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

Benjamin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I operated a fairly popular coffee shop in the Dallas area in 2016. Most will remember 2016 as one of the most polarized and controversial presidential election years we’ve had in a long time, and I remember it vividly. Tensions were high, people were more divided than ever, and the norm seemed to be cutting ties, destroying relationships and cutting down anyone who didn’t vote the way you were voting. What struck me, though, was seeing that attitude completely disappear the moment people entered our shop. Suddenly, they wanted to talk, to listen and to understand. I remember listening, watching and realizing that contained within a cup of coffee, the café atmosphere itself, was something revolutionary. It was a vehicle for collaboration.

I wrote down the name Revolution Coffee Co. that year, and knew it was going to become reality in time. I see past the left vs. right mentality, and see there is power in the road the less traveled. I jokingly call it the purple road, the purple path, the purple party. It’s a movement that forces us to get out of our trenches, meet in the middle, and work with people who we don’t fully agree with in order to develop solutions to the problems plaguing our nation, instead of the band-aids our politicians roll out.

The café has been a central part of revolutions, from the French, to Early America and far far preceding. I see the success a company like Starbucks has achieved, I see the revenue a company like that commands, and I see a world that needs that wealth to be harnessed and used like a tool to bring healing, unity, collaboration and innovation. Luckily, I am just hopeful, determined and maybe a little delusional enough to commit my life to reaching for that.

I believe that Revolution Coffee Co. can stoke those delicate sparks of revolution, and help breathe life into them that they may become raging infernos. I don’t believe we are condemned to suffer for the sins of our fathers, and I believe that business can be the vehicle that undermines the apathy of the institutions that are supposed to exist for the good of the people. If I’m wrong, I won’t admit it until I’ve spent decades trying. If I’m right? Well, that’s the plan.

Benjamin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Revolution Coffee Co. is a craft coffee shop (also known as a third-wave café) that seeks to provide mind-blowing coffee, superb service and a strong, tight-knit (but easy to permeate) community. All of our syrups are hand-made (because that’s the most craft thing you can do) and we take full creative freedom in rolling out deliciously irresistible drinks (strawberry vanilla matcha gang). We also do light food, with our crown jewel being our hand-made belgian leige waffles (try the butterscotch banana walnut).

We are on a massive growth path as of today, and it was anything but easy. I could detail a variety of anecdotes on how we overcame but they all revolve around what is truly the best part of this business: our community. Our community has held us together in the darkest of times, encouraging us, believing in us, even going so far as to donate to a gofundme to keep us going when we were left without a place to go. They are revolutionaries in every sense of the word and have taught me so much about community.

I started this business after leaving my old community, my old life so to speak, and felt like a nomad in a new land. I was beat down, tired and unsure if there was even a chance for this business to mean what I wanted it to. It took me 3 years and two locations to finally open my eyes and see that it has meant something. My life’s goal is to be a useful idiot in people’s lives, and in our darkest hours I saw that my life, my struggles and lessons that I freely shared had meant something to people.

I want the world to know that where we are and where we are going are only a reality because I never tried to hide from my mistakes. I had no idea how to financially manage a business and almost sunk us. I made so many mistakes and have dug us out of so many holes that I put us in. In each of those holes I accepted that it was my fault and that I had to make it right. In that, I was able to grow and learn because I left my ego in those holes. No entrepreneur really wants to admit they were an idiot, but I can promise you that the only place to go from that admission is up.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

We started 2021 with an eviction notice from our landlord. After fighting through the treacherous waters of the lockdowns of 2020, I was heading into 2021 hopeful. But 6am on January 1 of 2021 had me reading an eviction notice, something we could have never expected or prepared for. It was terrifying. The business provided my income, which, in turn, allowed me to provide for my 3 children. The following two weeks were chaos and a blur as I received counsel from my attorney (who absolutely went to bat) and we began planning how to survive.

Where would we go? How would we keep from tanking?

The answer came in many forms. From our customers donating to a gofundme to help us fund a new place, to my mom driving 300 miles to watch my children for a week so I could search, and, finally, finding a home in one of the most historic buildings in Denison, Texas. The road ahead was still long though. The building we moved into was completely under construction, and we had to innovate and operate off of a mobile coffee cart in the hallway leading into the building. But, I still remember the first day we got to re-open after two weeks of being closed. I remember being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people who showed up to support us, to keep us going. They were what saved us. Their belief reminded me of why I started my business. Our coffee is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but they showed up because of what we built. All of us, together. The community, the spirit, the resolve and everything in between.

I made a lot of tough calls, cut my pay completely, and we went to work. Slowly but surely, things began to coalesce. We built out our space, the building opened up, the roads closed outside (which was small time compared to lockdown and the situation we had just gotten through) and now, we’ve completed recovered and grown sales wise, and we’re on a growth path of exponential possibility.

Any advice for managing a team?

The most important lesson I have learned is this:

Do not tolerate drama. Do not accept it and do not let it remain in your team.

Some people THRIVE on drama, on chaos, and when they can’t find it naturally occurring, they will create it. In crafty, sneaky, snaky ways, they’ll sow doubt, doublespeak and use everything that’s ever said to them to try and stoke the flames. It doesn’t matter if they’re great at what they do. If they are duplicitous and volatile, you MUST remove them. Hire people who are genuinely good, determined and sold on your vision/mission, and teach them the skills they need to be successful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://revolutioncoffeeco.net/
• Instagram: revolutioncoffeeco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionCoffeeCo.USA

Image Credits
All photos credit Amanda Mendenhall of Arc Creative Co