DIG Insurance & Business Magazine Spring 2019 | Page 5

BE INTENTIONAL
A
t Deeley Insurance
Group, we’ve been talking
a lot about what this
means. How do we make
intentional decisions?
What impact do our choices have on our
community, and how can we deepen
our connections with our team and our
customers by leading with purpose and
creating pathways for them to make
a difference?
We’re proud to make a difference in
a place where people might not expect:
the insurance industry. Our passion is
to create pathways for your future by
reducing risk and helping you make the
most of what life gives you.
As businesses, we face external forces—
the economy, consumer demand, market
shifts. These variables require us to
be intentional about the decisions we
make for our organizations. Focused
It was March 15, 2005, and the former
Peace Corps volunteer was following
a dream to “bring the world to this
community through coffee.”
Some of those first customers still
frequent Rise Up’s first location, which
has evolved from the mobile “coffee
shack” Cureton started with a $16,000
loan. “When I think back to the early
times, thank goodness we were naïve
enough to try this! This concept was so
out-of-the-ordinary for the area,
so different.”
But it was a mainstream thing out West.
Cureton traveled through Montana,
California, and Oregon after his time in
the Peace Corps and he thought, “Why
not?” He decided to bring the concept
back home.
Today, Rise Up has 127 employees and
roasts up to 7,000 pounds of coffee
every week.
opened Rise Up Rehoboth Beach, their
ninth location.
Business expansion means dealing with
“stuff ” that Cureton didn’t plan for
when he opened the first coffee shack
14 years ago. He relies on Deeley Insurance
Group to advise him on risk exposure and
provide programs that give back to his
employees, such as health insurance. “I
appreciate the expertise they have in areas
where we do not have expertise—and
frankly don’t want to,” Cureton says with a
laugh. “They help control the variables to
protect us from things we don’t even know
about, and that gives us peace of mind.”
“We are truly living the coffee dream,”
Cureton continues, adding that growth
is inevitable. “If you think about it, 99.9
percent of humanity currently does not
drink Rise Up Coffee, so we have our work
cut out for us. Our online store is thriving,
and there is much to be excited about.” >
BE INTENTIONAL. FIND YOUR PURPOSE AND
BUILD YOUR PATHWAY.
leadership and thoughtful direction are
ultimately what guide a business toward
success, and we’d like to share some of
those stories with you.
GROWING A DREAM
“The reason I got into this business was
the global connection, the culture of
growing coffee,” says Cureton, “and I
thought maybe one day we would be
the ones making those connections
and friendships in other countries. And,
sure enough, that is what has happened.”
Cureton and his team travel to coffee-
growing countries in South America to
visit farmers. “We committed ourselves
to fair-trade coffee from the get-go,” he
says of this intentional decision. His
team sees the Rise Up company motto
as a way of life: Grown by friends.
Roasted by friends. Enjoyed by friends.
Tim Cureton remembers the very first
customer Rise Up Coffee served from
a tricked-out trailer rigged up in a
parking lot in St. Michael’s, Maryland.
Cureton says Rise Up is as proud of its
people as it is of its coffee. The business
has provided career pathways for
individuals who are passionate about
Rise Up’s mission. This spring, they
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