My New Life As A Coffee Pusher

Apparently, running one business while working a full-time job wasn’t enough for me.

So naturally, I decided to start selling coffee.

Welcome to my new life as a coffee pusher.

I’m the owner of Bravehart Brew, a veteran-owned coffee and tea company built around a simple philosophy: Brewed for Excellence. But before Bravehart Brew came along, I was already running Bravehart Defense Solutions, my firearms training company. Between teaching firearm safety, concealed carry courses, working with students on the range, handling the administrative side of the business, and everything else that comes with entrepreneurship, my schedule was already pretty full.

Oh, and did I mention I also have a full-time day job?

Yeah.

So, of course, coffee seemed like the logical next move.

How Did I Get Here?

Starting Bravehart Brew sounded simple enough.

Find great coffee. Build a brand. Put up a website. Sell coffee.

Done.

At least that's what I thought.

I quickly learned that starting a coffee business and running a coffee business are two very different things.

There are products to select, labels to design, prices to figure out, shipping costs to understand, inventory to manage, websites to maintain, social media posts to create, taxes and licenses to research, business insurance to obtain, payment systems to set up, and approximately 7,462 other things nobody mentions when you say, "I think I'm going to start a coffee company."

And that's before you sell your first bag.

One of my biggest lessons has been accepting that I don't know what I don't know.

I know firearms training. I've spent years learning that industry, earning certifications, teaching students, and understanding how that business operates.

Coffee?

I'm learning.

And I'm learning in real time.

The Woes, Mistakes and "Well, That Didn't Work" Moments

Entrepreneurship looks great on social media.

You see the logo.

You see the website.

You see somebody standing behind a vendor table smiling with products neatly arranged behind them.

What you don't see is what happened two hours earlier.

You don't see the person trying to figure out why the card reader isn't connecting. You don't see the late-night label changes, the products that didn't sell the way you expected, the money spent on something you probably didn't need, or the realization that the thing you thought would take 15 minutes has somehow consumed your entire evening.

I've had my share of those moments already.

Bravehart Brew originally started under my existing company, Bravehart Defense Solutions. That made sense to me at the time. Why create an entirely separate company when I already had one?

Then came insurance.

Turns out, what makes sense on paper doesn't always make sense to an insurance company.

That eventually led me down the road of establishing Bravehart Brew as its own LLC, getting a separate EIN, and beginning the process of truly separating the coffee business from my firearms training company.

Lesson learned.

And there have been plenty of others.

I'm figuring out retail pricing versus wholesale pricing. I'm learning what products people gravitate toward when they're standing in front of you versus shopping online. I'm learning about packaging, point-of-sale systems, vendor fees, sales taxes, subscriptions, business banking, UPC codes, insurance and all the little details that suddenly become very important when you're trying to build a legitimate company.

Some days I feel like a coffee entrepreneur.

Other days I'm Googling something and wondering, "How did I not know this?"

But that's part of the journey.

The Pop-Up Hustle

One thing became obvious pretty quickly:

I can't just build a website and wait for people to magically discover Bravehart Brew.

I have to get the coffee in front of people.

That's where pop-ups, festivals and community events have become incredibly important.

I've learned that when you're a new brand, especially an online brand without a traditional storefront, you have to create opportunities for people to meet you.

They need to see the bags.

Smell the coffee.

Taste the tea.

Ask questions.

Hear the story.

And most importantly, they need to know there's an actual person behind the website.

Finding those opportunities, however, is another job by itself.

You start searching for festivals, farmers markets, community events, vendor fairs, holiday markets, business expos and basically anywhere that will let you set up a 10×10 tent and start pushing coffee.

Then come the questions.

What's the vendor fee?

How many people normally attend?

Are there already three other coffee vendors?

Do I need a temporary business license?

Can I serve samples?

Do I need electricity?

Is the event indoors or outdoors?

Do I need a tent?

Tent weights?

Tables?

Signs?

How much inventory should I bring?

And perhaps the most important question:

Is anybody actually going to buy something?

You don't always know.

Sometimes you have a great day.

Sometimes you learn a very expensive lesson.

But every event gives Bravehart Brew something valuable: exposure.

Establishing Legitimacy One Cup at a Time

For me, pop-ups aren't only about how many bags of coffee I can sell that day.

They're about legitimacy.

Every time someone walks past the Bravehart Brew setup and sees the logo, that's another impression.

Every time someone stops for a conversation, that's an opportunity.

Every person who follows us on social media after an event is another person who now knows we exist.

Every customer who buys a bag and comes back later is proof that we're building something.

And every event gives me another opportunity to learn what people actually want.

I've already discovered that what I think customers will love and what customers actually reach for aren't always the same thing.

That's information you can't get sitting behind a computer.

Three Jobs, One Calendar and Not Enough Hours

The biggest challenge is probably time.

Bravehart Brew isn't my only business.

Bravehart Defense Solutions isn't my only responsibility.

And entrepreneurship isn't my full-time job.

I'm balancing all three.

There are nights when I finish my day job and immediately switch into firearms instructor mode. Other nights, I'm working on Bravehart Brew labels, researching an upcoming festival, checking orders, updating the website or trying to figure out which coffee should be featured next.

Weekends aren't necessarily weekends anymore.

Sometimes they're training days.

Sometimes they're vendor days.

Sometimes they're packing, planning and administrative days.

And occasionally I remember that I'm supposed to have a personal life somewhere in there too.

I'm still looking for where I put that.

So Why Do It?

Because I enjoy building something.

There's something incredibly rewarding about watching an idea slowly turn into something real.

Bravehart Brew started as an idea.

Then there was a name.

Then a logo.

Then products.

Then a website.

Then the first customer.

Then the first event.

Then someone I didn't know walked up and said they had heard about Bravehart Brew.

That's when you realize:

This might actually become something.

I'm not pretending I've figured everything out.

Far from it.

I'm still learning the coffee business. I'm still making mistakes. I'm still trying things that work and things that absolutely do not work.

But Bravehart Brew is growing.

One customer.

One festival.

One pop-up.

One bag.

And one cup at a time.

Welcome to the Journey

That's really what I want this blog to be about.

Yes, we'll talk about coffee.

We'll talk about different origins, roasts, brewing methods, teas, cocktails, recipes and everything else that comes with enjoying a great cup.

But I also want to talk about building Bravehart Brew.

The good days.

The bad ideas.

The wins.

The expensive lessons.

The events where we crush it.

And probably a few events where I pack everything back into the truck wondering what the hell just happened.

Because that's entrepreneurship.

It's messy.

It's exhausting.

It's exciting.

And somehow, despite already running a firearms training company and working a full-time day job, I've now found myself convincing people that they need another bag of coffee in their house.

So here I am.

Business owner.

Firearms instructor.

Full-time employee.

And apparently…

Coffee pusher.

Welcome to Bravehart Brew.

Brewed for Excellence.