Not only do we as entrepreneurs get to employ folks and kind of help them go through their life and do the things they want to do and help them achieve their goals, but we also kind of provide a place for people to come in and build community.

A really big part of our mission was to get people in here, even though it was at our old location. We were trying to get people in our space, coming together, doing things together, having coffee together, having beer together, and kind of being a place for positivity. When we really got up and running here in Wilkes, we really experienced a huge amount of support from our local community. As soon as people sort of realized that there was something special and different in town, a lot of people showed up. As people kind of realized that we were a coffee roasting company, we were doing pour-overs for people, people would just flood in. We would just sell bags on bags on bags, and pour-overs of coffee, and all this stuff just because people were 1) interested, but also they wanted to support something new and local to the community.

When me and my business partner Dave first started working with the Small Business Center, they helped us secure funding for the roasting, helped us find places around town to rent, and so they were very helpful. A lot of entrepreneurs and business leaders in the area come here for meetings. There's a group called Forward Wilkes. They do a lot of events in Wilkes and North Wilkesboro, and all kinds of cool stuff like that. They actually met at our coffee shop years ago and it all started from there. Seeing like the cool little things like that and watching people that you work with and also just being able to provide a really solid cup of coffee to people as they come in and out of the door, it means a lot to me.

Hey, I'm Greg Brady and I'm with Anchor Coffee Co.