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Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

A coffee podcast providing coffee shop owners and leaders, with insights, inspiration, and the tools you need to grow and advance your coffee business or coffee career. We learn from experts both in and outside the coffee industry as they deliver specific, practical, and actionable advice about ownership, optimization, profitability, barista work, employee culture, management, scaling, leadership, personal development, and anything else that will help you achieve success in the coffee shop.
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Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
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Now displaying: April, 2020
Apr 30, 2020

The way we have seen people rise to the challenge, amp up communication, take on a sense of urgency, solve problems, and create a culture that is agile and empathetic is truly inspiring. It's the stuff that defines being "In this Together". 

The question is, where does this all go once the crisis has subsided? Will our urgency, connection, and togetherness fade away? 

Today we will be chatting about the need to use this time to craft a future for our shops where these qualities continue in the daily work and fabric of our shops. 

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

 

Apr 28, 2020

As we continue our focus series on the COVID-19 crisis and it's impact on specialty coffee, we get talk someone who has been leading the charge for business agility, staff/customer safety, and creating systems to support it all. Maxwell Mooney is the Owner of the award winning shop, Narrative Coffee in Everette, WA. A past guest on the show, Maxwell consistently brings a clear, level headed, and well thought through perspective to the table. What I enjoy most about Maxwell and his leadership is the integrity that drives what he does and allows him to make tough calls. 

In this conversation we will be discussing, from beginning to present day, how the crisis unfolded for him and his team. Among other things we will cover:

  • Not joining the "Cult of hustle" 
  • Creating and executing plans 
  • Hospitality in every context
  • Making tough calls for safety
  • Managing emotional impact on staff 
  • Leading in the midst of exhaustion and hard life circumstances 

Links:

www.narrativecoffee.com

Founder Friday: Narrative Coffee part 1

Founder Friday: Narrative Coffee Part 2

 

COVID-19 Focused episodes:

On a Resilient Coffee Community

Hope in Difficult Times w/ Kathy Turiano

General Guidance on Talking with Banks and Landlords w/ Marshall Fuss, Attorney at Law

Erica Escalante, The Arrow Coffeehouse

Karl Purdy, Coffee Angel in Dublin, Ireland 

The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens

Impact on the Supply Chain w/ Ricardo Pereira, COO, Ally Coffee

Straight Talk for Coffee Retailers w/ The Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs

Jonathan Pascual of Taproom Coffee and Beer, Atlanta, GA

Refining your Leadership and Systems in a Crisis

Shift Break: Development in a Crisis

Shift Break: Grace and Hight Standards

Shift Break: Keep or Throw Away

 

 

Keys to the Shop Consulting:

www.keystotheshop.com/consulting

chris@keystotheshop.com

 

 

Apr 27, 2020

Never before has it been more important to invest in your companies communication and marketing than right now. Connection to our customers and also our staff is the life blood of the cafe and drives everything we do. Additionally, the health of your shop is determined in large part by the health of the relationships you create with the consumer and those relationships are driven by how you communicate. 

What are the guiding principles for effective communication? How are small businesses uniquely positioned to build great relationships? And how can we find clarity on strategy and methods that are sustainable long-term? All of these questions and more are going to be answered in today's master class on communication and marketing wit special guest, Spencer M. Ross, PHD. 

Spencer M. Ross, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Marketing (and specialty coffee enthusiast) at University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Manning School of Business. His dual research interests focus on the intersection of marketing and public policy and on consumer engagement with digital marketing. In the transformative consumer research/public policy context, Ross is primarily focused on sustainable consumption behaviors; he has published work in the European Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Business Ethics on consumer dispositions toward prosocial consumption versus self-interest. He has also published on consumer sustainability issues in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Affairsand presented on consumer sustainability at the 2019 SCA Coffee Expo.

Today Spencer breaks down principles and approaches to guide you as you invest in your customer relationships through communication. 

Amongst other topics we cover: 

  • How communication fits in your companies larger strategy
  • Being Consumer-centric
  • Tuning into local
  • Consistency 
  • Investing in customer relationships
  • Advantage of agility
  • Internal marketing
  • Creating a communication strategy that is doable long term 

Links:

Spencer on Instagram

Spencer on Twitter

Paper on "Sustainable Decision Making"

 

 

JOIN THE KTTS MIGHT NETWORK!!!

https://keys-to-the-shop.mn.co

 

 

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

 

Apr 24, 2020

It's Founder Friday! Today I am excited to present this live interview with the Co-Founder of Mighty Oak Roasters in Astoria, NY, Peter Moses!

You may recognize Peter because he was one of a few people I interviewed on the floor of the 2019 Coffee Fest NYC trade show. At that time they were very much in the planning and build- phase but now Mighty Oak has taken root in Astoria and has gown to quickly become THE spot in the neighbor hood for amazing wood-roasted coffee and an ambiance that is second to none. Mighty Oak has deigned their 1,000 sq.ft. space to not only house a cafe but also all of their roasting and production which is one of the world most sustainable operations. 

In this interview we go deep into their story, their operations, values, and plans. It was a thrill to see something like this come to fruition and I have no doubt you will get great value from this interview with Peter. 

