Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

One of the most neglected areas of the bar happens to also be the most important. The register. Not because it is where we handle money (although that is important) but because it is where we make first impressions and guide the experience of both the customer and our coworkers. The register controls everything but we treat this station as though it is simply a place to avoid when on shift or a pl...

Hiring a great team is the aim of every cafe. Often when we look for the right person we end up looking for the perfect individual vs the perfect fit for the team and culture of our shop. We want an all-star team but what we get can often just be a big collection of egos that don't work well together.  Today we will be talking about the myth of the all star team and how we can approach hiring in a...

Coffee roasting legend Mark Michaelson is back on the show! Mark has spent the last 9 years as the Head Roaster for onyx Coffee Labs in NW Arkansas whee he was instrumental in helping them forge a path to being one of the worlds most respected coffee companies. One top of this Mark is the 2017 U.S. Roasting champion and top 12 finisher in the World that same year. Mark is an active member of the R...

If this least year has shown us anything, it is that life is unpredictable and can sometimes throw a wrench into our plans, causing us to go into emergency mode. What do we do when this happens? What is our plan for when the roastery goes down? If you are like most busy owners, you probably don't have much of a plan in place for when these things happen. Having a robust and well rehearsed continge...

Talking about, even announcing to our staff, what we are going to do and what we intend to do is a behavior displayed by leaders under the title of "Casting Vision". The question must be asked though, how many of those plans actually come to fruition and how many end up just being abandoned? Today we will be talking about the power your words have and the necessity to communicate responsibly to th...

Starting a coffee bar means you have to focus on several hundred different things at once. It can be maddening! All of this to get to the point where you can open the doors and finally let people enjoy what you and your team have created. But what happens after you launch? Where do you put all that energy you have been used to spending getting ready?  Today we are going to cover several key areas...

I am so excited to share this interview with Adam Obrátil, the co-founder of one of the Czech Republic's most well known and foundational cafes, Industra Coffee!  Founded in 2013, Industra brought a newer specialty coffee experience to the Czech coffee scene that was just beginning to get established. Both Adam and his partner Petra Střelecká are long time coffee pros who cut their teeth in some o...

How people experience the service we provide them has a lot to do with the pace we keep in the process. Sometimes we go too fast! Sometimes we go too slow! What is the balance here?  Today we are going to talk about how to properly apply speed and intentionality behind the bar to produce an experience that customer will want to come back for again and again.    Related Episodes: 163 : Lessons from...

We have a control problem. Specifically we don't like to give up our control of the processes and operations of our cafes out of fear for what might happen when others take the wheel. The difference between a successful shop that has capacity to both care for its people and grow and one that is stifled and limited, comes down to your ability to delegate.  Today we will be talking about wha delegat...

I hear all the time how we want baristas to be excited, motivated, up-selling, engaged etc. Those are all great ideals and goals. The problem is that we tend to expect that to just appear out of thin air.  How we invest into those who we rely on to represent the business determines what kind of representation they give. Today we will. be talking about the truth that, if you want to have staff the...

The health of our bodies plays a huge role in determining the quality of our life both at work in the shop and outside of work. When we are pursuing our health holistically we are making an investment that pays us back immeasurably. The question is, how do you begin to approach caring for our physical health in a way that equips us to thrive? Today we are going to explore this subject with special...

One of the most needed but conspicuously missing pieces of the coffee shop puzzle is accountability. Both leaders and baristas need accountability in order to thrive but we neglect to put in place as a real process because we are afraid of what it might uncover in us, or in them.  Today we will be discussing the two ways we tend to respond to accountability and what our responses indicate regardin...

Transparency. We see it increasingly being used as a tool to signify responsible commerce and trade among coffee roasting companies. But what is it exactly? Are we approaching it in a meaningful way? How do we define and practice transparency in a way that will actually make the difference we want to see it make? These are questions that will get answered today as we talk with Jonas Lorenz, co-aut...

What is it we mean when we refer to "Quality?" If we take that a step further we might ask, how can we control quality? These questions are top of mind for most coffee roasters who, amidst a sea of complexity and moving parts, are desperately interested in providing a consistently excellent end product to their customers.  Today we are going to dive into the topic of understanding quality, quality...

I get it. You love coffee! You listen to this show after all and you cup, brew, read about, and live coffee. Your customers however, do not. Mostly they just drink it and if we are honest, that sometimes bothers us. How we talk to customers about coffee is more than just telling them what we know about it. It is about giving them the tools and understanding to enjoy it.  Today we are going to chat...

On today's episode we get to have a conversation with Abner Roldan who, along with his wife Karla Quiñones founded one of Puerto Ricos best coffee shops, Cafe Comunion . Abner is also Puerto Rico's latte art champion 2014 & '15, a member of the Barista Magazine Editorial Board AND the recent Sprudgie Award winner of Best Coffee Podcast! ( La Crema ) In this interview we start right at the beginnin...

Well now! Today we are going to get an inside look into one of the biggest and most successful coffee brands in the nation! We are talking with the Co-Founder of Biggby Coffee , Mike McFall! Biggby Coffee was founded in 1995 in Lansing, Michigan a fast-growing $100-million-dollar coffee franchise with 250+ locations across the Midwest and quickly expanding into the East Coast in 2020. Biggby is on...

All of us want to wake up, look around, and be happy with where we are and what we're doing. How we accomplish that is often thought to be in the "big breaks" and in exclusive opportunities. But in most cases, who we become and what we are able to do is based on the daily decisions we make that pave the way.  Today we will be talking about how we can most effectively build our careers by embracing...

How does your shop address and interact with the homeless community? If you are like most people, the answer is not very defined and born more from fear and misunderstanding than empathy and informed policy. As we provide spaces to serve the community, it is important that we focus in on how we interact with every person within it, including the homeless.  To help us rewrite the narrative and brin...

In the relationship between wholesale coffee roaster and client, there are things that do not get talked about as much as they should. Largely this is based the desire to maintain the relationship and any harder or awkward conversations present themselves in the course of business are subsequently ignored, often util they reach a critical point.  Today we are going to be discussing why honestly sh...

When we set up a manager in the cafe we are not just delegating authority and freeing up some of our time, we are setting up the business for failure or success. All of it boils down to how we manage and lead them in their responsibilities and roles.  Today we are going to explore the basics of managing your managers and cover many aspects that get over looked. As I have said plenty of times in on...

We love to talk about coffee! So much so, we often fail to give people the information they need to be successful on the bar. If you have ever gone off on a tangent about extraction science and esoteric processing methods with a new hire (I think we all have) then this episode is for you!  Today we will talk about training TMI and how we should be approaching the communication of information if we...

Sometimes everything will seem to suggest that leaving our job or career in pursuit of something better is the best option. But is is always the best option? What if the job we have now is actually the perfect one for us? What might we be missing out on if we leave and how do we get clarity to make these kinds of decisions in the first place? Today we are going to be exploring these questions with...

Your customers are not just in the shop. They are not even just in your city. They are anywhere your digital footprint treads and how you manage that experience will determine the quality of the experience people have with your brand.  Today we are going to be chatting about the importance of digital hospitality and why it needs to of equal importance to in person service. Related Episodes: 120 :...

We have created a monster. Over the years our quest to please the customer has turned toxic as it ignores the well being of our staff and enables entitled, rude, and even abusive behavior. All this in the name of the miss guided notion that "The customer is always right".  In today's episode we will be exploring this toxic customer service culture, what is behind it, what its impacts are, and how...