Full Podcast Transcript - Kate Dalton, Mayde Tea

Pru: Hey, Kate. And welcome to the show.

Kate: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Pru: It's an absolute treat to have you here. Now, you are the founder of Mayde Tea and it's a business that you actually started when you were really young, which I just find so incredibly interesting. Can you start us out right at the beginning? Because Mayde Tea really started with your own health journey, didn't it?

Kate: Yeah, it did. Yeah. When I think back now, 23 is kind of young. And I remember people at the time were like, "Wow, you own a business. You're only 23." And I was like, "Yeah." I just didn't really think it was a business yet. Anyway, when I was I guess in my late teens I was partying and doing whatever you do when you're that age. And I was drinking heaps and just eating so bad, and my health just went downhill pretty quickly. So I had some pretty bad digestive issues, which kept going for the next forever. Probably will be stuck with it forever. I had some mental health issues as well. I had some anxiety and all sorts of things like that.

Kate: I think it took getting to rock bottom to be like, "Okay. I've got to do something about this." Yeah. So then I saw a naturopath. I actually didn't really know what a naturopath was. I really liked nutrition and I knew that I wanted to do something to do with nutrition even though I was eating so bad. I had no idea about nutrition at the time. I saw a naturopath because just-

Pru: Isn't that interesting?

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: To interrupt you for a second. It's like even though you were living this lifestyle, which so many of us were when you're young and when you're in your late teens we were all partying, doing all the naughty things. But your body still inherently knows that it is chasing something good. It's looking for that nourishment somewhere.

Kate: Yeah. I just always told everyone, "I'm going to be a nutritionist." But I was not. I was living so far from that life. Yeah. It was actually because my friend's mom had just graduated as a naturopath and she's like, "Oh ... " She needs people to practice on, "Do you want to come over and have a consult?"

Pru: Perfect.

Kate: And I was like, "Sure." And she did all these ... She was looking in my eyes. Which is iridology, which is really cool. And she was like, "Oh, there's a bit of ... I can see some issues with your liver and just your whole digestive system." And I was like, "Yep. Spot on." And then it was crazy. I just hadn't really thought how much I needed to change my diet and I just thought, "Oh, I'm sick for no reason. The world's against me" Sort of thing. "I'm getting sick and I have no idea why." I'm not doing anything. Then I took her advice onboard and I stuck to it. I just a million times better. I just couldn't believe it. I just had been feeling sick every single day for ... I don't even know how long. It would have been a couple of years by this point. Then I think she made like a few, I would say now, they're small changes. But that's what I needed at the time. I wasn't going to go full [crosstalk 00:03:08]-

Pru: Full plant based.

Kate: Exactly. That wasn't me at the time. So the little changes helped so much just with sleep, my anxiety, and my digestion. Everything just started to get a little bit back on track. Then I was like, "This woman is amazing. I want to help other people feel this." So I enrolled to be a naturopath.

Pru: Yeah, interesting. I love this. So it kicks off with your own journey. And I love how you said there, that you had to hit rock bottom to actually start to make some changes. I definitely know in my teenage years and early 20s, it was the same thing. We were from such a partying culture and not feeling great, but that kind of was the norm at the same time as well. Like you just kind of get used to feeling like that. So [crosstalk 00:03:56]-

Kate: And I guess I was like other people around me, they all feel fine. Which I don't know if they did or not, but I just thought like, "Why me? Why am I the one getting all of this?" But now I know that if you're going to eat like that and drink every weekend and not treat your body well, then it's not going to treat you very well back.

Pru: Exactly. Cool. So you signed up to become a naturopath. Where did you go to? What did you do?

Kate: I was living in Sydney and I went to Endeavour College. I started that in Sydney, 2012. No, 2011. Then I was there for a few years and then I moved to Byron. When I enrolled as well, I was managing a café full-time and then within a couple of years I'd started the business. So it was all pretty full on. And then I was working in a bar at night because I was just like, "I need to earn money because I'm a student." I just ... I don't know. I didn't get tired so I was just doing whatever.

Pru: All things.

Kate: Yes.

Pru: Yeah, amazing.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: You're studying to become a naturopath and you were studying a few other things, weren't you?

Kate: I did nutrition and naturopathy. When I first enrolled I still was like, "I'm just going to do nutrition." Then the nutrition degree was part of the naturopathy degree. So basically naturopathy is a nutrition degree with herbal medicine on top of it. Then within that degree, at the end of it, you can do your clinic as a nutritionist and then your clinic as a naturopath and then you can graduate as both. Yeah.

Pru: I see. [crosstalk 00:05:37]-

Kate: Just because I didn't have enough going on, I was like, "Oh, I'm just going to do a double degree as well."

Pru: Why not? Good idea.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Was it while you were studying that you started experimenting with teas?

Kate: Yeah. I had had herbs as well that the naturopath gave me to help me. They tasted really gross, but they helped so much and I was like, herbal ... I didn't really know anything about herbal medicine at all other than that it worked at this point. So I was taking these tonics, they're like an alcoholic tincture. Then when we started learning about herbs in the degree, I was like, "Maybe I could just make the same formula but as a tea if I get really good quality herbs." Which I did. So I was getting ... I was just trying to source all of these herbs of what was written on my prescription, and then I was making teas out of it. So I just kind of switched from the alcoholic tincture to be a tea. Then I was just starting to make up my own blends and I came up with the Serenity one. Which is still the exact same recipe now. I was having that before bed every night to help me sleep and it helped. I still have it now every single night before bed, and I haven't got sick of it yet.

Kate: Then I was making a digestion one, which is Digest, and that still has stayed the same as well. Then I was telling people about it and I was just giving out little samples to people, and they were all trying it. I actually started ... This is a story that I just remembered. I started the business as like a custom-made tea blend service, I guess. I didn't realize that wasn't going to be sustainable because I had five people a week asking me, "I've got ..." They would tell me all of their symptoms and I would do a bit of a background of their health history. I wouldn't go too medicinal with it. I would just keep it pretty basic and therapeutic and just nourishing for them. That was just, it meant that I had these whole process of having the talk with them first and then ordering all of the herbs and then making up a formula and mixing it. That was the one tea that I sold for $15 or something. It was just like, I loved doing it so much.

Kate: But then I got to a point where I was like, "I can't keep doing it like this."

Pru: Such an incredible service and an incredible offering to the first five people.

Kate: Yeah, exactly. I did it for a few months like that, and then that's when I thought, "Okay, now I need to just create these clients, I guess, that I can make a blend for." I guess for the most common elements and things that people would see a naturopath for. Then I made one, the Serenity one, the Digest one. And then there was a sweet one called Sweettreat, which we're not do any more, but that was for sugar cravings. I kind of just made all of these pretend clients, I guess, and then just made a formula for them and then made that part of the range.

Pru: I love that. It's so interesting to know that having that background and while you're studying and you're coming at it from a place really with the skill and the qualifications behind it to actually make up these formulas and make them taste great at the same time.

Kate: Yeah. It was a huge job.

Pru: Yeah.

Kate: But I liked it.

Pru: While you're still managing the café full-time, working in the bar at night-

Kate: And studying [crosstalk 00:09:15]-

Pru: And studying.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Yeah, excellent.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Okay. So you've had your clients you're making up their individual concoctions for them, and then you start making up the bigger batches. I love this, I was just talking about this with someone yesterday. It's like, just look at 80% of people and what could they really use. Then you've obviously made teas for them. When did it kind of start becoming a business, a tea business from there? Because it was more, I guess, a consultation business previously. So when did you start just selling the teas?

Kate: I think because I started realizing that a lot of people were wanting teas for similar things. Then I thought I could just make the range, I guess, to be for these certain types of people and their health conditions. Then I talked to a friend at uni about it and she's like, "Oh, you're going to have to make a name." She thought of Mayde Tea and then that's still what it's called. I was like, "Yeah, okay. Whatever. I don't even ... It's not going to be business. It's just ... I probably should just give it a name because it needs a name." It just all happened so slowly, really slowly. Because I had no idea what I was doing. So I was like, "Oh, I have to name it. And then I've got to ..." Someone said something about insurance and I was like, "Oh, I need insurance." Then I had to look at ... That was a whole another rabbit hole. Then the café that I was working in, the owner said, "Oh, why don't we just have your teas here?" And I was like, "Oh, okay."

Kate: Then it became like a café tea offering as well. I was like, "Whoa, what's ..." Yeah, it just was all kind of unfolding without me even meaning for it to. But it was so exciting because people were coming in to the café and had no idea that it was my tea. They would drink it and be like, "Wow, that tea is amazing. I haven't heard of that brand before." Yeah, it was really cool. I thought, "Oh, that's my brand." So then I had to think about wholesale and retail and I didn't really know what any of it meant. And then-

Pru: How did you find out?

Kate: I just spent so much time on Google and asked-

Pru: Excellent.

Kate: ... people.

Pru: Yeah.

Kate: I mean I was 23 and living in Sydney. I didn't have a big social network like what I have now in Byron, and with lots of friends with businesses. Back then it was like I didn't know anyone who owned a business. Now my whole circle of friends basically, they all own businesses. It was hard. It took a long time, but I also didn't have any pressure on myself to get it to be any certain thing. It was just a bit of fun. Yeah.

Pru: Great. So you've got individual clients that are buying it and now you're all of a sudden wholesaling to cafés. When did you kind of realize that you had a business on your hands?

Kate: Probably ... It would have taken a couple of years. We even ... I remember there was this subject that we did in uni and it was called managing a practice or something. It was like the business side of being a naturopath. I remember doing that subject while I was starting the business and I thought, "Oh, this is pretty much like what ... This is all so related to what I'm actually doing with the tea business." I struggled with that subject because I didn't even know anything about business. I had no idea. But it was so perfect because I had all of my notes there and I had a whole subject about how to start a business. So I actually used that a lot as well.

Pru: That's incredible.

Kate: Yeah. Then I still worked in hospitality for probably three years while I was starting the business. I think because it does take long to make money from a business when you starting out.

Pru: Particularly a product based business.

Kate: Yeah. And also because I didn't trust that it was a business and that it could support me financially. Also, because I was studying full-time. So I thought I just need my little safety net of making coffee every day in a café to pay my rent. I feel like it was probably when I stopped working in hospitality was when I was like, "I have a business and it's paying my rent." I was loving it but I was still studying as well. It was a really long time until I accepted, yep I've got a business.

Pru: That is ... What I love about this, I think when we're really on our path and on our purpose doors kind of magically open along the way. I think it's some sort of ... It's really, I guess, a relationship of co-creation. The doors will definitely open, but you still have to do the work to actually make things happen as well.

Kate: Definitely.

Pru: I love as well about your story how you didn't necessarily start out to run a business. It's just kind of one thing falls into the next thing and then this door opens and that door opens. Then you do realize that all of a sudden this is what I'm doing here. It's super cool. Super cool. When did you move from Sydney to Byron?

Kate: Probably six years ago now. I packed all my belongings and my tea business in the back of my Volkswagen Golf.

Pru: Perfect.

Kate: Which is a pretty small car.

Pru: I was hoping you were going to say a Corolla then.

Kate: Yeah. Well, just to give you an idea of the size of my business and my belongings, all in one trip in a little hatchback. Six years ago.

Pru: Amazing.

Kate: And I had my whole business in there, which was nothing really then.

Pru: At this stage, were you still making all the teas at home?

Kate: Yup. So I didn't get a warehouse until probably four years ago.

Pru: Wow.

Kate: Yeah. I was always just doing it from home. I was lucky to move into a share house up here that they were like, "You can just pretty much have this spare room as your little business warehouse." I did that from there. Then I actually rented a space behind a café that they just weren't using. Then that was my next little mini warehouse. It was probably like ... I'm not good at square meters, but maybe per 10 square meters. It was so tiny and it had one shelf of tea. That was four years ago. Yeah.

Pru: Wow. Then what started ... Because I mean today your stocked in over, I think, it's over 300 retailers and cafés. It might even be more. What were some of the steps, what was the outreach? Were your direct outreach, were people just approaching you? How did you go from that 10 square meters to kind of what it is today? Which must kind of blow your mind.

Kate: Yeah, it does. Yeah, we have-

Pru: I mean, like I'm walking, I see Mayde Tea absolutely everywhere.

Kate: Yeah, everyone says that and I'm like, "Is it?"

Pru: It is.

Kate: Yeah, I don't know. It's all been word of mouth to be honest. I'm not tooting my own horn. It actually ... We've had a marketing person once for about three months, and it didn't feel right and I just stopped doing it. We're going to look at marketing next year, but it's literally been word of mouth for majority of it. I would say like 95%. Then the rest is maybe, I guess, Instagram. I have a post on Instagram that's as far as marketing gets for me at the moment. Then we do email campaigns and things. But as for wholesale, it's mostly word of mouth. Which is easy because it's sitting on a shelf in a café. It looks beautiful. It tastes beautiful. I think it does anyway. I guess other café owners would go in there and be like, "Oh, that tea looks amazing. We want that in our café." We reach out to a few stockers where we think that we would be a good fit. Some of them are like, "Yup." Some of them are like, "No." We don't push anything.

Kate: It's just, I think if people want it, they will come to us and it will find them. Yeah.

Pru: This is such an amazing approach. I love it. In the world of like, there's so much noise around marketing and everyone tooting their own horn. And being on all their Instagram stories and talking about all the things. It's quite a pushy kind of place-

Kate: It is.

Pru: ... that we're in these days. Just for you to be making such a beautiful product ... I mean, I have it all around me here in the studio and at home, and that's so you're exactly right. The way that I came across it was doing my Vedic Meditation training and Jay Salisbury, who we both know he was serving one of the teas. It was such a beautiful experience because I had been drinking the tea. It was really just so locked in then to this beautiful Vedic Meditation practice that I was learning. I was just telling you, I came back to the studio on a Monday and just after doing the course on the weekend. On the Monday I was going to come to you to your showroom and actually buy it. But in between, actually leaving the studio, getting in the car to come and see you, I found a little note that something had been tried to be delivered to me, but I hadn't received it and someone else had signed for it.

Pru: And it was the skaters across the way here from the studio and they said, "Oh, yeah, here's this package that arrived for you last week." Or over the weekend or something like that. I was like, "Oh, what is it?" A girl that had come to ... And Jess McCloud if you're listening. Who had come to one of our events the week before had actually just sent me the exact tea-

Kate: That is so cool.

Pru: ... that Jay had served that I was coming to purchase from you. In terms of the serendipity and the word of mouth that we're talking about, it's like you really do have this ... I think you and Mayde Tea have this beautiful combination of such an amazing product. It tastes beautiful, it does good things for you, and it looks amazing on your shelf as well. It's just this perfect little storm in a tea cup.

Kate: Thank you. Yeah.

Pru: Yeah. And so it has ... Because I feel like your brand has always been beautiful, do you feel like you've got real cut through because of that? You've obviously had a few iterations of the brand, but it's always looked really ... It's always been stand out.

Kate: Yep. Something I didn't mention when I was starting the business, I was looking for a tea that was going to help me in my digestion and I was looking at all the ingredients and everything. A lot of them back then as well weren't organic. I basically made the business because I couldn't find something. I was looking for something really specific and I couldn't find it. I really liked nice looking things as well and I couldn't find a tea that I wanted to have on my bench, on my kitchen bench. Something that's resealable and really user friendly, as well as tasting good and having good ingredients. There were so many things that I just really wanted that I just couldn't find in a tea. Having things that look good is important to me, but also ... Without sounding too materialistic, I really like having high quality things and less of them I guess.

Pru: I love that. That look good, that tastes good, that do good things for you. It's also very multipurpose. And I agree because there's a lot of teas out there that come in little cardboard packets or different things like that, and they're not user friendly.

Kate: Exactly. Because once you open it, it just looks a bit like it's opened and you need to-

Pru: Yeah, and it spills everywhere and-

Kate: Yeah, and you need to come put it in a jar anyway to keep it air tight and things.

Pru: Yeah. That's actually a really interesting segue because you're known for being a really sustainable business, and I feel like your packaging is such a big part of that. Was it that the sustainability came first or was it more of that user friendly kind of approach? Do you remember? Because this has been ... I love your canisters and they are so reusable, like the canisters, the jars, everything. I guess my question is, was sustainability something you were thinking of when you were 23? Maybe not. Or is it something that's kind of eventuated along the path?

Kate: To be honest, it probably wasn't really high on my radar back then. I've always been fairly minimal with things that I purchase. I don't go and buy lots of cheap things, I would rather wait and buy one really high quality thing. I feel like that kind of shows through the business as well. That I don't want to offer people heaps of choice and heaps of things that are just going to run out or break or whatever. Yeah, I ... Another small tangent. When I was looking for packaging the first time, the very first time, I couldn't find a box that I liked. I actually went to the newsagent and bought a big sheet of cardboard and cut out. Drew on it and cut out the shape of this box that I really wanted. I thought that I was going to do that for every tea. Like cut out the shape of a box and then built a mini origami to make a little box. I guess as we've grown, it's become more important to me.

Kate: Because it would be so much easier for me to just put it in plastic packaging or something that doesn't break in the post every time we send it. But it's so important to me that we have a really low environmental impact. Definitely as we've grown, it's become more important to me. Because I'm realizing how much of our products are going out, how many suppliers we're buying. I don't ... It's way more important for me to have the earth in mind than to just make a quick buck. I don't really care about that. I want to just give people really good quality products that are going to not leave a huge environmental impact.

Pru: I think that just speaks so perfectly to the people that are drinking your teas as well. They care about this as well and they appreciate it. They notice that things are coming in a sustainable way rather than in a plastic bag. That was actually something really interesting that I heard you talking about recently. Were some of the nasties that we don't know about tea and in particular teabags. Are they really bleached?

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Can you tell me some of the nasties about ... Because I like drinking a bit of tea.

Kate: I mean all teabags are different so I don't know the details of every single tea brand and what they use and whatever. But-

Pru: Perfect disclaimer.

Kate: Yeah. Majority of teabag ... I's so complicated and that's why I just am not going to even consider using teabags I guess. So a lot of them, the white ones, they're bleached. They have paper and plastic in them because to heat seal something it needs a plastic lining. Or it needs to be part plastic so then that can fuse together. I might be wrong, there might be some kind of new technology that you can fuse paper together somehow just with using heat. But that doesn't ... I'm not too sure about that. From my experience, it needs to be a paper and plastic combination teabag. It's bleached, and then there's a glue even to glue it together. So you can glue the outsides of it. Then the staple that goes in the top that's going to leach all these other lead and whatever else a staple is made of. It's going straight into hot water. Then the string and then when you tag the little tag thing falls in the cup. That's got all inks and whatever else is on the tag.

Kate: I think about this a lot. You're not just steeping tea leaves in a cup. You're steeping bleach and glue and the staple and the inks from the tag and the string. What's the string made of? Then the microplastics. It's already broken up into microplastics basically because it's mixed with the paper. That's just putting microplastic into the environment. Whereas if you're just using loose leaf, you're just putting a plant back into the environment basically.

Pru: Wow. This was just such a ... Goodness, doing this podcast, I learn so much every single week through my guests and as I'm doing the research for our interviews as well. Because I like a bit of an English breakfast. It comes in a bag quite often and not anymore. You just don't even think about these things sometimes until they're really brought to your attention.

Kate: Well, I didn't either until people started saying, "Why don't you do teabags?" At the start, I'll be honest, I didn't do teabags because I had no idea how to do it. I was like ... Then it got me thinking, "Well, do I want to do ... Is that something that I want to go into anyway? Does that really ... Is that part of who I am and what I believe in?" It's not, because it's impacting the environment, it's impacting your health. Then I just had to have a quick and an easy way to explain to people why we don't do teabags. Because I could go on about it forever really. But I just needed to find a way to communicate that to people without writing an essay about how bad microplastics are.

Pru: Yeah. I hope everyone listening here, especially my mom, is paying attention to no more bagged tea. Thank you very much.

Kate: I mean, I'm not perfect. I've had teabags a lot in the past.

Pru: Well, good, you're human then.

Kate: Yeah, exactly.

Pru: But now that we know it's fascinating. Another thing that just came up then that you mentioned was that, your teas are all organic. Was that right from the get go?

Kate: Definitely, yeah. But I mean, when I was going through all of my little party life, I wasn't really thinking about organic or anything. But then I thought if I'm going to go on this journey of health and get myself better, organic is a non negotiable. I guess I started doing that for my own health and then ... Because I started selling it, I was like, "I'm only going to give to other people things that I would feel comfortable consuming as well." Tea is one of the most highly sprayed all of ... Because you use obviously herbs and the tea plant as well. So highly sprayed, and it's not like an apple that you can just go and wash in the sink. You can't wash tea leaves. You're going to be consuming all of that, the pesticides and herbicides. It's going straight into your cup and there's no way you can get rid of it.

Pru: Wow. Okay. It blows my mind.

Kate: And I also-

Pru: Because when you drink-

Kate: ... love herbs.

Pru: ... a cup of tea, you think you're doing a good thing for yourself.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Right?

Kate: Exactly.

Pru: Maybe not.

Kate: Yeah. Because all of the plants that we use, bugs love those because they're delicious and they're really good for you. Conventional farming, they spray them so heavily. So organic is so important to me.

Pru: Organic is the way to go.

Kate: Especially for herbal tea.

Pru: Yeah. Wow. Okay. People, I hope that you're taking notes. There's probably a few people listening that are drinking a cup of tea at the moment. And they're like, "Oh, no." In the journey of building my tea ... I mean, you were 23, you didn't really know that you were starting a business. It's naturally evolving. You're still studying, you're still working full-time. There must've been some challenges along the way. Did you ever just find yourself feeling fully out of your depth or just-

Kate: Definitely, once a month maybe. Don't all business owners? You always think, "Oh, it gets so much easier." There's always something definitely, and there's some pretty hard times. I remember the first collaboration I did, it was with a really big company. Which I was so shocked that they came and approached me. I didn't even know what a collaboration was back then. I was like, probably four years ago or something, I didn't really know what it was going to entail, I guess. They are a really well known chocolate company. I did a collaboration with them and I just got basically super ripped off. I didn't know what I was doing and I let them call all the shots and I paid for the branding and all the ... I basically paid for all of it and just thought this is going to be amazing. Then they didn't end up buying as much as they said that they were going to. I was left really out of pocket.

Kate: That was pretty stressful, but it was also one of the greatest lessons. Because now I know how to collaborate with people and that it needs to be beneficial for both sides and there needs to be everything's transparent from the start. There needs to be a informal or formal contract or ... It's taught me a lot, but that was a pretty hard time. I thought, "I don't think I can keep doing this." Because I literally ... They'd used all of the money that I had. Because it was all of these years ago when I was still so fresh. I had no idea what I was doing. I remember that was one of the first hardest times. There's been a lot. I mean, when I ... I went on a bit of a mission to make sure that people weren't sending us our supplies in plastic. That was pretty hard because I was literally just calling all of our suppliers and saying, "Can you send herbs in something that's recyclable because I don't want plastic in our warehouse."

Kate: A lot of them would just ... Pretty much laughed at me. Some of them said, "Yep, totally fine. We can sort that out for you." So that was pretty hard as well because I thought, "I don't want to keep going if I don't feel comfortable with how much plastic we've got in our warehouse and this environmental impact. If it doesn't feel right for me, then I just don't want to keep doing it." So I navigated my way through that. That all ended up being fine, but that was a bit of a ... I felt like maybe I should just stop the business altogether if it didn't feel right. Just before I went on maternity leave actually as well. Sorry if I'm-

Pru: No, this is great. I love this. I was talking to a friend yesterday, she's like, "I just want to hear more stories about when people just totally messed up. When they wanted to give it all up." That's the stories that [crosstalk 00:32:19]-

Kate: It happens-

Pru: ... have and I'm like, "Yeah."

Kate: ... all the time, because it's hard. Owning a business is hard.

Pru: Yeah.

Kate: When I was eight months pregnant, which is only four months ago, the year before I knew we were going to start trying for a baby. So it was like, "I need to have the business working without me or for me to step away as much as they can." I outsourced manufacturing. We make all of our tea in our warehouse in Byron, and I thought we can't do that while I'm on maternity leave. I looked for a manufacturer that I would send our recipes to and they would make our tea. Which is how probably most tea brands do it, I'm assuming. That was a huge job. It was massive because I had to tell people our recipes as well, which felt really wrong. I just didn't feel comfortable doing that. I just had people ... I don't know. It just made me realize how some businesses really run. They were quoting me just these outrageous prices for herbs and these blending fees and all this stuff. It just felt really funny from the start.

Kate: But I thought, "I need to do this because the business is growing. I'm not going to be there to order our 40 different herbs that we have to order from our 30 suppliers or whatever it is." The business is in a place now that I just need to step away as well. That took about, it was about a year of phone calls and things with all of these manufacturers. I finally found one that said, "Yep, we can do it. We can source your ingredients for you." It ended up that our margins were going to be so tight that I didn't even think we could do wholesale anymore. I just thought I'm going to have to do it because I'm not going to be there. I'm going to be with a newborn and I don't want that pressure and the stress. I did it and we only ever ended up getting, I think one ... We got one order from them of one tea. That was my ... It was a really small batch because I just want to test it out first.

Kate: It arrived and it looked different to what we usually ... Even though it was our recipe, I just looked at it and I was like, "That's just not our tea." It just didn't feel right. It's so important to me that our products ... I like to see it all before it goes out and I want to be involved in it all. I want to know how it's been blended. I want to know everything about it. I just couldn't let that go, especially when it came and it looked different and it just didn't feel right. So I just thought, "No, I can't do it." Even though I needed to, because my brain was like, "You're crazy, you're about to have a baby. You can't keep doing all of this work." Sourcing and ordering herbs is like a full-time job.

Pru: I bet.

Kate: Especially when it's all organic. If they get in a different type of something, I want to see a sample before I order it. I'm super picky with it. And so I just said, "No, we can't do it." I just didn't want to do it. I was eight months pregnant. My obstetrician was telling me that my baby was going to come early as well. So I was like, "Oh my God, we aren't going to have any tea." Yeah. I just thought, "What are we going to do? We need a solution." I had to just work so hard on ... My partner was amazing. He was just like, "If this is what you want to do, we need a solution and let's just do it. We can do this." I just ordered in, I can't even explain how many herbs. I got all new staff and we just worked almost around the clock just to get stock on the shelves for before I went into labor. It worked and it was amazing.

Kate: Because I was like, "All of the tea is being made in our warehouse still. This is what I set out to do. I don't want to go and contract a manufacturer from some random person that I don't even know if they're ... I don't know the quality of the herbs they're using. And even though they're certified organic ..." I don't know. It probably sounds really super fussy. But we did it and we were out of stock of a few blends, but I was like, "There's nothing we can do about it because I need to go and have my baby." It just felt so much better within me to know that it was all made in our warehouse in Byron and I had ordered all the herbs. I knew where they were coming from and my staff blended them. My staff love working for me and they put so much love into all of it. Even though it felt like my world was ending because I was so heavily pregnant, and I didn't know how I was going to get tea on the shelves, it all worked out.

Pru: Wow.

Kate: That's how we do production from now on. Is that we do a few huge runs rather than doing every week little runs. Yeah.

Pru: What an amazing story at eight months pregnant. I know-

Kate: It probably all started ... It would have actually started around seven months pregnant and we were just done when I went in labor.

Pru: Wow. Incredible. I mean that story just shows your dedication to the quality of your product. It's amazing and that's what keeps it on the shelves and keeps people wanting to buy it as well.

Kate: I hope so. Yeah.

Pru: Now everyone knows that as they're drinking their tea extra love in that one.

Kate: Yeah. So much love.

Pru: So incredible. My goodness. I was gripped on the end of my chair there. You've just had a little baby. And actually before we go there, it's something that ... I mean your journey it's such an organic journey really, isn't it?

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Because it started off with you experiencing your own health problems, looking for your own solutions, realizing that there was nothing. The solution to your problem wasn't out there and just really focusing on the product. Not building a business but just keeping the product to be really aligned with your values. I think that shows through right until literally, I mean now also, but literally to three, four months ago still blending tea so that it's exactly what you want to go out. Another sort of thread that runs through your story, is your real focus on wellness as well. I love ... I was listening to another interview that you'd done and you were talking just about how your approach to kind of moving your body changes. It was like changes through what season you're in or what's happening. So I guess as a broader question, what does wellness really ... How do you define wellness?

Kate: It's really holistic for me. One of the main things is moderation. I've been pretty extreme in the past with being super unhealthy. To then studying nutrition and thinking that I had to be the healthiest person on earth. Which is also unhealthy to have an unhealthy relationship with food. I've definitely been there with, I guess, just different extreme ways of living. I used to do modeling as well and my agent was telling me that I should lose weight when I was like 50 kilos or something ridiculous. That made me go really extreme as well. So finding a balance and moderation in my life is the biggest. I think it's so important to me I guess for wellness. I guess just finding the balance with eating and exercise and my time as well. I was really extreme as well with like, "I've got to manage a café and work in a bar and start a business and study full-time all at once." That was just crazy and there is so much more to life than that.

Kate: Yeah. So eating well, definitely. But also, I love croissants and I'm going to eat a croissant if I feel like it. [crosstalk 00:40:42]-

Pru: I'm a big fan of croissants.

Kate: ... I probably ate a croissant every day or maybe two a day. Yeah, definitely eating well. Moving my body, but doing things that I enjoy. Not just going to the gym when I hate it. Because I love the gym now because I don't spend every day in there. And just mixing that up as well. I'll go surfing or I'll go for a walk or just moving my body instead of being like, "I'm going to the gym and I'm going to be there for two hours slugging myself." Yeah. I think that's probably a bit of a vague answer, but moderation is huge. Definitely eating well, looking after my body and my mind and ... Yeah.

Pru: Perfect. I love that. And giving the attention to the mind as well. Because I think, and in particularly in our culture, we're so focused on body health in terms of putting the right things in. But bringing the good stuff into the mind, it kind of-

Kate: Definitely.

Pru: ... gets overlooked and it really stems from that, doesn't it?

Kate: Yeah. I did the course with Jasson as well, the Vedic Meditation course. Because before, I was meditating, but I wasn't really meditating. I was kind of like, "Oh, what should I do today?" There was thought so like, "Should I do this guided meditation?"

Pru: So much decision making.

Kate: Yeah. It's like it shouldn't be complicated. If you're going to meditate, it should be a relaxing thing. Not like, "Oh, should I listen to this guided one or should I just focus on my breathing or should I ..." Yeah. That just kind of took all of the questions out of it.

Pru: That's exactly what I say. If you ... You can hear it through the episodes. I'm like, there was so much decision making around my meditation. Do I do guided? Do I sit still? Do I focus on my breath? It's like ... Then 10 minutes has gone, I've only got five minutes left.

Kate: Yeah. So I think doing that course really helped. I mean I try and meditate twice a day now, but it doesn't really happen with a newborn. But I definitely try. I do at least once a day. And that being healthy in my mind is super important to me as well.

Pru: I agree. We've had some events on here lately, so I've actually kind of I've got the whole team at my house and it kind of throws a bit of a spanner in the works for my meditation. It's so interesting how quickly my mind just builds up with clutter. I just find a week being out of my practice, I just feel like everything ... I feel quite overwhelmed in my mind. It's not like anything has significantly changed in my life. I've still got work to do. I've still got the house stuff to do, all the things to do. But it's just that I haven't given my mind that space. Then as I've been thinking about it, just literally in the last few days, it's that the meditation almost feels just like rinsing my mind. Just like you go for a swim or you go and do all your daily activities and come home and you have a rinse. That's what Vedic Meditation feels like for my mind. It's just literally having a rinse-

Kate: It does.

Pru: ... and washing things off and getting kind of clean and clear again.

Kate: Yeah. I've noticed that as well. Or if there's something that I'm just ... When I was stressed about all of the manufacturer situation and I was like, "I just don't have time to meditate because I need to spend all of my time finding a solution of what we're going to do." Then I remember just one day I meditated and then I was like, "I know what I need to do." And well Ryan actually mostly came up with the ... My partner came up with the idea as well of like, "Get heaps of staff, just smash it all up. You can do it." Then I remember when I meditated and it was so clear. I was like, "This is what I need to do." But before I was like, "I don't have time to meditate because I'm so busy." But then I was just making myself busier because I couldn't find a solution.

Pru: Yeah. The solutions are always there. It's mind blowing. Anyone that's not already on the Vedic train, get on quickly.

Kate: Because you need to just stop as well.

Pru: Yeah.

Kate: Then you're like, "Okay, I have clarity, I know what I'm doing."

Pru: And just connect to a bigger picture as well. I think these ... Particularly, we have a lot of business owners that listen to this podcast and it's like, "Yeah, you can have those challenges in business and they seem all consuming for your whole entire life." Just getting out of there and just dropping into meditation and connecting with the big picture, it just puts the whole thing back into perspective. It's like, this is just a challenge. It'll come and it will go, you'll find a solution. In two years time, you probably won't even remember it. Or you won't remember the details of it at least. But, yeah, that's what I love about Vedic Meditation as well. Just that twice a day or once a day connection to the bigger picture.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Cool. Now life has taken on a bit of a change for you recently.

Kate: Yes.

Pru: There's a little human in your world.

Kate: Yeah. I had my baby girl, [Alfie 00:45:31] 10, weeks ago. She's the best. Yeah.

Pru: How's she going?

Kate: She's really good. She's ... Yeah. I mean anything can change, but she's ... I think I had a pretty realistic view of what being a mum would be. I guess just because I have nieces and nephews and my friends have kids. I kind of knew that it would be hard and it's a huge change. But it's been the best. It's been so good. Yeah.

Pru: Perfect. I guess doing the kind of motherhood balance, I mean, she's just so fresh. But you're back at work one day a week at the moment. Is this something that you've kind of got scheduled? Just I guess interested in the challenge of becoming a mum, running your own business, being so connected to your business as well. And not wanting to, now that you've just discussed, not wanting to kind of outsource all this stuff in your business or get the team to do it. But you are really hands on in your business still and want to be. I mean, what does the balance look like for you going forward, do you think? Or you're just taking it one day at a time at the moment?

Kate: Yeah. I've changed my mind so many times on what I want maternity leave to look like for me. I guess ... I was on my email, it's was like three days after I gave birth. Because I just couldn't help myself and I just wanted to know everything was fine. I think it's because I felt like I was away for so long, but really I wasn't.

Pru: Three days.

Kate: In three days. And everything was totally fine. My staff were amazing. But I kind of just keep changing back and forth with what I want to do and I'm still not sure in terms of how much I want to work. I had a week where I was like, "I just want to go back to work. How am I going to do it?" As in, two or three days a week. Then now I don't feel like that at all. I just want to spend every second with Alfie. I love my business so much as well, and that's a huge challenge. Because my business is my baby that I've had for seven years. Then Alfie's my new baby that I've had for 10 weeks. Giving them both as much love as they deserve is really hard because it's ... I can't physically do both at the same time. It's tricky, but I'm doing one morning a week in the office. Then I just do whatever I can at home while Alfie's is asleep. I try not to ... Excuse me.

Kate: I try not to multitask even though that's who I am and I try and multitask with a million things at a time. But I do tr. And if I'm Alfie and she's awake and she's with me, I want to be really present with her. While she's asleep I can get really deep into business stuff. But I try not to multitask just because I don't want to get in the habit of doing that. Then when she can speak, she'll be like, "Mom, put your computer away." That would just break my heart. I'm trying to already break the habit before it starts.

Pru: Great. I love that. Just be fully present with what you're doing.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Perfect. So what's next for Mayde Tea?

Kate: We are building a showroom. We had a showroom-

Pru: Here in the Industrial estate?

Kate: Yeah. It's across the road from the Stone & Wood Brewing. We got that space and it needed so much work. When we first looked at it, I said, "No way." I was pregnant. And I was like, "I can't paint. I can't do anything to help." Ryan's like, "That's okay." He just loves a challenge and-

Pru: Loves a challenge?

Kate: Yeah. And loves a project or like a million projects. He just saw it as like this playground. He's like, "Yep, we're doing it." And I was like, "No, no, no, no. It's too much work." Anyway, it's almost there. We've just painted the inside and outside, and Ryan built like this little archway thing in it. It looks really cool. Ryan's a graphic designer, but the most handy graphic designer in the world. Because then he can just do anything.

Pru: [inaudible 00:49:33] translate things from screen and paper into real life-

Kate: Yeah, pretty much.

Pru: ... amazing things.

Kate: He's-

Pru: It's so cool.

Kate: He did all my last rebrand for me. He's obviously amazing at design and everything, but then he knows how to use every tool that a builder can use as well. Anyway-

Pru: So good.

Kate: Yeah. We're building the showroom and it's going to be a combined one with my partner's business as well. He does furniture and lighting and homewares and things. That should be open ... We're going to do a little pop up style kind of opening at the start before we do a proper fit up. That should be in the next couple of months.

Pru: Amazing.

Kate: Yeah, a new showroom. We did use to have one, which was just a small, tiny little showroom and shop. That's very exciting to have a showroom again. I'm doing a ceramics range finally. It's taken me this long to find something that I like because I'm so fussy with ... I'm just really particular I guess. I didn't want to ... There's ceramics that I like, but there hasn't been any that I'm like, "Yep, I want that as part of my brand." It also just takes so much time. My partner and I are designing it, and we found a manufacturer. It will probably still take another year, but that's definitely in the works. I'm so excited because every café is like, "So where do I buy teapots from." And I like, "I don't know." Because I haven't really found any that I love for a café or that I know of. I haven't really searched that much either. Of other brands, I mean I haven't searched, but we're finally making our own. Which is going to be so good. Yeah.

Kate: I'm going to work on a couple of new blends. I don't like to give too much choice. So I do a new blend probably once a year. Then we take one away as well because I don't like having heaps of choice in my life. I don't want to have heaps of a million teas in my website where people are just so overwhelmed and they're like, "I don't know what I want. I'm just going to get none."

Pru: It kind of defeats the purpose, right?

Kate: Yeah. So one new, probably a new tea blend or two next year. I'm going to start practicing again as a naturopath. I can't wait because I've had to put that on hold. Yeah.

Pru: So plenty going on.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Amazing. I can't wait to check out the showroom just around the corner here.

Kate: Yeah. It's going to look really good.

Pru: Amazing.

Kate: Design is [crosstalk 00:52:12]-

Pru: All these things. And-

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: ... the ceramics as well, like taking the whole ... I guess completing the whole tea experience.

Kate: Exactly. Which is what I've ... It's been a huge gap in the business and I've known that, but I just haven't found the solution yet.

Pru: Well, now you've pointed it out, I agree. Because it's such a beautiful product that you have. Then I put it in my tea cups, which aren't very nice. Kind of, it'd be so nice to have a beautiful tea cup that kind of matches the experience.

Kate: Yeah. And we've done collaborations with people for mugs before. But it's still just not ours. That was amazing. It's really nice working with other businesses, and I just really want our own ones as well.

Pru: I want you to have that too because I now so deeply understand your commitment to just putting out the best product.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: So to see that as part of the progression will be super cool.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Awesome. All right, well I'm going to ask you some of our rapid fire questions now that we ask all of our one wild ride ... I was going to say contestants then. [inaudible 00:53:15] what contest. All of our guests here. The first one's kind of a funny one. But tea or coffee?

Kate: My answer is kind of funny too because I used to love coffee. I do love coffee but I can't drink it anymore because it was keeping Alfie awake. So tea.

Pru: Tea it is. Fate or freewill?

Kate: I'm going to cheat and say a bit of both.

Pru: You can totally cheat. What are you most proud of today?

Kate: I'm really proud of becoming a mum and giving birth. And balancing that with my business and have them both thriving is really cool. I'm super proud of the business. And just really proud of my little family.

Pru: I love that. Do you have any kickass daily habits in place?

Kate: Daily habits? Every morning I drink an Earl Grey tea and I've always done that. I just do it because I like it. But it's just so funny that I just wake up and I just have to ... If I go and stay somewhere, I take Earl Grey tea with me so I can have it in the morning. Daily habits. Meditating when I can, which I know is probably a bit of a cop out, I should just make it a priority. And my Serenity tea before bed every single night. It was the only thing that helped my pregnancy insomnia, because that was pretty bad. And Serenity before bed was amazing.

Pru: I love that. So talk about living your truth, starting and ending the day with a cup of tea.

Kate: Yeah, I do. I didn't even think of that.

Pru: I'm going to say I'm quite similar, but mine's English breakfast in the morning. I just wake up and the same I take it with me wherever I go. Okay. If you could jump on a plane tomorrow and go anywhere in the world with anyone, where would you go and who would you go with?

Kate: I'd go back to Hawaii. We went there for my babymoon and it was the best holiday ever. So I'd go back with Alfie and I would smuggle my dog on the plane too. Because I feel really bad to her.

Pru: Whereabouts in Hawaii did you go?

Kate: We went to the North Shore and stayed there for most of it. Then we're in Waikiki for two nights, I think. But it was so fun. It was just the best we got there and there was huge swell. My partner was just like ... It turned into a surfing trip pretty much. He just had the best time ever because it was huge, but it was the off season or whatever. So no one was expecting it, the surf to be good. There was no one in the water except for the locals and Ryan. Hawaii is amazing.

Pru: Amazing. I'd love to get to Hawaii actually. It's [crosstalk 00:56:00]-

Kate: Then the swell dropped a lot, so I got to go surfing. I had my big belly and ... Yeah. It was really fun.

Pru: Perfect babymoon. Who else would you like to see me interview on the podcast?

Kate: Al from The Daily Bar. She-

Pru: Good one.

Kate: Yeah. She's [inaudible 00:56:18] ... I feel like we're really similar in our businesses. She is super honest and transparent with everything. She's wrote this amazing post about ... It was so long that I actually forget what it even was. But it was just amazing. It got shared everywhere, all over Instagram. It was just about supporting small businesses and just the true hustle, I guess. Owning a business is really hard and she just ... I guess just, that's a really amazing, really long post about that I guess. It was really, really cool. She would be amazing to interview, I think.

Pru: Amazing. I think it's just such a timely reminder in this kind of holiday season and going into the new year as well for everyone to really just review their purchasing choices. Just such a good time at the start of 2020 we're at a new decade. It's such an amazing fresh start. Just make a commitment to buy from small business. It's such a hustle-

Kate: Definitely.

Pru: ... and it's such hard work. And it's such just a beautiful thing to support families.

Kate: Yeah, exactly.

Pru: Perfect. All right, and last but not least, how can people connect with you?

Kate: We have our Instagram page, which is just maydetea. It's spelled M-A-Y-D-E-T-E-A. We have a Facebook page but it doesn't really get much love. Our website is just maydetea.com.

Pru: Perfect. Then in the new year it'll be dropping into the showroom.

Kate: Yeah. Then the showroom next year, which everyone has to come because it's going to be amazing. It's going to be shared with Ryan, so it's going to be like his furniture and stuff with my tea. It's going to be really cool.

Pru: Perfect combination.

Kate: Yeah.

Pru: Awesome. Kate, thank you so much for joining me today.

Kate: Thank you so much.

Mayde Tea | Kate Dalton

Conversation with KATE DALTON

Full Podcast Transcript - Kate Dalton, Mayde Tea

We acknowledge the Arakwal people as the traditional owners of the land upon which our team work remotely. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

One Wild Ride is the rebel child of parent company Owners Collective.

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© 2021 One Wild Ride. All rights reserved.

Contact | Privacy | TERMS & CONDITIONS | Site Credits

Mayde Tea | Kate Dalton

Conversation with KATE DALTON

Full Podcast Transcript - Kate Dalton, Mayde Tea

We acknowledge the Arakwal people as the traditional owners of the land upon which our team work remotely. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people.

One Wild Ride is the rebel child of parent company Owners Collective.

StockistsInstagram

Linkedin

© 2021 One Wild Ride. All rights reserved.

Contact | Privacy | TERMS & CONDITIONS | Site Credits

Stockists
Instagram