Jana Angel: Why our new Coffee & Conversations series means so much to me

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Coffee & Conversations. Two of life’s greatest pleasures.

In a world that’s generally peppered with more chaos than calm, there’s nothing like unwinding with a cup of coffee and a chat with someone you care about.

Or someone you just met. Or someone who simply has something interesting to say. (And, let’s face it: Everyone has a great story to tell.)

I’ve always felt like the proverbial coffee house brings a feeling of being grounded, especially during a hectic time. But I’ve also always felt that coffee houses are just ... cool.

Maybe it’s because I was raised on “Friends,” and saw the coffee shop (aka Central Perk) as the place where the cool kids always hung out. The place where the brews pulled people in, and pulled out their stories.

I desperately wanted to be an intellectual with a laptop and a cappuccino typing away at some life-change prose that someone would read someday. The coffee shop was filled with a community of people who all seemed to be doing something so important.

It took me forever to actually like the taste of coffee. And I never felt like I fit into the “cool” category.

But now that I’m a “grown up” (winces slightly), I’m taking a step out of my comfort zone and into that coffee shop. I want to not only meet the cool people in our community, but also learn from them.

With my new WBTV series Coffee & Conversations, I’m going chat with people who are working to get the most out of their lives. People who are making choices every day to brew the life they’ve dreamed for themselves.

I want to bring to life stories about the choices we make to fill our own cup, and then pour into others. Stories that can help you and I feel more confident to dream bigger, be bolder, and just do the things we want to do.

Stories of people right here in our Charlotte-area backyard that we can all learn and grow from.

These stories will be from people you may have never heard of, or maybe people you haven’t met yet. Whoever they are, we’ll meet at a coffee house and brew something beautiful together.

Be sure to tune in to Coffee & Conversations, where our stories will leave you feeling inspired, vulnerable, playful, encouraged, and invited to dream really freaking big! I hope it will mean as much to you as it does to me.

Our first Coffee & Conversations will be live at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Tune in to WBTV’s live stream online right here, or on our mobile or streaming apps. Just search “WBTV” in the app store on your device.

See you then!

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