We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Croger. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

First off, my parents are amazing. They are beautiful humans. They are my family, and they are also my best friends. They are not perfect. I grew up with discipline and an abundance of tough love. But if I had to pick one thing my parents did right, it’s that they always supported my creative path, even when they didn’t understand it. Ultimately, they believed in me. As a little girl I painted, I made clay sculptures and did woodworking projects with a jigsaw. I remember that I got my first easel and paint set when I was 8 years old. I loved working with my hands. My favourite mediums were acrylic paint and clay. I also used to write short stories, little books, and plays. I even made greeting cards.

My parents supplied me with the resources and the tools I needed for all my art projects. There were the tangible supplies of course, but really the number one resource they provided to me, was an abundance of emotional support to do what made me happy. They gave me the space I needed to be an individual at a relatively young age, and they encouraged my passion for the arts. They knew I was going down a less traditional path with a more uncertain outcome and they never tried to sway me to do anything different.
My parents were truly my biggest fans, especially my pop. Both him and my grandfather always loved and celebrated all the creative work I did. And although my mom maybe didn’t always understand what I was making or my vision, she showed her support regardless, and made sure I had all that I needed to do my art projects. My parents told me that I could do anything that I put my mind to and worked hard for. They recognized that I was happy when I was creating something and that carried through to my adulthood. My career path was to be a creative, a builder, an artist and innovator of new original things. My parents never discouraged me or made me think that I couldn’t go for my dreams. My sister coined me a long time ago as a “professional dreamer”, and I have to agree. I was a wild and free spirit, a very independent child. I was different from the other kids and my parents knew it. They allowed me to explore and to have my artistic expression. The support and encouragement from them, even when they didn’t really know where it was going, was a big factor in my life. Being successful in a creative medium isn’t formulaic and it can be risky. My parents supported my creative passion, even though it wasn’t a straightforward path to success. They weren’t looking for a quantifiable end result, they just wanted me to do what made me happy. Looking back at it all now, everything about the way they showed their support, was with innocence and with love.

I am influenced a lot by my country upbringing and Southern roots. One of my biggest creative projects, my “masterpiece”, was The Trailer Perk. My pop helped me with it, in so many ways, literally from the ground up. It was an amazing creative process to go through and one of my longest projects from start to finish. Finally in 2012, my dream became a reality, and I was ready to show the world what my creative efforts amounted to. The whimsical design known as The Trailer Perk, my mobile coffee trailer, hit the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, and made its brewed awakening. That’s when we started serving up fresh delicious curbside coffee creations that were unique and one of a kind.

All my life, my parents have been riding right alongside me. They were there to help me when I stumbled, to cheer me on for all my wins, and they continue to show their unconditional support for me and my creativity as I keep carving out my path in life and making my dreams come true. Last summer I was able to take mom and pop to Kona, Hawaii. We got to visit coffee farms, snorkel at Captain Cook’s Monument and enjoy some great Kona coffee together.

Amy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a proud Kentucky native and founder/CEO of The Trailer Perk and Farm City Coffee. In the past, I have had both a personal training business and a coffee roasting business. While I am a business owner, I consider myself to be a creator and a builder at the core. I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I bring things to life, which is my ultimate goal. I cultivate new ideas. I am proud that I have created and established something unique in Farm City Coffee.

I come from the small town of Greenville, Kentucky, a town that had a population of 5000 and one stop light on town hill back then. I grew up in the country where I was surrounded by chickens, cows, horses, donkeys and peacocks and it was great! I grew up a happy child, and was adventurous with a sense of exploration. I was a little rebellious and very expressive. I graduated from Murray State University in Kentucky, with a degree in exercise physiology and a minor in art. A couple months after graduating I played out a dream I had, which was to go to Los Angeles and do something “special”. So, I did just that. I drove cross-country to California and got off at Sunset Blvd. exit because I recognized that name from the movies. I spent a number of years in Los Angeles, and became very interested and passionate about learning the art of coffee. I took several jobs as a barista, with big brand coffee shops and with small coffee roasters. I learned the trade skills and the business side of the coffee industry. It was then that I knew what I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to create and build a coffee business. This was my career path. In 2012 I migrated homeward to Nashville, Tennessee, to take my West Coast inspirations and combine them with my Southern roots, which culminated into the birthing of The Trailer Perk. The first 3 months in this new endeavour were really hard, to say the least. I was in a new city that I didn’t know too well. Although I had coffee experience, I was operating like a food truck. There were lots of trials and tribulations. It was anything but easy. This was literally the hardest thing that I had ever done. I knew I would sink or swim, so it was go big or go home. With much persistence and hard work, along with my creative skill set, I was able to thrive in the food truck industry as a coffee trailer. We did coffee catering for the TV show Nashville and for the Billy Ray Cyrus TV show, we served at the CMA Fan Fest, at the Ascend Amphitheater, and at many local events and festivals. The moral is that I attribute my success to the creativity of the business. The Trailer Perk was a unique establishment as were the products that were served. We had The Johnny Cash Mocha, The Redneck Woman, The Coal Miner’s Daughter and The Happy Camper as signature drinks, and we displayed our menu on the back of a guitar case! The trailer was a retro pink and white Shasta that I pulled with a big red pick-up truck. I operated The Trailer Perk for 6 years before opening a brick-and-mortar coffee bar, called Farm City Coffee, which is in the Nashville Farmers’ Market. Farm City Coffee is the sister of The Trailer Perk. Farm City Coffee allowed me to elevate my creative ideas, since the environment was more stable. I had more room and less worries from such things like inclement weather and mobile electrical issues. I had the freedom to really develop more creatively. I was able to offer a bigger menu since there was more workspace and now, I could offer my drink creations to more people and become immersed in the community. I had learned to efficiently utilise all the space I had in The Trailer Perk and I did that and more in the coffee shop at the Nashville Farmers’ Market. Farm City Coffee was a hit out of the gate. It started slow but steady and I just knew it was going to be a success. The business grew year after year, and has evolved all the way to franchising. I worked tirelessly to develop the business and to mainstream serving quality coffee. I want to share with other like-minded folks the success of my hard work. The brand that I created is one that is recognized and sought after. We serve Southern Sips and Tastes of Tennessee. The ideas, the systems, and the policies that I have put in place have been fine-tuned along the way. I want to share Farm City Coffee culture with the community here and expand further into Tennessee and other Southern regions that can support an agricultural city coffee business model.

What makes me different is my resilience. Hard times and challenges have made me stronger and have pushed me to create a better business on all levels. What makes Farm City Coffee different is that it’s a third wave Specialty Coffee shop, with emphasis on convenience, while serving high quality, one-of-a-kind products. The business resonates our commitment to cultivating great coffee, kindness, and community. We are passionate about the art of coffee and the community it serves. We have strong community ties and it showed during the pandemic. Farm City Coffee provides a real coffee experience for the guests. We follow an oath of using high quality ingredients and farm to cup ethics. Reuse, recycle, and reinvest, that’s our way of life down on the farm. We believe that kindness starts at home and we take pride and great concern in helping our community and being a part of the good will that we want to see.

Farm City Coffee is a craft coffee bar and gourmet drinkery. I built the business model to thrive in a small footprint, output high volume and have low overhead. I have made it simple to operate and upscale by incorporating tried and true methods and keeping high quality standards, never sacrificing the integrity of Specialty Coffee. The policies, procedures, and practises all come from my hands-on experience. They are user friendly and easily teachable. Now going on 6 years old, Farm City Coffee is well established and is known for its high quality and its originality. Our concept of coffee, inspired by my Southern roots, resonates a fresh organic down-home feel emphasising simplistic Southern living at its finest. With small town sensibilities, farm to cup ethics, we proudly work alongside local Nashville farm partners and suppliers to provide the highest quality ingredients and socially conscious products. Our coffee journey has been full of obstacles, learning experiences and mistakes, all which have helped us fine tune the systems and policies in place today. Farm City Coffee has cultivated a business model that’s upscale and mainstream third wave coffee without sacrificing the quality, profit, and integrity of Specialty Coffee. Farm City Coffee proudly crafts and manufactures 100 percent of our signature private labelled flavours, including innovative simple syrups such as Bourbon Vanilla and distinctive chocolate sauces like Tennessee Tuxedo.

I have spent over two decades pouring my creative efforts into every cup that fuels the Farm City Coffee culture and it’s that creative journey and process that makes me happy and fulfilled. We stand out in the coffee industry with our vision, our mission and our unique one-of-a-kind offerings. The work that I have produced with coffee tells a story about who I am and where I came from. We serve up Southern Sips and Tastes of Tennessee! My Kentucky grass roots were major influences and factors on the drinks, customer service and products we currently provide.

I am most proud that people genuinely enjoy what I have created. I am meticulous about every detail, the whole production of how things look, how it tastes, and how it feels. I want everyone who visits Farm City Coffee to enjoy their coffee experience and I hope that what I have created makes them feel happy.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The resilience that I had to have to thrive in the face of adversity is not based on one story but is more broad in scope, with a general overarching theme. I have turned all the obstacles I’ve been confronted with into stepping stones. I believe that success is a continuum. I had to stay positive and never let any of the problems kill my creative spirit because that creativity is my driving force. I had to learn to adapt and evolve into something better. There were many times it was survival mode and I needed to push through the difficulties, if I was going to succeed. It takes a great amount of determination and persistence to continue pushing ahead towards your goals when things get hard. For me, especially with The Trailer Perk, it was a lot of figuring out what you don’t know until you know it. There were elements that were out of my control, like the weather for example. I also had to deal with the mechanics of a coffee trailer that had mobile plumbing and electricity and used a generator. I had to figure out solutions right away or else I couldn’t do business. You just learn as you go and you are always ready for a curve ball to be thrown at you.

Anything that could go wrong did. Some people would have just thrown in the towel, understandably. We made $25 dollars the first day out. I knew I had to take every job that I could, so that meant breakfast catering at local businesses, serving at the local events & festivals, and finding in production TV shows that needed coffee catering, even if it was starting at midnight! I was making a living out of serving coffee from inside of a 100 square foot mobile trailer. I had to find the gigs, book the gigs, and work the gigs. We were always the first at the event and the last to leave the event. I was exhausted but I was in survival mode and I knew I couldn’t let any of the outside factors impact or quiet my creativity. I had to pivot and keep up with what the customers wanted in order to be successful. I developed a small breakfast sandwich program that could realistically be served out of a mobile establishment. I created The Miss Piggy, The Double Wide, High on the Hog, Awesome Sausage and The Wild Turkey. I kept true to my vision of Southern hospitality.

It was hard physical labour and at times it was all mentally draining, but all the trials and tribulations made me strong and helped us to become the business model that is Farm City Coffee now. We are stronger, more efficient and a better business because of all I went through. Creativity is always at risk when you are in survival mode but I was determined. What didn’t defeat me just made me stronger. I knew I just had to keep evolving and keep creating. That all said, the weather, the mechanical concerns and such with The Trailer Perk were a lot to handle but the pandemic was a time in history that stands alone. No one could have known what to be prepared for. At this point in my coffee journey, Farm City Coffee brick-and-mortar in the Nashville Farmers’ Market was in its 2nd year of business. I had come this far and there was no turning back, no failing, no sacrificing the dream, so I forged ahead. It was physically demanding to keep the business afloat, but it also required my creative energy to adapt and evolve. I tuned in to what people wanted and needed considering these unfamiliar times that the world was facing. Surviving through the pandemic and thriving with Farm City Coffee has been the biggest hurdle so far. It was survival of the fittest. I had to call on my creativity to adapt and evolve at this time. Coffee was essential and I couldn’t let the community down. We were there for our community and in turn they showed their support for Farm City Coffee. I further developed our branding, I marketed the business more, and I put some more programs in place to provide better service to the customers and the community. Creating, building and improving, these are my strong suits. I worked smarter and stayed true to my vision for Farm City Coffee. I had the determination and resilience to not let the pandemic break us or my creative spirit.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

My goal, my mission driving my creative journey right now is to share Farm City Coffee with more people. We are currently expanding with Farm City Coffee Franchises available. We want to have more shops so that I can continue to create and grow with the business. We cultivate coffee, community, and kindness. My journey is ongoing. As more Farm City Coffee shops open, it allows me to do what I set out to in the first place, which is share this authentic, unique coffee experience with more and more communities. I also get excited for the opportunity for budding entrepreneurs and new business owners with similar spirits to mine to have the chance to have their own Farm City Coffee franchise shop. We are looking for franchisees / franchise investment partners that are brand ambassadors. We are seeking out folks who believe in our vision and mission, who can get behind our coffee culture and live the Farm City Coffee lifestyle. It’s my chance to take what I have learned and pass it on to others. I’ve laid the groundwork for success with all the trials and tribulations that I have gone through. From my experiences, all my successes and all my failures, I’ve developed a spectrum of policies, procedures and systems, all the tools a budding entrepreneur who wants to thrive and who can represent Farm City Coffee needs to run a successful business. Ultimately serving great coffee with great customer service to their community.

We offer four custom Southern-made models for a new franchise: a mobile truck / trailer, a small 600 square foot kiosk model, a traditional coffee bar/shop model and a high-volume double drive thru model. The policies and systems in place are tried and true. We’ve developed ergonomic and cohesive workstations, offering an enticing menu that is easily accessible to the customers and has something for everyone. I am constantly working on improving the Farm City Coffee culture and mainstreaming convenience and quality. We’ve created comprehensive training programs, platforms, system driven operations and an ongoing support system. Farm City Coffee is branching out with new franchise locations in the regional Nashville area and beyond. We are offering exciting opportunities on the ground floor for folks who have always wanted to start their own coffee shop but needed a little help in sowing the seeds of success. Wide open territories and prime market locations are now available including Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

I continue to create, evolve, and make improvements. I wake up every day and put on a fresh pot of single origin coffee, I play fetch with my new puppy Biscuit, and then I start my workday. I get to create new innovative menu items, I get to develop new drink recipes, I get to build new marketing campaigns, I get to design new retail merchandise, and I get to build new connections with prospective Farm City Coffee franchise candidates. I get to create and build every day, and I’m happy as a clam doing it!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.farmcitycoffee.com
• Instagram: @farmcitycoffee
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/farmcitycoffee/