SPEAKER_00

If you've got a business idea and you're ready to get started, do you know everything that you need to know in order to do it? Well, we've got a couple of guests on today that are going to talk about their journey going from full-time employment to full-time business owners. Let's get into it. Today we have brought in Vanessa and Dimitri with Align Cafe. And uh, we're gonna learn uh what it took to get from point A to point B to C to D to today. Yeah. Uh welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00

So uh let's get started with telling us about yourselves and basically your origin story. Where did you where did you begin?

SPEAKER_02

So born and raised Yakima, um, grew up in foster care and homeless. Okay, kind of grew up within the system, um, self-educated. I just have always been um inspirational, I guess, or just aspiring. Okay. Always was always aspired to learn more, do more, seek more. Kind of a seeker, right? Yeah. So I actually uh went off to college. I saved my money and did the whole financial aid thing and signed up for government funds to go over to Spokane um to start business and finance. I always wanted to learn more about business and finance. Didn't really fit in at first, to be honest. It was very uh, this is in 2010, 2011. It was very um textbook. Okay. And for me, I was very hands-on. So I went to freshman class thinking this was gonna be something I was gonna enjoy and learn about business and get right down into it, but it wasn't. It was very intro to business and intro to just financial basics. And I didn't really feel like I was learning as much as I needed to, as quick as I needed to. Okay. So I actually ended up um transferring to Los Angeles to go to the Art Institute of Hollywood. TV and film or photography has always been a thing. I've uh grew up uh wanting to be a photographer, uh starting photography around like 15, 16 years old, but not knowing if that was gonna be a real thing or how serious I was gonna be able to take it. Okay. So me realizing maybe business and finance at first wasn't gonna work for me, I switched gears and got more to a hands-on career, which was TV and film. Um, so I moved to LA and I actually hit it off right away and moved in and got experience right when I moved to LA. Uh working on the Emmys within six months of me moving to LA, uh, working for True Religion and a couple other big brands within like four to five months of me moving to LA.

SPEAKER_00

Serious on-the-job training.

SPEAKER_02

It was right away. So school, and then from school, it wasn't what you knew, it was who you knew, and then what you knew were was gonna kind of come through and follow through. Ended up in school for a year, and then I ended up meeting people and actually got taken into the industry really quickly. Um, started off as a photographer, gaffer, grip, which is a lot of lighting, tech, a lot of hands-on, the nitty-gritty stuff, and uh learned the aspects of production. Okay, well, this is my part, this is their part, this is the producer's part, this is the director's part, and fell in love with it. I actually worked in TV and film for over a decade.

SPEAKER_00

Did you ever get back into business and finance on the education side? Or is this more just a hey, now I can actually apply these these things that I want to learn because I've helped start some small businesses and been involved in what's going on?

SPEAKER_02

No, exactly. That's what it was. I was able to get a little bit of experience just through school, right? Seeing the basics, okay, I can get Excel, Excel sheets or spreadsheets, the simple A, B, C. Yeah. And then I went over to TV and film and learned, well, this is how it's created, right? This is the behind the scenes of what the business is, and this is how things are created. Yeah. And then working for other companies, I was able to see how it was all put together.

SPEAKER_00

How are they doing the different pieces of things? And yeah, that that learning, that hands-on learning, that uh getting out into the weeds, get get your hands dirty and and uh learn learn from the people that are actually doing it.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, not everybody learns the same way. I was a big book nerd. Yeah. Uh so I get it, I understand. Those classes aren't exactly exciting. No, but getting the information, wanting to go better out that, finding those things, yeah, and then eventually coming back up to the Tri-Cities Yakima area.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, coming back to Yakima. So I always wanted to bring something back home. Okay, even though I was in LA, I've always wanted to do something for my community. I always wanted to what it was was I was in LA, I was like, wow, this is amazing. Like I'm learning this, but how can I implement that where I'm from? Okay. Right. So I never forgot where I was from. I feel like my whole aspiration of being in LA was how do I use this and utilize everything I'm learning here to build something back home. Okay. But still be able to use Los Angeles as like a networking, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because it's LA's bunch of big names, a bunch of big brands. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

So I was able to get with Vanessa and then use what she was learning on her end. And so really we were a dynamic duo because she actually knew a lot of business and finance through Hapo. Okay. Having the experience through being a financial specialist and just knowing more of the credit side of things. I was kind of like a butterfly in the world of, you know, just out in the world. And she kind of saw my dream and her dream, and we kind of aligned it. Okay. That's what the alignment was was kind of concepted out of, or how it was created, was us coming together with our dreams and knowing that this might impact and help other people. So we kind of went and were really authentic about it. So we started in Yakima back at our hometown where we're both from.

SPEAKER_00

So Vanessa, how about your your beginnings? Obviously, FSS here uh with Hapo.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I mean, I feel like me having the background working with Hapo has honestly really helped me as far as um the financial side of things. I feel like me uh learning the business side of things is definitely different from obviously personal financial stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04

Um, but it definitely helped me. Um, and obviously me working here and teaching and also helping the members with their financial situations, also with their credit, um, trying to guide them, you know, the right way, I feel like it also helped me and motivated me as well to really find a structure for my financial side of things and how I can implement that in the business side. Um, I definitely had to learn different things as far as, you know, um with credit, with um uh categorizing different things as far as the business goes. Even the accounting in the Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Now the big question is did you learn more good habits or bad habits? Good habits to adopt or bad habits to avoid from dealing with members?

SPEAKER_04

Um I would say both. Both for sure. Um definitely seen a a few things that uh definitely did not, you know, bring along. Um, but also learned a lot of things that I implemented that definitely helped us a lot. Um so I feel like having the background and you know, learning everything that I did here has definitely helped us move forward and keep growing. Okay. Um, so I'm honestly very thankful I, you know, was able to get that experience for sure.

SPEAKER_00

So at this point, you guys meet this this working practical knowledge, your practical implementation and and growth, and you decide to head back to Yakima.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And that is the beginning of alignment?

SPEAKER_02

Uh yes. The beginning was us testing out alignment um through markets. So we would we started with a 10 by 10 booth, and we actually just started with like um beta testing, see if it worked at the fair, let's see if it worked at the farmer's market, let's see if it worked at downtown summer nights. So we kind of got a community response.

SPEAKER_00

Did this start uh as a we're ready to dive into this, or was this uh this market testing a let's keep our our day jobs and we'll test this out and see if it's good to go? Or was this a a uh test the waters, or was this a dive headfirst into the shallow end or the deep end, whichever one it might be?

SPEAKER_04

I feel like it was more like a dive. We were diving. Yeah, diving in, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We were diving in, but we were we were using what we could, like we were using the resources that me and her could. So I think for us it was trying to figure out what we could do with what we have. Yeah, okay, right, and not going overboard or not knowing whether the community was gonna respond the way it did. Yeah. To us, it was let's prepare ourselves for our dream and believe in ourselves, but let's make sure that we take the right steps. You know, I think a lot of people look at the staircase, but it's really looking at each step one at a time to get to the top of the staircase. Okay. So for me and her, we this is still a part of our journey. I mean, this is still the beginning for us. Um, but it's been a learning lesson. I mean, a lot of what we've accomplished has been self-taught. Yeah. Or it's been me and her coming down and being creative about how we're gonna come up with that solution, right?

SPEAKER_00

Uh, you mentioned at like uh a booth at like fairs and such. What was the first set of products?

SPEAKER_02

So we had plants, jewelry, minerals, handles. So at first, Vanessa was actually working at Hapo while I was kind of doing the the hard, nitty-gritty stuff of like I would travel to Arizona or I would travel to Mexico to actually get the minerals or get the jewelry. A lot of it was us picking jewelry from the actual manufacturers or the source. Um, and then I would bring that to Yakima, and she was working at Hapo and then using her paycheck to kind of fund the inventory and even the equipment that we needed to start. Vanessa would go from nine to five, and then from five, she'd actually be helping me set up or get ready for either the markets or when we started the construction of the alignment co. Yeah, she was doing nine to five, and then from five to one a.m. she was back helping me.

SPEAKER_00

Long days. Yes, long days, but long days to to build the future, what ends up uh becoming align, the alignment company. Uh so uh minerals, crystals, jewelry, candles. Plants. It seems like it was received relatively well because you move forward with this, right?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, for sure. We uh we had an amazing um response at downtown summer nights and at the uh the fair. Um the community it was something different for the community at the time. Okay. Um, we wanted to bring something, what we like to say is something from all over the world. We kind of learned that minerals and the background of minerals, I think it's something that aligns with me and Vanessa also because of the business and the finance. We started learning about minerals and like gold and silver, right? We started learning, well, American dollars are backed by gold and silver. You look at the Chinese Empire, it was backed on jade and malachite. You look at the Egyptians, they were backed on silvers and rubies and sapphires. And if you look at like the British Empire today, they're one of the richest empires or civilizations there is, and it's really backed on art, jewels, things that are are are of value.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the the dollar, the the yen, the uh the pound, uh, the euro, they're all theoretical and they're all funded or founded on a precious metal of some sort, roughly speaking.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, scarcity is really what it is, and then supply-demand, that's kind of what we learned. So we were like, I think me and Vanessa were really digging at we were trying to understand not only the business of what we wanted to become, but uh how we can be attached or or be involved with it. So for us, it was uh minerals came out of just like every wife loves a diamond, right? And she loves diamonds of gold. Yeah. So for us it was like, well, how do people fund these things and how do they finance these things? And how are these things created? So we really started diving deep in that aspect, and then being able to teach people was kind of the start of the alignment. We were able to teach what we were providing, right?

SPEAKER_00

So bit of a bit of a product, bit of a lesson.

SPEAKER_02

There you go, right? And it was teaching us because then as we learned, people would come in and teach us something that they knew about it. Yeah, and it was opening our brains to being like, wait, lithium, lithium, I'm buying lithium at $46 a gram, but every car battery now, every phone, every tech, every digital device has a battery with lithium and lithium prices keep going up.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, so you're buying that that product, and it's only going to appreciate in value over time to be able to turn around and remarket.

SPEAKER_02

So the shop was really cool because we bought all these minerals, gold, silver, at a time, to be honest. We bought silver when it was low. And in the last few years, silver has gone up seven times, right? So we've we were blessed enough to be purchasing and doing things within our journey that created value, not only for ourselves, but it's been able to create value for the people around us. Okay. I think now the alignment goes up to 12 employees, and we're on our second shop looking at our third shop. So it's been a blessing.

SPEAKER_00

So definitely a step up from the 10 by 10 booth. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

For sure.

SPEAKER_00

Big step up for sure. So, what was the next step from the booths then? Obviously, we know that we're working towards a third location. So we've got a couple of other things in between 10 by 10 booths and where we're at now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So we were seeing the response from people, and me and Vanessa were kind of just driving around. And again, I think we're dreamers. And uh, we were just kind of dreaming and driving around downtown Yakima, and we saw a space that had a for sale sign on it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And um, it was just an empty space that I kind of we just happened to drive by and see it.

SPEAKER_04

I would say it took us about a year, almost a little over a year, trying to find like the perfect spot.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

And I feel like this spot that we found, we we didn't mean to take the turn, but we took the turn. And we saw we saw the the sign up there, and we're like, wait, this might be a sign. And it was vacant for a while, and I feel like a lot of people didn't really see the potential that it had.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Uh but as soon as we walked in there, we're like, okay, we can see it. We can definitely see the vision. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It was like an old 1990s um office space with little cubicle spaces inside of it, had like a seven-foot drop ceiling all the way through. And um, we had definitely seen the vision, like Vanessa said. We kind of we were happy that we found the space once we found it, and we immediately called the owner, and the owner immediately met us on Monday. I think that was like on a Friday. Yeah, he came and met us on Monday, and we were signing stuff by like Wednesday. But uh, we had walked through it, and me and Vanessa already knew we were gonna blow everything out and turn it into what we turned it into. Okay. So that was the second step after the fair was us actually getting our first brick and mortar. Um, but the website was active. So I guess along the way, we did build a website. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Just to kind of build a digital presence to go along with the company.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there you go. We wanted to make sure if we weren't making the money physically and with physical sales, that there was a digital aspect of it where we could still market and add. And we were seeing purchases from New York, from Miami. Um, people from Dubai had actually bought some bracelets from us that we sent over. So it was really cool to see at the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00

So, but before your first brick and mortar, yeah, you're already an international company. There you go.

unknown

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because of technology and because of the online presence social media for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so wrong turn turns into, or maybe uh an early turn turns into your first brick and mortar uh space. Uh, what was the investment like getting the space up and ready?

SPEAKER_02

You were still working at Hapo.

SPEAKER_04

I was. I was working at Hapo, I believe I was I think we were four months in renovation before I left Hapo.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um, so yeah, working my nine to five at Hapo and getting saving money and implementing that to inventory and remodeling.

SPEAKER_00

Is it a lot of sweat equity going into remodeling? Or was it all it was?

SPEAKER_04

It really was.

SPEAKER_02

Sweat equity and us being creative again about like um the finances. I think for us it was like she was helping me fix my credit when I first met Vanessa. I had a 500 credit score, even in LA. I was in LA surrounded by celebrities and working for celebrities, but I really wasn't using my credit. I was using cash, right? I was getting paid thousands of dollars in hand. And I was rather than learning the credit and learning the how to really build the business of it, I was just using cash. So Vanessa got with me and she's like, no, no, no, no, this is not how we're doing things.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna fix this.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, we gotta settle down, we gotta put things together.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So Vanessa helped me uh establish my credit. So she actually had used her knowledge with Hapo and just the background that she has and started using it with me. And we were able to take my credit from a 520 to probably a 720 in three months. Yeah. Three months.

SPEAKER_00

It's impressive what you can do when you follow the simple rules for building credit. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

So then that helped us um establish something for myself, right? And I was able to actually apply for the first time in my life a credit card. Okay. So we use that credit card and we used her savings at the time, along with my savings at the time. And then we actually refired on a Jeep. So I had a car paid off, and I she had just through her experience, she had seen that somebody came into the bank and they had refi on a car and built something out of it, right? So she's like, well, let's try to do something like that. So we actually went in, got the refi on the Jeep that I had already paid off, and then we used that as a part of the cushion. Yeah, and then we slowly had the monthly bill that we slowly paid down alongside the business. And then over time we were out of debt and had the business.

SPEAKER_00

So bid uh building number one, brick and mortar number one is up and functional. Uh, you guys working uh through a solid financial plan, get this one up and running. How busy is that that first uh that first building?

SPEAKER_02

At first, you want to share?

SPEAKER_04

At first, it was a little scary, but it always is.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Um and I I would say a few months in once we uh really started focusing on marketing, advertising, and then we introduced the coffee side of things. Um we one day decided to post on TikTok and we completely went viral. Yeah, we completely went viral and we had millions and millions of views, and next thing you know, we're just nonstop busy. It was to the point where we had to hire because it was just me. It was just me making the drinks in the back, and we're like, okay, no, we gotta hire more people. Yeah. So it was honestly amazing.

SPEAKER_00

And how did you capitalize on that type of viral marketing and keep that momentum going?

SPEAKER_04

Really, we just had to keep I feel like we had to figure out how to be different.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

I feel like what we've created and we continue building, we always try to do something different as far as like the drinks. Like um, when we started back in 2023, we uh implemented the cans, which is these ones right here. Um, and a lot of people appreciated it, and obviously it was a good picture to take on social media, so that helped. Um, but I feel like for us, we just had to always come up with something new that people would get excited about.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um, so I feel like us doing that people really appreciated it and they wanted to keep coming for more. Um, but also serving something that people know that it's good quality.

SPEAKER_00

But also I was gonna say getting people in the door is step one, getting them to come back again means you've got to deliver a quality product.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, for sure. So I feel like people just really appreciated that that we would take the time to really do things out of the box and bring something different to the community. Um but also I feel like we created a space where people felt excited to be at. So I feel like we were able to provide the space, but also provide a product that people even if they don't want to come in to buy something, I feel like people still come in because they love the environment.

SPEAKER_02

It's more than a product, it's an experience.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh Vanessa spent months and months um night end and looking at the cans. We were the second people in the United States to bring them from overseas. So we were Actually, talking to manufacturers overseas, that it took us six to seven months of just getting the samples and the manufacturing tightened and all the sampling and everything down, the details down. But Vanessa spent endless nights back and forth with China trying to figure out how to dial this can in before. Now it's everywhere. Now you can buy the can on Amazon, you can go to Google and see it. But when we jumped in this, you couldn't just Google it and order it offline. We were really Google translating and back and forth, or she was staying up till 4 a.m. because that was their morning.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna ask.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was we yeah, I had to stay up really late. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So working on their timeline.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think for us again, like she said, bringing something new to the market, uh, it brought a lot of people. And a lot of people, I think after the pandemic, they wanted to experience something new, right? I think all of us were in our homes during 2021, 2022, and we wanted to get out and feel more. And right when we started this, it was something that people can get out and go do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Great timing, great environment, a reason to go out, hang out, see people again.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, get inspired by something. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So speaking of, what did uh Yakima teach you guys starting there, now having knowing that that the next location is in the Tri-Cities, what did you learn in Yakima that made you uh or that maybe influenced your decisions uh setting up building number two?

SPEAKER_05

Do you want to say that? Or do you want me to answer that?

SPEAKER_04

I would say community and also building relationships and creating that loyalty with our customers. I feel like since we've both been there when we first started, I feel like we've built so many relationships and I feel like a lot of people just felt at home coming to the shop. And we've had so many people from the Tri-Cities area that we build a relationship with that would come every single day just to come get our drinks, or again, not even to get our drinks, just to come and visit us. And we felt like it was time for us to come to the Tri-Cities area. And, you know, since we already built that community from the Tri-Cities, so every time they would come, they would they would ask us, when are you guys gonna open on this side? We're so ready to have you guys on this side. So that's when we knew it was time, it was time to to come. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So how much of that that Hollywood experience relationship building, do you think uh helped influence your ability to connect with with the customers and build that type of relationship with them?

