- (Nailah) If I said I would give someone who's thinking about
maybe going into business, just know your why. Know why you're doing it. For me,
my why is freedom. I do what I do so that I could be free.
(Lo-fi hip hop music plays)
Hello everyone. I am Hallease and welcome back to the series Convos with CEOs where we have candid
conversations with founders to see what it took get their brand in Target stores. If you missed
the previous episodes, you can watch them here. Today we're gonna talk to Nailah Ellis Brown,
founder and CEO of Ellis Isle Teas and learn about how she went from selling beverages out of her car
to being the largest black owned beverage company in the United States. Let's get into it.
- So, I started Ellis Isle Teas about 13 years ago as a college dropout. So,
my original plan was I had this grand plan. I was gonna go to college and get a business degree
and I would work a job on Wall Street. I would get this super high paying job
and I would work there for two or three years and I would save every dime and then I would
quit that job and then go after my true dream and start a business of some kind.
However, freshman year, first semester I realized how student loans work. I would
have graduated north of $100,000 in debt. I went to Howard. That just did not sit well with me.
Leaving school with that much debt, only to start a career as tough as entrepreneurship. So, I
dropped out and I moved back home into my mother's basement in Detroit and the trial and error began
there. I chose the beverage company because this is something near and dear to my heart.
It was a way to connect with my paternal side and carry on the family legacy. The recipe was
passed down by my great grandfather. He was a chef on Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line.
He came into America through Ellis Island. It had never been written down before me. It would
just be passed down. It was given to me like this. I'll never forget. A couple lemons, couple limes,
some oranges and some tea bags and there you have the recipe for this unnamed tea at the time.
I could not wait to go back home and try it out. I made my first batch
and it came out absolutely horrible. It was disgusting.
The color was brown. The tea is red and when I made it it came out brown.
It tasted horrible. I worked at it every day for an entire year and then finally mastered it on
batch number 365. Now, it's time to get it to the market. I started out selling tea out of my trunk.
I would brew tea at night put it in bottles. I would bottle it by hand. No labels. My first label
was a Vistaprint business card and I would just tape it to the bottle. I would just drive around
the city. The next morning, I would put some ice over the bottles and drive around the city and
wherever I saw people, I would get out and just try to sell it. Fast forward
to today, I'm the largest black owned beverage company in the country.
- So, I wanna dig into the fast forward part (laughs), 'cause everyone gets excited about,
"Yes, you are the biggest black owned beverage company in the Untied States," which is amazing.
Let us celebrate that, but also, I wanna focus in on what that actually took. 'Cause I'm still
trying to piece apart the process of going from selling drinks out of your car (laughs) to-
- (laughs) I'm still process that myself. I'm still processing that myself. Trust me.
- Yeah, so I'm like. Hold up, make it make sense, though
(laughing). Selling out of your car, to biggest black owned beverage company in the United States.
Are there any moments where you were just like, "And now we're out of the car and we're in
my somewhere." You know what I mean? What was that tiny step in there? What was that one?
- So, started out selling tea out of my trunk. Then I started renting a shared kitchen space.
From there, I got my first grocery store or small bakery to carry the product. From there,
I got a larger chain store and then from there I got another one.
Then, we opened shop ourselves and went into production. I couldn't find any bottlers. It
would have been a lot cheaper to have a co-packer or a bottler do it for us.
But I wasn't in it to save money for myself. I've been in this thing to improve quality of life and
offer high quality beverages. I didn't want to go to syrups. So, bottlers, it's much easier
for them to use a syrup and mix in with water and then put high-fructose corn syrup or sugar,
processed sugar. I didn't want to do those things. I wanted to use real tea leaves.
There was no co-packer that would do that.
So, I had to open up shop and create a whole manufacturing process for us to be able to use
real hibiscus flowers and real tea leaves because no bottler would do that for us. Then we opened up
shop and we've been in manufacturing in-house about seven, eight years. I have no sense of
time. From that point ... Yeah, I got that call from Target. I remember that like yesterday.
I mean, it was recent, but I remember that like yesterday. From there it was, "Okay,
how are we gonna fill the largest order that we've ever filled?" Then we just figured it out.
- That's something that I find that people don't realize. Like,
yeah when you can say something like , "Yeah, my product is in Target,"
people don't realize that ... One, they're excited for you. Right? Which is great. Happy
about it. But people don't realize that with big opportunities, all opportunities
are are a chance to work more, you know, (both laugh) or a chance to rise to an occasion.
So, it's like, basically, in so few words, "Yeah, I basically got an absurd order
(laughs) that I need to fill. And I need to like expand exponentially, very quickly (laughs)."
- Yep. Yes. Filling that initial set order for Target,
my plant ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We were down to the wire. I recorded
some of the footage. I never posted it, though, 'cause I always get shy.
But, I think what I recorded. We had 10 days left to fill the order and we were worried
about not completing the order, but we did. We always finish. But it was just like, "How?"
Because when you look at reality, there was no way we were gonna finish the order. But,
I've never been a reality accepter. Only a reality creator. And so we created a
way and we finished the order right on time. Nobody saw me for three months when we were
trying to finish that order and just because of how much, like you said,
when you get these large opportunities, these are opportunities to work.
