Holly Lyman is the Founder of Wild Tonic, a brand of Good Omen Bottling. She is an encaustic artist from Alaska who has mastered the ancient art of Jun kombucha, among other ferments, and grows many of the ingredients on her ranch in Sedona, Arizona.
Wild Tonic is available in a variety of flavors which include Blueberry Basil, Mango Ginger, Blackberry Mint, and many more. Their products are available all over the country in Whole Foods, Wegmans, and many more retail locations.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Holly Lyman shares how she came up with the packaging design for her brand, Wild Tonic
- How Holly got into the fermenting business
- The health benefits of Jun kombucha
- How Holly comes up with her kombucha flavors
- Holly talks about meeting Sandor Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation
- Holly recalls the early days of Wild Tonic and how the company has grown since
- The joy of the first big order of Wild Tonic
- The difference between kombucha made with honey and kombucha with sugar
- Holly explains her decision to create an alcohol version of Wild Tonic
- The most challenging part of Holly’s entrepreneurial journey
- Holly’s proudest moment in the process of building Wild Tonic
In this episode…
When encaustic painter, Holly Lyman, discovered Sandor Katz’s book, The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World, the entrepreneur in her knew she was on to something amazing. She took an interest in fermentation, allowed the ‘mad scientist’ in her to come alive, and she embarked on the journey of creating a genuinely delicious Jun kombucha through her brand, Wild Tonic. And since its founding in 2015, Wild Tonic has taken the kombucha market by storm, becoming a much-loved drink by the Los Angeles Dodgers, singer-songwriter Jewel, and by many people in the US.
But like every successful journey, there are bending roads. And Holly’s entrepreneurial journey isn’t any different.
On this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz, Holly Lyman of Wild Tonic shares how she started her company and how much they have grown since then. She also talks about the health benefits of Jun kombucha, how she came up with her packaging design and flavors, her decision to create an alcoholic version of her drink, and their expansion to Canada and Europe. Stay tuned to catch all the details.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
Special Mentions
Books Mentioned:
- The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World by Sandor Katz
- Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life by David Perlmutter and Kristin Loberg
Related Episodes
- [Sweet and Snack Show Series] How to Improve Your Health and Wellness with Diana Stobo Founder of Truth Bar
- What it Takes to Build Your Tribe with Ryan Lee Founder of REWIND
- Taking the Natural Foods Industry By Storm with Jim Simon Founder of Jimmy Bars
- How To Start From Scratch With a Food Product Business with Peter Rahal Founder of RxBar
Sponsor for this episode
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses to build strong relationships with referral partners, clients and audience without having to do the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI which is the most important component. Plus our podcast production company takes any of the heavy lifting of production and distribution off of your plate.
We make distribution easy
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Contact us now at support[at]rise25media.com or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 was co-founded by Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran who have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Insider Stories from Top Leaders & Entrepreneurs…
Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:19
Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspiration entrepreneurs and leaders and before I introduce today’s guest Holly Lyman of Wild Tonic I just want to say you can check out other episodes on the podcast you know, Holly I like to have people on and products on that I admire that I love like Wild Tonic I love it. And other past episodes include I had a one of the ladies at a Truth Bar. I love Truth Bar. Now I’ve had Ryan Lee from REWIND Bars I’ve had Jim Simon from Jimmy Bars I’ve had RxBar Founder Peter Rahal and all those talk about their journey but they’re also products that I personally love and that I eat or drink or whatever it is. So check out other episodes on InspiredInsider.com and before I introduce Holly officially, today’s episode is brought to you by Rise25 at Rise25 we help businesses connect to their dream 100 relationships. And we do that by helping you run your podcast. And you know, Holly, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at a way to give to my best relationships. I’ve seen no better way to do that in the past over a decade than have them on my podcast I have the people I admire the companies I admire on that can profile them and share their thought leadership with the world. So if you are a company and you’ve thought of this podcast thing or producing content, we are an easy button. We are a solution so you can go to Rise25.com and check out more. We’ve been doing it for a long, long time. Today’s guests I’m excited Holly Lyman, Founder of Wild Tonic. She’s an artist from Alaska, who mastered the ancient art of Jun kombucha among other ferments and she grows many of the greens actually on a ranch in Sedona, Arizona. Some of the flavors my favorite flavor personally Holly is blueberry basil. Okay, they have mango ginger, they blackberry mint, they also have hard kombucha as well. And so we’re going to talk about our journey and if you go to a grocery store, or and you see it just sticks out the bottle of you if you’re watching the video, and you can see behind that blue bottle, that rich Blue Bottle just just calls out that you want to just grab it off the shelf and drink it at least for me. So Holly, thanks for joining me.
Holly Lyman 2:43
Oh, thank you so much, Jeremy for having me on the show.
Jeremy Weisz 2:46
Um, the necklace you’re wearing that I notice is because I you know, love the blueberry basil that’s on the bottle. I would love for you to talk about creating the bottle, because that sticks out that jumps out to me when I was walking in. And actually I was just in Arizona. And you know, I’m in Chicago, but I was just in Arizona and I was in AJ is fine foods, and I grabbed the WILD TONIC blueberry basil and it sticks out that bee front of the bottle. So what is the significance of that?
Holly Lyman 3:22
Well, so our ferment is made with honey instead of sugar. And so the B is of course, so integral to making our product. And so I designed the bottle out of out of a turn of the century beer bottle, I had a design of a antique bottle and I just fell in love with the shape of it. And so I designed Wild Tonic’s bottle to be something that would really capture somebody’s imagination when they looked at it. And blue is the color that bees are first attracted to when they go to Paul, he pollinate flowers. And so I
