Serving a Community

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Kim Malek, CEO and Co-Founder of Salt & Straw, shares her journey of quitting a successful corporate career to open an artisanal ice cream shop designed around community.

 
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Episode Notes

Kim Malek, CEO and Co-Founder of Salt & Straw, shares her journey of quitting a successful corporate career to open an artisanal ice cream shop designed around community. Kim talks about early family experiences that left her wanting to be an entrepreneur, but feeling reluctant to chase her dream. She talks about starting her career as a barista at Starbucks when the company had just 30 stores, and how she went on to learn from roles at Yahoo!, Adidas, and Starbucks corporate. She shares what she learned from her career roles that helped her in starting her own business - and the pivotal moment that gave her the push to pursue her ice cream dream.

Kim shares her philosophy of community-centered business and how partnering with her local community helped the business differentiate and succeed. She talks about Salt and Straw’s creative process for working with the community to create ice creams that tell a local story in respective communities. And she shares her perspectives on the superpowers of women as leaders and on the power of ignoring advice to forge one’s own path.

Guest Bio

An industry leader and innovator, Kim Malek is the CEO and Co-Founder of the Portland-based Salt & Straw Ice Cream. Since its founding in 2011, Malek has built Salt & Straw from a humble ice cream cart into a fast-growing company with 21 locations along the West Coast while retaining its bones as a family-run company known for its culture of hospitality. Malek is a humble and passionate leader, engaged member of the community, and a champion for causes such as childhood hunger and equal rights.

Prior to launching Salt & Straw, Malek held positions at Starbucks Coffee, Yahoo!, adidas and Gardenburger in marketing, community outreach, and product management and development. She also worked with Bono of U2 on an online music service (RED) and with Seattle’s Cupcake Royale, specializing in retail marketing and management and bringing new, epicurean trends to market.

Malek founded Salt & Straw to create neighborhood gathering places. The Oregonian named Salt & Straw as one of Oregon’s Top Workplaces in both 2014 and 2015.

Building Blocks

Write down one thing you'd love to be able to build or create one day. And then, as a second step, write down what you think you need to do before you start building or creating. Then, finally, take a look at that list and circle the 3 things you'll commit to doing next year, in 2021, to make progress toward putting your idea into the world.

Yes, I may be the first person to have asked you for a new year's resolution. But hey, 2021 is literally one of the freshest starts to a calendar year that a lot of us have ever had in our lives, and I want you all to jump into it with energy and ambition. And to do your thing to make your part of the world a better place.

Helpful Links

+ Episode Transcript

Kim Malek [00:00:06] I was standing at the cart and I mean, I could touch one side to the other with both hands and I got this call from this woman to say, so I'm with The Wall Street Journal and I had your ice cream and I want to do a review. But our editor wants to make sure you can have national distribution before we run the story. And I thought, oh, my God, I wish you could see me right now. I mean, Tyler literally just pulled up with his blue Subaru with a cooler on the top of it, delivering ice cream. And I said, what do you mean national distribution? And she said, well, you know, I believe she used the words mail order. Well, mail order. And I said, oh, I'm sure we could do that. We launched a website and started shipping all over the United States and we knew we could figure it out. And then we just did it like we kind of jumped and started building the parachute as we were falling through the sky.

Jesse Purewal [00:01:06] From Qualtrics Industries. This is Breakthrough Builders, a series of conversations with people whose passions, perspectives, instincts and ideas fuel some of the world's most amazing products, brands and experiences.

Jesse Purewal [00:01:24] I'm Jesse Purewal. Today on the show, how Kim Malek built the courage to dust off a 13 year old dream to create salt and straw and grew it into a hub for connection, community and fearless flavors of ice cream.

Jesse Purewal [00:01:45] Kim, it's so great to be with you. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast.

Kim Malek [00:01:48] I can't believe this is like time travel. I get to sit here with you. It's so fun.

Jesse Purewal [00:01:54] Well, thanks so much for doing it. Can you start off by making sure everybody here is on common ground? You're the president, CEO and founder of this remarkably cool company called Salt and Straw. For those that have not yet gotten the distinctive pleasure of the Salt and Straw experience, please enlighten.

Kim Malek [00:02:11] Well, thank you. Yeah. So we I started Salt and Straw with my cousin about 10 years ago and we have twenty one scoop shops up and down the West Coast, including one in Disneyland. And we're coming through covid here and about to open five more, including two shops in Miami. So we're heading to the East Coast and happy things are looking up. So we're hopeful for the future.

