Behind the Counter

We Put The “Art” In “Party” And The “Roll” In Cinnamon

Ken Collins Season 1 Episode 10

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Step inside a 10,000-square-foot creative hub where the scent of fresh cinnamon rolls mingles with oil paint and coffee, and a century-old lumberyard has a second life as Farmington’s favorite gathering place. We sit with owner Tara Taylor to trace how a mother-daughter idea became Artifacts 302, a living room for the city where knitting circles, plein air painters, book clubs, and gamers share space—and where emerging artists get their first real shot.

Tara pulls back the curtain on the real work of running a hybrid gallery and café. She talks about the early missteps, the moment hiring an accountant changed everything, and the day she let go of the pastry bench and hired a baker so she could actually run the business. We dig into the toughest challenge—reaching locals in a noisy digital world—and why human touch points, open-call themed shows, and welcoming events outperform algorithms. If you’re building a small business, you’ll appreciate her no-fluff systems: recipe cost controls, team-first culture, teen-to-confident-barista training, and the patience to grow margins without losing soul.

There’s vision here, too. Tara shares plans to revive the old yard into a garden courtyard for outdoor weddings, plein air sessions, and live music that flows naturally into the indoor gallery. She’s steering the next chapter back to art—spotlighting up-and-coming local creators, hosting shows that lower barriers to entry, and making the gallery as dynamic as the espresso bar. It’s a grounded, generous roadmap for anyone who wants to turn a beloved space into a lasting community asset.

If this story resonates, follow and share the show, leave a quick review, and send this episode to a friend who believes small businesses make cities feel like home.

Be sure to follow or subscribe!  And, if you're a local business owner who'd like to be featured - or know someone whose story should be told - get in touch at Ken@StrategicHorizonsConsulting.com

This show is brought to you by Strategic Horizons Consulting (a division of Ken Collins Marketing).

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Origins Of Artifacts 302

SPEAKER_01

I'm here with Tara Taylor of uh she's the owner of Artifacts 302 from downtown Farmington. Yep. Tell us a little about yourself.

SPEAKER_00

So um I've been in business with my mom for 26 years this month, which seems crazy. Um I felt like a child when we opened. Now I'm a little more seasoned. Um my mom had this great idea to open an art gallery.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And um I was getting ready to have my first baby, and I didn't really want to go back to work. And she's like, how about we try and do this? Um years and years ago, she was uh back east in Arlington. Yeah, and they had a torpedo factory that had been converted into a bunch of artist studio spaces. Oh, that's awesome. And for years she kept looking at my dad, if we ever close the lumberyard, you know, yeah, this is what I want to do with it.

SPEAKER_01

Because this space used to be in the family already, it was Farmington lumber a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00

Farmington lumber and hardware um since 1908.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, we closed the the lumberyard in 1995 when the Home Depot signs went up. Yeah. Um, my dad thought that was a great time to retire from the lumbery art business and follow his little political career.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um little pillboo political career. He was a major politician around the state.

SPEAKER_00

Um, so then um my mom and I decided to jump into this idea of having an art gallery. So in 1999 we opened the doors and it has morphed into what was the little tiny area in the front was the gallery, to pretty much 10,000 square feet of art space. Yeah. Um, we have 11 artists in the building now.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

From Lumberyard Roots To Art Hub

SPEAKER_00

Um we feature uh anywhere from about 30 or 40 uh local area artists. Um, as long as you're able to walk your work in. So we have some artists from Colorado, some from Utah, some from Arizona, but uh the majority of them are from here. Okay. Um and we added a coffee shop uh in 2015.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I've I took over that in 2017, uh, and I've just been baking my brains out since then. Because you also do like really cool um cake decorating stuff, or you used to do cookies. My my favorite thing is custom cookies.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um there's not there's not as much pressure as cakes because you have one chance to make a cake. With cookies, I can make a couple extra dozens. You know, if I drop one, I'm like, ah, no big deal. Cakes are a little bit.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, but we do we do a variety of of big goods in the day. Um, we rotate everything every day because we don't want it to be the same thing every day. Right. Um plus it's makes it a little bit more fun for us because we don't have a schedule of what we make. Um the only thing that we have a schedule for is quiche and cinnamon rolls and those we do on Saturdays.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. Yeah. It's a little more involved and expire earlier, right?

SPEAKER_00

Um yeah, that but we also have a really good crowd on Sunday. So if you're gonna bake cinnamon rolls, you need you need a crowd for to eat them.

SPEAKER_01

So I mean, besides the obvious family tie and everything, what what made you um personally get into this, make the decision to get into this?

SPEAKER_00

Um in the gallery itself or in the bakery?

SPEAKER_01

Um altogether, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um the the art gallery, my mom and I, you know, my mom instilled art in us from the minute we could put a crayon in our hand.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um so art's always been really great. Um the opportunity to work with her um and be in this space that I've grown up in is kind of cool. So I'm now a fourth generation in this building.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um the just being able to have a downtown business and kind of be part of downtown and part of the town. Uh it's kind of it's kind of cool. Um the family history that we have down here. You know, my grandfather that started the lumber yard, uh my great-grandfather on the other side was um a mason. They had a brickmaking facility out in Kirtland. They built part of the buildings in downtown, so I just have a lot of roots here.

SPEAKER_01

So your grandparents were involved in building this city in a way. Yeah. And then so now, um, because of I've worked with the downtown and all that kind of thing, you're you're partially responsible for the identity of this particular portion of the city, the historic downtown.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I have always loved history um and learning about my family and things like that. And um being part of downtown, you realize how important downtowns are to each town. Yeah, every town across the US, whether there's seven million people in them or seven hundred people in them. All of them started with a downtown.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, our downtown is lovely, and ever since the re their facelift, yeah, um, our downtown is really, really great.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome.

Building Community In Downtown

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was hard during construction and sure um, you know, COVID, because thankfully they hit both in one year instead of dragging it out. Um, but since COVID, I think people too realize how important small business is, and that's what we are downtown, and we're all small business.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um and uh the nice thing about our downtown too is all of us are friends. We all work together. We always um, you know, if somebody comes down, hey, do you know where I could find a refer um downtown to a you know one of the small and pop businesses instead of the big chain stores or things like that? So we all work together, it's like a little family down here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's kind of cool. Yeah, that's awesome. So, what was it like in like when you first got started in the early days? Any lessons or surprises or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00

Everything.

SPEAKER_01

Everything.

SPEAKER_00

Um we had no idea what we were doing. Um I had worked at the bank for about eight years, and mom's like, well, you know how to keep a checkbook. Right. How hard could this be? That's all you need to do. Let's just figure this out as we go. Um I learned that I am not an accountant and I now have an accountant. Those are special people.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I it seems like that's one of those areas where you think, I mean, really, that's not really a consideration because come on. I mean, yeah, I can keep a checkbook. I mean, really. And then it turns into a thing, yeah. So many business owners just inventory.

SPEAKER_00

I have to keep track of it. Inventory.

SPEAKER_01

They either have messy books or they finally realize I need help here. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've needed help for a really long time. And finally I was like, you know, I'm gonna spoil myself and get an account, and I can tell you it was the one of the smartest decisions I've made in the last 26 years. Um but it's great because you kind of learn how to market yourself. Yeah, you learn how to uh over the years we've learned it's very easy to market to tourists.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

We have our tourists market down really well.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

The thing that we struggle with the most is finding the people in our little town.

SPEAKER_03

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

And it's a little town, but it's a weird little place. You you kind of get in your little routine, right? And uh that's just your life, and it's hard to get out of that routine. Right. Um, so marketing to locals is the hardest part.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I I get it.

SPEAKER_00

Um also just like the growth in social media, um, trying to keep up with your Facebook page and your Instagram page and the whatever the news, TikTok. Yeah, just like are you doing TikTok? Um, no.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

I should. Everybody tells me I should. I mean, just one of the things to put on the plate.

SPEAKER_01

I can't tell you one way or the other because I refuse to get on there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because it's from a consumer standpoint, it's a it's a total time waster. You just I watch people get on TikTok, just scrolling from one thing to the next. And I also don't like the way um it seems to be training people to have less and less attention spans. If it's more than like 20 seconds, they cannot concentrate on it.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

That's so aggravating.

SPEAKER_00

So marketing is hard. It is, it is a hard thing, you know, and you know, there's people who can help you with your website, there's people who can help you with your social media posts, there's people who can help you do everything.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But as a small business, do you have the money to pay all of these people? So you just kind of figure out which ones are important to you, and that's what you focus on.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah. It's it's it's a lot to keep up on. I finally realized I can't do it all myself. Yeah. I actually hired a baker a year ago.

SPEAKER_01

Did you?

SPEAKER_00

Which was life-changing for me. One, because uh I realized how much of a control freak I am with the business. You know, you build something from scratch.

SPEAKER_01

What? A business owner who's a control freak? What is that's unheard of, Tara?

SPEAKER_00

Um, letting go of little pieces is really hard.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh the bakery was another thing we started from scratch.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No pun intended. Um, but and to let that baking part go, because you know, the baking is what is literally presented to the customer.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, that was hard to let go of. But um, my little baker, her name's Ryan, she she is nailing it as a game changer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I love her to death. Oh, she's fantastic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So that's freeing up time and stress and all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Mainly because then I can actually focus on the business part of business. Um, I used to love, I used to work the counter all the time. Um, but I find myself being needed to other places.

SPEAKER_01

Uh that was smart of you to to understand that and make that choice because it's something that you love to do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right? So when you get uncomfortable or stressed, people tend to fall back into those things that they like and other things suffer, but you're not allowing that to happen.

SPEAKER_00

I did for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Um I'm just gonna be back here making pastries. Uh I have 57 emails, but they can wait either. Right, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's the norm. It really is.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, that's that's good that you you recognize that and made made a change, and now you're on the other side, you realize how good of a change that was.

Early Lessons And Accounting Reality

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, um, you know, back when I started the bakery in 2017, I was the only employee, I was the only one doing the whole thing until 2022. I had to have hand surgery and I knew I was gonna be out for about three months.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, well, I guess I'm gonna learn how to hire employees. There's a new part, you know, all of the things that you need to have employees, like the workmen's comp and the insurance and the payroll, and I cannot believe the amount of paperwork to have employees.

SPEAKER_01

It's not just, hey, you want to work here? No, and then and then they do. There's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, so many things. But um, I learned to let go, let somebody else sort of take charge, and I loved it so much. I now have five employees. That's awesome.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm growing, I'm moving and grooving. It's quite cool just to see where we've gone in the last 26 years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We've touched on this a little bit, but what makes you special in this community?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I think what's special about here is the place. You're not gonna find a business like this anywhere.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, the coffee shop is 10,000 square feet, it's open, it's huge, it's the yard section of the lumber yard.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um tables are spread out enough to where you're not eavesdropping on the conversation next to you. Um it's it's such a welcoming space, and I um I've heard from other customers and things like that that you just you feel so welcome when you come in. I love that. I want everybody to feel like they're walking into, you know, somebody your best friend's living room. Just come have a good time.

SPEAKER_01

Um it's very natural, you know. This was the backspace from the original when you first opened as an art studio, and it was all like lumber, and and your dad was it was his workspace, he was building stuff and all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00

So much of his shop.

SPEAKER_01

It was just a lot of wood and a lot of sawdust and a lot of stuff. So all that got cleaned out. There's still a small space for him to do that, but um but it's still the smaller and smaller over the years. But it's it's like mostly it's got a barn feel, right?

SPEAKER_00

It's it's it's uh for people have a skiff was a barn when they first come in.

SPEAKER_01

When you have if you haven't been here and you don't know anything about the history of the building, you would think it's a barn. So I get that question because that's kind of the feel. It's very natural and it's open and it's very lumber yard-ish still, which is the point that you were trying to make. Yeah. And uh there's couches and lounge chairs and tables and chairs, and we get a lot of um remote workers who will come and spend the day.

SPEAKER_00

Um, my favorite part I think about the big space is everything that happens in this space.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I have a lot of regular groups, I have a lot of regular customers. I have a knitting group, I have a painting group, I have multiple um uh Bible study groups, I have a group of younger kids who bring out the craziest board games I've ever seen in my life on Saturdays and played for hours, and um just seeing the variety from teenagers to you know older generations. There's book clubs, there's it's so it's so great. It's we can accommodate everybody.

SPEAKER_01

Because as we're sitting here, we're you and I are hanging out on a couch with a big long coffee table, another couch on the other side of that. There's some people enjoying coffee, there's a whole group painting. Um, they're all painting.

SPEAKER_00

My Plenaire group.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and so there's just stuff happening.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna have my they used to be knitters, but they've uh gotten into that jewel painting, right? Little diamond. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So there's things happening all scattered around here, and and what we're right in the middle of it, and we're having a little conversation and no one's even paying attention to it.

SPEAKER_00

No, but everybody's doing their thing. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

It's brilliant. Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Marketing Tourists Versus Locals

SPEAKER_00

Um, we also, if people don't know, um this big beautiful space is even more beautiful in the evening, and so we rent it out after hours. Um May and June, perfect place for graduation parties. Um we decorate pretty amazing for Christmas, and we do all kinds of Christmas parties, um, anniversary parties, whatever you can think of.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and we're coming up on Christmas, and I know you guys do all kinds of stuff, and it's so pretty in here. I always see the pictures because I don't always have a chance to come down, but the pictures are amazing.

SPEAKER_00

We'll be one of those businesses where next week uh Christmas will throw up in here.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Christmas will throw up, yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_00

We always try and do, we always try and get our Christmas stuff up, which I know seems early. It's before Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving week is kind of a busy week if you're in retail. Yeah. Um, plus you close for a second for for the actual turkey day. Right. Um, but then Friday is Black Friday, and then Saturday is small business Saturday. And small business Saturday is the day that we love the most because we are small business. Right. Um, and we like to be full, fully decorated and ready for all that holiday cheer. So we will be turning into Christmas next week.

SPEAKER_01

So you take a small break, you cook a little turkey, and I don't even know if I want to cook this year.

SPEAKER_00

I think I'm gonna go find a trail somewhere and clear my head because I won't be able to breathe until January.

SPEAKER_01

Take a turkey sandwich with you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_01

So, what are you what are you most proud of when it comes to pretty much anything, like the the business or or your customers or um whatever.

SPEAKER_00

I'll I'll I'll do all three of those. So for the business, I I'm most proud of how much the community um has accepted us and sort of loves us and utilizes our space. Um I'm proud with how much we've grown over the last 26 years. Um it's good. My mom and I think, do you remember back in the day when we're like, if we could just make$100 a day? Like that was our thing.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just if we could make$100 a day. Right. We weren't doing it to make millions, right? But you know, it we struggled. Um and these days it's like, oh, if I could just make, you know, it's so great. It's so great. Um for me as a person, uh, when we first opened, um, I was a super, super shy 24-year-old. Um, and I feel like I have grown into a pretty amazing business person.

SPEAKER_01

You're really friendly and approachable, approachable, but you're also pretty formidable when you need to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I'm a different person. I'm not behind the counter. I feel like this is my safe space. If you catch me on the street somewhere, I'm probably back into my shy little show. Yeah. But I love it here and I feel comfortable here.

SPEAKER_01

So how do you feel? This is a this is a different kind of take on that, because um, because you're a woman and I know both sides of you. And so women are um, there's exceptions to everything, but I think the widely viewed things that women are supposed to be and generally are more agreeable, softer, like that whole thing. So do you ever feel like you're being pushed into that corner when the situation says that you need to be formidable?

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah. Mainly because that's my personality too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's hard to, it's hard to put on a stern face. Yeah. I have had to like, you know, kick a couple people out, which is never a fun part. But uh the first time I did it and got them to leave, I was like, holy smokes, I think I just grew up.

SPEAKER_02

We just have this mental image of you holding somebody by the belt loop in the scruff of the neck and just toss them out the door. You're out of your buddy.

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah, that's that's hard, you know. You don't want to do that. That that that doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_02

Right. I've never seen that happen.

SPEAKER_00

I would say three times in 26 years. There we go. That's a pretty good rhetoric.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you gotta do something pretty drastic to get tossed out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

For the most part, it's a pretty happy place down here. Sometimes it's quiet.

SPEAKER_01

So so if someone's never been here before, what's one thing that you want them to experience?

SPEAKER_00

The local art.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Letting Go And Hiring Help

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. We have some incredible artists here. Yeah. Um, we have the eleven that work here, um, but we've also started these theme shows where we do theme shows every they rotate every two months. They're actually open to the public. Yeah. So if if you've ever thought, oh, I I it might be kind of cool to get my toss something in there that I made. What we do is we give you a theme uh this month up on the walls. It's called Ink Like Picasso. Okay. So all of the photos are Picasso related. Sure. But we do all kinds of different themes. We sometimes will pick colors like red, or um, we've had interesting ones like text messages, and of course, my mind's gonna go blank because I'm thinking about it. Um, but we pick some pretty broad uh topics.

SPEAKER_01

I remember I entered one um many years ago. You had a show called Foot of Inspiration.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that was such a great show.

SPEAKER_01

Everything was just it had to be a 12 by 12, whatever it was, 12 by 12.

SPEAKER_00

And then that was really cute. There was this young girl, she was in high school, she interpreted it as foot, and so she took the cutest picture of her and all of her friends' tennis shoes. Oh, nice. Because it was a foot of inspiration. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cute.

SPEAKER_01

I did the same thing. I um uh Jerry, she does yoga. Oh, and at the time she was much better at it. She's it's been a while, but um, she could, you know, sit with her legs out and put her head between on the floor between her knees and grab the the end of her heels. And so I did a painting of her like that from the viewpoint from the bottom of her feet towards that. So I called it Feet of Inspiration.

SPEAKER_00

Nice! Yeah, that one was a fun show. We actually might bring that one back.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00

It was cool too, just because the show itself looked so uniform.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, everything was 12 by 12, it was just yeah, it was it was a cool show. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh we've actually got our themes up for next year, so if you're interested, uh those cards will be out for small business Saturday at a reception. Um, so you can start getting ready for the next year. Nice.

SPEAKER_01

So so what's something that people don't see that's crucial to keeping your business running smooth?

SPEAKER_00

Hmm. Cleaning.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, this is a massive space. It's a huge space. It's a really great space for a party, and it's even bigger when you have to mop it.

unknown

Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

You never really appreciate how large a space is until you have to mop it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You know, though, that brings you back down to Earth. That like makes you go, you know what? This is this is where it starts. Yeah. Um I think I think to the marketing part of it. You know, I try really hard to get it out there and have people come see me, but it's that's probably the toughest part is how do I reach you?

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You know, because you're coming and say, do you do do you do any advertising? And it's like, well, I spent$30,000 last year on advertising.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Obviously it didn't work.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Where could I advertise that you would look? And I kind of put it back on them, you know, people will say too.

SPEAKER_01

I remember you putting that out there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_01

It is. Because you're competing with literally everyone in the world, so every single individual that you're trying to reach has many businesses that that they love and hobbies and groups, and just does anybody actually paper anymore? Right.

SPEAKER_00

You know, actually the paper's coming back. Um, but like, you know, you put an ad on Facebook. How much stuff do you see on Facebook?

SPEAKER_01

It's non-stop.

SPEAKER_00

You know, we used, oh my gosh, I remember back in the day before social media really, we would do mailers and we would mail out thousands of little mailers. Yeah, this is what's happening for the next three months. And we, you know, would take those huge yellow or white boxes to the post office with all of our you know what we've tried everything.

SPEAKER_01

This is something to consider moving forward that um some of those things may come back because we're moving down this AI path, and what's happening is people are starting to get a little disconnected from each other, and um bigger companies are automating and doing so you don't necessarily have a human touch point anymore. And so the people that provide that human touch point are gonna be golden in down the road when more and more implementation of a lack of human touch, it's gonna be golden.

What Makes The Space Unique

SPEAKER_00

Well, and like when you talk to avid readers, you know, yeah, they they still come down and have their little book in their hand, and it's like, oh well, you know, you could just listen to the audiobook, and they're like, Yeah, but I don't get to hold it, I don't get to fill the pages, and so it's kind of a similar thing where maybe that the tactile part of it we keep going more and more digital, and what it's gonna do is cause a backlash of a certain subgroup of people that that's already there that that perfers non-profit. Then we have to decide what what paper are we gonna put ourselves back in. Right, you know. Yeah, we still we still will put ourselves in, you know, like the symphony programs and things like that. So there's there's some paper advertising out there, just few and far between these days.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. And I love the digital and the automation, and I love all that stuff, but I also recognize the very real need from a business standpoint of a human touch point, a human face, a human voice, a human handshake. You know, that stuff goes a long way.

SPEAKER_00

So marketing though, that's the hardest.

SPEAKER_01

So, with that, what's a what's a small but mighty system or process that you put in place that made a big difference?

SPEAKER_00

My little crew of peep helpers.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, back to the employees. That is huge.

SPEAKER_00

It it's it was huge in my world.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, you know, five employees is not huge to anyone else. But crossing that line those five employees have have changed my world. Plus, um I I love I've I'm learning that I love being a boss.

SPEAKER_01

Um I I have two- not everybody does.

SPEAKER_00

No, and um, I have two really great employees. Um, they started out when they came, were extremely shy. Yeah. Um you know, if you've ever ordered coffee here, you'll order at the counter and they will call out your drink when it's done. And one of my employees was scared to death to use his voice to call out. And and now you can hear him in the back of the room. And I, you know, it's fun to watch their self-confidence grow. Yeah, it's fun to watch their um their self-esteem. Um I feel like if you provide a really great workspace where they feel like they're part of your family and not just the grunt worker, yeah, um, the growth you see in them is it's I'm starting to love that.

SPEAKER_01

That's really important too. It it that uh breeds loyalty in many different ways, but starting with your own employees, yeah. They don't want to leave because they found a comfortable place that recognizes their importance and allows them to grow and encourages them to grow.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I try not to just like be the boss, you know. I get in there and I'll I'll I'll help with the dishes and I'll take out the trash and you know, if they're behind in a day, because you know, I want them to feel like they're on my level. I don't want to be superior, you know, which I think is is a good thing too.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, my crew is I love my crew. Yeah, it's a team. It is, it's a family. It is, yeah. We are a family here for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. So what's over time, what's gotten easier or harder?

SPEAKER_00

I think, I think now, after this long, um when we have growth, um, it just sort of flows into growth where it's not like oh my gosh, I have way too many irons in the fire. I feel like it's sort of easier to handle as you grow bigger. Um there for a while I felt like I um was trying to juggle too many things, but you know, this slow progression of employees and help and whatever. Um it's now just this really great slow progression, and we're still moving upward, which is fantastic.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think a lot of um business owners, we we had a giggle about that, a business owner who's a control freak. And so a lot of business owners are really reluctant to relinquish any kind of control to another person and trust them to do stuff. Right, you know, and and so they end up wearing a ton of hats and those hats keep falling off, and you know, just things go wrong because it's really difficult to do all of it yourself.

SPEAKER_00

It is, and and I think there's a lot of growth when you finally realize that you can't do it all. Yeah, you're like fine, I'll I'll let you help.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because it feels at first it feels like a concession, uh huh. Like, okay, I'm failing to do this. Yeah, and I have to surrender and get someone else to help me, yeah, which is m more mortifying, but it's not, it's a step forward.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. It's a great moving forward though.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So, um, what's something that you wish ran a little smoother behind the scenes?

Events, Holidays, And Rentals

SPEAKER_00

On my side, it would be keeping track of all of the groceries that I need for the fake shop. It is for some reason I I know there's a system that works for people out there. I just haven't found the one that works for me. Right. And so, you know, I'll spend four hours in the morning doing uh shamrock and Sam's Club and the grocery store, and I get back and I unload it all, and Ryan will be in the kitchen and she'll be like, Did you happen to get No? No. I I bought everything else on the planet except for that one thing. Okay, so I'll go back to the store now. Um keeping up with inventory is probably the hardest thing. Right. Um it's a huge part of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're not um I don't I don't really have a lot of experience, personal experience with like food delivery, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I did the food delivery for a while, but I don't I'm not big enough for that yet.

