Show Notes
Coffee and Ecommerce lovers!
We had a great time sitting down with Nik, owner of Bucci Coffee Co.
Nik started Bucci Coffee from his interest in artisanal food and beverages and their focus is currently on brewing the world’s finest organic specialty cold brew coffee for households and businesses, with mail order distribution anywhere in the United States.
Christian actually ordered some of the coffee and was blown away with how smooth it was (He isn’t even a coffee drinker)
Nik also allowed us to peel back the curtain and share some of his numbers for the business… this is where you can gather a lot of insight.
You’re doing to learn these three things and more on today’s episode
- Nik’s approach on sustainability + tips on shipping across the U.S.
- How to personalize your brand online and make your customer come back again and again.
- How Nik improvised and persevered to build his own brewing equipment
- Want to know the 5 keys to successfully growing and scaling your Ecomm business? We created a free 15-minute training where you can get instant access here: https://www.optimizedstoreowner.com/ecomm-training
Connect with Bucci Coffee Co.
Connect with us
Transcript
Narrator [00:00:01] This is the marketing matrix providing actionable ways to grow, improve and succeed in your business and now your host Christian and Aaron.
Aaron [00:00:15] Hey, Nick, thanks so much for jumping on to an episode of the marketing native's superexcited to hear more about you guys and the coffee.
Nick [00:00:24] Yeah, thanks, Aaron Christian, good to meet you guys on Zoom happy to do it. Looking forward to it.
Aaron [00:00:30] Awesome. So for those who do not know who you guys are, can you just give us a just kind of a brief overview of the company and kind of how you guys started?
Nick [00:00:40] Yes, so so it's it's essentially it's my business, we call it Bucci COFFEE CO, stolen from my very own last name, and they were still really small operation, but started up officially established in twenty nineteen. It's kind of been a project I've been working on since around twenty seventeen more unofficially, just kind of experimenting. But the long story short is I did some traveling and I got to know the coffee world more intimately through some people that were working in the kind of the global coffee trade level of things. And while I was traveling around that time, twenty, sixteen, twenty, seventeen. Cold Brew is getting really popular. It was kind of rolling out in Starbucks and things like that. So I was totally falling in love with cold brew specifically, and I knew that. So then when I came back from doing some travel and came back to the States, I started doing my own brewing. And it's a really simple, like simple origin story I was doing was for myself. I wanted more of it, started sampling with my friends and I had to go from bring in a mason jar to a gallon jug and then from that to a bucket, a five gallon bucket. And now we're doing like 30 gallon batches in some stainless steel kettles. So still still very small, but a really just a growing out of necessity because I keep drinking it and we found ways to get it out to cold brew and specialty called brew coffee appreciators now all around the country, which is really cool. So that's kind of where we came from and. It's mostly a one man show, mostly just me, I have some people that help me, but it is largely my just my project and yeah, but this year should probably be a pretty big year for the business. And I can talk about what that might look like. And again, what we've done last year. So if you'd like. But that's the intro.
Aaron [00:02:37] Awesome. And would you say that like the majority of the business started like there locally, so like you you just obviously source with all of your friends and everybody there locally and is a good majority of the business still local or what's the what's the e-commerce or the online version like percentage of the business right now?
Nick [00:02:55] Yeah, it definitely started locally. But I wanted I, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be effective with, like e-commerce. And I was always really like charmed by e-commerce because, you know, you're looking at your local area and you think of how many customers you can capture. And and then even my own personal network these days, we all I feel like we all know a lot of people in a bunch of different cities if you want to go to school or something. So I knew people all around the country and I always knew that I immediately wanted to like regardless of it being a tiny little little small local based business, I kind of had the e-commerce leg of it running very early on parallel to what I was doing locally here in New York. So and currently I use a lot of like almost all e-commerce tools to kind of run the business. Some of the you know, the delivering and the stuff is happening locally is probably about half and half right now, actually. So stuff that will go in the mail and go beyond state lines and then stuff that's happening directly right here in my community or, you know, it's probably more like 60 40 local here and growing more locally here, which is great. But all the while, the online e-commerce element of it is also kind of growing and doing its own thing.
Christian [00:04:15] So you do have you have you been experimenting with how you're delivering it? Because I think I mean, I went to your website and I purchased them. And I'll tell you later on, like, what were some of the things? Because technically, Aaron and I are not coffee drinkers at all. So it's kind of interesting. But have you experimented with different ways to deliver it, you know, to make it more nationally? Has there been any struggles there? How does that work for you?
Nick [00:04:46] Yeah, totally. So this business has like it changes every week, basically still, although I've kind of like I've kind of established some core offerings and and things, it's things are still constantly changing. But so if you're on the site, you ordered something, you ordered my that a particular product that's like a pouch. So it's a flexible plastic beverage pouch thing that was kind of developed for the wine industry. And so that's something that so I bounced around from bottle glass bottles, plastic bottles, these pouch things, rigid plastic dispensers, which was actually a pretty popular offering that I was doing locally local only because I would never go in the mail. So, yeah. So it's been like a ton of experimenting. This that particular pouch product is really great for a few reasons, and that definitely enabled me to lean into the like national mailing of it. Prior to that, it was very, very experimental. It was like taking glass bottles and wrapping them in a ton of bubble wrap and like crossing my fingers and and and in almost every case it worked out. But it was it wasn't really a sustainable method. And I knew that from when I was doing it. But I just kind of had to go through those motions to be able to find out the next thing. So, yeah. So I landed on on that, which works well for me. And it keeps it nice and fresh. It's it's not it's not fragile. So that's that's important, of course. And it's relatively light. So, you know, kind of some of the key attributes that you want with like a mailing type product. I think that that that particular packaging works really well for that. But yeah. So I see that being a really core product even moving forward, I feel like I kind of landed on that in a good place, some kind of working on branding that a little more and working on that specific thing. But yeah, everything kind of before this has been a bit experimental and then not really not leaning into it too heavily, knowing that in two weeks I might find something better. So I don't want to order a ten thousand quantity or I don't want to get a bunch of graphic design work done because like, I might be on to the next thing in a few weeks or a few months. So, yeah, that's that's been an interesting, iterative, experimental process.
Christian [00:07:07] That's pretty cool. That's a I think that's a good approach too, to what you're doing, especially starting out and kind of getting your feet wet with what works, what doesn't work. Like you said, like I mean, me as a graphic designer, I would fall in on like. Yeah. So it doesn't make you look beautiful and like all this, but like like how you're kind of like stepping back a little bit and saying like let's figure this out and nail it down, make sure that we actually have a product and be able to ship it correctly and and be enjoyed correctly and then kind of worry about those those other things. I think it's really cool.
Nick [00:07:38] Yeah. It's a philosophy that's born out of I mean, thinking a lot, but also out of necessity. It's kind of it keeps things cheaper in some regard, making less mistakes. So just being conservative about the way, because, again, this is it's a it's a self-funded project. As of now, I have a lot of resources that I could tap into from myself, which will which we'll talk about. I'm sure I do. So I do photography work as well. I do some graphic design work. I do some website work. So like I'm kind of this jack of all trades, which was part of my interest in small business. But yeah, it's kind of the strategies are definitely largely born out of necessity for like I can't be buying large quantities of something like I've done in small scale. I've done like, you know, you buy two hundred of these bottles and then you've packed 60 of them and you realize, like, that's not the move. You got to figure out what to do with the rest of them, maybe try to find a way to make them useful. And this is all it's all very small scale stuff. We're talking about a couple hundred dollars, maybe a thousand dollars, nothing huge. But for for me still for this business, we've got to got to watch everything and make sure it stays tight. So.
Aaron [00:08:47] Absolutely. So, I mean, more curious if we if we can stay on the packaging just for a second, because I think that you do a really good job with your description. I mean, what caught my attention was just the recyclability of that and then also the ingredients that you were using. So it seems very purposeful. Have you gotten feedback on those two things, like the packaging that you have? Because I feel like it's kind of a nuance or it's not is used as readily as what I would have. It was what I would think. And then also the the way that you kind of go about it, I think the fact that you have the fair trade, organic coffee side of things, I feel like people are going to gravitate towards you. Have you gotten feedback on both of those areas?
Nick [00:09:36] Yeah, for sure, not enough, I always love more like feedback's amazing, but I've actually I was resistant to that particular like that pouch packaging. I was pretty resistant to it for a while because I, I don't I don't totally love its esthetic. And for the longest time I was I was able to just with my local offerings, I was using things that were completely, completely reusable, not even just recyclable, reusable. So very, very sustainable. So I that's like super important for me. I'm not at no point, like, I'm always kind of keeping the sustainability of recyclability and stuff like that in mind. So I was like pleased to find out that that packaging is actually it actually is more sustainable than it may look. It's it's plastic, but it is fully recyclable. They claim that it has less of a carbon footprint than glass packaging, which I'm taking their word for it on that. I don't I don't totally understand their logic yet, but I'm also not a chemical engineer. But yeah, so I ended up trying that packaging out and then my customers were were actually very intrigued by it. And and again, it's born out of function. It's not it's not necessarily like I'm not doing it because it's esthetically perfect for what I want to do. But it is actually probably the most perfect package to protect the coffee and allow it to get shipped in a box to you anywhere in the country. So it's like checks that box, if I could get it to work for me esthetically and like, look and feel lies. And if my customers are vibing with it, then then that's great. And so that's kind of how I ended up leaning into that, where I started sending a few of those out and where I wasn't I wasn't sure what feedback I'd get. And then I hear, oh, this is actually really cool packaging. I've never really seen it. It's convenient. It works well. It's intuitive for me to use. And I was like, oh, great, that's a great sign. That was kind of the one part I wasn't sure about. So. So, yes, I have gotten good feedback. That's why I've kind of kept it around. And it's still isn't even a fully branded version of where I want to take it. But it's getting there is getting closer, as I kind of confirm that it's working well for me and working well for my customers, kind of even like just from the back end side, I'm going to be placing much larger orders, getting better pricing on it, being able to maybe work my prices down and then again apply some good graphics to it and things like that. So that's kind of where I'm at with it.
Christian [00:12:05] How did yah? I guess I mean, you've like coffee for for a long time, but and you kind of mentioned traveling and then you've mentioned the photography kind of graphics, maybe website background a little bit. How does that all come together and at what point do you realize, like, OK, I want to start my own business and do this? I don't know. Are you doing a full time actually, or is this kind of like a still.
Nick [00:12:31] Not totally full time spent about half my time.
Christian [00:12:34] Gotcha. So, yes. I mean, at what point were you traveling into photography? I think you're also an engineer by trade, technically, right?
Nick [00:12:44] Yeah. yeah, I'm a I'm a strange dude.
Christian [00:12:48] I mean, I'm just trying to put everything together. How does that compare?
Nick [00:12:53] Yeah, I'll try to. Try to explain something concisely. Yeah, I was I've been addicted to traveling for a while. I'd say that's a that's a consistent thing for many, many, many years. And I was very lucky to, like, do a lot of traveling. When I was at school. I started I kind of I guess I probably got the bug, but I did a study abroad program twenty fourteen. When I was in college, I was jumping all around the U.K., Italy, a lot of Western Europe. I met a lot of cool people. So then I had this network where I wanted to get back in the world. And so I did some work and I was constantly jumping out to see people and then. Yeah, I don't know. Then I was working, I went to school for engineering, so I've always liked to build things. I've always been curious about the way things work, having a much more intimate knowledge of how things actually work. So you learn a lot of crazy stuff in that curriculum. You learn a lot of designing concepts in the very, very nitty gritty, deep down detail of things. So I think that that skill set is, like I've learned in time, that that's actually is applicable all over the place. And I was working a traditional engineering job and I actually I just found it to be a little bit narrow in scope, but it was a good job. It's like I was working in New York City who's pretty good, like couldn't complain, salaries, good, all that. But I just didn't feel very fulfilled. I'm a pretty high energy. Always like to be making things, building things and stuff like that. So I think that at that the timing was just such that I really started to fall in love with coffee. I even even just it's not always such a purely emotional step, right for me. I saw an opportunity to I'll be honest, I kind of was always monitoring the market again. I was a consumer of cold brew coffee and stuff like that. And I also specifically felt like I saw a gap in the market of a of like a real high quality, like specialty grade coffees, which again, you guys aren't big coffee drinkers. But there is this whole spectrum in coffee, just like there is beer, just like there is wine. Wine is probably the most comparable. But I just didn't see anybody doing like this elevated form of taking these like really great, high quality specialty, great coffees from all over the world, which like coffee and traveling, is very, very linked in its own way. If you've ever had a cup of coffee in America, it's never been produced in America. We don't grow any coffee. So the coffee that ends up in every single cup which America we drink a lot of coffee, billions and billions of dollars worth. It's it's a global market from the second year, brewing it, grinding it, doing anything with it, roasting it so that it's like a charming little element of people that work in coffee are always pretty intimately aware of the fact that it's a global industry. And so my interest in travel kind of was it would always seemed like a that was a little push for me and like, oh, there's opportunity to travel in this in this space, but you got to, like, earn your stripes with that. So I was like, I could start a little business and maybe one day I can be importing from farms that I could that I could travel to myself and learn about and do photography. And so I have I do have these very big goals for this business that kind of keep me, keep me going, keep me interested. They're big, though, and I'm not I'm not nearly there, but it's definitely like the big picture goal. And I could elaborate, but.
Aaron [00:16:37] I was going to say, I think that people are listening now. We do want to know, can you elaborate, like tell us what is the next 12 months? Or maybe you could step back first and just say, what did the last 12 months look like? And then what what are the next 12 months kind of look like?
Nick [00:16:52] Yeah. Yes, for the last 12 months, where we're really kind of just about in my head, we're largely about brand building, everything that I we I've done nearly 600 orders through my website, which is probably, again, representing about half of the half of the orders that I'm doing. Whether there's stuff happening in person. I do markets like a lot of other local small businesses. I've done a bunch of holiday markets. So I mean and then I forget that covid happened. And where we are, I guess the last 12 months were like completely unique, although they almost feel normal now. But if you evaluate them against the last the 12 months prior to that different. But yeah, it was a good it was a good year regardless. Like it was very interesting to see the way that it's different to talk about covid and small business, whatever. But I was I was linked to that. So it definitely affected the way it had me lean into e-commerce a lot more for sure. And like really try to, you know, wrestle with the importance of social media and web and my content, which I don't really like the word on website, on the website and all that. So that definitely pushed me into that direction. But I wasn't I didn't resent it, persay, although I really do. I really loved connecting with people in person with this business. And I guess I could tie that into where I want to go when when it's more available. But yeah, the last year was good. It was again, it's still small, but I feel like my philosophy is just. I try to nail every interaction, every customer interaction and just do a great job and we're not making tons of money yet or anything like that, but it's also a weird time. And I think that, you know, hopefully in the next let's say, the next 12 months, the goals would be building out a dedicated production facility to kind of get my quality, consistency and just production amount up. I have goals of kind of doing more business to business relationships locally that are consistent and kind of be a little bit of a backbone of the business. But any food and beverage thing is is directly related to the restaurant industry, the cafe industry, retail at large, which, you know, I'm not I'm not that old. I don't know where this is going. I have no idea. I'm not sure. I think anybody that pretends they know is kind of pretending. So that's the e-commerce part is going to be important. And but I also hope that the real world part of this business can can kind of flourish in this next year as well. What that might look like more specifically, again, is if, like I don't know if you guys have ever seen, like, we're exploring some things, like for the Springs office spaces, having a kegerator of my Culburra on tap, that would be like a local thing, managing with a space locally, producing keg's and dropping them off. Actually, I have a brewery locally that that puts my coffee on nitro tap, which again is kind of a less common thing, but maybe becoming more common. And I would think like companies and little brands like me will be able to enable that. I think it's a meaningful offering at a space like a brewery or a cafe or even a restaurant. And I also think that the way I like the quality of my product is I really am trying to keep it at the at the top level of coffee, cold coffee, all things coffee. I'm using really high quality ingredients because I want to be able to work with brands that I really admire, whether that's locally or regionally or nationally. They'll never be a question of whether or not the quality of what I'm making is good. It just it's it would be much more of just a logistics. And so that's what I'm trying to iron out all the. Production, logistics, things like that, the real the real engineering, if you will. It's fun. I have a lot of conversations with people that are like, oh, well, you know, you should do this, that it would be great for you. You'd probably get super swamped and blah, blah, blah is like, yeah, well, if I do that, I also need to I also need to build a factory like. So there's a couple of couple of steps here. So the way that I currently work is largely out of the home. Some production and things happen elsewhere, but that's what twenty, twenty one is going to be all about, is getting out of the house into a dedicated production production facility that full time that allows me to kind of tackle like much bigger projects, all while the direct to consumer stuff. I really want to grow relatively naturally, naturally, mostly word of mouth, and then maybe eventually working with a clever marketing type brand, maybe somebody like yourself. I'd love to hear more about what you guys do with small businesses, of course. But yeah, I also I believe in I believe in experts like I want to be the guy who's an expert at making the best Colebrook coffee in the world. And a couple other things I'm not sure that I need on my resume, like social media guru. I don't I'm not really that guy. I'm pretty good at it just because of my my age. And I was raised by computers and have pretty good intuition with these things. And I do photography and web stuff and but otherwise, I look forward to a day where I can, you know, maybe outsource some of that without without diluting the brand or any of my kind of my vision. So.
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Christian [00:23:29] How you kind of mentioned word of mouth and different things, and how have you been able to get to that 600 order mark on on the website, has everything been word of mouth or have you done any sort of marketing through social media like that?
Nick [00:23:45] It's mostly it's mostly word of mouth, but I've done I mean, other than organic marketing. I just I just posting and trying to put out stuff that I think is cool. And my customers, like I do very I've done very little paid advertising. I've probably spent I think I've spent a couple hundred dollars in the last two years, just a couple one off little ads that I might have that I might have ran on Facebook or just just like a boosted post, for example. I did some of that, but I don't. And most of it's probably not attributable to that. It's largely attributable to the fact that I, I just I have a I have an interesting network. I have a decent amount of friends who are supporting me and then and then word of mouth largely is I think the main thing that that's that's making it work for now.
Aaron [00:24:36] That I was going to say that's insanely impressive because for so many reasons, I'm actually curious if you if you're able to not necessarily share dollar amounts. But I am curious about like if you know, like your repeat customer rate or roughly that stuff. But and we can get into that. I'd be curious to hear. And I know that people who listen would be interested on that e commerce side of things, because you say it kind of nonchalantly about the six hundred orders. But I will tell you that you're focusing on probably the most important thing, which is that brand building. And because of that, people are like, hey, where you where'd you get that Buji coffee? OK, I'm going to tell a friend about this or whatever else. So I think that's very impressive and worth a kudo's, especially if you haven't spent very much in advertising to get it out there. So that just proves in advertising, I guess to clarify is is just basically gasoline or rocket fuel to something that's already working. So advertising is going to work for you because you have that backbone. So I just wanted to give you a kudos to that because it's it's very impressive to be at that and to build that kind of brand, especially so quickly.
Nick [00:25:42] I appreciate that, Aaron. It's cool to get that perspective on him. I say it nonchalantly because it kind of feels that way to me.
Aaron [00:25:49] But perception is reality, right? It's just it's it's what you know. So.
Nick [00:25:56] Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Well, so I would be. Well, I'd be happy to share. I'd love to share with you guys numbers and things the my Squarespace analytics charts, their beautiful charts. I look at them pretty often. I always feel like there's more to learn from them than I actually am when I'm looking at them. I know there's a lot of power there. Again, my background in engineering does allow me to have some sort of analytical, mathematical statistical insights into these things. But again, I know that perhaps people like you, too, can really interpret those well and know where to kind of make some tweaks. I'd be I'd love to share them with you, maybe not literally right now, but if I don't know what, there's so many numbers, what revenue, this that whatever could be insightful. I'm basically probably happy to share it to the audience, but I don't know what to.
Aaron [00:26:55] Yeah, there's just a couple of main numbers that really kind of tell the story for an e-commerce store. One of those is the store conversion rate. So how many people go to the site and then how many actually purchase? So let's look at that real quick, because.
Nick [00:27:09] Let's do it. This is going to be funny. What if I say number and it's like, wow, that's quite bad.
Aaron [00:27:16] I will not say is quite bad. I'll say there's maybe an area of improvement. Actually, the fact is, let's let's just say right now where you're at for the business, what you've told us, what we know about the business right now from online, what we've researched and what you've told us before this is that you're in a very good spot. So no matter what, there's only going to be upward. So I don't think there's any falling below. If your numbers are, let's just say for your conversion rate is bad, it's just even more impressive of your six hundred orders.
Nick [00:27:43] So that's a great perspective. Thanks for that. So let's see. I'd love to. Let's let's rattle off some numbers. I have my thing here and let's use the last 60 days because they've been kind of better. They've been pretty good for me, see. Last week, year to date or just a year, year to date,.
Aaron [00:28:12] Perfect!
Nick [00:28:13] That's a good stat. So conversion rate, is that what you're asking about?
Aaron [00:28:21] Yep, Store conversion rate?
Nick [00:28:24] Two point seven eight.
Aaron [00:28:27] Nice, so nice. It is I would say the average is about that one and a half to two percent. We try to get clients to that three percent or above. So when you actually get paid traffic there or something like that, your conversion rate will actually go up. So the fact that you have organic traffic going there and they're converting it almost three percent is impressive. The reason pay traffic converts a little bit higher is because you just shown an ad to somebody who may be interested in coffee and they're like, oh, I'm interested in coffee. I click through, I have intent. So the conversion rate goes up. So the fact you're two point seventy five, I mean, there's some things you could probably do to improve it, but that's a pretty good spot.
Nick [00:29:08] Yeah, thanks. Yeah, and admittedly, I am conscious of the fact that, you know, I look at a lot of this and I'm like, it's OK right now. And like you said, I like that terminology. Like, if I want to if and when I'm ready to kind of turn on the sales machine, I think that we could be a bit more effective. And I kind of have felt that way. And it's nice to hear that you you feel similarly. So, yeah, that's that seems like a pretty good thing, but I also I really do think there's this whole analytical side. I do both. I like I'm definitely that business owner that like sometimes I'm not looking at the dollars and cents at all, like at all. And sometimes I'm really drilled into it. It depends on that depends on what what thing I'm working on. And but I'm getting I'm getting closer to the kind of I think again, without diluting the fact that this I'm extremely passionate about this and I really just want to deliver value to people. I also think it's meaningful to like, good. So do it to more people and grow your business like grow, keep growing and without without making it feel any without making it any more of a diluted version of what it is. So yeah.
Aaron [00:30:22] Yeah, you owe it to the people because I mean, you just told us earlier that you create the best cold brew coffee in arguably hopefully in the world soon enough. And you're basically doing a disservice if it's so, you're doing a disservice if you don't share it to more people, really. One other one other big number who want to know about is your average order value. What is that number usually, however, or so far year to date.
Nick [00:30:49] Thirty seven.
Aaron [00:30:51] OK, so there's an area you can make some money then you really want to, as an e-commerce business, really want to hover to get to that at least that fifty dollar part or the fifty dollar range. And that means that typically people are buying your power to see what Christian did. He bought your pouch. That's probably what people are doing is buying the thirty dollar pouch. So one other option could be to either give more value, I would add more value and say, hey, this amount or buy this pouch and get this in addition to it for a great deal or free shipping or whatever that may be. But if they're already going to come, I would try to get as much out of Christian as possible because it's going to be adding more value to him and he's going to experience a different part of the brand and more than likely going to come back because of that. So he bought the pouch. Maybe he buys something else. Maybe he tries the new or the Brazil or Africa African gray Beilby.
Nick [00:31:53] Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, go ahead.
Nick [00:31:57] No, I hear you. That's interesting. Again, that number to me is never it's never meant too much. I look at it. Thirty seven. It makes sense because of course I see all my orders. Some of them are fifty, some of them are twenty five. And that's how you get thirty seven roughly. But yeah that, that's, that's a cool insight that you guys feel like fifty is a is a is a good number and makes sense. Of course you want to be because each interaction, each order takes time and stuff like that. So yeah that, that's interesting. I wonder if I did a larger I think that's generally what the number hovers around has been for a long time.
