Can you love something and still need to leave it?

For Episode #6 of Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends, we’re joined by our longtime friend and former Between Friends team member, Jennifer Duffey, for a conversation that starts with the coffee shop but goes much deeper.

We talk about what happens when something you genuinely love becomes heavy. Burnout. Emotional exhaustion. The pressure of being the dependable one. Saying “I’m fine” when you absolutely are not. Showing up for work, family, friends, and everyone else while quietly struggling yourself. We also talk about the strange kind of grief that comes with choosing to leave something behind.

Can you miss something without wanting it back? Can leaving be the right decision and still break your heart? Can you be grateful for a chapter of your life and also be relieved that it’s over? And how much of who we are becomes wrapped up in what we do, where we work, and how much other people need us?

Jennifer spent ten years with us at Between Friends, so this one gets personal. We look back at what those years gave us, what they took from us, what we miss, what we definitely do not miss, and what we understand now that we couldn’t see while we were living it.

Sometimes two things can be true at once: You can be grateful for something and exhausted by it. You can miss something and not want it back. You can know leaving was the right decision and still grieve it. You can love something and still leave it.

Episode #6 of Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends: “Between Loving It and Leaving It.”

Conversations are better Between Friends!

You asked. We answered. And apparently, some of you have been waiting a long time to ask these questions.

In this episode of Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends, Jaimie and Victoria are handing the microphone over to you and answering questions from listeners about friendship, business, life, Between Friends Coffee, the podcast, and everything that happened along the way.

What was the biggest difference between us as business owners? Did owning a coffee shop together make our friendship stronger—or nearly destroy it? What drove us absolutely crazy about each other? What do we miss? What do we *not* miss? Do we regret closing? And if someone showed up tomorrow with enough money to reopen Between Friends Coffee…would we actually do it?

We’re talking favorite memories, biggest fights, beloved customers, life after the coffee shop, the evolution of Between Friends, and a few things we probably never expected anyone to ask.

No scripts. No rehearsed answers. Just two best friends, a lot of history, and your questions. Because conversations are better Between Friends!

We probably said too much in this one...

But then again, the podcast is called "Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends" for a reason.

Our newest episode takes you behind the scenes of something we have never really talked about publicly: the offers to buy Between Friends Coffee, the conversations about selling the business over the years, and the sales that almost happened.

We talk about what made us consider selling in the first place, what it feels like when someone puts a price on something you built from nothing, the emotions that come with imagining someone else behind your counter, and what happens when a potential sale does not end the way you thought it would.

There were offers. There were negotiations. There were difficult conversations. There were moments when we thought we knew exactly what was going to happen next, only to find ourselves somewhere completely different.

And yes, we divulged a lot. Maybe more than we should have. But there is the sensible version of the story, and then there is what actually happened. This week, we are telling the latter!

Episode 4 is available now wherever you listen to "Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends!"

Conversations are better Between Friends. Thank you for being our Friend!

Making friends as a kid seemed easy. You sat next to someone at school, played on the same team, or discovered you both liked the same thing, and suddenly you had a new best friend. Making friends as an adult can be a very different story!

On this episode of Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends, we are talking about adult friendship: where we find our people, how friendships change as we get older, what makes us click with someone, and what it actually takes to maintain friendships while juggling work, family, responsibilities, and everything else adulthood throws at us.

We are also joined by an old friend whom we met through the coffee shop when she was technically one of our small business competitors. Somewhere along the way, competition turned into conversation, conversation turned into friendship, and now she is sitting at the table with us.

There are stories, laughs, differing opinions, and the kind of conversation that happens when friends sit down together and start talking. Our newest episode, “Between Making Friends & Keeping Them,” is available now wherever you listen to Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends.

Because conversations are better Between Friends.

This week on the podcast, we went there…

We talked about the side of opening and running a small business that rarely makes it onto social media. We talked about the money, the pressure, the rules, the regulations, the long hours, and the reality of trying to keep a business alive when an industry becomes oversaturated. Coffee shops have become one of those businesses that can look effortless from the outside. Beautiful drinks, pretty spaces, good music, and a steady stream of people walking through the door can make it seem like anyone could do it. What you don’t see is everything happening behind the scenes to make that picture possible.

We talked about why there are rules in business, why those rules sometimes frustrate people, and why following them matters. We talked about the things business owners wish customers understood and the things customers probably wish business owners understood, too.

This episode is honest. It’s uncomfortable. It may offend some people, but that is exactly why we called this podcast unfiltered. This is not an episode about making small business look glamorous, it is about telling the truth about what it actually takes!

Sometimes the conversation you need to have is the one that makes you a little uncomfortable…so tune in for the latest episode of Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends!

Thank you for being our Friend!

After a long sabbatical, Unfiltered Conversations Between Friends is back. In this episode, Jaimie and Victoria look back on the story of Between Friends Coffee, from opening the doors ten years ago to saying goodbye, and share how a decade of food, coffee, friendship, and memories became their new cookbook, The Recipes That Wrote Our Story. It is the end of one chapter and the beginning of whatever comes next!