In the world of brewed drinks, many know of brands such as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. I’m intrigued by the back story to these companies. I love that each company is unique and has its own inception story.

There are many other people with businesses that have amazing back stories, looking to enter that lucrative market.

This week I had the opportunity of speaking to Shantay Owens – Owner and founder of Sista Teas.

This Afro owned all natural tea company offers unique, complex, flavorful teas and botanical blends with a Caribbean flair. The company’s mission is to curate premium blends of tea and botanicals that invite customers to embark on a journey of taste exploration.

“We aim to provide a sophisticated and relaxing experience to all who indulge in our products.” – Shantay Owens

The Mind Behind The Tea 

This young business owner considers herself a creative or even a builder. This is a great mindset to have as it really helped her get over the pessimistic mindset and transformed her into the “I’m going to figure it out one way or another” mindset.

As a true entrepreneur you can’t stop short of the goal because you never know how close you are to striking gold. For Shantay the bottom of the barrel came when she tried her endeavors elsewhere and it failed.

“ I had no clue how it was going to happen, and I also lacked confidence because I had tried my hand at a skincare business that was a total failure.” -Shantay Owens

Opening this company happened sporadically, as Shantay knew she didn’t want to work a regular nine to five job.

“This idea came to me back in 2018 when I had my first child and desired to leave my job in IT. I had just decided to devote my life to Jesus Christ, and while sitting on my couch with my newborn, I expressed to God that I hated my job and wanted to work toward becoming a full-time entrepreneur. I heard the voice of the Lord say, ‘You’re going to do tea,’ and immediately following that, the name ‘Sista Teas’ dropped into my head. I was confused as to why tea and why that name, but I went with it because little did I know, as I kept walking in faith for this business, all of it started to make sense.” -Shantay Owens

We can’t wait for life to give us opportunities, we have to be willing to plan ahead and create our own.

Turning Passion To Profit

When I asked her if the transition was difficult from everyday work to becoming an entrepreneur she stated

“Not at all because in my head it registered as “this has to work.”-Shantay Owens

When it comes to running a business you have to be ready for people to call you “delusional”, because it’s not the norm to build and establish a business.  The norm is to join a system that has already been built to help further the vision for that establishment.

We sometimes lack vision for our end goal but it seems that for this Alpha, she knew where she wanted to go and had the drive and focus to see it through.