))
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.
…
continue reading
…
continue reading
A podcast community for home coffee enthusiasts
…
continue reading
Growing the business is probably the number one concern in the cafe industry. In general we tend to look at growth as either scaling the size of the business physically, or the revenue and profitability. What if I told you there was another way you can look at growth? On today's Shift Break we will be talking about ways to look at growth that don't…
…
continue reading
Ever since 2020, we as a coffee industry have been looking for ways to create more resiliency in our businesses. The cafe in particular is vulnerable to a lack of resiliency. Not only is the coffee shop a relatively low margin and high effort entity with an ROI that can take years, it also relies on the public consistently investing in its products…
…
continue reading
1
488: Founder Friday! Honoring Coffee's Root w/ Bartholomew Jones of Cxffee Black!
1:05:30
1:05:30
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:05:30
Coffee is from Africa, yet the way we think of and enjoy coffee today is largely separated from the roots that produced that original fruit. The disparity we see in the value stream today, where those growing coffee do not receive the fruit of their labor, is the consequence. Today we get to talk with someone who has been laboring hard to honor cof…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Are You Growing With Your Business?
11:59
11:59
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
11:59
It is assumed that we should constantly be growing our businesses and looking to expand, scale, and add-to what we have now. Trouble is that, in today's abundantly resourced and optimized environment, we may actually be able to do so at rates that out pace our ability to become the kind of people we need to be to properly handle that growth. On tod…
…
continue reading
1
487: How to Think Fast and Talk Smart in the Cafe w/ Matt Abrahams
45:53
45:53
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
45:53
Every day in the cafe we are called on to communicate "in the moment". Whether we are baristas, trainers, managers, or owners ; how effective we are in those moments determines the culture and effectiveness of our business. Wouldn't it be great if there were tools and methods formed specifically to help you not freak out under the pressure of impro…
…
continue reading
Seeing results form your efforts is what motivates most all of us. In the coffee shop you are engaged with a dynamic intersesion of moving and living communities that take your efforts and reward you with sometimes obvious and sometimes not-so-obvious feedback. It's when we don't see the results happening the way we imagined that we can be tempted …
…
continue reading
1
486: Why You should Fire Your Landlord and Consider Owning Your Building w/ Paul Neal
56:40
56:40
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
56:40
One of the most heartbreaking things I see is when an established cafe is forced to upend everything due to changes to the cost or use of a space that they do not own. All the dreams, emotions, investment in the space itself, and developing a customer bases habits around that location are all up in the air. While renting may always be a great first…
…
continue reading
Managing in a cafe is one of the ultimate forms of leadership. Part of leading as a manager is planning for, responding to, or avoiding altogether, problems with people, operations, and quality. But instead of spending our best energies in prevention of problems, we tend to manage reactively when problems turn into a crisis. It's a vicious cycle. O…
…
continue reading
1
485: Your Shop vs The Industry - How to Free Yourself From Dependency
24:41
24:41
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
24:41
The Industry. What does that even mean? Owners and professionals use this term as though it has specific power to give clarity or meaning to the work they do, when in fact it is merely the most readily observable manifestation of millions of individual decisions across the supply chain, all made worse when based on a fixation on that reflection. Fo…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Three BIG Hiring Mistakes (and how to avoid them)
14:57
14:57
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
14:57
Hiring is probably the most important decision you make in your coffee shop. As important as it is to choose the right people, we often are at the mercy of bad habits or are missing key practices we need to make that decisions and end up making too many mistakes that drain you, the business, and the your team of energy. On today's Shift Break we wi…
…
continue reading
1
484: Demystifying Mentorship w/ Dr. Ruth Gotian, Author of "The Financial Times guide to Mentorship""
56:23
56:23
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
56:23
In the the coffee industry, we all need help and we can all give help. In order to truly advance our own careers and those of others we want find success we need plan for and practice mentorship. The trouble is that the need we have for help also creates a lot of insecurities and the idea of mentorship can sound rather unapproachable or inaccessibl…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Hiring based on Staff Preference vs Business Needs
11:35
11:35
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
11:35
Making decisions about who to hire or even who might need to be let go are some of the hardest but most important decisions to make in a coffee shop. So hard in fact that we can often fall into avoiding the decision by deferring to our existing staff for their opinion on who is or is not a good fit. While involving key staff in these decisions is g…
…
continue reading
1
483: Encore: 6 Essential Qualities of Coffee Shop Leaders
39:03
39:03
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
39:03
Leadership in the coffee shop can either be the glue that holds it together and nurtures its growth, or it is the force that tears it apart and depletes it of vitality. In order to make sure it is the former we need to make certain that we, and those placed in leadership possess key traits and qualities that create a people-first culture. Today we …
…
continue reading
1
482: Founder Friday! w/ Rahul Reddy of Subko Coffee Mumbai, India
57:16
57:16
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
57:16
At the head of some of the most exciting brands in India's rapidly expanding specialty coffee scene is Subko. More than coffee, Subko has created a platform to show case the flavors, culture, and design of India through multiple disciplines. At it's heart is sourcing, roasting, and serving the best coffee the subcontinent has to offer and Mumbai is…
…
continue reading
We only have so much energy, time, and money to give to marketing our coffee shops. There is a lot of stress related to having the right strategy for getting people to become aware of you cafe and then visit and keep visiting. To make matters more worse, the consumer must wade through a sea of competitors who are applying similar social media and a…
…
continue reading
1
481 : Exploring Sensory Analysis Using "The Coffee Rose"/ Ian Fretheim, Director of Sensory Analysis at Cafe Imports
54:51
54:51
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
54:51
Tasting coffee is arguably one of the most important, yet subjective practices we engage in as coffee professionals. As our guest today will articulate, tasting and evaluating a coffee's Characteristics is done as a means of communicating to others. In order for us to communicate we need a common language and we need to contextualize as we go. That…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Stop Talking, and Start Doing
10:00
10:00
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
10:00
It is easy to talk about the things we want to improve, fix, and institute in the cafe. Trouble is that in all the talking of doing the how we need this or that, we tend to leave it there and wait until an opportune or ideal time comes along, rather than simply taking 1 small decisive step toward what we need. Today on Shift Break we talk about why…
…
continue reading
Your customers count on you to create a wonderful cafe experience everyday. That is the implied or explicit promise of our marketing and what most of us aspire to deliver. The way we get there is by paying close attention to what our customers love and fortifying those element of the business through focused resourcing and training and improving as…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Respecting Your Barista's Professional Boundaries
10:30
10:30
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
10:30
In the cafe, it is easy to lapse into assuming that people who work for you, should also be available and responsive at all times even when off the clock. The lack of quick response from staff when off the clock to calls, emails, slack messages etc is often considered some sign that the employee is not right for the organization and can have a nega…
…
continue reading
1
SHIFT BREAK: Why You Need Exit Interviews
11:07
11:07
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
11:07
Try as we might, the reality is that eventually even the best staff will leave our shops for another job or career. How they leave is largely up to us as leaders. Some will exit on bad terms for reasons related to bad management or their own personal behaviors that are an ill fit. Others will have been wonderful team members and right fit for the r…
…
continue reading
1
479: Automation and the Future of Coffee Shops w/ Andre Eiermann, Eversys
1:12:53
1:12:53
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
1:12:53
The world of coffee and coffee shops is changing rapidly. The variations of business models that serve innumerable contexts globally require intentionality in how we pursue innovation and how we stay aware of the flavors and expressions that define the specialty coffee world. Today we are joined by a perpetual champion of coffee experiences and res…
…
continue reading
1
478: Building Efficiencies Into Your Roastery w/ Scott Stouffer of Probat Coffee
53:36
53:36
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
53:36
Setting up and optimizing your roastery for compliance, efficiency, and sustainable quality output is not just something to be done once in the beginning. The disciplined pursuit of building and refinement should be the primary focus of operators in order to best serve the business and all the people that rely on it. Looking out at all the areas of…
…
continue reading
Numbers tell a story, but not the whole story. Though the number of times someone purchases an item on your menu may indeed mean that they prefer it to other options, what data cannot tell us is whether or not customers who generate those numbers are truly enjoying what they receive or are they quietly tolerating it. Today on Shift Break we will be…
…
continue reading
1
477: Inspiring the next generation of Coffee Farmer w/ Yolima Taborda Rojas of Paisa Coffee, Colombia
58:59
58:59
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
58:59
Two of the most important things that help coffee farmers are market access, and being able to invigorate the younger generation to work in and advocate for coffee farming. While at the SCA Expo in Chicago this year I tasted some amazing coffees from Colombia that were presented by today's guest who has taken one the challenge to represent her fami…
…
continue reading
1
476: Founder Friday! The Story of Story Coffee w/ Don Niemyer of Story Coffee Co.
51:57
51:57
Play later
Play later
Lists
Like
Liked
51:57
Each one of our shops tell many stories. The story of our own arrival as owners, the story of the coffee and the efforts it has taken to get to a finished product, the story of our community and customers and the parts they play in shaping their world and shop itself. A coffee shop is at once a reflection of the people and a light that guides us to…
…
continue reading
