Chances are good that if you are listening to this podcast, you want to grow in your career or your business. That makes sense especially since that is one of the goals of this show! That said, there are some problems with growth and the expectations we have related to it that create a dissatisfaction, self sabotage, and rob us of the joy of where we are right now
I want take this last Shift Break of 2021 to address all with you all and offer some encouragement on how to balance your pursuit of growth going into this new year.
I would be honored if you would vote for Keys to the Shop in the 13th annual Sprudgie Awards for best coffee podcast!
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Relationships are what the coffee industry is built on. The quality of those relationships determines the strength of the supply chain and the success of all involved. One of the most important relationships that is not talked about very often is that between green buyer and the broker.
Today we on the Rate of Rise series from Roast Magazine we will be diving into this subject with the author of the October 2020 Roast Magazine article "What your Broker Wishes you Knew", Scott Merle!
Scott has worked in specialty coffee since 1988 and has experience in every aspect of the value chain from Barista to Roastmaster. He has extensive knowledge of green coffee sourcing, purchasing, roasting, and blend development, and is proficient in various types of coffee evaluation. Scott has participated in multiple international cupping panels, was a founding member of the Executive Council of the SCAA’s Roaster’s Guild, serves on the Editorial Board for Roast magazine, and has served on multiple committees and councils within the SCAA, including eight years on the SCAA Sustainability Council where he spent a three year term as chair. Scott has dedicated his career to furthering coffee quality throughout the value chain, and has emphasized and exemplified fair pricing practices to hard-working producers every step of the way.
In this conversation we cover:
Links:
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Creating a path forward and up in the coffee industry sometimes requires we take matters into our own hands and build the opportunities for ourself and others that we don't see. This is exactly what today's guest, LaNisa Williams did with Barista L.A.
LaNisa Williams has been in coffee over 14 years as a barista, manager, trainer/educator, and all around inspiration. At a critical point in her life and career she decided that coffee was not only her route to a better life, but that she would create a platform to spotlight and give opportunity to the black coffee community.
Barista Life L.A. is a full service coffee brand that provides training, education, and consulting to individuals and companies. Under the Barista Life L.A. banner, LaNisa founded Black the platform "Black in Brew" which highlights black excellence in coffee. In addition LaNisa provides private events, in home brewing demos, and also runs the retail expression of Barista Life L.A., "Hustlers Cup".
In all this her goal is to create a safe space for people of all colors, genders, and backgrounds in hopes to educate, restores, and uplift them in the coffee community.
In today's conversation we will be talking about how LaNisa got her start in coffee, how it provided a path for a new life, and the story of founding Barista Life L.A. and the experiences, lessons, and impact it has provided.
We cover:
Links:
IG:
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One of the ways we like to make our mark as leaders is by introducing various ideas, initiatives, items, and changes to the shop that we hope will make an impact. I know I have certainly seen putting new things in place as my main service to those I was tasked with leading. Thing is, instead of creating a positive impact as we hope, it often does the opposite.
On this Shift Break we chat briefly about why it is a good idea to limit new things as a way to avoid burning your staff out and to refine the things you currently have in play.
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How we market our values to potential employees and the consumer is often at odds with what we actually do. In a past episode we called this the “Values - Action Gap”. Question is, what is the result of this gap on the people who sign on with us and believe our marketing only to discover it was insincere at best or an outright lie at worst? For many the result is a condition called “Moral Injury” and it often has deep and long -term consequences on the individual, the company’s and the industry at large.
I first heard the term “Moral Injury” from a short but compelling Instagram post from todays guest, Josh Tarlo. In it he described both term and how this was and unfortunate part of many peoples experience working for specialty coffee businesses. After recording a short video in response I realized it is a much deeper topic and invited Josh to discuss it on the podcast.
Josh Tarlo has been in coffee for over 18 years.Josh has moved from working in cafes in Toronto to heading to Australia to work at places like Seven Seeds and Veneziano, where he got some time behind a roaster to ending up in the UK as a green buyer at Origin and now running the roastery operations and wholesale departments for a coffee company in London called Kiss the Hippo.
Josh also came 3rd in the Australian brewers cup before heading home to Canada to take gold and getting third in the world in 2013. After that he roasted coffee for competitors with 7 of the last 9 podium spots in the UK and took the title himself in 2018.
He has spent time in over a dozen coffee producing countries over dozens of trips. In the travels he judged for Cup of Excellence and had the pleasure of working with many producers directly.
On today’s show we take a deep dive into marketing, values, moral injury, and how we can create a more cohesive and consistent reality that backs up our marketing and creates environments of trust and integrity.
We discuss:
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/josh.tarlo/
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It's Founder Friday! Today we are going to be exploring the story of a ground breaking and standard setting Italian coffee roaster and cafe. Our guest on this last Founder Friday of 2021 is the founder of Caffe Artigianale, Francesco Sanapo!
From learning the classic Italian way of coffee working for his fathers coffee bar at age 14 - to discovering specialty coffee eventually becoming a 3 time Italian Barista Champion and WBC finalist, Francesco wanted to take his knowledge of Italian coffee history and make it beautiful again through a progressive specialty lens.
Since founding Ditta Artigianale in 2013 as a roastery the company now has 3 cafes and a 4th coming soon internationally and is regarded as one of the best cafes in all of Italy.
In our conversation with Francesco we will be exploring his ounrey into coffee, the values and philosophy he developed over his career, and the ins and outs of how he founded and grew this wonderful coffee business.
We cover:
Links:
Francesco's 2013 WBC performance
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We love to train our baristas to up-sell as a way to increase our over all ticket amounts. The way we do this tends to be focused more on getting money in the short term for our benefit than helping customers get things they will like which will benefit everyone in the long term.
Today on shift break we will be talking about how to approach up-selling and the art of using it as toll to serve the needs of the customer rather than making it a rooting and disconnected process.
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This year the World Barista Championship was held in Milan, Italy. The winner of that competition accomplished not only a historic win as the first champion to hail from a producing country, but accomplished a life long dream born from a long history of developing as a person and a professional all to better serve others.
Today we get to talk with the new World Barista Champion, Diego Campos of Colombia!
Diego is a 3 time Colombian Barista Champion who has been a coffee professional for 13 years ever since staring work with Colombia's famed Amor Perfecto. Once there he first started working as a roaster, then barista, all the while honing his skills as a competitor and growing as a person who was determined not just to win, but to inspire, and give of himself to his customers, peers, and the world.
On top owns and operates a coffee farm with his family called Diamante Coffee Farm.
In our conversation with Diego we get to hear the story of how he came to coffee, his growth, challenges, accomplishments, and his goals for how he wants to use his influence to help consumers and professionals alike.
We cover:
Links:
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Brazil
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Are you open minded when it comes to coffee? How open minded do you need to be? What is the difference between being ignorant or dismissive of a type of coffee and simply having a preference?
Choosing the right and best coffees to present to your customers is both easier and harder than it has ever been. As we navigate through a sea of options with limited time and budgets for purchases we need to know that what we decide is fitting for us and those we are serving.
On this episode of shift break we will be exploring the balance between exploration, open-mindedness, experimentation, and making decisions for your coffee business and its customers.
Links:
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The pressure and business of the daily work can easily blind us to the impact that we have on the greater reality of the "Industry". We often think of the industry as existing outside our own shops but the reality is that our we are the industry and ever decision we make as individual professionals and cafes cultivate wha the industry becomes.
Today we will be talking about the influence our mindsets, focus, and actions have to either steer the industry to a positive or negative ends. The shop truly is the most important link in the supply chain. If we want to change the world for the better then it starts with excellence in what we do right where we are.
We discuss:
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Small businesses like coffee shops are known for their ability to be resourceful and get things done with what they have. However, when you set out to open a shop or create a new initiative in an existing coffee bar, there can be a tendency to reflexively buy in the things you will serve and to under-explore doing or making some things yourself.
In today's shift break we will talk about some of the benefits of doing it yourself, where to start, what to consider, and if it is for you.
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