ANTI-CRISIS BARISTA (Business Course) ● How to Make Money on Coffee ● BARISTA-BUSINESSMAN

1. Introduction. About This Course.: [ Music playing ] Hello, dear friends, and welcome to my course "Anti-Crisis Barista - How to Make Money from Coffee in the 21st Century". In this course I will teach you the things mentioned in its title: How to start a new life at any age, how to gain self-confidence and become a barista when you are 30, 40 or 50 years old, and most importantly - how to make your fire of love for coffee help you make money. My name is Sergey Reminny, I am a coffee expert with 25 years of experience and the 1st Coordinator of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe in Ukraine. We held the first Barista Championships in our country, I wrote books about coffee, now I run my own coffee business and social media platform with the largest coffee blog in the former Soviet Union, and a Facebook page with an audience of half a million subscribers. I had the privilege to attend on the job training courses in the the United States and France, England and Scotland, in the Netherlands and in Sweden. For a long time, I lived and worked in Italy and traveled to almost 100 countries of the world, studying coffee. I have invested all my experience in this training course. Today there is no longer a person who has not realized that the world has changed. The world became fragmented, fleeting and obscure. There are no reliable rules on how to behave and what to do. The rhythm of life has become such that no theory or science fiction keeps pace with it anymore. Therefore everyone has to look for a way to protect himself in the information universe. What should you do to make your little space capsule move forward in this galaxy of uncertainty, how to protect it from meteorites of uncertainty, star rains of negativity and the gravity of other planets, making you think you will never succeed. My course will answer these questions. And I am sure that it will help you find your own trajectory in the total chaos. I must say right away that in this course I will not talk about techniques of making coffee - you will surely master this skill during the first couple of months of work in any coffee shop. My mission here is to teach you to understand the role of coffee in 5 main areas: MONEY, MARKETING, INNOVATION, INTERNET and PRINCIPLES. In the MONEY section, you will receive answers to the questions Where to start, how to think like an owner" and how to act so that your favorite work brings you money rather than just fun. In the MARKETING section, we will discuss marketing as it is today, how to sell yourself and to become your personal marketer. INNOVATION is about how to use all new products and trends for your own benefit so that they become part of your earnings and not just fun. We will also determine what you need to do online to develop yourself, especially in the social media, and what should you do to prevent the negative from distracting you from your way to the top. In the last section discussing PRINCIPLES you will learn how to make sure that you always have an understanding of what to do, what principles you should follow to reach your goals, how to defeat robots and what is the main secret of success of barista profession in the 21st century. Today we have a lot of things to do so I suggest to switch from theory to practice. Let's get down to work, friends! 2. Welcome to Business.: [ Music playing ] Let's take the bull by the horns in the very first lesson. Where should we start from? Of course today the answer that immediately comes to your mind is to begin with the Internet. Everyone knows today that you need to go online. This is the right approach but as a person who lived there for 10 years I can tell you that the most frightening thing about the Internet is the fact that you do not exist there - because this is virtual reality. This reality is boundless, promising and you should try to get there but if you do not have a clear plan or idea it is very dangerous just to go online, believe me. you may be disappointed very quickly because you do not exist there - no one can see you. In any real street shop someone will come in anyway but if you are online - you can live in obscurity for entire life. The main way of living online is to make sure that you are always either searched for or noticed by someone. I will remind that we are talking now about a profession that have existed and will continue to exist perpetually - about "bartender" or "barista", also known as "coffee bartender". That is why the most important thing I suggest here is to continue to build your life and career in the real world while using the Internet to the maximum possible extent. It is clear that soon very few businesses will remain in this real world - most human activity will shift online but with all the complexity of running a restaurant business we are still lucky - we will always have work to do. Because as long as humanity exists there will be bars, cafes and restaurants. If you doubt that take a trip to the town of Pompeii near Naples which perished 2000 years ago after the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. Your guide will lead you through the restored remains of the ancient city - a very beautiful one. And the first thing he will show you is the stone pillar of the Pompeii bar built in the year of 79 Anno Domini. Crises and epidemics will come and go but as long as humanity exists the need for a place where you can drink a glass of beer or a cup of coffee and socialize will exist forever. Therefore, a bar or a coffee shop are great and reliable places to start building your future. Only thing is that doing it the old way does not work anymore. And we will focus on changing our understanding and approach. Within the scope of this course the first and most important thing we must understand that - life will revolve around money. Therefore we will begin our course with the main section called the MONEY. Our main thesis here will be as follows: While doing your job you should focus on money rather than on your love for coffee. I realize how these words have just stricken the ears of the people who adore and worship coffee. But I will say right away: you came into business! if you simply love coffee - launch a blog or a page on Facebook and write about love there. But as soon as you cross the line called "Business" or "Work" - the primary criterion here is money. it is not the only value, far from the only one. But it is primary. And the sooner you understand this the sooner you will get the result. Moreover, you have to do another fundamental thing. You have to knock into your head that you must all the time generate more money for your business, your boss and yourself. If you do not accept this task as your main goal we may stop right at this point. Because money is not fun - it is the essence of the whole process. But believe me, if you take this first step then the love for coffee will easily become another important element of your business. By the way it is interesting that in the old English language the word "Bisigness" originally (until the middle of the 14th century) meant "The state of being extremely busy, fussy and anxious". And only from the 18th century they began to use this word to describe any professional and commercial activity. I understand that things I am saying now (only "money" and "money") sound very cynical and shameless. But you know what is surprising? I have been convinced through my life that the love for coffee can persist and become your true goal and passion only when you learn how to make money. Because money allows you to invest it in your studies and travels, and, most importantly, it gives you freedom of thought and action. Today enthusiastic young people with glaring eyes come to the coffee industry but after a couple of years they lose their drive and disappear somewhere. I've been in this business for more than 20 years and I'm still interested in coffee. Every blessed day I learn something new in this endless sea of information and knowledge. Therefore, the search for the monetizing component of your coffee work and love is the most important task. To be happy a person must also be rich. But the thing is that in the past, in the old reality, the attitude to money was distorted. And by and large account the 3d coffee wave (the latest generation of baristas) lacks just one but the most important thing - it's commercial element. You can't sell just several cups of coffee in one hour. You can't live without a constant flow of customers and cash. You can't talk about love for coffee and forget about the ultimate goal of your business. It has lots of goals but first of all it was created to earn money. You do not need to betray or deceive anyone for the sake of money. It is just a UNIT of MEASUREMENT - such as letters of the alphabet or numbers which we use in everyday life. Please never, do you hear me, NEVER forget about the money. 3. Turn Love for Coffee Into Money: [ Music playing ] In this lesson, I will give you one and the most important advice on how to turn the love for coffee into money. And the answer is very simple . It is called "Monetization". For some reason many people believe that monetization is some kind of selling their beliefs for money. You know, here it's exactly like with advertising, marketing or public relations. Previously marketing was considered to be a skill of finding the strengths of your product and understanding why people needed it. Moreover, it even helped creating products based on this principle of need. Advertising was believed to be the ability to convey to the target client any information about the strengths and premium qualities of your product - to explain why the client needs it. And the term "Public Relations" was understood as honest conversation with the consumer and an explanation of position of the business in the society, the company's attitude to certain things, phenomena and events. These are the original meanings of marketing, advertising and PR. But today these words are so raped by their blunt usage and have so much changed their meaning that people are confident that PR can only be black, that advertising turned into cheating, consumers and that marketers are some queers and ties who would not leave their offices and never communicate with customers. Unfortunately this is often the case. But the true essence of marketing advertising and PR has been and remains to create value for people and to be honest with them. And the true, proper marketing, advertising and PR have become even more valuable today. Because very few people and companies can do this really well. The same thing happens with monetization. Today it has become easier and faster just to post any advertising on your channel than to seek to be useful to people and get paid for it. But in the long run it's always more promising because then you reach the main goal - you learn to create products and content with a constant focus on the customer, all the time answering the questions why does the customer need it and will he pay for it?.. it is on this basis that you should approach your work. It is not just about what do you like or what would you like to do for living. It is about what is it that you like and are able to transform into a product? That is to sell it to the customer. And frankly, such a product does not necessarily have to be a pack of coffee or a drink. You may create value thanks to only one but a unique trait. And it can be even your smile or demeanor - if it is more pronounced in you than in others. To do this you need to always be on the edge of the balance. The balance of your preferences and the balance of people's needs. And you need to have these two opportunities meet. You know it's like when the border guard at the passport control point puts a stamp in your ID only after checking whether or not your identity is suitable for the country you are about to enter. You do the same thing. You are looking at your product, you measure its value for other people, and you fix a price for it. And with this approach you will very quickly see how your personal attitude to many things begins to change. Let me share an experience. As I've already said I have the most complete coffee blog in the former Soviet Union and I wrote three original books dedicated to coffee. 10 years ago I tried to sell them on Amazon but then I made the biggest mistake: I entitled the books the way I wanted to share them with the public - "Notes of a Coffee Traveler" or "Coffee Letters from Italy". And my business with Amazon  turned out a total failure. And now over the years, I apply my best efforts to make sure that all that I do (I mean all my products including books, coffee and training courses) began to sound so that it explains its benefit for the client rather than my deep inner world or my ambitions. Do not repeat my mistakes. And let me tell you that once you start practicing this constant matching your love for coffee with the way it can bring you money - you will see how differently your brain begins to work. Because such a way of thinking is both very simple and the most correct: you like it and you make profit on it - there is no better formula of work, believe me. Once you stick to this formula, let alone the huge (really huge) ocean of money-making opportunities (including monetization) you will begin to notice around you. 4. Count Other People's Money!: [ Music playing ] My Facebook page is called "Coffee Expert Sergio Reminny" Those who know me and my experience in the coffee world do not have any serious doubt that I am an expert. But at first, on occasions, indignant comments were posted on my page, like: Who decided that he is an expert? Who has awarded this man such a title? It is enough to open a dictionary to understand that this is not a title, and the word "Expert" is not a synonym for the words "clever dick" or "know-it-all" as it seems to someone. "Expert" comes from Latin "Ex" and "Pertus", that is from "Experience" and means "Experienced, one who knows from own experience". With 25 years full of knowledge of life in the coffee world, everything that I share with my readers is based on my personal experience. That's all. I want to start the topic of this lesson - "To Think as an Owner" - using my personal experience. In 1993 I was employed by a large corporation and receive a huge salary - 30 dollars per month. I knew foreign languages and soon I was promoted to the position of head of the foreign economic relations department and I managed all purchases from abroad for our holding. While my salary was far from fabulous, I had to make pretty serious decisions on money issues. For example, we wanted to purchase 7 cars for our basketball team. We considered buying Peugeot or Renault cars. In the process of negotiations with representative offices of the dealers it turned out that my university fellow student was working for Renault. During the negotiations he led me out into the quarter and said that if we purchased these 7 cars from them then as a token of gratitude, I would receive the same car, 8th, as a gift. To be honest this was a common practice at that time. But not for me. Throughout my life before or after this incident I have never done such things. I have different principles and that's it. And all these years I used to count my employers money as if it was my own. You know what happened next? In less than 5 years I got a 20% stake in a million-dollar business that I didn't even create. When you begin to work as a barista, please remember the main rule for any owner: you hire people so that they did your job. I have always tried to think like a business owner. And then at some point an amazing thing happens. You really start to think in a similar manner with the owner. In other words you become like-minded fellows. This is the best thing that can happen. because from this moment you have shared goals. 5 years after that case with the procurement of the cars I was entitled to 20% share in a business worth million dollars. In a similar way, my partners received their shares from me. They did not request anything I made them partners myself. Because their attitude to business was the same as mine relations with such people are 10 times closer than relations with ordinary salaried employees whose way of thinking is any way different from ours. And the truth is that when you start to think like an owner you become the owner. This is a different degree of confidence in your actions, and a completely different manner of behavior and resolving issues. And the share in business you may be entitled to, is not a prize or a lottery - it's just a logical phase of your dealing with your job and your attitude to the business. Think as an owner, And sooner or later you will become one. 5. Thinking as an Owner is a Chance.: [ Music playing ] In my understanding, there are 3 levels of barista's depth of knowledge. The 1st - the initial level - is when he is driven by love for coffee. But his professionalism ends right there. Such employees thoughts are about coffee only and he does not care of any other factors such as assignments from management or even his personal salary. He may often ignore even customers. Such a barista really wants to realize his coffee fantasies but his chances for success are minimal. Simply because in the near future his boss will lose any interest in him. Because he will think only of himself. In some way, which is incomprehensible to me, many coffee hipsters cannot realize the simple truth: success of a business (it doesn't matter an institution in general or a coffee drink in particular) depends not on coffee alone. But we will talk about this later. The 2d category of baristas are the guys who are already beginning to look for a balance. The chances of professional success of such baristas immediately increase to 50%. Let me give you one example. I used to play a computer war game with my friends. The goal was not only to defeat the enemy in a battle but to score the largest number of points to win the entire war. You could get the top result only if you met not just one, but a number of the gaming criteria - for example, it was not enough to be a great shooter - for the championship you had to be perfect in all key aspects of the game. You also had to meet the partnership criterion according to which you had to cover your friends from the enemies, the teamwork factor required that not just a single player but all participants made an equal contribution to the victory, and so on. You know, we are still leaders in the rating of that game, because we understood its main essence: the result is the balance of all characteristics. And even if some aspects of individual battles were lost in general, thanks to the team result, we won our war entirely. So the 2d category of barista respects these factors which means that they follow the right path and most likely will succeed in this profession. Schematically the knowledge profile of such a barista looks like a matched polyhedron reflecting the profile of knowledge and skills. But there is a 3d, the coolest and the rarest, category of baristas.- They not only know coffee and love to work with it, and not only have a number of other qualities such as efficiency or teamwork. First and foremost such a barista understands the objective of the whole coffee shop operation, and therefore the objectives of the owner of the business. And the goal of the entrepreneur is always simple and clear. It is about making a profit. No one invests in a coffee house just for the sake of love for coffee. As I said before, for this it is enough to create a page on Facebook. The people open establishments to make money. And the barista who realizes this will go to the very top. Because if he applies all his skills to increase the sales he will surely negotiate any obstacles to personal or financial growth. There is one point here if you want to be valued. Along with the results of your work, you should do two steps: 1st - fix the initial state of things and constantly compare your results against it. Sometimes it may look like bragging but it is impossible to brag if you do not have the result. And if the result is here, then you definitely deserve a compliment, and preferably a bonus. For example, when I managed a group of 5 furniture making factories I never lost an opportunity to emphasize my results I was respected in our group of companies because, let me quote my own words: "I took the company in 1995 with a turnover of 50,000 dollars a month and transferred it to my successor general director in 2000 with a turnover of 3 mln USD a month. 50 000 and 3 million - obviously, those results were outstanding. By the way, this is plain truth - we reached precisely that result in just 5 years. We also had brilliant results as Ukrainian distributors of LaCimbali - company N1 in the world of espresso coffee machines. I could always easily receive any discount from them just mentioning that during 1st year of our distributorship we sold in our country 15 coffee machines, 67 machines in the 2d year, 125 in the 3d, then 250 and 400 coffee machines. How can you ignore my opinion if I'm not just a good speaker but also the person that delivers such results. But this is only the 1st parameter - when you demonstrate your result - your growth compared with the starting point. But in reality much more important is the 2d indicator, which is not just the increase of your sales but how much is your contribution in extra profit for your boss. This figure is thousand times more important - it is considered as the most important indicator of your performance. If you contribute to the growth, then any owner simply must treat you as his business partner. In such cases I immediately feel an inner need to tell the man, which share of the profit generated by him, I will give him as his dividend. This is not even a prize or incentive - he honestly earned his share of the profit. But, please, do not tell the owner of your coffee shop how much money you earned for him. if you just make a certain number of drinks every day and this number has not increased during your work, this means that you have done everything to ensure the standard operation of the institution, but you have not generated any extra profit. Your performance is excellent, you do deserve your salary or even a bonus, but you do not have any internal right to the dividend. Guys, I want you to understand one thing: I have no intention to offend someone when I say this. It does not matter whether you deserve your salary or you don't. I just try to explain to you the way any owner thinks. And with a 90% probability the owner of your coffee house thinks approximately the same way. So always tell about the amount of the MONEY and do not speak of percentages or servings of coffee. I will give you one important piece of advice: to avoid disappointments it's better to discuss such things with the owner in advance. For example, "If I generate additional sales - can I count on a part of the earnings?" In principle, no adequate owner will be against such statement of the issue. But real life can be different from theory. And you deal with different people. So, if from the very beginning he does not confirm that he is ready to share with you the extra profit you are going to make (I emphasize, I speak only of the profit generated by YOU, because it's up to him to decide how to use the rest of the profit - it's his business after all) - then run away as fast as you can. You are simply wasting your time. And do not get too much upset. If you have firm intention to make a profit - perhaps you will have the chance and confidence to create your own business as well. And this is, by the way, the ideal solution which you need to reach eventually. Just in case, let me remind you that in the Italian language the term "Barista" originally meant not just "a bartender" but the "owner, owner of a bar". While such development in principle would be the ideal progress of your career. But this will be the topic of another training course. 6. Learn to Sell - Yourself and Coffee!: [ Music playing ] An Italian barista, a very successful one by the way, on a secret told me about his attitude to the clients. He says: when a customer walks into my bar I immediately see on his forehead the inscription: 1000$. One thousand dollars is exactly the amount that this customer brings to our establishment when he drinks 2-3 cups of coffee every out of 365 days of the year. And these 1000 dollars are the price of this customer for us. Sometimes this figure is even higher if he has a lunch or another drink. This does not mean, said my friend, that I do not see behind this money a personality in this client, or that I do not respect him. On the contrary, such a financial assessment instantly returns me to reality. Because no matter how deep my love for coffee may be, I understand that the main unit in this system of values is not me and not my coffee bar, nor it is my supplier of coffee. It is the CUSTOMER. The person for whose sake we all are working and who is the ultimate destination and point of evaluation of our work. He is a voter of our coffee political party, and he votes for us with his wallet. And we should not let him down. Because if we make him a tasteless cup of coffee we will lose one thousand dollars of our revenue as a minimum. As for me, it is a very simple and clear philosophy, isn't it? Thus, in order to realize the main task we defined in the previous lesson, which is creating additional income for your coffee bar, a need rises for a specific skill - the ability to sell. Many baristas are born with this skill - remember, we say that the ability to bargain is "in his blood"?.. This is exactly the case. But you can easily learn this skill if you have the desire to do so. But even if you do not have the gift of a seller you still have to improve this skill. Regular training courses for salesforce are an essential source of knowledge of any specialist. And the number of courses the barista took on sales techniques should be at least no less than the number of courses taken on the ability to make coffee. Unfortunately, almost none of the barista coffee schools teach this skill. They teach you how to master the technique of making espresso, latte art skills and how to take part in championships, but they do not emphasize such mega important element as the art of selling. But if the mountain won't come to Muhammad - then everything is in your hands. Watch video courses on sales techniques on your own, sign up for seminars or read books. But you simply must focus on your ability to sell. Do not just make coffee - sell it! This means to sell more drinks in general, to sell more expensive drinks, to focus on beverages with a higher profit margin and all in all to sell additional products. Sell everything that you are able to sell. And be focused on money. And the love for coffee will still be with you. It may become even stronger. Sometime when you earn good money as a super selling barista, you will be able to afford to travel to some coffee country and find out more about your favorite drink there. Among other things, you will obtain even more interesting information about coffee, which you will use not only in your tales for friends but also in the process of sales to the customers. Too many baristas and young people in general are so eager to find a job of their dream that they forget that they came into BUSINESS (see lesson N1 of our course dedicated to business) and all the time it seems to them that they are underestimated. Please, remember, guys: nobody needs your potential - your manager wants specific results. But when you generate a tangible benefit (that is a measurable profit) then everyone would say they believed in you from the very beginning. This is market and all you have to do, is to increase your market value, every day becoming more valuable as an employee. One of my favorite parables about vendors is the one Italians told me some 20 years ago. Two entrepreneurs went on a safari to Africa and lost their group. And all of a sudden a lion runs out at them. One of the entrepreneurs sits down on the ground and quickly unlaces his boots. 'What are you doing? - asks him his partner. "I take off my shoes - without them I will run faster' - What, are you going to run faster than a lion? - asks his colleague. 'No, he responds, I am going to run faster than YOU.' This is how the world of competition works. And no matter how cruel it may sound - to succeed you must be prepared to run faster than others. 7. Menu - for Profit, not for Fun: [ Music playing ] In this lesson, we will continue the topic of money, but now we will try to tie it to a specific question: what COMMERCIAL accents should be considered in the coffee menu? Let's start with a repetition: profitability of your actions for the institution where you work is your first priority. With this criterion - PROFITABILITY, you simply MUST adjust your entire activity and all your goods every second. Naturally, in this case I use the term "Goods†to designate the drinks that are the main product of a coffee house. And the selection of the range of coffee drinks, the menu, should primarily be aligned with the goal of earning money. But this, like the point of a spear, is the final point of the tilt and the essence of any business. For 10 years, I have been practicing Kyokyushin karate, one of the toughest style of this kind of sport. I have a black belt (1st dan) and I learned this art under instructions of the best teacher in my country. So, for many hours and for tens of thousands of times we used to train the same movements. And my Shihan (in karate there are Senseis (which means"teachers"), but there are also SHIHANS - these are the people who teach Senseis), so called "Teachers of the teachers" So, my Shihan told me that the most common question that students asked him is “Why should we deal with movements and stances for years? After all, we only need to deliver just one powerful kick. To which he would always answer: You're right, you don’t need anything of this - all you need is just the punch, a strong, powerful punch. But. In order to make this punch perfect, you need to use ALL parts of your body - everything: your fingers and hands, shoulders and hips. The abdominal muscles, the legs, the feet - all these limbs should work together to produce a powerful punch of the fist. Therefore, we have been training it ALL for hours - we practiced every element again and again to come up with just one single punch. I am telling you all this to explain that every detail matters in the coffee business, such as the preparation technique, the ability to communicate, and the ability to serve drinks. But once you are in business - all this is done with the only goal - to generate profit in the result of all these activities. And therefore, you should view the coffee drinks in your menu not through the prism of coffee romance of the barista championships, but you should visualize them as a making profit tool, as a business product that you work with. By the way, today's baristas have forgotten this dogma, but I clearly remember the first championships. I remember one of the main unwritten rules that the organizers never failed to remind the participants: you should act at the championship as if you were working in your coffee shop and greeting your customers. In other words, the championships were supposed to contribute to the improvement of the quality of service and to the generation of new insights for the coffee business. But in reality it turned out that the championships became some kind of coffee fashion parades - very spectacular and creative, but they were not generating too many benefits for the participating baristas from the practical point of view. Right now I want to give you a specific example of understanding how drinks should be treated in terms of their commercial power, and not just based on their taste. First. You need to clearly understand, what drinks are the basis of your sales in terms of quantity and profitability. Once you have this information, 80% of your sales efforts and the same 80% of your attention should be focused right on these few positions. For example, in Italy these are always espresso and cappuccino, but in most countries outside Italy the espresso sales account for just 10-15% of the total revenues from coffee. But outside Italy, the main group of the coffee drinks are the "coffees with milk" (like latte, cappuccino ot flat white) - they account for 75-80% of total sales revenues. Obviously, in such cases, your commercial efforts and attention should be concentrated precisely on this group. As a minimum - they must come the FIRST in your menu - like they always put the best-selling products at eye level on the supermarket shelves. Pity, but in practice everyone wants to put espresso first - just out of habit, because espresso is traditionally mentioned first in the menus. Which is essentially wrong. Only the Italians can afford this because in their country the category of espresso is really the most popular and profitable drink. I'm not even talking about the fact that when you procure any kind of coffee for your coffee house, you must also take into account its share in your most cost-effective and important category of drinks. That is, if coffee with milk is you top seller, then you should select raw coffee (its type, roasting profile, blend composition), based on how this product will behave in that particular group of drinks. But in practice, most coffee bars purchase "soft and gentle arabica", because when buying the raw coffee the owners traditionally try it in espresso. But later, when they use such milk for making coffee with milk, the taste of this soft Arabica simply disappears in the large quantity of the added milk. By the way, first of all, because of this the taste of coffee in the modern world has almost ceased to dominate in the taste of coffee drinks. And now, very often, a latte turns into a glass of ordinary milk. Let me give you another very unusual example of commercial coffee way of thinking when it comes to your menu. However, it is not about a standard coffee-only shop, but about a unique coffee store in Istanbul. The example that I want to talk about is not about the menu, it is about the price tag, but this example itself is such interesting, so I want to share it with you. Next to one of the exits from Egyptian Open Market of Istanbul, there is a store of KURUKAHVECI MEHMET EFENDI, the most famous coffee store selling the most popular like-named brand of coffee in Turkey. This small store with unimpressive exterior is known by the fact that the queue of its visitors is neverending. The store sells ground coffee from a window, the clients do not even have to enter the shop. Morning or evening - people are coming and leaving non-stop. During my shooting only, the lineup composition changed ten times. About one dozen people work in one part of the hall - these young guys roast coffee, grind it and pack it with some simply incredible speed. Ready for sale coffee is arranged in the even rows of beautiful and fragrant stacks. In the second part of the hall - at the window for handing coffee to customers, at once two young male assistants accept money and, as on a conveyor belt, immediately give out packs of fresh coffee to customers. While I was filming a story about this store, several times I involuntarily paid attention to a price tag stuck on the glass. And I couldn't understand what kind of unit of measure was used here: 1 pack of coffee = 56 grams?.. This question haunted me even after I returned home. I reviewed all Arab and Turkish measures, counted in ounces and pounds - well, the amount of 56 grams did not work out, I just could not figure out their approach. At some point, I gave up and decided simply to ask the company themselves. I sent an e-mail and literally in a couple of hours I received a response that enchanted me. It said like this: «Thank you for your question, but this figure is not connected in any way with the units of weight. As you may have noticed, there is always a line of customers to our store. Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary waiting by our customers, we must give an exact change». And then only three calculation numbers followed. ONE: The price of 1 kg of coffee is 45 Turkish liras. TWO: As such, the price per ONE gram is 0.45 Turkish lira. And, THREE : paying 2.50 Turkish lira you can buy 56 grams. So, they first determined the average price of the purchase. And only then they adjusted to this amount the quantity of coffee they will be selling out to the customers! In other words, the price was not set based on cost or standard weight. They did it for one grave reason - this way it was more convenient to make cash settlements with their customers. That is, the client took a pack of coffee, gave exactly 2.50 Liras to the assistant and left. Meanwhile, the assistants who could afford themselves an extra second to count the change, already threw a pack of coffee to the next customer. A great example of how you should "customize" business so that it is both more convenient for the consumer and more profitable for the business. By the way, I personally consider this store the coolest coffee store in the world. I have been in more than 100 countries, but I have never seen such a flow of customers willing to buy coffee at the same place. Sorry to shift your attention from the coffee house to the coffee store, but I did it on purpose. Because in the next lesson we will talk about relations with your coffee supplier. 