ON A SUCCESSFUL PIVOT

May 13, 2020

When I was taking the picture above, I asked my four-year-old son to grab one of the hundreds of dandelions in this otherwise vacant field and make a wish. It was March 18, we had just convinced a handful of people to let us open a temporary Summit in this vacant Drive Up in Davidson, and didn’t know much what we were doing. I asked him to wish us luck — a simple request, and he obliged and I snagged this photo. One take, one photo to recognize this indelible moment.

This morning, Summit won Charlotte’s Pitch Your Pivot competition, a $3,000 prize awarded by a panel of judges who recognized our 72-hour launch of a Drive To coffee business that ultimately saved jobs, added value to a community that’s given its all to us, and helped Summit emerge a smarter brand.

When my son, Silas, blew upon that dandelion on a Wednesday afternoon, we didn’t even know how to get into the very building we were re-opening, let alone how to run a drive up coffee business. But we knew in order to stay afloat, to stay healthy as a business, we needed to be creative and this was the best darn idea we could think of.

The award this morning, while it made me scream (internally) and smile from ear-to-ear, confirmed what we already knew. That when a global pandemic started to sweep through Davidson as it had the rest of the world, we were ready for it. We certainly weren’t ready logistically, and didn’t have a “plan” for what these last 8 weeks would look like. But we were ready for it in spirit — from randomly dialing the phone number on a white sign in front, to all the people within the Town of Davidson who fought to bring this idea to life, to Silas wishing on a dandelion, to the scores of employees who jumped in to help, and the hundreds (literally) of cars that showed up on day one.

We had a team of smart, optimistic, caring people who were committed to doing whatever it took. If that meant sprinting coffee thermoses down Main Street, we did it. If it meant returning to the kitchen to bake more pastries 30 minutes after you went home, we did it. If it meant borrowing WiFi from Lake Norman Realty so we could take orders, we did it. If it meant creating a TikTok account and dancing in that vacant grass field, we did it.

Patagonia founder and CEO Yvon Chouinard, in his landmark book “Let My People Go Surfing,” writes: “Because the world is changing, we can never assume that the way we have done things in the past is adequate for the future.”

This COVID-19 pandemic was a punch in the mouth to all business owners, big and small, all over the world. To all people all over the world, really. The world isn’t only changing, it had already changed before anyone knew it. Customer habits changed, marketing changed, health precautions changed. So much has changed since March 18, and the way we have done things in the past is no longer adequate for the future.

So what now? We have the Drive To for 3 more weeks — the town, and developer Robert Tremblay, have graciously let us squat in this 80-square-foot building, but that time is coming to an end. The Kindreds graciously met our idea with the rollout of Milk Bread Donuts, then figure out on the fly how to make 800 a day, but that time, also, is coming to an end.

What’s not coming to an end is Summit’s commitment to serving our customers, near and far, in new ways. We have a mobile app in production, we’re introducing table service in a few weeks, we’re wearing masks, we’re amending our spaces to allow safer community gatherings. So while the Drive To and the donuts might not be here come June 1, Summit will be. And if this award today tells us anything, if our loyal customers glean anything from this 10-week roller coaster, it’s that Summit will always find a way to serve our communities.

This award is ours to share. I don’t know exactly what Silas wished for on March 18 (he is four, after all), but it came to life in the form of car after car, your welcome smiles, your Instagram posts, your daily celebration of this little idea that could. We’re immensely grateful for everyone who’s bought a donut, or continued to buy coffee, or ordered something online.

Thank you for standing alongside us in this storm. We’re stronger together.