June 18, 2025 • 40 mins
This episode of the 'Risky Benefits' podcast features an in-depth conversation with Lindsay Sheets, Vice President of Branding at Lucky Goat Coffee. Lindsay discusses the growth and evolution of Lucky Goat, a beloved local coffee shop that has expanded into a regional brand known for its exceptional coffee and people-first culture. The discussion covers Lucky Goat's journey from wholesale to retail, the challenges and strategies of maintaining culture and quality during expansion, and the importance of robust employee benefits and career growth opportunities. Lindsay also shares insights on the brand's franchising efforts, the impact of documented processes on scaling operations, and the future plans for Lucky Goat. The conversation highlights the company's commitment to both customer and employee experiences, making it a unique and thriving business.
To listen in and subscribe to more episodes, visit our website: fbmc.com/podcast.
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(00:03):
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_12 (00:16):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits where we dive into the
stories behind greatorganizations, the people who
lead them, and the benefits thatkeep them thriving.
This week we will be talkingabout coffee, community and
culture, and we're thrilled tobe joined today by Lindsay
Sheets, vice president ofbranding at all of our favorite
(00:38):
coffee shop, lucky Goat, abeloved local coffee shop turned
growing regional brand that'smade its mark, not just with
incredible coffee, but also withan incredible people first
culture.
So yeah, before we get startedLindsay, if you don't mind,
thank you so much for coming in.
Yeah.
And why don't you just tell us alittle bit about yourself.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025 (00:57):
All right.
Thanks for having me.
This is fun to get outside.
Our normal caffeine kind offlow.
Um, Lindsay Vice Presidentbranding for Lucky Goat.
I have the very unique job andability to cultivate not only
the employee experience.
But our customer experience aswell.
I oversee all branding andmarketing as well as all of our
corporate cafes, expansion intoour franchising world,
(01:21):
educational platforms, and ourhuman resource division as well.
I will hit 10 years in October,which I'm very proud to be at a
company for that long, but acompany that is just uniquely
different in what we do.
It's a cool place to work and,and we're doing some pretty big
things.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (01:36):
That's awesome Lindsey.
We love having you.
And to all those who arelistening who know me and know
that I work at Lucky Goat everyday, actually work at Lucky Goat
you probably know I'm thrilledto have Lindsay on here today.
Mm-hmm.
Kyle just sent us a picture asLucky Goats.
Growing.
You guys have expanded wellbeyond Tallahassee and you're in
Frisco, Texas.
(01:57):
Come to find out.
And so, David Perry, one of our,one of our managing principals,
sent a fun photo.
It's so cool.
It's awesome.
It's crazy.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So before we were gettingstarted, I, I just mentioned
that you guys sell killershirts.
So who, who's like the.
Who's the person behind theactual logo?
Who, who's like the personbehind that design?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (02:18):
So it's our in-house branding
department.
Okay.
So we have taken a team of onemyself for years and years, and
now we have a whole design housewithin our corporate office.
So they are pumping out thedesigns.
We do it all inside, uh, nofreelance.
It's a group of really talentedpeople.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (02:37):
Yeah, that's cool.
When we, um, used to work out atActive Movement, which is
mm-hmm.
Near Costco for us inTallahassee, and it's not too
far.
It's probably a quarter mile,maybe a little more to Lucky
Goat.
But there, when you guys are.
I guess you're roasting yourbeans.
Mm-hmm.
You can smell'em like if you'reon a run and I'm always like,
(02:59):
I'm like, man, this, it smellsgood.
It is.
I mean, really out of all theoccupational smells, I picked a
really good one.
It is really, it is.
It is fantastic.
It gets into the pos but it is agreat occupational smell.
Yeah.
Well, we got some question foryou.
Kylie kick it off.
Yeah.
So, um, let's start at thebeginning.
For those who might not know,lucky Goat is a bit of a
(03:20):
Tallahassee staple.
It's, but can you walk usthrough the Lucky Goat story and
how the brand has grown?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (03:25):
Yeah, so this is a story that most do
not know, right?
They see as a, as a coffee shopand.
So thrilled to have that meatthere.
But our 15th anniversary willhappen in July.
We are much older than maybeothers think.
But our story begins a littlebit farther back than that.
About 20 years ago, we were theshop that you could come to for
(03:46):
a restaurant concept, a beverageconcept, a coffee concept.
Mm-hmm.
We could supply everything butcoffee, right?
So we thought, well, that'scool.
How do we become the one-stopshop?
Coffee had to enter, the cataloghad to enter into the lineup of
products.
So when we did that, we wantedto offer a wholesale tasting
room just like you would taste awedding cake.
(04:06):
Prior to making this massivepurchase, we had a tasting room
that you could come and try outwhat lineup of coffee you wanted
to sell in your restaurant, yourcafe, what have you.
As luck would have it, it becamemore of a retail hub than a
wholesale tasting room.
Um, and in April of 2015, wewent.
Okay, now is a pivotal time togo.
(04:29):
Do we embrace this retailcomponent?
Do we stick to, no, we wanna bea wholesaler and that's what we
wanna do.
And we went the retail route,which is completely backwards in
the coffee world.
You start as a retailer and yougo into wholesale because you're
so popular and people want tocarry you in their cafes, their
restaurants.
We did it in reverse, which iskind of kismet to our story
(04:49):
overall.
And then came in October, Ijoined the company.
Um, we had this massiveproduction facility, this one
location.
The next year, 2016, we thought,let's just throw a couple more
cafes in there.
Yeah.
Within eight weeks of eachother, we went from one cafe to
triplets.
We had three kids in our cafes,and the growth hasn't stopped
from there.
(05:10):
So today we have six corporatecafes in Tallahassee.
We have hundreds of wholesalecustomers across the southeast.
We have a, a thriving andbudding franchise program, right
si signing 18 franchiselocations just in the past 16
months and now really a thrivingand budding e-commerce business.
We sell to all 50 states, whichis pretty cool.
(05:32):
We hit that 50 mark a coupleyears ago.
It is quite the growthinitiative and really proud of
where we've taken it to lookback and go, we never intended
for this to happen and ourfounder to this day will go, I
never wanted to do retail.
It's hard, it's hard to maintainstatus quo in growth
initiatives.
But looking back, it was thebest decision that was ever made
(05:53):
for our brand.
And look at where we are nowbecause.
You took a leap of faith intodoing something unconventional.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (05:59):
Yeah.
Very cool.
I'm curious, so I don't evenknow if this is on there, but
I'm just gonna ask.
Mm-hmm.
So holiday favorites.
Everybody loves your guys'holiday coffees.
Oh yeah.
Snowflake in particular.
I'm just curious, this snowflakecrunch, like when, how has that
been around for the full 15years or was that something that
came about like later in Y's?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (06:21):
It has been around nearly the full
time when flavored coffeeentered the scene, the lineup.
Okay.
Our founder and his wife createdthis blend and it is a cult
classic.
It is a favorite, yeah.
At one point you could get ityear round.
So to add more to the intriguein that limited a good idea.
We limited, you know, when youhave it available, but it.
(06:44):
It is synonymous with our nameat this point is Snowflake
Crunch.
Okay.
I was curious.
That's the one I always take tofamily during the holidays as
she should.
It is excellent.
Yeah.
But that's the funny thing isI'll tell'em, I'm like, listen,
they don't sell it year round,so if you want it, like I gotta
get it now.
And so it's like give the bigbags, you know, stock up and.
(07:06):
That's right.
Yeah.
Oh, I forgot.
Kind of.
We do, we give a little kind ofbridge to get you until
November.
Okay.
But just for those, those 31days.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (07:14):
Super cool.
Well, uh, you guys have a verypeople first approach, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's very evident.
And I imagine that kind ofgrowth comes with its own
challenges.
How have you kept the heart ofthe brand intact as you've
expanded?
I mean, so I guess, let me askreal quick.
How many states are you in now?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (07:32):
We are now about to be in three
states.
Okay.
We are on the cusp of Georgiaand growing Gabriel.
And growing and growing.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So like as this happens, how,how, how do you maintain this
culture as you expand?
Gosh, that's got the, themillion dollar question.
That's what keeps you up atnight as you grow and expand, is
how do you bottle up what you'vecultivated for years.
(07:53):
And pick it up and drop itsomewhere else and it still go
forward.
For us, I think we did threedistinct things that kept us in
line, that kept that heartbeat.
Still going and still going.
Right now as I'm here with youall.
One is we took the headknowledge out.
So much of what we built, webuilt very quickly.
(08:14):
In my 10 years, there has neverbeen a season that we were not
on a rocket ship ever.
Yeah.
It just depends which departmentwas that rocket ship.
And we realized pretty early onthat we had so much head
knowledge.
So if I was to walk out of thecompany and say, Hey, I'm gonna
try something new.
This years of institutionalknowledge went out the door with
me, right?
Mm-hmm.
Which is not good, right?
That is not how you set up acompany for success.
(08:36):
Yeah.
So we took out this headknowledge and made it policies,
procedures, practices.
We can actually name ourexperience.
We have defined it.
It was not so much what you feltwhen you walked in.
We have a name to our experienceand we've built a very robust
training program now that.
Teaches this next generation,whether you are a franchise
(08:57):
concept or you're a corporateconcept how you make it happen,
how you bring forth Lucky goat.
In your market and in yourdepartment.
The second is we never stopfocusing on recruiting.
Recruitment is everything.
We are a people folks com, uh,people focused company.
And we believe that ourexperience is because of the
people that we employ.
Mm-hmm.
Like they have to go hand inhand.
(09:17):
That's lot of sense.
So recruitment for me is, myinterviews are five minutes or
less.
Because I am so confident in myeducational team that they're
going to bring the technicalskill, they're gonna bring the
coffee knowledge.
It's the soft skills that arehard to cultivate within a
classroom style.
So my five minutes are filledwith, are we smiling and
engaging?
Right.
Um, are you able to hold acasual conversation and we are
(09:40):
able to easily flow as if we'reat lunch together.
Mm-hmm.
And then for me.
Why are you in front of me?