SPEAKER_02

I think a lot for sure. I think uh me coming from Yakima and then going to do off everything that I did and then coming back to Yakima was a big uh inspirational thing as well for people just to come in and say, hey, wow, like if he could do this, I can do this. If she can do this, I can do this. So it brought her family in, it brought my family in. We had high school friends, high school teachers, middle school teachers. It was really fun and still is fun. We still have these experiences today. Even coming to Tri-Cities, we're still meeting new people, or like she's saying, we've have built relationships with people on both sides. So now we get people from Yakima driving to Tri-Cities, and we get people from Tri-Cities driving to Yakima. Um, but I think my experience in LA has helped understand that it's it's not what you know in life, it's who you know. And I think that a product is one thing, but there's a byproduct, and that's the energy, that's the experience that you're getting when you come into the alignment co. I think you're coming in and you're getting a have a blessed day, you know. How are you doing? You know, we care about you. And even with when it comes down to the drink, we care about you. Like if you are an almond milk person versus an oat milk person, we're gonna move over to your almond milk. Or if you're a two percent and you want half sweet, we'll do two percent and half sweet. We wanna make sure that you leave with what you want. Okay, and I think that's a part of our our service was just knowing that it was a journey for us. So let's share that with everybody else.

SPEAKER_00

So tell me about the the newest location here in the Tri-Cities. Where are we at location-wise?

SPEAKER_02

So with this shop, we took a year again to find this location. So, again, I think we're really intentional about the places that we build. I think we want them to be in spaces that we feel are uplifting. So we know that that's gonna transfer over to the customer. So we actually found the space a year before we actually started renovations, but we were on a waiting list at the parkway. So we're in Richland. Okay. Um we've kind of we drove around all throughout Tri-Cities. We went to downtown Kennewick, we went to the mall, we went to Pasco, Road 68, we went um all throughout Richland, West Richland, Queensgate. And this is the space that we found that was more fitting for us. I think we sat and we ate at foodies and we kind of looked at greenies and we saw community. Okay. We saw smiles, we saw family, and that's what we're about. We're really about people slowing down and saying, hey, let's go do something fun and let's go experience something together, right? Let me show you something. Let me introduce you to something. That has a lot to do with it. So for us, we intentionally took that year to kind of look around. And then one day, again, the sign came up and it was on a space that we had already driven by multiple times, and there was never a sign up.

SPEAKER_04

So one day, I think on a we were gonna go check out in a a different spot in Kennewick.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And then we said, let's drive by Richland just really quick just to see if there's something and then we drove by and there was a sign. So on the way to Yakima, we actually called and the owner answered and he said he wanted to meet us on Monday. So then, kind of the same thing at Yakima. We drove down on that Monday and met Marty, the owner of the building, and then um we started everything from there. So it was again, we walked into a shop that was uh they used it as a retirement um training facility. Okay. So they were teaching people how to take care of the elderly, but it was again old 1990s office spaces with little cubicle spaces, again, the seven-foot drop ceiling. So what we did is we came through and we blew it out and we created our vision. Okay. And so far, again, like the Yakima location, we've had a lot of amazing responses. Um, again, Vanessa's been going viral on TikTok again. So this is uh uh an alignment or a full circle for the second location, kind of piggybacking on what we did with the first location. Okay. Um, so yeah, we're we're excited that it's been amazing and we're excited that we're busy. Yeah, I think a little bit more busy than what we thought. Um, but it's a blessing.

SPEAKER_00

What was it another opening the uh on the first day where it was kind of empty at the beginning, or did we have a different experience this time around?

SPEAKER_04

Oh no, it was we it was yeah, it was great. It was really great.

SPEAKER_02

This time it was, I think, the momentum building up from like she said, we had that the Yakima clientele family that we built. We had people driving from Tri-Cities on the daily.

SPEAKER_00

Gonna say they're already asking you to show up. They're excited. You know you've got the crowd waiting.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. And I think for us is when we opened, uh, we had lines out the door for weeks, actually, for the first few weeks, every day on a Tuesday, you would line up and there'd be 30 people in line at 10 a.m. So it was a blessing to see that people are willing to wait and come drive out of the way, drive from Pasco, drive to Kennewick, drive from Benton City to come to the alignment coge because it's something different and it's something good. Nice. Um, so no, our experience with the second location was opposite from the first location, which this location has been a lot more busier for us. So we're still trying to dial in, even now. We're having like some system uh supply and demands where we're trying to make sure we have enough ingredients because Richland or Tri-Cities as a whole has been showing up.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say sold out is a fantastic marketing scheme because it shows that everybody wants the product. But again, supply and demand, like you said, you want to be able to sell them. Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

And our matcha has been our number one hit, which um we haven't been able to even keep up with from our farmer. Okay. So our matcha is uh imported from Japan. And again, another thing that Vanessa spent, I would say, almost a year on uh going through maybe like 50 different grades of matcha from different locations in Japan. She was really like um analytical about this one comes from Fuji, this one comes from Shizuoka, this one comes from this place. And she was, I was the taste tester. I was the I was the guy that taste this one, taste that one. But when we found our matcha, it was one that we we won't divert away from. Yeah, we it's a it's a good quality matcha. So we've been working with this farmer that has kind of had had has had to keep up with our demand. And he's teaching us, you know, you know, to enjoy the moment because every leaf is not the same leaf, every harvest isn't the same harvest, right? So we're actually learning a lot about the matcha process by the alignment co through the alignment co.

SPEAKER_00

So interesting question. When you started, so we've had two international moments for you in this so far, uh, finding and working with the Chinese companies for the for the cans, which are gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, and now uh working with a Japanese company for uh getting the matcha. Was there any level of intimidation for you to be like, I'm gonna reach out to these international people to to source my products for this? Or were you just like, no, that's that's where it is, that's what I want. I want it from you.

SPEAKER_04

I feel like I feel like that's who we are too, though. I feel like we're very like, if it's something that we know is gonna work and we know it's like who we are, like we were gonna figure out how to get it. Like, yeah, the matcha, I would stay up hours and hours at night trying to figure out how I can source it. Spoke with different farmers, like how I did with the cans. And I would say we tried we tried over 40 different grades of matcha until we finally found the perfect matcha. Um, but I felt like it was really a lot of research where I felt comfortable enough to reach out to these farmers. Okay. So I felt like even just being able to sample everything and being comfortable with the product that we have. Um yeah, I would say it was it felt great.

SPEAKER_00

I feel like there's enough people out there that are looking to start businesses or have a great idea, but have that look of intimidation when they look at it, like, oh, well, it comes from Japan. I don't know how to get in touch with anybody there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And like being able to, like you said, find the stuff that you want that you know is going to work, going to Mexico to source from like the jewelers, from the the mineral, all the things from the place that you need to get them from and not through a secondary or even tertiary seller of these things, going straight to the source to get that. I think that's that's something that a lot of people might find intimidating, just to be like, oh, I'm gonna go all the way down there and or I'm gonna make these phone calls at 4 a.m. Or like how am I gonna get through this language barrier talking with the Chinese manufacturing company? Sure.

SPEAKER_02

I I would say that the whole our whole story it aligned us, right? If you think about the minerals at first, that softened us being able to. She went with me to Mexico and Arizona, and we drove through different small parts and different towns that were Spanish speaking only, and I don't speak Spanish. So she would have to speak for me, but she got comfortable in knowing that that's where it comes from, right? A lot of uh black obsidian, it comes from Mexico. Actually, 80% of the world black obsidian comes from Mexico, it gets sent to China, China manufactures it and then they send it back. So it's really interesting to see how everything's moved in this world.

SPEAKER_00

That secondary and tertiary sellers go and get it from the source, 80% of it from there, and then they send it over there.

SPEAKER_02

So we started learning that, and it made it, I think it softened us and made it more realistic on like if we wanted the can before we could just go on Amazon and it was just so easy to buy, we had to figure out how to go to the source.

SPEAKER_04

Sure. And I feel like it also comes to dedication and drive. Oh, yeah. I feel like we had fire. Have don't have fire, but I feel like it's just we're so passionate about what we we have and what we're doing that yeah, at first it was terrifying. It was scary not knowing the unknown, you know. But I feel like once you get past that, I feel like it's just you can really do anything. Like you you become less fearful of things, I feel like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think for us the first one was the test, the second one is the lesson. We're learning a lot through the second one. Okay. Because it's a different it's it's it's uh giving us different situations that we weren't necessarily. The first one was more smooth, and like I said, we started off slow and maybe 10 customers a day to 30 customers a day to 50 to up to where we're gonna get your feet under you, adjust as well. And I think this first one we went the first day, 600 customers. Yeah, it was so it was really a different avenue for us to have 600 people in one day come through the shop. Um, but it the first one taught us, it was a test, right? Taught us how to get to the second one. So for us, um, we like again thinking outside the box, but not really too outside the box because all of this is a system. Um, even with the finances, me and Vanessa are very uh right-handed and left-handed. So we're very financial literate. We'd like to think that we're learning about financial literacy through this process. Yeah. So we're even learning, and we had hiccups at first of like um, I was taking K1s and I got taxed on them. So then eventually our accountant came back and said, You're gonna get taxed more being the owner and you're pulling owner draws this way than you being an employee and then being able to write that off through your business, right? So there were things that we had no idea about. We were just excited to do the business. Um, so there's a lot of stuff like that, or even today, we have business cards that we keep separate from our personal cards, right? And now we know how to handle the finances.

