How Morning Cup Came to Be

I’m Jen Weis, the founder of MorningCup.com. This is my journey and what I have learned about making your intentions known and watching the people, places and things being put in your path to help achieve.

Put out into the world your intentions and watch how everything starts to align toward your goals.

My Health’s Role:

12 years ago, I made the decision to leave a high-paying job I was successful at and on the executive track. I left because I was working 12-hour days while trying to raise two kids and be involved in their lives (coaching soccer, volunteering for Junior Achievement and Brownies). I had weekly migraines. I wasn’t sleeping. I was forgetting things (including missing my exit 3 times in a row on the way to work one day and twice wearing two different shoes to the office). I had road rage and life rage and everything frustrated me, can’t they see I am busy! I was stress eating and drinking. I was not healthy. I had stopped making decisions and was just trying to keep up.

Prioritize yourself first, no one else can do it for you. It is never too late to start.

I made the decision to leave because I needed to prioritize my health and well-being and time with my family. I also wanted to focus on my passion of coaching and developing others. Especially the underdog! Now, I didn’t quit right away, I choose a date 18 months in the future (my birthday). I was not quite ready to give up, but I was aware I needed to do things differently. I needed to stop taking on the burden myself and to look for new and better ways to accomplish the same goals. Over that year here are a few things I accomplished:

secured executive support for a major restructure of our team including investment in a new program sales department,
enlisted other areas of the business to support our rapidly expanding business including HR, IT and finance,
implemented personal development within my team based on the attributes of high-performing teams,
provided new leadership opportunities for individual coworkers that showed potential for leadership and management building a strong management bench,
and eventually stepped out of my sales director role (replaced by 2 people) to focus on the program sales department.

Basically, my goal was to work myself out of a job, while setting everyone else up for success. Wow, what a change when I set the date, I changed the way I started to look at things. Each time I was presented with a challenge I became grateful because it gave me the opportunity to explore how to do things differently and then act differently. I learned so much during that time that I continue to use and coach others on. I also learned that my greatest reward was the success of others, refueling my desire to coach.

Then, on the date I selected I put in my resignation and felt extremely good about where I had left the organization. I left my high paying job (after another 2 months) and got a part time job for a startup of my former VP. With my now free time I started eating clean and lost 25lbs and the migraines stopped. I started exercising regularly and went on to do 15+ half marathons, 3 marathons and a full Iron Man! I got certified and started coaching select soccer and middle school volleyball. I retained monthly coaching calls for managers from my former team AND I started documenting all my learnings into lesson plans that I hoped to launch in a coaching site. That is as far I got before, after 6-years of part time, I went back into corporate America.

Fast forward to now, another 6 years…

My Daughter’s Role:

My daughter is a sophomore in college, and I want to be a good role model for her. She is a reflection of me, but even more important she is my light. Here are 3 key lessons I have learned from her that I draw upon when I start to feel overwhelmed.

Be the light that brightens up the room, for your radiance has the power to inspire and uplift those around you.

First, she is my kitchen dance party partner. When we are home alone and one of us is troubled with something we blast music (we have developed a great playlist) and just dance around the kitchen. EVERYONE needs a random dance partner. The energy we get from dancing and singing at the top of our lungs always leaves us laughing and feeling much better. Now whenever I hear one of the songs on the playlist I stop what I am doing for some random dancing. Second, even though she is kind of shy and does not really like talking to new people, she will be the first person to compliment a random stranger out of the blue. She does not even think about it, just does it. The reactions she gets are priceless and heartwarming. When I need a pick me up, I channel her and genuinely compliment someone. Third, she rarely smiles in pictures, but wow when she is not thinking about it her smile can light up a room. It has so much energy. So, I try to smile more. Just the act of smiling changes your attitude.

She Summits 14ers Role:

Two good friends started annual trips to Colorado to introduce ladies to climbing 14ers (which if you don’t know is a 14,000-foot mountain). Many of them for their first time. These trips are tough, empowering, rewarding and you leave feeling energized and ready to tackle any mountain in front of you (pun intended). I have joined them each year and I am heading to the next She Summits 14ers trip at the end of the month with 13 other ladies.

The three of us did a scouting trip 2 months back to a new location to see if that would be a good group destination. That trip started as a disaster: a canceled flight, a delayed flight, lost baggage, and the wrong year booked for the Airbnb. But it ended up as a God sent.

