Coffee With E

From Rock Bottom to Top 3 Coffeehouse: Rick Evans’ Grit Story

• Erica Rawls

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What if losing everything was the start of your calling?

In this inspiring episode, Rick Evans, co-owner of Evans Brothers Coffee (https://evansbrotherscoffee.com), opens up about how the 2008 crash turned his world upside down and how that moment became the catalyst for building one of the top three coffeehouses in the U.S.

From a ski-lift brainstorm to 18 months without a paycheck, Rick and his brother built Evans Brothers Coffee with nothing but grit, faith, and community. His story is proof that perseverance pays off and quitting is never the answer.

☕ Today’s Roast: Stop being a quitter.

When it gets hard, don’t walk away. Grit is built in the grind.

✨ In This Episode

•How the 2008 crash birthed Evans Brothers Coffee

•The ski-lift conversation that started it all

•What to do when your dream feels impossible

•Why community matters more than money

•Free business resources every entrepreneur should know

•Finding your “why” when you want to quit

🔗 Connect with Rick Evans

Website: https://evansbrotherscoffee.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evansbrotherscoffee/

🔗 Sponsored by:

TOCH Construction: https://www.tochconstruction.com/

Allstate Insurance – Rob Shaw: https://agents.allstate.com/robert-shaw-harrisburg-pa.html  

Chavis Law Firm: https://www.chavislawfirm.com/ 

Dirty Dog Hauling: https://dirtydoghauling.com/ 

💼 Powered by The Erica Rawls Team: https://ericarawls.com/ 


👍 Like this episode? Leave a review and share it with someone who needs a reminder to keep going when life gets hard.

🔔 Subscribe and join our community for more real stories of grit, purpose, and building something from the ground up.


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Erica Rawls:

Hey you! I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rick Evans. He is co-owner of Evans Brothers Coffee. And when I tell you the story that he shares is just one that you will probably resonate with. You'll know someone or you or that person. True overcomer, true grit and tenacity to succeed. And to see where he came from and where he is today, I'm sure you're going to take something away from it. Today's roast, stop being a quitter. Every time that you try a thing that you know you're supposed to do and it doesn't go your way, you quit. Why is that? Where is the grit? Where's the determination? Where is the stickness? Stay in it too. Whatever you want to call it, do it. Because I know of a person that had came from nothing and is now doing something very instrumental. And it surrounds coffee. So why can't you? Don't quit. Have no money in the bank. Figure a way how to get your bills paid. Be resourceful. You feel like you're at the end of your rope. Okay. There's other people in the same position, but they figured it out. So figure out a plan, figure out your big why, stay on game, and you got this. Well, Rick, thank you so much for this opportunity to sit down and have coffee with me. Um we are so grateful for you. You were probably the furthest guest that we actually had on our podcast, and you are a big deal in our minds. One, because you are a coffee roaster, and hello, coffee with E, right? So just having someone like yourself on our platform just to add value to our community and just to um, you know, give us positive vibes. I can't wait to have a conversation with you. So thank you.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thank you so much for wanting to include me.

Erica Rawls:

You're so welcome. Okay, so was doing some quick research on you and your brother and how you all came to um to where you are today, and we found out that it started on a ski lift.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Um, our I yeah, I could just give you the the quick story here if you like.

Erica Rawls:

Um we need to know the story on the ski lift. That's exactly right. We are dying to know.

Rick Evans:

Okay, so so my brother and I, you know, we had lived all over the country. Uh, we were our our dad was in the air force. We moved like every year or two years, and we kind of continued moving a lot um after we both you know finished college. And we were best buddies, but we never lived in the same place at the same time.

Erica Rawls:

And you and your brother were best buddies, yeah.

Rick Evans:

My yeah, we were best friends. We were just two two and a half years apart. Um, and uh I was at a point, I was with my wife at the time living in Santa Barbara, and you know, I'd been there five years. I was working in the resort um real estate business, and and my brother had bit gotten into coffee roasting. He was in Seattle at the time, uh head roaster for Storybook Coffee, and he he'd been roasting coffee, managing cafes, super geeked out on coffee for like a decade.

Erica Rawls:

Who can blame them?

Rick Evans:

Yeah, and so it was basically for for me and my wife, we were like looking for a change. We were ready to plant roots and and find a town that we were gonna stay. We had just gotten pregnant, and so we wanted to, I didn't want my kids to go through the same thing where they have to move every year to two. We were like, let's find a place with the you know, really good community where we can plant roots, and then the dream was that Brandy could also maybe you know move his family there. And my old family's from the East Coast. In fact, I'll be in Tampa next week visiting my sister side now.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, on the East Coast, okay.

Rick Evans:

We grew up mostly East Coast, but we kind of gravitated out to the west and the mountains and we're big skiers.

Erica Rawls:

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Rick Evans:

Um, so my brother was in Seattle and he said, Hey Rick, you should check out San Point, Idaho. It's this cool little town with a huge Idaho. Yeah. And um, so that this was one of the places we kind of threw into the mix. And um, long story short, we ended up getting an opportunity to move here. Um, I got a dream job like managing a real estate office up at the mountain, and and uh this was of course a year before the complete meltdown or you know, recession and everything. And uh so I did I moved here. Randy got opportunity to move here and and worked selling um coffee roasters like four months after I did. And so here we were, we're in this town we love, and it was everything was great. And then about a year after being here, the the economy completely crashed. Real estate, as you probably re may remember in 08. Yeah, yeah, that's that was hit first, you know, especially like the resort market, which is what I was in.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, I started my business in 08 or 07 is when I started, so just imagine your your second year. It's like, are you kidding me?

Rick Evans:

Yeah, it's rough, yeah. And that's when we started, you know, that's our Evans brothers, you know, started in 08 basically. So uh, or was it 09? Anyway, we we were I was real estate was falling apart. I had some rental properties I had to foreclose on, and you know, I moved here feeling as wealthy as I'd ever been, and about a year later, it's like the poorest I've ever been. We did have ski passes, and so basically Randy and I just skied seven days a week. It's a great winter, and there was a chair called Chair Six, it was like a really long 20-minute chair ride on the back side of the mountain, and we would ride that, and we just started like brainstorming like, okay, I'm running out of money. What are we gonna do? And you know, how are you gonna? And Randy's like, I said, What do you want to do with your life, Randy? And he said, I just want to stay in coffee, and I'd love to figure out how to make it happen in Sandpoint. So, me being kind of more of the entrepreneurial sales guy, I was like, Well, why don't we why don't we start a roasting business? You know, I could do the I can go get the accounts and do the do the sales and marketing and and uh help start the business, and you basically do everything else, you know. And uh to me at the time, it was just a way to keep my brother here in Sandpoint and really create a business for him. I thought I would continue with real estate once things turned around. And uh, you know, so we we just kind of started envisioning our business, you know, and what you know, the community aspect of it, the type of coffee we wanted to really connect people with the coffee and get really, you know, just really high quality, sustainable coffees, um, and be connected with the farms. And so we we we we just put all of this together, and at night I would be writing the business plan and skiing by day, and uh we ended up taking this plan to a bank, got to the 11th hour, got turned down. Uh, we didn't have any money for collateral. So we finally got a loan uh using $10,000 from my grandpa, from our grandfather, and putting our dad's cars as collateral. Because by this time, I was I had cashed out everything I had. I was living for I think it was about six 16 to 18 months, you know, without a single paycheck.

