Contemporary Authors

• Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life Atria Books (New York, NY), 2017

1. Fully alive : using the lessons of the Amazon to live your mission in business and life LCCN 2017008696 Type of material Book Personal name Gage, Tyler, author. Main title Fully alive : using the lessons of the Amazon to live your mission in business and life / Tyler Gage. Edition First Edition. Published/Produced New York : Atria Books, 2017. Description x, 256 pages ; 24 cm ISBN 9781501156021 (hardback) CALL NUMBER HC201.5.G34 G34 2017 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• Simon and Schuster - http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Tyler-Gage/2115078484

  Tyler Gage
  Tyler Gage is the cofounder and CEO of RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa, a rare Amazonian tea. RUNA now supports more than 3,000 farming families in Ecuador who grow guayusa organically, and RUNA products are sold in over 10,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada. For his work on RUNA, Tyler has been named a Forbes “30 Under 30 Entrepreneur” and the Citizen Leader of the Year by the Specialty Food Association. He is also the founder of PlantMed, an organization dedicated to building the world’s first centers for the practice, research, and preservation of Amazonian plant medicine. Gage and RUNA have been featured by ABC’s Nightline, National Geographic, Fast Company, and in Richard Branson’s book Screw Business as Usual.

• Good Life Project - http://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/tyler-gage-founder-of-runa-tea-and-social-entrepreneur/

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  Growing up outside San Francisco, Tyler Gage went to college intending to spend the next 4 years playing soccer and studying politics. Until he landed in a class called Religion Gone Wild.

  That one experience touched off an extraordinary journey that would lead him to drop out and spend the next two years in the South American rainforest studying indigenous tribes.

  Tyler eventually returned to finish school and then, along with his friend, Dan MacCombie, launched RUNA Tea, a company built around the quest to create sustainable livings for thousands of rainforest farmers and their families, while preserving trees and the natural rainforest environment.

  src=He had to learn everything, from supply chain creation to local leaf farming to FTC regs to branding, all from the ground up. RUNA tea can now be found in a growing number of stores across the United States. And the venture is not only creating alternative livelihoods for thousands, but planting more than 150,000 trees and supporting local development.

  In this week’s episode, we explore Tyler’s incredible journey, what inspired him to leave school to study indigenous tribes in the Amazon, why he felt he needed to return to help the people he studied upon graduating, why he chose their special blend of guaysasa tea as the commercial vehicle, why they chose a “for profit” model to do it and where they’re going with RUNA.

  Enjoy!

  And, be sure to subscribe on iTunes to listen while you’re out on the town.

  With gratitude,

  Jonathan

• Tyler Gage - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-gage-377a454/

  Tyler Gage
  3rd degree connection3rd
  Managing Director of North America & Europe at TERRAFERTIL
  TERRAFERTIL Brown University
  Bellingham, Washington 500+ 500+ connections
  InMail Send an InMail to Tyler Gage More actions
  I am an entrepreneur, author and speaker who uses wisdom from the Amazon and start-up success to bring innovation and inspiration to growing organizations.

  I have spent the last 12 years studying with indigenous elders in the Amazon rainforest, venturing far from my suburban roots at the age of 20. After graduating from Brown University, I turned down a Fulbright grant to start RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa, a rare Amazonian leaf, and improves livelihoods for indigenous farming families in Ecuador.

  I was named a Forbes “30 Under 30 Entrepreneur” and winner of both the Big Apple Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Specialty Food Association's Citizen Leader of the Year Award. ABC Nightline, National Geographic and Richard Branson's book Screw Business As Usual have all featured me for my unique and powerful approach to building businesses and creating social good.

  I also serve on the Board of Directors of DavidsTea (NASDAQ: DTEA) and on the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Brown University.

  I live in Bellingham, Washington with my wife Michelle.

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  You both work in the same area
  You and Tyler both currently work in Bellingham, Washington

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  6,824 followers

  We tried 4 brands of jarred tomato sauce — and the winner is worth the splurge
  Tyler liked

  little something from Will Smith on achieving your goals and dreams. #motivation #winning #selfdiscipline
  Tyler liked

  "Yo Kevin Plank! Check it out, we're wearing the new Under Armour HOVRs with our Tuxedos." Under Armour was born in Kevin Plank's grandmother's basement in Georgetown over 20 years ago. Just over 2 years ago we were brewing our own startup in a Georgetown basement. We had the pleasure of sharing one of the first batches of Super Coffee with Plank and he empowered us with this thought: "Be smart enough, to be naive enough, to not know, what you cannot accomplish." It was great to hang with Kevin and his team on Saturday at the BOOMER ESIASON FOUNDATION 25th annual Booming Celebration honoring Gunnar Esiason and his inspirational battle against Cystic Fibrosis. #IWILL
  Tyler liked

  Another Expo West has come and gone. For me, every expo has been marked by something special. Three years ago on Friday of Expo, we received a gift we had been waiting for 23 years, our first two children. I bring that up because as I talked with many of you also my family, I felt your struggles and honestly around the issues facing our industry. For my part I have tried to call out the fact that we are a family, a community of generally like-minded souls on a mission to offer our global community better choices in foods and personal goods, better ways to help those how to bring us these products, and we all strive to be better stewards of our planet we all are a community of. So I say this to suggest, go home and give your family a big hug and remember you do this for something more than the worries of the moment. It was great to see so many of you and love to you all until we see each other again.
  Tyler liked

  My friend Theodore Leaf providing me with #lastlooks before going #live at #ExpoWest at the Rhythm Superfoods LLC #Texas Brand Party with Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka and High Brew Coffee 🌴🌊
  Tyler liked

  Remember strawberry milk? MALK Organics is bringing it back. The MALK family just got bigger. I present to you STRAWBERRY CASHEW MALK! Yall are going to love this stuff.
  Tyler liked
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  TERRAFERTIL
  Managing Director of North America & Europe
  Company NameTERRAFERTIL
  Dates Employed2018 – Present Employment Durationless than a year
  Overseeing North America and Europe for Terrafertil, a leading supplier of superfoods and healthy snacking products. With over 400 employees and sales in 22 countries, Terrafertil is the leading health and wellness brand in Latin America. Our brands Nature's Heart and Essential Living Foods offer a variety of premium snack, beverage and pantry items, and we are also the leading global supplier of dried goldenberries. In 2017 I facilitated the acquisition of Essential Living Foods and in 2018 facilitated a majority investment in the company from Nestlé.

