Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

Creating a new role in a coffee shop is often done when we face the prospect of losing on of our key staff members. We scramble and promise the world if they would just stay. This is missing the mark in several ways and today we will be chatting about a better approach that will actually serve the business and your staff better long term.

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Running a successful business is all about the quality of your decisions. Whether large or small, each one plays a part in shaping the company and either strengthening or compromising it. To help give us a frame-work and foundation for making quality decisions we welcome back to the show, Dave Stachowiak.

Dave is the host and founder of Coaching for Leaders, a top-rated management podcast downloaded 10 million times. With more than 15 years of leadership at Dale Carnegie and a thriving, global leadership academy, he helps leaders discover practical wisdom, build meaningful relationships, and create movement for genuine results. Dave is also founder of the Coaching for Leaders Academy, a year-long leadership development cohort. The Academy is an intimate group of managers, executives, and business owners who work personally with him and other participant leaders to develop their leadership excellence -- and empower each other through global relationship building.

Among other great things, you will learn about:

• Modeling habits
• The role vision plays
• How to develop courage
• The value of moving
• Community and accountability

Links:

www.coachingforleaders.com

Dave on LinkedIn

Book mentioned by Dave on Vision: Vivid Vision by Cameron Harold

Related past episodes:

059 : Founder Friday! Joshua Boyt, Metronome Coffee

135 : Staying Motivated in the Midst of Difficulty

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This is a truly scary reality that so many cafe employees have had to deal with. Symptoms of getting bit by these bosses looks like overloaded schedules, no boundaries, burnout, stress, and unhealthy self-sacrifice to "prove" yourself to the company.

Today we are going to chat about this reality and what we can do to avoid it, deal with it , and not to be a blood sucking boss ourselves.

Be careful out there!

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Creating a coffee bar and working in retail all boils down to practicing hospitality. We want to practice this on behalf of our guests and our staff but without taking a critical look at how and who we welcome in, we are not really showing hospitality. We need to look at our thoughts, behaviors, and actions critically in order to grow in any area of life and it is in that spirit that we are going to be exploring diversity today with one of our industry's most accomplished and impactful thought leaders on equity, diversity, and inclusion, Phyllis Johnson!

Phyllis Johnson is the co-founder and president of BD Imports, an award-winning social enterprise focused on responsible sourcing of specialty coffees. The company is the recipient of numerous awards including, Responsible Business of the Year and Diverse Supplier of the Year. A pioneer of the women in coffee empowerment movement, Phyllis led the conversation at the United Nations to secure initial funding and work to support women in coffee initiatives. She has consulted for the United Nations International Trade Centre, leading the formation of the International Women's Coffee Alliance chapters in east Africa. She has had the pleasure of sharing her perspective and the value of working with women entrepreneurs at the World Trade Organizations and United Nations. Her work has been the subject case studies taught at Oxford University and Harvard Business School.

Phyllis holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and a Master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Harvard Kennedy School, Barbara Jordan Award for Women's Leadership. Her work was recognized by a 2019 Maggie Award for Roast Magazine article, Strong Black Coffee, Why Aren't African Americans More Prominent in The Coffee Industry.

Phyllis has served on numerous boards including the Specialty Coffee Association, the International Women's Coffee Alliance, Coffee Quality Institute, and the National Coffee Association

In this episode we will be encouraged, challenged, and equipped with insights to take the first steps in making diversity a reality in the shop or anywhere we have influence.

Among may things, we discuss:

• The power of self examination
• Getting over the fear found in discussing diversity
• The business benefits of a diverse shop culture
• Avoiding tokenization
• Unconscious bias and blind spots
• First steps to take and the scale of our action

Links:

www.bdimports.com

Phyllis' Instagram

Phyllis LinkedIn

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

Thank you to our sponsors!

The right equipment for your situation!

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The best plant based beverages on the planet!

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

Today we are talking about scaling and transitions with the founder of Indie Coffee Roasters, Alec Tod!

Founded in 2013 with a home roaster on his back patio, the business has undergone several stages of change and growth over the years to get them to where they are today in their new retail / roasting facility serving the people of Indianapolis, IN.

Today we are not only hearing the story of Indie Coffee Roasters but we are focusing on life in the transition points. What was it like to scale the business and what was the impact it had on the relationships of those in charge of the business.

It has been 7 years of pretty constant growth and change and Alec lays out what contributed to their success in navigating these inflection points behind the scenes.

