Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Jean Brillman, White Horse Coffee Roasters

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Jean Brillman, White Horse Coffee Roasters · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:01
  Where are you based? We're right outside.
• 0:02
  Field level. Oh, OK.
• 0:04
  Yeah, Speaking of which, we haven't met.
• 0:05
  Yes. Hello, welcome to the Coffee
• 0:09
  People podcast, Coffee Fest 2026 espresso round.
• 0:13
  I memorized that we are here with Gene.
• 0:17
  Brillman of Wade Horse coffee and drinking.
• 0:49
  Hey everyone, Ryan Wolf from Coffee People podcast here.
• 0:52
  We recently were. In New York.
• 0:54
  City for Coffee Fest and now we are in Colorado, which is why we
• 0:58
  are not doing a normal introductory recording.
• 1:01
  Please check out coffee peoplepodcast.com and enjoy all
• 1:05
  of these video clips from the Coffee Fest event in New York in
• 1:11
  March of 2026. And while you're doing that, I'm
• 1:15
  going to get a cup of coffee. About, I was just so nervous
• 1:22
  about, I don't know. It's just you never know.
• 1:25
  Like, you do a whole thing and then people are like, oh, we
• 1:29
  forgot to press the button. Let's do you know, like, oh God.
• 1:31
  Well, that time like presentation, that's why I got
• 1:33
  here so early this morning 'cause I was like scared that it
• 1:36
  was, you know, that like patients aren't going to work.
• 1:39
  Something couldn't book in, I'm not the file's not going to
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  open. So I'm here super early in the
• 1:43
  morning and there's literally no coffee at at 7:00.
• 1:47
  AM. That's right.
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  So that's why Mill City, yeah. And there and.
• 1:51
  This I did have a little bit. There were some samples that
• 1:55
  then opened up. Yeah, that's.
• 1:58
  But I have. My little hands, coffee, I
• 2:01
  always, I always worry that I'm not going to have coffee, but
• 2:05
  then I feel like it becomes a crutch.
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  So like when I'm talking to people, if I have the coffee in
• 2:10
  my hand, I'm much more comfortable.
• 2:12
  It is it. Is doing this stuff right?
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  Yeah, yeah, it's. A coffee, it's like a it kind of
• 2:18
  is that little crutch. I mean I need it.
• 2:21
  Before. Oh see, I don't need the
• 2:24
  caffeine. It doesn't affect me in any way,
• 2:29
  no. Now at sometimes at these
• 2:31
  events, if I drink all day, I'll feel buzzy maybe a little bit at
• 2:36
  the end by. Like 3-4 o'clock.
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  Yeah, but that's like an unusual thing.
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  But like coffee in the morning doesn't wake me up, doesn't
• 2:43
  change my day in any way. It's.
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  The if it's the caffeine or if it's the actual like experience
• 2:49
  of the coffee that I. And the routine, yeah, yeah,
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  because. I have to have, but I so I I
• 2:56
  love my coffee so much that I actually forced myself to work
• 2:59
  out first. Oh wow, like.
• 3:01
  OK, you want that coffee, you got it.
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  You got to work out first and then you can have your coffee
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  experience. And that's how I get myself to
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  work out. I hit an age where I'm like, I
• 3:09
  work out twice a week. That's.
• 3:11
  Good. And I'm pretty happy with that.
• 3:13
  That's good. I'm OK with it.
• 3:15
  Listen as. Long as you're getting out
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  there, you're getting. Selected.
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  I have 3 drawers in the bedroom, one for each size that I end up
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  throughout the year. It just kind of depends on the
• 3:26
  month and my activity levels. And I just.
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  I've just learned to adjust. I used to get rid of clothes
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  when I'd go down. Yeah, but I've learned.
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  No, you just save those in the bottom drawer and then you come
• 3:37
  back around. I don't.
• 3:39
  I feel like guys can do that. Yeah, guys could, totally.
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  Because all they all look the same.
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  Yeah, and the clothes. Are all the same yeah.
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  And then we've got like, so I'm normally like very low when you
• 3:51
  dress down. Like this would be my normal
• 3:53
  joggers as hoodie. Yeah, easy.
• 3:55
  Like, you know, see, I never, I literally don't wear heels.
• 3:59
  I only wear fingers. So this was a struggle.
• 4:03
  To do this, yeah. Put together like an.
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  Outfit. Normally on the show I wear a
• 4:07
  blazer for events. Wow.
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  But I'm at I'm at the bottom drawer right now and so my
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  blazer doesn't fit properly because I bought all of my
• 4:18
  Blazers at the same time. OK.
• 4:20
  And my, you know, I even have a tux jacket, but they're all 42
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  regulars and I'm not a 42 regular today, so maybe.
• 4:28
  You will be if you're up at 2 days.
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  A week, a couple months from now, Summertime, we'll.
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  Sell. Yeah, we're all more active.
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  Just calm zone. I know we're all dying when my.
• 4:35
  Daughter's like, so my daughter's been golf.
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  They're like. Oh, OK, golfers.
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  Yeah, your mom. We just need.
• 4:43
  To get outside. Gotta go outside, yeah?
• 4:45
  Where are you based? We're right outside.
• 4:47
  Field level. Oh, OK.
• 4:48
  Yeah, speaking which we haven't met.
• 4:50
  Yes, hello, welcome to the Coffee People podcast Coffee
• 4:55
  Fest 2026 espresso round. I memorized that we are here
• 5:00
  with Gene. Roman White Horse Coffee in
• 5:03
  Jenkintown. White Horse coffee where?
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  Jenkintown. Jenkintown so.
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  Right outside of. Philadelphia and you were here
• 5:10
  this morning doing a talk. What was it talk about?
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  It's. Called From Dream to Steam,
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  navigating for sugar coffee shop and it's all basically about the
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  things that you'll encounter in your first.
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  Year and is this something that you do regularly or is it just
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  because you have the experience of being in the first year of a
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  coffee shop? Yeah, so I, you know, I've done
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  this session, I've done here at Coffee Fest.
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  I think this is my sixth year. So I started coming to Coffee
• 5:36
  Fest before I even opened. When they cut it in Baltimore,
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  that's OK existing. So I think it was only one year
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  in Baltimore than they brought. For years.
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  It's because Baltimore is haunted.
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  Can't go back. I loved that coffee fest.
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  Oh, really? So I hadn't been to that one.
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  I. Don't know if it was because it
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  was like my first ever coffee fest or and it was so I was
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  like, it was funny. I had my kids were really little
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  and, and they're 18 months apart.
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  So it's like they were very little and there were two of
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  them, which is a lot. And it was the first time I left
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  and like went away. Oh.
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  And I was like, this is amazing. I seen the hotel.
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  I got to go to Baltimore. I went out to dinner by myself.
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  You slept alone. I slept.
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  By myself and I slept I saw and I have been really caffeinated,
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  you know, I was like drinking coffee from morning till night
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  and it was it was amazing. So that was the first one, but.
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  That's why the the talk that you gave this morning about the
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  first year of a coffee shop, I'm assuming it's about how to
• 6:35
  survive, not the other way around.
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  Yeah. Set up kind of how to how do I
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  always say that? My favorite quote is that smart
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  people learn from their mistakes, but really smart
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  people learn from other people's mistakes.
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  So it's kind of based around them.
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  Like, OK, mistakes, what I know, what I wish somebody told me,
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  just little tips and things of just how to get people in your
• 6:59
  shop, how to set up your shop. And then just little things that
• 7:03
  just little bits of wisdom, I guess that I learned theirs.
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  We were just talking off the show about coffee shops being
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  open when they say they're going to be open, Yes, it's a pet
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  peeve of mine. Do you have a piece of advice
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  for somebody who's starting a coffee shop about?
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  Yeah. So always keep your Google
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  business listing open and then also have good, consistent,
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  reliable staff that's going to show up on time and open your
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  coffee shop on time. That's then that can be
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  challenging especially. Oh yeah, I always like to think
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  that like if you find somebody who is reliable, you just reward
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  them because there's a lot of competition to get good
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  employees. Oh 100% and I've had ups and
• 7:53
  downs and downs of people and team.
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  My team now is incredible. I have the best team.
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  We're eight years in about now, and I think I've gotten it down
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  to a little bit of a science with what I wanna pick and who
• 8:07
  fits in our culture and who, yeah, just works well, is
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  consistent, reliable, hard working, and we have an amazing
• 8:15
  team, but they also have so much fun.
• 8:18
  So White Horse Coffee? Yeah, one shop, multiple shops.
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  So we are Cafe, OK and we're coffee roasting, OK.
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  So we have, we have two, we have a location that just does our
• 8:28
  roasting, which is our warehouse and roasting operation.
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  And then we have our Cafe and we are, we're very close to
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  classically in the next year or so opening a second location
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  that we've been kind of scouting and talking to people about so.
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  Very cool. How can people find the White
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  Horse coffee? Together posters.com, OK, the
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  main way and you can order a coffee there.
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  You can find a wholesale there, you can find another cafe there
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  maybe we can offer. So that's probably the best way.
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  And then we have a pretty good, pretty fun Instagram.
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  Actually. And TikTok, it's.
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  Pretty fun. And those are social media apps
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  that kids use. Sorry.
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  I know right? I don't do them.
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  Yeah, OK. Because I'm not in that.
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  I don't know. It doesn't work with me.
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  I hate doing, but I love watching.
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  But I love our staff and they did.
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  A great job on the airplane yesterday, the person sitting
• 9:23
  directly in front of me watched Instagram Reels for five hours.
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  Like to the point where I was watching them watch Instagram
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  reels because I just couldn't. I was like, this is the most
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  incredible focus I've ever seen from a person.
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  If I could focus on anything the way they focus on Instagram.
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  Like you can't take your eyes off.
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  The train, Yeah, it happens that long.
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  It's it's, it's crazy. I actually put an app on my
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  phone to stop me from doing that too much because you do, it's
• 9:52
  like addictive. Your brain gets addicted to it.
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  But our channel is really fun because it's just lots of fun
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  videos that the staff makes. They do, they'll do like on
• 10:01
  shift, like real baristas and Jacob Town kind of thing where
• 10:05
  they're on shift and they all Mike's on and all little funny
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  things that they'll say to. Each other.
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  That's fun. So it's a, it's a, it's fun.
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  We have a lot of fun. So we'll check that out.
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  Can you say that website again one more time?
• 10:16
  White Horse Coffee Roosters. OK, we'll check that out.
• 10:20
  Can I? You got time, like ask you one
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  more question. Why did you open a coffee shop
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  or a coffee roaster? So coffee.
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  So I actually started as a truck.
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  OK. And so White Horse comes from, I
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  was a competitive professional equestrian.
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  Oh, that's wild. It's.
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  Just crazy and I was. Horses are terrifying.
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  They're. They are.
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  Even as even. As a person who's not afraid of
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  them, they are very. Much.
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  So I get people's fear of horses, but I did that for as a,
• 10:51
  as a junior writer. So in my like teens and then in
• 10:53
  my 20s and kind of floated around and, you know, kind of
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  couldn't find the right fit. I was a teacher for a little
• 10:58
  while. Then when I met my husband, we
• 11:00
  knew we wanted to do business stuff.
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  So we kind of went through the motions with that.
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  And I'm still always in the horse world.
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  And I was doing a lot of more shows on the weekends.
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  And we were like, OK, we're gonna do a business.
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  What can we bring that I'm already there.
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  And like, what do we bring to the more shows?
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  Yeah. And so we did a coffee and ice
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  cream truck, and that's how we started the whole.
• 11:19
  Ice cream Smart? Yeah.
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  And it's been that like combo concept has been really.
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  Really. Well, that's amazing.
• 11:25
  Congratulations. It's.
• 11:27
  Been a fun, crazy welcome. Thank you for joining Coffee
• 11:31
  People, the espresso round at Coffee Fest New York 2026.
• 11:36
  Trying to remember where I am, I always ask people this on our
• 11:41
  regular show. But if you, if there was
• 11:44
  something that you wanted to pass on to people, anyone
• 11:47
  watching piece of advice could be life advice, coffee advice,
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  whatever it is something that's stuck with you that you look at
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  and say, oh, that's actually helped me along.
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  What would it be? No, I think that I'm very much
• 12:02
  an entrepreneur and I have that spirit about me and being a
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  country in whatever realm that is coffee or any other little,
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  you know, done for stuff and everything in my life.
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  And I think one of the big pieces of advice is anybody can
• 12:17
  open a business, but to actually like make it successful and keep
• 12:21
  it going, that's where you really have to like, you got to
• 12:24
  grind. You got to work hard.
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  You got to do anything and everything from, you know,
• 12:29
  cleaning toilets to fixing the carpeting that's coming up in
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  your doorway to making a latte to, you know, learning how to
• 12:37
  get your Wi-Fi back up and restarted.
• 12:39
  I mean it, I think, I think a lot of people think that owning
• 12:43
  a business is just, oh, I open a business and then, you know,
• 12:45
  you're just kind of staggering. You can't be stagnant as a
• 12:48
  necessary. It's going to be learning,
• 12:50
  changing, growing, and that's what I love about it.
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  But I think a lot of people get into the trap of I just said it
• 12:56
  and forget it. Yeah, just not the case of any.
• 12:59
  Business. In hospitality in particular, I
• 13:02
  always kept a spare set of clothes with me because I never
• 13:04
  knew what I was going to be doing.
• 13:06
  Yes. And you, I mean, you might be
• 13:08
  crawling around on a roof fixing an air conditioning unit.
• 13:11
  You might be cleaning up something that somebody left for
• 13:14
  you in a restroom. You just never.
• 13:16
  Yeah. And I think as the boss, I
• 13:19
  always felt like if I'm not willing to do it, then when I'm
• 13:24
  not around, my staff's not going to be willing to do it because
• 13:26
  they're going to see that example.
• 13:28
  And so that's something I always appreciate.
• 13:31
  Well, I really appreciate that you came on the show.
• 13:34
  Thank you so much. Thanks.
• 13:35
  For having me, this is super fun.
• 13:36
  I forgot this. A coffee buzz.
• 13:38
  This is it. This is for somebody who's been
• 13:40
  coming for a while. This is the first time.
• 13:43
  We'll check out your talk this afternoon.
• 13:45
  I think at 1:00. You won't see that because
• 13:49
  you're not here. And also this won't go out in
• 13:51
  the world to tell later. But cheers and thank you so
• 13:53
  much. Also thank you to Mill City for
• 13:56
  the coffee. Oh, yeah, great.
• 13:58
  Thank you. So.
• 14:09
  Much. The.