It’s Amazing What You Can Start When Following Your Passion with Luke Schnieder & Jason Patton

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell, but I'm talking to two gung ho people from where in Illinois?

Rockford. Illinois.

Rockford.

Jason's actually down in Florida.

Oh, is it really? Okay. Luke Schneider, you're the one in Rockford, right?

Yes, sir.

Jason Patton. Where in Florida?

Like Jupiter area, so West Palm area.

Oh, no, I spent. I'm in Aspen right now, but the other half of my time is in Palm beach, so. Nice. We'll have to connect when I come into town and.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Hey, go get a coffee.

Yeah, we could definitely do that.

Yeah.

So Luke and Jason are. Have their own company called Fire Department Coffee and both got kids and I see a. See one of those talking.

Yeah, one of them just came in.

Yep, yep, I just see one of them.

This is my daughter, Zoe.

Yeah.

And so I'm real curious about how did you start the coffee thing and why do we need, you know, why. Why do we need yet another coffee thing? You know, can't, you know, firedmen go out and get coffee like everybody else? Get some Maxwell House, for goodness sake. But so how did you guys find. Really discover there was a niche and then dive in there and with your elbows and hard work, make a room for yourself. So talk about that.

And so Luke founded the fire Department Coffee just over six years ago. He and his. He actually, his love story begins with coffee, to be honest, seeing a beautiful woman as he walked into a cafe. And then I think, I think there was 50% wanting to be more into coffee and 50% wanting to date his wife. But so that's how that journey began. And then he and I actually started working together because of some funny videos that I made online. But we wanted to make coffee high quality, great tasting, affordable coffee for men and women across the United States. But as you said, there's, there's other coffee brands out there, but we wanted to be, be able to diversify into different types of premium coffees, but also maintain our, our standard medium roast. Our, our, you know, it was the original fire department blend that people would love to and enjoy. But the biggest thing that we wanted to do was create an emotional connection to our brand. And because there is a genuine story behind it, you know, we are firefighters. Luke was lucky enough to retire recently, but I'm still active duty and many of our employees are still active duty or Retired firefighters as well. So we wanted to be outside of that typical brand. So when we talk about running calls, when we talk about being up all night, when we talk about the reason we need a caffeinated product to keep us going all the time, we're living those actual statements. So that was something we wanted to make sure that as we created the brand, it was good, it was affordable, amazing tasting, but also had a true story behind it.

Yeah. And to give perspective, that was 2016, is that correct? And then what kind of growth have you guys had? You know, you're up to how many employees and your. Your annual revenue is up to what?

Now we. We're on Track to do 10 million this year. We have around approximately 50 employees and we've had double growth year over year. Just made Inc. 5000. Number two in Rockford. I think number 34 in Illinois.

Number.

Actually, I think it was better. And then it was 34 in food and beverage or something. I forget the numbers.

Okay, so outperforming other companies, other businesses in your area, and especially in your field. So talk about, Luke, how you got the idea. You go. You know, multitasking gets complicated, especially when you find your future wife. You know, it's hard to keep your mind on business, but somehow you use that focus to launch a business at the same time as you're launching a marriage. That's. Congratulations.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, we've just been. We've been very fortunate to have a great team of people, you know, around us. And it was natural for us to recruit people who were close to us. So we started bringing on other firefighters to help us grow the company. And that's where we got our tagline, run by firefighters. And about 50% of our team is either active or retired firefighters, first responders, or military veterans.

And that's one thing that people can don't always think about when they're growing their business, growing their company, is use the world that you're familiar with because you can talk that language. And the people in that world, there's certain mentalities, cultures, and it's easier to connect and communicate and use that as a springboard to bigger and better things. And so that's a smart tactic to use in launching any kind of business. Use, you know, it's basically use the resources and advantages you have. But talk about did now when you grew up, Luke, since you founded the. The coffee. What. How long before. How far did you get it before you got Jason involved?

Jason was really early on, probably first.

Year, I think, and you noticed him on YouTube?

Yeah, he was actually Facebook. Somebody tagged us and he was making funny videos and we just hit it off. He loved the coffee, you know, I loved the videos. I love the content he was creating. And we, we made a good team and really just clicked and really, really just helped catapult the company.

Now had you grown up with the idea of having your own business and then to get diverted into the fireman life, you know, as a necessity for you're providing an income or something or how did you, you know, when did the entrepreneurial thing come in?

It just happened naturally, actually. It started with a love and passion for coffee, as Jason was saying. I met my wife, she was a barista. We started making coffee together, brewing coffee together, and wanted to start roasting coffee for friends and families. And we, we started doing tasting events, did a fire department blend that gave back to charity and that took off and realized there was, there was a, something there to that. And so in 2016, launched fire department coffee with a mission to make great coffee and help support our fellow firefighters and first responders. And it all just progressed naturally. I didn't really expect for much to. I, I really didn't have a business plan getting into it or anything. It just took off. And I think, I think a lot of that comes down to just the authenticity of the brand. You know, this is who we are. We're passionate about coffee. We're passionate about supporting our fellow firefighters and first responders. And I, I think that's what really resonates with, with our customers and people that engage in so on social media is that they really just see the authenticity in the brand.

What am I missing about coffee? You know, I like coffee drink coffee, have coffee makers, you know, in the house, you know, they're the store. But I'm not passionate about coffee. I miss. I think I'm missing something. What's it, what does it mean to be passionate about coffee?

You know, like you're an Aspen right now and coffee just doesn't matter.

That's true. But people are, people are guzzling coffee out here too.

I mean, you know, there's a true appreciation for great tasting coffee. That's, that's really what it comes down to. And you know, yes, the caffeine, the caffeinated benefits that come from it, it's, it's incredible. We love that kind of stuff as well. But as firefighters, especially as first responders or people that work in EMS or you know, whoever it is, we guzzle down gallons of this stuff at a Time and you always want to make sure that, that it does taste good. But the biggest thing coffee, and we were introduced to this when we get into the fire service, is there are more conversations that happen around the dinner table or the breakfast table than anywhere else. And that, and typically what brings us together is that cup of coffee. That's what, at least for us, on an emotional level, that's what makes us passionate about coffee. And then a taste wise, I know Luke is severely involved, loves cupping, you know, learning about different regions, you know, understanding, you know, the sweeter blends or varieties versus the more bitter, you know, depending on who you are. So that's, I think that's what creates like the true knowledge behind it is amazing what, what types of coffee can be created.

And as you, you know, you move. The only thing that I can think of that reminds me of a similar thing is some. A friend of mine, a guy who was a publisher of my book, and then he saw that and he started other things, but he got involved in business venture and it was like major league peanuts, no peanut butter. Major league peanut butter. And he said, people don't realize how much peanut butter major league baseball players go through because, you know, he said almost the average baseball players eating three or four peanut butter jelly sandwiches a day. You know, it's portable, you know, energy this and the other. So they made a big, you know, they made a huge success out of major league peanut butter. And so, you know, you're doing a similar kind of thing with coffee. So you're following the passion. I'm real curious, Jason, what gave you the, what did you see and other than the humor, were you looking to expand? It seems like you're just following the breadcrumbs. And you know, Luke, as you started the thing, you know, you like, follow the, you know, I like the barista, I like the coffee. Let's see what we can do together. Let's do some, you know, let's just start blending this. I guess that's the kind of thing that happens when you start all these home brewed beers and everything all over the country, you know.

Yeah.

So and then you get on YouTube, Facebook, you see Jason and you say, you know, I like the guy. You hit it off and what you just following the breadcrumbs. They're following things you like. And just when did the idea come, let's get him in the business.

So he actually, what truly happened was I created out of Florida. When we get hit by hurricanes, they take the majority of the firefighters for that particular department. And they put them all on shift to make sure we have enough personnel in case there's some true catastrophes. So they're putting 35 of us in one station. And I made a video saying that coffee was the only thing that was going to stop us from murdering each other. And that's what Luke actually got tagged in. So Luke reached out to me, he sent me some coffee. He said, I'd love to work with you. I said, send me the coffee, I want to try it. And I loved it. The stronger I made it, the better it tasted. You know, true high quality coffee that gave us the needs that we, that we. Or the gave us the stuff that we needed at the time. But what, what actually, what we found out was that Luke has an incredible ability to understand business. He has an incredible ability to understand numbers, how to. How to do things properly, not cut corners, but still get the best cost available for that, which is amazing for any growing business. And then for me, again, coffee is not just caffeine for us. It's symbolic. When you think about beer, you think about having a beer, and it's always with friends, bringing people together, so on and so forth. With coffee, it's a symbolic thing. It's bringing family members and friends together over a morning meal or even an afternoon cup of coffee. And that's what I created was the emotional connection, creating funny videos because firefighters like to laugh, first responders like to laugh. People in general love to laugh. So I was there to create the emotional connection to the coffee brand, which I found a ton of passion as well.

And Luke did, you know, while you're, you're out there as a firefighter before all this started, did you realize what a business whiz you had? I mean, you were. Or what. What a knack you had for, for understanding business and running businesses. And, you know, because that's, that's a gift, you know, is that just something that emerged? You know, because people, when they start their own. The one thing about being open to new ideas and following your passion and following new ideas is things are going to come out of you that you didn't even know were in you, but they're never going to come out unless you take the step, you know, the step of faith. It's always a step of faith. But talk about, did you realize you had this. I mean, do you naturally run things? Are you. You know, as I grew up, I had this strange thing. From the time I could stand up, people always put me in charge of things. And I think it was because at six years old, my mother, you know, my mom and dad had my brother and then right behind that had the sister. So I was six years older than them. So I became like middle management. I was no longer a child. I was like part of the management team. And I kind of been in that leadership role my entire life for one thing or another did as you grew up. But I recognize it, you know, it's like, why is this happening? You know, and like when I was a freshman at Georgia Tech, they made me the put me made the resident advisor for the junior and senior dorm and I'm a freshman. So I'm sure the juniors and seniors were not thrilled about that. But the. I don't know how these things happen, but you'll find yourself in positions, you might as well take advantage of it. And so did you know, had you noticed these kind of patterns or tendencies or ways of looking at things, Luke, before you got involved in this?

I think one thing that I've been able to do is identify what I'm not good at. And that's just like, that's an example of like Jason, you know, and Jason and I, even though we have different strengths, we're wired very similarly in a lot of ways. One of those is our work ethic. So if we don't know something, we will keep going until we succeed and we will not let failure or any complications get in the way of us seeing it through to the end. And I think that's one thing that's really helped us because we would be lying to you if we told you that there's never been any challenges or we've never struggled at anything. And so the key is working through those things and really pulling together and seeing it through and not giving up. So we are wired very similarly in that and just being able to work through things together.

Well, I want to dig into that a little later. And so thanks for getting me started in understanding the story of Fire Department coffee. Thanks for listening to the Million Dollar Mastermind. If you felt there were any valuable takeaways from this episode, please take a minute and leave us a five star review. Your feedback is important and really helps us get the word out to a wider audience. Remember, we have a valuable webinar that is absolutely free. Register for it right now at whiteallowinning. Com. Thanks for listening.