How shared experiences of resilience within The Bean Cartel have inspired the roastery to prioritise the mental wellbeing of every member of its extended coffee family.
When The Bean Cartel Founders Stacy and Alison Visser met Melissa Glentis for the first time in 2021, they were impressed by her extensive coffee industry experience. However, it was her story of resilience that ultimately secured the job as National Sales Manager at the burgeoning specialty roaster.
Having lost the hospitality businesses they’d built in South Australia, the Vissers started The Bean Cartel on a $20,000 overdraft the bank forgot to remove. When they were introduced to Melissa almost a decade later, her story of business failure and overcoming the subsequent mental health challenges resonated deeply.
“The first day I met Stacy I was ready for a formal job interview, but from the outset he was very frank and honest about his background and I knew immediately The Bean Cartel was a brand I could work with,” says Melissa.
“They were in the process of rebranding and ready to grow. I’d tried the coffee and it was fantastic, so as an entrepreneur I knew I could help them fulfil their ambitions and make a difference within the business.”
Growing up as part of a traditional Greek family in the hospitality industry, Melissa worked in cafés and restaurants from a young age. Her first jobs were behind the bar with a milk jug in hand. While she pursued other interests and careers, she says she always found her way back to hospitality.
“It’s an industry you either love or hate, and I was addicted. I’d tried university and travelling, but I kept coming back to cafés,” she says.
In 2009 at the age of 26, Melissa opened her own café in Melbourne with her sister. The duo turned a failing business into a successful one, riding the wave of the city’s emerging specialty coffee culture for several years.
After hopping over to the wholesale side for seven years and gleaning a more in-depth understanding of the coffee industry, Melissa decided to re-enter the world of café ownership in 2019.
“I wanted to do my own thing again, so I went back to what I loved which was owning and running cafés. The café, Dilly Dally, was in the backstreets of South Yarra, so we had to put in the work to make it a destination venue, but it took off and we grew very quickly,” she says.
“It was a fun vibe, I had a great team, and we were all having a blast, but then COVID-19 hit. A lot of my staff were internationals and because they received no support from the government I kept them on for as long as possible.”
Melissa did everything she could to keep the business afloat and her team employed, working seven days a week to make ends meet. Towards the conclusion of the first lockdown, she could see light at the end of the tunnel and felt optimistic about the future.
“My sister found another business she thought was a great opportunity for us. I had a little money left in the bank and took the plunge,” says Melissa.
For a while both cafés were thriving, but their fortunes took a turn during the second lockdown. Having to close two businesses while still paying high rents and large teams pushed Melissa to the edge.
“The financial hole was getting deeper and deeper until it got to a point that was impossible to get back from. I had to decide which of the projects to sacrifice, so I permanently closed Dilly Dally,” she says.
“It was soul destroying as I had big dreams for that brand. However, I also felt relieved as I was exhausted from constantly pivoting the business. I’m usually a bright and bubbly person but I had nothing more to give.”
At the time, Melissa was very vocal about how the lockdowns were affecting the hospitality industry. Speaking up about the issue on a public platform meant she was not only keeping her businesses afloat and putting food on the table for her family but also dealing with abuse from people who didn’t agree with her.
“I had nothing left in the tank by the end. I was getting hate mail and voice messages daily. After the fifth lockdown I felt completely drained and admitted to myself that I’d lost the fight – I’d failed,” she says.
Melissa confesses this was one of the hardest moments of her life. Once she liquidated the business, she also lost her house and had to move her young family.
“It took a massive mental toll on me and there were days I couldn’t get off the sofa. But I knew I had to be present for my children – I had to keep on going,” she says.
Not wanting to take on her own business again and seeking a reliable income, Melissa went back into wholesale coffee. Then she met Stacy, Alison, and the team at The Bean Cartel. Bonding over their shared experiences and talking openly about the effects on their mental health, she joined the company at the end of 2021.
“I still had a lot of healing to do when I started the role, but Stacy and Alison were hugely supportive – not just helping me to grow in my career but also personally,” she says.
Reflecting on their own experiences and being aware of how personal issues can greatly influence their team’s work life, Stacy, Alison, and Melissa have recently introduced Culture and Wellbeing Coach Rebecca D’Angelo of Business Life Results and Relevé Life to the company. Stacy and Alison first met Rebecca at her Conscious Living program and were so impressed by what they learnt that they asked her to share her wisdom with The Bean Cartel team.
The partnership started with Rebecca hosting a two-day Conscious Workplace workshop based on self leadership, resilience, communication, and staff engagement. From there, she spent time with each member of staff to come up with more than 20 suggestions to enhance the business.
“The suggestions are designed to not only improve the team’s communication but also their happiness and wellbeing. The ideas range from reducing numbers of emails and communicating more efficiently to considering background noise,” says Rebecca.
“As well as implementing these changes, I’m someone from outside the business that any member of staff can call to chat through anything – from how to handle a customer to issues in their personal life that are stopping them from giving their best at work.”
Rebecca stresses that being happy internally is essential to being able to show up in every aspect of life, including work.
“If as employers we are going to be responsible for our staff, the psychological wellbeing of your team is just as important as the physical,” she says.
For Melissa, this wellbeing work with Rebecca has been invaluable.
“Rebecca has helped me work through personal issues and given me guidance on how I can tackle things differently with a more human approach,” she says.
“In hospitality, mental health is often still swept under the carpet and not discussed. We hope by working with Rebecca we can make it part of the everyday conversation at The Bean Cartel – not just between the team but also with our customers who we’re there to support as an extension of our coffee family.”
For more information, visit thebeancartel.com.au
This article appears in the October/November 2024 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
