Building a Habit of Mindfulness and Meditation with Aisha Chottani, founder of Moment
Dusty Weis:
Greetings innovators, and welcome to Back of the Napkin, where we explore big journeys in the world of small business with the personalities who make it happen.
Stephanie Davis:
This is where small business leaders can hear about unique ideas that have launched successful enterprises across America, and meet entrepreneurs who aren't afraid to think differently. And it's brought to you by SurePayroll, where small business is their business. I'm Stephanie Davis from the SurePayroll team.
Dusty Weis:
And I'm Dusty Weis, a small business owner from the Midwest, and we are excited to dive into today's episode. Steph, I don't know about you, but the past year has definitely featured a few stressful moments.
Stephanie Davis:
100%. It's really been a roller coaster, and I've been looking for all the ways to find a little more calm in my days. And today's guest markets a solution to bring her customers a little peace of mind, and she's even had the opportunity to pitch her idea on the hit TV show, Shark Tank.
Dusty Weis:
But before we hear more about that, we would love it if you took a moment and subscribed to Back of the Napkin in your favorite podcast app. We'll be releasing the rest of our season two episodes over the next couple of months, and we don't want you to miss any of them. So take a minute and hit that subscribe button.
Stephanie Davis:
And if you enjoy the show, how about a five star rating or even leave us a review to tell us what you like, and you might just be helping another entrepreneur like you find the bolt of inspiration they needed. All right. It's time to dive into today's episode. Dusty, I got to be honest. Meditation is always one of those things that's on my list of things I should do, but can't seem to make happen. What I do excel at is using the sleep stories from the Calm app before bed. I can't believe that I was sleeping on them for years and not using them.
Dusty Weis:
I see what you did there. That's nice. Meditation, I think it's one of those things that maybe not everybody calls it meditating, but I think it's one of those things that's important for everybody to do. And so I feel most mindful, I feel most in my body when I am out for a run or when I'm sitting in the deer stand or even, until recently, when I was out riding on the motorcycle. But that's where I was really able to get into my groove, and this is something that today's guest is going to tell us a little bit more about because Aisha Chottani is the founder of Moment, a flavored water that incorporates elements of the mindfulness lifestyle into the beverage business. In addition to providing "calm in a can," Moment also sends daily text messages with simple meditations to encourage people to take that moment for themselves. Aisha also had the opportunity to present Moment with some big time entrepreneurs on Shark Tank. Aisha, thanks for joining us today.
Aisha Chottani:
Thank you for having me. This is really exciting.
Dusty Weis:
It seems like each year people are getting more and more stressed out and certainly after the year 2020 and what everybody went through, we've faced down some stressful times. So what specifically inspired you to start Moment?
Aisha Chottani:
Wow. What a question. What a question. Like many others, I used to be in a very stressful job. I used to work long hours and my life depended on my clients. Come afternoon, I would be so frazzled with all the to-dos, notifications, deadlines and meetings. I myself have been meditating for years and find it really incredible and very helpful to bring productivity and focus to my day. However, despite that, during the afternoon, I would feel the need to have something more, which is how the journey of Moment started. The idea of Moment is to take a minute away from the chaos and the noise and doing something to help yourself rebalance and destress. This can be in a bunch of different ways. The two things that we are helping our customers with one, is to have a beverage that allows you to generate the same feeling as meditation does, and by helping giving them some other playful, fun meditations that they can do that help them destress.
Stephanie Davis:
There are so many calming products out there, but I feel like beverages are kind of new to that space. What made you choose the beverage industry instead of some other type of product?
Aisha Chottani:
It is really about helping people in the best way we can. People have eight beverages a day and many of them are really unhealthy, I myself am a health nut. And so it just made sense to kill two birds with one stone, replace one of the unhealthy beverages that we had with something healthy, while having adaptogens and ingredients that give you the mental clarity that you usually need in the afternoon to get through and be creative and focused.
Dusty Weis:
So let's dive into that a little bit deeper then. When it comes to what's in the beverage and what makes it a calming beverage, one beverage that I enjoy that calms me down is scotch whiskey. Now, I'm presuming that this does not share a lot of traits in common with scotch whiskey, but what about it makes it a calming beverage?
Aisha Chottani:
The whole idea behind Moment and how it started was I went back to my roots to think about things that can be done to help me build rituals and make myself feel better, and that is how I started using more and more adaptogens. This is something that my family and my mom have been using for forever. It's not something new. In fact, adaptogens have been used in ancient cultures for hundreds of thousands of years for their calming properties. So what adaptogens do is that they, they do a bunch of different things, including a lot of vitality benefits and helping balance and distress cortisol levels. But one of the other things that they do is that they generate the same alpha brain waves as does meditation, which is how you get that feeling of mental clarity. If you are a meditator, you'll know what I'm talking about, which is that sense where you can start doing something, be able to concentrate really well, have all these amazing ideas and just be feeling on top of the world, feeling that you can conquer whatever you set your mind to. That is the feeling that Moment gives you.
Dusty Weis:
So "meditation in a can" is sort of the catch phrase in play here. And it certainly sounds like part of it is about what's in the can, but also part of it is just providing a reminder to people to get into that head space. And so much of being present, of being mindful, is just about pausing and remembering, "Oh, shoot, I got to take a deep breath and get my groove on here." But as you sell this beverage, what are people getting? When they crack it open, I imagine there are a couple of different flavors, a nice can with some good branding on it. When I pick Moment up off of a store shelf, what do I see and what do I taste when I drink it?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah. Great question. So there's a couple of things. We've designed the entire Moment experience to be able to give you that moment that you're talking about, just take a pause in the middle of a busy work day to take your moment. One thing is just that reminder to take a moment. If you look at the can, it has these beautiful, gentle fades, and the word "moment". It's all supposed to remind you of empty spaces and get you into that Zen-like mod. The second thing is the actual functional ingredients. So we use a combination of ashwagandha, L-Theanine, and Tulsi which are scientifically proven to generate the same brain waves that I was talking about, similar to meditation. So functionally, they help you get into that mode. And then lastly, for our subscribers and for our longterm customers, we have this SMS-based meditation course where we send you reminders every day to take a couple of minutes away and do a small meditation to get back into the zone.
Dusty Weis:
So you said SMS-based, that's essentially a text message that's showing up on your phone and telling you what? Can you give us an example?
Aisha Chottani:
So the text-based meditation is a way for us to help our customers build better habits and remind them to take a minute or two away in the middle of a busy work day. It can be something to help you become more aware of your feelings and thoughts as you go through the day.
Stephanie Davis:
So you mentioned the science behind the ingredients that you use in your beverages. Science has also shown how important meditation and mindfulness is and the benefits that people really can get from a regular practice. Even with all that science, there are still people who are maybe skeptical or don't totally understand. So how do you educate people on the importance of meditation and mindfulness and really taking that pause in those breaks and their busy moments?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, well, that's exactly why we created Moment. Before we actually launched the product, we did hundreds of customer focus groups and what we realized is that, whereas people understand the importance of mindfulness and meditation, they find it difficult. A lot of people want to get started but never can. A lot of people get started but just are unable to build that habit. And so that is really why we started Moment. Our approach is to help make it easy for you and get you used to that feeling so that you want more of it. So for example, when you have Moment, it activates the same alpha brain waves, you start feeling creative with regular use, you start feeling more productive, more focused, and you get used to that feeling and you want more and more often because it's a good feeling to have. And once you do that, then you start looking for other ways you can get that feeling. That's how human brain works. And our hope is that once people get used to it, then they also build other habits, such as actually doing a daily meditation.
Dusty Weis:
I won't like, when I look at my day-to-day life, and I say this as someone who less than 60 minutes ago was engaged in a tug of war with a nearly three-year-old toddler who did not want to let go of his baby sister's stuffed animal, I see some difficulties sometime in blocking out a time for mindfulness when everything is literally just screaming at me sometimes. So beyond just the beverage, what other tips do you have for busy professionals, as far as making time and really taking a moment as it were, I see why you chose that brand name, taking a moment for themselves?
