Pay it forward

So I just got pulled over by a Washington State trooper. I was slightly speeding as I passed the cop. However I didn't notice that I was passing him cause I was tweeting on my iPhone. As we made eye contact I noticed I didn't have my seatbelt on so I put it on while driving as he looked on in amazement. Needless to say he pulled me over immediately. As he walked up to my passenger side window I rolled it down with Success Magazine's latest motivational CD blaring out of my stereo. I didn't even notice because I was a little flustered about most likely getting the book thrown at me. He motioned for me to turn it down and with a huge smile on his face said " I don't even know where to start" he graciously went on to explain to me that texting while driving make you 24 times more likely to get into an accident. Compare that with drunk driving making you 6 times more likely.
He then said that he wasn't going to write me a ticket, but it would have been several hundred dollars. He asked me to pay it forward by doing something nice for someone during this holiday season and to also tell people about these shocking texting statistics. Then he said Merry Christmas and sent me on my way. Wow! So starting this day forward I'm done screwing around on my phone while driving. We're talking some seriously dangerous stuff. It's not worth the risk. Hopefully this statistic will help other people to quit texting and driving. After this experience and the heroism of the fallen officers from last weeks coffee shop shooting I am very "Pro-Cop" right now. So thanks goes out to our men and women in blue for putting their lives on the line for our safety everyday.

Great video about Social Networking

45 Rules for Creating a Great Logo Design

1.Do not use more than three colors.
2.Get rid of everything that is not absolutely necessary.
3.Type must be easy enough for your grandma to read.
4.The logo must be recognizable.
5.Create a unique shape or layout for the logo.
6.Completely ignore what your parents and/or spouse think about the design.
7.Confirm that the logo looks appealing to more than just three (3)
individuals.
8.Do not combine elements from popular logos and claim it as original work.
9.Do not use clip-art under any circumstances.
10.The logo should look good in black and white.
11.Make sure that the logo is recognizable when inverted.
12.Make sure that the logo is recognizable when resized.
13.If the logo contains an icon or symbol, as well as text, place each so
that they complement one another.
14.Avoid recent logo design trends. Instead, make the logo look timeless.
15.Do not use special effects (including, but not limited to: gradients,
drop shadows, reflections, and light bursts).
16.Fit the logo into a square layout if possible, avoid obscure layouts.
17.Avoid intricate details.
18.Consider the different places and ways that the logo will be presented.
19.Invoke feelings of being bold and confident, never dull and weak.
20.Realize that you will not create a perfect logo.
21.Use sharp lines for sharp businesses, smooth lines for smooth businesses.
22.The logo must have some connection to what it is representing.
23.A photo does not make a logo.
24.You must surprise customers with presentation.
25.Do not use more than two fonts.
26.Each element of the logo needs to be aligned. Left, center, right, top,
or bottom.
27.The logo should look solid, with no trailing elements.
28.Know who is going to be looking at the logo before you think of ideas for
it.
29.Always choose function over innovation.
30.If the brand name is memorable, the brand name should be the logo.
31.The logo should be recognizable when mirrored.
32.Even large companies need small logos.
33.Everyone should like the logo design, not just the business that will use
it.
34.Create variations. The more variations, the more likely you are to get it
right.
35.The logo must look consistent across multiple platforms.
36.The logo must be easy to describe.
37.Do not use tag lines in the logo.
38.Sketch out ideas using paper and pencil before working on a computer.
39.Keep the design simple.
40.Do not use any "swoosh" or "globe"symbols.
41.The logo should not be distracting.
42.It should be honest in its representation.
43.The logo should be balanced visually.
44.Avoid bright, neon colors and dark, dull colors.
45.The logo must not break any of the above rules.

My source for this list can be found here http://is.gd/57WMB

My tweets and their sources

I was on twitter one day and I was thinking about how people know what to tweet. When I try to explain Twitter to people they always say "I wouldn't know what to tweet". So I thought I would write down a general Idea of where the inspiration for tweets come from. This is just 5 of my interests but it gives you a general Idea.


1) Interesting Business/entrepreneurial articles
Sources: Inc Magazine retweets, Success Magazine retweets,Openforum.com
2) Tech/Lifestyle stuff
Sources: engadget.com, boygeniusreport.com, lifehacker.com, wired.com
3) Fun stuff
Sources: interesting stuff while travelling,funny pictures, fun articles found at popurls.com, crazy stuff people say
4) Coffeestuff
Sources: "coffee" on google alerts, coffeecupnews.com, reporting on coffee tastings, SCAA.org, Trade magazines-Specialty Coffee Retailer, Fresh Cup, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
5) Inspirational Quotes
Sources: quotegarden.com, Success Magazine, The Twitter accounts of @j_canfield, @tonyrobbins, @tomziglar, @Jairekrobbins, @marvintowler, @darrenhardy

A Veteran Experience

I had a great business trip to Texas and Florida this last week but the trip's highlight didn't happen until the very end. Last night, when our plane landed in Seattle, they announced that a Pearl Harbor survivor was seated in the very back. When the plane came to a stop we all stayed respectfully seated while this hero slowly made his way up to the front of the plane. When he got to the front door this older gentleman said a few words on the intercom. He quietly and emotionally talked about how proud he was to be an American citizen and he said to please pray for our men and woman risking their lives for our freedom. It was an amazing and moving experience, there was not a dry eye on the plane. God Bless and Happy Veterans Day everybody

