Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

I don't think there has been a time in the history of coffee shops where we have been so distracted by things that promise to bring value but turn out to be simply distractions. Noise vs signal, image vs substance, and so forth. In my year of coffee I have seen plenty of cafes burn out from pursuing and building their businesses according to these distractions.  Today we are going to detail what t...

How do you know if you are doing a good job? Who are you looking to serve and how do you measure success? For many of us the proof of our doing great work lies in the validation of our industry before it we are happy with the praise and fulfillment of those we serve through the shop. Truth is, great work, done in secret or anonymity, makes a big difference whether the industry recognizes it our no...

Investment is what creates value. There are many other investments beyond the financial that customer must make in the coffee experience that make the act of going to get coffee worth it.  In today's Shift Break we will be talking about the necessary costs customers must bear and why they are not inconveniences we should be trying to get rid of, but crucial investments we should be honoring with w...

I have talked to many clients as well as Key Holder Coaching Group members who employ seasonal staff. There is a big challenge when looking to hire, train, and manage them since the term of their employment is short and they are either new, or they have had 6 months or more off from the cafe. In today's Shift Break we will be talking about some strategies to use when hiring, training, and managing...

The landscape of retail is cluttered with messages, distractions, gimmicks, and desperate bids for scraps of customers attention. After a while, it all starts to look, sound, and feel the same. How do you stand out for the right reasons and engage with your customers and future customers in ways that provide something sustainable and unique?  In today's episode we will be discussing some great way...

It's Founder Friday! Today we are chatting with the professional Rugby player turned specialty cafe owner, Jake Heenan of Burra Bristol! Jake has played professional rugby for over 13 years and started Burra, an antipodean café in Bristol, while still playing full-time. It's grown to three sites and won multiple awards - shaped by the same principles of culture, teamwork, and performance that he h...

If you are a manager or leader on shift, or the owner of the cafe, how you spend your time really matters. You have been given authority as a tool to help those you serve and they are counting on you to be organized and purposeful in the use of your time, energy, and focus. Today on Shift Break we are going to be covering some advice for how you can better organize your time so you go from being r...

In this ever cluttered world of tips, tricks, methods, eqipment, and tools it can be hard to know what to employ in the cafe to really make a difference. I am of the opiniion that the best tools are not necessarily physical, but are frameworks and ideas that help guide our presence, work, and relationships in the work.  In today's episode we are going to be diving into what I believe are some of t...

"If you're not growing, your dying", phrases like this tend to drive us pursue a path of growth that often prevents us from slowing down or finding margin in which we can see that something, or even we ourselves, need to stop. Today on Shift Break we are going to be talking about how to see entrepreneurship as not just a one time thing, but as a cyclical practice that helps you enter into needed c...

Have you ever walked into a shop and noticed right away, this place is different. The hospitality, the quality, the feel, the energy, and the comfort and confidence you and the staff feel together is a synergy born from purposeful work behind the scenes. It is a work not just to assemble people and equipment under one roof and call it done, but work to tend to the things that animate, sustain, and...

Signature beverages and seasonal drinks are a huge part of what rounds out the cafe menu and, if done well, can make you stand out for all the right reason.  Of course, it stands to reason, that if they are done not so well, you stand out for the wrong reasons. How can you go beyond TikTok trends and the latest viral sensations and create something that is both good for your culture and good for b...

Coffee. We love it so much! However, in spite of our love for coffee, we have all been burned by taking in just a little too much caffeine as we sip, cup, and enjoy. As technology and methods around decaf coffee have improved and evolved, so too has the demand for having more control over the stimulating effects of the beverage.  This is where Caffeine Control Coffee comes in to educate us on caff...

In the busy cafe we tend to want to power through the work and in the process we rush the customer. The average cafe guest can feel as though they are simply being handled or herded instead of welcomed and served.  Today on Shift Break we are talking about how and why we need to fight against the urge to rush the customer and what it looks like to help them truly connect with and experience our un...

Everybody leaves. That is the constant of working in coffee shops. How they leave and how you respond to their absence for their good, the team that remains and for your business is a question of how much intentionality you bring to the inevitable departure of staff.  Today we are going to explain how we can view turn-over and use it to better our leadership, to streamline and make more effective...

It's Founder Friday! And this one is quite special. Nori and Tin Burmudez founded Corridor Flow in the Fall of 2019 with community and relationship as their central mission. I was lucky enough to work with them in their beginning stages and for the last almost six years, their commitment to their vision have shown itself in their deeply rooted and instantly resonant presence in their Lomita commun...

Great things happen when we plug into community and open ourselves up to the learning process. This is especially true when you begin your own business and apply those things you have learned from your experiences. It opens up entirely new levels.  Today on this 36th episode of Rate of Rise, brought to you by our friends at  Mill City Roasters , we are talking with Alex Jacob of Vital Coffee Roast...

Training employees remains one of the central tasks of cafe ownership and management. Rather than training from a central standard and source that has been thoughtfully crafted to onboard and develop the skills of the barista to meet specific standards, there is a temptation to want to lean on training by osmosis or by committee where the new hire is simply assigned a shift schedule and told they...

If you are like a lot of owners or managers you might find the idea of reminding and repeating yourself to be at the top of the "most annoying things I should not have to do" list. To a degree you are right. But only partly. It really depends on how those tools are used and how you approach your own role in the cafe Today we are going to explore how the tools of repetition and reminders are actual...

We talk about how we want to provide an experience for the guest, to connect with them, to make a positive impact. The way to get there though is through embracing what may seem like the opposite of what we want, the transactional. Gasp!  Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why the transaction between you and the customer, the ordinary exchange of money for goods, is the gateway and foun...

On average, when I look into a cafe's operational materials and systems, one of the main things that is either not developed well, developed but not updated, or just not there at all, are job descriptions. For many coffee businesses, there is a default to describing their growth and thus operation as "organic" and as a result, while some progress is made, they can tend to find themselves hitting a...

Who we are when nobody s looking is really who we are. There are variations of this phrase and for most it is convicting and motivates us to increase the integrity of how we move in life and work. In the cafe, we talk a lot about hospitality regarding guests and more recently we have talked about hospitality for the staff. But what about the people that support and are vested in your businesses th...

"Customers are already dialed in." This is one of my favorite quotes from the interview I had with today's guest. The industry has largely been focused on educating customers about coffee but not very good about educating themselves about the customer, and even less concerned about meeting people where they are or even celebrating their tastes. How can we approach the regular people that make up m...

Being a manager in a coffee shop is not just about extra administrative tasks, its about leading and guiding people well through the work of the cafe. Many managers in bars around the world are kept buried in tasks and don't have a clear view of the landscape in front of them. This leads to avoiding essential conversations and a lack of growth in both the manager and the staff. Today on Shift Brea...

Coffee shops are dynamic places that require a ton of focus on what seems like an endless sea of urgent things. Some are actually more important than others and learning what they are and training yourself and your staff to focus on and cultivate them from the start can help set the next years of your businesses life up for healthy operation and growth. Today we are going to explore what areas you...

Once we get a little bit of authority as a trainer, manager, or leader in the coffee shop we tend to dream about and focus on all the things we want to change. Unfortunately the projects that we know will improve things often do not get the reception we want from the boss and we feel dejected and frustrated.  Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the need to have patience and to prioritize...