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Brad Gutwein of Copper Moon Coffee Joins The Coffee People Podcast. · Coffee People Podcast

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Hey there everyone. Welcome to another episode of
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the Coffee People podcast presented by Rostar Coffee
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Packaging, found@rostar.com. Thank you for being here with me
1:03
today. I'm your host, Ryan Walt.
1:05
We're near the end of season 15. If you've missed any of our
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episodes, we'll curate them in our newsletter, which you can
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You can also find them on your favorite podcast platforms like
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Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Thank you for watching and
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listening, for liking and subscribing, and generally just
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appreciating the world of coffee and of course, the
1:30
entrepreneurial efforts that we share that go into your coffee
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mug. Now that that is out of the way,
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I hope that you have a cup of good coffee ready because it's
1:39
time for another Coffee People conversation.
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We usually start these shows by. I ask my guest to tell everyone
1:51
who they are and where they are and what the name of their
1:54
company is. You know what they?
1:55
Do there. Yeah.
1:56
Awesome. Yeah.
1:57
Brad Bootlein, Copper Moon Coffee.
2:00
We're based in Lafayette, IN, So we've been in business since
2:04
2007. We are a manufacturer.
2:08
We're a roaster, a packager of coffee.
2:11
We do cake cups primarily, that's really a major focus of
2:16
what we do. We also do large bags of coffee,
2:19
£5 down to 2 LB. Then also we do 12 ounce bags
2:23
down to fractional bags like 2 ounce little packets of coffee.
2:28
And so coffee is our focus and that's what what we do everyday.
2:33
Coffee is your focus today. I know that wasn't always the
2:36
case. I'm wondering if you'd give us a
2:38
little background on you. You know how you got your start
2:41
in business and hospitality generally.
2:43
You know where where this all started from.
2:46
Yeah, really began, you know, I guess in the early days, I began
2:51
working as a as a young kid, We, we, my father had a business and
2:57
we were expected to, you know, clean the office every Saturday,
3:01
that type of thing. You know, whether it's mopping
3:03
floors, filling the pot machine, the candy machine, whatever it
3:07
may be, whatever was asked upon us, that that's what we did.
3:11
And you know, like a lot of kids growing up, you know, we would
3:15
mow lawns and, and do all kinds of house chores, that kind of
3:20
thing. I also had a leather shop when I
3:23
was a kid. I started when I was nine years
3:26
old. I made leather goods like belts
3:29
and wristbands and and things like that.
3:33
That was always kind of a fun thing.
3:36
And and then, you know, played a lot of sports also throughout my
3:39
life, you know, football, basketball, baseball.
3:42
So really had a great a great childhood.
3:46
Yeah, You used the term there. You were expected to do the work
3:50
for the family. And I think that's an
3:52
interesting way of, of remembering it.
3:56
I have a very clear memory of quitting on my family business,
4:00
which was a restaurant in Wisconsin, you know, going home,
4:04
which was next door. And of course, a few minutes
4:06
later, my dad showed up and asked what I was doing.
4:09
And I told him I was quitting and I didn't want to work for
4:12
less than minimum wage anymore. I think I was probably in like
4:14
early teens. And he said, OK, well, that's
4:17
fine. You're you're allowed to quit.
4:18
He goes, but now you have to work for free because this is
4:21
our family business and it's how we pay for things.
4:24
That expectation of supporting, you know, family because they're
4:29
family. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's very
4:33
interesting. It's, you know, yeah, when I say
4:36
expectation, it was like there's always work to be done.
4:40
And we didn't have a lot of idle time.
4:42
You know, we were expected to, to do the things around the home
4:48
and then things to help in the family business on the weekends.
4:51
And it was really, in retrospect, very good, you know,
4:54
really good experiences to learn how to do things, learn how to
4:57
take care of responsibilities, learn how to, you know, properly
5:04
clean and office, whether it's sweeping, mopping, dusting.
5:09
And it really taught me also that there's nothing that's
5:11
beneath you. You know that if you're called
5:14
upon to do something or it needs done, you jump in and you get it
5:17
done. Speaking of family, I know now
5:21
you work with your brother and I believe your daughter has come
5:23
on board as well. When you were first starting out
5:26
in the family business and kind of working past that, being a
5:29
kid working for the family, what was that that like, I don't
5:32
believe you were in coffee or your family wasn't in coffee at
5:35
that time. How did that all get started and
5:37
and what made you think you wanted to follow that path that
5:41
you know had been, I don't want to say laid out, but been role
5:43
modeled for you? I always had, I think growing up
5:47
in the family business always had a desire because I saw the,
5:53
I think the benefits of operating and and working in a
5:56
family business. So it was always a desire of
5:59
mine to do so. We grew up in, in a business
6:03
that my family business was a feed milling business.
