November 11, 2025 • 30 mins
What if losing everything was the start of your calling?
In this inspiring episode, Rick Evans, co-owner of Evans Brothers Coffee (https://evansbrotherscoffee.com), opens up about how the 2008 crash turned his world upside down and how that moment became the catalyst for building one of the top three coffeehouses in the U.S.
From a ski-lift brainstorm to 18 months without a paycheck, Rick and his brother built Evans Brothers Coffee with nothing but grit, faith, and community. His story is proof that perseverance pays off and quitting is never the answer.
☕ Today’s Roast: Stop being a quitter.
When it gets hard, don’t walk away. Grit is built in the grind.
✨ In This Episode
•How the 2008 crash birthed Evans Brothers Coffee
•The ski-lift conversation that started it all
•What to do when your dream feels impossible
•Why community matters more than money
•Free business resources every entrepreneur should know
•Finding your “why” when you want to quit
🔗 Connect with Rick Evans
Website: https://evansbrotherscoffee.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evansbrotherscoffee/
🔗 Sponsored by:
TOCH Construction: https://www.tochconstruction.com/
Allstate Insurance – Rob Shaw: https://agents.allstate.com/robert-shaw-harrisburg-pa.html
Chavis Law Firm: https://www.chavislawfirm.com/
Dirty Dog Hauling: https://dirtydoghauling.com/
💼 Powered by The Erica Rawls Team: https://ericarawls.com/
👍 Like this episode? Leave a review and share it with someone who needs a reminder to keep going when life gets hard.
🔔 Subscribe and join our community for more real stories of grit, purpose, and building something from the ground up.
#CoffeeWithE #EricaRawlsTeam #NonprofitWork #EvansBrothersCoffee #RickEvans #EntrepreneurMindset #GritAndGrace #NeverQuit #Resilience #SmallBusinessStory #FromFailureToSuccess #CoffeeEntrepreneur #BrotherhoodInBusiness #StayInIt
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erica Rawls (00:00):
Hey you! I had the pleasure of sitting down with
Rick Evans.
He is co-owner of EvansBrothers Coffee.
And when I tell you the storythat he shares is just one that
you will probably resonate with.
You'll know someone or you orthat person.
True overcomer, true grit andtenacity to succeed.
And to see where he came fromand where he is today, I'm sure
(00:23):
you're going to take somethingaway from it.
Today's roast, stop being aquitter.
Every time that you try a thingthat you know you're supposed
(00:44):
to do and it doesn't go yourway, you quit.
Why is that?
Where is the grit?
Where's the determination?
Where is the stickness?
Stay in it too.
Whatever you want to call it,do it.
Because I know of a person thathad came from nothing and is
now doing something veryinstrumental.
(01:05):
And it surrounds coffee.
So why can't you?
Don't quit.
Have no money in the bank.
Figure a way how to get yourbills paid.
Be resourceful.
You feel like you're at the endof your rope.
Okay.
There's other people in thesame position, but they figured
it out.
So figure out a plan, figureout your big why, stay on game,
(01:27):
and you got this.
Well, Rick, thank you so muchfor this opportunity to sit down
and have coffee with me.
Um we are so grateful for you.
You were probably the furthestguest that we actually had on
our podcast, and you are a bigdeal in our minds.
One, because you are a coffeeroaster, and hello, coffee with
(01:50):
E, right?
So just having someone likeyourself on our platform just to
add value to our community andjust to um, you know, give us
positive vibes.
I can't wait to have aconversation with you.
So thank you.
Rick Evans (02:05):
Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Thank you so much for wantingto include me.
Erica Rawls (02:08):
You're so welcome.
Okay, so was doing some quickresearch on you and your brother
and how you all came to um towhere you are today, and we
found out that it started on aski lift.
Rick Evans (02:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Um, our I yeah, I could justgive you the the quick story
here if you like.
Erica Rawls (02:29):
Um we need to know the story on the ski lift.
That's exactly right.
We are dying to know.
Rick Evans (02:34):
Okay, so so my brother and I, you know, we had
lived all over the country.
Uh, we were our our dad was inthe air force.
We moved like every year or twoyears, and we kind of continued
moving a lot um after we bothyou know finished college.
And we were best buddies, butwe never lived in the same place
at the same time.
Erica Rawls (02:50):
And you and your brother were best buddies, yeah.
Rick Evans (02:53):
My yeah, we were best friends.
We were just two two and a halfyears apart.
Um, and uh I was at a point, Iwas with my wife at the time
living in Santa Barbara, and youknow, I'd been there five
years.
I was working in the resort umreal estate business, and and my
brother had bit gotten intocoffee roasting.
He was in Seattle at the time,uh head roaster for Storybook
(03:16):
Coffee, and he he'd beenroasting coffee, managing cafes,
super geeked out on coffee forlike a decade.
Erica Rawls (03:22):
Who can blame them?
Rick Evans (03:24):
Yeah, and so it was basically for for me and my
wife, we were like looking for achange.
We were ready to plant rootsand and find a town that we were
gonna stay.
We had just gotten pregnant,and so we wanted to, I didn't
want my kids to go through thesame thing where they have to
move every year to two.
We were like, let's find aplace with the you know, really
good community where we canplant roots, and then the dream
(03:45):
was that Brandy could also maybeyou know move his family there.
And my old family's from theEast Coast.
In fact, I'll be in Tampa nextweek visiting my sister side
now.
Erica Rawls (03:54):
Oh, on the East Coast, okay.
Rick Evans (03:56):
We grew up mostly East Coast, but we kind of
gravitated out to the west andthe mountains and we're big
skiers.
Erica Rawls (04:01):
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Now back to the show.
Rick Evans (04:21):
Um, so my brother was in Seattle and he said, Hey
Rick, you should check out SanPoint, Idaho.
It's this cool little town witha huge Idaho.
Yeah.
And um, so that this was one ofthe places we kind of threw
into the mix.
And um, long story short, weended up getting an opportunity
to move here.
Um, I got a dream job likemanaging a real estate office up
(04:42):
at the mountain, and and uhthis was of course a year before
the complete meltdown or youknow, recession and everything.
And uh so I did I moved here.
Randy got opportunity to movehere and and worked selling um
coffee roasters like four monthsafter I did.
And so here we were, we're inthis town we love, and it was
(05:02):
everything was great.
And then about a year afterbeing here, the the economy
completely crashed.
Real estate, as you probably remay remember in 08.
Yeah, yeah, that's that was hitfirst, you know, especially
like the resort market, which iswhat I was in.
Erica Rawls (05:19):
Yeah, I started my business in 08 or 07 is when I
started, so just imagine youryour second year.
It's like, are you kidding me?
Rick Evans (05:27):
Yeah, it's rough, yeah.
And that's when we started, youknow, that's our Evans
brothers, you know, started in08 basically.
So uh, or was it 09?
Anyway, we we were I was realestate was falling apart.
I had some rental properties Ihad to foreclose on, and you
know, I moved here feeling aswealthy as I'd ever been, and
about a year later, it's likethe poorest I've ever been.
(05:48):
We did have ski passes, and sobasically Randy and I just skied
seven days a week.
It's a great winter, and therewas a chair called Chair Six, it
was like a really long20-minute chair ride on the back
side of the mountain, and wewould ride that, and we just
started like brainstorming like,okay, I'm running out of money.
What are we gonna do?
(06:09):
And you know, how are yougonna?
And Randy's like, I said, Whatdo you want to do with your
life, Randy?
And he said, I just want tostay in coffee, and I'd love to
figure out how to make it happenin Sandpoint.
So, me being kind of more ofthe entrepreneurial sales guy, I
was like, Well, why don't wewhy don't we start a roasting
business?
