Fueling Knoxville Through Coffee and Human Connection with Pierce LaMacchia
Pierce LaMacchia is the Founder, Owner and Operator of K Brew Coffee. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, Pierce shares the incredible story of how he discovered that entrepreneurship was the only path forward for him and convinced his brother to drop...
Pierce LaMacchia is the Founder, Owner and Operator of K Brew Coffee. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, Pierce shares the incredible story of how he discovered that entrepreneurship was the only path forward for him and convinced his brother to drop out of college to help him start K Brew at 24 years old. Throughout our conversation, we discuss the importance of embracing change, how to evaluate if a college education is the right path for you, and the most important advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Pierce also shares his hobbies outside of running K Brew and his future plans for the business.
Highlights
00:00 Intro
00:21 Julia introduces Pierce LaMacchia, Founder, Owner, and Operator of K Brew Coffee
00:49 Pierce describes growing up in Knoxville and how he started K Brew
04:27 How embracing change has helped Pierce succeed and scale his business
06:48 Why college isn’t always the answer for everyone and the best advice Pierce would give to aspiring entrepreneurs
12:24 Ad - Dr. Joe Chiro
17:50 The vision of entrepreneurs and the importance of building relationships
20:05 The nuances of building relationships when you’re a female entrepreneur
21:19 Ad - Just Homes Group
26:14 Pierce’s future plans for growing his business and the opportunities he’s exploring outside of K Brew
28:35 Pierce answers Julia’s lightning round of questions about his favorite Knoxville spots
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
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K Brew: https://www.knoxvillebrew.com/
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Just Homes Group: https://www.justhomesgroup.com/
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knoxvillebrew.com: https://knoxvillebrew.com
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Dr. Joe Chiro: https://goseedrjoe.com/
Connect with ConnectTheKnox
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Or wherever you listen to Podcasts
- Connect with Julia -
- Buy or Sell a home in Knoxville -
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Just Homes Realty Group: www.justhomesgroup.com
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Find my Home Buyers & Home Sellers Guide here: https://linktr.ee/thejuliahurley
Transcript
Julia: Welcome back, everybody. It’s another amazing episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your host, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. And today’s podcast guest is founder-owner-operator of K Brew, one of our favorite coffee places in all of Knoxville, Pierce LaMacchia. Pierce, thank you for being with us today.
Pierce: Thanks for having me, Julia. I’m super excited to be here.
Julia: [laugh]. Are you jazzed up on your own coffee today?
Pierce: So, jazzed up. Every day. On my own coffee [laugh]. I have to control myself.
Julia: [laugh]. It’s so good. So, we’re going to start it off the same way we start everybody off. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your connection to Knoxville.
Pierce: Yeah, I was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but Knoxville, Tennessee, is home. I moved here when I was five years old—my family—and family is all still here except for my older brother who lives up in Boston now. But yeah, grew up here, love Knoxville. You know, back in the day, I feel like it was [late culture 00:01:04], UT Vols, movie theaters, and restaurants and now it’s just exploded. We’ve got festivals, we’ve got concerts, we just have so much going on, I can’t even keep up with it. 2013, started K Brew and, you know, that’s a whole story in and of itself.
Julia: Well, that’s why we’re here. Tell us all about it.
Pierce: [laugh]. So yeah, my younger brother and I started K Brew in 2013. I was working at a local advertising agency and I just realized I needed to do my own thing. I was definitely not the best employee. I was very headstrong, trying to be a leader when that was definitely not my title.
And yeah, I was actually just having trouble sleeping as I realized that I needed to start my own thing, I needed to succeed or fail, run my own business. And so that, sort of, compelled me to start K Brew. And call my younger brother up, who was a sophomore at UT at the time, and said, “Hey, you want to drop out of school? I’ll quit my job and [laugh] we can go start this thing.”
Julia: A parent’s dream [laugh].
Pierce: And, you know, long pause on the phone, as he’s wondering the next five years of his life, what it’s going to be like, and he’s like, “All right, man. Let’s do it.” And so, yeah, happened very quickly after that. You know, we were open six months after that phone call. And then I feel like every year after that has just been a new element of growth, you know, figuring something new out.
And now we’re at four stores, we’re at a coffee roastery, we’re at a bagel bakery. I’ve got my bagel hat on to represent all my amazing bakers.
Julia: I love that.
Pierce: The bagels are baked fresh every morning and delivered every morning to all four stores, and we roast a lot of coffee. I think last year, my coffee roaster estimated that we roasted 93 million beans. So, you know, we roast a lot of coffee out of that, host a lot of events out of our roastery; it’s kind of an entertainment space and coffee roastery. So yeah, we’re having an awesome time, we’re having a lot of fun, you know, serving coffee and bagels to your city. It’s just, you feel like you’re fueling your city every single day.
And that’s what we love. We love being a place for meetings, synergy to happen, making connections, and all that stuff. So, you know, our mission at K Brew is to create and enable human connection. And so, that’s how we train our staff, that’s how we structure our stores. We want human connection to occur, especially in a year where a lot is happening online and not a lot is going on face-to-face. We really want to push the face-to-face.
And so, whether that’s a solo person coming in who can create some human connection with a barista, or it’s two people coming in and their goal is to have some human connection, we just want to facilitate that. That’s what K Brew is all about. And really the coffee and the bagels and the stores are just the tools that we use to accomplish that mission of human connection. So, super fun.
You know, I’m honored to be leading this thing. We got about 90 employees now. It’s hard to believe. We started off with, like, four employees and I was working behind the bar, slinging coffee. But yeah, roles change, vision changes and the growth is really just taken off, especially here the past couple of years. So, I’m loving it.
Julia: I think that what you just said encompasses why so many businesses don’t succeed and why yours has, is you literally just summed as vision changes, things change. And you have rolled with that change. Like, all right, this is changing. Let’s go let’s make a new vision. Let’s make a new growth plan. Let’s make some new employees. Let’s make [something 00:04:39]—
Pierce: That’s right.
Julia: —new. Change is okay. We’re rolling with it. Let’s embrace it and grow. That’s challenging.
Pierce: I’m a change person. I mean, I love new stuff, I love different stuff, I love change. And that can be its own challenge in business, right, because you do need to hunker down and just focus on one thing for a while sometimes. But you know, it’s great that you brought that up because in 2019, we realized that our first vision, we had accomplished it. When we wrote our first vision in 2013, it was to become Knoxville’s coffee company.
And you know, this isn’t to be disparaging of any other, the amazing coffee companies in Knoxville, but we really felt like that we had become that. And so, we said, “Okay, we’re going to check that vision off and we’re going to very quickly discover, you know, that bigger, broader vision, frankly, that we can take to other cities, as well.” You know, you can’t become Knoxville’s coffee company to California, but you can take this idea of creating an enabling human connection, you can take that anywhere. And I feel like there’s a lot of markets that desperately need something like K Brew as a community hub, as that place that human connection is happening. So, I love that you bring up a pivoting the vision, changing it, improving it because, yeah, that is a lot of business. And you know, we’ve been in business almost ten years now. Chances are, we got a new vision. I mean, heck, I was 24 when I started K Brew. Like, the idea that I had some perfect business vision at 24 is probably a little absurd.
Julia: Well, I think hilarious. You’re like, “Hey, kid, let’s drop out of college. Let’s make a coffee shop. Let’s go.” And [crosstalk 00:06:18].
Pierce: And, Julia, my parents were—
Julia: You are winning business awards.
Pierce: —my parents were so pissed at me.
Julia: [laugh].
Pierce: Oh, my God. I remember my mom saying, “Well, how’s he going to finish school if he’s running K Brew at the same time?” And I said, “Well, he’s not.” And she’s like, “Pierce.” [laugh]. I was like, “It’s his choice. He made it.” But yeah, it took them a couple of years to realize that Michael had made the correct decision. So.
Julia: Well, sometimes school is not the answer. It’s not the answer for everybody. And if it were, we wouldn’t have entrepreneurs.
Pierce: For sure. It’s a kind of a controversial subject these days, but you know, I’m pretty—yeah, I mean, I recommend people to really investigate if college is for them. I know a lot of young guys in particular—and I’m sure there’s a lot of young girls; I just don’t talk to as many of them—but there’s a lot of young guys who just want to get out and make money and start their own business and, like, hustle. And, you know, for me, I feel like that four or five years might have been spent better, you know, starting my business at 18. So again, entrepreneurship is not for everybody, just like college isn’t for everybody, and I feel like people need to—or young kids in particular really need to take a hard look at that.
Julia: What would be your best advice then into somebody… everybody—like, I’ve had my business a decade, right, and people are always saying, “Oh, I can’t believe you’ve made a decade. I can’t believe how much success you’ve had. I can’t believe, I can’t believe, I can’t believe.” And I’m like, if I would have started this pre-college, had I not gone to school—I had $100,000 in debt, right—so I leave college, I’m $100,000 in debt, the starting pay back then was $14 an hour. I think I’ve got a job making $24,000 a year as a bank teller, right?
Pierce: Hoo.
Julia: I’m making $0, I have rent to pay, you know, I had [insurance 00:07:57] your student loan payments, start the next day. They’re not, like, “Oh, look at you. Let me give you six months. So, they don’t care.” And the interest rate is, like, 25% on $100,000. I didn’t pay my student loan debt off until, like, five years ago. I’m [unintelligible 00:08:11], right?
Because I kept deferring it because it just was never enough. It was never enough. It was never enough. I started my own real estate firm. I started selling real estate, I realized I could start a coaching real estate company because now I’m an expert after a few years. I’m selling 100 homes a year. This is a system, it is a model, it can be recreated. It can be taught. Other people can do it. And I thought, how interesting. Had I had that $100,000 to start a business, how much further I would be in my life today? Not that I’m not far, but I could be further.
Pierce: Yeah. I think you’re pretty far, Julia.
Julia: But I also wanted that 80-hour workweek. And we all know it takes you know—Elon Musk says sleep in your office for the first few years. That’s what you do: you eat, breathe it, sleep it. That’s all you do for the first [few 00:08:55] years. And it builds itself and you create it. What advice outside of that would you give?
Pierce: You know, these days, when young people ask me if they should start their own business, I say, “No.” Or they say, “What’s your advice for someone who wants to start a business?” I say, “Don’t.” And I do that very intentionally because there’s plenty of motivational material out there. There’s plenty of people screaming at them going, “You can do it. Start your own thing.” You know?
I say, if I tell you not to do it and then you still go out there and do it, you should be doing it. Entrepreneurship is a calling, it’s something that compels you, it’s something that makes you do it. And you do that at the expense of—or I guess, counter—to everybody telling you you shouldn’t do it. And so, you know, I just feel like there’s a flood of motivational stuff out there. I really think that very few people—just percentage-wise—should probably be an entrepreneur and go out and do their own thing.
Because it’s grueling. Most of the people I meet who run their own business are various eccentric, very, you know, different. I’m definitely like that—
Julia: I’m like that [laugh].
Pierce: —is a little strange a little quirky, a little psychopath or something, you know? Yeah so [laugh]—but we had to. We were compelled to. And everybody in the world could have told me not to do it and wouldn’t have mattered. Even the voices in my head saying this is a foolish idea, it didn’t matter.
So, you know, it is a little bit of a joke, of course, when I tell a young person that, but there’s a lot of truth to it. You know, should they do it? Probably not [laugh] but that’s life, you know? And they should take risks and enjoy it. And, you know, just for any young person out there, all I would say, is count the cost.
If you spend four years at various coffee shops in a city and you intentionally get to know as many people as you can and just have a business card with your name and your phone number and maybe some of your passions and your hobbies, and tell a story and talk about your interests, you did that for four years instead of going to school for four years, maybe that’s the right path for you. Because your network is going to be monstrous. You’re probably going to have multiple job offers. But you know, I never want to disparage the engineer, the lawyer, the doctor, the people who really need to go through college and really need to get that certification. Like, that’s awesome, too.
But just count the cost, you know? Nothing is default. Entrepreneurship is not default; college isn’t default, you know? It’s not a system. We’re not on a manufacturing line that we all should be doing the same thing. So, you know, there are some serious downsides to going to school these days with the debt and all of that but, you know, if you’re looking to be a doctor or lawyer or whatever, there’s some serious downsides to not going to school.
You know, one of the best things that some of my buddies have done over the years and some of my mentees have been just a gap year. Just take a gap year. Like, go travel, go be an apprentice, go learn a blue-collar skill like welding or something, or you know, go get into car sales and just like, learn how to sell. You know, do something for a year so that when you make the decision to go to college, it’s really you making it, you’re not just following some, you know, preordained path. So, that would be my recommendation. You know, I’m certainly not anti-college, but I certainly don’t think that everybody should be going. And you know, especially with the internet and all these other tools we have at our disposal, just count the cost is what I’d say.
Julia: Yeah, I agree with that. I think there’s always a path. I always knew I didn’t belong where I was, but I really wasn’t sure how to get out of it. So, I was stuck. I was like, “Well, I don’t really love all the things that I’m being taught. I don’t see how I’m ever going to use them. I’m not sure this conversation is going to take place in my future. This is where I am right now.”
Couldn’t see where I needed to be. And then being offered a career where literally, I set the tone for what I’m going to do, what I’m going to do, and how I’m going to do it, and then bring people along with me, it’s like, “Oh. Oh, this is what this is. This is what I was meant to be doing.” But not everybody has that drive, either [crosstalk 00:12:56].
Pierce: We had the same—we had the same college experience. I mean, I was the exact same way, sitting there. And, and [laugh] how that manifested itself for me is a lot of, like, debating professors when I shouldn’t have been and just being—
Julia: I kicked out of [the classroom 00:13:08] so many times.
Pierce: —being a little dick. Like.
Julia: “Just go. I’ll give you a C. You just get out of my class.”
Pierce: I know. I should have just, like, withdrawn. Like, if that was going to be my attitude. But instead, I stayed in because my mentor, my main mentor at the time—and I love him to death—but he said you’ve got to go to college. And so, I listened to him. You know, he’s very successful, owns resorts, and you know, big time. And so, he had never gone to college, but he said, you know, “Times have changed. You’ve got to go.”
And so, I listen to that. But looking back on it, yeah, I mean, it’s probably the same sort of experience of just not sure how this is all going to work. And then, of course, to make matters worse because I’ve never been a good student, I was a fifth-year senior. So, now I’m in for five years, miserable, you know? And I think I graduated with, like, a—Julia, listen to this. I think I graduated with, like, a 2.75. Something like that.
Julia: You did better than me. I graduated with a 2.63.
Pierce: Oh, man.
Julia: I graduated with a 2.63, and the only reason I’ve had that is because—and I’ll never forget—two very specific professors who could—they—two people out of four years, two people saw me. They really saw me, right? So, one was [Dr. Berger 00:14:17], and he was my senior thesis advisor.
So, we had to write a freshman thesis and a senior thesis. Both were just—I was like, “Why am I doing this?” But now that I’m writing my own book, I kind of—I’m like, “Well, I was thankful for that.” But other than that, learned nothing throughout that process. Zero capability to use in the future. Useless to me.
And every time I would present my thesis to him, he would read it and he would look at me and he would—[unintelligible 00:14:38] the paper would be bleeding with three red markers, and [he would 00:14:42] give it back to me and he would say, “If you’ll just finish it… if you’ll just finish it.” I mean, I was like, this is torture. This is a waste of my time. And he’s like, “Yes, it is.”
Pierce: Like, just get through it.
Julia: You don’t need to be here, but if you persevere through this uncomfortable situation, I promise everything you’re learning from me right now will teach you what you need in the future. So, I remember that conversation so clearly that even now, today, when I’m doing something I don’t want to do, but I know that if I can get through it, to the other side of it, I’m going to—it’s going to be fine.
Pierce: There you go.
Julia: I think of him in my brain, handing me back my senior thesis going, “If you’ll just do it.”
Pierce: There was your $100,000 lesson, Julia.
Julia: There’s my $100,000 right there.
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Pierce: So, the reason I bring up my GPA is because it’s hilariously ironic that, like, two or three years ago, I was voted the alumni of the year [laugh] at UT. And I was like, clearly they did not survey my previous professors. I mean, they would have been, like, “Uh, who do you want? Absolutely not.” But yeah, it’s very ironic. And now it’s interesting, getting a little bit of maturity, getting a little bit of—what’s that?
Julia: I gave a speech at my alma mater.
Pierce: Oh, my gosh.
Julia: Yeah. And I was like, they let me in the door. And they like me. And I was like—
Pierce: Amazing. They like me now. Yeah.
Julia: [unintelligible 00:16:29] you like me [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. I mean, getting a little bit of perspective, a little bit of maturity, and kind of stepping away, you know, from my college experience, like, now I genuinely love the university system and what it does for the city. And you know, anybody I’ve ever met, most of the people I’ve ever met who work for UT, who are there, really genuinely care about the kids—
Julia: Oh yeah.
Pierce: You know, like, really genuinely care about the education and about Knoxville as a whole. And so, it’s one of these things where it’s like, now I have a lot of respect for it and now I really see what they’re trying to do and what they accomplished in many cases. It’s just trying to fit a square peg in a round hole—I think that’s saying, yeah—square peg through a round hole, you know? And I was that square peg and there was no fitting me in that system. So, you know, fair enough.
Julia: It is what it is. And some of the professors that stick it out with you, they’re like, “Well, we knew you were going to be somebody. We just didn’t know when.” [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. Or what.
Julia: Or what.
Pierce: Yeah. Prison or wealthy? One or the other [laugh].
Julia: We didn’t know if you’re going to be homeless… [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. Homeless or leading the revolution. There’s only [laugh]—yeah, homeless, dead in the gutter, or leading the revolution.
Julia: Right? So, you can never tell. But there’s a very specific personality to entrepreneurs when we can gather and tell our funny stories, and the things that we envision. I mean, our visions, when we get into a room together with several other people, I mean, it’s just how big can your idea be, really? And then somebody else’s is going to top that, and it’s going to top that. And then you have a roomful of people who just created a whole new world. It’s just the way that we think.
Pierce: Yeah. Well, and this is—you know, I’ve refined over the years, just kind of going back to your original question of, like, what to tell young people who are thinking about starting their own thing—or just people in general, I mean, whether you’re 50, or 18—and to that point of getting in the same room, I’ve worked on what is that one piece of advice that I want to give them. Because it used to be, “Oh, read this book,” or, “Do this.” And all I tell them now is build your relationships. Like, you can do this on a spreadsheet.
I’ve got a fantastic app that I always preach called Covve, C-O-V-V-E, and it’s a personal CRM, right? And so, it tells you when to call people, when to check in. I’m running, like, 120 or 130 people on that platform that I’m just keeping up with. That’s what I tell people now—young people now especially—who asked me what my one piece of advice for them is. Build that network, call people, check in. Don’t just send text messages. Ask to get lunch or get a beer. You know, call them.
It’s amazing the power now that something like a phone call has in this age of you know, Facebook messages or texts. And so, that’s really what I see as being the single most powerful thing that somebody can do to really set themselves up for success. Because every good thing in my life, I mean, this interview included, just comes from meeting people, building that relationship, and then just kind of seeing what opportunities come from it. So, I’ve just—yeah, highly recommend that. And I’ve got so much more room to grow in that area. I’m just looking forward to being that, like, 80-year-old guy who’s got a big black book, you know, and he could just—“Who do you need to call?” You know [laugh]. I love that vision.
Julia: “What connection do you need?”
Pierce: That’s right. I love it.
Julia: I think we’re on the same page there. I tell women—I get a lot of requests from younger women. A lot. And they’re like, “What do you do? How do you do this? How do you navigate this?” I’m like, well, I do the relationship. Like, you need to build your relationships. But it is hard to build relationships when there are very few other female entrepreneurs.
Pierce: Mmm.
Julia: Right? So, for us, it’s not building the relationship so much as it is navigating the conversation properly. Because there’s a stark contrast to male versus female conversations. Stark contrast in business. And we do it subconsciously; we don’t even know we’re doing it.
So, the language of sales, understanding the conversation shift and tonality and how to just—how do you—how are you been out on the golf course, playing golf when it’s five guys in you? How are you going to approach that conversation when somebody gets a little too drunk? Things are going to get said. People are who they are, right? They’re going to let their guard down. Is yours going to be up? Is yours going to be down?
So, it’s a conversation change on top of their relationship. So, I always recommend doing a language of sales course, understanding, like, Ninja Sales. It’s really just about verbiage—
Pierce: Very cool.
Julia: —and personality change. So, adding that is always a bonus.
Pierce: That’s so cool. Yep. I love it.
Julia: You’re so cool [laugh]. I love [crosstalk 00:21:16].
Pierce: I’m trying to be. With my bagels hat, you mean?
Julia: You’re awesome [laugh].
Pierce: Look at that bagels hat. Yeah. And here’s the thing. I mean, and I’m sure this comes up in the girls that you’re mentoring, it’s like, my pool of relationships, I would say 5% of them are true entrepreneurs. I mean, I have fantastic relationships, people that I really love and I love checking in with who are attorneys and doctors and like—or just, you know, working for Clayton Homes or Axle Logistics or whatever.
I mean, frankly, I find that a lot of entrepreneurship conversations can get really honed in on business and most of the time, since we’re doing that in our day job, you know, maybe I like a little break. Maybe I want to talk about sports or something. That’s a lie. I really don’t care about sports. But [laugh].
Julia: You talk about [crosstalk 00:22:07] [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah, traveling. Something I actually care about. But you know, it’s not just people in your field, it’s not just people in your industry, it’s not just people who are doing what you are doing. It’s about having all those—you know, to use an ’80s business buzzword—synergistic relationships of people doing all different types of things. And that’s the way connections are made.
Because if your pool is just people like you, if somebody needs something like what kind of connection are you going to be able to provide them? What kind of value are going to be able to provide another entrepreneur? Like, what value would I, as a coffee shop owner, provide to another coffee shop owner who had the exact same number of stores, like, somebody who was, in my exact situation? I couldn’t really provide them much value, right, because they’re in the same season of life and all this other stuff. So, you know, it’s about people who you respect first and foremost, you know, and maybe you respect that corporate employee, that doctor, whatever. If you respect them, if you like hanging out with them, build the relationship and it’ll pay you back, you’ll be able to provide value to them, and it’d be really good for your success.
