Growth Instigators Hotline
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Growth Instigators Hotline
#492 Coffee: Your first taste
The first whiff of coffee can change a morning before the cup even touches your lips. That tiny sensory moment sets an expectation—comfort, focus, and momentum—and it’s a powerful metaphor for how our presence sets the tone before we speak. We dive into the “first taste” people get from us, how businesses use sensory cues to shape trust, and simple ways to show up centered so your message lands.
We explore the restaurant litmus test—how smell forecasts the meal—and translate it to service quality and leadership. As a commercial cleaning owner, Aaron shares how the power of suggestion works: clean must also smell like clean. When sensory signals agree with visible standards, customers believe the work is thorough. The same principle applies to your leadership brand. Posture, breath, pace, and eye contact are your nonverbal aroma, telling others whether to relax or brace. When you arrive grounded, teams think clearer, meetings run smoother, and feedback gets honest.
You’ll leave with practical resets you can use today: a quick breathing pattern before calls, a one-sentence intention to guide tone, short transitions between meetings to downshift, and small environmental tweaks that make your workspace feel safe and focused. We connect emotional intelligence to nervous system regulation and show how consistent signals—online and in person—build a reputation that travels further than any resume. Let the scent of coffee remind you to line up your inner state with the experience you want others to have. Subscribe for more short, actionable growth prompts, share this with a friend who leads under pressure, and tell us: what feeling do you want people to sense in the first five seconds?
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Welcome to message 492 of the Growth Instigators Hotline, where we examine an everyday normal object and assign it a deeper meaning. I'm Aaron Havens, your host and growth coach. What can coffee remind us of today? Coffee. Again, I say either you love it or hate it. Yesterday I talked about how I was tricked into liking coffee. Today I want to talk about the first taste of coffee. And I'm not talking about the first taste I ever had. No, I'm talking about the daily first taste. One of my favorite parts of coffee is the smell. I have my coffee maker set on a timer so that it starts brewing 20 minutes before I wake up. So when I wake up, I can smell the coffee. That is my first taste every morning, and it is wonderful. The same can be said for restaurants. Your first one to five star critique or review is the smell. If you walk into a restaurant and it smells nasty, you're probably in for a bad experience. And the reverse is true. Also, I own a commercial cleaning company and we train on the power of suggestion. Of course, the clean and the sanitation is very important, but it better smell like we've been there. If it smells good, people like the cleaning job. And if not, obviously we didn't clean. So what is your first taste to people? Your smell. And no, I'm not talking about your body odor. I'm talking about what do people experience about you without you even saying a word. Are you warm, inviting, calm, engaged, intelligent, kind, centered with a high EQ? My friends, when you smell coffee today, may it remind you to make sure you are showing up centered so that your aroma will be pleasing. And besides that, being centered will make your day go much better. If you need help with being centered in either your life or leadership, I can help. Sometimes we just need another set of ears or eyes on something to help growth happen. Shoot me a text or send me an email at Aaron at Growth Instigators.com if that's you. Thank you for tuning in today. You can listen to any of our past messages wherever you get your podcasts, and if you have thoughts you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. Contact me at growth instigators.com or leave me a message after the beep. Here's to slaying the day. Here's to growth.