Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Latest Episodes:

RoR Live at SCA #2 Areli Barerra Grodski | Little Waves Coffee May 13, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to Rate of Rise Live! Episode #2 brought to you by Roast Magazine!

I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to partner with Roast during the SCA 2022 Global EXPO in Boston to have some live face-to-face interviews with 10 of the coffee industry's brightest minds.

In this episode we are sitting down with Owner of Little Waves Coffee, Durham, NC, Areli Barerra Grodski!

Areli Barrera Grodski is an immigrant from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. She moved to San Antonio at 6 years of age and then to Cherokee, NC at 10. It is here where she was introduced to coffee as a community space and to her husband and business partner, Leon Grodski Barrera. She has been working in coffee since 2009 as a barista, coffee shop owner, roaster, and green coffee buyer. She proudly owns three shops called Cocoa Cinnamon and a roastery called Little Waves Coffee Roasters in Durham, NC. Areli is also the Recording Secretary and Board Member of the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity.

Little Waves is the most recent winner of the prestigious Micro-Roaster of the Year Award and in this conversation we chat with Areli all about her and her husband Leon's journey in beginning, growing, and learning through Little Waves Coffee.

We cover:

Bootstrapping and the uphill battle with a cart
The range of challenges and emotions in entrepreneurship
The mission behind Little Waves
Surviving the pandemic
How she defines success
Applying values to daily work
Open heartedness and growth
Representation in coffee

Subscribe to Roast Magazine! (Use code "ROR" to get $5 bucks off your subscription)

Click here tp watch video of this interview on Roast magazine's YouTube channel!

Links:

www.littlewaves.coffee

www.keystotheshop.com

Consulting and coaching: chris@keystotheshop.com

RoR Live at SCA #1 Peter Giuliano | The New Definition of Specialty Coffee May 13, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to Rate of Rise Live brought to you by Roast Magazine!

I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to partner with Roast during the SCA 2022 Global EXPO in Boston to have some live face-to-face interviews with 10 of the coffee industry's brightest minds all about specialty coffee, roasting, risk management, teaching roasting, roast curve, inspiring stories of entrepreneurship and much more!

We are kicking off this series of interviews with the venerable Peter Giuliano!

Peter Giuliano is the Executive Director of the Coffee Science Foundation and the Chief Research Officer Specialty Coffee Association and one our industries best thinkers.

Recently the SCA presented their new definition of "Specialty Coffee" based on attributes to recognize a wider range of specialty expressions and this is exactly what I chawed with Peter about during the EXPO.

We cover:

History of defining specialty coffee
Establishing the new definition according to SCA
Inclusivity and diversity in flavor, preparations, etc.
What is "good" and "bad"?
interchangeability, uniqueness, and blends
What changes for how roasters approach coffee as a result
How coffee shops help in celebrating diverse ways to be specialty

Subscribe to Roast Magazine! (Use code "ROR" to get $5 bucks off your subscription)

Links:

www.keystotheshop.com

Consulting and coaching: chris@keystotheshop.com

The Importance of Debriefing May 12, 2022

Show notes

After a rush, an event, or any situation where there is tension and the need to perform well as a team (pretty much any time) there are always a lot of thoughts and emotions that people have. Unfortunately we tend to simply carry on as though it never happened and thus lose out on a lot of positive growth and development that can result from debriefing.

On today's Shift Break we will be talking about the importance of debriefing as a team and how it creates better performance, communication, culture, and consistency in the coffee shop.

Related episodes:

229 : 7 Tips for New Managers

The One-on-One : How one meeting can dramatically impact your coffee shop's culture and morale.

028 : Why it's Ok to be the Boss w/ Bruce Tulgan

Shift Break: The Agreement

Tips for Conducting Great Staff Meetings

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

345: A Conversation w/ 2022 U.S. Cup Tasters Champion, Julien Langevin May 10, 2022

Show notes

Accurately tasting coffee can be a daunting task. Add to that the pressure of competition or just the daily work of the bar, and being focused, confident, and at ease while dialing in or making flavor determinations seems all but impossible. These are all however attributes that today's guest possesses and has honed over their career to be able to remain cool and taste coffees like a champion. Today we are talking with the 2022 U.S. Cup Tasters Champ, Julien Langevin!

Julien Langevin is the production roaster for Coffee By Design in Portland, ME. Langevin only just began learning how to roast after working for about four years as a barista in different iterations, and taking a brief hiatus from the industry to try his hand at being an electrician. His first real job was at Starbucks and worked through various shops in Portland while achieving his Bachelors of Fine Arts. After graduation he began to go to SCA events, acting as a volunteer and a sensory judge for the Barista competition, and then competing in the Nashville Cup Tasters qualifier in 2020. After a two and a half year separation from said community, Langevin found his way back to coffee somehow and is now the current 2022 US Cup Tasters Champion.

In this conversation we will get to learn about Julien's career path, tasting techniques, and hear words of wisdom for aspiring tasters and coffee professionals!

We cover:

Journey and challenges in coffee career
Techniques for tasting
Grounding yourself
Tasting when nervous vs relaxed
Focus, Flow state, and visualization
Preparing for competition
Doing what you can where you are

Links:

Instagram @Julientheperson

Related Episodes:

048 : How to taste coffee w/ U.S. Cup Tasters Champion, Steve Cuevas!

297 : Making Coffee Education Fun w/ Suneal Pabari of Leaderboard Coffee

078 : Exploring Green Buying and Sensory Analysis w/ Amanda Juris

037 : Chocolate & Coffee w/ Brian Beyke : Understanding Craft Chocolate

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

Messy Can Be Beautiful May 05, 2022

Show notes

Some of the reasons we do not take the next step to delegate management or take the next step in our business is because we feel we are not ready. It seems embarrassing to not have it all together when you've over authority to someone like a manager and you want to wait till you have a perfect system and suite of resources to hand them. Problem is that you will likely never truly be "ready". On top of that, you may be robbing them, and yourself, of the benefit that comes with working through and imperfect context.

Today on Shift Break we are going to be talking about why what you think is messy can and often is something beautiful for your business and the people who work in it.

Related episodes:

261 : The Basics of Managing Managers

Hiring for Future Leadership

Why "Next in Line" promotion Might be a Bad Idea

330 : Establishing Systems in Your Coffee Shop

267 : The Power of Delegation

Visit our Sponsors!!!

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

344 : From Fine Dining to Coffee w/ Nicolas Simon of El Condor Coffee Roasters May 03, 2022

Show notes

Our industry is one focused on creating memorable experiences for guests of our shops. Being detail oriented is part of our hospitality to people because we know that when all those little things come together, they deliver a real impact.

This is what driven today's guest throughout his illustrious career working for some of the worlds most prestigious hotels and Restaurants to deliver these experiences.

Nicolas Simon caught the hospitality bug upon graduating from one of the top business schools in France. From there, various experiences with Byblos Saint-Tropez, Four Seasons Paris, then Geneva and Plaza-Athénée defined his all-around profile in the industry, from F&B operations to finance and marketing. He was also the managing partner of three restaurants (two of them being awarded a Michelin star within the first year of operation), before being appointed Alain Ducasse's Director of Operations North America and moving to New York City 14 years ago. In November 2016, Nicolas became the co-founder and CEO of Wilcuma – a full-service hospitality workshop that offers services such as consultancy, management, and real estate, and also has a portfolio of proprietary concepts planned for development and operation

Fueled by his passion for hospitality and executing at the highest levels, Nicholas has set his sights on the coffee world with the opening of the new El Condor Coffee Roasters in the West Village, NYC. El Condor seeks to create a transcendent and comfortable all-day cafe experience that delivers quality, consistency, and genuine connection.

We cover:

Beginnings in hospitality
Growing as a manager and leader
The critical role of operations
Philosophy on service and caring for guests
Entering into the coffee industry
The vision and goals of El Condor
Advice for how to approach hospitality and systems for accountability

Links:

www.elcondor.coffee

www.wilcuma.com

Related Episodes:

030 : Casey Underkofler : Matching Your Service to Your Quality : How to Manage and Control the critical details of service so both the experience and product are excellent

330 : Establishing Systems in Your Coffee Shop

301 : Hiring and Training for Excellence

188 : Founder Friday w/ Jon Allen of Onyx Coffee Lab

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

343 : Founder Friday! "Curated Edition" | Hospitality + Meeting People Where They Are Apr 29, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to this special edition of the Founder Friday series! We have an incredible collection of interviews from some of the world's best coffee shop operators and entrepreneurs. Within each interview are gems of wisdom that help us move ourselves and the industry forward.