  DAVIDsTEA
  Member, Board Of Directors (NASDAQ: DTEA)
  Company NameDAVIDsTEA
  Dates EmployedJun 2017 – Present Employment Duration10 mos
  LocationMontreal, Canada Area
  DavidsTea (often stylized as DAVIDsTEA) (in French Les Thés DavidsTea) is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country. Following the company's initial public offering, common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on June 5, 2015.

  tylergage.com
  Author & Speaker
  Company Nametylergage.com
  Dates Employed2017 – Present Employment Duration1 yr
  "FULLY ALIVE: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business & Life" tells the story of my immersion in Amazonian spirituality, it's life-changing impact on me, and how I integrated the lessons he learned to build a highly successful, socially responsible company. A spiritual adventure story packed with practical business lessons, it illustrates the value of the unusual and the unexpected, inspiring readers to follow their simple curiosities.

  Media (1)This position has 1 media
  Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
  Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
  This media is a link
  TERRAFERTIL
  Chief Development Officer
  Company NameTERRAFERTIL
  Dates EmployedFeb 2017 – Jan 2018 Employment Duration1 yr
  Terrafertil owns Nature’s Heart, the leading health and wellness brand in Latin America and one of the fastest growing superfood brands in the UK. Additionally, Terrafertil recently acquired Essential Living Foods, a leading superfood brand in the USA. In 2017 I facilitated the acquisition of Essential Living Foods and in 2018 facilitated a majority investment in the company from Nestlé.

  Runa LLC
  Co-Founder & CEO
  Company NameRuna LLC
  Dates Employed2008 – 2017 Employment Duration9 yrs
  LocationBrooklyn, NY
  Runa LLC is an Amazonian beverage company that creates livelihoods for indigenous farmers in Ecuador. Our lines of tea bags and bottled beverages are made from guayusa tea ("gwhy-you-sa"), a native Amazonian tree leaf with more caffeine and double the antioxidants of any tea.

  Brown University
  Student
  Company NameBrown University
  Dates EmployedSep 2004 – Dec 2008 Employment Duration4 yrs 4 mos
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  Education
  Brown University
  Brown University
  Dates attended or expected graduation 2004 – 2008

  Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
  Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
  Field Of StudyNegocios Internacionales
  Dates attended or expected graduation 2009 – 2009

  University of California, Santa Cruz
  University of California, Santa Cruz
  Field Of StudyAnthropology, Ecology, Shamanism
  Dates attended or expected graduation 2006 – 2007

  Activities and Societies: Men's Varsity Soccer Team, Program in Community & Agroecology
  Miramonte High School
  Miramonte High School
  Degree NameHigh School Degree Field Of StudySoccer
  Dates attended or expected graduation 2000 – 2004

• Tyler Gage - http://www.tylergage.com/index.html#about

  I am an entrepreneur, author and speaker who uses wisdom from the Amazon and start-up success to bring innovation and inspiration to growing organizations. I have spent the last 12 years studying with indigenous elders in the Amazon rainforest, venturing far from my suburban roots at the age of 20.

  After graduating from Brown University, I turned down a Fulbright grant to start RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa, a rare Amazonian leaf, and improves livelihoods for 3,000 indigenous farming families in Ecuador. With over 70 employees and 15,000 stores selling RUNA beverages in the US and Canada, RUNA has grown in to one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the US according to Inc Magazine.

  I was named a Forbes “30 Under 30 Entrepreneur” and winner of both the Big Apple Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Specialty Food Association's Citizen Leader of the Year Award. ABC Nightline, National Geographic and Richard Branson's book Screw Business As Usual have all featured me for my unique and powerful approach to building businesses and creating social good.

  I also serve on the Board of Directors of DavidsTea (NASDAQ: DTEA) and on the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Brown University. In addition to advising numerous start-ups and larger companies, I am a co-founding partner and strategic advisor to NAKU, a pioneering indigenous healing center in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

  I live in Bellingham, Washington with my wife Michelle and enjoy boxing, yoga, riding my unicycle and studying ethnobotany.

  FULLY
  ALIVE

  ORDER on
  amazon NOW

  Building a startup is like being thrust into the middle of the Amazonian rainforest. Living every day on the edge of your comfort zone, vulnerable to the unexpected challenges constantly being thrown your way, and constantly shifting to meet daily demands and do everything and anything you can to survive, let alone to thrive.

  In FULLY ALIVE, I share my spiritual adventures and the business savvy that helped me create RUNA, a pioneering organization that weaves together the seemingly divergent worlds of Amazonian traditions and modern business, demonstrating how we can dig deeper to bring greater meaning and purpose to our personal and professional pursuits.

  From suburban youth to immersion in the Amazon to entrepreneurial success, my journey clearly shows that passion and opportunity can be found in the most unexpected places. Captivated by a rare Amazonian tea leaf called guayusa that had never been commercially produced, I started RUNA to partner with the indigenous people of Ecuador to share its energy and its message with the world.

  Using the spiritual teachings, lessons and healing traditions of the Amazon as my guide and "playbook", I built RUNA from a scrappy start-up into a thriving, multi-million dollar company that has become one of the fastest growing beverage companies in the United States. With the help of investors like Channing Tatum, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Olivia Wilde, RUNA has created a sustainable source of income for more than 3,000 farming families in Ecuador who sustainably grow guayusa in the rainforest. Simultaneously, RUNA has built a rapidly scaling nonprofit organization that is working to create a new future for trade in the Amazon based on respectful exchange and healing, not exploitation and greed.

  Vulnerable, raw and deeply transparent, Fully Alive reveals powerful tools and lessons that can teach all of us how to grow toward and beyond our personal edges, no matter our circumstances.

• Men's Fitness - https://www.mensfitness.com/nutrition/what-to-drink/channing-tatum-and-quest-perfect-buzz

  CELEBRITIES
  Channing Tatum and the Quest for the Perfect Buzz
  How two young entrepreneurs and one Hollywood A-Lister, with the help of a caffeinated Amazonion “super leaf,” are trying to shake up the $30 billion energy-drink market with a healthier alternative.
  by Andy Isaacson

  C
  CHANNING TATUM HAS a recurring dream in which he sprints furiously across an unfamiliar landscape, then, arms outstretched, takes flight, soaring above the terrain like a hang glider. A version of this dream comes to him one night in spring of 2014, while dozing in a hammock deep inside Ecuador’s rainforest. This time he runs up a hill dotted with tall trees. At the crest stands a forbidding wall that rises as he draws nearer. Barefoot, he bounds up the wall and, reaching the top, sees a vast territory unfurling toward the horizon. He pauses, then plunges down the other side.

