 Hey everyone, Lenny Gale Life is New York. This is a conversation I had with Michelle from the Vitamix Culinary Exploration Center in Solon, Ohio. At the end of this video, hopefully, we'll be able to answer the question, what is so special about the Vitamix? Hi guys, you know who I am. That one's good. Hey, Lenny Gale Life is New York, so we're in the Vitamix Retail Store in Solon, Ohio and I'm with Michelle and I want to have a quick conversation with her because we kind of have a similar job and I'm curious how you help people get to the edge, taking the plunge, pulling the trigger, getting a Vitamix and in the demonstrations that she does, in the shows and in the events that she holds, what do you say when people say things like, so okay I can do all these things in a blender? Great, I'm going to go get a NutriBullet. What I like to point out is that it's really more than just a blender and for me personally, I don't use my food processor nearly as much. Did I get rid of it? No because it doesn't, the Vitamix doesn't shred. So it's like when you want that texture, you still need to have that food processor but I honestly have taken out maybe twice in the last year because I can do everything on the Vitamix. It cleans up so much easier so I don't have like six different parts in my dishwasher and taking up the whole thing. When people will come in here and be like, oh is this going to make me eat healthy and I'm like, well not necessarily because you can make some really delicious decadent delights in your Vitamix, but what it does is it makes it easier to make that healthier choice so you're more likely to do it more often and because when it's easy to do something and you're going to get the result that you're looking for, that's when it pays off for you health wise. Yes, it's easy and you get the results and we say that it lives on your counter so it's a constant reminder of this commitment that you've made to yourself to live a certain lifestyle and to make some changes and to do some things for you and for your family. Absolutely and I always tell people too that it's nice to, I've been in retail my entire career and it's nice to actually sell a product that really does what they say it does. I love that, yeah. And I mean I've seen the competitive blends with Vitamix against like five other brands of blenders and they do the mix very smoothly and they pour it through the sieves and you can see how it cuts through. So when people come in here and they have a competitors blender and they're like well I really like the way this one works and I'm like it's going to do everything you're doing now but it's going to do it better and you're going to be able to do more. Yeah. And that's really, I mean our class that we do here, the basics culinary class, it's an hour and 45 minutes where we show you everything you can do on your blender. And I mean we spend 10 minutes talking about different chopping techniques because that's something I don't do on the Cuisinart anymore. You can create, I mean people are nuts for cauliflower rice, it takes like 10 seconds in the Vitamix. That's right. So I mean there's just all these kind of fun things that you can do that you don't think of the blenders from the tool you use but if you have a Vitamix it'll become the tool you grab. Yeah you mentioned the the NutriVol and you mentioned the blend offs comparing the results of different machines and that for people that do have a NutriVol for example that they actually should be happy because the results you get from that are much better than a Ninja. Which I thought was interesting. I think people see it conceptualize it as the other way around. Right. But you know if you have a NutriVol it's like oh great you're actually you know you're in good shape. The only problem is it lasts with with regular use it lasts a few months. Yeah. And that's and that's great we always say it's a it's a it's a foot in the door it's a way to get started. Yeah it's a way to make the lifestyle change that you're hoping to make and the thing is how many people are here come in here and they're on their third or their fourth one and they're like gosh I could have paid for a Vitamix. Sure. You know right now now that we have the payment plans on the website it makes it very affordable. Yeah. That's what I would like people think about if this is something you're going to do all the time you want that tool that's built to handle that kind of you know abuse on a daily basis and it's going to perform we say they last you know people there's that saying that they last a lifetime and people always say oh does that mean there's a lifetime guarantee we're like no but with proper use it's going to last you 20 30 years people bring them in all the time to trade them in and they're like handing it to me like here you go but it's not broken right here you go oh but it's still blind so maybe I'm going to give this to my sister right I mean they're afraid they don't want a part with it yes you know we get a lot of people that reach out to us and say we've had our machine for 15 20 25 years I heard a stat that I think something like less than half of 1% of these machines get sent in for service right like you get the warranty and it's nice to have five seven ten years well what we find out here in the store because you can always drop off your repairs here so we see a lot come through but what we find out is nine out of ten times it's brand new users that are have the wrong technique okay so that they're like a great example as I tell everyone when you're using your tamper don't put your other hand on the handle because you don't even realize that you're oh so slightly putting pressure especially when you're new and you're just learning to use the tamper and you can rock it and it can cause wear on the drive shaft got it when we get that repair coming in and you can feel the burrs on the drive shaft and I'm like where do you put your other hand when you're using tamper put on top yeah they're almost always grabbing the handle either on top or resting