Latest / Profitable Christian Business / Building a Mission-Driven Business People Believe In with Anton Krecic

Transcript

Building a Mission-Driven Business People Believe In with Anton Krecic · Profitable Christian Business

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Prophet Christian Business Podcast.
• 0:04
  I am your host, Doug Greathouse.
• 0:07
  And today's conversation is about what happens when businesses become more than a product.
• 0:11
  It become I'm gonna stop over for the recording.
• 0:15
  I said businesses.
• 0:16
  Um so let me do let me do my own internal countdown.
• 0:20
  Five, four, three, two, one.
• 0:23
  Today's conversation is what happens when business becomes more than a product.
• 0:27
  It becomes a mission.
• 0:28
  My guest today is Anton Kresik.
• 0:30
  Founder and CEO of Seven Weeks Coffee, a mission-driven direct-to-consumer coffee company built around a bold and clear purpose, promoting a culture of life.
• 0:38
  Since launching in 2021, Anton has grown Seven Weeks Coffee into one of the most impactful pro-life brands in America.
• 0:44
  The company donates 10% of every sale of pregnancy care centers nationwide, and to date has raised more than 1.8 million while supporting over 1,500 pregnancy care centers across
• 0:55
  all 50 states.
• 0:57
  But what I love about Anton's story is that this is just not about selling coffee.
• 1:00
  It's about building a brand where quality, conviction, generosity, and faith all work together.
• 1:05
  Anton has taken a simple, everyday product and connected to a powerful mission, serving customers while also directly supporting women, families, and life-affirming organizations
• 1:14
  across the country.
• 1:15
  So today we're going to talk about values-based business, building a mission-driven brand, faith in entrepreneurship, generosity, courage, and what it looks like to build a company
• 1:23
  that serves both customers and a cause.
• 1:25
  Anton, welcome to the Profitable Christian Business Podcast.
• 1:28
  Doug, so happy to be here.
• 1:29
  Thanks for having me on.
• 1:31
  Is anything I missed in that introduction for you?
• 1:34
  No, you covered a lot and it's I really appreciate just it's so fun to hear um yeah, the impact we've had because this really just started with the simple idea to raise money for
• 1:42
  our local pregnancy resource center and now, like you said, we're supporting a pregnancy center in all fifty states, I believe, which is just incredible.
• 1:50
  So I wanna dive right into that.
• 1:53
  what was how did this originate?
• 1:55
  Where where did this idea come from?
• 1:58
  You know, it really just came from yeah, a culmination.
• 2:00
  I had a heart for business.
• 2:02
  I always loved entrepr entrepreneurship.
• 2:04
  I was getting into coffee during at the time.
• 2:06
  Um, so it's definitely like a few things that just kind of culminated.
• 2:09
  And then um I had the idea literally two weeks after I got married, um, because I just saw this uh this like headline about mission driven coffee companies.
• 2:19
  And I was like, wow, there's so many coffee companies out there.
• 2:21
  Why isn't there?
• 2:22
  Or I was more like, What is the coffee company for Christians essentially?
• 2:26
  And I was like,
• 2:27
  Well, there's gotta be, you know, something that kind of that Christians can rally around is Black Rifle Coffee, which is a big Second Amendment company, but they're not really,
• 2:34
  you know, Christian at all.
• 2:36
  And so I was like, well, the pro-life issue is like one of the biggest issues, you know, Christians kind of unite around.
• 2:41
  So I Googled pro life coffee and nothing came up on Google.
• 2:45
  And that was the moment I had the the idea for a pro-life coffee company and called my wife, and it was two weeks after we got married.
• 2:52
  I was like, hey, I got an idea.
• 2:54
  I want to start a company.
• 2:55
  Um, that definitely caught her off guard, but she was definitely supportive.
• 2:58
  And then she asked the inspiring question, which is, Well, what do you what are you gonna call it?
• 3:03
  And I said, I don't know.
• 3:04
  And she followed up with when is a baby the size of a coffee bean?
• 3:07
  So that's how we get her name and our mission to support pregnancy care centers.
• 3:11
  But you know, through all of that, you know, that moment of when I had the idea and everything, God was working in the background for for years where he put a uh a big
• 3:20
  calling
• 3:20
  on my heart for the pro life movement.
• 3:22
  It's something I I cared deeply about for years before I had the idea for Seven Weeks Coffee.
• 3:26
  So um it's funny how I look back and see how all those things were were connected.
• 3:30
  Um then all came to life and I really felt like the Lord said go.
• 3:34
  And I went and started that day building Seven Weeks Coffee and that was five years ago.
• 3:40
  Wow.
• 3:41
  W was this your first off screen or endeavor?
• 3:43
  Yeah, it really was, I would say, in the sense that I went all in and like put put money in, my own resources, um, and went like, you know, um a hundred percent just committed to
• 3:53
  trying to build this company.
• 3:55
  I but I've always loved entrepreneurship.
• 3:56
  I love business.
• 3:57
  I've always wanted to start my own business.
• 3:59
  I never you know, saw myself as someone who was just gonna work like kind of a normal career, if you will, in the sense that um, you know, find a find a one thing and kind of
• 4:10
  do it your whole life.
• 4:10
  I've always loved business ideas.
• 4:13
  and just I've always wanted to start my own company.
• 4:16
  So this was really cool that I've been able to live that out over the last five years.
• 4:19
  And entrepreneurship has been such a blessing.
• 4:22
  It's changed my life.
• 4:23
  This business has changed my life, the impact we able have and the the work I I get to and do, I I I don't take it for granted.
• 4:29
  It's the most enjoyable job I could ever have.
• 4:33
  And it's one thing to have a business, but then to have a business that um fulfills a a need, um and a purpose.
• 4:43
  To have I I it's you know, to wake up I'm sure you wake up every day, you have your cup of coffee, of course, if you wake up every day feeling excited about the people that you get
• 4:53
  to impact every day.
• 4:55
  For sure.
• 4:55
  You know, what's really cool is like I've always wanted to live business with a mission in mind, you know, as a Christian.
• 5:02
  I and when I first moved to so I live in the DC area.
• 5:05
  I'm from Ohio originally.
• 5:06
  When I first moved here, I really moved here because I was interested in how like politics and faith kind of interact and you know where that intersection is with culture and how
• 5:14
  you want to like promote godly values and government and you know to really, you know, bring um a biblical worldview to
• 5:22
  politics, but also to business and and and really infuse culture with what is true and good and and right.
• 5:28
  And that's what we get to do at Seven Weeks Coffee is we get to promote um just amazing uh biblical truth, especially the pro life value and um and really speak into that.
• 5:38
  And so I love it.
• 5:39
  It's something that um I couldn't think of any way else doing it.
• 5:43
  Not everyone maybe is called to be as as vocal as we are in their business.
• 5:47
  And I think that's okay.
• 5:48
  But for us, like we love being outspoken on the life issue.
• 5:51
  Um, it gives us a platform to really represent um pr the pro life organizations we support well.
• 5:57
  It gives us an opportunity to really educate uh consumers.
• 6:00
  You know, millions of people have seen our content now online.
• 6:04
  Um, and so that's a huge opportunity for us where we get to really advocate for the life issue and share important things that people need to know about.
• 6:11
  So I love how we've been able to mix, you know, faith in business.
• 6:16
  That that is awesome.
• 6:17
  I have some more lighthearted questions for you, or just around coffee in general.
• 6:21
  So why why coffee were you uh so I'm gonna ask several questions in a row and feel free to answer them in any order.
• 6:27
  But first off, why coffee?
• 6:29
  Um what got you into coffee and are like how do you like your coffee?
• 6:34
  Well, answer the last one first.
• 6:35
  I drink uh my coffee every single morning.
• 6:38
  I drink all our different roasts and I always do like a pour over, you know, I grind the beans, weigh it, and then uh do the pour over routine.
• 6:45
  It's the best way to drink coffee.
• 6:46
  Always black, never cream or sugar.
• 6:48
  So I'm a I'm a true true purist in when it comes to the coffee endeavor.
• 6:52
  Um, you know, how did I get into it?
• 6:54
  So I got I you it's funny, just and this is so cool.
• 6:56
  Um it it was definitely just something I just slowly grew a passion for over the time, unbeknownst to that I would start a coffee company.
• 7:04
  Um, like anything, it's a fun thing to get into.
• 7:07
  It's there's so many different origins of coffees and di wherever it's grown across the world, they have different, you know, tasting notes and flavor profiles and how it's grown
• 7:14
  and how it's processed.
• 7:15
  So I just found the whole like, you know, industry just frankly interesting.
• 7:19
  And so I was personally really getting into all these different, you know, types of coffees to drink and try.
• 7:25
  And so I had like a growing passion for it, but I didn't have like a deep background in it either.
• 7:29
  So
• 7:30
  It just kind of was like this passion of mine that then turned into a business idea right after that.
• 7:35
  And like I said, you know, when I had the idea for a pro life coffee company, it just did not exist.
• 7:40
  Like I Googled pro life coffee, nothing came up.
• 7:42
  I'm like, I'm starting this today.
• 7:44
  There's no one doing this and like really making, you know, a stance on the life issue through coffee.
• 7:50
  And coffee is like a great way to like bring people together on a mission or cause.
• 7:54
  So many companies do that with their coffee.
• 7:56
  So
• 7:57
  Franklin, it was just an amazing opportunity.
• 7:59
  Something I really cared about, which is the Pearl A fish, something I really loved, which is coffee.
• 8:02
  And I got to combine the two and here we are.
• 8:07
  So one thing I I didn't ask or or I didn't say in your introduction is I I believe you're also a father, is that correct?
• 8:14
  Yeah, now I am.
• 8:14
  So we had our son, first son, Peter.
• 8:17
  He's ten months old now.
• 8:19
  So it's been a blessing to Yeah, it's been awesome.
• 8:21
  Being a dad is the coolest thing and living that out and seeing him grow every single day he changes and it's it's the coolest time right now.
• 8:29
  Has that changed any of the way you think about your business or um just the way that you operate?
• 8:35
  Totally.
• 8:36
  And you it's so funny because, you know, for three and a half years basically, um, I was running seven weeks coffee and didn't have any we didn't have any kids for the first three
• 8:43
  years of our marriage.
• 8:44
  Then when the we got pregnant found out, and then you kind of get to experience what like that season of life is first hand and there's nothing to um compare to.
• 8:54
  It's amazing to see like all the different stages of de mout development from um
• 8:59
  early on through the entire pregnancy and you can track what's happening and what size the baby is and what they're doing, what they're how they're growing, what they can feel, that
• 9:08
  they can um hear the mother's voice and all of this really just led me to understand like how terrible abortion is, like in such a personal way, because you realize this is my son,
• 9:20
  like from day one, like this is a human.
• 9:22
  Like this is not an option.
• 9:24
  Like he's not disposable.
• 9:25
  We can't ever could never consider
• 9:28
  abortion and yet so many people do and are faced with that challenge.
• 9:32
  And, you know, whether it's people who just willingly want to have an abortion or people who are pressured into it or from financial insecurities or whatever it is, you just
• 9:40
  realize the humanity aspect from having your own own child.
• 9:44
  And so that's something I've been able to walk through and really personalize my conviction on this issue um for the better.
• 9:50
  So it's been a it's been an amazing journey and season for us.
• 9:54
  And it's just doubled down on my conviction for
• 9:58
  Fighting for life.
• 9:59
  Amen.
• 10:00
  what comes to mind um as you were saying that and the situations that I I'm not a woman, so I I can't really speak to their completely to their mindset or anything, but um that
• 10:11
  women experience is the whole fear fact.
• 10:13
  They have this fear, right?
• 10:15
  And they're all their decisions in that moment are based on fear, where the Bible tells us faith over fear, right?
• 10:21
  Um, to trust in the Lord that He's going to be there no no matter like when you have this child, he's there with you, right?
• 10:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 10:30
  Yeah, it's so true.
• 10:31
  I mean, and what's that's probably the number one driver of abortions today is like when I talk to people who run pregnancy centers and what comes in, I mean, it it's usually
• 10:41
  underlying some type of fear, whether that's financial insecurity, would the father stay in the picture?
• 10:48
  Do am I able to do this?
• 10:50
  Am I old enough?
• 10:51
  Can I really take on this responsibility?
• 10:53
  It's it's all ultimately is driven out of fear.
• 10:56
  And that's why, you know, the gospel's so important.
• 10:58
  So the organizations we support are pregnancy care centers.
• 11:01
  And what they do is obviously help the mom, um, in this very fearful state, how they can choose life and give them all the practical tools that they need to choose life, but also
• 11:10
  share the gospel because that's ultimately where the s greatest sense of peace will come and how they can actually walk through this.
• 11:18
  so yeah, I I it it's really um it's it's you know, it's also it's also really sad.
• 11:23
  It's like the greatest joy of
• 11:25
  you know, our marriage has been our son, you know, ha we're going through this season of, you know, finding out we're pregnant and then having ha the the day he was born and then
• 11:33
  all these months, like it's nothing it's been nothing but positive and exciting at every stage.
• 11:38
  So you could only imagine like um that someone sees this in a completely different light, how like devastating that is and how sad that is that um what we saw as a a positive from
• 11:49
  the day one um someone can dread and be so fearful of
• 11:54
  Yeah, and um there is adoption, right?
• 11:59
  that that's still that's an option.
• 12:00
  So um there
• 12:03
  just let your audience know this is um for every child um who is lost to abortion, killed from abortion, it's upwards of like 40 to 50 families that would have adopted that.
• 12:14
  That's the current application that's the current application rate for a newborn.
• 12:18
  So when a newborn is given up for adoption, almost 40 to 50 families apply for that child to adopt.
• 12:25
  So there's literally so many loving families that, you know.
• 12:28
  I guess can't have kids or they're not able to, or whatever the situation is, would they want to adopt?
• 12:33
  And um, there's no babies for them to adopt.
• 12:36
  But if we just looked at the babies are losing to abortion, it's just totally devastating that there is a loving family that would be there to receive them.
• 12:43
  Um, if the if the mom just choose life.
• 12:48
  Wow.
• 12:49
  Yeah.
• 12:50
  Thank you for that statistic.
• 12:51
  I did not know that.
• 12:52
  That is that is heartbreaking, really.
• 12:56
  Yeah, it's no, it's it it is heartbreaking and I I I share that because not a lot of people do know that and um yeah, it it it just shows you them the um the where where our
• 13:08
  culture is that um if we just even share that most and that's so funny, most women who do face the um face abortion or they're abortion minded, they don't even know adoption is an
• 13:20
  option.
• 13:20
  Like they don't even understand that that can be an option.
• 13:22
  So there's a lot of education we need to do around that issue that this is a legitimate option, that there's a ton of loving families that will be there to step in.
• 13:29
  and it's a it's an okay it's a good thing to do.
• 13:31
  Like giving your baby up for adoption if you know you cannot be in a position to take care of them.
• 13:37
  it's a it's a it's a noble thing to do.
• 13:39
  So, um, just my thoughts on it, yeah.
• 13:42
  Yeah.
• 13:42
  Um we have the it's kind of changing direction, but we have a fill in the blank question that we ask on every Prophet Christian Business Podcast episode.
• 13:52
  And yours is more around your uh mission-driven business and maybe some experience that you can share uh with with some business owners that are either thinking about having a
• 14:03
  mission-driven business or have one right now, but are kind of navigating the waters.
• 14:07
  So what do you see as the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when building a brand is blank?
• 14:13
  A mission driven branch, that is.
• 14:15
  Not having an excellent product.
• 14:17
  Mm.
• 14:20
  Yeah.
• 14:21
  So one of the biggest things for us is to have the impact we're having, to be, you know, America's Pro Life Coffee Company.
• 14:31
  We cannot just say pro life and slap, you know, that sticker on a bag of coffee and expect our customers to continue to purchase our coffee.
• 14:38
  We have to provide them with an amazing product that's better than all the competitors out there.
• 14:42
  That's gonna s that's gonna beat the competition on its face.
• 14:46
  So it's really for us excellence in product, excellence in mission.
• 14:49
  And that's the biggest thing I see is like to have a truly um impactful business, you have to serve or provide a product or serve that's just truly better than competitors.
• 14:59
  Then your mission to impact can truly um be realized.
• 15:03
  And so for us, you know, we source all our coffee from direct trade, means there's no middleman.
• 15:08
  We don't buy through a coffee brokerage.
• 15:10
  It's direct from farmers we know and trust and verify.
• 15:12
  We pay them three times what fair trade requires.
• 15:15
  We make sure it's all organically farmed, pesticide free.
• 15:19
  we make sure it's tested um that there's no molds.
• 15:22
  We do third party lab testing.
• 15:23
  So all these things we do for our coffee to make sure on a product level it's better than anything our customers have ever had in the past is why we're able to have such an amazing
• 15:34
  impact with our pro life stance.
• 15:36
  So it's really a hand in hand thing that like on product and on mission you have to be um, you know, equally goked is as I will say, like in in in terms of quality, because you
• 15:47
  can't have one without the other.
• 15:51
  this this I guess for lack of a better word, this might be the no, I don't like to say controversial question, but this this is the this is the question I have for you.
• 16:00
  When you started this uh pro being pro-life and knowing that's the direction you wanted to go, from a business perspective, were you afraid of alienating much of the market?
• 16:11
  No, not at all.
• 16:12
  Because what I realized is during you know, this is kinda like post COVID and w my s my strong conviction that there's millions of consumers, Christian consumers that are
• 16:20
  alienated by companies.
• 16:22
  Essentially just like Main Street has overlooked um, you know, the the conservative Christian consumers.
• 16:28
  So there needs to be more and more companies that speak directly to these consumers.
• 16:33
  and it's okay if you alienate if we if if we don't if we're not trying to sell coffee to half the country basically who don't support our
• 16:40
  stance on life, which is fine because you know, that's the way business is right now.
• 16:43
  Like most businesses are not apolitical.
• 16:45
  They're taking a stance and supporting certain ideologies, left leaning, pro choice ideologies.
• 16:52
  So for us, we're happy to s combat that with our mission and our impact.
• 16:56
  So um we love standing um boldly for the life issue.
• 17:00
  And if that alienates people, so be it.
• 17:02
  It means we're just gonna celebrate and and rejoice around these values with millions of other consumers who passionately support this issue.
• 17:09
  Amen.
• 17:10
  I I I apologize for that.
• 17:14
  I think you've kinda answered this question already, but this is another staple of the Profibition business is we ask a secret question.
• 17:21
  So um you're probably gonna reiterate a lot of what you just said, but what is the secret to building a mission driven business people don't just buy from but they believe in?
• 17:31
  You know, the I wouldn't say there's necessarily a secret, but you have to have a personal commitment to what you're doing.
• 17:36
  And so for us, like our commitment to donate back 10% of every sale to pregnancy care centers has been a day one fundamental, you know, um objective of ours.
• 17:45
  We do it every single month, we give back and we're never gonna change that model.
• 17:48
  It's a huge portion of our profits.
• 17:50
  So that's like these core things that you set your business on that you believe are fundamental to why you should operate and how you operate.
• 17:57
  You can't compromise on them.
• 17:58
  And so for us, we will continue to do that.
• 18:00
  You know, also it's like we also have to be a profitable company.
• 18:02
  I love your name.
• 18:03
  So, you know, we want to we we wanna f you know be a profitable business.
• 18:06
  To be profitable is to continue how to how we can continue to have success supporting and giving back sort of large portion of our profit.
• 18:14
  So it really goes hand in hand.
• 18:16
  Um, but those core, you know, I would say pillars of our company are something we focus on every single month because that's how we can have.
• 18:23
  you know, long term success.
• 18:24
  We don't want to operate for two months and then run out of money.
• 18:26
  We want to be, you know, a solvent for long term and continue to have a, you know, generational impact.
• 18:32
  Yeah, I I wanna highlight two things um that you've already talked about to kind of bring up as a uh as a pillar inside this interview, and that was you know who your customers
• 18:44
  are, right?
• 18:45
  And that's very important thing of business is to know who your customers are because then you know how to speak to your customers.
• 18:52
  the second thing is is the product, right?
• 18:54
  You you have to have a very good product.
• 18:56
  Like when we're talking about scaling a business, those are two of the key factors.
• 18:59
  You have to know who your customers are and
• 19:02
  And you have to have a great product to sell them, right?
• 19:04
  Totally.
• 19:05
  Yeah.
• 19:05
  I mean it's the fundamental core.
• 19:06
  It's like you know, your customers, especially like even if 'cause we're pro life, if we don't have a good product, like pro life Americans aren't gonna buy it because they
• 19:14
  deserve something for their money.
• 19:16
  It's not just we're not a charity.
• 19:17
  Like we need to provide people with a product that they're gonna love and um be, you know, happy to sh continue drinking, you know, month over month.
• 19:25
  So this it's so core to to business is like, you know, you have to you know, compete.
• 19:31
  on a very product to product level.
• 19:33
  And so we do that and that's I definitely encourage other business owners to never overlook that point.
• 19:39
  I I think about the person like that let's just take Starbucks for for instance, right?
• 19:44
  The person that may is conservative, Christian, but they drink Starbucks.
• 19:50
  And that's just because they th they like the product, right?
• 19:53
  But then they get to experience um your coffee, right?
• 19:57
  And then they're like, I finally found an alternative to Starbucks so I can support something I actually believe in.
• 20:02
  Um that that's powerful.
• 20:04
  It is.
• 20:05
  Yeah.
• 20:05
  We have had my gosh, I couldn't tell you how many people have switched from Starbucks to us.
• 20:08
  So we're very proud of that.
• 20:09
  We're proud that we serve better coffee of that.
• 20:11
  And obviously the mission behind us is mu is much better.
• 20:14
  Like I have never drank I haven't drank Starbucks, gosh, in probably seven years.
• 20:19
  And I won't touch it.
• 20:20
  Um it's definitely something I pride myself in, is that we're making a lot of people switch away from uh from Starbucks.
• 20:29
  Um let's let's talk about the property the pro profit the partnering with nonprofits.
• 20:37
  can 'cause I'm sure there are people that would love that have a business and are looking to do that as well, but maybe they don't know the ins and outs of of trying to do that.
• 20:45
  Can you just talk uh maybe just even on a surface level of how you went about that?
• 20:50
  Yeah, so when we give back to centers, we have a a pretty simple application for where any pro-life pregnancy care center can sign up.
• 20:58
  we do some we support adoption of maternity homes as well.
• 21:00
  So basically any group that's holistically pro-life um and you're able to receive funding from us, you know, from a business perspective, it's one of the coolest things that we get
• 21:08
  to partner with like over, you know, 1200 to now nearly 1,500 local pregnancy centers across the nation where consumers can buy coffee and directly support their local local
• 21:19
  organization.
• 21:20
  so we're very unique in that that we have like this kind of diversified across the country um grassroots effort with all the organizations we support.
• 21:29
  But it's been the backbone of our our mission is to support these these groups and we share that.
• 21:33
  And so for other like business owners, like having some type of give back model to a cause or a specific mission is so important.
• 21:40
  Cause I think, you know, consumers can see that, they can relate to it and it it definitely helps encourage people to make the switch to your product or or or company.
• 21:48
  So
• 21:49
  We have a really cool partnership program for these pro life organizations and it's allowed us to really just amplify our mission across the country.
• 21:57
  Awesome.
• 21:59
  Would you s is there one big obstacle that you had um through this journey that um that you could talk about and how you navigated around it?
• 22:10
  Pray I could give you a lot of uh big obstacles.
• 22:12
  You know, some starting a business, you you literally are um, you feel like you're putting out fires every single day.
• 22:18
  And I can't tell you how often my prayer has been to, Lord, I don't know what the decision to make is, just help me not make a wrong decision.
• 22:24
  And that like constant prayer has been the forefront of my, you know, mind as when I'm leading this company.
• 22:30
  We've had people try to copy us off and and rip us off and understanding how to navigate that.
• 22:37
  we've had
• 22:39
  you know, technical issues and supplier issues and in like all these things, um, you know, over time.
• 22:45
  And so um I would just say like the biggest thing you can do is just know that the problems are always going to be continuously um coming at you, but um put your faith
• 22:57
  first, you'll always be able to figure it out.
• 22:59
  Like I definitely have a mindset now.
• 23:00
  It's like we're the only answer is we're we're going to figure it out.
• 23:03
  And that's like a continuous
• 23:06
  belief you have to have in in yourself and in your business or or like, you know, it it you can get pretty down pretty quick.
• 23:13
  Yeah, let's talk about that from a faith perspective, um, because a lot of businesses fail, right?
• 23:21
  and a lot even Christian-led businesses fail.
• 23:24
  And I I feel like a lot of times that happens because um they these obstacles come up and they give up um rather than navigate around them.
• 23:35
  And they I really where I'm trying to go with this is a lot of times God is using our trials.
• 23:43
  To shape us, right?
• 23:44
  To become the the company and the not just the person, but also he wants the company to become something like more like in his image, right?
• 23:52
  So we have we w I thank God often for trials.
• 23:56
  You know, it's difficult in the moment to think thank God for trials, but when you look back, it's like God, thank you for bringing that to me because it made me who I am today
• 24:06
  and made my company better because of it.
• 24:09
  have you had similar experience?
• 24:11
  Yeah, totally.
• 24:11
  I mean, the the really around the origin of our company.
• 24:14
  So when I started this, I was working another job.
• 24:16
  I started this really as a side hustle to see where it went one day.
• 24:20
  And four months into this side hustle, consuming my time and energy and what I really loved, um, I got laid off from my the job I was at.
• 24:29
  And it was a really big like turning point in my life where
• 24:32
  I felt like dejected and I felt like I didn't know what I wanted to do, but it also was like the time where I had to get like really serious with the Lord in this business and
• 24:41
  say, okay, Lord, I'm gonna trust this with you.
• 24:43
  Like I need to pursue this full time.
• 24:46
  Um, I feel like that's what you're calling me to, but I'm incredibly scared to do it.
• 24:50
  And I remember just making like this prayer I call it kind of my deal with God, where I just prayed, like, Lord, I will serve you in this if you just help it.
• 24:59
  you know, grow in a very practical sense that I have to be able to pay myself from this one day.
• 25:03
  We have to be profitable.
• 25:04
  We have to be a legitimate business.
• 25:08
  Um if you help me do that, I'll continue to stay faithful to this mission, give back 10% of every sale.
• 25:13
  Um and it was definitely like a a really cool starting point 'cause I've experienced such different seasons of this business.
• 25:20
  Now it's like grown substantially.
• 25:22
  It's it's you know very successful.
• 25:24
  It's not in this like startup phase where you feel like, you know, like
• 25:28
  one wrong turn, everything's gonna just, you know, uh get shut down.
• 25:32
  But so we we've definitely grown out of that like risk phase.
• 25:35
  But I remember walking through that, like having to like go all in when I was just quite frankly scared to do so.
• 25:42
  And um that's where like you really understand your need for God um in those moments because uh you realize like I can't do this alone.
• 25:51
  But you also realize that I'm not I'm I'm not the I'm going to steward this for the Lord.
• 25:58
  But um who I am is not um gonna be tied up in this.
• 26:02
  And that's something that I'm happy that I had that experience early on 'cause it's easy to get your identity kind of wrapped up in your work.
• 26:08
  And I still battle with that, right?
• 26:09
  Like people know me because of seven weeks coffee now.
• 26:11
  So um but I always remember that day when I was at zero and no one knew what seven weeks coffee was and I just was pursuing what God put on my heart.
• 26:20
  So
• 26:21
  That is that is such an important point because I I have even struggled with that in the past.
• 26:25
  Is like I put entrepreneur above child God.
• 26:32
  Right.
• 26:33
  Um, like this is my identity.
• 26:35
  Wait, nope.
• 26:36
  Because there's there's been countless times where and God will, God like when you start to put things above him, he will take those things away from you so that he can put it
• 26:45
  things back into proper perspective.
• 26:47
  So thank you.
• 26:47
  Форю на because we should always be keeping the Lord first and foremost.
• 26:51
  Amen.
• 26:52
  Amen.
• 26:53
  Uh so if s th this interview has been really, really good.
