Coffee with Purpose | Business with Purpose Podcast EP 231: Brian Holland & Britt Mooney, Phoenix Coffee Roasters

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We all know that coffee is one of the most popular beverages. I fully admit I am in the minority for not being a coffee drinker. But I can’t deny how much coffee culture has an influence on our communities, our country and our world. There are so many people involved in the supply chain. 

My guests today are Brian Holland and Britt Mooney of Phoenix Roasters in Atlanta. They wanted to take their passion for coffee and for people and make a difference. They are two of the most incredible people.

3:50 – “You haven’t had our coffee”

• I don’t like coffee, but Brian and Britt say they can convert me. 
• “We convert the 70% of people who want to love coffee into coffee lovers,” said Brian.

8:08 – Britt and Brian 101

• Brian is founding pastor of Phoenix Community, a church planning network. He was a church youth pastor for 20 years. In 2008 they started Phoenix Roasters because they ran out of money as a church. 
• Britt grew up in the church. He was drawn to teach overseas with his wife, and they were missionaries. When God called him back to the U.S., he wanted to live as a missionary in his own country. He wanted to work with Brian and describes the coffee business as living the dream. 

13:35 – Say Yes. How God-Sized Dreams Take Flight

• Britt wrote a book, Say Yes. How God-Sized Dreams Take Flight. It tells their story and asks readers: What has God called you to do?
• People always want to know where they are going and how they are going to get there. But you need to trust God.

18:30 – Say yes and be blessed

• We’re told if we say yes, we’ll be blessed. In their business, they try to help the kinds of people that Jesus would have helped. 

23:16 – Figuring out the next steps

• A guy on their leadership team kept saying, “What if we’re a marketplace church?” It’s an international model. They wanted to do coffee shops. 
• Brian asked God what He wanted him to do. He heard God say, “It’s not in the shop. It’s in the bean.”

28:43 – The roaster story

• They realized there’s no money in repackaging somebody else’s coffee beans. 
• “We realized we needed a better business model, and we’re going to have to learn to roast our own coffee,” said Brian. “But none of us knew how to roast.”

35:02 – Coffee that matters

• Mother Theresa once asked a man, “What do you do that matters?” 
• You want to have purpose and meaning in your life. God led them into ways for their coffee to matter.

46:00 – What is on the horizon?

• They have plans to be aggressive, and they want to help the micro farmers who are getting swallowed up by big corporations.

53:10 – Get to know you

• Strangest pet peeve – Brian can’t stand hard swallowers
• Something we would never guess – Britt used to have long hair and was in a heavy metal Christian band

FEATURED QUOTES

• “We always say around here, we’re blessed and highly caffeinated.” – Brian
• “We convert the 70% of people who want to love coffee into coffee lovers.” – Brian
• “In 2008 we started Phoenix Roasters because we ran out of money as a church.” – Brian
• “We realized we needed a better business model, and we’re going to have to learn to roast our own coffee. But none of us knew how to roast.” – Brian

LINKS

• https://phoenixroasters.coffee/
• https://www.amazon.com/Say-Yes-God-Sized-Dreams-Flight/dp/156309410X

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