We recently connected with Shantay Owens and have shared our conversation below.
Shantay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Personally, I feel like being committed to the walk of entrepreneurship is what’s going to determine the success factor. I also want to say that in order to know the success you may have to experience some failure. Success and failure go hand-in-hand.
As I’m walking this entrepreneurship journey, I like to try to relate to other entrepreneurs by reading their stories. I realize that more resilient entrepreneurs who didn’t take shortcuts and had to learn through their failures are the ones who are doing really well in business. I feel like in the process you have to be willing to go through the refinement and stay committed when the pressure is on because that’s how you build success on the foundation of bedrock versus sinking sand.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Shantay Owens and I own a Loose-Leaf Tea business called Sista Teas. After joining the Navy reserves back in 2014 and meeting my now husband who inspired me to start a business I decided to start off my business ventures with a skincare line. I knew nothing about business and learned some really hard lessons on what it took to run a business. During the time I remember my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) telling me if I could just sell $200 in products for this skincare line that I wouldn’t have to look for a job and we will invest our time building that. The impostor syndrome was so heavy on me. I felt like such an impostor asking people if they wanted to buy soaps and bath bombs that I made. I used to think “how could I ever compete with other brands?” Long story short, I choose to go back to work in IT.
In 2018 I’ve gotten pregnant with my first child and used to cry so much about not walking in my purpose. How could I be an inspirational mom and not know what I’m purposed for? In August of 2018, I decided to follow Jesus, after stumbling across this podcast that I thought was meant for business but the young lady was preaching a whole word about “Try God, His track record is too good”. I remember speaking out and saying “God if you’re real, I will give you a try… and if you change my life, I will serve you for the rest of my life.”
I should have prepared myself because He took that offer swiftly and started showing me evidence of His existence.
It was in October of 2018 (a month after I had my first child). I was sitting on the couch in frustration because I didn’t want to return to work and I also didn’t want to continue with the skincare line (which was my side hustle at the time). The Lord dropped in my heart the idea to start a tea business. It was validated immediately because before I joined the military I used to work for a company called “Teavana”. Plus my parents are from the Caribbean and tea is a big part of our culture. I tell people all the time that my parents believe tea cures everything. Have a broken bone? Go drink some tea.
It was then that I started researching, brainstorming, and building the company “Sista Teas”.
Sista Teas is set apart. It is a family-owned business offering unique and delicious tea blends. Our customers enjoy the experience they have with our tea because they have never experienced tea like this. Surprisingly to me, a lot of people will express that tea tastes like “hot lightly flavored water” until they try our loose-leaf tea blends. It’s bold and flavorful, packed with benefits for the body. It’s a beautiful thing to turn people into tea lovers.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Funding a start-up business is a mindset. It is a common situation where people do not start a business because they are not sure about how they will get start-up money. However, the unsure aspect shouldn’t stop anyone from going after their dreams. When you have a vision, it is your responsibility to stop saying “I can’t” and start saying “how can I?”
At the beginning of 2021, I made a crazy declaration in front of a group of women I was coaching in which I said “My crazy goal for the end of 2021 is that I will be a full-time entrepreneur”. I had no clue how it was going to happen, but all I know is that I believed it would happen. I said this in January and in March of 2021 the Lord opened the doors and answered my prayer. My family and I made a bold move to drop everything we know and move from New York to North Carolina. We had a little bit of money saved up, which only lasted us about 3 months. In June of 2021 was when the pressure was on. No money to pay the bills, empty cabinets, and fridge, but we had a new rebrand of Sista Teas, ready to relaunch for our e-commerce platform.
One day I said to my husband “why don’t we go to the mall and get a kiosk for Sista Teas”. We were able to secure a Kiosk that same day. After opening up the kiosk (with the bare minimum to run it”, we used to walk the mall and dream of one day owning a store. I remember my husband saying “yeah, we’re going to open a store soon”. I said to him “we have no money to open a store”. He said to me “capital is the least of our worries”. That’s when I was able to pray into this vision. I realized during that time that when you have a dream/vision, it was not placed there for no reason, but it is up to you to have faith and seek it out. Because where there is a vision there will be provision. We opened up the Kiosk on August 1st, 2021, then were able to move the location from the kiosk to the stop on October 1st, 2021. God also showed me that we are creative by nature, and we had to use creativity to secure the funding we needed.
Growing up the most I knew about money was to in order to get the money you have to exchange time for funds. Well in the entrepreneurial world, it doesn’t necessarily work like that. There are limitless ways to secure funding. In the case of us opening the store, we decided to put a slide show/business plan together for our close family/friends and anybody else we believed we could show our vision to that would invest in it. Many people came, a couple invested, and some donated. Our asking price was $7,500, we were able to secure $2500. The rest of the way we had to use our creative hands to make it work. It’s obvious we weren’t able to open up the store with all that we desired. However, it was opened and we were able to build from there.
I want to express to not let doubt hold you back, and be okay with stepping into an uncomfortable place because there is where you build endurance. If you can show yourself that you are capable of doing it, then the next steps you are called to you will have more confidence in executing the tasks. I also want to express that God is responsible for giving you your vision, and with Him all this is possible.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I feel like when you walk the entrepreneurial journey, it is a must to continue to advance your skills in learning, productivity, organization, and mindset. I am always reading books to help sharpen my skill sets. One book that shifted my thinking is The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. This book was so well crafted by explaining that we should get out of the “yearly goal” way of thinking and take on a 12-week year instead. When we set a yearly goal, most of the time we will forget about our goal and then try to power through it within the last month of the year. However, when you take on the 12-week year, there is a sense of urgency to get the goal done within 12 weeks. So 12 weeks = 1 year, 1 week = 1 month, 1 day = one week. I also love listening to business mindset coaches like Myron Golden, Eric Thompson, and the late Dr. Myles Munroe. Lastly, the book that ultimately changed my life is called “The Holy Bible”. There is nothing on this side of heaven that is left unanswered. God did an amazing job revealing His word to us so we where can apply Biblical Principles and see them manifest in our lives. I personally love reading the KJV and the AMP versions.
Contact Info:
- Website: sistateas.com , https://msha.ke/shantayowens/
- Instagram: @sistateas , @theorganizedpurpose , @shantay.life