12. Brewing Success: Tonia Jahshan's Sipology, From Tea to Wellness
EPISODE 12
Ever wondered how to juggle the hats of entrepreneur, mother, and partner? Tonia Jahshan, Julie's guest on Figure 8, shared her incredible story of growing Steeped Tea (now Sipology), from a one-woman operation to appearing on Dragon's Den to being a regular on the PROFIT 500 Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies list.
Catch the Conversation
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Tonia Jahshan embarked on her visionary journey over 17 years ago, armed with a cup of tea and a mission to infuse the joy of loose leaf tea into people's lives. Through her social selling venture, Sipology, she not only shared the love for tea but also empowered numerous business owners, providing them with extra income and a supportive community. Today, Sipology has blossomed into a renowned North American health and wellness brand, offering matcha, essential vitamins, and super greens – a bouquet of well-being.
In 2012, Tonia and Hatem made their mark on CBC's Dragons' Den, impressing Jim Treliving and David Chilton with their pitch. This dynamic duo returned to the Den multiple times, cementing their legendary status in the entrepreneurial realm.
Fast-forward to the present, Sipology has expanded its reach, achieving millions in annual sales and building a dedicated network of Sipologists across North America. Their mission extends beyond products, encompassing health, sustainability, and government-approved quality. Year after year, Sipology shines on the PROFIT 500 Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies list, and Tonia's accolades continue to accumulate, from Canada's #1 Female Entrepreneur to the Ernst and Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women award. Forbes recognizes her as one of the Women to Watch.
In the end, Tonia Jahshan's journey, rooted in a humble cup of tea, embodies growth, resilience, and a passionate commitment to purpose.
You can connect with Tonia on Instagram or LinkedIn, at her website or via Sipology.
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**The beginning of the entrepreneurial journey (00:01:30)**
Tonia shares her inspiration for starting Steeped Tea and her initial experiences with loose leaf tea. Tonia discusses the challenges she faced, the success of her in-home tea parties, and the decision to turn her business into a social marketing company.
**Transition to a larger scale and striving for a significant sales target (00:08:22)**
Tonia talks about the transition from running the business at home to involving her husband, Hatem, and the challenges of managing a growing company while having children.
**The Dragon's Den experience (00:11:15)**
Tonia discusses the changes brought about by Hatem's involvement, the decision to appear on Dragon's Den, and the subsequent expansion into the US market.
**Evolution of product offerings and health and wellness focus (00:16:01)**
Tonia explains the company's shift towards health and wellness products, including the development of Health Canada-approved teas and boosters.
**Working with her husband and maintaining a strong marriage (00:20:24)**
Tonia discusses the dynamics of working with her husband and emphasizes the importance of prioritizing their marriage over business disagreements and the power of complementary skill sets.
**Delegation, adapting to social media, and incorporating AI (00:23:14)**
Challenges of managing people and delegating tasks in business growth, evolving the sales model to work with social media, and incorporating AI.
**Focus and Decision Making (00:33:15)**
Advice on focusing on key aspects and having a strong decision-making process in business growth.
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Julie (00:00:04) - Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to today's episode of Figure Eight. Today I am chatting with Tonia Jahshan, and Tonia embarked on a visionary journey nearly 20 years ago to bring loose leaf tea into people's lives. And that small, seemingly small wish has led to her building a wellness empire of hydration.
Julie (00:01:30) - so tea and wellness and all kinds of things that we're going to dig into today. she was on Dragon's Den, the Canadian version of Shark Tank, and she has grown an amazing business, regularly appearing on, you know, top lists of entrepreneurial ventures. so I'm super happy to welcome you today, Tonia.
Tonia (00:01:49) - Hi. Good to have you. Or good to have you. Good to be here, Julie.
Julie (00:01:54) - It's so great to have you here. I'm so glad to chat with you, because I think you have such an interesting story. And, you know, the the ways we have ideas and what we can turn them into. So tell us a little bit about how you got started.
