(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "A Shot of AG."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

What were you doing at 22 years old?

I'm not going to tell you what I was doing because I don't think the statute of limitations has...

Anyway, imagine starting and owning your own business, not at 22 but at 21.

Today we're gonna be talking with Alice Michlik.

How you doing, Alice?

- I'm good, how are you?

- You're from East Peoria?

- Yeah, I'm from East Peoria, but I was born in New York, which is a little special fact you can know about me now.

(giggles) - [Rob] Born in New York?

- Yeah, mm-hmm.

- Well, how'd you get here to Peoria?

- A pelican flew down and carried me all the way from New York.

I'm just kidding.

No, my- - What?

(chuckling) - No.

(giggling) I forgot the word for stork, so I said pelican instead.

- It actually works better, but yeah, that's okay.

- Yeah, no, so my parents actually moved to New York.

They immigrated from Czech Republic.

- Oh.

- And then my dad got a job at Caterpillar, which is what brought a lot of people here in Peoria, and I grew up here, starting at three years old, so I don't remember New York at all.

- Oh, so you don't remember New York, I gotcha, okay.

- No.

(giggling) - So you're Czech?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- I'm Czech.

- Does that mean you're angry?

- Oh, what?

- It was like, so Russians are like, they're business.

I forget the rest of 'em, but Czechs are just angry.

- Yes.

No, actually Czechs are the nicest one.

- Is that what it is?

- We're right on the border of Germany and all of Eastern Europe, so we're like the middle ground.

We're the peacemaker between all the countries.

- So saying you're next to Germany does not help your case.

(Rob laughing) - Uh-oh, you're right.

I didn't even think about that.

- All right, so you grew up in East Peoria?

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- And it's amazing.

I can't wait to get to the coffee truck, but where did you go to school?

- So, well, growing up, I was classically educated.

Went to a Lathia school, which is on Knoxville, really small private school.

And then I was- - Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's classically educated?

- Oh, good question.

It's a type of education that really focuses heavily on history and a lot on literature and kind of more cultural aspects of things.

A lot of philosophy, so read Shakespeare at, in, you know, seventh grade, eighth grade, Gilgamesh, Herodotus.

Don't know if you know any of those books.

- I have no damn clue what you're talking about.

- That's okay.

Very old, old books, and so it made me really learn how to learn as a young, you know, as a kid and as a young adult.

And then I was also classically educated in high school through CC, Classical Conversations, which is a homeschooling group.

- Actually my wife did, yeah.

- Oh, yeah.

- When she homeschooled the kids, I remember that Classical Conversations, yeah.

- I was the vice-principal, so when they got in trouble.

That was always the best seeing my kids like with their head down, shuffling their feet, walking across the barnyard because they had to come out and see dad.

- Oh, no.

- Yeah.

- Well, in my house, it was my mom that was the principal.

She was the scary one a little bit.

- That's 'cause she's Czech.

- Yeah, and Czech women are the scary ones now.

(both chuckling) - Oh, so, I'm sorry, where'd you go to high school?

You're homeschooled.

- I was homeschooled, but I also did ICC dual credit.

- Yeah.

- So I shaved off a year of college so I graduated in three years instead of four.

- Oh, you little overachiever, you.

- (laughing) A little bit.

It's the European parents, I'm pretty sure.

- Where'd you go to college?

- Yeah, so then I went to New York for college.

- [Rob] Oh.

- I heard of this tiny school, again, small school.

It's a thing, apparently.

I went to a small school called The King's College in the heart of Manhattan on Wall Street, so right in the middle of everything.

And then unfortunately the school closed and I had to transfer to Fordham University and I graduated last May.

- Where is Fordham?

- That is in the Bronx, so it's just like an hour north of The King's College.

- Okay, so you grew up in East Peoria, Midwest.

- Mm-hmm.

- Rainbows and unicorns.

- Oh, yeah.

- And then you go right in the middle of the just the concrete jungle.

- Yes.

- How was that?

- Oh, my word.

Culture shock.

- Yeah.

- Is a word that comes to mind.

Although part of me really just had a heart for the busyness of the city life.

So, ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to like explore and adventure and I think that came from the fact that my parents were from a different country, so I've already had this experience of knowing what it means to meet people from different areas of life and like exploring different cultures and things like that always fascinated me, and I also had friends in New York growing up.

