SPEAKER_00 0:02

Cool. I think we are all set then. And perfect. So after we're done recording, I'll do an intro separately because it's weird to do an intro when you're sitting here. And and like we've talked about before, very conversational. I feel like it's just like a gabin, just chatting, all that good stuff. Um but let's start off with how did you find the coffee industry? And then also let's lead that right into um the background before raise the barn.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Okay. Yeah. Um, hi. My way into coffee started kind of a long time ago, passively. I grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, and I really always enjoyed like hanging out in coffee houses. That was kind of like cafes, that was like the place to go. Um and hang out with friends, and they weren't specialty, they were more like you know, cold brew and red pull, share a menu type of place, but really great couches, really, really sweet people and baristas. And um at the time, I also um was studying Spanish. That was like the other language you could learn at school, and I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica in high school, and that was what put me on to coffee period to start with, because I that was probably the first time I tried regular plain filtered coffee, and it was so delicious, and I loved it so much that it kind of stayed with me ever since then, and even after I had like started a whole career in corporate advertising and in marketing, um when it came to a head and I got pretty burned out from uh working in that environment. I thought about just what I enjoy and thought about coffee and the coffee industry. At the time I was in New York and I just tried applying to Starbucks. I actually didn't hear back from them, and uh coincidentally, uh my partner was from Arkansas, so uh we were like, hey, let's just move out of the city, we'll go to Arkansas, collect ourselves a bit, and go from there. And his younger brother was like, I work at a really cool coffee shop, they teach you a lot um about coffee and how to prepare it, and also where it comes from. And I went and interviewed at Onyx Coffee Lab and became a barista there. And little did I know all that that meant for me later on, um, but that's my coffee industry origin story.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Oh, crazy that you went from applying to Starbucks, not hearing back, and then going to, I'm pretty sure Onyx was named like the best coffee shop in the US this year, right? And like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah. Yeah. It's like a textbook example of like when one door closes, another one opens. And I certainly had no idea at the time, but um certain like now looking back, I'm like, wow, how lucky, how lucky was I and fortunate that that was the situation.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, that's it is like exactly that story where I remember one of my best friends in high school worked at Starbucks and I was so jealous that she could work there. And I feel like it might have been a similar situation where I'm like, I don't think they called me back. I never interviewed with Starbucks, but I was always jealous of like her green apron. Yeah, like completely different side of coffee, but it sticks with you. Starbucks, I I feel like with our generation has made such a pivotal impact on the starting of coffee.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Oh, totally, yeah. The advent of the rabbicino, the mocha chippuccino.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

I loved the just talking about this. I don't think I have it anymore. Not that I think it sucks, but I'm like, they should bring back the mocha chip. Yeah, yeah. Well, how long were you had onics for?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Oh, good question. I think in the end it was four and a half years. I was a barista for um a year and a half, and then started becoming part of the leadership team as a shift lead and then manager and or assistant manager, and then helped to open um a beautiful, at the time, new cafe that was all pink and all transparent. So the whole like the mop bar was clear, everything was glass. There was a lot of cleaning, um, but it was beautiful, still is, it's at the momentary. Um, and then they opened right when the pandemic started, and so it was kind of like fun opening and then immediate wind down of all in-person activities, and I became the e-commerce director for Onyx after that. Um, kind of started as some like social media work and email content work, and then a lot of things in the world kind of transitioned to um, you know, ordering online and figuring out how to make coffee at home as close as possible to your cafe experience. And that was pretty cool, uh, at least to me, because it was a combination of the like ad and marketing original background I had with the hospitality that I was learning in all the service aspects um of being on bar and just combining those and seeing how it kind of uh plays out digitally for for people. But it was a pretty, pretty cool time to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah, definitely a lot of learning happened through the pandemic. Love the sinus infection, love it. Um it is also interesting your story within onyx of starting as a barista and then working through all of those different layers and maybe the pandemic opening other doors for you again, just to learn more about. I mean, it's really a crash course that happened in the coffee industry of people figuring out how to do all this at home, especially from this level. Like, I feel like every specialty coffee shop had to figure out how to make things work. Otherwise, unfortunately, a lot of them ended up closing because they couldn't make it work. So I was like, crash course immediately. Now you have to figure this out.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Looking back, I mean, it adds to your resume quite a bit, but in the time it was so scary. Like, what are we all gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 7:45

It was, yeah. I remember we were doing like like week weekly kind of stuff meals and things to kind of um support everybody as as much as possible because nobody knew how long it would be going on for, and yeah, quite quite a time of transition, but it uh kind of ties into raise the bar because I think in that time I really thought a lot about education and how important that is because people just generally have curiosity and an appetite for it, and uh it's just about like meeting people where they're at with what they're wanting to learn. And when I even think about like growing up in North Carolina and Castonia, which somebody correct me if I am wrong, but in the times I've been back to Castonia, the the scene hasn't changed that much. Um versus like in New York, not being able to get an opportunity with Starbucks versus going all the way to Arkansas to then find an amazing opportunity to learn just kind of shows and has shown me that you know it takes a little bit of the right time and right place and people sometimes to find that opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Yeah, and maybe like the unexpected places of where to find it too. Like I I would assume, like New York, you have so many opportunities to learn, but sometimes it is going to those smaller states or smaller cities that are like, well, this is actually all we focus on. Yeah. Even then, like there are those small communities that like know they're kind of stuck in that bubble that maybe the only thing. It's interesting about raise the bar because I feel like when I first heard about it, I was like, Oh, that's so important. Like oftentimes the industry forgets the baristas or forgets education throughout the whole supply chain. And like, what are the that need to be filled? And creating something that feels approachable from the outside, I think is so important.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Do you think with Raise the Bar it was kind of this idea of like I had all this opportunity for education? And like, how do I pivot that into other areas that I'm seeing a missing spot?

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Yeah, a part of that um is about reaching like into more places and spaces, and another part of that is just from the pandemic like period, I kind of transitioned from being on the bar to you know being on a whole different side of the business and in in a different part of the business. And in that transition, um, I just noticed how differently like teams and and businesses operate. Sometimes it can be really separated from like, hey, I'm I'm a barista right now and I'm learning all these things, but maybe I'm interested in other things that are going on over here and just not sure how to like bridge that gap. Um, but where I was at, I had some really great managers and mentors along the way who were awesome. They were around in the industry a little bit longer. Maybe they some of them had judged before at a competition or been to some like latte art throwdowns, which I had never heard of before. And they were just amazing people who would, you know, show up with bags of coffee from other roasters, encourage everybody to try them all, and like ask you what you thought about it, what you were tasting, and just lift you up and bring you into the conversation. And during the pandemic, many of them who were very passionate and interested in kind of like you know, learning to roast or learning to source or learning to QC ended up just pivoting out of the coffee industry altogether. And a little bit of um that is also an inspiration for Raise the Bar because it's about um creating more space and more connection so that anybody anywhere can get connected to mentors, and there's so many people on both sides of it, like who are hungry to learn, hungry to teach. And yeah, it's like the connecting piece.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I mean, I think in the coffee industry, the most successful people are the people that always think of themselves as students and like always trying to learn and grab and see what else you can take on. But I do also think it's exciting to see that there's educators and people that maybe haven't educated in the past, but like from your experience, it's like showing people how you can include more people in the story and help people find their passion. And just imagine like if those mentors and those managers didn't exist, like maybe you would have been a barista for a couple of years and then just like moved on from coffee. And now you've network where like other people can be involved because you had that first, and I think it's a great reminder for people that are in that leadership role too, that like you don't have to be scared of people that are below you, but try to bring them with you because who knows what they're gonna do for the industry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

And now having been in the industry for seven or eight years, like I'm even surprised sometimes when I realize like I've I've impacted or somewhat been an inspiration to other people, and I'm always so thrilled to find out about that, but don't even realize it sometimes. And um I think that is another great reason for raise the bar to um just have more opportunities for other people to step into those roles too.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

So Raise the Bar has an event called Level Up, and this is your first year was last year, there's a second year coming up in September. But outside of Level Up, what else could someone expect from Raise the Bar if they didn't know about it before?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Oh, yeah, yeah. So Raise the Bar is the nonprofit organization. It represents everything related to access to coffee, education, mentorship, uh, community, and basically a space that everyone is as welcome in and um and safe in. And we think that learning uh can be you know quality uh skills and and and learning and it can be fun. So that uh is the the overview of Raise the Bar. Um and level up is our in-person kind of two-day, two and a half day, I guess, um barista like camp type of environment for it because it makes a difference when you get to be together in person with people and you know, actually pouring or tinkering with equipment. And after we put it on last year, we had so much fun and people were so excited about the environment, the space, the the workshops that Sandra Lofborough, our director of education, mapped out a whole plan for uh raise a bar to launch a Patreon, which started at in January of 2026, uh, to continue that style of education. And each month on our Patreon, we've been focusing on different themes from our same four toolkits, which are meant to uh support people with a more holistic education for their career in coffee. And so that includes like the first kit being about barcraft and skills, a lot of the tangible parts of things, the second part being people and hospitality, so about service and um communication in a lot of ways, and then the third kit being about uh growth and leadership, because so many people do move into leadership roles, but I think there's a lot to consider from a uh like career standpoint and how to approach that in coffee, and also like management and how to be a good manager, or things you might want to consider depending on like the structure of the workplace that you're at. And then a fourth toolkit that's about deep coffee knowledge, depending on whether anybody's really interested in a different pathway in coffee like roasting or green buying or something else altogether. And the Patreon is I think slowly becoming less of a secret, but it's it is a great resource because the way that every month we've had um one or two incredible guest educators come and share what they know, and there's usually a QA session, which is a pretty fun just conversation, and we get into the cautionary tales and lore of the industry. It's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

I feel like there's also, isn't there a free tier in the Patreon? It's like incredibly accessible for people.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Yes, there is. So the free tier is uh where you can join all the like live sessions and everything, and then the paid tiers are all designed to support the uh raise the bar programming and scholarships for level up, but they involve being able to access like any of the recordings from the past and even archive drops from workshops that we recorded at uh level up 2025. And then there's also one-on-one mentorship opportunities in those levels if you want to be involved in that way or have um a little bit of one-on-one time to talk about where you're at.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

That's really cool. Because I do think that something more recently on Tiny Sidecar, I was like, what is people what do people want to learn and who do you want to learn from as far as like where you're at in the coffee world? Because I do think there's a lot of people that follow and listen to Tiny Sidecar that the reason why they do is because they feel isolated from the larger coffee community. And it really comes back to, I feel like I found this time and time again in coffee. It's like, who do you know? And who can you connect with? How can you find education? Who can mentor you? Who do you really like follow along with? And like kind of where does your heart lie with that person and that person's goals? Because there's so many different directions you can go in coffee.

unknown 19:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

But it's like once you find that person that you're like, they've done it before you and they're able to give you some perspective on how they did it, it's like a complete game change as far as where you can go with your own career. But until people find that person or even know that they that exists, I feel like it can feel really overwhelming to be like, oh, I didn't even know green buying existed. Like, what is green buying? Like these like questions, if you're all on your own, can seem so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I totally remember um working on the bar in the early days, and you know, they were Onyx works with so many different people, and they would come in and they were like, I'm a buyer, and I'm like, Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

What do you need? Like a coffee. Would you like to buy a coffee? Yeah, yeah. I think um I love that the Patreon is becoming something where it also I'm assuming that it's people that have been to level up or thinking about going to level up and just getting more excited about raise the bar that they can also connect to the people that they met the previous year as well.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Yeah, there's a fun mix because many people started on the Patreon from being attendees of Level Up last year, uh, but it has kind of just continued to pick up some new followers here and there. And it was so encouraging to be at Coffee Fest New York earlier this year, uh, because Raise the Bar was invited to uh show up and do raise the bar things at each of the festivals. And when we thought about that, we were like, well, mentorship is kind of the biggest opportunity we see in this space. There are so many phenomenally uh like just experienced coffee people at the show, and I think a challenge of the show can sometimes be uh like learning how to network or get to that person you want to talk to and ask a question you might normally not get to ask until. Later on, if you remember to follow up, that kind of a thing. So we showed up to the Coffee Fests and organized uh like a mentorship speed connections type of activity, kind of like speed dating, but it's a bunch of mentors, and you go through them spending five or seven minutes with each of them. And we also provide uh like question guides so that the idea is you can um skip past the how's the weather chat and get right into it. Ask about getting a raise or um like money questions or burnout related questions or uh actually like how do you move into the next step of a career or job at the same shop? Those types of conversations and questions. And uh going back to how I started here, uh the person at Coffee Fest New York, who was one of the mentees, came up to us and said they discovered and came to this event because of our Patreon. I was so thrilled to hear that. And they had just become a shift lead at the shop they're working at and had found it really encouraging to be able to work through uh some of the past like different resources, extra educational resources, news recaps, and just I think that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Yeah, that's such a hip. That's such a nice feeling to know, like, oh, it is working. Like, this is one person that's coming up to me and telling me that these resources I've pulled together are working. Are there other experiences in the last year that you were like, this was worth it? This was worth all the work to put it all together and bring people together. I'm seeing it work.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, I think honestly, each time we show up in person at a space, I'm encouraged to see how many people have either heard of Race the Bar or Level Up or are super interested in finding out more about it. And one of the more recent examples would be at World of Coffee in San Diego back in April, because we were showing up there after some months after level up 2025. So it'd been a while since we were back up in a coffee space with so many people, and raise the bar ended up hosting an intro to cupping session, like for total beginners or even people who had never cupped before, uh, the day before the event, and then a decompression session hangout after the whole show concluded. And so many people showed up to both of these events because you know, as a nonprofit, we always do our best to organize as well as we can. But at the end of the day, we all work remotely, and uh you know, you plan everything, create the event, put it out there, and then find out who actually shows up. But it was awesome to see everybody who came through, and yeah, uh it's it's really, really impactful anytime anybody um takes away like some encouragement or inspiration or or ideas from level up and raise the far events. I think it even fills us up too. So it's a win-win.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

100%. I think it's very validating to see like I thought this thing needed to happen for our industry and I saw this whole, and now like all these people are coming and supporting this idea that we had. Um, I think I think that's the cool part is knowing, like, yeah, this is very obvious that this needed to be here. It kind of reminds me of, I don't know if you've had these conversations, but my team at the roasting company talks about it a lot of others, basic things of like how to invest your money, how to, I don't know, sign up for a credit card or stay out of debt, or like all these like full conversations. They're like, why wasn't that a class in high school? Like, why wasn't that just like basic knowledge that we all were taught? Or like how to do your taxes, whatever it might be. And this kind of feels like the exact same thing, but for the coffee industry. Like, yeah, here are the other things that exist in here. Here are the ways that like the basic things that I'm like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That we should all be talking about this and how to like how to take care of yourself. A decompression session that sounds wonderful after a world of coffee. It's such a world. Please, like someone sit me down and tell me to stop drinking coffee. Um, so I think it's cool to see that it's really validated by just support within the industry as well. I guess if you're looking at five years from now, what do you think is what would be like that's a successful five years for me?

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Ooh, what a great question. Do you have a five-year dream for raise the bar and uh and level up? Because as soon as we announced the first level up, you would not believe how many people immediately reached out asking for us to try to put it on in their area. And that included cities across the US and internationally as well. And I think that really shows the appetite that people have in the industry for this type of space where it it really is an event that's just dedicated to education and and learning and connection and and doing that hands-on. Um, and in five years, if we could bring the event to all those different cities and places, I think that would be huge. But we'll see how it goes because our flip side of being able to do any of the events is that we are totally committed to paying our educators. We think that accessibility and affordability of the education and event is really, really key and important, especially for knowing that it's geared towards newer people in the industry and people who are working on an hourly rate. And so we have worked to make the tickets um as easy as possible, where we are just fundraising to bring the cost of the education down. We bundle it up with lodging and meals, so as much as we can possibly uh coordinate together for that whole weekend to make it easier for the attendee. We try to do. And yeah, I think that's the the sustainable vision uh for growing over the five years, so that nobody's like getting burned out along the way of building this space.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Yeah, the soft sustainability is important so that it doesn't crash. But there were so many like subtle flux uh flexes that you just said, like paying educators for one. Like so many times when people are asked to speak at an event or like speak on a panel, like rarely are you paid to do so, or like even having your like ticket comp or something like that, like it's not widely experienced in the coffee industry. So I think setting that foundation as well of like who raise the bar is and who you want to be to the industry and going against other industry standards, I think is really cool. And how like subtly you're like, we pay our educators and how someone might think like that's not in the coffee industry, or maybe as an educator, is like, well, of course you would, but it really doesn't happen that often within the industry.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Yeah, I was a little surprised to learn that, and yeah, that is a big focus for us. I think between myself and Rachel Apple, one of the other co-founders, and Sandra Loofborough, another co-founder. Uh, we've all we're all so passionate about sharing what we know, and at the same time, in order for the travel to be possible and for the quality of education to be good and to commit to all those different spaces and dates, um, that that uh being paid is what makes it possible and housed in bed and all those things. So um, but we were able to do it, so we just need to try again and and and get the ball rolling for the next five years.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah. What are you most excited about for this year of level up?

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Ooh, I think for this year of level up, I might be most excited about being back at Mill City Roachers.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

I've had a lot of people ask where it's gonna be this year, and last year was our first year, and it is uh always really exciting to plan another event at the same space, but also their team is absolutely amazing. Um, Minneapolis is a dream, it's so beautiful, easy to get around, um vibrant culturally, and it was a great location because people could relatively easily get there, and their facility is really, really nice. It was a perfect, beautiful fall weekend, and excited to be back there. Excited that we also have Friday deep dive intensive workshops that are an optional add-ons level up because people were so excited about uh three different workshop classes from the first year that they were we just need more time with the subjects, which is understandable because it's sensory skills, technician skills, and the business of the cafe skills. So obviously all really big topics that are challenging to cover in an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. And yeah, this fall we'll have those classes at um different places around the city as well. So it'll be it'll be kind of fun to bop around a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah, Minneapolis in the fall is so beautiful too. Like the Midwest in the fall is gorgeous, so gorgeous location. I really love the technician workshop. I feel like when do you get to learn that? Never. And even if you like reach out, my personal experience, I mean, I've talked to you about my broken roaster, but I've reached out to the like roasting company. I'm like, is there education online that I can go into? I also have a professional level certification from SEA for roasting. And even in that, I'm like, the amount that we went over, the actual roaster is so little, or like a brewer, like there's so much equipment that the more you know like the basics on it, like that's so helpful. Or even how to clean a machine, like so like cleaning a machine isn't even readily available. Eat it up. Like, that is like the way to keep all of your stuff so healthy and good. And it's a huge valuable asset in the industry because so many people don't know.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

I mean, even last year in kind of the uh shorter workshop time frame, there's conversations around like how to pick up the phone to call a tech and communicate like effectively about what's going on, right? Because that in itself could be something that changes the speed of uh you know your service and whether everything can get resolved so you can keep going or if you have to close up the shop that day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

I mean, it is the little things that I mean, so many times in the coffee industry, my experience is that someone's like, Yeah, you kind of have to live it. And then once you learn it, you learn it. But just imagine if you didn't have to live at first and you knew, like, hey, if my machine's acting weird, I should take a video right away and send the video. Like that's gonna make it faster. Or like buddies with a tech from whatever company that your machine is, also is very, very helpful. The way that they treat you versus other people is different. Um, I love that you guys have that. That is so cool. From the basics to like any higher up education, I think it's so great. But also, like sometimes you do just need the basics of like who you call and how you talk to them and how you explain what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Totally. Yeah. Some of that was a conversation too about like, can this uh class or workshop be even more 101? Which is amazing. I love to get that kind of feedback because that just shows like that is still a gap.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Yeah. Are there any other things that were feedback from level up or Patreon or any part of Rais the Bar that you were like surprised, almost that maybe you had forgotten yourself that that information isn't readily available or that people don't know?

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Oh, that's a good question. I so this one it's not surprising, but it is one that has stayed with me because I lived it myself. I was so curious about competitions, and and now I've been a sensory judge and a head judge for the U.S. Barista competitions for the last couple of seasons and years. But prior to that, I was just on the outside looking in, wondering, curious, not sure where to go, how to get started, what page to follow, even. And when once I feel like I forget that once you're in it for a while, you know, the acronyms get easy to start using, and and it's it's really it's really easy to just for forget, I guess, or um not take that extra step to like point somebody to exactly where they can be invited into the fold to learn more about that. Um yeah, I thought that was really, really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

It is, I feel like there's so many levels of coffee where it's kind of the same story. Like when you're barista, you probably don't know a lot about roasting unless roasting's in the same building as you. And even if you're a roaster, like you might not know a lot about like the management business side of it or importing, exporting, whatever it might be. Um, and then I think a lot of us that primarily work in consuming countries don't know a lot about what happens at producing countries. And finding that first step, like you're talking about, I would have no idea if I wanted to become a judge how I would go about doing that or like looking into it.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

There's just like you know, you could be an amazing judge and just have all the qualities of the type of person who uh is really interested in calibrating with other people, or you uh really interested in knowing the details of a technical score sheet and what to look for. Some people are just made for it, to be honest. And yeah, I 100% agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Like some people are not good at calibrating, some people are, some people love that stuff, some people don't. It almost is like making me think about if there was a personality test that you gave coffee people, like, oh, you're like obsessed with the coffee industry. Great, take this personality test, and like you would be an excellent XYZ. Like that would be really fun. Like, maybe I don't remember like the magazines, but I just remember there was all of those like personality tests that you could take. Honestly, I think it would be really fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

We should do that, that would be really fun together. Yes, be like a level a little magazine, a magazine activity or program last year was a zine in partnership with Coffee People Zine. And if anybody wants to grab it, it's available on Coffee People Zine's website because maybe I made a crossword slash uh word search hint, which is in the back of it.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Oh, that's very fun. It is, I love the zine that you guys put together in the yearbook. I just think like there's something really special about how raise the bar and level up our, it's like building community, not just education. Like it feels like an incredibly safe space for people to like be themselves and ask the right questions. But I think we also forget, unless you don't like feel comfortable talking to someone, you're not gonna ask them a question that you might think is like dumb, right? Like if I didn't feel comfortable with you, I probably wouldn't be like, Yeah, I don't know how to do that either, you know? Um so I think that that's also really important that people that are showing up to these events are like, oh yeah, they're not here to like make fun of me or remind me how little I know. Like they're here to like build me up and help me feel comfortable with understanding and learning what I actually need to know, which I think is super special.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

And some of it is filling up, filling in some of the gaps in the earlier like chapters of the coffee industry that are even the last five years, 10 years ago, because so many people have kind of paved the way for where we all are at today. And even as I continue to participate and facilitate and organize in the Patreon, one of our um our first guests of this year was Trish Rothgimp. And Trish, Trish knows so much and so many stories over the years. I was like, oh my gosh, I need to go and read into all these different new things now. And I should have already and learned about them, but you know, there's not not really like a handbook to it all. So um, yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot of dots to connect.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

The lore, as you explained earlier, like it's just a like all of the different little connection points. Even when I was in New York, I went to lunch with Christina, and she uh was like, Do you know this coffee lore? Do you know this coffee lore? And I was like, Christina, you are a walking encyclopedia for New York coffee. Like, how do you know about all this stuff?

