On today’s episode, Brooke talks with Justin Minott. Justin is an entrepreneur who got his start creating a non-profit that allowed him to accomplish his goal of traveling the world. During a trip to Africa, the idea to source coffee was born and he took that idea back to Canada and started a coffee shop there. He then moved to North Carolina and expanded his idea of a coffee shop to fulfill the local need of opening one that is family friendly. Justin talks about his biggest challenges: sustainability and scalability of your venture. When impact is at the center, it makes you approach your business differently. His coffee shop in Canada used this idea as they used 25% of profits to reinvest in communities in Africa. It also increased the quality of the coffee because helping the community clean their water was also cleaning the coffee which improved the quality of the coffee. They would reverse engineer their business plan based on the impact, not the other way around. Getting and running as an efficient business so you can scale while having the impact that you want is challenging. That is why he is an impact business coach now. As an impact business coach, Justin gets a great amount of joy by seeing people win. The driver for him was thinking often about his legacy and how it aligns with how he wants to be remembered. When he reflects on running businesses, the impact there was the community he could create, but when he got a glimpse of investing in the lives of other impact entrepreneurs, the impact was exponential by his sharing what he has learned with others. A good business coach isn’t a cheerleader, but someone who collapses the timeline and gives the entrepreneur the straightest path to where they want to go. The customer/client has to be the hero of the story and he helps entrepreneurs achieve that. Justin is also really good at building community. His best advice for fostering community is bringing people together towards a larger vision that isn’t  just hanging out, but adding value to people’s lives. It is having a compelling and clear vision for what you want to accomplish and building that community. It’s important to figure out why that matters to you. As entrepreneurs come together, what can we share so we can navigate this landscape in the best way possible? This journey is collaborative and that is the power of community. Justin says barriers to community is the facade of having it all together and that you have to present in a certain way and can’t look like you don’t know something. The lack of vulnerability and transparency in the entrepreneurial space is one of the biggest barriers to a connected community. Vulnerability and authenticity is power. Inauthenticity is exhausting and you can fit in but you will never belong. When you are you, you’ll find your people. Justin plans on creating momentum throughout the rest of the year with consistency and focus. He is going super practical this year, one foot in front of the other. Perfect practice makes perfect. He enjoys going fast but to go fast is to go slow. If you want to get to fast, you’ve got to go slow. The second piece of advice is figuring out how to get more of who he is accessible to a community. His focus has been digitally since he takes on a few clients at a time but it still allows for scaling as people have more access to him at a lower cost. The key is to build that community without the expectation that they will give you something back. Celebrate with them their successes instead of expecting something in return. You can find more about Justin or follow him at @justinminott or visit https://www.justinminott.com/