We had some friends in Jersey, so I would visit them, and so anyways, all that to say, really, it was a culture shock, but- - Huh.

- But, I just soaked it all up.

I think it made sense that I went there.

- Okay.

Yeah, well at that age.

- Right.

- The energy of the city and everything.

- That's true.

That's true.

- That had to be, I always find it fascinating when people move to a different country.

That had to be really scary for your parents.

I mean, just pull up everything and come to the United States.

- Yeah, yeah.

It's crazy 'cause they had a lot, they had their whole family back at home, and I mean, they had a good church they were a part of, and, you know, a lot of good connections there.

I think my parents were working in Prague at the time, so they had a good thing going, but for some reason, my dad, he just applied to some colleges in the US and got accepted at Stony Brook.

- Oh, yeah.

- And he thought that was a great opportunity.

Originally they were going to just be here for his college education, but instead, I don't know, I think they just like fell in love with the idea of living in the US, and then my dad got that job offer, so he was like, "Well, I'm gonna make a lot more money if I stay here."

- Yeah.

- And so he decided to follow that.

- Do you have siblings?

- I do.

I have three younger brothers, so- - Oh.

- I'm the oldest.

- [Rob] Okay.

(chuckling) - Comes with a lot of baggage.

Just kidding.

- All right, so at 21 years old, had you graduated?

- Yeah, so I graduated college last May with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, just general, yeah.

- So tell me about Birdhouse Coffee.

- Yeah, so Birdhouse Coffee is a coffee truck that I own.

I bought it from the previous owners who I knew growing up.

- [Rob] It like a food truck?

- It's a coffee truck, so it's kind of like a food truck.

Everyone likes to compare it to one of those taco trucks, which, you know, valid, it's very similar.

- I don't think I've ever seen a coffee truck.

- Yeah, okay.

It looks just like a taco truck.

(laughing) - I knew it.

I knew it.

- Okay, close your eyes, imagine a taco truck.

- But not.

- But painted a funner color.

Actually, no.

The color that it is currently is like a burnt sienna, so I don't know if you can imagine that color.

- I don't know.

- That's okay.

- I knew blue and green and red, that's about it.

- Right, yeah, okay.

- You're not talking to someone that's very artistic.

- Oh, okay, so, yeah, I'm trying to think of what you could relate it to, soil, good old soil, like red dirt soil.

- Okay.

- I like black dirt, but it's okay, we'll move on.

It's a coffee truck.

- Yeah, it's a coffee truck, so inside I have espresso machine, one of those sinks that has three sections so I can rinse, wash, dry, all the good things.

- Which essentially, you have to have that, right?

- I have to have that, yeah, for like health policy- - And stainless and all that stuff.

- All stainless inside, yep.

- How do you learn all this stuff?

- So, good question.

I learned it from an online course.

- YouTube.

- No, it's not YouTube.

It's more professional than that.

You have to get health certified, become a food manager, so I did that while I was in school 'cause I bought the truck while I was still graduating in the midst of me graduating, crazy time, and so, yeah, so I was graduating and I had to take this food course, which is like, I think it's like 25 hours on top of my already schoolwork- - Oh my gosh.

- You have to complete.

- Was this in New York?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Okay.

- It's online.

The health thing is online, so you just like complete the course and then you have to do this big test and somebody hacks into your computer and checks that you're not cheating online.

- [Rob] You're kidding me?

- It's so creepy.

I don't know how they do it, but it's just like monitor that you're not like googling things while taking the test.

- Can't you put like the cheat seat up there and just look at it?

- Oh, you have to have cameras as well, so you have a camera on and you have to have your phone propped up so they can see all your wall behind you.

- Oh, you're kidding me.

- It's one of those situations, yeah.

- There's always an angle that you can get away with, yeah.

- No, that's true, that's true.

Maybe you can get like a tattoo or something they can't see.

- That's going hardcore.

(both chuckling) - Yeah, so I did the health food course and I'm a certified food manager and I know all about the stainless steel.

- Yeah.

- You can ask me any question.

Actually, maybe please don't.

- I don't have any stainless steel questions on my docket, so I think we're safe.

But why coffee?

- Good question.

Yeah, so I mean, I always had a heart for community growing up.

I can go more into that later if you'd like.

But a part of me was like, what brings people together the most that isn't like work or school?

And something I noticed is- - It's tacos.

- You're right.

No, I should have done the taco truck.

