We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tommy Priest a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tommy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
The craziest thing that’s happened to Coffee Park Airstream is currently happening! Let me set the stage for you …
to: “coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com” <coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com>
date: Sep 12, 2023, 12:03 PM
subject: UNDER EMBARGO: USA TODAY 10Best Reader’s Choice Awards nomination for Coffee Park Airstream
mailed-by: usatoday.com
Small business owners get a crazy amount of email: lenders, sellers, spam, scams. Our business was scammed years ago, so, not wanting to repeat historic mistakes, I read the subject line a couple of times, checked the address, thinking there is no possible way this is real, and saved it for later. After checking the website and verifying that the contest was on the up and up, I uploaded a photo of our curbside coffee shop aka a 1958 Airstream travel trailer and kinda forgot about it until the second email hit my inbox …
reply-to: USA TODAY 10Best <readerschoice@usatoday.com>
to: “coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com” <coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com>
date: Sep 25, 2023, 1:37 PM
subject: USA TODAY 10Best nomination for Coffee Park Airstream
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Congratulations! Coffee Park Airstream has been nominated in our 2023 10Best Readers’ Choice travel awards!
Our expert panel selected Coffee Park Airstream as a contender for Best Drive Thru Coffee, which just launched.
Our contest gives voters four weeks to vote for the candidate of their choice …
WHAT? This is really real?! Coffee Park Airstream, a little coffee trailer between Wake Forest University and downtown Winston-Salem, NC was nominated for Best Drive Thru Coffee in the Nation? A few feelings flooded over: honored, humbled, nice – but – no – way – we – can – win, this is crazy!
A little juiced by the nomination, I put together a quick shareable for our 10.6K social media followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (X). What happened next still leaves me stunned. Gobsmacked, even.
Our community propelled us to 1st Place on the first day. Shocking, but 27 more voting days, i thought, let’s just see if we can place in the top 10. That’d be cool. Little did I know, it was a marathon, vote-a-rama for the ages to win the 2023 national title! Our community voted daily, shared daily, engaged folks across their communities from LA, NYC, Seattle, ATL … The sheer volume of love and support for our tiny trailer (it’s 120 square ft.) overwhelms me in the most positive way. Ardent, dedicated efforts from so many, from near and far weaves a mesmerizingly beautiful scene – a virtual tapestry across social networks.
For little perspective, our top nine competitors in the final 10 boast 176.8M social media followers combined and thousands of locations. Most offer much more than coffee. A few have international locations. None of them are housed in an Airstream with the Winston-Salem, NC community behind you!
Guess who was in 1st Place for the next 20 days? If you guessed a single location, “mom & pop” shop in North Carolina, you win! but, there’s always a twist, right?
reply-to: USA TODAY 10Best <readerschoice@usatoday.com>
to: “coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com” <coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com>
date: Oct 16, 2023, 3:29 PM
subject: Only One Week to Go!
For the first 3 weeks of the contest, there was an active leaderboard on the 10best site. For the final week, the leaderboard goes dark.
WAIT A MINUTE! Say what?
I kinda thought the fix was in. No way they could let it happen. The Mom & Pop wins vs Big Coffee (and fast food)? No way. Let’s just see if we can hold on to a spot in the top 10. We made a huge push on social, crossed our fingers, and waited…
USA TODAY 10Best <readerschoice@usatoday.com>
to: “coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com” <coffeeparkwsnc@gmail.com>
date: Oct 24, 2023, 12:37 PM
subject: USA TODAY 10Best Readers Choice Winner!
NOT for immediate release. Under embargo until Friday, November 3rd at 12:00pm EDT.
Congratulations!
Coffee Park Airstream is a winner in the 2023 USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice travel award contest for Best Drive Thru Coffee. When the official announcement is made next Friday, November 3rd at 12:00pm EDT, you’ll be able to see and share the good news
WOW! WE.DID.IT! Insert a few choice (positive) expletives, amazement, and that gnawing feeling – you just want to tell someone, but you can’t.
For 10 more long days.
Still. Wow. Totally stunned.
I’m humbled by our community and can’t begin to express how grateful.
It’s our craziest story yet since we opened in 2007, and it’s still happening. Coffee Park Airstream is the #1 Drive Thru Coffee joint in the Nation. Pretty cool.
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.
I graduated from Appalachian State University in 1993 with the intention of moving back to my adopted home, Winston-Salem, NC, to open a coffee shop. My college roommate from St. Paul, MN, was willing to move as well, and we both loved the ’90s coffee shop scene, culture, and of course, coffee. It was not meant to be, unfortunately… zoning problems, funding problems, it fell apart after several hundred hours of leg work… I was 23. Fast forward 13 years after a short career in experiential marketing, I still missed that experience of opening a coffee shop. That missed experience became reality in 2007 when an old friend I originally met at a coffee shop in the mid-90s co-owned a new shop and roaster. We started talking about drive-up coffee. There was nothing at that time, especially not local. You could get McD’s or BK’s “coffee,” but this was before they upped their coffee game to compete with SB.
We became sister companies… I bought coffee from the new roaster, guided a new brand identity and logo redesign for them, shared their name for 9 years, and served up Winston-Salem’s first local drive-up coffee.
Sorry this part of the story is a bit long, but its complexity leads to seven years into the business… A local fire at an apartment complex displaced several small children, and it tugged at my heart. A local news outlet and patrons, Camel City Dispatch, partnered with us to collect donations to re-home and help outfit the displaced families with new home furnishings. The outpouring filled a warehouse and not only outfitted the fire victims but several additional families impacted by unrelated traumas. Our customers and community members’ support showed me this was the path, a community-centered coffee shop focused on facilitating better outcomes for our friends and neighbors, regardless of the challenge and the complexities.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
1. Keeping frills to a minimum. 2. Always striving to be honest.
3. Being real, being human, exhibiting compassion, caring for our community.
4. Understanding that our customers are our lifeline.
5. Lending a hand, a voice, or an ear when necessary.
6. Loving what I do.
7. Not giving up despite the hurdles and challenges that arise.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
To borrow a phrase, Reading is Fundamental … but, my learning style is best sated when surrounded by creative people. A perfect personal resource presented itself in 2016, The Kenan Institute for the Arts extended an invitation to participate in the inaugural Arts Enterprise Lab: a 12-month convening that explored the intersection of creative professionals and economic development as it relates to creative enterprises. Authors, Playwrights, Creative Consultants, Poets, Professors, Reporters, Photographers, Fashion Designers, and more shared their creative enterprise, learned new skills from peers, and developed a creative project that was intentionally within their current capacity with a small bit of financial assistance available. I gleefully observed as creative pro’s deconstructed their current practice, analyzed them in small groups with their fellow participants, and honed their new creative projects.
Seek out opportunities to work in groups with your creative community members. Workshops, Innovation Labs, local convenings, anything that places you within a group of community members committed to bettering their current practices, businesses, community, etc.
My “management” and entrepreneurial thinking is simple…
Ensure you provide an environment for learning and take advantage of every opportunity to learn yourself. I’m eternally grateful for the opportunities to work in various social innovation spaces where learning and sharing experiences is primary.
Contact Info:
- Website: coffeeparkws.com
- Instagram: @coffeeparkwsnc
- Facebook: Tommy Priest
- Linkedin: Tommy Priest
- Twitter: @duncanthomasws
Image Credits
Tommy Priest