Erica Rawls:

That's what I was gonna ask you because you said that you had to foreclose on your rental properties, and here you are skiing in that 20-minute ride. Like, wait, how are you paying bills? That's what I was thinking. So I know people that are watching and are listening are like, okay, so how did he pay his bills from the time that he was on that ski lift till you actually got the loan from your grandfather, your dad, right? Your grandfather. Yeah. And like, how'd you make ends meet? Had to take two seconds to thank Allstate Insurance for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking for car life or casualty insurance, they're going to be your ultimate insurance company. Thank you, Rob Shaw, with Allstate Insurance. Now, back to the show.

Rick Evans:

I mean, pretty much lived off of uh drained my retirement savings and everything else we had. You know, the money went quick because I was a bit leveraged and I was definitely leveraged in real estate. I had a owned a condo in Santa Barbara, but renters moved out, we couldn't re-rent it. It was just like that happened in each place. And and so, yeah, I was, you know, living maybe like used to spending money and kind of kept doing it, never realized it was going to be a year and a half without an income, you know, until looking back, like, well, I didn't get a single check in a year and a half, no wonder.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah. But yeah, it's like you remember you had a baby on the way too. Yeah. So I'm just like, I know I'm stuck on this, but this is just blowing my mind.

Rick Evans:

This is a scary time. I lost it.

Erica Rawls:

How did you stay like motivated? Like, was where you are like okay. I'm just gonna say what it is. When you're in debt, don't know where you're gonna get your next paycheck or how you're gonna feed your family, yeah. What in the world like kept you motivated and in your right mind and not to do something that was just gonna be hasty? Like, yeah, because it sounded like you were disciplined enough to stay on that track. So, what was it? Like, what was the big thing?

Rick Evans:

Well, and I kept trying in real estate, so I skied, but you know, I'd also, if I had people that wanted to see properties and I kept I did keep trying, and I think the motivation the motivation went got less and less uh after every single deal fell apart, you know, we'd have people in contract, and it just you know, you remember how it was back then, and and uh so I and then it was just like okay, how what are we gonna build from here? And it was, you know, I started going to a men's group at that time to take care of myself personally. Um not long after this, I we we ended up like I marriage was not doing great, went through it was a really hard time in my life, went through a divorce within you know a couple years of moving here, um, maybe a few years. So my kids at that point were I guess they were like four and two, you know, and so that that first kind of like five, we started the business right around the time my son was born. Um, and yeah, I was like, we didn't have much of anything to take out of the business in terms of income. It was it was a rough, uh, rough few years for sure. A lot of times where it was just like, are we what you know, is this gonna work? But we did get we did get encouraged like with the business from pretty early on. We had like we were there the community really received us well. And you know, we started doing the farmers market, we would have these big neighborhood tastings and invite everybody into the roastery and uh just taste all these different coffees. And we were doing coffee in a way that people weren't accustomed to, like it was pretty much all dark roast, and and uh so we were doing some lighter roast coffees as well, and like really unique uh coffees like we call micro lots that were like from a special part of the farm. And we would provide all this information and we do these like kind of educational things, and so it really just started engaging people really well, and we we were able to get some some good local accounts right away, and enough to where it was like, okay, this is something you know, something's going on here. We're not really bringing a paycheck in, but there was like it was it was really cool, like just the beginnings of being able to build something, so it was kind of like yeah, I mean, a huge lesson of like you know, when things look the worst, I mean, what can kind of come out of that, you know, in life. I mean, the I I feel like now we've we've got this beautiful life, and yeah, I probably was making more money way back in at for a bit in real estate and everything, but um, so much happier now and more fulfilled life. And and uh, you know, we've got this business that's really community-based, and we're able to do a lot of a lot of cool things with it and connect with a lot of people, and uh it's just like family business, so it's it it and yeah, it's great. It's really cool to be able to do something with my brother like this.

Erica Rawls:

That is awesome. So you started out in this as a stand, correct? And you said you were no, not a stand.