- I'm sorry.

- No, no.

Yeah, I mean, growing up, you know, I'm 22, I'm a Gen Zer, you know.

I'd always hang out with my friends.

We'd go thrifting and get a coffee and so.

- Go what?

- Thrifting.

Have you gone thrifting before?

- Possibly.

I don't know what it is.

- It's when you go to a store and they have a bunch of used clothes and they put 'em on racks like Goodwill.

Have you been in Goodwill before?

- Not on purpose.

I just walked in there one day, yeah.

- So that's so interesting.

Yeah, so that's a thing that a lot of Gen Z girls like to do is they go out with their friends and they look for used clothes that they can get and buy and then they go get a coffee.

- Literally 90% of my clothing has some farm company on it, so yeah, I never buy clothes.

- I love that.

- Yeah.

- That's always the best quality.

I feel like used clothes- - No, not really.

(both laughing) Okay, so Coffee is a way to bring people together.

- So, yeah, mm-hmm.

Yeah, coffee is a great way to bring people together, and also I was a barista in New York and that was something that I just- - Starbucks?

- No, sorry.

No offense.

- Okay.

- That's so- - I've kind of poked fun at you this whole interview.

I think I finally offended her.

(both laughing) - No, no, it's okay, I love Starbucks, just not as much as local coffee shops.

(both laughing) Yeah, I worked at a local coffee shop in New York City and I realized I just loved the work, loved making the lattes, the latte art and stuff like that.

Love that I could just talk to a lot of customers.

- Is that what it really is?

Is it like the interaction with people?

- Oh, yeah.

- Really?

- Totally.

That's like the best part of the job is like meeting the customers, getting to do tiny bit of small talk and then never see them again.

Or maybe see them again and you're like, "We're best friends now."

- Well, if they come back in and they say, "Hey, I just had whatever cup of coffee yesterday, whatever y'all make and they sell it, it was the best I've ever had."

I mean, is that like a home run to you?

- Ah, you know what's the best feeling ever is when I would make a latte, serve it to them, walk away to my station, look over and they're taking a picture of it and posting it on their social media.

- Do you do like the leaf, the fig leaf and all that stuff?

- Yeah, yeah, totally.

- Oh, okay.

- I wasn't as good.

- That is really cool.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Yeah.

- You can't see it with my coffee truck though 'cause, you know, with coffee trucks, I usually park it like vendor fairs and different like, a lot of like sports events and school events and you've gotta put a lid on that 'cause people are on the run, wanting to go see the next home run or whatever, so you can't see my latte art.

- More business, but not as fun for you.

- Yeah, exactly, yeah.

- Do you consider yourself an artist?

- I do consider myself an artist and you're gonna poke fun at that, but I didn't go to art school, so you can't fully poke fun at that.

(giggling) - Who said I was gonna poke fun at that?

- Okay, okay.

- Obviously something that deserves to be made fun of, but no, it's fine.

Okay, talk about, like you mentioned the community.

- Yeah.

- Like how does this tie in, the coffee truck, how does this tie into- - Oh, yeah.

- Community.

- So yeah, like I said before, ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to bring people together and I just had a heart for art as well.

That rhymed, didn't mean for that to rhyme.

- [Rob] You're a poet and didn't know it.

- Oh, I love that.

(giggling) And yeah, so when I was younger, I would go to like the art garage.

Do you remember the art garage?

- I have no clue.

- It was in downtown Peoria and it was this big garage.

- [Rob] Was there cars in it?

- It looked like a regular garage, but it was for artists and they would have a bunch of art lessons.

They would bring a lot of like kids together and they would teach them how to paint like a squirrel or something.

- It's funny, I never got invited.

- Oh, it's such a shame.

It was so fun.

And then it closed down I think 'cause of COVID or something.

- Oh.

- But I loved it as a kid.

They're not around anymore, and I was like, "Man, where did that go?"

- [Rob] Hey, you know how to run a business.

Let's start it back up.

- Well that's what I, you know, my goal is someday to have like a coffee shop that has like an art section, but in the meantime, this is what I'm doing with my coffee truck.

I'm hoping to also connect with the community and sell local artists' artwork through my truck, so I'll make art deals with local artists like pottery creators.

- Yeah.

- And they'll make something specifically curated to my truck and I'll sell it for them and they can make the profit, and their names, you know, everyone knows their name, but they don't have to start a business, which is- - Oh, okay.