Tonia (00:02:09) - So 17 years ago, my husband and I were just newlyweds in our, you know, our adventure together as husband and wife. And we decided we didn't want to waste any time. I was 31. He was 30. we wanted to have a family right away, and, like, just like that, because we said we're going to have a family right away.
Tonia (00:02:30) - I got pregnant. Everything was going along so great until about 14 weeks into the pregnancy, and I had a miscarriage. And it wasn't something that was ever. It wasn't even something I thought would ever happen. I didn't even think about this, the possibility of it happening. and when it did happen, it just really, it really brought me down. I guess that's a good word for it. and so how to notice, you know, that I really needed to get away, from just all of the the anxiety and the stress that this caused both of us. So we went on a little trip to Nova Scotia. and I booked us into a whole bunch of bed and breakfasts that, on this three day holiday and the very first bed and breakfast that we stayed at in the morning, they served us the most amazing loose leaf tea called Cream of Earl Grey. And I had never been exposed to loose leaf tea. I've always been a tea drinker, but it was Tetley or Lipton with a side of milk, and this tea just really made me so happy.
Tonia (00:03:39) - It smelled good, it tasted good, it looked beautiful. And I remember saying to the, the owner, where did you get this tea from? Like it's amazing. And he said, well, I got it down, you know, down in Mahone Bay, it's about 30 minute drive from here. And, I said to him, I'm like, we need to go and get some of this tea because I need to bring it home, because it just made me so happy. And so we went there and I walked in and it was like this little tea shop, no bigger than the office. I'm sitting in here right now. And it was wall to wall loose leaf teas. And I was like, Holy cow! Like, I had no idea that there were so many varieties of loose leaf tea. And so I brought a whole bunch of at home for my friends and family, and they and started introducing it to them. And they were like, wow, this is like the best tea ever.
Tonia (00:04:28) - And I'm like, I know. And so I just had this lightbulb moment of like, I'm gonna start a tea business. You know, I was already employed with my dad. I was, selling hand tools and electrical equipment, with my father's business. But this brought such passion out of me. I just wanted when I become really passionate about something, I'm. I'm like. Everyone becomes passionate about it around me. And so I was like, I'm going to start this little tea business. Just I'm going to go start introducing it to people through in-home events like parties. and, I came up with the name Steeped Tea and went out, embarked on this little adventure of, of course, you know, like, we could get into how hard it was to actually start getting people to book parties. For me, it wasn't easy, but once I had that one party that was successful and that party led to like eight more and then 16 more, I was doing upwards of 20 parties a month introducing these loose leaf teas.
Tonia (00:05:36) - I was catering them, I was making scones and all of the things. And, I was pregnant again. with with Layla. In this time we knew things were going. Going to go well. Well, at least we we, you know, that's what the perception was at the time and everything did, thank God. Touch wood. and I, I. Couldn't do this alone anymore. And people were asking me, well, how can I join you in this adventure? How can I be a part of what you're starting to build here? And that's when I decided that I was going to turn into a social marketing company, and invite other people to come and sell this with me. So aka direct sales. Right. And, and that's kind of what happened. It just it really blossomed within a year. within three years, we were hitting around 250,000 in sales, just with a small team of I think there was 30 of us selling the products, I was everything, I was the, manufacturer.
Tonia (00:06:36) - I was the shipper. I was the, you know, putting the I mean, it was everything. I was everything. It was all run out of my house for about four years. My garage was my, my shipping department. My basement was my tea factory. I had my mom and my aunt as employees. It was it was it was pretty cool.
Julie (00:06:57) - And and, with all of that, you're also still doing tea parties yourself? Yeah.
Tonia (00:07:02) - And having babies. There's pictures of me breastfeeding and, putting orders in. Yes.
Julie (00:07:11) - Oh my gosh. Right. Sometimes you look back at that and wonder how you ever did it.
Tonia (00:07:16) - You you really do, don't you, Julie? Because I know that you have I know you are also in the same boat of building a company, having babies and babies in the moment. You just do it and it becomes almost like second nature, like, well, of course this is what I'm going to do. Like, what else am I going to do, but I don't.
