Coffee has been a huge conduit for connection for me and continually brings new and interesting people into my life. One of those people is Matt D’Avella. You probably know Matt. He’s an incredibly talented filmmaker and storyteller.

When I first met him I casually committed to joining him for a 30 day, no coffee, no caffeine challenge, which I sort of figured would never happen. Well, it did. And while it might seem trivial, for a person whose social and working life has revolved around coffee for the past 20 years–not drinking coffee for 30 days was interesting.

Matt’s talent and vision made me quite nervous. He’s so good at so many things I love, and being around him I felt a bit like a kid tagging along with his older brother. He’s a genuinely rad dude and I’m grateful for the shared experience. Seeing his process for creating story and filming was incredibly inspirational to me, and I hope that sharing my passion and knowledge for coffee was equally inspirational to him.