Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Everyone in the shop is on high alert! Updates and changes to rules and regulations are happening almost daily and we are, as staff, very tuned into to the landscape of how things should be done in the shop. What about the customers though? Should we expect them to be just as vigilant and aware? How do we empathetically enforce the new normal with our patrons? Today we will be talking about the CO...

Coffee shops are not necessarily known for having the best food in town. That is the way it has been for a very long time. Recently though, we are seeing in increase in the number of coffee shops investing time, money, and passion into their food programs and customers are taking note. It is so critical, especially now to create a food program that is marked by intentionality and excellence. To he...

As shops slowly start to open to customers there are a ton of things to keep in mind and manage. Many of those things we have covered through other episodes or interviews some of which are available below. This time I want to cover 3 things that will be crucial to get right to welcome back those customers and take advantage of this 2nd chance to make a first impression.  We will be talking about w...

Not all bold brew is created equal! The difference between offering your customers an average experience vs an outstanding one comes down to basics, attention to detail, creativity, and a craft mindset toward the liquid juggernaut that is cold brew. As the cold brew season ramps up we need to elevate our cold brew offerings and boy do we have just the person to help us do it.  Matt Bushman is the...

Alternative forms of income have been helping keep many of you in business during the crisis. The grocery/pantry model has been a very interesting and successful pivot that allows you to continue serving the needs of your community beyond coffee.  One of the best examples of this model is being conducted by Penstock Coffee out in Highland Park, NJ. Penstock is a Good Food award winning roastery es...

Joe is back! This time for a shift break episode focused on building a coffee menu from the ground up that is tuned in to meet your customers, and their taste buds, where they are on their coffee journey.  NOW is the time to really drill down and focus on customizing your offerings for accessibility, ease of use, wider availability, and thinking through how you will set the customer up to thorough...

Ah roasting coffee, many shop owners are planning what they want their business to look like in the future and how they can make it more resilient and roasters/retailers seem to have some more flexibility in what they can do in this crisis. the idea to roast coffee for yourself can seem fairly simple but there are more issues to consider than one may think. What is the case for and against roastin...

Operations, People, and Quality. These are three areas I focus on with all of my clients. Each on contains a myriad of subjects and components that we explore in detail to bring the whole business to a higher level. Today I want to discuss a few ideas within each of these categories that I believe are critical for you to pour energy into right now so you can enter into post-COVID business better t...

Walkie Talkie Coffee was founded by Lindsey and John Kind in the Summer of 2019. The result of a ton of planning, dreaming, and raising support, the shop was an immediate hit offering coffees from Heart in Portland , OR, amazing service and hospitality, and a goal to create great social and coffee experiences for their neighborhood. Not even a one year in, Walkie Talkie is now facing what is argua...

Home brewing is gaining more and more ground as our customers, who would normally come in to he shop, are brewing at home and looking for ways to replicator's the coffee they love in the shop. This time in coffee history will likely lead to a permanent rise in the number of people brewing coffee at home and subequently a rise in whole bean sales. How we show up for them and help facilitate their s...

Today we are hearing from Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, the Founder and President of JNP Coffee , Burundi Coffee importer and exporter in operation since 2012. Jeanine grew up in Burundi and left to pursue her education earning an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School and had a 20-plus-year international business career that helped her find her way back to Burundi and to coffee. It was at...

The way we have seen people rise to the challenge, amp up communication, take on a sense of urgency, solve problems, and create a culture that is agile and empathetic is truly inspiring. It's the stuff that defines being "In this Together".  The question is, where does this all go once the crisis has subsided? Will our urgency, connection, and togetherness fade away?  Today we will be chatting abo...

As we continue our focus series on the COVID-19 crisis and it's impact on specialty coffee, we get talk someone who has been leading the charge for business agility, staff/customer safety, and creating systems to support it all. Maxwell Mooney is the Owner of the award winning shop, Narrative Coffee in Everette, WA. A past guest on the show, Maxwell consistently brings a clear, level headed, and w...

Never before has it been more important to invest in your companies communication and marketing than right now. Connection to our customers and also our staff is the life blood of the cafe and drives everything we do. Additionally, the health of your shop is determined in large part by the health of the relationships you create with the consumer and those relationships are driven by how you commun...

It's Founder Friday! Today I am excited to present this live interview with the Co-Founder of Mighty Oak Roasters in Astoria, NY, Peter Moses! You may recognize Peter because he was one of a few people I interviewed on the floor of the 2019 Coffee Fest NYC trade show. At that time they were very much in the planning and build- phase but now Mighty Oak has taken root in Astoria and has gown to quic...

Within the fight to stay open there is a pervasive sentiment that we are "letting people down".  I have seen and heard this from many sources of late, including from myself. This is a pretty familiar feeling for those of us in customer service jobs and this current context highlights it to the extreme. But is it true?   Are you letting people down when you close your doors, or severely adjust serv...

  To say our emotions are on high alert these days is quite an understatement. I, like you, have found it difficult to manage let alone even articulate the feelings that are constantly being triggered in the wake of the pandemic. At no time has it been more needed to talk about emotional intelligence and managing our emotions in a healthy way than now.  Today we welcome back to the show, Andrea Ho...

So happy to sit down with Lauren Crabbe Co-Founder of Andytown Coffee Roasters for this episode of our COVID-19 Focus Series. Lauren was a past Founder Friday guest and has a wonderful style of leadership that prioritizes people and focuses on facilitating their success. In this conversation Lauren details how the crisis has impacted Andytown and what they are doing now to continue to serve their...

Does this spark joy? Better said, do the components of your business give life to the business and are they sustainable?  Many new programs and tools have been adopted by coffee shops in an attempt to stay in business during the crisis. Now that we have online stores, batching cold brew, delivery, curbside ordering etc...do we keep them?  Today we will be chatting about some basic questions to ask...

The time to lean into optimizing your operations and how you show up as a leader is now. As we get used to the "new normal" everyday, we need to take time to look at some critical elements of the work we do in the middle of the crisis and how it what we can do to create excellence in the face of uncertainty, and inspiration in a time of fear.  Today you and I will go over 6 areas I believe need to...

This is a wonderful value-driven conversation with someone who is doing a fantastic job caring for his staff and the community as the crisis unfolds. Jonathan Pascual is the owner of Taproom Coffee and Beer in Atlanta, GA. He was a past Founder Friday guest on the show and has returned to talk about how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted his business and what he and his team are doing in response. J...

In the middle of all of the upheaval we are fighting for some sense of normalcy and even more so, a sense of grounding. As we iterate and pivot business models and things change all around us, some of the normal conversations around to detail in service and and quality can take a back seat. Today we are chatting about why we need to look after and make sure to continue managing, talking about, and...

Brick and mortar retail is taking a huge hit right now. We are all trying our best to adjust and weather the storm. In the midst of this crisis there is still room for hope, connections, and there is an opportunity to serve like never before. All of this of course requires decisive and consistent action and to help motivate as we take those actions we are hearing from the worlds leading expert on...

This crisis is having a massive impact on more than just coffee shops and roasters. It extends out to the farmers who rely on us to purchase and move the coffee they produce. To help us gain some understanding around the scope of the issue we are going to talk with Ricardo Pereira the Chief Operations Officer at Ally Coffee. We discuss what is happening on the producing side and how roasters shoul...

We are shaped by hardship more than times of ease. How we are shaped and who we become after it is largely up to us and will help define our business for the foreseeable future. Today we are talking about the opportunity presented in the midst of tough times to choose generosity and lean into higher levels of leadership, service, and connection.  Links : The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens     ...