What happens when the family business you joined for the long haul loses a huge piece of its revenue, and you are the one who has to figure out what comes next?

In this Season 2 premiere of Your Next Gen Friend, Andrea sits down with Josh Robinson, fourth-generation owner of Argonaut Liquor in Denver. Josh shares how he went from stocking shelves and choosing not to lead with his last name, to leading the business through COVID, a brutal ballot initiative that cut wine volume by 60%, and a family ownership transition that tested every relationship in the building. Along the way he stood up a weekly executive meeting, brought Unreasonable Hospitality into the team's rhythm, and learned (sometimes the hard way) why ownership conversations cannot wait.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Starting at the bottom is not just about humility. It builds the operational knowledge and relationships you will lean on when it is your turn to lead.
• Earning trust and respect from long-tenured employees takes real time, and there are no shortcuts, even when your name is on the building.
• COVID accelerated Josh's path into leadership and gave him the chance to prove his value when the stakes were highest.
• When market forces change your business model overnight, the operational habits and team trust you built in better years become your survival playbook.
• The biggest regret in Josh's transition was not having the hard ownership conversations early. When urgency shows up, hard conversations turn into painful ones.
• A weekly exec meeting and a shared read of Unreasonable Hospitality changed how the whole organization communicated and gave the team permission to row in the same direction.

Connect with Josh Robinson:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-robinson-401739ba/

Argonaut Liquor: https://www.argonautliquor.com/

Connect with Andrea Carpenter and Your Next Gen Friend:

Website: https://yournextgenfriend.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournextgenfriend/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@yournextgenfriend

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreashaver/

Subscribe to Your Next Gen Friend on your favorite podcast player:

Spotify: https://yournextgenfriend.com/open-spotify

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Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm.