IAM1540 – Cafe Owner Offers Premium Coffee and Healthy Food to New Yorkers

Born and raised in New York, Gregory Zamfotis is familiar with the hustle. Prior to founding Gregory's Coffee, he studied law but found himself seeking something different. It was during time spent with his father, a successful businessman in the NY food industry, that he discovered his interest in creating a space where healthy food and beverages were available to people like him—driven to succeed but staying in shape along the way. These discussions took place in a range of coffee shops around the city, and it was then that he noticed how many were lacking quality food options. This planted the seed in him to create a space where you don’t have to make sacrifices to get great coffee and get it quickly. He wanted to offer healthy options to people like him—driven to succeed without sacrificing nutritious food.

Focused on the consumer experience first and foremost, Gregory has built a business with his fellow New Yorkers in mind, ensuring their hustle is only enhanced by quality products served in the most convenient locations.

• CEO Story: Greg was already exposed to the business world since he was young because he was helping his father’s business. As he was taking his Law school and trying to pivot to his own way of business. Started his healthy coffee shop in 2006, and Greg was all in managing the business. Taking to the busy streets of Manhattan, a quality experience,  premium product in a fast-paced environment. Get people their product quickly without sacrificing the quality
• Business Service: Serving premium coffee. Start to build a menu around the core product. Baked products. Plant-based option.
• Secret Sauce: Always seeking to improve, and innovate. Approaching the business like selling to yourself, is what gets you excited and passionate. Hearing people out.
• CEO Hack: Never lose touch with your people and what’s going on in the business
• CEO Nugget: Make sure to read everything that you are signing. Know what you are getting into.
• CEO Defined: Deeply in touch with your business and your people. Giving what the business needs when it needs it and when you need to ask for help.

Website: www.gregoryscoffee.com

Instagram: gregoryscoffee

Twitter: gregoryscoffee

Facebook: GregorysCoffee

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Transcription

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00:26 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:52 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Greg Zamfotis of Gregory's Coffee. Greg, super excited to have you on.

01:04 – Gregory Zamfotis

Thanks for having me.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. But before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Greg so you can hear a little bit more about all the awesome things he's doing. Born and raised in New York, Gregory is a familiar is familiar with hustle. Prior to founding Gregory's Coffee, he studied law but found himself seeking something different.

It was during time spent with his father, a successful businessman in the New York food industry, that he discovered his interest in creating a space where healthy food and beverages were available to people just like him. Driven to succeed but staying in shape along the way. These discussions took place in a range of coffee shops around the city, and it was then that he noticed how many were lacking quality food options.

This plants the seed in him to create a space where you don't have to make sacrifices to get great coffee and get it quickly. He wants to offer healthy options to people just like him. Driven to succeed without sacrificing nutritious food and focusing on consumer experience first and foremost, Gregory has built a business with his fellow New Yorkers in mind to ensure their hustle is only enhanced by quality products served in the most convenient locations. Greg, excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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02:15 – Gregory Zamfotis

Let's do it. I'm pumped.

02:17 – Gresham Harkless

Let's get it happening. So to kind of kick everything off. I know I touched on it when I read your bio, but I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:26 – Gregory Zamfotis

Yeah, I think the bio did a pretty good job of summarizing it. I think to color in between the lines a little bit. I sort of had that Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours of experience without realizing I had that. So as I was finishing law school and pivoting towards running my own business, while it was new and interesting for me, I had basically been doing this my whole life, whether I was shaving carrots, going on deliveries, working the cash register, helped my father and his businesses basically from a young age all the way through school.

So I took that and then put my own stamp on it. I wanted to do things my own way. So whenever it was working for my father's businesses, it was very definitively helping him as opposed to thinking about a career for myself. So when we got started with Gregory's in 2006, I was all in from day one, literally, basically planted in that store seven days a week managing that business. And the real genesis was how can I kind of take a quality experience, and premium products, and do it in a fast-paced environment.

My father's businesses were always like that. The middle of the midtown Manhattan financial district was just huge rushes of folks who just didn't have the time to wait. So, you know, efficiency was of the most importance to New Yorkers in those parts of town. I took that idea and brought it to areas of town where there were limited options for specialty coffee.

Drawing on my background and the values ingrained in me such as the importance of hustle—I focused on delivering products quickly, while never compromising on the customer experience or the quality of the coffee. And when you did those things, or when we did those things, we found a lot of success and people really valuing what we were doing and appreciating all that hustle we were put forth.