Some of the things you will learn:

• The role a solid vision plays in helping guide growth
• Finding great partners
• The benefit of taking on investor/partners
• How to decide what to buy and where to change
• Being comfortable with role displacement
• Learning to not let the business run you
• Avoiding burn-out

Links:

www.indiecoffeeroasters.com

Instagram

Thank you to our sponsors!

The right equipment for your situation!

www.prima-coffee.com

The best plant based beverages on the planet!

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

Sometimes we can overestimate how bad the customer is and in the process make ourselves out to be so very righteous. It is a reality in every bar I have seen that we are blind to the double standard for what we accept from the customer vs what we allow for ourselves. Today we talk about this pesky little habit and how we should move forward and away from our tendency to think we are always right.

Related Episodes:

10 Reasons to Love the Customer

Simple, Powerful Hospitality

Self Care 101

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How well do you know your business? I'm not talking about the numbers and the stuff that is accessible through the POS or spreadsheets. I am talking about the life of the business and the people and cultures that make it up. The incredible number of intangibles that create the life of an organization. A lot of us assume we know well enough and instead to being curious and diving deeper into what we have, we search for answers, meaning, insight, etc outside of our organization.

Today we are going to be chatting about 7 things to consider when seeking to have organizational self-knowledge.

Just like having personal self-knowledge is critical to leading others well, organizational self-knowledge is critical to being able to lead your company.

You will learn:

• Why proximity does not equal knowledge
• How we rob our staff of attention
• Attitudes and actions to inspire curiosity
• The key role of feedback
• How owners de-value baristas
• The needed balance to high standards
• Should you go for big or small changes?

Related episodes:

SB : Feedback Culture

80 : Changing Things in the Cafe

179 : What you MUST Know about Employee Culture

Thank you to our sponsors!

The right equipment for your situation!

www.prima-coffee.com

The best plant based beverages on the planet!

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

We tend to have a mindset toward systems that breeds a lack of clarity, break downs in communication, and generally an unpleasant and even toxic environment in the work place. Today we are going to chat about viewing systems as a primary form of showing care to staff and where to start in embracing them as such.

Related episodes:

SOPs FTW

The Broken Chair

4 Keys to and Effective Checklist

Building Empathetic Systems

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Coffee is more than just a drink. It can also be a vehicle for change. Ending teen homelessness through coffee is the vision of today's guests, Brian Washington and Averett Barksdale, the founders of , Rugid Grind.

Established in 2019, Rugid Grind is a for-profit coffee provider that, as of now, acts as the sole supporter and funder of The Oneighty Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending teenage homelessness around the world.

Through rigorous studying of the process and the building of their headquarters in Houston, Texas, they quickly built their branding into one that serves a greater purpose while also serving a quality cup of coffee.

Rugid Grind is dedicated to giving our customers a quality beverage they can count on, but the goal they have committed ourselves to is much bigger than the beverage they serve.

As pastors and frequent leaders of mission trips and outreach projects, Washington and Barksdale have seen the epidemic of teenage homelessness firsthand. Over a million American teenagers will go to sleep tonight without a home, and countless others are teetering on the verge of homelessness.

The direct funding we provide to Oneighty helps them execute their vision of ending teenage homelessness and giving the at-risk teens of the next generation a greater chance at success. By purchasing, leasing, and developing houses and finding caretakers who are fit for roles of mentorship and parental guidance, Oneighty seeks to create safe, nourishing environments for homeless adolescents not only in Houston, but all around the world.

In todays episode you will learn:

• What it took to found Rugid Grind and the vision behind it
• Their coffee learning curve and their adventures in trying to source coffee form Haiti
• What Brian and Averett experienced when introduced to the specialty community.
• How they plan to use coffee to end teen homelessness
• The value of action and having a vision that is bigger than yourself
• How a community can come together to support a worthy goal
• What shops can do to take action in their own towns

Buy Rugid Grind coffee and support their vision!

www.rugidgrind.com

Instagram: @rugidgrindcoffee

Related episodes:

106 : Changing Lives Through Coffee w/ Pamela Chng of Bettr Barista

139 : Founder Friday w/ Kusanya Cafe Co-Founder, Phil Sipka

Thank you to our sponsors!

The right equipment for your situation!

www.prima-coffee.com

The best plant based beverages on the planet!

www.pacificfoods.com/food-service

Bringing a new employee onto the bar is often a hasty effort. Unfortunately, when we do this, we end up paying for it in the long run. Today we chat about the sink or swim mentality of on-boarding and what managers need to practice in order to mitigate the negative consequences such a mentality produces.

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odeko.com/keystotheshop

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www.urnex.com