I have to tell you the story about how the Book & Bean came to be because it explains Brad and I in a nutshell. For everyone reading this that know Brad and I personally, you’ll laugh at this story, shake your head, and say, “Yep. Sounds like the Pages.”

Brad had mentioned to me that he thought it was time to start another business. I agreed and told him that I had been thinking the same thing. We loved the idea of a vintage book store, but we knew financially that wouldn’t work. It’s not a feasible option on its own, at least not in our little town. The idea of specialty coffee and books was thrown around and we settled on a coffeeshop with a strong presence of vintage books. 

To be clear here…this was ONE conversation, in the car, on the way to a function. 

The next day I took the kids to my parents house in Illinois and Brad stayed home to work. He texted me: 

Brad – Hey Cal. Were you serious about the coffee shop and bookstore? 

Me -Yeah. I think that has great potential. We could probably start looking into it. 

Brad – Ok great because I just bought 600 vintage books online. We are supposed to pick them up tomorrow. 

Yep. That’s exactly what happened. No need for market research or numbers, we were all in. I look back on that now and laugh because we had LESS than no idea what we were doing. We knew nothing about vintage books OR coffee. Heck, Brad didn’t even drink coffee!  All I knew about coffee was that when you mixed Folgers with Coffeemate, it tasted alright. 

This is how we’ve operated since my nephew passed away 12 years ago. For some reason, we just assume that it’ll work out. Even if we take a hit, ultimately, it’ll be worth a try. And honestly, as long as the businesses I create make people feel warm and fuzzy inside, then I don’t really care what we are selling. I knew we could find someone who knew coffee, and we did. Opening a coffee shop didn’t mean we had to be coffee experts, it just meant we had to find someone who was. 

I think maybe this is true in most facets of life. If I have a clear vision for what I want to create in the end result, then all other things are “figureoutable”. Nothing has to be so intimidating that I need to keep it from existing just because I don’t know all the steps in the process. Shoot, if I operated by that principle, I wouldn’t be a wife, a mother, or a friend and those are some of my most cherished roles I hold in this life. To think that I might not have any of those things because I didn’t have it all figured out before I ventured into them, is the saddest thing I can think of. 

What I’m slowly figuring out is that none of this is about me anyway. So what if I screw up? So what if I don’t do it right? That actually never mattered anyway. 

But the process…oh the process, now THAT matters. It leads us to exactly where we need to be, and causes us to really LIVE throughout the learning.