Meet Niki Weegens, Creative Director at Onyx Coffee Lab and founder of Specialty Creative, who brings a unique perspective to coffee branding shaped by her journey from building furniture to building brands. In this comprehensive conversation, Niki breaks down what branding really means beyond just looking pretty—it's about how your business feels to customers and how intentionally you express who you are.

Niki challenges common misconceptions about branding, emphasizing that it's not just aesthetics but the complete experience customers have with your business. She provides practical advice for solo coffee shop owners, including her surprising recommendation to start with writing 20 pages of copy before focusing on visuals, and how to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT as a 24/7 brand strategist.

Her background building out all the Onyx Coffee locations during her woodworking years gives her unique insight into how physical spaces and brand identity work together. Niki's approach emphasizes clarity over complexity, helping coffee shops find what makes them "right for the right person" rather than trying to serve everyone.

Topics covered:

• Why brand is about how something feels, not just how it looks
• The copy deficit vs. creative deficit concept for solo business owners
• Using AI tools as brand strategy partners and writing coaches
• Why "serving everyone" actually serves no one
• Building brand guides and documentation that teams can execute
• When to invest in professional branding help (hint: sooner than you think)
• The transition from woodworking to coffee brand strategy

Chapters:00:10 - What Branding Really Means Beyond Pretty Visuals04:47 - Practical Branding for First-Year Coffee Shop Owners07:17 - How to Know Your Branding is Actually Working12:09 - Telling People What You Care About Without Screaming16:26 - The Copy Deficit Problem and Writing Your Way to Clarity21:17 - Communicating Brand Vision to Your Team25:58 - When to Reach Out for Professional Branding Help30:29 - The Woodworking to Coffee Branding Journey Story

Niki Weegens is Creative Director at Onyx Coffee Lab and founder of Specialty Creative. Find her at specialtycreative.co or follow her occasional cat content on Instagram.

Meet Matthew Marco, a brand strategist with two decades of experience helping businesses build customer-first brands, who joined Coffee Futures Fund's Week 2 program to share crucial insights about truly understanding your customers. In this focused conversation, Matthew breaks down the subconscious signals every coffee shop sends from the moment a customer walks through the door.

Matthew challenges the common coffee shop mentality of "serving everyone" and explains why this approach actually serves no one. Drawing from his experience in Washington Heights, Manhattan, he illustrates how every business already sends implicit signals through furnishings, music, aroma, lighting, and the types of customers already in the space—whether you're conscious of it or not.

His practical advice centers on the 80-20 rule: knowing that 20% of your customers (your regulars) likely generate 80% of your revenue. Matthew's homework assignment is simple but powerful: start a notebook, learn your regulars' names and drink orders, and create symmetrical relationships where you know them as well as they know your business.

Topics covered:

• The five senses approach to controlling your brand's first impression
• Why "serving everyone" actually means serving no one
• How implicit signals determine who feels at home in your coffee shop
• The power of regulars in the 80-20 customer distribution model
• Practical steps to start knowing and documenting your core customers
• Creating symmetrical relationships with customers who drive your business

Chapters:00:33 - What Customers Notice When They Walk Into Your Coffee Shop02:30 - The Magic of Implicit Signals and Subconscious Brand Messaging04:31 - Why "We Serve Everyone" Holds Coffee Shops Back07:17 - Who Are You Making Feel at Home? Identifying Your True Customers08:44 - Meet Your Regulars: The Simple First Step to Customer Understanding

Matthew Marco is a brand strategist who joined Coffee Futures Fund as a Week 2 guest speaker. Subscribe to Inside the Grind for more insights from coffee industry experts.

Meet Jeremy Lyman, founder of Birch Coffee and Coffee Futures Fund's first guest speaker, who shares his insights on the most foundational question every coffee entrepreneur must answer: Why are you doing this? In this conversation, Jeremy reveals how your "why" isn't something you need to figure out on day one—it's something that evolves through real experiences and interactions with customers.

Drawing from nearly three decades in service and hospitality, Jeremy discusses how Birch Coffee's mission centers on making every person feel seen and heard in their 5-8 minute interaction. He shares practical wisdom on active listening, the importance of greeting every customer, and why you should aim to "knock it out of the park" with one person at a time until it becomes second nature.

Jeremy also provides a candid look at the challenges of scaling personal service, training employees to embody your values, and why being a coffee shop owner means taking 100% responsibility for everything that happens in your business. His story about eating bacon as a vegetarian perfectly illustrates how small lapses in attention can break customer trust forever.

Topics covered:

• Why your "why" evolves through experience rather than appearing fully formed
• The 5-8 minute window you have to create meaningful customer connections
• Practical active listening techniques and greeting strategies
• How to train employees to make customers feel seen and heard
• Why setting impossibly high standards actually works in service
• Taking complete responsibility as a business owner for your team's actions

Chapters:00:33 - What It Really Means to Know Your Why04:54 - How Birch Coffee Discovered Their Purpose Through Experience10:18 - Making One Person Feel Special: Practical Active Listening16:11 - Training Your Team to Deliver Consistent Service21:04 - Taking 100% Responsibility for Your Business

Jeremy Lyman is the author of "Love Thy Customer" and founder of Birch Coffee. This episode features our Week 1 guest speaker from the Coffee Futures Fund Summer Cohort.