6:08
So it was livestock feeds distribution business.
6:12
And it was a really a business that it started in 1920 for my
6:18
great grandfather. And that business survived over
6:22
the years. And that when I went through
6:24
school, I went to Purdue University, graduated in 1989.
6:29
My first job was to, I work for Marriott Corporation for a
6:32
period of time. I really didn't enjoy it and I
6:36
didn't have any vested interest in the business.
6:40
And I thought, man, there's got to be something better.
6:44
And my father's business kind of needed some help at the time.
6:47
And so I left Marriott to join the family business and there
6:52
was no looking back. Once I did that, I knew that's
6:54
what I wanted to do. I believe that business was, you
7:00
mentioned distribution and agriculture.
7:03
Bird feed at some point became a big part of that.
7:06
I believe with your brother. At some point you're running,
7:09
you're running businesses. You, your focus has to turn to
7:13
coffee for some reason. What was the impetus for that?
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I mean, what made you think, oh, this is, this is an industry
7:20
that I is appealing to me. I'm assuming you're drinking
7:24
coffee at this point and you're looking at your coffee cup.
7:27
What happened there to make you go?
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We're going to totally change what this family focus has been
7:32
all this time into a new industry.
7:34
It really, I guess it probably started even even before, before
7:39
I went to college. I grew up with my my parents
7:42
drank coffee all the time. My grandmother drank coffee all
7:45
the time. Coffee was always kind of a part
7:46
of our staple of our day. And so I really saw the
7:50
benefits, I guess you would say, of drinking coffee because it
7:54
just brought people together. It spurred a lot of good
7:57
conversations. It was a time of relaxation when
8:02
we were running our bird food company, which was morning song
8:06
wild bird food. I had a private label coffee
8:11
made for our company. It was a bird friendly coffee
8:14
and I thought that was really a great tie in because around our
8:18
facilities we, we all drink coffee every day.
8:21
And so why not have a private label bird friendly coffee to
8:24
serve to our employees and to give them as gifts, you know,
8:27
during the holiday season. And so once we we sold that
8:34
business in 2007, or excuse me, 2005, I began looking for a
8:41
coffee business just because coffee just seemed to be the
8:45
thing that interested me the most.
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I looked at other businesses that had different consumer
8:52
products, but everything kept coming back to coffee in terms
8:57
of what I was really interested in doing and what I thought I
9:00
would enjoy for years to come and that proved proved to be
9:05
true. That's it.
9:06
It has been. It's been a business that I
9:09
enjoy it. It's not without its challenges,
9:11
like any business, but everything pointed to coffee and
9:15
it was the right choice. You acquired a company when you
9:20
got into this business, Copper Moon Coffee, instead of
9:23
launching a new say, and I hope I'm pronouncing this right.
9:26
Gootwin Brothers brand, for example.
9:29
Yeah, Gootwine, Yeah. Gootwine apologies.
9:32
Why look to acquire instead of startup?
9:36
Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I felt, I felt it
9:40
would be better to try and acquire a business if there was,
9:45
if there was 1 available at the time that I wanted to purchase
9:47
one. I felt it would be better to
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acquire if we could find a good foundation, a business with a
9:55
good foundation, meaning a good group of people, a good group of
9:58
capabilities that were already in place and that would have
10:04
been easier and was easier than starting it from a Greenfield,
10:08
starting it from scratch. We also along with not only the,
10:14
the people, the capabilities, it it's nice to have a book of
10:17
business to begin with as well to have some good cash flow
10:21
right out of the gate and to have people that already were
10:26
knowledgeable in the category. So we we were able to learn at A
10:31
at a pretty quick pace. How did you go about looking for
10:35
this business? I find when I'm looking at
10:37
businesses for sale, often I see people looking to get enough
10:42
money to cover what they owe out of it, but not necessarily
10:46
offering a smart business plan for the next person to succeed.
10:51
So what was it that you you saw about this business that made
10:54
you think this was the right one beyond just there?
10:57
There's some good people in a book of business.
10:59
You know what was more specifically?
11:00
Yeah, it was a number of things really.
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The location was really critical.
11:07
It the business was located in Indianapolis, which is near my
11:12
hometown of West Lafayette, IN. That was a critical component of
11:17
of this making making sense. If it would have been located,
11:21
you know, in some other state, that would have been probably a
11:24
no, But this one was located in the right spot.
11:28
It was also owned by a private equity firm.
11:33
The private equity firm that owned it, really, when I reached
11:37
out to them to inquire whether or not they were interested in
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selling, they really shared with me that, you know, it's really
11:45
not a core asset. It was, it was part of a bundle
11:48
purchase of, of something else they purchased.
11:52
It not being a core asset for them allowed it to make sense
11:57
for us. Sure.
11:59
When you say that, I, what I imagine is there's not somebody
12:03
at this equity firm that's day-to-day paying attention,
12:06
hands on caring about it in the same way that I'm assuming you
12:11
and and your team does. Yeah, yeah.
12:15
They've had some really good people and but they didn't have
12:18
a long term vision for what they wanted to do with the business.
12:25
And so I think the timing was really good.
12:27
And you know, many times that's kind of the case.
12:30
If you find something that's a good fit and the timing is right
12:34
it it it all can work out really well.
12:38
You mentioned the timing. You know, you've, you've had
12:40
Copper Moon now for quite some time.
12:42
What was it that you bought then, and what have you grown it
12:45
into? Yeah.
12:47
I think what we bought then was a a little bit of structure.
12:52
We we had a facility that was based in Indianapolis.
12:57
It was a lease facility. We then moved the facility, the
13:01
entire facility, all the equipment actually we bought all
13:04
new equipment, built a brand new plant in Lafayette, IN which is
13:09
about 50 miles north of Indianapolis.
13:12
That worked out really well because along with that we we
13:15
bought 25 acres of land and we have over the years just
13:21
continued to expand our facility and our footprint and our
13:25
capabilities since since the original purchase.
13:31
Once you buy this, I mean, it's, it's, it's different to think
13:35
about it than to actually be in it.
13:38
So I'm wondering, you know, what happened after the purchase that
13:41
maybe you weren't expecting, You know, what sort of challenges
13:44
did you meet and and how did you work through those?
13:46
Yeah. Well, you know, that's a good
13:49
question. That's one thing I'd say about
13:51
the coffee category. It's a really, really big
13:54
category. You know, it's you know 60 to
13:57
$80 billion category and it reaches globally of course.
14:03
So there are challenges, no question.
14:06
It's, it's a, it's a business that has presented many
14:09
challenges. I think different challenges
14:11
from year to year. Those challenges currently are
14:15
the fact that we're we're dealing with green coffee at an
14:18
all time high in terms of cost, we're dealing with tariffs.
14:22
So, you know, that translates into dealing with passing along
14:26
very necessary price increases to our customers, which we don't
14:31
like to do, but you have to do it to maintain a healthy
14:35
business. So those are the challenges.
14:38
And it's interesting, we went for a long period of time where
14:43
the cost of green coffee, which is the, you know, green coffee
14:46
before it's roasted, of course, we didn't have price pressure on
14:51
green coffee for a number of years with very stable market
14:54
conditions. But that's changed in the last,
14:57
you know, 18 to 24 months. So that, that's been kind of a,
15:02
the most recent challenge. I think other challenges that
15:05
we've had along the way, you know, finding the right people
15:08
to bring into our business, you know, we look for really good
15:12
quality people that share our our values and share our
15:16
mission. And we really like to find and
15:19
have found so many good people that are just really great to
15:22
work with. But you know, that's, that's
15:24
always a challenge I think of pretty much any business.
15:29
You mentioned tariffs, which is day-to-day.
15:33
I mean, today as we're talking, I know it's going before the
15:35
Supreme Court and it is a very, it's a, it's something that's
15:40
impacting not just coffee, but most everyone because everything
15:44
that we're purchasing is getting impacted to some extent.
15:47
I'm wondering if the customers that you have, as you're saying,
15:50
hey, our prices are going up. Are you feeling that they're
15:55
understanding because they're seeing the situation in the
15:57
world as well politically and with economic economically with
16:01
the tariff situation and are they accepting of the raised
16:05
prices or are they saying, look, we just can't do this anymore in
16:09
this way, we need to find alternatives.
