407 – A Brave and Unconventional Path To An Award Winning Tea Company With Jenny Tse
The way Jenny got into her business is fascinating … not a traditional path by any means. As you listen to her story, notice how she encounters decision points along the way and leaps into the opportunities that present themselves.
Scary? Yes, by her own admission. But also, exciting and with each win, she gains more and more confidence in herself. She says she tests herself by entering into situations to “make myself the most uncomfortable possible.”
Along the way, she hits cultural obstacles and an identity crisis. She loses her job and travels to a foreign land in pursuit of her dream – all without the support of her family. But that’s of course not where the story ends.
You’ll also hear why she quadrupled her prices AND one very opportunistic way she built recognition for herself and her brand.
Jenny’s unusual journey to success will inspire you and teach you so much about how to build a thriving business!
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, Jenny is the founder and owner of Sipping Streams Tea Company.
She’s a certified tea specialist and her expertise shows. Sipping Streams has won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the North American Tea Championships and 2nd at the Global Tea Championships.
Sipping Streams has also been featured in Fresh Cup Magazine, Edible Alaska, and NPR. Jenny is the best-selling author of The Essence of Tea and the host of The Essence of Tea podcast.
And that’s not all! This past summer, Sipping Streams Tea Company started an experimental tea farm in Alaska using geothermal heat.
An Unconventional Path To Building A Business
In this episode, you’ll learn …
- The importance of following your passion.
- How to challenge yourself to grow outside of your comfort zone.
- Innovative ways to promote your product and establish credibility.
- Keys to creating an amazing experience for your customers.
- Creative ways to educate people about your product.
- And much more!
Tune in now to hear this inspiring and unconventional path to business success!
Resources Mentioned
Jenny’s Contact Links
Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn
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Thank you so much! Sue
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Transcript
Gift is Unwrapped Guest episode number 407.
Speaker:They just thought it was so fascinating.
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:how did you get into tea?
Speaker:Because I didn't grow up as a tea drinker.
Speaker:I've been drinking coffee since I was four.
Speaker:Attention Gifters Bakers Crafters of Bakers.
Speaker:Pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is Gift Biz Unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host Gift Biz Gal Sue Moon Height.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue.
Speaker:And you know I always love when you join me for
Speaker:the podcast.
Speaker:So thanks for showing up today.
Speaker:How's the first month of the year treating you?
Speaker:I've already got one trade show for the year under my
Speaker:belt that was for the Ribbon Print Company and last week
Speaker:we celebrated here National Bakers Crafters Bakers Day.
Speaker:If you missed it,
Speaker:don't worry.
Speaker:All the goodies are still available to you.
Speaker:Just listen to the very last podcast,
Speaker:episode number 406 to hear all about it.
Speaker:For today's show,
Speaker:I am super excited to introduce you to Jenny.
Speaker:You may not know her already,
Speaker:but you might be familiar with her book and related extensions.
Speaker:The book is titled The Essence of Tea and Spins from
Speaker:Her Business Sipping Streams.
Speaker:You'll hear all about this in a minute.
Speaker:The way she got into her business is fascinating,
Speaker:not a traditional path by any means.
Speaker:As you listen to her story,
Speaker:notice how she encounters decision points along the way and leaps
Speaker:into the opportunities that present themselves Scary.
Speaker:Yes, by her own admission but also exciting.
Speaker:And with each win she gains more and more confidence in
Speaker:herself. She says she tests herself by entering into situations to
Speaker:make myself the most uncomfortable possible.
Speaker:Along the way,
Speaker:she hits cultural obstacles and an identity crisis.
Speaker:She loses her job,
Speaker:travels to a foreign land in pursuit of her dream,
Speaker:all without the support of her family.
Speaker:And that's of course not where the story ends.
Speaker:You'll also hear why she quadrupled her tea prices and one
Speaker:very opportunistic way.
Speaker:She built recognition of herself and her brand.
Speaker:There's even more,
Speaker:but without making this too long,
Speaker:let's let Jenny take it away.
Speaker:Today I am so looking forward to bringing you this conversation
Speaker:with Jenny Ja,
Speaker:born in Hong Kong and raised in Fairbanks,
Speaker:Alaska. Jenny is the founder and owner of Sipping Streams Tea
Speaker:Company. She's a certified tea specialist and her expertise shows Sipping
Speaker:Streams has won first,
Speaker:second, and third at the North American Tea Championships.
Speaker:And second at the Global Tea Championships.
Speaker:Sipping Streams has been featured in Fresh Cup Magazine,
Speaker:edible, Alaska and N P r.
Speaker:Jenny is the best-selling author of the Essence of Tea and
Speaker:the host of the Essence of Tea podcast.
Speaker:And that's not all.
Speaker:This past summer sipping streams tea company started an experimental tea
Speaker:farm in Alaska using geothermal heat.
Speaker:We are going to be talking with a woman who is
Speaker:ahead of the game with everything tea.
Speaker:Jenny, welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you Sue.
Speaker:Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker:I am so excited to dive into your story because you
Speaker:are a maker with lots of different avenues spinning off of
Speaker:the things you do and I'm really excited to share that
Speaker:with everybody.
Speaker:But before we do this,
Speaker:I have a special tradition here on the show and that
Speaker:is to have you share with us what a motivational candle
Speaker:would look like that would really resonate with you.
Speaker:So what would that be for you by a color and
Speaker:a saying or a quote?
Speaker:So my motivational candle is really probably very,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:I guess it's very descriptive of the candle.
Speaker:So one of my favorite quotes is by Shane Clayborne and
Speaker:it says we are to be the fire to weave our
Speaker:lives together so that the spirit's inferno of love spreads across
Speaker:the earth.
Speaker:And it's really kind of my mission of my company and
Speaker:how it became because my background is not a maker.
Speaker:Well, I mean I always was a hobbyist since I was
Speaker:a kid and did arts and crafts and sold out the
Speaker:farmer's market and things like that.
Speaker:But my professional background is actually in the medical field and
Speaker:education space.
Speaker:So becoming an entrepreneur,
Speaker:especially a product based entrepreneur,
Speaker:had to come from deep within like who I am more
Speaker:than wanting to make something cuz it was fun,
Speaker:especially for how long I've been in business and what my
Speaker:business has had to survive through in the last 16 years.
Speaker:It's definitely the mission and the purpose of what I do
Speaker:that keeps me motivated through all the ups and downs.
Speaker:And do you have a color for your candle just so
Speaker:we can complete the vision?
Speaker:Oh of course it'd be green.
Speaker:Like for tea Of course.
Speaker:Well there you go.
Speaker:If you asked me to guess I would've said that.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:honestly as we continue and hear your story,
Speaker:because I did take a little peek at your website before
Speaker:we got started,
Speaker:I'd say that your medical and educational background also are being
Speaker:tapped into with what you're doing today.
Speaker:So that's a great example of having a degree or things
Speaker:like that that are outside of what you're doing as a
Speaker:maker, but you can spin off that knowledge to really enhance
Speaker:what you're doing with a quote unquote maker company.
Speaker:But let's start with where did your love of tea come
Speaker:from in the very beginning?
Speaker:Okay, so in my book The Essence of Tea,
Speaker:so many people had asked me to write a biography about
Speaker:my life cause they just thought it was so fascinating.
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:how did you get into tea?
Speaker:Because I didn't grow up as a tea drinker.
Speaker:I've been drinking coffee since I was four.
Speaker:I actually like the taste of black coffee.
Speaker:Like I drink straight up black coffee.
Speaker:It's not that I don't drink coffee,
Speaker:like I have nothing against coffee,
Speaker:but I literally do not sell any coffee products at all.
Speaker:Not even my brick and mortar.
Speaker:We don't even serve cups of coffee,
Speaker:not even plain black coffee.
Speaker:So my love of tea really came out of my journey
Speaker:just like a lot of other people who start getting interested
Speaker:in tea and don't know anything about tea just like me.
Speaker:Okay, just because I'm born in Hong Kong and I am
Speaker:like an immigrant,
Speaker:doesn't mean I grew up as a tea drinker,
Speaker:but with my medical background a lot of people in college
Speaker:thought I was a tea drinker even though I didn't drink
Speaker:college until my last year.
Speaker:And so when I started drinking tea,
Speaker:cuz it was the cheapest thing at the coffee shop menu
Speaker:because I had all these loans I had to pay back
Speaker:and my drink was 5 28 a day,
Speaker:like 5 cents a Day.
Speaker:You remember that exact amount even now?
Speaker:Yeah, it was a quad venti soy inverted caramel macchiato at
Speaker:140 degrees.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:But it was my daily drink and I was like,
Speaker:what am I doing like wasting all this money like I'm
Speaker:going to be done with school soon,
Speaker:I'm gonna have to pay back these loans and I better
Speaker:just start drinking the cheapest thing on the menu,
Speaker:which is tea.