You know, I could do the I cango get the accounts and do the
do the sales and marketing andand uh help start the business,
(06:30):
and you basically do everythingelse, you know.
And uh to me at the time, itwas just a way to keep my
brother here in Sandpoint andreally create a business for
him.
I thought I would continue withreal estate once things turned
around.
And uh, you know, so we we justkind of started envisioning our
business, you know, and whatyou know, the community aspect
(06:52):
of it, the type of coffee wewanted to really connect people
with the coffee and get really,you know, just really high
quality, sustainable coffees,um, and be connected with the
farms.
And so we we we we just put allof this together, and at night
I would be writing the businessplan and skiing by day, and uh
we ended up taking this plan toa bank, got to the 11th hour,
(07:14):
got turned down.
Uh, we didn't have any moneyfor collateral.
So we finally got a loan uhusing $10,000 from my grandpa,
from our grandfather, andputting our dad's cars as
collateral.
Because by this time, I was Ihad cashed out everything I had.
I was living for I think it wasabout six 16 to 18 months, you
know, without a single paycheck.
Erica Rawls (07:35):
That's what I was gonna ask you because you said
that you had to foreclose onyour rental properties, and here
you are skiing in that20-minute ride.
Like, wait, how are you payingbills?
That's what I was thinking.
So I know people that arewatching and are listening are
like, okay, so how did he payhis bills from the time that he
was on that ski lift till youactually got the loan from your
grandfather, your dad, right?
(07:56):
Your grandfather.
Yeah.
And like, how'd you make endsmeet?
Had to take two seconds tothank Allstate Insurance for
sponsoring this episode.
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going to be your ultimateinsurance company.
Thank you, Rob Shaw, withAllstate Insurance.
Now, back to the show.
Rick Evans (08:15):
I mean, pretty much lived off of uh drained my
retirement savings andeverything else we had.
You know, the money went quickbecause I was a bit leveraged
and I was definitely leveragedin real estate.
I had a owned a condo in SantaBarbara, but renters moved out,
we couldn't re-rent it.
It was just like that happenedin each place.
And and so, yeah, I was, youknow, living maybe like used to
(08:38):
spending money and kind of keptdoing it, never realized it was
going to be a year and a halfwithout an income, you know,
until looking back, like, well,I didn't get a single check in a
year and a half, no wonder.
Erica Rawls (08:48):
Yeah.
But yeah, it's like youremember you had a baby on the
way too.
Yeah.
So I'm just like, I know I'mstuck on this, but this is just
blowing my mind.
Rick Evans (08:57):
This is a scary time.
I lost it.
Erica Rawls (08:59):
How did you stay like motivated?
Like, was where you are likeokay.
I'm just gonna say what it is.
When you're in debt, don't knowwhere you're gonna get your
next paycheck or how you'regonna feed your family, yeah.
What in the world like kept youmotivated and in your right
mind and not to do somethingthat was just gonna be hasty?
Like, yeah, because it soundedlike you were disciplined enough
to stay on that track.
(09:19):
So, what was it?
Like, what was the big thing?
Rick Evans (09:21):
Well, and I kept trying in real estate, so I
skied, but you know, I'd also,if I had people that wanted to
see properties and I kept I didkeep trying, and I think the
motivation the motivation wentgot less and less uh after every
single deal fell apart, youknow, we'd have people in
contract, and it just you know,you remember how it was back
then, and and uh so I and thenit was just like okay, how what
(09:42):
are we gonna build from here?
And it was, you know, I startedgoing to a men's group at that
time to take care of myselfpersonally.
Um not long after this, I we weended up like I marriage was
not doing great, went through itwas a really hard time in my
life, went through a divorcewithin you know a couple years
of moving here, um, maybe a fewyears.
So my kids at that point were Iguess they were like four and
(10:06):
two, you know, and so that thatfirst kind of like five, we
started the business rightaround the time my son was born.
Um, and yeah, I was like, wedidn't have much of anything to
take out of the business interms of income.
It was it was a rough, uh,rough few years for sure.
A lot of times where it wasjust like, are we what you know,
is this gonna work?
But we did get we did getencouraged like with the
(10:28):
business from pretty early on.
We had like we were there thecommunity really received us
well.
And you know, we started doingthe farmers market, we would
have these big neighborhoodtastings and invite everybody
into the roastery and uh justtaste all these different
coffees.
And we were doing coffee in away that people weren't
accustomed to, like it waspretty much all dark roast, and
(10:49):
and uh so we were doing somelighter roast coffees as well,
and like really unique uhcoffees like we call micro lots
that were like from a specialpart of the farm.
And we would provide all thisinformation and we do these like
kind of educational things, andso it really just started
engaging people really well, andwe we were able to get some
some good local accounts rightaway, and enough to where it was
(11:10):
like, okay, this is somethingyou know, something's going on
here.
We're not really bringing apaycheck in, but there was like
it was it was really cool, likejust the beginnings of being
able to build something, so itwas kind of like yeah, I mean, a
huge lesson of like you know,when things look the worst, I
mean, what can kind of come outof that, you know, in life.
(11:31):
I mean, the I I feel like nowwe've we've got this beautiful
life, and yeah, I probably wasmaking more money way back in at
for a bit in real estate andeverything, but um, so much
happier now and more fulfilledlife.
And and uh, you know, we've gotthis business that's really
community-based, and we're ableto do a lot of a lot of cool
things with it and connect witha lot of people, and uh it's
(11:53):
just like family business, soit's it it and yeah, it's great.
It's really cool to be able todo something with my brother
like this.
Erica Rawls (12:01):
That is awesome.
So you started out in this as astand, correct?
And you said you were no, not astand.
Rick Evans (12:08):
Um, we we had the roastery itself, so that was the
first thing we got, and it'sthis old granary, like
warehouse, it's a historic areathat was kind of run down, and
it was a really sweet um thingto find.
And it was, you know, at thetime it was like there wasn't
even drywall on it and all thisstuff.
So we had to do a bunch ofwork, built out this roastery in
(12:29):
this warehouse, and the idea atfirst was just a roaster, not a
cafe.
We were just gonna roast forwholesale for restaurants,
cafes, and stuff.
Um, and but people would startcoming into the roaster and
they'd want to try our coffee.
So we had like a little homeespresso machine.
My brother would stop roastingto make somebody a coffee, and
(12:50):
you know, we we had a littlebrew bar for pour overs.
And so we would just makecoffee, visit with people one at
a time, and uh eventually,maybe a year to two into it,
we're like, we should we had afriend who had been a barista
and he was like, You guys shoulddo a little coffee bar, and so
we we built out out of a broomcloset.
(13:11):
We it was a it was a highceiling broom closet, but it was
all kind of closed off.
It had garage doors um thatopened up, but when it we were
like, let's do a littleneighborhood espresso bar.
It was like a walk-up coffeebar adjacent to the roastery,
and our friend would work it asa barista, and you know, we
might make like 80 bucks in aday, and we'd give him 40.
(13:32):
And it was an expert showingour coffees really organically
to the customers, and um, yeah,that was the start of our like
our cafe, which wow, yeah, it'spretty, pretty, pretty wild.
It was just this broom closet.
When we had to when we openedthe doors, the garage doors open
up and it's really nice andlight.
But then when we closed those,there was no or no windows, it
(13:54):
was just like this like oh wow,yeah.
Erica Rawls (13:57):
So even better in the spring and summer, like
people are like, yeah, let's go.
And in the winter time, I waslike, Yeah, not so much.
I had to take two seconds tointerrupt this episode.
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(14:18):
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Now, back to the show.
Rick Evans (14:34):
Since then, we've opened up, we put windows on
both sides, and we've opened up,we put windows on the garage
doors, so there's a lot oflight.
