Show Me Yours - Alison and Ariel Johnston / Everything Colorado - Reformatted Transcript
Cleaned working transcript with topic sections and timestamps preserved.
[00:02] Opening Theme
0:02 - Show me yours. Where failure speaks volumes. Jason and getting real drop. Brutal business truths. No sugar. Only raw lessons shared. Tuning out your mistakes. Show me yours.
[00:15] Season 2, Episode 2 Introduction
0:15 - Hello everybody. I am Rihanna Werner and I've got Jason Sheffield here and this is your second episode of season 2, Show Me Yours. Jason, how you doing today? I'm great. It's a Monday morning. Our first time doing this virtually. We've always had people in, but uh our guests today are so excited, but we wanted to have them on. We had to do it virtually. They're up in Summit County. so I'm really excited to kind of do this for the first time uh for Show Me Yours as a virtual show today. I know. I'm really excited. Actually, I was pretty impressed. You and I jumped on early to test and we had planned on jumping on even earlier and the testing went out without a hitch. So hopefully this uh continues on. We're on a really good streak as far as uh our testing our equipment. Our microphones are working. Our cameras are working. I mean, look at Jason's glow that he has going on in his office right now. but yeah, so it's a Monday morning and we are really excited. And on top of that, the mountains got snow this week. So, I think that's a good omen especially for our guests, Allison and Ariel Johnston.
1:27 - Actually, Alison, I am so sorry that is not your last name anymore. What is your last name? Wes Watson. No, it is still my last name. What's that? It is still my last name. That Oh, it is. Oh, okay. Well, you've been married for a few years and you know, no government last name. Okay. Smart lady. My kind of lady. but yes, I have Allison and Ariel Johnston of um, Everything Colorado team. They are located up in Summit County. And, um, these are some of my most favorite ladies that I've worked with for many, many, many years. I kind of consider them piece of my heart and a little bit of my proteges because not only have we really worked through HR stuff, but we've worked through leadership stuff, general business stuff, and I just feel so privileged that you guys have trusted me all these years and and helping you achieve what you guys have achieved. I mean, gosh, when we first met, I think you guys had one or two stores and you guys have grown exponentially. So, um, without further ado, my two favorite Summit County ladies, Allison and Ariel Johnston. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves and talk a little bit about what in the world is Everything Colorado? Because that's kind of ambiguous. Yeah.
[02:49] Meet Allison and Ariel Johnston of Everything Colorado
2:49 - Well, I'm Ariel. we are sisters and this is Allison. so yeah, Everything Colorado, also known as the Everything Colorado team, is a collection of four uh gift and souvenir shops located in Summit County. So we have Dillon, Silverthorne, Frisco, and Copper. And yeah, basically we're a local gift shop and we focus on especially like garments and t-shirts. We like to lift up uh local artists as well as catering to the, you know, tourists that come up here and ski and enjoy our our Colorado's playground. I'm in charge of the buying and um the HR because I've worked closely with Rihanna and she's with that. Yeah and Allison is in charge of our production. So she gets everything together to make sure that the stuff that we produce is looking good. Yeah. In addition to owning the stores, we actually create our own products. So we work with local artists to create those designs because while we are uh we know enough to be dangerous, but I'm not a designer and I'm not an artist. so we like to create our own products and that helps us keep our finger on the pulse of what's popular and what people are looking for. but it also helps us keep our overhead down so that we can hopefully pay it forward and and act um as leaders in our community and and pay our employees a little bit more so they can actually enjoy living up here in Summit County, which is very expensive.
4:29 - And it also gives us the freedom to try new things and and you know, play with colors and just see if something works and if something doesn't. And uh that also extends to um creating our own other like you know a variety of products that we can create locally here in Summit County or just within the US. Love it. Now this was not like a wake up in the middle of the night, let's make our dreams come true as sisters. This is ingrained in your DNA. I mean you grew up printing t-shirts. I remember you guys telling me a story. I forget which one of you it was, but I remember you guys telling me a story about as a little kid burning your hand on a a printing. Yes.
[05:11] Family Roots: Snow Business and Canned Colorado Snow
5:11 - Yep. Yeah. Our So, our dad has a wholesale business. it's called snow business. The story is actually really good for it. So, he our dad is from Australia and him and his friend were kind of going back and forth doing the never summer and his friend said, "I want you to come back to Summit County with me and start a business." And this is in the '8s. Yeah. And he was like, "What's the business?" And he said, "Well, we're going to can snow and sell it." And the joke is that it melts and so it turns into like this much water in the can and you pick it up and it says 100% Rocky Mountain snow. And he was like, "Mate, no one is going to buy that." And he said, "Americans will buy anything." and they came and he was like, "Okay, our dad," he's a salesman. So, he took on the challenge and they sold how many cans the first year? 15,000 cans in our first season. Oh my goodness. Got here. And he was like, "All right, what you got? Artwork." And he was like, "No." He's like, "You have customers?" And he was like, "No." He's like, "What do you have?" He's like, "I have a canning machine and a label maker and free snow." Handpacked it in Dillon Valley.
6:24 - Yeah. Well, because again in America everything everyone gets sued. So he's like, "I'm not playing this game like we're going to use tap water. Like we're going to pack it with snow." So he packed the cans full of snow, canned it up. Yeah. They're out there in the snow packing it and the cops drove by and they're like, "What are you doing?" They're like, "Well, sir, we're selling cans of snow." And he was like, "Okay." So that's why it's called snow business. After a couple years, our dad was like, "Okay, like I need to add some more products to this." Yes. Well, he was already in all the gift shops, so he was like, "Well, I already have the customers. What else are these people looking for?" And he was also a photographer back then. so he started creating his own postcards to help sell his photography. I didn't know your dad was a photographer. I could see that. Yeah. Interesting. So, do you guys still sell canned snow? We have the canning machine. We looked into bringing it back a couple years ago, but then CO hit and then it was like the sourcing was just like out of whack.
7:23 - You had to buy like a million cans and we were like, well, I don't know where we're going to put them. We should bring it back still. Yeah.
[07:31] From Wholesale to Brick-and-Mortar Retail
7:31 - So, tell us about the evolution from like that to then the photography piece to then actually brick and mortar and having your own situation. What was a little bit of that narrative arc? So, that was actually my idea. back in 2016, I moved back up here and I was working in marketing and I was like, uh, this job just like isn't very fulfilling. And my dad was kind of just like talking about how he really needed help in his business. And so I started making him a website. And he would, you know, he was talking about the future and how he's getting older and he's kind the future's leaving him behind. So I jumped into the business and was helping him. And then um honestly that first summer we had a customer that was thinking about selling their shop. So we went down the road of like what would it look like to own a shop and um you know I worked in his shop a little bit and tested it out and then ultimately he decided he didn't want to sell but by that time the the wheels were turning.
8:27 - So uh we found a location that we're like this location's not bad. It's right next to a Starbucks. It's right by the city market. It's got a million dollar view. And uh we were sitting there, you know, drinking coffee and I was like, "But who's going to run it?" You know, we're busy running your current business. And uh my sister here was working in social media, which again, she she loves social media, but it's not very fulfilling. especially out of college when you're just doing the brunt work and I you don't even know what you're you're just sitting on Facebook all day long liking other people's posts and trying to get engagement. But she's very good at it. You guys should follow her page. Yeah. So, it uh let's just say it wasn't a hard sell to get her to quit her social media job. And um let me tell you my side. Allison calls me and she says, "Hey, do you want to move back from Denver up to Summit and start a retail shop with me?" And I was like, "let me think about it." I hang up the phone and I look at my best friend and said, "My sister wants me to do this. Do you think I should do it?" And she said, "Yeah, that sounds fun."
9:29 - And I was like, "Okay, I'm down." Awesome. Pretty pretty just frictionless on that front. I was like, "Yeah, it sounds fun." Yeah. We also before we even like we got into it, we were about to sign this lease. We we had a buying trip to uh Peru because we were trying to go down the road of importing our own clothing. So, we literally signed the lease for our shop on the way to the airport to go to Peru. Yeah. Yeah. They did throw in a trip. They were like, "We're also going to Peru." I was like, "Oo, done." Yes, please.
[10:07] Expansion, Copper Mountain, and the COVID Pivot
10:07 - So, you guys start the shop in 2016 and now you guys have four 2017. Okay. So, almost 10 years now. And now you guys have four locations. It's expanded like it's becoming something like tell us a little bit about like when did the expansion stuff start to happen? 2019 was when we opened our second shop. And again, it's like just kind of one of those things where you like to keep an eye on opportunities around and check in on them and see what seems like it would align with us. It was funny cuz at that time I remember saying I could never run two shops. Like that would be insane. And now we have four and we're like chilling. but yeah, so basically again I think Allison did you find it or did her dad? Well, so again we were also still in wholesale. So we were constantly out checking on our customers in the areas. And actually we had a customer in copper and they were the ones that were like you guys should really open a shop there. It's a great location and we were like yeah it is a really good location.
11:11 - We went and looked and I was like again no I'm not doing that. And then we saw the space and I was like oh this is beautiful. I like shiny things that was in copper. So yeah, uh we ended up uh signing that lease, pulled it together summer and opened up in the in the fall. Mhm. that was also again fall of 2019. So we were just getting going heading into March, you know, like prepared like we I mean we were not prepared. We were not prepared for Christmas, but we were like more prepared for March. And then halfway through the month, they shut everything down. It was Yeah, it was St. Patrick's Day. And I remember uh someone coming in and saying, "Do you think they're going to shut down the ski resort?" I said, "Yeah, right. That will never happen years." And then the next day I was like, "Oh my gosh." Yeah. Yeah. Well, never mind. We had recruited our friends to help us prepare to like get products out and we went to dinner and I was like, "Oh, they've canceled the NBA."
12:15 - Yeah. I posted a photo of like our back room and I was like, "We are ready to rock." And then everything shut down. I was like, "Oh, okay." I mean, the silver lining was that I was so freaked out about the second shop and being prepared that I had actually been siphoning money off all season in case just, you know, have an emergency fund. And so that money actually helped us get through the the hard times. Yeah. Wow. So you guys get past the hard times and then continue expanding. Yeah. Well, the ironic part was we were closed for several months and then as soon as we opened up it just business was just popped. Yeah. Cuz we were in the mountains and everyone was like working remote. So every single unit up here was completely filled and everyone wanted to be outdoors instead of in the cities. So like we could not have expected a busier time everywhere up here for like the next year and a half was like absolutely insane. Wow. Cool. So you guys have been running this for 10 years. We're going to jump into the bucket here in a moment to kind of like start digging, but I'm just curious like tell us one thing about like kind of what do we not know about kind of the tourism and retail space, especially somewhere like Summit County that gets so many people coming through.
[13:29] The Tourism Retail Reality in Summit County
13:29 - What's a dirty little secret or something that's just like the common person maybe wouldn't uh really think about? I want to say what comes to mind for me is there are people that have been in our industry for 40 or 50 years. which you know times like after co have gone down and sales have gone down and that's the one thing for me that I've thought I've told myself like we can weather the storm because I meet people that are 80. Yeah. And they've had their store forever. So it's an industry that I think like you can actually hold on to. And these people are so passionate. Like you get to work with local artists. You get to work with creativity. You get to work with people. You have a team. So like this is an industry that is actually really it it like gives you a lot when you wouldn't think like a souvenir shop, you know. so I think that's something that surprised me. Yeah. I I think also I won't speak for all retail because I don't know if there's a lot of it, but I I mean our customers are on vacation, so they're just happy. you know, there's always the outliers that are having a bad day, but 99% of them are just like in a good mood and just happy to be here.
14:49 - Yeah. Makes it a lot easier just to check in with people like, "Hey, how's it going? What are you up to?" And they're like, "Everything is great." Yeah. Yeah. That would be fun. That's very cool. So give us a little bit of just again statwise right now we got four locations. How many staffing? Like what's kind of the lay of the land business-wise as we kind of step into this? Yeah. So we have Yeah. Now we have four shops and we have I want to say like 12 employees. Yeah. Some it fluctuates because we're seasonal. Yeah. Some are not full-time so it's hard to give like a one.5 whatever. Yeah. I would say like 12 is it it probably fluctuates between 8 to 12 16 in a busy year. This year we kind of we wanted to keep it a little bit tighter just because we notice the trends and we'd rather just like pay a little bit of overtime than offer people jobs that we can't, you know, fulfill. So, and that's actually worked really well for us this year. yeah. And then there's three leaders.
15:50 - So, that's Allison, myself, and her husband Zach. He's our retail operations manager. so we kind of have three pillars where Allison is production. I am buying and HR and Zach is the day-to-day operations. He handles the employees and making sure that the tasks are moving forward in the shops. Cool. Awesome. All right. Re any questions you wanted to ask before we dive into the bucket?
[16:15] Advice for Summit County Visitors
16:15 - Yeah, I have a a non-b businessinessy question, but I'm so curious. if you were to give a tourist advice on how to be a tourist or what they should know coming up to Summit County, what should visitors know about Summit County? I mean, I think it's seasonal, um, obviously, but I think the the it's no secret that in Colorado we all layer. So, I think it's it's I mean I see people that come here and they are committed to the outfits that they brought and I bless them, but there are, you know, I'm like just bring layers. Just be prepared for all types of weather, even in the summer. I mean, we sell a lot of hoodies in the summer because people come here from Texas and don't think that at night it's going to get a little chilly. yeah. I would say my secret or or advice is to be aware that I-700, our highway, is very temperamental. the mountains are not Disneyland. This is this is the outdoors. So don't come up on Friday night. If you can come up Friday morning, that would be way better. Sunday going back is gridlock. So I'd rather you enjoy your time here. So, if you can come at a time that is not as um peak peak travel time, you're going to have a much better trip. Yeah. Or just if you have a to catch a flight um just, you know, be prepared. Yeah.
17:52 - That's some stage advice right there. I've been on gridlock I-70. You never know when so many times. I know. I I don't want people sit in traffic. I want them to be here and enjoy it. Yeah. Right. Right. Rather than be like, I don't know what everybody's talking about. It was fine. Absolutely. If you like quality time in the car. Yes. Yeah. A two-hour drive turns into a six-hour drive is not very fun. So, yeah. And I totally feel the hoodie comment, Allison, because I don't know how many people have just come down to visit us here in the Springs and especially during the summertime and they come pack flip-flop, shorts, and tank tops and then they're like, "can we go shopping?" Which is fine. It's fine. Yeah. Yep. I me.
[18:40] The Bucket: Unexpected Support on the Entrepreneurial Journey
18:40 - Awesome. All right. Well, let's dive into the bucket here. Typically, when we have our guests live, we let them pick the questions, but since that's not possible, I will pick the questions for you guys and we will dive in. This is the nerve-wracking part. All right, first question. Okay, this is fun. What's the most surprising source of unexpected support you found on your entrepreneurial journey and why was it so impactful? So unexpected source of support that you found. Well, I mean I'll go if you're wondering. I have an answer I guess I think. Okay. for me I read a lot of books. read slash listen to because you know we're busy and you know every book that I read a lot of business books they all say the same a lot of um you know but if I try to take get one take away from it that like reminds me like oh yeah you know be nice to people remember their names um I don't know I found a lot of support in books and just the stories that other founders have told like shoe dog by the own the guy that started Nike Phil Knight great book great stories And it just sort of I don't know helps me on my journey to be like oh yeah it's not just me other people who have you know climbed ladders h much larger than I have um went through the same thing.
20:11 - Is there an unexpected book you found some something that you read and all of a sudden you're like ah this wasn't something I thought I was going to get a lot from and then all of a sudden it like became a favorite. Honestly the little black stretchy pants by I'm blanking on his name but the guy that started Lululemon. Oh yeah. Okay. that book, the ending, I was like, "Oh." Because he was basically, you know, he created this amazing company, but before he started Lululemon, he actually had a snowboard brand that did nothing but lose money. It's like it was a colossal failure. It never made money and in wholesale. And that's actually where I was like, "Oh, that's kind of what we're doing where but we were doing the like make the products wholesale and then sell it retail, which he called it vertical retail." and I was like, "Oh, that's what we're doing." And then he, you know, his business went bankrupt and then he started Lululemon. And then eventually at the end of the story, he's ousted by the board because it's, you know, this huge conglomerate company and he was like, "This is not the company that I started." which I thought was it was kind of a cautionary tale like you can climb these mountains, you can become a billionaire, but you might wind up with nothing. Yeah.
