coffee with a heart

It’s been eleven years since I started my journey of espresso making. When you first try to learn a new craft, it is certainly a humbling experience full of highs but also many lows. Until I got the opportunity of using a good coffee grinder and prosumer espresso machine, I had not even noticed how fascinating this world was and the many things you had to learn to make good espresso.

I do come from a coffee culture. Being from the south of Spain, good espresso was almost expected in every coffee shop or restaurant. However, the craft was left to the professionals behind the bar. These gurus moved fast and with precise dexterity grinding, tamping and brewing. Good coffee was also made at home but no espresso. Access to cheaper espresso machines and grinders has changed that.

As an aside and possible topic for another post, I’ll mention that the de-professionalization of the craft has had an impact in espresso making and more often than not, you find places with not-so-good tasting espresso.

Back to topic, I’ve found over the years that there are many good learnings from espresso making that I’ve able to apply to the business world.

Here are my top 12 explained:

Find a good mentor.

I was lucky enough to have a very good mentor when I started learning. My good friend and fellow coffee lover Catalin Alaci was the one who introduce me to all the steps in espresso making and gave me outstanding tips to get me up and running fast. We did have a mission, he was going to be sent on-site to work for a customer and he was the person that knew how to operate the espresso machine. I was the new comer in the office, and decided that the best way to make friends there was to make decent espresso.

In your professional life, seeking out good mentors will help you get up to speed faster when you start a new job but also provide you with invaluable feedback to excel and grow as a professional. Be open to receiving feedback and nurture the relationship with your mentor.

Mentorship also goes both ways, as a mentee, you will help your mentor become better at sharing knowledge and leading.

Consistency matters.

To make good quality espresso, you need to make sure you break down all the individual steps and maintain a good level of quality at all stages. There is no good espresso without the proper ground, the right dosage, an even distribution in the portafilter, the temperature of the water, etc.

In the same fashion, in your professional life, you need to make sure you deliver consistently good results at all stages and on a daily basis. Being able to break down your key responsibilities and delivering consistently will set you apart and help you build trust in your organization.

Choose well your beans and your roast.

Good beans are required to get good espresso. To this end, you will need to spend a good amount of time selecting your favorite origin or blend and a good roaster. Good roasters spend a good amount of time selecting and sampling different beans for their single source and mixing beans to get great blends. There is no perfect recipe but I’ve found that blends tend to be better to the taste and for espresso.

For companies, there is nothing more critical than hiring and training employees. You need to create a good selection process that brings out the best candidates. I don’t like to describe this as weeding out low performers or finding top performers. It is more about creating a process where you set what you are looking for and what you company needs and finding the right fit with the right qualities. This may differ from business to business and certainly from one role to another.

It is important to also hire for diversity. The right team “blend” will help remove blind spots and bring out value every time and long term. You’re only as good as you practice.

I give credit to Marilyn Healea, my piano teacher, for this piece of advice.

You’ve studied the craft of making espresso through books and articles, watched hundreds of videos, listened to countless podcasts and you think you are ready to deliver the best espresso but you’ve made a hundred attempts and your customers, your family or friends are not impressed. Something tells me you’re missing some good ol’ practice. Before I was able to brew an average espresso, I did more than a 1,000 attempts. 10,000 made me consistently good.

When you practice, if you’re paying attention, you start noticing little things that you had missed all along and make small but very relevant changes through the process. You also start understanding well what works and what doesn’t.

Invest in the right tools at the right time.

Do not make too big of an investment buying the most expensive espresso machine or the best grinder in the market. Instead, try to get the most cost efficient set up to get you started fast. It is a good idea to learn with less expensive tools that you can play with and that have a lower access threshold. Very expensive machines may be more complicated to set up and operate and be a bigger barrier to actually making espresso especially for beginners.

As you gain more experience, you will be able to decide what tools you need to upgrade.

This also happens for new professionals and start-ups. Trying to invest in expensive tools is a burden that may cause financial problems early on and also reduce agility and innovation. An example of this could be spending money on Power BI or Tableau without having used more basic tools for data analysis like Excel or Google Sheets. Be a constant learner.

I’m always on the look out for new things to learn about espresso or coffee in general. I like broadening my knowledge on how coffee is grown, how it is sourced, roasting techniques, new espresso machines, tips from experts, talking to friends that are also aficionados (Travis Grizzel you are a beacon).

But also it is good to be humble and recognize that there is always something to learn. I think this is one of the best qualities of a professional in any field. It opens you up to improving and to making things better over time.

Seek out advice and opinions from others.

You’re stuck with some bitter espresso and you’re not sure where to go from there. Sometimes it is best to talk with someone that has more experience or even with the same level of experience but with a different point of view.

Both at work and when making espresso, I’ve found the best advice from other colleagues and folks who shared my passion. Even if you don’t get the solution straight away, talking a problem with somebody can help you move forward with a new possible solution. Don’t be afraid to try.

Being experimental when learning a new craft is almost a must. You have to push the limits and be prepared to fail to find the best way. In espresso making you will test the boundaries by going finer in your grind or coarser than recommended, you will pack your portafilter with more grounds than needed or with too little, you will let the water run too little or too much. The more mistakes you make and the quicker you make them, the faster you will learn.

Successful organizations and leaders allow for a fair amount of experimentation. Innovation doesn’t come without this key ingredient.

Find your niche in something you like.

Both in espresso making and professionally, you’ll need to find your specialty. The key to finding and sticking with it in my case came from my personal preference. I like short lattes and cortados so I wanted to make them as good as possible and never tire of making them for myself or others.

In your professional life, finding something that you enjoy doing will mean that you won’t mind spending the extra hours that you’ll undoubtedly need, getting that job done.

Cater to your customers.

Your customers can be your friends, your family or those around you that may enjoy your espresso skills. It doesn’t matter how much you like your espresso with no milk nor sugar, others would have a different taste and you’re not going to change them. On the contrary, you will find more supporters of your craft if you make the drink they enjoy. This will serve as an external encouragement that will keep you going. More people enjoying what you do also means an opportunity to get more experience.

For your business, delighting customers seems like an obvious goal. It is one that brings success and encouragement. Keep that flywheel going.

Perfect is the enemy of good.

This one from my good friend Ricardo Lopez Barquilla, one of the smartest people I know. Obsessing over perfection can make you not enjoy or even deliver in a timely manner a good enough espresso shot. I’ve had to prioritize many times at work and when making coffee. For example, you don’t need to measure your grounds all the time especially if there are people waiting to get coffee. These folks are not going to measure your decimal points of better taste.

In the business world, this is even more important. Delaying projects seeking out perfection can make you miss the opportunity of releasing your good product, getting customers that like your product even if it’s not perfect and getting feedback to improve your next iteration.

Stop and enjoy the coffee.

That sweet smell of freshly roasted beans, the grind, the crema of espresso coming out of an open portafilter, the texture of micro foam over nicely frothed milk, the warm cup, the first sip. Make sure you are present while enjoying all this good moments of coffee making.

In your professional life, there are many good moments. The pride of delivering a project or product, a great report you made, a presentation that got you support for an initiative, a sale on a key account, sharing experiences with good coworkers, a fruitful business trip,…

Make sure you take a mental note of all these good moments as you are experiencing them.