We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shannon Kung a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I started my businesses in my mid-30’s after leaving my corporate job at Disney, where I had been for 7 years after getting my MBA at UCLA Anderson. Up until that point, I had only known working in the corporate landscape, and it provided prestige, stability, and a regular paycheck, but I knew deep down inside that I wanted to do more, say more, be more.

So, I took a leap of faith to start a heart-centered boutique consulting firm called &etc (www.andetcco.com) and simultaneously built a family-run tea business, Wild Orange Apothecary (www.wildorangeapothecary.com)

I used to feel that I wish I had started my businesses earlier, but in reality, looking back, everything happened as it should, in perfect timing for me and my journey. I had always wanted to be one of those people who could balance a 9-5 while nurturing a thriving side hustle – it would have been a less risky, more stable way of transitioning into entrepreneurship. However, in reality, my 9-5 was more like a 8-7, and I didn’t have the emotional or mental capacity to dedicate to a side hustle.

I actually had to go a different route and focus on saving up enough money to have a small “entrepreneurship fund” that allowed me to quit my job and have enough runway for a year to invest in exploring what I wanted to do. During that year, I had some cold starts and pivots- at one point, I thought I wanted to become a jewelry designer, and took classes at the local design college. Eventually, however, those cold starts and pivots each taught me something about myself and my business, acting as stepping stones to get me to where I am now with &etc and Wild Orange Apothecary. For me, it would have been too big of a leap to go from corporate to where I am now, so I’m grateful for all the investments I had along the way, as they were in service of getting me to this more aligned, and fulfilled life.

Shannon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Wild Orange Apothecary is our little tea corner of the world, dedicated to crafting moments of peace, focusing on the slow ways and ancient practices, things created by the human hand, natural, and with intentionality and care.

We created Wild Orange Apothecary to bring calm and intentionality to everyday life – we believe that tea is meditation. We love that our teas not only taste good, but also make people feel good as well.

At Wild Orange Apothecary, we specialize in two things:

1. Organic Herbal Blends- inspired by Traditional Chinese Medicine, and reimagined in a modern way to be delicious, nourishing to your body, mind, and soul, and naturally non-caffeinated. Some of our most popular herbal teas are the “Remedy for a Broken Heart” Tea to comfort your emotional heart and your physical heart, and the “Digestif Post- Big Meal “Tea to aid and soothe your digestive system.

2. Artisan Teas curated from Asia – lovingly sourced by our family to highlight unique, single-source teas that speak to their specific regions and terroirs (e.g. a beautiful, floral oolong tea from the Alishan mountains)

We’re extremely proud and passionate about sourcing the best ingredients, teas, and tea accessories, by partnering with the best artisans and local farmers. We love to showcase makers and growers locally, as well as from Taiwan, Japan, and China, many whose families have been practicing their craft for generations. For example, we source the dried jujubes used in our “Remedy for a Broken Heart” tea from a local organic, California farm run by the loveliest Korean couple.

We’re a family-run business, and we’re constantly dreaming, discovering, and thoughtfully adding to our collection of offerings, designed to celebrate our connection to each other and the natural world.

You can currently find our teas and tea accessories online at www.wildorangeapothecary.com, where we also note our pop-up events and in-person tea ceremonies. Our tea ceremonies are a great way to not only sample and learn about a variety of teas, but to also engage with community and take some time for yourself. Additionally we also do private events, and create custom gift boxes as well – in the past we’ve done them for baby showers, bridal showers, bachelorettes, etc.

A great way to learn about new launches and events is to also follow us on Instagram at @wildorangeapothecary

We hope our offerings provide inspiration, healing, and deep calm.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One of my favorite books that has impacted not only how I approach decisions in my business, but also how I approach my life, is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. While the book may seem focused on the restaurant industry and hospitality, it’s really more than what spoon to use at a fancy dinner – it’s larger themes that you can extrapolate to any part of your life, about the importance of how you make people feel, finding purpose, how you can strive for something.

The emphasis on the importance of intentionality, and that details matter really resonated with me, especially as I make decisions as a business owner. One of the joys of an entrepreneur, and also one of the most terrifying things, is making all the small and large decisions. You have to really believe in your decisions, and it’s hard to not let others opinions color yours.

In particular, when I was building my business, coming from an MBA background, I got a lot of skeptical looks when I was describing the curated, high-quality products and experiences I wanted to create. The top questions I kept on getting asked were “But how will you scale?,” “Will you make money doing that?” While those are all valid questions, it was hard for them to understand that being singularly money-focused and appealing to everyone wasn’t my goal.

My goal was focused more on how I could affect how people felt, and using my tea products and tea ceremonies to help create elevated, special experiences. I wanted to spend the extra money on packaging that was compostable, or ingredients that were organic and from local farmers because it created a better product and a better experience that I felt people deserved. Unreasonable Hospitality gave me the confidence to go down that curated path, as their relentless focus on details and unforgettable moments is what changed everything for them.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Through the years, the same “strategy” has been true, whether I was working for big companies like Disney or for smaller companies like my consulting clients or my tea business- authenticity is the most important thing.

Sometimes people underestimate how intelligent their customers are, but in reality, even if they’re swayed in the beginning, customers are quick to realize if something doesn’t seem authentic to them. And, once that trust is broken, it’s really hard to re-establish an authentic voice.

So, it’s important for brands and businesses to tell their stories, to let customers connect, and to do so in a way that feels true and authentic for the brand. What that means is that a business doesn’t have to jump on the latest social media trend or post multiple times every day just to grow a business – it may work for some brands, but it may not work for others.

For example, Wild Orange Apothecary is all about intentionality and crafting moments of peace, so it works for us to have longer captions that explain a certain tea, or describe a certain mood or setting. We’re not primarily focused on discounts; instead, we’re trying to create inspiration and honor the slow ways and healing, nurturing qualities of our products. And, we’re so lucky that’s really resonated with our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wildorangeapothecary.com/
• Instagram: @wildorangeapothecary

Image Credits

Keith Walsh