Aisha Chottani:
It is two things I'm going to say here. One is it's really about building a habit. Initially, it is going to be forced. You will have to put it in your calendar, you'll have to discipline yourself to do it, and it's going to be difficult. But once you do it, and once you actually start being aware of your thoughts, you build that muscle. You train your mind to be aware at any point in time. And so, for example, if you're busy with your kids and there's chaos around you, once you've actually trained your mind to be aware of your thoughts, then you realize these things and you can be more present and be able to deal with it better and not be stressed with those things.
Dusty Weis:
I guess the important question that always occurs to me is I'm a big fan of going out into the woods, spending time out in nature and either just walking or hiking, sometimes hunting. Where's the line between I'm out in nature enjoying myself and I'm being mindful now, or is there a line there?
Aisha Chottani:
There doesn't have to be a line. Mindfulness or meditation, it doesn't have to be so difficult. You don't have to necessarily close your eyes and sit in a certain position to be mindful. Mindful is just being aware of your thoughts, of observing them, of letting them flow and over time building that ability to recognize them.
Stephanie Davis:
So, part of what you do as well is partner with other mindfulness companies to spread the importance of mindfulness and meditation to children. So what does that look like? What made you start doing that and what are you hoping to achieve?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, we share a portion of our proceeds with other great organizations with similar mission. Right now we're working with Calm classrooms and Mindful Miracles as the train kids in mindfulness techniques. For us, it's not just about creating a beverage. We want to help others be their best selves, and we believe that having a calm and clear mind allows you to do that. So we want to help the future generations, and everyone else out there, in whatever we can, and this is one way of doing that, which is helping other organizations that have similar missions in their causes.
Dusty Weis:
Well, that's really cool. We're learning a little bit about mindfulness here on SurePayroll's Back of the Napkin podcast, and I'll admit, I'm the first person to overthink things, and it seems like that is the least mindful thing that I can do. So I'm going to work on the under thinking, but we are going to continue this conversation with Aisha in a minute, but first we're going to check in with the SurePayroll bulletin.
Stephanie Davis:
This is SurePayroll's Back of the Napkin podcast, where entrepreneurs share the stories of their big journeys and small business. I'm Stephanie Davis.
Dusty Weis:
And I'm Dusty Weis, and we're talking with Aisha Chottani, the owner of Moment, a beverage company in New York. And before we dive back into our chat, Aisha, we want to do what we like to call a fast five. It's five quick questions to get to know you a little bit better here. And so the first one that I'll pitch at you here is, what's your happy place? What's your favorite way or spot to meditate? Where do you go when you want to feel mindful?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah. So what is mindfulness? For me, like I said, it is about being aware of your thoughts, your body, and over time being able to observe them. Once you build this muscle, you can be aware in other situations as well. So I love, love, love swimming. When I am swimming, I'm hyper aware of every part of my body, how it's feeling and my thoughts, and it's something that I have grown even more aware of over time, and I absolutely love it. So that's definitely my happy place. I
Dusty Weis:
I think that's a good answer. I feel the same way when I'm out for a run as a, for instance, three miles into a five mile run and the brain just sort of stops bothering me with the day-to-day grind of things, and I can just focus on pumping those legs one step at a time.
Stephanie Davis:
I'm sure that before you went on Shark Tank, you've caught an episode or two before. So do you have any Shark Tank products that you've owned that are your favorite?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, one of my favorite Shark Tank products is Bala Bangles. It is-
Stephanie Davis:
Are they the weights? The bar weights?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, that's right. They're the weights. And the reason I like them is they just make it so easy to develop your body and you can just constantly be exercising. So I absolutely love that.
Dusty Weis:
All right. Next question. When you have big news to share, who's the first person you text?
Aisha Chottani:
Definitely my best friend, who's also my co-founder and my life partner, and was very crucial in helping kick this business off.
Stephanie Davis:
In New York City, what's your favorite spot to take people who visit?
Aisha Chottani:
Jeez, what have you even got me started on? There are just so many. I go through different phases where I like certain things and I'm completely obsessed with them. For the past, I would say year or two, I've got this bakery that I absolutely love. It's called Patisserie Tomoko. It's a Japanese bakery, and they've got a lot of matcha-related products, which I absolutely love. So, yep. You got to check it out.
