Gel Buste Sulimant Effet Tenseur

I haven’t written much over the past month – mainly because I’ve been struggling earnestly, and somewhat painfully, with growing and being better in my role – which has had the unfortunate side effect of causing a general sense of humor failure.

All of this was cured miraculously this morning when I went to grab my Decleor moisturizer sample that Trish, our Decleor rep, gave me last week. She said she had the perfect thing for me – just what I needed. And what I needed this morning was a little pick me up. Coffee and a burst of essential oils seemed to be just the thing.

But the moisturizer was a little more gel-like than I remembered. After rubbing it all over my face, I picked it up to read the instructions, which started innocently enough with: “Apply using circular movements” but, rather unexpectedly, ended with: “. . . avoiding the nipple area.”

I read it 3 times. Was this one of those strange translation errors you see when traveling abroad, like: “Teeth extracted by latest Methodists” or “It is recommendations leave your values at the front door.”

Nope. Turning the bottle over, I realized that I had doused my face with “Perfect Scupt: Gel Buste Sulimant Effet Tenseur” or “Bust Beautifying Toning Gel.”

Hmm. The “perfect” thing for me.

Yes, I have birthed two children, and, as Murphy Brown once said to Quantum Leap guy, “Contents may have shifted during flight.”

But really. I mean. Really.

On the bright side, my “C” cup cheeks have never been perkier.

Manolos and Sex And City Movie

I’m so excited about the Sex And the City Movie!

I’m going to try to hijack our bookgroup into becoming a movie group for the month. (After all, we are more free form these days – we’re reading some macrobiotic food article and Michelle is cooking us a macrobiotic meal tomorrow).

In anticipation, I just bought my first pair of Manolos today! Even though they’re not mine, it was thrilling. They are all feathery and elegant.

Anyone who comes into Julep for a pedicure before June 13^th can enter to win the Manolos, and 4 tickets to the Sex And The City Movie. We’re also playing Sex And the City in our parlors (still so exciting to write “parlors” in plural!) this month. I'm going to send out an e-mail newsletter later tongiht, and trying to figure out what acronym to use (SATC? S&The City? S&TC?) so that we don't get filtered out as inappropriate content.

We had some friends over for a barbeque this weekend, and the guys were all predicting that the movie would not be good. I can’t imagine what it would take for me not to enjoy this movie (leaky roof right above my seat?).

Our New Downtown Parlor is Now Open!

Since last I wrote, we have:
· Opened our beautiful new downtown parlor (and the last of our furniture - for the reception area - arrived today!).
· Celebrated our first mother’s day - at both parlors!
· Submitted for permitting for our new Gig Harbor location.
· Eaten dozens of Top Pot doughnuts (okay, that’s mostly ME)

I feel about our second parlor the way I felt about our second child – having our first child made us parents, having our second child made us a family. It was the tipping point where the whole became a stronger separate entity that I felt a stronger, separate responsibility to define, grow and nurture (aside from the parental obligations of nurturing each individual child).

This has made my role more familiar, but in a bittersweet way. Over the past year, I have loved being the one who solves everything directly – from tropical temperatures and lighting outages all the way through financing and strategic planning.

But we now have a talented cadre of managers, who are doing the day to day doing. Angelina is trouble shooting the tropical temperatures and slow booking software. Amy and Patience are recruiting, and Anna is building the staffing schedules and creative new programs like the Night of Amore (teaching couples how to do foot massage). And it’s hard to complain about not being the one to open at 7:30am and close at 9:30pm (thank you guys!!!).

As Jeanne and Kate keep reminding me, my role now is to support this talented crew, define what success looks like at Julep and help them achieve it – so they can, in turn, to do the same inside each parlor with our talented team of estheticians and vernisseurs. Both Jeanne and Kate are great at anticipating our team’s needs. Kate says that she loves it when she has a plan that works. That’s how she gets her work highs. Jeanne said she stressed two months ago (updating/writing/directing all of us to write pieces of the manager / parlor hostess / vernisseur operating manuals) so she’s not stressing now (except about having her baby, which should happen THIS WEEK if all goes well!).

I’m really excited about the opportunity to focus a little more on figuring out where we’re headed as a whole, and who we want to be as a collective entity.

Thoughts of our first, founding parlor

As we open the doors to our new downtown parlor, I’m really overwhelmed by how much we’ve accomplished at our first, "founding parlor" in the University District. We’ve now made our guests just a little more relaxed and glamorous over 14,000 times in amazing manicures, pedicures, esthetics treatments and massages.

If it wasn’t for the amazing team who built Julep from our first harried days of working EVERYTHING out on the fly, we wouldn’t be where we are today (operating as smooth as glass in our new parlor on our very first day!).

So an enormous thank you to everyone who was a part of the first, founding parlor in our first, founding year: Amy, Anthony, Arlene, Hadassah, Jeanne, Karri, Kate G, Lisa, Marika, Mae, Michelle, Summer, Danielle, Audrey, Tracey, Margot, Megan A, Megumi, Jessica, Ali, Keaomee, Leah, Shannon, Erin, Patience, Kate M, Anna, Thu, Rosemary, Mary Lee, Jesse, Jaimie, Tara, Quynh, Xenia, Phoebe, (and our “newbies”: Becky, Dawn, Megan B. and Susie too!).

You have each made unique contributions to Julep and have helped us to grow in countless ways. I will always be grateful to you.

The weekend before . . .

Our new "firefly" lights. (Thank you Tom!).
Here's Kate, hard at work steaming drapery.

And our new Julep vernisseurs, practicing (and receiving!) our Julep Parlor Pedicure during our five day Immersion program. (There's Kate G on the end, hard at work on our opening e-mail campaign while being a model!). Being with this terrific crew was like drinking five lattes - just crazy energizing! And here's the retail display Angelina created, on the beautiful piece designed by Jennifer and built by Chris.

And here's our "To Do" list! More and more tasks getting crossed out. . .

Just two days until we open our new downtown parlor! We just finished our third week-long "Julep Immersion Program" - with new vernisseurs, parlor hostesses, and Evelyn (our new esthetician) from both our Unviersity District and Downtown parlors. I always love immersion - it's inspiring to be so face to face with such enthisuasm and dedication.

Then, on Wednesday, our beautiful client service chairs arrived (orange leather!). And on Friday, our pedicure ottomans arrived along with one manicure bar, and on Saturday, the manicure carts and other manicure bar.

Although we had to go several rounds with Qwest, our DSL and phone lines are connected (there was apparently some confusion about whether we just wanted jacks installed, or whether we wanted jacks installed AND turned on. FYI you have to specify the latter . . .).

This parlor opening is actually turning out to be so much more nervewracking for me than the first time around. The first time, we didn't have a reputation at stake. But because our original crew did such an amazing job at our Northcut location, I now feel like we have high expectations to meet.

But we are working hard to meet them. For example, this time around, we not only know how to do credit card processing, but it is integrated into 2 POS terminals that have been set up (properly) and tested and retested. Mary Lee even figured out how to set up our bar code scanner!

Besides, as Yoda says in "Revenge of the Fifth" (as my daughter calls it), the fear of loss leads to the dark side ("Beware the dark side. Strong it is"). This is also a message given to the Avatar (the Nickelodeon series my son and husband are obsessed with). To reach the Avatar state, Ang has to let go - and not fear loss.

Loosely translated to the manicure/pedicure/skincare business, I think this means that we should focus on the positive vision of what we want to be in the future, not fearful of losing the ground we are standing on today. Although we wield nail vernis brushes instead of light sabers, we need to vanquish fear and let the force guide us.

Finishing touches

Our new, high manicure bar! Such a cool spot.
Now it's Kate and Mary Lee. What a dynamic duo.

Lisa, taking a break from polishing color palattes to text her sweet husband?

And here's the work!

Friday - T-3 days

Lynda and Kirk sitting in our beautiful orange leather chairs.
Gourmando fed us with yummy boxed lunches! The curried lamb gyro was amazing.

Amy hard at work polishing!

And Ripley - whose name comes up with alarming freqency in Jeanne's e-mails directing us on how to set up our technology.

Julep Downtown - Coming Together!

We passed our inspection today! (Thanks Kirk & Mitch from Wilcox!!).

Our general inspection was delayed because we initially failed our fire inspection because our strobes or horns or both were not powerful enough, so we had to get our electrician back to change the wiring, but the fire alarm guys did not show up as planned yesterday to test the system, so we were flying blind in our general inspection. And that's not the half of it.

It's amazing how many details have to come together for us to open! Amy has been interviewing and hiring up a storm on the vernisseur front. Kate M. has been managing dozens of suppliers, bringing doughnuts where possible. Mary Lee has been hitting every store in Seattle, shopping for vernisseur baskets, trash cans, office supplies, mirrors, benches and more (while also working as a parlor hostess!). Jeanne orchestrated all of this to work by stressing about it months ago, and Lisa has been preparing for immersion. Lisa, Kate G and Angelina have been preparing training materials, and Angelina and Lisa have been working on our retail products. And Danielle's been making sure our suppliers are paid, while Anna and Patience are continuing to support and nourture our first parlor.

WOW.

LOTS of hard work has gone into bringing the Julep experience to more women. And just tonight, a group of businesswomen walked by our new parlor and started dancing in excitement. (We're not even making that up, either!). That guest excitement is what makes this all worthwhile!!

Slice of life

Tomorrow I am working on:

- Getting 2 investors their documents to sign
- Getting together with my broker, Tracy Cornell, for our weekly drive around to look for new locations
- Figuring out what to do about a location on the East Side
- Coordinating getting decals on our windows downtown
- Finishing writing our front desk new menu training (which we're holding Sunday night, for exciting new menu that will be launched on Tuesday)
- Having lunch with Scott Staff and a colleague of his at Purple
- Checking in with Kari and Jennifer at Marketing Alchemist
- Checking in with Kate G for our weekly one on one
- Figuring out how to implement our call center (and purchasing the phones we need to do that)
- Looking at our Immersion Binder to figure out what we need to add to make it better
- Hopefully accepting delivery of the first batch of our new menus!!!
- Taking my mom out for her birthday!

Chris at Dovetail

Here's Chris at Dovetail, who's building our new transaction plane, manicure bar table, sink cabinets, and, most incredibly, an awesome all-in-one manicure table / drink table / purse holder / pedicure cart solution. All designed by the crazy talented Jennifer Thuma - with lots of live input from all of our team, but especially Amy and Lisa. Thank you Chris, for working so hard on our project - and for weathering all our constant changes and occasional tears.

Flooring is in!

Weekly Manager Meetings

Here's a teeny picture of the interior wall turned gun-metal grey (from Kate's phone camera). And the rest of the walls painted buterry.

And the new parlor is not the only thing that's been moving forward in leaps and bounds!

We now have an official Julep Manager Resource Guide, 2008, which pulls together all of the information, tools and processes we've been developing over the past 10 months. We've been taking some time each Wednesday to meet with the manager teams from our first parlor, and our new downtown parlor (and one new location that we'll announce soon . .. ).

For those of you who have been at the parlor, wondering what the heck all the "Manager Meeting" blockouts are for, here's the inside look.

Over the past few weeks, we've been sitting in rather uncomfortable (but free!) chairs in our Support Center office, taking the time to pull together, improve and share everything we know about how to support you better. In particular, we've covered the PURPOSE, and HOW-TOs of:

- Strengthening and Sharing Julep's Mission and Values

- Delivering Memorably Outstanding Customer Service

- Staff Development, Management and Career Paths

- Optimizing Parlor Performance

- Cash Management

- Inventory Management

- Facilities Management

Jeanne created an tabbed binder that breaks down each of these areas into "Daily," "Weekly," and "As Needed" responsibilities. Then we have the specific goals, metrics, tools, reports, processes and forms in each relevant section. (I was her hole puncher and binder organizer, and I was so amazed by all the rich material! And my hand hurt by the end). It's all what each team makes of it, but we were trying our hardest to enable smoother, more predictable expectations going forward - especially as we launch additional parlors.

We've also had great debates about what Julep IS (passion for touch, job that feeds your soul, passion for the environment, growth, opportunity, openness to be creative, openness to new ideas, team work, customer service driven, excited, asking instead of telling, accountabiltiy, integrity, honesty, authenticity, walking the talk, pride in our work), what Julep IS NOT (first one out the door, dispassionate, artificial (nails or personality), soley money motivated, selfish, "solo artist," chop shop, "because I said so").

And then we've created and shared staffing tools (where I got to dust off my advanced excel skills), goals and metrics. We've created a mentorship program for new team members, as well as a new immersion program.