SPEAKER_02 41:50

We should totally also do like Jeopardy or something.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

I think that would be great. But I while you were talking about that, I'm like, yeah, there's all of like the like legacy stories and these incredible things that have happened over decades, but also like to your point, the pandemic changed so much so fast. And so did social media and how we communicate with each other, like all the things that we talk about and communication with other things outside of coffee, but even like what's happened since 2020 in the coffee industry, there's so much to learn, and so many people like stepping out and trying new things, and it's it's pretty incredible. I wonder how different some of the education sources from like SCA would be. Like, I took them all, I think in 2020. So, like right when the pandemic was I'm curious now that we're talking about it, like how different that actually is if the material has changed much, because so much I would assume some of it, but like research and stuff takes a while. And I think some of this kind of education is really like learning from other people that have experienced it versus the larger history and research on it. But it's got my brain thinking. I mean, raise the bar is it's giving people that real-time education, but it is curious to see how much like the SCA could be lagging behind and the other side of it, not to back up.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Well, yeah, well in any way, but it's structured in a different way, whereas you know, we invite different guests, so we have you know more potentially like seasonal or topical, depending on what the topic is. Um but I will say the other thing that's special about level up, it's it really is geared especially towards baristas or even people who are just really curious about coffee and maybe like home baristas or home brewers. A couple of attendees last year um were kind of from that world and got to learn to pour latte.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

art you know which is great and what a good space to get to learn that um because I think having a class really tailored to you specifically and like what how it relates to being on the bar it's different it's a hundred percent different it absolutely um I know that we both attended the women powered coffee summit by Bean Voyage and that was my first experience where it was like really a women focused event right whole life and so even though I haven't been to level up I know how impactful that was for me as a woman being seen in a different way I can only imagine as a barista especially like the company I work for like we're a roasting company first a cafe second and so our baristas they only get so much from us from the roasting side because they're like two separate buildings to be able to like sit down in a room where it's like no this is for you and about you and like everyone around you is here to support you both from like the education side but also the other people attending like that the specificness of that is really important.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

It was really cool to see that many of the attendees last year were uh people who were in positions of like training or educating at their respective shops that they worked at they took so many notes and I can't wait to hear from them or see them again because they were really really excited to get to bring that back and you know I mean I know different places and different cafes and roasteries like they all have different education but it is hard to build in that much time for that much education covering so many different topics.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

So we would love to fill that gap would you say that a lot of the attendees were in more of a training or management role even at like the barista like there were still working baristas but maybe they were like a lead baristas.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Yes I would say I know that we had over a majority of our attendees were current working baristas and then many other people shared their like titles kind of also part-time in QC or also part-time learning to roast or also becoming an educator so it was like both and and then many people were also managers but also still baristas on the shift if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 46:50

Also like what a hack for the actual cafe like I know there's no way that we would be able because it's not just the two and a half days of like dedicated time to do the education it is all of the work that you guys do year round to provide the education like you have built-in educators in your cafe that that's all they're doing. And so as a cafe to be able to be like okay I'm gonna send my lead or someone that's really passionate about coffee to this event they're gonna get education for two and a half days they're gonna come back probably more passionate probably more excited probably with just a lot more knowledge about how the business works like that's a hack for any cafe to do that.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Like it's so smart that person I mean I'm just thinking now and reminiscing on if I had as a barista at the time gone to a camp like this and taken the uh signature beverages creativity class with Morgan Eckroth and Layla Gumbari learning how to like ideate and for formulate like the concept of a drink but also break down the cogs so that it is actually realistic for a shop to bring it into the menu dang that would have been so fun and so interesting where that could have led yeah it is cool to know that so how many people attended last year how many people come to level up so last year we had enough spaces planned for 80 people and I think by the time of the event there was just like one or two people who ended up not being able to make it for one reason or another and we also had 20% of our tickets um fundraising to cover scholarships for people who who need that extra support to be able to join in because we think that's also really important. And we have that same goal for this year and in the future if we can keep 20 to 25% of our tickets totally like reserved for scholarship attendees that would be that would be huge to us to have those opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Could you just imagine though let's say like half of them stay in coffee and half of this experience at the barista level and maybe they become just incredible baristas and that's our whole career is just being like an incredible barista. Yeah but just imagine what like 40 different dreams that could come and that's only if half of them continue on right like if there's all of them continue on and have like these incredible dreams. Because like one of the reasons why raise the bar exists is because you had great mentors that help show you the coffee industry. And now you've created something where more people have these great mentors and have these experiences. It's like crazy to me to think about what those 40 to 80 people are doing five years from now and like how different the industry like it's so fun to think about like what coffee or what drinks they'll make or if they start roasting companies or maybe they start nonprofits or like anywhere they go. Like really exciting to think like in the least you inspired 80 people and who knows where they're gonna take that with coffee and who knows how different the coffee industry will be because this exists. It's like really I'm having like a dreamer's dream kind of moment. Like what are they gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 50:39