Aaron [00:32:36] OK, well that's good and as far as like in I guess the most important number after this one. So there's a couple of things. One, you want to get new customers, obviously, but then you want them to come back multiple times and you want them to buy more. But really, if you look at it this way, getting new customers is a priority. But it's really secondary to getting those customers to come back more often and to buy more every time that they come. If you do those two things, you're going to be successful because your business could just grow organically and they come back and actually purchase more often. So. Right. The last important number, I guess, that I would be curious to know is what your repeat customer rates are like. Let's say, say, Christian base today. Obviously, we're in the middle of I guess it's March first down. I was thinking February. It's March now. When when on average is he going to come back? And from your knowledge and then what's your customer retention rate like your return rate basically.
Nick [00:33:41] Yeah. So I don't know if I actually have a number generated on that. I'm not familiar with it, at least, but I would say, yeah, that that's something I'm still trying to figure out actively, actually, I'm definitely I definitely don't totally know it all, but I could speculate, like, I have some customers that are actually almost exclusively buying holding coffee from me, and they do it monthly, more or less, which is kind of what I've encouraged through some of my messaging. And and they're kind of following what I would like to see. And I do have some of them. I've got a good amount of repeat customers, which makes me feel good that I don't. Yeah, I don't I don't really have great insights on that, to be honest. But it feels like actually I mean, the only thing I would say is that seems pretty definitive or where at least I want to take it and kind of make sure it is happening. It is kind of like a monthly schedule, if I think about what most of my offerings are, whether it be the whole being coffee, the Colebrook coffee offerings, I basically for for Culburra ecommerce website, it is it's that one product, basically, it's that pouch product. So and yet that that tends to kind of be a monthly thing. But the way I, I don't know if you guys the way it's getting offered right now is not it's not necessarily even a. Always, always available, I'll bank orders and then we do like kind of a batch wise blast of things, that's part of like so it's not it's not the totally typical you know, there's no I don't I don't inventory anything any more. I don't kind of keep a stock that's kind of in the interest of having everything be extremely fresh. So, Christian, your order, which I'll send out tomorrow, was brewed yesterday and package today, actually this morning. And so you'll get it two days from tomorrow. So you will have gotten it. So this is a big this is like a tent, like a big principle of my brand that I'm trying to just like keep up with and and get more consistent with is that you're going to get my price within a week of it getting brewed. And the comparable grocery store product can't compete with that when it comes to freshness and largely isn't even trying to compete with it when it comes to quality of ingredients and things like that. So that's where I like to think that this is an interesting model for this type of business, because I could really, so long as my customers are just for now a little bit patient, I could kind of keep the control on my end of, like, you're getting everything extremely fresh. And then I see with with growth, there won't be necessarily even like a waiting. This is again, this is like logistics back. And the actual production of this stuff, it will be constantly recycling, just like anything like you go to a restaurant, you're like, oh, they're always busy there. Foods always fresh. And that's why we go there. There's no question of anything like that. So that's what that's what I want Bucci Coffee Co. to be. I want it to be this like demand fresh cold brew delivery to your door service. It's nearly a service as much as it is a product company. I get kind of sometimes I think of it.
Christian [00:37:13] Like to me, everything they just talked about were some of the key characteristics that made me buy one of those key companies that made me buy the actual coffee. It wasn't just because you're on our show. I mean, yes, that could play a part. But at the same time, the. I think it was the the article on on Instagram from the River Journal, where you're kind of comparing the complexity of the different flavors of coffee to wine. I drink wine. So that resonated with me. And then you also talked about how people should buy coffee as a buy produce on a grocery store. And then, yeah, when you're talking about the freshness and then when I found out that, yeah, it's also like I'm not just buying it and, you know, it's been on a pouch or whatever. I don't know. It's something that's fresh. Right. That could be some times where I maybe you're waiting a couple a little bit longer, but you know that you're just waiting for that batch that it's getting, you know, a small batch that also caught my attention. So there was definitely a lot of little things, subtle things here and there that made me like I actually do want to try this. And when you talked about the new flavors and the fruitiness and less of that burnt tasting, I was like, OK, I feel like most of my life, the coffee that I have tried is always that burn flavor of coffee or overly cream with a lot of cream and milk and sugars and all that kind of stuff. So and I would say the last thing, and I think this is where your photographer background comes in is I don't think I've ever seen cold brew coffee on a sort of delicate wine type glass looking thing with ice. And like that was like this look like wine to me. Like, I don't know, like I'm very excited to try it.
Nick [00:39:03] Yeah. Well, thank you for touching on all those things. They're all yeah. That's definitely like I, I just kind of do things differently when it comes to this you know the cold brew space. Like I genuinely think that there's that a there's not a place for a sterious, like coffee drinker to be to be participating in the in the productize version of Colebrook right now. You either make it at home or you go buy something at the grocery store and find out that it's underwhelming. And you're like, oh, I guess I can't buy these bottled products or these canned products because I don't think they're very good. And I think that there's just like I honestly think that in a few years everyone will be doing what I'm doing because you can and these products shouldn't be sitting around on shelves for a long time. Like it just there is an actual legitimate like all business aside and like like I'm a purist in this regard. Like it either it should be fresh and great or it just shouldn't happen at all or and make yourself like don't buy a product like don't don't interact with any business, just like my coffee like that was like a really big guiding principle for me. I was like, how are you going to sell somebody? I mean, it happens all the time, but how are you going to sell somebody chocolate chip cookies like you could make the best some of the best cookies you've ever had in your own of it, if you like. But most people don't know the time and resources and some knowledge. So how am I going to sell people Cold Brew coffee? You could just put coffee and water in a jug and brewed in your fridge and do it. But eventually it becomes like a friction point, like it gets annoying. You have to do a lot of cleaning for anybody that's done it. There is actually a bit of a small barrier to entry. And that's why I like. Some of the like, I just do it a little differently and kind of brought it closer to that world of wine and whiskey and spirits where it's just a really, really intentional process to make this. And then there's some things in the process as well, like the filtration of the of my coffee is is insane. Like when you get it, you'll see it. If you put it in a clear glass, it's absolutely crystal clear because I'm using filtration techniques from the wine industry, actually that's used on white wines and things to get that beautiful, sparkling, clear liquid. So that's where the engineer in me wanted to say, oh, well, what what things can I take from this industry and bring it to the coffee industry? Because I think it's worth it. I think it's worthy of it. So that's where they kind of tie together. I like that you brought the wine thing because that's actually something I intend to lean into more and try to try to educate people more because I think I'm doing an OK job with it. But you could always do more, right? I could always I need to write more blog articles and I do. I have a million things to say. I just might I just don't necessarily have the time to say it and be a writer all the time. But I do need to do more of that. So it's cool that that resonated with you. And I don't know if you guys noticed, but I'm drinking, I'm drinking some right now. A lot of some people think I'm drinking whiskey, which is what it looks like. It almost tastes like. But it's coffee. You're getting energized. You're getting inspired. Like this is my favorite way to to enjoy a coffee. So again, this brand is really just like me. So maybe that resonates with some people, which is cool.
Aaron [00:42:34] I was going to say it resonates with me very much so. My wife and I were talking this morning about just the difference between beer and whiskey. And I was like, I just enjoy whiskey so much more. But, you know, liquor has a little bit worse effect on you, the beer long term. But I was just thinking, like the way you're describing it, it's kind of it's I think it's a way that, yeah, you should definitely double down on like to draw people in to understand, like the none the. I don't think the complexity, but the the art really of the cold brew, because like you saying that it is when you're drinking right there. And I think I was on your about page or there was some page that you had, it was like, you know, Bucci coffee on the rocks. And that just instantly made me think of whiskey or whatever. And then the fact that you're talking about drinking it right here, it's just very appealing. And it would make me as somebody who doesn't necessarily drink coffee to at least try it. I just give it a try, because, like Christian said, our experiences with coffee have just not been good. So I think that's something to be said. When you were saying something earlier about I really want to I really want to see your process, maybe it's when you get like a your own space, like specifically for brewing. But I would really love to see your process because I think you're a really good storyteller. There's a lot of really good angles that you're taking to show something. And I would just love to see how it's made because I can I just kind of envision this amazing process and then organic quality that just the way that you put things together all the way to the packaging, to shipping it out, it's just like a full experience. And then the bonus is that we get a drink it. But it's I think I would fall in love with the whole experience because you do a really good job of showing that. So I feel like a video like that on your on your about page or something would just instantly grab people for e commerce. That just pulls them right in. So I know you have those capabilities just looking at the content you've created. But I would I would love to see that.
Nick [00:44:36] I appreciate that Aaron. I would love to see it, too. I am actively kind of working on that. You're right about it. Probably won't come until. It won't come until I've kind of built my I've built my beautiful place, because right now it's funny, you know, it it it is a beautiful product and it is. And it is probably the best in the world. But it doesn't look it doesn't always look that way. Some of some of the process is a little more or more Jenky looking than it actually is. So that's why I need to I know that this this year is actually going to be pretty big for us in that regard where I'll be able to invite people in. I also I'm always tiptoeing maybe like I think a lot of people seem like there's a little bit of it that feels like trade secrets, but it's not really it's not really the case. Like, I'm pretty much an open book and I just but I just want to I want to wait to tell that story until I feel really great about how it looks and feels. And this is just at the level of where I want it to be to indicate my brand and stuff. So be it. I'm dying to make the exact video that you talked about. Trust me, we are looking forward to it. Yeah.
Christian [00:45:55] And it's like I mean, I know there's definitely some aspects of the process that it's probably appropriate for proprietary. Proprietary. There we go. Or, you know, something that you don't necessarily want to share. That kind of brings back to the show and the discovery, like how it's made. Like there's only one episode.
Nick [00:46:15] One of my favorite shows ever.
Christian [00:46:16] Yeah. So some episodes they would just go like, oh yeah. And then this goes into this machine and the magic happens in there, you know, like and they don't really show you how it's made. It's just like a facade of there's really nothing going on here. We're not going to show you exactly how it's done. But it was still very cool and inspiring to to watch.
Nick [00:46:35] So totally. Yeah. And I would just say, like a little it's a little bit of a nerdy or cold brew specific production specific tidbit. But another thing that actually was really annoying to me about what even help me leap into this business was, you know, when you're doing your research and trying to figure out what's out there, what do I what type of equipment do I need? All this stuff when I was doing that research three years ago, there was like nothing. It was just like it's still very early for I mean, it depends on how you look at it. But I still think it's very early for commercial scaled Colebrook coffee production. And if you're if you're in this space and you're looking around on the Internet only only as of the last year or so do you start seeing commercialized products like even for like the equipment that you need. Otherwise, I was buying wine and beer equipment three or four years ago, and that's a part of the kind of ingenuity and like that that that gets my the other part of my brain going. Some of the things I've I've built, like I use a vibratory sifting mechanism thing that I just built in my garage. It's it's bizarre looking. It works, though. It's cool. And that's like, yeah, that's proprietary. It's there's no reason why I can't actually share for that. It's just that that's part of what keeps me really inspired in this business is like it's happening live. Like you can't just go out and buy the plug and play system to like do this or maybe maybe you can now. But I'm not I'm not looking anymore, so I don't know, maybe you can. But I like to think that what I've developed is, is kind of unique even from the from the technical standpoint, which I think is good to have. So that's why I like it. It's funny with all the way from. R&D, design, engineering, like screw and screwing and bolts and nuts and things all the way up to branding, it's kind of all me. So sometimes things fall through the cracks and I think I'm like, I need to do what I need to do better with my branding or I need to do better with this or that. And I have a hard time explaining it to people sometimes because like I was I spent I spent four hours last night, like designing like a custom stainless steel brew kettle for my new system. Like, it's hard to try to justify that time and say it's good use of time, but like I think it is and will eventually be very important for me, but will also be important in that. Of course, you got to got to sell the stuff. You've got to have a good memory, have a good team. Guys like you working on it. I don't know. Something like that.
Aaron [00:49:19] Absolutely. All right. So we have a section of the show is kind of like a rapid fire question, not necessarily related to the coffee, but it could be or but there's just a couple of rapid fire questions we always like to go through. Is there anything that's off limits? I should not ask?
Nick [00:49:39] Me?
Aaron [00:49:40] Just kidding it,.
Nick [00:49:41] But honestly, not my girlfriend, she doesn't exist, so it's OK if you tell her to tell us about her, OK?