Jesse Purewal [00:02:38] Well, Kim, before we go to the future, take me to the past. Take me all the way back to the start. Where are you from? Where'd you grow up when it all began for you?

Kim Malek [00:02:45] So I grew up in Billings, Montana. It's the big, biggest city in Montana. I think there's one hundred thousand people. So it's it's a really big, big city. And I you know, when I was growing up there, they call it the big sky country, and it really is Big Sky. I mean, if anybody spent any time there, it's it's stunning. And I was lucky enough to be kind of a free range kids. So I was running in the streets in Montana with my pals and our our our bikes. And I think that experience just always stuck with me in terms of just being part of a community and having that feeling that you really fit in. So it was it was a wonderful childhood.

Jesse Purewal [00:03:25] So if I'd met you at 10, 11 years old up in Big Sky Country, who's the Kim that I would have run into that.

Kim Malek [00:03:33] I always laugh because I specifically remember this summer I was taking summer camp and I can remember sitting in the green grass and reading Peggy Noonan's book. She was the speechwriter for Reagan. And I was really into politics. You know, my parents especially coming out of this election season. I just my parents and I ended up on different sides of the political aisle. But what they did leave me with was just massive passion for politics and just wanting to really use my superpowers to make the world a better place. I think that's what I was really inspired to do.

Jesse Purewal [00:04:08] That's pretty cool. And I've read that you came up with the idea for what would become salt and straw, which didn't open until the end of the first decade of the twins. I've read that you came up with that idea as early as the mid nineties. And so going back to thinking about community and politics and what you learned from from your family, what were the things that made you think even at that young age, at that start of your career, that an ice cream shop, a scoop shop could be something to make the world a better place?

Kim Malek [00:04:41] All through my early days at Starbucks, I started at Starbucks when there were thirty stores. So Salt and Street has twenty one right now. So it's not that different of a of a place which is mind blowing to me. So I started at Starbucks when there were thirty stores. It was a pretty small company. My parents were worried. I didn't get a very good job out of college and I was getting to have some pretty special experiences with helping grow this idea, and at one point I ended up living in Portland, Oregon. And for those of you who've been here, it's just it's a really special place when it comes to that idea of community. I just I'm still best friends with some people that I literally met walking down the street. There's not a lot of big Fortune 500 companies here. So we people tend to really connect and come together to create things. It's very grassroots, I guess I would say, here in Portland. So well, I was living here in the mid 90s. For some reason, I could see really clearly that that idea of community could be brought to life through an ice cream shop. And they started looking for real estate. And I even started working on a business plan. And as things sort of progressed, I decided I had a really good day job and I should keep it. My dad had gone bankrupt running his own business when I was in college, actually, and it was pretty awful. It was a really scary experience for me and my family. And so even though I always had this entrepreneur and kind of changed the world passion, it felt like a safer move to keep working and having somebody else kind of worry about the the bigger implications to whether or not we stay in business or not.

Jesse Purewal [00:06:26] So you start your career at some companies, some brands that must have been the envy of so many people around you, Yahoo! Adidas, eventually Starbucks, as you mentioned, and you've got the ice cream idea in the back of your head. But for the moment, you go headlong into the marketing world. So what was life like in those first steps of your career?

Kim Malek [00:06:48] Yeah, I mean, I think I did I was able to keep that entrepreneurial spirit alive. When I left Starbucks, I went to Yahoo! And it was in the early days when we were starting to get this new category going called auctions. And again, I mean, there might not seem like a lot of connections between auctions and coffee, but believe it or not, it's community based and it's bringing something new to the world. So I was able to do that at both of those jobs. And I think that that that passion for really changing and improving the world and giving people a voice and in their experience was sort of that through line and having that entrepreneurial spirit, I was able to kind of keep that alive. So I think those were sort of the the areas that rang true. And just getting to work with these trailblazers who were creating something that nobody had ever seen, it was pretty exciting.

Jesse Purewal [00:07:42] And talk a little bit about how you experienced the idea of community Starbucks as it grew and as you took on more roles there. Famously the third place idea and being able to say, you know, that it is a global company with community roots and. But what did you see as the company grew that was both really exciting, but maybe challenging in a way that you thought community for you could have a different type of definition.

