Emma prefers to share her thoughts with a microphone rather than a physical human being, so thank god she has a podcast. Recorded from the comfort of her bed, Emma talks at length about whatever is on her mind every week. Anything really does go on this podcast. Sometimes philosophy, sometimes a random story from 10 years ago, sometimes advice, and sometimes nothing at all. You never know what you are going to get, but that’s what keeps it interesting. New episodes every Thursday.
Thu, 01 Oct 2020 16:08
Starting a business has a ton of ups and downs, and Emma’s been through it all launching (and re-launching) her company and passion project Chamberlain Coffee. All of the trials and tribulations of getting a company up and running, from creating the product, creating the voice, branding, etc. Emma chats about it all and gives advice to anyone considering starting their own business as well. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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And I honestly think I'm kind of nervous. For this episode because I want it to be perfect. But. I just need to relax. OK, this is my safe space. Anything goes is my safe space. Truly. So. Let me loosen up. I'll take a deep breath. Let's get started. Today I'm going to be talking about Chamberlain Coffee and. My business life, if you will. This is something that I never talk about, which is surprising because I talk about 90% of my life on the Internet. I just don't talk about this a lot and I think it's because. Number one, I don't know if it's interesting. #2I sometimes feel like talking about the business element of things. Can like ruin. The experience when you know too much of the behind the scenes like I don't know, I worry about like. Oversharing about. The business side, because I'm like, will that take away from the customer experience? I don't know. And they also just haven't been able to talk about it because a lot of things have been a secret and we've been working on. So much stuff. For so long. And it's been like a secret. So I couldn't bring it up and I couldn't like allude to it either, cause then that's just annoying if I'm like half talking about something. But I've been waiting to do this episode for months. Like since they started, anything goes. I was like, I want to make an episode about running a business. And starting a business. And Chamberlain coffee and everything like I want to, but I had to wait until we relaunched the company because we've been working on relaunching it for so long anyway. You guys don't care, let's just get right into it. I'm so excited. This is very long-awaited for me and I just am excited to tell you guys about the process and like what it's really like and. The truth of it all, I guess. So buckle your seat belt and let's. Take a ride into. Coffeetown. I regret saying those things. Every time I say things like that, say to my friends I say it. By myself, I say to my parents, whatever, and I never. Feel good about it. I always regret it so. There's just another one. It's like I say, things that are cringy and I know that they're cringy and I think it's funny, but then. It still hurts even when it's a joke, and you know what I mean? So I'm gonna work on that. I'm gonna work on being cooler. I know I'm going to be a nerdy mom when I'm a mom. I maybe not, but I feel like there's a decent chance that I'm going to be. Massive nerd when I'm an adult. Kind of like my own mother. I love my mom, but she's very nerdy in her own little way. Like she loves squirrels and she loves Lord of the Rings and stuff like that and she like. You know, says things that are funny because they're like. She she likes the corny stuff in life sometimes. She likes corny quotes and stuff. Corny Pinterest quotes. Like, that's her thing. That's her Forte. She loves that. I feel like I might end up like that, too. Which is fine with me, because my mom is one of the most. Endearing people ever. And sweetest, except for when she's yelling at me and I'm yelling at her back, but still, like, you know, that's mother daughter stuff. Majority of the time. She's a very sweet and endearing woman. And but I do kind of feel like I'm going to turn into her because I say things like, let's take a ride into coffee town and I'm like, there's just no way that that's not going to get worse and worse as IH, you know what I mean? Those things are just going to keep happening and keep getting worse. So. Feeling bad for my future children already? They're gonna be cringed out constantly. Let's get into it though, OK? So let's talk about. Chamberlain coffee. Chamberlain Coffee is my coffee company. We launched in December of 2019 I believe. And initially we launched with one product which was a steeped coffee bag. Basically, imagine a tea bag that has fresh coffee grounds in it. That makes one single cup of coffee at a time, or you can use it for cold brew. Etcetera, etcetera. But basically a multi use. Steeped coffee bag. Almost like a tea bag, but with coffee in it. You get it. And if you keep up with me, you've probably seen me talk about it 1000 times. So this is not new. We launched with that product and we launched with a very simple website, a very simple aesthetic. Everything was very simple about it. We were really focused on the product itself in making that perfect. And we weren't as focused on. The voice of the brand. Or the aesthetic of the brand or. Anything like that, we were very, very focused on the product and like everything else was very secondary. We also launched very quickly after. Making the decision that we wanted to start a coffee company like the second that we found the roaster that we wanted to use and. We started working with them. It was a very quick turn around. It only took a few months and then we started the company. I feel like. It happened. In a blink of an eye. So we launched. Everything was very simple, one product. We were just going to put it out, see how it did and go from there, right? So that's what we did. And it ended up doing very well, which was super, super exciting. I mean, it was one of the coolest moments of my life. To be selling a product. Under my own company name. I mean, it was like the most insane thing that's ever happened to me, and it was such a dream for me because you know. Coffee has been such a big part of my life. One of my dreams growing up was to be a barista and to like, start a coffee company. It was just like. The. Dope as **** ever, right? And when people responded to it well and loved the product. I was over the moon and so for the first few months we were just kind of. Seeing how you know it did overtime. Seeing what people were requesting for the company to do next, just kind of gathering information and just like. Thinking and brainstorming what was next. And you know, although the experience was very amazing and, you know, people were super pumped about the product and all of that. There were some struggles within the first few months. One of those struggles being, you know. Nothing is perfect. When you launch a business. There's no way to predict how things are going to go or what problems may arise. It's just like you just have to do it and deal with things as they come. And one of the issues was shipping. We had some shipping delays because. I can't exactly remember why, but I think we. Sold more than we expected, and so we had to like, roast new coffee. And that took more time than we anticipated. And then. A bunch of orders got delayed and a lot of people were mad at me because they were like Emma. What the ****? Like, is this a scam? Like, you know? Where where is it like, what the ****? And I'm like, Oh my God, I don't know to do like, I I don't even, I don't know what to say. Like whatever. Not to mention. We didn't expect to sell as much as we did and so we didn't have the proper customer service. Team that we needed to be responding to the people that were asking questions about their order and so it was just. On it was immediately on a larger scale than we anticipated. And so that was like terrifying for me and I took it very personal, right? And it hurt my feelings almost because I was like, **** like. Everybody's mad at me, but like, this is not my fault, but also this is my company and they're in, you know? They trust me to get their products, but you know, we're so new and we don't know what the **** we're doing like we do. We know what we're doing, but like we didn't expect. It to go like this and go as well as it did. And So what? Now you know what I mean. It was inevitable to have a few slip ups and so the shipping thing was definitely one and. Luckily overtime I've figured out a way to. Remove myself. From the stuff I can't control emotionally. Because people complaining about shipping or like even shipping cost or even the cost of the product like things like that. People complaining about that used to like. Genuinely upset me and hurt my personal feelings. But. It's part of the territory. I mean, there's, it's not avoidable. It's inevitable that that stuff's going to happen. But in the beginning it was tough for me because I was like. Very emotionally invested and any mean or negative comment about the company or criticism or anything, I'd take it straight to heart in a way that like. I don't even do with my own channel or my own personality. Like when people come from my own personality, I feel like with the company I was taking it so much harder and so luckily I got over that, but it was really tough in the beginning and I think that's something that. You don't realize, but when you create a company, it's kind of like your baby, right? And it's like you're raising a child, and when you have a child, that child's going to throw up. All over your shirt. Sometimes that baby is going to. Get in trouble at school or in preschool, whatever the baby's going to break. Some House rules might like take a crown and draw on the wall, but you teach it those things. And then you move forward, right? It's the exact same thing with a company when a company is a baby. There's a lot of growing pains, and there's a lot of. Problems that arise that you can't even anticipate until they come up and so. That was tough for me because I think I expected it to be perfect right off the bat and it was just so far from that and that was hard for my ego to accept at first. But after a few months. We kind of leveled out and. The chaos was over, the initial launch was over. We were establishing ourselves as a brand, but it started to feel like. The brand was empty and I'll explain that. Clothes are one of the many ways that we express ourselves and we're constantly switching up our wardrobes. To reflect our interests and styles. But one thing that is a little bit more difficult to switch up is our glasses. Until now, because now with pair eyewear. You can have a different frame every day, OK? With pair eyewear, you start with a chic pair of glasses, right? That look great just by themselves, but they have a special secret. Which is that they have at little. Magnet inside so you can snap on. A cool frame on top of your existing glasses. I got the crystal clear Reese base frame which is just a really chic pair of all clear glasses. The frame is clear obviously the lenses are clear and I got a tortoise frame and a Plaid frame so I can now it. Basically I have 3 pairs of reading glasses now. There are so many options, iconic base shapes and then all sort of frames to go on top retro classic neon sparkle. You'll definitely find your vibe I also love. Buying from a brand that really, really cares and pair provides glasses to a child in need for every pair that you buy. Get glasses as ever, changing as you are with pear. Go to pair eyewear com Emma for 15% off your first purchase. That's 15% off. At PAIR eyewear.com/emma one we had only one product. 2. The aesthetic of the brand was not clear. Like there is no clear brand aesthetic. It was very bland and not as interesting as I personally. Like? The social media was kind of boring in it. It didn't feel. Unique and so. My team and I decided like. Let's turn this into the company that we all want it to be. A company that has a distinct voice, a distinct aesthetic. A cool vision, a cool message. Let's, like, figure all of that out and make it happen, right? So. We started to build a stronger foundation. For the company, meaning hiring employees. Finding investors. Stuff like that, so that we could. Have the means to turn the company into what we wanted it to be, right? That process took a long time. Because. Again, your business is your baby, and you don't want somebody handling your baby if you don't trust them. It's like having a babysitter. Are you gonna hire some? Suspicious babysitter. For your baby, no, because that's your baby and if anything happens to it. We're gonna have issues. It's the same thing with the company. So when you're hiring employees and finding investors, you want to find people that get it right. And that's not easy to do because. Everybody thinks so differently and finding somebody who shares the same vision as you is not easy. And luckily I had my team. Umm. Which are, you know, people at my agency who helped me start this in the 1st place I had. A lot of people on my personal team that you know. Does everything for me, basically, whether it's YouTube, podcasts, whatever they are my everything, whatever. They were the ones that helped me start this company and I luckily had them. And my roasters as my initial foundation and that was amazing, but like we needed more and. So after a little while we found that foundation. We hired some employees, we found the perfect investors that. Got it, and it just made sense to them and