16: Catch Up with Maggie & Rich + More Origin Story Details

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.

Rich:
Welcome to episode 16 House Coffee.

Maggie:
Sweet 16

Rich:
Podcasts. Nice. Happy birthday.

Maggie:
I know. We made it.

Rich:
We sure did. We’re gonna do something interesting today. We are going to Spitball a little.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
First time I don’t know if it’s the first time but we usually have a planning session beforehand or plan for a few episodes in a row and this is not a habit. We’re gonna start here but it is something we’re gonna try today. Also, I will say like

Maggie:
Rich you and I like in the past have seen have been able to like catch up Between episodes.

Rich:
Yeah, and

Maggie:
I feel like like

Rich:
With each other

Maggie:
With each other and we haven’t really had a chance to just catch up as friends.

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Off the mic. I think the last time we had a conversation was exactly one week ago.

Rich:
Yeah, it could be because I’ve been traveling since Friday no Thursday. Yeah, Friday morning 2 am Friday morning.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
Three four AM. We went to Ohio to visit Christine’s friend who lives there and we brought the baby and you know as a whole thing. It was cool. We picked up a Christian’s other friend on the way out. She has this group of college friends that she sees like every year or so.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
And it always moves around like where they’re gonna be meeting up. So this time it was a This one friends house in Ohio before that friend moves to Colorado. So I yeah. So we had that we had that going but yeah, that means we haven’t talked since last Tuesday.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
And here it is Tuesday.

Maggie:
Here. We are.

Rich:
Cool.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Well, I’m excited for that

Maggie:
At the opening. I don’t know. I don’t remember if we recorded this opening but we were talking about the song. Smelling Coffee,

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Just

Rich:
Now when

Maggie:
You were just talking just second ago, but I we were also talking about it last week. And you had said something really quick like you only listen to Andy Mineo.

Rich:
Yeah, well

Maggie:
Like yeah, you don’t even listening any manually, right?

Rich:
I didn’t grow. Yes. Sure. True.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
True.

Maggie:
I like an idiot didn’t know who Andy Mineo was I was like, I’ve never heard of that person before

Rich:
That sounds probably just like I was dropping his name like he was you know,

Maggie:
Yeah like but

Rich:
This big guy, but

Maggie:
He’s got like a really popular song that like people are making tiktok videos in reels on

Rich:
Exactly

Maggie:
And I went to Spotify after our after our episode last week and I looked up Andy Mineo because I was like Rich has been listening to this guy. I just I gotta know he’s like some like I gotta just know what he’s about. I’m like, oh my goodness. This guy is like I’m coming in hot.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
He’s that guy no idea. I didn’t know idea.

Rich:
So yeah, Lecrae is the one that a lot of people know because he’s like probably the most famous like yeah Christian hip-hop artist, Andy Mineo Has been around for at least the last 10 years or so. And has I think was on The Craze record label starting out? now, I think he has his own like independent little independent label with a few artists on it and But so he’s not super well known, but he’s really talented in my opinion and a lot of people. Like every almost every record of Andy Mineo’s would feature look like crayona song and oral vice versa. So That’s kind of I got it in him. But yeah, I mean I like the cry too and and plenty of other like chhh artists, but

Maggie:
What’s the age

Rich:
Christian hip hop but a lot of a lot of yeah, I don’t know something about Minos just like variety and style and like Take on things is something I just appreciate. Another resonate with it. I don’t really this music because I resonated with it per se except for this like the spiritual component, but it’s not all just like like wrapping the Bible or anything like that. It’s more like storytelling which is what I’ve always appreciated about. Hip hop and or like any kind of music that I listen to. It tends to be that the story lines and lyricism that draws me in so

Maggie:
Ask me who I’ve been listening to lately.

Rich:
How have you been listening to lately Maggie

Maggie:
Do weepa?

Rich:
That sounds familiar.

Maggie:
She has a lot of really popular songs on the radio like cool. She’s very very mainstream.

Rich:
What would I know?

Maggie:
You would know. well, the song that I’ve been listening to is called new rules and it’s like I’m not gonna sing it because like it’s not like very appropriate but for our rating

Rich:
And

Maggie:
You yes, but an apple pie, yes. if she’s like I can’t even say it but you got me in love again. Do you

Rich:
Know that song? I don’t know. I don’t know if I know

Maggie:
You think I don’t know how much I can see on this for everything flagged but

Rich:
Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go maybe I’ll go check it.

Maggie:
Go check her out. She’s

Rich:
The old spot.

Maggie:
She’s hip

Rich:
Cool. Yeah a lot of like a lot of contemporary not contemporary modern.

Maggie:
Mainstream

Rich:
Mainstream popular a lot of pop music. I am like real late or slow or just I don’t know I never get there in terms of catching on but yeah, because I’m not really like on tiktok or where

Maggie:
We’re

Rich:
On tiktok. I don’t have the Tic-Tac, you know, or like everybody finds this stuff. I did know that that one song by Lecrae and Eminem was was trending on To talk. So even if you didn’t know Andy Mineo by name like that, you would probably if anyone did know him. It would be from that song that that kind of blew up. Yeah.

Maggie:
Yeah this particular song. Like Brandon and I have been like shouting it like playing it back and forth. So it’s just like a really fun song and I recommend listening to it because it’s it’s just it’s just a line that we there’s just a line in the song that we’ve been saying and it’s just really funny. So that sounds

Rich:
Fun. Yeah, Christina and I are not like that as far as

Maggie:
Music

Rich:
Music taste music approaches, you know, we just have very different musical tastes and stylings. She’s she enjoys music but she’s not a super musical person. So it’s a interesting Dynamic for our life.

Maggie:
I’m only yeah, I’m not I got into Dua Lipa because Brandon’s been listening to her like wise he’s been working on the house. He always picks some like really strong female artist as he is working on a project in the house like Sometimes so when he was doing Plumbing it was on YouTube Plumbing work like it was K Flay. Do you ever hear cake? Oh and so whenever we hear whenever it’s like Plumbing time, we do like do k-flay music and he was like really into Kesha last summer and like like every day was Kesha

Rich:
Well

Maggie:
And now, it’s Dua LIPA.