Aaron [00:49:49] How would you describe her in the future?
Nick [00:49:53] Let's not go there.
Aaron [00:49:55] OK, so what purchase of one hundred dollars or less has positively impacted your life in the last six months or recent memory?
Nick [00:50:06] Purchase a hundred dollars or less. Film cameras, any various I buy cameras all the time I kind of collect film cameras, is supposed to be in the category of the business or are we talking now?
Aaron [00:50:21] Could be anything life?
Nick [00:50:23] Yeah, I don't I don't I don't buy a lot of crap anymore. I don't think at least I try not to, but I do have a thing for for old film cameras. And I bought like this this one pretty recently and it makes me happy. So it's cool. It's waterproof. I don't exactly know what it's from, but it's a waterproof point and shoot. Thirty five millimeter film camera.
Aaron [00:50:49] That's awesome. How much do you spend on that?
Nick [00:50:53] I think it was like thirty five bucks.
Aaron [00:50:55] That's awesome.
Nick [00:50:57] Now. So now I like photography. That's so. Yeah. Interesting question.
Aaron [00:51:05] There's probably one of the fastest answers we've gotten to that question. So it's just impressive for you.
Nick [00:51:11] Because I'm backed up on Bucci Coffee.
Aaron [00:51:14] That now that's the answer right there.
Christian [00:51:17] All right. Next question. In the last five years, what new believe, behavior or habit has most improved your life?
Nick [00:51:25] Police behavior habit. Um, last five years, um, besides drinking coffee. Yeah, uh, belief's. That's a tough one. So much has happened in the last five years, but I would say I've adopted like a pretty like I believe in like long term thinking and patience, you know, and I try to embody that with this business a lot. So I don't know I and I that definitely seems to have affected my life in the way I do things, thinking on different time scales rather than because some of these some of the things that I'm trying to tackle these days are not things that could happen in one week or even one month in some cases. So that's been really that's been an interesting learning curve. And I'm having patience and sticking to long term goals. Know it's incredibly important in business or anything else, and I'm sure you guys are intimately familiar with that. So I'd say I kind of made hopefully good progress in that category of trusting the process a little bit and and thinking long term rather than being super day to day on things, because I don't think you get very important things done that way.
Christian [00:52:43] And I think it's like a shift from where you currently see a lot on on social media, YouTube, especially with with this dropship like start your business on dropship and today fund your products, make a quick buck and, you know, kind of retire or whatever. I don't know.
Nick [00:52:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.
Christian [00:52:59] You kind of looking into that. Yeah. That long term, which is I think is the true way of entrepreneurship and business ownership. That's the way that they should be thinking.
Nick [00:53:09] That's awesome. I'm glad you I'm glad you feel that way to.
Aaron [00:53:13] All right, super easy one, or it could be the hardest one, I don't know. So.
Aaron [00:53:19] What's your current Binge right now? We used to say Netflix binge, but now there's Amazon and in Hulu and Disney Plus. So what are you currently binge in right now?
Nick [00:53:30] Hmmmm. That's it. That's not even the easiest one. Honestly, it's actually just like. Christopher Nolan, movies.
Aaron [00:53:44] Nice.
Nick [00:53:46] This is my all time favorite director by far, and I recently watched The Dark Knight trilogy. One, two, three, Batman Begins, Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises. And that is just, I think, probably the best series of movies that's that's had that's happened in our lifetime. So maybe that otherwise I'm not a I'm not a big show guy and I'm weary of it because there is such massive time commitment sometimes. So I actually kind of move back towards movies if I'm going to watch something or try to entertain myself at night. And yes, I've been watching a lot of those movies. I like very heady, kind of dark, sometimes twisted stuff, sci fi. So, yeah, I think if you're going to watch something and make it make it worth it, there's so much crap out there now.
Aaron [00:54:39] Sounds like the way you describe it as you'd probably be a fan of Christopher Nolan. So you should check out his work. And I saw I saw an Instagram story and now is actually a post from a director. I'll try to find it and send it to you. But it was Inception, The Dark Knight. And then there was something else and it was all the top of the screen was the movie. And the bottom of it was like behind the scenes. And so it's just showing, like, how exactly was made is pretty cool.
Nick [00:55:06] Oh, that's a good amount of those. And it's very cool.
Aaron [00:55:10] He's it's it's insane the type of work that he's put it together. So I think the only thing that people were kind of upset with him about was his most recent movie. So,.
Nick [00:55:23] Dude, have you seen it?
Aaron [00:55:24] Yeah, I haven't seen it yet. So I just know that some the critics were.
Nick [00:55:29] You guys have two minutes for like a really off shoot random story. Also happens to be it was in Texas. So I was in Austin, Texas about two, two months ago in covid and whatever is a trip that was planned already. Long story short, it was a tenant was in theaters and I am like a huge Christopher Nolan fan. So we went to see it. And it was the worst movie watching experience in my life because I was I was so excited in the theater. The volume was too loud. It was painfully loud, like painful. Like I had to, like, close your ears. And, you know, that movie, I don't know if you saw it, but I like half saw Tennet because I only saw half of it because we left because it was so painful and we like complained like three times. We went to the people were like, can you guys check the volume in this, in this? And we were convinced we weren't crazy. I was with two other people. We all were looking at each other like, this is insane. So I have seen ten and I haven't gone back to actually watch it again because I wanted to see it in theaters. And yeah, that was a brutal that was a brutal experience. So I have to still have to see it for what I saw. I liked it, but I also felt like I was being tortured the entire time. So it was like.
Christian [00:56:42] I feel I feel like I heard about that like that. Not just being a problem for that theater, but it was the audio in general. Yeah. For that movie was kind of wonky.
Nick [00:56:52] OK, all right. So it's kind of yeah.
Nick [00:56:55] I it's just the that too. I was like, I can't believe they'd be messing it up this bad, but they were definitely messing it up. But I also was suspicious that something was going on. I was like, I don't know, it seems a little intense, like too intense. Like we've all seen Inception super cons but watchable and great and powerful. Something weird is going on with it, I don't know.
