Meet Chris Guglielmo | Coffee Roaster

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Guglielmo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Taking a risk or risks is interesting. The word risk itself has such a negative connotation to it. My business partner and I play in a band called Bayside full time and we have had plenty of experience in the risk taking industry that is music haha. I believe, a lot of times, risk comes with reward depending on your perception. If a risk is taken that could destroy your business than its more of a bad idea than it is a risk. If a risk is taken that can either push you further in the right direction or push you back a step than I think it is a matter of how we view the decision and/or result. I like to lay out all options to see which way the scale tips. I also like to have conversations with close friends and family to help with perspective and scenarios that I may have not thought of. I strongly believe that taking a step back is ok if there was a chance that I also could have moved a step forward. As human beings I think its important to learn how to be ok with decisions that we make, especially if it ends in what we would consider a “bad result.” Taking risk, the result of this choice and how we handle it is how we grow as individuals and business owners. Legal Speed took a risk during the pandemic. We sold our small roaster and started renting time on a bigger roaster. The plan was to work out of this spot until we grew the business enough to buy our own bigger roaster. If something went wrong with the rental spot it would be out of our control and put us in a difficult position. We decided to take that risk and it turned out to be a “bad decision.” But this happening was only a step back. The risk was calculated and we are totally fine. Progress is not linear. Sometimes we take steps back and that is ok. Back to the drawing board and back at it. I learned a lot from that decision and I dont regret it one bit. There were actually more positive results than the one negative result.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We roast coffee and collab with musicians, cafes and cyclist. We love being able to merge all of our favorite hobbies with like minded people. It was not easy getting to where we are at but I really enjoyed the process. A lot of people were kind of discouraging when I said I wanted to roast coffee. Roasting is super tricky and there is not a lot of literature out there to just pick it up. I really had to rely on friends and relationships I made in the coffee industry to help keep me confident in what I was trying to do as far as learning how to roast. I want everyone reading this to know that you can do the things you want to do. Just as there are people out there who will be discouraging there are also people who want to help you. Surround yourself with the people who celebrate you and want to see you succeed and you will.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If you came to Visit id say you have to hit the coves in Laguna beach. You gotta get some Mexican food and for sure hit up all the coffee spots in Costa Mesa… Neat, Daydream, Bad coffee and Work in progress.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Huge shout out to our friends over at Hacea coffee source! HCS is where we get most of our green coffee from. They have been such a huge part of our success and watching there business explode over the last two years has been such an inspiring experience.

Website: Www.legalspeed.coffee

Instagram: @legalspeedcoffee

Image Credits
My dude Jakob