We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chris Cook. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chris below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

As a trained culinarian having spent 25+ years in the food and beverage industry the commitment to hospitality runs deep with Special Leaf. In the spring of 2014 while consulting as a chef at a south Texas olive orchard I discovered you can make a very functional healthy tea from steeping dried olive leaves. With a 3,500 year old history, I knew it was something that needed to be modernized and shared with as many people as possible.

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

I grew up in a military household where we’d move every 2-3 years. We were able to see many states, countries, and cultures. A need to serve and be hospitable is always something that has resonated with me.
After high school, I fell in love with cooking and decided to go to culinary school. Upon graduating with an AS degree, I decided to continue my culinary journey and expand my knowledge with a BA at another culinary school that offered more in the way of management, leadership, and extensive cooking curriculum.
After a very distinguished culinary career, I decided to begin my entrepreneurial endeavor. I believed then and now, that if I could figure out how to scale, promote, and educate our fans about the importance of their health and wellness, we have a great responsibility and opportunity to help a lot of people through a naturally functional, all natural ingredient, and no added sugar line of ready to drink iced teas using olive leaf as a base.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

For five years we’ve been bootstrapping our business where everything goes back into it in order to remain sustainable. We are now in the middle of our second fundraise in order to meet the demand with additional larger retailers with our intentional growth.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We understand that organic growth takes time so you really have to put in the time which if done right will resonate with your audience even more so. Having relevant content, using influencers based on your brand/concept, SEO development, and tailoring your posts to each particular audience is crucial.,

Contact Info:

• Website: www.specialleaf.com
• Instagram: @specialleafco
• Facebook: @specialleaf
• Linkedin: @chriscook
• Twitter: @specialleaf
• Youtube: @specialleaftea
• TikTok: @specialleaftea