When we set goals it is usually because we have come to realize a need for change. In the cafe this can result in making a large scale transformational effort that can often fall flat, We want to evolve and grow our cafe or even ourselves but the learned behaviors that got us here stand in our way.
On today's Shift Break we will talk about how evolution and change that is sustainable has to be based on small and consistent steps in the direction of your goal and how doing this in the New Year can make it your best year ever!
Related episodes:
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Sample roasting empowers people with the knowledge of possibility locked in the coffee. Bringing sample roasting that provides for more continuity and better communication to more professionals in the value chain, especially at origin, is critical not just for how coffee's potential is achieved but how the value of that coffee is distributed. Today we explore this dynamic through the lens of the IKAWA sample roaster with Inventor, Andrew Stordy!
Andrew, the inventor and founder of IKAWA, grew up in coffee growing countries including Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Burundi.Andrew is an engineer and industrial designer and developed the concept for IKAWA while studying Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in London. He’s dedicated years of toil to making IKAWA a reality.
In this conversation we discuss the start of the company, how and why the roaster was developed, the impact it has had, and the design/iteration process that they utilize at IWAWA that helps them continue to innovate.
Links:
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Hospitality is a pursuit that relies on our ability to not only offer our guests excellence in quality, consistency, and interaction, but it also relies on us being able to select tools for delivery of our service that line up with our values. Mobile apps and order ahead systems have become a part of the fabric of the coffee shop space based on their convenience and marketing potential. Beyond the question of whether you should utilize this tool, is the question of the role apps and convenience ordering systems play in hospitality and how we can integrate them in a mindful seamless way.
Today we get to talk all about this with someone whose life revolves around these questions and the pursuit of delivering a solution to cafes. I am please to welcome, Joe Capone, of Espressly!
Joe Capone is a Co-Founder and CEO of Espressly. Joe oversees and manages the team at Espressly as they continue to advance and sustain the mobile app ordering system for coffee shops across the US. He is an experienced software developer and previously ran a web development agency that helped clients throughout the US. Joe has a passion for using technology as the foundation to sales and marketing systems and loves how mobile apps are readily available to the masses, enabling things that we only dreamed of in years past.
Here are just some of the things we cover:
Links:
Related episodes:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
You can't always get what you want. In fact, getting exactly what you want may hinder your growth and creativity in the long run. Most of us in the cafe space work within constraints of budget, time, space, and capacity, and that is actually something to celebrate.
On today's shift break we will be talking about why embracing and even applying constraints is the key to unlock your own, and your coffee shop's potential.
Related episodes:
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
The coffee market is much bigger than just specialty coffee. In fact specialty makes up just a fraction of coffee consumed globally. The advent of convenience coffee service is growing lock step with innovations in automation and that has historically make those of us in the more craft forward markets nervous. While I will readily admit to being one of those nervous and doubting people when it comes to convenience and automation, I also enjoy exploring the other side of a subject that can help balance my (maybe a whole industry's) dogmatic assumptions. To help us explore the value of these ideas and to connect to a frequently maligned segment of coffee drinkers we have returning guest and friend of the show, Tim Cox!
Tim Cox is Marketing Manager for Franke Coffee Systems. He is a food and beverage professional with over 15 years of experience focusing on beverages and Specialty Coffee. With a career spanning diverse roles ranging from multi-unit retail management, restaurant ownership, product development for national brands such as 7-11, and marketing, Tim has developed his experience across multiple channels, including Specialty, QSR, and Convenience. In his role at Franke Coffee Systems, Tim is responsible for research & insights as well as product management.
Here are just some of the things we cover:
Links:
Related episodes:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
In this second part of our 2 part Founder Friday we switch gears with Doug Zell, founder of the iconic coffee company Intelligentsia Coffee. In the years that followed the acquisition of Intelligentsia, Doug entered into a new era of creativity related to food, coffee, and his passion for cycling. With his friend and fellow cycling enthusiast Chris St. Peter, they founded the Meteor.