- Confusing.

- Oh, that'll makes sense.

You made this, right?

- Yeah, I did, so I actually didn't make the actual pottery, but I painted it at Fired Up which is on Prospect Park, or I think, yeah, downtown Peoria as well.

- [Rob] So you paint it and they like put glaze and cook it and stuff like that.

What am I looking at?

- It's a little guy.

- It's a little guy.

You're a good artist 'cause I literally thought that looks like a little guy right there.

(both chuckling) - Yeah, holding a bunch of flowers.

- Yeah.

- If you couldn't tell, yeah.

- I mean, you wanna like intertie the artistry with the coffee.

So like when you set up, you're gonna have other artists on display and that, because I suppose if you're a local artist, part of the struggle is actually getting eyes on your art, so if somebody likes it, they can buy it.

- Yeah, exactly, and I remember being younger and wanting to make art.

Yeah, I remember.

It's like yesterday.

- "I remember being younger," she says.

- Okay, really young, two years old.

No, I'm kidding.

No, no, so I remember wanting to like be an artist and sell my art, but I had no idea where to start and I felt like nobody could hear me because I was literally like in high school and whatever.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But I thought it'd be a really good opportunity to be like, "Hey, I know you make earrings for fun, you know, my 18-year-old college student, like why don't I just buy some from you and make your voice heard in this community?"

And then that also motivates people to like, you know, even coming on the show felt like such like a special thing because I feel like I'm seen locally.

There's some eyes on me.

- Actually, nobody watches this show.

- Oh, no.

- Yeah.

- Well, at least one eye- - I wish somebody did.

- On me right there.

- I wish my mom, if she's like, "Hey, I want some coffee now."

So you did that.

- Yeah, your mom.

My mom's definitely gonna watch this, I'm pretty sure.

So two eyes on me, three eyes on me.

But even that just feels very affirming to idea of, "Oh, you're doing it and you're working hard and it's paying off and people are seeing it and people are coming around."

It's just encouraging all over.

- So when you have this coffee truck set up and you've got the art around it, it's like intimidating for an old guy like me.

I feel like I'm not hippie enough to go get coffee at your place.

- Oh no, please.

It's not that special.

I don't know what I'm doing either, you know?

- Yeah.

I've never understood this too is like when you get a cup of coffee, the whole tipping system.

- Oh.

- So what do you want?

You want like 20%, 50%?

- Eh, do whatever you want.

- 70%?

- 100% obviously.

- So you want double the, why don't you just double the cup of coffee?

- No, I mean, hopefully, my goal is to pay whoever's working for me fairly, and you know, give them bonuses, and everyone who works for me gets the free coffee, so even if they don't get tipped that day, you know, they'll feel good 'cause I'm treating them fairly, hopefully.

You know how it goes.

I don't know, tipping is an interesting thing 'cause waitressing wage is lower than minimum wage.

- Yeah.

- And so everything that is in between the $12 and the $15 they make up with tips, so I guess do whatever your heart desires when it comes to tipping, I don't- - Well, I always figure if at a restaurant you start at 20.

- Right.

- That's if they're just there, but if they're good, you go up from there.

- Right, right, totally.

- But like, I don't know, sometimes when I go order a thing from Starbucks, a coffee truck would be different because you're gonna make me the leaf, right?

- Mm, yeah, just my truck though.

- I would tip.

If I got the beautiful leaf and then I had to take a picture of it.

- Mm, yeah, okay.

- Okay.

Why don't you, like the hippies that are gonna sell the art there, why don't you like have them work, like forced labor?

Like I will put your paintings up there if you work for me.

- Oh, I like this idea.

I think that the art that I'm gonna be showcasing is from people that don't have the time to be out at vendor fairs, so like college students, and maybe older folks who can't, you know, sell their art because they can't get out of the house.

You know, I can buy their stuff.

That's kind of what I wanna be, is like a opportunity for people who can't be in those shows, 'cause otherwise you can just be at the show, you know?

- Okay.

- And so, yeah, otherwise I would make them work, for sure.

- All right, so how long have you been doing this?

- About almost a year now.

- [Rob] So what have you learned?

- Ooh, man.

Owning a business is harder than you think.

- Nah.

- Okay.

Do you own a business?

- I own, yes, yeah.

- You do own a business, what's your business?

- I own several, yes.

