Shows / Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
A coffee podcast providing coffee shop owners and leaders, with insights, inspiration, and the tools you need to grow and advance your coffee business. 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.
Episodes
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
RoR #13 : The Norm Roast Protocol w/ Dave Baxter
How do we test the energy efficiency, emissions, and impact of or roasting machines?. We all want to be responsible with our environmental impact but all we…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
338: A Conversation w/ Martell Mason of The Sepia Coffee Project
In order to have clarity on how to operate effectively in coffee we need to view it thought a global lens. The tapestry of people and cultures that make up our…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
337: Founder Friday w/ Diana Martinez of Cafe Calle, Los Angeles
Diana Martinez is one of those people that I am thrilled to see find success in coffee. She had a dream to open a coffee shop and consistently pursued…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Flexibility for Owners and Managers
Giving up control and taking on a new role can be scary. As a result a lot of owners and managers rely on rigid and controlling way of leading that ends up…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
336: Cafe Leadership Masterclass w/ Selina Viguera of Blue Bottle Coffee
It's not very often you come across someone who has spent decades as a true example of what it is to be an exemplary manager, leader, and professional. When…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
In Praise of Long Term Imperfect Employment
We have talked a lot about your career development on the show and for the most part I would say this show advocates that you find a place that is right for…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
335: A Better Business Model for Coffee Farmers w/ Thaleon Tremain of Pachamama Coffee
Most of us would say we represent farmers with our work. Few of can say we literally work for farmers. Increasingly we see the need for business models that…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
When Patience is not a Virtue
A them of this show has been to infuse grace and patience into your leadership. For the most part, when we exercise patience and extend grace to baristas in…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
334: How to Approach Deescalation in the Coffee Shop w/ Melissa Tucker of Mind of Matters Institute
Working in customer a customer facing environment like a coffee shop means that we get to serve and experience all different types of people in the course fo…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Building your Coffee Shop's Capacity from Simplicity
Coffee shops are notorious for overcomplicating their menus, concepts, and services. Most shops, if left unchecked in this, will have a significant number of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
333: Bridging the Professional and Home Barista Gap w/ Lance Hedrick of Onyx Coffee Lab
We are living in a time where the average consumer is both spoiled for choice and simultaneously vexed at the sheer number of options available for great…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
332: Founder Friday! w/ Iman Kusumaputra & Putri Yulandari of Kopikalyan, Jakarta, Indonesia
On this Founder Friday we go to Jakarta, Indonesia to explore the story of Kopikalyan! This ground breaking roaster retailer sources, roasts, and serves…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
How to Talk to Each Other
Do you have an agreed upon way that you and your staff talk to each other? Poor communication is one of the most cited issues in exit interviews yet we rarely…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
331 : The 7 Deadly Sins of my Career
We all make mistakes. It's part of the learning and growth process for everyone. As you go in your career you will find that there are certain types of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
RoR #12 : Inside Coffee Packaging w/ Ever Meister
Your coffee packaging holds more than just coffee. It holds an incredible amount of potential for communication of values, impact on the supply chain, and how…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Proactivity in the Owner - Manager Relationship
We often talk about charitable assumption and being proactive to address the needs of our guests. But how often are we considering the way we approach the…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
330 : Establishing Systems in Your Coffee Shop
Good intentions are nice and all, but how do you make sure that you can actually deliver on your ideals for quality, service, and beyond? The answer is…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Customer Caricatures and Inside Jokes
When the customer first walks in the what do you think about them? Well chances are your immediate thoughts will be based on your assumptions formed in…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
329 : How to Teach Company Values to Your Staff
It's pretty easy to write our a set of company values. But how do you teach them in such a way that your staff own them and live by them? Now THAT is not easy…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Two Reasons to Not Install a Manager...Yet
One of the questions I get asked a lot by consulting clients is when they should instal or think about hiring a manager. I see lots of coffee shops get into…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
328 : Relationships and Resiliency w/ Xavier Alexander of Metric Coffee
Navigating our way through the coffee industry can be a daunting task. Especially if you want to make a difference. As you go you are confronted with many…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
327: Founder Friday! w/ Phuong Tran of Lava Java
Today we get to talk with a pillar and foundational member of the specialty coffee community, Phuong Tran of Lava Java For 20 years now Phuong Tran has been…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Irresponsible Encouragement
As we set out in our coffee journeys as either entrepreneurs or professionals within a company, we tend to seek out and cultivate groups of people around us…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
RoR #11 : Exploring Scent w/ Sandra Elisa Loofbourow
The smell of coffee is one of the great joys in this life. As professionals we take this important sensory aspect of coffee and build tools and protocols…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
326 : A Conversation w/ Alan Jarrar of 50%Arabica and JokesAside Coffee Roasters
Everyone's favorite coffee culture commentator and meme lord, Alan Jarrar is in the house! If you are like me and follow the account "50%Arabica" on Instagram…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Pre-Closing Madness
We have to get the shop closed! Fast! Question is, at what cost? For most of us we engage in pre-close with an aggression that lies our stated commitment to…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
325: How to Manager your Trainers
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…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Taking Offense to Critique
Customers have opinions that we disagree with. This is a forever truth of running a business. They have preferences and sometimes they will be disappointed in…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
324 : Encore Episode! Organizing the Community w/ Espresso State of Mind Founders, Javier Alvarez and Joseph Gonzalez
Community exists all around us. When we start a coffee shop we see the blossoming of community in our customer base, baristas bonding with one another, and…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Hiring for Future Leadership
Hiring baristas can bring a lot of uncertainty. It is because of this we tend to go for people who may not make great leaders but default to following…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
323 : Reflecting on 5 Years of Keys to the Shop w/ my Wife, Lynnsy Deferio
Welp, KTTS is now 5 years old! In this time KTTS has aired 560 episodes and is closing in on 2 million downloads around the world and it simply feels surreal…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Expectations for Growth
Chances are good that if you are listening to this podcast, you want to grow in your career or your business. That makes sense especially since that is one of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
ROR #10 : What Your Broker Wishes You Knew w/ Scott Merle of La Minita Coffee
Relationships are what the coffee industry is built on. The quality of those relationships determines the strength of the supply chain and the success of all…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
322 : A Conversation w/ LaNisa Williams of Barista Life L.A.
