A deep dive on water wellness with co-founder Vanessa Drummond

A deep dive on water wellness with co-founder Vanessa Drummond 

For zazen Water co-founder Vanessa Drummond, water is something she is deeply passionate about – so much so, she’s built a business, and a career, out of it. 

“Water has this great importance to our wellbeing and quality of life,” she says. “I was lucky to find something I was inspired by, that I wanted to put my energy towards, when we started the business.”

With an MBA in business, Vanessa’s early career focused on e-commerce – a space where she and fellow zazen Water co-founder, Janet Parker, crossed paths professionally. Both women were keen to trade the boardrooms for balance and do something with meaning. 

“I think we both wanted to stop that energy-depleting corporate lifestyle,” Vanessa says. 

Wellness and water

“I always had a passion around health and wellbeing from a natural perspective,” says Vanessa. “Janet and I spent a lot of time trying to understand the health situations of people close to us, but also the health problems being experienced in the wider community.”

After Janet sourced and imported an alkaline water filter for her dog, Murphy-Brown – and immediately felt her own health benefits and shared this with Vanessa – things started to fall into place.

“For me, it was the realisation that if we’re mostly water, we need to focus on that,” Vanessa explains. 

In 2007, the pair travelled and met with alkaline water scientists in Japan and sourced a top-tier alkaline water filtration system. Shortly after, they founded zazen Water. 

“I went from a big corporate with 5000 staff, to just two women entrepreneurs,” Vanessa laughs. “You’ve got to wear a lot of hats in a day.” 

A key part of the company’s success was starting with the right business partner. Vanessa's strengths are in the operational side of the business, while Janet comes alive talking with vision and strategy.

“It’s quite funny – Janet’s forte is the vision, strategy and sales. And obviously my background is in marketing, but also operational process and implementation,” she says. “So she'll say, ‘we need to do this!’ and then I'll say, ‘I can figure out how!’” 

Going with the flow

No two days ever look the same for Vanessa: she’s involved in marketing, accounting, finance, upcoming website projects and stock ordering, as well as meeting with staff to troubleshoot day to day issues. 

“My operations manager and I often laugh, because she’ll say, ‘I just have a quick question’ and we know it won’t be quick.”

When it comes to the challenges faced by a growing business, there is little that daunts Vanessa. “I think you just have to go with it,” she says. “Running a business is about being up to the challenges.”

However, she believes one of the biggest issues for any business is finding the right people to fit the zazen Water team – many of whom have been with the company for several years now.

“We've had so much success with team members who are naturally aligned to the same set of values,” says Vanessa. “You can't train someone to be passionate about wellness or to have integrity. They've got to come with those things.

“That's usually the best recipe for success that we've found when it comes to creating the team – surrounding yourself with like-minded people who want to make the same difference you do.”

These values are a crucial part of the company, with the core mission of zazen Water being to improve people’s health and wellness through the transformative power of clean, fresh, great-tasting alkaline water.

“What we’re doing is important work,” says Vanessa. “There’s tens of thousands of customers now who rely on our product for their health and wellbeing.

“At the same time, there’s a whole generation that wasn’t even born when we started doing this. It’s a message we still need to get out there. There just isn’t enough awareness about how critical the right water is to the quality of your health and wellbeing.

“Since starting the business, what we personally do on a daily basis has changed, but why we started the business is just as relevant and important today. That’s why we choose to keep doing it 18 years later.”

Ready to begin your water-wellness journey? Learn more about the benefits of drinking alkaline water.