We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Teresa Sawatsky a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Teresa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

As a young woman, I had many dreams and goals I was chasing, then motherhood shifted my gears to raise these cuties the best way I could!
Watching our children grow and chase their own dreams is so inspiring that it brought back to life some of my own dreams that had been laid aside. Now that the boys are older chasing dreams of their own, I thought it was high time to chase mine!
Never did I think about becoming a business woman! We owned a very successful landscaping company for 20+ years, but at the time I was raising boys while my hubby ran the company. As time went on, his heart wasn’t in it anymore, and things were shifting in the building industry. So right at the beginning of 2020, we decided to start roasting coffee of all things!
As it is printed on our packaging, “Sometimes when life hands you nothing but a bunch of bean, well… maybe roast ’em”. So thats what we did!
We took the risk and aimed high! Our youngest son Charles roasting up a storm, Keith, my husband managing sales, and me, never leaving the coffee truck, ( or so it felt that way). We operated out of a mobile truck and then a mobile trailer as well. We added partners as we couldn’t keep up with the demand! Looking back now, I don’t even know how we all did it!
Then a shift again, as competition showed up. We had to work hard for our spot to park, which was no big deal at first, but then as time passed, and more and more people saw the demand, folks started opening their own coffee rigs where we once sat. Pushing us to ultimately sell the mobile units and go full force into roasting and wholesale. We were sad at the time, but this was the best thing ever for us!
Growing our company name and serving the community and beyond with not just great coffee but a unique energy and look about us that folks love and have come to recognize.
Now a shift once again. As a business owner, you never stay the same, its a constant shifting and changing scene. Once you just get settled in, on comes a new challenge! Maybe thats what I love so much, is the thrill! Definitely not in the moment, I usually have a panic attack first!
With the cost of everything going up, and strictly wholesale, we saw that the numbers aren’t there. Charles excepted a great opportunity elsewhere, and Keith started building his dream working on C10 Trucks. They are doing amazing!
Me… Im still aiming high and don’t plan to quit yet! Without a storefront, Im trying to be creative and build this name beyond coffee! There is so much more to come!

Teresa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a wife and a mother of 3 boys. We homeschooled our boys who have all gone on to do great things and become business men themselves. The decision to homeschool came long before I had children. I struggled severely in school with dyslexia and fell through the cracks. After having children, I saw our boys unique way of learning and I wanted to be in every part of it, without missing a thing! After all, they were so much like me! I could see the need and get them what they needed before they fell through the cracks. None of it was easy, but a wise woman once told me that “nothing worth doing is ever easy”.
I have a very strong passion for finding our porpoise in life and who God made us to be. I want to be a true light to those who need it. My desire is to share with whoever is reading this, to just do stuff! It might not be your true passion, but you will find your passion through it! God led me in waters that I never thought I would go in, and I swam! I didn’t drown like I thought I would.
The craft of roasting coffee is very precise. In some ways, its like making candy. You learn to pull the sugars out slowly and evenly as to not get any bitter or off tasting notes. Nobody likes burnt sugar! Its incredible to me how coffee plants grown in different parts of the world can either taste like flowers or caramel depending on the soil of the region! Who knew it was so complex and amazing! The roast profiles our son Charles developed, are still used today.
We love to share the important things about coffee. Especially why its so important to research the coffee you purchase because of mold and fair treatment to the producers and farmers. We are very proud of our quality and our ethics in our business. Growing this business isn’t just about us, its about the consumers as well, and making certain that they get the best product possible!
Our brand has a western theme, and is based on hard work and grit, just like the old west! I come from a long line of cowboys and cowgirls who inspire me to this day! The photos on our packaging are either our family or something about our family, with the exception of one, which is a bull rider who still inspires many with his training. His name is Matt Of’lynn, and he teaches rough stock school in Quesnel BC.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

There is always times where you feel like giving up and you wonder where the world is, and why they haven’t found you yet!
I have had to learn as I go, as I didn’t have training in social media, or bookkeeping, or even sales. My thrive when I can be creative and design.
There has been a few times when we panicked and had to sell something we didn’t want so we could keep going.
Packaging is a hard one, as you need to order such high quantities, and in our case, its 5000. We have no idea, if sales will keep up so we can continue on, but this year I had to sell my horse trailer to purchase more packaging. It wasn’t an easy option, but Im not ready to give up yet!
Social media has been a big challenge for me as I learn to make reels, and sometimes feel like a dog begging for a treat from the algorithm, but it keeps my creative juices flowing!
One story that will always stick in my mind…
As I mentioned before about being dyslexic, I can get things backwards. Not often, because I have learned the steps to take to get things switched around in my mind. Which includes reading the order, then writing the order out and matching them to see if they are the same, but this one particular customer (whom I had mixed things up for her before, Im not sure why, but there is always that one person. who sees the worst part of you), she had emailed that I did it again. Basically the order done backwards. To say she was upset was an understatement. When Keith came home I was crying on the couch, not knowing how I was going to do this. I fill the orders, and I need to be capable!
He said “Let me deal with her, It will all be okay”. He called the lady and I overheard as he explained that we were tired of this young employee messing up, so we fired her. He didn’t say anything about me. I share this because we aren’t perfect, not one of us! Since this, I am happy to say that it hasn’t happed again! Shame is one of the worst feelings, and its so important to give each other grace. We are capable if we are willing, but we just have to find our way!
It was a bit of a fib, but she didn’t know me, nor did she care, it was full on anger. Easy to explain to a kind patient person, than not. She is long gone from that particular store, and has been replaced, so Im happy about that as well!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

One of our most exciting things we built was the mobile coffee units! We started with the coffee truck. It was BIG! We went all out and had a beautiful wrap put on it. Full western theme, with saddles and coffee beans, and barrels.
I had no idea how to be a barista at the time! A friend said she would help train me for a week. So sink or swim, I jumped in!
I was in the truck from sun up till sun down, and determined to make a name for ourselves.
A space came available with the city, to park at the river by the walking trail. They only have a few designated areas, so we quickly outfitted a trailer to fill the spot! We hired a young lady to run it, and on we went to have a great summer!
Unfortunately our spot for the truck had come to an end. Its not as easy as parking anywhere you want, you must apply with the city to get a permit, even on private property, so we decided to save the truck for big events. This went really well! We we served at rodeos, fairs, private weddings and other events, until we couldn’t handle it all ourselves. We tried different employees, but unfortunately it wasn’t working, and I felt we had worked to hard to have our name go downhill. After all our name is everything to us! I once had a gentleman say to me, ‘You cant really be this happy just serving coffee!”, I replied “It means everything to me that your here buying our coffee, so yes I am truly this happy serving coffee!”
The sale of the truck was very difficult, but felt right.
Eventually we had partners who purchased the trailer and ran it like it was us, but they made a move out east to be with family, and we decided not to buy it back and close that chapter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barkingironsroastery.com
• Instagram: @barkingironsroastery
• Facebook: Barking Irons-Chilliwack BC Coffee roaster
• Youtube: @barkingironsroastery4072

Image Credits

@sweetlife.photagraphy
Kara Salomons
Sweet Life Photography