they saw the vision and they loved it and blah blah blah. And we got that all sorted out, which takes way more time than you think. Like, you know, there's a lot of legal documents that need to go back and forth. There's a lot of negotiating. When it comes to like equity and you know all that, there's so many different things and it takes a really long time to. Get all of that sorted out. When you start adding people in. To your company, The thing is is that. We were trying to build our foundation. While still running the company right and. We were trying to deal with. The team building, like basically building the team and adding more people into the company. We were trying to deal with that. And that was so much work that when it came to like. Advancing Chamberlain coffee. At all. Like there was just no time to add new products or update the website and make, you know, add new photos and stuff like that, or put a lot of time into photo shoots for the Instagram page like we were so focused on. Building a foundation under Chamberlain Coffee that we weren't able to really work on the brand in the present moment. We needed to get those people on our team before we could truly get started on. Revamping the brand and like making it amazing. And so that was really stressful for me because it was like, OK, on the outside it looks like the brand is just staying the same and is just kind of like. Plateauing in a sense, not necessarily. In sales even because we still were, you know, selling quite well. It was more like. We weren't advancing, you know what I mean? Like the the brand still seemed very new. And. Very novice in a sense. And that bugged me, because I knew deep down that we were. Taking the steps to make the company. ******. But it was like, it didn't look like that from the outside for months and months and months because there was so much work that had to be done behind the scenes. So that leads me to. Working on the relaunch. We got the investors, we got a bunch of other employees. All of the documents were signed. It was time to start working and so. There were three main things that we worked on. Number one, the voice of the brand. What do we want the voice to be? What's the message of the brand? What's the tone of the brand? Almost as if the brand is a human being. Like how does the brand speak to the customer? That was one of the first things we worked on. Then it was aesthetic. Like? What's the aesthetic of the brand? You know what I mean? What's the color scheme? What's the new logo? Do we want a new logo? Why? What's that all going to look like? What's the social media going to look like? Just the overall. Vision of the brand and then the last thing was. We need more products. We have one single product in one single coffee blend. We need to add more. So those were the three things that we needed to work on. Very quickly it was obvious to us that we were going to just relaunch the whole company and it was gonna be a brand new ***** and it is, as you guys have seen, completely different brand. I mean, the coffee is still the same and you know. It's still the same Chamberlain coffee. It still has the same heart and soul in it, if anything has more heart and soul in it. But you know it. It's a totally new brand and we realized, OK. There's nothing wrong with relaunching the company. I think that's a kind of terrifying thing, because. Relaunching a company insinuates that there was like. A failure. The first time there wasn't a failure. The company was. Great. Before it was great, but it was not. As great as it, it won't. You know what, let's just say it was good. It was really good. The product was good. The product was actually great. But the brand itself was just good. We wanted everything to be great. And. It's similar to like I can pair it to stupid genius versus anything goes. Super Genius was my first podcast that I had. It was very science based. Whatever and. I did it for a few months and then I eventually was like, this is so not what I want it to be. Like, I enjoy podcasting. But this format doesn't work for me. So then I took the L and I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna start a whole new podcast. **** it. And I'm just gonna do what I want and I'm gonna make it whatever I want. And use what I learned from doing stupid genius to make anything goes. As amazing as it could be, and. Anything goes has done so much better than stupid genius and has been so much more fun for me and has been so much more true to me. And it's been an amazing experience and even though it felt like a failure. When stupid genius didn't work out. I wouldn't have anything goes if I didn't do stupid genius. Because stupid genius taught me everything I needed to know about making a podcast so that when I relaunched. My podcast in renamed it. Anything goes and add a new format. I knew exactly what I wanted because I had tried it once, failed, and when I tried again, I took what I learned, put my ego aside. And it worked out. But sometimes people want to give up. They're like, OK, the first time it didn't work, I'm done. Or the first time wasn't perfect. I'm done. You can't do that. You take what you learned, you reroute. And who knows? You know what I mean. Things don't work the first try. Like ever, how many times did I start a YouTube channel before it worked? Like 5I literally had five YouTube channels before the one I have now. Those five didn't work. This one just did. It's the same thing with Chamberlain Coffee. It's like the company did well. It was a successful launch, it had a successful few months, but it was so not. Great. Branding wise and identity wise and so. I realized that that needed to be a priority. And I made that my priority. So back to what I was talking about before. There was those three things that we needed to work on, new products, new aesthetic. Clear brand voice. And. I won't get into the gritty details of all of it, but it was just a lot of trial and error and a lot of really long conversations with our whole team just trying to narrow down. What we want the whole thing to be and you know, we had a lot of fun with it, but. It was exhausting mentally. Umm. Trying to figure out how you want your brand voice to sound is one of the most confusing things ever, because it's like, OK. A brand is not just one person. So you kind of have to create a character for it. And and I never realized that. I never realized that. People spend. Well, companies spend months. Figuring out. How they want every word on their page. To look. So that when you read. A little excerpt on their website. It fits with the rest of the brand like it's it's a mind blowing thing that that all connects, but those were all the things that we needed to work on and you know, coming up with a color scheme and then eventually coming up with the idea to match each individual. Blend of coffee with an animal. That was something that came up supernaturally like, I can't even it was like. We wanted to put an animal in the logo, but then we're like, no, that's like too much. That's scary. Because then, like, what if we don't like that animal in six months? And then I was like, well, what if we have a simple logo and then we have a different animal for every blend so that we never get sick of one animal? We have a bunch of animals, and it's fun. And then, you know, that happened, and then it was time to taste test, but it was COVID. So then I was getting coffee sent to my house and drinking like coffee after coffee after coffee, after coffee, after coffee. And you know, it was just crazy. And not to mention our launch got pushed back. By months and months and months just because of shipping delays with COVID and then you know one of our manufacturers. How to delay because there was the fire in Northern California and so, you know, like. There was a lot of delays, there was a lot of bumps in the road, whether it was like. Figuring out color scheme that made sense to figuring out how to make the website perfect to like every detail. Was looked at by me and was looked at by every member of my team. Like not one thing. Didn't get twenty sets of eyes on it and. It took so long and it was so hard because I couldn't talk about it and it meanwhile, this was the hardest thing for me. I knew that I was about to relaunch this company and it was about to be a whole brand new ***** in. I knew that, but no one else did. So everybody, you know, I'm like, promoting Chamberlain coffee, but deep down I'm like, ah. I want to be showing them what I have in store. I don't want to show them what we have out in the world right now. Like I love it and I love the product. And. This is my baby and I like you know, and I'm proud of it, but also, I know what we're working on and I know what we have in store. And I just want people to see that right now. And it was it was hard for me mentally because. Like, you know, the rebranded version of the company was. I mean it, it's it is levels and levels above where we started and so it was hard for me. To like. Not explode. And I just wanted everybody to know so bad. Anyway, I'm going to take a sip of my coffee now cause I've been talking really fast and I'm using my Chamberlain coffee Mason jar, which is one of my favorite products that we have ever come out with, even though it's not even coffee. But I just love the Mason jar as well as the night owl blend in latte form. In my cup so. OK, so if I were to host a live radio show and I could play any music I wanted. I would honestly probably have the time of my Life OK, but I'll admit I would probably end up playing. Just sad music. I don't know what it is about me, but I love sad music, OK? And so I'd probably end up playing. A lot of sad music. Specifically for the people who are listening in the car by themselves. That want to shed a tear in a good way? Well now there is a place that I or you or anyone can host a live show. Amp is the platform that allows people to come together and create live, unfiltered radio shows with whatever music or content that they love. And this is like a real show where you can have people listening live and you can pick exactly which songs to play, and you can even have fans calling in to chat while you're on air. If I had a live show, I would definitely. Have people call in and ask me for dating advice honestly, so I think I'd have to do dating advice. You know what this actually sounds like? The perfect radio show. Sad music combined with dating advice. Because all of the shows on AMP are run by real people, you can tell that the playlists are authentic. A playlist generated automatically just sounds different than one that an individual is controlling based on their passions and tastes. And with 10s of millions of licensed songs to choose from, everyone will find the music that appeals to them. But it's not just music. You can have a talk show. Or react to news, or riff on pop culture. And that's one of the best parts about being a podcast host. You can just riff. On whatever. Excites your mind on any given day. So download AMP today in the App Store that's a amp, or ask Alexa to play amp. Here's the thing. Now that it's out. I want to tell you what my goal is. With this company and where I want to. Make a difference in the coffee industry. I have always felt like coffee brands tend to be very mature and very serious and very. Polished. Right. And that's the blueprint. Chamberlain Coffee came off that way in the beginning because. In a way, we were kind of copying what other coffee brands had done before subconsciously. Because we didn't know any better. But after months of thinking and working on it and getting more familiar with this industry. I realized. Where is the fun, playful, honest? No ********. Coffee brand. Out there like I couldn't name it. Right. I wanted this balance of high quality, high, high, high quality coffee. With. Playfulness, right? Because I feel like there's never that those two things together, and even though we have a playful. Energy to our brand. Are some of our core values are, you know, being organic, being fair trade, being eco friendly as much as possible. All of those things are so important to us. We wanted to be a coffee brand. That was high quality. Educational. Meaning, like we explained to you in simple terms what you're drinking. That's a huge priority to us. But in an easy to understand, in not overly complicated way. We also want to have. And inviting and honest and. Reliable we want to be the reliable, honest, inviting. Coffee choice. You can rely on us because you know that we're organic, you know that we're fair trade, you know that we're as eco friendly as we possibly can be. You know that we don't use pesticides. We make that very clear. That's why we're reliable. But we also want to be honest. O. You know, on the social media, on the website. Every word that's written is honest. We're not trying to sugarcoat anything. We're not trying to make anything fluffy and overly serious. We're just honest and straight up in no ********. But also making coffee fun because I think that. A lot of coffee brands tend to be overly serious, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think that there's something fun about that. You know, the the kind of super polished coffee brand. I totally get that. But. I want to be the fun option. For the people that wanna add a little bit of color to their day, you know what I mean? They want to smile a little bit more when they're drinking their coffee. OK, that's what I want TID in want. And I really hope that that translates and I really hope that you guys feel that. And you know, we've worked so hard on this and it's truly. One of my favorite things that I've ever worked