Erica Rawls (14:40):
I love it.
We've expanded Oh wait, youstill have that same location?
Rick Evans (14:44):
We're in the same location where we started.
Erica Rawls (14:47):
I love it.
I love it.
Rick Evans (14:49):
You know, the bar was all using like corrugated
metal and like leftover barnwood and just all the scrap
material from the old way uhy.
And it still kind of has thatlook, but it's a lot more
intentional now.
Um, because we first startedand we you know, so then so we
have our roastery and then thelittle neighborhood bar that
used to be the the walk the barthat used to be the broom
(15:09):
closet, and then the other sideof that was this other big open
space.
At the time it was aphotographer, also really rough
space, not not really finishedthat well.
Um at a certain point in time,we're like, hey, can we put like
a couch in here for some peopleto sit on?
A couple chairs.
It was like a used clothingthing going on in the same
space.
It was just this likehodgepodge, like really like uh
(15:33):
yeah, just kind of uh I don'tknow the word, but it was it was
a pretty pretty rough.
And uh we shared space withhim.
I mean, it was like a a greenuh couch, you know, grandma's
couch from the thrift store kindof thing.
Yeah, there was no like and andbut we we our coffee was really
good, and it kept bringingpeople back despite the fact it
(15:55):
was just like, what is thislike, you know?
Uh and eventually we we gotmore intentional.
We got we it took over theentire space.
We were able to um the bar isstill pretty small, but we've
got a good sized cafe, reallygreat outside seating, the
roasteries on the other side, socustomers can see it.
And yeah, it's it's the sameplace we have, it's 17 years
later.
Um, and uh we've you know grownto where the the coffee house
(16:20):
itself has been.
I mean, we last year we weretop three in USA Today um best
edition.
Erica Rawls (16:27):
I saw that, yeah.
Rick Evans (16:29):
That's pretty cool to look back on where it
started, and then we you know,we learned re you know, we ended
up hiring a couple, you know,one guy in particular had
incredible experience, and youknow, we we we ended up just
bringing on really great peopleand and uh have built a really
cool business.
Erica Rawls (16:45):
So what do you think attributed to you getting
that big stellar award?
That's a big deal.
Rick Evans (16:51):
Yeah, we we've always held ourselves to a
really high standard, and andlike from the beginning, we've
we've never to this day feltlike oh, we figured it all out
and we're mean we've got we'vegot it all all down.
Um adjust myself out of the suna little bit here.
Um anyway, uh I'm really darkright now, aren't I?
(17:12):
I can't even see.
Erica Rawls (17:14):
No, you'll be fine.
You'll be fine.
We have great um editors.
Rick Evans (17:17):
You're gonna let the seller.
Erica Rawls (17:20):
Yes, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Rick Evans (17:22):
This is a great seat sometimes.
It kind of depends on the timeof day, though.
Um, anyway, um, sorry, what wasthe question?
Erica Rawls (17:29):
No, so what do you attribute to you becoming like
number three in USA Today?
Yeah, that's great.
Rick Evans (17:35):
Um, well, so Daniel Gunter is kind of like the third
brother.
He joined us 15 years ago.
He had been um really involvedin um there's a famous cafe
called Barista.
There's a few locations and anduh out of Portland, and he
worked there and some otherreally well-known specialty
shops in Portland.
He was, I remember his he'sfrom here, grew up here, and his
(17:59):
dad was a customer early on andsaid, You should meet my son,
you know.
And and so Daniel came tovisit, and he was like, he kind
of wanted to move back and andand to Sandpoint, and we really
we hadn't hired anybody, it wasjust Randy and I too trying to
do everything at the time.
And uh, but we saw this guy, wesaw pictures of his latte art,
he was like, I have a big deal,barista, you know.
(18:19):
And so we made a we figured outa way to just bring him onto
the team.
And um, you know, he's to thisnow, he's our head of coffee
quality, he does our training.
Um, he's just uh, you know,really is like another another
brother, and so he was a bigpart of helping us kind of
elevate, you know, that wholeexperience.
And then we would hire reallygood quality bristas that you
(18:42):
know, we're a town that it's atourist town, so there's a lot
of people that have moved awayand maybe come back, and um, so
we we've been able to get peoplethat with a lot of experience,
and then we incorporated just areally great internal training
program.
We'll often hire people thathaven't been a barista but but
really have the people skills,and okay, we have a really
comprehensive training, and webuy the best coffees you can
(19:05):
get.
Um, we travel to Origin to getthe coffees.
We always are focused on likecreating exceptional customer
experiences.
That's that's what we're allabout.
And and you know, and so wejust keep looking at how can we
do this better, how can we dothis better, and yeah.
So with the voting with the USAToday, it was um kind of an
(19:26):
anonymous thing where they pickout what they think are the you
know best cafes in the country,the USA Today team, and then
there's a whole voting thingwhere your customers vote, and
and so I mean, we definitely goton board with that and and
really tried to you know get thevote out and everything.
And at one point we were firstin the whole competition, and
then kind of like we ended uptaking third, but it was you
(19:48):
know, just to be top 10 uhreader's choice, it was pretty
cool.
And yeah, we've also had anaward, we won a thing in uh like
a coffee fest competition whereyou had to do a mock cafe on
the conference floor, and we'recompeting against like shops
that we had looked up to foryears, and that you know, kind
of the best of the best.
And we ended up in third placein that one too.
(20:09):
Um, first would be better, butthird's good too.
For a little old scene.
Erica Rawls (20:15):
So just to put it on perspective, like how many uh
out of how many uh coffee shopsyou say?
Rick Evans (20:22):
Well, I mean, I guess that would that started in
the competition for the voting,I think they narrowed down to
like a hundred or something likethat, and we ended up taking
third in that competition.
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (20:32):
Hey, I'm hoping you're enjoying this episode of
Coffee with E.
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Now, let's go back to theepisode.
(20:53):
But it's pretty good.
I think what I'm most what I'mmost um, I guess, in awe of is
the fact that you went from, youknow, in 2008 and everything,
just losing everything and thento being where you are today and
being resilient enough andresourceful enough to find the
funds in order to um to fundyour the business or the dream
(21:17):
that you and your brother had.
Rick Evans (21:18):
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (21:19):
And I love to hear a great like overcome, like a
story of being able to overcomeyour obstacles and um just to
breathe life into that.
Yeah.
So when you were going throughthat, I mean, did you think that
you were going to be where youare today?
Like, what how did you feelthroughout that?
Because I know there's somepeople that may feel like they
lost, they're losing hope.
(21:40):
They have this business, theyhave this dream, but they may
not have the resources or thefunding or the the family to
help them.
So, how did you feel?
And like, what would you say tothat person that wants to do
something like what you'redoing?
Rick Evans (21:52):
Great question.
Um, well, I'll say even likeearly on when we were
brainstorming the business and Iwas talking to Randy about it,
he's like, Well, how are wegonna do this?
We have no money, and I'm like,one step at a time, we're gonna
write a business plan, and thenwe're gonna, you know, we have
we can go to friends, family,you know, we we'll just take it
a step at a time.
And um, and yeah, I think um,and then after we got started, I
(22:15):
mean, gosh, it was tough.
Randy and I fought a lot.
We realized like we were bestfriends.
We never thought of it.
Erica Rawls (22:23):
Did you fist fight a little bit?
Rick Evans (22:25):
We came really close, like the top of our
lungs, slamming doors, runningout, I hate you.
F all I mean, the whole like itwas like we were little kids,
you know.
It's like I love it.
Yeah, both of us, you know,have had tempers and and uh we
just triggered each other.
