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Annie Choi is passionate about creating safe spaces. After a mid-career pivot from the entertainment industry (working with Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Project Runway), she found herself seeking to create something, specifically, a place where people could feel free to be themselves and push back against the loneliness of Los Angeles. Thus, Found Coffee was born. Nestled in the Eagle Rock Neighborhood between Pasadena and Glendale, Found is a “gathering place” that “serves the community with exceptional customer service, delicious goods, and a sense of comfort.” In this episode of the CFWLA Podcast, Annie shares about her career-pivot, what following Jesus looks like in her life, how she’s navigating life as an entrepreneur, and how a theology of space can change a community.
Annie Choi was one of the inaugural Fellows in the 2018 Cohort for the Center for Faith and Work LA Fellowship. She is the owner of Found Coffee, a specialty coffee shop in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. Prior to being an entrepreneur, she worked in the television post production industry on notable shows such Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Project Runway: All Stars. She loves telling stories and has a passion for gathering community. On her days off, she enjoys traveling, cuddling with her pup, Frankie, going to other coffee shops, and reading non-fiction books.
QUOTABLE
On Handling Anxiety and Career Changes: (13:12-13:54)
“My intense period of anxiety and worry was mitigated by simply sitting. That’s hard for a lot of us in cities, especially with demanding careers. We don’t know how to sit and listen. I was forced to do that, and now I’m actually kind of grateful for that time of misery, because it just showed me how to be grateful for what I do have.”
On Cultivating Hospitality at Found: (22:08-22:21)
“My philosophy is that everyone wants to be known by name, and God calls us by name. So, it’s really important that everyone in my shop is known by name. … We can hold space for someone who feels isolated.”
On Handling Difficult Customer Interactions: (30:30-30:54)
“Being a barista is not an easy job just because it’s minimum wage. Because I've been in my employees’ shoes, myself as a barista, I’m incredibly ‘momma bear’ when it comes to these types of interactions, but I also try to extend grace.”
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TRANSCRIPT
Transcription for the Faith + Work LA Podcast is done by AI software, which will occasionally include typos and other misspellings.
Annie Choi
And so that intense period of anxiety and that intense period of worry was mitigated just by literally sitting. And I think that's the hardest for a lot of us in cities, a lot of us who have very, very demanding careers, we don't know how to sit, and we don't know how to listen. And I was forced to do that because I was so anxious. So I'm actually kind of grateful for that time of misery. Which is because it just showed me how to be grateful for I do have
Gage Arnold
Hello and welcome to the Faith and Work LA Podcast, a narrative effort from the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles that lifts up stories of everyday Christians impacting Los Angeles through their daily work. My name is Gage Arnold, and I'll be your host. And in this episode, we hear from Annie Choi, and he is the founder and owner of found coffee in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, and Annie is passionate about creating safe spaces. She was after a mid-career pivot from the entertainment industry where she was working with Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Project Runway to name just a few that she found herself seeking to create something specifically a place where people could feel free to be themselves and push back against the loneliness of Los Angeles. Thus found coffee was born. Nestled in the Eagle Rock neighborhood between Pasadena and Glendale found is a gathering place that serves the community with exceptional customer service, delicious goods, and a sense of comfort. And this episode of the faith and work la podcast, and he shares about her career pivot, and what following Jesus looks like in her life, how she's navigating life as an entrepreneur, how a theology of space can change a community. We're honored to have Annie join us, and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Annie, it's so good to have you. On the first CSW la podcast, how are you doing today?
Annie Choi
I'm so so good. How are you?
Gage Arnold
I'm well I'm well. I'm really excited to get to hear a bit more about your story. As I mentioned or in the intro, you have been well involved with the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles, you participated in the Framework Fellows Program. And just kind of as we get started with this conversation, I would love to just hear a bit more about what it looked like for you and your faith journey. Sort of how did you begin following the Lord, what the what is faith looked like, sort of played out in the seasons of your life? And I know that's a big question. But yeah, just sort of taking me through maybe an abridged version of what faith has looked like in your life.
Annie Choi
Yeah, sure. Um, so I grew up in the church. I grew up in the Korean American church in Los Angeles. I was born and raised here. And it's very interesting. I'm actually the only family member in my immediate family that still attends church even though we grew up in the church. And so my parents left the church and sort of My older sister, probably like 1015 years ago, and I can understand why a lot of people burn out in the Christian culture here. I think there's just it's so busy, it's so just there's a lot going on. And so for their own reasons, my family members have left but I actually was brought back to the church towards the end of high school by a dear friend. And so I wasn't introduced to the reformed Presbyterian Church of America and PC, PCA until college. And so I attended a really wonderful church in San Diego called Redeemer. Now they're called Redeemer back then, when I was attending the church down there, it was called Harbor Presbyterian Church. And so I was involved with the harbor. And then when I graduated from UC San Diego, I came back to LA, and then I attended Pacific cross Rhodes, which is where I was heavily involved for the past decade or so. And that's where I found out about the fellowship program with DFW LA and I was part of the first cohort for CSW la two years ago now. So faith is such a big part of my story. It kind of takes a step back in certain seasons of my life just because of how things happen. But I'm very thankful for where God has brought me towards just integrating faith into my own career and story. And so, so yeah.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, thanks. That's really, really helpful. And I'm curious what was it? What was so inviting maybe about the church and what was it that sort of drew you into it while your family had been sort of drawn away? What specifically? Was it that kind of? So the question is to call you toward it.
Annie Choi
Yeah, I, I'm very thankful that I was introduced to the concept of grace. When I went to college, when I was growing up as a Christian in like youth ministry and all of that I don't think I understood nor was introduced to this big concept of grace and how it really saturates my life. And I didn't understand it until I actually got to harbor and it came to a huge factor in how I was involving myself at church. And then I was also involved in campus ministry when I was in college, but that factor of grace and that character stuff God, just that character of God just enveloped me when I was in a very pivotal transitional formative season of my life in college felt like a lot of my identity was shaped in college. And so as many people, you know, have their stories shaped in college too. But it was this grace thing that I'm still actually grasping on the daily. And I learned more about and it's me, my view of Grace has actually expanded as I've grown as a Christian, which is pretty cool.
Gage Arnold
Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a really cool diagram that someone drew for me and it almost looks like a sort of a V, or I guess a greater than sign. And it sort of shows the trajectory of the Christian life in a sort of a very short version. But on one hinge of the sort of line that's going up. It says, sort of His grace. So you start growing in your awareness of grace. But inversely, you're also growing in your awareness of your own sin and your own. Just proclivities your own brokenness, and at the center of it is the cross of Christ, which bridges this. And so as much as there is, you sort of need the Good Friday in the Easter Sunday of Christianity to both hold intention. And so you grow in your awareness of Wow, I'm a lot worse off than I thought I was. But also,, in regards, you're also growing in the grace of understanding. Wow, I'm so much more loved than I ever even dreamed of imagining, which is a really, I think, a helpful.
Annie Choi
I'm a very visual person. Yeah. So you think about that now? Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Like it's It could be very discouraging, knowing that you're so incredibly broken. But what I've been so encouraged by in my own faith journey is that I know that I'm known and seen and loved and embraced, despite my goodness. And that is where, you know, it keeps me going forward.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, well, let's put a pin in that because I want to come back to that and how that may be informed how you're, you're living and working, and what is how does that affect how you publicly live? But before that, I would love to know you mentioned after college, you made your way to Los Angeles. What did that transition look like? What brought you to LA what was maybe inviting to you about the city?
Annie Choi
I, as I mentioned before, I was born and raised in LA and I didn't know what my career was going to be. I majored in communication and international sales. He's in college. And I didn't take a video editing class until my last year. And so I thought, Oh, great. I'm going to be in the entertainment industry. My parents are still in LA. And I've loved LA, all my life. I know a lot of people hate on La because it's a very hard city. It's a very lonely city. And I actually was privy to that loneliness. When I came back had I did not have my high school friends and I had not had a community already. I could see how lonely people could be. However, what's so great about the city too, is that there are so many resources and there's so much diversity and there's so much culture. And so my jumping point into my career was the television post-production industry. And so I worked in that for a few years. I was working on some pretty well-known shows, so I worked on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. And then I also worked on Project Runway All-Stars. And so I worked on these well-known shows. But what brought me back to LA is actually not what is not what kept me here, because I did a career change in my mid-20s. And that involved a lot of anxiety and involved a lot of transition as well. But that's what helped me start found coffee. And so what brought me to LA was entertainment. But what's kept me here is coffee, which is really interesting.
Gage Arnold
So yeah, I can imagine. I want to know more about this transition time because it sounds like there was a lot that was there. It sounds like this was a pretty dramatic shift and maybe the plan that you thought you had for your life versus the plan that was actually taking place. So maybe take me into what that transition period looks like what you mentioned sort of being an anxious time and anxiety really manifesting. What was sort of the driver behind that? And yeah, help me go deeper there.
Annie Choi
So I thought that my dream job was going to be an editor at Pixar. And I applied to Pixar four times. And I got rejected four times. And what ended up happening was the post-production industry, and the skills that were involved in video editing weren't very congruent to who I was. So I thought God was calling me to be a storyteller, and where else to be a storyteller but in television and movies, and but the actual skill set itself did not match who I was, and what ended up happening was, I felt extremely isolated. Like I was saying, like, in LA, it's really hard, but the Job itself, I was in front of a computer, you know, 10 1214 hours a day on headphones, you know, not really interacting with people. And what I am what God has shown me is I'm a people person. And so I was kind of stewing in this anxiety of like, I thought that my identity was my career. And it was this push, pull tugging of God, I thought that this was where you wanted me to be. I thought that you wanted me to influence this culture of, you know, there's a lot of materialism in Hollywood. And I wanted to be that, you know, small Christian girl, who was like changing the world behind the scenes literally. And what ended up happening was, I was so miserable. I was extremely anxious in the decision to even leave, because at that point, by the time I was in, kind of a pivot moment, In my career, I had been working up to that point for seven years. And so that was seven years of hard work of unpaid internships, all this stuff. And I was like, God, where are you? Where are you leading me because I literally had no idea about what was next? And that trust that God wanted me to take and taking that risk of leaving a career that I thought he wanted me to be in, was really tough. I was incredibly scared. And the anxiety that involved me was not fun. It was a lot of, you know, emotions, a lot of feels, as the kids say, um, but that transition period, I actually took about a year off from working in general. I ended up taking actually my first missions trip in that gap year that I was off of work. And I kind of explored and I think that's where God wanted me to be. He wanted me just to sit in His providence because really, he provided so much during that time when I felt like I didn't have a direction. It was pretty incredible. And I think that's what God has taught me in the past, I guess, like a decade and I feel like the past decade has been this transition period. And it's he has literally and physically slowed me down to be like, Look, Daddy, you're good. As got this, I'm holding your hand, like you don't need to worry so much. And so that intense period of anxiety and that intense period of worry was mitigated just by literally sitting. And I think that's the hardest for a lot of us in cities. A lot of us who have Very, very demanding careers. We don't know how to sit, and we don't know how to listen. And I was forced to do that because I was so anxious. So I'm actually kind of grateful for that time of misery. This is, um, because it just showed me how to be grateful for what I do have, you know, it's pretty crazy. It's pretty.
Gage Arnold
Absolutely. I'm just touched by the amount of courage that it probably took to under such a huge pivotal change in such a difficult season of just sort of being in the ringer. I described as like the meat grinder of life where it just feels like you're just being smushed. And it's just really hard. There are certainly definitely certain times where it seems like their life can lead you to a mountaintop experience or maybe you're just coasting lightly downhill, and sometimes you're in the Valley. But oftentimes when you're in the valley, those are the times that you end up looking back on as the time of deepest growth as the time where you actually were dependent on this faith that is so integral to your worldview to your life to your hope. And so that's it. It's not necessarily a nobody wants to will themselves into hard situations. But oftentimes, having gone through them, it seems like they, they yield the biggest like growth return for us if we're willing to endure them.
Annie Choi
I I've actually talked about this quite often with a few friends but I feel like individuals actually have to go through an implosion of sorts, and God helps us to rise above literally from the ashes Find I find that organizations who are going through a lot of turmoil too and a lot of, you know, toxicity and stuff. I feel like those organizations also have to move through an implosion of sorts. And, and that's when you're looking back in retrospect, you feel like those dark, low valleys are the ones where I have it. Personally speaking, I found that I can see the light, but it's so dim, but it's there. And I don't know what it is except faith, honestly.
Gage Arnold
Yeah. Yeah. I think we all have to reach that point where we have to put feet to our faith. You know, we actually have to trust and depend on this thing that we believe we trust in and that that can be really scary. It can be really hard and especially living in, in the west where it seems like we can certainly Pat our lives with a lot of comforts and to not feel the pressure or the weight of that need all the time. It's in those moments where it actually comes to bear that. Yeah, you're right, we have to, we can see the light and it's a bit dim sometimes, but we're having to trust and do the next right thing and put one foot in front of the other. So okay, that's incredible. Thanks for sharing that. And I think many people who will listen will probably have similar experiences themselves. And so you're, you're going through this sort of deeply difficult, a transformational season that leads to found. What's the story behind Found Coffee slash what is Found Coffee.
Annie Choi
So fat on coffee, I've had it for five yours now it's been open for four and a half. But I literally just passed my five-year mark as a business owner and so I'm really really proud. Yay. Um, I didn't know that I wanted to open up a coffee shop until I worked in coffee. Honestly, it was my hobby to go coffee shop hopping and to really sit in the ambiance of coffee shops and enjoy, you know, yummy drinks. I didn't know how to open a coffee shop until I actually worked in one. And so when I was in that gap year, I applied to so many barista jobs and because I had had a career prior, no one hired me. I had this difficulty of Okay, what am I going to do next? And so I applied to one of my favorite coffee shops, which is demitasse Coffee Roasters. It's a small chain in LA and My dear friend Bobby Roshan, now he's my friend for life. He said I could work for free. And so I literally applied for a free internship, unpaid internship. And I started the company as an unpaid intern, and then in four months became a general manager. So I learned the coffee industry. from the ground up. I didn't have any training as a manager. I learned on the job and so that's what actually helps me in my training to open found coffee a year and a half later and found coffee is located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. It's right sandwiched in between Pasadena and Glendale. And I like to say that found coffee is the neighborhood coffee shop. And I know a lot of coffee shops will claim that but we are Literally Eagle rocks only specialty coffee shop. And so we see the same people every single day. And I like to say that we're pretty unique because I want to say like 85 90% of my sales come from regulars. So we see the same people on the daily. We know their kids, we know their dogs, and we're really thankful and found coffee I've named it found because I want the community to be found there. We have two large communal tables there. And I love love love when people who don't know each other actually meet each other at my shop, and then they make a connection. And it's beautiful because what I said earlier is that LA is so lonely. And now I've created this corner coffee shop where people can meet one another organically and it's not forced and it's really wonderful. And so And, and also obviously found coffee has Christian overtones in the name if you're very savvy with if you look, I actually have people who are Christians and they're like, are you? Are you Christian? Yes, I am. But I'm really thankful for found it's my first small business. It's thriving, I really think so yeah.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, that's incredible and it seems like there's a consistent theme of like hospitality and sort of kindness that you would like to sort of exude that seems woven throughout every aspect of, of found so in what ways? And what ways Could you just give me like a theology of hospitality maybe like what drew you into, like the hospitality industry? what's kept you in it? Like what You see the kind of at its best What does a good cup of coffee and a good neighborhood coffee shop do for not just people but like communities and cities etc.
Annie Choi
For sure, I have always stressed to my staff to get every single person's name and when you order and so, so gauge for you if you ordered a latte we actually kind of know our regulars by their drinks too. So you'd be like latte gauge, right? But for the practicality of it, we don't want someone to take someone else's drink. But below that, all my philosophy is that everyone wants to be known by name, and God calls us by name and so it's really important that everyone in my shop is known by name and I have stayed hospitality is hard. Let's be real, you know, like to deal with Oh my gosh, probably like thousands of customers a week is not fun, especially when they're cranky, and they haven't had caffeine in their system. However, I'm really thankful because what's really great about coffee in the coffee industry is that it will have shared love, right? And so they come together, they gathered together over a warm beverage, sometimes cold, you know, and they are open to conversation. And what I like to say is that when I entered the coffee industry seven years ago, I actually made my life long friends within the first month, and this these were actually regulars that were demitasse. These were co-workers. And I think people have the shared camaraderie in hospitality because they know how to be in the people business, you know, and what's kept me in this industry is that it's a people business. And I'm so thankful because we are, you know, again, first name basis with a lot of our regulars. And that is what fuels me because it, it shows me that it's just, it's just an everyday thing. And I know that sounds really normal, like, I know I'm not curing cancer by serving your really wonderful latte. I also as a business owner, don't claim that I make the best lattes in the world. However, I make a pretty good one. But at the end of the day, I think I think it's the connections that are made in a coffee shop that is very important. And so it's the community. It's gathering over the communal table literally. And providing that space of warmth and hospitality that you know, honestly, I don't know if the local church does very well anymore. And so I wonder if this quarter coffee shop that doesn't have, you know, a purely faith-based mission in my, in my business, you know, mission statement. I wonder if people and I hope that people feel welcomed in my space and feel that you know, that, that feeling that they can stay, and they're not judged.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, it sounds like you're describing a safe space that you hope people feel when they come into your coffee shop, which Yeah, we can hold space for someone who feels isolated.
Annie Choi
You know, and it's interesting if you look at the layout of shop two, I have like single two tops on one end. of the shop and that's I call it laptop city because usually, people have their laptop, you know, one by one. And that's okay. Because that's when the coffee shops there for you know, but on the other side, the other half, two-thirds of the space is just communal. So you got to share your space, bro, you know, and that's okay like meet someone it's okay to meet someone. And I'm so happy that that is what has been fostered at the shop.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, that's beautiful. And even as you're sharing a little bit of that it called something in mind for me, which is something that you probably experienced in framework fellows, which was that all work, all good work matters to God and His redemptive plan for the world. And so that's part of what our mission is. And then it seems like you're living into that mission in the square corner that God has called you to steward. And so for all of us, we may Yeah, not just those of us who are in the helping professions or those who are pastors or ministers, but everyone is contributing to creating flourishing, which is what God is about, which is what the Bible is about is promoting human flourishing, and that's in your neighborhood, to the people that come inside your shop, you're helping to do that you're helping them flourish as people as image-bearers of God, which is beautiful, right, good, noble work that you're doing. And so, as an offshoot to that one of the things that we would talk about, and through some of the work that CSW la does, and really some of the past work that I did at a similar Institute in Nashville was, how our work shines a light on darkness. And in that, it's sort of Recognizing that sin has affected structures and systems in the world. So the hospitality industry does not work as it was intended to it has these holes and thorns. But the way that we as Christians operate in the world is that we shine light into those dark areas. So we model what flourishing what Shalom, what peace looks like through our work as a way to show people sort of what the gospel looks like in action, what God's character looks like, played out in the world. And so with that being said, Are there I would love if you could sort of unpacking maybe, what are some dark areas and you kind of hinted at this about like the hospitality industry and some just owning a small business and but as well Well, what are ways that you're and again, you kind of touched on this to maybe just spelling it out a little more? What are the ways that you're shining a light on maybe some of those dark areas that you see in the industry?
Annie Choi
Yeah, I like to say that I work in service and I'm not your servant. And I'm, you know, I'm incredibly protective of my staff. And so, thankfully, we have a very good customer base where they're not entitled, they're very kind and very sweet. Well, you do, of course, have, you know, the cranky. The one-offs that come in and they're very demanding and they're extremely rude, and I do tell my staff to first assume that the person is just having a bad day. This is not who they are, inherently. And I think that assumption, first off, you know, kind of dissolves the tension, right? Because I feel Like in this very hostile, very volatile environment that is the United States. Now, it's easy to jump down someone else's throat for a trigger or something right rudeness. But I do try to encourage my staff and they are such kind of staff. I'm so thankful for the people that I've hired. And I'm very proud of the people I've hired because they know how to navigate these murky waters of rudeness and entitlement to you know, so I try to encourage them, that's their first reaction, you know, their first response and then they if they continue this customer, they come back and they're continuously rude to my staff and because I am very protective, I will step in and I will say something, you know, I think it's very you know, it's hospitality, so it's easy to poo-poo on the worker behind the bar. I don't think that's very fair. It's, it's not an easy job. Just because it's minimum wage, you know. And so I feel, um, because I have been in my employee shoes, myself as a barista. I'm incredibly mama bear when it comes to these types of interactions, but I also try to extend grace. So that's my first response, right? So I try to shine light first. And then if they continue, then you obviously realize it's a character problem, you know, and then you try to navigate the waters in a different way. There's that as well as you know, like things like stupid things like I've gotten broken into three times in two years. And that you see, as a small business owner, it's really discouraging if you let go. Get to you like the first time we got actually things stolen from the shop. The second and third time, it was just a big nuisance. And I could have been, you know, mopey, and just like whoa is me, why is this happening to me, but what I realized is Scott is so good because he rallies the community around us. And it's I think because our staff and myself we've invested so much into this community. When we got broken into, through incredibly supportive, I had one regular, who, you know, donated money towards our, our deductible or insurance deductible. And we had another church actually, down the street where a lot of pastors and a lot of the congregants come to my shop. They had good neighbors’ budget in there. But are there their yearly budget and they paid for the replacement on my door. And these are the moments of light that just come when you have the daily craziness of owning a shop and running a shop these are the moments of encouragement that I lean into. It's always the community. It's always the people that God has placed in the community that remind me of the grace and Mercy's daily Mercy's.
Gage Arnold
Yeah, that's a beautiful and hard hand. Just an entryway into the reality that works is hard. And there are effects of sin and brokenness that we all experience and feel in our daily work that are sort of out of our control and out of our hands. And but what's so encouraging about that is that what you've created through the work of your own hands is a business and an organization that doesn't just operate for its own end doesn't just operate for the bottom line and operates with people mattering and people being image-bearers of God, being at kind of at the center of what you're doing. And even if that's not explicitly put forward in the form of Jesus fish, and on your front window or anything like that. I think people still kind of get the fragrance of the gospel, it sounds like Yeah, when they come in, they know that there's something different about this place, and they feel safe, and they want to experience more of it.
Annie Choi
Yeah, I'm so incredibly grateful that people want to Stay. I think that's one of the coolest things is that people come and they see that our staff is kind, and you have to hire people like that, right? You can't teach kindness. Um, and so God's been very good in providing the right staff for me, as well as the discernment to hire these types of staff members. But also, what a huge compliment, right, that people would want to come back. And that they would feel the warmth of what found provides, not just from the drinks, but from the community that kind of buzzes in within the walls of my shop. And so that's super rad. And it's tangible to see, which I think it's hard to see sometimes God's goodness In tangible ways at times, and these reminders motivate me and fuel me to continue forward.
Gage Arnold
Welcome back. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Annie and we hope you'll stick around with us for our upcoming reflections on faith and work. If you haven't already, please do subscribe, download, and rate this podcast and spread the word to others on social media. It really, really really does make a difference and helps us out of time as we try to spread the word. This podcast again is a production of the Center for faith in work Los Angeles, a gospel-centered nonprofit that's dedicated to helping Angelenos reimagine their vocations to reshape culture in Los Angeles, and beyond. If you'd like to take the conversation further, feel free to visit our website faithandworkla.com to find resources, videos, and blogs designed to help you reimagine your own work with the gospel in mind. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.