Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders Chris Deferio

Developing the wholesale arm of your coffee roasting company boils down to the  value can you offer your potential customers.  Beyond the coffee itself, your wholesale customer needs assistance in their own coffee journey and your company, specifically the reps, need to be able to be equipped to deliver that help. At the heart of what makes a wholesale program successful is relationships. Todays guest has been doing this now for 13 years and walks the talk of delivering value through services and relationships with wholesale coffee clients with one of the nations best roasters.
Honor Forte has been the Director of Wholesale at Olympia Coffee since 2011. He has worked as a Barista, Delivery Driver, and Trainer at Olympia Coffee, in addition to working in coffee on the East Coast from 2009 until 2011. He also serves as a Head Judge and Competition Committee member at the US Barista Competitions since 2013.
In our conversation we discuss how Honor developed as a coffee professional to focus on sales, what it took to get clients and grow partnerships long term, what makes a good sales rep, and what you need to know to take the next step in building your own wholesale program either from the ground up, or to the next level. 
Links:
www.olympiacoffee.com
Olympia Coffee Roaster : https://www.instagram.com/olympiacoffee/ 
Honor Forte IG: https://www.instagram.com/honorforte/
 
Related Episodes: 
246 : Selecting a Wholesale Coffee Provider 133 : 5 Keys to Successful Wholesale w/ Sarah Richmond 303 : Create Authentic Partnerships w/ Marc Gessler of Cat & Cloud Coffee Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
 
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
 

Welcome to another episode in the live from Coffee Fest interview series! 
This is a series of 4 conversations with presenters on the show floor at Coffee Fest NYC.
The topics range from how to connect with community, running a successful mobile coffee operation, getting your coffee into grocery stores, and how to approach roastery workflow and architecture. 
First up is Sarina Prabasi, co-founder of Buunni Coffee in NYC. We talk about how to truly connect with your community through your coffee shop. Next we talk with Eric and Destiny Rowell, founders of Grit and Grind Coffee. We discuss the keys to success in coffee trailers and mobile coffee Our next conversation will be with Asia Bites Consulting founder Sara Vettori about what we need to know in order to get our coffee in grocery stores. Finally we wrap up talking with Vice President of Mill City Roasters, Angie Davis all about roastery workflow and architecture  Links:
www.buunnicoffee.com
www.millcityroasters.com
www.gritandgrind.coffee
Asia Bites Consulting" Sara Vettori
 
Related episodes: 
367 : Designing Your Coffee Shop for Community w/ Dr. Lisa Waxman 230 : Making room for Community in your Shop 422: Coffee Truck Success w/ Vincent LaVolpa of Green Joe Coffee School 384 : How to Run a Successful Coffee Cart w/ Sarah Naylor of Daybreak Coffee Cart 196 : Understanding Customer Preferences w/ Peter Giuliano Transcript 361: Managing Roastery Relationships and Logistics w/ Corey Turner of Andytown Coffee Roasters 285 : Better Systems, Better Connections w/ Jon Ewald of RoasterTools 152 : Essential Advice for Starting a Roastery w/ Jen Apodaca Sponsor:
www.coffeefest.com
 

How many times have we fallen prey to assumptions about one another in the cafe that end up creating needless strife and hold back progress at maybe the most critical point in the supply chain? Answer, too many times to count. We create these characterizations and generalizations at our own peril and wonder why there is toxicity in the coffee shop. 
Today on Shift Break we will be talking why this type of thinking from both owners and baristas is so common and what we can do about moving past it to actually work together for a more positive coffee culture. 
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com of book a free call now: 
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Listen to related episodes: 
Reasonable Expectations Proactivity in the Owner - Manager Relationship Blood Sucking Bosses! Things the Owner Can't do for You 427 : Encore Episode: What you MUST Know About Employee Culture w/ Stan Slap 366: A Conversation w/ Chris Baca of Cat and Cloud Coffee 291 : What to do if Your Baristas Wont Listen to You 067 : 6 Truths About Power : The Responsible Approach to Power Dynamics in the Cafe Thank you to out sponsors! Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
 
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com
 
 
 

Being technically skilled as a leader is a small part of what makes one effective. The larger part of cafe effective leadership has to do with emotional skill and how we either create or destroy relationship in the daily life of our coffee businesses. The impact of our over-focus on technical skill leads to many cultural issues that eventually show up in the partial or total downfall of your business.
Today I am please to welcome back to the show Jonathan Raymond, who is the author of the book Good Authority, which we discussed on this show 5 years ago. He is back to help us learn about emotional leadership and the insights here are nothing short of revelatory. 
Jonathan is best known for his book Good Authority, How to Become the Leader Your Team is Waiting For. The book, awarded the Axiom Business Book Award Silver Medal in 2018, delves into the psychology and leadership required to be a successful manager. It introduces the groundbreaking concept of the Accountability Dial — a five-step model for addressing performance issues while nurturing personal growth in team members.
Fueled by the book’s success, Jonathan establishing Refound. At its core, Refound seeks to empower modern managers by addressing the crux of workplace discord – leadership authority left untapped. Jonathan’s vision extended further with the inception of Refound Academy, a virtual learning platform designed to transform managers into confident people leaders. Refound most recently introduced “Ren” — an AI-powered on-demand coach, serves as a 24/7 mentor programmed with two decades of Jonathan’s leadership wisdom.
Links:
www.refound.com 
Related Episodes: 
074 : The Life Changing Power of Good Authority w/ Jonathan Raymond 368 : Walking the Line Between Leadership and Friendship 232 : Rebuilding your Staff with Excellence w/ Dave Stachowiak 067 : 6 Truths About Power : The Responsible Approach to Power Dynamics in the Cafe Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
 
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
 

In the world of cafes there are many ways to be excited about coffee. Some of those ways can alienate a customer instead of welcoming them into this magical world of sensory experiences. Today we are re-airing an episode with someone who exemplifies the kind of excitement we need more of in coffee. The kind that wants to share the love and joy of coffee in an approachable and sincerely caring way. 
Emi Fukahori is the 2015 Swiss Barista Champion as well as the 2018 World Brewers Cup champion. Emi Fukahori and Mathieu Theis founded MAME Coffee in Zurich, Switzerland in 2016. The couple met at a coffee tasting in 2013 and became fascinated by the world of specialty coffee. They quit their corporate office jobs to start MAME, which means "beans" in Japanese, to promote specialty coffee and its flavors and terroirsShe and partner Mathieu. They serve excellent and refined coffees across a spectrum of flavors with a focus of welcome, care, warmth, and excitement to share coffee with others. 
In this encore episode from 5 years back we explore Emi's professional evolution, winning Brewers Cup routine, founding and growing Mame, and the philosophy of care and focus on others that guides how and what they serve. 
The lessons and ideas Emi shares are exactly the kind of things we should all strive for in our shops. Whether you are a champion matters not, what matters is championing the customers coffee experience. 
Enjoy!
Links:
www.mame.coffee
Related Episodes: 
196 : Understanding Customer Preferences w/ Peter Giuliano Transcript 411 : Excellence, Approachable Coffee, and Always Learning w/ Kenneth Thomas of Umble Coffee and Coffee 101 Podcast 430 : Embracing “Unreasonable Hospitality” w/ Will Guidara | Thank You NYC + The Welcome Conference 282 : How to Listen to your Customers 318 : Why Your Shop is Key to the Success of Coffee Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
Get the best brewer and tool for batch espresso, iced lattes, and 8 minute cold brew! www.groundcontrol.coffee
 
The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
 

Business success leaves clues. Metrics such as labor percentage, COGs, Employee Turnover Rate, and more are all measurements we use to both guide how validate past decisions and guide future decisions. But what about the intangibles that the numbers themselves have a hard time showing?
On this Shift break episode we will be talking about why we need to focus on the numbers as well as the deeper meaning and intangible areas of the life of the business that contribute in a way that often cannot be tracked, but NEED to be invested into for the coffee shop to thrive. 
If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com of book a free call now: 
https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min
Listen to related episodes: 
227 : Connecting with Hearts and Minds 302 : Data’s Roll in the Success of your Shop w/ Mark Calhoun and Jim Strarcev of Perfect Cube 009 : How to Approach Data and Metrics w/ Simon Ouderkirk : Simon shows us how we should be thinking of numbers and their relation to our shops, baristas, and businesses 405: Beyond the Schedule w/ Wil Brawley of Schedulefly 311 : Why Your Coffee Shop Needs Open Book Management w/ Larry Chase Vanity Metrics 341: How to Think About Success   Thank you to out sponsors! Everything you need for back of the house operations https://rattleware.qualitybystainless.com/
 
The best and most revered espresso machines on the planet: www.lamarzoccousa.com