Stories are at the heart of all we do and to truly know coffee, you must know more than dry facts, you must know the story of the people behind it. James Harper has dedicated himself to discovering and giving a platform to the untold stories of the coffee industry on his new podcast, Filter Stories. In this conversation we talk about James' story and how he came to begin such a project, what are the problems with the way we tell stories now in the industry, what can we do to better understand the stories around us and why is that important for us personally and professionally? James gives us examples from both his personal life and from the lives of those he has interviewed to lay out a framework for us that will give clarity and direction for how story can be, not just another buzz word we use to sell coffee, but a powerful vehicle for how we build a caring and close community.    Links:  www.filterstories.org Instagram     Visit Our Sponsors!  Need equipment?  www.prima-coffee.com Best Non-Dairy Options!   www.pacificfoods.com    

SHIFT BREAK #19 : Pumpkin spice everything! It's all too convenient to jump on the bandwagon of hating on this, and other, seasonal flavors that may feel to mass marketed for our taste. Today we talk about the best practices and mentality we should have when seasonal flavor expectations are hoisted upon us, and how to view them as a chance to further engage the community and enjoy things together.  So grab a pumpkin spice latte and enjoy this episode!   

Instead of being a normal part of our professional development, self-care is often a last resort after we have pushed ourself past where it was healthy in a bid to further our career and serve well. Today we chat about some practical ways that you can integrate self-care into your daily life and avoid the burn out that is inevitable when it is not made a priority. We also talk about what managers and leaders can do to help facilitate and inspire self-care in their staff.  This is a massively important practice and there are many ways to go about it. I hope this episode helps inspire you to make self-care and kindness to yourself a cornerstone of your professional, and personal, life.  Enjoy!    Visit our sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com    

SHIFT BREAK #18 : Today we talk about one of the most powerful practices for creating a healthy workplace. Affirmation. In leadership, it is easy for us to veer off into being overly critical, nitpicky, and to focus on the problems and negatives as a default modes of operating. Unfortunately this tends to push affirmation and positive reinforcement aside and leaves staff starved for recognition while creating a crisis of morale. In this episode we discuss some practical ways to make affirmation a cornerstone of your leadership and communication.  Related Episode: 004: Being a People-First Leader    Sponsor: Square Payroll www.square.com/go/keys   

Coffee education can often be a mixed bag. While resources presenting information on coffee and barista work abound, it is hard to come by reliable and well researched best practices that will genuinely help you make better coffee. Enter Matt Perger and Barista Hustle. Arguably one of the best coffee education platforms in the world, Barista Hustle focuses on providing trustworthy foundations in coffee education that you can build your knowledge base on and advance knowing it is built on sure footing. Matt's own propensity for wanting to solve tricky problems in the coffee industry along with relying on a strong community of like minded coffee professionals has fueled the success of Barista Hustle and impacted the global coffee scene in a massive way. Today we sit down with him to discuss what drives him in his pursuit of helping the world make better coffee, the founding principles of Barista Hustle, the importance of being expert in the basics, in-house training, proper use of outside resources, how the educational modules are built, the new Barista Hustle Unlimited education Subscription service, and Matt's advice for what we should focus on in the retail coffee world to do better in training and education.  I am so thankful and honored to print this conversation to you and I hope you both enjoy and benefit from it!  Stay tuned in through the end to hear a clip from upcoming Guest, James Harper's "Filter Stories" podcast. James will be talking with me about the power of story in an episode airing on September 25th. www.filterstories.org    Links for Barista Hustle: www.baristahustle.com Facebook Instagram  Twitter  

SHIFT BREAK #17 : Being vulnerable in leadership is a great quality but it can turn into something toxic when it becomes an excuse for bad behavior that drives people away and damages their confidence in you and the business. Today we chat about ways to recognize this and make sure to be on the positive and professional side of vulnerability for the benefit of the staff and yourself.  

There is an interesting phenomenon in the cafe where as you move up support, communication, and development tends to be harder to come by. The result is managers and other leadership staff feeling abandoned and burned out as they are left to navigate the complexities of their work solo. It does not have to be like this and on today's episode we discuss why this happens, and some solutions what for both owners and managers.  Enjoy! 

It's Founder Friday and boy do we have a great episode in store for you today!  Today we welcome Dorian Bolden, Owner of Beyu Caffe in Durham, NC. Beyu (be-you) is designed to be "The Ultimate Community Gathering Place" and has been serving Durham through great coffee, cocktails, food, and live jazz for almost 10 years. He is now opening his second shop, Beyu Blue, on the Duke University campus and I was lucky enough to catch up with Dorian amidst all the business surrounding that project to explore the story behind this dynamic company. It was absolutely refreshing and inspiring. In this interview we talk about the early years establishing the business, his vision for an inclusive and diverse community space, the challenges of work-life balance, cash flow, delegation, caring for the culture, hiring, letting the shop take on a life of it's own, the importance of mentorship, and what brings him the most joy as an owner after all these years.  I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!    Links: www.beyucaffe.com Instagram Twitter    

SHIFT BREAK #16 : Latte art competitions are fun and inspire us to greater heights of presentation and skill. They can also, when taken without context, frustrate and paint a literally unrealistic picture for aspiring baristas. Today I share some of my thoughts on how to balance the real world with the competitive one. 

Live from Los Angeles! G&B Coffee and Go Get Em Tiger are two of the best shops you can find in this world. Since the beginning owners Kyle Glanville and Charles Babinski have used the multi-roaster to critical acclaim. They have now, however, taken the massive step to roasting all of their own coffees. In this interview Kyle and Charles sit down with me in their new roasting space and talk about this transition, why they made the decision, what made it apparent that it was the right thing to do for them, and what they did to prepare to do it successfully. We also chat about their methods for quality control, business philosophy, retail concept development, and their plans for future shop growth. Their advice and insight is priceless as it is earned on the back of the grit of real world experience building what they want to become, and arguably already is, an L.A. institution.  Don't miss this one!  Links www.gandb.coffee(sign up for the mailing list) Go Get Em Tiger Instagram G&B Instagram Twitter  

SHIFT BREAK #15 : In spite of our best intentions, we who are leaders in the cafe can often introduce chaos through the way we act without consideration for those who will be affected by our decisions and example. Today we chat about three things to keep in mind that will help you avoid introducing chaos into the bar, will help you retain staff, and will help you build a strong culture of trust and appreciation.   

Changing lives through coffee! It is something we all want to take part in and learn how to do with our businesses and careers. Well, today's guest is doing just that and setting an example that should inspire all of us. We are having a conversation with Pamela Chng, the founder of Bettr Barista. Better Barista is a coffee organization built to make a lasting social impact by working with marginalize women and at risk youth in Singapore.   We dig into her work, the history of why she set up this company, how it works, the challenges of training high standards in coffee and also helping train their students emotionally, and physically to better their lives and overcome the challenges they face. Pamela also lays out for us what we should do if we too want to use our business for social impact and effectively change lives through coffee.  Pamela is basically a hero and this conversation is sure to inspire you to action. Enjoy!  Links: WWW.BETTRBARISTA.COM INSTAGRAM TWITTER

SHIFT BREAK #14 : We explore that all too familiar cop-out, "It's not my Job", how giving into that notion will sabotage your career, and what to do and think instead. 

Maria Cleaveland is a master of management, leadership, and organizational systems and process. She has spent over 30 years in hospitality leadership, the last 17 of which have spent in leading the charge in specialty coffee. Her journey has been one of taking on challenges and a wide variety of high level roles that shaped her into the professional she is today. In this conversation we talk about the arc her career and from it pull out amazing insights, advice, and life lessons that she has learned that will leave you motivated and equipped to better pursue the opportunities that this industry presents to you.  It was a great honor to have Maria on the show and I hope you really enjoy this Leadership and Management Master Class.    Links: Maria's Instagram Maria's Linkedin www.bext360.com www.Urnex.com

SHIFT BREAK #13 : What can we learn about hospitality from spiders? Today on Shift Break we talk about just that. 