Rich:
Fun.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
I’ll have to catch up.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Well

Maggie:
What’s what’s new with business your business

Rich:
Entrepreneurship? for tonight We said that the same time and synonyms. What is noon with my business? Yeah, not a whole lot. so good. Dude, do the owner. I was wondering if we do the big reveal today

Maggie:
Actually. I think we’ve been teasing it for quite some time.

Rich:
I’ll keep thinking about it. Go ahead.

Maggie:
All right, well My big reveal is today.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
My new office is having like a soft opening to the other off other agents in Gambler Realty. We’re having our meeting there today.

Rich:
So

Maggie:
And the

Rich:
Big staging project

Maggie:
The big staging project that I’ve been working on for. A month over a month and Joe and I were at that office till 11 o’clock last night. Yeah, just doing all the finishing touches

Rich:
Not surprised. And

Maggie:
In fact, I have like one or two things left. I still need to like do when I get there five times this morning. and anyways I honestly don’t know where I would be without Joe. He’s like, so he’s so talented and just like gives he he gives a hundred and ten percent and I know like we talk about like

Rich:
Show you guys slow your roll dude

Maggie:
Giving only 85, but he really

Rich:
Took 90 tops

Maggie:
Like he had a full time. He’s a full-time job and he met me at 5:30 and we were there till after 11:00 and and he brought me dinner like

Rich:
My

Maggie:
Gosh the gem Joe. He’s the best

Rich:
Crush it. Yeah, definitely the kind of person you want to have

Maggie:
First

Rich:
You dream that you have on your channel

Maggie:
For real for real. um, so He’s he and I were like hanging things along the wall and like you, you know using like painter’s tape to like place them in like on the wall. And then like we were like nailing things and then like stepping back and we like that’s not even we got a tilt it and we were just doing that over and over again and it was just because like a few days prior. We went to Target together to get some like off like office supplies. Okay. So here here’s my vision for the office. I did not want this office to look like you could pick everything off a Target shelf. I didn’t want to look like Target. Yeah, I wanted it to look like a cozy homie Vibe.

Rich:
We didn’t want to be walking through the room essential section.

Maggie:
Exactly. Yes, so

Rich:
The target yeah.

Maggie:
I just didn’t want it to look like someone could walk and be like, oh I’ve seen that at Target or I have that at home. I really wanted it to look curated. So but there are just some things that you can’t. Buy in multiples,

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Secondhand or vintage or thrifted and plus like this being an office setting like you really don’t want to buy things that are like used. Do you want them to look new? So we did Source some furniture from Target. and even though it goes against my religion and that religion is environmentally Consciousness and like all the packaging and styrofoam and cardboard like literally killed me a little bit every time I put it in the dumpster, but that’s another story for another time. I did manage to use decorations from locally owned. Vendors like Bluebird and I went to an antique shop yesterday in Burnt Hills. and it found some really cool art and like anyways it so I wanted the office to look like a mixture of like contemporary with like Antiques and so Joe is like very not anti-vintage but he’s just if it if it’s not expensive he doesn’t want it kind of not really but he’s just kind of he’s way more bougie than me.

Rich:
Got it.

Maggie:
I I feel like um, I would be so happy if I just bought you stuff the rest of my life and I could live like that what no matter what it was but Joe is like Why spend $50 on something when you can spend $5,000?

Rich:
Well,

Maggie:
Not really that much but I’m exaggerating a little bit but he’s he’s kind of like You know, he likes the Finer Things in life. And so when whenever I’ve been finding things to buy for this office, I was always like texting Joe like hey, what do you think of this? What do you think of that and he would give me his opinion and he was making mood boards in a mood board app. It was like I like this Vibe for the office and he was sending me all sorts of ideas. And then yesterday I went rogue.

Rich:
Oh

Maggie:
There was too much. Corporate like Target Wayfair and not enough vintage in the office. So I went dark. And I just started going to all these second-hand places looking for artwork and like like Decor that would that I could mix into the office to not make it look so modern clean cut,

Rich:
Right and

Maggie:
I found I went to this. It’s like it’s called the old shop. It’s a vintage store. I should tag it when I post a photo of it. I found this old antique frame. It was like very ornate and someone’s grandmother. Probably 75 years ago cross stitched it and there’s like little houses in the corner and it says home is where the heart is and it’s all crossed stitched and I’m like Bingo that’s gonna go right in the front of the office and I like I didn’t even text Joe because if I text it to him, he would have been like, you know,

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
And then I found another few other piece that random pieces. I went to the City Mission. I did stop at the Glenville Salvation Army. I didn’t find anything there. and I also found like an old kid’s desk in the that belonged to my broker. It was in the garage at the utter other office, and I grabbed that and brought it there. And I just like when Joe showed up at 5:30 yesterday, I was like Joe I went a little bit Rogue. I bought some things without like checking with you first and he’s like, oh my God, here we go. And actually it ended up working looking so good because it now the office feels homey. Yeah. It doesn’t feel like a plucked things off of the shelf. So there is a good mix but it’s also I really want that homey Vibe. Yeah.

Rich:
Yeah and you’re selling homes

Maggie:
Exactly

Rich:
And homes are meant to be lived in that’s cool. Congrats.

Maggie:
Thanks. So that’s later today later this morning.

Rich:
Yeah and like in like

Maggie:
Less than an hour

Rich:
45 minutes. Don’t worry. We’re not podcasting that long today. Well, that’s that’s I’m happy. That’s Done. So it’s done right?

Maggie:
I mean, I guess you triggle things in from here, but I sent on it’s 95% done

Rich:
Obviously done enough for a big reveal.

Maggie:
Yeah, and I just need to get feedback today and there’s a couple things that happen arrived yet. Like I ordered a apartment fridge because the only fridge we have at the office right now as a mini fridge that’s gonna be delivered this week and a couple other like just random things that you kind of don’t know you need in an office until you like need it.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
Right.

Rich:
So true.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Well, that’s great.

Maggie:
Yeah, it’s really it’s a cool space and I’m excited for the reveal today.

Rich:
Yeah. Is it just gonna be co-workers like off like people from

Maggie:
It’s just people within the office. Yeah, and as we were working last night. So I’ve been getting a lot of requests for staging. From other agents. I really don’t do any advertising other than like what I post on Instagram. It’s my business has grown. through Word of Mouth and I was as Joe and I were hanging stuff last night. He was like on the one end of the room and I was on the other end and I was like Joe. I really need to think about how I’m going to scale my business because I feel like you and me doing what we do now. We could easily double our volume if we had. double the furniture and I’m like, I feel like I could make you like My like number two, and you could have an assistant helping you. do a house and like I could actually hire another person and we could actually have like two different teams staging But I’m like right now it’s just you and me and we only had like my inventory is tied up for a whole month. so I can only comfortably do two houses right now, and that’s really like I only have one sofa so it really depends on if the other house has a sofa. And I have a really nice sofa fitted sofa cover so I can make it look really nice and I’ve done that in several houses. But really I’m I really need to he’s like Maggie you’re gonna have to start putting furniture in your garage at home. and yeah, so we’ve just been talking and thinking about okay, how can I scale this business so that I can be profitable and I was thinking about was that book that you mentioned the emith. Is that the book that you said that franchising your think of your business like a franchise. I haven’t read it clearly. Um, but I’ve been thinking about that since you mentioned that on an earlier episode,

Rich:
It’s the kind of concept that you can just take and once you hear it. It’s so intuitive. I think you can begin to almost just think about it and apply it in your own ways. Yeah just from hearing the idea. It’s one of those powerful ideas.

Maggie:
And it’s an old book. It was made like written in the 80s.

Rich:
It’s been around for a while.

Maggie:
So it’s still applies to

Rich:
Yeah

Maggie:
Businesses today.

Rich:
I mean, they still have an active website that like does workshops and and all I don’t even know if the guy I mean the guy The guy’s pretty old eroded I think. I think he was old he wrote it like so I don’t know.

Maggie:
Okay, but

Rich:
Yeah, yeah,

Maggie:
Have you applied it to storage coffee

Rich:
In some ways? I mean there are a lot of limitations that come with being under resourced. So having just a very small amount of money. to work with because I think the key to a franchise situation. Or to borrow the principal from the book you want to systematize your business and basically you want you want all the things to be like the same. So that’s the idea of the franchise is you want to be able to build a business that you can copy? And paste anywhere but the key to that is having is being able to use the same. Principles and the same products and the same you would even want the same equipment. I think or at least functionally the same equipment and There are a lot of because we were really strapped for cash and that’s been our number one thing all along. It we can’t invest in the kinds of equipment. And stuff that makes the processes and the systems. a lot more efficient all the time that’s the kind of thing that I think would really allow us to to scale or copy it in the future. So, I mean there’s it’s a whole equation. There’s a lot that goes into there’s a lot of moving Parts with how to quote unquote franchise model your business. But money’s just like a huge a huge thing. So so all that said we have done ever since I read that book. I started talking to Abby. And we’ve done as much as we can. We’ve done a lot to sort of streamline and optimize the business so that book it goes through a bunch of different ways that you want to break things down and like areas of focus. So, you know workflow efficiencies. staff considerations It’s been a little while since I were to. But you really the book is the book is all about designing your business from the ground up and thinking through every step and how you’re building the the base and then all the way up through even starting with like your personal goals. Like why are you even in business if you have business partner, what are you doing together? Like, what is this? Was the bigger picture and then you got to build a business that gets you there. So that’s that’s really how the book ends up being sort of. Boots on the ground about it. So it’s something we’re always thinking about and in a lot of ways we have streamlined partly because we had to because we knew we couldn’t afford the Staffing as it was coming out of February. And so going into March. I was like I was like, hey guys, you got jobs through March, but in April, Just gonna be me and Abby for the by and large except for maybe like someone on Saturday to help. That was before. the whole other thing came up where I would have a different opportunity outside of the business, but it was like it was getting extreme where we’re gonna be like, it’s just me and Abby about to run this thing for the next year and a half or whatever and it’s that course has changed a little bit but what that led us to do was say, how would Abby and I run this business. It was just us ever how and what like or Better yet, how would this business need to look this kind of how I framed it standing like how I’m even still working through how this business need to look if it was only one person working. from 1pm to close What would need to happen that person has to be a lot like like tied to the bar? They can’t they shouldn’t have to leave or walk away from the bar at any point in time for those like five hours. They should

Maggie:
Just buy you eliminated lunches. After

Rich:
One of the reasons we stopped serving food we decided to start. Just to stop certain food at one o’clock. It used to be all day. So close well until the last hour, but then we said we need to do less Staffing. and so we need to cut off the food so that in the afternoon, you can be like putting the food stuff away and And then so that one person can run just the bar. Yeah. There’s another principle in business this came out of my coaching course. There’s another principle where you you need to you you need to. You need to be pulling in so much money per hour to make certain things justifiable. So like even the amount of staff you have on the floor. On on average. This will be a telling statistic for you on average. It ends up working out to about $80 an hour. You should have for every person you have on. On the bar on the floor.

Maggie:
That’s how much it costs the business or that’s

Rich:
That’s how much your business should be pulling in to be having a 30% labor. I don’t know. What’s 30% of 80, but he’s my calculator watch. That didn’t go that’s the wrong way right multiply. These little buttons are great. I love them. No complaints.

Maggie:
You should use your remarkable

Rich:
24. dollars which okay So anyway, I don’t that doesn’t mean anything to me. But the point is that the statistically it’s you you should be looking to have around 80 dollars an hour coming into your business. for every person which means if you have two people on the floor imagine me $160 hour. Well, I got news for you $160 hours a pretty busy hour at storied. We don’t see a lot of them 80 dollars an hour actually is also not. Too shabby.

Maggie:
Really?

Rich:
Yeah. that story which means Yeah, we just the revenue just I mean listen, I’m asking a lot of questions

Maggie:
So I know so you hired a marketing person

Rich:
Did how’s that working out for you? I don’t know yet.

Maggie:
Only about a week.

Rich:
The first post went up yesterday last night. I think.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
So and by the time people hear this there will be more out so we’ll see but we’ll see how that’s working at the end of the day. I mean the key to social media is consistency. It’s having stuff going out. Is having pictures look pretty and ideally telling a little bit of a story or at least connect for me. Ideally connecting it to your bigger picture that when you introduce a third party who is totally divorced. Well just totally like outside of your business. That’s gonna be the widest Gap. I think that’ll have to kind of work through but still it’s working. I know there’s an entire calendar of content for this month. That’s about to go out. And I know that I I did what I said where I put out announcement introducing the person and I said hey and I was very like I couldn’t have been more clear. Like hey, this is our social media friend from this company. They’re going to be creating putting these posts out and I don’t know. If you saw the post that was on that

Maggie:
I did

Rich:
The milk tea is post that just came out last night.

Maggie:
Oh, no.

Rich:
The language it’s just so not anything we would say it’s so many adjectives. It’s like descriptive. It’s meant to be like it’s over that’s a little over the top and my opinion for selling. I know we’re just kind of trying stuff out with these captions and see like what people like but at the day I was like I don’t care actually you I said that someone else is doing this and so whatever goes out now is like someone else it’s not on me. Yeah. I feel like Freedom about that good and she sent me all the captions to read and advance and I was like, I mean nothing is like inaccurate here. Like you’re your names and words are correct. I wouldn’t ever talk this way, but I don’t care. I don’t have to so. That’s the whole so talk about a piece of minor we talked about Elsie. That’s the whole thing is. I know this contents about to go out. I know someone else is taking care of it. I know people. I I don’t know what else I don’t know I was gonna happen. So the point is to see I think I said this thing I was talking about why I was doing this. We’re just I talked about all the time. There’s no like the revenues so so little

Maggie:
What what you say at storied is your like your biggest money maker. Like what is it that

Rich:
Item was?

Maggie:
Yeah, like what is it? It doesn’t even have to be like biggest profit. Margin. It’s just like what makes the most money. And if you’re like if you eliminate it from the menu, you would see a big dip in sales.

Rich:
Espresso drinks,

Maggie:
Really

Rich:
I think still our technically they went out but ultimately bubble tea. Is right there for us. It’s neck and neck.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
If it’s the right day bubble tea is more

Maggie:
So not food

Rich:
Food. No. Food helps to bring certain people in. And I think if we didn’t have the food. If we didn’t have the food we wouldn’t need the staff. We wouldn’t need as much Staffing if we didn’t have the food because the food requires two people so that one person can operate the kitchen and one person and do the prep and one person could do the drinks, but if we didn’t have the food we wouldn’t require the Staffing that we currently require which means that we might be able to survive on just the drinks. however It’s it’s hard to say who would stop coming because we didn’t have food.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
And I say food, I mean like major order sandwiches. I mean we do big kids and we probably still would do baked goods.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
A little something.

Maggie:
That’s our a good seller. I mean, I haven’t seen banana bread in a hot minute, but I know that that’s always popular, right?

Rich:
You would think. Because I get people saying I haven’t seen the banana bread and then I go and make it and then I have a low for two sitting around at the end of a weekend.

Maggie:
Not to go on topic about banana bread, but what

Rich:
Oh, yeah.

Maggie:
What about oh, I always go into and get banana bread when there’s banana bread,

Rich:
You know, you’re not the problem,

Maggie:
But I don’t know. This is just like again not to go off topic. But like if you had like one day of the week that was banana bread day. I don’t know if that would make a difference. So people

Rich:
I say try that I did to try to work it into a workflow in the last couple months ago when it was switching back to me and I was gonna be

Maggie:
Doesn’t have to be banana bread, right? Just something and I’m not that’s not gonna solve your issues. I understand. Yeah,

Rich:
Right. I was just thinking like you’re just thinking about how you can get more banana bread in your life.

Maggie:
Yes.

Rich:
Why don’t I just make you banana bread.

Maggie:
That would be amazing that you personally do that for next week

Rich:
In Brandon Kev room little. Oh,

Maggie:
Yeah. Perfect.

Rich:
I won’t even cut it.

Maggie:
No time I brought in bananas to the shop. Yeah.

Rich:
Thanks. This is the neighbor really thing to do.

Maggie:
I was like

Rich:
Maggie. Can I borrow do you have three bananas kicking out?

Maggie:
No, I think you had them and I didn’t want to throw them away. So I was like, hey, this was a long time. Yeah, it’s like hey, are you gonna be making banana bread soon? Because I got some bananas that are gonna go bad and I don’t want to throw them away and I brought them to storied and Rich made him banana.

Rich:
I love that. We have a we have a business next door to us too that Mohawk Tap Room. and we’re sometimes we trade stuff with them like

Maggie:
Really

Rich:
Hey, we’ve got this seasoning that we’re discontinued this item. So we’re never gonna use this like I had a whole big like five pound thing of Dill. I was like, yes, he’s Dill. I don’t need this. And and then I definitely know we’ve we’ve done like I think they needed a couple onions. We keep onions for the breakfast sandwiches. And at one point they came over though. You just got any onions. This is probably going one of those old neighbor old-time neighbor things where it’s like a couple sugar.

Maggie:
I love that.

Rich:
Yeah, sweet.

Maggie:
Oh, that’s cool.

Rich:
Nice machine was down to someone recently and They said we get if we needed ice we grab that I’ve even had them tell me I could bake over there back in the day.

Maggie:
Wow,

Rich:
Before we moved.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
The location got this better oven but I didn’t follow through on that because

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Didn’t really end up ramp that up. But

Maggie:
Anyway, do you want to talk about? your big reveal

Rich:
I don’t know you still I’m still thinking about scaling businesses.

Maggie:
Gotcha. This kind of fits into that I was gonna be such a teaser for when you finally do reveal people are these like on the edge of this seat

Rich:
If anyone really cares to know I mean, it’s out there.

Maggie:
Yeah, you

Rich:
Don’t have to dig very hard. Yeah,

Maggie:
You know,

Rich:
You just got me subscribe to the right email list. And you already would have seen it.

Maggie:
Yeah. All right. Well, I mean not to put you on the spot but there was another book we got some actually got some really good feedback from the last week’s episode this past week. Becca sent us a book. What was that called

Rich:
Deep work

Maggie:
Deep work.

Rich:
Do you know that that came up in my travels too?

Maggie:
Did

Rich:
The friend that we picked up on our way out to Ohio? Also was talking about that book. I have started it. I started the way back in January before all he was born. So then cattle derailed but Before after right around the time. But anyway, I didn’t keep up with it, but shout out story book club 2024 right story book club. I always do that. Sorry, how’s Coffee

Maggie:
House Coffee book club?

Rich:
2024? Maybe we’ll make it a whole thing.

Maggie:
Okay, I’m down

Rich:
And but I did start and I like the concept and this person over traveling with was also talking about it and back to talk about it. She said anyway where we going with that.

Maggie:
Oh, I was just Feeling encouraged because we had two people message me and say that they really enjoyed our episode 14 about what was that one about like I can only remember last week’s episode

Rich:
12 episodes ago was at 85% It’s better than

Maggie:
100% Right? Right. Yes,

Rich:
Joe here giving 110 dude.

Maggie:
I know. And then

Rich:
We had an article for you. All right.

Maggie:
I know I’ll send it to him. actually, I’m his manager technically, so I should send it to myself and I don’t show up till I have a best friend and her name is also Maggie and I’m not referring to myself and he was Maggie Goebel and she lives in the city, but we met in college and people would confuse actually people confused us a lot because of our names and we were such good friends. She texted me this week, and she just said. That this past episode has been and she did like three fire emojis. Oh and she just said she’s loving it and I didn’t even know that she was listening.

Rich:
That’s fun. There’s so much you followed. It followed us recently. I think

Maggie:
Yeah. She has a twin sister named Mana. and We’re all good friends so

Rich:
Fun.

Maggie:
Yep.

Rich:
Thanks Maggie. Not you Maggie. Go.

Maggie:
Yeah, Maggie mobile.

Rich:
Yeah, that’s yeah, it’s encouraging to get the the feedback in here. That are ideas or just conversations are

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Are telling you know, they’re I don’t know they’re inspiring people. They’re having they’re encouraging.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
They’re encouraging us to have them. I think if nothing else in the day, it’s just you and me dude.

Maggie:
I know man and like that’s honestly what This whole thing. Like I was thinking about it like this has been so helpful. Just these conversations alone have been super helpful for my business because I would have never thought about franchising clinical like thinking about my business as ever say that when we say that we just mean the franchise

Rich:
Model.

Maggie:
Right right. I’m not gonna have welcome home coach trailers across the country this

Rich:
Year

Maggie:
Right? Wait, wait a few years.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
But I I would have never really considered my business in that regard until like these conversations. and I don’t know if our listeners have maybe thought about their businesses in that way too because sometimes our businesses start as pulling pillows and lamps and chairs out of your home and putting them in your clients home. To help make their Decor look a little more attractive in photos and then it blows up to. large-scale designing and decorating of corporate offices. Yeah. And this is another thought that I mentioned to Joe yesterday as we were staging. And staging kind of implies its temporary. It was more like decorating and styling Permanently. Yeah, and if someone had approached me a couple years ago and said Hey, can I hire you to do my office? I probably would have turned them down because I would have been so intimidated and I wouldn’t have been able to handle. like the process Or understand the end product.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
Like I like yesterday. I kept like second-guessing a lot of things because I was Used to staging a house and you stage a house for photos and you wanted to make it look homey. And you want to make it look like a place where you want someone to live you want to create that vibe. an office You want to create an environment where someone is productive but you also don’t want to create a space that’s like sterile that they don’t feel. Happy or inspired when they’re there. So doing an office is different balance of homie versus office, and we’re a real estate office

Rich:
Exactly.

Maggie:
So I really wanted the vibe to be cozy comfort. And Joe had to remind me. He’s like Maggie we are we’re not staging a house. We’re not trying to we don’t want someone to live in this office. We want someone to work in this office. And just that mindset alone. I think was so important to distinguish because like I said a couple years ago. There’s no way I would have had the confidence to say yes and run with the project. I probably would have I don’t know. I don’t know what I would have done a couple years ago. I just know I wouldn’t have been able to mentally commit to it and I would have probably turned it down because I would have been so intimidated at that idea and it was a lot of work way even way more work than I was initially anticipating. And I would do things differently if I were to do another office again. and I learned some good lessons, but for instance if it’s like when you buy furniture sometimes buying the cheaper furniture. that you have to assemble yourself isn’t worth it because it took me hours and hours of my time to assemble. an Amazon console table When if I had I could have spent? More money and purchase something that was already fully assembled. So sometimes like you spend time where you save money. and sometimes you spend money where you save time.

Rich:
That bridge

Maggie:
And you have to decide which is your more important commodity.

Rich:
Yeah, and

Maggie:
In this case, this was a learning experience for me. So it was all valuable. And but like I in the future if I were given a similar budget for a similar project. I would I would invest in more pieces that I didn’t have to sit for hours and hours to assemble. 16 chairs, for example, you know like that wasn’t worth my time. But I saved money. Yeah. so and there was just a couple other things that I learned along the way where that was just that was the biggest one. So sometimes it’s not worth it. It’s not worth your time to save money. It’s not.

