May 20, 2021 • 20 mins
The former superstar forward for the Indiana Fever and Olympic gold-medal winner really knows how to pivot—from sports icon to owner of Tea's Me Cafe in Indianapolis. Hear how the lessons she learned on the court translated into business success.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses
face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we
bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to
help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Sharon Bowen,
(00:26):
and thanks so much for joining us today. Among the
legends of basketball, Tamika Catchin's stands tall one of the
greatest players ever. Besides playing forward for the Indiana Fever
for sixteen seasons, she's also won four Olympic gold medals
and just this month, she was inducted into the Basketball
(00:49):
Hall of Fame. Since we'retiring from the game and two
thousand sixteen, she's also become an entrepreneur, the owner of
Teese Knee Cafe and Indianapolis. But that's not all she does.
She has also director of Player Programs and franchise Development
for Pacer Sports, an ambassador for the w n b
(01:11):
A and n b A, and a sports commentator. And
she has a philanthropy that Catch the Stars Foundation, which
helps disadvantage young people achieve their dreams. We want to
learn how she blends business with purpose and community with commerce.
Please enjoy my conversation with the remarkable Tamika Catching. You're
(01:38):
one of the all time grades of basketball. Over your
sixteen year career, you gave so much to the game
and to the fans. What DoD Basketball give to you?
What did basketball give to me? That is a good
question today. A lot um. You know, I was born
(01:59):
with the hair indus ability, and so just as a
little girl, I just remember getting made fun of and
low self esteem, self confident, just a lot just you know,
wanting to blend in and blend in the wall as
much as I could just do, not stand out. But
I think sports in general gave me a voice to
(02:19):
gave me a platform. It definitely gave me confident, taught
me about uh, teamwork and leadership and a lot of
different things to truck allow me to travel across the world.
So just gosh, amazing opportunities. That's great. Would you say
was there something special inside you that made you such
(02:41):
an incredible player, like one thing specifically, Well, I would
say definitely the determination and kind of like just people
telling me what I wouldn't be able to do and
that I would never be able to accomplish things. It
gave me the drive to succeed, and I think through sports,
and really basketball played soccer is my first board, Softball
(03:02):
was my second. In basketball, that's my third s board
in third grade. And it really just gave me. Yeah,
I gave me the drive. Like I knew I could
practice and practice and practice, and if I practiced and
got really really good, then you know, in the playground ball,
you get picked on the teams and you get a
chance to play, and then obviously beyond that getting picked
(03:22):
to play on AU teams and travel basketball and USA
basketball and in so many different areas well. I'm sure
you were great at those other sports too, but I'm
glad that basketball chose you for sure. So in two
thousand and sixteen, you retired and became an entrepreneur, the
owner of Tease Me Cafe in Indianapolis. How did that
(03:45):
come about? Oh? If I could tell you, Shanon, I would,
but it just kind of happened, you know. In two
thousand and five, Um, one of our fans, one of
our favorite fans, came up to me after a game,
which is like, Hey, I heard you like tea. You
should tell you should go try out this check out
their tea play and Indy, and it happened to be
right around the corner from the arena, and so ended
(04:08):
up becoming one of my favorite places to go and
favorite places to just relax. I mean, I would always say,
tease me with just kind of like it was an
oasis away from the world and you could just go
and doon as you walk through the door and just
kind of like, I don't know, it was just the
place that you just felt secure, you could go and
just get away from everything. And two thousands sixteen, after
(04:31):
I retired, ended up having a meeting there and one
of the gentlemen that I was meeting with, I was
just telling, my gosh, every time I come here, it's
like it's always the same as far as the way
that I feel. I love being in the space, and
he was just saying, well, better come as much as
you can, because, uh, they're about to close down. Wayne,
(04:51):
who was the previous owner, him and his wife were
moving and they didn't know what they were gonna do
with the cafe. So one thing led to another. Couple
of months later, ended up taking over Teesnee Cafe and
February seventeen and haven't looked back since. Wow, that's great.
