We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zainah Okay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Zainah, appreciate you joining 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.
I have always created my own drinks for myself or my friends, whether it was alcoholic or just fresh squeezed lemonade. Everyone has always enjoyed them as well. Back in 2020, I was focused on my skincare line I was pushing called “SeventhHeaven”. I was overwhelmed with it as much as I enjoyed doing the whipped sheas and lip glosses, I was losing my passion for it. I did my first pop up that year and I made a big gallon of fresh squeezed mango lemonade to sell. I sold more lemonade than I sold my actual products. So I decided maybe I should venture into that, see where it takes me! I put a twist to the business name I already created that was “SeventhHeaven”, and I decided to call my new business baby “TwistedHeaven”. I started a instagram, ordered a ridiculous amount of bottles to sell them in and just got started. I went from bottles, to mason jars, to pouches and I’m still evolving everyday. My first event was also that year Halloween weekend. I had the honor of bartending an old friends listening party for her first song. For it to be my first event, I felt like I did really well! This was the moment that I realized this was my passion. I enjoyed myself so much, I got to meet so many people and I knew I could continue doing this for a long time.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
TwistedHeaven is a black owned event company that also does pop ups, and delivery/pick up on drink pouches. It isn’t the average drink/event company though. There’s a creative twist to it that I believe makes me stand out from others. I do more than just make you a great drink, I personalize every single event I do. I come up with specialty cocktails, drink names, menus etc. I try to add to the entire experience the guests are having so we are always catering directly to the theme of the event. I took this from my experience serving tables, when I gave guests a personal touch, they were always more grateful. I have been in the service industry for years, as many people look down on servers I enjoy the industry a lot. It was that industry that allowed me to maneuver through figuring out my passion for bartending. I was able to train behind the bar with no experience, and I was so grateful for that. My first job was at JR Crickets and although i did not stay long, I learned soo much that still is with me today.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
From the beginning, I had a savings put aside from my first business “SeventhHeaven”. I took the risk of investing it all on bottles, bartending books, and a starter kit of Liqueur & Liquors. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
There have been many times where I make a good amount of pouches to sell and only sell 1 or 2. As defeating as it can be, I never stopped. I have went to a birthday party before with a whole case of drinks to sell and didn’t sell a single one. I was embarrassed at first but it taught me a great lesson. I gained so many followers that day, so I had to sit back and teach myself how to look at the smaller wins as big wins. Although I didn’t sell any pouches, I networked and that’s just as valuable.
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