Entrepreneur-in-Focus: Anthea Ong (Hush Teabar)

Ever feel like the world is too noisy to get to know someone properly? Anthea Ong, founder of Hush Teabar, a tea bar run by deaf individuals, saw the need for people to slow down the pace and connect with each other through quiet, ruminative moments together.

From Rush to Hush is their tagline. At Hush Teabar, you not only get to sip on specially brewed tea prepared by the deaf, but also get some much-needed alone time with yourself.

Anthea had been consistently nurturing this brainchild for years before she finally decided to take the plunge and quit her corporate job and devote herself full-time to this social enterprise. Even when she was still in her hectic corporate role as the managing director in a UK-listed company, she had been involved in active volunteerism since 2006 with several non-profits such as UNIFEM (now UN Women), Very Special Arts Singapore, Make a Wish Foundation, aLife, Northlight School. She also spearheaded several social service projects like Project Yoga-on-Wheels, Circle of Bliss community meditation, Playground of Joy, and more.

We checked in with the generous and affable Anthea to learn more about this bold initiative:

ZCOOP: Why did you decide to make the switch to social enterprise?

AO: It wasn’t a sudden decision but it doesn’t mean it was an easy one either when I had to finally make it!

When I joined the company in 2008 to rebuild myself, I had made it clear to myself (and to my employer then) that I was only going to be with them for three years because I was very clear that I wanted my life to be one-third on paying job, one-third on self-development and one-third on service to humanity. I ended up giving them five and a half years because life got very cushy and comfortable!

Thankfully, my previous colossal collapse galvanised me to step out of this comfort zone to live my purpose.

The idea for Hush hit me 10 months before I made the hard break from the company. I remember when I sent my farewell note to colleagues, clients and partners, I shared that I was leaving because I wanted to live more, love more and be more. And that meant more writing, more song-writing on my guitar, more social innovations to flex my entrepreneurial muscles, more intrepid travels…

How did your interest in social work begin?

I was so broken and barren when my whole life was pulled from under my feet. But helping others filled me up and gave my life value and meaning. I discovered genuine joy in serving others, which made me realise that I was given all the incredible opportunities in the corporate sector so that I could use these abilities and experience to make a difference.

In that, I found clarity in my purpose to serve through volunteerism, social entrepreneurship, and coaching.

What gave you the initial idea to create Hush TeaBar?

A few things came together for me when the idea hit. I had always found refuge in silence as a little girl who had an eye defect and was called names (like “retarded”), so I know what’s like to be labelled ‘different’. I therefore have a deep empathy for those who are marginalised.

Silence saved me when I was drowning in all that despair and broken-heartedness. It was in silence that I shut out all the white noise of expectations and slowly started to listen to my heart instead of my head and discover what truly matters to me.

Silence still transforming me today. I believe that silence can bring different groups of people together because we connect on a different level when we don’t hide behind words. I was very determined to bring silence into the corporate system in a way that is not seen as frivolous but one that can incorporate self-awareness and empathy for the people who can teach us silence.

I wanted to bring together the worlds of those who can hear and those who can’t as a social experiment. Hush TeaBar was thus born as Singapore’s first silent tea bar in October 2014.

How were your TeaRistas trained and was there any difficulty in the process?

Our initial training was done through 2 interpreters. However, we now do training by role-playing and on-the-job — and as we also have a group of ‘veterans’ now, these seasoned TeaRistas will induct and train the new ones. The challenges we face are surprising less to do with communication but more like every training programme faces — engagement and retention.

What is one misconception many people have about social enterprises?

I think a key misconception is that it is a special class of business that operates based on the dual objectives of social cause and profitability. Social enterprises shouldn’t be a special category — I think all businesses can be social enterprises that can and/or must contribute to the betterment of the community that they operate in.

What is the biggest challenge of being in the social enterprise sector?

The biggest challenge in the social enterprise sector is also the biggest opportunity: this sector (in Singapore) is still breaking new ground in bridging the non-profit and commercial sectors, yet remains singularly focused on addressing social issues. This means financiers, regulators, and the like are still figuring out how to support the sector but it also means there is so much room for possibilities in the future. This can be exciting or unnerving because we don’t have benchmarks and established norms to guide us.

Which part of your job gives you the greatest satisfaction, and what motivates you at work?

I love it when an internal switch goes off in a Hush participant, and he/she finds a new way to look at his/her world. Or when they allow that moment of tenderness to be with themselves in that silence.

Just last evening, a lady shared how she had been struggling with massive challenges in her life. She is in such a bad place that she even sleeps with music blaring. During the experience, she picked a card (part of the Experience) written by a previous Husher that said, “There’s a rainbow after every storm.” She listened to herself for the first time in a long time in that silence. By the end of the experience, her whole disposition had changed.

It is such a privilege to be able to provide the space for someone to reflect and re-calibrate and, in that process, find their way out from where they thought they were trapped. This gives me the greatest satisfaction and makes me deeply grateful. There have been many such stories — including a well-known personality who teared during the silent TeaRitual because he hasn’t found time to grieve for the passing of his beloved mother just two months before.

What motivates me is the hope that, as we continue to train our deaf friends to be more involved in the running of Hush, they will one day take over Hush on their own.

Hush is a global movement to bring the worlds of hearing and deaf together and to encourage silence and awareness for the modern and busy lifestyle. Visit them at their Facebook site, Hush Teabar.

The next Hush@Community public session will be held on 1 April. Plus, ZCOOP readers get to enjoy a special promo! Simply use the promo code hushzcoop and 10% off your ticket to the session.

Know of an entrepreneur who should be featured here? Share your recommendation(s) with us by dropping an email to community@zalora.com with “SG — Entrepreneur-in-Focus: [name]” in the title!