This story is a series collaboration with Twendé, a TN accelerator program.
Kayla Hall is the founder of The City Juicery an innovative juice bar located inside the Nashville Farmers Market. They offer cold-pressed juices designed to nourish your body with a plethora of locally sourced ingredients, ensuring flavors of the highest quality and free from any additives.
What was the catalyst for you to start your business?
My own health issues. After being unheard and unvalued in the medical space and I continued experiencing more issues. I decided I wanted to do something different. It boiled down to me addressing my eating habits, but also being aware of the lifestyle that I was living. Fast food, busy life, stressing at work, being a single parent, all of these have a factor in our overall health, but also, when you’re living in that world, it’s so much easier to go through that drive-through. Once I received understanding within myself, the best thing I could do was a simple change, implementing juices. I started making my own juices and visiting juice bars. During this time, it started to feel like “Maybe I could do this a little bit differently.” I began taking small steps until I opened the doors to The City Juicery in 2023.
What made you want to participate in the Twendé program?
I went through PreFlight at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center last winter, so I kind of knew about Twendé. I decided I was gonna apply and if it worked out, it worked out, and thank God it did. I’m very thankful that I went through the program. Especially since it put me in a space with Black entrepreneurs. Then I started to find other people in aligned industries, which brought more peace and joy to my heart because sometimes you do feel isolated as a Black woman in the health and wellness space.
Twendé means “Let’s go” in Kiswahili, so what’s been a word that has kept you going as an entrepreneur in Nashville?
“Let’s go” just sets a fire that I feel like generationally Black culture has been chasing and represents my North Nashville roots. Right now, my fire is just lit. It’s not dull, it’s not overpowered, it’s just lit. It’s lit enough to trust and believe in the plans that God has for me…I’m just going every day until God tells me to stop.
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