Friday, March 20, 2020 - Trust is Leadership

Video Subtitles:

We are live from the tea Tea room
here in Las Vegas, Nevada on

Friday and really happy to be here
with you and celebrating the

end of this week and hopefully gonna
have some some friends

come on through Instagram and chat
with us

It's been a tough week. But I think
we're all gonna we're all

gonna do good and we're all gonna
learn a lot. I think we

already have learned a lot and you
know it's interesting when I

first started you know doing doing
these sessions.

I was trying to avoid talking about
what we're dealing with

here and just realizing now that
there, there is no avoiding it

and we we do need to talk about
it and Everybody's perspective

here here with everybody is learning
and and all of that great

stuff. So here I'm live on Instagram
and yeah. so you know

before we start bringing some friends
on and start chatting

with didn't wanna talk about an
article that I read yesterday

that talks about the real problem
that we're dealing. Right now

and why it is becoming such an issue
for us and what we're

eventually going to evolve to have
which is leadership and you

know I talk about leadership all
the time in fact, just last

week I had a business partner here
that's was asking me what is

tea latte and what is my vision
for Taylor? What is my goal for

and ultimately what I said is the
tea let his leadership.

That's what we are and that's what
I want the world to see us

to be and so it was you know really
related relatable for me to

read this article about our lack
of leadership and it's very

long article and I'll I'll go ahead
and like post a link to it

so that way you guys can all read
it. but essentially says that

leadership is trust and trust within
a community and and that's

really what we're missing in our
society now. And why we're

having such a A A tough go at dealing
with what we're dealing

right now is because there is a
lack of trust and that our

leadership has really done a lot
in creating that lack of trust

that we are only out for ourselves
and that's kind of been the

mentality that we've been rolling
with here in the developed

world, which has. Pulled into the
developing world, too, You

know I travel a lot to the developing
world and there is this

kind of romantic romanticism in
around. Hey Lyn Lyn. How are

you doing good to see you thanks
for saying hi.

yeah. So it's it's not just a problem
exclusively ours either.

even the developing world where
small scale trusting

communities exist. There is still
this ideal toward. you know

the the the more developed world,
which really is based off of

a lack of trust and it was really
interesting that you know

since about 2010, there's been this
growing community around

information transparency peer to
peer information sharing. so

this is like the cryptocurrency
world and that is all based. Of

trust like you know, Bitcoin and
blockchain is all relevant for

trust-based transactions. So that's
why Bitcoin has been

successful for currency transactions
cuz the mutual

understanding of the value of a
currency which could be a piece

of paper or could be this like electronic
entity that we all

possess and trade with each other.
there's trust that we both

understand the value of that currency
and so that's why.

Bitcoin is a good application for
currency. you know when

you're talking about information
sharing such as like I know

you know in the industry that I
work in. There's a lot of talk

around walk chain being good for
like supply chain management,

the information around supply chain
and you know, ultimately,

unless there's a trust transaction
happening between that

sharing of information. the blockchain
really or any type of

blockchain really is it. You know
that great of a solution cuz

it's all it's all about gaining
trust. so I just filled my guy

one with an aged showing poor really
dark in color. It's really

beautiful. look forward to drinking
this. Oh my gosh such a

deep freeze a robot. If you guys
can take a look see how dark

that color is really nice. Whoo
whistling tea What I'm showing

it to the camera. It's okay. I'll
pick it up and have some

later.

I just listened to the live message
that Nevada's governor just

gave reiterating the importance
of non essential business.

closing down. yeah isn't this guy
one beautiful. It's it's

totally my style. It's nothing fancy
other than the print on

it, but it's a nice big size so
I can drink lots of tea to

myself. yeah. so a few a few nights
ago, there was a really

important message shared with the
state that non essential

business will need to be closed
and so that meant. And of

course casinos, which is you know
a big deal for for here in

the state. cuz you know a lot of
the economy is driven by that.

