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Tracy - KeenBean Coffee Shop and Roastery Owner
29 Plays1 month ago
You can take all the classes in the world and yet sometimes life just slowly guides you to where you need to be. Tracy never forced a career, she and her husband shared a simple love of coffee and all the nuance that goes along with it. A leap of faith buying an old carwash, a dream of owning their own business, and most importantly, the determination and willingness to work hard and do what it takes to make their dream a reality. Now, they and their 4 kids run a successful coffee shop and small batch roastery. This isn't just a way to make money, it's a passion that always keeps them interested and going. That is what allows their end product to be so good, never settling, always improving. I love to talk about coffee and this was a blast of an interview. Listening to it will absolutely NOT be a grind. <---(See what I did there?) So pour yourself a cup of your favorite joe in whatever way you prefer and drink this interview up! Thanks Tracy!
Tracy and her coffee can be found *HERE.
If you enjoyed this content and would like to support the channel, you can do so HERE. Thanks!
*The Jobs Podcast has no affiliation with the Keen Bean or it's subsidiaries/affiliates.
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Transcript
Introduction and Tracy's Background
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey folks, you're listening to the Jobs Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Hendricks. Your time is valuable. I'm not going to waste it, so let's get right to the interview. Today we have Tracy with us, and I'm excited about this one because Tracy works with coffee. And anytime I get to talk about coffee, drink coffee, watch coffee videos, I'm all for it.
00:00:20
Speaker
So Tracy, welcome to the show today. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So let's go ahead and start off like we always do. Give us a snapshot of your, where were you born, your upbringing, and just go from there.
00:00:34
Speaker
Okay. ah Born and raised, Stott City, Mount Vernon area. I live and lived in Stott City, or farm-raised, graduated high school from Mount Vernon, Missouri.
00:00:49
Speaker
Mount Vernon High School, uh... you want college and stuff like that? Everything? Sure. Okay. yeah So um graduated.
00:01:01
Speaker
i ran track when I was in high school and got recruited by West Point. So spent my freshman year at West Point. I am kind of a hippie at heart, so West Point wasn't really up my alley. It was one of the things that you kind of, I felt like I needed to do it, loved that I did it, liked all of the physical aspects, but I'm not an engineer, and um which is what you graduate from there with.
00:01:28
Speaker
So ah spent my first year there, came back, went to my sophomore year at University of Missouri, Columbia, And then spent my junior year abroad studying at Keeble College in Oxford and the University of London.
00:01:49
Speaker
Got a bunch of Englishy type stuff there. And then came back, did my senior year at University of Missouri, graduated from there, um and then kind of decided that I needed to see more of the world.
00:02:02
Speaker
Wow. you Kind of left, graduated with a degree in English, British literature emphasis. And then I left, went to Colorado, worked Bump Chairs, did some living there, ended up in Montana. And that's when I got the coffee, kind of started my role into the coffee world.
00:02:23
Speaker
What was your first step into the coffee world? So coffee shops were not around like they are now way back when. So in my senior year of college there at University of Missouri, they had a little coffee shop just off of off of the main drag there in Columbia.
00:02:42
Speaker
And so that was my first kind of steps into specialty coffee, if you will, like having lattes, espresso-based drinks. Um, and then from there, I loved it.
00:02:55
Speaker
Enjoyed the the process, did not work there, but, but started drinking coffee at that point. Um, and then when, when I had graduated and went to, to living in Colorado,
00:03:09
Speaker
And then further on into Montana, I ah got a job at a coffee shop. And it was actually a coffee shop and roastery.
00:03:20
Speaker
i was in I was living in Kalispell, Montana, and they had a coffee shop there, but they had a roastery just down the road in Whitefish. And so that is where that's kind of where I started working with coffee.
00:03:35
Speaker
was there at It was called Montana the Coffee Traders. It is still there. And um they they're going great guns. But it was just ah kind of a cowboy, hippie, Montana coffee roastery coffee shop. And I absolutely loved it.
00:03:52
Speaker
That's a beautiful part of the country. My family took a vacation there a few years ago to to Glacier and everything. We stayed
Exploring Coffee Culture
00:03:58
Speaker
in Kalispell. And that is, if I could live almost anywhere, I think I'd pick that spot. I am. Yes.
00:04:03
Speaker
and And just the the world is beautiful. The people are awesome. Yeah. but Kind of runs the gamut, which I kind of like about here. Coffee can be a little intimidating. Mm-hmm.
00:04:14
Speaker
because it's the world has made it that way in the last 20, 30 years. Um, but both here where we are in the Mount Vernon area and then up there in the Kalispell whitefish area, it's just good people.
00:04:28
Speaker
Good that like, they like what they like and it's, it's not pretentious or anything kind of crazy like that. Love it. Love that part of the world. Did you lean towards the roasting side or the making of the beverages side, or did you just like all of it, all the above, or...?
00:04:47
Speaker
So i I, like coffee ah and there's, I don't necessarily trust people who don't, I just don't know how that can be, how you can be functioning without a little bit of caffeine in the morning.
00:05:02
Speaker
But so when I was working there, I was in retail on the retail side. So I was making drinks. and I was actually managing that, that Kalispell shop that they had. But my husband now, but not at the time, he was a coffee roaster there.
00:05:20
Speaker
And so that is that's kind of the coffee roasting end of things as that transpired. So he was a retailer. I was a retailer. You got together over a coffee bean. That was the what brought you together. Okay.
00:05:34
Speaker
the Something you said a second ago that the world has made coffee way more complex. I forget how you worded it exactly, but intimidating. That was how you said it. I remember growing up, I'll be 51 this year and coffee when I was a kid was Folgers or Maxwell House or whatever the diner had and you didn't put all kinds of fancy things in it, maybe cream or sugar and that was it.
00:06:00
Speaker
Right. Now you have coffee machines, espresso machines that are thousands of dollars, grinders that you know can $700, $800 up. yeah Is that just a, what is that? Is that, is there really a difference and maybe I just don't have the palate for it?