Out of all the places that youcould be right now interviewing,
why is Lucky Goat at the top ofthat list?
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of times when you findout this meat cute with our
brand, it's, you know, grandmagot, you started on coffee when
you were three years old and youwere looking for that
traditional experience, which weprovide, or it's where you had a
(10:03):
life-changing event in a cafe.
We've seen so many first datesand we've seen babies straight
from the hospital.
The mom is getting their coffeeas they're on the way back home.
Oh yeah.
We have been.
Our brand has met people intheir lives at so many different
stages.
For me, that is so importantbecause our, our industry is
very passion focused.
People love coffee.
People love to be around coffee.
(10:24):
When you get bit by thatspecialty coffee bug, it stays
with you and impacts you foryears to come.
So that why is everything in myrecruitment journey.
And now that I'm not the solerecruiter for our company, that
style and that desire has nowpermeated into so many different
departments and outlooks, but itgot out of our head.
Yep.
It went into recruitment.
(10:44):
And the third one is weestablished a hierarchy of
success.
We wanted to build careers incoffee.
Coffee is such a transientworkforce.
It is the college student who'shere for a stint of time.
We wanted to reshape that.
How do you build a culture?
How do you build an experience?
Well, you don't have a revolvingdoor of people.
Mm-hmm.
That, okay, who's leaving thissemester?
(11:05):
Who's graduating?
What's happening is we wrote, wewrote the script.
I.
We made careers we gave youtechnical training, we gave you
a salary, we gave you benefits,offerings that you actually
could build a personal lifewhile still having fun in what
you did.
And it has changed everythingfor our brand.
And now I fully believe and inconfident that you can bottle us
up and you can drop us inFrisco, Texas.
(11:28):
You can drop us in Knoxville,Tennessee, and you will feel and
be a part of the same experiencethat was born and bred in
Tallahassee.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_1 (11:35):
It's interesting, just even with our
own business scaling, learningto grow efficiently, a lot of
things that you said resonatewith me.
Hopefully they resonate with thepeople listening.
Mm-hmm.
I almost feel like justlistening to you talk about your
experience.
Mm-hmm.
I, I, to be very candid, feellike companies that are designed
or set up to franchise.
(11:58):
Are really probably modelcompanies for how to scale in
general.
Mm-hmm.
'cause if you think about what afranchise really is set up to do
mm-hmm.
It is to scale efficiently, nodoubt.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And so in order to do that, youhave to document and create that
so that it's transferrable.
And I think it's what mostcompanies actually fail to do.
(12:18):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And so succession planning orwhatever it is, like when you
really think about, even for us,right?
Mm-hmm.
So we're working on our salesplaybook, which for us, it's
like if I hire a salesperson andI bring'em in the front door
from that day forward, there's,there's like very important
things they need to know.
Like, who are we?
Why should somebody hire ourcompany?
(12:39):
Mm-hmm.
Why should somebody hire you asa consultant?
What are the differentiators forour company?
Like, what are all these thingsthat like we have to know about
ourselves and then we have toreplicate it from person to
person to person so that thenot, not like.
The cheeseburger tastes the samefrom from every person.
So they're the pillars of yourcompany, right?
(12:59):
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've gotta cure the cementthough.
But if you talk to people, mosteverybody you talk to, their
company has not written all ofthose things down and has not
rolled out a systematic, let'scall it systematic way.
Yeah.
To transfer that knowledge fromone person to another, to
another.
And then what's interesting iswhen you talk to employees, void
(13:20):
of having something like that,they say, I don't feel
supported.
And this is like, I, I, Istarted to ask questions like,
well, what do you, what do youmean when you say that?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And what I think they're tryingto articulate is this, this
whole documentation of who weare, why somebody should buy my
coffee, or why somebody shouldbuy my benefits consultant.
(13:41):
Like they're looking for thatmeat and potatoes and it's like
they want that structure, but Ifeel like.
It doesn't always exist.
So I absolutely love, love, lovethat you guys have done it.
And your answer within thecontext of how you're gonna keep
your culture going is perfect.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Because I think, and you don'tnecessarily know this, but I
think many of our listeners,especially many companies out
(14:03):
there are struggling with how todo that, how to answer that
question.
Yeah.
But they don't have that plan.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (14:10):
Yeah.
It, well, it's scary to make itright.
Yeah.
Franchise forced us to do it.
But I think we will always lookback and go 10, 20 years from
now going, that was a pivotaltime in our company that it left
head knowledge and becameinstitutional knowledge.
Yeah.
And it became inbred so manyother policies, procedures,
(14:30):
positions, because we knew weneeded either more people to
make it happen.
It is such a scary thing tothink, you know, a tenured
employee to walk out the doorand go, oh my gosh, what did
they do?
Like, what did they do everysingle day that we just didn't
know?
It was just innately in thatrole.
Right?
But no one, I think, will lookback as my personal opinion.
We'll look back and go, that wasa waste of time.
(14:52):
Why did we waste this time?
Writing things down?
You'll go, why didn't I do itsooner?
Yeah.
Like, why didn't I write downthe core pillars?
And cure the cement at thefoundation.
That's when we bill it for yourcompany for years to come.
It is a major turning point forour company, and now we can
refine everything because wehave it written and we know our
core and our baseline.
(15:12):
And now it's all aboutrefinement to make us better
than we were yesterday.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (15:15):
That's exactly what we're talking
about.
The playbook too.
It's cool.
So just to tie a few things backfor you.
Sure.
From a consumer perspective, my,when I was a kid, we, my dad was
in the military, so we movedaround a lot.
Sure.
And you know, we didn't reallyhave consistency outside of our
family.
That was it.
You know, it was like every yearwe would move, every two years
we would move.
And so the thing my dad used todo is when coffee shops weren't
(15:38):
a thing back then, like everyonehad Maxwell House back in the
day.
And, uh, but like here, butlike, I remember the bx, which
is the base exchange they had alittle coffee shop and my dad on
the weekend when he couldscrounge some time together,
would take me and he'd get melike, I dunno.
Like a croissant and some coffeeand he'd get coffee.
(15:59):
Because at, at that time inhistory, which you guys are all,
who are older and listening tothis are gonna laugh.
All of us kids were told thatdrinking coffee was gonna stunt
our growth, which we now know isnot true, but Oh.
Of all the things that we weretold.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
So, so that, that was my initialtie.
Right.
So fast forward.
Yeah.
(16:19):
Then I was getting my master'sdegree while working, and I have
three kids and there was, therearen't very many places that are
open super early in the morningwhere you can go sit and, and
like study.
Yeah.
Because for me, I didn't wannastudy when it was family time.
So I would get up beforeeveryone else and I would go do
that and then I would go towork.
So I got my master's degree in acoffee shop is I like to say.
(16:41):
And the coffee was awesome, butit was just a quiet place where
I could go do that.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And then I remembered after Igraduated, I remembered the
experience that my dad gave me.
I was like, you know what, I'llstart taking my kids.
So every weekend I, I've beengoing up there with the kids and
the people at the coffee shophave seen my kids since they
were in a, a car carrier.
(17:01):
Mm-hmm.
And so they've watched'em getbigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger.
And so it is super interestingwhen, as a kid.
Community member, it's just aplace that I have consistently
gone over time and the peoplethat actually work there do it.
Indirectly as a result of that.
No, my family.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and they care deeply aboutyour family too, right?
(17:22):
Yeah.
You know, and it's like, back inthe day, what was it?
Uh, cheers or whatever, it'slike Right.
Where everybody knows your name.
Yeah.
And, and that was like kind ofwhere people went.
But you know, for those of uswho aren't hanging out in bars
all the time, like coffee shopbaby, to a.
It definitely matches with whatyou're, you know, my experience
(17:45):
matches with what you're saying.
Your I love that.
Yeah.
Intention is, and so it's supercool to see those two things
meet.
Mm-hmm.
I I feel like when they do meet,that's when you, oh my gosh.
It's kismet.
Right?
Right.
It's perfect.
Yeah.
And what a, that's where you'reable to franchise this beautiful
brand and be humbled daily by.
You want us like you want to bewith us, but we have a cool
(18:05):
thing, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
My kids grew up in the warehouseand I have so many videos of
shipping boxes being pulled withmy daughter on, on the wagon to
get it there.
It is such a family approach towhat we do.
Yeah.
But I have the same experienceand I'm not a consumer.
When my daughter and my son walkin, it is, how you doing?
You want your normal, like,here's, here's what your normal
(18:27):
is.
It's heavily coated in chocolateand serving all those things,
right?
Hot chocolate.
It is not.
I love to hear that.
It's not just in the family.
Right?
In the family.
We take care of our own.
Because everyone is a part ofthat family and that culture,
which I think makes us soattractive to franchise
concepts, but it's notdisingenuine like, we truly care
for your family growing.
(18:47):
Yeah.
We wanna see that, that baby whowe have served that mom all
throughout their pregnancy, wewanna see that baby straight
from the hospital.
It's a beautiful thing and andthat is the coffee industry in
general.
We just get to be vessels ofthat in Tallahassee, but it is
really beautiful about thatcoffee industry.
Cool.
Very cool.
So as the VP of branding, youtouched a lot of areas from
(19:07):
customer perception to internalculture.
Oh yeah.
So how do you see leadership?
Playing into brand growth?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025 (19:14):
Oh, I love this question because for
so many reasons.
Lucky Goat is not my first stintin my professional path.
It has been my stint for nearlya decade.
But I came from a company thatwas a hundred years old, right,
to a company that, um, was not ahold hand, like when I started.
Right?
Completely different.
And we've grown immensely and Ihave the very unique, um, job.
(19:36):
I think I have the best job inthe company because of how and
what I'm able to touch and dowith not just what I envision,
what my team comes alongside todo with me.
And there's no doubt I give thecreative direction for our brand
where we go, how westrategically achieve it.
Not so much into what colors I'mable to move out of the color
coding at this point.
(19:56):
Um.
The same concept remains a shipstill needs a captain.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
No matter how large or smallthat you are, I can give you
creative direction and say, I'llcome back, I'll check in later.
But that is not helpful.
Right.
