What a wild ride of a week it has been. Last Sunday was such a shift for everyone. From Sunday to Monday, we transformed our strategy overnight to an online-only business. Online used to be <10% of our revenue, just so you know, and now it’s 100%. We knew how to do it at a low level and we did it well enough, but this is a totally new landscape. Maybe we’ve skipped a beat or two, but I am immensely proud of my team’s performance, as well as Darcy’s and mine. We have kept cool, kept ourselves at work and made the changes necessary to feed our customers in this new world. Weathering changes is all about having the right mindset and attitude; not to say that we live in denial! We are clear-eyed and focused on cutting through the panic to find our new normal. I don’t think we are going back to the way things were.

So, with those thoughts shared… I come to you with an update on the COVID-19 version of Rebelle! We are all learning from this experience, and I have learned a lot from your feedback about what things are easy, what things are confusing, and what things need to get dropped by the side of the road. Thank you. Here we go!

Things that are easy/good/working:

• Online ordering: on the whole it works. Orders come in and get fulfilled. You’ve been eating. We hear from you that it is by far the easiest online ordering platform. Yay!

• New operating procedures for the team: We have had to rethink roles for shifts and learn each role’s duties so we can fulfill orders efficiently. It is working well so far and we are improving daily. We literally wrote the duties for all roles onto a sheet and laminated it for each station. Anyone caught “trying to help” someone else is (figuratively) slapped on the wrist. We have to stay in our respective lanes until we have mastered the dance! Then we can criss-cross for efficiencies.

• We are putting out the good vibes on the ‘gram: I have never spent so much time on Instagram. It is definitely not my personal vibe but I can see that you respond to it and I love a good feedback loop. Our engagement is through the roof! Giving you content is feeding my creativity and allowing me to be a bit of a silly goose. Most days, I perform Serious Business Milena who is a stickler for the rules and holds high standards and crunches numbers. Not now! I love, love, love making people laugh and bouncing positive energy off of others. THANK YOU!

• Creative business strategy! When I am uncertain about the future, I go HARD AF. Let’s try everything (*everything that makes sense)! We tried delivering orders ourselves this weekend, which was a rollercoaster of fun and anguish. It reminds me so much of the hectic frenzy of the pop-up days in 2017. We want to do it again with some mods, but still: it is so much fun to give ourselves the space to do stuff that normally would get de-prioritized. Anything goes now! I love this game.

Things that are confusing:

• Confusing menu items: As of today, the item “Just a Bagel” is discontinued in favor of “BUILD YOUR OWN”. Those of you who want a single bagel with nothing done to it will have to work harder, because enough people are getting confused ordering and we want to be super sure. Executive decision *insert gavel slamming*. So many orders came in for single bagels for $2, and then people wrote in the notes that they wanted it prepared with cream cheese or something. People who want a bagel with cream cheese actually should order a “BUILD YOUR OWN” so that they are charged for the bagel AND the spread ($4) or whatever else they want done to it. We will mitigate confusion by removing choices. Perhaps the mods/additions also get whittled down a bit to get you on the right train of ordering, which means we can execute exactly what you order. Ask us any questions prior to ordering! Happy to help so we get it right on the first go.

• Communicating things that are moving in real time. Here’s what I imagine my emails sound like to people: “WE HAVE DELIVERY! […] DELIVERY IS CANCELED! […] ORDER AHEAD!” Sorry, y’all. I bet that is mega exhausting. There are too many right now: email, facebook, Insta posts, Insta stories, voice phone, text… I am brainstorming ways to find the most effective means of communicating. Stick by me.

• Online ordering with folks who are less Internet-savvy: I have seen more flip phones than a Metro PCS this week. I’ve met people who think email is the whole internet – I wish, we’d all have more time on our hands if that was true! We have done some video tutorials on Insta/FB story… but maybe the people on social media are the savviest anyway. For sure, for sure: cracking this nut is a priority for the coming week. We’ll be doing tutorials and FAQ’s across many media.

Things that need to be let go:

• The small things: Moments of crisis require absolutely focused energy. We cannot afford to waste any energy on getting off track, getting anxious, or getting wrapped up in a bad feedback loop. If we have disappointed you by not fulfilling a request: I am so sorry and I’ll have to live with that for now. We are doing our best to serve you! It is a different world today than the one we were working in last week.

• Slower-moving menu items: Salmon Salad, you’re fired! Slow mover! No time for you in our production schedule until further notice. Let’s come up with a different salad. Chicken salad? A tuna salad I don’t hate? I’m game!

• Any tasks that are not directly connected to our survival: Anything that doesn’t directly keep our team in good shape is not essential right now, sorry. Friends, I miss you! (My best friend Joey & his husband Casey drove from Boston today to order breakfast and I never saw them!) Sleep is on short supply, but still enough to restore the mind and body. Workouts are gone but long walks around 02906 are here. Love running into y’all around the neighborhood. Interviewing team candidates is on hold but you best believe I still read your resumes! That’s the new game. I wake up, I grind, I go to sleep. (Little Sister is like… crawling along. Bear with me, though, because it is going to be super cute in there.)

If you’ve read this far, maybe you will feel motivated by my words: Crises are moments that test us as leaders. What version of you will show up best? I have been watching with wild curiosity to see how others respond to the crisis. I’ve gotten some great ideas from talking to friends in other businesses. When everyone is looking to others for direction, there is an opportunity to lead – do we freeze in place, or do we figure out where to go? Day by day, I am pushing myself to lead and figuring out where is good for Rebelle to go. This is what keeps me showing up for you every morning. So far, the response is that we should keep going and the support is there. Thank you for trusting us!

Cheers!