There are people who simply love drinking coffee, then there are those who make coffee their lives, Julia Rogers falls into the second category.

“I’d never get out of bed without the promise of coffee,” said Rogers, owner and operator of Isabel’s Espresso in the Lopez Village. “What I love about coffee is the ritual of it.”

Rogers moved to Lopez in March of 1994 after visiting the island on a bicycle camping trip the fall prior and “fell in love with the islands.” Before moving to Lopez, Rogers lived in Seattle and worked at a bakery.

“It’s always made sense for me to be in a business where I touch people and am close to the ground,” said Rogers, who describes owning a coffee shop as a good balance between a social and intellectual career. “Interacting with other people is pretty important.”

Rogers said she always enjoyed studying systems and that she is good at figuring out the most efficient way to do things. Being able to develop efficient systems, she says, is the biggest benefit her math studies. She says she is comfortable with numbers and likes bookkeeping.

Rogers’ first job on Lopez was working at Holly B’s Bakery where she stayed until 2003, when she began working for Elizabeth Eberhardt at Isabel’s. Rogers gives Eberhardt a lot of credit for the business’ success, noting that she just took over where Eberhardt had left off, buying the shop in 2012.

“The success to running a business is to never settle with what you’ve got,” said Rogers who has plans to renovate the shop and eventually roast her own beans. She says the remodel has been the biggest challenge she’s faced over the past year, and the facility to roast beans is a big motivator for her.

Currently, Isabel’s flagship coffee is Fair Trade Organic from Chiapas, Mexico and it serves espresso featuring direct-trade beans from La Esperanza Las Plantas, a farm is housed in the Huehuetenango Valley in Guatemala. Its milk comes from Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy in Ferndale, Washington.

“You think you know what you’re doing – and you do – but there’s still something more to learn,” she added. “You’re always inspired for something next. I’m always learning something new.”

Rogers, who has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from University of Washington, went into the coffee world because she was looking for a sustainable business that she enjoys.

After all, coffee will not go out of style anytime in the near future.

“Coffee is just right for me,” said Rogers, who says she began drinking coffee as a teenager, if not before. She notes she is genetically predisposed to love coffee, enjoying a variety of coffee types, with lattes being a luxury item for her. “Coffee is pretty important in the business and personally.”

Rogers was a rower at UW, a runner for most of her life and she played rugby. Her bicycle adventures on the islands were in the midst of training for a marathon. She said the discipline of athletic pursuit has been extremely useful in business ownership. When she isn’t at the shop, she fills her time with a plethora of other activities, many of them outside.

“I love the outdoors,” said Rogers, who keeps herself busy both at work and away from it. “Fly fishing is my main pursuit when I get the time to run away.”

Rogers said she loves to go camping, sailing and exercising.

“I like to keep my brain and body grounded and fit,” said Rogers. She added that she doesn’t have a television, but always has a book and listens to NPR and podcasts regularly. “I do love my time alone very much … by myself is when I ground myself and figure things out.”

As for advice, Rogers says the key to running a successful business is being flexible and accepting that everything takes time to come to fruition.

She also adds that she couldn’t do it without her team. She emphasizes taking care of the team of people who work for her.

“I don’t think any woman in business could make it without a really solid team of employees that help,” said Rogers. “My team is awesome, we’re all in this together and support each other.”

Never once did Rogers refer to her team as her employees. The majority of her employees are women as well, with the sole male employee affectionately referred to as ‘the man.’

“The coffee shop is my family,” said Rogers. “My team is awesome. We’re all in this together and support each other.”