Origin Story: An Interview with Shad Baiz
/By Hylan Joseph
My first experience with Shad was in his role as a contractor working for me. He was servicing a client of mine in the San Diego, CA area and I called to follow up on a service and I got, “Yeah, the dude just drove up on a motorcycle and got everything fixed.” The customer was happy, very happy.
Shad is one true professional and he is a maverick in our industry. Together Shad, SCA’s Mansi Chokshi, and I drove the initial push to get the guild as part of the SCA. It was really Shad’s efforts, combined with Mansi’s support, that convinced the SCA to take this wild idea and let us create a guild. To a point: the guild would not exist if it were not for the two of them, Shad and Mansi, and their efforts to work with the SCA to make it happen.
Since the creation of the guild, Shad has served as the chair or the past chair and he has been involved since day one when we drafted the ideas for the guild on a napkin at Seattle Airport. Last year, he finished his tenure as the past chair and decided to take a break. It was bittersweet because Shad had always been a part of our guild. Although not out of the game, I wanted to do an “exit interview” and capture where we came from and where we were going.
Hylan Joseph: Okay. First question is, why did you/we found the guild?
Shad Baiz: The main reasons I believe that we did that were to give technicians a community and a place to meet each other and network and talk about the unique job that we do and the unique profession that we have, and also to provide some legitimacy to the trade and the profession through being part of a trade organization, having representation within the trade organization, and having something or somebody that could help lobby for our position to get us out of an allied products category when you sign up to get a trade show badge.
I believe that when we started there was another piece that was of great interest to us – to set the bar for a level of workmanship and ethics and professionalism. To set the standard for the community so that there was a good reason for the consumers, the shop owners, etc., to pay a reasonable rate for high-quality service. To elevate technicians and have an opportunity for them to be able to make more money. To elevate the small business owners and allow service companies to make a little more money. Sort of set the bars and create a standard that everybody could agree on, that kind of stuff.
HJ: I think the one other addition – and we talked about this a lot when we were in Seattle – was letting people who are passionate about coffee know that there are other things to do besides becoming a roaster, manager, owner, etc., and that becoming a tech is actually a valid career option.
SB: Yeah, absolutely, it's great point. That's right. It is a possible career choice.
HJ: We were talking about how contractors work, and how when you think of a contractor, you think of an electrical contractor, but when you think of an espresso person, you don't think of an espresso service person. I don't know how many times you and I have talked about this. We tell somebody what we do – that we are espresso service technicians – and people look at us blankly and say, “You service espresso machines?” To this day, I still must tell my father I don't work in a coffee shop anymore.
SB: Yeah. Absolutely.
HJ: As a founder, you've been in this from day one. You've pretty much built the architecture while were chair for two terms. What do you think your key takeaway is from the experience?
SB: One is that we have an amazing community. The community of coffee technicians is an amazing group of people.
Going into it, I don't think I understood how many of us there were and how similar we all are in our commitment to what we are doing. We vary a little bit in style, we vary a little bit in execution, but I don't know that there are many people that I have come across in this community that don't share an amazing amount of passion for serving the customers the way that they do. And I think that was a surprise. I think I was prepared to find more entrepreneurial, corporate-type people or something, I don't know. Maybe I'm not sure what I expected to find, but that was a big take away. It's an amazing, dedicated community of people. I have a renewed respect and understanding for what it takes to bring a diverse group of people together and move ideas and projects forward. Compromise and diplomacy are really important.
HJ: You mean you've learned how to herd kittens?
SB: Yeah, and this was one of my first experiences with something like this, so that was a real learning curve for me. I think it was really cool, though, to be able to see how much we actually achieved as a group of people like that – sometimes, in the moment, it feels like you're just not getting anywhere.
When you get to pull back a little bit, you suddenly see all these amazing things that have come out and amazing products that have come out. The newsletter, the Slack channel, the education, all these things that people look for and reach out for and get to use now that weren't there before. It’s very cool.
And I think the other thing – and this is kind of topical now –but what the benefits of a professional association are. With Mansi's tireless involvement, the involvement of the events team at the SCA and Ben Helt on the education side, how important those resources are to realizing our dreams and our visions. What we hoped to see as founders or as board members or even as just guild members, having that association behind us has really made a lot of that possible in a real way.
HJ: Yeah, it's interesting. I always go back to that lengthy bar conversation. It's interesting to see where we came from and it's interesting how, with the initial board, we have stuck to our guns with what we have tried to create. I know that education has evolved, but I think where we're heading with Ben is positive. We’ve kept the vision intact, which is really hard to do in this kind of situation, in a professional situation.