Twitter: 72 hours of silence

I recently open my @coffeemaverick twitter account and to my horror the numbers for my following and my followers were both ZERO! Holy Cow, I just had 55,000 followers an hour ago. Where did they go? I literally had a sick feeling in my stomach. I quickly tried to refresh the page, nothing changed. My mind raced with thoughts like, “Will I ever get them back?” and, “These people are like my family!” Needless to say I was totally freaked out. This went on for 3 LONG days. This was 72 hours of having a lot to say and no one to say it too! As well as all of my “family” talking and me not be able to listen. It was weird; I actually felt lost. People were @replying me (that still worked) and saying, “Dude, what happened to your account?” I actually tons of support from everybody but nobody could get my tweeps back! Finally after a supportive @reply and subsequent emails from a well known Washington Tweeter who finally gave me a top secret twitter email address, I had my solution. I emailed the person and POOF! Instant gratification. I constantly refreshed my screen as my numbers come back one by one. There I was like a kid at Christmas staring intently as my followers and following numbers returned to their rightful place. As I am reading this post back to my self it sounds extremely dramatic. But in reality it wasn’t life and death, it is just twitter. But Twitter has become an important part of my business and personal life. It just has to be put into perspective like anything else. This month marks one year that I have been using Twitter regularly and it sure has been fun.

Update from Nicaragua

I recently took a trip to Nicaragua with our Director of Coffee; Phil Beattie and Dillanos' Vice President; Keith Hayward. Here is a Berdahedda version of Phil's update of our time there. Enjoy!


Greetings from Nicaragua!It has been a great time here at Let’s Talk Coffee in Montelimar, Nicaragua. It is extremely hot and humid here, the temperature and humidity are in the upper 90’s. The meetings have been going very good and the educational sessions have been top notch. The lectures have been a good mix of content that is applicable both to the roasters as well as to the coffee producers who make up the vast majority of the over 300 people attending.

Sustainable Harvest’s staff always does an amazing job of putting together an action packed weekend full of opportunities for networking, learning, and of course...talking coffee.We have seen presentations on subjects such as the history of espresso, agro-economics, coffee and your health, and traceability and technology in coffee. But, as in past years, the real value of Let’s Talk Coffee comes not from the lectures but from the opportunity to meet with producers, exporters, and non-profits from around the globe. This event always presents the best opportunity to get the pulse of the industry from a global perspective.On day one of the event David, Keith and I met with representatives of Kanyovu who made the long trip from Tanzania to Nicaragua to meet with us and discuss the successes and challenges of the past year. Because of cultural situations and the size of the cooperative in Kanyovu it has been difficult to find the path to the next level, but Sustainable Harvest’s staffers continue to make steady progress towards higher quality and traceability. The successes have been huge over the past years with huge jumps in cup score and consistency of the coffee. One challenge that we are addressing this year with the Kanyovu coffee is the rapid aging of the coffee do to fluctuations of temperature and humidity during the long journey that the coffee takes from eastern Tanzania to Seattle.

The long journey takes the coffee across the arid central area of Tanzania where temperatures soar well above 100 degrees inside of the container, then once loaded onto a boat in Dar es Salaam (which may take weeks) the coffee travels South around the horn of Africa where temperatures can drop to nearly freezing. Finally the coffee arrives in New York and makes the long railroad trip to Seattle. The extreme journey puts stress on the beans that begins to show in the flavor after around 8 to 10 months. This year in order to extend the life of the green coffee we are having the burlap sacks lined with a material called grain-pro. This material, that was developed to maintain the integrity of grains, is breathable but maintains a constant humidity and reduces the fluctuations of temperature within the bag. Studies have shown this lining to be very effective and we can’t wait to see how it works for us.We also met with a group of indigenous farmers from Colombia that are members of a cooperative called Tierradentro which translated means “the deep land” as in deep in the jungle. I cupped this coffee a few weeks ago at the Sustainable Harvest offices in Portland and was immediately impressed with the This group of 280 indigenous farmers grow a really spectacular organic coffee on the border of the Cauca and Huila regions in southern Colombia. They have done an amazing job of maintaining the integrity of their culture while integrating modern technology to trace each bag back to the individual farmer. This could be a great addition to the One Harvest line of coffees.

On day two we met with the remainder of our One Harvest producers, starting with the Chacons from Las Lajas. As usual, the meeting with the Chacons was a lovefest. The main focus of this meeting was planning for an upcoming trip in the beginning of January. We are going to be bringing a small group of our customers to Costa Rica to visit the farm there. They will spend some time harvesting coffee, touring the farm, visiting the beneficio (wet mill) and we will also be visiting a large commercial mill so that they can see the contrast. They also let us know that interest rates in Costa Rica have been rising. If you’re not familiar with how farmers finance themselves, at the beginning of the year they take a loan that will pay for fertilizer inputs, harvesting labor, and the cost of running the mill. For a farm the size of Las Lajas this loan adds up to around $100,000 dollars per year, this year the interest rate that they will be paying for that loan will be 20%! That means that it actually only costs them around $80,000 to grow and ship the coffee but they have to pay the bank $20,000...this is the struggle of a coffee farmer.

When I return we will be brainstorming on ways that Dillanos might be able to help them receive a more reasonable interest rate.Following the Las Lajas meeting we had a chance to sit down with Ramon the Managing Director and Jesus the President of the Rio Azul Cooperative in Guatemala. It was great to see them again, it has been nearly two years since I was able to meet face to face with them as visa issues kept them from attending last years Let’s Talk Coffee.

Their cooperative is still utilizing the original medical grant that we extended them, apparently they are either a very healthy group of people or they are being very conservative with how they use the funds. Most likely I will be making a trip to see them next year in an effort to meet with a large group of grower members to maintain the relationship. We will also be looking into how we can develop more effective fertilizer processes with them as this is the major obstacle that is preventing them from transitioning more of their coffee to organic.

Once again Let’s Talk Coffee was a huge success and continues to be a breeding ground for innovative ideas that will continue to keep our company competitive in an ever changing industry.

Recent Q: and A:

I thought I would post a recent Q: and A: I did for a busienss priodical to give you some insight into what we do:

Tell us a little about yourself. Why Sumner? Why coffee? Why are you in Sumner roasting coffee?
When I was younger I was a professional bicycle stunt performer and although I had worked my way to the top, eventually becoming a freestyle pro, that industry was still growing and it just wasn’t an occupation I could do forever. When that wrapped up I was either going to open a specialty bike shop or get into the coffee business. I had family members suggesting the idea and I was noticing the industry just starting to really grow and its potential to me was exciting. So, I borrowed some money from Howard Heyer (my step-father) and started up Dillanos (named after my son Dillon) as an espresso cart in front of the Sunshine Mart in Bonney Lake, which belonged to Howard. Within a couple of quick years my brother Chris Heyer became a partner and we had evolved into multiple retail locations and also began the biggest thing for our company’s future; roasting coffee for ourselves and to sell wholesale to other espresso bar retailers.
Although our roots were in Bonney Lake, we strategically chose Sumner as our home because of its ideal location for servicing our customers regionally. Its uniquely between Seattle and Tacoma and makes customer interaction, assistance and participation much easier. We are very proud of our staff and roasting faciltity and encourage all of our customers to visit anytime.

Talk a bit about your original vision for the company and how does that compares to where it is now?
When the company first started we were focused on building a wholesale presence for our brand locally and were looking to gain more participation in the industry as a whole through trade shows like Coffee Fest. The overall vision and real roots of how we work and live both then and now though are all in our company mission statement; Help People, Make Friends and Have Fun! Sounds simple but these words have guided our growth and made the right impressions and have surrounded us with great employees and customers for all of these years. It’s something we truly live by.

What made the difference?
Two main things have really gone into what we feel made the big difference; customer assistance and company culture. The biggest difference we make for our customers is how we treat, support and assist them in their own growth and success. We differentiate ourselves intentionally, we want our business building help and assistance to be and stay as a real and tangible benefit for everyone we help.
Our company culture is paramount to us and something we carefully nurture and protect. We have even written and published a book called Brewing a Creative Culture that is mandatory reading for all new employees. It was actually written by members of our staff representing all levels and departments from the company and each chapter explains in their words why we do what we do.

How has the company evolved into its various branches and why structure the company that way?
For diversification we have expanded into commercial real estate, retail coffee ventures and several other business interests. But, even at Dillanos we have gone through many organizational changes in our company structure and have worked very hard and finding the best people with the strongest skills that can represent both the company culture and specific skills needed for their job. From the top down. We are all still active in the company growth and development and have found ourselves in company roles that best represent our strongest individual skill sets. Howard is our Chairman of the Board, Chris acts as President and has a strong focus and influence on the operations and company systems and I act as CEO and tend to focus more on the company vision, growth, marketing and sales. Keith Hayward is our Executive Vice President; he oversees all overall aspects of the company by working with our four company directors who each represent a specific part of the company. Rand Hill is our CFO, Jeff Woods our Director of Sales, Mark Ireland our Director of Operations and Phil Beattie our Director of Coffee.


How has the company's annual revenue and sales changed during the years since it was founded?
We have been very fortunate to have such a great balance of strengths between Howard, Chris and myself to manage change and growth and finances especially in the early years. We have always worked hard to keep the company and revenues strong and constantly growing. In the beginning our growth was around 100% for many years and although those numbers and percentages can’t really be sustained as you get bigger and bigger, we still typically grow around 15-25% each year.

How has the recession affected your operations and the industry in general?
The recession has made and impact on our business there is no doubt. Our customer same store sales have dropped anywhere between 5-15% as a reflection of consumer spending dipping down as people try to balance what they find as discretional spending. These numbers are already going back up, even in these tougher times specialty coffee is an affordable luxury that people like to treat themselves to. We have had to make up these dips by gaining new customers, it turns out there are a lot of businesses out there that haven’t had the type of help that was needed; it’s a good and welcome fit for us. Operationally we have made many adjustments to our business because of the economy but the changes have to do more with changing what we offer to our customers and building new programs to help them keep their businesses strong and viable as things improve. We want to help them in every way we can so we care share in their individual success.

What lessons have you learned during the downturn in the general economy?
1) Keeping morale in the company is a high priority so our employees and staff feel supported and safe.

2) Our customers depend on our participation and assistance to help keep their businesses growing. Our assistance and growth programs for store operations, employee training, branding and marketing have become a key ingredient. Showing real value has kept our customers more confident and loyal.


What did you learn during your career that you wish you’d known in the beginning?
Wow, that is a tough question, we have always been pretty good at knowing when someone else in the family or company could handle something better or be more suitable for a certain task, we all have our strengths and talents. I wish I would have known how absolutely important it was to show the benefits of a strong partnership with our customers. There was no template for us to follow, this is a young industry and although we do specialize in helping our customers realizing the level of interaction that could really be would have been great. We know now that it’s all about relationships and a real partnership with each customer that brings success.

What is the most surprising thing you have learned in your career?
I always knew what big potential the coffee industry had, but to look back now at its massive growth and evolution it is amazing. You can’t be afraid of growth, you need to be open to change whenever possible participate at the highest levels you can so that you may have your own influence in the growth as well. The need for flexibility and creativity are huge and they will lead you to success, while rigidity and traditionalism can easily lead to collapse. Flexibility means approaching each new challenge and each new evolution of our company without putting our decisions under the burden of strict traditional management and business tactics. I am excited to have such great and supportive partners with Howard and Chris and to be part of such a young and constantly developing company and industry.


If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?
Looking back, the one thing that really could have benefited us better was starting off immediately with having actual and current budget meetings to help us guide our spending and balance throughout our growth. But in retrospect, the lessons we have learned from our mistakes have laid the foundation for all of our successes.

What does the future of coffee and coffee roasting hold? Are there still opportunities in the marketplace or is the industry saturated?
The industry is still growing strong and is far from being saturated. There are many opportunities for people to do something really big in the industry, the cost of entry and level of participation in individual growth does need a lot of focus as competition is pretty strong. Differentiation and quality will be key. What you will see is a lot more consolidation between brands, especially nationally. A stronger focus on high end quality coffee or third wave movement, businesses will become more connected to the community and social interaction. We all think that you will also see a big push and growth through the newer trends of marketing, advertisement and connection by social networking tools. Exciting stuff.

What else should South Sound businesses know about you and your company?
We have had some great successes and its been amazing watching our company develop into what it is now. All this excitement, growth and success is a direct result of the employees and family I get to work with daily. It’s every single step in the process of helping our customers that makes you successful. If you truly care for your employees, they will make every step matter. Then we all share in the success.

Top Things Accomplished Using Twitter

Over the last several months I have been using twitter. During that time I have had so many fun experiences that I wanted to jot some down, so here we go.


· Met and became friends with speaker Chris Widener. Chris introduced me to Dino Rossi; Dino was the Republican candidate for the governor of our state and came very close to winning. Now he invests with a commercial real estate group that we are going to be investing with. Chris, along with my company, started up a Conservative themed coffee brand called Positively Republican. (He has a Facebook group has more than 100,000 members. Also Chris has introduced us to the Editors of Success Magazine. He is on their advisory board and has a regular column for possible inclusion of our company in a future issue of the magazine.)

· I was featured and quoted twice in a national cover story in USA Today along with other CEO’s including Jack Welch and Steve Case.

· I learned about and adopted some policies from Zappos since following Tony Heisch the CEO of Zappos and got a super extended tour of the HQ including extra 3 hours of Q&A with different dept on their outstanding policies and procedures.

· The Ford Motor Company gave me a sweet Lincoln MKZ to test drive for an extended weekend just so I could tweet about it and give honest feedback on the vehicle.

· We have sold hundreds of lbs. retail coffee on the Internet with very little promotion on twitter.

· It’s been a really productive way to get answers and opinions to business and personal questions.

· When we go to a trade show such as Coffee fest Las Vegas the rest of the staff is kept abreast of what is going on when they follow us on twitter.


· I have gotten to know what our people do for fun, allowing us to better understand our amazing staff.

· I’ve become top 30 Conservative on Twitter.

· I’ve become the #1 libertarian on Twitter.

· I’ve been ranked #1 for the categories of Coffee, Espresso and CEO on wefollow.com

· I’ve been introduced, had a cool tweet up @ my roasting facility with Nansen Malin (@nansen) the #1 top female Conservative on twitter.

· I’ve been inspired by tweets from @tonyrobbins, @johncmaxwell and many others which I follow from my other twitter account (@davidjmorris).

· Facebook and Twitter are the #1 and #2 reasons people go to our Dillanos.com website according to Google analytics.

Of course along with all of the specifics results. I have had a ton of fun!

Reach out and talk to someone

I had a great meeting on Wednesday with the Executive Director of Specialty Coffee Association of America, Ric Rhinehart. We discussed the future of the coffee industry, increasing retailer attendance at the annual conference, and his diverse background. I thought the conversation was both productive and stimulating. It really made me realize how important these interactions are. In your business make a point of getting to know the top people of your industry's trade organization. Their insights and perceptions of future trends in your field will be invaluable as you make decisions as to the direction of your business. So get out there and make a point of talking to someone you respect. All of my best ideas come from sort of outside trigger, and great conversations are a big one.

Thanks for the talk Ric!

A New Dawn

Today I started a "Get Healthy" program. It includes Cardio 4 times per week, Weights 3 times per week, and an eating plan that involves not eating processed foods, white rice, potatoes, or white flour. I will be eating lot's of fresh vegetables, legumes, and Lean Proteins. I am 42 as of last month, and over the last several years I have focused a little too much on entrepreneurial activities and not enough on my overall health. I am committed to my company and will continue to help run it with the utmost enthusiasm and my healthier lifestyle will give me even more energy to give my all to the people and duties that I love!

The Culture Club

One of the best things we have ever done at our company is to write our book "Brewing A Creative Culture". Each chapter is written by a different staff member. The subjects of the chapters range from going the extra mile, to giving back to the community. We wanted to write a book on our culture to not only specifically define it, but to document it permanently forever. And while it is available at Amazon and Borders etc, it's commercial aspirations were secondary.
Now as the company has grown, with more and more employees, it gets harder and harder to maintain that culture. Our solution was to create "The Culture Club". The culture club is a 10 person committee with a sole focus of perpetuating our culture and creating new ways of improving it. I have to tell you it's working awesome. They have come up with so many fun games and events. Some examples include company wide dodgeball tournaments, impromptu barbeques, the "Dilly" Awards, old school video game "excita-bike" championship, biggest loser competition, and most recently the homemade Salsa competition. Trust me when people walk in to our facility they can just "feel" the culture. I am very proud of our people. check out our book when you get a chance.

Kindle 2- A little Review

I just finished reading “Tribes” by Seth Godin. This was the first book I’ve read on my Amazon Kindle. I have to tell you how impressed I am with both. The book I wholeheartedly recommend . It has wonderful stories on leadership and the way things and ideas will be spread throughout the world in the forseeable future. But the Kindle, Good Lord, the Kindle. It’s the coolest thing ever. I am a huge reader and to be able to carry up to 1500 books with me at all times is awesome. The only negative, and I mean only, is that Sometimes you want the actual hardcover book. To keep and share and have it as part of your library. In that case buy it!! But if you’re like me, you’re a sponge, and want to suck every bit of information you can because learning is not just a passion , it’s a frickin necessity! So to be able to carry around all this info in one small electronic package is life changing. This thing downloads books (most 9.99, some more, but some even FREE.) in like 40 seconds! Are you kidding me? I find out about a book from a trusted business associates recommendation and poof I"m reading it right then!! I was in church today, of course I have the bible on it , and I updated my twitter status on it. Ok maybe I should have been paying more attention to the message, but the point is I updated twitter because I could. And it felt good. Now to be realistic you can read any review and they’ll point out that it’s not “perfect”. True, but are you kidding me, this thing rocks . The new Kindle iPhone app even knows where you left off. So say you're reading your Kindle and put it down. You can open the program on your iPhone 2 weeks later and it opens up to right where you left off. Reading on the Kindle is nice with the big screen and E-ink and all, but sitting and waiting somewhere the iphone does the job. Yes I am a fan , even a zealot. So order a Kindle 2. Seriously order it now. And oh yea Tribes is awesome! Maybe get that too. Next book? Groundswell, by Charlene Li.

Recieved this as an E-Mail Today

What a profound short little paragraph that says it all!!!

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005 ~~~~~

I just got back from a Business road trip that was extremely productive.I was on the road with my trusty partner in crime Lon LaFlamme. we traveled to Bellaire, Michigan for a trade show put on by Clark Foods. Clark is a Large food distributor with several locations throughout the midwest. The response to the coffee was unbelievable. we had a great time. We were accompanied by our highly capable and always crazy director of coffee Phil Beattie. His coffee knowledge wowed the crowd AND sold the beans. Saying the trade show was a success in an understatement. A big thank you to Phil and Lon for a great time (like always) but also for your hard work that helps Dillanos reach its ultimate potential. I am reminded daily of the constant extra mile efforts of our entire brilliant resourceful staff. I love all of our employees, Past employees, and even people that got fired or didn't work out!! I literally still love all of them. Life's waaaaaaay too short for grudges. I don't have the energy to waste on a grudge anyway. What I do have the energy for is to Help People, Make Friends, and Have Fun!

On Wednesday I told my staff that there was a mandatory Financial meeting at 1:30 sharp. I said it was urgent and every employee needed to attend. As soon as they all arrived in our training room, it was obvious that some of them were kind of concerned. I proceeded to tell them the following: "As most of you know the US economy is not doing well. In fact you could say it's in a bit of a pickle. I brought you all here today to tell you that because of your efforts and teamwork we are getting through it. it's not perfect but we're on track thanks to you guys" as the sigh of relief was visible througout the room I said "so to celebrate We brought everyone a frozen pickle juice popsicle". We all opened our pickle pops and tried them together.Some loved them and some hated them, but we had fun! It was just a goofy little gesture, but it was our way of saying thank you and living up to our mission statement: Help People, Make Friends, and Have Fun! I Love our employees.

Operation Mobile Desk Update

My last day in the finance department! It's been totally fun. Like I said earlier what seemed like a mild mannered, serious group, turned out to be just as fun as every other department so far. I've learned that they do work hard to be accurate, and take tremendous pride in keeping our financial house in order, but cut loose on a moments notice. So thanks for the memories guys! next I will be over at the other building. Its the same building where my "real" office is. I'll start in the lobby of that building and move around from there.

Our Newest book and a Proud Moment!

Lon LaFlamme (our Marketing Director) and I wrote a book called 'Brewing a Hot Brand'. It's basically a branding book focused mostly retail businesses, not just coffee, but any retail business. Our newest book is going to be called 'Brewing a Hot Business'. It will be about the Business principles that our company has used to become successful over the last 17 years no matter what is going on in the economy. It will be written, in a way that any business can adopt our principles into their business. So to get started on the outline, I asked each and every one of our 80+employees to write the 10 reasons that they thought Dillanos was successful. I was so amazed at the e-mails. I literally got choked up on several of them. Not because of how great we are, but the fact that everyone was totally on the same page. Our culture is working! They were all incredible, but the best one came from our newest employee Lorin Seeks. he had only been with us for 3 months, but had already fully understood and embraced what we stand for. Anyone who has ever been on a tour of the roasting plant, know that it's the people here that make dillanos so special. Here is Lorin's original text:

David,

Since embarking on my adventure with Dillanos it has been abundantly obvious to me why we have such a successful company. What follows are 11 reasons (I had one extra that I didn't want to leave out), in no particular order, why I feel Dillanos is so successful. After each reason I have provided a brief example or description.

• Continuous Leadership Development - Dillanos works with it's leadership to help them learn and grow, and encourages the leadership to pass these lessons on to their teams. For Example, we have discussed personality profiles, ways to communicate with different employees, and lessons in leadership from other great leaders.


