We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Kelley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, thanks for joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

I would say one of the biggest lessons I learned when launching my business was building enough confidence in yourself to try “doing it yourself” first approach and then figuring out what the pain points are. Once you figure out what would make a process in your business better or more efficient, then utilize your capital. Make mistakes first. It is a lot easier to know a process and learn from your mistakes and understanding rather than hiring someone right off the bat.

I found doing this I learned so much about myself. You learn what fills your cup, what you need support in, what you want to focus your time on, and how you can better improve.

For example, I am 29 years old and when I first launched, I hired a social media manager and a web designer.

I gained more followers producing my own authentic content. And I learned how edit, fix, and update my website when I needed to update my online products. These are skills I learned through YouTube videos and other social platforms.

I networked heavily and found a commercial roasting facility in Portland, OR. From there, I took training classes and learned how to roast. Every bag, every coffee bean, and every shipment are roasted and packaged by us!

I think spending money on needs versus wants should always be assessed. For example, prioritizing creating a budget for an accountant and admin versus marketing and social media. Marketing and social media are tools younger entrepreneurs can OWN in the beginning and then uplift once you start seeing steady growth!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Coffee plays a starring role in my love story. It was during our morning coffee walks together that my partner and I had our most intimate and genuine conversations, discovering all the things we love most about one another.
While swapping stories, we each shared that magical moment of clarity when we knew—beyond a shadow of a doubt—we were actually super Gay.

Laughing together about our respective Gay Awakenings, we realized that this was a conversation we wanted to have with everyone. Educating the majority has to begin somewhere, because living as our true selves is a basic human right! So, we created the company we always wanted to see growing up: one that is loud, proud, and intentionally Queer.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Authenticity is key! People on social media want to know that there is a human behind the phone and who they are engaging with.

Entrepreneurs do not have time do post every single day or try to come up with content. To solve this problem, we hired a photographer to shoot 50-80 images of us roasting coffee. We will post those images throughout the year on those days we want content to engage with our audience!

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

We have several revenue streams for our company
-Direct to consumer- this includes pop ups & events, online retail store, gift cards, subscriptions
-Wholesale- we sell our products to local businesses like restaurants, bars, cafes, grocery stores

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gayawakeningcoffee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gayawakeningcoffee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-kelley-687312b4/