Supporting Partners and Relationships

Welcome to the Cat and Cloud podcast. This is Casey and I wanted to introduce our five part series called From Soil to Service. We talk to our team at Cat and Cloud to learn about the journey of a single cup of coffee, from the farm all the way to the final guest experience, we explore sourcing, roasting, quality control, tasting, talkal to our wholesale partner program Itet's some education. learearn about the hospitality and much, much more. It's about all those friends that help bring our coffee into the cafes and the communities in our city and beyond. More than anything though, this series is about our respect for the process and also taking the opportunity to share the love of the amazing people whose hard work, collaboration and heart make it happen We're all about creating connections around here, so we wanted to connect with you, our listener and bring you along on the journey. So I welcome you to our fourth installment, which also will be the first of a two piece conversation this time with our lovable leader of wholesale and partner, program, mister Mark Gessler. Now that our coffee has been grown, sourced, roasted, and tested, we're onto the next phase, our coffee's ready How do we get the sweet beans to the people? And how does Cat and Cloud help businesses big or small, get enough of it, dial it in and serve it with skill. And that is where Mark G and his knowledge, teaching and training come in. bo of this one. Here we go You gotta dude, you gotta dude Welcome, wec, are we an?. C Can Cloud podcast. B back. we're here Chris Pay right here with Jared Truby and Mark Eessler All right, so this is the third installment, fourth episode of our Soil to serervice series. If you go back in time, you can listen to us having conversations with Dul Wh's our green coffee buyer here at Cat and Coud You can hear us having conversations with Connor and Johnson. Ingoing and outgoing roastery team leader And now we're here with Mark Gessler Drop that title on him, Dog. Let him know who you are. What's up everybody? I am the Partner and wholesale director here at Cat and Cloud Coffee currently celebrating my nine year anniversary this month with Catin Cloud. So just got to bear witness to Mark opening up his nine year gift I got a camera. You got a camera? Yeah, you did. I'm trying to take some real nice macro shots of a Nudy Binks Ny Brinks. Do you know what a Nutyrink is?s It's aug but it's not au. don't it a slug P people in theideools be hed you itug because it's autyr But it's basically the Pokemon of the tide pool. They come in all different shapes sizes, colors, and they're beautiful. and it is my current fixation. Its like live avatar. It's like that.. It's like you don't even need a CGI avatar. You just go and merge yourself into a tidepool Multicolord underwater camera and get m. Who is this an underwater camera to? This camera can take pictures underwater, it's waterproof. Do you knows just give OM systems, previously Olympus cameras a free shout out, you know? Yeah let's TG seven tough camera. You know, shock resistant Yeah, it is. I'm ready for resistant. I'm ready for the brand collaboration. Sock. Yeah, no, we didn't break it happenf.re here in Santa Cruz, we're a stone's throw away from the beach and people need to take macro pictures. Well the shockunor better, but shock. The impetus of this genre of me really Okay, I'm not gonna lie likeike I coming down to my anniversary gift, I was like, cool, I could get a PS five O I can get something that actually feeds into a hobby that I really have been interested in. And I was really thinking about it more deeply when I was going on a hike My best friend Hannah, has been hosting like a bi weeekly group hike where we just go somewhere in the bay and do a hike and it was really nice. And she commented that I kept pointing out all of these tiny little things. you know, all the little details of like, oh, look at this bug or this plant or this thing. And I was kind of reflecting on my whole life and like, my whole life, I've always really found beauty in those little details of things. you know. So as I was thinking about this gift that I got to, you know muchuch appreciated choose what I was able to receive. I was like, cool, I could either feed into this like playing video games for this time or I could feed into this hobby and give myself more incead of to get out there and I don't know, I'm excited. There's a a lot of beauty in the small things. and my perspective on it is if you are able to find those small things, the big things are always there. You know It's easy to see those, but if you focus in on those little details, you kind of are able to then step back and look at the whole picture and where they fit into it. So. It's beautiful man. Brs are away. Thanks, man. It's a good metaphor to coffee in there probably Yeah, I many. We've neglected to forego the gold watch when you retire for anniversary gifts that are highly useful. And I'm glad you chose going outside versus sitting on the couch. think Every time. I think it's a beautiful thing. S. ye The couch will always be there when you're tired of the outside It's like the big thing. Thech is like the big thing the couch is like sit on that thing. whenever, dude. totally there, dude. It's fine. It's I mean I gotta st Why not ever see this slug again? Exactly. Nine years is wild. We were just talking that you are are Oest employee, most senior employee Yeah, you're' not our old. It's like I like the geriatric boy. That's Jh's gosh Yeah, but no, it is, I am like the longest standing I think Jen Swn, you, shout out Jenny. She's also there. I know she's more on the admin side on the, you know, just did you guys get hired at the same time? You were in the same literally group Yeah. And then her Herman, who's right after us like literally right after. We were debating. Alyssa might have been in a similar group, but I don't know exactly which class she was in. It was all She was right there. was pretty close. She was com straight out of high school. so her presence was different, you know. And you were like, I'm coming here with my college degree r at party and then came back and you have outstanding attendance. Yeah. Jared, I do at some point I'm going to ask you to dive into your GM account and find the six page you dont read it together essay that I sent you about why I wanted work at Catton becausecause I was pretty intentionally suuper good. I was honing in on that. I was just riding my bike around Davis after going to class and listening to the podcast being like, I want to go back to Santa Cruz and be a barista. Yeah, what was that about? What were you doing at the time? and what was your history in coffee? Why did you want to work here? Yeah, totally. So I started working as a barista at Verve in twenty fourteen and just really, you know, fell in love with like cafe culture Through that coffee, just all the different tastes and all the different Again, like all the little details that go into it just really spell on me and my, you know, my interest and what I liked. And I worked at VerV for about a year and a half until I was going to Cabrio Community College. My whole plan was like was this was always just supposed to be my part time job while I was in college transferred to UC Davis. worked in cafes a bit out there but kind of took a little bit of time not working and just focused on school. But the whole time I was in school You guys were just starting to put out the podcast. L you started the podcast in twenty fifteen You know, that was literally like right around the time that I moved. There were rumors of somethingomet happening were rumors in the water. Yeah, no, there was in in the coffee community something no in our in our little pocket of here in Santaruz, you know, you hear rumblings of like, oh like Chris is in slow, Jared's in Santa Barbara. right What's what's going on and I would kind of, I was really into the podcast and what you guys were speaking to from like It's funny. I think about have like really specific instances of like driving around Davis or riding my bike, listening to the podcast, not just about like coffee and culture, but about like some of like the self care stuff and like how you were going into like opening this business and like all the little details that went into it and I don't know just really It had me much more enthused than about like life in the future than what I was studying in school, you know. And I think that's a little bit of a reflection of maybe the environment that I flourish in, which is a little bit more hands on, a little bit more human connected than just like, you know, no so the grindstone in the books on the computer doing that whole thing. Yeah and Yeah, I think like Six months before I graduated, I sent Jared like you know, I was fully in like college thesis, wrriting essayOes, like the like the five paragraphs conn. Wh Jared. I wanted to work at Cat and Cloud and I don't know. I also had other touch points. One of my favorite little tidbits. I feel like I've told this on a podcast before. Tell it again every time I was in town go back to work at Vverve just part through, you know, just like literally like two weeks, three weeks, like a month, you know, summer break, spring break, whatever, I'd pick up shifts and mostly at the Seabright Cafe where Charles would work. So I actually kind of got to know Charles a little bit more before I even knew you guys. L would played basketball together, like I would talk to him over the counter in the cafe and then One day, before anyone knew that he was even a part of what you did, he came downstairs from the offices. You know, the verb of Seabright Cfe is literally directly below the offices. You're just taking care of everyone that works there. And he had a little cuping bowl of coffee in his hand And he was like Hey man, can you, uh Make me a cappuccino with this And I was like Sure, you know, so I like, made a really terrible EK shot because he only had enough coffee to make like one shot. It was like, you know, forty grams out in fifteen seconds. beams. Laser beams, yeah, just flying and made the cappuccino, and I walked up to the office and I'm like, okay, I can tell this is a natural process from how it smells, but like what's up with this? And he literally like kind of like peeks around and then he like goes down into his bag and he opens it and I see the very first like teal bag of cat and cloud coffee just like peeking out of it. and I was like Whoa. And I think that was the moment where I was like mooving down hereishre squirrel. Yeah. I'm like finishhing college to move back in with my parents to be a barista and work for it because I just saw the vision and that kind of excitement. and sometimes in life you just need to pursue that even if it doesn't necessarily make the most sense. Hell yeah It was it was a well written long We'll call it an article. was but it was really good and I was like You had already though physically talked to me before you even sent it and you pre game me that it was coming. Yeah. And so I already had I remember having I was like, well, this is likely going to be obvious, but I will obviously read this and honor that. But This is obviously a good person who's really interested and that's, you know, how you build a business is having people who really want to do what you're what you're talking about and putting out as your vision. So it was really fun to have you come back and be like, no, I'm coming for this And the intention there is really strong, right? I'm gonna to need you to take a note, sorry I didn't hur you. Write this down. We gott to find this and like print it out and hang it on the wall or something like that. Which thing The thing that mark sent. I want toah find it out. Yeah, I'll find it. I can't find it Yeah. I sent it It's gotta be a piece of lore. I sent it from my like U see Davis. edu email address I do not have access to. Yeah. And I also wrote it in that Google drive that was attached to that. So there is no way for. Well, I hope nothing's happened to my email.'ll find out somewhere, maybebe it likely would be. I still have a lot of the emails from back in the day. Yeah. It'd pretty sweet to see. And it was like right in the time frrame because I graduated like Cfe opened in Sepember twenty sixteen. And this would have been right at the beginning of twenty seventeen. and then I moved back and actually started working like right after graduation.. I remember there was this Mark's coming, but he's got to finish school first. Yeah Mark's going be coming. I drove in from Davis for one day to do orientation. Yeah left because I couldn't start working right away becauseuse I needed to graduate and do that whole thing Funny funny surreal real times just ripping my two thousand Rv four back and forth a lot. Dude. It's a g machine. Then you sold it to Johnson No, I sold my bike to Johnson. I sold my trusty sted that I wre around Davis on the Surlely cross. That was what that was. Sure Shirlely the Surly? Yeah, Sirlely Shirley, The Surlely. shes she's sitting outside right now, I think. Mbe my old girlfriend. What was it like when you pulled up? Like when you got here, you know, you have this anticipation of working at this place of Run by people you know, you're getting these little