on in my entire life. I am so proud of it and I never admit that to myself. I never say that I'm proud of something. But I am truly so proud of this and. It is my child and you know. I'm a control freak, but I let other people in and I let other people come in and help me make this company as amazing as it can be. And they've done such an amazing job and. I've given up some of my control. Which was tough, but because I did that. We were able to build. Chamberlain Coffee and into what it is today, and I hope that all of that made sense. And I know that you guys asked me some questions, so I'm going to get into questions now. But before I actually don't know, **** that, before I get into questions, I just want to thank you guys for supporting Chamberlain Coffee during its awkward teen years. It has now officially gone through puberty and how to glow up. And now everybody wants to date it, but nobody wanted to date Chamberlain Coffee before. Because, you know. Chamberlain Coffee, had braces. Chairmain coffee, you know. Started getting Acne Chamberlain coffee. Started, you know, smelling bad during PE like it was going through ******* puberty and Chamberlain Coffee had a ************* glow up. And now, Chamberlain, Coffee is hot. And sexy and very. Mature, but also still playful and fun to be around. OK? Thank you for being there for every step of Chamberlain Coffey's life thus far. It is truly my child and it is truly my baby. And you guys. Supporting it really, really means the world to me because it is genuinely a passion project for me. And from the bottom of my heart, it has nothing to do with the money, with the whatever. I haven't even made a dime off Chamberlain coffee yet. I've put everything back into the company. It doesn't matter to me. This is my passion project I am so passionate about creating. A coffee brand that makes people feel good that. I don't care about any other element and I really feel like this relaunch. Has been the most. Amazing step in the right direction for this company and. She's just a brand new ***** and I love her so much, so let's get into questions. How long has it taken you to feel comfortable putting yourself out there in the business world, and do you still have anxieties about it today? Yes, so here's the thing. When I started this company, it's not like I. Was super experienced in say, roasting coffee beans. In fact, I had no experience. The only thing I had experience in is being obsessed with coffee and knowing I want to do something with it, but when it came to certain elements of starting a coffee company, I wasn't a pro. And I knew that and I was OK with that, but as a business owner? Sometimes. You feel? Underqualified when you don't know how to roast a batch of coffee beans perfectly, and that's what your company is about. But. Personally, I. Wanted to challenge myself and learn more and find people who are really passionate about roasting coffee beans and bring those people in and have them help me. You know what I mean? And that's OK. I have good taste in coffee I think in my opinion. O you know. I took those skills. And combine them with the skills of the roasters and you know, we created and we continue to create amazing blends again in my opinion, but I hope you guys love them as well. But it does hurt, and it does make you anxious when you're like, OK, well, I'm not a pro at this, you know what I mean? I'm, I have my specialties, but I'm not good at everything and I'm not good at every element. That goes into this business, I'm not. A pro at every moving piece in this business. I don't know how to do everything and that can make you anxious because you're like, well then. Should I not be doing this because I'm not a pro? But it doesn't really matter because. As long as you create something that brings other people joy. Who cares how many people are involved to make that happen? Who cares if you're? In advanced coffee roaster or if you're. Kind of new to that, but you love coffee, and you're gonna bring in people who know exactly how to do it. And I've been doing it for longer than I've been alive, right? I who cares? But that was something that I struggled with in the beginning because I was like, is that bad? Is that wrong? You know? And the answer is no. What goes into creating something doesn't really matter as long as everybody's getting the credit that they deserve. Everybody is being treated fairly and properly within the company and the company is honest and. Ethical and. I mean, who cares about the rest, right? OK, so I've told you guys about circle before, right? Spelled CIRKUL. Circle was created for people like me, OK, who don't drink enough water every day circles basically this water bottle with over 40 flavor cartridges that makes drinking water way more tasty. The flavors cover all the bases. They have fruit, punches, iced teas. Some even have caffeine or electrolytes, but there's no sugar, there's no calories, and there's no artificial flavors. My favorite flavor is strawberry Kiwi. And my favorite thing about it is I love how the dial on the cartridge lets you choose how much flavor you get per sip. All you have to do is twist the dial to a certain number for how much flavor that you want and you're ready to go. So the cool thing about it is that you can put the cartridge on. And you can set it to whatever setting you want. So you could set it to a setting where when you take a sip of water, it just tastes like water, so there's no flavor added. But if you're in the mood to add some flavor, you can twist it a little bit. And then you have a super flavorful sip. Right now, Circle is giving all of my listeners up to 35% off their order, plus free shipping on all orders of $15 or more. Plus, as an added bonus, we're throwing in my favorite flavor, strawberry Kiwi, for free. Just visit drink circom Emma. That's drink CIRUL com Emma to get this limited time offer today again, that's drinkcircle.com/emma. Somebody said talk about pricing products and criticism on prices. OK, yes, this is something I totally forgot to talk about earlier, but was going to so. This is tough too because. I'm somebody who's always really prioritized the quality of products that I release and. With Chamberlain coffee. It's like that and more like, I want this coffee to be the best quality that it possibly can be, because I'm. A coffee snob. Point blank. I'm kind of a snob about it. It's actually funny because I was going to name Chamberlain Coffee. Snob coffee. That was one of the name ideas I had, but it didn't work out because it was already like taken or something. But I was going to name it that because I was like, I'm such a snob. Like I want to make a high quality. Coffee brand. Premium coffee brand. And like, what better name than snob? Like, that's perfect. But anyway, I'm glad that it was. It became Chamberlain Coffee and that's a perfect name and wouldn't want it any other way, but. When you're dealing with premium products and high quality products, the prices are just naturally going to be much higher. And I know you know Chamberlain, Coffee is not. A cheap coffee brand by any means. You know, I mean, for the steeped bags, it's $2.00 a cup, which is not too bad. For bags of whole beans, it's definitely pricey. Same with ground beans. But it's because. We're organic and we're fair trade, and we. Don't use pesticides and. And we're eco friendly. And all of that. Those things all add up very quickly and I think. If those are things that are important to you as a customer, then. Amazing. You know what I mean? Our products will align very well with you and what you stand for. If you. Aren't as concerned about those things. Then you know the higher price may seem. Unnecessary, but. Having those quality. Characteristics. It just makes the products more expensive. And I totally understand, you know. I'm getting older and I'm starting to learn more about. The importance of buying quality products, whether that's clothes, furniture, blah, blah, blah, you know? Sometimes when things are more affordable, there can be. Harmful things about them, you know what I mean? And that's still something that I'm learning about, whether that's like fast fashion or, you know. Not organic or not fair trade products and with coffee especially, fair trade is very important to me and I'll read a definition of Fair trade to you so that you kind of understand and I can explain why it's so important to me. The official definition of Fair trade means trade between companies in developed countries and producers in developing countries in which fair prices are paid to the producers. This is extremely, extremely important to me. Because. I want everybody involved in Chamberlain Coffee to be treated. Perfectly. Obviously nothing's ever perfect, but I want everybody to get what they deserve and you know? When a product is Fair Trade certified, you know. You spend more money. Producing fair trade products because you're paying more to get the product. That is totally fine with me. I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm OK with losing sales because the prices are a little bit higher because of that. As long as the people who are growing my coffee beans are being treated fairly, I'm happy. The criticism of the price, all that, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me because I know that every person who is technically working for my company is being treated well. That is very, very important to me. And so. I'm OK with having higher prices and I'm also OK with some people being like, you know what? I don't want to spend. That much money on a bag of coffee. I totally get that too. And. Also as a. Relatively new business. Our prices are going to be slightly higher anyway because we're still building our company and so. You know. There's a lot of factors when it comes to price that stress me out more than you even know because. Obviously the ideal thing to do is have an affordable product, but sometimes. Having an affordable product means. Skimping out in other areas and I just didn't want to do that and don't want to do that so anyway. When it comes to the criticism of prices, I totally understand, but at the same time you don't have to buy it. I know that. The product is worth the money. And. Is an honest and good. Moraled product, if that makes sense. And. If that's something that people want to spend their money on, amazing and that is. Such an honor. And I'm so grateful for those people and for people who don't totally fine, too. And I don't judge and I don't, you know, everybody's thing is their thing. And I. I don't expect you know my product to be for everyone. But for people who share the same. Passion for coffee and. All of that, you know, I think that those things. Are going to be a selling point, even if it means you have to pay a little bit of extra, you know? So that's kind of where I'm at, but anywho. Somebody said is there anything you wish you would have done differently when you first started Chamberlain Coffee? No, definitely not like at all. But at the same time I do think in area that we didn't spend enough time on. Was developing the brand aesthetic. I think that it was very, very bland in the beginning and the funny part about that is that I've always been somebody who's so. Obsessed with like, the aesthetic of things I love buying into an aesthetic I love, like shopping on a website that. Has a cool look to it and a cool feel to it. I like buying products that have cool packaging. I like that. Like, that's always been something that sells me. And it's funny because like. Chamberlain Coffee didn't have that. Eye-catching aesthetic, that. I normally buy into in the beginning and I think it's because I didn't realize. How important that element is and. No regrets because I think that our, you know, relaunch has brought it exactly to where I wanted to be and so absolutely no regrets. But at the same time, we didn't spend a lot of time with that in the beginning. So maybe some advice. For some of you guys who are starting a company or want to start a company. Take your time and develop everything before you start. There's no need to rush. Develop your voice before. You start the company, develop the brand voice, develop the aesthetic, develop the color scheme, develop A6 month plan like, have all of that ready. Before you even test run it, cause I think we just kind of went out with one product. And had no idea what we were going to do next. We just wanted to get it out there. And then we were like, you know what? We'll figure out what we do next based on. What we learn from the launch. My advice would be, you know you could prepare. I think preparing more never hurts and obviously you can always change your plan as you're. Working on it and you can continue to evolve. With the current events like you don't need to make a 5 month Plan, 6 month plan and stick to it perfectly. If things change, things change. But at least you have a backbone, right? I think that that's super important and I think. We could have done that a little bit more, but at the same time. Now here we are and all is well and I'm very proud of it and I wouldn't want it any other way. And what I've learned from everything. So far has been so valuable to me, and so. That's more of like taking my experience and giving advice, but I wouldn't have done anything differently, truly. Somebody said how did the process start? Did somebody reach out to you or did you bring it up to somebody? So I am so fortunate to have an amazing agent. Who I love so much, and she's been with me since I moved to LA pretty much. We've been working together for forever. And you know, I've always. Told her. How much I wanted to do something with coffee and she was always super damned for it, but it was just never the right time. And finally. She started doing a little bit more research and work on figuring out how we could start it and then next thing you know we have. A few people that want to be a part of this and then we started it, so I owe it all to my agent. Thank you, queen. You know who you are. You rock my world. I love you to death. Somebody said I want to start a business when I'm older, sustainable fashion related or healthy vegan snacks. How would you choose between the two business ideas? I would say. Although I'm no expert at anything, you know, I'm not an expert at anything, and no one is. I'm gonna give advice based off of what I think, but at the same time. It it really, you know? Who knows? OK, here's the way I would look at it. What's more in demand? Sustainable fashion or vegan snacks? Let's say you're sustainable clothing brand. It is like. Maybe. More generic or simple, there might be less of a demand for that because there are already so many clothing brands that are very popular that are sustainable and stuff like that. That might be a harder area to enter into. There might be more competitors and stuff like that, whereas, let's say. With vegan snacks, there's nothing like the product you have in mind. There's a need for that. You know what I mean? People would love that. Moms would love it to put in their kids lunches. Stuff like that. Like. I would say choose based on what's in higher demand. And or which idea? Is more unique and more new. To the space that you want to enter. You know what I'm saying? I also think. You should pay attention to what you're more passionate about, because starting a business is hard and it's a lot of work and it makes your brain hurt and it's stressful and you know. It's exhausting and it's tedious. You want to make sure that what you're working on is something that you're gonna be pumped on in, motivated by for years to come, because it doesn't happen overnight and it takes longer than you think and you need to have that stamina and I think that the stamina. Comes from passion. So what are you more passionate about? You know what I mean. I think that that's actually more important than. Maybe even entering an area. That has. More demand for a product that you have an idea for. I think that the passion just needs to be there. You know, and if you share a same passion for clothes and for vegan snacks, then that's when you go OK, well. There's more of a demand for, say, vegan snacks. I'm going to go in that direction and start there, but also in 10 years, maybe you pick up the second one and do both. There's no limit, you know what I mean? Somebody said thoughts on just hiring people to run the business for you versus being very involved in working as well? I'm going to take it back to when I started my YouTube channel. When I started my YouTube channel, I was running everything on my own. I was reading my own emails, I was editing my own videos, filming my own videos, coming up with all my own video ideas. Doing every element by myself and I had a really hard time with giving up that control and that's why you know a lot of people when they. Start gaining a following on social media. Immediately get a manager or an agent. I was like, no, I don't need help. I want to do this all on my own. I don't trust anyone and I don't want to let anyone in. But what I didn't realize was that that was stopping me. From. Getting more opportunities. There is no way for me to read my emails for three hours a day. And be it was. It was too much and at the time you know. I was in school for a little bit there and then I left school, but then I was like, OK, well **** I'm out of school now. I need to be making a living. So I was working extra hard, making like 3 videos a week and editing all of them, each video taking like 20 hours to edit. And it was like I was so overwhelmed because I was like, Oh my God, I need to start making money now. Like, this is serious because I just left school. I took a massive risk. I need to prove to myself and to my family and to everybody that like this is a sustainable. Thing. And so doing all of it myself became too much very quickly and I started, you know, not being able to read all my emails and stuff like that. And I was missing out on so many different opportunities. And so once I moved to LA, I started meeting with some agents and I got an agent. And it helped me so much. I still have to read emails, but not even remotely as much. And I still don't read emails. And if my agent is listening to this, she's like, yeah, Emma does not read emails because I'm the worst at emails. I think I have slight trauma from all the emails that I used to read when I managed myself, if you will. It was very upsetting and I'd be on e-mail for like 3 hours a day and it ruined my life and my brain, but anyway. I relinquished some control. I think that's the right word. And I gave some of that control to my agent and it helped me so much. Right. And there is a learning curve. You know, you have to. Teach them what you're about, what you like, what you don't like, how you prefer to work like. There's a lot of things about it that are tough, but it's about working together so that eventually. The work feels easier on both ends, and that happened again when I got an editor for my YouTube videos because I used to edit all my videos, but my quality of life was terrible because I would spend all night. Editing night after night in like I was miserable and it made me really depressed and it made **** really hard for me because. I was editing all my own videos, but I also wanted to be a normal teen and like, do fun **** and like, enjoy life. But it was this constant, endless cycle of like, I'd get a video up and I'd have to film a video the next day and then I'd be editing that until the next week. And then I'd upload and then it was and it was like a never ending cycle and I never got a break. Whereas now it's like, OK, I film a video, I send it to my editor and then I start working on the next video and it's given me so much more time. To. Be around the people I love and have a better quality of life, but also. Have more time to do other things with my career, whether that's starting Chamberlain, Coffee or whatever, I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have had enough time in the day to do that if I didn't have an editor. It's opened up my time so that I can start creating more things, and that is so important, but it's really hard. To give U that control and it takes time to train your employees. And it takes a lot of time to. Creative. Working and flowing system, but once you do that. It is so beneficial and so I think that it's important to be extremely involved and be. Very aware and invested in what's going on emotionally, but also. Understanding your place. In those different endeavors like for YouTube for me. Now that my editor understands my editing style and like has almost his own that he has created, that works for me and you know that he enjoys editing in like. My job is to come up with the concept and to film it myself and to have fun with it. His job is to edit. So I'm still very involved, but my job has shifted. It's like I just have a few less things on my plate. As for Chamberlain Coffee, I don't know how to roast the beans. I don't know how to do that. Could I learn? Sure. But there's so many people that are so amazing at it. I'm going to work with those people. And let them do that stuff while I focus on. The vision of the brand. I mean the rest of my team. We all work together and we all. Discuss these things and share our opinions and all of that, but at the end of the day. I. And very involved in every minute detail of the company. Even though we all work together and I have a lot of people that do different things. And we're constantly all communicating. It's like I still. See every element. Of. The brand. Like there's nothing that goes under my nose, if that makes sense. So I think there's a balance. It's like being involved in the areas where you need to be involved and then relinquishing. I don't know if that's the right word. Definition of relinquishing. Relinquish means OK, I was right. And yeah, shut up, Siri. Relinquishing control where you can, but being heavily involved in passionate in the areas. Where you pull your weight. The last question I want to answer is did you ever feel? Like you experienced the feeling of imposter syndrome when starting Chamberlain coffee, or maybe still feel it to this day? If so, how did you deal with it? Definition of imposter syndrome. Here's what I found. I'm reading a definition because although I know what it means, I want to read an accurate. Definitions so that I'm not butchering it at all. Imposter syndrome is a physiological psychophysiological. Oh my God, how do I have a company that's just embarrassing? Imposter syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments or talents and has a persistent, internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud despite external evidence of their competence. Those experiencing this phenomenon remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve all that they have achieved. I am the definition of having imposter syndrome. In every element of my life. I constantly feel like I don't deserve what I have, that I didn't earn what I had. In the right way, whatever the **** that even means. Like that. You know I don't deserve anything. Like I have struggled with that forever, and I always will. I think that's just my brain chemistry. Unfortunately, I. Have a really hard time being excited for myself because. I always feel like I could have worked harder or. I could have stayed up later working on it, or I could have, you know, whatever. And I was like this in school too, like I would get. A great grade on a test, and I'd go home and still feel bummed out because I felt like I could have studied harder. I'm learning to kind of get out of that. I'm trying, but it's also like, I wonder if it's just my brain chemistry and the way I'm be forever. I think The thing is when. You work on projects with others. And you have employees and all of that. It's weirdly easier. To feel proud, even if you're not necessarily super proud of yourself. You're at least gonna be really proud of your team. But then you're gonna realize, oh wait, I'm part of that team. And so if I'm proud of the team, I'm proud of myself. And it's almost like tricking yourself into being proud of yourself, like if I make a great video. My brain doesn't say. Oh my God, Emma, great job on that video. My brain says, Oh my God, Emma, your editor did so amazing on that video. But also the video wouldn't be the video without me. And so it's tough because. I can be proud of something, but I never will give myself the credit and. That's just the way it is. And I mean, it doesn't harm anyone, but I did talk to a therapist about it once, and therapist was like, listen. It harms yourself. In your self esteem to not give yourself credit for things that you've done like you need to celebrate your success and like. You can be humble and still be proud of yourself. And. I'm working on it. I am. But it's just like, I hate like, I I really, truly have a feeling in my stomach that like. I could have worked harder constantly and I don't know where that stems from, but. I'm excited to hopefully release that burden at some point because I feel like it's very unnecessary, but it's also something that I can't control about my own mind, so I don't know if you guys have any tips on how to like. Get over imposter syndrome. Please let me know. I might watch some videos or read a book about it. More like listen to an audio book because I. Don't ******* read, but. Anyway. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode. It was very kind of serious and very professional, but I had fun talking about it with you guys and sharing this whole thing with you guys in the behind the scenes and I hope that you enjoyed this episode and I love you all very much and I hope you all have an amazing day and go check out the Chamberlain coffee and I hope you love everything and. I love you guys so much and thank you for your constant support on all of my endeavors. It always is. The most amazing feeling to see you guys. Enjoy the things that I create. And also just to bond with you guys over it and I just love it so much and I love you guys so much and I will talk to you next week and until then. Stay awesome. I love you guys. Peace and love. We're here with Phil talking about what's new with heart Nissan Phil. What are some good reasons somebody should buy now? That's a great question. We all know that car shopping give me an overwhelming process. Plus people are uncertain about a lot these days. Part Nissan recognize that? So we rolled up a heart rewards program. All new and pre-owned vehicle purchases. Get one year identity theft protection 3 Virginia State inspections and multipoint inspections. One year tire Rd Hazard with roadside assistance, a three day vehicle exchange, and. Every purchase or service earns heart rewards points. That's a ton of stuff. It's amazing. Offering all those benefits. It can really save people a lot of headaches and of course, money. Exactly. And we have even more savings right now. Get 0% financing on all new and certified pre-owned Nissan in our inventory. Phil, thanks so much for coming in. Hartnissan.com right, you got it. Heartnissan.com or check us out in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Use your head and trust your heart. Maximal finance $20,000 for 60 months with tier one credit approval with MC. Dear full details.