Coffee People ft. Jing Lin, Coffee Confessionals

Full video posted below, or watch and/or listen to Coffee People on:
Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify • All Your Favorite Platforms

Guests: Jing Lin, Founder at Coffee Confessionals
Based: Hollywood, CA
What they drink: A drip coffee with a little cream
Find On Socials: @coffeeconfessionals on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook
Events at Coffee Confessionals: Next up: Comedy and "Therapy"
A stacked lineup of 6 comedians bringing sharp takes, questionable advice, and zero credentials. A mix of stand-up and live “therapy” sets throughout the evening.

This week's guest, Jing Lin, is the founder of Coffee Confessionals, a coffee shop in Hollywood, CA. A film marketing and promotions specialist turned coffee shop owner and operator. She's also a storyteller with a desire to enable others to share their own stories. In our conversation, we cover her coffee journey, but a lot of our focus is more introspective. In particular, what it feels like to work towards a career goal, get to a mountain top, look out, and no longer be certain you're on the right climb.

Jing was confronting just such a reflection and pursuing a new creative coffee hobby as a coffee blogger. Step by step, she was adding coffee knowledge and skills into her toolkit, while still safely ensconced in her career. Then the Covid-19 pandemic forced her hand. She leapt from her career in film onto the trampoline that is entrepreneurship.

It's challenging to be an entrepreneur, but it becomes less daunting when you start collecting stories and examples, researching and gathering information, and most importantly, asking for help. You can expand as you go, and it should be something that is fun for you.

To quote Doctor Leo Marvin in the 1991 film classic, What about Bob, "Baby steps. It means setting small reasonable goals for yourself one day at a time. One tiny step at a time. Baby steps."

SPONSORED

Vist with the Roastar Team IRL at the upcoming Coffee Fest NYC (March 8-10) at the Javits Center. You'll find them at Booth 2716. Learn more about the upcoming event at: https://www.coffeefest.com/new-york

VISIT ROASTAR.COM

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The most important note: Coffee Confessionals is a coffee shop first. There is no confessional requirement just for coming through the doors. But you can spill your beans.
• The idea behind the cafe was to create a brand that would connect the humans who wanted human connection. It started with simple conversation cards on the tables and evolved from there.
• Jing was a storyteller before she was paid to be a storyteller. Early in life, she was putting on plays for her family. She studied filmmaking in Boston, but ended up in public relations. At some point, it was clear that promoting other people's stories wasn't the right path.
• She moved on to Carnegie Mellon University (PA) to attend a film industry management program that would. To complete her studies, she needed to find an internship. A mentor put her resume on the right desk where it was seen by the right person. She landed an intern role with Paramount, which led to a job at Disney and then Universal Studios. Sometimes, the world provides—but networking helps.
  
  The lesson in her experience is to ask for what you want. You never know who will be the person who can help you out.
• Like so many of us, after years of climbing up the ranks in her industry, she realized that she wasn't feeling a connection to the service and products she was selling. Many work hard to reach the mountaintop, so to speak, but once there, a moment of reflection can change everything.
  
  Yes, she was promoting films, big ones, important ones, but without the feeling of fulfillment that comes with being on the creative side. She began a coffee blog* to sate that goal.
• Jing Lin wasn't planning to open a cafe. It wasn't why she started her coffee exploration. It seems that everybody wants to open a cafe (or saloon), but not everyone understands the amount of work it takes to open and then run a hospitality-based cafe.
• A mentor offered Jing some important advice: Look at someone you aspire to be—several rungs above you in the hierarchy—and ask yourself if that job, that life, is the one you want to live someday. For Jing Lin, the answer was no, and her coffee progression began in earnest.
  
  She started increasing her home barista skills. As she learned more, her confidence grew, not just in coffee but in embracing her creativity.
• As the idea to open a coffee shop started marinating, she started researching and learning about commercial real estate. In her words, she was like a squirrel! Just gathering and gathering information instead of nuts.
• Making the leap wasn't easy. She had a reasonable corporate job that was safe—until it wasn't. Hello, Coronavirus! Her department at Universal was cut, but she was given a severance that enabled her to look forward and view the change as an opportunity to take on a new challenge—opening a coffee shop.
• It was difficult to find a landlord to take a chance on leasing a space to an unproven entrepreneur without a coffee industry background. Her eventual location near Hollywood wasn't the fancy Hollywood people imagined. It was on the grittier edge. Side note and pro-tip: Maybe don't take your kids to Hollywood.
• The desire for connection with friends and family and even strangers is real, even for a weirdly social introvert like myself. Have you tried to make new friends as an adult, say after a big move? Not easy!
  
  Jing recognized that we all go through bouts of self-consciousness when approaching a new friend. At Coffee Confessionals, she is trying to create a space where the veil is off and the opportunity to connect is presented to you. The first steps at Coffee Confessionals might be a conversation card or a chatty barista to encourage engagement. Staff training and personality are essential components of creating a safe space in the cafe.
• You can only address what you can see, so be alert and be flexible to what might come. A new entrepreneurial adventure likely won't happen overnight. Jing built up her business in steps. The brick-and-mortar space was always part of the plan, but it wasn't the immediate option on day one.
• Jing had given herself permission to leave her job and change her career. With that came an adjustment to her lifestyle and daily work expectations. There is a lot of troubleshooting in being an entrepreneur. If the tent across the street is on fire...what do you do?
• What she reads: Insurance policies.

JUST FOR FUN

Sauna is sweeping the nation. Our friends at Prairiewood Sauna (WI) has invited us to Sauna Days in Two Harbors, MN May 1st-3rd. Perhaps, we'll see you there, post-sauna, pre-craft beer, for a cool down in Lake Superior.

Benefits of regular sauna, according to Health.com

• Lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Improve mood and lessen depression symptoms by decreasing inflammation.
• Improved blood vessel function.
• Lowered blood pressure.
• Reduced inflammation.
• Good vibes.

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A CLASSIC EPISODE

Tasting coffee with Color Magic's Siri Simran Khalsa (formerly of Lofty Coffee)