SPEAKER_00

This is this is kind of that that classic, you can be a fantastic chef, but that doesn't mean you can run a restaurant. There you go. That's a perfect somebody has to understand like all of the the the accounting side of things, and you've got to trust the people that you're working with to come back and give you the right advice and give you the ability to do what you're good at. Go and and make the product, source the materials. How big of a difference is it running one location versus two?

SPEAKER_05

It's a pretty big difference.

SPEAKER_04

It's it's definitely, I mean, more employees, more product, more inventory, more customers. Um it's definitely still a learning process. Um but it's definitely teaching us a lot. And I feel like it's helping us also improve and get better as far as like the business financial stuff. Um, so having the second location, we're for sure gonna not be experts, but we're gonna, you know, get a lot better with our third location.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say, do you feel any level of anxiety with not being able to be in the shop running it yourselves? Is that was that a big step going from running the shop on your own to having employees that you trust to run the shop as well?

SPEAKER_02

It's a huge part of it. Yeah. Especially for Vanessa, because it's her baby and she's the one that all the research and the endless nights and then creating the drinks. Creating the drinks from scratch, a lot of it's coming up with different ingredients and then trusting someone to keep up with that standard. I think it was hard for her to let go, but we had found somebody, the Yakima location, it's it's family. That's kind of the differences. Is that shop was it was slower to it took more time to build. So she was actually able to mold each person slower than the Richland shop. The Rich and Shop, like I said, we opened day one, 600 people, we were going fast and we were all whisking matcha at once. Um but I think it teach it teaches us too that it's possible. It's definitely a step and repeat. Yeah, but the more you repeat it, the harder it gets. So, but QuickBooks helps us, our our our financial special our financial uh our CPA helps us, and then she's has all her um home base and her different now. We're living in a future where there's at least technology that can help us. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, where we have home base that helps us with all the scheduling, and then we have QuickBooks that's helping us at least keep track of the day-to-day basis, right?

SPEAKER_00

Starting to get the understanding of why businesses talk about their tech stack.

SPEAKER_01

Yes all the time. It's it's important, it really is.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, let's see here. What was I gonna go to? Um, I had a thought in my mind and it just no, you're good. Uh I told you it would happen. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're good. Like it. Yeah. Oh, hey, get back over. Uh, you guys have anything in particular you want to cover?

SPEAKER_02

Just again reiterating, I think without Hapo, there it wouldn't have without Vanessa and having that experience. I think there's an outline of a line through Hapo when you really think about it. Um our logo is black and white, the Hapo logo is black and white. Um I think just that experience through it excited me watching her and then her teaching me the little things that we were teaching each other, it made us both have like awe moments. Like we were like, oh, we could do that. Oh, well, what if we do that? Oh, we could do that too. That's an that's an amazing idea.

SPEAKER_00

Were a lot of your ideations these very exciting back and forths? Were there uh stretches of time where you were just like, I have no clue what we do next?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, very much so. But what what it was was when I had an idea, she would follow through with it. And then when she had an idea, I would follow through with it. So if she brought up like, hey, we should do that, or we should try to a lot of it to her was her pitching me like ads, marketing ideas, right? She's like, we should do this video or we should do this picture, we should take this picture. And I would be the one to actually create it, or vice versa, I would look at her and say, Hey, we should do this with um the run club, right? And we started implementing a run club and started organizing and putting the right people in places for us to be able to host a run club. So I think we have these ideas, but we help each other kind of execute through them.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So what do you do to spin up an idea when you don't have an idea? When you're sitting around, you're just like, we need to do something. I don't know what we need to do. How often does that become a thing that you feel like you need to work through? Or is it really just like, I think this would be a fantastic idea, and you just once that hits, you come out and you're not really sitting around brainstorming.

SPEAKER_04

Honestly, I feel like we have so much ideas, and I feel like me and him can do them all.

SPEAKER_02

I we're just getting started. So, like, I think for us, the first two shops, I would like to say it's us setting a standard, right? I think we've been able to do it once. Okay, now we've been able to do it twice. And like I say, we're looking at a third shop. So then us being able to do it a third time would be that would be like the cherry one, the one that's like, okay, we did it once, we did it twice, the third one we should have it down.

SPEAKER_00

Um but there'll be a lesson to learn there still.

SPEAKER_02

I don't think there's I don't think there's a I don't think there's never ideas. I think we always never end or never not ideas. We always have ideas. Um, and there's even a list of ideas where we want to take this next, right? So there's even a vision that we have for it. Okay. We're still trying to put in all the pieces.

SPEAKER_00

So outside of the business, do you feel like you guys have had to sacrifice uh part of your personal life or your downtime to make this vision of a line company uh come to life?

SPEAKER_05

For sure. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02

It's become our life, it's become the journey. Okay. I think me and Vanessa uh have both that's why we had Ezra, was to bring him along this journey. Was we were blessed enough to say, wow, we're blessed with this journey. Let's share that again now with life and the people around us. Um but we've transformed it. I mean, it's uh they say if you find something that you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. So for us, we wake up and we love our employees, we love our customers, we love the product, and we love the energy that we're actually able to create around it. We love waking up and seeing people say have a blessed day, or even just going into the shop and seeing people outside of the shop, you know, saying have a good morning. It's a good feeling to be involved. And uh, that's what this is about, is getting people involved.

SPEAKER_00

Right on. Uh what is given given the fact that you've brought your your uh young one with you, uh, what are you hoping that they will learn from this experience over time? Obviously, probably not today.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh, but in the future, looking back on it, what do you think uh they're going to learn or take out of this family business?

SPEAKER_04

Oh he's for sure gonna take a lot in. He, I mean, he already has um his first job on his resume.

SPEAKER_02

It's true, it's true. He's four months with four months of experience already.

SPEAKER_03

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02

So they say they want the bit the bank say they want 10 years, he's gonna Have it at age 10. So Apple get ready. As was coming with the business plans, and the acting is going to say, Well, my mom and dad said we could do this. Um, but our goal is we're very transparent. I think uh we want people to ask us questions, but a lot of people in this generation they don't ask questions. We have Google and we have chat DBT. We're comfortable asking Google and Chat DBT, but we don't we don't really converse as much as we should in this generation. So our goal with the next generation is to teach and inspire. You could have any dream in the world, but it's gonna be hard. It's gonna take hard work, it's gonna take sacrifice, and you're gonna have to put some some some kind of diligence in. Yeah, and you're gonna have to take it serious.

SPEAKER_00

And figure out how to learn it. And how to exactly like back to the very beginning, college might not be for everybody going out and finding that real life experience, going out and chasing that dream. Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

It's been it's it still feels like it's happening today. I feel like uh we were just talking that we've been together for six years now, and that's how long ago she was at Happa was six years ago.

SPEAKER_05

No, I was I was here for six, I think six years. Six years?

SPEAKER_02

At Happa for six years, and it's been six years.

SPEAKER_00

So I was gonna say I started January of 2020.

SPEAKER_05

2020?

SPEAKER_00

So I've been here for six and a half, so we overlap by a little bit. A little bit. There you go. Sweet. But yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Think about it. I was I was still here when we're doing the booths.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And then I'd get off work and then go to the fair.

SPEAKER_02

We were asking Lindsay about business loans and business stuff. So we were actually using all the employees at Hapo as you should, trying to learn, and they were helping us saying, Well, this company that, or I saw that they did that. And that's kind of where the Jeep, the the Jeep refi came in with because somebody was like, Well, somebody else refied their Jeep. I think she said she saw it at work where they refried their their car and used it as a something to build a business, and then the business ended up being successful, and then paid it off down the road. Yeah. So Hapo definitely helped with just getting us in the door, right? So without Happa, we wouldn't have the the inspiration to want to learn more about that thinking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So well, thank you guys for joining us on the podcast. For any other final thoughts that you wanted to leave everybody with uh before we before we sign off.

SPEAKER_02

I would say dream big, work hard, believe in yourself, and don't give up. I think with those things and believing in yourself and believing in the things and people around you, I think um that's where you get rid of the fear and you get rid of the doubt. You stop doubting yourself. You say, you know what? I'm a believer. I believe in that. I believe in you. I believe in her.

SPEAKER_00

Know that your idea is a good one and that you can back yourself up and push it to the next level. That's the truth, right there.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You I was gonna say the exact same thing, but you stole it from here.

SPEAKER_03

There you go.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. Two mines. They're gonna like. Uh, with that, I'm gonna go ahead and uh we'll probably cut to this. I'll sign us off, and then we're gonna come back and do the rapid fire question. All right. Well, thank you once again for joining us. And until next time, this has been Dollars and Cents, Happa Community Credit Unions Financial Literacy Podcast. Until next time.