YYC Feature: MOTHERLODE COFFEE
Frieda Cornejo and Karissa Savage believe that ‘each coffee bag tells a story’
They may have been born in different countries, but they were united by their love of coffee, and their dream of uplifting fellow women. Frieda and Karissa started Motherlode Coffee this year, after events of 2020 taught them that life was too short not to follow their dreams. Frieda was born and raised in Lima, Peru, and moved to Canada 9 years ago with the hopes of finding new opportunities for herself. She met Karissa at work, and the pair realized they shared the hope of embarking on a meaningful entrepreneurial journey, and pursuing a purposeful life for themselves. Their company Motherlode Coffee offers single origin coffee from Peru, and through their “Buy a Bag, Grow a Mind” program every bag sold helps a girl in Peru attain a post-secondary education. Their partnership with Peruvian Hearts organization gives consumers the opportunity to make a true difference through their purchase. Frieda and Karissa’s grit, heart and passion for purpose is evident as they share details of their journey. If every coffee bag tells a story, Motherlode Coffee certainly tells a story worth passing on.
Find them at: https://www.motherlodecoffee.ca/
Congratulations on your launch! It’s awesome to see a women founded business doing good things! What are your backgrounds?
Thank you! We are very excited to be a part of such an amazing community doing great things! We both have degrees in business and a huge array of cumulated business skills. It was only a matter of time before we wanted to join the excitement of the business world. A few years ago, we met at work and got to team up together in a challenging and dynamic work environment. It was there that we clicked instantly and knew that we would make amazing business partners.
Karissa has always been involved in the entrepreneurial world and grew up knowing this was the career for her. She was raised in an entrepreneurial household and took several entrepreneurial classes in university. She is always coming up with new businesses ideas and/or what would be a great business opportunity. Frieda, on the other hand, didn't know she had the entrepreneurial spirit until she got involved with her first business idea and now, doesn’t think twice about being an entrepreneur. She always had the goal to showcase the many natural resources of her birth country, Peru. For several years, she had the urge of roasting her own coffee from Peru so it is tremendously exciting that her dreams finally came true.
Is this your first business? Why did you decide that now was the time to launch?
This is not our first business, we also own a coffee trailer in Calgary called Caffeine Me and we both have side gigs. Karissa owns her own business called Savage Goalies where she coaches hockey goalies and Frieda teaches Spanish. We had been thinking of being Coffee Roasters for several years and to be honest, we thought that dream was a couple years away. However, if there is anything the start of 2020 has shown us, it is that life is too short and we shouldn’t wait to follow our dreams. The Covid-19 recommended lockdown gave us the time we needed to develop our coffee business and go after what we had envisioned for our product. We were able to perfect our roasts, design and develop our brand and start telling everyone what makes our coffee so unique.
Motherlode Coffee supports the Peruvian Hearts organization through your ‘Buy a Bag, Grow a Mind’ Program, which is amazing! Why were you passionate about supporting this organization in particular?
We find ourselves so fortunate as female entrepreneurs who have endless opportunities in Canada and knew we wanted to partner with an organization that gave back to other women and why not a better place than Frieda’s birthplace of Peru. We love the concept of “women helping other women” and wanted to make sure our customers genuinely feel they are tasting a high quality product but are also giving opportunity to a young lady in Peru. It is not common for women to go to University in Peru because of their family obligations, financial opportunities and culture. Unfortunately, education is something that Canadians take for granted everyday. When we found Peruvian Hearts and got the chance to hear Ana’s story (the founder), we knew we found the right people we would love to work with. Their mission of “working to end poverty and gender inequality by educating young women and creating community leaders in Peru—one girl at a time” directly aligns with our value structure as women and as a company. This is why we wanted to do whatever we could in our power to encourage women empowerment through our partnership with Peruvian Hearts.
We send as much money as we can to Peruvian Hearts and if we hit our quarterly goals then we send even more. We want to continue sending more money as the awareness to our “Buy a Bag, Grow a Mind” program develops through the sales of Motherlode Coffee. There is even a direct donation link on our website if customers want to donate directly. We are planning a trip as soon as the borders open up to meet the team of Peruvian Hearts and all the young ladies in Peru. We can’t wait to document that experience.