Give the world good energy and the energy will return to you. – Spiritual Gangster T-shirt

On that trip we laughed, we cried, we hiked and we envisioned what we wanted our futures to look like. We brainstormed on some businesses we could launch sharing our life lessons. So many things just showed up in our path on this trip guiding us in this direction and feuling our energy. Including the t-shirt with the quote above. More to come on this!!!

My Roadtrip Role:

I decided to tack on a 2 week “Fill My Cup” road trip that will end in the She Summits 14ers climb. I had made the choice to take myself on the road to reset, reprioritize, recharge and refocus as I was starting to feel some burnout. To be honest work and relationships had been getting a bit overwhelming and I needed to change my perspective and recharge my batteries.

Take time to recharge your battery. It’s not selfish; it’s essential. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Building on the energy from my She Summits scouting mission I also wanted to focus some time on re-launching the personal development site I had started so long ago. SO… my ENTIRE drive to Colorado (15 hours) was listening to podcasts on launching coaching businesses, social media marketing, and brainstorming on what I could do to get back to my passion of coaching and developing others. I also used the road trip to start to rethink my approach to work. I knew based on the workload it was time to realign and get creative.

My Husband’s Role:

Here is one of the lessons I have learned and speak to a lot. As a matter of fact, our household had been actively having this conversation for weeks.

You are either filling your cup or emptying it by the people you surround yourself with, the choices you make and the actions you take.

My husband just a month before had made me a custom mug that said “Fill My Cup” and every morning put coffee in it for me and put it on my desk. After 6 hours of driving and countless ideas thrown out for my business, my husband who offered to drive out to Colorado with me for a couple days then fly home, remembered that he owned the domain name “MorningCup.com”. He had purchased it because our son had a business idea a couple years back, but never used. That was it! That struck a chord and put me on this path. While I drove, listened to podcasts and debated ideas, my husband worked in the car and stood up a website. This site was born and the drive gave me a platform to start posting as we arrived in Colorado. This post is just 4 days later!

My Son’s Role:

My son, a college senior studying business and marketing, has the drive, determination and resilience to take anything he puts his mind to. This is evident in his internship working for the School of Business consulting with small business on their online marketing strategy. Lately he has been consulting and giving seminars on short form videos. He is also capturing and sharing his learnings as he learns them on LinkedIn to help others.

Two days ago, he texted me and said, mom you need to start recording and publishing videos. You record, I will do all the editing. You have so many things you can share. A lot of people around the world need to hear and want to hear what you know. They need a role model like you and I think it’s a perfect area for you to work! This… was from my 21-year-old son who didn’t know I was on this road trip to do just that.

Being a role model is not about being perfect. It’s about being authentic, compassionate, and inspiring others to become better versions of themselves.

And THEN he went on to list all my accomplishments that I could teach others about. You have had a successful career. You are a leader in a predominately male industry. You coached and developed high-performing teams. You invented your own roles at work – multiple times. You won Platinum Club and got to drive a Ferrari. You are always learning new skills. You coached volleyball, soccer, and rowing for youth and college age kids. You run marathons and got us running when we were young. You did a full Ironman and motivated me to do it with you. You climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with your mom for a church fund raiser. You prioritize your health and wellness and stay physically fit. You have motivated so many others to start running and prioritizing themselves. Somehow you manage all your time and still have time to hang out with us. You should share how you did this with others.

Be aware of your actions and choices, someone is always watching.

Wow… when your son can repeat back your accomplishments and tells you, you are the person he looks up to and aspires to be like and encourages you to pursue your passion, you know you are on the right track.

My Courage Role:

I have always been stubborn and willing to take risks and do things others told me I couldn’t, and I knew I was made for more. Just ask my mom (especially on the stubborn part)!! I have learned many lessons throughout all of it that I plan to share with all of you. These are the lessons I try to live my life by (I am far from perfect, nor do I want to be).

Strength doesn’t come from avoiding challenges. It comes from learning from them, growing through them, and emerging even stronger than before.

Introducing Morningcup.com:

The remainder of the drive to Colorado I focused on my (re)launch of MorningCup.com with the mission of giving people simple lessons they could apply in 5 minutes every day during their “morning cup”. The foundation of all of them and one lesson that everyone should start with is the POWER OF CHOICE. Everything is a choice. I learned to master the art of choice and I want to teach others.

You are always one choice away from a completely different life.

So here we go! I am publishing this blog and recording a video. My first blog/video of many, God willing! I hope you enjoy what is to come with the launch of MorningCup.com.

Before I go today, help me, help all of you by sharing topics you are struggling with in the comments. I will be sure to add them to our list to discuss!