I have someone in my roastery. His name is Jerry. Shout out to Jerry. He came in as a cleaner.
Really? Honest to God, I did not train him or anything. My team saw him interested. So without telling me anything, he started cupping with them.
He started buying his own milk and he started steaming and everything. Really? Yes. When I went to and he was very shy to talk to me.
One of my staff members, when I wanted to open Lama, he told me love Jerry. I told him Jerry. He said yes. I said call Jerry.
He's a very shy person. He came in. Do me cappuccino. I didn't talk.
Give me cappuccino. That's such a unique thing to do. Yeah. He did the cappuccino for me.
Second day, I took Lama. Stop cleaning, got a Lama. I changed his contract and he's getting a new contract at the end of the year. Yeah, wow.
That's exciting. You never stop someone. Our monthly map forward online discussion group is a huge success. Professionals from across the coffee industry come together to have real, open conversations about the challenges and opportunities we're all facing right now.
If you've ever wanted to be a part of a serious, values-aligned community that talks about real solutions to the coffee crisis while meeting people from all over the world and across the coffee value chain, this is for you. It's part of our roasted coffee tier on our Patreon membership and will set you back about $20 a month. For this price, you'll also get early and ad-free access to the podcast as well as access to our weekly Industry Insights blog post. Think of the kind of people that you've heard on this podcast.
That's the caliber of participants and discussion you'll be contributing to. If the roasted coffee tier is a little out of your price range right now, there are two other options on Patreon that will give you the opportunity to support the work that we do at Mapper Forward and we're very grateful for that support no matter what tier you support us at. To join, head to patreon.com forward slash Mapper Forward and select the roasted coffee tier or check the show notes for details. Welcome to the Mapper Forward Middle East podcast, friends.
I'm your host, Leigh Safar, and this is episode 4 of a 5-part series with Saeed Al-Balushi from El Matador and Lama Cafe. We are talking about building a coffee business in the UAE. In this episode, we are having a conversation about the disconnect between owners and their staff. Now, folks, this region has a very interesting way that, I guess, the staffing here is all from outside of this country.
So it very rarely you'll find locals actually working as baristas in cafes or as roasters in their cafes, in their roasteries if they don't own the roastery. And Saeed, in this episode, we want to talk a lot about why that's the case and what is some of the behaviors that that leads to because we do have some interesting things that happen in the industry here that I found out were quite unique to this part of the world. So where do you want to start the conversation about the disconnect between owners and their staff? First of all, there is always a lack of communication and a lack of investment in the people.
You have to have a team that they know from the way that I'm talking, not only the barista, that they have to know about coffee. They have to have a charisma. They have to understand the customers when they come in. There is a big lack in Jeddah.
One of the main things is there's no clear vision or purpose. A thousand percent. I see it. You know, when you were saying in the other episode about how all people like they're copying each other, that demonstrates a lack of vision, right?
And a lack of purpose. Some owners don't clearly communicate why the cafe exists beyond making money. When staff don't understand the values and the brand identity or the long-term goals, how could they focus? They'll just do the minimum.
Yeah. Well, they don't know why they're there. Yes. And this reflects the service and the experience in the cafe.
Yeah. A thousand percent. Yeah. A thousand percent.
Poor training and growth opportunities. This is one of the biggest mistakes when hiring someone. It's not pounding them on apron and expecting results. Coffee is a craft.
It takes continuous training. Somebody must mentor them. There always has to be a feedback. If the owner isn't investing in their baristas or giving them a path to grow, the disconnect becomes deeper and the turnover becomes, you know, you lose everything.
Yeah. I have someone in my roster. His name is Jerry. Shout out to Jerry.
He came in as a cleaner. Really? Honest to God. I did not train him or anything.
My team saw him interested. So without telling me anything, he started cupping with them. He started buying his own milk and he started steaming and everything. Really?
Yes. When I went to Andu, and he was very shy to talk to me. One of my staff members, when I wanted to open Lama, he told me, We have Jerry. I told him, Jerry?
He said, Yes. I said, Call Jerry. He's a very shy person. He came in.
I told him, Do me cappuccino. I didn't talk. Really? That's a unique thing to do.
Yeah. He did the cappuccino for me. The second day, I told him, Go to Lama. Stop cleaning, go to Lama.
I changed his contract and he's getting a new contract at the end of the year. Yeah. Wow. That's exciting.
You never stop someone. Our monthly Mapper Forward online discussion group is a huge success. Professionals from across the coffee industry come together to have real, open conversations about the challenges and opportunities we're all facing right now. If you've ever wanted to be a part of a serious, values-aligned community that talks about real solutions to the coffee crisis while meeting people from all over the world and across the coffee value chain, this is for you.
It's part of our roasted coffee tier on our Patreon membership and will set you back about $20 a month. For this price, you'll also get early and ad-free access to the podcast as well as access to our weekly industry insights blog post. Think of the kind of people that you've heard on this podcast. That's the caliber of participants and discussion you'll be contributing to.
If the roasted coffee tier is a little out of your price range right now, there are two other options on Patreon that will give you the opportunity to support the work that we do at Mapper Forward and we're very grateful for that support no matter what tier you support us at. To join, head to patreon.com forward slash Mapper Forward and select the roasted coffee tier or check the show notes for details. Welcome to the Mapper Forward Middle East podcast, friends. I'm your host, Lee Safar, and this is episode four of a five-part series with Saeed Al-Balushi from El Matador and Lama Cafe.
We are talking about building a coffee business in the UAE. In this episode, we are having a conversation about the disconnect between owners and their staff. Now, folks, this region has a very interesting way that, I guess, the staffing here is all from outside of this country. So it very rarely you'll find locals actually working as baristas in cafes or as roasters in their cafes, in their roasteries if they don't own the roastery.
And Saeed, in this episode, we want to talk about a lot about why that's the case and what is some of the behaviors that that leads to because we do have some interesting things that happen in the industry here that I found out were quite unique to this part of the world. So where do you want to start the conversation about the disconnect between owners and their staff? First of all, there is always a lack of communication and lack of investment in the people. You have to have a team that they know from the way that I'm talking, not only the barista, that they have to know about coffee.
They have to have a charisma. They have to understand the customers when they come in. There is a big lack in that. One of the main things is there's no clear vision or purpose.
A thousand percent. I see, you know, when you were saying in the other episode about how all people, like they're copying each other, that demonstrates a lack of vision, right? And a lack of purpose. Some owners don't clearly communicate why the cafe exists beyond making money.
When staff don't understand the values and the brand identity or the long-term goals, how could they focus? They'll just do the minimum. Yeah. Well, they don't know why they're there.
Yes. And this reflects the service and the experience in the cafe. Yeah. A thousand percent.
Yeah. A thousand percent. Poor training and growth opportunities. This is one of the biggest mistakes when hiring someone.
It's not pounding them on apron and expecting results. Coffee is a craft. It takes continuous training. Somebody must mentor them.
There always has to be a feedback. If the owner isn't investing in the baristas or giving them a path to grow, the disconnect becomes deeper and the turnover becomes, you know, you lose everything. Yeah. I have someone in my roster.
His name is Jerry. Shout out to Jerry. He came in as a cleaner. Really?
Honest to God. I did not train him or anything. My team saw him interested. So without telling me anything, he started cupping with them.
He started buying his own milk and he started steaming and everything. Really? Yes. When I went to Andu and he was very shy to talk to me.
One of my staff members, when I wanted to open Lama, he told me, Love Jerry. I told him, Jerry? He said, Yes. I said, Call Jerry.
He's Cafe owners Choose that coffee because they think they have an experience. They understand about coffee. I'm from there. They think like when they talk to me, I'm like, you know, because of this acidity is more acceptable with the new generation and this body is more acceptable with the old people.
So I'm like. This is a time that you just sit and listen and uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. You know, I believe, I believe ownership is not just giving orders. Yeah.
You have to be a leader. Yeah. You know, your staff, they're a part of something very big. And this happens every single day.
And a lot of the staff that are here in the UAE, the countries that they come from, they will have never even heard of the term barista. It doesn't even exist in the countries that they come from, right? This is what I wanted to say next is the culture and the language barriers. Yeah, this is huge, huge.
You know, especially here in the beauty. Say more about that. Some owners, they make an effort of not understanding who are the staff. You know, they just see how much is the salary and the discussion.
Not just managing them. A simple conversation could change a lot of things with them. You know, we could do a cupping session with them. Listen to them.
You know, put some energy into the team. Nothing. You know. And then when you have different baristas from different cultures and different nationalities, it's very hard for them to communicate together.
You know? And this is something else. Do you know who's excellent at this? Is Raw.
And because of this, we're actually having a series coming up with some of the staff from Raw because they have been through, like, Matt and Kim are very focused on building culture and understanding the cultures that their team come from. And this is a really important part of growing the business so that they can help their staff grow with them. And the staff, I've been involved in some training sessions with them. And I wanted to talk to them on the podcast so that I can get into the heads of employees who are working for people where there's a great culture because I don't see that very much here.
It's very hard. Don't forget that the first people. Yes. And everybody learns from their mistake.
Yes. You know? Yes. When you have mentors, you have people to talk to, it's completely different.
Yeah. You know? And they have that. And their perspective is different.
Plus, almost every day they're in the company. They're there every day. But you know, another person, your mentor, Merei, his staff speaks super highly of him. He's very involved.
He calls them his colleagues. He's a leader. Absolutely. Absolutely.
You know, a telltale sign for me of a business that's experiencing exactly what you're saying about this lack of understanding of the staff is when I go to a cafe and the staff don't understand me. If the staff can't understand simple questions in English, if I ask them about, you know, can you tell me what the beans are? And they'll say, we have Ethiopia and Colombia. And I say, is it a natural or a washed?
And they don't know how to answer that question, right? What are we going to say? Okay. Some coffee owners, and the UAE, they own more than a bunch.
So what do they do? This is one of the things that I've seen. Yeah. They will hire a very experienced person to calibrate and to do the perfect cup to teach all the other baristas just to copy paste what to do.
But there's no knowledge behind it. They're like robots. Right. They just press on everything and the story.
But as you said, is it a natural? Is it a washed? Is it anaerobic? What is it exactly?
They don't know. And when they talk to you, they'll tell you, you want Ethiopian, Brazil. Brazil, Ethiopian. End of story.
Where is the excitement about coffee? Where's Peru? Where's Bolivia? Where's Nicaragua?
You know, where's Kenya? I struggle to find Kenyans here and I love Kenyans. I struggle to find Kenyans. Uganda, especially Uganda.
Nothing. Some people, they're afraid. And the biggest issue is, see now I bought coffee from Rwanda. You know how to, all the coffee shops that I supply, how many of them will buy Rwanda?
How many? One. And what's different about that cafe? He listens to me.
Okay. So it's open-mindedness. Yes. Now let's know, my customers, they want Brazil and only Brazil.
You can't invest in education for you. Have a conversation through social media. Do some marketing. I want Ethiopia, Hambela.
Habibi, Ethiopia is not Hambela. In Saudi Arabia, the other one is Harar. So I don't know from where, you know, they give these kind of knowledge and they say, we just want this, you know? Yeah.
Understand what's going on in the coffee industry. Do a cupping session. Learn. Yeah.
Wow, wow. You know, speaking about vibes, we have one episode left of this series. And this, I think, is going to be the most fun of all of them. The conversation has been fantastic so far.
But in the final episode of this series, we're going to talk about the role that trends are playing in the coffee industry. And if there's anywhere in the world that is driven by trends, it is the UAE. So it may be Saudi Arabia as well. But join us, folks, for the final episode of this series in the next episode.
Peace, love and peanut butter. Have an amazing rest of your day. This episode is part of a five-part series produced by Mapper Forward. Check the full playlist and guest details in the show notes as well as how you can support our work in the coffee industry.
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