Staying Ready

I’ll start this week by saying that I feel terrible. I think one of my children got me sick and I feel worse than I did on Friday night. There is something going around so don’t forget all your COVID protocols, most of all wash your hands.

Today, I wanted to share a quick memory that I had while I was making everyone dinner tonight despite feeling like the sole of someone’s shoe. If you’re wondering why Nick didn’t make dinner, you should know that he made it yesterday while I laid in bed from 2pm to 10am this morning. He, too, felt unwell. I rallied tonight in response.

Zadie and I at the end of our most family recent board meeting moments before sickness set in.

So here’s the memory…when I was fresh out of grad school, I was actively looking for work. It was the summer of ‘08 and the curatorial jobs were not falling from the sky. I ended up landing a contract gig with a small non-profit called The Laundromat Project. At that time, I was working for the organization while working as a curatorial fellow at The Kitchen. Neither job, as amazing as they were, paid much so I was still trying to figure out what my next job job would be. Spoiler alert: The Laundromat Project ended up hiring me as their first employee the following year.

In any event, I was setting up informational interviews with as many curators in my network as possible in the hopes of landing something more permanent or at least learning something from them that would help me land the next thing. I met with curator Naomi Beckwith who was serving on The Laundromat Project’s Board of Directors at the time. I asked her for any advice should she could impart on a young curator. She said to always be ready with at least five exhibitions that you could put up at a moment’s notice. You never know who has an exhibition opportunity and if one fell in your lap, you should be ready to pull from one of those stashed ideas to bring it to life.

I’m not organizing any exhibitions now but that advice is evergreen.

Pics of our newest location...Stuyvestant Town/Peter Cooper Village! We're opening this Wednesday. Help spread the word!

In an entrepreneurial context, one should always be ready to bring their concept to a new location if asked. Systems and standard operating procedures are required to be ready.

Nick and I have been working on building systems and standard operating procedures in Sugar Hill Creamery for the last couple of years so we can stay ready for anything that comes.

We have a ways to go but, I’m pleased to announce that we will be soft launching a new location from a cute vintage ice cream truck located in Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village this coming Wednesday, June 12th. Our hard launch which will include fun activities for the kids will be the following week.

This makes five locations for us and we got the call less than a month ago.

If you’re a parent, staying ready looks like you not being the braintrust on how everything gets done in your house. It looks like having procedural info accessible to others who may need it or having multiple people (partners, kids, other family members, and even friends) trained in the various domestic functions of your home. None of us should be doing it all. It’s not healthy and it doesn’t allow us to be in a readiness posture for anything life throws at us.

I know this is easier said than done, but let’s work on it together.

Petrushka
Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach