Hospitality Design That Builds Human Connection | Story Coffee

How do I turn my hospitality business into a place people love and return to, not just a place that serves a product?‍

Design to Help Your Business Grow — Pasley Commercial Interiors Podcast
Season 2026 | Robin Pasley, Host | Guest: Don Niemyer, Story Coffee Company

Why the Best Hospitality Brands Aren't Really About the Product

[Don Niemyer]: The people we have working with us — I think of it like a football team. If you've got a quarterback, that's great. You need one. But now I need somebody who can catch the ball. Different people have different skills.

[Robin Pasley]: For me and my team, it's about finding what is naturally in them and not forcing the wrong shape into the wrong hole. Let them be who they are and really suss that out in the hiring process.

[Don Niemyer]: Every employee is different, they're unique. And it's our job — while holding the standard for who we are — to recognize who they are and what they're good at, and let them shine. Isn't that one of the greatest joys of being in business? When people step into something they're really good at and they just flourish — I used that F-word earlier. Flourishing. Just letting them do it. Just letting them shine. I love that.

[Robin Pasley]: Don Niemyer, thank you for joining me today on our podcast, Design to Help Your Business Grow.

[Don Niemyer]: Absolutely. I've been looking forward to it.

[Robin Pasley]: For anyone who thinks you're a new friend — we're not. We've known each other for 31 years. This podcast is where we talk to business owners and people we've worked with to find out more about them and what they're up to. So in a sentence or two: who are you and what do you do?

[Don Niemyer]: My name's Don Niemyer, and I'm the owner of Story Coffee Company. My wife and I started it a little over ten years ago, after living in Portland, Oregon — we had a few coffee shops there. We moved here after traveling the nation in an RV for about four years. We became accidental minimalists. We got good at managing a small amount of resources and started dreaming about how to parlay that into what we wanted to do next. That ended up being what we think is the world's first tiny house coffee shop — about 160 square feet. We like to say we're chasing simplicity. Right in the middle of our build, though, something interesting happened. Like a lot of small business owners, I thought I knew everything — and I say that as a laugh line. I had all these ideas. But an old friend showed up in my life and asked, "What are you going to do for your design?" I said we'd just traveled the nation collecting every good idea there is, and I was going to put them all in that tiny house. That friend — spoiler, it's Robin — said, "Can I just help you with that?" I said I didn't need help. And she said, "Why don't you just let me?" She created the design of the original Story Coffee tiny house café — an award-winning design. That was over ten years ago. That's who we are in a nutshell.

[Robin Pasley]: So what first made you realize you wanted to run a coffee house? Not everybody wakes up knowing they want to do something that serves people every day.

[Don Niemyer]: I'll answer by going to the end first and then unpacking it. A couple of years ago, when we'd started our second location — and there are only two, and we hope there will only ever be two — we were working on our mission statement. We knew who we were and what our values were, but we hadn't done the work to put it clearly on paper. And I literally realized that our mission statement says not one word about coffee. That was meaningful, because we work incredibly hard at coffee — we train constantly, always learning and growing. But at our core, we're not a coffee organization. Our mission statement talks about influence and the people we get to be part of. For us, it's the concentric circles of each other, our customers, and then our community. When I had my so-called third-life crisis at thirty and moved to Colorado Springs, I got a job at Starbucks because I needed something low-pressure. And I loved it. Not just because of the coffee — but because I had an excuse to be in people's lives. In coffee, if you get a regular, you might see them every single day. You're riding the ups and downs, the celebrations, the sadnesses of real life. Somebody comes in excited about a job interview; the next day they didn't get it. I think that's probably why most of us do anything. It's probably not about the interior design for you either. It's about the relationships and the excuse you get to be involved in people's lives in a meaningful way. We're going to chase excellence, but at the end of the day it's not about the cup of coffee — it's about the person you're serving it to.

[Robin Pasley]: That's true. I don't wake up imagining how to make spaces tell stories. I wake up thinking about my clients' businesses and what we could do to help them grow. That's really what gets us out of bed in the morning.

[Don Niemyer]: You mentioned that. We put "Live Your Best Story" on our wall eleven years ago, and you wrote that. I never get tired of it. Neither do our customers — a new customer on vacation will come in and go, "Oh honey, look — Live Your Best Story." We call it mildly inspirational. We're not here to preach, but if we can give you a little nudge — we'll do a nudge.

What Makes a Great Hospitality Business Owner?

[Robin Pasley]: What are you naturally great at? What skills and instincts make you good at the work you do?

