Meet Mike Schroeder of Oddly Correct Coffee Roasters

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Schroeder.

Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Oddly Correct began in 2008, after Gregory Kolsto decided that since he couldn’t find a company with a culture he agreed with, he would start his own. While focusing on using coffee as a medium to help people experience something beautiful in their everyday lives, Oddly Correct began roasting coffee for a few small wholesale accounts.

Fast forward to 2011, and he had settled into a gritty little spot on Main Street (after gutting it from its previous life as a payday loan location.) Oddly Correct officially opened its doors to serve customers in June of 2011, which prompted Gregory’s brother-in-law Mike Schroeder to move from North Carolina and lend a hand with the new demands on the tiny business. Things began to slowly grow from there; they went from a small seating space in the front of the roasting and bag-printing operation that accommodated 10 people to a full cafe 3 doors south at the corner of Westport and Main.

In 2017 we began refocusing not just on our product but on how we could have an impact on the people around us (both our customers and our crew.) This signaled a new commitment for us to place our people first and attempt to be leaders in the industry when it comes to competitive pay structures and healthy work culture.

We began to see how having two separate spaces (where we roasted and where we served) was inhibiting these goals, and in the Fall of 2021 we moved to a single location on Troost Ave, where we continue to focus on using mind-opening coffee as a vehicle for creating opportunities for our people and hopefully a lasting positive impact on our neighborhood, city and industry.

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?
We definitely had our share of challenges… none of us had experience in retail management, so we had to slowly learn how to not just roast good coffee, but build a good team and lead them well. One thing that led to big changes and growth for us was focusing on getting the right people on our crew, and making sure they’re in the right position for their skills and personality. Once we got serious about this “who first, then what” mentality (learned from Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great”) and really began to invest in our people, everything started to run more smoothly.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Oddly Correct Coffee Roasters?
Oddly Correct started as a simple desire to do things differently and pursue excellence through the best way we knew how: COFFEE. We’ve always believed in expanding on the basis of our success, and now we’re a small but capable crew of 20 unique individuals, all bent on kicking ass, being kind and (politely) giving the finger to the status-quo of running a business and a coffee shop. This manifests itself in a few important ways:

-an ethos of “low-brow/high-quality” in all we do; dropping the “elitist” and exclusive mindset common in “specialty” coffee

-commitment to ethical and equitable practices in employee policy and compensation

-pursuing more environmentally sustainable practices in our cafe and roasting operations

In short, we’re working to create context for people to discover and appreciate coffee as a unique and wonderful beverage while striving for equity for all who work to bring coffee from seed to cup. We want to break people out of their rut, engage them with quality coffee, art and service, and help them experience something beautiful in their everyday life. That is, we wish to freak out your morning cup.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Start small, and add things later. Customers will always be excited about adding something new, but if you decide later to take something away there’s always someone who is unhappy (and it looks bad too.) Expand as you succeed, don’t copy paste, develop your own voice and identity as a business. Trust your employees and take good care of people. It makes for a better business, a more pleasant workplace and it is just the right thing to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.oddlycorrect.com
• Instagram: @oddly