Rising ICON #59: Carley Kammerer
Photo Credit for Headshot: Block Portrait Studios
What name do you prefer to be called?
Carley
What are your pronouns?
She/her
Where did you grow up?
Wisconsin
What city are you currently based in?
Minneapolis
How do you typically introduce yourself to new people?
I usually just say I’m Carley and I run a coffee company to employ youth experiencing homelessness
What’s one thing you wish more people knew about you?
I really struggle with anxiety, which I fear comes off as incompetence. As a woman in the business and leadership world, the pressure to hide mental health is real so that we can maintain respect and trust, but the pressure can be crippling.
Who do you help?
Youth experiencing homelessness and younger entrepreneurs in the startup world interested specifically in social enterprise
What are you building now?
I’m working to build off of what we’ve already accomplished at Wildflyer. Right now we run a 4-month work and life skills training program for youth experiencing homelessness. We're working to expand our impact across the supply chain by examining how we can spread our program beyond our cafe walls and into the community and the farms we source our coffee from. I’m also working on a personal blog to help share what I’ve learned along the way with other aspiring entrepreneurs and founders.
What were you building ten years ago today?
Wildflyer Coffee! We started as a small coffee cart in 2017, but in 2014 I was interning at a coffee shop in Denver that employed street-involved youth to learn more about how to do something similar. It’s wild to think about how long it’s been in the works, and where we’re at with it today.
What do you predict of yourself 10 years from now?
I’m hopeful that I’ll be working on a larger scale level across the supply chain of coffee, creating solutions to support youth at origin and here in the US, while having more of a public facing platform to push forward the concept of social enterprise as a viable way to solve some of our societies greatest challenges
What’s a fact or statistic you wish everyone knew about your industry?
More than ½ of homeless adults first became homeless before they were 24. We have to prioritize investing in prevention and youth programs if we want to actually eliminate homelessness.
Why do you believe the work you do matters?
I think of one of the young people who just graduated from our program. We’ll call her E for confidentiality. In our interview, she described herself as a “cycle breaker”, she has a 4 year old daughter herself, and was raised in domestic violence and housing instability. After working at Wildflyer and gaining stability, she’s talked a lot about being a cycle-breaker for her daughter, and wanting her daughter to experience a different life than she had. I think of this ripple effect of our work. Not only were we able to support E, but we offered a way for her to change the course of her daughter's future too. The long-term effects of that are impossible to measure, but it reminds me of why the work we do at Wildflyer is so important.
Who is your mentor and what is the best advice they’ve given you?
He’s not exactly a mentor, but one of our supporters told me to “hustle until the haters ask me if I’m hiring” and I absolutely love that. As a visionary, I can often be accused of having my head in the clouds or being unrealistic. Of course, quitting my day-job to run a small coffee cart with a dream of owning a shop one day looked a bit crazy to outsiders, and I received my fair share of ridicule or questioning. This little phrase reminds me to keep going despite how it looks, and to trust my vision and not let others get me down or distract me.
What piece of content about you or your company are you most proud of?
Wildflyer Coffee won the Mutual of America Community Partnership Award and they published a story about our work. We got to fly to New York to accept the award, and bring two former young people from the Wildflyer program with. It was really meaningful to have them with us, and be chosen for the award from amongst hundreds of applications submitted from around the US.
What publication do you hope to appear in next?
Barista Magazine
Who would you love to be interviewed by?
I think if I was featured on either “The Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast” or Patrick Lencioni’s “At the Table” podcast I’d feel like I’ve made it. I’m a long distance runner and biker and I can’t tell you the amount of their sessions I’ve consumed over the hours of training I do.
If you had to give a TEDTalk tomorrow, what would the title be?
“If you give a young person a job”
What award would mean the most to win?
The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
What makes zero sense to you?
The fact that there are roughly 4.2 million youth experiencing homelessness in America…one of the richest nations in the world?
What’s a word in your industry you hope gets re-evaluated?
Overhead. Please stop killing the nonprofit sector with your antiquated and illogical notions of how funding should work
What game are you changing?
Hopefully the nonprofit game, addressing a social problem from a different angle than traditional nonprofit models.
What’s the next thing you’re a part of that you want to invite more people to participate in?
My Failing Coffee Hobby, a (soon to be launched) blog to help educate and encourage the next generation of dreamers who want to change the world
Where can we follow you online?
@myfailingcoffeehobby and my LinkedIn (Carley Kammerer)
What’s one thing that makes every leader better?
Love- all the strategy in the world won’t get you anywhere if your team can tell you don’t care about them as people
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We’re grateful to each Rising ICON for their transformative work. Thank you, Carley, for sharing your story!
LAUREL is a media relations partner for bold leadership. For nearly a decade, we’ve helped leaders build effective strategies for scale and growth specializing in digital executive presence and go-to-market strategy for emerging brands. To follow along with the RISING ICONS series, nominate a leader or subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. To accelerate your own rise, get our free guide to visibility, FIT(lite).
“All the strategy in the world won’t get you anywhere if your team can tell you don’t care about them as people.”
Notice: It’s important for our readers to understand the origin of the interview content. The featured ICON contributed responses that were not edited from the original submission. All claims are made solely by the contributor and do not reflect the views of LAUREL or its partners. Thank you for supporting innovation leaders. We’re convinced, the future is bold.
