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Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report iconAndrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Welcome to the wrap report with your host Andrew Rappaport where we provide biblical interpretation and application
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This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community for more content or to request a speaker for your church
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Go to striving for eternity dot org Welcome to another edition of the wrap report
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I'm your host Andrew Rappaport the executive director of striving fraternity and the Christian podcast community of which this podcast is a proud member we are here to give you biblical interpretations and Applications for the
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Christian life and today what we want to do is a little something different You guys have heard me talk about a great coffee
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Company called squirrely Joe's coffee. Well, I have the squirrely Joe himself here with us today
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And so we're gonna see just how squirrely he actually is and learn about how we could use
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Just different things that we might enjoy for God's glory. So Joe welcome to the wrap report.
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Hey, thanks for having me So you and I have talked for a while We are very thankful for your partnership with squirrely
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Joe's coffee, which I enjoy drinking every day but Let folks know a little bit about yourself.
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And then why did you start squirrely Joe's coffee? Yeah, so so I grew up in Southern, California Mike and Nolan's Yeah, right.
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I got out of there. So at 18, I joined the Marine Corps and took off traveling. You were that desperate to get out?
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Huh? Yeah, I was pretty desperate. San Diego's nice, but everything's some things that were going on there
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It took me a lot longer to get out of New Jersey. I just wasn't as smart as you So, yeah, so I traveled the world and Now I'm living in Southern, Illinois, it's where my wife's family's from so we were both military we decided to You know plant some roots here.
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So that's where we ended up and then so as far as the coffee company thing it was really just kind of a
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Like out of necessity, so I don't know if you remember 2020 and how crazy it was
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But when all that stuff was kicking off the toilet paper missing from the shelves
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We're sitting around the table with some of our friends right before the lockdowns happened and one of them had said, you know, hey
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All the toilet paper is missing. What happens if all the coffee, you know, if there's no coffee because all coffee is imported from other countries
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So we thought to ourselves. Well, that's a real fear. You know, maybe we should do maybe we should do something about that.
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So you know we Started roasting her. We bought a little roaster Started roasting our own coffee
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It was kind of just for us and maybe some family friends and then people started telling us, you know
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Oh, this is the best coffee we've ever had. We kind of thought the same thing And then we said well we might as well sell
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You know some bags just to kind of recoup costs and you know It's kind of fun to stick us put a sticker on a bag and sell it as a you know
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Make you make a logo and all that kind of stuff that you do with the business and then you know
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Four years later almost five years later, you know, it's it's a legitimate business It takes up hours and hours and hours of my time and It's just grown into something that we had no idea that it was gonna end up like this
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So it's it's been a great a great time. So No, I'm sure the question most people are thinking is what is with the name squirrely's
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Joe's? Yeah, so So if you look at the bag on the bag
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There's a white squirrel. So the town that we live in all in Illinois is the home of the white squirrels So I think there's maybe six places in America that have white squirrels and we're one of them.
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We have an albino squirrel So if you drive around town You'll see white squirrels running across the road and in the park in the city park and that sort of thing
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So it's a big tourist attraction for our town So we actually owned a CrossFit gym for about seven years and we used the white squirrel
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We had a big buff white squirrel on for our logo on that too and we wanted to kind of stay true to the town that we live in and Utilize the white squirrel with the coffee and then you know
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Little squirrely. My wife says I'm a little squirrely. My name is Joe. We drink we drink a lot of coffee
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So, you know if you look at the the squirrel on the bag He looks like he's had a little too much caffeine and we're typically over caffeinated in our house.
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So it all kind of goes together You know Yeah, I I don't know if you had seen what I did on a pilot my apologetics live stream the podcast there but in the video
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When you and I first started a partnership because you know, Gene client, he's one of our podcasters.
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This squirrel chatter is his Podcast and he loves everything squirrels and he drinks squirrely
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Joe's coffee and he keeps he's always going Well, they're not a they're they're not a supporter, but I just like their coffee.
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And so I you know, he's got his logo It's a you know black squirrel but I was busting that I think he stole your logo even though he had it before you and then
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I Updated your logo with a picture of his face for the squirrel head Okay, just just I think it would be more appropriate
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You know have the real squirrel there because gene clients definitely more squirrely than you He's up in like rural
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Montana is yeah, he's up in Montana He actually um, he names his squirrels in the backyard.
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He feeds them He really loves squirrels. I Live far I live far enough outside of town.
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I live out in the country I don't really have a squirrel population Maybe we should we've thought about going and stealing a white squirrel and just bringing it to our property
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But I get in trouble for that. We're not doing that. So yeah, they're actually there was a great video I can't tell you what to search for to find it
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Maybe like how smart squirrels are or the squirrel maze. I don't know my son -in -law gave it to me
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But some guy like started realizing how like the squirrels would attack his bird feeder and he created a whole like maze a whole routine for the squirrels to be able to get to His bird feeder to get to the food of it.
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So they got to earn it They had to earn it and and he did it twice either two and it was really funny He he starts like looking at how far they could jump and so they had to really work at it
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He's got video of them just learning like they just they'd fail Try again, and they just got better and eventually once once they figured out the routine.
