Transcription of Inspiration, #71
Male: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland, Maine. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org. Become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Male: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors; Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Booth Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Apothecary By Design, and The Body Architect.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast, show number 71. Inspiration, airing for the first time on January 20th 2013. How does a dream become reality? Mary Allen Lindemann co-founder of Maine’s Coffee By Design has two decades of insight about the process of combining a dedication to the perfect cup of Joe with a love of community. We shared Mary Allen’s story and received the benefit of “Business Done Better” wisdom from Marci Booth of Booth Inc. on this week’s inspiration show.
From the beginning, the mission of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast really has been to inspire you, our listener to think about life in a bigger way. Think about your life specifically. Think about the lives of your family members and your community. The reason that this is important to us is because thinking about life has a direct impact on how we choose to be healthy and well.
Many patients come to see me with physical ailments; back pain, knee pain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, physical manifestation of life problems, things that they haven’t necessarily dealt with. Perhaps because they feel stuck, they feel like they can’t deal with them. They feel like they don’t have the resources, or maybe they don’t have the support of important people in their lives.
Whatever the reason, this stuckness becomes a pain or a malaise or a disability of sorts. Often, until we can figure out how to get them out of that stuck phase in their life, it’s never as easy as just making the pain go away if there’s something underlying that needs to be dealt with. One of the things that come up often is what people choose to do with their time. Most of us spend a lot of time working. If we’re not working in area that makes sense to us spiritually, emotionally, socially; we can start to feel resentful. We can start to live life as if we’re just waiting for it to get over. Life isn’t really like that. We only have so much of it, and if we’re just waiting for it to end, what’s the point?
When I spend time with patients, I really try to get to what is it that they want to be doing if they’re not enjoying what they’re doing now? Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear are a husband and wife team that co-founded Coffee By Design in 1994. They spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they wanted to do together as a job and what they wanted to bring to the community. It went beyond coffee and into art, and her affection on mental wellness and wellbeing.
They’ve really contributed so much more to the Portland and Maine, really, more than just offering a warm beverage on a cold day. We thought it would be helpful for people to hear her story because it’s not only do you need to go from dream to reality. Mary Allen and Alan Spear have done it, and who’ve learned some important lessons along the way.
As an individual who is trying to live her own inspired life, see patients in my own practice, have my own radio show, do my own writing; I’m surrounded by a team of individuals who can help me move this ball forward. One of these individuals is also a good friend of mine and her business and personal presence and advice have been absolutely invaluable over the past few years. It’s natural that we would invite this individual on our inspiration show to talk with us about, how one gets from dream to reality.
As Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” In other words, there’s an awful lot of hard work that goes into making a dream, reality. Marci Booth knows how to help people through the hard work and we know that when she gives us business advice. She’s speaking from personal experience.
I know that those of you who are out there that are engaging in entrepreneurial work and attempting to live your own dreams are living daily what it means to go from inspiration to reality, dream to reality. I know that you’ve got your own perspiration that you’re putting into all of these. Know that we’re with you. Know that we’re behind you. Know that we’re all a community. Know that it’s worth it.
I say this to my patients all the time, that you really need to find out what it is that you want to do with your life because you only have one of them, so be happy.
Something that I find absolutely crucial when it comes to making important life changes and trying to bring dreams to reality is actually to find somebody that can hold you accountable. In my medical practice, I’m that person. People come to see me because they know that they’ll be held accountable, not in a bad way. But if they want to lose weight, I’m going to help them do it. They’re going to show up and we’re going to talk about. We’re going to move them forward towards their goal.
I do this for things like weight, pain management, really living a bigger life. If you’re somebody who’s looking to move your inspiration, move your dream to reality, I can help you. Give me a call. I’m Dr. Lisa, and you’ll find me at the Body Architect, 207-774-2196.
Dr. Lisa: Anyone who’s lived in Maine for really the last 15,20 years is going to be familiar with at least the company that my next guest co-founded along with her husband, and maybe actually people around the country might recognize the name. This is Mary Allen Lindemann who’s the co-founder with her husband, Alan Spear of Coffee By Design. Thank you so much for coming in and being with us today.
Mary Allen: Well, thank you for having me. It’s a great topic. I enjoy talking about coffee and community. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Am I right in saying that Coffee By Design can be found around the country?
Mary Allen: It’s been such an interesting process and very organic, our growth that we’ve … We’re primarily in Maine and New England but as our accounts have grown with us and people have heard about us through some national recognition, we now can be purchased around the country and mail order obviously makes us available to people worldwide.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about Coffee By Design. What was the impetus for founding a coffee company back before companies were more popular?
Mary Allen: It’s been an interesting journey and I tell people, “You never know quite where your life will lead you.” I talk to a lot of groups about how recessions can actually change your life in a positive way. In the 1980s, when Alan and I first were married, Portland was in a recession. Nationwide, there was a recession. Not like the recession we currently have experienced but there was a recession, and downtown Portland actually had 40% vacancy rate at that time.