04:23 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And anything, you know, with Malcolm Gladwell's outliers that have that mentioned always, you know, speaks volumes to me because I think it really speaks to the true understanding of, like, how people succeed, why they succeed. A lot of times people think, you know, people flip a switch and then they get started. But I love hearing how those seeds were planted and how you kind of took that experience, the knowledge, just things that you were saying you were going through and not even realizing you were building up that expertise and knowledge to be able to do all the things you're doing now.

04:50 – Gregory Zamfotis

Oh, yeah. It's kind of like I don't know, osmosis. Over the years, however many times I heard my father having conversations, watching him do what he did really just absorbed all that energy and all that information without realizing it. So then when it came to be my turn to start making those decisions or having those conversations with guests or team members, I don't want to say it felt natural. It was. Felt like I had a lot of practice and was probably wiser than my years. When we started, I was young, buck my early 20s. Now I'm an old man, just turned 40 this year, but still have the same energy I had from day one, I think, maybe even more.

05:29 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I'm sure Gregory's Coffee is a good reason for that. So I absolutely love that you've been able to kind of, you know, tap into that and really, you know, continue to hit the ground running. So I know I touched on it and you did as well too. A little bit about, you know, what you're doing at Gregory's Coffee. Could you take us through a little bit more about what you're providing, how you're serving your clients, and how that experience is really taken to another level?

05:49 – Gregory Zamfotis

So I think the foundation of everything we do is our coffee program. So it starts with coffee and we say it starts with coffee and stops at nothing. Right. So, you know, coffee's on the, on the masthead. So that's, that's of premier importance. It's super important to me. I'm probably drinking six, seven, eight, nine cups of coffee a day. So it's important to make sure it's on point, not only for me but for all the guests. So every step from sourcing the coffee to roasting the coffee and then obviously brewing it at the stores, we control all of those things because we want to make sure, you know, we're keeping our tight controls over quality and we can make a change if we need to.

We continue to iterate and tweak to make sure that we're constantly pushing the boundaries to get that quality just as high as it possibly can be. So that obviously is a foundation for the majority of our menu. Drip coffees, cappuccinos, lattes, your standard fare. Cold brew, obviously now and then from there started to build out the menu around that core product and fill it with not only interesting derivatives of the coffee. So like cold brew, we have a cold brew bar where we take cold brew and use it as an ingredient as opposed to just the drink and you mix it with other items. Plant-based milk, honey, cinnamon, et cetera, Nutella, whatever. It might be to come up with interesting pre. No concoctions almost.

We've been pushing a plant-based menu or we've had plant-based items on the menu for probably about 10 years now. I'd say in the last five or six years it's become much more of a focus as it kind of dovetails with my own personal diet. So I observe a plant-based diet and as I've been doing that, obviously selfishly, I want to have more of those sorts of products. In our cafes. We always build that with the mindset of I don't want to build products that are just plant-based and they taste like a plant-based product.

We build delicious products and if we can make them plant-based, we will. And that has worked, served us really well because we don't have one or two items. We're just nodding towards the plant-based trend. We have a pretty substantial part of our menu is built around vegan plant-based items. So that community absolutely loves what we're doing because they know it's built by care and believe in it. And it's not just something we're doing to increase ticket sales. We're doing it because it's important to me and to our team.

08:14 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So would you consider that to be a large part of your secret sauce? This could be for yourself individually, the business, or a combination of both. But it almost feels like you have that obviously strong foundation, the 10,000 hours that we kind of talked about. But it sounds like you've been able to kind of, for lack of a better term, master that and be able to say like, how can I push the envelope and do better? Do you think that's part of like?

08:34 – Gregory Zamfotis

What sets you apart, and makes you make 100%? I think maybe in some instances you might call it ADD or turbo ADD or whatever it is these days. But I've got not to disparage those that have that. It's more of where it's like I can't sit still. I can't stop thinking about what else can we do to improve or to make, make something better, or try something different. And it's not, again, not being different just for the sake of being different. It's just approaching the business like a first I'm trying to sell to myself, like, what interests me, what gets me excited, what makes me passionate.

If I don't have that, then it's hard for me to get a team excited or to rally around a product idea or service model because again, it doesn't it's rings hollow if it doesn't feel like it's coming from a place of sincere passion or, or enjoyment. So I start with selling to myself and then I also talk with others about what are people looking for, what do they, what they like, and what they want to see more of. And we're constantly looking at how we could improve. And then you build a team mentality around that where, you know, there could be some instances where change can be difficult. It's work, right?

If I kept the same menu all the time, it would be much easier. I don't have to, I don't have to print new menus, I don't have to train folks on new products. I don't have to work on development or all these sorts of things. Things. So, you know, it could be easy to just sit back and say we've got it knocked down, but we sort of put it to ourselves to say we don't ever want to stop. There's always something new and interesting coming out, whether it's an ingredient, a brew method, a style, a product, an ancillary product, or a food product, it never really stops.

We're really sort of at the beginning of what a lot of people are calling it, that next wave of coffee, where like the, the first wave, second wave. We've been in this quote-unquote, third wave of coffee for a long time. And I think this new generation is really helping us tip into that next cold coffee, different ways of preparing it and combining it with other things. Convenience married, with quality. All these things are just kind of being really shattered by the megaphones and excited to kind of tap into that.

10:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I love how you said convenience with quality. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:04 – Gregory Zamfotis

I think for me, it's never losing touch with our people. And it's very easy. As a CEO or someone in a high-level position in a company that's growing to become detached from the day-to-day, obviously, there are a lot of things that need to get done, a lot of priorities, and a lot of heavy tasks that just need focus. And again, I'm like removed right now. I'm in an office, but I intentionally have our office on the second floor of one of our coffee shops. I just, love being in that space, being in that energy, communicating with the team.

Members drinking coffee with them. And you never really lose touch of what it's like in the, in the store, at the, at that, what the customer experience feels like. Never losing sight of what it's like. I don't want to say the trenches, but just in the day-to-day what's going on in the business. You know, I love being able to connect with our team. The team really getting to feel comfortable with me, being able to express opinions, express concerns if they have them, and then also rallying around the things that we're trying to do together.

12:11- Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I think that's huge. And I love the idea of, you know, kind of being plugged in. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this could be a little bit more words of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you happened to be a time machine or potentially your favorite client.

12:27 – Gregory Zamfotis

Maybe as advice, I would just say like make sure you're reading everything that you're signing. And I think this is, this is a lawyer in me, someone who went to law school. And it's easy when you get, you know, even one-pager from a new vendor, a new partner, just making sure you know what you're getting yourself into. There's a lot of, there's been times where folks who work as a part of the team have gotten interactions with the new vendor, new client, and whatever. The document seems simple enough. And then you realize all it takes is one line in there to say or do something that can become challenging for you or your business if things don't always go 100% the way you expect them to. So I always recommend reading everything.

Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. If it's too dense, ask for help. I've found it many times. And even if something is like oh, quote-unquote, this is our standard boy play that everybody signs. Almost always. If there's something wrong in there, I'll be like, well this, this just is not going to work. Most, most vendors or partners that are solid, good people that you want to work with will work with you if there's something in the document, that you don't agree with or you're concerned with. So just read your stuff.

13:37 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show so what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:47 – Gregory Zamfotis

I think it's constantly being, again, deeply in touch with your business, deeply in touch with your people and, you know, giving it what it needs. Sometimes it's less of you, sometimes it's more. And sometimes it just takes listening because again, it's a trap. I found myself and I'm sure other CEOs can attest to giving the business what it needs, when it needs it, and when you need to ask for help. And when you do those things, it's just a never-ending, really never-ending piece, right, that race. So there's always something going on and I think making sure you're just super tapped in and you know what to give, when to give it, and how to give it.

14:30 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Greg, truly appreciate that definition and of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people could get a hold of you, visit your stores, and find out all the awesome things you and Tim are working on.

14:47 – Gregory Zamfotis

We've got 36 locations between New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. We have five stores down in D.C. close by you. You know, you could check us out at gregoryscoffee.com. our, handles are all at Gregory's Coffee. No apostrophe, just Y's there. Personally, my handles are all at Gregory Zambotus. Feel free to check out what I’m discussing lately, exploring how we can improve and continuously strive for more.

And then hopefully, you know, in a soon time, if we ever chat again, I'll have more interesting things to be talking about or what other things we figured out and how important it was to continue staying ahead of the curve and looking forward, not always just looking back.

15:35 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Definitely looking forward to that. We're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up. But you know, it just reminds me so much of what you were saying. There's this, I guess, quotation I always hear and I always say to myself is that things don't happen, you know, to me, they happen for me. They don't happen to us, they happen for us.

And it's kind of like an exercise and a muscle that you have to kind of build out and kind of see. And definitely, obviously, some traumatic things have happened, you know, to so many people in so many different ways and organizations and everything in between and all around. But again, it ends up building that opportunity for us to kind of, you know, be stronger, to be better, be more resilient as you said. So well. So definitely looking forward to you turning that page. Looking forward to hearing what's being beyond that next page and beyond that too. So thank you my friend and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:19 – Gregory Zamfotis

Thank you. You as well. Amazing.

16:20 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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