Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Ep. 42: How She Reinvented Coffee Into a Luxury Brand | Tropics Lifestyle Coffee | Lisa Bastian
Transcript
- Joe: What if your morning coffee wasn't just a drink, but a piece of art. Today's guests built a brand that turns a simple daily ritual into a luxury experience. And the story behind it, it's even better. Welcome to the Glowvisor podcast where we explore business growth, communication and personal development through real conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest is an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, public relations consultant, and former federal background investigator whose career spans over four decades. Rather than following a traditional career path, she's pursued opportunities to learn, build, and create. In 2025, she launched Tropic's Lifestyle Coffee, a luxury gift brand built around unique coffee gifts. Glow of Iza welcomes Lisa Bastien. Lisa Bastian: Hello there, Joe. I'm calling from beautiful San Antonio, Texas. Joe: Beautiful. Thank you. A pleasure and looking forward to the conversation. Lisa Bastian: Thank you. Do you have your coffee Joe: Right. Lisa Bastian: in front of you? Joe: Not yet. I should have I should have been prepared for you. Lisa Bastian: I should have sent it for ya, yeah. Sorry about that. Didn't think ahead. Joe: Well, Lisa, please tell us a little bit more about what you do. Lisa Bastian: Well, I am the founder and owner of, as you said before, Tropics Lifestyle Coffee. And this is something that's people say the word passion, but it truly is something that gets me up in the morning because I spread so much happiness to people across America. What I've done is I've created a a new niche in the gift and the coffee industry feel, kind of a fusion that hasn't really been there before, which is very exciting but kind of scary at the same time. Basically, what I have is I have the top 10% of the coffee in the world, which is called specialty grade. And that is fused with my beautiful top 10% coffee with gorgeous packaging of 12-ounce boxes with rainforest beach and ocean designs that I make myself. I have a hundred of these. Any given time, there's 30 of these beautiful designs on my boxes. And so What happens is someone picks up a box of 12-ounce coffee and there's coffee inside, and my beautiful box is exuding tropical vibes 24-7, unlike the typical commodity coffee you see in the store. This is something that's really a collectible piece of art. And this is why our mission, we say, is beautifying coffee stations across America, because It it really is something different. When you buy an art box, as we call them, an art box coffee from our collection, you will put it next to your coffee station. And immediately it just kind of just says, I'm here and I'm happy and I'm gonna just make your kitchen look gorgeous. And then you open up this beautiful box of of rainforest beach or ocean art and you have the the best coffee in the world. You brew it up and just for those few minutes, whatever. You are taken away to paradise, Joe, so it doesn't get any better than that. Joe: before we move on, I wanted to ask you something about what you mentioned, that your coffee is in the top 10%. Can you explain to us the different qualities of coffee? Lisa Bastian: coffees are graded on various levels and what they call specialty grade from zero to a hundred is anything that's graded from 80 to 100. And these are by coffee masters and roasters across the world. So a specialty grade is starts at eighty. And if you get anything between eighty and eighty five, eighty to ninety, you're just you've reached the pinnacle of coffee success. It means it's free of defects as far as bad stuff in it, twigs, this even you know de down to the mechanical, physical things, but it also has coffee beans that are just the peak performance, the the peak looking, the peak smelling beans of the world. And what that means is these beans are are so perfect, specialty grade, top 10%, that you know better beans means better coffee. And when I first start began looking into this, I thought, okay, Top 10% specialty, right? And I'm in PR. It's like this is all fluff. I'd never had specialty grade coffee. I tried it for the first time and I was just blown away. Just it was spit got colored. I thought, okay, I I I believe all the hype. I I can do this. So I have something that is new. It's it's a niche. It's not only specialty grade. You got these beautiful boxes that you can only get from me. And it's really becoming a hit, not only in San Antonio, but to the people I have all over the country that are discovering it. Joe: Now just so we are all on same page you're saying that the specialty it's about 90 %? How does that compare to what I can get at the grocery store? Lisa Bastian: it's actually the top ten percent of coffee in the world. So in the grocery store, there's lots of fine, lovely coffees that are roasted that are various grades, and they won't tell you it's you know what percentage it is, but unless it says specialty grade, it's it's not the top ten percent. So you have to look for that. And most of them are not. Mine also has a third superpower besides being beautiful. Display worthy, we call it coffee, top 10%. When you place an order, you you order through my website, okay? And then within 24 hours, our roasters will roast the coffee for you, just for you. And that's important because roasted coffee, roasted