Make-A-Wish: ‘Dreams really do come true’
It’s a touchdown for Paper Valley’s Tyson Siebers
May 19, 2025
KAUKAUNA – People have been having conversations with each other over a cup of coffee for as long as coffee has been around.
Even strangers having coffee in a diner seem to find it easy to strike up a conversation with each other.
It’s those conversations and the connections that can happen because of them that Marine Corps Veteran Sam Floyd said prompted him to start Operation Coffee Roasters.
Like many other veterans, after his time enlisted ended – which included two years in Afghanistan – he said he had one idea of what returning to civilian life, and dealing with the things military life exposes you to, would be like.
However, Floyd said he quickly realized his idea was quite different from reality.
“Real life happened and the country I left was not the same country I came back to,” he said. “And the country today is not the same country we grew up in. Everything after coming back was just such a big culture shock. Adjusting to civilian life was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
And, also like many other vets, Floyd said he suffers from PTSD and was, sadly, suicidal at different times since his discharge.
After two failed attempts at college, a failed marriage – though he credits his then-wife for encouraging him to get help – several jobs that he couldn’t hold down and one that he really liked, but lost because a division of the company closed, Floyd said his case manager at Semper Fi & America’s Fund, Sue Baker, asked him what he liked to do.
“I was drinking a cup of coffee at the time and kind of sarcastically told her I liked to drink coffee, and she said, ‘Well, do something with that,’” she said. “But I was too angry at life and people back then to open a coffee shop.”
However, Floyd said as they talked about other things in the coffee industry that he could pursue, roasting was something that sprang to mind.
As he started looking into it a little further, he said he realized that over a cup of coffee, people share their highs and lows, their joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams and so much more.
“I wanted coffee to be the vehicle to conversation,” he said. “A conversation that we, as veterans, so desperately have to have. Veteran suicide is a tragedy that needs to stop. I refuse to sit idly by while my brothers and sisters decide to end their own lives. Coffee is powerful.”
One phone call turned things around
With a new mission and a desire to help his military brethren and others suffering from depression, thoughts of suicide and other mental health struggles, Floyd said he started Operation Coffee Roasters in fall 2017.
He said he is very proud to be a certified Wisconsin veteran-owned business, and has a plaque signed by former Governor Scott Walker exemplifying that honor hanging in his roasting facility.
Floyd said the first piece of equipment he purchased was a two-pound roaster, and that he burned a lot of coffee in the beginning.
Determined, however, he said he attended a three-day coffee roasting training summit in Sand Point, Idaho, in 2018, put on by Diedrich Roasters – who not only make roasters for any size roasting business, but is a “global leader in precision-engineered coffee roasting solutions,” according to its website.
Floyd said he learned so much there, and after returning home, he began perfecting and refining his process.
He said he found the more roasting he did, the more he learned, and the better the coffee became.
However, business start-ups, Floyd said, are always tough to get and keep going, so he worked different jobs between 2017-20 to help supplement the business income.
Then one day, a call came from Baker that Floyd said turned his business and life around for good.
Floyd said Baker was looking for a story to share with others – a story of success and one of hope – something that could inspire others.
Inspired by this, Floyd said Baker asked him to be that storyteller.
So, on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2020, Floyd said his story was shared on The Today Show.
Toward the end of the segment, show co-hosts at the time – Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush – surprised Floyd with a $10,000 coffee order.
And, because of that three-minute segment, Floyd said, “I had more sales in 15 minutes than I had in all of 2019.”
Operation Coffee Roasters’ popularity grew nationwide as a result of the show, and Floyd said he subsequently appeared on other national TV morning and news shows, and was featured in USA Today.
Some of the customers he got from The Today Show appearance, he said, remain customers today, and have even given him referrals.
And though the coffee orders were a direct result of the TV appearances, Floyd said what was most impactful to him was the veterans’ lives he was able to touch and offer resources to.
“I never wanted to do any of this for publicity for myself,” he said. “I just wanted to help people by sharing my story.”
Business now grows organically
In October 2023, Floyd said he remarried, and he and his wife, Margie, are currently running the business by themselves, in addition to caring for their eight-month-old daughter.
Though, he said, they are looking to expand the business at some point in the near future.
“Our sales ebb and flow because the coffee market is so saturated, but we’re trying to gain our competitive edge,” he said.
Floyd said he would love to see Operation Coffee Roasters’ e-commerce sales go up and is hoping to get into more cafes as a wholesaler.
“But people love their coffee the way they love their coffee,” he said. “They’re very loyal to the brands they have come to love, and I respect that. But it makes it hard for folks like me to break into other places.”
Floyd said another challenge he faces is that because he’s so small, he doesn’t have the buying power the bigger roasters have.
“So, I have to buy coffee beans from an importer/exporter who then adds their mark-up to it,” he said. “So, for me to purchase coffee beans is more expensive than it is for other coffee roasters. And the (profit) margins are razor-thin these days.”
However, Floyd said that can also be seen as a good challenge.
“It forces you to dive into your numbers and make sure you’re sourcing the beans ethically and that you’re paying the farmer or grower what they deserve,” he said. “They’re the hardest working people in this business.”
Floyd said currently, he only roasts 22 pounds at a time and believes small-batch roasted coffee is an artisan coffee, something he specially curates for his customers.
By paying extremely close attention to every detail in his roasting process, Floyd said he maintains very thorough, comprehensive and descriptive notes about everything he’s doing when he’s roasting, so that his process and the end result remain consistent every single time.
Operation Coffee, Floyd said, comes in three different size bags: 12 ounces, two pounds and five pounds.
He said he currently has six different flavors, one of which is a decaffeinated option.
Of the six flavors, Floyd said there are a couple of organic blends.
He said there are short stories about people for whom the coffee is named and who have impacted his life in one way or another – his father, his grandfather, his infant daughter, two military vets and a woman who gives care to her veteran husband – on the back of each bag.
Each story, Floyd said, is as touching as the next.
Doing what he can to take Operation Coffee to the next level, Floyd said he was recently connected to his first SCORE mentor and has some unique ideas for the future of the business.
Those ideas, he said, will be released soon, once all the details are ironed out.
Though currently Operation Coffee’s brick-and-mortar location is used for only roasting, Floyd said he hopes to offer a retail option for people to visit and converse with others, if they choose.
“Upon returning from the military, individuals often feel lost… A simple conversation over coffee can be the starting point for healing,” he said. “The conversations that can happen over coffee are pretty remarkable.”
More than just coffee
Floyd said he takes every opportunity he can to talk to people about his business, but as a staunch advocate for mental health, he also readily shares his own story.
For him, he said they go hand in hand.
Floyd said he shares his very personal story for two main reasons: to make others aware of the issues recently discharged veterans face, and to tell veterans who may be filled with uncertainty and despair not to give up hope.
“There’s so much more to life than what they’re feeling (in that moment), and they can dig themselves out of depression,” he said. “I’m proof that it can get better.”
Floyd said he does speaking engagements about the business, as well as its mission – “to start conversations over coffee and to help our heroes find their new mission; and to raise awareness of the tragedy of veteran suicide.”
Floyd said he has even done a speaking engagement for veterans on the Old Glory Honor Flight upon their return home.
Because he doesn’t have an actual coffee shop where conversations can start, he said he uses his speaking engagements and social media to have them.
Floyd said he is also committed to developing a bank of resources for veterans or others who need some help with mental health struggles they’re having.
The more speaking engagements he does and the more he networks with others, he said the more resources he’s building.
“The world is changing, and it’s difficult to navigate, and I don’t want people to feel alone like I did – whether they’re veterans or not,” he said. “(I’d) like to provide veterans with opportunities to meet other veterans through activities or groups.”
As for himself, Floyd said he still struggles daily with some of the challenges afflicting veterans, but he is much further along than he was and has been – and said he’s “extremely grateful” that he’s now in a position to help others.
Further supporting his cause, Floyd said he donates 10% of his profits to Semper Fi & America’s Fund, not only to thank the organization for the help it gave him when he needed it most, but to help other veterans as well.
Though he isn’t always able to donate as much as he’d like, Floyd said he does what he can and hopes that his business continues to grow so he can continue to give and do more.
“We’re changing lives, one cup at a time,” he said.