snacks of culture from the podcast and you're feeling like you believe in it and then you actually show up Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think I was like primed to have a good time because it felt like pr No, it felt like more of a homecoming because I worked somewhere when I was in Davis that I really did not enjoy my experience working there. I'm not gonna'm not going to, you know call it out who like where it was, but I did not enjoy my time working there and I saw a lot of cracks in crracks in the way they operated and why culture was so important. So I feel like I already had a good sense that it was going to be real, but I did not step in with the mentality. Like it was funny. D will say, I remember I was listening to her episode and she was talking about how like, you know, I was like, okay, yeah, sure. what's it actually going to be like? you know, and then it's real, but I didn't need that proven to me. So I felt like I was trying to step in and just hold like I already felt like I had a good understanding of what we were working towards and what we wanted to deliver. So I felt this like pressure of stepping in. I remember being really nervous on my first few shifts. Like I remember like fumbling, trying to like hand against a lid and Tanner was there just being like, Hey man, You know what you're doing, just be cool. You know I felt like I was too nervous about it because I felt that pressure. But I think that's also a byproduct of how entrenched in early pod and things I was, you know, I just felt like this this gravitas of like, we need to deliver on this promise that we're making to people. I think he's got something here. Well Is this spepecifically your final research paper or was it another one Theot of and currently titled fininal research paper Hold on though, there's plenty more that I need to get into. so I hold it up now. I was just looking to see what I have. So I gotta keep looking here. I might essent you my final research paper because I also wrote my research paper about coffee for a writing class that I. Yeah. I I have to keep looking at Sidge, but I have some stuff. for sure Take note, Mark knows how to build the resume. Okay It's not about creating this CV where it's like, here's my work experience. like Yeahah, I have a research paper on coffee. okay? There you go. I'm going to write you a six page letter on why you should consider me Keep go as a brand ambassador, special frontliner M. But no, I do remember those early days where I felt that pressure, but then there was also this like constant evolution happening in that time, you know, because it's like And this is something that I now Like was able to take that experience from. but I really feel like in the first year of operating a cafe, you're Figuring all that that like you can take a cafe to like maybe eighty percent before you open, But that last twenty percent of those details and how service evolves how your space flows and all those things like have to come together seeing the space in action. You know, There's only so much planning and preparation you can do until you have a high volume of people coming through and different people working in these systems to see how it works. So I feelt like there was a lot of You know, different Things we were exploring at that time. like even remember like switching from like adding sixteen ounce cups becauseuse we started with just twelve adding whipped cream instead of just marshmallows, like all those little things are now details that I get to like share with our partners, you know, like that's actually one of my favorite parts of our job is that like I have been here seeing us having gone from Just Portola, you know, Frankie, the twenty SF twenty five in the single carport garage, like everything happening in that space to opening Abbott Square opening Swift Street, opening ATs and seeing all that different trial and error that went into that. And now it's just this like Rolodecks of knowledge in my head of like, cool, like we tried this. It didn't work. This really worked well, you know? ' it's not all sunshines and daisies like sure things work, sometometimes things don't work. That's like the the biggest thing that I think businessinesses struggle with is wanting things to be perfect from the jump, like wanting to like know every detail. and it's just like you can't Not possible. You gotta fuck around and find out. Like you need to just like see how it works It's funny to go back. I haven't gone to that. just because I saw these other things that wasnt like, oh interesting. I sent you like, I don't know if you remember this, but I sent you like some pre game questions to answer about like your interest. And I think this would likely have been after you sent the thing because we would have been in communication somehow, maybe I was like giving your email, but it was like I asked them three questions. We don't have to go too deep into any of this stuff, but the first question was say you got a job at Cat and Cloud. What would be two to three benchmarks you would set for yourself in a three year timeline to say I was successful? And then you answered some good ones and it was like, what in your opinion are some of the most appealing things about Cat and Cloud to guests and yourself Uh, and We it'd be really interesting. And then the last one is if you could see yourself influcing Cat and Cloud and adding value, what specific areas would it be and why? And youre like You went for it and it's funny, I still have the reason I have this is I think we talked in person, but I have an unfinished draft that I literally could have kept going on. This says Sorry for my response taking so long and that's where it's It's still available for me to send and finish But I Well, because some of those some of those also might have come through. I remember also early in my time there, you posted for like like an assistant role. likeike someone That's another email email thread. Yeah, an executive assistant. But that was a great conversation because Cheryl's did it. She's killing it. But yeah, but like that was a great conversation of like, hey, like I see that you're into what we're doing. I don't know if this is the right zone for where you want to be, but we have, I think at that point we knew the roastery was going to be expanding. like yeah, mayaybe Alex was just starting to do wholesale stuff. There were other venues potentially. that was kind of where it was like the shift because at that point, I was just hungry, like, I'm going to pursue any opportunity I can. Like I did know stepping into it Like my mentality, like at that point You know, it's like I've been a barista for a long time, but I'd been a barista long enough to know that I wanted to be able to translate this and do other things with it. You know I did not want to be in the cafe every day long long term, just for like what works for like me and my schedule in my and how I feel. I was like wanted to be doing something where I could connect with other people outside of it, but still share what we do culturally and all this information about coffee, you know, like attention to detail Barista skills like hospitality and how you connect the dots between those two, those were like big things for me that I was kind of already thinking about. So I would have applied for any job that got posted. Right. Yeah. And you totally were. You put for like the summation of your three, right? like You wanted to make sure that you are leaning into being educated that there would was personal growth and that you wanted to influence our business or wherever you worked and applying skills that you haven andt have been developing in life through college and coming up. So I think that was part of we did do a lot of talking about like career development out the gate for you because you were pretty clear about like, yes, I want to be here But I want to be here to develop your company, not be here to be just a barista. And that was like definitely on the table from the very, very beginning So that was really awesome. And then obviously you were hungry coming out of your study. so you're like sustainability and cafe efficiencies and operations that you know all you were talking about studying U in your time being a Brista and working as a Brista in other cafes, that one or two that you talked about openly but not completely openly and learning. And so you were like, yeah, I think when if Iire aat in Cloud, one of my benchmarks would be the application of knowledge to help the company look more per parameters and find out how they can be adequate to save both money and resources and be more sustainable in the long haul. I know. and leadership was one another thing too, we mentioned. So It's gonna be interesting to go into some of this stuff and You are very specific about some of these other places at the last questions. that's why I'm not putting it. It's really good. No free advertising No free Raped. Not from freaking the Gessler So he yeah, you pursued many things and then found your way to working under at the time our head of wholesale. Thanks for the responses. and sorry I haven't replied. Draft deleted. Yeah w. Sorry, bro. What was When was the first time you got a roll that was outside of the cafe Yeah, I was trying to remember the exact timeline pretty close proximity where I started working part time in the roastery and then I started doing like five to ten hours a week with Alex in wholesale And I think I applied for the wholesale role first, if I If I'm not Mistaken And then from there, the roastery opportunity opened up for a similar amount of time, but it worked out with the roastery shift structure where I could do the roastery work, but then peel off and do the little bit of admin wholesale stuff that I was doing. becausecause literally I was just processing invoices and starting to field some initial leads that reached out to us. but it was all right in that time frrame, and I was trying to remember if that was end of twenty seventeen or early twenty eighteen, but it was all kind of right in that pocket I don't remember How long I was exclusively in the cafe? I think it was about six months though. Not super long. Yeah, no,s not super long. yeah And what else was going on in that wholesale department? Like what kind of partners did we have? What kind of leads were coming in? Yeah, totally. I mean, early on it was like companion bake shop. I remember when we started working with Menaot', that was like a huge impactful thing. Yeah. remember like you designing the label like on your computer, like put it the original file, like just going try to put it together. Yeah and just hacking stuff together Yeah strator Exactly. So like those are some of the big impactful things and like seeing the impact that something like that could have on business as well, you know, because those things really do create more ability for us to grow and create opportunities for other people. We got into like New Laf our local grocery store. remember that? Alex was like coding the backac endnd of our ordering platform, which we still use the same infrastructure for today for better or for worse. Its Not for long. Not for long. Sorry, Alex. You had a good run, guys. Yeah It was great. It's been great. It's been great. But yeah, just a lot of A lot of like building the foundation of these systems and a lot of the time because between You know, end of twenty seventeen, early twenty eighteen I fully transitioned one hundred percent into wholesale in twenty nineteen So at some point in between that time frrame, that year of twenty eighteen, you know, I scaled back from the cafes entirely and was just in the roastery in wholesale. and then twenty nineteen came and I was fully in wholesale mode and just the partner program We offer a coffee subscription and there's a couple different paths you can walk down. make cappuccinos on your linea maker at home. You can get the answer, onene of our flagship blends on repeat and have an espresso that's so easy to dial in It should be illegal. It's incredible with milk. It's like you're chewing on nouga that somebody accidentally sprinkled berries on top of. This is what we use for all our milk based beverages in the cafe, and we have it on drip. Or maybe you like to mix it up Maybe you spent five racks on your Weber Worshops EG one. I get it fire up a Raster's choice subscription and you can taste the rainbow. We've got different regions, different processing methods, different varieties. These are the coffees that we love that rotate, so you never get bored and always have something fresh in the hopper At Cat and Cloud, we envisine a world in which businesses put culture first and this is the world that you're helping support by choosing Pat and Cloud for your subscription What did it feel like to be completely out of the cafe sad a little bit to be honest. I still love like making coffee and being a barista It's like the thing I get to like turn my brain off and just like do it and have fun. And at that time, we weren't doing as many like in person coffee engagement thing. so my time doing that was just delivering wholesale trainings, you know, to some of our local partners and things like that. But I missed it a lot. You know, you're friends with the people you work with, you're working with this product that you really love and doing service And that's the flip side. I still sometimes to say catch myself being like, oh man, I wish I could be a barista and do that, you know, But then I also know if I were to do that for a certain amount of time, I'd be feeling the other side of that. You know, it's kind of a grass is always greener thing, you know. And I think that's the ultimate truth that I found about myself is I like evolution and change in the work that I get to do and this job is a little bit different every single day. You know, Some days you're running into the bay to visit partners, some days you're doing hands on training. Some days you're just on your computer and on phone calls, Some days you're getting to do service in another business' space. likeike that's super, super fun. And I love that mixture. Like I'm not the type of person that can do the exact same thing every single day. That just like hurts my soul to be able to do that. and Yeah, I don't know. It's been really amazing to see the program grow in a way where all these different opportunities arise But also then we get to evolve how we serve our partners based off their needs. you know? It's kind of the beauty of what we've been able to build is that like We didn't have a set structure for every single thing, you know? So my perspective is always just like, ask us, see what we can do. And if we can put something together, we will. And if cant, we'll let you know, but we'll always find some kind of solution and way of supporting. You know, whether you're like smaller local business or you're a larger scale tech campus, you know that needs support across multiple cafes in really simple systems. like those are kind of the fun parts of my job and I still love working with like small cafes the most, you know, becauseuse you get to like instill this barista culture into this hospitality service detail that It's so fun. It's so much fun. They're really interested in it, obviously. And then specific level. one hundred percent. And then I feel like I get to create create spaces that are the types of spaces that I like to go step into and be a guest at, you know? So That's a lot of fun too And we have to look because the specific Kat and Cloud Gmail with our update doesn't have as much of my old stuff. So the one that was attached Jared Truby at the time has everything, everything. So I'm have to see if Mich can takeake me back into history further. I'm not gonna lie. If I actually read what I wrote, I might just like cringe into a tiny little ball of crumpled paper. Oh Yeah, you for sure would. I would like one hundred percent Oh Time will do that to you. Yeah. It'd probably be very heartfelt, honest and awesome and then written in a way that makes you want to go hide under a rock. Exactly. Yeah There's moments, I'm sure. I mean, I have I have stuff from MF Gessler for sure, but it's I only have two And one of them is you letting me know about partner program website updates that weren't working. I do want to ask if there were specific moments or if it was just slow and over time. where you felt like you were coming into your own in this new role because you worked with Alex who was running our wholesale partner program at the time And then You know, like you said, we didn't have any systems We didn't have of these benchmarks as kind of figuring it out as we go along. and now on any given week You'll be Meeting with some of our Hotel partners like Beachy over at the Rosewood or you'll be over the hill at LinkedIn doing events or helping independent ' like the perch, you know, comes to visit and you're helping set up You've got all this skill, you got all this game in many different ways. When did you start to feel like, yeah, I got this Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I do remember there being a lot of times of being sure and like not knowing what the right path forward was and if it was something that it was okay to do. But over time and reaffirmation from like Alex, but also like Charles and in you guys in a lot of ways, it's just became clear that like We can use our resources to support our partners. like the impact of People consistently You know Sourcing our coffee like week after week is so impactful to our business that we're able to reinvest that into the relationships to make sure that they're well taken care of. And we can feel free to do that. And part of it culturally, I think, almost establishes with like early power to please, you know like up toty dollarars in the cafe, you can do anything you need to to make it right for a guest. You know whether that's a forty dollar gift card or compopping hle burrito in a whole food situation, you know? And we have a higher level of that with the partner program Yeah because in the end of the day, like Something that goes wrong is just an opportunity to make it right. And even if it costs a little bit more, you know, like the FedEx package goes missing or ten days to arrive and you need to spend three hundred dollars to overnight thirty pounds. So many times, especially with FedEx ' FedEx sucks. We'll free advertising for UPS. We've made the switch, have you up for our class. It's worth investing in because you need to remember we are supplying a product that other businesses rely on to operate. like this coffee that has gone through all these different stages of soil to service. This is the last step that gets to service. This is the step that gets it there. So it has to arrive in a timely fashion in a way where it's not gettingetting to people when it's two weeks off roast. you know, you want to get it to people in the time frrame. so they can age it out to their desired method, you know. No matter how many times I encourage it, there's always going to be some people that wait until they run out and order and get fresh coffee the next day and that's okay. That's up to them. You over still it needs to reliably get there. So We are allowed to do it, but To me, that's like the ultimate step of like taking care of this product in its final stages. you know, it went from origin, you know, halfway around the world back to us and now it's going somewhere else in the U.S. It's going to the U.K. Maybe it's going just down the street from where our roastery is, you know, wherever that is, it needs to get there and it needs to be like consonsistent and reliable, right because other businesses need it. It is what their it is the promise they have made to their guests to be able to deliver it. Right. And I know you've taken on like emotionally feeling that responsibility in your department from the beginning and that'sing you literally driven coffee to Fresno on a Saturday morning because they were about to run out and I didn't feel good about it. Totally. you know That's like real dedication and care for our guests on the next next level. And that's relationship building, which is something that you're extremely strong. And it's one of the skills, I think that is key to wholesale relationships. It's not just about selling something. It's about I enjoy doing it and I think that's abolutely by productrouct of the history of what we've done how we've talked about hospitality, you know, because hospitality is taking care of other people. Yeah, you know. And as we've talked about It's been talked about in this the series. likeike coffeees are conduits to doing that. Absolutely. But it's also all these businesses conduits to doing it for their guest. Right. You know, So there's like this how c is that. Yeah, it's this connection and all these different, you know Points of split off Yeah needs to be reliable throughout. Yeah. And I think it's important that people all over remember that that is really a huge connection point and it's a really great opportunity. and it's something You obviously, yeah, do not take lightly. It's like you know, in our in our supply chain that we're talking through we're talking to the person now who connects the coffee externally with anybody who doesn't, you know, work in our cafes. and you still help internally as well. You have more support on site when it comes to getting coffee to our cafes, like you used to have to do all of the above, right? And that was extremely crazy and busy U and you were handling it, but we got to the point where it's like, all right, let's we need to focus specifically on all these partners out here between the Bay Area and the United States and further that really want to connect with you and Eddie and Florida, Texas, North Carolina all across the U.S. Yeah, you know, like largely because of the impact of this podcast, you know, and how that resonated with people the broad reach of it, you know. So it's kind of been on us to figure out how we can build our systems to take care of people all over the place. You know, we are We are a local business. We have cafes in this community, but We have a lot of partners in this area, but we also have a lot of partners not here, you know? So Well, that's where your attunement strong though, right? Because you have the ability to have come from, you did work in our cafes for a while. and other cafe experiences. so you have the ability to look at Like I think there' there's value in that because you've seen multiple ways of doing this and being at Verb they're clearly successful and have been successful and many different ways And then those other cafes were also successful, but maybe culturally different. And then we have what we have So you've got to take all these perspectives and what's key to what you're able to do, right is you're able to see levels of business through the lens of the people working in them. there's a level of empathy and connection there that is also really authentic based on your experience. And that's That I think is a really key factor. You can't have people in a wholesales apartment. you can have people, but who just go out there and they're like, you got to buy our coffee. It's the best coffee ever. We got this, we got that. this' who we are. And that is beneficial to a point if somebody just wants that, but then there's the whole other side of how helpful is it and are they getting the right product for what they're working with? how they use it, Are they doing the right job or the best job? and And what level of care do they desire? And those are all things that I think you've figured out how to engage with as well as Eddie to shout out Eddie as well who you two do a really great job with that. So that that's kind of flowers and cookies, but it's also I think a really important point to this portion of business is that you are actually helping people and There's a lot of different levels too, the difference between a grocery partner and a small cafe partner and a company of sorts, right Total. Thank you for the kind words. Re really appreciate it. and also major shout outs to Eddie, my colleague in the partner program. Like I would not be you know, in the position I am this year, especially in last year without his support and what we've been able to build. And also shout out to the people, you know, Eli before him and Gene before him, which is like we've had an amazing team of people that are super aligned with our vision of what we're trying to build and this this flexibility of it, you know. I think that's like a huge aspect of it is like How We're able to evolve our program and learn from the needs of our partners and then build this suite of flexible things that fit in with them., because it's not cookie cutter. it's not one size fits all. Sure, there's a general suite of things that might help a smaller cafe or a larger scale business dining operation, but there's also you know, you never know the specific ass you're going to get. And again that that going back to kind of one of your earlier questions, Chris, it's like That used to be the thing that was intimidating to me because I was like, Oh, I don't know, can we do this? But because of the empowerment we've been given and the way we've been able to see this positively affect our business, I feel like I'm going to try it Charles comes to me and says, Hey, we spent a lot of money on this. I know that I can back it with my reasoning for it and there's trust there. You know, That's the other huge aspect of this is like, I think there's built trust that we have, you know, and that like I'm not just going to frivolously like make decisions and try to like spend money just for the sake of getting it out there, but it is in service of our partners and also making sure that We are going to continue to get the best representation of our coffee no matter where it is, which is like hugely important to any wholesale program. You need to make sure that your product is able to be served well and there's resources surrounding that. whether it is a really hyper specialty cafe, or it's a cafe that doesn't have scales and is trying to make it work with the equipment they have, you know? You need to have systems for both of those. What do you think is some of the things that are the most rewarding that are like You know, you're newer banks a wholesale Oh man, honestly, just like, you know, yeah, the relationships that I've gotten to build with so many different people, you know, startarting off, it was like a lot of like you know, smaller businesses, like places that are, you know We're similar size to Cat and Cloud or just have one location or maybe going from one location to two locations. Yeah My friend Zach from Previously from the Lyhaall in Minneapolis, He now owns his own Eina coffee rooasting company. Youina Minnesota. likeike that's an amazing relationship that I'm thankful for. you know, even partners that have moved on, you know, cafes that, you know, wanted to explore coffee options after being with us for a few years, you know,ir circle coffee comppany in Topeka, Kansas, Gold in San Antonio.. Jason, Stephanie and the whole team there. like the Valor boys. The Valor Bys. Yeah, you know, like great people that we've gotten to connect with, you know My I'm literally wearing their t shirt right now, but Wayward coffee in Dallas, Texas. Like I've worked with Wayward. from Trev Trev and Noah are like a few years younger than me, not that much younger than me. And they were one of the first inquiries that I fielded where they were starting a pourover business out of their like memers the EW microbus. Y. And they've grown to be two of the busier cafes in the Dallas area and they're starting to roast this year. I'm's later this year, I'm going to plan a trip out of out there to visit them, to support them. you know abbsolutely. them roasting is a huge win for us because that means that we've been able to support them through all this point where their business is flourished enough to be able to make that step, which is the right step for a business of their size as well, you know? So it's just all those relationships. And then even expanding from that, like I've made amazing connections with people at Bon Aete. You know, Rodney who was at LinkedIn previously and now he's moved on to other places, and but we still get to work together, like those kind of connections that you get peopleeople that truly care about the execution of this product at the places that they' there managing and working with. Yeah. Th those are like super fun connections that really fill me up. So I again, love coffee. I love being in proximity to our roastery where I can walk in and grab coffee out of a bucket and stash it and age it out to where I want it to be and brew coffee in our place and at home The things that really fill me up are getting to have these connections with people and You know, see how our product and the support that we give helps evolve their service environment. Yeah that's really the thing that just like makes me makes me happy and excited. And like my ideal day at work is I get to make some coffee and then have multiple phone calls where I'm just talking to people all day and like questions, helping them, you know, maybe get a few tasks from that but thats that's fun. It's flexible I'm bouncing around Yeah. It's nice. So you're like a friend and a proud dad, dude. That's basically the vibe of'm shitting here, dude. It's a strong friend. I teacher Really cool. From friend to father. From friend to father is our next series of podcasts. From field trip dad to full on real dad. Real dad. to offspring Not yet. You gota get away from. Wait. Oh wait,, run that thing back on All right Its timee to hear from Yeah, yeah. so we got you know, Jacob from the perch. In North Carolina, they're getting ready to open in July of this year. It is a cafe with a heavy emphasis on board games, giving people a space to hang out. They're going to have a fully flesushed out food program, coffee. And Jacob' has been a longt time follower of the podcast and really truly like plugged into our culture and wants to do right by the product and the service that he delivers. He came out and visited us earlier in the year, which is was amazing to get to spend that time. We're going to go out and support him for that opening as well. But he dropped this track on the podcast submission What's up Cotton Cloud? This is Jake from the Perch in Hollly Springs in North Carolina. W I've been smashing the buttons on the podcast as Jared likes to say since like twenty nineteen. It's been such an encouraging Monday morning regroup for me to discover that there's like these other dudes out there that think like me Anyways, check it out. I want to drop three quick tracks for y allall. First is a question, the second an affirmation, and then finally I want to close out with a shout out. First, the question. seeveral weeks ago, Jared, you had requested some topic ideas and I was just thinking, given your guys' vision and values I'd really love to hear more about quote unquote like planning in the moment So like what does this look like for you all? How do you all go about like coaching your team to do it well How do you support adjusting? like say, like in the moment, when adjustments may not be in the SOPs This kind of question came to mind as I was reflecting like how you all even like created or crafted like the one on one. as my understanding is it was like simply like one of those like JRR token moments what he would call like an amazing U catastrophe. Second track Agile Scrum Hell yeah, soon as ass soon to be former consultant of entnerprise like change management. I've been doing this for like twenty five years implementing Aile and sccrum and Ogs you can actually master how to do this on the op side and not just the technological side, and I just want to say and I share this with your team, just keep leaning into it Keep it front and center that aggile and Scrum is really only valuable to your organization if you're getting guest feedback after a sprint. So keep checking in with them. Final track A little bit of love Well, I love your culture. Your leadership and your team simply have like an orbit in this huge splash zone that has made a positive impact on me personally I want to thank you all for your generous time when it came out in February Y'all have such a kind spirit. I really didn't expect like Chris and Charles to have time to engage with me, but you all did. I know, Jared, you were traveling But I was just simply humbled that Leah, Herman, Mark, Casey, and especially Eddie took time with me and continue to invest in our organization, the Pch It's clear why Kat and Cloud is growing It's a priority that you're investing in your own team members and have them clearly at the helm of curating your culture. You guys were just more than a host to me. You demonstrated genuine care and real investment in the purch We're excited to have you all out here this you know when we open this summer, and we're really proud to serve Cat and Cloud So we just want to say keep leaning in Keep aiming higher and make it great. This is Jake and I'm out Keep grinding, keepep shining, knowing you can always That. Well that was neat. Jake's amazing. He was we had so much fun spending time with him and you can just really tell from the way he engages and asks questions and is thinking about What he's observing in our business and our culture, both in the service side and also just from time spent in the admin office and the roastery that he is really tuned into how he can build a space that channels some of the energy that we offer. And I love his question as well if we can talk about that. like the planning in the moment thing because I don't know, I bet I feel like you probably have an immediate take on it. Planning in the moment in regards to our culture and mission and values. Yeahah is kind of what he's asking. like how do you do it? What do you do? Well,ah and think he didn't even touch on the mission values of it but I think that's how you do Absolutely That is the key to giving people those tools because I don't know, we consistently talked about this where You will never be able to SOP for everything that a guest in a cafe is going to ask you for. Right. You know Absolutely Correct I mean, offhand that is ex What I always keep coming back to is how well does everybody you know, know the mission and the values and How often do we practice talking about how lives and breathes. And I think there's always room for improvement here We have an amazing leadership team. and the ones who have been with us, you know, the longest have the easiest time with this, but I still think the opportunities across the board really are to I don't think we in the world of business, we value or spend enough time recognizing that conversations around these things and just like The philosophies are the big work that allow people to have more autonomous decision making. And I think we end up going like We're just wasting our time sitting here talking versus getting to work. And if we aren't spending the time collaborating in these conversations and saying like you know, if this, then what are some ideas around how you might respond to whatever it might be, right? Like even the concept of a power to please and spending forty dollars on somebody comes from that, you know, it's not it that is an SOP, but you can't always have an SOP, right? it's like How do we re act? How do we behave? and locking those things in and oftentimes you have never gone through something before. So every time you go through an experience that you have and it's like How we behave? Do that in line with our mission and our values or not. We've never done this before, so that's okay. What are we going to do better the next time? And let's talk it through and make sure that that you know, that information isn't or siloed out in the departments. So for me, that's the thing I think about most is it's like Where does the information start and finish and where the where the either bottlenecks that keep it from that or the places where there's misalignment or just like or it's just not happening. What is what is the reasoning for that? because To me, that's ultimately, what I think about all of the time is The more people that understand clearly what we're trying to do easier and better and less personal everything becomes, right? It's what we said from the beginning. If you understand our mission and our values feeedback's never personal. It's just about what we signed up for. If we understand all these things, we know what we're pursuing and then we can kind of talk through, even when there's a misunderstanding, you talk through why we're trying to go where we're going. So that's what I think about all the time And I try to think about how to make sure that there's clarity around that. And it's that would be the challenge, but also the ever The everlasting goob stopper of cycle Yeah, I think the biggest thing. If you're going to live, eat, sleep, breathe something is you have to activate on it. Put it at the forefront of what you do every single day. It's really easy to do a postmortem on a big project or a big initiative. and take the time to say, cool, what were we trying to accomplish? What went well? What would we do better next time It's trickier when you're in the cafe fiveive days a week for years to activate on those things. So I'll give you an example. We do orientation Orientation sets people up to engage with the culture from day one. They learn about our mission, our values and how we act on those things. So it's a good first step, but it is nowhere near enough. If all we did was orientation, and it never revisited any of those things on the day today They would just start slipping A huge part of creating compelling experiences is by pairing excellent coffee with excellent culture, training, service, and systems. And that's what we help people do in our wholesale partner program So we work with everyone from single location independent shops to large scale business dining operations and The one thing all our partners have in common is that the experience they create for their guests is paramount We work with people who want to bring joy to other people and use coffee as their conduit to do that. From in person training to access to recipes, service, bar flow, and techniques that make creating high quality beverages as simple as possible, wed love to share what makes our retail stores sing so that you can have that same level of impact with your guests If you want to serve Cat and Cloud, there's a link in the description to our wholesale form or you can go to catincloud dot com slash wholesale All right everyone, that's the podcast for this week If you've got something culture, coffee, or business related that's tickling your brain and you want us to shine a light on it. You can send us an email to podcast at catancloud. com There's also a podcast page on our website. If you scroll to the bottom of that page, you can record a voice message for us with your questions or comments. But be warned, we will play your beautiful voice on our podcast unless you tell us not to. Our website is also a hub for all things Cat and Cloud, including coffee. If you're looking For somewhere to start, you don't know where that is. The answer, our flagship blend is a great go to coffee. use it for all of our milk based espresso beverages in the cafes and we always have it on as a brewed coffee option. It's super easy to pull for all you home espresso wizards. We've also got a rotating menu of single origin o ings if you want to get into something a little bit more wild, and explore some of the different characteristics that these special copies have to offer Check it out catancloud dot com dot appreciate you spending your time with us. We hope you're having an amazing week. Peace