We were lucky to catch up with Teresa Meade recently and have shared our conversation below.

Teresa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I have been in business for 2 years now , Jacq & Joe’s was birthed in the pandemic in 2020, so asking family and friends to support an online coffeeshop was foreign in itself , some family members and friends could tell how passionate I was about coffee so they immediately wanted yo support , while others wanted to see if I would last in the coffee industry , they wanted to see what I could do on my own before they supported at all, which was understandable because you can’t be mad at someone for not supporting a vision when only you can see it.

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

My brand Jacq & Joe’s Coffee ( online coffeeshop ) was created to honor the lives of my mother and grandfather , my mother passed away at 50 , 3 months before I got married in 2017 and my grandfather passed away several years prior , but one thing that we did as a family was drink coffee ☕️, it was something that we really enjoyed and I still do to this day. During the pandemic it was such a dark..and sad time .. I needed something light ,.. fun and refreshing to refocus my energy and this is where Jacq & Joe ‘s Coffee was birthed Jacq comes from my mothers middle name Jacquline which is my middle name as well, Joe comes from Joseph which was my grandfather’s name and Joe is also for a cup of Joe ( coffee) , I hope that this brand inspires people find something that means a lot to them and create something that means even more , what I mean is I started my brand which is a legacy for my family but some of the people who I have met along the way have changed my whole outlook on life , the meaning of coffee and what a owning a business really means , eventually I will open a brick and mortar but until then I am an intern at a coffeeshop in Silver Spring , Maryland .I feel like to open a shop I want to learn any and everything about coffee and I am doing just that. And I am thankful for everyone who willingly supports me., because it’s not always easy I still work a full time job and have other responsibilities… the whole month of July I worked everyday … every weekend because there is so much I need to learn and not always enough time in a day. If there was something I would say that helped me with this process it was to get a mentor … currently I have 2 mentors and a possible lol

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was that naturally I am a giver and I used to have a hard time receiving … while it’s great to see others happy , I deserve that same luxury.. and once I truly felt worthy of good things , started praying more consistently and doing personal development I started to receive what I was giving whether it be help with my business , support , being invited to master minds and events.  I am being trained by baristas who have trained for years.  You can’t expect people to believe in something that you don’t even believe in. So I would say change your mindset and change your life.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Wow!!! This is a great question because right now is a time I had to pivot in my business , I started my business on Shopify where coffee was drop shipped but the site is now closed and I have transitioned to doing more vending events and pop ups until my new website is created … and I still am in barista training on the weekends so this is a big transition for me but one that is worth it because I want to provide quality service to my customers , that really matters to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Teresajacquline _m
• Other: Right now I am just on Instagram , customers are able to send me. DM if they need to purchase coffee and I can ship it to them while my website is being built.

Image Credits
My family and I have taken all of the pictures that were submitted for this article.