Innovate Everything
Tim Hill is CEO of iLola Teas, a title he shares with his partner, Su-Mari. Together they started their CEO journey with the opening of Nineteen02 Stores and Teahouse and now operate Pure+ Kombucha and the newly opened iLola. Tim and Su-Mari believe that tea is used as a starting point between two friends; a safe place found in the tradition of the convergence of moments.
Tim started his career as a financial auditor and worked in accounting for ten years to understand how business and finance worked. After that he set out to fulfill the entrepreneurial spirit he’d always harbored. Together with Su-Mari and their five children, they have created a world of innovation around tea. iLOLA products specifically are made locally by Canadian artisans, handcrafted and curated with premium ingredients from all over the world, and housed in a unique tea disc format.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
How Tim Hill views being a co-CEO with his wife as a wonderful partnership
Why tea is such an important part of life and community
What lessons Tim learned from the first tea shop he and his wife opened
The reasoning behind iLola’s tea disc and tea humidor innovations
How providing for aging and extending the life of tea is a climate consideration
How Tim applies the tool of “undo and redo” to business
Why Tim would add “Celebrate” to the Facilitate and Elevate motto
How strawberries were innovated upon and why we can never stop innovating
What books Tim draws inspiration from
Why showers are so important
In this episode….
Tim Hill is passionate about tea. A good cup of tea is the introduction to friendship, business, and creative space. Though Tim started his career in the world of accounting, after ten years of immersion into business and finance he decided it was time to leave and pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. From the tea shop he and his co-founder/wife Su-Mari first opened on the Sunshine Coast of BC to the most recent business they launched in 2020, iLola Teas, Tim truly understands innovation and the steady build towards success required of all entrepreneurs.
Regarding innovation, Tim says we need to “take pressure off ourselves to think you just wake up and suddenly there is this idea - it’s actually a huge amount of data collection that your brain has brought you up to this very moment in time”. He details how early failures in their tea shop led to a greater understanding of their true focus and calling in the tea business and how Su-Mari’s inspired idea in 2020 became the unique tea disc at the heart of iLola’s innovative offerings.
In this episode of What CEOs Talk About, host Martin Hunter and Tim Hill dive deep into innovation, how it’s cultivated, and why it’s so necessary. They explore not only Tim’s passion for tea but how he draws inspiration and motivation from business structures as varied as the military and architecture to considering how climate change will impact tea in the future. Tim and Martin discuss pricing for innovation and how to view redoing ideas for better potential in an episode full of insight.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Contact email: info@urgeo.com
‘Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything’ by Hermann Simon
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