Ep.53 - Brick by Brick: How Dodo Coffee Built a Movement in Arkansas

In this episode of Crossroad Conversations, the Lewis Brothers sit down with Isaiah, founder of Dodo Coffee, to explore how a dream, a rundown 600 sq ft building, and an unwavering commitment to clean coffee turned into one of Northwest Arkansas’s fastest-growing coffee brands.

Isaiah shares how he and his wife Sarah moved from Washington to Arkansas, built their first shop “brick by brick,” then lost it to road expansion within a year. Instead of quitting, they pivoted to a coffee trailer and gained even more traction. Along the way, they built a loyal community, learned to balance family and business, and even began supplying coffee to professional sports teams. This is a story of perseverance, community, and the power of staying authentic in business.

Takeaways

• Success often comes from resilience and pivoting when plans collapse.
• Building authentic community creates loyalty that lasts through challenges.
• Clean, high-quality products plus a welcoming experience win repeat customers.
• Storytelling and transparency on social media create stronger engagement than ads.
• Family collaboration can be a business’s greatest strength.
• Sometimes the “grimy work” of renovating, roasting, and hustling is what builds credibility.
• Strategic pivots (like moving to a trailer) can unlock new opportunities.
• Persistence opens unexpected doors — including partnerships with national brands and pro sports teams.

Feel the dynamic energy of the Lewis Brothers as they deliver real stories and lessons that keep local businesses on their toes, and share how experiences in the community inspire them to keep on driving.

Check out all our great episodes at CrossroadConversationsPodcast.com!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're not posting pictures of lattes every day.
It'd be like you posting apicture of a car.
It's like okay, yeah, obviouslyyou sell cars.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
It's like people aren't hopping on social media
to see another ad, not anymore.
And so what we've started to dois tell our story, like we have
a building update series thathas, you know, another couple
hundred thousand views becausewe're just sitting down being
like, hey, we're losing ourbuilding.
We don't know what that means,but here we are telling the

(00:29):
story, yeah, yeah, and so that'smore.
Where we find a lot of successis just letting people in on the
truth.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You know we're not trying to paint this facade of
we're this perfect company orwhatever it's like.
I post memes all the time, yeah, and it's probably super
unprofessional, but like I don'tcare, you know it's real.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
It's real.
Yeah, hey, everyone.
Welcome to crossroadconversations with the lewis
brothers, where we aim to sharereal stories about running a
successful family business,working through adversity and
pouring back into the communitythat keeps our door open.
We're your hosts, Matt Shelbyand Taylor, and we bring you

(01:10):
relevant local business adviceand automotive insights that are
sure to change the way you lookat running a business and maybe
even throw in a plug for you todo business with us.
Welcome to CrossroadConversations with the Lewis
Brothers, episode 53 today.
And today you may recognize anew face.
We've got Isaiah here with DodoCoffee in the house.

(01:31):
We've told y'all for a whilethat our goal is to not only be
able to pour into you asbusiness leaders, but to bring
you business leaders right herein the community to tell about
their story, share about theirsuccess.
And, Isaiah, we're excited tohave you here and we'll dive
into all those details.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Thanks for having me.
I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Absolutely.
Hey, quick recap from last weekwe did episode 52.
That was a full year of LewisBrothers Conversations, episode
52 hours minimum.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
That ain't bad.
I'm just talking about whatworks, what doesn't, what to do
and what not to do.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Just talking about what works, what doesn't, what
to do and what not to do,figuring it out progressively.
I felt like getting better oh,no doubt From the first episode,
but had a whole lot of fundoing it.
I've had a whole lot of peopleon there, I've met new people,
so that's been a whole lot offun.
But you know, before I diveinto too far into this episode,
we're going to go into alwayschecking us out there online,

(02:23):
but change the segment a littlebit.
What's in the garage today andthis is probably the most
popular famous truck innorthwest arkansas they're gonna
have to put this one on thescreen so you can see it.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
They will so if you're listening to this.
You're gonna have to stop andgo to our socials and see a
picture of this, but tell themwhat this is.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
It's a red and white old truck, so I call the, I call
the high boy that we'veconverted.
We've done a conversion.
It's two-tone, red and white,lifted 37-inch tires, exhaust.
It started off its debut rightbefore the party animals got
into town and somehow got on thefield with them.
We got it on the field, yes,and it went to the Washington

(03:03):
County Fair with all the farmers.
It made its way to theclothesline fair.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Just Saturday I drove that thing in the parade People
are going nuts.
And I might as well have beendriving a Ferrari F40.
Like to Prairie Grove.
Let's go.
It was a Prairie Grove FerrariF40.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
It was.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
They were so excited about it because it's a past
time it's like 1975 to 1979flashback.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
It is, it is so we've had so much fun with that.
It is still available for sale.
Uh, would love to show you it,but come check it out.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
It's on the rock up front no doubt, and if you want
a super cab or crew cab, we'llbuild that for you too.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
We can do it all right.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
so this week we are going to break down isaiah, with
dodo coffee.
So if you haven't heard of DodoCoffee, we've partnered with
them.
Last couple Fridays we're doinggiveaways.
It's part of our food truckFriday, our car wash Friday and
yeah, we just here recently werelike Isaiah, do you want to
come on to the podcast?
So tell us who Dodo Coffee isand give us a go.

(04:02):
Okay, who Dodo Coffee?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
is and give us a go, okay.
So we, as a company, we hailfrom the Pacific Northwest,
arguably coffee capital of theUS.
It's kind of the same energythat I would say Arkansas puts
into barbecue that WashingtonState puts into coffee.
That's my comparison there.
I like that, and so the companystarted as an idea.

(04:25):
10 years ago, my wife and I werein college.
She was working full time as abarista, I was golfing for our
college and it was just one ofthose things that we had talked
about for so many years.
Fast forward to 2022, we end upmoving to Northwest Arkansas
from Washington State.
2022, we end up moving toNorthwest Arkansas from

(04:47):
Washington state.
Um, and I was kind of, betweenjobs and we, we had a little bit
of extra money to put intosomething just from the move and
, um, that was kind of when wesent it and we said, okay, we're
going to start a coffee company.
And so, uh, bought a littlebuilding on MLK um, down South
Fayetteville over by the supercenter, um, and we spent about a
year renovating it because whenwe had bought it I mean it was

(05:10):
it had been vacant for who knowshow many years it had been a
lot of stuff, but it hadn't beenanything in a long time.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, it was just they're next to halbert's right.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Yeah, exactly, we knew halbert's from growing up
being on the farm.
So yeah, it's over there byhalbert.
Yeah, he's great, he's greatand he was honestly a great
neighbor for us.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, he was letting us use water and power and all
that stuff before we had it all.
And so, um, we spent about ayear renovating that building
and then opened up in january of2024.
Okay, um, and right around thattime found out that we were
borderline losing our building.
There's they're expanding theroad.
Yeah, there's a road expansionhappening.

(05:47):
What they did on Weddingtonthey're now going to do to MLK,
and because of that we wouldlose our building.
And so we operated that firstyear open, just kind of under
this false pretense of like wedon't really know what the next
month is going to look like.
We're like trying to figure outbudgets and the cost analysis
and like I had never ran abusiness like this before, and

(06:08):
so it was a big growing seasonfor us.
But we had a lot of success inthat first year and the
community showed up and showedout and time and time again,
here we are about a year and ahalf working on two years later.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
And still rolling.
So that gets us an idea of kindof how it started.
Your passion for coffee, yeah,and your wife's passion, uh.
Moving to northwest arkansas,the first brick and mortar, and
that is kind of tricky thinkingabout that of like, hey, let's
go all in, this is ourlivelihood, this is how we
support for our family.
But knowing that that thatlocation short-lived, yeah, like

(06:46):
so give it your all.
But knowing that there's adeadline for it, right?

Speaker 1 (06:51):
yeah, and it was a mystery deadline that nobody
really was coming, and so soyou're waiting on the city,
you're waiting on the state,waiting on the city.
We don't really know what'sgoing on.
But through that whole process,you know, we just kind of
trusted in what we were tryingto do.
We wanted to create a reallyclean coffee in a really
welcoming environment.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
So talk about that Break down your coffee.
Where do you get it from?
How did you come up with it?
What makes it different?

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, so all of our coffees are.
I would argue that they'reorganic, but oftentimes these
small farms don't have the fundsor the resources to keep the
USDA organic label, and so we dofarm direct sourcing, which is
we know the farmers or we knowthe importer that knows the
farmers.
Gotcha, he's bringing thecoffee in and we're testing for

(07:41):
mold.
We're testing for mold, we'retesting for pesticides, we're
testing for inorganic compoundsand all of those things that
would deter a clean coffee orcall a coffee air quote clean,
gotcha.
And so then we take that coffeeand roast it here in Arkansas
Just got a new facility down inGreenland and so we're roasting
locally and sourcing localingredients for all of our

(08:04):
things.
And so, for example, like oursyrups are all either real
syrups, like maple syrup orhoney, or they are organic cane
sugar syrups.
And so no high fructose cornsyrup, no dyes, no preservatives
, just keeping that cleanlinessof the product we're putting out
, knowing that when we put it inour bodies, we feel okay about

(08:25):
it, giving it to our kids,giving it to the community.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
That's a really big deal and I love that.
And I asked those questionsbecause I could kind of see it.
I saw it from an outsider andthen we got connected and then I
saw your passion and kind oflove.
You know your path in businessand what you're doing, so then I
kind of noticed so in yourshort time in your building you
created a pretty crazy follow.

(08:50):
Yeah, you know, like, uh, andwe've seen it more and more with
food truck fridays we'rebringing you here of the people
that come with that.
Yeah, like, why do you thinkthat people?
You know it's a whole lot ofpeople who are in college, but
also teachers, young adults andmaybe across the board.
You know better than I do lotof people who are in college,
but also teachers, young adultsand maybe across the board.
You know better than I do yeahwhy do they pick you versus
starbucks, versus seven brew?

Speaker 1 (09:11):
I think there's a there's a little bit of sense of
ownership, because when we havethe building we invited like,
as we knew we were in the finaldays of losing that building,
what'd you do?
We were just like, hey, youknow what we building, what'd
you do?
Talk me through that.
We were just like, hey, youknow what?
We made this analogy where ourcommunity has been built brick
by brick.
It was a little brick, whitebuilding, sure, and so we

(09:32):
invited the community to comesign it.
Oh, yeah.
And I'll get you some photosthat you can.
Yeah, I want to show it becauseit was a lot, it was thousands.
I mean, our building was 70feet long on the front and we
didn't have a single brick.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
It was white and then by the time it was done, it
almost looked black because ofall the sharpness.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
So there was a little bit of that, but then, on top
of that, something that my wife,sarah, has done a really good
job of is creating a culturethat people want to be a part of
, and it doesn't come from likea hierarchy, or like saying, oh,
our coffee's better than yours,or like if you're not drinking
this yeah like where there'sexclusivity or anything like
that.
It's more just like we have areally good product and we are

(10:15):
proud of that.
Um, and on top of that, wetreat people really well,
because at the end of the day,if you have a good product,
people will either go get coffeefor the product or the
experience.
And we're trying to have bothof those in a welcoming
environment.
That's like hey, come one, comeall.
You're going to leave with agood cup of coffee and,

(10:35):
hopefully, a smile on your face.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
I've got to unpack this a little bit for the
listeners out here, becausehere's what I want everybody to
understand we just talked abouta 70-foot that we completely or
no, we you completely covered upwith signatures.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Okay, in a very small timeframe, within a year, and
if I heard you.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
I think it was like a month, right.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
It was like the last month yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
You moved from Washington state right, moved to
here and then all of a suddengot a following large enough to
get all these people to come outand support you.
That's pretty cool.
So let's back up there, becausethe listeners need to know.
There's some people out there,isaiah, that are going.
I'm trying to get my businessoff the ground, but I just can't
create that following.

(11:19):
Yeah, so how did you come frombeing an outsider and then get
all these people to follow you?
What are some of the things youdid?

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, I would argue that we're a borderline
hospitality business, okay,where we are just trying to take
care of people, okay, and wewant people to come and feel
welcome.
A but then leave, feelre-invited to come back.
Okay, just based on ourinteractions, how we treat
people, the products we serve,all of those things build into

(11:48):
the bigger scheme of what we'retrying to achieve and beyond
that, like giving back to thecommunity.
We have this awesome giveawaygoing, we have deals and
promotions and our prices areaffordable and, like all of the
things that were important to uscoming over here, we just
instilled that into our businessmodel.
Let me go a little deeper withyou.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Okay, so you didn't just get this white brick
building, put a sign on it andturn on the open sign, yeah, and
have these great beans and theroasting and stuff.
How did you get people awarethere's plenty of places to buy
coffee?
Yeah, I'd argue, yours is atthe top.
I'm drinking it right now.
It's fantastic, okay, but but.
But how do you let people knowthat you're not from here?

(12:28):
It's not like you call youraunt and your uncle and
everybody else in the area.
How do you let them know,dodo's, where you need to go for
coffee?

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Man, I wish I could say that we had this grand
marketing scheme, but we, wereally didn't.
Okay, we like I know you werekind of joking there, but we
literally turned on the opensigns.
One day in January we had anInstagram account.
It had like 100 followers.
I did like a Stanley giveawayand we got 200 followers.

(12:55):
I make the joke and the analogy.
But it was literally builtbrick by brick.
The first day I was like, oh,like, oh, wow, look, we did like
250 in sales.
Like this is amazing.
And then I go and looks likeour payroll is 300.
Welcome to business.
I know I was like oh wow, thisis cool.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Like I will not be, eating today because, like no, I
know we're celebrating this,but we're really not going to
celebrate exactly exactly it'sgoing to be a verbal celebration
.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah, it really is, but um, on top of that, like the
word of mouth has been huge forus and I think that it all
boils down to you could have thebest product, but if you don't
treat people well, like they'regoing to talk about it
regardless, and so you want themto leave with the high enough
experience that they're going togo be excited to tell other

(13:47):
people about it, becauseeverybody wants to tell
everybody about news or gossipor anything like that.
And so when they leave, theyare your business card and so if
they have a good experience,they'll tell people.
If they have a bad experience,they'll tell people.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
That's where it's at what got you to pick
Fayetteville.
I mean you're in WashingtonState.
Yeah, that seems more like theplace.
It's kind of the coffee capital.
Yeah, you know why not start itthere and move to Fayetteville
and start it?