Kim Malek [00:08:13] I can remember sitting in a room and that was pretty early in the company's history. And Howard Schultz talking about how we have a duty and an opportunity now more than ever to provide a place where people can come together and find common ground and support each other and have coffee in the coffee house could be about the trading ideas and being this neutral place in your community. And I was really moved by that idea. And I think that as time went on and the company continued to grow, I wouldn't say that we that we lost that. But what I found for me personally was as the company got bigger and bigger, you know, you're in rooms with people who everybody's really smart and they want to put their finger on what we're doing. And it's harder and harder to really keep that entrepreneurial like I can. I have a vision and I want to go try it. So how to navigate that in a big company environment just became really hard for me. And so I kind of kept looking for that next opportunity that would allow me more, I guess, creative freedom. And that's probably why I ended up taking those next steps that I did well.

Jesse Purewal [00:09:30] And I can remember when we worked together at Starbucks, the times you spent on airplanes and back to New York and strategic partnerships you were working on. I think when people think Starbucks, sometimes they think, oh, you're managing basically a business of retail stores. And that's a hugely important part of it. But to keep growth up at a company of Starbucks size, you're into so many different types of businesses that could, you know, in fairness, pull one away from the notion of community in order to keep up growth.

Kim Malek [00:10:01] Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I mean, I remember my favorite moment. Working there were when I knew local communities and was part of that spirit and I ended up instead kind of working on new technologies and like you said, flying internationally to negotiate deals, which was super exciting and interesting. And I think it gave me enough to be dangerous with starting my own company, but less ability to be on the front lines.

Jesse Purewal [00:10:27] So you decided to start sorting straw and two thousand nine. Was there a moment when you realized you finally needed to and felt empowered to make it happen? Or was it the accumulation of these kinds of experiences over time?

Kim Malek [00:10:42] It was totally a moment. I was actually living in Seattle and commuting to New York. I had started working for RED, which is the company Bono started to raise money for AIDS in Africa, and it felt like the perfect combination of this sort of political and nonprofit world in the business world. And it was in a lot of ways, but I ended up being in a position where they needed us to move to New York. And so I was looking for a place in New York and I took a trip from Seattle to Portland one weekend for a birthday party. And I met a guy in a bar which doesn't usually end well, but we're still together. And we adopted three children. I moved to Portland and I'll never forget I was sitting at the kitchen table. It was sunny in Portland, which it isn't always. And we were reading The New York Times and the New York Times magazine fell out on the kitchen table and the front cover was Humphrey Slocombe. And I just raised my fists at the heavens. And I was so upset that someone had taken my idea. And they were you know, the article was talking about the rise of artisan ice cream in this company.

Jesse Purewal [00:11:50] Here in San Francisco?

Kim Malek [00:11:52] In San Francisco. Yeah. So I really gave it my best, sort of like fury at the universe that someone else had done my idea and I had lost my opportunity. And Mike is just the most patient person. He sat across the table, let me finish. And he kind of tilted his head and he said, well, you should do it. And it's like one of those moments where someone calls you on your dream that you've been carrying around safely, tucked away in your back pocket forever. You know, I remember standing up and saying, well, maybe I will. And I think two days later, I started started work on on, you know, dusting off the old business plan and getting things going.

Jesse Purewal [00:12:34] I love that. And Kim, it's well chronicled that in order to get Salt and Straw off the ground, you needed to liquidate your retirement 401K you had built up, which is incredibly brave and bold and not money would have the courage to do it. But it seems like in your case, there's something bigger here, given the importance of community to you, that it's almost like you were saying, I'm willing to give up this nest egg that I've started to create, which is kind of for me and my family in order to go for something that can then create even more good for even more people in a community centric way. Is that a way to think about that decision?

Kim Malek [00:13:10] I think it's so nice that you would put it that way. It definitely felt like there was something bigger than a few dollars in my bank account at play here. And I wanted to provide a place where not only the community could come together, but it would be a great place to work and we would invest in local artisans and it would just be about kind of that magic of leaving things better than when we found them. And I was just I was so driven by that, that getting rid of my first one and selling my house and having a garage sale and maxing out my credit cards, it just it it didn't occur to me that that was a bad idea.

Jesse Purewal [00:13:53] So you allocate your personal capital into the business. What what's your first move? Like, what do you go do on day one in week one to get this thing going?

