Road to Becoming a Caffeine Dealer

 Road to Becoming a Caffeine Dealer

    So much to cover, I'm not even sure where to start. A little over 2 years ago I had something unique popup in my feed. A Veteran based coffee company called Scars & Stripes Coffee. Over and over this ad would show. So I finally looked into it, just to find out if it's legit or not. Plus, who doesn't love coffee? It's the second most consumed product on the planet after water right! Turns out it's a legit company. Here's a coffee company made for Veterans...take my money at least once! I ordered a bag, had it shipped out to me, and what do I find? A coffee that straight up lived up to it's hype about the product. Like many, the coffee itself is what I cared about at the start. I mean, if the coffee is garbage, bye-bye. 

    At this point I'm interested in the company. The coffee is solid, so what's the Veteran empowerment part all about? I aim my browser to their site and away we go! So it says, ONLY Veterans can sell their product. And they have a vetting process. Admittedly I was hesitant because they ask for a copy of your DD-214. Any that's ever held one will tell you there's a plethora of vital info there. Date of birth, social security number, full name, a summary of your service and awards. In the wrong hands some serious damage can be done! But I took a leap of faith and bam! I was a team member. I'd worked with MLM's in the past, so I kept my guard up. Turns out this wasn't an MLM at all. They didn't even require you to make a monthly quota, or spend anything right away to get started. Instead they sent me a ton of paperwork. Literally the foundation of how to start my own company with their backing. Sounds weird right? 

    The beginning. I fired up a facebook page dedicated to only my coffee. And in my posts I'd guide people to the company website. All they had to do was plug in my last name at checkout and I earned a commission. This worked even better than I thought! I even worked my way up the chain being promoted to Squad Leader! I was on a roll! Then COVID happened. Right when I was thinking about working events and getting out with it, the pandemic shut down everything. So ecommerce became my friend for a while. Then my state finally started to open back up. I made a small investment in myself. about $500. I told myself if this doesn't work, then I'm done. Within my first two outings, not only did I earn it back with interest, but I found myself selling out of certain products! I took my commission, and dumped it all back in to my venture. My next promise to myself was that I was going to earn that $500 initial investment back, and make sure that my SSC business was self sustaining. And it happened. 

    Now I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination. Nor will I be doing this. But I've found I have a lot of fun going out to events, connecting with people, and hearing their stories of service or the stories of their loved ones who served or are currently serving. It's helped me bring down more barriers that I put up in my own life and get back out into my community. Last year I even made it out to Oklahoma for the annual sales meeting and had a blast running a 5k mud run. There's nothing like the bond of fellow Veterans though. That's really the best part. 

2021 was a great year for coffee. 2022 is going to be even better!

PS: If you want to try it for yourself you can. Head over to www.ss.coffee/Rominger and give it a go. 

Brief encounters of the trigger finger kind

The mighty cigar. While I admit that there are some women that enjoy them, not to be confused with the Monica Lewinsky incident, it is a pillar of manliness. Anyone can smoke a cigarette. And lets face it, most people look like total idiots with a good old fashioned pipe hanging out of there mouth. But a cigar, there's something that says, "I am what I am, now piss off."

They come in many shapes, and sizes, but I'm looking as something a bit more basic today. Now there are three groups I want to focus on, flavored, gourmet, and natural. Keep in mind this is how I look at them. By flavored I'm referring to your cheap, girly smokes like Swisher Sweets, Black & Mild, and your assorted crappy gas station smokes. These are the pieces of crap that stoner's actually believe hide the scent of their marijuana, or help mask the taste of their bud because their taste palate can't stomach it. While sure, they can serve as an occasional treat for the novice smoker, or a quick fix while you're out and about, they're generally a waste of money and burn through entirely too fast. Really, anyone that enjoys wrapping their trigger finger around a nice stogie on a regular basis will agree that these are the bottom of the barrel.

Then you have gourmet cigars. These are the carefully flavored beasts that take a cigar, and then add an extra something for those people who find a natural cigar a bit too meaty, or like something with a bit of taste for that post meal smoke. CAO is one of many groups that really locked down on this with cigars such as Moontrance and Eillen's Dream. Personally, my all time favorite cigar in this group is the Erin Go Bragh with Irish Cream. This area serves best when you have novice smokers around as well, because they're not usually as overwhelmed by the smoke as they would be when you have a group pulling off of a natural. They also smoke longer than the "flavored" group and are much smoother.

Finally you have the natural group. These are your good old fashioned stogies. They are blended so you have the more earthy, coffee, and/ or nutty flavors. We're talking truly blended beans and spices, with a nice oily wrapper. Sometimes even with a true dash of peppery goodness, combined with some ceder. They're much heavier, and are not generally for the virgin smoker. While some can be worked into, someone that isn't accustomed to what they can offer can easily become overwhelmed by them. These are what I normally enjoy, and my wife makes me take outside. These are more in line with what your grandpa probably smoked back in the day. You can bite down into one of these and not worry about it being done 15 minutes later. Many a night I've sat back on the porch with a nice adult beverage and spent an hour or more with my trigger finger wrapped around a Churchill and basking in its glory while enjoying a sunset, or the night sky.

So to those who truly want to enjoy a cigar, DO NOT buy some cheap piece of crap at the local gas station. Instead take your butt down to a local smoke shop, even better if it has an area set aside for members to smoke, and actually spend some time talking to the people there. Sure, it will cost a little more than the gas station, but you'll enjoy it a lot more.