When you have a trainer on staff there are specific responsibilities you have as a leader that will determine their success and how happy you are with their performance. Often we can set someone in a position and let them loose with little to no guidance. Of course this is a recipe for disaster and today we are going to …
314 : The 6 Essential Qualities of Coffee Shop Leaders
Do you feel like you need to be good at everything in order to be a good leader? That is a pretty common thought but the fact is that this way approach to leadership stifles both you and those you lead. Instead we should focus on what qualities will allow us to lead people with different skills than us effectively. …
303 : Create Authentic Partnerships w/ Marc Gessler of Cat & Cloud Coffee
Ideally, the nature of your relationship with your wholesale customers is less like a transaction and more like a partnership. How do we approach caring for those who have decided to serve our coffee in a way that is true to our values, supports their success, and creates growing trust and mutuality? In this episode these questions and more are …
301 : Hiring and Training for Excellence
These are the two most important and intensive processes in the cafe yet they often are the most rush and poorly thought through. The preparations we make and the actions we take when hiring and training staff will and does create a ripple effect that is felt by everyone who interacts with your business for years to come. Maybe more …
291 : What to do if Your Baristas Wont Listen to You
Have you ever thrown your hands up in frustration and said something like, “Why won’t my staff listen to me?!” I get this type of question a lot from people attending my lectures at Coffee Fest. Managers and owners alike have this moment often. I know I have. We desire nothing more than generating buy-in and to be at peace …
287 : Learning to Shift your Mind w/ Brian Levenson
Whether you are behind the bar making drinks, or behind a laptop making the schedule for your baristas, you cannot rely on just one mindset to achieve the best results in your coffee shop. Just like building an agile business that can pivot well in a variety of situations, our minds must be able to shift between preparation and performance. …
243 : Encore Episode! “The Sleepwalking Barista (Owner)”
I am excited to re-share this oldie with you. Mainly because it has a ton of very useful insights that I think we all need to ponder these days. Life  (aka 2020) won’t let up and the 7 things I talked about back in November 2017 could not be more relevant. In many ways, we spend a lot of our …
235 : 4 Tips for Training your Staff
How do you ensure that what you teach in training is effective for both the employee and the business? Well, there are many different elements but amongst those element are four foundational mindsets and practices that serve to hold everything together. Today we are going to be exploring how focusing on minimum viable skills, patience, real-life training, and tracking/follow-up will …
228 : Cracking the Leadership Code w/ Alain Hunkins
Leadership is a HUGE topic and it is easy to get overwhelmed with the never-ending opinions and techniques that are available these days. It is cruel in a way because in a time where we need good leadership the most we want to find good resources but the choice of what voice to listen to is often paralyzing. …
226 : The Art of being Indispensable at Work w/Bruce Tulgan
Are you a “go-to” person? How do you show up at work in a way that gains trust and makes you an essential and indispensable member of the team? These are important questions to answer right now as many teams are being re-built and companies need to rely on their staff to come through more than ever. Today we welcome …
