Mental Health Over Coffee

Damien shares the deeply personal story behind Coffee Foundation, a Swiss-based organization using coffee to spark meaningful conversations about mental health and fight against stigma, judgment, prejudice, shame, and isolation.

• First social brand of its kind in Switzerland, having donated 15,000 Swiss francs to three suicide prevention charities
• Created the first English telephone crisis line in Switzerland for English speakers
• Vision to develop into a youth social enterprise where young people drive their own mental health narrative
• Currently operates in virtual space at coffeefoundation.com with plans for physical and expanded virtual meeting spaces
• Aims to bring positive, uplifting approach to mental health conversations rather than "more violins and tears"
• Uses bold branding and a tuxedo-wearing spokesperson to challenge Switzerland's conservative culture
• Believes in active listening as a fundamental skill many have lost in our tech-focused world

Damien O'Brien

• Tel: +41 79 777 0489
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-o-596032b/
• Website: https://www.coffeefoundation.com/
• Email: hello@coffeefoundation.com

Visit coffeefoundation.com/donate to support their mission or find them on Instagram @coffeefoundation.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Friends from Wild Places
• 1:42 Coffee Foundation: Mission and Impact
• 4:49 Youth-Focused Vision for Mental Health
• 7:10 Global Reach and Cultural Challenges
• 11:39 Superpower Discussion and Final Thoughts
• 20:08 Closing and Contact Information

Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired-up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion. As we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Shireen Botha: 0:35

I love that, yeah. So thank you, damien, for sharing that. I noticed that this is very close to your heart, because you get quite emotional sharing your story, and so Tanya and I are very appreciative of you coming here and being vulnerable and talking about Coffee Foundation and inviting people to have a conversation over a cup of coffee about that very thing their mental health. How are they feeling, what are they going through. And so, talking about Coffee Foundation, we normally at Friends from Wild Places, we support a non-profit every month, and so this month will be Coffee Foundation. And so, damien, if you don't mind sharing with the listeners where we can go to just help, how do we help you? Um, in what ways can we assist, donate, um, and you know what, what? What does coffee foundation do for the community as well? Um, so, yeah, go ahead and share with us a little bit more about that.

Damien O'Brien: 1:42

Yeah, I listen. Before, of course, my career came to an end. I spent a lot of my life and career in Switzerland in big brands, you know, and they all behind the scenes are all kind of begging to kind of connect to you on a level and manipulate you with some type of meaning of so forth. They're all fighting for meaning, you know. So when I came up with creating my own organisation, that's where I started with the values of what we do and the meaning of being a social brand is paramount to me and that's why it's the first time it's been done in Switzerland's history.

Damien O'Brien: 2:16

No one can understand that because that's where I think it's many times has missed is social community, those frontline workers that don't get the bells and whistles, that don't get the influences, and that's kind of Coffee Foundation where I wanted to start with. So in the first kind of six months here we've been able I've reconnected with three suicide prevention charities. One of them created the first English telephone line in Switzerland for English speakers to call a crisis. And again people feel that, mate, that's never me, I would never call that number, or you know what I mean. It's always we've got this kind of perception that I'll never need that, but you know what when? Sometimes, when you're at your rock bottom, you never know what you're going to need, and I saw that that was a great service. So we've donated so far 15,000 Swiss francs to three organizations. What I did with that is not to give them money, because they needed the money necessarily is I wanted to create our organization that had some meaning from day one. You know, and that's what I believe Coffee Foundation will always have to be a community brand that's out in the public, and that's where I kind of want to take it.

Damien O'Brien: 3:31

My vision in the future, of course, as I'm getting a little bit older, is that Coffee Foundation will become a youth social enterprise that will actually have young people coming and making cappuccinos like at Starbucks and actually going to public events where music festivals, and it's actually a brand that actually talks about youth mental health but has a fun aspect of coffee and makes young people feel, oh, how cool is that? That's a coffee shop that actually is a social enterprise, it's actually a non-profit and it's pretty cool. So that's how I looked at it. I thought you know what, sometimes we feel sorry for charitable brands because we go, oh that's, it's charitable or it's, and I kind of thought, no, why don't we bring great branding to a great reason?

Damien O'Brien: 4:17

And that's kind of how I envision in the future to kind of, of course, attract young people because I want them to be their own voice of mental health. I'd love to envision that one day you have a young individual here, 18, 19, talking about how they communicate about mental health for young people in the future, not just us old ducks telling them we have a problem. I'd love to see actually young people drive their mental health narrative and how that should be communicated and let them drive the ship. Why not?

Tanya Scotece: 4:50

Damian, I have a question. So, with understanding the Coffee Foundation, so do you do, for example, like virtual presentations where, like, let's just say, for example, hypothetically, if I had you come into one of my virtual classes at Miami Dade College and we're talking about death and dying, we talk about suicide, we talk about mental health it's a whole curriculum. Is that something that you could do for us? For example, you know time permitting, but come in for 40 minutes or so and you know q&a. Is that what you you do? Or is it an actual shop, like, do you have shops all over switzerland? What is it?

Damien O'Brien: 5:29

no, we've actually, we just exist in the virtual space. So the coffeefoundationcom, you'll see, I've tried to create, let's say, the willy wonka gateway to, if you were just sitting at your desktop. Um, the future ambition of course it's in construction now is to have a little meeting place where, again, I'm trying to balance what I can handle as well. You know what I mean, and so I'm trying to make a physical meeting place that would kind of be like a clubhouse, that once per week or month people can come here in Switzerland and meet. To answer your first question, I'm always open to talk to any students.

Damien O'Brien: 6:12

I have one condition kindness never hurts. I speak to people that have values of humanity. And again, I go out here in the public with my tuxedo on. I usually walk into an audience of a bit of a laughter and a little bit of who's this guy? But that's my whole purpose is that I fight the stigma. That's why we have five fighting coffees, fighting stigma, judgment, prejudice, shame and isolation, and that's what I do. Isolation, uh, and that's what I do. I try to find that sometimes that one person, two or three out of ten, ten percent, that one person that's sitting there, considering that I am actually struggling alone and I try to radiate a message to them, to empower them to take that step, to try and reach out and uh find support because, uh, I know from personal that the collateral damage, and sometimes the ultimate damage, is a huge price to pay. So, to answer your question, I'd be more than delighted to speak to anyone in Miami. I'll bring my Miami accent and it'd be my pleasure.

Tanya Scotece: 7:22

Thank you. Thank you, and also I would love to continue our conversation, you know, in the future. Just for I love marketing Shereen knows it's like a passion of mine and I don't know I just have like all these like visions of, you know, really taking your, your brand, to to another level. So I'd love to talk to you about that.

Damien O'Brien: 7:41

I appreciate it. Like I said in Switzerland, here it's no disrespect, but this is very different to what the culture Switzerland is a very conservative culture. It's got four national languages in one country, believe it or not. So French, German, Italian and a local dialect. Doing is, let's say, very bold and very type in the marketing strategy. Uh, mental health. Using the word crazy. They see again with communication. It's the way you deliver the message with the intent and and americans I've had so many great american people instagram me. Why is this not over?

Damien O'Brien: 8:21

you know so I know I know that the coffee foundation, uh, it radiates and that's what my, my, my vision was. It was not to keep it. It lives here in Switzerland because that's where I'm based but and it's not necessarily to even sell the coffee. My whole perspective was to actually let you feel what the brand means to you. And, uh, my story today is my story. The coffee foundation in my dream is beyond me. It's not, it's not about me, it's about all the tears and heartbreak of everybody. And how would we put a spin on that that would actually bring some light to it. And just before I end with that, uh, many people, some type. You know, you always have the people that are negative. But you have to take that on board. You have to listen to that and I do.

Damien O'Brien: 9:09

My mother and my brother have always been my benchmark to this project. I was always mum, you know three years of building the project at night. Mum, would you be disrespected by this? Would someone else that had died of suicide? Would you? And my mum? The message in me, I could feel it. She was like no way you got it. We don't want any more tears, we want some light. And my brother, of course, he's like Dave Chappelle comedian. He's just loving me with this jacket on, making a fool of myself. So I've always had that benchmark of making sure that I respect mental health and mental illness. The spectrum is so complicated. I don't not for one minute claim to be an expert, but I just believe that the people that have had so much heartache and tears and sufferance don't need any more violins, and I think we can communicate about mental health in a lot more positive uptick.

Tanya Scotece: 10:08

Definitely definitely.

Damien O'Brien: 10:10

I talk a lot.

Shireen Botha: 10:11

No, no, no, no. We welcome that. We welcome that. Yes, listeners, you heard it here. This is coffeefoundationcom. Forward slash donate. That's coffeefoundationcom. Forward slash donate.

Shireen Botha: 10:24

We're going to have that down in the show notes. Please take your time to go and have a look at what coffee foundation stands for and, really, if you feel led to do more than just donate and help spread the word of coffee foundation worldwide, we'd love to hear from you. Um, so yes, damien, we can't. We love your talkativeness, we love all the information that you can give us regarding this, because we too, believe that that's really necessary and there is a need for that.

Shireen Botha: 11:04

And yes, mental health is complex and it's very hard to put it down to a simple sentence to describe everything. It's very, very, very complex and so the more we have of these kind of associations, the better. So we've come to the podcast part of the podcast where we're just going to do something fun and lighthearted to end the podcast. The question it's just going to be a fun question this time around. I know the listeners are ready for a game. They're just unexpected when it comes to us, but right now we're just going to do a fun question. And the question is if you could have a superpower to help your business, what would it be? And why Should I say that again?

Damien O'Brien: 12:03

I just wish I had all the answers that's a good one.

Shireen Botha: 12:08

There's your superpower, but yes, let me say it again, if you could have any superpower to help your business, what would it be? And why, damien, since you've started, go ahead um, superpower for my business would be, probably.

Damien O'Brien: 12:24

I wish I had a state in school a lot longer and I wish I was, let's say, a little bit more. I've got a very kind of my desktop's got a thousand things all over it. I wish I was a lot more structured and could actually strategize. Yeah, so I think I'd be, would like to be a little bit more, let's say, project building strategy instead of reactive. I'm a reactive person and yeah, so I think I would be structured. That's it structured. I'd like to be better structured, right right?

Shireen Botha: 12:59

No, I like that. Tanya what about yourself? What would your superpower be?

Tanya Scotece: 13:05

Yes, I'll answer that in one second, but I just wanted to touch up with Damien. So, damien, my own and we can talk again in the future. But for me, academically, I did not actually start my academics until I was in my mid-30s, first off like so I was not an academic. I don't sit in an ivory tower by any stretch of the imagination. So I just wanted to share that with you, because the average students at my program are usually between the ages of 40 and 55. So you're little, you said, you're right in that age group and you know it's never too old to learn. As far as like you know, an actual like career or academic, you know if that's something you want to, so keep that in the you know, just add that to your, add that to the desktop. As far as something you may want to consider, yeah, yeah, you can get your. You get your degree. You could actually mortuary science, funeral directing from Miami Dade College. So we can talk more, never know.

Tanya Scotece: 13:59

And they say never say, never so.

Tanya Scotece: 14:01

Never know they say never, say never. So, shereen, my superpower. So it's funny because I do a combination of things. I teach a full-time professor, I also do expert witness for cemetery and funeral home wrongdoings, and then I'm also in the senior placement space with my father, who I passed away in 2022, of Lewy body dementia. So those three, for me, encompass listening. So I've always admired the bionic woman I think that was Lindsay Wagner back in the day and I really the superpower is to really be able to listen and I consider myself I speak for the voiceless. I speak for the voiceless for the students, I speak for the voiceless in the senior space and I speak for the voiceless of anyone that has been wronged by people in the funeral or cemetery profession. So my superpower that I would really like to hone in on is the listening aspect.

Shireen Botha: 15:03

Nice. I love that. I think for me, being a bookkeeper, finances is quite a sensitive topic for most business owners to talk about. So if I could have the superpower to make someone feel so comfortable and safe in my presence that they can share what's really bothering them. Because unfortunately in the real world, especially in the business world, finance is always on the front part of our minds as business owners.

Shireen Botha: 15:38

Because we're always worrying about it. Right, business owners is not linear. It's being a business owner is up and down and up and down. One month it's not as good sales, people are worried about, you know, the money and the profit and the business, and then the other month is better and things are better. So I just want anyone to, I want that superpower where people will automatically feel at peace and comfortable in my presence and able to just feel safe and speak to me about what they're concerned about and allow me to absolutely help them, especially in that area, and get them in in the right direction.

Shireen Botha: 16:24

So, yeah, I think that that was great guys. I really appreciate all you know, damien for you being our visitor on the show, and Tanya for being an amazing co-host, and our listeners. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to these episodes. If we take a moment from each of us just to, if one of the listeners want to reach out to any of us, especially you, damien, if they feel connected to your story or they find that Coffee Foundation might just be their helpline they're looking for, where can they find you? Yeah, yeah.

Damien O'Brien: 17:06

Yeah, of course you can come on to Instagram instagramcoffeefoundation You'll find the pink. You know there's all sorts of colours going on there. Again, I don't have the answers to a lot of people's concerns or struggles or so forth, but, yeah, you can always message me, say hello and, again, I have a very clear policy that if people have a human values and I can usually feel that, my monkey usually picks that up pretty quickly, so I'm there for people that I can that again, just want to say hello. I wish I could offer more things in the future. Tanya, coming back to your other question, I envision one day that there's a virtual coffee foundation, kind of breakout groups, that you come online and you can go into different parts of the online coffee shop and have different speakers from around the world and, you know, counselling or support networks. That actually can be something connectable to people in other parts of the world.

Damien O'Brien: 18:11

You know, I think mental health is going to change rapidly in the next five to ten years. Ai is moving at such a speed. Again, call us crazy. You know where they're going with this. They're probably going to bring artificial intelligence into counselling and so forth. So there's going to be a lot of changes in this space, which is what I'm trying to keep open as well. I'm not fully sure where to go with our association because you know I could spend now thousands of months building new websites, but things are changing such at a rapid speed. I kind of want to see where the future goes when it comes to mental health in certain kind of aspects you know.

Damien O'Brien: 18:56

Lovely but again thank you so much for having me. And again today, people will say well, what's all this about? Again, it's just empowering all of us and what you just said, that power of active listening. A lot of people don't want their problems solved, but we've lost the ability to actively listen to people and that's a superpower. I've got to work on that one. I talk a lot, but you know, again, I want people also some people just to think about this.

Damien O'Brien: 19:28

It's sad to say that mental health is an industry as well. You know what I mean. You don't always have to pay hundreds of dollars per hour to actually speak to people like we used to. You know what I mean. We're supposed to be connected, but we're sometimes more disconnected than we've ever been. You know, I don't know about you guys. Just a quick example. You know the old-fashioned telephone. We use texting. Now we lose the voice communication. Look at how far we've come in an hour here by using our voices. Again, this is old-school stuff that we know when we grew up and these are not back-to-the-future solutions. These are old-school human connections that we could actually not back to the future solutions. These are old school human connections that we could actually go back to, you know absolutely.

Shireen Botha: 20:17

Thank you, damien. What about yourself? Tanya where can the listeners reach you?

Tanya Scotece: 20:22

so they can find me on linkedin. Uh, gave up tv probably. I think it's close to almost 30 years now, um, so LinkedIn is my hub. You can find me there. Reach out if I can be of any assistance in whatever the areas that I cover. Would love to have conversations and continuing this conversation. Specifically, but definitely Damian, would love to talk about having you come into the classes in the virtual setting, and I think our students here can benefit. And, damian, I wanted to share with you a story.

Tanya Scotece: 20:55

So during the pandemic, our, you know, program went virtual, just as many of the other programs did at that time, and I remember, you know, you know, I always check in with the students, ask you know what's going on. You know, that's kind of like my intro and to see, and, and you know, they actually said I remember it was very, it was distinct, it was actually the grief counseling class, which is literally talking about suicide, talking about death and dying, and they said, professor, can we just talk tonight? We just want to talk. And I said that's fine, let's just, you know. So I mean, everyone had their cameras on and they were. It was just like this. And you know, a class of 25 people and everyone was just allowed to share what you know, what was going on.

Tanya Scotece: 21:38

No judgment, you know, I always classify. You know, although I'm in academia, I'm not a therapist, I don't have, I'm not qualified to speak. But if you just want to chat, we can do that and that's what they wanted. And every now and then they'll say, professor, can we do what we did before, can we just chat like so? So people, not just people in academia, people are looking to chat, they're really looking just to talk and some, as you said, Damien, you said it so eloquently they're not looking for answers. A lot of times, they're just looking to share. So, yes, they can call a therapist if they want to get counseling. They we have many resources at the college, but sometimes people just want to share and talk and in a space. So yes, so that's where they can find me, shireen I love that.

Shireen Botha: 22:21

Thanks, guys. Uh, yes, so yeah, you same here. Shireen you can find on the socials instagram, facebook. Shireen's bookkeeping services is found on linkedin, instagram. But, more importantly, friends from wild places dot buzzsproutcom that is the website friends from wild places dot buzzsproutcom, as tanya mentioned in the beginning. You can find us on all the live streaming platforms to listen to us. Previously we had Lisa Zarcone on the channel, who is an advocate for adult survivors and child abuse, so if that interests you, go and listen to that. But other than that, thank you so much for your support and for listening and remember you got this and stay wild. Bye, guys.

Voiceover: 23:25

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