Category: Uncategorized

“Never trust anyone who doesn’t drink coffee.” – AJ Lee

I don’t remember life without coffee. Just like as a child I do not remember life without mom and dad. I grew up during the generation when the divorce rate in America began to rise. I was a member of the minority in my circle; my parents were still married. They remained that way for fifty seven years, until I lost my dad earlier this year just a few days before their 57th wedding anniversary. What I wouldn’t do to share another cup of coffee with him. One black for me and one with a half teaspoon of brown sugar for him.

My dad loved to enjoy his cup of coffee in a fancy little cup and saucer, one of which I keep today in my cupboard and much like the one I recall from my first cup of coffee. It probably wasn’t my first cup but it is my first memory and a fond one at that. I felt so special and just like a big boy. I am the baby of the family so that was a big deal.

The memory is of my grandma giving me coffee after dinner in a small, fancy cup and saucer. The reality is that it was more milk than coffee, but it was special and made me feel as such, nonetheless. As the youngest, it was easy to get lost and feel like an outsider looking in. There is a five year gap between me and my closest cousin and seven between me and my closest sibling.  All my relatives closest in age to me either did not live nearby or we just didn’t get together as much so I was on my own a lot. The coffee made me feel a part of.

As I grew up, so did my love for coffee. I later discovered as I ventured into the coffee world that what grandma served me is actually a Spanish drink; a Café Manchado which is milk flavored with coffee. Who woulda thunk?

Whether that cup started it or not, the memory is strong as is many I hold dear to my heart that involved moments I shared with friends and family over a cup of coffee or two. The coffee connection is something special and continues to grow in me.  In fact, the latest venture in the entrepreneurial life of my wife and I is the result of our coffee business acquiring a pie shop & eatery. How fitting is it that we now are privileged to provide a space for connections to be made over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. If you can’t find happiness in that, something is just not right.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” – Jack, Orphan X, A novel by Gregg Hurwitz

So, are you a jerk? All of us can be sometimes, right? We are human. The point is, there’s no point in being a jerk. Where does it get you in life? What purpose does it serve? I know some argue against what I closed the last part with…”Nice guys finish first”. In all honesty, I’m probably wrong. That’s right, I’m admitting I am wrong. Nice guys really do finish last. Lap one, heat one, game one, battle one. Because what are the other sayings?. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.” “Slow and steady wins the race.” However you want to phrase it, life is long. Careers are long. The old adage “you have to step on a few backs to climb to the top” doesn’t have to be true – it isn’t true. Sure, people still do it, but it doesn’t have to be like that. And, it shouldn’t be like that. The people that believe that are the people that are going to crash in the end. They are the ones that will be eating a glass sandwich, with a side of $^!# Why? Because we are watching. We see what they are really up to.

Remember, we live, work, and play in a brave new world. A world where there are so many watching eyes and listening ears. There’s really nowhere to hide anymore so there’s no reason to be anything but yourself. At home, at work, at play whether you’re the owner, boss, manager, worker bee, buyer, seller, customer, or the sales person, it just doesn’t matter. People want connection, interaction, and engagement. People want to feel heard, respected, and cared for.

I don’t know what’s coming next, but this where we are today. If I want my businesses to survive I have to take care of my customers. I have to treat them right even when they’re wrong. A happy customer might tell a few people but a pissed off customer will tell as many as they can.

I need to remember, I can’t please everyone. There will always be those customers that no matter what I do or what I say I will never please them. That’s ok, the key is to recognize it and move on. Remember, the impact is exponential. People see it, they’re watching. So, I treat the customer right; good customer, bad customer, vocal customer, or quiet customer, a customer is a customer. They can leave a good review, bad review, or no review at all. The reality is they leave their Likes, loves, retweets, thumbs up, thumbs down, happy faces, sad faces, or pissed off faces all for the world to see through the glass.

I watch as well. I watch the posts, the comments and all the interactions and engagements. It halpe me serve my customers better. Therefore, it me serve my business better. I am investing I the long game, with double paned windows.

So what’s the bottom line? What’s the conclusion? We all know the internet has changed the landscape forever. Closed door operations are becoming obsolete. Customers are people and so are we. We are emotional creatures and want to feel good. We crave attention, connection, to be heard, and understood. The only way to operate behind the glass is to keep it clean and be transparent. Leave the window dressing for the holidays. Be real, be authentic, and be genuine. Yes, three words that say the same thing, that’s how important it is today so triple down on authenticity.

Create those connections. Nurture those relationships. Listen, respond, and engage. Just be you and don’t be a jerk. And, if you are a jerk. Learn to be nice and take the glass sandwich off the menu.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“You’re either humble or you’re not. If you were a jerk before the fame, you just become a jerk with a bigger spotlight. Whoever you are really comes through.” – Oprah Winfrey

Well? Any answers? Oh, you forgot the question. I closed last time asking how you live behind closed doors? Really, no need to answer, the doors are made of glass. So I can see you. But it is something to think about, however. So, read on.

We can frost, paint, tint, stain, or do anything we can think of to hide who we are. We can paint our windows any which way we like. At the end of the day, it’s still glass and the paint will fade one day revealing what really lies inside, and, glass can shatter at any moment.

So how do we deal with painted glass? Paint it black? Oh, right, we only paint red doors black. Be authentic! Easy, right? So what does that mean? Let’s look at a couple definitions…

Au-then-tic: adjective
– of undisputed origin; genuine.
– true to one’s own personality, spirit, or character

synonyms: genuine, original, real, actual, pukka, bona fide, true, veritable; sterling; attested, undisputed, rightful, legitimate, lawful, legal, valid

Again, easy right?

I don’t know how everyone was raised, but I was taught to be myself. Be honest, open, and true to myself. That sounds like I was taught to be authentic. The difference when I was growing up was that we weren’t in the snow globe yet. I could get away with being a little “fake” here and a little “dishonest” there. Was it right? No, of course not. But it was easier to get away with. At least for a little while.

Today, however, all eyes are on us. Those 20 eyes again, always watching, and yes, even when we are sleeping. Remember that picture you posted on Instagram before bed? That comment you posted on your company page when responding to a customer service question? Or that nasty email you sent out about your manager, the one you accidentally hit reply all after a late night working from home? Do I really need to keep going? By the way, I know you weren’t really working late at night from home, you were binging on NetFlix, we all saw you in the globe!

Your day might be over once your head hits the pillow, but others? They’re watching! If you’re lucky, that’s all they are doing. The reality is, many are watching, lurking, commenting, sharing, liking, disliking, and doing everything else the capabilities of the internet allow.

The solution? Just be real, be authentic, be yourself. It’s the only way to be in this brave new world where everyone has a stage, an audience, a voice, and the balls to use them all. It’s the only way to be period. It’s the only way to be truly happy. Isn’t that what we all really want, anyway? Isn’t that one thing we all can agree on? We can disagree on how we go about becoming happy, but I think we all want to be happy.

Real, lasting, contagious happiness starts with being authentic. Why? Because we all are who we are, period. Embrace it, share it, expose it, and most importantly, be authentically it; you that is!

But, if you want to paint your windows. Go right ahead; just make sure they genuinely reflect what lies inside because you can paint your window any which way you want but at the end of the day, it’s just window dressing. And, if you’re just a jerk, Godspeed my friend, it’s no way to be. Not if you want to be happy.

So don’t be a jerk. Doesn’t matter what you do in life, nobody likes a jerk. And, in the brave new world, painted windows and all, nice guys finish first. Well, they at least outlast the jerks.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery.” – Aldous Huxley

Dear customer service,

I bought your product second hand over the weekend and it doesn’t work. It must be broken or missing parts. Please send me the parts or a new unit as soon as possible? I am going to need it next week.

****

Hi There, I am sorry to hear about the issue you are having with our product. I will more than happy to help you out but will need some information first so I can determine what you need to get your product working properly. Please provide the following information.

– Model number
– Production date
– a brief description of the issue
– a few pictures of the product.

Thank you…

WOW! really? That’s alot. Way to stand by your product. I just want a new one. Please send to my address below. If you can’t help me I’m going to write a bad review on Amazon and any other site I can.

I am about to hit the 1K follower mark on Twitter, I have over 100 FaceBook friends, I belong to two mommy groups with blogs, both of which I have written posts for. I will share everywhere that your product is horrible and the customer service is worse.

****

It’s not word for word but it’s the gist of an email correspondence with a customer. One of many actually. And, as you can tell, it was with a disgruntled customer. I would also add angry, annoying, entitled and maybe a few other choice adjectives I’ll leave out. Can you guess what my first thought was? I’ll keep that to myself as well to keep this as PG as possible.

My second thought was. Are you kidding me? You buy this used somewhere, it doesn’t work and you won’t even answer three simple questions, and send a picture or two? All so I can determine exactly what is needed to help you and get the product working? No, that’s asking way too much.

Instead I am threatened with negative word of mouth to be spread across her extensive social media networks if I don’t send her a brand new product. Even though I am trying to help? Really?

So what would you do? I know, I know. The customer is always right. Even when they’re not, right? You know what I say to that?  I better not say that either. So what did I do? To be honest, I don’t think I ever heard back from this particular customer. This really doesn’t happen all the time, but it does more than it should. Most of the time the requested information is provided. The information is going to help me help you better. Why would anyone refuse to send this information?

In these types of cases, I usually offer to send the parts for free and just ask the customer to cover the shipping. If they actually do need a new unit I’ll often offer them a deep discount.

Hear me now! I don’t do this because they are right. I do it because it’s the right thing to do.

We absolutely live in a brave new world. It’s easy to threaten, bully, and pester. It’s easy to leave a bad review, and spread negativity from the roof tops. Truthful or not it doesn’t matter. The quiet, the shy, and the timid. The kind, the polite, and the respectful. Can flip the switch to the dark side behind their screen and with a few strokes of a keyboard and push of a button they can send, post, submit, and tweet it into cyber space for all to see.

The incident above took place a while back. FaceBook and Twitter were still in their infancy. So, in one sense the threat was real. We didn’t yet know what the impact would be. Would negative word of mouth on social media crush us? Probably not crush it but it might hurt us. What we did know is that bad Amazon reviews do hurt. That is an entirely different story. I have a lot to share about Amazon, but I’ll save that for another time.

So again, regardless if the customer really is right or not, we choose to do what’s right. That is what keeps us going. I don’t respond well to threats or negativity, but I have learned to process it before taking action. Those twenty eyes are watching, remember?

At the end of the day, I’d rather be happy than right. I’d rather have a thriving business instead of struggling every day to make a sale because Jane Doe had a bad day and took it out on us, all over the internet.

The other side? I’m a regular person like you, and that angry customer. We are not a giant conglomerate, fortune 500 company. We are regular people, and we care about our customers. Not because they make us rich but because they keep us in business. They help pay for volley ball camp for our daughter and hockey sticks for our son. And groceries for our pantry. Not a fancy car, or second home on a tropical beach.

I can’t help but think to myself  “how miserable is this person’s life?” I mean is life so bad, are you so unhappy, angry, and spiteful that you need to bring others down with you? As they say, misery loves company. Nothing bonds a relationship like a common enemy.

Rant over – we can revisit deeper in another piece. The reality is this, the internet and social media has evolved beyond expectation. It has changed just about everything, but everything comes full circle. All those negative, disgruntled, wolf crying ass clowns have the same twenty eyes on them.

Customers and businesses alike live together inside the glass. A little patience, kindness, compassion, and understanding go a long way. So, how do you live behind closed doors?…

Remember, they are made of glass!

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.”  – George Orwell

You came back, Thanks! I knew you would, ‘cuz I’ve been watching. So have the twenty eyes in all the other heads.

Alright, I haven’t been watching. But I am sure that a lot more than twenty others have. It’s the world we live in.

Let me paint a picture…

Kerry & Kevin working at their computers in the office. Strange electronic sound buzzes from Kerry’s side.

Kerry – “Kids are home, can you put the dogs out? They have friends with them”
Me – “What do you mean they’re home, how do you know?”
Kerry – “I was just notified.”
Me – “What do you mean you were just notified?”
Kerry – “I have a tracking app on my phone.”
Me – “What? Did you put a dog chip in them or something?”
Kerry – “No, it tracks their phone”
Me – “Hmmm. do you track me too?”
Kerry – “Every step you take!”
Me – “Hmm.”

*****

Strange electronic sounds buzzes from Kerry’s phone.

Me – “I think your phone is acting up, the kids are going to bed.”
Kerry – “Davan’s phone needs to be charged.”
Me – “You’re phone told you that?”
Kerry – “Yes.”
Me – “Hmm.”