• 26:58
  I love the whole story about Seven Weeks Coffee.
• 27:01
  Uh I like to get practical if we could um for the listeners because I love for the listeners to be able to take something away.
• 27:08
  So if someone was listening and looking to make meaningful progress over the next ninety days, toward building business that connects products, purpose, and impact, what's the one
• 27:17
  area they should focus on first?
• 27:20
  Um, well, I would say the I could give you like categories of business to to follow, but I would actually say look at your um network and area of influence, your current skill set.
• 27:30
  Try to build a business with the knowledge you have.
• 27:32
  You know, for me, even though it's funny, coffee was something I technically didn't work in, but I worked in political fundraising before that.
• 27:39
  And so I had a ton of knowledge on fundraising, conservative, um, you know, supporting these conservative organizations, raising money for these pro life causes.
• 27:48
  So coffee was just like
• 27:50
  Another thing that kind of plugged into that model.
• 27:52
  Like we raise money for these pro life coffee causes through coffee.
• 27:56
  And so I had a really good knowledge of like digital fundraising and marketing.
• 27:59
  And I had a whole network of people who were like in this space.
• 28:01
  And so when I first launched Seven Weeks Coffee, I was able to plug the company and the mission that we're doing to like just the network I built.
• 28:07
  And it really helped get it off the ground from getting articles written to getting distribution and things like that.
• 28:11
  So building a company within your current skill set and in your network is where I would focus the most.
• 28:19
  that that is so good.
• 28:20
  I just ho one of my most recent interviews that haven't hasn't been published yet, it was kinda reiteration of that is that um when you try and start like you if you know plumbing
• 28:30
  and then you go and try and start a retail business, it's it's not it's not going to work as well as if you just started a plumbing business.
• 28:38
  Right?
• 28:39
  percent.
• 28:39
  You gotta work with the skill set you're you've been given or you have.
• 28:43
  Mm.
• 28:43
  Yeah, so good.
• 28:44
  So good.
• 28:45
  So if you're a new entrepreneur and or you are looking to be an entrepreneur, take that to heart.
• 28:50
  Um or if you uh are struggling in what you're doing right now, and maybe it's not the right vehicle for you.
• 28:56
  And you just take a deep dive into your skill set, look at look at what you're really good at.
• 29:01
  Um even in kind of Anton situation, it wasn't the exact thing, but it was very, very relatable.
• 29:07
  So um look at um relatable things to your skill set and
• 29:12
  Uh see how you can build from there.
• 29:13
  So that's such great advice.
• 29:20
  So Antoine, if someone was looking for um to find out more about you, your mission, how they can support that, how could how they can get some coffee, like is it in the local
• 29:29
  grocery store, tell people how they can find out more about you and what you're doing.
• 29:33
  Yeah, we're we're all online, so we're direct to consumer e commerce.
• 29:35
  We don't really have retail.
• 29:37
  There's some coffee shops that carry us now, but nothing um too major.
• 29:41
  So you can get it at sevenweekscoffee dot com.
• 29:43
  You can um find your favorite coffee and help save lives um by drinking coffee.
• 29:48
  So that's where you can find us.
• 29:51
  Awesome, awesome.
• 29:51
  I know I'll be checking it out.
• 29:53
  I'll be fine.
• 29:54
  I'll be going to sevenweekscoffee.com to uh order a bag because I am also a little bit of co I I put cream on my coffee.
• 30:01
  Um I'm not a straight straight black coffee drinker, but uh we love coffee in this house.
• 30:07
  Um so I'll be definitely checking that out.
• 30:10
  we actually went to Hawaii and went one of our things, like people go to Hawaii and doing the beaches.
• 30:15
  We went to the coffee farm.
• 30:16
  Not that we didn't go to the beaches and stuff too, but we w we like coffee so much we had to go to the coffee farm and check it out.
• 30:22
  So um
• 30:23
  been to farms before.
• 30:24
  It's really fun to see, isn't it?
• 30:25
  To see how the coffee's grown and yeah, it's a it's a cool it's a cool industry.
• 30:30
  Yeah.
• 30:31
  Well thank you again, uh Anton, and until next time, entrepreneurs, keep moving forward.