Speaker 1 (14:17):
So I had a different job.
Back in Washington State.
I was working on this placecalled Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
It's essentially where theybuilt the plutoniums during
World War or the plutonium forthe bombs the Great War too.
Pretty heavy stuff.
But now I knew you were smart.
No, no, I'm just lucky.
But so now it's just a bigcleanup project.

(14:37):
And so I was.
I was doing all of that.
Covid hit, and it was just ithad gotten to a point for us as
a family where we're just likeyou know, we want to just go try
something else.
I was born and raised there, mywife was born and raised there,
but her mom graduated fromFayetteville High, okay, and so

(14:59):
we were about a month away frommoving to Texas, like the rest
of America during COVID.
And then we my wife goes, well,like, what about Fayetteville,
arkansas?
And I was just like, is thateven still a state?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
I've literally never been.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
I know I was like I've never even been to Arkansas
.
I didn't even know it waspronounced like that at the time
.
No, I'm just messing.
So my first time in Arkansaswas literally getting off the
plane with my wife and threekids committed to move here, and
so it was a false end and Ithink that sums up kind of how

(15:32):
we operate.
It's like if we're going to dosomething, we're going to commit
to it and we're going toexecute it to the best of our
ability.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Now, when you stepped off that plane, did you know it
was going to be coffee?
Or you knew you were justmoving to Fayetteville?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
No, I had a sales job .
I was selling homes for abuilder locally.
It was just something that Ifound online.
I was like, well, I've alwaysbeen kind of entrepreneurial
where I didn't think that thisjob would be forever, but we
didn't have the intention ofdoing coffee until about
December before we bought thebuilding.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
So what did you go through besides that?
You knew that you weren't justgoing to be selling homes
forever.
How did you identify thatcoffee was going to be the thing
for your family business?

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well, we saw the market in Washington.
There is a coffee shopeverywhere, on every street
corner in Washington state.
If you could pull into agrocery store, take a 360 look
and see, see, four or five drivethrough coffee shops.
So when we moved here we werejust like, oh man, we have to
drive, you know, 10 minutes forcoffee.

(16:34):
Like that's ridiculous, youknow.
And so which?
was obviously we had somepredispositions coming from
Washington, but we saw that youknow there's a need for a more
convenient coffee be a Northweststyle of coffee, which is just
something that you know.
There's some great powerhouseshere locally but our coffee

(16:55):
style is just a little differentand that's okay and so we
introduced that and I think thathas a huge.
That's been a huge reason why Ithink the growth has happened
so fast.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
You know I think you said something there.
The three of us have talkedabout this on the show is when
we step away from our businessand maybe we're at a meeting
outside and we get around otherpeople in different regions,
they open our eyes toopportunities.
And I think if you would haveasked us, or native Fayetteville
people that have been like yeah, we got quite a few coffee

(17:28):
shops, we got enough coffeeshops.
And then you come from thecoffee capital and you're like
they're near enough coffee shops.
I've been where they thrive.
So you're looking from theoutside in and you identify that
.
I think that's really importantfor the business leaders to
listen to.
You may be thinking something,but the market will actually
react different.
If you'll just get arounddifferent people and you can

(17:49):
step back from your business fora second, you'll be able to
identify opportunities.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Right Almost, identifying a need that the
community didn't know that theyneeded Correct.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
You know, it's like there's a world where 20 more
coffee shops can exist, butnobody's really identified that
yet they just need to all bedodo right, well, I'm trying and
that's the crazy part you thinkabout whenever I'm sitting here
thinking of that and you havenaysayers and anything, any
business that goes on oranything else that say of any of

(18:19):
these drives through pop-upcoffee shops are like they're
too many, they're on everycorner but yet they get put on
every corner and they're backedup everyone's there because the
need is there and you see thatobviously from coming from an
outside market yeah, coffee'slike one of the top traded
commodities on the stock market.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, really yeah, daily, yes and so it's one of
the things that people don'tunderstand.
If 70 percent of people drinkcoffee, you know how many people
that is.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
That's a lot.
I mean 600,000 people inNorthwest Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
You're talking over half a million people there
Close to it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
And the crazy thing is and you know, I don't know if
it was because it was abuilding available or you just
saw on that stretch of 62.
There's a lot of people.
If you've ever tried to get towork on that stretch of road
from 7 15 to 8 15, yeah, youmight as well walk way faster.
That's why I get there wayearlier.
But um, they're, you know,short of a mcdonald's every once

(19:17):
in a while and they just put astarbucks in farmington and
there's seven brew gum up comingin.
But there was nothing.
Yeah, right, there was nothing.
To stop and get coffee youwould have to go past the
interstate, which most peoplegot to the interstate north or
south, to get coffee.
So I'm sure that was just anatural thing.
People were like coffee.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
We saw the traffic in the morning when we were
looking at it.
But I mean, it was honestlyjust lucky.
There was a couple reasons whywe bought the building, but the
main one was it was what wecould afford.
Okay, I mean, the building was600 square feet, run down,
missing windows, it had nastyfloors, like we replaced the sub
floors, the drywall, the stud,like we gutted that thing to

(19:59):
nothing and so, and did most ofthe work ourselves again,
because that's what we couldafford.
And I think that's just thespirit that it really takes to
get something off the ground.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
You have to believe in it so much that you're
willing to do the grinding workto get it done.
There's a couple things therethat you know business owners or
just people looking for.
The next great thing is likedon't put a toe in or don't
barely like.
You guys were fully committed.
I'm not even going to lease abuilding.
I'm going to buy a building.
It's going to need a lot ofwork, but it's what you don't
need.
The new and shiny, it's justwhat it is and we're going to
make it and see what it can do.

(20:33):
And what I love was you sawcoffee opportunity and what
makes you different we wouldtalk about all the time I preach
it to the team always is theycan buy a car anywhere.
They can get coffee anywhere.
You can get it at the gasstation for 49 cents.
I use this in a sales analogy.
You can take a trash can inthere and fill it up full of 49
cents.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
They'll do it right Some of the trucker.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Coffees are big.
But people will pay more foryour experience and we talk
about that constantly.
People aren't just here to buya car because you're the
absolute cheapest in the world,it's because of the experience.
And when you show back up,they're like oh, there's Isaiah
and the team, there's the girls.
You know, they remember myorder, they say hi or they're
friendly.

(21:15):
You know they recommend this orit's pure ingredients.
That's what makes thedifference.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, I think I'm sitting here listening to both
of y'all and I say, as you gothrough that, at first I thought
in my mind I'm like, oh,there's plenty of places to get
coffee, you know, within thisarea.
And then when I really pulledback the layers and I think
about myself, I'm like, yeah,but I want really good coffee.
Yeah, and there's not that manyplaces I can drive to and get
really good coffee.
Right now I'm just a straightblack coffee drinker.

(21:43):
Okay, so if I'm looking justfor the really good what you're
talking about, the details arein the beans.
Yeah, you roast it.
You can tell a difference there.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, you know what I mean, you're a purist, yeah,
and I won't go any farther thanthat but like when you think
about that there's.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
There's not that many places for no, yeah, there's
really not.
So I think you've definitelyidentified and not to get it
conveniently.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
You know it's like you, that's the thing.
You can go, find a really goodcup of coffee many places here,
but to be able to just get inyour car, pull through like that
, that is the style of northwestcoffee.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
You go and look like I was saying because you're
trying to do it on a fly.
You're trying trying tointegrate it into your route,
exactly Whatever you're doing,you're disrupting your whole
path.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Exactly, and our three pillars are craft coffee
conveniently, and that's kind ofwhat we sit on and that's like
we're trying to make really goodcoffee accessible to the masses
.
Yeah, and so that's our model.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Okay.
So operated on Highway 62 inthe building until they finally
said, hey, you've got one monthleft right, Give her all you got
.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Two weeks, two weeks.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
I was giving you a little grace.
Two weeks, and then where doyou go from there?

