Coffee, Culture and Leadership with Travis Rivera (007‪)‬ Way To Greatness

Love coffee even more, appreciate failures, and embrace leadership through the inspiring story of Black and Brass Coffee. Know the secrets on how to establish connection and maintain a good relationship between business owners and customers in order to achieve success.


Show Highlights

2:18 (Ari)- I have some questions for you and one of them was about the decor, how that turned out to be something now that we've started talking about that lets you know, just have it out. You said you started off with very little budget and you chose that decor based on your budget which makes a lot of sense and I think it looks really nice. Actually. If you look on places like Craigslist and stuff like that you often see that people are selling furniture like that and for somewhat premium prices .....


2:56 (Travis)- Well, a lot of it was not just budget also to upcycle. So I wanted to Black and Brass was kinda founded on being ecologically friendly as well as having pretty coffee that we roast onsite...


3:38 (Ari) - Ahh you're Black and Brass coffee roaster is really awesome,
I have to say


3:43 (Ari) - Travis told me he showed me the machine while I was there. He told me that that she actually was custom-made to fall right in with the whole black and Brass name, correct?


3:50 (Travis) - Actually, the machine is the namesake. When I said it out loud when we were talking about the machine, it will you know, can it be black and brass and as soon as I said it was the name..


4:11 (Ari) - Yeah, and then also by your Countertop you also have a very interesting Decor over there as well where you have I think the Black and Bress name set up underneath that piece of glass. If I remember it correctly. You want to describe that a little bit ?


4:23 (Travis) - It's all made out of copper, pieces of copper. Years ago I used to be a smoker and when I quit I needed something tangible to kind of help me in my nicotine withdrawal.


5:24 (Ari) - When I quit smoking I actually I found these cinnamon flavored tea tree infused toothpicks. Now, I don't use them anymore. But like the first months, 3 months 6 months 12 months.


5:50 (Ari) - I checked out some of your materials on your website. You say you have a family history of coffee. Can you tell me about that?


5:54 (Travis) - Yeah, my great grandfather. Well, my grandfather came from Puerto Rico and his family were coffee growers in Puerto Rico and when my grandfather died his family members came out all but the worst my grandmother's signed over the right to family property...


7:54 (Travis) - Coffee is such an inexpensive commodity that why wouldn't you have the best?


8:06 (Travis) - Take a moment to appreciate all the things that are good and have a bit of gratitude.


8:18 (Ari) - Yeah way back when I used to live with a group of Israelis and one of the people in the house his morning ritual and I don't I've done this before and it's amazing when I do it. I don't do it all the time and I should do it more often, but he would get his drink in the morning. I don't remember if it ended up being coffee or tea or whatever it was and you would just sit down in a dark room...


9:30 (Ari) - When I was in Pennsylvania I ended up in your store and I was trying to figure out who's this guy working at the counter and it took me a little bit but I think we I don't remember if it was through conversation or through other stuff, but I realized that you were the owner of the store. Can you tell our listeners why you decided to work behind the counter that day?


10:13 (Travis) - Well, when I opened up we were open for four days a week, I was the only person on the team. I work at I searched every latte at work every cup of coffee and the three days that we are closed, I was working as a carpenter. So in those early days, I was working seven days a week still working seven days a week...


13:30 (Ari) - I recall in that conversation that we have had at your front counter that we had started ta