22: What We’ve Discovered About Our Audience & Future Episode Topics

Intro:
Hey, you’re drinking house coffee – unfiltered conversations brewed at the intersection of real estate life and coffee shop service. We’re Maggie and Rich – local business owners and friends sharing stories and welcoming you to pull up a chair with us. The door’s always open. Let us pour you a cup.

Maggie:
Happy Friday, Maggie. Happy Friday Rich

Rich:
When you’re here in this at least

Maggie:
We’re happy day whenever you’re listening. That’s true. That is so true happy day.

Rich:
Yeah, exactly. Just like that song that you were showing me earlier.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Best Day

Maggie:
The best day

Rich:
Of your life is out of said

Maggie:
The best day yes, this the song by Kesha.

Rich:
I came in today and I was looking a little down. Somebody was like you gotta hear this song that gets me going every time.

Maggie:
Yes,

Rich:
Really. Good going.

Maggie:
I would say you were looking but draggled

Rich:
No

Maggie:
As we call from the last episode. And I was like Rich. Do you want to hear a song that cheers me up? And I played course. Yeah,

Rich:
Wouldn’t it

Maggie:
Wouldn’t

Rich:
I mean if I’m looking this bedragle that obviously

Maggie:
So I played Rich Best Day by Kesha. And

Rich:
Which I had never heard

Maggie:
It is. instantly putting anybody who listens to it in a better mood

Rich:
True. I went from bedraggled to.

Maggie:
Could you hold

Rich:
Now? I’m having the best day of my life. So if it draggled habitual, yeah, we like that. Although

Maggie:
Lyrics are literally this is going to be the best day of your life. Yeah.

Rich:
That’s true. If you all have heard that song it’s maybe The way I was I was kind of laughing at it because it’s like the most Millennial song. Ever it’s like all the ironic things that Millennials are like. Credited with saying or believe me or thinking

Maggie:
It’s more like affirmations.

Rich:
I guess so. Yeah, that’s a good way to put it which is a pretty nice.

Maggie:
Oh got no negative thing and energy.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
High five so good. That’s all we talk about here.

Rich:
Yeah. Sure Positive Vibes only you might say.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Cool. Well, hey, if you haven’t heard that one,

Maggie:
I guess that checks off what we’ve been listening to

Rich:
Well. Yeah today. Today what else have been listening to

Maggie:
I’m still listening to Big magic?

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
Yeah. Still trying to finish out

Rich:
Cool.

Maggie:
Slowly but surely but it’s so good.

Rich:
I wanted to ask after listening back last time how have you seen that? Playing out in your life for the have there been cool examples.

Maggie:
Hmm. Right

Rich:
Big magic. You describe last week is a book about like harnessing creativity and

Maggie:
Ideas

Rich:
In your life. Yeah, and I was wondering if That had manifested

Maggie:
Kind of but I can’t really like share much about it. Yeah, it’s still like creativity is still me and creativity are still having the conversation. Yeah, and I think creativity is pushing and challenging me a little bit and I’m me Maggie and feeling kind of nervous and scared about some growth and um, oh gosh, I have so many ideas but like I feel like a certain way about this one particular idea. That’s like I feel like it’s still manifesting itself. So

Rich:
Sounds like a podcast episode.

Maggie:
Yeah. I mean it works. I think it will be I definitely think it will be in the future. I am not opposed to like processing things as I am going through them. but I find that it can be a very frustrating experience for the person who’s listening to me because I Go back and forth a lot. And I take a long time to make a decision. I think I said this to you yesterday in our conversation. I take a very long time to make a decision, but I rarely regret my decision sure.

Rich:
Because it’s so thought out

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
Yeah. All right, I mean Totally totally that’s fair. Yeah.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Sometimes an idea is too fresh or whatever. It’s like too fragile, you know. Yeah better handle on what what exactly you are weighing.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
I get that. Yeah, that’s cool. I’m excited to hear more.

Maggie:
Hmm.

Rich:
I think the people would be happy. You’re more in the future. I might know if I heard a little bit about what you’ve been thinking about

Maggie:
But

Rich:
There’s a lot of angles.

Maggie:
There are a lot of angles and a lot of possibilities and a lot of like Um, it’s just it’s like it would be something that would be like pushing me into a space that I’ve never been in before. So

Rich:
True business like

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It’s like scaling stuff, right?

Maggie:
Yes scaling questions. Yeah,

Rich:
That’s for sure on the docket

Maggie:
For sure

Rich:
For the future, but we’ll talk about that later.

Maggie:
What have you been listening to

Rich:
Super cool? I just keeping up with some podcasts like I do. And I’m like halfway through. one of the more recent cat Cloud episodes love that if y’all don’t listen to the cat Cloud podcast, that is my recommendation for podcasts to keep up with because it’s just it’s so fun. To me, that’s a fun podcast. And I look like I laugh out loud when I listen to that one you

Maggie:
Do

Rich:
Now. I’m very invested in like the kind of cloud so they could do no wrong by me as far as like A podcast goes and it is obviously talking about coffee, but it’s not all coffee. In fact, it’s almost. It’s almost it’s more coffee culture and business than anything else. So I just highly recommend that’s always good for. It’s good for a get you going kind of

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Especially if you think about the kinds of things that we think about or that I think about in business. Yeah. Um, so yeah that and you know what? It’s actually more like what I’ve been watching lately.

Maggie:
Oh,

Rich:
I have a new series and I’m finally got into and it’s a little gnarly, but I’m into peaky blinders right now on Netflix. and it’s

Maggie:
That is gnarly

Rich:
Yeah, it’s gotten earlier with each season too in terms of the types of content, but

Maggie:
Do you watch by yourself?

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah Christine would never I have to pause stuff like that when she comes in the room. But typically all like what you know, we do I do dishes are pretty violent, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s about 1920s. European gangsters who were in World War One?

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
I believe. And then it’s kind of in between. The two

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Wars

Maggie:
That’s interesting.

Rich:
Yeah, I mean it’s like definitely the kind of is the kind of stuff that intrigues me for the story lines and the plots and

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Whatever but it’s a Netflix.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
I just it would almost be on HBO. It’s like yeah level of stuff.

Maggie:
Yeah. Cool,

Rich:
We’re gonna say,

Maggie:
Oh it’s it’s a long topic and I don’t want to get sidetracked but I just finished watching the ultimatum on Netflix.

Rich:
Yeah, so I don’t know if I know. Yeah,

Maggie:
It’s it’s complete like like reality TV garbage

Rich:
I’m not really into that.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm.

Rich:
Cool. well Welcome back to House Coffee podcast today. We’re exploring. Our insights.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
20 weeks. Of podcasting.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Technically. It’s 21 weeks now that we’ve yes last

Maggie:
Well this is episode

Rich:
22, but that was like coming back from a break and catching up.

Maggie:
Mmm talking

Rich:
About some stuff that we had left off in the last season. Is this a new season is that we’re doing maybe I don’t know.

Maggie:
I didn’t think of us as a season type of show.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
But as you mentioned before we started hitting record that a season doesn’t necessarily correspond with the weather

Rich:
True.

Maggie:
It could we could be entering into a new season of this show. We’ll call maybe the first 20 episodes were more about like House Coffees self-discovery

Rich:
Yeah, kind of, you know getting to know what what would yeah, like no getting to know our audience

Maggie:
Our audience getting to know us true true. We started out. doing this podcast with like specific goals in mind for a specific audience and we found that the audience you dear listener is much different than what we were initially anticipating our expecting and so in in an amazing way. and like far better than we could have ever. anticipated and so We want to make sure we’re still connecting with you and bringing you. A show and content that’s relevant to your life whether or not you’re in business

Rich:
True. Yeah, so that’s a good that’s a good setup. So let’s put it this way.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
We want to kind of talk about things. We’ve been surprised by things we’ve observed we’ve learned, you know in our 20 weeks and just like, I don’t know I guess reflect on that little bit and then also talk go through that and then talk a little bit about where we see this going kind of as a result of things that we’ve We’ve come to find out or

Maggie:
Yeah or

Rich:
Experience in those 20 weeks. So that’s how we’ll probably wrap this thing up with some topic ideas for the future and some guiding principles that will have so we’ll get We’ll get through to that but let’s start right where you just were that’s been one of the things we’ve been injured by is like what our audience is like. Yeah, how do we describe? I don’t know if we can how would we describe like what we envision our audience being like from the start, you know?

Maggie:
I I think back. To our early planning notes.

Rich:
Yeah, exactly.

Maggie:
And I think that we pictured our audience to be a person who is running a business like us and is like pursuing creative things like I don’t know like arts or like Passions When I think in reality. Just from my own experience. pursuing those is is not as easy as we’d like to think because life gets in the way. right, and so I’m finding that I mean We do have a good Core group of listeners who are in business and I think can relate to our business conversations. but I think more so are listeners are individuals who are like in in a career and they I don’t know. I’m I’m fumbling over my words because like I’m picturing many different people. So I don’t want to be too

Rich:
Specific names and faces. Yeah, I don’t want to be too specific listeners. Yeah, it happens and no

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Which is which is something to draw out probably.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
That we didn’t anticipate. I guess we just we probably assumed our friends would listen right people would listen, but but I didn’t expect it to be. I just didn’t think about. The whole group of people we know listen being all people we know

Maggie:
Right?

Rich:
You know, there’s probably I’m sure there are strangers out there. Yeah. I’m not sure how they’re finding it or or what but it’s it’s interesting to think about your entire audience that you’re aware of being all people. Yeah of your acquaintance

Maggie:
Crossover, like some of them know you well, that’s them know. Yeah not they don’t know both of us, but um, it’s given us a rich and I a opportunity to like reevaluate the direction in which House Coffee podcast is going not that we’re not going to talk about business, but I want more than ever. for our for the audience for you. Listen to feel like you can take away something from each episode. Whether or not you are running your own business. or whether or not you like call yourself a creative person. Does that make sense?

Rich:
I think so. Yeah, I was I’m still thinking back to the the difference between what we expected versus who we know.

Maggie:
What did you what did you well I don’t you are right.

Rich:
Anything you put it you put it one way you put a well which is that we were thinking of people. pretty much exactly like us, right, who are Getting after almost like startup almost taking a few steps back, right because we’re I think our commented on this when we were chatting yesterday, but we’re almost or at least I was thinking of it. We’re in this like startup phase. Maybe I was telling this to somebody else describing our Dynamics. We relate on like the level of business. Or creative Venture like on the startup we’re level because even though we both been in our Industries for five plus years. the level of our business really is still so new because of the different elements of what we’re doing like you’ve been in real estate for a long time, but the staging thing is new and the you know, you did your website like last year. So there’s so much of your

Maggie:
Your

Rich:
Approach to it and your experience that is really still fresh and growing. Now, you’re asking yourself. Okay, and you just got a trailer and now you’re like, okay, what’s the next step? And so we’re really still in the start of phase both of us and I’m coming out of five years of like ridiculous Financial invitations. that would have You know barring really unique solutions that came up out of nowhere. My business but my business probably might not have survived this long. And so I’m we’re only just entering a phase where? We can begin to think about what it’s going to look like to have a sustainable growing business. So the point of making is we’re in really fledgling new.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Still entrepreneurial like Spirit type places in business, and I think those are the kinds of people we are also surrounded by in our small business Community lots of the businesses and people relate to our newer. Within that same five or less time span. And so we just imagine ourselves talking to people like that. I think that’s how we started this thing out. And that’s why we would use the language like creative, you know, encouraging creative Ventures and things like this or or things like that. And and so what we have found is probably not that off base. I think maybe limited this way. Well we have found is that our our audience has been people who aren’t necessarily in a startup Facebook business, right? They’re not necessarily in business at all. They’re on a career path or they are doing something else.

Maggie:
They are employed.

Rich:
Yeah, they’re self-employed. They are gainfully. Yeah. Which good for you?

Maggie:
Yeah. No. Yeah.

Rich:
That’s a strong Temptation sometimes to me

Maggie:
Seriously,

Rich:
So there got something else going on but there’s enough relatability in whatever work experiencing that carries over to What their experiencing whether that’s Community Building or Vibe curation or other things that come with building a business? or creating a brand experience. There’s things that we are engaged in that appeal to a broader group of people. And so our audience has become a broader group of people who have more. More things going on. Or I guess the way I put it is they’re relating to our podcast in a way. That’s that’s like through a different lens than you would have thought they would have been seeing our broadcast, you know, their point of entry to the things we’re we’re talking about is their own experience which is which is not strictly in business or entrepreneurship or startup phase or whatever. It’s It’s other stuff, but that is the thing. They’re engaged in that’s still connects them to to what we’re talking about and that has been to me. That’s the intriguing. That’s

Maggie:
Been an intriguing facet. Yeah, I like how I like how you said like the lens in which our audience listens and I think it’s important to recognize that you and I rich we we were we started this podcast from our own lens. And now I think we are like Shifting the lens or You know the lenses evolving a little bit. To almost like a wider angle so to speak. to include the feedback and the audience that we’ve sort of are even though it’s like very small audience. Like we still we see you we hear you we read what you send us and the feedback and we we want to keep connecting with you.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah, so we’re kind of zooming we’re gonna broaden in the sense that we we want to make sure we’re speaking. To the people we know are listening

Maggie:
Right through

Rich:
Other filters, you know through those they’re playing different lenses.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
We just want to make sure that we’re we’re honoring that as another way of saying of saying what I hear you saying?

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
At the same time that’s not to say. So this is this is getting a little bit into the future Direction.

Maggie:
Sure.

Rich:
You’re going to probably just gonna go back and forth on on this. some of these things but that’s not to say that we’re going to lean were they are the irony here or the Counterpoint is we’re gonna actually lean more into our Specialties. Yes, and whereas in the past, we probably talked a little more General business experience more startup struggles more business owner entrepreneur life things that are based on our experience we see ourselves in the future moving more toward like specificity with particular points or questions or within our trade or more and more particularly specificity within our particular Industries and That’s something that will develop more and we have different topic ideas related to both, you know house. Yeah, we’ll real estate and and

Maggie:
Yeah and

Rich:
Coffee shop

Maggie:
And I want to give a couple examples so that this might trigger some questions that our audience might have so listener if some of these things like jog your memory, please feel free to like DM us or email us at House Coffee podcast at gmail.com so we can answer the questions but some of the topics that we’ve found ourselves. Ask being asked by people. And they’re very they’re very general. But also like, you know, we’re not going to answer them today, but like for example Do you have dark roast? And like talking about different flavor profiles.

Rich:
This is not in the context of of podcasting. This is like you’re talking about questions. You’re you’re jumping had a little bit you’re talking about questions that we get in our respective. Yeah lines of work. Yes. So just putting that out there.

Maggie:
Yes, so

Rich:
Sometimes yes, so you were asking me questions that I’ve heard and I said, yes. Yes in a coffee shop environment. You say do you have dark roast?

Maggie:
Do you have dark roast? Which led you to like talk about like? flavor profiles and like espresso versus like drip coffee and like caffeine levels questions that I get asked are very pertaining to like, how much do you charge for staging and like getting into like the Nitty Gritty details about like some staging specifics? And like just general like home decor questions people ask me. About you know, my opinion on Trends in in the like design space. Like I know there’s like a ton of different like dark paints are like come in wallpaper coming back and like I’d love to touch on like Trends within the design world and things that are affecting me as I’m putting this Edition on my house like last week I explained or I revealed that we’re doing black siding on our house and that was a big shock to Rich and I want to talk about some of these cool Trends and how they’re applying to my life and then how you can apply them to where you live in your home. So that’s just a little sneak peek very brief sneak peek about like just to give you a peek into like what we will be talking about.

