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Coffee People with Jillian Quint from Deltina Coffee Roasters. · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:23
  Sliding into your screen is not just any coffee bag, it's a
• 0:27
  Rostar coffee bag. No mean thousands personalized,
• 0:31
  just 25 in Rostar's design lab. No design experience needed.
• 0:35
  Choose a pattern, add your logo and text, or create something
• 0:40
  memorable. With AI being made in the
• 0:43
  Midwest, you can expect it on your doorstep in no time.
• 0:47
  Now that was smooth. At some point I'll say I'll have
• 1:16
  you introduce yourself. OK, you can look right.
• 1:18
  Up the phone, but I always have this little thing that I read at
• 1:21
  the beginning of every show called.
• 1:23
  Hello everyone, Welcome to the Coffee People podcast.
• 1:26
  I'm your host, Ryan Wolt. This show is presented by Rostar
• 1:30
  Coffee Packaging found online at rostar.com.
• 1:34
  I'm here on the free coffee tour, which is part of our Roast
• 1:37
  West Coast newsletter with our guest today, Jillian Quince.
• 1:42
  Hi, Jillian. Could you tell everyone where we
• 1:45
  are and what the name of your coffee shop is?
• 1:48
  So we are in Del Tina Coffee Roasters.
• 1:51
  We are in our San Luis Obispo, CA location.
• 1:54
  We have a second location in Oceano, California.
• 1:57
  Oceano is where our roastery is, and then this is a dedicated
• 2:01
  cafe. And I had talked to your
• 2:03
  husband, Jack, when it was just the Oceano and this was still
• 2:07
  kind of out there in the world. How is this spot different from
• 2:11
  the original spot which I passed on the highway up?
• 2:15
  It, it they, so they both have incredibly different vibes.
• 2:19
  There's, I mean, they're all still founded in the fact that
• 2:22
  we're a roastery at the end of the day, it's our coffee, it's
• 2:24
  our organic coffee, it's our specialty coffee.
• 2:28
  But this is definitely because it's a dedicated Cafe.
• 2:30
  You see more food options, you see, and where this location
• 2:34
  happens to be a lot closer to a college campus, we're right next
• 2:37
  to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. So we get a lot more student
• 2:40
  traffic in here, a lot of people, more people walking to
• 2:44
  the shop as opposed to parking. Whereas the Oceano store, it's a
• 2:47
  dedicated roastery. It's very industrial inside.
• 2:51
  This one is bright and white and all the things, whereas that one
• 2:55
  has kind of, it's more Moody and it certainly has darker Moody,
• 2:59
  Moody. I would Moody industrial if
• 3:01
  that, if that's the thing, it's. Like a it's a question.
• 3:04
  It's like a roastery questioning itself.
• 3:06
  What it wants to be potentially maybe maybe it's chameleon in a
• 3:11
  way, but like they're the theme. It's everything is kind of black
• 3:16
  and white as kind of our main theme.
• 3:17
  And then we have an unofficial like green slash teal for our
• 3:21
  colors. We're still building some
• 3:23
  branding, but yes, so that particular because it's an
• 3:28
  exposed ceiling in that location.
• 3:30
  So there's concrete floors. So definitely has more of an
• 3:34
  earthiness to it, whereas this is definitely feels more of a
• 3:37
  like a cafe. Well, I came in and I
• 3:39
  immediately went back to my car, grabbed my laptop and like sat
• 3:42
  down because it felt like the kind of place I would do that.
• 3:45
  As we're sitting here, there's students kind of walking in and
• 3:47
  out behind the camera. Over here.
• 3:51
  You mentioned branding. I I've always known it as Del
• 3:55
  Tina, but there was a different name before that.
• 3:57
  Where did the name Del Tina come from?
• 4:00
  And if I'm not mistaken, it's a throwback to this region.
• 4:03
  Yes. So yes, we had to change our
• 4:05
  name. That was an unfortunate mishap.
• 4:08
  But so Quintessa was the original name.
• 4:12
  The the new name is Del Tina Coffee Roasters.
• 4:17
  Del Tina is actually named after Oceano.
• 4:20
  When we were on the quest for a new name, we did want to kind of
• 4:27
  throw back to the Oceano area. The Oceano community was one of
• 4:32
  one of the reasons why we survived COVID, and so it felt
• 4:35
  like a proper homage to them to include them somehow in the new
• 4:38
  name. We found through the trade
• 4:40
  marking process and a bunch of different things that using a
• 4:43
  city as a name is very difficult if if able to do it all.
• 4:49
  But Del Tina was actually one of the original names they
• 4:51
  considered for Oceano. Oh, that's interesting.
• 4:54
  So one of the local historians has a newspaper article from
• 4:58
  1892 where they go through the different names that they're
• 5:02
  considering. Oceano was one of the names they
• 5:04
  were considering. Deltino is one of the names.
• 5:06
  And then they had a third that I don't quite remember.
• 5:09
  I don't remember the third, but they ultimately chose Oceano.
• 5:14
  Deltina was the reason why Deltina was considered is
• 5:19
  because Oceano is actually a delta.
• 5:23
  It's where the Pismo and the Oceano creeks meet.
• 5:27
  And so it forms Little Delta and they go out to the ocean.
• 5:30
  That's where the name Deltina comes from.
• 5:32
  Then as far as relating it back to the shop, coffee shops are
• 5:37
  where two people meet. And so it fit really well into,
• 5:41
  yes, it was the very first full circle moment to have that
• 5:44
  realization of, oh, we can still name it after this community,
• 5:48
  but then also have it tie back into coffee as well.
• 5:51
  I have never been to this community before yesterday.
• 5:55
  I went camping last night at his Lake Creek campground.
• 5:58
  Unbelievable. I recommend it to anyone coming
• 6:02
  in. How does like this area, which
• 6:07
  I, it feels a little sleepy, like when I'm driving in just as
• 6:11
  an outsider, you know, how does how do you build community in
• 6:15
  that? What did they accept you right
• 6:17
  away? I know that you had spent time,
• 6:19
  I think in the Midwest, in Chicago and other places, and
• 6:21
  came back here. Yes.
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  What has been the challenge of building community and getting
• 6:26
  them to trust you? That that is, you probably hit
• 6:30
  the nail on one of the number one challenges, especially for
• 6:32
  this particular area. Well, to answer your first
• 6:35
  question, it's the sleepy. There's a reason why slow is the
• 6:38
  nickname for the area that that not only the San Luis Obispo
• 6:42
  abbreviation, but it does. There is certainly there's a
• 6:45
  lifestyle, it feels slower than normal.
• 6:50
  And then in terms of the second part of your question, and we
• 6:54
  actually it was our local Chamber of Commerce that really
• 6:57
  helped us introduce us to other business owners in the area.
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  It was attending networking events because we did not have
• 7:05
  any foundation in this area. I did grow up near here.
• 7:08
  I did go to school in San Luis Obispo, but my network had more
• 7:12
  or less gone by that point. So in terms of where we started
• 7:15
  the business in Oceano, it was really had to be a natural
• 7:20
  growth. It had to be us meeting
• 7:23
  different individuals and just really getting to know the area.
• 7:28
  And that was how we essentially got our It helped in Oceano to
• 7:35
  be the only coffee shop in Oceano, and it's the first
• 7:38
  coffee shop in Oceano in all of its existence.
• 7:40
  So that helped with the Oceano community.
• 7:44
  But then in terms of going beyond the Oceano community and
• 7:47
  building the other cities around that area, it took a lot more of
• 7:51
  a networking effort to do that and producing a good product was
• 7:56
  helpful. So word of mouth has been our
• 7:59
  biggest in terms of this store and the newer store.
• 8:03
  We have to then redo that for the city of Slow.
• 8:07
  And so it's going to take a lot more networking on our part to
• 8:10
  get people to know about our product and know that we are
• 8:14
  producing a high quality, good tasting organic product that you
• 8:20
  don't necessarily find on a grocery shelf.
• 8:24
  Not to get too personal, you can tell me to shut up or we can
• 8:27
  clip it if you like. When you started the first shop,
• 8:31
  were you a mom at that time? You were.
• 8:34
  And I think since you've had more, you're more of a mom, yes,
• 8:38
  not more of a mom. That's a more often or both.
• 8:43
  So the right terminology to use here.
• 8:46
  You're, you're correct. That's the answer, yes.
• 8:49
  So when we actually, when we started the, the business in
• 8:51
  Oceania, we had three children all under the age of 6, so 6 and
• 8:55
  under. Wow.
• 8:57
  And month after we opened that shop, we got pregnant with
• 9:03
  twins. So we went from three to five
• 9:07
  within the first year of the business.
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  And then we had five kids 6 and under at one point when we
• 9:14
  started so. But at some point, isn't it just
• 9:16
  like an extra bottle or an extra bowl at all?
• 9:19
  I don't have kids, so I'm coming at it from a totally different
• 9:21
  perspective. That was certainly a challenge
• 9:24
  because I felt like I added not 2 babies, but three babies to to
• 9:27
  the house between the business and the twins.
• 9:32
  And then COVID hit within two months of having the twins.
• 9:35
  So there was a lot, there was a lot going on in a very short
• 9:38
  period of time. But yes, and actually that I had
• 9:42
  to step away from the business originally.
• 9:45
  And Jack ran the business for the first four plus years
• 9:49
  because I was, I had little tiny humans that needed me.
• 9:53
  We had I had to home school and it just made more sense from a
• 9:56
  business perspective to let him dedicate his time to the
• 9:59
  business and me to dedicate time at home got a little messy
• 10:03
  sometimes when we were trying to go back and forth and share the
• 10:06
  responsibility. And so it was just a lot easier
• 10:10
  to me continue to mom and him continue to work the business.
• 10:12
  Easier logistically, but I would imagine not emotionally because.
• 10:16
  Certainly not. Him.
• 10:17
  He's spending time away from his kids, correct?
• 10:19
  You're spending time. You are.
• 10:20
  Male and the other kid, which is the business which I know you
• 10:23
  get very attached and these are your people.
• 10:26
  Yes, yes. So making a smart decision for
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  the the business doesn't always the smart decision for you,
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  correct? Person so there was certainly a
• 10:35
  lot of navigating and a lot of evolving.
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  I think that that's been one of the bigger blessings of having a
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  small business and having five children and kind of having to
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  roll with the punches on a lot of most days.
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  You do you evolve as a person and you learn certain coping
• 10:55
  mechanisms and then you have to learn how to deal with the
• 10:57
  emotional stuff. And so I think for Jack and I
• 11:00
  specifically, it's been a blessing in disguise in some
• 11:03
  regards because we've been able to work through a lot.
• 11:06
  Well, you survived a very challenging period.
• 11:09
  You mentioned surviving COVID and I, I kind of look at it as
• 11:12
  surviving COVID phase one because I don't feel like we've
• 11:15
  quite pushed beyond, if we ever will.
• 11:20
  It has certainly changed the way the world operates.
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  It has changed the way built a business is hire.
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  It's changed the way businesses fire.
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  It's it gives us pause and certain business decisions and
• 11:40
  the now certainly health standards.
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  There's just all sorts of there's so many different facets
• 11:45
  that COVID has changed and I don't, I don't even, you know,
• 11:59
  the next question. Sure, yeah.
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  It's a tough, it's a tough thing, I think with COVID and I
• 12:05
  just close it out by saying, I know for me it still impacts me
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  every day, even though I don't think about it necessarily every
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  day. And then all of a sudden it's
• 12:14
  like, oh, wait a minute, this is different because of that.
• 12:16
  And I spent my career in hospitality pre COVID.
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  And so even now as I talk about, oh, I'm going to maybe get back
• 12:24
  into it, you know, well, do I do I, that's a different
• 12:28
  perspective. You're, you're running this
• 12:33
  business. I've been sitting in here for an
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  hour or two. You have employees that you
• 12:38
  trust. I'm wondering, you've got your
• 12:41
  family at home and you have your family here.
• 12:44
  How much overlap is there now? You know, are these, have they
• 12:49
  been, are they coming to Thanksgiving?
• 12:50
  You know, especially college students like what's how do you
• 12:54
  manage like having a much bigger extended family?
• 12:58
  Yeah, If we, if we do that, we have about an extended family of
• 13:01
  20, yes, because we have any at any even point in time probably
• 13:06
  between 12 and 14 employees. And then we have our obviously
• 13:09
  our family of seven. So yeah, it's, it feels a lot
• 13:11
  bigger. the IT changes depending on there's, there's always
• 13:18
  different employee situations. I do feel like that the staff
• 13:23
  that we have currently, they're great at working together.
• 13:28
  It does allow me in some cases when I do have to be a little
• 13:31
  hands off to be hands off because they communicate really
• 13:34
  well. But yeah, every and actually,
• 13:38
  it's funny you bring this up right now, we actually are
• 13:40
  losing five of our employees. End of the.
• 13:43
  School year, end of the school year, they're they're all
• 13:45
  graduating, they're all moving on.
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  Each of the five employees started with us when we
• 13:51
  originally started in this location.
• 13:53
  And so they've been with us for two years and they, they feel
• 13:57
  like my babies. And so I, yeah, it's really hard
• 14:00
  to say goodbye to them. And I mean, it's hard to turn
• 14:03
  over the staff too, but it's more about them going and us
• 14:08
  missing kind of a part of our family.
• 14:10
  But I'm excited. They live all over the the
• 14:13
  United States. And so we'll have plenty of
• 14:15
  people to go visit. Sure.
• 14:17
  And they become part of the Tree of Altina coffee, Correct.
• 14:20
  Whatever they go out and do in the world, this is part of their
• 14:23
  story. Yes, which is exciting.
• 14:25
  I'm wondering if you have any advice for people watching who
• 14:30
  may want to start a small business.
• 14:32
  They want to work with a partner.
• 14:34
  That's a pretty common theme in theory.
• 14:37
  Any and or just any general life advice that you know has helped
• 14:40
  you through getting this going and succeeding I.
• 14:44
  Can speak to so many different facets of.
• 14:51
  I can make the question broader if you like.
• 14:54
  I think you started off pretty well.
• 14:57
  The biggest Speaking specifically to the partner part
• 15:01
  of the question, I think trust is the biggest need that needs
• 15:11
  it. It's it's what makes the
• 15:13
  relationship work. If you can't trust, if there's
• 15:16
  any inkling of not being able to trust your partner, that could
• 15:20
  lead to some pretty because trust is the, the kind of the
• 15:25
  fundamental step of how you trust.
• 15:28
  Even in a normal conversation, it gets beyond like the money
• 15:30
  side of the trust and beyond the business side of the trust.
• 15:33
  You have to be able to to have conversations with that person.
• 15:36
  If you don't feel that you can trust yourself to have a
• 15:40
  conversation with that person or you don't trust what they are
• 15:43
  feeding back to you, that would be one of my biggest red flags.
• 15:47
  So in terms of a partnership, trust is huge.
• 15:50
  I think having, I mean, my husband and I are proof that
• 15:54
  working styles can be very different and you can still be
• 15:58
  successful at it. But having making sure that your
• 16:03
  bigger goals are also in line with the other.
• 16:06
  And then also knowing that those are going to evolve over time as
• 16:11
  businesses evolve, as the world evolves, you constantly have to
• 16:16
  adapt and be at the forefront of that.
• 16:19
  And so having a partner that's willing to adapt with you is
• 16:24
  critical. And checking in with each other
• 16:27
  if those. Because if your goals change,
• 16:28
  but you don't actually have that conversation, correct?
• 16:31
  And that gets back to the trust, right?
• 16:32
  You have to be able to trust that you can have that
• 16:36
  conversation and both parties be honest in that conversation or,
• 16:41
  or or know when to walk away. That's the other piece of it is
• 16:45
  that if you know that you can't evolve with somebody, you have
• 16:49
  to know when to walk away. So trusting yourself and
• 16:52
  trusting the person you're working I'm.
• 16:53
  Shaking my head because I'm terrible at The Walking away.
• 16:56
  I want to solve the problem now and move on with my life.
• 17:00
  Yes, but sometimes my partner needs time to marinate.
• 17:05
  Yes. And that means Jack and I are
• 17:07
  the exact same way. He's the one that typically
• 17:10
  needs to marinate and I'm the one that needs to solve it now.
• 17:12
  And that's again when I talked about the things that we learned
• 17:16
  from this business, that was one of the things that we ultimately
• 17:19
  had to learn and confront. And then now we're in a good
• 17:23
  place with it. Well, I'm glad to hear that.
• 17:27
  What's coming up next for Deltina?
• 17:29
  Is there anything else on the future?
• 17:31
  Yes. So this we're at a kind of a
• 17:34
  critical part of our transition because now that the the twins
• 17:38
  that we had, they're now 5, they'll be 6 next year.
• 17:42
  So we're starting to pivot in our parenting life School, they
• 17:47
  are all in school this year, exciting thanks to California's
• 17:50
  TK transitional kindergarten program.
• 17:52
  They're all in school this year. So they will, Yeah.
• 17:56
  So they'll all be in school again next year.
• 17:59
  And so we're starting to pivot in our parenting, which is
• 18:02
  allowing us to spend more time with the business.
• 18:06
  And so we're hoping to make a lot of updates to the business
• 18:10
  that they were always intended from the beginning.
• 18:12
  But because again, small families, small businesses, time
• 18:16
  constraints, side hustles, side gigs, all the things we, we
• 18:23
  haven't made some of the changes that we had intended to.
• 18:25
  So there we like one of the things I've been wanting to do
• 18:28
  is make our own syrups. That was always intended from
• 18:31
  the beginning. So I would, that's one of my
• 18:33
  goals for probably end of next year is to develop recipes for
• 18:38
  all of our syrups. We're actually, we just signed a
• 18:42
  new contract to update all of our reporting systems.
• 18:48
  So we're going to be using a more comprehensive program now
• 18:51
  that fits the specific needs of the Cafe versus using kind of a
• 18:56
  generic one that fits multiple people's needs.
• 19:02
  We are constantly developing our roasters choice.
• 19:07
  So this is something that we had, again, intended from the
• 19:09
  beginning and finally just now this year starting to dabble.
• 19:13
  So there's going to be a lot of design work happening and a lot
• 19:15
  of things to launch a full on roasters choice.
• 19:18
  And so I'm hoping by next year, we'll have four quarters of
• 19:22
  roasters choice, which is a huge deal for us.
• 19:26
  And so, yeah, there's all sorts of little things in the works.
• 19:30
  I am. Is there anything specific that
• 19:32
  you're curious? About, I mean, I always just
• 19:35
  think it's interesting, you know, there's a theory that like
• 19:38
  you have to keep growing and growing and growing, but
• 19:41
  sometimes growing doesn't mean necessarily a new building or a
• 19:44
  new space or a new business. It just means doing what you're
• 19:47
  doing, which is adjusting, yes, and improving and trying to be
• 19:50
  better yes, more efficient. Yes, yes and yeah, evolving.
• 19:55
  I think we're evolving the business right now.
• 19:57
  That's the best way to to describe the changes that are on
• 20:00
  the horizon. This store was one of our big
• 20:04
  growth like in terms of expanding the footprint of the
• 20:07
  business. And so now we're continuing to
• 20:11
  try and push forward and work through because what we learned
• 20:14
  opening this business is that our customer base was completely
• 20:17
  different, which means we needed to adapt all of the products
• 20:21
  that we had in the one location for this particular location.
• 20:25
  And so those are all things we've learned over the last
• 20:27
  couple of years. And so that also then needs to
• 20:29
  continue. Sure.
• 20:32
  Probably the most important question when you go to a coffee
• 20:36
  shop, what are you going to order?
• 20:40
  I so I usually stick to an oat milk cappuccino.
• 20:42
  I I love a good cappuccino. I dairy sensitive so oat milk is
• 20:47
  my default. I'm dairy sensitive too, but I
• 20:51
  grew up in Wisconsin so I just want to power through.
• 20:54
  Yes. And I mean, I grew up in the
• 20:56
  Central Valley and that was that, yes.
• 20:58
  So there are times where I do have to power through but.
• 21:01
  I have gotten in trouble because I have said that I think West
• 21:05
  Coast cheese is as good or better than Wisconsin's, but I
• 21:08
  can't say that when I'm home. And I hope that no one is
• 21:11
  watching this, but I have. I've really grown to love some
• 21:15
  of our local cheeses. Out there I've Jack and I have
• 21:20
  lived all over the country and I each area has a little bit of
• 21:26
  something that somehow they do better than like you said the
• 21:30
  Wisconsin fruits cheese, but. We have cheese curds which are
• 21:33
  better. Correct.
• 21:35
  No. Question.
• 21:36
  Squeaky cheek skirts in particular.
• 21:38
  Hot right off the line. Unbelievable.
• 21:40
  We used to live in Chicago and we would shoot up to Wisconsin a
• 21:43
  lot. Did I miss anything?
• 21:47
  Anything else you want to say to anyone?
• 21:50
  Oh gosh, no, I can't. Well, I can't think of anything
• 21:55
  off the top of my head. I guess if, if my kids hear this
• 21:57
  one day, if my husband hears this one day.
• 21:59
  I love you guys. Thank you.
• 22:03
  We would not be here without you guys and this is all for you
• 22:07
  guys. And so we can't wait to really
• 22:10
  share this with you guys when you get older.
• 22:12
  I thought you might say you were going to expand one shop for
• 22:15
  each kid to take over when they graduate.
• 22:18
  Who knows, it could be in the. Works.
• 22:23
  That's coffee, people. For today, head to
• 22:25
  roastwestcoast.com. You'll find coffee, context,
• 22:29
  more stuff, links to Del Tina, and some information about this
• 22:32
  area in this shop. Until next time, thank you for
• 22:36
  drinking good coffee and please tip your baristas.
• 22:40
  Cheers. The.
• 23:29
  That's it. Awesome.
• 23:31
  You have a wonderful laugh. Oh, thank you.
• 23:34
  You're welcome. It's it's like so uplifting.
• 23:37
  Thank you. I appreciate that.
• 23:38
  Yeah, no worries. Testing.
• 24:41
  Testing 1-2. Testing 1-2.
• 25:23
  I noticed, sorry I because I stare at people a lot, I start
• 25:27
  to notice things. When you're thinking, your eyes
• 25:30
  flutter. Did you know?
• 25:32
  Do they really? Yeah, I didn't know that.
• 25:34
  Like it's very, very subtle, but they but really quickly and it's
• 25:38
  just kind of a I've. Never known that before.
• 25:40
  Like when you were processing it would, I'd be like, oh, she's
• 25:43
  coming up with something right now.
• 25:44
  Oh. That's super interesting.