SPEAKER_01

That's what I was gonna say. You're not really you're not really to the size where you're getting regular food delivery, so you're having to go out and do that yourself.

SPEAKER_00

And you know, like there's a milk delivery place, but you have to have so much milk delivered. I I don't have the space for that much milk. Um, so I'm still I'm still smoking nuts compared to some of that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it's um I also learned um from another business friend of mine to pay attention to how much they charge to do those little deliveries.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I realized how much I was saving myself just going and doing it myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um if you were buying mass amounts in mass quantities, absolutely it's a great idea. But for me, I was I was throwing away money that didn't need to be thrown away.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because there's also a cost to your time and effort and you not being here and all that kind of stuff. So it's a big difference, but that's uh that you don't can't you can't look in a spreadsheet and find that cost. You you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00

That's something you have to kind of I could make a spreadsheet and do that, but you know, I I will say I I'm not a spreadsheeter.

SPEAKER_02

I uh I love them so much.

SPEAKER_00

Most people do.

SPEAKER_02

Spreadsheets are my best friends.

SPEAKER_00

I should learn how to do that. Um I did find this really great little uh uh app for restaurants and things like that where they like do um recipe calculators. Do you actually know how much you're spending perhaps? That's cool ingredient or things like that. Um sort of the cost control. Uh am I actually making enough to actually make this muffin when I sell it for however much? So that's kind of nice. Uh, because I'm not a mathy person either.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'm definitely right-brained.

SPEAKER_01

That's the kind of nerd level stuff that I just love. You know, you're breaking down per ingredient. Oh, of course he does, yes.

SPEAKER_00

I have a 50-pound bag of sugar. How much is a teaspoon?

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. Yeah. There's your math problem for the day, because that's what I mean. He's all over it. Yeah. Yeah. How much is a cup? How much does a cup of flour cost for you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Exactly. So besides the grocery list, is there something that you're kind of still figuring out as you go?

SPEAKER_00

Everything. Everything every day. Everything every day, you know, every time I add an employee, every time we add a new artist, anytime. I mean, anytime you add anything to the business, yeah, it it changes everything. It changes the flow, it changes um it yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And that's awesome for you to admit that. Again, as a business owner, very prideful, very, you know, and you love this place, you would defend this place with potentially your life, yeah, and everything. So it's basically your baby. And so for you to admit that hey, man, I'm still figuring it out. Oh, we figure out parent of the year. I'm still raising this child. After all this time, you're still figuring it out.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and even with kids, you know, you don't parent the same way you did when they were one when they were when they're 18. So every single day brings new challenges. You know, if it's if it's not one thing, it's the other.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And you know, not only that, we we have we're in a hundred and twenty-year-old building. So maintenance. Yeah, that's maintenance. That's a thing all on sounding. Yeah, I've got half of my place blocked off right now because I decided to upgrade and I'm finally getting an actual heater and air conditioner.

SPEAKER_02

Nice!

Growth, Confidence, And Leadership

SPEAKER_00

We're not gonna be sweating this next summer. I'm actually looking kind of forward to it. Yeah, but yeah, you know, you know, um adding a fire pressure suppression system, adding um all the things required for, you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because yeah, I mean, fire suppression, that's this whole place is wooden.

SPEAKER_00

There's inspections that go on, there's all kinds of stuff like that. So it's just it's keeping up with everything. Every day is different.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Do you ever feel like you're wearing too many hats or jugging a stuff?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, all the time.

SPEAKER_01

And you've we talked about some of the steps you've taken to maybe give up a hat or two.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, well, uh, like we talked uh before we started this, um my mom kind of retired a couple of years ago, so I feel like I'm in charge of everything now. Yeah. Uh she's still here and helps out and things like that, but you know, basically all the decisions come down to me.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um so it there's way too many hats to wear.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And me being a little too control free.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I if someone says, Well, can I help you with? Nothing. I got it.

SPEAKER_01

I got this. However, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but yeah, there's way too many hats.

SPEAKER_01

That's pretty normal.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So what's your biggest headache right now, if you don't mind my asking?

SPEAKER_00

My biggest headache. You know, I don't really think that I have an actual headache. Yeah. Um right now, at the moment, I think I have things running pretty smoothly. Um, but I would say the biggest headache that comes up now is if an employee leaves and I have to start from scratch.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

Um, it just throws a kink in.

SPEAKER_01

Right. The system is off, and now you gotta train somebody new.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, finding people is really, really hard. Um but but you know, it takes four or five months for them to be completely independent. Yeah. And so I'm I'm stuck here more than when things are running smoothly. So I have to delegate my time a little bit more when I have to find somebody new.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but right now, really, that's the biggest headache.

SPEAKER_01

Now, this is another bit of control. Is it possible that like maybe your star employee becomes your your trainer?

SPEAKER_00

Most of the time the person that's leaving, I will sort of let them train. Okay. Because you know, we only we only have four people that work um in the front, and so adding another person, there's not very many hours. Um, and so you can't say, Oh, well, you're not gonna work this week because I need to train this person. So I sort of let the person who's leaving because they're a senior, train the new one, and so then the transition is a little bit easier as well. Sure.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah, and then it's just sort of watching, keeping an eye out, and in various ways they're kind of speaking the same language, right? Yeah, you mentioned their teenagers, so that the teenager is training a teenager in the way a teenager needs to be trained, and then they also think that that's a pretty cool position to be in.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, pretend like they're the philosopher.

SPEAKER_01

A little bit of power, right? You get to puff up a little and this is how you do this, Bub. Pay attention.

SPEAKER_00

You're trusting me to like teach this person what to do? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

Very cool. So, what are you most excited about for the future of the business?

SPEAKER_00

The future is, you know, we always sit down, my mom and my dad and I always sit down and we're like, where do we want to see this place in five years?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And, you know, I have things that I want to do, but you know, things that you want to do cost money.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I would love to see it grow even more. Um, I would love to clean up the old yard and you know, put in put in a group, a place where these plenaire artists can come and paint roses and people can drink coffee outside and maybe have live music in the evenings and like a garden courtyard kind of a we do a lot of weddings here. It would be great if I could do the wedding outside and then move inside for a reception. There's always things that we're thinking about. So um, you know, I would love to just see it keep moving at the at the rate that it's moving now. Yeah. Because it's kind of cool to see.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So so this is where you get to dream a little in that same same area. If time and money were not an issue, yeah. Um, what's something new you'd want to try?

SPEAKER_00

Um, new that I would want to try.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um I I don't know if I want to say it out loud. I have little hesitations because then people get too excited about it and then they keep asking me for the next one. What are you gonna do then? When are you gonna do that?

SPEAKER_01

Did you not hear the time and money part?

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Um, actually, I would really, really love to clean up the yard. I think that that would make an extension of this place to where you could have an outside area just as amazing as the inside.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um I think that I think it would just be so beautiful.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I would love to add on a lot more bathrooms. Because right now we just have the two.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

And it's just sometimes not.

SPEAKER_01

When it gets super crowded, that yeah, it could be an issue.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

Open-Entry Theme Shows And Local Art

SPEAKER_00

Um the other thing is is sometimes you have a vision of what you see, and all of a sudden an opportunity is presented to you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you don't even see it coming.

SPEAKER_01

Out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh. So I'm kind of maybe I'll just put it out there in the universe. I'm ready for that.

SPEAKER_01

I actually have any little venue. That happens more than people realize. Uh going back to this old quote, I I quote this guy, I don't even remember who he is, but he was saying that the the easiest way to be successful in business is to be in business.

SPEAKER_03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. And and he was given an example, uh, like keep it simple so people understand the example, is uh say we're gonna go into business selling circles. We know everything about circles, we're gonna sell circles. And so we go into business, we're selling circles. We're doing okay, but we we learn about triangles. And we're like, oh, well, okay, I've heard of triangle, but I've never tried triangles, so let's try triangles. And triangles grows us a little bit. Like, okay, we're doing a little bit better with triangles and circles. We're the triangle and circle people. Exactly. And then they learn about squares. Never heard about squares ever. And they're like, what? A square?

SPEAKER_00

And what are you even talking about?

SPEAKER_01

Let's do squares. And squares like takes off so much that you drop the circles. The thing that you originally went into business for, you just get rid of it because it's not even worth doing anymore because squares exist. Yep. And you would have never known at squares about squares unless you went into business selling circles.

SPEAKER_00

Or you just and you're aware of what's what's there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'm I'm excited to see the like from 2020 to 2025, the growth that we've seen and just sort of the morph. Um, I'm stinking excited for the next five.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

My my yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01

So do you have any big goals or or changes you're working towards this year or next?

SPEAKER_00

This year, next year.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, we're almost done with this year, so.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Next year, I I'm really trying to uh bring the focus back to the art side of things. Yeah art has sort of been the easy side. Sure. And then it's, you know, getting employees figured out, getting the bakery figured out. Now I feel like those have kind of settled in and are running smoothly. I think I want to bring my emphasis back to art. Yeah. Um, you know, back in the day we used to find um up and coming artists and we would do featured shows and you know, help these newer artists get started. I think I'm I think we want to start focusing more on those local artists and sort of bring the art back.

SPEAKER_01

Give them a venue, yeah. However, temporary, but still.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It could be I I've worked because you know, in my involvement at the Farmton Art Walks and whatnot, um, I remember Rob Rocket, he was one of them. Yeah, we gave him his first ever art show. He'd never had one before. He's been doing art for a long time, but he never had a show.

SPEAKER_00

And so Um, we worked with this Native American artist, his name's Gil Scott, and you know, we did a show for him, and then the college did a show for him, and he has taken off. You know, sometimes they just need that one little place to get their foot in the door, yeah. Um, and it sort of takes off from there.

SPEAKER_01

Rob now has a gallery in Vegas.

SPEAKER_00

So crazy.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, how amazing is that? So, yeah. Nice, very cool. And you could be a part of that thing over and over again.

SPEAKER_00

They just need a jumping off point.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So, what would it mean to you personally if you could hit any one of those goals that we just talked about?

SPEAKER_00

It would make me smile a little bit bigger. Um just looking back at like how far we've come.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um makes me feel pretty incredible, you know. This small, shy, yeah, small town girl. Um, it's never in a million years did I think I would be doing this. You know, most of my life I just wanted to be a mom.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've got some pretty good kids, I've built a pretty good business. Um yeah, I just want to keep doing what I'm doing and keep providing this incredible space for everybody else.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It is fun to look back at, like, okay, when I was 20, did I ever think I would be anywhere close to where I'm sitting right now?

SPEAKER_00

Uh um people asked me, I had to do an interview last week, and they said, you know, have you always been a baker? Have you always wanted a bakery? I was like, heck no. I I mean, sure, I like to make chocolate chip cookies, but did I ever think I'd be running a bakery? No.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely not. Uh I that fell into my life. That was one of those opportunities that was just like, well, should we try this? I didn't drink coffee. I didn't even know what coffee tastes like when I opened a coffee shop. I've come a long way. Yeah. So there's those opportunities. You just kind of let them happen and see where it takes us.

SPEAKER_01

So, what's what's a piece of advice you'd give to somebody just starting out in in your industry?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I could hear the words of my mother is just don't give up on your dream.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

The Hidden Work: Cleaning And Marketing

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Which seems kind of cheesy, but it's true. You know, she held on to her dream of opening an art gallery for for about 22 years.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and then she finally got it, and now she gets to see it get even bigger. What a cool thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um never be afraid to let people help you. Right. Um, especially when you're starting out. You know, now there's these really great programs, like up at the college, they have the incubator programs, right? Things like that. There's so much help.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's resources available.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for people that to help you start out your little business. And they even teach you how to do your own accounting. I know. They'll teach you how to do quick accounting.

SPEAKER_01

And if you need a space, there are spaces there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I mean, just if you have an idea and if you have this dream, there's ways to do it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Find a mentor. Um find someone that that's doing what you want to do.

SPEAKER_01

Um that inside advice is invaluable.

SPEAKER_00

When I opened the bakery coffee shop, I um became really good friends with Grant up in Smiley Cafe up in Durango. Okay. He is so much more of an entrepreneur than I am. Um I learned tons from him. Um, and it's great, especially he's in the same field, he has the bakery, he has a lot more food, but um just talking to him and finding out, you know, changing this one little thing, how incredible that is. Um find somebody that already does it, just visit with them. And chances are the person that you want to talk to will love to talk to you about it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, they would think it was so great to that all of a sudden they're in this little mentoring.

SPEAKER_01

People sometimes surprise you, you know. You think, oh, there's no way that person's gonna give me their time for this. Like I'm gonna end up being sort of a competitor, maybe. I don't know. They're not never, and yeah, it makes them feel good, right? You're the person they you came to.

SPEAKER_00

I found an interesting for the gallery. Um, I contacted him and I said, Hey, would you be interested in wholesaling so I can sell your stuff in the gallery? And the response was, Oh my gosh, I was I've been meaning to come in, but I'm just too scared. Yeah. I was like, Great, bring it in. See? So yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So you're that for other people as well?

SPEAKER_00

That person. What the heck? I became that person. It's really kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01

So, what's what's something that um your customers don't know about you, but they should?

SPEAKER_00

That we're downtown. That we've been in the six years. No, you would be surprised.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they don't know how long, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Come in here and they're like, I didn't even know this place was here. Yeah, yeah. Yes, we're actually a really cool place in Farmington, Mexico.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you're kind of you're kind of like the the front gate to downtown, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

One of the first things you see.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, heck, Farmington Lumber sold most of the stuff that people needed to build this downtown. So that's another cool part.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01

Well, this has been fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I always like hanging out here. It's just comfy. Get to hang out on a couch and chat with people.

SPEAKER_00

And not work. Right.

SPEAKER_01

This is cool. Thanks so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Also cool opportunity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Everybody come down. Check it out. If you haven't been here, it's it's it's really surprising when you walk in and you haven't been here before.

SPEAKER_00

We're open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. Yeah. Saturdays 8 to 3.

unknown

Cool.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, thanks, Terry.