Good Things Happen Over Coffee

Good things happen over coffee. Hey, Polk County, we're back for another episode of the Elevate Polk podcast. Hoping you're having another wonderful week. My name is Chrissanne Long and I'm here again with my co-host Nate Kendrick, who's always here to help me tell the stories of our entrepreneurs in Polk County. How you doing, Nate?

I'm good, Chrissanne. How are you?

I'm doing great. We have a guest again.

I know, I know. It's exciting. So we're welcoming TJ Zimmerman.

T.J. Allen from Concord Coffee on the show today. Welcome, T.J.

Thank you guys for having me. This is awesome.

This is going to be fun. We're going to have a great conversation and we don't have any coffee while we're having this podcast, unfortunately.

I know I dropped the ball on that one, but we can come by there after the podcast and grab a cup if you guys want to. It's on me.

Sounds good.

Nice.

Thanks, man.

I have to admit, I'm not a coffee drinker, but I, I can enjoy conversation while everyone else is having coffee. I'm good at that.

So I wasn't always a coffee drinker either, but I've become more and more It's like a sign of maturity.

I guess I just haven't grown up yet.

Or it's a sign you haven't had good coffee.

It could be. It could very well be.

We have a lot of the people that come in, they're like, I'm not a coffee drinker. And then we say, give us a shot, let us make something.

Then, okay, well then I'm gonna have to let you do that.

We'll, uh, we'll, we'll get some things going for you.

Change my habits, change my life. All right, so let's get started. Let's hear a little bit about your story, TJ. I really don't know like how long you've been in Lakeland, if you were born and raised, how— what brought you here. So just kind of tell us like the, the TJ story from You know, cradle to today.

Cradle to today. Yeah. So I was born in Lexington, Kentucky. Lived there for like 6 months out of my life and moved to Florida. My dad, I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor and mom eventually became a pastor as well. They've both just retired, but grew up over mainly in the New Smyrna Beach area, like right below Daytona Beach. And so grew up spending, you know, my high school was like right across the street from the ocean. So grew up on the beach. and, uh, graduated from, uh, school there and moved, uh, here over here to Lakeland and actually went to Florida Southern College. So that was kind of my first time in Lakeland. A lot of my family is from the Central Florida area, so I would come over here and remember coming to like, uh, Tigers games, uh, growing up as a kid and watching the, the Lakeland Tigers and, and, uh, um, Detroit Tigers for spring training and all that. So, uh, would come over here, um, but yeah, I went to school in Florida Southern College. I was the actual 14th I'm the 19th person from my family to go to Florida Southern.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, my sister followed me. So, the legacy of Florida Southern lives. Yes, yes. I was the typical surf kid and it just, I never applied to any other colleges. I was like, I gotta go to school. And so, I heard about Florida Southern growing up and I was like, sure, I'll go there. That's cool.

I bet there were like all kinds of stories that you just heard of like, somebody did this in this building.

And yeah, I remember a great, uncle or something got college scholarships for helping build, uh, been putting like the glass— like if you've ever been to Florida Southern, the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, like the little glass pieces that are all over, like he got scholarships there. My grandfather played baseball, um, there, uh, for Florida Southern and then went on to play in the Phillies organization. So a lot of really cool like connections and stories, uh, with Florida Southern. Um, so yeah, I was here 2000-2004. And I became a youth director right after. I worked, actually interned at First Methodist here in town and worked at a summer camp over in Leesburg, which is a big part of Concord in a lot of what we're doing is the camp that we worked at. So I met my wife Lindsay my first week as a counselor at this camp, and we started dating right off. We got married at the camp and have a lot of, that's kind of like a second home to us. But at that same time, my second summer as a counselor is when I met Andy McIntyre, who we opened Concord together. Andy met his wife actually at this camp as well in Leesburg. And so we just started, Andy and I were a lot of like interest in sports and who we were and just, Both are very sarcastic, joking people. And so we just hit it off. Andy owns a film company here in town, Indy Atlantic Films. And so he started that in college and we just started talking about, we both had this, even though he is an entrepreneur, opened and started his own business. I was working with middle and high school students, but we always would talk about this dream of wanting to open something together. And we started talking about this. We actually, from there, both moved down. I actually started working for his dad as a youth director at his dad's church. And we started really talking about it then back in 2006. And the concept was a coffee shop/studio/hot dog and shaved ice concept. And fortunately that did not happen. We lost the hot dog and shaved ice. Because I don't think that would really like, be successful right now, but all that combined. But yeah, we still back in that, back in that day just had this idea of wanting to do something together.

Yeah.

Um, from that point on, uh, Andy ended up moving up to Jacksonville, uh, took his business up there and was, was great for him. And then I actually went out to Dallas. Um, Lindsay and I had our, our, uh, our son Landon, um, who's 12 now, which is hard to believe. But, um, we were out and went out to Dallas for a little bit. Uh, her family, um, we all kind of went out there. Her dad got a job relocation and, uh, her mom stayed at home and helped really with us and with raising Landon since we both were working full-time. And went out there and loved the people of Dallas, but I didn't realize how much I missed the ocean and family. And so all my family's still here. Hers was there. They were getting kind of tired of Dallas too. And so we all kind of moved back together and eventually came back and worked at First Methodist with Andy's dad again. Cool. He's the pastor, the Reverend at the Methodist Church still. And Andy at that time moved back to Lakeland. And so we just started talking about, hey, do you remember that dream that we had? Let's kind of start talking about it again. And we met at another local coffee shop here that is nationally known and started in Seattle. But no, it was awesome. A lot of people, we can talk about it later, but competition and all that. Yeah, so we sat and talked for a long time and had a couple, a handful of times where we just would have breakfast together early mornings and just kind of talk about this idea, this concept. And at that time, there really wasn't a craft coffee shop here in Lakeland.

Trendsetters.

Yeah, well, we try. But the actual, no, the actual Southeastern had a craft coffee shop that had started a little bit just before us, but—

Inside the campus.

Inside the campus, which we knew that would— that, uh, Portico, um, which, uh, was awesome. We would actually go there too and have meetings, but we just knew that a lot of people, if they weren't really college kids or, or associated with Southeastern, the likelihood of them traveling to Southeastern for craft coffee probably wouldn't happen. And we had started talking about this, and so we just started talking, and the door started opening up. Um, we got some support from my family, and, um, we were able to, uh, work with, uh, our landlord, with Corey Petkoff and Barron um, fantastic. If you're, if you're ever looking for a spot in Lakeland, reach out to them first. Um, uh, Corey actually was a counselor one summer at that camp as well. Really?

Wow.

So, um, yeah, it's in, in, um, all of those dots. Yes, there's so many dots and connections. That, um, is a pretty cool thing for us because that's our story and what we like to talk about as well. And, uh, so yeah, we started, um, Concord, and, and we, we Got the ideas and the drawings. We found the, the, the shop in Dixieland Village, which was a tattoo parlor that they left. And so we completely gutted the, gutted the, the building out and kind of started with the concept of we just wanted Concord to be a clean, welcoming environment, more like industrial meets modern kind of feel. Yeah. So we have a lot of that, just like natural elements, wood, metal, concrete, things along those lines, if you ever come into our shop. So we took that, um, and the building started happening, the construction started happening, but it wasn't called Concord, and we had no name. And, uh, we had it— yeah, the story is we got to, uh, to be about, I would say, almost like a month out before everything was getting ready to launch, and we were like, all right, we have to come up with a name of what we're going to call this place. And so we were ever at Andy's house and we got ourselves and a couple friends of ours and we just sat in a room and fortunately there's a thing that really helps called Google. And we just started Googling a bunch of like key phrases and words that we liked and, uh, just started putting 'em up on a whiteboard. And, um, through that process, this word Concord just kept coming up.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and the definition, we actually have it on, uh, our store here in Lakeland and we actually have an, uh, another location, um, across from the University of Florida campus. But we have the definition put on the wall, and it's something that all the owners completely agree upon, and it's an agreement or harmony between people. We want Concord to be a place, no matter what you believe in, who you are, that this is a place where you can come in and feel welcomed. And so, we've really tried to strive that from the very beginning of opening the shop and from The, the logo, which, um, was taken off of, as from the Enneagram. A lot of people ask us and question that. Um, and, uh, yeah, it's just, it's, uh, it's unique to us, but it is off of that idea of multiple different personalities kind of meeting at one place. And so, um, a lot of the Enneagram ties back into coffee. The first people that were, uh, the Sufi mystic tribe, which the story is they kind of the first people to drink coffee really, uh, lived by the Enneagram sign and all that. So just a lot of things. We have a lot of intentionality. Quality behind what we do. We just don't do stuff just to do stuff, right? So, yeah, so then long story short, that's kind of where Concord got started, March 2015. So it's been about 6 and a half years now.

Yeah.

And started the shop, and we actually brought in coffee from different roasters from all over the nation, award-winning roasters. And we really wanted to— I mean, it was hard at first. We— a lot of people had no idea of what we were doing, and coffee was coffee. Yeah, the coffee language was Coffee language at that point was Starbucks, and Starbucks did a great job. They did a fantastic job of, I think, mainstreaming the idea to people of this new way of thinking about coffee that they grew up on with their parents or their grandparents just going in and making coffee from a tin can at home. Folgers or even McDonald's was the standard, you know, before. Quick and easy kind of coffee like that, and then Starbucks came along and which is kind of funny because I grew up going out to Seattle almost every summer. My family has a place in the San Juan Islands and remember the Pike Place Market shop location before it was really anything crazy and big. And so it's a, it's neat kind of story to see that too. But they kind of, Starbucks kind of paved the way in what's referred to as, you know, the second wave of coffee. You know, the first was, you know, the, the Folgers, the Maxwell House, the everyday drinking. And then we were considered kind of that third wave. So you might hear that term a lot, it's third wave coffee shop, but we do a lot of intentionality of, of that. And so we brought in a lot of different award-winning roasters. We wanted to have our specific product to focus in on was coffee. We, we're not a, we're not a cafe. We have some food options, but you know, we, that's not our focus. We have tea options and other drink options. Like you guys said, that don't drink coffee, coffee. Um, but we, we don't— we didn't want to steer away from who we are. We wanted to create our brand around, um, that crafty and unique experience. And, uh, so we had a lot of people that would come in, and, and it was a lot of education, um, at first, and teaching people what a pour-over is, what is a slow bar method, and why we do this, um, and the intentionality behind what we do. Um, and now you'll see a lot more. Almost any city that you travel to now, you could almost type in Google and craft coffee, and, and you're going to find a shop that's going to have something with the same feel that we have. So we started that and things were going well and great. I was still full-time, Andy was full-time, but then we kind of saw that one of us needed to make the switch.

Yeah. So full-time, you were still at the church.

Yep.

Andy was full-time at Indy Atlantic.

Yep. And my wife Lindsay does, shout out to her, she does all of the back leg work of finances and she, doesn't get enough credit for what she does. But yeah, she was handling a lot of that.

I will say I want to shout out because I think she's an amazing person and I probably only know very little about her, but just the energy that she has and the personality. I love her. So just shout out to Lindsey.

Yes. Yeah. So she does. She keeps the business going, keeps us all in check. I always joke around that if it wasn't for Lindsey, I would have a lot of really cool things with no money in the bank. But she does that thing that with our shop as well.

So keeps you in check.

Yeah, keeps us all in check. Um, so yeah, we were open for about a year and then, um, we all kind of got to that point where we said one of us has to come on full-time, um, and just to, to take the business to the next level. Um, when we started the, the coffee shop, um, kind of backstory, Andy has traveled all over the world, uh, filming and doing different documentaries and things like that. So he's— he was the one that, that when we were talking about this would always bring in, um, new coffee that he had from traveling from city to city, Nashville to even overseas. And he would come in with some new gadget of how to do something and like, "Try this, try this." And I'm like, "Sure." I somewhat enjoy, I would go and have, like you said, go to Starbucks and meet with a student and have that. But I wasn't like an everyday coffee drinker. But Andy's passion was for the coffee side of that. I was more into the community aspect of the coffee shop. I love just that, what, how people can just have those relationships that are built and grown. And we've seen tons of those happen at our shop from people having first dates to now being married and seeing some of those stories and stuff.

Bringing the kids down.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that to me is, it was the very beginning why I wanted to open up and open up a coffee shop is to have that community side of it. I knew very little about coffee. Andy was the one who was, was very passionate about it. But from the beginning, we almost did this. We have a community space that we rent out to nonprofits for 2 hours for free. We think that's very important for nonprofits to be able to have a space. There's not a lot of that that we've seen when we first started Concord. So we've got that space for them that they can have that. We almost turned that into our roasting facility when we first got started. But we hit pause on that. So about, you know, fast forward a year later, the shop is going well. And so I then came on full-time and we started the roasting program. And so where we are now importing coffee, we're roasting it ourselves. But the interesting thing is, is we had this coffee that we are buying from other roasters who are award-winning roasters, who their product is fantastic. We can't just come in and say, well, here's our stuff, right? And it's not on par. So another shout out to our house manager, my manager Emily, who came on board with us right around that same time. We did a lot of testing, a lot of going through a lot of coffee. We had trash bins full before we started putting out our own product. We then sent it out to a bunch of our friends in the industry and all over and just, try this, let us know what you— give us your honest feedback. And so maybe it was probably 6 to 8 months until we started having our own coffee in our shop, and then probably another 4 or 5, 6 months later that our whole lineup in our shop was coffee that we roasted.

Wow.

And so that's kind of the long story of how Concord got to here now. And about 2 years ago, we were approached— 2 or 3 years ago, we were approached by some friends of ours who were up— they have a campus ministry going back to the camp that we worked at. They were friends of ours who we met through the camp, and they are the director directors of a Wesley program, which is a college ministry program up at the University of Florida. There is right across the street from the main gates at the campus and came to us and said they were going to remodel their whole bottom floor and wanted to put a coffee shop in and wanted to be us. And so there's a lot of back and forth with that and opened our second location a few years ago at UF. Right before COVID hit. So, it's been kind of an up and down, definitely a learning process with that too. But, so yeah, that's kind of the whole nutshell and story of, in a nutshell of Concord and how we got started.

So, I have a couple, first of all, talking when you were talking about everybody meeting and connecting through the camp. I mean, I was like full-on goosebumps, but you were like rolling. So, I'm like, I'm not going to interrupt him, but I was like, look, I have goosebumps. So, that's just a really great story of those connections and those relationships that just happened, right? And then, you know, as you're talking in the relationship Andy, and I know Andy, but not like, you know, not really well. I just know him and feel like that general generosity and that great vibe that he has. And I also happen to know that he's a Florida State Seminole fan. So I want to know a little bit about how that felt going into Gainesville. And I just kind of want to give him a jab on like, come on, sell out, because I'm a Florida State.

Actually, I'm a huge Florida State fan as well.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. Like my debit card is a Florida State. I didn't go to, you know, going to Florida Southern, they didn't have a football team. But yeah, growing up, I'm a huge Florida State fan. Bobby Bowden just passing away. I was a huge fan of Bobby Bowden. My dad went to UF for a little bit, so we always had that rivalry and still do in a fun way. But yeah, my license tag is a Florida State license tag. I actually, our two boxers we have right now are named Chief and Doak.

Oh my gosh. My little brother has a dog named Chief.

Yep. So, but yeah, my son's bedroom, if you saw it, is all decked out in Florida State stuff. So that's something that a lot of people have given us a hard time about, but it's, you know, we joke around with it and, you know, we'll go up there and just take the gator money. But, you know, so it's a great ministry and it's an awesome, it was an awesome opportunity for us. Heather and Joel, who are the directors up there, are fantastic. And we just love supporting what they do in their ministry. And their vision was really for us coming up there was to, to grow their ministry and hoping that a customer would turn into somebody that would go up. So the bottom floor is Concord, right above it on the top floor is their worship center. So it's pretty neat. They have housing right there, but it's, if you're ever up in the Gainesville area, it's right there on 13th and University. So if anybody knows where that is, it's a pretty, it's an amazing location. That shop is beautiful. If you ever seen pictures on her Instagram, I'm jealous every time we go up there because they have all this new equipment and all that. Yeah, it's amazing.

And your Lakeland location is a little bit off the beaten path. It's in Dixieland. I know that there's a lot of growth and a lot of conversation about connecting downtown and Dixieland. And so talk a little bit about the— I don't know if you would see them as challenges, but from an outsider looking in, I would say that location wouldn't necessarily have been a first pick, but you had the relationship with Corey, and I know that all of that kind of goes together. But do you feel like You know, Dixieland is, is, is on its way up. Where, where, where are things with that as far as development?

Yeah. So when we started looking at locations, we were looking everywhere and seeing what is an available spot. Andy actually had his film studio and company is in that plaza as well. So he started, you know, really with that relationship with Corey. So we knew that we wanted to, if we could work with, with Baron Realty and Corey, we would. A bunch of different— we were kept in that conversation. Then this— then the, the opportunity for the, the tattoo shop opened up. Corey said that they're leaving, uh, and gave us that as a, as a possibility. And a lot of people said— and, and we tell a story all the time, I'm glad you brought this up— but, um, people said, you're crazy, why would you not be on the main strip and the main street of South Florida Avenue? And If you've ever been to our shop and location, um, the biggest thing for us, and, and has been a struggle for a while, and it's neat to see Lakeland really, um, changing this, but was parking. Um, you know, a few, a few years back when we were getting started, it was almost impossible to park downtown. Yeah, a lot of the parking garages they've built now have been, uh, really essential in, in, uh, bringing that up. Um, but behind us is a huge, massive parking lot for our complex, and And it was neat also to see the fact of, yeah, it's off the beaten path, but we wanted almost, and not intentionally, but it kind of turned into that, hey, have you heard about this new coffee shop? I want to take you there. It's like that new spot when somebody finds a new restaurant in town, they're like, hey, have you been to this place yet? No, I'm taking you. Let's figure out a lunch date and we're going to that spot. And then that person then says, hey, I found this spot. They're going to go tell somebody else. And so it was kind of that neat story and Yeah, right when, right when Nate, you know, you came in, we— I had never met Nate before until just now. And Chrissanne said, you know, TJ's from Concord. Are you familiar? He's like, yeah, I've heard of Concord. And we kind of started off this, you know, me responding and saying, that's just crazy because when we first got started, a lot of people, even probably up into a couple of years ago, were like, no, I had no idea you guys were Keeter. And so it's neat to kind of see that, that more and more of Lakeland is knowing who we are. The crazy thing is, is when you hear people and stories of people saying they've traveled out of state to come to our coffee shop, that we've been on their bucket list, and I just— well, I started asking them like, why? What is this? And it's social media. And that was something we were very intentional about. We knew that this was going to be growing. It was kind of, I would say, not early on, on side of, of Instagram, but Instagram was starting to gain more popularity versus Facebook. And so spent a lot of, uh, intentionality behind our brand and our pictures and our images, um, and grew that following. And so, uh, yeah, it's crazy to see, you know, we'd be traveling, um, you know, wherever we travel, cry, you know, we'd be in Kansas City and somebody would say, oh yeah, I've heard of your shop before, I follow you guys on Instagram. And for me being like from this little shop in Lakeland, it's just, it's so cool to see like the connections that happen with people just from following somebody because you like their pictures and their brand and their style, right? Um, so yeah, Yeah, beaten off the beaten path has actually, uh, has worked out pretty cool. And, and, uh, our roasting facility is right next to our shop, so it's kind of neat to see that as well. A lot of people have a lot of questions about, you know, what are those equipments, you know, things that you guys use. And so we're actually expanding into another side of that building, so that construction is getting ready to start. So, oh cool, that's kind of the next big phase of, of what we're doing with Concord is, is wholesale and white labeling for companies.

Oh Wow. So what has that process been like when you— because when you guys first launched and you're getting established and you went full-time, now it seems like you're at that growth stage. How has that been as you've started to— because I think about Lakeland in 2015 into now, it's such an immense amount of change that's happened and growth. How are you guys kind of angling and targeting and deciding how to grow your business alongside the growth of Lakeland?

Great question.

Yeah, so we have completely— and we say this, and some people are like, you know, our biggest thing is, hey, you need to do a store here, or hey, Concord would be awesome, and I've got this location that'd be perfect for you. And, uh, yeah, that's, that's an easy thing to say, but when it's, when it's coming up with capital and, and to open up that— for anybody that's out there that, that is in an entrepreneurial mindset and looking at opening a shop, it is a lot of work and it is a lot of money up front depending on what you're doing. Um, and so we have really taken the approach of, um We love the shop in Lakeland. It's kind of established who we are. And then the Gainesville location was honestly just opened really because of the connections that we had with them. We saw that opportunity. But where we're at right now is, is Annie and I kind of had this meeting with everybody and we talked, and we are good with, with where we're at with our store locations. Um, what we're looking at now is doing more Um, wholesale, like I said just a little bit ago. Um, white labeling is something that, that we're really looking at is, hey, if you guys have a company that, um, you want a coffee line, we have all the equipment, we know that steps in those processes, we have all those connections, and, uh, anybody can open up. I was talking to somebody that has a clothing line the other day that they're like, we could have a coffee, a coffee line on our website. I'm like, it's that easy. And so we have all of those capabilities of roasting coffee to customizing stickers for you go on your bags. And so that's really the next kind of step that we're doing right now is reaching out with that. We've helped consult and help open up other coffee shops and doing consulting. Going back to the camp, we were reached out by a good friend of mine who was a counselor when I was there and was a pastor up at a church in Jacksonville, in Jacksonville Beach area, and said, "We want to open a coffee shop. I had no idea this is what you did, and we were with a company, they just decided not to do it." And would you come help us? We had nothing about coffee. And so we went up there and from designing the bar, the layout, to the equipment that they ordered, to helping hire staff, we really walked them through that whole process. And now it's one of the most successful coffee shops up in Jacksonville Beach called Sago, and all their coffee comes from us. So that's really the next step of our business. We love working with a bunch of different companies. We've worked with BrewHub and came out with a Oh, on their side, an award-winning beer called Matt Black, where it's our coffee kind of fused in a black lager that they've done. So, uh, done a lot of projects with BrewHub. So if you haven't tried that, it's all— all that is in Publix, um, across the state and different other, uh, shops where you can buy that, um, from other local restaurants and businesses in town to, you know, shipping coffee on our website all over the nation. That's kind of our next step is, is really just pushing the wholesale side of our company and then consulting. I've done roasting classes where I've gone and helped a shop learn how to roast on their machines and go through that. Emily's done a lot of consulting as far as she's competed in like international latte art competitions and things like that. So training other shops on best practices and things like that. So that's really where we're finding a our joy and fun. We both love education and teaching, and so we just helped open up a shop called Edge Coffee in Mount Dora. So, oh, well, um, so yeah, so if there's— yeah, so come go check that out. It's awesome story. They're from Ireland and they, uh, had connections in Edge. Edge, yes. Yeah, in Mount Dora. Um, have become really good friends of ours, and it's all through those connections and social media connections.

And I want to talk a little bit about scale because that was really at the, at the bottom line of the question you were asking, Nate, is like, all right, well, so you've done this, you're here, You're at this good space and now you're kind of like, all right, do we create another location in Winter Haven or Bartow or Mulberry or do we, what do we do? And that's like the natural, like mindset of the person. It's like, all right, where are you? Where's your next location going to be? But you guys are taking this scale into that more global or even international level of, you know, you could white label for anybody and any, you know, any entity that wants to come to you and make that a simple process. And so it's really that entrepreneurial mindset of Okay, we've done this. We know how hard it is. We know how much money we need up front. What can we do with what we currently have to then, you know, scale? And so that's a really good lesson in understanding it's not about another location. It's about how can we optimize what we're doing to take it to another level? So I think that's a really great point.

We've had so many conversations with, and we get emails too of like, you know, I'm thinking about opening up a a shop. Can I come pick your brain about how to do that? What are the processes? And I've had them come to me and say, you know, I'm gonna open a coffee shop, but I want to open like 9 stores. My plan is to open 9 or 10 stores. I'm like, start with one, right? Get your experience with one and see what it's like. Because the biggest thing I think that the city of Lakeland does an amazing job of entrepreneurship. One thing I see is the encouragement for that. There's a lot of red tape and a lot of things that you need in order for that to happen. And with the success, I say this all the time to entrepreneurs, with the success of what you see on Instagram, most people don't take pictures on Instagram of the hours that they're up going through bank accounts.

They don't talk about the sweat.

Writing bills and all that. That's not the cool Instagram pictures that you show is all of the behind the behind the scenes stuff and all of the hard conversations, um, that my wife and I have about we want to spend here but we can't because of this and all of that, you know. So, um, that's kind of not the question that you're answering or you're asking me, Chrissanne, but, uh, maybe we can get to that in a little bit of, of that. But I think what we saw is, um, you can only squeeze so much juice out of a lemon in a location. Um, you know, we've got the shop in Lakeland, and, and could we have realistically thousands of people standing outside the door and pumping out coffee, yes, could— we could definitely be there. But we've kind of come to know our sweet spot and what we've seen and what we can, can expect. We can— we— it's hard for us in our Gainesville location just because we haven't really had a normal fiscal year with COVID and all that, but we kind of have an idea where we're going to be with that. Wholesale is endless possibilities. Um, yesterday it was crazy, we had 4 or 5 different people come to us and through email and saying, we want to, you know, we want you to be our wholesale provider for our coffee shop or for a new business we're starting and things like that, or we want you to white label, um, a new brand for us. And so, um, those possibilities are endless, and, um, a lot of it is not a lot of overhead with staff or employees, right? But that can be scalable. Um, we saw that we've got a lot of influence and influx of this wholesale, and so we need a new space. We love the spot that we're in. We don't really want to go to a warehouse. So we waited, and, and the, the tenants next to us left. Corey, uh, got us into this next spot that we're getting ready to open up, into allowing us to, to take on more of that wholesale, to have us to be able to store more coffee. So we just see that, that, um, the wholesale side and, and the white labeling side is a is an easily scalable option for us and just something that— do we want to be a mega huge coffee organization? No. Would we go down that road? Sure, if that opportunity came.

But that's, I mean, that's highly unlikely in the cards of being realistic of living within the reality of where you are and not like dreaming so big that you're then over, you know, underwater trying to survive because because that's the next step is like you've got to pump out a bunch of cash to get to the next location. And then it's going to take time for that one to start to, you know, go in the black. And so in the meantime, you're using one location to kind of funnel into the next one. And all of that starts to just become a nightmare for a lot of people. I mean, you just go into that, you've seen it and you know that it happens and you just want to do it maybe differently or in your own way. And it sounds like you guys are finding that. And that's pretty cool.

We're trying to be as, as financially smart as possible, and it almost seems like it's kind of like organically coming to you. A lot of it is, uh, really a lot of it is, um, through different connections. Uh, we worked well with one company and they'll, uh, reach out and, and suggest us or to another. And we've seen a couple of that with, um, like our Gainesville location. We've got another shop that just asked us, um, that sent us a wholesale inquiry because they knew about that shop. And then, um, we've got some other places that are interested in us because because they've heard about what we're doing with this other shop that we're helping get started. So a lot of that's, like you said, organic, uh, conversation. And, and that's kind of what we love. We just, um, through friendships and, and connections, uh, all of our— all Southeastern's coffee now is with us. And so there's a lot of really cool things that are— that like that, that are—

it's like full circle.

Yeah, it's, it's awesome, you know, from that and, and helping them. Um, we really reach out all the time and, and Emily says to me all the time, you need to charge them for that. You should charge them for like, when I'm trying just to help somebody, it's in my, yeah. And who I am just to say, sure. I'll help. You know, I got an email from a Florida Southern College student that's just the other day that said, you know, I want to start our own business. And part of me wishes that we had that, but that there's more of that opportunity to say, this is great opening your own business. Here's some mistakes that we did. Here's some things that we wish somebody would've told us.

Yeah.

And all, like I said earlier, that, you know, all of entrepreneurship isn't as glitzy and glamoury as glamorous as it is that you see on social media.

Right. And, um, so a piece of advice, unsolicited, 100%, but being in the marketing world that I've been in for as long as I've been doing this, I've been doing the same exact thing. People coming and, and me helping and helping and helping and helping. And so I pivoted this year to become a coach. And so I have this perfect idea for you, thecoffeecoach.com.

There you go.

And then you'll be the coach that everybody comes to that says, hey, you know, cuz it's, Definitely makes sense. Emily's right in that sense that there has to be a business model built around that idea so that you, you know, when people come to you, there's a package or there's a funnel or a process that they go through. You might have a downloadable guide or something that says, hey, get started here and go through this. So yeah, you heard it here on the podcast.

We are actually working on that as you speak. We're putting that together just because, yeah, I can't, uh, we can't just always help. We are a business. Um, but you know, that's just my caring side.

Wise words from Emily. And I feel you, I feel you. I struggled with it for years, you know, and feeling the frustration. So for me, it was like when I heard you say people, hey, can I pick your brain? That felt, that felt good at the beginning. Like, oh yeah, I wanna help. I wanna help. I wanna help. And then it became like an enormous weight of responsibility because I still wanted to help, but I didn't have a way for me to be able to, um, you know, actually set up something to charge. It's like, hey, yeah, absolutely. I wanna work with you, but it, this is a process that I have for you to go through. And it, it's going to cost money because I have information that I need to give you. And that's a hard learning lesson for any entrepreneur, I think, because we just come from a heart of generosity and I want to give back and I want to be there for others. But you've got to make that sustainable too. You've got the coffee figured out how that's going to be sustainable. Now from the information and the guidance and the advice side.

Yeah. We like, we, we we've had these conversations and we just, we literally have started laying out some different things with our website, how that's going to look, consulting sides. That's going to be a major part of who we are and what we're advertising as part of what we offer as a business. And so, yeah, we're, we're in that realm right now and going down that path.

On the, on the side of Elevate Polk, like what we're, what we're about and what we're actually trying to do from this podcast is on one side elevating Polk is like telling the stories of the entrepreneurs and the lessons that are learned and the, you know, daily grind, right? And then the other side is hopefully there are entrepreneurs listening and understanding and recognizing that in order to elevate, the entrepreneurs have to recognize that when there's a need that they have, there's a value to what they're asking for. And a lot of times that doesn't always measure up, right? Like there's entrepreneurs are like, I'm just starting, I need help, save me. And you need to get to a point where you are, you can save yourself and then also can pay for the services that you need from others. And that, I think that's It's that ecosystem, right? When the ecosystem is healthy, everyone starts to be able to thrive and grow and we have healthier outcomes and it all works well together, that cohesiveness. And so it's like that, how do we tell that story without criticizing someone who's like, hey, help me free, free. And no, you need to get yourself to a good place so that you can pay for the services. And so I'm kind of glad we had a little opportunity to share that today on the show.

Yeah, for sure. I did want to go back to, because people listening to the show, they're like, oh man, they have this shop here, this shop here. They have wholesale. So people, like you said, they're, they're the glitz and the glamour. Can you kind of speak on and talk about what it was like starting off and some of the, some of the challenges and obstacles and some of the learnings that you've had over this journey?

That unglamorous with us.

Oh yeah, for sure. No, absolutely. I think that, um, yeah, when you first get started, uh, I remember our first shop.

It's—

I love how Facebook does this when they, when they— every now and then, like every morning, we'll see like the timeline pictures. And one of them, uh, just a little bit ago was like, you know, 5 and a half years 6 years ago, it was us inside this building, uh, my son being little, which is like shocking in itself. And you see that, that, but it was us just tearing down the walls and putting in that, that, that sweat equity labor into build, you know, tearing stuff down and, and, um, getting your hands dirty, I think is, is one thing too. I think that a lot of times we're in a society and our culture is just, I need it now. I need it now. I need it right now. And, and, um, somebody else can do that for me because I gotta do this. And the beginning of, of, you know, spending, uh, nights where I was at the shop till, you know, 11:30, 1:30 in the morning tearing down walls, um, and things like that is— was something that, you know, I mean, I love that kind of stuff, but a lot of people, um, don't see that side of things. Um, you know, you, you look at our, our shop in Gainesville, and, um, that shop I think was 2 and a half to 3 years in the making. Um, so it was a lot of hoops and jumps. Uh, they had to go, uh, Heather and Joel had to go to a lot of different approvals and meetings and things along those lines for even that shop to get to the point where we could think about even saying, yes, this is a possibility. From all of the different— I think one of the biggest things that I sit and talk to people is people don't realize how much paperwork and things along those lines.

Thank God for Lindsay, right?

Yes, thank God for Lindsay. And she'll be embarrassed for me talking about her so much about this, but I sometimes drive around and scratch my head and saying how I know these— some of these businesses are not going through. And it's like, it would be so easy not to have to do this, to not have to fill out this form to get to this point, to make sure that everything is legit and to check off those boxes. And so I don't know if it's out there. I haven't done extensive research, but I know there's a lot of places in town that really help propel people into entrepreneurship. But are there classes to really teach people about the paperwork that you need, the licenses that you need, and all of that? Because a lot of people have come to me and said, do I really need this? What do I need to do? And so that's, that's, that's not the glitz and glam thing that you see when Lindsay and I are sitting there talking about, well, the City of Lakeland form needs this and we need to do this because this is coming up. And so there's a lot of that just backleg red tape that we spend a lot of hours talking about and talking through.

And that's the part that I think people get shocked by when they start their business. They don't know what they're getting themselves into, and then they get mad that there are all these hoops that they have to jump through. And so, like you said, if they could be informed on the front end instead of finding their way all the way to the point where they think they're ready to open, and then the city comes and says, nope, you haven't done this yet, you haven't taken this step, and the hoops aren't are not free.

And that's the thing, Chrissanne Long and I talked about it a little bit ago. Every industry is so different. So you'd look at one person and saying, oh, I want to start a brick and mortar versus wholesale. Those are two completely different models.

And one rest— in restaurants and different places like that have different rules and regularities that, um, one has versus the other. If you cook in your place and versus you don't, versus not. I mean, all of our stuff is, is we have to have everything kind of pre-made So like we can't make, and a lot of people are, with our items are, why don't you have like eggs and meat or anything like that for your sandwiches or toast? It's a different licensing that we just, another hoop that we don't, we don't have the space either for a full kitchen, but we like working with other people, other different businesses within town with the bagels from the, you know, Uncle Nick's who we work with to, you know, we're really good friends with the guys that own Common Pin and Good Time and Rec Room. So they've done a lot of stuff in food for us. We try to, in each of our locations, the Gainesville shop works with local bakers and things along there. And we work with local people as well. And, and one of our past baristas owns a, a bakery over in Tampa, and, and so we work with her and she brings in all of our like macarons and cookies and things like that. So, um, yeah, it's tough. It's tough, uh, knowing the different hoops and things that you got to go through and different things to make sure for by the time that you open that your shop is, is legit in, in the legality side of it. That's, that's a big thing that I think people don't see so much in the Instagram and Facebook and social media side of that.

Yeah, agreed.

Yeah, one of the things that I continuously think about that's kind of coming up in this conversation is things that we say a lot is, because I have people come to me all the time based on my experience and what I do, and so does Chrissanne, it sounds like you do as well, and finding a place where these individuals, because we can only do so much, even when you're charging somebody some money to do something, you can only handle so many clients or so many people coming to you. There's— there definitely needs to be a hub, a central hub where these individuals that have these questions can come and find out this information. And I think it's good that we're having this conversation because it means that people are being more self-aware about this environment that we're in, where a lot of these businesses that have started in the past 5, 10, 15 years that are now established, people see that in Lakeland saying, oh wow, someone can start a coffee shop that's not necessarily in a prime location that's on the beaten path or off the beaten path and be successful. I want to learn how to do that as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that's a really cool story. I also feel like there's an aside, like part 2, or maybe we just dive into it really quick. The relationships, the emphasis on the relationships and how incredibly important they sound like they have been for your success. And it's not like you can build those relationships overnight. Like these are years and years and years of people connecting and caring and, and being in your lives and then coming together at a time when it's like, okay, I mean, early on when you were sharing, I was like, all right, so when you were the intern, um, at right out of college, would you have seen yourself as this entrepreneur then going back to that point in your mind? Like, all right, I'm going to be an intern as a youth pastor. I'm, I'm thinking you were going to go in that direction, but you completely pivoted into this entrepreneurial role.

Yeah, no, I, I think that I always would think, and this is not that I didn't like having a boss, but I just had that notion of like being my own boss and very creative. I love that side of me. And so being able to have that, you know, one thing is, yes, there's a lot of work to it. But to answer your question quickly, and I'll, no, I mean, I had some inkling of that. My dad's father, my Papaw, was entrepreneurial in his mindset. But, so maybe I got some of that from him. But yeah, I always thought that would be an idea, but how to get there, that wasn't clear. I had no idea of this is what I want to do when I have this time. And Annie and I talked about it for a long time, almost through my whole entire career as being a detector. But the reality wasn't there. The stars weren't aligned, if you want to say it like that. But, um, it's brought, uh, some great thing, you know, being able to make your own schedule. There's, there's, there's a lot of that back, like we just talked about. There's a lot of that headache stuff, but there's also a lot of abilities that, and freedoms that, and, and pluses that aren't going to come in the form of payment, uh, when, when being an entrepreneur, you know, being able to set my own schedule, to be able to pick up my son from school, to knowing that I can make my own schedule to make all of his basketball games, and to— that's been something something that even when I was youth director, and I say to a lot of people is don't lose the sight of family. Don't put your business in front of your family.

Amen.

Yeah.

And I will always do that. Andy and I talked about if Concord ever got in the way of our friendship, we would close it down. And even to the sense of if Concord got in the way of my relationship with Lindsey and myself, we would sell our side of the company.

Family's first.

Family's first. And that's, you always have your family. And so I will, I always love that opportunity to be able to, I love going outside and being outdoors.

And so— How often do you get to surf these days?

Not a lot, actually. Yeah, I haven't, I've gotten really into a lot of archery and bow hunting. So that's like my passion now. Just love that outdoors. I've always grown up camping and things like that. So that's kind of, uh, my family's done that now. And so that's where we're passionate and love that side of being outside and things like that. So it gives me that opportunity and that freedom, that knowing if, if we work hard and get stuff done. And, and fortunately, we've got an amazing team right now, um, at our shop in Concord. And Daniel, up at our house manager up in Gainesville, is fantastic. And we've got a really good team and And, um, that's one thing too that, that I want our shop to— we've had a lot of people come in and say, you just let us use this equipment and use the— our baristas who we've hired, and I want them to learn, I want them to, to experience this. And, and I don't want to, um, I am definitely— I can't be this boss of like, uh, micromanaging. I just— there's something about that just makes me cringe. Um, so we've really tried to create a fun family atmosphere. Spear. Um, with that, Emily is great. She, she, uh, really has a good grasp on that. And so that's the next thing I've had a lot of people ask me, you know, in those questions that people have asked of, you know, what do, uh, what do you say to somebody who's open to entrepreneurship? Do things you do well, but then also trust other people and what they can do well. Emily can manage and has a great relationship with our staff, um, whereas, you know, if I were to go in there, then my thought, you know, might not be as successful. I love the passion, the side of roasting and developing relationships where where I can go out and talk to wholesale clients. And I love that aspect of not selling the business, but talking about our business and getting somebody excited in ways that we could white label a project for them. From, I mean, we've had random stuff from like tech, you know, companies, cybersecurity. We have a white label for a cybersecurity website. And so outdoors gear for our coffee, for their own coffee line. And so I love that kind of stuff. So it's trusting and realizing that you don't have to do everything. I see a lot of entrepreneurs and people get burned out that, that think they have to do everything. They can't take a break. And I'm like, you are— it's, it's sad to me to see that.

It's not sustainable.

Yeah. That, yeah, they're sacrificing family time for their business, and it's just not in me to do that.

Wow, what a great story. I had no idea what we were going to get because it was like, I just want to hear this story. I know Concorde is a household name, and that was one of the things you said when you saw somebody with t-shirt walking around, you're like, man, that's just, that's exciting to see people that, you know, you don't even know. They're not wearing it to support you. They're wearing it because they're fans of the brand.

It's still, it's still weird when I see people. Like, I almost like sometimes walk up and like, we have like these free, uh, drink cards if something ever happens. If you take too long, we'll give you like, give you a free drink, come back. And, and so sometimes I'll have those and I just, let me, thank you for wearing that. They kind of look at me crazy, like, who are you? And so, uh, but still, yeah, it's still it's still fun to see that.

So, well, if somebody's listening and wants to get in touch, wants to hire the coffee coach or get some information about how to be a subscriber or whatever, how do you want to tell them to get in contact with you?

Yeah, it's easy. It's just concordcoffee.com is our website. Um, any social media, if you just look up Concord Coffee, @ConcordCoffee, I think is how you should technically say that. But yeah, anything, just Concord Coffee, um, you can search and find us there. Um, concordcoffee.com has all of our information, even our online shop anything, any coffee that we have in stores, you can buy online and we can ship it. Cool.

And when you reach out, tell them you heard about them on Elevate Polk.

Yeah. Thanks, you guys, for having me.

Yeah, it's been awesome here.

Great show. Great conversation. Well, that's a wrap, everybody. Thanks for listening to this week's show. And if you'd like to help us get the word out about this podcast, check out the post on our Facebook page, share it, or better yet, comment with your favorite part of the show. We're looking forward to learning what you loved about this conversation. And if you have ideas for upcoming episodes and people you'd like us to feature, we'd love to hear from you. We'll see you next week, Polk County. That's a wrap!