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Okay, so we actually had to shut down the doors and
so we ended up there wasobviously a settlement and we're
working with Emininent domainpayouts and like trying to
coordinate funds, and all thisstuff is just like I don't know.
I've never done anything likethat before.
I'm I'm like not even good atmy own taxes and so it's like it
pays them all.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, I pay them.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, here with the irs.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
I'm pretty sure I pay them.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, someone tells you exactly, and so, um, so we
allocate some of those funds tobuying a new property on
Weddington, which is where we'rebuilding now, and we allocate
the rest to starting our coffeetrailer, which for us was almost
a necessity, because we're like, okay, we're losing this
building, which is like not onlyour business, but like

(23:43):
providing for our family, yourlivelihood, this is our whole
livelihood.
And so we pivoted to a coffeetrailer, and if you haven't seen
our trailer, it's a customcoffee trailer.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Where did you go get that thing?
You texted me.
You were telling me, was itNashville?
It was in.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Nashville.
Shout out Robert Walls fromAeroBuild.
That's sweet, that's cool.
They make an awesome trailerand I would encourage anybody if
you are in the coffee trailermarket.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Not there, because it's taken.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
No, and there's room for that too, but they do a
really good job of the details.
We went in there and looked atthe trailers before we purchased
one.
Actually, that's not true.
We purchased it online.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
And then we went and looked at it.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
But we had a buyout option.
But I'm watching these guysfinish this trailer and they
literally have a laser level intheir taping caulk lines so that
when they peel that thing back,like every single corner in
there is like perfect.
I was like, okay, this is like.
These are the people that we'retrying to work with, because
they care about it so much thatthey want it to be the best that

(24:53):
it is yeah, that stands withyour craft and your quality and
your set, and so we got thattrailer.
We were closed for about sixweeks but then we reopened in
april to end of april of thisyear, so right before all the
students got out, and it wasjust like a re-adoption from the
community.
It was awesome.
I mean, I get kind of emotionaltalking about because we closed

(25:15):
down and I was like just fearthat this might lose all my
customers, my followers.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, it's like they were getting coffee from other
places for the last six weeks.
Just because you stopped, theydidn't stop buying coffee
exactly, and so.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
But we reopened up and I remember like having a
line and being like, wow, we'relike we're running out of ice,
we're running out of milk.
You know all of the good things, good problems to have yeah and
so to that, like we, we justfeel like we owe it to the
community to like provide a goodproduct affordably and do cool
things for them.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Which has been cool.
It's allowed you to go toplaces, right?
Yeah, so some of the peoplethat have been, you know, in
your corner down in the middleof college, but just being able
to pop up wherever it's needed,so then to kind of maybe give a
sample of the people and whatthey need and what they want,
yeah, that's been cool followingthat it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I mean, we pop up at businesses, obviously.
We pop up at sorority houses.
We're going to start popping upat the University of Arkansas
football games Like there's.
We have so many moreopportunities that weren't there
.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Without the trailer.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Without the trailer which, like you, take a step
back and be like, oh, this wasall part of the plan.
Yeah.
You know, like we're big in ourfaith and we're like, hey, we
have a plan for us in life.
And I think that this, in themoment, you're like wow, we just
lost our building.
But now you take a lookbackwards six months and you're
like this is exactly what weneeded, because now we're closed
, these two opened Exactly,exactly, and so it's been a

(26:40):
blessing for us.
And like I'm just excited tosee where it takes us with the
trailer.
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Let's talk about your building.
One of the things that I reallylike is you said, hey, what we
can afford and what we can do toget this business started is a
rundown 600 square foot oldbuilding.
Yeah, and you weren't sittingaround going well if we had
3,000 square feet, well, if wehad a better location.
You said, no, this is what wehave, this is the opportunity

(27:08):
and we're going to make it work.
Yeah, and you did that.
I love that.
Yeah, I really do so.
Then that closes because of theexpansion of the road, so on
and so forth.
How did you go aboutidentifying the Weddington?
Because now you're into thebusiness for a year or so and
you get to take another step.
Yeah, and this door opens.
How did you identify Weddington?

Speaker 1 (27:29):
So a couple reasons.
We live off of Weddington, okay, we live between Weddington and
Wheeler, like out towardsFarmington, and so we drive that
road every day, just like MLK.
You got Starbucks, you got thisone strip mall coffee location
which is like not veryaccessible, and then all the way
till the college there'snothing.

(27:49):
And so that was the firstreason.
The second reason was we're notgoing to have to deal with
construction for a while, and sothe same road expansion they're
doing on MLK now they justcompleted on Weddington, or they
were getting near completion,and so we knew that there was
like some really good siteupgrades there.
The traffic flow was going tonaturally go that way, and so

(28:12):
that was what kind of settled uson that property there.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Good, that's good, that's good for sure.
Let's talk about your clientele, and you correct me if I'm
wrong here, but it seems likethe base of your clientele that
follows you is is kind ofcentered around college.
Yeah, is that right?

Speaker 1 (28:30):
I would.
This time of year, yeah, okay,and so, like we obviously have
our local community, that iscoming 12 months a year, okay,
but this time of year I feellike because we pop up on campus
often it's created a draw oflike hey, this is a really good
product, I'm going to go findwhere they're at and go get it,

(28:51):
and not to create exclusivity oranything, but they're looking
for us and not to createexclusivity or anything, but
they're looking for us and sothat, yes, I would say, this
time of year we're definitelymore centered around college
activities, college stuff.
I mean, that's where 30% ofFayetteville is now.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
So the cool thing of realizing that and you moving
around, because you're movingaround the best way to
communicate to your customersfrom your 100 followers yeah,
you moving around because you'removing around the best way to
communicate to your customersfrom your 100 followers yeah,
it's funny because we've beentalking back and forth of the
giveaways.
Uh, they run for two more weeks.
Um is that we were watchingthat and looking over that and
so now people are.
You've programmed people tocheck your social to see where

(29:31):
to find you, so it allows you tohave that kind of focused
audience.
So, like the reel that youlaunched the other day that we
made it had over half a millionviews.
Yeah, think that that'sconquering most of northwest
arkansas half a million viewsfrom a hundred to half a million
views yeah, let's go just bytaking care of people quality,

(29:52):
craft and convenience.
I love that.
And it's just, you've done agood job of your social, isn't
just like crazy skits, it's notjust way off-lane-ish.
It's just pure and clean.
Here's where we're at.
Here's what we're doing and Ithink people will follow along.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, and you touched on a good point there is that
we're not posting pictures oflattes every day.
It'd be like you posting apicture of a car.
It's like, okay, yeah,obviously you sell cars.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Obviously they know that.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah exactly it's like people aren't hopping on
social media to see another ad.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
No.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Not anymore, no, and so what we've started to do is
tell our story.
Like we have a building updateseries that has, you know,
another couple hundred thousandviews, because we're just
sitting down and being like, hey, we're losing our building.
We don't know what that means,but here we are, you're telling
a story.
Yeah, people love that, yeah,and so that's more where we find

(30:47):
a lot of success is justletting people in on the truth.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
You know we're not trying to paint this facade of
we're this perfect company orwhatever it's like.
I post memes all the time yeahand it's probably super
unprofessional, but like I don'tcare, you know it's real, it's
real yeah, people love genuine,authentic, real, exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
And so, as the building getting demolished,
it's like, guys, we're losingour building and people felt
like we better go help them,right.
And so then people, a couple ofpeople, sign, and then the
whole wall, then another wall,yeah, that is like hey, you know
, you like, hey, look at theplans of your new building,
which just looks amazing.
I can't wait to see it.
But then you share it on socialLike why not?

(31:30):
Right, sure, and we've been inthe before and said, hey, let's
just keep it under wraps.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
And we're like what are we doing here?
Who's just sharing with theworld?
You're going to anyway.
It's like our vehicle storagetower.
We didn't tell anybody and wejoked about what it was, because
then, when it started going up,it was a water slide, it was
all this thing.
But you've done the oppositeand created tons of traction
from it, and we've learned a lotfrom that, so that's really

(31:58):
good.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
I think there's a point here that we haven't hit
home hard enough on, so I'mgoing to unpack this.
So when did the buildingofficially close?
Last week of February of thisyear, february of this year.
Yeah, when do you think thatand I know it's tough with
construction, but when do youthink that the new building will
open?

Speaker 1 (32:17):
I mean we're hoping by the end of this year.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Okay, so we're talking about roughly 10, 11-ish
months.
Okay, could be 12 to 14.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
Let me just give you a little bit.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
We're hoping you'll be faster, ours are way slower,
but it's three years.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
But here's what I want to tell everybody out there
how many people would go starta business and a year into it go
?
I'm losing my building.
I won't have another buildingfor 10 months.
I haven't been opened up longenough to have this big reserve
to just float that Right.
Okay, I'm making someassumptions.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Always Product All of it.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
I'm just now building my clientele and they've got
other options out there.
How many people would have justgiven up?
But you pivoted.
So that's what I want to talkabout is, not only were you an
entrepreneur, not only did youmove from out of state in state
and find an opportunity thatNorthwest Arkansas had, you were

(33:14):
blowing and going for a year.
Boom building goes down.
I'm not going to be able to getanother building for roughly 10
months.
I don't have the reserves forpayroll and the rest of this,
but I'm going to go out on alimb and buy a van the way that
we talked about.
Buy a trailer, not just kind ofa trailer.
You didn't spray paint an oldcamper trailer.

(33:34):
It's legit just kind of atrailer.
You didn't spray paint an oldcamper trailer, it's legit.
I'm going to invest in all ofthat to try to expand this area
of my business.
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Put a lot of chips into one basket, but you pivoted
.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
Like you saw, like I'm not going to give up on our
core values.
You know what I mean About thecraft and the coffee and the
conveniently.
Actually you took that to adifferent level the convenience,
and you're going to go twoplaces.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah.
Well, part of that, I think, isout of necessity, Right Like I
have four kids and they're allunder eight, Okay, and so it's
like I have to come home at theend of the day, look them in the
eyes and be like, oh yeah,we're going to reopen and
they're like yeah, let's go andso like what am I?

Speaker 4 (34:16):
going to do?
I'm not going to just sit thereand buy it.
You're setting an example,exactly.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
And then the other part of that is like we were
fully committed on this when webought that building.
We were just like, hey, wereally believe in this and it
really does take that level ofcommitment to convince people
that it's worth buying.
Because if, if you have amediocre product, how hard, how

(34:40):
hard would it be to go sell acar that you know has an
alignment issue and like youknow, like all that stuff,
because people have come totrust that we're going to do it.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Like that's the rep, that's the worth and reputation
right there I just I commend youand it seems like it comes
natural to you, but I'm justletting you know that's not the
natural norm out there andthat's why you will continue to
be a successful entrepreneur, nomatter what doors open for you
or how you see locations.
It is because of your drive andyour attitude.

(35:11):
But I'm going one other layerhere.
Okay, let's do it so buildingclothes.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Matt goes deep, I'm not sure.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Let's get the onion all the way to the middle and
then cut it up.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
We get this awesome trailer, yeah, and then, and
then, all of a sudden, theuniversity calls you.
Yeah, and just hang on onesecond yeah, so the university
calls you.
Uh, we call you, other placescall you.
All these people call and justsay hey, you should show up and
sell your coffee.
Yeah, or you start going andfinding those opportunities a

(35:41):
little bit of both.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Okay, before before we like had created a demand
around the trailer.
It was like, hey, we're gonnahave this trailer coming soon,
like we don't even know where topark it.
Like we, we were still workingon our land, like there's no
power there, there's no waterthere.
And so I'm reaching out tobusinesses and saying like hey,

(36:04):
like, would you mind if I showedup and sold coffee?
Like I promise it's good, youknow.
And so there was a little bitof that.
But then I think word travelsvery fast here, and so there was
a little bit of that.
But then I think word travelsvery fast here.
And so now we're getting phonecalls from the University
Athletics.
We're getting phone calls fromTyson Foods, you know, like all
these big players in thecommunity asking us to come out

(36:26):
there.
They're like, how much do youcharge to show up?
I'm like I don't know, likeshould.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
I, I don't care, I know, I know.
I thought I should pay you.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
No, and so it's just been like again.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
A blessing for us, but a testimony to what I think
we're trying to achieve sothere's a layer of your business
that we have failed to mention,I haven't talked about in your
branch of distributing coffee.
Yeah, um, and walk us throughkind of what that looks like
today.
Distributing coffee that you'renot directly, you know, giving

(37:03):
the final product.
Yeah, you're not giving the cupof coffee how you got there
where you're at, because it'spretty amazing where you're at
and where that's leading you to.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, that's evolving pretty rapidly too.
So when we were first openingour coffee shop, we were like
three, four months away, and I'ma biology major, like chem
minor, so I'm really into thescience.
You're a genius.
That's what I was talking about.
No, not a genius, just Istudied hard, that's over our
period.
We're going to give you that.

(37:33):
I showed up to most of my classNot all of them but, I showed up
to most Us too, yeah, and so wewere actually just going to buy
wholesale coffee from somebodyelse.
Okay, and it was really hard tofind a partner that we were
like we agree from top to bottom, and so, like we wanted not
only the quality of the coffeeto be in alignment, but we

(37:53):
wanted like values and moralsand like all of the things that
are important to our businessmodel and like our the pillars
that we stand on, it was reallyhard to find somebody that could
do that for us, and so we werejust like all right, well, let's
like see how much a roastercosts.
Yeah, let's figure it out.
I mean, it can't be that hard,it's really hard.
And so spoiler alert.

(38:15):
It's really hard to get going,but then obviously you get in a
rhythm and it's second naturenow.
But at that moment we're like,okay, we got it all installed,
like it costs way more than wethought it would.
We're sitting in the hole again.
And then we're like, all right,how do we turn it on?
And so we just figured it outone step at a time, and it goes

(38:36):
back to when you need to getsomething done and you have
nobody else to turn to likewho's going to do it?
And so I just taught myself howto roast, and like I burnt some
batches and I ruined somecoffee and the fire department
came, yeah, and like all thebuildings on fire.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
It's like, oh, like, oh, no, I'm just learning how to
remember.
You guys want some coffee, butthis?

