The Midwest Coffee Brand Taking Over Costco Shelves

This is a very very competitive category. I remember telling people they would ask, "Hey, how's it going?" I'm like, "You know what? It's difficult." You sign some paperwork. You have 20 people on your payroll.

Yes. Hello, new boss. Like, what what do we do today? We see an opportunity that you're missing and we can show them the data, the fact that they should have us on the shelf. Whether it's marketing or branding, let's say quality is the same all across the board. If everyone has great coffee, how do you stand out?

From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Bloom Rank. If you're in Indiana and own a Shopify store or a home services business and you're annoyed with Chat GBT and Google's AI recommending your competitors over you, you need to give them a call. We trust them. Neighbors trust them and we think you should too.

For Get Indiana listeners, they're offering a completely free website rebuild with your first month working with them. Find out if you qualify by reaching out at bloomrank. com/get-in. Now, let's get into today's episode. My guest today is Brad Gutwein. He is the co-founder and CEO of Copper Moon coffee, a family-owned coffee company based in Lafayette, Indiana.

He and his brother Carrie purchased Cotmoon in 2007 and grew it from a B2B supplier into a nationally recognized retail and wholesale brand. He's a Purdue University grad, class of 1989, and he's got a degree in restaurant hotel management. He leads the company's marketing and sales efforts while championing sustainability, space inspired branding, and community partnerships. I'm really excited to dive into his journey from Francisville, Indiana. Shout out to the West Central Trojans all the way to Lafayette through Purdue and how you guys have been able to grow the Copper Moon brand. Brad, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Nate. Great to be here. I am so pumped. Uh we're recording this in the morning. We've got our, you know, if you're watching at home, we've got some beans to look into. I'm super curious how a guy from, you know, northwest Indiana, Francisville, in, you know, the middle of God's farm country, becomes interested in coffee.

Like, was was coffee always something you were passionate about? How did you get into the coffee biz? Yeah. Interesting. Uh, always loved coffee even as a kid and uh grew up with my parents drinking coffee every day. Back in the day, it was always folders.

Yeah. What do they say? The best part of waking up is folders in your And then you have a lot of other coffee and you're like, it's not necessarily the best part. Yeah. Exactly. But yeah, grew up uh drinking coffee all the time.

Always enjoyed it. I remember my grandmother making coffee at church every Sunday. Um so yeah, grew up really kind of uh enjoying coffee, but it wasn't really my first business. Uh began with a different business uh prior to coffee. After graduating from Purdue in '89, started in working uh with my father uh in a feed milling business. Feed milling.

Yeah. We we began uh it was a feed mill business that began in 1920 and uh through the years the business changed. My uncles and my father owned the business. And when I graduated from Purdue, I went on to work with Marriott for about four months. Four months. Four months.

You gave it You gave Marriott four months. What were you doing? Yeah, I was doing uh working over in Columbus, Ohio at a residence in and uh quickly the manager like like were you that was like in sales and you know going out and uh trying to get people to come in and use the the the residence in service with if they were doing relocating to the area. And I quickly realized that uh boy this is not for me. And at that time my my father needed some help in the family business and uh we talked about it. Finally I agreed I left Marriott after four months and came back to the family business.

Was that hard because you had just gotten a degree in hotel and restaurant management like you were building up. You just spent four years to go into a career and now you're like four months in I'm going to pivot and go work in a feed mail business. It was it was one of the most difficult decisions I made at that point up to that point in my life. And I thought I I don't want to go back to Francisville and to that small town and work in the family business. But I really began to see that I wanted to have a vested interest in what I was doing for my career. And there was a really good opportunity because my father had just started a wild bird food business uh from that feed business and that was pretty exciting to me.

And so I began to uh starting that family business and saw a really good opportunity to grow that division of the business. Wild bird feed. Wild bird food. Wow. Okay. Well, and was this at the time where I guess you know today hummingbird feeders and all the different bird feeders are huge.

There's even the little like ring camera for bird feeders. Seen those? Okay. So, this is like the '9s and you guys get into wild bird food. Yeah. And it was a it was a very humble beginning, but we saw an opportunity to build that division of the company which eventually outpaced everything the company was doing.

And my father and I uh we would talk every night about the business and he taught me so many aspects about how a business runs and we talked about cost of goods and gross profit and we talked about the customers and it really began in me a passion for business and I really wanted to pursue that. Was it hard working with your dad? Not at all. Really? Not at all. It was it was an absolute pleasure.

Well, some people talk about um separating family and like don't go into business with family cuz if something, you know, disruptive happens, it makes Thanksgiving awkward. Yeah. And you know, we never we never had those moments. Uh he was always such a great teacher and really a friend. I mean, the way he and I worked together, the way he worked with not only myself, but my my two brothers, Dan and Carrie. So, all of you were in the business.

We we all came in the business. I came in in ' 89. and Carrie came in in '92. Uh Dan came in in '95. Wow. And we began uh building and transforming that business uh in such a way to reach not only just the mom and pop retailers that we were accustomed to selling to at the moment.

Uh in the early uh '9s, we began to transition to sell wild bird food to the large big box retailers. What was the brand name for the wild bird food? Morning Song. Morning Song. Morning Song. Wild Bird Food.

Wow. So, I'm sure when this hits the Facebook community, they're going to remember buying Morning Song Wild. Is it still around? Is it still a brand? It is. It's still around.

So, we we built that business. Um, we started with one facility that was built in 1920. Uh, the original family flower mill that transitioned into a feed mill. And, uh, in 1991, we purchased another facility in Reynolds, Indiana. uh made that our large wild bird food manufacturing. Then we purchased a facility in South Dakota, another one in South Carolina, another one in Yaldi, Texas.

And so we expanded our footprint in order to serve the retailers of the world. Wow. Reynolds, I was there not too long ago. Yeah. Uh we took a detour from Indiana Beach out to hit some places. It's like uh Reynolds and Chalmer's and like the whole little stretch there down 43 takes you to Brookton.

Brookton. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So, what ends up happening with the Wild Bird Food Company? Yeah.

We we continued build that building that business over a period of about 17 years. 17 years. Yeah. Your 17-year overnight success. Yes. Yes.

Yeah. And it was there was a lot of um a lot of growth uh that we we encountered over those years. Uh we became uh the major supplier to Walmart, to Sam's Club, to Costco, uh Target, every major retailer around the country. We were one of the major suppliers uh of the wild bird food category. We even did uh private label as well for some select retailers. No.

And like what was the the secret here? Was it sales and marketing? Was it manufacturing and or I guess I mean like would you call it manufacturing? Operational efficiency. How did you grow this brand to become the the a supplier to Walmart nationally? Yeah, we it was it was all of those factors that you mentioned.

We had operational excellence. Uh my brother Carrie was operational uh guru. All Purdue grads. Uh Carrie was Varezo. Wait, that would have been when they were Go Crusaders. Now they're beacons, but back then they were the Crusaders.

Crusaders. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. And then my brother Dan headed off the marketing. I headed off the sales.

Where'd Dan go? And Dan was uh with a uh marketing agency early on and then he joined the company in 95. That's awesome. Was he also Purdue or a Valpo grad? He was a Purdue grad. So two Purdue, one Valpo.

All kind of like that little corridor of the state and you all come together and you're working on this family business that was a feed mill and then you find you find traction in wild bird food. Yeah. Wow. And over time, your dad, your two brothers, and you build this into a national brand in places like Walmart, but also I mean, I'm sure like what, like Tractor Supply and like those kind of places? You bet. Wow.

Yep. Talk to me about the stages of that. Like, how big was it when you joined in '89? In ' 89 when I joined, we were doing about a half a million dollars in business on an annual basis. Yeah. Um, and I mean 89 90 that's like that's a good business.

It was, you know, but it's not like, you know, you're not you don't have generational wealth. Yeah. We and we built that business based on selling to uh small mom and pop garden centers, feed stores, and that was our business cuz we we previously had sold, you know, feed ingredients and so forth to those same customers. And the American hardware store was still largely independent. Like every small town had like a family's last name like Smith's Hardware or oh my gosh it was uh I think it in Bourbon my hometown was Mahaney's Hardware and you know there's all those old school if you look around and there's a lot of nostalgic old signs those largely get um aggregated by uh do it best like this was probably maybe that was starting to go on a little bit but like nowadays if you want to get into like I mean you get into do it best you get into Ace Hardware and you start to get lots of distribution.

Back then, it would be like, "Hey, I'm calling up the Breamman hardware store. I'm calling up the Mishwaka hardware store. I'm calling up Monsters Hardware store." Right. That's exactly what it was. And we uh we sold to all those hardware stores and little small little mom and pops in uh Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.

Did you have to have a distributor or did you guys do your own distribution? We did our own distribution at the time. You had someone out there ripping a truck to all these small towns to drop off wild bird food. Yeah, we had we had like probably three or four tractor trailers out there on the road every day. Our salespeople would go out literally get the orders, bring them back. Those orders were then processed and loaded on the trailer the next day and then distributed.

Wow. Yeah. And so one with that model and that type, you would have to grow staff. you'd have to get more delivery people and you'd have to get more sales reps out in the market uh that are able to hit more places. So then how do you start to break into some of these bigger accounts? Yeah, it was interesting.

We had a broker one time that told us what you guys need to do is go to the National Hardware Show. And we're like the National Hardware Show that doesn't we're not in the hardware business. He said no it they have a really good garden and outdoor living category. You need to go trust me. So, we um the first thing we did is we reached out to a trade show booth company. Uh $4,500 was going to be the first trade show booth that we ever purchased.

$4,500 was a big deal. And I had to fight scratch and claw to get our company to spend $4,500 for everyone to agree. We ended up spending the money, bought a booth, went to the trade show, was at the McCormick place in in Chicago. And I remember this was like my first trade show. first trade show our company had ever done. And I remember I didn't know that you're supposed to drop off everything at the dock.

I wheeled everything through the front door on a cart and set up the booth on a Saturday. Uh my dad shows up on a Sunday morning and we didn't even have any product in the booth, which was kind of funny but interesting in the way that the the gentleman that sold us the booth, he told us, he said, "All you need to do is be there and stand in the booth. Don't sit down. Don't even put a chair in the booth. stand there to greet everyone that comes by. And we had the worst booth location you could imagine.

We were way in the back and right across from us was a block wall in the restroom. And we thought, okay, what are our chances of uh of doing well at this show? We made the best of it. And at that particular show, one buyer uh many buyers came through, but one buyer in particular came shoot came through the booth and he was the head buyer for a company called Central Tractor uh that was based out in De Moine, Iowa. And he really liked what he saw and he said, "I want to set a meeting with you after the show." So after the show, um maybe a few days later, I set a meeting and I remember calling my brother Carrie and I said, "You've got to go with me to this meeting."

And he went with me to the meeting. This is pre Zoom. Like, you got to go out to Iowa. You've got to go. You're in the car driving to De Mo. Yeah.

Yeah. I think it was like a uh an eight hour drive. And I was afraid to spend too much money of the company's money at the time because, you know, we were just very conservative in everything that we did. And it served our company really well. And we're just very frugal about, you know, spending too much or anything like that at the time. And I remember uh going going to De Moines and I got the cheapest hotel I could get.

It was a it was a Motel 6. Oh, leave the light on. It was al it was also a bad night's sleep because there was a a biker gang that had that was at the hotel that night as well. It was very loud. Anyway, we went to the meeting the next day, met with the buyer. He loved what we showed him and he committed to buy three truckloads of product.

And at that moment, the light bulb goes off. I'm like, we need to sell to the big boxes. And again, you know, at that time in life, kind of naive, but it was very apparent that we needed to change our business model to go to the larger format stores because a lot of those mom and pop garden centers, feed stores were going by the wayside. Yeah. And again, it was the start of this like um aggregation of American hardware, you know, like Tractor Supply and like that those were taking over like the local farm stores or the local feed stores and all these mom and pop hardware stores unfortunately, you know, or fortunately, depending on which side of the coin you look at, we're getting put into like the Do It Best or the Ace Hardware and it's like you only have to go through one buyer for the region. You're getting three truckloads.

Was that your your biggest order ever to date at that point? At that point it was. Dude, okay, I got to know. You closed three truckloads of wild bird food. You walk outside. It's you and your brother.

You get a safe distance away. What was the sell like were you let's go. It's let's go. High five all the way home. Man, we were That's a good eight hour drive home. It was a good eight hour drive home.

And it really changed our company because it gave us this um new business model to pursue. And from there, um, I I went to the other big one was Quality Stores based up in Moskegan, Michigan. Um, I went to them. We were able to pick up their business and, uh, at the time it was just a little sliver. And then we became over a period of a few years their dominant supplier. The next big thing was picking up Walmart.

And I remember there was a broker that I met with based here in Indianapolis and I set a lunch meeting with him and I said, "I really need your help going to Walmart, getting us into Walmart." And he said, "You need to do it." He said, "You have the passion for it. I know the contacts. I'm not going to give them to you. You have to figure this out."

And that was really good advice. What the why? Even Even though he knew, he just said, "Call Walmart. ask for the wild bird food buyer and that's exactly what I did. So you call like I I can't even fathom this because today I don't know how many like you know people or like robots you'd have to go through but this is the 2000s or '9s. Yeah, this was in '94.

'94 you call Walmart down Bentonville, Arkansas. Yep. And you're like could you please direct me to the Wild Bird Food Buyer? That's all it took. We got a meeting uh went to the meeting um and the first product that we put in there was a product that uh it was it was ear corn. It wasn't even wild bird food.

It was uh corn on the cob. So ear corn uh that was fed for squirrels. And we thought if this is an opportunity to get a a a buying relationship, a trading relationship with Walmart, we'll do it. So we figured it out and we sold them truckloads of ear corn that went nationwide to all the Walmarts and from there they saw us as a trusted supplier and it led to what we ultimately wanted was the wild bird food category. Um and it we grew that and over a few years um we became the second largest supplier of wild bird food and therefore we expanded to plants uh around the country for efficiency uh for logistics efficiency. Yeah, that's wild.

You were you get into Walmart, you get into all these other stores and like the kind of regional chains. It's off to the races. It's off to the races. And it's it's interesting because a lot of the the the experiences there with Morning Song led us to, you know, we built the company and then we came to a point where it's like, you know, it's it's probably a good time to entertain some of those opportunities to exit the business. Um, and we did so in 2005 and we sold the business to Scott's Miracle Grow in 2005 and uh that was a really good transition for our family. Yeah.

and uh and then uh my my focus turned from bird food to coffee. Now, do you you go through that, you grow a family business, you get it to an exit, it's like that's an entrepreneur. I mean, that's a dream, right? But then you wake up the day after the transaction, you no longer own the thing you poured 17 years into. Mh. Like was there ever like an identity crisis where it's like or even like maybe some imposttor syndrome where you're like, "Oh, I'm just the I'm the wild bird food guy."

Like uh I I don't know what to do next. For me, it was I was so focused on wanting to build another business and I I also knew exactly what that other business passion would be and I knew it would be coffee. No way. Like how you knew that for a long time? I I knew it probably a couple years prior to selling Morning Song. Wow.

And the reason I knew it is because we um I met a I met a person that uh was a coffee roaster while running Morning Song. And uh we had him do a private label Morning Song, bird song coffee. And we did that to give it away to our employees as gifts. We gave it to our customers. And then we also had it packaged uh for us to distribute to all of our facilities for breakroom coffee and that kind of thing. And I thought this is really cool.

And I began to see a real parallel between wild bird food and coffee, believe it or not. And the parallel for me was that in wild bird food, you would blend three or four seeds together to get a a profile of a blend to attract a certain bird. With coffee, you're blending two or three beans together to get a certain profile of a quality coffee blend. And it made a lot of sense. It made sense operationally also because we we utilize a lot of the same equipment in packaging. The marketing plan was similar except now in coffee, you know, we're marketing towards uh a human consumption uh as opposed to a backyard birder.

Yeah. Wow. So why then you you exit the family business, something that you guys had, you know, been working on a long time. Why was the right move to buy a coffee business versus start your own from scratch? Yeah, we we certainly looked at starting from scratch and realized that, you know, that's not the best entry point for us. So I began looking around, doing some research.

Uh back in 2006, I attended a coffee trade show in Orlando. Of course, the coffee everything in this story starts with a trade show. It's amazing. Yeah. And this particular trade show was uh was attended by a lot of coffee roasters and people within the coffee community. I'm walking down the aisle.

I see a company. They're called Copper Moon Coffee. I'd never heard of them before. I walk into the booth. We struck a a conversation. Turns out they were owned originally by Marsh Foods who had just been sold to Sun Capital Partners and a private equity firm.

Yeah, Iron. I know that'd be a story to tell. It it was pretty evident that it was really a noncore asset to the company. And so I asked if they were willing to sell it, the vest of it. And he gave me the name of someone to contact and I did. contacted that individual and uh and then contacted their attorney.

Um within a couple days, uh I called my brother Carrie. I said, "Hey, would you like to go look at this?" And he's like, "Let's go." And so we went and looked at the facility. It was located here in Indianapolis over on 30th in Shadlin. Okay.

It was in a lease facility at the time. We we walked the plant and this was like a private labelled coffee company for Marsh. It really was. So like they would sell, you know, they have all these stores all across. They like, hey, you know what? There's a good, it's kind of like Amazon Prime sort of, right?

Like there's good margin on coffee, like we need some other brands in our stores. So they they started Copper Moon or they acquired Copper Moon and, you know, grew it within their store footprint. Yeah. So the the backstory on that is that Copper Moon originally, it wasn't named Copper Moon at the time. It started with a Canadian company called Heritage Coffee. Okay.

And then Heritage Coffee established Southern Heritage based in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Um, somewhere in the '9s. Okay. And then Marsh came in and bought Southern Heritage and then moved it to Indianapolis and renamed it Copper Moon. Gotcha. Okay.

And so that was kind of the the journey of the backstory of Copper Moon. Then Marsh sells to PE and they're like, "Hey, this is noncore. We don't want We don't need a coffee company." Yeah. And you guys go and tour the Is it like a plant where they're like roasting beans? Yep.

Exactly. Wow. Yeah. Roasting beans, doing all the packaging. We walked the facility, got to know the the the managers, um, and quickly within about a 60-day period, um, we put an offer on the business and purchased the business, um, and closed on it, uh, in April of 2007. Wow.

60 days from the trade show. It It was more like probably I would say four or five months from the trade show, but I think the the deal that we did took around 60 days to get done. Wow, that's impressive. They really wanted to move fast on getting rid of that. What does it look like? So, you signed the paperwork.

They hand you like like what do they give you? Do they give you keys? So, they give you like a garage door. Is that closing on a house? Like what do you get when you buy a business? Yeah, it was kind of that way in some respects.

They would uh they said, you know, this is how we start the day. Um and we would come in and you know, we had gotten to know a few people at the organization uh prior to closing. How many employees did they have that you uh that were working at the plant? Uh at that time they had about 20 employees. So it's like that is kind of wild. Like you sign some paperwork and then the next day you have 20 people on your payroll.

Yes. That are like hello new boss. Like what what do we do today? Yes. So, we came in and introduced ourselves, of course, and we talked a little bit about uh our background and what we wanted to uh do in the business, but most importantly, we wanted them to make sure that we we were going to treat them well, and we're going to take care of the business. We're going to take care of them.

It's almost like a dream, I would say, to go from you're working at a family-owned business that sells to PE and you're like, "Oh, I don't know. There's like bad horror stories from that." And then and then you're like, "Oh, yeah, by the way, you're going back to a family-owned uh business." That would be kind of I think that'd be nice, especially if you like you guys come in there and you develop the relationship that we're going to take care of you guys. Yep. Yeah.