*****

Strange electronic sounds buzzes from Kerry’s phone.

Kerry – “Hmmm.”
Me – “See, it’s acting up. He can’t be home yet, he’s going to his friend’s house.”
Kerry – “I know, he just got there and his top speed was 75MPH.”
Me – “Hmm. The speed limit is 50-65 on those roads. Call him right now.”

*****

Scary, right? Great at the same time, hence my bittersweet relationship with technology. And, that is only one app, one capability. We can track the kids and know if they are online, offline, trying to watch something inappropriate, or just playing a game. You name it, we can monitor it. Thank goodness this technology wasn’t around when I was growing up.

So that’s great for monitoring your kids, right? What about out in the “real” world now? When I say real world, I mean the fake world. You know the cyber, internet, social media world. Or is that the real world now? I still get confused.

My point is, there’s nowhere to hide any more. All eyes are watching. All the time. It’s like a great big cyber Santa machine. The world knows if you’ve been naughty or nice. To your friends, your family, your parents, boss, colleagues, customers, heck, even your dog. So, STOP kicking your dog ASSHOLE! Sorry, I love dogs.

Back to the point. We now live in a giant snow globe. Everyone everywhere has a seat with a view. Sure, we can shake it up a bit and decrease the visibility, but the dust, the snow, always settles. I know this isn’t new to anyone. This isn’t some profound realization I’m sharing, but I want to share my story and experience with it. Hopefully, provide some insight that will help you navigate through the onlookers. If nothing else, provide a few laughs.

The fact is, I am simply amazed by people. Amazed! The brilliance, creativity, ingenuity. The knowledge, skill, expertise. The love, compassion, charity. The ignorance, stupidity, judgment. The hatred, brutality, greed. The etc, etc, etc. Yes, it’s all there to see. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Taking center stage, the grand performance for all to witness. And like, and share, and comment. And rant, and rave, and praise. And block, and stalk, and mock. Whatever you want to do. However you want to do it. Whenever you want to do it. Whoever you want to be. Whoever you want to see. It’s endless and senseless. Yet it’s absolutely amazing.

You better. Watch what you say. Watch what you do. Watch how you say it. Watch how you do it because those twenty eyes are watching. Think twice or thrice, but not too loud because they just might hear as well.

Get ready for the brave new world. No really, that’s the title of the next part.
See you next time.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide” – Edward Jr. Holland / Lamont Dozier / Brian Holland, Martha & The Vandellas

In part one I left you with a warning. A warning that change is going to happen despite us and we can’t stop it. There is literally nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Sitting around with friends, reading magazines, listening to music, riding bikes, playing football, playing ding dong ditch, or whatever it was, we were always looking to have a good time. Even if we were just sitting around doing nothing, hanging on the corner, sitting on our skateboards talking about this and that while waiting for another VW bug to go by so we could punch our friend. We made it fun.

The thing we weren’t doing was imagining that one day our very own kids would be hanging out with their friends each on a different couch, in a different house, in a different state playing video games; chatting, playing, live in real time while snap chatting, or insta-posting, tic toking, or whatever it is they do now.

You know how I know what they are doing? Where they are doing it? Who they are doing it with? There’s an app for that! Even that is a decade or so old at this point.

No, we weren’t just lazy, we were very active, very creative, and very imaginative; we had to be or we would go crazy. Sure we thought, “man it would be rad if we could play Atari outside on a nice day like this.” And, that is how it all starts, with a simple thought like that.

What came later from a thought like that was hand held video games. It was probably thought up by some kid once sitting on his skateboard with his buddies on a nice summer day. OK, we had hand held games too, remember the ones with water that you had to try to get the balls in the basket?

I bet RockBand was probably created by kids like us too. Friends hanging out playing air guitar concerts performing to a sold out crowd in their living room, in their tighty-whities no less, maybe even underoos! “All the world’s indeed a stage.”

Yes, we were imaginative kids indeed. Most of that stuff seemed great and awesome, but it seemed like far off, space age, Star Wars stuff. Except it wasn’t because someone, thought “It might sound far off but I can do it!” And they did. That’s the difference. That’s the secret sauce. It’s not some fancy formula. You think it then you do. That’s it.

People who know me, know I say things like “that was my idea”, “They stole my idea”, “If only I did something with that idea”, or “why didn’t I think of that?” That’s the deal. That’s the regret. If only I did. A life of “would ifs.” Unless, you do something about it.

Ideas are a dime a dozen and they are useless unless you do something with them. Remember in part one I ended with “someone has to invent it, why not you?” Be a doer and push us and the next generation forward. Fortunately, and sometimes unfortunately, there are people who did something to push technology forward to make our lives, our work, our hobbies, our free time, better, easier, faster, recordable, traceable, sharable, portable, playable, and so on.

I say unfortunately, because there are times I hate new technology. New inventions. What happened to “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it?” Sometimes I just want to unplug and go off the grid. It’s getting harder and harder to do that because there truly is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Or is there? Come back next time and see where I’m going with this. Because if you don’t I’ll know. So will everyone else!

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“Just take this as a warning. Know that there’s always a price for not being yourself.” – Benilde Little

“Rad.”
“What?”
“Check out this trick Caballero is doing in this picture.”
“Whoa, it says he’s doing an ollie and a 360 at the same time.”
“Cool.”
“Whoa, J , check this out.”
“What? What is it?”
“Check out this picture of Lita Ford, she’s practically naked.”
“Oh wow.”
“Give me that let me see.”
Joel reaches for the magazine and grabs it.
“Hey, I’m looking at..” rip!
“Great, now look what you did, jerk.”

I am sure you are thinking that’s a strange story to lead off with, right? But is it? Let me explain.

The scene:
San Jose, CA
Jason’s bedroom
Any day early Nineteen Eighty something.
One of the following playing in the background – Maiden, Priest, Rush, Sabbath, Ozzy… just shy of our discovery that changed the course of it all for us… Metallica, Slayer, Exodus – What a major turning point that was for us. More on that another time.

So, what were we doing? What is all this non-sense? We were reading magazines. We were sharing them, passing them back and forth, and pointing out pictures, talking about them. Commenting, making jokes, razzing them, and razzing each other. Cutting out pictures we wanted to pin on our walls. This was social media of the time.

Of course, the word social media didn’t even exist yet. There was no internet, at least not as we know it today. Computers were not a household item like a fridge or toaster. Homework assignments were still hand written on paper and cursive was a required skill all kids had to learn. There were no gaming apps, or online gaming – there was Atari, and we sat together and played it together in the same room next to each other because the joystick cords were a certain length, no wireless consoles or controllers yet. Didn’t bother us a bit and we loved it. We didn’t know any other way.

File sharing? DropBox, Air Drop, drag & drop, Google drive, rip & burn? Nope. We had to record our vinyl albums on to cassette tapes. That meant playing the album in its entirety, one side at a time. When one side finished we had to flip the album over, flip the tape over and repeat. That gave us plenty of time to write down the artist, album title, and song names on the blank cassette inserts. And, when it was finally done? Run it across the street to Jason’s and hand deliver the tape and get whatever tape he recorded. That was file sharing and transferring. More specifically, that was called tape trading.

It was global too. Not via the world wide web, however. There was no internet yet, remember? You had to go to a record store, buy certain magazines and way in the back were these classified-like ads that people posted requesting to exchange music tapes. You picked a few you liked and contacted them by snail mail or phone, but international calls were super expensive. Then you sent tapes back and forth snail mail again.

Except, when trading with your neighbor friends of course, so back to Jason’s house…
“Hey J, here’s Kill ‘Em All, can I get Show No Mercy?”
“Sure, here, take this too.”
“What is it?”
“Just a tape I made of my favorite metal songs that came out this year.”

That’s right, the mixed tape. And let me tell you…Big J was the master. He had volumes, and volumes, and more volumes – still does to this day. And, he still makes them for me. Only difference is they are in today’s modern format.

What made those mixed tapes even better was the WalkMan! It was one of the latest and greatest inventions then. We could now ride our bikes, walk to school, bomb the slopes, play donkey kong, you name it, all while blaring our favorite music with our stylish, oversized, foam padded head phones (which are coming back, actually). Brilliant!

We had fun back then, let me tell you! If only we had a way to create videos. Ok, we did have video, I’m not that old, but there was a not practical means yet. Most home videos were recorded on 8mm reels and watched on a projector. The first camcorders came out in the early 80’s and was large and expensive and were not a household item yet. Even if someone in our group had one, we didn’t even have a VCR (videocassette recorder) in our house yet. A VCR is how we would watch videos and movies at home; no streaming with Hulu or Netflix. Still no internet. The only thing streaming back then was us boys peeing in the backyard. Seeing who could make it go the farthest, or longest, or whatever.

