, their attention span is. So we’ve been, I like to say like me personally, how much longer am I going to read that whole caption? No, I’m not. I see the words on the video or I see the words on the picture, then I understand what to do.
Sara Sobota
That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Are there any local organizations, programs, or events that you were that you recommend for aspiring creatives around the state? Are there any things that you belong to or go to, that someone could get involved in if they were interested in following your path?
Shaquasia Coleman
So the two of us are also members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. So, you know, if you’re into being in a sorority and fraternity or fraternity, we have local chapters here, in Horry County, and throughout the Grand Strand, so that’d be one. And that’s a lifetime thing that we are involved in. And then I just completed the leadership branch and program to the chamber. I would recommend that to anybody who has a chamber in your city to get involved, because it taught me a lot about how to become a better leader, I was always a leader, but to know ways in which I can become a better leader, and then get involved in the community at the same time, because we had a community service, along with having enriching relationships with people I probably never would have had relationships with. So, if that’s in your city, I definitely say to make sure you get involved with your chamber, we’re in the chamber. And both we’re trying to get in Conway, we’re already in Myrtle Beach. So.
Labria Strong
And then also, we just joined Horry County Community Collaborative, so they call it HC Three. And there’s different nonprofits and businesses that pretty much come together for a common cause just to make sure that the community has their resources. Everyone is kind of brain picking about different resources that the community actually needs. And so you are working with different agencies and organizations for the same calls. And you know, you just never know who you will meet there that can help you with your business or say, Hey, here’s an idea that I’ve seen, or some type of grant or anything that might be out there. So, it helps you definitely network for the same.
Sara Sobota
Yeah. Okay, great. And then, last question: do you have any advice for current college students or pre-professional young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world?
Shaquasia Coleman
Being a creative, you can’t worry about anyone judging you; you have to push the envelope and continue to do it until it sticks, you know. Because if you’re going here blindly, and you’re thinking they’re going to accept every single thing that you put out, it’s not going to work, and it’s going to lower your confidence as well. So make sure you’re focused on what you’re trying to create and put it out there, and also to extend yourself grace, like a lot of grace. Yeah, no timelines, either. Yeah. Someone who’s getting out of college like we put so much pressure on ourselves to think at 25 I need to be married with a kid or by 30. I should have three kids. It’s just so many pressures, societal pressures that are placed on us, especially through social media, where we’re having this; what’s it called that imposter, imposter syndrome? Yeah, and Imposture syndrome is tearing us up. So give yourself grace. Sometimes we don’t know, and I’m talking to myself saying this, but you know, get used to being uncomfortable because you know, you have to feel uncomfortable to reach those different levels because it’s something that you haven’t done before. So it’s okay to feel uncomfortable. That means you’re doing something right.