Episodes
Ah the age old debate.
Should you hire someone who is experienced working in coffee? On onhand they have skills that may be helpful and on the other they might have bad habits you need to address.
Or should you hire someone without experience? Their first exposure to coffee will be at your shop and you get to train them up on your standards from the start. At the same time they ma take longer to train and could experience bore inertia getting used to the work a coffee shop requires
Today...
Published 11/14/24
When you think about the things that make the biggest difference in culture, hospitality experience, staff morale and the profitability of your coffee shop, you would be forgiven for being overwhelmed. There are so many moving parts in food and beverage operations it's hard to know what lever to pull to make a difference.
Well the good news is that, according to today's guest, when you apply focus and systems to the most critical 30% of those areas that make up you cafe, you will transform...
Published 11/12/24
In recent weeks Starbucks has announced it will no longer charge for plant-base alternative milks. This comes after efforts from activists claiming discrimination. Starbucks aside, the conversation about up-charging for alt milk has been going on for a while now with people who feel strongly on either side of the topic.
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about whether or not you should be charging for alternative plant based milk options, how to approach this from a practical business...
Published 11/07/24
The way customers and staff experience our cafes is based many experiences and moments taken together to form what they know as our culture or brand. Each experience can be broken down into many different parts that happen within even one visit and the smart operator knows that unless there is a plan set up ahead of time for how we want those moments to go, then we will provide less than stellar service. The customer loses out on experiencing our best, and we lose out on keeping good...
Published 11/05/24
Training your staff is easily one of the most important things to get right if you want to set them up for success and make sure your customers are getting a great experience every time. Every place has their own way of doing training and most of it is cobbled together from different sources in a desperate bid for a positive outcome. The result if all to often a staff that is under prepared, frustrated leadership, and guest experiences inconsistent standards.
Today on Shift Break we will be...
Published 10/31/24
Innovation and an obsession with what is "new" has long been a primary force capturing the imagination of coffee pros and entrepreneurs. Trouble is that the novel and new, while it may be good at grabbing or capturing attention, is not great at keeping and sustaining us, or our businesses for that matter. In fact, innovation and constantly looking for something have the opposite effect than what it seems to promise.
Enter the idea of maintenance over innovation and everyday excellence. I...
Published 10/28/24
Today on Founder Friday we go to Azerbaijan to talk with the founder of a coffee shop and roastery that is at the heart of the national specialty coffee movement, Parvix Dadashov, of Untied Coffee Beans!
Parviz is Founder and CEO of United Coffee Beans project, a trailblazing coffee business in the realm of specialty coffee in Azerbaijan. Parviz graduated from Tourism and Management University and has accumulated invaluable experience in the dynamic Food & Beverage sector.
As a...
Published 10/22/24
Well, kind of...Coffee is great! Keeping it consistently great in the shop is a challenge and there are many tactics and tools to apply in learning more about coffee and applying what we learn in the shop. But what happens when we allow our pursuit of more coffee knowledge become a distraction from focusing on needed areas of improvement and maintenance in the cafe?
Today on Shift Break we will be talking about how our focus on coffee, while needed to a degree, can become an escape from...
Published 10/22/24
The coffee industry, specifically the coffee shop, has been changing. Trends and fads come and go, but movements are born from a collective need to evolve and mature toward a better way of operating professionally. It is not the trends that you need to worry about not getting in line with, but the movements.
Today we will be covering five areas that have been changing in the coffee shop sector that I believe every owner and operator needs to embrace. These areas cover a virtually all...
Published 10/22/24
So many great ideas come from conversations, trade shows, podcasts, books, and videos. Ideas and epiphanies that will make your coffee shop better and solve problems that have plagued you and your team for too long. But how do you take the first step to apply those ideas why you feel you don't have the time.
On today's episode of Shift Break we will answer frequent question I get asked when I am speaking at a conferences and with clients, how do I find the time to do these things when I am...
Published 10/18/24
We all say that guest experience is the most important thing. I would agree, but exactly what do we mean by this? In today's marketplace we are hyper focused on efficiency over effectiveness. The result is that what passes for what we believe makes a great coffee experience, is something unsustainable, ineffective, but flashy and largely based on a trend instead of truly fulfilling the core needs of a customer in our coffee shop.
Today we will be discussing what a truly meaningful guest...
Published 10/14/24
Every coffee shop hosts within its walls countless stories. The life that happens on the pltform of a cafe is just breath taking. This includes stories that showcase you and your team's values in action. Wil Guidara talks about these as legends that embody the and illustrate what we are all about. Be this as it may, stories somehow do not take up very much, if any, time or attention when we onboard, train, and talk about the work with our staff
On today's episode of Shift Break we will be...
Published 10/10/24
Translating coffee from one form to the next, and serving it in a way that further translates the value of that coffee into a rewarding experience for the drinker, is what the craft of coffee is all about. Today's guest has gone from translating languages to working full time in roasting and serving coffee and has some critically important insights to share from her journey.
We are talking with 2024 Brewers Cup Champion from Turkey, Nida Fetullahoğlu !
Nida has been in the coffee industry...
Published 10/07/24
The allure of easily producing documents and processes for your coffee shop through AI is strong. Using tools to support your business in a thoughtful way is one thing, but too many times I hear about people all but completely outsourcing the task that should be taken on by those who can create with nuance, to software.
On today's episode of Shift Break we will talk about what we lose when we use these to-good-to-be-true "solutions" and why the difficulty of creating effective systems,...
Published 10/01/24
The impact of the coffee shop on the entire industry is astounding. The beauty and transcendence of a well run cafe offers excellence and care to staff and guests alike, and provides an accurate reflection and consistent channel through which people get to experience the work of farmers and all hands in the value stream. It is this idea, that the cafe is hugely consequential element in the thriving of people in coffee, that drive this podcast.
On today's episode we are reflecting on the...
Published 10/01/24
Today on Founder Friday are exploring the story of Three Keys Coffee in a wonderful conversation with the founders, Kenzel and Tio Fallen!
Kenzel Fallen is Co-Founder and CEO of Three Keys Coffee. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, Kenzel received a BA in Economics from Duke University and an MBA in Finance from Rice University. After building a career as a management consultant and corporate risk manager within the banking and energy industries, she co-founded Three Keys Coffee in 2019 along...
Published 09/27/24
Workflow on the coffee bar is one of the most important things to design when considering how we will deliver excellent service and quality to our customers. Not only is it important to design your menu first and make the café design prioritize the production of that menu but you must also create clarity of responsibility within each station of that bar.
On today's episode of Shift Break, we will be talking about some principles for setting up effective station responsibilities behind the...
Published 09/25/24
Small things make a big difference in the coffee shop. Trouble is, that we tend to procrastinate addressing the natural falling away of doing small things well as we get busier, and those little actions and habits that create excellence end up atrophying causing big problems that are almost untraceable back to their small source.
On today's episode I am going to be giving you 1 small things to challenge yourself to fix in 7 days. That's right, one week to fix of begin the process of fixing...
Published 09/24/24
We all work hard and face challenges in the cafe. The way we interpret the effort put in to the work of running a coffee shop will determine both the quality of the shop and our own ability to sustain our energy and effort. The truth is consistent effort is a normal and necessary investment that keeps life flowing through the business.
On today's addition of shift break we are going to follow up on our previous episode from a couple years back and add more detail and perspectives.The goal...
Published 09/19/24
The first place you're going to see burn out in the coffee bar is in the position of management. These lucky people are not only given the task to lead the team and serve them with their role, but they are also accountable to their bosses, creating a feeling of being caught between two different groups that they have to please in their work.
Almost without fail I am asked by managers over email or at conferences some version of the same question related to being frustrated at the lack of...
Published 09/16/24
Welcome to Part 2 of this special Coffee Fest live on the show floor episode! Interviews from Los Angeles 2024!
Los Angeles was so amazing and we got to sit down with 4 amazing coffee professionals who were presenting at this show.
Today we will be focusing on improving your coffee and training skills with two experts! Anna Gutierrez and Sandra Elisa Loofbourow!
Anna Gutierrez
Beginning her coffee career in 1997 as a barista, Anna currently manages the Barista 22 line of syrups, sauces...
Published 09/16/24
Welcome to Part 1 of this special Coffee Fest live on the show floor episode! Interviews from Los Angeles 2024!
Los Angeles was so amazing and we got to sit down with 4 amazing coffee professionals who were presenting at this show.
Today we will be focusing on what amounts to a couple of mini-Founder Fridays with 2 cafe owners in the LA area providing ground breaking spaces and service!
Shanita Nicholas
While practicing law at the same law firm, Amanda-Jane Thomas and Shanita...
Published 09/13/24
We have to overcome many challenges in the day-to-day operations of the coffee shop. Some of these challenges are inevitable, and our ability to grow from our experiences with them is a mark of maturity that we can celebrate, but many challenges are unnecessary, and in celebrating our abilities to overcome them we unintentionally might be normalizing the dysfunction.
On today's addition of shift break, we are going to be talking about why we should avoid celebrating wins that happened as a...
Published 09/10/24
Much of what gets written regarding the reasons behind declining standards in the coffee shop focuses on the leadership and what they can do to facilitate success. Here at KTTS there are dozens of interviews and solo episodes dedicated to this very thing. But what does not get so much air time is the reality that if we are to see a rise in standards of leadership, we must also call for a rise in personal professional work standards from staff.
Culpability for the miserable state of coffee...
Published 09/10/24