Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise
but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Thank you for joining us on another episode of
Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host. And today, my special
guest is Dion Anzhalov. He is founder and CEO of Organic Tea Start. Dion has a clear mission
to integrate sustainability in a textile printing and corporate branding. Welcome to the show, Dion.
Thank you, Sheila. Thank you for the invitation and to be a part of your show and to talk about
the sustainability. So can you tell us a little bit more about what led you to become an entrepreneur
and start Organic Tea Start? Wow, it's a great story. I started, let's say, 20 years ago, and
I'm struggling with a lot of problems during that time. But finally, I always find a decision for
all the problems. But this is a very interesting experience that I have to be an entrepreneur.
And every day, I'm learning something new and this keeps me alive and wakes me up every morning
because every day is very interesting and I'm meeting a lot of new people, a lot of new
adventures, and allows me to explore the world and also to educate people about the sustainability.
And this is one of my driven mission now with this project Organic Tea Start.
So were your parents business owners, entrepreneurs? Are you a first generation
entrepreneur or is this something that runs in your family?
Oh, no, I'm the first generation entrepreneur. My parents were in cultural side of business.
They were just employees and I learned by myself with little help of friends. And I can say that
my father-in-law also helped me to start the business. And he pushed me. He said,
I believe you that you can succeed in that. And then I say, okay, then if somebody support me,
I can do that. I agree. It's great when you have someone that believes in you or
they can help answer questions when you have those questions, those doubts.
But I loved how you mentioned entrepreneurship. It's like a roller coaster. There's a lot going
on every single day, brings something new. And I think that's the biggest thing that I
love. Absolutely. This is an amazing part that it's like a roller coaster one day up, one day down
and like this. Yes, it's very good metaphor.
So you have a really interesting tiger story. Your brand, your organic brand talks about
tiger cotton. Can you explain what this is all about? Oh yeah. The story about the tiger cotton
brand is very unique because this is a story about diversity, about the cotton in conversion,
about the farmers, about the tigers. The story behind that is because farmers didn't put anything
on the field for three to four years. And this is how they clean the soil. These fields are behind
two habitats of the tigers and allow the tigers moving between the habitats. And because the soil
is clean, there is no any more chemicals and insecticides. This allows the biodiversity return
of the tiger and the population of the tiger. Because of that, we call the tiger collection
of the products and allows also the farmers working on the clean field planting organic cotton,
which is also environmental friendly. You know, one of other things is also that the cotton
is sprayed with the water and sugar. And this makes ants go to the flower cotton and eat the
insecticides that is going to the cotton. This is also the good for environment. It's a lot of
interesting stories about the tigers and about the environment, about the soil because we don't use
any chemicals, nothing that can harm the cotton and the biodiversity and tigers in general.
Okay. So when we purchased one of the products from Organic Tea Store,
we're helping the tiger population.
Correct. And the farmers and the farmers also, the farmers who live and work side by side with the
great Bengal tiger in India. What role does consumer advocacy play in shaping a sustainable brand?
Oh, it's a huge, if I can say it, because we want to educate them that the sustainability
is a way of thinking. You have to think about not only for the moment, but for the future,
how your act today, we're going to reflect to your future. We have to prevent and to keep our
planet. This is our driven mission to educate the people because for example, manufacturing one
regular t-shirt are using 2,700 liters of water. For just one organic, we're using 90% less water.
And this water is even clean. You can drink in the end because the cotton is clean. No chemicals,
no ink dyes that it's chemicals also. Yes. And we want to educate also the people that
not only the cotton and the products, they think about also for the wasting, the paper and water
and plastic bottles. All of these things is part of education. That's why I say we need to change
the way of thinking about the future nowadays. How do you leverage partnerships that make a
difference? So you work with distributors, you work with the end consumers. What are these
partnerships look like? Oh, these partnerships is interesting because we're showing the supply chain
to our distributors, explaining how and from where the cotton came, what we're doing and how we
save the planet. And then we educate again the distributors because they are speakers to the end
customers, to the people who are consumer of our products. We're teaching them what is important
that the organic products is environmental friendly. They're good for your skin, regulating the
temperature of the body because this is natural product. And all of these things we need to show
them, to show them that all the chain is certified. And this is important for the distributors because
now they understand the importance of the organic products. And after that, they transfer this
information to end customer. And end customer realize that the fast fashion is something that
is killing all the efforts that we're doing for the planet because in the end of the day,
the regular t-shirt finishing on the landfill, but the organic t-shirt is long lasting,
deserve the price and you proud when you're wearing this organic product. And the organic
t-shirt is compostable. So you have a special certification that you mentioned on your website.
Can you just explain what that entails? Yeah, this is the gold award for the organic product.
It's called global organic textile standard. We've been certified every year. We're going through
the special process of certifying all the chain supply from the farmers to the suppliers.
Everything is checked by this certified program. And if we do something wrong,
then this product is not anymore organic. And this is very important for us because
we showing our attitude to the people, to the printing, to the environment and saving the nature,
saving water, health and everything. It's very important because so many of the disease nowadays
are causing the chemicals that we put with just regular clothes in our body, unfortunately.
Well, thank you. I've learned a lot about organic cotton today in this conversation alone.
So what is your next milestone? Oh, it's hard to say because it cannot be just one, but let's say
the biggest one is to show the people that the organic product can be very fashionable. Again,
I'm going to repeat, environmentally friendly. And they can wear it with pride. And then also
they can be a part of the solution that we can prevent polluting our planet. This is very
educational part and it's a mission for us just to educate people and to change their mind that
the future, depending of us, of our action that we're going to take.
Okay, but I do need you to set a milestone because it's milestone moment. So let's talk about
at least a number, let's throw out a number. How many people do you want to reach that message so
that I can check back in about six months and say, have you, have you reached your milestone?
Okay, then, okay. Then I gotta say around, let me say something realistic,
I have 500 people, let's say 500 people for the next six months.
Okay. Well, as soon as I get 500 episode downloads, I'll share it with you and say,
Dion, you met your milestone. You should think bigger. You should have done like 5,000. I think
we'll get five. Yeah, I'm quite sure because let's say tomorrow I'm going to have a meeting with
eight people, educate them about sustainability. And this is only the beginning. And that's why
I'm saying, let's say 500, but as you can say, maybe 5,000 and more. I don't know. We'll see.
Stop there. Let's go into the millions Dion. Come on. Let's think. Oh, great challenge. Thank you.
Sheila. It's great challenge. Well, before I let you go, I'd love for you to share one piece
of advice to our audience so that they take action today and make an impact. Take care of your plan
of the planet. It's engagement for every day, not just once per month or once per year. It's
to prevent and to save our planet is every day. We have to do it every day.
I mean, using a water, garbage, clothes, you know, it's a lot of things, but let's do it every day
and you're going to change. This will change your life. So where can my audience learn more
about organic tea star or where can we acquire a t-shirt? Where can we visit? You can do that on
organictstar.com. You can reach us there. You can see our collection, our products. We have
from babies, newborn to the adult, everything we're covering and everything following the
fashion trends, colors, shape and models we have for everyone, any kind of products.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you, Sheila. Thanks for the invitation. It was a pleasure to speak with you.
And thank you all for joining us in another episode of My Old Friend.
Thanks for joining us in another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership.