Shane Reed grew up around business. His parents opened Woody’s in Starkville in 1991 and sold it the year he began studying anthropology at Mississippi State University. Thoughts of opening his own business were far from his mind – he wanted to be Indiana Jones.
“I wanted to be a professor of archaeology. I love archaeology still. It fascinates me,” he said. “(I was interested in) Mediterranean underwater archaeology. Actually, what I wanted to do was go to grad school in North Carolina. I started working at the movie theater; I grew up in business and knew the way things needed to be done. My parents always focused on customer service.”
In order to save money for graduate school, Reed began working at the movie theater, became the manager after six months and stayed there for three years. He was able to preview the movies before they were released to the public – something that appealed to his inner movie dork.
“It was really cool for me, working at the movie theater – especially after three years – (for people to not even look at the list and) come to my line and ask me what (they) should see. I knew the people and what they were like. It was even better when people would come out and say they loved it or ‘you were right – it was bad,'” he said.
During his time at the movie theater, Reed said he realized he did not want to leave Starkville and was bitten by the business bug. He started designing the coffee shop that would eventually become Strange Brew Coffee House while he was working at the theater and eventually quit to work on it full time.
He said he believed an ice cream shop like Coldstone – something that was missing from Starkville at the time – would be a welcome addition to the city. The coffee shop, already in the back of his mind, was combined with Coldstone.
About 10 years after his parents closed Woody’s, Strange Brew and Coldstone opened in the same building Reed’s father had built – and has been successful for the past seven years.
Katelyn Ullmer, Reed’s longtime girlfriend and assistant manager of Strange Brew, began dating him shortly after the coffee shop opened, and eventually became a part of the business and has seen it change over time.
“He has put his heart and soul and blood and sweat and tears into this place.,” she said. “We’ve definitely learned as we’ve gone, some things are business and you can’t take some things personally. It’s hard to learn that at first. He’s learned a lot as a business owner about managing … he’s growing and learning as the business goes. It’s been a fun ride.”
Ullmer said she believes Reed is a genius and an example of someone who did what he loved in life and had it pay off.
“He wakes up every morning with another million dollar idea. He needs to be in three places at once, pretty much, to accomplish everything he wants to do,” she said. “He’s a special person, and I think Starkville is lucky to have him. His brain works in ways different than ours, he has so many different ideas, and they’re all awesome. I spend a lot of time as a sounding board for all his stuff, which is all great.”
Although Reed works extremely hard, Ullmer said they still make time on the weekends to pursue interests outside of the store – including antique shopping.
“We always go and buy weird stuff no one else wants. It’s dusty, and we can’t really tell what it is, but we like it,” she said.
Reed, a self-proclaimed bibliophile, visits the book section first when he walks into antique stores.
“If it’s a good price, if there’s anything from like the 1800s for two or three dollars, I’m saving it, and I’m going to get it. I have a decent collection,” he said.
Although Reed works hard, he still finds time to enjoy watching movies.
“He sees the kid movies, he sees everything, he doesn’t want to miss anything. He really enjoys that,” Ullmer said. “It’s good for him, too. It’s one time he can zone out from being a small business owner. That’s hard to do sometimes. You’re always on call.”
In addition to coming up with new ideas for Strange Brew and Coldstone, Reed has begun Social Brew, which marries his love of running businesses to his enjoyment of social media.
Social Brew, a consulting firm that teaches small business how to employ social media, has been in the works for about three years.
“I was at a coffee conference probably three years ago. We’d been on Twitter already. The conference didn’t even acknowledge it … they talked about Facebook and Myspace,” he said.
Reed said that his anthropology studies actually helped prepare him for social media use and interacting with different people, and he believes other small businesses need to learn how to connect with their customers through these new mediums. However, he finally had to push himself to release it, despite his constant reworkings.
“Sometimes I have ideas and perfect them before I put them out there. Sometimes I have problems putting things out; I keep tweaking them,” he said.
Something of a minor celebrity for his use of Twitter (and other social media outlets), Reed has been covered by national medium outlets and has considered the idea of teaching social medium classes.
“I want to have a social brew class upstairs, 10 to 15 people. One would be a very beginning social media class,” he said. “Also, we’re going to have an advanced class for businesses or for someone who wants to dork out with me. That’s why we’re going to call it Social Brew, to come brew some ideas.”
Even as Reed expands his interests, he still has time to create new drinks for Strange Brew – everything from Girl Scout cookie frappes to Butterbeer ice cream root beer floats.
Bob Carskadon, who has worked at Strange Brew as a brewista for five years on and off, said he has enjoyed working late and being part of the creative process.
“The favorite times I’ve had up there, as much as you hate working till midnight, have been working on new drinks with Shane,” he said. “We’ve made some stuff that was pretty bad, but we’ve made things that were very, very good.”
Throughout the years, Strange Brew has seen changes, but Reed said he has been lucky to have fun crews and has enjoyed seeing them go onto new things.
Carskadon, who is now the general manager of Bulldog Sports Radio, began to develop a relationship with Reed based on their mutual interest in sports before getting a job as a brewista.
“Shane was great. He got me through college. I will forever be grateful for that,” he said. “As I was trying to get a start in journalism, he would work with me on that. He’s always been supportive of me and everything I’ve done outside of Strange Brew. And it’s not just me, I’m an example of that.”
To Ullmer, every day with Reed is a story.
“There’s so much he wants to do, you kind of have to pick a direction. He’s got so much going on, and it’s all really good,” she said. “He’s a really hard worker. He’s worked really hard to make everyone else happy.”
At Strange Brew, Carskadon said the crew became like a family through working together. And even though he has moved on from making coffee, the relationship he formed with Reed remains.
“He’s a great guy, a good boss and now I consider him a good friend,” he said. “You walk in there when Shane’s working, and he will greet you with a big smile.”
Ullmer said she is excited to see where Reed goes next.
“He is a good testament to Mississippi State as a graduate who stayed in the area and gives back to the local community,” she said.
As a businessman, Reed has not left behind his roots as a graduate of MSU.
“I have a picture of when I was 3 years old with a Mississippi State jersey on, I always knew I was going to Mississippi State, I love Mississippi State, and I have a very cheesy love in my heart for being a Bulldog,” he said. “I’m never going to forget that.”