Mikhara Ramsing
Founder, Miks Chai
Fast Five is our quickfire interview series where we hit up some legendary movers, shakers, innovators and changemakers with, you’ve guessed it, five big questions. In this week’s edition, we talk to Mikhara Ramsing. She is founder of social enterprise Miks Chai, a tea social enterprise that donates 50% of its profits to suicide prevention.
Q1: Can you give us three words (or phrases!) that describe your life?
Storyteller. Outback adventurer. Tea enthusiast
Q2: Most entrepreneurs have an origin story- a moment in time or an experience that was the catalyst for their entrepreneurial journey. What is your origin story?
When I was a young adult, I began to struggle with my mental health. The consistent factor that helped me the most was having a cup of chai with my Aaji (grandmother). For me this was a safe space where I felt seen, heard and understood. When I learned that the biggest killer of young people in Australia was suicide, I knew I wanted to make a difference in this space and the thing I knew I could do really well was making a cup of tea and sharing a story with someone. Hence, Miks Chai was born. We now have 10 beautiful chai and tea products, all ethically sourced, delicious and all funding suicide prevention. We’re really keen to provide meaningful gifts this Christmas, a time that can be lonely for a lot of people, so have a cuppa and help a mate this festive season!
Q3: Tell us about a massive flearning (failing + learning) moment for you.
Knowing what I’m not good at and what I need to outsource. As a founder, I had a tendency to try and do it all – product development, sales, marketing, impact measurement, financials etc and also out of necessity as you’re trying to keep costs low. I was also very particular about our brand and how our story was told. But this meant the business would never grow as there is only so much one person can do. The biggest Flearning for me was to let go of trying to do it all and just focus on what I enjoyed, not what I was necessarily good at but what I enjoyed and in this way the company has grown really lovely as each member focuses on what they enjoy.
Q4: What do you wish you’d learned at school about starting or running a business?
I wish I had a handbook of the logistics of what legal structure to choose, how to get an ABN, how to schedule social media posting etc.
Just the basic bare bones in one neat book would have been ace!
Q5: What’s one book, website or podcast you’d recommend to aspiring young entrepreneurs, and why?
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hariri. It gives a great perspective of our evolution as a human race and context for the impact you’re trying to create.
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More about this week’s Fast Fiver, Mikhara Ramsing.
Mikhara Ramsing is the founder of Miks Chai, a tea social enterprise that donates 50% of its profits to suicide prevention. Since learning that suicide is the biggest killer of young people in Australia, Mikhara wanted to make a difference in this space. She knew connecting and sharing stories over a cuppa with her grandmother is what helped her mental health. So she built a tiny home camper, bought a ute and travelled 70,000Km around Australia to connect with people over a cuppa. An act that saw her nominated for QLD Young Australian of the Year 2019.
Miks is just one of the many social entrepreneurs that took part in Future Anything’s Future Fest 2020, a livestream day of inspiration and action for aspiring entrepreneurs participating g in Future Anything’s Activate program.
Like this? If you enjoyed this interview, be sure to subscribe to Future Anything’s regular e-newsletter for more just like this. You can sign up here!