Julie (00:07:34) - I want this business to survive and thrive. I'm of course I'm going to do.
Tonia (00:07:37) - But looking back now and talking to other people who want to become entrepreneurs, they find that like, like, fascinating. Wow, you you did that because I think a lot of people wouldn't be able to do something like that. It's a lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure. Right? Having children, building a company, all of the things, Adam and I were even running three subway franchises at the time. You know, I was involved in that, too. So it was a crazy time in our life. But you just do what you gotta do.
Julie (00:08:13) - Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, obviously at a point things got much too big for you to stay at home.
Tonia (00:08:22) - So yeah.
Julie (00:08:22) - So that's a big transition financial as well as everything else.
Tonia (00:08:26) - Absolutely fine. Year five was when Hatem started my husband had him started to pay attention to what I was doing. He was really impressed by the the amount of sales that I was pulling in.
Tonia (00:08:39) - but when he started to really dig into my numbers, he was like, well, you are amazing at sales and marketing, but you suck at finances. And I really I did I still do, you know, like the money was coming in, money was leaving as fast as it was coming in because I wasn't paying attention to, the numbers. I wasn't paying attention to all of the things I was spending money on. And so that's when he gave me an ultimatum. He's like, listen, we can't continue to you can't continue to do this business. I can't continue bankrolling it through subway. so here's the deal. We either shut this down or you hit a half $1 million in sales next year. And that's. So that would mean that I would have to produce another 250,000 in sales, in one year. And, he goes, but if you hit 500,000 in sales, I will sell all of our subway franchises, and I will come on board as CEO of this company. And I'm like, that is a big jump, like from 250 to 500.
Tonia (00:09:47) - But I was like, okay, I had to do it, I really did. I couldn't let my biggest fear was letting people down. My biggest fear were all of these people that were selling for me and having to tell them that this was over. And so without telling them my fear of what was about to happen, I rallied the troops and said, guys, we have a goal to hit 500,000 by next year and this is how we're going to do it. And we did it.
Julie (00:10:14) - That's so amazing. Do you think you would have also like, been letting yourself down in a way in terms of, oh God, yes of course.
Tonia (00:10:23) - Oh yeah. Of course. Like for sure myself. Like, I mean, yeah, when you're, when you have such a big dream and I am a big visionary, and that will and that might fail. That's tough. That's tough to swallow. Yeah, absolutely. I go I still have that fear all the time.
Julie (00:10:45) - Right. And. Well, and in some ways the fears I mean, you know, they get bigger because the responsibilities get bigger as your company grows.
Julie (00:10:52) - Like, you know, the amount of people that you have on your payroll that you want to make sure you're always going to be able to meet that payroll families are depending on you. All of those things feel like more pressure when you have a bigger company.
Tonia (00:11:04) - 100%. Yeah, pressures are bigger now, for sure.
Julie (00:11:08) - Yeah. So when Hatem came on board, so you obviously got to 500,000.
Tonia (00:11:15) - I did, we did. And he I think he was pleasantly surprised. I do think he was a bit surprised. Not and it's not that he didn't believe in me, but he knew that he was asking a lot. And but when I did it he was like, okay, here we go. He kept his promise. We he did what he said he was going to do. And when he came on board, things definitely changed. The first thing he did was, you know, start renegotiating contracts with our vendors, getting the prices down, making it, making us profitable. getting the business out of the house was one of the first things that we did.
Tonia (00:11:54) - We moved into a I think it was 1200 square foot warehouse and office space, which was like a dream for me to have this out of my house and, and. Yeah, for, for the next year, for that full year, he really worked hard on the numbers and turned this into a profitable company. And it was shortly after that he turned into a profitable company that I was like, okay, we're going on Dragon's Den.
Julie (00:12:25) - And he was like, wow, we've got the numbers and let's go, yeah.
Tonia (00:12:29) - Let's do this. And he was absolutely like, no way we're going on Dragon's Den. because he was just he was just so happy with the growth that we were having in Canada. He wasn't he wasn't interested at that time to break into the US market. But I knew that we needed to have an advantage as being one of the first people in the US to do what we were doing, because there was no one else doing it, through the direct sales, tea and wellness.
