Leaf to Launch: Book + Business Coaching

LEAF TO LAUNCH

How to Create a Tea Company or Product-Based Business, Steeped in Success

By Brandi Shelton, founder of just add honey tea company

You’ve got a big idea. Maybe it starts with tea. Maybe it starts with a dream scribbled in a journal. But turning that idea into a real, thriving business? That’s where most people get stuck.

Leaf to Launch is part business guide, part workbook, and part honest conversation with a founder who has spent nearly two decades building the thing.

Written with aspiring tea founders in mind, this book is also useful for product-based entrepreneurs who are trying to turn an idea into a brand, a product into a business, and a dream into something real.

Brandi Shelton shares lessons from growing just add honey tea company from a weekend hobby into a retail café, e-commerce business, wholesale brand, event experience, and nationally recognized company.

Along the way, she shares the decisions, pivots, wins, mistakes, and lessons that helped shape the business.

This is not a book about getting everything right. It is a book about asking better questions, making thoughtful decisions, and building with more clarity.

CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Start with the book, join the room, or work privately with Brandi.

The Book is for founders who want to read, reflect, and work independently.
Quick Brew is for founders who want live group coaching and community.
Slow Steep is for founders who need focused private strategy around one business challenge.
Perfect Pour is for founders who want ongoing support through a launch, pivot, or growth season.

WHAT'S INSIDE THE BOOK

Chapter 1: Your Why

Before the logo, packaging, website, or launch plan, you need to understand why you are building this business in the first place. This chapter helps you slow down and get clear about the purpose behind your idea.

Chapter 2: Your Direction

A good idea still needs somewhere to go. This chapter helps you think through what kind of business you actually want to build and what success should look like for you.

Chapter 3: Your Customer

Everybody is not your customer. This chapter helps you understand who you are serving, what they value, how they shop, and how to speak their language.

Chapter 4: Your Brand

Your brand is more than a logo. This chapter explores voice, visuals, packaging, presentation, and the choices that help customers recognize, remember, and trust your business.

Chapter 5: What’s in Your Cup

This is where product meets business. You will think through sourcing, blending, pricing, packaging, and whether the product you love can become something customers understand and want to buy.

Chapter 6: Ready to Launch

Launching is more than announcing that you are open. This chapter helps you prepare your customer experience, systems, website, service, and sales plan before asking people to buy.

Chapter 7: Marketing + Collaborations

You do not need to be everywhere. You do need to know how to tell your story, build meaningful partnerships, and help the right people discover what you have created.

Chapter 8: Your First 90–180 Days

The launch is not the finish line. This chapter helps you review what is working, make adjustments, listen to your customers, and build a rhythm for what comes next.

THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU IF::

You want to start a tea company and do not know where to begin.

You have a product idea but need help building the business around it.

You have already started but feel like you are making every decision from scratch.

You need clarity around your customer, brand, pricing, packaging, launch, marketing, or next step.

You want honest, practical guidance from someone who has actually built and operated a product-based business.

You are willing to slow down, think, write, reflect, and do the work.

THIS BOOK MAY NOT BE FOR YOU IF::

You are looking for a get-rich-quick formula.

You want someone to hand you a complete business plan without your input.

You only want tea recipes or blending instructions.

You are looking for one perfect answer that guarantees every decision will work.

Leaf to Launch will give you stories, tools, questions, lessons, and direction. You still have to build the business.

WHY LEARN WITH BRANDI?

Brandi Shelton is the founder of just add honey tea company, an Atlanta-based tea company she started in 2006. What began as a weekend hobby grew into a business with retail, e-commerce, wholesale, events, tea education, and a café experience rooted in hospitality, community, and connection. Brandi did not learn business from the sidelines.

She has worked farmers markets, built product lines, opened retail spaces, managed teams, navigated slow seasons, changed packaging, launched collaborations, made expensive mistakes, and kept building. Her approach is casual, honest, practical, and rooted in real experience.

Leaf to Launch is the book she wishes someone had handed her when she started.

CHOOSE HOW MUCH SUPPORT YOU NEED

The book is the place to begin.

The room gives you perspective.

Private strategy gives you focus.

The intensive gives you time to do the work.

Start where you are and choose the level of support that fits your business right now.

Leaf to Launch: The Book

$40

For the founder who is ready to read, reflect, and work independently.

Includes:

One physical copy of Leaf to Launch
Eight chapters of business guidance
Stories and lessons from building just add honey tea company
Workbook prompts and planning exercises

Best for you if you want structure, clarity, and practical guidance you can move through at your own pace.

Quick Brew

Book + Group Coaching Session

$80

For the founder who wants the book and a chance to ask questions in a live group setting.

Quick Brew is a live group coaching conversation with Brandi Shelton for founders, tea entrepreneurs, product makers, and small business owners who want to talk through their questions in community.

This is a chance to ask about tea, business, branding, pricing, launch, customer clarity, growth, or whatever is currently keeping you stuck.

Includes:

One physical copy of Leaf to Launch
One live 60-minute Quick Brew group coaching session
The opportunity to bring your own business question
Live conversation with Brandi
A chance to learn from the questions and experiences of other founders

Best for you if you want access to Brandi’s guidance but are not ready for private coaching.

Slow Steep

Book + Group Coaching + Private Strategy Session

$250

For the founder who needs more than a quick answer and wants focused private time with Brandi.

Slow Steep is a private strategy session designed to help you work through one important area of your business.

Maybe you need help with pricing. Maybe your customer is unclear. Maybe your packaging does not match where the brand is going. Maybe you are preparing to launch, pivot, or grow. Maybe you simply have too many ideas and need help deciding what deserves your attention first.

Includes:

One physical copy of Leaf to Launch
One Quick Brew group coaching session
Pre-session business questionnaire
One 75-minute private strategy session with Brandi
A written summary of priorities and next steps

Best for you if you have one specific business challenge and want experienced eyes on your next decision.

Possible session topics include:

Pricing
Brand positioning
Customer clarity
Product development
Packaging
Launch strategy
Retail
E-commerce
Wholesale
Collaborations
Customer experience
Growth decisions

The Perfect Pour

Private Coaching Intensive

For the founder who needs ongoing support through a launch, pivot, or growth season.

Some business questions cannot be solved in one conversation.

The Perfect Pour is for founders who want time to make a plan, implement decisions, come back to the table, and adjust with support. This is not done-for-you consulting.

Brandi will not build your business for you. But she will help you ask better questions, make thoughtful decisions, avoid unnecessary mistakes, and create a practical path forward.

Perfect Pour: 3-Session Intensive

$650

Includes:

One physical copy of Leaf to Launch
One Quick Brew group coaching session
Detailed intake questionnaire
Three private 60-minute strategy sessions with Brandi
Sessions completed over 6–8 weeks
Personalized priorities and action roadmap
Written next steps after each session
Brief email check-in between sessions

Best for:

A focused launch
A business pivot
Clarifying your offer
Developing your customer strategy
Building a new revenue stream
Working through one significant growth priority

Perfect Pour: 5-Session Extended Intensive

$995

Includes everything in the 3-session intensive, plus more time to implement, review, adjust, and continue building.

Includes:

One physical copy of Leaf to Launch
One Quick Brew group coaching session
Detailed intake questionnaire
Five private 60-minute strategy sessions with Brandi
Sessions completed over 12 weeks
Personalized priorities and action roadmap
Written next steps after each session
Brief email check-in between sessions

Best for:

Starting a new tea company
Preparing for a larger launch
Repositioning an existing business
Building a wholesale or retail strategy
Working through several connected areas of the business
Founders who need accountability while doing the work

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Do I need to own a tea company to buy this book?

No. The stories and examples come from the tea industry because that is the business Brandi has built since 2006. But the lessons around customers, branding, pricing, packaging, products, marketing, retail, e-commerce, collaborations, and growth can apply to many product-based small businesses.

What happens during Quick Brew?

Quick Brew is a live group coaching session where participants can bring questions about the book, tea, business, branding, growth, launch, or a challenge they are currently working through.

What happens during Slow Steep?

Slow Steep is a private strategy session focused on one main business challenge. Before the session, you will complete a questionnaire so the time can be focused and useful.

What is the difference between Slow Steep and Perfect Pour?

Slow Steep is one private strategy session.

Perfect Pour is an intensive coaching experience with multiple sessions over several weeks. It is better for founders who need support through a launch, pivot, or growth season.

Will Brandi create my business plan, website, product line, or branding for me?

No. These sessions are strategic and advisory. Brandi will help you think through your options, make clearer decisions, and determine next steps, but you are responsible for doing the work and building the business.

How long do I have to use my sessions?

Quick Brew is tied to the next available group coaching date.

Slow Steep should be scheduled within 60 days of purchase.

Perfect Pour 3-session intensives should be used within 8 weeks.

Perfect Pour 5-session intensives should be used within 12 weeks.

You do not need to have everything figured out.

You need a place to begin, a willingness to do the work, and enough clarity to make the next good decision.

Start where you are. Steep in what matters. Launch with purpose.