The vision began with a desire to create a beautiful environment that combines all the things they love under one roof: delicious ingredient-driven food, thoughtfully chosen wine, carefully prepared coffee, and, bicycles. The hope is to build a community that enjoyed these same pursuits. Their motto? - Espresso | Champagne | Chain Lube
In this episode we focus on the this new venture, how it came to be, the challenges of a multifaceted concept, the lessons and wisdom earned from 20 years of coffee leadership, and how that, plus the same spirit to innovated and create, has helped the Meteor Succeed.
We discuss:
Links:
Related Episode:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
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Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
The landscape of specialty coffee has been influenced by many people and companies over the last few decades. The foundations of the standards and methods we use now, at one time, were merely ideas waiting for someone to put them into action. In the class of companies operators that have championed that exploration one of the most influential was Intelligentsia Coffee under the leadership of founder Doug Zell.
Doug Zell is the founder of Intelligentsia Coffee and the Meteor Cafe. In 1995 he and Emily Mange founded what was just a small roastery and cafe in Chicago. Through a passion for design, coffee, and innovative hospitality Intelligentsia became an iconic brand with retail locations and roasting operations across the country and an influence in coffee that has inspired countless professionals globally. Intelligentsia was an early innovator of Direct Trade, and has boasted progressive design and service concepts that have challenged the status quo of training and hospitality in the industry. Included in their staff of some of the best green buyers, baristas, and managers, including a WBC Champion.
It is virtually impossible to measure the impact and contribution to coffee culture Intelligentsia has had and so much of it comes from the original values and goals that the company was founded on and the ability to develop a team to scale that vision.
In this first part of our 2 part Founder Friday we will be talking with Doug and focusing on the years of 1995-2015 and the establishment and growth of Intelligentsia Coffee all the way up to the acquisition of the company by Pete's Coffee. In part 2 we switch gears with Doug and talk about how he pivoted to start the unique concept of The Meteor Cafe.
We discuss:
Links:
Related episodes:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
The pursuit of excellence drives us to create very stringent standards for our coffee, service, and businesses. There is nothing wrong with this, except for when it becomes so narrow that it chokes out the life of the café, pushes people away and ends up, creating the opposite result then we intended.
On today's shift break we are going to talk about why it's OK to have reasonable tolerances in the café and how having them is actually necessary to achieve excellence in all areas overtime
Related episodes:
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435 : ENCORE! IT’S OK TO BE THE BOSS, W/ BRUCE TULGAN
432 : HOW TO WIN IN SPECIALTY RETAIL COFFEE
427 : ENCORE EPISODE: WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT EMPLOYEE CULTURE W/ STAN SLAP
426: FOSTERING A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
The world of coffee trade and commerce is complex to say the least. The difference between a business that succeeds and one that flounders is largely based on how well we know the business of coffee and how we move wisely within it as we establish and grow our shops and roasters. The consistent nurturing and success of our business has a ripple effect that will help the whole supply chain. Certainly it is not overstating the case that, if we want to have true sustainability then we in specialty coffee need to be about the business of coffee as well as the craft itself. But where do we start to gain this understanding?
To help us view this world in a clearer light I am thrilled to welcome Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood to KTTS!
Maxwell Dashwood's fascination with coffee began in Melbourne, Australia, in 2007. Returning to the UK, he co-managed a coffee events company and opened Colonna & Small's, a Bath-based coffee shop with a focus on curated, changing coffee menus. Maxwell founded and runs the Colonna Coffee roastery, and has recently opened a Colonna & Small's location in London. He also works on different coffee research and development projects.
An acclaimed figure in the industry, Maxwell is a three-time winner of the UK Barista Championships and has co-authored academic papers on coffee. He's also the co-author of "Water For Coffee," a study on the impact of water on coffee taste, and "The Coffee Dictionary," an accessible guide to coffee terminology. His most recent book, "The Business of Specialty Coffee," combines his business experiences with an exploration of the coffee supply chain.
Here is just some of what we discuss in this episode:
Links:
Buy the book: www.scottrao.com
Follow:
https://www.instagram.com/mcolonnadashwood/
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Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
The holiday rush is in full swing and many of us (most of us) are trying our best to just survive the frenzy. Shops are full of customers as well as friends and visiting family of our customers and it is a great time to not just survive the craziness but to increase our intentionality, presence of hospitality, and care for our staff and guest in spite of the pressure.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how we can plan our energy, presence, and lean into ways to make the holiday time more than just a profitable time for finances, but also a time where we are reinforcing our values and bringing the our best selves to the work of coffee.
Related episodes:
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
As the tools we use to craft coffee multiply, so too does the need for companies to keep the machines running well. Service techs are an essential segment of the industry and in an industry based on hospitality and service, it is important that a tech is able to not just diagnose and fix machines, but is able to work with people in a way that reflects the values of hospitality that equipment is meant to help produce.
I am thrilled to finally get an opportunity to talk with someone whose history in coffee and mission with his company has been focused on community and a people-first culture from the beginning. Excited to welcome the co-founder of Black Rabbit Service Co., Jason "Double J" Johnson!
Double J has been quite a while. Starting as a teenager in the mid 90's, he developed a deep passion for coffee, food, and hospitality. After moving to Portland Oregon in 2001 he worked for a handful of coffee houses (large and small) until finding work as a coffee technician for Stumptown Coffee. After a decade of honing his tech skills at Stumptown he is now a co-owner of Black Rabbit Service Co. Fast forward a few more years, Double J is now the writer, producer and host of Coffee Breath - A food and travel show based around coffee and cafe culture.
Today we will be chatting about Double J's career, how he learned the industry and began tech work, the founding and development of Black Rabbit, and how they serve both their clients and their team with empathy and expertise.
Links:
Listen to these episodes next:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
We are obsessed with innovation that tends to solve problems that are increasingly inconsequential to the customer. A race to put coffee in virtually any context all in the name of convenience may bring coffee to more people, but what does it do to the value of the coffee when we remove virtually all customer generated investment into the process.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why a bit of inconvenience is ok and, in fact, may be a needed thing to allow the customer the buy in, personal investment, ritual, and connection with the product we are, in my opinion, rushing to devalue through wasteful mindless mass consumption.
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related episodes:
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Taking what you have learned over many years of working in coffee and creating your own roasting and cafe business is no easy task. It requires a strong enough "why" and a vision for the people that the roastery and shop wil serve. Cody Gordon did just that with the founding of Cerberus Coffee in Jacksonville, Oregon.
In this conversation Cody and I discuss the journey taken from barista, manager, wholesale manager, and finally roaster and owner. We talk especially about the recent scaling of Cerberus, and the impact it has on how Cody and the team can serve their community and make a difference through community, good business, and great coffee.
Links:
https://cerberuscoffeeco.com/pages/the-wizard-cat-project
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The magic baristas can render from coffee relies on not just their skill and the incredible efforts from producers and roasters, but also on the quality of the equipment they have to work with.
Over the past couple decades the quality and consistency of machines has improved in massive ways. Much of the reason for this lies with the way machine manufacturers and baristas have evolved their relationship on to the other. Today we will explore this evolution with the VP of Synesso Espresso Machines, Ryan Willbur!
Ryan Willbur has been working within the Specialty Coffee Industry for over 15 years. His career has taken him from barista, to Account Management, Marketing, Sales, and Leadership. Along the way, Ryan has been a competitive barista, a coffee roaster, and has spent many hours learning and sharing about the technical workings of espresso and coffee equipment.
Ryan is currently the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Synesso Espresso Machines. In this role, he travels the world, building relationships with customers, and working to understand coffee culture in various markets.
From his perspective, people are the core of the coffee industry, and Ryan believes wholeheartedly in building relationships as the best means of doing business.
Today we are talking about the how machines, barista culture, and the industry have been shaped by the way we communicate and serve each others needs along the value chain.
Links:
Listen to these episodes next:
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Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
Between the moment a farmer hands over their crop, to the moment a barista hands a customer a cup of that same coffee, there is a complex system that will either bring hope and equity to those most vulnerable, or reinforce the hopelessness that is too common with those who cultivate the coffee we love. Today's guest grew up seeing this hopelessness on her families farm and decided to do something about it.
I am so excited to welcome to the podcast a leader in innovative trade models and the owner of Peixoto Coffee, Julia Peixoto Peters!
Julia Peixoto was born and raised in a coffee farming-family in Southern Brazil watching her father and relatives give their lives to produce the best coffees they could but, when it was time to sell those coffees, they were at the mercy of the ups and (mostly) downs of the commodities market.
Julia wanted to do better for her family and farmers in her region, changing the equity of the coffee trading game from the middleman to the farmers, who bear the brunt of the risks involved in farming and harvesting coffee.
Julia and her husband Jeff left their promising corporate careers to start Peixoto Coffee in Arizona in 2015 to produce, import, roast, and bring to the market coffees farmed at their own family-farm, challenging the status-quo of the market and the traditional profiles expected of Brazilian coffees.
We discuss:
Links:
Related episodes:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
The coffee shop environment is filled with more that just coffee. It is a swirling mix of emotions, thoughts, expectations, communication, action, interpretation of actions, and everything in between. In other words...Relationships. The hardest part of coffee is the people they say. And while it may be true, it is also true that people are integral to coffee and to the joy and fulfillment of the experience.
On today's annual thankfulness themed Shift Break we will be talking about how the relationships and resources we have now are both a weight of responsibility but also a necessary fuel that we and the business are designed to run on in order to find sustainable success.
Happy Thanksgiving!
-Chris
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related episodes:
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Why do we overcomplicate things? Certainly details matter with SOPs , recipes, etc...but communication to our customers and staff can often be more confusing than helpful in delivering the impact and purpose we intend. The coffee shop is a dynamic place with a ton of inputs and noise swirling together. Having a simple clear way to communicate will help cut through the noise.
Today we will be exploring how to do just that, and in turn how simple communication and messages can bring big results for cafes. I am happy to be joined today by author and expert in simple messaging, Ben Guttmann!
Ben Guttmann is a marketing and communications expert and author of Simply Put: Why Clear Messages Win — and How to Design Them. He’s an experienced marketing executive and educator on a mission to get leaders to more effectively connect by simplifying their message. Ben is former co-founder and managing partner at Digital Natives Group, an award-winning agency that worked with the NFL, I Love NY, Comcast NBCUniversal, Hachette Book Group, The Nature Conservancy, and other major clients.
Currently, Ben teaches digital marketing at Baruch College in New York City and consults with a range of thought leaders, venture-backed startups, and other brands.
In our talk we cover:
Links:
Buy the book : Simply Put! www.Benguttmann.com
Listen to these episodes next:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
Do we care what our customers think? If so, how do they know? When you talk to almost any operator of a cafe you will hear them say that they value the customer and their feedback. The question though is how are the customers supposed to deliver it and are you making it easy for them to do so?
On today's Shift break we will be talking about how we can pursue customer feedback in a clear and meaningful way that builds trust, connection, and a sustainable coffee shop.
Listen to these next!
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
You hear it everywhere. Owning and running a business is hard, taxing, a battle even. And while there is truth to this, it is not the whole truth. In the entrepreneurial journey we have accepted, with no degree of irony, that it is a miserable business bringing joy to our communities through coffee. Don't buy it.
Today we are going to be talking about the transformational role that confidence, celebration, and joy play in not only helping your business succeed, but in allowing you to find fulfillment and life through the running and growing of it.
This is an incredibly important truth that needs to be given priority in our daily lives. Lets embrace confidence, celebration, and joy together through coffee!
Listen to these next:
Hire Keys to the Shop Consulting to work with you 1:1 to transform your operations, quality, and people. Schedule a free discovery call now!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
High expectations are fine as long as they are coupled with the resources and tools to actually achieve them. No position in the cafe gets the short end of the stick of resourcing than the cafe manager. As baristas watch their manager lose their mind, they in turn pass on the opportunity. Come be a manager where there is more stress, more work, less time to do it, and more expectation. No thanks.
Today on Shift Break we will be discussing how you can set up your manager with the structure and time they need to thrive in the role. Who knows, maybe people will actually see the position as an attractive role to aspire to rather than one that receives their pity.
