Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

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Intentional Performers Podcast

287 : Learn how to Shift your Mind w/ Brian Levenson Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

Whether you are behind the bar making drinks, or behind a laptop making the schedule for your baristas you cannot rely on just one mindset to achieve the best results in your coffee shop. Just like building an agile business that can pivot well in a variety of situations, our minds must be able to shift between preparation and performance. Today we are going to be exploring some of the most critical mindset shifts with the author of the book "Shift your Mind", Brian Levenson!

Brian Levenson is the founder of Strong Skills, which provides executive coaching and mental performance coaching, speaking and consulting to elite organizations, performers and leaders. He has been fortunate to work with CEO's, professional athletes and with teams in the NBA, NHL, and MLS, Division 1 athletic departments, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Homeland Security, Hilton, Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and many other organizations.

He also has a weekly podcast, Intentional Performers, where he interviews a diverse group of elite high performers. His new book, Shift Your Mind, is taking the performance and mindset world by storm!

On this episode we are going to be discussing the concept of minds shifts, why they are necessary, and how to practice them.

We cover:

The preparation mind and the performance mind
Humility vs Arrogance
Perfectionism vs Adaptability
Analysis vs Instinct
Fear vs Fearlessness
Present vs Future
Selfish vs Selfish

Links:

www.strongskills.com

Related episodes o listen to next:

253 : Mindsets that Sabotage Success

243 : Encore Episode! "The Sleepwalking Barista (Owner)"

221 : Building your People Program w/ HR Consultant Dana Goodwin

211 : Straight Talk from the Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs

135 : Stay Motivated in the midst of Difficulty

121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings

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248 : The 5 Elements of Resourcing your Team

www.coffeefest.com

Understanding and Bitterness Jun 10, 2021

Show notes

On this show we have talked about how leaders are typically seen by staff with some degree of skepticism and/or suspicion due to leaders having authority and how, over time, that gap is closed through building trust and empathy. If that does not happen then that usually leads to bitterness. What we haven't hit on yet is how bitterness can be generated from owners to the staff due staff not understanding what owners or leaders are responsible for.

On today's shift break we are going to chat about how the desire for understanding can breed bitterness and what we should expect and do to keep things professional and build more trust in our business relationships.

Episodes to listen to next:

244 : Top 10 Ways to Lose Employees

179 : What you MUST Know About Employee Culture w/ Stan Slap

067 : 6 Truths About Power : The Responsible Approach to Power Dynamics in the Cafe

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Instagram : @whereisscottrao

286 : Coffee Roasting Best Practices w/ Scott Rao Jun 07, 2021

Show notes

Roasting practices have come a long way in the past few decades. Today enjoy an incredible wealth of information, resources, and sharing of technique to help us be better roasters. With all these tools a techniques available to us it can be hard to sort out the most helpful and practical bits to apply to our coffee roasting operations. This is precisely the problem today's iconic guest, Scott Rao, set out to solve with his latest book, "Coffee Roasting: Best Practices"

Scott Rao has been in the coffee business for over 25 years as a cafe owner, roaster, consultant, and author. The Coffee Roaster's Companion and Coffee Roasting: Best Practices have influenced a generation of roasters and shaped the global roasting vocabulary and conversation. Scott's popular Instagram account @whereisscottrao offers expert-level tips and discussion about coffee brewing and roasting.

I have known Scott for a long time and he has truly been a catalyst and force for deeper exploration of coffee brewing and roasting inspiring a lot of conversation and adoption of techniques that push the industry forward to higher levels of consistency and quality.

In this conversation we are not only going to be diving deep into technical aspects of his new book, "Coffee Roasting: Best Practices" but we will also be talking about the philosophies and mindsets toward roasting that we have had in the past and need to have in the future if we are to grow and faithfully represent a coffee's potential to our customers.

We will cover:

Major shifts in roasting over the years
What roast curves can and cannot tell you
Most common mistakes roasters make
How software revolutionized roasting
Defining "Best Practices"
2 most important factors in approaching a new coffee
Factoring in moisture levels
Setting reasonable parameters
How our roasting impacts the producer
Sample roasting
Development Time Ratio (DTR)
How to cup others coffees to assess
Scotts thoughts on what closely held beliefs will change in the future

Links:

www.scottrao.com

Related episodes to listen to next:

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind"

242 : A Conversation with James Hoffmann

168 : How to get the Best from your Coffee w/ WBC 2013 Champ, Pete Licata

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https://www.roastmagazine.com/audioarticles/

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RoR #6: Buying Less and Doing More w/ Ever Meister Jun 04, 2021

Show notes

We have an incredible range of options available to us when it comes to the green coffees we purchase. Right now our habit as an industry is to spot purchase small amounts of coffee from a wide variety of producers in hopes of getting the pest of the best. The trouble with this is that, while we might believe our method is helping promote great coffee, it is actually undermining the success of the producer and the process.

On this 6th edition of RoR we will be exploring how buying from fewer producers but with a commitment to buy more from the ones we partner with, does more for them AND for the sustainability and thriving of specialty coffee.

To do that we are talking with the author of the Roast Magazine article, "Buy Less, Do More", Ever Meister!

Ever Meister has worked in the coffee industry for 20+ years in a wide range of capacities, but primarily she is a journalist, educator, and communicator whose work focuses on issues of access, equity, and ethics. She is the author of New York City Coffee: A Caffeinated History (The History Press, 2017) and the host of the coffee-marketing podcast In Good Taste on the Sprudge media network.

In our conversation today we are going to explore the shifts in mindsets and actions needed to create lasting, long term, quality partnerships with producers that will truly do more good for all involved.

We will cover:

Why we buy so little from so many?
Transactional vs relationship based buying
Owning our behavior
Commitment, Compromise, Communication
Conflict resolution
Risk distribution and mitigation
Making incremental shifts
Choosing partners through values
Setting standards and expectations
Utilizing a wider range of coffee form fewer producers
Remaining competitive

Links:

Ever's email: Meister@justmeister.com

www.roastmagazine.com

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Related Episodes:

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

RoR #2: Exploring Quality Control w/ Spencer Turer of Coffee Enterprises

RoR #3: Making Contingency Planning a Reality w/ Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee

RoR #4: Practical Thermal Dynamics w/ Candice Madison of Royal Coffee / The Crown Oak

RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind"

Interested in coffee consulting? Let's talk! Email me: Chris@keystotheshop.com

Hiring Friends and Making Enemies Jun 03, 2021

Show notes

Hiring your friends or relatives can seem like a very convenient solution to the problem of staffing. After all, you know them well and trust them right? What more is there to consider? Well, as it turns out, a lot more.

On today's shift break we are going to be discussing why hiring friends and family can breed toxicity and how you can build preventative measures to guard against it.

Episodes to listen to next:

018: Hiring, Culture, and the Future of your Shop

125 : Confidence in Conflict w/ Kwame Christian : A framework for Compassionate Curiosity

121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings

066: Shaping and Developing your Team w/ Beth Garrison

221 : Building your People Program w/ HR Consultant Dana Goodwin

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217 : Should you roast your own Coffee w/ Joe Marrocco of List & Beisler

285 : Better Systems, Better Connections w/ RoasterTools Founder, Jon Ewalt Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

If there is one thing that is certain it is that, as you grow your roastery, you become pulled in a thousand different directions. The need to maintain the operation, drive sales, maintain relationships, improve quality, etc becomes overwhelming to the point where you are not sure if growing is a blessing or a curse. Luckily for use, as the industry of roasting continues to expand too too do the resources we have at our disposal to help us beat overwhelm and recapture time and energy. In this category RoastTools is leading the charge to help you streamline, optimize, prioritize and focus on the right things for your roastery to truly thrive,

Today we are going to be talking with the founder of Roaster tools Jon Ewald.

As the founder of the award-winning sales and operations software platform for coffee roasters, RoasterTools, Jon Ewalt spends his days strategizing, coding and talking with coffee roasters on how they can get more coffee out the door.

Jon isn't just another developer who got the coffee bug; he spent eight years building a successful roastery with his wife in the tiny community of Bayfield, Wisconsin, where he developed systems that helped his small team roast, package and deliver thousands of pounds of coffee per week. They sold that business to focus on building (software) tools that help the roasting community achieve that same level of success.

Jon is passionate about helping others avoid the mistakes he made, and freeing up founders to spend more time with the things that drive real change in their businesses: their team, their customers and the coffee itself.

In today's conversation we will be covering:

Entrepreneurship and Improving operations
Developing systems and inventing RoasterTools
Solution to burn out
Scaling through automation and delegation
Clarifying your identity and focus
Current shifts in the industry
How Roaster Tools helps roasters
Managing Sales channels
Curse of over optimization

Episodes to listen to next:

270 : A Conversation w/ Mark Michaelson of Michaelson Consulting!

152 : Essential Advice for Starting a Roastery w/ Jen Apodaca

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

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www.coffeefest.com

284 : Founder Friday! w. Jackie Nguyen of Cafe Cà Phê | Kansas City, MO May 28, 2021

Show notes

I am very excited for this Founder Friday! When we talk about coffee shops we often talk about culture, authenticity, and relationships. I have the immense pleasure of presenting to you a conversation with someone whose business and way of operating in the world of coffee exemplifies those things. Today we are talking with the dynamic Jackie Nguyen, founder of Cafe Cà Phê, a ground breaking Vietnamese coffee shop based in Kansas City, MO.

Jackie is a first generation, Vietnamese American, daughter of a refugee. Born and raised in sunny San Diego, California. After graduating California State University, Fullerton with a BFA in Musical Theatre, she moved to New York City to pursue a career on Broadway. Some of her favorite jobs were performing on stage with Reba McIntyre, Ashlee Simpson, many holiday seasons with How The Grinch Stole Christmas the Musical and most recently traveling the country with the Broadway Revival Tour of Miss Saigon.

After ten years of being a New Yorker, ten International and National Broadway tours, she decided to take a career pivot, relocate to KCMO and pour her heart into Cafe Cà Phê. Spending 8 years of being a barista, a trip to Vietnam last year, and a yearning for entrepreneurship, the idea of a Vietnamese coffeeshop was born.

I have had the honor of having Jackie as a client since the start of her business and am so excited for you to hear the story of Jackie and Cafe Cà Phê's mission, development, and impact on the KCMO community and beyond.

In this conversation we cover:

Her unique way of researching the concept
Pivoting from the world acting to coffee
Responding to changes in the plan due to COVID
The difference of the Vietnamese cafe culture
Overcoming huge operational challenges
Making a place for the KC Asian community
Learning to run a coffee trailer from scratch
Networking and building relationships
Finding locations to pop-up and a long term residency
Authentic expression and vulnerability
What is next for Cafe Cà Phê

Links:

Instagram

Episodes to listen to next:

281 : The Vietnamese Coffee Revolution w/ Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply

279 : Founder Friday! w/ Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar

199 : Founder Friday w/ Mario Jimenez of Banana Dang Coffee, Oceanside, CA

086 : Founder Friday w/ JoEllen Depakakibo / Pinhole Coffee

097 : Founder Friday w/ Erica Escalante of The Arrow Coffeehouse

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Over Optimization May 27, 2021

Show notes

Systems, efficiencies, and optimizations of your business are needed elements to make sure it is healthy and thriving. There is, however, a dark side of optimization. When taken too far and left unchecked it becomes obsessive and starts to drain the life from the very thing it was meant to serve.

In today's shift break we will discuss over optimization and how to balance your pursuit of systems and efficiencies with the heart of what makes your coffee shop run.

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