On this episode of the Circuit of Success, Brett Gilliland interviews Adam Thatcher, co-founder and CEO of Grace Farms Foods. Adam shares his story of growing up with a World War II veteran father and how it has shaped his values and work ethic. He also discusses his business model of giving away 100% of profits and the Philanthropic Enterprise Act. Adam also shares his own personal approach to time management and the importance of having a purpose in life. Lastly, they talk about how taking action and believing in yourself is key to success.
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Speaker Brett Gilliland: Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I’m your host, Brett Gilliland. Today, I’ve got Adam Thatcher with me, Adam. How you doing? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Doing awesome, Brett. Glad to be here. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Awesome having you, man. The background looks cool there. It looks like you’re probably at Grace Farms out there in Connecticut. Is that right? Speaker Adam Thatcher: That’s right. That’s right. Grace Farms is just this amazing cultural and humanitarian center that I’ve got the pleasure of being able to be a part of and getting to create something really new there. So Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’re gonna dive into it, man, because it’s a cool kind of a new business model and something I think people just need to be aware of and, came across each other through social media somehow and, And now all of a sudden, here we are, on the circuit of success podcast. It’s a small world. I interviewed, interviewed somebody today and didn’t even know it until my research. But, you know, she knew this person, and I knew, you know, it’s just it’s a small world. It’s it’s crazy, isn’t it? Speaker Adam Thatcher: It is. It’s amazing how one or two degrees of separation is it’s it’s They say those big degrees, but it’s usually a lot less. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Exactly. I don’t disagree with that. So, well, you are the co founder and CEO of Grace Farms, Foods, And, but it’s a it’s an unbelievable one hundred percent of the profits goes to, your guys’ foundation and charities. And, it’s just a it’s a great business model. But before we dive in all that stuff, Adam, if you can, I’ll always like to start with what’s made you the man you are today, which I know is a big loaded question, but you don’t just wake up and do the things that doing. So I’m curious on what the backstory is. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. Right on. Well, I think that what made me who I am today is certainly my experience is growing up, having a really unique sort of family set up. My, my father was a World War II veteran right somebody who was born in nineteen eighty four, that’s not you do not talk about something pretty uncommon. And that truly was the greatest generation, you know, not only to have the bravery at twenty, twenty two to go off to war, and be in the submarine service in the Pacific, but then to come home and really build our country to what it is today and to be able to, like, grow up with that type of work ethic being surrounded by that, I think, is really a driver for my own passion to create things make a difference, and leave some kind of legacy that, you know, I think my kids would be proud of. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So what did you learn from that? Do you think? Biggest takeaways for that, if if did you have older siblings as well? Or are you, Speaker Adam Thatcher: So I’m Speaker Brett Gilliland: the youngest six. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. Okay. And, you know, I think from that is having the biggest takeaway I would say is that every day is an opportunity to make a difference. And there’s no sense in spoiling it. Right? There’s enough hours in the day to contribute in a positive way to your community, to yourself, but then also to create that moment of leisure for yourself too, whether it’s, you know, putting your kids to bed, it’s you know, sharing a drink with a neighbor who might be going through a hard time, whatever it might be. There’s definitely enough hours in the day to make every day count. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I love that. Let’s let’s stay on that while we can. Because I’m a big believer in that. And so we all can be busy. We’ve all got the same twenty four hours in the day. So I I look at as itself management time management. Can’t manage time. And, so talk about that. What’s your schedule look like? I mean, you’re a busy, you know, co founder, CEO. I’m the, at the same thing. Co founder and CEO of our firm, things are busy. Right? You get kiddos. I got kiddos. We can give a million excuses of why we can’t find time for leisure in putting our kids to bed, but it’s important to you. It’s a value of yours, I would assume. So how do you do that? Let’s kinda dive into the weeds if you will and help our other fellow business owners that listen to this. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Right on. Yeah. Well, I I have three kids under the age of six. Just sent my, my five and a half year old daughter to kindergarten today first time. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Oh, boy. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Which was an amazing, you know, milestone for us as Speaker Brett Gilliland: a Tears. No tears. Speaker Adam Thatcher: No tears. Luckily, because I got to drop her off instead of getting putting on Speaker Brett Gilliland: a bus today. So that Speaker Adam Thatcher: was our good attitude. And, you know, What what does a day look like? Right? So I I tend to wake up early, right, probably anywhere between five and 05:30, spend the morning to myself. I like to do a lot of stretching. I like to drink a lot of water and tea in the morning to really get my my body prepared for everything else that’s coming. And then, taking care of my kids in the morning is the best thing. Right? Getting them up, making breakfast for them, talking to them about how great their day is gonna be, so I can find them for a successful day, and, and, and the ways that they define success, which is mostly fun and learning. And then, and then as soon as I drop them off, I’m able to just switch my mindset into, okay, what’s on what’s on the docket today? If not having that already prepared the night before, if I need to get it prepared the night before. And I use that drive after dropping the kids off to say, okay. How am I gonna make the next eight hours, the most productive eight hours they can possibly be before, you know, I transition back into family. And then after I put the kids to bed, I’d like to take an hour or, well, first, I always we always dedicate fifth we tried to dedicate fifteen minutes, between my wife and I, right? Like, how was your day? Like, tell me how you’re doing, hopefully being at giving ourselves a chance to even do, a little bit of bible study if given the opportunity as well, some self improvement and, and, you know, couple improvement together, investing that time is really important, and then taking another hour to sort of that max. For a little bit more work prepping for the day before the following day before I go to bed. And believe it or not, still get about, you know, seven hours of sleep a night, which is all that I need. I know some people need more, but, that’s what Saturday, Sundays for is pick Speaker Brett Gilliland: up that extra hour. That’s right. Decrease that sleep debt. Awesome. Just taking them some notes there. Love that. So do you exercise? Are you a big exercise guy? I know you said stretch and all that stuff. You a big fitness guy? Speaker Adam Thatcher: You know, funny enough. I’m not. I’m a big skier. I spent eight years living in Lake Tahoe, California. I worked for two amazing ski resorts out there on the North Shore. And so that was my daily exercise routine. And I am not a big exercise person, but I find that my own daily routines of a healthy diet and stretching ends up being enough for me. I’m a passionate and avid gardener. So on the weekends are usually spent with a shovel in my hand, putting, you know, moving plants around and that sort of thing. I end up busting enough of a sweat that I haven’t, you know, Haven’t haven’t put on too much of a of a dad thought. I doubt it yet. Speaker Brett Gilliland: I love it. That, Edgewood Resort out there in Tahoe. You been there? Speaker Adam Thatcher: So I’ve been to, a number of them for sure. I had the pleasure of working at, what was Squa Valley and Alpine Meadows, which is now Palisades Tahoe. Home to some of the the best big mountain skiing out west. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. The Edgewood golf course there is amazing. I’m a big golfer, so loved it out there. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: It’s beautiful. So, so again, continuing on this routine thing. What what would I find if I followed you around day in and day out? Again, imagine the person listening this now is exercising and driving down the road, and and they’re busy. They’re in their schedules. What what do I see from you from either time management? Again, you said you can’t manage that. So self management but buffer in your calendar? Are you a back to back back meeting guy? Like, what’s that look like for you? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. It’s a great question. I would say that while undiagnosed, I will, I will diagnose my, myself as having a slight ADD. I like to multitask on many different things so that I’m never waiting for a response, and when that magic moment pops in your head, I like to be able to hit it right away and then come back to what I was doing because I think that different work areas inform how you’re gonna be the most successful in, a certain topic. So I, at any time, I’ve got probably about ten to twelve tabs open on, right, on on Google Chrome. And I like to jump between them, so that I’m constantly making progress together. And what it ultimately turns into is, those I consider that my version of being focused. When other people watch me, they can’t stand it. But it ends up creating sort of this, where all the boats are rising at the same tide. And, right, a billiards player of sorts, right, It’s, it’s the Catumbola where all three balls fall at the same time, right? And so, and I find that that’s a way to reach sort of like compounding results. Is when you’re succeeding at multiple things throughout the day, even if it’s a small success. And I like to try to write down my successes, right? This is not too big of, of a mind blowing thing, but having the list and, and checking it off. And that can be done the night before, the morning of, and that order isn’t linear, right, in order the way I think it it shouldn’t be. Right? Sometimes it’s all over the place, but you’re just drawing circles, connecting this dot to this dot, crossing it off, and then always dedicating, I try to dedicate thirty minutes a day to just outreach, right? And so relationships that I already have, right, shouldn’t be surprised if you get an email two months from now. It just says, hey, I really loved our conversation. Like, hope you’re doing Gilliland if you’re ever in the area would love to connect. Right? As simple as that. And keeping in the forefront of people’s minds, then and that’s the sense of community. Right? Because I’m not in this by myself. There will be times when I need to lean in and get help. And a cold reach out is much more difficult, and it appears certainly that you’re only interested in serving yourself when the whole that’s contrary to the whole concept of what we’re doing at Grace Barnes. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. You know, it’s funny you said that, like, you’ll reach out and and, you know, come by. And I think it’s so important one of the things. So I’m forty five years old. I’ve been doing this for twenty two years now in the wealth management space. And and when I was forty, so five years ago, I wrote down forty things I learned in my first forty years, but really it’s about my business, right, in the business world. And I, one of the things I said was take the meeting. I have so many people in in any business. Right? Like, oh, well, I’m not gonna do that because they just want me to come there, and I’m, you know, my time is valuable, and I’m gonna get paid. Little blah blah and all this stuff. And I and I have found over the years that I have done a lot of free meetings. Right? And but those meetings and I don’t do them any other reason, just I don’t know. I don’t probably be able to help you. You’re gonna be able to help me be a good person. Let’s go have fun and and have a great meeting. And I think that you’re what I’m hearing and one of my research has shown is that you would agree with that concept as well. Take the meeting. I don’t know what the hell’s gonna happen, man, but some amazing things happen when you get good people together. Agree. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Totally. And also being transparent, right? Let’s not beat around the bush. If we’ve only got forty five minutes for a cup of coffee or catching up, you know, share what your interests are, what you’re focused on also. And then next thing you know, they’re like, hey, I happen to know the the inability officer at this and they would love to hear from. And that’s where the network grows. Right? Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. The circle just keeps getting bigger, didn’t it? So, let let’s talk about this. So so people understand exactly what you’re doing. You guys give away a hundred percent of your profits. And so I’m gonna have you explain this because you’ll do a hell of a lot better job than I will. But talk about this business model, and this is where I came across it in Forbes Magazine as a write up about y’all. And so let’s let’s talk about that. What does that mean? We’re giving away a hundred percent of our profits. And why is it a new business model that people should be thinking about? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Right on. Right on. Well, so the way that you guarantee you’re giving back one hundred percent of profits is that you’re one hundred percent non profit owned. And the way that this model works, which is a whole new type of business model that’s been allowed now for only about four years, is you need to have a great organization like a nonprofit foundation, such as what we have is Grace Farms Foundation, which is the owner and manager of this amazing place called Grace Farms. So well worth a Google, even better, go to Google images and take a look at what the space is. But it is this world class cultural and humanitarian center designed by these incredible architects based out of Japan. It’s a beautiful piece of modern architecture that is a community center to the local and global community. It’s open and free to the public six days a week, and not only do we want to want to create a space that everyone feels welcome, but that they also feel empowered to make a difference in the world, make the world a better Gilliland we found that our unique space to be able to do that is, through our our justice work. The humanitarian work, which is focused around ending forced labor. So it’s become more and more, known problem in the world in the last several years, but in basics, like, terms, there are twenty eight million people that are still trapped in forced labor today, right, which is part of modern slavery. And modern slavery is both human trafficking, which is on the sex trafficking side of things, and the forced labor side of things. Right? So when I say forced labor, that’s a combination of people who are being, are required to work under some form of coercion. So their travel documents are being held. They’re being threatened or their family is being threatened. They’ve been, they’ve paid some type of worked visa to go work in another country, and they’re an indentured servant and can’t stop working until that that payment and the insurmountable interest has been paid. Right? So there’s a lot of this dark industry that’s still happening. And believe it or not, there’s more people trapped in, enforced labor today than there’s ever been in the history of planet. We just don’t necessarily know it. Right? And as globalization has continued, it’s only become more and more rampant and United States is the largest, importer of goods made with forest labor. So at this very beautiful, hopeful space, sort of like this juxtaposition of this hopeful space dealing with a very dark humanitarian crisis that we have on our hands. And that’s really in intended so that we could tackle this dark issue in this space that is transparent. Right? The building is all made out of Gilliland so it’s both literal and metaphorical in the way that’s intended to inform the work that we do. But being a cultural space, we host amazing art performances. We host, Nobel laureates who come in people can learn, from these types of amazing leaders around the world all coming and convening at Grace Farms Farms. And then the work we do is from a, an effort called design for freedom, which has a unique focus on ending forced labor in the building materials supply chain. Right? So when you think about the built environment, right? This is the chairs we’re sitting on. This is the windows that we look out of. This is the timber used to make the roof over our heads, the concrete of the floors that we work on. And there’s been this labor transparency pass on this whole industry, which is the largest industry in the world, is is the building and construction industry So this was something that came upon us a couple years into the work that we were doing that nobody’s doing this. Grace Farms happens to sit at this unique nexus of humanitarian work, but also this unique architectural site where we’re bringing people together and it really started to take off when we started doing work with the United Nations University, and a number of other organizations in starting this movement called Design for Freedom, which is now this leading movement. So this was all happening. This was getting underway. And then what happens in twenty twenty? That upends everybody, the pandemic. Right? And I, I had the honor of serving as the director of operations and sustainability for Grace Farms’s Foundation for the first five and a half years. And when the pandemic began, we couldn’t be serving the public in the way that we had been, because people couldn’t come on-site. So we did a bunch of different adjustments on how we are serving community. We became the largest importer of PPE in the state of Connecticut because of unique relationships we had, to be able to import the the the needed safety, equipment for our front line heroes. But we’re also saying like, how do we stay connected with our community? And I was getting my MBA at, NYU at New York University, at the stern School of Business, and was really interested in innovative business models, especially businesses that were focused on giving back ESG focus businesses, B corps, and I stumbled upon this really small change in the iris code in twenty nineteen. Something called the philanthropic Enterprise Act, also known as IRS code four nine four three g, also known as the newman’s own exception. Speaker Brett Gilliland: So Speaker Adam Thatcher: for many people that may be listening to this, you’ve probably had the salad dressing, the salsa, whatever it may be. And so, it’s a result of their company that they’re actually able to get the IRS code changed that now allows private foundations, nonprofit foundations, to own one hundred percent of for profit companies. So that was like the basis of where it Gilliland I’m glad to go into some more detail. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Absolutely. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Great. So discovering this small change in the IRS code, we said, alright. Well, the way that this worked for Neumann zone was they created this successful business, Paul Neumann created it. And then when he died, they transferred one hundred percent of the equity, the newman’s own foundation, but in a beautiful model, The more, more addressing that they sell, the more money they could get back to supporting kids in particular, the work that they did. But the the product itself was not furthering the charitable purposes of the nonprofit. And so we said, well, what if we have a chance to create a business. And not only would we be able to give back one hundred percent of the profits because we’re legally owned by the non profit. So we only have one shareholder, one dividend to pay out, is what if we use this company to also demonstrate and educate about ethical and sustainable supply chains, the work that we do around design for freedom, as I said, But it also becomes a way for us to share this amazing brand, this amazing story of Grace Farms, the beauty of Grace Farms, the space itself through the packaging and the storytelling. So it was with those three goals that we started the company. And then donated it into the foundation. And then we began our mission of creating in our, you know, world. The most impactful business we possibly can create. And so we do that in a number of different ways. We’re a certified B corp, which for those people that are familiar with it or not familiar with it. It’s a rigorous, assessment that businesses can go through from a third party organization called the BLab that, measures your impact as a company on, from a governance side, from a worker’s side, an environmental side, all those factors, pull into that. So, we built the company to be a certified B corp. We are the first and only T brand in the US to partner with, fair trade international, which is the original and really the the gold standard of fair trade organizations here, in the world. And then, and then we also source all of our coffees exclusively from women like co ops as a way to, like, bring some light to the fact that forty two percent of the workers in the agricultural field are women, yet they’re disproportionately underpaid. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Got it. That’s a lot, man. Whoo. Just it’s that easy. Well, I mean, with that though, man, you gotta have passionate leaders. You gotta have people I mean, there’s gotta be some cash on the sidelines. Right? I mean, like, the normal person can’t just do this, I wouldn’t think. But but a couple of things come to mind. So number one, When you talk about design for freedom, I don’t know if this is the the path you’re going down here, but so, I I was just in Oregon on a golf trip. And but when we’re going home with the drive about two and a half hours, from abandoned dunes to Eugene, Oregon, you know, and, I see all these mount or hills, whatever you wanna call them out there at this at this area. And then, you know, the beautiful, pine trees and, you know, one one hillside would be they’d just be gone. Right? They would be logging them and they’d be these big truck bed. And then as we got more into town, We’d see plant after plant after plant with, I don’t know, thousands of trees laying there, perfectly straight cedar trees, right, laying there. And then you’d go down the road. And then at the end, I would see another, factory and it would have, like, what I would just go to, like, one of the home improvement stores and see a bunch of two by Right? Now they’re out in the in the parking lot and there they are. Right? And so it gets me thinking because then I’d see more hills where that one’s empty. That one looks like they’re a hundred foot tall. These look like they’re ten foot tall. It just gets my mind thinking. Okay. Like now what’s the future? Like what’s that look like thirty years from now. Can we continue to do this at the scale we do it to where the real estate market with houses and buildings are being built can we sustain this? Like that that worries me as a country. And so is that in line with what you’re talking about here from the design for freedom, or is that something completely different? Speaker Adam Thatcher: No. It’s it’s completely in line, right? And so for us, we look at it as the definition of sustainability is not isolated just to environmental. Right? That is a incredibly important topic, right? That If we do not take care of this planet, human caused climate change is going to create con continue to create havoc on our planet and ultimately make our planet really not livable for the eight billion people and more that, are live on our planet. However, we also believe that sustainability requires the lens from an ethical stand point. Are we willing to take us define something as a sustainable future at the cost of other people’s freedom? And so Yeah. We are fortunate enough that our country, has strict labor laws that are for the most part managed. I’m not saying we’re perfect. We have a lot of migrant labor in our country, a lot in the agricultural side of things, especially but other places around the world that are fast developing countries that aspire to have the resources and the economy of the United States are willing to step over people’s freedoms and liberties in order to spark their economy. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. And so that but that tree thing back to that, I mean, that then you see that being a a real factor of what I saw Gilliland I’m not looking at it from a political standpoint. I’m not looking at it from global warming, any of that kind of stuff. I’m looking at it more from a, can we do this? Can we continue to provide the lumber that we will need to continue to build the buildings that we’re gonna have to continue to build or they’re they because they’ll tear down homes. They tear down buildings and start all over. Right? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Completely. And, the answer is no. We cannot stay at the pace that we’re already going at. And, you know, there’s further certifications out there FSC, which is, for stewardship Council, which is managing responsibly, timbered Forest. But in the end, the majority of the wood that we’re consuming is not. And so, and and the three r’s reduce or use recycle are relevant in any industry, right, even building. Right? And so we we do need to take that that lens in all of our consumption areas. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. Makes sense. And, you know, I’m I’m on a, a board now that, I’m not for profit. And we do the coffee thing and source it out of Haiti and And you know, that that is in businesses and people buy it in bulk and and that money then goes and goes to the the people of Haiti in North Lewis, and it’s making a huge impact. So, I mean, I’ve seen it firsthand, and I didn’t even hear about this stuff, you know. So that’s probably why the three or four years ago, I think is when you said it started, that’s about when we started doing the coffee. And it’s an amazing thing for people to be able to give back through business, which we’re all part of somehow, some one way or the other. So let’s talk about more of the habits, rituals, thinking how important is that for you, just spending time thinking about the next thing for you. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. It’s a great question. You know, I find that giving yourself an appropriate amount of time to reflect on the weight of the decision Gilliland how long you should dedicate to it is really important. I would say that it’s something that I’ve wrestled with myself. We did not come out of the gates and had a clear idea on how to penetrate into a hyper competitive market. Right? I agonized over like, why is this not working right out of the beginning? Was up for more nights than I can ever imagine, like, you know, I want to live through again. I I can easily say, right? And most entrepreneurs would probably say this, right, that starting a business the first time is one of the most challenging things you’ll do in your life, from a certainly from a professional standpoint, if not, you know, from a, a complete life standpoint, with the exception of, you know, family issues that you might go through. And so, for me, the the ritual of of reflecting and making sure that you’re giving yourself enough Slack and giving yourself gratitude for all the things you’ve been given, the opportunities is the best way for me to clear my head. When I find myself, you know, laying in bed wrestling with a big decision or not, it’s always helpful for me to just like count through all the things I’m I’m so grateful for, from a family side of things, from a business side of things, all the things that are going great. And then if in your gut that thing that you’re it the difficult decision you’re making, there’s nowhere, like, around it that something you could be grateful for. It’s probably something you should move away from is something that I’ve found, right? And and that’s like your gut and your heart talking to you. But, you know, it’s it’s it’s popped into your mind in a different way. You’re not acting emotionally. That’s the way that I’ve developed my, my my compass of decision making. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yep. And wouldn’t you agree? Obviously, you have a very clear purpose, but I think in life, you have to have a purpose. And and you can see the sticker future greater than your past is our firm’s mission is to help people achieve a future greater than their past. And it doesn’t mean that that you know, you’ve had a bad past. It doesn’t mean the person listening to this had a bad past. But I think if I, you know, if I was in a room full of a thousand people, I said, raise your hand if you want a future grade in your past, Everybody’s gonna raise their hands. Right? And and so when you hear that, purpose, future grade in your past, Getting you up in the morning at five or 05:30 and keeping you going, would you believe that’s one of the biggest indicators of success for your life is to have a purpose? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Couldn’t agree more. I mean, you’re a rudderless ship. And as we know, it just continues to spin round and round. And you know, I think we’ve all felt that at certain times. Like, you’ve got a guiding purpose in your life, but maybe you’ve, like, gotten distracted acted from what that is, or enough of the challenges have, like, got have have rocked your confidence enough to be able to tap into that. Purpose and let that be your guiding light every morning, but no question. Without a purpose, what’s the what’s the point? Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Well, the Bible says right without a vision, without a purpose, people perish. And so, I think that’s important for us as business leaders as well. And I think there’s a lot of people that may not have that purpose. Currently in their life. And I think it’s people’s jobs to either one through a podcast, books, mentoring, making a phone calls to get somebody to help you with that because I think that’s so important for me. I know it was I was always driven by different things, but when I found that purpose for me purposely, it was a, it was a life changer, man, and it’s something that then guides you every day that allows you to get up. Even on the days you don’t wanna do it, when there’s purpose driven mission there, you’re gonna do it. Whether it’s cold and rainy or not, you’re gonna get up and make it happen. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Couldn’t agree more. You know, and I think I I’ve looked at it as there’s there’s three three important factors that are happening in your life. Right? It’s the the work that you’re doing. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Mhmm. Speaker Adam Thatcher: The relationships that you have, and where you’re spending your time. Right? Like, geographically, like, what is the environment that you’re in? And if you can optimize those three factors, then you have the ability to like say climb Maslow’s hierarchy of need or reach that flow state. And so if you find yourself, right, you’re surrounded by great Gilliland you’re doing meaningful work, but you’re, you know, in an environment that is not friendly. Right? It’s not inspiring from a place, you cannot possibly give your best. And so that might be as simple as, hey, let’s just take this meeting outside so that we can think a little bit more clearly as a team. And and so those are the types of changes, the small changes that we can make every single day. If you find yourself trapped in a place where like you are surrounded by people you do not like, you need to get out of that situation or find a way to change that situation. If you Gilliland yourself in an environment you do not like, like, right? You do not like the city you live in. Get out, right? It is dragging you down and pulling you back. And I know that’s a scary jump for a lot of people, but wait till you get to the other side. Yeah. It’s worth it. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Another one I I think about a lot for people is the paralysis by analysis. You know, like, I think if I I I don’t know this. I’m gonna make a statement and tell me if I’m wrong or not. But when you guys are building Grace Farms Foods, you didn’t I mean, you had a plan clearly had a plan. When we were starting visioning wealth advisors, we had a plan. But sometimes, man, you gotta go. Right? You just gotta take action one of the circuits of success. You gotta take action and you gotta believe in yourself and your team that you’re gonna build it as you go. And I think so many people wanna just think it’s gonna be perfect day one and it’s a muddy mess, man, trudging through the deep valleys and peaks, of running a business. And so would you agree with that as well as I make these statements that you didn’t have this perfect road map that you’re building it as you go? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Oh my gosh. Yes. Certainly no such thing as a perfect road map. I would say, right, what what creates disappointment? Unmatched expectation. So if you live your whole life by saying, like, everything’s gonna be the best. Everything’s gonna be pretty. I’m gonna reach this level of success in my life. Then chances are that, like, yeah, you’re gonna spend a lot of time being disappointed, unfortunately. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be striving for those things. But if you you take those as something that should be granted, man, like, you’re setting yourself up for a really frustrating life. Speaker Brett Gilliland: That’s a rider downer. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Yeah. The, unmet. I write that down. What creates disappointment and unmet expectations? So tell us a little bit more about what Grace Farms actually does. I know you guys coffee and the tea is probably what you’re drinking there and your nice glass is your tea. So tell us about that. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Yeah. Right on. So when we opened the Grace Farms back in two thousand fifteen, We knew it was at this new kind of place. And we said, alright. How are people gonna respond to this unique architecture and this idea that this space is truly free and open to the public. It’s meant to just make the world a better place. And, you know, in today’s world of skepticism that we have that could there truly be genuine authentic intentions behind a place like this, right? And there was skepticism early on from what we were doing there. But we found that coffee and tea was just this common denominator that everyone could enjoy. I mean, right, tea. There’s six billion cups of tea enjoyed around the world every single day. So what makes for, like, a great relationship? Finding something in common with someone. Right? So what better way than you’re either a coffee or a drinker or you’re a tea drinker. Right? And if you don’t like caffeine, that’s cool. We’ve got delicious verbal t two, that’s caffeine free. So we’ve got a warm way to welcome you no matter where you’re coming from, who you are, let’s start a conversation. Gilliland that’s really the ice breaker. And so it became a way of more than just a welcoming greeting. It became the beginning of relationships. And so then when we were closed during the pandemic, we said, like, how could we not only you know, stay connected with our existing community, but how could we grow that community even more? Right? This is the silver linings of a challenging situation like a pandemic. And so we, you know, literally took the inspiration from the cups in our hands and said, what if we were to take this amazing tea and coffee experience that happens at Grace Barnes, and we were to share it with everyone. And so we’ve now got people right from Iowa and Washington State all over the country that have never heard of Grace Barnes, have never been to Grace Barnes. I don’t even know if they’ll ever make it to Grace Barnes, but they’re now connected to it. Right? And it’s It’s the small, like, SIPs, right, of tea is a way for people to be connected to a greater mission, and also for them to find these micro moments of purpose, right, to what we were saying earlier. Right? If you don’t have necessarily that purpose in yourself right now or you’re struggling to say like, boy, these big problems with the world are so big, but I’ve I’ve lost my own purpose because I don’t feel like I can make a difference. Our theory was like, well, what if we could empower people just by making a slight change from the coffee and tea that they’re drinking? And so that they are part of a community, right, that are making a difference and that their decision voting with their wallet, right, conscious consumerism, whatever you wanna call it is all activated and real. So that’s that’s how, like, the coffee and tea has become sort of our signature thing. And then where we’ve gone with it has been really amazing. On the on on a business to business side of things, which is a really exciting channel for us. We’ve found that organizations incredible companies have resonated so much with this message where they’re looking for ways to share their ESG commitments and maybe they don’t have an ESG purpose, right? And so we can help them shape that just by simply changing their coffee and tea. So, for example, Our, our tees are now in JPMorgan, right? How does a small business, like partner with the largest private bank in the world? Because we’re so aligned with our purpose. Right? We know our product is is super top notch. It’s the highest quality. And when we show up, we’re willing to do what it takes to show them that we care so much about the partnership. And that makes a big difference. Right? We’re in with the World Economic Forum, United Nations University, And so it becomes a really easy decision for them, once they meet us, and they they know what we’re about. And so that’s, like, this is where things get super, super fun. Because now we’re sharing our product with thousands of people in a corporate cafeteria that otherwise never would have found grace farms. Speaker Brett Gilliland: And I think again, those big companies, though, they wanna be with people that have a passion and a purpose as well. Right? Like, That’s an easy fix for them. You’re gonna buy coffee or tea for your break room. Right? Why not buy something with a passion and a purpose behind it? Speaker Adam Thatcher: Totally. Yeah. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Well, working our listeners find more of Adam Thatcher and, Grace Farms Foods, man. This has been awesome. Speaker Adam Thatcher: Awesome. Well, a, thank you for having me. Where you can find more of me is come to Grace Farms. I’m there all the time. Would love to grab a cup of tea or coffee with you, let’s sit down, have a conversation, willing to take the time, and let’s see what doors we can open for each other. Otherwise, feel free to email me. Right? A thatcher, at gracepharmsfoods dot com. Thatcher, t h a t c h e r, just like Margaret Thatcher. And otherwise, you can find our products share gracefarms dot com, or you can go to our, the website gracefarms dot org and learn more about grace farms the space. Speaker Brett Gilliland: Awesome. We crushed it, man. Adam, this is awesome. Love to love it, and, love that what what creates disappointment is unmet expectations. Couldn’t agree anymore, my friend. So thanks for being with me, man. Enjoy the rest of the week.