[Don Niemyer]: A lot of small business owners will relate to this: I walk into a room and I see everything that needs to be fixed. Like every blessing in life, it's also a curse — because I have to work at appreciating and thanking. I feel those things deeply, but if there were a coffee stain on this table, I'd see it first. Attention to detail. Passion for excellence. All those buzzwords. Anyone running a small business has to have some of that. And then there's another thing I've been entertaining myself with lately. I call it embarrassment. I don't want to look stupid. I want this to look good. So if there were a coffee stain on my beautiful white table, I'd be embarrassed. I even coach my team that way: "Aren't you embarrassed about that? You should be." Embarrassment might be a superhero power. And beyond that — staffing. It's like the football team. I don't need two quarterbacks. I need someone who can catch the ball. Different people have different skills, and we try to keep that in mind when we're hiring.

[Robin Pasley]: I completely identify with the quarterback thing. Building the right team isn't just filling a role — a person has so many parts to them. One of our goals is joyfulness. I want my team to have joy in their work. They spend more hours here than anywhere else. And I think the key is finding what's naturally in them rather than forcing the wrong shape into the wrong hole.

[Don Niemyer]: It's a both/and. On one hand: this is who we are. I had a mentor who told me to stop saying "I want this and I want that." He said, "It's the Story Coffee way. This is how Story Coffee does it." We hold that standard up constantly — it can't slip. And at the same time, every employee is different. It's our job to recognize who they are, what they're good at, and what motivates them. Some people are motivated by money. Some by appreciation, opportunity, or growth. You have to pay attention to that individual and speak their language. That's one of the hardest things, because I want to say "here it is, get to it." But I have to remind myself: who is this person and what motivates them?

[Don Niemyer]: You're talking about joy in your work — I'd guess that's something your clients can feel. Have you found a way to make your clients feel that? Because I want that for my business.

[Robin Pasley]: That's a good question. Did you have fun working with us?

[Don Niemyer]: I've told that story many times. Yes — but I knew nothing about design, even though I thought I did. Working with Robin was a constant roller coaster of "I know what I want" — and then "you don't actually want that." I remember when Robin walked into our space after we'd done the window trim and she said, "Y'all said you knew how to do trim." Like, you understand that's a little offensive, right? She was kind about it but clear: it wasn't done well. My business partner immediately saw it — "See how this one casts a shadow but that one doesn't? It's not the proper depth." My partner grabbed the pry bar and we ripped it off and redid it. We felt like Robin was living in our back pocket going, "Remember, remember." But at the end of the day, the award-winning design was a result of her tenacity. It was fun — but not always consistently clear that it was fun in the moment.

[Robin Pasley]: That's honest and I appreciate it. The challenge is that we're always keeping the original objectives in view, and we see a pathway to those objectives that sometimes differs from what the business owner imagined — especially around budget. The rub in what we do is asking for trust. But what I feel confident about, and I hope it's always what clients receive, is that we're listening and reflecting back what we heard. Whether you knew what that meant when you said it is a different question.

How Does a Hospitality Brand Create Guests Who Come Back?

[Robin Pasley]: When clients refer you to someone, what do they say? What do you always seem to create for people beyond just coffee?

[Don Niemyer]: There are levels to it. When I was doing consulting, I used to tell clients: understand the top three reasons people come through your door. Number three is your coffee. Number one is simply that you're there — you're in their neighborhood, their normal driving route. That's uninspiring but true. Number two is human connection. People will put up with not-great coffee if they genuinely like the person serving it. I literally had a conversation this morning with two regulars who pop around to other shops. They said they stopped going to one place. I asked why. They said, "They hired people we just don't like — those people don't pay attention to us." They love the coffee there. It's closer to their house. Doesn't matter. The personal experience is why they don't go back. So what we work hard at is making sure our customers feel the care we have for them. We call it "ring them up last." At some shops you walk in and immediately it's — boop, what do you want, boop, what else? McDonald's energy. We don't do that first. We establish the human connection. We make sure they feel seen. When they're nodding — yes, we're on the same page — then we bring out the mechanism to take their money. We are getting that money, make no mistake. But the human connection comes first. That's why people come back to Story Coffee over and over.

[Robin Pasley]: Feeling appreciated. Feeling seen.

[Don Niemyer]: Yes. And that brings me to something I call the Four Levels of Hospitality. Everyone knows that one little tool: "Got any fun plans for the weekend?" I tell my team — that's fine, do it if you can't think of anything better. But understand: that's the lowest level. The only thing worse is to not say anything at all. If you can say the exact same thing to absolutely anybody anywhere — "How's the weather?" — that's Level One. You've done the bare minimum. Level Two is when you know something specific about this person. You notice their earrings match their necklace. At least you see something particular about them. It goes deeper from there. The goal is to make the person in front of you feel like they are not just one more cappuccino to make. We work at the thousand little ways to honor that brand experience design for hospitality — to make every guest feel like they matter.

[Robin Pasley]: Who do you want coming into your spaces? Who's your ideal customer?

[Don Niemyer]: Like begets like. We like nice people. We try to be nice and therefore attract nice people. We're not a Debbie Downer shop — we want to be an up shop. You come in, how's it going, pretty good, how are you? And then we move into those four levels to really see the person. There are some businesses where the common thread is anger. I don't want to spend my life being mad. I want to be around people who are at least chasing happiness. We all have down times, but let's try to move toward joy.

[Robin Pasley]: That's the heart of the brand we created together — living the best part of your story. Because all of us face downturns and disappointments and sometimes real tragedy. But the focus is on living the best version of ourselves, caring about the people you buy your product from. That was part of why the fingerprint became your rebrand — to recognize that every person coming through that door is unique and created that way.

[Don Niemyer]: I love that part of our story. We sat in this very room talking about our values and what we were chasing. We had no idea how to express any of it visually. Then Robin came back with that mock-up of the thumbprint and the wood rings. We both immediately knew: that's it. A tangible visual expression of everything we'd talked about. It's been four years in August and I never get tired of it.

How Do You Scale Hospitality Culture Across Locations?

[Robin Pasley]: What's one thing the person listening to this podcast could take away and apply to their life this week?

[Don Niemyer]: Chasing kindness matters. Being the kind of person you want to be around. Think about who your shoulder-to-shoulder people are — who do you want to look left and right at when you're on the front lines? I think most people are nice inside; they want to be nice. Some of us have to work harder at making that person the front man of the band more often. There's a rhythm guitarist in the back going "well, it could always be better" — you need that person. There's a drummer back there going "that mess needs cleaning up" — you need that person too. But the one at the microphone, the loudest voice? Let that be the kind one. The one who leads with: let's press into the kind of world we all wish we lived in — because at our best, we actually do.

[Robin Pasley]: What's the biggest challenge you're facing in this season?

[Don Niemyer]: For two and a half years now, I've been aggressively chasing one question: how do we equip, resource, train, hold accountable, and celebrate our people so that they are carrying our values the way I hope I am? How do we reproduce our vision in others so they can carry it to the community? That's the challenge. Last year we called it the Year of Systems — building systems to carry the weight of our values to the person who's been here four years and the person who's been here four minutes. This year is the Year of Hospitality. You build the systems, then you have to push people into them. That's a whole other problem.

[Robin Pasley]: We share that struggle completely. It was just me for a long time. Everything I knew about how to serve clients — the way we communicate, the way we design — it was all in my head. When I hired my first full-time person, my son, he'd ask, "Did you say that out loud, or was that just in your head, Mom?" It wasn't until my husband H.B. Pasley came into the firm and helped create standard operating procedures — based on the way I'd been doing hospitality interior design and commercial design for years — that we could hire, build a team, and have people follow a system instead of just following me.

[Don Niemyer]: Because no matter how talented you are — you can be Tom Brady, seven Super Bowls, greatest to ever play the game — he's still not going to be the one running the block to knock someone down. You need a different person for that. All of us — entrepreneurs — believe in ourselves as we should. And then we have to recognize we're not going to do everything well. We need other people on the team. I love what you've built at Pasley — opening places for people with different skills and letting them flourish. That's one of the greatest joys of being in business. Watching someone step into something they're really good at. Shove them to the front and let them go.

[Robin Pasley]: Do you use any tools to understand how your team is wired when they come on board?

[Don Niemyer]: We use a framework based on Patrick Lencioni's The Ideal Team Player. One of the ways we apply it: a couple of times a year, everyone evaluates everyone — including me, anonymously. I get a score across different categories. If I think I'm the cleanest person in the shop and my cleanliness score comes back low, I can't argue with nine other people. The flip side is equally valuable — if I've built a bias against someone because I saw them miss something once, and their peers score them consistently high, then I'm the one who's wrong. I saw it happen badly one time. Maybe their arm was broken. The truth is in the team's pattern over time. That's been really helpful.

[Robin Pasley]: The Ideal Team Player. Patrick Lencioni.

[Don Niemyer]: Yes. I kept blanking on the first name, but that's the one.

[Robin Pasley]: Where can people find you?

[Don Niemyer]: Just ask your maps app to direct you to Story Coffee and it'll ask which location. Downtown, we're in Acacia Park — the historic park General William Palmer gifted to the city when he founded Colorado Springs, to be the literal heart of downtown. We've been set up there, on wheels, for over a decade. Our second location is on the west side in Old Colorado City, another historic district, at 28th and Colorado Avenue, closer to the mountains.

[Robin Pasley]: Don, thank you so much for joining me on Design to Help Your Business Grow. You are thirty-one years of real friendship and every bit of the real thing. We love Story Coffee, and we're always standing by when you're ready for location three.

[Don Niemyer]: We're saying two and done — but never say never.

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Design to Help Your Business Grow.
Pasley Commercial Interiors | pasleycommercialinteriors.com | Colorado Springs, CO

📍 Story Coffee Company — Acacia Park, downtown Colorado Springs | 28th & Colorado Ave, Old Colorado City
📍 Pasley Commercial Interiors — 616 N. Tejon St., Colorado Springs, CO 80903

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