Lydia Davis launched Living Full Kombucha in 2021. She recently shared her story about the time when she started out on Instagram. It’s reprinted here with her express permission.

Why don’t you come in the back and check out where I make the kombucha?” I had just shared with Shawn my decision that I wanted to pursue kombucha and learn to scale it as a business. However, the path was proving to be a lot more difficult than I ever thought. Hazard Analysis plans, commercial kitchen spaces, websites, alcohol monitoring ($$$$!!), and licenses upon licenses to acquire had my brain in a daily tizzy. I had just left my teaching job, and I felt that each day I crossed one thing off my list, five more things would appear that I would not know how to tackle.

How to grow a kombucha business was not a readily available resource online and I didn’t know where to turn. I was overwhelmed into a state of “freeze” mode, with the voice inside of my head going off every minute yelling things like, “Who are you to do this? This is not something you can handle.” 

I saw that there was a kombucha/CBD dispensary in East Troy about 45 min from our home and asked Shawn to go with me to visit.

Jessica’s space, although small, was filled with a kombucha kegerator, a two person padded window seat, her CBD wellness products, as well as an energy I can’t describe. You just felt safe there.

I was nervous but Shawn brought up that I was making kombucha at home and wanted to try making larger batches to bring out to our local farmers market. Without hesitation she welcomed us in the back to show us her place. 

Her walls were filled with a mix of dried herbs and teas along with machinery I wasn’t familiar with. 

“Want to can one with me?” she excitedly shared as she showed us over to her old school badass can seamer. She filled it up with kombucha from her taps and showed us how to seam it properly as she said I should go for it and the world was ready for more products like this. She never had contention in her voice sharing with me small details of her operations, thanking us for stopping by and putting her number in my phone.

I remember as I walked out feeling a renewed sense of determination, excitement, and peace about this path. We walked around the downtown square and sipped on the can, enjoying every sip and planning what the next steps may look like and the rest is history.

After acquiring licenses and finding a commercial kitchen to brew out of, I reached out to Jessica to tell her I did it and to thank her, but the call could not be placed. I looked up her shop and found out it had since closed and was told by the community that Jessica had a medical condition that prevented her from continuing with the business and she closed permanently. 

I was devastated to hear this news and for her personally to experience this and yet, I felt even more so now that I needed to continue. Her example and sheer kindness fueled me and continues to this day. Her determination and sheer kindness I try to emulate. I welcome people back into my space, because she did. I am transparent in my processes, because she was. 

She does not know how much of an impact she has had on me, and I share this story for two reasons:

1. Because you never know who you may impact by just being yourself. 

2. The difficult path, although downright difficult, may be the exact path you need to be on.

Thank you Jessica for leading by example. I hope my kombucha makes you proud and please know I will continue to share this beautiful drink with everyone and savor our can forever.