FL-AWE-LESS

Embrace anti-perfectionism and watch life’s AWE unfold.

Mistakes. They happen. It is how you react to them that matters; and even better, the opportunities for magic and awe that come flying toward you when they do. Don’t “be perfect”. Be Flaweless!

So what’s the story behind Flaweless, my company name?

I created this company because hospitality is needed in how we treat ourselves, our children, our partners, our colleagues, and our friends. There’s a hospitable way to dress, wear makeup, walk, decorate, set a table, organize a closet, garden, shop, cook, hire, fire and more. My company's name is intentionally spelled incorrectly with the added “e” after the “w” creating an internal word AWE. Flaweless Hospitality is living and working with the goal of giving AWE to those around you.

How?

At home, this looks like making a daily effort to create beauty. It can be as simple as making a beautiful bed, or decorating for the season. It’s about cooking and baking with joy in the process of cooking and baking and not just in the end result. I believe all creative tasks bring joy. Food, creatively prepared, integrates love and love is an integral part of awe. It might also be present in hosting a dinner party or a child’s play-date, allowing food and fun to connect people. Friendship and connection are powerful ingredients of Flaweless hospitality.

At work, it is about leaders adopting the philosophy that their people are everything. In my experience, when you support your people, everything else falls into place and exceptional growth occurs. It is about curating a culture of “anti-perfectionism”.

Flaweless came to be out of my work in the restaurant industry and how it strives for perfection. There is tremendous focus on and training in the “steps-of-service” of the guest experience. Managers try to perfect every move, every detail, for each guest. They strive to “wow” them and create in them a state of joy and delight. Over the years of leading teams on this critical mission, I grew to detest the term “perfect” and committed to never using it with my team. Instead, I would engage with team members, using the word “flaweless” in place of “perfect”. “How can we wow this couple who are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary? How can we make their steps-of-service “flaweless?” We would discuss endlessly about this. Our goal was no less than to make this the best experience of their lives.

At every pre-shift meeting, we would have two or three people share how they wow-ed a guest the previous night. Servers, bartenders, hosts, managers, bussers and runners would all tell stories and they would look for ways to share a better “wow” at the following pre-shift meeting. Sometimes it was putting an engagement ring at the bottom of a bottle of Dom Perignon and pouring it out at the moment the groom-to-be got on one knee.

Events are never perfect and striving for perfection (an unattainable goal) prevents the ”wow” factor from happening. Experiences, memories, songs and service can, however, be flaweless.