21:21 - Good one. For me, unexpected. I would say I think definitely Rihanna is in this but honestly yeah the what I've learned is especially I just say like as an adult but definitely as an adult business owner like if you need help find people to ask questions to and find help like you don't have to do it all on your own and they don't even have to technically work for you. Like if you find mentors and you find people in your community that have been through something before you, that's where you're going to grow. You don't have to do it all yourself. So like with Rihanna, you know, I I didn't understand that like that's what HR was. It's like how do I deal with all these, you know, issues with my people? And we actually had hired a cultural consultant and he was kind of helping us with like who we are and what is our vision. And every question I'd ask him, he'd be like, "That's actually like an HR question." And I'm like, "I need to legally know what I'm allowed to do and like what is within my rights, my employees rights in order to give me the confidence to like be like, I'm this leader." And so that's why when I started working with Rihanna, I did become a much better leader because I didn't realize like that I didn't have the confidence to lead because I didn't have the information that I needed. M so truly like with anything it's having someone to call that already has the experience and not being afraid to find those people. Yeah.
22:56 - Have you ever come across one of those people in an unusual place? I mean, I feel like the universe provides like even you're putting you're like I just really need to talk to like maybe this person or someone in that can help me like those people will appear and it's it's kind of like the guy that's stuck in an island and he's waiting for God to save him. It's like you just kind of people will appear and opportunities will appear and you just need to not be afraid to ask for help and accept the help. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the interesting part in entrepreneurial journey is you kind of go through this evolution where you you feel as if at some point, you know, like you load up on information, you read all the books, you do all your homework, you feel like, okay, well, I think I've got a good baseline, you jump into the entrepreneurial journey, and then you get a little uncomfortable. You're like, I'm the owner of this business. I feel like I should know everything. And then you hold on to that for a little while.
23:55 - And I find it's almost refreshing when you shed that layer of I have to know everything and you release that and you say okay I don't now I need to be humble and go and ask the right questions from the people who have experienced it rather than reading those books and I mean reading the I'm I'm like you Allison actually I I'm a book junkie like I said I just wrote down the the name of Little Black Stretchy Pants. can't wait to read it. But there's this balance of like that base core knowledge and then also bringing in experience and kind of morphing and meshing those two, which you two have done beautifully. But seems like most leaders that I've I've come across, you know, you you go through this metamorphosis of kind of, you know, you build up this skin and then you shed it, which is freeing but so difficult to do. Do you know what I mean?
[24:58] Sisterhood, Leadership, Feedback, and Support Systems
24:58 - I think like there's a third component too cuz there's also like your team. So figuring out how to take feedback while also maintaining the leadership role because at some points you're trying to do everything that everybody recommends. And then it's the type of thing where it's like you're in an Airbnb and you're like, "Oh, I wish I had a rocking chair." You get a rocking chair. The next person's like, "I don't like rocking chairs." you know, taking everything so literally, but also learning how to take feedback from the team and listening to them and seeing how you can improve your businesses, your teamwork, your hiring based off of what they have to say. And I think that's another skill that it does take time, you know. Yeah. I like your rocking chair analogy though because it's like well you also have to figure out who you are and how you want to lead and some feedback and guidance is absolute gold but then there's others that are fueled with and and I think in my profession I've seen it it's fueled with an alternative agenda or need that doesn't fit the need of the business and then you have to be able to kind of decipher like that rocking chair is that a need in a children's room to give your guests comfort to read them a book at night or is it just there in the middle of the living room serving no purpose?
26:23 - Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I was just going to kind of maybe tweak the question a little bit because I'm curious. right like when it comes to the support system around you, you guys have a lot of family, right? Family run business. there's a lot of that support, but then also I'm sure there's edges to that. Where have you gone to find kind of support for yourselves individually to be able to get through this journey to be able to go, you know, through the ups and downs that we've talked about? Like is there an unexpected way that you guys support yourselves whether it's from a mental health standpoint or whatever that's been really supportive to you in your entrepreneurial journey? Yeah, I mean we we are yin and yang, so the bond I don't know. I can't speak for other people that are founders and partners and friends, but we, you know, we're sisters, so we know how to push each other's buttons. We know we've gone too far. We know how to make each other mad and how to lift each other up. And it just that's what comes from knowing someone your whole life and being there for the best times and the worst times. And so we're pretty good at, you know, we can have we can have honest conversations and we can say things that are kind of mean but honest and we know that we're going to be okay.
27:39 - Whereas I don't I won't speak for other people but sometimes it's a little bit harder to be honest with someone that you work with that's your partner and oh you got to tread lightly and um and I think that can backfire too. Mhm. you know, there's that Taylor Swift line that's um casually cruel in the name of being honest. Mhm. so we're also aware that like, you know, have to do some self-reflection like am I being cruel or am I being No, I like to say, am I being hurtful or am I being helpful? I think too, like I do agree with you. We're really good at paying attention to if someone else is stressed out and maybe saying things that are rude or short. It's it's a call for, I'm stressed out. I need help. So then like the other person kind of sets down their stuff and is like, okay, how can I help you? And we've created that dynamic. And I do think it's because we're sisters. I think it's also because we have a shared vision. And when Allison came to me with the idea of starting the shop, it was about, hey, let's take control of our lives and let's do this for ourselves.
