WEBVTT
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Welcome to the ED epley experience.
Twenty minutes that simplifies the complex job of
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managing and leading people and inspires you
to take action on what you probably already
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know to build and sustain a smart
and healthy business. Here's your host Ed
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Effley to introduce this week's guest and
business leader. Welcome to the ED epley
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experience, the podcast designed to simplify
the complex job of managing and leading people.
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Our goal with every podcast is to
share at least one proven business practice
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that will help you build a more
sustainable, profitable and purpose driven company.
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Today's guest is really special in my
mind and in my heart. You'll learn
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more about why in just a minute. Let me give you some words to
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describe her. She's curious, Mois. She curious, she is bold,
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she is kind, she is a
dog lover of large proportions, she's a
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great daughter and she is a great
friend to me, from a distance at
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this point, but somebody that I
really have come to count on. It
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is such a pleasure for me to
introduce to our audience Adrian Jane Burke,
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who is is our guest today.
Adrian, hello, hello, ed.
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Thank you so nice to hear for
the benefit of our audience. If you've
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read my book, let's be clear, you seen Adrian's name in print there.
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She is the person who helped coauthor
the book. She's the person who
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put my language on paper and did
it so great did such a good job
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at capturing my voice, made me
look probably better or brighter than I am.
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So I really appreciate that, first
of all, Adrians. So thank
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you for all that. That,
that Labor of love that we did together.
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Was Tell folks where you're at today
and where home is for you.
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I mean Easton Connecticut, which is
a little town of seven thousand people and
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twenty farms in Fairfield County Connecticut.
Fairfield, if you've never been there,
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is quaint. That's it's a lovely
area, isn't it beautiful? Yeah,
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yeah, it's a special area.
How far are you from New York City?
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Roughly our and fifteen minutes on the
train. Okay, and so when
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we first bought our house here,
I was still commuting into the city.
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Yeah, and I'm sure you miss
it. NOPE, not. Actually,
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all New Yorkers are here now.
Come out. Our housing markets doing great
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right now. Tell the audience how
we met Adrian, Guy I want to.
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I want to do justice to this, and your versions probably a more
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more accurate than mine. Right.
So. Well, when I was working
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as a business reporter, I was
writing about small business for Yahoo and clay
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matial published a book. So clay
now runs a larn and I his book
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came across my desk. I called
them up for an interview. We did
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a story on the book and then
he invited me to come out to Larn
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to do an onstage interview with him. It was my first opportunity to feel
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like Oprah about his book. And
then he let me stay at a l
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around for a couple days to take
the training class with you. And so,
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sitting in your class, I thought
this Guy Ed needs to write a
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book. And that's that's how it
all began. Did you say that to
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me that day? I did.
Well, I think. I think I
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was thinking it, but you said
to me at the end of the class
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I'd like to stay in touch with
you because I have a book idea.
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Yeah, yeah, then we met
in Columbus, as I recall, a
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few months later, and that started
the journey and it was I I was
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a bit would it be safe to
say there's a bit of trial in there
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to figure out how we were going
to do that. I mean it would
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just we had to find our rhythm
arcadence about how we would talk to each
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other the book. Well, yeah, and it took a long longer than
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I think both of us yeah,
was going to that was not your fault
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as much as but yeah, trying
to write a book is I don't think
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there is a way one way to
write a book. I think it's more
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about figuring out what will work for
you as an individual. That's kind of
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my feeling. For me, I
was someone who was used to filing an
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article at the end of the day
and walking away and coming back the next
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day to a new article. So
a book was took a lot more discipline.
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That was all. It was more, it was more than a marathon.
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It was running several marathons to get
it done, but we did and
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it's exciting. That's still in print. I'm proud of it. Still selling
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a few copies. Well, good
gut coffees. So I'm yes, I'm
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proud of it too. Your life
has changed a lot since you and I
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work together on the book. Yes, I think it would be wise to
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update the audience about how that's changed. You are now an entrepreneur and you
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have greyser's coffee and market in Easton. So why don't you explain that journey
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and how that happened, because that's
a wonderful story. During the six years
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that I was freelancing as a small
business writer and the three years that I
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was working with you, I guess
you could say I caught the bug for
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small business ownership and you know,
I interviewed when I was at yeah,
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I interviewed literally thousands of small business
owners and I thought, you know,
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every one of their stories was fascinating
and I really admired what people were doing.
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Also, Clay Matial taught me so
much and you in the in the
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class, and I gained such appreciation
for what small business owners are doing.
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Like you guys have said, they're
putting their capital on the line, yeah,
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to employ other people and provide a
community with a service. So I
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had that in the back of my
mind when I would drive by this little
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corner shop in Easton, that it's
where are. It's a two hundred and
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twenty year old building where our town
post office still is situated in the same
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building as an antique store that over
the two hundred years this store has been
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the villa, like the kind of
the country store in the general store of
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the town hub. But the current
owner, whose third generation owner of his
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family, he's a lot more interested
in antiques and it had really become an
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antique some in town said jump store. He even say John Store. His
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sign said we buy junk. And
so antiques is I'm a picture my mind
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is American pickers kind of yeah,
yeah, all right, and I loved
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the place. I would go in
and shop for antiques all the time.
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But our town has nothing, no
services. There's a little sandwich shop and
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there's a little diner where you can
get breakfast, but there's no grocery store,
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no coffee shop, no market.
And that's due to zoning ordinances that
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were put in place in one thousand
nine hundred and forty five, limiting any
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new commercial development. Oh so it's
pretty hard to start a business in Easton
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unless you can step into an existing
situation. Okay, so one day I
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approached Dick Greyser, who owns the
antique store, and said what are you
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going to do when you retire?
Will you sell this building, or at
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least this space and he said Yep, and I said because I have this
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dream, and he said come on
in and talk to me, and it
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was just perfect timing. Like he
he was our early S. Yeah,
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and thinking about retiring. Very Young. Yeah, is I love it,
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very young. Okay, this was
just kind of what he was waiting for
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and he and I also hit it
off. I think that was well.
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He told me later that was a
big key. There were a lot of
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kind of coincidences and synchronicities. I
have the same name as his late wife.
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I chose a humming bird for my
logo and he I. Unbeknownst to
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me, he and his wife were
big humming bird watchers. And for our
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audience, if you go on facebook
and it's gas and George are Ei seer
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aphe s coffee in market, you
you can see the facebook page for Greysers.
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So go ahead. Yeah, go
on our website too. So anyway.
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So we we've talked for a year
before we signed a lease and during
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that year I took a class with
the small business administration, yeah, or
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group, on simple steps to starting
a business. We talked her times,
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remember. I. Yeah, I
got a lot of advice. I took
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advantage of all my vacation time that
year to tour coffee shops around the country
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and work, work, work,
work, work. Yeah, that was
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fun. And so November first two
thousand and eighteen, we opened the store.
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You're listening to the ED epley experience. Emailed now with your questions for
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today's guest to podcast at the EPLYI
Groupcom in his book, let's be clear,
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six disciplines of focused management pros,
author Ed Epley breaks down key practices
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of professional management, how to implement
them and why it matters. Purchase your
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copy on Amazoncom today. Develop your
competitive edge for the future while building a
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sustainable and thriving business. Did you
open as you had planned? It was
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that on schedule? Where you behind? What happened there, because usually most
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people, when they're opening a business, it goes it takes longer to get
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it open than they thought. Yeah, I mean roughly. The only the
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biggest obstacle was dealing with the town, Town Hall. Yeah, so we
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have a health department of building apartment
that weren't used to dealing with new businesses
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setting up in Easton, and you
wonder why. So I had to jump
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through a lot of hoops for them, but in the end it worked out,
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but so I wasn't able to open
until November. I'm trying to remember
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exactly what the the hold up was. That's all right, it's fine.
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But but so pretty much on schedule. So you got to open and then,
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and so you've been open now.
Yeah, just a better year in
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hand. Yeah, year and a
half and you've already changed business models.
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Have the pandemic happened? Yeah,
right now. This is such a wonderful
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story about pivoting the business and responding
to the market place. So so tell
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the audience what you did well to
start with, I mean I've told you
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this story that I didn't raise money. I took money from a little bit
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of a retirement plan that I had
to start the business. Worked with score
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the meant my mentor there helped me
write a business plan and establish a financial
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model, and that exercise to me, the financial model, I felt like,
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Oh, this is total nonsense.
Who knows how much money I'm going
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to make in a month or how
many cups of coffee I'm going to sell
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in a week? This is just
like the pretend. And one year into
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business I look back at the financial
rejection we'd made for year one. Yeah,
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and my revenues were seven hundred dollars
off better than they had project then.
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We had projected. That's fascinating.
That's what magic. I couldn't believe
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it. So so we really we
did everything we said we were going to
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do and we were, I would
say we were successful in yeah, one
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one way we rallied so much support
in town was and raised a little money.
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I created this cupboard of directors,
I called it, and instead of
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doing a crowd funding to raise money, I bought this big old, you
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know, Antique Pine Cupboard with all
these shelves on it and I a friend
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of mine made handmade pottery coffee mugs
and I made a deal with anyone in
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town if you will establish a five
hundred dollar coffee account, you'll get a
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mug with your name on it on
this cupboard. Yeah, cover directors.
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And I was blown away by how
many people in town put up five hundred
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dollars, you know, in the
first month, not even knowing if I
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if if I was going to be
in business long enough for them to drink
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five hundred dollars for it took coffee. So this account they they were essentially
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prepaying for coffee. Is that?
Learn to run it to okay, so
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you got cash in advance, that
without giving up equity in the business by
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doing this. Yeah, about Twentyzeros. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I'm
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a little disappointed. You didn't ask
me for that. Oh, I didn't
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even well, it's not too late
at okay, all right, all right.
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Well, let's get close the deal. After we get done with this
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recording. Okay, we'll close the
build taking or still putting taking memberships.
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Yeah, so that was creative and
that that's that's a lot of cash in
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the in the sense of giving you
liquidity, which you need when you start
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a business, especially when you're under
front, underfunded, as you were.
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So let me buy a lot of
inventory to have stock, you know,
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grocer you know groceries with long shelf
life, can goods, and then a
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little fift type items that I was
able to sell in the store, like
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linens and coloring all right, so, so, so, so, this
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is, this is this is your
one. And you got up and going
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and and became part of the fabric
of the community pretty quickly, for the
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way it sounds. Yeah, yeah, that first summer I teamed up with
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a guy in town who owns a
pizza truck, okay, and he would
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come Thursday nights in the summer,
starting, like Jill, in July.
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We he parks pizza truck in our
parking lot. Yeah, and we'd stay
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open late and it turned into every
Thursday night a town party. It sounds
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like we set up tables and benches, you know, because it was.
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And benches in the parking lot.
People buy their pizza from him. Yeah,
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so they're supporting his business and then
they'd come into the store to get
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salads and Sodas and ice cream.
So you, you became more than coffee.
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You. By that time it had
added Salads and sandwiches. Is that
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was at always part of the menu. Yeah, we sell penny knies and
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okay goods, and then it's Chryser's
coffee and market, because we have this
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little almost like a little specialty food
section or Gore my section, all right,
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but then you have the people would
come and sit and have a breakfast,
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Sadwich or quiescent with their coffee or
come for lunch, have sandwich and
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then one are the normal hours for
that we were open. We've changed since
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the pandemic, but we were open
seven days a week, week days,
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six to six weekends. Eight hundred
and twenty three. Okay, so you
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are so Saturday and Sunday your eight, two three. Yeah, okay.
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And and you were working how many
of those days? Typically, initially all
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of them. Yeah, and then
I was able to kind of not be
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in the store on weekends. Very
cool. And then, right before the
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pandemic happened, I had just really
gotten to this point where I wasn't even
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putting myself on the schedule at all. I had my staff. I've six
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people working for me so I could
work on the business instead of in the
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business, right. Yeah, yeah, well, and my guest is you
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were also front, you know,
out front and talking to people and knowing
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you. You were also doing great
customer service. Yeah, and I love
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that part of it. Yeah,
that's part of who you are. Right.