8. Turn Enemy into Best Friend!: [ Music playing ] This lesson I also want to build on a case study from my own coffee business in which i have been working for 25 years. In our industry there is such a term as "the world coffee chain". It consists of a number of participants thanks to whom coffee from plantations gets into the cup of the end consumer. Of course, this chain begins with coffee growers and farmers. Then the product they grow is processed by various factories and cooperatives - drying, sorting and so on. Then come the exporters in these countries who carry out all the commercial operations required to sell, to prepare the documents and to ship the produced coffee. The next links of the coffee chain are located already in the countries of coffee consumption. These are the coffee importers to the country, then roasters and distributors who supply coffee either to retail chains or to cafes, bars and restaurants. In this case, naturally, we speak about the segment of bars, cafes and restaurants. Principally, baristas who prepare the coffee drinks are not considered an independent commercial participant in the chain. But they clearly need to be distinguished as a very important element. And the last link of the chain are naturally the consumers, including shoppers and customers in bars and restaurants. I will not go into details - in this lesson we are only interested in one link - the relationship between the coffee establishments and their suppliers. From the commercial point of view their cooperation looks as follows: the supplier, aka the distributor, sells one kilo of coffee to the bar, say, for 10 US dollars. For the supplier this coffee costs 8 dollars. The bar will make 150 servings of coffee from this kilogram. It makes 10 dollars for 150 servings. Accordingly, 1 serving of coffee will cost the establishment of about 60-70 cents. Then the bar will sell this kilogram of coffee (150 servings) at a price of 70-80 cents per cup. Thus, from these 150 servings the establishment will get about 120 dollars of profit. Yes, I mean profit. Naturally, I am slightly rounding the figures to give just the understanding of the scheme. Let me remind you: the supplier bought coffee for 8 dollars and sold it for 10. That is, while he will receive 2 dollars of profit the establishment will generate 120 dollars. 2 dollars versus 120. So, this is the pattern of their cooperation. I say this not to count other people's money - you will soon see my reasons behind this example. Yes, the establishment earns 70 times more, but it has its own clients - the owner has built his coffee shop, organized his business and such high profit margin is fully justified. But in 100 of cases in 1 or 2 next years the establishment begins to believe that they pay too much to the supplier, and makes an attempt to squeeze another 10-15% discount per kilogram of coffee from the supplier. The supplier whose profit does not change (and is still only 2 dollars) of course, refuses to do so and they break their relationship. And then the supplier has a completely similar situation with the next establishment, and the establishment has the same situation with the next supplier. These relations are very different from those with which the coffee business began in the cafe and restaurant industry and from those that exist today in Italy. In this country the supplier sells a kilo of coffee for the very high price - not for 10, but for 25-35 dollars. This is why with this high profitability margin the supplier there is extremely interested in maintaining the coffee equipment of the establishment he works with, in training baristas and he is often ready to pay the establishment the cost of some new purchases, like tableware, furniture or grinder. And the Italian coffee supplier is not simply interested but also has a budget to invest in its partner establishment. Because he can afford this with his high level profit coffee. And the most important thing is that the coffee supplier always knows better how to do the coffee business, because he spent his entire life in it. And in Italy such supplier works for the establishment helping them sell more coffee. Because in Italy the owners of the coffee bars understand the simple math: if the supplier will help them sell just one more kilo of coffee per month (only 1 kilo!) - they will generate additional profit of 120 dollars instead of a couple of dollars discount squeezed from suppliers price. And then an even more terrible thing happens in the industry - the supplier turns from a full-fledged partner into a banal courier, who simply delivers you next lots of coffee because it makes no sense to him to spend at least an extra second of time on such relationships. That's the point of my entire lesson. My dear baristas, just listen to the following advice: if the owner of your establishment does not understand such a simple arithmetic of business - then at least you should use it. Use the supplier as much as you can. Very often, if he feels that a barista is interested, he will help you. Our company used to send the baristas employed by our partner cafes not only to national barista championships. We also paid their foreign travel and accommodation costs to let them attend training courses conducted by the best trainers of the world. That's how we made them loyal to us. And it was not just kindness or generosity - it was beneficial to everyone. We did it together so that they, their establishments and ourselves could sell more coffee nowadays. Such understanding of the coffee business which I am telling you about practically does not exist anymore. I am not going to complain about it. It is what it is. But if the situation is like this and the establishment doesn't notice such window of opportunity, then you just use it personally. The establishment gets 99% of profit generated jointly with its supplier. And the supplier who receives 1% of this total profit is ready to do 50% of all necessary work (if not more). Then use him! Just imagine for a moment: you can conclude a partnership agreement with such a consultant as me. Believe me, I will immediately increase sales by a couple (if not 5) kilos of coffee per month. This is of course just an example - I don't do these things now. But there are many useful and professional coffee suppliers on the market. Use them and their knowledge to your advantage. They are prepared to this. You only need to send them a message that you need their assistance. Do not fail to make use of this advice. You will acquire free knowledge, increase your own market value and, if you are lucky enough, you find new forms of cooperation. Because today suppliers also realize that they cannot break the ice of indifference of some business owners. It is often easier for them to build relationships directly with bartenders and baristas. Moreover, it is you, baristas, who are in the right place of the market - at the forefront of communication with the client. So use your supplier - it is profitable. 9. Why Drink Coffee Lke Italians?: [ Music playing ] One of my next online courses is entitled "Doing coffee business like Italians". It is about Italian model of earning money on coffee. Because despite the abundance of different trends, espresso coffee still remains the best coffee business model in the world. And no other coffee business has even approached it in terms of commercial efficiency. Let me underline just several commercial points from my Italian experience, that may be useful to you. First, the Italian bar has never had the goal which seems to be correct for many restaurateurs, which sounds as "I have to retain as many as possible clients in my establishment". The Italian bar is arranged in a different way - they seek to increase the flow of customers through the establishment, rather than the time spent by them in. Thanks to such a principle the tiny Italian bars have revenues several times higher than standard coffee houses in other countries of the world. Speed has become a key moment in this game - espresso is prepared and drunk quickly and the client leaves. The business is complete. If you did not know, coffee drunk in an Italian bar by the client at the counter, costs a fixed standard price. But if you sit down at a table, the price rises one and a half to two times. This trick helped the Italian coffee industry transform coffee drinking into a process that takes place when they stand on their feet. None of the clients sits at the table - they drink their coffee and run away on business. Now the Italians drink coffee this way not for the reason of economy. Such a culture of coffee drinking has become a tradition and a system. But in any Italian bar there is still a price list with regular prices for coffee at the counter ("al banco") and with higher prices at the table ("al tavolo"). Second. The Italians have kept the price of coffee stable throughout the country for decades. In the north of Italy this price is slightly higher, in the south the drink is cheaper. But everywhere they fight to keep the price of cup of espresso maximally stable, because coffee in Italy is not a fashion. It is a product of daily use - like bread, water or milk. And to make sure the consumption of this product is still high, the bar owner must make its price affordable to allow the consumer to enjoy a drink in the bar 2 or 3 times per day. Develop a habit and someday it will become a tradition. Third. The Italian bar does not offer thousands of different coffee drinks and cocktails to any taste. They are focused on two or three versions of espresso (regular or with grappa) and several basic milk drinks including macchiato, cappuccino and caffelate. This is especially important because at peak times, when the demand is high, it is easier to make standard drinks. In principle, they can make you any coffee you want, but Italians don't put all possible combinations on the menu. They are focused only on the most requested and the most profitable drinks. Such commercial rationality, by the way, is generally a characteristic feature of Italian entrepreneurship. For 10 years I've been engaged in the sleeping products business. We operated several factories manufacturing orthopedic mattresses by Italian technology. The Italians furniture market has always had two standard dimension types of mattresses: single and double. Accordingly, the entire furniture industry (bed producers in particular) was focused on these sizes. For comparison, in our country we had 96 different standards. Fourth. Italians do not play with marketing fairy tales about the "softest arabica" - they do know that the taste of coffee must be expressive - both in a pure espresso and in milk based drinks. In caffelatte or in cappuccino the customer wants to sense the taste of coffee and not just milk as it is now happening around the world. Therefore, the Italians create their bar espresso blends based on the strength of its taste and not based on its delicacy. Fifth. The Italian bar does not use disposable cups. You rarely see plastic or paper cups in Italy. Firstly it does not make sense to the consumer himself (the customer has no reason to fumble with paper cups because he can order an espresso coffee anytime and without problems in any of thousands bars networking the whole country). Secondly, it is economically unprofitable for two reasons. First, the Italians buy professional porcelain cups for a bar once and then use it for several years onwards. Eventually, this is not only cheaper for the establishment but also such tableware is more pleasant for the client. Second, the Italian bar, as I mentioned earlier, is not going to add any extra costs to the espresso serving (like the cost of the paper cups) raising in this way the price for the final customer. These are just a few aspects from the Italian experience, but you also can use them in your professional activity. Again, the Italian coffee bar industry is the most powerful coffee business of our time - it is the combination of FASHION (made in Italy), TECHNOLOGY (espresso machine is 10 times more efficient than any other coffee-making technique), TASTE (espresso is the most consistent coffee drink) and SYSTEM (hundreds of thousands of bars throughout the country, where the client gets both the drink and socializing just in 30 seconds). And this model has remained the best up to this day. Everybody wants to learn from the best teachers - people want to create applications like Apple, to get a job with Google and to sell advertising like Facebook. If you want to be the best in the coffee business - please, know that it is impossible to find a better training than in Italy. Italians have such a gesture. It means "Watch it". This gesture will be the main advice of this lesson: look after the Italians - you can learn a lot from them. 10. 5 Specialities in One Barista.: [ Music playing ] Given the recent global uncertainty they started to publish more and more of all sorts of reviews that predict which skills will be valued by employers in the future. I draw your attention: this is not about professions as such, but about working skills that will be appreciated in the future. According to the World Economic Forum, more than 1/3 of the skills that employers will appreciate in 2025 were not considered so important as recently as in 2015. The reason for this shift in focus is the speed of technology development. This means that 1/3 of professions will cease to exist and the other third of specialists will have to learn to work in a new way. And according to these projections in 5 years the skill called "Integrated problem solving" will become one of the most wanted by employers. This term stands for a skill to handle several jobs at a time. In 2005 I was the president of a corporation. I had 10 senior top managers, a bunch of assistants and advisors, two secretaries and two drivers, and executives specialized in all areas without exception. There were a dedicated designer, an editor, a proofreader and so on. Today when I am 52 I learned video-editing and blogging skills and became familiar with realities like online marketing, social media or search optimization. And let me tell you that I not only saved a fantastic amount of money but also started to do certain things much faster. Because now I can do exactly what I want to do, without redoing a job 20-30 times with my executives or assistants. And I have no problems - I am absolutely independent in moving forward my business. I think this is the right time to explain an aspect that in the world of management is called "The Salary Contradiction". Not many people understand it but in fact this term is the key point in the relationship between the employer and the employee. Its essence is that the salary has 2 sides. While it is income for the employee, from the other hand, it is an expense for the employer. As such the employee and the employer have actually opposite goals: the employee wants to increase his salary and the boss seeks to reduce it, like any other item of expenses in his budget. For this reason, the salary conflict is considered one of the most serious contradictions in the theory and practice of management. It does not have any clear solution. It is always a search for a compromise between parties. I am telling about this to help you understand that you also can facilitate the search for such a compromise with your management, where it concerns your personal income. You may significantly contribute to the resolution of the conflict if you generate extra profits for your company as we discussed in previous lessons. Or if you agree to perform a number of additional tasks. And this is where my point is. I know probably a hundred of examples of how employees took over the functions of other completely different units but increased their revenues 2-3 and even more times. Take a closer look try to find processes or functions that do not have an owner in your company or in your establishment. For example, coffee houses and bars in most cases do not have employees responsible for updating their pages in social media. So you have a great chance to volunteer to take over this function for an additional payment. Or, for example, we implemented a project named "Barista Freelancer" where a barista from any coffee shop could turn an honest penny from selling other goods. Knowing his district where his establishment was located, such barista offered to other cafes and bars certain products from those with which he worked in his coffee shop - like tea, coffee or hot chocolate. And in this way he received an additional income. The owner of his establishment had  nothing against such an initiative. Moreover, we provided him these goods without payment because on the other hand I know a great deal of examples when people did not receive a raise in their salaries for decades - simply because they were ashamed to ask. So, going back to the beginning of the lesson - the more skills and professions you will have, the higher will be your market price. And as a result, the richer will be your life. 11. Don't Listen to Marketers!: [ Music playing ] I will start the first lesson of the next block of our course - MARKETING - with a bizarre statement. Your rule N1 is: Do not listen to marketers! Let me explain what I mean. I value marketing like no one else. I believe that true marketing is the finest art of how to find a niche with demand, how to create in such niche a product required by the client, and how to position, promote, advertise and sell such product. But marketing has changed. It mutated into a primitive superficial form which reduced to the fact that marketers of most companies who have neither deep knowledge nor long-term experience in the market have turned into banal purchasing managers and all their so-called "marketing proposals" are reduced to the formula saying "Squeeze a lower price from the supplier". About 15 years ago my company had an experience of cooperation. We started working with a gas stations network. It was a growing company and we had close contacts and understanding with the management. they looked at the european networks of filling stations and understood that consumption of coffee at gas stations had grown rapidly. And they suggested us to install coffee machines at their points. They operated 50 or 60 stations then. Before that they were making coffee at stations in ordinary plastic coffee makers. Their coffee sales were approximately 150,000 US dollars a month. Well, we installed new automatic and semi-automatic coffee machines at the stations. And in 4months their sales soared from 150 000 to 750 000 dollars per month. They were delighted and we honestly were also proud of our effective work We cooperated like this for several next months. And then we were informed that they employed a young and very smart marketing manager who said that he wanted a discount on our coffee. It was all so predictable. But it was unrealistic because the price was already minimal. It included the costs incurred to pay for many other services, like coffee machines maintenance and so on. However, some competitor offered them a lower price for coffee, which in fact was not difficult because this company did not intend to maintain the equipment and to perform the whole complex of other necessary operations. So the mentioned smart marketer quickly counted in his head the difference in the purchase price, sent it to management and showed them this figures as the amount amount which they could save. The new price made our cooperation with them totally senseless. We explained that if they would refuse from our coffee, then we would remove the state-of-the-art equipment that we purchased especially for their stations. And most importantly, we would cease to help and share our knowledge of making money on coffee. By that time we had been in the coffee business for 15 years. Ii will not go into details, in short, we ended our cooperation because they decided to save 20 000 US dollars per month on the purchases of our coffee. And literally in a couple of months their sales fell from 750 thousand down to 300 thousand. Judge yourself: before our contact they made 150 000. With us they made 750 thousand and then they slumped to 300 thousand. For the sake of the 20 000, they tried to knock out from us, they lost 450 000 in revenues per month. Tell me, now was he, not an idiot that marketer?.. You see, the marketing specialist whose only profession is to demonstrate to management how to make more money, having saved some trivial amount of money on procurement, has reduced the company's revenues two times. No comment. Then I realized that unprofessionalism was omnipresent. Even if the management of the corporation to whom we just a couple of months ago showed a small economic miracle, still swallowed such a cheap bait. From that very moment 99% of marketers whom I met in my life behaved similarly commonplace as that young and, to be honest, quite silly guy. It was a serious holding company, so what should you expect from small and medium-sized business?.. Therefore I do not believe in the professionalism of marketers today. They turned into ordinary purchasing managers and they are simply unable to give answers on how to build markets or which approach is suitable for your company. So, the advice I want to give you in this lesson is as follows: Do not listen to any marketers - they do not know what to do! Become yourself a marketer for your own coffee shop and you will become indispensable for your boss. Because the main quality of a real marketer is the knowledge of his consumer. Show me a person who knows your customers better than you, baristas, and who spend 100% of their business time in constant contact with them? Therefore this is you who is the best marketer. You, the person who cares, understands the market in which he works. Who is thinking and, most importantly, the one who knows his customer. Constantly convey to the owner all the information from the customers. All comments, complaints and ideas. Listen to them carefully and you will not have to invent anything - they will tell you everything themselves. You are the marketing yourself. Remember this. 12. Don’t Miss the Wave!: [ Music playing ] Almost every coffee lover (and certainly every barista) heard the term "Third Coffee Wave". In this lesson we will analyze this term and at the same time, we will get acquainted with other waves, previous and subsequent. And most importantly, we will understand the essence of this definition. Because very soon we will live in the next, 4th coffee wave. The first wave began in the United States and its main hero was Folger's company, founded by James Folger in California in the mid-19th century during the Gold Rush. Numerous gold diggers became the first customers of a new product imported from Latin America. But coffee began to become a mass consumption product much later, approximately from the beginning of the 20th century. During these years Folgers launched production of cheap instant coffee and thus ensured its penetration into every home. The market was growing and coffee trade developed rapidly until the middle of the last century. These developments have laid the basis for the movement of the 60s, later called "Second Coffee Wave". In most coffee wave stories second coffee wave is described as "The time of Starbucks" - a coffee giant founded in 1971 in Seattle. In a little over than a decade this company began to open several new coffee houses in the country every day. And today the corporation owns almost 20 000 retail outlets all over the world. The speed and scale of opening of the new coffee shops gained such an impetuous that they gave birth to a popular joke saying: "Last week they opened a new Starbucks inside an old Starbucks". Howard Schultz, unchallenged leader of the company demonstrated qualities of an outstanding marketeer. He began by going to Italy, where he studied operating models of more than 500 bars ("bar" in Italy is a synonym of coffee shop). He thoroughly understood the strongest sides of the most successful coffee industry in the world at that time. And today it is impossible to deny the resourcefulness applied by Schultz to popularize Italian espresso-based drinks in the Starbucks, he opened and managed in America. Still it should be noted, that while using all the magic and marketing power of espresso, Howard placed his bet on another drink. Having ingeniously figured out the psychology of the American consumer, Starbucks did not focus on the miniature bitter espresso (it would have taken too long for America to accustom to this beverage), but started to serve large portions of cappuccino and other king-size milk-based drinks. The taste of milk came in handy for softening the bitter taste of espresso (and the size of the drink thanks to the added milk was bigger - the most important factor for the pragmatic American consumer). In addition to the competent approach to the product itself Starbucks very knowingly and timely created the channel for its promotion. During these years their coffee houses became not just places where one could pop over for a coffee but also the so-called "third place", which made a company to the two former traditional values - home and office. People began to pass much more time in the coffee houses, (in particular to carry out their office duties) and to hold business meetings. And the image of a lady with a laptop and a cup of coffee became a symbol of the coffee shop of our days. We are on approach to third wave. This term was coined back in 2002 thanks to an American lady whose name is Trish Rothgeb. Today the term "Third Wave" is interpreted in a variety of ways: as "Small private coffee houses with an individual approach to coffee", or as "Small artisan coffee shops with roasting facility, selling coffee beans and making coffee right on the spot", or as "Coffee houses that purchase coffee directly from plantations, where baristas know everything about coffee". There is no wonder in such variety, After all, it is not about a mathematical or chemical formula - it is a social and cultural phenomenon, and there are no clear borderlines or strict classification in this domain. It is actually not much easier to describe the term "Third wave" than to define such subjective and complex term as "Speciality", which forms the basis of that wave itself. However, obvious is the most characteristic part of all third wave coffee houses without exception. It is the attitude to coffee as a personality - a product with its own face and identity and not a mass consumption element. Despite such not quite clear definition of a standard third wave coffee house, you can still understand its basic attribute. Primarily, its 100% focus on coffee - on its quality, its taste and its freshness. And eventually, on the knowledge of coffee and even on love for it. But it is always the coffee that takes center stage. Definitions like "Presenting coffee as special beverage", "Treating coffee as wine" or "Turning the preparation of coffee into art" became slogans of the third wave. In other words, it is about treating coffee as a delicacy. And being opposed to the standard coffee products, available on the mass consumption market, such attitude is implemented through a number of aspects. Firstly, thanks to the freshness of roasted coffee. This parameter is one of the main achievements of third wave. Baristas became one of the key drivers of third wave success, or at least one of the drivers of its stable functioning. I will not be mistaken if I say that the generation of the baristas who make up today's global basis of our industry, was born precisely in the period of third coffee wave. And what can we say about the next, fourth coffee wave? At this point, speaking about the future, I should make one important retreat to the past. Explaining the essence of third wave the pioneers of the American coffee industry wanted to say something different. Initially, waves were perceived as changes in the nature of coffee consumption by customers rather than as historical stages of the coffee evolution. To put it more simply, they had in mind the BENEFIT that any particular wave gave to the end consumers. For example, the effective first wave in this sense was that while in the 19th century people used to buy green coffee beans and roasted them at home or in local shops, Folgers resolved the problem of logistics and convenience for their benefit. The company roasted and ground coffee after which it packaged and delivered it to the consumer. Second wave made an attempt to revisit the issues of quality, freshness and  diversity of coffee which had become a characterless mass-market product. This job was done by Starbucks. But most importantly, Starbucks created the image of the coffee shop, proving to the consumers that good coffee could be prepared for them not just at home but somewhere else. Later the increased consumption outside home created new opportunities for the origination of third wave which further focused on quality and at the same time revealed the strength of an individual approach to the client. Dozens and hundreds of thousands of brains and energies exploded and started to ardently develop the individual coffee segment. I repeat each wave brought certain advantage to the customer and simultaneously brought the coffee consumption culture to a new level. And now we have to try to predict what benefits we should expect from the next, fourth coffee wave. Undoubtedly this should be an invention that will allow transition to a new coffee reality, something comparable to the benefits of iPhone for today's consumer, inconceivable just 10 years ago. Apple combined in a phone absolutely all useful functions that you could only imagine. There is a chance that fourth wave will be the combination of the advantages of all the three previous waves, multiplied by the state-of-the-art technologies. For instance, some gadget called "Barista Apple" will make you coffee when you just take a glance at your watch. Or say the coffee houses will become do-it-yourself coffee shops: the client comes in, chooses coffee, grinds it, and prepares his favorite drink for himself. Or maybe all the processes will move to people's homes, and the clients will become baristas themselves, and they will not only begin to grind coffee and roast them on their own but will also independently grow beans. Coffee houses with drones, delivering coffee, and robot-baristas, interactive tables and virtual augmented reality effects, where you will be able to drink coffee in the company of hologram of any celebrity taking a selfie in the process. Is there a probability that the fourth wave establishments will deliver coffee to customers directly via the internet based on some new super modern technologies? It is difficult to make projections today especially in such a dynamically developing world as ours. In any case, something different will be definitely offered to the public. Something that will really seriously change the previous coffee landscape. I don't know but most probably we should expect something of which we do not have the vagus idea about today. Simply because some required element does not even exist yet. But it must be some dramatic change that will turn around the industry quickly. Not within half a century but literally within just next 7-8 years. And with a probability of 99% this breaking point should be expected somewhere at the point of contact between barista and client. at the end of this lesson, I want to give you one example from my life. About 15 years ago one of the largest coffee shops chains in my country their supplier. Only specialized companies supplied coffee at that time and we were one of them. And the chain's general director asked us to arrange a testing session for him and his baristas. And then I told him: Let's do it differently. After all, the proper way of doing it would be to make a test with participation of the clients. So, let's sit with you for half a day in one of your coffee shops and see how the customers react to our coffee. Also said I, while making the coffee the barista will give each client a slip of paper and say: Sorry, we changed the coffee brand and would love to hear your opinion - did it taste better for you or not? Moreover, the barista had to say this in absolutely neutral manner, so as not to push the client in either direction. Within a few hours we spent there about a hundred customers pass through us - to be exact there were 95 of them. And 90 of them wrote "I liked this coffee", 4 of them said "I didn't like it" and one customer responded: "The same thing". Of course, that was a great result. From the next day we began to introduce our coffee and the establishments of this chain (there were about a hundred of them in total). And yet in another week the following thing happened. This general director called me and said in an apologetic tone: - Sergio, I'm sorry, we won't be able to work - my baristas complain about your coffee... Well, I say to him - listen, are you managing your company or you are not? Because after such a result which we got in the field (directly from the clients) - how can you let baristas to sabotage this process?.. All in all, we did not start working with them. Today, by the way, this company is no longer in the market. So, when you, guys, become real professionals, true baristas, never allow such mistakes thinking that you are more important than the customer. Your way to money goes through the client and only through him. And you know, the client is not always right but in any case this is he, who makes the decision. That is why given the existence of fragmented markets and channels, the task of finding customers received one small addition: your own customers. You do not need all of them, you need YOUR clients - people with whom you can move through this life, working for them, satisfying their needs and receiving well-earned income for your efforts. You should align all your actions aimed at making money only with him and with no one else - with your client. And in the sight of your activity this great man by the name of Consumer must in any way occupy a sacred central place. 13. Under the Cover of Speciality.: [ Music playing ] Another difficult, but extremely important lesson is awaiting for us - "What really is this magical "Speciality coffee" ?.. Because it is impossible to live and work in the modern world of coffee without clear understanding of what it is. And I decided to include speciality coffee into this section of my course, because it has an unconditional marketing nature. Also, we are obliged to figure out what it is to learn to distinguish the real "specialty" from what I call "speciality under cover" - when someone simply exploits this topic. Moreover, today there are ten times more exploiters than real specialitiy coffee experts. It is not surprising that not all coffee lovers understand the meaning of this term. Because in reality, maximum one out of 100 baristas will be able to clearly answer the question "What is "Specialty coffee?" The world "speciality" was coined back in 1974 thanks to the American coffee trader Erna Knutsen. The legendary Erna, who later became a kind of icon of the coffee specialty movement, brought into the States coffee from a number of countries. She was sourcing new coffee varieties to offer to the customers (let me remind that the substance of coffee business has always been commercial in nature) and was constantly looking for some special coffee. It was then when she used the term "specialty" for the first time. Obviously, the word "specialty" has a clear root derived from "special" that means "particular", “unusual†, etc. This is exactly the kind of coffee Erna was looking for, with the only correction that she still meant coffee "unusual" rather than "special" . At first, it was only about green beans, that is, about the input product. But very soon the term "specialty" began to apply to the entire coffee supply chain, indicating that any particular coffee could become a fully "specialty" product only if it were perfect throughout its entire life cycle - from plantation to the beverage in the cup. 5-6 years later, in 1982, the Specialty Coffee Association of America was founded. We can say that systematic development of the speciality coffee ideology began just from that moment. However, I have to note that no clear definition of the term "specialty coffee†has ever existed and still does not exist. This is not criticism - there is an explanation to this, but you still need to understand that this fundamental term has not been legally defined anywhere up to this day. Next benchmark is 1998, the year of creation of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe. We, Europeans, established our own association a decade and a half later, but this lag had its advantage - the founders of the European Speciality Coffee Association had the opportunity to use the already existing American experience. I know most of the founders personally and feel a deep respect to these people, but it is unlikely that anyone will contend that the largest contribution to the European coffee movement was made by Norwegian Alf Kramer, the tireless enthusiast who became the first president of our organization, and, most importantly, who has never ceased his activity in the speciality industry till now. It should be noted the European Coffee Association, unlike the American one, has always applied more efforts trying to describe the term "speciality“. By and large, those attempts were just as unsuccessful, but we at least tried to work out our own definition understandable to a maximum possible extent. And our definition has invariably shined on the first page of the organization's site. It sounded as follows: "Speciality coffee is defined as a crafted, quality, coffee-based beverage which is judged by the consumer (in a limited marketplace at a given time) to have a unique quality, a distinct taste and personality different from, and superior to, the common coffee beverages offered. The beverage is based on beans that have been grown in an accurately defined area, and which meet the highest standards for green coffee and for its roasting, storage and brewing." For a lay person it is less than clear. The words are familiar enough, but the meaning is somewhat blurred. It was only later that I came to see that the concept "Speciality" cannot be defined in principle. It is as hopeless as trying to define the state of happiness. I already mentioned that I've been long practicing karate of Kiokushin style, which is translated from Japanese as "Union of Seekers of the Absolute Truth". For karatekas, "absolute truth" means something elusive - some unattainable goals that cannot be achieved. But they tirelessly search for this "something", striving for improvement, even though they realize that the final destination point does not exist in reality. It is easy to notice that the term "specialty" in the above definition implies specificity of this coffee at all stages of its life path to the consumer. But it is practically impossible to be specific in absolutely all aspects. And it is not quite clear how one is to determine this state? However, everything becomes much simpler if you try to interpret the word "special" as "different, distinct" rather than "especial". Then we could say that any coffee that at a given moment represents something special for a given person (or, in other words, is different from what he drank earlier) can be considered "special". In this case, evaluating each speciality coffee, you will have to find a specific explanation what is so “special†about this very coffee. But this will be obviously more square than just to put the "Specialty coffee" tag on everything you sell. After all, coffee does not become special because it is so indicated on the certificate attached to it, but because at the given moment of time such coffee really makes a big difference for a person in comparison to the coffee he consumed before. That's why every country and even every consumer audience develops its own understanding of the word "specialty". Interestingly, some coffee producing countries, while lobbying for their segment (cultivation), claim that specialty coffee is about beans only and anything that comes next depends on their properties. Even if this assertion is true, it is true only for such countries themselves. It is sad that even from baristas I occasionally hear phrases like “Only arabica that scored at least 85 points during the cupping can be recognized as specialty coffee. Strange that I hear it from baristas, who are at the opposite end of the coffee chain, and who are called upon to convey to the end consumer exactly the result of the ENTIRE process. Obviously, if coffee was grown in a correct way, properly sorted and adequately packed, and then barista spoiled it in the process of preparation of the drink - what is the use of peculiarity of such coffee at the initial stages? Fortunately, coffee-consuming countries always start from the end-customer rating. For example, according to Japanese definition of specialty coffee, in the first place, coffee must be special in the cup. Which is absolutely fair, because, taking its shape at all stages, speciality product must ultimately turn into an integral picture for the end customer. And one of the most difficult aspects of identification of "specialtiness" is the fact of transience, temporality of any specialty. Because even if a coffee is considered a specialty product, then tomorrow it will surely cease to be such. Like any other marketing advantage, specialty quality is limited in time. I have a friend - one of the veterans of the Dutch specialty coffee movement. He has a coffee shop in the central part of Amsterdam - he was one of the first who opened a speciality coffee shop in the city. My Dutch friend recently told me: “You know, 10 years ago, when I opened my coffee shop, I was the only one in that area, and now there are 9 other coffee shops right in my street, and Starbucks plan to open an establishment in this street soon. Then we face the question: is it still speciality coffee if there are 10 similar establishments next to yours? Mentioned above Alf Kramer said: “You must be always able to clearly answer the question: "What exactly makes me I so special?" using simple words, without complicated, far-fetched wordings and references to different certificates. Therefore, we, coffee market players, must constantly look for things making us special. For if we are special today, tomorrow we will not be such, and we are doomed to search for our winning feature. And this path of "Seekers of the Absolute Truth" is probably the greatest trial and the most interesting adventure in the professional coffee world. For many years there was an appeal on the Specialty Coffee Association website written by the first president of the Association (the same Alf Kramer) and entitled "Our origins". In this small, literally two paragraph long message to the successors, he explains fundamental things - why the organization was born, and what was its mission. In the second text paragraph of his small message Alf Kramer wrote: "It will be a vertical structure, and we will be recruiting members committed to coffee quality from every level of the coffee chain - farmers and farmer associations, coffee boards, exporters and exporter associations, organizations and media, transporters, shipping lines and warehouses, importers, traders, processors, equipment manufacturers, roasters, retailers, coffee bars, and even end consumers." Quite so: "...and even end consumers". This is who should really be a part of the whole chain, and not just manufacturers, coffee companies and baristas. I don’t know in what part of this chain coffee will become specialty product. But I know for sure where it will be determined: at the very LAST stage. And the final instance of such a determination will be the consumer and no one else - no matter how little he knows about coffee. And, it seems to me, this will be the most correct approach if your client says: «Wow, this one is really special coffee!» This definitely will be the most accurate estimate. I do not know if I will live long enough to see the time when ordinary coffee lovers become members of the Specialty Coffee Association. But in any case, I hope so. Because we really need an educated and knowledgeable consumer in our coffee game. 14. Be Different and Unique.: [ Music playing ] There is a huge number of recipes and rules on how to succeed in the 21st century. But no matter what your formula is, I know one point without which it will not work for sure. In the highbrow language of marketers this item is called USP - Unique Selling Proposition, or, more simply, they say that everyone has to have his own flair. Or, in other words, to be POSITIONED. You can afford a whole number of faults in your work and in your business, but in modern reality there is nothing worse than to be just like others. And for an individual of any profession, be he a blogger or a barista, this task of making difference is even more important than for organizations. Big companies have their own ways but you don't have to become a Jobs or a Zuckerberg at all. For you it is important to find that unique trait, your own quality, ability or skill that will make you the best or the only one in the world. This is exactly what I mean - the best in the world. Ad do not be afraid to raise the question in this way. If earlier it sounded unrealistic, in our time the question needs to be posed just like that: how to become the best in the world in my occupation? Once you find the answer - tomorrow you will be invited to New York or London. Because the advanced markets want the best, not ordinary employees. Take a look at football business - in a German club a Ukrainian plays with a Brazilian and a Japanese and in a Spanish club an Argentinian plays with a Nigerian and a Croat. The boundaries are disappearing. This is a threat for the weak but for someone who seeks to be the best at what he does, this is an opportunity. Look for your uniqueness, your own one. Once I witnessed an unusual and even a scary story. in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, there is a district called Kibera - one of the poorest locations in the world. These slums have their own attraction - a tiny disabled person whom nature has crippled from his birth. He looks a bit uncanny but he is always smiling. He is happy with his life because white tourists come to Nairobi to take a look at him for money. I myself heard him saying: "Thank God for creating me like this, otherwise I would be like all others..." Can you imagine this?.. Even being a born cripple, he turned this into his advantage and used it to his benefit. Then why should we, strong and healthy people, be unable to come up with something outstanding and | sharpen our skills in this area?.. If you don't have any special knack in making coffee, look for something that is closer to you on the whole. And in the most impossible way develop your skills in this occupation to the highest, just perfect degree. Try to find yourself in a variety of forms of self-realization and not just in coffee business, but also in other areas trying to combine it with your barista work. Exploit your any strong skill - unique ability to socialize or your smile, your artistry or creative approach, sport skills or your mastery in origami art. The world appreciates only the best and special persons. The Internet and media audience focus on a dancing barista, artist barista or barista who will sing an aria to you while making coffee. This audience is not interested in millions of standard faceless workers who, is a rule, would not even smile. Find your strong point, any point and sharpen it, and turn it into your advantage. Anyone who realizes this will obtain unlimited opportunities for success. And he will become the winner in his game. 15. Our Strength is in Unity.: [ Music playing ] I am sure that baristas have an interesting future and they will earn real good money. Of course, success awaits only those willing to adapt to the changing environment and prepared to learn and master new skills. But in any case, your profession implies solo navigation. And individualists experience a great deal of difficulties in today's world because they constantly lack money and time. This is why while you make a career in your trade you will also need to increase your working capacity to be able to do more and to achieve higher results and earn more money. Let me remind you that no one forbids you to cooperate with others and to form any alliances and projects, creative or commercial. You should not wait until someone offers you such projects - start active development of parallel lines of business yourself. Start immediately and right away. After all, the trend towards creating small business communities is already obvious. It can be some kind of mini-groups. By the way, you may select partners even from your coffee shop today's clientele. Because you probably have already identified more intelligent and more well-to-do visitors of your coffee house. Particularly successful can be small commercial projects with colleagues. Say, a mini business group of two or three baristas, or a union of a barista and a designer, a barista and a blogger, a barista and a car salesman, and so on. And you don't have to invent anything artificially - just review your contact phone numbers and analyze your friends list. Think about which of them has some interesting skills, what special contributions they can make. And then try to link these things to your future line of business and come up with some common business idea. Then just talk to them - I am sure no one will give up the opportunity to undertake something interesting. And I assure you, you will be surprised how many ideas you will generate with your new partner if only you start to think in this direction. I have a very close friend, my army comrade with whom we have been friends for almost 30 years. I have a deep respect to his knowledge (especially I appreciate his marketing experience) but we have never had any common business projects, I don't even know why. Well, say at the moment we are designing together an online business training course which it seems to me will be the best of my creative works. The only thing we did - we just met and brainstormed how we could combine our strong sides to create some joint product. Moreover, today there are so many new different affiliated programs - when representatives of one profession are selling products from another line of business but which are in demand in their audiences. For example, I could never realize why baristas shouldn't be selling coffee to their customers in the establishments where they are employed. I mean ground coffee or beans on a takeaway basis - so that their customer just could take home the same delicious coffee as the one that they enjoy in this coffee shop. Coffee is the profile of the barista, he knows everything about it, and the degree of the client's confidence in him is much higher than confidence in any salesman from an average store. So why can't you help your customer select coffee and make an extra penny for yourself? Think about it - maybe, some of these small business chains are already existing in your environment and you just did not notice them?.. Do you know why gas stations are usually built not individually but in front of each other on both sides of the road? Yes, this helps reduce construction and logistics expenses but the main point is different. In case of construction of two gas stations at the same time, the gas sales revenues in each of them increased by 50% compared to those earned by separate stations. And in total their efficiency is not 200 but 300%. So, let's unite, friends. It doesn't matter how you will call this partnership - aggregation< integration or collaboration. It is important to remember that any way you will need partners. Because it is difficult to survive in today's world if you are making business on your own. And creation of such a small mobile group or possibly even some of them is always a creative and interesting challenge. And most importantly, it's beneficial commercially. 16. Be Careful with Trends!: [ Music playing ] In the next block of our course - INNOVATIONS, we will actually continue to discuss marketing. But we'ill shift our focus onto the future - we will try to search answers to such questions as what are the new trends and how you should use them in your work. What you should do and what you should reject. When it is worthwhile to take advantage of a novelty and when there is a threat - that such a step could ruin your relationship with already existing clients. You may have heard a story that a few years ago caused a lot of discussion in the speciality coffee industry. It was in distant Australia and this story went unnoticed by the public but in general it is a very important symptom of the transformation taking place in today's coffee world. In one of coffee houses of Melbourne a female client, a journalist by profession, ordered a flat white coffee. And the waiter served her the drink not in a cup as it should be in its classical form but in the so-called "deconstructed state" - hot water separately, coffee separately and milk separately. It was assumed that the client was supposed to make her drink by mixing these ingredients on her own. All the components were brought to her colorfully on a wooden board in three transparent laboratory type cones. According to the client herself she felt very uncomfortable because she did not know what she was supposed to do with such a coffee or how to drink it. And then the the journalist published on her Facebook page a post that said: "Hipsterism has gone too far, when your coffee comes deconstructed. I just waited almost 20 minutes for an actual cup before realizing it would not be forthcoming I wanted a coffee not a science experiment. I prefer to drink my beverages out of crockery and not beakers. Next stage? I'll just get a chopping board with a bunch of actual coffee beans and an upside-down hat on it? This must stop. The post caused a storm of feedback and was supported by tens of thousands of Australians. What happened and why did this incident provoke such an indignation of the public?.. Let us try to analyze the situation but to understand the response of the public to the post of that Australian, we must first answer the question why do people drink coffee at all. The coffee world is complex in all its aspects. You can write a whole book about each of them - with chapters entitled "Coffee as invigorating drink", "Coffee as socializer" or "Coffee for health". But if we take a simplified approach we could schematically divide coffee consumption into two categories. First - TRADITION. This is the case when people drink coffee to cheer up, to chat, to have breakfast, to smoke a cigarette, etc. In this situation your cup of coffee is always familiar and predictable, without any surprises. Second - FASHION. This way of consumption includes coffee drinking with elements of all creative innovations and colorful components. Such coffee always looks interesting and original and you almost always can take a catchy photo for Instagram or Facebook. So, if you bring some hipster creation (instead of the expected drink) to a traditionally oriented client - the effect will be the same as in the case of the Australian writer. And vice versa, to people who crave a coffee hit or a wow novelty you should not serve anything classical in principle - for them it is banal, routine and boring experience. And they will criticize all standard solutions with 95% probability. It is important to realize one thing. The representatives of the first group (I mean traditionalists) account for 95%. And these are precisely them at whose expense almost all coffee businesses exist. The share of the second group is maximum 5% in total community. But these people are more vibrant creative and informationally active. This means that posts declaring their dissatisfaction immediately appear in social networks and their points of view become public. This is why coffee businesses tend to respect their preferences. And this is partly right because any innovation (which is exactly how all new products should be interpreted) is nice looking, interesting and promising. My attitude to innovations has always been entirely positive because they generate ideas that move forward the world, including society, culture and business. But just as to develop strong muscles you need to do not some random but specially selected exercises, you cannot come up with random innovations. I support innovations only if they make sense or have a goal. At least in business - when you are at an exposition or at a championship, there you can do whatever you want. As a matter of fact, this word is explained by the dictionary in this very meaning: "Innovation takes place when someone uses an invention to change people's way of life." For example, the deconstructed coffee mentioned above neither brought benefit nor made sense for the longtime client of the establishment. And worst of all, it did not meet her expectations. She just wanted to drink a coffee and not drain it in portions from different vessels. And she wanted to sip her drink from a normal familiar cup, and not from the laboratory glasses in which the waiter served her the deconstructed coffee. And one more important thing. Today a blackboard (and even more than one) with thousands of names on it has become a typical attribute of any coffee shop. It is beautiful as a component of design but when such a board plays the role of the menu, for me personally this is a drama. I begin to get extremely nervous. Not only because it is impossible to read some of the names but also because as a merchant I understand that a menu should not be just a list of all the drinks that are served in my establishment (looking like a 100 pages long operation manual). In my opinion, menu should be a competent marketing tool that directs the client to the best drinks of his choice. Which, from other hand, should be also the most profitable for the establishment, because the coffee shop should make money, not just have fun inventing new products. Therefore, the formula of offering drinks for the establishment (and for barista, as the main conductor of the establishment commercial strategy) must always clearly separate clients who want traditional coffee from those who would like to have new drinks. And the menu should highlight the chief drinks in each segment which will perform the role of the top sellers. Please, remember that the drink will be the main generator of your profit. 17. Always Think About Curves!: [ Music playing ] In this short lesson, we will discuss "The Theory of Two Curves." I assure you, the rule with this mathematical name can greatly help you in planning your future. You may have heard about an another theory, the so called "Theory of life cycles" . Today, it is well known, and not only for marketers. Any seller knows that each product has its own life cycle including stages of introduction, growth and decline. For some products, these cycles end in a month, or even in a week (say, for products released for some event), and in case of the most successful goods, they can last a century (as, for example, with Bayer aspirin). So, "The Theory of Two Curves" is nothing else than a diagram with overlapping curves of life cycles of two different goods. Say, an entrepreneur (or a company) was engaged in some kind of business - for example, they produced hand drills. But over time, motor driven drills appeared on the market, which were more handy and efficient. Of course, the outdated product is already doomed, because it is in the terminal phase of its life. What does an entrepreneur do in this situation, realizing that very soon his business will be finished with 100% probability? He starts a new business, right? He begins to manufacture a new product. A new product from the segment which he knows perfectly and in which he has worked before. Or, if there are no ideas and opportunities, he enters some other market segment. But in any case, in order to survive, he needs to start something new after the old business dies. You see, in most cases, an entrepreneur thinks about it at the very end - when the life cycle curve is declining. But the theory of two curves claims that this is too late. Firstly, you will surely have a gap between the cycles. And such pauses do not bring anything good, either financially, (because of lack of income), or psychologically, (because you start to panic and lose your self-reliance). According to the theory of two curves, you should launch a new product at the time when your current good has not even reached the peak of its life cycle. In other words, you need to turn on your brains and create something new not when you begin to lose control, but when your business is in perfect order! To be honest, this rule has helped me a lot in my life. Once my business began to move without a hitch, I strained internally, realizing that it was a sign that soon things would turn to worse. And it always gave me a powerful impulse to immediately get down to the creation of the next phase. Maybe that's why I have never found myself on the rocks. Because each time I timely switched to some next product. Keep this rule in your mind - I am sure it will not let you relax even in the best days of your career, and will make you to prepare your next product or business project. It may seem that the "Theory of two curves" has to do more with the science of corporate management, and it is not particularly useful for individual ordinary baristas. But I often refer to this theory as an example for ordinary employees. I recommend that they never quit their job before they find a new one. Because, once you lose your job, you (like any entrepreneur who loses his business) begin to behave differently - with a greater degree of uncertainty and with less optimism. And having a current job and simultaneously developing some project that may become next your business - you act as a reasonable and strategic person who plans his future. Moreover, when I talk about the "second project" - it is not at all about working in one place and at the same time looking for a new job. I rather mean a really new project - what they call today the "Second Career" . And if you have required ambitions and drive, you always can find an opportunity to do this at your current place of employment. Moreover, it is even better to search such an opportunity at your current work place - your colleagues and management know you, you are adapted to the system, etc. You only need to focus on the new project, investing in it some of your time. Please, remember, that here we are talking not about your ordinary working hours but about an overtime - if you want to receive more, you have to give more. Perform your job, but also find some time to explore new opportunities - you can do this jointly with a peer barista from your own or from a neighboring coffee shop. Do it with your wife who can launch a kind of online training course for your customers, or with a friend who is a supplier of other goods, and so on. This will be also beneficial for your boss, if he is an adequate person, because in this case you will make more money for him, and not for someone else, plus, he will not lose his employee. This approach is also called "initiative" , which is the source of drive creating a future. Unfold your initiatives. Because when this flame goes out, you will lose your future. 18. How to Be A/B Creative.: [ Music playing ] In this lesson I will teach you one simple but very effective technique. It is called A/B-testing and it is increasingly often discussed at training courses although people tend to believe that this term is more associated with programmers or marketers. This is partly true because both programmers and marketers knowingly notice and make use of the current mechanisms of work in the Internet. I will admit that as a leader of my companies I have always been a good visionary. At all times I was capable to outline future goals and objectives of my business and to confidently lead people. But the modern world is changing so quickly and unpredictably that long-term strategies simply cannot exist today anymore. I don't know if you noticed or not but the science fiction genre has almost completely disappeared from literature these days. Because the pace of life and innovation has become such that technology today is ahead of any fantasy. This is why even with all my love for strategic approaches I refused to make up any plans and forecasts and began to work today much shorter using the mentioned above principle of A/B-testing. Its essence is that we make decisions very quickly, without long meetings and discussions for weeks. After that we immediately (just instantly) begin to realize the idea we liked. And we always do this in an alternative way, making a choice - A or B. You know there is such a "Theory of Alternative Sales" which says that you should not offer a person only one product. For example, a pen. Instead, a professional salesperson always increases his chances of selling by saying "What would you buy - a pencil or a pen?" rather than just "Are you buying my product or not?" - it is believed that then a person think less of the answer "No" and is more inclined to buy. This method is called "Alternative sales" - "Which of my TWO products you would buy?" Everything we do, we should have an ALTERNATIVE. That is, there should always be a second option which we offer in parallel. Two varieties of coffee which are a bit different from each other. Two different pictures, two types of promotional announcements, based on which the customer can purchase our product, etc. Only we do it no longer to sell one of the products in any case, but to identify the product that suits the consumer best. in other words we want to find out which product is more viable. Then we retain the best option in our product range and replace the worst with the next better option. Then we repeat the testing - A or B. Then again we reject the loser and this way the strongest option survives all the time. It's like the competition when Orthodox Christians knock each other's Easter eggs in a playoff game. When the shell of your egg is broken you lose and leave the contest. And someone else tries his luck instead of you. Then he competes with the next opponent and so on and so forth. And the winner is the one whose eggshell is the strongest. So we are moving forward through this A/B-testing. That is, we always choose the best of two options - A or B. All you need to do is to start this game and then just focus on the consumer's response. Scientists have such a term as "Creation of a prototype". This is the initial phase of any project. At this stage the goal is not to create something unique or feasible. The goal is to make something. Just to make, to shape it. To create a prototype on which you will work in the future. No matter good or bad - at first, you have to come up with some prototype. And then you can begin to improve it. And most likely you will make it work anyway. Otherwise, most ideas end at the stage when they are proposed and then nothing happen. This is why the initial phase of any stage is to create a prototype. Perhaps, this is why there is a saying that "Few people realize that the distance between zero and one is much greater than the distance between one and one thousand." Because the most important thing is to break the initial ice. The A/B-testing formula in principle can be applied to anything - for instance, to the posts on Facebook when I evaluate my reader's responses to my potential products or ideas. You can use it for the previews of your videos on YouTube - it then gives you a complete understanding which of them works best. To the new drinks that you can try on your customers in your coffee shop. You need to test everything without exception. And, you know, at some point you suddenly realize that it's even easier. When you do everything based on your; own ideas you are always in doubt - you always have to develop some improvements. But when you give the products to the clients for evaluation - they are sort of doing your work instead of you and simply tell you what is better. It's a kind of never-ending process because you always come up with more interesting options. And from time to time you need to refuse from obsolete products. But I hope you did understand that we must always take into account responses of the clients only. And this road is really endless. This is a constantly moving target - today it may work and tomorrow you should be looking for new answers. It is not for nothing that the final statement in any marketing guide are the words: "Marketing is like washing the dishes - it never ends." 19. Coffee with Your Name.: [ Music playing ] We will end the marketing module of our course with a lesson that will be more like a short farewell word. Every year, baristas and entrepreneurs who have failed to realize their potential or have lost interest in the coffee theme leave our industry. This is a natural process - it happens in life. But I can definitely say that these people always come to the coffee world with blazing eyes and a desire to convey to their customers their love for the greatest drink in the world. They sincerely dream of doing something important, to leave some landmark in coffee history. Unfortunately, most enthusiasts pass this stage quickly. First of all, due to the lack of a clear understanding of what exactly can be created? It seems to them that everything has already been invented in coffee, and there is nothing special that can be created here. But this is not true. And barista is just the kind of person who is the most likely not only to invent a new product, but also to implement it in life. Those who have been in Naples for sure visited Gran Caffe «Gambrinus», which is the most iconic coffee house in the city and, in general, one of the most famous cafes in Italy. The most famous drinks there are called Caffe' «Gege'» (espresso with hazelnut cream) and «Strapazzato» - espresso with coffee spread around the rims of the cup, which is why the cup looks so dirty (the Italian for «strapazzato» is «worn out, shabby»). Thanks to the presence of coffee on the sides of the cup, it does not burn the lips. You see, coffee cups in Naples are not stored on top of the coffee machines, as elsewhere in the world, but are kept in tanks of boiling water to make sure that during serving espresso the cup is as hot as possible). I am familiar with signor Gennaro Ponziani, the irreplaceable director of this outstanding establishment. In Gambrinus, this man made a career from an ordinary barista to the mega-respected manager, who shook hands with all world leaders without exception, including the Pope (and from what I know, not even one of them). So, Gennaro himself told me how he personally came up with both of these drinks 20 years ago. He just tried to make coffee in a different, special way. But so that the new drink made sense and was tasty. Those in the know will tell you that the nut cream «Nocciola» in Naples is something real incredible. So why not try making coffee with it? Are the rims of the cup burning your lips? No problem, let us try to put some coffee on them. Does the cup look dirty? "No c'e problema" - no problem - let us coin some original name (any Italian name sounds beautiful). This way were born the drinks that are today legendary in Naples. They were once invented by some smart barista-innovator. At one time, a Greek youngster came up with frappe coffee that conquered the entire Mediterranean region. An Australian barista created Flat White that managed to squeeze into the range of espresso drinks. And some Vietnamese guy created a nourishing and tasty coffee with an egg. Kopy Luwak also was invented for a reason, the technique of roasting Torrefacto beans with sugar was invented by a Spaniard, The Indians thought of pouring coffee drink from a meter height, and the Turks began to use coffee to tell fortune. The Cubans dip into coffee their cigars, the Peruvians add leaves of coca to it, and the Canary Islands folks have guessed to serve coffee separately for men and women. All these things, by the way, can be recognized as true and genuine Speciality coffees. Because all these baristas created their unique drinks that had never existed before and that suited usual coffee lovers' taste. And it did not begin today or even ten years ago. Let me remind you that Joe Sheridan invented the Irish coffee in 1945, and Yuri Kulchytsky invented the Viennese coffee 300 years ago. All these drinks were inventions of different baristas. And they made history. What makes you think you are worse, guys?.. No need to immediately try to conquer the whole world. To start, you may simply create a signature drink of your own establishment. But come up with something special - beautiful, tasty and interesting. And, perhaps, someday this drink will become your pride. 20. Digitalize At All Costs!: [ Music playing ] Even if your goods have some physical shape, as it is in our case, when a barista makes a tangible product in the form of cup of coffee, intangible online products have already become the most important component of any business. The Internet enhances all opportunities manifold, and it simplifies the delivery of information and speeds up communication between people. Rule of the day number 1, which should be engraved before the eyes of every entrepreneur and employee, is: "You have to be present online with no options." The online component of your job, is a must! It does not matter how old you are and how advanced are your skills of an Internet user - you need to right on the spot begin permanent and daily work called "digitalization of your business - that is, efforts aimed to ensure your presence in the global network. Unfortunately, many users believe that the term "to work online" means "to sit down at the computer, or, as a maximum, to post a couple of price-lists on your company's website. This is wrong, and the one who thinks like this is no longer keeping pace with the development of our world. Because working online today means to transfer there absolutely all aspects of the operation of your business and to simply do your job there. You have run out of the room to store your accounting records? Google Drive is a perfect space for the sorting and storage of documents. And you can obtain access to them from any point on the planet. You want to place an order with the supplier? It is enough to press one or two buttons on his site or to use the call back feature. You can hold online negotiations with your partners or colleagues. Chat with coffee machine technician, learning any barista technique, even the technique of frothing milk for espresso, today everything can be done online via Viber, Skype or Zoom. Using voice dialing, and voice search in general, has become a basic skill - such as the ability to write with a pen before. You should make use of this opportunity whenever possible, because today the entire Internet community is switching to this way of working. Use this feature wherever you see the microphone icon - in mail, typing, translation, search. Today this feature is available even in the comments on Facebook. Press the small microphone icon, and move straight ahead in the future. It will definitely increase the speed of your work by 7-8 times. Use Facebook or YouTube to tell your clients about some new drink. Or present yourself as a barista with your own site. I would like to emphasize this last point I just mentioned. It is not about your questionnaires or CVs scattered on employment sites. It is about your personal site, where you can post maximum information on yourself having customized it to the interests of potential employer or partner, having added to it all materials to support your qualification and competency. This is a site to be used not just to store loads of data - it will be your own museum and personal advertising agency that will sell you to the public. And not just once, but through the rest of your life. Please do yourself and me a favor - immediately after completion of this course create your personal site, register your domain name and place there all the information you would tell me if I asked you to sell yourself to me as an employer. Everything you consider the best in you, all your best qualities and you like about yourself - everything you can boast. All the brightest and the most interesting facts about you, without any modesty. There is a saying that modesty is direct path to the oblivion. This is exactly the case. And you have to do all this not to have fun with beautiful pictures or funny videos, but with the overriding and the most useful purpose of selling yourself. A personal website on the internet is your promo page, your portfolio site, curriculum vitae and a blog. It's all together and it's forever. And your domain name will become your only intellectual property on the Internet. And the sooner you understand and do this, the faster you will begin to move towards your success. I repeat it again: You have to be present online with no options. By the way, I'll give one piece of advice in case you have problems with choosing a name for your site or your domain name. if for example, you are not creative enough to come up with something original. Remember that the easiest and the most win-win approach is to use your last name or your first and last names. What else could characterize you better? After that you can add various creative features and headlines. I assure you that the use of your name and surname themselves, will always give you some idea. For example, family name Smith can become a "Forged Coffee by Smith" or a "Hammersmith Barista". It is unique and easy to remember, so why not use it? If you are a Pavel Khomenko, so a site under domain name www.Paolo + HOME + nko.com would be an excellent solution. I know one coffee artist who has played her last name in this way. Or, as in one of my recent examples, a lady named Helen Hunt, opened a coffee shop and called it "Hunting Coffee", which turned out a gorgeous play on words. And the slogan "It's time to hunt for coffee†was born immediately. This was just a small suggestion. But the main thing is to always, I repeat - always keep in mind the plan of digitalizing your business. And not only business in general, but also all products and all your activities For example, in the social media, which we will discuss in the next lesson. And I would like to end this lesson with the same words with which I started it: No matter what business you are in. If you are not present in the Internet today Then you do not exist at all. 21. Social Media. Be Consistent!: [ Music playing ] In this lesson we will have a separate discussion ot the Internet segment called "Social Media" which plays a more important role in the online space than anything else. I have been active on Facebook for more than 10 years and my audience there today is about half a million subscribers. With different degrees of activity I control 56 Facebook pages and have posted their more than 10 000 posts, having received from the readers several millions of comments and tens of millions of likes. With that every day I spend on Facebook no more than 10% of my time. The main thing I would like to tell you is that in spite of popularity and activity of the social media it is not so simple to keep there a page dedicated to a business or a work profile. More precisely, it is not really difficult but when after regular activity during several months your posts still gain no more than 10-15 likes you begin to realize that this is an illusion and that it is simply ineffective to work for an audience of 20 people. After that you lose internal motivation and the page becomes boring and trivial. There are three basic rules without following which you should not even start working in the social media. Rule number 1 is the most important. Unfortunately, very few people comprehend it but those who understand it receive more attention than others. This rule can be described in one word: PASSION. Passion, emotion. This is what people in social networks appreciate the most. Because this is exactly what they want to obtain when they join the media community. That is, you yourself have to like things about which you write. Show your love for what you are doing because if you don't like your job then perhaps you chose a wrong trade And if there is passion - realize it through your posts. Rule number 2: BE INTERESTING. Athough it comes second, frankly, this rule is almost as important as your passion. This is what distinguishes people who update their pages personally from those hired to do such work for money. I have come across this situation dozens (if not hundreds) of times: a hired man will simply publish an agreed number of posts per day and give polite and orthographically correct responses to the comments. But he would never be able to jazz this page up to vitalize it. Because he does not possess the most important things - he has neither knowledge of the topic, nor motivation to put his heart in the page. And the 3d main rule is to post a NICE PICTURE. I didn't have the courage to rate picture higher than passion but in practice the very first test through which I personally pass all my posts without exception is the answer to the question "Have I made it beautiful?" Because your reader at first takes a look at any of your posts. This is the specifics of the social media. And if he notices passion in the content of the page but the page itself looks unattractive and inexpressive it is highly likely that the reader will not even make use of the opportunity to familiarize himself with your message to the audience. In fact, the picture or the image that you use for your post plays the same role as the packaging that manufacturers use for their coffee. The most tasty beans poured into a plastic bag will never be more attractive than an elegant packaging with a beautiful picture on it. I mentioned 3 fundamental rules but perhaps it makes sense to add one more rule without which all of the above will not be able to work for a long time. You need an IDEOLOGY. By this word I do not mean anything abstruse, philosophical or, god forbid, politicized. Speaking of ideology I mean that all of your posts should support certain particular idea, some special angle of viewing things. In our case - certain angle of viewing coffee. Iit's very difficult to explain it briefly but you can't just keep a page called "Tasty bean" or "Speciality Barista". You will have to find your own angle of view of the coffee world under which you will transmit information to your readers. How could you identify and mark your uniqueness? Remember, we talked about your personal flair and Unique Selling Proposition? There should be something important, the angle of view where you will sound unique. And this "something" should be your own and nobody else's specific feature. Even if it is, well, I don't know, "2-meter-high Barista" or "4 Eyes Barista's Blog". And this anyway is much better than a trivial "I Love Coffee" of "World of Coffee". I remind that this course is about the barista's work and not about his personal life. This is why speaking of your presence in social media I primarily want to see the coverage of your PROFESSIONAL activity there. At this point I would like to give you an advice used by 13 out of 15 persons to whom I gave it. You see, not all companies can keep interesting pages in the social media. Just because not all topics can attract people's attention. Let's admit that the theme of cats and kitten is eternal. But if a company manufactures bearings or is engaged in typographical printing it will be extremely hard to animate respective topics in posts on Facebook. And the public catering facilities such as bars, cafes, restaurants and especially coffee houses are the most promising places for social coverage because they are in constant contact with the end consumer. So in this sense, you are lucky - you are living and working in the segment which is very prospective for social networks. But there is one specific point here: a coffee shop is not a corporation with its own marketing department. And very often the establishment simply does not have a dedicated employee responsible for keeping its pages in the social media. So why can't you suggest management to delegate this duty to you? For an additional remuneration obviously. Let it be a small amount but still there should be a remuneration. Because you will never have any desire or passion to deal with this systematically on a voluntary basis. And if you are officially responsible for this you will create benefit for your establishment and will earn an extra penny for yourself. And I'll tell you a secret: while publishing the posts you will learn a great deal of new things, just believe me. With the experience I have today I can predict consumer's response. Which means that I understand which drinks may work and which drinks will fail. I learned a totally different technique of taking pictures of coffee drinks. I understood which images are more attractive for people and what you should do to present your picture in a most favorable manner. You will learn how to better communicate and more clearly express your ideas. And most importantly you will feel that you are constantly growing personally and professionally. So, why not do such a thing if you are in addition paid for it? But to succeed you will have to learn the art of writing catchy posts. It cannot be a boring story about what you ate for breakfast or you're another gorgeous selfie in the bathroom mirror, or a post about you drinking 52d similar cup of coffee. Do not write about whatever first comes to your mind. Write only one post per day but try to write about something really interesting that happened on this day - as if you want to tell something really important and interesting to your close friends. Also you will have to learn to notice interesting things. If you open for this your eyes (and most importantly, your heart), which is not so difficult, believe me, then you will acquire the incredible skill of noticing interesting things happening around you. And, you know, at some point you will suddenly realize that it is much easier to simply notice things and to tell about them to others then painfully try to produce some trivial posts. Life gives the topics itself - just do not miss them. For the 10 years of my life on Facebook I did not publish a post on just one single day. And still my presence there has never overburdened me. I have not once regretted the heavy investment of my time in this medium. I receive positive emotions and appreciation of my readers there and perhaps this is one of the most powerful sources of my drive to continue to stay active in the world of coffee where I have already lived for almost 25 years. There is a saying: "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." There are no words that could better describe how you should behave in the social media. 22. Kill Negative Before It Kills You.: [ Music playing ] Today it is impossible to work in the Internet (where all our activities have moved recently) without coming across the negative in a variety of forms, first of all, in the form of comments. In this lesson, I will teach you several tricks useful for working with such negative comments that I myself use in my life. This is a very serious topic, much more serious than many people can think. And although this lesson is going to be long, I promise that it will be very useful for you. I came across the effect of negative comments for the first time 30 years ago when I served in the army. I was a sergeant of a company in charge of security of a military airfield. For those who don't know - military security unit is the only unit allowed to use firearms in peace time. And in fact, we had to carry arms non-stop during the entire period of our active military service. From time to time we had emergency situations. For example, when criminals attacked centries to take possession of weapons or to steal something at restricted access facilities. There were even deaths. For example, someone could incidentally shoot down himself or a comrade. But one of the most memorable moments was the situation when one of our guys received a letter saying that while he was serving in the army, his girlfriend was going to marry another man. I think you have also come across similar stories in your life. But it is unlikely that you know cases when a soldier who received such a letter ran away from his combat post carrying his arms, came to his village and shot both his offenders and his ex-girlfriend with his submachine gun. This has always been the result of a combination of several factors and partly - of his weak mentality, but the fact is that all his actions which deprived someone of his life and this guy of his future, were caused by only one negative comment in the form of the letter from home. I once calculated that over the years of my work on Facebook I read and responded to more than 2 million comments. 2 million - can you imagine? Even if every 100th of them was negative (although in fact it happened much more often) then during my online life I have at least 20 000 times solved the problem in communicating with my subscribers. That is how many lessons of responding to the negative, I have learned in my life. And now I want to share with you one main rule that helped me all these years. First of all, we must realize that the essence of work with the negative online (and in fact in real life too) are the efforts taken to reduce the quantity of this very kind of work. Unfortunately, this work inevitable but at the same time you don't need this work at all because negativity destroys your inner world, sows doubts and kills your desire to do something. Negative mentality sucks a person into its bog and the people around you notice your negative mood instantly. Nobody will tell you anything, only they will try to stay away from you - both your Facebook subscribers and your customers in the coffee shop. Positive is a magnet and negative is radiation that kills all life around you. This is why all negative management efforts should seek to resolve the situation immediately and get all negative consequences out of your life. This approach underpins my main rule: "There is no 3rd chance". Let me explain right away. In all my disputes on social networks I strictly forbade myself to write more than 2 responses to each negative comment. This means that I must terminated my dispute or conversation with a person before such person sends me his 3rd comment. And I assure you, I succeed in it in 99% of cases. I have developed a real strict pattern of dealing with negative comments on Facebook. As soon as I come across such a comment, I begin to run my own internal test which I call "the License to Kill". I weigh the degree of negativity of this message against primary factors such as whether it contains obscenities or direct insults in my address. If the answer is "yes" I delete the comment immediately. I don't care what is the topic of the discussion and it doesn't matter what level we have reached up to this moment. Because further dialogue with this person is just impracticable. This is why I don't want to have such a person either among my friends or in my audience. So, I simply immediately ban him, delete the comment and forget about it for good. I swear to you, I forget about it instantly. Because I have many other things to take care of in my life. I select my readers just the way they chose me. This is why I have had such a smart audience. And I decided to protect my readers from insults from others even better than myself. While the use of the obscene vocabulary has today become almost a standard of conversation (in real world I can afford a strong language too) I will never allow such words on my Facebook page. And always firmly and immediately put an end to such attempts. First of all, I act so because I take care of my adequate readers. And I'll tell you that in reality there has never been any single scandal or a hardcore conflict on my page in 10 years. Do not be afraid to delete or ban. Do it wisely, dispassionately and reasonably and don't be afraid of the stereotype according to which comments cannot be deleted. You are not hiding any official documents or correcting financial reports. This is your own page and only you can decide on the code of conduct to be observed there. And the fact that someone dislikes my page absolutely does not upset me. Well, yes, it happens. It's the same with coffee - someone likes it and someone does not. This is my page and I have my own rules. Incidentally, I never participate in debates or disputes on other people's pages. I have enough arguments for 100 commentators but from experience I know that if someone starts an online mess it will last forever. And I just do not have time to engage in nonsense and spend my energy and time on it. This is why I do not care what someone could write about me somewhere. We haven't finished to discuss "The rule of 2 comments" which explains the mentioned slogan "There is no 3d chance". Well, if the first negative comment from some dude contains no direct insults I kind of let him pass to the next stage. In the second round, I need at all costs to finish our correspondence with my response. I can: A) simply ignore his comment, if it does not harm anyone and fits into my system of values. B) I can reply to the comment by softening it. Just so as not to continue a useless conversation. For example, using the phrase that "Tastes differ" or "Well, nothing to do - this is my style of writing..." C) Or I can agree with his statement and thank him for his remark. Which, by the way, happens very often. It cannot be that all negative comments are wrong and you're always right - normal people can also write negative posts. And what is important - such posts may from time to time contain a diamond - either a clue that helps you understand what you're doing wrong, or some brilliant improvement insight. I do my best to carefully follow such things. And I can easily write "I was wrong, sorry" or "You are right, thank you, we'll fix it". Because such people actually do my job helping me improve. I'll tell you more: such comments of mine very often collect even more likes than the original post. Because other readers can see that I am able to admit my mistakes and this always inspires respect. And the last variant of my behavior after the first comment - D) I can respond very aggressively if my position radically differs from the position of my opponent. I can say right away that with the 90% probability the first three variants of my responses will not give rise to an Internet battle about who is right and who is to blame. And with the same probability my tough aggressive answer always means his mandatory response. Anyway , after this response you have to make the final decision - to quit this correspondence (if all negative issues have been resolved) or you can delete the comment and maybe to ban it (which may not be necessarily done simultaneously) Very often the decisive factor for me to ban or not to ban is my fast review of the opponent's profile (it was an American Facebook specialist who once advised me to take such an approach). In some way, which is incomprehensible to me, you will surely find some clue in his profile - a post or a picture which either tells you this person is an alien or on the contrary - something that can wake your sympathy. It is clear that in the first case you say him goodbye forever and in the second case he remains in your flock. Anyway, the rule says that after the 2d comment I have to finish the dialogue. "There is no 3d option". Even if it seems to me that the conversation is not over. I understand that some of you may think that this approach is wrong. Sorry, but I cannot afford to spend my precious time for trash talking with him - I have to have enough time to communicate with my positive and grateful followers. Many people began to believe that life today has become worse. I don't think so. I believe that we just started to learn much more than before. The world became open and transparent. And this means that not only good news but also negative messages started to reach us much faster. The scariest part of the negative is that it deprives us of our inner positive energy and creativity and, thus, it destroys our confidence and our ability to move forward. But without evolution the life of intelligent people is meaningless. Be strong, my friends. And think positive. 23. How to Defeat Robots?: [ Music playing ] In this lesson we will discuss COMMUNICATION, one of the most important topics of the barista job. But we will start from the other side of the problem. There is a website entitled "Will robots take my job?" You enter the name of the profession and the system gives out the percentage of probability that this will happen, that is, that your specialty will become robotic and you will lose the chances of employment. If you enter the word "Barista" on this site the answer will be as follows: "In the profession of barista the probability that you will be replaced by robots in the near future is 96%. In fact, it is not difficult to predict such outcome even without running the test on the site. The baristas will lose to robots tomorrow. Not all of them, but majority. The overwhelming majority of them. Do humans stand a chance? in terms of the brain - I don't think so. Because the artificial intellect is more powerful. They perform millions of operations millions of times faster than us. Moreover, we did not notice the moment when they began to request us to confirm that "You are not a robot"... f it comes to physical strength - in this domain we will lose to the machines too. They can easily lift tons of weight and they don't have headaches. If it comes to dexterity in work - again, we will lose to machines. It is enough to take a look at the robotic coffee houses, exposed at the latest shows and to see how high the demand for these coffee houses is. And how robots are symmetrically making 100 identical servings of coffee in a row. If he is requested to do this many approaches at a time, any barista will inevitably make a mistake. So, it turns out we don't have a chance?.. Yes, in most professions of today's world people do not have chances of survival. Just many of the future unemployed have not realized this yet. But the barista profession has such a chance. Because there is one discipline where robots will not be able to beat us for a long time to come. I speak about a live human communication - when you look in another person's eyes, not in the webcam. When you experience sympathy and compassion, not standard phrases like "Your opinion is important to us". And you can see human emotions instead of emoticons on the screen. Baristas have this chance because our profession implies communication with people. And if you want to win this game it's worth to learn communication skills rather than the art of pouring out a new kind of swan or flower on the surface of coffee drink which the machine will any way make better than you. Today it is already clear what will be the evolution of the profession. The robots will perform the simplest work and only those baristas will survive who can become psychologists and masters of communication, those who have understanding of coffee and human knowledge, and into the bargain are capable to use this knowledge to earn money on it. Because barista is not a hobby or a passion - it is a trade that allows people to make their living. It looks very much as if we are returning to the origins when the demand is again high for such simple human qualities as kindness and ability to give a smile. But in this case let us return in our training to what we have already passed. And my advice to you in this lesson will be very simple: After completing this course, take one of the greatest manuals of our time and communication - Dale Carnegie's book "How to Make Friends and Influence People" and make it as your reference book for the next year. Learn it by heart. You know, I met only a few baristas who really understood the reason for the global success of coffee as a product. And the reason for this is not in the fact that coffee is a tasty or vigorous drink or in some special techniques of its making. First of all, it happened because coffee drinking became an element of communication in the destinies of entire nations. And this is what makes people people. This is why the main conclusion of this lesson is: Learn to communicate, friends! This most valuable quality will undoubtedly soon become the most popular human skill. And the most expensive one. And that means that the barista profession still has a promising future. 24. Question that Doubles Your Sales: [ Music playing ] In this lesson, I will share with you a secret that I learned from a Venetian barista. A true barista. At the beginning of the course, I already mentioned that originally the word "barista" in Italian did not at all mean a person who made coffee. The person behind the counter was called «banconista», the derivative from «banco» which means «bar, counter». To be more precise, earlier this person was even called "macchinista" - "operator, mechanic". Because the one who operated the first coffee makers had to constantly maintain the machine, check the steam pressure, etc. And to be able to work at this place, he needed a stoker certificate allowing to work with boiler equipment rather than a championships participation diploma or a barista certificate. By the way, I am talking about this in detail in my course "Coffee History". It’s a very interesting and, it seems to me, a unique glance of the world history of coffee, and its module called "History of Espresso" is one of the most interesting in the course. But let's get back to the word «barista». In its original sense, it did not mean just «an employee», but «One who owns the bar» or «Manager, owner of the bar». I mentioned this little detail for a reason. Because the owner category always seriously changes a person's attitude to what he is doing. I saw changes in the guys who participated in the first barista championships in my country, and I saw how they grew into owners and developed as individuals and businessmen. So, this Venetian barista, whose bar I visited for 10 years in a row whenever I came to this region, gave me advice that I want to share with you. I asked him: “Why do clients come to your establishment for so many years?" What is so special, apart from a cup of espresso, that they find in your bar?» He smiled and said to me: "They come because I know one MAGIC question." I was all ears in the anticipation of the magic and some secret formula. What question? - I ask him. He says: A really simple one. «HOW ARE YOU?» Many times after this being in the Franco's bar, (Franco is the name of my friend), I followed him and noticed, that he really always started with the same thing: "Ciao, come va?" "Hello, how are you doing, how are things with you?» And then begins the real fun. The client begins to describe him "how are his things", loading them like on a tray. Of course, these are Italians - they like nothing better than small talk. But in other tourist places in Italy, I also saw other establishments - where the waiter asks you "How do you like our food?," but he himself indifferently stares at the bill or at other tables, and I understand that he doesn't give a damn about how I liked their food - he just follows the instructions. And Franco, when I watched him meet his customers for the last time, during one hour, has never pronounced "Ciao, come va" with the same intonation. Never. It was either in the form of a shout to his client, a football fan, or in the form of a greeting to a family, when he simultaneously held out a lollipop as a gift for their little daughter. The same phrase, but articulated in a very respectful manner, he addressed to an old signora. And when I popped in his establishment, he greeted me like old friend, whom he hadn't seen for ages. And he never repeated himself. When you say something sincerely - you get the same thing in return. In fact, this does not require much, but clients appreciate such attitude so much. I hope that you will make use of this advice, friends. And remember that the bar counter between you and the client is not a border or a dividing barrier. It is a connecting puzzle of human communication. And barista-psychologist, by the way, is another possible profession in the nearest future. 25. Age is Not an Obstacle.: [ Music playing ] We are close to the end of our course. In the last but one lesson, I want to once again address the senior people and make one important emphasis. In the 90s of the last century, when the Soviet Union collapsed, I watched a huge number of people change their old professions - teachers opened retail kiosks, doctors opened pharmacy chains, and engineers started computer and video halls. I do not really approve of this - it is much better to work in the profession that you studied at the institute. But since life makes its own adjustments, crises do not have time to follow each other, and professions disappear faster, than books of fiction are published, all we can do is to realize that the world has changed and it does not follow any clear cut rules any more. To realize that we should become mobile at any age, learn new things fast, without fear of any technology, every day acquiring some new skill and forgetting some old one. But in reality those decisive people, who began to act, were a minority then. 90% of adults lost self-reliance, incomprehensible future paralyzed their will and minds that were far from the weakest. Today I have a "deja vu" - a feeling that I have already seen everything that is happening, but at some other level. The same situation with middle-aged and older people, the same chaos, but today this happens not within the Soviet Union, but all over the globe. Someone, regardless of his age, begins to study the Internet, graphic design and programming, but most people of older ages believe that they will not keep up with new technologies and just give up waiting for retirement and pension. I admit, I am very upset with this situation. Because I do not only see any reason for them to give up, but vice versa - I sincerely believe that the time is coming for such people. For middle-aged and older people who have life experience and communication skills, for those who have patience, wisdom and willingness to work and to stay loyal. All you need to do is to overcome the fear of the future, to be ready to change, and then you should go ahead. Listen, you have a full advantage over the previous generations. In all positions. All of them. With the exception of self-confidence. Someone wisely said: «We met the enemy, and this enemy is us». Do you know that pilots (which is one of the highest paid professions in the world) have the qualification criterion called «flying hours». So, explain to me why the flying hours are counted in experience, and the number of years lived - that is, in fact - the hours that you spent in communication with other people - is not perceived as an advantage?.. Indeed, the ability to communicate (with clients or with colleagues) is the most important possible human experience. be it communication in the office or from behind the bar counter. Well, then remove from this experience the patterns that you acquired with it - and start actively exploiting your age. And this experience will bring you the money. And, please, immediately begin to replace the word "Age", which you are ashamed of with the most valuable word "Experience". And very soon your market price will be higher than that of any beginner barista. Let me tell you a story, that happened a few months ago when I was returning home from Sicily, and stayed for a day in Rome to shoot a video about historical cafes of the Eternal City. One of these coffee houses is located near the Pantheon, it is called «Sant'Eustachio». I pop in, order a coffee, and this coffee is prepared for me by a grand-dad who seems to be at least 80 years old. Half-jokingly I say to him: «Signor must have worked here from the very opening?» And he answers me in all seriousness: No, I'm on a trial period - I have worked for 2 weeks only!.. I'll tell you honestly, I was at a loss. The man remained as cool as a cucumber while he made my coffee. And, while I recovered from realization of the age of this beginner barista, he had the time to make coffee for two other dozens of customers. Just like this. And he was as cool and confident as a rock. He has already seen everything in this life. Listen, if it can be done by an 80-year-old Italian who is not afraid to learn new things. Well then, you, still young and active, have nothing to be afraid of. So, my dear fellows, please, get down to work. 26. "Just Do It" is not a Slogan.: [ Music playing ] The last lesson of our course will be very short. I will give you one and only advice in it. I am sure, you are well familiar with the Nike's slogan that says «Just Do It». But for me, it is not a slogan. It is the motto of my life. For already more than 30 years, there has been been a small picture on my desktop. It has all faded over the years, but not for a second has it lost its meaning to me. It says: «The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is that small extra-effort». This is the extra-effort that distinguishes determined successful people from losers who lose self-reliance and self confidence. One wise person taught me that if you take just one step forward every day, then you will go far within one year. In the times when all reference points are lost (such as today), it’s the only means to survive and to achieve something. This is why, if I were asked to give a single fundamental piece of advice in life, I would say: Just do it. Right now. Whatever you choose or invent - everything will start only when you start DOING something. Do not doubt, but just do it. And you'll see that your life starts to acquire a new meaning, your work has goals, and your revenues are slowly but steadily turning into a fast flow of cash. Do not stop believing and start doing things. Just do it. I assure you, in this life Everything is just beginning. 27. Afterword. About Next Courses.: [ Music playing ] Well then, my friends, our Anti-Crisis Barista course has come to the end. We have figured out what Speciality coffee is and what should you do not to miss the next coffee wave. Now we know how to be unique and how to cooperate with colleagues. How you should count other people's money so that a part of it goes to you, and how to turn supplier into a partner. We learned how to deal with trends, and how to test new products. What should barista do in the Internet, and how to prevent the negative from killing your initiative. Finally now we know exactly how to fight with robots in the 21st century, and what is the main secret of communication. I hope that the knowledge you acquired will come in handy in your future work in the world of coffee. For my part, I thank you for your patience and hope that my training course was comprehensible and interesting, and that you liked it. If so, then I ask you to leave here your opinion about it. I am sure it will help other people to assess the quality of the knowledge suggested in this course, and to evaluate my work as a teacher. And for me your feedback is very important as an indicator of how well my lessons are composed and to what extent useful and interesting they were to you. Also, please, do send any of your thoughts, comments and suggestions. I always answer all questions. So I remain at your full disposal. I invite you to attend my next courses including "The History of Coffee" and "The Botany of Coffee." I strongly recommend them to you. They are really simply unique - both in content and in form. I will also be happy to see you on my YouTube channel COFFEE EXPERT Sergio Reminny. and my entertaining coffee page on Facebook. Thank you again for your time and attention, my dear friends, and I hope to see you soon!