Frieda, you were born and raised in Lima, Peru! Do you feel that your upbringing/ culture shaped your approach to business in any way?
Yes! I was born and raised in Lima, Peru until I had the chance to come to Canada, 9 years ago. I always knew I was a fortunate girl to be able to come to a different country in looking for greater opportunities. This is very common in Peru but unfortunately, not too many people have the chance to do so. I will forever be thankful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to be exposed to a whole new world where dreams are able to become a reality. Ever since I left Peru I’ve always been thinking of ways to help out their economy. Tourism has become one of the main sources of income but I still believe there are so many natural resources that need to be introduced to the rest of the world, so this is where I come in. The language barrier is a big issue when trying to do business with international companies thus I want to put my good fortune to use and make sure I am helping those families that can’t grow their businesses due to those language barriers. Just the fact of having the possibility to directly help the coffee farmers and build a connection with them, makes me really excited. I finally have the chance to work full time on my passion so I want to make sure I make the best out of each minute... and coffee bean!
On your website you say that you “may not be money rich but we are definitely LIFE RICH”. I love this, and I think it’s important that we look up to business owners with this mindset. Why do you believe that you’re ‘life rich’?
Life rich is a term that basically sums up how fortunate and humble we are to be on this entrepreneurial journey. We worked in the corporate sector for a few years with this constant itch to work for ourselves but were too afraid to jump without a safety net. We definitely got caught up in making over six figures, all the job perks/benefits and constant need to be promoted. Although we learned a lot of business skills, we weren’t true to ourselves and we let money get in the way of living our purposeful life. This is how the term “Life Rich” was developed. We may not be rich in the sense that we have tons of money in our bank account (yet) but we are definitely rich in life which allows us to be excited to start every “work” day (We are not joking, it is like Christmas morning everyday) and take on the fun challenges that present themselves. It may have taken us some time to get here but now we know we are where we are supposed to be.
You’re a new company, but what would you say in the greatest challenge or obstacle that you’ve had to overcome thus far in your entrepreneurial journey?
We would say the most challenging obstacle has been accountability and productivity. When you work in the corporate sector, you have office hours and a boss that expects you to be there from this time to this time. When you are an entrepreneur, you now have all this time which sounds amazing and trust me it is. However, because you may not have a boss holding you accountable, finding a way to hold yourself accountable was a challenge for us. It was very easy for us to sleep in, go to the gym and start working from 2:00pm-midnight (oh being a night hawk) just because we could. We then realized if we did something in the evening then we would essentially miss a day of work. We have since corrected that down hill spiral and put checks and balances in place so that we can hold each other accountable and as a result, are now living a way more productive entrepreneurial life.
What is your hope for Motherlode Coffee over the next 5 years?
Our hope is that Motherlode Coffee will be a household named item and a product that customers can feel great purchasing for the amazing taste and for the story that comes with it. We want to grow the brand to have several different lines of coffee from different countries and are so excited to bring those amazing flavours to Canadians. We hope that Motherlode Coffee will encourage other women to go after their dreams at any point of their life. We need more girl power and lady bosses in this world so if any part of our story helps someone out there then that is a huge WIN for us.
What is a valuable piece of wisdom that has helped get you where you are today?
Karissa: I would say the biggest piece of wisdom I have learned comes from my sports background, teaching me to live everyday being RELENTLESS. Being Relentless is the act of giving you the strength to achieve, to survive, to overcome. There are times where opportunities fall through, you’re overwhelmed, you feel like you’re not good enough or not doing enough. Take all of that and use that to fuel your secret weapon, Relentlessness.
Frieda: It doesn’t matter where you are at this moment but if your dream is to work for yourself, go for it. There is no timeline to change your path, especially if you are not happy with the path you are on. There really isn’t a wrong decision, if that decision made you happy at some point. Always take a chance on yourself because nobody else will if you don’t know your worth first.