Dear Readers, an Update

A Personal Shift in My Newsletter

Today, I’m sharing a little update about this newsletter {originally posted on Substack} and properly introducing myself.?

The Update

Hello there! Thank y’all so much for subscribing and following me on this journey. After some deep reflection, I will be morphing this Substack into a more intimate space where I will share a mixture of personal essays about my time growing up in the restaurant business, developing my career, venturing into entrepreneurship, and becoming a mom along the way. Personal essays will always be?free and available to all subscribers.

I will also continue to write articles about things that I feel are important, and that I’ve thought deeply about in terms of organizational culture and leadership through the nuanced lens of hospitality. Some articles?may remain free, while others that are more in-depth may be available to?paid subscribers only.

Finally, I plan to start writing a book primarily aimed at training my team leaders at?Hattie Jane’s Creamery, who tend to be first-time managers or still green in their leadership career. As I write, I will be sharing bits and pieces here to?paid subscribers only. I plan to edit the finished product to be more generalized and put it out to the world as a complete book at some point down the road.

{Note: Subscription options are a Substack feature, click this link to view.}

Contrary to what all the gurus tell me on LinkedIn, I will not be putting these out in any kind of predictable pattern. Why??Because of life, my friend.

Now, I don’t believe I’ve really properly introduced myself.

My name is Claire Crowell.

I own an ice cream company in the beautiful state of Tennessee called?Hattie Jane’s Creamery. We make our own ice cream in the quintessential small Southern town of Columbia, Tenn., which is about 40 minutes south of Nashville. I was born and raised in Tennessee, and my family has been here for at least seven generations.

I live on a farm in the same small town with my husband Tyler and my daughters Hattie Jane and Eliza, who at the time of this introduction are ten and seven, respectively. We have almost every farm animal that you can think of, except for horses. I’m sure that will happen at some point.

I grew up in the restaurant business. My parents owned a small market outside of Nashville in a different country town called?Puckett’s, and I worked there starting at the age of twelve through high school. After college, I came back to start as an assistant manager when we had two restaurants. I opened the third as a General Manager at the green age of 23 and eventually became the Director of Operations and then COO. We grew the restaurant group from one location to over ten and counting. Hattie Jane’s Creamery was opened along the way, and now that is what I do full time.

All of these things will, I’m sure, be featured in future essays, but that’s all for now, folks!

xx Claire

https://outoftheweeds.substack.com