Beyond the Brew: Why Everyone Needs a Coffee Club

In this episode, I reflect on the importance of coffee clubs and building meaningful connections through shared interests. After attending the recent Coffee Expo in Houston, I observed how many attendees came with friends or colleagues, which sparked thoughts about my own experience forming a coffee club at my former workplace. What started as making coffee for a few coworkers evolved into a daily gathering of 10-12 people, where we connected beyond just coffee – discussing politics, personal experiences, and eventually forming friendships that continue today.

I explore why finding community becomes challenging after leaving school, and how coffee clubs provide an accessible way to develop relationships. Listeners will learn practical strategies for finding their own coffee community – whether at coffee shops, work environments, or local meetups – and why stepping outside your comfort zone is essential for creating these meaningful connections. This episode is about how coffee can be the starting point, but the real value lies in the relationships and self-discovery that emerge from these gatherings.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:25 My Personal Coffee Club Story
• 3:01 Beyond Coffee: What We Really Share
• 5:18 Why Coffee Clubs Are Critical Today
• 7:30 How to Find Your Coffee Community
• 11:24 Taking the First Step: Conversation Starters

Transcript

[00:00:00] We're live right now. I hope all is well with you. I'm doing pretty good and today is Saturday May 3rd 2025. I just want to come on here and talk about something that I've been thinking about. Just recently they just had the coffee expo here in Houston and it was a good experience. It was fine. No problems whatsoever. But one thing I did notice that was really cool but something I don't think people talk about is that there's a lot of people that didn't come by themselves. I actually came by myself. As you already know probably, I'm an introvert. I like to do things on my own and all that stuff. But there's a lot of people there that came with people. I noticed that quite a bit and it didn't bother me or anything. It's just more so like an observation that I did notice and that's pretty cool. You know that they're experiencing the whole thing together as friends, as colleagues, as whatever it may be. So I do want to talk about a story so to speak and then we'll get to the whole reason why we're doing this. But really the topic of today is all about what is it? Coffee clubs.

[01:25] Do you need one? Why is it critical in your life? And have I ever had a coffee club? And yes, I did. Years ago, I still kind of do consulting from time to time engineering but when I was working, and when I was starting to understand or discover this whole coffee thing, I was at work. I'm not gonna give you the names or anything. That doesn't really matter. But I make coffee for myself. See that's the whole thing with this is that I tend to do things on my own. And there's one guy he said, "Hey, why don't you start making coffee for a couple of us?" I was like, "Nah, I don't want to do all that."

[02:07] So I said fine, let's go ahead and do it and I went ahead and did that whole thing. When it actually came to making coffee for people, it was a little overwhelming for me, making coffee for this person, that person, probably trying to figure out what they would like. And then it got to the point to where I was just saying, "Hey, this is what I got guys. This is the coffee I'm making." So I made coffee and then more people started to show up. I think at the time our peak was about 10 to 12 people in a small little cubicle and everything, and some of the mid-level managers and upper-ups, they were kind of getting annoyed about the whole situation.

[03:03] But we continued on, we did it every day, we did it for a long time and it was beyond just coffee. It was us just getting to know each other. We talked about our experience, how we got there, how we actually made it to the place that we were at. We think it was luck. We do have some experience, but whatever. We start talking about politics, money, helping each other out. We started to communicate and hang out outside of work. Some of us we still talk to this day.

I guess what I'm saying is that it starts with coffee. The whole thing starts with coffee, but truthfully, we're just trying to find things about ourselves and people in general, right? And I think that's gonna be the biggest takeaway here. All of us were about in our 20s and 30s and it was interesting. It was more about us getting to know each other and at times, we were getting to know more about ourselves.

It's beyond the coffee, was beyond just us drinking this coffee that I would brew that I roasted. Getting their opinions and all that stuff was extremely helpful. That helped me along my journey of understanding how people drink coffee. That's besides the point. I guess what I'm getting at is that I think everybody needs a form of coffee club. It's very hard to find friends when you're out of school. We get stuck in our ways. We like to do the things that we like to do and I think at times, at least the coffee club that I had, was that it gave us an opportunity to really get to know who we were in a very easy casual type of way. And it was pretty cool because again, a lot of us still talk today, some of us don't and all that good stuff. But at the end of the day, it's a way to where we can grow, understand each other, understand ourselves and then keep going into the place to where we don't know.

[05:18] I guess what I'm saying is that it's critical. It's important. It's beyond just knowing which varietals that you like or don't like, but you can go to different family and friend functions, you get to know each other even more so. And I may have to find a new coffee club. Of course, I still have my peeps, my people and everything with the one that I did form with the guy who helped me out with this.

But I think it's very critical that we do try to form some type of relationship with other people around coffee, but not necessarily about coffee if that makes sense. Because I think what's gonna eventually happen is that you'll talk about the coffees, you'll enjoy the coffees, you'll probably go to different places in coffee shops and all that stuff. And you can ask a person: How is their week? How is their month? What kind of things are they working on? Are they working on any interesting projects? How's your daughter? How's your son? All those different things that you can ask them or they can ask you. Those are kind of the things that we are getting at and trying to really understand as we try to live through life.

[07:30] So that's more the story, the idea that I'm thinking about right now. And I think that's why it's extremely critical that you go ahead and also find your own coffee club. So let's just say you're in your 30s and you're missing that people connection. Where do you find these people? Probably coffee shops. I think coffee shops is a good way to start. Just go there, go to a couple different coffee shops. Probably see if you can pinpoint some regulars, somebody that may look interesting to you.

I'm not so much trying to date anybody, anything like that. If that happens, that happens. That's your own prerogative. But at the end of the day, you're just trying to get to know somebody. Probably strike up a conversation, see what they're all about, see what they like. You already have something in common. You love coffee. You're already there in a place where you can actually foster those relationships.

So start there, probably even start at work. See if there's other people around. Probably there's some people around your office that are geeking out about coffee. The reason why I say coffee - you can say tea if you like tea. It's just best to have something that you already have in common with each other. Because then that can branch out to other things that you may be interested in or like.

So you can go to work, probably source out different people. I actually did that with one of my good friends. He was using an AeroPress and we geeked out about that and he started a little business. I helped out with that and then from time to time we still talk to each other every month. So it could be work. It could be meetup groups. It could be coffee functions within the city that you're in - go to those. It's go to those and express yourself and experience it for what it is.

[09:45] I think those are some of the good things that you can do in order to kind of put yourself out of your comfort zone because that's the thing about this - you have to be out of your comfort zone. You have to be in a place where you're vulnerable. You're willing to get to know somebody else and again the beauty of it is that it does start with coffee. You could talk about what you like about coffee. You can talk about what you don't like about coffee. You can talk about different pour over methods that you use or espresso or whatever. It doesn't matter and then you can start to talk about life, what you do in your world, if you want to start a business, all that type of stuff.

That's just the start because you don't know really where that relationship, friendship is gonna go. But you're gonna have to get out of your comfort zone. You can't do this at home only. You have to go to the places where you have that common love for something because then eventually you may have some other things that you may actually like too, that you would like to start to share with people.

I think that's the beauty of it because I would say most of us, we weren't so much introverts. We're just people. But I know now a lot of us are more talkative. We talk to many other people, we express ourselves, we care deeply about the things that we truly really care about, right? And it's just a friendship at the end of the day. That's all you're really trying to create - a friendship.

And it's okay for you to have multiple coffee clubs for whatever reason. But at the end of the day, you have to push yourself, you have to get out there. You have to go to the places where the possibilities are what they are.

[11:24] And don't be afraid to say, "Hey, I am this person." Or I use myself for an example to conclude: "Hello, my name is Oki. I love coffee. I love pour overs, light roasted coffee. Do you like light roast? Who are you? What are you about? Cool. Do you mind we just talk for a couple minutes? I know this may seem kind of weird, but you seem like a very interesting person. What kind of stuff do you like about coffee? What don't you like?" And you keep going from there.

And then probably when you end off on a conversation, you can say: "Hey, I know this may sound weird. I'm in my 20s, my 30s, or 40s or whatever and you seem like a cool person. Would you be interested in having like conversations like this? Probably once a week or once a month? I think it'll be cool if we can just have a talk."

We may bring some other people involved or whatever. That may be too loaded up front. But at the end of the day, you can just probably start off with "What's your Instagram? What's your phone number? I'm gonna send you some stuff about these coffee shops and coffee roasters that I'm trying." Start with coffee, lead with coffee. Probably even stay with coffee, but I think eventually you're gonna be talking about each other's lives, other things that you like or don't like and then eventually you could probably set some rules about what you want to talk about, what you don't want to talk about. But that's life and friendship, right?

[12:14] So that's me. That's my take about this whole group activity type of things because it was really cool to kind of see people, multiple people walking together and understanding that they were here for a reason. They're here because they have that common commonality in coffee, but it could be bigger and more than that. So go with that, lean with that.

So this is me, Okey at Everyday Being signing off. So go find your coffee club. Talk to you later. Bye.