Brewing Success: Coffee Shop to Community Hub with Jen Fizer

Ever wondered how a simple coffee shop can turn into a bustling community hub? Join us as we spill the beans with Jen Fizer, a visionary who's redefined the potential of local coffee shops. Jen has transformed the humble Brick House Coffee Bar and Eatery located in the heart of Harrisville, Missouri into a vibrant gathering spot. In this episode, she shares her intriguing journey of turning an 1880s building into a modern-day haven while navigating the digital age successfully.

If you're interested in effective leadership, this episode will quench your thirst. Jen, a master of communication, sheds light on her innovative approach to managing and mentoring an experienced team. She discusses the delicate balancing act of leadership and mentorship, emphasizing the importance of open communication in executing change. This conversation is a goldmine of insights on how to engage and encourage employees who are eager to make a difference.

But it doesn't stop there! Jen takes us through her proactive efforts in community engagement. From joining local boards and initiating monthly events to creating a scholarship in honor of her late husband, she’s truly put her coffee shop on the map as the heartbeat of Harrisville. As she passionately shares her expedition into public speaking and the transformative power of change, you'll be left inspired by the immense satisfaction of making a difference in a community. Brew yourself a cup of your favorite blend and tune in for an enriching conversation with Jen Fizer.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"Brick-and-mortar is, in a lot of ways, the most expensive route that you can go. But it also gives me so much more opportunity to connect with the community, to create this atmosphere of ‘this is where people want to be.’" – Jen
"When we did have younger kids, I really enjoyed being able to be their first job, teach them life skills." – Jen
"You do need to connect with people, but when they’re that much younger, they seem to be just hungry to learn. So teaching is really almost the way that you’re connecting with them." – Philip
"If we have an employee—I don’t care how good they are at their job—who are toxic to the rest of the staff and are creating an environment where the rest of the staff is starting to turn, I want them gone." – Jen
"Make sure that you have the staff that you want and you can train the right attitude, but the wrong attitude will never change." – Jen
“You can teach hard skills but people skills are one that you just learn over time." – Philip
"I like communication probably more than anything." – Jen
"I’ve become so comfortable just speaking in front of groups that it’s like I can do it on the fly. It makes you comfortable in any situation, no matter who you have to talk to." – Jen
"Personally, I feel like I’ve made better connection with people—I can relate to people better—being able to communicate well with them." – Jen
“I felt like I was always overlooked. Then, because I started speaking, more people have started to admire the fact that I get up and speak." – Philip
"If you just sit back and don’t take that initiative to start talking to people, you will just fade away and people won’t notice you." – Jen
"Whatever your current situation is can change." – Jen

RESOURCES
Jen
Website: https://www.brickhouse.coffee/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brickhouse_coffeebar/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-fizer-73354631/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.fizer.5  

Philip
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Sessions: 0:15

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the speaking sessions podcast. I'm your public speaking and presentation coach, philip sessions, and I've got jen Pfizer here. She bought in a hey. She bought an established business called brick house coffee bar and eerie and has turned the coffee shop into a thriving and innovative hub for downtown Harrisville, missouri. She is also the finance and operations manager for a new york city in yc if I could get the acronym right there financial firm that provides outsourced financial services to nonprofits. She has significant experience in helping small businesses grow and accomplish great things, and today we're going to talk about how she has used her speaking abilities to not only lead her business and lead her team, but also starting to lead within her community. But before we get into that, jen, tell us a little bit more about yourself on a personal perspective.

Jen Fizer: 1:16

Sure, so well, you read my bio there. So I own a coffee shop. That's always the first thing that I say about people because, or about myself, because that's people always find that so fascinating. It's kind of one of those like dream careers that people always want to have, want to retire and own a coffee shop. So honestly, aside from working, I don't have much of a personal life. As you might have figured out, I work 40 hours a Monday through Friday and then I work at break house other than that. So personally, I mean, I've got some hobbies to read, you know, ride horses, watch baseball but working is where it's out for me.

Philip Sessions: 1:54

Yeah Well, hey, horses. I don't think I've had too many people on here that have ridden horses. I rode horses a long time ago when I was a child. We had like 17 horses on five acres, which is ridiculous, but we had a ton of horses. It wasn't just ours. There was a couple of friends in there that would put their horses on our land and everything, and so I definitely missed that a little bit. But I found sports when I was younger and got rid of all the horses and have not looked back since then. They're definitely something to keep up with, but that's really cool. So I want to kind of just dive right into the fact that you have a brick and mortar. So this is something that we see, especially with this new digital age, that I'll stay away from brick and mortar be digital on everything. So tell us a little bit, because that is a unique thing that and I know you're starting out digital I got some of your coffee, which was excellent, by the way, so definitely go check that out.

Philip Sessions: 2:52

On your website there, but the coffee is amazing. It would be way better in person. So tell us about that dynamic there of trying to navigate this online world while still living in a brick and mortar world, as well.

Jen Fizer: 3:09

So brick and mortar it is in a lot of ways the most expensive route that you can go, because digitally you can turn off subscriptions If money is not coming in. There are things that you can do to cut back on your expenses really quickly. In a brick and mortar, obviously, you have rent, you have utilities, you have payroll that all have to kind of keep going regardless of what your sales are. So it's a tougher route, but it also gives you at least me personally so much more opportunity to connect with the community, to kind of create this atmosphere of this is where people want to be. And that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to create this like community hub and so far it's working, or it seems to be.

Jen Fizer: 3:57

People love Brick House. We have a really cool old building. It was built in 1880. It's brick, as you might have guessed from the name Brick House. Yeah, it's a two story building. We have a basement also, so it's just got that really cool old feel to it that you can't find in a lot of brick and mortar. So we're lucky in that. And then we're also on the town square, which for many, many years the Harrisonville Square was completely dead. There was one guy that owned basically all of the property on the square and him in the city didn't get along so well and so the building sat empty for many years and when he died then they all went up for sale and it's kind of slowly started coming back to life and it's really fun to be part of that. We have lots of businesses that are going in now and like it's just like so much fun to be on the square and be part of that like thriving community now.

Philip Sessions: 5:00

Yeah, that's, that's awesome. And so Harrisville, that's near St Louis, right when exactly is?

Jen Fizer: 5:06

that Kansas City. We are now other side of the state, so wow, so totally far away.

Philip Sessions: 5:11

I don't know where I got St Louis from then, maybe just because I've seen some stuff where we've talked about events being in St Louis and just connecting that with Missouri.

Jen Fizer: 5:19

So yeah, so we are about 30 miles south of Kansas City we actually are. Another unique thing about Harrisonville is that we're at the kind of three highways are intersecting through our town, so we have a lot of traffic that goes through town. We also it's the town or the county seat, so we have a lot of people coming into work. We have I think I heard a figure one time that we have like 30,000 people that come into Harrisonville and the population is about 10,000. So it's a relatively small town but, yeah, 30,000 people come there to work. So the population grows during the day, which is good for us. That's when we're open.

Philip Sessions: 6:01

So oh yeah, that's pretty cool too to see that and I'm sure that dynamic of the people moving in and out throughout the day and everything is a huge thing, having the three interstates to come right through there and everything that's a lot of different traffic. That definitely would help out. But you mentioned about like the brick and old school ish, if you will, and everything in the old building. It makes me think a lot about here in Greenville, south Carolina. So there was a lot of mills here because of the river that runs through the Reedy River, to be more specific there, and so there's we've got a lot of brick as well, and it's been really cool what Greenville has done here, because I grew up in the Houston Texas area. So everything's like brand new, everything's super flat, everything. There's some brick like houses, but most of the infrastructure downtown are big skyscrapers and so the third or fourth largest city in the country. I think it's fourth, so you have all of the city life there.

Philip Sessions: 6:58

And then I come here where this small town very similar to that, I think I want to say we're about 30,000 or so, so we're maybe about triple the size and we have people come in all the time. But just seeing that brick and how people are trying to keep it a little bit older looking instead of just trying to make everything modern, is a really cool thing. That I find very unique, as well as out where I'm at in Gray Court, which is about 30 minutes, 30, 45 minutes south of Greenville, our town next to us, lawrence, is also developing their city square as well, which is really cool to see. So I tell you.

Jen Fizer: 7:33

I understand where you are coming at A lot of those old towns coming to life, coming back to life.

Philip Sessions: 7:38

Yeah, yeah. So it's really cool to see all these small old towns come back to life, and really, a coffee shop is one to me, one of those pivotal things. And so why, why did you decide on a coffee shop, of all things that you could have went into business for, okay?

Jen Fizer: 7:55

Okay. So this is kind of a funny story because I was working, I was a CFO for a farm and our seed dealer. He was actually the original owner and creator of Brickhouse. Him and his wife had bought Brickhouse and the building, renovated it and opened the coffee shop. Anyway, we were in there buying seed and he said do you know anybody that wants to buy a coffee shop? They had sold to another family about a year prior and that family just having some changes and so they wanted to sell. I was like I want to buy a coffee shop. No idea why I had. No, I didn't drink coffee, I didn't know what went into a latte. It's also a coffee shop and restaurant.

Jen Fizer: 8:48

I'd been a server in high school and college but I had no desire to really be in the coffee or restaurant business. But I really enjoyed business and I know numbers and I have a really interesting background which during the time that I was going through it, I'm like I don't know where this career is leading me because I kept jumping from thing to thing. Turns out it was leading me to entrepreneurship. I was learning all the different skills that I needed. Basically, he said do you want to buy a coffee shop. It was actually right around this time four years ago.

Jen Fizer: 9:25

It was Labor Day, the day after Labor Day, that I found out that it was for sale. My mom and I talked she was my partner we went in and bought. We made an offer on September 19th and then we took over on October 1st. So within less than a month we became coffee shop owners and the rest is history. I had to learn a lot on the fly, but a lot of it is basics, just a lot of it running a business. I had quite a bit of experience with small business at that time, so it fed into it. But when people say, oh, you must have loved coffee and I don't care, I can't even tell you the difference really between a lot of different things. But I can make it for you. I rely on my priestess to be the coffee experts.

Philip Sessions: 11:06

Yeah, that's hilarious. It just really goes into the fact that when I did get that coffee from you, I'm like, oh, this is the pour over. I guess it'll work for my little reusable Keurig cup.

Jen Fizer: 11:17

Or cake cup thing.

Philip Sessions: 11:19

Yeah, that's how I do it too. You should be a coffee snob. You have a coffee shop, so it's really funny that you got into this business where you're just like, I don't know, it sounds like fun, let's do it. I never drink a cup of coffee in my life, but hey, let's do it. So it's funny how sometimes entrepreneurship starts that way, which is completely different than what a lot of people say hey, do something that you love, do something that you're passionate about. Clearly you didn't. You weren't passionate about this. You probably didn't love it either, but you maybe liked the idea.

Jen Fizer: 11:51

Yeah, I actually don't subscribe to that method of doing something you love, because I think in a lot of cases you end up in businesses where you don't know how to run them. Like, you might love to knit or do whatever, and yes, that hobby might be something that you love doing, but the actual mechanics behind running a business are not fun for everyone. So I think my perspective is completely different because I look at things at a through a different lens than somebody that maybe only really likes to cook or only really likes coffee. So you know I've been able to do things with more data driven choices.

Jen Fizer: 12:35

Then if I was doing it for the love of coffee, but, I do drink coffee every day, so I have changed that up a little bit Well good.

Philip Sessions: 12:47

I'm glad you're finally drinking that coffee, drinking the Kool-Aid, so to speak, there.

Jen Fizer: 12:51

Exactly there you go.

Philip Sessions: 12:52

Yeah, and that makes me think of like my first business, because I was like, oh, I'm going to get into personal training, that's something that I love to do. And I found where I started not even wanting to work out for myself, but I really didn't want to help people out, and there are some other things with that too.

Philip Sessions: 13:06

I think I wasn't quite ready for business ownership either, but I definitely found myself not wanting to work out and not loving fitness like I used to, and that's where I ended up switching over to public speaking and I definitely love that a lot more and I'm finding out more and more about the business every day and loving that more and more.

Philip Sessions: 13:26

But let's move into the coffee shop now. So we kind of been talking about how you got started, how you acquired the coffee shop and everything. But let's kind of get into where you're now, having people that work for you and we were just talking offline about how you're in this transition now from where you're working with high schoolers that were helping run the place to now you're having some young adults or college age people and that difference there. But tell us about that. You know the difference in the dynamic. But how in the world did you communicate with people that much younger than you? Because I think I'm like, oh, I'm not that much older than some of these people at college, and then I realize, wow, I am a lot older and it's such a different aspect being 10 or 20 years removed from high school college life.

Jen Fizer: 14:18

Oh, somebody kind of knocked some sense into me one time because I didn't think that I was like oh, I'm not that much older than these kids. And one of my employees was like somebody asked if you're my mom and I'm like what? And then I was doing the math, like hey, technically I could be your mom but, they're asking if I'm your sister.

Jen Fizer: 14:41

But yeah, so it's been. Luckily, I have almost always had kids that come and work for me and they'll stay for a long time, so I kind of build these relationships with them over years. I also have I have a really great management team. I have two managers with me and currently Tammy and Roxy, that honestly, monday through Friday they run the business for me and they do a lot of the things that allow me to work full time, not in the business. So I'm so grateful for them, but in a lot of ways I've kind of removed myself from having to be the one to communicate directly with them, but I do it. So I get to be kind of the fun person that kind of comes in and just chats with people. I'm not the one that's like laying down the law in general. They're the they're listing to my managers. That way, however, there also becomes that like distance.

Jen Fizer: 15:40

So, as I've, as I was telling Philip on the beforehand, we just every, every summer, we would kind of lose a bunch of students to school.

Jen Fizer: 15:51

They would either go away to college, go back to school in one way or another, and so I always had a transition period in August and this year we kind of lucked into having a couple of slightly older, like mid twenties staff members that applied and they have been phenomenal and there is a huge communication and maturity difference between like 15, 16, 17 year olds and 24, 25, 26 year olds, which is very obvious, I mean, but it's so much easier to relate to them just because they have a little bit more life experience. However, when we did have the younger kids, I really enjoyed being able to like be their first job, teach them kind of life skills. That's the way I always looked at it, like we were providing them with life skills that they can literally use in their kitchen at home, teaching them to cook and all of those things. So I have always looked at it like I'm just teaching the younger generation rather than like trying to connect with them on a friendly level.

Philip Sessions: 17:01

That's a good dynamic. I'm glad you brought that up right there at the end, because oftentimes we think, oh, we've got, we've got to connect with people, and they're at a certain extent when you are speaking. You do need to connect with people, but especially when they're that much younger a lot of them and I feel like maybe it's just because of social media and seeing more of these people and the groups who are a part of what these a lot younger people. Typically they're in their early 20s at the youngest, but still they seem to be just hungry to learn, and so you just teaching is really almost the way that you're connecting with them, but it's not like you're trying to be their friend and understand who they are as a person. Necessarily You're just being that mentor for them, everything, which is such a huge thing. That thing has overlooked a lot of times, especially from older people.

Philip Sessions: 17:52

I know when I had my first job in engineering, I was always just a young, dumb engineer. I didn't know anything that I was doing, and of course I didn't, but that's how I got treated and therefore I didn't really learn from the more experienced engineers because, ah, just sit over there, just let us deal with it, we'll figure it out. And then I would just sit there and then not learn. And my first job was terrible. Three months went by and I would go to work and I'd be like, oh yeah, I don't think we're going to have anything for you today, and then maybe an hour in they'd find something for me or they wouldn't, and then I would just go home and it was crazy.

Philip Sessions: 18:29

And yeah, oh yeah. It was super boring. And then finally, after three months, they're like yeah, we're just going to have to let you go, we don't have any work for you. That would have been nice if you just wouldn't have hired me and I could have went somewhere else, but it worked out in the end and because of that I got into another job, actually that I made a connection while I was there. So it's interesting, but it's really cool that you are doing that. You're teaching, versus just trying to connect and be their friend and everything.

Philip Sessions: 18:55

But, you mentioned something else about being distant, being the CEO, and I think about business owners that are beyond working in the business and they're starting to work on that business, but they do have to come into the business sometimes. And I even think about corporate, where you have, like, a senior management that's just way outside of the day to day business and they're making these decisions that impact the people that are the worker bees that are doing the day to day. So how do you make sure, as you make decisions or bring decisions down to management when they're not perceived as something that's fun or it's a major change? How do you go about communicating that and letting the management know how to communicate that if you do that for everybody else on the team?

Jen Fizer: 19:45

So we actually had a little bit of conflict maybe is a good way to phrase it. A few months ago we had had some staff members that they had been there for quite a while and the longer that somebody's been there, the more they want to contribute, the more they want to take ownership of things, which is fine. I very much encourage that. But there was also this kind of disconnect happening between me running the business and making decisions for the business that were in the best interest of everyone and what they. They were kind of kind of getting together and deciding what they thought was best for the business and we were kind of getting. It was causing a big disconnect, honestly, and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I had removed myself from them from the Monday through Friday operations for sure. I've always been around on the weekends, like Saturdays and Sundays I would be in and so, like the staff members that work on Saturdays were used to seeing me, I still had a really good connection with them. But there was kind of this one group that was just and they didn't mean any harm by it, but they did not think that they would give a suggestion to say a manager, and the manager would come to me with a suggestion and then I would say no, because of this. Well, they did not think that I was listening to them. So there was some kind of just you could tell there was tension building and I feel like this what's ended up happening is that, just in general, they were kind of aging out of our system, if you will. They were going off to college or moving.

Jen Fizer: 21:33

So I fixed a lot of the things. We did an employee survey and this is where we got a lot of feedback on. They were not gentle in their feedback and I had to balance myself because, on the one hand, I was, like, somewhat irritated with some of the feedback because I'm like, do you not know what I'm doing for you? But they didn't know what I was doing for them because I wasn't around and they weren't seeing some of those behind the scenes things that were happening, that were ensuring that they had certain things at work, or I was trying to take care of them the best that I could, but they were seeing things that, like, we have a drink fridge that constantly we need to replace it, but it also just holds canned drinks, so it's like it doesn't make me a lot of money. So that was one of their complaints was that we, the drink fridge is always out of order and amongst other things, but it's like they don't understand necessarily that you have to have the funds in order to pay for whatever, and at the same time that the drink fridge went out, our oven went out, and our oven costs thousands of dollars and it's much more important to replace that.

Jen Fizer: 22:47

So all of that to say is that there was just a real disconnect between me and the employees, and so my decision then was like I need to take responsibility for this. They feel this way because they don't think that they're suggestions. They don't think that their voice is being heard. So I immediately fixed some of the things that needed to be fixed that had kind of just been like on the back burner, and they weren't all necessarily things that I was in control of, but they thought that I was in control of.

Jen Fizer: 23:24

So I made the calls that I needed to do in order to get those fixed, and then I just sent out a message and said listen, you can't see everything that's happening in this business, and I laid out like these are our sales for the week.

Jen Fizer: 23:38

This is what payroll cost me, this is what rent is, so that they could kind of start to understand, like they see all the money coming in but they don't necessarily see where it's going. So they think that it's like all this money coming in and I must just be pocketing it because what else? But you know it's it's. That was the downside to me stepping out. So that is why I've tried to reconnect with this new group in a in a better way, so that we kind of get off on that good, good start, so that they know that I have their best interests in mind and that they know that they can come to me with any questions or concerns or things that they would like to change, without feeling like it's. They need to internalize it and then kind of group you know form a little group, posse of hatred.

Philip Sessions: 24:28

Yeah, yeah, that is definitely tough and that's how I felt sometimes with leadership, and I try to think about their perspective and everything, and that's one thing that I wish that they would do. It's not about showing all the numbers and showing, hey, here's what we're bringing in, but here's what's going out, but just talking about these things and even asking for those suggestions, and I get it. They're the ones looking at the big picture, they're seeing five years ahead and so they're able to course correct as we go. But it would be nice to be felt, heard and and look at these suggestions and at least told, hey, the reason why we're not moving forward with this is because of this. And even if that was like senior management telling middle management then telling us, or something like that, it doesn't have to come from the mouth of senior management, but it'd be nice that it did go up the ladder and then come back down or something like that.

Philip Sessions: 25:21

What are some other suggestions for Is? I'm sure there's a lot of business owners right now, or leaders that are in this situation. What are some other things that you would suggest for them to help them move through a situation like this, or even prevent it altogether, if they can?

Jen Fizer: 25:39

Yeah. So the other suggestion that I have is if you have an employee and so if there's not something that you person like that the example I gave you with the employee survey and all of that like, I took responsibility for that because there were the employees that I had for good employees and I wanted them to stick around. But there have been other cases where one we might hire somebody new and they might, you know, for a week or two seem like a great employee and then all of a sudden, especially because we're dealing with younger ages, they'll start gossiping or they will start kind of complaining about one thing or another and negativity spreads so fast. And so I like to just nip it, like, if we have an employee, I don't care how good they are at their job, necessarily, but if they are toxic to the rest of the staff and are creating an environment where the rest of the staff is starting to turn, I want them gone.

Jen Fizer: 26:42

And, like I said, it doesn't matter necessarily how great they are at their job if nobody wants to be working with them or if they're creating an atmosphere where we're a very customer service-based business and customers can tell when they come in. If everybody's negative, they can tell and it starts to reflect. So we, we do not accept that. So that's honestly my, my number one tip, probably more than anything, is make sure that you have the staff that you want and you can train the right attitude, but the wrong attitude will never change.

Philip Sessions: 27:18

Yeah, an attitude is one of those things that you you really can't. You can train it to a certain extent, but if they're just always negative, at the best you'll get them to be neutral. You're never going to get them to be super cheerful, super positive or anything like that. And oftentimes in me being in a technical space, a lot of times that's what you try and hire for is a technical person, and well, to a certain extent you need a technical person to be an engineer, be a maintenance person or things like that. At the same time, you can't teach those soft skills, those personable traits, but you can teach those hard skills, the working with your hands, working with your mind, learning the computer systems. Those are things that you can teach. But people skills is one that you just kind of learn over time and you can spend a lot of time and hopefully do it or just get rid of them or not even hire them all together, right, so I want to transition here a little bit.

Philip Sessions: 28:18

So I know we brought this up here at the beginning, so you have the events that you're doing as well, which I think is really cool. So tell us what was going through your mind when you first decided you're going to start doing some local, like a monthly lunch and learn and everything. So what was going through your mind to start this?

Jen Fizer: 28:37

So it was actually one of those ideas that, when I was considering buying the coffee shop, that was one of those things that I was like, yes, I want to do lunch and learn, but I wanted to have all of these different things book clubs, you know different things for the community and so I bought in October. 2019, 2020 was not a good year for in-person events, and so we they kind of got put on the back burner until this year and it was. I think it's kind of one of those things where I was finally ready for it. I think if I had tried it at an earlier date, I would have. I would not have had the connections that I have now. I wouldn't have had the kind of that confidence to start it that I needed to, even in the community. I started so in October of 2021, I joined two. You know, I joined one board and then a few months later I joined another board, and so that was where I kind of started community. That like one's a, an organization that focuses on the square and businesses on the square, and then the other one was our chamber and I joined the tourism committee, and so between those two, I started making connections with other people in the community that I had not known before.

Jen Fizer: 29:59

I am not from Harrisonville, I moved there. I'm a transplant, you know. I moved there when I was 24, 25 or something. So you know, I don't know the people in the town, and even though I bought a coffee shop again, it was kind of I always worked full time for the most part while I owned it, so I didn't necessarily know if a lot of our customers either, and so I needed that kind of that time to start up, build some. It's just some sense of community with the people that are in the town and kind of learn who knows what, who could I use for lunch and learns those kinds of things.

Jen Fizer: 30:37

And so I started those in April.

Jen Fizer: 30:40

We've had a phenomenal turnout, like it's been such a fun experience.

Jen Fizer: 30:46

So I've had April, may, june, july I think we've had five and the amount of business owners that I've been able to connect with has been really a really fun experience and in a lot of ways I've started to kind of create a leadership role for myself as the one that's bringing all of this to Harrisonville, because I bring people outside of the community to speak. It's been a lot of fun but, like I said, I needed the confidence in order to be able to do it and the resources. We also started like a book club, which that I've done off and on over the years, but I'm again I'm the one that's leading the book club. So it's another speaking opportunity for me and we are doing we have girls nights out on third Thursdays and so that's another kind of like group of business owners that are coming together to put on an event. So all of those things have really just started to take off in the last year and a lot of speaking opportunities within those. So I like communication probably more than anything.

Philip Sessions: 31:58

Nice, nice. Well, you know, I love all that. It's such a great thing. And so how has that impacted your business? Because obviously you're doing these engagements, you're doing the game nights, you're doing these lunch and lunches bringing different people in. That really has nothing to do with coffee, but how has that really impacted your business?

Jen Fizer: 32:19

It's been very good for business. I think in a lot of ways people automatically look to coffee shops to be that kind of hub for things that are going on. So it's sort of a natural progression to be hosting these things with not only on top of all the things that I personally am doing. We have I don't know how many Bible studies that meet there. We have a knitting group. We have like people that meet there for business meetings. All the time. People kind of set up shop and you know insurance salesmen and they come in. All of their people come in and meet them there. So it's just that space that everybody wants to be in and you can feel like like I don't care, we sit there all day. We've got plenty of space. So you know, everybody feels welcome and that's what I've wanted. I just wanted that to be kind of the spot where everybody goes for breakfast, lunch and coffee.

Philip Sessions: 33:18

Nice that's and that's great. And I know I use coffee shops all the time. I try not use the woke places. We definitely got a lot of local coffee shops, so I try to use that as much as possible. When I do networking events or when I just do one on one. It's a really easy spot to go and it's usually relatively cheap. I mean five bucks versus 10 to 15.

Philip Sessions: 33:40

If you're going to go grab lunch with somebody, that's obviously another perfect way to do it, but you kind of feel a little more rushed to eat and then you're not able to talk as much as when you're just taking a sip of coffee and these are talking some more and everything. So coffee places are definitely the place to go. But on a personal perspective, how has you getting more comfortable with speaking and doing these presentations and these little, if you will, you know workshops, lunch and lunch and learn all that? How has all of that helped you on a personal basis? I mean business as well, but you mentioned that a little bit. So what about on a personal side?

Jen Fizer: 34:17

So there's a couple of facets to this. My husband passed away in November of 2020 and his family and his friends and I we decided to create a scholarship for him, and so we give away literally thousands of dollars every year to a high school senior that wants to go into a trade. And the way that it's held is because I'm constantly speaking to people, but also public speaking at the event. We do barbecue every year, a competition barbecue, which is a lot of fun. If you're in the Kansas City area, it's in March or April every year and we you know, so I'm up there, I'm presenting the winners, and there's usually a hundred or so people up there.

Jen Fizer: 35:05

Most people are terrified of speaking in front of groups, as you probably are aware of. So, and when you amplify that with a microphone and hundreds of people, nobody wants to go up on stage. So there's me and one of the friends that we're both very comfortable with public speaking, so we generally are the talking heads for the event, but we, you know, even just going over the rules when we're meeting with the teams, that's a group of probably 50 different people that I'm talking to. So in that way, I've become so comfortable just speaking in front of groups that it's like I can do it on the fly. It's also helps because I've been on the news, I've been interviewed multiple times by the Kansas City news channels. Today we had our congressman, mark Alford, that came to the coffee shop for a meet and greet. So it's just it makes you comfortable in any situation, no matter who you have to talk to, and so you kind of just customer service in general, owning a coffee shop, you have to talk to a lot of different people, but being comfortable doing it in front of large groups, even like, for instance, tomorrow we are having a team meeting so there will be 20 different people there. I will be talking in front of that group.

Jen Fizer: 36:22

So there are so many instances where being comfortable with communicating whatever it is that you need to communicate comes in handy. So that for me it's just personally like I feel like I've made better connections with people. I can relate to people better, being able to communicate well with them, not being scared to go up and just talk to somebody. That is I'm also like I'm a huge introvert, like I would I've left to my own devices, would probably sit at home all the time, but I Feel like I always joke that I have extrovert gen, introvert gen that are on my shoulders and so extrovert gen always plans my schedule and then introvert gen hates extrovert gen. But that's what happens.

Philip Sessions: 37:11

But I feel like you need that in order to Get out of your shell and it just makes, makes opportunities come your way that otherwise, yeah, I love that and I feel like that's just my story about why I started just speaking and getting in front of people in general because I felt like I was always overlooked and then, because I started speaking, more People have started to admire the fact that I get up there and speak.

Philip Sessions: 37:38

I don't look like I'm scared, that I look like I know what I'm doing, when there's a lot of times I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm just going up there, I'm winging it and just trying to figure it out as I'm speaking, not when I'm actually on a stage speaking, but kind of More like oh hey, we need you to go speak now. Okay, cool, here's the mic, let's let's just talk and figure it out. And because of that repetition, it's made it where it's a more natural, more comfortable thing. And, and like you mentioned, that, you become this figurehead within your city, within the people around you, which is such a cool thing that you don't get if you don't get comfortable with speaking and communicating, even if it is just a one-on-one conversation. You got to start somewhere. It's such an important thing to learn.

Jen Fizer: 38:24

Yeah, one. And what happens is if you do it with one group you know, say that you're willing to go up and talk because X made you. Then when you go to the next group, oh, they're like oh, jen will talk, jen's fine with talking in front of people, so it just kind of naturally creates all these opportunities. But, like I said, that wouldn't normally come because if you just kind of sit back and don't take that Initiative to start talking to people, people like you will just kind of fade away and people won't notice you poke. People won't Want to be. They won't be looking to you to be the leader in the group, even if you don't want to be the leader. Just having some sort of input is Important yeah, I agree with that.

Philip Sessions: 39:10

And one last thing that we're getting to our last question, because you reminded me, I did a local copy networking event and one of the guys we kind of did a little joint thing together and he's like you know what, I'm just gonna invite the mayor again. It's a small city, so the mayor ended up coming out and because of him Meeting and we met and we talked a little bit and he was like oh wow, I didn't, I didn't know you were a speaking coach. We could really use somebody for some more events. So I actually got to be the Not narrator I can't think of what they use but basically I was one that did like all the talking for the whole state of the city Address, which is really cool. So I'm like going back and forth like here's this person, here's what they did, and they'd come up there and give an award and just go back and forth and it was a lot of reading.

Philip Sessions: 39:54

But because of my speaking and being in that opportunity and doing those things, I was able to meet the mayor, I was able to deliver at the state of the city address and everything, which was really cool. So, if you aren't, for those of you in the audience who aren't getting out there and speaking. Make sure that you start doing it, because you never know what opportunity is right around the corner. But, jen, this has been awesome and I want to get to our last question, and that is, if you can only share one message for the rest of your life, what would that message be?

Jen Fizer: 40:26

So my answer to this is always that whatever your current situation is Can change.

Jen Fizer: 40:33

So if you're happy with where you're at but you want to be even further, you have the power to change that, and if you're not happy with where you are, you also have the power to change that. I look back on Especially my early years of my career. I was in jobs that I hated, but I felt like they were leading to nowhere. But I just slowly started taking these steps to. I took different college classes. I would just apply to jobs that it seemed like I had no opportunity to get, and I just started talking to people again and Slowly my life started to turn and let my career in a way. But I also, through all of those steps and through all of those jobs that I thought I hated, they taught me so much that I need today that you know. You may not know why you're going through things at the time, but you have the power to get out of your situation and you never know what what you might be taking from today's situation that will help you in the future.

Philip Sessions: 41:39

Grab life by the horns, Absolutely. I just go and make it yours, especially being here in the States. We can go make anything happen within reason that we want to happen. It just takes a little bit of action. But, people want to follow you, especially if there was a. I've been saying Harrisville, it's Harrisonville, harrisonville.

Jen Fizer: 42:01

Yeah, Harrisonville.

Philip Sessions: 42:04

Harrisonville, the. So if anybody's in Harrisonville, definitely go check out Brickhouse coffee there, but if they're not, and they have to connect with you digitally, where is the best place for them to reach you out?

Jen Fizer: 42:16

Okay, so, as you mentioned, you can buy our coffee online and that's brickhousecoffee, and we are on Facebook and Instagram. Brickhouse coffee bar and eatery is Facebook it's nice. It's also a long name, sorry and then Instagram is at BH coffee bar, so you can find us on any of those. Me personally, I'm Jennifer Pfizer on Facebook and at Jen Pfizer on Instagram.

Philip Sessions: 42:46

Awesome. Well, jen, once again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing a little bit about the life of the CEO and business owner and how they go about communicating with their team, especially a young team like the team that you have.

Jen Fizer: 43:02

Yes, thank you for having me. I.