00:06:17
Speaker
So no. So coffee in and of it, there's so much to learn and yeah I'm kind of geeky about it. it is neat. It is neat. It's there's, there's a lot of science behind it, but yeah the world they've, they, i don't even know who they is, but the world has tended to take something. It's, it's simple and kind of made it scary.
00:06:43
Speaker
And we always say, you know, tell me what you like. And chances are i can make you something that you like. Or if you're just a black coffee drinker, tell me what you like. And I bet you I can, I can find ah coffee that we roast that will, that,
00:06:58
Speaker
that will make you happy. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be scary and it can be. And, and we have people all of the time that, you know, brewing to this temperature and we, we weigh out our coffee when we, when we're brewing it, but it doesn't have to be, doesn't have to be scary.
00:07:18
Speaker
So I just think that it, it's taking something that's very cool And it's a trendy thing. And then you ah constantly have to kind of revamp that trend, so to speak.
00:07:30
Speaker
The new and latest thing. I'm 55. So we're right about the same age age there. So where we grew up with just the black coffee with cream or sugar in it. And then it's kind of that trend.
00:07:45
Speaker
Espresso has been around in in Europe for for years and years and years, but it just kind of made its way here. There, you know, late 80s, early ninety s it was hitting there on the East and West coasts.
00:07:59
Speaker
And so that's, it was definitely in Montana before it was here. That's how we ended up. We
Starting a Coffee Business
00:08:06
Speaker
moved back, my husband and I got married in Montana. And then he's from Texas. I'm from, from here. So when we wanted to kind of start, start making a family, we wanted to be closer to our families. So when we moved back here, there was no, nobody was roasting.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. there were there were no coffee shops. That was like a mid-90s. So that's how we ended up going, okay, that well, there's no decent coffee here. Decent being fresh because that Maxwell House Folgers, once you grind coffee, it starts to stale.
00:08:44
Speaker
So that stuff's been ground and sitting in that. There's no way to to slow that process. So it's kind stale tasting. So that's the difference. So- Yeah, we wanted fresh roasted coffee. So we were like, okay, if we if nobody else is doing it, we'll willll buy a roaster, do it in our garage.
00:09:03
Speaker
And if nothing else, we'll have good coffee, even if nobody else wants it. How did you, and I know your husband's not here to to answer this question, but I'm sure you know, your side as far as the making of the coffee and then what you know about the roasting and his roasting, were you both just kind of self-taught? You just learned it as you went along because you were passionate about it?
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah. So yes. Well, I mean, they trained us in the coffee, in, in the in Montana coffee traders. He was trained on, on roasting, but it was, there was no, there are now um certifying bodies that you can become a certified barista, a certified roaster.
00:09:43
Speaker
ah Back in the day, back when we first started, that was not anything. I mean, if you knew, found somebody who knew how to roast, you That's how you learned how to roast. It was all apprenticing.
00:09:54
Speaker
And so he learned how to roast for them. They trained him. And then, you know, he was the, he was the roaster for years. And same thing for me, we had, we made the coffees and then we had had espresso machines and made drinks, but more than anything, what we did there, because it was, it's kind of a slow process with, with the, the, the barista drinks were not that,
00:10:21
Speaker
big of a deal then. they it was slowly coming on, but it wasn't it wasn't a cool thing yet. ah More than that we were we were that, we were selling coffee beans from different locations and fresh coffee. And for people, those people, that was that was new and different. And for somebody who's used to drinking Folgers and likes coffee,
00:10:48
Speaker
it makes a big difference. Fresh coffee. We don't, you know white roast, dark roast. There's this whole, like we we said earlier, the science, but just fresh coffee tastes completely different than it just, it's brighter.
00:11:06
Speaker
I don't even know the words to kind of give, give you, you've had your, are you a Folgers drinker? Well, we drink it at the firehouse just because that's everybody kind of caters it how they want it. But occasionally, we'll bring in somebody who'll get Starbucks or Black Rifle Coffee Company or you know Coffee Depot Department, some of those different ones.
00:11:25
Speaker
So I don't know if those would qualify as higher-end coffees or just variety coffees. Sure. They would be. Those are different. So like Folgers is going to be using, there's Arabica beans and Robusta.
00:11:39
Speaker
Robustas grow at a lower altitude. They're cheaper and not as flavorful. And the Arabicas are going to be any specialty roaster, Starbucks, Black Rifle, us, anybody who's roasting and kind of selling it in bags rather than um the cans. Right.
00:11:57
Speaker
Those are going to be a Arabica beans. So they're going to taste better. and And chances are, those are still going to be fresher than what you're getting in that can. You just don't know how long that's been sitting there. And so it's just going to take, it's not going to be, it's going to take a lot more coffee to get a coffee flavor.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I find most of the time you're just drinking it for caffeine at that point. Yeah. Not probably for flavor. No, in the firehouse, every fridge has two or three different creamers, you know, and, and pumpkin spice, everything and all that. I just drink
Coffee Roasting Techniques
00:12:27
Speaker
mine with a little splash of whipped cream and that's it.
00:12:29
Speaker
There you go. I'm a black coffee drinker. Yeah. Either one. Where do you, where does coffee typically grow and how do you go about getting beans from a quality supplier to then roast?
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So it grows at a certain altitude and certain soil type. So there it's there's one place in the U.S. that grows coffee, and that's Hawaii.
00:12:59
Speaker
yeah. Nowhere in in the continental U.S. s It just won't. It will grow. You can grow the plant, and you may get a few beans. I mean, and they're not beans. They're actually cherries that grow on a tree. Yeah.
00:13:12
Speaker
But you may get a little a few cherries to grow, but not enough to ever harvest. Because where the altitude is high here, it's too cold. So places like Hawaii um and then Central and South America, like you know Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, that that area of the world, African coffees.
00:13:35
Speaker
It's kind of all equatorial along that okay the equator. um so And then Indonesia, African Indonesia, Central South America, I'm thinking through.
00:13:50
Speaker
you're You're around the equator though, right? Yes. Plus minus. Yeah. We've got some Indian coffees. Okay. Also. Yeah. So they have to, they grow and they grow like on a bush and it's a cherry. And I'm always amazed.
00:14:03
Speaker
The cherry, the pulp tastes disgusting. It's very bitter. And I'm always amazed how somebody took this, this bitter. They ate the fruit. It didn't taste good. They said, oh, what can I do with this seed?
00:14:17
Speaker
You eat the seed. It doesn't taste good. Then they decided, oh, I'm going to cook the seed. And you still don't want to eat that roasted bean. That's still not going to taste good. So then they ground it up, mixed it with water.
00:14:29
Speaker
It was just a process. Somebody really wanted to use water. Really wanted to use that bean. So anyway, they had to they had to want to do something with that coffee cherry slash bean in order to make it into something yeah t to be able to use it. So um it's a it's a what it's been a wild ride for coffee.
00:14:52
Speaker
um And then you asked, where do we get them? Like, yeah how do you feel about buying those beans? So you buy them green. We get them in 100 to 150 kilo bags. So about 100 pounds, somewhere around there.
00:15:07
Speaker
so um And we it's ah it's a it's a commodity. So we have a we have brokers that we utilize. So it trades on the stock market. that's a I don't fully understand the way...
00:15:19
Speaker
that any of that works, but the, the prices they call the sea market and that determines different prices of different coffees. And so we have brokers that we deal with. um Most of them are on the coasts.
00:15:34
Speaker
So like New Orleans, you'll get some in New York. um Most of the ones that we use are on the West coast, like out of oh San Francisco area.
00:15:46
Speaker
Okay. So call brokers, get prices. They're constantly changing. The prices are, and then they will kind of, we, we have people that we trust that we, they, they cup the coffee. So they know they, they're, they get a batch in they will roast it there, taste it. And then they can kind of give you a little bit of a description and kind of know what you're, know what you're doing. So you kind of build a good relationship with your, with your brokers. Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
How much do you buy at a time? Are you getting ah like semi-truck loads or is this a FedEx guy or what's the... No, it's ah pallets usually. So it kind of depends on the time of year when we first started out. you know We were buying one bag, took us you know months to go through and now we get pallets of 12 bags or so and we get pallet a week sometimes. Okay. Okay.
00:16:42
Speaker
So we kind of, we, cause we roast for ourselves, but we also wholesale our coffee. Oh, okay. So we can sell other coffee shops. How much can you typically roast at one time? I'm assuming you have one or multiple roasters or industrial size roasters.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yep. So we use a fluid bed roaster, which is different than what a lot, the most common way of roasting is a drum roaster, which the way that that works is ah you you these are the ones that you kind of see, they that you see on TV or something.
00:17:17
Speaker
um Everything is kind of contained inside of a unit and it works kind of like a clothes dryer. so the beans kind of tumble. Okay. Within this, and then you dump them out and they cool down.
00:17:30
Speaker
Ours works kind of like a hot air popcorn popper. Fluid bed means that the beans are not coming in contact with any surface. So it kind of blows underneath, blows and heats them, and they kind of blow through the air.
00:17:43
Speaker
And so we like it better because we feel like it gets more of an even roast. It's not, doesn't get hot spots because it's not touching the hot side of the, of the roaster.
00:17:55
Speaker
um So we started out and we had a nine pound roaster. That's what we, so it was the most you could roast was nine pounds at a time. That's what we started out with. And we now, I think that they, it's a 30 pound roaster.
00:18:10
Speaker
Uh, that's my husband and my son are the, are the ones who are roasting for us now. And so generally around 20 ish pounds is what, what they're roasting somewhere around that you throw you, you, it loses weight. So if you put 20 pounds in, you're going to get 17, 18 pounds
Building Kean Bean Coffee Roasters
00:18:28
Speaker
out. It kind of depends on the level of the roast.
00:18:32
Speaker
Just that's the moisture content that would yeah account for the, okay. Yep, exactly. So you've roasted it. I'm assuming these are the ones I've seen where it dumps out and then it's on a table and it has a an arm that spins around and it's helping to evenly cool the beans.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yes. That's like a drum roaster. Ours, we we we hand stir them, but it's the same concept. It's ah pulling air through it to cool it down. Now I may be getting out of my lane a little bit here, but what i what little I know about coffee roasting, you're going for, is it cracks? First crack, second crack?
00:19:09
Speaker
Yes. And that's the darkness that you want? So and yeah. It used to be that you could you kind of relied on the crack. So when my husband first started roasting, you you it was hard to measure the temperature that because we technology wasn't there.
00:19:28
Speaker
um So you relied on the crack and you relied on the visual of how dark those beans are looking. And that that's the science, but also the – it's kind – it's nuanced that it it leaves a lot to the roaster.
00:19:47
Speaker
Well, and now you've got – the roaster that we have now has a probe. but int that kind of goes in almost like a thermometer that lives in where the beans are circulating. So you've got a constant read on what the temperature is there.
00:20:02
Speaker
So they're going by the crack, but they're also able to watch the temperature as it's roasting. And so they know they... when ah When a new coffee comes in every every harvest, they everything kind of roasts a little bit differently. It's the same way, you know, cooking a steak, you've you've got the, or cooking anything, you've got the the way that you normally do it, but then you have to fall back on every so every cut of meat, it's going to be different. So it's not going to be exactly the same every time.
00:20:38
Speaker
So it's it's a process where you're, yes, you're listening to the crack, looking at the temperature. And then that is like the difference between French roast and espresso.
00:20:50
Speaker
You could use the same beans and French roast is going to be slightly lighter than an espresso roast. In our world, we have we have a Pan and Am blend of French roast and an espresso.
00:21:03
Speaker
Exact same beans. they're just It's the level of roast that it that is determining the flavor. A lot of that comes from experience, just knowing when it's where you want it.
00:21:15
Speaker
Right. But see, it's also one of those things that kind of goes back to the scary thing is that not everybody likes a dark roast. And in the same kind of a thing like an African bean, they're kind of, because there's less water in Africa and their soil structure is different, um that African beans are generally kind of... ah whiny, almost fruity with, with a flavor, even though it's not a flavored coffee, but you kind of get a fruity front to it.
00:21:49
Speaker
Whereas like a Guatemalan generally will have like kind of a chocolatey or more nutty, and it's going to be a little more mild. So that, that is, is, is person to person. I'm like, I love,
00:22:03
Speaker
All kinds of coffee, but i I like a dark roast first thing in the morning. And then i but I love those African coffees. I just don't like them first thing in the morning because they seem to have more acidity.
00:22:15
Speaker
And I like the the dark kind of, kind of smoky flavor of a dark roast. and the morning Do those flavor profiles and things, is that something that you can only gain just by experiencing different kinds of roasts and learning?
00:22:33
Speaker
I don't think I have a sophisticated enough palate if someone said this one has chocolate undertones or this one is nutty or spicy. It just tastes like coffee to me and I like it. Yes.
00:22:44
Speaker
So a lot of times, I mean, you you kind of have to be sitting there with your eyes close to kind of pick up those notes. Okay. And even, to be honest, even the most...
00:22:58
Speaker
Oh, sophisticated palette, I would say. um It's very, very subtle. and And sometimes they kind of come up with more.
00:23:09
Speaker
There's so many things going on. I'm like, I'm not really sure that you can pick all of that up. I mean, like I could tell you we have a Yerga Chef, which is a it's an African coffee and I could make it for you and I could give it to you. And i and it it has like a blueberry. It's kind of got that berry flavor.
00:23:30
Speaker
You would pick it up. Anybody would be able to pick up that flavor note in there. that Those are the ones that I, or if I gave you my French roast, you would say, eh, kind of tastes like tobacco-y, almost without being negative, kind of like an ashtray.
00:23:47
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You would pick up that smoky flavor in it. And you don't have to be, so it doesn't have to be a sophisticated palate. You would be able to taste those those two.
00:23:59
Speaker
And so for me, for someone that's trying to not make coffee complicated or scary is wanting it to be approachable for everyone and not make you feel like you're you're something's wrong with you because you're not picking up vanilla and pepper and all of this in there.
00:24:18
Speaker
i That's where I go, i what do you like? but And then then that's what I want you to – that's what you should be drinking. But I know that you would be able to pick up like these differences. I could put them side by side, you'd be like, oh heck yeah, I totally know what you're talking about.
00:24:36
Speaker
but think I could – I could talk with you about coffee roasting and stuff all day long, but let's go let's we went that was a fun rabbit hole. Let's go back to the the business side of things. So you have relocated back to Missouri.
00:24:51
Speaker
You are roasting. you have a ah shop are you You haven't got a shop yet. No. You're you're roasting. Walk me through the transition to get a shop going. Okay, so we started roasting in our garage. We just kind of took a one-car garage and were like, put the roaster in there. We had three kids, little ones at the time, um and started roasting, playing around with it, and then needed to have an outlet. So at the time, Mount Vernon had was just starting as ah like a farmer's market. i want This is right around 2000.
00:25:29
Speaker
but Okay. starting a farmers market that was on the square on saturdays and so i would load up three kids and make a like a big thermos of coffee and put rope you know in tupperwarrees i had six different kinds of coffee that we had roasted for to sell and then i started selling it by the pound at farmer's market in the summer And that was the start of Kean Bean.
00:26:00
Speaker
And then from there, when they stopped, September, October, they stopped doing farmer's market, people would call us at home and say, hey, can I pick up a pound of coffee?
00:26:12
Speaker
So we were roasting, would run coffee to people, but it was very, very small scale. But as it was starting to kind of pick up, people were wanting more coffee and we were, it was,
00:26:26
Speaker
it was growing. And we were like, okay, I think we can make this happen.
Challenges in the Coffee Business
00:26:31
Speaker
We had a coffee, a car wash that sat empty for years in Mount Vernon.
00:26:38
Speaker
And my husband called me one day and said, hey, I think we can turn that car wash into a coffee shop. And I have, I am the type of person that I have to i I have to move things. I'm very visual, so I can't really see it until it's kind of down the road. He can see it in his brain.
00:26:59
Speaker
um So it long story short, we kind of figured out a way to buy the by the car wash, and then we renovated it and turned it into what is now our o ge um location, which is King Bean Coffee Roasters. Yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
So that was that was the first shop, and we opened it May 5th of 2005. So this May is 20 years. The coffee scene back then, it was kind of taken off, but it was still, is it fair to say it was in its infancy then?
00:27:38
Speaker
Most definitely. Yeah. We had, i mean, from my, my folks, my dad was like, nobody's ever going to pay a dollar 50 for a couple of dollars. And he was, he was, you know, Folgers all of the way, yeah you know, farmer guy. And we were like, okay, well, you know, we'll figure if, if that's the case, we'll figure something out.
00:27:58
Speaker
But, you know, we think that it's going to we think it's going to work. But you're dealing with someone. My husband was a roaster ah before that, but has, you know, his has no college degree.
00:28:12
Speaker
And all of his studies were in like forestry. I have a degree in English. um So from a business standpoint, I mean, I think that it's a, I personally think that that is what makes us good business owners is that we haven't read all of the books. So we don't know what we're supposed to be doing.
00:28:35
Speaker
other We're doing what feels like we should be doing. And when that's not working, we're we're we're changing. We're bobbing and weaving through through the years to kind of figure out what that looks like.
00:28:49
Speaker
The coffee, ah you know i i always think back to my father-in-law when I first went. I mean, my wife grew up on ah on a farm in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. um And I would go visit them and he my father-in-law would take me to the local donut shop in the little co-op town.
00:29:04
Speaker
And he would walk in and pick up his coffee mug that is up there on the counter that or a shelf. It's his. yeah and go fill it, you know and it's 40, 50 cents for a cup of coffee. you trans you You move forward now and you go to Starbucks or some other place and it's three, four or $5 for a cup of coffee. yeahp I read an article once that said that Starbucks was the big reason why the price of coffee is what it is now from a business standpoint. it's
00:29:35
Speaker
It's acceptable to charge more for a quality product. You know, they also, you know, a lot of specialty coffee would probably poo-poo Starbucks, but they got the word out.
00:29:49
Speaker
Right. You know what i mean? They, when when we were fledgling and, you know, new coffee shops that people, even like you were saying the infancy, we, no- A lot of people had not had a latte, did not know what those type of drinks were, really. Because at the time, there were no Starbucks in Springfield you know or Joplin. there were I think that Mud House, which is downtown Springfield, opened the same year that we did, maybe. Yeah.
00:30:23
Speaker
okay And that was it. I mean, it just wasn't. So so when when when they went somewhere else and they got a specialty coffee and they came back and they were able to get an espresso-based drink from us, that's kind of – Starbucks is good it has been good for the industry because it opened people's eyes and kind of made it um more common for people to – they've tried it.
00:30:50
Speaker
A lot of people want to kind hammer on them because they're big corporate and they're everywhere. But the yeah they're not you know they're not all bad. They do provide consistency you know yeah globally. You're going to get the same order here that you would in London if you order the same thing.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah. And the truth of the matter is is that if I'm driving i distances, um you're you're wanting to get a decent cup of coffee on the road.
00:31:15
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Gas station coffee doesn't doesn't cut it. So you know I'm always going to be looking for as a somewhere I can get off and and get a Starbucks or something like that.
00:31:28
Speaker
Right. Because it's I know it's just going to be fresher coffee. It's just going to taste better than that that stuff that you get at the gas station. That begs the question, when you travel, do you like to try out little shops or smaller mom cop?
00:31:42
Speaker
okay Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Those are my local. Small is is my – that's my way to go. And we are – I mean, we'll go to any coffee shop, anywhere we go, buy pounds of coffee, bring them home with us.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yes. Oh. yeah So you're always sampling and always kind of. Yes. Oh, yeah. And supporting. I mean, it's oh sure hard in the world to to to make it as ah as a small business owner.
00:32:14
Speaker
So you want to support that wherever you can. So you've got your business, you bought the car wash, you've turned it into a coffee shop. Yes.
00:32:25
Speaker
Did you have some lean years there early on before it started to take off or did you get did it did you kind of gain traction quickly? How did the first maybe five years play out? So here, interesting, because we, as I said earlier, we wholesale coffee also.
00:32:41
Speaker
So we had been approached when we were first roasting from our garage, had kind of set up a couple of coffee accounts where that were small shops, Joplin area, that, um,
00:32:58
Speaker
they they wanted they wanted They were food places, but they had coffee. They had espresso machines. So they we set up a couple of wholesale accounts. So not as much money in a wholesale account, but more quantity, so and and it was an income.
00:33:15
Speaker
So when we when we opened the retail location, we had a couple of the wholesale accounts already. Um, and it was, we were pleasantly surprised, not crazy busy.
00:33:27
Speaker
We didn't, we had to have food. i would love to just be a coffee shop, but that those are one of the things that in a small town, um, you kind of have to be diverse and you have to have some other things because not everybody's a coffee drinker. So we had food.
00:33:42
Speaker
So that also helped. Um, but We did it ourselves. So that is the, that's the, the big thing is that we're not in the coffee shop as much now as we were, but man, oh man, you know, we had, like I said, three kids and and four by the time we opened the shop.
00:34:02
Speaker
And, um, my Daryl was working the mornings and we would switch. He would come, I had the kids and then he would come home and watch the kids and I would go in and watch the afternoons.
00:34:13
Speaker
You pass each other in the hallway, give a little pass down and did it for years and years. And I always laugh because kids will come in now and we've got an office upstairs there at the coffee shop and we'll come and sit in the office. And they are like, you know, I just I think it would be awesome. They that are wanting to open a coffee shop and they they want my job.
00:34:35
Speaker
Which I'm like, you don't understand what like the first 15 years of this business was. I wasn't sitting up here. this the The business end of things is happening after the the coffee shop was closed because yeah all you were doing was waiting on people when it was when it was open.
00:34:53
Speaker
So the first it was, we were busy, but we loved it because we were doing what we liked and working for ourselves. Yeah. um But then 2008 hit huge recession, all big.
00:35:06
Speaker
So that was tight. We lost a lot of our wholesale customers, a lot of place, coffee shops closed. And because we were, we were doing it ourselves.
00:35:17
Speaker
um We, we hung in there. And so it's, it, It's been, it's a roller coaster, I think, with with most businesses. And if you could ever say, I've always said, you know, if i if the customer base would just let me know when they're all going to come, i could staff appropriately.
00:35:39
Speaker
But as it nobody's done it yet out of 20 years. You can't say every Monday is busy and every Friday is dead. It just, it's a it's a up and down wild ride. So What you were talking about there a minute ago were the first 10 to 15 years when you and your husband were with kids trying to grow a business, passing each other in the hallway. Yes. That is the part of...
00:36:03
Speaker
being an entrepreneur and running your own shop that a lot of people, it gets lost in the glamour of, hey, I own a business. Man, you're working 70 hours a week. You're working late into the night, ah four o'clock in the morning, and then you throw a family into it.
00:36:21
Speaker
That's the part that a lot of people don't realize is that grind, if you want to make it, that's the price you got to pay. It is. And we homeschooled our kids. So yeah um they were there with us every step of the way. I mean, you know they were wiping down tables. At the time, my oldest was 10 when we opened and the youngest was newborn. She was born the first year that we opened.
00:36:47
Speaker
Shoot. So, yeah. so But yeah I would not trade it at all. Yeah. But it is a hard – it is a grind. and And I don't – things have changed a lot in the 20 years. I don't – you don't see it seems like – You don't see people willing to do that. Families willing to do it.
00:37:09
Speaker
It's a hard, it was hard. It was hard. Your kids probably got a ton of life lessons and you things. They all work with us now.
00:37:22
Speaker
Oh, really? Yes. They've all gone away. My youngest is now 19. She hasn't gone away, but she lives on her own and works for me. But my older three have gone away, gone to college, done different things, and have come back.
00:37:39
Speaker
And my son is roasting. um My oldest daughter is ah kind of my my buyer and oh general manager. And then...
00:37:51
Speaker
Kid number three daughter um is my retail my shop manager. Wow. But they've grown up around it. they know um They know our expectations. So they're my best workers, my very best workers, because they've been they've been working with us from the get-go.
00:38:12
Speaker
They know every aspect of the business, too, because they grew up in it. They're learning it. Now, don't tell them them that. They think that they know every aspect of the business. Well, sure, yeah. But yes, but they are they're involved more and more, they are there and they like it.
00:38:29
Speaker
I think that it's a it's a good, they they would have never expected that they would be back there, but I think that they all do like being back there.
00:38:41
Speaker
i haven't I've been in your location one time a number of years ago. You're about an hour 10 minutes from me. um I don't recall if you sell equipment such as grinders and coffee machines and things, or are you just the ah food drink side of things?
00:39:01
Speaker
We are food, drink. We have a small retail area. I mean, we sell some French presses, um but not... There's just so many places that you can buy that, that it's not it's not something... it's not we I just say, you know you can get a grinder. You can get equipment at any Tom, Dick & Harry and online.
00:39:26
Speaker
That's what COVID, if anything, that was the the big... Weird of all of the years COVID hitting and and the dynamic that has changed after that. I mean, everyone shops online now.
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you and you can find everything online. So that there's, it's a blessing and a curse truly. if you were If you were just starting out in your business, is there something that looking back that you would do differently?
00:39:55
Speaker
Or I find a lot of times when I ask that question, the answer I get is the mistakes that I made are what made us or me what we are. But there's got to be something that you look back and go, and that wasn't the best, or I should have done this and it would have accelerated the process.
00:40:13
Speaker
You know, maybe, and we've changed this back. you're You're absolutely right. Every mistake, everything that we have done, and I'm not a big mistake person. I just don't, I don't live with regrets.
00:40:26
Speaker
I think that everything you, you just learn from everything. So, and if it hadn't have happened, you not, wouldn't have figured it out. um But one of the things that that's difficult is that you get, when you're running a business, everybody tells you how you should be running it and what you should be doing.
00:40:43
Speaker
For example, people constantly wanted us to add to our menu, our food menu. um And we also started out with every coffee that we roasted, we had um in jars.
00:40:58
Speaker
And every blend that we that we had, we had in jars. And we did 20 different flavored coffees. And so we had a multitude, you know, maybe 60 different varieties of coffee available to people.
00:41:13
Speaker
And we kind of looked at and we're like, they're not, they don't all move at the same rate. So we did that for years. And then when we took it down to smaller, we said, okay, we don't want stale coffee or old coffee settings. So let's kind of,
00:41:27
Speaker
consolidate this. After we did that, we had so many people come in and say, oh you should have done this sooner because I would sit and stare and become overwhelmed with my inability to make a choice and leave with no coffee because it was too much for me to decide.
00:41:45
Speaker
So you you've learn kind of as you go. And on the flip side of that, so we shouldn't have had so many choices when it came to coffee. On the flip side of that, right about the same time, we were listening to everybody's thoughts and ideas on on expanding our food menu and expanded later.
00:42:06
Speaker
And I don't know, we didn't learn from the coffee. We should have thought about the the coffee, but we went bigger. And then we ended up going going back smaller on that and focusing on what we what we what we do well.
00:42:19
Speaker
And so i those are things that I wish I would have known sooner. and know So obviously we changed them back. um But stuff like that, like listening to...
00:42:32
Speaker
You have to listen to your customers, but you don't have to do everything that they that they tell you to do. You kind of have to take everything with a grain of salt.
00:42:44
Speaker
And you also kind of need to do what you do well and focus on that. Don't try to do everything mediocre. Is there a temptation?
00:42:55
Speaker
it seems like as an outsider looking into a small business, I can appreciate there's a temptation to, I have to do this and then I got to do that and I got to do this over here and I got to diversify and I got to do that.
00:43:06
Speaker
And next thing you know, you're spread so thin, nothing's doing well. And you wish the whole time that you could have just stayed doing these couple of things that you're really good at. It's maddening.
00:43:17
Speaker
why That is the hard part. What's the... What can someone do? Is that a lesson that you just have to learn by doing it and realizing it? but Okay. You learn it over and over again.
00:43:30
Speaker
You learn the lesson and then you forget because it's easy to get caught up in the next new thing and the next cool thing or listening to what people are saying. And so you'll you'll you'll slip back in and then you'll hopefully come back and be like, hey, wait a minute, I'm doing it again.
00:43:50
Speaker
i am'm I'm moving away from where where I need to be and sticking with what I do, doing it well. So yeah I relearn it. i'm I mean, maybe I'm just hardheaded, but I just, I kind of just, I get excited for, to to add something on or do something different. And it's not always the best plan.
00:44:10
Speaker
The financial side of things, I think a lot of folks like the idea of having their own business or operation, but The money I think sometimes people focus on, like I can do really well and they don't factor in all of the expenses that go along with running a business. It's terrible. Running a business because you see, and you i think that that that's another thing that that businesses do. So like when we started out, we bought it. We bought used equipment.
00:44:43
Speaker
We still are our best espresso techs. between And
Community and Customer Service
00:44:49
Speaker
you know work on a lot of our own equipment. ah Because if you're in Cassville, for you to pay for somebody to come down and work on anything there, you're going to have a heck of a trip charge.
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah. so um same I do it myself. yeah That is exactly what we do. We do it ourselves. um But I don't think that every business owner... Thinks that way.
00:45:13
Speaker
And those are so you do money is tight and you have to be thoughtful because what it feels like you've got a lot of money coming in. So it feels like you've got a lot of money coming in.
00:45:27
Speaker
hmm. because you see dollars. And so, but it costs, it just, you have to wait. That money doesn't go as far as you expect. So I think a lot of people go, oh my gosh, I have all of this money.
00:45:39
Speaker
And they spend it way to way too easily as far as a business goes. The financial end is hard because most people start a business because they like to do a thing.
00:45:52
Speaker
We like to roast coffee, but we don't like to run a business. that That gets, and you have to be able to run a business if you want to continue roasting coffee.
00:46:04
Speaker
So you you learn it, if that makes sense. No, it does make sense. And it parlays perfectly into a pair of questions I always ask, which is what do you like most about your job? Which I think I already know.
00:46:17
Speaker
And what do you dislike most about your job? I love the people and I hate the people.
00:46:26
Speaker
yeah I can relate to that. Yeah, that's a perfect answer. That is the perfect answer. I absolutely love, and I love being a part of a community. I'm geeky about coffee,
00:46:38
Speaker
Um, but I, I, we're just lucky to be 20 years. We've just, we get a lot. We make, you make friends and you, you have people who work for you that become like children and those people that are coming, they're watching those children, it just as a family, it is a true I love the people and the relationships and what we get to do. We're ah a meeting and a greeting place. So loving the coffee side of things, but that part of my business, I, I, it's my favorite part, but it also is also working with the public.
00:47:20
Speaker
There's some grumpy people out there. Yeah. They haven't their coffee. It doesn't matter what you do. They're still going to be grumpy. And that's all because I take it personally. Hmm.
00:47:31
Speaker
what What changes have you seen in in your industry since you've been doing it? what What are some big, or are there any, I mean, coffee roasting has been around for um ages and ages. So is it at its core pretty much the same except with maybe some shinier devices?
00:47:52
Speaker
That's what, yes. Yeah. And that is the part, so technology has changed. Yeah. yeah just It's allowed things to become more automated, which, once again, blessing and a curse, ah it is...
00:48:10
Speaker
it yeah can can sometimes go too fast. And that kind of goes back to where we were talking about. It doesn't have to be that hard. Yeah. Well, it's why we still have a small roaster. we We could buy a bigger roaster, but then you would lose and automate it more, but then you lose that the nuances of the roasting, the ability to to sit and look at it and and know the color changes. The same thing goes. We have our espresso machine.
00:48:40
Speaker
is it, you know, you push the button to start the shot, you push the button to stop the shot where we tamp our own bayonets. So you're, you still have a barista that is in control of what's happening rather than the machine doing it.
00:48:57
Speaker
You could have a machine, but for us, we like the, we like the the art part of it with both the roasting and the coffee brewing. So it, and it goes back to the simplicity of not making it scary and not getting too uptight about, it's just, my husband always says, it's just coffee, man.
00:49:22
Speaker
Don't have to make it into anything bigger or littler or fancier or
Technology and Future of Coffee
00:49:29
Speaker
not. it It's just coffee, man. There's, it's the digital watch analog watch analogy. I have or have had both. And, you know, the new smartwatches are neat with all the tricks and the messages and, you you know, all the doodads and everything. But every now and again, it's nice to just put on a simple dial that tells me the time.
00:49:49
Speaker
Yes. and And that's it. And so I think there's a world for both, but and so I don't, the and the automatic stuff is fine because sometimes I don't have time to make this an art. I need a cup of coffee because I got to go.
00:50:01
Speaker
But there's also times when it's, I want to slow down and really enjoy what I'm doing, not just the end result, but the process. Yes. And so for 20 years, we've seen this tick up, this movement toward the the the the processing and the the more digitizing of coffee. Yeah. But we're also, I i think now, we just kind of stayed stayed in our lane there as far as simplifying.
00:50:36
Speaker
um And I think now it is, there's there's there's more of a push maybe, or at least a small push toward that slowing down and and we're part of it.
00:50:48
Speaker
the pendulum is kind of swinging back towards the analog. And yeah, but I don't know that it's going to stay there. It's like you said, this, we're not going to slow down. So somebody is still going to want the next biggest, fastest, brightest, shiny thing. Sure.
00:51:01
Speaker
um But, but there is, there's a few of us that are kind of used to the slowing down, like it, that old school way of doing things is kind of nice.
00:51:13
Speaker
If someone wanted to follow in your footsteps and and kind of get into this line of work or just business in the service industry, I guess, product service like you have, what types of soft skills do you think would benefit them the most?
00:51:32
Speaker
Um, people skills is one. I do a ton. Like I go into business classes at, at high school, both like Monette, Mount Vernon. And we do like little talks with these kids.
00:51:46
Speaker
Um, and I say that kind of stuff all the time. You've got to be able to, to deal with, to be able to deal with people, talk to people eye to eye that goes from customer service, but also,
00:51:58
Speaker
dealing with banks, being able to deal with um distributors, people that you're buying things from. And you got to have a working knowledge of, you know, basic computer skills, basic, you know, math, reading, etc.
00:52:15
Speaker
But I don't think I think that if you and and you have to be willing to change, change your mind. You have to be willing to, um, be resilient and not too set in your ways.
00:52:30
Speaker
I mean, as far as so soft skills, they just being willing to, to, to learn constantly being open to learning more and realizing no matter how much knowledge you have, you always have something to learn.
00:52:46
Speaker
it's i I have an opinion. It's just mine. But when when I see a younger person that can look me in the eye and carry on a conversation and communicate effectively, I'm always leaving that conversation and convinced that that person is going to go further than their counterparts so from that simple skill alone.
00:53:09
Speaker
Yes. And in customer service, that's yeah that's got to be at the top with customer service. It is with customer service, but it is generally, it just seems that's that's a lost art.
00:53:22
Speaker
and and and it when it And customer service has become a lost art. That's one of those things that for you to be able to go you know out to eat or go anywhere and feel like you've you walk out having had a positive experience when you bumped into somebody that...
00:53:42
Speaker
whatever it was from going to Lowe's to going to a restaurant to going to the bank, you it's rare. we We accept mediocrity in those roles of customer service now because it's just lost. So when someone does what you said, you know makes eye contact, is able to hold a conversation with you, we're impressed by that.
00:54:07
Speaker
And it i think it's only that is going to become... more and more prevalent. So I try and tell you need it more. Yeah. I've got two teenage boys and I try and tell them if you can just learn to effectively communicate, you are going to go so much further with effort. And those two combinations, I think it's pretty easy to separate yourself from the pack.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah, and staying humble. And that's where you you realize, hey, i I don't know everything or whoops. I always say to my staff, you've got to own it. I don't expect you to be perfect, but I do expect that when you make a mistake, you say, gosh, that was me.
00:54:46
Speaker
And then you work to not make the mistake again. And those things all teach your teenagers that too, because that, that especially with teenagers, oh, They just don't think that they don't ever want to to to be responsible. And I don't either. But man, you've got to learn that part.
00:55:04
Speaker
Do you think that is business similar to life where if you don't maintain your humility, life will just hammer you down from time to time to make sure you're reminded that you need to stay humble? Does business kind of do the same thing?
00:55:17
Speaker
At least small business. yeah I can't speak because I see – you see business owners on TV all the time and there's no humility there at all. So yeah I don't know.
00:55:28
Speaker
about big business, but I think small business, or I think that you'll be in business, but it won't be for very long. what If you're you're not humble. Yeah. Is there a career that if you could go back and I'll, I do, I think I'm going to eliminate this question because everybody I talk with is so passionate about what they do that I don't think there's another career that they would even entertain, but...
00:55:52
Speaker
When you were younger, i know you talked about the literature and things of that nature, but was there ever a career that you almost stepped into and then you just ended up where you're at now?
00:56:04
Speaker
ah Not really. I'm one of those people that I'm like... You just live and life will bounce you around to where you need to be.
00:56:16
Speaker
So you're going to go this direction for a little while. So I wanted to write books and maybe be a teacher. But then I kind of dipped dipped my toe in both of them. And I was like, yeah, I can't do that. I can't. I'm a people person. So I can't be sitting writing books anymore.
00:56:31
Speaker
And I can't, you know, um and then it just shoved you along. And until I was in the coffee industry, and I, and I don't even know that I like, loved it and was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
00:56:44
Speaker
It just was, was fun for for the time, you know, and so I did it for a little while. And then I did other stuff and then opportunity. no,
00:56:54
Speaker
no i And I definitely wouldn't change where I am. i it's It's good. You know, my life is good big and my business is good. And I also think that's also a business owner. They're not.
00:57:10
Speaker
If you're a negative person, you'll you'll just get stuck. And you know, your business will, there's always something to complain about and always something that's not going right.
Future and Closing Remarks
00:57:21
Speaker
um i just choose to not look at that generally.
00:57:25
Speaker
What's next for King Bean Coffee and for Daryl and Tracy? what's What's on the horizon? Anything big or are you content with where you're at and you're just going to keep chugging along?
00:57:38
Speaker
You know what? We are constantly, and and this is a beauty also of having our kids involved, um old 55-year-old, 60-year-old people, don't sixty year old people we don't We're not the cool, we think we're cool, but the world doesn't necessarily think we're cool.
00:57:57
Speaker
So getting fresh ideas and thoughts from our kids who who are like-minded thinkers, but they're 20 and years younger than it is That is what Keen Bean will be in the future. It is us.
00:58:18
Speaker
we We're constantly growing and changing. So I really, not no big plans, no great plans. huge. I don't want to be, you know, opening the 12 shops. I don't think any of us want to do that, but we are always thinking of what, what would be fun.
00:58:35
Speaker
What's another way that we can bring money in what next kind of thing. So I'd say we're going to be chugging along, but it won't be the same because what none of us sit still very long and none of us We like change.
00:58:51
Speaker
Change is good. i They get mad at me at the coffee shop because I'll rearrange. And my customers are like, why are you moving it around? I'm like, ah, new perspective. just want to see if you're stuck to the chair or the location.
00:59:03
Speaker
Where are you going to go? So, yeah. New fun things, but nothing nothing in particular. If someone wanted to swing by your shop, where can they find you? Or if they wanted to order coffee, where can they do that?
00:59:18
Speaker
um So our shop is 1031 South Market in Mount Vernon, Missouri. It's right on the main the main drag coming through town. um And we're open 630 to 630 Monday through Saturday.
00:59:33
Speaker
And then from Memorial Day to Labor Day, we do live music on the patio and have patio drinks and beer and wine um on Friday night. So we're open until nine on that and in the summertime. Yeah.
00:59:47
Speaker
um And then www.keenbeancoffee.com. You can order order beans, 12-ounce bags. All right. Done with the hands of the people who've been doing it since we started.
01:00:00
Speaker
Right on. Yeah. I could talk about coffee all day long, but you've got a business to run, so I better let you get back to it. But I really am grateful for taking the time, for you taking the time today to educate me on your business. And it was just a blast to talk about coffee like this.
01:00:15
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for having me. um Yeah, it's always fun. I know it. I'll swing by your shop sometime and I'm going to pick up some coffee that I promise. Definitely do coffee on me.
01:00:27
Speaker
Let me know when you're coming. Thank you very much, Tracy. You betcha. Thank you. And that wraps up another episode of the jobs podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully you found that interesting.
01:00:40
Speaker
As always, I wait until the end of an interview to ask you to like, subscribe and share. I feel it's important that I earn that support from you. Thanks again, and we will see you on the next one.