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Dubai-based entrepreneur and successful millennial Tania Lodi shares the inspirations and challenges of running the seventh most instagrammable café in the world
#millenial #tea #entreprenuer
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Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Dubai-based entrepreneur and successful millennial Tania Lodi shares the inspirations and challenges of running the seventh most instagrammable café in the world
#millenial #tea #entreprenuer
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00:00Hello everyone, this is Anjana Kumar from Gulf News and with me is Tanya Lodi. She's an entrepreneur
00:07and owner of Tanya's Tea House and we're here to talk about her life journey, how she started
00:13it all. Remember, she's just 25, very successful entrepreneur, so we're here to know how it all
00:19happened. Hi Tanya, welcome to Gulf News. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm Tanya Lodi,
00:24the founder of Tanya's Tea House, the seventh most Instagrammable cafe in the world. So tell
00:28us how it all started, Tanya. It's been a year now? A year and a half, close to two years. Nice,
00:35so you were almost 23 when you started? Yep, almost 23 when we started. So what made you
00:40start this? Sure, so I studied at University of Toronto and while I was there, I was so inspired
00:45by all the different cafes around me and I was also figuring out what I wanted to do after
00:49graduating, which you know, all people have that trouble in their last few years before moving
00:55back. So I realized that I wanted to do something that was creative, something out of the box. During
01:01university, I was dealing with chronic health issues and I felt like the thing that woke me
01:07up the most and brought me joy and happiness was a cup of tea. So I kind of, I think I realized the
01:14secret of happiness, which is finding joy in the little things. So for me it was tea, for me it was
01:21experimenting with different tea flavors, it was going to different cafes and basking in the magic
01:27of cafe cultures and I realized I wanted to make other people feel this as well. I wanted to show
01:32other people that if you, you know, find your ways to escape the nuances of your daily life, you can
01:38really benefit and feel some happiness. I must say you've done a great job because I'm having an
01:43English breakfast tea and it's amazing, it's the best that I've ever had. Oh, thank you. So you've
01:48obviously done a lot of research and this means a lot to you. Yes. So that's important in when
01:54you start a venture, passion. Of course. Yeah, so tell us about that and how you did your research.
02:00Sure, so in Toronto, I took classes in tea. I met so many different tea connoisseurs,
02:08I had probably 500 cups of tea by the end of it, I was like shaking.
02:12But most importantly, I learned about the health benefits of tea, which most people don't know and
02:17most people don't talk about. Yeah. Most people think that tea is green, black and chamomile,
02:22that's not even the half of it. They also think it's addictive. Exactly, or there's certain people
02:27think it's something you have before you go to bed. People don't realize you can also get energy
02:31from coffee, just not the jittery effects from like, like it is from coffee. So I learned all
02:37about the health benefits and that there's an ingredient called L-thionine, which is an amino
02:41acid that actually enhances your mood and causes a feeling of relaxation. So tea is said to have
02:49an effective zen energy, which is feeling zen, but also energized. And I really, really wanted to play
02:55on that in Dubai. And also there's so many other health benefits of tea such as it's good for your
03:00heart, good for your liver, good for your teeth, good for your skin, your nails. They help with
03:05anxiety, they help with depression, they can help boost your energy, boost your mood, they can help
03:10you cleanse your digestive tract, full of antioxidants. I mean, I could go on and on and on.
03:15Absolutely, I saw in your menu as well you have these specific teas. So do you have a special
03:22chef preparing this for you? No, so we have a private supplier who's custom blended the teas.
03:29So I've basically tailor picked ingredients that I wanted to use, different flavor profiles,
03:34and we've come up with a list of teas that have like indulgent ones like cookie dough and
03:39cheesecake and mint chocolate, and then also healthy ones with ginger, with turmeric, with
03:45ashwagandha root. Wow, that's so nice. So tell me, how does it feel to be a millennial, a successful
03:54millennial entrepreneur? What are the challenges? Lots of challenges. I mean, first of all, I'm
04:00humbled to, you know, be known as a successful entrepreneur. But it did not come without
04:06blood, sweat and tears. It never does. Owning your own business is not glamorous. People seem
04:12to think you just sift tea all day and order people around and all that. No, I mean, there's
04:18not enough hours in the day to get things done oftentimes. And having a work-life balance is
04:24a big struggle. And I think in terms of in the industry of food and beverages, dealing with
04:30customer service, dealing with suppliers, dealing with your staff, constantly changing and being
04:35innovative, because Dubai is such a fast-moving market. There's cafes opening left and right every
04:40day. So staying in line with your competitors, whilst also being true to your branding guidelines
04:46and being true to what your vision is. So like, kind of doing all of those things at once is,
04:52it's, yeah, I need a lot of tea to get through it. How many cups do you have in a day?
04:58I don't know if I should say. Close to 10, but a lot of them are herbal, so they're not caffeinated.
05:05That's good. So seventh most Instagrammable cafe, how do you achieve that? Well, I mean, I have to
05:11give it to our amazing team. I think our reputation really speaks for itself in terms of our customer
05:17satisfaction. I've trained our staff specifically to be extremely attentive, extremely knowledgeable
05:23about dietary restrictions and allergies. And we've tried so hard to invoke this feeling of
05:28relaxation and comfort where people come in here and they can literally lose themselves over a cup
05:33of tea. So I think it's all about our customer experience. Obviously, we've put a lot of work
05:38into making everything aesthetically pleasing. All of our food is pretty to look at, but also
05:43delicious to eat. But yeah, it's been a lot of hard work. That's right. And what's the kind of
05:49footfall that you see? Like how many customers do you see in a day? A lot. I can tell you that we've
05:56served over 40,000 cups of tea. So that doesn't even include coffee. Going forward, what are your
06:04goals? Sure. So we're actually looking at franchising both within the Middle East and
06:10internationally. Yeah. I mean, we really want to open more branches and grow and kind of adapt
06:16our theme to different countries and cities using play on words and puns such as here there's
06:22hey there Habibti. But I mean, who knows what pun will come up with for a different country.
06:27Okay, that's nice. And advice to millennials, what would you tell them? Sure. A lot of them want to be,
06:33you know, you know, getting to start up and be entrepreneurs. So what would you tell them?
06:40I would have to say my biggest motto in life right now is to kill with kindness. So don't,
06:46I mean, in any industry, and especially when you're an entrepreneur, you're going to meet
06:51so many people who are, I mean, either ageist and condescending that you're young and starting
06:56your own business. Customers alone, you'll meet all types of different people, all types of
07:00different business partners. Oftentimes, it's kind of hard to keep your cool and also run your
07:04business and hustle. But I think if you keep with this mentality of compassion and being dignified
07:10and being kind, it really does come a long way. Okay, that's nice. And it's a wrap. I mean, how
07:15well said. Thank you, Tanya, for, you know, giving us this interview. All the best in your
07:22golden endeavors. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching this. This is Anjana Kumar
07:26for Gulf News again.