What I Sent: Team Email on March 5, 2021
Every Friday I email the entire Batch team with a series of updates about the company, including what I’m learning and how I’m applying that to leading. Here is the email for Friday, March 5, 2021.
A year ago today felt like a lot of fun. After a few hard days of cleaning, inventorying, painting, rearranging, and staying out of the way of the guys replacing windows, our store reopened following the tornado. (I recounted that experience from my viewpoint in this week's blog post.)
Thinking back on that frantic week, I remember chowing down on Loveless lunch after Crystal was kind enough to bring food over for the team. I remember hoping Heather wouldn't quit (she'd only just joined the team two days earlier) as she spent hours going through soggy flannel shirts and cleaning out a very dirty back-of-house. And I remember finally getting to reopen on a Friday morning, having overcome yet another small business challenge.
Of course, a bigger, more prolonged storm was coming that would permanently close our store. But in that moment I took a deep breath, impressed yet again with a team that was willing to do hard things.
Scott Galloway, author and professor, believes that a business's strategy is simply how it answers the following question: What can we do that is really hard?
Yesterday I had a conversation with a business owner who was impressed by our ability to offer such detailed levels of customization. Branded products, stamped boxes, handwritten notes, recipient collation, overnight shipping - we seem to be able to offer and pull off a myriad of options when it comes to orders that are anything but ordinary. And in the gift space, I'm finding that this is really hard and so a lot of our competitors don't do it. You know what we did this week?
We overnighted seven boxes to New Jersey to New Mexico, filled with bundt cakes and QR coded insert cards so that our client could pitch their clients on gift sets for their upcoming virtual launch
We worked with vendors to get items to us quickly, sourced alternative products, and then quickly packed and shipped boxes that would utterly delight the folks who are doing good work. In fact, they said:
What incredible news! I can’t tell you how truly gobsmacked we are by this above-and-beyond gesture. This is the best definition of partnership that we can imagine. Supporting local, minority-owned businesses whenever possible is a core value of our company, and you have exceeded our wildest expectations! This picture is full of joy and pride in how committed your team is to delivering a meaningful experience. Heartfelt thanks from your neighbors in Pittsburgh. You have won customers for life!
We re-curated and re-photographed custom gift sets for repeat corporate clients so they can send the perfect gift to their clients and customers
And no doubt there are dozens of more ways any of us went above and beyond for our customers, clients, and each other.
We can do hard things. The magic is that we make them look not-so-hard. And that strategy is taking us places.