I'm so proud of what we are today - but it's exciting to think about what we're going to be a month from now.

Of course, it's frightening. We're about to more than double in size. And we're thinking explicitly about how to do this while preserving what is great about our culture and work environment, and strenghening it in areas where we needed to develop.

Like therapy, I think it's powerful to name and detail out our fears. They are justified! And only then we can plan around how to avoid these potential pitfalls.

Fireplace - Now you don't see it, Now you do!

Here's Jennifer measuring for the sink cabinet, and notice the hole where the fireplace is going to go in . . . and then it's suddenly in! Kate M. also captured on film a rare moment where I'm actually making Kirk smile, not cry. This week, Mitch had in his weekly notes item 4.11: "No more changes."

Now Mitch, I've watched all the design shows, and Opening Soon by Design (when it was on), and it seems to me that we're very light on changes compared to the average Restauranteur (at least the ones who land on reality TV, anyway).

But we will try harder to limit our creative expression from this point forth.

This week was the first time the Downtown parlor seemed truly real to me.

Maybe it was the fireplace going in.

Real Parlor Games

Lisa (our most excellent New Products and Training Manager), just presented me tonight with a book that she and her husband Mike found antiquing this weekend (yes, yes, she admits it is "nerdy" to antique). It's called, "Parlor Games," by Helen Hollister, published in 1922.

It's full of brilliant exercises. I actually really love parlor games (it wasn't just a convenient name for my blog). Board games, charades, pictionary, bridge, you name it. I'm on a quest to amass enough social power to be able to force people to come to my dinner parties and pretend that they love these games as much as I do.

Here's a perfect example from page 35:

SLANDER

"One player goes from the room, while the leader, providing himself with pencil and paper, writes down all the remarks uttered by each member of the party, in turn, concerning the absent party." (JP: But it gets even better).

"He, being then recalled, the remarks are read to him while he endeavors to guess the names of the originators. If he succeeds in tracing a remark to its source, the person having uttered it must go from the room to be slandered in turn."

Now look me in the computer screen and tell me that this wouldn't have added an exciting spark to your last gathering.

Perfect for weddings, birthdays, and corporate gatherings!

T Minus Seven Weeks

The temporary sign is up outside our new downtown parlor! (Thanks Keith and Kate!). And Danielle & Lucy, who modelled for the photo in the sign.
























And drywall is starting to go up, as Kirk points the way.

We've got LOTS of plugs in the manager office, Jeanne! So you can plug in your laptop AND your breast pump.

At seven weeks before opening (May 1st!!), my internal panic alarm has started going off. I think this is the point at which, last time, I had to abandon luxuries like time to shower.

But I'm so lucky that I've got such amazing people with me this time.

"Don't worry," say Amy, Anna and Patience, as we plan our recruiting events.

"Don't worry," says Kate M, who's keeping us on track on our downtown buildout.

"Don't worry," says Kate G, as she comes up with one awesome party offering idea after another.

"WORRY!!!" says Jeanne. But I'm chalking some of that up to the fact that she's having a baby in May, just as we open downtown. And I think she's trying to do everything she can to have us not calling her up in the Labor & Delivery Ward.

Speaking of babies, we're eagerly awaiting news of Shari's baby.

And I got an e-mail from Margot titled "Resurfacing" yesterday. She's seeing her oncologist tomorrow, but is recovering like a hero.

We have so much to be grateful for!

Congratulations Brune and Richard

Last week I traveled to New York for some meetings with prospective and current investors, and I invited myself to Brune & Richard's 10th anniversary party.

Brune & Richard is a boutique law firm started by smart, thoughtful, funny, amazingly dedicated women. (So smart, in fact, that several of them are Julep early investors and supporters - but I'd truly admire them regardless).

It was inspiring to see how B&R grew its practice - from the five lawyers they were five years ago, when I first met them through my friends Theresa and Nina, to the over twenty they are today on both coasts of this country.

I wish that all young lawyers, and especially young women lawyers, could have had a peek at this celebration. They would have seen a line of glamoristas who are living engaging professional and personal lives. The four women partners have built an exciting practice while being spouses to lovely men and mothers to lovely children. And boy, can they dance.

I wish I could have seen this fifteen years ago, when I was graduating from college. But I'm inspired by seeing it today.

My 100th Post!!

So it turns out this is my 100th post. Hooray!

Yes, it might have felt like SOO much more (because of the ginormousness of the pearls of wisdom or the tediousness of the sharing of the same, depending on what side of bipolar you're on at any particular time).

I think the Washington State Liquor Control Board should give me a special license to serve champagne in the parlor in honor of this achievement. (Hint hint).

So here we are, in Week 3 of construction, deciding fairly last minute to tear away the red wall - and finding - hooray! that we have an additional 10 inches on top of the 5 that we were hoping to get. Apparently the wall was furred out. (I'm not sure if it's furred or firred, but I love the idea of a fuzzy, furry thing so I'm going to spell it furred until someone at Home Depot tells me otherwise).

Kate felt strongly that we had to do this, after simulating the width of the space between the manicure table and the reception counter. There are a lot of things in the world making us feel less than ideal in terms of the size of our waists - the walkways at Julep shouldn't be one of them.

So, we asked Kirk and Tom about it. They give us an estimate for the cost of doing this that seems to justify the square footage we'll recover, and then Tom wonders what's behind the wall. Kirk gets out his saw, cuts a hole in the wall, and finds out that there's nothing electrical and funky - it's actually just more space!

I love being able to have concrete answers to concrete problems that can be solved by Kirk's tools.

Margot's Becoming a Breast Cancer Survivor Today

Our Margot is going in for surgery today to remove the cancer that she's been fearing all her life would show up in her body.

At 1pm (and for the 5 hours afterwards!), let's all send her our best healing thoughts.

I've always admired Margot's ability to plow through any problem with her matter-of-fact get-it-done energy and razor sharp sense of humor. The magnitude of this challenge, and how she's working through it, has just underscored this admiration.

We've all given our input into the size / shape of her future "tah-tahs" (as she calls them) - Jeanne thinks they should be lit from within. To symbolize her spirit, of course.

Margot has been a faithful self-examiner, and luckily caught the signs of BC early on. Please be faithful in your self-exams and encouraging the girlfriends/moms/sisters in your life to do the same.

We're going to have a huge party for Margot at Julep to celebrate her strength and resiliency. Whether strength is a choice or not (and I think for moms with young children it often isn't!) - it's still amazing and inspiring.

All our love and best, positive energy Margot!

Jane

I am not perfect

One of my mentors has a habit of ending almost every conversation I have with him by saying, “Look, I know you’re not perfect.”

He first said this to me when I was just out of law school, desperately looking for any job outside of the profession for which I’d prepared for three years. “Look, I know you’re not perfect,” he said, as he handed me my offer letter to work for The Boston Consulting Group.

I was mortified. I took this to mean, “Look, we’re hiring you because it’s 1997, and all the business school students we really wanted to hire are foolishly joining the internet gold rush (where most of them will suffer and perish, as the original prospectors did in the 1850s), so we’re digging at the bottom of the barrel and we’re left with you. And you’re not perfect, but you’ll do.”

When I started work, I took pains to dodge him in the hallways, taking the long way around so as to avoid passing by his office. After all, he had called me on my secret from the get go.

But despite my best efforts, the day finally arrived when I had to work on a project with him. The toughest SVP in the office. The guy who was reported to be able to reduce even inanimate objects to tears.

I worked harder and exhaled less than I ever had before in my life. No matter how pretty we made things (“Look! Look! Three-dimensional bubble pie charts showing the size, potential, and fit of each market segment with the market share of our client and each of its eight competitors highlighted in different colors!”), he was never impressed.

Because, as I learned the hard way, my job was apparently about something other than impressing him with my mastery of powerpoint and the topic at hand. It turned out that it wasn’t really about me at all – it was about the clients who needed us to help them figure out what really mattered and what to do about it. “D’oh!”

I worked differently after that – and it was much more fun to truly engage with others in fixing a problem than worrying about whether I looked like an idiot. The quality of our work reflected my newfound sense of purpose – so I was surprised when, during my evaluation, I was again reminded, “But look, you’re not perfect. Are there things you could do better? Yes.” There must have been some affirmations that preceded the revisiting of my imperfections, but I can’t recall what they were.

