We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hannah Josselyn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hannah , appreciate you joining 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’ve always dreamed of opening a coffee shop that had a warm & welcoming atmosphere to anyone that walked in! A place that you could come and get lost in a book, talk to a stranger just take some time away from the craziness of life. Reverie means getting lost in one’s thoughts or daydreams. It felt so organic and meant to be!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
One of my many jobs growing up was a barista. I worked at a few different coffee shops and I fell in love with the atmosphere and the culture of coffee. Through college and my early 20’s I had a hard time finding a direction to go career wise. Then realizing I wanted to be in control of my schedule and to build a community of likeminded people. I am really proud to sell local, Maine made, women owned products. Every morning I pick up baked goods at a local, women owned bakery & I use and sell locally roasted coffee & organic coffee syrups.
Im so proud of these last 3 months of being open because I feel like I have created that welcoming environment I always dreamed of. To me its not just serving someone a good cup of coffee its about setting the tone for their day. To engage with them, ask them how they are, make a connection with them even just for the few minutes they are at my coffee trailer. So that maybe they will leave and continue that tone and pass it onto others throughout their day. I have also had other women owned local businesses meet eachother & now support eachother and also sell eachothers products, we’ve had dinners with eachother where we just connect and talk. My main focus as been to build that sense of community & hold space for people to come & relax and escape for alittle!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My husband and I also own a BBQ food truck that we have been doing for about 2 years now. Our first season we had just moved to Maine and didnt know anyone. All our family was back in Vermont & it was also still COVID time. We didn’t have a babysitter so we will still work hard, do the prep and go to the event! During the event we would have our daughter (who was 4-6 months at the time) in her stroller with our back door open so we could see her and we would both be making food and taking orders and anytime she cried we would go out and feed her or hold her and then go back to work. In the moment I wondered how are we even doing all of it, but I look back and Im so proud because we were doing what we loved, sharing it with our daughter & yes we were beyond exhausted but we did it!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think alot of the reason a business succeeds is the products and I take pride in putting out a good product, but I also believe that the majority of it is how you treat people. I know for me when I walk into a place especially a coffee shop. Just starting out my day my biggest thing is how is the employee treating me. Do they greet me with a smile, do they ask how I am, do they engage?! When they dont if Im being honest it just puts me in a bad mood. I want to consistently with every customer smile, talk with them and engage. We are all human and looking for that connection. I have found so many connections with strangers just by talking with them. Whenever I was asked what my demographic was I never had an answer. I just wanted to create a welcoming, calm, safe environment where people felt at home.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @reveriecoffee.trailer
Image Credits
Shandi Marie Photography