It's Founder Friday! I am thrilled to be able to feature a conversation with an old friend and coffee OG, Jeff Taylor.
Jeff is the Co-Founder and CEO of the legendary PT's Coffee Roasters in Topeka, KS and the Owner/ President of Bird Rock Coffee in San Diego, CA.
In todays episode we dive into Jeff's 27 year journey from founding a small shop called PT's with his business partner Fred Polzin to now being at the helm of an amazing team of coffee professionals that run 10 cafes and two wholesale roasting company’s in 3 states.
Jeff left a very successful career in photo journalism to work fully in coffee and I am so glad he did. PT's has been at the forefront of many of our industries firsts. Jeff worked with a select group to develop what eventually became the United States Barista Competition (USBC), dating back to 1999. Jeff made the transition to Coffee Buyer for PT's Coffee in 2004 and began the process of building relationships with producers around the world which led to forming one of the first Direct Trade models. (Today, PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. Coffee and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters (acquired in 2017) source approximately 85% of our coffee’s directly from farmers)
Jeff also served one term on the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Board of Directors through 2010 after which he returned to focus on growing the business sharing sourcing responsibilities with his wife, Maritza Taylor, and Director of Operations Brent Pipiergerdes, so that he could lead the transition and purchase of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in San Diego, CA. In 2016.
This has been a long and winding path leading to what is undeniably a great coffee career. Patience, relationships, stubbornness, dedication, and trusting your gut are just a few of the themes that emerge here and I feel like we can all see a bit of ourselves and our star in Jeff's.
I hope you enjoy this episode. Like Jeff's career, it's a bit on the long side but worth every minute to be able to learn from one of the original specialty coffee professionals.
Links:
Related Episodes:
184 : Making Great Business Decisions w/ Dave Stachowiak
Patience & Passivity : Career Advice for the Long Game
174 : Saying Yes to Business Opportunities w/ Kyle Wells of Torpedo Coffee & Close Quarters
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
Mindset is at the heart of our effectiveness as leaders. As the work of the cafe piles up it is easy to forget about what your role's primary responsibility is. Today we are going to be chatting about how facilitating success of the people you lead is the cornerstone mindset that supports and gives momentum to everything else you do.
Links:
179 : What you MUST Know About Employee Culture w/ Stan Slap
Visit our Sponsors!
Painless and accurate ordering and inventory
Batch Brew like you never thought possible:
In the world of specialty coffee we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to creating a context where women are given the same bias-free consideration as their male counterparts. As a result, having the confidence necessary to thrive and advance in the cafe can be hard to come by. In today's episode we will be exploring how women can cultivate confidence in business and how those who run businesses can empower the women in their organizations. To that end I am so excited to welcome to the show, Katherine Knapke!
Katherine Knapke is the Chief Operating Officer at the American Negotiation Institute. Katherine is passionate about using her experience as a Psychiatric Nurse trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) and as a Certified Mediator to address the psychological, emotional, and societal concerns that impact women in the workplace. Her goal is to use her expertise to help women develop the skills and confidence they need to get more of what they want and deserve in the workplace.
Katherine also uses her healthcare experience to lead our work within hospital systems and in public health departments. Lives depend on the crucial conversations that happen in healthcare every day. She helps healthcare professionals manage conflict in order to improve communication, persuasion, and patient care.
Katherine is the host of our newest women’s focused negotiation podcast, Ask With Confidence, designed to empower women and to help them gain the confidence they need when engaging in difficult conversations.
Some of what we will cover:
Links:
Related Episodes:
131 : The Strong Women of Coffee w/ Laura Gonzalez
125 : Confidence in Conflict w/ Kwame Christian
104 : How to Deliver Difficult Feedback w/ Tom Henschel
052 : Solving Coworker Conflict w/ Tom Henschel
014 : A Barista's Guide to Advancing
015 : What to do if you Don't Advance w/ Anne Nylander
Shift Break: Career Advice from Joe Marocco
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
We seem to be addicted. Not to coffee, but to coffee loyalty programs. Whether it's a card or points on the POS, we can't imagine running a business without them. But what if cards and programs don't actually create loyalty? Today we are chatting about mindsets and practices as it relates to achieving true customer loyalty and why what we have accepted as a means to that end has really led us astray.
Links:
wwww.keystotheshop.com/consulting
Visit our Sponsors!
Painless and accurate ordering and inventory
Batch Brew like you never thought possible:
Too often an otherwise promising business is compromised from lack of attention, simple systems, and tools to manage the finances. This leads to many cafes going under way before their time. There is a lot going on when you are just starting out and accounting/finances are often the first things to get compromised.
