Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

There is no doubt about it, having a training lab is a wonderful asset to have for elevating the quality of your training...until it isn't. Truthfully, much like any tool, it depends on how it is used and whether it is part of a bigger picture. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the good and the bad of training labs. You don't necessarily need one, but if you do have a lab or are wantin...

Ideas are like green coffee seeds. They are bundles potential cultivated by earnest hands that are then received by others who take them and develop them further. The final rendering of that seed can and does often result in something beautiful. This is how I think of mediums like podcasts, videos, and, of course, books.  Today I want to share with you 5 books that I believe speak to areas of our...

The title of today's episode sounds like a no brainer, but you may or may not be surprised to know that it is way easier than you think to be this way when traIning baristas. It is not something that we set out to do, but is born from a confluence of insecurities, myopic focus, passion, and assumption. I say this as someone who has certainly lived it and wants to help you avoid making the same mis...

I feel as though this question is constantly on the mind of owners. It is a question born from a desire to have a well trained staff that makes the quality of the work more consistently great, as well as a desire to be an effective trainer and have the staff "get it" quickly. Throw in a little bit of owner insecurity as they are learning all this stuff themselves too, and you get a recipe for misc...

Creating a cafe space is about finding a fitting home for the equipment and people behind the counter who will use it. It is about finding a synthesis, a flow, and a feeling that is functional and remarkable all at once. The life of the business is either helped or hampered by the decisions we make in designing the space. In the many choices and acts of creation we engage in, both in opening, and...

One of the beautiful things about working in coffee today is the connectivity that is available to players in the value stream. Those who want to make the biggest difference, both use and innovate better versions of these various avenues for connection to build trusting and generous relationships that bring thriving and understanding.  Today's guest live and breaths this mission. I am so honored t...

It's Founder Friday! I am so thrilled to feature people who have become friends through getting to know them at coffee vents over the years. They have launched their own coffee house and made something as unique as they are themselves.  Nicolas and Krystal Tanaka are siblings and the proud owners of Kohiko Coffee House, located in Sugar Land, Texas. They've combined their unique backgrounds and ex...

Did you know that, in spite of all the work you do for others, the sacrifices you make to run your business and do what you can for your staff, plus the positive impact on your community,  the you are ACTUALLY evil and/or complicit in the demise of coffee and the people in coffee?  Well,  if you listen to the conversations, articles, and headlines being created about you by people who don't know y...

Coffee brings people together for all sorts of reasons. One of the beautiful ways coffee is used is as a vehicle for change in areas of our world that desperately need it. Nowhere is change more needed than in the realm of human trafficking and exploitation.  I am thrilled to talk with a couple of professionals on the front lines of this fight. We are talking with Jenny Barber and Jake Jiron of Ta...

Ah the age old debate. Should you hire someone who is experienced working in coffee? On onhand they have skills that may be helpful and on the other they might have bad habits you need to address.  Or should you hire someone without experience? Their first exposure to coffee will be at your shop and you get to train them up on your standards from the start. At the same time they ma take longer to...

When you think about the things that make the biggest difference in culture, hospitality experience, staff morale and the profitability of your coffee shop, you would be forgiven for being overwhelmed. There are so many moving parts in food and beverage operations it's hard to know what lever to pull to make a difference. Well the good news is that, according to today's guest, when you apply focus...

In recent weeks Starbucks has announced it will no longer charge for plant-base alternative milks. This comes after efforts from activists claiming discrimination. Starbucks aside, the conversation about up-charging for alt milk has been going on for a while now with people who feel strongly on either side of the topic.  Today on Shift Break we will be talking about whether or not you should be ch...

The way customers and staff experience our cafes is based many experiences and moments taken together to form what they know as our culture or brand. Each experience can be broken down into many different parts that happen within even one visit and the smart operator knows that unless there is a plan set up ahead of time for how we want those moments to go, then we will provide less than stellar s...

Training your staff is easily one of the most important things to get right if you want to set them up for success and make sure your customers are getting a great experience every time. Every place has their own way of doing training and most of it is cobbled together from different sources in a desperate bid for a positive outcome. The result if all to often a staff that is under prepared, frust...

Innovation and an obsession with what is "new" has long been a primary force capturing the imagination of coffee pros and entrepreneurs. Trouble is that the novel and new, while it may be good at grabbing or capturing attention, is not great at keeping and sustaining us, or our businesses for that matter. In fact, innovation and constantly looking for something have the opposite effect than what i...

Today on Founder Friday we go to Azerbaijan to talk with the founder of a coffee shop and roastery that is at the heart of the national specialty coffee movement, Parvix Dadashov, of Untied Coffee Beans! Parviz is Founder and CEO of United Coffee Beans project, a trailblazing coffee business in the realm of specialty coffee in Azerbaijan. Parviz graduated from Tourism and Management University and...

Coffee is great! Keeping it consistently great in the shop is a challenge and there are many tactics and tools to apply in learning more about coffee and applying what we learn in the shop. But what happens when we allow our pursuit of more coffee knowledge become a distraction from focusing on needed areas of improvement and maintenance in the cafe?  Today on Shift Break we will be talking about...

The coffee industry, specifically the coffee shop, has been changing. Trends and fads come and go, but movements are born from a collective need to evolve and mature toward a better way of operating professionally. It is not the trends that you need to worry about not getting in line with, but the movements.  Today we will be covering five areas that have been changing in the coffee shop sector th...

So many great ideas come from conversations, trade shows, podcasts, books, and videos. Ideas and epiphanies that will make your coffee shop better and solve problems that have plagued you and your team for too long. But how do you take the first step to apply those ideas why you feel you don't have the time.  On today's episode of Shift Break we will answer frequent question I get asked when I am...

We all say that guest experience is the most important thing. I would agree, but exactly what do we mean by this? In today's marketplace we are hyper focused on efficiency over effectiveness. The result is that what passes for what we believe makes a great coffee experience, is something unsustainable, ineffective, but flashy and largely based on a trend instead of truly fulfilling the core needs...

Every coffee shop hosts within its walls countless stories. The life that happens on the pltform of a cafe is just breath taking. This includes stories that showcase you and your team's values in action. Wil Guidara talks about these as legends that embody the and illustrate what we are all about. Be this as it may, stories somehow do not take up very much, if any, time or attention when we onboar...

Translating coffee from one form to the next, and serving it in a way that further translates the value of that coffee into a rewarding experience for the drinker, is what the craft of coffee is all about. Today's guest has gone from translating languages to working full time in roasting and serving coffee and has some critically important insights to share from her journey.  We are talking with 2...

The allure of easily producing documents and processes for your coffee shop through AI is strong. Using tools to support your business in a thoughtful way is one thing, but too many times I hear about people all but completely outsourcing the task that should be taken on by those who can create with nuance, to software. On today's episode of Shift Break we will talk about what we lose when we use...

The impact of the coffee shop on the entire industry is astounding. The beauty and transcendence of a well run cafe offers excellence and care to staff and guests alike, and provides an accurate reflection and consistent channel through which people get to experience the work of farmers and all hands in the value stream. It is this idea, that the cafe is hugely consequential element in the thrivin...

Today on Founder Friday are exploring the story of Three Keys  Coffee in a wonderful conversation with the founders, Kenzel and Tio Fallen! Kenzel  Fallen is Co-Founder and CEO of Three Keys Coffee. Originally from Cincinnati, OH,  Kenzel  received a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from Rice University. After building a career as a management consultant and corporate ris...