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They just took it over. I Have seen a video where a guy did something similar, but he he basically created a slingshot on Where the bird food was so that way when the when the squirrel got to it, it would send it flying away
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You know based on the weight and then it would I mean it was to keep him away. He didn't want him eating it
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Yeah Yeah, and the thing is this guy was saying they always land on their feet there, you know, there's very interesting
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I didn't I learned a lot about squirrels. I will say that but So Obviously, you're a you know, as you said, you're a coffee lover.
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I mean for you to get so desperate I mean we jokingly referred to during that time white gold white gold is what my wife would refer to as Toilet paper because it was so hard to find it was it was easier to get gold than toilet paper
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Yep, so so, you know, you just wonder what what kind of coffee do you drink? so So we have a bunch of different kinds of coffee
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So we really wanted to try so actually when we first started we only had three coffees now we have eight so we've expanded our selection and Really?
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What we're trying to do is just kind of getting a give people a little bit of taste of the whole world So we have some
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South American coffees Central America African coffees
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So we just want to kind of give people options Because coffees from all over the world tastes totally different.
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There's you know, lots of flavor nuances and So we really wanted to have a lineup of coffees to where you know
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People really could try kind of a taste of the whole world. So I I noticed you didn't answer that which one is your which one?
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Yeah. Sorry. So actually our favorite is the respect So that's a Brazilian coffee It's got a it's got a nuttiness to it and we really like the nuttiness in coffees
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We can really taste that nuttiness come out. We really enjoy that. So we use that. We really like that in a cold brew
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We really like that in a drip And then our second favorite is probably the honor which is an
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Ethiopian coffee It's got a real fruitiness to it and that's it's it's really smooth.
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It makes a really good espresso It's that's a good easy to drink coffee Yeah, that actually is my my favorite is honor which
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I and by the way folks All the coffees have names that are just kind of fun
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If you if you're regular here, you know, I I've talked about this, you know, I I like to have a cup of compassion
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It doesn't seem to help my wife tells me I'm obviously not drinking enough compassion But we have compassion wisdom honor and integrity
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Kindness respect now the last two I admit Joe I have issues with you know talking about and promoting your next one is called
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Responsibility now responsibility is both a Brazilian and Colombian mix but it's a it's a half caffeinated half decaf and I just I just don't think that's very responsible to Put to you know, destroy good caffeinated coffee with this decaf
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But even worse even worse is the one you call honesty because that's fully decaffeinated
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Joe what in the world were you thinking when you said let's let's talk honesty and make it completely dishonest
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Let's make it decaf So we fool people thinking it's real coffee when the everyone every good coffee drinker knows decaf coffee
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Just isn't real coffee, right? Yeah So this is how I know I'm good at branding because the idea was to have conversations just like this to have people like you asking these silly questions
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But yeah, it's funny because you know Kind of what you said with your with your wife saying, you know, hey, you need a cup of compassion, right?
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so it's almost like You know when you drink this coffee You're you're getting a little dose of those holy virtues that we that's the reason why we came up with those names
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But we what we found and this was totally unintentional but I've heard this several times so we send coffee to a lot of conferences and We always include a bag for each speaker
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And I think that's how I think that's how you and I met Yes And I greatly appreciate that because that's how
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I got introduced to your coffee and that actually got me to switch brands Yeah So what we found was
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We started sending all different kinds to the speakers and then they would argue with each other who gets what?
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Because they would base it off of this speaker needs more compassion This speaker needs a little bit more wisdom and they would just kind of razz each other a little bit
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So it's been kind of fun to hear some of those back back Room stories I may or may not have been in a few of those being that I think
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I've been at three conferences where your coffee was provided and Yeah, it was it was you know had some interesting
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Discussions on who had more integrity or needed more integrity Who had or needed more wisdom?
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It's see there were two ways of doing it. You know Yeah, I've never heard any names. Nobody ever gives me names
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Nobody's betraying confidence or anything. Oh, yeah Yeah, I was in a conference in Arizona You provided some coffee for the speakers and it was kind of funny because The the pastor had told all the speakers.
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Hey before you leave you get to take a bag with you But don't take it until you leave it had to be there on display for everybody to see and We had one speaker who we all knew he hit a health condition
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So he was he had said, you know It was either he couldn't come to conference at all or he just comes speaks and leaves so that bag disappeared we knew
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But the last day we were supposed to wait until the end of the conference and I don't know what happened
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But all of a sudden they vanished pretty quickly before lunch The rumor
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I heard was that someone grabbed a bag of integrity that someone else wanted so they quickly grabbed the kindness before That was gone.
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And I don't know maybe that wasn't very kind of them to make sure that they went ahead of everybody
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But I do love the names and it actually does I Mean, I have a little chart that I use because I never remember which ones but on the bags
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They say what they are where they're from The flavors because you have flavors to them and so It's helpful, but I will admit it's it's it is more enjoyable when
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I'm when I'm at a conference and some others have drink Squirrelly Joe's coffee to say hey, what's your favorite? And like you you know, like you had said, you know, well you're your favorite
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I think you said respect and then then the the honor mine is honor and then integrity.
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So It is just fun to have that discussion with with guys, which I like to ask Yes, so help me understand because you know,
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I don't I just drink coffee You're your coffee is actually the first I got in being and not ground because people
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People being my daughter who is not really technically a coffee snob but she she really learned how to make good coffee like she she studied out how to make the best type cup of coffee and so You get you had given it
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I got a bag of beans whole beans roasted beans from you and I went to her place and she
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You know, she had the grinder and all that. So she showed me how to make it. I was like, oh, okay So now I bought one out bought a grinding machine just just because squirrelly
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Joe's coffee Because she said it's much better to get the beans than ground. Yes. We are actively trying to convert people to using whole beans
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Yeah, so what is the process like? I mean you we're And where do you get the beans from?
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I mean, I know that you mentioned the countries, but how do you get these beans? How then do you do the roasting process?
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I know that this is a family business, right? All your kids are involved in it. So what it what does that look like for folks?
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Yeah, so so we buy everything from an importer So there's lots of coffee importers.
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So we found one that You know coffee is one of those things where the more you buy the better price you get
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So starting out four years ago. I mean we were buying 25 50 pounds at a time and You know, the price is significantly higher when you do that.
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So over the years, you know as we've You know increased our revenue and that sort of thing.
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We've been investing in, you know going with bigger importers and buying bulk beans and So we found a company that actually is a really nice happy medium between You know because you could buy a hundred and twenty pine 120 pound bags of coffee you can buy 25 pound bags of coffee just depends on the importer
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So we found one that's kind of in the middle that has good prices But it's not giant pallets full of coffee because we're not quite at that point to where we need pallets and pallets of coffee
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So they come in 65 pound bags And they've got a big selection of coffee all over the world
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So basically that and honestly the fun at the best part of my job is tasting coffees
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So we you know when we're hard job, but someone's gotta do it.
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Someone's gotta do it. Someone's gotta do it I guess I've got broad shoulders So So what we're what we're trying to do is when we when we ought when we want to add a new roast
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We will just buy You know a dozen samples of different coffees of things that you know are maybe a little bit different than what we have already
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Different origin different flavor profile, you know different acidity level different body level and we're just kind of looking for mixing and matching
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What's gonna complement what we already offer and then we'll taste a dozen coffees. We'll roast them to a light roast we'll roast them to a medium roast them to a dark and just kind of see what they taste like and then we'll kind of just pick pick the one that we really like and what we think is
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Drink ability is one of the biggest things that we're looking for. You know, we're not
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So we wouldn't consider ourselves coffee snobs we definitely like good coffee but coffee snob is
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I mean There's a there's a there's a spectrum of coffee snob and we're definitely on the spectrum, but I would say we're more of We want normal people to drink good coffee and a lot of roasters
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In my opinion, they try a little too hard they're You know, they're trying to win competitions or they're you know, there's lots of awards out there and that's fine
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But they're catering to people who have that palette that refined palette Where 99 % of my customers are waking up at 5 in the morning.
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They've got kids to get to school They've got jobs to go to they're gonna put they're probably gonna put their coffee in a drip pot
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So we want something that's gonna be good for them something that's easily drinkable for them something. That's it's unique It's specialty coffee, you know, all of our coffee is is considered specialty coffee, which is which means it's ranked higher than Anything you're gonna buy at the grocery store
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But but we're really looking to provide coffees for normal people who just want good coffee
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They know Folgers is terrible. They know Whatever is being served at church or at a hotel.
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They know that coffee's usually not good No offense to churches, but they're not known for having the best coffee
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So, you know, we want people to drink a good cup of coffee But we understand that not everybody is gonna weigh out the water
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Weigh out the beans, you know, they don't have all the gadgets that you know Some of us have we do have some of that stuff and we do we do like to play with that stuff
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But we're realistic about we know most of our customers don't have the gadgets They have a drip machine, maybe a pour over maybe a
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French press and so we try the coffees and all those different Brewing styles and then you kind of come up with you know, hey,
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I think this one's gonna go well with what we already offer And then yeah, so and then going back to the process so we'll find a bean that we like and Then you know, we'll order those in bulk and then we've got a coffee roaster.
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So basically you're just cooking the beans So we use what's called a hot air roaster or a fluid bed roaster
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Where you know, most people are familiar with a big drum roaster where it's kind of like a dryer, you know There's a flame underneath and it's heating up the drum and the coffees just kind of rolling around and getting heated so that's that's
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What most people are used to so ours is basically There's a heating element underneath and then there's a blower that's blowing air up through the beans and it's lofting the beans
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Continuously and it's blowing hot up hot air up into the beans. So we don't actually have a flame.
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It's all electric So it's a little bit cleaner There's it's a little bit lower acidity
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Which a lot of which is important to a lot of people a lot of people have stomach issues around coffee So we answer a lot of emails about acidity levels and things like that.
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So and then yeah And then once it's cooked to where we like it where we want it, then we put it in a bag and ship it out
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That's interesting. So a couple things that I didn't know just listening to you. So You can actually change we you get the bean and you can decide whether it's a light roast or a medium roast or bold roast
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Mm -hmm. So I always thought that was some a property of the bean So so that does come into play when you're looking at You know where the beans from?
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You know, there's if you look at all the different types of coffee beans You know, there's hard beans.
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There's beans that like pea berries are a lot smaller So you are taking those things into consideration?
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But what we do like to try them if we think like hey This one would be a good light roast
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Then we're gonna roast it a light roast and see what it tastes like if we don't like it Then we're not gonna go with it And but you know, so it's really just trial and error to see what we like, you know
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There's been coffees that we try and we're just like this is just not good. You know, we just don't think it's good
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That doesn't mean other people won't like it, but I I don't want to sell a product that I don't think is good
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You know, I'm not particularly Inclined towards darker coffees, but our dark coffee our
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Guatemalan. It's our most popular coffee That's the one we sell the most of so a lot of people like dark coffee, even though it's not my favorite
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It's it's a pretty good dark roast in my opinion Even if I don't like dark roast, but a lot of people love our wisdom.
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So yeah, I was gonna say that's the wisdom one So so it is it the amount of time you roast it makes the difference?
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Yeah, so so Roasters have a temperature setting, right? So you're watching the temperature of the air going into the bean chamber the roasting chamber
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And then you're also looking at the temperature of the bean. So we have thermometers for both so as Coffees roasting, you know the the rate of rise so the coffee is getting hotter and hotter and it's cooking
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So it goes from like a green Bean and as it gets heated up It starts to dry out and then it goes from green to yellow and then it goes from yellow to brown
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And then when it hits about 400 degrees, that's when first crack happens So you'll actually hear an audible crack and it's the bean splitting because it's getting hot.
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It's getting dried out and That's when you start to get into that light roast when you hear that first crack That's right around where you would have a light roast and then we've kind of dialed into where we like our temperature
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So we you know our we roast our beans to the same temperature every single time so that way we can have a consistent product
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And then yeah, we just trial and error figuring it out which temperature works best for this coffee You know and then it depends on how big the batch size is, you know if it's if it's a smaller batch, you're gonna turn the heat down a little bit and just make sure that temperature is
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Rising where you want it to rise. So, you know, there's there's a little bit of science a little bit of art behind it There's there is a lot of technology that makes it really easy to roast coffee
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Which is very nice because it it you really as a business owner. We want a consistent product
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You know, if you order wisdom today, we want it taste to taste the same as if you order wisdom in a month
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You know or two months, so we really are shooting for that consistency So we're really paying attention to our temperatures and you know that sort of thing
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Yeah, and you know just say you mentioned about church coffee Which usually churches churches are just I think what it is is churches are like diners they just get whatever is the cheapest they could get and You know, we look we always hear you you sponsor the show we we tell folks all the time
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They do sell five pound bags at squirrelly Joe's for your church That's what we recommend you do is bring some to church and just like yeah
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Let whoever is the Deacons pastor, whoever has got that buying power to say wouldn't people appreciate this coffee instead
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And we have special pricing for churches, too. So yeah, so I mean now
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I granted I do know our webmaster when when we got into working with you and We have and folks if you want to if you want to get some of the squirrelly
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Joe's coffee You can go to striving for eternity org slash coffee Striving for eternity org slash coffee
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And so the webmaster knew that we had to set up this forward to to your page to do that so, you know exactly how many people are coming over from from our page and First thing he did was he's like I I'm gonna get the five pound bags
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So he drinks a lot of coffee all by himself But he's drinking I think coffee all day long so you can do that but for the church
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It's a really good thing to do is get the five pound bags I know that if you use the promo code
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SFE it at least used to save us 20 % off We had this discussion. I did test it and it does look like it gives the 20 % off I started walking through like creating a new account to see and so if it still is set up So if you get 20 % off your first order, so now if you're like me
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Being Jewish. I love discounts and therefore my first order. I made sure it was the biggest order
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I think that I did I got one of I Got one of each of the bags of real coffee
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Yeah, yeah, not that decaf stuff that that's yeah None of the none of that hefty cast stuff now
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I want the real coffee so I I wanted to make sure I could test each one and So I had gotten
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I've said if I'm only getting the discount I'm getting it for all of it so I'm I made a big order for that and but if you want go, you know, go to your church and Recommend.
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Hey, let's let's get some good coffee I I there's two things I've learned with coffee
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It's it's the the beans are surprisingly It's it's funny how people focus a lot on the beans right and yet I Like I I know peel that I many years ago.
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I was gonna open a I was looking to open a Dunkin Donuts and I was talking to you know, one of the the guy that does the franchisee and He you know, we're talking he said well, we we sell the we sell the beans, but people still coming back for more coffee
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I'm like, but why if the if they like the coffee, why wouldn't they just get the beans? He's like, ah, it's how and how you make it
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So he said part of the thing was is it's you know, they spent hundreds of thousands dollars in water filtration
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Oh sure, and and so that's where like you're saying the right tools. I now I now have
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I mean I have My water is distilled and then that way I can add exactly in what
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I want in my water So I start with with that. I have like you were saying I grind the beans.
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I measure the bean so I have the exact amount of of Coffee in there. I then you know,
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I have it where my daughter showed me, you know, I have it My water is an exact temperature. I poured over for a minute.
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Give it a minute to seep in Then you go and fill the rest of it. Yep, and I've been amazed how things like that Have a big difference in how the coffee tastes.
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I mean, I I used to have a reverse osmosis In my old house, and I just ordered the cheapest coffee
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Probably what the diners get or most churches and yet the water made a big difference
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Right and people are like, oh, this is the best coffee. What is it? I'm like shop, right? Yeah, whatever was the cheapest
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But if you don't have if you're not making it, well, you're not you don't have all the tools Like you said you don't have good water
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Then the only thing you really have to really increase the flavor is the beans themselves in the roasting process, right?
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yep, so What like what things cuz like if I let's just take an example, we'll look at your compassion, right?
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you have a flavor to it that's a Milk chocolate roasted almond apple and brown spice
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Flavor, how do you get the the flavors? Do you add something to the beans while it's roasting or is it the be itself that has that?
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Those are just those are the natural flavors of the coffee So a lot of people are familiar with wine and you know
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You read the back of a bottle of wine it kind of tells you what some of those tasting notes are Coffee is the same way.
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It just has natural flavors So those those flavors we have listed at the top of each bag
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That's just kind of the nuances that you're kind of looking for. So if you're tasting it, you know, can I taste that chocolatiness?
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Can I taste that, you know a little bit of almond? hazelnut brown spice, whatever it is, depending on the country of origin, like I said the
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Respect has that nuttiness to it. You can really taste the nuttiness the Honor really has that fruitiness.
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You can really taste that fruitiness, especially in like the aftertaste It just really it really hits so that's kind of just it's fun to kind of look to see if you can taste those flavors
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Right, so like you sound like you're starting to nerd out a little bit on coffee with measuring the water measuring the coffee
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You know what? I mean so so you're you're kind of in that position to where You can start tasting that coffee and see can
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I can I taste those little nuances that that I should be looking for? And that's kind of a fun thing people like doing that and you know
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Our favorite feedback is you know, hey, I can actually taste what what it says on the bag So it's nice to hear those things
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And then yeah, you're right about the the water, you know the water that you use So we actually have to double filter our water because we we're on well water because we live out in the country
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Okay, so we run it through just a regular a shelf like a Brita Filter and then we also have a
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Alexa Pro that we take the filtered water Put it in the Alexa Pro and we keep that thing filled up So we're actually double filtering our water just because you know, well water is not known for Producing the best cup of coffee.
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So that's what that's why in my old house I had I was on well water and I got a reverse osmosis for that reason. Mm -hmm.
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So let me ask this is not just You know, this is something you actually are using to train your children as well on how to run a business
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What's it look like from for your family's perspective, I mean you're you said you're you're basically Pretty busy with with this.
30:23
Oh, yeah, but at least you're doing it with the family. So it's family time, too. Yeah Yeah between it's mainly my 17 year old son.
30:31
So we have seven kids. I've got two adults out of the house already He the second oldest did help me when he was still here.
30:39
And then the third oldest He's a senior in high school and he does probably 80 % of the roasting now at this point
30:47
He's been doing it for about a year. Maybe a year and a half. He's been roasting for me
30:53
And honestly when I'm out of town or something, he actually runs the entire business for me So he knows how to do process all the orders.
31:01
He knows how to do all the shipping, you know all the packaging Weighing and measuring, you know, he can do the whole thing
31:08
He would prefer not to but if i'm in a bind and i'm like out of town I was out of town on wednesday. So he ran the whole business for me on wednesday
31:15
So it's really really nice having him around And we probably put in between the two of us.
31:20
We probably put in about 40 to 50 hours a week With the business and that's on top of my full -time job
31:26
So i'm i'm putting in a lot of hours with the business and he is a huge help And then my sister -in -law comes every monday to help us package orders.
31:36
So the weekends are crazy You know, we don't uh, we we actually roast and ship monday through saturday
31:43
But then there's so many orders coming through on the weekend that monday We needed some extra help.
31:49
So my sister -in -law comes in for a few hours every week to help us with that. So That's neat so is this something that you hope to You know quit the other job and do this full -time or uh
32:01
I don't know if I should say that On camera Especially when i'm wearing my my uh company's shirt, but we'll edit that out
32:10
No, it's fine Yeah, I mean that would be nice, you know, um I would probably stay at my job for another three four years even if I didn't have to just because They've invested in me as far as training and they're expecting me to do certain things
32:26
I I wouldn't feel right leaving them hanging even if I could So i'll be there, you know, if anybody from carl is watching this i'm gonna be at carl for you know
32:35
At least a few years but everybody that works with me knows like that i'm squirrely joe the coffee guy that and You know that i'm trying to make a full -time gig out of this
32:45
So that would be nice to one day just do coffee So the question is at your other job, do they buy squirrely joe's coffee for the office?
32:52
Some of them do? Yeah, some of them do. Yeah So, I mean
32:58
You're so folks know you're I say this all the time, but you're a believer you're a solid christian tell tell us about You know what you're doing ministry wise
33:09
Yeah, so it it's kind of funny, um, you know business as a ministry and you know, it's like uh how does that work and You know, it's kind of easy to say, you know, hey a portion of our
33:24
Proceeds go to this charity or that charity And that's fine. You know, obviously there's some business models that run that way
33:32
We don't run that way. Um, but what we do is we really try to support other ministries so Like we've already kind of talked about with the conferences and things like that.
33:43
Um, that's another you know conferences are Notorious for having awful coffee just because coffee is usually just an afterthought, you know, hey, just go buy whatever
33:53
You know, let's just make sure we have coffee that's a prerequisite but nobody cares about what kind it is
33:59
Um, so that's kind of a part of our ministry honestly is is getting to work with conferences and you know
34:05
They're trying to get the word out Um, they're using their platforms to spread the gospel and you know
34:12
If I can support it by having coffee for their attendees And you know supporting them in that way.
34:18
That's that's fantastic. We love doing that But we also do from time to time take up, you know, um, we take proceeds so we actually just donated
34:28
Some money to the north carolina relief fund. So all the flooding and things that are going on from the hurricane
34:33
So we have some connections In north carolina and we got in touch with some folks And we were able to make a a decent sized donation
34:43
Based off the proceeds from coffee sales. And so from time to time we do Uh do that but you know by and large we try to take the approach of You know,
34:55
I don't know if you know michael foster real well, but I really love his approach Um with localism and just being hyper local like what you know, what can we do in our communities?
35:05
And we're trying to be a small business christian like, you know Outwardly christian explicitly christian not a business with maybe a little bit of christianity sprinkled into it
35:17
I mean that you know, we try To be christian in the dna of our business everything we do our branding our marketing
35:24
The conversations we have the advertisements we run things like that Um, you know anybody who's ever heard any of our advertisements
35:32
On any of the shows we advertise with there is no question that we're you know christian extremists in the eyes of the world, you know what
35:41
I mean? So that's that's a big thing is just we want to do all things for god's glory
35:46
We want to run our business with you know, just like our our roasts, you know integrity compassion wisdom
35:53
We want to be smart about what we do We want to we want to display the fruits of the spirit as we carry out our business dealings.
36:00
So Yeah, I will say that folks if you haven't gotten signed up to get squirrely joe's coffee
36:07
If for no other reason you should just for the newsletters they send out because it is
36:13
Hysterical the how you you'll you'll take something in the in That's in the news and just it's it.
36:20
I love I just love seeing the like here get some coffee, you know, but Yeah, uh, you know, i'm glad you say that though because we actually do get quite a bit of hate mail uh for some of the things, you know, so we've kind of We've kind of branded ourselves as a little bit of a satire business, you know
36:37
We like to use satire and a little bit of humor And you know somebody messaged me one time and they said well what's with these ridiculous, uh, you know
36:46
What's with these ridiculous emails? And I said, well, you know, we're just trying to poke fun at this ridiculous world that we live in because it's nuts right now
36:56
So if we can bring a little bit of humor to it, um, you know, it's just it's good fun
37:01
If you don't like it then just unsubscribe. You don't have to send me a big long -winded email about how you don't like it
37:08
You can just you can just unsubscribe because we're here to have a good time We're here to poke the culture in the eye And you know try to glorify god doing it.
37:16
So yeah, no, I get a kick when I see that and you know, you you mentioned uh, north carolina now
37:22
I'll mention this for folks listening The we do have a give send go campaign for one of our speakers at striving fraternity.
37:30
Aaron bruster uh For the folks who watch apologetics live, you know that we always bust on aaron because he's not a coffee drinker
37:37
We are trying to convert him to good drinking habits, uh, but He always does he does bring a bag of coffee back for his wife because she drinks squirrely joe's coffee now
37:49
But uh, they're they were hit with a hurricane uh, they have You know, he's he to be in full -time ministry.
37:57
He moved in with his parents so that uh, He would not have to take on secular work And they've been uh, they got hit pretty hard, uh his son you used to live in The rv that they had on the property because they didn't have enough room in the house with with aaron's whole family.
38:15
So Uh, the the rv is toast. Uh, it doesn't do well when it fills completely inside with water the um
38:25
The house, you know that all their storage was gone there. They still even now
38:30
Uh, what is it like three four weeks later? They still do not have Uh heat and it's getting down to 30 degrees at night because they just didn't have the the
38:40
Well one they didn't have the funds to to do that We were able to help with that with this give send go and then another thing was they just didn't have people are just Without and there's so many people that are trying to get uh things repaired
38:55
So they were I know I know the government wonderfully offered a whole $750 to to cover uh that and I think there was even a newsletter from squirrelly joe's about the $750 which
39:09
I cracked up at knowing this but Uh that $750 was only available if you had electricity
39:16
Because you needed to go online. Well, he had no electricity. He had no Wi -fi he was actually going all the people when the water went down They were going to one neighbor's house who had starlink and that's how they'd communicate with the world
39:29
And so this one neighbor just had everyone in their in their room in their living room trying to communicate with family and so he really is trying to you know, rebuild everything and We're we're having we're trying to help support him.
39:44
This is someone who is serving in christian ministry He's one of the speakers at striving fraternity. So if you can go to give send go dot com slash sfe sfe stands for striving fraternity give send go dot com slash sfe
40:03
And remember this is going to a 501c3 organization since he works with us And or for us so, uh, we're raising that money, uh to to um
40:14
To help this him and his family, uh with in their time of need so it's one way that as christians we can help one another
40:22
So if you could consider it, we would appreciate it. That's give send go dot com slash sfe
40:30
Just a practical way. Uh, we might be able to help one another as as christians. I mean we
40:35
We should be helping one another as christians Therefore why in the world would you want to get your coffee from some woke coffee company?
40:44
When you could be supporting a christian family that is also making coffee, but much better than the woke stuff
40:51
So instead of going to getting folgers or whatever bad Worldly brand that's out there go to squirrelly joe's coffee get coffee there
40:59
Just go to striving fraternity .org slash coffee to get yourself a good coffee. And remember when you reorder Uh, even if you're not going to get that 20 off discount make sure you go to striving fraternity .org
41:09
slash coffee so that Joe here knows that uh, you heard about them from us that he'll keep supporting us because we like his support so You know, so as a family, how have you seen?
41:23
This company you have how's it helped with your family as far as they're not just learning how how to run a business but also their their spiritual maturity
41:35
Yeah, so it's I think it's really kind of caused us to grow closer.
