Wow. I just read my press release. I wrote one and sent it out to some friends and colleagues for feedback. So, the press release is *not* the one I had originally crafted. No, it is WAY better and super amazing. Mine totally was outdone. I can’t wait to send it out tomorrow to the regional and national media. Woot woot! And just think: you knew about WeatherVane Creamery before the cool kids figured it out.
Another amazing thing that happened today was that WeatherVane Creamery got its second employee, Erin (I am the first). Erin is a dear friend and colleague of mine and I have worked on a few other projects with her. She recently became available and WeatherVane Creamery is so blessed to have her on the team. She will be managing the “project” of opening and keeping me on task. And I don’t know where I came up with the idea. Maybe it was when I changed my own title from “Owner” to “Visionary Extraordinaire”, but I decided that employees of WeatherVane will be able to make their own titles. Having been a Manager at multiple places, I know the pitfalls of having a group of folks with the same title. There is a lot of pointing of fingers at those who aren’t doing certain tasks and about who is getting paid so much to do the same job that everyone thinks they are doing the best at. And over time, I figured out that no one does everything the best and that it is more important to have a team of various talents. Some people are really great workhorses that enjoy taking a toothbrush to that dark, dank cranny behind the backstock refrigerator while others are really great at getting to know customers and draw people back again and again. Both of those people are important. To put an equal value on either job is silly. And how cool would it be to make your own title? As long as the toilet gets cleaned at the end of the day, I don’t care who does it. Erin and I deliberated for over a half an hour with a thesaurus (or rather, dictionary.com) and we came up with Chief of Operations Fulfillment. I get to call her “Chief”. No hierarchy. Everyone is the best at what they do and as time goes on their talents are discovered and, hey, change the title! I can’t wait to see how it plays out when WeatherVane has a staff of ten or twenty. Ownership, Empowerment, and Team all rolled into one. Yay!
And here are the numbers:
367 youtube views, $597 indiegogo, 17 indiegogo funders, 565 indiegogo views, 18 indiegogo favorites, 108 fb fans, $1,000 private loans, $1,597 total funded