- I've been doing just one business for 25 years, even though I don't look it.

(laughs) So stepping out doing something totally different, you see challenges but you have to work your way past it.

You can't give up.

Giving up, that's not an option, and it's definitely not an option for me.

(upbeat music) My name is Renea Woods-Baylor.

I'm the president of The Tea Lady Incorporated.

So I grew up at the dinner table with our family.

I'm a third generation business owner in my family.

As a kid, I'm listening to my parents talk about their business.

So I'm just excited to keep that tradition going.

I've been in business as an accountant.

I've owned my own firm for over 22 years and I just enjoy being an entrepreneur and just starting this new business.

It's just a breath of fresh air.

I am the first African-American woman to own a tea room here in Summit County.

So I'm very proud of that.

One of the reasons why I started this business is because when I was married, I was married to an executive chef and I was like, ooh, I get to live my little tea dream through him.

So he could prepare all the food and I could set the table and put my china out.

And then five years ago, he passed away with kidney cancer.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do, I just knew I wanted to get out of doing anything that was stressful.

So when I thought about it, what gives me joy, let me see what it is and it's tea.

I love doing tea parties.

Tea time is meant for conversations.

You can't be sitting across from someone this close and be on the phone.

I wanna talk to you, see how you've been doing, what's going on in your life.

And so it's a lot of conversation going on and I believe that now tea time is the best way to experience people coming together.

(upbeat music) We're very English style.

We're not American style tea room.

I love that fact that we're unique in that way.

So for our guests today, we served our three tier tea time and we had the English style cucumber dill tea sandwiches.

We had also our strawberry and cream heart shape tea sandwiches, our berry scones with strawberry jam, and then on our top tier, we had all the sweets you can imagine.

A lot of people don't know that when you're sharing it with another individual, you go to each level together and you usually have three courses when it's an English style tea.

What's been amazing about this is that people are finding me from across the country.

It's a destination place.

I am so grateful, but I'm so glad that people enjoy doing what I love to do.

I would say that a lot of people don't get to live out their one dream, and I've been able to live out two of them and I'm so grateful.

And I hope that shows every time I pour a cup, I really do.

- [Narrator] Idea Stream Public Media received support from PNC Bank which has made a home in the heart of Cleveland by investing in businesses, communities and people.

Focusing on giving back is part of an ongoing commitment to the communities that PNC serves.

PNC Bank, national association.

Member FDIC.