SEO Success for Manufacturers: Heady Cup Coffee Partners with IMEC & B2Btail

Damon Pistulka 00:01
Alright, we’re live today. It’s Friday, and you know what that means? It’s time for stop being the best kept secret. Where we are going to be talking about SEO, SEO success for manufacturers. We’re going to talk about heady cup and how they partnered with IMEC, Illinois. I’m one of your co host, Damon Pistulka, that pretty guy right there, far over to that side of the screen is Curt Anderson. He’s going to take it away from here. We’re going to have some fun learning about Heady Cup Coffee and imec and how they work together. Take it away, my friend,

Curt Anderson 00:39
man, Damon, Dude, we got a full stage here. So we got a ton unpack. Let’s just dive right right in. Happy Friday. Everybody do us a favor, drop us a note. Let us know you’re out there. We want to get connected with these guys on LinkedIn. We’ve got three powerhouses on stage, and so let’s you know what for. We’re all baseball fans here on stage today. So Michael, you’re going to be batting first, my friend, are you ready? Are you sitting down? Are

Michael Kivland 01:03
you ready? Rock and roll? Kenny Lofton was one of my favorite players, so I’m ready. Eddie Lofton,

Curt Anderson 01:07
man, dropped the mic right there. So alright, Kenny Lofton, that’s a great name. Saw him live few times. Alright, so Michael, give us a little background on heady cup coffee roasters. Who? Who is heady cop? Who? Who’s heady cup? How are you guys making the world a better place?

Michael Kivland 01:24
Awesome. Um, yeah. I’m Michael Kivland. My business partner, Kevin is on the call here as well. So Kevin was, or heady cup was Kevin’s brain child idea. Um, Kevin has been roasting coffee for about better part of 10 years. Um, started roasting out of his Kev, you correct me if I’m wrong, but out of his basement and garage, roasting for friends and family, sending them off people became a hit with people. And Kevin had a highly successful career as a salesman. I had a highly successful career as a salesman. But it’s probably safe to say we both weren’t doing what we loved, even though we were, you know, financially stable and successful in our in our own separate industries. So Kevin started Heavy Cup. He sent me a picture of this logo behind me one day in a text. And I said, you’re doing it. And he said, I quit my job. I’m doing it. And about 10 days thereafter, I drove to work and rode my bike home and join

Damon Pistulka 02:23
that’s awesome.

Curt Anderson 02:24
And Damon, there’s, like, any, there’s a lot of great details behind it. So, Michael, so let’s all right, so just, I just want everybody to kind of like, just savor the flavor, pun intended, right? Kind of savor what we’re hearing here. But this is just such a they have one of the best origin stories. It is so inspiring. So alright, let’s you know, I’m going to go around the heart. Let’s do introductions. So we’ve got Michael Kivland, one of the founders. We’ve got Kevin Foglesong, what a great name that is. And then we’ve got our dear friend Mike Flinn from IMEC, IMEC, Illinois. That is the manufacturing extension partnership in the great state of Illinois. Mike Flinn, how are you today, dude?

Michael Flinn 03:02
I’m great. It’s great to be with you guys. Thanks got, man, thank you. I know you’re I’m a Cubs fan. So, you know, you start off with the baseball thing. I am the Cubs fan. So I was really happy in 2016 but you know, it’s not been so good since,

Curt Anderson 03:15
you know, don’t get, you know, once in a century, that’s plenty, right? Yeah, that’s good. So alright, we’re going to come, you gotta, we’re gonna hang it tight for this origin story. So, Michael, we have a little question that we’d like to ask our friends. Is a matter of fact, we have a couple questions. I have three different questions. Damon for our opening Okay, so we’re going to be diving in talking about heady cup coffee roasters. But before we go there, I’m going to get into the background a little bit. Michael, when you were a young guy growing up, little guy growing up now. Kevin, Mike Flinn, I have a totally different question for each of you, so just be prepared. But Mike, Michael, who was your hero growing up when you were a little guy, when you’re a little guy growing up, who was your hero?

Michael Kivland 03:55
I mean, my dad, and, you know, besides my dad, which is an obvious answer, it, you know, like my Hero, hero would probably be Michael Jordan. But Michael Jordan, hard workers, determined. People ask no quarter, give no quarter. Type of guys, you know, don’t ask for broader shoulder or don’t ask for a lighter burden, ask for broader shoulders. So I think hard working people like that’s what inspired me as a kid, you know, that’s what I kind of gravitated towards. That’s like, if I’m going to fall in someone’s footsteps, I want them to be, you know, a man of respect and nice, of of certain qualities that I admire, and hard work, termination, ask no quarter, give no quarter. Give no quarter. You know, all those things I started with, those are all things that motivate me and things I aspire to be. So I think both, and they’re both named Mike. So we got a couple mikes, my dad’s name Mike, and you got Michael Jordan. So it was easy, easy to get inspired by Michael. So hey, that’s right, yeah,

Curt Anderson 04:55
phenomenal answers, man, I’ll tell you Michael Jordan greatest since we’re coming on the march. Man. Us. That’s a wonderful answer. Thank you for sharing and so. And dad’s name was Mike as well. Are you? Are you junior?

Michael Kivland 05:05
I’m not a junior. Okay, cool as well. And he’s not a junior either. So we all have middle names, but got it look

Curt Anderson 05:12
okay, alright. So big shout out to the mics for heroes. Now let’s Mike Flinn, I’m coming to you, dude, I’m coming. I’m coming to you with a totally, completely different answer. Are you ready? You sitting down? You ready for what

Michael Flinn 05:22
depends on what the question is. I might want to go back to Michael’s, but yeah. Well,

Curt Anderson 05:26
you know what? I don’t have a different question for you, who was your hero when you’re a young guy growing up? Mike Flinn, you

Michael Flinn 05:31
know it was good to think about. So actually, I had an uncle who worked for International Harvester. He was an engineer, and I was kind of in that vein already, but, man, he took me under his wing, and, you know, poured into me. So that started kind of a yearning in my heart to receive that, but also give that out to others. So he just set a great example. I remember tearing apart engines with him, and, you know, he take me out and show me stuff in his garage when I was up there. He’s a farm guy. So just a great background, but somebody that pours into other people. And there are a lot of those kinds of folks and but, and then I just aspire to do that as well myself. So wow, I tell

Curt Anderson 06:11
Apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Mike, as we’ve gotten to be friends this year, and I’ll tell you, you know what, since we’re here in public, I’m demon. I Mike Flinn sent me a book. As a matter of fact, Mike, I had Mike, I have the card right here. When you sent me the card, I can’t tell you how much it meant to me. And he sent me a book for the year, and I read it every single night before I go to sleep. I like so Mike Flinn, what a dear friend. Hats off to you. What was your uncle’s name? By the way, what is your uh,

Michael Flinn 06:35
Gary. Gary Willis, was his name? Yep. So alright, Apple then

Curt Anderson 06:38
fall far from a tree. And what I love is, you know, what’s a common theme here, like two guys, Mike and Mike, on Michael’s side, your uncle, Gary, two people just, you know, dedicated to helping others. And just what great role models. Kevin, I’m not very original, my friend, I don’t have another question. What is your hero as you were living Yes,

Kevin Foglesong 06:57
I’m not going to be very original either. So just thinking it through, I’d say my father as well, the work ethic that he installed in me and just the respect he has for other people is something that I was fortunate enough to grow up with, a strong father. So that’s someone that I always grew up to and looked up to and I think those qualities have kind of shaped the company as well, both something that me and Michael have installed in us a very hard work ethic. So we know nothing’s going to be easy for us, so we attack every day like it’s our last year. And then myself, I’m a first time expecting father too. So I my hopes are that my son will look up to me just like, you know, I look up to my father. Awesome. Wow. I’d say my father.

Curt Anderson 07:48
Alright, cat, What’s your dad’s name? Please. My dad’s

07:51
name’s Curt actually, what

Curt Anderson 07:53
a great name, man. I Oh, hey, big shout out to Curt there. So And how about congratulations? Yeah, let’s give a round applause for Kevin being a first time dad. How cool is that I know. Mike Flinn, how many kids you have?

Michael Flinn 08:07
Three kids, 11 grandkids. Three kids,

Curt Anderson 08:09
11 grandkids, Michael, I know you have. You’ve got three little three, three folks in your, your, your, your crew, right?

Michael Kivland 08:17
I have three. Yes, yeah.

Curt Anderson 08:18
And Kevin be a best decision that you ever made, man. Best decision that you ever made made is fatherhood. So congratulations to you, Kevin. Let’s keep you on stage while you’re going here. I know it looks like you’re busy, but let’s go here. So dad Curt is your hero. Now, I know you were a fierce baseball player back in the day. I want to go back in time a little bit talk about baseball, a little bit how your career. And then let’s go into, like, how you guys had this corporate career, because I’m going to lead back up to your origin story of how you started the business, but go back a little bit like your baseball career, and then how you started your career right

Speaker 1 08:50
after college. Yeah, sure. So I started playing baseball. It’s probably one of my first memories is, is T ball. So it’s something that’s always been a part of my life, being a part of a team, trying to lead by example, something that I think was a benefit of being on a team so early in my life. So that’s the same again, like that same kind of mentality we try to bring over to the company too. We’re all team here. Everybody’s contributions lead to our successes. But, yeah, I played baseball my whole life. Played throughout high school. Was fortunate enough to go play in college as well. I did have a rotators cuff injury, though, so my baseball career got cut a little bit shorter, and I wanted it to, but that’s just, I think, taking again, like that same kind of attitude that we that I would take towards baseball, and started putting it towards different avenues in life. So I wasn’t able to further my baseball career, but I was able to, you know, bring that same passion on the different aspects Awesome.

Curt Anderson 09:50
Alright, and Kat, before I let you go, how what did you peek out at with with pitching? What did you hit the the clock? So,

Speaker 1 09:57
I mean, I wasn’t like, a. Flame thrower by any means. So I was able that the hardest ever throw was 91 but I was so my ball had movement on it too. So it wasn’t, no, I wasn’t just trying to throw it by people. He had

Michael Kivland 10:11
a major league slider.

Curt Anderson 10:14
David, miss, Mister Mattis, I didn’t throw real hard. It’s only 91 Yeah. So this, yeah. So I absolutely love that. So alright, they Damon, it looks like we

Damon Pistulka 10:23
got, we got some things, but real quick. Evan, I’ve tried to catch 91 and catching 91 is not easy. Getting it is not I mean, for no, most people, it’s, yeah, this is, it’s a lot, but we are we got. Harry shopping by day says, Happy Friday. Thanks for being here today. Harry. Love it. Love it. Diane, buyer, here today. Thanks so much happy Friday everyone. Thanks for stopping by today, Diane and dropping the comment. Then we got Usman, he’s in here today. Thanks for being here today. Usman, it’s nice to meet you people here. Best wishes to each and everyone there. Thanks so much. Anyone out there drop us a comment if you want to get on the screen. And we’ll, we’ll let you know that you’re here. We appreciate you listening. Let’s keep on going. Curt, let’s keep

Curt Anderson 11:09
rolling. Alright, so what I’m going to do? So Mike foot, I’m going to be coming to you in a minute, but before we go there, I want to get Michael to describe you started giving the origin story as we opened up. And if you for folks that are just joining us again. We’ve got a two great entrepreneurs. We’ve got our dear friend Mike from IMEC, the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Partnership. But Michael, I want to just share a little bit you you touch on you guys both had great corporate careers. Okay? I Damon, this is such a wild story, dude. So Michael, talk to us a little bit. I think maybe it was COVID. You’re on vacation with your family. I’m like the the sheer courage that you took to take this leap of faith for your entrepreneurial journey. Just take us there. Love for everybody. Hear your story. Yeah, so

Michael Kivland 11:51
like I said, Kevin had kind of planted the seed, or I knew what Kevin was kind of up to, you know? And this is in 2022 so this would be May, June of 2022 and I was not totally I was successful my job, but I wasn’t totally happy with it, as I alluded to earlier. I knew Kevin had kind of had this idea in the works. I didn’t know how seriously and how forward he had already had it. So I went, I went on my fourth of July trip up north, fishing with the family and went to a farmer’s market, and we ran into it was hodag Pete. Was the guy’s name hodag Pete. He had like, a little roaster, you know, coffee table set up selling coffee beans from Guatemala, where he had lived, you know, and then he just brought some home, and essentially, we’re selling him. And I asked him about what he was doing. He told me he’s, I’m working these farmers markets. And he wasn’t highly successful guy, but I was just, I kind of mentioned to my wife, hey, this is kind of what Kevin’s getting into, you know, he started roasting coffee. I think he’s going to do it for real. My wife was, like, for real. It’s like, I think you should do it with them. Well, I didn’t expect that answer. So I really planted a seed. Kevin had planted a seed, you know, through all his hard work getting, you know, pushing heady cup forward. Uh, he’d already had the logo done, and he had things in the work. So once my wife gave me that pat on the back, which I normally don’t get from the wife, you know, typically, I went home and I marinated or ruminated on it. And, like I said, that Monday returning home from Fourth of July trip, which like july 11. Ish, Fourth of July was a little later, I think it was like on a Thursday. So you had the long weekend. Then I got back on the 11th, on the Monday, and walked into my boss’s office, told him I was leaving. Didn’t tell him why, and I had a lot of jobs lined up. And he was like, Well, what about the two weeks? And I said, You got about 10 minutes.

13:45
So oh my goodness, I had

Michael Kivland 13:47
driven my company car to work. I put my bike in the back of it, I took my bike out and I rode home. So

Curt Anderson 13:53
like, like,

Michael Kivland 13:57
and I went to Kevin’s house that night. We literally woke up the next day, started designing the website, so it’s been full non stop ever since. But like I said, Kevin had the thing on the runway ready to take off. I really joined him, you know, as we were approaching, you know, final ascent, I guess so. Like

Curt Anderson 14:16
David, let that sink in, like he drives to work with a company car with his bike in the back, knowing that he needs a bike to get home. That is such a crazy story, man, and I tell you, what a testament to your friendship and the belief that you guys have in each other, like, you know, like no pressure, Kevin, I’m quitting. I have three kids and wife at home, and I’m leaving my job to join your cause. So all right. Mike Flinn, let’s get you on stage. I connected with these guys through I met our dear friends at the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Mike for friends out there that are maybe are not familiar with IMEC or the MEP network. Can you please just enlighten everybody who is IMEC and what is the MEP you?

Michael Flinn 14:57
Yeah, that happens when you forget to shut your phone off. So sorry about that. So yeah. So we’re the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence center, and we are that for the state of Illinois. We’re what’s called a manufacturing extension partnership, or MEP. We’re a not for profit the Department of Commerce and NIST have established these centers in every state of the country. We’re all about small business. So we’re working right now with over 30% of the small businesses in Illinois, and our goal is to be the one stop shop for those businesses and whatever they need. And we’ve got six pillars, we call it, but pretty much anything that a manufacturer needs Small Business manufacturer needs in the state of Illinois, we can provide and great ROI, typically in 19 one ROI, but we have some our own internal resources. And then we get to partner with great folks like Curt and others to bring those resources in, just depending on the type of the project that’s that’s needed. So I get to meet guys like Mike and Michael and Kevin and but I think I worked with 100 100 clients over the last year or so, and it’s just always a blessing to be able to come in and help them, you know, achieve more than they really thought they could do, you know, when they started out. So it’s just, it’s it. I love to get into close out meetings and hear the impact of projects, and eyes light up, and it’s just an awesome experience. So I love it. So my role as a project manager, so I just kind of try and keep things moving along.

Curt Anderson 16:31
Yeah, that’s me. He’s the David. He’s the third base coach. So, like, just people home, waving home,

Michael Flinn 16:38
yeah, we send them. Curt, I’d send them. Yeah, send them

Curt Anderson 16:42
like, Hey, do a head first dive. You’re going right into home. Mike, and I know long time corporate career, and you just bring a wealth of talent, experience, expertise to the MEP. And that’s a great thing about what’s going on at IMEC is, you know, they’re 50 employees plus. And just, you know, wealth of knowledge, wealth of expertise, and the passion is just off the charts helping manufacturers like these guys. Mike, we’ll dig a little bit deeper. I’ve got you guys have a new website launch, so we’re going to be pulling that up in a minute. Yeah, let’s jump down to Kevin. So Kevin, I want to hear your story, dude. Like, what was going on your life, and why coffee, man, I know, like, you’re just so passionate about it. But just share a little bit about what was going on your corporate career, and how did you what, what determined you to take this entrepreneurial leap?

Speaker 1 17:25
Yeah, sure. So I started, I started roasting coffee, almost as a joke. I used to drink so much coffee, like volume wise, that I was just a joke with my friends. Be like, I’m just going to start roasting it myself. I drink so much of it, I’m going to save some money and roast myself. So I went out and I bought a cheap little home roaster, not expecting much, just expecting to, like, roast some beans or some coffee. I had two different origins. There was one from Brazil and one from Ethiopia. And when I roasted them up and I tried them, I was totally floored that they tasted different from one another. Up until that point, I was, like a majority of the coffee consumers, unfortunately, that think all coffee kind of tastes the same. So that really opened my eyes to like the possibilities of what else might be out there. And it just read me, led me down just all different kinds of rabbit holes, coffee related, where I just wanted to literally, like, absorb whatever I could and find out whatever I could about, like, why those coffees tasted different from one another. But then it just kind of increased the amount of coffee that I was roasting and the different origins that I was experimenting with and trying out. And then, like Michael alluded to, I was just servicing like friends and families. I had converted my my home office, which previously I was using for my sales job, into like a little home roastery type deal, where I was pumping out just like four or five bags a week or something, nothing crazy, but that’s what really kind of led me down the rabbit hole of roasting so I had always been doing that as a hobby in the background while I was still working my other job as a salesman, but then when COVID hit, like Michael was saying, I was spending a lot more time at home, and just kind of like rethinking exactly what I was doing with my life. And I had a good sales career going, but at the same time, I was just completely unfulfilled with it, and in the majority of the time, like, it just left me feeling anxious and stressed out at the end of the day. So I kind of was at a crossroads where I could either, you know, continue down that path for the rest of my life until I reach retirement, and then, like, maybe try and do something that I actually enjoy doing with my life, or I could just make a jump and gamble and do something that I really love to do maybe for the next couple years, and you know, if it doesn’t work out at that point, go back out and jump back into the workforce. So we’re we just celebrated our two year anniversary, and things are still growing steadily. So that’s a great sign. I think it’s also important to note that me and Michael’s relationship, I mean, we’ve known each other since we’re. Were 1213, years old. Nice. We’ve always been extremely competitive, like with one another. We did previously start up a landscape lighting business with one another, like 20 years ago, so there is some like business history with us, but I wouldn’t have started this company with anyone other than than Michael just knowing his work ethic and how it was going to work with mine. Like, honestly, I feel like we can move mountains together. So sending that text to Michael there was like that was I knew would push him over the edge, but we had been discussing like starting something else up ever since we closed our landscape lighting business together. We didn’t necessarily know it was going to be but this kind of just fell in line, and the timelines all matched up, and here we are now. So we’ve expanded to though we’ve got a couple other great guys on the team as well, so like things are going in the right direction, we brought on some other talent that’s accelerated the growth of the company too. But yeah, everything’s, everything’s looking bright for for heavy cup right now. Wow.

Curt Anderson 21:07
Absolutely love it. And I tell you, one of the most inspiring things there, you know, you said it like I could have finished up my corporate career and then got to it someday. And Damon, I, you know, somebody taught me this line recently. I’d never heard it before. Someday is not a day of the week. And so I just admire, you know, Kevin and Michael, just roll up your sleeves. Caution to the wind, man, and just jump in. So Michael, let’s dive in. I’m going to pull up your website in a couple minutes here. Heady cup, you guys are very passionate. Like, talk about, like, what separates you guys from the rest of the pack, other folks doing coffee, lot of sustainability. You’re just, you know, just, let’s go there. Talk about your mission.