Rich:
Yeah, exactly and where that’s coming from a little bit. So those are users read a list of certain questions.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
That we brainstormed.

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
As we were talking but taking a step back from that. There’s a more specific question. that came up. In your life that you shared with

Maggie:
Us a quote.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
Oh,

Rich:
Yeah, because one of the ways that we think we could be more. directed in presenting our podcast and something that can apply in every episode for instance is to is to maybe ask ourselves a guiding question. So I wanted to hear from you on this tell us again how you came to this quote?

Maggie:
Okay. Yep. so I subscribe to James clears Weekly Newsletter. He’s the author of atomic habits and highly recommend the book If you haven’t listened to it or read it, please do yourself a favor and read it. It’s great. Atomic Habits by James clear and he has this Weekly Newsletter. And he gives great Insight on business and like habits and gives good quotes and stuff. And this one this one particular email was from back in August and He shares this quote by entrepreneur and author Derek sivers on how to build a business. And this struck me because it not only applied to my own business. But also when I read it I thought about this podcast and I thought about our audience so I saved it and shared it with Rich and this is what the quote says. It’s never forget that absolutely everything you do is for your customers make every decision even decisions about whether to expand the business raise money or promote someone according to what’s best for your customers. If you’re ever unsure what to prioritize just ask your customers the open-ended question, how can I best help you now then focus on satisfying those requests. It’s counterintuitive. But the way you grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing customers just thrill them and they’ll tell everyone and this was from his book called anything. You want 40 lessons for a new kind of entrepreneur and the author is Derek sivers.

Rich:
That’s just a quote that I want to sit with for like. five whole minutes

Maggie:
It’s good.

Rich:
It is good. is also a hot take in my opinion and I’m not about to derail this episode and like the lead us down that down that trail, but I do think that’s a strong statement. It’s probably right. It’s probably 98% So true.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm.

Rich:
But and and maybe the ways I would want to counter it would ultimately just lead me back around to yeah, and that means that and and the thing you think is counter to that statement is actually the thing that would be best for your customers. Right? So maybe without like working through it. I just I think on the surface. I’m a little bit critically about it, but I’m hearing it with a critical ear. and and just thinking about like the flip side to us to something like that knowing that there are a lot of lot of Dynamics in a business, but ultimately and we’ve gotten at this before right when we talked about hospitality and five star experiences and stuff the things that really make people resonate with a business and experience ultimately are when that particular thing is so focused. Toward them and their satisfaction so I don’t disagree with that statement. I just Calling out as a hot take

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
But I do like it and I do think that in the context of this conversation. That is the kind of question that he that ultimately it’s that open-ended question that he presented. He said, how can I best help you now? That’s the question we are going to be asking ourselves. on behalf of our listeners

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
And That will be sort of a guiding force in what we do and it’s not going to be that we’ll explicitly ask that every time or anything like that as much as as we think about our topics or the way we present certain ideas We’ll be asking yourself. How is this actually going to be helpful to people hearing it or how can we just not say filter our conversations, but how can we apply that lens in the way that we are? Thinking through things or talking about things especially as we plan conversations out. We like you said before wants to be able to. give things that you can take away, you know takeaways for folks so We have we are adopting this this guiding principle. Yes

Maggie:
Of

Rich:
How can we make these topics helpful and pointed? And so yeah, I’m just just sort of. Opening that up sure a little bit more. Anything yeah. anything to add

Maggie:
Um

Rich:
Those ideas Well on that particular

Maggie:
On that particular idea it it just reminds me of Gary. Vaynerchuk’s. Thank you economy. And

Rich:
Tell me more

Maggie:
Focusing that’s the book is called the thank you economy. Cool and Gary vaynerchuk is very very well known in the entrepreneurial space for being customer driven and he is somebody that I’ve been listening to for years and just like Everything I I’ve all the success that I’ve had in business, I can probably pinpoint something having garyvee’s influence.

Rich:
Wow. Yeah, that’s that’s a high level of influence.

Maggie:
Yeah. it comes to like social media and marketing and things like that.

Rich:
I know he’s super famous and and like well respected for his view. So I’m just I’m just purely ignorant. I just had not aware enough of his content and his insights, but I I know that’s brutally on people around me who are the most influential in my life are influenced by him. Yeah.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
By proxy some degree, I’m I must be influenced

Maggie:
As well. Yeah, I think so.

Rich:
I think people appreciate that kind of brutal honesty from From people they trust who can deliver you know with

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Tacked or at least credibility.

Maggie:
Well, I think what what makes Gary Vee so credible is that he’s successful and people only see a success now, but they don’t see the 10 years of hard work that he did behind the scenes to get him where he is now and when I think about storied coffee and I think about you and your business it’s like You’re in that grind right now. you’re in like, what’d you say the last five years have been just like

Rich:
Because

Maggie:
You know and You know. Hopefully you don’t have to have another five years of grind before you you see major success. Yeah, you know you’re making changes now for your business. That hopefully will. impact you And your business for the better? so you have that self-awareness about you and like this this podcast like we’re trying to apply those same principles to this podcast. Yeah,

Rich:
That’s yeah. Thanks for saying and that’s what I was just thinking too is like relating it to what we’re trying to do here. I think one of the things that probably is going to remain true for us. At least I would say this this is something that should remain true for us is that when we first started out we said look people need to see behind the scenes of The Grind. because I think one of the things that can make one of the things that can make entrepreneurship or creative Pursuits or life so lonely and Is feeling like you are alone. Like you’re the only one experiencing this and no one understands and to throw it back to our literal missions statement and like whole vision from the beginning. It was like,

Maggie:
You know,

Rich:
Shout out to your friend Jess. Who was the one who highlighted this. Yeah. this way of thinking about things like Business ownership is lonely and we didn’t want to get like make that our whole thing in his in one sense. So we’re like that feels so Downer but then at the same time. I mean, we we saw that like the episodes on burnout and The Struggle Bus stuff what has been some of the most resonant right? So the things we were afraid to present because they would be

Maggie:
Depressing

Rich:
Depressing quote unquote like end up being the things that are most listened to or fed back on. Yeah. And I so I wanted to remain true to that that notion that spirit that like this is a hard thing and no one very few people. That are like us go into business because they’re think they’re gonna make a odd so much money, right? Nobody wants a coffee shop. Because they wanted to make money. if they do they either had a really great business model and we’re very confident. They were going to make money or they were simply misguided and they didn’t they’re not gonna last that long. Right like the small business restaurant coffee shop family own stuff. Like that’s all passion driven. You can make money if you do it, right if you have a model if you have a business model that works and I learned this the hard way. but like my point is people don’t like this is hard they do this because then they do they go into it knowing it’s gonna be hard. But it’s it’s hard to know how difficult and really how lonely. It’s going to get until you get there until you go for it and do it. But that’s not just owning a business. That’s like pursuing your dream. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And that’s what we said from the beginning too. It was like it’s actually bigger than business. It’s anyone with a creative with a big idea big idea people. Yes. Can be lonely people because a big idea just you know, it wraps up so much of your who you are into it. It just like Often is going to require everything that you’ve got and it comes from such a place of like who you are and your identity often.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
You know like our our businesses Our Brands. Our creative Pursuits are so much an expression of who we sense ourself to be or who we want to be and well, you know Berkeley stated who we are it’s like our sense of who we are lensed and the fact that I’m creative and want to express myself lends me to wanting to do this kind of like business. Yeah,

Maggie:
Or

Rich:
Just to put this project out there to do this thing. That’s gonna be public facing and that Because of I’m just like the Dynamics of it it just inherently something that is gonna be intense. It’s gonna be a lot and when you get into that as we talked about from the beginning like there’s obstacles. There’s things there’s roadblocks. There’s Darkness, you know, and it becomes something that’s You really start looking for a light for people who get it and that is where we entered into this whole thing. Just that whole concept because we had experienced it in our limited years. And just knowing the people we know and have talked with. So that kind of stuff. I want to make sure we stay true to and maybe maybe lean into that too as we balance. Like, how can we be helpful? and practical and give some takeaways possibly right be more more like directed in the way we go through things but also bear in mind like we’re also sort of trying to hold up a little bit of a light. Just to say, you know, we’re with you in this thing

Maggie:
And

Rich:
Do that got me going because it’s like

Maggie:
No

Rich:
As revisiting the the vision right there.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Didn’t expect that actually.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
So that’s cool. That’s cool. Yeah, so I don’t remember how we got there per se maybe retirement Gary Vee we’re talking about the clothes hard and the grind and like

Maggie:
Help you today and

Rich:
How we got started in Our Roots was like, yeah. We we want you to know you’re not alone in this and that I think is gonna remain That’s gonna remain true for us.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Even as we become a little more guided or directed when we talk about and even as we pick out specific things to talk about that are You know what? We perceive the people around us to be asking or thinking or

Maggie:
Yeah, well, we didn’t really we started this on episode one from one to 20, you know, we didn’t really but by the by episode 20 19 and 20, we kind of had an idea of like, okay, who who is listening? Who was this audience right? Where are we getting feedback from? When we first started we kind of had didn’t really know and and we are figuring that out as we go and We hear you listener. We want we want to continue to be able to relate and speak to the things going on in your life. So you feel like now we’re kind of Going in circles and repeating that maybe not I don’t know but I just I just want to drive that point home too.

Rich:
Wait, which point? Just kidding. You heard it here first. All right.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
So All right. Well any other insights?

Maggie:
Um

Rich:
What has been challenging

Maggie:
What isn’t challenging

Rich:
The podcasting for 20 weeks?

Maggie:
Um

Rich:
Scheduling.

Maggie:
Yes. Yeah practicality of it is challenging. I’m I’m happy that we’re you know, we’ve got ourselves into a good routine. I think we have a day that we record we were pretty much time of day that we record and that consistency is key for me personally. So like having having a consistent recording day and Bumping our release day to Fridays. Feels a lot better feels a little bit like we have like one more extra day to like. Edit preview and get the get the episode out there. And I like that we are recording and releasing the same week that feels right.

Rich:
Yeah, I love the I like the real time.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
The real-time vibe.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Cool. Yeah, what about something that? I think would present as a challenge but maybe not without me saying it social media.

Maggie:
Oh, yeah,

Rich:
I think the presence right like trying to build

Maggie:
Or lack thereof. Yeah.

Rich:
Well, he’s actually so, you know, it’s been a challenge. I mean balancing like I don’t people who grow podcasts. You know, they they grow a podcast there’s different ways to do it. Like we’re just really just doing this partly for us, you know, like this is just cathartic to have these conversations and it’s an extension of our friendship. So we maybe we would do it anyway. but but a lot of people but obviously you want other people to hear it and you want it’s a grow the listenership to grow we have there’s no way in which we can make money doing this right now, right? There’s no Channel set up for us to make money. So it’s not at this time.

Maggie:
Profitable you will yeah,

Rich:
Mostly what I mean is like we’re not we’re not doing things. Toward the view of like with an eye toward. Okay, our motivation and money. Yeah. All right. We’re pure motive still, you know, and so that’s that’s an interesting Dynamic. But yeah. But to think about what it would take to continue to organically grow this or or even what it would then take to invest in to grow it beyond that. It feels like a lot, you know,

Maggie:
It does and

Rich:
Just to keep up. Just I mean, okay podcasting and like recording audio and everything sending it off to TJ. That’s like one whole thing. But really to have an Instagram channel that goes along with it is Is the exact same amount of work or more? Yeah, right and I say that not even having done a single thing on there like that’s been that was your thing.

Maggie:
And

Rich:
So I don’t know maybe speak to the challenges of that like yeah what has been difficult trying to balance the social media half of this. effort um It’s not

Maggie:
The lack of skill and I I wouldn’t say it’s like lack of time because I can I can find the time. You know, I’m definitely like I believe that. Like you make time for what’s important to you,

Rich:
Right?

Maggie:
And so and for like what you learn mental because listen, I’m here now rich. So I’m I’m maybe think that like I guess I’m just I think to myself like when it comes to social media because I find this excuse with my own social media. It doesn’t it’s not specific to House Coffee. It’s like My own social media. Welcome home Co it’s something that feels like a grind.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
You kind of have to get into that mindset of okay. I’m going into like like production mode. Yeah. where and and like some days I’m just like I have ideas and like oh, that would be a good quote to put on Instagram or that would be a good photo. but I think I think it boils down to like getting into the habit of it again. So I’d love to be and actually I I reached out to. a mutual friend of ours And asked her if she wanted to like. be like accountability buddies and like work on our social media because she’s she’s building her creative business and I I asked her I’m like, hey, do you want to like just sit down like once every couple weeks or once a week and like Just body double basically, we work on our creative stuff and like bounce ideas off of each other and just work on our social medias and creative stuff and I got a really enthusiastic positive response from her and then like I need to like now, it’s the ball’s back in my court.

Rich:
Nice. So wasn’t Becca wasn’t no

Maggie:
I wasn’t Becca, although that. I

Rich:
Just got to call it out.

Maggie:
I know but I actually have talked about a different ideas with Becca. It was actually Candice.

Rich:
Oh so fun shout out Candace.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Cool,

Maggie:
Haven’t forgot about you Candace.

Rich:
Oh, no, I just need an opportunity to drop back his name in

Maggie:
There. Yeah for sure. Yeah,

Rich:
Okay. Yeah, that’s a good idea. I mean I hear you literally it’s a part-time job. It’s like it’s a whole other half of this thing, you know.

Maggie:
Yeah, and I know that being more consistent on our social media will definitely grow our audience but if I’m honest like I I like want to continue to Show up consistently here. still and yeah. Like not get too far ahead of myself.

Rich:
This is the most important thing is having a quality.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Audio. Quality content.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm because

Rich:
That’s the driver of any of it. So yeah for now, we’re just kind of settling that’s settling but we’re

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
We’re satisfied with that at least for now and

Maggie:
So it’s like really days in the future all the sudden you see 20 House Coffee posts at once. It’s probably me. Just getting my act together.

Rich:
The 2002 followers will

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Be happy for it.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Yeah, which is not nothing that’s like pretty no for just a little bit of no social media over the last. Few months. That’s pretty good.

Maggie:
Yeah. How have you how do you see any like what we’ve discussed like do you see already? Are you excited for like the future of this show? No,

Rich:
Super bummed. It’s pretty much the worst thing. I can imagine continuing to do this for 10 to 20 more episodes. Just Totally getting people totally getting rag. Yeah. No, I you know, I enjoy it. It’s it’s about as fun as it thought it would be which is which is pretty much a lot of fun planning it out. It’s cool. And I am

Maggie:
Excited thing. Sorry.

Rich:
Yeah, go ahead. What are you excited for?

Maggie:
I’m just excited to talk more specifics.

Rich:
Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So I think you’re gonna get some music. Yes,

Maggie:
Obviously and passion. From the side of the table.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
Good. I am excited for that because we know that you have against the code of conducts Filtered your conversation. All right over time so We need more unfiltered. Yeah conversations as promised.

Maggie:
Yes

Rich:
At the beginning of every episode.

Maggie:
Unfiltered conversations

Rich:
Yeah, that means Maggie’s really good to say what she thinks about house flipping. Just kidding. Yeah. No, I think the exciting thing is. As we’ve gone, we’ve had a lot of different ideas over time we’ve had and so we had the time we get into some of them some were carrying over in the next. season and

Maggie:
Yep

Rich:
I think there’s some good stuff on. On the table

Maggie:
Yeah, so we should ask our audience to send us coffee related questions. design related questions and even like still business related questions if you have any

Rich:
Yeah, and

Maggie:
We want to start talking about those topics. And how they relate to our life in your life too,

Rich:
Totally. Yeah. Something I’ve seen other episodes like other shows do kind of cloud did this for a long time. They would do like every every few episodes. they would do like like a Q&A episode, you know where people had they’ve just like a mask a bunch of questions that people have sent in. Via all kinds of channels to the different hosts or to the business page or whatever and then they would just walk through those and answer them really practically and I was found insightful and that was back in the day when they were particularly like coffee related questions. So I got a lot of coffee education through through that Avenue, but that can be something I’m not saying we do it in that format. But those you but ask us questions anything like that we can just take in and run with and

Maggie:
Yeah literally ask us anything

Rich:
Because you’re gonna ask us things even just for the sake of responding to this request. You’re gonna you’re gonna put questions out there possibly and then those will just be things that we never would have thought of

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
But then we’ll see it and we’ll be like, oh, yeah, that’s a great question for you something I’ve experienced or this industry or whatever so we can literally use anything you want to throw out there for us as an idea or as a question I’m reminded that Seth had. Asked a couple things. on email or this or the speak pipe thing on the website? Something about Aesthetics. I got to go revisit that there are questions and stuff out there that we have to go mine.

Maggie:
Okay

Rich:
Stuff that’s already come in that we should we should. We should write down we should catalog. Yeah. Well, I don’t know if there’s any other insights or things. I mean, that was a pretty good reflection. I think yeah,

Maggie:
Right

Rich:
Everything else.

Maggie:
No,

Rich:
So I would just say like let’s just what the old whistle here with some of the Some of the things that are on our minds for the future,

Maggie:
Okay. Like future ideas.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
Okay. We

Rich:
Had some some topics and things that jump to mind. I mean you’ve heard us say this in the you’ve heard some of us some of them in the past. We were brainstorming the other day, so I’m still interested in that currency conversation. Oh,

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
We didn’t even bring them back up. I don’t think but just like the other kinds of currencies in business or in life life currencies is the way it was kind of framed which is like,

Maggie:
You know,

Rich:
You can you have to measure things in more than financial terms. Yeah for for like life to make sense.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
To get by, you know, you have to make decisions based on Can’t just be dollar exchange can’t always just be dollar signs. There’s other things like peace of mind or you know your value system, right? Like there’s other things that count besides dollars and

Maggie:
Happy

Rich:
That is just such an interesting concept to me that I think probably doesn’t maybe it gets our time somewhere else that I’m just not aware, but I’m aware of the concepts, but I’d like to have a conversation about it. Let’s see

Maggie:
You wanted to talk about thrifted stuff

Rich:
Me.

Maggie:
Yeah, I have like thrifted. Like thrifted finds as decor and like trendy thrifted being trendy.

Rich:
Okay. Yeah, I think I think Thrift I remember that that is familiar those are familiar words. Yeah. I can’t remember saying that

Maggie:
Basically the concept of like how Thrift thrifting is becoming trendy.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah, it’s always been around obviously because thrift store as long as thrift stores have existed, but it does feel like These days if you live on social media.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
There’s a lot of like And it’s even your hole is a big part of your ethos. So yeah, so I mean, I’ve actually think you’re the one who’s who’s equipped to talk about that. That’s what I was getting. I was like, I’d be a good thing for you.

Maggie:
It’s

Rich:
Chat about is Thrift is you know, thrifting is is a cool way to express yourself or or bring life to a space instead of throw away culture It’s kind of the opposite throwaway culture actually. Yeah,

Maggie:
You also want to talk about one star experiences

Rich:
I do. I want to explore. For the sake of anyone listening the emotional and psychological breakdown that people experience and they receive a one-star review.

Maggie:
Okay?

Rich:
No, I want to talk about what goes into. Like a one we talked about five star experiences and we talked about we got at principles of hospitality in the past. I’m interested in exploring the Fallout from one’s really how how a business owner. Or person should relate to low reviews. And I might have some hot takes when I say things like should relate.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
I’ll talk about my experience with one star reviews. We got one recently sent us into a tailspin as it does and so I’m just I think it’d be fun to explore that. Okay in a cheekies way. I’d like to maybe do it something I’ve dreamed of doing. I don’t know if this would be helpful or not anyone listening but in it maybe again just more my catharsis, but I thought it’d be fun to review reviews. Just read reviews out loud and be like and this is a three star review because they didn’t do this. They didn’t help me. You know what I mean? Like

Maggie:
That’s

Rich:
Hilariously. Um, look fortunately storied gets very very few. Low reviews. Yeah, so that’s why they’re so jarring. It’s like you always know when you get a one-star review. It’s just such a time for reflection. So I just want to dig into that and explore that.

Maggie:
Well, it’s on your list.

Rich:
Um, dude, I’m freaking pulling up right now. I want to talk about artificial intelligence.

Maggie:
Oh, yeah,

Rich:
Which is not something that I’m highly equipped to talk about. So what I would like to do is explore the concepts and because it’s like it’s always been around for a long time,

Maggie:
But

Rich:
It’s like suddenly everywhere. And I hate it.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm,

Rich:
And I’d like to talk about it.

Maggie:
Okay, I don’t hate it.

Rich:
Perfect. So we need to talk about it. We talked about some particular questions relating to our Industries. I like to this question. This is gonna be something is it better to stage? with like crappy furniture then to just leave a house empty.

Maggie:
I will answer that question for you.

Rich:
I’m so excited for that

Maggie:
Cannot wait. Also have the color gray. On my list of things to talk about.

Rich:
How about how do I know if I should start a business?

Maggie:
Whoo? In Japan. Yeah,

Rich:
That’s one of my list. I didn’t

Maggie:
That’s a good one.

Rich:
How about how simple is it to start a business? It’s actually more simple than you would probably think which I think is why it’s interesting to talk about.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
It could be as complicated as you want it to me. Let’s put it that way. Yeah,

Maggie:
Should

Rich:
You drink gas station coffee? That was probably just me brainstorming. And strong emphasis on should you

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Oh coffee is baking

Maggie:
Coffee is baking. That was it. That was a realization that we had a few episodes ago. Yeah, like

Rich:
Well, I realize that a while ago and I share that with you and you

Maggie:
Blew my mind.

Rich:
You were crazy. So slash how does coffee work. We just want to tell you a little bit more about how the dang being juice gets into that cup. All right, because I think actually there’s a lot of myths and things that surround coffee and so we’re here to tell you the truth. Yes, spell some of those myths for you. All right. We’re gonna talk about tools of the trade. which is going to be a little bit of a lens until like do you really need the most top of the line stuff? Yes, you need the most expensive equipment. Do you need

Maggie:
I think that was one of my ideas. Yeah.

Rich:
Yeah. These are all this is just things are recording as you talked as I thought about them.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
Tools the trade, you know, what are the things we prefer to have? What are the things? We need to have?

Maggie:
Yep,

Rich:
What’s the quality level you want to have and just like approaches to to that because it is true you can make coffee. with a Keurig

Maggie:
Or

Rich:
An espresso something resembling coffee, right a brown bitter liquid is going to come out of that machine for sure. but it’s a do you need do you need the lumber zoko? I don’t know. Who’s who’s gonna who’s to say? Yeah. Well, I got it. I got a thought for you. All right. Let’s see what else we got here.

Maggie:
I think I have like business pivot adjusting your model and expanding adapting to survive,

Rich:
Dude. That could be all season.

Maggie:
Yeah, I know.

Rich:
The business pivot. Yeah, I’m actually super interested in that idea that concept. Pull up some examples of businesses that are pivoting or have pivoted. I mean shout out to any business that was open going into covid right like

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Talk about the business pivot.

Maggie:
Yeah, so

Rich:
Many different ways that that happened in so many different Industries. And you kind of had to so we’ll talk about it like sometimes you have to Pivot to survive. Or sometimes you just you know, you pivot because something works better. So just that whole concept the business pivot is something we’re gonna we’re gonna explore And

Maggie:
Those are a lot of really good top.

Rich:
Yeah, it is. I’m pretty stoked season 2 is gonna be off the chain.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Limitations in business preventing growth. So like issues of scaling.

Maggie:
Oh, yeah,

Rich:
Things like that. I think that’s gonna be well, that’s definitely something we both have dealt with over time. Yeah,

Maggie:
Maybe

Rich:
Are currently dealing with and certain questions come up there. I that’s

Maggie:
And we are open to other ideas.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah, totally this is just like this is just what I really Rings our brainstorm list here.

Maggie:
Yeah, we had a brainstorming session and Like our next episodes are not limited to this list. In fact, like if if we get suggestions that seem way more interesting and like seem like hot topics that rich and I can talk about even if we have to do a little bit of research. Please send them to us because we we want to discuss what is relevant. to you

Rich:
Yeah, totally. So listen, shout out to y’all. Alright, thanks for listening and I think that was one of the insights too. One of the take one of the takeaways for me was like people. that I really appreciate and just thank you all for like people have a ritual. around listening and watching things, you know, and this is this is this is always been true. This is not a surprise, but it’s just it struck me as we went through this if we were late on an episode dropping or Miss the day or whatever which I don’t know if we miss the day

Maggie:
Never missed a day. We’ve just been like late in the day. Yeah,

Rich:
And so I would get you know tax or whatever not a lot but it’s it but it struck me that people have a ritual or they people have acknowledged like I think thinking us like Or just just pointing out like this is my ritual to listen to to this on a weekly basis. Or or whatever and I think again, that’s something that people do podcast, but now it’s like y’all are listening to my podcast and it’s yeah and that’s meaningful and I appreciate that. So, um, so we’re happy to be back.

Maggie:
We don’t take

Rich:
Bringing that lightly. Yeah. Exactly.

Maggie:
We really both of us took that to heart. We’re like, wow, this is the things that we do with the podcast that we listen to that are part of our routine have become routines and other people’s lives and we want to keep it that way. We want to we want to continue to be a part of your life as you learn about us in our lives. And yeah, so We are really deeply appreciative of you.

Rich:
Yes. Deaf, or I guess well, yeah this week and

Maggie:
You know where to send to feedback

Rich:
You freaking or find us, right?

Maggie:
Okay.

Rich:
Love you.

Maggie:
Later.