We recently connected with Hoda Mohajerani and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hoda, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

CHAKRA CHAI is, as one journalist called it “The Brand from the Beyond”. A year after the passing of my baby boy, Arta, I was deep in meditation when he appeared to me and clearly spoke the words “CHAKRA CHAI”. In the ensuing dialogue, he showed me everything from the business model to the flavor profiles of the products.

The next hours and days were spent in utter awe and honestly, disbelief to some degree. I did not come from the food or business sectors and wondered how I was to realize an entirely new category of products, never mind building a regenerative business model when people and organizations deep in both spaces are challenged in so doing!

I turned to Creator. I begged. Literally, on my knees! I prayed “if you want me to do this, please send me the people, the resources and the guidance that I need to steward this ship”…

Day by day, week by week, the right people came. First, my best friend who helped me realize the branding. Next, my co-founder who helped me translate the “vertical” communication I had received of the business model, onto the “horizontal” plane of timelines, milestones, costs and opportunities.

Simultaneously, I serendipitously met and began working with a traditional, Gujarati Ayurveda practitioner to develop seven unique, synergistic beverage formulas that harness the intelligence of adaptogenic whole herbs, medicinal mushrooms, Ayurvedic spices and subtle florals to support both our primal/physical bodies as well as our subtle/energetic bodies, or Chakras.

One of the big challenges in our R&D process was: How do we make a product (or seven!) that addresses the individual needs of each customer whilst still being beneficial for all customers? For example, if someone wants healthy adrenal support and to feel more grounded and secure, they would choose our ROOT/1st Chakra Chai. But what if someone just likes the taste of it? What if their said Chakra is already balanced? Can they still partake in our products? After almost three years spent tweaking the formulas, the answer is “YES”! The synergistic ratios of and symbiotic relationship between the adaptogenic plants we use makes the end product highly responsive to the individual’s needs. If your Chakras are out of balance, there will be an aligning benefit. If you’re already balanced, there is a nourishing and supportive benefit.

So much attention to detail has gone into every aspect of Chakra Chai. And it has been a massive and intense learning-by-doing for all of us, as well as a very real journey of personal and collective transformation. The challenges and opportunities we have faced, captured and overcome, not least the challenge of coming to market in the throes of COVID- have all changed who we are as an organization and all served to deepen our commitment to healing ourselves, our communities and our planet through better business practices and products of the highest integrity.
We had to pivot so many times; figure out distribution for a fresh / refrigerated product; understand legal and financial structures; explore the market, the “competition” (we don’t believe in competition- that era is over!), figure out permitting, health & safety, seed and nurture relationships with farmers & suppliers, supply “chains” – or webs, as we prefer to call them. There is so much, more than one interview’s capacity, that has gone into the journey of ideation to realization and launch! We are now finally, since 2023, in our first major grocery channel, Lazy Acres/Bristol Farms, and have cold chain distribution and are ready to scale. Now it’s really about education and marketing. Our data shows that once customers discover Chakra Chai’s benefits, vision and mission, they get behind us 100% and truly begin to transform their relationship with themselves, with food as sacred medicine. Our customers are embodying our tagline “Don’t consume, commune.” Chakra Chai is an invitation to commune with our higher self, our true needs, with Mother Earth and with the farmers who make every morsel and every sip possible for us all.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always had a deep love for nature and animals. When I was a teenager I had a cathartic experience with plant medicines and immediately afterwards went and signed up as a volunteer at Greenpeace! That was the 80’s! Since then, I have lived a holistic lifestyle, supporting local, organic and permaculture farms by purchasing only organic and direct, wherever possible. I utilize natural medicines only for myself and my family and I have worked in various levels in the natural food and cosmetic industries. However, my background is actually in human rights and comparative religions. Right before I had my son, Arta, I had turned my focus onto music and the arts. Becoming the Founder & CEO of a regenerative food and beverage company was nowhere on my trajectory! Yet, here I am. The rich and diverse tapestry of my personal and professional “lives” has actually positioned me perfectly for not only entrepreneurship, in the tradtional sense, but really, for creating and leading an organization to embody consciousness, transcendental business practices. Chakra Chai is a case study for “Reclaiming Commerce as Divine Stewardship”- that is actually the title of one of my signature talks.
On the organizational level, we have created a container that is supporting the personal and collective transformation of our team members. Business/Life/Community/Spiritual Path are not silos, but an integrated, interconnected system. Everything is a fractal of the One.
Then we have our business model which has been focused on developing our verticalities- from farm to production, distribution and end product, to create virtuous cycles / loops that regenerate across the supply web.
Our end product, the seven Ayurvedic Chai Superdrinks and Ayurvedic Truffles, are life-affirming, healing, entirely unique offerings that not only support our customers’ physiological wellbeing, but as importantly, their psycho-spiritual balance.
The problem with most products out there is they are simply that: another product. Most of them do not address the WHOLE human- the emotions and experiences of being human. Most of them cut corners to increase margins. I get it. It’s all part of the old paradigm. But we now know that not only is that model unsustainable, it is degenerative. How many products do you know that resonate on such a high frequency that when a customer takes a sip at an in-store demo, they begin to cry? This is our experience EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.!
But being a pioneer and truly putting humans, earth and all sentient beings first is no easy feat! Often times, it feels like all the odds are stacked against you… like the system is not actually broken, but rigged, antithetical to Life by design. You have to wake up every day and decide to show up again, no matter the outcome, because that is the right thing to do. Our daily-renewed commitment also affects our customers. Our commitment to them inspires their commitment to us. Whether they are an individual or an organization. We have many different customers. For example, individuals who are very health-focused, or impact-lead. Of course, most of our primary customers are on a spiritual path, of which food and impact are part and parcel. Other companies and organizations also wanting healthy teams love to gift our products.

The main thing I would want to share with our customers and your readers is that they each, are incredibly powerful. We underestimate our individual power because we have been “tricked” into “separation”. Our choices make a huge difference and ripple out through the interconnected web that is All and suddenly, there is critical mass. When we choose to buy a Chakra Chai or another great brand, the repercussions of that choice go right across the spectrum. From your own own physio-energetic alignment to the farmer, to the wildlife, to the investors wondering who and what to invest in, to the policy makers on the hill, deciding what to support and subsidize… It’s all in that one moment. That one bottle. That one snack. WE are the change makers. WE are the ones we have been waiting for.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We spent a lot of our collective brainpower, soul-fuel and other resources on learning how to manufacture our product in-house and then really work on our verticalities. It has been a huge challenge that has brought with it incredible learning and even greater opportunities- not to mention autonomy and supply-web (chain) integrity. One of the key lessons has been “don’t try to cut corners to save money”. Do it right from the beginning- the right people, right equipment, right structures and permits etc. It doesn’t have to be big right away, but it has to be right in a big way. There will always be mistakes that are a natural part of the learning curve, but if you can allocate the resources in the beginning, it’ll save you a lot in the end.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is built into the dna of Chakra Chai. I mean, I received the entire concept in meditation from my son, Arta, a year after his transition from this earth. To begin building a business in that context requires a soul-imprint of resilience. On top of that, I am neither from a business nor a food manufacturing nor an agricultural background. It’s taken a hella tenacity and resilience to learn through doing whilst building and growing. All of that during a global black-swan event that now has everyone referring to life and business in terms of “pre/post Covid era”! The number of times we have had to pivot and hold steady… honestly, looking back now, I can only say that my team and I were sustained by God and driven by supernatural levels of commitment. We have made this stuff in our kitchen, in the back of pizza joints, in hotel rooms before meetings with potential investors… we have schlepped coolers in backs of my old diesel Mercedes, worked until 3am in the commissary kitchen and then driven three hours to an expo… we’re spiritual hustlers. You have to be resilient if you wanna get conscious and take your community higher.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chakrachai.co
• Instagram: @chakrachaiofficial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hodamohajerani?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Image Credits
Michael Freund Cynthia Alex Deanna Carpenter