My Coffee Story

I recently announced a personal re-brand, which is a weird but cool new journey for me.

I’m Will Frith, Coffee Coach.

Coaching isn’t a new paradigm for me, but it is a space where I’m only just learning that I can best provide the advice, guidance, and technical expertise people ask from me all the time.

One of the realizations that’s dawned on me since opening Building Coffee is:

You can’t scale a person.

As much as I want to help, collaborate, innovate, and provide support, there are only so many hours in my day.

So, what’s the solution?

Turns out, it’s very on trend; it’s content.

It’s what people have been asking me for all this time - more blogs, more courses, more newsletters, and more of what I already love to do - read, talk, and learn about coffee.

Maybe you already know my story, but if you don’t, here it is:

In my early 30s I was drifting around without much purpose in my life. Don’t get me wrong - I was having fun, learning a lot, traveling, and growing as a person. But I had yet to find my thing.

I had always found joy in working - construction with my dad, behind the bar at a coffee shop, playing in a band - but I craved novelty and left jobs when I felt there was nothing left to learn about.

I also sort of accepted that I’d always be part of the service class; someone typically not looked up to, but rather someone who did for others. And that was okay, I guess, because I really do love serving. But it was also not really fulfilling or inspiring in the long-run.

When I moved to Olympia, Washington in 2007 I applied for a few jobs but didn’t get anywhere until Jessie Duvall at Batdorf & Bronson took a chance on me. I’d applied for a barista position but she wondered if I’d be interested in a job in their roastery as a production assistant. After all, I had experience in manual labor and as a barista.

Sure, I replied, why not?

What happened next changed the course of my life, took me around the world twice, and connected me with my cultural roots in Vietnam.

At Batdorf & Bronson (now known as Dancing Goats Coffee) I learned that coffee is an entire world. It touches nearly everything - agriculture, biology, economics, history, sociology, chemistry, anthropology - all of it. I spent the next six years in Olympia learning from Oliver Stormshak and Heather Ringwood, my two early champions and mentors, and I became a barista trainer, then a quality control specialist and roaster at Olympia Coffee.

I never applied for a job again.

Eventually I’d start an entirely new coffee chapter in Vietnam, spend time in Singapore, work for an espresso machine manufacturer, and build my own company from scratch.

Every opportunity that’s come to me since 2007 has been because someone in HR at a seminal coffee company saw potential in me and took a risk.

And in my career I’ve sought to do the same thing for others.

Coffee has endless potential to excite and challenge me; I never get bored, and I just keep learning. It’s my goal to keep growing and sharing what I learn, because this industry changed my life.