  The next morning Tatum recounts the details of the dream to a group of us sitting on tree stumps around a smoldering fire, in a remote indigenous Sápara settlement near the border of Peru. The villagers have painted our cheeks with a reddish pigment made from tree seeds, issued us each Sápara names (Tatum takes “Tsamaraw,” which means “protector spirit”), and blown tobacco smoke into our faces to expel negative energy.

  In our hands are coconut shells that contain a caffeinated elixir we’ve traveled 4,000 miles to find: guayusa, a plant native to the western Amazon, whose green, elliptical leaves have been a staple of the region’s indigenous populations for thousands of years.

  The Sápara drink guayusa (“gwhy-YOU-sa”) for stamina, and as a tool to interpret dreams. Shipibo medicine men in Peru prescribe a strong, guayusa-based drink to patients who suffer from trauma, as a way to conquer fear. The Kichwa people, in Ecuador’s northern jungle, say the plant also kills hunger, and often pack guayusa leaves as their only sustenance on long hunting expeditions.

  A Kichwa man had described to me the mystical circumstances surrounding the discovery of the plant’s energy-boosting properties. It was during an era of tribal warfare; one night the spirit of a tree told a sleeping Kichwa sentinel, “Hey friend, I can help you.” The sentinel awoke to find a bush rustling nearby. He chewed its leaves, and immediately felt alert and animated. Today the Kichwa refer to guayusa as “the night watchman’s plant.”

  Tatum, the star of Foxcatcher and this summer’s Magic Mike XXL, has come to the Amazon to sample the plant for a different reason. An investor in the New York-based beverage startup Runa (a Kichwa word meaning “fully alive”), the first company to produce drinks containing guayusa, he wants to learn everything there is to know about it. We’ve spent the last few days with Runa’s co-founders, Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie, drinking, farming, and literally bathing in guayusa as women pour bucketfuls over our heads.

  Gage and MacCombie represent the latest entrepreneurial rush into the rainforest—a place from which, in recent years, marketers have emerged with billion-dollar beverage products like açai. Leveraging Tatum’s celebrity, the pair hope to break into the $30 billion energy drink market, a field dominated by Red Bull and brands like Monster Beverage, which has concocted a juggernaut out of guarana, another caffeinated Amazonian plant. Trouble is, unlike guarana, few people have heard of guayusa. Tatum, Runa’s unofficial spokesman (his exact role is still being hashed out), hopes to change that.

  After Tatum finishes describing his dream, a soft-spoken Sápara man focuses on him: “Your running represents the instinct of always striving to go further,” he says. “By making it to the top, you made it in your personal, professional, and spiritual life—there is nowhere else to go. But that expanse on the other side: That is the platform to recognize who you truly are.”

  I wait for Tatum to lighten the mood. After all, this is the Jump Street star whose dick jokes have gone viral. He’s also a well-known prankster off camera. In fact, earlier this trip, he yanked me from a raft into a fast-flowing river and goaded me into eating a squirming grub from a palm tree. I expect him to respond to this shamanic psychoanalysis with a self-deprecating joke.

  Instead Tatum nods along earnestly, pauses, then takes a sip from his coconut shell and launches into yet another dream, about waking up in a room from which he can’t escape. “This happens a lot,” he begins, “and I wonder what it means...”

  [pagebreak]

  The day before, at Runa’s factory in Archidona, Ecuador, Gage, MacCombie, Tatum, and his producing partner, Reid Carolin, take a tour of the company’s guayusa factory. Inside a low-slung white building covered in plastic, a woman in hospital scrubs and a surgical mask stirs beds of leaves, allowing them to dry and oxidize. They smell pleasant, like freshly cut grass, and Tatum snatches a pile and burrows his nose in it. He and Carolin first discovered Runa at a Whole Foods in New Orleans while shooting 21 Jump Street, in 2011, and the drink became their lifeblood as they raced to finish the Magic Mike script. “We were hammering it like it was a drug,” says Tatum. “Runa went in smooth and left smooth, and gave a longer buzz than coffee.” He now starts every day with a can of it. The next morning, I watch as he slams one then backflips off a 50-foot bridge into a river.

  An 8.4-oz can of Runa’s energy drink comes in two flavors: Berry, with 17 grams of sugar, and Original Zero, a sugar-free version. Both have 120 milligrams of caffeine from guayusa leaves, which are dried in Archidona, shipped to a facility in New Jersey, then brewed into the carbonated energy drinks as well as a line of glass-bottled teas flavored with mint, hibiscus, and lemongrass.

  Before Gage and MacCombie launched their company, not a single scientific paper had been written about guayusa. The Kichwa people say the plant can replace food on lengthy jungle trips. Both Gage and Tatum say that after drinking guayusa, they feel a pleasant boost without the jitters coffee gives them. “I needed something that gave me a longer burn and didn’t leave me cracked out,” says Tatum. Gage recalls a curious sensation the first time he drank guayusa. “I felt very awake but rooted at the same time,” he says. “I wasn’t sure why, but it was striking to me.”

  Recent research conducted by Applied Food Sciences, a U.S. supplement firm that plans to market guayusa extract, offers evidence to support the “slow burn” claim. The plant is part of the holly family, and appears to offer the virtues of both tea and coffee: Its leaves contain significant levels of various antioxidants, including the catechins found in green tea, which reputedly fight cancer and boost metabolism, and the chlorogenic acid in unroasted coffee beans, which spurs weight loss by slowing the uptake of glucose from the intestines.

  In addition to natural caffeine, guayusa also contains theobromine, a stimulant abundant in chocolate. Ounce for ounce, there’s less caffeine in guayusa than in dark roast coffee, but for reasons not yet well understood—having to do with the synergistic effects of these various compounds—the body metabolizes the caffeine in guayusa over a longer period of time.

  “For endurance athletes who’d like to have more of a sustained release if they’re doing something more than a quick run—this really helps for that,” says Chris Fields, vice president of scientific affairs at Applied Food Sciences, which is starting clinical trials to investigate guayusa. “It’s a really unique plant, and now we seem to understand why it’s been used for centuries by Amazonian groups—it has so many medicinal benefits.”

  Guayusa lacks tannins, the compounds in green and black tea that give it its bitter, puckery quality. When I drink a 14-oz bottle of Guavo Zero Unsweetened Runa, it tastes like watered-down tea. The first thing I notice sipping an 8.4-oz can of Runa Original Zero (with a hint of lime) is a sharp acidic tinge of artificial lime that instantly dissolves into a leafy, tea-ish aftertaste. The fizzy, one- two punch reminds me more of a store-bought Arnold Palmer than it does a syrupy Red Bull. (This is not a bad thing.)

  Guayusa’s energy kick is gradual, more tortoise than hare. After one serving, I feel a subtle caffeine lift, rather than a spike. (For those who rely on the jolt of a Grande Pike Place or Monster, take note.) Two servings later, though, my body feels alert, and I’m humming along like a machine. I can see why Tatum and Carolin drink it during script-writing marathons. “The whole reason we [embraced Runa],” says Carolin, “was because we saw the effect this product had on our creativity.”

  By offering a product with this unique rush, and by touting its claim of clean energy, Runa hopes to muscle into a marketplace cluttered with less healthy choices. The definition of “energy drinks” is somewhat elastic—they’re marketed as dietary supplements—but all tend to share large doses of caffeine combined with taurine, glucuronolactone, carnitine, B vitamins, and ginseng, various forms of stimulants, which, in excess, can give rise to harmful side effects. Most energy drinks also pack lots of sugar. An 8.4-oz can of non- diet Red Bull has nearly seven teaspoons of added sugar. (The American Heart Association advises no more than nine teaspoons of added sugar a day for men.)

  Though the health effects of all the various chemical and herbal ingredients used in energy drinks and their possible interactions with caffeine are largely untested, the consequences of excess caffeine consumption are well understood: tachycardia, arrhythmia, hypertension, seizures, insomnia, and anxiety. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, FDA documents show that in the past decade, 34 deaths have been linked to, and possibly caused by, energy drinks. “Energy drinks are clearly causing symptomatic arrhythmias,” says Stacy Fisher, M.D., director of complex heart diseases at University of Maryland School of Medicine. Market research firm Mintel reported last year that nearly six in 10 Americans who consume energy drinks or shots—mostly 18– to 24-year-olds—say they now worry about their health.

  “Right now, our low-hanging fruit is reluctant Red Bull drinkers who are like, ‘I drink this stuff but I know I shouldn’t, I know there’s something better’—which I think is a huge audience,” Gage says. “We just need to communicate in the right way to get them.”

  [pagebreak]

  Guayusa had never been grown commercially until five years ago, when Gage and MacCombie, two friends from Brown University, began shipping bags of the leaves to the U.S. Today Runa is sold in 7,000 stores across the country, including Safeway, Whole Foods, and Vitamin Shoppe. Last year, the company took in $2 million in sales; this year it’s on track to make $8 million. Runa has also attracted an eclectic mix of investors, including responsAbility, a Swiss sustainable management fund; a successful musician and producer named Dr. Luke; and the founder of Zico coconut water, Mark Rampolla.

  Another investor, New York artist Neil Grayson, who’s a friend of Tatum’s and knew of the actor’s taste for Runa, connected him with Gage in 2013. Tatum immediately noted an auspicious coincidence: The character he’d played in his 2006 breakout film Step Up was also named Tyler Gage. If for no other reason, he tells me, “the sheer sake of weirdness” piqued his business interest in Runa.

  Gage first tasted guayusa in 2005, after his freshman 
year in college, when he was in Costa Rica doing research 
with an American ethnobotanist. At the time, Gage, who’d
 been recruited to play soccer at Brown, was obsessed
 with health, nutrition, and peak performance. He’d tried going vegan for 18 months and Paleo for a spell, and even experimented with lucid dreaming. “I was interested in what the human mind has the capacity to do,” he says.

  Eventually Gage came upon books by a decorated triathlete named Mark Allen, who’d studied the teachings of a Huichol shaman from Mexico. “He was relatable to me, from an athletic performance point of view,” says Gage, who reached out to Allen after his freshman year. “This wasn’t a dude who believes in spirits and wooah. No—homie won the freaking Ironman six times, and he attributes his success to the strength he learned with shamanism.”

  Gage studied with Allen, who inspired him to study plant medicine in the Peruvian Amazon. There, for college credit, Gage researched the ethnolinguistics of the Shipibo people, while the Shipibo shamans put him through intensive ceremonies and diets. “Every day I had to get up at sunrise, drink these gnarly plants, and basically sit out in the jungle by myself,” he says. “It was really intense and really cool. And I can’t really explain it, but that’s when I remember feeling things shifted inside me.”

  When Gage got back to Brown, his friend MacCombie was enrolling in a class on social entrepreneurship; he dragged Gage along. The course required that they write a business plan. In Peru, Gage had seen how Amazonian communities are often drawn into business with oil and logging companies for lack of any economic alternatives, so the two conceived of a company selling a guayusa-based beverage. As far as they were concerned, it was a class exercise. But their professor—an entrepreneur named Danny Warshay, who’d worked for Duncan Hines—urged them to think otherwise. “It hadn’t even crossed our minds,” Gage confesses. Over late nights, however, the idea marinated. In December 2008, two days after he and MacCombie graduated, they flew to Ecuador.

  After six months of backpacking among villages to secure guayusa suppliers, Gage and MacCombie landed a $50,000 small business grant from Ecuador’s Ministry of Export, which in 2010 they used to build Runa’s first research facility, a steel drying-chamber in a bamboo garage full of chickens. Larger grants from the Ecuadorean government and the U.S. Agency for International Development allowed them to build the first real Runa factory. They shipped guayusa back to the States and managed to sell the first boxes to Whole Foods. At a natural foods trade show in 2011, Gage and MacCombie were hawking samples of their “Amazonian tea” from a remote corner booth when Neil Kimberley, former brand director at Snapple, happened by and offered to help formulate their product. “You guys seem pretty cool,” he told them. “Give me a call.” He’s now on Runa’s board of advisors.

  Today, Runa’s harvest comes from over 3,000 local farmers, who tend the bushy plant in traditional gardens called chakras. The company’s also launched a nonprofit that funds the largest reforestation program in the Ecuadorian Amazon, partly supported by the MacArthur Foundation, and is also helping guayusa farmers form cooperatives.

  We’re sitting on a grassy airstrip beside another Sápara settlement when Gage reaches into a cardboard box and pulls out a few prototypes of the Runa energy drink can, which prominently features a guayusa leaf and the words “Clean Energy.” One of Runa’s investors, Kim Jeffery, who, as the president and CEO of Nestlé Waters North America, had helped turn it into the continent’s third-largest beverage company, has advised Gage on the importance of a clear, succinct message. “His thing is: You have three seconds to tell people what your product is,” Gage says. “What we want people to say about Runa is not that it’s tea, or light tea, but that it’s better than tea. Categorically better, and categorically different.”

  Tatum doubts whether the can’s current design accomplishes that. “One thing Red Bull has done really well is that it can be sitting all the way over there, even in the dark, and you know exactly what it is,” he says, pointing across the runway. “Just, bang—I know it. So, the leaf: I know that’s what it is. But is that what we’re advertising? What are we trying to get people to understand? The biggest thing for me is to figure out how to key into exactly what it should be used for and what it’s going to deliver. It’s alive. It sharpens you. It gives you insight into your world—focused presence, not just jacked up. The packaging should say what it’s going to do for you. Then if people wonder what it’s made from, they’ll turn it over and read the ingredients and find out it’s natural and it’s made from a leaf in South America.”

  Carolin adds, “I think people want to feel like they’re holding a symbol in their hand, and that’s what Red Bull has become.”

  “You’ve got to make it cool to drink,” says Tatum. “I hate to be some kind of idiot American saying that, but look—you can’t deny the product. It makes you run faster, jump higher. Now you just have to—.”

  “Put the ‘swoosh’ on it,” Carolin says. “Yes!” insists Tatum. “That thing that says: This is why it’s fucking cool.” Gage, for his part, wants people to think of Runa as an alternative to Red Bull in a way that some now see Vita Coca—the country’s top-selling coconut water brand—as a replacement for Gatorade. His challenge is to distinguish guayusa from tea, and somehow make it hip. “This is 99% of what’s going to determine if we’re a $10 million company or a $500 million company,” says Gage.

  Yet he recognizes this is all nearly impossible without someone like Channing Tatum. In 2011, Vita Coco, whose celebrity investors include Madonna and Rihanna, ran a billboard campaign that featured Rihanna urging consumers to “Hydrate naturally from a tree, not a lab”—a jab at Gatorade and Powerade. That year the company saw its revenue double to nearly $100 million.

  To date, Runa’s celebrity weaponry has been small gauge. The company sends products to a “Runa Tribe” made up of athletes like wakeboard world champion Darin Shapiro and pro kiteboarder Damien LeRoy—“individuals who embody what it means to be Runa,” according to the company’s website—hoping they’ll spread the gospel. But the star power of Tatum, Runa’s unofficial pitchman—he’s discussing with the company various ways they might leverage his celebrity—actually has the potential to blast the brand into the mainstream. “We’re dealing with guys [Tatum and Carolin] whose entire professional business is public entertainment, and what’s cool and sexy. And they’ve been successful at that. Channing has his finger on the pulse of the average American: what they do, how they think, and what they want.”

  A few weeks after returning from the Amazon, Tatum, in preparation for Magic Mike XXL, begins a 10-week regimen with celebrity trainer Arin Babaian to mold his body back into male stripper form—workouts fueled by guayusa. “We buy into things we believe in, and this is something I can completely get behind,” he says on our way back from Ecuador. “Someone can just be like, ‘Oh, you’re just getting paid for this, right?’ and I can say, ‘No, I actually just drink the shit out of it.’” ■

• Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/meimeifox/2017/08/10/this-young-entrepreneur-built-a-business-on-wisdom-from-the-amazon/#57508bb86e26

  AUG 10, 2017 @ 08:06 AM 1,621 The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
  This Young Entrepreneur Built A Business On Wisdom From The Amazon

  MeiMei Fox , WOMEN@FORBES
  Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
  TWEET THIS
  Much praise is needed for our grief, our struggles, and our feelings of being lost. That’s where our journey starts.
  Tyler Gage is the co-founder of RUNA, a social enterprise that makes energizing beverages with guayusa, a rare Amazonian leaf, while also contributing to the livelihoods of 3,000 indigenous farming families in Ecuador. With over 70 employees and 15,000 stores selling its beverages in the US and Canada, RUNA has become one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the US according to Inc Magazine. As a business leader, author of the book Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and in Life, and speaker, Gage brings innovation and inspiration to individuals and organizations.

  Elli Papayanopoulos
  Tyler Gage is the co-founder of RUNA and author of 'Fully Alive.' (Photo by Elli Papayanopoulos)

  “My passion is building bridges between the Amazon and global society, focusing on the intersection between environmental conservation and personal wellness,” Gage said. After graduating from Brown University, he turned down a Fulbright grant in order to found RUNA along with classmate Daniel MacCombie. Gage has spent the better part of the past 12 years studying with indigenous elders in the Amazon rainforest, venturing far from his suburban roots. He is a co-founding partner and strategic advisor to NAKU, a pioneering indigenous healing center in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In addition, Gage serves on the board of DavidsTea and on the Advisory Council for Entrepreneurship at Brown University.

  Gage first tapped into his life purpose as a teenager, when, despite enjoying a loving and comfortable upbringing, he found himself experiencing growing listlessness, tension, and self-doubt. After his freshman year at Brown, he took a leave of absence to visit the Amazon, where he went looking for answers. “What I found was a sophisticated and rigorous healing system incorporating an incredible diversity of meticulously prepared plant medicines administered along with specific dietary restrictions. An appreciation for the relationship between psycho-emotional and physical health is at the core of their healing system. This transformed my anxiety and depression, and gave me the confidence to start a business after graduating from Brown,” Gage explained.

  Caroline Bennett
  Gage and Babs Burchfield look at an old growth tree in Amazonian Ecuador. (Photo by Caroline Bennett)

  Even before visiting the region, Gage’s interest in the Amazon and shamanism was piqued by a man Gage read about in the newspaper one day named Mark Allen. Prior to winning the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon six times in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Allen finished six times in the top five but never won. He credited his breakthrough to working with a shaman from Mexico’s Huichol tribe, saying the shamanic approach had completely shifted his perspective. It taught him to trust in life, feel gratitude for where he was, and believe that even if things weren’t going to be easy, they were going to work out. During his year off from Brown, Gage sought out and spent time with Allen and his teacher, then progressively found his way to Peru.

  Once he discovered guayusa in the Amazonian rainforest, Gage realized that he wanted to build a socially- and environmentally-conscious business around the naturally energizing herb, modeling the company strategy after the cultural and spiritual traditions of guayusa. “The Kichwa use guayusa to tie their communities together, share their dreams and visions, and gain access to the deeper insights available through collective sharing. My RUNA co-founder Daniel MacCombie and I took a ceremonial approach to embed this spirit into our business through our hybrid organizational model, our supply chain planning, and the diversity of our team.” This approach includes beginning meetings with employees by recognizing each other’s contributions and offering each employee a trip to Ecuador after their one-year anniversary of working at RUNA.

  Caroline Bennett
  Gage discusses guayusa tea harvesting techniques with an indigenous Kichwa leader in Ecuador. (Photo by Caroline Bennett)

  For Gage, the greatest reward of founding and running RUNA is seeing the impact his company has had on the indigenous people in Ecuador. Ruth Grefa, who lives in San Jose in Amazonian Ecuador, was part of one of the first groups to plant a community guayusa nursery for RUNA in 2010. “There was no budget for any materials, and none requested—just a simple, shared recognition that this was important for the community, no matter that where exactly it was leading was unclear at the time.” Gage said. “These women were going to do this as they had done everything for centuries—by working together, laughing, and using whatever resources they had on hand.”

  Five years later, Grefa raises over 300 guayusa trees in her forest garden, next to dozens of other fruit and medicinal plant species. Guayusa has become her most profitable crop, earning her almost twice as much income as her next most profitable crop, organic cacao. She has used the additional income to pay for the education of her two children, in addition to becoming an entrepreneur herself by starting a small store that stocks basic household items and school supplies.

• Observer - http://observer.com/2013/10/running-on-runa-college-grads-tyler-gage-and-dan-maccombie-make-tea-and-do-good/

  OBSERVER PHILANTHROPY 2013
  Running on Runa: College Grads Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie Make Tea and Do Good
  By Peter Davis • 10/24/13 6:46pm

  Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie. Below, a bottle of Runa.
  Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie.

  Imagine being a recent college graduate and turning down a Fulbright grant or passing on a lucrative job offer in consulting to move to Ecuador. Brown University graduates Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie did just that. In 2009, days after getting their diplomas, they moved to the Ecuadorian Amazon.

  Gage and MacCombie were on a mission. While in school, Gage had conducted ethno linguistic research with indigenous communities in South America. He witnessed the struggles communities faced to both protect their environment and also make money to feed their families. One morning, while in the rainforest Gage tasted guayusa, an Amazonian super-leaf loaded with antioxidants and caffeine that made him feel like he could conquer the world. Gage drank gourd after gourd of the tea with different local Kichwa communities. Guayusa not only tasted great but had a “clean energy” that Gage wanted to immediately bring to a global market.

  Meanwhile, MacCombie spent a semester in Ecuador, focusing his studies on high impact non-profit management with the hope of bringing a fair business ethic to social work.

  Back at Brown, the old friends teamed up in an entrepreneurship class and wrote a business plan for a new company. They moved back to Ecuador and founded Runa, which began producing beverages based on the exotic and invigorating guayusa leaf. “Runa means ‘fully alive human being’ in the language of the Kichwa, the main group we work with,” says MacCombie. “It’s how they describe themselves with pride, and with their gracious permission we chose that name for our company to represent both the traditions of the Kichwa and guayusa, as well as our commitment to supporting people everywhere in achieving great things.” The business now employs upwards of 40 people and supports 2,000 farming families in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Runa connects customers to ancient traditions while preserving the culture and environment in Ecuadorian rainforest communities.

  Guayasa tastes good and boasts many health benefits including immune support, digestive aid and appetite suppressant. Runa’s products include a clean energy drink – one can has 50% more caffeine than a Red Bull so don’t guzzle it before bedtime. There are also six different bottles of guayusa tea (flavors include mint, guava and hibiscus) that offer “focused energy.” MacCombie says that guayusa doesn’t have the same negative side effects associated with caffeine. “No jitters, no crash,” he promises. And you can get your guayusa in boxes of tea that you can brew yourself and start the morning with a warm cup of Runa. It gets better – when you buy a Runa product, part of the profits go to social programs for indigenous family farmers in Ecuador.

  Based in Brooklyn, Gage and MacCombie travel back to Ecuador frequently. They made Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in the Food & Wine category and were praised in Richard Branson’s book “Screw Business as Usual.” “For Runa, every product sold means that we are directly supporting livelihoods and conservation in the Amazon,” MacCombie explains. “So our goal is to build a brand that shares guayusa with the world in as broad a way as possible. Beyond that, we will forever work hand in hand with the Kichwa to think about other ways they can support their lives and ecosystems, while creating new products that share their rich cultural and biological heritage with the world.”

  SEE ALSO: Bushwick’s Culinary Scene is Finally Complete, Thanks to General Deb’s

• New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/business/international/fruitful-but-tough-adventures-in-the-amazon.html

  INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
  Fruitful but Tough Adventures in the Amazon
  Frequent Flier

  By DAN MacCOMBIE MARCH 10, 2014

  Continue reading the main storyShare This Page
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  Dan MacCombie in Ecuador.
  WHEN I was younger we went on a lot of vacations, so traveling isn’t new to me. My business partner Tyler Gage and I went to Ecuador and other parts of South America when we were in college, and after taking an entrepreneurship class we started our beverage company, Runa. We work with more than 2,000 guayusa growers who are all members of the Amazonian Kichwa indigenous group. They call themselves Runa, which translates to “fully alive human being.” Guayusa is a caffeinated tree leaf, and we sell it and use it to make our bottled beverages.

  I’m an ecologically minded person, and I don’t like to travel needlessly. But I enjoy my business trips throughout the United States. I’m in charge of sales, and I get to see places in the United States that I wouldn’t normally get a chance to visit.

  When you’re working in remote areas, though, it’s never easy. It’s harder when you’re in a pickup truck that’s seen better days.

  When we started the company we received a grant to build the first research and development facility for guayusa processing and export in Ecuador’s Napo Province. It sounds impressive, but it was really only a small steel chamber located in a bamboo garage. Our mill was a cacao grinder.

  Q&A
  Q. How often do you fly for business?

  A. Probably four to five times a month, mostly domestic, but some international.

  Q. What’s your least favorite airport?

  A. Atlanta-Hartsfield. There’s always long security lines and then you have to scramble to catch a connection.

  Q. Of all the places you’ve been, what’s the best?

  A. Ecuador. We work there and I’ve gotten to know the people, who are amazing. It’s very culturally rich, and no matter how many times I go there it’s always wonderful.

  Q. What’s your secret airport vice?

  A. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes when you’re stuck at the airport you need comfort food. I do wince when I pay 20 bucks for a sandwich and a bottle of water.

  We bought a dryer to cure the guayusa, but our grant didn’t include any money to transport the dryer deep into the jungle. So we loaded the dryer, which was about the size of a refrigerator, into the flatbed of a 1992 pickup truck we called “el limón.” The drive was supposed to take three hours. It didn’t. I had to stop driving every 15 minutes to check the brakes.

  We were traveling down a steep grade, and I could feel the brakes stiffening and rubber burning because of the excess weight of the dryer. It probably didn’t help that the truck’s brake pads were worn. We wound up having to put about $2,000 into the truck to keep it working. We eventually sold it, and for all I know, el limón is still running somewhere in Ecuador.

  Continue reading the main story
  When I started to work with the Kichwa, I was very cognizant of cultural differences. It was important for us come to them with a spirit of collaboration. These people know so much more about the land than we could ever hope to know. People wake at dawn to drink their guayusa around a communal fire. It’s part of a social ritual where village elders teach younger people about the myths, societal values and what it means to be Runa. To share in it is an amazing experience.

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  The people are proud of the work they do, and culturally, it’s important to be on time, which is a good lesson for all of us.

  On one trip, we were set to pick up harvested guayusa leaves from one Kichwa community who had settled deep in the rain forest, but a bridge we had to cross was washed out. It’s also important to keep your promises and we wanted to keep our reputation intact, so a few members of our group swam across the river, which was wide and about three to 15 feet deep in spots. They then hiked into the jungle to meet with the community and explain the situation.

  The rest of us piled back into our vehicle and took a detour, which involved miles of packed dirt roads littered with rocks and debris. We were eight hours late. A local boy walked out to the washed-out bridge to confirm our story. Everyone was somewhat understanding, but I do think they still thought we should have been on time.

  As told to Joan Raymond. Email: joan.raymond@nytimes.com

  A version of this article appears in print on March 11, 2014, on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: Fruitful but Tough Adventures in the Amazon. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

• Living Maxwell - https://livingmaxwell.com/runa-co-founder-tyler-gage-fully-alive-book-review#more-11926

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  Runa’s Tyler Gage on Becoming Fully Alive
  Max Goldberg October 22, 2017

  I first learned about guayusa tea and met fellow Brown University alum and Runa co-founder Tyler Gage at NYC’s Fancy Food Show 2010.

  Over the years, I have watched the company grow from a scrappy start-up into a multi-million dollar innovator in the tea category, responsible for introducing guayusa to the global market. Yet, it wasn’t until I read Tyler Gage’s excellent book Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life did I come to appreciate what an awe-inspiring feat that he and his co-founder Dan MaCombie accomplished.

  To build a guayusa supply chain from scratch in the middle of the jungle in Ecuador, where you know no one, have very little resources and are not a native speaker, is one of the most impressive things I have seen in my eight years of covering the organic food industry. Creating and growing a successful organic business is hard enough but to do it under these conditions takes the meaning of ‘difficult’ to a whole new level.

  I recently caught up with Tyler Gage to talk to him about Fully Alive and asked him to share his insight about being an organic food entrepreneur.

  In the book, you talk a lot about plant medicine and shamanism, and both are a very big part of your life. What is it that Westerners do not truly understand or appreciate about each of these things and how did they help you get through the tough times at Runa?

  “Shamanism” is a slippery word with really no inherent definition. It’s often used to attempt to classify the loosely shared spiritual practices and beliefs of indigenous peoples, but my personal understanding of shamanism focuses on the use of practical techniques to help us consciously access and influence the subtle layers of life.

  The key to this approach, and where the book focuses heavily, is learning to relate to obstacles as teachers. One of my favorite indigenous sayings is that “White man medicine makes you feel good, then bad. Redman medicine makes you feel bad, then good.”

  Rather than avoiding our difficulties, our fears, our shadows and our limitations, diving directly into them (as uncomfortable and “bad” as that can feel at first) is the gateway to unlocking deeper potential. I think Fully Alive is about this practice of digging deeper.

  Looking back, what is the biggest learning you had when building Runa?

  One consistent theme of learning centers around finding strength in vulnerability. By admitting, time and time again, that we really didn’t know what we were doing trying to build a supply chain in Ecuador, or start a beverage company, we confidently invoked our vulnerability. And the (many) times we arrogantly thought we knew more than we did, we almost always made terrible mistakes.

  When we got to Ecuador, we clearly had no idea what was going to happen. By being willing to embrace our vulnerability and act like students instead of business experts, we opened ourselves up to constructive conversations. We learned that it’s hard for anyone to criticize you for being uninformed or inexperienced if you’re the first one to say you don’t know anything!

  If there is one single thing that you could have done differently, what would it be?

  I definitely wish I brought on more experienced executives to support our growth sooner. We definitely could have been more focused and efficient with our growth if we would have been willing to pay higher salaries for more experienced people at an earlier stage of the company.

  You were able to get Channing Tatum, Leonardo DiCaprio and Olivia Wilde as investors. How did having celebrity investors change the trajectory of Runa and what advice would you give to other organic brands who are seeking to land celebrity investors as well?

  It all comes back to authenticity. We weren’t pretending to be “socially responsible” or invent some good story that would be good for marketing. Our mission is our fundamental commitment. The beautiful, storied history of guayusa is inextricable to our business.

  While “celebrity” is the title that most often gets attributed to these people, more concretely, they are professional storytellers and tend to gravitate to things that have amazing stories.

  What is your best piece of advice for young entrepreneurs looking to build an organic food or beverage business?

  One practical piece of advice that I’ve found incredibly helpful in the early days is to focus on 3-month goals. Setting 3-month goals allowed us to forget the overwhelming challenges ahead and focus on smaller, achievable tasks.

  In addition to helping us stave off the paralyzing overwhelm we felt we tried to think longer term, our 3-month goals also helped us build credibility.

  Often, in the early days, people we spoke with assumed we were nice college kids having an adventure before running back to the U.S. When we got that reception, we simply shared the goals we had set for the coming months. When we met our targets, we got back in touch with those people, let them know about our progress and told them our goals for the next three months.

  After a while, they couldn’t help but admit that these kids were actually getting things done. This persistence and proven focus helped us land some of our earliest outside investors as well.

  —

  Tyler Gage’s Fully Alive is incredibly well-written and is an inspiring story of how building a business and making a positive difference in the world are not mutually exclusive. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

  (Runa co-founder Tyler Gage)

  Are you interested in staying up-to-date on the most important products and trends in the organic food world?

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3/23/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521860922151 1/2
Print Marked Items
Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the
Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business
and Life
Publishers Weekly.
264.23 (June 5, 2017): p44.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life
Tyler Gage. Atria, $25 (272p) ISBN 978-15011-5602-1
Gage, CEO of energy-drink company Runa, hits too many notes familiar from other business memoirs in
this debut. The book begins with Gage awaiting the results of a vote that could remove him from the
company before flashing back to his youth. As a freshman at Brown, Gage struggled with competing
desires: he wanted to please his parents and teachers but also itched to rebel against their expectations.
Seeking a sense of direction and a mentor, he took time off and connected with a botanist studying in the
Amazon. It was there that Gage first tasted guayusa, the tea which provides the main ingredient in Runa's
drinks. Gage remembers the experience as unremarkable, commenting that he wishes it could have been a
dramatic moment of realization but that life doesn't always provide one. Eventually, Gage found himself
back at Brown and trying to start a company with some friends. While recounting Runa's subsequent
founding, Gage occasionally returns to the theme of lacking a clear-cut narrative, but he fits his experiences
neatly enough into a familiar arc of discovery, revelation, and reflection. The story of Gage's success works
as a coming-of-age story but not as a particularly revelatory one. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life." Publishers
Weekly, 5 June 2017, p. 44. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495538362/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=113642d8. Accessed 23 Mar. 2018.
3/23/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A495538362

"Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life." Publishers Weekly, 5 June 2017, p. 44. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495538362/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 23 Mar. 2018.

• Living Maxwell
  https://livingmaxwell.com/category/reviews/book-reviews
  Word count: 980

  Runa’s Tyler Gage on Becoming Fully Alive
  Max Goldberg October 22, 2017

  I first learned about guayusa tea and met fellow Brown University alum and Runa co-founder Tyler Gage at NYC’s Fancy Food Show 2010.

  Over the years, I have watched the company grow from a scrappy start-up into a multi-million dollar innovator in the tea category, responsible for introducing guayusa to the global market. Yet, it wasn’t until I read Tyler Gage’s excellent book Fully Alive: Using the Lessons of the Amazon to Live Your Mission in Business and Life did I come to appreciate what an awe-inspiring feat that he and his co-founder Dan MaCombie accomplished.

  To build a guayusa supply chain from scratch in the middle of the jungle in Ecuador, where you know no one, have very little resources and are not a native speaker, is one of the most impressive things I have seen in my eight years of covering the organic food industry. Creating and growing a successful organic business is hard enough but to do it under these conditions takes the meaning of ‘difficult’ to a whole new level.

  I recently caught up with Tyler Gage to talk to him about Fully Alive and asked him to share his insight about being an organic food entrepreneur.

  In the book, you talk a lot about plant medicine and shamanism, and both are a very big part of your life. What is it that Westerners do not truly understand or appreciate about each of these things and how did they help you get through the tough times at Runa?
  “Shamanism” is a slippery word with really no inherent definition. It’s often used to attempt to classify the loosely shared spiritual practices and beliefs of indigenous peoples, but my personal understanding of shamanism focuses on the use of practical techniques to help us consciously access and influence the subtle layers of life.
  The key to this approach, and where the book focuses heavily, is learning to relate to obstacles as teachers. One of my favorite indigenous sayings is that “White man medicine makes you feel good, then bad. Redman medicine makes you feel bad, then good.”
  Rather than avoiding our difficulties, our fears, our shadows and our limitations, diving directly into them (as uncomfortable and “bad” as that can feel at first) is the gateway to unlocking deeper potential. I think Fully Alive is about this practice of digging deeper.
  Looking back, what is the biggest learning you had when building Runa?
  One consistent theme of learning centers around finding strength in vulnerability. By admitting, time and time again, that we really didn’t know what we were doing trying to build a supply chain in Ecuador, or start a beverage company, we confidently invoked our vulnerability. And the (many) times we arrogantly thought we knew more than we did, we almost always made terrible mistakes.
  When we got to Ecuador, we clearly had no idea what was going to happen. By being willing to embrace our vulnerability and act like students instead of business experts, we opened ourselves up to constructive conversations. We learned that it’s hard for anyone to criticize you for being uninformed or inexperienced if you’re the first one to say you don’t know anything!
  If there is one single thing that you could have done differently, what would it be?
  I definitely wish I brought on more experienced executives to support our growth sooner. We definitely could have been more focused and efficient with our growth if we would have been willing to pay higher salaries for more experienced people at an earlier stage of the company.
  You were able to get Channing Tatum, Leonardo DiCaprio and Olivia Wilde as investors. How did having celebrity investors change the trajectory of Runa and what advice would you give to other organic brands who are seeking to land celebrity investors as well?
  It all comes back to authenticity. We weren’t pretending to be “socially responsible” or invent some good story that would be good for marketing. Our mission is our fundamental commitment. The beautiful, storied history of guayusa is inextricable to our business.
  While “celebrity” is the title that most often gets attributed to these people, more concretely, they are professional storytellers and tend to gravitate to things that have amazing stories.
  What is your best piece of advice for young entrepreneurs looking to build an organic food or beverage business?
  One practical piece of advice that I’ve found incredibly helpful in the early days is to focus on 3-month goals. Setting 3-month goals allowed us to forget the overwhelming challenges ahead and focus on smaller, achievable tasks.
  In addition to helping us stave off the paralyzing overwhelm we felt we tried to think longer term, our 3-month goals also helped us build credibility.
  Often, in the early days, people we spoke with assumed we were nice college kids having an adventure before running back to the U.S. When we got that reception, we simply shared the goals we had set for the coming months. When we met our targets, we got back in touch with those people, let them know about our progress and told them our goals for the next three months.
  After a while, they couldn’t help but admit that these kids were actually getting things done. This persistence and proven focus helped us land some of our earliest outside investors as well.
  —
  Tyler Gage’s Fully Alive is incredibly well-written and is an inspiring story of how building a business and making a positive difference in the world are not mutually exclusive. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Word Count