Sometime later, as I sat down with this mentor to tell him that I was leaving BCG to move to Seattle, he was generous, gracious and wise. He empathized with the challenges of loving a job that required so much travel and time away from our families. But I have to admit that I was distracted by the drinking game-like challenge of waiting for the magic words to appear in our conversation. And appear they did. “Are you perfect? Of course not. But I think you could have a bright future here.” I had to smile to myself in hearing these now familiar words.

This same mentor is now an investor in Julep, one of the first people to believe in the vision and my ability to make it happen. Just the other day, I confessed to him that I was paradoxically feeling more and more stressed with each milestone we passed. Now there’s more at stake, something to lose, people counting on Julep in many different ways.

He had a different view. “Look, are you perfect? No. But now you've got a business with some appeal, so you’re in better shape than you were last year, and I figure that you’re going to do a better job than most of the people out there in this space.”

People talk about damning with faint praise, but it turns out that you can also profoundly reassure with the same.

Here is someone whose voice continues to strike such terror in my heart that I have been known to physically fall out of my chair at the sound of it. And he’s been VERY CLEAR on the fact that he is aware of my flaws. And yet.

Now I understand his insistence of my imperfections as a grounding credibility booster. This guy doesn’t blow smoke. Not even the smallest puff. So his vote of confidence matters. Its weight is not compromised by false compliments handed out willy nilly.

And what a relief not to have to waste precious energy on the impossible project of appearing perfect. This has been a huge gift.

Of course, one might observe that there might be kinder, more direct ways of establishing such credibility and trust.

But look, he’s not perfect.

Downtown Parlor: The Pre-Beginning

LEFT: Here it is, T minus 9 weeks and counting. Unfortunately, the coffee bar and computer monitors have yet to be cleared, but they're supposed to disappear this week. . .

BELOW: As will the gold lame wall paper and colorful wall decoration.




We're excited about all the windows and natural light! And great drive by and walk by traffic. And the sexy woman on the side of the building looking up the street.

But mostly I'm excited about the proximity to Banana Republic and the newly opening Aldo shoes.

Thanks Kate MacDonald for measuring the windows to send to Keith (who's covering for Shari, our brilliant Creative Director who's about to have her baby ANY day now!). And for taking these pictures. In this, and many countless ways big and small, we're a better Julep with you.

I'm also so thrilled to welcome Anna and Rosemary - two amazing vernisseurs who contribute as much to our culture as they do to making guests hands and feet beautiful. Every time I think that our team can't get any better - I'm proven wrong.

Jury Duty Last Week

Monday 2/11: 10am. Panic after call from husband reminding me I had jury duty this week. I locate my form - it says I should be there by 8:30am. OMG I am going to go to jail because I didn't show up. . .

Monday 2/11: 10:23am. Race into juror assembly room at the Seattle Municipal Court House. Haven’t decided yet whether to fess up about overlooking the date, or to make up some elaborate excuse involving terrorist, axis of evil, etc. But no need to decide – because it turns out I’m 22 hours early, not 2 hours late. Jury duty starts tomorrow.

Tuesday 2/12: 8:30am to 2:00pm: I love doing my civic duty! Comfortable waiting room and free tea and WiFi – I’m getting through my entire inbox while being a good citizen.

Tuesday 2/12: 2:30pm: But now I’m actually selected to be on a jury in a criminal case – despite the fact that, during voir dire, I give a botched definition of assault after admitting that I used to be a lawyer (I think I spent most of Criminal Law writing notes to Ali). And we’re brought to the 10th floor – with no WiFi, and no cell phones.

Wednesday 2/13: Spend the entire day in the jury box – and out of touch with Julep (believe it would be rude to be on cell or laptop while in the jury box. Didn’t ask our lovely bailiff about that for sure (there are plugs in the jury box . . .) but I’ve never seen that happen in a movie).

Thursday 2/14: Drop off red blankets for Valentine’s Day at Jeanne’s house for her to bring to the parlor. Then off to deliberation. Wow we deliberate for 7 hours. I’m so inspired by my fellow jurors. We work through the evidence, read the jury instructions over and over, and walk through each juror’s concerns one by one. We’re all VERY different, but there is something about this civic duty thing that pulls us together and creates an instant bond. And our foreman is amazing. Such a natural leader – able to pull each of us into the conversation, bring out common themes, and challenge weak assumptions without challenging the individual putting them forward. We start off with very different opinions, but gradually come to consensus and then unanimity. I’m really in love with the idea of community, in all its forms.

By now it’s been two fully days in a row that I’ve been out of touch with Julep – and lots of progress has been made by all while I've been celebrating the judicial process with my fellow jurors.

It’s a little distressing that practically every investor I speak with asks me what would happen if I got hit by a bus (and I suppose they’re not asking what kind of flowers they should send). But I am always amazed by the community we have working on building a Julep we can all be proud of. It’s taking a village, and I’m loving that.

Commitment to optimism

Starting – and growing – a company like Julep is a journey in optimism. Everyday, I have to ask myself what I believe in, what I care about, and where I draw the line. Everyday I recommit to building a community that brings out the best in our guests and employees.

I am amazed the diversity of challenges we face daily. From our online cash drawer deciding to play hide and seek, to financing, malfunctioning equipment and the inevitable communication issues that arise when you’re growing quickly, I am stretching organizational and emotional muscles that I didn’t even know I had (which is WAY more than can be said for my nonexistent physical muscles . . .).

We are surely not the first, nor will we be the last, group of people to face such challenges. I’ve learned, for example, that schlepping laundry in taxi cabs across the city is par for the course for spas.

But I’m hopeful that we’re different in the way we address these hurdles. With honesty, engagement, and a commitment to making things better for each other in the future.

These were just ideas until the team came along. Now they are actual faces.

I’m learning that building hope together, even in our own small corner of the universe, is a huge responsibility. I am mindful of how fragile trust can be, and how easily miscommunication or lack of clarity can overwhelm the best of intentions.

But I’m also reminded, each day, of how powerful optimism can be, especially when it’s fought for and earned.

I recognize that this earnest pursuit of betterment is killing my ability to engage in cocktail banter. I'm losing my lawyer's ability to deliver cynical zingers from the sidelines. It may also be killing my ability to write in anything other than Oprah-ese. But we’re worth it.

Means vs. Ends

I've always been a goal-oriented, ends-focused kind of gal.

But now, more than ever, I'm realizing how important it is to pay attention to the means - the processes and organzation that support our goals.

As we grow, the WAY we do things is becoming as important as WHAT we are trying to do. The way we do things holds as much meaning in defining who we are as what we are trying to accomplish.

This is hard for me.

As Jean Koh Peters, one of my law school professors, once told me, our strengths are the flip side of the coin of our weaknesses. (I think this is a really helpful way to see the world. Our weaknesses are not random holes to be patched - they are often alternate manifestations of the things we're good at).

My strength is my ability to imagine and build a path to an end goal. But my related weakness is my inability to see the path as a goal in and of itself.

As we build Julep as a community - both for out guests and for employees, I am trying to be mindful of the HOW as well as the WHAT. I'm hopeful that this will make me a stronger, more thoughtful human being in other aspects of my life.

Julep - coming to downtown Seattle

Yes, it has been a long time since anything new has appeared on this blog. But it's not for lack of exciting developments at Julep!

We had a very busy holiday season - hosting at least one party a day all through December. Thank you to everyone who celebrated the holidays with us. We loved being part of your special gifts and gatherings. (One of my favorite holiday stories is that we had one mother who bought a gift certificate for her daughter, and the next day, that same daughter came in to buy a gift certificate for her mother! And then they both came in together in January).

And last week we signed the lease for this spot in downtown Seattle at 5th and Pike - next to Betsy Johnson and diagonally across the street from Banana Republic (as well as the new Aldo store). By summer, all women downtown will have their own place to "Julep".

We've also opened our Support Center at the top of Queen Anne Hill. We're sharing office space with JS Backer Company (thank you thank you Fred!) - which has meant that we've been able to move all of our Julep inventory out of my house. (Unfortunately, I hit my husband's new car in the excitement of the move. . . but it's not that big a scratch, so net-net, I believe he's happier).

For those of you who keep checking back into this blog - thank you for hanging in there. I just realized the other day that it's been over a year of entries. This blog has helped me to get through ups and downs bigger than I could ever have imagined - and many more of them in any given day than I could ever have anticipated.

And I'm sure there are many more to come. But the biggest difference between now and last year is that there are so many more amazing individuals on this boat with me. I'm absolutely sure that there is no better team to accomplish what we're setting out to do than the creative, dedicated and passionate people I have the good fortune to work with.

Julep's First Snow

Reported by Kate.