Speaker:So when I started drinking tea,
Speaker:people thought I was a tea drinker.
Speaker:Like people would walk up and like,
Speaker:oh I heard you're an athletic trainer.
Speaker:Oh is that like really good for you?
Speaker:I heard tea cures cancer and all these other things that
Speaker:I had no idea.
Speaker:People assumed because I wasn't a tea drinker,
Speaker:right? Like we would have tea growing up,
Speaker:having meals or dim sum or someone's house.
Speaker:But it wasn't like I knew anything about tea at all.
Speaker:I didn't even know anything about the culture of tea and
Speaker:what people were interested in tea.
Speaker:I had no interest in tea other than it was a
Speaker:cheap beverage.
Speaker:So all these questions started coming up and I would go
Speaker:and study about whatever medical case studies there were for different
Speaker:homework assignments and I would actually come across case studies about
Speaker:tea. And so being a double major in college,
Speaker:I was also studying physical education K through 12.
Speaker:So the teacher in me wanted to like regurgitate everything that
Speaker:I had learned,
Speaker:well actually in this case study.
Speaker:So I would just share with my friends what I had
Speaker:learned because our professors really pushed us to think about like
Speaker:what kind of myths are out there in the general public
Speaker:and why do people think the way that they do?
Speaker:Because it really affects the way that they heal and the
Speaker:way they look at health and wellness.
Speaker:And so since my university's professors we're all in line with
Speaker:that type of viewpoint or perspective or mindset,
Speaker:it made me think like that,
Speaker:why are people even interested in that?
Speaker:And it brought me into this T journey.
Speaker:And when I did practice sports medicine back in Alaska in
Speaker:the physical therapy clinic,
Speaker:I would be doing people's rehab and people would say,
Speaker:oh you drink tea too?
Speaker:And I was just drinking tea cuz I was just drinking
Speaker:tea. But I was starting to learn more about tea and
Speaker:people would share with me their different life experiences,
Speaker:their personal stories with their aunts down in the south with
Speaker:sweet tea or you know,
Speaker:there's all these stories.
Speaker:I started hearing about people saying,
Speaker:oh yeah,
Speaker:I used to drink tea with my grandma and she'd make
Speaker:it anytime I didn't feel good.
Speaker:It was always amazing cuz she'd put like half a cup
Speaker:of sugar in it or you know,
Speaker:just interesting stories where I was starting to build relationships,
Speaker:like intimate relationships with my patients over conversations about tea.
Speaker:And that's when I was like wow,
Speaker:all these people have stories about tea.
Speaker:And that made me reflect on my own life,
Speaker:like what kind of tea stories do I have?
Speaker:I mean I'm Chinese,
Speaker:like do I have any stories about tea?
Speaker:Do I remember anyone really drinking tea?
Speaker:Anything that stuck out to me.
Speaker:And actually that's when it started helping me heal with my
Speaker:own identity crisis.
Speaker:I think I'm first generation,
Speaker:I'm an immigrant so I was born in Hong Kong,
Speaker:grew up in Alaska.
Speaker:English was not my first language.
Speaker:My parents were professional chefs and they cooked with other Chinese
Speaker:people and so they didn't have to speak English.
Speaker:So when I went to public school,
Speaker:that's when I started learning English like in kindergarten.
Speaker:And I was always very tiny.
Speaker:I'm still tiny,
Speaker:I'm only four nine.
Speaker:And so I was always teased growing up and back in
Speaker:the early eighties it was really hard being not white.
Speaker:I didn't think of it as racism,
Speaker:I didn't take offense to it but I was always teased
Speaker:and one of my biggest strengths was I was very athletic,
Speaker:gifted wise.
Speaker:So all the kids,
Speaker:like the bullies or whatever would want me on their team
Speaker:cuz I could help them win.
Speaker:So with that and then going to college in Idaho,
Speaker:the only people that were greatly diversified were in the athletics
Speaker:department. You have like Samoans,
Speaker:you have like all these,
Speaker:you know African American football players and stuff like that.
Speaker:But then when I'd go into the other side of the
Speaker:campus away from the athletics,
Speaker:it wasn't so diversified,
Speaker:which was fine cuz I'm so used to being around,
Speaker:you know like other white people.
Speaker:And then my cousins would always say,
Speaker:you're so white,
Speaker:what's wrong with you?
Speaker:I was like why do you dress so frumpy?
Speaker:But growing up in Alaska we're just very more casual,
Speaker:more laid back and I don't look like a supermodel like
Speaker:most people in Hong Kong do.
Speaker:Like I don't have that fashion trend.
Speaker:So I kind of had this identity crisis like am I
Speaker:Chinese, am I white?
Speaker:Am I like,
Speaker:what am I?
Speaker:All my white friends say I'm so Asian,
Speaker:all my Asian family is like what's wrong with you?
Speaker:You're so white,
Speaker:you're like the black sheep of the family.
Speaker:And when I started learning more about tea,
Speaker:I could start understanding more about my cultural heritage and like
Speaker:relate in different ways and start to make my own origin
Speaker:story of who I really was and to grasp onto that
Speaker:and to appreciate my own personal story and development of like
Speaker:who I am today.
Speaker:That was the same theme though that I was kind of
Speaker:hearing from my different patients was they would tell me about
Speaker:their upbringing.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:oh so then how did you end up being in the
Speaker:military? Like how did you end up coming up to Alaska
Speaker:or something like that.
Speaker:I had a lot of military patients or different people from
Speaker:all over the place.
Speaker:And so would it be fair to say that between your
Speaker:patients, other students when you were in college you were getting
Speaker:affirmations for your enjoyment and then subsequently your knowledge of tea.
Speaker:So that reinforced a positive feeling along with then you being
Speaker:able to use it really to ground yourself and re-identify who
Speaker:you are.
Speaker:Is that a fair statement?
Speaker:Yes, so I believe so much for me and for my
Speaker:life and for a lot of people because tea is the
Speaker:number one beverage consumed in the entire world next to water,
Speaker:I don't know if you know that or not,
Speaker:but it is the number one most consumed beverage in the
Speaker:world next to water.
Speaker:So there's all these different cultures around the entire world.
Speaker:Even like indigenous people of Alaska,
Speaker:they have their own version of tea,
Speaker:their different herbs,
Speaker:their Labrador tea.
Speaker:So there's all these stories of like steeping something in hot
Speaker:water, even if like an American culture,
Speaker:if you think about coffee,
Speaker:it's beans steeped in hot water,
Speaker:kind of rep percolated.
Speaker:But there's a way of conversations happening and people discovering themselves
Speaker:and discovering other people.
Speaker:And so I think of tea as a medium of healing
Speaker:and bringing people together in a different way than say the
Speaker:pharmaceuticals or for me it'd be like rehab,
Speaker:right? Like physical therapy.
Speaker:It's just a different type of healing that can help a
Speaker:person's overall lifestyle.
Speaker:Yeah, I just have to say that the way you are
Speaker:introducing your interest in tea is something that everybody who's listening
Speaker:and I'd like you guys to think about your product too.
Speaker:I mean here you're listening to Jenny,
Speaker:yes she has tea,
Speaker:but so much passion and why it's important to her and
Speaker:furthermore what her product does,
Speaker:projecting people forward with their life,
Speaker:the value of it for their life.
Speaker:So it's a great demonstration Jenny,
Speaker:of the thought and it of course it all came to
Speaker:you naturally,
Speaker:but you describe it so well that I want people to
Speaker:think, think about that in correlation to whatever their products are,
Speaker:jewelry, candles,
Speaker:whatever. What is all of the emotion and the value projection
Speaker:forward that your product brings?
Speaker:Alright, so let's get to the point.
Speaker:How did you start thinking your practicing now with physical education
Speaker:and therapy and all of that?
Speaker:Where was that transition point where you started thinking maybe I
Speaker:should do something with tea?
Speaker:I didn't want to be an entrepreneur and I was trained
Speaker:by my parents to never ever own a small business.
Speaker:Oh I bet they weren't happy when you started thinking this
Speaker:way. No,
Speaker:they were not happy at all.
Speaker:My parents didn't have an education,
Speaker:like a formal education.
Speaker:My dad left home at 13 years old and had nothing
Speaker:left to him.
Speaker:Grandpa said,
Speaker:I'm not giving you a scent,
Speaker:you're gonna make it on your own.
Speaker:Now this is like in the late forties or early fifties
Speaker:and so 13 years old he hops on a ship as
Speaker:a mercent marine chef and cooks all over the world.
Speaker:And so our parents did not want us to have a
Speaker:hard lifestyle.
Speaker:They said we did not come into America for you to
Speaker:have a hard lifestyle,
Speaker:pick something stable,
Speaker:be a doctor,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:something like the Asian American dream.
Speaker:And so I did,
Speaker:I went into the medical field,
Speaker:right as an athletic trainer's do practicing sports medicine.
Speaker:So I do all like the emergency services for like a
Speaker:high school.
Speaker:I work with post-op patients in the clinic over the weekend
Speaker:I have my own patients that I just do physical therapy
Speaker:for. But then after that I quit working there and this
Speaker:was part of my journey of my identity crisis and I
Speaker:decided to go teach English in Hong Kong because growing up
Speaker:in Alaska and because our family's social status was much lower
Speaker:because we were chefs versus university professors and stuff like that,
Speaker:my sister and I would not just get teased by everybody
Speaker:else at school but all the Asian community because we weren't
Speaker:well off.
Speaker:And so it was really hard for me to get along
Speaker:with Asian people.
Speaker:And so I felt this calling like I need to go
Speaker:and immerse myself in Asian people and make myself the most
Speaker:uncomfortable possible because that's the only way you can grow.
Speaker:And I don't know what that means,
Speaker:but I like to personally challenge myself because I feel in
Speaker:my future it gives me more perspective and understanding people and
Speaker:myself and like what is the most uncomfortable thing I could
Speaker:possibly do?
Speaker:Go teach amongst a whole bunch of people in Hong Kong
Speaker:that have,
Speaker:who look like they all live in like New York City
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:you know like look like they should be on magazines and
Speaker:stuff like that.
Speaker:So I did that and when I came back again went
Speaker:through like some more healing,
Speaker:I'm like oh they're not all stuck up.
Speaker:Oh they're not all spoiled and rich.
Speaker:Like some of the kids that I had as students were
Speaker:like were from mainland China having to learn Cantonese and then
Speaker:having to learn English.
Speaker:And I could totally relate to them where I felt actually
Speaker:they were in a much harder position than I was.
Speaker:They were learning,
Speaker:learning two different languages.
Speaker:Then when I came back to Alaska,
Speaker:I was offered a position to be a high school teacher.
Speaker:And at that high school I was the math the science
Speaker:teacher at the PE teacher.
Speaker:And then on top of it,
Speaker:later on because they knew,
Speaker:I knew so much about T quote unquote,
Speaker:they asked me to design a whole curriculum on tea.
Speaker:And I was like what?
Speaker:Okay now I definitely have to like research more about tea.
Speaker:And they're like,
Speaker:yeah a lot of the students are interested in what you're
Speaker:sharing and a lot of the parents are really fascinated about
Speaker:this and how could you make this like an interesting class?
Speaker:Could it be like a home ec class?
Speaker:Could it be kinda like science-y class?
Speaker:This is like an elective class we want you to design
Speaker:a whole semester in tea education.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:okay, not thinking about starting a business or anything like that.
Speaker:So I started doing that and I was like,
Speaker:well people keep telling me ever since the physical therapy clinic
Speaker:I should start a tea company.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:well what if I had these kids design a tea education
Speaker:website and the school that I worked at,
Speaker:it was a private alternative school,
Speaker:like a co-op kind of.
Speaker:So it's not quite,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:publicly funded.
Speaker:It's all privately funded.
Speaker:Every parent owns like a share of the school and like
Speaker:the responsibility of it.
Speaker:So they also owned their own business,
Speaker:they owned a printing company.
Speaker:So these kids were like really good with graphic design and
Speaker:layout and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:I'm like okay let me use their talents,
Speaker:let's design a website.
Speaker:And so that was actually like the first steps of starting
Speaker:sipping streams tea company was this class and this website.
Speaker:Cuz I'm like maybe like my life is leading into something
Speaker:that I don't really wanna do,
Speaker:but we'll see,
Speaker:we'll see where it goes.
Speaker:Like I'll dabble,
Speaker:I'm not Committing you dare to dabble,
Speaker:I'm A business license,
Speaker:I'm not making stuff.
Speaker:And the school would have fundraisers.
Speaker:So the parents were like let's sell a bunch of tea
Speaker:gift baskets.
Speaker:And so with the school's business license,
Speaker:I started buying different teas and the families were putting these
Speaker:gift baskets for fundraisers to help pay the bills of the
Speaker:school and different things like that,
Speaker:cost, school supplies,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:And I was like wow,
Speaker:there's a lot of people in this town who like tea,
Speaker:I had no idea like I'm just buying some tea bag
Speaker:at some coffee shop,
Speaker:right? And so that's really where I was like dabbling more
Speaker:in depth in the entrepreneurship side because I didn't know anything.
Speaker:I was so pushed away from entrepreneurship that I just put
Speaker:blinders on.
Speaker:I was like don't ever pay attention to like being an
Speaker:entrepreneur. Don't even think about it.
Speaker:Don't even like think about the things that are gonna help
Speaker:you. So it was actually a real struggle when I first
Speaker:started my business after leaving that high school.
Speaker:So take us there now.
Speaker:So can you,
Speaker:as you reflect back,
Speaker:is there an exact time that you think of that was
Speaker:like, all right,
Speaker:I'm going to start making my own tea and start a
Speaker:business or let's get to the actual business part Here.
Speaker:So I was going to take a trip to China to
Speaker:visit tea farms cuz I'm like well this is really interesting.
Speaker:And I thought every entrepreneur has to be like super,
Speaker:super knowledgeable and everything.
Speaker:Like know everything start to finish before they start a business.
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:and this was probably gonna relate to all of you listeners
Speaker:out there who are kind of hesitant in diving into your
Speaker:business, but for me as a teacher I'm like of course
Speaker:you're supposed to hop on a plane and go visit physical
Speaker:tea farms,
Speaker:right? Like every tea shop owner does that.
Speaker:So I did that but while I was handing my airplane
Speaker:ticket to the ticket agent to get on the jet way,
Speaker:I was on the phone with one of the parents of
Speaker:the school and they told me I was being laid off
Speaker:because there was not enough kids coming back the next year
Speaker:to make a sustainable to have a second teacher.
Speaker:So they're going to more of like the online,
Speaker:like they're gonna have teach math online and kind of like
Speaker:homeschooling on what we've been through through the pandemic.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:so I literally handed my ticket,
Speaker:I was on the phone,
Speaker:I sat down in my seat and I was like,
Speaker:I guess I'm doing tea.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:am I seriously doing tea?
Speaker:Like oh my goodness.
Speaker:Okay, well obviously everything's lined out so far,
Speaker:right? Like you've been on this journey like I guess and
Speaker:it was the first time I was actually with peace because
Speaker:growing up I always felt like I couldn't please my parents
Speaker:well enough.
Speaker:Like I'm just like,
Speaker:what's wrong with you?
Speaker:Cause you look so frumpy,
Speaker:like kind of like my big fat Greek wedding.
Speaker:Like it totally relates to the main character of my big
Speaker:fat Greek wedding.
Speaker:But it was like everything's set.
Speaker:You didn't even realize it,
Speaker:everything was getting lined up and you didn't even realize it.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden like you are already on
Speaker:your way,
Speaker:you find out your life is really changing when you get
Speaker:back. What were you thinking as you were making your way
Speaker:over to China?
Speaker:Then I was like,
Speaker:well obviously you're gonna make money cuz you're a certified teacher
Speaker:and he can substitute teach like you don't have to commit
Speaker:to the classroom.
Speaker:You already know how to like make this stuff.
Speaker:You're literally going to learn how to source,
Speaker:just take it all in.
Speaker:And that's all I,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:for some reason there was like the spirit,
Speaker:this like aura that was like just take it in.
Speaker:There's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker:The plane's going,
Speaker:you're already on the plane,
Speaker:you can't get off the plane,
Speaker:you're flying overseas with a place with like I knew nobody,
Speaker:I wasn't going to visit family.
Speaker:I was literally met this translator at a convention and he
Speaker:said he owned a business consulting company in mainland China and
Speaker:that he would meet me there and he could translate for
Speaker:me because I'm also another thing that's now more uncomfortable.
Speaker:I'm flying into mainland China,
Speaker:which is Mandarin.
Speaker:And the kids that teased my sister,
Speaker:sister and I when we were younger they spoke Mandarin and
Speaker:we didn't,
Speaker:we spoke Cantonese.
Speaker:So that was another point of difficulty that I had to
Speaker:challenge myself was I was now submersing myself amongst Chinese people
Speaker:that I cannot understand.
Speaker:Bringing more to the point like you're so white,
Speaker:you're so American,
Speaker:Jenny, like you're able to,
Speaker:so I was like okay,
Speaker:let's just do this.
Speaker:So what was then your goal for China?
Speaker:You were looking at the tea fields,
Speaker:right? But what was the goal like when you were sitting
Speaker:there going in or even as you were planning the trip,
Speaker:what was the goal that you were trying to come back
Speaker:with? I thought I was just gonna learn more about tea.
Speaker:Honestly I didn't think I was gonna go start a tea
Speaker:business. It's like okay lemme learn about the tea industry.
Speaker:Let me learn about like how they handle tea,
Speaker:how do they treat the workers?
Speaker:Things that people would ask me questions cuz I'm going in
Speaker:with the perspective of the teacher.
Speaker:What are the millions of questions people are gonna ask me?
Speaker:Let me try to soak up and learn as much as
Speaker:I can.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:is there child labor there?
Speaker:Is there,
Speaker:you know like how far away is it?
Speaker:Is there pollution?
Speaker:Like all the like polarizing questions people are gonna ask.
Speaker:So I didn't think about,
Speaker:I was gonna learn about the business of tea and trading
Speaker:tea and buying tea and sourcing it,
Speaker:all that stuff.
Speaker:And the person who is translating for me,
Speaker:he's not in the tea industry,
Speaker:he's just a networker connecting person.
Speaker:So he brought me over to meet different governors and like
Speaker:local like mayors and stuff like that and different places had
Speaker:that had a tea market.
Speaker:I mean cuz he didn't know what he was really doing
Speaker:other than I said hey I just wanna learn more about
Speaker:tea. Who can you connect me with over there and then
Speaker:I'll walk you there.
Speaker:So I had no expectations really other than I was just
Speaker:gonna learn about tea and that's probably why I was like,
Speaker:well you're here,
Speaker:just soak it in.
Speaker:How long did you stay in China?
Speaker:I was probably there for two weeks.
Speaker:So on the plane back then,
Speaker:what did you come back with?
Speaker:Knowing pretty much what you just talked about,
Speaker:the sourcing and tell us.
Speaker:Yeah, sourcing pricing.
Speaker:More of a,
Speaker:I looked at it from a cultural standpoint like trust,
Speaker:who can you trust now being immigrants.
Speaker:My grandmother,
Speaker:she fled the Japanese invasion during in mainland China to Hong
Speaker:Kong and so did my father.
Speaker:And so there's a lot of like hesitation of trust and
Speaker:so growing up it was my grandmother especially,
Speaker:she is like don't trust anyone.
Speaker:This is what you gotta watch out for characters.
Speaker:So going into China by myself as a woman,
Speaker:you're like on guard at least for a Chinese person cuz
Speaker:we blend in.
Speaker:If you're white it's like you obviously don't,
Speaker:you know you're Not There so they treat you really great
Speaker:but if you're not,
Speaker:if you're Chinese they treat you like how they treat each
Speaker:other other which unfortunately is different.
Speaker:There's definitely more favoritism based off of your skin color.
Speaker:But I knew that and I respected that.
Speaker:So I tried to like listen to how people would talk
Speaker:and understand how people did business dealings cuz a lot of
Speaker:things I wasn't there or I didn't know these politicians or
Speaker:these leaders of these different communities in China.
Speaker:I'm like what am I doing here?
Speaker:What am I gonna get out of it?
Speaker:So I did a lot of listening and just understanding how
Speaker:people interact with business dealings or how people talk to each
Speaker:other or what a grower is like and I'm like oh
Speaker:wow, these tea growers are authentically very genuine and kind and
Speaker:giving, but it's when you move up into the higher,
Speaker:like more,
Speaker:more money is involved and there's a lot of trading and
Speaker:brokerage, that's where they're making all the money.
Speaker:The tea farmers usually are very reasonable and have like not
Speaker:just the lowest pricing cuz you're buying directly,
Speaker:but it's that they really don't need that much.
Speaker:Like their lifestyle is like what they wanna keep.
Speaker:They're in that industry not because they're forced into it or
Speaker:they're broke or anything.
Speaker:They have amazing,
Speaker:it's like living in paradise,
Speaker:I'm like huh,
Speaker:I could be a tea farmer over there.
Speaker:Like people don't wanna leave,
Speaker:kids don't wanna leave.
Speaker:It's just so less stressful and public.
Speaker:This sounds very similar.
Speaker:I have much more knowledge on the coffee side in terms
Speaker:of the growing and the farms and all of that.
Speaker:This sounds very similar to situations with coffee,
Speaker:you know for the growers.
Speaker:And then when you go up the echelon,
Speaker:you know when you get to the people who are brokering
Speaker:and all of that,
Speaker:which is the whole reason for fair trade,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:So this is great cuz you've given us really good information
Speaker:about not even that you were consciously looking at doing this,
Speaker:but you came back with really important information for you to
Speaker:use as you started to build your business.
Speaker:What were the first steps where you were transitioning then and
Speaker:actually starting the business?
Speaker:What did you do?
Speaker:Yeah, the first thing I did was,
Speaker:well I had to think about my own income cause I
Speaker:gotta support this.
Speaker:I don't have loans,
Speaker:I didn't borrow from friends and family.
Speaker:I just put every single paycheck from substitute teaching into this
Speaker:business. Just bootstrapped it from the very beginning.
Speaker:So for like first two years it was just all bootstrapped,
Speaker:no physical location,
Speaker:just selling from my friend's bakery cuz it's a food item,
Speaker:right? So you need a commercial kitchen to package the teas
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:And then I just started selling at farmer's market,
Speaker:different holiday bazaars,
Speaker:just the same way that the school did it,
Speaker:right? We went to the local holiday bazaars and sold gift
Speaker:baskets or packages of tea.
Speaker:So I did the same thing.
Speaker:I was just repackaging stuff,
Speaker:like buying stuff at sale.
Speaker:Were you buying then from a broker or were you going
Speaker:direct to the tea farmers that you had found or?
Speaker:So some of them were from the tea farmers and some
Speaker:of them,
Speaker:because of the whole spectrum of tea,
Speaker:it's kinda like wine.
Speaker:You don't walk into like a wine store and you only
Speaker:have red wine or like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:this one kind of wine we have to have like some
Speaker:diversity. I think I started off with like 10 flavors or
Speaker:something like That.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:that's really helpful.
Speaker:Okay. And then you grow from there of course.
Speaker:How did you decide on the name of your business?
Speaker:So there's this song that goes all who are thirsty,
Speaker:all who are weak,
Speaker:come to the fountain,
Speaker:dip your heart in the stream of life.
Speaker:And so with that I took sipping streams cuz I'm like,
Speaker:that's like my mission,
Speaker:like this healing that comes when we come together.
Speaker:Same thing like from my quote,
Speaker:right? Except the quote has to do with fire,
Speaker:with water and you have tea.
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:maybe it's an Asian thing but you know like the elements
Speaker:of the earth and how it brings us together.
Speaker:And so sipping streams came out of that as like I
Speaker:want a place or a business where people can come together,
Speaker:have community or make space for oneself but there can be
Speaker:healing and connection and love can grow from that.
Speaker:Love for yourself,
Speaker:love for your family,
Speaker:love for your community.
Speaker:And with that tea was also starting conversations in my family.
Speaker:They weren't happy,
Speaker:my parents were not happy.
Speaker:I kind of figured that was gonna be happening when I
Speaker:lived with my parents.
Speaker:So when I first started my company,
Speaker:cuz I was only 25 I think.
Speaker:And so we'd sit down and eat dinner but nobody wants
Speaker:to talk about the business or anything cuz they don't wanna
Speaker:support me at all.
Speaker:They don't wanna gimme business advice,
Speaker:they don't wanna loan me money,
Speaker:nothing. So I would literally just start talking about tea pretty
Speaker:much to myself and hoping someone would say something or be
Speaker:interested. So I'm like teaching about tea at the dinner table.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:did you know about this?
Speaker:And I'd just talk about tea and it started opening up
Speaker:conversations like they would actually interact with my conversations about tea,
Speaker:which I essentially just started by myself to myself because it
Speaker:was awkward sitting at the table.
Speaker:Cause Jenny's not picking a stable job.
Speaker:Why don't you go back and buy,
Speaker:get another job in education,
Speaker:why don't you go back to the physical therapy clinic?
Speaker:And I just had no interest anymore picking a stable job.
Speaker:Yeah, your heart had gone elsewhere for sure.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit about the first shows that you
Speaker:did. And I'm thinking of the person who's listening right now
Speaker:who's never done a farmer's market,
Speaker:they've got their product,
Speaker:they're not sure what they should do to get started and
Speaker:going there.
Speaker:Share a little bit about that and then I wanna get
Speaker:into the extensions of your business cause I think that's gonna
Speaker:help a lot of listeners too.
Speaker:But let's start with selling to the public for the first
Speaker:time. Share with us a little bit about that.
Speaker:I wanted to pause this discussion for a second to let
Speaker:you know that I recognize you may be feeling overwhelmed right
Speaker:now. I mean I bring on great guests who are specialists
Speaker:in their fields and we get into fabulous conversations that you
Speaker:know can help grow your business.
Speaker:So after the show you have the full intention of grabbing
Speaker:a download,
Speaker:making an adjustment on your website or any number of other
Speaker:ideas that arise as a result of this podcast.
Speaker:But what happens,
Speaker:you get back to your other activities and the momentum you
Speaker:once had gets lost.
Speaker:What you've planned to do is forgotten,
Speaker:then you feel bad because your business is going on as
Speaker:usual without implementing anything that you know would help grow your
Speaker:business. We're just too busy doing all the things like a
Speaker:robot moving from one thing to another without thinking because we
Speaker:have to.
Speaker:I get it,
Speaker:I've been there.
Speaker:But guess what?
Speaker:There is another way.
Speaker:Since I recognized this exact behavior in my own business,
Speaker:I set out to do something about it and now what
Speaker:works for me,
Speaker:I'm sharing with you.
Speaker:I formalized the process and it's called the inspired daily planner
Speaker:made specifically for gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers.
Speaker:But it's not your ordinary planner.
Speaker:First off it comes with a video explaining my productivity strategy.
Speaker:Plus it's not dated.
Speaker:So you can start using your planner the second it arrives
Speaker:at your doorstep.
Speaker:And that's not all included for each day is a motivational
Speaker:message or business building tip and plenty of space to capture
Speaker:and book in time for to-dos,
Speaker:schedule appointments and all those other ideas that are now getting
Speaker:lost. Think of it as a book and a planner all
Speaker:in one yet compact enough to carry with you and resource
Speaker:as necessary.
Speaker:It's the perfect solution to truly act and move your business
Speaker:forward. Go to gift biz unwrap.com/inspired
Speaker:to get your hard copy planner along with my power of
Speaker:purpose video that will set you on the path for true
Speaker:business growth.
Speaker:This makes a great gift too.
Speaker:So if you have a biz bestie,
Speaker:pick up a planner for them too.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com/inspired.
Speaker:Okay, let's get back to the show.
Speaker:I am not an artistic person.
Speaker:Like if you ever meet me or look in my closet
Speaker:like I am black,
Speaker:brown, gray,
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:Like I am not gift basket.
Speaker:And from the school I learned how to make gift baskets
Speaker:from the parents but it stresses me out like so much
Speaker:like color coordinating,
Speaker:I'm like ugh,
Speaker:it'll take me half an hour to color coordinate.
Speaker:So obviously it was not that profitable in the beginning and
Speaker:more like a hobby side hustle.
Speaker:But when I'm selling out these bazaars people would be like
Speaker:really amazed because there was nothing in my market.
Speaker:Like there was nothing here in Fairbanks,
Speaker:Alaska like it.
Speaker:Nobody specialized in tea,
Speaker:nobody just sold tea.
Speaker:You couldn't buy specialty teas,
Speaker:you can buy loose tea in the grocery store.
Speaker:It just didn't exist.
Speaker:And people would be like,
Speaker:oh I know somebody who would like that.
Speaker:And Fairbanks,
Speaker:Alaska is a huge coffee or Alaska in general is a
Speaker:coffee drinking state.
Speaker:So I'm going in like okay,
Speaker:like this is more of like let's see this is gonna
Speaker:go anywhere.
Speaker:Is it not?
Speaker:Is there a need?
Speaker:And local people who were more academic minded with the university,
Speaker:they support local and they'd be like,
Speaker:oh this is so amazing.
Speaker:Like they'd get all excited about it and wanna buy my
Speaker:stuff and I'm like whoa,
Speaker:I just sold like almost everything.
Speaker:Like I sold every single gift basket and you don't know
Speaker:until you put it out there because you don't realize what
Speaker:is actually a lot until you start doing it,
Speaker:right? So say I have like a six foot table and
Speaker:I have all these different gift baskets,
Speaker:I would get a lot of feedback.
Speaker:It was great for getting feedback and you have to put
Speaker:yourself again in that uncomfortable position like I keep doing to
Speaker:myself in my life to grow to know you just don't
Speaker:know what you don't know until you put it out there.
Speaker:And I actually grew up selling at the farmer's market when
Speaker:I was a little kid because my mom actually specialized in
Speaker:Chinese vegetables.
Speaker:She was the only one who sold like bach choy and
Speaker:choy. So like specially dark leafy green vegetables at the farmer's
Speaker:market. So she'd sell 'em by like the truckload and we
Speaker:just lived in a regular suburban neighborhood with a tiny garden.
Speaker:And she did the same thing too where people told her
Speaker:no one's gonna buy lettuce.
Speaker:Okay, this is way back in the early eighties,
Speaker:like who's gonna sell lettuce?
Speaker:Like lettuce doesn't grow in Alaska.
Speaker:And so she started selling lettuce by the carload.
Speaker:So I just kind of thought about like let's just try
Speaker:it. Mom used to try random things and she was successful.
Speaker:Let's see what kind of feedback.
Speaker:And for me like the rejection of no I'm not interested
Speaker:doesn't bother me because remember I was the black sheep of
Speaker:the family and so I was always made fun of even
Speaker:by my cousins and everyone.
Speaker:So I just kind of like said hi to people,
Speaker:gave out samples and I didn't actually learn about giving out
Speaker:samples until later when my mom was like,
Speaker:remember when we used to give out samples of our steam
Speaker:buns at the farmer's market?
Speaker:Like why don't you do that?
Speaker:People might like talk to you more.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:oh cuz at first I just have products sitting on my
Speaker:table and so every time I got feedback I would learn
Speaker:more. But one of the biggest things that I learned was
Speaker:my stuff was underpriced.
Speaker:So I would actually get a lot of people not wanting
Speaker:to buy my stuff,
Speaker:even though I knew it was like specialty high Ts,
Speaker:they wouldn't wanna buy it because they thought it was inferior
Speaker:because of the price.
Speaker:Because of the price,
Speaker:yeah. Ah.
Speaker:And so when I quadrupled my pricing,
Speaker:remember it's not price for wholesale.
Speaker:Like I'm new,
Speaker:like I don't know anything about pricing structures.
Speaker:I'm like I bought it for this,
Speaker:I just sell it for this.
Speaker:I made some money I think,
Speaker:right? Because I don't know,
Speaker:I'm just starting off.
Speaker:And so when I quadrupled my prices,
Speaker:it's sold so fast like I would sell out all the
Speaker:time. Wow,
Speaker:what a great learning that was.
Speaker:How did you come upon the decision to quadruple?
Speaker:Did you start learning about how to price product and you
Speaker:knew how much wholesale was like you built up your pricing
Speaker:or did you just say I'm just gonna quadruple it?
Speaker:Oh no,
Speaker:no, no,
Speaker:no. I'm like a penny pincher.
Speaker:So I did not want to increase my prices.
Speaker:I was just thinking how many people were going to be
Speaker:mad at me and I got feedback from just customers looking
Speaker:at these gift baskets.
Speaker:So but you're telling me it's really specialty but do you
Speaker:look at the pricing like this doesn't look right,
Speaker:I didn't understand what they were talking about and I'm like
Speaker:oh well yeah but I mean it's nice tea,
Speaker:the point that it was good tea and nice tea and
Speaker:even though they tasted it,
Speaker:now we're getting into sampling it.
Speaker:It was the customers who were literally communicating and giving me
Speaker:feedback that this doesn't look right,
Speaker:it makes it look like this stuff isn't right.
Speaker:It's a good point because all of the things that need
Speaker:to be in line,
Speaker:right? Your the quality of your product,
Speaker:then the pricing to what you're speaking of gives an impression.
Speaker:You could have both of those in line,
Speaker:but if the way you're packaging or your graphics of your
Speaker:product look inferior,
Speaker:like printed off a copier or something,
Speaker:that would be in dissonance with the pricing and what you're
Speaker:saying is quality,
Speaker:right? So all of those things have to be in line
Speaker:and match what you're saying your product is.
Speaker:So yours was showing that you know,
Speaker:the pricing didn't match what you're saying in terms of the
Speaker:quality of the tea and the clearly they were seeing it
Speaker:from sampling.
Speaker:I'm assuming that you're branding in terms of your logo and
Speaker:all of that was good because you had access to the
Speaker:graphic artist from before.
Speaker:Is that an accurate statement?
Speaker:Yes. And I had a lot of friends who were graphic
Speaker:designers who had worked for the university.
Speaker:One of my really good friends,
Speaker:she designed my logo and then so that was the next
Speaker:stage. Okay,
Speaker:like not does your stuff taste way better?
Speaker:Like I think your pricing is wrong.
Speaker:But that my stuff because in Fairbanks where I'm from this
Speaker:specific town,
Speaker:not necessarily Anchorage,
Speaker:but Fairbanks is all about community and supporting local and always
Speaker:has been since I grew up here.
Speaker:And so people be like,
Speaker:but this is packaged somewhere else.
Speaker:They wouldn't believe that I packaged it,
Speaker:that I designed the label that I,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:this is my own photography that I hand labeled the canisters,
Speaker:all this stuff over and over again.
Speaker:This happened for like over 10 years.
Speaker:Like it kept going on where people would not believe that
Speaker:I was actually a local company because it looks so professional
Speaker:and I'm selling like at the farmer's market or I'm selling
Speaker:at like,
Speaker:you know some schools holiday bazaar or you know what I
Speaker:mean, that I was selling in these such small local places.
Speaker:But I knew that's where the money was because our community
Speaker:supports local,
Speaker:Right? They're the ones who are purposely doing there.
Speaker:So trying to convince them of that and growing my brand
Speaker:and who I was really went hand in hand and starting
Speaker:to build my authority in the local community.
Speaker:And that goes into,
Speaker:then I started teaching classes at about the same time because
Speaker:I already designed whole curriculum teaching classes at the university,
Speaker:teaching tea classes home to home.
Speaker:So I started doing that almost like a pampered chef or
Speaker:Mary Kay direct,
Speaker:what do you call it?
Speaker:I don't really know what it's called,
Speaker:but you know those business models where they have a bunch
Speaker:of people.
Speaker:So you were doing that just on your own At the
Speaker:same time?
Speaker:At the same time?
Speaker:Yeah, like I was selling that holiday shows,
Speaker:I was pitching myself out there,
Speaker:anyone who wanted a tea party,
Speaker:I didn't know if anyone did tea parties and apparently nobody
Speaker:does tea parties back then when I first started.
Speaker:And I would say,
Speaker:Hey, do you want me to host a tea party?
Speaker:And then start off with the school I was at,
Speaker:they would network out and say,
Speaker:Hey Jenny's looking to host tea parties like in people's homes,
Speaker:do you know somebody who wants to have a mini tea
Speaker:class in their house or a tea party and she could
Speaker:make all the food and everything like that.
Speaker:So I was starting to do like a combo of whatever
Speaker:gaps were in the market that we just didn't have because
Speaker:I got money for a brick and mortar that was like
Speaker:not in the question at all.
Speaker:Like that's totally outta question.
Speaker:So how can I get my stuff out there and then
Speaker:build that reciprocity that when someone sees me at a holiday
Speaker:bazaar they'll be like,
Speaker:oh yeah,
Speaker:I know that lady.
Speaker:Oh I had an amazing experience with her and she does
Speaker:all these tea parties.
Speaker:I had 30 people over and she catered the whole thing
Speaker:and then she taught us a mini lesson on top of
Speaker:it and now you're starting to see how I ended up
Speaker:where I am now.
Speaker:I literally do it all now,
Speaker:but with my brick and mortar and with digital,
Speaker:online, no stream.
Speaker:So the word got out about the parties and there was
Speaker:credibility because people had been to your parties,
Speaker:tasted and sampled.
Speaker:And the thing that I was thinking about as you were
Speaker:talking about all of this,
Speaker:the experience that everyone was having in the parties is exactly
Speaker:what you talk about bringing people together and sampling tea.
Speaker:So it all,
Speaker:I'm gonna just call it a brand,
Speaker:but it was your mission.
Speaker:That's what you felt in your heart and your vision that
Speaker:your product could do.
Speaker:So the parties were actually by way of example,
Speaker:doing exactly what you intended for your product to do,
Speaker:which is amazing.
Speaker:So you did all that quick question here and I only
Speaker:wanna spend a second on this,
Speaker:but how did that work for you financially with the parties?
Speaker:Because if you're saying you're bringing the tea and you're bringing
Speaker:the food and then people were able to buy from that
Speaker:party, I'm thinking Yes.
Speaker:And were you able then to cover the costs of the
Speaker:parties? For the most part,
Speaker:Yes, actually it was a really good model but it was
Speaker:exhausting time wise and like wearing all the China and the
Speaker:cups and everything.
Speaker:So I did do,
Speaker:I think at the time a pretty good,
Speaker:like I made money,
Speaker:I did make money and it could cover my cost of
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:now my cash flow for future inventory and more food and
Speaker:stuff like that.
Speaker:But the reason why I stopped doing it was it was
Speaker:just me by myself doing all of this,
Speaker:hauling all this stuff,
Speaker:preparing all of it.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:I just need help.
Speaker:But it was a,
Speaker:not going through that phase would've not gotten the credibility,
Speaker:the name of your business and you out into the community.
Speaker:So you know,
Speaker:there's such a thing of doing something that you could never
Speaker:scale or do forever,
Speaker:but doing it for a short time for a purpose,
Speaker:which is sounds like that's how that fit in.
Speaker:So you're mentioning brick and mortar,
Speaker:let's jump over to that now.
Speaker:So where did that come in?
Speaker:So then I opened a temporary seasonal shop in a touristy
Speaker:park. It's only open the summertime.
Speaker:I opened it only for one summer.
Speaker:I made 90 bucks in profit,
Speaker:I had three employees so I was able to pay myself
Speaker:and my other employees who were my high school kids.
Speaker:Oh good,
Speaker:that's good.
Speaker:Yeah. Hey do they want a job?
Speaker:You know like with our first job and everyone at that
Speaker:park, like this tourist themed park,
Speaker:historical park said no one ever makes money their first year.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:like what did I just sign up for?
Speaker:Because I signed a contract and everything to lease this building.
Speaker:And so at the end,
Speaker:net profit,
Speaker:90 bucks isn't bad.
Speaker:But through that summer I realized how many tourists would not
Speaker:come into my shop.
Speaker:We served food,
Speaker:we served tea,
Speaker:and we had like a little retail side,
Speaker:maybe it's only like the size of like barely like a
Speaker:10 by 10 pop-up tent.
Speaker:Like it was a very small cabin and I could not
Speaker:pull the tourist bunches like you'd see these groups of obvious
Speaker:tourists walk by to get them to come into my store.
Speaker:They were not interested in tea,
Speaker:but the people who were interested were local people and they
Speaker:kept asking,
Speaker:where are you gonna be after this park closes cuz there's
Speaker:no heat in here.
Speaker:Like the park closes in the winter and like where's your
Speaker:store gonna be?
Speaker:How are we gonna find you?
Speaker:And I knew I didn't wanna keep doing the home to
Speaker:home door to door thing.
Speaker:So I started planning for a brick and mortar store and
Speaker:that's when I started needing financing from friends and family.
Speaker:And that's what I started with.
Speaker:Like all my paychecks,
Speaker:I'm still substitute teaching.
Speaker:And then just my network of asking people,
Speaker:my first employees,
Speaker:almost all of them were new and maybe two of them
Speaker:were actually moms who wanted to help me as a favor.
Speaker:Like they just knew who I was.
Speaker:They were family friends and they're like,
Speaker:okay as long as I can bring my baby by and
Speaker:like in this one room so the baby can sit there
Speaker:and I'll do all your baking or things like that.
Speaker:But it was definitely like an amazing startup experience cuz I
Speaker:knew nothing about managing people.
Speaker:I knew how to be a teacher.
Speaker:I knew nothing about management or leadership in the entrepreneur space.
Speaker:I knew about leadership as a teacher,
Speaker:but it didn't quite cross over because I wanted to treat
Speaker:everyone as if I was their teacher.
Speaker:And like,
Speaker:well you know like just like in math,
Speaker:there's many ways to bake the cake to end up looking
Speaker:the same and this is how I do it.
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:if you don't do it exact same way,
Speaker:as long as it has the same answer and that cake
Speaker:turns out right,
Speaker:it doesn't work that way.
Speaker:People get frustrated apparently.
Speaker:So my employees were very,
Speaker:very kind and patient with me and they would say,
Speaker:could you just please tell me exactly how you want it
Speaker:done? I google too much freedom.
Speaker:I was educating them,
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:this is just a big waste of my time to ruin
Speaker:three cakes at once and I feel terrible.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:okay, do it this way.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So for clarification,
Speaker:you didn't open up at store,
Speaker:you opened up at house where there was food and tea,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:Yes. So it was the same model as my little temporary
Speaker:cabin. It had some food in it and it had merchandise.
Speaker:Okay. And so then my first permanent spot was the same
Speaker:way because I felt like if there's not enough people buying
Speaker:tea, like if the population really isn't ready for tea yet,
Speaker:then I'm not gonna make enough money just selling stuff.