Stephanie Davis:
Great hotspot. I like that, yeah.
Dusty Weis:
That is the kind of only-in-New-York business and it sounds totally different from anything around my neck of the woods. That sounds pretty cool. Last question then for the fast five, and this is going to require you to think back to when we actually traveled on airplanes, when you're on a flight, you taking the window seat or the aisle?
Aisha Chottani:
So I have the strange ability to fall asleep before the plane even takes off. As soon as I literally put on my seatbelt, my eyes will close off, and I only get up when the plane hits the runway again. And so it's never really been a question of whether I sit on the window seat because it doesn't matter.
Dusty Weis:
I don't think that's an ability. I think that's a super power. I don't even-
Stephanie Davis:
It is.
Dusty Weis:
Like, if I have the choice between whether I can turn invisible or fall asleep on airplanes, I'm taking sleeping on airplanes because that is my kryptonite. I can't sleep on airplanes to save my life. So crazy jealous about that. But speaking of the pandemic and its impact on our lives, COVID-19 changed a whole lot, and sometimes those changes are things that you don't think about. Have you had to make any changes in your business or find a way to pivot due to the pandemic?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah. Wow. What a great question. I mean, for us, we started during the pandemic, so we know no other world. That is the world that we were born in, by "we", I mean Moment. And so... but we did have to pivot definitely. Before we launched, we had thought about launching in offices and yoga studios because Moment, we wanted people to have it during a busy work day when they're most frazzled. Unfortunately, things closed down, and so we had to quickly pivot to a completely online strategy and we built up the capability and skillset to do that and to do an online launch in the middle of the pandemic.
Dusty Weis:
I guess the question becomes then, as we're now, hopefully, fingers crossed, emerging from the pandemic back into a more normal world. How does the business continue on post-pandemic? How do you pivot again into that normal world, if it can be called normal ever again?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah. Yeah, I feel that it's going to be the new normal, which is going to be fairly different from our previous world. And a lot of that is... in positive ways, COVID has accelerated a bunch of good things, such as technology, including the ability to quickly order things online and push the supply chain in the country to be able to deliver on that. And I think that's going to stay, so we're definitely going to be an e-commerce business, but on the other end, we are also want to definitely be in places where our customers can find us. And so we're also going to be doing a bit of retail to help drive awareness and be there for our customers.
Aisha Chottani:
One other thing that I want to say about the pandemic is what has really been amazing for us is the ability to help people. COVID has been so stressful and customers have regularly seen the impact of our drinks. They sometimes write us long emails sharing how it has impacted them, and that has really been so rewarding and incredible.
Stephanie Davis:
So a big win for your business was being featured on Shark Tank, so congratulations for that. What was the process like in terms of getting selected and being part of the show? And I know you may not be able to get into too much detail and preserve the magic of TV making, but for what you can tell us, how did it go?
Aisha Chottani:
It was quite something. It was definitely one of the most fun experiences ever. The interesting thing is that you don't know until a week before whether you will actually be casted or not, and so you just have to hope. But for us, the entire process was a lot of fun and whether we were cast or not, it would have been good to be on TV, but that wasn't the only thing. We worked with our producers over a period of two months to perfect our pitch, and they became such good friends of ours that we were almost sad to actually have that period get over. And then just being in front of the sharks who are pretty savvy business people, being grilled on your business was really good prep to think about all of the different things you should be thinking of as an entrepreneur. And then lastly, it was, in preparation of being casted on TV, we had to really ramp up all different parts of the business, including our supply chain, including our customer service. So that was a really good experience for any small business to be in that situation.
Dusty Weis:
Can I be honest, Aisha? I think that if I had to go in front of the sharks, I would wilt like a flower. I would fall apart and probably run off the stage in tears. How did you do it?
Aisha Chottani:
They're actually really nice people.
Dusty Weis:
I see no evidence of that. They're terrifying.
Aisha Chottani:
Seriously. I'll tell you sometimes they'll all be asking questions at the same time, and it's pretty crazy in there, but it's fun. And when you have your own business and you understand it, it's kind of like a good test.
