From Victoria's Secret to Coffee Secrets

I have been a top executive for  the apparel industry for most of my life. I worked for brands such as Levi's, Express, Victoria's Secret Direct, Ann Taylor so on and so forth. I was traveling 80% of time, did not have a life, and became a problem solver. The fun of learning new things and meeting new people was gone. Most of my time was spent in meetings deciding the same thing over and over.  I was at the top when I realized there is more to life than being a corporate executive, titles and achievements did not mean a lot to me anymore. I was tired all the time, my mind could not stop. So I decided I did not want to do this anymore, this was not who I was. I was not my job, I was not my titles, but who was I???I think I spent a good year trying to figure this out . The problem with this is that at my age, I was used to a certain lifestyle and that had to change, drastically. On top of that I had to make a living and what could I do that would combine making some money with still having a life and doing the things that are now so important to me.

I was in Virginia with my cousin Sergio, who has a coffee farm in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro.  He noticed how worried I was and said that what he could do to help me was to give me his coffee to sell in the USA.  This was February 2007. He told me,  there would a Specialty Coffee Association Convention in Long Beach, CA, why dont I try and get a booth???So I did....