Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S3E13: The Voice Behind the @harooncfffee: Haroon from UAE
561 Plays5 months ago
Welcome back to another exciting episode of the 'I'M NOT A BARISTA' podcast! Today, we've got something truly special for you. If you're an Instagram coffee enthusiast, chances are you've come across the incredible videos by Haroon from the UAE. His account, @harooncfffee, is packed with amazing coffee content, but there's always been one mystery—Haroon has never shown his face or voice online.
Well, that's about to change! Today, we're thrilled to finally bring you an exclusive conversation with the man behind the mesmerizing coffee videos. You might have a picture in your mind of what he sounds like, and trust me, he's either going to match that image perfectly or surprise you entirely with his slightly colorful language and strong accent.
This episode is all about unveiling the mystery and getting to know the real Haroon. If you're curious to learn more about his story, you can read all about it here
https://notabarista.org/haroon-zafar/
So, grab your favorite cup of coffee, sit back, and let's dive into this fascinating chat. Haroon, welcome to the show!
#iamnotabarista #coffee #coffeepodcast #haroonzafar #coffeeblogger #harooncfffee #coffeestory
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Haroon's Interests
00:00:00
Speaker
My name is Haroon. I am not a barista. I am a home brewer. I am a coffee geek. I drink Nescafe. I drink Costa. I drink any coffee. I love anime. I love gaming. Do your content. Repeat it again.
00:00:15
Speaker
Once your posted collage is done.
00:00:45
Speaker
I guess many people were surprised. If we post a video, people are like, wow, that's him? You know? But first, first thing, most important, welcome to the Amnal Burista podcast. All right, thanks, man. Thanks for having me.
Journey into Specialty Coffee
00:01:02
Speaker
Sorry. Your name, the correct way to pronounce your name is Harom. It's Harom. Harom. Okay. Yeah. First question, are you a Burista?
00:01:16
Speaker
No, I'm not a barista. I'm just a guy who loves coffee, fell into love with coffee. Actually, I have been into coffee for, I think, since my teenage, I think so, yeah, because I was never a chai drinker, because from where I am, basically, the main drink to be is chai. Everyone drinks chai, chai, chai, chai, chai. But for me,
00:01:46
Speaker
Chai was like, okay, I never drank Chai too much, but coffee I used to drink, but I started with instant coffee. Then I moved over to, I mean, mostly it was instant. I used to put some Nescafe, some creamer and that's it. Then I moved over to this, you know, the super automating machines, the super automatics from the Longi and all these machines.
00:02:11
Speaker
Then I found about like this specialty coffee thing, you know, how they brew. I got interested in this, like how, how they are doing this espresso, how it tastes so good. I mean, cause, uh, it was really, uh, I mean, I was intrigued by it. How do I say I wanted to, yeah, any pursue more, get more,
00:02:38
Speaker
enjoy more. So I fell into this rabbit hole of specialty coffee. Then I used to watch a lot to be honest. I used to watch James Hoffman a lot. So he actually I think might be an influence on perfecting a cup of espresso. So then I got my first machine. I went crazy. I initially got the niche grinder.
00:03:04
Speaker
I mean, it's a great binder, but then at the end of the day, it wasn't for me, to be honest. So I sold off the niche. Then I joined a small group. I'm still in that group. It's a bunch of nerds, actually coffee nerds. They helped me out a lot to choose my grinders. Because I actually was not too educated in this specialty coffee
The Role of Community in Coffee Exploration
00:03:29
Speaker
scene. Actually, as I told you, I'm a home guy. I'm a home barista.
00:03:33
Speaker
I was totally noob in this, but these guys, there's a small discord called Espresso aficionados. I hope I pronounced it properly. Great guys, a great bunch of guys. They helped me out in my journey, what to buy, what not to buy, how to perfect your cup of espresso, what parameters you should do, how to work around dialing in espresso.
00:03:59
Speaker
I mean there are so many things. I think the general issue which I face or which I see a lot of the guys when I talk to them over my Instagram or anywhere, the standards that have been set, they always focus on standards.
00:04:19
Speaker
Dialing in means I need to pull a short between 25 to 30 seconds and it has to be on a 1 to 2 ratio. Yeah, for dialing in, I agree. Okay, it should be that way.
00:04:34
Speaker
to follow a standard all the time and always sticking to one thing that then you know it makes the process boring. Like if I get any coffee and I always brew at the same ratio, my target is the same ratio. So I always say okay dialing your coffees on the proper standard but then
00:04:54
Speaker
Explore. Dial tight. Dial 1 to 1. Dial 1 to 5. Dial longer shots. Go for longer ratios. See your coffee, how it tastes in a longer ratio. Maybe it's a light roast. Focus on the light roast. Focus. Try exploring the higher ends of the extraction. So then I got my first grinder. I went crazy on that also. I got this P64 from optional.
00:05:23
Speaker
I think it's one of the best
Experimentation with Brewing Techniques
00:05:26
Speaker
grinders out there. In my opinion, because of its versatility, the burrs, I fell into these burrs, every burr tastes different.
00:05:36
Speaker
You have a flat bar, tastes different. You have a high-uniformity bar, it tastes different. I mean, it's so amazing, like the same coffee tastes different over a different bar. To me, that was like crazy. Then I went a little bit more nuts and I got the Caffitec MC4. It's basically a conical bar grinder.
00:06:03
Speaker
and I think it was the best decision I made. Any, this grinder, any espresso it throws out is amazing. I mean, I can pull tighter ratios. I can pull at the longer ratio. Yeah, it struggles a bit, but for one to two, one to two, 2.5,
00:06:24
Speaker
This grinder is amazing. And I love it every day. I mean, I look at it and I actually fall in love with it again and again. It's a great grinder for Espresso. So that's about my, I mean, the equipment, what I do. I love brewing coffee. I mean, every day, I mean, it should not be excessive, but yeah, I mean, it's good. It's a good thing to do. I mean, good therapy for me, to be honest. I love brewing coffee.
00:06:54
Speaker
Definitely can feel passion. So before we have this chat today, I really went through all the Instagram photos because I want to know, is there any hint to what will you look like? Because you are a mystery man. We don't see your face, but see what I found if we can see it.