16:11
I mean, what has been that customer reaction to you is one
16:15
thing to say we're passing, we we need to pass these costs
16:18
along. But at some point, there's going
16:19
to be a customer who says, yeah, we can't do that.
16:22
Right. Yeah.
16:23
And and it is a little bit of a of a blend, a blend of what you
16:27
mentioned. Some are accepting and
16:29
understanding, some are understanding and not accepting.
16:33
So they may, they may, they may understand these are the market
16:38
conditions, but we're not going to accept.
16:41
Those are the challenging ones for sure.
16:44
And so you have to make some tough calls and find ways to,
16:49
you know, you know, develop and build business with the
16:52
customers that are really going to be reasonable to deal with.
16:58
That combined with a high C market price.
17:02
How has your sourcing changed over the last couple of years?
17:06
You know, in coffee in particular, we a lot of brand
17:10
identities revolve around sustainability and green coffee
17:14
sourcing and how they do that. How does Copper Moon approach
17:17
that? I mean, what has been the, the
17:19
mission there and goal? You mentioned mission and and
17:21
ethos, so I assume there's something tied in there.
17:25
Yeah, we've been, we've been fortunately we have really good
17:28
suppliers that have have been very resourceful for us.
17:32
So that's, that's been really good.
17:37
So we've we've, we've had challenges, you know, we talked
17:40
about all these challenges. We've had challenges sourcing
17:42
the right kind of coffees, getting them in on time.
17:45
But at the end of the day, we haven't had any, any major
17:50
hiccups, any major supply chain issues.
17:54
But it's a little bit different in terms of where we're getting
17:57
our coffee. And we're making sure that our
18:00
the integrity of all of our blends is maintained.
18:04
And I think for the foreseeable future, we'll we'll continue to
18:08
have some of these challenges maybe until these tariffs are
18:11
relieved. Hopefully the cost of coffee
18:14
comes down when the terrace came off, that would be ideal.
18:17
I feel like once things go up, they rarely go back down, Brad.
18:22
But that's just my experience when I'm reading through your
18:26
website, Googling, you know, Copper Moon Coffee and you, I
18:31
find that there are a lot of, a lot of things that you, you
18:36
support causes or connections. There's a whole space science
18:40
STEM connection listed on your website, which was unusual.
18:44
Most coffee businesses and most businesses have things outside
18:47
of that that they are passionate about.
18:49
But that one I felt was unique. Why that why the focus there?
18:53
And, and how does the, how do you use this platform and this
18:58
company? You have to do other things in
19:00
the world. Yeah, good question.
19:03
The connection for us to space is it really kind of goes back
19:08
to in, in, in 2019, we wanted to do a, a real brand overhaul and
19:14
not not just a refresh, but a real brand overhaul and we
19:17
wanted to capitalize on the name Copper Moon.
19:21
And I think in doing that, we, we just kind of took a step back
19:24
and we said, let's think about, you know, how our brand could be
19:28
very authentic and really talk about not only the, the proper
19:34
moon, which is the perfect alignment of the Earth, the sun
19:38
and the moon. You know, it's, it's a total
19:40
eclipse, but we wanted to align ourselves with things that made
19:44
sense that, that were transparent.
19:48
And so we thought it would really be great to capitalize
19:52
also on the, the surging interest an activity in the
19:59
world of space exploration. And so as we began to think
20:04
about that and think about the fact that, well, we're also in
20:07
West Lafayette IN the home of Crude University, the home of
20:10
the cradle of astronauts and all that's going on in space
20:14
exploration. We thought it would also give us
20:18
an opportunity to to have a brand developer brand in a way
20:21
that would be less serious and more fun and it'd have a little
20:26
bit of blend of both. But it would be less serious
20:29
than what a lot of brands we saw were pursuing, like a real
20:32
serious, pretentious kind of identity.
20:36
And we didn't really want that because that's not who we are.
20:39
You know, we're more, we're a family business and we wanted to
20:42
really be able to portray the right kind of branding.
20:44
So we redid all of our branding with a theme of space and space
20:50
exploration. And then we thought who could we
20:55
connect with and support that is connected to the world of space.
21:00
And so we reached out to the Astronaut Scholarship
21:05
Foundation, which is based in in Florida and developed a, a
21:09
really nice partnership with ASF.
21:12
That partnership was began in I believe, 2020.
21:16
It's really been nice. It's really been good because
21:18
we've, we've hosted astronauts at our facility in Indiana,
21:24
given them tours of our facility and they've tasted our coffees.
21:29
We had great discussions and you know, really nice opportunities
21:34
with them not only at our facility, but then every year we
21:37
attend the ASF Gala in Cape Canaveral where we're a sponsor
21:42
of the the event. We're one of many, but we're one
21:46
of the sponsors of the event. We've donated over $75,000 to
21:51
them and have provided 5 scholarships that are given to
21:55
students that are pursuing STEM degrees.
21:58
So. Has any of the copper Moon
22:01
coffee made it up into space? I know weight is pretty
22:04
restricted there. Not yet, but that is.
22:07
That isn't the game plan. I would hope so, yeah.
22:10
Speaking of Florida, you're the CEO of Manatee Coffee as well.
22:15
How does that fit in? Why look for another brand
22:17
separate from Copper Moon? You know, What was it that
22:21
intrigued you enough to make that leap later on in this
22:24
business? Yeah.
22:26
Manatee was an opportunity that we saw.
22:29
It was a brand that was started probably in you know around 2005
22:35
I want to say. And we were looking for a brand
22:39
that would have more of an ecological identity and it would
22:44
be kind of A cause oriented brand as well.
22:48
And we noticed the Manatee brand in the Florida market.
22:52
I approached the owner of the brand and we purchased that in
22:56
2010. And it's really been a very good
23:00
direct to consumer brand for us. And also we are on the retail
23:05
shelf in some club environments as well with that brand and it's
23:08
growing, it continues to grow every year with that particular
23:12
brand. We support various organizations
23:15
like the Mote Marine Lab, we support the Save the Manatee
23:20
Foundation, the Clearwater Marina and a few others like
23:26
Friends of Manatee Laguna. They're doing the work to
23:29
support manatee habitats. I don't mean to be terribly
23:33
cynical, but sometimes cause based brands in all industries,
23:39
they either lean so far to the 'cause that they forget about
23:43
the thing that they're selling because you're just paying for
23:45
the cause or they're using the cause kind of just to sell, you
23:50
know, a product, which I'm, I'm pretty OK with it as long as the
23:55
money is going to the right places.
23:57
How do you find that balance, you know, coffee versus cause?
24:01
How do you say like, well, we're selling this idea that we're
24:04
supporting this thing, whether it's STEM or manatees or
24:06
whatever, but we're also trying to give you a product we hope
24:10
you'll enjoy. Oh, yeah, yeah, for for us,
24:14
which I think that's a really good question.
24:16
For us, coffee is always first. We are first coffee and we have
24:22
to have a very good high quality coffee because if we don't have
24:25
a coffee, there's you can't support anything.
24:30
So we have to have a really good quality coffee.
24:32
That's really our focus. And the more success we can have
24:36
a coffee, the better support we can provide to A cause.
24:41
There's a program in the Midwest, I'm not sure if Indiana
24:44
has it, called Junior Achievement.
24:45
Are you familiar with that program?
24:47
Young business entrepreneur program that I went through as a
24:50
kid and I think it's a, it was a good example of this idea that
24:57
sometimes people will support things just to support them,
25:02
even if the product isn't great. In that case, we were, I was
25:05
selling I think popcorn baskets, right for I don't think anyone
25:09
really want to pay $10.00 for a popcorn basket, but they
25:12
supported that program at the time.
25:14
Does it matter to you if your customers care one way or
25:18
another about the causes or is that is the idea that we're just
25:24
going to get this out there? I'm assuming these are causes
25:26
you are also interested in and or you know your team is in a
25:30
way. Is it a situation where you like
25:33
any any Ave. into their life to present this thing that we care
25:37
about? Or does it matter that they care
25:39
about the coffee? Or do you find that they care
25:41
one way or another? I believe that they do care
25:46
about the the the coffee for sure, because the repeat sales
25:52
would would indicate that I think it would be interesting
25:57
and we don't know how many people are really purchasing the
26:00
coffee because of the 'cause we believe there'd be a pretty high
26:04
percentage, but not sure. You we've mentioned several
26:09
times family business. Who in the family is part of
26:14
this business and how do you put up with them every day?
26:18
Yeah. So of course, my, myself and my
26:21
brother Carrie, we are the ones that purchased the business back
26:25
in 2007. And currently in the business
26:28
also is my oldest daughter who is our marketing communication
26:33
specialist. What what are the what is the
26:36
benefit to working with family? You know, why make that choice
26:40
as opposed to say, go out into the world and find someone who
26:43
matches your business ethos or you know your mission.
26:47
You know, what are the benefits, what are the challenges that led
26:51
you to that with your brother and now with your daughter?
26:54
Yeah, well, with, with my brother, he and I, he, he and I
26:59
have worked together since we were kids.
27:01
So we know each other really well.
27:05
He is wonderful to work with in so many ways.
27:10
He has great capabilities, really a good, he's a good,
27:14
steady, hard working person that just understands a lot of things
27:19
about business. So he's he's a joy to work with.
27:22
There's also a tremendous level of trust that you have when you
27:26
work together your entire lives and you understand how you work,
27:30
how you think that we don't, you know, always think the same on
27:34
everything and that's healthy. That's good.
27:36
We don't really see the things the same way.
27:38
That's that's healthy and good too.
27:40
We're always interested in the best outcome, you know, for the
27:43
business. And so, so that's been really
27:47
good. And then my daughter really, she
27:50
began doing an internship with us in, in her final semester of
27:55
college and we had no intentions whatsoever for her to come into
27:59
the business. She was going to graduate and go
28:02
pursue her own career. That career just happened to be
28:05
in in social media marketing and communications.
28:10
And as she did the internship, we're like, wow, this is really
28:14
good. It just made sense and she was
28:17
the best talent that we could find and continues to be great
28:20
to this day. I worked with both of my parents
28:25
and with my dad more specifically.
28:27
And now that I don't, I, I sometimes wonder how on earth
28:33
did I survive that? But I also bring, you know,
28:36
these wonderful life lessons and I talked about it quite a bit on
28:39
this show. How do you feel about the idea
28:42
that this family business will continue to be family or that
28:46
your daughter's going to kind of continue bringing it up?
28:49
I know you had mentioned early in our chat that there was a
28:53
family business this whole time. And even though it's not called
28:56
the the good wine family business, how does that make
29:00
you, you know, what is your feeling about the legacy of that
29:03
and in particular in the Indiana, you know, region?
29:08
You know, that's an interesting question.
29:11
I don't really think a lot about legacy.
29:14
I would say I, I probably think more about like lasting impact.
29:19
I think about our people that work at Copper Moon, I think
29:22
about their families, really the, the difference that we can
29:26
make just running a good business, the difference that we
29:29
can make by, by them working at Copper Moon, the quality of life
29:34
that they can have by working at Copper Moon.
29:38
So I, I think more about, about that than I do even about
29:43
needing to be sure we pass this business on to the next
29:48
generation. I think about, you know, today,
29:51
let's make sure that we've done things really well and taking
29:55
care of everybody that that, you know, devotes a lot of time and
29:58
effort and energy to to making copper movement what it is
30:01
today. Roast our coffee packaging
30:04
supports this show based out of Wisconsin, just north of you.
30:07
There, they've asked me to try to glean some advice for other
30:12
entrepreneurs. And so you acquired this
30:16
business. What question should young
30:19
entrepreneurs who are considering buying a business or
30:22
buying into a business, you know, what should they be
30:25
asking? You know, what advice would you
30:27
offer them if they came to you and said, hey, Brad, I'm
30:30
thinking about getting into business.
30:31
I think I'm going to look for something to buy.
30:34
What should I know? I think about, I think about
30:39
what I the way I went about it. That's kind of all that I know
30:43
is that I would ask and did ask, what do I want to do with my
30:48
life? What do I want to do with my
30:50
time? How am I wired up?
30:53
What am I made to do? How do I want to invest the
30:57
next, you know, several years in a career?
31:01
And then I would consider, you know, what are what level of
31:05
risk if I'm willing, willing to take and, and then what type of
31:10
business do I want to operate? You know, I look at these other
31:13
so many different, whether it's consumer goods or industrials or
31:18
technology, whatever it may be. And then I would find that area
31:23
that seemed to be of most interest to me.
31:27
And that was really the process I went through.
31:30
And that's why I mentioned earlier, I kept coming up with
31:33
coffee. Coffee was still, you know,
31:37
piquing my interest more than anything else.
31:40
You mentioned what level of risk you're willing to take on and I
31:43
think about that a lot because the level of risk that I'm
31:47
willing to take on has to also match up with the level of risk
31:51
my wife is willing to take on as a small business.
31:54
And so when you're working with family or you are taking on a, a
31:59
challenge, you have to, you have to make sure everyone's on board
32:03
because if they're not supportive, you know, it's going
32:05
to be real tough to come home and say, we had a bad day and
32:10
tomorrow there'll be a good day. You know, what do you do when
32:12
businesses, how do you stay uplifted?
32:15
How do you stay, you know, pushing forward when things are
32:18
challenging? Yeah, that's a good question.
32:22
You know, 1st is my faith. Honestly, you know, I think if
32:25
you have a rough, rough day yesterday or rough day today or
32:29
tomorrow, whatever it it, it all really in the big picture of
32:32
things isn't a big deal. You know, I granted my faith in
32:37
Christ. That's that's number one for me.
32:41
So I really get most of my daily guidance in, in God's word.
32:49
So that's, that's number one. I also have an incredibly
32:52
supportive spouse. My wife is the best,
32:56
encouraging, supportive. And you know, most things are
32:59
pretty temporary. Most of our problems, most of
33:01
our issues, challenges are pretty temporary.
33:03
So if you can push through, have a hopefully positive vision for
33:10
what the outcome would be and you know, keep moving, keep
33:15
fighting, stay passionate, stay connected, have good friends
33:20
around you, you know, people that you can talk to that that's
33:24
been my approach and it it's worked for me.
33:28
I only talked to the dog and he never, you know, he always
33:32
agrees with me, which is great. I don't mean to presume that
33:36
you're a football fan, but if you are, Indiana football is
33:39
kind of having a moment up there.
33:40
How excited is everyone in Indiana?
33:43
Well, that's a that's a very, very good question.
33:47
I've got to say, I've watched more IU football this year than
33:51
ever before. And I'm a Purdue grad, so the IU
33:55
football team and the folks there have done an incredible
33:59
job, been a pleasure to watch. I've definitely had more, more
34:04
comments about being a Purdue fan, you know, this year, of
34:07
course. Well, they're finally tasting a
34:10
little bit of the joy that you've already experienced in
34:13
your life. You know that's.
34:14
Kind of. How I look at it?
34:16
So yeah, the only thing I, I have to shoot back right now is,
34:18
you know, Purdue basketball's ranked #1 so, so we've got that.
34:24
And college basketball just started.
34:25
I've been looking forward to it myself.
34:28
What comes next for you and, and for Copper Moon and Manatee or
34:32
for this coffee business that you're, you know, you've been
34:34
building and and are continuing? You know, we, we, we continue to
34:39
be innovative. We continue to want to increase
34:45
our market share. We're focused on doing that
34:47
whether it be brick and mortar or direct to consumer.
34:52
We continue to be challenged by many things that present, you
34:56
know good opportunities for us. So our our mission really is to
35:00
continue to grow the business, stay innovative, stay hungry and
35:06
continue to find great people to work with in the company and
35:10
great customers to acquire to grow our business for the
35:13
future. Did I miss anything today that
35:16
you wanted to mention or that we just, you know, I just kind of,
35:19
I didn't give enough time to. I don't believe so.
35:23
I, I, I think, I think it's really, really good.
35:27
You know, I think your questions are great.
35:30
I appreciate that, Brad. My last question for everyone is
35:34
always when you stop into a brick and mortar cafe, what are
35:39
you going to order? I always go for a ice I I go for
35:46
an iced americano. Double shot iced americano is my
35:49
go to. Even in the winter time.
35:52
Even in the winter time? Yep.
35:54
Oh man, those Indiana winters can be a little brutal.
35:58
They're brutal. Brad, I really appreciate you
36:02
being here on the show and giving us some of your time.
36:05
Copper mooncoffee.com, manateecoffee.com.
36:08
We're going to share all of those links in our show notes in
36:11
our newsletter, which anyone listening can find if they
36:13
search for coffee People Podcast coffee peoplepodcast.com.
36:18
Thank you for listening to our friends and supporters like
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36:25
the stories of coffee people like Brad.
36:27
Cheers, everyone. Don't forget to tip your
36:29
baristas and thank you for drinking good coffee.
36:35
Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed that episode with Brad.
36:38
I just wanted to pop in here at the end to say thank you for
36:41
listening and sharing. Please tip your baristas and be
36:45
sure to drink good coffee. The.