Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
869 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 221 ratingsA coffee podcast providing coffee shop owners and leaders, with insights, inspiration, and the tools you need to grow and advance your coffee business or coffee career. We learn from experts both in and outside the coffee industry as they deliver specific, practical, and actionable advice about ownership, optimization, profitability, barista work, employee culture, management, scaling, leadership, personal development, and anything else that will help you achieve success in the coffee shop.
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Episodes
SHIFT BREAK: Minding Our Business
April 18, 2024 13:40 - 12 minutes - 12.5 MBHow do we help? A few thoughts have been swirling in my mind since the SCA expo in Chicago, and one of them has to do with the best contribution we can make to help each other in the industry with our respective parts of the supply chain. It seems that many are majoring in things that are not directly related to their business, and therefore letting their business slip into disrepair. On this Shift break episode we will be talking about the power of tending to the effectiveness of our bu...
469: Unremarkable Hospitality and Cafe Terroir
April 17, 2024 17:58 - 27 minutes - 29.4 MBWhen we read about amazing hospitality stories in restaurants, it can (and should) inspire us to pursue hospitality in our our coffee shops. Trouble comes though, when in our pursuit of the next level hospitality experience we can easily start to generate an unhealthy fascination with singular experiences at the expense of celebrating and maintaining good and normal, maybe even "unremarkable" moments of hospitality that make up much of our day. In addition to this, there is a push for cafe ...
SHIFT BREAK: The Art of Letting Go
April 11, 2024 20:25 - 12 minutes - 12.1 MBIn order to progress, you need to let go. For coffee shop owners this is hard to do because so much on the initial business is based on personal work and many "firsts" that bring with them a sense of nostalgia and preciousness that can actually hold you back. The struggle to let go and allow for an evolution and progression might be behind why we can sometimes fail to see things through that we know are good but encounter some deeper personal resistance. On this Shift break episode we wil...
RoR #30 : Improve your Roasting Range by Focusing on the Fundamentals w/ Willem Boot of Boot Coffee
April 11, 2024 00:27 - 46 minutes - 45.4 MBToday, if you are a roaster, you need to be able to navigate a pretty wide range of options in equipment, varieties of coffees and processes, as well as being able to roast a wide range of styles from light, dark, blends and everywhere in between. Thankfully technological resources abound, but the fundamentals of taste and skill in knowing the coffee as a crafts person remains a cornerstone of what will enable you to truly roast well across the ever expanding spectrum of specialty cof...
468: How to Be a Shift Lead
April 09, 2024 17:59 - 38 minutes - 39.4 MBThe Shift Lead position is one of those roles that is very misunderstood. Often a title given to baristas for whom the boss wants to retain or established as a position to police a shift that has problems that run deeper than merely following to standards, a shift lead can feel confused, forgotten about and conflicted due to a lack intentionality in establishing this role in the cafe. Today we are going to talk to owners and baristas alike. For owners, about how to determine is a lead rol...
SHIFT BREAK: Embracing Problems as Blessings
April 04, 2024 01:06 - 10 minutes - 10.4 MBA mentor to Danny Meyer once told him "Business is Problems". This was said to point out that challenges are not only inescapable, they are actually a part of the fabric of what we do. Unfortunately many of us are consider the problems of business as nothing more than a nuisance to be eliminated vs an opportunity to be embraced. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how and why we should embrace problems in the cafe and see them as blessings that allow us to grow our business and o...
467: How to Create Coffee Magic with Your Menu w/ Ryan Castelaz of Discourse Coffee, Milwaukee, WI
March 28, 2024 12:29 - 56 minutes - 66.1 MBThe wonder and beauty of coffee is a catalyst for countless career coffee professionals and customers alike. The flavors and creation of special moments that draws us in, satisfy some sense of adventure as well as nurtures a need for belonging. On the business side of coffee it can be very easy for those elements to be lost and replaced with conformity, safety, and a sole focus on numbers that sucks the life out of what was once a joyous thing. For today's guest, reanimating the industry ...
SHIFT BREAK: How to Fine Tune Your Coffee Bar
March 28, 2024 12:23 - 10 minutes - 10.3 MBThere is no neutral. Only forward or backward. Your coffee shop is not a static thing that will simply take care of itself. The people, space, product, and culture all need to be given care and attention to prevent breaking down over time. The best way to do this is to always be fine-tuning the cafe. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why fine-tuning, optimization, and efficiencies matter in the shop and how you can approach the process in a way that is effective and fulfills yo...
466: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection w/ 2024 U.S. Barista Champion, Frank La, Be Bright Coffee
March 22, 2024 18:06 - 53 minutes - 55.4 MBThe craft of coffee and cafes is as much a personal pursuit as it is a service to others. Providing a remarkable coffee experience to guests through coffee is what initially inspired Frank La to begin a career in coffee. Since then his dedication to exploring service, mentorship, business operations, and coffee itself has been guided by the Japanese philosophy of "Kodawari" or, the relentless pursuit of perfection. Before launching Be Bright Coffee, Frank La developed his skills and becam...
465: Founder Friday! w/ John Piquet of Caffe D'bolla in Salt Lake City, UT
March 22, 2024 00:35 - 55 minutes - 60.3 MBCreating a fine dining level experience in a coffee shop is no easy task. I requires discipline, focus, and a view of coffee that assumes that it is not just a beverage but that it is truly a culinary art. This is the disposition and mission of of today's Founder Friday guest, John Piquet of Caffe d'bolla in Salt Lake City, UT. For nearly two decades, John Piquet has crafted his expertise as a coffee professional, roaster and siphon brewing specialist. As owner and operator, caffe d'bolla ...
SHIFT BREAK: Detail Oriented Staff Starts With You
March 21, 2024 13:39 - 10 minutes - 10.5 MBBeing detail oriented is one of those traits we look for in baristas as proof that they are the right for our coffee shop. What we don't think about very much is that a good bit of what a barista gives to a business is based on what has been invested into them. In other words, you get out what you put in. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why this desired behavior and disposition of staff is largely up to you and how you go about orienting them to the details that matter. L...
464: Encore : Making Order Out of Chaos, Handling Groups in the Cafe
March 18, 2024 17:14 - 44 minutes - 43.6 MBThere is no time where it is more critical to make a good impression than when you have a full and busy cafe. One of the main ways our coffee shops get filled is when groups meet at the shop. When groups of people come in to order, they bring with them a certain level of distraction and chaos that can easily slow things down and frustrate the staff and the customer. In today's episode we are bringing back a classic KTTS episode from year one that addresses what originally was a listener q...
SHIFT BREAK: Managers, You Don't Need To Do It All
March 14, 2024 14:05 - 10 minutes - 10.5 MBNow that you are a manager that means you have the ability to do all the things you know will make the cafe a better place right? Well, no necessarily. A least not right away. Manager frequently will end up very disappointed and dejected when they feel they cannot make the difference they so desperately want to make. The answer is not to give up, but to prioritize with patience. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why you do not need to do all the good ideas you have in your min...
463: Tips on Having the Right Meetings
March 11, 2024 17:53 - 30 minutes - 30.7 MBIf there is one thing most people agree upon, it is that they hate meetings. Have you ever considered why that is? Usually we hate meetings because they seem like a waste of time that only brings more confusion rather clarity. Poorly conducted or conceived meetings have led many of us to either give up entirely or to simply doggedly continue with ineffective meetings in spite of knowing they are not helping. There is a better way. Today we will be talking about the main meetings you sho...
SHIFT BREAK: You Don't Want Loyalty
March 07, 2024 18:22 - 11 minutes - 11.6 MBMany people want their customers to be loyal to their shop without providing much incentive for that loyalty. In fact we often will all but demand loyalty by virtue of our status rather than based on what we deliver. Customers all over the world will bend to this insinuated expectation we have against their better interest for only so long before they leave. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why loyalty may actually be a behavior that prevents us from improving and truly earnin...
462 : What a New Children's Book Teaches About Mistakes in Coffee and Life w/ David Foster, Kiln Coffee Bar and Author of Jett Goes to Work With Dad
March 05, 2024 17:00 - 44 minutes - 47.5 MBHospitality, patience, and giving grace to others and yourself are lessons we can learn from many areas of life. The coffee shop presents a unique opportunity for us to exercise those character traits as we serve customers along side our fellow staff members in the often pressured and fast paced day-to-day cafe work. There will many mistakes made, but in those mistakes lies opportunity for growth and re-affirming a people first focus. Today's guest, David Foster, wraps all this up in an a...
SHIFT BREAK : Trends You Can Ignore
February 28, 2024 19:01 - 10 minutes - 10.8 MBMarketing can be good, and bad. At it's best it exposes you to resources that help you mindfully build your business. At its worst it takes advantage of your insecurity and fear of not know how to build that business and turns your dream into nightmare of chasing the "next" and the "new" just to try to succeed. Today on Shift break we will be talking about a healthy way to interact with the ever expanding universe of options, data, sales people, and stats so that you can be decisive and b...
RoR #30 : Challenging Dogma With Data w/ Coffee Roaster and Chemical Engineer Mark Al-Shemmeri
February 28, 2024 18:52 - 44 minutes - 43.1 MBRoasting has historically been shaped by the experiences of crafts people and their experiments with what works, or does not work, in their roastery. These days we hav many people entering into the industry to affirm, challenge, and explore those dogmas in an effort to find the "why" behind the assumptions we have. Today's Rate of Rise guest, Mark Al-Shemmeri is one of those people challenging dogma with data. Mark is a chemical engineer who spent four years as a doctoral researcher (Eng...
461: A Conversation With 2023 World Barista Champion, Boram Um, Um Coffee Co
February 26, 2024 22:44 - 53 minutes - 52.2 MBWhen you think about quality coffee and what it takes to help usher in change in both how it is rendered and then how it is perceived globally, you would likely be overwhelmed with the notion. It is a lifelong vocation that requires not only personal commitment, but a large team of people to accomplish it Toady we get to talk with the new World Barista Champion Boram Um, who's family has been on this quest since his father moved to Brazil from Korea to begin his second professional life as a...
Special Interview! Ian Williams of Deadstock Coffee talks about marketing staying true to your culture, and leading in hard times | Live interview from Coffee Fest 2023
February 22, 2024 14:44 - 24 minutes - 33.1 MBLast year we did many interviews live at Coffee Fest. I got to chat with Ian WIlliams of the famed sneaker/coffee concept Deadstock Coffee in Portland Oregon while on the show floor. In this brief conversation Ian shared some very helpful insights around marketing, entrepreneurship, and staying true to values and culture while growing a business. Deadstock began as a cart and has operated a sneaker-themed coffee shop in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood since August 2015. Since then ...
SHIFT BREAK: How to Take Criticism as a Barista
February 20, 2024 18:45 - 14 minutes - 14.3 MBIt is very difficult to take criticism. Especially when you may be fully aware of the imperfections of those offering the feedback on your performance. Trust me, I have lived the rage of those moments in full, and have come to see how many opportunities I wasted being upset vs taking the feedback and using it to improve and grow. Today on Shift break we will be talking about how we should take the imperfect criticism and feedback we receive and own our part and our response... especially ...
Special Announcement: 2024 Key Holder Coaching Groups May be the Key to Unlock the Next Level in Your Business
February 19, 2024 23:51 - 6 minutes - 6.35 MBSpecial announcement! Applications are still open for the next round of Key Holder Coaching Groups! The Key Holder Coaching Group is a select group of coffee shop owners who love coffee, people, and want to see their business and others succeed! Insights, perspective, accountability, and growth. These are just some of the benefits I have seen change lives through consulting and over my years facilitating workshops and trainings. I have personally been in a group for podc...
460: What to Look for in a Manager
February 19, 2024 18:15 - 30 minutes - 31.2 MBPeople don't leave jobs, they leave managers. This is an old but still true saying that, for me, underscores the importance of selecting the right person to take on a management role in the cafe. A bad manager makes the work miserable, and a good manager makes the work rewarding and just like a conductor, orchestrates the talents of the players into a harmonious experience. But how do you find this person and what should you be looking for when it is time to put an manager in place? This w...
459 : Founder Friday! w/ Kymme Williams-Davis of Bushwick Grind Cafe in Brooklyn, NY
February 16, 2024 15:48 - 53 minutes - 52.6 MBWhen some people see a need or an opportunity, they dream about who will meet it or make it happen. Others, like today's guest on Founder Friday, task it upon themselves to take action and create the reality they want to see for the benefit of others. Kymme is owner of Bushwick Grind, a speciality coffee shop and cafe, established in 2015. Here she hosts the 2Fish5Loaves community fridge which provides hundreds of pounds of free food to local residents. She is also a technologist with a te...
SHIFT BREAK : 2 Tips for Bar Design
February 14, 2024 20:22 - 12 minutes - 13.9 MBThere is nothing as frustrating as working on and getting served from a busy bar that was not designed appropriately. From size, placement, equipment selection, and more, there are many areas to consider when designing a space that runs well. Unfortunately bars get built quickly and without the right kind of thought put in at the start. Today on Shift break we will be talking a two of the most important considerations you need to make sure you nail if you want your baristas and the busine...
458: Encore Episode! My Wife Interviews Me about My Career and How Coffee Brought Us Together
February 12, 2024 19:54 - 1 hour - 87.5 MBLooking back is not only a great way to take stock of how you have developed professionally and as a person, but also to bring back into focus what we have to be thankful for. A couple years back my wife convinced me to let her interview me about my career and along the way we also talk about how coffee brought us together. I typically shy away from telling stories of my own career, opting instead to highlight the guests or the principles we talk about on the show. But my wife was right, a...
SHIFT BREAK: No Cell Phones
February 08, 2024 17:39 - 18 minutes - 17.2 MBIt's the age old question, "Should we be able to use our phones behind the bar?". Simple right? Well, yes in some ways but the way we approach answering this question has downstream impact on the overall experience both our staff and guests have in our shops, and in turn how they view the industry itself. Today on Shift break we will be talking about why it is best practice to have policies that help us avoid distractions and bad optics behind the bar for the sake of keeping tuned into th...
457: Finding Your Place in Coffee w/ John Luke Robertson | Kings Lane Coffee
February 02, 2024 17:02 - 53 minutes - 50.1 MBJohn Luke Roberston is the founder and roaster at Kings Lane Coffee in West Monroe, LA. You may be familiar with the TV show Duck Dynasty that follows the lives of John Luke's family and their duck call business, Duck Commander. As John Luke grew and pursued his education, he developed a love for coffee and charted his own course by diving straight into owning and running a multi-cafe and coffee roasting business, Railway Coffee. I was honored to get to consult and coach him through the begi...
SHIFT BREAK: Too Many Managers!
January 31, 2024 17:57 - 12 minutes - 6 MBCan you have too much of a good thing? When it comes to managers and bosses in the coffee shop the answer is a resounding and exasperated YES! Why do we do needlessly multiply leaders in the shop like Oprah giving our free cars and as a result frustrate our staff and the leaders themselves? Today on Shift break we will be talking about the issue of having too many leaders and managers in the shop, why it is a problem, and what a healthy approach to delegating leadership looks like. Lis...
456: Competitions and What Makes a Good Barista w/ Scott Conary, Carborro Coffee / WCE Judge
January 30, 2024 12:51 - 56 minutes - 26.9 MBCoffee competitions have grown to be a dominant force for how professionals and consumers alike view the role of a barista, the industry, and coffee itself. Mindsets, businesses, and the supply chain itself has been shaped by the influence of competitions and today, understanding this world is critical to understanding coffee. To talk about this today we are joined by one of the most respected, prolific, and knowledgable WCE Competition head judges out there, Scott Conary! As Owner of a...
455 : Founder Friday! w/ Nick Kassouf of Tru Bru Organic Coffee
January 25, 2024 21:49 - 54 minutes - 25.9 MBCaring for people and their experience, both as employees and as customers, is at the heart of a successful coffee shop. In order to consistently pursue that, an operator needs to have a strong grounding of personal values that directs their decisions and helps them weather the storms of entrepreneurship. Today we are talking with someone whose mission to facilitate community, caring, and connection through coffee has been a driving force behind the success of his company. Nick Kassouf is...
SHIFT BREAK : The Scourge of Nitpicking Bosses
January 25, 2024 21:04 - 12 minutes - 5.82 MBIf I could pick one way to absolutely decimate your culture and drive your employee's morale into the dirt, while also making your customer's squirm, it would be passive-aggressive reactionary nitpicking masquerading as leadership. I get it, you have high standards and sometimes (lots of times) you feel like pulling your hair out when you see things that don't measure up. The questions is, how can you retain a high standard while also not inadvertently publicly shaming your staff in the proc...
454: Creating a Vibrant Coffee Bar w/ Charles Babinski of Cafe 143 in Sydney, AUS
January 23, 2024 13:53 - 47 minutes - 109 MBIn our quest for success in the coffee shop business we embrace the busy and frenetic pace that is assumed as necessary to bring us fulfillment. As we work we can often lose touch with the thing that drove our passion in the beginning. While scaling and ambition have many benefits, there always remains the need to connect with deep and meaningful things where skill intersects with heart. It is this simplicity and vibrancy that now drives today's returning Guest to the show, Charles Babinsk...
SHIFT BREAK: Questions Are Not Threats
January 18, 2024 14:36 - 11 minutes - 26 MBIn order to have engaged baristas, owners and managers must first be willing to engage. Unfortunately we have a habit of stifling questions and feedback from the group of people who live closest to the systems we create and treat questions as either inconveniences, or in many cases, threats. Today on Shift break we will be talking about how questions are an integral part of engagement, innovation, and trust leading to a better coffee shop that is built from a place of good faith communicat...
453 : The Craft of Operations
January 17, 2024 12:12 - 22 minutes - 51.5 MBWhen we think of the craft of coffee we tend to think only in terms of the bean and beverage itself. The whole value chain of coffee has benefited greatly from continued emphasis on transparency and today we have the ability to track down almost every detail and variable of a coffee to accurately determine what went into the resulting cup. But what about systems and operations that lead to that cup in your customers hand? If a coffee tastes off, we strive to investigate, diagnose, and adjus...
RoR #29 : A Coffee Roaster's Career Journey, Leigh Wentzle, Cedar Coffee
January 16, 2024 14:21 - 37 minutes - 86.9 MBAs a roaster your career can go through many different unique phases, all of which will tech you different things about the craft, the business, leadership, and even entrepreneurship. Not least among the things you learn is how to use both resources and constraints as opportunities to serve others and grow as a roaster. These are the kinds of experiences that today's guest has had in the industry and today we will explore those career phases and what they taught him. I am so pleased to welco...
SHIFT BREAK : Candid Advice for Baristas, Managers, and Owners
January 11, 2024 19:26 - 15 minutes - 36.5 MBThe most important thing in coffee...is people. More to the point, managers and owners prioritizing hiring and caring for the right people, and baristas embracing taking responsibility for their own careers and how they show up in the shop vs blaming others for their lot in the industry. On today's Shift Break we are going to be getting straight to the heart of what is important for managers and owners to know in hiring and caring for a team, and what is critical for baristas to know if ...
452: Championing the Customer Experience in Coffee w/ 3x SA Barista Champion, Winston Douglas Thomas of Cedar Coffee
January 09, 2024 00:29 - 1 hour - 138 MBThe world of professional specialty coffee can be both inspiring and intimidating with many customers and new baristas feeling lost in the mix of rules, methods, and information. How can we create a great experience for guests and staff who all really want to enjoy coffee and find their place in it? Today we get to learn from the story of someone whose career in coffee took him from curious customer, to barista champion, and finally to teacher and business owner, all along the way finding ...
SHIFT BREAK : Setting and meeting Standards in the Coffee Shop
January 05, 2024 16:44 - 12 minutes - 11.9 MBHaving high standards is part of what it means to be in specialty coffee. While it is true that we need to have reasonable tolerances built into our expectations, we also need to be specific in our communication, resourcing, and expectations so people know what it is they are aiming for in the cafe. On today's Shift Break we talk about we we should be approaching setting and meeting standards in the shop and how your example and follow through is integral to your teams success. Related...
451: Business Growth, Integrity, and Coffee Farmer Equity w/ Martin Mayorga of Mayorga Coffee
January 02, 2024 13:12 - 57 minutes - 55.5 MBWhen Martin Mayorga first entered the coffee industry it was not as someone whose singular passion was the product, but the people and communities behind it that were unseen and more often that not, unrewarded for their work. He had and still has a mission to address this disparity. Born in Guatemala City to a Nicaraguan father and a Peruvian mother, Martin's early life was a mosaic of Latin American cultures and unique challenges, including losing everything to an earthquake in Guatemala ...
SHIFT BREAK : Evolution Through Small Steps
December 28, 2023 21:07 - 9 minutes - 13.7 MBWhen we set goals it is usually because we have come to realize a need for change. In the cafe this can result in making a large scale transformational effort that can often fall flat, We want to evolve and grow our cafe or even ourselves but the learned behaviors that got us here stand in our way. On today's Shift Break we will talk about how evolution and change that is sustainable has to be based on small and consistent steps in the direction of your goal and how doing this in the New Y...
RoR #28 : Ease and Accessibility in Sample Roasting w/ Andrew Stordy, Inventor/Founder of IKAWA
December 19, 2023 21:15 - 37 minutes - 35.5 MBSample roasting empowers people with the knowledge of possibility locked in the coffee. Bringing sample roasting that provides for more continuity and better communication to more professionals in the value chain, especially at origin, is critical not just for how coffee's potential is achieved but how the value of that coffee is distributed. Today we explore this dynamic through the lens of the IKAWA sample roaster with Inventor, Andrew Stordy! Andrew, the inventor and founder of IKAWA, g...
450: A Conversation About Mobile Apps and Hospitality w/ Joe Capone of Espressly
December 18, 2023 21:10 - 51 minutes - 49.8 MBHospitality is a pursuit that relies on our ability to not only offer our guests excellence in quality, consistency, and interaction, but it also relies on us being able to select tools for delivery of our service that line up with our values. Mobile apps and order ahead systems have become a part of the fabric of the coffee shop space based on their convenience and marketing potential. Beyond the question of whether you should utilize this tool, is the question of the role apps and convenie...
SHIFT BREAK: Embracing Your Constraints
December 18, 2023 20:55 - 8 minutes - 8.28 MBYou can't always get what you want. In fact, getting exactly what you want may hinder your growth and creativity in the long run. Most of us in the cafe space work within constraints of budget, time, space, and capacity, and that is actually something to celebrate. On today's shift break we will be talking about why embracing and even applying constraints is the key to unlock your own, and your coffee shop's potential. Related episodes: SHIFT BREAK: Before you Expand 240 : What to d...
449: Convenience and Automation in Coffee w/ Tim Cox of Franke Coffee Systems
December 18, 2023 19:07 - 52 minutes - 50.8 MBThe coffee market is much bigger than just specialty coffee. In fact specialty makes up just a fraction of coffee consumed globally. The advent of convenience coffee service is growing lock step with innovations in automation and that has historically make those of us in the more craft forward markets nervous. While I will readily admit to being one of those nervous and doubting people when it comes to convenience and automation, I also enjoy exploring the other side of a subject that can he...
448: Founder Friday! Part 2 "Switching Gears" | w/ Doug Zell of Intelligentsia and The Meteor!
December 14, 2023 22:48 - 29 minutes - 27.7 MBIn this second part of our 2 part Founder Friday we switch gears with Doug Zell, founder of the iconic coffee company Intelligentsia Coffee. In the years that followed the acquisition of Intelligentsia, Doug entered into a new era of creativity related to food, coffee, and his passion for cycling. With his friend and fellow cycling enthusiast Chris St. Peter, they founded the Meteor. The vision began with a desire to create a beautiful environment that combines all the things they love und...
448: Founder Friday! Part 1 "Switching Gears" | w/ Doug Zell of Intelligentsia and The Meteor!
December 14, 2023 20:30 - 39 minutes - 36.9 MBThe landscape of specialty coffee has been influenced by many people and companies over the last few decades. The foundations of the standards and methods we use now, at one time, were merely ideas waiting for someone to put them into action. In the class of companies operators that have championed that exploration one of the most influential was Intelligentsia Coffee under the leadership of founder Doug Zell. Doug Zell is the founder of Intelligentsia Coffee and the Meteor Cafe. In 1995 h...
SHIFT BREAK : It's OK to Have Reasonable Tolerances
December 14, 2023 15:35 - 12 minutes - 16.7 MBThe pursuit of excellence drives us to create very stringent standards for our coffee, service, and businesses. There is nothing wrong with this, except for when it becomes so narrow that it chokes out the life of the café, pushes people away and ends up, creating the opposite result then we intended. On today's shift break we are going to talk about why it's OK to have reasonable tolerances in the café and how having them is actually necessary to achieve excellence in all areas overtime ...
447: Understanding the Business of Coffee w/ Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood
December 12, 2023 13:07 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBThe world of coffee trade and commerce is complex to say the least. The difference between a business that succeeds and one that flounders is largely based on how well we know the business of coffee and how we move wisely within it as we establish and grow our shops and roasters. The consistent nurturing and success of our business has a ripple effect that will help the whole supply chain. Certainly it is not overstating the case that, if we want to have true sustainability then we in specia...
SHIFT BREAK: How to Approach Holiday Hospitality
December 07, 2023 23:00 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBThe holiday rush is in full swing and many of us (most of us) are trying our best to just survive the frenzy. Shops are full of customers as well as friends and visiting family of our customers and it is a great time to not just survive the craziness but to increase our intentionality, presence of hospitality, and care for our staff and guest in spite of the pressure. Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how we can plan our energy, presence, and lean into ways to make the holiday ...