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

Alright, Christopher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?

What if your employees didn’t have to decide between a job they loved and a job that paid them a living wage? What if you were able to determine your employees’ individual talents and skills and PASSIONS and tie them into your business, so that both they and your business ended up happier and better off? That is the question we are attempting to answer at Be Caffeinated. We are focusing on the culture on the front end, and attempting to answer how to best make our employees happy. We mess up daily, and have enormous room for improvement, but overall I think we are headed in the right direction. The next step is getting everyone paid at a living wage, including benefits for management and eventually front line employees. With the recent “Great Resignation”, a lot of corporate companies are realizing that higher pay and a 401(k) isn’t enough to retain people. They also want to be treated well, given flexibility, and shown a trajectory for where they are going. Corporate coffee chains do some of this well, but end up sacrificing either the company culture or the quality of product to get what they deem as important.

Christopher, 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?

Hi! My name is Christopher Wood, and I am one of the owners of (be)caffeinated drive thru coffee. I ended up where I am today because of an off the cuff comment made by one of my managers at McDonalds. They mentioned that 70% of their sales were made through the drive thru, and that really struck me since most of the headaches happen with the lobby. This led to me talking with my roommate at the time, Doug, (who is now my business partner!) and we decided to try getting jobs at a local drive thru brand called Java Moe’s (in Hattiesburg, MS). We learned the ins and out of it, I got married to my amazing wife Jasmine, we decided to move up to Chattanooga, TN, and then opened our own version of Java Moe’s!

We decided to focus on employee happiness from day one, and to work with as many local small businesses as possible. This led to some awesome community partners like the Chattanooga Football Club, Lookouts, Cheiman Tea, and more. We also started our own roasting company with a friend, Luke Pigott, and thus New Wave Coffee was born. This has led to an awesome integration of our own coffee, and let us really dial in our espresso and drip coffee.

When we opened our Northshore location, we started a giveback program where we partner with a local nonprofit every month and have a profit share day along with allowing them to set up in our space if they so choose. This has created an amazing sense of community in (Be)Caffeinated, and has allowed us to give a large amount of money, time, and effort towards some amazing local organizations.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media has been an integral part of the (Be)Caffeinated story, and started with myself posting off and on. After we opened our second location, and we had a fair amount of employees, I realized I needed help with social media if it was going to grow like it deserved to. Shortly after that, someone named Nate reached out to me over Facebook, offering marketing help and barista help. I quickly hired him and his friend Dillan on, and they became the first members of my marketing team. I was able to manage them and hand the reins off, and they got to use the skills they had developed in school in real life. That eventually led to the creation of HiveThink Media, which started as a marketing company and evolved into a Small Business Accelerator coaching business.

The main thing to remember on social media is that something is better than nothing. Do not let perfection stop you from good. It is also hugely beneficial to comment and engage with other brands on Instagram and Facebook, and doing more than just commenting some emojis. This is a great way to build community, and grow your own presence as you go. Try and post 3 times a week, and keep up with the trends if you can (more algorithm based as in, are reels better than feed posts right now?). Also remember that for most people, a business’s social media page is the front page of their business, and is a lot of times the first impression for a new customer.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We have made it a very important part of our DNA to engage with our local community and provide everything from free coffee, to free labor, to free ideas. We set up at community events, donate coffee to nonprofits and community partners to help the event, and are constantly looking for ways to connect and increase our partners to and with each other. Focusing on a long term growth plan rather than a short term profit plan has been integral to this, and allows us to focus on the important parts. For example, we started working with a local nonprofit called Be The Change Youth Initiative, and they let local students write kind and affirming notes on coffee sleeves for us to hand out to our customers and make their days. Staying creatively oriented, with an abundance mindset, and infinite game prioritization really has allowed us to become a favorite of our local community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.becaffcoffee.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/be_caffeinated/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/becaffeinatedcha/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/77274785/admin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgIau9NHA56-fPJHy8DvDfg