Kim Malek [00:14:03] Well, you know, I was I can remember where I'm working on the business plan. We're out looking for real estate. And my cousin, who is living in China and studying business, had come home due to a death in the family. And he started cooking for some folks just to help with that pain and kind of ease everybody's concern. And he realized he wanted to go to culinary school instead of business school, which, as you can imagine, everyone in my family was like, oh, that seems like a really good idea. But he was living north of Seattle and caught wind of the fact that I was starting work on this business and he would not rest until he moved into my basement and started making ice cream in our kitchen. I mean, he bought an ice cream maker at the Goodwill and started testing recipes and sending me ideas. And, you know, I didn't want to bring my family down with this crazy idea. Plus, he didn't know how to make ice cream. So I was a little hesitant on bringing him in. But he ended up. Just kind of jumping in with both feet, and I always like to tell the story. He recently won Forbes 30 under 30 for changing the way America eats. So he's definitely proven himself to be a great ice cream maker and partner. And and so Tyler joined me and we opened a cart on Albertus Street in the arts district. And that was sort of our first start.

Jesse Purewal [00:15:25] And he didn't know how to make ice cream at all. And he just made this 30 under 30 for telling us how to eat. What about you? Did did you fancy yourself, someone who was an ice cream making surveillant, or were the two of you on this adventure wearing blindfolds together?

Kim Malek [00:15:42] No, I didn't teach Tyler how to make ice cream, but we had a couple of things going for us. One is we worked with the Oregon Innovation Center, which is a partnership between Oregon State University and the Department of Ag to help companies that are going to support local the local food industry and farmers. And so we had access to all of their state of the art facilities and food scientists, and they worked with us to come up with our recipes and help us kind of dial in to the direction we wanted to go in. And then secondly, the fact we didn't know how to make ice cream, put us out in the community on a day to day basis, looking for ways we can partner with other people to figure out what our recipes could be. So pretty quickly, this idea of community started to be reflected through our recipe development. I can remember one of the first times I had told Tyler that I thought we should have a maple bacon flavor. And he said, you know, Denny's is doing that flavor. So I don't think we should do it. And but this is how Tyler works. He comes home a couple of days later and he's like, you know, I'm getting to know the local breweries in town. And I notice there's a brown ale at Laurel Hurst Brewing that I think would be perfect for the maple tones. And then let's call Olympia provisions. It's one of the top charcuterie houses in the United States. They're here in Portland and help us come up with the bacon. And so all of a sudden, we're in the back of the brewery figuring out how to brew beer into cream. And we're working with Olympia provisions. And it's kind of like everybody comes together to help us figure out how to reflect their product and ice cream. And I think it's one of the key reasons our flavors and our philosophy have been so different than everybody else. It's through these collaborations. So not knowing how to make ice cream was a big advantage.

Jesse Purewal [00:17:31] And so before you open that first store, I know you operated out of a cart for a while, which is a little bit of like a test and learn, develop some muscle experiment, see what works and doesn't. What were some of the things that you learned from operating that way?

Kim Malek [00:17:48] Oh, so many things. I mean, first of all, it's I think there's so much to the fact that when you're operating in a mode like that, your customers really feel like they've discovered you and they're supporting you and creating the company with you. So that level of partnership with that neighborhood and with with Portland as they came out to support us was really important. The second thing is one of my favorite stories I can remember. I was standing at the cart and I mean, I could touch one side to the other with both hands. And I got this call from this woman to say, So I'm with The Wall Street Journal and I had your ice cream and I want to do a review. But our editor wants to make sure you can have national distribution before we run the story. And I thought, oh, my God, I wish you could see me right now. I mean, Tyler literally just pulled up with his blue Subaru with a cooler on the top of it, delivering ice cream. And I said, what do you mean national distribution? And she said, well, you know, I believe she used the words mail order. Well, mail order. And I said, oh, I'm sure we could do that. I'm sure we could figure that out. And so she said, well, you have three weeks and we're going to run the story in The Wall Street Journal. So we launched a website and started shipping all over the United States. And there were several examples of things like that that happen that we could see the opportunity. We knew we could figure it out, and then we just did it like we kind of jumped and started building the parachute as we were falling through the sky.

Jesse Purewal [00:19:18] So to what extent was it conforming to or paying off the original vision that you had back in '96? What was your reaction to seeing the plan come to life?

Kim Malek [00:19:31] Well, I always laugh because on our first day that we moved into an actual shop, I was not there because I had agreed to cater a wedding with our ice cream just to make sure we would bring in a little money, because I knew for sure no one would show up and we'd need to be able to cover our rent. And I remember a bunch of my friends from Starbucks had come down to Portland for the opening and they called me and said, you need to get back right away. We're all working. It's really super busy. And I rushed back. There had been a story in The Oregonian earlier that day, and I remember. This woman standing in front of me while I was serving her ice cream and she started crying and she said, you know, you followed your dream and here I am seeing you. I read about you and it gives me so much inspiration. And so it really I the story and the storytelling that we did about all the different partnerships we engaged in really seemed to resonate with people. They found community and connection through that. When we decided to open in Los Angeles, we could have just made more ice cream in Portland and shipped it there. But instead we started manufacturing locally and kind of exported this idea of being a local community gathering place through our product and our location and our team in every way. We exported that idea there and we found that people really claim us as their own in each city, which we really appreciate.

Jesse Purewal [00:20:57] I can advocate for that. Having been to you now in three different cities, it feels like three different communities at a minimum. And here's the thing to me that's interesting. You talk about community being the organizing principle. And I think and I see this as a marketing person, as a brand person, full disclosure. But in some ways, you're really in the business of storytelling. Here's something you said that I read a couple of years back about your approach to flavors. We don't do it because we want to be weird. We do it because we were inspired by this person that we met and collaborated to come up with an expression of their craft through ice cream. So you're empowering a person, likely a small business, and you're tapping into human creative potential and into the power of storytelling. And ice cream in some ways happens just to be the medium.

Kim Malek [00:21:48] I think that's right. I mean, even each of our flavors has a person and a story behind it which does create really unusual flavors that people are surprised by. I think that's what that collaborative process brings out. But there's also storytelling like every month we change our flavors. Last June, we did a menu that was based on all different ingredients that we're going to be thrown away. So here we are throwing away forty percent of our food in the United States, yet people in our community are going hungry. So could we tell a story through ice cream about how those ingredients could be used and get our customers thinking about that issue? And it's one of my favorite things. When I'm serving ice cream or standing in our stores, you see folks from all different walks of life talking like, did you try this? Did that make sense? I can't believe they did that. You've got to try this. I mean, people have gotten job offers, no exaggeration. Wedding proposals just waiting in line at salt and straight people are buying each other's scoops. So I think that idea of conversation, it's a conversation starter.

Jesse Purewal [00:22:53] And Kim, let me turn back to the community angle here for a moment. Salt and straw talks about how a business is only as strong as its community. How do you make the decisions about the kinds of groups or teams or organizations that you'll enroll as suppliers, as chefs whose brainchild you turn into flavors, as the artisans you'll support?

Kim Malek [00:23:15] We try to think about what's happening seasonally, what's happening with trends, what's happening in our society. And we map out month by month what we think the kind of those stories would be almost like we're writing a magazine. That's how we consider it. And then once we have the idea, we'll start to network and reach out to folks. And we find that people are really happy to, in each city where we work, introduce us to other people. And it sort of takes on a life of its own and clicks together in the right way so that we have a diverse set of flavors, some that make you think some that are just straight up, flat out yummy. They're all yummy, but some are just that's all they're there for. And so we're looking to really create, especially during non covid times, this experience where you can come in and taste all of the flavors and talk about all of the different collaborators and really kind of get a different point of view from each one. So that's how we think about it. I mean, we've collaborated with the symphony, with authors, with chocolate makers and cheese makers, with students, like you said.

Jesse Purewal [00:24:24] And how have you and the team thought about the safety and well-being and physical health, mental health of your employees, particularly on the the front lines in the stores and on the supply chains, given everything that's happened in our world in the last eight or nine months?

Kim Malek [00:24:42] Yeah, one of the worst emails I got was not very long ago, where one of our first chocolate suppliers told me if we don't get our business up and going with you again, we may not have a business, you know, so our purchases and these local communities can be really important. And I was really grateful that he. Reach out to me with that message. I don't take it lightly and I don't take it for granted that were I'd say back in business when covid hit, we shut down all of our stores for over a month and we had to lay off most of our team. And it was I had worked so hard to make sure that I didn't end up in the position that my father was in, that we were really safe and we took on the right investors and made careful business decisions. And dang it, here we were, you know, not knowing if we were going to make it out the other side of this. And it just was so devastating. And I felt like we had let everybody down. So now to have worked through that and come out and that's not our story. You know, we're we're we're growing again and we're hiring people and keeping everyone safe. We've gone through extreme measures to make sure we're going above and beyond. We've gotten really good feedback from our employees and from our customers, just saying that they feel they feel really safe in our stores, safer than almost anywhere else they've said. And then as we look to the future and we partner with new artisans and and hire new people, I just feel really hopeful that we're going to be able to use our platform to help. I know this sounds grandiose, but help heal the country and help heal the communities that we're in and provide that moment of joy. I think that's what we all need to be focused on right now.