It was really important for us to establish what I would say is our culture um where we we care about people. We we care about the dignity of people. We care about making sure that you know they they want to uh come to work and uh wanted to get to know them. You know what are your talents? What are your strengths? What are your passions?

Your hobbies. Let's get to know one another because at the end of the day, you know, it's really important to work with people that you enjoy and people that you can trust. How long does the process? Because I think the number one thing I talk about with even people that take a new job in leadership, executives, so you don't want to come in on day one and start bossing people around and telling them like how to do their jobs and make huge changes. So how long do you feel like it takes to get acclimated to a new situation? I think it takes um it does take a lot of patience.

I think the best thing that that we found that I found personally is just listening, getting to know people, understanding what what it how their day plays out, what thoughts are on their mind regarding the business, uh what things are they curious about, what things need corrected, how can we improve the processes or put good processes in place in order to gain efficiencies. And I think it's also important that they know the vision. What was the Well, I want I want to dive in there and then talk about vision. What was the first, you know, operational change? What was the first thing you you made? You come in and you're like, you're observing all these things and you're like, "Yeah, you know what?

I think we are going to start here and we're going to make a a change with this." Probably the first thing we looked at was the the quality of the equipment and the capability of the equipment. So, the quality of the equipment, we we addressed some some inefficiencies u maybe in the in the in the workflow. Yeah. Uh but also the capabilities. Uh, one of the things that we implemented right away was, uh, a new piece of machinery in order to produce a a retail shelf bag, maybe similar to this, what you see here, like a traditional like Yeah.

a normal I don't know how many ounces is that or like what? It's like one pound of coffee. Yeah. This this happens to be a 12 oz bag of coffee, but it's a retail bag, so it's it stands up properly. It has a tint tie seal on it, and it's attractive. Uh, it'll stand up on the shelf and look good.

Yeah. All day long. So that piece of equipment was really what we needed. So we had to address that right out of the gate because our our strategy was to go to the retail shelf with uh the Copper Moon brand. Got you. Where where was it selling previously?

Previously uh the majority of the business was with the uh Village Pantry stores. Um so Maron Village Pantry as well. So a lot of the coffee volume was going to those retail stores. It was also going to uh office coffee uh delivery. So yeah, the retail side of things didn't really they weren't selling it on their shelves at Marshes. They were to a degree, but we wanted to uh enhance that and do do it with the right kind of packaging.

What kind of packaging look did I get before? Similar to this, but it didn't stand up on the shelf and and look sharp. Um it was a little bit more crumpled. M it had a uh probably more of a squatty position. Gotcha. Wow.

So the number you come in new packaging, which is great cuz you don't really step on anyone's toes with that. Yeah. You know, like no one's like you're not like changing someone how they're doing their job. You're just, hey, we're offering this new machine to make our packaging look better. And then you talked about getting people aligned on a vision. What vision did you have to paint for the 20 employees or so that were at Copper Moon when you acquired the business?

It was really the vision of we've done this before with a totally different product. We believe we can do it again, but we want everybody to believe in this plan. We want to go to the retail shelf. We want to build a brand. We want to uh build something that hasn't been done with this brand before. And in order to do that, everyone needs to be on the same page and understand where we're going.

That is a piece too when maybe they're hourly employees that I don't know it if you treat it transactional where it's like show up at like it's just I'm taking I'm giving you money for your time you do this task. It's not necessarily you're bought into this grandio vision of where we're headed with this company and like people want to be on a team that's inspired. They want to feel like they have a destination in mind. Absolutely. Wow. Okay.

Well, at some point in this journey you make a big move. talk to me because because now it's in Lafayette, right? Today, our facility remained in Indianapolis at the location I mentioned until uh late 2012. Okay. So, 5 years. So, yeah.

And and we were at a point where the lease was up and we needed to either renew the lease or or find a new facility. And actually, before we even get into that discussion, I do want to talk. you buy this in 2007 and then you know a lot of people remember that the economy wasn't necessarily that great in 2008 2009 and I have I I assume that value or price let's say was not the main driver for you guys you weren't like the cheapest coffee on the market you were a more premium product a more quality product in a time where people are like folders is stinking cheap like we're We we're delicate with how we're spending our money at the grocery store. We're delicate like you got to make our dollar go further. It's like, hey, you know what? We're all making sacrifices here.

I'm not going to put the greatest bean in my coffee cup. I'm going to get the cheapest the cheapest thing I can get. Was that kind of how the market was for those first few years? The market was that way. And that that was that was one of the things that when we um the one of the first things we did after buying Copper Moon is um there was an agency in Chicago, a consumer package design agency that I had worked with previously with Morning Song and I went to that agency and I said this is who we are. This is what we want to look like.

We want to be premium. We want to take a brand that has typically been sold at a lot of convenience stores and office coffee and we want a premium brand look and feel and that's exactly what we did and we designed we redid the logo immediately and redid the brand positioning uh day one. Wow. And so in doing that we went to market as a premium brand. Nice. Okay.

That's that's a good place to be in. Again though, you're you're going through this uh you know financial time where everyone's not necessarily looking for premium, they're looking for, you know, price. Yeah. How how were those first few years? And if you talk about like relative like size of business and what you were expecting, was it were we growing or did did going out to market on retail side, did it go well, especially in a time of financial uncertainty? It was difficult.

Uh it was difficult. I remember telling people, they would ask, "Hey, how's it going?" I'm like, you know what? It's difficult. This is this is a very very competitive category. It's a very large C category, but it's also incredibly competitive.

And so you we it took us a few years to find our our place in in the marketplace. Yeah. It took us a few years to really gain some traction. And the big turning point came for us uh in really 2013 uh having a new facility and having we we brought in new capabilities. So you decide to not renew your lease at 30th in Shadellin. Was that a difficult decision?

You have at the time you still have 20 employees here in Indie. Yeah, we had uh 20 employees here in Indie, maybe a few more uh at the time, and probably a handful of those employees, if not more, were already driving from Lafayette to Indianapolis. Wait, really? Uh some of those employees were employees that we had in our previous company that that uh came to the new company. that. So, yeah, you talk about being up near like the the Monaceel, like that area like, hey, you know, we're coming from going from Lafayette up there is probably like a 30 40m minute drive or whatever.

Yeah. 20 actually probably 20 to 20 minutes or so to the uh what was the one town? Um Oh, Reynolds. Reynolds. Yeah. It's like that's not far at all.

No, not at all. Um and so then they're like, "Oh, yeah. We'll make the commute to the east side of Indianapolis." Yes. And you're like, you know, we already have people up there. Were they And they were from Morning Song as well.

Yeah. There were a few morning a dream team a little bit where you get some recurring faces in there. Was it a hard decision? It it it kind of made sense because we were um really looking around the Indianapolis market hoping that we could stay in this market. We couldn't find anything in the time frame that we needed to find a facility that would suit our needs. And I remember just praying that, you know, we would find a facility that would be perfect for us.

And a few days went by, a few weeks went by, and there was a facility that we found uh that had uh land associated with it. So, we looked at that. It was 45,000 square ft, and it wasn't being utilized at the time. The owner uh was uh a great family. They had a great family business there. And then they uh moved to a different facility.

And so uh we looked at that facility for the first time and it was pretty amazing because it was like almost perfect. And I remember walking the facility, Carrie and I, we looked at it, we're like, I think this would be great. And the fact that it had additional land to go with it was really good so that we could expand accordingly as we needed to over the Yeah. future years. So um now it's 25 acres. Um, we've expanded multiple times over the years.

So, still same location. Same location from 2013 now to 2026. Yes. Wow. Yeah. Okay.

Couple questions. One, give me a relative size of Copper Moon in 2007 when you made the acquisition. Um, like how many pounds of coffee or I don't know what the term you guys would use to quantify like like how business was then. Yeah, the business then at that point in time was about uh uh under a million pounds of coffee. Okay. So, not not a large coffee business.

Uh relatively small. Um and it was a really focused as I said on a lot of the office coffee market and the the convenience store market at that time. So then 5 years in you make the transition. You shut down 30th and Shaylin and you move that facility up to Lafayette on a bigger campus with room to expand and you say that is the turning point having that new space. Mhm. Why was the new space so important?

Why did that help you fundamentally change the business? Yeah, we really needed new equipment. Uh, a lot of the equipment that we had in the old facility, uh, the roasters um, literally were from 1929. Oh gosh. Really old roasters. And so they they had a lot of mechanical issues and a lot of issues that needed not only fixed, but just really replaced.

Uh, so that was on the roasters, which is really one of the main important things of being being a roaster. You have to have really good quality equipment for consistency. And what is the business model of I think when people think coffee, they think coffee shops. We're talking about like a a commercial roastery. Commercial roaster. So like talk to me like the business like you go I mean I'm sure you have to figure out sources of where you're bringing beans in from and then the blends and packaging and marketing and the whole nine yards getting it to consumers.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's exactly right. So, like you'll truck in, you know, like freight of different beans from around the world.

We do. Yeah. So, we we work with uh brokers typically out of New York uh that are focused on uh providing green coffee, which is unroasted coffee is known as green coffee. And so we'll go to them and we'll say we want x amount of coffee from Brazil, Central America, African nations, Indonesia, and we'll specify what those particular coffees are that we want. Like and there are different like strains or bean types like how do you classify the difference between you know uh one coffee farm in Brazil and one in Colombia? Yeah, we we look for a very highgrade uh specialty coffee.

Um a coffee that's going to cup really well when you when you when it's tested and tasted. It's going to cup really well. It's going to have all the right notes in it. It's going to have bring out the right kind of notes that you would expect with that particular region of the world. And we're very specific about those particular coffees to make sure they go into our our packaging into our blends so that we can maintain a very high quality. We have uh a lab and we have chemists uh in our company that are testing and tasting coffee.

Yeah. On a daily basis uh to make sure that we maintain those standards of excellence in every cup. What a hard job tasting coffee every day all day long. Uh, it's like I met people have like a they have an ice cream production business like they manufacture ice cream. Oh, what a day. A tough day at the office.

Have to We We're in the lab taste testing today. It's like come on. Okay, that's cool. So 2013 new Lafayette facility. You can upgrade your equipment. You get, you know, your 1929 roasters get upgraded.

Yeah. And then that does that does that create an even higher quality of product then? Yeah. And then where at that point 5 years in where have you expanded into and what are the next domino like are there other big box that you need to get Copper Moon into? Yeah we we began expanding into uh more retail. We've we really focused on our growth on Amazon.

Um so we do we do a lot with Amazon but we also you know do a lot with uh the club market whether it be Sam's Club or Costco. Um those have been really good growth markets for us. Uh also like HB in Texas or um Meyer, Kroger. Um so we're we're we really expanded our retail footprint and that continues to be our focus today. Where sells the most Copper Moon coffee? I would say Amazon is is tremendous for us.

Uh continues to be a real growth opportunity. Uh but also the club the club channel is really good and uh we're our focus right now is really on expanding in the grocery channel. So give me a okay so 5 years in had you increased employee count and did like people from the Indianapolis facility did they end up coming over to work in the Lafayette facility? They did. That's nice. Yeah.

Yeah. We had we had some key employees that uh we we provided good opportunities to and they they transferred and moved actually from Indianapolis to the Lafayette market and uh that was that was tremendous and uh uh that that's worked out really well for us. The the real turning point for us came I would say in 2013 when we began doing K cup production. Oh yeah. So, okay. More machinery.

More machinery. But getting into KUS, I mean, that was probably early on in the CURIG, right? Yeah. Yeah. The patents had just come off in 2012. And so, uh, you could be an uh what's called an unlicensed uh producer of the K Cup format.

And so, yeah. What did you have to call it something different? Yeah, we we don't use the word curig or anything like that on the packaging uh because that's their their trademark. And so, dude, but they don't have a trademark on Kup, correct? Ah, yes. This is uh Okay.

Hey, I'm following now. Yeah. Okay. It's kind of known as the K Cup. Uh I believe they do have a contract or a trademark on that particular term. Oh, yeah.

It's almost like I feel like people call it like single use or like Yes. Single serve. Single serve. There's like there's like marketing words behind the uh the pods. Exactly. you know that people use to say like, "Hey, this will fit into your into your curig."

Yes. Wow. Okay. So, getting into that, but you know, as things started to progress in Lafayette and then when was the first expansion that you had to, you know, add on? Um, yeah. So, we entered in there and began production in early 2013.

Our first expansion, I believe, was in 2015. Uh, at that point, how many how many pounds of coffee were you doing? We were probably doing about uh three million I would say. I mean going from less than one to three like that's good growth. That's good growth over seven years. Yeah, it may have been a little bit more than that.

Um as we ramped up production, it did take us a little bit of time even even with uh the single serve format that we were producing on an aggressive basis. Uh it took a few years to to gain a a good consumer following. Um, and now today, you know, we run 5 days a week, 24 hours a day. So, we've really expanded the uh the throughput of the facility and the the efficiency. Wow. Yeah.

I mean, building a retail brand is hard. Like, you have to be top of mind when someone is at HB. When they're when they're at Costco or Sam's Club or wherever they might be, you have to be like, I drink I drink Copper Moon coffee. And you're competing largely with like the largest coffee brand in the world, you know, we won't say their name, but you're competing with like with that. Yes. How how do you stay top of mind?

How do you whether it's marketing or branding or I mean obviously you let's say quality is the same all across the board if everyone has really premium great coffee. How do you stand out and be the brand that people want to pick up at the store? Yeah, it does take a lot of a lot of really good marketing execution. Um, it also takes the the uh constant vigilance of finding a spot where you can fit. And with certain retailers, there always will be opportunities uh for the quote unquote nonational brands. And some of those non-national brands are distributed nationally, but they're not, we're not talking Starbucks or Duncan.

We're talking brands that maybe aren't on every shelf nationwide. And that's where we can fit in. We can come into a retailer and say, "We see an opportunity uh that you're missing with a particular one of our particular blends and we can show them the the data that supports the fact that they should have us on the shelf." That that makes sense. You know, people getting in there cuz even, you know, places like Costco will have a local a local flavor of a lot of different things. local, you know, I mean, there's there's tons of, you know, brands that are only available maybe in regional or something like that.

Now, you talk about not being a national brand. Do you feel like the state of Indiana knows that you're a Hooser brand? I feel like uh they do to some degree, but that's what we want to do a better job at. Yeah. I mean, I I'll be full transparency. Hand up.

Scouts honor. I had no idea. Y like I was I know of local coffee shops. I know of some like boutique roasters or maybe like they serve some smaller areas. I had no idea we had a commercial roastery in the state of Indiana that was supplying coffee to the Sam's Clubs and the Costos as well as the Kroger's and HBS of the world. Like I truly no idea.

That's amazing. And you're running 5 days a week, 24 hours a day in your Lafayette facility. How like how big is the team now? Yeah, the team now we probably have over 150 160 people. You go from less than a million pounds in 2025. How many pounds of coffee did you guys put out the door?

Uh we're probably around 15 18 million pounds. That is so cool. That's awesome. Congratulations. Like that that is that is so so so so cool to be able to, you know, you're employing a ton of people. You're pushing Indiana products out the door.

You know, I I'm It's appalling to me that I didn't know that's I love that. That's such a cool story. Uh what do you feel like the secret or your strategy on growing the brand has been? How do you get something to over 15x over the course of you know uh going to be 20 years next? Going to be 20 years. 20 but to go over 20 years to go by to grow 15 times over or whatever the you know I'm not I don't do public math but you know what I'm saying like you're 15 times bigger 20 years later.

Like that's nuts. like what do you what do you credit that to? Uh well, number one, great people, you know, great people to work with. Uh we have a great team of people. We have um a real hands-on uh management team uh that takes care of the the the equipment every day, takes care of our people, making sure that we have people that are happy and productive and really engaged in what we're doing. uh we also have to have a real focus on the category and stay very focused on what our mission is and that is to continue to build and see opportunities and uh seize those opportunities that are out there in the world of coffee.

Yeah. Well, I mean coffee is it technically a commodity like in general like technically technically it's a commodity, right? And you know I'm not a I'm not a on the Chicago merkantile and I'm not a commodity trader but I do feel like commodities M it takes a very special brand to stand out and to grow because again like people there's just so many different choices for coffee where it's like oh gosh it's almost like overwhelming like you go there and it's like how do you stand out on a shelf? How do you stand out in their cup? Like what what kind of strategies have you guys had to influence consumers at the point where they're buying it? Mhm.

and also, you know, back up the quality of it when they get it home and and they're like, "Oh, I'm going to be a lifelong, you know, Copper Moon coffee connoisseur." That's a lot of C's. Yeah. I would I would first of all say it is not easy because it is so competitive. There are so many choices on the shelf. And so what we've found is that when we do uh earn a shelf position, it's really important for us to support that shelf position with tastings, with demos in the store.

Uh particularly at the club level, you know, to make sure that we're doing demos and that we participate in some of the advertising opportunities that are offered to us uh by the retailer themselves, but then also to have an advertising campaign outside of the store environment. um whether it be on social media um and whatnot to make sure that we're promoting the brand and reaching the consumer in that particular market. Wow. Well, hey, if you ever need someone to follow the journey from a Lafayette roaster to a Costco or a Sam's Club and I'll I'll go in there and sample out. I think that's so cool. Like just the fact that uh there's an Indiana roaster like cuz I know there are but they're usually like small and ran out of the back of coffee shops, right?

You know, like which is cool. I think that is awesome, you know, like bringing that in artisan style, but to do it on a scale of like Kup production to do that on a scale of like, you know, nationally to grow to 15 million pounds a year like in incredible, impressive. definitely need good brand operational excellence. Like all the things that you learned one time before getting your professional MBA working in wild bird feed. I love it, man. That's so cool.

What can we expect for the future of Copper Moon Coffee? I would say that uh you know, we're we're hungry for growth. Uh we're going to continue growing. We see a lot of good opportunities in the marketplace. Um we see a lot of good opportunities to expand the brand to reach more retailers to reach more shelves more consumers. Uh it is a really large category and uh I think we have a good framework uh in place to uh to reach those goals and to have you know complete that vision.

Talk to me about the current product offering. We have a few here for anyone watching at home. We have a couple bags. We have our Stargazer. Then we also have the organic vanilla and the organic pistachio flavor. Yes.

So talk to me about what the current product lineup looks like and where people can get them. Yeah. When So when we go to the grocery shelf, we typically go in with uh a few select products. Uh we have a light roast which is bean me up. Oh. A little bit of play on there.

All like moon/astronaut/ you know space themed. I kind of like that. Yeah. Beam me up. Beam me up. We have Stargazer, which is a medium roast, which is really our flagship uh blend that we we go to the marketplace with.

It succeeds everywhere we go. Um it's really a good blend. Handcrafted on Earth. I love that. Reach for the moon. Great tagline.

Yeah. Reach for the moon. It just made sense, right? I'm going to give this a little sniff taste. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So, the uh then we have a dark sky uh which is a dark roast. Um Blastoff is another one. And then we have a select flavored coffees as well. Oh, buddy. Wow. Oh, yeah.

I could just leave my nose in this bag of Stargazer Coberon coffee. Yeah. Oh, wow. How many beans How many different beans go into this? There are three different beans in there. Wow.

Yeah. Yep. I don't know if you can you can tell by listening to this, but this is it makes me want another cup of Joe. Oh, wow. Impressive. Yeah, that that particular blend um has done really well in in the LA market uh at Costco.