Speaker:Food will always bring people in.
Speaker:And remember I grew up in the restaurant industry,
Speaker:that's what my parents had.
Speaker:So I was like,
Speaker:well people always like food.
Speaker:And that made my parents even more mad.
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:you're starting a restaurant.
Speaker:Like I'm not starting a restaurant,
Speaker:it's a tea house.
Speaker:That's what my Worded,
Speaker:it's like it's not a restaurant really.
Speaker:It's a tea house but pretty,
Speaker:yeah, it was a restaurant.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:All. And you still have your tea house today,
Speaker:right? Yep.
Speaker:And my mom's involved and my dad's involved with helping out
Speaker:now. Now they're totally bought into it,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:If I were to have them on the podcast,
Speaker:what would they say about this whole journey of yours with
Speaker:all the barriers they tried to put up for you and
Speaker:now they see what you're doing today much less.
Speaker:Not only see it,
Speaker:they're involved in it.
Speaker:What would they say?
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:I'm kinda proud of her.
Speaker:Like this is my mom.
Speaker:I can totally hear my mom in my head.
Speaker:I dunno,
Speaker:I'm kinda proud of her but you know,
Speaker:she always does whatever she wants to do.
Speaker:Oh that's so funny.
Speaker:And her actions are showing that she's proud cuz she's involved,
Speaker:which is really fun.
Speaker:Like you used to be involved in what she was doing
Speaker:and now she's involved with what you're doing.
Speaker:So to me that just feels so good continuing on.
Speaker:And Jenny,
Speaker:this is such a great inspiration and a great example and
Speaker:we talked about this before we started recording,
Speaker:that there are other avenues you can take with your product
Speaker:versus just direct selling your product.
Speaker:Only you transitioned into a couple of other things,
Speaker:one being your book.
Speaker:Where along the line did that happen?
Speaker:So for years,
Speaker:even before the tea company started,
Speaker:people were very fascinated about my immigrant story and my upbringing.
Speaker:And so for many years,
Speaker:even before I started the tea company,
Speaker:people say you should write a story about your life.
Speaker:It's very fascinating.
Speaker:And of course the book doesn't have all the details of
Speaker:my childhood and things that I've been through and stuff like
Speaker:that. But I was willing to do it at least for
Speaker:the tea company because it felt like it could relate for
Speaker:people. But the idea of even writing a book is I
Speaker:have a coach like so later on much,
Speaker:much later,
Speaker:I wish I knew in the very beginning you could hire
Speaker:a coach like that,
Speaker:a coach would totally change your business.
Speaker:But I didn't get a business coach and I didn't even
Speaker:know what that was until maybe a about seven years ago.
Speaker:So my business was already way past the five year mark.
Speaker:And anyways,
Speaker:my business coach has written several books and she is like,
Speaker:you can write a book,
Speaker:it's easy.
Speaker:And so I wrote an outline in five days and being
Speaker:a teacher,
Speaker:you know like okay,
Speaker:outline structure,
Speaker:you know like theme and this and that and boom,
Speaker:in one summer I wrote a book,
Speaker:I just spent an hour a day and I just couldn't
Speaker:believe it other than I just did what someone told me
Speaker:to do and how to do it and it's self-published.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:We won't get into all of how you self-publish a book
Speaker:and all of that,
Speaker:but what did that book do for your business?
Speaker:Well I am actually very shocked of how many people have
Speaker:read the book.
Speaker:Like they'll meet me later on.
Speaker:So I don't just do bazaars here locally in Fairbanks.
Speaker:I literally do it all over the state.
Speaker:And you know how big the state of Alaska is?
Speaker:Like I fly to Juno.
Speaker:So you're telling me earlier about coming up on a cruise,
Speaker:like I'm over by there,
Speaker:I fly over there and I do shows,
Speaker:I fly down a Kodiak island,
Speaker:you know where all the crazy famous grizzly bears are,
Speaker:like there.
Speaker:And I do a show,
Speaker:I Have relatives there too by the way.
Speaker:Oh You move?
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:it's a beautiful place.
Speaker:And I go to Anchorage like all the time.
Speaker:So sometimes people have never bought from me directly,
Speaker:they don't even know.
Speaker:And then they'll see my book and they're like,
Speaker:wait, did you write this book?
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:yeah, it's my book cuz I'm selling only my stuff.
Speaker:And they're like,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:that's a great book.
Speaker:I learned so much from it.
Speaker:So the book,
Speaker:I'm shocked of how many people have read this book and
Speaker:then just given me feedback that it was,
Speaker:it's a really simple book cuz I wrote it so my
Speaker:mom could read it cuz English is a second language.
Speaker:I didn't wanna be too medical techy,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:with the terminology and the vocabulary.
Speaker:I wanted to be something fascinating educational and you could walk
Speaker:away with something,
Speaker:whether it was health and wellness or personal developments like my
Speaker:mission essentially like growing and healing from the inside out,
Speaker:like through the medium of tea.
Speaker:Even if it wasn't like this tea is good for this
Speaker:X, y,
Speaker:z. So with that I also used it to draw people
Speaker:back to my brand.
Speaker:So we have a tea education program and that's why it's
Speaker:like, it's not that I just wrote a book,
Speaker:but I wrote a a book to also cause interest for
Speaker:wherever it is out there in the universe to come back
Speaker:to find out more,
Speaker:to learn more,
Speaker:to like dip your heart in the stream of life,
Speaker:come back into that and for people to interact with other
Speaker:people and hopefully start conversations like I did at the dinner
Speaker:table when I was learning about tea.
Speaker:And so what about the education program?
Speaker:So there's kind of a channel,
Speaker:a funnel of how people meet you or it can go
Speaker:back and forth.
Speaker:People will be at a show,
Speaker:see your book that reinforces your credibility or maybe see the
Speaker:book then by,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:however that goes.
Speaker:What about the educational programs,
Speaker:which is fascinating cuz that goes back to what you were
Speaker:doing in the beginning.
Speaker:Yes. What types of topics are you teaching in those programs?
Speaker:I actually have a year-long tea certification program that I design.
Speaker:So I literally have tea students from around the world who
Speaker:can become a certified tea specialist.
Speaker:So in that,
Speaker:that's like the all encompassing tea education program.
Speaker:But there's also just individual virtual classes you can buy too.
Speaker:So there's the matcha madness course that's all about the world
Speaker:of matcha.
Speaker:So that's like a month long virtual course but then you
Speaker:keep it after you own it.
Speaker:There's one about kombucha and there's one just about like,
Speaker:I call it the essence of tea cuz my book's called
Speaker:that the podcast and it's like the T basics course that
Speaker:everyone thinks is a basic course cuz I just describe it
Speaker:as a basic course.
Speaker:But once you dive into you're like whoa,
Speaker:this is a pretty intense class on tea.
Speaker:It's essentially like a semester long class I crammed into like
Speaker:four weeks that you could do.
Speaker:So it's good for people who just have a casual hobby
Speaker:type interest in tea.
Speaker:And then also if you take your year long class to
Speaker:be a certified specialist,
Speaker:what does that allow someone to do from there?
Speaker:So from there they can either take that if they already
Speaker:have a business,
Speaker:apply it to their business and their team so their team
Speaker:gets all access to that too.
Speaker:I don't limit like how many people can be in it,
Speaker:but they can take that knowledge to really amplify and just
Speaker:do better in like educating their customers if they have a
Speaker:tea company.
Speaker:We've had businesses who,
Speaker:it's not a tea company but they do sell and tea,
Speaker:like they sell stuff,
Speaker:they're a brick and mortar but they also sell tea and
Speaker:they want to monetize the T side of it better because
Speaker:people ask them a million questions just like me when I
Speaker:knew nothing about T I'm like okay,
Speaker:what are all these questions people are gonna ask me?
Speaker:But then there's people who are RNs in a hospital and
Speaker:they just like tea and they use T and it's more
Speaker:for personal use.
Speaker:But now they've given that knowledge and information to their coworkers,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:to help them stay up on the road shift or whatever.
Speaker:Or people who just love tea so it doesn't have to
Speaker:be someone who is going to monetize with it.
Speaker:But the majority of my tea students in that certification program
Speaker:are just people who love tea cuz it's so fascinating.
Speaker:There's food,
Speaker:there's culinary tea science in there,
Speaker:there's about the horticulture of tea,
Speaker:how to grow the tea plants,
Speaker:like hence my tea farm.
Speaker:The tea farm came from that unit of the certification program.
Speaker:I was not wanting to start a tea farm like many
Speaker:things In my life.
Speaker:Just like you weren't thinking you were gonna do any of
Speaker:this Jenny.
