brianleimone.com

we have a few things that we could use some help with this week at confluence.

#1) a trip to joyce brothers to pick up a couple of items

#2) mow the grass here at confluence. we have a riding lawn mower, we just need man power to run the unit.

let me know via the blog or email if you are able to help with either of these items.

thanks.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

i had a great morning. i have been thoroughly enjoying working at confluence, but after 16 hour work days, 6 days a week, for 3 weeks, a break was needed. this morning was the first time since confluence opened that i was not working at confluence and i had a great time.

i was able to take sarah to work (which is always nice), enjoy a great bagel at the bagel station (we serve there bagels, and they are incredible), had some coffee at panera bread (unfortunately, no coffee tastes good anymore besides ours). and even though i had to do some errands for confluence, it was relaxing, because i wasn’t running back and forth.

i am looking forward to the time when confluence will be financially on its own feet and joey and i can get back to a more normal routine.

in the mean time, i am enjoying the rollarcoaster of a ride that we’re on. God has been incredible. people are being blessed every day by confluence.

just today, i was at sams, they saw my tshirt, and they said, where is that, someone told me about that place.

the word is spreading.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

does anyone have a couple mouse pads that are in good condition (perferably, plain in design) that they could donate to Confluence?if so, email/comment on blog and let me know. then if you could bring them by as soon as you can to confluence that would be great. thank you. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

we reached our average sales per day (since we’ve opened) by 3 pm today. God is providing and He is simply amazing!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

a few days ago a customer came in who ordered an iced coffee. after a little while i asked them if they enjoyed their delicious drink. they said, “well, no it was not good at all”. i asked them, “do you like coffee?”

they said, “no, i don’t really enjoy coffee, but i thought if a mcdonalds could make iced coffee cool, than so could a real coffee shop.” i said “well, let me make you a drink you’ll LOVE and its on the house.”

i made him a mocha freezer and he could not believe how good it was. so …. what is the point.

this customer came back tonight, but he didn’t just come back by himself, he brought 10 of his friends. he told me tonight that he came back because of our customer service. he thought it was incredible, because most people would have cared less if he had enjoyed his drink.

needless to say, one free drink turned one customer into a multiplying machine!

below is a simple graph that explains why it is so important to multiply our love through blessing people. when one person blesses one person you now have two people, but when people are blessing multiply people, who in turn bless more people you are a multiplying machine.

imagine how one small thing can have a huge ripple effect.

in addition to that, one family checked us out last week. they reserved the conference room for free tonight and brought 10 people who had never been.

simply incredible.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

yesterday evening sarah went home after work to make some dinner to find a note on our front door. it was from our neighbors stating that they were “very concerned with the state of our yard”.

let me catch you up. in the past three weeks, one tree fell down 3 different times and finally falling the last time on our front porch. once we got the first branch cleaned up, the next came down, and then we got that one cleaned up and then the whole tree came down. thankfully i have good friends and brad came over to help us. however, because i am at confluence around the clock and he just had a baby, both of us are a little busy, its taken a little more time than it should have.

i was reminded last night of the message from God this Sunday…. pray, listen, love, then share. i wish my neighbors had heard this message on sunday.instead of my neighbors asking why we don’t ever see you any more and why it looks like you’ve moved out because you leave at 6 am and get back at midnight, they had to think about themselves and focus on their own needs. they were concerned about how our yard was affecting their neighborhood.

i am NOT writing this to point any fingers, but to bring light to something that we all do too often. more often than not there is more than meets the eye in a particular situation. we think we can look from the outside and analyze and make judgments as to why things are happening, but until we take the time to pray, listen, love, and then share, are we able to get to some of the roots of the problems.

too often we are only concerned with people in ways that only concerned ourselves. however, a situation like this just reminds me of how important it is to listen.if my neighbors had cared more about me than themselves they would have sought out why it took so long to get my tree up, or why i have knee high grass in my yard. but unfortunately, even when i tried to explain that after a 100 hour work week, that there is just no more energy, they had to say “but…”.

not only did they critique how long it took to get cleaned up, but that it was done poorly. life is too short to waste time worrying about yourself. take some time this week and pray for someone. do something that is EXTRA ordinary for someone. LOVE on someone.

it is my prayer that we as believers can seek out people who need help. even though its been extremely long hours, sarah and are loving working at confluence. we get to interact with people and get to know them. we have had opportunities to pray with people. we’ve been able to encourage people. and we’ve been able to love from the overflowing love of Jesus.

pray. listen. love. share. (remember, the order is key!)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

when you’re listening to someone, don’t interrupt and say “but…”.just listen to their needs. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

we have had some great suggestions on how to bless our immediate neighbors near confluence and we wanted to make them available to you all.

typically when someone moves into your neighborhood, the current residents will bring a cooked meal or cookies to welcome them to the neighborhood. we at confluence want to do the same, but we want to bless those who have been serving this community with their business for years.

we would like to take a “to go” container to all of our neighbors for FREE as a way to bless the employees. we want to bring one to every business in the food lion parking lot and the other surrounding businesses. to do this we need your help. help bless our neighbors by purchasing a to go carrier for a business of your choice in this area for $12.99 (regularly 14.99).

this will include one gallon of coffee and all of the fixin’s.just leave a comment on the blog that you’d like to do it and which business you would like to bless. then come into the shop and purchase the to-go carrier.

just tell the cashier that you are purchasing a “bless back to go carrier”.

be the river!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

being around confluence all day long i have the awesome opportunity to interact with almost every single customer and i want to share with you all some of the compliments we’ve received. ALL of the credit must be given to God. it seriously blows me away every day when i think back to how God called our ragamuffin leadership team to step out in complete faith, (and in many peoples eyes insane faith), to challenge, mobilize, and call those who call the river church their home to a new and incredible way to love on this community.  i wanted to share with you some of the comments we’ve been hearing.

• “finally … a coffee shop done right”
• “you all have thought through every detail very carefully”
• “these freezers are much better than starbucks”
• “your coffee is  better than dunkin donuts”
• “wow”
• “incredible”
• “are you a chain? because you’ve done an incredible job.”
• “are you serious?” 
• “why would you ever offer anything for free like internet and a conference room?” (because we want to love the community)
• “can we come back mommy?”
• “this coffee shop is first class and you should not be able to handle the flow of traffic that your place deserves”
• “best coffee shop in town, there is no one even close”
• “some of the best espresso shots i’ve tasted”
• “very cozy!”
• “great atmosphere”
• “is this a chain? because it needs to be.”

and many more. these comments are first possible because of what God is doing in this community, but they could not have been possible without all the help from people like yourself.with all of these great comments aside please be praying for continued growth in business. every day that goes by we are seeing more and more repeat customers and hearing crazy stories about how people have heard about Confluence. take for example the customers who came in one night and loved it. then they came back the next morning at 7 for the free cup of coffee. one of these customers than brought their mom back in the afternoon, and then the group of friends from the night before brought 2 more friends that same night.  word of mouth is the best form of advertisement because its REAL and free.with all of that said, please continue to pray for the budget. we need to double our traffic and sales very quickly so we can sustain the operating budget. every day that goes by we have grown in our sales which has been a huge prayer of praise. thank you to each of you for how you all personally have supported confluence!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A lot is happening at Confluence this weekend. The Confluence website will be our best way to communicate what is happening. We will be updating the website next week with a full calendar of events. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed on the blog at the Confluence website to stay up to date.

We also have an email list you can subscribe to on the confluence website. It is located on the right side of any  page. Below is the most recent email newsletter that was sent out.

The next four days are jammed packed here at Confluence with music and events for the entire family. You will definitely NOT want to miss out.

We are working on updating our website with a calendar of events which will be our BEST form of communication. This should be in place sometime next week. Below are the events scheduled through this coming Sunday August 10th. Feel free to forward this email to all of your friends and family. All shows and concerts are free.

Thursday Morning - FREE COFFEE - August 7th - 7 - 8:30 am
One free small cup of brewed coffee from 7 - 8:30 am. If your friends love coffee, this is their chance to try our coffee for FREE. We want everyone to be able to try our incredible house blend or strong coffee.

Friday Night - LIVE MUSIC - August 8th - 7:30 - 10:30 pm
Tom will be joining us on Friday night. Tom writes his own original music, plays keys, and sings. He has an incredible voice, and has a great and unique sound that you will love. Click below to check out his myspace page below.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=97554167

Saturday Night - LIVE MUSIC - August 9th - 7:30 - 10:30 pm

Abigail Owens, 15, has been singing and playing guitar since she was nine. She writes all of her own music and is very talented. She has played at many local coffee shops including Masters Loft and Moby’s. She has recently won the battle of the bands for single vocalists. Check out her myspace page below.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=373911486

Sunday Night - PHOTO SHOOT (limit 50 people) August 10th - 7:30 - 8:15 pm
Want to be on our website? Love coffee? Always wanted to be a model? Well here is your chance. Our photographer is going to be here on Sunday evening for a special photo shoot. We’d love to have you join us for a one time special event. All customers that want to be a part of the shoot will need to sign a release form to have their image displayed on our website. All drinks will be 10% off for this special evening. The photo shoot will be limited to 50 people only, so definitely get here early. The shop will be open between 45-60 mins.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!