Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

The coffee shop environment is filled with more that just coffee. It is a swirling mix of emotions, thoughts, expectations, communication, action, interpretation of actions, and everything in between. In other words...Relationships. The hardest part of coffee is the people they say. And while it may be true, it is also true that people are integral to coffee and to the joy and fulfillment of the experience.

On today's annual thankfulness themed Shift Break we will be talking about how the relationships and resources we have now are both a weight of responsibility but also a necessary fuel that we and the business are designed to run on in order to find sustainable success.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Chris

In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?

Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!

https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min

Related episodes:

• Thankfulness and Giving Energy to the Positive

• Priorities and Deep Thankfulness

• 224 : Essentialism: Focusing on what truly Matters w/ Greg McKeown
• The Miracle of the Mundane: How curiosity helps our sustainability

Thank you to out sponsors!

Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co

The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com

Why do we overcomplicate things? Certainly details matter with SOPs , recipes, etc...but communication to our customers and staff can often be more confusing than helpful in delivering the impact and purpose we intend. The coffee shop is a dynamic place with a ton of inputs and noise swirling together. Having a simple clear way to communicate will help cut through the noise.

Today we will be exploring how to do just that, and in turn how simple communication and messages can bring big results for cafes. I am happy to be joined today by author and expert in simple messaging, Ben Guttmann!

Ben Guttmann is a marketing and communications expert and author of Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win — and How to Design Them. He's an experienced marketing executive and educator on a mission to get leaders to more effectively connect by simplifying their message. Ben is former co-founder and managing partner at Digital Natives Group, an award-winning agency that worked with the NFL, I Love NY, Comcast NBCUniversal, Hachette Book Group, The Nature Conservancy, and other major clients.

Currently, Ben teaches digital marketing at Baruch College in New York City and consults with a range of thought leaders, venture-backed startups, and other brands.

In our talk we cover:

• The reason and ways we over complicate massages
• What makes a simple message impactful
• The negative impact of too many words
• How do we ensure the right result from our communication?
• Nobody cares and the paradox of choice
• Applying constraints to challenge ourselves
• The perception of confidence
• We can only care about so much

Links:

Buy the book : Simply Put! www.Benguttmann.com

Ben Guttmann on LinkedIn

Listen to these episodes next:

• 215 : Communication and Marketing Master Class w/ Spencer M. Ross, PH.D.
• 421: Encore Episode: Simple, Powerful, Hospitality w/ Philip Paul Turner
• 432 : How to Win in Specialty Retail Coffee
• BLOG: Good Communication is "For Here"
• 321 : Marketing and Moral Injury w/ Josh Tarlo of Kiss the Hippo

Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!

https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min

Thank you to our amazing sponsors!

Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee

The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com

Do we care what our customers think? If so, how do they know? When you talk to almost any operator of a cafe you will hear them say that they value the customer and their feedback. The question though is how are the customers supposed to deliver it and are you making it easy for them to do so?

On today's Shift break we will be talking about how we can pursue customer feedback in a clear and meaningful way that builds trust, connection, and a sustainable coffee shop.

Listen to these next!

• 282 : How to Listen to your Customers
• Feedback Culture : Making feedback a part of what you do not just something you sometimes do
• 196 : Understanding Customer Preferences w/ Peter Giuliano

In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?

Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!

https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min

Thank you to out sponsors!

Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co

The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com

You hear it everywhere. Owning and running a business is hard, taxing, a battle even. And while there is truth to this, it is not the whole truth. In the entrepreneurial journey we have accepted, with no degree of irony, that it is a miserable business bringing joy to our communities through coffee. Don't buy it.

Today we are going to be talking about the transformational role that confidence, celebration, and joy play in not only helping your business succeed, but in allowing you to find fulfillment and life through the running and growing of it.

This is an incredibly important truth that needs to be given priority in our daily lives. Lets embrace confidence, celebration, and joy together through coffee!

Listen to these next:

• 008 : Finding Joy in Coffee w/ Nathanael May
• 317 : Encore Episode: Death by Comparison
• 227 : Connecting with Hearts and Minds
• Emotions, Self-Sabotage, and Telling Ourselves the Truth
• 394 : Happy Coffee People w/ Wendelien van Bunnik
• 181 : Organizational Self-Knowledge
• Over Optimization

Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!

https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min

Thank you to our amazing sponsors!

Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee

The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com

High expectations are fine as long as they are coupled with the resources and tools to actually achieve them. No position in the cafe gets the short end of the stick of resourcing than the cafe manager. As baristas watch their manager lose their mind, they in turn pass on the opportunity. Come be a manager where there is more stress, more work, less time to do it, and more expectation. No thanks.

Today on Shift Break we will be discussing how you can set up your manager with the structure and time they need to thrive in the role. Who knows, maybe people will actually see the position as an attractive role to aspire to rather than one that receives their pity.

In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?

Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!

https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min

Keep the conversation going! Listen to these episodes next:

• 261 : The Basics of Managing Managers
• 435 : Encore! It's OK to be the Boss, w/ Bruce Tulgan
• 425 : Some Thoughts on Supporting Your Manager
• 383 : How to Train a Manager

Thank you to out sponsors!

Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co

The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com

A coffee shop cannot survive without having excellent operational systems and tools that bring together and make consistent all the craft, values, and magic we want from a cafe experience

Just like the work of a barista, 75% of what we do in ownership and leadership has to do with the things that happen off bar. The foundations of business. How we create, employ, and refine structures means the difference e between realizing potential and courting disaster.

Today we are going to be talking with the great Laila Ghambari. An expert in operations and coffee shop training and management, all about achieving what she calls operational excellence.

Laila Ghambari has nearly 20 years of specialty coffee experience. She won the prestigious title of United States Barista Champion in 2014 and was elected member of the Executive Counsel for the barista guild from 2012-2016. Her experience is in running multi-unit retail operations, training and education, as well as team and organizational leadership.

This year Laila founded "by Laila Ghambari", her coffee and consulting business that is Providing Simple Tools Every Coffee Shop Needs to Achieve Operational Excellence.

​In this conversation we cover: ​🔑Laila's family legacy of coffee ​🔑Pursuing education and training ​🔑How winning the US barista championship helped her mindset approach to achievement and ​🔑Lean management and the role of gemba kaizen ​🔑managment of multi-unit retail ​🔑Defining operational excellence ​🔑Tools to begin and tools

Links:

www.lailaghambari.com

IG: @LAILAGHAMBARI

Listen to these Episodes next!

• SHIFT BREAK: Defining Excellence and Success
• 330 : Establishing Systems in Your Coffee Shop
• 057 : SOP's FTW! Success through Standard Operating Procedures
• SHIFT BREAK: Pull Out The Fridge
• 424: Developing Menu and Hospitality Guides
• 375 : Founder Friday! w/ Roland Horne of WatchHouse
• SHIFT BREAK: Ineffective Training

Thank you to our amazing sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacificfoodservice.com

Quality is subjective. What is not subjective though, is that quality matters. That begs the question, how should we define quality and pursue it in an age of coffee where we want both excellence and inclusivity of expression of preference.

Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why quality still matters and how we should think about what, how, and for whom are we crafting these coffee experiences.

Related episodes:

• 406 : Five Ways to Immediately Improve Your Coffee Quality
• 393 : The Tyranny of Taste w/ Kosta Kallivrousis
• RoR #20 : Challenging the Status Quo w/ David Lalonde of Rabbit Hole Roasters, Montreal, Quebec
• 430 : Embracing "Unreasonable Hospitality" w/ Will Guidara | Thank You NYC + The Welcome Conference
• 282 : How to Listen to your Customers
• Prioritize In-House Training and QC
• 426: Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.

Working in coffee, you come across a lot of unexpected career pitfalls. Things that you may not have expected that can lurk just around the corner and lead us off track in our careers and our businesses. That should scare us. At least it should make us vigilant to pay attention and walk out our careers in a way that avoids these dangers.

Today on this slightly Halloween themed episode we will be talking all about what I believe are the major coffee career and business pit falls to look out for and what to do to protect yourself from getting caught in their trap.

We cover:

• The Industry
• Insecure bosses
• The path of least resistance
• Comparison
• Anger and lying to yourself
• Over commitment and boundaries

Related episodes:

• When "Going above and Beyond" goes too Far

• Service, Spite, and Compromise
• 317 : Encore Episode: Death by Comparison
• 267 : The Power of Delegation
• Special: Grossest Stories from the Bar
• Blood Sucking Bosses!

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

More than 23k youth age out of the foster care system each year. Many of these young people, because of the trauma and instability, end up at higher risk of addiction, homelessness, financial instability and worse.

One man whose own past parallels those he seeks to serve, has been working to change this seemingly hopeless cycle through founding a coffee business that serves these youth and gives them a better chance for a brighter future.

Miah Sommer is a social entrepreneur and the founder and Executive Director of Astute Coffee (formerly The Bike Union), a non-profit coffee shop that provides workforce development and life skills to youth who have been impacted by the foster care. Sommer is the past recipient of the Donna Tubach Davis Children's Advocate Award from Child Saving institute. He was also a speaker with TEDxOmaha, and has taught a workshop at Homeboy Industries' Global Homeboy Network in Los Angeles, CA. The Bike Union is a winner of the Excellence in Innovation through the Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Sommer Lives in Omaha with his wife Katie and their sons Henry and Charlie.

Today we will be getting deep into the story of Astute Coffee, the stories of the people in it, and how it has evolved and made a real difference. An astute observer will see , that hospitality is about empathy, seeing in others a sameness and using this perspective to serve their needs with every cup we make.

I hope this episode inspires you to reach out, pay attention, and soften your heart to all the humans we serve and serve with.

(-This episode has potentially sensitive content -)

Links:

www.astutecoffee.org

IG: @ASTUTE_COFFEE

Related episodes:

• 180 : A Conversation with Rugid Grind Founders, Brian Washington and Averett Barksdale
• 192 : Freedom through Coffee w/ Esther Hope-Gibbs of Manumit Coffee
• 262 : Understanding the Homeless Community w/ Natalie Harris, Executive Director of The Coalition for the Homeless
• 106 : Changing Lives Through Coffee w/ Pamela Chng of Bettr Barista

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

It can be difficult to tell the difference between and employee who is not the right fit for your business, vs a barista who is is simply not the right fit for the role they are in. Many great employees have been unduly let go, passed over, or simply remain in ill-fitted positions because their boss is not able to tell the difference or may to even be paying enough attention to notice and take the right next action.

On todays Shift Break we will be talking about how to discern between employees who need opportunity and shifting to flourish and those whose performance is not just a problem of execution but a sign of a deeper cultural and values clash. Knowing the difference could not only save their job but also your business.

Related Episodes:

• 121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings
• 278 : Making great Hiring Decisions
• 314 : The 6 Essential Qualities of Coffee Shop Leaders
• 336: A Cafe Leadership Masterclass w/ Selina Viguera of Blue Bottle Coffee
• 437 : The New Age of the Barista: Mindsets + Habits for Success

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co.