Entrepreneurship 101 with Tara Pate

04/21/22 • 63 min

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In this episode, Tara of Fierce Lab speaks with Tara Pate, the founder of Daysie, a line of certified organic, not-so-simple syrups for coffee and occasions. Tara talks openly about launching her brand during the pandemic, including all the trials, the tribulations, the ups, the downs, and the joys of being a female business owner. The two discuss mindset, having a PR agency, how to uncover white space for a business idea that you have, giving back to other women entrepreneurs, and all the hurdles that entrepreneurs go through when launching a new business.

Finding the space for a business idea

The idea for Daysie came to Tara during the height of the pandemic, when her favorite coffee shop had been closed and she was searching for a way to create her own at-home coffee bar. Tara was disappointed by the options of simple syrups available for consumer use, especially those with lots of ingredients, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. Tara saw an opportunity, and instead of waiting for someone else to solve it, she took it upon herself.

With a background in consumer packaged goods marketing and experience with start-ups in Silicon Valley, Tara embarked on this journey already having the tools and insider knowledge she needed to identify white spaces for a business idea. Tara also discusses how integral it is to take the time and mental space necessary to do the deep thinking and formulate your business idea. She was lucky, in a way, that she had been furloughed from her job, as her long walks with her dog and time away from work to think were integral to making Daysie a reality.

Giving back

Tara registered Daysie as a public benefit company, with plans to eventually become a B-Corp. Daysie is dedicated to giving back 2.1% post-tax to female entrepreneurs in the food and beverage space. This 2.1% is a symbolic gesture to say we’re moving the needle forward. 2.1% is the beginning, and as Daysie grows, that percentage giveback will, too.

The trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship requires sacrifice (especially of your time), as well as support and accountability. With those trials also come triumphs. For Tara and Daysie, that was finding the perfect beverage scientist to create flavor profiles for the syrups; conversation around the way the name inspires people and how the flavor profile transports you to a particular place or memory; the deep amount of research that went into each product and aspect of the brand. While the entire process took a year and a half, the feature of Daysie in Southern Living Magazine and her LinkedIn interaction with Sara Blakely of Spanx marked high points on her journey.

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Finding the space for a business idea

Giving back

The trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship

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Follow Fierce Lab on Instagram or LinkedIn for the latest updates.

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Previous Episode

Leveraging Your Skills to Switch Careers with Stephanie Hall

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In this episode, Tara speaks with Stephanie Hall, founder of a luxury brand of hand-blown colored glass named after her grandmother, Estelle Colored Glass. Stephanie started her career in South Carolina as an attorney and then pivoted toward her passions as an entrepreneur. Their conversation revolves around risk taking and career development.

Shifting gears and switching careers

From the time she was in middle school, Stephanie wanted to be a lawyer. So that’s exactly what she did. It wasn’t until she had graduated from law school at University of North Carolina, participated in two clerkships, and worked as an attorney for 10 years that she realized the law was not her passion — nor was it the right environment or lifestyle for her. Facing marginalization in the legal field, exacerbated by the fact that she was a woman of color in a male-dominated field, Stephanie decided to take a risk and make moves toward a new career. Especially once she had added the title of mother to her resume, Stephanie knew this change was the right trajectory for her desired lifestyle.

Stephanie advises women who are being marginalized in the workplace to advocate for themselves, find allies, and decide for themselves what’s best for them personally: staying and enduring or leaving and charting a new course.

Applying the skills you already possess

While Stephanie had a safety net — her job as an attorney, as well as income from a successful event rental business she and her husband had created and owned — she took the risk to create a business she could call her own, bringing along the lessons she’d learned from her previous entrepreneurial ventures to establish Estelle Colored Glass. The same was true of the skills she’d learned in her decade as an attorney, including her penchant for negotiation and strong argumentation skills. She leveraged these in presenting and pitching her new business to local media, potential manufacturers and suppliers, and more.

Risk taking in entrepreneurship

Stephanie learned that entrepreneurship takes sacrifice and discipline. It’s about putting in the time. Does that mean staying up till 3 a.m. to get things done? It did for Stephanie when it came to establishing Estelle. It also meant giving up TV time and even making financial sacrifices by eschewing certain purchases in order to invest that money in her business.

Early on, Stephanie embraced a mindset of looking for opportunities, knowing that starting a business does not mean it will be an overnight success. Stephanie encourages others like her to adopt this go-getter attitude, as well as persevere and resilience when you come up against roadblocks. She speaks about leveraging the contacts you already have to increase reach, leveraging local media and influencers (including Instagram DMs, or direct messages), and the importance of doing the research.

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Next Episode

The Power of Planning, Positivity, and Prioritizing What Matters with Elyse Dickerson

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In this episode, Tara speaks with Elyse Dickerson, Co-founder and CEO of Eosera, a biotech company that addresses underserved healthcare needs. The two touch on everything from career development and risk-taking to mental health and self-care. Elyse shares some of her tips on how she keeps her mindset positive and stays present for her family, as well as in her business; innovation as an entrepreneur and what it can mean to put people ahead of profits; and some solid advice about mentorship and the things she wished she had known when she was just starting in her career.

From corporate America to people-centric entrepreneurship

When Elyse and her co-founder created Eosera in 2015, they had both just left long stints in the healthcare industry and had seen how corporate America was failing its employees by prioritizing stakeholders. So, they set out to create a company that took care of its people first, believing and trusting that profits would follow. In fact, today, Eosera employees themselves have a hand in the generation of ideas for new products.

In their initial research, Elyse and her partner spoke to many doctors and identified a need for a product that would solve the widespread problem of earwax impaction. Thus, after doing the necessary research and preparation — rather than creating the product first and hoping there was consumer demand for it — Eosera was born.

Planning for the future

Elyse does not consider herself a huge risk-taker. However, she is a planner. At 20 years old, Elyse began planning for her future financial stability by slowly saving up. She advises young professionals looking to create a nest egg to only spend money on the things you really need and to pay yourself first. Making money doesn’t happen all at once; even if it’s $10 per paycheck, putting money aside into savings helps compound that growth.

Elyse’s two cents

From her rich and varied career and life experience, Elyse gives excellent advice on a variety of topics, including resilience, surrounding yourself with people who believe in you, shifting your mindset from “doom and gloom” to “I’ve got this!”, meditation and quieting the mind, protecting your energy, prioritizing what matters to you, the importance of physical activity to overall health, what mentorship really entails, and seizing the opportunity to ask for what you really want.

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