Amongst other things we talk about:

  • Wood-fire roasting and its advantages
  • Building a cafe space and roastery at the same time
  • Space challenges 
  • Researching design and workflow
  • Leading and hiring people
  • Letting the business tell you how to grow
  • Receiving feedback from staff
  • Expansion insights
  • Personal growth as an owner

Links:

www.mightyoakroasters.com

142: Entrepreneur Interviews from Coffee Fest NYC (Featuring Peter Moses)

 

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

 

Apr 23, 2020

Within the fight to stay open there is a pervasive sentiment that we are "letting people down".  I have seen and heard this from many sources of late, including from myself. This is a pretty familiar feeling for those of us in customer service jobs and this current context highlights it to the extreme.

But is it true?  

Are you letting people down when you close your doors, or severely adjust service, or close a location indefinitely?

Today we are going to chat about this idea and I want to offer some encouragement and perspective that will help balance this thought in our mind and also help you get rooted in what the reality truly is. 

 

Sponsors:

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

 

Apr 20, 2020

 

To say our emotions are on high alert these days is quite an understatement. I, like you, have found it difficult to manage let alone even articulate the feelings that are constantly being triggered in the wake of the pandemic. At no time has it been more needed to talk about emotional intelligence and managing our emotions in a healthy way than now. 

Today we welcome back to the show, Andrea Hoban to help us cope with Corona using emotional intelligence. 

Andrea is Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at Oji Life Lab, and has more than twenty years of experience in leading large teams and building business. She is a certified executive coach and leadership development practitioner who has helped hundreds of professionals learn to harness their emotions to achieve their goals.

Andrea is a sought after speaker, having presented at many state and national conferences. As an executive coach and facilitator, she works with individuals and teams to achieve goals and push past limitations. She has served as Board President of HerWisdom.org, School Board President at St. Perpetua School in California, Executive Director of the Portland Chapter of Women in Technology, member of the National Association of Female Executives. At Oji, she is reimagining the way we learn skills like emotional intelligence to directly impact the quality of our lives.

This conversation is designed to equip you with tools, habits, and insights to capture, re-frame, and manage your emotions in a healthy sustainable way. In edition this will give you some great tips on how to manage the emotions of your team and to use emotional intelligence to lead well both in this crisis and beyond. 

We will learn:

  • Using the Mood Meter
  • Managing and Re-framing emotions
  • Staying calm
  • The positive side of being triggered
  • Using Emotional Intelligence to effectively lead and mange your team 
  • Emotional contagion and co-regulation
  • Adopting an emotional charter 
  • Embrace the awkwardness 
  • Permission to feel

 

Links:

 

JOIN THE KTTS MIGHT NETWORK!!!

https://keys-to-the-shop.mn.co

 

 

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

 

Apr 17, 2020

So happy to sit down with Lauren Crabbe Co-Founder of Andytown Coffee Roasters for this episode of our COVID-19 Focus Series. Lauren was a past Founder Friday guest and has a wonderful style of leadership that prioritizes people and focuses on facilitating their success.

In this conversation Lauren details how the crisis has impacted Andytown and what they are doing now to continue to serve their community and their people including their ground breaking Coffee for Healthcare Heroes program that has inspired hundreds of similar programs around the country. 

We discuss: 

  • Benefit of having an open book policy
  • Switching up schedules
  • Protecting the team
  • Motivation as an owner when things are not in your control
  • Running operations in crisis 
  • Coffee for healthcare heroes program
  • Making systems to thrive in the midst of the new normal 
  • Hiring back employees from project success
  • Continuation of current measures into the future when things are normal? 
  • How will work from home culture shape biz in the future
  • Don't give up. Speaking up now, be loud, be heard! 

 

Links:

www.andytownsf.com

156 : Founder Friday w/ Lauren Crabbe 

 

COVID-19 Focused episodes:

On a Resilient Coffee Community

Hope in Difficult Times w/ Kathy Turiano

General Guidance on Talking with Banks and Landlords w/ Marshall Fuss, Attorney at Law

Erica Escalante, The Arrow Coffeehouse

Karl Purdy, Coffee Angel in Dublin, Ireland 

The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens

Impact on the Supply Chain w/ Ricardo Pereira, COO, Ally Coffee

Straight Talk for Coffee Retailers w/ The Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs

Jonathan Pascual of Taproom Coffee and Beer, Atlanta, GA

Refining your Leadership and Systems in a Crisis

Shift Break: Development in a Crisis

Shift Break: Grace and Hight Standards

Shift Break: Keep or Throw Away

 

 

Keys to the Shop Consulting:

www.keystotheshop.com/consulting

chris@keystotheshop.com

 

Apr 15, 2020

Does this spark joy? Better said, do the components of your business give life to the business and are they sustainable?  Many new programs and tools have been adopted by coffee shops in an attempt to stay in business during the crisis. Now that we have online stores, batching cold brew, delivery, curbside ordering etc...do we keep them? 

Today we will be chatting about some basic questions to ask yourself about your systems, items, programs, and schedules, in order to determine whether you should keep and invest more into them or throw them away. 