Jesse Purewal [00:26:34] Yeah, what you're talking about reminds me of what Baratunde Thurston, the writer and activist, talks about when he talks about the idea of citizen as a verb. It strikes me as really similar to what you're doing at salt and Straw given the role you play. Can you talk about how specifically you see salt and straw as a platform for conversation and dialog in ways that help the world heal?

Kim Malek [00:27:01] We just a couple of days ago had Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer on the phone with our entire company, our front line teams, everybody sharing with him messages he can bring back to D.C. for how they can help support our team and staying safe and secure in their work, in their life, in their homes, all of the ways that we need support. So, you know, being able to provide that conduit and use our position to connect with with folks who who maybe wouldn't have a voice otherwise. We're working with the Oregon Justice Resource Center on a program to provide training for women who are going to be released from prison. And it's a wraparound services, the first of its kind in the United States. And, you know, I think the hospitality industry can help with getting people back on track. One of our superpowers has always been employment. And we can provide really good jobs and a career or a place that you can get some experience and go on and do different things. And so there's healing through work, through having a voice and then, quite frankly, through being able to have a place to go do something with your family, with your kids, with your neighbor. I don't know about you, but as we head into winter, I don't know I don't know what I'm going to do with my three little kids. And just having a even a nice quick outing means a lot to people.

Jesse Purewal [00:28:29] And Kim, we talk on this show about being builders. But when you're talking about healing, I think there's some rebuilding associated with that. So I want to ask you a question about your leadership, philosophy and practices, which is. What were the decisions that you had to make in order to come out of these these depths in the late spring, kind of early, early summer, and what did you do to really turn things around and be able to tell the story of hope and optimism and healing that you're telling now?

Kim Malek [00:29:02] I've read a lot about over the past six months how very purpose driven companies were hit by this pandemic in the United States, even in a different way, because it felt like so many of us, like we're a part of a family, and then all of a sudden you're laying people off and you're having to make big, bold business decisions to try to survive. And it feels counterintuitive to how you've operated for 10 years. And it feels really shocking to everyone, like, wait a minute, this is a business, you know, like, whoa, that's just not how it felt before, even though obviously it was. And we were doing all of that and talking about it on that ongoing basis. When that becomes so front and center, it's really hard to reconcile for a lot of people. So for us, it's been about going back and reinvesting and redefining our values as a company and putting those front and center for everybody, reinvesting in, getting everybody on the same page when it comes to our values, how we use those every day, and making sure that we know we have to make decisions to stay financially healthy. But we can't make those at the cost of our values and staying true to who we are. They they both have to be held in equal weight. And so I think that's been really reassuring for people. I also I sit in every Monday morning on this meeting with all of our new hires. There were 15 people on the call that I did this morning. And hearing all of these folks who really had their lives upended, you know, they're not going to college. They're not starting other jobs that they had in different cities. They're having to move home to stay with their friends and family and take care of people. And here they are showing up for a new job with such excitement for the future and what they're going to do with this opportunity. And as a leader, I find that one of the most uplifting things, like how I'm going to make sure that I create a company that's worthy of their spirit and energy that they're bringing to work every day.

Jesse Purewal [00:31:17] And Kim, maybe taking some cues from or some pages from the book of your time at Starbucks. What are the ways that you see front line employees sort of take the brand and make it their own and bring it to life in incredible ways and live the values and live the purpose?

Kim Malek [00:31:31] I can still remember sitting at a store, sitting on the floor in Tacoma, Washington, and I was working at that store and Howard Schultz came to our town meeting and told us about what he planned to do with this company, what Starbucks was going to mean for the world. And they had they had coffee buyer there. And they invested so much in teaching me and the team about the vision of the company and educating us about the coffee. And I just can remember thinking like they really are believing in me and investing in me so much and counting on me. And and I wanted that for other people in my company. And so I've I've tried to offer that same talk and communication across the lines. I mean, I just heard a story the other day of this woman who works at our division shop who someone came in and due to covid and wearing masks, this person who is hard of hearing and talks mostly through Asao, she was feeling like she said she walked up to the front door and she was feeling really nervous because it was going to be hard to communicate. And the woman who works at Salt and Straw, so she went and found someone who could communicate with her, took some extra time, made sure she got what she needed. And those kind of stories are what make me feel like we're on track. You know, if we can make it easier for one person at a time to go through this world and be seen and respected and and taking care of those are the stories I'm looking for.