And um, so there were thosetimes like, oh my gosh, why am I
(22:46):
even in business with this guy?
You know, and it felt like butwe were all in, like, what else
are we gonna do?
Here we put all our eggs inthis basket and we don't we
can't fail, you know, and we andand so I think there was uh it
was the growth of the businesswent along with the growth of
ourselves, you know.
I really that's I really had tolook into myself and and and
(23:08):
find that that belief of likebecause there were times where I
wanted I did, I felt like Ipart of me wanted to just give
up, period.
You know, I was like oneverything, and uh it was a low
time in my life.
I mean, going through adivorce, it felt like a failure,
had lost all our all my money,felt like a failure there, you
know.
And but I had this little boy,you know, and like he's like I
(23:29):
never loved more than anythingmore.
And it's like a lot of times itwas I found the belief in
myself out of the love I had formy son at the time, and and uh
I was like, I'm not gonna, I'mgonna find that little kernel of
light that that is you knowthat trusts and knows it's gonna
be okay.
And to be able to just reallydig into that and um find that
(23:51):
self-belief, I think it's therein everybody, and it's like
there's these choices of like,okay, I can quit or I can like I
can find that um that grit andthat determination that's in
there.
And so I I've learned a lotabout who I am.
I you know, I just built thisresilience um through having to
go through that and and startingover.
And you know, now I look back,it's like it made me who I am
(24:11):
today.
I wouldn't change any of it,you know what I mean?
So yeah, I think just believingand and you know, knowing, you
know, being willing to um justnot to give up because sometimes
it's like right before it lookslike just what everything looks
like it's gonna fail might bethe time, right just before that
it breaks out for you, youknow?
Erica Rawls (24:31):
Yeah, it's almost like a test, right?
Yeah, and uh yeah, and it's uhit's three feet from gold, yeah,
kind of scenario, like you'rejust right there and you have an
opportunity to you can quit.
That's the easy road.
Yeah.
You can just keep digging,right?
And to the person that decidedto keep digging, that's when you
get to live the life that youtruly want to live.
(24:53):
So yeah, kudos for you forfinding something outside of
yourself to to hang on to.
Yeah, because that's what ittakes sometimes.
Because when you're justthinking about, okay, I'm doing
this for me, that might not beenough.
Yeah, that just might not beenough.
But if you have something elseor someone else that you are um
accountable to, yeah, yeah,that's when you could dig down
(25:14):
in there.
Rick Evans (25:15):
So yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:16):
Love this story.
I love the story.
I do, yeah.
Cause I remember back in 2008,holy moly, because I left my
corporate job and went into realestate at the worst time.
Rick Evans (25:31):
Right, you'd see all these people making all this
money into a grade and thenstart it, and then everything
changes.
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:37):
Everything changes.
So then you have to figure,okay, so what am I doing now?
Yeah, you go from making allthis money to oh my gosh.
Yeah, is this really a thing?
Rick Evans (25:46):
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:47):
So yeah.
Rick Evans (25:48):
It's awesome that you stuck you snuck with it
having started at that time, youknow, that's for sure.
Erica Rawls (25:53):
Yeah, sometimes I think, am I crazy?
Rick Evans (25:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:58):
Yeah, it really is a calling.
I do, I think it's a calling.
Otherwise, I don't think, well,I know the people that decide
to stay, I know that's somethingthat they truly were passionate
about.
Other people that left, I getit.
It wasn't what they werepassionate about.
They were in it for the money,that quick money.
Rick Evans (26:12):
Yeah, and there was a lot, there's a lot of that at
that point in time becausethere's, you know, real estate
was it was easy in 05, you know.
Erica Rawls (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
This is so great.
So then, um, is there any lastwords that you want to share
with our audience?
Because I think that you gavesome valuable lessons in there.
The one is having fortitude tojust keep going.
Like that's the message I gotthrough this whole thing.
Yeah.
And then to see how big youare, like you're nationally
known.
Like that's huge.
Rick Evans (26:41):
Yeah, it's it's it's really cool.
I mean, we've won what's calledthis uh for the coffee itself.
This is more on the roastingside.
We've won the good food awardsfour times, and that's you know,
arguably the biggest award inin coffee.
It's a big foodie award.
They have chocolate andcharcuterie and other tech
category categories.
And I mean, just to be like inthe mix with the you know, the
companies that are kind of thebest of the best, and and um it
(27:03):
makes us feel really proud.
And it's cool from a littlesmall town too, of Sandpoint.
You know, when people comehere, they don't really expect
to have you know really goodcoffee and stuff.
So that that feels pretty neat,pretty, pretty neat too.
Erica Rawls (27:15):
Hey, I need to take two seconds to interrupt this
wonderful show that you'rewatching.
I run a real estate business,and the way we fund this podcast
is through that business, theErica Ross team.
I would love it if you wouldjust give us one opportunity to
service your real estate needs,whether you are in Central PA or
around the entire world, thinkof us first so we can help you.
Now back to the show.
Rick Evans (27:36):
But as far as other advice, yeah, I think um one of
the things we also did was umtrying to under, you know,
knowing what I like, I thinkknowing what we each
individually do best.
And we've tried to get help forother areas, you know, um, and
not try to, you know, I meanearly on it was just the two of
us.
We kind of had to figure outhow to do pretty much
(27:57):
everything.
We did hire a bookkeeper, was asmart move right off the bat.
Um but yeah, just really tryingto put people into the right
positions.
And for my brother and I, wehave you know kind of opposite
uh skill sets.
So really trying to focus onyou know what we each do do best
and everything, and and uh youknow, not being afraid to go out
(28:17):
for outside help.
I mean, we we worked with likea small business development
center uh coach from early on,and you know, he would really
help us with the financial sideof things.
Erica Rawls (28:27):
Um they're free.
Are they free in your area?
Rick Evans (28:30):
Yeah, yeah.
There's small business SBEC.
Erica Rawls (28:33):
No one knows about I don't think enough people know
about it.
They are free.
Rick Evans (28:36):
Awesome resource, really great resource.
Yeah, we had it, we had a guywe met with like every couple
weeks or something, and foryears, and uh so yeah, using
those resources, asking, youknow, going out to people that
you know we did.
We talked to other people inthe industry and we tried to
learn from those that you knowthat we admired and everything
that were in the business.
Erica Rawls (28:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I love your grit.
This was such a greatconversation.
I really enjoyed it, trulyenjoyed it.
Rick Evans (29:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (29:05):
Yeah, and thank you.
Hey, you all may not know this,but he actually sponsored um
this episode as well as otherepisodes that we have for this
month.
So um cannot thank you enough.
Cannot thank you enough.
So thank you so much.
Yeah, so um yeah, so you'regonna be seeing all of your
stuff.
(29:25):
We're gonna be advertising thiscoffee brand.
And do you deliver across thethe US?
Like how do people use TA?
Rick Evans (29:32):
Yeah, EvansBrothersCoffee.com.
We ship across the U.S.
We have a subscription uhprogram too, you know, where you
you can say, Hey, I like brightand fruity, classic and comfort
or dark and rich coffees, andand then yeah, I want one or two
or whatever, you know, a monthand uh yeah, ship it to your
doorstep.
Erica Rawls (29:48):
So okay, Rick.
So this is what I want to do.
I don't know.
I'm putting you on the spot.
I would love to get thosedifferent flavors, even if it's
like a small bit, I would loveto taste test because I'm a
coffee connoisseur, and then Ican let our Audience, know which
one they should actually, whichones I liked.
Cool.
And then we'll just go fromthere.
I love that.
Rick Evans (30:06):
Yeah, we'll have to be happy to send you a sample
pack of stuff, then that soundsgood.
Erica Rawls (30:10):
Yay, yay, yay, yay.