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Well, that's what I you know, I felt like I was finally
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doing the things I should be doing, US, doing the opening, the
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you know, being the figurehead,
the face of the business. Yeah,
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good for you. And finally I
had caught up with quick books and all
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the financial stuff. I paid my
tat two thousand and eighteen tax as I
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had done. You know, it
filed attention. But I got that all
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done and then the pandemic happened.
It's did you go from being open to
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being shut down? Well, whatnot? Shut Down, you know, by
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the state it because we have the
market. We were considered an essential business
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or we could come up, come
under that. I think I wasn't like
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strictly a restaurant that had the clothes, and so that's what we did.
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We shifted to doing only groceries and
you know, it worked at the coincidentally,
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the the distributors I buy from,
where I would be buying twenty pounds
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of cabot sliced Cheddar cheese from my
distributor in New York so that we could
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make grilled cheese sandwiches on the Panini. Well, that provider, that distributor,
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is called Chef's warehouse and they their
customers are restaurants all over this area,
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purpose right, and the restaurants were
going we're shutting down, right,
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so they were looking for other ways
to sell. Warehouse was started going directly
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to consumers, but I also talked
to my reps there and said I want
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to shift to selling more groceries,
and that's what we did. I started
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buying produced from them and more products
like bottles of olive oil and things that.
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So what did your hours look like
then? When you when you say
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we we switched, it was so
much more work that we tried doing it
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seven days a week and realize we
just need a break, can't keep up.
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And our morning customers weren't didn't need
to be there at six am to
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get coffee. Teachers and people who
work in the financial markets were staying home.
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So we switched and said we're going
to be open every day from eight
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am to three PM. Four,
three, four, four, eight to
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four right. So we the weekends
we were. We switched to Tuesday to
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Saturday. Eight hundred two four.
We're closed now Sundays and Mondays. Did
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you have to lay off staff?
Nope. Wow, I have two young
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women who work for me who are
seniors in high school right now and at
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first their families didn't want them to
work, so I didn't have to lay
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anyone off. One of those girls
has come back and does she comes into
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the store early in the morning before
school to to pack orders that have come
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in over the grocery orders that come
in by email over night, and then
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she comes back in the afternoons and
does deliveries. So she's able to work
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without are your schools open? No, okay, all right, so sheet
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while we're doing online. Yeah,
so she's doing yeah, when you make
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said before school before they online start. Okay. Give the audience of a
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change of mix. So you were
gone from a coffee shop that happened to
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have a market that supplemented that to
now the market being the primary business.
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So what's the mix shift that you
went through? Well, and I also
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feel like we went from being a
brick and mortar store, yeah, to
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kind of business, yeah, which
you know, I had always worked for
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Internet businesses, so it was familiar
to me and another serendipitous saying that worked
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at. I have a woman working
for me who is had a twenty year
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career as a software engineer and she
decided to just make a life change about
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a year ago. She she makes
pottery and we sell her pottery in the
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store and then she come in to
drop off the pottery she would enjoy the
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environment and said you have a Barista, because I could use a few more
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hours. You know, I'll be
your Barista. So she's working as our
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Barista and then it turns out when
the pandemic happened. She built, well,
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I had, we had a website
built already, but she built the
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commerce, built the website. Yeah, yeah, you really, really.
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You know, week we were able
to start taking orders. We had every
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we have over I don't know what
we have close with a thousand items up
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on our website now, pictures.
I woulder took pictures of everything in the
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store. We got all the prices
in the inventory and so that people can
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shop online. And so again.
What? How much of your business now
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is the market stuff as opposed to
coffee stuff? How's that? Ninety percent
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is so, as things unwind and
we moved to whatever the new normal is,
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what what do you think the business
will look like? Maybe in six
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to nine months? Yeah, it's
a challenge figgering out how the go back
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to that. I do think that
we'll have a lot will be doing a
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lot more grocery sales even after the
pandemic is over. I think so too.
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Our shopping habits of change. You
magically. We don't go in the
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store. We'd go do pickups now
and I love it. Yeah, right,
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yeah, I bother driving to and
from Easton. You have to drive
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twenty minutes to get to any grocery
stores like trader Joe's and stop and shop
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and shop right. They're all in
another town. While I did offer groceries
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before, I had a lot of
customers who came in to get coffee and
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sandwiches and didn't even notice the groceries. And so when this this all started
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up, they'd call me and say
I love that you're selling eggs and milk
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and bread now, and I'd say
I've been selling that since day one,
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and they just shocked. Yeah,
but I'm selling a lot of things that
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I wasn't selling before, like pasta
and frozen fish and frozen hamburgers. And
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Think, Oh yeah, what do
you like most about owning your own business?
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Being in charge, you know,
especially though, I thought, like
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going through a crisis like this,
I get to decide how we're going to
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deal with everything. Yeah, I'm
not working for someone else and just following
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someone else's plan. I wish the
audience could see your face. She is
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just beaming. Shore just, Oh
my God, this woman is in such
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00:23:21.500 --> 00:23:26.779
a good place for her it's it's
remarkable. How how you know? You?
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I don't know what you said earlier
to beginning it was something the effect
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00:23:30.690 --> 00:23:33.289
that we gave you, the Entrepreneur
Lich or something. I forget how you
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00:23:33.410 --> 00:23:37.890
said it, but the truth is
it was in you all all all that
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00:23:37.049 --> 00:23:41.480
happened is it got uncovered and allowed
to blossom because it was in there.
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You would it's remarkable. How,
how will you've done at this? What
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do you like least about owning your
own business? Just not I miss my
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old life, the life outside of
work, gardening and walking the dogs and
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exercising. She's still smiling, folks, and she misses it, but but
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she's it's a lifestyle, owning a
business, isn't it? Yeah, and
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I you know, everyone I'd ever
interviewed all those years told me that,
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but I didn't. You don't get
it until you're doing it how all consuming
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it is. There's always you don't
like I said, with with journalism,
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at the end of the day I
could turn off the computer and go have
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dinner and go for a walk and
turn it off and the next day start
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over again. And this you just
never turned it off. Is that the
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biggest surprise about owning your own business? That the that that change in your
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lifestyle and you know, in the
way your life operates. ORS was there
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another bigger surprise this this business in
particular. It's been so surprising to me
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how appreciative customers are and people in
my community are. I feel like I've
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00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:10.579
done well in most jobs that I've
had about I've never had so much positive
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feedback and it's all from customers.
You know, you clearly found niche that
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needed filled in the marketplace in east
and right you you clearly identified there was
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something lacking. But I think you've
had, always demonstrated a social conscience for
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the for the area and and business
in general. I mean you it was
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it was doing something responsibly and my
guess is the town pretty quickly figured out
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that that was going to be important
to you and and I'm my guess is
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that's resonated with them, which is
another reason they want to support you.
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Yeah, I got a really nice
texts a couple weeks into the pandemic from
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a guy in town who is he's
part of the Greyser's family. Okay,
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and you know, when I first
took over I kept the family name,
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but people in the family it was
kind of like, what's going on?
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This is being taken out of our
hands. That, and I mean they've
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been super supportive. But but you
know, there's it's it was a big
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change to have this interloper show up
and run the family business. And he
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sent me a text message a couple
weeks into the pandemic and said I am
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I want you to know I'm how
much I'm enjoying watching you handle this.
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It's so clear that you're the right
person, yeah, to have to do
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this job. I mean that meant
more to me than anything. I can
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understand that, knowing you and and
knowing how important is it is to you
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to do this the right way.
In quote. So you that's that's neat.
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You got that validation. Is Mr
Greyser's shop gone, the antiques and
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stuff like that, and as that
okay, still there. He still that.
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So he also, as part of
that, he has a gas station,
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and so he run he runs the
gas station that's still able to it'll
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be very interesting to see where how
this thing evolves over the next five and
335
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ten years. I I'm excited.
I'm I'm telling you right now, as
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soon as the you know, circumstances
allow Fran and I free friends for our
337
00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:26.650
audiences benefit. My bride of thirty
eight years friend, actually our anniversaries two
338
00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:30.440
days from now for thirty eight years. But we're going to do a road
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00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:36.480
trip to easy Connecticut and I want
to come up and see this and do
340
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:40.799
it right and look down over my
nose, glad you know where my glasses
341
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:45.029
look down, and just be a
very judgmental and you'll be proud of me
342
00:27:45.950 --> 00:27:51.710
already. I'm proud of you.
I'm getting I'm very serious about though,
343
00:27:51.750 --> 00:27:55.750
about being proud of you. I
I have I have no doubts whatsoever.
344
00:27:55.789 --> 00:27:59.420
You're going to make this very successful. You know, we promise our audience
345
00:27:59.539 --> 00:28:06.740
that they will get an idea that
some other business owner executive beliefs is crucial
346
00:28:06.779 --> 00:28:10.900
to running a more successful business.
So, knowing now that you've earned the
347
00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:17.650
right to offer really now have paid
the dudes, what's your one one thing?
348
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If you don't do anything else,
a business owner executive better better do
349
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this if they're going to be successful. Who? For me, when I
350
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look back at the first year in
business, I I went into it having
351
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really done my homework and I had
thought a lot about the product mix and
352
00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:45.230
the environment and exist I knew exactly
what I what I what I wanted to
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do and what I believed would work
in this town. That first year,
354
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I cannot tell you how many people
will walk through the door and tell you,
355
00:28:56.180 --> 00:29:04.380
you know what you should do,
you should add exserted with other business
356
00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:10.849
owners and I've said I can't believe
it. Like have I ever walked into
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00:29:10.890 --> 00:29:15.569
someone's business without even looking at what
products they are selling and telling them what
358
00:29:15.809 --> 00:29:18.970
they ought to sell? Right?
And one of my friends who she and
359
00:29:19.049 --> 00:29:22.890
her husband own a restaurant, she
said to me, Oh, Adrian,
360
00:29:22.569 --> 00:29:33.559
the two words that make my whole
body tremble. You should having confidence and
361
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.950
not not you know, and and
resisting switching the plan because somebody thinks you
362
00:29:41.029 --> 00:29:45.829
should or somebody thinks their idea is
better than yours. It will pay off
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if you can stick to your focus. Little Steve Jobs focus kind of a
364
00:29:52.109 --> 00:29:55.940
thing right at Appleyoya, that he
was not going to be dis waited by
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what other people thought he should be
selling. It offering. It takes courage
366
00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:03.299
to do that, and you certainly
have it, and and takes fortitude.
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You certainly have that. I couldn't
be happier for you and Jeff and and,
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00:30:08.369 --> 00:30:11.930
by the way, she's married to
an entrepreneur as well. Adrian.
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Yeah, and this is also given
me great, much greater appreciation for my
370
00:30:18.009 --> 00:30:23.519
husband, who works harder than I
ever realized. She's a talented woman in
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00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:27.880
so many ways and a good friend
and somebody that I'm so happy for and
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00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:32.480
I hope it doesn't sound patronizing to
say I'm proud of as well. So,
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00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:41.710
Adrian, thanks for being with us
today. Thank you for listening to
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00:30:41.829 --> 00:30:48.029
the ED epply experience. For more
information on building a more sustainable, smarter
375
00:30:48.230 --> 00:30:56.339
and Healthier Business, visit www the
eply groupcom for resources, tips and ED's
376
00:30:56.339 --> 00:31:06.289
latest blocks. That's the EPPLY EPP
L Y Groupcom. Plus, take a
377
00:31:06.450 --> 00:31:14.009
free assessment at the epply Groupcom assessment
to find out how you measure up as
378
00:31:14.049 --> 00:31:19.000
a highly skilled and accomplished manager and
where to focus on improving your skills.
1
00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:11.789
Welcome to the ED epley experience.
Twenty minutes that simplifies the complex job of
2
00:00:11.990 --> 00:00:18.149
managing and leading people and inspires you
to take action on what you probably already
3
00:00:18.230 --> 00:00:24.260
know to build and sustain a smart
and healthy business. Here's your host Ed
4
00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:32.460
Effley to introduce this week's guest and
business leader. Welcome to the ED epley
5
00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:37.609
experience, the podcast designed to simplify
the complex job of managing and leading people.
6
00:00:38.049 --> 00:00:42.570
Our goal with every podcast is to
share at least one proven business practice
7
00:00:42.570 --> 00:00:47.490
that will help you build a more
sustainable, profitable and purpose driven company.
8
00:00:47.969 --> 00:00:52.880
Today's guest is really special in my
mind and in my heart. You'll learn
9
00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:56.079
more about why in just a minute. Let me give you some words to
10
00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:00.719
describe her. She's curious, Mois. She curious, she is bold,
11
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:07.469
she is kind, she is a
dog lover of large proportions, she's a
12
00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:11.189
great daughter and she is a great
friend to me, from a distance at
13
00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:15.870
this point, but somebody that I
really have come to count on. It
14
00:01:15.030 --> 00:01:19.060
is such a pleasure for me to
introduce to our audience Adrian Jane Burke,
15
00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:23.379
who is is our guest today.
Adrian, hello, hello, ed.
16
00:01:23.659 --> 00:01:27.900
Thank you so nice to hear for
the benefit of our audience. If you've
17
00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:33.090
read my book, let's be clear, you seen Adrian's name in print there.
18
00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:37.170
She is the person who helped coauthor
the book. She's the person who
19
00:01:37.329 --> 00:01:42.049
put my language on paper and did
it so great did such a good job
20
00:01:42.090 --> 00:01:47.280
at capturing my voice, made me
look probably better or brighter than I am.
21
00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:49.000
So I really appreciate that, first
of all, Adrians. So thank
22
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:53.200
you for all that. That,
that Labor of love that we did together.
23
00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:59.280
Was Tell folks where you're at today
and where home is for you.
24
00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:05.430
I mean Easton Connecticut, which is
a little town of seven thousand people and
25
00:02:05.750 --> 00:02:10.310
twenty farms in Fairfield County Connecticut.
Fairfield, if you've never been there,
26
00:02:10.509 --> 00:02:15.580
is quaint. That's it's a lovely
area, isn't it beautiful? Yeah,
27
00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:20.020
yeah, it's a special area.
How far are you from New York City?
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Roughly our and fifteen minutes on the
train. Okay, and so when
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we first bought our house here,
I was still commuting into the city.
30
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Yeah, and I'm sure you miss
it. NOPE, not. Actually,
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all New Yorkers are here now.
Come out. Our housing markets doing great
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right now. Tell the audience how
we met Adrian, Guy I want to.
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I want to do justice to this, and your versions probably a more
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more accurate than mine. Right.
So. Well, when I was working
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as a business reporter, I was
writing about small business for Yahoo and clay
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matial published a book. So clay
now runs a larn and I his book
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came across my desk. I called
them up for an interview. We did
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a story on the book and then
he invited me to come out to Larn
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to do an onstage interview with him. It was my first opportunity to feel
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like Oprah about his book. And
then he let me stay at a l
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around for a couple days to take
the training class with you. And so,
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sitting in your class, I thought
this Guy Ed needs to write a
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book. And that's that's how it
all began. Did you say that to
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me that day? I did.
Well, I think. I think I
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was thinking it, but you said
to me at the end of the class
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I'd like to stay in touch with
you because I have a book idea.
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Yeah, yeah, then we met
in Columbus, as I recall, a
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few months later, and that started
the journey and it was I I was
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a bit would it be safe to
say there's a bit of trial in there
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to figure out how we were going
to do that. I mean it would
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just we had to find our rhythm
arcadence about how we would talk to each
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other the book. Well, yeah, and it took a long longer than
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I think both of us yeah,
was going to that was not your fault
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as much as but yeah, trying
to write a book is I don't think
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there is a way one way to
write a book. I think it's more
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about figuring out what will work for
you as an individual. That's kind of
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my feeling. For me, I
was someone who was used to filing an
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article at the end of the day
and walking away and coming back the next
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day to a new article. So
a book was took a lot more discipline.
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That was all. It was more, it was more than a marathon.
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It was running several marathons to get
it done, but we did and
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it's exciting. That's still in print. I'm proud of it. Still selling
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a few copies. Well, good
gut coffees. So I'm yes, I'm
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proud of it too. Your life
has changed a lot since you and I
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work together on the book. Yes, I think it would be wise to
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update the audience about how that's changed. You are now an entrepreneur and you
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have greyser's coffee and market in Easton. So why don't you explain that journey
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and how that happened, because that's
a wonderful story. During the six years
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that I was freelancing as a small
business writer and the three years that I
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was working with you, I guess
you could say I caught the bug for
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small business ownership and you know,
I interviewed when I was at yeah,
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I interviewed literally thousands of small business
owners and I thought, you know,
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every one of their stories was fascinating
and I really admired what people were doing.
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Also, Clay Matial taught me so
much and you in the in the
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class, and I gained such appreciation
for what small business owners are doing.
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Like you guys have said, they're
putting their capital on the line, yeah,
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to employ other people and provide a
community with a service. So I
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had that in the back of my
mind when I would drive by this little
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corner shop in Easton, that it's
where are. It's a two hundred and
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twenty year old building where our town
post office still is situated in the same
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building as an antique store that over
the two hundred years this store has been
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the villa, like the kind of
the country store in the general store of
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the town hub. But the current
owner, whose third generation owner of his
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family, he's a lot more interested
in antiques and it had really become an
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antique some in town said jump store. He even say John Store. His
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sign said we buy junk. And
so antiques is I'm a picture my mind
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is American pickers kind of yeah,
yeah, all right, and I loved
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the place. I would go in
and shop for antiques all the time.
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But our town has nothing, no
services. There's a little sandwich shop and
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there's a little diner where you can
get breakfast, but there's no grocery store,
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no coffee shop, no market.
And that's due to zoning ordinances that
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were put in place in one thousand
nine hundred and forty five, limiting any
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new commercial development. Oh so it's
pretty hard to start a business in Easton
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unless you can step into an existing
situation. Okay, so one day I
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approached Dick Greyser, who owns the
antique store, and said what are you
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going to do when you retire?
Will you sell this building, or at
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least this space and he said Yep, and I said because I have this
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dream, and he said come on
in and talk to me, and it
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was just perfect timing. Like he
he was our early S. Yeah,
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and thinking about retiring. Very Young. Yeah, is I love it,
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very young. Okay, this was
just kind of what he was waiting for
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and he and I also hit it
off. I think that was well.
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He told me later that was a
big key. There were a lot of
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kind of coincidences and synchronicities. I
have the same name as his late wife.
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I chose a humming bird for my
logo and he I. Unbeknownst to
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me, he and his wife were
big humming bird watchers. And for our
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audience, if you go on facebook
and it's gas and George are Ei seer
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aphe s coffee in market, you
you can see the facebook page for Greysers.
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So go ahead. Yeah, go
on our website too. So anyway.
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So we we've talked for a year
before we signed a lease and during
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that year I took a class with
the small business administration, yeah, or
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group, on simple steps to starting
a business. We talked her times,
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remember. I. Yeah, I
got a lot of advice. I took
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advantage of all my vacation time that
year to tour coffee shops around the country
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and work, work, work,
work, work. Yeah, that was
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fun. And so November first two
thousand and eighteen, we opened the store.
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You're listening to the ED epley experience. Emailed now with your questions for
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00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:35.840
today's guest to podcast at the EPLYI
Groupcom in his book, let's be clear,
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00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:41.669
six disciplines of focused management pros,
author Ed Epley breaks down key practices
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00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:48.870
of professional management, how to implement
them and why it matters. Purchase your
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00:09:48.029 --> 00:09:54.580
copy on Amazoncom today. Develop your
competitive edge for the future while building a
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00:09:54.779 --> 00:10:07.529
sustainable and thriving business. Did you
open as you had planned? It was
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that on schedule? Where you behind? What happened there, because usually most
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people, when they're opening a business, it goes it takes longer to get
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it open than they thought. Yeah, I mean roughly. The only the
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biggest obstacle was dealing with the town, Town Hall. Yeah, so we
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have a health department of building apartment
that weren't used to dealing with new businesses
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setting up in Easton, and you
wonder why. So I had to jump
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through a lot of hoops for them, but in the end it worked out,
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but so I wasn't able to open
until November. I'm trying to remember
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exactly what the the hold up was. That's all right, it's fine.
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But but so pretty much on schedule. So you got to open and then,
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and so you've been open now.
Yeah, just a better year in
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hand. Yeah, year and a
half and you've already changed business models.
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Have the pandemic happened? Yeah,
right now. This is such a wonderful
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story about pivoting the business and responding
to the market place. So so tell
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the audience what you did well to
start with, I mean I've told you
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this story that I didn't raise money. I took money from a little bit
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of a retirement plan that I had
to start the business. Worked with score
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the meant my mentor there helped me
write a business plan and establish a financial
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model, and that exercise to me, the financial model, I felt like,
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Oh, this is total nonsense.
Who knows how much money I'm going
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to make in a month or how
many cups of coffee I'm going to sell
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in a week? This is just
like the pretend. And one year into
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business I look back at the financial
rejection we'd made for year one. Yeah,
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and my revenues were seven hundred dollars
off better than they had project then.
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We had projected. That's fascinating.
That's what magic. I couldn't believe
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it. So so we really we
did everything we said we were going to
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do and we were, I would
say we were successful in yeah, one
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one way we rallied so much support
in town was and raised a little money.
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I created this cupboard of directors,
I called it, and instead of
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doing a crowd funding to raise money, I bought this big old, you
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know, Antique Pine Cupboard with all
these shelves on it and I a friend
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of mine made handmade pottery coffee mugs
and I made a deal with anyone in
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town if you will establish a five
hundred dollar coffee account, you'll get a
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mug with your name on it on
this cupboard. Yeah, cover directors.
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And I was blown away by how
many people in town put up five hundred
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dollars, you know, in the
first month, not even knowing if I
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if if I was going to be
in business long enough for them to drink
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five hundred dollars for it took coffee. So this account they they were essentially
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prepaying for coffee. Is that?
Learn to run it to okay, so
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you got cash in advance, that
without giving up equity in the business by
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doing this. Yeah, about Twentyzeros. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I'm
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a little disappointed. You didn't ask
me for that. Oh, I didn't
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even well, it's not too late
at okay, all right, all right.
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Well, let's get close the deal. After we get done with this
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recording. Okay, we'll close the
build taking or still putting taking memberships.
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Yeah, so that was creative and
that that's that's a lot of cash in
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the in the sense of giving you
liquidity, which you need when you start
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a business, especially when you're under
front, underfunded, as you were.
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So let me buy a lot of
inventory to have stock, you know,
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grocer you know groceries with long shelf
life, can goods, and then a
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little fift type items that I was
able to sell in the store, like
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linens and coloring all right, so, so, so, so, this
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is, this is this is your
one. And you got up and going
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and and became part of the fabric
of the community pretty quickly, for the
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way it sounds. Yeah, yeah, that first summer I teamed up with
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a guy in town who owns a
pizza truck, okay, and he would
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come Thursday nights in the summer,
starting, like Jill, in July.
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We he parks pizza truck in our
parking lot. Yeah, and we'd stay
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open late and it turned into every
Thursday night a town party. It sounds
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like we set up tables and benches, you know, because it was.
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And benches in the parking lot.
People buy their pizza from him. Yeah,
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so they're supporting his business and then
they'd come into the store to get
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salads and Sodas and ice cream.
So you, you became more than coffee.
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You. By that time it had
added Salads and sandwiches. Is that
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was at always part of the menu. Yeah, we sell penny knies and
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okay goods, and then it's Chryser's
coffee and market, because we have this
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little almost like a little specialty food
section or Gore my section, all right,
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but then you have the people would
come and sit and have a breakfast,
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Sadwich or quiescent with their coffee or
come for lunch, have sandwich and
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then one are the normal hours for
that we were open. We've changed since
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the pandemic, but we were open
seven days a week, week days,
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six to six weekends. Eight hundred
and twenty three. Okay, so you
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are so Saturday and Sunday your eight, two three. Yeah, okay.
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And and you were working how many
of those days? Typically, initially all
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of them. Yeah, and then
I was able to kind of not be
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in the store on weekends. Very
cool. And then, right before the
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pandemic happened, I had just really
gotten to this point where I wasn't even
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putting myself on the schedule at all. I had my staff. I've six
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people working for me so I could
work on the business instead of in the
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business, right. Yeah, yeah, well, and my guest is you
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were also front, you know,
out front and talking to people and knowing
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you. You were also doing great
customer service. Yeah, and I love
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that part of it. Yeah,
that's part of who you are. Right.
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Well, that's what I you know, I felt like I was finally
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doing the things I should be doing, US, doing the opening, the
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you know, being the figurehead,
the face of the business. Yeah,
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good for you. And finally I
had caught up with quick books and all
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the financial stuff. I paid my
tat two thousand and eighteen tax as I
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had done. You know, it
filed attention. But I got that all
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done and then the pandemic happened.
It's did you go from being open to
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being shut down? Well, whatnot? Shut Down, you know, by
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the state it because we have the
market. We were considered an essential business
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or we could come up, come
under that. I think I wasn't like
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strictly a restaurant that had the clothes, and so that's what we did.
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We shifted to doing only groceries and
you know, it worked at the coincidentally,
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00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:36.980
the the distributors I buy from,
where I would be buying twenty pounds
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of cabot sliced Cheddar cheese from my
distributor in New York so that we could
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make grilled cheese sandwiches on the Panini. Well, that provider, that distributor,
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is called Chef's warehouse and they their
customers are restaurants all over this area,
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purpose right, and the restaurants were
going we're shutting down, right,
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so they were looking for other ways
to sell. Warehouse was started going directly
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to consumers, but I also talked
to my reps there and said I want
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to shift to selling more groceries,
and that's what we did. I started
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buying produced from them and more products
like bottles of olive oil and things that.
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So what did your hours look like
then? When you when you say
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we we switched, it was so
much more work that we tried doing it
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seven days a week and realize we
just need a break, can't keep up.
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And our morning customers weren't didn't need
to be there at six am to
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get coffee. Teachers and people who
work in the financial markets were staying home.
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So we switched and said we're going
to be open every day from eight
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am to three PM. Four,
three, four, four, eight to
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four right. So we the weekends
we were. We switched to Tuesday to
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Saturday. Eight hundred two four.
We're closed now Sundays and Mondays. Did
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you have to lay off staff?
Nope. Wow, I have two young
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women who work for me who are
seniors in high school right now and at
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first their families didn't want them to
work, so I didn't have to lay
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anyone off. One of those girls
has come back and does she comes into
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the store early in the morning before
school to to pack orders that have come
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in over the grocery orders that come
in by email over night, and then
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she comes back in the afternoons and
does deliveries. So she's able to work
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without are your schools open? No, okay, all right, so sheet
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while we're doing online. Yeah,
so she's doing yeah, when you make
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said before school before they online start. Okay. Give the audience of a
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change of mix. So you were
gone from a coffee shop that happened to
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have a market that supplemented that to
now the market being the primary business.
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So what's the mix shift that you
went through? Well, and I also
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feel like we went from being a
brick and mortar store, yeah, to
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kind of business, yeah, which
you know, I had always worked for
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Internet businesses, so it was familiar
to me and another serendipitous saying that worked
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at. I have a woman working
for me who is had a twenty year
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career as a software engineer and she
decided to just make a life change about
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a year ago. She she makes
pottery and we sell her pottery in the
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store and then she come in to
drop off the pottery she would enjoy the
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environment and said you have a Barista, because I could use a few more
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hours. You know, I'll be
your Barista. So she's working as our
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Barista and then it turns out when
the pandemic happened. She built, well,
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I had, we had a website
built already, but she built the
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commerce, built the website. Yeah, yeah, you really, really.
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You know, week we were able
to start taking orders. We had every
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we have over I don't know what
we have close with a thousand items up
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on our website now, pictures.
I woulder took pictures of everything in the
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store. We got all the prices
in the inventory and so that people can
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shop online. And so again.
What? How much of your business now
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is the market stuff as opposed to
coffee stuff? How's that? Ninety percent
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is so, as things unwind and
we moved to whatever the new normal is,
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what what do you think the business
will look like? Maybe in six
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to nine months? Yeah, it's
a challenge figgering out how the go back
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to that. I do think that
we'll have a lot will be doing a
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lot more grocery sales even after the
pandemic is over. I think so too.
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Our shopping habits of change. You
magically. We don't go in the
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store. We'd go do pickups now
and I love it. Yeah, right,
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yeah, I bother driving to and
from Easton. You have to drive
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twenty minutes to get to any grocery
stores like trader Joe's and stop and shop
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and shop right. They're all in
another town. While I did offer groceries
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before, I had a lot of
customers who came in to get coffee and
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sandwiches and didn't even notice the groceries. And so when this this all started
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up, they'd call me and say
I love that you're selling eggs and milk
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and bread now, and I'd say
I've been selling that since day one,
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and they just shocked. Yeah,
but I'm selling a lot of things that
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I wasn't selling before, like pasta
and frozen fish and frozen hamburgers. And
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Think, Oh yeah, what do
you like most about owning your own business?
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Being in charge, you know,
especially though, I thought, like
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going through a crisis like this,
I get to decide how we're going to
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deal with everything. Yeah, I'm
not working for someone else and just following
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someone else's plan. I wish the
audience could see your face. She is
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just beaming. Shore just, Oh
my God, this woman is in such
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a good place for her it's it's
remarkable. How how you know? You?
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I don't know what you said earlier
to beginning it was something the effect
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that we gave you, the Entrepreneur
Lich or something. I forget how you
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said it, but the truth is
it was in you all all all that
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happened is it got uncovered and allowed
to blossom because it was in there.
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You would it's remarkable. How,
how will you've done at this? What
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do you like least about owning your
own business? Just not I miss my
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old life, the life outside of
work, gardening and walking the dogs and
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exercising. She's still smiling, folks, and she misses it, but but
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she's it's a lifestyle, owning a
business, isn't it? Yeah, and
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I you know, everyone I'd ever
interviewed all those years told me that,
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but I didn't. You don't get
it until you're doing it how all consuming
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it is. There's always you don't
like I said, with with journalism,
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at the end of the day I
could turn off the computer and go have
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dinner and go for a walk and
turn it off and the next day start
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over again. And this you just
never turned it off. Is that the
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biggest surprise about owning your own business? That the that that change in your
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lifestyle and you know, in the
way your life operates. ORS was there
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another bigger surprise this this business in
particular. It's been so surprising to me
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how appreciative customers are and people in
my community are. I feel like I've
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00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:10.579
done well in most jobs that I've
had about I've never had so much positive
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feedback and it's all from customers.
You know, you clearly found niche that
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needed filled in the marketplace in east
and right you you clearly identified there was
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something lacking. But I think you've
had, always demonstrated a social conscience for
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the for the area and and business
in general. I mean you it was
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it was doing something responsibly and my
guess is the town pretty quickly figured out
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that that was going to be important
to you and and I'm my guess is
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that's resonated with them, which is
another reason they want to support you.
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Yeah, I got a really nice
texts a couple weeks into the pandemic from
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a guy in town who is he's
part of the Greyser's family. Okay,
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and you know, when I first
took over I kept the family name,
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but people in the family it was
kind of like, what's going on?
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00:26:06.140 --> 00:26:08.980
This is being taken out of our
hands. That, and I mean they've
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been super supportive. But but you
know, there's it's it was a big
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change to have this interloper show up
and run the family business. And he
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sent me a text message a couple
weeks into the pandemic and said I am
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I want you to know I'm how
much I'm enjoying watching you handle this.
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00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:37.759
It's so clear that you're the right
person, yeah, to have to do
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this job. I mean that meant
more to me than anything. I can
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understand that, knowing you and and
knowing how important is it is to you
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to do this the right way.
In quote. So you that's that's neat.
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You got that validation. Is Mr
Greyser's shop gone, the antiques and
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stuff like that, and as that
okay, still there. He still that.
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So he also, as part of
that, he has a gas station,
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and so he run he runs the
gas station that's still able to it'll
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be very interesting to see where how
this thing evolves over the next five and
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ten years. I I'm excited.
I'm I'm telling you right now, as
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soon as the you know, circumstances
allow Fran and I free friends for our
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00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:26.650
audiences benefit. My bride of thirty
eight years friend, actually our anniversaries two
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00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:30.440
days from now for thirty eight years. But we're going to do a road
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00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:36.480
trip to easy Connecticut and I want
to come up and see this and do
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00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:40.799
it right and look down over my
nose, glad you know where my glasses
341
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:45.029
look down, and just be a
very judgmental and you'll be proud of me
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00:27:45.950 --> 00:27:51.710
already. I'm proud of you.
I'm getting I'm very serious about though,
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00:27:51.750 --> 00:27:55.750
about being proud of you. I
I have I have no doubts whatsoever.
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You're going to make this very successful. You know, we promise our audience
345
00:27:59.539 --> 00:28:06.740
that they will get an idea that
some other business owner executive beliefs is crucial
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00:28:06.779 --> 00:28:10.900
to running a more successful business.
So, knowing now that you've earned the
347
00:28:10.980 --> 00:28:17.650
right to offer really now have paid
the dudes, what's your one one thing?
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If you don't do anything else,
a business owner executive better better do
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this if they're going to be successful. Who? For me, when I
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look back at the first year in
business, I I went into it having
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really done my homework and I had
thought a lot about the product mix and
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the environment and exist I knew exactly
what I what I what I wanted to
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do and what I believed would work
in this town. That first year,
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I cannot tell you how many people
will walk through the door and tell you,
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00:28:56.180 --> 00:29:04.380
you know what you should do,
you should add exserted with other business
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00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:10.849
owners and I've said I can't believe
it. Like have I ever walked into
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00:29:10.890 --> 00:29:15.569
someone's business without even looking at what
products they are selling and telling them what
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00:29:15.809 --> 00:29:18.970
they ought to sell? Right?
And one of my friends who she and
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00:29:19.049 --> 00:29:22.890
her husband own a restaurant, she
said to me, Oh, Adrian,
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the two words that make my whole
body tremble. You should having confidence and
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00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:40.950
not not you know, and and
resisting switching the plan because somebody thinks you
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00:29:41.029 --> 00:29:45.829
should or somebody thinks their idea is
better than yours. It will pay off
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if you can stick to your focus. Little Steve Jobs focus kind of a
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00:29:52.109 --> 00:29:55.940
thing right at Appleyoya, that he
was not going to be dis waited by
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00:29:55.980 --> 00:29:59.700
what other people thought he should be
selling. It offering. It takes courage
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00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:03.299
to do that, and you certainly
have it, and and takes fortitude.
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You certainly have that. I couldn't
be happier for you and Jeff and and,
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00:30:08.369 --> 00:30:11.930
by the way, she's married to
an entrepreneur as well. Adrian.
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00:30:11.329 --> 00:30:17.089
Yeah, and this is also given
me great, much greater appreciation for my
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00:30:18.009 --> 00:30:23.519
husband, who works harder than I
ever realized. She's a talented woman in
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00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:27.880
so many ways and a good friend
and somebody that I'm so happy for and
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00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:32.480
I hope it doesn't sound patronizing to
say I'm proud of as well. So,
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Adrian, thanks for being with us
today. Thank you for listening to
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00:30:41.829 --> 00:30:48.029
the ED epply experience. For more
information on building a more sustainable, smarter
375
00:30:48.230 --> 00:30:56.339
and Healthier Business, visit www the
eply groupcom for resources, tips and ED's
376
00:30:56.339 --> 00:31:06.289
latest blocks. That's the EPPLY EPP
L Y Groupcom. Plus, take a
377
00:31:06.450 --> 00:31:14.009
free assessment at the epply Groupcom assessment
to find out how you measure up as
378
00:31:14.049 --> 00:31:19.000
a highly skilled and accomplished manager and
where to focus on improving your skills.
