We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paul Gonzalez-Mangual a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

Back in 2011 in one of my first business ventures, a Coffee & Chocolate Expo, my partners and I decided to put our home country (Puerto Rico) and our event on the global map and decided to create a Guinness World Record. The result was the Biggest Cup of Coffee which consisted of an 11’ foot tall and 8’ foot in diameter stainless steel tank in cup form filled with 3,394 US gallons of black coffee. The cup was brewed for 24 hours straight, with a crew of 20 people every four hours, using 16 industrial coffee brewing machines and 1,500 pounds of local Puerto Rican coffee. We were featured in the 2013 Guinness World Records book.

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 love for food has inevitably intertwined with the culinary world and my professional life. In 2010, I co-founded a Guinness World Record event production company; being the Coffee & Chocolate Expo one of such events celebrated for over a decade. Also, my partnership at a gourmet product distribution company of goods manufactured in the Caribbean contributed significantly to my career.

Expanding my palate and understanding the culinary world’s ins and outs through education has always been vital for me. I’m a certified barista by the Specialty Coffee Association, an accredited bartender by the International Bartenders Association, a mezcal promotor with a diplomat by Centro de Estudios sobre el Maguey y Mezcal, and had the pleasure of participating in cooking courses at the Culinary Institute of America.

As a result, I created Club Mezcal, an education platform for all things mezcal. Also, I co-founded, Agave Imports LLC, an import and distribution company focused on products derived from the agave plant.

Even more so than eating, writing has been my life’s passion, and the result has been five published books, a TEDx talk, culinary columns at media outlets, and as co-host of the podcast ‘Hablemos de Comida’.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a Puerto Rican, based and doing business on the Island, I can say that resilience has been something we all learn from a very young age. Coming out of college, as a business major, I found myself submerged in the financial crisis of 2008 but as a lot of us did, we move forward and, against all odds, started our first business focused on events in the culinary world. Since that time Puerto Rico has been in an economic recession, but that did not stop me from investing in 2014 in a gourmet product distribution company of goods manufactured locally. Sadly, in 2018, Hurricane Maria, a category 5 natural disaster, destroyed the Island and our electric grid, and we all had to start over, pivot, and refocus all our future. After that, I took some time off to figure out my next moves, and as soon I was launching a food tourism agency, we were challenged with a political crisis that ended with the destitution of a sitting Governor. Soon after that, we were sure that 2020 was going to be a great year and it started with island-wide earthquakes and the pandemic.

However, all that experience in the culinary world and the business scars gained through the journey gave me the tools to repurpose and find new ways to create value. It was at that time that I became a mezcal promotor with a diplomat by ‘Centro de Estudios sobre el Maguey y Mezcal’, which paved the way to create Club Mezcal, an education platform for all things agave, and Agave Imports LLC, an import and distribution company for agave derived products.

Resilience is more than a word for us Puerto Ricans, even in a ‘developed’ country we have struggled to move forward in our economic ecosystem but somehow and someway we have found the collective energy to push through and push forward.

Through it all, the word that has defined my relationship with resilience is gratefulness. Without a grateful mentality, I would be able to navigate all of this. That’s why in the middle of the past decade I published a book called ‘Thankious’, a book with a collection of 365 gratitude bits and pieces that happen to all of us daily. Saying thankiou every day kept me sane and ready for more.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

As a kid, my father was always teaching me about critical thinking and an objective-driven mentality for life and business. At the time I was a teenager and I have no idea why he was talking to me about all of this. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense at the time. I was so wrong. Fast forward a couple of years and in 2010 it all clicked. I was mesmerized by Simon Sinek’s TED talk titled ‘How great leaders inspire action’ and his golden circle where the first thing was to ask ‘why?’. Starting with why (which is also the title of his book) and setting well-rounded objectives are completely intertwined with getting anything done in our daily lives, hobbies, and business ventures.

Since then, in every idea, business decision, or life decision I make I have to always write down my objectives and answer the question of why am I doing what I am about to do. This mentality has been my secret sauce.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elclubmezcal.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paulgonzalezmangual/
• Facebook: facebook.com/PaulGonzalezMangual/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulegonzalez/
• Other: www.ted.com/talks/paul_gonzalez_mangual_a_word_that_can_change_the_world