Essence Unique Easley, affectionately known as Unique, is an author, serial entrepreneur, and brain surgery survivor from Columbus, Ohio, where she lives with her husband Shane and son Ezra. As the Founder and Executive Director of Enduring Minds, Unique provides resources and advocacy for those with chronic neurological conditions. She also co-owns the BBB Spark Award-winning E&E Tea Co., leveraging her expertise in herbalism. Despite health challenges preventing her from completing her degree, Unique pursued continuing education, becoming certified in teaching, leadership, and meditation. A graduate of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s Milestones Circles program and the Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, Unique channels her experiences with chronic illness into business ventures that emphasize healing, community, and perseverance. She leads with transparency and compassion, believing that together, anything is possible. In her downtime, Unique enjoys relaxing with her family and savoring tea.
What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
Essence Unique Easley: Entrepreneurship means taking risks to work in your passions and start/run a business that makes a difference, in you & your family’s lives, and hopefully the lives of your customers & community.
Tell us about your first experience with entrepreneurship.
EE: My first ever experience with entrepreneurship was in 8th grade. I mentioned to a teacher that I would like to make my own money and she asked what I was going to do about that because I was too young for a traditional job. I found a solution by doing odd jobs around the school like cleaning the parish, working the score board at sporting events, serving food. Those things got me a little money and taught me about doing things on my own.
What is your company’s origin story? What is the biggest reason you started your business? What did those early days look like and teach you?
EE: E&E Tea Co. started from a love of tea between my husband and me. We started exploring loose leaf tea and consuming tea for medicinal reasons. When friends and family enjoyed those blends, my husband made a joke that we should sell it, and we did just that!
Those early days were hard and long. A lot of work and research and setting goals – especially as we started during COVID. However, it taught me that dedication wins. We didn’t know everything; we weren’t prepared for everything that would come but we kept going and years later we’re still growing.
What do you wish you knew when you started? Is there anything you would do differently?
EE: I wish I would’ve known that there are so many avenues for success. In the beginning, I focused a lot on things taught in business school and my experiences with business. And while those things are great tools, we became successful, in my opinion, when we did business in the ways that worked for us and met our values. We won’t all experience things or become successful in the same way. Take what works for you and soar.
What does “success” look like for you? We’d love to hear your biggest, boldest dream. What do you think will help you achieve it?
EE: Success to me looks like E&E Tea Co being the #1 choice for organic all-natural teas and wellness teas. I want to be sold in all the grocery store chains, all the ecommerce platforms and marketplaces. I want to partner with businesses and organizations across the world to make a difference and help people drink more tea. I think continued growth in different marketplaces will get us to that goal.
What is your superpower as an entrepreneur? What is your proudest and darkest moment so far?
EE: My superpower is my perspective. I like to look at things from a lens not only as a business owner, but a customer, a disabled customer, a nonprofit owner, and from a perspective of how each decision will affect our community and even the earth. If those decisions don’t impact positively, we don’t do it.
My proudest moment is being awarded the BBB Spark award for leadership and commitment to community and ethics. A major low point we experienced was being told we would become the tea distributor for a hotel and then later being told they decided to give the contract to another company. Not because they didn’t like our product or us but because one person thought we weren’t a large enough company.
“Nos” happen all the time in business, when pitching partnerships sometimes you mess up, but it was crushing being told yes & then no. But that “no” fueled us to keep going and the feedback let us know we can do this; we can pitch and partner with big brands, we can build the business-to-business side of our company. And we are!! Now we are the tea distributor at a local hotel rooftop restaurant.
What are your personal driving principles, your top values?
EE: My top value is living well as someone who endures multiple chronic illnesses. I learned that even in pain, I can be well. I can choose gratitude, joy. I can choose to move my body, exercise my mind, be intentional with what I put in my body, be positive, and care about others and the earth. Secondly, is knowledge. I don’t want to ever stop learning and I show that in my businesses by taking continuing education courses, furthering certifications, and learning from everyone I interact with.
Another top value would be always improving, which can go along with knowledge, but I feel like we should always be trying to improve ourselves. In business, personally, we can always take criticism, be a better listener, be kinder, work out more, drink healthier beverages. We live in a time where information is at our fingertips there is no excuse for us to not be trying to learn new skills, and new information, and do better with those things. The most important of my top values is compassion for all
How have your personal principles and values shaped your company’s values and principles?
EE: My personal principles are also the core values of my businesses. We value living well by being intentional with what we put in our bodies and what we serve our customers – only serving organic all-natural products without oils, dyes, and flavors. We value knowledge by sharing our knowledge of the medicinal benefits of the teas you’re drinking. We try to show compassion by listening to our customers and creating wellness and custom blends for their health and wellness needs. We try to show compassion for the earth by recycling, reusing, and choosing organic and fair-trade products. And we show compassion by giving back and working with organizations to raise money. We are committed to always improving by always learning and taking our reviews whether positive or negative and learning from them.
What’s it like to work alone or with your partners?
EE: I’m lucky enough to have my husband as my business partner and that’s been an amazing experience. We’ve really learned to appreciate each other’s strengths and weaknesses and use those things to our advantage.
What role does mentorship play in your world (as a mentor or mentee)?
EE: Mentorship is so important. You can have someone to learn from and a sounding board. I’ve had the pleasure of being both a mentor and a mentee and I’ve learned a lot about myself in both roles. Having a mentor helped encourage me and gave a different perspective even though my mentor was in a different industry her feedback and skillset were a great benefit to me. I highly recommend entrepreneurs find them a mentor. Mentor Makers helped me find the perfect match.
