Zhena Muzyka shares her story rising from a single mother to entrepreneur, author, and publisher.
When I first met Zhena, I have to be honest, I was intimidated and a bit jealous. Here was a woman who had everything I wanted and everything “my lizard brain” (as she calls it) was programmed to resent. But within five minutes of meeting her, she had successfully—and with love—helped me see through to my higher self and understand that what she was about was so much better than the petty, competitive patriarchal paradigm so many of us women have been living in. She is, to me at least, what a modern-day woman living from her feminine without giving up her powerful self looks like.
She is an entrepreneur, an author, a publisher, a mom, and most decidedly a woman in all her glory and an inspiration to women all over the world as to what is possible. I read her book Life By The Cup: Inspiration for a Purpose-filled Life and was simply blown away by her story.
It was 1999 and she was broke, with a very sick baby and no health insurance, a time when many of us would have given up hope. But Zhena dug deep into her soul and started a Tea Company (Zhena’s Gypsy Tea) literally out of thin air and few herbs from her garden. That tea company went on to become not only a multi-million dollar success story, but a company that revolutionized the tea industry. That’s not bad for a single mom without a college degree. When she began selling her teas to major companies she decided this wasn’t going to be just another company, this was going to be a fully fair trade company that approached business from a holistic perspective. Against all odds, that is what she did. That approach, that we should create businesses and communities that support each other’s health and well-being, wasn’t as popular—or as marketable—when she started as it is today. So what she did was downright amazing.
For Zhena, there wasn’t any other way and that was how she was the moment I met her. I appreciated her spunk and the fire in her heart and her warmth and honesty. She wasn’t a woo woo mama, nor was she a hard ass, she was both, beautifully combined into what I think the world needs right now. Women who stand for Women and for Men, Women who stand for humanity and the planet. A woman who is standing firmly in what it truly means to be feminine.
It’s a big paradigm shift for me, this idea of being in service, not that I don’t want to help people and care about the planet, but what Zhena embodies is more than that, it’s an unshakable commitment to refusing to live any other way, moment by moment, in every aspect of her life. As she calls it, living love in detail. This is why we are here, to experience love in the fullest of glories, in Technicolor and 3D in service to each other. I can’t imagine another way to be.
Check out my video interview with Zhena to hear more about Changing competition into Curiosity, Living life in detail, and The Heroine’s journey. lifeunscripted.tv
Betsy Chasse is an author (Tipping Sacred Cows) and film maker (What The Bleep Do We Know?!, Song of the New Earth). Find out more at: betsychasse.net.
Zhena and I co-host a new weekly talk show with Natalie Ledwell and Cindy Ertman called Wake Up! You can find it on Poptv which is available on most cable carriers. For more information, visit: wakeuptv.com.
Betsy Chasse is an award winning filmmaker (What The Bleep Do We Know?!, Song of the New Earth, Pregnant In America) and best selling author (Tipping Sacred Cows, It Came Out of My Vagina, Now What?! – A book on Conscious Parenting) You can learn more about her at www.betsychasse.net