41:42
Um because We're I think even the kids even the smaller ones. They kind of feel like hey, we're all in this together
41:50
Um, even though there's not a lot that the 11 year old and the nine -year -old can do
41:56
Every now and then my 11 year old, um will help will help my wife fill bags of coffee You know, he can he can weigh out coffee and put it in a bag
42:04
Uh, but he does need a little bit of supervision um, but you know, there are times where we kind of all have to buckle down and do it together, you know, we've uh every now and then we'll buy a box of 500 bags and 500 stickers and we'll all sit at the kitchen table and We'll just sit there for two hours.
42:23
Just putting stickers on bags and you know, it's like we're not leaving until it's done So you might as well have fun with it
42:30
But uh, you know, it's just it gives the family something to do I think it it almost kind of Brings a little bit of an old school feel back to you know, 100 years ago when families worked together to you know to to run a household
42:47
Um, we definitely have a lot of that. Uh here my you know, my wife stays home. She homeschools kids
42:53
Well, they go to online school, but she's pretty she's very involved in that and you know, it's just We're around each other more, you know, um
43:02
It's like all day we're around each other. I'm, you know, i'm gone for eight hours a day at work But you know, I get to come home for lunch.
43:08
I don't work too far away I've got a pretty flexible schedule. I go to work early so I get off early And uh, you know, it's just it's good.
43:17
We we're not really routine people We just kind of do things as they come and attack them as they come um
43:25
But uh, we've definitely grown closer together with having you know a shared mission
43:32
And just and they they love the squirrel, you know, it's it's a fun logo. The kids love the squirrel
43:38
You know my kids drink coffee Um, you know Even from a young age isn't that gonna stunt their growth?
43:46
That's what my dad always told me Yeah, no, I don't think that's true. My my 11 year old is the same size as my 15 year old.
43:53
So He's doing okay you know, it's funny you mentioned about just the the stickers and things because before I Had we'd get gospel tracks that were proof that I had them printed with my contact information on it
44:06
I used to buy a lot of tracks and we we got these clear stickers and I would print
44:12
An email address on them and my kids and I and my wife would just sit around The kitchen table just putting stickers on tracks
44:19
And the kids actually had a blast doing that we would because we were all around the table like just talking and I think that's a big thing that's missing in this generation where everyone has their own phone
44:31
And even if they're in the same room, they're not talking to one another it's They're sitting and talking to people who aren't there.
44:40
I mean I used to have a rule in the house No electronics at the dinner table. I'm glad to see my daughter and son -in -law have the same rule although my grandson doesn't have electronics yet at two years old, but you know, it's a thing where I think you're you you strike the point of which one of the things really missing within so many families is that time of just getting
45:02
Just getting around a table and doing something together Yeah, we're similar to you guys
45:07
I mean we you know, my 15 year old 17 year old they have phones but I I don't like phones
45:17
If if it wasn't for me running a business, I probably wouldn't have social media I probably wouldn't
45:23
I mean i'd probably have a smartphone But I don't think I would be on it as much as I am because of my business um but uh
45:33
Yeah, I I really don't like my kids sitting on their phone It just it kind of drives me crazy.
45:38
My 15 year old does play a lot of chess on his phone I can I can i'm okay with that But you know when
45:45
I catch them trying to get on youtube and stuff it just it drives me nuts I'd Put the phone down.
45:51
Yeah Well, I think I think there's nothing wrong with chess, by the way, you know, just saying no I don't either
45:57
I love it So i'm glad he plays it if anyone wants, uh To play me chess .com.
46:02
Uh, my my handle is rap drew r -e -p -p -d -r -e -w So, uh,
46:08
I I play with people all over the world get to it's it's actually fun because I talk to people I evangelize people all the time sometimes it you know, people just want to play a game so they just do a random challenge and uh
46:22
Because my my logo there is striving for eternity. It starts conversations and people like what is that, you know?
46:28
So yeah, yeah, he's he's on chess .com. So i'll give him i'll give him that and we'll see
46:33
Uh, who's a better chess player? Oh, well, it depends see so here's the thing Should I tell this should
46:38
I tell this secret live? Okay, I might as well In live chess I'm ranked about 1500
46:46
In daily chess i'm like 900 because When I make a move
46:53
And then i'm making another move in like two or three days because some people will wait that long I totally forgot what
46:59
I was doing and it's my ocd and I can't I can't stand having the notification that something is waiting
47:05
So I try to get rid of it quickly So when I when i'm playing an actual game and i'm sitting down I really think through the moves and I concentrate
47:12
And then the other times and I have people that know they know that they could beat me if they just delay So I try to play it where you only have one day to make a move
47:21
Because I've there's a pastor that actually plays me and he's got like two weeks to make a move three weeks to make a move
47:26
And I think he purposely waits Yeah, I lose to him a lot for that reason so But You know, this is a thing for folks to think about is
47:38
You know, there's things that each of us could be doing and maybe not starting a company.
47:43
Maybe that's not the issue But there's things we could do That we can involve our children with to get them more involved in what we're actually doing and Building more of that relationship.
47:56
Trust me folks If you're doing that and you're building the relationship with a common interest with your whole family it will build a stronger family
48:04
It will build stronger memories And it'll be something where the kids want to come back home and do things
48:14
We we just live in a culture now where everyone does everyone's all got to be individual everyone's got to do their own thing and That is damaging
48:23
I think to the family Yeah So, uh,
48:29
I I will admit I love the fact that you do donate to conferences. So if anyone's having a conference
48:35
Uh, you know, you can contact squirrely joe. Um, you should also first get their coffee at strivingfortrain .org
48:43
slash coffee just saying but You know have have him help you with the coffee at your conference
48:49
Uh, I will admit that when i'm invited to conferences now, I do reach out and say hey you should really you know
48:56
What are you gonna do for coffee? You know, and i've i've put it, you know, at least a couple that were like, oh, well, you know, we're gonna well, yeah
49:03
We'll contact Squirrely joe. Okay. Good I I may or may not have a selfish motive for doing it.
49:10
So when i'm at the conference um I don't get the hotel coffee, which is usually just as bad as as the diner
49:19
Or what the church is going to serve? So I figure okay, I might as well get the the one that's at the at the hotel
49:24
So before I walk out, but when I know that the conference has contacted you Yeah, then
49:30
I wait till I get to the conference center to get the coffee. Yeah. Yeah, and and you know If you get in touch with us, we will give you an offer that you can't refuse.
49:39
I promise you that so Yeah, definitely get in touch with us. If you got a conference, we would we'd be more than happy to help
49:44
So yeah, and you know one thing is as you're a very caffeinated family and as we're promoting everyone getting well caffeinated
49:52
There's lots of benefits to caffeine. I know Look anything that the media tells you is bad must be good for you, right?
49:59
So so the the reality is there is some good benefits to caffeine and But one thing that does happen is if you've you know, you're over caffeinated
50:10
You might have trouble sleeping at night and so a good solution for that Is to go to my pillow get yourself a great pillow
50:19
You you can get the the different amount of fluff that you might want They have it based on how big of an individual you are
50:26
But you can get their premium if you really want their 2 .0 pillow I never thought of a pillow that has version numbers to it, but their version 2 .0
50:36
pillow has some ability to not only Keep it where it stays. It doesn't decrease the in the fluffiness throughout the night, but it also is able to manage heat
50:46
So if you're someone who sleeps very hot Versus someone that sleeps very cold
50:52
It doesn't I used to be a person who had I would I don't know why but when I would sleep I just started sweating
50:58
Uh, I ended up getting their 2 .0 mattress topper their 2 .0 pillow and that went away. That wasn't a problem anymore
51:04
Um, I think it's because my wife is super thin has no fat to her and therefore she's just always cold
51:11
So she keeps it warm enough for her to stay To stay warm, which means i'm overheating
51:17
But their their stuff is great. I love their products. Uh So if you want go get great discounts at my pillow go to mypillow .com
51:25
use the promo code sfe Sfe stands for striving for eternity And then you'll be able to get their great discounts and it also lets them know you heard about them here
51:34
So they keep supporting us here at the wrap report So as we as we wrap up joe
51:41
You know any any things that you would want to encourage folks? I mean not just to buy coffee but uh
51:47
Which i'm sure you wouldn't mind, but I also know your heart for the lord Uh, so I I just want to open up for anything that you'd want to share
51:57
Yeah, I think um You know being involved in your local church, um, you know,
52:02
I I think that's super important. Um, you know one of the so I was in the marine corps for 12 years and one of the big things that we
52:10
That we would say is, you know grow where you're planted Um, and I think that really transfers over into the christian life is grow where you're planted, you know, wherever god has providentially put you
52:22
Um, your your duty is to grow there, right? Um, and I think plugging yourself into the local church finding a good local church and figuring out how you can serve, you know
52:32
What can you do to support that local church and that that pastor there the ministry there the elders there? And not going into it with the mindset of what don't
52:40
I like about this place? what would I change about this place because I know that's easy to fall into and and But we really have to to work against that.
52:48
We've got to support the elders that we have the pastors that we have and You know the the work that they're doing in our local communities is so important You know the gospel going forth is so important and we've got to do whatever we can to support that work, so whether that's um, you know business acumen and being able to tithe and to help
53:10
You know, maybe help the elders make financial decisions or whether that is, you know hospitality and you're hosting
53:17
Things at your house and you're you know, maybe it's encouragement encouraging the elders to continue in their work
53:24
Letting them know how much they're appreciated things like that Um, I think that's that's what I would say is just plug into your local church and do whatever you can to support the ministry there and that's really important considering that uh to this month in october is
53:40
Pastor appreciation month now you you should appreciate your pastor every day just saying
53:46
But it is the month that we we dedicate for Encouraging your pastor
53:52
Appreciating your pastor So I know it's toward the end of the month, but find a way before the month is out
53:59
You know, or even if it's the month is out when you're listening, please go and support your pastor find ways to do that So joe, thanks for coming on.
54:08
I I really I learned a lot about coffee making which I just I took for granted I just took for granted.
54:14
I didn't realize how much goes into Making a good cup of coffee, even if I am becoming more i'm, not really a snob because i'll drink pretty much in any coffee, but I will admit that Having all the tools my daughter taught me does make a better tasting coffee and getting getting the good coffee beans does make the difference so Um, I really appreciate the coffee appreciate what you're doing and how you view it as a ministry.
54:39
So, uh, thank your whole family uh for For me and from striving fraternity for the coffee you guys make because we really enjoy it
54:48
Sounds good. I appreciate you having me on the show All right, and with that folks, that's a wrap
54:56
This podcast is part of the striving for eternity ministry for more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church