Julia: Well, I agree 150% with that. It’s building outside of yourself is also very hard to do because finding interest in other people when you don’t know anything about that particular thing is a completely different conversation. So—
Pierce: It’s just so easy for me, though. I don’t know if it’s easy for—I feel like this is easy for you as well. Like—
Julia: Yeah, it is [laugh].
Pierce: —just your person—yeah. It’s like, when I meet somebody who knows everything about iguanas, that is like—
Julia: Like, why? This is amazing. Teach me.
Pierce: Yeah.
Julia: Yes.
Pierce: When I meet somebody who just knows everything about coffee shops or business, I’m like, “Bro, I don’t want to talk to you.” [laugh]. You know, like, I’m doing this, you know, 24/7. Do I really want to talk about money or, you know, whatever investments—
Julia: Well, that’s a good conversation—
Pierce: —but, oh my gosh—
Julia: —to have with new people. I get asked this all the time. So, I will get emails, text messages, I will get random inbox messages, “Can I pick your brain? I’d love to buy you coffee and pick your brain.” So, what I always advise my people that I mentor and that I coach is, please don’t do that. Please don’t do that. If you have respect for that person’s time, find out something about them that you’re genuinely interested about—
Pierce: Love it.
Julia: Don’t ask them to meet you out for a coffee. Bring them coffee and then bring them something of value. And if you’re being valuable to someone, they will see that you’re making the effort, even if they don’t have a use for you or what you’re offering at that point. If you say, “Let me bring you coffee,” or, “Let me bring your office lunch. I noticed on a social media post that you did blank, blank, or blank. I have a valuable proposition that could fix this, this, or this, and I would appreciate your time to offer you something of value.” But don’t be like, “Hey, I want to. I want something from you but I’m offering nothing in return.”
Pierce: Love it.
Julia: Right? So, I mean if I wanted to know all about iguanas. I’d be, “Here’s a heat rock. Please teach me.” Tell me everything about iguanas. I mean, they’re 20 bucks [laugh].
Pierce: Now, I want to find somebody who knows everything about iguanas. I’m kind of curious.
Julia: I don’t know anything about iguanas. We’re going to have to find somebody. I’m going to bring them—I’m going to bring you coffee at your own coffee shop and you’re going to teach me about iguanas.
Pierce: Yes. Yeah, you can call me Jeff Irwin.
Julia: [laugh]. I love it. Yes, exactly. Okay, so we could talk for days, I think. We have five minutes. So, plans and dreams for the future? Give us your growth plan here.
Pierce: Business-wise, continue to grow K Brew. I think we’re looking at additional markets right now, so maybe out-of-state opportunities. I think K Brew has national reach potential; really excited about that. Loving, loving real estate right now and your field. I think there’s so many good opportunities out there.
And I’m no real estate expert, but I think that, you know, there is maybe a downturn coming and so I’m just preparing for that. Loading up capital and just kind of getting ready. Hopefully, take advantage of some distressed assets [laugh]. And yeah, you know, some small side businesses. I’ve started DJing at local, I guess, lounge, I guess you could say. Having so much fun doing that.
At this stage in my life, I’m very focused on—like, K Brew is kind of on just a set growth trajectory, and so I’m very focused on what can I do that feeds my soul and doesn’t cost me a lot of money or makes me money. And so, the DJing thing is definitely one of those things. And then another weird one that I got into earlier this year is stump grinding. And so, I bought this, you know, huge commercial stump grinder and just go around people’s houses and grind stumps. Great money. So, much fun, and it—you know, my day job now is behind a computer, like, a lot, and so I’ve missed getting outside in nature, you know, smelling the wood chippings and all of that, it just really fires me up. So, I’ve been loving being a redneck, I guess you could say.
Julia: I love that for you. I actually built a tipi in our backyard, just because we’ve had to cut our camping trips completely out, due to my [crosstalk 00:27:27]—
Pierce: [laugh].
Julia: —and I’m working behind a computer 12, 15 hours a day. There’s a tipi in our backyard with [crosstalk 00:27:33]—
Pierce: Oh, my gosh.
Julia: I mean, I was like, “I’ve got to get outside in nature.” I have to be outside.
Pierce: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Totally [crosstalk 00:27:39].
Pierce: Same here. So, that’s been a fun little weird one. And then, you know, a home reno here, too, you know? But that’s pretty much it business-wise, you know, dreams, visions, that sort of thing. Like, yeah, just enjoying it.
Julia: All right, three minutes or less. So, we’re going to do, like, the Pierce LaMacchia top list. Top grocery store. Where’s your favorite grocery store?
Pierce: Uh… grocery store. I just kind of like Kroger. Like, there’s several good Kroger’s around here and I’m just—I’m a basic guy. I get—I’m on meal delivery services, full disclosure. I don’t do any cooking. I do enjoy cooking, but I just don’t have time for right now, so I’m—I don’t really visit grocery stores very much.
Julia: All right. Gas station?
Pierce: Gas Station. Oh, jeez this is, like, so weird. I don’t even really think about it. Um… Weigel’s.
Julia: Yeah. The big Wiggles. I love them.
Pierce: Yeah, I love their corndogs, actually.
Julia: Oh, their food selection in general. That—
Pierce: Pretty good.
Julia: —slushy coffee thing they have? Oh, my God. Don’t even—
Pierce: Well, no, you can’t say that. That’s terrible. You should go to K Brew instead.
Julia: It’s not coffee. It’s a slushie that has coffee powder in it.
Pierce: Oh gosh.
Julia: It’s a slushy. It is a coffee-flavored slushy.
Pierce: Okay.
Julia: I can’t. You got to try it.
Pierce: Okay, I’ll give it a try. I’ll give it a try.
Julia: If you make one at K Brew for me that’s—
Pierce: [laugh].
Julia: —coffee [laugh]. [crosstalk 00:28:58]—
Pierce: Absolutely not.
Julia: And then make one.
Pierce: Oh, gosh.
Julia: That’s your challenge.
Pierce: Okay. All right.
Julia: All right. Favorite restaurant. Or give me three, if you have three.
Pierce: Yeah, I think three is much more realistic. Pizzeria Nora on North Central. Gavino’s on Kingston Pike, and Simpl Food Arts in South Knox.
Julia: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Very good. All right.
Pierce: Which I think they’re changing locations soon.
Julia: I think they posted on Instagram this past week.
Pierce: So exciting. Yeah. I love [Kendall 00:29:30], Kendall and Dave. Dave is at Pizzeria Nora. Very cool, eccentric business owner. Kendall is awesome. They’re there at their stores every single day. I haven’t met the owner of Gavino’s yet, but I’m sure he’s a big, jolly Italian guy, based on the food selection.
Julia: Well, let’s put it out there in the world. Pierce LaMacchia wants to meet you. Pierce LaMacchia—
Pierce: Yeah, there you go [laugh].
Julia: [laugh]. Whatever you put out there, you’re going to get back.
Pierce: I just want to thank him for his amazing pasta and pizza.
Julia: Yeah, he does have really good food.
Pierce: Golly.
Julia: Probably what I’m going to have for dinner. All right. Last question. When someone visits you from out of state that’s never visited Knoxville, where’s the first place you take them?
Pierce: Usually Radius. I mean, if they arrive in the afternoon, we’ll go get, like, a mid-afternoon cocktail. Josh and his crew up at Radius are just absolutely fantastic. If it’s sometime in the evening, we love the Vault, beneath Vida. So yeah, I mean, I’m a cocktail guy; that’s kind of like where I want to go. And then you know, if we’re doing dinner, any of the places that I mentioned and just walking around Market Square.
Julia: I love that. I love that. All right, well, we’re out of time, which is hilarious. I mean, it genuinely feels that we talked for five minutes, but we are out of time. I appreciate your time today. I know Knoxville is going to love learning more about you because you’re growing and you’re part of our community; you’re growing our community. Thank you for bringing something new and amazing and fun, and employees, and local, and we really appreciate everything you do.
Pierce: Thanks. Yeah.
Julia: Y’all, if you want to visit K Brew, give us our loc—give us the top location so people here that are listening from out of the state can figure it out.
Pierce: Yeah, four locations. I’m not going to say the addresses because you’ll never remember them, but you should remember knoxvillebrew.com, Knoxville B-R-E-W dot com. And you can also follow us on social media at@knoxvillebrew. All of our location information is there. We’d love to see you.
Julia: Love it. Thank you so much, and everybody out there in the nation, thank you yet again for connecting Knoxville to the nation. I’m Julie Hurley, your host. Thanks again for visiting Connect the Knox. Bye, Pierce. Thank you so much.
Pierce: Thank you, Julia.
Julia: Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five-star review on your podcast player of choice, and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.
Julia: Welcome back, everybody. It’s another amazing episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your host, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. And today’s podcast guest is founder-owner-operator of K Brew, one of our favorite coffee places in all of Knoxville, Pierce LaMacchia. Pierce, thank you for being with us today.
Pierce: Thanks for having me, Julia. I’m super excited to be here.
Julia: [laugh]. Are you jazzed up on your own coffee today?
Pierce: So, jazzed up. Every day. On my own coffee [laugh]. I have to control myself.
Julia: [laugh]. It’s so good. So, we’re going to start it off the same way we start everybody off. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your connection to Knoxville.
Pierce: Yeah, I was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but Knoxville, Tennessee, is home. I moved here when I was five years old—my family—and family is all still here except for my older brother who lives up in Boston now. But yeah, grew up here, love Knoxville. You know, back in the day, I feel like it was [late culture 00:01:04], UT Vols, movie theaters, and restaurants and now it’s just exploded. We’ve got festivals, we’ve got concerts, we just have so much going on, I can’t even keep up with it. 2013, started K Brew and, you know, that’s a whole story in and of itself.
Julia: Well, that’s why we’re here. Tell us all about it.
Pierce: [laugh]. So yeah, my younger brother and I started K Brew in 2013. I was working at a local advertising agency and I just realized I needed to do my own thing. I was definitely not the best employee. I was very headstrong, trying to be a leader when that was definitely not my title.
And yeah, I was actually just having trouble sleeping as I realized that I needed to start my own thing, I needed to succeed or fail, run my own business. And so that, sort of, compelled me to start K Brew. And call my younger brother up, who was a sophomore at UT at the time, and said, “Hey, you want to drop out of school? I’ll quit my job and [laugh] we can go start this thing.”
Julia: A parent’s dream [laugh].
Pierce: And, you know, long pause on the phone, as he’s wondering the next five years of his life, what it’s going to be like, and he’s like, “All right, man. Let’s do it.” And so, yeah, happened very quickly after that. You know, we were open six months after that phone call. And then I feel like every year after that has just been a new element of growth, you know, figuring something new out.
And now we’re at four stores, we’re at a coffee roastery, we’re at a bagel bakery. I’ve got my bagel hat on to represent all my amazing bakers.
Julia: I love that.
Pierce: The bagels are baked fresh every morning and delivered every morning to all four stores, and we roast a lot of coffee. I think last year, my coffee roaster estimated that we roasted 93 million beans. So, you know, we roast a lot of coffee out of that, host a lot of events out of our roastery; it’s kind of an entertainment space and coffee roastery. So yeah, we’re having an awesome time, we’re having a lot of fun, you know, serving coffee and bagels to your city. It’s just, you feel like you’re fueling your city every single day.
And that’s what we love. We love being a place for meetings, synergy to happen, making connections, and all that stuff. So, you know, our mission at K Brew is to create and enable human connection. And so, that’s how we train our staff, that’s how we structure our stores. We want human connection to occur, especially in a year where a lot is happening online and not a lot is going on face-to-face. We really want to push the face-to-face.
And so, whether that’s a solo person coming in who can create some human connection with a barista, or it’s two people coming in and their goal is to have some human connection, we just want to facilitate that. That’s what K Brew is all about. And really the coffee and the bagels and the stores are just the tools that we use to accomplish that mission of human connection. So, super fun.
You know, I’m honored to be leading this thing. We got about 90 employees now. It’s hard to believe. We started off with, like, four employees and I was working behind the bar, slinging coffee. But yeah, roles change, vision changes and the growth is really just taken off, especially here the past couple of years. So, I’m loving it.
Julia: I think that what you just said encompasses why so many businesses don’t succeed and why yours has, is you literally just summed as vision changes, things change. And you have rolled with that change. Like, all right, this is changing. Let’s go let’s make a new vision. Let’s make a new growth plan. Let’s make some new employees. Let’s make [something 00:04:39]—
Pierce: That’s right.
Julia: —new. Change is okay. We’re rolling with it. Let’s embrace it and grow. That’s challenging.
Pierce: I’m a change person. I mean, I love new stuff, I love different stuff, I love change. And that can be its own challenge in business, right, because you do need to hunker down and just focus on one thing for a while sometimes. But you know, it’s great that you brought that up because in 2019, we realized that our first vision, we had accomplished it. When we wrote our first vision in 2013, it was to become Knoxville’s coffee company.
And you know, this isn’t to be disparaging of any other, the amazing coffee companies in Knoxville, but we really felt like that we had become that. And so, we said, “Okay, we’re going to check that vision off and we’re going to very quickly discover, you know, that bigger, broader vision, frankly, that we can take to other cities, as well.” You know, you can’t become Knoxville’s coffee company to California, but you can take this idea of creating an enabling human connection, you can take that anywhere. And I feel like there’s a lot of markets that desperately need something like K Brew as a community hub, as that place that human connection is happening. So, I love that you bring up a pivoting the vision, changing it, improving it because, yeah, that is a lot of business. And you know, we’ve been in business almost ten years now. Chances are, we got a new vision. I mean, heck, I was 24 when I started K Brew. Like, the idea that I had some perfect business vision at 24 is probably a little absurd.
Julia: Well, I think hilarious. You’re like, “Hey, kid, let’s drop out of college. Let’s make a coffee shop. Let’s go.” And [crosstalk 00:06:18].
Pierce: And, Julia, my parents were—
Julia: You are winning business awards.
Pierce: —my parents were so pissed at me.
Julia: [laugh].
Pierce: Oh, my God. I remember my mom saying, “Well, how’s he going to finish school if he’s running K Brew at the same time?” And I said, “Well, he’s not.” And she’s like, “Pierce.” [laugh]. I was like, “It’s his choice. He made it.” But yeah, it took them a couple of years to realize that Michael had made the correct decision. So.
Julia: Well, sometimes school is not the answer. It’s not the answer for everybody. And if it were, we wouldn’t have entrepreneurs.
Pierce: For sure. It’s a kind of a controversial subject these days, but you know, I’m pretty—yeah, I mean, I recommend people to really investigate if college is for them. I know a lot of young guys in particular—and I’m sure there’s a lot of young girls; I just don’t talk to as many of them—but there’s a lot of young guys who just want to get out and make money and start their own business and, like, hustle. And, you know, for me, I feel like that four or five years might have been spent better, you know, starting my business at 18. So again, entrepreneurship is not for everybody, just like college isn’t for everybody, and I feel like people need to—or young kids in particular really need to take a hard look at that.
Julia: What would be your best advice then into somebody… everybody—like, I’ve had my business a decade, right, and people are always saying, “Oh, I can’t believe you’ve made a decade. I can’t believe how much success you’ve had. I can’t believe, I can’t believe, I can’t believe.” And I’m like, if I would have started this pre-college, had I not gone to school—I had $100,000 in debt, right—so I leave college, I’m $100,000 in debt, the starting pay back then was $14 an hour. I think I’ve got a job making $24,000 a year as a bank teller, right?
Pierce: Hoo.
Julia: I’m making $0, I have rent to pay, you know, I had [insurance 00:07:57] your student loan payments, start the next day. They’re not, like, “Oh, look at you. Let me give you six months. So, they don’t care.” And the interest rate is, like, 25% on $100,000. I didn’t pay my student loan debt off until, like, five years ago. I’m [unintelligible 00:08:11], right?
Because I kept deferring it because it just was never enough. It was never enough. It was never enough. I started my own real estate firm. I started selling real estate, I realized I could start a coaching real estate company because now I’m an expert after a few years. I’m selling 100 homes a year. This is a system, it is a model, it can be recreated. It can be taught. Other people can do it. And I thought, how interesting. Had I had that $100,000 to start a business, how much further I would be in my life today? Not that I’m not far, but I could be further.
Pierce: Yeah. I think you’re pretty far, Julia.
Julia: But I also wanted that 80-hour workweek. And we all know it takes you know—Elon Musk says sleep in your office for the first few years. That’s what you do: you eat, breathe it, sleep it. That’s all you do for the first [few 00:08:55] years. And it builds itself and you create it. What advice outside of that would you give?
Pierce: You know, these days, when young people ask me if they should start their own business, I say, “No.” Or they say, “What’s your advice for someone who wants to start a business?” I say, “Don’t.” And I do that very intentionally because there’s plenty of motivational material out there. There’s plenty of people screaming at them going, “You can do it. Start your own thing.” You know?
I say, if I tell you not to do it and then you still go out there and do it, you should be doing it. Entrepreneurship is a calling, it’s something that compels you, it’s something that makes you do it. And you do that at the expense of—or I guess, counter—to everybody telling you you shouldn’t do it. And so, you know, I just feel like there’s a flood of motivational stuff out there. I really think that very few people—just percentage-wise—should probably be an entrepreneur and go out and do their own thing.
Because it’s grueling. Most of the people I meet who run their own business are various eccentric, very, you know, different. I’m definitely like that—
Julia: I’m like that [laugh].
Pierce: —is a little strange a little quirky, a little psychopath or something, you know? Yeah so [laugh]—but we had to. We were compelled to. And everybody in the world could have told me not to do it and wouldn’t have mattered. Even the voices in my head saying this is a foolish idea, it didn’t matter.
So, you know, it is a little bit of a joke, of course, when I tell a young person that, but there’s a lot of truth to it. You know, should they do it? Probably not [laugh] but that’s life, you know? And they should take risks and enjoy it. And, you know, just for any young person out there, all I would say, is count the cost.
If you spend four years at various coffee shops in a city and you intentionally get to know as many people as you can and just have a business card with your name and your phone number and maybe some of your passions and your hobbies, and tell a story and talk about your interests, you did that for four years instead of going to school for four years, maybe that’s the right path for you. Because your network is going to be monstrous. You’re probably going to have multiple job offers. But you know, I never want to disparage the engineer, the lawyer, the doctor, the people who really need to go through college and really need to get that certification. Like, that’s awesome, too.
But just count the cost, you know? Nothing is default. Entrepreneurship is not default; college isn’t default, you know? It’s not a system. We’re not on a manufacturing line that we all should be doing the same thing. So, you know, there are some serious downsides to going to school these days with the debt and all of that but, you know, if you’re looking to be a doctor or lawyer or whatever, there’s some serious downsides to not going to school.
You know, one of the best things that some of my buddies have done over the years and some of my mentees have been just a gap year. Just take a gap year. Like, go travel, go be an apprentice, go learn a blue-collar skill like welding or something, or you know, go get into car sales and just like, learn how to sell. You know, do something for a year so that when you make the decision to go to college, it’s really you making it, you’re not just following some, you know, preordained path. So, that would be my recommendation. You know, I’m certainly not anti-college, but I certainly don’t think that everybody should be going. And you know, especially with the internet and all these other tools we have at our disposal, just count the cost is what I’d say.
Julia: Yeah, I agree with that. I think there’s always a path. I always knew I didn’t belong where I was, but I really wasn’t sure how to get out of it. So, I was stuck. I was like, “Well, I don’t really love all the things that I’m being taught. I don’t see how I’m ever going to use them. I’m not sure this conversation is going to take place in my future. This is where I am right now.”
Couldn’t see where I needed to be. And then being offered a career where literally, I set the tone for what I’m going to do, what I’m going to do, and how I’m going to do it, and then bring people along with me, it’s like, “Oh. Oh, this is what this is. This is what I was meant to be doing.” But not everybody has that drive, either [crosstalk 00:12:56].
Pierce: We had the same—we had the same college experience. I mean, I was the exact same way, sitting there. And, and [laugh] how that manifested itself for me is a lot of, like, debating professors when I shouldn’t have been and just being—
Julia: I kicked out of [the classroom 00:13:08] so many times.
Pierce: —being a little dick. Like.
Julia: “Just go. I’ll give you a C. You just get out of my class.”
Pierce: I know. I should have just, like, withdrawn. Like, if that was going to be my attitude. But instead, I stayed in because my mentor, my main mentor at the time—and I love him to death—but he said you’ve got to go to college. And so, I listened to him. You know, he’s very successful, owns resorts, and you know, big time. And so, he had never gone to college, but he said, you know, “Times have changed. You’ve got to go.”
And so, I listen to that. But looking back on it, yeah, I mean, it’s probably the same sort of experience of just not sure how this is all going to work. And then, of course, to make matters worse because I’ve never been a good student, I was a fifth-year senior. So, now I’m in for five years, miserable, you know? And I think I graduated with, like, a—Julia, listen to this. I think I graduated with, like, a 2.75. Something like that.
Julia: You did better than me. I graduated with a 2.63.
Pierce: Oh, man.
Julia: I graduated with a 2.63, and the only reason I’ve had that is because—and I’ll never forget—two very specific professors who could—they—two people out of four years, two people saw me. They really saw me, right? So, one was [Dr. Berger 00:14:17], and he was my senior thesis advisor.
So, we had to write a freshman thesis and a senior thesis. Both were just—I was like, “Why am I doing this?” But now that I’m writing my own book, I kind of—I’m like, “Well, I was thankful for that.” But other than that, learned nothing throughout that process. Zero capability to use in the future. Useless to me.
And every time I would present my thesis to him, he would read it and he would look at me and he would—[unintelligible 00:14:38] the paper would be bleeding with three red markers, and [he would 00:14:42] give it back to me and he would say, “If you’ll just finish it… if you’ll just finish it.” I mean, I was like, this is torture. This is a waste of my time. And he’s like, “Yes, it is.”
Pierce: Like, just get through it.
Julia: You don’t need to be here, but if you persevere through this uncomfortable situation, I promise everything you’re learning from me right now will teach you what you need in the future. So, I remember that conversation so clearly that even now, today, when I’m doing something I don’t want to do, but I know that if I can get through it, to the other side of it, I’m going to—it’s going to be fine.
Pierce: There you go.
Julia: I think of him in my brain, handing me back my senior thesis going, “If you’ll just do it.”
Pierce: There was your $100,000 lesson, Julia.
Julia: There’s my $100,000 right there.
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Pierce: So, the reason I bring up my GPA is because it’s hilariously ironic that, like, two or three years ago, I was voted the alumni of the year [laugh] at UT. And I was like, clearly they did not survey my previous professors. I mean, they would have been, like, “Uh, who do you want? Absolutely not.” But yeah, it’s very ironic. And now it’s interesting, getting a little bit of maturity, getting a little bit of—what’s that?
Julia: I gave a speech at my alma mater.
Pierce: Oh, my gosh.
Julia: Yeah. And I was like, they let me in the door. And they like me. And I was like—
Pierce: Amazing. They like me now. Yeah.
Julia: [unintelligible 00:16:29] you like me [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. I mean, getting a little bit of perspective, a little bit of maturity, and kind of stepping away, you know, from my college experience, like, now I genuinely love the university system and what it does for the city. And you know, anybody I’ve ever met, most of the people I’ve ever met who work for UT, who are there, really genuinely care about the kids—
Julia: Oh yeah.
Pierce: You know, like, really genuinely care about the education and about Knoxville as a whole. And so, it’s one of these things where it’s like, now I have a lot of respect for it and now I really see what they’re trying to do and what they accomplished in many cases. It’s just trying to fit a square peg in a round hole—I think that’s saying, yeah—square peg through a round hole, you know? And I was that square peg and there was no fitting me in that system. So, you know, fair enough.
Julia: It is what it is. And some of the professors that stick it out with you, they’re like, “Well, we knew you were going to be somebody. We just didn’t know when.” [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. Or what.
Julia: Or what.
Pierce: Yeah. Prison or wealthy? One or the other [laugh].
Julia: We didn’t know if you’re going to be homeless… [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah. Homeless or leading the revolution. There’s only [laugh]—yeah, homeless, dead in the gutter, or leading the revolution.
Julia: Right? So, you can never tell. But there’s a very specific personality to entrepreneurs when we can gather and tell our funny stories, and the things that we envision. I mean, our visions, when we get into a room together with several other people, I mean, it’s just how big can your idea be, really? And then somebody else’s is going to top that, and it’s going to top that. And then you have a roomful of people who just created a whole new world. It’s just the way that we think.
Pierce: Yeah. Well, and this is—you know, I’ve refined over the years, just kind of going back to your original question of, like, what to tell young people who are thinking about starting their own thing—or just people in general, I mean, whether you’re 50, or 18—and to that point of getting in the same room, I’ve worked on what is that one piece of advice that I want to give them. Because it used to be, “Oh, read this book,” or, “Do this.” And all I tell them now is build your relationships. Like, you can do this on a spreadsheet.
I’ve got a fantastic app that I always preach called Covve, C-O-V-V-E, and it’s a personal CRM, right? And so, it tells you when to call people, when to check in. I’m running, like, 120 or 130 people on that platform that I’m just keeping up with. That’s what I tell people now—young people now especially—who asked me what my one piece of advice for them is. Build that network, call people, check in. Don’t just send text messages. Ask to get lunch or get a beer. You know, call them.
It’s amazing the power now that something like a phone call has in this age of you know, Facebook messages or texts. And so, that’s really what I see as being the single most powerful thing that somebody can do to really set themselves up for success. Because every good thing in my life, I mean, this interview included, just comes from meeting people, building that relationship, and then just kind of seeing what opportunities come from it. So, I’ve just—yeah, highly recommend that. And I’ve got so much more room to grow in that area. I’m just looking forward to being that, like, 80-year-old guy who’s got a big black book, you know, and he could just—“Who do you need to call?” You know [laugh]. I love that vision.
Julia: “What connection do you need?”
Pierce: That’s right. I love it.
Julia: I think we’re on the same page there. I tell women—I get a lot of requests from younger women. A lot. And they’re like, “What do you do? How do you do this? How do you navigate this?” I’m like, well, I do the relationship. Like, you need to build your relationships. But it is hard to build relationships when there are very few other female entrepreneurs.
Pierce: Mmm.
Julia: Right? So, for us, it’s not building the relationship so much as it is navigating the conversation properly. Because there’s a stark contrast to male versus female conversations. Stark contrast in business. And we do it subconsciously; we don’t even know we’re doing it.
So, the language of sales, understanding the conversation shift and tonality and how to just—how do you—how are you been out on the golf course, playing golf when it’s five guys in you? How are you going to approach that conversation when somebody gets a little too drunk? Things are going to get said. People are who they are, right? They’re going to let their guard down. Is yours going to be up? Is yours going to be down?
So, it’s a conversation change on top of their relationship. So, I always recommend doing a language of sales course, understanding, like, Ninja Sales. It’s really just about verbiage—
Pierce: Very cool.
Julia: —and personality change. So, adding that is always a bonus.
Pierce: That’s so cool. Yep. I love it.
Julia: You’re so cool [laugh]. I love [crosstalk 00:21:16].
Pierce: I’m trying to be. With my bagels hat, you mean?
Julia: You’re awesome [laugh].
Pierce: Look at that bagels hat. Yeah. And here’s the thing. I mean, and I’m sure this comes up in the girls that you’re mentoring, it’s like, my pool of relationships, I would say 5% of them are true entrepreneurs. I mean, I have fantastic relationships, people that I really love and I love checking in with who are attorneys and doctors and like—or just, you know, working for Clayton Homes or Axle Logistics or whatever.
I mean, frankly, I find that a lot of entrepreneurship conversations can get really honed in on business and most of the time, since we’re doing that in our day job, you know, maybe I like a little break. Maybe I want to talk about sports or something. That’s a lie. I really don’t care about sports. But [laugh].
Julia: You talk about [crosstalk 00:22:07] [laugh].
Pierce: Yeah, traveling. Something I actually care about. But you know, it’s not just people in your field, it’s not just people in your industry, it’s not just people who are doing what you are doing. It’s about having all those—you know, to use an ’80s business buzzword—synergistic relationships of people doing all different types of things. And that’s the way connections are made.
Because if your pool is just people like you, if somebody needs something like what kind of connection are you going to be able to provide them? What kind of value are going to be able to provide another entrepreneur? Like, what value would I, as a coffee shop owner, provide to another coffee shop owner who had the exact same number of stores, like, somebody who was, in my exact situation? I couldn’t really provide them much value, right, because they’re in the same season of life and all this other stuff. So, you know, it’s about people who you respect first and foremost, you know, and maybe you respect that corporate employee, that doctor, whatever. If you respect them, if you like hanging out with them, build the relationship and it’ll pay you back, you’ll be able to provide value to them, and it’d be really good for your success.
Julia: Well, I agree 150% with that. It’s building outside of yourself is also very hard to do because finding interest in other people when you don’t know anything about that particular thing is a completely different conversation. So—
Pierce: It’s just so easy for me, though. I don’t know if it’s easy for—I feel like this is easy for you as well. Like—
Julia: Yeah, it is [laugh].
Pierce: —just your person—yeah. It’s like, when I meet somebody who knows everything about iguanas, that is like—
Julia: Like, why? This is amazing. Teach me.
Pierce: Yeah.
Julia: Yes.
Pierce: When I meet somebody who just knows everything about coffee shops or business, I’m like, “Bro, I don’t want to talk to you.” [laugh]. You know, like, I’m doing this, you know, 24/7. Do I really want to talk about money or, you know, whatever investments—
Julia: Well, that’s a good conversation—
Pierce: —but, oh my gosh—
Julia: —to have with new people. I get asked this all the time. So, I will get emails, text messages, I will get random inbox messages, “Can I pick your brain? I’d love to buy you coffee and pick your brain.” So, what I always advise my people that I mentor and that I coach is, please don’t do that. Please don’t do that. If you have respect for that person’s time, find out something about them that you’re genuinely interested about—
Pierce: Love it.
Julia: Don’t ask them to meet you out for a coffee. Bring them coffee and then bring them something of value. And if you’re being valuable to someone, they will see that you’re making the effort, even if they don’t have a use for you or what you’re offering at that point. If you say, “Let me bring you coffee,” or, “Let me bring your office lunch. I noticed on a social media post that you did blank, blank, or blank. I have a valuable proposition that could fix this, this, or this, and I would appreciate your time to offer you something of value.” But don’t be like, “Hey, I want to. I want something from you but I’m offering nothing in return.”
Pierce: Love it.
Julia: Right? So, I mean if I wanted to know all about iguanas. I’d be, “Here’s a heat rock. Please teach me.” Tell me everything about iguanas. I mean, they’re 20 bucks [laugh].
Pierce: Now, I want to find somebody who knows everything about iguanas. I’m kind of curious.
Julia: I don’t know anything about iguanas. We’re going to have to find somebody. I’m going to bring them—I’m going to bring you coffee at your own coffee shop and you’re going to teach me about iguanas.
Pierce: Yes. Yeah, you can call me Jeff Irwin.
Julia: [laugh]. I love it. Yes, exactly. Okay, so we could talk for days, I think. We have five minutes. So, plans and dreams for the future? Give us your growth plan here.
Pierce: Business-wise, continue to grow K Brew. I think we’re looking at additional markets right now, so maybe out-of-state opportunities. I think K Brew has national reach potential; really excited about that. Loving, loving real estate right now and your field. I think there’s so many good opportunities out there.
And I’m no real estate expert, but I think that, you know, there is maybe a downturn coming and so I’m just preparing for that. Loading up capital and just kind of getting ready. Hopefully, take advantage of some distressed assets [laugh]. And yeah, you know, some small side businesses. I’ve started DJing at local, I guess, lounge, I guess you could say. Having so much fun doing that.
At this stage in my life, I’m very focused on—like, K Brew is kind of on just a set growth trajectory, and so I’m very focused on what can I do that feeds my soul and doesn’t cost me a lot of money or makes me money. And so, the DJing thing is definitely one of those things. And then another weird one that I got into earlier this year is stump grinding. And so, I bought this, you know, huge commercial stump grinder and just go around people’s houses and grind stumps. Great money. So, much fun, and it—you know, my day job now is behind a computer, like, a lot, and so I’ve missed getting outside in nature, you know, smelling the wood chippings and all of that, it just really fires me up. So, I’ve been loving being a redneck, I guess you could say.
Julia: I love that for you. I actually built a tipi in our backyard, just because we’ve had to cut our camping trips completely out, due to my [crosstalk 00:27:27]—
Pierce: [laugh].
Julia: —and I’m working behind a computer 12, 15 hours a day. There’s a tipi in our backyard with [crosstalk 00:27:33]—
Pierce: Oh, my gosh.
Julia: I mean, I was like, “I’ve got to get outside in nature.” I have to be outside.
Pierce: Yeah. Yeah.
Julia: Totally [crosstalk 00:27:39].
Pierce: Same here. So, that’s been a fun little weird one. And then, you know, a home reno here, too, you know? But that’s pretty much it business-wise, you know, dreams, visions, that sort of thing. Like, yeah, just enjoying it.
Julia: All right, three minutes or less. So, we’re going to do, like, the Pierce LaMacchia top list. Top grocery store. Where’s your favorite grocery store?
Pierce: Uh… grocery store. I just kind of like Kroger. Like, there’s several good Kroger’s around here and I’m just—I’m a basic guy. I get—I’m on meal delivery services, full disclosure. I don’t do any cooking. I do enjoy cooking, but I just don’t have time for right now, so I’m—I don’t really visit grocery stores very much.
Julia: All right. Gas station?
Pierce: Gas Station. Oh, jeez this is, like, so weird. I don’t even really think about it. Um… Weigel’s.
Julia: Yeah. The big Wiggles. I love them.
Pierce: Yeah, I love their corndogs, actually.
Julia: Oh, their food selection in general. That—
Pierce: Pretty good.
Julia: —slushy coffee thing they have? Oh, my God. Don’t even—
Pierce: Well, no, you can’t say that. That’s terrible. You should go to K Brew instead.
Julia: It’s not coffee. It’s a slushie that has coffee powder in it.
Pierce: Oh gosh.
Julia: It’s a slushy. It is a coffee-flavored slushy.
Pierce: Okay.
Julia: I can’t. You got to try it.
Pierce: Okay, I’ll give it a try. I’ll give it a try.
Julia: If you make one at K Brew for me that’s—
Pierce: [laugh].
Julia: —coffee [laugh]. [crosstalk 00:28:58]—
Pierce: Absolutely not.
Julia: And then make one.
Pierce: Oh, gosh.
Julia: That’s your challenge.
Pierce: Okay. All right.
Julia: All right. Favorite restaurant. Or give me three, if you have three.
Pierce: Yeah, I think three is much more realistic. Pizzeria Nora on North Central. Gavino’s on Kingston Pike, and Simpl Food Arts in South Knox.
Julia: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Very good. All right.
Pierce: Which I think they’re changing locations soon.
Julia: I think they posted on Instagram this past week.
Pierce: So exciting. Yeah. I love [Kendall 00:29:30], Kendall and Dave. Dave is at Pizzeria Nora. Very cool, eccentric business owner. Kendall is awesome. They’re there at their stores every single day. I haven’t met the owner of Gavino’s yet, but I’m sure he’s a big, jolly Italian guy, based on the food selection.
Julia: Well, let’s put it out there in the world. Pierce LaMacchia wants to meet you. Pierce LaMacchia—
Pierce: Yeah, there you go [laugh].
Julia: [laugh]. Whatever you put out there, you’re going to get back.
Pierce: I just want to thank him for his amazing pasta and pizza.
Julia: Yeah, he does have really good food.
Pierce: Golly.
Julia: Probably what I’m going to have for dinner. All right. Last question. When someone visits you from out of state that’s never visited Knoxville, where’s the first place you take them?
Pierce: Usually Radius. I mean, if they arrive in the afternoon, we’ll go get, like, a mid-afternoon cocktail. Josh and his crew up at Radius are just absolutely fantastic. If it’s sometime in the evening, we love the Vault, beneath Vida. So yeah, I mean, I’m a cocktail guy; that’s kind of like where I want to go. And then you know, if we’re doing dinner, any of the places that I mentioned and just walking around Market Square.
Julia: I love that. I love that. All right, well, we’re out of time, which is hilarious. I mean, it genuinely feels that we talked for five minutes, but we are out of time. I appreciate your time today. I know Knoxville is going to love learning more about you because you’re growing and you’re part of our community; you’re growing our community. Thank you for bringing something new and amazing and fun, and employees, and local, and we really appreciate everything you do.
Pierce: Thanks. Yeah.
Julia: Y’all, if you want to visit K Brew, give us our loc—give us the top location so people here that are listening from out of the state can figure it out.
Pierce: Yeah, four locations. I’m not going to say the addresses because you’ll never remember them, but you should remember knoxvillebrew.com, Knoxville B-R-E-W dot com. And you can also follow us on social media at@knoxvillebrew. All of our location information is there. We’d love to see you.
Julia: Love it. Thank you so much, and everybody out there in the nation, thank you yet again for connecting Knoxville to the nation. I’m Julie Hurley, your host. Thanks again for visiting Connect the Knox. Bye, Pierce. Thank you so much.
Pierce: Thank you, Julia.
Julia: Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five-star review on your podcast player of choice, and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.
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