That was social media of the 70’s & 80’s! Boy, those were fun times. So what is the point of all this? To be nostalgic? Nope. To point out how old I am? Nope.

It is simply to show you that things change. Technology pushes us forward in ways we could never imagine. Some are incremental improvements, others are quantum leaps. Some are positive, some are negative. No matter what happens, the fact is that it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. The main forms of communication then were –
Written: snail mail.
Voice: telephone.
Live: face to face.

Look at it today! I wouldn’t have dreamed up half of this stuff. So, here are the main points to introduce this series:

1. it’s going to happen, so you might as well embrace it.
2. Someone has to invent it, why not you?

Here’s your warning –
It’s coming whether you like it or not. If you don’t embrace it, you better at least accept it. Because if you don’t, you’re going to eat a glass sandwich…

Talk Soon,
Kevin W – Owner-Operator
@LEAP272
you have to leap if you want to live

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” – Sydney J Harris

Wait! Stop! What are you looking at? What are you reading? I’m appalled! How could you?

You do realize this is the final installment in a seven part series, right? Well, hopefully you read the previous six parts. Or are you one of those people? You, know who you are. You just can’t handle the wait, the suspense, or the buildup. You just have to know. NOW!

So, you read the end of the book first. You watch movie spoilers first. Then you start from the beginning.

I guess it really doesn’t matter. This isn’t some fancy who-done-it mystery thriller, although, it would probably make more sense if you read them in order. Your choice, though.

In the last six parts I discussed everything from business, start ups, moving, good decisions, bad decisions, being responsible, being irresponsible; basically, a variety of issues. What do they have to with each other? How do they all relate? Bear with me and I will try to sort it all out for you.

The title of the series is Jump In The Fire. Fire throughout history has metaphorically been both positive and negative. It’s been a symbol of destruction and rebirth, pain and cleansing, hatred and passion, fear and comfort, and more. I can go on and on but I’m sure you get the idea. Fire is a force of energy that can be both good and bad. The word jump, however, is pretty clear; it’s without a doubt an action word.

To bring it all home, the overarching lesson is that nothing gets accomplished in life sitting on the bench on the sidelines. I know, I know, what about the coaches, the staff,  and the second and third string players? Well, they aren’t doing nothing, they are coaching, watching, learning, becoming prepared in case they get the call. I’m referring to the ones with their arms crossed doing absolutely nothing. Especially, if they are sitting there complaining about their situation.

As I have shared, I have jumped in the fire many times. Sometimes I got burned sometimes I didn’t. When I got burned, it was usually because I didn’t think it through or didn’t think at all. They key is to find balance. That fine line between stupidity and fear. Jumping in with no thought at all is stupid. Fire is hot, you might get hurt. Thinking too much will paralyze you in fear and prevent you from jumping at all.

You know what? You’re going to get burned sometimes. That’s life. That’s business. That’s also how we learn. The key is to learn from our mistakes. Each burn we receive strengthens us and prepares us for what lays ahead.

If I didn’t jump in with Streightball I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did at that time. Of course, I wish I was a quicker learner then, but the fact is I learned. The lessons made me stronger and better prepared for the next venture.

The point of all this is to inspire you to get you off your ass and do something. Do that something that has always been nagging at the back of your mind. Do that something that you have always said you are going to do someday. It doesn’t matter how big or how small. It doesn’t even have to be starting your own business. Maybe it’s as simple as changing careers, taking acting lessons, asking you partner to marry you, writing a book, skydiving, or selling the farm and moving to the city (or in my case, selling the city home and buying the farm!) Whatever it is, stop thinking about it and figure out a way to do it.

Life is too short to rim run around the fire. Don’t be the one foot in one foot in person.

Whatever it is you want to do, do what have to do and think what you have to think to get prepared. Then jump right in and do it.

All we have is this moment. Don’t allow fear and regret to own it.

So come on – Jump in the fire!

Talk Soon,
Kevin W – Owner-Operator
@LEAP272
you have to leap if you want to live!

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love black coffee; the drink and the song by Black Flag. I also love Black Magic Cold Brew Coffee and the song by Slayer. Come to think of it, I also love red hot chili peppers; the food and the band. Wait, I’m seeing a pattern, are you? Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me step back a bit…

My love for coffee started at a very young age. My family has always been big coffee people. My earliest memory drinking coffee is at my grandma’s house in Willow Glen. Probably because it made me feel so special and grown up. She served me a small amount in a fancy cup and saucer, pretty special, right? I know, what a big boy! I drink coffee like the grownups!

Truth be told, it was more milk than coffee. Coffee flavored milk, actually. Little did I know that what she served me was a real drink.  A Spanish drink called a Café Manchado, which is a glass of milk flavored with a bit of coffee.

Whatever the ratio, it started a love for coffee that only grew over time. Fast forward to my early twenties – remember that first start up I discussed earlier in the series? You know the one that we jumped in a bit too early and a bit unprepared? That business was fueled almost solely by caffeine, and lots of it.

For me, a quad iced espresso – about four to five a day. Yes, you read that right, four to five quadruple espressos a day. A gutter junky had nothing on me.

Where was the easiest place to acquire these back then? You bet, Starbucks. At about $4 a pop, that just might be where the major business loss came from, if only there was a line for it on the P&L, I might have caught it earlier. Okay, I jest, but a $20/day coffee habit isn’t very feasible when launching a self-funded startup.

Summer or winter, that quad iced espresso was my drink. Now it didn’t start that way. It actually evolved from an iced quad latte. They, the baristas, never quite got ratio of milk to espresso that I like correct. Well, except for a few, but they didn’t work 24/7. I’m a real big boy now and I don’t like Cafe Manchados anymore. I like to taste my coffee. I like bold, strong flavored coffee. Probably a result from growing up with parents who drank strong French Roast.

Moving ahead again, my coffee habit is costing way too much at this point, and the first business is losing money faster than I can drink it so it was time to budget. The first start up is on the way out and cold brew coffee is barely surfacing; it’s not even a thing yet. Most people just brew regular coffee and chill it or pour it over ice. YUK! I’m tired of poor tasting, bitter, acidic iced coffee.

So…

I start making my own for personal consumption.  So here begins a period of research and development; the thing that was missing from the first start up. And, this wasn’t even a business…yet.  After what seemed like an endless series of experimenting, testing, and tweaking – Viola! I cracked the code and came up with my very own formula and process for my own cold brewed coffee. And it was delicious! A new hobby is born.

Oh yeah, and about those red hot chili peppers…

I attribute my love for spicy food to two main sources; my dad and life-long friend, Jason, AKA “Big J” – my brother from another mother.

Long story short, I started making a chile rojo that was spicy and super tasty! Friends and family started raving about both the coffee and sauce. Every time people were over they would ask for some of that cold coffee. If we were having a meal they wanted some hot sauce. And then it started…Remember the quotes I left off with in my previous article? Everyone was basically saying a variations of…”You should bottle this, I’d buy it”

So, you guessed it…I jumped in the fire and started a small food and beverage business; ColdFire Coffee. You just can’t quell the entrepreneurial spirit in me. It was actually an easy decision because we had technically already started the business. We had filed all the paperwork and received our sellers permit. The original plan was to start with mobile vending and start by servicing the outdoor markets and other events. The reality was, there were just too many regulations and red tape to pass through to make it happen. In addition, we were both busy with Go-Go Babyz and raising soccer and karate kids. There was simply no time on the weekends left to run a business servicing events that took place at the same time as all the extracurricular activities.

But when the tie was right, the first product we released was Black Magic Cold Brew. It was straight up black coffee that makes the hair on your neck stand up. Strong, bold, delicious.

Product number two was my chile rojo . It was originally called California Red, and then evolved into Voodoo Chile but do to branding conflict it is now known as Voodoo Fire. It was inspired by the Jimi Hendrix song and it just fit since it’s a chile, not a salsa. Is the pattern becoming clearer?

There will be much more to come about the ColdFire business, but for this article, here’s the point; this is start up number three. The first failed miserably. The second is still going today. It has had its fair share of ups and downs but is still breathing. Both provided invaluable lessons. Some costly, some not but all providing the experience needed make me stronger and better at what I do.