It's not helpful to the overallgrowth and development of my
team because I wanna give thedirection, but ultimately my job
(20:17):
as a leader isn't to instill theconfidence.
You can do these really bigthings, right?
We are doing really big thingsright now.
Um, scary things.
Most of my workforce is underfive years of their professional
journey, okay?
Many.
I am their first professionalscent, right?
And stop, which is reallyempowering and inspiring and
overwhelming at times of I ammaking the standard and the
(20:40):
baseline of your career successand what you view a journey, a
professional journey be like,but knowing that they're so new
in what they're doing, and so.
Who is gonna give'em thatconfidence to go, you got this
hard yesterday is not hardtoday.
It's new today.
And look how well we pass thesemajor milestones and landmarks.
So I'm driving and I'm pullingthe right levers, and I'm
(21:02):
changing up the sales when Ineed to change'em up because I
have the foresight to do thosethings.
But ultimately, my job as it is,as a parent, is to lead and
guide you and to instill theconfidence.
That we can do big things and wecan do it together.
That as I lead and direct thecreative strategy, we've got
this team that I just imagine,you know, 50 other people
locking arms with me right now.
(21:23):
I don't get to do it alone anylonger and how, what an honor it
is to do it with theseindividuals and also how like
terrible and it is for me whenthey go.
Okay.
I'm ready to leave the nest.
I'm ready to go try somethingnew because we've done and
cultivated something so bighere.
Um, but it is a balance of howdo I still direct you, but
ultimately give you theconfidence that we've got this
(21:43):
covered.
We've got big strategies andgrowth potential some lofty
goals, but when your teambelieves that they can do it, we
truly are unstoppable to makethat happen.
That's cool.
A a lot of what you said lendstowards empowerment.
Mm-hmm.
Or, or the empowerment of yourteam.
Yeah.
Especially at the front lines,which.
We used to have a saying inconsulting, it was like, connect
(22:05):
the frontline to the bottomline.
Mm.
Right.
And that, that often happenswhen you have a very engaged
frontline and they understandhow they impact everything.
So I'm curious, how do youempower those teams to be
ambassadors of the lookie gobrand?
What does that look like?
So it is all about.
Do they feel they have growthpotential in our company?
(22:26):
Right?
So when I joined the companyyears ago, there was not even a
step stool you can climb, right?
Mm-hmm.
To achieve growth you may havejust demonstrated at your, your
ceiling, and that was it.
And not only ceiling, liketechnically, but financially
too.
Right.
That is the most deflating partof one's journey to go.
Makes sense.
I've, I've achieved it.
Right.
Here we go.
And I'm done and done on, on daytwo.
(22:47):
And you're completely finished.
So it was instilling not just astep stool, but a ladder that
someone could truly climb.
We truly believe careers incoffee are what?
Are going to sustain oraccompany and grow our company.
Yeah, that I'm able to raisethree children in Tallahassee
and be successful at what I'mdoing and I'm not an abnormal
story.
Right?
That's a common story in LuckyGoat.
(23:09):
So establishing a hierarchy ofsuccess and that they could grow
technically in their skill.
They can grow financially andthey have a path of success that
they can clearly pave forward togo, all right, I could do this,
I could do this, or I couldcompletely course correct from
front lines to back of housethings and look at how I could
aid the operations back ofhouse.
(23:30):
It is incredibly empowering toknow you didn't come in at your
ceiling.
And then as they rise and youknow, rising tides, we rise
together.
The next generation is able tocome in and start to feel.
Those, those vacant positionsthat are still remaining within
our company.
Yes, we get bit by the specialtycoffee bug.
As I said before, we are a verycool industry.
(23:51):
We are fun to be a part of.
Our coffee conventions are socaffeinated that you have to
paste yourself, right?
How's your water and intake andall these things.
So there's no doubt we are inpart of a very exciting,
innovating, fun industry.
There's nothing about feelinglike you can actually be a part
of something big, right?
That you can pour into thesefamilies coming in.
(24:11):
You can know their name or knowtheir order and make magic for
them, and then maybe you carryit behind the scenes and you're
making magic without anyone everknowing that you're doing it.
That you're designing theT-shirt that is hitting the
masses out there.
Um, you're packaging the orderthat is going to no Alaska.
Snowflake crunch everyChristmas.
We love it.
We're sending it to know Alaska.
(24:31):
Um, there is something reallyempowering when you're part of
something bigger mm-hmm.
And that there's a spot for youin something bigger.
Um, I think it has changedeverything for us.
There is a ladder of growth.
When I joined on October 15th, Iwent.
What do I, what do I do af afterthis?
Like what?
After this job, like what isthere?
I have been able to pave my ownpath in this company, and then
(24:53):
my goal was to ensure that myfingerprint was able to be left
and that everyone that cameafter me saw their fingerprint
and all that they did.
And it has changed our advocacy.
Our brand ambassadorship.
It's changed everything for us.
People want to be at work.
Doesn't mean we always get itright.
Right.
We have to continue to refineand define what we do.
But we get it right a lot and Ithink it changes everything for
(25:16):
the culture that you all see inthe cafes, but also the
cultures.
They're all behind the scenesthat you may never come into
contact with, but truly helpdrive and steer the ship.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (25:26):
Quick, quick follow on question.
Mm-hmm.
To, because I'm just thinkingabout like Chick-fil-A.
Um, they hire great people.
Mm-hmm.
And one of the things that theydo is, um, when they open up a
new place, a lot of times thepeople that are working within
those facilities end up beingone of the ones to go and run
that place.
I'm curious, is that, like, whenyou talk about the empowerment
(25:47):
and creating career pathwaysmm-hmm.
Is that one of the pathways ordo you kind of, or is that more
of an entrepreneurial.
Kind of separation from, from,from maybe some of these people
coming up from the front line.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (25:58):
Yeah.
So corporately, yes.
We internal, a job is promotedand, um, offered internally
before it ever goes external.
Yeah.
So absolutely we want the next,we opened our Lafayette Cafe,
which is about to hit a year inJuly.
We raised up a leader within ourworkforce already before going
externally.
Now, sometimes you don't havesomeone who's ready and prime to
(26:21):
do that or even wants to goAbsolutely.
It is always our desire and itwill always be posted internally
prior.
Okay.
You know, with the franchiseworld, it's completely separate,
right?
They are completelyindependently owned and
operated.
We get to come alongside themand run parallel to.
But on the corporate side is wewant our team to fill those
vacant spots.
So it's just raising up thatnext generation of professional
(26:43):
Okay.
Use careers in coffee.
And I feel like that's soevident in everything that
you're saying, right?
Yeah.
Without it is interwoven intoeverything.
Mm-hmm.
And to look back even a yearago, what jobs we had to offer
versus the jobs.
I just promoted someone who'sbeen with me for four years into
a brand new role, an artdirector, we never had one.
She fits the title sobeautifully of this is a perfect
(27:05):
example of someone who is comingat an entry level for their
department.
Has grown, has grown, has grown.
Now is leading a department, isnow overseeing people.
And that next generation thatwe're raising up of graphic
designers to carry our missionforward.
And she is one of tons, dozensof stories just like that.
Very cool.
Hmm.
So with that careers in coffeeand that growing workforce, how
(27:28):
do you guys approach benefits,especially as a small business?
Gosh, the scariest conversationof 2015.
Um, you know, you know you needbenefits, right?
They're expensive, right?
Um, they're a big investment todo, it was one, and I am so
proud.
If my founder was here, he wouldsay it too.
We are so proud that we wereable to offer benefits and
(27:49):
offered it early on.
And we've been able to grow ourbenefits package as our company
grew.
But if you looked at my Google,uh, search in 2016 is how to
write an employee manual.
Um, so I wrote the employeemanual.
That came our first wave ofbenefits.
We offered paid time off for thefirst time.
Mm-hmm.
It was foreign.
Like most of our staff went.
What, what is that?
Right?
Like def define what paid timeoff actually is.
(28:11):
Um, so paid time off came andthen we went, well, let's level
this up.
How about health benefits?
Right?
And as I, I mentioned before, itwas almost begging of like, I
really need you to enrollbecause we needed a certain
number of people to get a goodrate.
Right?
Right.
It was 2016, it was a differenttime in the healthcare world.
Mm-hmm.
But we said, all right, let'slevel this up.
We're gonna pay part of thispremium for this employee'cause
(28:33):
we want you to have this.
That was foreign and, andspecialty coffee and small
coffee shops, small companies.
Yeah.
Um, and then, you know, I hadthe unique privilege and I was
the first one expecting a babyin our company.
Yeah.
When I say unique privilege,hearing you by saying a very
uncomfortable position to go.
Write the maternity leavepolicy, right?
Like your personal desires oflike, well, can I like do like
(28:53):
European time?
I'll see you in a year.
And also, oh gosh, I gotta comeback to my job.
So part of it was situational,like as these opportunities
started to come up, we needed amaternity leave policy for
people who have made a career atour company.
And then it came paternityleave, and then we went, okay,
like something's missing.
Yeah.
How do you retire with us?
And then came 401k.
And proud to say we have acompany match that comes with
(29:15):
that.
So we had a founder.
Have an owner, have an exec teamthat is very focused on giving a
very robust benefits package.
You can get all the salary thatyou want, but if they don't have
a way to support and balancethat personal life demands
health insurance paid time offwhen you have someone that is
unwell, right?
FMLA was huge for us.
When we hit 50 employees, wequalify.
(29:36):
This was awesome.
But it has really changed.
Yeah.
So now I have a whole one pagerof benefits when I'm offering a
position.
Yeah.
And continually, as we had acandidate last week go.
Didn't expect that.
That's a little bit more than Ithought y'all would have at this
stage in the game, but it's adiscipline and a commitment that
we wanted to be a place thatpeople wanted to work and then
(29:56):
they stayed working here.
And so our package ranges fromabsolutely health insurance to
retirement benefits to lifeinsurance, to paternity leave,
to paid time off.
You see the smorgasbord of allthat you would see in a standard
corporate environment.
It's interesting.
So.
It is, it's, it is cool to hearyou say those things.
(30:16):
You know, we have a saying andit's actually plays at the
beginning of our podcast.
It's like, benefits isn't yourmain business.
That's why we make it ours.
It's like you get into thebusiness to, to, to do coffee or
whatever.
It's Yeah.
You create an experience.
Yeah.
Not so that you can do benefits,but then you find you're like,
have to have, but I have to dothis.
Yeah.
You have to operate.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And, and, and it can easilybecome like, I don't wanna say a
(30:38):
distraction, but it can easilybecome a distraction to like
your main objective.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And even though I know one ofyour main objectives is taking
care of your employees, it'slike, but you also exist to
provide a service.
Yeah.
And then that piece of itbecomes so like important that
it becomes like, okay, I gottalook over here now.
And so it's super interestingfor me to a think something, but
(31:03):
to hear like how you experienceit.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And I think for everyone who'slistening to this podcast, like
we all deal in the business oftrying to help remove
interference from others.
Yeah.
That, that at the core of whatwe do, like that's what we do.
Right.
Whether it's through purchasinginsurance, so that like, when
you are going to have yourchild, you, you, you're not
worried about am I covered?
(31:23):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Can I go and do, you know, am Igonna go into debt over this?
Right.
And it's really just removinginterference so that you can be
effective, fully focused onwhat's happening at hand.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And so I think about that andI'm even processing from a
recruitment perspective howchallenging it must have been to
create a a local.
Regional coffee company andcompete against the likes of, of
(31:47):
say, Starbucks.
Mm-hmm.
And I know, you know, I can'teven believe I'm saying their
name in this podcast, but it'sall right.
I'm saying it because I, I thinkI realized the challenge of they
offer.
Benefits.
They're massive.
Massive, yeah.
So you guys probably at somepoint are like, we have to do
this, or, or it's, it's lesscompetitive or it's perceived as
(32:07):
less competitive when I'm, now,I don't even know if you're, if
you're going for the sametargeted type of employee.
So it may not be a faircomparison, but it seems to me
that that could be a realchallenge.
And so I guess like as I thinkthrough that.
I'm wondering like what is theimpact on your benefits, your
benefits strategy on retentionor recruitment?
Oh my gosh.
It's everything at this point,right?
(32:29):
Um, when I'm able to send a onepager along with an offer letter
of the benefits, your entirecompensation package mm-hmm.
Yes.
People are shocked to go, wow.
Like, I didn't expect that.
I didn't expect that.
Right.
Okay.
Maybe I thought pee time off.
Sure.
It has allowed people who nowsupport families, right?
Yeah.
They've grown their family withLucky Goat.
I did not start Lucky Goat withany children.
(32:49):
I've now had three kids beingwithin this, this environment I.
And my story is not unfamiliar.
We have several that have builttheir families and grown their
families underneath the LuckyGoat umbrella.
They're able to stay, nowthey're able to invest back into
a company we already know theylove, right?
And didn't feel the societalpressures to leave, right?
Because we could not offer whattheir family needed.
(33:11):
It is worth every dollar youinvest and gosh, you know, a
census takes time to go and say,alright, what offering do we
have among our staff?
Do we have enough?
Full-time, part-time enrollmentto meet these headcounts that we
need.
But we will never look back atLucky Goat and go Wasted time,
man.
Oh man.
No.
Gosh, look at who we were ableto retain for even longer
(33:33):
periods of time.
We have some that will retire atour company, which is crazy
Talk, right?
They will retire at Lucky Goat,but it no doubt it's because we
are able to afford, they're ableto afford their personal life
and able to balance and have apersonal life without the
constraints and confines of.
How do I have health insurance?
Yeah.
How do I get time off and it, Idon't have to worry about the
(33:54):
paycheck coming in.
It's changed everything.
And to being in a governmentcity where.
That health insurance is at anincredible cost, right?
Absolutely.
Um, to be able to go and workand, and retain those benefits.
And we, several dear friendsthat go, Hey, that is the path
for me because look what itaffords my family.
I am thrilled that we're able toactually compete with that.
That you don't feel like youhave to go to that type of
(34:16):
agency if you didn't want to.
Right?
If you wanted to stay passionateabout coffee and pouring that
latte, do it for years to come.
You can't now and not feel thatstress and that burden.
That's really cool.
I, I'm just thinking throughlike all the different parts and
pieces of that.
It's like you're basicallyexpanding your recruiting pool.
Mm-hmm.
(34:36):
Right?
Because I guess I hadn't reallythought about it, but.
You know, how many people canyou recruit from if benefits is
a, is is a requirement.
Sure.
Right.
You're just reducing your pullright out the gate.
So that, congratulations to youguys for doing that.
It's super cool.
Yeah.
It is a, a shining achievementand pillar of our company that
we're very proud to offer and Ihope it just gets even deeper
(34:58):
and, um, and the offerings thatwe're able to provide as our
company continues to grow.
Cool.
Absolutely.
So what's, what's next for LuckyGo?
What are the exciting expansionplans?
I'm pretty sure you've heardfranchising a couple times in
this conversation.
That's kinda the chapter we'rewriting at this moment.
Mm-hmm.
Um, it is a team effort to getthese things off the ground.
(35:20):
When I think years ago, our lastcorporate cafe opened last
summer, but there had been a biggap in time.
So 2021 was the last corporatecafe.
That rolled out in Tallahassee.
So we luckily had just kind ofgreased the gears again, like,
alright, yeah, we know how to dothis.
Yeah, we got this down.
It is completely different whenyou're doing it in a different
city zip code, time zone attimes.
(35:42):
Oh yeah.
Um, so we're in a very uniqueseason of picking up our brand
and dropping it into brand newmarkets.
Jacksonville we opened up inApril 3rd of this year is cool,
right?
We were in that market beforeand it's very close to
Tallahassee.
So the overlap.
The seminal name, right?
So we've got some connections.
We're entering Texas marketsthat have very little concept of
(36:03):
our brand, have never seen ourlogo before.
So it has been a fun, excitingchallenge to see how do you
replicate this homegrown brandin markets that are completely
foreign to us?
So that is the, the chapterwe're in, what we're writing.
But also, as I mentioned before,it's we're having these
positions and these uniqueopportunities because of rapid
growth.
(36:23):
Yeah.
Start to pop up.
So this wave of new people arecoming in that we're really
cultivating for these nextstages.
I feel like you should only sellthe big bags in Texas.
Right.
Everything's bigger in Texas isa thing.
Right, right.
Absolutely.
A thing.
We continue it on in our bags.
No, 12 ounce bags, only five.
Well, Lindsay, absolutely apleasure to have you.
(36:44):
Thanks.
I feel like.
It's nice.
Every now and again, people are,we all live our lives, right?
Mm-hmm.
And you go to work, you'retrying to build a business and
you just run into realities andthings get hard.
You, you kind of make your waythrough it.
I was reading a book the otherday that said, most people,
they, they learn obviouslythrough failure, right?
(37:05):
Mm-hmm.
But that's not the only way tolearn.
Right.
Like you can choose to mm-hmm.
Prep in advance to reduce thefailures.
Mm-hmm.
And I hear a lot of that comingfrom you with your planning,
with like building a business tofranchise.
Even if you're not franchisingyour bills, your, your business.
If you build it so that it couldbe franchised, imagine how much
more documented and how muchmore planned out you would be.
(37:28):
Well, it just, it's your safetynet, right?
Yeah.
Is what it is, right?
Yeah.
That as crazy as it seems.
There was a time I looked at ourfounder and said, what happens
to us if something happens toyou?
Right, right, right.
Because he had all theknowledge, he had all of it, and
he went, oh gosh, we probablyneed to build that, that plan.
Hope we never have to enact it.
Yeah, but what if you had tolike, what is the plan for
(37:51):
success?
And that's reality, right?
It is a reality.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that, that safety net.
Well, we always reserve aquestion for you at the end of
one of these shows, and I thinkthat I would like to put it back
to you and basically say whatelse is there that you'd like
our listeners to know?
Hmm.
(38:12):
Um, for me, I, I love to tellthe lucky goat story'cause I
think people each time go, what?
Like what?
You're more than the shop Ivisit down the road.
We are, we are so much morecomplex than what you see.
If you haven't had your meetcute with Lucky Goat yet, I
encourage you too.
Either by way of cup or backthrough our website.
(38:33):
'cause we've got big thingshappening and we will
continually have opportunitiesthat people can join these big
things happening either by wayof sipping a drink, which is
such a job security for me.
Thank you so much for yourfrequent flyer.
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
I really appreciate humblingexperience.
Um, but it's also in, I, I'vesaid 15 times, we are building
up this next generation to comejoin.
(38:55):
The efforts of expanding ourgreat coffee into new markets.
Cool.
Check us out.
See what we have, because younever know when you're that next
puzzle piece to come in.
But you gotta investigate now tosee,'cause those, those times
are coming.
Alright, well I'm gonna throwyou a plug, ki Downer.
If you're listening to thisbuddy.
Um, you might wanna open one ofthese in Charlotte, please.
We would love to go toCharlotte.
(39:16):
We would love, yeah.
no.
Well that's awesome.
Yeah, so, well, thank you verymuch.
Thank you to the listeners andfor everyone else that came in
today.
Uh, I did hear Lindsay saysomething that I just wanna
highlight if.
Out of Florida or out ofTallahassee.
Sounds like you can order onlineif you wanna buy it.
Bag.
(39:36):
Oh yes.
We will ship to the Continentalas well as military bases as
well.
Okay.
So see us, check us out.
So good to know.
So there you go, guys.
Go to, I'm assuming luckygoat.com.
coffee.com.
Lucky Oak coffee.com.
Thank you.
You'll find us.
Yeah.
Lucky goat coffee com.
And you can find and get yousome coffee.
Give it a try.
And remember what we saidearlier about the holiday one.
(39:58):
If you like, when the Snowflakecrunch comes out, if you miss
it, that's on you.
That's not on us, I warn you.
Yeah.
Um, we've got a good warningperiod too.
You got plenty.
You got plenty of time.
Don't mess it up.
Don't mess up.
Mess it up.
Thank you so much for thelisteners, Lindsay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And thank Lucky Goat fromTallahassee on behalf of
Tallahassee.
If you have any questions,please contact us or look us up
(40:21):
on our homepage@www.fbmc.com.
Visit a lucky goat today forsome great coffee and culture.
Remember, you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app.
Thanks and have a great day.
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_12 (00:16):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits where we dive into the
stories behind greatorganizations, the people who
lead them, and the benefits thatkeep them thriving.
This week we will be talkingabout coffee, community and
culture, and we're thrilled tobe joined today by Lindsay
Sheets, vice president ofbranding at all of our favorite
(00:38):
coffee shop, lucky Goat, abeloved local coffee shop turned
growing regional brand that'smade its mark, not just with
incredible coffee, but also withan incredible people first
culture.
So yeah, before we get startedLindsay, if you don't mind,
thank you so much for coming in.
Yeah.
And why don't you just tell us alittle bit about yourself.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025 (00:57):
All right.
Thanks for having me.
This is fun to get outside.
Our normal caffeine kind offlow.
Um, Lindsay Vice Presidentbranding for Lucky Goat.
I have the very unique job andability to cultivate not only
the employee experience.
But our customer experience aswell.
I oversee all branding andmarketing as well as all of our
corporate cafes, expansion intoour franchising world,
(01:21):
educational platforms, and ourhuman resource division as well.
I will hit 10 years in October,which I'm very proud to be at a
company for that long, but acompany that is just uniquely
different in what we do.
It's a cool place to work and,and we're doing some pretty big
things.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (01:36):
That's awesome Lindsey.
We love having you.
And to all those who arelistening who know me and know
that I work at Lucky Goat everyday, actually work at Lucky Goat
you probably know I'm thrilledto have Lindsay on here today.
Mm-hmm.
Kyle just sent us a picture asLucky Goats.
Growing.
You guys have expanded wellbeyond Tallahassee and you're in
Frisco, Texas.
(01:57):
Come to find out.
And so, David Perry, one of our,one of our managing principals,
sent a fun photo.
It's so cool.
It's awesome.
It's crazy.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So before we were gettingstarted, I, I just mentioned
that you guys sell killershirts.
So who, who's like the.
Who's the person behind theactual logo?
Who, who's like the personbehind that design?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (02:18):
So it's our in-house branding
department.
Okay.
So we have taken a team of onemyself for years and years, and
now we have a whole design housewithin our corporate office.
So they are pumping out thedesigns.
We do it all inside, uh, nofreelance.
It's a group of really talentedpeople.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (02:37):
Yeah, that's cool.
When we, um, used to work out atActive Movement, which is
mm-hmm.
Near Costco for us inTallahassee, and it's not too
far.
It's probably a quarter mile,maybe a little more to Lucky
Goat.
But there, when you guys are.
I guess you're roasting yourbeans.
Mm-hmm.
You can smell'em like if you'reon a run and I'm always like,
(02:59):
I'm like, man, this, it smellsgood.
It is.
I mean, really out of all theoccupational smells, I picked a
really good one.
It is really, it is.
It is fantastic.
It gets into the pos but it is agreat occupational smell.
Yeah.
Well, we got some question foryou.
Kylie kick it off.
Yeah.
So, um, let's start at thebeginning.
For those who might not know,lucky Goat is a bit of a
(03:20):
Tallahassee staple.
It's, but can you walk usthrough the Lucky Goat story and
how the brand has grown?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (03:25):
Yeah, so this is a story that most do
not know, right?
They see as a, as a coffee shopand.
So thrilled to have that meatthere.
But our 15th anniversary willhappen in July.
We are much older than maybeothers think.
But our story begins a littlebit farther back than that.
About 20 years ago, we were theshop that you could come to for
(03:46):
a restaurant concept, a beverageconcept, a coffee concept.
Mm-hmm.
We could supply everything butcoffee, right?
So we thought, well, that'scool.
How do we become the one-stopshop?
Coffee had to enter, the cataloghad to enter into the lineup of
products.
So when we did that, we wantedto offer a wholesale tasting
room just like you would taste awedding cake.
(04:06):
Prior to making this massivepurchase, we had a tasting room
that you could come and try outwhat lineup of coffee you wanted
to sell in your restaurant, yourcafe, what have you.
As luck would have it, it becamemore of a retail hub than a
wholesale tasting room.
Um, and in April of 2015, wewent.
Okay, now is a pivotal time togo.
(04:29):
Do we embrace this retailcomponent?
Do we stick to, no, we wanna bea wholesaler and that's what we
wanna do.
And we went the retail route,which is completely backwards in
the coffee world.
You start as a retailer and yougo into wholesale because you're
so popular and people want tocarry you in their cafes, their
restaurants.
We did it in reverse, which iskind of kismet to our story
(04:49):
overall.
And then came in October, Ijoined the company.
Um, we had this massiveproduction facility, this one
location.
The next year, 2016, we thought,let's just throw a couple more
cafes in there.
Yeah.
Within eight weeks of eachother, we went from one cafe to
triplets.
We had three kids in our cafes,and the growth hasn't stopped
from there.
(05:10):
So today we have six corporatecafes in Tallahassee.
We have hundreds of wholesalecustomers across the southeast.
We have a, a thriving andbudding franchise program, right
si signing 18 franchiselocations just in the past 16
months and now really a thrivingand budding e-commerce business.
We sell to all 50 states, whichis pretty cool.
(05:32):
We hit that 50 mark a coupleyears ago.
It is quite the growthinitiative and really proud of
where we've taken it to lookback and go, we never intended
for this to happen and ourfounder to this day will go, I
never wanted to do retail.
It's hard, it's hard to maintainstatus quo in growth
initiatives.
But looking back, it was thebest decision that was ever made
(05:53):
for our brand.
And look at where we are nowbecause.
You took a leap of faith intodoing something unconventional.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (05:59):
Yeah.
Very cool.
I'm curious, so I don't evenknow if this is on there, but
I'm just gonna ask.
Mm-hmm.
So holiday favorites.
Everybody loves your guys'holiday coffees.
Oh yeah.
Snowflake in particular.
I'm just curious, this snowflakecrunch, like when, how has that
been around for the full 15years or was that something that
came about like later in Y's?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (06:21):
It has been around nearly the full
time when flavored coffeeentered the scene, the lineup.
Okay.
Our founder and his wife createdthis blend and it is a cult
classic.
It is a favorite, yeah.
At one point you could get ityear round.
So to add more to the intriguein that limited a good idea.
We limited, you know, when youhave it available, but it.
(06:44):
It is synonymous with our nameat this point is Snowflake
Crunch.
Okay.
I was curious.
That's the one I always take tofamily during the holidays as
she should.
It is excellent.
Yeah.
But that's the funny thing isI'll tell'em, I'm like, listen,
they don't sell it year round,so if you want it, like I gotta
get it now.
And so it's like give the bigbags, you know, stock up and.
(07:06):
That's right.
Yeah.
Oh, I forgot.
Kind of.
We do, we give a little kind ofbridge to get you until
November.
Okay.
But just for those, those 31days.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_ (07:14):
Super cool.
Well, uh, you guys have a verypeople first approach, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's very evident.
And I imagine that kind ofgrowth comes with its own
challenges.
How have you kept the heart ofthe brand intact as you've
expanded?
I mean, so I guess, let me askreal quick.
How many states are you in now?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025_ (07:32):
We are now about to be in three
states.
Okay.
We are on the cusp of Georgiaand growing Gabriel.
And growing and growing.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So like as this happens, how,how, how do you maintain this
culture as you expand?
Gosh, that's got the, themillion dollar question.
That's what keeps you up atnight as you grow and expand, is
how do you bottle up what you'vecultivated for years.
(07:53):
And pick it up and drop itsomewhere else and it still go
forward.
For us, I think we did threedistinct things that kept us in
line, that kept that heartbeat.
Still going and still going.
Right now as I'm here with youall.
One is we took the headknowledge out.
So much of what we built, webuilt very quickly.
(08:14):
In my 10 years, there has neverbeen a season that we were not
on a rocket ship ever.
Yeah.
It just depends which departmentwas that rocket ship.
And we realized pretty early onthat we had so much head
knowledge.
So if I was to walk out of thecompany and say, Hey, I'm gonna
try something new.
This years of institutionalknowledge went out the door with
me, right?
Mm-hmm.
Which is not good, right?
That is not how you set up acompany for success.
(08:36):
Yeah.
So we took out this headknowledge and made it policies,
procedures, practices.
We can actually name ourexperience.
We have defined it.
It was not so much what you feltwhen you walked in.
We have a name to our experienceand we've built a very robust
training program now that.
Teaches this next generation,whether you are a franchise
(08:57):
concept or you're a corporateconcept how you make it happen,
how you bring forth Lucky goat.
In your market and in yourdepartment.
The second is we never stopfocusing on recruiting.
Recruitment is everything.
We are a people folks com, uh,people focused company.
And we believe that ourexperience is because of the
people that we employ.
Mm-hmm.
Like they have to go hand inhand.
(09:17):
That's lot of sense.
So recruitment for me is, myinterviews are five minutes or
less.
Because I am so confident in myeducational team that they're
going to bring the technicalskill, they're gonna bring the
coffee knowledge.
It's the soft skills that arehard to cultivate within a
classroom style.
So my five minutes are filledwith, are we smiling and
engaging?
Right.
Um, are you able to hold acasual conversation and we are
(09:40):
able to easily flow as if we'reat lunch together.
Mm-hmm.
And then for me.
Why are you in front of me?
Out of all the places that youcould be right now interviewing,
why is Lucky Goat at the top ofthat list?
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of times when you findout this meat cute with our
brand, it's, you know, grandmagot, you started on coffee when
you were three years old and youwere looking for that
traditional experience, which weprovide, or it's where you had a
(10:03):
life-changing event in a cafe.
We've seen so many first datesand we've seen babies straight
from the hospital.
The mom is getting their coffeeas they're on the way back home.
Oh yeah.
We have been.
Our brand has met people intheir lives at so many different
stages.
For me, that is so importantbecause our, our industry is
very passion focused.
People love coffee.
People love to be around coffee.
(10:24):
When you get bit by thatspecialty coffee bug, it stays
with you and impacts you foryears to come.
So that why is everything in myrecruitment journey.
And now that I'm not the solerecruiter for our company, that
style and that desire has nowpermeated into so many different
departments and outlooks, but itgot out of our head.
Yep.
It went into recruitment.
(10:44):
And the third one is weestablished a hierarchy of
success.
We wanted to build careers incoffee.
Coffee is such a transientworkforce.
It is the college student who'shere for a stint of time.
We wanted to reshape that.
How do you build a culture?
How do you build an experience?
Well, you don't have a revolvingdoor of people.
Mm-hmm.
That, okay, who's leaving thissemester?
(11:05):
Who's graduating?
What's happening is we wrote, wewrote the script.
I.
We made careers we gave youtechnical training, we gave you
a salary, we gave you benefits,offerings that you actually
could build a personal lifewhile still having fun in what
you did.
And it has changed everythingfor our brand.
And now I fully believe and inconfident that you can bottle us
up and you can drop us inFrisco, Texas.
(11:28):
You can drop us in Knoxville,Tennessee, and you will feel and
be a part of the same experiencethat was born and bred in
Tallahassee.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025_1 (11:35):
It's interesting, just even with our
own business scaling, learningto grow efficiently, a lot of
things that you said resonatewith me.
Hopefully they resonate with thepeople listening.
Mm-hmm.
I almost feel like justlistening to you talk about your
experience.
Mm-hmm.
I, I, to be very candid, feellike companies that are designed
or set up to franchise.
(11:58):
Are really probably modelcompanies for how to scale in
general.
Mm-hmm.
'cause if you think about what afranchise really is set up to do
mm-hmm.
It is to scale efficiently, nodoubt.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And so in order to do that, youhave to document and create that
so that it's transferrable.
And I think it's what mostcompanies actually fail to do.
(12:18):
Mm-hmm.
Right?
And so succession planning orwhatever it is, like when you
really think about, even for us,right?
Mm-hmm.
So we're working on our salesplaybook, which for us, it's
like if I hire a salesperson andI bring'em in the front door
from that day forward, there's,there's like very important
things they need to know.
Like, who are we?
Why should somebody hire ourcompany?
(12:39):
Mm-hmm.
Why should somebody hire you asa consultant?
What are the differentiators forour company?
Like, what are all these thingsthat like we have to know about
ourselves and then we have toreplicate it from person to
person to person so that thenot, not like.
The cheeseburger tastes the samefrom from every person.
So they're the pillars of yourcompany, right?
(12:59):
Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've gotta cure the cementthough.
But if you talk to people, mosteverybody you talk to, their
company has not written all ofthose things down and has not
rolled out a systematic, let'scall it systematic way.
Yeah.
To transfer that knowledge fromone person to another, to
another.
And then what's interesting iswhen you talk to employees, void
(13:20):
of having something like that,they say, I don't feel
supported.
And this is like, I, I, Istarted to ask questions like,
well, what do you, what do youmean when you say that?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And what I think they're tryingto articulate is this, this
whole documentation of who weare, why somebody should buy my
coffee, or why somebody shouldbuy my benefits consultant.
(13:41):
Like they're looking for thatmeat and potatoes and it's like
they want that structure, but Ifeel like.
It doesn't always exist.
So I absolutely love, love, lovethat you guys have done it.
And your answer within thecontext of how you're gonna keep
your culture going is perfect.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Because I think, and you don'tnecessarily know this, but I
think many of our listeners,especially many companies out
(14:03):
there are struggling with how todo that, how to answer that
question.
Yeah.
But they don't have that plan.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (14:10):
Yeah.
It, well, it's scary to make itright.
Yeah.
Franchise forced us to do it.
But I think we will always lookback and go 10, 20 years from
now going, that was a pivotaltime in our company that it left
head knowledge and becameinstitutional knowledge.
Yeah.
And it became inbred so manyother policies, procedures,
(14:30):
positions, because we knew weneeded either more people to
make it happen.
It is such a scary thing tothink, you know, a tenured
employee to walk out the doorand go, oh my gosh, what did
they do?
Like, what did they do everysingle day that we just didn't
know?
It was just innately in thatrole.
Right?
But no one, I think, will lookback as my personal opinion.
We'll look back and go, that wasa waste of time.
(14:52):
Why did we waste this time?
Writing things down?
You'll go, why didn't I do itsooner?
Yeah.
Like, why didn't I write downthe core pillars?
And cure the cement at thefoundation.
That's when we bill it for yourcompany for years to come.
It is a major turning point forour company, and now we can
refine everything because wehave it written and we know our
core and our baseline.
(15:12):
And now it's all aboutrefinement to make us better
than we were yesterday.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (15:15):
That's exactly what we're talking
about.
The playbook too.
It's cool.
So just to tie a few things backfor you.
Sure.
From a consumer perspective, my,when I was a kid, we, my dad was
in the military, so we movedaround a lot.
Sure.
And you know, we didn't reallyhave consistency outside of our
family.
That was it.
You know, it was like every yearwe would move, every two years
we would move.
And so the thing my dad used todo is when coffee shops weren't
(15:38):
a thing back then, like everyonehad Maxwell House back in the
day.
And, uh, but like here, butlike, I remember the bx, which
is the base exchange they had alittle coffee shop and my dad on
the weekend when he couldscrounge some time together,
would take me and he'd get melike, I dunno.
Like a croissant and some coffeeand he'd get coffee.
(15:59):
Because at, at that time inhistory, which you guys are all,
who are older and listening tothis are gonna laugh.
All of us kids were told thatdrinking coffee was gonna stunt
our growth, which we now know isnot true, but Oh.
Of all the things that we weretold.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
So, so that, that was my initialtie.
Right.
So fast forward.
Yeah.
(16:19):
Then I was getting my master'sdegree while working, and I have
three kids and there was, therearen't very many places that are
open super early in the morningwhere you can go sit and, and
like study.
Yeah.
Because for me, I didn't wannastudy when it was family time.
So I would get up beforeeveryone else and I would go do
that and then I would go towork.
So I got my master's degree in acoffee shop is I like to say.
(16:41):
And the coffee was awesome, butit was just a quiet place where
I could go do that.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And then I remembered after Igraduated, I remembered the
experience that my dad gave me.
I was like, you know what, I'llstart taking my kids.
So every weekend I, I've beengoing up there with the kids and
the people at the coffee shophave seen my kids since they
were in a, a car carrier.
(17:01):
Mm-hmm.
And so they've watched'em getbigger and bigger and bigger and
bigger.
And so it is super interestingwhen, as a kid.
Community member, it's just aplace that I have consistently
gone over time and the peoplethat actually work there do it.
Indirectly as a result of that.
No, my family.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and they care deeply aboutyour family too, right?
(17:22):
Yeah.
You know, and it's like, back inthe day, what was it?
Uh, cheers or whatever, it'slike Right.
Where everybody knows your name.
Yeah.
And, and that was like kind ofwhere people went.
But you know, for those of uswho aren't hanging out in bars
all the time, like coffee shopbaby, to a.
It definitely matches with whatyou're, you know, my experience
(17:45):
matches with what you're saying.
Your I love that.
Yeah.
Intention is, and so it's supercool to see those two things
meet.
Mm-hmm.
I I feel like when they do meet,that's when you, oh my gosh.
It's kismet.
Right?
Right.
It's perfect.
Yeah.
And what a, that's where you'reable to franchise this beautiful
brand and be humbled daily by.
You want us like you want to bewith us, but we have a cool
(18:05):
thing, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
My kids grew up in the warehouseand I have so many videos of
shipping boxes being pulled withmy daughter on, on the wagon to
get it there.
It is such a family approach towhat we do.
Yeah.
But I have the same experienceand I'm not a consumer.
When my daughter and my son walkin, it is, how you doing?
You want your normal, like,here's, here's what your normal
(18:27):
is.
It's heavily coated in chocolateand serving all those things,
right?
Hot chocolate.
It is not.
I love to hear that.
It's not just in the family.
Right?
In the family.
We take care of our own.
Because everyone is a part ofthat family and that culture,
which I think makes us soattractive to franchise
concepts, but it's notdisingenuine like, we truly care
for your family growing.
(18:47):
Yeah.
We wanna see that, that baby whowe have served that mom all
throughout their pregnancy, wewanna see that baby straight
from the hospital.
It's a beautiful thing and andthat is the coffee industry in
general.
We just get to be vessels ofthat in Tallahassee, but it is
really beautiful about thatcoffee industry.
Cool.
Very cool.
So as the VP of branding, youtouched a lot of areas from
(19:07):
customer perception to internalculture.
Oh yeah.
So how do you see leadership?
Playing into brand growth?
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-2025 (19:14):
Oh, I love this question because for
so many reasons.
Lucky Goat is not my first stintin my professional path.
It has been my stint for nearlya decade.
But I came from a company thatwas a hundred years old, right,
to a company that, um, was not ahold hand, like when I started.
Right?
Completely different.
And we've grown immensely and Ihave the very unique, um, job.
(19:36):
I think I have the best job inthe company because of how and
what I'm able to touch and dowith not just what I envision,
what my team comes alongside todo with me.
And there's no doubt I give thecreative direction for our brand
where we go, how westrategically achieve it.
Not so much into what colors I'mable to move out of the color
coding at this point.
(19:56):
Um.
The same concept remains a shipstill needs a captain.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
No matter how large or smallthat you are, I can give you
creative direction and say, I'llcome back, I'll check in later.
But that is not helpful.
Right.
It's not helpful to the overallgrowth and development of my
team because I wanna give thedirection, but ultimately my job
(20:17):
as a leader isn't to instill theconfidence.
You can do these really bigthings, right?
We are doing really big thingsright now.
Um, scary things.
Most of my workforce is underfive years of their professional
journey, okay?
Many.
I am their first professionalscent, right?