Jesse Purewal [00:33:04] And Kim, beyond the bio, how do you describe the person that you are as a leader? How do you think of and characterize yourself?

Kim Malek [00:33:15] Mhm. I was recently reading about somebody who had humble hustle and I really liked that it resonated with me. I, I think humility is the most important thing you can enter into a room with as a leader so that you're entering in listening and hearing what people have to say and then working double time to make it happen for them. That's what I'm looking to do.

Jesse Purewal [00:33:38] And Kim, what's one thing that would surprise most people to learn about what you had to do? Or a choice you made to allow you to get to the spot where you could be positively influencing this many lives, this many organizations and this many palates.

Kim Malek [00:33:56] Mm hmm. You know, and I don't know that it happened to me because it's probably still happening to me. I think folks who are in my inner circle are always really surprised. So when did you know you made it? And I'm still waiting for that moment. I am I am really motivated by fear. I don't let it control me or stop me, at least not as much as it used to. But I'm always, like I said, hustlin, looking to earn the next customer, the next employee, the next deal that we get. I don't take one second of it for granted. And I go to bed at night with that same feeling that, oh, maybe no one will show up. What are we going to do tomorrow to earn it?

Jesse Purewal [00:34:39] On that note, who is one person that has come your way that you have just been absolutely galvanized by in this whole journey?

Kim Malek [00:34:47] Oh, gosh, I have to maybe I would say two people, I mean, the obvious answer for me is probably Danny Meyer, who, you know, started Shake Shack and Pharmacy Tavern in many of the great restaurants in New York City when covid hit the very first morning, when everything shut down here, he was in the middle of such distress with his own companies. And yet it was the first phone call I got was from him to see how are you doing and then make sure you get some sleep tonight. Let's think about how we're going to turn this into a positive thing. I think just the investment in that relationship and that philosophy, he definitely holds true. Like we're going to improve the world with every step we take and we will accept no less. Having that support and belief in me has been everything. And then I'm going to say this woman, Maggie Wisemen, who was probably my first real manager, she had been in the Peace Corps and was running bakeries in Seattle. And she was the first person, even before Howard Schultz, that showed me that businesses can really show up and make a difference in a person's life. I can remember this guy. She said, you don't go to the store with me and what are we doing? And she said, well, we're going to go buy some soap and a few different things that this guy needs who's working here, because I'm getting complaints that he's not really showing up the right way. And I'm going to help him. I'm going to help figure this out. And I thought, wow, that's what you do when you own a business. You just really show up for every single person and help in any way that you can.

Jesse Purewal [00:36:19] Kim, we are at a moment in time where I really want to get your reactions on a specific point about women in leadership. We have some incredible women leaders around the world. We've just elected our first female vice president here in the United States pending some some vote counting to be done. And we had Geetha Murali on the show a couple of weeks back talking about the power of educating a young girl and what that does not only for her, but her family and her community and society. How do you think about the responsibility or the opportunity and obligation that the women have to be leaders, and how have you personally found yourself to succeed because of some of the gifts that you have as a woman?

Kim Malek [00:37:11] I think that. Gosh, I can't tell you the number of times starting my business that I was asked, well, do you have a husband? Can you put your husband on? or, you know, just questions along those lines? And it's a real thing. It's you're constantly being questioned. I my partner, Mike, is African-American, and he always tells me, you know what, Kim? The best thing someone can give you is to underestimate you. So don't don't let that go unused. If someone comes to the table underestimating you and I'm a short blond lady and and I think that that happens a lot. And so when I think about how how to turn that around and how to have a seat at the table, that's meaningful and how to think about my business and my role is more than just making a dollar, but actually making the the folks who work at this company and anyone who comes into contact with us better for it. I tend to think that's kind of a female trait. I think we're really hurt me was I spent from 1996 to 2011 kind of perfecting this and not wanting to put it out in the world. And so as I think about that and other women who have ideas for politics or business or medicine or anything, you know, as a society, if we can start to really encourage women to use their voice and do all the things that you just mentioned, I think our society is going to be better as a result.

Jesse Purewal [00:38:43] So, Kim, one final question for the builders listening here. If they wanted to know what the most important piece of advice they should take from you, given the world as you've seen it, the world as you've experienced it, and the world as you've helped build it, what would that advice be? Mm hmm.