So it sounds like you found it and it found you.
So tell me a little bit more about Teesney Cafe
(05:13):
and the kinds of products yourself. Well, we sell tea.
We are a tea cafe, so it tease me t
a apostops and then me cafe Indies. We actually just
opened up our second location, tease me Community Cafe, uh
April one and imagine on April Fool's Day. Yes, but
but it's great. You know, we sell tease. We added
(05:35):
coffee to the menu so that you don't have to
you don't have to make a start distinction, or you
don't have to make a choice. You can have tea
and coffee if you want to. We have sandwiches. Were
open from nine am to three pm. And you know,
the thing that I'm probably most proud of is I'm
proud of the space for the community and the diversity
and the people that come and and get a chance
(05:56):
to hang out a nurse bay. But then all of
the events that we have, we have events in the
cafe uh pre COVID. We'll hopefully get back to that,
you know, once we get through COVID, but we have
events in the space now. All of our events are virtual,
but they're really about bringing the community get together and
you know, being able to provide a space for people
(06:18):
of all ages to be able to come and and
just hang out. And you know it sounds to me
you just describe that, you tease me. Cafe hosts a
lot of events for the local community, including you book
clubs and conversations that you help to facilitate. Why is
that an important part of your business. It's an important
(06:39):
part just because it's more than just the space, you know.
I think from my standpoint, one of the things when
I first got into it, I was talking to our
our accountant and you know, before before I said yes
as far I purchased in the business, and he just
said he's like, look, you're not It's not a money
you know, like, you're not going to this for money
(07:01):
to make money. You're going into this because you love
being able to serve the community. And that has been
the mindset. And now, of course, you know, you need
money to in any business to make sure that you survive.
But I think what had really helped us through the time,
it's just making sure that we are serving our community
and that everybody feels a part of what we're building
(07:21):
both in the cafe, outside the cafe through our virtual event.
Then you know, people people come from all over, you know,
through all the different events that we have in Indianapolis,
through all the different sporting event they're just like our
convention event that we have coming through. So it's been
a lot of fun just to be able to serve
not only Indiana Indianapolis native, but people from all over
(07:45):
that come to Indianapolis. That's great. So the destination as
well location, which sounds great. Was it hard for you
to make the transition to being a business owner in
We're the parts of your athletic experience that translated well
to running a business. What did you have to learn?
That's a loaded question, but but you know, um, when
(08:09):
I came into it, I didn't go to school to
be an entrepreneur. And my sister and I we actually
have our foundation. We have a foundation called Catch the Stars,
and this is our seventeenth year with that. But even
when we got to Indianapolis in two thousand and one,
we started running program programming, and then in two thousand
and four we finally got the idea like, hey, we're
(08:29):
gonna actually put this together into a Foundation, and you
know Catch Starts Foundation was born. So that was kind
of Neither one of us went to school for nonprofit
management or anything like that. It just organically happened. And
the same thing, you know, getting into teeth me and
really it happened organically being able to step into that role.
(08:49):
But I will say I run the tea shop a
lot like you would run a franchise. And you know,
as far as we have an owner for Indiana Fever
Assignment family herb and it some time and they run
our team. So like I'm the owner of Teethley Cafe,
but I think of all the people that are layered
underneath him or underneath them for Indiana Fever patient sports entertainment,
(09:14):
for us to be born and to be able to
execute on a day to day basis. So it's the
same thing with the tea cafe, Like, yes, I'm the owner,
but then you know, underneath we have a general manager
that oversee both locations now and then underneath them you
have managers that are at both locations. So like looking
at one location at a time, you have your coaches,
(09:35):
and the coaches have players, and you have captains on
the team, and then it kind of funneled down. So
I literally try to even when I'm talking to and
our team meetings, on our teeth meet staff meetings, I
literally used the same lingo in the language of being
able to talk about it in a team standpoint, and
(09:57):
when one player goes down, another player steps up, and
really just being able to develop all of our players
and and all of our staff members. I can see
how that theme of teamwork is specially ingredient to success
for it for many businesses. We'll be back with senecas
made by women after this short break. You mentioned your
(10:25):
foundation to Catch the Stars Foundation can tell us a
little bit more about its mission. Yeah, so we uh,
we focused on boys and girls ages seven all the
way up to eighteen. We provide programming around fitness, literacy,
and youth development. And really at the end of the day,
I'm very big on goal setting. So a lot of
the kids that we sort of have not had the
(10:47):
same opportunities that you know, more more fortunate kids have had,
and so we try to make sure that we show
them a different life experiences. We talked a lot about
goal setting and being be able to have a vision
for their lives, and you know, through whether through fitness
and taking care of your body through literacy with reading
what really important to me is really important to me,
(11:10):
but especially as a youngster, I love to read books
and allow my mind to just escape to different worlds
and youth development really trying to teach your kids about
leadership and developing them to be strong leaders for the future.
That's interesting, you know. I also I had a passion
for reading growing up. I was not good as an
athlete though, But that's that's what a great role model
(11:32):
for you and your foundation. So congratulations on that. So
it sounds like the foundation you use, the foundations and
some of those skill sets that also helped you when
you owned Tease Me Cafe. Yeah, I mean definitely. And
I would say one of the main reasons why I
said yes to Tease Me initially what to be able
(11:55):
to hire some of our younger kids that had come
through our teenagers that had come through the Catcher Stars
family and really being able to provide them U space
where they could come and work in a smaller environment
that would allow them skill set to being able to
communicate with our customers, you know, being able to serve
our customers, knowing how to run a business like all
(12:17):
the entrepreneurial things that they needed to learn. I wanted
that space to be not wanted. We still do have,
you know, some young people that work in the space.
So do catch the stars, you know, really being able
to kind of plant to see more specifically early on
looking at sports, but then it's kind of gravitated even
more so now beyond sports to the youth development aspect
(12:40):
and really looking at literacy and then adding that entrepreneurs, uh,
that entrepreneurs peace to do it as well. Gears a
little bit and talk a little bit about you know,
it was a tough year for everyone. How did tease
me do during that time? And did you have to
pivot and if so, how did you do that? Yeah,
(13:02):
pivoted the word of and even going into uh, it
had definitely been It's been the chance, you know. But
you get into sport because you love the challenge, and
you get into business. Obviously we would all love the
business to be great all the time. But I love
the challenge of being able to be consistent. I love
(13:24):
the challenge of you know, being able to get customers
and the marketing and all the different keeping our staff
and you know, talking I feel like even you know,
when you look at teams on the basketball side and
sports and you look at teams from you know, small
business side, it's almost the same as like what do
you do to make sure that your team and your
(13:45):
staff have all the things that they need to be successful.
I think for us, you know, one of the things
we had to do, we had to shut down like
everybody else did early on, and we did have to
pivot you know a lot of the things because we
are a small business. We don't have you know, a
big staff, and so they that we had talked about
doing that we never had time because we were always
working in the cafe. We were we now had time
(14:07):
to do, so we you know, shifted really fast or
subscription boxers being able to do more online sales through
our suscription boxes, um really focusing on and targeting in
on our book t orders so that people could order
online and we could get them shipped. We could still
have staff members go into the cafe. We'd only had
two people that were going into the cafe that would
(14:29):
fulfill all the orders and get those shipped out. So
that was one thing. And then as we started looking
at all right, longevity wise and when we would get
people back in the cafe, Like what would the inside be,
what would our capacity be, um looking at outside and
how we'd be able to serve people on the outside.
So we looked at a lot of different things, but
(14:50):
I would say that our main focus would the online
t sales and really being able to shift focused. Before
we were we were a business that really if people
didn't come in the cafe, we would struggle. And I
think with the change and having to pivot, it's allowed
us to get two more that like we get online order.
(15:12):
Even when we're sleeping, we're getting online orders. So like
that's an area that we've been able to really capitalize on. Yeah,
I think companies who were able to do that, um,
you know, found a way to to grow their cells,
which is great. And I'm sort of thinking, you know,
I asked the question about pivot from a number of entrepreneurs,
but you're the first one who really understands what pivot means.
(15:35):
As a sports setter for UH, you're in reality, so
that you should be uh in that way when we
talked about pivot, what would be your advice for young
women who want to be entrepreneurs? You know, what's the
greatest lesson that you've learned that you would pass on
to them. Build the right team. You know, I think
(15:55):
first first, before you get to that, I mean, obviously,
have the vision, have a goal, uh business plan. You
know a lot of us will have gold and we'll
go into something it's like, yeah, this is really cool.
It's like the Grand Scheme and you write it down
on a pizzure paper and it's like you look at it,
but that's just the ultimate goal and really being the
business planet where you're really able to flush out what
(16:16):
the businesses. So I have the dream, have to go
write it down. The second thing, build your business plan.
Make sure that you get the plan together and foolproof
not fool we can't, you can't a hundred percent guaranteed foolproof,
but you can have people look at it and people
that you trust to help you. And then I think
the third thing is for me, what has made us
(16:38):
successful is having the right people around the business. And
you know, I was very fortunate to have you know,
my really my first employee with Joy Defrance, who became
one of my friends really fast and came in the
cafe and literally was the one that helped drive it
because I had, you know, I was deal with the
(16:58):
Indiana fever and on my role and in that capacity,
So making sure you have the right people that are
part of your team. Is there any one question that
you wish I had to ask you today or anything
else you would like to ever blisters here you talk about,
you know, not really a question. I mean I think
the one thing that I would probably one thing that
(17:21):
I feel like drives me every single day. My faith
is a big part of who I am. And you know,
I kind of went into the last couple of years
of instead of setting gold per se, really focusing on
one word and my first one word that I ever
had four years ago with impact and really just wanted
to make an impact on every single person that I
(17:43):
came in contact with, a positive impact, not a negative.
I wanted to make a positive impact on every single
person that I cased path with. And every year, like
I picked a different word my year, my word for
balance and really with all the different things that on
my plate, being able to balance it and not I
mean you're juggling all the time, but trying to find
(18:04):
a consistent balance to be able to succeed in all
the different areas and I'm married, so to be able
to spend some time with my husband and try to
get as close as I can to the work life balance.
So I don't necessarily think that a question. I think
it's more of one of those things that you're diving
down this path, you know, really being being an alignment
(18:27):
with your purpose and and figuring out what are the
things that that gives you purpose. And you know, definitely
I feel like the thing that give it purpose also
aligned with something that we're passionate about, so that help
purpose and passion, you know, help can't help with leading
to success. You're speaking our language of cynical women. Absolutely,
(18:50):
that's stuff. That's that's definitely what we're about. And I'm
gonna thank you so much for spending the time with
me today. Really enjoyed the conversation. Sation. Would hopefully I'll
get a chance to meet you in person one day
and maybe over a cup of tea, which would be great.
I would love that. I love that come to Indianapolis.
We'll have some tea from tes amazing the great to
(19:16):
make it catchins definitely knows how to pivot and to
do it with purpose. Here are three things I took
from that conversation. First, there are many ways to look
at a business to make it looks at hers is
a way to make a positive impact on her Indianapolis community.
(19:36):
She's made Tease Me Cafe into a local hub, a
gathering place, a space for events as well as a
training ground for young people. Second, to make a learn
from her basketball days. The team works a path to success.
Build the right team, she says, Surround yourself with the
(19:57):
right people and communicate your big A vision to them. Finally,
always be ready to make the pivot. The pandemic forced
Tamika to rethink her business. It went from being one
that relied on in person business to mainly online operation
and that's been good. As she says, now the business
(20:19):
gets orders even when the staff is sleeping. Made by
Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner
PNG
Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses
face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we
bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to
help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Sharon Bowen,
(00:26):
and thanks so much for joining us today. Among the
legends of basketball, Tamika Catchin's stands tall one of the
greatest players ever. Besides playing forward for the Indiana Fever
for sixteen seasons, she's also won four Olympic gold medals
and just this month, she was inducted into the Basketball
(00:49):
Hall of Fame. Since we'retiring from the game and two
thousand sixteen, she's also become an entrepreneur, the owner of
Teese Knee Cafe and Indianapolis. But that's not all she does.
She has also director of Player Programs and franchise Development
for Pacer Sports, an ambassador for the w n b
(01:11):
A and n b A, and a sports commentator. And
she has a philanthropy that Catch the Stars Foundation, which
helps disadvantage young people achieve their dreams. We want to
learn how she blends business with purpose and community with commerce.
Please enjoy my conversation with the remarkable Tamika Catching. You're
(01:38):
one of the all time grades of basketball. Over your
sixteen year career, you gave so much to the game
and to the fans. What DoD Basketball give to you?
What did basketball give to me? That is a good
question today. A lot um. You know, I was born
(01:59):
with the hair indus ability, and so just as a
little girl, I just remember getting made fun of and
low self esteem, self confident, just a lot just you know,
wanting to blend in and blend in the wall as
much as I could just do, not stand out. But
I think sports in general gave me a voice to
(02:19):
gave me a platform. It definitely gave me confident, taught
me about uh, teamwork and leadership and a lot of
different things to truck allow me to travel across the world.
So just gosh, amazing opportunities. That's great. Would you say
was there something special inside you that made you such
(02:41):
an incredible player, like one thing specifically, Well, I would
say definitely the determination and kind of like just people
telling me what I wouldn't be able to do and
that I would never be able to accomplish things. It
gave me the drive to succeed, and I think through sports,
and really basketball played soccer is my first board, Softball
(03:02):
was my second. In basketball, that's my third s board
in third grade. And it really just gave me. Yeah,
I gave me the drive. Like I knew I could
practice and practice and practice, and if I practiced and
got really really good, then you know, in the playground ball,
you get picked on the teams and you get a
chance to play, and then obviously beyond that getting picked
(03:22):
to play on AU teams and travel basketball and USA
basketball and in so many different areas well. I'm sure
you were great at those other sports too, but I'm
glad that basketball chose you for sure. So in two
thousand and sixteen, you retired and became an entrepreneur, the
owner of Tease Me Cafe in Indianapolis. How did that
(03:45):
come about? Oh? If I could tell you, Shanon, I would,
but it just kind of happened, you know. In two
thousand and five, Um, one of our fans, one of
our favorite fans, came up to me after a game,
which is like, Hey, I heard you like tea. You
should tell you should go try out this check out
their tea play and Indy, and it happened to be
right around the corner from the arena, and so ended
(04:08):
up becoming one of my favorite places to go and
favorite places to just relax. I mean, I would always say,
tease me with just kind of like it was an
oasis away from the world and you could just go
and doon as you walk through the door and just
kind of like, I don't know, it was just the
place that you just felt secure, you could go and
just get away from everything. And two thousands sixteen, after
(04:31):
I retired, ended up having a meeting there and one
of the gentlemen that I was meeting with, I was
just telling, my gosh, every time I come here, it's
like it's always the same as far as the way
that I feel. I love being in the space, and
he was just saying, well, better come as much as
you can, because, uh, they're about to close down. Wayne,
(04:51):
who was the previous owner, him and his wife were
moving and they didn't know what they were gonna do
with the cafe. So one thing led to another. Couple
of months later, ended up taking over Teesnee Cafe and
February seventeen and haven't looked back since. Wow, that's great.
So it sounds like you found it and it found you.
So tell me a little bit more about Teesney Cafe
(05:13):
and the kinds of products yourself. Well, we sell tea.
We are a tea cafe, so it tease me t
a apostops and then me cafe Indies. We actually just
opened up our second location, tease me Community Cafe, uh
April one and imagine on April Fool's Day. Yes, but
but it's great. You know, we sell tease. We added
(05:35):
coffee to the menu so that you don't have to
you don't have to make a start distinction, or you
don't have to make a choice. You can have tea
and coffee if you want to. We have sandwiches. Were
open from nine am to three pm. And you know,
the thing that I'm probably most proud of is I'm
proud of the space for the community and the diversity
and the people that come and and get a chance
(05:56):
to hang out a nurse bay. But then all of
the events that we have, we have events in the
cafe uh pre COVID. We'll hopefully get back to that,
you know, once we get through COVID, but we have
events in the space now. All of our events are virtual,
but they're really about bringing the community get together and
you know, being able to provide a space for people
(06:18):
of all ages to be able to come and and
just hang out. And you know it sounds to me
you just describe that, you tease me. Cafe hosts a
lot of events for the local community, including you book
clubs and conversations that you help to facilitate. Why is
that an important part of your business. It's an important
(06:39):
part just because it's more than just the space, you know.
I think from my standpoint, one of the things when
I first got into it, I was talking to our
our accountant and you know, before before I said yes
as far I purchased in the business, and he just
said he's like, look, you're not It's not a money
you know, like, you're not going to this for money
(07:01):
to make money. You're going into this because you love
being able to serve the community. And that has been
the mindset. And now, of course, you know, you need
money to in any business to make sure that you survive.
But I think what had really helped us through the time,
it's just making sure that we are serving our community
and that everybody feels a part of what we're building
(07:21):
both in the cafe, outside the cafe through our virtual event.
Then you know, people people come from all over, you know,
through all the different events that we have in Indianapolis,
through all the different sporting event they're just like our
convention event that we have coming through. So it's been
a lot of fun just to be able to serve
not only Indiana Indianapolis native, but people from all over
(07:45):
that come to Indianapolis. That's great. So the destination as
well location, which sounds great. Was it hard for you
to make the transition to being a business owner in
We're the parts of your athletic experience that translated well
to running a business. What did you have to learn?
That's a loaded question, but but you know, um, when
(08:09):
I came into it, I didn't go to school to
be an entrepreneur. And my sister and I we actually
have our foundation. We have a foundation called Catch the Stars,
and this is our seventeenth year with that. But even
when we got to Indianapolis in two thousand and one,
we started running program programming, and then in two thousand
and four we finally got the idea like, hey, we're
(08:29):
gonna actually put this together into a Foundation, and you
know Catch Starts Foundation was born. So that was kind
of Neither one of us went to school for nonprofit
management or anything like that. It just organically happened. And
the same thing, you know, getting into teeth me and
really it happened organically being able to step into that role.
(08:49):
But I will say I run the tea shop a
lot like you would run a franchise. And you know,
as far as we have an owner for Indiana Fever
Assignment family herb and it some time and they run
our team. So like I'm the owner of Teethley Cafe,
but I think of all the people that are layered
underneath him or underneath them for Indiana Fever patient sports entertainment,
(09:14):
for us to be born and to be able to
execute on a day to day basis. So it's the
same thing with the tea cafe, Like, yes, I'm the owner,
but then you know, underneath we have a general manager
that oversee both locations now and then underneath them you
have managers that are at both locations. So like looking
at one location at a time, you have your coaches,
(09:35):
and the coaches have players, and you have captains on
the team, and then it kind of funneled down. So
I literally try to even when I'm talking to and
our team meetings, on our teeth meet staff meetings, I
literally used the same lingo in the language of being
able to talk about it in a team standpoint, and
(09:57):
when one player goes down, another player steps up, and
really just being able to develop all of our players
and and all of our staff members. I can see
how that theme of teamwork is specially ingredient to success
for it for many businesses. We'll be back with senecas
made by women after this short break. You mentioned your
(10:25):
foundation to Catch the Stars Foundation can tell us a
little bit more about its mission. Yeah, so we uh,
we focused on boys and girls ages seven all the
way up to eighteen. We provide programming around fitness, literacy,
and youth development. And really at the end of the day,
I'm very big on goal setting. So a lot of
the kids that we sort of have not had the
(10:47):
same opportunities that you know, more more fortunate kids have had,
and so we try to make sure that we show
them a different life experiences. We talked a lot about
goal setting and being be able to have a vision
for their lives, and you know, through whether through fitness
and taking care of your body through literacy with reading
what really important to me is really important to me,
(11:10):
but especially as a youngster, I love to read books
and allow my mind to just escape to different worlds
and youth development really trying to teach your kids about
leadership and developing them to be strong leaders for the future.