And stop, which is reallyempowering and inspiring and
overwhelming at times of I ammaking the standard and the
(20:40):
baseline of your career successand what you view a journey, a
professional journey be like,but knowing that they're so new
in what they're doing, and so.
Who is gonna give'em thatconfidence to go, you got this
hard yesterday is not hardtoday.
It's new today.
And look how well we pass thesemajor milestones and landmarks.
So I'm driving and I'm pullingthe right levers, and I'm
(21:02):
changing up the sales when Ineed to change'em up because I
have the foresight to do thosethings.
But ultimately, my job as it is,as a parent, is to lead and
guide you and to instill theconfidence.
That we can do big things and wecan do it together.
That as I lead and direct thecreative strategy, we've got
this team that I just imagine,you know, 50 other people
locking arms with me right now.
(21:23):
I don't get to do it alone anylonger and how, what an honor it
is to do it with theseindividuals and also how like
terrible and it is for me whenthey go.
Okay.
I'm ready to leave the nest.
I'm ready to go try somethingnew because we've done and
cultivated something so bighere.
Um, but it is a balance of howdo I still direct you, but
ultimately give you theconfidence that we've got this
(21:43):
covered.
We've got big strategies andgrowth potential some lofty
goals, but when your teambelieves that they can do it, we
truly are unstoppable to makethat happen.
That's cool.
A a lot of what you said lendstowards empowerment.
Mm-hmm.
Or, or the empowerment of yourteam.
Yeah.
Especially at the front lines,which.
We used to have a saying inconsulting, it was like, connect
(22:05):
the frontline to the bottomline.
Mm.
Right.
And that, that often happenswhen you have a very engaged
frontline and they understandhow they impact everything.
So I'm curious, how do youempower those teams to be
ambassadors of the lookie gobrand?
What does that look like?
So it is all about.
Do they feel they have growthpotential in our company?
(22:26):
Right?
So when I joined the companyyears ago, there was not even a
step stool you can climb, right?
Mm-hmm.
To achieve growth you may havejust demonstrated at your, your
ceiling, and that was it.
And not only ceiling, liketechnically, but financially
too.
Right.
That is the most deflating partof one's journey to go.
Makes sense.
I've, I've achieved it.
Right.
Here we go.
And I'm done and done on, on daytwo.
(22:47):
And you're completely finished.
So it was instilling not just astep stool, but a ladder that
someone could truly climb.
We truly believe careers incoffee are what?
Are going to sustain oraccompany and grow our company.
Yeah, that I'm able to raisethree children in Tallahassee
and be successful at what I'mdoing and I'm not an abnormal
story.
Right?
That's a common story in LuckyGoat.
(23:09):
So establishing a hierarchy ofsuccess and that they could grow
technically in their skill.
They can grow financially andthey have a path of success that
they can clearly pave forward togo, all right, I could do this,
I could do this, or I couldcompletely course correct from
front lines to back of housethings and look at how I could
aid the operations back ofhouse.
(23:30):
It is incredibly empowering toknow you didn't come in at your
ceiling.
And then as they rise and youknow, rising tides, we rise
together.
The next generation is able tocome in and start to feel.
Those, those vacant positionsthat are still remaining within
our company.
Yes, we get bit by the specialtycoffee bug.
As I said before, we are a verycool industry.
(23:51):
We are fun to be a part of.
Our coffee conventions are socaffeinated that you have to
paste yourself, right?
How's your water and intake andall these things.
So there's no doubt we are inpart of a very exciting,
innovating, fun industry.
There's nothing about feelinglike you can actually be a part
of something big, right?
That you can pour into thesefamilies coming in.
(24:11):
You can know their name or knowtheir order and make magic for
them, and then maybe you carryit behind the scenes and you're
making magic without anyone everknowing that you're doing it.
That you're designing theT-shirt that is hitting the
masses out there.
Um, you're packaging the orderthat is going to no Alaska.
Snowflake crunch everyChristmas.
We love it.
We're sending it to know Alaska.
(24:31):
Um, there is something reallyempowering when you're part of
something bigger mm-hmm.
And that there's a spot for youin something bigger.
Um, I think it has changedeverything for us.
There is a ladder of growth.
When I joined on October 15th, Iwent.
What do I, what do I do af afterthis?
Like what?
After this job, like what isthere?
I have been able to pave my ownpath in this company, and then
(24:53):
my goal was to ensure that myfingerprint was able to be left
and that everyone that cameafter me saw their fingerprint
and all that they did.
And it has changed our advocacy.
Our brand ambassadorship.
It's changed everything for us.
People want to be at work.
Doesn't mean we always get itright.
Right.
We have to continue to refineand define what we do.
But we get it right a lot and Ithink it changes everything for
(25:16):
the culture that you all see inthe cafes, but also the
cultures.
They're all behind the scenesthat you may never come into
contact with, but truly helpdrive and steer the ship.
rick---kyla_1_05-13-2025 (25:26):
Quick, quick follow on question.
Mm-hmm.
To, because I'm just thinkingabout like Chick-fil-A.
Um, they hire great people.
Mm-hmm.
And one of the things that theydo is, um, when they open up a
new place, a lot of times thepeople that are working within
those facilities end up beingone of the ones to go and run
that place.
I'm curious, is that, like, whenyou talk about the empowerment
(25:47):
and creating career pathwaysmm-hmm.
Is that one of the pathways ordo you kind of, or is that more
of an entrepreneurial.
Kind of separation from, from,from maybe some of these people
coming up from the front line.
lindsey-sheets_1_05-13-20 (25:58):
Yeah.
So corporately, yes.
We internal, a job is promotedand, um, offered internally
before it ever goes external.
Yeah.
So absolutely we want the next,we opened our Lafayette Cafe,
which is about to hit a year inJuly.
We raised up a leader within ourworkforce already before going
externally.
Now, sometimes you don't havesomeone who's ready and prime to
(26:21):
do that or even wants to goAbsolutely.
It is always our desire and itwill always be posted internally
prior.
Okay.
You know, with the franchiseworld, it's completely separate,
right?
They are completelyindependently owned and
operated.
We get to come alongside themand run parallel to.
But on the corporate side is wewant our team to fill those
vacant spots.
So it's just raising up thatnext generation of professional
(26:43):
Okay.
Use careers in coffee.
And I feel like that's soevident in everything that
you're saying, right?
Yeah.
Without it is interwoven intoeverything.
Mm-hmm.
And to look back even a yearago, what jobs we had to offer
versus the jobs.
I just promoted someone who'sbeen with me for four years into
a brand new role, an artdirector, we never had one.
She fits the title sobeautifully of this is a perfect
(27:05):
example of someone who is comingat an entry level for their
department.
Has grown, has grown, has grown.
Now is leading a department, isnow overseeing people.
And that next generation thatwe're raising up of graphic
designers to carry our missionforward.
And she is one of tons, dozensof stories just like that.
Very cool.
Hmm.
So with that careers in coffeeand that growing workforce, how
(27:28):
do you guys approach benefits,especially as a small business?
Gosh, the scariest conversationof 2015.
Um, you know, you know you needbenefits, right?
They're expensive, right?
Um, they're a big investment todo, it was one, and I am so
proud.
If my founder was here, he wouldsay it too.
We are so proud that we wereable to offer benefits and
(27:49):
offered it early on.
And we've been able to grow ourbenefits package as our company
grew.
But if you looked at my Google,uh, search in 2016 is how to
write an employee manual.
Um, so I wrote the employeemanual.
That came our first wave ofbenefits.
We offered paid time off for thefirst time.
Mm-hmm.
It was foreign.
Like most of our staff went.
What, what is that?
Right?
Like def define what paid timeoff actually is.
(28:11):
Um, so paid time off came andthen we went, well, let's level
this up.
How about health benefits?
Right?
And as I, I mentioned before, itwas almost begging of like, I
really need you to enrollbecause we needed a certain
number of people to get a goodrate.
Right?
Right.
It was 2016, it was a differenttime in the healthcare world.
Mm-hmm.
But we said, all right, let'slevel this up.
We're gonna pay part of thispremium for this employee'cause
(28:33):
we want you to have this.
That was foreign and, andspecialty coffee and small
coffee shops, small companies.
Yeah.
Um, and then, you know, I hadthe unique privilege and I was
the first one expecting a babyin our company.
Yeah.
When I say unique privilege,hearing you by saying a very
uncomfortable position to go.
Write the maternity leavepolicy, right?
Like your personal desires oflike, well, can I like do like
(28:53):
European time?
I'll see you in a year.
And also, oh gosh, I gotta comeback to my job.
So part of it was situational,like as these opportunities
started to come up, we needed amaternity leave policy for
people who have made a career atour company.
And then it came paternityleave, and then we went, okay,
like something's missing.
Yeah.
How do you retire with us?
And then came 401k.
And proud to say we have acompany match that comes with
(29:15):
that.
So we had a founder.
Have an owner, have an exec teamthat is very focused on giving a
very robust benefits package.
You can get all the salary thatyou want, but if they don't have
a way to support and balancethat personal life demands
health insurance paid time offwhen you have someone that is
unwell, right?
FMLA was huge for us.
When we hit 50 employees, wequalify.
(29:36):
This was awesome.
But it has really changed.
Yeah.
So now I have a whole one pagerof benefits when I'm offering a
position.
Yeah.
And continually, as we had acandidate last week go.
Didn't expect that.
That's a little bit more than Ithought y'all would have at this
stage in the game, but it's adiscipline and a commitment that
we wanted to be a place thatpeople wanted to work and then
(29:56):
they stayed working here.
And so our package ranges fromabsolutely health insurance to
retirement benefits to lifeinsurance, to paternity leave,
to paid time off.
You see the smorgasbord of allthat you would see in a standard
corporate environment.
It's interesting.
So.
It is, it's, it is cool to hearyou say those things.
(30:16):
You know, we have a saying andit's actually plays at the
beginning of our podcast.
It's like, benefits isn't yourmain business.
That's why we make it ours.
It's like you get into thebusiness to, to, to do coffee or
whatever.
It's Yeah.
You create an experience.
Yeah.
Not so that you can do benefits,but then you find you're like,
have to have, but I have to dothis.
Yeah.
You have to operate.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And, and, and it can easilybecome like, I don't wanna say a
(30:38):
distraction, but it can easilybecome a distraction to like
your main objective.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And even though I know one ofyour main objectives is taking
care of your employees, it'slike, but you also exist to
provide a service.
Yeah.
And then that piece of itbecomes so like important that
it becomes like, okay, I gottalook over here now.
And so it's super interestingfor me to a think something, but
(31:03):
to hear like how you experienceit.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
And I think for everyone who'slistening to this podcast, like
we all deal in the business oftrying to help remove
interference from others.
Yeah.
That, that at the core of whatwe do, like that's what we do.
Right.
Whether it's through purchasinginsurance, so that like, when
you are going to have yourchild, you, you, you're not
worried about am I covered?
(31:23):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Can I go and do, you know, am Igonna go into debt over this?
Right.
And it's really just removinginterference so that you can be
effective, fully focused onwhat's happening at hand.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And so I think about that andI'm even processing from a
recruitment perspective howchallenging it must have been to
create a a local.
Regional coffee company andcompete against the likes of, of
(31:47):
say, Starbucks.
Mm-hmm.
And I know, you know, I can'teven believe I'm saying their
name in this podcast, but it'sall right.
I'm saying it because I, I thinkI realized the challenge of they
offer.
Benefits.
They're massive.
Massive, yeah.
So you guys probably at somepoint are like, we have to do
this, or, or it's, it's lesscompetitive or it's perceived as
(32:07):
less competitive when I'm, now,I don't even know if you're, if
you're going for the sametargeted type of employee.
So it may not be a faircomparison, but it seems to me
that that could be a realchallenge.
And so I guess like as I thinkthrough that.
I'm wondering like what is theimpact on your benefits, your
benefits strategy on retentionor recruitment?
Oh my gosh.
It's everything at this point,right?
(32:29):
Um, when I'm able to send a onepager along with an offer letter
of the benefits, your entirecompensation package mm-hmm.
Yes.
People are shocked to go, wow.
Like, I didn't expect that.
I didn't expect that.
Right.
Okay.
Maybe I thought pee time off.
Sure.
It has allowed people who nowsupport families, right?
Yeah.
They've grown their family withLucky Goat.
I did not start Lucky Goat withany children.
(32:49):
I've now had three kids beingwithin this, this environment I.
And my story is not unfamiliar.
We have several that have builttheir families and grown their
families underneath the LuckyGoat umbrella.
They're able to stay, nowthey're able to invest back into
a company we already know theylove, right?
And didn't feel the societalpressures to leave, right?
Because we could not offer whattheir family needed.
(33:11):
It is worth every dollar youinvest and gosh, you know, a
census takes time to go and say,alright, what offering do we
have among our staff?
Do we have enough?
Full-time, part-time enrollmentto meet these headcounts that we
need.
But we will never look back atLucky Goat and go Wasted time,
man.
Oh man.
No.
Gosh, look at who we were ableto retain for even longer
(33:33):
periods of time.
We have some that will retire atour company, which is crazy
Talk, right?
They will retire at Lucky Goat,but it no doubt it's because we
are able to afford, they're ableto afford their personal life
and able to balance and have apersonal life without the
constraints and confines of.
How do I have health insurance?
Yeah.
How do I get time off and it, Idon't have to worry about the
(33:54):
paycheck coming in.
It's changed everything.
And to being in a governmentcity where.
That health insurance is at anincredible cost, right?
Absolutely.
Um, to be able to go and workand, and retain those benefits.
And we, several dear friendsthat go, Hey, that is the path
for me because look what itaffords my family.
I am thrilled that we're able toactually compete with that.
That you don't feel like youhave to go to that type of
(34:16):
agency if you didn't want to.
Right?
If you wanted to stay passionateabout coffee and pouring that
latte, do it for years to come.
You can't now and not feel thatstress and that burden.
That's really cool.
I, I'm just thinking throughlike all the different parts and
pieces of that.
It's like you're basicallyexpanding your recruiting pool.
Mm-hmm.
(34:36):
Right?
Because I guess I hadn't reallythought about it, but.
You know, how many people canyou recruit from if benefits is
a, is is a requirement.
Sure.
Right.
You're just reducing your pullright out the gate.
So that, congratulations to youguys for doing that.
It's super cool.
Yeah.
It is a, a shining achievementand pillar of our company that
we're very proud to offer and Ihope it just gets even deeper
(34:58):
and, um, and the offerings thatwe're able to provide as our
company continues to grow.
Cool.
Absolutely.
So what's, what's next for LuckyGo?
What are the exciting expansionplans?
I'm pretty sure you've heardfranchising a couple times in
this conversation.
That's kinda the chapter we'rewriting at this moment.
Mm-hmm.
Um, it is a team effort to getthese things off the ground.
(35:20):
When I think years ago, our lastcorporate cafe opened last
summer, but there had been a biggap in time.
So 2021 was the last corporatecafe.
That rolled out in Tallahassee.
So we luckily had just kind ofgreased the gears again, like,
alright, yeah, we know how to dothis.
Yeah, we got this down.
It is completely different whenyou're doing it in a different
city zip code, time zone attimes.
(35:42):
Oh yeah.
Um, so we're in a very uniqueseason of picking up our brand
and dropping it into brand newmarkets.
Jacksonville we opened up inApril 3rd of this year is cool,
right?
We were in that market beforeand it's very close to
Tallahassee.
So the overlap.
The seminal name, right?
So we've got some connections.
We're entering Texas marketsthat have very little concept of
(36:03):
our brand, have never seen ourlogo before.
So it has been a fun, excitingchallenge to see how do you
replicate this homegrown brandin markets that are completely
foreign to us?
So that is the, the chapterwe're in, what we're writing.
But also, as I mentioned before,it's we're having these
positions and these uniqueopportunities because of rapid
growth.
(36:23):
Yeah.
Start to pop up.
So this wave of new people arecoming in that we're really
cultivating for these nextstages.
I feel like you should only sellthe big bags in Texas.
Right.
Everything's bigger in Texas isa thing.
Right, right.
Absolutely.
A thing.
We continue it on in our bags.
No, 12 ounce bags, only five.
Well, Lindsay, absolutely apleasure to have you.
(36:44):
Thanks.
I feel like.
It's nice.
Every now and again, people are,we all live our lives, right?
Mm-hmm.
And you go to work, you'retrying to build a business and
you just run into realities andthings get hard.
You, you kind of make your waythrough it.
I was reading a book the otherday that said, most people,
they, they learn obviouslythrough failure, right?
(37:05):
Mm-hmm.
But that's not the only way tolearn.
Right.
Like you can choose to mm-hmm.
Prep in advance to reduce thefailures.
Mm-hmm.
And I hear a lot of that comingfrom you with your planning,
with like building a business tofranchise.
Even if you're not franchisingyour bills, your, your business.
If you build it so that it couldbe franchised, imagine how much
more documented and how muchmore planned out you would be.
(37:28):
Well, it just, it's your safetynet, right?
Yeah.
Is what it is, right?
Yeah.
That as crazy as it seems.
There was a time I looked at ourfounder and said, what happens
to us if something happens toyou?
Right, right, right.
Because he had all theknowledge, he had all of it, and
he went, oh gosh, we probablyneed to build that, that plan.
Hope we never have to enact it.
Yeah, but what if you had tolike, what is the plan for
(37:51):
success?
And that's reality, right?
It is a reality.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that, that safety net.
Well, we always reserve aquestion for you at the end of
one of these shows, and I thinkthat I would like to put it back
to you and basically say whatelse is there that you'd like
our listeners to know?
Hmm.
(38:12):
Um, for me, I, I love to tellthe lucky goat story'cause I
think people each time go, what?
Like what?
You're more than the shop Ivisit down the road.
We are, we are so much morecomplex than what you see.
If you haven't had your meetcute with Lucky Goat yet, I
encourage you too.
Either by way of cup or backthrough our website.
(38:33):
'cause we've got big thingshappening and we will
continually have opportunitiesthat people can join these big
things happening either by wayof sipping a drink, which is
such a job security for me.
Thank you so much for yourfrequent flyer.
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
I really appreciate humblingexperience.
Um, but it's also in, I, I'vesaid 15 times, we are building
up this next generation to comejoin.
(38:55):
The efforts of expanding ourgreat coffee into new markets.
Cool.
Check us out.
See what we have, because younever know when you're that next
puzzle piece to come in.
But you gotta investigate now tosee,'cause those, those times
are coming.
Alright, well I'm gonna throwyou a plug, ki Downer.
If you're listening to thisbuddy.
Um, you might wanna open one ofthese in Charlotte, please.
We would love to go toCharlotte.
(39:16):
We would love, yeah.
no.
Well that's awesome.
Yeah, so, well, thank you verymuch.
Thank you to the listeners andfor everyone else that came in
today.
Uh, I did hear Lindsay saysomething that I just wanna
highlight if.
Out of Florida or out ofTallahassee.
Sounds like you can order onlineif you wanna buy it.
Bag.
(39:36):
Oh yes.
We will ship to the Continentalas well as military bases as
well.
Okay.
So see us, check us out.
So good to know.
So there you go, guys.
Go to, I'm assuming luckygoat.com.
coffee.com.
Lucky Oak coffee.com.
Thank you.
You'll find us.
Yeah.
Lucky goat coffee com.
And you can find and get yousome coffee.
Give it a try.
And remember what we saidearlier about the holiday one.
(39:58):
If you like, when the Snowflakecrunch comes out, if you miss
it, that's on you.
That's not on us, I warn you.
Yeah.
Um, we've got a good warningperiod too.
You got plenty.
You got plenty of time.
Don't mess it up.
Don't mess up.
Mess it up.
Thank you so much for thelisteners, Lindsay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And thank Lucky Goat fromTallahassee on behalf of
Tallahassee.
If you have any questions,please contact us or look us up
(40:21):
on our homepage@www.fbmc.com.
Visit a lucky goat today forsome great coffee and culture.
Remember, you can find us andsubscribe on any podcast app.
Thanks and have a great day.
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