28:51 - And our vision truly is that we both want us to succeed and have a good life. We want to enjoy our lives. We want to travel. We want to enjoy our work. We want to have a strong team. We want to be um healthy. So because that is the foundation of all of this, that is I think what helps us. And I I have friends that have started businesses with partners and it was because they were in the same place or they came up with the idea together and it fell apart and it became, you know, this fight and like you hear these stories about founders choosing their partners and how important it is to find someone that actually has the same vision as you and the vision has to, you know, stay the same truly. and we have our own vision of course for Allison and I because you know we just want to create a beautiful life for both of us. and then it extends into our customers vision where we want to offer the Colorado exper an authentic Colorado experience to anyone that walks through our doors because we are from Colorado. We love Colorado. So we want everyone to feel welcome here.
29:57 - And on top of that, we want our team to grow with us for however long that they're with us, whether it's one season or multiple years. We want them to feel like they have a place with us. So, I think like making sure that vision is clear and that it's stable really helps with keeping that, you know. Yeah. Well, keeping things together. And we've learned some things the hard way. like we brought in third party people that were not our family to try to work with us and work within this dynamic and it just didn't work and we had we had to learn the difference and Rihanna helped us that while we are a family we are not a family you know they they just they're like I'm I can't be part of these dinner conversation that you guys are having and you know I'm not on the tech the family text chain and and like truly our family's favorite topic to talk about is business. So, it's, you know, it it's just it's just a dynamic and if you're not used to it and you didn't grow up that way, it can be pretty overwhelming and it's really hard to turn it off and we recognize that. Um, but it's what we like. So, yeah, again, we're not going to apologize for it. It's just it's who we are. And we we really like problem solving and we kind we we do a good job of like taking our own personal, you know, like feelings and drama and like putting it over here and we're like, "Here's the problem.
31:23 - Here's the situation. How do we fix it?" and talking it through. Whereas some people see that and they're like, "Oh, you guys can't take a break." Yes, I can imagine. Yeah. Awesome. All right, that was great. Let's dive into the next question. Pull it out over here. Let's go with this one.
[31:49] Marketing and Sales Strategies That Missed the Mark
31:49 - Okay, this is a fun one. Describe a marketing or sales strategy that you poured your time and money into that yielded absolutely no results. And then what did you learn from it? What was the silver lining? I feel like that's every marketing strategy except for social media. That's the only one that's worked. well, something very blunt was I did an ad with our local bus and it just was covered in mud. Oh, no. Are you serious? Like I saw 6:00 a.m. one day and was like, there's the bus. Yeah. And so it was kind of a bummer because I think it's a great way to advertise and like we had the back of the bus so it wasn't like the side which was big but couldn't really afford that and so we were like yeah like we'll be on the back of the bus and it'll be great and yeah um it was in the spring. I got a picture sent to me like is this you guys? Yeah. Yep. Yep. Oh no. Maybe buy that ad during summertime. Yeah. I have like a failin. So I keep trying to do like email marketing and you know I'm like trying to drive sales online and then people keep coming into our shop like with the email.
33:15 - So it's like not a it's not a it's a it's not a loss necessarily because I'm like you know here's a $5 coupon to you know I don't say specifically for online purchases only and people keep hey I got this email I want my $5 coupon. I'm like well I guess that's proof that they're it's working. Yeah. be ready in a way. or I would send out when I was doing wholesale, I'd send out a marketing email and instead of replying to the email, I'd get, you know, 10 phone calls and I'd be like, that's fine. How about like uh something that you guys thought was just going to absolutely crush in the store that just didn't crush? Did you ever like pick something or trend that you guys thought was really going to pop up?
[34:00] The Peru Buying Lesson and Knowing the Customer
34:00 - When we first opened the store, we did we went to Peru and we were sourcing t-shirts. And I think this was a good lesson for us because we went around to all these different t-shirt suppliers and it's not glamorous. Like it's sweat shops basically cuz it's hot and they don't have air conditioning. Yeah. It's just the way that it is, you know, like they the buildings don't have a lot of um electricity. They literally like build like a slat in the ceiling and that's their window. And so we're walking around like all of like Gamara, which is the garment district of Peru, and we're trying to find like the actual manufacturers. These are just people that are trying to sell you garments. And eventually we found this like beautiful facility and it was organic cotton um made in Peru and like everything was just so beautiful and nice and I think it was a little bit rose colored glasses because we ended up buying a bunch of stuff that just like didn't match with our customers and so we brought all these Peruvian shirts back and it was scarves and we sold a decent amount of it But as soon as you took us out of the sales position, it wasn't selling by itself.
35:13 - So, because it needed a story, it needed to be told and it you need things in your shop that people are going to go, "Oh my gosh, I love this." Of course, if you have a saleserson there to help explain it or move it along, that's great. But you need things that are going to sell on their own. And so, we still have some of that left over from like eight years ago. can't give it away. In buying, you have to be careful like not to fall in love with the person that is selling to you, but also understand what products your customers want. That's a good one. That's important. It is. And such a critical lesson to learn. So, tell me more about these Peruvian garments. I mean, was it a t-shirt that you were bringing back and then pressing with, you know, your own graphics or was it like standalone Peruvian? Boom. So, these ones, this is like our first uh first step into the Peruvian market because we did bring in later um shirts from Peru from a different supplier that we learned that our customer base is not organic cotton. They're not luxury. And a lot of these shirts were like cut for women. So, they had like scalloped and um V-necks and scoops. And they're all very different um different colors and it wasn't very uniform. So, we couldn't really print on them. So, they were just blank t-shirts that were more like fashion is like what you would call it. And so, they are harder to merchandise.
36:42 - They're more made for maybe like a boutique shop versus what we are is like a t-shirt shop, a souvenir shop. I think we ended up printing on some of them, a couple, but it just didn't it just doesn't look right, you know? so yeah, then we went back and we found another supplier who actually found two more who are amazing and they could get us the Peruvian quality of garments because their cotton is really great, but actually t-shirts and hoodies and the garments that our customers wanted versus just like, you know, like a ladies t-shirt. Yeah. Well, and part of the story was like it's all, you know, it's all natural dyes. Like you get this pink because you mix in raspberries with the soil and and like a lot of the the colors are very natural and earthy and then like part of the story was it comes from this organic farm and like it's this small town where like all the proceeds go back to buying people like school supplies and it it was just a beautiful story but nobody cared when we got here.
37:43 - That is the hardest part. It is. Yeah. No, nobody. Yeah, it's such a fallacy us as business owners like trying to build a business and you build a product based on something you like or you think you'd want or something like that and then the market doesn't respond to it. And I think that's a perfect example of like, okay, you know, I've got to get out of my own head and try and get into my customer's head and really see what it is that they want because I can see that. I mean, and I think it's like not giving up on what you do stand for, but figuring out how it fits into your business.
[38:24] Local Artists, Product Design, and Colorado Pride
38:24 - And so for us, what is something that we want to do is uplift local artists. And so we figured that out more recently of working with last year. We got four local artists to do four to five designs each for us. We paid them a base rate for those designs and then we print them ourselves and then they get 10% back of anything that sells with their design on it. And we wrote over 10 to $15,000 worth of checks in the last year back to these four artists in total. And it's something that is our mission. It is something we care about and our c customers are connecting with it. And we haven't even told our customers that these are local artists and that they get money back for them because honestly we've just been too busy to like figure out that marketing, but they've been selling and it's like, you know, maybe if we were a little bit more organized or had a better marketing strategy, we could also do that. But if they're selling on their own, like that is a success. So yeah, imagine if you told that story outside of a Peruvian story. Yeah. Yeah.
39:35 - Wow. Maybe take this clip and just throw it out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I was just gonna say I think it taps into that like desire to have something unique and specialized and that always doesn't fit with kind of what you think of the stereotypical like souvenir shop, right? Like we've all been in those stores where there's like, you know, a thousand t-shirts and they're kind of all a variation of the same thing and then you walk three stores down and you kind of see the same version of that shirt. like I got high in Colorado. Like that's like every souvenir shop, right? So to find that local artist that can bring the the pride of Colorado and that same energy but in a unique way. Totally makes sense how that would uh work really well in your favor. Yeah, it was funny actually. My current partner when we first started dating, I told him, "Yeah, I have like this shop in the mountains." And we went skiing in Copper and I said, "Do you want to come see my shop?" And after he saw it, we're in the car and he goes, "That's not what I expected when you souvenir shop." Did I did I downplay it? He was expecting, you know, like the gas station or just t-shirts everywhere. We don't have a lot of t-shirts, but we we want to make it a bit more upscale and somewhere that people just like love to be.
40:55 - I will say, and I won't speak for our dad, but if he had it his way, that's how the shops would be. We'll present that. We It was It was It was a battle to prove to him like we can offer something a little bit different. Yeah. Come to us. We don't have to be like everybody else. And he saw the light very quickly and was like, "Yeah, I think we're on to something." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Especially in this space where Yeah. you do kind of have an expectation of what these types of like souvenir shops would be and to kind of be a little bit of a kind of disruptor in that and to find a different way to do it is probably partly your guys' success. I'll tell you what, like when we had two boys that worked for us that were like 19 and 20 from Iowa and they were buying stuff in the shop and I was like, I feel like we've definitely hit something here. If we can get a 20-year-old boy to be stoked about our product, like that's like really amazing. And the other day we in Copper had like six, you know, camp kids come in. They were all like teenagers. And at first I was like, "Oh my god." And then they're like, "Which one are you going to get? I like this one. This is sick." And I was like, "Oh my god." Okay. Like I I don't know how to connect with someone that's like teenagers are so hard.
42:16 - Yeah. And if we are we can connect with all different ages because we figured out our age, we figured out older, but we're actually like understanding all ages. That's a huge huge win. Yeah, absolutely. And something that's unique, not to go too down down this, but like Colorado is a state where people that live in Colorado like to rep Colorado. Like I I don't know too many other states where people are like, "Yeah, like I want to wear South Dakota gear." Like um but like Coloradoans love Colorado. So like many people I know support that type of energy. So do you guys see that in the shop? Like locals coming in. I mean locals meaning like Denverites or whatever rolling into the shop and and kind of buying stuff as well. Yeah. Yeah. No, we definitely do. They also like people that live here will buy gifts for people when they go to visit them that say Colorado. So, it's like, "Oh, I'm going back to Indiana." But my my family loves Colorado, so I'm bringing them gifts, and it's like a reverse tourism.
43:18 - I do that all the time. That's funny you mentioned that. Yeah.
[43:23] The Bucket: Business Clothing, Uniforms, and Product Engagement
43:23 - Awesome. All right. Well, let's dive in for one more question before we land the plane here. All right. Oh, okay. Here we go. Question. You know what? I I'm I'm gonna skip that one on my own because we just answered a question very similar to that. So, yeah. Give us something dirty. Yes. Embarrassing. Embarrassing. All right, here we go. Here it is. Okay, this is could be somewhat embarrassing, but what's the most ridiculous piece of clothing or accessory you own strictly for business that you would never wear otherwise? I mean, we're talking to the Do you guys have any embarrassing just like pieces of strictly business wear? I mean, we own a t-shirt shop, you know, right? We wear t-shirts. You guys get to wear your own product all the time. yeah. Yeah. I I mean I own too many things. We do actually something fun for that. And Rihanna, I think we came up with this together, but we allow our employees to pick three items for our shop um for their like uniform. And they don't have to wear it every shift, but they get a shirt, a hoodie, and a hat, and they get to pick it. And it has become such a cool thing because they have to pick it within two weeks. And now they shop the shop. like they are so into every single item because they're thinking what do I want for myself and so like and they're so excited by the time it comes versus like here's your shirt.
45:04 - They're like which one am I going to get? I can't decide. I want this one. No, I want this one. And I'm like this actually has come like become like a really awesome thing to get everyone engaged with our products. Yeah. I had no clue that was the result. I mean we came up with that like ages ago. I had no clue. Like I remember talking about it and brainstorming it. Wow. Thank you. Yeah. And then every six months if they stay with us obviously they get to pick three new ones cuz we are they change every season. And so then they're like it's my six months like can I get this? So they're like thinking about it. They're excited about it and it's been a really cool thing. Yeah. I I won't say it's something that I we own or wear. but I I'll tell this story. I always wondered who the tourist was that buys the like marijuana shirt or like one of our top sellers in Frisco for a long time was I've never been so high and like I hate it but it sells and I don't get it like why would you advertise that and then we actually went on a trip to Europe and we went to Amsterdam and my boyfriend at the time he comes running and yeah ex-boyfriend he like check out my shirt like you're like I'm dating that guy.
46:17 - Yeah. And then we're going to the airport the next day. I was like, "No, I'm not wearing that in the airport." No wonder it didn't work out. That's That's a good one. All right. I people a little bit. What about you, Jason? I mean, business-wise, what would you say? I'm kind of curious. Well, I mean, I I don't think it's necessarily embarrassing, but like a sports coat is pretty much the only time I put it on is for a business function. Like otherwise, like I'm probably not going to wear too much business clothing outside of business type of of functions. So yeah, I definitely have a wardrobe of things that are just like unique to like those situations. And otherwise, yeah, it's not in my normal rotation. Yeah, this is Colorado. I mean, I definitely had a wardrobe like when I worked in marketing, I and I worked in an office building in corporate. I definitely had clothes that I was like, well, I no longer will wear those because I don't work in an office every day. And I've like slowly sort of been like, yeah, I haven't worn that dress in eight years.
47:19 - Guess I probably don't need it anymore. And Colorado is like pretty lax. So, you know, nobody's expecting you to show up in like a a tailored suit. Yeah. It's actually like I'm wearing my cool overalls today. These are Right. Right. Yeah. I actually call mine my funeral suit because you know there's a room that you have to walk into and wear that suit. There's not many here in Colorado at all. And it's funny, my son, he's competing right now at the state competition for DECA. I don't know if you guys are familiar with DECA, but it's like a businessy type of club for high school students and stuff. And so I went to go drop him off and all the kids had to show up in professional attire. I swear every single one of those kids were wearing the funeral suit. It looked like the biggest funeral at the Broadmore for teenagers. I felt so sad for these kids, but you know, that's what they were trained to do. And I started thinking about my funeral suit and I'm like, gosh, I hate putting that thing on. It's awful to wear. And I just dread wearing the funeral suit anytime I have to go to those meetings.
48:27 - Actually, you know what? I'm gonna I am going to make this dirty. do it. Nipple covers when I go when I go to like shows, especially because a lot of our um industry is older men. I'm just like, we're going with the nipple covers today. I don't need people staring at my tips. My eyes are right here. Golden. Yes, there are a whole bunch of things ladies have to do underneath to make sure all is well. Absolutely.
[49:04] Self-Limiting Beliefs, Mindset, and Leadership Growth
49:04 - All right. Well, I want to land the plane on on a a more kind of maybe a little harder question piece here, but I just want to know for both of you guys, you guys have accomplished a lot. You've you've gotten through a lot of things. What's been like one self-limiting belief that you've had to work through for yourself and what other business owners maybe have felt that, but what what's that self-limiting thing that at some point through your career you really had to face and kind of get over to to achieve what you guys have had to achieve? You want to go first? I can go first. Yeah, you go first. Okay. So, I have a mentor and he is great. and he and something that we work on is mindset. And so the last time I saw him, he was like, I think that you can think bigger. And I left that, you know, he just left it at that. Nothing specific. And I do not know what that means. And I've been working so hard to figure out what think bigger means and and what path that that takes. And um well, actually, this was a couple times. So I followed up six months later and he was like, "Yeah, I don't know what what I where I was going with that." cuz he's like we'll talk about it the next time we meet. but I think it is it is you know you you hit certain milestone and you hit certain goals and you know like you said you're like we could never manage two shops. Well now we have four and you're like I could never take on another project and then you're wrong inevitably. and thankfully, you know, if we didn't have our dad pushing us, I don't know how far we would have gone because every time it was like, nope, can't do that. Nope, not doing that. And and you know, you you don't know what you're capable capable of until you do it. like I I was talking about earlier, we had a coffee shop at one point and that truly was like this is too much.
50:57 - you know, we we have these successful shops and then this is just a totally different business and maybe some people can figure it out, but it's also taking that hard look at yourself and being like, but maybe it's not me. Mhm. and that's not to say that we couldn't have something like that in the future, but um, sometimes it is taking a hard look in in yourself and being like, is it my mindset that is holding me back or is it truly like a boundary that I just I don't know how much more energy I can pour into this um, before you know, you can only put your energy so many places. So, you have to decide like, is this worth my time or is it better to just quit and find something else? I think a lot of people don't talk about I mean, I know they say like do some one thing a day that scares you and failure is important. It's like I feel like I fail every day and and a lot of it is the expectations that I put on myself, you know, instead of, you know, taking Rihanna's advice and putting three things on my list and like I'm going to do those three things today. I'm like, "Yeah, I'm going to do those three things plus this and then maybe this and then I'm just going to sneak this one in and oh my god, I didn't get everything done today." Uhhuh. So true.
52:15 - so yeah, I that's Yeah, I think just um you know, don't be afraid to quit something if it's not working. M don't be afraid to admit that like failure is a part of it, but it doesn't have to be like you went bankrupt and everything fell apart and you lost all your money. Like it could be as simple as like, yeah, I didn't get everything done today and I honestly I never do. Yeah, I would say for me I think definitely in the first few years I you do feel like an impostor and you feel like you don't have a voice because you really don't know what you're doing and you're trying to lead people but like you're just like I don't actually know. So it as a leader it's hard to tell people what to do when you also don't kind of know what you're doing. I was 24 when we opened our first business. So, like having a team within the next year, I didn't know how to lead them at all. And I think I would let what I thought they thought about me impact me. And it just wasn't I I don't think I was a great leader back then. I know I wasn't. I know I tried and I know I said things like, "You're doing great and I appreciate you. Thank you so much." But like I wasn't there and I'd pop in and I'd be too afraid to stay and I'd be too afraid to like actually tell them what to do. And I would just say like, "Hey, can you clean that up? Okay, bye.
53:45 - Thank you. I appreciate you." And like Rihanna and I, she helped work with me through a lot of this. Like how do you actually direct people? How do you get them to think about it? And then also like if you do appreciate someone, it's like, "Hey, I noticed that you went over to that display and you reorganized it. I've been wanting to do that for weeks, but I haven't had the time and it looks so good. Thank you for doing that." Not just like, "Thanks for showing up, you know." so like in hand in hand, I will say that like I had started doing our social media when we first started because that was like my job beforehand. So I was like I'll be the social girl and I did it and I like fell off for a while cuz I just didn't feel like I had a voice and that anyone would want to hear. And now we're um we're many years into this. We have four shops and I have had many conversations and I feel like I have a lot to say and so I have and like I said, you know, times have been going, you know, everything's trending down.
54:48 - So, it's like at this point it's like I'm throwing my hat in the ring and I'm going to do whatever I can to get the attention of people because I know we have something good here. I know we have a good team here and I like this life. So, I'm I'm like back on social and pushing as hard as ever and I'm trying to find the people that connect with us and like understand that, you know, we have something valuable to say and hopefully people connect with it.
[55:15] Where to Find Everything Colorado
55:15 - I love that. So, it's a great place to land a plane. Where can people go to listen to this, see you guys, learn more about what you guys are doing? Yeah, so uh on Instagram it's everything Colorado Co. We have a website, everythingcol.shop, and our shops are everything Colorado Dillon, everything Colorado silverthorn, Frisco Trading Post, and Copper Mountain Mercantile. You can find us on TikTok, but TikTok sucks. The Instagram, love it. Yes, love the honesty. Everybody's mean. Yeah, I don't spend any time on TikTok. The little corner of like, you go, girl. And then like and then TikTok's like, "You're the worst. I I wish you would never come here." I'm like, "I don't want to be here." But one of our sales reps says he only goes on TikTok and I post for him. Oh, well, I'm an avid fan of your social media and if anybody goes out there, there's this one post you did not too long ago. I think maybe in the fall, early winter. It was such a great, beautiful, vulnerable post about, you know, just the economic environment and shopping local. And if anybody checks out any of your social media, that one like it hit me right here. I think I teared up actually, but it was ju it was just so perfect. And that voice right there is is the the Johnston sisters that I know and just beautiful harmony and honesty and who you guys really are.
56:55 - So thank you so much for of course partnering with us. It's been a blessing to be a part of your journey, but even more so being a beautiful voice for Colorado, a beautiful representation of Colorado and giving people those memories that they can take home. They probably don't know the sisters behind those those little pieces that they bring home, but that little heart that you guys share with everybody who comes to visit, it's special. It really is. Thank you. It is. Thank you guys. Go check out uh their store. Go check out their Instagram account. Everything will be linked in our show notes so people can get access to that easily. And thank you guys for being here, spending some time with us this morning.
[57:37] Closing Reflections and Sign-Off
57:37 - And I do I do credit Rihanna a lot for our growth. Like I know this is your podcast so it seems like a cliche to give you some flowers but honestly like we are so grateful for finding you, taking your leadership course and like always having someone to call when there is when we need help and it has changed our our lives like hugely. So knowing that we have Rihanna on our side and just like learning from her is has been astronomical. You guys learn the hard way but we do learn. Yes, you do. You do. You guys are some of my favorites. And audience I promise I did not prompt them. I did not give them any talking points but their check is definitely in the mail. I just I believe to like say things when people do a good job and when you find thing people that are gold you should say it. Oh well thank you. I I don't know what you know this journey looked like without you guys but I'm so glad you guys have been a part of my journey too. And yes everybody go check out everything Colorado and buy up all their merchandise so they have the problem of not having any inventory please.
59:00 - All right, everybody. We're going to go ahead and sign out with this episode of Show Me Yours. Thank you so much for joining us. And again, look at my friends. All of their contact information is down below in the show notes. Until next time, you're show me yours. Bye-bye.
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