A Promise

The opportunity to live up to the promises we make.

This is every business owner's dream. We create and share in hopes of spreading our message so that people may be inspired, take action and share experiences with us.

When someone walks through the doors for the first time, there’s no more faking it. That picture you posted of that beautiful latte art that was more the exception than the rule, the podcast you record about your level of service and show, the hours you painstakingly spent writing copy about what you stand for, and the change you hope to make in the world—at that moment all those things are either seen as the truth or a lie.

You’ve either kept your promise or you’ve broken it.

We don’t always mean to break our promise and no one bats a thousand, but we need to ask ourselves a couple important questions:

• Are we putting more effort into looking good than actually being good?

• Are we telling the truth?

Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. This doesn’t give us a pass to lie but it can give us the perspective we need to level up our reality.

I’m writing this from the lobby of a hotel that has broken its promise in more ways than one. I feel taken advantage of and it’s a way I hope any of our guests at Cat & Cloud never feel. The funny thing is, the experience isn’t terribly bad, it’s just miles away from the promise, and that dissonance is what’s creating the disappointment.

A brand is a promise. We can only break it so many times before our reputation precedes us and all those pretty pictures we post won’t matter anymore.