We had to put in that work. It was nerve wracking. There were a lot of sleepless nights for me and
my team, but we did it. We did it and it's very rewarding in the end. It feels great.
- Can you talk a little bit about ... 'Cause you said you remembered that call like it was
yesterday. Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like getting that call from Target?
- When I got the call, it was from somebody on the Target team that I had been working with
for six years. He had been trying to help me get on the shelves in Target.
And he said, "Hey, I think it's finally time.
Target wants to seriously consider putting you on our shelves. Do you think you can handle
like a Michigan rollout or a regional rollout? How big do you wanna go? What can you handle?"
So, of course, the entrepreneur in me is like,
"No, no, no. We can handle national." I didn't even know how many Target stores
there were when I said that, but it didn't matter because this was my one shot. I'm like, "No,
we can support a national launch. Capacity is no issue and we will. Yeah, it's just one chain. So,
we can handle national if you guys are ready for ... Are you looking for a national launch?"
He's like, "Well, slow your row." (Both laugh) "There might be some opportunities.
We'll look at that. But I know that there's an opportunity for you to finally get a shot.
I can't promise you national, but the opportunity is there." When he called me, I already knew
it was in the bag. I knew it was gonna be the national launch 'cause I wouldn't have it any
other way. Now, we finally got America to listen and we're getting black products on shelves.
Now, what we're realizing. So, in our community we often say, "Why do the black-owned products
cost so much more than everybody else's?" Well, it's because we don't own supply chain.
Now, we're tackling supply chain. We're looking at working with
the entire Caribbean in buying fresh cane because that's what we sweeten our
wet sugar with. Cold-pressed cane. We don't use any processed sugar.
Now, we're looking at buying fresh cold-pressed cane from black farmers all over the Caribbean.
So, that's the next thing we're tackling. We keep going. What's next? Once we scratch that off,
what's next? Then it's fundraising, which was a huge one for us. Because we finally got
funding. I have a 100% black cap table. That's unheard of. It's (laughing) now what's next?
- Something that I always find very fascinating talking to different entrepreneurs is,
they'll be in the beverage business for example, but really you're actually in
a distribution business. You know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, there's the face value thing that you're doing which is amazing, but really it's like,
you actually need to be skilled in x, y, z you know. All these other things.
Can you talk a little bit about what some of those other things are that go into
being a beverage company that people maybe wouldn't think about?
- First of all, beverage is one of the hardest fields that one could jump into.
There was a lot I didn't know getting into it that, if I did know, I would have never
touched beverage. Not with a ten foot pole. I'm glad I didn't know a lot. That I was learning as
I went. It's just ... there's so much. Beverage is the hardest thing to market. Especially iced
tea because it's so oversaturated. But then the part that nobody sees is getting it to the shelf.
Like, literally, the logistics side of it. It was really important to me to work
directly with Target. I was able to negotiate with them and make it so that
they pick it up from us, versus us having to distribute to close to 2,000 stores on
our own. Because we're not a logistics company. That just would never work
for us. Target picks it up from us. It's one thing to get it in the distribution centers.
Then you gotta get it from a distribution center to the stores. Then you gotta make sure the staff
at the stores is taking it from the back of the stores and putting it on the shelves. That's
another job in itself. Manufacturers have a very, very small margin because you've gotta pay the
distribution company to get it to the stores, then you gotta pay merchandising company to make sure
they can it out the back room to the shelf. The expenses are unreal when it comes to beverage.
- Wow, dag. That's a lot (both laugh).
Everything I do is digital, right. I don't actually have a physical good that I need
to get to people. It's all just, "You got internet. You got me." You know (laughs)?
- Yeah.
- It's digital and service based. You want me to come film for you,
or produce for you, direct for you. So, yeah. My big excitement with doing this
series has been, "Dang, how y'all get it there, though?" You know (both laughing).
- Yeah. It's tough.
- 'Cause like, I'm stressed about the wi-fi going out (laughs).
But you're like, "People need to pick up the phone." You know (laughing)?
- Yes. If I said I would give someone who is thinking about maybe going into business,
just know your why before you start. Before you start anything whether it be a career,
working a job, starting a business, know why you're doing it. For me,
my why is freedom. I do what I do so that I could be free. That is my motivation behind
everything I do. I just wanna be free at the end of the day. Entrepreneurship is my freedom.
That's how I'm able to keep going. Because if you don't why you're doing something,
especially entrepreneurship, you're gonna go crazy. Any advice I would give someone considering
going into business, just know why you're doing it. It can't be about the money. Yes, there
are ... We all know success stories of people who drop out of college and then became billionaires.
But that can't be ... Yes, I enjoy money. I like money.
Let me set the record straight, but that is not my ... the why. That's not why I
started. It's for positive impact globally for people who look like me. So, just being clear
on why you're doing it. I think that is the foundation. You can start building on that.
- My continued learning for this episode is a little more introspective.
If you're thinking about starting a business, in the comments below,
let us know your why. Is it to uplift your community, or maybe it's to fill a need.
Let us know. Again, if you're new here, consider subscribing so that way you don't miss anymore
episodes in the series. We still have one more to go. A big thank you to Target for sponsoring this.
I am Hallease. I'll see you when I see you.
(Lo-fi hip hop music plays)