In my consulting work through KTTS Consulting, management and leadership structures are one of the main conversations we have. Working to create clarity, understanding, and systems for success in leadership has a compound effect on the rest of the business. Would you like to work with me 1:1 to help your cafe thrive in quality, operations, and people?
Click below for a discovery call and lets have a conversation!
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Keep the conversation going! Listen to these episodes next:
Thank you to out sponsors!
Custom branded apps for your coffee shop: www.espressly.co
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
A coffee shop cannot survive without having excellent operational systems and tools that bring together and make consistent all the craft, values, and magic we want from a cafe experience
Just like the work of a barista, 75% of what we do in ownership and leadership has to do with the things that happen off bar. The foundations of business. How we create, employ, and refine structures means the difference e between realizing potential and courting disaster.
Today we are going to be talking with the great Laila Ghambari. An expert in operations and coffee shop training and management, all about achieving what she calls operational excellence.
Laila Ghambari has nearly 20 years of specialty coffee experience. She won the prestigious title of United States Barista Champion in 2014 and was elected member of the Executive Counsel for the barista guild from 2012-2016. Her experience is in running multi-unit retail operations, training and education, as well as team and organizational leadership.
This year Laila founded "by Laila Ghambari", her coffee and consulting business that is Providing Simple Tools Every Coffee Shop Needs to Achieve Operational Excellence.
In this conversation we cover:
🔑Laila’s family legacy of coffee
🔑Pursuing education and training
🔑How winning the US barista championship helped her mindset approach to achievement and
🔑Lean management and the role of gemba kaizen
🔑managment of multi-unit retail
🔑Defining operational excellence
🔑Tools to begin and tools
Links:
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Quality is subjective. What is not subjective though, is that quality matters. That begs the question, how should we define quality and pursue it in an age of coffee where we want both excellence and inclusivity of expression of preference.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about why quality still matters and how we should think about what, how, and for whom are we crafting these coffee experiences.
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The best espresso machines in the world!
Custom branded mobile apps for your shop!
Working in coffee, you come across a lot of unexpected career pitfalls. Things that you may not have expected that can lurk just around the corner and lead us off track in our careers and our businesses. That should scare us. At least it should make us vigilant to pay attention and walk out our careers in a way that avoids these dangers.
Today on this slightly Halloween themed episode we will be talking all about what I believe are the major coffee career and business pit falls to look out for and what to do to protect yourself from getting caught in their trap.
We cover:
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More than 23k youth age out of the foster care system each year. Many of these young people, because of the trauma and instability, end up at higher risk of addiction, homelessness, financial instability and worse.
One man whose own past parallels those he seeks to serve, has been working to change this seemingly hopeless cycle through founding a coffee business that serves these youth and gives them a better chance for a brighter future.
Miah Sommer is a social entrepreneur and the founder and Executive Director of Astute Coffee (formerly The Bike Union), a non-profit coffee shop that provides workforce development and life skills to youth who have been impacted by the foster care. Sommer is the past recipient of the Donna Tubach Davis Children’s Advocate Award from Child Saving institute. He was also a speaker with TEDxOmaha, and has taught a workshop at Homeboy Industries’ Global Homeboy Network in Los Angeles, CA. The Bike Union is a winner of the Excellence in Innovation through the Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Sommer Lives in Omaha with his wife Katie and their sons Henry and Charlie.
Today we will be getting deep into the story of Astute Coffee, the stories of the people in it, and how it has evolved and made a real difference. An astute observer will see , that hospitality is about empathy, seeing in others a sameness and using this perspective to serve their needs with every cup we make.
I hope this episode inspires you to reach out, pay attention, and soften your heart to all the humans we serve and serve with.
(-This episode has potentially sensitive content -)
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It can be difficult to tell the difference between and employee who is not the right fit for your business, vs a barista who is is simply not the right fit for the role they are in. Many great employees have been unduly let go, passed over, or simply remain in ill-fitted positions because their boss is not able to tell the difference or may to even be paying enough attention to notice and take the right next action.
On todays Shift Break we will be talking about how to discern between employees who need opportunity and shifting to flourish and those whose performance is not just a problem of execution but a sign of a deeper cultural and values clash. Knowing the difference could not only save their job but also your business.
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