Interviewing amazing, inspiring people

Karri and I had quite a hectic last two days interviewing 16 candidates back to back in the basement of the friendly Silver Cloud Inn (across the street from Julep).

Not fancy, but the best we could do given that our space is still under construction.
Meeting our interview candidates was such an incredible experience. It's one thing to say that you're looking for passionate people to join the team, but it's another to come face to face with what passion means in this field.

I was particularly surprised at how many people said that the spa pedicure was their favorite service to perform. As a client, I have always been very self-conscious about pedicures. It seems like such a large ask, in many ways. Especially if you have callused feet like mine.

And the word that came up most frequently was "connect." In answer to the question, "what moment in your career are you most proud of?" we heard amazing stories of everyday heroics from the thoughtfulness of anticipating the anxiety of a long-standing client about to throw a large party for her husband, to providing complimentary pedicure services to lift the spirits of cancer patients.

Time and time again, our interview candidates talked about how rewarding it was for them to create a great experience, and to make some difference to their client.

I really learned so much from the past two days. And I am so amazingly proud of just our applicant and offeree pool. If at least some of these incredible people join us, I think we will have the very best nail therapy destination in the country.

Week 4 of Construction

We're almost halfway through construction!

Things I'm happy about today:

1) We're starting to get some great resumes! Getting great people is my number one concern right now, so this is a HUGE relief.

2) We've got a lot of RSVPs to our recruiting event this Wednesday. A part of me was worried that we might have ordered a tad too much food for just me and Karri, even though we are both hearty enjoyers of food. . .

3) When I mention Julep to random strangers (as I'm apt to do), several have mentioned that they remember seeing the sign and noticing that it looked different than the average nail salon. (HOORAY!)

4) We've been developing some really amazing lotions that I'm very excited about. This is the first time I've noticed a huge difference in efficacy. These are products that both Karri and I are passionate about and would recommend to everyone.

5) Karri found a great solution for providing individual paraffin treatments that does not require us to use a pot of hot paraffin (messy, and questionable sanitation since each pot of wax is used for up to 20 different guests - this procedure is now banned in Oregon, we understand).

Things I'm sad about today:

1) My lighting fixture estimate apparently did not include the cost of having the mounting plates welded to my ceiling. That's an additional $1000 of cost I wasn't anticipating. How could an estimate that includes installation NOT include the cost of installing the piece that the fixture needs to be attached to? And how long does it take to weld a metal square to another piece of metal anyway??!! ARGHH.

2) It was raining IN the parlor today. Indoors. It's not supposed to do that.

3) My nail polish partner ran $2500 through on my credit card two weeks ago (to silk screen our bottles), but hasn't returned my phone calls since then. I've left messages last Thursday, Friday, and today. On Friday I called his cell, and someone picked up and hung up on me. Three times.

4) I just realized today that I somehow authorized the building of sink fixtures that are only 2 feet off the ground. Somehow, in all the flurry of paper, I read 25 inches and thought that this would be waist high. I've learned that reading 25 inches beside a drawing on a piece of paper is very different from standing in front of 25 inches marked against plumbing being put into the wall. We're now going to have to raise the fixture somehow, maybe by putting a pedastal beneath it (or some other great idea either Paul or Tom will come up with). Or hire really short people. Totally my fault in not reading drawings carefully.

The best thing about this journey is the fun of working with amazing, insightful, and talented people. The worst thing about this journey is needing to rely on sometimes uncommunicative, busy, far away people, many of whom I've never met face to face.

Shopping and shopping and shopping

One of the most fun parts of starting up Julep is all the shopping. Just this week, I've been shopping for:

- super soft, 800 gram cotton towels
- "environmentally preferrable" paint and dual flush toilets
- 5.8 Ghz cordless phone system that won't interfere with our wifi
- a flat screen TV (thankfully prices have fallen quite since my husband came home with one 18 months ago)
- a sound system (just learned about a "squeeze box" that will enable me to stream music from an online service)
- a dishwasher (love the new

Step 1: Telling my husband

When I first told my husband that I wanted to quit my relatively stable, executive job at "a Seattle-based global coffee chain" to start up a nail parlor, he was, somewhat understandably, a little less than enthusiastic.

“This is NOT what second generation immigrants like you are supposed to do,” he argued. “It’s the FIRST generation that works hard in nail salons, so that the second generation doesn’t have to! You’re second generation. You’re supposed to stay in your nice, secure white collar job and build up your 401k.”

I was born in Korea and immigrated to Canada with my parents when I was four. My parents worked in factories, cleaning jobs, then bought a convenience store franchise before building up a three-store frame-shop empire.

My husband, the self-proclaimed expert in the sociology of immigration, was born in North Carolina and immigrated to Connecticut when he was twenty-two.

My interest in starting a new business and quitting my job (or quitting my job and starting a new business, as B saw it), surfaced several issues in our marriage that neither of us had recognized up to this point, including:

1) B’s interest in owning a vacation house, and my lack of interest in same.
2) B’s interest in leaving open the option of taking a position abroad, and my lack of interest in same.
3) B’s interest in a sound savings strategy that would enable us to retire early, and my inability to focus on same.

I never knew that he wanted a water front vacation house. I never knew that he might want to move to Paris with his job. I never knew that his company even had an office in Paris.

“We don’t speak French,” I sulked. “And who wants to go back to the same stinking place for vacation year after year anyway.”

“And I really, really want to do this,” I cajoled. “I know this will work.”

At one point, "Howard Schultz owns a basketball team, you know" (that was before he sold it).

Then, “Do you think it might be sexist of you not to support me?”

To the credit of our ten year marriage, this was the first thing that I really cared about that B wasn’t immediately and fully supportive of. Which is what made it so hard.

Not knowing where else to turn, I suggested marital counseling.

Nothing motivated him more to reach deep down into his being to find a way to feign indifference. Which has, over time, mellowed into mild tolerance.

So I’m off to the races.