Giving feedback is not an easy task. We often psych ourselves out and/or procrastinate on delivering it, dreading the conversation and what might happen when we bring it up. This is especially true when the situation seems to be infused with tension. Fear not!  Today we turn to coaching and communication expert (and past guest), Tom Henschel to help us navigate the task of delivering feedback effectively so you get the best possible outcome. We discuss why it is hard to give feedback, the importance of keeping things conversational, some key missteps that managers make when delivering feedback, and we explore a 4 step model that Tom uses with his clients that provides a great framework for that feedback conversation you need to have. We even act out a couple scenarios and direct them to give examples of what to do , and what not to do.  This episode is immensely practical and important. Tom, of course, delivers priceless insights and advice that you won't want to miss.  Be sure to go to www.keystotheshop.com/resources to download the PDF of the 4 step feedback model Tom has generously made available to KTTS listeners!    Links: Tom's Company: www.essentialcomm.com Tom's Podcast: The look and Sound of Leadership Tom's last appearance on KTTS: ep. 52 Solving Coworker Conflict

SHIFT BREAK #12 : It is bound to happen. One day we are inspired, passionate, and the wind is in our sails , but the next we are down, weary, questioning our choice of career, and generally in a slump. The good news is that this is a normal occurrence and the even better news is that it may actually be good for us. Today we discuss the purpose of these dry spells and low points we are bound to encounter as we grow and how we can embrace them as vital elements in our long-term health and success.     

Ervin Liz is an indigenous Colombian of the Nasa tribe who grew up on a coffee farm helping his family plant, pick, process, and sell their harvest. Years later co-founded The Colombian Coffee Connection where he imports, roasts, and sells the coffee sourced from his home in Colombia direct to the consumer and gives 10% of all profits to charitable initiatives on the farm. Relationship coffee does not get more intimate than that! In this interview we get to hear about Ervin's story, the company's founding, and Ervins perspective on the effectiveness of certifications and their impact on the farmer. We also discuss the trend of internal consumption of specialty coffee at origin, and what shops can do to best represent the farmer to their customers. This is a great opportunity to see the entire supply chain through the yes of someone who has literally done it all.  Enjoy! Links:  To learn more and buy coffee visit:  www.thecollombiancoffeeconnection.com Use code:"Keys" to get 5% off your entire purchase and $5 per lb one coffee sold will also be donated to humanitarian relief "Coffee w/ Heart"  Instagram  Twitter Facebook         Visit Our Sponsors!  www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com  

It's Founder Friday!!! Today we get to sit down with Justin Hartman who is the Founder of the standard bearing OZO Coffee Company. Justin brings a very down to earth perspective to all he undertakes. We discuss his journey into coffee working as a barista in the best shops he could find, the founding and evolution of OZO Coffee from one small shop using other roasters to now 4 busy cafes with a thriving (Good Food Award Winning)roasting operation. We also dive into management, leadership, scaling the business, the challenges of growth, hiring, and Justins 3 pieces of advice to other shop owners. There is a lot here and I know you will walk away informed and inspired!   LINKS: Ozo Coffee Co.  Instagram Twitter [email protected] 

SHIFT BREAK #11 : When it comes to work that needs to get done in the shop the default for a manager can be to just do it ourselves. It's faster and at least we know the job will get done correctly. This, however, is a mistake and will ultimately lead to longterm negative consequences for both you and the employee to whom the task should have been delegated.  In today's Shift Break I talk about the trap of just doing it yourself and why it is best to lean into the work of investing in delegation, training, and helping develop the skills of others.  

There are countless details that go into setting up a great coffee shop. At the top of the list of priorities are the legal considerations that provide you with a foundation on which to build your dream cafe in a way that won't turn that dream into a nightmare. Today we welcome long time attorney and general counsel to the Specialty Coffee Association, World Coffee Events, and Coffee Quality Institute,   Marshall Fuss!  We dive into 5 critical areas where most shops run into trouble and Marshall details how you can avoid mistakes in each of them. This is a VERY practical and valuable episode that gives you some serious keys to being a legally sound and thriving shop. I can't think of a better subject for ep.101 than some legal 101. Enjoy!    Links: Marshall's Website Free help from retired business pro's S.C.O.R.E.

SHIFT BREAK #10: We take our coffee very seriously. We obsessively taste, cup, evaluate, and discuss all to perfect the way we extract and serve it to the guest. Not so, however, for the rest of the menu that is not a small milk drink or straight espresso or brewed coffee. We tend to hold certain alterations and items in contempt. Today we chat about how we can raise our game by becoming serious about getting to know and appreciate the whole menu and, in so doing, be able to offer a much better customer experience. 

Wooo Hooo! It's the 100th episode of Keys to the Shop!!! Thank you so much for listening to and supporting this show! I can think of no better way to use this time than to highlight what a critical role you all play in the industry. Today I want to talk to you about why you are the the key. You can provide others with insights, inspiration, and tools that will have a positive impact on your circle of influence no matter what you do in the industry or how long you've been doing it. I hope that after todays episode you feel confident to take what you have and  put it to work even more within specialty coffee community.  I can't tell you how humbled and honored I am to be able to do this work on this platform and I will always work to make what is done here increasingly valuable and impactful for you and your success.  Thank you!   GIVEAWAY ALERT!  In honor of the 100th episode I am giving away a mini-library consisting of these books: What I know About Running Coffee Shops -Colin Harmon (Donated by Prima Coffee) It's OK to be the Boss -Bruce Tulgan Setting the Table -Danny Meyer To enter the contest: Follow Keys to the Shop & Prima Coffee on Instagram In the comments section of this episode's IG post:Tag a friend & Leave a comment telling everyone your favorite episode of KTTS. Winner announced Thursday July 19th!    Links:  Remember the first episode? Ep: 001 Intro and What to Expect Why it's OK to be the Boss w/ Bruce Tulgan Founder Friday w/ Colin Harmon Leadership and Management Master Class w/ Eva Attia 

SHIFT BREAK #9 : One of the best ways we can make a big difference in the cafe is by taking care of the small stuff. Unfortunately we all know that the small problems like broken timers, leaky sinks, and rotting sponges tend to accumulate quickly and become a real morale killer for baristas and point of stress for management. Today we chat about  why you should resist the Siren song of resigning yourself to these little dysfunctions and take on the habit of consistently fixing the small stuff. 

Competitions don't have to be expensive, complex, or stressful! The Barista League is proof. Today we are talking with Barista League founder, Steven Moloney about this community focused, engaging, and  refreshing competition. We discuss the benefits of this type of format, what people who attend are saying, his perspective on specialty retail, and advice for how we can support and liven up our shops and cities on our own. This is a great chat that will leave you encouraged to connect with and learn from your your fellow baristas and maybe even join the Barista League. Enjoy!   LINKS: www.thebaristaleague.com Instagram     Thanks to our Sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com    

SHIFT BREAK #8 : We all have a bit of laziness in us. Throughout the day there are dozens of opportunities to make decisions that will either pave the way to excellence or to compromise and mediocrity. Who we become as people and an industry is built by of thousands these important decisional micro-moments. Today on Shift Break #8 we explore this subject and what you can do to break the cycle and create a personal culture of excellence that you take with you wherever you go.  This is a critical episode so I hope you take it to heart and put it into action! Links/Resources: Do the Work - Steven Pressfield  Leadership and Self Deception- The Arbinger Institute  Mindset -Dr. Carol Dweck

As shifts go, the closing shift is normally not a covent one. We can suffer from boredom, lack of motivation, disillusionment, isolation, and end up feeling bitter toward our day-time counterparts who get to work more in the thick of the coffeehouse culture plus make better tips! Been there done that. I happen to find a certain beauty and nobility in a closing shift that makes me cherish the experience even in the midst of the hardships that come with it. So what if we could take another look at the closing shift and reframe it in a way that the close an honor rather than a punishment? Today we discuss the both the issues and the virtues of the closing shift and give managers and baristas practical solutions, steps, and tools to reframe the mindset around it and achieve a higher level of excellence and satisfaction.  Thank you for listening and Enjoy!   Related Episodes: Episode 46 : Death by Comparison Episode 56 : The Sleepwalking Barista  Episode 31 : Essential Advice for New Baristas   Contact me:[email protected] Remember to rate, review, and subscribe!    THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! WWW.PRIMA-COFFEE.COM WWW.PACIFICFOODS.COM  

It's Founder Friday! Today we are honored to hear from the owner of The Arrow Coffeehouse, Erica Escalante. Erica is a 10 year veteran of the specialty industry and went from Starbucks barista to coffee shop owner. Her story is one of extraordinary hard work, dedication, building relationships, constant learning, vulnerability, and servant leadership. Her perspectives on communication, making business decisions, hiring, and where she draws energy and joy in her busy life will leave you refreshed and enlivened to work hard to do good. Enjoy! Links: www.thearrowcoffeehouse.com Instagram (Portland) Instagram (Damascus)    Our Sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com    

SHIFT BREAK #7 : At the heart of every health organization is a prioritized and regular system of communication that gives a voice and an ear to their staff. The one-on-one meeting is a very powerful tool to bring cohesion, give clarity, and increase morale across the company. In today's Shift Break we discuss what it looks like to implement this meeting and why it is so critical to a thriving and positive work culture.  Links to helpful resources: Manager Tools Podcast on One-on-ones KTTS 004 : 10 steps to being a people first leader KTTS 018 :  Hiring, culture, and the future of your shop  

Did you say "Instant specialty coffee"?! Yup, that's right. Not only does it taste 300 times better than traditional instant but it may well change the way you think about accessibility, consumer engagement, and how we provide value to the end user. In this episode we are joined by the founder of Voila (One of the pioneers of instant specialty coffee) Kent Sheridan. Kent and I discuss the evolution of his company, the philosophy behind their process and approach to no-compromise quality. Does association with instant coffee damage the reputation of specialty or enhance its value? What is behind the rise of convenience specialty products, and what should retail shops take away and learn from this movement? Find out here and take some note because this is sure to give you some ideas for your approach to specialty and engaging a wider audience.  Enjoy!  Links: www.voila.coffee Instagram Twitter   Related episodes: #92 : Yes Plz w/ Tony Konecny #69 : Hosting a Consumer Coffee Class #35 : The Consumer Revolution w/ Kevin Sinnot   Our Sponsors: www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com   

SHIFT BREAK #6 : Today we are exploring a mentality practiced in cafe leadership that is a microcosm of gentrification. Changing this behavior and mindset can stop coffee shops from being forces that aid in cultural displacement and turn into spaces that aid in cultural enrichment of both their internal and external communities.  LINKS/RESOURCES: Liz Ogbu TED Talk: Healing vs. Displacing Communities  Stan Slap's book: Under the Hood    

In coffee shops we know a thing or two about being stressed!  It can range from nagging to debilitating just with a single shift. If you want to experience more calm and peace of mind in the cafe, even in the midst of the business then this episode will definitely help. Today we are talking with celebrated mental wellness counselor and host of the Practice of the Practice podcast, Joe Sanok. Joe share a lot of great insights into the story behind stress, Brain optimization, how staff and owners can manage and reduce stress while at work, the relationship between systems and stress, and helps us walk away with some tools that will bring the well being that we need to sustain a long and healthy career begins the bar.  Enjoy!   LINKS: www.practiceofthepractice.com   Our Sponsors: www.prima-coffee.com www.pacificfoods.com   

SHIFT BREAK #5 : Conferences, trade shows, and podcasts all bring together people and ideas that help us grow and get answers to questions we have that unlock new levels in our careers. The question is, why wait until a conference comes around or an episode comes out to ask your question or connect with those ideas and people? Today on Shift Break we discuss our tendency to isolate ourselves until special events and the benefit of reaching out to those who we respect and can learn from in our industry. This has been a great help to me in my career and I hope this episode inspires you to take action and connect to the community in a deeper and more direct way. You can do it!     

We all want a fulfilling career in coffee but often times we feel trapped and disappointed with where we are and cannot see the next move. Enter Lee Safar. Lee is the owner of "Map it Forward" and host of the "Map it Forward Live Podcast". She has amassed a world of experience and knowledge in her over 15 years of working in coffee and draws on both her expertise and other industry success stories to teach you how you can map out an amazing career, grow you business, and be a true professional.  In this conversation we discuss how she came to start Map it Forward, what surprised her about the state of professionalism in baristas, what dysfunctional behaviors owners and managers engage in that hold themselves and others back, how to stop the blame game, creating a win-win for for both employer and employee, setting goals, and advice for what both baristas and leaders can do immediately to start to Map it Forward and build a successful coffee career.  It was a great time chatting with Lee. She and her work are very much kindred spirits to KTTS on many levels and I hope you find thins episode to be inspiring and helpful.  Enjoy!  Links: MAP IT FORWARD www.mapitforward.org  The MAP IT FORWARD PODCAST: www.youtube.com/mapitforward  iTunes @imapitforward (IG)  @imapitforward (FB) [email protected]     Elixir Specialty Coffee: www.Elixirfy.Me | @elixirspecialtycoffee (Instagram and Facebook) [email protected]        

SHIFT BREAK #4 : We are in the hospitality business and we recognize that the guest experience hinges on how they are treated. There is, however, a pervasive mindset and set of behaviors that make the customer an enemy in our minds and colors the way we think and act toward them, which ultimately damages their coffee experience and the industry at large. This week we talk about how we make the customer the enemy and what we can do to solve this toxic problem that lives in so many cafes.    

Today we get to talk with the 2018 U.S. Brewers Cup Champion, Becca Woodard! It was such a pleasure to chat about the details that went into her fantastic performance, the fascinating story of her competition coffee, her personal drive and the message she delivered regarding changing systems, her mission as a specialty coffee ambasador, and some challenges to the coffee community around how we can become a more diverse and inclusive community.  Becca is a humble and inspiring champion and you will be all the better for listening to her in this conversation. I hope you enjoy! Links: Becca Instagram Becca Twitter Boston Intersectionality Panel info George Howell Coffee Beccas Performance Video (Start and minute 2:02:27)

SHIFT BREAK #3 : Hiring is one of the most important things you will do for the benefit of  the cafe and great questions are key in helping you decide who to bring on and who to not. Today I talk about my favorite interview question and why it has been so instrumental in helping me gain clarity around who to hire. I hope this is helpful to you!    

Great coffee should be for everyone! For the consumer today though, specialty coffee can be complicated. But it does not have to be! Today we talk with industry legend Tony "Tonx"  Konecny, Founder of Tonx Coffee, and Co-founder of Yes Plz (the people behind the $1 cup of coffee at Locol) all about his mission to remedy this issue. In addition to discussing Yes Plz and some of Tony's professional history that informs the companies philosophy we will talk about:challenging orthodoxy, intentional blending, pricing for accessibility, coffee subscriptions, on-boarding customers, the industries echo chamber and much more. Tony has a lot to say that I think will help shape our approach to customers in the shop and really make an impact on how "into" coffee they get.  Throughout this talk ask yourself: What are we doing to help customers into specialty coffee in the shops? How can I apply these philosophies to how I act and speak with customers in the shop? What rules or orthodoxies am I holding onto that may need to be challenged in the name of progress? I hope you enjoy this interview! LINKS: YESPLZ.COFFEE KICKSTARTER INSTAGRAM TWITTER     Thanks to our sponsors! www.pacificfoods.com www.prima-coffee.com                    

Boy do we have a great on in store for you! Talor Browne, Co-founder of Talor & Jorgen in Oslo, Norway chats with us on this May edition of Founder Friday. Talor is an absolute legend and through her career has been at the helm of some of the worlds greatest cafes and roasters. She and her business partner Jorgen opened Talor & Jorgen December 2017 and have put together what looks to be one of the industries most unique and fun concepts. In this discussion we talk about Talor's path in the coffee and culinary world, the back story of how Talor & Jorgen was founded, their mission and vision, the key to hiring the right people, and the lessons learned in the process. We touch on delegation, burnout, passion, growth, strengths, and the importance of keeping great coffee easy and fun! Talor has a lot of great advice to those of us in the industry and to those of us hoping to start a shop that is as much an authentic expression of our ethos as Talor & Jorgen is of theirs.  Enjoy! LINKS: www.talorjorgen.no  Re:co Talk Instagram    

SHIFT BREAK! #2 : Management is often the first position we get promoted to within the cafe and it comes with a lot of added responsibility and pressure. From my own experience and observations over the years there are 3 things that effective managers put into practice and are always looking to get better at. In todays Shift Break we discuss what those things are and why they are so important.  Thanks for listening and stay tuned for next week's Shift Break!    [email protected]  

While many of us can say that we are students of coffee and coffee shops, not many can say that we study it on an academic level the way or guest  Dr. Jennifer Ferreira does. In this discussion Dr. Ferreira talks about her research into coffee shops, their impact in society, and the things that she has learned along the way. We discuss the cafe's place in society and its various roles, as well as its impact on the environment, the community, and the economy. We also discuss whether more is always better when it comes to the increasing number of specialty stores opening globally and what might be the next phase for the growth of the cafe industry.  I hope you enjoy this chat and make time to discover Dr. Ferreira's work at the links below! Links: https://cafespaces.wordpress.com https://www.jennifer-ferreira.com https://twitter.com/jennywrenwatts Cafe Spaces Research Summary Barista Magazine Article on gentrification (see page 94) Have we reached peak coffee shop?

