Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Many shops make sense on paper but in practice there is something missing. There are lot's of unseen barriers to progress and success in your shop that get in the way of the best plans no matter how you rearrange the staff, equipment, hours, ingredients, etc.

Today you and I will be chatting about five barriers to progress that are present in a ton of cafes around the world and how once addressing and removing them will not only throw the doors to progress in your business but will bring you and your staff to the next level of fulfillment in your work.

We cover

• Building trust credit
• Leadership
• Perfectionism
• Assumption
• Follow through
• How Dave Ramsey helps us manage well
• Perfectionism
• Cliques

Related Episodes:

• Building Trust-Credit
• Motivating Staff Through Culture
• 291 : What to do if Your Baristas Wont Listen to You
• 248 : The 5 Elements of Resourcing your Team
• 244 : Top 10 Ways to Lose Employees

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

I have heard many times from owners that they need to be the best barista in the shop. The idea is that if they are not, then the staff will not respect them and it would compromise their leadership. As you might guess, this is a bit misguided.

In this shift break we get into the details of how to think about your skill level in the work you oversee vs the work that your role as a leader requires you to do and why knowing the difference will save you from putting all your effort into areas that do not produce the kind of return you want to see.

We discuss

• Why we thing we need to be the "best"
• What our staff really needs
• The reasons for knowing your role
• Coaching and supporting the team Related Episodes:
  • Should You be Behind the Bar Right Now?
  • 248 : The 5 Elements of Resourcing your Team
  • 121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings
  • 235 : 4 Tips for Training your Staff
  • 194 : Encore Episode! Leadership in the Cafe: 10 Steps to being a People First Leader | Aired January 17 2017

Reach out for one-on-one consulting and coaching! [email protected]

Visit these amazing sponsors!

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

What are some of the qualities that potential employers most value in a barista and why are they important? Today you and I will chat about the answers and how they make a significant difference in how you are perceived and how you find fulfillment in a job. These are not just qualities that let you stand out in a sea of applicants but they are traits that maximize your opportunities in your coffee career. Certainly we could talk about far more than six but these are truly foundational and led to you developing many other traits that create magic in the cafe.

Be sure to take time to listen to the related episodes below, follow @keystotheshop on Instagram and Subscribe!

We discuss:

• Dependability
• Work ethic
• Flexibility
• Communication
• Self awareness
• Curiosity
• The relationship between bosses and staff
• Mutuality and magic

Related episodes:

• 243 : Encore Episode! "The Sleepwalking Barista (Owner)"
• 314 : The 6 Essential Qualities of Coffee Shop Leaders
• 031 : Essential Advice for New Baristas : Tips to help you successfully navigate and thrive in your new coffee career
• 021: How to Leverage you Performance Review : 7 Tips for how Baristas can the Most out of the Review Process
• 301 : Hiring and Training for Excellence

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

We all hate when a shift is slow. It can feel demoralizing, boring, and frustrate even the best barista. What if these times on the bar are not all bad though? What if instead of seeing these times as a waste, we saw them as an opportunity.

Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the slow bar shifts that we dread and how to use them to grow our knowledge, skill, and maturity as coffee professionals.

Related episodes:

study the rules

Hard work is hard

Laziness & the Most Important Decision

Reach out for one-on-one consulting and coaching! [email protected]

Visit these amazing sponsors!

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

Operations management is a distinct from cafe management. At a certain point in your coffee business' growth it become necessary to have someone whose job it is to manage managers and oversee the operations of the retail shops. This is a critical role that is as much about leadership as it is about decisiveness and and systems. Today we will be learning all about what goes into being a successful operations manager with Ryan Fisher of Erewhon Market, L.A.

Long-time coffee professional with experience and knowledge throughout the entire coffee supply chain. Creative and passionate with an extensive network built through a decade of competing, serving, and judging competitions globally including the Cup of Excellence, US Barista Competition, and Cherry Roast.

