I'm Kyle. We are all Joe.
Joe was the name lovingly given to just about any person, object, and sometimes even a feeling when my grandfather couldn't get the name out. Sometimes he would lean into a room just to ask, "Y'all right, Joe?"
Eventually, everybody was Joe.
I spent nearly twenty years on the operating side before I became the person servicing the equipment.
I know the 5:30 AM call saying not to come in because the machine is down. I know what it feels like to be waiting on a service visit while the café still has to operate around the problem.
Then I went to work with Indie Coffee Roasters.
Indie handed me the wrench.
That changed the direction of my working life. I learned diagnostics and repair, Scheduled Maintenance, grinders, water filtration, installations, commissioning, wholesale logistics, and what it means to be responsible for the equipment instead of only depending on it.
You shouldn't have to become an equipment technician just because you run a café.
I know both sides of the wrench. My job is to handle the technical problem without making you carry all of the technical weight with me.
I still want you to understand what happened and why it matters.
Respect the person's time, money, trust, and friendship.
A longtime mentor and friend taught me that respecting someone means respecting their time, their money, and the friendship itself. A friend tells you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear.
I carried that lesson into service work. Sometimes the right answer is repair it. Sometimes it is fix the water first. Sometimes it is stop spending money on this machine. Sometimes it is do not buy the thing I could make money selling you.
The recommendation should be the one I believe is right for you, not simply the one easiest for me to sell.
I want you to understand why.
Documentation matters, but it does not replace explanation. When I leave, you should understand what failed, what I did, what still matters, and what I think the next decision should be.
The handshake still means something.
Knowing when to ask is part of knowing the work.
Manufacturer documentation and technical support, other qualified technicians, vendors, training, and professional relationships are all tools I use when the right answer is not sitting in my head.
The shame comes from not asking, not from not knowing the answer.
Share what is useful.
I do not want customers dependent on me for things they can reasonably understand and handle themselves.
We only keep what we have by giving it away when it comes to knowledge.
The dream became helping places, not one place.
In 2019, a friend handed me a pen and a piece of scratch paper and asked what I would build if the money part was already taken care of.
I wrote Y’all Right Joe’s Coffee Co.
I didn’t know what Joe’s was yet. I knew I wanted to build a place where people belonged. A place to teach useful skills, create opportunities, and help people build something better.
Underneath it, I wrote:
Keep what we have by giving it away.
I never opened that coffee shop.
The dream shifted a bit.
I started working for Indie. They handed me the wrench for Indie’s cafés, and then for their wholesale partners.
Somewhere in there, I realized I’d found a different way to help the coffee community.
I could help the people already building those places.
Along the way, a lot of people handed me a wrench. They gave me their time, shared what they knew, and taught me to respect other people’s time, money, and trust.
Indie also handed me a set of standards to hold onto when I’m not holding the wrench—when I’m holding the pen, writing the quote, sending the invoice, or deciding what I’m willing to put my name on.
I like to think I’ve had a hand in helping a few coffee shops become places where people can thrive.
The dream became helping places, not one place.
Maybe the name knew that before I did.
Y’all Right Joe’s was always plural.
When it finally came time to build something of my own, I went back to the name I had written down years before.
Turns out, there was something else I didn’t understand when I wrote it.
I was the first to be Joe.
Sometimes you need Joe. Sometimes you get to be Joe.
Joe shows up. Joe shares what he knows. And hopefully when Joe leaves, the people around him are a little better prepared for whatever comes next.
Eventually, we’re all Joe.
Training and relationships behind the wrench.
Hands-on manufacturer training and service experience includes La Marzocco, Modbar, Slayer, Synesso, Nuova Simonelli, FETCO, BWT Water, and additional commercial coffee equipment platforms. Affiliated with The Service Layer.
You'll be alright, Joe.