SHIFT BREAK #1 : Welcome to Shift Break! This is a new feature of Keys to the Shop that gives you quick and focused insights, tips, and tools you can use to thrive in the cafe. My hope is that if you are pressed for time you can take something away from these mini-episodes that will positively impact your life. Today I wanted to talk about anger and how you can overcome it when you are on shift. The 3 tips have proven effective in my own career and I hope they benefit you as well.  Thanks for listening and stay tuned for next week's Shift Break!  LINK:  Solving Coworker Conflict: http://www.keystotheshop.com/podcasts/52-2/ [email protected]  

Today we have the immense honor of talking with Andrew Daday, General Manager of La Marzocco USA! We dive into his leadership,  values, and goals as he heads up one of the worlds most iconic and respected equipment manufacturing companies. Also in this conversation we discuss the critical importance of La Marzocco's relationship with the coffee shop, their vision for sustainability, how they serve such a wide and varied customer base while still pushing the envelope on quality, how innovation goes from idea to implementation, and throughout all this, Andrew give us some excellent management and leadership advice that will have a huge impact on the way you serve. I hope you enjoy this and are inspired!   LINKS:  www.lamarzoccousa.com LM on Youtube       [email protected]  

Today we talk with the new U.S. Barista Champion, Cole McBride! Cole has always given 110% effort to improving both his own craft and being an advocate for specialty coffee and those around him. In his 15 years of professional coffee work he has gleaned an impressive amount of wisdom, skill, and perspective that is clearly on display both on the stage and in this conversation. We cover everything from his career's development, competition history, some deep dives into the details of his winning performance, lessons learned from challenges, how intention and awareness are key elements of being a successful barista, and his quest to uplift the barista in his role as an ambassador for specialty coffee. This conversation is packed! I was very much energized and inspired by Cole and I hope you feel the same way.  Enjoy! LINKS FOR COLE: TWITTER EMAIL: [email protected]  INSTAGRAM

Today we talk with Coffee Masters Champion, Agnieszka Rojewska! She is the multi-time Polish Barista champion, Latte Art champion, and now Coffee Masters champion, a trainer, consultant, and all around inspiration! In this conversation we chat about her packed completion schedule, pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, her experience as a cafe owner and manager folding in lessons from competition into day-to-day operations, the importance of the customer being our focus, and how we can create opportunity to advance our careers.  It was an honor to talk with Agnieszka and I know you will get something valuable from this conversation.     Links: Instagram  Twitter   Interested in Keys to the Shop Consulting? Email: [email protected] or call at 502-715-1465 

Warmth, hospitality, community, kid songs...this episode has it all! Today we get the chat with the founder of Pinhole Coffee, JoEllen Depakakibo! JoEllen's shop, Pinhole Coffee, is an amazing little cafe nestled in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Fransisco. For four years now she has been living her dream of owning a coffee shop that is also conduit and hub for art and community. We talk about her coming up in coffee, how she decided to open her own place, the challenges of getting started, the values that drive her, how they show hospitality to each other and the customer, hiring, and her advice on how to create a solid community focused business.  Enjoy!   Links: www.pinholecoffee.com INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK Logo Artist Joey Artist Leah Rosenberg  Architect : bcooperative.com Mitsuko Tanaka ceramict    

It is often the little things that we allow or that escape our attention that will ruin the specialty experience for our customers in our shops. Today we discuss ways that we create unnecessary roadblocks to customers having a truly great experience in the cafe and what to do about it.  We give you a framework to use in rooting out issues and cover some of the main points that are likely hiding in plain sight. When we give these behaviors a pass or let these details slip over time, we end up holding our industry back from being truly effective at the store level in representing specialty coffee well.  Links: Episode #57 SOPs FTW!  Colin Harmon's Book  James Hoffman's video about being your own customer

"We got slammed!",  "Today was intense!", "It was crazy!" ...If you have ever said this then today's episode is for you. In the cafe we all experience rushes differently based on how well prepared we are. A  sudden pop of business or sustained time of having a line out the door can be either the time to shine or to shift into survival mode. A rush is one of the most critical times for your business to make a great and lasting impression. Today we will explore some helpful tips and best practices that will give you more of an opportunity to embrace those times with confidence and crush the rush!  Links:  Episode 2 "Mastering Your Workflow" w/ Ryan Soeder    Interested in training & Consultation? Contact me here: [email protected] / 502-715-1465