SB: Yeah, I agree. There are a lot of forces that want to act on you.
HJ: What would you give as advice to new, incoming leadership council members?
SB: Relax a little. Relax because this process takes time.
Maybe relax isn't necessarily the right word, it's just the word that comes to mind. But I think that, in so many things, having appropriate expectations is important. One of the things that is almost impossible to do is to understand and expect the pace at which this sort of endeavor operates. The time that it takes to be respectful to everybody's ideas, everybody else's pace, or how they approach ideas – giving everybody the time and space that they need to do that in a room of 12 people takes time. Things don't happen nearly as fast as what you may hope that they would, but they do happen.
So maybe relax is a great word in that sense. Don't panic. Work is getting done. Even though it feels like a crawl, you'll be amazed at the end of your time on the leadership council at what you've accomplished as a team.
HJ: Remember that conversation we had with David Myers about the all-guild event with the roasters roasting coffee?
SB: Yeah.
HJ: The triathlon. With me pressing to have the guilds interact, where do you think we can build value in that relationship with the Barista Guild (BG) and the relationship with the Coffee Roasters Guild (CRG)?
SB: It's about collaboration, finding the crossover points where you get to collaborate. Whether it's the idea where roasters teach technicians to roast, or baristas teach roasters to pour latte art, or technicians teach anybody to clear a clogged drain hose that's been clogged for a month and a half, if it's that or it's something else, just some sort of environment where we get to collaborate and find the crossovers.
Because we are all trying… We are all rowing the boat toward the same goal: excellent coffee, excellent customer service, and growth of our industry. I think the most valuable thing is what you do: pushing for it, asking for it, raising the question and getting it on people's minds right now because we don't do anything together currently. I don't know if that answers your question.
HJ: You and I have been involved in education since day one. Can you comment on what you've seen as the evolution in the last few years and then what you see with the future of program?
SB: The progress since we've gone to the Coffee Technician Program has been extraordinary. Now we are producing real, tangible content that can be consumed by our members or by anybody in the industry at large. I think that's great. I think the one piece that I still yearn for and would love to see, whether it's in our environment or somewhere else, is the ASI analogous problem, what is that?
HJ: The certified auto… The patch?
SB: The patch, right. The certification. I believe that there's power in that. We haven't been able to get that, to get down that field yet. I think that's still out there, and I would love to see that in the industry at some point in a really, honest-to-goodness certification program that's recognized throughout the industry as a standard. When people go through it and get those certifications, the community understands and responds to that positively. I mourn a little bit the loss of that in our current program, but I wouldn't trade it either. I think the current program is fantastic, it's moving forward. I think breaking it up into bite-size, digestible pieces and having the 18 modules is fantastic. Particularly because it's allowed us to actually create curriculum.
HJ: I'm really impressed with where we've come with it. And I'm glad that we as a leadership council and you and Ias the founders realize the importance of having someone with Ben’s talents to really take it over and drive it.
SB: Yeah. He's fantastic.
HJ: Final question: Where would you like to see the guild in the future?
SB: I would love to see it carry on its trajectory.
I think if Skip Finley was still with us and looked at where we are now, after him getting to see the guild in its absolute infancy with us, I think he would be amazed at the progress we've made. And for you and I, when we see it happen little by little it's like watching the grass grow or watching your child grow – you don't notice it while it’s happening. I love to think about what he would think if he was able to see it today.
I would like to see it keep that trajectory, to keep growing, keep adding members, having the new membership and new leadership come in with fresh ideas and keep it invigorated and exciting. I think it's an exciting project, it's an exciting guild. And people get it once they are in there. Look at Kurt.
HJ: It’s interesting that you bring up Skip, I get a little teary-eyed, but I also think, it would be great to get Don and Larry back and have them see where we are now, because they were so crucial in a lot of our early philosophy and our early drive. A lot of what we've done in membership content generation kind of speaks back to a lot of the contributions from that original council. We wouldn’t be here if it was not for Tim O’Connor getting us in the front door with Ric and the SCA contributions. But whenever I think of where we are at today, I find myself thinking back to Larry and Don because I would love for them to be a part of it again because I think they'd go, “Wow, you guys did good.”
SB: Totally.
HJ: It would be nice to see that, to see them acknowledge that their efforts were appreciated, using a lot of what originally Don wrote.
SB: Yeah, totally. Time for a reunion.
HJ: Anything else on your end in closing?
SB: No. Don't count me out, brother, I'm coming back.
HJ: I fully plan on nominating you again.