4/18/23 - PowerPod: How to Change the World

Intro: Welcome to the iWork4Him PowerPod. I'm Michael Miracle producer for iWork4Him, the voice of the faith and work movement. We are on mission to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. Each quick listening PowerPod is designed with you in mind and jam packed with Kingdom resources to help you connect your faith and work.

How will this impact your work? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You know, this is our second time, Martha, up here to Northwest Arkansas, courtesy of Workmatters. And last year we met a couple who brought the coffee in for this conference. 7 Brew. But we hadn't arranged do an interview and they were a little busy.

And we're not coffee drinkers, so we weren't sure about that. They didn't have Mountain Dew on tap and they didn't have a Mountain Dew flavored coffee or a diet Pepsi flavored coffee . And by the way, if anybody out there listening knows anybody at Pepsi, we would really like to get them as a national sponsor for iWork4Him.

Anyway, we reached out to Lisa and Ron Crume, who started up 7 brew.com, 7 brew.com, Lisa and Ron, and we invited them to do a show this year when we came back to Northwest Arkansas. So today we talked to them about 7 BREW and the Ministry of Coffee - 45 seconds at a time.

Martha: That's right. And you know, one of the things that Ron and Lisa are gonna talk about is the fact that God has equipped them both with a spiritual gift of hospitality, and they are turning that into business. Jim. They're using the very spiritual gift that God has given them.

Jim: They're gonna change the world one cup of coffee at a time. It's amazing.

We're gonna talk today with Lisa and Ron Crume. These guys run a coffee shop called 7 Brew. It's so exciting to have them here. They're all over northwest Arkansas. Lisa and Ron, welcome to iWork4Him.

Why did you start 7 Brew?

Ron Crume: Well, we've had a, a family dream of owning a drive-through coffee shop for many years and just felt like the time was right and we were at a good place in our life and we decided to move back from the west coast to northwest Arkansas.

And yeah. We love this area. We're happy to be here. The people are wonderful, and we just felt completely called and knew that this was the right thing to do. Our kids left their careers. They made a decision that they were gonna pray about this and put their house on the market. And if in fact their house sold, they would, they would take that as their answer to relocate.

And they prayed about it and made a decision. My son-in-law went to school the next, or I'm sorry, went to work the next morning and told one of his one of his team members that he was gonna put his house on the market. And the guy told him, I'll buy your house tonight, . And they went over and made the deal that night and they sold their house the very next day and they said, we're ready to go.

Martha: Most people when they hear, oh, it's a family decision, you're talking about mom and dad make a decision and the kids are coming along. But these are grown, your children were grown. I mean, this was truly them getting to make a decision to be a part of this family venture, right?

Ron Crume: Correct. Correct. I'm 50 years old. And I've had many different businesses along the way, but we are directly dealing with a business that, the face of 7 Brew coffee is majority late teens, early twenties. And our kids are in their middle to late twenties. We could have never done this without them. It took, it truly took all of us to bond together as a family to make 7 brew coffee what it is.

Jim: Well, and you needed their marketing expertise because you needed them as a test market. Like what would you guys want in a coffee shop? So, 7 brew.com. 7 brew, the number 7 brew.com. This is an independent drive through coffee... I mean, what do you call it? It, it's a drive through barista almost. But I mean, how do you guys describe yourself?

Ron Crume: Well, we are strictly that. We are strictly drive through coffee. There's no, there's no way to walk into our facilities. We have a double drive through, so we've got two lines of cars on each side, and our goal is to get them in there quickly and get 'em out.

And you know, we tell people all the time, we have our mission statement and we have our creed and so on and so forth. But I tell people in so many interviews and our team members constantly, if we simply had one goal and one goal only, it would be to change the world with one smile and act of kindness at a time.

Jim: You guys have an opportunity to really make a difference here. What is your goal with the culture that you're creating for the employees within 7Brew? I mean, what are you trying to do?

Ron Crume: Well, we coach constantly. We talk to them. We have monthly stand meetings. So we try to divide our business into little pods, into smaller groups, family units, if you will. And they're required as a stand, as a unit to have a monthly team meeting. And as well as a fun night to keep them together. And so we as leaders will go participate in those frequently, whether it's Lisa and I or the kids, and we just continually coach them and try to inspire them and bring biblical practices and teachings into those meetings to let them know without pushing it on anybody, where we stand and how we work and what we want our culture to be, what we want our motto and our goals to be, our goal setting.

