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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: 2020
May 25, 2020

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

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2020

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:

 

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

May 19, 2020

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:

 

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

 

 

 

May 15, 2020

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, Ireland 
  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

 

May 13, 2020

Joe is back! This time for a shift break episode focused on building a coffee menu from the ground up that is tuned in to meet your customers, and their taste buds, where they are on their coffee journey. 

NOW is the time to really drill down and focus on customizing your offerings for accessibility, ease of use, wider availability, and thinking through how you will set the customer up to thoroughly enjoy the roasted coffee you sell on the shelf. 

In this shift break we discuss the mentality, tools, and actions needed to build a great coffee program for the people! 

Links:

www.list-beisler.coffee

Joe on Instagram

Joe on Twitter

List and Beisler on Instagram

 

CLICK TO JOIN THE MIGHTY NETWORK! 

 

Related episodes:

026 : What Your Roaster Wants You to Know w/ U.S. Roasting Champion Mark Michaelson

063 : What Your Roaster Wants You to Know w/ Rob Hoos

Joe gives Career Advice

20 : Transparency and Origin Knowledge in the Cafe w/ Joe Marrocco

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

May 12, 2020

Ah roasting coffee, many shop owners are planning what they want their business to look like in the future and how they can make it more resilient and roasters/retailers seem to have some more flexibility in what they can do in this crisis. the idea to roast coffee for yourself can seem fairly simple but there are more issues to consider than one may think.

What is the case for and against roasting your own coffee and how can you make the right choice for your business? What are the key considerations to work through that determine if you will be a good roaster or a bad one? Today we get to really explore this subject and generally the art of being a great roaster with the ever insightful, Joe Marrocco!

Joe is heading up the U.S. division of German based green coffee importer List and Beisler and has been an accomplished coffee professional since 2005. Joe has been a barista, a café manager, a roaster, an educator, a leader in the Barista Guild of America, and a barista competitor. Prior to List and Beisler he was the long time Sr. Sales Associate and Director of Education at Café Imports, and Educator in collaboration with Mill City Roasters and is widely considered the go-to guy in the industry for deeply useful and practical knowledge in all things roasting. 

I am thrilled to have Joe back on the show to explore the subject of becoming a roaster and whether it is the right move for you to make or the worst move you could make. In typical Marrocco fashion, Joe lays out several well reasoned approaches to both sides of the issue and we leave having gained clarity and direction. 

In this episode you will learn:

  • Why you should or should not start roasting
  • The logistical concerns behind the scenes
  • Do you save actually money?
  • The metric of joy and health
  • Questions and Factors in profitability
  • Benefits of retail before wholesale 
  • Manual vs automation in roasting equipment
  • Tips for being a good roaster and avoid being a bad one 
  • Trends vs authenticity

Links:

www.list-beisler.coffee

Joe on Instagram

Joe on Twitter

List and Beisler on Instagram

 

Related episodes:

026 : What Your Roaster Wants You to Know w/ U.S. Roasting Champion Mark Michaelson

063 : What Your Roaster Wants You to Know w/ Rob Hoos

Joe gives Career Advice

20 : Transparency and Origin Knowledge in the Cafe w/ Joe Marrocco

 

 

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

 

 

May 7, 2020

Operations, People, and Quality. These are three areas I focus on with all of my clients. Each on contains a myriad of subjects and components that we explore in detail to bring the whole business to a higher level. Today I want to discuss a few ideas within each of these categories that I believe are critical for you to pour energy into right now so you can enter into post-COVID business better than when this all started. 

I cannot stress enough how important I think this particular conversation is and I hope it helps your thrive well into the future. 

 

Related Episodes:

 

Batch Brew like you never thought possible:

Ground Control Cyclops Brewer

 

Amazing grinders making great coffee easy to achieve

BARATZA GRINDERS

May 4, 2020

Walkie Talkie Coffee was founded by Lindsey and John Kind in the Summer of 2019. The result of a ton of planning, dreaming, and raising support, the shop was an immediate hit offering coffees from Heart in Portland , OR, amazing service and hospitality, and a goal to create great social and coffee experiences for their neighborhood. Not even a one year in, Walkie Talkie is now facing what is arguably our industries most challenging time. In spite of this, Lindsey, John, and crew have been handling this with grace and a positive outlook that is rooted in their mutual concern and care for one another and the people they serve. 

In this conversation I sit down with John King to hear how this all unfolded, the challenges of being a first year business going through this crisis, what they have done, how they keep going, and what they see for the future. 

If you are in Canton, OH definitely swing by Walkie Talkie. I hope you enjoy this conversation. 

 

Links:

Walkie Talkie Coffee

Instagram

All COVID-19 Focus and Relevant 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

Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee

Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian JNP Coffee, Burundi

 

Keys to the Shop Consulting:

www.keystotheshop.com/consulting

chris@keystotheshop.com

 

 

May 4, 2020

Home brewing is gaining more and more ground as our customers, who would normally come in to he shop, are brewing at home and looking for ways to replicator’s the coffee they love in the shop. This time in coffee history will likely lead to a permanent rise in the number of people brewing coffee at home and subequently a rise in whole bean sales. How we show up for them and help facilitate their success with our coffee really matters. We need to embrace and equip the home brewer and to help us do that we are hearing from the one and only, Brian Beyke, of the I Brew my own Coffee Podcast.

Brian is the Director of Coffee for Quills Coffee, Co-host of the Unwrapped Chocolate Podcast, and lover of all things bourbon and whiskey. He is also the host of the I Brew my own Coffee Podcast, an award winning podcast hosted by himself and Bryan Schiele talking about the stories, coffee, gear, techniques, philosophies, and people that make up the wonderful world of home coffee brewing. IBMOC is now officially and has relaunching after 3 years with Mr. Beyke at the helm.

Today we will be talking with Brian about our role in the shop to help people successfully brew coffee at home and build trust while doing it. 

We cover: 

  • Accessibility and trust
  • Importance of water
  • Understanding the customers
  • Communicating with customers effectively 
  • The state of home brewing compared to the industry
  • Where we need to focus as we look to the future post-COVID

Links:

IBMOC Podcast

IBMOC Instagram

Brian's Instagram

Unwrapped: A conversation About Chocolate

 

Related Episodes:

37: Chocolate and Coffee w/ Brian Beyke 

Supplying and Selecting Equipment w/ Steve Rhinehart

Consumer Revolution w/ Kevin Sinnott

Hosting Consumer Coffee Classes

How to Taste Coffee w/ Steve Cuevas

 

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

 

 

May 1, 2020

Today we are hearing from Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, the Founder and President of JNP Coffee, Burundi Coffee importer and exporter in operation since 2012.

Jeanine grew up in Burundi and left to pursue her education earning an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and had a 20-plus-year international business career that helped her find her way back to Burundi and to coffee.

It was at a “Cup of Excellence” competition that she recognized the potential of the exceptional coffees of Burundi. She saw the opportunity to promote these coffees in the global market as a means of helping the farmers, her people.

Today JNP Coffee is known for the award-winning specialty coffees they source and the good works and leadership they provide at origin. As a licensed Q grader, she continues to advance the global specialty coffee industry. Her business model is driven by quality coffee and is based on strong producer partnerships, sharing knowledge, promoting gender equality, and supporting education in financial literacy and leadership, all to empower the farmers and their families in her native country. 

Today we are talking with Jeanine about how JNP is responding to the current crisis and also how things look on the ground for the farmer she works with in Burundi. 

This is a very important discussion as it give perspectives on the relationship between producers and consumers that I believe will inspire how we conduct business as retailers in the future.

It's all about empathy, connection, resiliency, and working with each other to increase access to the great coffees our customers have yet to discover. 

 

Links:

JNP Coffee

Burundi Friends International

 

All COVID-19 Focus and Relevant 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

Maxwell Mooney, Narrative Coffee

 

Keys to the Shop Consulting:

www.keystotheshop.com/consulting

chris@keystotheshop.com

 

 

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 

 

 

 

Mar 31, 2020

The future of retail seems pretty uncertain right now. Many of us are left wondering how things will look at the end of this crisis. What will happen to the physical shop and the customers that frequent it. Whenever we consider the future, it can be pretty murky. Today we get some clarity and direction on what the future holds for our businesses and what we can do to prepare for it. 

I am very pleased to welcome to the show, Doug Stephens, CEO of  Retail Prophet

Doug Stephens is one of the world’s foremost retail industry futurists. His intellectual work and thinking has influenced many of the most widely known international retailers, agencies and brands. Prior to founding the consultancy Retail Prophet, Doug spent over 20 years in the retail industry, holding senior international leadership roles.

Doug is also the author of two International bestselling books - Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World and The Retail Revival: Re-Imagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism. Doug is also the nationally syndicated retail columnist for CBC Radio and sits on multiple corporate and academic advisory boards. His unique perspectives on retailing, business and consumer behavior have been featured in many of the world’s leading publications and media outlets including The New York Times, The BBC, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company.

In our s=discussion today we are going to be discussing a wide variety of topics related to the future of retail. All of this is hugely instructive and clarifying in a time when we need it the most. 

We will cover:

  • What is changing for the physical store? 
  • How will online and digital influence consumers?
  • The value of experience
  • Luxury experience vs utility experience
  • The human craving for social experiences
  • Consumer reactions to crisis 
  • How to create great experiences through tech 
  • Connection between crisis and creativity
  • The opportunity we have in this moment
  • Branding vs advertising 
  • Mistakes to avoid making 

I hope you find this episode helpful!

Links:

www.retailprophet.com

 

Related Episodes:

Designing the Customer Experience w/ Dr. Lisa Waxman

Making Great Business Decisions w/ Dave Stachowiak

Social Media 101 w/ Jenn Chen

Death by Comparison 

SB Your peers are not your Customers 

 

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

 

 

 

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