Founder, Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
www.gypsytea.com

‘Tis the season for tea… for cuddling up, cup in hand, and basking in the glow of a warm fire and twinkling holiday lights. For steeping yourself in such comfort, it’s nice to have a special tea.

Which brings us to Zhena’s Gypsy Tea. Her products like Fireside Chai (ginger, cinnamon chips, whole cloves and orange peel), Grand Green (green tea, peppermint and Stevia Leaf) and Gypsy Love (black tea with rose petals) brim with organic ingredients and are blended with essential oils. Zhena purchases tea from Fair Trade gardens, which means the workers who pick her teas receive healthcare, childcare and education.

Tea doesn’t get much more special than this.

Also special is the story behind why Zhena Muzyka created her company, turning a time of desperation into inspiration…

From Desperation

Zhena Muzyka: “I had to (start my own business). I was working on a book about my gypsy grandmother’s life and got pregnant with my son. I was living a little bit of the starving artist life. When I got pregnant with Sage, I didn’t have health insurance… I thought, ‘I’ll just have a midwife, ‘ and this won’t be a big deal.

“But my son was born with a severe birth defect and had to have an operation at six weeks that opened a hole in his bladder until he was four. I had to come up with a way to have him with me and make money and support ourselves. I had been studying tea and aromatherapy for quite some time as a hobby, as a love, as something that made me very happy.”

To Inspiration

“I looked for a job that would allow me to have Sage with me and no one would hire me with my little boy. I walked up into the mountains (in Ojai, California) one day and said, ‘I’ll do anything, please show me,’ and literally had a vision of what I could do with tea and how I could bring women together. I dreamt up this whole creative way of bringing tea and women together through the story of my heritage and the way that I had been raised (her grandmother was a gypsy in the Ukraine, and her parents were trapeze artists with the Moscow Circus).”

Not Much Money, But Major Growth

“I got together about $3,000 from my parents and little brother, bought a tea cart, wheeled it into my girlfriend’s store, put Sage in the baby carrier and started selling off my cart.

“The first year, we did $4,000 (in sales)… the second year $54,000, the third year $250,000, the fourth year $670,000, the fifth year $1.1million and this year I think we’ll do about $2 million.”

Her Secret to Success

“Leading through giving.”

Being Fulfilled AND Building a Business

“I started researching Fair Trade and realized if I paid for a Fair Trade premium (to Fair Trade gardens in Sri Lanka, India and China), that would pay for the health care and maternity leave of women picking the tea. There’s something like a 70 percent infant mortality rate (in some gardens that are not Fair Trade gardens). If you could change that for someone, wouldn’t your life be fulfilled?

“As a company, we have built into the cost of our products, the Fair Trade premium and all the other initiatives we do. We’re ensuring the tea workers are being taken care of, and I really believe there’s magic to that. Our vision is to end poverty where we buy our raw materials.”

Conquering Her Fears

“The lesson in this… every time I feel like I’m going to fail or I’m scared, I do something to give and the fear goes away, and the challenge in turn becomes an opportunity.”

How She Sold Supermarkets on Zhena’s Gypsy Tea

(Editor’s note: Zhena’s products are sold at gypsytea.com, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Safeway, Raley’s, certain Kroger stores, Vitamin Shoppe and Wegmans.)

“A lot of the buyers have heard my story and they see that the tea tins are so pretty and embossed… they taste the tea and can tell the difference from 100 percent organic ingredients and 100 percent Fair Trade gardens. They hear my story and really believe in the product. They really want to help the vision and the company that stands by their word to do the right thing.”

Greatest Challenge

“Taking a creative idea and making it an everyday luxury attainable for other women. You start out with this big, wonderful, exciting, creative idea and you go, ‘What’s first?’ And you look around and you don’t know because you never started a tea company before. You didn’t understand how grocery stores worked. The whole thing has been a major challenge.”

How To Find a Mentor

“(Through the Small Business Administration and SCORE,) I met the (former) CEO of Balance Bar (Jim Wolfe) and he has helped me a tremendous amount. He’s been an amazing mentor. He’s taught me about distribution and financing and marketing strategies and sales… how to make sure your presentations are really stellar.”

Learn to Trapeze and Trust

“I learned how to trapeze and that was great for taking risks in business and being fearless. It taught me a lot about trust in business, and myself!”

Recommended Bedside Reading

“I love Seth Godin’s books, like ‘Free Prize Inside.’ There’s a great book called ‘The Woman’s Advantage’ ,by Mary Cantando.”

Sources of Inspiration

“I love taking aromatherapy courses to learn more in-depth about essential oils. How does mandarin lead to improved mood? Why does rose oil become an aphrodisiac? We also have Gypsy Tea Parties with belly dancers and tealeaf readers.

“Going to India and Sri Lanka and seeing the women and seeing the effect that we can have in their lives is deeply, truly the most satisfying thing.”

Words of Advice

“The old adage ‘keep your nose to the grindstone’ is true. Work through your fears and eventually they won’t have so much power over you.

“Choose something that has a mission and live that mission. Do something that you truly enjoy, and you can’t wait to do the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that.

“Love yourself enough not to work yourself into the ground!”

Blessings for Six-Year-Old Sage

“Sage, how are things now for us that we started the tea company? ‘Pretty good,’ he said. He’s had four operations and (the company has) enabled me to help that to happen. Last month he got his first clean bill of health from UCLA. They don’t need to see him for a whole year.”

The Pick-Up Line, The Wedding

“I was married (in April of 2006) in Sri Lanka in a tea field… tea pluckers dressed me up like a Hindu bride and were so happy that I came to share my wedding with them. I bring them back tins of my tea and show them how beautiful their product is and how I’m blending it with essential oils.

(”I met my husband when) I was serving tea at a yoga event. You know what his pick-up line was? He said ‘Is this your te? You’re a marketing genius!’ And I was in love.”

Best Place to Buy Teacups

“Mercado Global. They’re Fair Trade. They help women to make enough money to support themselves – a wonderful group.”