He has been at the helm of several shops as a manager as well as the Operations Manager for the famed goodboybob Coffee Roasters. Currently he is the Coffee Program Director for Erewhon markets in L.A.

In our conversation today we go through Ryan's evolution as a leader in the cafe and then as an operations manager and all that he has learned along the way. I guarantee you will walk away from this conversation with some awesome insights for your own management journey!

We cover:

• Biggest lessons from the early years
• The difference between manager and operations manager
• Leading through crisis and change
• What makes a great operations manager
• Dealing with tension in the cafe
• Learning and applying lessons to your management practice
• What to expect when you first begin this role
• Practicing good communication and self awareness

Links:

• www.workinglunch.coffee
• www.erewhonmarket.com

Related episodes:

• Creative Avoidance : Thoughts on Long-game Management
• 158 : A Management Masterclass w/ Jon Felix Lund, VP of Operations for Coava Coffee Roasters / Portland, OR
• 105 : Leadership & Management Masterclass w/ Maria Cleaveland
• 028 : Why it's Ok to be the Boss w/ Bruce Tulgan : A guide to defining and fighting the under management epidemic in your cafe so you can be the manager your staff need
• 013 : Leadership & Management Master Class w/ Eva Attia : Leadership | management | hiring | career
• 012 : Lauren Airola of Onyx Coffee Lab : A Journey Into Management & Back
• 336: A Cafe Leadership Masterclass w/ Selina Viguera of Blue Bottle Coffee
• 141 : The 27 Challenges Managers Face w/ Bruce Tulgan

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

It's time to go back to an amazing episode of Founder Friday that teaches us about the power of taking risks and listening to what your heart is saying about your business. Back on episode 43 we interviewed Kathy Turiano of the multiple Good Food Award winning and roastery in Rochester, NY, Joe Bean Roasters. Joe Bean was founded in 2005 and has gone through several transformations but has always served the community through coffee and stayed true to their values in the process.

In this episode you will hear all about their origins and their first transformation and I hop you will be encouraged by Kathy's example, wisdom, and insights so you too can find the courage to make a move in the right, but maybe scary, direction for your own coffee shop.

Please do also listen to episode 207 where Kathy comes back to talk about hope is difficult times around the pandemic and what their latest and current iteration is.

Links:

www.joebeanroasters.com

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

How long does it take to see a change take root in you coffee shop? Well, turns out it all depends on how long you have been operating and how large the company is. When we don't take the dimensions of our business, trying to make a shift or just keeping things on the right path can be very daunting.

On today's Shift Break we will be talking all about the turning radius of your cafe and how to prepare for and navigate it effectively for its size.

Related Episodes:

• Scaling Values
• Before you Expand
• Making a Decision Pipeline
• 318 : Why Your Shop is Key to the Success of Coffee
• 181 : Organizational Self-Knowledge
• 080 : Changing things in the Cafe : A workflow for Refinement

Reach out for one-on-one consulting and coaching! [email protected]

Visit these amazing sponsors!

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

As long as it has been around, coffee has always attracted creative and artistic people. Whether it is the coffee shop serving as community gathering spots or just the coffee itself inspiring expression, coffee fuels art, music, culture, and human connection. Today we are going to be talking with an artist whose music career has been focused on covering the truth of these subjects and whose own discovery of specialty coffee has helped shape his work, mindset, and mission. We are having a conversation with hip hop artist, Propaganda!

Propaganda grew up in a working class black family and lived in a predominant Latino neighborhood of LAThere was a sense of multiculturalism from the very beginning and Prop saw how one personʼs problem could very similar to that of another person.

For Prop, music is way to create conversations about substantial entities that impact us on a daily basis and to see how faith can help guide us along the way.

After he graduated college with degrees in illustration and intercultural studies, he taught high school for six years and had a hand in founding two charter schools in LA, one of which had a focus on the arts.

2007 he resigned from teaching to pursue music full-time and began touring as a solo artist. He joined the Humble Beast family and unveiled a series of four albums that put his music on the map.

Prop fell in love with coffee while on tour and has since been a coffee entrepreneur, enthusiast, and advocate even producing 2 Sprudgie award winning coffee focused songs, "If Coffee was a Man, and "Calibrate"

This is a wonderful and deep conversation about music, cultural authenticity, courage, and the cup of coffee that brings us together.

We cover:

• Finding art and music
• Motivations and going full time
• Discovering coffee and waking up the pallet
• Elegance and complexity of art and coffee
• Connecting culture to coffee
• Coffee as the heritage of POC
• Bringing POC into the coffee space
• Authenticity and overcoming the fear of being you
• Shop spaces representing culture
• The importance of collaborations and lifting others up

Links:

• www.prophiphop.com
• Red Couch Podcast
• Hood Politics
• Music Video "Calibrate"
• If Coffee was a Man

Related Episodes: (seriously listen!)

• 337: Founder Friday w/ Diana Martinez of Cafe Calle, Los Angeles
• 284 : Founder Friday! w. Jackie Nguyen of Cafe Cà Phê | Kansas City, MO
• 310 : Founder Friday w/ Jelynn Malone and Beverly Magtanong of Mostra Coffee
• 348: Founder Friday! w/ Benito Burmudez of Cafe Unido, Panama City, Panama!
• 199 : Founder Friday w/ Mario Jimenez of Banana Dang Coffee, Oceanside, CA
• 289 : Founder Friday w/ Ochen Simon Eidodo of Chariots Coffees, Uganda!
• 279 : Founder Friday! w/ Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar
• 236 : Founder Friday! w/ Meil Castagna-Herrera & Curtis Herrera of Cafe Corazon!
• 183 : Exploring Diversity w/ Phyllis Johnson
• 116 : Understanding Gentrification w/ Dr. Stacey Sutton
• 338: A Conversation w/ Martell Mason of The Sepia Coffee Project, Detroit, Michigan
• 089 : La Marzocco USA General Manager, Andrew Daday : Leadership, Innovation, service, heritage

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

How do I motivate and inspire my baristas? I get asked this question a lot by owners and managers desperate to see excitement and vibrancy in their cafe culture vs aone of slow, uninterested, and minimal participation and engagement.

Today on Shift Break we will explore 4 steps you need to walk through in order to inspire your staff and make the dream of that vibrant engaged culture a reality.

Recommended episodes:

Need advice? KTTS Consulting: [email protected]

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!

www.espressly.co

In order to have a profitable and consistent coffee shop you need to track and keep your data in order. Whether is labor, expenses, or COGs- spreadsheets are an essential tools to help you build a stable business.

On today's episode we sit down with frequent guest of the KTTS podcast, Maxwell Mooney of Narrative Coffee to talk about his top pieces of advice for using making and using spreadsheets.

Maxwell has been in coffee for well over a decade as a barista, manager, and competitor who then turned entrepreneur with the launch of Narrative Coffee. First he had a cart, then a wonderful brick and mortar, and now a second location. In these five years of operating, growing, and refining Narrative, Maxwell has been guided by his values for quality, hospitality, and community, all supported by systems.

In this conversation we cover:

• Is a spreadsheet right for the job?
• Tracking costs
• COGs, Labor, expresses, and rent
• Accounting for waste and labor in cost
• Appropriate sample size for data
• Projections
• Taking the first step with spreadsheets

Links:

Maxwell's Spreadsheet

UpFlip Interview

www.narrative.coffee

IG: @narrative.coffee

• 011 : Founder Friday w/ Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee : hospitality / building relationships / coffee quality
• 038 : Founder Friday / Narrative Coffee Part 2 w/ Maxwell Mooney : His experience after opening his first brick and mortar
• COVID-19 Focus w/ Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee, Everette, WA

Related episodes:

Visit our amazing Sponsors!

www.groundcontrol.coffee

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com