Rich:
Yeah,

Maggie:
But if you don’t have the money you have to be willing to trade your time.

Rich:
That’s right. That’s what I thought of when you

Maggie:
And hope that someday. It compiles and like you get a return on that investment.

Rich:
Right Yeah, that’s similar. I mean I was thinking about how when we first did storied. The first location is a huge DIY project.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Totally unskilled labor mostly mine. And so that was like I went to the trade school. I went to YouTube trade school.

Maggie:
Mm-hmm,

Rich:
You know, and I quickly discovered that To people that you pay to do what we call it mudding and taping drywall finishing. Those people are worth their waiting goals. All right, that’s am just pay him. They’ll do a lot faster and the money the money will worth it be with it. I there wasn’t a ton of that we had to do and we did ultimately end up finding like very gracious friends and volunteers to do some of that stuff. Right your first shop was a what before

Maggie:
It was a shop,

Rich:
Dude. Oh my gosh, that’s a whole sneaking episode.

Maggie:
I know just like the

Rich:
For yeah summary versus the way your appetite on that one. We But we found a building for rent when we were first thinking about opening a coffee shop. I was looking all around the capital region to be honest. I’m from Scotia. So I was always driving through Scotia on my way to my parents house and like looking just looking and there are new some spaces. I knew some vacant properties at that time that were available. So one thing led to another and I ended up with this building that became our first location 109 Mohawk Avenue. Now, it’s a bakery called nibble Nosh that’s in there and they they moved in after we did and they ended up having to like kind of almost no not almost redo it but like make it their own. But they did have the benefit of some of the work that we had invested in there. So so that was cool. But when we moved in when we were first looking at it, oh my gosh. If there was a way we could get the photos on like on this somewhere like maybe on the website or something. Like do you have to I do love the first walkthrough the day I was in there. I love it was it was a jewelry store? when we were looking at it, but it was it was not it had been built now. Okay, that was 2007. That was 2000. 17.

Maggie:
Okay, so when you are

Rich:
Sorry, I think it was December of 2017. Yes, when it was built in 1951 or 2 1952. I think it was built by a bakery. As a bakery. and people in town were still remember it as Walkers w a KK ER Walkers Hometown Bakery, I believe it was a Dutch a Dutch Bakery. And everyone still talks about all they talk about is the rice bread. I remember the rice bread and the donuts. It’s like everyone’s got these special memories about the particular things that they had there, but So it was a bakery from 1952 until the very late 70s early 80s, like like 81, maybe so like 30 years. It was a bakery and then I believe that it in most immediately after that became an eye like an Opticians office. So basically they gutted it as a bakery. And turn it into. a small doctor’s office if you think about it, so there were Exam there were two little exam rooms in the back basically walls went up everywhere the put all these walls to partition It Off. and so you just wouldn’t have ever known what it was like before all that because when I walked in there was walls everywhere because there were already store bought it they jewelry store was just renting and they had only been there for maybe like two years.

Maggie:
Okay, so

Rich:
It went Here’s the thing. Anyway Bakery Opticians office. Some kind of like so I grew up with this building. This is such a strange building because like growing up it was always there but it was always of no consequence. Yeah. It didn’t catch your eye. Nobody even knows new it like where what it was for a long time. I think there was a big tree in front of it, too. It was Hometown Healthcare or like like a home aid office was there I was still getting mail for a print shop that had been there for some of that. I don’t even remember but the optician’s office was there. I’m not sure how long and then. And then I think actually last. one of the last things before the jewelry store was called Scotia Optical

Maggie:
So

Rich:
Funny enough it went from it went from one Opticians office to the to a different Scotia Optical was there I think for a long time and then they moved down the road to where the Children’s Museum was next to the pizza shop. So they’re down there now still but they were in the space and then after they moved now, I think that’s when it was a couple other things Home Health Hometown Health Care maybe and then and then the jewelry store, but the jewelry store. As a whole Saga the guy was trying to get out of the lease early because he had a different. Look he had a second. Look this was his second location and he was stuck here. He had somebody helping him at the other one, but then like they died and I don’t know the whole thing. He’s a little older. And sweetest guy he ever met though Ernesto shot up. So we I don’t know what it was. We watched in that building. You wouldn’t to tell you this story. You wouldn’t think like that I would have wanted to do. Anything in there, but when I walked in I saw oh it had a drop ceiling. Well had a drop ceiling when I walked in eight feet tall. I could touch it standing up and just like just all these random rooms and mind you it’s only like that’s only like a thousand square feet. It’s not a huge place kind of like a long skinny along and narrow-ish building. So what? Okay, what happens we walk through? because there was a forensic and and so it was like we were we were welcome to to look after got in touch with the landlord and the back maybe third of the building was kind of Walled off in a way that You know you would have walked in and then and then there was a wall in the door. You would have gone through a doorway to get to the back well. There was there was vinyl I click tile there was there’s like three different kinds of flooring in this place when you walked in maybe four. Okay again pictures you need pictures you walk in it’s all like hot tile click tile tile that’s actually still there. If you go now see the bakery that’s still there because that was all like hard fast down and you couldn’t get rid of that. But then beyond that it was it was on the right half click tile and then a wall separated the right half from the left half and on the left half was carpet and then through that on your when you’re on that left half you go through and you go to this door to the back. Well the back Still had these like beautiful Maple Hardwoods. Exposed that had the old finishing on them. They just had this like Golden Glow to them

Maggie:
And

Rich:
I remember I pictures of that too and I was like, oh man, this building has a soul. I was like wait. Is there hardwood everywhere in here maybe? So we we started to kind of think to ourselves and then I also observed in that walk through that the ceilings were all like partition walls. They were added in. Which meant they were easily taken out with enough with enough Investments

Maggie:
Elbow grease

Rich:
With enough elbow grease. In the landlord was gonna give us free rein. So we were able to kind of build a suit and so I was like, all right, you’re telling me that I can just take out all these walls. I can expose this hardwood floor and refinish it and even do the drop ceiling if I want. And they’re all whatever did so it was it was the free reign that really made it like made us say in this building used to be a bakery. It’s just like all kind of came full circles. I’m way too cool of an opportunity.