Well, thank you so much forspending time with us.
Um, like I said, you'reprobably the furthest um guest
that we had so far, and I Ireally appreciated it.
I really do.
Rick Evans (30:20):
Well, thank you.
Erica Rawls (30:20):
Yeah, I'm so proud of you and your brother for
sticking, um, sticking it outand just where you are today.
And I know that you're justgoing to get better and better.
Rick Evans (30:28):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Erica Rawls (30:30):
You're welcome.
Rick Evans (30:31):
Yeah.
Hey you! I had the pleasure of sitting down with
Rick Evans.
He is co-owner of EvansBrothers Coffee.
And when I tell you the storythat he shares is just one that
you will probably resonate with.
You'll know someone or you orthat person.
True overcomer, true grit andtenacity to succeed.
And to see where he came fromand where he is today, I'm sure
(00:23):
you're going to take somethingaway from it.
Today's roast, stop being aquitter.
Every time that you try a thingthat you know you're supposed
(00:44):
to do and it doesn't go yourway, you quit.
Why is that?
Where is the grit?
Where's the determination?
Where is the stickness?
Stay in it too.
Whatever you want to call it,do it.
Because I know of a person thathad came from nothing and is
now doing something veryinstrumental.
(01:05):
And it surrounds coffee.
So why can't you?
Don't quit.
Have no money in the bank.
Figure a way how to get yourbills paid.
Be resourceful.
You feel like you're at the endof your rope.
Okay.
There's other people in thesame position, but they figured
it out.
So figure out a plan, figureout your big why, stay on game,
(01:27):
and you got this.
Well, Rick, thank you so muchfor this opportunity to sit down
and have coffee with me.
Um we are so grateful for you.
You were probably the furthestguest that we actually had on
our podcast, and you are a bigdeal in our minds.
One, because you are a coffeeroaster, and hello, coffee with
(01:50):
E, right?
So just having someone likeyourself on our platform just to
add value to our community andjust to um, you know, give us
positive vibes.
I can't wait to have aconversation with you.
So thank you.
Rick Evans (02:05):
Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Thank you so much for wantingto include me.
Erica Rawls (02:08):
You're so welcome.
Okay, so was doing some quickresearch on you and your brother
and how you all came to um towhere you are today, and we
found out that it started on aski lift.
Rick Evans (02:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Um, our I yeah, I could justgive you the the quick story
here if you like.
Erica Rawls (02:29):
Um we need to know the story on the ski lift.
That's exactly right.
We are dying to know.
Rick Evans (02:34):
Okay, so so my brother and I, you know, we had
lived all over the country.
Uh, we were our our dad was inthe air force.
We moved like every year or twoyears, and we kind of continued
moving a lot um after we bothyou know finished college.
And we were best buddies, butwe never lived in the same place
at the same time.
Erica Rawls (02:50):
And you and your brother were best buddies, yeah.
Rick Evans (02:53):
My yeah, we were best friends.
We were just two two and a halfyears apart.
Um, and uh I was at a point, Iwas with my wife at the time
living in Santa Barbara, and youknow, I'd been there five
years.
I was working in the resort umreal estate business, and and my
brother had bit gotten intocoffee roasting.
He was in Seattle at the time,uh head roaster for Storybook
(03:16):
Coffee, and he he'd beenroasting coffee, managing cafes,
super geeked out on coffee forlike a decade.
Erica Rawls (03:22):
Who can blame them?
Rick Evans (03:24):
Yeah, and so it was basically for for me and my
wife, we were like looking for achange.
We were ready to plant rootsand and find a town that we were
gonna stay.
We had just gotten pregnant,and so we wanted to, I didn't
want my kids to go through thesame thing where they have to
move every year to two.
We were like, let's find aplace with the you know, really
good community where we canplant roots, and then the dream
(03:45):
was that Brandy could also maybeyou know move his family there.
And my old family's from theEast Coast.
In fact, I'll be in Tampa nextweek visiting my sister side
now.
Erica Rawls (03:54):
Oh, on the East Coast, okay.
Rick Evans (03:56):
We grew up mostly East Coast, but we kind of
gravitated out to the west andthe mountains and we're big
skiers.
Erica Rawls (04:01):
Dirty Dog Hauling.
Thank you so much for yoursponsorship.
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Dirty Dog Hauling.
Now back to the show.
Rick Evans (04:21):
Um, so my brother was in Seattle and he said, Hey
Rick, you should check out SanPoint, Idaho.
It's this cool little town witha huge Idaho.
Yeah.
And um, so that this was one ofthe places we kind of threw
into the mix.
And um, long story short, weended up getting an opportunity
to move here.
Um, I got a dream job likemanaging a real estate office up
(04:42):
at the mountain, and and uhthis was of course a year before
the complete meltdown or youknow, recession and everything.
And uh so I did I moved here.
Randy got opportunity to movehere and and worked selling um
coffee roasters like four monthsafter I did.
And so here we were, we're inthis town we love, and it was
(05:02):
everything was great.
And then about a year afterbeing here, the the economy
completely crashed.
Real estate, as you probably remay remember in 08.
Yeah, yeah, that's that was hitfirst, you know, especially
like the resort market, which iswhat I was in.
Erica Rawls (05:19):
Yeah, I started my business in 08 or 07 is when I
started, so just imagine youryour second year.
It's like, are you kidding me?
Rick Evans (05:27):
Yeah, it's rough, yeah.
And that's when we started, youknow, that's our Evans
brothers, you know, started in08 basically.
So uh, or was it 09?
Anyway, we we were I was realestate was falling apart.
I had some rental properties Ihad to foreclose on, and you
know, I moved here feeling aswealthy as I'd ever been, and
about a year later, it's likethe poorest I've ever been.
(05:48):
We did have ski passes, and sobasically Randy and I just skied
seven days a week.
It's a great winter, and therewas a chair called Chair Six, it
was like a really long20-minute chair ride on the back
side of the mountain, and wewould ride that, and we just
started like brainstorming like,okay, I'm running out of money.
What are we gonna do?
(06:09):
And you know, how are yougonna?
And Randy's like, I said, Whatdo you want to do with your
life, Randy?
And he said, I just want tostay in coffee, and I'd love to
figure out how to make it happenin Sandpoint.
So, me being kind of more ofthe entrepreneurial sales guy, I
was like, Well, why don't wewhy don't we start a roasting
business?
You know, I could do the I cango get the accounts and do the
do the sales and marketing andand uh help start the business,
(06:30):
and you basically do everythingelse, you know.
And uh to me at the time, itwas just a way to keep my
brother here in Sandpoint andreally create a business for
him.
I thought I would continue withreal estate once things turned
around.
And uh, you know, so we we justkind of started envisioning our
business, you know, and whatyou know, the community aspect
(06:52):
of it, the type of coffee wewanted to really connect people
with the coffee and get really,you know, just really high
quality, sustainable coffees,um, and be connected with the
farms.
And so we we we we just put allof this together, and at night
I would be writing the businessplan and skiing by day, and uh
we ended up taking this plan toa bank, got to the 11th hour,
(07:14):
got turned down.
Uh, we didn't have any moneyfor collateral.
So we finally got a loan uhusing $10,000 from my grandpa,
from our grandfather, andputting our dad's cars as
collateral.
Because by this time, I was Ihad cashed out everything I had.
I was living for I think it wasabout six 16 to 18 months, you
know, without a single paycheck.
Erica Rawls (07:35):
That's what I was gonna ask you because you said
that you had to foreclose onyour rental properties, and here
you are skiing in that20-minute ride.
Like, wait, how are you payingbills?
That's what I was thinking.
So I know people that arewatching and are listening are
like, okay, so how did he payhis bills from the time that he
was on that ski lift till youactually got the loan from your
grandfather, your dad, right?
(07:56):
Your grandfather.
Yeah.
And like, how'd you make endsmeet?
Had to take two seconds tothank Allstate Insurance for
sponsoring this episode.
If you're looking for car lifeor casualty insurance, they're
going to be your ultimateinsurance company.
Thank you, Rob Shaw, withAllstate Insurance.
Now, back to the show.
Rick Evans (08:15):
I mean, pretty much lived off of uh drained my
retirement savings andeverything else we had.
You know, the money went quickbecause I was a bit leveraged
and I was definitely leveragedin real estate.
I had a owned a condo in SantaBarbara, but renters moved out,
we couldn't re-rent it.
It was just like that happenedin each place.
And and so, yeah, I was, youknow, living maybe like used to
(08:38):
spending money and kind of keptdoing it, never realized it was
going to be a year and a halfwithout an income, you know,
until looking back, like, well,I didn't get a single check in a
year and a half, no wonder.
Erica Rawls (08:48):
Yeah.
But yeah, it's like youremember you had a baby on the
way too.
Yeah.
So I'm just like, I know I'mstuck on this, but this is just
blowing my mind.
Rick Evans (08:57):
This is a scary time.
I lost it.
Erica Rawls (08:59):
How did you stay like motivated?
Like, was where you are likeokay.
I'm just gonna say what it is.
When you're in debt, don't knowwhere you're gonna get your
next paycheck or how you'regonna feed your family, yeah.
What in the world like kept youmotivated and in your right
mind and not to do somethingthat was just gonna be hasty?
Like, yeah, because it soundedlike you were disciplined enough
to stay on that track.
(09:19):
So, what was it?
Like, what was the big thing?
Rick Evans (09:21):
Well, and I kept trying in real estate, so I
skied, but you know, I'd also,if I had people that wanted to
see properties and I kept I didkeep trying, and I think the
motivation the motivation wentgot less and less uh after every
single deal fell apart, youknow, we'd have people in
contract, and it just you know,you remember how it was back
then, and and uh so I and thenit was just like okay, how what
(09:42):
are we gonna build from here?
And it was, you know, I startedgoing to a men's group at that
time to take care of myselfpersonally.
Um not long after this, I we weended up like I marriage was
not doing great, went through itwas a really hard time in my
life, went through a divorcewithin you know a couple years
of moving here, um, maybe a fewyears.
So my kids at that point were Iguess they were like four and
(10:06):
two, you know, and so that thatfirst kind of like five, we
started the business rightaround the time my son was born.
Um, and yeah, I was like, wedidn't have much of anything to
take out of the business interms of income.
It was it was a rough, uh,rough few years for sure.
A lot of times where it wasjust like, are we what you know,
is this gonna work?
But we did get we did getencouraged like with the
(10:28):
business from pretty early on.
We had like we were there thecommunity really received us
well.
And you know, we started doingthe farmers market, we would
have these big neighborhoodtastings and invite everybody
into the roastery and uh justtaste all these different
coffees.
And we were doing coffee in away that people weren't
accustomed to, like it waspretty much all dark roast, and
(10:49):
and uh so we were doing somelighter roast coffees as well,
and like really unique uhcoffees like we call micro lots
that were like from a specialpart of the farm.
And we would provide all thisinformation and we do these like
kind of educational things, andso it really just started
engaging people really well, andwe we were able to get some
some good local accounts rightaway, and enough to where it was
(11:10):
like, okay, this is somethingyou know, something's going on
here.
We're not really bringing apaycheck in, but there was like
it was it was really cool, likejust the beginnings of being
able to build something, so itwas kind of like yeah, I mean, a
huge lesson of like you know,when things look the worst, I
mean, what can kind of come outof that, you know, in life.
(11:31):
I mean, the I I feel like nowwe've we've got this beautiful
life, and yeah, I probably wasmaking more money way back in at
for a bit in real estate andeverything, but um, so much
happier now and more fulfilledlife.
And and uh, you know, we've gotthis business that's really
community-based, and we're ableto do a lot of a lot of cool
things with it and connect witha lot of people, and uh it's
(11:53):
just like family business, soit's it it and yeah, it's great.
It's really cool to be able todo something with my brother
like this.
Erica Rawls (12:01):
That is awesome.
So you started out in this as astand, correct?
And you said you were no, not astand.
Rick Evans (12:08):
Um, we we had the roastery itself, so that was the
first thing we got, and it'sthis old granary, like
warehouse, it's a historic areathat was kind of run down, and
it was a really sweet um thingto find.
And it was, you know, at thetime it was like there wasn't
even drywall on it and all thisstuff.
So we had to do a bunch ofwork, built out this roastery in
(12:29):
this warehouse, and the idea atfirst was just a roaster, not a
cafe.
We were just gonna roast forwholesale for restaurants,
cafes, and stuff.
Um, and but people would startcoming into the roaster and
they'd want to try our coffee.
So we had like a little homeespresso machine.
My brother would stop roastingto make somebody a coffee, and
(12:50):
you know, we we had a littlebrew bar for pour overs.
And so we would just makecoffee, visit with people one at
a time, and uh eventually,maybe a year to two into it,
we're like, we should we had afriend who had been a barista
and he was like, You guys shoulddo a little coffee bar, and so
we we built out out of a broomcloset.
(13:11):
We it was a it was a highceiling broom closet, but it was
all kind of closed off.
It had garage doors um thatopened up, but when it we were
like, let's do a littleneighborhood espresso bar.
It was like a walk-up coffeebar adjacent to the roastery,
and our friend would work it asa barista, and you know, we
might make like 80 bucks in aday, and we'd give him 40.
(13:32):
And it was an expert showingour coffees really organically
to the customers, and um, yeah,that was the start of our like
our cafe, which wow, yeah, it'spretty, pretty, pretty wild.
It was just this broom closet.
When we had to when we openedthe doors, the garage doors open
up and it's really nice andlight.
But then when we closed those,there was no or no windows, it
(13:54):
was just like this like oh wow,yeah.
Erica Rawls (13:57):
So even better in the spring and summer, like
people are like, yeah, let's go.
And in the winter time, I waslike, Yeah, not so much.
I had to take two seconds tointerrupt this episode.
I would like to thank one ofour most recent guests, attorney
Jenny Chavis, for sponsoringthis show.
Chavis Law Firm is an elite lawfirm in central Pennsylvania
that helps with estate planningas well as understanding what
(14:18):
type of business entity youshould enter into when starting
your business.
If you're looking for a greatattorney that understands estate
planning as well as businessentity, how to start the right
way, you want to check outattorney Chavis, Chavis Law
Firm.
Now, back to the show.
Rick Evans (14:34):
Since then, we've opened up, we put windows on
both sides, and we've opened up,we put windows on the garage
doors, so there's a lot oflight.
Erica Rawls (14:40):
I love it.
We've expanded Oh wait, youstill have that same location?
Rick Evans (14:44):
We're in the same location where we started.
Erica Rawls (14:47):
I love it.
I love it.
Rick Evans (14:49):
You know, the bar was all using like corrugated
metal and like leftover barnwood and just all the scrap
material from the old way uhy.
And it still kind of has thatlook, but it's a lot more
intentional now.
Um, because we first startedand we you know, so then so we
have our roastery and then thelittle neighborhood bar that
used to be the the walk the barthat used to be the broom
(15:09):
closet, and then the other sideof that was this other big open
space.
At the time it was aphotographer, also really rough
space, not not really finishedthat well.
Um at a certain point in time,we're like, hey, can we put like
a couch in here for some peopleto sit on?
A couple chairs.
It was like a used clothingthing going on in the same
space.
It was just this likehodgepodge, like really like uh
(15:33):
yeah, just kind of uh I don'tknow the word, but it was it was
a pretty pretty rough.
And uh we shared space withhim.
I mean, it was like a a greenuh couch, you know, grandma's
couch from the thrift store kindof thing.
Yeah, there was no like and andbut we we our coffee was really
good, and it kept bringingpeople back despite the fact it
(15:55):
was just like, what is thislike, you know?
Uh and eventually we we gotmore intentional.
We got we it took over theentire space.
We were able to um the bar isstill pretty small, but we've
got a good sized cafe, reallygreat outside seating, the
roasteries on the other side, socustomers can see it.
And yeah, it's it's the sameplace we have, it's 17 years
later.
Um, and uh we've you know grownto where the the coffee house
(16:20):
itself has been.
I mean, we last year we weretop three in USA Today um best
edition.
Erica Rawls (16:27):
I saw that, yeah.
Rick Evans (16:29):
That's pretty cool to look back on where it
started, and then we you know,we learned re you know, we ended
up hiring a couple, you know,one guy in particular had
incredible experience, and youknow, we we we ended up just
bringing on really great peopleand and uh have built a really
cool business.
Erica Rawls (16:45):
So what do you think attributed to you getting
that big stellar award?
That's a big deal.
Rick Evans (16:51):
Yeah, we we've always held ourselves to a
really high standard, and andlike from the beginning, we've
we've never to this day feltlike oh, we figured it all out
and we're mean we've got we'vegot it all all down.
Um adjust myself out of the suna little bit here.
Um anyway, uh I'm really darkright now, aren't I?
(17:12):
I can't even see.
Erica Rawls (17:14):
No, you'll be fine.
You'll be fine.
We have great um editors.
Rick Evans (17:17):
You're gonna let the seller.
Erica Rawls (17:20):
Yes, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Rick Evans (17:22):
This is a great seat sometimes.
It kind of depends on the timeof day, though.
Um, anyway, um, sorry, what wasthe question?
Erica Rawls (17:29):
No, so what do you attribute to you becoming like
number three in USA Today?
Yeah, that's great.
Rick Evans (17:35):
Um, well, so Daniel Gunter is kind of like the third
brother.
He joined us 15 years ago.
He had been um really involvedin um there's a famous cafe
called Barista.
There's a few locations and anduh out of Portland, and he
worked there and some otherreally well-known specialty
shops in Portland.
He was, I remember his he'sfrom here, grew up here, and his
(17:59):
dad was a customer early on andsaid, You should meet my son,
you know.
And and so Daniel came tovisit, and he was like, he kind
of wanted to move back and andand to Sandpoint, and we really
we hadn't hired anybody, it wasjust Randy and I too trying to
do everything at the time.
And uh, but we saw this guy, wesaw pictures of his latte art,
he was like, I have a big deal,barista, you know.
(18:19):
And so we made a we figured outa way to just bring him onto
the team.
And um, you know, he's to thisnow, he's our head of coffee
quality, he does our training.
Um, he's just uh, you know,really is like another another
brother, and so he was a bigpart of helping us kind of
elevate, you know, that wholeexperience.
And then we would hire reallygood quality bristas that you
(18:42):
know, we're a town that it's atourist town, so there's a lot
of people that have moved awayand maybe come back, and um, so
we we've been able to get peoplethat with a lot of experience,
and then we incorporated just areally great internal training
program.
We'll often hire people thathaven't been a barista but but
really have the people skills,and okay, we have a really
comprehensive training, and webuy the best coffees you can
(19:05):
get.
Um, we travel to Origin to getthe coffees.
We always are focused on likecreating exceptional customer
experiences.
That's that's what we're allabout.
And and you know, and so wejust keep looking at how can we
do this better, how can we dothis better, and yeah.
So with the voting with the USAToday, it was um kind of an
(19:26):
anonymous thing where they pickout what they think are the you
know best cafes in the country,the USA Today team, and then
there's a whole voting thingwhere your customers vote, and
and so I mean, we definitely goton board with that and and
really tried to you know get thevote out and everything.
And at one point we were firstin the whole competition, and
then kind of like we ended uptaking third, but it was you
(19:48):
know, just to be top 10 uhreader's choice, it was pretty
cool.
And yeah, we've also had anaward, we won a thing in uh like
a coffee fest competition whereyou had to do a mock cafe on
the conference floor, and we'recompeting against like shops
that we had looked up to foryears, and that you know, kind
of the best of the best.
And we ended up in third placein that one too.
(20:09):
Um, first would be better, butthird's good too.
For a little old scene.
Erica Rawls (20:15):
So just to put it on perspective, like how many uh
out of how many uh coffee shopsyou say?
Rick Evans (20:22):
Well, I mean, I guess that would that started in
the competition for the voting,I think they narrowed down to
like a hundred or something likethat, and we ended up taking
third in that competition.
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (20:32):
Hey, I'm hoping you're enjoying this episode of
Coffee with E.
I had to take 30 seconds toshare with you one of our
sponsors for this episode, TopConstruction.
They are a premier constructioncompany located in Central PA.
So if you live in Dolphin,Cumberland, Lancaster, and
Lebanon counties, you want tocheck them out.
Not only are they reliable,they are reasonable, and they
get the job done.
Now, let's go back to theepisode.
(20:53):
But it's pretty good.
I think what I'm most what I'mmost um, I guess, in awe of is
the fact that you went from, youknow, in 2008 and everything,
just losing everything and thento being where you are today and
being resilient enough andresourceful enough to find the
funds in order to um to fundyour the business or the dream
(21:17):
that you and your brother had.
Rick Evans (21:18):
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (21:19):
And I love to hear a great like overcome, like a
story of being able to overcomeyour obstacles and um just to
breathe life into that.
Yeah.
So when you were going throughthat, I mean, did you think that
you were going to be where youare today?
Like, what how did you feelthroughout that?
Because I know there's somepeople that may feel like they
lost, they're losing hope.
(21:40):
They have this business, theyhave this dream, but they may
not have the resources or thefunding or the the family to
help them.
So, how did you feel?
And like, what would you say tothat person that wants to do
something like what you'redoing?
Rick Evans (21:52):
Great question.
Um, well, I'll say even likeearly on when we were
brainstorming the business and Iwas talking to Randy about it,
he's like, Well, how are wegonna do this?
We have no money, and I'm like,one step at a time, we're gonna
write a business plan, and thenwe're gonna, you know, we have
we can go to friends, family,you know, we we'll just take it
a step at a time.
And um, and yeah, I think um,and then after we got started, I
(22:15):
mean, gosh, it was tough.
Randy and I fought a lot.
We realized like we were bestfriends.
We never thought of it.
Erica Rawls (22:23):
Did you fist fight a little bit?
Rick Evans (22:25):
We came really close, like the top of our
lungs, slamming doors, runningout, I hate you.
F all I mean, the whole like itwas like we were little kids,
you know.
It's like I love it.
Yeah, both of us, you know,have had tempers and and uh we
just triggered each other.
And um, so there were thosetimes like, oh my gosh, why am I
(22:46):
even in business with this guy?
You know, and it felt like butwe were all in, like, what else
are we gonna do?
Here we put all our eggs inthis basket and we don't we
can't fail, you know, and we andand so I think there was uh it
was the growth of the businesswent along with the growth of
ourselves, you know.
I really that's I really had tolook into myself and and and
(23:08):
find that that belief of likebecause there were times where I
wanted I did, I felt like Ipart of me wanted to just give
up, period.
You know, I was like oneverything, and uh it was a low
time in my life.
I mean, going through adivorce, it felt like a failure,
had lost all our all my money,felt like a failure there, you
know.
And but I had this little boy,you know, and like he's like I
(23:29):
never loved more than anythingmore.
And it's like a lot of times itwas I found the belief in
myself out of the love I had formy son at the time, and and uh
I was like, I'm not gonna, I'mgonna find that little kernel of
light that that is you knowthat trusts and knows it's gonna
be okay.
And to be able to just reallydig into that and um find that
(23:51):
self-belief, I think it's therein everybody, and it's like
there's these choices of like,okay, I can quit or I can like I
can find that um that grit andthat determination that's in
there.
And so I I've learned a lotabout who I am.
I you know, I just built thisresilience um through having to
go through that and and startingover.
And you know, now I look back,it's like it made me who I am
(24:11):
today.
I wouldn't change any of it,you know what I mean?
So yeah, I think just believingand and you know, knowing, you
know, being willing to um justnot to give up because sometimes
it's like right before it lookslike just what everything looks
like it's gonna fail might bethe time, right just before that
it breaks out for you, youknow?
Erica Rawls (24:31):
Yeah, it's almost like a test, right?
Yeah, and uh yeah, and it's uhit's three feet from gold, yeah,
kind of scenario, like you'rejust right there and you have an
opportunity to you can quit.
That's the easy road.
Yeah.
You can just keep digging,right?
And to the person that decidedto keep digging, that's when you
get to live the life that youtruly want to live.
(24:53):
So yeah, kudos for you forfinding something outside of
yourself to to hang on to.
Yeah, because that's what ittakes sometimes.
Because when you're justthinking about, okay, I'm doing
this for me, that might not beenough.
Yeah, that just might not beenough.
But if you have something elseor someone else that you are um
accountable to, yeah, yeah,that's when you could dig down
(25:14):
in there.
Rick Evans (25:15):
So yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:16):
Love this story.
I love the story.
I do, yeah.
Cause I remember back in 2008,holy moly, because I left my
corporate job and went into realestate at the worst time.
Rick Evans (25:31):
Right, you'd see all these people making all this
money into a grade and thenstart it, and then everything
changes.
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:37):
Everything changes.
So then you have to figure,okay, so what am I doing now?
Yeah, you go from making allthis money to oh my gosh.
Yeah, is this really a thing?
Rick Evans (25:46):
Yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:47):
So yeah.
Rick Evans (25:48):
It's awesome that you stuck you snuck with it
having started at that time, youknow, that's for sure.
Erica Rawls (25:53):
Yeah, sometimes I think, am I crazy?
Rick Evans (25:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (25:58):
Yeah, it really is a calling.
I do, I think it's a calling.
Otherwise, I don't think, well,I know the people that decide
to stay, I know that's somethingthat they truly were passionate
about.
Other people that left, I getit.
It wasn't what they werepassionate about.
They were in it for the money,that quick money.
Rick Evans (26:12):
Yeah, and there was a lot, there's a lot of that at
that point in time becausethere's, you know, real estate
was it was easy in 05, you know.
Erica Rawls (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
This is so great.
So then, um, is there any lastwords that you want to share
with our audience?
Because I think that you gavesome valuable lessons in there.
The one is having fortitude tojust keep going.
Like that's the message I gotthrough this whole thing.
Yeah.
And then to see how big youare, like you're nationally
known.
Like that's huge.
Rick Evans (26:41):
Yeah, it's it's it's really cool.
I mean, we've won what's calledthis uh for the coffee itself.
This is more on the roastingside.
We've won the good food awardsfour times, and that's you know,
arguably the biggest award inin coffee.
It's a big foodie award.
They have chocolate andcharcuterie and other tech
category categories.
And I mean, just to be like inthe mix with the you know, the
companies that are kind of thebest of the best, and and um it
(27:03):
makes us feel really proud.
And it's cool from a littlesmall town too, of Sandpoint.
You know, when people comehere, they don't really expect
to have you know really goodcoffee and stuff.
So that that feels pretty neat,pretty, pretty neat too.
Erica Rawls (27:15):
Hey, I need to take two seconds to interrupt this
wonderful show that you'rewatching.
I run a real estate business,and the way we fund this podcast
is through that business, theErica Ross team.
I would love it if you wouldjust give us one opportunity to
service your real estate needs,whether you are in Central PA or
around the entire world, thinkof us first so we can help you.
Now back to the show.
Rick Evans (27:36):
But as far as other advice, yeah, I think um one of
the things we also did was umtrying to under, you know,
knowing what I like, I thinkknowing what we each
individually do best.
And we've tried to get help forother areas, you know, um, and
not try to, you know, I meanearly on it was just the two of
us.
We kind of had to figure outhow to do pretty much
(27:57):
everything.
We did hire a bookkeeper, was asmart move right off the bat.
Um but yeah, just really tryingto put people into the right
positions.
And for my brother and I, wehave you know kind of opposite
uh skill sets.
So really trying to focus onyou know what we each do do best
and everything, and and uh youknow, not being afraid to go out
(28:17):
for outside help.
I mean, we we worked with likea small business development
center uh coach from early on,and you know, he would really
help us with the financial sideof things.
Erica Rawls (28:27):
Um they're free.
Are they free in your area?
Rick Evans (28:30):
Yeah, yeah.
There's small business SBEC.
Erica Rawls (28:33):
No one knows about I don't think enough people know
about it.
They are free.
Rick Evans (28:36):
Awesome resource, really great resource.
Yeah, we had it, we had a guywe met with like every couple
weeks or something, and foryears, and uh so yeah, using
those resources, asking, youknow, going out to people that
you know we did.
We talked to other people inthe industry and we tried to
learn from those that you knowthat we admired and everything
that were in the business.
Erica Rawls (28:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I love your grit.
This was such a greatconversation.
I really enjoyed it, trulyenjoyed it.
Rick Evans (29:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Erica Rawls (29:05):
Yeah, and thank you.
Hey, you all may not know this,but he actually sponsored um
this episode as well as otherepisodes that we have for this
month.
So um cannot thank you enough.
Cannot thank you enough.
So thank you so much.
Yeah, so um yeah, so you'regonna be seeing all of your
stuff.
(29:25):
We're gonna be advertising thiscoffee brand.
And do you deliver across thethe US?
Like how do people use TA?
Rick Evans (29:32):
Yeah, EvansBrothersCoffee.com.
We ship across the U.S.
We have a subscription uhprogram too, you know, where you
you can say, Hey, I like brightand fruity, classic and comfort
or dark and rich coffees, andand then yeah, I want one or two
or whatever, you know, a monthand uh yeah, ship it to your
doorstep.
Erica Rawls (29:48):
So okay, Rick.
So this is what I want to do.
I don't know.
I'm putting you on the spot.
I would love to get thosedifferent flavors, even if it's
like a small bit, I would loveto taste test because I'm a
coffee connoisseur, and then Ican let our Audience, know which
one they should actually, whichones I liked.
Cool.
And then we'll just go fromthere.
I love that.
Rick Evans (30:06):
Yeah, we'll have to be happy to send you a sample
pack of stuff, then that soundsgood.
Erica Rawls (30:10):
Yay, yay, yay, yay.
Well, thank you so much forspending time with us.
Um, like I said, you'reprobably the furthest um guest
that we had so far, and I Ireally appreciated it.
I really do.
Rick Evans (30:20):
Well, thank you.
Erica Rawls (30:20):
Yeah, I'm so proud of you and your brother for
sticking, um, sticking it outand just where you are today.
And I know that you're justgoing to get better and better.
Rick Evans (30:28):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
Erica Rawls (30:30):
You're welcome.
Rick Evans (30:31):
Yeah.
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