Revolutionizing the Revolution
It has been well over a year since I published a blog for us.
Things picked up midway through 2020, with the effects of lockdown being easy to overcome, pivot around and dominate. We steamed into the holiday season and right on into 2021. January 1 of 2021 set us into a difficult situation, as we were faced with the challenge of having to find a new space for Revolution Coffee Co. While we had hoped to start 2021 bright eyed and bush tailed, the reality is that we started it full of dread and despair.
We (I) found myself overwhelmed with the challenge. Amidst many different moving parts and pieces, the prospect of finding the perfect location, or any location at all, proved immensely difficult. Yet, it was in that challenge that YOU rose to support us. The encouraging DMs, the many locations you all threw our way to look at, even the willingness to assemble an entire fundraiser. YOU came up around us. The ugly truth is, I wanted to quit. It had been challenge after challenge and I was tired, lacking confidence and wondering what I was even doing. You guys didn’t quit though. You didn’t accept our challenge as unconquerable and, in that, you reminded me of why I did this. Why I started Revolution Coffee Co., why I fought through the pandemic and why I would fight through this challenge too.
All things coalesced perfectly somehow, and we were able to find a spot in the Katy Depot, being renovated completely in early February. Everyone will agree with me when I say that the situation we moved into was absolutely a work-in-progress. The main lobby was still fully under construction, with the entire building itself also being partially renovated. We operated out of our coffee cart in the entry hall to the Katy Depot for a month and a half, until construction was finally completed on our space (HUGE thank you to Joey Garland) and simultaneously done in the lobby. We opened back into full operation, finally recovering from the slump and challenges of operating off of a coffee cart, however we still were only open Friday-Monday at this time. One week after we opened our main space, the city began it’s construction on the roads out front. We traded construction in the building for construction on the roads. One challenge, for another. Through it all, you remained encouraging. You believed and, most importantly, you supported us.
We have spent six months in this space now. We are open 7 days a week, and are experiencing growth that I didn’t think would be possible. In that, I have to thank you. Your support and encouragement pulled us out of the fire, reminded us who we are and what we are fighting for, and kept us full of passion even amidst a mountain of obstacles. Three months ago we officially changed our logo. It was a subtle change and not one we really made a big deal about, but I’d like to talk about the change and the reasoning behind it (as nothing I do is ever without meaning).
Removing the stars was just a simple cosmetic decision, as I couldn’t really think of a deep meaning for them in the first place. Larger and most importantly was the decision to remove the weathered effect from the logo. When I dreamed up Revolution Coffee co. in 2018, I thought of the revolutionaries of our time are battered and tired, as I felt. Exhausted by the divisive climate and worn out from the constant conflict embroiled in our society. We were old, tattered and tired but we may just have had our day. Yet, as I’ve seen you support us, rise up around us and constantly use your voices to speak for unity, honor and service, I see the error of my ways. The revolutionaries are not tattered, they are not tired and they are not fading away. They are exuberant, determined and hellbent on changing the entire world.
Every morning, I look at that logo and think about each and every one of you who have stood by us and reminded us why the revolution is worth fighting for. You are unyielding in your passion and I’ll be damned if I ever let myself be any way other than just as passionate as you. We are the world changers, the thinkers, the warriors, the poets, the leaders, those willing to boldly rush into the unknown.