Listen to the interview here!
Mark Ratcliffe
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am with Mark Ratcliffe. Mark, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Mark Ratcliffe: Hi, Toni. Thanks for having me.
Toni: So Mark, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mark: I came to this area with Godiva Chocolates. I’ve been here a little over 25 years now. I have opened up a number of businesses in the area – Hard Bean Coffee, Thirstade Fresh Café, etc., and I have now started to do a pretzelfest called Reading Pretzel Fest at FirstEnergy Stadium. This will be on September 28th from 11am to 5pm. There will be a mix of pretzel vendors, and craft beer tasting. We have 50 craft beers, three bands and various restaurants from around town will be out sampling their special pretzel dishes.
Toni: Wow! That’s a lot going on on that day. That’s fantastic. Let go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Mark: Inspiration is something that when I come across something that has been done really, really well it tends to inspire me, and I often think, “Why aren’t we doing this?” or, “This is something I would love to have in my area.” If it eats at me long enough, I tend to jump out and try to do it.
Toni: So when you’re inspired, it’s usually an idea or something that you’ve witnessed. Does that sit and germinate for a while before you say, “Okay, I’m going to do this!”?
Mark: It does. It’s something that’s been done really, really well. That’s the inspiration. “Wow! Somebody really did a great job here.” That’s what gets me thinking.
Toni: Have you been inspired with a small idea or something as you said that was done really, really well and put that into practice here in Berks County?
Mark: I have. When I did Hard Bean Coffee, I was inspired, of course, by Starbucks, and frustrated that we didn’t have a café of any kind in this area at that time. I took the experience that I had with Godiva and put it into work opening up Hard Bean Coffee.
Toni: Hard Bean Coffee was inspired by Starbucks for you.
Mark: Yes.
Toni: What part of that did you see at that time that you said, “I want to bring that to Berks County!”?
Mark: I liked the community aspect of that. I liked that people had a gathering place to come and sit and relax, that it wasn’t a bar. It was something that you could do during the daytime – meet your friends. When I started Hard Bean, I always thought of it as a community gathering place, and that’s kind of how we developed it.
Toni: But it was that community idea – that is what inspired you, and that’s how you rolled that into one of your businesses, correct?
Mark: Exactly.
Toni: Fantastic. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Mark: There are a number of people that inspire me. Of course, Marlin Miller and Albert Boscov, but I think on a smaller level, people like Sandy Solomon and Bill Thomas with Bill’s Khaki’s. People that have started products from scratch and built them into very nice businesses locally.
Toni: Have you used any of their legacy or inspiration to move you forward in your ideas?
Mark: I think that the inspiration I get from them is that anything can happen in this area. You don’t have to be in New York City or Los Angeles to actually create a business that can thrive and survive in a national environment; that you can do it locally here, and do it well.
Toni: It’s the same idea you had with the Hard Bean, isn’t it? It’s that sense of community, whether it’s inside a coffee shop or outside of the entire community.
Mark: Yes.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Mark: I’m hoping after my time here on earth that people will look back on what I’ve done and say, “He really added and enhanced our life,” in some way or another. I think that we’re all here on this planet, and you take and you give, and hopefully you’re giving more than you’re taking, and so that’s my goal.
Toni: As I always say, people tend to think of their legacy as after they’re gone, but almost everyone – if not everyone we have interviewed for the Get Inspired! Project – is already living their legacy. Thank you so much for coming to the Get Inspired! Project and doing what you’re doing.
Mark: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Toni: Take care.
