73: Growing a Loyal Customer Base and Thriving in Tough Markets: Proven Strategies for Entrepreneurs
January 27, 2025 • 48 mins
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What if your biggest struggles—like near bankruptcy or seasonal slumps—were the keys to building a thriving local empire? This episode reveals how to turn setbacks into stepping stones for success.
Imagine starting your business at a bustling flea market and growing it into a thriving local tea brand. That’s the inspiring journey of Scented Leaf Tea House founder Shane Barella in Tucson, Arizona. In this episode, we dive deep into actionable strategies for entrepreneurs looking to overcome challenges like near bankruptcy, seasonal slowdowns, and finding the perfect location. Shane shares insights on customer loyalty, creating a purpose-driven business, and standing out in competitive markets like college towns.
This episode is brought to you by Restaurant Technologies, the trusted partner for helping restaurant operators streamline efficiency and focus on what matters most: growing their business. Learn more at https://go.rti-inc.com/RestaurantLeadershipPodcast
We also discover how Shane built a loyal customer base by prioritizing authentic human connections and how his strategic planning led to securing prime locations, boosting foot traffic, and increasing profitability. From lessons learned in The Alchemist to fostering a unique company culture, Shane provides invaluable tips for growing a sustainable brick-and-mortar business.
Chapters:
00:00:08 - From Flea Market to Tea Empire
00:13:14 - Navigating Challenges in Business Growth
00:20:32 - Summer Business Strategy and Customer Connection
00:28:18 - Cultivating Company Culture and Expansion
00:36:05 - Navigating Business Growth and Leadership
00:43:54 - Building a Purpose-Driven Business
Whether you're navigating the challenges of running a small business or dreaming of launching your own local empire, this episode is packed with practical advice and inspiration. Tune in to learn how to lead with purpose, build community connections, and create a business that thrives in even the toughest markets.
Resources:
The Alchemist
Scented Leaf Tea House
#totaloilmanagement #restauranttechnologies #localbusiness
P.S. Ready to take your restaurant to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can support you:
- One-on-One Coaching - Work directly with me to tackle your biggest leadership challenges and scale your operations with confidence. Learn more at christinmarvin.com
- Multi-Unit Mastery Book - Get the complete Independent Restaurant Framework that's helped countless owners build thriving multi-location brands. Grab your copy at https://www.IRFbook.com
- Group Coaching & Leadership Workshops - Join other passionate restaurant leaders in transformative group sessions designed to elevate your entire team. Details at christinmarvin.com
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I'm excited to introduce you today to Shane
Barilla, who owns three ScentedLeaf tea houses in Tucson,
arizona.
Scented Leaf is a beautiful teahouse, very fun, energetic,
bright, community-focused,playful space full of just
healthy tea, nutritious energyand just an amazing staff and
(00:31):
culture.
So I've had the pleasure to getto know Shane over the last
couple of years and reallyexcited to share his story with
you today.
Shane is going to talk aboutthree main issues today.
He's going to talk about hisbusiness starting out at the
flea market and how he made thatjump from flea market to brick
and mortar and some of thechallenges that he went around
in order to become successful onthe verge of bankruptcy, which
(00:54):
is super important to understandand important to his story.
He's going to talk about whyit's important and the lessons
that he's learned aroundspending money based on strategy
of your business and notimpulse when you see those
dollars spiking and you see thebusiness doing well, why it's
important to not immediatelyspend money then and to hang on
(01:14):
to it for some of those slowermonths.
And finally, he's going to talkabout his core values and how
he has started this businessbased off his core values and
how that has really translatedover to the staff and who he
hires and the characteristics ofthe people that he's looking
for and how that has broughtsuccess to his culture and
(01:38):
building his team and being ableto expand his concepts.
And we're also going to talkabout his insecurity, which is
kind of like his superpower andfear of not being good enough,
not being a good enough boss andnot being good enough in this
competitive world to run areally successful business, and
how that drives him toconstantly be looking for ways
(01:58):
to improve and to grow hisempire.
I hope you enjoy this episodeand to grow his empire.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Welcome to the RestaurantLeadership Podcast, the show
where restaurant leaders learntools, tactics and habits from
the world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, kristen Marvin,with Solutions by Kristen.
(02:22):
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businessesthrough powerful one-on-one
coaching, group coaching andleadership workshops.
This show is complete withepisodes around coaching,
leadership development andinterviews with powerful
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(02:42):
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Simply click the link at thetop of the show notes and I will
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Thanks so much for listeningand I look forward to connecting
, and I look forward toconnecting.
(03:06):
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(04:55):
Shane, thank you so much forbeing here today.
Can't wait to share your storywith the listeners.
Since I've known you the lastcouple of years, you have just
had the most wild success withScented Leaf, and your little
empire is growing, so thank youso much for being here today.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, thanks, I appreciate being here.
This is great Awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Would you start off by telling the listener where
this concept came from, becauseit's a pretty special story.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it's really random.
I think that's the main word israndom.
I start off I graduatedUniversity of Arizona, did a
marketing degree and afterwardsI really didn't have any desire
to work for a big company nocorporation and I was kind of
just wandering around trying tofigure out what to do.
So I worked as a restaurantserver and was a bartender and
did all that kind of fun stuffin the restaurant business and
(05:47):
it took me a couple of years tokind of say, all right, I need
to kind of figure some stuff out.
So I got into insurance atfirst because the market was
really booming in real estateand my brother was a loan
officer and I had a friend, alot of friends that are realtors
and I decided to kind of jointhe team.
After a year of doing that itdidn't really work out.
(06:08):
It was not my cup of tea, so tospeak.
But what happened after thatfirst year of doing insurance?
I realized I really need to bein front of people.
I really wanted to be kind ofin a face-to-face situation with
people because it just feltmore my style.
So I started looking around,thinking about what I can get
myself into and I came across acompany that was going out of
(06:29):
business.
The guy wanted to move back homeand it was, out of all places,
an outdoor shopping center.
Here in tucson.
People call it the flea market,a swap meet, and I was never a
fan of that style.
I grew up kind of going, myparents being, you know, dragged
along the way to kind of checkout stuff and they would always
find knickknacks and I wouldalways just have a hard time
being there and all of a suddenfast forward.
(06:50):
I'm an adult and I'm looking atthis place going.
I think I can make something ofthis.
This guy had a really cool setup.
It was actually a foundationfloor.
It didn't have a makeshiftthing like a lot of people think
of.
It actually had a building, ithad a garage opener, it had
walls, it had some kind of airconditioning, it was marked as
swamp, cooler, and I was like,okay, this is actually not too
(07:11):
crazy.
But the problem is I didn't knowanything about cologne and
perfume.
That's where the guy sold.
He had a perfume business and Isaid, okay, let's do this, but
I really need help.
So my girlfriend now my wifeshe I love perfume and cologne
and I would love to help you outand we just started dating,
which is kind of crazy.
She was willing to do this withme and I was like, all right,
you want to help me out, let'sdo this.
(07:31):
So we started this perfumebusiness, did that for five
years.
We were out there every singleweekend in crazy circumstances
and weather and people andreally kind of honed in our
skills about like custom serviceand working with people that
are different um you know,demographics and um different um
(07:52):
approaches.
And once we got through the fiveyears the market was changing.
It wasn't as good as it used tobe.
I was actually in a pretty goodsituation in the first five
years but politics kind ofhappened in the state of Arizona
.
Things started happening inTucson where people started
boycotting the area and Arizonaas a whole because of the
politics at the time.
There was immigration stuffthat was happening.
(08:13):
So we started noticing ourcompany starting to have a hard
time and I really didn't want tohave my namesake to be on a
swap meet business.
I thought it was great, but Iwanted to do something more.
So I said, okay, I'm ready forthe next level and when market
was getting really bad for usand we lost all our money.
We were looking at a situationwhere like, well, my God, we
(08:34):
need to find something else tosell or do, otherwise I'm going
to go bankrupt.
And I read a book along the waythat someone gave me.
I don't remember who gave methis book, but someone along the
way gave me this book that wascalled the Alchemist.
I always tell people theyshould check it out, read it.
It's a famous book, it's beenaround forever and it's just a
story about someone who goesafter their dream and along the
(08:55):
way, things don't work out asthey planned and they end up
having to start from scratch.
And I just started thinkingabout this.
I need to start from scratch, Ineed to start with something
new and, luckily, when I was onmy trip to Spain on an early
honeymoon with me and my wife,we decided to go, even though we
had no money and also a weekbefore we found out she was
(09:16):
pregnant.
A lot of crazy stuff happenedalong the way where we shouldn't
have gone, but we kept gettingpulled to really make this
journey happen and we promisedourselves we're going to go.
So we went, found this littleshop out of nowhere in Granada,
spain, after I proposed to mywife and I found this you know
place that was just kind ofcalling my name.
(09:37):
It was selling loose leaf teain a little tiny little shop.
It had really nothing going forit.
It was tiny, it was like 10feet by 10 feet, nestled into a
wall off of a cathedral.
We were not supposed to find itit was really not a place that
people had been shopped, but itkind of pulled us in with the
aromas and the smells of the teaand the herbs and we saw it and
we came across it and we said,oh my gosh, I think there's
(09:59):
something here.
I think this is what thealchemist is telling me If you
listen to the signs, it'll giveyou what you need and God will
deliver and you just have to beready to take it on.
So the light bulb went off.
I said, oh my gosh, I thinkthis is it.
I don't really know much abouttea, but I love tea and I didn't
realize that tea was loose leaf.
I was always used to it beingin a teabag form.
(10:20):
So when I found out the wholeworld is drinking a better
quality tea, I saw there is aneed for that in the United
States and in Tucson, becausethere was nothing like that.
Ironically, teavana was acompany that was growing at this
time but I didn't even knowabout it, so we kind of opened
up around the same time inTucson.
But it basically became a thing.
(10:41):
Like I added, we had anotherperfume store by the University
of Arizona along this journey offive years and everything was
falling apart no money in theswap meet, no money in the
university.
So we basically added tea toone side of the store and
perfume samples in the other andpeople started coming in and
buying the tea more and more andmore and liked it.
(11:02):
And it was a very smallselection that we came up with
and had blended up for us.