We, as newly married people decided it was time to actually leave Maine. It was a toss of coin; San Francisco or Seattle. At that time, coffee was not what it is today in Seattle. We landed in Seattle, which was good luck as well because the week of our move, the San Francisco earthquake happened. Being in Seattle was a good place to be. It really gave us the chance to actually see the beginnings of specialty coffee and what was going on in Seattle at that time.
At that time, I was working in advertising and I was given the challenge by my advertising agency to find a new business approach for specialty coffee. They thought that there was something interesting going on in the industry. I would bring my research home and Alan would see it. He’s a landscape architect and environmental planner. I would bring work home. He’d be fascinated by it. We both would independently spend a lot of time in coffeehouses that were first sprouting up around the Seattle area. We’re very intrigued by the culture and obviously by the product itself. There wasn’t anything like that here in Maine.
That was really the journey of who we were as people and what do you want to do with your lives. We were doing well professionally in Seattle. After about three years, we had to make the decision; is this our new home or do we go back to Maine, and when we would come back to visit Portland? We would say, why hasn’t the downtown come back and why isn’t somebody doing something about it? Then, really started questioning ourselves, who are they? Who are these people that were supposed to make the downtown come back and realized we are they.
It was this whole process of really working on a business plan to come back east and making the move, and being told that we couldn’t do this in Portland. It was through a leap of faith. We ended up initially moving to Burlington, Vermont. We ended up in Providence, Rhode Island. During that whole time, while I was working a lot of temporary jobs, Alan actually was writing the business plan that would end up being Coffee By Design.
It was almost overnight where we finally said, you know, part of this plan and part of the dream is, again, where do we want to live and where do we want have a life where we like we have meaning and we can make a difference? Part of the process was learning what a coffeehouse could do which we’ll obviously talk more about in the community but it was almost as if overnight, a friend of ours mentioned that there was a vacancy coming up in the … It was then the pornography district of Portland and within the weekend, we have moved back to Maine and within a couple of weeks, we’ve signed our lease and Coffee By Design was born.
Dr. Lisa: It’s that kind of idea that if you put something out there as something that you want to have happened and the universe comes in, and fills that up for you?
Mary Allen: It’s funny. I think that it’s really being open to opportunities and really listening to yourself and what you as a person want. When we first left Seattle, we learned very quickly who our real friends were. We were very thankful, we have supportive families. Here, I was the vice president of an ad agency, Alan works for a great engineering firm, and here we are saying, we’re going to leave our jobs and we don’t have other jobs but we have this idea to open something to do with coffee.
Very quickly, we found who our friends were. People were aware of the status of what we were doing and it was important to them. It was just being open to what do we want and who do we as people want to make a difference. We were very fortunate at that time because we were in agreement as a couple that there was a change we wanted to make in our lives, and we wanted to make a difference but do something we were really passionate about.
If you’re open to that and if you’re willing to take risks and make change happen, it gets more challenging as you get older. That’s something that Alan and I are really pushing ourselves now more than ever as we’ve been in the business almost 19 years is not to lose that ability to take a chance. It’s calculated risk but taking a chance and trusting your gut instinct.
Dr. Lisa: Talk to me about the fact that you were a poetry major at Brown and how that led you to this. Were there people in your family might’ve had questions about that path?
Mary Allen: The poetry or the coffee?
Dr. Lisa: Either, either. It’s an interesting thing that you’ve pulled from all these different areas of the brain in your life to come up with something that made sense to you.
Mary Allen: It’s funny. I encourage people to do what you love because you’ll never know when all these paths will lead you to what you’re meant to do. I think about, again, how fortunate I was that I had parents who may not have always understood choices that were made but were very supportive of it.
I remember taking a class at Brown, actually, The City and The Arts. It was this class on the arts and how cities impact the arts and create great writing. At that time, it was very abstract and I wasn’t quite sure why I was taking the course. It wasn’t until many years later, and when I graduated in 1982, it was when I opened Coffee By Design. In the ‘90s, where the class all of sudden connected to for me and the importance of the arts in our community and in cities in how we … If we don’t fight for things we believe in, we lose them. Life without art, and music, and poetry is pretty bland.
Where Brown was really instrumental for me personally was it allowed me to actually create my own major. I did an independent major in writing. I was very intrigued by women’s study at that time. I still am. Also, African-American studies were important to me. They really allowed me to craft my own major, also where Brown has the new curriculum where you can do pass/fail in any course so it really pushed me to try courses I might not ordinarily. [Inaudible 00:14:38] I would never take a science course, I took a science course.
Again, I’m really thankful that I transitioned, I actually didn’t start at Brown. I started at Bowdoin. Funny enough, I’m from New York City and spent my first year of college here in Maine. Bowdoin was so wonderful academically but I needed something where I could really explore my own path. Brown allowed me to do that.
Alan, too, when he started at the University of Maine in Orono and then transferred to Cornell, and majored in landscape architecture. For both of us realizing that these things that we started in college and didn’t necessary think we’d have long-term careers out of actually really infused Coffee By Design with what it is. For me, Brown let me explore so many opportunities and any entrepreneur is, “Don’t tell me, no, you can’t do that.” I’ll prove you … I can and why not. It makes me really want to challenge sometimes when people say you can’t.
Dr. Lisa: Why coffee? What was the draw for you? How have you maintained that interest in coffee all of these years?
Mary Allen: Coffee has so many layers to it and that’s what makes it interesting. It’s funny to me when we have new people join us and after three months they say, “We have learned it all.” Again, we’ve been doing this for 19 years and three years of research before that. Every day, there’s a new opportunity to learn something. The exciting thing is it’s about something we enjoy every day whether it’s to start your day or finish a meal. It has history to it. It has politics. It has agriculture.
There’s so many layers to coffee. That’s what every day, when I go in and we have a tasting every day at our roaster, it really transports you to some place different that you might not have exposed to and really makes me question a lot of things about choices we make. When people just say, “I just want a cup of coffee.” That’s a really loaded question for us because there’s so many questions I have about what’s going to make the perfect cup for you.
As Alan often says to customers, “I’m not going to tell you what the perfect cup of coffee is for you. That’s your choice. Whatever is your favorite coffee is your personal choice.” We have a lot of choices for you to really explore. Right now, this morning, I enjoyed this great coffee from Guatemala. It’s from the Acatenango region and from El Zapote. I’m drinking it exclusively right now because I know we don’t have any more roast. As sad as I am that that coffee will no longer be available for a while, it gives me the opportunity to explore all these other great coffees that are coming in.
It’s just so many levels. It’s something that actually we can enjoy and savor. It’s something that we actually can learn about our world around us. If it’s something infusing with coffee, we bring in and enjoy. We can have positive or negative impact on communities by the coffees we choose, by the questions we ask. We have a really strict buying criteria. We tell people, it’s not just about a sticker on a bag. All that certification is important but there are farmers who consciously choose not to get certified because it costs a lot.
In some cases, it restricts choices they can make if their community is at risk and you have farms that easily can be certified organically who chose not to because it costs them. Last case resort is they need to use this pesticide to save their community. They want that option open to them. We tell people, that’s what’s so interesting about it.
What I’ve enjoyed about our customers is they’ve gone on this amazing journey with us and they’ve trusted us as we do our homework and research in our journey and our travels. When we bring information, they’re really open to learning from us and trusting us. When we say, “This is a sustainable coffee.” It doesn’t matter that it didn’t have certain stickers on the bag.
Dr. Lisa: What about this fair trade? Is that the same thing that you’re talking about? That the certification can be helpful but isn’t always?
Mary Allen: Fair trade has been very interesting. It’s been so well publicized recently which has really been nice to see. In the early years of our business, as Alan and I were exploring fair trade and fair trade certification, we had a lot of questions about how it was being overseen in the U.S. and felt that our questions were not being answered.
The other issue we felt was transparency. We felt like the farmers were not being included in the process for what is a fair price. Standards were being set that we all believed in but … because the farmer actually produced that product to those standards and get the price that was being offered. We would have farmers come up to us and they had to be very discreet about it. They would say, fair trade is not fair to farmers.
When we would ask about transparency, people were very vague. We would say, “Can you actually prove to us that the money we’re paying is actually going directly to the people we think it is?” Again, we’re just finding we weren’t getting real answers. There also were no incentives for quality. For us, quality is high on our buying criteria. You’d have a farmer who’d be fair trade certified but the coffee really wouldn’t be that great.
For us, one of the light bulb moments, if you will, is when we had an amazing farmer we were working with in Colombia and we had Oswaldo Acevedo is his name and he owns an estate called Mesa De Los Santos. We loved his farm. We loved his product. Amazing man, his environmental practice, everything he does was extraordinary. Yet, because it was individual estate farm, because of its size, because of certain things, he was not allowed to actually participate in the fair trade program.
We had a lot of demand from our customers to have a fair trade certified coffee at that time. We switched. It just wasn’t a great coffee. Even though our sales were very strong a bit, that was one of those moments when Alan and I said, “Who are we as a company, and what is our mission as far as educating our customers?” We actually pulled out the fair trade coffee and put back Mesa De Los Santos. Our sales dropped. We started to really focus more of our time and energy on educating our customers, and sales finally surpassed what they had been.
Again, sometimes taking that leap of faith and knowing that you really know a lot about your industry and are always learning and very open to ideas that people have and questions people have but also really having your standards that this is what we believe in. This is what we know to be true from our research and our travels, and the people we work with.
It’s been very interesting. In the past two years, a lot of what’s been said about fair trade, and again, these are great questions that people ask but some people are being kept away from the table because of the certification process. We tell our customers and understand we have a list of questions we ask. There is documentation we do require. There are things we see for ourselves. Hopefully, you would trust us enough to know that we’ve done our homework.
Dr. Lisa: As a customer, when you go into a Coffee By Design, you actually can see individual coffees. You can see pictures of you and Alan up on the wall going to visit to these farmers so that you have a sense that there is something very unique about what you’re offering that you’re actually investigating the whole thing in a very in-depth way.
Mary Allen: What we’ve learned is, I think we’ve been very shy about letting customers know what we’re doing. One of the things we have felt strongly about is now using our beliefs as a marketing tool and we’re realizing that actually doesn’t make a lot of sense. I remember a customer saying to me, when she found that some of what we were doing, because we weren’t publicizing it, and she said, “I buy the coffee because I love the coffee. I love the service, but I’m hearing all these other stuff. That for me, sort of, validates my decision to buy from you. It tells me where my money that I spend with you ends up.” That’s critical important.
That’s been our process we’ve been going through the past few years of better telling the story. We’re very excited for 2013 because we have a lot plans in place and we have a team of people we’re working with now who are actually going to help us better tell the story. It’s an amazing story. It is we feel a point of difference. Not everybody does the travel that we do. Not everybody invests in both our local community and in our coffee community as significantly as we do.
We feel again, that’s important for our customers to know because that’s part of their decision making process.
Female: You’re on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast. We’ve long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
Tom: Inspiration has two meanings. I find the first meaning printed on our money, In God We Trust. The second is, the first currency breathed into us by Our Creator. The air breathe is the very fuel we need to create energy. That energy eventually gets converted into mo3ney in exchange for all the things we spend time doing.
At this point, we have a choice. We can hold on to our money and our breath or we can breathe out the bad and replace it with what’s good. But don’t stop there. Regular practice and exercise is important in the realm of investing our time and resources.
If you need help connecting your inspiration to your money, send us an e-mail to [email protected]. In the subject line, type Inspiration.
Male: Shepard Financial, securities and advisory offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC.
Male: There was a time when the apothecary was the place where you could get safe, reliable medicines carefully prepared by experienced professionals coupled with care and attention. Focused on you and your unique health concerns. Apothecary By Design is built around the forgotten notion that you don’t just need your prescriptions filled. You need attention, advice, and individualized care. Visit their website apothecarybydesign.com or drop by the store at 84 Marginal Way in Portland, and experience pharmacy care the way it was meant to be.
Dr. Lisa: One of the things that you initially championed before it was popular to champion this was arts in the community. I know you still do this. You still have a Rebel Blend that I actually just purchased for the significant man in my life. I was excited to do that because I knew what the story was.
What are some of the things that you have been passionate about, that you remain passionate about, some of the things that you think really deserve support?
Mary Allen: It started with the arts. Literally, Coffee By Design, the whole naming of the company really came down to talking about coffee and unique, and one of a kind in creating something wonderful other than coffee. It also was reflective of what was going on in Portland again. Because of the recession, so many of the art galleries and studios in Portland have closed because of lack of business. We had so many close friends who are artists who were really still struggling to survive even though they were amazing. It just seems so unfair that they were still struggling and couldn’t make ends meet.
When we opened Coffee By Design, the first one on Congress Street in what is now called The Arts District, it was important to us to actually highlight the work of local artists, main artists. That’s a tradition we’ve carried on. The arts are critically important to us. The Rebel Blend fund which you mentioned, we’re so proud of when I look at the list of recipient for the Rebel Blend crayons because something that started so small and literally it’s generated from the sales of our Rebel Blend Coffee.
When I look at the list of recipients over the years, I’m so proud that those are people, in a small way that we really acknowledge what they were doing and even the work they’re doing now is incredible. I look at Karen Montanaro who now gets NEA grants. I look at Pinkatchu Children’s Choir and they’re traveling nationally and probably internationally at this time.
I think about when I made the phone call to the folks at the Easton School, I called them on a Friday because we actually selected them and we were going to be purchasing the instruments they needed for an African drumming class. When I called the woman, she had tears, she said, “You have no idea of what this means to us. If we didn’t receive funding by Monday, the whole program got pulled.” They actually had the funding for the instructor but no instruments.
When I think about the arts, I hope in our small way, we’ve really raised awareness and really let people know we can’t leave the art. People sometimes think a $1,000 doesn’t make a lot of difference, a $1,000 means the world to a number of people and can really get the ball rolling.
There are a number of other areas, AIDS awareness is critically important. When we opened on Congress Street, we were right across the street from AIDS project then. We lost customers and really letting people know. Even now we don’t hear so much about AIDS. There are people out there who are HIV positive and their families who still are struggling with the loss of AIDS and worldwide, it’s something we still need to be vigilant about. We have to eradicate AIDS. In our lifetime, we have to eradicate it.
We are really passionate about mental health awareness and de-stigmatizing it and with these events in Connecticut, my fear is, fear of mental illness again. It’s really critically important that we let people know it happens to all of us. If you speak to pretty much anyone, somewhere in their family, in their circle of friends, mental illness is part of what they’re facing. It’s really important that we de-stigmatize it and learn that we are all human beings and we responsible for one another. We can make a difference in someone’s life by how we treat them.
