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

Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I am very grateful to have grown up with two loving parents who have always been supportive of me. My mother raised me as one of eight kids and was an amazing role model. To this day I’m not sure how she managed all of us. She seemed to always be there whenever you needed her and she always made us all feel loved and cared for. Everyone says it, but it’s hard to imagine there’s a better mother out there. My father worked hard to support of all of us and to provide us all with great opportunities in life. He preached about work ethic, persistence and having a good attitude. He taught us to never give up and to find solutions to problems. I look at both my parents as great role models and I try to be like them in my personal life as well as my professional life.

They both taught me to be the best I can be, in every aspect of my life. So that’s what I strive for.

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

I’ve worked in the food and beverage industry since high school. I began washing dishes at the age of 16 and slowly fell in love with the industry. I discovered kombucha in my late twenties when I started to focus more on my health and wellness. It was love at first sight. I began drinking it every day and I remember the first time a friend gave me a Scoby to start a home brew. I let the Scoby sit out too long and it died before I figured things out. Years later I tried again and started developing some flavor combinations. A few years after that, I thought we could try selling our kombucha commercially, so we brought some samples to a few places and it was well received. We figured we would keep brewing as much kombucha as we could and see how much we could sell. That’s still our philosophy today. We’re both humbled by our success and proud of our efforts as we continue to grow our kombucha company organically and intentionally.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before I began brewing kombucha, I was working as a General Manager in the restaurant industry. I’d been managing restaurants for the last fifteen years and had found some success and well as some happiness. It was engaging, fun and challenging in many ways. I liked problem solving and working with a team. You meet some of the best people while working in restaurants. Most of my best friends have come from this world. It was hard to give it up but there came a point when it was necessary to consider something else. I knew I wasn’t 100% happy or fulfilled. I felt there was something missing in my work life. I was passionate about doing a good job, but not necessarily this work. I began brewing kombucha, not because it could be a career or my future, but just because I liked drinking kombucha. I began putting more time and effort into it and it got better. Go figure. It was hard making the decision to move on from such a known industry and go out on this new journey, but I knew I owed it to myself to try. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know it involves doing something I’m 100% passionate about.

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

Word of mouth. We started the company with money from savings so there wasn’t really a budget for sales and marketing. Our strategy from the beginning has been to brew a high quality kombucha that people enjoy drinking. We got lucky that the first few places we brought our kombucha to all liked it and wanted to serve it right away. We’ve built on that success, little by little, with just getting our kombucha out there in the community. We’ve received great feedback from vendors that we partner with and from our consumers. We are overjoyed at the reception our product receives and will continue trying to brew the best kombucha we can.

Contact Info:

• Website: Symbiotikombucha.com
• Instagram: @symbiotikombucha.com