at the base yeah I think that's good for eye hand coordination because it gives you you're less likely to rock with the hand that's holding the tamper that makes sense but um definitely don't put on the handle so it's like little things like that is what we tend to see it coming in for and it's covered by your warranty it's probably going to occur I think inevitably we always get people who've had them for two three four days and they're like all right this thing can handle anything I'm going to put in a brick of frozen fruit and ice no water no water yeah no water and then they say well I think my I think it's broken I think I got a defective one like well did you add any liquid what you're doing like come on this thing this thing can make the best drinks and all the things but like you've got a load absolutely you got to load it properly yeah um I tell people I go there is a learning curve yeah you're not going to be perfect the first time out I tell people to check the recipes on the website even if you're doing your own thing because they're going to give you a sense of proportion yeah and all smoothies are going to be a liquid to frozen ratio yeah so if you're all frozen you're going to want to up your liquid content if you're all got tons of french fresh fruit that are going to liquefy quickly and create that liquid base yeah then you might want to add some ice to it to thicken it up so there is a learning curve sure that's important for people to know oh it's a blender but like it's more than a wonder it's a vitamin you gotta uh figure out how to use it yeah well you guys do some great technique videos thank you great technique videos and itemics.com there's and if you're in solan yeah you can come and take a class with us yeah come visit michelle it's actually really fun and really cool here um there was one other thing I wanted to say is I think people feel like they need to deserve a vitamin or rather they don't feel like they deserve it I'm not living this lifestyle or I'm I don't have a good enough job or I don't I'm not one who can or should have a vitamin but if it's something that you're considering you should it's almost like a fear of failure that if I make this big investment will it be worth it will I have fulfilled the expectations I have of myself with this machine do you feel that it breaks my heart to hear somebody to tell me that they bought it yeah and then they haven't taken it out of the box yeah had a lady come in here and she's like she was thinking about you know returning it because she just hadn't taken it out of the box and you're kind of like you treated yourself to this awesome yeah clients and why are you not using it what's holding you back yeah and so I do see what you mean like there's a fear of use and we got her in here for a basics class and she is on fire yeah she brings us stuff that she's making on her Vitamix now she's like so excited about it right but I tell people I go it it comes with that 30 day when you buy from Vitamix you get the 30 day money back guarantee use it use it every single day yeah and then decide because I think by the end of that window you're going to be successful in so many things that you'll you will use it and that's that whole idea of making yourself first and treating yourself and being able to do the healthy things that you need to and with the new exploring coming out boy there's a price point for everybody yeah yeah it's a really good fit and for people that want the little profile in their container and a new machine that's a really good price point that's that's a great fit for sure it's it's easier than it ever has been we say well and I when we tell everyone at the store when you come in it doesn't matter what full-size Vitamix you're getting they all can do everything equally as well so you kind of have to break it down into you know what's important to you you know do you like working with programs are you comfortable with manual control yeah all the machines have manual control some of them have programs you pay a little bit more for that but it's a convenience feature you don't need them to be able to do hot soup all the machines make hot soup that's right and so I tell people if you love all the gadgets and the technology then top of the line new ascent might be the way though if you're just getting started and you're not sure how you're going to sit then grab a new exploring my gosh you can get in for such a great price what shall we just brought this to our attention from from behind and it's it's that you make this commitment and you're holding yourself accountable it's like having a gym membership and okay I paid for a gym membership every month I'm gonna use it I'm sort of forcing myself to use it because if I don't I've already committed so I have to absolutely it's a it's sort of like a contract with yourself to use this thing absolutely and if you figure out you know if you are stopping at a smoothie place and buying a smoothie you're spending what seven eight dollars yeah yeah the math it definitely doesn't add up and it's like so if you want to get into doing this and you're going home you can even like factor out what you're saving for a blend that you would have stopped somewhere to pick something else up one of my good friends when she went back to college for her second degree she calculated the cost of every class okay from her tuition and that's how she held herself accountable and you can kind of do the same thing with the blender you know you're caught like what what money did I invest that I want to get out of it totally we never buy smoothies and juices out unless we're unless we're traveling and in a pinch but it doesn't make sense it doesn't add up no and look at all the sugar in the ones that are being done at the commercial places it's like if you really read the ingredients list how many times do you see like apple juice as the base component and you can switch that out with something healthier like water or or almond milk or just um and that really changes the calorie makeup and you get such a much healthier and anything that's fresh I mean when they're blending when you're blending it fresh for yourself okay so I totally agree I have two questions one I've always been one to avoid the high-end products the brand name products because I find that the value isn't there what you're buying is a name and the example that I've that's close to us now is with strollers we know that there are very expensive strollers with very fancy names and we can't see the value but it's easy for us to see the value in the best blender the Vitamix right can you can you talk about like one thing that one of the girls that used to work with us and I and I think you heard her say it is I am too poor to buy cheap I cannot afford to have to replace this blender every six months every year and have it it's that unknown expense constantly popping up that you're not budgeting for and if you invest in a brand that's proven yeah I mean 96 years old Vitamix has been around yes yes and it's like when you can invest in something that's proven that you know is going to last you have that you make that initial investment but you know it's there for you yeah for a long time to come um and because it morphs with you the Vitamix does it's like you know you can be doing using it as you're starting a young family with your baby foods and your purees and you got you and shall they're used to do your smoothies yeah but then as the kids start to get older and you're going to want to be getting them to eat more vegetables and stuff like that it becomes a great vehicle you can make frozen desserts you can sneak some stuff in there yes so it's going to grow with your family and that's why people say they have them for generations they pass them down yes people come in with their grandmothers Vitamix she remembers what grandma used to make on the Vitamix they will move with you and I think that as a brand that's something that comfort level that it's going to last yeah really pays off and I know it's an intimidating price point yeah absolutely yeah Vitamix is definitely trying to give people options to make it more affordable yeah offering the payment plans but you're and you're investing in something that you're going to be having for a long time I like that yeah last question sure I have a couple friends that have a $20 blender and they use it every day and they say when it dies they'll get a Vitamix and I can't sell them on a Vitamix it's almost as though I'll be winning in a sense I think in their head or they can't or they just can't justify it they are who they are what do you what do you say to them I tell people that feel like my blenders as good as yours I'm like why don't you bring me your ingredients and let me blend them for you a blend off and then and then and then you tell me yeah it's the same experience okay nine out of ten times it's not the same experience they're making a chunky not a smoothie you're right so I mean truly yeah so it's and it's the fact that that little blender they're not they're doing the same thing all the time all the time it's like with the Vitamix you're gonna have you're gonna use it for other things like we did yes you give a lot more value out of it I think you do right I think you do it is you're buying a tool for your kitchen yeah there's no doubt I mean you're not buying a single use machine you're not buying a ice cream maker yeah I mean you are you are buying an ice cream but but it's not that's not its sole purpose it's doing so many different things yeah we use it for the whole gamut of of kitchen needs so food processing we make cauliflower fried rice like you say a detox salad we we make hot soups we make our famous queso hot cheese sauce we make nut butters we make frozen desserts ice creams hummus I mean we it's it's dressing it's the only appliance that we use and yeah that's our job I get it but dressings yeah all the time we make fresh dressings they're wonderful um so there you get more about I mean it's there's more to it than just a $600 smoothie maker it's just it's more than that it's way more than that and I think that that's just it someone once said that she thinks of it as a member of the family yeah if you if something's not there and you miss it when it's gone I like that it's like a member of the family she goes and she feels that way about her Vitamix yeah that when it's not we shouldn't have it she misses it yeah we we we don't push and we just we actually take the opposite approach we just say like we're here whenever you're ready it just as soft as possible like we're gonna we'll be here if it's one month one year 10 years like we're gonna be here this is what we do that's what we get a lot in the in the because it is a high price point yeah people need time to wrap their head around yeah it's like somebody will walk in the store they're typically not gonna buy the first time yeah yeah they're gonna come in they're gonna want a little bit more information we'll explain to them the difference on the models and then they'll go out and they'll look around on their own they'll think about what they're doing but and I always tell people I'm like bring me your groceries bring me your problem you're looking to solve let us help you solve it yeah because I think that that's an important part of being able to justify the machine be able to know do or rather than justify the price point is to know that you can do all those things yeah it can solve a problem don't do it for me don't do it for Michelle even though she like she makes a good case do it for yourself whenever you're ready I think that's I think that's a bottom line yeah absolutely yeah we'll be here it will be here yeah that's right yeah that's right that's right uh listen listen listen to Michelle's words are very good and helpful thank you for watching life is New York goodbye yeah thanks thanks for joining us in the solo store and blah blah blah thank you so what do you think what's so special about the Vitamix is it is it not leave a comment below we'd love to hear from you and thanks for watching