Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

On this show we have talked about how leaders are typically seen by staff with some degree of skepticism and/or suspicion due to leaders having authority and how, over time, that gap is closed through building trust and empathy. If that does not happen then that usually leads to bitterness. What we haven't hit on yet is how bitterness can be generated from owners to the staff due staff not understanding what owners or leaders are responsible for.

On today's shift break we are going to chat about how the desire for understanding can breed bitterness and what we should expect and do to keep things professional and build more trust in our business relationships.

Episodes to listen to next:

248 : The 5 Elements of Resourcing your Team

244 : Top 10 Ways to Lose Employees

179 : What you MUST Know About Employee Culture w/ Stan Slap

067 : 6 Truths About Power : The Responsible Approach to Power Dynamics in the Cafe

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Roasting practices have come a long way in the past few decades. Today enjoy an incredible wealth of information, resources, and sharing of technique to help us be better roasters. With all these tools a techniques available to us it can be hard to sort out the most helpful and practical bits to apply to our coffee roasting operations. This is precisely the problem today's iconic guest, Scott Rao, set out to solve with his latest book, "Coffee Roasting: Best Practices"

Scott Rao has been in the coffee business for over 25 years as a cafe owner, roaster, consultant, and author. The Coffee Roaster's Companion and Coffee Roasting: Best Practices have influenced a generation of roasters and shaped the global roasting vocabulary and conversation. Scott's popular Instagram account @whereisscottrao offers expert-level tips and discussion about coffee brewing and roasting.

I have known Scott for a long time and he has truly been a catalyst and force for deeper exploration of coffee brewing and roasting inspiring a lot of conversation and adoption of techniques that push the industry forward to higher levels of consistency and quality.

In this conversation we are not only going to be diving deep into technical aspects of his new book, "Coffee Roasting: Best Practices" but we will also be talking about the philosophies and mindsets toward roasting that we have had in the past and need to have in the future if we are to grow and faithfully represent a coffee's potential to our customers.

We will cover:

• Major shifts in roasting over the years
• What roast curves can and cannot tell you
• Most common mistakes roasters make
• How software revolutionized roasting
• Defining "Best Practices"
• 2 most important factors in approaching a new coffee
• Factoring in moisture levels
• Setting reasonable parameters
• How our roasting impacts the producer
• Sample roasting
• Development Time Ratio (DTR)
• How to cup others coffees to assess
• Scotts thoughts on what closely held beliefs will change in the future

Links:

www.scottrao.com

Instagram : @whereisscottrao

Related episodes to listen to next:

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind"

242 : A Conversation with James Hoffmann

168 : How to get the Best from your Coffee w/ WBC 2013 Champ, Pete Licata

Visit our sponsors!

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We have an incredible range of options available to us when it comes to the green coffees we purchase. Right now our habit as an industry is to spot purchase small amounts of coffee from a wide variety of producers in hopes of getting the pest of the best. The trouble with this is that, while we might believe our method is helping promote great coffee, it is actually undermining the success of the producer and the process.

On this 6th edition of RoR we will be exploring how buying from fewer producers but with a commitment to buy more from the ones we partner with, does more for them AND for the sustainability and thriving of specialty coffee.

To do that we are talking with the author of the Roast Magazine article, "Buy Less, Do More", Ever Meister!

Ever Meister has worked in the coffee industry for 20+ years in a wide range of capacities, but primarily she is a journalist, educator, and communicator whose work focuses on issues of access, equity, and ethics. She is the author of New York City Coffee: A Caffeinated History (The History Press, 2017) and the host of the coffee-marketing podcast In Good Taste on the Sprudge media network.

In our conversation today we are going to explore the shifts in mindsets and actions needed to create lasting, long term, quality partnerships with producers that will truly do more good for all involved.

We will cover:

• Why we buy so little from so many?
• Transactional vs relationship based buying
• Owning our behavior
• Commitment, Compromise, Communication
• Conflict resolution
• Risk distribution and mitigation
• Making incremental shifts
• Choosing partners through values
• Setting standards and expectations
• Utilizing a wider range of coffee form fewer producers
• Remaining competitive

Links:

Ever's email: [email protected]

www.roastmagazine.com

Subscribe to Roast Audio Articles!

https://www.roastmagazine.com/audioarticles/

Related Episodes:

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

RoR #2: Exploring Quality Control w/ Spencer Turer of Coffee Enterprises

RoR #3: Making Contingency Planning a Reality w/ Andi Trindle Mersch of Philz Coffee

RoR #4: Practical Thermal Dynamics w/ Candice Madison of Royal Coffee / The Crown Oak

RoR #5: Time and Color in Roasting w/ Morten Munchow of Coffee Mind"

Interested in coffee consulting? Let's talk! Email me: [email protected]

Hiring your friends or relatives can seem like a very convenient solution to the problem of staffing. After all, you know them well and trust them right? What more is there to consider? Well, as it turns out, a lot more.

On today's shift break we are going to be discussing why hiring friends and family can breed toxicity and how you can build preventative measures to guard against it.

Episodes to listen to next:

018: Hiring, Culture, and the Future of your Shop

125 : Confidence in Conflict w/ Kwame Christian : A framework for Compassionate Curiosity

121 : Working from Your Strengths w/ Strengths Finder Guru, Lisa Cummings

066: Shaping and Developing your Team w/ Beth Garrison

221 : Building your People Program w/ HR Consultant Dana Goodwin

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Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

If there is one thing that is certain it is that, as you grow your roastery, you become pulled in a thousand different directions. The need to maintain the operation, drive sales, maintain relationships, improve quality, etc becomes overwhelming to the point where you are not sure if growing is a blessing or a curse. Luckily for use, as the industry of roasting continues to expand too too do the resources we have at our disposal to help us beat overwhelm and recapture time and energy. In this category RoastTools is leading the charge to help you streamline, optimize, prioritize and focus on the right things for your roastery to truly thrive,

Today we are going to be talking with the founder of Roaster tools Jon Ewald.

As the founder of the award-winning sales and operations software platform for coffee roasters, RoasterTools, Jon Ewalt spends his days strategizing, coding and talking with coffee roasters on how they can get more coffee out the door.

Jon isn't just another developer who got the coffee bug; he spent eight years building a successful roastery with his wife in the tiny community of Bayfield, Wisconsin, where he developed systems that helped his small team roast, package and deliver thousands of pounds of coffee per week. They sold that business to focus on building (software) tools that help the roasting community achieve that same level of success.

Jon is passionate about helping others avoid the mistakes he made, and freeing up founders to spend more time with the things that drive real change in their businesses: their team, their customers and the coffee itself.

In today's conversation we will be covering:

• Entrepreneurship and Improving operations
• Developing systems and inventing RoasterTools
• Solution to burn out
• Scaling through automation and delegation
• Clarifying your identity and focus
• Current shifts in the industry
• How Roaster Tools helps roasters
• Managing Sales channels
• Curse of over optimization

Episodes to listen to next:

217 : Should you roast your own Coffee w/ Joe Marrocco of List & Beisler

270 : A Conversation w/ Mark Michaelson of Michaelson Consulting!

152 : Essential Advice for Starting a Roastery w/ Jen Apodaca

RoR #1: A Conversation w/ Anne Cooper of Equilibrium Master Roasters

Visit our sponsors!

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

I am very excited for this Founder Friday! When we talk about coffee shops we often talk about culture, authenticity, and relationships. I have the immense pleasure of presenting to you a conversation with someone whose business and way of operating in the world of coffee exemplifies those things. Today we are talking with the dynamic Jackie Nguyen, founder of Cafe Cà Phê, a ground breaking Vietnamese coffee shop based in Kansas City, MO.

Jackie is a first generation, Vietnamese American, daughter of a refugee. Born and raised in sunny San Diego, California. After graduating California State University, Fullerton with a BFA in Musical Theatre, she moved to New York City to pursue a career on Broadway. Some of her favorite jobs were performing on stage with Reba McIntyre, Ashlee Simpson, many holiday seasons with How The Grinch Stole Christmas the Musical and most recently traveling the country with the Broadway Revival Tour of Miss Saigon.