Christian [00:57:17] Yeah, I've seen it in its entirety. And what. It's weird, yeah, it's good, yeah, it's one of those that you have to watch three or four times to truly. Get the whole thing, I guess, but I didn't do that, I just want to use you even start watching a bunch of. You know, yeah, explain. Yeah. I got to read this, but. We didn't talk about this, but this is like also like another quick question when you talk about the ice cream, but I'm curious on what's the farthest that you ship the ice cream?
Aaron [00:57:51] Well, this is only local, but I don't know if they know that's free delivery or free delivery. Oh, yes.
Nick [00:57:58] Well, what do you what do you think? Do you think it's local or do you think it's delivery?
Christian [00:58:04] OK, it's on the website. My understanding was that the free delivery is for locals only. Correct.
Aaron [00:58:12] OK. And I would assume that it's that you can't ship the size to me say that like, yeah, I don't know if it's. I haven't tried to add to my cart. Let's see here, you can't add to your car, but I'm assuming if you can add to your cart, it's saying like, hey, add to your cart, but you can't hurt.
Aaron [00:58:35] You can't you can't add it to your cart.
Aaron [00:58:37] But then it says local delivery only. OK, so. Yeah, that's all I'm saying.
Aaron [00:58:41] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Nick [00:58:45] So so yeah. Right now it's yeah. This has been interesting and we could go on this for a long time actually. And again, maybe, maybe I should circle back with you guys if it was worth your time. But I'm trying to figure out ways to meld this site of like I want to be able to do local hyper local stuff that I can't do nationally. I thought about building parallel websites. This is, I hope is supposed to be clear that there are a couple of things that are only available to people right here in my immediate area. It does give you that little pop up that says, hey, are you sure like you're here in Westchester County, New York. So it is only right here. I'm not mailing it yet, but. Well, you know, it's funny, I tried an experiment. There's a lot of experimenting that goes on that I don't publish or anything. Of course, miserably failed, tried to mail a six pack to my friends in Massachusetts, shout out to Leeanna and. It of course, I would have I was having great luck with all my shipping and everything after the holidays were terrible. Lots of issues were shipping and then things got back to normal. I'm sending something to Massachusetts. It's supposed to be a one day. I put a bunch of ice packs. I was like, this will be fine so long as it gets in one day. Of course, it gets held up. It takes like six days to get there, shows up. It's like absolutely destroyed. Soupy, gross. So that that's that's a real story that happened like four weeks ago. But the goal, the angle would be Styrofoam, dry ice and more intentional shipping option. And yeah, then if people find it to be worth it, it'll be a little expensive. But the ice cream is crazy good. I would say that it might be going in the mail soon. That's a goal. It's a goal for maybe summer. That would be it would be really awesome.
Aaron [01:00:41] That'll be the test right there. We'll ship it to Texas if it makes it to Texas, you know, you're pretty much good anywhere.
Nick [01:00:47] I was put in a care package together for you guys anyway. And then and then Christian ordered. So I'll have to try to find a way to sweeten up for you. But I doubt it will have ice cream in it, I don't think. And not quite there yet. It's a little tricky. It's a little tricky.
Aaron [01:01:04] Will purchase that in the future. You just let us know when we can do it.
Nick [01:01:09] Thank you, guys. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
Aaron [01:01:12] So OK, so best question of this whole episode, and I'm sure everybody's probably wondering this as well, a safe scroll down to the show notes, but what's the best way for them to connect with you and find out more about Bucci Coffee?
Nick [01:01:26] That's a good question. Yeah, I would say the best way is going directly to my website. That's my preferred way, which is Bucci coffee, dotcom or boutique coffee or all sorts of things. You could Google Buki coffee and I should show up there, too. That'll be great. Also through social media, Instagram, I definitely like Instagram. It's cool. You could always direct message. We we start there by messaging back and forth. My Instagram is Bucci Coffee dot co. So yeah. Those two things, my email list. I like my email list a lot. I try to keep it very intimate. I don't send a lot of emails. It's really only with good stuff. When I have new offerings or something, I feel like it's important to say and people get ten percent off their next order for signing up. So I try to incentivize that. So yeah, website, Instagram and Facebook, the two, the two Giants plus my personal website would be the best way.
Aaron [01:02:26] Awesome. We're definitely going to make sure to link up all of those in the show notes and just really want to give you a huge thank you for coming on. It's been fun really just to connect on Instagram, make this happen. I'm glad Christine was able to purchase something. And also just great to hear so much about your business and where you guys are going. So we're super excited. And hopefully if you guys are listening and you and you get some coffee, make sure to make sure to let them know that you came over here from the podcast and make sure you get set up on that new list, that email lists, you could save yourself 10 percent.
Nick [01:03:01] Yeah, thank you guys so much, I want to send a huge thank you to you guys for your pleasure to talk to. Very easy. We don't even know each other, but I feel like I know you now and I really appreciate the great questions. It's fun to talk about my own project, of course. So I appreciate the opportunity.
Aaron [01:03:19] Awesome. Thank you, Nick.
Christian [01:03:20] Thank you.
Aaron [01:03:22] All right.
Nick [01:03:22] All right, Christian, look out for that package.
Christian [01:03:25] Will do. And I'm excited to try it. We'll let you know.
Aaron [01:03:29] Thanks, Nick, appreciate it. Thank you.
Aaron [01:03:32] Alright guys, thank you so much for listening to another episode of the marketing natives. We truly appreciate you giving us your time and hopefully you enjoyed Nick's story and Bucci Coffee. There's a lot of really good information in there. If you're an e-commerce store owner and if you are a coffee lover, he just makes drinking coffee seems so much more fun. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I know that I'm going to be trying a lot of Christians cold brew. He may not want me to, but anyway. So thank you guys. Again, make sure that you subscribe to the podcast and that way you don't miss out on any of the content we put out, which comes out every single Monday. And if you have been here for a while, make sure that you leave us an honest reading review on Apple podcast. That's how we are able to grow there and reach more people. So you guys can get this story out to more people as well. And if you are an e-commerce business owner and would love to grab our free training on the five areas, the five things that you need to grow your business profitably without wasting money, you just need to click the link below and we'll have the free training. It's a 15 minute easy training to walk you through exactly what you need to do to set up your business to be profitable online. Thanks, guys, and we will talk to you next week.
Narrator [01:04:44] The marketing native's podcast is a production of BitBranding.