Tonia (00:12:57) - And, so I really encouraged him to participate in this and, of course, you know, being on Dragon's Den, it's not easy to even get on the show, but I was pretty confident that we would. And, and when we did. Things definitely changed after that.
Julie (00:13:16) - Yeah. And so did that really help you open the US? Did it do what you.
Tonia (00:13:20) - Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, one of the first things that the one the biggest thing I, the biggest lesson I, I learned from Dragon's Den was, well, first of all, my biggest reason for going on Dragon's Den was to break open the US market. I really wanted to leave with partners. There was no way in hell that I was not leaving with partners on that show. I was on there obviously for the exposure, but I also was on there because I really didn't want to leave without somebody signing the dotted line and leaving with me. and that's one of the mistakes I think a lot of people on Dragon's Den make is that they don't think long term.
Tonia (00:13:56) - Of all of the things that the dragons can bring to you, you know, long term. And I was thinking about that almost right from the get go. So Jim and David were our partners of choice. We were very fortunate that we were able to choose who we wanted to partner with. they were not the two that we were intending to partner with. We thought we were going to go in and go with Arlene, but Arlene wasn't, she wasn't she didn't understand our model as much as David and and Jim did, which was so ironic because our model is such a female focused model. Right. But, but they were they loved it. And, so when we finally partnered with them, sign on the dotted line with our lawyers, the first thing that Jim did was he introduced us to us, his, his contacts in China, his factories. We got all of our products switched over rather quickly to be made for ourselves. no longer, you know, middlemen. he had David Sheldon being a speaker, a very famous author and speaker of the wealthy barber, helped us get our name out there to, a lot of us, people that he was in contact with.
Tonia (00:15:06) - So, yeah, it was it was well worth the, the 20%, the 10% each that they took. It was. Yeah. Yeah.
Julie (00:15:14) - And interesting. Right. Like that evolution of, you know, when you talk about going to China for product, you're talking about all the tea wear that you were selling at that time, right? Yes. Hard goods that went along with, you know, so you could have that beautiful table setting and that beautiful company.
Tonia (00:15:32) - Yeah, absolutely. So yeah.
Julie (00:15:33) - So the company has evolved a lot in terms of like product mix since the time you were on Dragon's Den when you were primarily tea and scones and those kinds of things. And tell us about your journey to where you are today, because you have some really amazing products in the health and wellness space. And I'm thinking about, like the menopause support product and other things that you've brought out over the last number of years. So let's talk a little bit about that evolution for you.
Tonia (00:16:01) - Yeah, absolutely.
Tonia (00:16:03) - So, five years ago, more or less, yeah. 5 or 6 years ago, we realized that, well, we we never want we always knew all of our tea products have amazing health properties. There is no doubt that, you know, tea is good for you. it can do all kinds of great things for your body, but without the Health Canada approval stamp, we were not comfortable making any claims. And I know a lot of companies out there do it without FDA approvals and Health Canada, but it was not something that we really wanted to do. So it became clear to us, if we want to do that, we're going to have to start working with Health Canada. And so that's when we developed our line of heal thyself teas and, and boosters that, Health Canada helped, approve. We, we, we hired university students from Guelph University to help us with the formulations. Then we would submit them to Health Canada. And, you know, long story short, we have now this line of like, 12 to, you know, 15 to 20 products that are all Health Canada approved and FDA reviewed by.
Tonia (00:17:12) - yeah, the FDA and, and so that really opened up a whole new world for us. it was not just about tea anymore. And that's why our name changed to topology. because everything that we offer is skippable. like our vitamin boosters. Our vitamin boosters, were created because I was very vitamin deficient. I was terrible at taking vitamins because I just wouldn't I just I have a hard time taking pills. Not not a hard time swallowing them, but hard time remembering them. And I tried everything to to remember to take my vitamins. But I said to the R&D team, I said, is there a possibility of creating a line of vitamin boosters that you can just throw into your smoothie, or into your coffee or into your tea? Then I could get my vitamins. And so they're like, yeah, that's that's work on this. And so the vitamin that. It was very deficient and was vitamin D, and so that was one of our very first ones. And they came out with a caramel mocha vitamin D booster.
Tonia (00:18:21) - And it is delicious, right? I love it. And ever since then my vitamin D has been spot on. I do not have any deficiency in vitamin D anymore. And we have vitamin D multivitamin probiotic. Oh my gosh. There's a long list of all the vitamins we have. But yes, we've we've really expanded menopause now.
Julie (00:18:45) - Yes. Well, and one of the things I think that you've really done a great job at is everything tastes delicious. So it's not just healthy and good for you, but it also, you know, it's additive to whatever you're putting it in.
Tonia (00:18:59) - Yes. Yeah. That was really important to me. We I would say we are really are we are flavor masters. We are so good at flavoring things. I really think that is our, that's our secret sauce is that we are really good at flavoring things. Yeah. Naturally.
Julie (00:19:17) - Yes. Yeah. Well and that's important, right. Like we're talking about a health and wellness line. And so it you know having natural flavorings is an important piece of that.
Tonia (00:19:27) - Absolutely. We there's no artificial anything in any of our products. That's our claim to fame since the very beginning when I started this company. and you'll find that there are a lot of teas out there that have a ton of artificial flavors in them. And it tastes you can taste it, right? So yeah.
Julie (00:19:44) - Yeah, yeah, you can. It's, you know, you get that aftertaste or whatever it is, right? For sure. So Hatem came on, your husband had him came on to the team after a few years. And so you two have been working together for quite a long time now. What's that like? What's it like to be in an entrepreneurial venture which we all know can be stressful, with your spouse? Because spending, that's a lot of time. It's a lot of time spend together and a lot of, you know, you're kind of 24 over seven in the trenches together with the family, with the kids, with the business. And so how have you manage that?
Tonia (00:20:24) - that's a challenge for sure.
Tonia (00:20:26) - you know, we we do work well together, because first of all, I work here in my home office most of the time now since Covid, I, I don't think I, I've not gone back to the office very often and he goes into the office, but more importantly, we really stick. We really try to stay in our lanes. our lanes are crossing a little bit right now, just with this whole direction I'm taking with social media and all of this, but, we we have a clear understanding of our roles. He's the CEO, I'm the founder. he, you know, he he manages the team. I hate managing people. I'm not a manager at all. So that's his role. but, yeah, we we've always said the most important thing for us is our marriage. And nothing could ever come between our marriage. And so we always it's always at the forefront of our mind when we start arguing about the business or we have different opinions, we're always like, okay, let's just take a step back.
Tonia (00:21:32) - This isn't worth our marriage. We don't need to fight about this. Let's just come to an agreement about whatever it is that we're we're arguing about. So I think that, having that having that grounded, that like a grounded relationship, like we do a strong marriage is definitely the secret to us being able to work together well.
Julie (00:21:56) - And I think that, you know, you've alluded to this, but that compatible skill sets, like you are one of the best salespeople that I have ever met.
Tonia (00:22:05) - Oh my gosh, thank you.
Julie (00:22:06) - We're always selling and it's always from the heart and so genuine. But he is a master at operations and streamlining and chemistry and so many things that you you know, you do what he can't do and he's doing what you can't do. So I think those complementary skill sets are important in any kind of an entrepreneurial partnership.
Tonia (00:22:31) - Absolutely. Julie, you really you know what? That is so true. And one thing that I talk about a lot is that we were so fortunate that we both were strong in, in very different things in the business to build this business.
Tonia (00:22:45) - And that's that's tough. Like when you're building a company, you're not going to be good at everything. Right. And so you so as you grow, you have to find those people that are going to do the things that you're not good at and that's that. That can be really quite difficult. But I found that in my husband. So that, that, you know, I'm very thankful for that, that we are very strong in different parts of the business. And I, I think that it has definitely attributed to our success, for sure.
