Chazzano Coffee Roasters offers 10-20 different single origin coffees every day. You may know that coffee has twice the complexity of wine. There are hundreds of different specialty coffees available for purchase throughout the year. How do we choose which coffee to purchase, roast, and brew for our customers? It’s really simple. The questions that we ask ourselves are, “What will enrich our customers’ lives? Does this coffee wow us?” The price is not really a necessary part of the discussion because we are committed to buying the highest quality specialty coffee available. In addition, life is short. I selfishly ask first, “Will this coffee bring a smile to MY face?” If the answer is yes, then it’s a worthwhile coffee to purchase and sell.  The last question that we have is: “Is this coffee crazy different from our other coffees?” If not, then although it’s great, it doesn’t make sense to confuse our customers with two coffees that have similar flavor profiles.

But let’s get back to: “Does this coffee wow us?” This question applies to every part of our business and should apply to every part of your business. Customers come to eat at your restaurant or buy insurance from you because they want to be enriched. They want to get outside of the ordinary. Life can be extremely ordinary. Why do many of us eat out at the best restaurants frequently? It’s not just laziness or fatigue. We want to be taken care and to be taken away from our ordinary lives, or just predictable lives.  Come out to our table and tell us about this rare wine that you were able to buy (while you whisper that no one else in town has it yet), we are now in a different extraordinary world.  When we meet with you to discuss business insurance  and you educate us with stories and information, you’ve brought us to a different level. Instead of hanging out on the middle rung of the ladder, we’ve taken at least another step upwards.

For observant Jews, the Sabbath Day  is an escape from the ordinary days that we work, cook, drive, do business, and have our cell phone in our hands all day long. The Sabbath Day (Shabbat) which happens every week from Friday  to Saturday night  is filled with things that make the day extraordinary.  Throughout the week, we often have functional meals. We’re exhausted from working and being good parents. We prepare easy food so that we can eat, obtain sustenance, and maybe quickly watch some TV with the family and go to bed early. For the Sabbath Day, we prepare a feast, invite friends or family over to our homes, and dress in our finest clothes when we attend religious services. A famous Rabbi, Abraham Heschel, wrote in his book, The Sabbath, that Shabbat is an “Island in Time.” Every week, observant Jews take time to appreciate life, appreciate their family, and set the Sabbath Day as an “island in time” that is extraordinary and filled with joy.

How do you make life extraordinary for your customers or clients? Offer new products or services that excite you first. When we offer you a new blend called Glazy Days that tastes like chocolate doughnut glaze, it was our first love. We fell in love with the product first. It made our lives exciting when the blend was first created. When we then share our creation with you, we are able to show how much we love this new product. I often compare my business life with that of the life of a parent. You love all of your children the same, but occasionally one of them does something extraordinary- one wins the track meet, another participates in a piano recital, another earns a higher belt in their martial arts class. At that singular moment, you give them all of your love and you express how proud you are of them. In the same way, you need to single out of your products or services, revel in the greatness, and share that experience with us so that we may be transported to an extraordinary  “island in time.”