Kim Malek [00:39:02] My favorite piece of advice to give is to not take any advice. I just I if I had taken most of the advice I was given as I was starting this company, we wouldn't be here right now. I think it's really hard to stick to what you know is right and true and go about things in a different way. I was hearing the founder that the fellow who started Arrested Development talk the other day and he said, you know, I don't believe in taking the road less traveled. I believe in going out into a field where there is no road and making my own way forward. And I believe that to be true, especially as an innovator. Like, it's your you're really plowing a whole new road and and knowing that and being OK and comfortable with that is probably the most important thing I've been able to do.

Jesse Purewal [00:39:54] Well, Kim, it's been a treat. I so appreciate your time and energy and wisdom and reflections. I'm better for it. And we all know that anyone who's stepped foot into any one of your stores is also better for what you have built. Truly a breakthrough builder in every way. I'm honored. So thank you very much for your time.

Kim Malek [00:40:16] Thank you.

Jesse Purewal [00:40:28] OK, I hope you thought the conversation with Kim lived up to the hype. She is incredible, great leader, builder and human being, and I'm privileged to call her a friend. I don't know if you could tell, but at the point in the dialog where we were talking about the impact of covert on her business and how the team steeled its resolve and how they got through it, that was a really emotional piece for her to see that salt and Straube made it through the pandemic and that they've done so well that they're growing their store count from 20 to 25 next year. That's a testament to what can happen when you build with purpose, when you put your people and your values first and you deliver a truly breakthrough experience. Nicely done, Kim and team.

Jesse Purewal [00:41:06] For this week's building blocks, I'd like you to consider one remarkable fact about Kim's journey to building Sultan's straw, and that's timing. Kim first came up with the idea for a community centric ice cream shop in nineteen ninety six. She and Tyler started working on the concept in 2009. So for 13 years, the idea was just inside Kim's mind in her imagination while she pursued other experiences in her career. And a lot of it was time very well spent. Her time at Starbucks in particular, was important to shaping her view on what Salt and Straw would become. But 13 years was a long time to wait. And if The New York Times hadn't covered the opening of Humphrey Slocum in San Francisco, getting her to say to her partner, Hey, that's my idea, it's hard to say if or when salt and straw would have come into being. Now, this isn't a clarion call for all of you to just drop what you're doing and rush out and do that idea in the back of your head. It is a moment, though, particularly with the new year approaching, where I'd ask you to be ruthlessly honest with yourself about whether you're building toward what you want to be building toward. If you don't already have this written down somewhere, write down one thing you'd love to be able to build or create one day and then as a second step, write down what are the things you think you need to do before you start working on it? Maybe you need to sync up with a collaborator who's got some complementary skills. Maybe it's getting more specific about the idea, or maybe it's a skill set. You've got to build through some coursework or mentoring, whatever it is with that punch list. I'd love it if you then took a look at it and circled the three things you'll commit to doing next year in twenty twenty one to make progress toward putting your idea into the world. So yeah, I may just be the first person that has asked you for a New Year's resolution. And I know it's kind of a party file to do it this early in December. But hey, twenty, twenty one is quite literally one of the freshest starts to a calendar year that a lot of us have ever had in our lives. And I want you all to jump into it with energy and ambition and to do your thing to make your part of the world a little bit of a better place. If you want some templates and tips and tricks on how to get started, check out the show notes right here in the app. You're listening to this episode on or over on our website, Breakthrough-Builders.com. That's Breakthrough Hyphen Builders Dotcom. Hit me up through the website and share some of your reflections. I'd love to hear from you. Get into dialog with you and do what I can to help. Take care, breakthrough builders and bewell.

Jesse Purewal [00:43:36] Thanks so much for listening to Breakthrough Builders. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed the show, I’d be grateful if you could spread the word by leaving a rating and a review. It really does help other listeners find us. And please tell your friends. Breakthrough Builders is a production of the Industries Team at Qualtrics. The show is written and hosted by me, Jesse Purewal. Mastering by Nate Crenshaw. Post-production and music by Clean Cuts Audio, part of the Three Seas Collective. Design by Baron Santiago and Vansuka Chindavijak. Website by Gregory Hedon and photography by Christy Hemm Klok. Special thanks to the entire Breakthrough Builders crew at Qualtrics, including Ali Rohani, Jeremy Smith, John Johnson and Kylan Lundeen.

Season 1Jesse Purewalportland, startup branding, mission driven business, danny meyer, salt and straw, women entrepreneurs, ice cream, starbucks, social entrepreneurship, storytelling, community, resilience, female entrepreneurs, artisan ice cream, entrepreneurship