Durango Joes Podcast

In this episode of The Durango Joes Podcast, the Durango Joe’s leadership team discusses the hiring of slump of 2021. As our country tries to get back to normal and businesses are reopening, many retail businesses, restaurants and coffee shops are finding it extremely difficult to find the help they need to get their business back on their feet. Joe Lloyd, Tiffany Deboer and Steve Crnkovich give some reasons as to why this might be happening and share some tips on how to care for the employees you currently have on your team.

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If you haven't met Anna Gutierrez at Coffee Fest before, you need to make sure to swing by the Barista 22 booth the next time you attend. Anna is so passionate about coffee, flavor, and crafting drink combinations that delight, it's no wonder she's built the amazing career she has. As the Director of Brand Development at Barista 22 (a relatively new player in the cafe syrup, sauce, and blended drink space), she is responsible for overseeing every step and detail in the process. 

In today's episode of the podcast, we talk to Anna about the science flavor, and what it takes to create craft ingredients "by baristas, for baristas." It's fun, it's nerdy, and it's full of flavor!

What happens when the big dogs move in across the street from your cafe? When Starbucks, Dutch Bros, or any of the heavy hitters move in, you need to know how to compete.

With a brand new Dunkin' moving in across one of our locations, Durango Joes is grappling with this very issue. To help us work through it, we've brought Wes Herman, founder and owner of Woods Coffee, onto the mic to talk about how Woods has scaled, what they've done to compete, and what it's like being on the flip side of the situation.

We're bringing a new episode to you this week where we review the previous quarter for the company, reflect on the Big 3 goals we set, and catch up on how we did with them. We also cast the vision for the quarter ahead and think about how we're going to measure that success.

To help us, we bring Steve Crnkovich (Leadership Director) back to the mic and invite Brittany Cowan (Leadership Coach) on for her first visit on the podcast.

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At the end of the day, gossip is one of the most toxic things in life and leadership. In this episode, Joe discusses a few of the things we can do to avoid and douse gossip in our own lives.

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You can subscribe to At the End of the Day separately, wherever you like to get your podcasts.

No matter where you go in life or what you do, conflict in the workplace is a universal adversary to deal with. Or is it? 

In this episode of the Durango Joes, we talk to Durango Joes Culture Leader, Tiffany DeBoer, to answer questions about what conflict in the workplace is, what types of conflict you'll find in the workplace, and how to manage conflict in the workplace, whether you're on the instigating or receiving end of it.

As we learn in this episode, conflict is actually a powerful ingredient to healthy teams. Learn how to have healthy conflict in the workplace, and you're culture and company will flourish. If you're interested, in learning more after the episode, we highly recommend reading The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni.

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Joe just got back from a beautiful trip to Hawaii, along with LeAnna and a few of their closest friends. The lesson? It's okay, if not imperative, to unplug from work and take some quality time for yourself and your loved ones. Better yet, it's good for your team as well!

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Sometimes, we need to spend time getting to the root of our purpose. We need to understand why we do what we do. We need to consider what it is that drives us. 

Please take a moment to rate and review if you enjoyed this episode! We'll be moving At The End of the Day to its own podcast over the next month, so be sure to stay tuned and subscribe to both to keep getting our same legendary episodes every Friday!

In today's episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, we're joined by Carl Churchill. Carl founded Alpha Coffee (formerly Lock 'n Load Java) back in 2010 with his wife Lori after a long and successful career in the Army. With his military background, Carl brings a wide range of wisdom and drive to his business, which has evolved from an online-only coffee retailer that they ran out of their basement to a thriving coffee business with multiple cafes, a healthy wholesale program, and a growing online retail presence.

While this episode stretched to be one of our longer ones, it is chock full with valuable insight into Carl's history and business. 

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It's human nature to want to fit in, so sometimes it doesn't make sense to rock the boat. But with that said, there comes a point where you just have to let go of what others might think and be authentic to yourself. At the end of the day, don't obsess over the impression you leave (as long as it's left with integrity). After all, even the best leaders throughout history have found it impossible to please everyone.

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If there's one thing that is critical to teamwork, it's a common language. If everyone is on the same page, and understands the same concepts, then there is harmony in the communication. One of the key languages that we teach our leadership teams to speak at Durango Joes is DiSC. DiSC is a personality assessment, similar to Meyers-Briggs or Enneagram, that helps our leaders become more self-aware of their strengths and motivations. Used tactfully, it can also help us understand how to approach and interact with one another.

Who hasn't been in a position where they've wanted to say something (or actually said something) that they're likely to regret. It takes discipline to bite your tongue! But at the end of the day, being careful with your words and thoughtful with your actions is a sign of leadership and maturity. So take a deep breath, and don't say something you might regret!

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We all know what it means to work in our business. It's the day to day, the grind, the primary operations of what you do. But in order to work smarter, not harder, we need to remember to make time to work on the business as well. While it may not help the bottom line in the here and now, working on the business is an investment in your future that pays back in dividends.

In this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, Joe and Trevor talk about the upcoming Annual Leadership Workshop. This all-day intensive brings together the entire leadership staff of the company helps set the course for the year ahead by solidifying expectations that we keep throughout the year to come. From Quarterly "Big 3" Goals to weekly KPI check-ins, we succeed when we invest in understanding and working on the business more.

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Look, everyone spends some time in the drama triangle, especially as a victim. It's part of life! But at the end of the day, the ability to shift our mentality from victimhood to curiosity, where we can be open to solutions, is what separates the winners from the losers. If you're a victim, you're saying you don't have faculty over the situation. The fact is, you may have more control than you know!

Tune in for this episode of "At the End of the Day", featuring guest speaker Marshall Snider! 

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At Durango Joes, we've been through our fair share of negotiations. It's just part of the business. Negotiating is one of the best skills you can hone as an entrepreneur, leader, or business owner. From your relationship with partners and employees to the bottom line of your business, it can have far-reaching implications when done right or wrong.

In today's episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, we talk to former Mayor of Durango and current business advisor, Jasper Welch, about how to approach, and succeed, in negotiations. 

Key Takeaways:

1. Everything is negotiable.
2. There are two ways to approach a negotiation: transactional or relationship-based.
3. Knowledge, timing, and clout are your greatest tools in negotiations.
4. Know your BATNA and ask for your counterparts'.
5. Remember that you're dealing with people. Remember that you're dealing with money. And remember that, however it goes, the sun still comes up tomorrow.

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Happy New Year from ours to yours! I'm sure for many of us looking back on the year, it's easy to think about everything that could've and should've been, but at Durango Joes we're looking forward to turning the page into the new year and turning our energy towards the year ahead. Frankly, we're excited! At the end of the day, it's time to stop complaining and start creating. Will you join us?

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These days, it's all too easy to want to shed the 'now' and wish for whatever's coming next. After all, there's hope around the bend! But in this week's episode, our guest, Bryan Reynolds of Anthem Coffee, advocates for "staying present where you're planted." After all, there are important lessons to learn around every success OR loss!

At Durango Joes, we understand that the majority of our employees aren't going to be with us their entire careers. It's part of the reality of running a coffee business, and recent studies suggest that employees across industries are expected to shift positions or jobs every 12 months on average. 

With this in mind, job mobility is an important thing to develop. Today we're talking about how to resign with grace and how employers can help encourage their staff to finish well when the time comes.

Key takeaways:

1. Job mobility is a critical thing to maintain in your career.

2. There are many reasons why someone chooses to leave their job but, in all cases, they should try their best to leave in grace and finish well.

3. Be yourself, be diplomatic, and be a team player. Stay engaged, be supportive, and be professional. Be quiet, be ethical, and keep a sense of humor.

4. Employers can help encourage their staff to finish well by being clear about expectations, being open and supportive of change, keeping a tab on their team members, and help people out the door when the time comes.

You can read our entire Finishing Well document here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rACAXZ6lQCpKIxlm1SL2j-PTfeMYP3ku/view?usp=sharing

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“Success in life is not how well we execute Plan A; it’s how smoothly we cope with Plan B.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

Having a plan B is a welcome safety net, and provides you and your team peace of mind. Just don't let your "Plan B" be the easy out for "Plan A".

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It's Black Friday, when many businesses traditionally look at their books in hopes of watching their numbers go from red to black. With this in mind, we're talking about financial success at Durango Joes, and what we do to keep our finances healthy.

From weekly Cash Flow Statements and P&L Statements to monthly Balance sheets, knowledge really is power when it comes to controlling the financial future of your business. We talk about these, and the different metrics that every business leader should learn and understand for the success of their business.

Key Takeaways:

1. Knowledge is power. If you don't know what's going on with your finances, you can't make informed decisions.
2. Cash flow is king. Doing whatever you can to ensure a positive cash flow will bring you peace of mind.
3. Know your expenses, both fixed and variable. 
4. The keys to a healthy cashflow are your leadership, location, efficiency, training, debt management, emergency & opportunity funds, and your ability to bring a smile and great attitude to the work you do.

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Welcome to "At the End of the Day", our new bi-weekly short-form podcast presented by CEO Joe Lloyd! We know it's hard to invest 30-60 minutes of time listening to a podcast, so we're delivering shorter episodes on alternating weeks to help keep us learning and sharing.

In today's episode: "At the end of the day, if you show up for yourself and others, and with a good attitude along the way, you'll maximize your impact in life and leadership. "

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Each year, the Durango Joes Leadership Team steps away from the office for three days to reflect, learn, and look ahead. This annual Leadership Retreat has become key to our culture and critical to our success. It helps us better understand one another and align our goals for the year to come.

This year we were joined by Marshall Snider, a longtime friend of Joe, entrepreneur, Master in Leadership Studies, and soon-to-be-author. Throughout the weekend, both he and his wife, Leslie, helped facilitate conversations, inject knowledge, and inspire introspection for everyone there. Using the framework provided by the book "15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success", we learned what it means to be a conscious or unconscious leader and how it reflects our relationship to the content of our lives.

Tune in for this episode with Trevor, Joe, and Marshall to learn more about why we take time for our annual retreat, and the leadership lessons we took away from it this year!

With November right around the corner, we're gearing up for the largest campaign of the year at Durango Joes: Mug Club! For customers, this unrivaled rewards program is a Legendary Deal that offers year-round perks exclusively to members.

For Durango Joes, it helps us donate tens of thousands of dollars to local youth programming while encouraging customers to come in and enjoy our coffee during the first quarter of the year, which is notoriously slow for businesses.

This year, we're introducing the brand new Durango Joes Rewards App on November 1st to help give our Mug Club and Rewards Members even more control and access to their perks as well.

Balancing family life and a career can be a huge challenge, and many people find themselves in positions where they have to sacrifice one for the other. Yet, at Durango Joes and other workplaces, there are opportunities to successfully juggle the two. 

To talk with us about this topic, we've brought in special guest, Ashley Stroup. Ashely is a high-level executive at Rodan + Fields and a Real Estate Broker in the Pacific Northwest. You may recognize her name because both she and her husband, Mark, both also played critical roles during the beginning and first decade of Durango Joes. 

Catch up with Ashley, Joe, Trevor, and Tiff in the latest episode of the Durango Joes Podcast!

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If you've been in stores or on our social media recently, you've probably seen a new face around Durango Joes! We call him DJ, and he's the brilliant work of local illustrator, and former barista, Kennedy Fockler. 

Short for Durango Joe, DJ is quickly becoming a sort of lifestyle ambassador for the brand: Adventurous, Curious, and Goofy! 

In this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, we talk about where the idea for DJ came from, how he developed, and what he stands for now. 

At Durango Joes, we pride ourselves on hiring wonderful people. The trick is, we don't look for people who can make excellent coffee (after all, we can teach that).  Instead, we start by looking for people who will truly care for their teams and our customers. It's one of the most important things we do!

No one gets it right 100% of the time, but we've worked hard to create a thorough hiring program that balances finding people that are a good fit for us while also making sure we're also a good fit for them. Working together is a two-way street, and we know how important that is!

Whether you're interested in working for us or you are working on your own hiring program elsewhere, this episode gives you the roadmap to our unique hiring process and breaks down the best practices that help us hire the right people. 

Links from the episode:

What does Evel Knievel have to do with coffee roasting? What exactly is an "Origin Trip"? Why is a relationship-based business such an incredible thing? 

In this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, we cover all this and more through our conversation with friend of Joes and CEO of Dillanos Coffee Roasters, David Morris. David is the self-titled Coffee Maverick, an entrepreneurial force, and a die-hard Evel Knievel fan. Like Joe, he runs his business based on relationships over transactions, making Dillanos a perfect partner to Durango Joes Coffee.

Culture is one of our favorite topics for a reason: It is foundational for creating our environment for teamwork, integrity, and generosity. 

Within the last year, the Leadership Team at Durango Joes spent time workshopping, dissecting, and clarifying the values that drive our culture, as well as the behaviors and actions that we expect to support those values.

In this episode, Joe, Trevor, Steve, and Tiff talk about the importance of culture, why it's often overlooked, what we put into our culture document, and how we use it.

Gossip. Depending on which end of it you're on, it can conjure up different feelings. It can be tempting to participate in, but hurtful when it's about you. Either way, though, gossip can undermine culture, erode trust, and breed negativity throughout an organization. Once it takes hold, it can be a hard bug to squash.

In this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, Trevor talks to General Manager, Steve Crnkovich, and Culture Manager, Tiffany DeBoer, about our No Gossip Policy and how to identify, avoid, and snuff out gossip in an organization.

Inspired by the book of the same name, Joe Lloyd has adopted and adapted the concept for "How to Lead When You're Not in Charge" to fit the goals and values of Durango Joes.

Spurred by his mission to develop leaders among his staff, Joe teaches these concepts out to every new employee at some point in their training. Listen as Joe and Trevor break down the document and teaching therein with this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast.

COVID19 has been a major challenge for businesses big and small, the world over. While the future is still uncertain about how the pandemic will continue effecting businesses like Durango Joes, we take a moment to reflect on the first phase of the virus.

In this episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, Joe Lloyd, Trevor Ogborn, and special guest Meghan McGuire talk about our company response to COVID19 and share the perspectives and lessons we learned from the beginnings of March, when the crisis began ramping up, and the start of July, when the new normal really settled in. 

Welcome to this first episode of the Durango Joes Podcast, where you'll get to hear the voices of leadership from the best coffee shop in the Southwest!

Just as we're talking about new beginnings with the introduction of this project, we felt it appropriate to dive into the beginnings of Durango Joes Coffee and how it has scaled to its size today.

Starting his life in Montana, spending significant time visiting family in Durango, CO, it may have seemed unlikely that Joe Lloyd, with his wife LeAnna, would go on to found and develop one of the most prominent coffee brands in the Four Corners region, and it didn't come without a fair share of luck, grit, and good graces.

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