Felicity Loft Tea Partners with the Alaska MEP

Curt Anderson  00:00

I might, you might remind Hey, I think we’re live Damon, so Hey, happy Monday, man, how are you?

Damon Pistulka  00:05

I’m doing great. Curt, ready to go,

Curt Anderson  00:07

man, we have a phenomenal, incredible guest today. I don’t I Are you? Dude? Are you ready for this one?

Damon Pistulka  00:16

Ready to go?

Curt Anderson  00:17

Let’s rock and roll. So hey, let’s dive in. We have our dear friend, the one, the only team manufacturer in a great state of Alaska. We have Megan Weston. Megan, you are the that I have that introduction, right? Do I have that? Right? They

Megan Weston  00:30

the only tea manufacturer in Alaska? No, no, I’m not the only one. No, that

Curt Anderson  00:34

matters. How’s that? No, that’s

Megan Weston  00:37

not true at all. That’s not true at all. I am the only one making, like, kind of the final stage of my product, like the machinery that I have. But no, we have a lot of we have a really cool tea environment in Alaska. It’s very small, but very cool in

Curt Anderson  00:52

mine and Damon’s book, you’re you’re so anyway, Megan, Weston, Felicity, lofty, happy Monday. How are you today? How are things?

Megan Weston  01:01

I’m good. I’m good. I got a cup of tea. Just ready to go, ready to chat with you guys. It’s always good to see you. Curt, and it’s my first time meeting Damon. So Well,

Curt Anderson  01:11

I’ll tell you. I This is an honor and privilege. You and I have been together in person. Couple years ago, came up to visit great State of Alaska. You’re a dear we have a mutual relationship with our dear friends at the Alaska MEP, and I’ll tell you are just a fierce entrepreneur. So I have a bunch of wonderful questions that burning just people are just burning with curiosity to hear from you, Megan. So let’s demon. Let’s go here first Okay, first question for you, my friend, Megan Weston, when you were a little girl growing up,

01:40

oh God,

Curt Anderson  01:41

when you were a little girl growing up, who was your hero? Who did you look up to? Who did you admire? Who was your hero when you’re a little girl growing up, it’s

Megan Weston  01:53

a great question. Um, honestly, like a lot of the times, it was my dad. Okay, yeah, I always, like, just always liked the way that he handled himself and his work ethic and willingness to, like, get in the weeds of things. And so that’s always been a big one for me. But, yeah, I’d say, like, I’d say my dad was the most consistent over my life. And he’s not. He’s not even watching this right now.

Curt Anderson  02:26

He’s not watching man you’re so you’re throwing dad shout out

02:31

YouTube link later. What’s on

Curt Anderson  02:32

the replay? So, and what’s dad’s name, please? Jay. Jay. Well, hey, big shout out to Jay. And what an inspiration he is. And so Damon and I are girl dads. We love that’s our, one of our so just, you know how Jay came in and just inspired this wonderful entrepreneur. So Megan, let’s dive in, because you have a great story we’d like to dig into here. Share a little bit on when you kind of kicked off your career. What were your aspirations? What did you think you’re going to do? Because we want to dive into how you got this tea business off the ground. But what when you were, you know, maybe fresh out of school, what were you thinking, as far as career wise, um, so, fresh

Megan Weston  03:13

out of school, econ degree, out of Missouri, S and T and graduated with an econ degree in 2008 nice which was not a great time.

Curt Anderson  03:26

Wonderful year to not graduate, wonderful year

Megan Weston  03:29

to not graduate from college, went to work, was worked for like eight months, gotten a layoff, like everybody else, and kind of random series of following other humans that I knew. And, you know, being in free in my early 20s, I ended up, I had always worked in food service throughout college, but ended up on Martha’s Vineyard and managing a restaurant there. And that’s kind of just like, food sucked me back in. You know, I was like I was doing network analytics and in a cubicle and all of the classic things, and I hated it, and so I went back to food, and I have pretty much stayed there since so various different paths to tea, but for the most part, my my life, my career, has been spent in food service of one kind or another. And so moved back up to Alaska, ended up owning a restaurant here, and in the process, you know, kind of behind the scenes of, you know, my, my food life. I was also, I’ve never been a coffee drinker, and I know that, like for most people, that’s like, what? But coffee never resonated with me. And I wanted to love tea, but didn’t actually. And then I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with people who love tea and make it well. Oh and and from then, I realized that, like, it wasn’t that I didn’t like tea, it’s that I was I had been drinking terrible tea, and it had been made in properly, and that’s why I didn’t enjoy it. And so, yeah, my my food journey and my tea journey are kind of very similar. They they happened about the same time and kind of overlapped. And so, yeah, in 2020, like everybody else, I realized a lot of things about my life and the food service business and whatnot. And so I finally launched, launched into Felicity, you know, kind of wanted to do. Wanted to take these skills and understanding of the restaurant world and these relationships that I had built over time in my community with farmers and, you know, my love for this state and kind of the passion for like, the things that we have to do here in Alaska to function that is very different than, necessarily, everyone who lives in the contiguous us. And yeah, so just kind of merged those things together. And then I thought, oh, you know, in in a few years, I’ll start blending tea. You know, I have a lot to learn. And turns out it was a lot like cooking in the way of like that, recipe development, sourcing, all of that like there was just it was a very easy shift for me, still a lot to learn, which is the great thing about food in general, and anything we consume, is there’s just always a lot to learn. But yeah, it was a really, it made a lot of sense in a lot of areas of my life. There was not a point in which I was like, All right, I need a career change. This is the direction, you know, I’m gonna go. It was a very fluid, like, here’s a thing that I love, here’s a thing that’s missing in the market. Here’s a way that I know that the market in Alaska. Can use this product, and I think it will resonate with some people. And it was a, it was very much a transition, you know, I started the company, thought I would have three or four years before I transitioned. And then it was like, Oh, this is going really well. And also then the right opportunity came up to sell my restaurant. And so, yeah, years later, here I am.