• Fiscally savvy - Dillanos does a great job of balancing resources. This year for instance, the operations team is working incredibly hard to become lean and efficient, saving money wherever possible, which allows the company to focus its spending on our counterparts in sales so they can aggressively pursue new business.


• Hire great people - I am amazed every day by the quality and caliber of people I work with. I can say with no hesitation that I work with the best group of people I have ever worked with in my career thus far. The time and effort we put into finding people with the right balance of skills, experience and cultural fit, and then assuring they are properly trained, pays incredible dividends.


• Culture of continuous improvement - Dillanos has fostered an environment in which people feel free to express their ideas, where managers and supervisors attentively and enthusiastically listen to those ideas, and where people with great ideas are recognized. There are so many challenges in our work, and yet somehow Dillanos makes those challenges fun! Rather than getting stressed out about challenges, we have an environment where people tackle them head on, have fun with it, and are proud of their accomplishments.


• Maintain a fun atmosphere - On Sunday night there are so many people in this world that are bummed that the weekend is ending, but not Dillanos employees. When my alarm wakes me up at 5:30 am I am actually excited to come into work! A big part of this goes back to hiring the right people. I love the people I work with and have a great time with them. The company also makes an active and conscientious effort to make work fun. Our MMMs, Dodge Ball, BBQs, Culture committee, our Halloween Party, Christmas Party, Skee Ball Tournaments, Etc., Etc. Etc. The list could go on and on! There is no question that happy employees are productive employees. When people can work hard and have fun in the process they are enthusiastic, exited, and have a lot less stress.


• Focus on Brand Awareness - We achieve success by branding in two distinct areas.




• First, we brand ourselves and do a great job of it. We put ourselves in events like the Barista Competitions, we get great publicity in trade magazines, we brand everything that leaves Dillanos including our delivery trucks, we make a name for ourselves by actively being involved in the industry - writing articles, giving seminars at Coffee Fest, etc. And now we are on the cutting edge, branding ourselves on Face Book, our Blog, Twitter, on our website.


• Second, we help our customers create their own unique brand identity, something many of our competitors don't do, which helps us sell a lot more coffee. Big props to the amazing job our art department does in creating logos, signs, menus, and a lot of other stuff for our customers. This is a big selling point for Dillanos.


• Produce a consistently superior product with a focus on quality - We don't rest on our laurels once we create a great blend or source a new single origin coffee. Our roasting department is constantly testing, tweaking, adjusting, sampling, judging to assure our coffee is of a consistently high quality. Our good name rests on the quality coffee we produce.


• Go the "Extra Mile" for customers - Dillanos goes above and beyond to help out the customer. Our customer service is exceedingly friendly and accommodating, and our delivery and shipping departments assure the customer gets their coffee on time no matter what. If a customer is out of coffee we don't tell them to go get some at the store until their next regular delivery comes, we drive it out to them! Even if it means driving to a place like Bellingham. Doing this ensures loyalty from our customers and keeps them coming back for more week after week.


• Encourage ALL employees to build their knowledge of the companies product and industry - Everyone from our CEO to our delivery drivers, from our director of sales to our packagers knows coffee. When employees are not only interested in, but passionate and knowledgeable about a companies product, it makes a huge difference in their enthusiasm and devotion to a company.


• Give something back to society - This one is tough to quantify in terms of how "successful" it makes us, but I feel it is tremendously important none-the-less. You could call it Karma, you could say were following the Golden Rule, you could say "good things happen to good people". However you look at it, service to your community, city, country, world, or humanity plays an important role in the success of a business or individual. I have always been a big believer in doing service and one of the things that really drew me to Dillanos was that this company makes a conscientious effort to do good. Dillanos sponsors a child for every employee that works at the company. We give to Toys for Tots. And recently there has been interest in initiatives to make Dillanos a "greener" more sustainable business, which benefits the earth and every person in it. (By the way, I am really interested in doing more to make Dillanos a more environmentally sustainable business. Not only is it a great thing to do, it would be a great boost in marketing and selling our product. If we ever form a committee to focus on these issues I'd be thrilled to volunteer to head the effort)


• Ease of Doing Business - We are a one stop shop for our customers. They can order just about everything they need from one company (us) and have it delivered/shipped to them on a regular schedule. If I was one of our customers I would LOVE the ease of doing business with Dillanos. This also goes back to one of my earlier statements that Dillanos "Goes the Extra Mile for Customers".

Well, there you have it. Take care and good luck with all the potential customers you have been out visiting. See you when you get back.

Lorin Seeks

Fulfillment Manager

Dillanos Coffee Roasters

ready to get back in the saddle

I just finished my last meeting of my latest business trip. I am in Omaha, Nebraska and will be heading for the airport in about a half hour. I am looking forward to getting back to operation mobile office. I am returning to the finance department because I didn't get a full week in yet. I have been thinking a lot about my allergy to green coffee dust. This makes it difficult to spend any time in the Roasting, packaging and shipping departments. I have come up with an Awesome solution which I will unveil in the next couple of months. It's not fair to not spend time with those departments, so I am really going to go the extra mile for those guys. Watch out coffee warehouse cause I'm coming out there soon!

Social Networks: Our New Frontier

We’ve recently dove into the world of Twitter and Facebook, not just personally, but as a company. The benefits in just a short time have been really good. I wanted to go over the main reasons how any company, can us social networking to their advantage.

1) To locate and network with potential customers.

Let’s not forget we are in business to sell stuff, and we need people to sell that stuff to. On social networks It’s important to let people know what you sell, why it’s the best, and how they can buy it. But this is not a hard sell, this is a relationship sell. It’s about letting people know you’re there, and when opportunities come up (which they will) then, and only then, go after it. The idea is they get to know us through social networking, and we are communicating our message effectively, then they’ll want to do business with us.

2) To communicate with each other.

At our company , culture is huge! So huge, that we wrote a book about it. Part of a great company culture is communication and getting everyone on the same page. Now I’m not talking about official corporate communication, but just here’s what going on. It could be related to work or not. I f I see on Facebook that our receptionist is excited about going camping , I can ask her about it ,t hen we have more of a connection. If someone’s Twitter update says that they don’t feel good, then someone can make sure they’re Ok or if they need anything. It give us all a little glimpse into each others lives, but it’s not invasive, because each person chooses what they Share.

3) To communicate with our existing customers

We are actively encouraging our customers to “friend” or “follow” us individually or as a company on Twitter and Facebook. Just a little disclosure, we are a very productive group. It wouldn’t be acceptable to mess around on Facebook when there’s work to be done. Or be “Tweeting” during important meetings. Also social networking is encouraged but not required. We can link our customers to our latest blog posts, or just say hi or happy birthday with Twitter or Facebook. It’s a great way to stay top of mind with our precious customers. Just another touch point we can have to keep them thinking about our company and our people.

4) To Have an Informal Board of Directors or Focus Group.

If you have a business problem or are trying to decide which of two packaging ideas looks the best, I bet there is someone out in Facebookland or the Twitterverse that has been through it or has a helpful suggestion. Just post a picture and say “Any suggestions”. I’ve already been using this with great feedback and insights from my Cyber friends. And don’t forget, you are helping other people too, by being their Coach or sounding board. Famous Author and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar once said “ You’ll get what you want in life, as long as you help enough other people get what they want” . Sound advice.

5) To have fun!

What good is any of this without a little fun. Our Mission Statement at Dillanos is to 1) Help People 2) Make Friends and 3) Have Fun. As Im writing this I’m Realizing that social networking accomplishes all three. It’s fun to see your friend list grow on Facebook. It’s fun to connect with old friends and new friends. It’s fun to increase your “followers” on twitter. So go start the process. You’ll be glad you did.

Mobile Office Update 4

I am at my third stop on the "Operation Mobile Desk"tour. This time I'm in the Finance Department, or as they like to say,"FUNance" Department. In the past this department has kind of a reputation for being quiet, or to themselves, off in their little bean counting (pun intended) lair. Considering how important it is to be accurate and timely with the fiscal dealings of a business, I don't expect them to be dancing on their desks. But like the other departments they genuinely seem to be enjoying their jobs. In finance we have Rand -CFO, Brian- Controller, Debbie-Accounts Recievable, Marylee-Purchasing, and Angela- Accounts Payable. Each one with their own unique personality. It turns out they're all totally fun! Witty comments, Lot's of laughter, and a collaborative, can-do attitude. They made a little welcome sign for me, and Debbie even had treats celebration my "arrival" As usual my Mobile desk is right smack dab in the middle of the department, so I get a true sense of the dynamics of the group, and it's Awesome. Luckily our exciting Dillanos culture has infected our financial folks. I'm staying here for this week and next week as well. I still have so mant stops on the tour, uncluding the roasting warehouse. Most people don't know I (and by brother Chris) are extremely allergic to the dust from unroasted coffee beans. So I am literaly going to rig up some kind of a enclosure, Boy in a Plastic Bubble style, with a little air purifier inside. I will be showing photos of that adventure for sure. More updates coming soon.

Mobile Office Update 3

I finished my 2nd week in my new "mobile office" concept. Last week was the customer service department, and the week before that was the front lobby. I wanted to point out some interesting things I've learned so far. First of all, this experiment code named "operation Mobile Desk" OMD for short, has been extremely valuable. Being able to see the business from the trenches is something everyone should do. Doing that was easy in the when we started 17 years ago cause there was no one else. It was just My brother Chris and I, with one or two other helpers. Now that we have 80+ employees in 2 separate warehouses, it gets a little trickier. Combine that with a rigorous Travelling schedule and several other companies that we own or are partners in, and you can imagine getting a little insulated from day to day goings on. I probably should add that this was by design, and that we have great people in place to operate Dillanos, but I think it is important to get a fist hand look at times.

The Insights
Insight #1. Our employees are even nicer to customers that I had thought. I new they were nice, but holy cow, they treat our customers like they were the most important person in the world.
Insight #2. Our employees are even nicer to EACH OTHER than I could imagine. The lesson here is that the fun, creative, and friendly culture that we put such a focus on is working!
Insight #3. Humor is a huge part of every one's day. the consistent laughter is so beneficial to this really, really hardworking group.
Insight #4. there are so many different personalities, even in such a tight knit group like ours, that you have to treat each person according to their specific needs. Now I understand you can't be everything to everybody, so why try right? Wrong. even slightly different ways of praising or redirecting can be way more effective to certain personalities
Insight #5. When instituting a MAJOR change in policy, the communication of that change should come from one person and all at once. It doesn't necessarily have to be from The CEO, President or top executive, but from the ONE person who can best explain and answer questions about the change.

Of course I've also learn tons of little specific things important to our specific business, but that covers the top 5 insights. I gotta say, love our customers, employees,and vendors and I can't wait for Monday.

Mobile Office Update 2

Today is actually my first day in the customer service department. I have placed my mobile desk right smack down in the middle of the girls. I am about to attempt to have a meeting with our Director of Sales and Marketing Jeff and our Executive VP Keith. This is our weekly meeting for our "Little Orange book of Directives". We each have these little orange notebooks with 12 big business goals we want to accomplish in 2009. Just making a fun thing out of our company objectives, Dillanos style. we'll see how this goes while all the reps are taking our customers weekly orders.

Mobile Office Update 1

I am really excited about moving my Super-Deluxe mobile office into the customer service department from the front lobby. I learned a lot from the lobby stay, but look forward to even more insights in the CSR Dept. (customer service representative). These fabulous girls take our orders every week from our wonderful and loyal customers. I start tomorrow. I have already moved the desk upstairs, and I'm ready to rock and roll. Will report about my experiences. DJM

Moleskine, The Legendary Notebook

I love my Moleskine notebook. For the uninitiated, a Moleskine, pronounced "Mole-Skin" is a little notebook that you write ideas, drawings, thoughts and anything else that you want to capture. I have an iPhone with well over a hundred apps, many of which are for jotting down ideas and such. But there is just something about a real Pen and paper. The story of this thing is extremely intriguing. When you first tear off the plasic wrap, there is a little piece of paper that reads: MOLESKINE is the legendary notebook that has held the inspirations and ideas of everyone from Van Gogh, Picasso and Hemingway to famed author, Bruce Chatwin. Artists, authors, and geniuses of all variety have long appreciated the simplicity and superior functionality of these notebooks. That's just the beginning of the story, but it makes a person feels like the little book is a conduit for extreme creativity. Ok, well at least I feel like that. Heck, I'm even a member of the Facebook group "I love my Moleskine Notebook". Check them out at http://tinyurl.com/broppk

My New Mobile Office Project

I've learned so much by moving my "office" into our lobby, that I'm making it a habit. I will be placing myself in other areas throughout both buildings. I even bought a new little red desk with wheels.(God bless Ikea). You really see what going on when you are sitting where the action is! Next stop will probably be the customer service department. So watch out Marcie, Cassie, Leta, Amy, Amber, Kahler, Tara, and Michelle. I'm heading your way. David's my name and Company Culture is my game. See you girls upstairs.

Evaluation Day

Yesterday I had a large group of our employees fill out an anonymous survey. The form that they filled out rated me on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following areas: integrity, generosity, friendliness, gratitude, attitude, perseverance, dedication, passion, motivation, excellence, optimism, communication, negotiation, networking, Self management, relationships and knowledge. I have a great, and HONEST staff. I asked them to rate me accurately AND be brutally straight-forward with there comments. they were. the result were very interesting, and after being a little defensive (in my mind) I completely embraced the whole survey. I did well and received mostly 9s and 10s on integrity, generosity, perseverance, passion, optimism, excellence,, negotiation and Knowledge. the rest averaged 8s, except the following: Relationships-6, friendliness-6 and Communication 7. Now the communication was expected because I can be a little ADD to say the least. (I'm working on it, OK). But HOLY CRAP! Friendliness and relationships. what the Heck! I pride myself on our company culture. Friendliness and relationships are everything. We literally wrote a book about it ( Brewing A Creative Culture). The worst part is I received some 2s and 3s and some 9s and 10s on the same traits. Which means that there are dramatically different perceptions within the company on friendliness and relationships. Well I have my marching orders. I feel like this was a great exercise and I'm glad I did it. Time to get more friendly to EVERYBODY and cultivate better relationships with EVERYBODY! I recommend this to anyone. You never know what you'll find out.

Cool Quote

“This coffee falls into your stomach . . . sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink—for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.”

–Honore de Balzac

The Champs Of Dodgeball

We started a monthly dodgeball game today at Dillanos. We value company culture here, it's a huge priority, but I had no idea how fun a simple game of dodgeball could be. Now, I tend to get a little competitive, so I usually stay out of company games, but I couldn't resist. I was the captain of one of the sides and we picked the team old school playground style one by one. There ended up being about 22 people on each side. When we said go I could tell that we were in for a real battle. We were playing 2 out of 3, but there was no need for the third game. My team kicked butt 2 games in a row. One of the guys on the other team was a champion in a dodgeball league. I didn't even know there were dodgeball leagues. He was tough, but our side got the job done. See that's my competitive side getting the best of me again. In reality the whole experience was a wonderful team building event and a great time for everybody. All this for a few bucks worth of balls and an hour of time. So get you're people together out of the job environment once in a while. You'll be amazed at the results. Pictured on the right is my winning roster. DJM

Dillanos Blog Launch

Dillanos new blog will officially launch tomorrow at dillanosblog.com. we will be talking about marketing, promotions and of course coffee. it will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Check it out! DJM

The Page Of History Turns

Waking up early today. it's inauguration day 2009. Barack will take office in a few hours and a new page will be turned in history. Although not aligned politically(at all) with the new Commander in Chief, I wish him the Best. On the positive side (which I'm trying to think about) there is a renewed hope in America, and we elected an African-American into the highest office in the land. Amazing. So I pray for our Leader and wish him total success. DJM

NWRBC

The Northwest Regional Barista Champion is upon us. Located in Tacoma, WA, this year promises to be a good one. I checked out the scene last and the Temple theater is a perfect spot.
I got to see some old friends and some new ones too. what's up, Stephen, Nicholas, Rob, Roberto, Gianni, and Julian. Some Press has gotten messed up because of our flooding, (how could they pick natural disasters over professional baristas,what's wrong with those tv stations?) but overall we've gotten some good write-ups. the competition is today and tomorrow and it's gonna be sweet. see you at T-Town. http://tinyurl.com/6tx5tb