The way that my brain works is I think that like pressure makes diamonds.

Like if I had all the time in the world and all the money in the world, I don't think I would be as creative as I am when someone says,

Hey Nick, you gotta figure this problem out like pretty quick. The way my brain works is like it doesn't doesn't really stop until I get it. You know, I might fail like literally a hundred times until I get it, but I'm so persistent that I'll just fail over and over again until I start making progress. And then once I start making progress, I can usually see the light at the end of the tunnel. And so, like, I just really want to encourage anyone that might be listening to this that, like, It's so corny, but like you have to just get out there and do it. Like try it.

If you're not good at it, it's fine.

Like fail. that might be listening to this that like it's so corny but like you have to just get out there

and do it like try it if you're not good at it it's fine like fail fail over and over and over

again to you are able to learn and make progress I don't even know how to do intro.

This is crazy, bro.

You were embarrassed about the water tank.

I'm embarrassed right now.

I'm like, I feel like I have someone very important in front of me, and I just really

want to make it work.

True story.

One time I came to visit a cafe for no reason, one of your cafes, I think it was Portola,

right? And I come in and there's a brista like helping me and like I think Jared came by and said what's up. And this brista looked at me. He was like, oh, I didn't know we had someone important at the cafe, I'm like, you know, I'm not, I'm not important at all. I'm just here to buy coffee,

but it made me feel so bad that like the barista felt bad. They'm like, you know, I'm not, I'm not important at all. I'm just here to buy coffee, but it made me feel so bad that like the barista felt bad. They're like, this is why I feel like you're so important because you make these things that a lot of people have probably touch interacted with at home, things that are just big parts of the specialty coffee industry from all sides.

So that's where my mind's at. And I'm just like, whoa, you're, you, and I've known you for a while now, and I've seen some of your career arc. And I just am blown away to have you here and just to have some of the things that you've had a hand in making on, on the back counter. So, I mean, we'll get into, we'll get into all that. but to kind of kick it off, I'm just, I just really got to know, like, how did you get started in coffee?

What is your coffee origin story?

Oh, my goodness.

So my, my origin story is one that kind of happened by accident.

So many, many moons ago, this has got to be like

13, 14 years ago, maybe 15 years ago now. I was drinking like commodity coffee and, you know,

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