Why I Started Face It
By Kathleen Jewby, Face It Founder
Recently, I was creating marketing for one of Face It’s pilots. Ripping apart paper to represent the difficult emotions that come with conflict. Every time I would finish a poster, I would take a photo and send it to Face It’s co-founder, Josh Collins. Sometimes with comments such as, "I love it," or, "I'm having too much fun."
One of the poster designs promoting an upcoming pilot. Some people interpreted the torn paper as vandalism.
After four or five posters he sent back a text saying, "You're so in your element with these." My immediate thought: Yes, of course. This wasn’t just my career for many years, this is who I am.
Josh Collins and I tabling for an event with several of the torn paper designs promoting our pilot.
I spent my childhood obsessed with colored pencils, markers, paper, and tape. (My mom still talks about how no matter how much tape she purchased, she could never find any while I was growing up.) Between ongoing drawing, pottery, acting, writing, and dancing classes, I loved everything related to art. My specialty was painting; I felt like a brush was the extension of my body.
When I discovered layout design it combined two of my favorite things: art and ideas. Visual communication is the power to spread knowledge and awareness to a mass audience. There was never a question of what I wanted to be, it was embedded in my identity. I am an artist and designer.
Thinking about my career as a creative director, I felt a wave of sadness. It is natural for me to imagine concepts such as posters torn apart the way emotions tear at us. I texted Josh, "This is what I would have happily spent my whole life doing if the world were different."
A couple weeks later when speaking with fellow entrepreneur, Jana Revallova, an image of a four foot pile of receipts flashed through my mind. After a long working session filled with paper and tape, the vision was turned into reality. The mourning returned. This is who I was born to be.
Jana Revallova at her Smart receipt table.
Side view of table for Smart Receipt.
Soon after, an advisor said to me, "Find what you love and you will never work a day in your life." Without hesitation I said, “That's not true.” I chose the only career I could ever imagine and was unhappy. I always loved the work and hated the job. I had complete creative control over a magazine I worked on at home in my pajamas. I quit my “dream” job after the third magazine. The final straw? I wasn’t willing to debate whether I should get paid the amount on the signed contract.
No one should be miserable earning a living. If workplace culture can prevent me from enjoying what I love more than anything in the world and who I am at my core, I cringe to think how someone without inherent joy and the deepest dedication to their craft functions in these environments. This American Psychological Association article shows a small sample of the impact.
When I pitch Face It, I tell the story of the day I was fired from a freelance job and my boyfriend of over five years broke up with me. Yes, on the same day. While this dramatic example gets attention, the ongoing pain of being in unhealthy environments is far worse – and more damaging. Constant dysfunctional sandpaper erodes emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. Daily wearing down my confidence when people didn't value or respect me. Feeling helpless doing everything I knew to change a situation, but not knowing how, whether it was a critical relationship or a meaningful goal.
For anyone who has ever experienced this deeply painful longing for change, I firmly believe we have strength to meet that challenge. It’s why our company is named Face It. When we acknowledge the difficulties we face and intentionally have conversations honoring ourselves and other people, we transform the challenge and conflict into something powerful, like power-ups for our abilities and character. (Check out my TEDxBabsonCollege Talk about this.)
An example of acknowledging the challenge for me during this difficult time was realizing that just as workplace culture was impacting me, as a supervisor I have a disproportionate influence on my employee’s lives. My flaws become magnified with the level of responsibility I have. I vowed my team would work in the positive environment I desired. Stacks of books, workshops, conferences, and years later, I developed custom onboarding with an escape room style finale, training, processes, and advancement unlike any that existed in the 4,000-employee organization I was employed. Our team was close, engaged, and had a reputation for excellence. Every semester, I would organize a lunch and about 50% of previous employees would attend.
New employee on their first day with the welcome packet including swag, training booklets, and materials for success within the office.
I was changing the world at the rate of people I supervised, which wasn’t fast enough for me. I attended Babson College, the #1 college for Entrepreneurship so I could learn to start my businesses, including the idea I’ve had for seven years – Face It. I wanted to scale what I learned and accomplished with my team. (Babson is also where I met co-founder Josh Collins).
Employee after completing the escape room style finale that summarized orientation training concepts using clues and activities.
I learned conflict management theories and changed the way I think, but it took years of struggling, failed discussions, and broken relationships before I could change the way I responded. I wanted a way to practice having the conversations that impact the quality of my life. Face It focuses on the skill of engaging in conflict, because in these hard moments is when we struggle most to live up to our own values, goals, and vision of self. By creating a training gym for responding to difficult situations, Face It provides the repeated experience to build new neuropathways.
After understanding conflict, I am dramatically more capable, confident, and happy, with a level of freedom I once couldn’t imagine, let alone achieve. I have relationships and support beyond what I knew was possible. If we can manage the most difficult challenges in our workplaces, rather than bringing down our confidence, relationships, and initiatives, those times become the catalyst for better results and happier employees in reciprocal growth. This vision – to create a world where people enjoy work and are more fulfilled, which also means greater effectiveness – is why I started Face It. These skills can change our lives, our work, and our world.