The words "innovation" and "progress" are the favorite buzz words of our industry, but what do they mean? It is usually a lot of noise around the subject of technology, but rarely related to things that deliver lasting positive change in the cafe. The average shop owner has to wade through a sea of claims and sales pitches all making big claims about their products. In the end, they are left with less money and typically the same issues.
Well today we are going to cut through the noise of the industry and its extractive disposition toward business owners and give you a way to think about progress and innovation that simplifies, clarifies, and helps build confidence instead of nursing insecurities.
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS
1:1 CONSULTING + COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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Having a clean cafe and a clean bar is not just a surface level pursuit. The mindset it takes to keep things clean while busy is a discipline that have far reaching benefits extending to the quality of our products, depth of hospitality, and the health of our relationships behind and across the bar.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the mindset baristas and owners need to have in order to work clean and how this focus is foundational to the building of a solid coffee shop business.
My hope is you can take this and practice entering into this mindset daily and watch as you and your team or co-workers start to become more calm, productive, effective, and fulfilled in working clean.
Related episodes on the YouTube channel:
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
The success of coffee globally is based on what coffee represents...community. A beverage that facilitates rootedness, growth, and fruiting of relationships through shared conversation over a cup in our shops or your home.
But today, we are an industry. And our concerns tend to be exclusively around just the business of specialty coffee.
Where is the heart?
Today I am honored and excited to present an interview with someone who is actively and tenaciously pursuing the heart of coffee in her community by honoring coffees root and growing the fruit of what it can bring to people.
We are talking with Head Roaster, Co-founder, and Chief of Staff for Cxffee Black, Renata Henderson!
Renata Henderson is Memphis, Tennessee’s first Black female roaster and the co-founder and Chief of Staff of Cxffeeblack, the community-oriented, education-based coffee company she built alongside her husband Bartholomew Jones.
Founded in 2019 on a mission to return coffee to its African roots and build an equitable Black future, Cxffeeblack made history by creating the first entirely all-Black coffee supply chain from Ethiopia to Memphis — with direct-trade relationships extending to producers like Stephen and Margaret Kuria of Liwani Estate in Nakuru, Kenya.
She serves as Head Roaster, Creative Director, and HR lead, Renata brings her deep background in curriculum, instruction, and education into every dimension of Cxffeeblack, from its Specialist-in-Training internship program to the Barista Exchange Program. Her connection to coffee is deeply ancestral — rooted in Ethiopian women’s 2,000-year roasting tradition and a family legacy that includes her grandfather marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, canteen of coffee in hand.
Under Renata and Bartholomew’s leadership, Cxffeeblack has earned the 2023 Sprudgie Award for Best Film in Coffee, the 2024 Sprudgie Award for Global Notable Roaster of the Year, and the inaugural 2024 Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity Innovator of the Year award. Built with support from more than 500 community investors, Cxffeeblack’s new flagship café and global roasting headquarters opened in December 2025 at 3386 Bowen Avenue in Memphis’s Mitchell Heights neighborhood — celebrated with an East African coffee ceremony, live music, and a community brunch — and is now equipped with a new roaster tripling the company’s capacity as it expands into Memphis grocery stores and new café partnerships across the city. Cxffeeblack has been featured in Vice, NPR, The Hill, and Black Enterprise, and has collaborated with Miir, Oatley, La Marzocco, NBA player JaeShawn Tate, and West African coffee entrepreneurs at the Black Star Line Festival.
For Renata, coffee has always been more than a beverage — it is, as she says “an open air church to experience God and His goodness.”
We discuss:
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/cxffeeblack/
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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The more we ask this question the more we tend to steal time and consideration away from what we have of value in the present. The coffee shop and the larger industry for that matter, are obsessed with not being left behind and therefore we must constantly disquiet our minds and worry.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the danger of letting this question be the dominant question we answer. We will talk also about a healthier approach that pursues excellence in the now as a way to secure the future for ourselves, our staff, and the industry as a whole.
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Meetings can be a very useful part of running a cafe. The way we tend to use them though has become a real problem. In fact, rather than helping, even the most well intentioned of meetings, might actually hurt your business if it is being conducted improperly.
Today we are going to be diving into why your staff meeting might be doomed to fail and what you can do to make sure that you are using meetings for the right things.
You might end up with fewer but better and more effective meetings as a result of today's episode.
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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The world of specialty coffee today owes a lot of its success to those who helped build movements and create opportunities in earlier years. The times where new and actually meaningful advances in coffee shops, coffee craft, and service. There were many people and businesses that were at the forefront of the 3rd wave coffee movement and we get to talk with one of those people today!
On this Founder Friday we get to sit down with my friend and coffee legend, Sammy Piccolo, of Caffe Artigiano, and now owner of Prado Cafe in Vancouver Washington.
Sammy Piccolo has spend nearly 3 decades in the coffee world. A 4x Canadian Barista Champion, The firs World Latte Art Champion, and 3x top 3 finisher at World Barista Championships including coming in 2nd in
After Sammy's brothers Vince and Mike founded Caffe Artigiano in 1999, Sammy immediately jumped on board. Artigiano championed progressive espresso culture, popularized latte art in Canada, and innovated service styles in their massively busy shops. Many future owners and champions came from that cafe.
Sammy took over Prado Cafe in 2012 and has grown it to a fleet of almost 10 shops with a decidedly more simple and minimal approach with a heavy emphasis on hospitality and in house baking.
Today we get to look back to the early days and talk with Sammy about his journey, the lessons he learned, his opinions and insights into the industry and competitions, and the things he believes are at the root of success for cafe operations.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/pradocafe/
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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The hustle of business creates a fear culture where operators worry about their productivity at a near constant rate. We scratch our heads over how to prevent burn-out and talk about work life balance, but what about having a balanced perspective on work? Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how you can shift your view of productivity through clear definitions, willingness to recognize success, and the balance needed to not be constantly worried about how productive you are, but rather, if you produced something of value that you have the ability to stop and enjoy.
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Coffee education is essential for a professional to not just have knowledge needed for their current job, but to add depth, appreciation, motivation, and to prepare them for possible futures in the coffee industry beyond their role today. The next step is to find a place that can supply you with that knowledge in a way that not only delivers facts, but breeds understanding and growth.
Today we get to sit down with the Head of Coffee Education at Cafe Imports, Dylan Siemens to talk about the newly released free educational resource, ED+U!
Dylan Siemens is the Head of Education at Cafe Imports and the creator of ED+U. He began his coffee career in 2012 as a barista and then Head of Education at Onyx Coffee Lab, where he trained hundreds of baristas and competed nationally, winning the U.S. Brewers Cup in 2017. Over that decade, he gained firsthand insight into how difficult it is for small businesses to maintain high-quality training and how much young professionals benefit when knowledge is made available to them.
Dylan joined Cafe Imports in 2022 to help revitalize the company's education program. Building on Cafe Imports' extensive knowledge library, he created ED+U, a platform designed to make professional coffee education accessible to everyone. He doesn't think of himself as the source of ED+U's material, but as the collector and organizer of knowledge from countless people across the supply chain and within Cafe Imports who helped build it.
We discuss:
Links:
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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We talk a lot about engaging our customers and spend time, money, and effort to try to capture their attention in a crowded market. With so many things competing for their attention, what can a coffee shop do to keep their customers excited and loyal?
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about ways that you can keep your customers excited and engaged without losing sleep or your identity in the process!
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Quitting a job is a normal part of any career. Problem is that sometimes we don't know when to quit and hang on too long to ours and even the cafe's detriment. When should you as a staff member quit? What does positive quitting look like? What does recognizing and quitting a bad situation look like?
Today on the show we will talk about some of the things to look out for in a coffee shop and in setting goals for your career, that will allow you to make that sometimes necessary decision to quit and move on. We will also talk to owners about what they can do to make sure that if a staff member does quit, it is not because of negative reasons, but because of life events, opportunities, and pragmatic career decisions.
Today we discuss:
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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Knowledge about coffee is one thing, but wisdom and true expertise? Well, that is quite another. While knowledge is widely and cheaply available and true wisdom and expertise that makes a business effective is only attained after living and experiencing the realities of the coffee industry over time.
The difference is important because it means the difference between effective operations and solutions and just guessing. Coffee and coffee people deserve better.
Today we are talking with a man who has lived enough coffee experiences for a few lifetimes and applies his hard earned insights to clients globally.
I am honored to be talking with the one and only John Gordon of Silverback Coffee Solutions!
John Gordon is an industry-leading coffee professional with almost three decades of experience spanning every facet of the global specialty coffee sector. He currently serves as the Director of Silverback Coffee Solutions, providing comprehensive coffee business consulting, project management, equipment design and development, roastery technical services and roaster training.
A distinguished competitor and coach, John is a three-time UK Barista Champion (2010, 2011, 2013) and 2009 UK Latte Art Champion and the 2018 New Zealand Barista Champion. He has reached the finals of the World Championships multiple times ( 2009 WLAC 6th, 2011 WBC 6th, 2013 WBC 10th, 2018 WBC 6th ) and has coached highly successful competitors, including 2015 World Barista Champion Sasa Sestic and 2019 New Zealand Champion Dove Chen.
Beyond the competition stage, John brings extensive technical expertise as a roaster technician and research and development specialist. His background includes serving as Production & Innovation Manager at Coca-Cola Amatil NZ and Operations Manager at Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London. He has held significant R&D consulting roles for major equipment manufacturers, including Sanremo Coffee Machines and Heylo/Carimali, where he managed engineering teams, directed 3D and mechanical design, built prototypes, and implemented Lean manufacturing principles.
With a unique blend of high-level coffee experience, architectural and mechanical 3D design skills, and deep knowledge of roastery operations from green bean importing to production equipment installation, John continues to shape the future of coffee equipment and roastery workflows worldwide.
Today we discuss:
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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Leaders have authority to make decisions, guide, delegate, affirm, coach, and grow the business and those they serve. The presence of a leader is only a benefit when that leader sees their authority as a tool for serving others and embraces a planned approach to using their presnce in the areas of the company that need it the most
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about the practical ways you should be distributing your energy, attention, time, and presence in the cafe to serve the most people with the role you have been given.
Owners, this is a critical conversation to help you plan for both your own, and your management staff's presence and weekly work.
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Leadership and management are things we talk a lot about, but what does it take to actually make them a real process in the cafe? Most of what is in a job description is either unreasonable and poorly though through, or it is good but there is no real commitment from owners to see that it takes place.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how we can we make it more than an aspiration and take action to give clarity and apply, and support others we delegate into leadership.
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com
OR... book a free call now
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related Episodes:
Thank you to out sponsors!
Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
Employee turnover in specialty coffee shops is the most talked about and difficult issue deal with, it has been for a long time. There are many causes for high turnover and sadly owners and managers frequently try to lower turnover with methods that are not effective. This is mostly because the cause specific to your shop has not yet been identified.
On today’s episode we are going to explore seven different reasons why you might be experiencing high turnover and what you can do to address each of those areas.
It’s important that we are very curious and pursue understanding about the root causes of issues that come up in our coffee shops because a good solution applied to the wrong problem will not prove effective. It’s my hope that this episode helps you get a handle on turnover in the café and is another step toward you. building a coffee shop that Has a thriving people first culture than keeps the best people on as long as possible
We discuss:
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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Creating an excellent cafe experience is a work of commitment and dedication to caring for both the staff and the community that you serve. The coffee shop functions as a cornerstone of a healthy social structure in any city and advocating for it needs to sometimes go beyond the operations of the shop itself but extend into action taken to change the civil environment a cafe operates in.
Today I am very pleased to welcome to the show, Co-Founder of Kaffeine in London, UK, Peter Dore-Smith
Kaffeine is an award winning coffee shop business with 2 locations in London, UK whose stated aim is to be the one of the best coffee shops in the UK through tireless attention to every detail in quality and service. Peter Dore-Smith (originally from Melbourne) has been owner operator of the Kaffeine since its founding it in 2009. It stands today as a foundational cafe in the London coffee scene being one of the first to introduce customers to Aussie style coffee.
Today with two stores, Kaffiene is focused more than ever on the constant pursuit of excellence in the details and especially on making the work of the bar and the experience customers have, something transformative and beneficial to each persons life.
Recently Peter has been active in campaigning to lower VAT in the UK as the tax rate in harming coffee shops, pubs, and other shops similar.
This is the activism born from a desire to create better conditions to sustain the great difference coffee shops make in communities.
We cover:
Links:
Change.Org Petition to Lower VAT
https://www.instagram.com/indycoffeeguide/
Kaffeine on IG: @kaffeinelondon
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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I can hold an average weight business card in the furrow of my brow. Kinda proud of that. However in my career my natural resting face has inspired a lot of "interesting" assumptions.
Now, to some degree, there is a limit to what I can do, but in my work I want to make sure that what I want to communicate and display is actually clearly seen and felt.
Today on Shift Break we will not just discuss my face, but we will discuss the importance of optics in the cafe and how each professional who desires to show hospitality should be open to adjusting how they present themselves in order to, like our friend Tom Henschel say on his podcast, be perceived in the work place the way we want to be perceived.
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
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Roasting and brewing creates opportunity for mentorship and relationships that last longer than the sensory experience of the cup. Seriously pursuing technical excellence is a part of securing this opportunity and today's guest has been on a journey to bring both to the table. On this Rate of Rise we are talking with Purefi Coffee Roasters, Chris Johnson!
Chris is the lead roaster and co-founder of Purefi Coffee Roasters in Spring, TX where they use the service of specialty coffee roasting to mentor the next generation and to partner with local and global initiatives that create positive change in the world. He enjoys roasting coffee and aims to excel at highlighting the quality and consistency of each coffee sourced, roasted, and brewed by his hands.
We discuss:
- His beginnings in coffee
- How his story informs the vision and mission of Purefi
- Highlighting the unique characteristics of each coffee
- Why feedback from customers is crucial
- Mentorship and relationship in the business
- Sourcing simplicity
- Having a wider variety for more customers
Related episodes:
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It is easy to become stuck in the ways that you first learned to do things. Especially if those ways have brought some degree of success. We take comfort in the familiar to the degree that even if it is not working, we will protect the known dysfunction rather than embracing something new better, but not known. Not to mention the fact that we can tend to reject it because we anticipate the resistance from staff.
On today's episode we are going back to a very old podcast that addresses how you can successfully retrain your staff on new standards and navigate the change gracefully.
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS 2026!
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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I love cupping coffee. It is a great way to assess a coffee and learn how to identify defects, attributes, and nuances that allow you to make decisions about buying coffee and how to maintain consistency in roasting. But the issue we have in a lot of coffee is that cupping, a practice designed for the above scenarios, has been miss used in the front of house customer facing world of retail.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about cupping's place in coffee quality control and what we should be doing instead of cupping to better manage the quality of our coffee and more clearly communicate a coffee's attributes to customers.
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related Episodes:
SHIFT BREAK! How to Think About Quality
The favorite past time of many an owner is to gripe about their younger Gen Z staff. Before them it was millennials. Before them it was Gen X, before them...well, you get the idea. For as long as coffee shops have hired employees, leaders have found it challenging to lead and manage a younger work force and the reason given is that there is just something about "That" generation.
Well, I have good news for you! On today's episode we will be talking about why you should not manage these Gen Z people! At least not the way you think you do. We will explore the counterproductive practice of studying cohorts of people vs the productive practice of actually managing the people you have right in front of you.
I recently gave a talk about this subject at Coffee Fest and it really hit home to many struggling to find ways to manage their staff. I hope you find this episode to be both a relief and challenging at the same time.
Related Episodes:
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS 2026!
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
"Don't get left behind!" It feels like every post trying to sell you on a product relies on fear in order to make the sale. The idea of marketing to "pain points" as they say in the biz, is not entirely wrong since we do in-fact want to provide solutions for real needs. But where things go a step too far is trying to create problems in order to sell the solution.
As a coffee shop, you have an opportunity to build your resiliency toward these tactics to make sober-minded decisions and you also have the opportun ity to apply that same steady and genuine approach to how you see and treat your staff and customers.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how to become grounded and intentional in a sea of marketing so you decide based on knowledge of need rather than imagined fear.
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related Episodes:
Ranking the best coffee shops in the world is a task that sounds like a neat idea! That is until you realize the sheer impossibility of such a task not to mention the cognitive dissonance required to pretend like the results of such a ranking are in any way definitive or substantive. The world of coffee shops thrives on professional pursuits related to criteria anchored in locality and the nuance of that community's values.
On today's episode we will be talking about what we can learn from the World's best rankings stated criteria for cafe judging and why we, our staff, and our customers are the only ones who can truly decide on whether or not the criteria they allegedly consider are actually being carried out in ways that objective and meaningful. I will also add a few things they do not consider that are glaringly omitted but crucial to the quality of any shop.
The listed criteria we are told is considered but not told what it means.
-Quality of coffee
-Barista Expertise
-Customer Service
-Innovation
-Ambience and atmosphere
-Sustainability practices
-Food and pastry quality
-Consistency
-Community
Left out:
Related Episodes:
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS 2026!
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Focusing on numbers above guest experience may actually prevent you from achieving the numbers you need to sustain your business long term. Yet still people insist on creating environments in the shop that turn customers into marks to be worked for the sake to extracting as much out of them each interaction as possible so we can see average tickets rise and celebrate record days. In this case, the means to the end truly matters.
On today's episode we will be talking about how to recognize this almost reflexive and default setting cafes fall into, how to foster true service and hospitality, and why we need to focus more on the guest experience with genuine care.
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS 2026!
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related episodes:
Today we are surrounded by content and it is expected of every customer facing brand to strive to create a brand persona and content to reinforce your values and attract others who share those things.
The bi-product of this dearth of content is the underlying sense of anxiety, disconnect, and lack of grounding as it seems the more we produce and consume, the emptier we feel.
Today on Shift Break we will talk about the shift needed today in a sea of content if we are truly going to make meaningful progress.
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP® 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
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When you build a trust through serving people with sincerity and passion, those same people support and uplift you. In the business of the coffee shop, those kinds of relationships are the life giving force that carries owners through the ups and downs of ownership. Today we get to talk to two of our industry's sweetest people whose cafe is built on this very thing.
I am so happy to welcome to the show, Patti and Jesse Ventura of Lontra Coffee!
Patti and Jesse Ventura are a husband and wife team and the founders of Lontra Coffee. What began as a shared passion for specialty coffee turned into a journey of building their own company. They have dedicated themselves to creating intentional experiences and spaces that are rooted in quality and hospitality.
After opening their first location in Downtown Los Angeles, they are now expanding and continuing to learn and grow as owners and operators. Their mission is connecting through coffee and allowing Lontra to be a space that feels like home to everyone.
KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS!
Are you a coffee shop owner looking to join a community of other owners to help bring perspective, insight, encouragement, and accountability in a well curated setting?
Then you need to apply to join Key holder Coaching Groups!
Applications are now open for Spring 2026 Cohort:
Click below to learn more:
APPLY TO KEY HOLDER COACHING GROUPS
KEYS TO THE SHOP ALSO OFFERS 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING!
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email
of book a free call now:
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Related episodes: