Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Coffee and the coffee shop have an amazing history. From the Ottoman Empire to your favorite 3rd wave coffee bar, there have been many evolutions and critical pints in time that have led us to where we are today. In order to move forward well, we need to be well informed of our industry's past. To help us in this effort we are chatting with coffee historian, Prof. Jonathan Morris Jonathan Morris i...

On bar, things get stressful. We are not just managing the physical space but we are also managing and navigating our emotions. It's all too easy to let our pride keep us from asking for help when we most desperate need it. In this shift break I talk about a recent experience I had that inspired the episode and we dive into vulnerability, team support, communication, and ultimately allowing oursel...

It's tech time! Equipment breaks, that is just a fact of life. How and why it breaks depends on the way we maintain (or don't maintain) it over the corse of its life. right now there are thousands of bars working on machines that are either about to break or are well on their way because of improper care. Today we are talking with Counter Culture Coffee NYC equipment tech extraordinaire, Melissa V...

How do you inspire people? This was a question I was asked recently while conducting a day-long workshop for a group of cafe managers. The answer is easy to give, but hard to live. You can think of this also as policy -vs- relationship. Today we are going to talk about our tendency to try and force inspiration, why it falls short, and what to do instead.  Related episodes: 179 : What you MUST Know...

Learning about consumer trends and preferences keeps us sharp and relevant. How well our shops do will have a huge impact on everyone in the value stream of coffee and in order to do our best work we need to be paying attention to what the research says as well as doing our own research locally. Thankfully the SCA has been doing intensive consumer and retail research for over a decade and what the...

It's easy to create an environment in the coffee shop where staff feel they are bound by tight rules and restrictions. In this environment we don't get to see much creative hospitality in the form of solving problems for customers. Today we are chatting about the need to empower your staff to make calls on the bar that reinforce the the values and spirit of the organization.    Related Episodes: F...

Getting your local coffee community to come together can be a powerful way to build networks, friendships, and careers. This is what today's guests have made their mission. Javier Alvarez and Joseph W. Gonzalez are long time professional baristas who founded Espresso State of Mind in 2017 to give their fellow baristas a platform to showcase talents, meet one another, and excel in their careers. Be...

The hardest part about building a team is building trust. It does not happen overnight and requires patience, but more than that, it requires consistency in small and big ways. Today we are going to talk about how you can cultivate trust in your staff by building your "Trust-credit".  In the New Year there will be many goals you set for yourself and your business. It is my hope that the message in...

That's it! The year is done and to help us ring in the New Year I am re-airing a classic from way back in the day. January 17 2017 is when "Leadership in the Cafe : 10 Steps to being a People First Leader" first aired. Now, three years and 274 episodes later, the message rings just as true and is just as relevant as ever before. If there is anything you need to do to secure a great year for yourse...

It's Founder Friday! Today we get to sit down not once, but twice with Colin Whitcomb of the newly opened Canary Coffee Bar in Milwaukee, WI.  In this episode we talk with Colin a couple months before Canary opened and then 3 months after to get a detailed look inside the planning and running of a new business Along with being an amazingly nice guy, Colin has been in coffee for 14 years having wor...

When you start or run a coffee bar you are going to be faced with a ton of options for what products and ideas you will adopt. Saying yes to any and everything can get you and your business in trouble  down the road. Today we are going to be talking about why saying "No" can open up more opportunities for success than it closes off and why limitations in the beginning produce freedom in the long r...

27 Million. That is the number of people who are trapped in modern day slavery. It is a number that may leave many wondering what they can possibly do in the face of such a daunting statistic. However, today's guest decided that she needed to take action and try to make a difference. Esther Hope-Gibbs is a veteran coffee professional, AST instructor, and the Director and Founder of Manumit Coffee...

Most everyone has had fun playing this game as kid. While it's a great game parties, it's not so great for the coffee shop. Today we talk about how this game gets started in the cafe and what we can do to "ruin" it before it creates major communication and quality problems in our business.     Related episodes : Communicate, Duplicate, Repeat The Art of Deep Listening Please Clarify: Being on the...

Has it been a while since you last trained the staff and practices are outdated or ineffective? As a business grows the need for raising the standards in the shop becomes an absolute necessity.  The new year is approaching and if you seek to bring in a new level of quality to you operation then making the right steps in implementing  these changes is key to determining whether they stick in the lo...

In the coffee shop there are so many expectations placed on us but often the results of the work are not fully within our control. When you combine these two things it is a recipe for stress and burnout. Today we are talking about how we can approach the situation with grace and facilitate staff success rather than blaming them for things that they cannot control. Every shop deals with this in som...

Writing the schedule is one of the hardest things a manager has to take on. It is also one of the primary ways to care for the staff and the success of the cafe. It determines labor cost, quality of service, consistency of standards and more. If there is one thing that I focus on a lot with my consulting clients it is scheduling well.  Today we will be discussing 6 tips that will aid you in the sc...

The idea of transactional is not what most of us have in mind when we think about hospitality. We tend to think of that more in relational terms and hold the transactional out as the antithesis to hospitality. What if we are wrong? What if we are mischaracterizing transactions and in the process failing to give our customers the hospitality they want and need?  Today we chat about these ideas and...

While tea is a staple menu item in virtually every coffee bar around the world, our understanding of tea can be fairly limited and the selection of teas often stagnates over the years. Much of this maybe because we don't know where to start with tea and need some guidance in our approach and in setting up a dynamic tea menu. All this and more is what will be addressed on today's episode talking ab...

In just 7 years, Onyx Coffee Lab has become one of the industry's most recognizable, respected, and progressive coffee companies. Whether you know them from their championship performances on the barista, brewers, or roasting competition stage - their multiple Good Food Awards and Golden Bean coffees - or their effort in transparency and exquisite retail shops, Onyx Coffee Lab is an inspiration in...

Shop Local! Small Business Saturday! Independently Owned! These are phrases we use to get people to come in to our stores and support the local economy. That's all well and good but do we deliver the quality people expect? Or do we rely a bit too much on being local to cover up for our shortcomings? Today we chat about  this issue of using our small business status to excuse ourselves from improvi...

Opening a pop-shop is one of a number of great ways to get started in specialty coffee retail. It is a lower start up cost, you get to test the concept, and you get to know your community (and they, you) in the process. Today's guest, Nikki Outlaw, has just wrapped up her first year running her pop-up coffee shop, Anecho Coffee.  In this conversation we get to hear about her journey into opening A...

Ignore your baristas, but listen to podcasters. Ignore your staff, but listen to authors. It is too easy for us to immediately turn to outside resources and , in the process, discount and overlook the resources we have under our very noses. Today we chat about the proper mindset to have when you pursue resources and the problem of being blind to what we have.  Related Episodes:  165: The Art of De...

Growing and learning from the experiences of others is what this show is all about. A lot of growth and learning happened this past weekend in Tacoma during the Coffee Fest PNW trade show where I was able to record three interviews with people I met during my seminars.  In order of appearance we will be hearing from: Scott Palmer who, along with his wife Alana is opening Palmer House in Grand Rapi...

Managers are looked to all day long as agents of clarity. Questions are a constant and this aspect of management is core to being able to drive results in creating a great culture and a successful bar. That said, it can be frustrating since you don't always have the answers and the steady drip of questions and need for clarifying information can wear you down. Today we are going to chat about the...

One of the world's most compelling cafes is also run by one of the world most iconic and trusted espresso machine companies. Located in the lobby of KEXP, the La Marzocco Cafe in Seattle, WA has been operating for almost 4 years. Every 4-6 weeks the cafe is taken over by different world-renowned roasting companies who design a full experience that represents their brand to the guests visiting the...