Curt Anderson  07:23

Here you are okay. So much to uncover out there. There’s a lot to cover. So let’s give a couple of shout outs. Hey, we got Shub here today. Hello, Curt. David Megan, how are you? We got Dale here today. Cale going. So Happy Monday. You guys drop us a note. Let us know as you’re out there, we strongly encourage you, invite you, welcome you to connect with Megan. She’s absolutely just incredible, just a fierce entrepreneur, founder, CEO extraordinaire of Felicity Loft Tea. How do you like that your CEO? Right? Is that your? Yeah, that’s so Alright. So let’s dive in. Okay, I’d love to hear so entrepreneur, food service, restaurant, you said it was kind of transition. I’d love for you to go back in 2020, so now you know, little disruption for about 7 billion people or so, right? Damon, was there something like that, little bit give or take a few billion? Yeah. Megan, when you decide to launch Felicity Loft Tea Company, were you just convicted this is the right thing to do? Nervous, excited, scared, like, you know, what’s going to happen in my restaurant business? Like, what? What was that process?

Megan Weston  08:31

Yeah, I mean, I think anybody that was in food service in 2020 was pretty unsure about life, and we were definitely, you know, that definitely, you know, this idea had been marinating before, like covid shutdowns and whatnot, but I first some context. I also had a, you know, when, when the world shut down. I had a baby. I had a 10 month old, and so I had really set things up. I thought, really well for transitioning into going back to work full time, but still having this, this little one that I was responsible for, and like, my priorities having shifted massively and then, and then those things didn’t work out. I went back to work 100 hours a week, and I was lucky enough to have a partner who could, like, be at home with our kid, but you know, like you didn’t have a choice as soon as we opened back up, like there was just the intensity of things. Was so chaotic, and it was day to day, you didn’t know what was going on. You didn’t know what was going to happen. It was very scary, you know, and at this point, this is, like, my life’s work is ODS, this restaurant, and in the background, I had been kind of slowly but surely, kind of collecting these ideas, you know, I had this I had said for years, like, if whatever I do next. Is going to be shelf stable. That’s like, whatever I do next is going to be shelf stable. You know, not having to deal with refrigeration, like these kinds of things, these kind of almost jokes that you tell to yourself or your co workers or your business partners over the course of time, those little like nuggets of truth that kind of come to you over the course of business, those were the things that guided my direction into tea. It was like, Oh, this is shelf stable. Oh, this can use a local product. Oh, if I do the packaging correctly, this won’t be terribly expensive to ship. If I all of these bits and pieces of experience that I had kind of led to what I wanted to do here and and covid was, you know, that time period in life for everybody I feel like, was pretty transformational in the adjustment of priorities and The adjustment of just what we felt like we wanted out of life. And for me, having come off of maternity leave and directly into that, it was it, I think it was even more so, like it was like, no things have to change, and they have to change soon. And so, yeah, that was a it was big. It was hard, um, you know, it was especially with a restaurant, you know, that was like very daily operations. It changed the way that I thought about the structure of my life as well, you know, because I had been in that business for long enough, it felt like this is the norm, and then to have all of those disruptions at one time, it changes what you think is normal and what you can perceive as a normal way to do business. And I think that that is those good it’s good to have those disruptions in your life and have to step back and be like, Okay, what can I do different? What want to do different, and how does it meet with the priorities that I have for my life as a whole, not just my career. Oh,

Curt Anderson  12:06

okay. Damon, ready for this? Okay, let’s go check a lot of boxes. I love what you’re saying there. Megan, so again, so friends out there that are, you know, they might be, you know, hey, I want to launch my own business. I want to start my my entrepreneurial journey. You know, I love what you’re seeing here. Lot, you know, 2020, covid, new baby. You know, lot of things, lot of moving parts. I have this business. I have this restaurant, 100 hours, yeah, lots of components here. Damon thoughts, takeaways, immediately. What do you what’s going through your

Damon Pistulka  12:34

mind? Well, yeah, I mean this, this is, like you said, you can see the transition now, because of what you went through with the restaurant, and that because it’s it really, you know, covid through restaurants in such turmoil, and you didn’t know it was going to happen for a long time, day to day, even day to day, you didn’t know what was going to happen. And I love your your thing about it needs to be shelf stable, because the one thing I never thought about is, if I’ve got a restaurant we want to have fresh food. I don’t know what’s if I’m going to be open or not. How the heck did you ever do that? Yeah, and then, especially if you’re in Alaska and you’re trying to get all of your fresh food comes from someplace else. I mean, there’s just so many challenges in that. But yeah, the the one thing though, and I see the restaurant. You know, people at a restaurant tours, people that are in the restaurant industry, just grow to know that you’re going to be in that thing every hour it’s open. And I’ve got to believe that you moving into the tea business while there are demands and other things, it’s not necessarily the same in your timing, and that probably worked out well with you having a baby.

Megan Weston  13:46

Yeah, no, there was a lot of things that changed during that time period that I can you can look back into hindsight and see like this was all happening for reason, and here’s all the good things that come out of it. But when you’re in it, it’s miserable. Like, that is entrepreneurship in a bubble, right? Like, yeah. Like, that was so great, but actually, that was the worst time of my life, um,

Damon Pistulka  14:16

and the great part,

Megan Weston  14:19

I mean, that’s that is, that is what we do when you’re starting a business, almost always, like, it’s any kind of startup, but also just, like, growth phases. Because, like, entrepreneurs, people think, like, oh, the beginning is hard. And like, yeah, the beginning is hard. But anytime you’re moving into a growth phase is hard, like, when you’re in the weeds of growing, especially if it wasn’t a very focused like, Okay, this is the choice that we’re making to grow in this specific way, and we put all of our systems in place ahead of time to make sure that we can meet those demands. Like, even then there’s pains, but like, when you’re not prepared for it, when it’s just, like, just slaps you in the face like a fish. It is just, it’s a monster,

15:03

yes, yes, it is.

Curt Anderson  15:06

Yes, it is. Alright, Damon, I don’t know if we’ve ever had that phrase on the show, slaps you in the face like a fish. And I, like, I got such a visual, you know, like, and I’m, I’m assuming I was probably the target, right? Damon, you know, like, yeah. Anyway, Megan, great. Damon, what were you going to say? Well, I

Damon Pistulka  15:24

just that’s so funny, because I was in catch can last week, and I saw the fish running, and I was like, yeah, getting slapped the face of the fish. Yeah,

15:32

that would be slimy. It smells bad. Thank you this

Damon Pistulka  15:36

time of year, yeah,

Megan Weston  15:37

yeah, that’s

Curt Anderson  15:39

it’s right? And so what I love about what you’ve done here is, you know, transition, you know, Damon’s almost like that contract manufacturer, because, you know, when you’re when you’re a restaurant owner, it’s like, you’re just, you’re constantly making something for somebody else, right? Yeah. And then all sudden, you know, Megan, what I love what you did is you’re like, you know, hey, I want a proprietary product of my own. And so you chose tea, you know, you said, check a lot of boxes, shelf life. You’re passionate about it, your experience Martha’s Vineyard, so on, so forth. So let’s give you know. Let’s go here. Our mutual connection, our relationship, is built through our dear friends, the wonderful human beings at the Alaska MEP, can you share, first off, I’d love to know if you can go back in time. Do you know, recall, remember what inspired you to reach out to the Alaska MEP, and can you just share your working experience with our friends, Alyssa, Sammy, Joe Peyton, just share what has been your experience with the MEP, yeah,

Megan Weston  16:38

so I heard Alyssa speak in God. It was probably like 2015 might have been 1415 something like that. She was working as the state economist for Alaska, and she came and did the Kenan Peninsula economic development district does a big kind of like State of the Union every year, and it’s this big conference, and I heard Alyssa speak, and you know, the things that she was saying resonated with me, who she was resonated with me. And I was just like, I I follow her. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I want to know what she’s doing in that way where you just like, see somebody, you hear someone speak, and you’re like, yes, you’re like, yes, that bad person gets it. And so I kind of followed along with what Alyssa was up to, through made in Alaska. She was working with these different programs. And then she, I believe, reached out to me because we had met doing some made in Alaska stuff, and then she reached out to me and was like, Hi, I’m doing this thing. I we just started this thing. It’s called MEP, and we had recently bought Lucy’s. We were like, looking for a new building. And so we, like, you know, sometimes it can take a little bit to understand what MEP does and where their resources are really valuable. And I was one of those people that, like, didn’t get it in the beginning, and I was like, can you just give me grant money? And so, yeah, like being able to talk to Alyssa and kind of reconnect with her in that way. When we sold the restaurants, there wasn’t really a space that they made sense in my life at that time in my career. But then when, when they, you guys, hosted down here a manufacturing conference was right after I had sold the restaurant, and I knew that I wanted to install some equipment, and I needed those really specialized equipment that I didn’t really know much about. And that’s where MEP really pulled through for me, is that I knew in my mind that he needed to create a specific format of my product for customer use. And I had no idea where to begin, because you can, like Google these things, but also, you know, the algorithm is so specific and hyper focused towards, you know, like retail, commerce, sales, that on, on the wholesale side, it can be, like, incredibly daunting. And so, you know, Alyssa had stayed in touch with me, Sammy Joe stayed in touch with me. But then when it, when it came time for me to get this equipment, you know, I had a conversation with Alyssa, and I was like, this, this is what I need, and I don’t know where to find it like I know this exists, and I have no idea I can’t find it anywhere. And I didn’t, I was new enough in the tea business that I didn’t have a lot of contacts, and there’s a lot of like, proprietary info, you know, depending on who you’re talking to in the industry. And I just didn’t feel like I had the resources. And I was reached out. And I was like, this is, you know, she was like, I don’t know anything about this, but let’s dig in and, and that has always been, I think my favorite thing about Alyssa and the MEP crew is that I can call and I can say, like, I don’t know anything about this. And they’re like, Yo, me either, let’s go. And they have so many resources and people that they can reach out to to say, like, Okay, we don’t know anything about this, but we want to know everything about it. And they know somebody that knows you know. They know somebody that can find that information for you. And that’s always been, I think one of my favorite things about MEP is that, like, I can call with almost any question, and for me personally, like, what we ended up doing was they helped me find some a specialist who specifically works on installing team manufacturing equipment, um. And they helped me find a specialist that did a ton of research for me, and then I was able to get compiled information without me spending, you know, 4060, hours on these conversations and communications and whatever, all these quotes with a recommendation based on, you know, the very specific specifications that I had my budget and the constraints of the size of my building, you know, very hyper specific. And that is incredible. You know, it was great. And I would have never known where to find this human otherwise.

Curt Anderson  21:21

So let’s dive into that. So my recollection, when you and I spoke about this that so with the Alaska MEP, and for our friends out there that are wondering, what is the MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership, what they did is they found and like Damon, who knew that there’s a person out there that specializes in tea equipment, right? Yeah, and Megan, my recollection is, you were looking to spend a significant amount of money for that piece of equipment,

Megan Weston  21:46

I will that was the standard that I had been told. Like, what you the information? Everyone I talked to was like, this is 100 grand. It’s going to be 100 grand, it’s going to be 100 grand, it’s going to be 100 grand. Every number, yeah, that was going to be 100 so I was like, alright, you know, looking at financing options and, like, how much down are we going to need, and how do we, like, do the magic moving of the things around to get the money and and instead, Eric, who did the research for us, wrote back, and was like, this is the machine. It’s $30,000

Curt Anderson  22:20

I’m sorry I didn’t, I didn’t hear you. How much 30,000 so Damon, now, Megan, if I had this correct, wasn’t it like, wasn’t it a gentleman from the New Jersey? MEP,

Megan Weston  22:34

it was a guy that the New Jersey. MEP, knew Jersey knew a guy. And, yeah, and they knew they had a contact, and so that contact then, and he does a lot of different kind of manufacturing equipment, he does this research, but specifically, like, loves tea. And was really kind of like, Oh, we’re gonna, we’re gonna move back this way now, uh, you know, like, loves tea and, and it was, it was great to work with, yeah, so, and

Curt Anderson  23:07

I’m sorry I’m not a mathematician here. Did you get that one? Damon math? Yeah, so what? So, Damon, what’s 100,000 minus? Like, what you paid? What 30,000

Megan Weston  23:17

Well, yeah. So, you know, obviously, like, import duties, yeah, it was, ended up being about $35,000

Damon Pistulka  23:25

yeah, better than 100 Yeah.

Megan Weston  23:29

We had been looking at like used ones that were in the state, and even the used ones were like $80,000 Yeah, and so, which took us from being able to for better, for worse, we paid for it out of pocket. Yeah, you know, we can have that conversation another day, but yeah, we were able to you saved,

Curt Anderson  23:54

you saved about $65,000 by just partnering and connecting with the Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership, yeah, I

Megan Weston  24:01

asked for help from a professional. Shocking. What happens when you let someone do their job?

Damon Pistulka  24:07

Raise your hand and, yeah,

Curt Anderson  24:09

I need some help. You said, Megan, you’re like, you know they knew a guy. They go to Jersey, and, of course, everybody in Jersey knows a guy, and they find this guy who knows exactly what you need, what a rewarding experience as a new you know, you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, but new in a new entrepreneur venture to give you, what a Kickstart to help you that you’re not choked on that $65,000 right?

Megan Weston  24:37

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And like, let’s caveat this, I got what I paid for. So this machine is comes a little bit of a learning curve, and there’s been some challenges and whatnot, but it got me off the ground. Yeah, this fall, I like, I’m actually going to Japan to go look at the $100,000 machines. Yes. Really, yeah, well, I’m going to Japan anyway. But I will. I’m going to be meeting with one of the companies that makes the nice $100,000 piece of machine. Because the reality is, is that now we’re getting to a level where we need a secondary machine. So the option is, we either have to, because you gotta have a backup with a piece of machine, that’s right, it goes down, you get to a certain volume, like you, if you you have to have a second one, because if it goes down, you’re just like, absolutely Sol, um, and so we now have to make the decision of like, Okay, do we buy the same machine so we don’t have to learn it over again, but then deal with these eccentricities that come with getting the budget machine. Um, or do we, you know now that we know what we’re doing, and we have a better idea, we know what we’re looking for. Are we looking for a machine that has more automation, that has more consistency? Yeah, and so you know now, but we get to start, I get to do that research, you know, a little bit on my own hands on things, and then potentially, when it comes time, like, I will potentially, like, reach back out and say, Okay, now I actually have all the answers to the questions they asked me the first time. And I was like, yeah, no idea. And can dig into the weeds of this and be like, Okay, this is the budget, this is longevity of the machine. This is, you know, because I know so much more about it than I did, because I have never worked in manufacturing, and food service and manufacturing are not the same thing, even close. And so it is, even though food manufacturing is like, technically under the umbrella of manufacturing, it’s a whole different monster. And so, yeah, it’s been for people who are listening, by the way, this piece of machinery that we’re talking about, what it does is it takes loose leaf so we blend loose leaf tea, so tea Camellia sinensis. But also, like herbals, we blend, put in this machine and it puts it into it makes these. It makes little my sunshine really killing me today. Alright,

Damon Pistulka  27:06

Sunshine is a good full tea sachet.

Megan Weston  27:09

So you open this guy up right here, and inside it is one perfect little sachet of tea. This nonsense right here, because you have tag, string, fabric, materials, packaging, and then the machine that makes it all and the humans that have to figure out how to do that, yeah, so, like, if you’re in manufacturing, you know, it’s just, like, a massive amount of pieces and parts, you know, this is just a lot goes into this little monster right here. And so that’s the what the what the machinery does, because I think it’s good for visual of what we’re talking about. Yeah. Okay. Love, so much. Love, so much love and audiobooks.

Curt Anderson  27:52

Yeah, what are your thoughts? Well, I

Damon Pistulka  27:54

mean that that is quite a machine to do that, because that that, while it may look simple at the outside to do it repeatedly and 1000s of times is it’s that’s quite a machine to do that

Megan Weston  28:06

hundreds, hundreds of 1000s. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  28:11

right, yeah. So, okay, hey, we’ve got a couple comments here. Hey, speaking of we got Bentley Jackson slaps you in a face like a fish watching wisdom.

Megan Weston  28:20

Hold on. I gotta. I gotta. I was gonna take a picture of that and send it to my dad. Oh, Bentley, hi. How are you

Curt Anderson  28:29

so and then Shub says at Megan, what impact is expected on the local community and tea industry and what challenges might arise? Any question,

Megan Weston  28:40

yeah, it’s a good one. Um, so one of the things I wanted to do when I created the company was I really wanted to be able to track how much money was going back into the state, because I am primarily wholesale. I have a retail site. I do sell direct to consumer, but DTC has never been my focus. It’s been B to B, and that is primarily because of the style of the product that I have, and also wanting to create economic growth in the state like that’s always just been a thing that I love and I’m passionate about. And so being able to look at my numbers and know, you know, from retail to wholesale, this is the amount of value that I’m adding back into the local economy is really great. So, you know, we started with, you know, 100% markup for wholesale. We’ve realized since then that retailers are going to do whatever they want with prices, and I’ve let that go. And um at this point, though, is that, you know, we can see um. We can see when customers are moving from a national brand. Maybe it’s, maybe it’s a small, nice national brand. Maybe it is just. You know, boxes of Bigelow, um, and I love, I love to take that business. I love to take that business for multiple reasons. One, we’re not shipping things into the state, right? This is made here, made in Alaska, and then it stays in the state. Um, I love to see consumers being able to get a hold of a locally made product, just, you know, and then they can go to, you know, they tried at a restaurant, and then they’re going to go to the little retail shop down the road and pick up a package of it to take it home. You know, that flow of the product being able to be seen and utilized in a lot of different settings. Um creates, it just it looks satisfying as business owner, obviously, right? But it is also really incredible to see consumers respond to that. They’re like, Oh, this is yummy. I like this. This is made well, this is a fresher ingredient, because that’s going to happen when you are not buying off of a big grocery store box shelf, as a general rule in tea, there are exceptions to that, but as a general rule in tea, you’re going to get a fresher ingredient. When you are working with a retailer like me, who is doing small batch more frequently, you’re gonna end up with fresher product.

Damon Pistulka  31:23

Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And then to the fact that you are able to blend it, make it, I mean, your own. Like you were talking at the beginning, you said that you’ve drank so much tea that people did not make well, and now you can experiment and really go into some of the uniqueness of Alaska and really bring that into the tea and and how it tastes, and your your blends, and everything that’s cool. Yeah,

Megan Weston  31:55

it’s a lot of fun, and it’s an amazing creative outlet, because entrepreneurs, at their heart are typically very creative humans. They just have, they’re just like, they’re especially if you’re like a serial entrepreneur, like you’ve just, you’ve discovered that that’s your favorite creative outlet. And so that is really important is to feed that creativity within entrepreneurship. And so being able to create new blends, create new products, create new experiences for the customer. Is huge part of what drives me forward and keeps me moving. When the day to day of bookkeeping and production and challenges, etc, like, drags you down, is that continuous, you know? So like, you know, we spent Saturday morning, me and one of my business partners just in my kitchen, just drinking ingredients. Like, we just had had a bunch of samples come in, and so we’re just making things and we’re pouring and it looks like a science experiment and a lab. And it’s great, you love it. It’s like, it’s so much fun, and that’s what keeps you moving forward, if like, the next thing, as you continue to see this piece that you already put into the world grow. So, yeah, question,

Damon Pistulka  33:13

go ahead. What? What? Again, no, being in Alaska, sitting here listen, one of the things that I’m thinking about is, what is a unique Alaskan product or ingredient that you can tell us that goes into one of your teas, just something that we would never think of, um,

Megan Weston  33:34

something you’d never think of. Oh, well, I’m I mean, so one of my most popular blends is a chai. Everybody loves a chai, right? So our mariners Chai, we actually blend that one with kelp, nice kelp into our chai. Because Chai, if you think about it, most people drink a chai. It’s pretty heavily milked of some sort. And when you’re baking, if you add a little salt to something, you know you’re gonna get a better, richer, robust flavor if you’re gonna put a little salt in your baking, as opposed to no salt at all. And so it adds a richness to the blend that I think is important. And it was something for me. There’s so many chies on the market. If I was gonna enter the chai world, I wanted to have something uniquely Alaskan to say about it, you know. And so I sat on that for a couple of years. Was like, this is I am waiting to find the right thing. I want to be inspired in the right way. And I was playing with kelp for another blend that I ended up not going with and just messing around with it, and, you know, over the course of like, weeks, just, like, trying different things. And then it just hit me, and I was like, Oh my gosh, how am I not bad about this before, right? Um, and so that is, yeah, that is. And it’s been a lot of fun to introduce people. It just helps. Got a lot of growth. But it tends to sit in the seasoning world and so or as like a snack. So it’s been fun to use that in tea.

Curt Anderson  35:12

Excellent. So Megan, let’s go here. So anybody joining us a little bit late, we’re here with Megan Wesson, Founder, CEO extraordinaire of Felicity lofty, and I’m going to pull up your website in a minute, but just love for you to dive in. You’ve really gone all in. Huge part of your success has been the B to B, business to business relationship. Can you say I don’t know if there’s been one thing in particular, what has been a big contributor to your success with those wholesale relationships? What would you say there?

Megan Weston  35:40

I created a packaging that they wanted to put on their shelves. You

Curt Anderson  35:44

created a packaging that they want to put on their shelves? Yeah? David, drop the mic there. Can you please elaborate?

Megan Weston  35:52

Yeah? I mean, that’s packaging, whether you like it or not, whatever the morality that you want to get into it is packaging makes a huge difference. And customers respond to things that are beautifully packaged. Every time we buy stuff, we know, isn’t that great because it’s beautifully packaged because we want to look pretty in the, you know, in the, you know, the gift that we’re giving or on our sitting on our shelves, you know, we just, we just respond. And that was a big hole in the market. There was totally fine packaging within the T world in Alaska, but there was nobody doing something that was different and extra, and my packaging, while being like, you know, we’ve had like, growth right over time, like we started out in little craft bags with labels on them, and then have moved over time, you know, to now we have, like, you know, these gold foil and but that has been a Driving force is, how is this going to look in people’s stores? How are people going to feel about putting it on their shelves? Yeah, you know, I wanted a package that people wanted to put on their front counter because it made their business elevated. And that is, you know, that’s what I did.

Damon Pistulka  37:20

That’s quite, that’s, that’s quite forward thinking. There it. It really is. That’s incredible forward thinking there

Megan Weston  37:26

well, and it comes from being in that world, and that’s the thing. It’s like, you know, we, I came out of what the Sun is, just gone full force now, um, sorry, I didn’t think it was through earlier. Um, there is, yeah, I just think that, I think that a lot of people think, you know, they’re like, Oh, well, it’s the same thing. The packaging just looks a little different. And it’s just not true, like there is just it. Packaging is its whole own monster. And I am lucky enough to get to work with a couple of different designers who had great vision and had experience. But coming out of, you know, one of the restaurants that I owned was also kind of this, like retail grocery store. And we could tell, like, you could have a gorgeous product that was just beautiful on the inside, but when you package it in a way that isn’t appealing to your customers, they don’t pick it up over and over again. Yeah, and we needed something that people wanted to grab for themselves, but also for a gift to give to a friend, to feel this and this. So this packaging you’re looking at right now is on the website. Is, you know, one of the big culminations of this machinery, you know, and then working with, we worked with a company in Anchorage for anybody’s local JKD to get these boxes made. And they did an incredible job. And then, yeah, so this is, it’s a it’s a big part of it is just being able to to appeal to the customer without the business having to do more work. Let your product sell itself.

Curt Anderson  39:05

Drop the mic Damon. We use the word res. You know, I think marinate. I think you used earlier being the the foodie that you are, and so I think we just need to kind of let this marinate in things that I love. Just blown away. This is a true masterclass. So now, Megan, as you could tell, I don’t know if you know, if you know, if you’re, like, admiring my background a little bit like, I’m not the best branding guy on the planet, you know, and so you’re

Megan Weston  39:29

sitting around here, shelves back here, just filled with, like,

Curt Anderson  39:33

better, but what I really love and admire, and I didn’t expect this answer, and so I feel compelled. I just, I just can’t tell you how much I use the word again. Admire how you’ve gone all in on that branding. Did you have branding in your background? Was it just purely from your walk of life in the food business? Like what made you to dedicate to come in with such a fierce commitment to the branding and the packaging?

