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Coffee People Podcast at SCA ft. Kenzel Fallen, Three Keys Coffee · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:00
  Sliding into your screen is not just any coffee can, it's a
• 0:03
  Rostar coffee can. You don't need thousands
• 0:07
  personalized, just one in Rostar's design lab.
• 0:11
  No design experience needed. Choose a pattern, add your logo
• 0:14
  and text, or create something memorable.
• 0:18
  With AI being made in the Midwest, you can expect it on
• 0:22
  your doorstep in no time. Now that was smooth.
• 0:29
  Hey everyone, good morning and welcome to the Coffee People
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  podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Walt.
• 0:35
  I recently spent a long weekend in Houston, TX at the Specialty
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  Coffee Association Expo. I had lots of coffee there.
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  It's an annual convention that draws guests from all over the
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  world, and our presenting sponsors at Rostar invited me to
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  join them in their convention floor booth.
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  My collaborator on Nick and Ryan Drink Coffee, Nick Schmidt,
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  curated some excellent interviewees to help us launch
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  Season 14. Yes, you heard that right,
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  Season 14. I honestly don't believe it
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  either. If you're watching this show on
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  Apple, Spotify, or one of the other big podcasting sites,
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  thank you. And know that you can see all of
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  our SCA interviews on our YouTube channel at Roast West
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  Coast Podcasts. That link is in the bio, and we
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  dropped all of those shows at once.
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  If you're watching there on YouTube already, thank you so
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  much. We are trying to grow that
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  Channel. The link to our newsletter,
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  Roast westcoast.com and to rostar.com and to the websites
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  of our special show guests at SCA can be found in the notes.
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  Wherever you're watching or listening to this episode, it's
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  probably right there below. Thanks for clicking through
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  those. It actually helps us know if
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  people are listening and paying attention.
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  And now I hope that you, like me, have a Dang good cup of
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  coffee at the ready, because it's time for another Coffee
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  People podcast. Thumbs up, we're ready to go.
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  The light is blinking. We're all set.
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  Look at you or look at the camera.
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  You can look at me if you ever want to make a point and you
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  look right at the. Camera dramatic effect.
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  Like 03 keys is the best like the office or something.
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  Welcome to the Coffee People podcast.
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  If you wouldn't mind looking at the camera and telling everyone
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  who you are, what the name of your company is and where you're
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  located at. Well I am Kenzel Fallon, CEO and
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  Co founder of Three Keys Coffee and we are based in Houston, TX.
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  Which is where we are at right now.
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  That is right I've. Been here for 24 hours.
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  The view from the Holiday Inn. Incredible.
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  There's an LA Fitness across from me.
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  It's traffic everywhere. The name of your company?
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  3 keys. Yeah, I know it has special
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  meaning. What is that all about?
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  It does. So the name 3 keys comes from
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  the valves of the trumpet. My husband played the trumpet
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  for many years and it's the influencing instrument for a lot
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  of what we seek to do with three keys.
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  So, you know, 3 keys can create a wide range of flavors.
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  We have a wide range of offerings, a wide range of
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  products. And the same thing with the
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  trumpet, you can create such a complex, you know, variety of
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  sound using just those 3 vowels. And so that's that's the
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  inspiration for our brain. Any chance if we go into 3 keys
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  he's playing the trumpet? Not at all, no.
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  Never like one of our kids. So we have 3, three kids,
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  another form of three keys, and they're starting to pick up the
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  trumpet. Yeah, yeah.
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  I mean, music is obviously important to you.
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  And your husband's name is Tio, I believe.
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  I want to make sure we shout out Tio.
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  Yeah, shout out. Tio Jazz is very important to
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  you. You guys made this thing I think
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  is so cool, called the jazz color wheel.
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  Yeah, jazz coffee color. Wheel flavor?
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  Well, yeah. What is that?
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  So you know, of course, everyone's familiar with the the
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  traditional SEA flavor wheel. We want it to create our own
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  version, reinvent the wheel, so to speak, right.
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  But through music. And with that, we like to say
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  that we provide a multi sensory exploration of coffee through
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  sound, through the senses, evoking that.
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  And so sometimes especially specialty coffee cannot feel
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  very approachable to the layperson who's really trying to
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  understand what this is. And so one way that we wanna try
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  to create that more approachable experience is to have have
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  coffee tasted through sound and to connect it through sound.
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  You know, a lot of our, all of our coffees have a playlist that
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  we've curated that matches with that which is intended to
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  represent the, you know, mood and feeling that we wanted to
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  convey with sure. Goodbye, I do a coffee playlist
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  every month but I'm going to start listening to yours as well
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  so. It'll.
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  Open my mind to some new coffee experiences and ideas.
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  I just think that's a more fun like approach to think about
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  coffee as more than just like functional and going to the shop
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  and getting caffeinated up. Yeah.
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  You have a package that you guys made with Rostar.
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  Yes. We've got a lot of packages
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  we've made with Rostar. Talk me through this package.
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  I mean, what? How does it Share your story?
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  Yeah, so this particular one, first of all, I love it.
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  Shout out to bird friendly. So we've we have several
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  different sustainability initiatives that we're committed
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  to and also with our sourcing so Fair Trade Rainforest Alliance
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  and then also sourcing bird friendly coffees.
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  So this is our dedicated product for the bird friendly roast.
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  And so, yeah, we wanted it to represent, you know, something
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  bright and vibrant. We named it Sunito del Sol, like
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  the sound of the sun. And so wanting to kind of convey
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  that like brightness and the coloring.
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  Of course, you got to have the playlist.
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  So the QR code that takes you to the playlist.
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  We've we've curated all of our bags.
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  You'll find that QR code where you can scan and and get to the
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  playlist. But yeah, we want it and we also
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  want it to represent kind of a bit.
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  So in, in, in, in Japanese jazz culture, there's like these like
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  bands that kind of go around like the albums.
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  And so this is really kind of to represent like that band sort of
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  going around like reminiscent of, you know, album art that you
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  might see so. That's super cool.
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  Yeah. Bird friendly.
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  Big fan. Yeah, I've got the Merlin app on
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  my phone. I'm listening to birds all
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  trying. To.
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  Yeah, I'm gonna steal that from you.
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  We're gonna set that back on the show.
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  So it's right there in the picture.
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  I think you can see that you guys recently went solar.
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  Yeah. How challenging, how easy you
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  know? What was the reason behind it?
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  So another shout out to Oakley because we were recipients of
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  their Big Idea grant and so that helped to fund the project.
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  So because first of all, with solar, the one of the biggest
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  hurdles is the expense of it. You know, you want to do the
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  right thing, but a lot of times with wanting to do these like,
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  you know, feel good initiatives is like, well, but it cost me
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  money and what if I don't have the budget to do that?
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  And so that was really influential and great for us
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  being able to, you know, install solar at our roastery and have
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  it funded through grant funding. But a cool thing too from an
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  operational perspective, we're in Houston, we get hurricanes,
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  we get outages, we get a floods, all types of stuff.
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  And so in times where there's been like weather outages, you
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  know, power goes out, we're able to still keep going because
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  we've got the battery back up. So there was one time, well, the
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  hurricane barrel, we opened up our doors.
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  A lot of folks in the city didn't have power.
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  And we're like, come and get some coffee, caffeinate.
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  We've got power until it runs out, until our battery runs out.
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  Come up there. Yeah, we got a little solar
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  generator at our house just because one time we lost power
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  for like 8 hours. Yeah.
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  And I was like, my the year is getting cold.
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  Like we need to. It's a.
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  Serious. You're not messing around.
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  I want to know because I meet so many interesting people and you
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  just have this great story. Do you have any piece of advice,
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  life advice, coffee advice? What would you share with
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  someone? I mean, it's your your floor
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  right now about living their life.
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  Tell us how to live our life, Council.
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  Oh gosh. I mean, the only thing I can say
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  is that you got to live it for yourself.
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  I think I find so many people, especially, you know, in the
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  coffee industry, but in all industries, if they're wanting
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  to like start something new or some new venture, they look at
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  someone else and wanna try to embody or create something that
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  seems has worked for another person.
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  And it's like there's gonna inevitably at some point be some
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  sort of mismatch. And so it's like, you gotta be
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  true to yourself and have something that really reflects
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  what you want to be and the voice you want to have.
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  Because when it gets really tough and then when you're like
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  exhausted and you, you know, are like, why am I doing this?
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  You know, you got to be able to like have that connected to
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  something internally with any of like, I know why I'm doing this.
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  I know what's keeping me going and I'm like connected to this
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  and. That's a really good point
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  because I think being an entrepreneur, and coffee in
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  particular, other times it's hard.
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  Yeah, it's harder. You could make more money doing
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  something else, probably. Yes.
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  Oh yeah, we're not in this worth of money like.
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  You gotta have like this drive to get there for whatever
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  reason. Yeah, which I always appreciate.
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  Yeah. How can people find 3 keys,
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  shops, websites? I mean, how do they support you?
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  Yeah. So if you are in the Houston
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  area, we've got a shop that's downtown at 712 Main St.
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  It's in a food hall called the Finn.
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  And we also have our roastery and we've got a little window
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  there so you can come and get some drinks at that location
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  too. But for 85% of our customers are
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  outside of the city of Houston. Oh wow.
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  Because they find usonlineso3keyscoffee.com.
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  You can also find us there, as well as Trader Joe's, Whole
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  Foods and Walmart. Perfect.
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  Yeah, I will definitely check it out at the Whole Foods before I
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  leave town when I restock for the drive.
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  Anything that we missed today, Kendall?
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  I think you covered a lot. I appreciate you inviting me
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  here and having this conversation.
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  I was so excited. I think this is just the first
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  time that we're meeting because if I'm not mistaken, you'll be
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  in Portland for a coffee fest. Oh, I am.
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  Yeah, and you're speaking? I am.
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  I might be a moderator, OK or somewhere involved in in that.
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  Particular fest, I'm really looking forward to that because
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  I get to talk about my craft in this industry, which is not
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  roasting and it's not making drinks, but it's in the business
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  side. I love it.
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  I feel like that is all, you know, I'm always like
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  everybody's got their lane and I respect the roasters deeply.
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  I respect the baristas deeply. Everybody, you know, all folks
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  in the chain. It's like you gotta have the
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  business mindset that like keep it going and everything.
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  And that's where I know that I've been able to blend my
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  expertise and, and create the opportunities for, for folks on
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  my team. So yeah, we're, we're, I'm gonna
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  talk about the business side of of roasting.
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  We'll stay tuned for that for sure.
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  Yeah. Kendall, welcome and thank you
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  for joining the show. I don't want to put you too much
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  on the spot. Before we go, what does Tio do?
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  Oh, so Tio is a he actually, he still works his day job.
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  He's a mechanical engineer. He works on airs, an LNG
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  pipeline project that he's on with an, with an energy company.
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  And it's free time. He's still, you know, green
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  buying and quality assurance And, you know, we're also
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  carrots. So we're like, that's why I was
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  like, yeah, no free time at all. But he'll be around.
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  He'll he's popping around this weekend.
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  So you'll see him. I'll tell him to stop by.
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  I can't wait to meet him. Thank you, Kenzel.
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  I appreciate your time. This was fun, thanks.
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  Good. Yeah, I'm glad that's it.
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  OK, super easy. None.
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  Thank. You.