Today we’d like to introduce you to Rodney Hensley.
Rodney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My wife Mindy and I started SoZo Coffee Roasting and Microbakery in 2006 with a simple vision: create a place where people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for while serving exceptional coffee and baked from scratch goodies. What began as a small local coffee shop has grown into a full coffee roasting company, microbakery, wholesale supplier, and community gathering place in Ionia, Michigan.
In the early years, we wore every hat imaginable. I roasted coffee, repaired equipment, handled wholesale accounts, cleaned floors, and made drinks. Mindy focused heavily on baking and developing recipes, especially gluten free that people would genuinely enjoy instead of simply tolerate. We built the business one customer and one relationship at a time.
As the company grew, we became passionate not just about serving coffee, but about understanding where the coffee comes from. That led me to begin traveling to coffee farms in Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Ethiopia, building direct relationships with farmers and paying above market prices for quality coffee. Those relationships changed how we viewed coffee entirely. We realized coffee is not just a product; it represents families, hard work, agriculture, and community around the world.
Today, SoZo Coffee Roasting® includes a retail coffee shop with a drive-thru, a roasting facility, wholesale partnerships, online sales, catering, and a made-from-scratch microbakery. We roast thousands of pounds of coffee each year on our 30-kilo Mill City Roaster and supply coffee to cafes, grocery stores, offices, churches, restaurants, and businesses throughout Michigan and beyond.
What I’m most proud of, though, isn’t the growth itself, it’s the relationships. We’ve had employees grow with us for years, customers who have become family, and opportunities to support both local and global communities through coffee. We’ve also learned a lot through challenges, mistakes, financial risks, and long hours. Entrepreneurship has stretched us in every possible way, but it has also been deeply rewarding.
At the end of the day, our goal has remained the same since 2006; serve people well, create something meaningful, and use coffee as a way to bring people together.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For the most part, we’ve been very fortunate, but it definitely hasn’t been completely smooth. One of the biggest challenges for me personally has been learning how to delegate and transition from being heavily involved in the day-to-day front-of-house operations to working more behind the scenes on leadership, roasting, wholesale growth, systems, and long term vision.
In the beginning, I was involved in almost every part of the business; making drinks, helping customers, troubleshooting equipment, roasting coffee, cleaning floors, and solving problems as they came up. As the company grew, I realized that if we wanted to continue growing, I couldn’t do everything myself. Learning to trust other people with responsibilities that I cared deeply about was harder than I expected.
Like most small businesses, we’ve also faced our share of challenges; rising costs, staffing struggles, equipment breakdowns, supply chain issues, and the pressure that comes with entrepreneurship. Coffee prices globally have become increasingly volatile, and there are always unexpected obstacles when you’re operating a coffee shop, roasting company, and bakery all at once.
At the same time, those challenges have helped us grow stronger as a company and as people. We’ve learned the importance of building a great team, creating systems, and staying adaptable. Looking back, many of the hardest moments were also the moments that pushed us to improve the most.
We’ve been impressed with SoZo Coffee Roasting, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
SoZo Coffee Roasting® is known for two things above everything else: freshly roasted specialty coffee and a made-from-scratch microbakery. From the beginning, we’ve tried to focus on quality, authenticity, and treating people well; from the farmers we buy coffee from to the customers walking through our doors each day.
One thing that really sets us apart is the direct relationships we’ve built with coffee farmers. I regularly travel to coffee farms in places like Guatemala, Colombia, and Ethiopia and work directly with the farmers who grow our coffee. There’s really only one degree of separation between us and the farm, the exporter/importer that helps with logistics. Those relationships matter deeply to me because coffee is personal. It’s not just a commodity.
One of the most rewarding parts of this journey has been seeing how these partnerships positively impact farming families over time. We’ve seen farmers go from having no vehicle to owning a truck, from living in smaller homes to building larger homes, expanding their farms, and even growing their families. Those moments remind me that business can truly help improve lives when it’s done the right way.
We’ve also had two of our farmers from Guatemala visit our shop in Michigan, where they spoke to our customers, shared their stories and culture, answered questions, and even served customers coffee from their own farms. Creating that kind of connection between the farmer and the customer is incredibly meaningful to us because it helps people truly understand the journey behind every cup of coffee.
One of my favorite experiences is taking roasted coffee back to the farmers and making them a pour-over using beans they grew. Most of them have never tasted their coffee roasted outside of their own country before. Watching their reactions is something I’ll never forget. At the end of the day, I want to go to sleep knowing I didn’t take advantage of anyone in the process.
On the bakery side, Mindy and our team bake everything from scratch using natural and organic ingredients whenever possible. We don’t use boxed mixes or artificial shortcuts. We’re also very passionate about creating high-quality gluten-free and vegan options that people genuinely enjoy.
Brand wise, I’m probably most proud that we’ve built something people trust. Whether someone comes to us for coffee, baked goods, catering, wholesale coffee, or equipment support, we want them to know they’re getting quality, honesty, and care. We’re not trying to be the biggest coffee company, we simply want to serve people well and create something meaningful that positively impacts both our local community and the farmers we work with around the world.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I think one of the biggest things I’d want readers to know is that success isn’t usually built overnight. Most small businesses are built through consistency, sacrifice, long hours, faith, relationships, and a willingness to keep going even when things get difficult.
I’m incredibly grateful for the Ionia community that has supported us over the years; our customers, employees, wholesale partners, friends, and family. Small businesses truly survive because people choose to support them, and we don’t take that for granted.
I’d also encourage people to be intentional about where they spend their money. Behind every small business are real people, real families, and real stories. In our case, that includes not only our local team in Michigan, but also the farmers and families around the world who grow the coffee we roast every day.
At the end of the day, coffee is really just the vehicle. What matters most to us is creating connection, treating people well, and hopefully making someone’s day a little better, whether that’s through a great cup of coffee, a handmade pastry, or simply making someone feel welcomed and valued.
And of course, I’ll keep doing my part “saving good people from bad coffee.” ™ 😀
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sozocoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sozocoffee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sozocoffeeroasting/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/sozocoffeeroasting/