Megan Weston  39:59

Um, I mean, I like pretty things, so, like, that’s a good start. Um, and I hired a professional when I launched the brand. I hired someone to who I liked their work. I liked what they were doing. I liked who they were, um, to create a logo for me. Logo design, all of, you know, colors, all of that. And then, you know, we kind of started with a a template again, because I started in craft bags with just a label on them, um and and then over time, I’ve worked with um so my, my other business partner, Kelsey, is actually now my packaging designer, you know that? And that’s something she has a gift for. And so I gave her, you know, these pieces and parts. I’m like, Okay, we created this logo, we had created these fonts, we created this vibe, and then she knows me, and she knows the business, and she’s really run with it. But packaging that is, like, both clean. I wanted it to be colorful. I wanted all the colors to be something you’d find in nature, but still wanted it to feel joyful. You know, the mountain on the top there is, so that’s iliamna. That’s a mountain that you can see from where we live, and her three sisters and I have three sisters, and so it really all, you know, it’s been something that there is a lot of beautiful packaging out there, and there’s a lot of ways to do beautiful packaging. And now the source, like, the resources, are easier than ever, you know, to get just gorgeous packaging done at like, pretty reasonable prices. And so for me, it was just about finding the right resources and learning, you know, it’s a language of its own. And I never hired like a true product designer, which you can do and get, you know, phenomenal results. But mine was a combination of, you know, hiring somebody to do their job well, and then also surrounding myself with people who have a similar mindset as me to wanting to create something that was like both clean and beautiful and unique. But you can see this packaging is, while lovely, is not it’s not overly extraordinarily it’s it’s pretty simplistic. When you really look at it, what’s on there and the information included. But it’s that okay, are we giving the customer enough information to want to pick this up, and then are we also giving them enough space in the packaging to see what they need to be seeing? And it’s just, I think it’s a combination of, like, loving it, understanding it, being a consumer, being a person who likes to buy things, and also being someone who wanted, you know, having that mindset of, like, we want it to be Alaskan, but we don’t want it to be spruce. And moose was a big piece of that.

Damon Pistulka  43:00

Like that moves well, you

Megan Weston  43:03

know what? I’m like, you just, you, you saw the like, lodge room in your head, you know? You just know, like,

Damon Pistulka  43:09

yeah, yeah.

Curt Anderson  43:10

Very, very classy, very, you know, is elegant, the right word. I don’t know, Dana, I just, I think, just absolutely brilliant. Love what you’re what you’re sharing here. I know I’m like, I could keep you here all day. I know I’m keeping you longer than I know you’re good. So let’s go here. Megan, growth for you’re experiencing. And what a blessing, right? I mean, because, like, there’s, there’s, you know, entrepreneurship is Damon, we were just at a group the other day, you know, it’s the roller coaster, right? You have your ups, you have your downs, and when you’re on the upswing, man, you’ve got it. You’ve got to capture those moments, because you don’t know how long it’s going to last. Therefore, typically comes with growing pains. Do you have any advice, suggestions, as far as, like, what’s been helping you navigate through growing pains? Yeah, um,

Megan Weston  43:57

I mean, having people that you can reach out to and have a conversation with, you know, like, I’ve called Alyssa a couple of times in the last six months and been like, I need to word vomit the things and because sometimes in the process of just talking about it, you find your solutions, depending on how you process as a human for some people, it’s writing it down. For me, I’m a verbal processor, so being able to talk about it in a space where you can be very real and you don’t have to worry about hurting the other person’s feelings by like saying all of the truths, is a really big piece of it. I think that allows you to, for me, it allows me to put all the puzzle pieces on the board, and then a lot of times they click back into place. You know, I think a thing that we are still working on is putting systems in place. If you can put a system in place now, don’t, don’t, not grow, because you don’t have the systems yet. Like that is a thing certain subset of people will like, not ever put the systems in place. And then other people. We’ll just be like, well, the system isn’t perfect yet, so we can’t do the thing. And neither one of those is the right answer. And so and the systems are going to change constantly. And by systems, I mean like, whether it is like your billing processes, your the way that you reach out to your customers, the way that you, you know, do your ordering, like, as you grow, these things are going to morph over time. And they should, they shouldn’t stay identical, because as your business scales, the scale of things needs to change, and the delegation of tasks is going to change. And so that is, you know, where we’re at right now, is everything is in my brain, and I have to get it out of my brain, and there has to be someone else has to be able to reference this information somewhere. That’s the stage of growth we’re in, and that is, you know, it’s tough, it’s hard, but it’s also like part of the process. And I think reminding yourself like just because you have to change doesn’t mean you were doing it wrong before. And, I mean, that is, that was, that’s a big thing. I have to remind myself that all the time, that’s

Curt Anderson  46:09

a that’s a phenomenal comment right there.