Maggie:
It was too poetic for you. Yeah,

Rich:
I really was I couldn’t I couldn’t resist. So anyway, we started to look at that. I had some friends who were like in the contract in business one of my best friends from high school was an electrician. So I was like, alright, I think we got that covered. The plumbing was the thing. I ended up shelling out a lot for did we did all the demo ourselves and then I ended up doing some of the building and then I hired out the framing for certain things. So we had to put in a bathroom. Which decided we’d make it accessible since we’re doing it from basically scratch. So that was the whole thing happy to was happy to do that because the original bathroom that was in there and the walkthrough was 20 square

Maggie:
Feet. That’s pretty big,

Rich:
You know houses Maggie imagine a 20 square foot. bathroom

Maggie:
I know what would you do with all that space?

Rich:
Not much not very much standing room only if you yeah. Yeah. So anyway, we we did that we did all that.

Maggie:
Hmm.

Rich:
We did all that and the whole point of the story is that is DIY. Because we didn’t

Maggie:
Like the size of your bathroom now we didn’t have enough in the new shop.

Rich:
Yeah, it’s actually not much bigger. It’s it is bigger, but not Not much, ironically.

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
So anyway, yeah because we invested all that it was sad to leave but at the end of the day you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, I keep it going, you know some other song

Maggie:
And you change buildings so you could save money on rent.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah, right and utilities. Went way down. Yeah as a result of moving and the space we moved to is on the same block. We literally wield stuff down the street stuff. And then also it was moving ready. It already had all the sinks and the plumbing and the bathroom and like I didn’t have to

Maggie:
Do

Rich:
Anything except build a coffee bar.

Maggie:
It was a Paint and Sip place

Rich:
It.

Maggie:
How do you

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah. So they’re the ones who had installed a lot of Cafe equipment.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Kind of Overkill and

Maggie:
I really like your new place.

Rich:
Thanks. Yeah like a lot. I mean a lot better A lot of people do it’s not solving our like traffic issues like foot see through the door kind of deal about.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It’s not like worse. No, which why would it be same street?

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
It’s same place. Same town is the Morse systemic issues that now I’m trying to Trying to poke at

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
But you’re so right. It took us 10 months to build that thing, you know. with all the Conch even with the contractors we hired like doing all the finishing work and and just trying to figure everything else out like I

Maggie:
Remember you walking me through it when you were like made construction and I was like, oh my God.

Rich:
Yeah a lot. Yeah. We did a lot of posts around that time. I mean all there’s a lot of pictures on our Instagram if you scroll back far enough story. Because it was kind of a thing or trying to Chronicle it and we had done a Kickstarter to raise. Some money for it. So that definitely helped. I don’t know if we could have gotten more on a Kickstarter. Maybe if I had known the full scale of the project. I could have tried to get. like close to the same amount, but that opened up other opportunities to get some money that

Maggie:
To take a lot of social media attention.

Rich:
Yeah. Yeah. It was cool. I mean the cool thing about Kickstarter and all that and doing it that way was like rallying this community around it. And now I’m just like what happened? Where’s that Community? Yeah, you know. I don’t know. Lots of things covid came, you know change everyone’s behavior and patterns and spending money habits.

Maggie:
Hmm.

Rich:
They don’t know.

Maggie:
It’s a lot. No, I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much because there are like

Rich:
No, it’s just I don’t yeah. Thanks. Thanks. I just think I have so many questions.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
No way to answer them. I know without being really vulnerable.

Maggie:
This is an un

Rich:
Or

Maggie:
Conversation

Rich:
It is. Here, this is a safe space but out there. On Facebook It Ain’t So safe.

Maggie:
I know I know. I hear you. Yeah, I I look just knowing storied and seeing it’s it’s gross and seeing. It’s roller coaster. I think that stored is on the climb. Thanks Max

Rich:
I have to think about that one,

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
I think so too. So the point of the marketing obviously is and I think I’ve said it this way. I think I said this before I think I said it this way. We’re just at this Revenue like ceiling. We’re at this cat where there’s no more organic. traffic to be had from Scotia like we’ve been here long enough you either you either know we’re here and you’re not coming or Or you don’t know we’re here but I that would be a hard one. I think just for a lot of people. It’s inconvenient. Scotia is not a convenient place. It’s not on the way to anything. There’s nothing else there. You know, and if you I’m wondering like if you live in Scotia. What are you doing? What are you spending your money?

Maggie:
Dunkin Donuts?

Rich:
You may coffee at home. I honestly I know that people make coffee at home. but a lot of people settle for the drive-thru,

Maggie:
Yes Stewarts

Rich:
Or Stewart’s and I don’t know what it is. I don’t think that our I don’t I don’t know. I really I don’t even want to say yeah, because I I don’t know are things are not are things are not expensive relative to the cost of things these days. Do you know like I know people are out there spending money in this world. I know that they’re going to places they want good things

Maggie:
And not to open another Pandora’s box. But like I wonder if another app Option would be helpful like or the Order ahead app. What was the odeco I think is what you used

Rich:
I did. Yeah,

Maggie:
But not that but like I’m wondering if some sort of a I don’t know if that’s will be the solution. I don’t know what the cost of that is, but

Rich:
Or some of them are just a peruse, you know, you just pay a percentage on sale, which is no a front cost which is makes it easy, but Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know GrubHub and doordash and all that junk. It’s like that just creates a whole new set of headaches that you you have to just live with if you’re gonna go that route. Yeah,

Maggie:
And

Rich:
If you’re busy enough like it’s kind of worth it. But again,

Maggie:
I found myself ordering ahead that story sometimes

Rich:
By calling us on the old-fashioned phone.

Maggie:
Yes, I do. Yeah.

Rich:
No problem. Give us a shout.

Maggie:
Yeah,

Rich:
Five and eight three seven three two one zero.

Maggie:
For your next milk tea or breakfast sandwich before 1pm.

Rich:
That’s right. Try the chicken salad

Maggie:
So good.

Rich:
We’ve seen an uptick in breakfast chicken lately, like people ordering bread like just chicken salad sandwiches at like eight or nine

Maggie:
O’clock. Yeah, because not for later. Oh

Rich:
For breakfast.

Maggie:
Oh, wow.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
So

Rich:
We’ve started in house. Yeah colloquial calling.

Maggie:
Yeah. Oh

Rich:
Breakfast chicken

Maggie:
Breakfast. You have chicken you have egg and you have salmon. Those are your main main sandwich

Rich:
And bagels and cream cheese. Yeah.

Maggie:
Yeah. Interesting.

Rich:
I think we’re running the clock. Here.

Maggie:
We are. So

Rich:
I took some notes though from this conversation. This this was cool. This is refreshing because it’s like

Maggie:
Yeah, it’s good catching up with you, right?

Rich:
Yeah it me too. But also I didn’t know we’re gonna talk about necessarily. I mean, there’s always something on our minds, right? So there’s always something to come out

Maggie:
And

Rich:
We have enough topics on paper that we’ve talked about in the past that we haven’t talked. We haven’t done episodes on but we like know things that we’re interested in. So there’s always gonna be something to say. Yeah, but I made some notes

Maggie:
Cool as

Rich:
We were going.

Maggie:
Well

Rich:
Future topics.

Maggie:
Yeah here. Yes, I do. So

Rich:
Actually do want to talk more about scaling businesses and what that what that looks like.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
For you how you’re thinking about that because I got some questions and thoughts about what that would look like for you I got So I I want to hear from you on that one. Okay, and then I’m sure you’ll just ask me questions because you always do. Yeah, so nosy. Um, the other one I want to talk about is imposter syndrome.

Maggie:
Okay.

Rich:
I was actually thinking about this before. You saying that you don’t you would have turned down this job in the past? Yeah. well, really what I think that is is like I don’t feel qualified. I don’t do this right and then this also came up for me because we got an email recently from this app. That’s like trying to get us on there and I you know, whatever their marketing and I don’t know how Special that really is to get this invitation. They say they don’t want every podcast on there. They just want like unique voices. Oh we yeah, I don’t know if you saw that email.

Maggie:
No I didn’t. Yes.

Rich:
What is the wisdom app?

Maggie:
Oh,

Rich:
So it looks cool. But what they do is they try to get like experts in their fields and I’m like, well, I mean sure we’re doing a unique thing and whatever but like you’re I mean I consider you an expert, you know, you’re certified and your department, but I am very much. Not that guy. So like why are you actually reaching out to us? But then I’m like, but could we do it, you know,

Maggie:
We should talk about

Rich:
So I got that imposter syndrome deal going on. And also the my management job at this other location, which I guess I’ll talk about next time. And then over so imposter syndrome, which I which also in business is just a huge thing everyone a lot of people deal with that Vibes

Maggie:
Of

Rich:
A place. cozy Comfort versus sterile office like just just that whole That’s a whole workplace culture kind of conversation. which is better for production, which is better for morale things like that. That’s a cool.

Maggie:
Yeah

Rich:
Concept. Yeah. Life currencies just to revisit that we said that we talked about last time you brought it up today, but like really digging into what are some of those non-monetary. life currencies that we all work with either knowingly or unknowingly. And now we’re usually willing to spend things for to get again knowingly or unknowingly, but like peace of mind. Time versus cost that whole equation that whole question. There’s a lot of social social currencies right now. You have to say the right things these days or else you’re about to be bankrupt. physically, like literally or or figuratively You know people can’t really speak their mind, even if they have controversial ideas in this day and age at least publicly. Especially if you got stuff on the line,

Maggie:
Yeah.

Rich:
Like a business DIY spend money or spend time. I mean, that’s a whole. There’s that concept wraps up with a lot of different things. And then you talked about your project and how it’s kind of learning experience and things you do differently Lessons Learned and stuff. So exploring some that could be cool.

Maggie:
Cool. And maybe one of these days we could talk about parenting

Rich:
Parenting. major imposters into that

Maggie:
I’m going to add that to the list. Because I think that is a topic that many of our listeners could relate to.

Rich:
Yeah, you probably

Maggie:
Maybe I’m gonna ask you some questions about being a dad.

Rich:
Oh, yeah. Okay, that’s fine. I got another one to throw out there.

Maggie:
Okay,

Rich:
Personal finance personal finance as business owners. I actually almost brought this up today. Coming in like coming in today knowing we didn’t have a topic on the table. I was like I was gonna I was ready to make a confession.

Maggie:
Oh, no. Rich like I gotta go. You can’t hear the end of the episode.

Rich:
Well, it’s not going away very much. It’s not going anywhere. Can I plan to say on that because my personal finance is a hot mess,

Maggie:
Okay.

Rich:
And that’s what I think is is cool about talking about that is like yeah as business owners. Sometimes things can look great over here. But like that doesn’t mean we have if you’re doing it, right your business and your personal finances are separate, but even if they’re not if they’re not it might even be an extra hot mess

Maggie:
Rachel did tell me a story about something that I’m about something like earlier on

Rich:
Rachel

Maggie:
Rachel my friend. Yeah, you’re yeah about like money and you and I just thought it was like an interesting. It’s nothing like,

Rich:
Oh, you’re some dish on me.

Maggie:
I got a dished a little bit.

Rich:
All right,

Maggie:
But it’s nothing. I don’t even know Powerball. No, I think it would when we have that episode. I’ll share it sick, but I really gotta go.

Rich:
Yeah.

Maggie:
Sorry next

Rich:
You gotta go about five minutes ago.

Maggie:
Yeah. We love you dear audience. Thank you for listening. And please follow us on all the places and submit your questions to us. We would love to know what you think later. here