Julie (00:23:14) - Yeah, yeah. And I think it's that thing of, you know, you it it definitely would help you each stay in your lane. The fact that you, you have such different skill sets. And it also really allows like I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we end up in jobs we might not have imagined when we had an idea to start a business. That's right. So, you know, and one of those jobs can be managing people.
Julie (00:23:39) - And like you said, you're not the right person for that. So I'm.
Tonia (00:23:43) - Definitely not.
Julie (00:23:46) - Yeah, but there are a lot of people in your position that end up having to manage a lot of people because they don't really have a choice.
Tonia (00:23:53) - Exactly. And you have to learn that skill. Right. And that's why you're so good at what you do. You help people learn those skills. And, I, I'm, I'm slowly getting like, I have to I actually have a team of two now. I have a new person underneath me, and I'm, you know, I'm about to hire a virtual assistant, so I'm actually going to be managing two people. And this is a new territory for me. So, Julie, I'm going to need some advice.
Julie (00:24:21) - Definitely. Well, and it is definitely, you know, you have to you have to think about things like stepping back and teaching and, you know, putting good parameters around them so that they can go out and do the work and be successful.
Julie (00:24:36) - and that is a real shift. Right? And it's where people dip into the micromanaging, you know, field, because we want everything to happen the way we want it to. Yeah. And so then we overstep and then, you know, that's not successful, right?
Tonia (00:24:50) - No, no. So yeah, I'm I'm walking into a different definitely a different a role that I have not been in for a very, very long time. so yeah, I'm going to be looking for a lot of advice.
Julie (00:25:03) - Yeah. Well, and that's the interesting part, right. What happens when you take a role other than sort of where you expected to be and, you know, because the business has a need and you need to sort of get things going. And then how do you, you know, set it up to hand it off. Right.
Tonia (00:25:23) - Yeah. Yeah, that is definitely the goal. So yeah.
Julie (00:25:27) - So. Yeah. And now and then you become expert in all kinds of other things you never expected.
Tonia (00:25:33) - No. Like social media. I never expected to be in the role I'm in right now, which is a pretty big role, but I am loving it. Though I do love learning about all of the new things that are happening in the social media world. It is. It is an evolution of the way I've. I've thought before for sure about social media.
Julie (00:25:55) - Well, and that's kind of interesting because you've always been the face of the organization. Right. So it's not new that you are out there doing things. But I mean, let's face it, you started this company before social media existed, right? So, you know, how has being that face of the business and that spokesperson kind of evolved for you?
Tonia (00:26:20) - Yeah. so. I mean, that's a that's an interesting question. I've always. Yeah. So I've always been the face of this company. predominantly, you know, the message has been to, you know, about the direct sales model, right. And the direct sales model has changed so much over the last five years.
Tonia (00:26:44) - I would say Covid really changed what direct sales is now, you know, when, when Drexel or when Covid hit. In home events were no longer right. It was that that was over. And so we had to really quickly adapt to the social media world of doing, social media parties. So I became the voice in the face of that whole transformation through Covid of, okay, well, we have to pivot now really fast and really hard. It's funny. It was not it was like literally a month before Covid happened when the world shut down, we were at at a, an event, a leadership event with our with our psychologists in Atlanta are not Atlanta anyway. It doesn't matter where it was. But, and I remember saying to them, I already saw the writing on the wall, I already knew that the the face of direct sales was changing. People weren't doing in-home events anymore. It was it was just it was just not what people wanted to do. And I remember saying to them, guys, if you don't adopt a social media right now, this is before Covid happened.
Tonia (00:27:54) - You're going to be you're going to be lost in the you're gonna be a dinosaur. And just like that, in a month after that, everything changed. And the people who listened to me adapted quickly, thrived through Covid thrive. Like we we saw sales through Covid that were like Dragon's Den sales, like we went through the roof. It was crazy. But those who didn't adapt to the social media world quickly died. Right? And things haven't changed. In home events are still not a thing that people do. And so I social media is social media is even changing. There's no more, parties happening or events happening. So much to say on social media. So this is why I had to. So now I'm the face of, you know, what is the new social media world look like for direct sales? And that is what I'm learning. And, you know, and, and giving to our field right now, every Friday, I do a sales training on what I'm learning on social media and how they're how they need to adapt to the changes that are happening in in the selling environment.
Tonia (00:29:04) - Selling is not the same as it was even a year ago. It's it's a really interesting it's a really interesting world right now. Let's put it that way. Things are so.
Julie (00:29:16) - Yeah, I feel like it's a bit of a reflection of the entrepreneurial journey, though, because I have said for a long time, like, if I ever feel like I know what I'm doing, I better look out because something's coming down the pipe, like I'm going to be, like, immediately tumbled into something. I have no idea where, I'm no idea what I'm doing. And and then you're it's that constant learning, that growth mindset that like, you know, how do I keep up with what I need to know? And I think that that's it's an interesting, you know, that's really what's happened to you in terms of how do you need to show up as the face? How does the business need to sell? Yeah. and how do you then teach the team that you have working with you to stay current and up to date?
Tonia (00:30:04) - Absolutely.
Tonia (00:30:06) - right now, you know, aside from social media. But this ties in well with it, was I right? I'm. I'm taking a course on artificial intelligence. I'm going to a, an event in April to learn how is AI changing the way we market and sell. And it is quickly, quickly coming at us fast and so fast that it's becoming overwhelming for a lot of people. But if we don't adapt and, and, and embrace this new world that we're getting thrown into with AI, companies are going to also suffer by not accepting that it's happening, and not incorporating it somehow into their businesses. So that's that's the other face I'm taking on is AI. So.
Julie (00:30:54) - Yeah, just a small.
Tonia (00:30:55) - Little, small little thing. Yeah.
Julie (00:30:58) - Good. Well and and what's next for you? What's next for psychology? Oh, gosh. I.
Tonia (00:31:04) - Think that, just to continue adapting to the way that the world is changing with growth, for sure. I mean, personally, I'm taking on a lot of roles in the company with the marketing aspect of, like, you know, social media, email campaigns, artificial intelligence, how that's going to, change our company in the next five years.
Tonia (00:31:33) - It's a it's a really interesting question to ask these days of what what's next for your company? Because I almost feel like I don't know right now because.
Julie (00:31:43) - So maybe, maybe what's next is staying nimble and listening and, you know, continuing to learn.
Tonia (00:31:50) - Yeah, I think that's exactly what it is I've never felt. So I've never felt a level of uncertainty, as I do right now, and not in a bad way. Not in a bad way, in a good way, but because I'm learning so much of what's happening and what's coming down the pipe. It is a, there's definitely going to be some exciting developments, but also some challenges for sure for people.
Julie (00:32:16) - Yeah. Well, and that is the, I think the listening piece of really being open to what changes will come and being positioned to be able to capitalize on them. And I think that is something that, you know, you've done really well. And so it'll be interesting to follow your journey forward now.
Tonia (00:32:38) - I think thank you.
Tonia (00:32:39) - And I think that people need to also know they can't capitalize on everything. And don't try to capitalize on everything because you will burn out. Great. Yeah.
Julie (00:32:48) - That is such a great point. Right? The at the buffet of choices. You can't take it all.
Tonia (00:32:53) - You can't take it all. Focus on what you think you can do. And don't worry about all of the other noise around you because, because it will it will just frustrate you and burn you out and, focus. Just keep focus on the one thing or two things that, you know, or you can handle, and then just let everything else go. Just let it all go. Yeah.
Julie (00:33:15) - Yeah. And have a really great, like, decision making process for how you're going to weed out the stuff that you're not going to chase. Yeah.
Tonia (00:33:21) - Yeah, exactly.
Julie (00:33:23) - I think that's really great advice. Thank you. Good. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I really, really appreciate it. This was such a great conversation and I'm wishing you all the best.
Tonia (00:33:33) - I can't wait, Julie. All right. I'll see you later, guys. Bye, guys.
Julie (00:33:39) - I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. So you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast, it's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book, Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.julieellis.ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again. That's julieellis.ca. When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure Eight.