Coming along

Good evening friends. I write you on the eve of the last day of a great job. Alas tomorrow is my last day working at the Cleveland Clinic as I begin a new journey.

To be honest it has not been as easy as I thought it would be- leaving the security of such an institution when you have a family of 5 is hard enough- but when you love that institution as well and what it stands for and fights for it makes it even more difficult. I am proud to say that I have worked with the caregivers at Cleveland Clinic and have always worked hard to put patients first. It has been a pleasure to serve here!

BUT- I am excited for what is now in store- I am excited that Nexus is coming along nicely and we are still on schedule for our April 2 launch date.

Here are some exciting things going on:

- Our managers are all hired. There is of course myself- but we have also brought on Jason Hickerson as our "Event and Community Impact" manager (or some cool title like that!). Jason will be booking our many events in the venue portion as well as organizing our many volunteer projects as we literally love on Cleveland as much as we can.

Taking no back seat is Courtenay Roberts as our barista manager. I think everyone is going to be very impressed with her! She is one of the best people I have ever met! It doesn't hurt that she also has a deep passion for coffee and shares in my enthusiasm to be the best.... I can almost guarantee you that Nexus will lead the market in terms of our coffee. The menu is both pure and inventive- allowing the flavors of our coffees to shine beautifully!

- The space is coming along! I promise to share pictures soon but in short the skeleton walls of the venue space is up and will be drywalled within the next few days, cabinets are being built with reclaimed wood cut by Gateway volunteers as we speak, and the line for the fireplace is being run in the next few days. (allot more than that going on, but the rest would bore you!)

- Our website and press release are soon coming. Teams have been working tirelessly to get the content for the website done. We expect sometime within the next 10 days it will complete and the first phase will be complete. I will be sure to post on here when it is up so you can check out more info on myself, Courtenay, and Jason- see our coffee and food menu ideas- and get a taste of our vision and values. As soon as that is done we will start working phase two which will include hiring, some venue information, retail coffee, and other fun stuff.

- Speaking of Vision and Values- check out the values finally solidified by our teams. They've always been there- but it is cool to see when we actually get it on paper.

• Excellence- the simple idea that everything we do will be done with excellence. If it won't be excellent we simply won't do it. This is true from cleanliness, to quality of product, our manner of business with employees and partners, to the relationships with our friends and guests.


• Awareness- One of desires is that people be educated about what is going on around them. This involves education of coffee- how it is grown, who grows it, how it is best prepared. To our city- the needs, the opportunities. To our food chain- why buying locally is important- and more importantly becoming aware of WHO is raising our food products- on a personal level.


• Service- Coming back to the selfless act of putting others first. This will shine through in our customer service, our service projects, and simply how we run our business.


• Community- We are all in this together- none of us stands alone. We will seek to connect people to one another knowing that we can always do more as a team than as an individual.

In the end Nexus is exactly that- a nexus where these concepts collide into something that can change our city and our world. And let's be honest- doesn't your coffee taste better when you know all the profits are going strait towards this type of vision?

- Be ready for our press release- Equally exciting to the website is the fact that when it goes up we will also be doing a press release and finally getting signs in the window letting the city of Cleveland know they better get ready to be rocked!

- Our beans are almost here. Our beans are somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean right now- maybe even around to the Panama Canal as they work their way up to NYC. As exciting as that is it is even more exciting to hear the value our partnership is having in Sumatra. Through our partnership we have really been able to help and strengthen some good work over there. We are currently planning a trip for mid July where a small group can go over to help serve the community there. Please keep them in your prayers as good work rarely goes unpunished! (come one, we all know that's true!)

so much more to write- but you'll have to wait until later.......

I promise next time I'll throw up some pics.