Today we’d like to introduce you to Sammi Rivera

Hi Sammi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

I come from a very poverty stricken neighborhood in Compton, California. All of my life I can remember my mother working hard and having sometimes 2 jobs to provide for us. My father wasn’t part of my life, as he lived in Mexico and his side of the family was involved heavily with drug trafficking. After my parent split up, my father returned to Mexico, married and had two children and my mother moved us from the ghetto’s of Compton, California to Sacramento. She wanted a better life for me, A life filled with opportunities, culture, and education. She encouraged my creative abilities and taught me to color my coloring books with different colors instead of what the “normal” colors would be. She also taught me how to be of service to others in need of help, to be kind towards others, especially since we never know what another person is going through and also to work hard. I can remember being 12 years old and having to ride our bikes to deliver the morning paper for extra money. Some days when we didn’t have enough for food, We would eat nothing but peaches from the only peach tree in our backyard. We would help serve banquets at our church for a free meal and sometimes volunteered at homeless shelters on Thanksgiving to have a holiday meal with the unhoused people in need. It felt good to make people smile and give them a hot meal to celebrate with others. I carried a lot of my upbringing with me and to this day still try to live a live that lifts people up and lends a helping hand if I can. When I was 22, I finally struck out on my own and moved away from my mom, and began living as a single woman in Salt Lake City, Utah. There I had gotten a cheap ghetto apartment near downtown and I worked two jobs, one a call center rep for a rental car company and the other as a bar waitress on the weekends. I paid $400 per month in rent and when I was able to save enough money I purchased my first car, on my own. I was very proud of myself for doing so much in such a short period of time. From Salt Lake City, I moved to Portland, Oregon. I spent a good portion of 14 years living off and on in the Portland metro area. When I was 30, I had finally decided that I didn’t want to work retail jobs anymore, my brain was screaming at me that we needed something more out of life. With the help of a friend I decided to go back to school and was even able to get grants and scholarships to cover the cost of my tuition and books. I ended up taking my first film class and it was almost like having a spiritual moment where the clouds parted, the angels started signing and the sun rays were shining so bright, kind of like the Simpson opening scene. Suddenly everything made sense, THIS! this is what I’m supposed to be doing! I was so excited because I truly felt like I had finally found my purpose.!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

I can remember as far back as 12 years old, that money was always an issue: my mom worked two jobs and sometimes we would work events at our local church for food. At an early age I remember thinking to myself, I never wanted to be in a position to where I would have to struggle to take care of what I need. Between a long history of experiencing financial irresponsibility, relationships that weren’t supportive and always being the person who had to “figure it out” I didn’t have time to do any kind of self development or even financial literacy. I have always been the responsible party for everyone I came into contact with. When I got sick and needed my kidney transplant I was put on Disabilty SSI, and I was somehow managing to survive on 900.00 per month, some days I barely had 5:00 left to my name but I made it work. When I had left Georgia to move back to the West coast, I was getting settled in Las Vegas and wanted to continue with my coffee business but I had lost a lot of my equipment along the way either from donating it or just tossing things that no longer served a purpose. It’s been difficult trying to rebuild from scratch, but I’m slowly getting there.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

I fancy myself a creative producer, a visionary, someone who comes up with the crazy ideas and not only researches the how to, but also the driving force behind getting it done. I started my creative work really as a child. I remember being 9 years old and going to an audition for a shake-n-bake commercial. I was also in every church play or musical that my mom could put me in and also started doing theatre in high school. While I was in film school, I quickly elevated to equipment manager and editing lab assistant where I was in charge of logging all of the equipment and making sure that everything was in good working order and I began teaching students how to edit adobe Premier. In my second year, I began working with Portland fashion week and I was the executive creative Director and lead a team of students to capture the 2013 to 2014 fashion shows. I also worked at a local newspaper as there creative Director of media publications where I filmed and photographed local events that were happening in the Portland Metro area. I have also worked on , numerous reality shows, including American Idol, mystery diners, and ghost adventures aftershock.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?

I feel that good luck is always around us. We just have to be aware enough to recognize the positive and every situation and in every day that we are given. Bad luck or circumstances happen and it’s inevitable. I think how we handle those situations really determines what the outcome is, and also how well we handle it. I have definitely been in many situations were bad luck has affected me in that I felt like giving up and yet for some reason I never could. There’s always this tiny voice inside of me that says that I have a greater purpose and I believe that I’m here for a reason. I always tell people I didn’t come this far just to come this far. I have so much more to go. People would say that being given a diagnosis that is life and death would be the end all, be all for their lives. Most people, when given a diagnosis they give up on themselves they give up on any hope that something could happen or could change. I don’t know, what caused me to turn around and fight to stay alive but something inside of me knew that I had something to share with people maybe a message of hope and had it not been for me getting sick and going through the amazing journey that I have been through, with securing my donor on TikTok and having such life altering experiences with people along the way, I wouldn’t have started my coffee company I wouldn’t have started teaching myself how to do the craft that I’m in, and I wouldn’t have had a reason or a purpose to even try, but I had to take my own experiences into account and that’s what helped me build the foundation for the unicorn coffee bar. My story is anything but ordinary, but I hope that more than anything. I help inspire and motivate people to keep going in life, even if things get hard, or it fees hopeless, and feel all alone. I hope people know that you are not alone. And that God will get you through it. If Hod brings you to it, He will bring you through it. Stay blessed!

Pricing:

• $16.00 -1lb of coffee beans or grounds
• $5.00-$7.00 drinks in person
• Merch coming soon

Contact Info:

• Website: https://UnicornCoffeeBar.com
• Instagram: Unicorn_Coffeebar
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/F9FRn15dZunkfXa2/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: UnicornCoffeeCo
• Other: TikTok: Unicorn_CoffeeBar

Image Credits

All photos self produced