Speaker 1 (39:04):
is a little.
How bold?
Do you want it?
No, um and so, but through thatprocess you just take baby
steps and it's not.
It's not going to happenovernight, but it's going to
happen over time.
And so then we open up ourcoffee shop and we're like, wow,
this is actually good.
But there's two reasons forthat.
One is like we're very I'm veryinto the precision and accuracy

(39:28):
of our roasts.
That helps a ton.
The second one is we're puttingreally good coffee into the
roaster.
I mean, you're not going totake a sports car and put like
old fuel into it.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
We got to have a high octane.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Exactly, and so we're putting good coffee in so that
we get good coffee out.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
And then we started making espressos and Americanos
and like all the drinks andwe're just like, wow, this is
actually really good.
Like let's send it off forgrading, which is a coffee.
Q grade is a quality score thatit's kind of industry standard
for I don't know how good yourcoffee is against other coffees,
and it came back like in thetop 10 percentile globally look

(40:07):
at you go, let's go right.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Biology's coming out so it turned out really good.
We're saying well, I guess wegot to sell it yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And so it's like come good, and we're saying, well, I
guess we got to sell it yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
And so it's like come on.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
And so we're like all right now, how do you build a
website, how do you managesubscriptions, how do you do all
this?
And so we launched that in Juneof last year and it's just been
slowly growing there, and nowyou have people saying, well, do
you have five-pound bags?
It's like, no, but I'll getsome, but it's coming.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Do you want to buy five pounds of coffee?

Speaker 1 (40:37):
And so we start doing that.
Now we wholesale, now we whitelabel.
We just got a 70-kilo roasterwhich, if you don't as soon as
large, 154 pounds of coffeeevery every 15, 20 minutes.
It's solid, it's a lot ofcoffee, that's a lot.
And so, uh, now we're at thatpoint where we're starting to
get national accounts or likeother coffee companies are

(41:01):
coming to us saying like hey,can we white label, can you
roast for us?
wholesale all that stuff that'sawesome and so that's where it
sits right now, and I don't knowwhere it goes from there.
But who?

Speaker 2 (41:09):
sells it.
Tell us You're in sports arena.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
So there's a.
I got to tiptoe around this.
Fair enough, I got to tiptoearound this Tell what you want.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, no, I'll share it.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
And so we stand on really clean coffee, yeah and so
.
For those of you that don'tknow, one of our owners plays
professional sports.
You can figure it out on yourown.
We won't say who it is, buthe's really good at football,
right?
Yeah and so.
But it was one of his pillarsas well, where he's saying, hey,

(41:45):
I want like good, clean coffeeas well.
Where he's saying, hey, I wantlike good, clean coffee.
I don't want to start my daywith high fructose corn syrup or
like garbage coffee and justnot feel good, like get a tummy
ache or whatever like all the,all those things.
And so I started reaching out tosports nutritionists on
linkedin and I was like, hey,you know you are responsible for

(42:08):
supplying nutrition to theseprofessional athletes.
Like.
You're paying them millions ofdollars a year, you're investing
another million dollars intowhat they eat, when they eat
their meal schedule, theirregimen, all those things.
And then you let them starttheir day with you know, dunkin'
Donuts Junk Cups Exactly.

(42:28):
You let them start their daywith Dunkin' Donuts Exactly.
You let them start their daywith a sugar bomb that makes
them feel really good for 25minutes, but then they're
crashing in their 10 o'clockmeeting.
Enter Dodo.
We believe in clean ingredients.
We believe in real ingredients.
Have your players try this.
Here's some samples.

(42:49):
We've already sent them out toyou.
They're going to get theretomorrow and traded top 10 and
yeah, it's, and that's what Isay.
It's like look, it's really goodcoffee, but bear in mind like
I'm paid to say that, yeah, andso try it for yourself yep and
so we've been providing for theback offices of a couple NFL
teams, a couple MLB teams, nhlteams and working on the

(43:14):
university here, and so it'sbeen a lot of fun because I'm a
big sports nut and so like it'sfun for me to reach out and be
like, hey, you know, like I'msaying 70% of people drink
coffee, yeah, like it was such agood angle, whether there was
influence or not.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Uh, but realizing this is the entrepreneur soul
within you.
If people weren't realizingthis, then it was like, hey,
that's a different angle, likewhy don't I go to?
Because if you went to thosenutritionists and said, hey,
you're in charge of these people, what they eat, you know, you
see a schedule when they workout what they eat, it's very,

(43:55):
very, very.
I think most of them are very,very well planned yeah but then
you ask them about the coffeeand if they say yes, they're
like, okay, so do you let themget.
You know this, this, this andthis, I'm like I don't really
know what they get.
So it makes them feel sillythat they're not paying
attention to that, which is abig deal, right?
Crazy high, crazy low.
And then you're just like, hey,here's an angle.

(44:16):
I guess coffee will be theretomorrow.
Just try it.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah, it's marketing 101 is you know you sell the
problem and own the solution.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
It is 101, but this is natural to you.
99.7% of people do not figurethat out, even though they have
four kids at home and you are incharge of that.
Most of them say, hey, I'mgoing to go and see who I can
sue.
I'm going to go see who I canget unemployment from.
I'm going to go see who I canblame that's on, you are a rare

(44:46):
duckling and that's why webrought you here of just a
go-getter.
So it's found you in angles allover the place.
Yeah, you know I always am like, hey, where are you going next?
What's next?
And you're like well, I'mworking on this with Tyson, or
hey, the University of Arkansas,and it's just one of those
things that sets you apart.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, and one thing I would
encourage for people that arelike trying to do sales is don't
sell it Like you.
Tell them why it's worth buyingand then leave it up to them.
It has to be their decision.
I'm not going to call theirchef because he's probably the
coffee buyer.
He or she is the coffee buyerand be like oh hey, my name is

(45:28):
Isaiah from Dodo Coffee.
Like you should really try ourcoffee.
They get 50 of those calls a day.
You know it's like extendingyour car warranty.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like let's open Solve aPro.
I'm hanging up immediately.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
If Sarah calls me, I'm down.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
And so we're going like behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Hey, this is why you should provide good coffee.
And here it is.
Now I'm going to let youconnect those two dots.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
It's so good.
It's no different than when youshowed up and give some of the
guys some of your cold brew.
They were like addicted.
They were like, hey, when'sIsaiah going to be back?
We need some more of thosegrowlers Like.
They were.
So and I was like, hey, makesure you pay him for those.
I'm sure he gave you a freesample.
Pay that man because hedelivered it.
It's a quality product andthey're like addicted.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
I know we have our best days here, right.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
Such good stuff.
Now, hey, we got to put you acouple of segments we have
during the podcast.
We have fun, fact quizzes,quizzes.
Okay, so you get to be involvedin this today.
Right, let's do it.
Um, and we only get the answersright sometimes because they're
on the screen.
Okay, I'll look away.
So here we go, all right.
What year was the firstbusiness computer introduced for

(46:39):
commercial use?
What year was the firstbusiness computer introduced for
commercial use?

Speaker 1 (46:44):
I'm gonna say is this for me to answer?
Yeah, yeah, I'm to say it wasIBM.
I'm going to say it came in ona semi-truck.
It was probably like 1952.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Number one you are way smarter than we are.
The answer is 1951.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
You were one year off .
It was a leap year.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Now, unfortunately, ibm may have bought this company
, but it was Univac Okay, whichI've never even heard of.
It was the first computer soldfor business applications, guess
to who the US Census Bureau, oh, that checks out, I know.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah, that checks out .

Speaker 4 (47:22):
How that helps our business or yours I don't know,
it's just a break in the podcastof fun, fun data as well.
The next part I want to diveinto your wife, sarah.
Yep, right, okay, she's in thebusiness with you.
Oh yeah, okay, so let's talkabout that dynamic.
We're in a family business too,and so how do y'all figure out
what you do and what she does,and when do y'all collaborate

(47:45):
together?

Speaker 1 (47:51):
does and when do y'all collaborate together?
We, I think the most importantthing is to figure out each
other's strengths and feed them,and so my wife, sir, she's
really good at.
She's made all of our recipes.
She had worked in coffee so sheset up our entire flow for our
kitchen.
She knows exactly where theespresso cups need to be drying,
she knows where the cups andlids needs to be or where they

(48:12):
need to be, and so she's reallygood at that scheduling recipes,
keeping us very organized.
From an operational but as acompany as well, I'm just a
golden retriever and I likegoing out and getting new leads
and doing those kind of thingsand, like I worked in sales, I

(48:32):
enjoy, I like meeting people andso I am very relationship based
and so on, and then where weconnect is really that's what we
started this business is wewanted something that we could
both do together, that we couldtake our kids around, all that
stuff Like if you come by, mykids are probably running around
with no shoes on, you know,like they're a part of it, and I

(48:54):
think that's.
That's the beauty in what we getto do and that's why we're so
passionate about it is.
I've worked the corporate job,I've worked the sales job in a
awful office, you know like,where people are just miserable,
yeah, and it wears off on you.
And then you come home upsetand grumpy, all these things,
because not at your family, butthat that's who absorbs it.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
And so we sat down when we were really looking to
start this.
We're like, ok, what are wegoing to do, because I don't
want to do this anymore and youdon't want me to do this anymore
, because I don't want to dothis anymore and you don't want
me to do this anymore.
And so that is where that isthe collaboration is.
We're trying to do thistogether for each other, and
it's been, it's been rocket fuel.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
So she's setting up the flow inside, whether it be
the building or the trailer.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Making sure the efficientprocess, yeah, and we're not
going backwards to go forwards.
Yeah, you know what I meanMaking sure the efficient
process and we're not goingbackwards to go forwards.
Right, you're making therelationships out there.
She's helping with the recipes,yeah, but you're learning how
to actually roast the beans,trying or trying.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
It's gotten pretty good, yeah, it's gotten pretty
good.

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yeah yeah.
When have y'all ever had asituation where you're each
working on something and you'rejust hitting a roadblock?
You're like man, sir, will youjust take a look at this?
I've got a mental roadblockhere.
She's like hey, isaiah, willyou look at this?

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah, I think what she does a really good job of is
letting me know what'simportant and like reminding me
what's important, because a lotof the, a lot of my issues or
frustrations come from mechasing something that's either
unrealistic or unattainable.
And so she'll be like okay,like is it really worth all this

(50:38):
work to sell five pounds tothis random person?
Okay, probably not, you know,and like bless, bless her for
that, because I will I'll kindof I'll sell water to a fish.
if I can, you know I'll do allof those things.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
So will she reframe it there and we say, okay, that
there is not a market forfive-pound bags.
However, let's just puttogether if people buy four
pounds, they get the fifth-poundfree.
Yeah, there you go.
You know what I mean.
Does she help reground youthere and going, hey, let's
focus our energy where we canget the biggest return.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
No, it's more so.
Focus your energy.
Like we sat down about a yearago and we're like OK, what's
the end goal?
Ok, why are we doing this?
And what she does a really goodjob of is re-pointing me, or
restructuring me, back towardsour end goals.
Ok, and so?
Because I get squirrely in myroutes and so All the good ones

(51:34):
do.
All the good ones do, I guess,and so that has been my biggest
roadblock personally, and Idon't think I wouldn't
necessarily call it a flaw, butshe does a really good job of
turning that into a strength.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
How do you, or how have you trained yourself to be
able to accept that and not feellike that?
You know she's just attacking.
Yeah, you know, because ifyou're a type A personality and
you're running and gunning andyou're flying and somebody else
is like hang on on, how do you?

Speaker 1 (52:06):
balance that well.
There's a lot of frustration inthe early days, but I think you
take a look back after it's allsaid and done and say well,
maybe she was right yeah younever, you never fully admit it
but you have to at leastacknowledge to yourself that she
was right all the time.
And so, um, that's the biggestthing is just being able to be

(52:29):
grateful for the position you'reat, but also grateful for the
progress you've made.
That's the biggest way that Ican just recenter myself.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
I think what's important there and I hope the
listeners get that is each ofy'all have your strengths, yep,
and you have your differences,but you figure out those and you
align them towards the end goal.
It is so different than the.
We've talked about the threebrothers in here and we're
offering same mom and dad.
However, we still have thedifferent strengths and

(53:00):
weaknesses, and it's how do weuse those for the benefit of the
end goal?
And there's times when each ofus needs to take a backseat and
support because the other one'smore passionate or they have a
better skill set in that area.
Right, and it's.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
OK, it's totally.
OK, you know and to say thatit's not OK is just negligence,
you know, and like saying thatone person can do it all.
It's not true.
I mean, this is business, is ateam sport, and if you don't
have everything in alignmentthen it'll fall from the bottom
to the top, like if you guyshave probably the cleanest

(53:34):
facilities I've ever seen forlike a business this size, and
that's credit to the people thattake care of the building.
You know, it's like you can'tsit here and be like oh, look at
me, this building is so clean.
I didn't do that, but our teamdid that and we have achieved
this together, and so that's thebiggest takeaway there.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Yeah, no doubt that's important to learn everyone to
have the same goal and worktogether, right?
But then we're all going towork on different projects that
support what they like to do, sothey're not just working Right.

Speaker 5 (54:04):
Hey, isaiah, what have you seen in your growth in
building and everything else?
What's been some obstacles thathave popped up that you aren't
necessarily planning for.
It's been the biggest ones, Iknow there's been several,
obviously.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
That was a pretty big one.

Speaker 5 (54:21):
We talked about the building, but anything else that
maybe not as big, but that'sbeen something that's definitely
made you step back and think,hey, you have to adjust here.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
I think when we were first starting out, I was just
so excited to have staff that Iwould bend over backwards for
them for anything you know.
It's like, oh, hey, I actuallycan't come to my shift tomorrow
morning.
It's like, oh, it's OK, I gotit, you know, which is that's
fine, like if that's who you are, that's fine.
But it put me in a place whereI was then picking up everybody

(54:57):
else's slack and the companystalled, and so not necessarily
being a yes man for me hashelped out a lot, but teaching
accountability, being like, hey,you signed up for the shift.

Speaker 5 (55:10):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
You are scheduled for it, you had plenty of time, all
those things.
This is just one example.
Yeah, but being able to holdpeople accountable and not do it
out of a place of judgment orhate, but saying like, hey, I
want this company to succeed, sowe all have to do it, and like,
this is your part, and if youhave an issue with that, like I,

(55:33):
will find somebody that canpick that up, and so, at the end
of the day, nobody wants thisthing to operate better than me,
my wife, and so those are theimportant things.
It's just getting everybodypointed at the same thing.