Creating a path forward and up in the coffee industry sometimes requires we take matters into our own hands and build the opportunities for ourself and others…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Limiting New Things
One of the ways we like to make our mark as leaders is by introducing various ideas, initiatives, items, and changes to the shop that we hope will make an…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
321 : Marketing and Moral Injury w/ Josh Tarlo of Kiss the Hippo
How we market our values to potential employees and the consumer is often at odds with what we actually do. In a past episode we called this the "Values -…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
320 Founder Friday! w/ Francesco Sanapo of Ditta Artigianale, Florence, Italy
It's Founder Friday! Today we are going to be exploring the story of a ground breaking and standard setting Italian coffee roaster and cafe. Our guest on this…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
The Key to Up-Selling
We love to train our baristas to up-sell as a way to increase our over all ticket amounts. The way we do this tends to be focused more on getting money in the…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
319 : A Conversation w/ World Barista Champion Diego Campos!
This year the World Barista Championship was held in Milan, Italy. The winner of that competition accomplished not only a historic win as the first champion to…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Ignorance vs Preference
Are you open minded when it comes to coffee? How open minded do you need to be? What is the difference between being ignorant or dismissive of a type of coffee…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
318 : Why Your Coffee Shop is Key for the Success of Coffee
The pressure and business of the daily work can easily blind us to the impact that we have on the greater reality of the "Industry". We often think of the…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Why DIY
Small businesses like coffee shops are known for their ability to be resourceful and get things done with what they have. However, when you set out to open a…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
317 : Encore Episode: Death by Comparison
What happens when we allow ourselves to get caught up in comparing ourselves and our businesses to those around us? The simple answer is that we stifle growth…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
316 : Founder Friday! w/ Jim Sanders of Heartwood Coffee Roasters, Cleveland, Ohio
This month's Founder Friday has a TON of heart! The story of Heartwood Coffee Roasters is on of perseverance, constance in values, and a deep dependency and…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Priorities and Deep Thankfulness
This time of year I am thinking about what I am thankful for and also I am thinking about how hard it is to enter into thankfulness vs other more accessible…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
315 : Growing and Connecting w/ Stephen Zinnerman of The Coffee Enthusiast!
Back in 2018 at a Coffee Fest in Baltimore I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Stephen Zinnerman, owner and founder of (along with his wife Natasha)…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
RoR #9 Inside the Roaster's Tool Kit w/ Kat Melheim of Black and White Coffee and The Coffee People Zine
Where do we even start when choosing tools for our roastery? There are an incredible number of options from basic and inexpensive -to complex and costly. In…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
How You Show Up
In competition we stress about the performance and we practice the skills repeatedly in order to be able to do well on the day. While this approach is needed…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
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…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Getting Over Guilt
Hustle culture teaches us that we should be working pretty much all the time. In order to succeed we need to sacrifice a lot and where the limit is nobody…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
313 : Coffee Education and Training w/ Michael Phillips of Blue Bottle Coffee
Training and education is an ongoing process. Not just for those we are training but also for ourselves as trainers and educators. If we adopt the same type of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Metrics Mindset
How we think of money and its place in our coffee shop's culture will have huge implications for how your staff either engage or disengage with the success of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
312 : How to Choose the Right Machine for Your Shop w/ Chad little of La Marzocco
Making a decision on an espresso machine can come with a lot of stress and uncertainty. With so many different options, configurations, styles, and promises…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Exclusivity is a Bad Strategy
"We are the only coffee shop in our town that serves this!" I will bet that you have thought or said this, or some version of this phrase, yourself as you have…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
311 : Why Your Coffee Shop Needs Open Book Management w/ Larry Chase
Have you ever wondered how you can get your staff energized and highly invested in the success of your business? This is one of the struggles that a lot of…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
310 : Founder Friday w/ Jelynn Malone and Beverly Magtanong of Mostra Coffee
This Founder Friday is such unique success story! What started as a dream between two best friends (one an actor, the other a classical opera singer) has now…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Passive-Aggressive Management
Confrontation and difficult conversations are things we tend to avoid. One of the outcomes of this is an increasingly passive-aggressive style of management…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
309 : A Conversation w/ Sarah Allen and Ken Olson of Barista Magazine
Few things are as essential to the global barista community as Barista Magazine. For 16 years they have been "Serving people Serving Coffee" and advancing the…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
Do You Need Experience to Open a Coffee shop?
This question gets brought up often when people are discussing their plans to open a coffee shop. The answer, as you might expect, is not as easy as saying yes…
- Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders
308 : A Conversation w/ Italian Brewers Cup Champion, Alessandro Galtieri
Italian coffee has shaped how the world understands coffee and cafe culture. These days there is a movement to take the traditional Italian way of of getting a…