Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

You won't get it right...at least not right away. This is the nature of our pursuit in coffee and the relationships we have within it. These days we are surrounded by opportunities to engage in ways that can lead to greater depth o of relationship and a better quality of experience in the cafe. The problem is, we are often paralyzed by fear. Fear of failing, fear of saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing. We want to wait until we have the perfect or the best, before we engage.

Today, we are going to talk about the idea of taking action to achieve higher degrees of imperfection and how we can work toward a goal with grace to produce an outcome that builds up and deepens everything around us.

Links:

• Fear and Trust
• Feedback Culture
• One on ones
• Difficult Conversations about Race and Justice
• The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli
• Example > Words

Elevate your to-go coffee!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve!

BARATZA GRINDERS

Throughout history the coffee shop has been a catalyst for conversation. The subject of that conversation is as wide and varied as your clientele and your community. There are subjects of conversation that are very niche and only apply to a few people, and then there are subjects that are happening on a large scale and are relevant and impactful to everyone. Race and Justice is one of those subjects and the cafe as a modern 3rd place institution needs to be able to interact with it well in order to serve well.

We have several different relationships that we manage in the cafe space. Employees, customers, followers, and purveyors. As leaders we need to make space for, and engage in, these difficult conversations.

Today we are going to discuss how to approach these difficult conversations with my good friend, Kwame Christian, Director of the American Negotiation Institute. Kwame is best selling author of the book Confidence in Conflict, a sought after speaker, and the host of the worlds #1 negotiation podcast Negatiate Anything.

Kwame is dedicated to empowering others and has helped countless individuals overcome the fear, anxiety, and emotion often associated with difficult conversations through a branded framework called Compassionate Curiosity.

As an attorney and mediator with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a Juris Doctorate (Law Degree), Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to making difficult conversations easier.

In this episode we are going to explore how to approach these difficult conversations and the issues that can arise around them.

In this conversation we will cover:

• The importance of Empathy
• Compassionate curiosity
• Creating space and generating understanding
• Consequences of inaction
• How to gain self awareness
• Embracing awkwardness and imperfection
• Owning issues and building relationships
• Addressing social issues
• Emotional labor

Links and resources:

www.americannegotiationinstitute.com

Free Negotiation Guides

Related episodes:

183: Exploring Diversity w/ Phyllis Johnson

125: Finding Confidence in Conflict w/ Kwame Christian

159: Addressing Unconscious Bias w/ Lauren Lathrop

116: Understanding Gentrification w/ Dr. Stacey Sutton

139: Founder Friday w/ Phil Sipka, Kusanya Cafe

220 : Founder Friday w/ Sarah Barnett Gill

067: 6 Truths about Power

165 : The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli

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

In this time we need to take a good look at ourselves and how we are using the power we have been given. In the cafe, authority and power is a gift that is meant to be you used for the benefit of others. Yet, just we have seen in recent days, power often corrupts and is used as a weapon against those for whom it was supposed to benefit.

What is the purpose of the authority we have been given? How do we view and use the power we have in the cafe? Today I am re-airing an episode called "6 Truths about Power" from 2018 that I believe will help set us on the right course. The principles here are applicable both in the shop and beyond.

My hope is that we can refine our approach and actions to build a better future.

Related Episodes:

• The Broken Chair
• Systems as Care
• The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli
• Example > Words
• The Power of Good Authority w/ Jonathan Raymond
• Exploring Diversity w/ Phyllis Johnson
• Founder Friday: Kusanya Cafe

Elevate your to-go coffee!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve!

BARATZA GRINDERS

We are in the people business. Having a great people program is a critical part of being able to thrive as a small business since the degree to which you care for your people, and they feel cared for, directly impacts how they care for the business and its customers. Now, more than ever, we need to lean into creating a people-first strategy for doing business in the future and today we will be learning from one of the best in HR the foundational elements that contribute to a great people program in your shop.

Dana Goodwin is an HR consultant working with clients in specialty coffee, food service, and retail. She partners with leaders to create intentional people programs and help find solutions to HR challenges. Her specialties include workplace culture, recruiting operations, and retention strategy. Dana has been working in retail and hospitality for over 20 years. She holds a master's degree from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Colorno, Italy and has led teams and recruiting and HR operations at Eataly, Dickson's Farmstand, and Blue Bottle Coffee.

