My heart thudded as I twisted my hands. After Bryan sat down, I asked, "Bryan, I want to open a new shop just like this one in another city under your name. Is that okay with you?"
I had braced myself for him to turn me down, or at least grill me for more details.
What I never expected was that he would just take a slow sip of his coffee and calmly say one word. "Sure."
That unearned, unconditional trust felt so good.
Since this new shop was my gift to Bryan, I named it "Gift."
I sent him off first to pick out a city, while I headed back to our current shop to talk to my design team.
"Alright everyone, first things first. Starting tomorrow, all of you will be working remotely from home."
None of them really got why I was making the switch, but design work can be done anywhere, so it
