Start-up Success: Launching a Business that Beat the Odds

The story behind Felicia Vieira’s extraordinary success in starting and building her very own company, Crafted Cocktails, which has brought all-natural cocktail mixes and shrubs to over 2000 doors in North America today, is an incredibly admirable and inspiring one. We are so honored to be able to share her story through the #EverydayLeaderPodcast platform and hope it drives other passionate and determined lady leaders who are also working tirelessly to make their dreams come true to never give up, to continue to stick around until they find the right consumer market, or product, or time… and to stay resilient in pushing through.

Felicia admits to having made “thousands of mistakes,” but through each one she was step-by-step, making one better informed decision after another, and turning her dream of bringing sophisticated, healthy cocktail mixes to people’s homes into a reality.

We had many, many questions for Felicia and we’ll share some of the highlights of our conversation in this post, but feel free to listen to our full conversation here, and subscribe to the #EverydayLeaderPodcast for all the awesome conversations we’ve had so far with other #EverydayLeaders just like yourself!

Here are some snippets from our conversation:

#1 “Why Didn’t I Do It Sooner?!”

The only regret Felicia says she has is starting her business so much later in life, when she could have just followed her heart and embraced her entrepreneurial spirit from the very beginning. Nonetheless, she did gain years of valuable experience working for corporate HR and consulting in the tech industry, and the lessons she learned before taking the leap have contributed to every victory she accomplished along her journey. Timing is everything, after all, and timing is one thing Felicia absolutely nailed in bring Crafted Cocktails to market.

#2 On Self-Care

She plays tennis three times a week and swears the fast pace of the sport makes it the only activity that can help take her mind off work (all the quiet space during yoga and meditation apparently fails in this regard!). She also gets a massage (or two) every month as her business can be physically demanding, and puts social time with friends on the books as much as possible to make sure she’s getting the time she needs to unwind.

#3 “In Small Business, Every Minute Counts.”

At first, Felicia joked about having zero tips for others that also struggle with managing their time… but we knew she couldn’t be so horrible in this department considering the number of buyers she is consistently fulfilling demands for–and on time! She does credit her success in maintaining excellent relationships to her highly-responsive and mobile approach to communicating –characteristics she says are absolutely key to good customer service and keeping her clients happy.

#4 On Flexibility

Not only does she advise being flexible with your time, but also with your business model and product offerings. It’s how she’s been able to continue to sustain the growth of her business. She accepts that consumer demands will forever be changing and intends to keep up with the dynamic of the market. But although Felicia stays open to adapting to the needs of her buyers, she is also committed to staying true to her core values, to her family’s passion for all-natural ingredients, and her Grandma’s recipes for her baseline of mixes.

#5 On Learning to Let Go

As her business has grown Felicia has found it challenging to let go of the things she has done herself for so long. But she has learned to trust her team members to take over some of the load, as well as to leverage everyone’s skills because at the end of the day, she accepts there’s a limit to what anyone can achieve alone.

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Felicia was one of the first movers in the all-natural cocktail mixer space, and anyone who has a love for mixology, entertaining at home, or simply enjoying a crafted cocktail outside of the restaurant has her to thank for convincing retailers to buy into this trend and into the need for a new space in the market.

We wish Felicia the best of luck in continuing to develop her brand and her business, and we’ll leave you with these little gems of reflective advice she had to share with us:

To listen to the full episode on the Everyday Leader Podcast with me, Kat Rippy, click here, and to learn more about Felicia’s kick-ass brand of all-natural cocktail mixers and shrubs, go to http://craftedcocktails.com/