We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jarrod Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jarrod , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
My background is in international business. I was fortunate to have a father who sent me to school all over the world so that I would be more successful than he was. My career started in Houston as a consultant with a large international software company. Prior to graduating from college I went on a few service trips to Honduras to help rebuild homes washed away by Hurricane Mitch. On my first trip to Honduras all of my professional dreams and goals were scrambled. I was unable to reconcile the discrepancy in my life from the lives of the people we were serving just a 3 hour flight south of Houston. I had done nothing to deserve the opportunities that had been afforded to me and the Hondurans had done nothing to deserve the lack of opportunities that they had access to. Their ancestors, like mine, had left Europe on a boat headed west when the America’s were for the most part, on an even playing field. The only difference was that my ancestors’ boat went west and their ancestors’ boat went south-west. I would not be settled until I attempted to reconcile this discrepancy.
In 2001, much to the chagrin of my father, I quit my job and with 2 suitcases I moved to Honduras where I planned to be for 8 or 10 months continuing to assist on humanitarian projects. During that time the entrepreneur inside of me saw many opportunities but rather than being opportunities to create financial wealth they were opportunities to transform lives. I felt like God had prepared me for this endeavor and rather than returning to the US at the end of the year I stayed. Eventually I founded the non-profit Mission Lazarus who’s mission is, “Equip individuals to live abundant lives now and for eternity.” The people that we were serving in rural southern Honduras were not asking for money or handouts of any type, they were asking for jobs.
Among the many endeavors of Mission Lazarus, economic development through job creation is what I’m most passionate about. If successful businesses can be started in Honduras, and other countries with similar economic struggles to Honduras, then we will begin to see a shift in the notion that the only way for impoverished populations to prosper is to immigrate to the US or to Western Europe. While humanitarian aid is vital to many nations in the developing world it simply is not sustainable, nor does it have the transformative impact that sustainable employment does. We strive to create jobs that pay not only a fair wage, but a thriveable wage. A fair wage allows an individual to start to dream but a thriveable wage allows them to chase those dreams as well. Today we operate two primary businesses, Lazarus Artisan Goods, and San Lazaro Coffee, Lazarus Artisan Goods produces handmade leather goods that are distributed to boutiques across the US and sold in our online store. San Lazaro Coffee operates a coffee farm in Honduras and supplies green coffee to roasters across the US and sells roasted coffee in our online store.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
When I moved to Honduras in 2001 the poverty was seen on almost every corner, from the large capital of Tegucigalpa all the way to the far-flung corners of the country like San Marcos de Colon. As a Christian I was challenged to reconcile what I read in John 10:10, where Christ says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it in abundance.” I asked myself over and over, “How can these words be real for me and be so empty for the millions living on less than $2 per day here?” I believe that the way this imbalance is reconciled is by Christians, from whatever industry they are in, using their positions as leaders to guarantee that this text is real for all their employees, both domestically in the US as well as internationally. This is what I set out to do in Honduras.
In 2001 the immigration crisis in the US had not yet begun but two major events in Honduras would serve as catalysts.
1. Banana production, a well-established industry and economic force in Honduras, was being shut down after close to 100 years of providing thousands of jobs to unskilled laborers. This workforce, without marketable skills, saw immigrating to the US as their only opportunity to provide for their families.
2. In 1998,Hurricane Mitch devastated much of the coffee farming industry in Honduras and prices dropped to an all time low. With many farmers facing foreclosure on their farms due to an inability to pay back loans they saw immigrating to the US as their only option in a last-ditch effort to save their family’s legacy.
Decades of international aid and efforts of well-intentioned missionaries had failed to bring about economic transformation and break the unending cycle of generational poverty. While many people who visit Honduras only see poverty, the entrepreneur inside me sees opportunity. Contrary to what many might think the people of Honduras, like in many third world countries, are not looking for a handout, they’re looking for an opportunity to provide for their families. This motivated me to look for business opportunities that could, at the very least, be a sustainable tool for transforming lives through capitalism. We have tried many ideas, but we finally landed on leather goods and coffee farming, two industries that many Hondurans are skilled at and knowledgeable in.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In the spring of 2020 as the pandemic shutdowns were spreading across the country our coffee sales began to decline dramatically as corporate customers canceled their recurring orders. These customers were a very important segment of our monthly sales. As we were trying to figure out how to navigate this situation our farm in Honduras fell victim to arson.
Many years ago, we became painfully aware of how much of a predatory industry coffee farming is around the world. Coffee, being the largest traded commodity behind oil, benefited primarily wealthy landowners and rarely the unseen workers who worked the farms. That was no different in southern Honduras where we operate, propagating generational poverty in rural communities across the region.
Years ago we made a commitment to pay great wages to our 100% female team of employees. In doing so we slowly began to disrupt this predatory coffee industry environment in our region. The wealthy farm owners in our region were not happy when their workers also started demanding better pay. Year after year word spread around our region that some workers were being paid good wages. In the spring of 2020, just as the pandemic shut downs were beginning to take their toll on our coffee sales in the US our farm was set on fire by an arsonist. It is suspected that the arsonist was a wealthy owner of a neighboring coffee farm.
Our 25 acres of coffee plants are surrounded by dense pine and oak forests and in the spring of 2020 this forest was extremely dry after 5 months of no rain. In just a matter of minutes at 1:00 AM a small fire turned into a massive forest fire that was engulfing 50 foot tall pine trees as if they were match sticks. We were blessed by neighboring farmers who came to help battle the fire through the night without the benefit of fire fighting equipment. Using only backpack sprayers and shovels the fire was slowly contained. When the smoke settled the next day, much to our surprise, all of our coffee plants had been saved.
The story of what had happened to our farm spread across social media throughout out the US and Canada and our sales began to spike. We had never expected this to happen. The story of what had happened to our farm inspired people to buy our coffee and in the midst of what looked like the loss of our coffee company and our farm we ended up having our best sales year ever.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I believe that any business leader has to invest time, energy and money in continually developing the culture that you want to have for your business. A culture will always be established and I believe, as an entrepreneur and business owner, that the culture should always be established by the leadership of the company. We have seen that through an intentional focus on our culture that our team has grown closer and stronger. They feel seen and heard. They believe in our brand and want to see it succeed. This starts with simply caring enough about all of your people that you take the time to remember names, ask how people are doing, and get to know a person rather than an employee. Today, with 150+ employees, I am no longer able to remember everyone’s name but I still try and I make a point to stop and greet everyone, from the high level positions down to security and maintenance team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://missionlazarus.org
- Instagram: @jarrodwbrown
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jarrod.brown.1069
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarrod-brown-7450a383
- Twitter: @jarrodwbrown
- Youtube: @missionlazarus3552