I can even add to it because we are really interested in that too um and as an organization um we want to gather up as much data about that as we can because we are seeking grants and like funds from other industries and um organizations that are focused on like career growth and and and we want to make a case for that to be applied to coffee and and specifically service in coffee you know and I think there is a case for that and even in our kind of six month survey I think a hundred percent of the respondents from that have had a change in their career or mentorship situation that's positive got to a next step or achieved like a goal that they had set for themselves since the end of level up which is really great and I can't remember off the top of my head the exact number but I know one of the other factoids was um about their confidence in negotiating pay and I think it was like over 20% of them were feeling more confident about that which is huge to me because I think that's a that can be tricky but it is so important to be able to do.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Yes. Yeah as someone that I have a team underneath me and the way that I see people negotiate pay or how they negotiate pay specifically gender to gender I think is very interesting but also even within that when people talk about like asking me for a raise or coming to me to talk about their money they're so nervous and I I feel very strongly that I am like let's have it be as chill of a conversation as possible. Like what do you need? What are you asking for? I'm here to listen I know not all managers are like that, but it is one of the hardest things that I think people do where they're like I've been wanting to have this conversation for three months and like we should have had it three months ago then yeah it's okay we can talk about this I want you to be happy in your role and how much you make but this is massive for people to learn that's so cool. Yeah that's so cool. We have a little bit of time left is there anything that we haven't talked about yet that you are excited about in specific to raise the bar or level up or something that we missed?

SPEAKER_02 53:22

Hmm I think we've talked about a lot of exciting things already um but I could share that we have some really fun monthly fundraisers that we are putting together and they all feature amazing brands and people that we really want to highlight in coffee and all of those um those donations will go towards like supporting the next cohort of scholarship attendees at level up so follow us at raise the bar underscore coffee for more information about those and yeah come to level up this fall it's gonna be amazing and tickets are already available on live right yes you can find them on our website which is raise dash the dash bar dot coffee or from many of our channels uh there's links to to the website and to the ticketing page and yeah like I said they include the the education the the room and lodging and all the meals of the weekend so you really just have you have to show up maybe pick out a friend for a roommate and um have a good time yeah it sounds incredible I'm I'm so excited for year two and I'm so excited for the community you're building I also think definitely in the least checking out your Patreon because there are so many amazing resources like maybe you can't swing going to level up this year but like Patreon is right at your computer I feel like it's really cool yes like you're just making it so accessible for people to continue and whatever career path you want to continue on.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

And I think it's really really cool especially because you guys are young like you're officially a year old are you two years old a year old we are a year old and one month today is basically the last day of June and we officially that way we are a year and one month old yeah we're just the baby yeah but the impact is there and I feel like that's what makes it really exciting is that because raise the bar is just a baby and level up has only happened once but like you're already making impact and it's exciting to see where it goes when you're a toddler or a teenager you know totally totally we will be walking and running very soon we will soon have teeth. I don't know I don't have I don't have kids I'm like do they have teeth when they're one maybe I bet they do right I don't it's weird I've taken it too far um perfect well thank you so much for your time today thanks for talking to me about raise the bar and about yourself and again Patreon is right there level up is around the corner all good things coming thank you for having me this has been so fun and yeah reach out if you ever have questions I'm Ivana I'm always happy to chat always happy to chat okay dookie I'm gonna stop recording