Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassie Dennis.
Hi Cassie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey has been a walk of perseverance, healing and rediscovery. I have always been an entrepreneur at heart and had a massage business I ran for years until the end of 2016. I stopped when I was seven months pregnant. Further truth, I was in a bad place personally. I was fleeing a toxic relationship, on my path to single motherhood and broken. Something had to go to refocus my life, so I picked the massage business.
I re-entered the workforce to take care of my daughter and I. This was so hard and taxing for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. However, I had no choice. The desire to run a business never died, but I had my own death I had to heal from, the death of a very toxic relationship. So I took time to heal.
Fast forward to 2020, my mom and I discussed starting a business and through a lot of prayer and confirmation, we decided on a coffee business. I literally prayed like, “God is this you? Don’t let me go after something you are not in.” The next day, I woke up and…”call it Garden of Eden Coffee” came to my heart. I picked up my devotional and it was titled “Coffee with God”. I was like okay, mom let’s do this. So we started it August 2020. I took a step of faith and left my full-time corporate job and picked up an independent contractor position and the rest is history.
Since that time, through the pandemic, I mainly run the business because it is an online coffee business and my mom is unfamiliar with that type of business. She helps when we are out in the community and with my daughter so the business can thrive. I had to learn coffee because I did not drink coffee until starting the business. Asking Google coffee questions, heavy research, and taste testing coffee became my life.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth, not even close! However, there were also a lot of blessings mixed in. One, the pandemic put a stop on really being able to get our brand out there. Running an online coffee business takes a lot of creativity, heavy marketing on social media, and trying to tickle the senses of your customers to imagine the smell of our coffee brewing in their home through virtual marketing attempts.
Two, because my mom was unfamiliar with online businesses, so much of the business was run by me. I reached an early burnout but quickly revived myself when I remembered the “why” of starting this business. Three, I injured my leg badly last year. It took almost six months to heal. I was in a lot of pain while still trying to run the business, working as an independent contractor, still a single mom and life was showing up full-blown. As a result, I stopped our Instagram account to redeem some time from marketing there and place the energy somewhere else.
Some of the blessings were that the business was launched during National Black Business Month. I entered for the business to receive a free shout-out from the local radio station and they did. They also posted our business to their social media page. We ran into some great couples who also ran businesses and I asked if they would meet with us quarterly to encourage each other and help one another grow. Insight from others helped tremendously. Also, our business received invites to do local pop-up shops once the pandemic allowed small crowds again, so we were able to network. Other businesses promoted our coffee, people could taste our coffee and we watched them fall in love with it. It was truly wonderful!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We believe coffee is more than just a drink. It is very pivotal to how you start and sometimes end your day. Garden of Eden Coffee, Paradise in a cup not only wants to offer our customers delicious coffee that keeps you wanting another cup but puts a smile on your face, smells amazing, tastes smooth. We want it to be a pleasant coffee experience.
We work hard to make sure we are providing aromatic coffee that is pure, bursting with flavor, tastes amazing before adding creamers, sugars, syrups, etc. Our supplier was carefully chosen. The website lists where the coffee originates and very specific details about the coffee.
The “Paradise in a cup” relates to where the coffee comes from…paradises all over the world. Bali, Peru, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil and more! We also offer flavored coffees to meet the needs of various coffee drinkers. The Mexican Chocolate coffee is a must try! Other wonderful flavors offered are Cinnamon Hazelnut, Mocha, Caramel and many others.
We proudly offer free U.S. shipping and recently, I added a perk- coffee subscriptions at a discounted price. Lastly, we offer stylish coffee cup products, makers and a trendy online boutique.
How do you define success?
Success is setting a goal and achieving it no matter how many setbacks faced. Giving up cannot be an option. Yes, you may have to readjust the goal or even reinvent the goal but you push forward until completion.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@
gardenofedencoffee.co - Website: www.
gardenofedencoffee.co - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ gardenofedencoffee - Twitter: https://www.twitter.
com/garofedencoffee - Other: https://www.pinterest.
com/gardenofedencoffee