And all of a sudden I felt likeit was the right thing and I
said here it is, let's focus onthis.
Closed down the perfume side ofthings went down the street, got
a better location that wereally were fortunate to get.
Another business went out ofbusiness.
We got in and got the lease andno money to start off with
(11:23):
literally 200 bucks to my name.
We started from scratch, builtup a place, didn't have any
money for construction, but wesomehow, two minutes behind
schedule, two months behindschedule, we were finally able
to open up and it took us a yearor two before we actually kind
of figured how to even do itmake tea.
I literally opened up the storewithout even knowing how to make
tea, which is the crazy, crazypart.
But we learned and we gotbetter and along the way, we
(11:46):
started getting people coming inand liking us, our style and
our environment, and I hired alot of young, energetic people
who had a lot of personality andthey brought in, you know,
people and people just enjoyedit and over the years, we
started adding different things,like teas on tap and just
making drinks that were uniqueand different.
And then, you know, now we'reat it, opened up in 2012.
(12:13):
So now we're at 14 years nowand we have our few locations
going on four and hopefully fiveby the end of next year.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Shane, it's.
It's such a cool story.
There's so much to unpack andwhat you just said.
Thank you for sharing all that,by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, no problem, there's a short version like
that and there's a long version,totally.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Hey there, podcast friends.
I hope you're enjoying theseimpactful conversations and
leadership insights I'm bringingyou each week.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor.
That would go a long way insupporting the show.
If you've been loving thecontent I'm providing, please
(12:47):
take a moment to leave a ratingand review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcasts.
Not only does it make my day,but it also plays a pivotal role
in helping the show grow.
Your reviews boost myvisibility, attract new
listeners and encourage excitingguests to join me on the mic.
So if you want to be part of myshow's growth journey, hit that
(13:07):
review button and let me knowwhat you think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I've said the story so many times in the years.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, I mean you took such a huge risk.
I mean, you said you were onthe you know crux of bankruptcy.
Both the flea market locationand the shop, your brick and
mortar, weren't doing well andyou just decided to listen to
this book, the Alchemist, andI'll put that in the show notes
for everybody.
But you let that just pull youand took a huge leap of faith to
(13:39):
take this risk and say, okay,we're just going to go all in
here.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, that's basically what it was.
Honestly, it was survival, itwas desperation and it was uh, I
didn't have anything to fallback on.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I was, uh, I was in a situation, yeah, and you had
growing your family at the sametime.
Wow, incredible.
Such courage and bravery you,yeah there's.
I've had so many conversationswith people in Tucson because
the markets are such a great wayto do business in this town
right, they're all year round.
They draw crowds of people.
There's collaboration, there'smarketing right, it's easy to
(14:16):
set up a stand and know thatpeople are going to come to you.
But what people have a hardtime getting out of, I've seen,
is how do I make the jumpbetween the market to the brick
and mortar?
Yeah, what advice would yougive people, looking back on
your experiences, on how to bestdo that?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean, I think it's one of those things where you
have to have some things fallinto place.
There's a little bit of luck,there's a little bit of a
scenario where you feel likethis could be the market, this
could be the spot.
I feel like location is such animportant thing that people
talk about forever.
You know, location, location,location.
To get into a spot that atleast you have that part, then
(14:58):
you have the ability to get seen.
And I was in a spot before thatwasn't very noticeable.
We were down the street, eventhough it was on University
Boulevard, I thought it wasgreat.
But on University and Euclid,which is the street for people
who know that area, is furtherdown the main boulevard and
people really didn't go past acertain point and we realized
(15:19):
that this is a good location butit's not great and it and it
was hard to pull off.
So I would I would say that whatchanged for us was when we were
able to be seen and be able tohave a presence and people were
able to actually walk into ourstore.
So I know what it's like onboth sides to have.
You know the visibility issue.
So I would say you know peopletry to find an area that you
(15:40):
know people are going to be ableto see you in, a market that
you know knows that product.
Sometimes people open upsomething and it's just so
difficult for people to grasp.
I saw this a lot at the swapmeet and people would open up
and they would bring in some oftheir cultural items and they
would come from another countryand they would sell it and the
(16:00):
people would have a hard timebuying it because they just
didn't have, they didn't knowhow to grasp the idea of it,
even though it's beautifuljewelry or beautiful this, and
that it was still something thatwas hard for people to grasp.
So I always wanted to make sureI chose a product that was, you
know, something that couldstand the test of time,
something that I knew there wasa need and demand for.
(16:20):
And when I came across tea, Isaid it checks everything off
for me.
It allows me to be in front ofpeople, it allows me to be a
social person and it also issomething that people consume on
a regular basis.
Even though coffee is numberone in the United States, coffee
is number one on the hot side,but on the iced side, tea is
number one.
So when I learned that factthat I do, that I enjoy tea and
(16:44):
everyone around me was drinkingtea at restaurants that I worked
at Everyone I worked, you know,in a restaurant job you always
have people come in and you cansee what people are consuming,
and I saw people drinking lessand less sodas and there's
obviously people drinkingalcohol, so wine and beer but
tea was like kind of the go-to.
There's obviously peopledrinking alcohol, so wine and
beer, but tea was like kind ofthe go-to.
It was safe, it was easy anddidn't keep people up all night.
So I was like this is checkingall the boxes, so going back to
(17:06):
that, find a location, find aproduct that people actually
would like to have in their lifeand then make sure you have the
service.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know so much about location with just your
expansion opportunities and youryears in real estate too right,
and now being in this business.
But it's crazy, I think youlook at for those people that
don't know, Tucson UniversityBoulevard is perpendicular to
the campus.
You literally walk off ofcampus and you step onto
(17:34):
University Boulevard and there'sthis row of bars and retail
shops and restaurants and I youknow, I think if anybody looks
at that little two block streetright there, they're like this
is a great location.
There's, there's buzz, it'svery walkable.
The little train goes throughthere right, the rail, car,
whatever we call it, but it'sthe nuances to where you are on
(17:58):
that street is so, so importantand I think it's really
interesting.
You know, again, your approachof like finding a spot and then
understanding what the need wasin that area, versus saying I've
got a concept, I'm just goingto go find a location, because
that's what a lot of people dosometimes.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
That's really tough and I understand that University
Boulevard is a great location,but I also want to emphasize
that there has been a lot ofbusinesses on University
Boulevard that have gone out ofbusiness.
There is a challenge that youhave to overcome, which is the
downtimes.
You have a downtime in the endof December when students are
(18:36):
gone.
You have to figure it out.
It's tough and you lose oncertain months.
You just don't have a wayaround it.
There's nothing that's going tohelp you out, to help out your
bottom line.
In June and July You're going tobe in a situation there Luckily
for us, we've been in businesslong enough that we have people
who know about us in thesummertime to continue to
(18:57):
increase those sales so thatevery year the summer is not as
big of a burden.
But it's challenging for peopleto be in a situation where you
have a market that goes up andthen down and it really is a
market that goes straight up andthen straight down.
So the location is great for alot of reasons, but it's also
challenging for a lot of reasons.
You live and breathe with thestudents and if you don't cater
(19:22):
to the students and this couldbe for anyone's market, you know
, if you don't cater to thatarea, to that demographic that
you're selling to, then itdoesn't really matter what you
do, you're going to have a hardtime making it.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, how did you manage?
I mean, it's such a great point.
How did you manage thatdowntime and survive those first
couple of years?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You know scheduling is.
The best thing you can do is tolook at it as all right.
I need to reduce my costs asmuch as possible.
That was really.
The only thing you can reallychange was how many people were
working at one time, and wewould just kind of keep it lean
and mean.
Fortunately we had a lot ofstudents that would leave during
(20:04):
the summertime as well, becausethey would go back home.
So it allowed us to say, okay,we just lost 70% of our labor
force.
Now, this was going to keep the30% who are basically Tucson
bound to have a job during thesummertime.
So I would just say that it wasthe only way we can pull it off
.
There's nothing you can do with.
(20:25):
You know.
You can try to, you know, tweakyour electric bill by not
having it be so cold in thereand keeping the door closed.
But you know, bottom line is,the more you kind of restrict
comfort, the more you're goingto have a hard time getting
people to be back in there andenjoy it.
So you kind of have to bite thebullet and you kind of have to
make enough money in the othertimes to be able to kind of keep
(20:47):
that momentum going enough sothat it gets you to August and
then, once you get into middleof August, then it's OK and it's
similar to people who are in acold environment.
If someone is up in Flagstaff,for instance, during the
wintertime, yeah, they have theuniversity there.
So maybe they're not the bestexample, but let's just say a
cold environment that doesn'thave a university, people are
going to not go out as muchduring the wintertime and maybe
(21:09):
it's blizzards.
In Colorado, maybe there'ssomething crazy in Montana.
You're going to have downtimesand every market has those peaks
and valleys throughout the year.
The other location we gotrecently on Tanque Verde on the
east side has been the opposite.
It's been able to kind of staysteady all the way through.
So it's really making us think.
Like you know, we've got tohave these other type of
(21:30):
locations.
That balances out the act sothat during the summertime it
kind of fills in those losses.
Yeah, the summertime it kind offills in those losses.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So that's been a great change for us.
Yeah, I mean, like you said,every business is seasonal in
every single market, right?
And it's about understandingthose trends and planning for
them and when you make thatmoney, make sure you're putting
that money in the bank andsaving it for a rainy day, I
mean the summertime.
Just being here for the lastcouple of summers, there's a
really great opportunity forevery business owner to connect
(22:00):
with those people that arecoming in in the summertime,
because those are your regulars,those are your locals, right,
those are the people that aresupporting your business during
the off time.
So really great opportunity tobuild stronger connections with
them during the downtime.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Absolutely.
That's huge for us.
Regulars are everything for us.
I mean, when we first started,I mean my whole thing when I
told my staff we had a staff oftwo, two girls from the perfume
store came over and started thiswhole tea thing with me, I was
like I didn't have any otheremployees, I couldn't afford
another employee, and I justsaid, guys, it's the same thing
as sound perfume.
You know, we have a spiel thatwe basically do, which is we
(22:36):
greet people when they walk in.
We have a little of this andthat we give them the
information we need to give them.
We make sure that they have ahandheld throughout the entire
journey.
And that was what I did at theswap meet and that's what I did
as a server before that.
You know, there's a system thatyou follow and it works every
time.
You know, in the restaurantworld, you tell people what the
(22:56):
specials and you kind of get youknow talking about this and
that and they get excited andthey buy stuff.
Same thing with the perfumebusiness.
We kind of did the same thing.
Now, the tea thing was my babyand I said, okay, guys, we got
to make this thing work.
So everyone has to have theability to have a conversation
with someone who walks in.
So people who are shy can'twork here.
People who are have a hard timecommunicating with humanity and
(23:21):
not be really fun and open andboisterous can't work here.
Yet we need to keep this reallyactive and lively, because
everything for us was likekeeping every single customer,
because I knew I had Starbucksaround the corner, I had Dunkin'
Donuts around the corner and Iknew the only way we were going
to be able to survive is theyloved us.
They loved us personally andthey loved the product as well,
but the product was secondary inmy opinion.
(23:43):
They come in there because a lotof places don't give people the
welcoming that people feel likethey really need to have so
they would come back and feelcomfortable.
So many places you walk intoand they don't say hi to you,
they don't acknowledge you.
You go to the menu and theyjust say whenever you're ready,
we're ready for your order.
There's no help, there's nodialogue, there's no, nothing
(24:03):
back and forth, whereas ourplace they're confused, they
didn't know what was going on.
It was actually one of our bestthings was the fact that they
were confused, because itallowed us to break through this
situation of them beinguncomfortable and allowed us to
go hey, I'm here for you, let'stalk, don't worry about how
crazy it is, I'm going to breakit down.
And in that process, peoplestarted going oh, I feel like
(24:26):
you're helping me.
I feel like you're actually anally, a friend.
I'm going to come back and yourname is Shane Okay, great, my
name is John.
And then we had this thinghappen.
So then, during the summertime,where else?
It's like a place that theyknow they're going to go to, a
place that they feel mostcomfortable, and that's what
Scented Leaf has always beenable to do.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And there's a common thread there that is not only,
you know, extending itselfthrough the guest experience and
the customers, but also throughyour staff and through the
environment.
I mean, you talked earlierabout when you first walked into
that tea shop in Spain and gothit with all those aromas.
That's one of my favorite partsof walking into any scented
(25:05):
leaf, because it just smellslike something I've never
smelled before.
It makes you happy.
It's like it's bright, it'sfresh, it's um, it's, it's just
this like beautiful combination,um, and it's not like, it's not
overwhelming.
You know, it's not like aperfume store where you're
worried if you're going to smelllike that when you walk out,
right, but there's, you've gotall these plants and there's
this like beautiful green, youknow green velvet furniture, the
(25:31):
wood textures.
There's a lot of intentionalityaround creating that experience
in every aspect of what youguys do.
And you've got this amazingmenu with a hundred plus teas,
you know, right there on displayfor people, and so it's easy
for them to kind of walk inimmediately, you know, be in awe
of like, oh my God, what isthis?
And then have your staff jumpright in and offer that, you
know, helping hand, which isgreat, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, it worked for us in terms of the complexity of
it Cause right, but bottom lineis, it's no matter what you're
selling.
You know, it's a pretty basicthing to get someone to find
someone that they like and it'sjust asking a couple of
questions.
And I think that was the thingthat people who work for me they
(26:14):
had a hard time with.
But once they got to that levelof talking to someone and
asking questions, it reallyopened up their personality and
it really gave them confidence.
And I'm always amazed whenpeople come through the center
leaf, who started off in acertain way, that was, you know,
maybe just a little more likekind of narrow thinking.
Maybe they stuck with their ownflock.
I had a lot of sorority girlsthat worked for me and they
(26:35):
would just kind of be you know asorority girls that worked for
me and they would just kind ofbe, you know, a sorority type
person and focus on their Greekfamily.
And then also now they'reworking with people who are
different.
You know they're havingcustomers that were different
and they had to force themselvesto get in front of other people
and talk to them and all of asudden they would come back and
say, oh my gosh, I this is firstof all, this person I hear I
(26:55):
love, this is my new best friendand this is a lifelong friend
here.
This is something that's amazing, that just happened here.
But their ability tocommunicate really changed and
their ability to, when they left, send to leave, to go into
another job and do an interview,for instance.
They flew through it becausethere was just so much of that
back-and-forth dialogue thatpeople want to be involved with.
(27:16):
When you hire someone, you wantthat person to have that
personality so that you knowthey can talk to coworkers and
and to the bosses and tocustomers, and I think that
constant making sure youactually interact with human
beings and ask them how they'redoing and you know it's a
challenge after all these yearsof so many employees to keep
that going, but that's really myfocus is to make sure people
(27:39):
have that ability.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I love that.
Hi everybody, we're taking aquick break to offer you an
exciting opportunity.
If you're a restaurant owner ormanager looking to enhance your
leadership skills, I invite youto join my 12-day leadership
challenge.
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(28:04):
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Slash 12 days.
Now let's get back to the show.
Yesterday, when we were meeting, one thing that really struck
me was the conversation that wehad around a couple of the
(28:27):
employees asking you to do somestudent projects, write a paper
on you or interview you for yourbackground on your business and
why you've been successful andcoming up to the new regional
when've been successful and, youknow, coming up to the new
regional when they saw her andgiving her hugs.
There.
There's this really awesomeculture that you've built at
scented leaf.
Will you talk a little bitabout your approach to that and
(28:48):
how you've built that culture?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I really wanted.
I have this.
I have this I have always had afear of am I good enough as a
boss?
Am I good enough as a company?
Am I good enough to competewith bigger players?
And in that insecurity you knowmy kind of personality of
(29:16):
pleasing people comes out andmaking sure that everyone is
happy.
It's like when you have a partyand people come over, you want
to make sure everyone had a goodtime.
When I was younger, I used to goand you know me and my friends
were social.
We would have parties, peoplecome over and I was always the
one that was most concernedabout how we came across, how we
looked.
You know, guys, we're good, wehave drinks, we Are, we are
(29:37):
everyone happy, and I think thatwas part of the way the culture
built up was I was alwaysmaking sure that I was able to
talk to them in a regular humanto human way, not like a boss,
to an employee, more like I wasable to be kind of, just maybe
like the older brother at onepoint older brother now, now the
(30:00):
dad because of the agedifference that keeps growing
but it's been one of thosethings where I felt like I was
able to communicate with them ona level that was not so formal
and not so rough.
It was just very.
I wanted them to be comfortablearound me and I think in doing
that getting them to interactwith me as a friend, almost it
(30:25):
allowed them to be morecomfortable and allowed them to
enjoy their job and then spreadthe way they felt to other
employees that would come intothe picture we would have.
Another thing that I did a lotwas I had a lot of events where
I would take them out.
We would go to the bars, we'dgo to the restaurants, we'd go
do something social.
(30:46):
We'd have some kind ofChristmas party, end of the
semester party.
We still do this to this day.
We've had three or four partiesthis year and we're going to
probably have one more forChristmas parties this year and
we're going to probably have onemore for Christmas.
So getting them to becomfortable with you and
everyone, to get along with eachother, choosing personalities
(31:14):
that are unique and differentbut not combative and not
challenging, is another thing.
Hiring at the very beginning isprobably the most important
thing of making sure is this afit for this entire community,
because when you have a fit, itall works.
When you don't have a fit,drama happens.
People start not liking to work.
I don't want to work with thisguy.
(31:34):
I don't want to work with her.
We fight all the time and thatreally changes everything.
So, being able to go, you'redifferent, you're unique, but
you have a lot of things thatare going to be easy to work
with and you're not going to becoming in here and spewing a
harsh personality issue of, likehow you feel about something.
No politics, no stuff that islike really sensitive.
(31:59):
We don't have thoseconversations.
We keep it fun and I want themto feel like they can go to me
and talk to me about anything,and I want to be able to talk to
them Like I'm not their bossand feeling like I don't want
them to feel intimidated.
So, with that whole kind ofthing I just said, it creates a
culture of people would justfeel in themselves, comfortable
in their own skin there, and Ilet them wear what they want to
(32:20):
wear too.
That's the other thing that'sinteresting.
We don't have uniforms.
Um, sometimes it's gotten alittle bit weird, but we kind of
have to like understand that's,that is what it is, and that we
have to let people bethemselves to a certain extent
of like, making sure it's notdiscriminating against people
and nothing you know vulgar oror too revealing.
You'd be surprised what I'vehad to go through with letting
(32:42):
people wear their own clothes,but it's allowed them to be once
again themselves and that'shuge.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, how do you know , because you do correct me if
I'm wrong.
But do you do all the hiringstill for all the locations?
Not anymore, I used to.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I would say that changed probably a year ago.
I really started going.
I can't keep doing this.
This is not helping my managersand I think a lot of it was,
you know, talking to you in thepast and other people in the
past about you know that's greatthat you're good at that, but
we really need to move on fromthat because you can't always be
the person hiring and, yeah, Imean I feel like that was my
(33:22):
forte but I was able to kind ofcreate a culture that the
managers go.
We know what Shane likes here.
We want to make sure we havethat Because you know it's funny
, because they have mademistakes.
My managers have made mistakeswhen they hire people and they
went against the norm.
They kind of chose someone thatwasn't fitting that criteria
and it bit them, you know,really hard they had to deal
with firing people, they had todeal with letting people go and
(33:44):
that's not fun.
So they really try to keep it,you know, to the way that.
You know we've always hiredwhich is just really fun people
who are extroverted, who have anability to love humanity and
they're not pessimistic andthey're not.
You know people who are sassyand you know people who are, you
(34:05):
know, maybe I always use theword hipster.
I feel bad.
Thank God hipster is not aprotected class, because hipster
to me is like people who it'snot cool to be cool to people,
nice people, because that's toomainstream.
I don't want people who aretrying to be too cool, to be
cool, too cool for school, right, like I don't want those people
(34:27):
.
I want people who are like yeah, I enjoy talking to someone, I
enjoy helping someone, I enjoybeing around people and if they
fit that, then they get in.
But if they don't and they showme any signs that they don't
like to be around people, then Isay no to them.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
What's been your biggest challenge with growing
and expanding your tea housefrom two to three locations?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
money has been a challenge, because you grow and
you make a little bit of moneybut then it goes right back into
business.
And being able to balance thatout and actually understand your
numbers to the point where youactually know what you can spend
and what you can't, I thinkit's been a thing that's been
challenging for me, because Ikind of see us being busy and I
see, you know, a better monththan the previous year, I see a
little extra money coming in andI say, okay, let's now do this
(35:24):
to add to the store, let's buythis for the store, let's add
more things, and it gets to apoint where it's not very
strategic.
It's more impulse and when youget into those impulse buys for
the business in the long runit's fine.
And when you get into thoseimpulse buys for the business in
the long run it's fine.
You know you needed that newthing, you needed to make things
better, but it's been.
I don't have any guardrails,and when you don't have
(35:49):
guardrails you can put yourselfin a situation and I think
that's been a challenge for me,especially now that I'm
expanding and I'm spending moneyon opening up new locations.
No-transcript, you can actuallyget a bank to help you out.
(36:11):
You can ask SBA for help andthen when that happens, things
open up and you can deal withthe idea of handling debt with
the fact that you know you havemoney coming in to handle that
debt and not feel so overwhelmed.
Otherwise, you take on a burden.
There's a good example when Ihad a situation where I needed
money one time for variousreasons.
(36:32):
There's a thing you can getwith your point of sale it's
called a capital from them andthey would give you like square,
square capital and they'll giveyou money and they'll go hey,
your business is doing this, sowe're going to give you this
amount, so $25,000.
You're like, oh great, well, Ineed the money.
So instead of kind of goingthrough the process of getting a
loan, you say yes to this andthen you have to pay this back
(36:56):
in a very short period of time.
They'll pull money out of eachdeposit that goes into your
account.
So you borrow 25,000.
The expectation is they getthat back in four to six months.
So when you do something likethat, you put yourself in this
situation where now yourcashflow gets literally stymied.
You have no ability to changethat and you're stuck with this
(37:16):
burden for three to six monthsand all of a sudden you're like
whoa, that was pretty intense,so making those mistakes when I
could have went to a bank or Icould have went to something
else, and said can I get afive-year term and make it so
it's not such a heavy toll?
That would have been good forme, but I just wanted to do
things on my own.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, good lessons to learn right.
Do things on my own yeah, goodlessons to learn right.
I mean, it's difficult whenyou're a solopreneur and you are
trying to manage everything andtrying to learn.
You know, manage the businessday to day and the marketing and
the HR component of it and the,the ordering and the.
You know the finances, andtrying to teach yourself the
numbers moving at the speed oflight Right and then having to
(37:55):
balance that out with taking thetime to slow down and be really
strategic.
It's very difficult to do.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It is.
I don't know if you're good atthat area.
The finance stuff was not myforte.
Accounting was not my forte.
Still not my forte, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I tend to find when I get stressed out about an area
of my business, it's because Ijust don't know enough and so I
have to stop and drill down.
Stop and like, drill down, andonce I get more information and
fully understand, then thathelps me calm my stress level
and make better businessdecisions for sure.
Yeah, that's where the strategycomes in, absolutely.
How have you been able todevelop yourself as a leader
running these multiple conceptssolo?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, I have my wife that gets to hear every crazy
idea under the sun.
I have my wife that gets tohear every crazy idea under the
sun and I play devil's advocateto myself a lot.
I tell a lot of my peoplearound me to be devil's advocate
to any idea that you have andbe critical of yourself first so
that you can beat yourself upenough to the point where you're
(38:55):
like okay, I've turned thisidea into something that
actually has a chance to makesense.
But hearing everyone's opinionhas been a good thing for me.
I have learned from mistakes ofhow I communicate with people.
I've had to deal with theunderstanding that I'm in a
(39:15):
different generation in terms ofcommunicating than a lot of
younger people, and I also hadto learn the hard truth that
text messaging does not comeacross the way you think it's
coming across.
So when you choose a lazierpath to communicate, it causes
ripple effects that you don'tforesee ripple effects that you
(39:43):
don't foresee.
And then you have to change andfix and basically put out the
fire as fast as possible becausewhat you thought went out isn't
what was received and I've lostsome personnel because of just
simple texting that came acrossthe wrong way.
So learning to really take astep back.
(40:03):
If you are going to do textingand craft it to the point where
you're like there's nothing lefthere besides this tone, this
tone is really coming across.
And if it's something that istoo sensitive to never text, to
always pick up the phone, makethat phone call, talk to someone
, let them hear your tone sothey know you're actually coming
(40:24):
across in a way that's notattacking or not defensive and,
better yet, have a face to face,which is the best.
So I learn from mistakes.
I learned from being stubbornwith oh there's no way that
they're going to have a problemwith this message or this way of
thinking, and you don't realizethat it comes across a
(40:46):
different way.
I've been living off this ideaof perception is reality and no
matter what I think or whatevera manager thinks, it doesn't
have any value unless theperceived value is what that is.
So if you say something andeveryone's like well, shane's a
(41:06):
jerk and I'm like I'm not a jerk, I didn't.
I'm not a jerk at all, buteveryone thinks I'm a jerk Guess
what?
I'm a jerk.
It doesn't matter.
If I don't think I'm a jerk, itdoesn't matter.
So that was a big one too.
Matter if I don't think I'm ajerk, it doesn't matter.
So that was a big one too.
And then just like knowing thatif I come across too aggressive
or I get frustrated or I lose mypatience, it doesn't do any
good for me, it doesn't do goodfor my company, it doesn't good
(41:28):
for my staff.
My kids are the ones that kindof, you know, still get me riled
up, but my staff won't.
They don't get me riled up.
They could break things, theycan make mistakes, they can
cause issues.
I won't get riled up.
I used to, but I learned thatit doesn't do anything for me,
it just makes it worse.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, A lot of emotional intelligence and
self-awareness in what you justsaid.
And communication is sodifficult because there's so
many forms and everyone isdifferent.
And you're right, Text is sucha dangerous way to communicate,
but it's so easy and um,efficient and convenient and
accessible to everyone thesedays.
(42:08):
But you can send a group textmessage out to your entire team
and every single person is goingto interpret it differently.
That's just.
That's just who we are as humanbeings.
So good for you for recognizingthat.
What's what's 2025 look likefor you?
Speaker 2 (42:23):
You know I thought I was gonna take a little bit of a
break from the crazy world of,you know, opening up new
locations.
But I already put myself intoanother situation where I'm
going to be opening up.
I already have a lease that'ssigned for a new location on
Broadway.
So that's in the works.
(42:43):
So I'll be opening up that inFebruary most likely, and that's
going to be a new endeavor forus, but we still have our
systems in place.
I feel confident we're going tobe able to get through it just
fine.
We have a new person that isgoing to be taken over, who has
been a great manager, who'sgoing to now be a regional
manager, so we're going to beable to conquer that one.
And then the bigger challengeis to continue that process of
(43:08):
opening up another locationagain at the end of the year.
So we have another locationwe're working on, so that'll put
us at five and then getting afeel for, like you know, I don't
want to chase.
I really don't want to chasemoney.
I really don't want to chasemoney.
I didn't think about money forthe first 10 years of my
business because there was nomoney.
I just didn't see any money.
(43:30):
It wasn't like any great storyof like, oh you know, shane's
making this money and he can nowdo all sorts of other things.
I just put so much money backin the business every year that
I just never was able toactually see much of it.
And past two years I was ableto kind of go oh, there's
actually a chance here that Ican grow and become able to do
(43:51):
more financial stuff for my lifeand my family.
But I don't want to like open upthese locations because it's
going to make me more money.
That's part of the enjoyment ofopening a business.
You have a fact of making moremoney because you have more
sales and net profit, all thatfun stuff.
But for me it's more like Ifeel like I'm at an age where I
started this.
The universe gave me thisopportunity.
(44:14):
I feel like a creative,something special, because
people around me have told methat feels really special for
them.
So I'm like, okay, this issomething great for a lot of
people and I want to continuethis thing that the universe
gave me an opportunity with andI want to see what I'm capable
of doing with it and see if Ican pull off you know the
unthinkable and compete with abigger market and be in all
(44:35):
places in Tucson and thenPhoenix and then other places to
see what I'm capable of.
So I'm more interested in theactual can I accomplish this big
goal of one person starting offin a perfume business, at a
Swami, and now has this empireof tea and people all around are
getting healthier and they havebetter place to hang out and
the community loves it and thestaff are just getting better
(44:57):
and better at what they do andthey feel empowered and they
love their co-workers.
So I want to just ride thiswave as long as I can and see
what my um abilities can take mewith help along the way by all
means, because that's what I'mlearning too is.
I need a lot of help along theway and I have more people than
I ever had before doingdifferent things and I'm finally
going yeah, shane, you're notgood at this, that's fine.
(45:19):
If you're not amazing at it,then you don't need to do it.
Simple Like if you're good atyou don't need to learn a year's
worth of accounting to be theaccounting person for your
company.
It means nothing.
You can have someone who's waybetter than you, who thinks,
breathes everything accounting.
Pay them a little bit of money.
They take that off your tableand you can focus on what you
(45:40):
really want to do, which is youknow help and communicate and be
a mentor to a lot of thesepeople who I hire.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, you're really good at micro outsourcing what
you need in order to continue to, to you know, achieve your
agenda.
I think you know you've you'vehighlighted so many important
lessons here, but I think thebiggest one that's really
sticking out in this episode forthe listeners here, hopefully
is you have started a businessthat really aligns with your
core values of wanting to bearound people and bring health
(46:12):
and something innovative and funto a community and challenge
yourself to do somethingdifferent.
A community and challengeyourself to do something
different.
And you've created anenvironment and a culture in
your company of the same andsurrounded yourself with people
that also align with your corevalues.
And when you do that, that'show you make business
sustainable, that's how you leadwith purpose every single day
(46:36):
and that's what helps you getthrough those really tough days
and weeks and months wherebusiness is down or you're
exhausted or you're goingthrough an opening when you can
come back to your purpose andyou know that you're living to
your core values.
That's where success andhappiness comes from.
So kudos to you for doing that.
(46:56):
That's incredible, thank you,yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Awesome.
Yeah, I've always said I wantto end my journey where people
said Shane was a good guy, hedidn't cheat people, he wasn't a
person that caused harm topeople.
He was someone that helped andwas giving people a better
circumstance when he was aroundthem.
So I just don't want to ever,especially in Tucson it's a
(47:22):
small town.
If you're a bad person inTucson, it travels fast and it's
not my DNA to be a bad person.
I just want to leave my journeysaying I was able to not have
enemies along the way because Iwas trying to be too cutthroat.
I just really want to be ableto stand on my two feet and be
very proud of what weaccomplished.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, you've accomplished a lot, so thank you so much for your
time again for being here.
That's going to do it for us.
Wrap it up this week Foranybody that's listening.
Please share this episode withanybody that you think could
benefit from this If they'restarting a business or trying to
figure out how to grow abusiness from a sustainable
perspective.
This is a great episode.
(48:03):
A lot of value here for any ofthe listeners.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Thank you.
I'm excited to introduce you today to Shane
Barilla, who owns three ScentedLeaf tea houses in Tucson,
arizona.
Scented Leaf is a beautiful teahouse, very fun, energetic,
bright, community-focused,playful space full of just
healthy tea, nutritious energyand just an amazing staff and
(00:31):
culture.
So I've had the pleasure to getto know Shane over the last
couple of years and reallyexcited to share his story with
you today.
Shane is going to talk aboutthree main issues today.
He's going to talk about hisbusiness starting out at the
flea market and how he made thatjump from flea market to brick
and mortar and some of thechallenges that he went around
in order to become successful onthe verge of bankruptcy, which
(00:54):
is super important to understandand important to his story.
He's going to talk about whyit's important and the lessons
that he's learned aroundspending money based on strategy
of your business and notimpulse when you see those
dollars spiking and you see thebusiness doing well, why it's
important to not immediatelyspend money then and to hang on
(01:14):
to it for some of those slowermonths.
And finally, he's going to talkabout his core values and how
he has started this businessbased off his core values and
how that has really translatedover to the staff and who he
hires and the characteristics ofthe people that he's looking
for and how that has broughtsuccess to his culture and
(01:38):
building his team and being ableto expand his concepts.
And we're also going to talkabout his insecurity, which is
kind of like his superpower andfear of not being good enough,
not being a good enough boss andnot being good enough in this
competitive world to run areally successful business, and
how that drives him toconstantly be looking for ways
(01:58):
to improve and to grow hisempire.
I hope you enjoy this episodeand to grow his empire.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Welcome to the RestaurantLeadership Podcast, the show
where restaurant leaders learntools, tactics and habits from
the world's greatest operators.
I'm your host, kristen Marvin,with Solutions by Kristen.
(02:22):
I've spent the last two decadesin the restaurant industry and
now partner with restaurantowners to develop their leaders
and scale their businessesthrough powerful one-on-one
coaching, group coaching andleadership workshops.
This show is complete withepisodes around coaching,
leadership development andinterviews with powerful
industry leaders.
(02:42):
You can now engage with me onthe show and share topics you'd
like to hear about leadership,lessons you want to learn and
any feedback you have.
Simply click the link at thetop of the show notes and I will
give you a shout out on afuture episode.
Thanks so much for listeningand I look forward to connecting
, and I look forward toconnecting.
(03:06):
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(04:55):
Shane, thank you so much forbeing here today.
Can't wait to share your storywith the listeners.
Since I've known you the lastcouple of years, you have just
had the most wild success withScented Leaf, and your little
empire is growing, so thank youso much for being here today.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, thanks, I appreciate being here.
This is great Awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Would you start off by telling the listener where
this concept came from, becauseit's a pretty special story.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, it's really random.
I think that's the main word israndom.
I start off I graduatedUniversity of Arizona, did a
marketing degree and afterwardsI really didn't have any desire
to work for a big company nocorporation and I was kind of
just wandering around trying tofigure out what to do.
So I worked as a restaurantserver and was a bartender and
did all that kind of fun stuffin the restaurant business and
(05:47):
it took me a couple of years tokind of say, all right, I need
to kind of figure some stuff out.
So I got into insurance atfirst because the market was
really booming in real estateand my brother was a loan
officer and I had a friend, alot of friends that are realtors
and I decided to kind of jointhe team.
After a year of doing that itdidn't really work out.
(06:08):
It was not my cup of tea, so tospeak.
But what happened after thatfirst year of doing insurance?
I realized I really need to bein front of people.
I really wanted to be kind ofin a face-to-face situation with
people because it just feltmore my style.
So I started looking around,thinking about what I can get
myself into and I came across acompany that was going out of
(06:29):
business.
The guy wanted to move back homeand it was, out of all places,
an outdoor shopping center.
Here in tucson.
People call it the flea market,a swap meet, and I was never a
fan of that style.
I grew up kind of going, myparents being, you know, dragged
along the way to kind of checkout stuff and they would always
find knickknacks and I wouldalways just have a hard time
being there and all of a suddenfast forward.
(06:50):
I'm an adult and I'm looking atthis place going.
I think I can make something ofthis.
This guy had a really cool setup.
It was actually a foundationfloor.
It didn't have a makeshiftthing like a lot of people think
of.
It actually had a building, ithad a garage opener, it had
walls, it had some kind of airconditioning, it was marked as
swamp, cooler, and I was like,okay, this is actually not too
(07:11):
crazy.
But the problem is I didn't knowanything about cologne and
perfume.
That's where the guy sold.
He had a perfume business and Isaid, okay, let's do this, but
I really need help.
So my girlfriend now my wifeshe I love perfume and cologne
and I would love to help you outand we just started dating,
which is kind of crazy.
She was willing to do this withme and I was like, all right,
you want to help me out, let'sdo this.
(07:31):
So we started this perfumebusiness, did that for five
years.
We were out there every singleweekend in crazy circumstances
and weather and people andreally kind of honed in our
skills about like custom serviceand working with people that
are different um you know,demographics and um different um
(07:52):
approaches.
And once we got through the fiveyears the market was changing.
It wasn't as good as it used tobe.
I was actually in a pretty goodsituation in the first five
years but politics kind ofhappened in the state of Arizona
.
Things started happening inTucson where people started
boycotting the area and Arizonaas a whole because of the
politics at the time.
There was immigration stuffthat was happening.
(08:13):
So we started noticing ourcompany starting to have a hard
time and I really didn't want tohave my namesake to be on a
swap meet business.
I thought it was great, but Iwanted to do something more.
So I said, okay, I'm ready forthe next level and when market
was getting really bad for usand we lost all our money.
We were looking at a situationwhere like, well, my God, we
(08:34):
need to find something else tosell or do, otherwise I'm going
to go bankrupt.
And I read a book along the waythat someone gave me.
I don't remember who gave methis book, but someone along the
way gave me this book that wascalled the Alchemist.
I always tell people theyshould check it out, read it.
It's a famous book, it's beenaround forever and it's just a
story about someone who goesafter their dream and along the
(08:55):
way, things don't work out asthey planned and they end up
having to start from scratch.
And I just started thinkingabout this.
I need to start from scratch, Ineed to start with something
new and, luckily, when I was onmy trip to Spain on an early
honeymoon with me and my wife,we decided to go, even though we
had no money and also a weekbefore we found out she was
(09:16):
pregnant.
A lot of crazy stuff happenedalong the way where we shouldn't
have gone, but we kept gettingpulled to really make this
journey happen and we promisedourselves we're going to go.
So we went, found this littleshop out of nowhere in Granada,
spain, after I proposed to mywife and I found this you know
place that was just kind ofcalling my name.
(09:37):
It was selling loose leaf teain a little tiny little shop.
It had really nothing going forit.
It was tiny, it was like 10feet by 10 feet, nestled into a
wall off of a cathedral.
We were not supposed to find itit was really not a place that
people had been shopped, but itkind of pulled us in with the
aromas and the smells of the teaand the herbs and we saw it and
we came across it and we said,oh my gosh, I think there's
(09:59):
something here.
I think this is what thealchemist is telling me If you
listen to the signs, it'll giveyou what you need and God will
deliver and you just have to beready to take it on.
So the light bulb went off.
I said, oh my gosh, I thinkthis is it.
I don't really know much abouttea, but I love tea and I didn't
realize that tea was loose leaf.
I was always used to it beingin a teabag form.
(10:20):
So when I found out the wholeworld is drinking a better
quality tea, I saw there is aneed for that in the United
States and in Tucson, becausethere was nothing like that.
Ironically, teavana was acompany that was growing at this
time but I didn't even knowabout it, so we kind of opened
up around the same time inTucson.
But it basically became a thing.
(10:41):
Like I added, we had anotherperfume store by the University
of Arizona along this journey offive years and everything was
falling apart no money in theswap meet, no money in the
university.
So we basically added tea toone side of the store and
perfume samples in the other andpeople started coming in and
buying the tea more and more andmore and liked it.
(11:02):
And it was a very smallselection that we came up with
and had blended up for us.
And all of a sudden I felt likeit was the right thing and I
said here it is, let's focus onthis.
Closed down the perfume side ofthings went down the street, got
a better location that wereally were fortunate to get.
Another business went out ofbusiness.
We got in and got the lease andno money to start off with
(11:23):
literally 200 bucks to my name.
We started from scratch, builtup a place, didn't have any
money for construction, but wesomehow, two minutes behind
schedule, two months behindschedule, we were finally able
to open up and it took us a yearor two before we actually kind
of figured how to even do itmake tea.
I literally opened up the storewithout even knowing how to make
tea, which is the crazy, crazypart.
But we learned and we gotbetter and along the way, we
(11:46):
started getting people coming inand liking us, our style and
our environment, and I hired alot of young, energetic people
who had a lot of personality andthey brought in, you know,
people and people just enjoyedit and over the years, we
started adding different things,like teas on tap and just
making drinks that were uniqueand different.
And then, you know, now we'reat it, opened up in 2012.
(12:13):
So now we're at 14 years nowand we have our few locations
going on four and hopefully fiveby the end of next year.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Shane, it's.
It's such a cool story.
There's so much to unpack andwhat you just said.
Thank you for sharing all that,by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, no problem, there's a short version like
that and there's a long version,totally.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Hey there, podcast friends.
I hope you're enjoying theseimpactful conversations and
leadership insights I'm bringingyou each week.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor.
That would go a long way insupporting the show.
If you've been loving thecontent I'm providing, please
(12:47):
take a moment to leave a ratingand review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcasts.
Not only does it make my day,but it also plays a pivotal role
in helping the show grow.
Your reviews boost myvisibility, attract new
listeners and encourage excitingguests to join me on the mic.
So if you want to be part of myshow's growth journey, hit that
(13:07):
review button and let me knowwhat you think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I've said the story so many times in the years.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, I mean you took such a huge risk.
I mean, you said you were onthe you know crux of bankruptcy.
Both the flea market locationand the shop, your brick and
mortar, weren't doing well andyou just decided to listen to
this book, the Alchemist, andI'll put that in the show notes
for everybody.
But you let that just pull youand took a huge leap of faith to
(13:39):
take this risk and say, okay,we're just going to go all in
here.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, that's basically what it was.
Honestly, it was survival, itwas desperation and it was uh, I
didn't have anything to fallback on.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I was, uh, I was in a situation, yeah, and you had
growing your family at the sametime.
Wow, incredible.
Such courage and bravery you,yeah there's.
I've had so many conversationswith people in Tucson because
the markets are such a great wayto do business in this town
right, they're all year round.
They draw crowds of people.
There's collaboration, there'smarketing right, it's easy to
(14:16):
set up a stand and know thatpeople are going to come to you.
But what people have a hardtime getting out of, I've seen,
is how do I make the jumpbetween the market to the brick
and mortar?
Yeah, what advice would yougive people, looking back on
your experiences, on how to bestdo that?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I mean, I think it's one of those things where you
have to have some things fallinto place.
There's a little bit of luck,there's a little bit of a
scenario where you feel likethis could be the market, this
could be the spot.
I feel like location is such animportant thing that people
talk about forever.
You know, location, location,location.
To get into a spot that atleast you have that part, then
(14:58):
you have the ability to get seen.
And I was in a spot before thatwasn't very noticeable.
We were down the street, eventhough it was on University
Boulevard, I thought it wasgreat.
But on University and Euclid,which is the street for people
who know that area, is furtherdown the main boulevard and
people really didn't go past acertain point and we realized
(15:19):
that this is a good location butit's not great and it and it
was hard to pull off.
So I would I would say that whatchanged for us was when we were
able to be seen and be able tohave a presence and people were
able to actually walk into ourstore.
So I know what it's like onboth sides to have.
You know the visibility issue.
So I would say you know peopletry to find an area that you
(15:40):
know people are going to be ableto see you in, a market that
you know knows that product.
Sometimes people open upsomething and it's just so
difficult for people to grasp.
I saw this a lot at the swapmeet and people would open up
and they would bring in some oftheir cultural items and they
would come from another countryand they would sell it and the
(16:00):
people would have a hard timebuying it because they just
didn't have, they didn't knowhow to grasp the idea of it,
even though it's beautifuljewelry or beautiful this, and
that it was still something thatwas hard for people to grasp.
So I always wanted to make sureI chose a product that was, you
know, something that couldstand the test of time,
something that I knew there wasa need and demand for.
(16:20):
And when I came across tea, Isaid it checks everything off
for me.
It allows me to be in front ofpeople, it allows me to be a
social person and it also issomething that people consume on
a regular basis.
Even though coffee is numberone in the United States, coffee
is number one on the hot side,but on the iced side, tea is
number one.
So when I learned that factthat I do, that I enjoy tea and
(16:44):
everyone around me was drinkingtea at restaurants that I worked
at Everyone I worked, you know,in a restaurant job you always
have people come in and you cansee what people are consuming,
and I saw people drinking lessand less sodas and there's
obviously people drinkingalcohol, so wine and beer but
tea was like kind of the go-to.
There's obviously peopledrinking alcohol, so wine and
beer, but tea was like kind ofthe go-to.
It was safe, it was easy anddidn't keep people up all night.
So I was like this is checkingall the boxes, so going back to
(17:06):
that, find a location, find aproduct that people actually
would like to have in their lifeand then make sure you have the
service.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know so much about location with just your
expansion opportunities and youryears in real estate too right,
and now being in this business.
But it's crazy, I think youlook at for those people that
don't know, Tucson UniversityBoulevard is perpendicular to
the campus.
You literally walk off ofcampus and you step onto
(17:34):
University Boulevard and there'sthis row of bars and retail
shops and restaurants and I youknow, I think if anybody looks
at that little two block streetright there, they're like this
is a great location.
There's, there's buzz, it'svery walkable.
The little train goes throughthere right, the rail, car,
whatever we call it, but it'sthe nuances to where you are on
(17:58):
that street is so, so importantand I think it's really
interesting.
You know, again, your approachof like finding a spot and then
understanding what the need wasin that area, versus saying I've
got a concept, I'm just goingto go find a location, because
that's what a lot of people dosometimes.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
That's really tough and I understand that University
Boulevard is a great location,but I also want to emphasize
that there has been a lot ofbusinesses on University
Boulevard that have gone out ofbusiness.
There is a challenge that youhave to overcome, which is the
downtimes.
You have a downtime in the endof December when students are
(18:36):
gone.
You have to figure it out.
It's tough and you lose oncertain months.
You just don't have a wayaround it.
There's nothing that's going tohelp you out, to help out your
bottom line.
In June and July You're going tobe in a situation there Luckily
for us, we've been in businesslong enough that we have people
who know about us in thesummertime to continue to
(18:57):
increase those sales so thatevery year the summer is not as
big of a burden.
But it's challenging for peopleto be in a situation where you
have a market that goes up andthen down and it really is a
market that goes straight up andthen straight down.
So the location is great for alot of reasons, but it's also
challenging for a lot of reasons.
You live and breathe with thestudents and if you don't cater
(19:22):
to the students and this couldbe for anyone's market, you know
, if you don't cater to thatarea, to that demographic that
you're selling to, then itdoesn't really matter what you
do, you're going to have a hardtime making it.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yeah, how did you manage?
I mean, it's such a great point.
How did you manage thatdowntime and survive those first
couple of years?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You know scheduling is.
The best thing you can do is tolook at it as all right.
I need to reduce my costs asmuch as possible.
That was really.
The only thing you can reallychange was how many people were
working at one time, and wewould just kind of keep it lean
and mean.
Fortunately we had a lot ofstudents that would leave during
(20:04):
the summertime as well, becausethey would go back home.
So it allowed us to say, okay,we just lost 70% of our labor
force.
Now, this was going to keep the30% who are basically Tucson
bound to have a job during thesummertime.
So I would just say that it wasthe only way we can pull it off
.
There's nothing you can do with.
(20:25):
You know.
You can try to, you know, tweakyour electric bill by not
having it be so cold in thereand keeping the door closed.
But you know, bottom line is,the more you kind of restrict
comfort, the more you're goingto have a hard time getting
people to be back in there andenjoy it.
So you kind of have to bite thebullet and you kind of have to
make enough money in the othertimes to be able to kind of keep
(20:47):
that momentum going enough sothat it gets you to August and
then, once you get into middleof August, then it's OK and it's
similar to people who are in acold environment.
If someone is up in Flagstaff,for instance, during the
wintertime, yeah, they have theuniversity there.
So maybe they're not the bestexample, but let's just say a
cold environment that doesn'thave a university, people are
going to not go out as muchduring the wintertime and maybe
(21:09):
it's blizzards.
In Colorado, maybe there'ssomething crazy in Montana.
You're going to have downtimesand every market has those peaks
and valleys throughout the year.
The other location we gotrecently on Tanque Verde on the
east side has been the opposite.
It's been able to kind of staysteady all the way through.
So it's really making us think.
Like you know, we've got tohave these other type of
(21:30):
locations.
That balances out the act sothat during the summertime it
kind of fills in those losses.
Yeah, the summertime it kind offills in those losses.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So that's been a great change for us.
Yeah, I mean, like you said,every business is seasonal in
every single market, right?
And it's about understandingthose trends and planning for
them and when you make thatmoney, make sure you're putting
that money in the bank andsaving it for a rainy day, I
mean the summertime.
Just being here for the lastcouple of summers, there's a
really great opportunity forevery business owner to connect
(22:00):
with those people that arecoming in in the summertime,
because those are your regulars,those are your locals, right,
those are the people that aresupporting your business during
the off time.
So really great opportunity tobuild stronger connections with
them during the downtime.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Absolutely.
That's huge for us.
Regulars are everything for us.
I mean, when we first started,I mean my whole thing when I
told my staff we had a staff oftwo, two girls from the perfume
store came over and started thiswhole tea thing with me, I was
like I didn't have any otheremployees, I couldn't afford
another employee, and I justsaid, guys, it's the same thing
as sound perfume.
You know, we have a spiel thatwe basically do, which is we
(22:36):
greet people when they walk in.
We have a little of this andthat we give them the
information we need to give them.
We make sure that they have ahandheld throughout the entire
journey.
And that was what I did at theswap meet and that's what I did
as a server before that.
You know, there's a system thatyou follow and it works every
time.
You know, in the restaurantworld, you tell people what the
(22:56):
specials and you kind of get youknow talking about this and
that and they get excited andthey buy stuff.
Same thing with the perfumebusiness.
We kind of did the same thing.
Now, the tea thing was my babyand I said, okay, guys, we got
to make this thing work.
So everyone has to have theability to have a conversation
with someone who walks in.
So people who are shy can'twork here.
People who are have a hard timecommunicating with humanity and
(23:21):
not be really fun and open andboisterous can't work here.
Yet we need to keep this reallyactive and lively, because
everything for us was likekeeping every single customer,
because I knew I had Starbucksaround the corner, I had Dunkin'
Donuts around the corner and Iknew the only way we were going
to be able to survive is theyloved us.
They loved us personally andthey loved the product as well,
but the product was secondary inmy opinion.
(23:43):
They come in there because a lotof places don't give people the
welcoming that people feel likethey really need to have so
they would come back and feelcomfortable.
So many places you walk intoand they don't say hi to you,
they don't acknowledge you.
You go to the menu and theyjust say whenever you're ready,
we're ready for your order.
There's no help, there's nodialogue, there's no, nothing
(24:03):
back and forth, whereas ourplace they're confused, they
didn't know what was going on.
It was actually one of our bestthings was the fact that they
were confused, because itallowed us to break through this
situation of them beinguncomfortable and allowed us to
go hey, I'm here for you, let'stalk, don't worry about how
crazy it is, I'm going to breakit down.
And in that process, peoplestarted going oh, I feel like
(24:26):
you're helping me.
I feel like you're actually anally, a friend.
I'm going to come back and yourname is Shane Okay, great, my
name is John.
And then we had this thinghappen.
So then, during the summertime,where else?
It's like a place that theyknow they're going to go to, a
place that they feel mostcomfortable, and that's what
Scented Leaf has always beenable to do.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And there's a common thread there that is not only,
you know, extending itselfthrough the guest experience and
the customers, but also throughyour staff and through the
environment.
I mean, you talked earlierabout when you first walked into
that tea shop in Spain and gothit with all those aromas.
That's one of my favorite partsof walking into any scented
(25:05):
leaf, because it just smellslike something I've never
smelled before.
It makes you happy.
It's like it's bright, it'sfresh, it's um, it's, it's just
this like beautiful combination,um, and it's not like, it's not
overwhelming.
You know, it's not like aperfume store where you're
worried if you're going to smelllike that when you walk out,
right, but there's, you've gotall these plants and there's
this like beautiful green, youknow green velvet furniture, the
(25:31):
wood textures.
There's a lot of intentionalityaround creating that experience
in every aspect of what youguys do.
And you've got this amazingmenu with a hundred plus teas,
you know, right there on displayfor people, and so it's easy
for them to kind of walk inimmediately, you know, be in awe
of like, oh my God, what isthis?
And then have your staff jumpright in and offer that, you
know, helping hand, which isgreat, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Yeah, it worked for us in terms of the complexity of
it Cause right, but bottom lineis, it's no matter what you're
selling.
You know, it's a pretty basicthing to get someone to find
someone that they like and it'sjust asking a couple of
questions.
And I think that was the thingthat people who work for me they
(26:14):
had a hard time with.
But once they got to that levelof talking to someone and
asking questions, it reallyopened up their personality and
it really gave them confidence.
And I'm always amazed whenpeople come through the center
leaf, who started off in acertain way, that was, you know,
maybe just a little more likekind of narrow thinking.
Maybe they stuck with their ownflock.
I had a lot of sorority girlsthat worked for me and they
(26:35):
would just kind of be you know asorority girls that worked for
me and they would just kind ofbe, you know, a sorority type
person and focus on their Greekfamily.
And then also now they'reworking with people who are
different.
You know they're havingcustomers that were different
and they had to force themselvesto get in front of other people
and talk to them and all of asudden they would come back and
say, oh my gosh, I this is firstof all, this person I hear I
(26:55):
love, this is my new best friendand this is a lifelong friend
here.
This is something that's amazing, that just happened here.
But their ability tocommunicate really changed and
their ability to, when they left, send to leave, to go into
another job and do an interview,for instance.
They flew through it becausethere was just so much of that
back-and-forth dialogue thatpeople want to be involved with.
(27:16):
When you hire someone, you wantthat person to have that
personality so that you knowthey can talk to coworkers and
and to the bosses and tocustomers, and I think that
constant making sure youactually interact with human
beings and ask them how they'redoing and you know it's a
challenge after all these yearsof so many employees to keep
that going, but that's really myfocus is to make sure people
(27:39):
have that ability.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, I love that.
Hi everybody, we're taking aquick break to offer you an
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(28:04):
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Now let's get back to the show.
Yesterday, when we were meeting, one thing that really struck
me was the conversation that wehad around a couple of the
(28:27):
employees asking you to do somestudent projects, write a paper
on you or interview you for yourbackground on your business and
why you've been successful andcoming up to the new regional
when've been successful and, youknow, coming up to the new
regional when they saw her andgiving her hugs.
There.
There's this really awesomeculture that you've built at
scented leaf.
Will you talk a little bitabout your approach to that and
(28:48):
how you've built that culture?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I really wanted.
I have this.
I have this I have always had afear of am I good enough as a
boss?
Am I good enough as a company?
Am I good enough to competewith bigger players?
And in that insecurity you knowmy kind of personality of
(29:16):
pleasing people comes out andmaking sure that everyone is
happy.
It's like when you have a partyand people come over, you want
to make sure everyone had a goodtime.
When I was younger, I used to goand you know me and my friends
were social.
We would have parties, peoplecome over and I was always the
one that was most concernedabout how we came across, how we
looked.
You know, guys, we're good, wehave drinks, we Are, we are
(29:37):
everyone happy, and I think thatwas part of the way the culture
built up was I was alwaysmaking sure that I was able to
talk to them in a regular humanto human way, not like a boss,
to an employee, more like I wasable to be kind of, just maybe
like the older brother at onepoint older brother now, now the
(30:00):
dad because of the agedifference that keeps growing
but it's been one of thosethings where I felt like I was
able to communicate with them ona level that was not so formal
and not so rough.
It was just very.
I wanted them to be comfortablearound me and I think in doing
that getting them to interactwith me as a friend, almost it
(30:25):
allowed them to be morecomfortable and allowed them to
enjoy their job and then spreadthe way they felt to other
employees that would come intothe picture we would have.
Another thing that I did a lotwas I had a lot of events where
I would take them out.
We would go to the bars, we'dgo to the restaurants, we'd go
do something social.
(30:46):
We'd have some kind ofChristmas party, end of the
semester party.
We still do this to this day.
We've had three or four partiesthis year and we're going to
probably have one more forChristmas parties this year and
we're going to probably have onemore for Christmas.
So getting them to becomfortable with you and
everyone, to get along with eachother, choosing personalities
(31:14):
that are unique and differentbut not combative and not
challenging, is another thing.
Hiring at the very beginning isprobably the most important
thing of making sure is this afit for this entire community,
because when you have a fit, itall works.
When you don't have a fit,drama happens.
People start not liking to work.
I don't want to work with thisguy.
(31:34):
I don't want to work with her.
We fight all the time and thatreally changes everything.
So, being able to go, you'redifferent, you're unique, but
you have a lot of things thatare going to be easy to work
with and you're not going to becoming in here and spewing a
harsh personality issue of, likehow you feel about something.
No politics, no stuff that islike really sensitive.
(31:59):
We don't have thoseconversations.
We keep it fun and I want themto feel like they can go to me
and talk to me about anything,and I want to be able to talk to
them Like I'm not their bossand feeling like I don't want
them to feel intimidated.
So, with that whole kind ofthing I just said, it creates a
culture of people would justfeel in themselves, comfortable
in their own skin there, and Ilet them wear what they want to
(32:20):
wear too.
That's the other thing that'sinteresting.
We don't have uniforms.
Um, sometimes it's gotten alittle bit weird, but we kind of
have to like understand that's,that is what it is, and that we
have to let people bethemselves to a certain extent
of like, making sure it's notdiscriminating against people
and nothing you know vulgar oror too revealing.
You'd be surprised what I'vehad to go through with letting
(32:42):
people wear their own clothes,but it's allowed them to be once
again themselves and that'shuge.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, how do you know , because you do correct me if
I'm wrong.
But do you do all the hiringstill for all the locations?
Not anymore, I used to.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I would say that changed probably a year ago.
I really started going.
I can't keep doing this.
This is not helping my managersand I think a lot of it was,
you know, talking to you in thepast and other people in the
past about you know that's greatthat you're good at that, but
we really need to move on fromthat because you can't always be
the person hiring and, yeah, Imean I feel like that was my
(33:22):
forte but I was able to kind ofcreate a culture that the
managers go.
We know what Shane likes here.
We want to make sure we havethat Because you know it's funny
, because they have mademistakes.
My managers have made mistakeswhen they hire people and they
went against the norm.
They kind of chose someone thatwasn't fitting that criteria
and it bit them, you know,really hard they had to deal
with firing people, they had todeal with letting people go and
(33:44):
that's not fun.
So they really try to keep it,you know, to the way that.
You know we've always hiredwhich is just really fun people
who are extroverted, who have anability to love humanity and
they're not pessimistic andthey're not.
You know people who are sassyand you know people who are, you
(34:05):
know, maybe I always use theword hipster.
I feel bad.
Thank God hipster is not aprotected class, because hipster
to me is like people who it'snot cool to be cool to people,
nice people, because that's toomainstream.
I don't want people who aretrying to be too cool, to be
cool, too cool for school, right, like I don't want those people
(34:27):
.
I want people who are like yeah, I enjoy talking to someone, I
enjoy helping someone, I enjoybeing around people and if they
fit that, then they get in.
But if they don't and they showme any signs that they don't
like to be around people, then Isay no to them.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
What's been your biggest challenge with growing
and expanding your tea housefrom two to three locations?
Speaker 2 (34:59):
money has been a challenge, because you grow and
you make a little bit of moneybut then it goes right back into
business.
And being able to balance thatout and actually understand your
numbers to the point where youactually know what you can spend
and what you can't, I thinkit's been a thing that's been
challenging for me, because Ikind of see us being busy and I
see, you know, a better monththan the previous year, I see a
little extra money coming in andI say, okay, let's now do this
(35:24):
to add to the store, let's buythis for the store, let's add
more things, and it gets to apoint where it's not very
strategic.
It's more impulse and when youget into those impulse buys for
the business in the long runit's fine.
And when you get into thoseimpulse buys for the business in
the long run it's fine.
You know you needed that newthing, you needed to make things
better, but it's been.
I don't have any guardrails,and when you don't have
(35:49):
guardrails you can put yourselfin a situation and I think
that's been a challenge for me,especially now that I'm
expanding and I'm spending moneyon opening up new locations.
No-transcript, you can actuallyget a bank to help you out.
(36:11):
You can ask SBA for help andthen when that happens, things
open up and you can deal withthe idea of handling debt with
the fact that you know you havemoney coming in to handle that
debt and not feel so overwhelmed.
Otherwise, you take on a burden.
There's a good example when Ihad a situation where I needed
money one time for variousreasons.
(36:32):
There's a thing you can getwith your point of sale it's
called a capital from them andthey would give you like square,
square capital and they'll giveyou money and they'll go hey,
your business is doing this, sowe're going to give you this
amount, so $25,000.
You're like, oh great, well, Ineed the money.
So instead of kind of goingthrough the process of getting a
loan, you say yes to this andthen you have to pay this back
(36:56):
in a very short period of time.
They'll pull money out of eachdeposit that goes into your
account.
So you borrow 25,000.
The expectation is they getthat back in four to six months.
So when you do something likethat, you put yourself in this
situation where now yourcashflow gets literally stymied.
You have no ability to changethat and you're stuck with this
(37:16):
burden for three to six monthsand all of a sudden you're like
whoa, that was pretty intense,so making those mistakes when I
could have went to a bank or Icould have went to something
else, and said can I get afive-year term and make it so
it's not such a heavy toll?
That would have been good forme, but I just wanted to do
things on my own.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, good lessons to learn right.
Do things on my own yeah, goodlessons to learn right.
I mean, it's difficult whenyou're a solopreneur and you are
trying to manage everything andtrying to learn.
You know, manage the businessday to day and the marketing and
the HR component of it and the,the ordering and the.
You know the finances, andtrying to teach yourself the
numbers moving at the speed oflight Right and then having to
(37:55):
balance that out with taking thetime to slow down and be really
strategic.
It's very difficult to do.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It is.
I don't know if you're good atthat area.
The finance stuff was not myforte.
Accounting was not my forte.
Still not my forte, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I tend to find when I get stressed out about an area
of my business, it's because Ijust don't know enough and so I
have to stop and drill down.
Stop and like, drill down, andonce I get more information and
fully understand, then thathelps me calm my stress level
and make better businessdecisions for sure.
Yeah, that's where the strategycomes in, absolutely.
How have you been able todevelop yourself as a leader
running these multiple conceptssolo?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Well, I have my wife that gets to hear every crazy
idea under the sun.
I have my wife that gets tohear every crazy idea under the
sun and I play devil's advocateto myself a lot.
I tell a lot of my peoplearound me to be devil's advocate
to any idea that you have andbe critical of yourself first so
that you can beat yourself upenough to the point where you're
(38:55):
like okay, I've turned thisidea into something that
actually has a chance to makesense.
But hearing everyone's opinionhas been a good thing for me.
I have learned from mistakes ofhow I communicate with people.
I've had to deal with theunderstanding that I'm in a
(39:15):
different generation in terms ofcommunicating than a lot of
younger people, and I also hadto learn the hard truth that
text messaging does not comeacross the way you think it's
coming across.
So when you choose a lazierpath to communicate, it causes
ripple effects that you don'tforesee ripple effects that you
(39:43):
don't foresee.
And then you have to change andfix and basically put out the
fire as fast as possible becausewhat you thought went out isn't
what was received and I've lostsome personnel because of just
simple texting that came acrossthe wrong way.
So learning to really take astep back.
(40:03):
If you are going to do textingand craft it to the point where
you're like there's nothing lefthere besides this tone, this
tone is really coming across.
And if it's something that istoo sensitive to never text, to
always pick up the phone, makethat phone call, talk to someone
, let them hear your tone sothey know you're actually coming
(40:24):
across in a way that's notattacking or not defensive and,
better yet, have a face to face,which is the best.
So I learn from mistakes.
I learned from being stubbornwith oh there's no way that
they're going to have a problemwith this message or this way of
thinking, and you don't realizethat it comes across a
(40:46):
different way.
I've been living off this ideaof perception is reality and no
matter what I think or whatevera manager thinks, it doesn't
have any value unless theperceived value is what that is.
So if you say something andeveryone's like well, shane's a
(41:06):
jerk and I'm like I'm not a jerk, I didn't.
I'm not a jerk at all, buteveryone thinks I'm a jerk Guess
what?
I'm a jerk.
It doesn't matter.
If I don't think I'm a jerk, itdoesn't matter.
So that was a big one too.
Matter if I don't think I'm ajerk, it doesn't matter.
So that was a big one too.
And then just like knowing thatif I come across too aggressive
or I get frustrated or I lose mypatience, it doesn't do any
good for me, it doesn't do goodfor my company, it doesn't good
(41:28):
for my staff.
My kids are the ones that kindof, you know, still get me riled
up, but my staff won't.
They don't get me riled up.
They could break things, theycan make mistakes, they can
cause issues.
I won't get riled up.
I used to, but I learned thatit doesn't do anything for me,
it just makes it worse.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, A lot of emotional intelligence and
self-awareness in what you justsaid.
And communication is sodifficult because there's so
many forms and everyone isdifferent.
And you're right, Text is sucha dangerous way to communicate,
but it's so easy and um,efficient and convenient and
accessible to everyone thesedays.
(42:08):
But you can send a group textmessage out to your entire team
and every single person is goingto interpret it differently.
That's just.
That's just who we are as humanbeings.
So good for you for recognizingthat.
What's what's 2025 look likefor you?
Speaker 2 (42:23):
You know I thought I was gonna take a little bit of a
break from the crazy world of,you know, opening up new
locations.
But I already put myself intoanother situation where I'm
going to be opening up.
I already have a lease that'ssigned for a new location on
Broadway.
So that's in the works.
(42:43):
So I'll be opening up that inFebruary most likely, and that's
going to be a new endeavor forus, but we still have our
systems in place.
I feel confident we're going tobe able to get through it just
fine.
We have a new person that isgoing to be taken over, who has
been a great manager, who'sgoing to now be a regional
manager, so we're going to beable to conquer that one.
And then the bigger challengeis to continue that process of
(43:08):
opening up another locationagain at the end of the year.
So we have another locationwe're working on, so that'll put
us at five and then getting afeel for, like you know, I don't
want to chase.
I really don't want to chasemoney.
I really don't want to chasemoney.
I didn't think about money forthe first 10 years of my
business because there was nomoney.
I just didn't see any money.
(43:30):
It wasn't like any great storyof like, oh you know, shane's
making this money and he can nowdo all sorts of other things.
I just put so much money backin the business every year that
I just never was able toactually see much of it.
And past two years I was ableto kind of go oh, there's
actually a chance here that Ican grow and become able to do
(43:51):
more financial stuff for my lifeand my family.
But I don't want to like open upthese locations because it's
going to make me more money.
That's part of the enjoyment ofopening a business.
You have a fact of making moremoney because you have more
sales and net profit, all thatfun stuff.
But for me it's more like Ifeel like I'm at an age where I
started this.
The universe gave me thisopportunity.
(44:14):
I feel like a creative,something special, because
people around me have told methat feels really special for
them.
So I'm like, okay, this issomething great for a lot of
people and I want to continuethis thing that the universe
gave me an opportunity with andI want to see what I'm capable
of doing with it and see if Ican pull off you know the
unthinkable and compete with abigger market and be in all
(44:35):
places in Tucson and thenPhoenix and then other places to
see what I'm capable of.
So I'm more interested in theactual can I accomplish this big
goal of one person starting offin a perfume business, at a
Swami, and now has this empireof tea and people all around are
getting healthier and they havebetter place to hang out and
the community loves it and thestaff are just getting better
(44:57):
and better at what they do andthey feel empowered and they
love their co-workers.
So I want to just ride thiswave as long as I can and see
what my um abilities can take mewith help along the way by all
means, because that's what I'mlearning too is.
I need a lot of help along theway and I have more people than
I ever had before doingdifferent things and I'm finally
going yeah, shane, you're notgood at this, that's fine.
(45:19):
If you're not amazing at it,then you don't need to do it.
Simple Like if you're good atyou don't need to learn a year's
worth of accounting to be theaccounting person for your
company.
It means nothing.
You can have someone who's waybetter than you, who thinks,
breathes everything accounting.
Pay them a little bit of money.
They take that off your tableand you can focus on what you
(45:40):
really want to do, which is youknow help and communicate and be
a mentor to a lot of thesepeople who I hire.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, you're really good at micro outsourcing what
you need in order to continue to, to you know, achieve your
agenda.
I think you know you've you'vehighlighted so many important
lessons here, but I think thebiggest one that's really
sticking out in this episode forthe listeners here, hopefully
is you have started a businessthat really aligns with your
core values of wanting to bearound people and bring health
(46:12):
and something innovative and funto a community and challenge
yourself to do somethingdifferent.
A community and challengeyourself to do something
different.
And you've created anenvironment and a culture in
your company of the same andsurrounded yourself with people
that also align with your corevalues.
And when you do that, that'show you make business
sustainable, that's how you leadwith purpose every single day
(46:36):
and that's what helps you getthrough those really tough days
and weeks and months wherebusiness is down or you're
exhausted or you're goingthrough an opening when you can
come back to your purpose andyou know that you're living to
your core values.
That's where success andhappiness comes from.
So kudos to you for doing that.
(46:56):
That's incredible, thank you,yeah, awesome.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Awesome.
Yeah, I've always said I wantto end my journey where people
said Shane was a good guy, hedidn't cheat people, he wasn't a
person that caused harm topeople.
He was someone that helped andwas giving people a better
circumstance when he was aroundthem.
So I just don't want to ever,especially in Tucson it's a
(47:22):
small town.
If you're a bad person inTucson, it travels fast and it's
not my DNA to be a bad person.
I just want to leave my journeysaying I was able to not have
enemies along the way because Iwas trying to be too cutthroat.
I just really want to be ableto stand on my two feet and be
very proud of what weaccomplished.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, awesome.
Well, you've accomplished a lot, so thank you so much for your
time again for being here.
That's going to do it for us.
Wrap it up this week Foranybody that's listening.
Please share this episode withanybody that you think could
benefit from this If they'restarting a business or trying to
figure out how to grow abusiness from a sustainable
perspective.
This is a great episode.
(48:03):
A lot of value here for any ofthe listeners.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Thank you.
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