Ep54 - Jamie Danek on Building Humm Kombucha

Kombucha started out being a healthy, effervescent tea sold at natural and health foods stores—and it was expensive. That is, until Humm Kombucha came along. Humm Kombu-cha  is the brainchild of Jamie Danek and her partner, Michelle Mitchell. Back in the 90s Jamie had never even heard of Kombucha. She was busy climbing the ladder as a top-tier tech executive.She spent 14 years cultivating her IT recruiting firm and, although the money was good, she a felt like she was wearing "golden handcuffs." Then the stock market crashed in 2008 and overnight, Jamie's business was decimated. As the major breadwinner in her family (which includes two kids), Jamie certainly thought about rebuilding, but she just couldn't get herself to do it.  Jamie shares with Linda the story of how, while she was playing tennis one day, she met Michelle who'd had come up with a tasty recipe for Kombucha. The two bonded over their fierce swings and their love of the beverage, which contains digestion-aiding probiotics , and the duo started sharing the tea with the stressed out community. "At that time, the local economy was terrible. We just knew drinking it made us feel better and we wanted to make everyone else feel better, too. So, that is how it all started."  In 2009, the duo joined forces to found Humm Kombucha and began delivering it door- to-door in their Bend, Oregon neighborhood. Discover how the pair turned Humm Kombucha into the 4th largest effervescent tea brand in the country and how not money, not prestige but personal growth is the most rewarding aspect of Jamie's success.