Female Founders: Melissa Harlan of ‘Drink Me! Tea Room’ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Building a strong team. As a small business owner you have to look for team members that are strong and have the ability to step into other roles when needed. Having a team that works well together helps with the fluid system that you must build to keep operational costs down when starting your business. If everyone is willing to pitch in to get the job done, then we can provide the best experience for our customers which in turn helps the business to continue to grow.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa Harlan.
Over her career, Melissa worked for some of the top companies known for their customer experience, including Disney, Southwest Airlines and Verizon. She knows how important attention to detail is in creating an outstanding and unforgettable experience. Ready to retire from spreadsheets and headcounts, Melissa began Drink Me! Tea Room in 2020 and put a modern twist on afternoon tea. Melissa puts all her detail-focused talent into ensuring guests have an amazingly immersive time with premium tea, plant-based and gluten-free treats and hand-crafted cocktails when they come to visit her unique Tea Room.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I had been a corporate employee for most of my career but wasn’t satisfied with my path. I knew that I wanted something different someday, something that was my own, magical, and would benefit my customers. This first leap of faith that I had to do was leave my corporate job before figuring out what I was going to do next. I wanted to give myself the time to think, explore, and plan for my decision. During this time, I visited London with my family who loves to travel and try new things. We visited a number of tea rooms during our trip and those visits quickly became the most enjoyable and memorable part of our trip. It dawned on me that I wanted to create something similar in my neighborhood. I started writing my business plan on our flight home. I wanted a place for people to gather and enjoy a tradition with my own modern touches. I am also vegan and gluten-free and have had a very hard time finding places that cater to people with allergies, so I wanted to create a place where people don’t have to worry about what is on the menu.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
The most interesting piece of my new business has been the decision to open our concept in the middle of the pandemic. I had already put plans into place, so I decided to work through and still make this new concept a reality. Construction on our tea shop was interesting as we had to find people that could work with us during a time where the construction industry has been so tied up. Despite the current times, people were finding us and having tea with us. This gave us hope that even when businesses had to pivot and shut down, we were starting to thrive.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
It wasn’t necessarily funny, but I learned quickly I can’t control all situations. For our business plan, we had determined a build out for the tearoom but because of a mix of COVID and some unexpected turns, we ended up having to spend much more money than planned. It was a major learning curve as a new business owner. Also, being very sustainability conscious, vegan, and gluten-free, my business couldn’t work with the large food vendors and companies that most restaurants utilize. Additionally, about a month after we opened, the tea room flooded due to a plumbing issue. I realized that there are so many factors out of my control, I just have to be great at problem solving and keep moving forward.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My wonderful husband and family have been amazingly supportive. I also have an outstanding business coach who provides the best coaching and support I could ask for. Additionally, during my decision journey I became very involved in a local yoga studio. My teachers at One Tribe Yoga have been my guides in so many ways. They helped me to work through the decisions that I needed to make from a small business perspective and an individual growth perspective. They constantly remind me to take a breath, make sure that you are centering yourself and moving forward in the right direction. Since they also recently started their new studio, they have also been an invaluable resource to me during my buildout, technology decisions, building acoustics, and even marketing. The love and support all around me helps keep me motivated and grounded in the reasons I wanted to become a bigger part of the community.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
From my own experience I could see women feeling hindered to begin their own business due to the challenges with work, life balance. Women with children in school or little ones many times prioritize the family over beginning their own business. To open a small business you need 100% focus and dedication, which can sometimes be difficult with the demands of life. Having a family also means usually taking less risk when it comes to forgoing a consistent paycheck and benefits.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
I think more women would look to become entrepreneurs if there were available opportunities for funding or resources when beginning a business. This was something that I found lacking when I began my business.
I have found more resources now in the journey, but the support initially wasn’t there. Since opening Drink Me! Tea Room, I’ve started a small business support group so that we can lean on each other to find resources, help answer questions, and have a system in place when we feel lost. I’m also part of a few Instagram groups for both tea businesses and our small business mastermind group. We have monthly meetings and even guest speakers that give insight on a variety of topics to the group. In the groups we talk about our challenges and try to help by relating to problems that we’ve solved with our own businesses. I’m grateful for this support group because it provides a safe space to ask questions along my small business journey. I also enjoy being able to help other new business owners by sharing my experience and any knowledge I’ve learned along the way..
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Through the past few years of starting my own business, I have found that many other female entrepreneurs are very inclusive and supportive of each other’s businesses. I also love seeing the innovation and creativity that comes from female founders. I think the positive energy that comes from these women owned businesses make a great difference in their neighborhoods and in the small business community as a whole. Not to sound cliche, but it’s a force for good in the world that we could all use more of. The willingness to help each other shows that there is a strong female support system in the entrepreneur world. Many times women are scared to begin their own business, but I believe just knowing that there is encouragement from others who have already gone through this journey can help ease the concerns that a female may have.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
Before I started my business, a myth that I always thought was that you had to know everything about your business before taking the leap to begin. I knew very little but was able to learn and grow as I moved along in creating Drink Me! Tea Room. I’ve met a lot of new business owners who feel the same way, but once we began running our businesses, we became more comfortable with trusting our instincts and knowledge. Everyday truly is a learning experience.
I think another myth is that someone must dream of a business for years before making it happen. I began thinking of how my business idea could help people with food allergies and in a year and a half, I made it a reality without knowing everything that an experienced tearoom or small business owner should know.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
Different paths are for different people. Not everyone is cut out to own and run their own business. Over the course of my career in corporate America, I worked with many people who were content with receiving a steady paycheck and having a consistent steady job. I was one of them for a long time. There is nothing wrong with that, I just wanted more and took the opportunity when it presented itself.
I think founders need to have curiosity and tenacity to move forward no matter what crisis or diversion happens along your path. I think a founder needs problem solving skills because many times something will arise, and you will have to do the job yourself. I also believe that you must be willing to spend all your time and focus on establishing the business with a vision of how to move it forward to make it a success.
In my case a founder must also be willing to do the dishes, mop the floors and clean the bathrooms. In order to move the business forward, you must be willing to do all of the things necessary to do so.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
1. Building a strong team. As a small business owner you have to look for team members that are strong and have the ability to step into other roles when needed. Having a team that works well together helps with the fluid system that you must build to keep operational costs down when starting your business. If everyone is willing to pitch in to get the job done, then we can provide the best experience for our customers which in turn helps the business to continue to grow.
2. Adaptability is a requirement. Every day in a new, small business there are many types of challenges. Being able to figure these out with your team and having the ability to solve a problem quickly is imperative. This also stems back to having great leadership and systems in place so that when a problem does occur, it does not become a detriment to the business.
3. Tenacity goes hand in hand with adaptability. Showing tenacity in your everyday leadership will flow through to your employees. This will help to keep the entire team moving forward and learning each day. There are many setbacks that will challenge you, but the drive to correct course and move forward will help to keep everyone motivated.
4. Connecting with others. This has been invaluable during my journey as a new business owner. Whether it’s other small business owners or our guests, creating inspiring and genuine connections with others has been something that helps me through the challenges and reminds me of why I wanted to open my business.
5. Stay true to myself. My business is a reflection of who I am and what is important to me. Staying true to that in every choice I make is incredibly important to me; whether it’s using compostable packaging and organic ingredients or supporting other small businesses along my journey.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I think this was something that motivated me even before opening my business. I had two aspects that were a focus of mine because of my own experiences. The first was connecting with people through the tea room. This business has been vastly more rewarding because of this. We love hearing our customers’ stories. Where they are from, how their food challenges have hindered their lives, when and where they’ve experienced Afternoon Tea before and what celebrations bring them to Drink Me! Tea Room with their favorite people.
Another way I hope to make the world a better place is through small business connections. In addition to our working group, I try to connect and support other small and local businesses as well. As an example, I work with a local composting group, where we compost all of our food and paper waste, who we then buy locally grown herbs from. I also buy some of our cocktail spirits from a local distillery, Wild Hare Distillery. They are located 3 miles from our tea room and also have a female founder. There are many small businesses that I would love to partner with or support and help them succeed in turn. I think community and connection makes the world a much better place.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Every choice that I make as a business owner I do with environmentally conscious beliefs behind it. I knew that to stay true to what I wanted the concept to be, I needed to hire a sustainability consultant to help with the pain points that I couldn’t solve on my own. This has helped us improve our focus on the sustainably aspect of the business by providing better buying choices and also saving money.
The entire Tea Room concept was based on having safe and delicious gluten-free, vegan and organic food options. This has expanded into a thoughtful recycling program that now incorporates composting. This is exciting because we are able to help a local farm that uses our paper and scraps to create their own crops. We also use sustainable containers, have changed to all LED lighting throughout the building and are constantly looking for boutique vendors that we can potentially use to continue in this direction. Being thoughtful in my business , thinking of how I am spending money, and understanding how I can impact our plant and the customers that choose to do business with me is an important piece of the overall company.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
From a business perspective, I would love to have a conversation over a meal with Jen Sincero. Jen has created the series of “You Are a Badass” books. I will read and re-read these books anytime I feel like I need to change direction or need motivation. I always listen to books for inspiration but hers are my favorite. She really knows how to light a fire of motivation.
From a Vegan standpoint, I would love to meet Alicia Silverstone. Her motivation for being vegan and starting a business based on this lifestyle is amazing to me. I also am always on the lookout for great vegan products and resources and love her supplements, My Kind Organics..
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Melissa Harlan On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Su was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.