Winning coffee awards and competitions is pretty cool. There are many benefits to pursuing accolades for your coffee shop through such as marketing opportunities, sharpening skills, energizing staff, and networking. The question we have to ask ourselves though is, just how critical are competitors and awards tot he success of our shops and what metric should we be using to gauge the health of our businesses?  In today's episode we will be talking about how the pursuit of awards can often become a means to ignore the more foundational issues within the shop and actually contribute to further disfunction by prioritizing external validation over internal health.  We discuss: Benefits and place of competition Where we go astray Why "Best of" doesn't mean what you think The consequences Feeding our ego Mindset for ROI no matter what Escaping responsibility through community Focus on "first things" and internal health Related Episodes:  Icing on the Cake: Competitions vs. the Shop Accurate Reflection 010: How Are Competitions Relevant? w/ Jess Steffy: Barista competitions / Coffee Shops / Employee engagement / Professional growth  045 : Simple, Powerful Hospitality w/ Philip Turner 173 : 5 Areas of Focus for Retailers 158 : A Management Masterclass w/ Jon Felix Lund, VP of Operations for Coava Coffee Roasters / Portland, OR 296: Holistic Barista Training w/ David Castillo of Go Get Em Tiger , Los Angeles   Visit our sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com/keys www.pacficfoodservice.com www.coffeefest.com