Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amber Akins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Amber, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Finding my niche:
As of 2022, I had practiced Kundalini yoga every Sunday for an hour for two years. After many classes and revelations from my yoga and meditation practice, little did I know I was unlocking and balancing the most important chakra related to creativity – the solar plexus. Yogic teachings say that this chakra gives us a clear sense of who we are and what our purpose is. There are seven Chakras that symbolize energy centers and correspond to a bundle of nerves, major organs, and areas of our spiritual body that impact our physical and emotional well-being. So with my solar plexus activated I thought about all the times I was so excited to share with random people – I grow and plan to sell herbs. Of course they always went straight to asking me about cannabis. I could not believe more people didn’t know of the hundreds of medicinal herbs out there like lemon balm and lavender for relaxation, ginger for digestion or echinacea, elderberry and mullein for cough, cold and immunity. Then the creativity spark hit me – my business will be named 820tea a play on the 420 cannabis consumption culture.
After niching down, I learned that storybranding your business is just as important as knowing your target customer like they are your best friend. Storybranding my business allowed me to introduce aunTEA Tulsi to connect the art of of consuming wellness tea beverages to center ourselves and take at least 8 minutes and 20 seconds of our day reflect and recharge. 820tea’s aunTEA Tulsi is here to remind, connect, and educate us on our mindfulness journey. She sees that good health and peace in your life is a birthright.
Holy Basil otherwise known as tulsi or tulasi, is considered ‘Liquid Yoga’. In herbalists terms it belongs to a group of herbs called adaptogens. These are herbs, roots and other plant substances that help our bodies manage stress and restore balance. Within the Ayurveda, tulsi is known as the ‘Mother Medicine of Nature’ and ‘The Queen of Herbs’ consumed as an “elixir of life” for both its medicinal and spiritual properties.
aunTEA Tulsi has the connections and knowledge to give love and nurture, and to share wisdom through her experience to discover nothing that is sacred (mindfulness) you should be scared of. She is the queen of reminding you that good health and peace in life is your birthright. She knows that yoga is a way of opening up that memory and trying to restructure this life towards an ultimate possibility. She reminds you that tea is not just a momentary pleasure, but an element of a complex ritual that heals the body. Who doesn’t need an aunTEA that reminds you to treat yourself kind?
What is 820tea:
820, 8:20 or 8/20 (pronounced Eight-Twenty) is herbalism culture slang for tea consumption, especially drinking around the time 8:20 am or 8:20 pm. Drinking tea 8 minutes at least twice a day is the ritual that ultimately leads to a consistent mindfulness practice. As you drink your tea, the focus is deep breathing in between sips to expand your prana or otherwise known as the giving life force of the chakras. The breath is the foundation through the journey to mindfulness. Are you ready to tap into 820?
Eight Twenty (820) Tea Co. is a wellness company that provides herbal products that promote life force energy alignment to balance your spiritual and energetic centers with teas, herbs, aromatherapy and wellness education.
Amber, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Ancestral Whispers:
My business is first born out of my ancestral heritage.I am the grand and great granddaughter of farmers and that were born post civil war and reconstruction in Southeast Alabama with a rich history of sowing, reaping, plowing, and harvesting the land. I did not spend a lot of time in the farm fields of Alabama with them growing up. However, it is as if nature, the land, herbs, plants entered my psyche and physical life through the depths of the cosmos. I am convinced that generations and generations of ancestors have whispered into my matrilineal womb lineage pushing me toward the healing and resilient power of learning the land and nature just as I learned to breathe, walk, and talk.
By the age of 22, I had walked the sacred land of Tuskegee, Alabama for 4 years where I attended college at Tuskegee University. Just like many other young people my memory faded and I went through a period of avoiding what was calling me. Over the years George Washington Carver’s (American agricultural scientist and inventor) legacy was still imprinted in my memory forever. I found my way back to the land through creating a small home garden in 2013 and then onto herbs that launched my business @820tea in 2023.
Lifelong learning – herbs, yoga and mediation:
I was accepted and attended a herbalist training program in 2021 which gave me a strong foundation for me to build on for two more years of self study. Through hands on growing herbs, creating and testing out herbal formulations, I created a stronger relationship with nature and herbs as a serious medium for healing the mind, body, and spirit. With this in mind, I created our chakra based tea flights similar to wine flights but instead of merely giving you a way to try new beverages, our flights are meant to support you through the journey of balancing your energy centers.. In Sanskrit, the word “chakra” means “disk” or “wheel” and refers to the energy centers in your body. These wheels or disks of spinning energy each correspond to certain nerve bundles and major organs. The human body system thrives when the chakras and the nadis are open and prana, or life force, is allowed to move throughout the system with ease. Any kind of disturbance or disease in the body, mind, or spirit can cause blockages and imbalances. The goal is harmony. So if you’ve been feeling out of sorts, take a closer look at your chakras to investigate what’s going on and begin to find balance.
Like most people with the daily responsbilities of work and family life, customers that love our chakra tea flight boxes come to us with a perceived lack of time to set aside consistent intentional time to make self-care a priority, They maybe new to mindfulness practice and feel like they are not able to do meditation “right”. Each chakra tea flight box comes with a set an intention card and a meditation card to get your started. There is no right or wrong way to center yourself towards mindfulness and self care. I always remind myself of Tricia Hersey who is an American poet, performance artist, and activist best known as the founder of the organization The Nap Ministry. Tricia says “This is about more than naps. Rest is anything that allows you to connect your body with your mind.” We feel at 820tea an 8 minute and 20 second moment in time at 8:20 AM or 8:20 PM is a form of rest.
Moving forward with intention and accountability:
It is very important for me to share that I am a Gemini with Cancer moon and a Sagittarius rising astrology sign. Yoga, herbs, plants, teas, etc are my passion and I am married to serial entrepreneur Libra. This means that I am highly emotional and like a lot of Geminis I love everything, have a million ideas and struggle with focus. Enters my serial entrepreneur partner who is the person who holds me accountable, pushes me, and supports me to create structure to get things moving in my business Eight Twenty Tea Co. We took the later half of 2022 to join an Herbal Business Mentorship program and Bootcamp that placed us in a community of entrepreneurs moving toward the same goal of launching their business. The accountability and intentionality of everyone in class was inspiring for me to keep pushing toward my goals. One of the most important lessons from that mentorship and community was niching down and deciding that I was not just going to be another herbal tea wellness company but our launch would be with a special intention. I never forgot my mentor telling us to look at the sliced bread aisle in the grocery store and comparing that to the herbal tea market. There are several brands out there for consumers to choose bread [herbal tea] but no one can do it like you can and will.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
With 820tea being a new brand 15 months old, we have found the best source of new clients is getting out in the community and vending at events geared toward people who are exploring the principles of natural health and healing. You can always find us with herbal tea samples on tap at our table with all 11 herbal blends available to smell, touch and explore before purchasing. In 2023 we set out on a traveling market, vended, sponsored event swag bags in Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. In 2024, we have plans to add Georgia to our market list. We are also planning to launch a virtual way of connecting with us similar to our in person vending events.
After meeting new clients they leave us feeling like they have a product brand to support them doing the following:
Fulfill your wellness journey through mindfulness and yoga
Fulfill your need to be in community with like-minded people
Find a ritual to structure your mindfulness routine
We focus on not overcomplicating it—or being afraid to actually enjoy it.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I kept my passion for starting this business to myself for far too long. Overtime, I had to unlearn and relearn to be open to sharing my vison. With me being a new entreprenuer I realized there is a limit to what I come accomplish on my on attempt to be fiercely independent. When I finally figured out how to let go, things started moving along. My husband has a lot of experince running and starting up businesses since he was 18 years old. This led to some friction because I truly wanted this to be my business with all my ideas and goals to charter the trajectory of how we launched. However, with someone with so much experience as him I had to let him in put his ‘flavor’ on what we were doing. So once I let him into my ideas, some of the value simply first was revealed that for some of his questions I didn’t have answers to. Which means I had not completey thought through my business concept. Those initila conversations opened me up that I really did need help so I sprung into immediate action asked for more help. I encourage any reader that feels that openeses is an issue, remember that there is not one business on the world that didn’t need at least another person In order to take that business to the next level.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.820tea.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/820tea/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091618482172&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@820tea
- Other: https://linktr.ee/820tea