Meet Adam Armstrong

We were lucky to catch up with Adam Armstrong recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have ADAM with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My work ethic has come from a combination of people and experiences through my life. I did not come from a family of monetary wealth by any stretch but have been fortunate enough to have parents that challenged me to be the best I can be and to be accountable for my actions and decisions. I was always told that “No one is just going to give it to you. You have to go earn it.”, but also, “You made the bed you’re lying in. What are you going to do about it now?” I took these teachings and enabled them in every aspect of my life. If I wanted it, I went after it with everything I had. If I failed, I retraced steps to see where, what or how things went wrong and what I could do to rectify. As a 16-year-old I had filled my days playing high school sports, working at a local golf course and coaching children’s soccer camps. There was no calling out of school or work or coaching. Even if I was tired and didn’t want to, my father would not accept “I’m too tired.” as any excuse for his son. He’d say, “We don’t cry and complain son. We make it happen. We get it done. We don’t put off until tomorrow what needs to get done today. No excuses.” My dad probably had the greatest effect on my work ethic. He did his best to prepare me to carry the weight that the world will place on me, and I could not feel more blessed to have such a great teacher. I can tell you that I did not like it at the time. I mistook his lessons as lack of love for me when I was young, and now I could not be more grateful. By 22 years old I was working 96 hours a week and running a 36-hole private country club and owning and operating a valet business at the same club. Now, 23 years later, I’m assisting in the complete operations and expansion of Baltimore owned and operated Pure Raw Juice, as Vice President.

I was also blessed with a great group of friends that challenged each other’s thought processes and physical abilities to see who could outwork who. We pushed each other to be more open-minded, wiser or physically stronger to compete with each other and peers from other schools in sports as well as academics and grew closer from those challenges.

I want to be good at everything that I believe is truly important. I want to be a good husband, a good father, a good son, a good friend, a good worker, a good teammate and overall, just a good person. To be those things I have to work hard every day to give the world and those I love and care about the best of myself. Even though I still fail at all of these things sometimes, I have learned to forgive myself and keep trying with a positive attitude, rather than wallow in the sadness of failure.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am the Vice President and longest standing teammate for Pure Raw Juice, a Baltimore owned and operated food health bar. In 2015, I became curious and fascinated about what and how I eat, and what effect it may have on my body. At the time, I was the lead singer of a traveling band just working odd jobs to support playing our music all over the country. One day, I had this epiphany, “If all energy is vibration/frequency then how does that translate to what I eat and how I feel after eating it?” I thought, if there are good vibes and bad vibes, then surely that can also be the case for our food right? I began paying attention to my body more, but also listening to what other people were saying about themselves after eating. People would be saying how they were “Dead tired.” after eating these fat burgers, giant deli sandwiches or deep-fried FILL IN THE BLANK. However, on the opposite hand, I’d hear people say how good and energetic they felt after eating salads, fruits and vegetables. I could relate to all of those same things when I consumed those foods. I felt that if I wanted to feel good and be filled with good energy, I needed to consume the foods that were filled with those things. The more we chew fruits and vegetables, the more enzymes become active and the more access to their nutrients we get. We literally consume life, perhaps helping us feel more alive, as opposed to consuming dead, followed by feeling slow, sluggish or just dead tired.

Hence, I walked through the doors of Pure Raw Juice in Federal Hill to practice my thoughts. This little shop was in the middle of a neighborhood with no other retail shopping anywhere near it. Immediately, I was met with the scent of citrus filling the air and I felt ALIVE breathing it in. After talking with the owner a few times, I asked if he was hiring and could be flexible with my tour schedule. We worked out the details and I began working with Pure Raw Juice on August 10, 2015. It felt good to continue inspiring people in positive ways, but in a way differing from our music. I could now directly relate what I am doing to the physical and mental health of my community. Everything was very transparent and clean when it came to our ingredients and their preparation, which perfectly aligns with how I carry myself personally. It made things very easy to talk about to our customers.

I quickly learned the processes of juicing and made-to-order smoothies and superfood bowls and tweaked some Standard Operating Procedures to assist our team in efficiency and waste prevention. Before I knew it, I was running the shop. We went from 15-20 customers a day to over 350 people lining up all day on weekends in just a few short months. The neighborhood was filled with people hanging out eating acai bowls and drinking smoothies. The owner brought on two more partners at this time to open another location in Towson. Once Towson was open and we got our feet under us, the original owner sold his share to the partners, and we started building the dream of delicious, nutrient-dense, plant-based foods to be easily accessible to the city of Baltimore and its surrounding areas.

Since then, we have opened 8 more locations across the city stretching all the way up to The Harford Mall in Bel Air. We have worked hard to build a team that embodies and embraces our values of clean, nutritious food and healthy community relationships. We use fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables for our smoothies and bowls, with no ice, or other fillers, and have no dairy in our stores at all. We are certified Kosher and make our own cashew milk in-house rather than use store-bought nut milks that barely contain any nuts in them. Our juicing method is cold-pressed, which minimizes any heat and helps retain nutrients and freshness longer, while quenching your thirst with a smooth clean finish, rather than chewing your juice. When you look at the ingredient list of our products, what you see is exactly what you’re getting. Nothing hidden. We are real people trying to do real good things and we are grateful to be so well-received by Baltimore and its surrounding areas. It has been a blessing to be involved with this company from the early stages and to have a strong hand in the development of everything we do. This brand cares. We care about everything we do before we even get to the customer, which should reflect just how much we care about our customers who are our community.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Work ethic. You have to have the discipline to put in the work. It starts with you being ready and willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve what you have set out to do, especially when you don’t want to or don’t feel like it. You cannot count on anyone to make it happen but yourself. Work hard until you’ve accomplished your goal, and then work hard some more.

Adaptability. The world and markets are always changing. New trends are always emerging while old ones fall off and die. Covid was a perfect example. A lot of businesses closed because they weren’t willing to adapt or looking for non-conventional ways to survive, or even thrive with the changing landscape. If you can combine a disciplined work ethic with adaptability, you are placing yourself in a great position to be successful.

Team building. It is very difficult take on entrepreneurial ventures alone. If you alone are doing all of the thinking and decision making, you put yourself at risk. It is easy to make wrong or bad decisions when you have nobody to bounce them off of. Surrounding yourself with people who are well versed in different aspects of business, provides a great balance to illicit more well thought out decisions that could make or break your company. None of us make all the right choices all the time. A team of people working together, who all have the goal of making the best decisions for the health of the company in mind, will take a lot of pressure off of you and help mitigate risk.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

Our ideal client is anyone seeking to be healthy or maintain their health. Of course, exercising is an important part of our health, but it all starts with what we put into our bodies. Like exercise, we observe effects on both our physical and mental health with the foods we consume. You are what you eat!!! You can really focus on areas of the body with particular fruits and vegetables to heal those areas. I’ve had countless customers share their Pure Raw Juice stories with me, from losing weight, to clearing skin disorders, to successfully overcoming hypertension while satisfying their tastebuds with deliciousness! If you are looking to improve, or regularly maintain your health without sacrificing flavor, Pure Raw Juice has what you’re looking for!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.purerawjuice.com
• Instagram: @purerawjuice
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purerawjuice
• Twitter: @purerawjuice
• Other: Tik-Tok: www.tiktok.com/@purerawjuice