"Daddy is Helping People"

I didn't become a parent until I was 35 years old. One of the benefits of not becoming a parent until later in life is it allowed me to watch everyone around me parent. As I watched, I noticed one trend that disturbed me. Kids would freak out when their parents went to work. To an extent, I understood this. Kids want to be with their parents.....period. However, I noticed something else. Whenever the topic came up, it was communicated in some variation of the following: "I have to go to work." 

Two things stand out about this phrase. First, "have to" designates it's not a choice. The parent must do it, even if they don't want to. Work = bad. Second, the word "work" doesn't have much context. Small children may not fully understand this word, and later it will be merely understood by the child as a "job," or something you do for money. 

I decided to change the narrative when I became a father. From the time Finn and Pax were babies, we never used the phrase "go to work." Instead, it was always "go help people." When the kids eventually began to verbally converse, Sarah didn't say, "Daddy has to go work." It was, "Daddy is helping people." It may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but the difference is staggering.....especially for kids. 

My kids don't always like when I leave to "go help people," but they understand it at a deeper level. They know I do it because a) I want to help people, b) helping people is a good thing, and c) helping people results in money that we can use to pay the bills, give, and do fun things. Work = good.

It all came full circle yesterday. The Northern Vessel farmer's market crew was down a man, so TJ asked if I'd be willing to be the third man (who makes sure the ice, cups, lids, and all other supplies are constantly stocked so the other two can serve people with hospitality and efficiency). I told him I would, but I needed to have the kids with me since Sarah was traveling. What an excellent opportunity to put the kids to the test! I was a bit nervous going in, but they absolutely blew me away! They worked hard, stayed focused, accomplished the mission, and had fun doing it. They worked their little butts off.....and it was a lot! At some point in the morning, Finn looked over to me and said, "Daddy, I love helping people. I'm having so much fun. I wish we could do it longer." 

So many good things have come out of this mission to redefine "work" with our kids:

• A desire to serve people

• An appreciation and respect for the importance of work

• A desire to take on challenging work

• The enjoyment of work

It was a wonderful day, and I’m so glad I was able to experience that with them.

You Don't Know Until You Know

Several years ago, I was listening to an Adam Carolla podcast when a caller asked an interesting question. This was shortly after Adam had released his second documentary film. To paraphrase, the caller asked, "How did you know how to make a documentary?" Adam's response was simple, but profound. "I didn't know how to make a documentary until I made a documentary. Then I knew how to make a documentary."

In other words, we don't know how to do something until we do it. There's rarely a playbook for us to reference. Instead, we must simply act. One foot in front of the other, step by step. We don't know what we don't know.....until we know it.

I bring up this topic today because of our big announcement last night. After several months of development, we're introducing our first canned beverage at Northern Vessel. It's a variation of our signature Oat Milk Cold Brew Latte. This has been one of TJ's visions for many years now, and it's surreal to see it materialize in front of our eyes.

Truth is, none of us know how to make a canned beverage. TJ knows how to make an amazing cold brew latte in the shop (which he's perfected over the last 4+ years), but creating a canned version is an entirely different animal. We don't know what we don't know.....until we know. After many meetings with food scientists, flavor chemists, and canning experts, we've finally finished the first iteration of our inaugural product. In the words of Adam Carolla, we didn't know how to make a canned beverage until we made a canned beverage. Now we know how to make a canned beverage.

This is one of my favorite things about TJ. He's as equally fearless as he is humble. He has no idea what he's doing, the humility to know he has no idea what he's doing, and the courage to figure it out. I wish I could can this energy (see what I did there?) and pass it around to all the people I know. It's ok to not know how to do something, but that shouldn't stop us from trying. I had no idea how to make a podcast.....until I had a podcast. I had no idea how to coach people.....until I started coaching people. I had no idea how to start a company.....until I started a company. One foot in front of the other, step by step. First we do it poorly, then we do it average, then we do it good, then we do it great. There are no shortcuts. We don’t know until we know.

Today's challenge: Find something you don't know how to do, then do it.

Work That Matters Matters

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of spending the morning with our Northern Vessel Coffee team at the Des Moines Farmer’s Market. This market is one of the top markets in the country and welcomes more than 20,000 visitors every Saturday morning. Being invited to participate in the market this year was a huge win and honor for the business, and an opportunity we don’t take lightly.

When the idea rose to the surface, two of our full-time guys immediately stepped up and said they wanted to take ownership of it. This is a tremendous amount of work! The brewing, the prep, the transportation, the setup, the actual market, the teardown, and the part where they do it again next week (for 25 more weeks). The operation is primarily run through those two guys, but a third person (my job this week) is needed to help keep the train on the tracks by making sure they have ice, cups, lids, kegs, and everything else constantly stocked. After all, the market is pure madness and they can easily go two hours without even a 10-second break. They ended up killing 14 kegs of our signature oat milk cold brew lattes.

One thing is clear. Those two guys were ground to a pulp by the time it was over and we had finally loaded all our gear back into the truck. Here’s the thing, though. They were living their best life. The entire time, they served people well and did it with a passion you could read on their faces. Their work matters to them. It matters deeply. I see it in the shop, and I see it at the market. The entire team, and these two guys in this particular scenario, are driven to excellence and believe in the mission. They aren’t serving coffee…..they are adding value to people’s lives. They are injecting joy, hospitality, community, and yes, some tasty coffee, into people’s day.

This is the beautiful part about work. All work matters, but not all work matters to you or to me. We are each called to identify, pursue, and embrace work that matters to each of us. Not fun work. Not easy work. Not simple work. Not status-driven work. Not lucrative work. Not glamorous work. Work that matters. Work that moves the needle in our lives. Work that we’re excited to do when we wake up in the morning and feel fulfilled in when we’re going to bed later that night.

My favorite moment was towards the end of the day. The market had closed and we were nearly done packing up the Truck with all our gear to take back to the shop. The two guys, beat red from a combination of the sun and five hours of straight grind, looked at each other and smiled. They had just done something special, together, had the time of their lives doing it, and felt a sense of fulfillment for what just happened. Work that matters, man! Work that matters.

Try, Try, Try Again

One of the primary drivers of my partnering with Northern Vessel and becoming a part owner was the business plan to launch of weekly bottle subscription service. Through our proprietary app, people could subscribe to a recurring monthly membership that would provide them with one 64-ounce bottle of our signature cold brew latte each week. I knew this idea was gold, and I was willing to invest my time and money into it.

Three months into the program, it completely failed. Not only was it not a wild success, but it wasn’t even a little bit successful. It bombed, to be frank. I still believe in the idea as much as I did back when we were formulating the business plan, but our execution didn’t give our customers what they wanted, how they wanted it. In our model, people were committing to their bottle every week, on a specific day. There was no way for them to skip when traveling out of town, nor was there a way for them to buy additional bottles when they wanted extra. Requiring pick-up on a certain day also caused inconveniences for people’s schedules and logistics. Lastly, the price tag of $120/month was simply too high for most people. They were getting a fantastic deal for what they were getting, but $120 is still $120. In other words, there were a lot of reasons for people to say “no”…….and that’s exactly what they did.

Every ounce of us wanted to hold onto the idea and try to jam a square peg in a round hole, partly out of conviction and partly out of pride. But we need to listen to the customer. They don’t want that program. They spoke with their actions……or lack thereof. This week we introduced a new program. Instead of people committing to a large sum of money for a certain amount of product, they are committing $10/month to become a club member……which has many benefits to choose from (one of which is an attractive discount on our 64-ounce bottles of cold brew latte). That’s the beauty of this new model. People can use the membership in a way that best suits their lifestyle, schedule, and interests.

Here’s the kicker. This program will allow us to accomplish the same goal as the original model, but better. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback and say we should have done it this way from the start, but that would be unfair. We didn’t know what we didn’t know. We learned a lot through this experience (er, failure). It has allowed us to put together an even better program that meets people’s desires. Will this new program succeed? I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out!

That’s the importance of trying, trying, and trying again. If we admit failure, be willing to humble ourselves, learn from our mistakes, and try something new, we’ll ultimately end up in a far better place!

We Can't Just Skip to the Good Part

A while back, I was talking to my Meaning Over Money business partner, Cole Netten. We were talking about the podcast and how much traction we’ve gained with it. In that chat, I made a comment about how, in some ways, I wish we would have just started our business with the podcast instead of some of the other less-successful endeavors. I quickly realized how naive this comment was. Truth is, the podcast couldn’t have existed had we not been through all the other things. The thesis behind Meaning Over Money wouldn’t have been vetted like it is now. I wouldn’t have been able to clearly communicate ideas via video and audio on the podcast had we not done some of our earlier media projects (I was a hot mess in our early productions!). Even the name Meaning Over Money wouldn’t exist had we not worked on those earlier projects. None of what we have today would be possible without what we went through. We can’t just skip to the good part.

Yesterday, the Des Moines Register did a full-page story about my friend and Northern Vessel business partner, TJ Rude. I was a bit surprised by how vulnerable TJ was about his past failures and burnout. The birth of his coffee dream was full of so much hope and optimism, but just two years later he announced the closure of his shop and the potential end of his dream. Today, not only is Northern Vessel back, but it’s taken our metro by storm. Four years after its original launch, TJ has created something truly special…..and there’s no telling where it will go from here. In many ways, I suspect TJ wishes he could have just skipped to the good part. However, none of what he has today, or even who he is as a person, would be remotely possible had he not gone through everything before it. We can’t just skip to the good part…..and we should be grateful for that.