On bar, things get stressful. We are not just managing the physical space but we are also managing and navigating our emotions. It’s all too easy to let our pride keep us from asking for help when we most desperate need it. In this shift break I talk…
Equipment breaks, that is just a fact of life. How and why it breaks depends on the way we maintain (or don’t maintain) it over the corse of its life. right now there are thousands of bars working on machines that are either about to break or are well on their way because of improper care. Today …
How do you inspire people? This was a question I was asked recently while conducting a day-long workshop for a group of cafe managers. The answer is easy to give, but hard to live. You can think of this also as policy -vs- relationship. Today we are…
Learning about consumer trends and preferences keeps us sharp and relevant. How well our shops do will have a huge impact on everyone in the value stream of coffee and in order to do our best work we need to be paying attention to what the research says as well as doing our own research locally. Thankfully the …
It’s easy to create an environment in the coffee shop where staff feel they are bound by tight rules and restrictions. In this environment we don’t get to see much creative hospitality in the form of solving problems for customers. Today we are…
Getting your local coffee community to come together can be a powerful way to build networks, friendships, and careers. This is what today’s guests have made their mission. Javier Alvarez and Joseph W. Gonzalez are long time professional baristas who founded Espresso State of Mindin 2017 to give their fellow baristas a platform to showcase talents, meet one another, …
The hardest part about building a team is building trust. It does not happen overnight and requires patience, but more than that, it requires consistency in small and big ways. Today we are going to talk about how you can cultivate trust in your staff…
That’s it! The year is done and to help us ring in the New Year I am re-airing a classic from way back in the day. January 17 2017 is when “Leadership in the Cafe : 10 Steps to being a People First Leader” first aired. Now, three years and 274 episodes later, the message rings just as true and …
It’s Founder Friday! Today we get to sit down not once, but twice with Colin Whitcomb of the newly opened Canary Coffee Barin Milwaukee, WI. In this episode we talk with Colin a couple months before Canary opened and then 3 months after to get a detailed look inside the planning and running of a new business Along with being …
When you start or run a coffee bar you are going to be faced with a ton of options for what products and ideas you will adopt. Saying yes to any and everything can get you and your business in trouble down the road. Today we are going to be…
