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At 20 years-old, Chelann Gienger is a serial entrepreneur focusing her ventures on inspiring and empowering others to chase their dreams and goals in life. Two weeks before graduating with her AA in college, Chelann opened NUYU Juice Bar along with 3 other partners at the age of 18. Under a year later, she launched the Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcast out of a desire to inspire and unite young and like-minded entrepreneurs together. On the podcast, Chelann interviews inspiring entrepreneurs who started their journey at the age of 25 and under.

City where you’re from: Yakima, Washington.

Hobbies: Hiking, playing music and dancing.

Favorite quote: “It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.” – Tony Robbins

Twitter: @chelanngienger

Background

Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?

I want to leave a legacy and impact the world in a significant way. With that, I’ve always loved being not just a consumer, but a creator. Entrepreneurship is the way that I can carry both of those things out to the full extent.

Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?

Entrepreneurship runs in my family and so I always knew that whatever I was going to do would be innovative and involve creating something. However, the defining moment that started me on my own entrepreneurial journey was when I was 15-years-old and talking to a man who is another father figure in my life. At that time, I was headed towards the goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. Through some deep questions he asked, we started discussing what I wanted my ideal life to look down a few years down the road. I said I wanted to be married, eventually have kids and homeschool them. Through more thought-provoking comments and questions, I realized that to create my ideal life, I would have to create my ideal job. And that’s what started me on the route of beginning my health coaching business at 15, then opening NUYU Juice Bar and launching the Entrepreneur Before 25 Podcast at 18.  

What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?

Currently NUYU Juice Bar is main focus. The juice bar came about when my brother and his business partner approached me saying that there was an extra space for another business in the yoga studio they were building out. They thought that space would be ideal for a juice bar and asked if I wanted to help run it. I said I’d potentially do it if I got some ownership in the business. Fast forward 7 months later and three days after graduating high school and two weeks before graduating with my college AA, I opened the juice bar along with three other partners at 18-years-old.

How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision?

Currently NUYU is the only juice bar in Yakima, which in itself is an extreme advantage. Along with that, we are literally the only place in Yakima that offers any sort of a faster, healthier food option. But I think more than anything the thing that makes us unique is the culture and atmosphere we have created with our brand. People don’t just say, “Let’s go grab some juice.” They say, “Let’s get some NUYU.” People associate our brand with what we have intentionally tried to create- a place that “inspires and infuses new health, new energy and a new you.”

My vision is create more than just a juice bar out of the NUYU brand. There is a lot of things that can be created out of the brand name “NUYU.” However, with the juice bar in particular, I’d like to see several different locations, our bottled juices being in stores everywhere… etc.

If you do Facebook ads, what types of creatives/campaigns do you use? If you don’t, what untapped marketing channels do you take advantage of?

We honestly don’t use a lot of Facebook ads for our marketing. We’ve done a lot of marketing, but the most effective marketing for us has been peer-to-peer marketing. We have branded ourselves well and so our product begs to have it’s picture taken and be talked about. Peer-to-peer marketing is so effective because you are much more likely to go try something if your friend recommends it rather than the business the product is from recommending it.

Did you experience failure along the way? What did you learn from it?

In my opinion, failure is a relative term. My goal is to always view failure as a success in some way, shape or form. When we fail, we learn what not to do in order to succeed. So yes, there has been a lot of “failures” along the way of my entrepreneurial journey so far. But everytime I encounter them, which is often, I choose to let those things cultivate me into a better version of myself than I was yesterday. How you let something affect you is your choice. Choose to let it affect and grow you positively.  

Value-add questions

Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.

Take ownership of yourself and your decisions- the good and the bad. Stop the blaming game. At the end of the day, if something goes wrong at the juice bar, it is on me because somewhere I failed to create a system, communicate something or train someone accurately. Since everything rises and falls on leadership, it’s my responsibility to take ownership of what happened and take the steps to fix it in order to minimize the chances of it happening again.

Teach us something about {internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic?

Along with the juice bar I host the Entrepreneur Before 25 podcast where I interview inspiring entrepreneurs who started their journey at the age of 25 and under. Podcasting is a great platform to build credibility, network and get content out in an organized and impactful fashion. If you have an itch to get your voice out there about a topic you’re passionate about, podcasting is a great way.

The first 3 steps to starting a podcast:

1) Define (and write out!) your avatar

Who is your ideal listener? My idea listener has a name, age, daily routine, world-view… etc. Be as specific as possible. When podcasting, it’s very easy to forget who your target audience. With an avatar, you will constantly be reminded of who you’re trying to connect with.

2) Make your podcast topic as niche as possible

Don’t choose a super broad topic or you will have a super broad audience. This can sometimes mean no audience at all since you don’t have a specific group to market to. Choose your topic and break it down until you come to the real WHY being it. That WHY is your niche topic.

3) Name your podcast something that describes exactly what it’s about

Your name and artwork are the first things that will attract or detract people. When people see your name, they should be able to get a pretty decent idea of what it’s about right off the bat. That will in turn help them decide if the podcast relates to them or not. Name your podcast something that would immediately catch the eye of your avatar. For example, my podcast name is Entrepreneur Before 25. My avatar [Wendy 😉 ya… I know super creative.] is looking for more young entrepreneurs to relate to and be in community with. She is tired of feeling like the only young entrepreneur out there. So, the name “Entrepreneur Before 25” is going to immediately attract her attention.

While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc)

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in the almost two years of owning the juice bar is that company culture is one of the biggest factors that differentiates your business from another. I knew this at first, but it wasn’t until I started intentionally implementing it that things started to happen.

How to create a strong company culture:

Create a company mission- What is the purpose of your business? And not just the purpose of your product, but the purpose behind your product? For the juice bar, our purpose isn’t just to provide people with healthy food options. It’s to “inspire and infuse new health, new energy and a new you.”

Vision: What will the big-picture outcome be when your business’s mission is carried out to it’s full extent?

Values: What are the core non-negotiable principles that your business values? For example, one of NUYU’s is- “Genuine Customer-Employee Relationships: Relationships are the core of our business. We value and practice authentic, genuine and honor centered relationships in everything we do.”

At each NUYU monthly staff meeting we go over the above. Then we choose a value to focus on that month and a few tangible goals we want to reach. Intentionally going over your company culture on a regular basis unites your team and gets them fired up about the WHY of your business.

What should an entrepreneur focus on?

You cannot grow your business beyond where you, yourself are willing to grow. Focus on self-development. By that I mean don’t get so consumed in your business that you forget to take care of yourself. Be committed into molding yourself into the best version of you that you can possibly be. A lot of times we prioritize a lot of other things before we prioritize ourself. However, in order to give 100% to the other areas of our lives, we must first be as 100% spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically as we can be. You’re not being selfish by taking time to take care of yourself, you are being wise.  

What are some of your favorite books?

Extreme Ownership by Jacko Willink and Leif Babin

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?

In a couple years I will own multiple business that bring in consistent passive income without me having to be in the daily operations of any of them. I’ll be traveling around the world, speaking and hosting conferences for young entrepreneurs on how to be a young entrepreneur but still live a life of freedom and balance.

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