This is a very good conversation the covers a wide range of HR related strategies, and concerns. I hope this empowers you in your efforts to truly care for your people in a systematic and intentional way.

You will learn about:

• Communication and transparency
• Leading while being vulnerable
• Approaching your staff in a crisis
• Creating space for focusing on people
• Asking questions and listening
• The power of consistency and follow up
• Managing the tension of the employer-employee relationship
• Setting expectations and giving clarity
• Planning and systems
• Tracking
• Navigating legalities

Links:

Dana is offering the KTTS audience free 30 minute advisory calls! Contact her here:

• LinkedIn
• [email protected]

More resource:

EEOC Website

Related Episodes:

123 : The 10 Essentials of a Barista Manual

104 : How to Deliver Difficult Feedback w/ Tom Henschel

151 : How to React and Respond to Negative Feedback

The Affirmation Vacuum

Feedback Culture

194 : Encore Episode! Leadership in the Cafe

213 : Coping with Corona using Emotional Intelligence w/ Andrea Hoban

Join the community!

Keys to the Shop on Mighty Network

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

This Founder Friday is a wild, unique, and refreshingly honest experience. Today we are going to be talking with the one and only Sarah Barnett Gill, the owner of Mama Mocha's in Auburn, AL. Sarah has been in coffee since 2003 and for the last 7+ years has been operating one of the most unique, authentic, and welcoming coffee shops around. Mama Mocha's is a beacon of diversity, love, and simple honest enjoyment of people and coffee. In the pursuit of this Sarah has worked hard to grow her business from a small roastery in a $200/mo room of a bookstore to an established community icon of great coffee and charming hospitality that wins peoples hearts and taste buds.

This conversation covers a wide range of topics from the expected to the quit un-expected. Sarah is not afraid to take bold stands and is equal parts serious business woman, and fun loving protector of the marginalized. Plus, like me, she loves a good dark roasted coffee.

So, buckle up, this is going to be a refreshing and wild ride.

You will lean about:

• Starting small and building slowly
• Facing initial challenges
• Rejecting the 3rd wave
• Taking bold stances
• Diversity and Inclusivity
• Fighting cultural ignorance
• The balance between love and ass kicking
• Establishing a Unique Culture
• Dark roast revival
• Dealing with COVID and caring for your people

Links:

www.mamamochas.com

Instagram

Related Episodes:

159: Addressing Unconscious Bias w/ Lauren Lathrop

116: Understanding Gentrification w/ Dr. Stacey Sutton

139: Founder Friday w/ Phil Sipka, Kusanya Cafe

067: 6 Truths about Power

165 : The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli

Join the community!

Keys to the Shop on Mighty Network

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

Everyone in the shop is on high alert! Updates and changes to rules and regulations are happening almost daily and we are, as staff, very tuned into to the landscape of how things should be done in the shop. What about the customers though? Should we expect them to be just as vigilant and aware? How do we empathetically enforce the new normal with our patrons? Today we will be talking about the COVID communication bubble and how we can get out of it when our customers come back in.

Related Episodes:

Communicate, Duplicate, Repeat : Key habits that make information stick

Being the Point of Clarity

Elevate your to-go coffee!

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve!

BARATZA GRINDERS

Coffee shops are not necessarily known for having the best food in town. That is the way it has been for a very long time. Recently though, we are seeing in increase in the number of coffee shops investing time, money, and passion into their food programs and customers are taking note. It is so critical, especially now to create a food program that is marked by intentionality and excellence. To help us develop a winning food program we are talking to Marilei Denila, the Culinary Research and Development Manager for the amazing Go Get em Tiger in Los Angeles ,CA.

GGET has become the standard bearer for high quality coffee and food in the specialty coffee world and their menu items are frequently winning top spots in "Best of" lists in LA. Marilei's leadership and discipline have played a huge role in this process and in this conversation she will be sharing with us a ton of foundational insights that will equip you in creating a next level food experience at your cafe.

You will learn about:

• Community specific menu design
• Systems for inventory and Quality control
• Staffing and scheduling
• Being creative and still relatable
• Should you chase trends?
• Managing the financial realities
• Smart product ordering and use

Links:

www.gget.com

Instagram

Related Episodes:

A Conversation w/ Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski of G&B and Go Get em Tiger

Coffee and Cocktails

Coffee and Chocolate

Systems as Care

Communicate, Duplicate, Repeat

Feedback Culture

Working Clean

Your Inventory Counts

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 shops slowly start to open to customers there are a ton of things to keep in mind and manage. Many of those things we have covered through other episodes or interviews some of which are available below. This time I want to cover 3 things that will be crucial to get right to welcome back those customers and take advantage of this 2nd chance to make a first impression.

We will be talking about why cleanliness, clarity, and creativity are crucial to the success of your business and how to execute on them to make lasting impact.

Related Episodes:

• Elevating Cold Brew/Matt Bushman
• Coping w/ Corona using Emotional Intelligence w/ Andrea Hoban
• Harnessing your Emotions at Work
• 10 Essentials of a Barista Manual
• Working Clean
• Simple, Powerful, Hospitality
• SOPs
• 10 Reasons to Love the Customer

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

Not all bold brew is created equal! The difference between offering your customers an average experience vs an outstanding one comes down to basics, attention to detail, creativity, and a craft mindset toward the liquid juggernaut that is cold brew. As the cold brew season ramps up we need to elevate our cold brew offerings and boy do we have just the person to help us do it.

Matt Bushman is the Co-Founder of Alto Cold Brew, a company whose mission is to help shops elevate their cold brew through innovative products, unique perspectives, shared knowledge, and events. In the years since founding the company Matt and his business partner Joey Ruiz have not only created a great product but they have also created a robust and growing bank of resources to help their customers raise their cold brew game.

Today we get tactical and practical as we talk with Matt all about the basics of good cold brew, the overlooked essentials of execution, creativity, pit falls to avoid, sanitation, and solids steps you can take today to bring your cold brew to a higher level.

Summer is almost here. As economies begin opening back up, and people start heading back out to their local coffee shop, NOW is the time to take stock of how your cold brew program and really take it to the next level.

You will learn about:

• How Alto was created
• What makes quality cold brew
• Sanitation concerns
• Creative menu ideas
• Logistics and operations that scale
• How to approach cold brew as a craft
• Offering more to your customers
• The importance of systems
• Cold brew in the time of COVID

Links:

www.altocoldbrew.com

Instagram

Related episodes:

• 6 Tips for Cooler Cold Brew w/ the Cold Brew Chick, Rachel Dillon
• 175 : How to Keep your Cool : An Ice Machine, and Cooler Maintenance Master Class w/ Luke Peterson of The Maintenance Department
• Coffee and Cocktails w/ Amanda Whitt

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

Alternative forms of income have been helping keep many of you in business during the crisis. The grocery/pantry model has been a very interesting and successful pivot that allows you to continue serving the needs of your community beyond coffee.

One of the best examples of this model is being conducted by Penstock Coffee out in Highland Park, NJ. Penstock is a Good Food award winning roastery established in 2009 by Ben and Jessica Shellack. These are some of the best people you will meet in coffee and their commitment to do right by all the people involved in the supply chain shows in all they put their hands to, including how they have responded to the current crisis.

Today I sit down with Ben to get the details of their very successful grocery program. How did they start? What are the logistics and legalities? How did they set it up and how do they manage it? What are their quality control measures? These are some of the many questions answered in this in depth look at the grocery/pantry model.

As we are still very much in the middle of this mess, I hope this episode helps equip and empower you to perhaps take on a similar project in your business.

Links:

www.penstockcoffee.com

Penstock on IG

Complete list of COVID-19 related past episodes:

1. On a Resilient Coffee Community
2. Hope in Difficult Times w/ Kathy Turiano
3. General Guidance on Talking with Banks and Landlords w/ Marshall Fuss, Attorney at Law
4. Erica Escalante, The Arrow Coffeehouse
5. Karl Purdy, Coffee Angel in Dublin, IrelandÂ
6. The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens
7. Impact on the Supply Chain w/ Ricardo Pereira, COO, Ally Coffee
8. Straight Talk for Coffee Retailers w/ The Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs
9. Jonathan Pascual of Taproom Coffee and Beer, Atlanta, GA
10. Refining your Leadership and Systems in a Crisis
11. Shift Break: Development in a Crisis
12. Shift Break: Grace and Hight Standards
13. Shift Break: Keep or Throw Away
14. Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee
15. Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian JNP Coffee, Burundi
16. John King of Walkie Talkie Coffee

Remote coaching and consultation:

www.keystotheshop.com/consulting