The following is a transcript from our latest podcast episode. New episodes every Wednesday - available on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify.

Roni:                Roni Haskell here with Keller Williams in downtown Summerville. I'm here with Brad Mallet today at Coastal Coffee Roasters, and we're going to talk about what makes Summerville so great. Stay tuned. All right.

Brad:                All right.

Roni:                All right, Brad, so you were just telling me you've been here in Summerville for about 12 years. You could have opened up a coffee shop anywhere, right? Tell me what your vision was when you moved here.

Brad:                The vision was to get out of the lifestyle that we had in New York. I worked for a telecommunications company. The children's mom worked in nursing, in the hospital field, and it was just getting very overwhelming. We couldn't focus on ourselves, our children, and our community. It was just getting very corporate-minded and driven and the atmosphere in New York was changing rapidly. So we picked up everything and followed... My best friends at the time, his widow moved to Summerville and we came down, fell in love with it, and just made the big jump to say, "Let's move." And then we decided what are we going to do? So we decided to do a coffee company, roasting. A brewery was actually in the business plan and making a community space.

Roni:                And that was what, 12 years ago?

Brad:                Yeah, 2010.

Roni:                So you beat me just by a little bit into town. Oh, no, no, no, I beat you.

Brad:                No, you beat me.

Roni:                I beat you just a little bit into town. But we both watched this community grow from what was a much smaller town. And in some ways it still feels that way, right? Because the community and the people here still operate on a very personal basis.

Brad:                It's one of those small town feels that you don't want to do anything wrong to anybody because everybody's going to know within the end of the day type of thing. Which is great, because if you're raising children, it's nice to know that somebody else is looking out for your kids too.

Roni:                Yeah. And this town certainly has that feel.

Brad:                I remember when we had that flood, and then the next day, 50 people just showed up-

Roni:                To help you.

Brad:                ... in the middle of a pandemic to help us get open because their favorite coffee shop was not going to be open. So they all grouped together and helped bring that to fruition.

Roni:                So you are former military.

Brad:                Yeah.

Roni:                And I'm highlighting this because it is Veterans Day today.

Brad:                Yeah. Air Force, aim high.

Roni:                Yep. So Air Force. You still give a lot back to veterans.

Brad:                Yes. This is our big supporting organization that we contribute to called WhenLifeSucks.org. And while it has a humorous name, what they do is really serious. I mean, it really helps to get a veteran who may be struggling with PTSD, a family member who can't get through, meandering through of the programs where they need the help, and they help do all that. We have a similar mindset of getting people outside.

Roni:                So just today, from 11:00 to 2:00, you're doing a lot here at Coastal to highlight and benefit this organization. But that's not the only organization that you benefit. I mean, you're pretty integrated within the community.

Brad:                Please don't ask me the list because it's too big. I don't know where it is.

Roni:                But that's your way to serve back the community that serves you.

Brad:                Yes, absolutely.

Roni:                It helps you build your business. My girls, in fact, told me, they said, "Oh, he owns this business. He must be very wealthy." But really-

Brad:                You probably get that too.

Roni:                Sometimes I do. Sometimes I do. But really we give back to the community and help support by having employees and a place for work. And it's a livelihood that we both have built for ourselves here in Summerville.

Brad:                It's an absolute blessing. I recently traveled with April all across the country. It was 51 days, 7,800 miles. And what we took away from it was that this is always going to be home.

Roni:                Yeah. Yeah.

Brad:                This is a place to come back to. It's a place that you know everybody. And how many people send things out saying when somebody else goes away, please continue to post and share that, because we're getting to see a part of America that I may not have had the opportunity to go see or the time to see. And I have an amazing team that allows me to do that.

Roni:                Yeah. It's all about the people, it really is.

Brad:                It is.

Roni:                Whether it's the employees or the customers that come in. This community has a strong work ethic. Would you agree with that?

Brad:                I do.

Roni:                Yeah, it's really strong. I mean, there's so much that happens in Summerville culturally. There's tons of organizations. And I don't know that I've ever been a part of a community that's been more philanthropy-based than Summerville.

Brad:                That's very true. I agree with that wholeheartedly. And even community-based. So we do the Pledge of Allegiance at 8:00 every morning. You've been a part of that.

Roni:                I have.

Brad:                And when I go away, it's not relied on my staff to make that happen.

Roni:                You have community members to step in.

Brad:                Our community will step in. Now, they could be veterans, they could be business owners. It could be political civic people. It doesn't matter. It's the fact that we live in the greatest country in the world and it's not a bad thing to say, "Yeah, I'm proud to live here."

Roni:                Yeah, yeah. My roots got very deep here. When I moved from Alabama to Charleston, it was for a six-week internship, but I stayed in Charleston because I loved the culture, I loved the atmosphere, I loved the weather. There are a lot of reasons why I stayed. But when I started to look at having a family, I decided to move to Summerville specifically because I wanted the schools, I wanted the community. I wanted the events that would happen out at the town square. All of that is what I wanted.

Brad:                Third Thursday.

Roni:                Third Thursday. Although it wasn't a thing when I first moved here, but it has certainly gotten to be. The farmers market on Saturday mornings, which y'all have a presence at as well.

Brad:                Yeah, we're there.

Roni:                Yeah, I mean, there's just so much. It's almost you don't have enough time to be integrated into every aspect of this community. But there's something here for everybody.

Brad:                How many places have you gone, "Well, there's nothing to do here. There's nothing to do here"? And I think that mindset doesn't exist here because there's so much to do. It's almost too many things to do. And we've had these conversations where it's like, "Well, I got four events I got to be at. I can't split myself four ways," so you do the best you can.

Roni:                That's right.

Brad:                And everybody's supportive of each other, and I think that really, really helps.

Roni:                It plays into and it builds that community that we were talking about earlier.

Brad:                They say two degrees of separation or seven degrees. It just reminded me of that story where we were trying to... Lost the lock or the key for the lock and we were hacksawing the cable. And the guy that was helping me, Rashawn?

Roni:                uh-huh, I remember.

Brad:                Was somebody that you went to school with or you guys-

Roni:                Yeah, he went to Auburn and I did too. Yeah, graduated. Yeah. So we made a quick connection right out.

Brad:                Quick connection right here at Coastal Coffee Roasters. And that happens a lot.

Roni:                I bet it does. I bet it does. There's not a time that I come in here that I don't see at least one or two or 10 familiar faces. But that's the community that we're talking about that Summerville really has to offer. Well, I'm proud to be a part of this community and I'm so thankful that we've gotten to be friends.

Brad:                Oh, absolutely.

Roni:                So the hope is that other people, as they move into town, they can benefit from our services. We can lead them.

Brad:                Absolutely.

Roni:                Depending on where their interests are, where they want to serve the community, we can point them in the right direction of service as well.

Brad:                Absolutely. That's what we're for, just a meeting place to help guide that conversation.

Roni:                That's right. That's right.

Brad:                Awesome.

Roni:                Well, thanks, Brad, for joining me today.

Brad:                Absolutely. Have a great weekend.

Roni:                Thanks, you too.

Brad:                Happy Veterans Day.

Roni:                Yes. Thanks for joining. Stay tuned for next week.