From Colostrum to Cannabis to Ecstatic Sex,
Founders Journey Making $50-$100k/mo
Health & Wellness Industry Growth Management Services/Ecstatic Sex Lifestyle Brand
$50-$100k/mo
From Colostrum to Cannabis to Ecstatic Sex, Founders Journey Making $50-$100k/mo
Health & Wellness Industry Growth Management Services/Ecstatic Sex Lifestyle Brand
$50-100K mo
Hi Tanya, tell us about who you are and how you started your business?
My journey has taken me from colostrum to cannabis to cum and started with running/buying my first restaurant in 1990 (21 years old). After the first of my four kids was born, I sold Saleem’s Restaurant and opened Kangaroo Kids (Retail & Maternity Support Center). I created Kangaroo Kids in 1995, sold it in 2005, and it continues to help families with their parenting and breastfeeding needs today. In 2005, I sold my companies that included Kangaroo Kids, Mocha Joe’s Cafe, Wombats Vintage Resale, and JA Griffin Rare Booksellers, Roo Clothing, and Slingaroos.
At this time, as a young mom of four kids, I was creating companies that solved the challenges I was facing relative to parenting and breastfeeding, hence colostrum.
In 2005, I moved to Ireland and ran a company, Juvent, that launched a non-drug treatment for Osteoporosis in the UK/Ireland and Europe and dabbled in the film industry. In 2007, I left my Irish husband and made my way back to the U.S., starting fresh with 4 young kids in Chicago. In 2008, I started Water + Trees Inc., which started as a Marketing Agency and grew into a growth management company focused on building healthcare practices, Connect with Docs, and, in 2012, would focus on the cannabis industry.
By 2014, I won Medical Cannabis retail licenses in Illinois and partnered with TGS to build the first vertically integrated cannabis franchise in the US. After parting ways with TGS and forced to wait out an 18-month non-compete which spanned “the world,” I became COO of FINTEC and built a RegTech platform to help solve the problem of removing cash from cannabis sales. By 2020, I sold my Illinois dispensaries, created two CPG brands, oOYes and Uh Huh Honey.
Water + Trees continues to build and operate a legal cannabis business, most recently opened Snap Canna (snapcanna.com) dispensaries in Illinois. oOYes and Uh Huh Honey currently sell online, wholesale (retail), and through travel partners and will launch THC product lines Q2/2024 starting in Illinois. Water + Trees specializes in the cannabis industry, including licensing, branding, and operations.
My non-profit, Saved My Life (savedmylife.org), was a “harm reduction” response to the opioid overdose crisis. Focused now in Illinois, we provide custom vending cabinets to Illinois businesses and work with IDOH (DOPP) to provide FREE Narcan where people work, live, and play.
What Do You Sell?
What Is Your Website?
How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I suppose my guiding force over the years is to do what you love and the rest will follow! Over the last 35 years building companies I am passionate about a common denominator on my journey from colostrum to cannabis to cum was solving a problem and filling a need.
Each company I have build was born out of necessity and reflected my focus at the time. While my core company Water + Trees Inc. continues to pay the bills I am able to explore my passions which, now that my 4 kids are grown (grandma now) I can focus on life in balance and Sex. While each company I have built over the last 35 years has filled the need at the time my ecstatic sex lifestyle brand, oOYes (oOYes.love) is, most likely, my last hurrah!
While I did not have previous knowledge of any of the companies I founded I was able to put in my 10,000 hours.
Again, when you are doing what you love the rest will follow! I have failed often that is part of success.
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Were there any driving forces behind your motivation to start your business?
Talk us through the process of building your product/service?
For the purposes of these questions, I will focus on my ecstatic sex lifestyle brand, oOYes.
Arguably my last hurrah, oOYes is a reflection of my journey from colostrum to cannabis to cum. Now that my kids are grown and making their own way, I am now able to focus my attention on helping others have more and better SEX.
Having spent the last decade-plus building healthcare and cannabis companies, focusing on Sex and Cannabis was a natural progression.
oOYes leans into a Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll vibe and is designed to help open communication (oOYes Sex Quiz), free your mind, and help you stay present.
Similar to all my companies, they originated from my own experiences (what I know and love) and making those experiences better for others.
Similar to my other companies, oOYes is 100% self-funded. When launched during COVID, we faced supply chain challenges that were costly with many painful lessons learned.
As we continue to build the oOYes brand, our focus is on sharing what we love and building community. This comes through continual communication with our subscribers driven by the oOYes Sex Quiz, Yes to Sex tutorials/podcast, events, and authentic content focused on solving a need and helping others have more and better sex.
Throughout my 35 years of building healthcare, retail, and brands (wellness products and apparel, medical devices), my focus has been to solve the problems I am facing, always add value and share this with my community.
Retaining customers is the result of providing an authentic, quality product that solves a need and adds value.
Discuss your marketing strategy..
oOYes is self-funded. With this bootstrap approach, my focus has been on building community organically and using guerrilla marketing tactics that drive customers, retained by offering a quality product, exceptional experiences, and always adding value.
oOYes sells direct-to-consumer (online sales) in the US, wholesale (sex shops and boutique retail), and via travel partners (oOYes Sexperience oOBox available at hotel mini-bars).
We are initiating a digital marketing campaign (paid ads) that drives customers to our subscriber list (community). Always adding value, we sell products after we have built the relationship.
Always with a focus on adding value, the oOYes Sex Quiz, Yes to Sex (YouTube tutorials/podcast), articles, events, pop-ups, and partners in the cannabis (oOYes THC (IL dispensaries)) and travel space (hotel partners (Sexperience oOBoxes)) allow us to organically build community and retain customers based on providing an exceptional ecstatic sex experience.
Marketing in the Sex and Drug space presents a multitude of challenges on almost every social media platform. While Viagra can be peddled almost anywhere, FEMtech companies, like oOYes, must be incredibly creative and resourceful to reach customers.
oOYes will also leverage our dual tracks, i.e., oOYes (infused with minor cannabinoids) and oOYes-THC which celebrates a true cannagasm. Our ability to reach customers across the intersection of direct-to-consumer products and highly regulated THC-infused products is unique in the FEMtech space and allows us to not only build community but open communication around a subject that is a relatively new and untapped market.
Revenue & Financials
Profits?
20-30%
Is this a side-hustle or full time business?
Side-Hustle
Talk to us about any challenges you faced along the process?
I suppose my greatest advantage in building oOYes is that I love what I am doing and have 35 years of experience learning how to ride the roller coaster through countless failures and successes.
One of my biggest advantages is that I do not operate from fear and have never chased money or engaged with partners or team members that do not share my vision. Perhaps some of the biggest lessons learned are to slow down and not make knee-jerk decisions. There is nothing that cannot wait for a good night’s sleep. The sky never truly falls, and even what seems like a catastrophic failure can also be seen as a success and simply a new path taken.
It is the advantage of experience and staying present and mindful in the journey that has been my greatest advantage in business. The fact that I have steadfastly followed my dreams and stayed focused on what I love has made each day great no matter what challenge comes my way.
Favourite books, resources, tools?
How many hours do you work per week on your business?
What is the biggest challenge you are facing at the moment in your business?
Balancing the cost of scaling operations, including marketing spends (ROI and customer retention). COVID and the bottom falling out of the cannabis industry presented challenges that caused us to continually pivot.
While building a company without other people’s money (OPM) has its own set of challenges relative to speed to scale and marketing spend, the advantage comes with the ability to stay agile and pivot when external circumstances drive challenges that have easily toppled top-heavy brands burdened by investors focused only on the bottom line instead of scaling a brand that responds to its community and customer needs.