In this special edition of Founder Friday I went back into the archives to mine those gems from past guests around a specific topic, -hospitality and meeting people where they are.

Our industry of specialty coffee has worked hard to build itself up and now we see a mammoth effort to help welcome people into what we have built.

In this episode we will here form four past guests:

Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters in India
Dorian Bolden of Beyu Cafe in Durham, NC
Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar in Stone Mountain, GA
Andrew Sinclair of Madlab Coffee in Los Angeles, CA

Each of these past Founder Friday guests brings a unique take and perspective on what goes in to hospitality and meeting people where they are. From accessible brewing, staff and self care - to friendly service encounters, values, and connecting beyond the transaction, I think this episode will deliver a concentrated dose of wisdom to help inspire us all.

Related Episodes:

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

Making a Decision Pipeline Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

It's one thing to make decisions when you work alone, but quite another thing when you work with others and your decisions have far reaching impact on different employees, leaders, and departments. What e and to do is force change into existing processes without regard for the wake those decisions leave behind.

In today's Shift Break we will be talking about building a decision pipeline that takes into account all the people and relevant down stream departments that this one, seemingly small decision, will affect.

Related episodes:

080 : Changing things in the Cafe : A workflow for Refinement

330 : Establishing Systems in Your Coffee Shop

Blog: Accountability goes both Ways

Visit our Sponsors!!!

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

342 : A Conversation w/ 2022 U.S. Barista Champion, Morgan Eckroth! Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

Morgan Eckroth is the new U.S. Barista Champion! Part of the point behind competition is setting the stage for conversation around ideas ranging from social issues to the hands on craft of coffee. In both these areas there are far reaching implications for what the industry latches on to and is inspired to continue developing. On such theme is merging high-end experiences with accessibility in mind. Morgan Eckroth, known for her social media platform Morgan Drinks Coffee, has plenty of experience with connecting with an audience and in her presentation for USBC this year, leaned into the idea that specialty can be and should be experienced by more than just judges at the highest level of coffee.

Morgan is a barista and content creator, having worked in the specialty coffee industry for 5 years. With over 5 million followers across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, she shares her love for coffee through comedic customer service sketches, vlogs about her job, and educational videos. Morgan also released a line of coffee in collaboration with Wrecking Ball Coffee in December 2020 and is working to continue creating a link between baristas and their customers through a shared love for coffee and a dash of humor.

Today we get to sit down with Morgan and hear all about her innovative approach to the competition and all the ups and downs on her journey to victory in Boston.

We cover:

Deciding to compete after years of life change
Preparation for USBC and crafting a theme
Innovation and challenges
High level Accessibility
Choosing the coffees
Break down of beverage creation
Goals and inspirations
Advice to other competitors and shops

Links:

www.morgandrinkscoffee.com

Related Episodes:

257 : A Conversation w/ Morgan Eckroth of MorganDrinksCoffee!

099 : The Barista League w/ Competition Founder Steve Moloney

298 : A Trophy, or Atrophy?

173 : 5 Areas of Focus for Retailers

296: Holistic Barista Training w/ David Castillo of Go Get Em Tiger , Los Angeles

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

RoR #14: How to Roast New Processing Methods w/ Mike Ebert of Fire Dancer Consultants Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

As new processing methods become more popular and prominent, roasters must pivot and adjust how they approach them in order to get the best possible result. Processes like honey and pulped natural present unique challenges for even the most veteran roasters. The good news is that there is a growing family of best practices that will help you see success and consistency while embracing the new and emerging methods on the market. To help us sort through this topic we turn to none other than Mike Ebert of Firedancer Consultants.

As the founder of Firedancer Coffee Consultants, Mike is dedicated to helping clients create a personalized strategy to ensure long-term success. He works primarily with roasters, producers and retailers, drawing from his extensive experience in all facets of the specialty coffee supply chain to guide clients in reaching their potential. Ebert is an Authorized SCA Trainer; holding the professional level certificates in Green Coffee, Sensory Skills, Roasting and Brewing. He has had a hand in many positions up and down the supply chain and continues his volunteer work with the Specialty Coffee Association's Education Advisory Council as Co-Chair of the Education Content Committee.

In our conversation we cover: