We were lucky to catch up with Sitavy Thorng recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sitavy, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
I started building my confidence and self-esteem at the age of 27. At the time, I was working as a Quality Assurance Supervisor for a well known food company. They saw the potential I had and gave me a chance to prove that I was the right person for the job. Within a few months, I’ve gained so much confidence in my abilities, knowledge, and the person I was becoming. To an unfortunate circumstance, I decided to leave because I was no longer given the opportunity to grow. Thankfully. the idea of opening Meccha Matcha in California popped up and that is when I felt unstoppable. I knew the amount of success I could bring to Meccha Matcha as a whole. Most importantly, I truly believed in myself how great of a leader I can be and that my team will see the positive impact I bring. I’ve gained all this confidence and self-esteem because of my experiences in the food industry. I saw the ins and outs of running a small food business because of my parents. I’ve worked in several restaurants in my teens so I understood every job aspect of running a restaurant. I’ve worked as a supervisor for a corporate job and overlooked several departments like production, management, sanitation, and etc. Lastly, and most importantly, I understand what it means to be a customer. All in all, I observed every viewpoint that revolves around the food industry and applied it to running Meccha Matcha.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Hi! I am the co-owner, manager, and baker at Meccha Matcha in Artesia, CA. My life has always revolved around the food industry and food is basically my life. My dream job as a kid was to be an ice cream scooper and lets just say, my 5 year old self would be so happy that I achieved that. Why an ice cream scooper? It was because of that happy feeling when you see ice cream being scooped and then handed it to you. I wanted to bring that same feeling to other people. And I believe I achieved at Meccha Matcha. Meccha Matcha is a matcha heaven for matcha lovers and enthusiasts. What makes us even extra special is that we offer multiple matcha intensity levels. You can choose the matcha levels in ice cream, soft serve, lattes, and more! Our 5 year anniversary is coming up in February 2024 and that is when we offer Matcha Level 5 Ice Cream. Since this will be our 5th year of opening, we are making it extra special by offering Level 5 Soft Serve. Oh yea, we serve both ice cream AND soft serve. We like to cater to everyone as much as possible.
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?
Efficiency, creativity, and learning to separate personal from business has made a huge impact on my journey of running a small business. My main advice is not worrying too much about what other people are doing. Everybody is on a different path and not everything works for everyone. You have to figure out what it is you want to achieve. How are you going to achieve it, so you have to figure out what works for you. And when working with a team, not only do you have to understand, but your team has to understand what exactly is business.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Its not who, but its everyone in my life that has helped me to becopme successful. My cousin, Joseph Be, creator of Meccha Matcha, has given me support and guidance when we first opened. Team Monsoon has given me the numbers to help me understand on how to measure Meccha Matcha’s success. My team from when we first opened til now, has been a dream team in operations. My parents cheering us on as we grew more and more each year. Lastly my fiancee and close friends being there when I need emotional support or just to help relieve any stress or feeling of being overwhelmed. These are the people who keeps me going and doing what I need to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: mecchamatcha.com
- Instagram: Mecchamatcha_CA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/meccha-matcha-artesia
