By Allyson Sutton
A natural extrovert, Helen Hall doesn't really "hush up," but she definitely knows how to hustle. At just 25, she's quickly grown her personal passion for wellness into a burgeoning empire, including a widely followed Instagram account, two packaged-food products and a brick-and-mortar smoothie bar in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre. And while it's certainly required a lot of hustle, Helen credits self-care and community for the growth of her business.
A former lacrosse and soccer player, Helen has always been interested in fitness. But it wasn't until college – and a dramatic shift in her routine – that Helen discovered the world of nutrition. Without the constant activity of sports, Helen gained weight and lost energy, turning to fads like the grapefruit diet and military diet to get back on track. Frustrated with the lack of results, she immersed herself in research, learning everything she could about nutrition. When Helen started following up her morning workouts with nutrient-packed smoothies (what she calls "the first deconstructed blender bomb"), she finally felt nourished and energized again.
Inspired, Helen moved to Charleston where she began working as a personal trainer and sharing wellness advice on her then-nascent Instagram account. Each time a client or follower would solicit ideas for a healthy, post-workout meal, Helen would think back to her senior year and the recipe that worked for her.
"I would try to get them to make the smoothie that I made, but it required seven or eight bags of ingredients," she says. "If it wasn't convenient, it wasn't happening."
So, in February 2017, Helen started creating smoothie mix-ins for her training clients, packing up the ingredients in her home kitchen. Fueled by their positive response and her trademark hustle, Helen found a local catering kitchen to mix the ingredients in bulk, and just two months later, the first Hushup + Hustle Blender Bombs were sold online.
She's now working with a commercial co-packing facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, to mix and package seven varieties (from goji, coconut and acai, to cacao and almond butter) of Blender Bombs, as well as a new grain-free B.B. Granola. And this past April, Helen partnered with two fellow female wellness professionals to open HUSTLE, a pop-up Blender Bomb smoothie bar in Mount Pleasant. The trio hatched the idea, found a space and opened in less than 30 days.
"We just made it happen," she says. "It was meant to be."
Helen describes her approach to wellness as "unconventional," forgoing trends, learning what works best for her body, and striving to find balance around food, activity, rest and work.
As she puts it, "Balance is the only thing that keeps me sane."
Despite her busy entrepreneurial lifestyle, Helen always makes time for self-care. Her mornings begin with 20 minutes of quiet time and meditation, sans phone or music, and she journals at least a couple of days per week. These rituals, paired with varying types of exercise throughout the week (she alternates between HIIT classes, Pilates, yoga and surfing), keep her energized to continue building the Hushup + Hustle brand.
And she'll need the energy. Her following is more engaged now than ever, with a staggering 93 percent of sales coming through Instagram, and so many incoming messages that she had to hire multiple interns to help her respond. But she isn't overwhelmed by this online community; in fact, it's what drives the hustle.
"The support from this community has been the most amazing thing," says Helen. "I'm so grateful to every single person who's ever followed me, bought the BBs and spread the word. That's the only way this business could have grown."
Helen's best wellness advice
Learn how to listen to your true gut instincts. Understand and respect your body so you can hear when it's telling you "yes" or telling you "no."
The pop-up HUSTLE Smoothie Bar is opening a permanent space later this year, and Helen and her business partners are plotting expansion and franchise opportunities.
Blender Bombs, Helen Hall, Hushup + Hustle, self-care, smoothie, Wellness