Rising Stars: Meet Luis Sanchez of Norwalk, Ca

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luis Sanchez.

Luis, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Our Tea story began in the summer of 2022. the pandemic was still lingering and at the moment I was working a tech job fixing mobile pay systems with some friends I grew up with. I had been an entrepreneur for the past decade and the pandemic and personal life situations had brought me down the a safe 9/5 job. My cousin and I had worked together on past projects and he had an idea to start a coffee shop and kept pitching the idea.

We literally googled “buy a coffee shop” and started reaching out to people wanting to sell their coffee shops. its a lot easier to build up something that was already started.
I do not like following the crowd, it just felt like everyone was doing coffee. We stubbled upon “Zens tea house” in Norwalk and reached out. I knew about tea and herbs growing up through my Mexican culture and was around it a lot when I was stationed in Japan when I served in the Navy, but not much about the industry. we met up with Fernando, the Owner of the shop and got the low down. He told me all about what he was doing and I really liked the idea about pushing a healthy product. I read up own the tea industry and saw lots of potential. The plan was to buy the shop, spend 2 years learning the back end, then drop the name and go on my own. In September of 2022, we signed papers and took over. My cousin was in the middle of his law degree program so I took on the shop on my own. Plus the employees stayed so that was a big help. Shout out to Litzy and Anthony. My background is in sales, training and development and leadership. and the shop was seeing less than five customers a day, and I never owned a brick and motor spot so I was eager to learn. I have a bachelors in Business Leadership and a few certificated in business but this was a whole new challenge for me, which had me pretty excited. I quickly spent the next year teaching my self everything I felt I was lacking. I Read about 6-8 books in the time, from tea, social media, marketing and advertising for small businesses and quickly started working in the shop. The plan was to grow the shop to a financial balance, have a website, and grow a sales team and do farmers markets. use social media to establish a presence where people know about us and our teas. I was still working my tech job, and would go from the work to the shop everyday. the plan was to do that until the business really needed me and I had accomplished the basic “how to run a tea shop”. In the summer of 2023, I quit my tech job and jumped in full time at the shop.

Faster forward to present day. We have a 4.6 on yelp and 4.9 rating on google. We serve pastries from HomeBoy bakery. (shout out to them) We have fresh bagels, and in house made cream cheese we get from a local bakery. We make really good breakfast bagels, and have a delicious in house made chipotle aioli. We have tea flights, we brew everything fresh, source organic teas and herbs, and have great signature teas that people really like. We have botanical classes where we make their own succulent pots, pressed flowers, and even holiday wreaths. We help other local brands do pop-ups in the shop, we cater to small groups that need a meeting place, church groups, books clubs, tenant meetings. We have our website up and running ( still improving it) and are currently at five farmers markets around LA and OC area.
We DO NOT SERVE BOBA! and NEVER WILL.
Right now we are working on getting the shop ready with our own brand “what’s your zen?, loose leaf tea co” the shop will simply be called “The Tea Room”.

I am about to start doing free tea classes where we teach the basics of tea, the history, the traditions and how to properly brew tea. I am also going to start a “hustlers support group”, it’s basically going to be a networking group but where I teach and talk about actual business topics and help other entrepreneurs. That will be the final piece of the puzzle. I wrote this plan down over two years ago when we first got the shop, and we are on track. Still have a lot to go. now that it’s all up and running we have to tune it. figure out how to maximize what we are doing. The focus is now the brand. who we are and why we exist.

Our philosophy is simple yet profound: health is wealth. We’re committed to offering our community a natural, healthy alternative beverage that goes well with all moments throughout the day. Tea is great for you, and when you brew it right, it taste great too! there’s so much cool shit about tea, I just want people to know that.

I now drink, about 5-6 cups of tea a day. I start my morning off every day with matcha, which I prepare the ceremonial way. which is also how we prepare it in the shop. and then have a hot cup of oolong.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge has been me.
like business has patterns, trends, analytics. and if it makes sense. it makes dollars. once you build something, you pay attention and tweak until it works. you read, learn, implement, then tweak some more.

But trying to be a business man, single dad, leader, son and only uncle and have a romantic relationship, be mentally happy and stable, and stay inshape all at the same time??? that’s hard. Life always gets in the way. I can’t always stay focused, I have to give time to other things sometimes. trying to find that balance and not hate your self for what you don’t do is the hard part.
The faster I become the best version of me, the faster the business will be. A successful company is a direct reflection of its leadership.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I didn’t know I would be a business man. It’s something that literally was in my blood the whole time. My father immigrated here in the 70’s and learned English and learned construction and eventually become a Master electrician, learning Residential, commercial and industrial electric. My mother was a strong “can do” mother who never stopped. she always sold something at home. Food, clothing, gold, porcelain figurines. she always had a hustle and held down the house hold at the same time. I left home at 19 and tried to learn my own path along the way. joined the Navy without them knowing and left. I happen to fall into a job that was considered one of the most demanding jobs in the Navy. Aviation Boatswains Mate Equipment. I worked in Launch and Recovery aboard the USS kitty hawk which was a forward deployed ship. Forward deployed meaning we were first on site on anything overseas, being the only carrier stationed out of the US. Little sleep, few breaks and 16 hr days was the daily when we went out to sea.

I had a few hustles here n there after the navy but didn’t get serious about being an entrepreneur till I was about 30. I joined and manager training program. basically you came in as a rep, learned all the ins n outs of the business and started your own team and eventually own your own office. thing is you had to learn the skill from the ground up. people were completing the program after 2/3 years, some even 1 year. I was able to do it in 7 months. that’s where I learned the bulk of my skill. I eventually had two teams in different cities and was working on a third when I left the business back in 2019.
I genuinely love helping people. knowing someone improved their situation because of you, gives one a sense of purpose and reason to keep going. its like regardless of what one thinks of them self, I can still help others. I always focused on the science behind business and self growth. it helped me understand myself and the world around me. so I am kinda of nerd. I love learning and expanding my knowledge. It like a super power that helps you become a better decision maker, thus helping you enjoy life better.

I just know how to go. Move forward. “keep your head on a swivel” is what my years in the navy taught me. “always ready” was the motto. so I feel that’s in-betted in my brain, along with my Mexican culture of “siempre hay ago que hacer” you could not sit down in my house, or god forbid you said “your bored”. you got put to work asap. Now I feel I have become a very self driven person. I don’t really believe in motivation.

I know my values and morals. and anyone who knows me can tell you, I stand by what I believe. If I say it. I don’t care what I lose. I will come through. Peace of mind over everything.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
stay true to what you really want. like that thing that makes you genuinely smile and moves you to tears. do that. nothing else matters in the end. when you look in the mirror you should be content with knowing you didn’t fake it and bail on what you really wanted. stay true to your niche. do not follow the rest.
action kills all doubt. your not suppose to be good at anything at first. Keep learning. Focus on the actions that will give you the result you want. Yes it is scary. All great things are.

Pricing:

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Contact Info:

• Website: https://whatsyourzen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zensteahouse/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zenstearoom/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/zens-tea-house-norwalk-2