That’s always been the core at Coffee By Design and I love with our staff, somehow that’s part of our culture they get. I had a customer who was so kind recently. He said, “I just have to share with you, there’s something you must do in your training because I was in your Congress Street coffeehouse the other day, someone had come up and they were begging for a cup of coffee. Your staff member, when the customer offered to pay, very discreetly pulled the customer aside and said, that’s really so kind of you that you want to give the money,” but we have a relationship with this person’s social worker and they’ve told us that this is enabling this person to continue a behavior that’s not appropriate for them. “If you don’t mind, would you be respectful that we’re really trying to be part of your recovery process here?”
The customer said, “I was so moved by how very articulate and sensitive, and discreet and powerful the message was, that somehow your staff just get it.” Things early on Alan and I promised customers as we grew the company, we promised what made us special in the first place would not be lost, that it would be passed on. For me to realize that our staff do get it, they understand it, and they believe it has been critically important.
As we’ve grown as a company, our focus had initially been really to support your local community, to give back to your local community and we’ve traveled in coffee, how could we not extend that and give back to the community from where we get out coffee in? We have some really significant projects that are funding that are just core again to who we are. Alan traveled pretty extensively in Colombia to a region called Jardin, and was invited to actually be a part of a new mill that a company has invested heavily in to create better quality and really implement sustainable practices.
When he was there, he was just so moved by the community and their willingness to learn in order to get out of poverty. He said, “If there’s any significant projects that we might be able to partner on, let us know.” In the meantime, we’ll sponsor a high school student. That initial contact led to them approaching us about funding the dining facility for their school. They actually had built the hospital, the school. The children who are from a very poor region travel many miles to get to school but there was no way to feed them properly.
They sent us a proposal for would we help fund their dining facility. As we reviewed the proposal, we decided why don’t we just pay for the whole thing? We made a commitment to actually fully fund this facility. It is now built. Hopefully, Alan would get to go and actually see the completed project. To know that, the word we sent to that community is, you give us great coffee, we believe in you. We want to help you. It’s a two-way street. It’s all one world. This is our gift to you. We hope that you will appreciate it and that your children will thrive, and the next generation will live better because of it.
Same thing with Coffee Kids. It’s a program that a lot of people might see in coffeehouses. We’ve been involved with Coffee Kids for years. If they grew and were better known, I wondered if our money made a difference. I was on an amazing trip in Guatemala last year just travelling to a number of farms. They were showing us, later the coffee industry, then farmers to support the farm. This woman came over showing me textiles and she heard that we were one of the few companies on the trip. In fact, I think we were the only company on the trip who are involved in Coffee Kids. She came over and she said, “Let me show you the textiles. These help fund our lifestyle here on our community and Coffee Kids helps to support it.”
I don’t speak Spanish very well. She doesn’t speak English very well, but it’s amazing how you can communicate. A few minutes later, she comes over and showing me pictures of her children. She said, “These are my children. Coffee Kids funds our educational program here, too. My children will have a better life.” At this point, I’m like, “Okay, you got me here.” I’m still fine.
A few minutes later, she comes over with a translator. She says, “Do you know Coffee Kids funds our health program here?” I’m like, “Okay, what …” I just get teary thinking about it. She said, “I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and I’m alive today because of Coffee Kids.” At that point, we used in our ad. I had tears streaming down my face. I’m holding the textile. I’m with the woman. It really made me say, “Of course we’re involved with Coffee Kids.” I’m renewing my commitment. We had not let it lapse. I’m renewing it. I’m going back and making sure everybody knows … It’s about coffee and so much more.
I remember a customer years ago holding up his cup and just saying, “Coffee By Design, a great cup of coffee and a whole lot more.” That’s what it’s about. Again, as I said earlier, there’s so many layers to it. We have the gift and it’s a lot of work us sourcing and finding outstanding coffees, and finding coffees that fit our criteria, educating ourselves and our customer, our staff.
What an amazing opportunity to connect ourselves to the world and feel like we make a difference both worldwide but also here in Maine. That money stays here in Maine.
Dr. Lisa: Where can people find great coffee and a whole lot more, at least as far as it’s coming Coffee By Design?
Mary Allen: We have four of our own retail coffeehouses which are amazing to me. Each one is so unique and special in its own ways. Three of them are in downtown Portland. One is in Congress Street, one is on India Street, and then we have a Washington Avenue roastery Origins Bar where we only brew single Origins coffee, but we sell our whole range of coffees.
Then we had the great opportunity to partner with L.L. Bean and actually have a location inside their Flagship Store inside L.L. Bean. That was really a lot of … That was a really interesting process for us because at that time, we didn’t think we would necessarily be inside a larger company and yet, as we went through the process, we realized, why wouldn’t we want people to come to visit L.L. Bean from around the world to know about great Maine products and what great opportunity to educate people about us and about our coffees.
In addition to our own shops, we have over 500 amazing wholesale customers around the country. It’s everything from coffeehouses to cafes, to restaurants. We have an amazing partnership and we will always be thankful to Fore Street Restaurant. Sam Hayward and Dana Street early on had faith in us at the time we had just started roasting our coffee on India Street. We got the call that Fore Street was looking for a new coffee vendor. Here we were. We didn’t have any packaging. We hadn’t developed pricing. We didn’t have a wholesale business. We are roasting for our stores.
The way we delivered we our coffee to our stores was on a bicycle with a little card attached. Alan just thought, what a great opportunity to be around amazing people in the food industry, amazing restaurateurs. He went down to present coffee just for an educational opportunity and was invited back, did some tweaking to some blends because we like to partners with chefs and seeing their menu and getting a sense of what would complement a meal. Lo and behold! We won the account. Didn’t realizing getting Fore Street, we actually won Street & Company.
What an amazing beginning to a wholesale company. Again, we have an amazing partnership with them and they just … We’re still in awe that they really believed in us and really understood and appreciate our product and we’ve grown with them. It has opened the door to so many other great chefs and great restaurant, and coffeehouses.
Our goal is not to be everywhere. Our goal is to be at places where our product is really appreciated and presented well. We’ve had accountants approach us and the first question is price. We’re not the most expensive thing, but we’re not the cheapest either. Really making sure if they’re not right upfront asking lots of questions about coffee and community, this might not be the right combination for us.
We learned. You don’t like to say no to business but we’ve learned … We want a long-term relationship. If it doesn’t feel good right at the beginning, we’re going to drive each other crazy. Sometimes, we just take the risk and say, no. Sometimes, it might be, we really want you to … You know what? We’re going a little too fast. We need to slow the growth down. We’ve learned with certain accountants to tell them, “We’re not really in a position right now to take you on. If you can wait, we can’t to bring you onboard. Me and the accountant, we finally were able to bring on. She said, “You know, you turned me down three times because you were too busy.” I’m really glad you hung on.
She said, “Yeah, because it actually reinforce my decision again to be with you because it wasn’t just about my money. It was about you wanting to served me and serve me well. There was infrastructure we needed to put in place. We needed to train new people. We don’t want a second shift. We don’t want a third shift. We want people to have quality of life here in Maine, and we all work really hard. But it really was about … And make sure you bring your whole team along, and make sure that they’re comfortable with the growth. And make sure that [account 00:38:28] that if we bring you on, you’re really part of a long-term relationship with us and we want to be able to serve you well.”
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been very fortunate to have you spend time with us today in the studio. We’ve been talking with Mary Allen Lindemann of Coffee By Design which was founded right here in Portland, Maine. Congratulations on all the great work that you’ve done, not only with coffee in Maine but with coffee growers around the country and with all these causes that you are supporting. It’s a pretty inspirational story.
Mary Allen: Thank you. It’s been an amazing journey and we couldn’t have done it without the support of our community. Thank you.
Male: We’ll return to our program after acknowledging the following generous sponsors. The Body Architect was founded on the belief that mindful exercise improves the health of the mind, body, and spirit. Housed in an open, light-filled space in Portland, Maine, The Body Architect offers a cutting edge fitness center, expert personal trainers, nutrition counseling, and a full class schedule. Visit thebodyarchitect.com or call 207-774-2196, and get started with The Body Architect today.
And by Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine. At Orthopedic Specialists, ultrasound technology is taken to the highest degree. With state of the art ultrasound equipment, small areas of tendonitis, muscle and ligament tears, instability, and arthritic conditions can be easily found during examination. For more information, visit orthocareme.com or call 207-781-9077.
Dr. Lisa: It is of course the New Year. It’s 2013 and in January, a lot of people think about what they want to do to change their lives. They feel inspired, they want to maybe create a new business, maybe fulfill a life-long dream or move towards a passion that they’ve had again, many, many years.
The person that I have sitting in front of me actually is someone that has helped me lived my lifelong dream so I know that she knows exactly what she’s doing, and is very helpful at getting other people very, let’s say grounded and able to move forward with their dreams.
I have in front of me Marci Booth from Booth Maine. I’m very thrilled to have this friend and collaborator and colleague with me today.
Marci: I’m very happy to be here. Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: Marci, Booth Maine, I knew you were kind of … because I know you so well. I know that when they initially said, “Marci, you have to call it Booth because your last name is Booth,” you weren’t really quite sure about that.
Marci: No, I was a little hesitant. I never thought of it as my, my last name. I also didn’t know if I was comfortable putting myself out there in that way. Through my branding, I was convinced that that was the right move. It actually has turned out to be a perfect move. It’s not turned into a brand and not just me. It’s everyone that’s around on the team that is Booth. It’s been a great move forward.
Dr. Lisa: We’re going to talk about what Booth does for other businesses but I first like to talk about why you decided to create this small business for yourself, and some of the things that you went through as a small business creator and owner because it’s not always easy.
Marci: No, it’s not. There’s several challenges that come along. People really need to think about what the purpose is, why they’re going into business. Is it … If it’s just solely for the money, that’s not going to get you very far. People can really read into that. Money needs to be the outcome or something that helps us down the road, but you have to be in there for a higher purpose whether you find there’s a need out there and you want to fulfill it.
There’s so many people that, maybe our stay home moms and they are taking care of their children, and they find … there’s a need there for a new toy or a new clothing line or something. That is where they find the need.
Others, they want to be in service to help, and that’s why I went into business. I really found both things, there was a need and I also wanted to help people succeed in their own businesses. It’s exciting to watch how businesses succeed.
Dr. Lisa: You’re good at something that a lot of us, and I speak as a physician who never received any business training whatsoever, a lot of us aren’t maybe as good at. You’re good at looking at numbers and spreadsheets, and profit and loss. You’re good at some of these things that I think those people who are out there who are creative sorts who want to have their own business that maybe not be in their skillset.
Marci: Absolutely. They’ve created a product or a service, and they’re good at that but not necessarily the back office things that they are great at. That’s where we come in. We try and help them with all of those back office issues. They may not be large enough to hire a large staff to handle all of that. We come in, take care of accounting, bookkeeping, tax, H.R., all the back office issues that someone might face when they’re opening a business.
There’s so many things to think about with regards to compliant and employees, how to handle them, how to terminate them, and a very holistic approach to business. It’s really about the entire business, not just one little facet. Hopefully, we’re able to make their lives easier so they can go out and market their product or create their product.
Dr. Lisa: That is one of the things that struck me about working with you. I have been working with you for a while, not only in my medical practice but also here on the radio show. You’re so very good at taking a bigger picture view. You’re not just an accounting firm. Not that there’s anything wrong with accounting firms. You’re not just the person who’s going to come in and talk to us about H.R. regulations, human resource regulations.
You really are looking at the people that need to work within a small business. You’re looking at the means of the individual, the needs of the company, and how to best move that organization forward.
Marci: It’s about solutions for me. There’s no one way to do things. You’ll find so many accounts or business people that think … can do several things very differently but you’ll come up to this and more result. I look at the entire company and the individual that I’m working with and I just really want to see them succeed and come up with solutions to move them forward.
There’s so many times where a client might be … I have to talk them off the ledge. They come to a crossroads where they want to pack it up and go home or some that actually want to move forward. Usually, it’s at that crossroads that if they just stick it out, they may really make it happen. They’ll see success. It’s usually the ones that pack it up and go home, they just come to that point where if they would just step across, they would make it instead of turning around and going home.
Dr. Lisa: You actually have to be empathic and you have to have good communication skills. You actually have to have a little bit of a therapist kind of inclination even though you’re not one specifically.
Marci: I have a couch in my office.
Dr. Lisa: It’s true. You have a beautiful office. That’s another thing, is to have this … It really is, this whole strength of wanting other people to do well in their world.
Marci: It’s very important to see people succeed and really care. When someone leaves my office, I don’t stop thinking about them. I try to come up with a solution to whatever it is that they’re dealing with whether it’s cash flow issues or it’s employee issues. I really think it’s important to have someone there that cares.
Male: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is brought to you by the following generous sponsors. Mike LePage and Beth Franklin at RE/MAX Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With RE/MAXIMUM Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at rheritage.com.
And by Booth, accounting and business management services, payroll, and bookkeeping. Business is done better with Booth. Go to boothmaine.com for more information.
Dr. Lisa: You mentioned the stay home mother who comes up with the idea of a new toy and wants to go into business. Of course I know that there’s … One of the things that you know a lot about is being a mother and how that actually does impact your ability to problem solve and multitask and go into business. Do you mind me asking, you’re a mother of four.
Marci: Four, four girls.
Dr. Lisa: Four girls, all between the ages of 11, 12, and 4. Anybody who’s listening if you’re doing calculation, that’s a lot of little girls to be raising, and happily married to Steve. You know what it’s like to do the juggling and the multitasking and problem solving.
Marci: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: Are there skills that you have been to apply from your mothering side of your life to your business side of your life, do you think?
Marci: Good question. I’d say scheduling. You do need to stay on task and stay on schedule. As much as I fight it, because I think my whole entire life, my business world is always scheduled and regimented then, I go home and it has to be regimented. I actually find that it’s much more peaceful if I do that, from getting up in the morning to exercise to getting to the office, getting the kids off on the busses which are three different busses and a preschool. You also have to have support at home and act as a team, and that’s very important to get your life going in the right direction.
Dr. Lisa: Those are things that are important both in the home and in the business since you’ve been able to translate those skills across those areas. That’s something that actually women or men who stayed home with their kids will start thinking, “Oh, I’d like to start a small business.” They can build on skills like that.
Marci: Oh, absolutely. They can do it. There’s so many ways, especially with the technology now. There’s at home businesses, Internet businesses, marketing, there’s consulting. It can all revolve around your schedule.
Dr. Lisa: Another thing that I know about your business and you, and Steve is that you’re committed to your values. You’re committed not only to your family but you also have … You eat really well. You exercise. You do Qi Gong. I know you belong to The Body Architect. You have a very holistic view of your life. Do you think that that also impacts decisions that you make with Booth?
Marci: Yup, I think so. I think the culture at Booth is very different from any other. It is a very holistic approach with everyone there on the team as well as how we work with clients. I don’t push my values or anything on anyone. But I think they appreciate that I try to come in with a clear mind and express concern or care for everyone’s wellbeing whether it’s the employees or the clients.
Dr. Lisa: For people who are thinking about starting a small business or maybe they have a small business but they know it needs some tweaking, what are some suggestions that you might have for them?
Marci: Again, if you’re looking to start a business go in it for the right reasons. It needs to be for in service to others or because there’s a need. I wouldn’t go into a business to spite anyone. That rarely works well. While it’s good to have the competitive spirit, it’s just not something that’s going to drive you to sustain.
Dr. Lisa: Have you actually had people who’ve done that before?
Marci: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: I’m just wondering because I’m just new here. It’s hard to believe somebody … If I go to the effort of starting a business just to make somebody else unhappy or …
Marci: If they didn’t like their boss, and they can do it better. You really start to appreciate what a boss does when you go into business for yourself, all the decisions that come along with it, all the costs.
Dr. Lisa: But that’s not a good reason to start a business.
Marci: No, not a good reason.
Dr. Lisa: Find a good reason …
Marci: Find a good reason to go into business.
Dr. Lisa: … that’s going to sustain you, not to spite somebody else.
Marci: Exactly.
Dr. Lisa: It has to come from within, and what else?
Marci: You have to be a doer. You have to take action. Realize that nothing’s going to come to you just sitting on the couch and having a great idea. Lots of people have great ideas. It’s the ones that actually take action and make it happen. Find the right people to help you in that process. There’s also planning. A ton of planning goes into it, making sure that you understand what your goals are, your one-month goal, your six-month goal, your year or five-year plan. What does that plan look like?
If you need funding, what applications need to be done? Your budget, your performance; making sure you have all of that ready to proceed. There are so many things to starting up a business with. Legal documents, making sure that your operating agreements are in place. If you have a partnership, I highly recommend going to see a lawyer to get that all spelled out because partnerships can be very difficult.
Budge; there’s sales tax, resale certificates if you’re providing a service, a product. Know what you’re getting into or at least find the people to help you get off on the right track.
Dr. Lisa: It’s that second piece that appeals to me the most. Again, as a physician who didn’t really receive a lot of business advice, I needed to align myself with the right people and I happen to be fortunate enough to have a team of advisers that worked with me, and you’re on that team of advisers.
I know that I will probably never be as good at profit and loss sheets as I am at being at doctor. I know that I have …
Marci: But you’re not supposed to be.
Dr. Lisa: Exactly.
Marci: That’s what’s great about it. Also, that you realize that most people think they can do it. While I’m sure that they can and that they do understand many things, it’s their taking the focus off what they need to do which is sell their product or service. Sometimes, there are things that you forget along the way and to have those advisers is very important.
Dr. Lisa: Marci, how can people find out about Booth Maine and the service that are provided by you and the employees, the colleagues of yours that work with you?
Marci: They can go to our website which is boothmaine.com or they could call.
Dr. Lisa: The phone number?
Marci: 774-4030.
Dr. Lisa: Marci, I am really pleased that you took the time to come in here and share with our listeners what it is that you do for a company, aside from just my company. Every time I sit down with somebody who knows more about business than I do, it’s fair to say there’s… It just reminds that we all have different skills and talents, and really finding the right collaborators is key.
I appreciate your collaborating with me on my business, The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and providing the valuable service that you do to the community.
Marci: I appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve been listening to The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast show #71, Inspiration. Our guests have included Mary Allen Lindemann of Coffee By Design and Marci Booth of Booth Inc.
For more information on these guests, visit doctorlisa.org. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s shows, sign up for our e-Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest under Dr. Lisa and read my take on health and wellbeing on the Bountiful blog, bountiful-blog.org.
We’d like to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We also welcome your suggestions for future shows. Please do let our sponsors know that you’ve heard about them here; Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists, Marci Booth of Booth Inc. and Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage as well as Catherine Cloudman of Apothecary By Design and Steve and Antonia Anderson of The Body Architect are all personal friends of mine. I’m privileged that they enable me to bring The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week.
This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that our show will bring inspiration to your day. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your world. May you have a bountiful life.
Male: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors; Maine Magazine, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage, Dr. John Herzog of Orthopedic Specialists in Falmouth, Maine, Booth Maine, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Apothecary By Design, and The Body Architect.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour & Podcast is recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street in Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio product and original music by John C. McCain. Our assistant producer is Courtney Thibarge. Summaries of all our past shows can be found at doctorlisa.org.
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