Instagram and Coffee Content
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:15
Speaker
Because I love anime. But you know, those are the ones that I could see your face or something. You have so many photos. So my question to you, do you remember when you started Instagram? Okay, so
00:07:34
Speaker
My Instagram account is a totally weird story. This actually a lot of people might not know. This account is my personal account. I started this back in I think 2018. It was all my personal stuff. I mean like weird ass pictures and anime and all that. But we don't see them anymore. Yeah, because I deleted them because it was affecting. I'll tell you why. Because once I started posting my coffee stuff,
00:07:59
Speaker
So then I started doing some research because it's so tough, to be honest, like you have to have some some research behind what you're doing. Because when I started doing some research, I found that, OK, Instagram actually analyzes your entire page, whatever you have on your page, if it's like anime, if it's like cars, documentaries, what pictures you like, what pictures you're posting. So it has to be a
00:08:25
Speaker
How do I call it? A homogenous page. Your page is like your visiting card or your portfolio. If someone comes to your page for something, he wants to see more of that stuff. Let's say if I am a car guy.
00:08:42
Speaker
If my video is showing cars, then the person who visits my page wants to see cars, right? So I deleted all my mixed mumbo jumbo. I got rid of all the pictures, weird ass videos. Then I started to post. I'm more curious what all those videos are.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want to see them because you know these anime, how do I call them? The anime compilations. I used to cut them, edit them. Well, you know, that's the story behind the scenes that people want to know, right? Who's the person? What is Hoppy? What is his real name? Is Harum's real name? And he's a barista? Or what is he doing in real life? We have so many questions, right?
00:09:26
Speaker
My name is Harun, I am not a barista, I am a home brewer, I am a coffee geek, I love anime, I love gaming, I love cars, I love JDM, actually the JDM culture, I am into all the JDM stuff.
00:09:44
Speaker
I think it was partly because of the anime thing because I used to watch this. I don't know if you know this anime called Initially. It's an old anime. It's a great anime. So I think it's partly because of that. So I was in two cars also. And yeah, that's about it. So the weird thing is I think about this journey, which I had a year back when I started this, I hardly
00:10:12
Speaker
I mean, sometimes I go back and see my old videos. I was like, dude, did I do this? And I used to film like this because I used to phone with that iPhone. And I just used to just put the camera, the phone on the top and just film whatever it was. I didn't cut. I didn't edit. And I did not know a single thing about cameras, single. I did not know anything.
00:10:35
Speaker
So it was a very tough journey for me. I needed to learn about cameras, how they work, how you should shoot, how you should compose, how you can edit with softwares to use. And it was a great journey. I loved every single bit of it. It was such an education to learn about camera shooting, Instagram in a whole, how Instagram works.
00:11:01
Speaker
I mean, it's a tough thing. I mean, you can't be like, OK, dude, I did some amazing videos and they're not working. It happens, actually. I have some friends on Instagram. They do amazing stuff. I love their work. And I can see the hard work they put in those videos. But at the end of the day, it's just, I mean, I feel like it's like luck. I think it's like whatever hits, hits. Whatever is a miss is a miss.
00:11:29
Speaker
I mean, you just got to keep showing up every day. And if you can't show up every day, at least every other day, just keep pushing, keep pushing. And it depends on what your goals are. Like, OK, let's say, let's say you're doing content, right? You want to say, OK, OK, I'm going to do content. I'm going to share things on Instagram. There has to be perspective.
00:11:52
Speaker
Is it for monetary reasons? Do you want to make money off it? On the other hand, do you want equipment? All you are just doing is a creative thing. It's hard to justify to some people that, OK, dude, I'm just doing this for fun. It can't be because everyone is looking over this, that monetary factor. OK, are you making money off it? But to be honest,
00:12:14
Speaker
I think I've never made a single penny of it. A few bucks here and there. That's it. Well, there'll be another question you want to know. How could you afford all this mess of gears, right? Because everybody nowadays want those things you have, like everything you're showing the video. Oh my God, look at the beautiful video and the awesome tools he's using every time. And we post this story today or so. Oh, Harum is going to be on our podcast today. What questions you have. And the first question pop up was like,
00:12:43
Speaker
What gears are you using, man? I love your videos. All right. So this question I was about to do a video on about the gears, about what coffee gear you should use. I think I'll show you. Hold on. This is my first WDD tool. It's a key cap puller. Cost me five bucks on Amazon. That's expensive.
00:13:09
Speaker
$5 and this is a key capula and this I want to acknowledge one person his name is he goes by the handle of testing 123 he is an awesome guy awesome espresso guy he actually taught me a lot on how to because you know like the fascination with
00:13:32
Speaker
The espresso journey is very tough. When you start espresso, you're like, okay. I mean, I remember when I got the optional, the P64, I pulled my shot, I tasted the shot and I was like,
00:13:48
Speaker
What I'm doing wrong? What did I do? I was like, okay, I spent so much money on this. I was having this weird ass remorse and I mean, I kept pulling shots the entire night. I was up till maybe 3, 3, 4 AM. I said, I'm not going to sleep until
Community Building vs. Follower Count
00:14:07
Speaker
I get a good shot out of this grinder. So finally I nailed the shot. It was not C.
00:14:12
Speaker
As I told you, this was my first WDD tool because I saw I did a testing page and I got the keycap puller because I did not know much about WDD at that time. So I thought, okay, I'll buy this of Amazon. You cut off the hinges of the keycap and then you use it as a WDD tool. Then the second one, which I use daily,
00:14:35
Speaker
Regardless of whatever I show on my Instagram, this I think you should tell anyone. Whatever I use on my Instagram, those are tools that I get, okay. But the tools that are part of my workflow daily, one of them is a WDT from Levercraft. It's, I think, 20, 25 bucks. Then the other is the force tamper. I use it day in, day out.
00:15:03
Speaker
Most people don't like it because it has some issues with lighter roast. But for me, it works out fine. And I use the Saint Anthony's veg. That's it. These three tools are my daily workflow.
00:15:17
Speaker
I do incorporate sometimes the Duomo, but I find the Duomo is kind of expensive and I wouldn't recommend unless for aesthetic reasons you want to, you know, maybe a faster workflow. Yeah, then the Duomo works. Out of all those expensive tools, the Duomo actually does work. So, I mean, if you have the money, go for it.
00:15:40
Speaker
A simple WDD tool is enough because still I feel like whenever I use the Duomo, I feel like maybe I have done something wrong because I do my puck preps, all of them manually. I love going inside and doing that puck prep thing softly, not compressing the coffee, pulling out the tool.
00:16:07
Speaker
What I was after was that my coffee, whenever I pull through the naked portafilter, it should look like it's coming all together very nicely, softly, there's no channeling, there's no pressure on the puck and I know the extraction is bang on.
00:16:25
Speaker
But then that also is a lot of stuff. You have to be very patient with your coffee. You can't rush your bug
Brewing Techniques: Standards vs. Experimentation
00:16:33
Speaker
prep. And to be honest, in commercial setups, I can't see people doing it because customers, they don't wait. So for home baristas, yeah, I would recommend spend some time on your bug preps. And there's another, I think, myth which I want to break up right now. The myth is that your water filter should always be very hot.
00:16:55
Speaker
I totally disagree and there's a lot of research being done on this. I disagree with that. If you spend 15, 20 seconds, 30 seconds on your puck prep and you're thinking you will lose some temperature in your water filter and it will not pull nicely or you won't get a good distraction, that's totally wrong. You don't worry, no need to worry about the temp of the water filter. Just do your puck prep, make sure you're spending some time
00:17:23
Speaker
nailing it and you will reap the rewards. I think that's the most important factor. People actually miss out on that. But it depends. If you're doing dark roast, then I wouldn't say a dark roast or maybe a developed
00:17:43
Speaker
a more developed roast, then I don't think that it will make much of a difference. But if you're playing with light roasts or medium lights, and you're spending some money on some good coffee, then you should spend some money on your pump refs. You spend some time on your pump refs, take them softly, do it gently, and invest in your grinders. I always say this again and again. Invest in your grinders. Forget tempers, forget WDD tools, forget your machine even.
00:18:13
Speaker
invest in your grinder. I found out your machine. I love that part. Yeah, because people will say, okay, I bought a slayer, but when I see the grinder, it's like a niche. I said, okay, then doesn't make sense to me. Like if you have a slayer or if you have a Lamazoco, then the grinder should be, I mean, at least
00:18:32
Speaker
up to par with the machines because there are some common misconceptions that, okay, a machine makes a good espresso. I disagree. The machine does not make a good espresso. The machine never makes espresso. The barista or the guy who is doing the work makes espresso. The main ingredients that go for a good shot, your coffee, should not be for espresso. I recommend 10 to 14 days. That's it.
00:19:01
Speaker
for the grinder, it should be properly aligned. Cheap grinders, there are so many options now. You get 64 millimeter bar options, you get so many grinders, the DA64, PE64, and there are so many companies coming out with this.
00:19:21
Speaker
But still I say choose wisely, spend properly, spend once so that you don't have to buy again and again. Spend money, buy something good. Like the P64 has been with me now four and a half years.
00:19:38
Speaker
I bought it as the first iteration from optional. And there's not a single day I have said to myself, OK, maybe I spend the money on something which I didn't like. No, every day I'm like, OK, I spend my money and it's been on my on my coffee bar for the past four years. And I blindly recommend it to anyone. Get that grinder. I mean, the optional doesn't have anything to do with me, but a good grinder is a good grinder.
00:20:08
Speaker
You know, rather than getting spending money, I know people will spend money, get an EK 43 or something like this.
00:20:15
Speaker
For a home guy, I don't think you're spending so much money. I mean, I don't want to name some grinders, but yeah, some are like really outrageous expensive. But the P64 is okay. Maybe the DF64 also, the P64, both of them are good options. And whoever has bought those grinders are happy. Even the DF64. It has some design issues, but otherwise it's the same grinder.
00:20:38
Speaker
Make sure that this is not a sponsored episode by then. But anyway, I guess in this podcast event, and they say, hey, we have your new ambassador here. But I want to ask, since you spend so much money on coffee gears and stuff, right? There are a lot of experiments. And as you said, there's no money in content creation. So I guess you spend a lot of money on the tools. Have you already stopped accounting how much you spend on your coffee gears?
00:21:08
Speaker
I have stopped because another thing I wanted to tell all of you who are listening to this podcast, before I started my Instagram account, every gear I had was bought by my own money, my own hard-earned money, and I had almost everything. Whatever I got sent through companies after I started my Instagram account,
00:21:35
Speaker
is like, how do I say, it's not the same power level which I spent, which I got. Like I got the best of the best. I got the forced temper, the St. Anthony's stuff, the craziest and expensive, the most expensive tools you could buy. Because I was like, okay, maybe this will improve. This will help me improve my espresso. This will help me improve my espresso. This will help me improve my espresso. Nothing, it won't do anything.
00:22:04
Speaker
You have to choose wisely. You have to have a goal. What do you have in your mind? What do you want to do with the espresso? A good WDD tool is just the pins. 0.4 millimeter is good enough. Anything will do. A good tamper, I always say the pressure does not matter, but the tamp should be level. When you tamp your coffee, it should be level.
00:22:32
Speaker
If you can handle that with a normal timber, good. But for me, it was always an issue. I was in the back of my head. It was like scratching itch. Maybe I did not tamp properly. Maybe it's unleveled. I used to I used to spend like minutes. I remember I used to spend like two minutes just looking at the border filter. Is it level or not? Is the coffee level? Maybe it's like a bent. It's like a bit on the side, a bit to that side. So it was driving me nuts. Then someone told me, dude, get the first timber.
00:23:02
Speaker
We done with it. So I got the host ember and I've been using it ever since. That's it. For my brouvers, I spend like crazy and I do not regret them because I love each and every brouver that I have behind me, I think.
00:23:19
Speaker
Even there is so much content out there. There are so many creators who are doing amazing jobs to educate people and what to do, what not to do. But I think there is still a huge population, a huge group of people that they have no idea.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like, okay, what's this guy doing with this tool? Why is he doing this WDT? What's this spray of water? Still, even after so much content, so much viral content everywhere, spraying your beans, RDT, WDT, you know, still there's a group of people, a huge group of people that are totally unaware of these things.
00:24:02
Speaker
Just before I was talking to you, I got a question on my Instagram that, why did I spray my beans with? Why did I spray my coffee beans? So I was like, okay, dude, still, I mean, there's a huge gap there. People don't know what RDT is, what WDT is. How should I dial in my espresso?
00:24:21
Speaker
Or how should I taste my espresso? Yeah. Yeah. This is what I'm saying. Yeah. Still it's a huge, huge gap. I don't know. And a part of it, I think is cause in my opinion,
00:24:37
Speaker
People, I think they get overwhelmed. Let's say if I show you something and I push something that's towards you, like an RDD tool, and it's very expensive. So it's like people get really confused. Why should I spend 100 bucks on an RDD tool, or maybe a WDD tool, 250 bucks?
Nescafe vs. Specialty Coffee
00:25:00
Speaker
Why? I mean, it's hard to justify something that's so expensive to a normal home barista. Because he'd be like, OK, dude, it's just coffee.
00:25:08
Speaker
To justify to someone that you need to spend something to get a better cup of coffee is very tough. It's not easy. For the masses, I was having a conversation with one of my friends in the Discord. I told him the masses still drink Nascafe.
00:25:28
Speaker
I mean, the biggest market share of coffee is under Nescafe. It's not specialty coffee. Specialty coffee is a small niche. If you are doing content on specialty coffee, you are already on a disadvantage compared to other guys who are doing Nescafe stuff, like maybe preparing some drinks and all. It's a bigger market. You can't compete with the thing that is made for the masses and the thing that is made for only a few
00:25:58
Speaker
small community because especially go for the small community, but as
00:26:04
Speaker
as the creator, as my fellow creators out there, what our mission should be is not to focus on what the disadvantages we have. We should focus on maybe showing what specialty coffee is, but maybe not in a complicated manner. Maybe, okay, dude, you can do coffee, but maybe you don't need to buy these tools. Maybe you can get away with a cheaper set of tools and you can have a better cup of coffee.
00:26:33
Speaker
It should not be, no, you need this to get a good cup of coffee. No. You can do this, then you can get away with a small set of tools. At least you can start your journey. You can get a better cup of coffee. You cannot say, always have a great cup of coffee. No. You will have a better cup of coffee. Try this. Like one of my friends, I put him on the specialty coffee thing.
00:26:59
Speaker
Because he was saying, oh dude, I don't want to spend too much. I said, bro, just get a V60. It's cheap. It's like, I don't know, 50 bucks or 30 bucks. Get a V60, get a server, get one cup, get one hand grinder, get the time was C2, C3.
00:27:17
Speaker
I think it's like 150 USD and get a cup of, get some good beans and start. I know that that doesn't sound like a lot of money, but for some newbies, it's still like a grinder with 60 coffee beans. Normally you pay like $3 for a cup of coffee. Now you have to pay a lot. Yeah, it's expensive. I do agree that, yeah, it's a bit of money. Also, that's why a lot of the roasters are going into this, you know, this
00:27:47
Speaker
the drip bag. The drip bag store is actually around this because people don't want to spend time grinding or maybe too much money on specific brewers. And yeah, the drip bag is just open the bag. It's just like Nescafe, I think, but it's a better cup of coffee. I mean, for a good replacement, if you're traveling,
00:28:08
Speaker
I use drip bags all the time. I love them. Because when I'm traveling, I always prefer just to use the drip bags rather than taking the entire bag of equipment with me. So yeah, it depends. At the end of the day, you can't be fussy. I mean, I see people become so fussy. Oh, this coffee tastes so bad. I drink anything, to be honest. I drink from Costa, Starbucks, or even Nescafe.
00:28:35
Speaker
I mean, it should be coffee, coffee is coffee. You can't be like, I mean, you should not be too fussy about things like, okay, dude, I only drink V-60s. No, I should not be like this. Coffee is coffee. I mean, the main reason for coffee was that, okay, coffee was like a cup of coffee, a group of friends, a good chat.
00:28:59
Speaker
That's about it. But yeah, I mean, as I said, especially coffee, I personally explored more. I went a bit more down the rabbit hole and I spent a lot of money, a lot of money. I mean, I think I stopped counting. Maybe two or three years back, I stopped counting how much I spent. The grinders alone cost me, I don't want to say it on the podcast, but they're expensive grinders.
00:29:28
Speaker
But, but do I regret? The question is, do I regret buying them? I do not regret buying them because I could buy them. And I don't, I can't say that I also don't want to put this picture out there that, okay, you need these grinders to have a good cup of coffee. That is totally wrong. You can get a good cup of coffee from anything as long as
00:29:55
Speaker
you set your mind to it. Okay. I want to grow properly. You can get cheap tools. You can use a hand grinder. Okay. It's easier with these tools. That's how I say it. It's easier. Okay. Maybe you don't have to work too hard, but with a hand grinder, a normal double dual and a normal flare, a flare even can get you a good coffee, actually a great coffee.
00:30:19
Speaker
So it just depends. If you have the money, go ahead, spend it. I mean, if you have the budget, I won't stop you. But if you don't have the budget and you're going out of your way to overspend to get these things to get a better cup, that's totally wrong. You should not do that.
00:30:38
Speaker
nowadays social media is everything right especially instagram it's like especially the coffee world there everybody every day every seconds are stimulated by those beautiful videos like yours expensive gears there's too much and nobody knows like you ask questions
00:30:53
Speaker
like, why don't you understand what is RDT2? And there are all those kind of information on social media, let's say. And most people, like there are many, many influencers. Their goal, I think a little bit different from yours, right? You use your own money to buy gears, you make beautiful videos and share it with the people. There are some people, so-called influencers,
00:31:17
Speaker
Or I don't think they are content creators. They ask a company to send them free stuff and they take some pictures and then they put that by for
Motivations Behind Content Creation
00:31:29
Speaker
this link. You can support my channel and blah, blah, blah. People sing those things every single day and they don't talk about coffee. They just talk about, oh, but this gear, but that gear, but that one. Hmm.
00:31:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. See, I can't, I can't say that, okay, those guys are doing something wrong. See, as I told you, when you start your content creation, there has to be a strategy.
00:31:53
Speaker
You think in your mind, okay, what's my end goal? Do I need to make money off this? Do I need to create something? See, art will never make you money. We all know the greatest artists on the planet. They didn't make a single dime. They died. Now we say, okay, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, those people have gone. They have not made a single penny. They died penniless. See, so if you say art,
00:32:20
Speaker
Nowadays, it's hard. It's like, okay, what do I do? Do I make money? Then yeah, you have to push products because companies, they won't give you anything just to showcase on your page. If you push their products, you will make money. If you don't push, you won't make money. It's simple as that. And if you just want to create or maybe educate stuff,
00:32:42
Speaker
That's an amazing thing to do, but he won't make money off it unless you are someone like James Hoffman. Because everyone wants to listen to him, then it's a different story. But if you want to make money off your normal page, then it's very hard. It's a tough decision to make. I was faced with this. I can show you my Instagram mystery. I have never messaged any company.
00:33:10
Speaker
The companies that teach out to me themselves, they send me the stuff. I do their videos, but as I have always said,
00:33:21
Speaker
I, there was a recent conversation with one company which I had and they offered me some commission that I will be honest with you. They said, okay, if you sell our stuff, you know, you'll get some money paid. Like I think it was like 10, whatever 10% of the sales. I said, no, I don't want any commission. I don't work on commission. I'll give me a discount for the guys
00:33:45
Speaker
who might buy your stuff because it's a good company. Amazing stuff they have. I said, okay, give me a discount for the guys, for my followers, for my friends. If they buy your stuff, they get a discount. Me, I don't want anything. So the company was shocked a bit. They were like, okay, dude, this is the first time you're hitting this. I said, no, I won't work for commission. Just give me a discount code for my guys. If they are interested, they'll buy. If they're not interested, they won't buy. So all the links that I have in my bio up there,
00:34:16
Speaker
They are like just discount codes. That's it. You want to buy? Go ahead. Be my guest. Buy the stuff. You get your discount. I'm happy. Me, I don't work on commission. That's it. Yeah. Nowadays, I do ask for if someone comes out to me, I ask for some as what you call as a compensation for me. If I do a video for you, OK, I want this much upfront.
00:34:49
Speaker
At the end of the day, when you spend some time for yourself, that's something else. Like if you're showing your routine with your tools, that's something you do daily. But if you are especially, you receive a gift from a company, a tour, coffee or whatever, and you are especially showing their tools in your videos. First thing you want to make sure is that whatever you put in your videos, it has to be quality.
00:35:12
Speaker
Let's be clear guys, all of you who are listening.
00:35:15
Speaker
You can't be putting stuff in there that might not work for some other people and they'll get upset over you. Because as my job as a content creator, whatever is in my videos should be at least up to the level. It should not be that, OK, maybe the guy bought it and he used it once and it broke. No. Like the recent tool I saw got from from Sinowart.
00:35:42
Speaker
Great tool. I loved it. I used it for a week and I said, oh dude, this is magic. I need this. You know, it's big, but it does the job so cleanly. I said, okay, this is great. It's cheap. It's good. Okay, done. I put a video of it. So test whatever guys you do, put the equipment grinders or whatever. Cause I see so many of these grinders, man. They're so cheap, but I am sure those grinds coming out of those grinders won't be
00:36:09
Speaker
anything good. I don't think so. It's hard for me apart from a few companies that are doing an amazing job like the DF64 guys. I love those grinders and I've seen those guys working in the grinders you know operating.
00:36:24
Speaker
amazing grinders. Some competition out there is crazy. They are doing stuff on a very reasonable margin and a very competitive price and doing amazing jobs. Amazing stuff they are putting out. It's hard to be honest. Sometimes I see these grinders that are like
00:36:44
Speaker
like above $6,000, $7,000, I'm like, okay dude, this is too much. I won't be actually spending that much. I'm done with the grinder stuff and the equipment stuff also to be honest, I'm done. There's nothing else I can do to improve.
00:36:59
Speaker
maybe the machine may be in the future. I'm not saying I had plans, but then I scraped them off because I felt like maybe it won't be as big of a difference that I might get out of an expensive machine also. As we talked earlier, the machine will not make the espresso for you. So people, if they think, OK, I bought, it will make the process easier. You know, a bigger machine, a Lamazoko machine,
00:37:29
Speaker
an LM machine.
Dispelling Coffee Myths: Equipment vs. Skill
00:37:30
Speaker
Obviously, they are like, you know, they're built for, they're built like tanks, man. The huge boilers and huge, the consistency, the temperature, it helps you make a better espresso quicker, easier, without much hard work. If you have the money, I'd say, yeah, go for it. But if you don't have the money, you don't have to be like, okay, dude, I'm not going to be able to make a good cup of coffee. You know, it should not be that way.
00:37:59
Speaker
I totally disagree with this. A good cup of coffee depends on how you depict it. You should work hard on your routine, try to perfect your routine and you will get a good cup of coffee, I'm sure. So after hundreds of days of creating coffee content, maybe you can share some tips or your work process.
00:38:21
Speaker
since you have a notified job and then probably you start doing those content in the evening. What is like when Farom came home from work and I got to make a new video today. So. No way I shit man. That was so tough. In the beginning you can't imagine I used to come from, come from my job and I was posting daily.
00:38:43
Speaker
And I was a total noob. I had no clue at all what to do. I just recorded the shittiest stuff and just put it on Instagram. It was like crazy. And then I started watching some amazing creators, some good friends I made on the way. Love those guys. I mean, I want to mention them. One of them is Chad, amazing guy, Kapi Naka.
00:39:08
Speaker
amazing guys. They helped me so much. I mean, I feel like those guys especially I think I have been chaired and there are a few others. I think
00:39:21
Speaker
If I missed anyone, guys, I love you all. I'm sorry. They helped me so much. They taught me so much how to shoot, how to do. And there's one of my best buddies here, almost like a brother of mine. His name is Yusuf. He actually pushed me so much. He actually works with me.
00:39:41
Speaker
the time, every single day when I was about Khalas, I'm done man, I can't do this. He's like always coming back, pushing me, no, you have to do this, you know, you will post today, go tell yourself this, you will post. He's just like, keep going dude, don't stop, keep posting. That's why I advise, I don't want to give you any guys who are integrating into product creation.
00:40:02
Speaker
Guys, don't think of followers as a measure of your content. Never do this. If you start measuring your content with followers and likes, you won't get anywhere. You should measure your content in the community that you are making. Try working on a community rather than the numbers.
00:40:24
Speaker
If you have a group of 100 people that follow you, love you, listen to you and they interact with you and they wait for you. That's what it is, man. Getting a million followers and none of those guys care about what you do in real life or what kind of work do you do. That's useless. True.
00:40:44
Speaker
but having a small community that supports you, that looks for you, that messages you, that dude where are you, you didn't post today, that's what counts man, that's where it should be. Stop focusing on the number of your followers, stop focusing on the views, the likes,
00:41:05
Speaker
focus on making a small community. That's why even though I might be getting penalized on Instagram for this, I think Instagram hates me for this, but I reply to every single comment I get on my wheels. Every single comment, even if it's unreal that was done by me like a month, two months back, I will go reply to him.
00:41:29
Speaker
As a creator, this is my duty to reply to every person who asks a question either on the comments, either through DMs. I mean, it is my soul. I think it should be every content creator's responsibility. People think that sales are driven through your real views. No.
00:41:52
Speaker
If you are driving sales or if you are trying to push some ideology or something on to someone, it can't be done through a view. It will be done mostly through DMs. It will message you personally. It's on a personal level. Sales are done on personal levels, not done through superficial views. I want to clarify this also.
00:42:16
Speaker
If someone DMs you asking something, that means this guy is interested and he needs your advice. Should I buy this? Should I skip this? Should I not buy this? Then it's your duty to advise him. No, you don't need to buy this if you have this. If you don't have this, okay, please go ahead buy this. You won't regret it. Don't misguide someone into buying something that you'd make a few bucks off. That's only wrong. You should not do that.
00:42:40
Speaker
I remember I did a deal on this dripper called the Tosh dripper which I bought from Japan. I said, I love those drippers. I bought two of them and someone DMed me. Is this dripper worth my money? I said, every single penny.
00:42:58
Speaker
was I used that dripper day in day out. Something that has been used by me day in day out daily, I can blindly say, go ahead and buy this. The P64, the Carfitec, the blowers that I have, which I use daily, I would blindly say, please go get those drippers. You will have fun with them.
00:43:18
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, I don't want anyone to DM me later, a month after that, okay, dude, you told me I should buy this and it turned out to be shit. That would be the worst feeling I would get from...
00:43:32
Speaker
Well, I, it would be very, I would be very sad to be honest if someone totally understand.
Engaging with Community Over Viral Fame
00:43:37
Speaker
So your motivation going to start your work after your official work, the main motivation is to take care of not your followers, but we call them your community friends community, community and friends. So what is the process?
00:43:54
Speaker
The process would be, my earlier process was very bad. It was I used to come home, I used to film, I used to edit and I used to post. And I was finding it very difficult. I was, I think, compromising on a lot of stuff, my family time, my office work.
00:44:12
Speaker
So then I figured something out that if you want to post something, let's say plan them. I mean, not initially write them down. I don't want you to be a totally planned or like scheduled freak or something. Just think what you'll post the next week. Okay. Think about it. What you're going to do for the next week. This is a more efficient process. My first process was very bad. I used to come home, edit post. It turned out to be very exhausting. I was dying.
00:44:40
Speaker
I almost gave up, but what I would advise is think about what you're going to do for the next two, three, let's say the next week.
00:44:49
Speaker
plan out your content, okay I'm gonna do this, this, this, this, this and do your whatever you're gonna record or whatever you're gonna do, do it in chunks, time chunks like maybe let's say set two, three hours apart on your weekend or maybe late nights on Saturdays when the family is down, everything is done, you are alone, no one is there to bother you.
00:45:11
Speaker
Do all of your, whatever you're gonna record, whatever you're gonna do on your camera stuff, do it. Okay? So you'll have all this raw data to work with. You'll have whatever you're going to do on different levels. Move that to your hard drive and then
00:45:29
Speaker
Separate a chunk of time for your editing. This will be not only one deal. This will be like whatever your plan is for the next six days. This is Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. These are all my posts for the next week. So you don't have to do it daily. It can't be done daily. If you're doing it daily, stop it now. Don't do it. You have to plan it.
00:45:50
Speaker
You have to set some blocks of time for each session. This is my recording time. This is my editing time. And then you have all those reels ready. Put them in a folder. Upload them whatever you want as maybe drafts on Instagram. I don't know. There's option here. There's option for drafts. So upload them. Do your drafts and everything. Keep them ready. And over the week, keep posting them.
00:46:14
Speaker
This is a more efficient way and then you will improve more because you'll have more time to think of what you're going to do over the next week or so. Because if you post daily, edit daily, you will never, you will, I'm challenged. It was so tough for me. I think in a month I will die.
00:46:31
Speaker
I thought I would pass out or something on my work. So I would advise anyone who's coming, even in the process, make some chunks of your time on your weekends, late nights. Yeah, it's still hard. It's not easy because you have to have some sort of interaction with your followers who comment on your videos, who ask some questions. I would always recommend, please go answer them. Don't leave them unanswered.
00:46:55
Speaker
Please respond to all your requests. If someone is asking a question, please do reply to them and start building a small community from the ground up. See, you can get a viral reel. A reel goes viral. Boom! You get 60,000 followers.
00:47:12
Speaker
But those 60,000 followers do not have a connection with you till now. They came to your account from a real. So you have to work on building a relationship with them, a small community who thinks that you may be giving them some advice and eventually it will
00:47:34
Speaker
work for you. It's tough now because people say that, okay, my area is not working. My area is also not working. They're not working as they used to earlier because the competition is so tough.
Content Creation Journey
00:47:48
Speaker
Let's say if you go back to Instagram a year back, let's say three years back, you will not see those accounts that are now propping up everywhere. People are working so hard.
00:47:58
Speaker
the cameras are so accessible people are spending so much time and the competition is tough so you should not be as I said you should not be
00:48:11
Speaker
measuring your success on the number of followers but do mix it up I mean I would always advise mix it up see what works for you it's a formula on Instagram like you post a reel even on YouTube or TikTok you post some video like post like maybe like 50 60 maybe like 100 videos I would suggest 100 videos see what video got more views to it and
00:48:40
Speaker
really use the same video but with a different aspect. I'm not saying post the same video but do it with a different aspect because it's like you have to analyze. The analytics for Instagram and TikTok are there for a reason. They're not wasting your time. They want to give you this data so you can analyze it. Okay, I posted 50 reels. Out of these 50, these 10 worked. They got more views than initially
00:49:06
Speaker
I was expecting. So rework those videos and look at other creators in your niche, what they're doing. I always say people are doing such amazing jobs. I see videos from guys, truly amazing videos. Work around those videos. But once you get those
00:49:29
Speaker
Viral reels, let's say that everyone is pursuing that one viral reel. Once you get those guys to your account, start to build a relationship. Think of it as a long-term thing. Don't think of it as a short-term thing, that okay, you boost a reel, you get views, you get followers, then you suddenly just keep working for real views only. No, no. Start to develop relationship with your friends, post some stories, interactive stories,
00:49:56
Speaker
get to know your followers, what they do, what do they want, you know, like advices. I love this actually. This is the part of the content creation thing that keeps me going to be honest that, you know, at the end of the day,
00:50:11
Speaker
Some people send me questions in DMs, I respond to them. So you must be so busy answering all the, you know, reply all the comments, answer the questions.
