CoCo Reflections from Michael Marchant:
This Week’s CoCo: Take Risks
As I write this I am preparing to take another risk. I’m getting ready to hop into a rented van and drive down to Louisville, Kentucky with my bandmates to play a music festival.
I mentioned at the top of this series of reflections that I have been playing in bands for a long time. Since I was 13 years old, in fact. My mom gifted me my first guitar when I was 12 and by the time I was 13 I had a grasp on how to tune it. I began learning simple songs and figuring out how to arrange my own. My first band was formed in my hometown, Racine, with a classmate who played drums and whose parents performed with a full band at church every Sunday. Their basement was a fully functional recording studio and they allowed us to get together once a week to rehearse. We recruited two more classmates to round out our lineup and chose the perfect band name according to our still developing brains: ACID. We played super bratty and dumb teenage punk rock, but it was one hundred and ten percent the most fun thing I had experienced up to that point. I was hooked on making a racket and I was itching to do it in front of my peers.
ACID played a handful of “Battle of the Bands” type shows in high school gymnasiums, street festivals, and Racine City Hall of all places. We broke up at the start of high school, but I kept going. I met more like-minded people who wanted to play music in front of strangers with me. We would write songs and eventually play more shows. We’d inevitably break up due to someone moving out of town or circumstances changing. Life would happen and I would start again, forming new bands with the new friends I was making. Each band evolved into something more creatively satisfying and I found myself hopping in the van to play Kenosha or Milwaukee. When I had made enough friends in Milwaukee I was eventually encouraged to move to the city. Once I had a steady band in the city we reached out to find friends in Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and so on. We started booking weekends or weeks at a time to drive new places and play music for people who would eventually become friends.
Before I knew it I had performed music all over the country and have traveled through every state in the lower 48 to do it. I met some of the kindest and coolest human beings in my life while doing so.
These days I’m planted in a city I adore and have a happy home and life with a person I adore. I have a support system of friends that spans borders. I continue to nurture my creativity and cultivate relationships through perseverance and passion.
I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to make a life for myself that I am very proud of. I’m grateful for all of the experiences I have had and my heart is full of love for the people who helped me along the way. I would have none of it had I been too afraid to take a chance.
Next Week’s CoCo: Be Urgent to the Customer
I spent a decade of my life as a customer service representative for the brand Anthropologie. My title was Operations Manager and my role was to manage the operations of the business, yes, but many days I additionally handled customer requests both in person and over the phone. Sometimes the requests were quick and easy— getting in touch with another store or the e-com fulfillment center to track down a particular item. Other times a request could lead to multiple days or weeks worth of follow ups— like reaching out to multiple regions of the business to help a customer completely furnish their home or provide restaurants or wedding venues with a complete range of specialty serveware. I would often deal with customers who were spending thousands and thousands of dollars at a time so there was a lot of pressure to provide impeccable service.
Let me share with you a piece of advice that I received from a smart and thoughtful coworker and friend who has had decades more experience than I:
“Your best policy is to under-promise and over-deliver.”
Aligning with that principle of action was essential to me being able to provide service at the high level that was expected from our customer. Once I had a firm grasp on my resources and knew the timeframe that it took to see a request to completion, I could go above and beyond by being urgent to their needs.
This advice can be applied to any relationship that you are looking to grow. Show customers, coworkers, family, and friends that their time is valuable by being responsive! Oftentimes a little urgency is all you need to exceed expectations.
CoCo Heroes:
- Take Risks: This Core Commitment Hero comes from the Harwood Cafe – Ali Nofrey! Ali is always seeking to expand her knowledge about coffee. She continually brings new information to share with her coworkers and new things to try out. She takes risks in improving things in our cafe and creating remarkable care for customers. Whether it’s trying new drinks or working on a new process, Ali is taking a risk!
- Be Urgent to the Customer: This Core Commitment Hero comes from the Tosa Bluemound Cafe – Mercy G! Mercy is always looking for ways to keep the line moving and giving customers a great experience all around. Keep up the great work Mercy!
Coffee Talk: 3 Volcanoes Dark Guatemala
- Where is it from??
- Guatemala
- How long have we been working with this partner?
- Since 2014!
- How does this roast affect the flavor experience?
- We’ve chosen to dark roast this coffee until it’s sweet and is rounded out by Guatemala’s signature full-bodied mouthfeel.
- Why does it have this name?
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This coffee is sourced directly from the side of the Acatenango Volcano in Guatemala’s Antigua region. As you stand on the sloping farms, you can look to your left and see Volcan Agua, which rests closest to the village of Antigua. To your right, you’ll see Fuego, a larger active volcano that regularly dusts the coffee farms in a very fine layer of volcanic ash. The ideal temperatures, altitude, rainfall, and volcanic soil of this area grow great, hella consistent coffee.
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Going-Ons:
- Coffee Geeks Out of Darkness Walk | Brewing Change: Stone Creek Coffee is so excited to be supporting Abby Barlow, one of our Lake Country Cafe baristas, in their Brewing Change initiative! Abby will be participating in Milwaukee’s Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention and awareness and is excited to assemble a team of Coffee Geeks to join her. Please see a note from Abby below with more details!
- “Hello! My name is Abby and some of you may know me as I was recently the traveling barista for the summer, the Lake Country cafes are now my home. This October I wanted to encourage you all as the months get colder and darker to come together and bring more awareness to suicide prevention by either joining our team to walk in the Milwaukee Out of Darkness Community Walk or by financially donating and supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. A lot of us have been closely impacted by suicide and this is a great way to bring awareness and support!”
- You can join Abby’s team and walk with her and other fellow Coffee Geeks on October 9th or donate by clicking here. Stone Creek Coffee will be matching team member donations up to a total of $500. To have your donation matched, simply send your donation receipt to Teams & People (teams@stonecreekcoffee.com).
- This would be a great opportunity to use SCC’s Volunteer Time Off which can be done by requesting time off in Paycor and emailing Teams & People.
- SCC Company Update: Did you miss the latest Company Update? Check it out here.
- SCC Volunteer Day: We are partnering with Brewing Change Partner Kinship Community Food Center (what used to be Riverwest Food Pantry) to do a day at their Urban Farm. Join us on Saturday, October 8th 8:30-12pm! What better way to care for our community than doing it with your coworkers in our own neighborhood? Please RSVP by September 26th! More info and RSVP here. Reminder: We have that rad SCC benefit where we have paid time off for the purpose of doing volunteer work! You can work with your Coach to apply it to this outing or others!
Wins & Shout-outs:
- DOWNER CAFE!! Downer beat their August ’21 $/customer by $1.03 and beat their April ’22 $/customer by $0.89 – those are some remarkable gains! Incredible accomplishment, Downer team!!
- FACTORY CAFE! Factory beat their April ’22 $/customer by $0.73! Great job, Factory team!
Big shoutout goes to Tony from the Downer Kitchen. They worked so hard this labor day weekend and crushed it for one of our busiest weekends ever! They’re willing to take on any challenge they think is possible and ask clarifying questions when needed. Thank you Tony for being committed to the team, taking risks, and creating remarkable care!
Huge shoutout to Madisen D from Harwood who has successfully completed her CCT Program and has moved into the role as Co-Coach at Harwood effective Monday 9/5. Madisen brings many unique talents and abilities to share with our leadership group and we are pumped to have her on our team. Congratulations Madisen!
Email the Employee Celebration Committee (celebrations@stonecreekcoffee.com) if you’d like to recognize or celebrate a teammate. Or if you want to make a public shout-out, email Val (vnewhouse@stonecreekcoffee.com) to include in the next Employee Newsletter!
Birthdays:
- 9/12 – Madisen DeBord
- 9/14 – Silken Bayer
- 9/14 – Cole Kirkendall
- 9/17 – Gracie Pionek
- 9/25 – Noah Culbreth
- 9/29 – Drew Pond
Anniversaries:
- Silken Bayer – 8 years!
- Elena Caceres – 3 years!
- Bradley Cope – 1 year!
- Kim Dunn – 11 years!
- Payson East – 1 year!
- Jenai Ellner – 3 years!
- Mercy Garsombke – 1 year!
- Claire Gorman – 1 year!
- Eva Hagen – 7 years!
- Arabella Husson – 1 year!
- Aaron Johnson – 3 years!
- Saragrace Johnson – 3 years!
- Mitchel Kunde – 1 year!
- Sarah Lechtenberg – 1 year!
- Kailey Lesser – 1 year!
- Mathew Mahnke – 4 years!
- Garrett McGowan – 4 years!
- Daniel Murray – 1 year!
- Olivia O’Neill – 6 years!
- Stuart Rosenthal – 1 year!
- Brooke Sherman – 2 years!
- Radar Vandentoorn – 1 year!
- Austin Wood – 1 year!
Welcomes:
- Antoni Vermiglio – Tosa B
- Ellen Roder – Bakery
- Sydney Jensen – Bakery
- Earl Potts – Delivery Driver
- Katie Fariss – Shorewood
- Erik Noble-Macherey – Downer
- Natalie Powers – Downer
- Brynn Emmons – Line Cook
Employee Discount Codes:
Please don’t share these with non-employees
- 20% Employee-Only Website Coupon Code
- September: Sep22sccemp
- 40% Employee-Only Mobile App Coupon Code
- September: Sep22sccemp
Catch up on all of our newsletters, company updates, recipes, and more in our Employee Blog here.
Ways to Speak Up:
Do you want to speak up about ideas, thoughts, and more? Send an email to Teams & People (teams@stonecreekcoffee.com) or use the button below to send a note anonymously.