Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – Erin Willman is changing the world, one cup of coffee at a time.
Two years ago at the age of 22, Willman founded White Cane Coffee. Just another young CEO with a success story to tell?
Not exactly.
Willman went blind at the age of 15 and found it difficult to find work. That’s when she heeded the advice of her father, Bob Willman.
“If you can’t find a job, make a job,” Bob said.
“Basically, I was having a really bad day,” Erin said about when she decided she wanted to start the company. “I couldn’t get out of this funk. It didn’t matter how many job interviews I went to, all people ever saw was the white cane. I was completely frustrated.
She said she played a game with her dad ‘If you had so much money, what would you do with it,” she recalled
Shortly after, with the help of Bob and mom Vicki Willman, White Cane Coffee Company in Warren was born.
“We had this idea for a coffee shop, and we talked about it so much that at one point I said ‘we’re actually doing this, aren’t we?” Erin said.
Willman and her brothers Ben and Alec are affected by autism spectrum disorder.
And, after facing certain discrimination when applying for jobs, the idea for a coffee shop was really simple.
“Coffee unites people in its own weird way,” Erin said. “We like to call it the great uniter. You
You meet with friends, you have coffee dates, so why not bring able-bodied people and disabled people together through coffee.”
Not only did Erin create a job for herself and her brothers, she also opened doors for other disabled people without jobs to work at White Cane as well.
“I don’t want to be (as an inspiration), but I know some people do look at me that way,” Erin said. “I’ve been around different disabled groups. They can be afraid to get out in the job market. All they see is what we can’t do, no one ever asks them what they are good at. We are so much more than what we can’t do. It’s all about what you can do. People think that’s inspiring, but that should be the standard.”
White Cane, located on E. Third Ave., started out small in the beginning. But, even through a pandemic, it grew.
“We started out thinking it was just going to be online,” noted Erin. “All of a sudden, we had a dining room just filled with coffee. So we just got this area by a lot of luck. We have a storefront, and we’re working on more places to open up. It’s grown way larger and way quicker than I ever expected.”
And they have a ton of brews to offer, over 100 to be exact.
“You really just play it by ear,” Erin said. “Hey, what’s going to be the flavor that sells best today? Are we going to get more in-store or online orders today? How are we going to adapt to the pandemic? We’re just constantly adapting.”
Added Bob: “We started with seven brews, and now we’re up to 113.”
Noted Erin: “We went a little crazy.”
But crazy in a good way, of course.
“Erin has been adapting her whole life,” her father said. “When the pandemic hit, she was able to adapt very quickly and the company has gone with that.”
Erin has been adapting her whole life. When the pandemic hit, she was able to adapt very quickly, and the company has gone with that.
“You learn to adapt to things real quick,” Erin said. “I learned braille in six months. I know it was quick. I was a gifted kid, and my thing was I was good with codes. I used to know morse code off the top of my head.
“I was about 15 (when she lost her sight). It was a gradual thing. Being a bookworm and then losing your vision, that’s rough. I’m not going to say it was easy, because it wasn’t. It took an emotional toll. But it was like, here’s what I’m going to do to make things better. We don’t sit around, we find a way, we figure it out, we adapt and overcome.”
She’s also helped others with disabilities adapt and overcome, as well, creating those jobs at her company.
“We’ve watched our employees mature, blossom, come into their own and become fantastic young people,” Bob said. “They needed someone to believe in them, and that’s the biggest gift Erin can give them. Having a job being disabled is such a self-esteem booster.”
There’s also been a lot of things along the journey that have made Erin a trailblazer.
“We’re the first company in the United States to have braille on all of our packaging,” she said. “They wanted to give me an award for that. I was thinking ‘it’s not that hard people.’”
Added Bob: “Erin said this should have been done 50 years ago. But it took 50 years for her to come along and do it. We get calls from people who are blind from all over the country. They get a package and it’s accessible to them now. They can do it themselves. That’s inclusive and independence, the two focal points of this company.”
Erin has also carved out a following as a public speaker, just another outlet in which she’s able to impact people’s lives.
She spoke about one such trip to a school for the blind recently.
“These kids are so scared about what happens after school,” she said. “We’re building something where you can have a job and an income, you can have a life outside of this school, and that means something to them.
“At the National Federation for the blind convention in Harrisburg two years ago I got to meet a lot of new people. Everyone has braille on their business cards. I need to figure out how to do that. It is so cool. Just to meet them, learn their stories and how I can adapt my business. I’m constantly amazed at what other people have been through and how they’ve adapted.”
And count on the Willman family to continue to adapt and grow as well.
“I really do want there to be a White Cane Coffee in every small town,” Erin said. “We should be as prolific as Starbucks. We are not the only community with disabled people. They need jobs. We need to remember where we came from and what we’re trying to do.”