Michael Kivland 21:43
Yeah, our mission really is to bring the best cup of coffee we can to people’s to coffee consumers mouths, you know, or their palates, for a better term. But with that, we don’t want to compromise any of our inherent values as people. So we try to be very altruistic. So whether it’s social responsibility at origin. By supporting the communities that grow and harvest our coffees, we also want to be traceable to that origin. So we want to know the farmer that grows our coffee, not just general region. So for example, we were lucky enough to have a coffee scored very highly this week by a producer in Columbia named Sebastian Ramirez. So like we’re very tight to that farmer now he knows that we can really roast and showcase his coffee to the masses, to coffee connoisseurs. And we also try to be sustainable, not try to be we are sustainable. We recycle used bags, if returned to us. We plant a tree in every for every bag sold, we plant a tree in a coffee growing region. So today, we’ve planted over, you know, 5500 trees in Kenya and in Ethiopia on the wrong coast. Guys, these are mangrove plantations. So they really protect against erosion. So we’re really making a difference. And, you know, we support our communities through charitable efforts. Through our time, we support teachers by doing events, you know, in the spring, throughout the year, donating coffee, etcetera. So we really try through every step of the chain, from sourcing to roasting to, you know, even end use products like our bag, be sustainable, be traceable and be socially responsible, and we want to respect the producers. Excuse me, one. Want to showcase the producers put a lot of hard work into their product. Yeah, growing and coffee is not an easy job. It’s a lot of manual labor. It’s in very intensive work, from start to finish, from growing that cherry to harvesting it. So we want to put in just as much time showcasing it and representing that hard work as best as we can, and showcasing that bean. And often when you do that, when you try to put it in as much effort as the producer does, you really taste it in the cup as a consumer, as Kevin’s doing now. So absolutely

Curt Anderson 24:02
love. It. So, hey, Dan, I’m going to pull up their website. We got a couple comments, yeah,

Damon Pistulka 24:06
we got a couple comments. Kim Lewis stopped by and said, Good morning. Happy Friday. Thanks for stopping by, Kim. We had Martin stopping by. Greetings from Ghana. Thanks for stopping by today. Martin and Diane buyer with another comment, thanks. Diane, know the farmer, really appreciate that mindset, and that is so cool that you can go right back to the farmer, not just the region, like you said, you know that. You know that that person, that family, that village, that’s where it came from. That’s cool stuff.

Curt Anderson 24:37
Yeah, and Michael totally, completely unapologetic about how dedicated he is to sustainability. I tell you, it’s very inspiring. He takes it to a whole different level. So let’s grab, let me grab our website here,

Damon Pistulka 24:48
and I’ve gotta imagine those long term relationships like that really get, you know, I mean, they they count. They count when you’re doing things like, like you’re trying to do and and, you know. So you a long term relationship, probably means you get their best effort. You get their best products, because they know that you truly appreciate them and appreciate what their products.

Michael Kivland 25:12
Yeah, it’s a two way street. It’s a mutualistic relationship. You know, they know we’re investing in the roast, dedicating as much effort and time as they are to their investing micro lot or in their farm, their plantation, yeah, if they know we’re putting in as much work as they are, it’s definitely mutual, mutualistic and beneficial relationship for both of us.

Damon Pistulka 25:31
Yeah, yeah. And

Michael Kivland 25:34
consistent, like, consistency is crucial, you know, year over year, if I know someone’s investing in their farm, investing in their plantation or micro lot, investing in their processes, and they know we’re doing the same, we’re gonna be able to have a consistent product, consistent cup, you know, year over year, Crop Over crop. Mm,

Curt Anderson 25:51
hmm. So Michael, let’s go here and Damon, like, Alright, dude, first off, take a look at this website. Is this thing absolutely phenomenal? Or what? Right, that’s cool. Yes, who created this website? Yes, I’m pretty sure Michael did. Michael created the website on his own, man like this thing, yeah, so, so Mike Flinn, I’ll be coming to you in a minute, but when Michael and Kevin reach out to IMEC, they do amazing work, helping little as Mike said, you know, 1000s of entrepreneurs and manufacturers in Illinois. So we come in and, like, I’m looking at the website, I’m like, Dude, what on earth are we going to do for this guy? Like, this thing is fierce. So Michael, talk a little bit about the website. Let’s walk through it. I want to talk about your product. Let’s take a little tour of the website here.

Michael Kivland 26:39
Sure. So, you know, you land on that video of, like, kind of our production us in the middle, like a production run there, you know, de stoning beans and bagging beans and whatnot. But we have a couple different offerings. So we have our blends, and then we have our single origins. So the difference between a blend and a single origin, a blend is a blend of origins. So you could have a Brazilian, Colombian Guatemalan bean all in one bag, right? And a single origin is just going to be one origin roasted on its own, to showcase that origin, that farm, that region, on its own. So our single origins are going to be a little more COVID In, a little more exclusive, a little more pricey, that one, that Sebastian Ramirez, one I was alluding to earlier, right there to your right. Curt, that got a 97 review rating on coffee review, which I believe is honest review they’ve given this year to a coffee

Curt Anderson 27:30
I’m sorry I didn’t I’m bad hearing Michael. What was that number?

Michael Kivland 27:32
Again, 97 out of 107

Curt Anderson 27:35
so Mike Flinn, I can tell you on my report card, I never got a 97 so let’s give a round of applause for Michael and Kevin bringing the 97 that man that is could and they just, and you just got it this week.

Michael Kivland 27:46
You said, right, yeah, two days ago. So two days ago to really market it yet. That’s how fresh it is. We’re still working on our marketing of that, but I can share it on here. So that’s the type of single origin beans we get. Very COVID, very, you know, very COVID, you know, very, excuse me, talented producers like Sebastian growing the beans and so that’s kind of our single origin menu, whereas our blend menu is going to be more coveted towards masses. So you’re gonna have a light, a medium, a dark roast that people can appreciate, gravitate towards, however their palate likes their coffee. We have our espresso, which is very popular for people pulling shots. We have a couple cold brew options in Cannon bag. And then we have a mushroom coffee, which is tremendously popular for people in a more holistic approach to their, you know, daily coffee ritual, where they want some of those mushroom extracts to fuel them beyond the caffeine. So we really have something for everybody in terms of coffee, from the high end coffee connoisseur to a person who just wants an all day drinking medium roast,