yeah, Paul. Yeah. The governor was
just live in. I was

listening to that. you're right
not much leadership because you

know he he is you know talking about
what we need to do. but

when it comes to the actual enforcement,
you know someone asked

the question. How do we report if
an honest essential business

is still operating is. His answer
was just don't call 911 so

then what do we do you know? you
know we hold ourselves

accountable hold our peers accountable.
That's that's the best

that we can do as individuals but
yeah, I really feel like if

you're gonna say something as a
leader, you're gonna say

something and make some kind of
order. it's really important

that you yourself follow through
on the water, which I thought

was interesting that they they're
now doing their press

conferences virtually which ended
up with a bunch of technical

difficulties. They weren't able
to get the the journalist. To

clearly get their questions through

That's good. Yeah, so I didn't do
a rinse on this tea and I

actually don't do rinses a lot of
my teeth because I I trust

that they're clean. you know they
may have some age on them,

but they're coming from clean, reliable
sources and not being

aged in places that I don't know
so I like to drink all of my

tea whenever I have a chance so
I usually don't do a rinse and

just. throw that out so enjoying
this tea now. So as I was

saying with with leadership, if
you're gonna make an order if

you're gonna say something really
important to follow through

yourself on it and and to set an
example for everybody else to

follow through on it as well. So
you know I'm reflecting on

that myself and through my company,
what the work that I do

here if if I'm gonna say that let
his leadership what does that

mean you know and and the leadership
that I thought from day

one of starting my work was accountability.
of information

between stakeholders between a community
in our case, this

community is international tea community
of tea growers

producers. you know in some cases
tea traders or brokers or

middlemen of sorts of whom we also
hold accountable for their

honesty and transparency and the
work that they do as well as

you know the retailers that we work
with. Hey Brandon. How is

it going man? Good to see you happy
Friday. So yeah, I was just

politics you opened your JT. don't
being last night. Oh lucky

you JT's got really good tea up
in Eugene. If you guys are up

an organ and looking for for good
T, I do recommend JT he's got

some really nice tea there. Taiwanese
special specialty.

By the way I have put together like
a list of all the retailers

that we work with that. you can
support in your local community

or on the Internet. now is a really
important time to support

these small businesses that are
committed to sourcing good

quality, ethical tea and providing
that to their community and

it's also a good time for you to
get some good tea for hi Wendy

how you doing some good tea. Your
stocks and for your home,

yeah, that's something that people
say they often forget and

look over when it comes to preparing
their home. For times like

this, you know they think of the
the TP they think of the rice

and the ramen noodles but you know
tea is something that's like

very low impact and takes a very
little real estate in your

cabinets. to have on hand that can
bring immense amount of

comfort to you and your family throughout
the day or into the

night. I have noticed that I'm drinking
a lot more tea at home

and it's making me feel good. of
course, like a lot of these

like live sessions have really.
Me to to drink more tea. I've

been finding myself tuning in with
other people's tee times on

on Instagram and such and and feeling
inspired to drink tea

with them. So if you are feeling
inspired to GDP, I hope that

you do right now actually I'm gonna
be on for another. You

know, 50 minutes or so so I'd love
to have tea with you. so

feel free to to get your tea flowing
and I'd love to have you

split screens with neon on Instagram.
Available and we can

catch it, catch up and chat about
life and mostly I'd like to

chat about the things that we look
forward to you know versus

the things that we're afraid of
or the things that are

uncertain for us because that we
could talk endlessly about

right now by the second everything
is is changing but really

important to focus on the positive
and focus on the community

and focus on building that trust
right. so if we think about it

in that perspective of Of leadership
being trust, then that's

something that we can all build
ourselves. You know, leadership

doesn't have to be a single individual.
It's it's a whole

movement. You know it's the whole
community caring for each

other and working with each other
and building that trust and

communication. Hi. How's it going
good to see ya bye. Hi. How

are you doing good? That's a push
behind you. Yeah. Labradoodle

so and he needs a shave and I'm
pretty sure the groomers is

gonna be close tomorrow. So for
like months, I'm like okay.

Yeah. If you ever shaved shaved
your dog yourself, I did try

one time but the race they're like
broke on me halfway through

so that was you know a bad effect,
but I don't know I'll be

trying to do something maybe so
yeah, we'll see again. No. Can

you can you introduce? Can you introduce
yourself to to our

community? Please alright. Hi, you're
up here. hi everyone. I'm

Miriam. I work at Sticky Motor Company
and I've known at least

the bond long long before that.
so yeah I got into tea.

probably I guess we're around 2010
so about I guess 10 years

ago. yeah and there you go so I
just drink a lot of teeth good

on. so like all this is just my
foot all the crazy crash. So

that's what I think so you work
for for motor. That's based in

Seattle are you based in Seattle?
Yeah. I'm out in Bellevue.

Okay. I've got enough. I'm just
you know, renting a House out

here too expensive to buy Yeah,
I'm at my family's over here

too. So if local for me and yeah,
I love all the local DC. I'm

here. It's really good. Yeah. it
is Yes. Seattle is an amazing

teaching Super collaborative lots
of trust there. there's

leadership there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It was funny that you're

talking about that because I had
just listened to a podcast of

from it's called Econ talk. It's
really good podcast and they

were talking about it's called it's
They were calling it. It's

a time to build but really with
the podcast was talking about

was like our institutions as in
like you know the. Like the

school system or the institution
of life, the government, or

just like regular old, you know
like institutions that just

like a company or Bank and they're
talking about how faith in

these institutions is very very
low at the moment. you know

there's just this lack of trust
in these these things so it

makes it difficult for you know
people in general when we don't

trust our government or are you
know the companies around us or

the community around us? And that
is very concerning for you

know people in society. Yeah. So
yeah. Well. it's a good. It's

good that this is a common theme
that people are talking about

because yeah, we haven't been talking
about this much. you know

what I think what we're doing right
now has raised that

question and everybody keeps talking
about how this is bringing

out generosity and people and so
maybe that reflection is

what's making us feel like well.
So why weren't we being

generous with each other before
why weren't we sharing with

each other before? yeah, cuz we
were just so wrapped up in in

our lives and you know trying to
fit in and been into the

system and and succeed in that system,
which is all based on a

lack of trust. Yeah, yeah. I don't
really interesting cuz it's

definitely like We've been very
just like growing more and more

and more disconnected and so it's
gonna be very interesting to

see how this like force disconnect.
like this force distance

will change you know how how close
we get online basically and

how we start rebuilding communities.
when we're not allowed to

be mutual, you know yeah cuz you
know I just remember back in

the early 2000. Or so, like I have
like friends online, just

like this and basically my parents
dance is pretty much you

know. they're not really your friends
cuz you don't actually

like know who they are right, you
know and it was just funny

because it's I'm like what are you
talking about? I talk to

them all the time you know like
I talked to them more than my

friend down the Street so

Pregnant so Seattle is we haven't
technically shut down yet but

we have like everyone's like highly
encourage to stay at home.

So like I'm working to help today
and and so we're all you know

really far apart and so funny cuz
like I'm a total introvert

like 90 - nine percent of the time
but like the instant, you

tell me, I can't go out like that.
I was like, Oh, no I So just

something I was like I have feel
like I've got cabin fever even

though I have it, I wouldn't be
doors for a whole day. You

know, yeah and and you know I saw
you doing these live streams.

That's like that's a really good
idea because then we like have

a way to you know like do a social
activity with each other

digitally and so that will be really
interesting to see how

this continues to to shift people
into this thinking like ways

of connecting with each other and
stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Great. So

how how is the overall energy in
Seattle and like how has it

changed over the past few weeks?
Parallel really bad. so

basically

around at the beginning of March.
Yeah around the beginning of

March, we were like Oh what's going
on this is crazy. You know,

I hope things will get tight over
here and just kinda let. Oh,

that's you know that's a problem.
That's like far off you know

it's over in Italy in China. not
really here like we didn't

know that was trying to hear but
we're like we should be fine.

Yeah and yeah kinda just sort of
like this like low growing

sense of dread as we're like. Oh
all of these cases are having

community trans transmission. So
like maybe we are actually

screwed here and people like no
my fine and You know the case

is just keep going up and up and
up and just keep going up and

up and it's not just people in you
know an outbreak of a

nursing home. It's there was a community
leader Guide down he

was a long time business owner over
in place market and I think

it was very quickly marketing and
and he just suddenly passed

away from Cobi. he passed away.
I heard someone tested

positive, but I didn't hear someone
actually passed away. I

totally could be proud in this and
I feel like I'm really bad,

you know Seattle light but like
I think it's like a blushy, you

know like I don't know I. So but
yeah, but now he he takes the

positive and then he just passed
away. I think today or

yesterday, Oh well there's this
professor in the the Medical

Department and he caught it and
he passed away and yeah, we've

got you know more and more cases
were more exposures. It kinda

feels like it's all brewing closer
and people are really

worried people are really really
stressed about it And people

are like I think there's a real
feeling of restlessness of like

a lot of people have been really
inspiring. so that's really

inspiring stories coming out here
recently like so there's have

you heard of the farm. The farm.
No. I did not. I don't know

the art form so the airport is really
like famous restaurant

over here and it's pretty well-renowned
As well, and and it was

really you know when suddenly restaurants
are closing they

posted a picture of their dining
room empty and they like you

know just like everyone else it
kinda just like what do we do

at the farm. I don't know if it
was one of their friends or if

it was the the owner or not but
they came up with this really

really amazing idea and so what
they're doing. Is they started

a fundraiser on GoFundMe and so
for every 20 - $5 that people

donate they like prepare and pack
an individually packaged

meal. You know that's made by these
five search ups. they

deliver it to one of the local hospitals
and so Indiana like 20

- four hours and like 40 - eight
hours they raised I think

almost $40000. that was like what
is that like a thousand miles

or something pretty good. Yeah like
that's milk over well over

a thousand miles. That's great.
So yeah. and so that's just

been really exciting and I think
people really were like. Oh

thank goodness. there's some way
that we can contribute to

this. You know like just staying
at home and just being scared

me. Yeah. yeah. there's a lot of
restaurants that are giving

away free meals to kids in the area.
Yup You know, because

there's lot of kids when they can't
go to school, then they

can't get their lunch over there.
I don't know yeah, I kind of

I worried that like I know that
it's really really wonderful

gesture to donate to the hospitals
I don't think we've quite

figured out what to do in the long
term with this like how

sustainable any of these you know
any of these legs outreach

efforts are but at least you know
that was something that was

really inspiring and really nice
and people are trying to think

of other ways of of being able to
do stuff like that. Yeah,

which has been nice and relieving
in a weird way. So yeah after

I finish my work here today. I'm
gonna head to my my friend's

restaurant chef Janine Shiraz she
is doing today and tomorrow

so Vegas residents if you're interested
they're doing the a

blood drive with the the the mold.
truck and offering a free

meal for anybody coming and donating
blood and yeah, I have a

negative blood. so I know it's really
important. for my plead

to be there and they probably are
short. I can only imagine so

yeah, I'm gonna go do that. That's
my little wave of helping

out myself and then you know it's
it's great promotion for

their restaurant. You know like
they've been on the forefront.

You know every every step of the
way kind of being the lead the

leader they were the first ones
to to go online with their

their online delivery orders. you
know three days before

anybody else did cuz yeah here in
Vegas. there's been like a a

really big delay of accepting where
we are in this and the

business position and and the leadership
that the businesses

need to step up and build that trust
in the community that

we're all created. Save space for
for the community but you

know when when your livelihood is
on the line it, you know most

business owners here have waited
until the very last moment

until you know they've been ordered
by the government to close

down but you know I think she's
been really proactive and being

steps ahead and then now this collaboration
with the blood

Bank, which is really great. So
yeah. Yeah. The governor just

gave the escape of speech Before
I went live as I was a little

late, I was trying to catch that
and he was trying to stress

the urgency that nonessential businesses
need to close because

yeah, like we had a big controversy.
One of the Strip clubs

stayed open and they like they were
fused. It's like so lack of

class, but you know they've been
using this whole situation in

their marketing since day one and
they refused to close and

they even talk to the media and
said we refuse to close and.

Then, they said they were gonna
do like drive through lap

dances or something like that, and
it's just ridiculous. It's

like yeah the the faster we like
make this decision and move as

a community. The faster we can resolve
this and move on with

our lives somebody said on Twitter.
something like can y'all

just stay inside already like I
feel like I'm in kindergarten

and you know my recess is getting
shortened because I'm a kid

who will get in line exactly. It's
like that. Yeah, it's. That

we've been having a big issue with
that here. I mean, I'm sure

it's an issue everywhere but here
it's it's you know we're

we're in such like a gig Gig Economy
service economy here that

maybe a larger portion of people's
livelihood are at stake here

than than other places. So that's
understandable. yeah. Sorry I

shred like some numbers on how many
people are working and like

you know pieces and later second
thing. in the US, it's like

two million four million people
or something like that, like

it's you know it's a lot of people.
Yeah. honestly, I feel like

that's like you know a little ball
they and and then there was

like you know, retail workers and
like and gosh that doesn't

anywhere near the number of gig
workers because who's counting

that number barely right and affecting
you know millions of

people in this really. Temperature
yeah, I've got a friend or

one of my cousins. I know friends
have been fired already

because they're their cafe disclosed.
no one of my cousins. I I

don't think that she's I don't know
if she's been fired or just

like for load basically or she's
on leave or whatever but she

worked for Nordstrom and that's
closed all their stores. and

then, of course, it's kinda funny
cuz my cousin was just about

to buy a restaurant last month and
it built through just

because of like issues with the
the You know the owners of the

time and and now we look at that.
We're like whoa. That was a

total bullet dodge. You know that
was just like wow that would

have been horrible. Yeah bad timing.
Yeah. Yeah. She had no

gotten that kind of Kind of like
you know just financial and

like be like you know responsibility
like just the

responsibility for equal work there
and the responsibility of

like you know and all the the cost
of owning a restaurant and

then suddenly this happened like
Oh, what did they think? Yeah?

Yeah. So yeah it's yeah. it's it's
not and it's really it's

hitting high low. You know yeah.
It's pretty terrible all

around and and people are really
resistant to something normal

normal seat because you know a lot
of times like that's their

only income you know like and they're
really. I think you know

like I'm terrified you know I didn't
have my income. You know

it's very lucky that I'm probably
still them to keep it and

yeah, it's just yeah that's gonna
be. Like nuts, I don't know

maybe even become like YouTube streamers.
Yeah. Well, I mean

the ultimate thing is that we're
will become farmers. you know

will become producers will become
you know maybe not literal

farmers, but I'm I'm using that
the term farmers is someone

that's producing something versus
working for somebody you know

what I mean. We're gonna touch on
this the other night when you

hit me up and I said some pretty
strong stuff, but I stay

strong things to that strong opinion.
So you know. I stayed I

say, like sometimes some sleeping
statements that you know

aren't literal but figurative you
know that a lot of the source

of this problem is you know lack
of leadership as we are

talking about the lack of accountability
and trust between all

these points and how do we bring
how do we bring that back is

by you know, starting with ourselves
first and then moving to

our family, the moving to our community
and then moving to you

know the the global community at
large So yeah, ultimately,

then you'd be a farmer to do that.
you know if you if you

ultimately just had yourself like
you have to you know, harvest

your own harvest your own food harvest
your own everything that

you need. so that's what I mean
by that. it's literally a

farmer, but you know it's Your own
soil basically, yeah, I

don't know cuz like on one hand.
yeah, it feels like what this

sort of feels like it's revealed
is relying on anyone else is

extremely risky. like just you know.
we cannot rely on

stability is what it feels like

But I think like I think at the
same time though to.