 

Links:

Founder Friday w/ Joshua Boyt

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

 

 

 

Apr 14, 2020

The time to lean into optimizing your operations and how you show up as a leader is now. As we get used to the "new normal" everyday, we need to take time to look at some critical elements of the work we do in the middle of the crisis and how it what we can do to create excellence in the face of uncertainty, and inspiration in a time of fear. 

Today you and I will go over 6 areas I believe need to be focused on and refined in order to thrive right now and to create a culture that both cares for the present while investing in the future. 

Today we will cover:

  • SOPs
  • Importance of Communication
  • Inventory/Ordering
  • Accountability
  • Power of Presence
  • Using R.E.P.
  • Value driven tactics

Links:

Founder Friday w/ Lauren Crabbe

COVID Focus w/ Jonathan Pascual / Taproom Coffee and Beer

Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl 

Work from your Strengths w/ Lisa Cummings

SOPs FTW

10 Steps to being a People 1st Leader

Communicate Duplicate Repeat 

Being the Point of Clarity

Why It's OK to be the Boss w/Bruce Tulgan

The Power of Good Authority w/Jonathan Raymond

 

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

 

 

 

Apr 9, 2020

This is a wonderful value-driven conversation with someone who is doing a fantastic job caring for his staff and the community as the crisis unfolds. Jonathan Pascual is the owner of Taproom Coffee and Beer in Atlanta, GA. He was a past Founder Friday guest on the show and has returned to talk about how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted his business and what he and his team are doing in response. Jonathan has one of the healthiest approaches to professional life and in this conversation you will see how his values have driven his actions on behalf of his business, community, and staff. 

We discuss:

  • Reacting to protect, retain, and prepare staff
  • Reducing risk
  • Pivoting business models
  • Giving staff a choice
  • Economic viability of new operating measures
  • Developing support systems for new models
  • Stepping up as a leader
  • The weight ownership bears
  • Caring for yourself and others
  • Work-life balance in the midst of crisis

 

Links:

www.taproomcoffee.com 

Founder Friday w/ Jonathan Pascual 

Apr 9, 2020

In the middle of all of the upheaval we are fighting for some sense of normalcy and even more so, a sense of grounding. As we iterate and pivot business models and things change all around us, some of the normal conversations around to detail in service and and quality can take a back seat. Today we are chatting about why we need to look after and make sure to continue managing, talking about, and holding ourselves accountable to our usual standards even in the midst of this crisis. 

 

Related Episodes:

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 5, 2020

Brick and mortar retail is taking a huge hit right now. We are all trying our best to adjust and weather the storm. In the midst of this crisis there is still room for hope, connections, and there is an opportunity to serve like never before. All of this of course requires decisive and consistent action and to help motivate as we take those actions we are hearing from the worlds leading expert on brick and mortar retail, Retail Doctor himself, Bob Phibbs!

Bob Phibbs has helped thousands of businesses in hospitality, manufacturing, service, restaurant and retail since 1994.  His clients have ranged from multi-national luxury brands to small businesses. With over 30 years of experience beginning in the trenches and extending to senior management positions, Phibbs has been a corporate officer, franchisor and entrepreneur. 

A frequent guest on MSNBC's Your Business, he and his work have been featured in Entrepreneur magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. In addition, Phibbs provides business makeovers for the Los Angeles Times.

He is the author of three books including "The Retail Doctors Guide to Growing your Business"

Today he is going to be sharing with us some straight talk on taking actions to not just get through this hard time but to thrive, connect, serve, and be prepared for what comes after this has passed.

I think Bob has some incredible insights here and hope you put them into practice in your business.

We will be discussing:

  • The opportunities of this moment
  • Believing the best as an owner
  • Power of "Yes, and"
  • Modeling confidence
  • "How" vs "Why me"
  • Optimizing with Hospitality
  • Being brilliant on the basics
  • Serve now you can sell later

 

Links:

www.retaildoc.com

Tell me Something Good About Retail Podcast

Earl Nightingale, "The Strangest Secret"

 

Related Episodes

The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens

10 Reasons to Love the Customer

Raising the Bar on your Customer Experience w/ Michael Butterworth

30: Matching your Service to your Quality w/ Casey Underkofler

 

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

 

 

 

Apr 3, 2020

This crisis is having a massive impact on more than just coffee shops and roasters. It extends out to the farmers who rely on us to purchase and move the coffee they produce. To help us gain some understanding around the scope of the issue we are going to talk with Ricardo Pereira the Chief Operations Officer at Ally Coffee. We discuss what is happening on the producing side and how roasters should be preparing themselves as they consider green coffee acquisition into the future and ways they can help producers as with changing business models and focus. 

www.allycoffee.com

 

Apr 3, 2020

We are shaped by hardship more than times of ease. How we are shaped and who we become after it is largely up to us and will help define our business for the foreseeable future. Today we are talking about the opportunity presented in the midst of tough times to choose generosity and lean into higher levels of leadership, service, and connection. 

Links:

The Future of Retail w/ Doug Stephens 

 

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer 

 

 

 

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