fresh, tastes a lot different. Than what's in the grocery store because I've learned that the beautiful coffees that I've been buying my whole life could have been sitting there for weeks, months, half a year. I wouldn't know about it. And so this is definitely different. And it's shipped to you within seven to fourteen business days. Depends upon where you live, you get it. It's usually shipped out about two days after being roasted. Joe: Now, is there an ideal time to consume coffee? Lisa Bastian: right away. After Joe: Hahaha Lisa Bastian: that, I've been told it r it ranges from two weeks to about two months. And then about a month after that, you could consume it a good amount to about six months to a year, but preferably within the first three to four months is what I've been told is is really peak. But coffee doesn't go bad that much, but connoisseurs, they can tell. They can definitely tell. I tell my people to consume it within the first two to three months. Joe: Now, what inspired you to pursue this path? Lisa Bastian: my goodness, where do I begin? Joe: You Lisa Bastian: as you know, my my career path has been very varied and diverse. I I guess you could say it started in a rainforest in Ohio. Now you might ask, how does it have a rainforest in landlocked Ohio? my mother Had always loved the beach. And she and my dad got married in in Florida, and they they live in Cincinnati, where I'm from. And there's this beautiful botanical garden called Crone Conservatory. I think it's about 90, 100 years old. It's gorgeous. And you walk inside of it, and there's this just this outstanding rainforest as you walk in with turtles and waterfalls and banana trees and all the palm leaves. And my mother would always take me to this rainforest ever since I was a baby, she said, numerous times. So I think I ended up thinking I I wasn't growing up in Ohio, I was growing up in a rainforest I guess kind of like my referred DNA just began loving tropics and tropical things. so it always kind of stayed with me and my mother, had decor from Florida and the tropics. And then I grew up and I became a journalist. And part of my job was writing for national magazines for meetings, travel, tourism, and economic development. And they would take me to places all over the world on these things called fam trips, where you're treated like a princess because one of your articles, maybe 500 to a thousand words, might bring in a million-dollar project for your host of your trip. So they would treat you very, very well, as you can imagine. Well, some of my trips would take me to Puerto Rico and beautiful beach environments, and I got my my vibe of the rainforest again. And I noticed something, Joe, everywhere I went on these dozens of high-end fam trips where they took me to castles or the seats of government, the the rainforest, just just gorgeous places. Everyone always served coffee, the best coffee they could have of that country. So coffee was a common denominator. If we couldn't speak any language the same way, the coffee was our con our our denominator that kept us together and kept the business words flowing and and the laughter and and built the relationships. I noticed that, you know, besides fueling me as a journalist for 30, 40 years, coffee had this magic. And I I I just always kept it back in my head. So then what pushed me towards my coffee brown was dear old COVID came along and I decided to maybe go a different direction and focus more on me instead of making tons of money for other people. And I dabbled in a tropics magazine because of the aforementioned mother instilling this love of the tropics and I started talking about home decor and the beauty of what the rainforest could bring to interior design. And then from that, back in 2025, early, I began to think, what else could I do to bring joy to the world and to my own self and to actually heal me? Because what I didn't tell you, Joe, was I had a health scare about 10 years ago. I looked at 10, 12 different doctors. Happened to be something that was fixed by some supplements and some good tests. But along the way, I realized I had to clean up my diet. And I did so with or you know, organic foods, this and that. And then, Joe, guess what? My beloved coffee, I found out a lot of it is full of mold, mycotoxins, heavy metal, yeast, bad things. So I thought, okay, I have to start, fixing my coffee. my gosh, I get even that. So that's where I kind of discovered the specialty grade part. So 2025, I'm thinking, okay, I got a health problem. I love coffee. I want to do something more of my own. I want to be really tropically I mean, you mix all this stuff together in a blender and you kind of get tropic sized stuff coffee out of it. And then Joe: Hahaha. Lisa Bastian: the other thing I had was I wanted to be a graphic designer was my first love back when I was 18. And I threw that in. I thought, okay, I'm gonna design these boxes. I went to a company and I said, I know you really don't do this, but what if I put all these different designs on these these beautiful 12 ounce boxes and also boxes for coffee pods because we sell coffee pods too. And they said, you know, no one's really done it at this scale, but yeah, we'll we'll support you. So I thought, okay, let's look at their coffee. And it had beautiful art. It had coffee that was tested for the bad stuff I just told you about. the mold, mycotoxins, yeast, they would, you know, doesn't have it or just trace amounts. I thought, score. What's there not to love about this? And then I thought, okay, I'm always curious, why am I going to be different? What's what's different about this? I said, okay, health consciousness, beautiful art, it's maximum roasted fresh. And but is this really gonna matter? And then Joe, I make remembered reading about In some very good national magazines on the art side, on home decorating, that coffee stations were a thing. Did you know that? Coffee stations have become a huge thing since COVID. Joe: All right, well. Lisa Bastian: And what happened was people could not go out to get their beloved six, eight dollar lattes anymore. So they began kicking away the liquor cabinets and bringing in the coffee carts. And they started making coffee bars and coffee stations like you've never seen before. Millions of people. And so they brought $500, $1,000, $2,000 gorgeous equipment. They got their coffee spins, they got their cool cups. I mean, they were just rocking and rolling. And who knows where the liquor went, probably went inside the coffee. But the one thing they forgot, Joe, was what? They forgot they take the commodity grade coffee, which is in the little bags that after you start using it, they become all squishy and yucky and frumpled, and they put these typically ugly bags next to this beautiful coffee station. And it's like, ooh, it's not match. Well, I realized that what I had, beautiful coffee in these art boxes. Took care of a problem that people really didn't realize they had until I pointed out to them. And with my beautiful boxes now sitting next to this gorgeous coffee stations, you had a complete beautiful setup. So my coffee does not have to be shamefully put underneath a counter, and people can proudly display it, and now it it just makes their whole coffee station look beautiful. And that's my story. What do you think about that? Yes. So Joe: Wow, love it. Because you provided a solution to a problem that most of us don't even realize we have. Lisa Bastian: Nobody, I mean, I have sat with realtors and and just people in general just want to meet me. I've talked an hour about my coffee. Now you try that with any commodity commodity grade coffee. It's just not gonna happen. Just kept asking questions and about coffee stations, about the art I would do, and about the type of coffee and specialty grade, what makes a difference, and then they taste it and why is this so smooth? my god. So I knew I was. onto something when before I I officially launched I had some you know family and friends you know you always do that. I'd say hey I I got something new and I'd I'd send them the boxes either the c the coffee pot boxes of twelve or the twelve ounce boxes and I'd say you know just just check this out. Well first they love the coffee and I said now you're supposed to put the box next to your coffee pot. Well I usually don't do that. I said okay well will you try it for me Okay, well, guess what? They all reported, they kept the boxes next to the coffee pod pot, not because Lisa said so, but because it's like, this is pretty cool. You're right. I'm really liking this. And then my family or friends are always noticing and they say, this is so beautiful. And I'd say, okay, so what are you gonna do with the the coffee boxes? And and this surprised me. Ninety-five percent of my friends will not get rid of my boxes at all. It's like it not is it because I made it and it reminds me, no, it's just so pretty. I'm I'm reusing it for jewelry, I'm using it for you know a catch-all. I just can't get rid of it. So I didn't expect that, but it's a nice bonus. I'm not talking about it on my website, but Joe: Hahaha. Lisa Bastian: it it is definitely beautifying a coffee station. And that brings me up to the other slogan I have, which is just based upon truth. This is coffee. We think coffee should look as beautiful and exceptional as it tastes and nobody else is has that space. Joe: the other side of it is that starting a business and going to market, it's not easy. Sometimes what we do is we look at businesses and we say, wow, they're successful. Amazing. She's just starting in 2025. Look how successful she is. But most people don't realize that there are a lot of trials and issues to bring it out to market. So what were some of the biggest obstacles you had to overcome? Lisa Bastian: Well, the main thing was well I I do have a business plan. I think the first obstacle for myself or anybody else is you're all excited, like a little kid at Christmas. I got a really cool idea, right? the biggest obstacle is but should I do something with it? Is it just something I should dream about and kind of noodle around in my head, or should I go forward with it? So the first obstacle is, you know, it's not believing in it. It's it's like knowing with research the background. I part of my background was as far as working for clients all around the country and different industries, was putting together editing a hundred different business plans. For some business books. And that was a very insightful experience. I learned that a business plan, even one page, up to like 40 pages, is really what everyone needs before you, you know, before you even get your LLC or whatever, or your name, your domain name. You have to know: is this gonna work? At least on paper. Figure it out. You do it, a business plan. You do a what we call a SWOT analysis, which my strengths, my weaknesses, my opportunities, my threats. Joe, I spent months doing that, months and months and months. So it was kind of disheartening at first because I didn't know what I'd find out. Especially when you're creating a new niche fusing the gift industry with the coffee industry. with the specialty higher end industry. Is anyone going to pay extra money for this? I mean I'm I'm competitively priced in the specialty grade market. But is this going to be viable? So I found out that it was, but I didn't just use my heart, I used my head. And I think that's very important to do your research if if you'd say about obstacles. that's the first The first thing is is this a viable thing that I should go forward with? Now, with that being said, we're all familiar with Shark Tank, and we know there have been many companies on there that the sharks were all over, right? And they were complete flops afterwards. There's other ones that were on there, and the shark said, No, I'm not doing it. And I think one was the ring doorbell. I think his his was wonderful, right? After the shark tanks, he's gone on to be, you know, million dollar, billion dollar business. So Take it with a grain of salt. There are people that just say, I believe in it, and I'm going to go forward no matter what. And I'd say, go for it. I'm just saying if you have some research behind it, you can go forward with more confidence and more planning. And that's going to turn into more success in the long in the long term, I believe. Joe: In the coffee space, very often hear the word Java. What is it? Lisa Bastian: Java just it it it's slang. People don't like to use it, but as a writer I hate saying coffee all the time. It just means coffee to me and my friends. J A V A. it's just a fun word we use. Joe: artificial intelligence is changing how businesses operate. How have you been using AI as a practical tool to help you build and grow your business? Lisa Bastian: A very good question. when I was dabbling with the Tropic Slice Dall magazine back in 2021, I discovered AI back then. This is before Chat GBT, and I was working in the graphic design space and I was making some I don't know what you'd call it, it kind of looks off-en-guard. they were ugly, they were ugly. images that chat or not chat that AI made for me, but they were different. They were mine and nobody else was doing it. And yes, I had like six or seven fingers on people. If I made pictures of that, I made images of fish that had like, you know, six eyes on Early AI was not a thing of beauty, you know. but it would have been great in a in a modern art museum. And and it probably some of my stuff would be in an early AI museum, I'd be I'd be happy to give it to somebody. But I it it made me feel like I was gonna I was gonna conquer this thing. I was just gonna learn it. And my thought was nobody else is doing this. No one else is helping me. It's just me baby alone as I've always been it's just me pushing forward. And I thought if I learn AI 1%, just one percent of AI a day, I'm gonna I'm gonna be great. And that's okay. I'm not gonna go backwards. And it's gonna build upon the next day and the next day and the next day. And I'll know more, I'll know one percent more than Sally down the street, you know, not that it was a competition, but it was like just keep keep pushing, keep pushing. when chat came along, I was an early adapter of that, and I began to upload the Aformission, aforementioned business plan, and I got the $20 a month chat and lo and behold chat has become my best marketing buddy and at the height of my PR career I was not cheap. Chat does just as well in some areas as my as my work in the past, quicker, faster, i I have to still check it, of course. I'm just blown away by its insights. Joe: If listeners only remember one thing from today's conversation, what do you hope that message is? Lisa Bastian: I would hope that they would remember that coffee is a beautiful beverage to enjoy and savor every day and not to be afraid to try specialty grade coffee and pay a little bit more for it to make the experience as delicious and beautiful as it can be. Life is hard and your coffee shouldn't be. And I'd like you to. try my coffee. It's game changing, visually, emotionally, I won't say spiritually, but it's just fun. It's just something new, fun, and I want to spread joy in this post COVID world through my coffee, my Art Box coffees, and I hope you'll come along on the journey of spreading joy with me. Joe: That's great advice. Where can our audience connect with you and learn more about your work and continue this conversation? Lisa Bastian: Well, thank you, Joe. My website is tropicslifestylecoffee.com and they can reach me at my email of hello at tropicslifestylecoffee.com. And I also have a special treat for your listeners. for everyone listening out there, I would love to have you use a special discount code for my first time buyers, coffee lovers. It's real simple. It's 5tropics, the number 5, T-R-O-P-I-C-S, and you just put that discount code at the checkout and you get $5 off your first order. Joe: Lisa, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insights. We really appreciate your time and the value that you brought to our audience. Lisa Bastian: Well, thank you, Joe, and continued good luck with your wonderful podcast. We're all rooting for you. Joe: Thank you. Thanks everyone. If this episode inspire you, share it with someone who needs it. And don't forget to follow the Glowvisor podcast for more conversations that make an impact. Till the next time.