Small Giants Spotlight: Alpha Coffee

I recently met with Carl Churchill, owner of Alpha Coffee, a veteran and military-spouse co-owned and operated coffee company.

Alpha Coffee is an example of a values-driven company that believes success is about growing a business with purpose. They also believe that true success also includes giving back in the community.

Equipping Leaders on Your Team

During our conversation over coffee, Carl (whose official title is Chief Coffee Officer) talked to me about how his military background has shaped his approach to developing leaders. This isn’t just within the coffee shop, but it also includes developing leaders within the larger community.

In particular, he shared a story about how a local lacrosse team had asked him to help bring the team together early in the season. The aim was to encourage teamwork and to teach them leadership skills.

Based on his experience in the military taking young men and women from various walks of life and working with them to create teams that worked together at all times, he came up with an idea.

The concept was Judgement Day, a program with a few key concepts that would help kids develop strong leadership competencies, behaviors and traits on and off the field.

The Judgement Day Challenge

“Judgement Day is a formal initiation that involves being challenged, overcoming adversity, having to rely on others to succeed, and expanding your understanding of others on the team. This is something that every tribe has had in one form or another,” explains Carl.

During the Judgement Day program, the teens start their day very early.

They work individually, with “buddy teams” and they find themselves in situations where they have to rely on the larger group. They are pushed physically so that they have a chance to practice their teamwork skills and their resiliency muscles.

“That’s done in a variety of ways, including insisting that all movement be done as a team, team ‘punishment’ (usually in the form of pushups and burpees) for people not meeting the standard or giving up, to name a few examples,” explains Carl.

One of the most effective practices is the concept of the Battle Buddy that’s introduced even before the challenge. “The idea is that you are never alone on the team. Someone has your back,” explains Carl.

This is analogous to a Battle Buddy in the military that serves as a partner who supports another soldier in and out of combat scenarios.

That ‘Battle Buddy’ is someone people work closely with. It’s the person they do drills with. And it’s also the person who the coaches go to if a certain player doesn’t show up for practice, for example.

“That Battle Buddy becomes someone you are responsible for, and they are responsible for you. Often, we find that when someone on the team is struggling with school or having personal issues, they will confide in their Battle Buddy first, and then that person will often come to the coaches and let them know what is happening.”

Throughout this process, these teens start to become better leaders. They are more disciplined and they have more accountability to themselves and to each other. Just as important, they really start to act like a team.

“By the end of Judgement Day, these kids have begun to really come together as a team. The freshman especially have the opportunity to bond with the upperclassmen,” adds Carl.

Small Giant Companies Are Values-Driven Companies

Small Giants understand the value of establishing deep roots in their community. Alpha Coffee is an example of a company doing just that. In the process, they are developing leaders within their four walls and beyond.

We invite you to attend the next Small Giants Executive Breakfast interview of Joe Motz, CEO of The Motz Group. We’ll be tapping into the heart and soul of leadership with an in-depth, personal interview of Joe as part of our 2018 Small Giants Series, brought to you by the Entrepreneur’s Organization. Learn more and register here.