Balancing Banking and Coffee Passion
00:50:22
Speaker
For audience who want to know more about you, the real person behind your Instagram account, maybe you can tell us more about your, if you don't mind, tell us what do you do for a living, like your 95 jobs? I'm actually a banker.
00:50:38
Speaker
You are a banker. No way. And then you're creating coffee content. Who believes that? I'm a finance guy. I have some side. We have some businesses also. It's a tough life, to be honest. It's not easy, but I thank God for whatever I have. It's a blessing to be honest, to afford these kinds of things.
00:51:05
Speaker
I might not be saying that, okay, you know, we should be working hard. You should work hard. Hard work and the grind never stops, man. Even if you're a billionaire, you won't stop. You want to keep working. It keeps you going. The drive that makes you to perfect something, to see that, okay, this guy is doing this. Why can't I do this?
00:51:31
Speaker
I mean, you know, the thought, the drive that keeps you going is that, okay, you want to reach that level. That's what I think it's very differentiates some people from the guys who make it to the end. Like some guys will be like, okay, satisfied with whatever they have. But some guys, I've seen people strive hard, keep pushing, keep pushing to get more into this. And as for me, it was so tough, my nine to five is a banker,
00:52:01
Speaker
I work in finance, it's so hard for me to, but I thought, okay, Khallas, I am into this, I am gonna push this till the end, and still, I don't think so, I will be giving up anytime soon. This is the thing, yeah, I mean, my family, I have a lovely wife, I have two daughters, my, and I'm actually a pretty old guy, so, I mean, I'm not saying that,
00:52:29
Speaker
I mean sometimes you know I see that people are like judging okay dude I mean you have to be a certain type of age to do stuff no I mean I don't have any issues with it because at the end either as I told you is like it's you could decide like if you want to go all the way then yeah you have to be
00:52:47
Speaker
really interactive with your audience and you need to show your face because it's more trusting. People trust you more once they see you. Oh, well, it's here, right? Like you said, you plan to make voiceover later. Yeah, voiceover. Voice sounds weird, but... Oh, it's going to happen soon? Are you going to use AI?
00:53:07
Speaker
No, I'm not going to use it. I did one, I think two weeks back, but that's a totally new now. See, when you do voice, it's a totally new genre. You have to really script what you want to script. Yeah. It's a bit more. I'd say it's
00:53:26
Speaker
shooting with angles or maybe editing his stuff also. But voice was another, another, another step because you have to script out what you're going to do according to what you're going to record, what you're going to display on the video and what you want to say. So it's a bit more tough. Yeah.
00:53:44
Speaker
It reminds me, you know, I think I must know the coffee shelters, right? Those guys, they have been doing videos on review, like coffee gears on Instagram for years. And suddenly I think they moved to the UK and then it started releasing YouTube videos.
00:54:03
Speaker
And they are doing an awesome job. I could see their transformation from videos like yours without voiceover, nothing, just pictures, some simple videos and some text. That's it. And now they are doing YouTube videos and doing great. Is there something that you're thinking about because you're already doing the voiceover? No, I don't think so. I suppose maybe, yeah.
00:54:26
Speaker
No, I won't be. So see, that's the thing. If you want to enter that YouTube thing, you need to have a team. You need to outsource things. You can't do it alone. You can record maybe. But if you really want to make an impact on YouTube, you need to come in with at least a two or three-guy team. One guy has to be handling your editing. One guy has to be handling your sound.
00:54:52
Speaker
OK, you can do the videos, you can get stuff. See, there's a path to success. And on YouTube, if you want to justify doing stuff, if you really want to deliver value to someone, it has to be a team. People do do it alone. But then, I mean, I know one guy who does it alone, and he's very successful. But there's a different niche. I'm talking about, let's say, coffee.
00:55:19
Speaker
you should come at least with another guy. At least you guys should be too. One guy should be helping you, guiding you your camera angles because it's a different angle. It's not a 9 by 6 ratio. It's a 4 by 3. So you need to have certain compositions to be done. You need to have someone help you editing because YouTube is a different animal. It's like 4K.
00:55:44
Speaker
Instagram is 180 even if you record in 4k you still upload in 180 so it's a totally different thing for you to be I think you should at least try maybe I'm not saying no as of now but I don't think so
00:56:00
Speaker
Yeah, but I don't think so. For voiceover, for TikTok, for Instagram, yeah, I'm doing it. It's working out. I mean, yeah, but for YouTube, for now, for the timing, I have no plans for YouTube to last. Do you think you're going to do this in the long term? Even you are becoming more and more productive, right? You're doing videos faster. But then still, there's still a lot of work to do. And with your full-time job as a banker,
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah, man. So you keep reminding me this 9 to 5. Yeah.
00:56:36
Speaker
Because I can really feel that, you know, I'm a one man band, actually, pretty similar. I'm running multiple projects, not just the video and stuff, but also not a wristband box, grinder, podcast and coffee stories, one and tears, interns. And then it's crazy. But I could only understand that I can do it so much that at a certain point I'll be like,
00:57:02
Speaker
I'm done. I cannot do this anymore. But I just constantly thinking, how are you holding up when things get tougher? Life happens and there's still a lot of friends asking you questions on the internet. What is RDD2?
00:57:19
Speaker
It's so hard to be honest, but but first of all, I think you're doing a great job. Also, dude, it's not easy even to to to do a single page. Keep running the the single page going is so tough. But at the end of the day, you know, I want to tell you a story. Once you it's like it's like it's like you're running like you you start running and the first day is the toughest. The second day is even tougher. The first week
00:57:49
Speaker
is the time that you either will keep running or you will give up. If you cross that first week of daily runs, you run daily, you do your job, you show up, you run 5k, you go back home. You run 5k, you go back home. You force yourself out of your bed, you go and do that 5k run and come back home.
00:58:12
Speaker
After one week, it will become second nature to you. You come home, you'll be like, okay, dude, where's my content? I want to shoot it. Then you come back home. Okay, dude, what should I do next? It becomes like a second nature. You know these gurus, when they say consistency, you should post daily. It's not because they want you to post daily or it will benefit your account. No, it won't benefit your account.
00:58:38
Speaker
Posting daily is nothing to do with your content being shown to other people. Consistency in the beginning and posting daily helps you
00:58:49
Speaker
create better content in the long run. You get better at what you are doing if you keep repeating it again and again and again and again and again. You keep getting better. It's an evolution. So what the Gurus are telling you is that eventually you'll get so good that putting out videos for you will be like nothing. You will be sitting around, oh dude, I want to post a video. You will create a video from your old content.
00:59:18
Speaker
It does not matter. You don't have to shoot something new to post it. You can remix your old stuff because if you let's say if you did stuff for like a year or let's say it even like two months, you will have so much raw data with you. And you know a strange thing I'll tell you, people won't remember what you posted a month back. I guarantee you. I did this. I did an experiment. I posted a reel a month back.
00:59:47
Speaker
It worked. After a month passed, I posted the same reel again. The same song even. It still worked. I think some people are so self-centered or something that they think, okay, if I posted something a month back, people will remember. No, no one will remember that shit, man. Once your posted Khala, it's done. And it's up to you as a creator to maximize your work.
01:00:11
Speaker
to your content, repeat it again. Don't worry about these things. Show up daily, be consistent. It will become second nature to you. If you don't post something, you will, I swear, you will be like, okay, dude, oh, I didn't post anything. You will feel bad. It's like you skip a gym day, right? You've been going to the gym for three months, but suddenly you skip a day and you're like, oh, shit, you feel bad.
01:00:38
Speaker
I have seen guys who skip gym days and they feel bad. They are not happy about it that okay I was resting like a lazy ass in my home. No. They feel bad. I skipped a gym day. I skipped a run day. I skipped a content day. I needed to record something. So it will automatically become your routine.
01:00:57
Speaker
And you will become, you will get better at your work. You will become an amazing content creator. It's not rocket science. People, I don't think people, these people are from another planet or something. They're just, we are just like each other. We are here to help each other. Yeah, we just keep working on it. You'll get better on it and actually faster also. I've seen people create like 11 reels out of one.
01:01:25
Speaker
You know, like a guy sitting in front of me, he made 11 short form videos out of one single video. So it's just like, you know, you just get better. It's okay. Do tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck. Being content creator for, I don't know, hundreds of days already, right? One year, two years. In your journey, what is the happiest moment for you?
01:01:53
Speaker
The happiest moment for me was I think was my second or third or maybe eighth video or something. I posted this video and it got like 4000 views or something.
01:02:13
Speaker
I was getting, before those videos I was getting like 200, 300 views and something. I posted that video, it got like 4000 views and there were some comments and I went crazy man. I was like, oh shit, 4000 views? I was like 4000?
01:02:31
Speaker
I was like, look, then I'm showing everyone, my wife, my, my friends and I got two or four K four thousand views. And you know, the funny thing is that this, that was the happiest I was when I was posting content. And now I feel like, you know, once you cross this barrier, you tend to forget where you came from. You should, I should always advise people that never forget from where you came.
01:02:59
Speaker
Like now when I'm getting even like 100,000 views, I'm like saying, okay, maybe I did something wrong. Maybe my content is not good enough.
01:03:08
Speaker
which I was doing. A month back, I was starting to get in this vicious circle that maybe my content is not good anymore. I'm not getting those hundreds of thousands of views. You should not be this way. You should always remember where you came from and what your passion initially was. My goal was that I loved coffee. I didn't need to buy anything else. People might think that maybe I'm getting
01:03:34
Speaker
stuff from the companies they don't they don't actually every tool that I have is bought from my own money apart from a new ones which I receive from other companies yeah but I don't use them to be honest I use my old stuff only so yeah that's another thing you should then I thought okay you you came from like nothing and you know like you you work hard
01:04:02
Speaker
And then, as I said, that start, be consistent, make a community. It's all about the community.
Enjoying Coffee Beyond the Gear
01:04:09
Speaker
I'm not too, to be honest, I'm not too interactive with the community here locally because I want to, but maybe it's just time and I can't have so much leisure to go around and about. But yeah, work around the community, have some certain goal set for yourself.
01:04:31
Speaker
Don't worry about the tools. Guys, I want to say this again and again. Don't worry about the tools. The main thing. Yeah. Enjoy your cup of coffee. Be happy with whatever you have. I was. I mean, I feel I feel this. I feel this. I want to say this that I see that some people they they they they they think that maybe these things will improve my coffee. Yeah, they might help you.
01:04:59
Speaker
to get that satisfaction or maybe buy a cup of coffee, but it does not mean that you are drinking bad coffee. Please get that out of your head. Whatever you are doing is a great thing. Enjoy a cup of coffee. Either we eat Nescafe. I drink everything. Till this day, I will drink a Nescafe. I will drink
01:05:20
Speaker
I can't believe it. But I don't post it because then, I mean, it feels like, okay, maybe this guy is contradicting himself. But now I wanted to say this again. I drink Neskafey. I drink cost. I mean, I drink any coffee. Does not matter. Yeah. At my home, I prepare my own coffee. I work hard to get a good cup of espresso, a tasty cup of espresso.
01:05:43
Speaker
Yes, but does not mean I am a snob and I only drink that my own coffee. The goal with coffee should be your community.
01:05:54
Speaker
Coffee for yourself, for you, for friends. Have a chat or a cup of coffee. Enjoy. Relax. Don't think that I need to get a $15,000 grinder to get a great espresso. No, you don't need to and you don't need to get expensive machines. You don't need to get expensive tools.
01:06:14
Speaker
If my advice, if someone would ask me that I would want to start with the initial setup, what should I go with? I would always recommend go with something smaller, but spend more on your grinder. Set aside a big part of your budget for your beginner setup for your grinders. Spend a bit more on them rather than focusing on tools.
01:06:38
Speaker
you want to spend for the stampers, focus more on your grinders, then your machine, then your tools. Arrange it like this. Choose the grinder first, choose the machine accordingly, then buy some tools. Don't spend hundreds of dollars on tools, then get your machine for a thousand dollars and then you buy a cheap ass grinder.
01:07:02
Speaker
Thank you for the tips. I think that it's going to be a little bit painful for someone who has spent a lot of money on different gears. But I think that's a wise, otherwise, right? That's a black hole. You handle this game. You just keep pouring money in. But yeah, we had a great chat today. I have learned a lot about your background, a banker. I mean, surprisingly still.
01:07:25
Speaker
Yeah, and get to know your coffee journey. I think it's such a pleasure to really meet you in online, but to see your face. I think you probably have the only one who gets to go out and see your face. Thanks for tuning in to this I'm Not A Barista episode. Subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at I Am Not A Barista for more empowering vibes and true coffee stories that connect you with coffee lovers around the world.