We had the good fortune of connecting with Desiree Keen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Desiree, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
We believe the most important factor behind our success is sticking to our mission of placing “Love Above All Else.” It’s definitely not always the easy path – rarely, in fact, and we certainly aren’t perfect at it. There’s just something magical that happens when we set aside fear or the traditional business mindset and instead make our decisions from a place of love. That may sound idealistic and possibly naive but we’ve seen time and again the miracles that can (and do) happen from that place. This is not to say there aren’t incredible amounts of hard work and strategy that go into running the day to day aspects of our business, but it is our mission that always carries us forward… and that mission is undoubtedly the reason for our success. (It always starts with your “why” – thank you, Simon Sinek.)

What should our readers know about your business?
The path to get to where we are today has been anything but easy! We have had to overcome countless setbacks: equipment malfunctions, rocks being thrown through our windows, power outages, supply chain issues, theft, Covid shutdown, etc., etc. That is all not to mention the hardships we faced on a personal level – illness and mourning of multiple deaths in the family. What makes us most proud though, is that through all of these near impossible setbacks and challenges we have never given up. In fact, those challenges have motivated us to work even harder and are undoubtedly a huge reason why we have a successful business today. We’re big believers in the motto, “Life is happening FOR us, not to us,” and facing all of these hardships has helped our business to become better than we could have imagined.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We may be a little out of touch with things to do around the city given our current lack of free-time, but if we were to show someone around town, we would definitely take them on some nearby hikes and a stroll through Denver Botanic Gardens. We would also hit up some of our favorite restaurants, cafes, and shops: Potager, Quiero Arepas, Winter Session, Just BE Kitchen, Izakaya Den, Brasserie Brixton, Ohana Island Kitchen, Avanti, Third Culture, Prodigy Coffeehouse, Stowaway, Moore Collection, Cafe Miriam, MMM Coffee, The Veggie Whisperer & Copper Door.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been countless people who have helped us along the path to where we are now. In particular though, we would love to dedicate this shoutout to our amazing team! We literally wouldn’t exist today without them. They’re the most amazing group of people we ever could have asked to work with!

Website: www.riversandroadscoffee.com
Instagram: @riversandroadscoffee

Image Credits
Jackie Zoeller, Denver Headshot Co.

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