Speaker:Yeah, so and then like how to taste tea like a
Speaker:professional other applications like painting with tea,
Speaker:making inks with tea,
Speaker:the Chinese tea ceremony.
Speaker:So there's like a lot of things in that certification program
Speaker:that are just fascinating in general.
Speaker:It's just a really deep dive class.
Speaker:Ooh, that sounds incredibly interesting.
Speaker:I could talk to you for like a whole nother hour,
Speaker:but I don't think that that would be fair for anybody
Speaker:or wise,
Speaker:but we cannot close without talking about another way you got
Speaker:eyes onto your business that I've never heard anybody talk about
Speaker:before and that's radio.
Speaker:So will you share with us what happened with that and
Speaker:what that did for your business?
Speaker:Yeah, so before podcasts,
Speaker:so I wasn't thinking about doing a podcast so these people
Speaker:are coming to my store,
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:oh you gotta check out this tea shop.
Speaker:It's the only one in Fairbanks still.
Speaker:Like so people would want to advertise,
Speaker:right? Like the different radio sales reps would come in and
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:do you wanna have a commercial?
Speaker:The newspaper comes in,
Speaker:do you wanna have an ad in the paper?
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I don't know if any of this stuff works.
Speaker:One sales rep was very creative and she said I love
Speaker:tea so much and you know I come in here every
Speaker:week Jenny and she did,
Speaker:she was a regular customer.
Speaker:She's like,
Speaker:I'm gonna talk to my boss about doing a 32nd segment
Speaker:once a week,
Speaker:but it'd be like a live commercial and let's call it
Speaker:tea on Tuesday.
Speaker:And it was on the classic rock station.
Speaker:So the majority of my listeners are kids that are going
Speaker:to school with their parents like waiting for the school bus
Speaker:construction workers,
Speaker:people like who like classic rock,
Speaker:like on a daily basis.
Speaker:And it was the morning show.
Speaker:So there's two DJs and they're like,
Speaker:don't worry,
Speaker:don't feel nervous,
Speaker:they'll prompt you and you just come in for 30 seconds
Speaker:once a week.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:what do I do?
Speaker:Like well bring some tea in,
Speaker:talk about the tea,
Speaker:share the food with the DJs and they'll be like live
Speaker:interaction. It'll be great advertising because they will be literally partaking
Speaker:in what you do and maybe share like one small snippet.
Speaker:Well the very first episode or session that we had,
Speaker:I'd never been on radio before,
Speaker:never done a podcast or anything like that.
Speaker:I was very,
Speaker:very nervous.
Speaker:So as a teacher you over prepare for the worst information.
Speaker:And so I think our first day or first and I
Speaker:say day is because I didn't stay on for 30 seconds,
Speaker:I stayed on for like half an hour.
Speaker:Like they're like,
Speaker:oh we gotta cut commercial and then cut commercial and say
Speaker:Okay Jenny,
Speaker:continue with this.
Speaker:And so this just kept going on where then the DJs
Speaker:were telling like their boss like can Jenny come in when
Speaker:the other guy's out of town like to fill in because
Speaker:she's great for this conversation of back and forth in the
Speaker:studio for the morning show.
Speaker:So I did this for six years and every Tuesday like,
Speaker:I mean I just go in the radio station,
Speaker:but I would be there so long in the morning show,
Speaker:like maybe the whole morning show time,
Speaker:like for three hours sometimes where they just didn't want me
Speaker:to leave and they wanted me to hang out.
Speaker:And so people thought,
Speaker:I literally worked at the radio station,
Speaker:they thought I was one of the morning hosts and still
Speaker:to this day people go,
Speaker:oh, I listen to you all the time on the classic
Speaker:rock station when it was the classic rock station.
Speaker:So it like integrated me so much into the community that
Speaker:I'd have like construction workers,
Speaker:truck drivers come into my pretty quaint,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:tea house.
Speaker:And my friends were like,
Speaker:that guy doesn't look like a tea drinker.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well apparently he is cause He,
Speaker:oh my gosh.
Speaker:So they didn't ever pay you but this was promotion and
Speaker:like free advertising for your business?
Speaker:Well I paid them.
Speaker:So like I paid for like essentially spot,
Speaker:but it was only guaranteed for 30 seconds,
Speaker:like a tiny snippet.
Speaker:And it was really hard for them to just keep me
Speaker:on for that long cause it was interesting to them.
Speaker:So they didn't actually pay me,
Speaker:I paid them but I never paid an hour's worth of
Speaker:advertising ever.
Speaker:They just wanted me to be part of like bringing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:more listeners onto their radio station.
Speaker:It worked out for both of you wonderfully.
Speaker:It's, and like I said before,
Speaker:such an interesting and creative approach,
Speaker:which I want it to spark other people's thoughts of other
Speaker:things they could do.
Speaker:Maybe it's not a a radio show but something else.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:So all right,
Speaker:well there were would be so many other things I'd like
Speaker:to dive into,
Speaker:but I just think for time purposes we shouldn't go further
Speaker:with that today anyway.
Speaker:But I do have one question for you.
Speaker:Do you sell wholesale?
Speaker:Yes, I do sell wholesale.
Speaker:Okay. So if we have anybody who has a bakery,
Speaker:a gift shop,
Speaker:any of that,
Speaker:if they were interested they could look into potentially purchasing wholesale
Speaker:tea from you?
Speaker:Yes. Okay,
Speaker:perfect. Where can everybody learn more about you?
Speaker:And you sell direct to consumer as well,
Speaker:I'm thinking?
Speaker:Yes. Okay,
Speaker:so where do we go for all this goodness about sipping
Speaker:streams? So everything is found from our website,
Speaker:sipping streams.com,
Speaker:including our free upcoming tea classes.
Speaker:So we have links on there cuz we do some free
Speaker:tea classes like twice a year.
Speaker:So they can find out about that.
Speaker:They can find out about our tea certification program.
Speaker:They can buy directly off the website.
Speaker:They can find our,
Speaker:our menu like,
Speaker:so if you come and visit Fairbanks,
Speaker:Alaska, I would love to come see you or you can
Speaker:come see me and you can even visit our tea farm
Speaker:here in Alaska.
Speaker:And if you scroll all the way to the bottom of
Speaker:the page on the homepage,
Speaker:there is information about wholesale at the bottom of the page.
Speaker:Perfect. Wonderful.
Speaker:Jenny, this has been so interesting,
Speaker:so amazing.
Speaker:No surprise to me why the radio folks wanted to keep
Speaker:you on longer and longer cuz I do too.
Speaker:I don't wanna end this conversation,
Speaker:but I think we're going to have to thank you so,
Speaker:so much for being on the show today.
Speaker:Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker:What a story.
Speaker:Now you see why I said in the beginning,
Speaker:Jenny's journey did not follow a traditional business development route.
Speaker:All the elements were there,
Speaker:but she did it her way.
Speaker:And while you probably won't travel to China or get a
Speaker:spot on the radio long term,
Speaker:I guarantee that there are and will be opportunities right in
Speaker:front of you to take advantage of.
Speaker:And I'll ask you,
Speaker:are you willing to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation that
Speaker:leads to big rewards?
Speaker:Playing it too safe will limit your potential.
Speaker:If there's one thing I want you to take away from
Speaker:Jenny's story,
Speaker:it's that before you move on to your next activity today,
Speaker:make sure to get your name on the list for at
Speaker:least one gift Biz Bash.
Speaker:You can see dates for the upcoming sessions and get signed
Speaker:up over@giftbizunwrapped.com
Speaker:slash bash.
Speaker:And if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to show
Speaker:support, a rating and review is always fabulous because it helps
Speaker:get the show seen by more makers.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:And there's another way where you can get something tangible in
Speaker:return for your support too.
Speaker:Visit my merch shop for a wide variety of inspirational items
Speaker:like mugs,
Speaker:journals, water battles,
Speaker:and more featuring logos,
Speaker:images, and quotes to inspire you throughout your day.
Speaker:Makes a great gift too.
Speaker:And we've just added some new products for the season to
Speaker:the shop.
Speaker:Turnaround is quick and the quality is top notch,
Speaker:nothing but the best for you.
Speaker:Take a look at all the options@giftbizunwrapped.com
Speaker:slash shop.
Speaker:All proceeds from these purchases helps go to offset the cost
Speaker:of producing the show.
Speaker:And now be safe and well and I'll see you again
Speaker:next time on the Gift Biz Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group
Speaker:called Gift Biz Breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and are a community
Speaker:to support each other.
Speaker:I got a really fun post in there that's my favorite
Speaker:of the week,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:where I invite all of you to share what you're doing
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people.
Speaker:And just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week.
Speaker:Without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what?
Speaker:Aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group Gift Biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.