Oh, how time flies when you’re working your booty off! My name is Adi Arezzini and I am the Co-Founder + CEO of Teami Blends, a lifestyle brand built to create wellness and skincare products inspired by the health benefits of tea!
It’s October 2020….and it’s been quite an interesting year, for the lack of a better word. With the Fall season also comes one of my favorite occasions-- our Teamiversary! The celebration of the birth of our brand, our baby, our vehicle to help people out there in the world live happier healthier lives.
So, I thought it would be a perfect time to reflect back and tell you about how we started!
In 2010 at the ripe age of 19, I spontaneously decided to join the military. Yup, kinda crazy- I know. I sold my car, put all my belongings in a storage unit and didn’t look back. This decision ended up completely shaping my future in two fundamental ways.
1) When deciding what job I wanted to try out for in the military, I found the position of “Combat Fitness Instructor”. This sounded fun, exciting and challenging. So- I tried out for it and got in! I did not have any athletic training or fitness experience prior to this, so my true passion and love for fitness came from my time in the army! Five months of hardcore bootcamp will do that to you. :)
2) During the army, I started developing major digestive issues. I become addicted and reliant on coffee….in a bad way. I was bloated ALL THE TIME and felt very uncomfortable in my body. My gut health was in bad shape, my mood and energy levels were all over the place and worst of all… I was so upset with my physical issues that I couldn’t really enjoy life.
So, when I finished my military service, I came back home to live with my mom in Clearwater, Florida. As a former combat fitness instructor, it only made sense to me to continue that path and become a certified personal trainer to help others.
That’s when I started reading books. Books about gut health, digestive systems, liver cleanses and trying to find what could be the ROOT CAUSE of my symptoms- which were non stop bloating, constipation, swelling and low energy.
Through my research, I found that herbs, plants and tea could help cleanse the body and gut, so I went to my local supermarket and bought all the teas that said “cleanse / detox” on them. To my disappointment, none of them worked in the slightest.
Now...this is where the story starts to get MAGICAL.
A few months later, after I had given up on my journey to finding a natural solution to my bloating and gut issues, I took a trip down to Miami. Why? Well...to meet a possible Jewish husband of course! ;-)
At a friends house, I met my now business partner-- Yogev. He asked me what I do for a living and I told him about my personal training business and how I teach group fitness classes. I reciprocated and asked him what he does. He proceeded to tell me that he has been in the tea manufacturing business for 5 years! It was fate.
So- I did that.
But, I was still struggling with my digestion + bloating issues. How could I be a personal trainer to others when I can’t even solve my own problems?
We started talking about my health concerns and worked on developing a program that would first meet my wellness needs….and ACTUALLY WORK! After 6 months of formulation development...we had done it. Created the ultimate gut reset + cleanse program that was actually effective-- our Teami 30 Day Detox Program was born!
So now we had a product...but how do we get it out into the world to help other people who were going through the same problems I was? I was 23 years old, Yogev was 25…. No retail store like Whole Foods would ever take us seriously.
We decided our route to market would be E-commerce. We could speak directly to people we wanted to help without having to go through a retailer who would most likely judge our age and lack of business experience. We spent another 3 months building a website and finally said hello to www.teamiblends.com in October 2013, which we commemorate as the birth of our brand!
We created 100 units of the Teami 30 Day Detox Program and I stored these in my bedroom. I went to Staples across the street from my house and bought envelopes, a thermal label printer and materials so I could ship out to customers.
But...how do we get people to ORDER from us or find out that we even exist? Well, we took to Instagram to spread our message. Now we are in April 2014-- our online store is ready to go, we have 100 units of our product sitting in my bedroom...all we need are customers!
I started posting on Instagram, reaching out to like minded people, explaining my story and the purpose of our brand...and magically...I heard a “bing” notification come from my Iphone…
“You’ve received a paypal payment notification”
I hurriedly opened up the app and saw an order. Someone ordered our Teami 30 Day Detox Program. On the internet. Oh...my… GOD!