They say the 3rd time’s a charm. The verdict is still out so we will see what happens. I was much more cautious with this one, having learned from my past failures. I took it slow and built a nice following. It’s been a great little side hustle, staying cash flow positive. Not huge in flows, but it’s one of my passions, so worth it nonetheless.

As I mentioned, I will discuss this more later because it is alive and well. It’s been somewhat idle during most of our transition to Idaho, but if you have been following me on the gram or the book, you know the business recently acquired another that we are using to launch the ColdFire brand on a grander scale. Let’ see if the lessons from all the previous business ventures pay off. This acquisition makes it business number nine. Hmmm…3×3 or 3 squared. Does that mean the ninth time is a triple lucky charm? Follow me so you can find out, and stay tuned for the final part of this series where I bring it all together.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

“We have it in our power to begin the world again.” – Thomas Paine

Nope! I’ll NEVER leave San Jose.
You want me to uproot everything I’ve established my entire life?
A lifetime of friends, family, memories, everything?
My entire history is here.
California is part of my being, my personal fiber, my…
I can’t leave. I won’t leave. I will never.

Boy, did I eat my words. Isn’t it funny how things can change so quickly when you are backed in a corner, wondering “how do we get out of this?”

How do we get out of this? By picking up and moving. That’s how. Selling that gold mine and getting out of Dodge. No, I’m not talking about the business, that’s really more copper than gold.

I’m talking about our house in San Jose, CA. The one thing I was afraid to sell because it was our one major asset. The one asset that if sold would force us out of California because, in our situation, we would have to downgrade. Don’t think so, not doing that I can’t even count how many times I’ve said “I’m never leaving San Jose”. I meant it too. Until I didn’t. So what changed? That corner we were backed into started to become uncomfortable. We had to get out of it.

Let me back track and start with how we got in that uncomfortable, claustrophobic corner; the walls closing in, the air getting thinner, it’s hard to breathe…
Panic…fear…anxiety…

I won’t go too deep in this article because I will be writing more in the future that will deal more specifically with the ins and outs of Go-Go Babyz and its history. In a nutshell, what happened is we built up a nice little business, got comfortable – maybe a bit complacent – and WHAMO! A couple competing products hit the market and sales dropped – big time! Again, more about that another time.

Did we get discouraged? Sure.
Was it hard? Absolutely.
Did we struggle? You better believe it.
Did we lose hope? No way.
Did we give up? Absolutely not!

Truth be told, we did waiver a bit on the hope and faith and had idea that we might have to close up shop on more than one occasion. Fortunately for us, when one us wavered the other remained strong and believed in our ability to pull through. We did struggle for the next several years, downsizing, cutting expenses, foregoing pay, and over borrowing, just to name a few. We finally hit the point where we had exhausted all means for financing. We were at the point where we had to look to our assets and borrow against them or dip into what minuscule savings we had set aside for retirement. These options were not the answer. If we went that route it would be a band aid only to lead us to the same place with fewer assets than when we started.

Kerry has wanted to leave the area for years and fell in love with Idaho twenty years earlier when she visited for a friend’s wedding. She even planned a family vacation about seven years ago to try and convince the kids and I. I definitely loved it, It was a great place.  To visit, but San Jose was my home. Until it wasn’t.

I had to look at all the options. Really dig deep and see what was keeping me. Family, friends, history. San Jose has been becoming more and more expensive, crowded, unfriendly, and dirty year after year. Was I truly happy there? Is it really the best place to raise my kids?

My family & friends will always be that to me no matter where I am.  And, history? Well, history is history, you can’t change it.

So, with my back against the wall I accepted the idea that it was time to sell and look for a new place to call home. I opened my mind, embraced the idea, asked for inspiration and guidance and everything just fell in to place. It was like it was meant to be.

Here I am almost a year later Go-Go Babyz is heading in an upward trajectory, we are not constantly struggling, the kids are happy, and…More about Idaho later, in other articles. I have one more story to discuss about jumping in the fire before I bring it all together to close out the series.

Stay tuned for the next edition when I get tired of hearing…

Everyone else: “You should bottle this stuff, I’d buy it”…

Me: “Okay, fine, I will but you better put your money where your mouth, pony up and buy a few bottles big spender.”

Talk Soon,
Kevin W
Owner-Operator @LEAP272
you have to leap if you want to live.