Well, today we are going to talk about best-practices, mindsets, tools, systems, and strategies to help you take control of your cafe's finances and accounting with our very special guest, Keila Hill-Trawick of Little Fish Accounting!
Keila is strategic business advisor who partners with freelancers, solopreneurs, and small businesses owners to plan and reach their financial goals . After spending over a decade working in both the government and private sector, Keila launched Little Fish Accounting to serve as a trusted partner in financial and tax planning to drive business results and growth.
Keila holds a BBA in Accounting from Georgia State University, an MBA from Mercer University, and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. She has held multiple senior level accounting and finance positions at corporations such as Home Depot, Georgia-Pacific, UPS, CNN/Turner Broadcasting, Comcast, and various Federal agencies. Based in Washington, DC, Keila now services small businesses nationwide through Little Fish Accounting.
This is a critical primer for foundational financial health of cafes everywhere and I hope it empowers you to take control of your accounting, the future of your business absolutely depends on it.
In this episode you will learn:
Links:
Related Episodes:
160 : The Smart Way to Approach Money w/ Jill Schlesinger
101 : Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in Coffee Retail w/ Marshall Fuss, Attorney at Law
108 : Founder Friday w/ Dorian Bolden of Beyu Caffe, Durham, NC
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
Okay, so today the tables are turned and I get interviewed by my loving and lovely wife, Lynnsy. Doing something like this podcast requires a good deal of support, encouragement, and patience from the people around us. My wife is the epitome of those things and more. When she came to me with this idea was very hesitant but she has convinced me to let her interview me for a Valentines Day episode to explore some fun stories from my career, completion, and also how coffee brought us together. Seems pretty appropriate right? Coffee brings us all together.
So if you want to hear about how latte art got me married, why you should check your ego before you blog, what happened to me in that I needed to call my wife from a pay phone in Vegas, and more, then this episode is for you!
Thanks, Lynnsy. I love you more than coffee.
Visit our sponsor! (My wife)
It can be hard to organize all the responsibilities you take on when in a leadership role in the cafe. When we don't order our work well it leads to giving too much time and energy to things that seem important in the moment only to get further behind. Today we chat about three categories to place our work under and how to prioritize you work to thrive as a manager or cafe leader.
Related episodes:
Links:
wwww.keystotheshop.com/consulting
Visit our Sponsors!
Painless and accurate ordering and inventory
Batch Brew like you never thought possible:
Curiosity is the reason we got into coffee. As we go on in our careers though, the world we thought was so big becomes much smaller. We learn the rules, the ropes, and we get busy with the business of coffee often at the expense of being fascinated by it.
Today we will be discussing the importance of curiosity and how it has a tremendous impact on our personal and professional lives. To do this I am joined by someone who's job it is to inspire curiosity in people around the world, Cody Gough!
Cody Gough is the executive producer and co-host of Curiosity Daily, an award-winning daily science podcast from Curiosity.com. Curiosity Daily was recognized as the Best Technology & Science Podcast in the 2019 Discover Pods Awards, and was recognized as the Best Science & Medicine Podcast at the 13th Annual Podcast Awards. Cody's broadcasting background includes more than a decade of experience working at Chicago’s 720 WGN Radio in both on-air and production roles. He’s also a seasoned podcaster with The GonnaGeek Podcast Network, an accomplished commercial actor, and former cooking show host.
I am so happy to have gotten a chance to speak with Cody. I really enjoy his podcast and believe that what we discuss here today will, not only ignite our curiosity, but will help us break out of our ruts and explore the world around us a bit more deeply. The return on investing in curiosity is immeasurable.
We will discuss:
Links:
Related episodes:
165 : The Art of Deep Listening w/ Oscar Trimboli
137 : Essential Books for your professional Development
112 : The Power of Story w/ James Harper
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service
Problems come up all the time in the cafe. We deal with them as best we can but often we are leaving a lot of value on the table with the ways we attack the issues we encounter. Today we are chatting about how get your problems to work for your companies benefit and not let them go to waste.
Related Episodes:
Communicate, Duplicate, Repeat
Links:
wwww.keystotheshop.com/consulting
Visit our Sponsors!
Painless and accurate ordering and inventory
Batch Brew like you never thought possible:
Navigating unforeseen change brings about a ton of challenges that, in the moment, seem insurmountable. Today we will be exploring this subject by hearing an incredible story going from tragedy to triumph with the ever-awesome, Talor Browne!
Links:
Related Episodes:
Founder Friday w/ Talor Browne of Talor + Jorgen
Avoiding Legal Pitfalls w/ Marshal Fuss
The BEST in commercial coffee equipment
Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?
www.pacificfoods.com/food-service