(harmonica music)
- I can remember when all this was fields and cattle
wrapped in barbed wire.
(spitting)
(cow bell ringing)
♪ Do a latte sipped to go ♪
♪ Drink it slow ♪
♪ Morning coffee ♪
♪ Cappuccino, hold the foam ♪
♪ Take me home ♪
(pouring liquid)
- Hi, I'm Greg Fox, and I'm your host of Bean Expresso.
We're happy that you're here this morning,
and we have some real interesting programs,
real interesting people.
Please, stay for the entire show.
We're here today, well I'll let her introduce herself,
since she is extremely knowledgeable about
how to handle communication.
So, Ann.
- (laughs) Hi, I'm Ann Beal, and I am the host of
the radio show, Living Well with Ann Beal.
And I'm also the director/owner of Life Solutions,
Coaching and Counseling in Azle, Texas, and Haslet, Texas.
- Wow, so I understand that the Azle location
is new for you?
- Yes, we just opened June 1st.
- [Greg] Wow.
- [Ann] And so it's exciting.
- [Greg] That's an expansion.
- [Ann] Yes.
- [Greg] So, how long had you been in Haslet?
- [Ann] Since 2004, gosh it's 14 years.
I can't believe that.
- Wow, so, you mentioned that you have a radio show.
- Yes.
- Tell us about that a little bit.
- The radio show, Living Well, is basically
built out of the fact that
I grew up as a gymnast.
I was a competitive gymnast,
and I lived with my coach off and on.
And I had a lot of really positive, incredible people
around me growing up.
So I really didn't know that all the skills that I have,
are what enabled me to truly live well.
And I didn't understand why so many people have trouble.
- [Greg] True.
- [Ann] And so the longer that I'd gone,
especially as a counselor and a life coach,
I have really learned to thank my mom
for being so positive, and encouraging me
and making me believe I could do whatever I wanted to do,
and believe in myself.
I also just had people around me the whole time.
I went to college young, and so I had a lot
of really great mentors around me,
and professors that just were incredible people.
- [Greg] So what you're saying is that
you had a lot of people around you, but they were adults.
- [Ann] They were adults, yes.
And then I went off, again young,
to Electronic Data Systems, EDS, in Rosborough.
Was of the 20 college kids that went up to Michigan,
he took us.
And so I didn't even really know who he was,
but I was mentored by him.
And growing up the Clintons lived next door.
And so we played across the street at parks.
And Bill, no matter what you feel about him
as a politician, but he was great to us kids
and really, just motivated us a lot
to be whatever we could be.
And so, as I got older,
a lot of people live this mundane life.
They just are creatures of habit.
And they will read the paper, and they have their coffee,
and they go to work, and they come home
and they go to sleep.
And then maybe they watch TV.
And so, my goal is, when people come in,
to give them a passion for life
and to teach them how to really have joy
and happiness and success.
But, in order to do that, they have to have
these five areas of their lives,
which came to me so easily
because I was taught all that along the way,
that there's the physical side, health and wellness,
which is what I was taught, as a gymnast,
and then the physical,
just really living a life with people around you
as far as communication, conflict resolution,
all those kinds of things to do well.
And then the self-help,
knowing how to help yourself when you're down.
Knowing what to do when you have anxiety,
which most people come in, have anxiety,
stress and anger management,
all those mental health kinds of things.
But you also need the spiritual.
Life without God is empty and it has no meaning.
And so people can spend their whole lives searching,
and there's lots to look, you know, cars, houses,
the bigger, the bigger, and they find
there's this emptiness inside,
so you gotta have the spiritual part of that.
And so, eventually, after I went through grad school,
I got two masters, one in Family Life Education,
one in Family Life Counseling.
Went to work with Dr. Frank Minirth, a great psychiatrist,
Christian psychiatrist.
And he really believed that the mental, physical,
and spiritual, emotional, okay,
were so important to be healthy.
And so with my show, I love having people on
that really exemplify that.
And so my view of success is really having joy, true joy,
and being able to live a life where you truly are happy.
And so, I do have celebrities on and people like that,
and athletes that I admire,
and when I have the on, it's because it's a signal to you
that I admire their life,
and if I admire their life, I know they live a good life,
they live a true, what I would call, joyful life.
- Ann, could you share a couple names
that people might know?
- [Ann] Well, as far as the athletes,
Troy Aikman, teaching you how to be a good team player
as a kid, to go for being a team player,
not your individual notoriety.
And supermodels about really what's important.
It don't matter how gorgeous you are, you're still not happy
if you don't have all this
actually wellness. - All the inner stuff.
- [Ann] Yeah, and friends and family
and people around you to love.
And so, I've had them on.
And so, Tony Hawk.
So just different people.
But I also like to have people in the community.
I love having farmers on because I really believe
in helping your local farmer
and getting truly free-range, antibiotic-free,
hormone-free food, not GMO.
So there's food all around you,
and I actually love to have gardeners on, master gardeners,
how to do gardening.
Just any kind of thing that has to do with wellness,
and so I love that.
- [Greg] Okay, so it's like,
you say almost anything to do with wellness,
that's like getting out into nature?
- [Ann] Yes.
- [Greg] Into the nature center, yet?
- [Ann] No, I haven't for the show yet.
Well I've been, I've been.
But we haven't done it for the show.
Yeah, and just celebrity physical fitness people
that are trainers.
And they get celebrities in shape really fast,
that most people don't know how to do that, right?
And that's what we all long for.
And so, just sensible things that you can do
to truly help you have an allover good life
because people that come into our clinic,
of all the things that we see,
they can learn a lot of that from the show.
- [Greg] Yes, very good.
Now, you've been on the radio for many years.
- [Ann] Yes, I used to have it on TV in '97 through 2000.
And then Voice America had me bring it to radio.
- [Greg] Oh, I see.
- And then eventually iHeart.
And so I've been on iHeart for a while now.
So iHeart Radio, that's where I am now.
And they still play it on Voice America,
and then it's on a lot of radio stations.
- Sure, is there a standard time
that people could listen to your show, depending on
where they live? - Well, if you wanna
hear it live, 5:00 p.m. on Monday,
but it's tons of podcasts, you can go listen to
of all the shows
in the archives. - And your website is?
- Living Well with Ann Beal.
- Is .com?
- .com, yes.
Livingwellwithannbeal.com.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- So, what coffee did you get?
- Well I got a sugar-free latte.
- [Greg] A sugar-free latte?
- Yeah.
- [Greg] Well that kinda goes with your personality.
- Yeah I'm trying not to have sugar at all.
(laughing)
Especially right now, at this time of year.
- So, here's a good opportunity to say that you're here.
- Yes, the Edge Church and Coffeehouse in Lake Worth, Texas.
And it is a great coffee shop.
I love coffee, and I do believe coffee is good for you.
- It is good for you.
- Yes.
- Keeps the brain really going.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
So, we're excited that you've been here today.
- Thank you.
- And, are there some parting words
that you'd like to share with our viewers?
- Yes, yes, besides Live Well,
we'd love to have you come out to our new office,
Life Solutions Coaching and Counseling.
And Life Solutions is in Azle, Texas,
right up the road here.
And we would love to have you come out.
We also have massage therapists and myoskeletal therapists
that will help you with pain and posture, chronic pain.
And we just, it's a full-service wellness clinic,
and we use essential oils and everything,
so we would love to meet you, love to have you come.
We are also in Haslet, Texas.
We'd love to have you either place.
- Can you give us an address in Haslet?
- Haslet it's 1395 FM 156 South.
- [Greg] Ah, it's on the right hand side
as you're going north.
- [Ann] Yes, right when you come into town.
- [Greg] (laughs) Okay.
- And in Azle it's 1009 Southeast Parkway.
- Oh okay.
Well that's real close to the hospital, isn't it?
- [Ann] It is, both of them are right by hospitals.
And a lot of that was planned
because we deal with so much chronic pain.
- [Greg] Gotcha.
- 'Cause people in pain are anxious and sad,
and so you can see why.
So we do a lot of things in our clinic
to try to help them with their pain.
- So Ann, who else is in your office?
I understand your husband works with you.
- Yes, he's a PhD.
He's not smarter, no,
he's kidding with that. (Greg laughs)
He's a stress and anger specialist
and he really does it from a Christian perspective.
But a lot of people, if they don't want that
that's fine too.
He really helps people where they are,
but he's so good at stress and anger,
and he taught it as a professor.
How to relieve severe anxiety quickly.
He's wonderful with marriages and he's wonderful with men.
He specializes with sexual addition
to help them get over that.
And he discipled and mentored men for a long time,
he loves working with men.
- [Greg] Okay, anybody else that you
wanna mention? - Yes, yes.
We have Chris Craig, who's our massage therapist,
and he uses essential oils.
He's a funny person.
And he loves doing massage.
And then we have Paige McClurr who is our intern.
And she's a counselor intern.
So she's gonna be training with us.
- Great.
- Yeah.
- So you shuttle back and forth to both offices,
- I do.
- during appointment times.
- Yes, we are in the Azle office on Mondays and Fridays.
And Jim, my husband, is on on Saturdays.
He's there as well.
And then we're in the Haslet office
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
And then I'm in the Haslet office on Saturday.
So we split up, but eventually,
once everybody gets going, we will settle in,
I won't have to be at both places all the time.
- Okay.
- We love what we do,
and we feel God's really led us to do this,
so it's our ministry, and this shows our ministry.
So it's just our passion.
And we're starting some new ones.
It, as well, is gonna be a daily devotional.
- Oh good!
- And then, we are also going to do Finishing Well,
for older people who've just done so well and shared,
and again, I had them on my show before,
but there's so many, you think of Zig Ziglar's widow.
I mean, there's so many crazy, wonderful people out there
that they deserve their own show.
- Well that'd be very enriching.
- Yeah.
- Often times, the more mature people
don't get the exposure, and the opportunity to share
some of the things they've learned during life
and during business.
- And they have so much knowledge to pass on,
and I love them, and I know,
'cause so many of my mentors are in their 70s and 80s now,
some of them are in their 90s,
and they are still, I mean I can't get enough,
I can't get enough. - Vibrant.
- Yeah, yes.
- They're living well?
- They are.
I think that for them to pass on their knowledge
and their legacy, that's what Dr. Minirth did for me.
And I now have been talking a lot to Stephen Arterburn
from the New Life Clinic,
kinda asking him, he's kinda taking the place
of Dr. Minirth for me.
I'm trying to have him do that because I admire him so much.
- [Greg] Excellent.
- And so I believe that, I believe in mentors.
I believe in always having people like that.
And C.S. Lewis did that.
- Yes.
- He met with a group, of them together to get mentorship
one to another, and networkings like that
as well. - It is,
and networking seems to be the new downtown these day.
- It is, it is,
that's true. - Where you
get to meet other people.
- Yeah.
- And your show is emblematic
of that style of communication.
- I always meet people that I admire when I network.
And I come across people that fascinate me
because they have figured out something
that most people haven't.
And it's one more tidbit
that I would like to share with people.
So, I think that my curiosity
about how people get where they are,
I interviewed the head of the NSA,
and so, how do you get there?
- Yeah really, how did you--
- He's Carl, boy, Carl Ford, Carl Ford.
I guess, he wasn't, yes he was, for George Bush.
And fascinating story, right?
And Colin Powell, fascinating.
And so most people don't know how to get from A to Z,
like, how did these people get where they are?
These kids come out of college, or even high school,
how do you pick what you wanna do, right?
They don't know.
And so, it's interesting that a lot of people
that I've interviewed didn't major in what they went into.
- That is ironic,
isn't it? - Yeah,
so they ended up finding their passion along the way.
- Right.
- But they want these high school kids in ninth grade
to pick what they wanna do, it's really,
I mean coming out of college it was hard for me.
I was a math major, so I just went, what?
- It added up.
- Engineer, I don't know, yeah.
And so, I think for people to realize,
they can be just as successful as these people.
Shelbi Vaughan, the Olympic athlete,
she loves showing people that you too, can do it.
Especially young girls, right?
And I love maximizing people and empowering people
to show them what their potential is,
and what I see is amazing.
And helping them have the tools.
But more than anything, I want people to be empowered
to see that there's so much hope
that God has a wonderful purpose for them,
and it doesn't matter how old you are.
Even at 80, at 80 God still has an incredible purpose.
And that's part of the show, Finishing Well,
is showing them that you guys can pass on so much
and people will be empowered by that.
- Right.
- Yeah.
- Wow, you're a bundle of fun.
I ain't kidding you.
If I could have you on the show again,
I'd be so excited because you have so much of a part.
And most people don't have the opportunity
to be in front of and share
the information you just did this morning.
Plus, have the interface with all these folks
who have accomplished so much.
- Well, and you are one of those.
I don't know if you remember me when I was in the chamber,
he was the head of the Chamber of the Northwest Tarrant
Chamber when I had my TV show in North Richland Hills.
And I came there, and you were incredible.
- [Greg] Well.
- And so, when I heard you were doing this show,
I was like oh my gosh, Greg Fox.
- Thank you for that. - Yeah, and so you know
so many people, running the chamber,
- Just a few.
- in North Richland Hills, all over the area,
and the Fort Worth.
Did you also do?
I heard that. - Little bit of Fort Worth.
We're gonna be back, right after this.
(jazzy music)
We're pleased to have a visitor today in his own shop,
and I'd like Steve to introduce himself.
- I'm Steve Sandfort with the Edge Church and Coffeehouse.
- [Greg] Very good, Steve.
Well thanks for being on Bean Expresso,
this morning. - Thank you.
- And, we do appreciate the time that you're sharing with us
'cause I know you're busy.
Tell us a little bit about the coffeehouse
and how it came to be,
and your history and relationship to that.
- Okay, so the coffeehouse,
my wife and I moved here in 2010.
And our goal was to plant a church,
not knowing exactly what that church
would look like out of the gate.
But I knew that we wanted to do something
missional, community-minded.
So something that was much more in the community,
less of a church that's only around on Sunday,
and focused together, but more of a full community ministry
that's active in the community all week.
Didn't know what that would look like,
we've formed about five families
from Crown of Life Lutheran Church in Colleyville,
planted with us.
And those five families met in our living room
for about six months before starting to grow
and outgrow that living room,
and that's when we opened the coffeehouse.
Largely, initially just to be a place for our community
to gather on Sundays.
As we started to work through what it might look like
to be open all week.
Our goal was to be a church that's open all week,
as often as possible, where we could do ministry all week.
And the coffeehouse came about because one of our members
said, hey, what if we opened a coffee shop?
And we started dreaming about that.
Crown of Life was a huge support for us in that.
They very much gave us lots of freedom
to plant however we wanted to plant.
They supported a lot of what we did,
both financially, prayerfully,
as well as just their sweat equity
in making the first coffeehouse work.
And really, that first coffeehouse opened in 2013,
we launched in 2012 and the shop itself opened in 2013.
And actually what grew out of that
was our young adult ministry.
The young adult ministry was completely
a byproduct of the coffeehouse.
And so that's why the Edge Church itself,
honestly has probably, well last year we were at 79 total,
and our average age was 26, I think at the Edge Church.
- That's a really good age.
- That was our 2017 numbers.
- So, Steve, I know that the church here
supports an orphanage, could you tell us where that is?
- Sure.
- And how that's working?
- Sure, the orphanage is La Providencia.
And La Providencia is in Aguas del Padre, Honduras,
which is near Siguatepeque.
So, folks that know about Honduras,
Siguatepeque is kind of in the middle,
central mountain range of Honduras.
And we've supported La Providencia from the beginning.
Actually in Nashville, I was with the group of guys
that started La Providencia,
and ended up on the board of directors.
So for a number of years,
I would go down there every summer.
I didn't go down this summer, but next summer I'll go again.
And the goal there, at La Providencia,
is our relationship with them helps them to reach orphans,
as well as those who are at risk and in need,
there in the Aguas del Padre, Siguatepeque community.
And 2.5% of our sales goes straight to them,
and then other folks that wanna come in and buy coffee,
or come in and make donations,
we have a process where you can come to the register
and actually make a donation that comes through the Edge,
and goes to La Providencia,
as well. - That's terrific.
I noticed, by walking around the shop with my cup in hand,
by the way, you can get a bottomless cup of coffee here.
- Yeah you can.
Just keep drinking coffee all day.
And we'll have to strap you down to send you back out,
but yes you could do that.
- My wife would love me when I get home
'cause then she can, anyway.
So tell us about some of the other products
that you sell here.
- [Steve] So we also have some food,
so there's a little bit of food, some sandwiches,
some salads, some wraps, those kind of things.
And then tea, we offer a lot of tea.
There's sodas and different bottled drinks as well.
The cold brew is one of our popular drinks as well.
And then merchandise, there's also a few things,
we support another ministry in Nicaragua, Beto's things.
He's a guy in Nicaragua that uses old coffee sacks
to make products that support an orphanage
there in Nicaragua.
So you can get Beto's merchandise here, as well.
A few things, we make basically two orders a year from them.
And then they import it up here to Lake Worth
so that we can supply our shelves here.
- So the Beto's thing,
that is not just a support of his effort.
- This is an example.
Actually this is a coffee tree,
or what used to be a coffee tree, now it's a coaster set.
So, Beto takes these coffee plants, makes them into,
there's this, there's a lamp.
So we've got a lamp for sale.
He also liked the coffee bags, it's leather.
Wallets, book bags, that kind of stuff.
- [Greg] How long do you think they've been doing that?
- You know what, Beto's, they've been for,
I think for two years now they've been doing this.
Two years ago they came to us
when they were starting the process to it,
and they asked us to be
kinda one of the pilot coffeehouses.
- So you're the pilot,
and probably the exclusive presenter of the products.
- I think in this area, yeah.
- Wow, that's terrific.
If you want a variety of things, this is the place to be.
Because not only can you be comfortable here,
and meet lots of interesting other people
who may be walking in the door, that you haven't met yet,
but you get to meet Steve and his staff.
- Good staff too.
- Yeah.
Tell us a first name of the staff.
- [Steve] So Joel is our coffeehouse manager.
So you'll see Joel here most of the time.
Of our senior staff, really he's the one who,
a lot of what we do now is a huge,
I mean a lot of this is what came out of Joel's head.
We just said coffee, and Joel kinda has that
in the back of his head, what he's gonna do.
And then I've also got an assistant, her name is Chelsea.
She also works behind the bar,
but she's also my assistant at Good Shepherd,
and she does a lot of our accounting
or a lot of our paperwork stuff around here.
And then we've got, it's a fluctuating number of baristas,
but we've got six, seven other baristas
that come in and out.
And we've got about three or four volunteers
that come in on a regular basis
to volunteer behind the counter.
- [Greg] And I also noticed that you have
a full sound system and lighting, what's that all about?
- We do.
So on Friday nights, at times,
we do concerts in the evenings, on Friday nights especially.
And then mostly that's small bands,
like small, three, four-person bands are fine,
lots of songwriter nights on those Friday evenings.
And so that's why the lights and the sound are all here.
And we're working on a new stage.
So a small platform that just elevates the stage,
just a little bit, to make that a little bit more
of a stage, performance atmosphere.
- Well, that's great.
So, again, the timing on Friday is?
- Timing is Fridays, typically about 6:30
is when they start - 6:30, kinda
rolls on until - those concerts.
everybody rolls out. - It rolls till about 8:30.
Yeah, till everybody's gone.
- [Greg] Okay, well terrific.
That's a place to go on Friday night.
- That's right, that's right.
- So, tell us a little bit about the Edge Church.
And you've mentioned it several times and everything,
and the whole purpose of it.
So give us a little bit of the round on it.
- So the Edge Church, our mission is to love God,
serve others and share Jesus.
And largely that's the great commissions
and the two great commands.
The great commission, to share Jesus.
The great commands, to love God and to love others.
We love others by serving.
The church itself has outgrown the coffeehouse location.
So this particular coffeehouse that we're in right now,
the church wouldn't fit in here.
At about the time we were struggling with space,
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Azle needed a pastor,
and they were struggling with their numbers,
and they came to us last year, in August,
I guess it was August or July,
and asked us if we would consider coming up there
for church on Sundays.
So we tried that throughout the latter part of 2017,
and into 2018, and it looks like it's working well.
So we're actually merging.
- [Greg] So that was a blending of the churches.
- [Steve] Right, so we're actually merging two churches.
And it's merging the Edge Church
and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church into one.
Not sure yet on the name,
we call ourselves the Edge at Good Shepherd,
kinda to give both churches
a little bit of the leadership there.
We've since moved, some of our Edge members
have moved over to Good Shepherd
and have taken some leadership roles
to help design the new church,
what it would look like moving forward.
They embrace our coffeehouse ministry.
Good Shepherd has supported us through the years,
in our coffeehouse ministry.
So it's been a great partnership, we feel, going forward.
And they actually shared our vision.
Our vision and mission are very similar.
The Edge vision is to be growing Christians,
sharing the intentional love of Jesus
through hospitality and compassion.
And so that fits well into Good Shepherd as well.
So they've welcomed us.
We're a family already, and that's been kinda the fun part
about watching God do what he's doing.
It's not me, it's God that's doing this.
It's kinda neat watching it.
- [Greg] God has a plan.
- [Steve] He does, he does.
- [Greg] I've been asked for you to tell a story
about a gentleman that you know.
- I've heard that I'm supposed to talk about this story.
It was a painful story in my life.
- Really?
- But it's a good story to share
because it actually shows how God
uses every situation we're in
to further, sometimes to grow us, to challenge us,
and to put us where he really wants us.
It was about 1991.
My wife and I were living in Miami, Florida.
And I was a songwriter, I wanted to be a singer,
wanted to be on stage.
And we would drive through Nashville, back and forth,
up to the Upper Midwest where our parents lived.
We drive through Nashville,
and I would stop and pass out cassette tapes.
- Remember those?
- You and I remember
cassette tapes. - Yeah. (laughs)
- And I would pass out cassette tapes with my songs on them.
You know, your three-song demo tape.
And I would try to get people to listen to it,
from big record companies to small production companies.
And one particular place called Hummingbird Productions,
was the name of the place,
right there on Music Row in Nashville,
let me come in and the guy there,
his name was Alan Robertson,
let me come in and listen to my music.
And he said, can I be honest with you?
And my thinking was, oh I'm a great songwriter.
This is awesome.
Sure, be honest, lay it on me, tell me how good this is.
And he said Steve, this is the worst demo tape
I've ever heard.
(Greg laughs)
Yeah, I'm laughing now, but it was painful.
And I said, well tell me which way,
like what do you mean by the worst?
And he said, no, it's like the worst.
Like, the song is really bad.
These songs are horrible songs, these are just bad songs.
The production is really bad.
What's that noise in the background?
And I'm thinking, that's my washer!
I mean, I recorded this in my kitchen.
And not only that, the singing is really not that great.
It's pretty bad singing too.
So he said, all around, this is the worst demo tape.
And he knew that I was kinda walking Music Row,
passing out my stuff,
and he said I hope you didn't give these out
to a lot of people.
- And you had?
- And he was my last stop.
So I had given them out to, maybe 50, hundred.
And it was an awful time.
He said, most of all, I just wanna tell you,
don't move to Nashville.
Go do something else,
go let God do something with you somewhere else.
Don't move to Nashville.
And I was crushed.
I met my wife, she was walking our dogs,
we had two dogs, she was walking them up and down Music Row
while I'm doing this,
and I walked back out and I've got tears in my eyes
and she's like, what happened?
And I said nothing, I don't wanna talk about it.
I get in the car, and we were to Clarksville
before I actually could just say,
okay, this is what happened.
But you what happened, God used that time to send me to,
we ended up moving from Miami to Wisconsin.
And I was a youth worker up there.
And kept writing songs, and eventually my church there said,
well, we'd love to have some recordings of your music.
We really love your songs.
So I went to Branson and recorded my first album.
And that went so well,
that I started working on a second one.
And our youth program there was growing.
And just really realizing God had me there for a reason.
He'd allowed some difficult, challenging things to happen
so that I could get to the place where he really wanted me.
And then, by 2000, or actually 1999,
we made the choice that we were gonna move.
And we moved to Nashville,
because somebody in Nashville had asked
if I'd come to Nashville,
that I could work with them in music.
And so it was actually a great segue to we went to Wisconsin
instead of moving to Nashville,
and then Wisconsin ended up leading us to Nashville.
The church in Wisconsin, when I said to
Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Sheboygan Falls,
I said hey, I'm gonna move to Nashville, we're gonna leave.
They said, you're not gonna leave, we're gonna send you.
So they actually sent us,
as musical missionaries if you will,
and we traveled the country for eight years
from Nashville, Tennessee, doing music.
And I did some acting,
I did all kinds of things out of Nashville.
And it was mostly because God used that moment in Nashville
with Alan Robertson to keep me from coming at that time,
sent me to the people that would help me to grow,
and then they sent me to Nashville.
So, I love how God works.
I mean, that's the whole community,
the family of Christ works together that way.
- So, Steve, I've noticed that there's kind of
an interesting little, round frame up there
by the cash register and the counter,
what's that all about?
- So that round frame, it's kind of a pay it forward frame,
where you could come in and buy a cup of coffee
for someone who comes in and doesn't have any money.
And Lake Worth's not a huge homeless area,
but we do have folks that are in need
that come in and out of the coffeehouse.
We're known as a church coffeehouse,
so there's people that come in and out of here
all the time that are in need.
And they can always grab one of those receipts,
and it's already paid for.
So somebody else has paid for the drink,
and just come to the counter, turn the receipt in
and have the drink.
Our goal is to see that full, so that's the goal.
- Really?
So right now, you have?
- I think there's seven, seven receipts.
- That's not too bad.
- No. - But,
by the end of this week,
or maybe going into next week,
how many do you think we oughta try for?
- 20.
- 20?
- I think 20
would fill it. - I think 20
would be about right. - 20 would fill it.
- And that means, that I can come in and go,
I didn't bring my wallet today!
- [Steve] You can.
- [Greg] Oh, I love that idea.
Thank you Steve.
- [Steve] You bet, Greg.
It's great to have you, thanks for being here.
- [Greg] Thank you.
I appreciate the coffeehouse, this is a great environment.
Been coming here since you were in the other location.
- [Steve] You have, I've really appreciated your support.
Thank you for that. - Well thank you,
thank you for that.
And you're gonna continue to get that support.
- [Steve] Thank you.
- And as long as you keep supporting
the folks that drink this coffee--
- You betcha.
- We're okay.
- That's right, thanks Greg.
- You know, we'll be right back.
(jazzy music)
This morning we have a small business owner,
and we're very excited to have her with us
because she offers a bright spot,
where they, she and her husband,
have opened a small business.
And I'd like Diane to introduce herself.
- Well, my name is Diane Little.
And I have a store and it's called
Little's Shop in the City.
And it's an antique store.
It's 317 West Main, Azle, Texas.
And I am also gonna be carrying new things,
and I've already started ordering new things
from Dallas Market.
- [Greg] More gift shop type things?
- Gift shop.
So people in the area can come to our store for gifts,
candles, towels, pillows,
signs, things like that.
Plus we do yard art, and that's a real popular item.
- [Greg] Yeah, I've noticed you've got some yard art
in front of the shop, it's all for sale?
- [Diane] It is, it is, yes.
So, we go to Canton and we have
some favorite vendors that we use,
and we buy different items
that are kinda hot for the summer or for spring,
and we just try to dress up yards. (laughs)
We wanna kind of evolve into a garden store as well.
- [Greg] I see.
- [Diane] And eventually I'll sell live plants.
I have done that, I did that last year.
But, not to be where I wanna
landscape someone's entire yard,
but maybe just have a unique planter
where the plants are planted into those.
- I'm looking for a shop that's going to eventually
put seedlings in for pawpaws.
Ah, she went blank on me. - What?
Yeah, what is that?
- A pawpaw is the only Native American, tree-grown fruit.
- Oh, okay.
I don't know what that looks like.
- Ah, it's about that big.
And it tastes sort of like a cross between
a mango and a banana.
- I can't imagine.
- So you have your first request.
- Wow, okay. (laughs)
I'll have to look for that one.
- So tell us a little bit more about the shop itself
and how you came to find it.
- Well, my husband, Don, and I,
we've only been married for two years.
We were high school sweethearts.
We dated when we were 16 and 18, and we've reconnected.
Both of our spouses passed away.
And I've always had a dream of owning my own store,
and living in my store.
And I've always, when I drive into old towns and stuff,
I look at the houses and see if that's a possibility.
And we found this place in Azle on Main Street,
it was available, and so we moved March of 2016 there.
We made it our residence.
And then in July of 2017, we opened up our store.
So it's kind of evolved a little bit,
now we've kind of taken over more of the store,
like the kitchen is mainly our area.
But we still invite people in, and we offer drinks,
and we sometimes feed people, sometimes I'll make a quiche.
But it's really neat,
because I like to invite the community in
and just, if they need a friend.
It's not so much about a store for me, as it is a ministry.
And our very first customer when we opened,
the day we opened, was a Christian family,
and they prayed over our store.
So, we just wanna be a light in the community
and we wanna be there for people.
So yes, I sell antiques, yes, I sell gift items.
But the most important part is just being available
for people, and for women if they need prayer.
I mean of course we have to make a living,
but it's just fun, it's just me.
And I can share whatever I know how to do.
Like, I love yard work.
So during the day, when I don't have customers there,
I work in the yard to try to make it look pretty.
And when people come in, they're like oh I love your place.
And they love to walk around and look.
And so for me, I mean,
I love for people to buy things from me,
but I also like sharing what I've done with the property.
And we usually give everybody a tour
of our place, where we live.
- I understand you have a new addition to your family
that has a waggy tail.
- Yes, little Otie, his name is Otis.
- [Greg] Little Otie?
- [Diane] Yes.
- [Greg] How little is he?
- [Diane] Well, he's a little, long-haired Doxen.
And he's got a great personality, a very big personality.
And he is now the center of attention
when customers come in.
He meets them at the door.
We did have a poodle and everybody loved him,
and he had a big fan club, but we had to put him down.
- [Greg] Aw, well that's a shame.
- [Diane] He was too old.
- [Greg] Yeah, well how long had you had your poodle?
- [Diane] He was really not that old.
We had him for 11 years.
And he just, his legs were so long,
and he started getting arthritis,
and he lost a bunch of weight.
But I mean, really, literally, people would come in
and ask where Harley was.
So we're hoping to do the same thing with Otie.
He's still a little bit hyper.
- [Greg] But he's a pup.
- [Diane] Yes.
- [Greg] I understand you have a few toys
that Otie likes to play with out in the backyard.
- [Diane] Yes.
- [Greg] Live toys.
- Yes, live toys.
Yes, we have a cat.
When we moved there, we noticed, well last, I guess fall,
we noticed in the very back building
there were five kittens and they were feral cats.
And of course we feed the cats
and every cat in the neighborhood
comes to our place for dinner.
So we call it the all-you-can-eat buffet.
And anyway, Otie, our dog,
loves this one cat.
And we named him Wink, 'cause he had problems with his eyes.
So he would wink, and so we named him Wink.
But we couldn't touch him, and Otie tamed him for us.
And so now we can touch Wink.
- [Greg] Very good.
- Yeah, and when people come in our store,
I mean we really try to connect with them
on a personal basis.
We've made a lot of friends who were customers first,
and then find out that we all go to the same church.
And it's just, I love Azle.
It's a great community, people helping each other.
It's a great place to have a business.
- It's a good small town,
and it still has that flavor, doesn't it?
- It does, I mean I look forward to the town growing.
And they're getting ready to build the new police station
on Main Street, which is not far from us.
We're right nextdoor to the Azle Newspaper
and nextdoor to them is the library.
And then on our other side is the entrance to the park.
So we're kinda right in the middle of everything.
- [Greg] That's great.
- [Diane] And Moe's is across the street.
And everybody eats at Moe's.
So, we try to wave our hands and say, come on over here!
- So tell me, Diane, five years from now,
do you think you're still gonna be living on-premise?
- Oh, absolutely.
I mean, it's really kinda hard to say,
'cause we're in the process of a little venture right now
that's kind of a fun venture.
So I think we'll live on-premise,
but I think we'll live elsewhere as well.
We'll kind of keep it, maybe joint.
But it's funny because when you live there,
I think you can put more into the place
because we're always working on it.
You know what I'm saying?
- [Greg] I do.
So, when you develop a new customer,
do you ask them what they're looking for?
- [Diane] I do, I do.
Sometimes if I don't have it,
I will write it down in a book.
And if I know somebody that's selling what they want,
I'll try to connect those people up.
Like, there was a guy that was selling violins,
and somebody came in and they were looking for a violin,
and I didn't have what they were looking for
so I referred them to that guy.
- [Greg] Awesome.
- So it's really, for me,
just about meeting needs for people
and just being known as a person
that's trying to help people get what they're looking for.
- Sure.
Now Diane, you'd shared with me a little bit,
about your retail experience,
would you like to say a few words about that?
- You want me to put a little plug in there?
- Why not?
- (laughs) Well, I used to run a store on seventh street
called Into the West.
And it is a high-end, Western furniture, they do custom.
And one of the best employees I've ever had.
And then before that I worked for Leddy's Ranch
in M.L. Leddy's, which they were
absolutely awesome. - Nobody know Leddy's.
- I know right.
Yeah, it's so neat.
I mean, I've been fortunate enough to be blessed
with very awesome employers.
- [Greg] If you really wanna go to a place
that you can enjoy being,
not just a store but somebody's true mission,
go to the little house in the city.
And the Little Shop in the City.
- [Diane] Little Shop in the City.
Little's Shop in the City.
- [Greg] Little's!
That's possessive, but I'm sure you'll own it as well.
- [Diane] Well and also too, Littles is our last name.
- [Greg] How about that!
- (laughs) It takes that light bulb moment sometimes.
Oh, and the coffee here is wonderful, by the way,
we love the coffee.
- Somehow I think you'll be down, won't you?
- Well, and I'm hoping to carry the coffee
that they sell here at our store.
- That's awesome, great idea. - Yeah, yeah.
- [Greg] You'll be helping out a lot more people.
- [Diane] Yeah, yeah.
- You know Diane, a friend and I came
and we walked through your shop,
and we noticed a very unique display.
Could you tell us about that
and who might have prepared that for you to resell?
- Well, when we originally opened,
I didn't really want other vendors in my store
because it is so small.
And I have a friend, her name is Julie,
and she's extremely talented.
I offered her a room to rent in our store,
and she makes her own artwork.
And the name of her art is Julsified.
And the reason why is because everything that she does
has bling on it.
what she does is she takes old pieces
of jewelry and tin cans,
it's kinda like the steam punk art,
and she makes little people and angels.
And every one of her little art are in a shadowbox,
and every piece of art has a name.
And anyway, so when she's creating them,
she doesn't know what it's gonna be,
and then when she's done with it, she looks at it
and she says, oh this is what this is.
And one of them is Casting Crowns.
That's what it's called, Casting Crowns.
And it's this funky girl made out of a tin can
with all this jewelry and she's got a chain
and it's a heart, and there's a crown.
So she puts a lot of love into them.
Also, too, she writes songs on big pieces of canvas
and it looks like chalk art, and it's very, very neat.
A lot of people love her work.
She does those, she actually arranges flowers.
And I was teasing her last year when I went to her house
because she just has a lot of color in her yard,
and a lot of color in her head,
and I said, you've got a lot going on up there.
And she did, she's a very colorful person.
You know the things that we go through in life,
our hurts, the way I think God turns them into beauty,
our ashes, is a think that it's through our expression
and what we're able to do in our life
after we've gone through those things.
- [Greg] Sure.
- So I'm really excited to have her there,
plus she has a little bit of some purses and jewelry,
and she's gonna start carrying clothes.
- That's terrific.
- And I think she's gonna try to do Facebook sales,
and stuff like that, live sales, how they're doing.
So, anyway. - Okay, well
you mentioned color several times.
Color in your yard art seems to be pretty vibrant.
- [Diane] And for us, the yard art,
I mean I do try to pick up tractor pieces,
plows, old shovels--
- [Greg] Antiquey-type stuff.
- [Diane] Yeah, just things that are old and vintage,
and tubs, but also, too, I carry the large chickens,
and flamingos, and goats.
I carry pottery.
So there's a lot of, I mean, right now I feel like
I'm really low, but we do restock.
And we're getting ready to restock in about a week.
- Very good, so tell us, you've added a couple
of features to the back yard,
do you wanna share some of that?
- Well, yes, and actually it's on the side.
And I ventured out and did an above-the-ground garden.
And at some point, my husband brought this up, Don,
he said, if we get tomatoes, which we're hoping,
we're crossing our fingers, it would be so neat to,
after a customer purchases something,
to take them over to our garden
and share some of our vegetables with them.
I think that would be really neat.
I mean, depending on how much we produce.
We might have to just say one cherry tomato per person.
(Greg laughs)
Or, hopefully, we have big tomatoes that we planted too,
but you never know if they're gonna come out.
But this is my first time to do that.
- I understand.
- [Diane] But eventually, that whole side,
which was gonna be a parking lot,
that whole side, I'd like to turn into an area
where I can sell more plants
and things that people can use in a garden, or whatever.
And then the dream, I know you had asked me
about what I see in the future, five years,
but I would like to be able to open up a path
from the front where the parking is,
all the way to the park.
Because we back up to the library and the park,
and they're always doing things in the park.
So eventually, I would like to have a really pretty,
decorative path with an open arch, where people can,
when I open, I can open it during the day
and then close it at night.
So I mean, I really wanna share
what we have with our community.
- Sure, you're very fortunate that along Main Street there,
there's not a lot of parking.
- There isn't.
- But in front of your shop, there is.
- Well, the parking,
you can park on the grass.
But we did open up a parking spot,
we put in some parking there, concrete parking,
and there's a place for five people to park.
- [Greg] Very Good.
- A lot of times, people are confused where to park.
But, you know, just anywhere. (laughs)
- [Greg] Well thank you Diane.
- Oh thank you!
I'm so excited. - Keep smiling.
- Yeah, thank you.
- Alright. - Thanks.
(jazzy music)
For more infomation >> Welcome - Wup.Pilares - Duration: 4:46. 
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