Building a Third Place through Tea Service | Cierra Lober of Cha House

What if the reason you opened a business had nothing to do with profit? In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Cierra Lober, founder of Cha House, a community hub centered around a tea house in Avondale, Birmingham. Cierra did not set out to open a tea shop. She set out to build a community center, and she chose tea as the method — specifically the traditional Chinese practice of Gong Fu Cha, where small pots of loose-leaf tea are steeped again and again, slowing you down and making you present with the people around you. Cierra talks about why she started Cha House, how five years of pop-up events led her to a brick-and-mortar space next to Beloved Community Church in Avondale, what it felt like to have four strangers volunteer to work for free because they wanted the space to survive, how she manages a seven-day-a-week event calendar, what she has learned about training staff for a community-first business, and what it actually takes to build a real third place in Birmingham. Whether you are running a traditional business, a mission-driven business or just someone who wonders what it would look like to build something around community first, this episode is warm, honest and full of ideas.  🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Mentioned in This Episode Cha House Birmingham: https://www.chahousebham.com Cha House event request form: https://www.chahousebham.com/events Burdock Book Collective (shares space with Cha House): https://www.instagram.com/burdockbookcollective Being Tea Chicago (Cierra's tea teachers): https://www.beingtea.com The Craft Room episode of The Localist: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-the-craft-room-turns-creativity-into-community-blakely-oconnor/ Beloved Community Church Avondale (Cha House landlord):http://www.belovedcommunitychurch.org/ Alabama Arise (nonprofit that held private event at Cha House: https://alarise.org/ Autism Spectrum Society of Birmingham (monthly meetup at Cha House): https://autism-alabama.org/ ______________________________________________________________________________________________  📢 Thanks to Our Sponsor, Infomedia The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online. Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Join Us at Localist Lab Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee. See upcoming events and register