Damon Pistulka  46:11

That’s, yes, it really is, because it does, it does. I mean, you do it with what you got and your best judgment at that point, and but you, you can’t foresee everything. You can’t build a system that’s made for your company five years down the road in year one. You just aren’t going to be able to do that. You don’t even know what’s going to hit you then. And such a great point because, and back to your points, you know, you can’t wait for it to be perfect. You need to start and then work it out on the way. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  46:39

And we’ve got one, one last question here from the crowd. We’ve got, are there plans for future expansion?

Megan Weston  46:48

I mean, always ones we’re talking about, yet

46:55

we’ll have it back on. Yeah.

Megan Weston  47:00

We’re in transition right now. You know, with the with the transition out of the restaurants, specifically, we just sold one, and that partner from that restaurant is now coming into the tea business. So we’re kind of in that transition right now. The big one for us next year is, you know, finding a production manager, finding somebody who we can teach this equipment and the processes to allow me to be just the CEO, not the ordering manager and the salesperson and the, you know, every single role, and it’s deciding what are the roles that I need to fulfill. You know, where do I keep hands in the pie, so that I know as growth happens, that we’re keeping consistency of product, of quality of that. But then also, like, what are the touch points that bring me joy? Like, what are the things that are going to keep me thriving as an entrepreneur and continuing to even if they don’t always make the perfect amount of sense, like keeping those pieces as a part of my daily role, so that I feel fulfilled and feel joyful about this business I’ve created. So yeah, and then, and honestly, like, I think, you know, we have a we have an opportunity right now that we’re just mulling around and trying to decide what we’re going to do with, you know, a big one for us is going to be location. You know, what are we going to do about our space long term? Which is, you know, with any manufacturing, is almost always going to be one of the challenges,

Damon Pistulka  48:31

yeah, yeah. It is one of the challenges all the time, yeah, all the time, especially with growth, you’re going to be on where are we going to go? Yeah. How are we going to do this, right? All right, Megan,

Curt Anderson  48:44

we’ll start winding down. I, you know, so we’re keeping it, but you i, the wisdom, the energy, the enthusiasm, just completely contagious. We love all of it. Last question for you, if, and maybe you’ve already answered this, if you haven’t already as you started your entrepreneurial journey, or maybe what’s helped you become successful at such a fast, early stage? What is the best business advice that you feel that you’ve ever received, or best business advice that you would love to pass along to a young entrepreneur, or just a new entrepreneur, best business advice? What do you have to say there?

Megan Weston  49:21

Um, I would say don’t wait. Don’t wait. It doesn’t need to be perfect to to get it out the door. Just, you know, just don’t wait.

Curt Anderson  49:32

Don’t wait. Just kind of adjust, do it, right? So don’t wait, you know what? Let’s get T shirts made up for Megan, right? Just don’t wait. Just go rip off the band aid. Just go do it,

Megan Weston  49:46

you know. But like, also, I would say the next piece of that is surround yourself with people who have different skill sets than you, yeah. And that is always the next thing, like, surround yourself with people who know things about the things that you don’t know about. And. That are good at them.

Curt Anderson  50:02

Love it never be the smartest person in the room. Damon, takeaways from our conversation today. One and only. Megan, I

Damon Pistulka  50:09

just it’s so cool to learn more about you, what you’re doing with Felicity lofty and how things are going. Because, you know, I’ve heard the stories about the production equipment before, but it’s great to see it’s in action. It’s doing what you do, and in fact, you’re actually looking at more equipment to see what’s going on. And just so much fun. Thank you.

Curt Anderson  50:33

Yeah, absolutely So Megan, we’re gonna, we’re gonna wrap up any last words, parting thoughts that you want to share with folks so they can find you on your website. We’ve got you in the show notes here. We’re going to be posting you all over the place. Best way for folks to connect with you.

Megan Weston  50:46

Yeah, I mean, Instagram is kind of my hub for social media. If somebody has social media, I don’t really look at anything else who has time. But other than that, you can always send me an email to reach out on the site. And, yeah, I think that’s, you know, we’ve got a Fall Festival, kind of, we got Harvest Moon Festival, local Kenai foods here in Saldana, Northwest tea and Seattle. The weekend after that, the end of October, we’ll be at Heartland tea and chocolate festival in Kansas City. So, yeah, we’re, we’re, we’ll be around. Come say hi. I’ll make you a cup of tea.

Curt Anderson  51:24

Wow. Absolutely love it. So Megan, first off, we want to give a huge, huge thank you. We commend you, we compliment you, we praise you, we admire you. And Damon, how about big round of applause for just Megan absolutely crushing it today. What an inspiration she is. And as we wind down, we just want to share with everybody. Go out and just be someone’s inspiration. Just like our dear friend Megan is keep crushing it. Check out Felicity loft for your friends, your family, birthdays, holidays. Christmas is rating season. It’s, it’s totally, it’s totally tea season, man. So there’s no better tea on the planet. So check out Megan. And Megan, we just wish you continued success. Hang out with us for one second. And Damon, we have a great guest coming up this Friday, man. So we’ll, we’ll, we’ll be Ray Packer Friday. Guys. Have a great rest of your week, and we will see you soon.

52:17

Thanks guys. You.