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#12. Meet Micky, and let's talk about the I'M NOT A BARISTA
76 Plays3 years ago
This week's episode is our first recorded by our marketing intern, and now new co-host, Nicole Hilton.
We interviewed Micky, CEO and founder of I'M NOT A BARISTA, and got to know a little more about how we got started with his not-for-profit organisation. Let's find out together who is the face (and voice) behind I'M NOT A BARISTA.
Don't forget to check our latest Charity Project on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-secret-of-delicious-coffee-the-brewing-guide#/
For more coffee stories, check our website
https://notabarista.org/coffee-stories/
Humanity runs on coffee.
We need your support, so make sure you spread the word!
Read more coffee stories on
https://notabarista.org/
Order Coffee Wristbands and support I'M NOT A BARISTA's charity work
https://notabarista.org/product/notabarista-coffee-wristbands-2023/
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the I'm Not a Barista podcast where you can get inspired by real life stories from the people behind the cup. Join us as we talk about everything to do with coffee, from having a career in this industry to brewing tips and how you can support this global community. Humanity runs on coffee and together we can empower the people behind the cup. Welcome to our new podcast episode of I'm Not a Barista.
Meet Miki, the Founder
00:00:31
Speaker
I'm Nicole, your co-host for today.
00:00:34
Speaker
And I'm going to be talking to Mickey, CEO and founder of I'm Not a Barista. Recently, I'm Not a Barista managed to reach a $4,800 crowdfunding goal for the most recent project in 12 hours only. And now they have lots of new projects in store. So here we have Mickey. Welcome to our podcast episode. Glad to have you here with us. Nice to be here again.
00:01:04
Speaker
Well, it's officially the first time I interview you, right?
Miki's Passion for Coffee
00:01:10
Speaker
So tell us something about your hobbies, your interests, your passion. Who is Mickey? Good question. I love coffee. So brewing coffee is one of my biggest hobbies, actually. I like to work. I don't know if I can consider working as kind of a hobby, but I do enjoy
00:01:30
Speaker
And the process of creating something, for example, we finished The Boring Guide. And then I consider working on this project. It's my biggest hobby during the last year. Yeah. I love coffee. I love beer. I love IPA, drinking and traveling. I think everybody likes it. And I have a dog. I like walking with my dog.
00:01:52
Speaker
Cool. So you work hard and you play hard or you, you work harder. I think then you, then you play, um, yeah, working with you. I've realized you have a very good ethics of like working and putting all of your effort into your projects. Right. But how did your relationship with coffee start? Was it always something that you loved that you had a passion for?
00:02:18
Speaker
I would like to think I'm the person that work hard and play hard. Unfortunately, recently, I work a lot. I work really hard, but I don't play that hard anymore, you know, with the pandemic. Talking about the board guide, I think, is one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life.
00:02:38
Speaker
a project that I created from zero to one. And yeah, I worked really hard on that. My relationship with coffee. Well, I don't know how to describe this relationship. Actually, I wasn't especially coffee.
00:02:53
Speaker
lover back four or five years ago. I love Starbucks a lot. I think it's just a great place to go to have a chat with your friends, to meet everyone. It's always nice. The web is good. It is always nice.
00:03:09
Speaker
But then I started working as a branding manager, a marketing manager at a Chinese company. It's a coffee technology company. So they produce one of those very futuristic machines, like robotic arms, making kafalate. It's just crazy, so futuristic.
00:03:29
Speaker
And then I got to know especially the coffee because I need to arrange events and the sponsors baristas. So I had a lot of chance to talk to those coffee professionals or champions. And then they share so much passion with me that I didn't understand. I was like, okay, coffee is a bitter drink, right? Maybe you put some sugar and milk. But then I felt so touched when I talked to them.
00:03:59
Speaker
And then it's not just the passion, but they have this love relationship with the coffee. And then I got interested and I was like, okay, what keep you guys so fascinated about this drink, right? And then they said, okay, you have to try this coffee if you try that one. And then I started with a special coffee. I remember the first one was Ethiopian coffee and washed. My mind was just blown away.
00:04:26
Speaker
That was very life-changing moment, I would say. So the first cup of coffee, really, really great. And then I think my relationship with coffee since then became stronger and stronger. I got so interested in brewing coffee at home myself. I bought a lot of gears, tried different coffee, different rustic methods, and different roasters. So yeah, this is kind of my relationship with coffee.
00:04:55
Speaker
So your relationship with coffee, especially specialty coffee, started because of your colleagues, right? They introduced you to this new magic world, as you say, was eye opening and revealing. But how did the actual idea of I'm not a barista, how did it come out? Where was it born?
Origin of 'I'm Not a Barista'
00:05:17
Speaker
Or actually the idea of I'm not barista, I didn't create this sentence or tagline, I'm not barista. It's just a sentence.
00:05:28
Speaker
I remember that was the time I was organizing the 2018 Danish Coffee Roasting Championship, and then I met a lot of world champions there. I talked to them a lot, and the third conversation went deeper and deeper. They told me they're struggling. They worked so hard for a competition, but then after that, they become a regular barista again.
00:05:52
Speaker
When you talk about championship or champions, you obviously think there's a big fame, you know, like reputation, they have their own reputation like a celebrity, but in the coffee world, it's not like that. They work so hard to get the title, but then after that, they go home and then regular barista, low salary, and people treat you not really that nicely sometimes. So I thought, okay,
00:06:17
Speaker
This is a serious problem,
Challenges Faced by Baristas
00:06:19
Speaker
right? They work so hard, they deserve more attention and appreciation. But then how to make that happen? As a marketing manager, I always believe communication is the key. So I visit a lot of coffee shops. I realized that people don't really talk to baristas.
00:06:36
Speaker
I make my order, I want cappuccino, I pay, and then I wait for my coffee. That's it. There's no communication at all. And how to make that communication? How to start a conversation? And I thought, okay, maybe I'm not a barista, a teacher, it's a nice conversation breaker. Because you see, someone is making you a cup of coffee, but then he's not a barista, at least his teacher says so.
00:07:01
Speaker
You wonder what's wrong with this guy, right? Is he a barista or she's a barista? And what does it even mean? I guess when you feel curious about something, you start asking, right? Like, man, what's that teacher about? Like, are you a barista? In that case, I hope we can have more conversations. And then in this case, barista can share their passion for coffee, taking share the coffee knowledge with everyone. So in this case, more people get to know special coffee.
00:07:27
Speaker
And then we know in the coffee world, we have a lot of issues. It's like shortage of coffee in, let's say in 50 years, we probably don't have good coffee anymore. I know coffee at all, global warming. And then the farmers in countries, we never been to, they have very, very low salary. And all of these issues can be fixed.
00:07:53
Speaker
But first, we have to let people understand there is an issue. So I think barista are the perfect person in this role that they can be the industry ambassador to share their passion. Meanwhile, they can share what's really going on in the coffee world because we all love coffee, right? You go to coffee shop, even you don't know much about specialty coffee, but you still like that energy drink. So it matters to you somehow.
00:08:18
Speaker
And I think that's how I get started and the M numbers is perfect tagline for that. So I decided, okay, just use this name. All right. Well, that was a thorough explanation. Thank you for that. What do you find now as most challenging in your daily work and everything you do at I'm Not a Barista?
00:08:44
Speaker
After working one half year on M.Burster, I think the most challenging task for me is to multitasking.
00:08:56
Speaker
Since we are a very small organization, but like I always say, we're a big family. I have to do a lot of things, foreign design, foreign content creation, taking photos, creating videos, editing videos, and making strategies. What else?
00:09:14
Speaker
I don't think of anything I don't do, right? Money, finance, logistic, and the boring guy, Kickstarter, marketing, branding, everything. I have to do everything that you see at Amno Barista. So it's kind of challenging. I have to constantly learn new things.
00:09:32
Speaker
And well, no, the one is perfect. So I only know a small part of my job. That's why I have to work really, really hard 12, 14 hours a day just to get to know new things so I can quickly learn and use them so we're not left behind. And which means we can make bigger and faster impact.
00:09:52
Speaker
So I think this is the most challenging thing, but I'm really happy to work with our interns. Since we started internship last year, September, we have more than 20 interns have been working with us and from.
00:10:08
Speaker
graphic designer, to copywriter, content writers, to marketers. So we always have this great big family. Everybody's so happy to work together. And I can see my interns learn through this internship and I can somehow give them some tips or advices that I think could be useful. And then I see them can find a job after this internship and to learn something really valuable. That's my happiness. Yeah.
00:10:38
Speaker
That's nice. It's a lot for one guy just to be doing, but you also, it's nice to have a good family. As you say, you have people around you that help you and collaborate with you and that share your principles and your ideals. So that's really nice.
00:10:55
Speaker
On a more positive note, what's your favorite part of working, of your current job of I'm not a barista? So there are lots of challenges, but I suppose you have a favorite side of this company. I like to have meetings with my interns. Why? Why is that? I like to talk to people. I like to know what's going on in their mind, like what they're thinking.
00:11:26
Speaker
how do they work so I can always help them somehow and so I guess in short I like helping people not just the comfort community but also our interns I think that's my yeah the best part I would like the most. No very um I I admire you for your for your mission you know not everyone
00:11:49
Speaker
decides to leave their current job and found an amazing new company and take on loads of people on an international level and try to take on this mission. So yeah, kudos to you for this new mission and all your projects and discussing, like talking about your current projects. You know, as you mentioned the pandemic earlier, many independent cafes, baristas, people have
Pandemic Response Initiatives
00:12:17
Speaker
had to close and have lost their jobs.
00:12:19
Speaker
And many people have found themselves in a really tough situation. How has I'm not a barista responded to this difficult time in the coffee industry? What are you guys trying to do about this?
00:12:33
Speaker
Well, you know, we started Annaparista last year, actually officially registered in Hong Kong, and then this year actually moved to US. And last year in March, right before the pandemic started, we were busy with making donations. That was our first donation, 100 euros. So that was Greg Barista who was
00:12:57
Speaker
About joining competition and then we're helping him a little bit just motivate him inspire him that there are many people behind him you know supporting him and then.
00:13:08
Speaker
Right after that, the pandemic happened. And we thought, OK, there won't be any barista competition anymore. So there won't be more barista working in coffee shop because everything was closed. And then I thought, OK, my mission is to empower baristas. But in this case, they're at home. So what we can do about it? I know barista, they know coffee so well. They have the knowledge. It's their specialties. But without customers, it's so hard for them to continue doing what they do.
00:13:37
Speaker
And I figured out, okay, social media probably is the best way we can share what they know with the people, coffee lovers, who cannot go to coffee shop anymore. So we wanted to build a connection between baristas and the coffee lovers. I talked to a few close coffee friends, including Valentina from Italy, from Maya from UK, Alvin from Hong Kong.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then we'll have a few other people like a brand, Aeropress from US, Sarah, the marketing manager there. So we started this campaign called Brew at Home. The purple was very simple to share the coffee knowledge with everybody. So we were actually the first one started this.
00:14:19
Speaker
We didn't know how big the impact could be. I remember when we planned this campaign on Instagram, there were about 3,000 hashtags who were at home. But I think nowadays probably it's 100,000 already. And during the whole process, we had more about 200 roasters for all of the world joining us. And the most important thing is we inspire other people
00:14:48
Speaker
we inspire other coffee businesses to do similar things. So more people start helping their own local coffee community. And I think that's the most beautiful thing that we have ever done. Of course, I didn't do it myself. I worked so hard with volunteers, with the business and the partners.
00:15:06
Speaker
And yeah, that's what we did during the pandemic to help the coffee community. And now we can see on Instagram, a lot of people are doing giveaways. It's kind of marketing, but I also believe that's a good way to give back to the coffee community, right? To build this relationship with your coffee customers. And last year in total, I think we gave away more than 600 items, including coffee and brewing gears tools.
00:15:33
Speaker
And we organize online events, we invite coffee champions, we invite product designers to talk about their business, the founder of coffee business to talk about how they built their business. And we talk about roasters to explain how they roaster coffee. So we organize online events like we call it Zoom party. We normally have 40, 60 people online at the same time. And we learn, we share.
00:15:59
Speaker
That's just beautiful. I think a lot of people felt that kind of connection when everybody was isolated at home. So this is a very, very meaningful campaign. And after that, I see more and more people start sharing what they know and making tutorials and business start collaborate with each other, even
00:16:20
Speaker
Most of them, they are competitors, but become friends, in this case, support each other. I think this is the most important thing, like this campaign brought to the coffee community and especially in the pandemic. Yeah, I completely agree. We all needed some kind of support.
00:16:38
Speaker
And you gave the support and you grew bigger and stronger and you definitely made an impact. And now your page is over 12,000 followers. And you've started two crowdfunding projects, right? One on Kickstarter and one on Indiegogo.
Charity Projects and Support
00:16:56
Speaker
And tell us more about your most recent project, which is the charity project on Indiegogo. What's the mission all about?
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Actually, it's the same project. The one on indiegogo now is still the brand guide. We finished the Kickstarter very successfully. After that, we just want to continue this moment.
00:17:16
Speaker
And so we moved to Indiegogo, and then we can market as a charity project. And charity project, we make donations in a simple way. But then we want to work with more people, roasters. We want to involve as many people as possible from all over the world so people can get to know each other and help each other. So this kind of, we believe, being kind to other people is contagious. You feel good when you're helping others. And when you receive help from others, you also feel good.
00:17:45
Speaker
So this project is about we collect 48 recipes and then we want to help 48 baristas. And if we plan to make 100 donations to one barista per week, the whole project actually is just one year time.
00:18:00
Speaker
And that's what we want to do. I know that it's not a big amount of money, but for baristas, I think it's a big tip. Consider that it's a tipping. And we want to inspire them to make them understand their value.
00:18:16
Speaker
And I know that meta-bursts that they join us, they join our brewing guide project. So they have their own recipe printed on the card deck. And now more than a thousand people, they can see how they can use their recipe and they can scan the QR code and connect with them to get to know them, to their favorite music, to know where they work, their past. So I think this is the way that we empower people behind the cup, not just burristers, roasters and coffee lovers as well.
00:18:45
Speaker
And through this charity project, actually it's the real connection we are building. Like we move the knowledge from one side of an industry to the coffee consumers. So this is our latest project on Indiegogo.
00:18:59
Speaker
Well, I really hope you can reach your goal. I think it's the first charity project and I'm not a barista's history, right? So it's a very big move. Something like this can actually, as you say, give some hope to people. Maybe $100 cannot be perceived as a massive amount, but it can definitely help people feel like they're not alone. So yeah, I really hope you'll reach your goal and these
00:19:28
Speaker
these 48 weeks, right, since it's lasting a year, will give you loads of possibilities to donate to more baristas and more people in need. And what about the future of I'm Not a Barista?
Future Plans and Ambitions
00:19:41
Speaker
So we've spoken about all your current projects and the past and how you've reached this point. Where do you see I'm Not a Barista in the following five years, let's say?
00:19:52
Speaker
Well, we just talked about the short future project, this charity one. It lasted one year. And in addition to that, we also have an app development team inside of Amnabrista. And it's a team led by Andrea from Romania. And we have interns in one interior, works together. So this is the open source marketplace for coffee beans. The main goal is to connect more people in the coffee industry and provide a very transparent marketplace that everybody can
00:20:20
Speaker
use, everybody can benefit from this. So we can collect donations from this plan form and then give it back to the coffee community. In that case, we can give the money directly to coffee farmers, to baristas, roasters, whoever you need. This is one of a future project. We do have other plans. I remember a few weeks ago, I got this idea, maybe we should publish a book.
00:20:44
Speaker
or a magazine, we have so many coffee stories right there. So far, I think it's about 120 coffee stories. Why don't we just make a book, publish a book about coffee stories, and then you can read everybody's story there. And it's a great thing that when you have this book, which means you will have 100 people there you can deal connection with.
00:21:07
Speaker
And if you love any of them, you can visit them in the coffee shop or you can follow them on Instagram. So this is the way with empowering people get more white is to help them create a bigger impact and to make them make themselves believe that they have more value than they think.
00:21:26
Speaker
So, having a book, maybe a magazine in the future, and our own. We are having our podcast right now. We hope we can get bigger and bigger. What else? Maybe one day we can have a Netflix.
00:21:40
Speaker
Wow. Fingers crossed. Yeah. I always fancy about having a coffee documentary movie. And if you watch Netflix, you see there are a lot of food shows there, but there's only a few coffee-related ones.
00:21:56
Speaker
And we're wondering, is there a way that we can share our passion for coffee with more people? And Netflix, I think, is a good chance, a good place, a good channel to reach a bigger audience. So in the end, more people understand the issues of the coffee world, so more people can help, so we can fix a lot of issues, problems.
00:22:17
Speaker
That would be really interesting. I think there's a hole in the market right now for coffee or drink-related documentaries because as you say, they're a hot trend on Netflix, right? Food documentaries, but a coffee documentary would be so interesting because people, I think,
00:22:35
Speaker
me included, as you drink coffee, you don't realize when you're drinking who's made that beverage for you. From the farmer to the roaster to the barista, there are so many passages and people in between. So a documentary would be so insightful for people to find out what the whole process and how tough
00:22:59
Speaker
the job is. I really am keeping my fingers crossed that you managed to get a Netflix documentary out there. That would be really cool. Yeah, thank you. So we're getting towards the end of our episode because we mentioned all these cool projects, including the brewing guide. I wanted to ask you, do you have a favorite brewing method or a favorite coffee that you like brewing every morning? I do more than one.
00:23:30
Speaker
Because it changed from day to day. I like AeroPress a lot. I like Pour Over. I think they are my two favorite brewing methods. I use them every day. Today, this morning, I used AeroPress with Alvin's recipe. His recipe card is the number 181 card in our brewing guide. So tomorrow, I will try another recipe, maybe from Pour Over or some French price. So definitely Pour Over and AeroPress, they are my favorite.
00:24:00
Speaker
Yeah, you have some exploring to do there with 48 recipes.
Conclusion and Social Media Call
00:24:04
Speaker
Thank you.
00:24:05
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. This has been really interesting. I'd love speaking to you and hope our listeners have enjoyed this session. So if you want to follow I'm not a barista and all of his initiatives, they have an Instagram page at I'm not a barista and they have also a Facebook page with the same that goes by the same name, a LinkedIn page and a Twitter page. So make sure you follow all of their initiatives.
00:24:35
Speaker
Don't miss out. I will say we have, we have. By the way, whoever is listening, Nicole is our marketing intern and she's from? Interin. Interin, okay. So she's one of her very, very nice marketing interns and she's been helping us a lot. And this is her first try.
00:24:55
Speaker
I'm podcasting with us, so she's doing a wonderful job. I just hope you guys can show a lot of support and subscribe our podcast and check out our latest project. Thank you. Thank you, Miki.
00:25:08
Speaker
See you next time.