Speaker 5 (55:50):
That's so important for business owners to realize.
And you hit the nail on thehead there.
So many people want it tosucceed, and it's not that
they're not trying to put theirall into it.
But you hit the key of itstalled whenever you were fully
maxed out at your capability.
Maxed out at your capabilityWe've talked about this in

(56:11):
previous episodes of even ourbest is not better than 10 other
people at 50% of what you coulddo, because they're 10Xing,
5xing, whatever it would be.
So that's so big that yourealize that we're able to step
back, pivot and say, hey, I needyour help here if you want to
be on this with me absolutely,it was huge.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
And that's one of those things I love that you say
that being a yes man and like,yeah, I got it.
Yeah, I got it, you're a niceguy, you know, uh, of always
being that way we talk aboutoften of the difference between
being nice and being kind.
Nice is, nice, is nice, right,it's.
But that's saying, yeah, I'llpick up your shift, yeah, I'll
pick up your shift, and thenyou're not able to go.

(56:48):
Look, what's the next roast,you know what's the next recipe,
where are we going next?
And so then you can still havethe feeling of nice, but being
kind is kindly saying, no, thisis what you signed up for.
I appreciate you.
We still think you're one ofthe best, but I need to know
you're fully committed, like Iam.
Yeah, and there's a.
It's so hard to get a manager tounderstand that that there's a

(57:12):
difference between nice and kindand it it doesn't have, doesn't
have to be delivereddifferently, but the
expectations has to be different.
Like, not that, hey, it's okay.
Hopefully you can make ittomorrow's right.
No, I need you here today.
We look forward to seeing you.
If there something going on,let me know so we can help you.
Some people get hung up on thatbecause they think it's nice or

(57:33):
not nice, like those are thetwo options.
It's not.
I mean most people.
It is hey, thanks for showingup or hey, screw you, don't show
back up.
They think it's that, but it'slike hey, nice or being kind is
just extreme ownership ofaccountability and being nice
about it.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
Yeah, the thing that we preach in every single
meeting is correction is notcriticism.
That's good, Because if youcan't receive correction, then
you're not malleable and you'renot going to be able to pivot,
Like when we lose a building.
What are we going to do?
You can't sit there and dwellon it.
You know like you have to beable to take correction, pivot

(58:10):
and start working towards thesame goal just from a different
angle.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
I think that's so good you know we've talked about
it quite a bit on this show isall the things we did across
town that got us to here aren'tnecessarily going to get us to
where we want to go.
Yeah.
So, no different than you Like.
At first you were just excitedto get help, yeah.
And then all of a sudden you'relike now I can't do what I
needed to do to help the endgoal of the business.
We saw the same thing.

(58:34):
It's like now we've got toempower others because this is
just taking all of our time andwe can't work on the business
and the end goal Exactly.
So we've had to do some pruning, you know what I mean, to open
up growth in other areas.
Right, and that's very wise ofyou.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Don't tell me that That'll go straight to my head
right.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Well, the reason I tell you that is just so.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
Hopefully then you'll know that a year or three years
from now, there's going to be adifferent stage of that.
Oh yeah, you know, just becauseof what you did today that got
you three years down the road,it's necessarily going to get
you five years down the road.
Yeah, I'm telling myself that.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
That's really true, right?
We constantly hey, is there onesource, advisor, team member or
mentor that you would say hey,this person I've always leaned
to that's given me not even tosay hey, here's how you should
do coffee, but here's how youshould do business.
And is there one person thatyou've always leaned towards?

Speaker 1 (59:32):
So we have there's three groups of owners that own
Dodo my wife and I, her sisterand husband, and then the two
sisters' parents, and so that'sthe structure of it, as, like
we've never really ran business,sarah's sister and her husband,
like they're in the spotlight,they've they've seen marketing

(59:54):
at its best yeah and so, likethose, those things that I'm not
very good at, like, we have apowerhouse of owners that I'm
not gonna.
I'm not gonna lean to my in-lawsfor operation in a coffee shop.
It's like they've never reallyworked in a fast-paced coffee
shop like this, and I think that, as owners, we all acknowledge

(01:00:14):
that and allow the people withthose strengths to make those
decisions Good.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
That's super solid, all right.
Anything else that you wouldlike to on new ownership or not
a new ownership, new building,anything you want to tell
anybody of, hey, this is to come, or look forward to this, or
something that's going to bethere that you haven't ever had,
or something that's going tomake a difference.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Yeah, I mean we're going to.
I mean I say something we'venever had.
It's only a year in, but sowe're going to have the same
experience.
Right, we're going to have adrive-through.
That's going to be kind of oneof our staples for most of our
locations, I'd say.
But on top of that we have afully covered, heated, cooled

(01:00:58):
outdoor courtyard that's goingto have a fireplace, it's going
to have some water features.
It's just going to be a reallycool space.
And then on top of that, likewe're still thinking about the
community, like the handicapspot is obviously right by the
entrance, but then beyond thatis new mother's parking, where
these are the only.
We have a lot of little kids,so these are the only three

(01:01:20):
spots that you don't have tocross the entire drive-through
to get your kids into thebuilding.
Okay, and so, like stillthinking of those little things,
like I'm going to miss a bunch.
I'm going to miss a bunch ofthose items, but just
continually trying to create aspace for people, and I think
that's going to be the coolestthing that you're going to see
there, the intentionality isreally good in there and a lot

(01:01:42):
of those specific things.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
And just know this in business you're going to miss a
hundred plus hopefully catchway more than them.
And we researched for 10 yearsand looked to a hundred
different places and we captureda lot of good things.
Uh, and it plays out for thecustomer and for the employees
you're going to miss some thingsand it's like, well, on the
next one we'll get this right.
So, uh, we appreciate you somuch for being here today,

(01:02:06):
isaiah.
Thanks for always keeping thecircle going round and round,
and we love having you here andjust look forward to many years
of growth and all the thingsyou've got going on.

Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
Hey, in case they haven't followed you or haven't
tried your coffee, what's theeasiest way for listeners and
viewers to connect or to followyou guys?

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Yeah, so on all of our socials we're at Dodo Coffee
Co, just D-O-D-O Coffee, c-o.
And then on top of that, all ofour full coffee selections
online, and so we roast, I think, eight or nine different single
origins and blends right nowonline.
Dodo Coffee dot co.
Not dot com It'll redirect you,but dot co looks way cooler.

(01:02:46):
Yeah, not com, it'll redirectyou, but co looks way cooler
yeah co looks cool.
It's the new internet exactlythis is the new age internet
right here, and so that's thebest way to follow us, and so
we're posting daily or postingweekly, our trailer locations,
we post on our stories, we sharewhat people are sharing about
us.
It's just been a lot of fun,and so there you go.
It's been fun having you on.

(01:03:07):
Thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
That's a lot of fun, absolutely Well.
Thanks for tuning in episode 53, where we brought Isaiah with
Dodo Coffee, bringing you,hopefully, real and relevant
items that make sense to you asa business owner or somebody
following a business what to do,what not to do and the things
that work.
As always, follow us onlewissuperstorecom for the
latest and greatest deals inCrossroad Conversation Podcast
and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:03:32):
Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it
a like.
Share it with your friends andfamily.
Even visit our website.
Send us the questions aboutwhat you want to know, what you
want to hear.
Tell us about the automotiveindustry, family business in
general.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you have.
But make sure you tune in nexttime where we