Jim: So how do you, how are you guys letting the communities know? Because you're opening up your seventh store next week, is that what it was?

Ron Crume: We're opening our sixth location on Monday. And probably three weeks from Monday we'll be opening our seventh.

Jim: Okay, so bam, bam. It's gotta be so exciting. How does the community know that really what they're buying is Jesus coffee? That the coffee, when they go and spend their money for a cup of coffee or whatever fancy drink they're buying at your place, that they know that the money is not going to support stuff that is opposite of the kingdom of God?

How are you guys letting 'em know that, Hey, when you come here, you're buying Jesus coffee? Come on, Lisa. She's good. She's like, I keep looking to Ron to give the answers. Come on, Lisa.

Lisa Crume: Well, you know, we definitely pray that people know that there's something different when they come through. We pray that they realize, hey, what is it that they have that's so special, and why do I feel so good when I leave? And you know, we openly tell people we pray over our locations. We pray over our employees. We pray over our customers that come through. And that's exactly what we've prayed for, is that people would walk away going I love how I feel when I go through there.

And oftentimes people say, they tell us and put on reviews: we go through just because we know we're gonna feel good when we go through. We get treated so well. But we feel it's important if we love on our employees and authentically show that kind of leadership, servant leadership, servant heart leadership and provide an environment for them to grow as a person and have a great time, it's just gonna ooze out of them. But they know that we're doing this from a place of faith and you know, Jesus is our foundation.

Martha: You know, I just have this vision. Obviously people repeat buying coffee over and over again. They get to know the people going through the line, they get to know, and if they're asking questions like, how is your day? Boy is that going to impact them! And yes, it's sad to think that maybe the only place they're getting a touch of kindness is getting their coffee in the morning. But what a wonderful way for them to start the day.

And I just wanted to kind of circle back when you said your employees have a fun night and you, you know, have their stand meeting and things like that. You're teaching them, I'm just kind of balancing this out, you're teaching them that it needs to be genuine within their life in order for it to flow out. And so you are really being great models of that love and kindness.

Ron Crume: So let's just talk about culture for a minute, touching on that. I was asked in an interview recently, if I could sum up what culture means to me in one sentence, what would it be? And my response to that would be culture is treating your team members the way you want your team members to treat your customers. And so it's an example. It's lead by example. You have to treat those people the way you want them to treat your customers. If you dont, it's fake.

Jim: Talk to me about the spiritual impact on you guys and your kids. How has running this business, ministering to the community, serving them phenomenal coffee all day long at 7Brew.com - how has it impacted you spiritually? Ron, go ahead.

Ron Crume: It just makes a difference in our lives on a daily basis. This is so much more of a mission field than it is a business. When you take your eye off of money and you do what you do because you love what you do, it's one of the greatest mission fields we could ever be in.

Jim: Yeah. It's almost like you've got a 7Brew church.

Ron Crume: It really is. And we have talked about that. We've talked about, you know, we're over 150 employees right now. We haven't celebrated our three year anniversary yet. If you tell me that God does not lead the way and change lives... We're opening our seventh store and probably eight, maybe nine before our three year anniversary.

We're over 150 employees. We've had conversations about hiring a full-time pastor or a chaplain. Not to push anything on people, but just be there to help these employees that otherwise maybe would not want to come forward with their problems and talk to us directly.

Lisa Crume: Yes. And one of the things that I love to do is talk with the young people that we hire. In fact, hired quite a few this week. And I look at them, and I'm just like, you get to be our secret. You are our secret sauce and we appreciate you. We love that you're excited to be on our team and we just want to, you know, just reiterate to you that we want you to have the most fun job ever. You may only be with us for six to twelve months of your life. And then, you know, maybe you're gonna be called to do something else, but maybe you'll grow a career with us. And that's always an opportunity too.

So I share with them the vision of where we're going and maybe they could see themselves as a fit, you know, if they're, if it's aligned, if our mission is aligned with their mission and their life and great. But I just let them know that this, you actually make a difference when you come to work. You can actually leave work and be happier and be energized after your shift at 7Brew.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace is our mission field, but ultimately right here at the Workmatters Annual Conference, iWork4Him!

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