After ten years of being a New Yorker, ten International and National Broadway tours, she decided to take a career pivot, relocate to KCMO and pour her heart into Cafe Cà Phê. Spending 8 years of being a barista, a trip to Vietnam last year, and a yearning for entrepreneurship, the idea of a Vietnamese coffeeshop was born.

I have had the honor of having Jackie as a client since the start of her business and am so excited for you to hear the story of Jackie and Cafe Cà Phê's mission, development, and impact on the KCMO community and beyond.

In this conversation we cover:

• Her unique way of researching the concept
• Pivoting from the world acting to coffee
• Responding to changes in the plan due to COVID
• The difference of the Vietnamese cafe culture
• Overcoming huge operational challenges
• Making a place for the KC Asian community
• Learning to run a coffee trailer from scratch
• Networking and building relationships
• Finding locations to pop-up and a long term residency
• Authentic expression and vulnerability
• What is next for Cafe Cà Phê

Links:

Instagram

https://www.cafecaphe.com

Episodes to listen to next:

281 : The Vietnamese Coffee Revolution w/ Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply

279 : Founder Friday! w/ Daniel Brown and Nephthaly Leonidas of Gilly Brew Bar

199 : Founder Friday w/ Mario Jimenez of Banana Dang Coffee, Oceanside, CA

086 : Founder Friday w/ JoEllen Depakakibo / Pinhole Coffee

097 : Founder Friday w/ Erica Escalante of The Arrow Coffeehouse

Visit our sponsors!

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

www.pacficfoodservice.com

Systems, efficiencies, and optimizations of your business are needed elements to make sure it is healthy and thriving. There is, however, a dark side of optimization. When taken too far and left unchecked it becomes obsessive and starts to drain the life from the very thing it was meant to serve.

In today's shift break we will discuss over optimization and how to balance your pursuit of systems and efficiencies with the heart of what makes your coffee shop run.

Visit our Sponsors!

Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

People open coffee shops for many reasons. Some good and some-not so good. It really all depends on how you approach the "why" behind your business that determines your success. In a time where the barrier to enter the coffee house space is quite low we see a deluge of new cafes opening and quickly struggling then closing due to a lack of proper preparation born from a lack of proper mindset going into it.

On today's episode we will be chatting about five of the most common reasons people open a coffee shop and why they might not be the best reasons for beginning this journey.

1. The Dream

2. My Own Business

3. The Money Maker

4. The Community Hangout Space

5. The Vanity Shop

Episodes to listen to next:

223 : Building a Financially Resilient Business w/ Andrew Carroll

239 : 5 Best Practices for the Best Small Business w/ Henry Lopez

202 : Mastering your Finances and Accounting w/ Keila Hill-Trawick of Little Fish Accounting

202 : Mastering your Finances and Accounting w/ Keila Hill-Trawick of Little Fish Accounting

022 : Founder Friday w/ Colin Harmon of 3fe Coffee, Dublin Ireland & Author of the new book, "What I know About Running Coffee Shops"

242 : A Conversation with James Hoffmann

Visit our sponsors!

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com

Every shop has that one barista that seems to attract more attention the the rest. The comment is made by customers often about this person that they are my "favorite" barista. The question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well as with any situation involving people-it depends.

Today we are going to be discussing how we should approach and react to the issue of the "favorite barista" in a way that creates an improved experience for staff and customers alike.

Listen to these episodes next:

• Exceptions to the Rule : Toxic Traditions
• Good Baristas aren't born, they're Made

Visit our Sponsors!

Elevated batch brew and so much more!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

The best espresso machines in the world!

www.lamarzoccousa.com

Running a coffee house is all about making sure you are able to serve the needs of your customers and to do so consistently. In order to do that you need to be able to not only listen to them but you need to know how to then respond to what they say.

For a ton of coffee shops there is either not enough listening going on causing the cafe to miss out on service opportunities, or there is too much where the shop ends up doing everything they hear the customer say out of fear they might lose them. There is a better way.

Today we will be discussing the art of listening to your customers and how to determine what to put into action so that it serves both their interest as well as the interest of your shop.

We cover:

• Market awareness
• Co-creation
• Asking for feedback
• Listening to the right things
• Dangers of listening
• Service and surprise

Episodes to listen to next:

Visit our sponsors!

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

www.pacficfoodservice.com

www.coffeefest.com