Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rebecca Zaccaria. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Rebecca, thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

I knew that starting a business wouldn’t be all sunshine and roses, but the weeks before I launched my herbal tea business were filled with obstacle after obstacle. I’m highlighting this part of my journey because by the third hiccup, I thought maybe these were clear signs that starting a business wasn’t the right move for me — but I didn’t give up, and I’m glad. As someone who has since started two additional businesses in completely different niches, I can tell you that entrepreneurial pursuits are always touch and go at the beginning, so don’t let it deter you.

Now on to the struggles of starting Everyday Alchemy Botanicals:

I did not have a ton of money set aside to invest in my launch. I was purely making moves out of passion for my craft (herbalism) and the energy from my newly acquired social media following. In hindsight, it might have been wise to beef up my business fund with more than hope and dreams.

The two things you really need to start an herbal tea business are herbs to make your tea blends, and labels to put on your bags. I decided to buy both in bulk so I’d have a good amount of inventory to launch with. Since I live in Florida and can therefore make these blends out of my home as a Cottage Food operation, I ordered $1,000 worth of herbs and around $1,200 worth of labels.

I lived in an apartment at the time, and although our mailroom was a disaster, I was keeping an eye out for the packages. The delivery date rolled around and my herb package was nowhere to be found, even though it said it was delivered to the mailroom. When I went to the mailroom and sorted through the boxes piled up there, I couldn’t find it. I filed a report with the front office and decided to contact the herb company. That same day, I ended up using a different door to my building and noticed that my box of herbs was sitting there… and it had been opened. When I took a look inside, I realized that there were only three small bags left of the 10+ I had ordered. To make a long story short, the apartment staff moved it from the mailroom (where there were security cameras) to my doorstep (where there were not security cameras). Someone on my floor took my box from my doorstep, stole a lot of herbs, and then dropped it by the front door on the first floor. I filed a police report and tried to get my apartment building to pay up because they should not have moved it from the mailroom — but that didn’t happen.

Don’t worry, it gets worse. My labels were set to arrive that same week. Mind you, I had ordered around 150 front and back labels in two different sizes for each of my four blends. What arrived was a box filled with front labels for ONE of my blends. Did I have an emotional breakdown on my kitchen floor? You bet.

If you’ve never ordered herbs and/or labels before, I’ll warn you that both can take three or more weeks to arrive because of processing times. Both of these “hiccups” delayed my launch by over two months and caused many tears. The good news is that the herb company (Mountain Rose Herbs) kindly replaced everything that had been stolen, and the label company let me keep those labels and sent me the rest. In the end, everything worked out and I launched my business two months later than I wanted to. And despite that, by October (two months later) I was making more as a small business owner than I had in my previous job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into herbalism and ultimately became a small business owner because of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, I was living in Istanbul, Turkey and working remotely at a tech startup in the Cybersecurity space. In October 2020 I got a pretty big promotion, and by June 2020, I was back in the US and dealing with work-related anxiety and burnout. My partner, who is a veteran and suffers from PTSD, was considered essential personnel and very much felt the same.

My growing melancholy from my job and the circumstances of the pandemic, along with witnessing my partner really struggle with anxiety, depression, and insomnia created the perfect storm. When I turned to herbs to help him get through the day and saw that they actually made a difference, I started experimenting with them myself — and the whole thing changed the trajectory of my life.

After tons of self-study, I decided to invest in courses to become a certified herbalist, and through those lessons and experimentation, I eventually created a blend that my partner loved. He was not a tea person, but he’d ask for this blend constantly. He began telling me that the blend made him feel calmer, lighter, and soothed his busy mind. So, I started the trial and error process again, but this time to tackle his sleep issues. After months and months, I had another effective and delicious blend for him. By this point, he was making tea for himself multiple times a day and I couldn’t have been happier.

I shared this whole process on social media and people started asking if they could buy these blends (even though I had given the recipes freely). It’s at this point that I decided to start my herbal tea business. Fast forward and Everyday Alchemy Botanicals is almost two years old now!

The blends I crafted for my partner, Jordan, are called Weightless and Sweet Slumber — and they are my best sellers to this day. In addition to these, I’ve got a coffee replacement blend (Root Coffee), a skincare blend (Radiant), a cycle support blend (Period Tea), and my two newest blends for immune system support: Berry Boost (basically elderberry syrup as tea) and Spice of Life (basically a ginger and turmeric).

All of our blends are handcrafted with love in small batches using organic, ethically sourced herbs. I hope you’ll give them a try someday!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I currently have over 100k followers across three different platforms: TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest. While this number may seem low to some people, it’s something I’m super proud of. How did I get here? By accident.

Ever since I was little, I would study by teaching what I was learning to an invisible audience (or my teddy bears). So, when I started studying to become a certified herbalist, I decided to share what I was learning on TikTok to help me internalize the information. My videos would all start with the same hook: “I’m studying to be an herbalist so let’s learn about some herbs together.”

After a while of doing this, I got more comfortable in front of the camera and with the herbal information I was digesting. And ultimately, I think my obvious passion for the craft I was learning is what attracted so many people. I’d share recipes and document my tea blending experiments, including my failures. I got vulnerable and introduced my followers to my “why,” which is my partner with PTSD. So, a year or so later when I decided to launch my business, my followers were SO supportive because they had witnessed the entire process.

My advice for anyone starting to use social media for business purposes is to look at it as more than a marketing tool. It’s so obvious when someone is just posting to sell you their product, and it’s hard to build a following when this is the only content you’re putting out. You’ll have a lot more success if you produce content that is authentic and centered on your passion for your business.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I feel like it’s almost taboo to talk about this because it’s not in alignment with the typical success story — but I think it’s important to share, especially with an audience of entrepreneurs and people just starting their businesses.

For a moment in time, my side hustle was my full time job. Then, it started paying more than my previous full time job — and then it slowed down and I started other side hustles so I could keep my business running and also make enough money to live.

If there’s one thing you take away from reading this, let it be the reminder that progress in NOT linear, it’s cyclical. That’s something a professor of mine shared with me back in the day, and it stuck. For most of us, the path to success is not linear. And I think so many businesses fail in their first five years because they go into it with the wrong mindset. If you’re a small business owner with no investors, you have to have some grit to “succeed.”

Today, I make more revenue from being a vendor at farmers markets and pop-ups than I do from online sales. But just three months ago, the opposite was true. I will continue to invest in my business and adapt as circumstances change because I believe in my business and my ability to grow alongside it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://everydayalchemybotanicals.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/every.dayalchemy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everydayalchemyherbalteashop
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@everyday_alchemy Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/everyday_alchemy/

Image Credits
I have the rights to all of my photos. They were either taken by me or purchased from photographers.