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Growing up, two of the biggest things impressed upon me were the importance of faith and family—lessons I’ll forever be thankful for. Right alongside those was the value of hard work.
I got my first taste of business at the age of six when my parents encouraged me to open a lemonade stand at our local canning plant. My dad was an ag teacher, and I spent many summers working there—so the lemonade stand was a way to stay busy and maybe make a few bucks of my own.
That entrepreneurial streak kept going. I started mowing lawns and eventually had a small lawn care business. Later in high school, I ran a pea and butterbean business—buying wholesale from a neighboring county and reselling them back home, either fresh by the bushel or processed, blanched, and ready for the freezer in quart bags.
As a child—probably early elementary school—my love for coffee took root, thanks to my grandmother. That’s something I’ll always treasure. Granted, it was probably 10% coffee and 90% milk and sugar, but it was enough to get me hooked. And for the record, this was before drinking coffee as a kid was cool—maybe I was just ahead of my time.
Coffee became a constant. Hot or cold weather, morning or evening—it didn’t matter. I was always up for a cup. People who knew me growing up knew I was a coffee kid. One of my favorite stories: at our church’s Wednesday night program, we had lesson time and then game time. I would always disappear during the games. My mom would get so frustrated—but the truth was, I wasn’t being mischievous. I was in the church’s social hall, drinking coffee with the adults. That’s where I felt at home. That’s probably where the “old soul” label really started to stick.
I married young—my high school sweetheart, Jayden. I was in 9th grade when we started dating; she was in 11th, which my mom wasn’t thrilled about at first. We ended up getting married in college. I had just turned 20—still not of legal drinking age (not that we would’ve been serving alcohol if I was). We had a morning wedding, and the only bar there was a coffee bar. Fitting, right?
Coffee has been a part of my life for a long, long time.
The Spark
I remember the moment the coffee business idea hit me. I was weed-eating a yard in college, down in a ditch, and I thought: What if I took that same model from my pea and butterbean business? Buy coffee wholesale, repackage it under my own brand, maybe even private label it.
I loved the concept. There was a roaster an hour or so away I considered partnering with, but I stuck a pin in the idea and didn’t really pursue it at the time.
Later, after I started working at a financial advising firm, I mentioned the coffee idea to my boss, Matt Seale. I told him I was thinking of having it private-labeled. He said, “That sounds great, but have you ever thought about roasting it yourself?”
I hadn’t. Honestly, I didn’t even know what a coffee roaster looked like.
That conversation set off a wave of research. Matt was a coffee lover too, so we both started digging in. I began regularly checking Facebook Marketplace for roasters—usually with a 100- or 200-mile radius. Then one Saturday morning, I realized I could expand the search to 500 miles. That’s when I found it—a never-used Mill City one-kilogram roaster in New Orleans, bought pre-COVID but never fired up.
I reached out to the seller. They told me they had big plans to roast coffee that never materialized, and now it was just sitting there. I called Matt—he was out of town—and asked, “What do you think?” He said, “Go for it.”
So that very evening, Jayden and I hit the road. Picked it up Sunday. Hauled the roaster—several hundred pounds—back home. I’m glad we moved quickly, because the next weekend, New Orleans was hit by a major hurricane. We probably couldn’t have gotten it after that.
The Start of Old Soul
We were able to set up in the upstairs of Matt’s building. Everything was self-taught. YouTube videos, trial and error—lots of both. I don’t want to begin to count the pounds of beans that have been thrown away.
Somewhere around that same time, we started kicking around name ideas. One day, I went home for lunch and Jayden said, “What about Old Soul Coffee Company?” I immediately loved it. That phrase—“old soul”—had followed me most of my life, and it just fit.
The truth is, I didn’t originally plan on being the face of the brand. I thought it would be nice to build something that didn’t revolve around me. But after so many people said I should get in front of it—and noticing how posts with my face (not that it’s anything special) performed better—I realized people connect with people. It’s not about being the center of attention. It’s about putting a human connection behind the product.
Where We’re Going
I’ll admit, the past few years, I’ve been passive with the coffee side of things. It’s been there, but it wasn’t my main focus. That’s starting to change.
Jayden is now helping with social media, and we’re working on creating a consistent voice and message. I want people to know what we stand for.
To me, the coffee is just a byproduct. Yes, we roast a great cup of coffee—you can taste the difference, no question—but it’s more than that. It’s about what it means to be an Old Soul.
In a world that says go, go, go… grind harder… never stop… I want to offer a pause. A moment to slow down, reflect, and be intentional.
Maybe that means getting up 10 minutes earlier to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee. Maybe it means reading your Bible or journaling before scrolling on your phone. Whatever it looks like, I hope we can help inspire people to live more intentionally—even in small ways.
So yes, we’re going to sell really good coffee. But more than that, I hope we build a community of people who value slowing down, being present, and living meaningfully.
I’m excited to rekindle this journey. It’s been on the back burner too long—and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes, who we meet along the way, and what stories we’ll share over a cup of coffee.
