Shoot Your Shot 🇯🇲
Humble brag alert.
My mother-in-law is proud of me. My wife is proud of me. And maybe most importantly, and rarely publicly stated, I’m proud of myself too.
Life is busy. A couple weeks ago I was walking up the stairs to my office, a big hurricane actively hitting Jamaica, feeling a strange mix of hopelessness and calm while the world spun with real problems. I walked in and saw the giant mantra on my office wall: “These are the good ol’ days.” Something I say often, but still struggle to live up to.
In that moment, I felt like I needed to do something. King of Pops is my muse for trying to do good. Our mission of making Unexpected Moments of Happiness usually means giving away pops, which we know will not fix the world, but it feels like us. Donating to the Red Cross feels less fulfilling or like we’re not doing enough. More importantly, it is not super sticky. The team can’t lean into it, and it doesn’t use the platform we’re trying to build one pop season at a time.
Giving away pops taps into the good ol’ days spirit. Pops are unnecessary in the best way. A little token that says we see you and we appreciate you. And “we” is not just me. It could be anyone connected to the brand: the team, franchisees, frosty freaks, pop slingers, even super customers.
But the pops were not going to help Jamaica. So I looked around and realized what I actually had to offer right now: pop catering for a holiday party, Christmas trees, some sparkly KOP t-shirts people always ask about, my book, and a speaking message I’m trying to grow.
So I decided to make an auction. One super mega catering with all of it. I probably should have set up some real auction software, but instead, I said: Just leave your bid in the Instagram comments. And if you don’t want the full mega prize (100 pops, a Christmas tree, 20 Work Is Fun books, and 3 sparkly tees), you can donate.
A preschool dad, Scott, who helps run Invest With Roots and Free Rent, jumped in first. Then my saint-of-a-friend, Cara, pushed through the chaos of my setup and bid mostly to support. Scott outbid her. Then Honeysuckle upped the ante and donated $850, which meant we could officially send two barrels. Then the donations kept coming!
Souper Jenny (one of our first catering customers, ironically) ended up winning the auction at $1,020!
It all happened in the spirit of helping, and putting it out into the world just felt good. And here’s my take: it hits us differently when you can actually see the impact. When it feels one or two degrees away instead of faceless. When it feels personal or even a little bit bespoke.
These barrels of supplies are going straight to our wedding planner, who will use her home as a base to distribute these basic supplies to her neighbors who need them (videos to come).
Hopefully, we can figure out how to do more of this as a brand. We’ll need your help finding the right places to lean in. We’ll need your help raising money. And we’ll need your help celebrating the UMOHs.
You’ve gotta shoot your shot. Make it one you’ll be proud of.
💛 Steve