That's interesting, you know. I also I had a passion
for reading growing up. I was not good as an
athlete though, But that's that's what a great role model
(11:32):
for you and your foundation. So congratulations on that. So
it sounds like the foundation you use, the foundations and
some of those skill sets that also helped you when
you owned Tease Me Cafe. Yeah, I mean definitely. And
I would say one of the main reasons why I
said yes to Tease Me initially what to be able
(11:55):
to hire some of our younger kids that had come
through our teenagers that had come through the Catcher Stars
family and really being able to provide them U space
where they could come and work in a smaller environment
that would allow them skill set to being able to
communicate with our customers, you know, being able to serve
our customers, knowing how to run a business like all
(12:17):
the entrepreneurial things that they needed to learn. I wanted
that space to be not wanted. We still do have,
you know, some young people that work in the space.
So do catch the stars, you know, really being able
to kind of plant to see more specifically early on
looking at sports, but then it's kind of gravitated even
more so now beyond sports to the youth development aspect
(12:40):
and really looking at literacy and then adding that entrepreneurs, uh,
that entrepreneurs peace to do it as well. Gears a
little bit and talk a little bit about you know,
it was a tough year for everyone. How did tease
me do during that time? And did you have to
pivot and if so, how did you do that? Yeah,
(13:02):
pivoted the word of and even going into uh, it
had definitely been It's been the chance, you know. But
you get into sport because you love the challenge, and
you get into business. Obviously we would all love the
business to be great all the time. But I love
the challenge of being able to be consistent. I love
(13:24):
the challenge of you know, being able to get customers
and the marketing and all the different keeping our staff
and you know, talking I feel like even you know,
when you look at teams on the basketball side and
sports and you look at teams from you know, small
business side, it's almost the same as like what do
you do to make sure that your team and your
(13:45):
staff have all the things that they need to be successful.
I think for us, you know, one of the things
we had to do, we had to shut down like
everybody else did early on, and we did have to
pivot you know a lot of the things because we
are a small business. We don't have you know, a
big staff, and so they that we had talked about
doing that we never had time because we were always
working in the cafe. We were we now had time
(14:07):
to do, so we you know, shifted really fast or
subscription boxers being able to do more online sales through
our suscription boxes, um really focusing on and targeting in
on our book t orders so that people could order
online and we could get them shipped. We could still
have staff members go into the cafe. We'd only had
two people that were going into the cafe that would
(14:29):
fulfill all the orders and get those shipped out. So
that was one thing. And then as we started looking
at all right, longevity wise and when we would get
people back in the cafe, Like what would the inside be,
what would our capacity be, um looking at outside and
how we'd be able to serve people on the outside.
So we looked at a lot of different things, but
(14:50):
I would say that our main focus would the online
t sales and really being able to shift focused. Before
we were we were a business that really if people
didn't come in the cafe, we would struggle. And I
think with the change and having to pivot, it's allowed
us to get two more that like we get online order.
