What this means to me

If you're reading this, it means I haven't gone public with my mobile barista startup yet. It also means that we probably already have a real life connection, or you know someone who does. This message is for you.

I wouldn't be chasing this dream if I didn't think I could catch it. I am going to do something that is going to make a difference in people's lives, my own included. This is something I need to do, and something I feel like other people deserve to have. It's crazy out there, people are having such a difficult and discouraging time. I have an idea. A way I can help and do something productive about it. 

If you already know me, then you know how much I love being helpful for the sake of itself. How much effort I put into the little things that become everything. And you also know that if I am already out here doing it,

I'm beyond the point of letting anything get in the way. This is my path now. I already have a plan, and I'm going to work my ass off to have it.

If this is the first you're hearing of my mobile barista service, here's the run down. I want to take my coffee and everything I love about making it and hit the streets. I want to set up wherever I am welcome and share with the world the things you love the most about having a coffee experience together with me. And I want to provide this service to the public for free.

Ya'll know I don't much care about money and status. Why care about making sales? It's a huge hassle that gets in the way of the heart of what I want to do. I don't want someone's ability to pay for it to get in the way of what I can do for them. 

How many cups of coffee would have to change hands for me to break even? 

How many transactions would ever be enough?

I never wanted any of that. What I really want to do is make coffee and solve problems we all have, it's as simple as that.

What do you think could be possible if I was just set free to be a force for good? The people I could connect with, the difference I could make wherever I go, and the things I could create?  

This is my chance to do all of that and more. Live life out loud. Get involved in the city I live in. Accomplish something I can be proud of. This isn't just something I want to do. When my heart leads me, I follow it with unstoppable focus. This is something I need to do, no matter how difficult it is.

It's the only way I'm going to be able to move forward. I've been working on this premise for years, you've probably heard about 'my idea for a pop up' before. Now is the time. This is what I moved to a bigger city to accomplish. 

I did everything I set out to do and filled every gap in my experience and then some. Once I was ready, I took a long hard look at what I actually wanted to do. How I would measure real success and have it. What my actual gifts are and how I can share them. This is what I came up with, in its purest form, and the start of many other bigger things I am going to get done.

The hardest part is that pursuing this is my only option. Sometimes I am certain that there is no place for me in the world. As true as it is that I tend to stand out, I have also never quite fit in. This difficulty has given me a rich inner world that comes with risks and rewards, incredible opportunities, and deep heart-to-heart connections with the people it has drawn out in response. That's worth everything to me.

But I have always felt like this world just wasn't built for me, and if I would ever claim a place in it, I would have to fight for it. I can go back to scratching out a minimal living, ignoring the gifts my unusual life has given me, or I can overcome the disadvantages and create it for myself to share with others.

You're reading this because I chose the direction that takes me where I want to be. You have seen me on this path, and chances are you have probably even walked a fair bit of it beside me. 

I'm not relying just on you. Providing a luxury, high end coffee service to the public is a wonderful idea that I think plenty of people would be willing to support out of principle. I am going to find these people, share my dreams with them, and make full use of every drop of support I can gather.

This little note to you has gone on so much longer than I meant it to, so let me get to the good stuff.

I'm bringing this to the people that have loved and supported me first for a reason. The people that can read this in my voice. I want you to be involved! I want you to have the perks of everything that is going to come after, and I want you on the inside from the start as it grows. So what comes next?

I'm going to start a fundraiser to help me with the rest of the start up costs, you'll probably start seeing it on social media in the next week. That's going to help me recover some of what I've already spent doing this, make big improvements to it, and give me the tools I need to expand.

If I raise enough money, I am going to bring Yeah You Right Mobile Barista to Natchez, MS for my Grand Opening event, where I can provide this service for my home town and thank a great many of you in person.

I plan to sustain this project through monthly donations to the Patreon I've set up to support it. For the price of buying a stranger a cup of coffee, people can be the faith in humanity they want to restore and help me touch countless lives.  

If you already know about Patreon, you know that it operates by offering rewards for different levels of financial support. 

Starting from now until just after my grand opening, what I want to do is give the most to the people who believed in me first (that's you!). 

I am making a special tier of rewards just for this purpose. For the same cost as the 'buy a stranger a cup of coffee' level of support, you're going to get pretty much ALL of the rewards I have to offer, not just the thank you gifts for being a sweet soul.

I'm writing a book about launching this startup. It's a detailed tell-all about what I've seen and been through to get to this point, disguised as a how-to guide for entrepreneurs and free thinkers that want to create and market ideas of their own.

You're going to get access to the private blog where I am stashing my notes, trade secrets, and stories as I go. This blog is where you will be able to chime in, ask questions, and even suggest things that you will get credit for in the final draft.

Once it's done, you'll get a free digital copy. This book is the tool I am going to use to take my passions even further and make the jump from creator to guru, and I want you to have it before anyone else.

Remember when I took that 10 day trip across the country in the middle of a global pandemic? I was soul searching and my whole heart was broken with the thought that this world just didn't have a place for me. I went out there not knowing what I was looking for up front, but fully confident I would find it- and I did. 

I am collaborating with a ridiculously brilliant artist and one of my dearest lifelong friends, Victoria Bennett, to create a coffee table photo book about my personal story and the experience of traveling the country in a historic time. We're still editing the raw material and going over how we want to present it, but there is so much to be excited for.

I'm sharing everything I saw and went through with her, on a spiritual level of trust and love only possible through our personal connection. Her artistic skill and sensibilities are just one facet of our joint project. Victoria has a rare knack for seeing the truth and giving it a voice that resonates, and that is the intangible that has me excited and willing to expose my most heartfelt and vulnerable moments.

When it's done, we're going to print and publish it together. There are too many factors between here and there to make any promises, so I am not going to go that far right now. What I can give you is the chance to see it as it is being made, and if at all possible make sure you get a copy when we have a finished product to share.

There's so much more! I'm right here at the start of the rest of my life. I have a clear vision of what I want and how to get it, and tons more I want to give back to the people that help make it possible.

I have a simple life that belongs to me. Of everything I have ever achieved, that's what I am most proud of. I don't want more money, more things or possessions. I want a chance to do greater things, reach more people, and live a life of service and accomplishment I can be proud of.