Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Latest Episodes:

Curse of the Favorite Barista? May 19, 2021

Show notes

Every shop has that one barista that seems to attract more attention the the rest. The comment is made by customers often about this person that they are my "favorite" barista. The question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well as with any situation involving people-it depends.

Today we are going to be discussing how we should approach and react to the issue of the "favorite barista" in a way that creates an improved experience for staff and customers alike.

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282 : How to Listen to your Customers May 16, 2021

Show notes

Running a coffee house is all about making sure you are able to serve the needs of your customers and to do so consistently. In order to do that you need to be able to not only listen to them but you need to know how to then respond to what they say.

For a ton of coffee shops there is either not enough listening going on causing the cafe to miss out on service opportunities, or there is too much where the shop ends up doing everything they hear the customer say out of fear they might lose them. There is a better way.

Today we will be discussing the art of listening to your customers and how to determine what to put into action so that it serves both their interest as well as the interest of your shop.

We cover:

Market awareness
Co-creation
Asking for feedback
Listening to the right things
Dangers of listening
Service and surprise

Episodes to listen to next:

Scaling Values 227 : Connecting with Hearts and Minds Source vs Supplement Building an Accessible Coffee Menu w/ Joe Marrocco 165 : The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli

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Exercising Self-control as an Owner May 13, 2021

Show notes

We like to be in control. The shop is your baby and you have all the authority in the world to assert yourself into the operations and correct things you see that are off. Trouble is that this is not always helpful and often can create more problems and confusion. Today on shift break we will be discussing the need to exercise self control and create structured communication in order to effectively solve problems, address concerns, and support your staff.

Listen to these episodes next!

109 : Leadership Abandonment Syndrome : Lack of development in senior staff and what to do about it

261 : The Basics of Managing Managers

Don't You Forget About Me

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281 : The Vietnamese Coffee Revolution w/ Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply May 10, 2021

Show notes

"Vietnam is the future of specialty coffee!" Today we are going to unpack this statement and discuss how the Vietnamese coffee movement is creating opportunity for a marginalized coffee variety and people with our very special guest, Sahra Nguyen!

Sahra Nguyen is the founder & CEO of Nguyen Coffee Supply the first-ever specialty Vietnamese coffee company importing and roasting in Brooklyn, New York. On a mission to transform the coffee industry through diversity, inclusion, and transparency, Nguyen Coffee Supply has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, VICE, New York Magazine, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, and honored with the 2019 StarChefs Rising Star Award. Early January 2020, Imbibe Magazine featured Sahra Nguyen as one of the #Imbibe75 -- people, places, and directions that will shape the way you drink in 2020. She is a Gold House Collective Founder for Spring 2020 cohort, a leading network to celebrate and elevate the Asian American community.

In this conversation we get to hear the story of how Sahra founded, grew, and now leads Nguyen Coffee Supply on a mission to flip the script, change the narrative, and create a place in specialty coffee for Vietnamese coffee and coffee culture.

We cover:

The current marginalization Vietnamese coffee
Why Vietnam and robusta are the future of coffee
The people behind the coffee
Learning to import and roast and start her own supply chain
Creating opportunity to improve
Feedback to farmers and long term relationships
Vietnam coffee culture
Holistic perspectives on coffee origins
Making room in our community for diverse expressions and origins

Related Episodes to listen to next:

256 : Founder Friday w/ Varat Vichit-Vadakan of Roots Coffee Roaster in Bangkok, Thailand

247 : Founder Friday! w/ Ritesh Doshi, CEO of Spring Valley Coffee, Nairobi, Kenya

236 : Founder Friday! w/ Meil Castagna-Herrera & Curtis Herrera of Cafe Corazon!

209 : Founder Friday! w/ Linda Thach of Little Skips, Brooklyn, NY

171 : Founder Friday w/ Matt Chitharanjan and Namrata Asthana of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters in India

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

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RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind May 07, 2021

Show notes

Time and color in the roasting process are inextricably linked. We are fairly used to using time as a tool but what about color? Turns out that the color of your coffee is actually one of the most important but under-utilized, and poorly tracked metrics for determining flavor in the final roasted coffee. On this 5th edition of the Rate of Rise series we are going to be talking with Morten Munchow, the co-author of the Roast Magazine article: Flavor Development-The Relationship Between Time and Color in Coffee RoastingMorten Munchow To help us dive into this

Morten Munchow is the Founder of Coffee Mind a coffee roasting academy, research, and consultancy company based in Denmark. Morten is a scholar of biology who through over ten years of intense practical and scientific research and application gained a unique insights that have pushed the specialty coffee industry forward worldwide. He is a sought after speaker and presenter having published several papers in scientific journals.

In our conversation today we will be discoing the relationship between time and color and how we as an industry need to start regarding color and its subsequent tracking as a primary tool in creating consistency, quality, and serving a product that delights our customers

We will cover:

Obsessing about minutia
Reaching wrong conclusions
Sensory impact of color
Relationship between Tim and color
Tracking color in your production
Determining a starting color and your roasters range
Developing intelligent intuition
Investing in equipment

Links:

www.coffee-mind.com

Instagram

Example of color meter

www.roastmagazine.com

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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

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

Turning the Ship May 06, 2021

Show notes

When we seek to change things in our coffee shops we often underestimate the amount of time and investment it will take to actually turn things around. I have experienced this both in my consulting as well throughout my career in cafe management helping cafes scale and refine operations.

