Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Cowan.
Hi Jessica, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Oh, don’t we all just hate the part where we have to talk about ourselves? As the years go by, the starting point becomes further away and the story itself gets longer. I grew up along the coast of the deep south in cities between Alabama and Texas. I’ll be honest and say we didn’t have much during my childhood. These days I talk fondly about all the spaghetti we had to eat and how my dad would sit in the back of our trailer and shoot possums that crawled through the holes in the walls and floor; back then it wasn’t quite as warm of a memory. All I knew was I wanted more for my future.
I got my working world start way back in the day at Chick-fil-A where I earned a scholarship, made my way into management, and learned a ton about ways that locally owned and operated businesses can give back directly to the community. Most people associate Chick-fil-A with excellent service (which is true), but some of the most valuable business lessons I learned there were around waste, process, and people management.
I took the skills I learned at Chick-fil-A and took on a new role with a developing self-serve frozen yogurt chain. Over the course of four years, we opened five stores and I had the pleasure of being involved in the operating work for the brand and ultimately managing two stores directly on a day-to-day basis. During this time, I received so many opportunities to fail, which we love as a growth mechanism. I gained experience and skills in not just operations but also marketing, bookkeeping, and personal development. We grew the yogurt shops to a point where they had grown as much as they needed to and after much deliberation decided to close all but one in order to pursue new opportunities. For me, those new opportunities were in Tennessee.
We’ll gloss over the transitional time and jump right into when I started working in creative businesses. People are generally tickled as a pickle to learn that I never painted or created a thing until I started working in creative businesses. Like most of life, it’s all about being in the right place and the right time. As it happens, I was in the right place at the right time to connect with a fantastic businesswoman who would become a highly influential person in my life. She has an amazing story to tell, hands in many businesses, and is more talented than I can give her credit for. I started out managing one of the canvas painting franchises she owned which turned into a remodel, a move, and an opening of an additional location. At the same time, she owned a few pottery shops of her own creation and I slowly started getting involved there as well. I really enjoyed the community-building aspect of these creative businesses and how we were giving folks the opportunity to connect with each other and explore their creative sides in a supportive environment. If you remember, I never explored my creative side myself. The more I started working within these creative businesses, and particular pottery, the more I fell in love. When I took over as the official manager of The Pottery Place in Chattanooga some 7.5ish years ago, I had no idea I would one day become the owner. I just knew I wanted to give this community a space they can call their own; where they can show up and know they’re going to see a friendly face and be taken care of. Over the years, my interest and knack for business building grew and eventually I was able to transition to the owner.
I’d love for that to be the end of the story, but there’s one more act here. So, I signed all the paperwork on March 1, 2020. This was a deal that had been years in the making and the timing lined up with the lease renewal. Unfortunately, a pandemic hit two weeks later and all the hard work I had done to grow over the years was pulled right out from under me. I was prepared for a lot of things but not that. Not having to basically start over. And it was tough. We took a big enough reduction in sales that many times, my most cost-effective option was to just sleep on the floor. The entire pandemic I refused to close, kept a full-time job so I didn’t have to let staff go, and just kept faith that if I stayed consistent and optimistic that I would come out of the other side – and, thanks to this amazing community, I did.
Nowadays we have a thriving local community environment where everyone comes to just hang out. I spend ample time in the community volunteering and giving back however I can. I don’t feel I dedicated enough of this interview to my leadership journey; we’ll just say I learned a lot along the way there as well. As a leader and entrepreneur, I’m committed to providing stepping stones to entrepreneurship, teaching skills, and creating opportunities for my staff to learn a skill they might otherwise have a hard time getting experience in such as designing and executing a marketing project or learning to use QuickBooks. Going forward, I hope to continue to have the pleasure to invest my time in people and watch them grow. I know that operating from a place of kindness, empathy, and positivity cultivates spaces for people to grow and pass it along. As I like to say: we rise and fall together.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I certainly grew up with financial insecurity and had the type of childhood where I was bounced around a good bit between relatives and family; changing living situation and schools rather frequently in my early childhood. I say the circumstances under which I grew up create the kind of environment that you know you have to get yourself out of and so you grind towards that.
My next biggest struggle was definitely dealing with the pandemic. Of all the things I could have planned for, becoming a business owner right at the beginning of a global pandemic was not one.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I never painted anything until I started working within creative industries. At that, I started with acrylic and canvas painting. While I was managing these painting studios, I had a ton of anxiety that I did not have the skill that would be needed to fill in for a staff member if they could not make their shift. Which, as someone who had been managing hospitality and retail businesses for a long time, I know happens and I always felt it was the manager’s job to be able to do, or know how to do, everyone else’s job. So I taught myself how to paint in order to fill in whenever I needed to, but of course I used my newfound skill to explore creativity myself. I enjoy playing around with color and particularly gravitate towards landscape scenes done in watercolor. I mostly paint for fun or to make custom gifts.
My ceramics art journey is a little more interesting and dear to my heart. The first thing that I ever painted within the ceramic studios was a custom birthday plate. I had literally never painted pottery before in my entire life. The owner looked at me and said “I know failure isn’t in your vocabulary, but this is just not good” and WASHED it off. I took it as a hint to “get good”. So I started investing time learning about the science behind the glazing process, various techniques for painting, and practicing until I had enough experience that I felt I could speak on it. At some point, I figured I would give clay a shot and see how I liked potting. I loved it. I started out with not very many tools, just a mat, a rolling pin, and a slab of clay. It took me about a year to really understand all of the nuances around the clay-making process and develop my own style and things I was interested in. Working in clay was the first time I’d really felt that creative calm where I was just at peace with myself and engrossed in the process. Now, I’ve taken some wheel classes and while I am not the best on the wheel, I can certainly produce some work. I prefer to hand build, which is working with slabs of clay directly, as I feel I have more control and involvement in the process. My main line of ceramics that I make and sell are tumblers and planters that have an organic woodland theme to them. I hand make all the tumblers then I carve out a wood grain texture then add a signature glaze combo on top, and they are always a hit at art shows and during gift seasons.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think anyone who knows me would say that I am a calculated person. But I’m more than willing to take a calculated risk. I very much feel the only way that we grow is by stepping and pushing ourselves outside of the box. Risk-taking doesn’t have to be a huge jump such as quitting your job and venturing out on your own, it can be something as small as wearing an outfit in a color you don’t typically wear. I think it’s important to take risks so that you give yourself an opportunity to learn new things, particularly new things about yourself.
I feel like I take risks all the time, haha. Anytime you start a new project or introduce a new branch of your business, you’re taking a risk that it might not work. We’ve added classes and workshops in, at the risk that no one would come and we will have wasted supplies preparing; buying a business at 28 was a risk; moving to TN was a risk. To me, change and risk are interchangeable terms that ultimately facilitate growth.
Contact Info:
- Email: create@
thepotteryplacechattanooga.com - Instagram: Thepotteryplacechat
tanooga - Facebook: Thepotteryplacechatt
anooga
Image Credits
Jessica Cowan
