We were lucky to catch up with Kym Jolstad recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kym , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

August 2019, my mom was diagnosed, out of the blue, with pancreatic cancer. She went in for a scheduled blood pressure/med check. The doctor noticed her eyes were jaundice. That day they found a mass on her pancreas. After googling pancreatic cancer, I knew I needed to make a difference. I was familiar with fundraising. I raised thousands of dollars through the MSWalk after my dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was 12. After looking up the pancreatic cancer walk, I knew I wanted to do more than 1 event each year. I wanted to raise awareness and funds throughout the year with a product that would represent my mom.
After months of brainstorming, it came to me, Kathie’s Coffee~coffee for a cause. January 2020, I was walking my dog drinking my coffee. My mom, Kathie, loved coffee. She built her relationships and community over cups of coffee. From taking coffee breaks with coworkers, Saturday mornings drinking coffee with my Grandma to Sunday mornings with girlfriends enjoying coffee and pie.
A community helped my idea of Kathie’s Coffee become a reality. April 2020 we picked up our first locally roasted batch of Kathie’s Coffee. For every bag sold, we send Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) $3. Since that day, we have sent PanCAN $14,000 from bags sold. We
are proud to say we have shipped to 42 states including Alaska.

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.

My passion has been in health and fitness. I’m a personal trainer, pilates instructor and nutrition coach. I have a lot of energy and love teaching group fitness classes.

Fortunately, since I graduated from college, I have been in the same location doing what I love for almost 23 years in the same building.

When my father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was 12, I was already into sports and working out. I looked into how I could help raise awareness and funds for MS. That year, I started doing the MSWalk. I created a team and over the years we raised thousands of dollars.I believe in creating a community.
It is a community that can make a difference.

When my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it was a community that helped create Kathie’s Coffee~coffee for a cause. My idea became a reality because of the community I have been able to build during these last 22 plus years doing what I love to do.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

After coming up with the idea of making a 12 ounce bag of coffee to honor my mom that morning I googled “how do you make a bag of coffee” Instantly a website for a Seattle company came up. I sent a request asking. I received an email back within minutes. I had a phone conversation within 90 minutes that was extremely informational. I had an email by 12 that day.
I continued my information gathering sending out emails, calling, and sending text messages to past personal training clients that might have a connection.
Yes, multiple ways of seeing who may know how to get Kathie’s Coffee to become a reality.
A client connected me to a local restaurant owner who then connected me to his roaster.
It’s all about relationships, community and connections.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media has driven Kathie’s coffee business. Again, it’s the community and relationships that supports your products. Friends and family wanted to support my passion to make a difference in the future of pancreatic cancer. What’s amazing is they bought our coffee for a cause to be supportive but found an amazing blend of coffee! My mom built her relationships and community over cups of coffee. We have built Kathie’s Coffee because of our relationships and community.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kathiescoffee.com

Image Credits
Emily John Just the one with myself on beans