We recently connected with Keyera and Treveon Williams and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Keyera and Treveon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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.
Growing up my grandmother used to give me a cup of green tea with lemon, honey, and butter when she would watch me while I was under the weather. It always would make me feel better and I knew that herbs had a lot of wellness benefits. As an adult I would go shopping for tea and was always frustrated with the limited selection of tea available at most retailers and that the packaging didn’t mention the wellness benefits that the tea provided. I also disliked that some teas helped with certain ailments, but didn’t have a pleasant taste. Whenever I or my husband (boyfriend) at the time would feel under the weather or would have an ailment we wanted to treat using herbs, we’d have to Google certain herbs to find out the benefits and make a list of teas to go shopping for. I started tinkering with the idea of starting a tea business for a few months and one day during my lunch break I started jotting potential names for a future tea business in my notebook. The more I wrote the more I knew I wanted to commit to the idea. That evening when Tre picked me up from work, we went to pick up dinner, got to his apartment and I pitched the idea to him. At the time, he didn’t have a lot of experience with tea outside of Sweet Tea which was so prevalent in the South, where he grew up. Believe it or not, he was not a fan of Sweet Tea at all. However, he’d grown to enjoy the teas I recommended and began incorporating them into his everyday routine. Needless to say, he was on board with the idea I brought to him. The idea of bringing tea to the forefront of everyday life, tea that has a purpose, and that purpose goes beyond flavor.
Keyera and Treveon, 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?
Keyera was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She always dreamed of starting a business one day and tea became a passion of hers from a young age, which compelled her to come up with the idea to start a tea business. She spent years researching herbs and learning about their healing properties so she could better enjoy tea. When she and Treveon got together, she would often give him tea for different ailments and his interest of herbs grew.
Treveon, born in Atlanta, Georgia, grew up as what many would consider a “nerd”. He loves to read, game, and at rare times, draw. Serving in the Air Force, brought him to Phoenix, Arizona, where he met Keyera, his lovely wife, but also, where he met his bitter enemy, seasonal allergies. When he completed his commitment to the military, he came back to Phoenix, to strengthen the bond between him and Keyera. It was at this time that he rekindled his love of reading. As time passed, and the idea of Steep & Sip was gaining strength, Keyera noticed that his interest in reading became increasingly business related. Then one night their interests collided, after discussing his displeasure with the lack of organic teas, to help with his battle against seasonal allergies.
After making the decision to pull the trigger on starting a tea business, Treveon and Keyera Williams spent the next year researching the tea industry and looking for ways to make it better. They then compiled a list of ailments they wanted to offer solutions for including seasonal allergies, trouble sleeping, inflammation, PMS, stress, low energy, immune support and much more.
Steep & Sip’s core focus is providing people with teas to promote self-care and wellness. Whether you are looking to strengthen your immune system or wind down at the end of a long day, there is a tea available to fit your wellness needs. Steep & Sip wants people to find a healthy and tasty way to enhance their wellness.
We’re proud to have a product that everyone can enjoy and gain from. To be honest, it isn’t about the product, it is the feeling you get when you have the perfect cup of tea, steeped at the perfect temperature while reaping its herbal benefits. It is about knowing that you’re using real nourishing ingredients.
Steep & Sip is different from the average tea company because people can get organic, quality loose leaf tea at an affordable price range without compromising taste. Steep & Sip merges self-care, wellness and flavor!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
There are plenty of entrepreneurial resources in the world, that will prove advantageous for anyone. For us, reading and watching educational videos were the bulk of our learning in this journey. Tre’s interests were mainly business and finance related. He read the books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The 48 Laws of Power, Mastery, the Lords of Finance, The Admirals, and Call Sign Chaos. Every one of those books peeled the veil back a little more. the more he read, the more he realized that his learning was too one-sided, he was stuck in “analysis paralysis”. After all, a business can’t be successful if all you’re doing is analyzing every detail. You need to apply concepts to your life and to your business. If someone can master the ability to learn and apply the information they gain from books and videos, the world will become your playground at that point. Keyera’s was more of visual, brainstorming creative ways to market Steep & Sip. She took advantage of YouTube and voraciously consumed all the relevant information she could. Steep & SIp gained its name from Keyera, and also its image. An image of wellness and self-care where even the most professional of us can grow to include Steep & Sip in our daily routines. Her background is in public relations which helped Steep & Sip nail down branding materials.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The original name for our business was trademarked and we struggled for months to come up with a new name. We were set on naming our business Tea Snob because we really enjoyed tea and are very particular about what we consume. After the disappointment set in, we knew we’d have to go back to the drawing board and come up with something else. Steep & Sip ended up being the perfect name for us because it shows how simple it is to enjoy a cup of tea. You steep tea for several minutes and then you get to enjoy every sip. We were elated to find out that our new name was available and decided it was the one.
Contact Info:
- Website: steepandsipteas.com
- Instagram: @steepandsipteas
- Facebook: facebook.com/steepandsipteas
- Other: TikTok: @steepandsipteas