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I often tell people I’m an entrepreneur because I’m unemployable. In college, I would skip class to read Ayn Rand, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ernest Hemingway, and Joseph Conrad or to ride my mountain bike on the Greenbelt. I waited tables at Pizza Nizza (now Austin Java on Barton Springs), so I could save money to feed my wanderlust. I kept taking off on cycling and backpacking adventures around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, living out of a tent most of the time because I was broke. I made a humble living racing as an amateur cyclist on the U.S. Pro Tour for a couple years and saw a lot more of the back of Lance’s jersey than the front of it. Ultimately, I decided there had to be an easier way to make a living.
The idea for starting Sweet Leaf Tea came in 1998 when I was living and working on a sailboat in the Florida Keys. I wanted to create a bottled iced tea that tasted better than any bottled tea on the planet. I wanted it to taste just like the tea my Grandmother Mimi used to make for me as a kid growing up in Beaumont. I also wanted to create an environment that was fun (dogs at work and beer pong), exciting (fast growth), rewarding for all (employees owning stock), and rooted in giving back to the community. For everyone involved, working at Sweet Leaf has always been more than a job—it’s been an extended family and a way of life. The dream for Sweet Leaf was always ubiquity, never exclusivity. Last year, we sold part of the company to Nestlé to help make that dream come true. I’m pleased to say that now more people nationwide have the opportunity to enjoy Sweet Leaf Tea, and that makes me feel very proud of the work we’ve done over the last 12 years. Grandma Mimi feels proud too.
While I still serve on the board of Sweet Leaf Tea, I no longer run the day-to-day operations, which has given me time to pursue other dreams, including co-founding Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka with local vodka guru, Chad Auler. When I told my friends about our plans to start Deep Eddy, many asked why I wasn’t using my newfound freedom to sail around the world or move to some faraway white, sandy beach to surf. My answer? If retirement is about spending more time doing what you love, then I’m retired. I discovered my love for combining sweet tea and vodka during the first ACL Festival, and it’s been one of my favorite cocktails ever since. In 2008, friends of mine living on the East Coast began sending me bottles of pre-made sweet tea vodka. I was amazed to discover that these brands were using high fructose corn syrup and artificial tea flavoring instead of natural ingredients. I knew then that there was a huge opportunity to create an authentic, high-quality sweet tea vodka. Chad, the founder of Savvy Vodka, called me late last summer to ask if I’d be interested in joining him to create the world’s best sweet tea vodka—the first sweet tea vodka made from real brewed tea leaves. I was thrilled at the prospect, and from the moment we started talking about the idea, I was impressed by Chad’s dedication to creating high-quality, authentic products that are the absolute best in their class. So, in addition to black tea leaves that have been hand-selected and blended for taste, color, and clarity, we opted to use water from an aquifer deep beneath the Texas Hill Country, pure cane sugar from Sugarland, Texas, clover honey from Austin’s Good Flow Honey Co., and a handcrafted vodka that has been distilled 10 times through a column still, which produces a much smoother spirit than the pot stills used by other sweet tea vodkas. We always say we’ve got Texas spirit in every bottle.
When we set about naming the company, our talks turned quickly to Deep Eddy, Texas’ oldest and most beloved public swimming hole. Chad grew up swimming at Deep Eddy, and I’ve been swimming there for years. Plus, we both share a strong love for nature and the environment and felt that Deep Eddy represents the heart and soul of what we want to create with this company.
Many people ask us about the Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka logo. It was inspired by a vintage Deep Eddy Bathing Beach poster that features a beautiful woman in a red bathing suit sitting on the end of the Deep Eddy diving board, dipping her toes into the water below. Chad and I just love that image. It captures so perfectly the fun, friendly, and relaxed lifestyle that defines Austin and communicates what Chad and I hope people will do with Deep Eddy—take a dip and give it a try.
Although she now spends her days surrounded by Lela, Karl, and Zac, Neiman Marcus’s Nancy Nichols wasn’t a born fashionista. “When I was in college, I thought I was going to be a nurse,” she laughs. “But it all changed when I was in a boutique buying a present for my then boyfriend.” The shop owner noticed Nichols’s innate talent for pairing shirts with ties and offered her a job on the spot. Over the next few years, the California native’s unexpected dive into the fashion industry took her overseas to Australia and India, where she learned the wholesale and retail sides of the biz. Fast forward to today, and Nichols has moved from Las Vegas to Dallas to Austin with über-luxury merchandiser Neiman Marcus. With a head of perfectly coifed hair and impeccable accessories (including her favorite, a pearl and tulle necklace from Ranjana Khan), Nichols appears the perfect fit to occupy the post of vice president and general manager of the legendary store’s Domain locale. But, she says, much more goes into her job than sitting in meetings or putting together the perfect outfit. From daily 10 a.m. meetings to supervising thrice-weekly shipments, the self-described “Project Runway addict” is rarely behind her desk. Instead, she says, she tries to “spend as much time on the floor as possible,” where energy and valuable feedback abound. “The Austin customer isn’t a ‘head-to-toe’ kind of person who wants one designer for every piece,” Nichols explains. “She’s eclectic with a very personal style, which makes [my job] interesting and a lot of fun.” K. Young. photography by jay b. sauceda
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