(15:12):
Even when we're sleeping, we're getting online orders. So like
that's an area that we've been able to really capitalize on. Yeah,
I think companies who were able to do that, um,
you know, found a way to to grow their cells,
which is great. And I'm sort of thinking, you know,
I asked the question about pivot from a number of entrepreneurs,
but you're the first one who really understands what pivot means.
(15:35):
As a sports setter for UH, you're in reality, so
that you should be uh in that way when we
talked about pivot, what would be your advice for young
women who want to be entrepreneurs? You know, what's the
greatest lesson that you've learned that you would pass on
to them. Build the right team. You know, I think
(15:55):
first first, before you get to that, I mean, obviously,
have the vision, have a goal, uh business plan. You
know a lot of us will have gold and we'll
go into something it's like, yeah, this is really cool.
It's like the Grand Scheme and you write it down
on a pizzure paper and it's like you look at it,
but that's just the ultimate goal and really being the
business planet where you're really able to flush out what
(16:16):
the businesses. So I have the dream, have to go
write it down. The second thing, build your business plan.
Make sure that you get the plan together and foolproof
not fool we can't, you can't a hundred percent guaranteed foolproof,
but you can have people look at it and people
that you trust to help you. And then I think
the third thing is for me, what has made us
(16:38):
successful is having the right people around the business. And
you know, I was very fortunate to have you know,
my really my first employee with Joy Defrance, who became
one of my friends really fast and came in the
cafe and literally was the one that helped drive it
because I had, you know, I was deal with the
(16:58):
Indiana fever and on my role and in that capacity,
So making sure you have the right people that are
part of your team. Is there any one question that
you wish I had to ask you today or anything
else you would like to ever blisters here you talk about,
you know, not really a question. I mean I think
the one thing that I would probably one thing that
(17:21):
I feel like drives me every single day. My faith
is a big part of who I am. And you know,
I kind of went into the last couple of years
of instead of setting gold per se, really focusing on
one word and my first one word that I ever
had four years ago with impact and really just wanted
to make an impact on every single person that I
(17:43):
came in contact with, a positive impact, not a negative.
I wanted to make a positive impact on every single
person that I cased path with. And every year, like
I picked a different word my year, my word for
balance and really with all the different things that on
my plate, being able to balance it and not I
mean you're juggling all the time, but trying to find
(18:04):
a consistent balance to be able to succeed in all
the different areas and I'm married, so to be able
to spend some time with my husband and try to
get as close as I can to the work life balance.
So I don't necessarily think that a question. I think
it's more of one of those things that you're diving
down this path, you know, really being being an alignment
(18:27):
with your purpose and and figuring out what are the
things that that gives you purpose. And you know, definitely
I feel like the thing that give it purpose also
aligned with something that we're passionate about, so that help
purpose and passion, you know, help can't help with leading
to success. You're speaking our language of cynical women. Absolutely,
(18:50):
that's stuff. That's that's definitely what we're about. And I'm
gonna thank you so much for spending the time with
me today. Really enjoyed the conversation. Sation. Would hopefully I'll
get a chance to meet you in person one day
and maybe over a cup of tea, which would be great.
I would love that. I love that come to Indianapolis.
We'll have some tea from tes amazing the great to
(19:16):
make it catchins definitely knows how to pivot and to
do it with purpose. Here are three things I took
from that conversation. First, there are many ways to look
at a business to make it looks at hers is
a way to make a positive impact on her Indianapolis community.
(19:36):
She's made Tease Me Cafe into a local hub, a
gathering place, a space for events as well as a
training ground for young people. Second, to make a learn
from her basketball days. The team works a path to success.
Build the right team, she says, Surround yourself with the
(19:57):
right people and communicate your big A vision to them. Finally,
always be ready to make the pivot. The pandemic forced
Tamika to rethink her business. It went from being one
that relied on in person business to mainly online operation
and that's been good. As she says, now the business
(20:19):
gets orders even when the staff is sleeping. Made by
Women is brought to you by the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner
PNG
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