I Am Not a We
When I talk about The Kitchen as a business- in conversation, on a podcast, a TV interview- I always catch myself saying“we” instead of “I”. WE are opening in February, WE are going to have childcare back eventually, WE are working on launching a digital platform soon.
In actuality, for most of my journey with The Kitchen, it’s been just ME. At the beginning, it took me a long time to adjust to thinking of myself as the one and only. It didn’t register with my inner thoughts for a very long time that, in the literal sense, the business was just “I”. My entire professional life I had been a part of a team that was always there to lean on when I had questions or roadblocks. Someone else to lean on when things were not going right, or someone else to celebrate the victories with. Someone else to blame all of the problems on. Someone else to depend on for the income and the stability.
Emily Grace Photography
But now as a business owner, and for the first time in my life- everything started and stopped with me. Yikes. So why did I keep referring to this non-existent team when I spoke of my business? Why did I subconsciously keep acting and speaking as if MY business was belonging to more than just I?
There was a pretty simple answer: because it was never just me. Even at the most beginning and basic stages of The Kitchen, this has never been about just me. I had an incredibly supportive boyfriend and WE nurtured the idea of The Kitchen into a business plan. After I launched the business plan into the universe, it felt as if the whole universe had my back. The community of people around me showed up in ways I never could have dreamed, and because of their help WE were able to open the first location of The Kitchen. This business has never left me on an island. The community aspect of this space is so engrained in to every fiber of what WE do. There was that full circle moment of horror that I and I alone could mess this ALL up, but then the amazing realization that the people around me just wouldn’t let that happen. The Kitchen is most definitely a WE.
None of us are made to go at this alone- in business or in life. At The Kitchen, we are here to help instill that feeling of constant and built-in community for you. When you are here, your journey is never unsupported.