Curt Anderson 28:47
absolutely and what we welcome, encourage, invite everybody to do you know couple things here you got an opportunity. Connect with Kevin, connect with Michael on LinkedIn, course. Connect with Mike Flinn as well. While you’re at it, stop by heady cup com if you have, if you’re looking for, like, maybe some great gifts to give to your customers, your clients. What a great idea. If there’s any holidays, birthdays, anything around the corner, wonderful opportunity here to surprise family, especially with that 97 grade you gotta throw that in. And of course, we’ve got you can sign up for their email just to see what the latest and greatest is going on at heady cup. So let’s go. Let’s talk Michael, let’s talk Michael, let’s talk a little bit about sustainability again, like we’ve got it right here. Anything else that you want to hit that you haven’t already covered, you talk about the planning trees, anything else that you want to mention here

Michael Kivland 29:30
in terms of sustainability, besides the bag recycling, I will say, on a personal level, I am Illinois districts, nine congressional lobbyists. It’s a volunteer position, so I go to Washington once a year, and I meet with a congresswoman, my Congresswoman to engage on, you know, lobby. I lobby on behalf of the climate. So I’m the Group liaison leader. We grow with like a team of six, and we it’s non partisan. We’re not political in any way. We’re volunteers, all of us. And we just really go with our best foot forward, trying to lobby for the best non partisan climate bills that are currently in Congress or in the house or being discussed. And then in December, we meet as well virtually, but that’s something that I carry with me every day. So you know, the sustainability stuff is not a talking point. It’s something at the forefront of our minds, like I said throughout all the stuff of all of our coffee roasting sourcing processes. Well,

Curt Anderson 30:27
absolutely love it. And mom here, Kath, let’s, let’s get you back on stage. I know you guys do a bunch of events, anything that we want, you want to share, as far as, like, you know you have a storefront your events like that, face to face as the roaster. Like, how rewarding is that when you just see people just really just cherishing your coffee, your masterpiece?

Speaker 1 30:45
Yeah, so that’s that’s honestly what heavy cups kind of all about. There’s a term in coffee. It’s called the aha moment when I was describing having that Brazil and Ethiopian coffee and just my eyes opening to the different flavors coming off of them. That’s something that we get the benefit of showing the customers every weekend when we’re out at markets, sampling our coffees, and then also when folks stop into our shops. So that’s kind of what heavy cups all about. We only bring in specialty grade coffee. So we’re trying to bring in, like, the highest quality coffee that a lot of people have ever tasted, and may will ever taste, and then also the roasting aspect of it too. So we’re always trying to fine tune the roasting and bring out the highest or the best attributes of those coffees. So as far as the coffee goes, you know, within our cart, when we have our espresso cart out there, we’re always aiming to serve our best espresso, our Nitro Cold Brew, we think is probably the best out there in the market right now as well. And then our menu those single origin coffees, we rotate them with the harvest schedule, so you’re always going to have the freshest, highest quality coffee available to you.

Curt Anderson 31:57
Excellent and love it. And I think what a great way for an entrepreneur, a lot of times it’s, you know, for introverts, you know, if somebody’s introverted, you know, a lot of, Mike Flynn, you know, a lot of times encountering entrepreneurs, you know, one of the deficits is, you know, they’re, they’re manufacturing a wonderful product, but, man, they’re just not the great getting out there. And I think what I really admire with these guys, they are just relentless getting their product and being out there all over the place. Mike Flynn, let’s come to you for a minute. So folks that are joining us, I know we’re over the top of the hour, so if you just joined us, we’ve got Michael Kevin here. We’ve got Kevin, Kevin Foglesong, and they are heady cup coffee roasters. We’re having a great conversation on two entrepreneurs just celebrating their two year anniversary. We’ve got Mike Flinn from the from IMEC, the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Partnership. That was a mouthful, Mike, I’m going to pull up your website real quick. So for manufactured like these guys here, you know, lots of manufacturing. We’re thinking metal. We’re thinking steel like it’s food, it’s drink, it’s coffee, it’s all sorts of different. I mean, you know, pun intended. You deal with all sorts of different flavors of manufacturing. Talk a little bit about what IMEC does. I want to pull up your website. I know, like you have an extensive menu on how you help manufacturers. Let’s go there, please. Yeah,

Michael Flinn 33:11
yeah. I’m glad to do that. So, yeah, we’re again, we want to be the one stop shop for small businesses in the state. So, you know, small businesses just like, you know, heavy cups, just a great example. I think this is now our second project with them. But they came to us, you know, early on in their in their journey on a small business, and so we’ve done a couple things with them. They’ve been blessed to work with you. Curt, you know, I always talk about your ecosystem, you know. And you do a project with clients, you know, you bring them into not just the project itself, but, you know, even steps beyond that and bring them into the ecosystem, or other people that’ll be interested in helping them or need to be helped. So I love that. So yeah, we have, first of all, we have regional managers located around the state. So if a client’s interested in working with us, they can get on this website and and take a look and find the right regional manager, or you can reach out to me and I can get you plugged in here. Yeah, so, you know, we’re over 30% now the small businesses in the state of Illinois, we do a couple surveys. One is at the end of a project, and one is about six to 12 months after project ends. And we want to know, hey, what was the impact on your business? You know, in terms of increased sales or increased jobs, or retained sales jobs, investments. And so this is just some data, recent data from 2024 but you can see, you know, number of jobs and number of companies that we assisted, we’re up over 3000 now. So that’s over 30% of the state of Illinois, small businesses. And then who can argue with the 19 one. Roi, yeah, so clients get exposed and like, you know, you know, just like Michael and Kevin work to you and they see the value, then they’re going to want to participate more. And we love to partner with those clients and help them, so we can bring resources like you. But we also have other partners out there, and we have our own internal. Resources too. Sometimes grants are available. Other times they’re not. But anything a small business needs in those six pillar areas, which is on the website, we will do the best that we can to help meet meet their needs. So yeah, that’s us.

Curt Anderson 35:14
Absolutely love it, and all sorts of client success stories. So again, if you’re a manufacturer, you’re in Illinois, boy, please do yourself a favor. Reach out to Mike. Reach out to anybody. IMEC, if you’re a manufacturer in another state, you’re like, hey, wait a minute. I’m not in Illinois. Guess what? There’s a manufacturing extension partnership in your state. Strongly encourage you, invite you, welcome you. Check out your MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership. And as Mike said, they do all sorts of just wonderful resources helping manufacturers. Michael, what was your experience? What did you What do you think of IMEC and the team at the MEP in Illinois, like,

Michael Kivland 35:48
like Mike said, One Stop Shop. I mean, they made everything very easy, everything they promised. They followed through on, you know, we we’ve had nothing but a success story so far. Like Curt, you and I had a great meetings for the four or so months we were together, helped me along, for sure. And that would have never been possible without ImEx, you know, bridging us or bringing us together. So tremendously thankful for, you know, IMEC granting, literally granting us a grant, and helping us along here, and then, you know, looking forward to what we do this next session, because if it’s as fruitful as the first one, I’m excited, you know, I for all that, yeah,

Curt Anderson 36:26
we’ve got a lot to me, and these guys are aggressive. We’ve got our work cut out for us here. Mike Flinn, so I Mike, let Michael, let’s go here as a new entrepreneur. I My question for you is, what was one of the biggest surprises as you got into as an entrepreneur, what was something that you really didn’t anticipate, didn’t expect anything, and it could be on the upside, like a positive expectation, or maybe maybe a little bit of a bigger challenge, what was one of the biggest, one of the biggest surprises that you ran into as an entrepreneur?

Michael Kivland 36:57
You know, I’m like, I’m not pessimistic person, but this is going to have a negative slant. I would say, you know, I thought it would be easier than it was to break into, like new either existing cafes or new business would open up faster than it did. That’s probably being, probably me, being naive as an entrepreneur, as a first timer, because we’ve had a grind, and like we do have a giant wholesale business now, and online business now, and presence, but we had to work for it. And you know, looking back, I wouldn’t want it any other way now, yeah, but you know, day one, when the when the the gun fired, I thought it would have come a little easier, more natural, and people would have been reaching out to us, not the other way around, but you gotta work for it. You gotta pavement. You gotta make calls. You gotta make more calls and hit more pavement. So that’s what we’ve done. And but I think day one, I would have said, Oh, this is going to be a little it’s going to come to us a little more than it has, yeah. But like I said, looking back, it’s we’ve had to cut our teeth. We’ve learned, developed a lot of skills having to earn the business the way we have, and we’ve earned it the right way, through through good quality product and through good customer service, which is how I want to earn it. I didn’t want anything given to us looking back. So that would be my answer. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 38:14
I love it. What? And do you feel that your corporate career like your sales career? Do you think that that was a huge benefit to you coming in as an entrepreneur? I do.

Michael Kivland 38:25
I do. I think a lot of people that get into these, you know, I wouldn’t call this a passion project for Kevin and I, but it was a, it’s a passion of Kevin’s, and it became a project, you know, it became a business. But we both had backgrounds where I was used to cold calling people. I was used to the word no. I was used to following up. I was used to turning that no and do a yes. And I think, and I was used to treating my customers well, you know, buying them gifts, taking care of their needs, anticipating their needs, things of that nature. And I think sometimes people that get into passion projects may not have that backbone. May not have that customer service background, that that willingness to be told no, or that willingness to be yelled at someday, that, you know, all your customers problems are your fault, etcetera. So I had that back. I was in construction, so a very aggressive industry, you know, union construction in the city of Chicago, pretty cutthroat job. So I was used to waking up at 530 answering difficult phone calls. You know, never was a call at 530 in the morning a good phone call. So, oh yeah, you know what I mean, that one’s not going to be good, good or bad news. So I think with that background, tremendously helpful. I don’t know where we would be without it, to be honest. And I think it gives us a legs up, excuse me, a leg up on someone who just got into coffee, starting with coffee, and only knowing that, or only knowing a cafe, because to me, that’s not truly the real world in my in my experience. Yeah,

Curt Anderson 39:59
would I. What I really admire about you and Kevin Michael, is that you guys have a, if I’m not mistaken, I think, like a four prong approach, where, and again, for the entrepreneur that wants to open up the retail store, and they’re great at marketing, let’s just get foot traffic. Foot traffic, you know, great way to go. You guys are like on the offensive, like you’re playing offense, like, you know, baseball, right? Squeeze buns, suicide, squeeze plays, that’s like you’re out there with a coffee truck, you’re out there knocking on doors, you have a wholesale strategy. Talk a little bit. I love geeking out with you. So Damon, we have our little like, rounding the bases exercise, like our singles, doubles, triples, home runs. Just talk about, like, what are what? Like, what does that mean to you? Like, what are what? Some singles, doubles, triples and home runs that we’re looking to attack without giving away any secret sauce, but just talk a little bit about these, these bases that we’re trying to attack.

Michael Kivland 40:45
So as Curt, so, you know, a lot of our conversations somehow dealt into baseball. So all about baseball, man. So we talked about successes being related to a single, double, triple, home run. Curt and I so and then Kevin and I brought this to Kevin. We kind of discussed what’s a single to heady cup. So a single heady cup is like a sale to a new time small volume cafe or a new coffee cart, right? A double would be a little higher volume cafe, maybe a country club, maybe a high end restaurant, high end Cafe that’s bringing a little more volume. A triple to us we discussed would be like, you know, $1,000 online day, because we do have an online link to our business, and then maybe a really high volume cafe, or getting a beer done with them, a brewery, which we’ve done a couple times. And then a home run would be like, an, you know, 30,000 or, excuse me, a Grand Slam would be a 30,000 bag order, etc, something really exponentially great for the business. And we’ve had a couple doubles this week, with the 97 rating and the online sales that that’s generated. And then last week, here’s a pretty good success story. Curt, last week, we had a cafe that we only supplied one blend to, and they had a full menu. So they had, we had one blend out of like four blends on their menu. So they had their we call it the aroma. We’ll call it just the heady roast, right? Heady roast. They had their house roast, and then they had their espresso blend. Well, she had a grinder go down, and she didn’t like the bean that this new, or her existing coffee roaster had been sending her. So an employee of mine, Curtis, more than an employee, you know, a right hand man of mine. Curtis and I went over to the cafe. We brought her a grinder, and we brought her beans, and we literally, they were so busy while we were dial or while we were setting up this grinder, and bring her these new beans that we looked at her, and she didn’t have she had staff call out sick. So Curtis and I just started working the line, making her for taking orders, make taking orders, making drinks. Oh, wow. High end cafe, yeah. The next day, we had her full business. I dropped off espresso beans. She got rid of the House rose so we took over the cafes, entire lineup of beans. And I had been working on her for years, since we opened. She was one of the first cold calls I made. I got told, and then we got in a role, excuse me, a heady roast with her. And that was slowly brought on, you know, and then to finally get that business was truly it was a two year process. We earned it through hard work. We earned it through our customer service. Like I said. So, pretty cool success story. Alright,

Curt Anderson 43:21
we’re going to, we’re going to take a mic when we call, when we have these, we call them like moment of silence. We’re going to take a moment of silence just kind of savor that one. Yeah, drop the mic. Michael, that was phenomenal. Couple things I wanted for folks out there that maybe you’re in a corporate career, or you’re thinking about your entrepreneurial story, you know what? What’s a great theme today, resiliency. You know, you have to take no. You have to have the thick skin, the be immune to the word no, to be a successful entrepreneur. And I love what you did is you stepped in this what this woman was in trouble, and you could have just like, hey, here you go. Good luck. I’ll see you later. You guys stuck in there? I’m reading the book right now, and you’re not going to be talking about this. We’re working together. It’s called unreasonable hospitality, unreasonable and I strongly encourage Damon, I think everybody should read this book. That’s exactly what you did, Michael, was unreasonable hospitality, and it probably never even crossed your mind, like we can’t leave, like we have to stay here right now and help this woman, right? Yeah. And

Michael Kivland 44:21
people know us in the community, so they’re like, is she serving? How do you cut now? Is heady cup being served? There you go. At that point we were stuck. We’re like, oh, we gotta give these people what they want. You know that’s yeah. Well, hey,

Curt Anderson 44:31
God bless you. You

Damon Pistulka 44:33
know, the other thing I think about when you talk about how many no’s it takes, I actually think being a baseball player helps you, because you know anyone that’s ever played baseball knows that you’re going to walk back to that dugout after batting an awful lot before you get a good hit.

Curt Anderson 44:50
That’s right, right? If you strike out seven out of 10 times, seven out of 10 times, you’re a Hall of Famer, right? Yeah, you know. So that’s a good way. Look at it. Kevin, let’s come at you, man, as you’ve jumped into entrepreneurship, we’re talking, you know, we’re talking about a little bit some of the challenges. What are some of the things that you’re super fired up, excited about, like, what you jump out of bed every morning? Let’s talk. Let’s go there. What’s really what has you fired up as you’re moving forward,

Kevin Foglesong 45:17
the opportunity, honestly, to to serve our community with with a new experience, something they’ve never had before, and bringing the best coffee they’ve ever had to them. So previously I lived I lived in Chicago, so I had the opportunity to visit some local cafes and roasters where I was able to have that kind of experience. Where we’re located right now is kind of a special specialty coffee desert. So this community, for a lot of people, it’s their first experience tasting some like really high end, really impactful coffees. So that’s what gets me going every day, is just knowing that that’s what we’re pumping out of this place. And again, that’s been justified. Just within this last week, we’ve got some national recognition on on one of our coffees. That’s really given us the confidence to go out there and really tout like, Hey, this is the best coffee you guys are ever going to have. And we honestly believe that. So getting up every day and getting to work towards that and getting to work on that is what gets me going every day, for sure.

Curt Anderson 46:20
Awesome, man. I tell you what you know, when you have your dream come to reality, get this business off the ground. Man, you just must be absolutely thrilled, father to be what an exciting time. Mike Flinn, what a privilege it is for you to have a front row seat working with you know, like you said, hundreds of manufacturers. Your thoughts, your takeaways. We’ll start winding down here. What are your thoughts on, on working with heady cup here?

Michael Flinn 46:42
Well, I it’s just, you know, anytime we can help anybody. You know, it’s just fantastic. You know, you talked about perseverance. Curt, but the other thing that I think is really important, it came out in this hospitality thing. It’s about relationships, right? It’s about knowing people that you can tap into and can be tapped into four others, right? It’s about relationships, and you set that up here with with what you do at B to B TAIL, other partners of ours do the same thing, but it just Michael and Kevin are just leveraging you and that expertise the ecosystem I talked about before. But it’s really about just knocking those walls down, taking steps forward, having a vision for where you want to go, and then just, you know, be enabled along that vision by people that can help you so, and they’re doing it right? It two years, right? And we’ve done a couple projects with them already, and we want to do 20 more with you guys,

Curt Anderson 47:35
right? So, alright, we’re going to start, I get, I could keep you guys here all day. You’ve got, you know, you’ve got mouths to not feed, but to service right. And so we want to get you guys going, Michael, as we’re coming in great way to connect with you again, we’re getting you cooking on LinkedIn. You guys are on social. Go to your website, any other places that folks can find you to connect with you.

Michael Kivland 47:57
You know, Instagram, YouTube, all the normal channels. We’re on our website. Email you. You bother me. Call me anything. I’ll my phone works, as I say, Curt, so Right? My phone still works. A lot of the society’s phone doesn’t work anymore, but I still answer my phone. So you can find a heady cup literally anywhere in our local community out here in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, we try to be everywhere at once, to Kevin’s chagrin, sometimes, but you know, we stay busy. And you know, online, like I said, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, all that is where probably the best places to find us. LinkedIn, as Curt said, Curt, got me on LinkedIn. I’m building that out. We’re going to have more, way more of a presence on LinkedIn here. The next couple weeks, I’ve been dedicating myself, Curt as you wanted me to, to mastering the LinkedIn domain. So I would say for folks on here, that’s a that’s a great spot to start checking refreshing helicop Michael, COVID page for any heady cup news here in the next couple

Curt Anderson 48:56
weeks. Excellent. And Hey, David, we got a couple comments we’ll pull up real quick. And then we got two last questions for the guys. We’re going to go around the horn. So go

Damon Pistulka 49:05
ahead. Yeah, we got Pavon stopped by. He said this Friday has been eventful with engaging conversations. Delighted to have watched your live. Well, thank you, Pavon, for giving us that awesome comment and stopping by. Diane buyer dropped in once again. Thank you so much. Diane IMEC, love our MEPs. Yes, we do, Diane, they’re out there helping these manufacturers, day in and day out, compete and do better. Thanks, Diane and Pavon for dropping those comments. Curt, let’s get going here

Curt Anderson 49:36
two, two rapid fire questions. I’m going to go around the horn, and this time they will be the same question. So Michael, I’ll start with you, my friend, Michael, best business advice that you’ve ever received that you’d like to pass along to folks is you’ve got this business off the ground for two years. Best business advice that you want to pass along? Well, that’s

Michael Kivland 49:54
a good one. I’m going to stick with the advice that I use personally too. You don’t climb the mountain. You are the mountain. Well, that’s, that’s my favorite, that one more time you don’t climb the mountain, you are the mountain. Yep, climb

Curt Anderson 50:07
the mountain. Alright, let’s, let’s, let’s savor that one for a moment. Kevin, my friend, I’m coming at you best business advice that you’ve received that you would like to pass along to folks.

Speaker 1 50:18
Yeah, I don’t think it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it tried and true. Treat every customer like they’re your only customer. You know, ultimately they end up being your best advocates, and they end up doing a lot of the marketing and advertising for you if you treat them right. So that’s something that that we try to do, is people drop in here. We try to definitely like take them through the shop and make sure that everyone feels welcome in here, and then obviously give them the best product too, to keep them coming back. But that’s something that I’ve always lived by, and again, I think it’s a try and true method to stand by

Curt Anderson 50:52
phenomenal vice David, hey, Harry’s dropped a note here. Yeah, Harry dropped

Damon Pistulka 50:56
another comment or Harry, thanks so much. Said great show, lots of great mic drops, pun intended. And Kevin, congratulations, as a father of two, here he is being in coffee will serve you well. You’re going to learn what no sleep. That’s really look like. You might have thought that when you were younger, but you have no idea until you go through that

Curt Anderson 51:21
coffee will serve you very well. My friend Mike, how about can you share with folks best business advice that you’ve ever received that you’d like to pass along?

Michael Flinn 51:30
I’m going to share two. One is the customer may not always be right, but the customer is the customer. So we have to have a service attitude right in meeting their needs and they get that relationship and establish a moment of trust. The other one is progressive improvement beats postponed perfection. So sometimes we just slow down and don’t move forward, just like what Kevin shared. And and Michael, you know they, they move forward, right? And, and look what’s happening now. So that’s just couple. Those are awesome.

Michael Kivland 52:02
Taking one or rust pipe. You know, that’s what you gotta keep it moving. Man,

Curt Anderson 52:06
that was alright. Drop the mic there. Mike. Flinn, that was awesome. Drop, drop the mic. Flinn. Damon, how’s that? Drop the mike. Flinn, so Alright, my last question, we’re going to close things out being baseball fans. Michael, I’m coming at you. You know, should I or should I go to, I’ll go to, Michael, I’m going to Michael. So alright, being baseball fans that you are, and there’s a funny backdrop to these guys, and I’ll see if it, if it ties in with this question. So, Michael, I have a hypothetical for you. Okay, just a hypothetical. Now, are you cubs guy? Are you Sox?

Michael Kivland 52:33
I’m cubs, Kevin’s Cardinals. So it’s, it’s,

Curt Anderson 52:36
oh, we got, alright, alright. So, alright. So, Michael, I’m coming at you ready? Okay, so the cubs are playing the Cardinals. The cubs are playing the Cardinals. It’s a bottom of the ninth, home. Yeah, go on, yeah, there’s, there’s a guy on second base. Okay, guy inside. Hey. Aaron reads here. Damon, grab that. Grab that

Damon Pistulka 52:54
guy. Aaron dropped the comment here. Thanks so much, Aaron. All good pieces of advice. The smiling face. Thanks for stopping by day. Aaron

Curt Anderson 53:02
man, she was just on the show two weeks ago. Mike Flynn, she’s with the Rhode Island MEP, uh, Polaris, she was phenomenal. So okay, so we asked Aaron, I think, this question. So Michael cubs, are playing the Cardinals bottom of night, there’s a guy on second base. Okay? Ty, score by night. Two outs. Guy in second base. We need the winning run. Okay? Manager looks on the bench and says, Hey, Michael, grab your helmet, grab your bat, get to the plate. Hit in the winning run. You with me? Mm, hmm. Grab your helmet. You grab your bat. You’re walking to the plate. As you walk to the plate, what’s your walk up song? I

Michael Kivland 53:43
protect your neck by the Wu Tang Clan.

Curt Anderson 53:44
I knew you were gonna go there. I knew you’re gonna do that. So alright, Michael, tell these guys why you i There’s a little history with the Wu Tang Clan between you two, right?

Michael Kivland 53:54
Yeah. Well, we met over a love of Wu Tang Clan. I think we both did school to buy the Wu Tang album. So that’s Oh, wow, yeah. But the reason I answer that, that’s my son’s walk up song, that’s your son’s walk up. That’s his walk up song. And the day he changed that walk up song, he hit his first home run. Oh, wow, nice. That would forever be my walk up song going forward.

Curt Anderson 54:16
So yeah, that is hysterical. Kevin, what’s your walk up song, my friend,

Speaker 1 54:20
I was gonna go like a classic thunderstruck. Thunderstruck.

Curt Anderson 54:26
Alright, so we got Wu Tang, we got AC DC. Mike Flynn, you’re walking to the plate hitting that when he run. What’s your walk up song? My friend, you know,

Michael Flinn 54:34
when I was playing baseball, we didn’t have walk up songs because the transistor radios couldn’t get loud enough, right? Yeah, I love music, but I also honestly wouldn’t be a song. I just I’d be praying to myself, yeah? So, yeah, don’t have a walk up sign, yeah,

Curt Anderson 54:55
prayer on the way to the plate. So awesome. Alright, so we’ve got AC DC. We got Bucha. Hang we’ve got a little prayer in the way that played. So guys, thank you for playing my little game. So all right, we’re going to wind down and so first off, a heartfelt thank you to our esteemed panel here today. I’ve got a big round of applause for Michael, for Kevin, for Mike Flynn. So again, do us a favor. Connect with these guys on LinkedIn. Go to heady cup coffee. Drop a man. Grab your credit card. Just buy a friend, just coffee. Buy some a loved one. Somebody went to high school with, somebody played little league with, you know, 3040, years ago. Buy them a little coffee. Connect with your local MEP. Again, we’ve got Aaron here from the MEP, David, she dropped another note here. What’s

Damon Pistulka 55:37
that? Aaron, Aaron, thanks for the other comment. You second comment you dropped. That is incredible commitment to your customer. Thanks so much. Aaron, from dropping the comment we will, yeah, good stuff.

Curt Anderson 55:48
Alright, so we’re going to wind down. So Michael, thank you. Kevin, thank you. Mike Flynn, thank you. Connect with these guys on LinkedIn. Check out their websites. And Damon, we’ll close this out. And I just want to say, go out there and just be someone’s inspiration, just like these guys, and you will make the world a better place, just like they’re doing on a daily basis. Damon, I’m going to ask Michael, Kevin, Mike Flinn, hang out with us for a second. But Damon, why don’t you go ahead and close us

Damon Pistulka 56:14
out? Alright, well, thanks everyone for being here today. Everyone drop the drop in the comments. We appreciate you being here. Love it when you drop the comments and we can show them on screen. We can share them with the people. Share your thoughts, share your questions, ask the people so much fun for us to be able to interact like that when we’re having the shows. If you came in on this late, you want to go back to the beginning. Watch it all the way through, because there’s tons of great stuff from Michael and Kevin and Mike from IMEC, Michael from Heady Cup, Kevin from Heady Cup. And last but not least, you want to make sure to go to heady cup.com and get yourself some of that good coffee. They just got one that listened to this Joe they got that was rated 97 on the on the by some of the coffee rating. I don’t even know who did it, but if it’s rated 97 if it’s anything like wine, you need to get there and get some of that. But thanks everyone for being here. We appreciate you, even if you didn’t comment today, thanks. We’ll be back again next week. Have a great weekend. Everyone. You.