Can you share some insights into the market or industry you operate in? How have you navigated challenges and changes in the market landscape?
EE: The tea or beverage industry is interesting – there are amazing competitors from big brands to small tea farms and tea houses. We navigate it by having a variety of products that all tea drinkers can enjoy. Also, by creating our wellness blends, we get to be a part of our customers’ healing or holistic journey and that’s been the best part. Tea is essentially a luxury item; it’s not a necessity but it means so much to us when our customers choose to spend their hard-earned money with us.
Many entrepreneurs continue to perfect their daily routines to support their work and greater vision; would you mind sharing your morning routine or a regular ritual that grounds your work each day?
EE: I wake up before my son and drink some loose-leaf tea, while I’m drinking that I’ll do some mindset work where I journal and then meditate. Once that’s over I’ll spend some time in the morning with my son before diving into work. This helps me in staying stress free, remembering what I’m doing it all for, and keeping a positive mindset. Me time is important, even if you must put it on the calendar do it!!
How do you manage the work-life balance as an entrepreneur? What strategies have you found effective in maintaining your well-being?
EE: Work-life balance is hard. I don’t think we ever truly find the perfect balance but for me using my calendar and scheduling everything helps me see where my time is going and everything that needs to be done. For me, setting time frames has been important. I don’t work after 8pm – no more emails, phone calls, messages or social media. My off day is my off day so that my family and home get my attention and, when it’s needed, we take our sons to events and meetings to spend the extra time together.
Lastly, if something for work interferes with something important for our family, we say no. It can be hard to say no or not work on our business and miss possible opportunities, but my wellness and my family’s happiness are most important. If we aren’t well and able to enjoy each other, what would be the point in working so hard anyway?
Where do you turn for inspiration?
EE: I find inspiration in my chronically ill community. I know the type of pain they experience, and I see them get up every day and raise their families, some go to work, school, and do amazing things at pain levels most couldn’t imagine. That reminds me that I have no excuse and there’s nothing I can’t do.
Building and sustaining a business often involves overcoming various challenges. Can you share a specific moment where your entrepreneurial resilience was tested, and how did you navigate through it to ensure the sustainability of your business? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
EE: In the very beginning stages of forming our business, my resilience was tested when we found out I’d have to have yet another brain surgery. All preparations had to stop, be pushed back, we had to focus solely on my health and healing. We thought about pausing for a year, seeing what happens and we thought about giving up and not moving forward altogether. Especially as five weeks after the initial surgery that stopped us, I had to endure that again. To top all of that, COVID-19 and the lockdowns had begun, and it really felt like a hopeless time. But taking time to focus on my healing gave us time to be more prepared, to notice that the world, too, was focusing on health, wellness, and intentionality, and I realized that even if it didn’t look like it was the best time, we had to continue. I heard a motivational speaker say once that if what you’re doing doesn’t make you excited and feel like you want to throw up at the same time then you’re not doing the right thing. Starting this business two months after two brain surgeries in the middle of a pandemic made me want to throw up but it was also exciting to share our journey, our business with the world.
Have you raised outside capital thus far?
EE: We have not yet raised outside capital, we are bootstrapping and reinvesting in our company and ourselves.
We’ve chosen to wait on fundraising after evaluating our company and realizing that we’re not at the space where we need a large amount of capital yet so the risk of taking a loan isn’t the best option. In addition, as an e-commerce business positive cash flow is not always the case which doesn’t make us the best candidate for traditional bank or business loans
Do you have a favorite quote, mantra, or words of wisdom to get through the tough days?
EE: “Everything is well, and everything will be well” It reminds me that all things work out for my good. Even if things don’t seem well right now, they are.
What is a problem that keeps you up at night?
EE: What keeps me up at night is wondering if I could be doing more with our platform to be informative to people, to help people, and to grow this business to be something we and our families, our son, can be proud of. Not everyone gets the opportunity to build their dreams, work for themselves, and be of service to others, I don’t ever want to waste this opportunity.
How do you think about helping others through your work?
EE: In everything that we do. From simply sharing our knowledge with our customers, helping them make informed decisions about what they’re drinking, to having tea chats with customers to create blends especially for them and their health journey. In addition to that, helping others with cause campaigns and donating to organizations and charities. Each year we donate tea to local food banks and pantries, each day we think about how our actions can make a positive difference in the lives of the people we’re privileged to serve.
Have you faced any significant crises in your business, and how did you manage and overcome them?
EE: Crisis comes with being an entrepreneur and we’ve faced them ourselves. From partnering with the wrong people/stores, to figuring out packaging requirements for in-store retail, to running out of products at the worst times – but you do your best to handle the crisis and learn from it.
What advice do you have for fellow (and aspiring) entrepreneurs building and leading teams?
EE: My advice would be to know your personal core values and what’s important to you and put that into the makeup of your business and team. Working within your passions and who you are, what you believe makes this entrepreneur journey a little bit easier.
What kind of an entrepreneur do you want to be known as – as in, what do you want your legacy to be?
EE: I want my legacy to be of an entrepreneur who was persistent and compassionate. Someone who shared her story through her authorship and entrepreneurship to share a story of gratitude, hope, and joy.
Do you have someone you’d like to nominate to be profiled in our Faces of Entrepreneurship series? Please let us know by emailing media@thecenter.nasdaq.org or submitting your nomination using this form.
