Movies that move our soul all start with a strong vision that is then brought to life with great acting.
The actors can't play their part without understanding the vision, and it's the role of the director to communicate that vision.
Painting the picture of what's in our heads to the people around us can be a challenge. I've often struggled with the nagging question: "Why don't they just get it?!"
Part of this is the frustration of something feeling painfully obvious to me, yet somehow everyone around me seems oblivious. The other part is frustration with myself for not putting in the work it takes to effectively communicate my vision.
This is the gift of leadership: seeing possibilities that others don't, and being able to open doors that people didn't even know existed.
Painting the picture is more than listing facts, and pushes far beyond the transactional relationship many of us have with work ("Do this because I pay you to!"), it's about creating an emotional connection to another world.
Visions we're unable to communicate are just ideas, and ideas that live only inside our heads don't help anyone.
You might have the vision that someone's been waiting for, best not to keep it to yourself.
The more we show up with our best effort wherever we are, the better our chances of ending up where we want to be (even if we don't know where that is yet).
Ever notice how in most superhero movies, the main antagonist is simply an evil version of the hero?
I always thought this was lazy writing, but it speaks to the truth that the hardest battles we fight are with ourselves.
Of all the work I've put in to try and be the boss our employees deserve, nothing has had a bigger impact than reconnecting with who I am at my core.
Turns out I'm not a business owner who happens to be a human, I'm a human who happens to be a business owner.
The opportunity to live up to the promises we make.
This is every business owner's dream. We create and share in hopes of spreading our message so that people may be inspired, take action and share experiences with us.
When someone walks through the doors for the first time, there’s no more faking it. That picture you posted of that beautiful latte art that was more the exception than the rule, the podcast you record about your level of service and show, the hours you painstakingly spent writing copy about what you stand for, and the change you hope to make in the world—at that moment all those things are either seen as the truth or a lie.
You’ve either kept your promise or you’ve broken it.
We don’t always mean to break our promise and no one bats a thousand, but we need to ask ourselves a couple important questions:
Are we putting more effort into looking good than actually being good?
Are we telling the truth?
Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. This doesn’t give us a pass to lie but it can give us the perspective we need to level up our reality.
I’m writing this from the lobby of a hotel that has broken its promise in more ways than one. I feel taken advantage of and it’s a way I hope any of our guests at Cat & Cloud never feel. The funny thing is, the experience isn’t terribly bad, it’s just miles away from the promise, and that dissonance is what’s creating the disappointment.
A brand is a promise. We can only break it so many times before our reputation precedes us and all those pretty pictures we post won’t matter anymore.
Being in the coffee industry, I love telling the story of the morning. People get up, shower, eat and head out to start their day with the beautiful tradition of morning coffee, so on any given day, the first person they interact with outside of their house is the person at the coffee shop.
That first interaction sets the tone for the day, and we're grateful to be in a position to set someone's day off in a positive way.
Your circumstances may be different but every one of us has the power to create experiences that can change someone’s world for the better. When we pass on positive energy, people carry around that energy with them long after the interaction is over and feel inspired to pay it forward to others.
It doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a huge organization or a dishwasher at McDonald's (proud alumni here), there’s no authority, permission, or money required—you already have everything you need inside you.
The trick is to see beyond the what and into the why. You might be making coffee, flipping burgers, or building spreadsheets, but at some point, everything you do connects in a way that transcends the product. How that connection lands is up to you.
Your work matters. Respect it.
Which feels more sustainable:
Trusting your team to move forward, however imperfectly, before they are ready.
The nonstop stress that comes with trying to do everything yourself.
Owning your losses gives your team freedom to own theirs. Trust goes up, the environment becomes safer, creativity is sparked, and people can put the fear of failure aside and focus on doing good work.
Attempting to hide your losses teaches your team that they should hide theirs. Trust goes down, the environment quickly becomes toxic, creativity is choked, and the fear of failure pushes people to become more concerned with looking good than actually being good.
If we’re going to play basketball, there are certain rules that come along with the game. Everyone agrees on those rules and as long as we respect them, we have tons of freedom to maneuver as individuals within those rules.
Without rules, we can’t appreciate the skill of the players. No matter how good of a ball handler someone might be, dribbling out of bounds to get to the basket is neither impressive nor effective.
Intentionally created workplace cultures have the same effect. Rather than boxing people in, a shared sense of purpose and a common language empowers employees to engage in critical thinking and be creative, not simply read task lists.
Almost paradoxically, channeling our creative energy within a framework leads to more interesting ideas than an unfocused creative free-for-all.
Some aspects of life are layered—we build on our past and add another brick to the wall.
Some aspects of life are transitional—as new doors open, others close behind us.
It’s often difficult for me to appreciate the good that’s happening around me in the moment. I’m poisoned by wanting more, by the desire to get to the next level.
For all the progress I’ve made, it’s not clear that I’m in a better place than I used to be. A different place, yes. But better? I’m not so sure.
Looking back on the experiences I’ve had on this journey it’s clear to me that each phase of our life is special and imperfect.
As much as each moment can be a springboard to our future, it's important to remember that we're actually living right now. Maybe you started a big project today, opened a new location for your business, or pushed through another day of pain.
It'll never be quite like this again and that's both scary and empowering. Try to enjoy it.
Our culture sees feedback in the workplace as synonymous with getting in trouble. This is probably because most people (myself included) have had less than stellar experiences with feedback.
My favorite experience was when the store director at a previous job asked me if I was too fucking stoned to stock our retail shelves in a timely manner. More of an outburst than feedback, this resulted in me immediately walking behind the counter to grab my coffee cup and backpack and head straight for the door. (I’m really good at walking out on jobs.)
Everybody left feeling worse that day. The store director didn't get what she wanted, and I had to go find a new job. Thankfully, there is a better way.
Building Bridges
Ongoing constructive feedback builds a bridge between the employee and the employer. When both parties know exactly what’s on the table and communication is constantly flowing, it’s easier to focus on your work. Work becomes more relaxing, even if you’re really cranking. Constant conversations build the relationship, and there's an ease in knowing exactly where you stand.
In addition to protecting your culture, consistent feedback acts as a pressure release valve. The tension never gets built up enough to spur a childish outburst that leaves you and your employee feeling worse than you felt before. Pro tip: berating people doesn't inspire anyone to do their best work.
So no, you’re not in trouble. This is an opportunity for two players on the same team to connect and get better. Take advantage of it.
Tomorrow Cat & Cloud turns five.
I feel compelled to send a laser beam of gratitude to my business partners. As I’m sure it is with me, their most positive attributes are also the most challenging to work with.
Jared moves forward with what feels like reckless optimism.
Charles supplies an endless bummer of reality checks.
I have uncompromisingly high standards to the point of being destructive.
Because we’re willing to accept each other's quirks along with the gifts, we’ve created a space in which we know that anything is possible, can turn dreams into reality, and do work we’re proud of.
Maybe it's not about accepting the quirks along with the gifts, maybe it's about recognizing that the quirks are the gifts.
I’m grateful for both of you. Cheers to five years!
Yesterday I shredded my last copy of an old orientation manual I had lying around.
This spiral-bound workbook on thick card stock stuffed full of definitions, graphs, and worksheets, wrapped in our brand's color palette was the accompaniment to our three-hour orientation process.
We touched on our company history, service model, mission, vision, values, coffee tasting, coffee processing, benefits packages, how to craft a pitch to bring a new idea to the table, and the list goes on.
Laughably, this was scaled-down compared to orientations we’d used at previous organizations. We thought we were keeping it simple, but it was a tidal wave of indigestible information.
As ineffectual as it was, it took us years to shake that model, partially because having a big fancy orientation made us feel like a big fancy organization.
Our goals with orientation are:
Introduce you to our mission, vision, and five values
Set expectations for the employee/employer agreement
Leave you feeling inspired
Our orientation is currently a one-hour, conversational gathering with no booklets, slideshows, or videos. By focusing on delivering on our promise rather than maintaining a certain appearance, we’re able to accomplish our goals and make the experience more enjoyable to boot.
It’s the difference between doing the work and making it look like you’re doing the work. They both take effort but only one pays off.
We spend so much time and energy trying to convince people who don’t get it.
Perhaps what we should be doing is finding people who already do.
Every once in a while it feels right to recalibrate the compass.
I hesitate to put a flag in the ground and proclaim “this is why we’re here” because I don’t want to limit the ideas I explore. That being said, a good portion of the work that’s stacking up is pointing in a certain direction.
I thought: If I had to write a trailer episode for this blog, what would it say? (It’s a more drawn-out way of asking the question: “Why are we here?”)
This is where my heart and brain are leading me:
This I Believe
Businesses shape the cultures we live in. They’re the cultural glue for shared experiences and set the stage for most of our day-to-day interactions. We engage with businesses every day as customers or owners, but especially as employees. We spend a huge chunk of our waking hours at work and our experience there shapes our lives.
But work is broken.
We live in a world where it’s normal for employees to talk trash about their bosses, and bosses view their employees as a necessary evil. Instead of tapping into the potential of work, we see it as simply a means to an end. It’s a lose-lose for both parties, and our culture is the collateral damage.
Businesses are at their best when there are people taking ownership at every level. This only happens when there’s a common language, shared sense of purpose, and a culture that encourages this style of work. But these cultures don’t happen by accident, they’re created.
As leaders, it’s our responsibility to set the tone and create the environment, but stepping into that responsibility isn’t easy. Leadership can often feel lonely, stressful, and more like a punishment than the opportunity it is.
This is a space to explore that opportunity.
I dream of a world in which people find joy in the work they do. A world where work is a place to embrace challenges, create, and grow while contributing to something bigger than yourself.
If you’re not a business owner or manager, that’s ok. Leadership isn’t about a job title, it’s about sharing your gifts to lift up the people around you.
It’s an opportunity we all have. So let’s get to work.
When I was working behind the counter, measuring my impact was simpler. I could feel the change in someone’s body language or see their eyes light up when we interacted.
They might even say:
“I really appreciate you, this sets the tone for the rest of my day. Thank you.”
The further away from that world I travel, the murkier the waters become.
I’m no longer that experience factory pumping out 2 minutes of magic for each of the hundreds of people I’d serve each day.
It’s more nuanced now. I connect with fewer people face to face. Instead of blasting people with my energy cannon, I spend my time listening, asking questions, and planting seeds that other people will water and grow with time.
Gone is the instant gratification of guest service. I create and share in hopes of making things better and helping others who are on a similar path.
Maybe I can shorten someone's learning curve. Maybe I can empower someone to take the first step towards something that everyone else is telling them is impossible. Maybe the people around me will grow into amazing leaders and maybe I'll have played some small role in that journey.
I hope all of these things are true. But I can’t be sure. It’s a strange feeling.
When someone asks me: “What are you working on today?” I often don’t know what to say.
Describing my work in list format makes me feel like I’m not doing enough.
“I’m going to have some conversations, mostly listen and ask questions, maybe go for a walk and think about what would make Cat & Cloud the best place to work ever, then call Jared and kick that ball around for a while. How bout you?”
I watch from the sidelines as our employees make our guests' eyes light up, one after another.
When I step back and watch the show I become aware that in so many ways I’m not who I used to be, and I’m not quite accustomed to being who I am, but I’m looking forward to growing into it.
Part 1: Leadership Anxiety
I love visiting our stores, but I haven’t always.
Going into our stores used to give me intense anxiety and was a very unfulfilling experience for me.
The feeling of not wanting to go into your own store, a place where you put a ton of effort into creating amazing experiences for other people is a weird one, but also a feeling many business owners have told me they experience as well.
“So what is it?” I ask them, “What makes you feel so uncomfortable in a space that you’ve created?”
There are many different answers but each person I’ve spoken with intuitively knows something is wrong, and is often too afraid or feels too unprepared to take action on it.
I get it. It can feel like a lot. The gap between the vision in your head and reality is huge. But you need to try. Take it one small step at a time. It might take years. YEARS.
We opened Cat & Cloud in 2016 and just in this last year I’ve been starting to feel like this is my home. I’ve always believed in our potential, even when the stress was eating me alive, now I have that belief and the love that comes from doing the hard work. (Starting a business is the easy part)
So let’s get after it. I know you’re tired and mentally stretched but what good is spending all your time and energy building something you can’t even enjoy?
Part 2: The Best Piece of Advice
I posted the above to Instagram earlier this week and received a great question:
“What’s the best piece of advice you can offer shop owners and managers experiencing this?”
While I’m pretty sure there’s no one best piece of advice for anything, this is what came to mind:
It’s ok to admit when you’re not getting any joy out of the work we’re doing.
This doesn’t mean you’re not cut out to be in leadership. It could mean you lack a clear understanding of what you want, don’t share common goals with the people around you, unknowingly adopted someone's broken system and narrative for how work gets done, and the list goes on.
Owning that something is wrong and knowing that something isn’t some inherent flaw in who you are as a person gives you power. Power to experiment, look at old problems from a new perspective, and get specific on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
This isn’t possible if you continue to hide your pain behind the smile you’ve been forcing yourself to wear.
Justifying is a defense mechanism we employ when we don’t trust the people around us, haven’t articulated a clear sense of purpose, or perhaps don't trust or believe in ourselves.
Over time, distance is created, and we feel the need to justify more and more because we have no common language or shared goal—our team doesn’t understand the culture we’re trying to create or how they can contribute to it.
Contextualizing is an educational gesture that ties a golden thread from our decisions to our culture and the people who reinforce that culture.
Over time, connection is built, and we need to contextualize less often because we have a common language and shared goal—our team trusts our intent and can connect the dots between our decisions and the cultural benefits on their own.
Which world do you want to live in?
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