On this shift break we will be discussing how to approach making big changes to your company in a sustainable and effective way.

Episodes to listen to next:

Communicate, Duplicate, Repeat : Key habits that make information stick

025 : Mastering the Art of Training w/ Dave Stachowiak : Coaching, Leadership, education , and how to communicate your coffee and barista knowledge so it sticks

191 : Retraining your Staff on new Standards

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Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

280 : A Conversation with Jesse Hartman of The Coffee Podcast May 04, 2021

Show notes

Questions and conversation. They are powerful tools to bring clarity and inspire action. Perhaps nobody knows this better than those of us whose job it is to ask questions of experts across our industry to bring understanding to a global audience. Today I am so please to be sitting down for a conversation with one such person. He is the host of The Coffee Podcast, Jesse Hartman! The Coffee Podcast has been a passion project for Jesse for 6 years now since its initial founding in 2015 with his best friend Wes. From a budding coffee nerd to an accomplish coffee professional managing and opening several shops, Jesse's growth in coffee inspired him to start the show to deliver the same coffee conversations that transformed him to the greater world to bringing clarity on a wide range of topics and inspiring action toward positive change. Today we get to hear about both Jesse's and the Coffee podcast's development over the years and the critical insights and lessons that have been gleaned from conversations with some of our industries foremost coffee experts. We cover:

The romance of coffee vs the reality
Bringing consumers into the fold
The early years of TCP
Learning through embarrassing mistakes
How Jesse choses formats and topics for the show
Sustainability, Conversation, and action
Future of coffee
Advice for retailers who want to effectively represent value chain

Related Episodes to listen to next:

265 : Gaining Clarity on Transparency w/ Jonas Lorenz of The Pledge

072: Taking an Origin Trip w/ Kim Elena-Ionescu : How to go to origin in a mutual beneficial way

060 : Serving the Coffee Plant w/ Hanna Neuschwander, World Coffee Research

020 Joe Marrocco : Transparency, Origin Knowledge,and Your Shop : How to approach and apply coffee origin information to enhance, not detract, from the cafe experience

140 : A conversation w/ Erika Vonie, Director of Coffee at Trade Coffee

237 : Thoughts on Post -COVID Coffee

Visit our sponsors!

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279 : Founder Friday! w/ Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar Apr 30, 2021

Show notes

It's Founder Friday! Today we get the honor of hearing the story of Gilly Brew Bar in Stone Mountain, GA from Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas.

Started by Daniel Brown who was quickly joined by Nephthaly Leonidas, Gilly Brew Bar was founded with the mission to help people re-imagine coffee culture. This mission serves their main purpose, which is to disrupt norms and build better communities. Gilly came to be as an effort to not only make waves in the coffee industry being black owned, but to change the narrative of what it means to be a coffee company serving in the community alongside an amazing gang of baristas. Gilly is unique also in that they serve coffee and tea elixirs to story-tell. With this experience comes a whole new way of thinking and operating. Humility, connection, and people focused service define what Gilly is all about.

In today's conversation we are going to deep dive into the story of Gilly's founding, overcoming challenges of history and race, bucking the status quo and much more

We cover:

Setting the table for guests
Not being just a coffee bar
People focus
Challenges in first year
Overcoming racism and obstacles
Customer feedback and leading with humility
Becoming a light in the community
The unique elixir beverages and their story
Hopes for the future

Related Episodes:

236 : Founder Friday! w/ Meil Castagna-Herrera & Curtis Herrera of Cafe Corazon!

222 : How to have Difficult Conversations about Race and Justice w/ Kwame Christian

177 : Founder Friday w/ Jonathan Pascual of Taproom Coffee and Beer in Atlanta, Georgia

116 : Understanding Gentrification w/ Dr. Stacey Sutton

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The Problem with "Should" Apr 29, 2021

Show notes

Ever get frustrated that your staff are not doing things the way you want? I'm guessing you have. In fact if you are like most leaders presented with an issue in the shop you have probably also said, "That "should" not be like that." or "They "should" know better."

The question we need to ask though is-why should they?

Today on this edition of shift break we will be discussing why using this word is often problematic and indicative of bigger issues with our communication and systems.

Related episodes to listen to next!

Visit our Sponsors!

Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

278 : Making good Hiring Decisions Apr 27, 2021

Show notes

A lot of how successful a shop is depends on the people who work in it. In the specialty coffee retail industry we can tend to hire based desperation, convenience, or nepotism. What we end up with then is problems in the work and culture that manifest themselves either immediately or down the road.

Instead we need to prioritize the hiring process as the main tool in creating a great cafe experience. In today's episode you and I sit down to talk about some best practices in the hiring process that will make getting the right fit for your cafe way more likely.

Be sure to listen to the recommended episodes below that are related to this topic.

We cover: