Duane Zobrist: Appalachian Extracts and Greenbrier Outfitters
More than twenty-five years ago, Duane Zobrist made his way from his hometown of Los Angeles to White Sulphur Springs by way of Utah where he’d just completed his masters. At the time he was just following his bliss; although, no one said stuff like that back then, and Duane probably wouldn’t put it that way today. But there’s a youthful exuberance about the guy that makes “following bliss” seem like the right words.
In 1994, he and his wife Darlene were trying to figure out how to turn a hobby into a lifestyle and a livelihood. The hobby was falconry—yes, as in the medieval sport of hunting with birds of prey. Popular in Europe, falconry was relatively unknown in the U.S. The Greenbrier Resort was the perfect spot to develop a falconry program. Thus, the west coast boy found himself in a tiny mountain town in West Virginia.
Soon, the falconry program expanded to incorporate every sort of outdoor adventure imaginable and became Greenbrier Outfitters. Today, the company is Resort Outfitters and approximately 80 employees offer outdoor and team-building experiences at elite resorts across the country. This year the business is expanding to China. China!
The Zobrists founded a second business, Appalachian Extracts, a CBD retailer and wholesale hemp extraction company, in 2018. Not so unlike his original falconry idea, Duane simply paid attention to what was happening in the market and found a relatively untapped niche—extraction—within the burgeoning CBD business.
But, that’s just the overview. Between 1994 and today, a lot happened, and along the way Duane’s been at the helm exploring new possibilities and pivoting when necessary while somehow maintaining a kid-like enthusiasm for it all. He’s quick to credit his team, the VPs of his company and Darlene whose shrewd financial acumen has kept his entrepreneurial spirit between the navigational beacons.
“If mad entrepreneurship isn’t balanced by strong financial discipline, you’re hosed. You can’t make it. I don’t have it,” Duane admits. “I got lucky; I married it,” he adds.
Mostly, Duane has been lucky, but twice he nearly was hosed. The September 11 attack on the twin towers was the first time. A large financial group was coming to The Greenbrier from New York City. The Outfitters had purchased a lot of equipment and hired subcontractors to cover an event that was sure to be a huge win for the Outfitters. When the towers were hit, half the attendees were stuck in the city, and the conference had to be canceled.
“Of course, it was the right choice, but it still hurt,” Duane recalls.
Seven years later, the financial crash of 2008 and The Greenbrier Resort’s bankruptcy of 2009 took another swing at the business and Duane’s fortitude.
“We made it through those times not because of me. We made it through because we had a team, led by Darlene, that had real financial discipline. If it was me, we would have been a mess,” Duane says.
But what he did next made all the difference. “We aggressively built new streams of income. We took it as an opportunity to change and diversify,” he says.
In 2008, The Greenbrier represented 80% of Resort Outfitters’ business. Duane learned his lesson. By the time White Sulphur Springs was hit with the devastating flood of 2016, The Greenbrier represented 25% of Resort Outfitters’ income. Sure, it hurt, but because Duane refused to be caught holding the bag again, because he’d done the difficult, sometimes scary work of diversifying the company, the flood didn’t take him out at the knees.
Today, Resort Outfitters is run by solid VPs who have grown up with the company. That allows Duane to keep his eye on what’s next. If he had to guess, he’ll be focusing on improving some aspect of the existing businesses. He loves the challenge of continuously making things better.
“It’s never been based on growth. It’s about how we make systems and processes better and how to have fun doing it,” he says.
Fun. That’s the thing about Duane that sticks with you. Even when he’s telling the story of his scariest moments in business, he can laugh about it.
Even when he says,” It’s the most lonely, nightmarish thing you can do,” he finishes with “but it’s also what I do.” And you just know he’s having a heckuva good time doing it.