Sal Sanchez
Owner, A Cup of Common Wealth
Sal Sanchez is the owner of A Cup of Common Wealth, Chocolate Holler and Magic Beans Coffee Roasters.
Cover story—woot, holla, praise hands—the 15-year-old me still gets carried away, what can I say?
OK, how about a little behind-the-scenes story to illustrate how impressed I am with Sal and his way of operating in the world and all.
So in late April I was assigned the name of another small-business owner to profile, When I (finally) found his email address for my intro note and tried to set up an interview, he was too busy and was going to be busy for the next two months, and then when I reached out again in late June it turned out to be his slow time so he just couldn't, and so I said I would put it on my calendar to check back with him in late July and he said cool but he would be traveling until August something, so I said hey, this might be easier for both of us—just let me know when you’ll have about 20 minutes to talk and if I have a couple hours’ notice to grab my laptop I can make it happen? He said, “Will do.”
Full-body eye roll.
And then there's Sal Sanchez, who runs about 9,000 businesses or something. He’s busy. I emailed him on a Monday; he said he was out of town until Wednesday, opening a new store in Georgetown on Thursday, but absolutely, send him some questions and he would give it a stab. Boom. Answers were back to me that evening.
I wrote up the piece, texted Sal a few follow-up questions per the editor, and it went to press.
Here’s the full read on the Smiley Pete site: