20 Nov 2019 Irene’s Dream Cold-Pressed Juices – Juicing for Vibrant Health
Irene Rodriguez made it her dream to help people change the way they look at health and she wanted to find a way to promote a plant-based lifestyle with a flair for modern culture. Irene’s dream was born in a new burgeoning business aptly named Irene’s Dream. She is creating cold-press juices available for delivery to your home or business.
“We have a mission to nurture our community with convenience,” said Irene.
This is something she’s learned as a member of the first entrepreneur cohort guided by SecondMuse, an international company with an office in Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers. SecondMuse is working with their first cohort consisting mainly of women and minorities to understand being an entrepreneur involves providing solutions for a market need.
According to SecondMuse Program Director Jonathan Romine, 92% of businesses in Southwest Florida have under 25 employees. To enhance our community with creative and viable new businesses, SecondMuse’s mission is to help develop our local economy by creating an ecosystem of entrepreneurs who can thrive here, and stay in Southwest Florida rather than fleeing to other markets.
“We noticed how this area didn’t have many healthy food restaurants or alternatives,” said Irene, so we are here to educate and serve our community cold-pressed juices picked produce from our local farmers.”
It turns out that Irene’s Dream is the first cold- pressed juice delivery service in southwest Florida. The SecondMuse team is working with her and the others in the group to develop viable business plans, create opportunities and find ways to work together in the entrepreneur space, to support one another, and even mentor in areas they have developed working as business owners. The group of entrepreneurs are at various levels from incubation to scaling up to serve larger markets.
We’ve all read the cliché memes to “follow your dreams,” but Irene has taken that to a new level. The reason she decided to open Irene’s Dream was because her father was diagnosed with lung cancer back in 2015 and no one in the family had ever had cancer. It was then that she picked up The China Study book and then she did a lot more research, the first step in developing a case for a business.
“That book completely changed my view about the food we eat,” she said. “Unfortunately, it was too late for my father, but I knew I could help people in our community with education and our handcrafted, organic, local farm produced, cold-pressed juices.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, for a healthy diet, people should consume 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits a day. For most of us that is impossible, and Irene has created an easy and convenient solution and designing it into a viable business.
“We have learned so much being the SecondMuse cohort, they help us with the challenges we face as entrepreneurs and have taught us so much valuable information such as business education, mental health, blockchain, and more, “ said Irene. “We have gained from the educational experiences and seminars as well as the guidance of mentors.”
For more information, you can IrenesDream.com. If you are looking for healthy options and want to shop local, you can also find them at the Farmers Market on Thursday – River District in Fort Myers Downtown and Saturday – Bonita Springs Farmers Market.
About SecondMuse and its Partnership with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation
SecondMuse is an international company that collaborates with visionary governments, corporations, foundations and startups to build 21st-century economies. At the core of our economies are people, communities and networks. From Brooklyn to Bali, our programs span geographies, sectors and size of business. We tackle essential challenges in manufacturing, energy, capital, education, mental health, data, civic engagement, food, blockchain, disaster risk and more around the world. Located in Collaboratory and in partnership with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, SecondMuse launched in February 2019 and is currently working with its first cohort of local entrepreneurs.