- That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- Wait, I'm just curious what your businesses are.

- Well, the main one is where I would go to parties and take a balloon and make it in the shape of an animal.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, I'm an artist.

- You are an artist.

- Yeah.

- That's incredible.

You should work for my truck.

- But seriously, I mean, starting up a business, incredibly hard.

- Yeah.

- Like what takeaways?

If someone comes to you and says, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing this," young person.

What do you tell 'em?

- Man, I think that you need mentorship, which I luckily had.

I think that there's a lot of steps that need to be taken care of so you have to be organized.

That's something I've learned the hard way.

You can't just guess when it comes to business.

You really have to know what you're doing.

And so, I don't know, there's some things that I learned the past year that I wish I could go back and just redo a bunch of stuff.

But yeah, I mean, one thing that they don't teach you at business school is how to start like an S corporation, for example, like actually getting incorporated in your state, what it means to have like taxes in different counties.

All these little tiny details that you would never think about that you have to figure out on your own.

- The government thinks about 'em.

- You're right.

I wish taxes didn't exist 'cause then I could just sell my coffee in peace.

- You should write a letter to somebody.

- Yeah.

- Trump, tell him, "Hey, I don't want taxes anymore."

(both chuckling) Don't email me.

Never say Trump or Biden or Kamala, I know it.

It was a joke.

Let it go.

- It could have been another president.

- It could have.

- It was just an example.

- Reagan.

Is that, okay.

- Reagan, yes, yeah, Eureka.

- I think it's just so impressive at your age that you were- - Well, thank you.

- Able to do this and continue to do it because it is not easy to run a business.

Now, with this, I mean, do you have to have like an LLC, all that stuff?

- Yeah.

- You gotta protect yourself.

- Yeah, I do, so I've separated my own name from the business.

- That's a good idea.

- So if somebody sues the business, they're suing the businesses and their financials and I'm just really a employee to my own business.

- [Rob] That's a great idea.

- Yeah, and so, yeah, I mean, trying to get that set up too was confusing because you have to think about it as separate identities.

You have to write letters like of incorporation.

If you're an S corporation, you have to say like, "To the corporation, I nominate this person as the shareholder."

And it's like you're writing to yourself a letter.

- Yeah.

- But it needs to happen 'cause then the government really sees you seriously and they actually see you as a corporation, so you have to do all these little steps in order to be taken seriously in this world, you know?

- You ever thought about using your coffee truck to like clean money?

- Clean money?

- Yeah.

- Wait, what?

- Launder, I mean, whatever you want to say.

- Put a little laundry in there.

- You ever watch "Ozarks"?

- I have, but I stopped watching 'cause it was scary.

- Maybe you should re-watch it as a business model.

- Okay.

- You're gonna make a lot more money.

- Maybe you can for your businesses, put some money in those balloons.

- Nothing was admitted here.

If people wanna find Birdhouse Coffee, where do they go?

- Yeah, you can find me on Instagram.

It's just BirdhouseCoffee.Coffee.

And I'm also on Facebook at Coffee.Birdhouse.

You can also just look up Birdhouse Coffee.

There's one in like on the East Coast.

There's not that many Birdhouse Coffees out there, so it should just pop up for you.

- Can people hire you for an event?

- Oh, absolutely, yes.

I'd love to.

I'm wanting to work a wedding sometime, so if anyone ever is getting married and wants coffee at their wedding, I'll be there.

- Do you have decaf?

- I have decaf.

- Okay.

- I have all sorts of drinks.

- Well, there we go folks, if you're getting married.

I think it's a great idea.

What I love is to see someone of your age just to have that maturity, to have that drive to start your own business.

It's a lot of fun.

I just wanna have a coffee truck until, you know, you actually really get into the nuts and bolts of it.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Then it really takes someone with a lot of drive and desire to get it done and you are proving that you're doing that.

- Thank you.

- So it says a lot about the Gen Z, or whatever y'all are because I like to make fun of you, but I kind of, I mean, I'm still gonna make fun of you- - Oh, sure.

- But it's kind of hard to.

Well, Alice, I wanna thank you for coming on the show and I want to thank you for, you know, building the community, I mean- - Thank you.

- We need younger people to keep continue and to build a good community and you are just right there doing it.

- Yeah.

- So, Alice, everybody go check out Birdhouse Coffee.

Everybody else, have a good week.

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