The podcast Guiding Growth: Conversations with Community Leaders from the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, event and meeting venue Modern Moments and the Gilbert Independent/yourvalley.net explores the human journey of leaders. There are stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks, and lessons learned. This partial transcript of the most recent podcast with Cortnie Cozeck has been edited for brevity and clarity.         

Cortnie Cozeck's career in the hospitality industry began with a 12-year tenure at Starbucks Coffee Company. It was here that she developed a passion for creating an incredible company culture.  

Leveraging this passion and knowledge, she embarked on a new venture in San Francisco, managing the only Nespresso flagship location on the West Coast. 

Her journey then led her deeper into the world of hospitality, managing one of San Francisco's most iconic and historic bars.  

In 2020, she relocated to Phoenix to take on the role of director of operations for Barter & Shake Creative Hospitality, an award-winning company renowned for its innovative approach. 

During her tenure with Barter & Shake, the team has achieved significant accolades, including winning Best U.S. Cocktail Bar at Tales of the Cocktail in 2023 and being listed as one of the Top 50 Bars in North America for two consecutive years.  

Cozeck’s career is driven by a pursuit of excellence and a dedication to fostering exceptional experiences in the hospitality industry. 

 You (move) to San Diego (from the High Desert in her early 20s). What does that look like? 

 It was the most liberating. I drove in the evening late at night, and I drove into a little town called Ocean Beach. And growing up in the desert, there's nobody on the road. And so you pull into this beach town, and there's people walking around all over. And I'll never forget driving down the main drag and there was this banner for a fireman's pancake breakfast, and I was like, “oh my gosh, this is a real thing?” 

And pulling up into my little apartment and my roommates were there to meet me and I just remember feeling so fortunate. I went up into our apartment and the first thing you could hear were the seals down by the harbor. And it was the most surreal feeling. And I think I lived in that apartment for about three years and every day you could hear it, and you could see SeaWorld from my backyard. And so you would see the fireworks every night at 10 o'clock, and it was just living that coastal dream. Take the bike out and ride through the waterways, and it's a dream. 

What do you do professionally while you're in San Diego?  

In San Diego I was a general manager for Starbucks, so I started my career with them in my early 20s. And I started in the High Desert, and I started as a barista and I was able to transfer down to the San Diego market. And down there I ran a store in Terra Santa, which is this teeny tiny little suburban spot off (Interstate) 5. And it was phenomenal. It taught me a lot. I drowned quite a bit before I really was able to stand on my own two feet in that particular location. And it taught me a ton about management. So coming in and having a brand new team, being in a brand new market, you really learn to listen a lot as opposed to speaking a lot and starting to see what your team needs.  

And in that time is when I started to learn that I had a lot of passion, which was great, and I could get my team excited, but I wasn't super focused or direct on meeting metrics and getting results. And I had a great mentor at that particular location. His name is Scott McCreary. He actually lives out here, so full circle, but he gave me this leadership development test. I'll never forget it. And I scored off the charts in this what they call a “high eye,” and it was high interactive. And he goes, “This makes so much sense, you can really direct your team and get 'em excited, but they don't get any results.” And I just remember going, “Oh no. Oh no, I can't. They're not going to continue to pay me to be a cheerleader.” And I wanted success, and I wanted to be able to see my name in some of the top managers up there in the district.  

And it was something that immediately I felt a little shame around. And he said, I'll never forget, he stopped and he left to me, he goes, “This is exactly who you are and you shouldn't feel ashamed of this. You just need to be aware of how it can cause you to not gain results.” And it was one of the biggest a-ha moments in my career. And it was the first time somebody had gone, “Hey, it's okay, be that cheerleader, but let's give you some additional tools and resources on how to be successful and how to gain results and how to get you that traction that you desire in terms of success within the industry.”  

Share something that you put in practice that you really saw some immediate change. 

There are multiple different types of people in this world. And when you hire only people that buy necessarily with your energy, whether it's that high eye, high energy, you are really causing an unbalance of folks in your team. And so you need those strategic people, you need those direct people, you need those folks that are really analytical to build a well diverse and successful team. 

I’m also really curious if you have a really good barista story that you can share with us? 

Starbucks is really great in empowering their people. It was another one of those awesome tools and resources that I've taken with me on my journey, but they always wanted you to create this “third place” for each of their guests walking in. And I had a woman that came into my particular store and you could just tell something horrible had happened to her. She just looked ragged, and she was standing in front of the pastry case and she's looking at me. and I'm like, “Are you OK?” She starts sobbing and she goes, “My mom just died.” She we're in San Diego. And she was like, “I have to drive to Arizona.” And I was like, “Oh my God.” And she just broke down. And at that moment I felt empowered to care for her.  

It doesn't matter what business you're in, all of a sudden you realize we're just humans trying to get through this. And so I sat her down and I was like, “What do you drink?”And she's like, “I don't even know. I don't even come to Starbucks. I don't even know why I'm here.” And I was like, “It's fine, I got you.” So I made her a great cup of coffee, and we got a tote and I packed her full of snacks and bottles of water and we put a gift card in there to get her through in case she needed to stop again. And I got her to her car and gave her a big hug and let her know, “I'm so sorry but you're loved and we're thinking of you and if you need anything, please let me know.”  

This dear woman became our biggest fan and my biggest champion. She went to the San Diego newspaper and told them what I had done, and the paper wrote up about how Starbucks creates this third place and creates this home. And from there she has always been a regular. 

Point out maybe a lesson learned over the past three years as you've settled in here and just professionally and personally. 

I'd say balance, although that's not my favorite word in the world, I like the word harmony. Finding harmony with a very fast-paced job and trying to balance your own personal wellbeing. So I have five bars that I oversee, 75 employees. It is never a dull moment, and you want to continuously show up in all aspects, whether it's championing somebody during a bar competition or making sure everybody has what they need for a Friday night or whatever it might be. And with that comes a bit of your own personal time can kind of really get pushed by the wayside. So a lesson that I've had to really embrace is learning the harmony of what does that look like with maintaining a healthy, happy Cortnie and then a healthy, happy Barter and Shake.