Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Leadership is a HUGE topic and it is easy to get overwhelmed with the never-ending opinions and techniques that are available these days. It is cruel in a way because in a time where we need good leadership the most we want to find good resources but the choice of what voice to listen to is often paralyzing. Enter todays guest, Alain Hunkins.

Alain Hunkins is a sought-after leadership speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach. His recent book, Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders launched as the #1 Bestselling New Release in Business Communication on Amazon.

Over his twenty-year career, Alain has led over 2,000 groups in 25 countries. Clients include Wal-Mart, Pfizer, Citigroup, General Electric, State Farm Insurance, IBM, General Motors, and Microsoft.

Alain has designed and facilitated seminars on numerous leadership topics, including teambuilding, conflict management, communication, peak performance, innovation, engagement, and change. Alain also serves on the faculty of Duke Corporate Education and has published over 400 articles on leadership.

In today's conversation Alain is going to give us some key insights from his bestselling book on how we can elevate our leadership and the leadership of our managers by creating better connection, communication, and collaboration with our teams and customers plus the habits necessary to make these best practices truly stick

You will learn about:

• What are the common traits and habits of the best leaders?
• How to spot institutional blind spots
• Self-awareness as the first step
• The role of feedback to advance your leadership
• Empathy
• Focusing on people over numbers
• Habits to make best-practices stick
• Much more!

Links:

www.crackingtheleadershipcode.com

www.alainhunkins.com

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224 : Essentialism: Focusing on what truly Matters w/ Greg McKeown

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We assume that if nobody is complaining and life seems to be going along smoothly that all is well. We enact the popular mantra of "Well, no news is good news!"

In reality though, "no news" is bad news. Why do we think this way?

Today we will be discussing why no news is bad news and what kind of mindset and actions we need o be cultivating in order to be in the know and certain about the true state of our coffee shops.

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227 : Connecting with Hearts and Minds

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More than communication, we need connection! As we move forward through the current retail landscape the currency of connection with our guests and also our staff becomes more valuable. A focus on connection and conversational communication is what will separate the sustainable businesses from the unsustainable. Today we will be diving into the need for reaching the hearts and minds of our customers and staff and some practical tips that will help pull out out of the theoretical, utilitarian, numbers focused reality we are used to, and into the relational reality of what people experience in our stores and what drive resiliency and long-term healthy growth.

We will learn about:

• Communication vs. Connection
• Numbers and false positives
• Developing guest experience intuition
• Being curious about the whole story
• Self auditing and Gemba Kaizen
• Training your team to connect
• You staff as your customer

Related Episodes:

009 : How to Approach Data and Metrics w/ Simon Ouderkirk

Building an Accessible Coffee Menu w/ Joe Marrocco

201 : Igniting your Curiosity w/ Cody Gough

The Broken Chair

030 : Casey Underkofler : Matching Your Service to Your Quality

035 : The Consumer Revolution w/ Kevin Sinnott

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www.prima-coffee.com/keys

Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

Nobody likes to feel bad. In fact in management we are somewhat obsessed with avoiding negative emotions, confrontation, and challenging our staff out of a sense of self preservation or keeping the peace. We believe that if things feel good in the short term then things will go well long term. That is not necessarily the case.

Today we are going to be discussing the approach of long-game management and why utilizing this way of leading will create long term stability, mutual respect, and ultimately a resilient coffee shop.

Related episodes:

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

104 : How to Deliver Difficult Feedback w/ Tom Henschel

052 : Solving Coworker Conflict w/ Tom Henschel

074 : The Life Changing Power of Good Authority w/ Jonathan Raymond

028 : Why it's Ok to be the Boss w/ Bruce Tulgan

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BARATZA GRINDERS

Are you a "go-to" person? How do you show up at work in a way that gains trust and makes you an essential and indispensable member of the team? These are important questions to answer right now as many teams are being re-built and companies need to rely on their staff to come through more than ever. Today we welcome back to the show, regular guest and one of my favorite authors on leadership, career, and management, Bruce Tulgan!

Bruce is the founder of Rainmaker Thinking and the author of more than 20 books including the best selling "It's OK to be the Boss" and "The 27 Challenges Managers Face" He is regarded the world over as a leading authority on management and leadership and is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and many other international publications.

Bruce's brand new book, The Art of Being Indispensable at Work, cracks the code and, in typical fashion for his work, gives a practical and detailed road map for how to become the go-to person in your cafe without succumbing to burn-out and over commitment.

It is a book that is the epitome of timeliness as we seek to create value in our roles that leads to more security, trust, and growth. This is a very critical subject. Not only to apply to your own career, but also to help you facilitate these behaviors in those you lead.

In this episode you will learn about:

• Vertical alignment
• What is true influence
• Steps to being a go-to person
• Mistakes we make and beating overcommitment
• How to say yes and no
• Playing the long game
• Get the right things done
• Building trust
• Professionalizing your work

Links:

www.rainmakerthinking.com

Bruce on LinkedIn

Bruce on Twitter

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224 : Essentialism: Focusing on what truly Matters w/ Greg McKeown

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028 : Why it's Ok to be the Boss w/ Bruce Tulgan

The BEST in commercial coffee equipment

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

As we struggle through COVID and seek also to care for our staff, show hospitality, and address the needs of our community around racial justice, we need to lean on the example of people who have excelled in those areas that we seek to improve. Dorian Bolden was a guest on Founder Friday back in August of 2018 and was one of my favorite interviews ever. He has built a Beyu Caffe to be a solid, profitable, community focused, cafe even in the midst of the economic down turn of 2008. Dorian's values drive the company to be "The ultimate community gathering space" that puts a clear emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and hospitality.

Another reason why I loved this interview was how much Dorian shares about his own journey as an owner learning the ropes or entrepreneurship and having to over come some pretty significant personal and professional challenges.

I hope that Dorian's example and experiences help you, inspire you, and give you a focus on how you can run a great business and also help serve your community by making hospitality and diversity a part of your shops DNA.

Links:

www.beyucaffe.com

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The BEST in commercial coffee equipment

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

We all can have a difficult time with serving the public. These days we may be putting on a literal mask, but if we are honest, we have been wearing a metaphorical mask for a while now. Much of how we show up on at work has to do with how we show up outside of work. If we want to thrive I the shop and bring in people who will create a genuinely caring culture then we have to focus ourselves outwardly. Today we are going to be talking about how we can cultivate a wholistic approach to service that will ease stress, create great experiences for staff and customers alike, and give you more energy for what you do because of who you are.

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Elevate your to-go coffee!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve!

BARATZA GRINDERS

What is essential? Many of us have been forced into a place of asking this question for the sake of survival and are now looking to create a new way forward for ourselves, our businesses, and our families. If we want our work and life to be imbued with purpose, joy, clarity, and thriving then we need to embrace this question not as just a survival tactic but as a normal state of being.

We need to become Essentialists.

Today I am honored to welcome to the show, Greg McKeown, author of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times best selling book, "Essentialism: The Disciplined pursuit of Less"

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people and teams break through to the next level—and others don't. This book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

Greg is the CEO of McKeown Inc. Clients include Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!. His writing has appeared or been covered by The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and he has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR, NBC, FOX, and as a regular guest on The Steve Harvey Show. Entrepreneur voted his interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.

McKeown is an accomplished public speaker. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world and is also the host of the new show "The Essentialism Podcast" where he interviews amazing people from all over the world about their experiences practicing essentialism in work and in life.

In today's conversation we will be discovering the genesis of Essentialism and how we can take the first steps in overcoming the frazzled and overwrought lives we lead and spend our time on the vital few -vs- the trivial many.

You will learn about:

• What is Essentialism?
• How to discern the trivial from the vital
• Working out what is priority
• Protecting "The Asset"
• Taking the first steps
• Finding space for life and clarity
• Showing up as your best self
• What is vital for your business
• Practicing essentials in the midst of change
• Making room for Gratitude and creativity

Links:

www.gregmckeown.com

The Essentialism Podcast

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Managers Top 3

The BEST in commercial coffee equipment

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

Making hasty decisions about who you put into what position has always been the Achilles heal of the cafe. As we work to put our shops back together we are going to be under even more pressure to fill positions throughout the organization and the temptation will be to do this faster than may be healthy. Today we are going to talk about the importance of slowing down to make good decisions on who you bring back and put in place in the cafe so you can Both fill a need in the moment without a lot of regret later on.

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Elevate your to-go coffee!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve!

BARATZA GRINDERS

Oh boy is this a critical episode! Which one of us does not want to have more financial security? Especially these days? It is not an understatement to say that the future of your cafe hinges on how well you manage your money now and how well you understand money's role in your business. So many of us are rebuilding from the COVID crisis and in need of guidance on how to create financial resiliency in order to both thrive in the coming recession and be prepared for other normal financial challenges that come our way.

Today's episode is going to deliver an extraordinary amount of information and actionable insights for you to build a financially sound business in the midst of uncertain times. We are joined by financial planner, CPA, and consultant Andrew Carroll of www.cfoandrew.com

Andrew Carroll has been advising people on business and their financial lives for over ten years. He has helped countless people and businesses with their taxes, investments, insurance, business strategy, operations, mergers and acquisitions, and accounting. As a CPA he specializes in personal finances and also specializes in management accounting where he helps bring understanding to how we use numbers to make decisions. He has an incredible gift of being able to articulate and break down financial concepts into language that is not only relatable and understandable, but really connects to the heart of what we need to hear.

This conversation is value-packed with insights that will change the way you see and run you business for the better.

We discuss:

• Our relationship with money and why money isn't real
• How to build a war chest
• Creating financial strategy
• Creating resiliency
• Why you need to raise your prices
• Profitability and managing profit
• Zombie businesses
• PPP and EIDL Loan guidance
• Self-insurance and the waterfall system
• How to set your business goals

Links:

www.cfoandrew.com

Means of Production Podcast

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210 : The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens | CEO of The Retail Prophet

211 : Straight Talk from the Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs

The BEST in commercial coffee equipment

www.prima-coffee.com/keys

Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service