Sensefully Selling Coffee
Camille and I will sell a coffee bean called The Stoic Smile this year. Here is what the bag looks like:
We are releasing it by entrusting the "daemon" to do its work. I use the word daemon here to mean the creative primordial impulse that channels through a body, asking it to create something that affirms life. I trust readers to read the previous statement literally or metaphorically according to their metaphysics.
Given the uncertainty around the creative process, creating The Stoic Smile has been intriguing. Usually, with my creative projects, I am the "source," a concept derived from Peter Koenig's source principles. Tom Nixon aptly describes the source role in Work with Source:
Through conversations with hundreds of creative people about how they realised visions, Koenig developed a new lens, a way of seeing human initiatives. Central to this was focussing not on organisations but on the underlying creative process of realising ideas, and acknowledging the special authorship and responsibility of one individual stewarding the process – what Koenig called the role of source.
Koenig argues that the source role is usually found within one individual at the start of an initiative. As the initiative evolves, source confusion can occur, leading to interpersonal conflicts with dispiriting effects. The source role is only sometimes held by those who have formal power. An example Nixon uses is Steve Jobs, who was the source when he was CEO of Apple but was still the source when he stepped down before he died. There are also sub-sources or specific sources, people who have creative responsibility for parts of the initiative and play a supportive role to the source.
Intuitively, this concept resonates as true, especially after my experience being the source of The Stoa. My spiritually inclined friends debate whether there is always one source or there can be co-sources, two or more people equally responsible for stewarding the initiative. When I sense the source role of The Stoic Smile, I cannot tell if I am the source, the co-source, or a sub-source. I know Camille is sourcing something, creatively influencing the project for the better.
Having source confusion at the start of this initiative is a good thing. While the project is unfolding slower than initially expected, forcing my "bias for action" to take a back seat, I have been learning about letting go, trusting what is in the middle, and discovering deeper relational layers. Replacing the frame of "selling a coffee bean to make a profit" with "settling into a deeper relationship with my wife through creating art together" enlivens me more. Of course, both can be true, but without the latter's spirit I am not inspired.
So, we'll stay conscious, tuning into a natural flow that safeguards our integrity and avoiding undue influence from external pressures. My system is acutely attuned to unexamined fear, detecting even the faintest fearful scent from others. When unexamined fear enters my system, the daemon disappears. I am called to embrace the "spiritual bouncer" role, who has a "fuck off" stubbornness, defending the creative process to unfold at a less foolish pace.
This unfolding is what I am doing now. I am writing here at Collective Journalling, drinking The Stoic Smile in a state of leisure, allowing the daemon and the word to meet, seeing what wants to unfold. I like the idea of combining the “build in public” ethos, creating a company or product while openly disclosing what is happening behind-the-scenes, with the Stoic practice of “ta eis heauton” (things to one's self), journaling to oneself in a way where others can read. This combination feels like it has potential to maintain creative integrity while engaging in authentic advertising.
The bean is ready to be sold now, but we do not just want to sell a bean; we want to sell a bean that trojan horses a scene. The plan is to create an attached zine that recommends a "coffee ritual," transmuting the habit of drinking coffee into a ritual of drinking coffee. In the zine, a link may lead to Collective Journalling and other less foolish experiences. The working motto of The Stoic Smile: a bean that has a zine that leads to a scene. All of this is subject to change, as we are working with some amazing artists, and there is an exciting unknowingness of what will emerge while collaborating with them.
The first thing Camille and I focused on was getting the vibes right. Understanding the vibe of something helps with aesthetic decisions, which are usually the best decisions. We used one of
’s Marketing for Hippies guides, which recommends writing down all the words you do not want to have associated with your business or product. Then, you write down all the words you desire to be associated with them.Next, you focus on the top words, which become the guiding vibe for cohering every business and marketing decision. Here are our top three:
Handsome
Alluring
Senseful
The handsome vibe can be found on the bag's cover, the alluring vibe is expressed through the juxtaposition of “The Stoic Smile” name with the smileless Stoic Zaddy, and the senseful vibe is something we'd like to continue experiencing, perhaps alongside you. We will give a few coffee bags out to select readers of this Substack, hosting a few collective inquiry sessions and exploring the possibilities together. We'll give out coffee beans to individuals who feel called to help unfold clarity and bolster agency.
As predicted before, a "sensefulness movement will supersede the mindfulness movement."1 To achieve philosophical coherence and respond with wholeness toward greater wholeness, we must be with all of our senses. Moving forward with this spirit might not be the obvious way to make a buck, but we have no desire to sell in any other way.
If you're interested in acquiring The Stoic Smile and receiving early updates about its release, please enter your email below. We'll include you in our newsletter as the launch date approaches.
If you feel called to help midwife the process and have experience and confidence in either marketing and/or business strategy, please send us an answer to the following:
What is a stoic smile?
We will send select individuals a complimentary coffee bag and extend an invitation to participate in a philosophical focus group, where we’ll be reading the first chapter of Josef Pieper’s Abuse of Language -- Abuse of Power beforehand to collectively settle into the proper marketing spirit we are hoping for.
Preference will be given to individuals well-acquainted with the coffee industry, Canadian, and preferably residing in the Eastern Time Zone. You can email us at thestoa at protonmail dot com.
“If my read of the nascent “wisdom commons” - a place that attempts to make wisdom more common - is accurate, sensefulness-based practices focusing on the sensate body over the construal mind are gaining traction and will soon surpass mindfulness-based practices in popularity. An argument for sensefulness-based practices is that they provide all the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions while avoiding the top-heaviness of being mind-full, embodying the truth that we are animals with “bodyminds,” not mind’s with a body.” - “Meme to Vibe: A Philosophical Report,” March 6th, 2023