Running late as I often am, I arrived at 6pm for the 5pm start, only to realize the first hour was a social hour, and I didn’t actually miss anything.  That was good and bad.  The bad part being, I attend things like this for the social aspect, so I was missing the “best” part of the event for me.

The meat of the meetup, however, was that attendees would be encouraged to give their own story about how social media had had an impact on their life or business.  Attendees were encouraged to run up on stage, grab the mic, and in a minute or so rattled off a story.  I arrived just as things were about to get underway with the formal portion, shorly before 6pm.  It was 110 outside, so I was looking forward to a cool evening, both literally and figuratively.  Sadly, I was disappointed on both fronts. 

First, literally, it was at least 90 degrees in the theatre.  The AC apparently doesn’t work at Madcap.  That’s NOT good for a theatre.  I hope they are able to get that fixed.

Secondly, figuratively, the people that shared stories, for the most part, shared quite lame stories.  Often, the social media relevance was completely lost.  Or if it wasn’t lost, it was tangential at best.  I suppose Ignite Phoenix, Social Media Club, and all of the various Bar Camps have spoiled me into thinking that the blossoming social media scene in Phoenix is a little smarter than we saw on Wednesday night.  Perhaps an event like this needs a little more than a week to plan.  That, and the organizers really should have had some “planted” stories, to uplevel the event. 

Sadly, what could have been a coup for social media, fell flat on its face this time. 

At any rate, before attending I was considering sharing a social media story, and so as not to let it go to waste, here is what I think is a super cool example of how social media has affected my life and business.

Yelp for business

This story involves Yelp.  Just before I opened Echo Coffee, I was contacted by a reporter from the Arizona Republic that said she wanted to do a business profile about Echo Coffee.  Naturally, I jumped at the chance, and we were able to set up the interview for the following Tuesday.    That Thursday, our first Thursday in business, the business profile ran in the Scottsdale Republic section of the newspaper, including a teaser on the front page of the section.  Revenue on that day was literally double what we did the previous day.  We almost completely sold out of all of our food/sandwiches in the kitchen over lunch.  It was a banner day.  Clearly “old” media still worked, and since that day, Echo Coffee has blown away all of my revenue expectations.

Here’s where social media comes in, though:  I asked the reporter, how did you hear about Echo Coffee?  Her answer:  Yelp.  That’s right.  If not for Yelp, a new school, social media website, Echo Coffee is never featured in the Republic.  I can easily give that one article credit for at least 50% of all sales my second week in business.  In fact, I still get occassional customers mentioning the article and recognizing me from the pictures. 

By the way, if you think that’s a fluke, the Echo Coffee blog is directly responsible for interviews that led to articles in the Phoenix Business Journal, 944 Magazine, and Fresh Cup Magazine. 

If you are a business owner, considering how social media can impact your business, you have to stop thinking about it, and just do it.  But do it socially responsibly.  Engage with your customer base.  Show that you care about them, not just their money.  They already know you want their money.  Let them know you care about all of the other things that make life worth living.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

At the time I was first considering a coffee shop, I was reasonably unhappy with my real estate career.  If you missed it, I wrote about what was making me unhappy with real estate on the Phoenix Area Real Estate Blog last August.  It was in May of 2009, however, that the notion of creating a coffee shop began to seriously take hold.  To help you understand, there were a few things that all seemed to blend together which got me on the path.  The first was a presentation at Ignite Phoenix #1 by Austin Baker in August 2008.  He did 5 minutes and 20 slides about what it takes to operate a successful coffee shop.  I didn’t see his presentation in person, but watched it online via UStream (Austin starts approximately minute 26).  Although I didn’t take any action toward creating a coffee shop at the time, apparently Austin’s presentation at Ignite resonated within me somehow, even though I wouldn’t think about it again for nearly 6 months.

Later, in early 2009, I saw a craigslist ad for a coffee shop near Tatum and Greenway in North Phoenix that was being sold.  The owners were apparently moving to Oregon and were selling everything in the shop for $75,000.  Once again, I didn’t take much action, in fact, I didn’t even drive over and look at the place, but my curiosity was piqued, and I now had a pricepoint in my head.

The tipping point, however, came somewhat inoccuously with a simple tweet on Twitter, on a day shortly before I had decided I was getting out of the real estate business and was contemplating what I might do next.  I think the tweet was something as simple as “I’m thinking about opening a coffee shop.”  Almost immediately one of my twitter friends, whom I didn’t actually know (the hazards of having 1500+ “friends” on Twitter), responded with a “me too” type answer.  We chatted via twitter, which quickly progressed to talking over the phone that night.  This twitter friend turned out to be a husband and wife that had owned several restaurants in the past and were thinking about a new restaurant with a dedicated coffee bar.  Immediately I felt like I had found my new purpose in life.  With their prior experience to help pull me along, the partnership fell together easily, and seemed a bit like destiny talking.

For over a month we worked together on their concept.  They had a pretty clear vision of what they wanted, and had already begun considering various locations, menu ideas, etc., so I was left to evaluate their plans, make suggestions, and learn about the business.  I started to visit area coffee shops and refine my personal goal for what the coffee shop component would be like.  And then for reasons not quite clear, we never advanced beyond that evaluation period.  For nearly a month, we didn’t speak, and by mid-August I had decided to move forward on my own.  To this day, I still don’t know exactly what caused the partnership to fizzle, but we are still friends, and keep in touch almost weekly.

As luck would have it, however, I found a different partner almost immediately.  This new partner had never owned a restaurant before, and by this time I had a much more clear vision in my mind of what I wanted the coffee shop to look like.  In describing it to him, I decided to write out a complete business plan so that it would be clear just what my goals were with the coffee shop.  Choosing to write that business plan was perhaps one of the smarter things I’ve ever done.  It forced me to consider the entire business, from concept, to marketing, to my customer, to costs, etc.  Although I rarely refer to the written plan myself, having written it cemented in my mind my vision for Echo Coffee.

Unfortunately, the second potential partnership later fizzled, which was disappointing and left me on my own to build the shop.  I still like the notion of having a partner, especially when I think about how many hours a day I want to be open and how much time I spend in the shop.  But the reality is, finding a partnership of equals (financial, thought leadership, experience, etc.) is a challenging task.  Still, even though a partnership didn’t manifest, the process of attempting to have a partnership proved very fruitful in the business planning for what would eventually be Echo Coffee.

In creating Echo Coffee, I researched nearly every significant coffee shop in the Phoenix area.  I tasted a ton of coffee.  I watched how each shop’s customer service was handled.  I looked at equipment, product choices, ambiance, music, location, and on and on.  To be a successful indpendent shop, I felt I would not only need to be good, but great.  To provide instant “credibility” in the mind of the customer, my concept called for me to be a coffee roaster, so I bought a coffee roaster in September of 2009 from a shop that didn’t make it in Southern California.  The roaster was almost 10 years old, and was a little smaller than I was initially looking for, but it was so well taken care of, and at a price I couldn’t pass up.

Being a coffee roaster changed the game for me.  As I roasted at home, I began to learn so much more about coffee.  About the various flavors of coffee.  About my preferences in both origin flavor and darkness of roast.  I was able to experiment with coffee at a significantly lower price point, and sample considerably more coffee that I ever would have otherwise.  Roasting coffee also helped me to better understand what I was tasting, when I tasted another shop’s coffee.  Batch after batch, I would roast and taste, roast and taste, until I developed a very strong idea of what I wanted my coffees to taste like.  In the Phoenix area, I know my Titus Blend, for example, offers a unique flavor profile that isn’t found at other shops.  I designed this coffee with one significant goal in mind: the consumer should want another cup.  Titus is sweet and chocolately, with some earthiness.  It isn’t bitter, but instead very smooth.  The acidity is kept low, so it doesn’t cause heartburn (my own stomach can be sensitive to coffees with high acidity).  The only trouble for me personally, is that I no longer drink caffeinated coffee, so I drink very little Titus…but darned is it yummy when I do.

I didn’t stop with the Titus Blend, however, and developed other coffees to please a wider clientele.  In total, I opened Echo Coffee with 4 drip coffees and 3 espresso coffees.

Another thing I did extensive research on was milk.  I compared the taste and ease of use of nearly every milk on the market.  I found an Organic milk that responds so well under steam and also tastes very sweet.  For a coffee shop (which, when you get right down to it is in the business of selling flavored milk), it’s important that the #1 ingredient be the best it can be.

On the food side for Echo Coffee, I initially attempted to design my own menu.  I learned, however, that I am not a baker, nor do I really know anything about running a kitchen.  So by mid-December I had decided I should hire a chef.  Thanks to my business plan, I had basic goals for the kitchen, including a  focus on quality over quantity and a price point that was reasonable.  I set as a target $2 for a pastry and $8 for a sandwich.  Plus I wanted high Organic content.

In March, I was fortunate to make acquaintence with the chef I would eventually hire.  How it was that we found each other seems almost seems almost too good to be true, but my luck does tend to run well, when I have moments of need.

For the location of Echo Coffee, I had originally targetted old town Scottsdale, because that was where the couple from partnership #1 had found a potential location.  In considering that location, I researched and found south Scottsdale had a significant lack of independent shops, as well as a more counter-culture environment than north Scottsdale (where I live).  So even though the first partnership fell through, I kept my search in the area.

The location I found for Echo Coffee was a bit outside my initial search radius, so it took me a while to stumble upon it. But when I did, I was almost immediately sold.  I found a grey shell, that was brand new, with modern architecture, within a mile of where I had targetted. With business plan in hand, I began negotiating with the landlord, while working with an architect, and locating equipment for the ship.  I wanted to get the shop built quickly, but on a budget as well.

Drawing up plans with the architect took longer than I expected, but construction went well. By the time I had my chef in place, construction was nearly complete.  Together we organized suppliers, hired the rest of the staff, and worked our tails off to get Echo Coffee open on a very agressive schedule.

There are still subtle changes I make almost every day at the shop, but for the most part, the shop runs like I had envisioned.

Where will Echo Coffee go from here?  I can’t say for certain.  I would like more stores (particularly one closer to my home).  More stores will have to wait, however, for the first store to pay for them.  The next time around, I should make fewer mistakes, which should save money.  I’d also like to start wholesaling both coffee and pastries.  There is a serious lack of quality wholesale pastry suppliers in the Phoenix area, and with my chef Carylann, I think we could really fill a nice niche in that regard.  There are a few quality wholesale coffee roasteries, but perhaps my unique flavor profile will win me customers that others miss out on.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

The item I want is manufactured to customer order and as a result most manufacturers offer them in custom colors with custom add-ons.  They have websites that talk about how great theirs is, with pictures of it, and customer testimonials about how awesome their product is.  There are technical specs about how physically large it is, what capacities they offer, and all sorts of bits of information that will help a buyer make a decision.

The odd thing, however, is most manufacturers do not list a price for their products online.  Talk about annoying.  One manufacturer has a class form to fill out to submit an online price request, which I did last night.

This morning I get a simple form email asking me some obvious questions (questions that I believe I answered when I submitted the form), for which the answer was once again answered.  Then, instead of getting pricing, I got a 2nd email, once again with more questions.

At this point, I became more than a little annoyed.  How many times are we going to email each other back and forth, before this company salesperson decides to let me in on the secret of the price.  I began to feel like I was taking part in an infomercial, with the classic, “but wait, there’s more!”.  Finally, I got back a fancy color PDF for the 2 products that would obviously work best for me, and that included….the PRICE!

I’m still clueless as to why getting a price out of this company was tougher than pulling my wisdom teeth.  Oh well…every business can’t always operate under the mantra that their product needs to be great, price accordingly, and then you don’t have to keep the price a secret.  If that’s what “Great” costs, then that’s what it costs.  I still think this company’s product might be great…just annoyed that I jumped through hoops to get it.

If you sell, manufacture, or provide a service, and are offering that product online, do yourself a favor and list the price.  Online consumers expect to the see the price.  If, for some unexplained reason, you cannot list the price, then absolutely, positively give the customer the price the second they ask for it.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

It’s been a long time coming, but alas, right now I need your comments.  Tyson has published my soft edit on Flickr and for the process to work most effectively I need you to go to Flickr, view the 15 images- and via comment -vote for which image you believe best represents the words “spontaneous, inspired, and direct”.

And now that I’ve asked for a favor, a few words about the images and the experience of being photographed by Tyson.  Because I was a lucky winner of one of Tyson’s fine art photographs in his contest Living With Art, Tyson needed to come to my home.  As a result, the photos were taken there on the day I received #9.  Tyson’s wife Jamie was also present.  She told me this was the first time she’d seen Tyson take someone’s portrait.

In the past, I’ve had my portrait taken a few times.  The process in the had always been the same.  The photographer asks me to sit in a spot, look in a certain direction, tilt my head a certain way, and then a few clicks later, my portrait was complete.

That Saturday was very different.  Tyson gave me very little direction.  As you look at the images in the soft edit, you can probably identify the shots in which I was given the most direction.  These are the images, in which makes it becomes painfully obvious, I could never be a professional model.  Instead, for the most part, I was simply chatting with Tyson and Jamie about stuff.  Just talking about this and that.  Learning more about each of them, and them a bit about me.  Small talk, really…the kind you might do at a dinner party.  It was certainly nothing like what I expected a photo shoot to be like.

But the results…they speak for themselves.  Still, the process is far from complete.  To be the most effective, this process needs you to participate as well.  So head over to Flickr, and please, please comment.  Let me know what image or images you think capture those three words.

Thank you.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

Finishing the 65 miles will be challenging.  It’s a challenging course, and even without the challenge, just riding 65 miles on a mountain bike is a long ride on dirt.  Currently, my strength is well off what I need, while my endurance is only off by a bunch.  Stated differently: I could ride 65 easy miles without much worry, but TOWM doesn’t offer 65 easy miles…they are tough, high altitude miles.  That means more hill climbing work in the McDowells over the next two months to build my strength up.  Sunday, I had visions of a Sunrise climb, but failed 1/3 the way up, as I was simply feeling “cooked”, from the early morning heat at only 7:30am.  Due to misplaced sunglasses, I left my house at 6:30am, which was 30 minutes later than intended, and under the direct sun, just couldn’t motivate myself to push through both the heat and the pain of the climb.  I still rode for 90 minutes, but it wasn’t pretty, and demonstrated to me, just how far out of mountain biking shape I really am right now.

For ETT, my goal isn’t to just finish.  I’ve finished the 109 mile event the last 2 years in a row.  Two years ago it was in 6 hrs 23 min, and last year in 6 hrs 1 min.  Both results were Silver medal finishes.  Gold medal finishers are under 6 hours.

Naturally, this year, I’ve got my sights set on Gold.  And I don’t want to just make Gold, I want to cruise comfortably into a Gold finish.  That means 5 hrs and no more than 45 mins.  5 hrs 30 mins would be better.  I’m currently riding the 45 mile Cave Creek loop in under 3 hours, including the necessary stop at Cave Creek Coffee Company.  That’s a good start, but I need to lop off a good 30 minutes from that ride/route.  I love the route for it’s relative lack of traffic, and similarity to ETT’s course conditions, so it’s tough to want to mess with a good thing, but I found a way to add 9 miles, including another 3 mile climb, without adding any traffic, so from now on, my Cave Creek ride will be 54 miles.

The other big ride I have yet to do this season is the Rio Verde around the mountain ride.  That’s roughly 50 miles, but it includes either going up 9 mile hill (up Dynamite Road from Rio Verde) or the 10% grades that are in Fountain Hills, depending on which direction is ridden.  Either way, it’s no picnic, with terrain significantly harder that ETT, and thus why it’s a good training ride.

But the ride I really want to complete during preparations this season, and if I can I’ll know 6 hours is well within my grasp, is the Bartlett Lake Dam ride.  From my house it’s nearly a 75 mile ride.  And it’s either up or down…there’s almost nothing flat about the ride.  I tried it last year, and failed to get to Bartlett Lake, riding only 50 miles, instead of the 75.  It was brutally windy that day,  but I know it’s a ride I need to conquer if I really think a Gold finish is within my grasp this year.

FYI, the Bartlett Lake ride is one that Lance Armstrong was known to ride back in his US Postal days when he stopped in Scottsdale after visiting Tucson to ride Mount Lemmon.  I suppose that’s the allure for me as well.  If it’s good enough for Lance, it’s certainly good enough for me.

I’m also 100% committed to riding the 24 hrs in the Old Pueblo again.  Team Are We Dead Yet? will hopefully continue to build on it’s experience and strengths and find a way to complete 14 laps this year.  If we can stop sleeping together as a team, I think we can do it.

I’m also probably going to ride Tour de Phoenix (April 2010?), as Chris Z said he really enjoyed the ride last year.  It’s 75 miles, and seems poorly named as the ride never once pedals over any portion of Phoenix soil, but the ride should be fun, and a great way to maintain my fitness/focus after the 24 hr race, which annually seems to be a problem for me.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

At the same time, I thought, “What will I do with my old regular iPhone?”  Immediately, I thought, “Give it to Jan”.  Then I thought, “If Jan is going to move from Verizon to AT&T, what are the family talk plans from AT&T?”  And that prompted, “Should Hayley and Emily get an iPhone?”

Moments later it was decided:  The whole family might as well start drinking the Apple iPhone Kool-Aid.

And there you have it.  A call to AT&T to set up a FamilyTalk plan and a trip to the new iPhone store at Scottsdale Quarter, and we are now a 4 iPhone family.  Currently, my new iPhone 3Gs is synchronizing with iTunes, downloading all of my apps, songs, pictures, and what not.

Next up, each of the girls’ new iPhones (they got the $99 iPhone 3G 8Gb version), and then the port of Jan’s number from Verizon to AT&T, followed by setting up her iPhone.

Oh, and just as the real Apple love affair was starting to really set in tonight, the first call I placed on my new iPhone dropped twice.  I was checking in with my sister Shannon, who had surgery on her ear last week, so you know…nothing important (sarcasm).  The first drop was while I was driving through my neighborhood (that was somewhat expected), and the second time while in my house, after we had been talking just fine for 10 or 15 minutes.  No reason at all for the second drop, other than AT&T just deciding I had talked long enough, I guess.  That first call was a 3G call.  I’m going to give 3G a workout over the next few days to see if it’s worth trying to go 3G yet, but I’m already expecting I’ll need to switch back to the tried and true Edge network.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

For those curious, it was only 102 at 3:30p when I started and just 95 when I finished at 6pm. Even though the clouds were threatening, there wasn’t any rain.

Copyright ©  2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.

Copyright © 2007-2008 My Side Door by Steve Belt. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only.