We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shannon Joseph a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shannon, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I developed my confidence and self-esteem over many years of working towards becoming my best self. I have always been an ambitious person and I found that surrounding myself with other ambitious people of moral character, reading good personal development and success mindset books, setting goals, and saying daily affirmations are what have helped me develop myself and my confidence. Putting myself in uncomfortable positions to push myself to grow has also helped my confidence grow. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a tenacious leader, enthusiastic, driven, focused, positive, and passionate about life and making a positive impact in the world for others.
I grew up in Bucks County Pennsylvania and spent much of my childhood riding bikes and exploring at the lake near my home. I got my Associates for Hotel and Restaurant Management and started my career in sales while attending college. I liked sales so much I pursued sales in various industries and have over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, business development and people development. From 2011 until 2020 I worked as a Director of Sales for Hotel Companies in the tri-state area with 6 years in NYC. After COVID changed everything in the beginning of 2020 my partner and I decided to pursue our dream of moving to Tampa Florida in June 2020 to start planting our roots for both business and a future family.
Once we moved to FL, my husband, Guerby Joseph and I turned our passion for healthy living and enjoying special moments together drinking tea into a business. We launched Joseph’s Tea as an online Tea Shop with 20 tea blends in July of 2020! We continue to be delighted to share the best, high-quality, all natural, organic, and whole leaf teas for you to enjoy by yourself or with others! Today, we have over 100 tea blends and continue to add new healthy teas blends.
At this point in time we have two wonderful locations you can come and enjoy Joseph’s Tea. In September 2021 we opened Joseph’s Tea Room in Clearwater, FL! There we offer wonderful Afternoon Tea Experiences for groups of 2 people all the way up to 90 people! We host a lot of really special events and life celebrations for our customers. My Mom, Cindy, is our Head Chef and my son, Denzel, often comes to work with me so it is a true family owned and operated business.
August 2023 we opened our second location, a Tea Bar in Dunedin, FL . There you can enjoy all our teas, get a latte, a tea infused mocktail, and enjoy sweet and savory bites. We inspire to have many more locations for people to come, connect, rejuvenate and enjoy our wonderful teas!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the three most important qualities I have are my drive, my tenacity, and my positivity.
I have always been driven and I have often times put that energy into things that haven’t worked out or did not serve my purpose. I think it took some failure to figure out what my purpose was and there is no easy way to get there. All I can say is, don’t give up on you.
Let’s face it, life is hard and it always has a new curve ball for you. I have the tenacity to keep pushing forward through all the curve balls. Sometimes that pushing through isn’t pretty. And sometimes I am pushing through and feeling like a Queen! I think to have the willpower to pursue your goals, dreams, lifestyle is all up to you. Everything I had to go through to get to where I am today was worth it.
Staying positive is not always easy, but it is always a choice. That doesn’t mean I don’t get mad or sad or have a bad moment. Key word there is moment. When something tries to steal your positivity or happiness give it a few minutes, not your entire day. Feel it, let it out, shake it off and focus on something that makes you feel happy or positive.
What is a current challenge that you are facing and what are you doing to overcome it?
Current challenge is becoming Omnipresent. Grant Cardone uses this term meaning that we want everyone to know who Joseph’s Tea is and what we do. This is hard to do without a ton of money to throw into advertising.
Right now my Husband and I are working really hard to build Joseph’s Tea into a brand that everyone know, loves, enjoys, and feels connected to. We are so busy working in our business every day that sometimes we lose sight of how far we have come and in a short amount of time. This July we celebrated 3 years in business.
How do we get more people to learn about Joseph’s Tea without the huge marketing budgets that big brands have? Hopefully, we will figure that out!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://josephstea.
com/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/josephs_tea/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/JosephsTea - Linkedin: https://www.
linkedin.com/in/shannon- joseph-a9aba510/ - Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/
biz/josephs-tea-room- clearwater?osq=Josephs+tea
Image Credits
Honeybee Memory Photography and Catrina Carlson Photography