Rick Evans:

Um, we we had the roastery itself, so that was the first thing we got, and it's this old granary, like warehouse, it's a historic area that was kind of run down, and it was a really sweet um thing to find. And it was, you know, at the time it was like there wasn't even drywall on it and all this stuff. So we had to do a bunch of work, built out this roastery in this warehouse, and the idea at first was just a roaster, not a cafe. We were just gonna roast for wholesale for restaurants, cafes, and stuff. Um, and but people would start coming into the roaster and they'd want to try our coffee. So we had like a little home espresso machine. My brother would stop roasting to make somebody a coffee, and you know, we we had a little brew bar for pour overs. And so we would just make coffee, visit with people one at a time, and uh eventually, maybe a year to two into it, we're like, we should we had a friend who had been a barista and he was like, You guys should do a little coffee bar, and so we we built out out of a broom closet. We it was a it was a high ceiling broom closet, but it was all kind of closed off. It had garage doors um that opened up, but when it we were like, let's do a little neighborhood espresso bar. It was like a walk-up coffee bar adjacent to the roastery, and our friend would work it as a barista, and you know, we might make like 80 bucks in a day, and we'd give him 40. And it was an expert showing our coffees really organically to the customers, and um, yeah, that was the start of our like our cafe, which wow, yeah, it's pretty, pretty, pretty wild. It was just this broom closet. When we had to when we opened the doors, the garage doors open up and it's really nice and light. But then when we closed those, there was no or no windows, it was just like this like oh wow, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

So even better in the spring and summer, like people are like, yeah, let's go. And in the winter time, I was like, Yeah, not so much. I had to take two seconds to interrupt this episode. I would like to thank one of our most recent guests, attorney Jenny Chavis, for sponsoring this show. Chavis Law Firm is an elite law firm in central Pennsylvania that helps with estate planning as well as understanding what type of business entity you should enter into when starting your business. If you're looking for a great attorney that understands estate planning as well as business entity, how to start the right way, you want to check out attorney Chavis, Chavis Law Firm. Now, back to the show.

Rick Evans:

Since then, we've opened up, we put windows on both sides, and we've opened up, we put windows on the garage doors, so there's a lot of light.

Erica Rawls:

I love it. We've expanded Oh wait, you still have that same location?

Rick Evans:

We're in the same location where we started.

Erica Rawls:

I love it. I love it.

Rick Evans:

You know, the bar was all using like corrugated metal and like leftover barn wood and just all the scrap material from the old way uhy. And it still kind of has that look, but it's a lot more intentional now. Um, because we first started and we you know, so then so we have our roastery and then the little neighborhood bar that used to be the the walk the bar that used to be the broom closet, and then the other side of that was this other big open space. At the time it was a photographer, also really rough space, not not really finished that well. Um at a certain point in time, we're like, hey, can we put like a couch in here for some people to sit on? A couple chairs. It was like a used clothing thing going on in the same space. It was just this like hodgepodge, like really like uh yeah, just kind of uh I don't know the word, but it was it was a pretty pretty rough. And uh we shared space with him. I mean, it was like a a green uh couch, you know, grandma's couch from the thrift store kind of thing. Yeah, there was no like and and but we we our coffee was really good, and it kept bringing people back despite the fact it was just like, what is this like, you know? Uh and eventually we we got more intentional. We got we it took over the entire space. We were able to um the bar is still pretty small, but we've got a good sized cafe, really great outside seating, the roasteries on the other side, so customers can see it. And yeah, it's it's the same place we have, it's 17 years later. Um, and uh we've you know grown to where the the coffee house itself has been. I mean, we last year we were top three in USA Today um best edition.

Erica Rawls:

I saw that, yeah.

Rick Evans:

That's pretty cool to look back on where it started, and then we you know, we learned re you know, we ended up hiring a couple, you know, one guy in particular had incredible experience, and you know, we we we ended up just bringing on really great people and and uh have built a really cool business.

Erica Rawls:

So what do you think attributed to you getting that big stellar award? That's a big deal.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, we we've always held ourselves to a really high standard, and and like from the beginning, we've we've never to this day felt like oh, we figured it all out and we're mean we've got we've got it all all down. Um adjust myself out of the sun a little bit here. Um anyway, uh I'm really dark right now, aren't I? I can't even see.

Erica Rawls:

No, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. We have great um editors.

Rick Evans:

You're gonna let the seller.

Erica Rawls:

Yes, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Rick Evans:

This is a great seat sometimes. It kind of depends on the time of day, though. Um, anyway, um, sorry, what was the question?

Erica Rawls:

No, so what do you attribute to you becoming like number three in USA Today? Yeah, that's great.

Rick Evans:

Um, well, so Daniel Gunter is kind of like the third brother. He joined us 15 years ago. He had been um really involved in um there's a famous cafe called Barista. There's a few locations and and uh out of Portland, and he worked there and some other really well-known specialty shops in Portland. He was, I remember his he's from here, grew up here, and his dad was a customer early on and said, You should meet my son, you know. And and so Daniel came to visit, and he was like, he kind of wanted to move back and and and to Sandpoint, and we really we hadn't hired anybody, it was just Randy and I too trying to do everything at the time. And uh, but we saw this guy, we saw pictures of his latte art, he was like, I have a big deal, barista, you know. And so we made a we figured out a way to just bring him onto the team. And um, you know, he's to this now, he's our head of coffee quality, he does our training. Um, he's just uh, you know, really is like another another brother, and so he was a big part of helping us kind of elevate, you know, that whole experience. And then we would hire really good quality bristas that you know, we're a town that it's a tourist town, so there's a lot of people that have moved away and maybe come back, and um, so we we've been able to get people that with a lot of experience, and then we incorporated just a really great internal training program. We'll often hire people that haven't been a barista but but really have the people skills, and okay, we have a really comprehensive training, and we buy the best coffees you can get. Um, we travel to Origin to get the coffees. We always are focused on like creating exceptional customer experiences. That's that's what we're all about. And and you know, and so we just keep looking at how can we do this better, how can we do this better, and yeah. So with the voting with the USA Today, it was um kind of an anonymous thing where they pick out what they think are the you know best cafes in the country, the USA Today team, and then there's a whole voting thing where your customers vote, and and so I mean, we definitely got on board with that and and really tried to you know get the vote out and everything. And at one point we were first in the whole competition, and then kind of like we ended up taking third, but it was you know, just to be top 10 uh reader's choice, it was pretty cool. And yeah, we've also had an award, we won a thing in uh like a coffee fest competition where you had to do a mock cafe on the conference floor, and we're competing against like shops that we had looked up to for years, and that you know, kind of the best of the best. And we ended up in third place in that one too. Um, first would be better, but third's good too. For a little old scene.

Erica Rawls:

So just to put it on perspective, like how many uh out of how many uh coffee shops you say?

Rick Evans:

Well, I mean, I guess that would that started in the competition for the voting, I think they narrowed down to like a hundred or something like that, and we ended up taking third in that competition. Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Hey, I'm hoping you're enjoying this episode of Coffee with E. I had to take 30 seconds to share with you one of our sponsors for this episode, Top Construction. They are a premier construction company located in Central PA. So if you live in Dolphin, Cumberland, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties, you want to check them out. Not only are they reliable, they are reasonable, and they get the job done. Now, let's go back to the episode. But it's pretty good. I think what I'm most what I'm most um, I guess, in awe of is the fact that you went from, you know, in 2008 and everything, just losing everything and then to being where you are today and being resilient enough and resourceful enough to find the funds in order to um to fund your the business or the dream that you and your brother had.

Rick Evans:

Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

And I love to hear a great like overcome, like a story of being able to overcome your obstacles and um just to breathe life into that. Yeah. So when you were going through that, I mean, did you think that you were going to be where you are today? Like, what how did you feel throughout that? Because I know there's some people that may feel like they lost, they're losing hope. They have this business, they have this dream, but they may not have the resources or the funding or the the family to help them. So, how did you feel? And like, what would you say to that person that wants to do something like what you're doing?

Rick Evans:

Great question. Um, well, I'll say even like early on when we were brainstorming the business and I was talking to Randy about it, he's like, Well, how are we gonna do this? We have no money, and I'm like, one step at a time, we're gonna write a business plan, and then we're gonna, you know, we have we can go to friends, family, you know, we we'll just take it a step at a time. And um, and yeah, I think um, and then after we got started, I mean, gosh, it was tough. Randy and I fought a lot. We realized like we were best friends. We never thought of it.

Erica Rawls:

Did you fist fight a little bit?

Rick Evans:

We came really close, like the top of our lungs, slamming doors, running out, I hate you. F all I mean, the whole like it was like we were little kids, you know. It's like I love it. Yeah, both of us, you know, have had tempers and and uh we just triggered each other. And um, so there were those times like, oh my gosh, why am I even in business with this guy? You know, and it felt like but we were all in, like, what else are we gonna do? Here we put all our eggs in this basket and we don't we can't fail, you know, and we and and so I think there was uh it was the growth of the business went along with the growth of ourselves, you know. I really that's I really had to look into myself and and and find that that belief of like because there were times where I wanted I did, I felt like I part of me wanted to just give up, period. You know, I was like on everything, and uh it was a low time in my life. I mean, going through a divorce, it felt like a failure, had lost all our all my money, felt like a failure there, you know. And but I had this little boy, you know, and like he's like I never loved more than anything more. And it's like a lot of times it was I found the belief in myself out of the love I had for my son at the time, and and uh I was like, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna find that little kernel of light that that is you know that trusts and knows it's gonna be okay. And to be able to just really dig into that and um find that self-belief, I think it's there in everybody, and it's like there's these choices of like, okay, I can quit or I can like I can find that um that grit and that determination that's in there. And so I I've learned a lot about who I am. I you know, I just built this resilience um through having to go through that and and starting over. And you know, now I look back, it's like it made me who I am today. I wouldn't change any of it, you know what I mean? So yeah, I think just believing and and you know, knowing, you know, being willing to um just not to give up because sometimes it's like right before it looks like just what everything looks like it's gonna fail might be the time, right just before that it breaks out for you, you know?

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, it's almost like a test, right? Yeah, and uh yeah, and it's uh it's three feet from gold, yeah, kind of scenario, like you're just right there and you have an opportunity to you can quit. That's the easy road. Yeah. You can just keep digging, right? And to the person that decided to keep digging, that's when you get to live the life that you truly want to live. So yeah, kudos for you for finding something outside of yourself to to hang on to. Yeah, because that's what it takes sometimes. Because when you're just thinking about, okay, I'm doing this for me, that might not be enough. Yeah, that just might not be enough. But if you have something else or someone else that you are um accountable to, yeah, yeah, that's when you could dig down in there.

Rick Evans:

So yeah, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Love this story. I love the story. I do, yeah. Cause I remember back in 2008, holy moly, because I left my corporate job and went into real estate at the worst time.

Rick Evans:

Right, you'd see all these people making all this money into a grade and then start it, and then everything changes. Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Everything changes. So then you have to figure, okay, so what am I doing now? Yeah, you go from making all this money to oh my gosh. Yeah, is this really a thing?

Rick Evans:

Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

So yeah.

Rick Evans:

It's awesome that you stuck you snuck with it having started at that time, you know, that's for sure.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, sometimes I think, am I crazy?

Rick Evans:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, it really is a calling. I do, I think it's a calling. Otherwise, I don't think, well, I know the people that decide to stay, I know that's something that they truly were passionate about. Other people that left, I get it. It wasn't what they were passionate about. They were in it for the money, that quick money.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, and there was a lot, there's a lot of that at that point in time because there's, you know, real estate was it was easy in 05, you know.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. This is so great. So then, um, is there any last words that you want to share with our audience? Because I think that you gave some valuable lessons in there. The one is having fortitude to just keep going. Like that's the message I got through this whole thing. Yeah. And then to see how big you are, like you're nationally known. Like that's huge.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, it's it's it's really cool. I mean, we've won what's called this uh for the coffee itself. This is more on the roasting side. We've won the good food awards four times, and that's you know, arguably the biggest award in in coffee. It's a big foodie award. They have chocolate and charcuterie and other tech category categories. And I mean, just to be like in the mix with the you know, the companies that are kind of the best of the best, and and um it makes us feel really proud. And it's cool from a little small town too, of Sandpoint. You know, when people come here, they don't really expect to have you know really good coffee and stuff. So that that feels pretty neat, pretty, pretty neat too.

Erica Rawls:

Hey, I need to take two seconds to interrupt this wonderful show that you're watching. I run a real estate business, and the way we fund this podcast is through that business, the Erica Ross team. I would love it if you would just give us one opportunity to service your real estate needs, whether you are in Central PA or around the entire world, think of us first so we can help you. Now back to the show.

Rick Evans:

But as far as other advice, yeah, I think um one of the things we also did was um trying to under, you know, knowing what I like, I think knowing what we each individually do best. And we've tried to get help for other areas, you know, um, and not try to, you know, I mean early on it was just the two of us. We kind of had to figure out how to do pretty much everything. We did hire a bookkeeper, was a smart move right off the bat. Um but yeah, just really trying to put people into the right positions. And for my brother and I, we have you know kind of opposite uh skill sets. So really trying to focus on you know what we each do do best and everything, and and uh you know, not being afraid to go out for outside help. I mean, we we worked with like a small business development center uh coach from early on, and you know, he would really help us with the financial side of things.

Erica Rawls:

Um they're free. Are they free in your area?

Rick Evans:

Yeah, yeah. There's small business SBEC.

Erica Rawls:

No one knows about I don't think enough people know about it. They are free.

Rick Evans:

Awesome resource, really great resource. Yeah, we had it, we had a guy we met with like every couple weeks or something, and for years, and uh so yeah, using those resources, asking, you know, going out to people that you know we did. We talked to other people in the industry and we tried to learn from those that you know that we admired and everything that were in the business.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, that's awesome. I love your grit. This was such a great conversation. I really enjoyed it, truly enjoyed it.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, and thank you. Hey, you all may not know this, but he actually sponsored um this episode as well as other episodes that we have for this month. So um cannot thank you enough. Cannot thank you enough. So thank you so much. Yeah, so um yeah, so you're gonna be seeing all of your stuff. We're gonna be advertising this coffee brand. And do you deliver across the the US? Like how do people use TA?

Rick Evans:

Yeah, EvansBrothersCoffee.com. We ship across the U.S. We have a subscription uh program too, you know, where you you can say, Hey, I like bright and fruity, classic and comfort or dark and rich coffees, and and then yeah, I want one or two or whatever, you know, a month and uh yeah, ship it to your doorstep.

Erica Rawls:

So okay, Rick. So this is what I want to do. I don't know. I'm putting you on the spot. I would love to get those different flavors, even if it's like a small bit, I would love to taste test because I'm a coffee connoisseur, and then I can let our Audience, know which one they should actually, which ones I liked. Cool. And then we'll just go from there. I love that.

Rick Evans:

Yeah, we'll have to be happy to send you a sample pack of stuff, then that sounds good.

Erica Rawls:

Yay, yay, yay, yay. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us. Um, like I said, you're probably the furthest um guest that we had so far, and I I really appreciated it. I really do.

Rick Evans:

Well, thank you.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, I'm so proud of you and your brother for sticking, um, sticking it out and just where you are today. And I know that you're just going to get better and better.

Rick Evans:

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Erica Rawls:

You're welcome.

Rick Evans:

Yeah.

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Erica Rawls

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