Meet the successful millennial who owns the seventh most instagrammable café in the world

Gulf News

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2P1Bsbh  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  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

Transcript

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.

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