Dusty Weis:
You hear a lot about folks that go on the show and pitch their products, and then they get a Shark Tank bump. Have you seen any of those increases in sales or support since your episode aired? What's been the impact to your business?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, so we, when Shark Tank airs, there's a huge number of people visiting your website, just wanting to know more. There's a lot of people emailing you wanting to understand. But what was the most exciting thing was there were so many people who reached out with just their support, just moral support saying, "Hey, we saw you. We think what you're doing is amazing. We were so inspired. Keep up the good work." Just this short emails with people cheering was really incredible. But to your point, Shark Tank was really good in terms of driving awareness, getting a lot of people to know about us. And then in the short term, like the couple of days right after Shark Tank, we saw a huge bump in sales, for sure. Some of those carried through, but a lot of that is just one time, which is really helpful, nonetheless, but the fact that there were so many people who visited our website, who got to know about us, some of them have built a relationship with us over time and continued as customers. So that's been really helpful.
Dusty Weis:
So obviously, to get onto Shark Tank, you had to become pretty good at just pitching your business in the first place. You had to pitch it to the producers, I would imagine, to get on. So when it comes to crafting a pitch for your business, for other small business owners that are out there and in the process of trying to craft their own pitch, what advice would you give them?
Aisha Chottani:
I would say, be yourself and show them the genuine person that you are, as opposed to just pitch your business. Because Shark Tank is so much more about you and your story and how it connects to the business as opposed to just the business itself.
Stephanie Davis:
So the broader mission of Moment is to help people de-stress and turn away from unhelpful habits, such as that 3:00 coffee and just help people create rituals. Do you have any other plans lined up for how you plan to expand on that mission?
Aisha Chottani:
Yeah, so like I was mentioning, right now, we're working with two organizations to share back a portion of our proceeds. Separately, we're doing two other things. One is we're partnering with other brands who have similar missions to help each other's audiences in being more mindful in collaborating to drive awareness. And lastly, we are also going to start working with a couple of other nonprofits who are driving mindfulness in other parts of the population. So not necessarily children, but maybe young adults and women. More to come. Stay tuned on that
Dusty Weis:
Well, we will certainly continue to follow your brand and your progress, and it's been exciting getting to talk to you here today and hear about all of your early success. So we appreciate your taking the time to share your story. Aisha Chottani, you are owner and founder of Moment, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Back of the Napkin.
Aisha Chottani:
Thank you for having me. It has been awesome chatting with you.
Stephanie Davis:
I'm definitely feeling inspired to carve out some time for meditation daily. I'm putting it on my calendar, maybe, like Aisha suggested, not just doing it when I feel like I need to do it. Maybe I'll make it part of a broader ritual, like on my morning walks with [Kiely 00:27:09] . Dusty, any thoughts? I know you were a bit of a skeptic before.
Dusty Weis:
Well, I mean, look, Steph, I've always been the tragically un-hip type and I think mindfulness as a concept right now is a very trendy thing. And so I think it's important, I just think that it's important that everybody find a way to do it for themselves. And so whether that's carving out time on a walk with the dog or sitting in your deer stand freezing and waiting for a deer to walk in front of you, or enjoying a beverage like Aisha makes, again, I think it's all about finding your own opportunities for mindfulness and defining what it means for you. And from that perspective, I think it was a really fun conversation today.
Stephanie Davis:
For sure. And I know that podcasts play a big role in people's outdoor runs and walks. So on that note, please make sure that you're subscribed in your favorite podcast app. And if you enjoyed the show, leave us a five-star rating or even a review. We would love to hear from you about any ideas that you have for small business owners who we should be featuring on this show.
Dusty Weis:
Back of the Napkin is brought to you by SurePayroll from easy online payroll to 401k support and award-winning customer service, SurePayroll has been serving the payroll and business needs of small businesses for more than 20 years.
Stephanie Davis:
Here on back of the napkin, in addition to co-hosting, I am the executive producer. Our co-producers are Dave Pappa and Carey Straetz and our production partners are PodCamp Media.
Dusty Weis:
Where we provide branded podcast production services for businesses, our editor and producer is Larry Kilgore III. So thanks for tuning into Back of the Napkin. I'm dusty Weis.
Stephanie Davis:
And I'm Stephanie Davis.