Really? Yeah, it's really done. Do you like survey do you like survey customers and figure out why it's done well there? No, we haven't. I guess we should. Yeah, right.

It's also done really well here in the Midwest market at uh Costos. I mean, it just looks cool. Like, it looks like a a cool brand. Like, you guys have done a great job on packaging the whole nine yards. I mean, I love the space theme of it. It's super cool.

And yeah, it's all about standing out. I love that the logo, you know, it looks like space, but it also looks like looking down on like the top of a cup of coffee. Yeah, it does. Yeah, I see what you guys are doing there. Come on. It's awesome.

Wow. I love that. And and then you also have the flavored. Now, how do you make flavored? And those are grounds. These are ground.

These are That's So these were whole bean. That's ground. Um, how many flavors do you guys have? We have a number of different flavors. The ones that we really focus on, uh, these are new. These are organic vanilla and organic flavoring.

So it and it's it's uh these are new. We just came out with these here recently. The retailers that we've shown these to, the people that taste and they're like, I want that. Let's let's get it on the shelf. Wow. Um, so we come out with uh flavors by really kind of following the flavor trends.

Our biggest flavored coffee in terms of volume is a Hawaiian hazelnut uh that we've done really since probably 07. We've we've had that particular flavor out there. Hazelnut. Hawaiian hazelnut coffee. Man, this is so cool. Like what a cool story.

You know, you talk about one growing a family business once, then coming back and growing a family business again. and you know having your coffee that's roasted here in Indiana in Lafayette typic county baby available in Costco and LA HB in Texas like that's congratulations man that is awesome I think hearing stories of I mean people that continue to invest in these businesses and you were 20 employees in '07 you were doing less than a million pounds a year which is not a small business by any means but like having I mean a lot of people talk about that. We we've said it a few times on the show where it's you're, you know, you're 19 years into this. You're 19 overnight success that is now 15 times overgrown what you guys started at. Like it's just so incredible. Yeah, it's it's a fun category to be in.

It's uh there there are opportunities out there. A few years ago um back in I guess it was 2010, we saw an opportunity for another brand um in the Florida market. Uh it's a it's a brand called Manatee Gourmet Coffee and uh we bought that brand in 2010 and uh all that coffee is uh produced at our facility but it's all uh distributed in the state of Florida. So all the Costos in the state of Florida. So it's a it it was another opportunity for us to uh enter a market with a brand that was would resonate uh with that particular geographic region. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you need to think about, you know, does Copper Moon also sell in Florida? Yes. Because I mean, you talk about like there's there's been a ton of space exploration type stuff that's happening down around there, which that would play. That's awesome. Would you say if there are aspiring entrepreneurs out there, people that are interested in business?

Start a brand, buy a brand. Start a business, buy a business. I feel like a lot of people are talking about do you start from square zero and build it from the ground up or do you go out and look for a brand to buy? It's amazing to me. I see people starting brands from scratch all the time. And if you have a really great idea that does not exist in the marketplace, something different that you can differentiate yourself from the other guy, start the brand.

Do not hesitate. If you have a great idea and you want to pursue it because there are opportunities out there to be successful with that brand. Yeah. Yep. But if you're more interested, I think it's a safer bet. Like if there is a brand out there that's been around for a couple years or however long that's bringing in money.

Mhm. Like go out and figure out the financing side of it. Like go whatever SBA, all that stuff. Yeah. I feel like it's like and you have a you're you think that you have like a have marketing chops or you have sales chops or you have operational chop, whatever that might be. Um because I do see a lot of people start something in the same category with the same differentiation and you're like already at odds because you're so far behind your competitors starting from square zero.

Yeah, it takes a ton of hustle to go out there and and win on hustle alone. Yeah, it really does. And in our case, we really needed the infrastructure. Uh we wanted to be able to produce the product to manufacture, to do our own roasting and our own packaging. Uh so that was important for us and in that particular circumstance it was better for us to go purchase an existing facility that had the the infrastructure and we could learn the business uh much more quickly that way and had a little bit of you know some good customers to start with as well. So that that was a good move.

Yeah. I love it man. Well it's an incredible road you guys have had so far. We have come to the part of the show where we get to talk all things Indiana. All right, so this question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond.

Check them out at homejart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home? Well, born and raised in Indiana, proud to be a Hooser. Um, it is a wonderful place uh not only to live, but also a wonderful place to raise a family. Uh, always proud to call Indiana home.

Yeah, absolutely. I uh I couldn't agree more. Okay, now we have some fun rapid fire questions. How many cups of coffee a day? Oh man, I always start with a double shot espresso, iced americano. Oh.

Okay. What's the uh what's the milk to coffee ratio of an Americano? You know what? I don't put any milk in mine. I go straight cuz isn't that a thing where it's like it goes like Americano latte cappuccino? like where it's milk the milk uh increases as you go up that the cappuccino is like 50/50 or something like that.

Yeah, milk and sugar with that one. Yeah. Right. I always love see there's like that's like a classic Airbnb. Like there's a usually like a little poster or something that's like right by the coffee nook that tells you all the stuff. Now you guys are a supplier.

So I can ask you this question. Where is your favorite coffee shop? I'm going to go to Java House. Really? Yeah. Java House?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Do you Cuz they're all cold brew. Yeah, they're all cold brew. And they just put one up in Lafayette now.

Yeah. Or do you live up in Lafayette? Yes. Yeah, I live in West Lafayette. Nice. Oh, yeah.

I got to get West Lafayette. In West Lafayette. Well, Greater Lafayette, right? Greater Lafayette, right? Okay. That's awesome.

Java House. Yeah. Great coffee. Local. Yeah. Great company.

Yeah. Great people there. Now, they're interesting. You talk about Kurig and their patent on K Cups. They have that like utility patent on the the like flavor pods. You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah. Like the peel pour sip. Yep. Their whole thing with concentrate. They have Oh my gosh. the energy drink brand and they have the liquid science brand.

They're really interesting brand for sure. And they're also owned by like the parent like H Heartland that does like the local Splenda. Yes. Uh you know they're also we had uh Ed Carpenter on. They're also really plugged in. I mean, they're a part owner of Ed Carpenter Racing.

Yeah. Great company, great people. I love that. That's so cool. Do you guys sell in any coffee shops? Not that I'm aware of right now.

I think I know we do. I know we do. Specifically, which ones? I I But you're not the you're not a supplier to coffee shops. Typically, we don't go in like to coffee shops and say, uh, we're Copper Moon, so if we sell to you, make sure that you advertise our brand as being the coffee. Yeah.

Uh, it's kind of behind the scenes there. It's kind of behind the scenes. more more of a relationship where a lot of those uh independent coffee shops, they'll buy from us uh but they're maybe advertising it as their own brand. Yeah, they'll buy they'll buy from us uh what we call our food service division and so we'll be selling selling them coffee, but you may not know that it's Copper Moon. Uh in other cases there are food service excuse me food service distributors uh that are buying Copper Moon and uh they they may advertise that in their cafes. Gotcha.

Uh it's a smaller part of our business but still uh you know in any business every customer to us matters. Yeah. So we try to support the way they want to do it. Any advice for working with family? Like you've done this twice now in two different ventures. feel like a lot of people do give warnings to not work with family.

What would you say your advice to making it work is? Uh that's that's a great question. I get that question quite often and and I always say that it's um it's really uh important to make sure that you're you're willing to have a lot of give and take and uh you you approach decision-m with uh with a mindset that you know I don't need my idea to win. uh I want the best idea and the best outcome to win and it creates a lot of good uh conversation sometimes disagreements but many times those disagreements lead to the better decision. Yeah. And I've always found that that works best uh to respect one another to enjoy each other to love each other.

At the end of the day, you're family and nothing matters more than that is to maintain a a real uh love for one another and a desire to work together and to overcome obstacles that can get in the way. But I can tell you that working with family for me has been uh the best blessing ever. Uh the trust that's there. Uh the enjoyment of working, the understanding of the cadence of how we work together is is enjoyable. I love it, man. Okay, we've come to the final three questions we ask every guest who comes on.

Uh, first, this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I would say a hidden gem in Indiana for me is uh East End Grill in East End Grill. East End Grill in Lafayette, Indiana. Uh, a excellent restaurant uh owned, independently owned, independently operated. It is a go-to.

Uh, you know, when we have folks come in town, meetings and so forth. Uh, East End is our typical go-to. East End Grill is a modern American restaurant in Lafayette. 2019, they were small business of the year by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. Come on. I mean, it looks like a total vibe.

It is. Checking the menu. Oh. Oh, heck yeah. Some truffle fries. AI tuna.

Yeah. What do you get? That Wagu burger on there. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah.

Their menu is really solid. It's a It's a great menu. Uh and very consistent. Yeah. The Prime Valley Wagu burger. Subject to availability.

Subject to avail. You got the Wagu beef patty bree truffle aioli, bacon, onion, and mushroom jam on a pretzel bun. Oh, it's excellent. Holy smokes. And they also own uh Ripple uh which is more of a barbecue restaurant right across the street from from East End. So uh they operate two really good restaurants uh in downtown Lafayette.

Good for the Ripple and Company. Rip and Co. Yep. That's sweet. I love that. I love I feel like all you know every city across Indiana and across the America needs like homegrown restaurant tours in the space that really care and treat people like neighbors.

Yeah. I love that. And they do. They're great people. The owner's typically there. Heck yeah.

You know, or bouncing across the street together. That's exactly what it is. Oh, I love it. Okay, next. This is where we source different guest ideas and learn about other people across the state of Indiana doing interesting things. Who's a who we need to keep on our radar?

Someone who's doing big things. Former MLB player Justin Mastersonson. Justin Mastersonson. Yeah. What is Justin Mastersonson up to? Yeah, he is uh he's been involved with a lot of uh charity work uh and so forth uh after his MLB career.

Wow. And uh raising a family, teaching kids, coaching kids, uh great guy, uh interesting person, interesting journey in his life. So, uh he lives here in the indie market. Yeah. And uh just a good friend. Oh, he's part of Wayfinders.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's Okay. I know uh Brandon Foust. Okay.

Who's part of that whole thing? Um that's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Good dude. Justin Mastersonson.

I love We had to learn about his MLB career. Okay. Yeah. And then final question for you. If you think about growing up in Francisville, going to West Lafayette to go to Purdue, growing two companies here in the state of Indiana, when you look back on all of it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? I'll even go back to when I was a kid.

Uh kind of a formidable time in my life, 16 years old in high school, growing up in a rural area. Not a lot to do, right? Other than sports, which we we played, you know, football, basketball, baseball, did all that. Uh but in uh in the typically in the summertimes, we'd go camping. And we always camped in a tent. And I remember my cousin and I, we said, you know, this this tent thing is not not that cool.

Let's let's build a cabin. And so when we were 16 years old, we built a cabin in his parents' woods, uh, a wooded area, about 40 acres of woods. Beautiful place, but it was such a great experience and it taught me so much about kind of overcoming obstacles. And that's one of the greatest memories that I think served me really well in in building a business. Dude, I just saw a video about just like dudes building forts. Yeah.

And it's like there's nothing more just young guy like energy, excitement than going out and building the fort with your bros. Like that's 16. You built the cabin. Yeah, we built a cabin. And yeah, you learned a ton. Yeah.

Still standing or No. No. You know, it's still standing, but it's pretty pretty shot. But the fact that it's still there is incredible. Let's go. I love that.

Well, hey, it's been a pleasure learning all about your journey with Morning Song, then into Copper Moon in 2007. You're 19 years strong. You guys are rocking and rolling. I mean, you're doing millions and millions of pounds of coffee from Lafayette, Indiana. Incredible. This is definitely an unsung entrepreneurship that I'm so excited to share with our audience.

Uh, incredible journey. your commitment to your people, operational excellence and marketing brand. Like the whole thing is such a vibe. We appreciate you coming on. If people want to learn more about you, if they want to learn more about Copper Moon or they want to learn or they want to try your products, where can they do that at? Yeah, absolutely.

Learn more about uh myself, our company, go to copper moon coffee. com. Uh you want to find and try our products, you can go to copper coffee. com and and order online. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So, we'll ship to you directly uh in a short matter of time, usually the next day um or two, and then uh learn more about uh what we're doing. We have a lot of good info on the website. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking I just went there just to check quick in the indie area. You're talking Fresh Time, Kroger, Costco, Sam's Club. Yeah.

Uh like a thousand Kroger's. Yeah. You're If you have trouble finding Copper Moon, it's your own fault. I'm going to say like I'm looking at all these pins and there are pins all over the place on there too. Absolutely incredible. Yeah.

So great. Well, hey, thanks for stopping by. Thanks for sharing the story and we'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thanks, Nate. This episode was brought to you by Accounted For Indiana CPAs who built the firm they wish they had existed when they were growing their own businesses.

Forget hourly billing and slow responses. Accounted for wraps tax, bookkeeping, consulting, and virtual CFO services into one simple monthly fee. All cloud-based, all under one roof. You get a real CPA who knows your goals and actually picks up the phone. Check them out at accounted forcpa. com and tell them that the Get In team sent you.

Thanks for listening to today's