To think that we can all be independent
like that, like I think

that's an interesting kind of very
American mindset. You know

to think that we should all just
try to be as independent as

possible and to assume that that's
the solution. I don't think

that that sustainable at all because
of one just like you know

we can't do everything at once and
that's the reason why

society is sort of like created
these little diversion each. Of

people feeling different little
roles here in their companies,

building different little roles
here and there and all together

collectively you know providing
the services that everyone

needs for the most part and so I
think that that will come back

and I also think that people are
just very

very very, very resistant to change
even when it's something

this strong So I just don't know
what to do that's different.

Yeah. I think that even if the landscape
rightfully ships under

our feet will still keep trying
to plug away at the same old.

like it's basically because that's
really you know new habits

have to develop under different
circumstances and and we you

know like We just do a lot of things
that are kind of our kids

and it's and it was not a patient
to a different time of day,

you know, time and age but most
still stick around and they

probably will continue to stick
around and maybe some things

will change. But for the most part,
I think things will

ultimately be rather than saying
what I do think will radically

change those you know that. Online
and I think that that's

gonna be actually a very positive
change. so I you know it's

creative destruction for better
for worse and I think that this

will be a very helpful to people
just all walks of life. you

know as we get through this and
after this no. He said

something important, though about
what you've learned in this

process, and I think that this is
something that everybody is

learning through this process is
that we can only rely on

ourselves for the stability like
at the end of the day, no

matter what's happening. It's just
gonna be us that are there

right well, Eastern but I've I've
had some extremely lucky like

Circumstances in my own life where
I have had people where I'm

completely able to rely on them
and like as a for instance, you

know a shirts family but not all
families reliable but but this

is family example is so my aunt
owns a tree nursery over here

in over at Redmond and so it's a
full sale. only nursery and my

grandpa was the one who founded
it and when he died. Took it

over really not knowing anything
about plants. She's been a

person before and unfortunately
very soon afterwards. we went

through the financial crisis of
the late and so that just

completely destroyed the housing
market and therefore the

market for landscaping in the market
plans, Yup and she took

money out of her own retirement
in order to pay for her

employees to keep them sustained
through that You know she

tried extremely hard to not let
anybody go. you know because of

her employees have been working
for my graphic for you know

years for decades and so she you
know she just didn't take a

salary. she just you know she took
money from her own savings

from protect days and supplemented
the nursery so that everyone

could still keep their job. even
in that terrible. you know to

multiple time. Yeah and there are
more people like her. There's

not a lot that's pretty rare but
there are more. Like her who

really, you know, try to do the
right thing for their community

and be like you know, I'm not getting
through this alone. I'm

trying to keep as many people with
me as possible. you know and

so I really take that to heart and
I really try to do what I

can with that for my friends who
are having the hardest time

through this but I don't I didn't
work at a tech company. I

don't have much to say things that
she did but but still I. I

don't think that we can't only rely
on itself. I know that it

feels like that. I know that a lot
of people are proving

themselves to be untrustworthy as
leaders but that's not

everybody and whenever I see that
I'm very proud to see you

know that kind of thing and I hope
that those people will

continue to take a stand with where
when they can. Yeah Yeah.

well like I said it starts with
us first and then goes to our

family and then goes to our community
and then you know

community at large and for so long
conventional. We've been

allowing community at large people
that we don't never

connected with never probably even
had a conversation with

We're allowing them to hold all
the power in our lives, the CEO

of the corporations, the politicians
and and what not the

people that you're saying are proving
themselves untrustworthy

now and so I think that's that's
what I'm trying to say is that

like it's all having us reflect
of that that hierarchy of of

trust of course, first ourselves
and. You can't trust yourself.

That's the first thing to work on.
Is you know to build that

trust up core because yeah, it's
like loving yourself like you

can't love anybody else until you
can love yourself right. so

it's the same same concept. yeah
and then realizing that you

have your family. Then you start
realizing the leaders in your

community that are doing the right
thing like all those

businesses and you're at you're
talking about like people that

are making the right decisions and
and giving them the power

you know like. The power in that
way versus the way we have

been working for the past couple
hundred years where you know

like we're giving all the trust
and power to these folks that

like no better, you know they're
the ones that know how to make

money and like we've been taught
to believe that that's what we

need to follow versus you know money
is nothing and we're all

learning that right now, like what's
what's important is is our

time and our values. Resources for
ourselves first and not to

say that we shouldn't be connect.
We actually have to

absolutely be connected will believe,
but you know this time

will be a cool time for us to all
kind of go in word and

readjust that that power dynamic.
Yeah. yeah definitely

you make really interesting point
about this being a moment of

reevaluating like what's important
you know and how we spend

our time and our energy and our
money you know. I like what

money is actually worth kind of
thing and I think especially

we're people who are you know Just
you know the complete like

like the working class, especially
at the service industry

working class right now. I think
this is very difficult moment

for that. but I think that electrically
this is probably the

best moment that they have to like
demand a better quality of

life and interestingly, so some
of the oldest. Historical

economic data that we have is actually
from like the Bionic

play and and then so I I looked
up the article recently those

like you know what happens to an
economy after a play and the

there were some people who had looked
into this. a few years

ago, I had written a little article
about it and it was really

interesting because so like after
the boot. Leg and after the

Spanish flag there was basically
a huge boom in wages and

working wages and so you might you
might say, Oh well, maybe

that's just it's like suddenly there's
less workers better

thing, but I think at the same time
like people are like

and also because people did like
change where they live and how

they live and what kind of industries
you know they worked in,

but I still think at the same time
that it might also just be

you know like. clearly what we were
doing before was

unsustainable. You know I you know
if you want my labor, you

better pay for it, you know, so
I think that would be something

to look out for and I do completely
expect the difficulties

that we're undergoing now. Will
you know cause people to really

have marketing power in being able
to demand a better? you know

work life. you know conditions.
Yeah after this stuff. So and

even through this honestly, yeah
because it's kinda fun. How

we're like looking at grocery store
workers this essential

workers you know when people just
you know, give the baggers

total ??? before. yeah. So it's
like no. they're actually

really important. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
our sanitation workers.

Yeah, Super important and you know
the farmers again going back

to the farmers. Maybe they've always
gotten the short end of

the stick in our in our, you know
commodity mentality and we

were talking about TV other night
and I said something you know

that that tea is a luxury. It's
a modern luxury and I know I

think that that's something else.
in addition to labor into you

know working class labor that we've
also often like commodified

and looked over and just kind of
scoffed at you know tea and

and the difficulties that will come
into you, You know actually

India. Right now, as of tomorrow
the 20 -second so in a few

days they're they're having to do
a total curfew during the

whole day so that they're not allowed
to go out and so actually

you know a lot of the tea producers
that we work with it. They

had started. You know the first
flush processing but they've

all stopped production and won't
start again until the end of

April and there has been a labor
logistical issues in Cuz you

know the labors and China Chinese
tea is all like my migrant

workers that come through you know
they come from different

States and have to work in the field.
so there has been some

logistical issues in China of arranging
labor for the tea

harvest. So you know I think we
are gonna see some issues and

logistics of getting tea to the
market here which ultimately

will affect the price and ultimately
will challenge. All of us

to lovers to reevaluate how we value
tea and it's something

that I've been fighting for since
the very beginning is trying

to increase the price of tea and
that's not because like I

wanna make more money in my business.
It's because I I'm that

correlates to how we value teeth.
He has like been thought of

as this like common global product
that's available all over

the world and it's just a common
commodity that you should be

able to get access to and I I don't
agree with that. I mean

that idea. There has created a lot
of sustainability issues

that you know we've been talking
about for the tea industry but

then also you know there are hardworking
people in the tea and

the tea world. that do organic work
you know in Japan,

especially that's like a really
big issue is is organic farming

in Japan. It's like the odds are
against you to be an organic

farmer in Japan cuz your product
is not as valuable in the

local market because the local palette
has gain. A liking for

that strong punchy mommy, which
comes from like the high

density of chemical fertilizers,
so you know if you do that

hard work you you have a disadvantage.
You have a handicap and

then whenever you try to take your
product to the international

market. It's all been so commodified
and just kinda you know

scoffed at as a product, you'll
never get anything more than $5

a kilo you know, and that's that's
like local market price for

the highest that you can get even
if you make a really good.

Product yeah. So yeah. I've been
good. It's good. No you go you

go. okay. yeah. I I thought it's
company you know working at

this Japanese company that like
lower quality Japanese Green

teas like really expensive but like
higher quality Japanese

Green tea is relatively cheap so
and and that's just been

because yeah they've they've had
this weird. Dynamic where the

Bird is really high in a way disproportionately
old they don't

really they don't really really
on migrant labor and you know

so the only like thing that farmers
can do to grab a margin. an

actual like livable margin is to
try and do some like higher IT

but because. Feel the same the pressure
to like have really low

prices for the really big cheaper
entities. I think I think

that they push those those higher
price list. High-quality tea

prices down too despite them being
actually pretty good quality

and and then, of course another
country is you know like the

labor is just dirt cheap comparatively
because they don't treat

these people barely at all and That
will be so definitely been

you know it's been interesting to
watch over the last few years

now how workers in India have been
trying to get better

conditions and the estate owners
like you know, I think you'd

be way better than me about how
the differences in

landownership. you know also translate
these differences in

prices and these differences and
and like labor equality

basically between different teeth
countries. And I think it's

been very interesting to watch you
know the Indian workers like

try to get better conditions and
it will be you know it's been

obviously very

push back on I guess from you know
like the state owners and

the buyers you know to buy to paying
better prices for you

know, better labor or better treat
of labor and so this will be

interesting. You know this will
be such a dramatic change that

maybe something will actually give.
Yeah, you know the field

might get a little bit more equal
across different. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know so yeah be a state
owners as as as you know, jerks

as they can be it's actually not
their fault. You know like

they're they're themselves are not
profitable right the the tea

factories the only profitable people
are the ones closer. you

know to the other end of the supply
chain. So those are the the

retail brands the retailer of course
they win. Walmart wins

always Amazon wins. Always and then
you have the the market

brand so that would be like lifted
and lifted in under

utilized. Her is like the greatest
example in story of how that

evolution has happened because Lipton
started as a tea growing

tea producing company but now like
they own like zero teeth

production and our exclusively babe
like put themselves all the

way on the other end of the spectrum
because they know that's

where the the value and the power.
So you know like I met a

state owners in the state managers
and they've been jerks. You

know like they've been showing this
jerks to me personally and

you know I can call them jerks,
but it's ultimately it's it's

not them as well. That's making
those like decisions on the

treatment of the labor. you know
it's it's on the other end you

know and so I think that's really
important to to stay focused

on and ultimately that's that's
us as consumers or you know

it's Walmart. Walmart I like I like
put it up like educating us

to expect lower prices. You know
what I mean. Yeah. So

absolutely. yeah. absolutely cuz
like you know so we do some

tea. Some you know through some
distributors and through some

retails like big big retail stores.
you know like that kind of

like you know packaged up, they
just interesting. Me and and

it's like yeah and I'm like looking
at the way that like the

pricing structure has to work like
Holy crap. They accepted

chunk you know and they demand so
much from any supplier and

you know it does. it's it's completely
prohibitive to high

quality high antique really, you
know and they also. The other

thing about that is interesting
to me is that so like these

buyers vibrant tire raise right,
they have to stop these

shelves. with all of these different,
you know brands and

they're constantly like reviewing
but you know as like the most

profit and like you know what do
they consumers seem to be

buying? I don't buy and and I just
think it's interesting that

like if that specific. Person that
one person doesn't

understand you know like buyers
really, you know worries about

that or they don't understand you
know a better quality product

and stuff like this. They don't
have the same values then

they're just gonna completely ignore.
you know like loose leaf

tea, for instance, yeah. that's
been really severely ignored.

in supermarkets, you know for better
for words like it's like

on one hand, you know you're like
do I really wanna buy loose

sleep at the supermarket.

But under the hand like that would
be so much nicer for these

you know loosely producers that
have the stability of that huge

purchase. When we purchase all of
months from one, you know

buyer for better for worse because
again, like I said this

profit margins. they really got
you so but yeah, I just think

it's kind of been really revealing
to be like in this work and

just be like. You know it just like
these big decisions come

down to very few people and if they
just don't get it, you know

the than the entire like ultimate
all shoppers. Yeah, like

everybody. yeah and they're definitely
you know feeling

pressure to have cheap as chief
of things as possible because

they think that buyers will only
buy cheap things and so

there's I feel like there's this
tug and pull between you know

Buyers who like I guess, maybe it's
just that we don't

consciously go to the store. I like
really really study and try

to find quality things like we're
very impulsive buyers. You

know very often when we're in grocery
stores and the only way

that we really be impulsive as if
it's cheap and then that

creates a pressure for these these
store buyers to just supply

more cheap things. Yeah because
they know that that's what's

gonna be. Yeah. So yeah. it's just
all the Sun. I guess. so

when I started the business, I you
know exclusively only worked

with like the top tier of quality
only out of necessity because

I was working on such small quantities
that the logistics cost

were so high that I had to work
in a category of product that

could absorb those high logistics
cost of you know, in some

cases like. Dollars a kilo just
for shipping tea to the US so

with the the the teas perceived
value in the market here was

only like $10 a kilo just like mathematically
wouldn't work but

then as you know, I've grown my
network and we now work with

you know hundreds of buyers and
in some cases, some some larger

buyers that are getting their product
into like big box

distribution last year I I made
a new strategy of of trying to

satisfy those big box buyers and
finding products that would

meet their $7 a kilo demand that
that was needed in order for

the distributor to make 30 percent
and for the retailer to make

an additional you know, 40 percent
and then for everybody to

still workout and so I like spend
all of last year. all of my

sourcing trip. I was like developing
agreements with a. Of our

growers to arrange like container
shipments and figuring out

like how much purchase orders I
would need to confirm and and

then I got a booth at World Tea
Expo, which was a huge expense

and spent all my time there and
you know like we definitely

were one of the most active popular
booths at the expo, but

that like and and people were like
excited and like I made this

like really up not just like marketing
scheme of like we're

doing a shipping container. Now
we're you know like we're doing

big fright now and so people came
and they were interested

these big buyers like we're getting
we were getting their

attention but then you know once
you know what months go by and

you start like talking out the the
actual deals and you're like

this is great. We're finally gonna
get like transparently

source. ethical tea into the big
box system and you know I

realized quickly that they really
didn't value those

businesses. Didn't value even the
ones that have this

incredible marketing of ethics and
transparency and and love

and community at the end of the
day, they still didn't care. It

was all about the money and it was
like pinching everything and

then even pitching me and like I'm
offering myself as it's very

transparent platform like everybody
knows how much money I

made. if you wanted to you can Google
and find out how much

Miami like commissions as far as
like commissions and for this

big brokering like the model that
I made would be eight percent

Commission on brokering deals and
like that's doing a lot of

work of like lead. Owning the communication
between everybody

delicious between everybody and
like of that whole system. I

was the only one being honest that
that logistics company

really wasn't being truly honest
with us about what their

actual cost were and how much they
were charging us, but I was

and I ended up being the one like
getting beat up by these

buyers like Oh, you're you're eight
to eight percent is too

much and I'm like what do you talk
like this to all the other

ones? They're like no. we don't
because they don't and I'm like

well why and they're like well cuz
we put you to a higher.

Standard cuz you know you you you
presented yourself as this

higher standard and I think you
think like I should be charging

a higher premium than it like really.
I'm gonna be held to a

higher standard and then I just
realized you know it's just not

even worth it to pursue this because
it the value is not there.

The appreciation of the value is
not there so yeah I gave up on

that and you know now everything
that's going on here is just

like I'm like really glad that I
didn't end up committing to

that cuz I. I was gonna have to
arrange financing for that and

and and just pull the trigger and
like be the the one

responsible and only making eight
percent on the team's value.

at the end of the day on everything
I'm really glad I did it

cuz now with what's going on it,
it would have been a very

grave mistake. so yeah, I just think
like the the centralized

big box model is that there's no
way around it, you know and I

mean there's no way of like fitting
the solution. Into that,

like there's only problems with
it and so I'm not even gonna

try to play in it like I thought
that that was a solution for

helping the farmers that I worked
with to find these like 10

tons business opportunities for
them. but at the end of the day

like there's never gonna get value
ever. it's sad. Yeah. Yeah I

I felt. Definitely very true.

Yeah, I think that. Match is like.
For the big value stuff like

it's just not there, you know and
it's not gonna be there and

the like the pricing structure that
they require is just

??? and yeah, I really do hope
that like online still do

you know like produce quality. The
people won't be able to go

out as much you know with. The shutdowns
I just hope that like

if we are still looking for me that
you know, we're still able

to somehow find these stores online,
you know and actually be

able to like genuinely you know
connect with the the little

stores in the companies that are
actually like you know pretty

soon like the product. yeah and
I'm I. I'm a little worried

about how that will be able to be
sustained, sometimes because

I think to myself like oh, there's
just gonna be so many out

there. You know how was a normal
to a certain group, but the

thing is is we don't sort through
all of that. you know, just

the the we have ways like deciding
whether or not we want to go

and like purchase from a particular.
Or not online and we'll

just like use that so like I think
this is the reason why

influencers you know like the age
of influencers and then is

because it's a way to sort through
the thousands you know

millions of these online that don't
have like that, greedy

toughness and so we don't get like
rabbit at the store when we

go pick up our toilet paper. Yeah
and but this. How they have

to reach out and be you know part
of communities through

through the sort of like influencer
nap. Yeah, and that will be

interesting to see how that could
to evolve throughout this

well. That's what we're doing now,
you know we're we're doing

that and things for for being a
part of that you know like

we've had a very valuable conversation
here and yeah just

continue spreading the message and
and getting it going. I

think we're gonna get cut off soon
cuz Instagram only lets lets

us do this for like an hour. My
little warning hasn't come up

yet, but I'm just like giving a
warning. Prior to so, you're

you're not surprised by that, but
I do appreciate you like

connecting with me. This has been
fun and it's been good to

hear your experience in Seattle
and also your experience. Yeah,

you see that we got 20 - five seconds
yeah. so if there's any

you wanna like leave any closing
remarks or say, say I guess I

guess my closing remark is probably
just gonna be that will

pull through you know this craziness
and you know I think if we

pass.

I'm sorry Merriam. Well, this has
been nice. We have three

viewers. Thank you so much for tuning
in. I hope you learn

something. I hope you develop some
positive outlook on the

future. I know we talked about some
negative things, but

ultimately, it's all for the sake
of the positivity as Mary was

saying, we have to be influencers
and and help our peers in our

community navigate through these
issues of finding value values

gonna be really important thing
that we all we all learn

through this process together. There's
gonna be a lot of pain

getting getting to that, but. yeah,
thanks for tuning in hope

you stay happy. Stay peaceful drink
lots of tea again. If you

want to find a local retailer and
your area that is selling

high-quality transparently source
tea through our network. you

can visit Talent dot com slash map
and we have like a whole map

and you can like visually see where
all these retailers are

located, who's doing online orders
now in. I pick up as well

and just a special shout out to
the art on display here. Our

buddy Nick Canton here in Las Vegas
made amazing artists

artists as well. he picked up some
good tea yesterday so he's

he's at home reading good books
and drinking good teeth. so

he's all set until next time I'll
be back tomorrow every day.

I'll be doing this at two PM and
if you're interested in

chatting with me. And drinking tea
with me you can do that

through Instagram and yeah. so see
you tomorrow at two Aloha.