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Purpose is one of those business buzzwords that gets thrown around a lot. You see it painted on office walls, added to website footers, and dropped into team meetings in the hopes that it sticks. But what does it actually look like when purpose isn’t just a slogan?
Leading with purpose sounds fantastic in theory. In practice, however, it is messy. It requires hard decisions, difficult conversations, and a constant balancing act between ambition and humanity. How do you build a hospitality business that wants to scale and make a difference? How do you do both without burning out your team or yourself?
In a recent episode of the Science of Service podcast, host Rachel Stainton sat down with Juanny Romero, the founder and CEO of Mothership Coffee Roasters, a Las Vegas-based coffee chain with a mission that stretches far beyond the counter. Juanny’s journey from a single café to a multi-unit brand (with sights set on nine-figure revenue) offers a masterclass in leadership evolution.
She didn't get there by chasing trends. She got there by shifting her mindset from "me-first" to "we-first," embracing emotional intelligence, and mastering the six essential roles of a hospitality CEO.
The traditional image of a hospitality CEO is often someone who is everywhere at once: tasting the food, checking the books, and micromanaging the floor. But as a business scales, that "do-it-all" approach becomes a liability.
Juanny learned this the hard way. Early in her expansion, she attempted to step in as an area manager for her chain of cafes, believing it would help her make better decisions. The result? A disaster.
"I was literally the worst person for this position," Juanny admits. "I think five people quit in the span of six months. My turnover was like 174 percent of what our industry is. It was horrible. And I realized it was me. I was the problem."
This failure was a pivotal moment. It taught her that just because a founder is good at one thing (like starting a business), it doesn't mean they are good at everything (like managing day-to-day operations). To grow Mothership, she had to stop being an operator and start being a CEO.
Juanny’s education began long before she opened her first coffee shop. Growing up in Queens, New York, with immigrant parents (an Ecuadorian father and a Korean mother), she spent her childhood in the back of kitchens.
"I was the dishwasher, the prep cook, the sous chef, cleaning tables, you name it," she recalls. Despite her parents' advice to avoid the restaurant industry, the grit and empathy she learned on those kitchen floors became her foundation.
Mothership started as a way for Juanny to express herself, but as her life evolved, marriage, kids, and the "white picket fence", she felt a void. She realized she needed to become something bigger than the expectations placed on her.
"I wanted to give something to the world that was uniquely from my own experience," she says. This personal transformation sparked a professional one. The mission of Mothership became personified by her personal mission: to transform a thousand women's lives, ideally turning them into millionaires.
To achieve such a massive goal, Juanny had to evolve. She had to trade the scrappy, "lone wolf" mentality of an entrepreneur for the disciplined, strategic mindset of a CEO.
Through executive coaching and hard-won experience, Juanny identified six essential roles that a CEO must perform. These aren't just tasks; they are distinct headspaces that a leader must occupy to drive sustainable growth.
The first role is to be a coach to the team. This doesn't mean telling people what to do; it means guiding them to find the answers themselves. It involves developing talent, identifying strengths, and helping employees improve their performance. By coaching the leaders around her, Juanny ensures that the vision cascades down to every barista and cashier.
"This is really important," Juanny notes. "It's finding ways to treat my company like my own investment vehicle."
This requires a mental separation between the founder and the business. Instead of viewing the company as her "baby", an emotional enmeshment that can cloud judgment, she views it as an entity with its own mission and purpose. Acting as an advisor allows her to make objective decisions that serve the company's long-term health, even if those decisions are personally difficult.
While coaching focuses on performance, mentoring focuses on personal growth. Juanny views her role as a facilitator for the next generation of executives and entrepreneurs. By giving back her time and wisdom, she helps shape the future leaders of the industry. This investment in people pays dividends in loyalty and internal growth.
"Any entrepreneur worth their salt should be a great salesperson," Juanny asserts. But this role isn't just about selling coffee to customers; it's about selling the vision.
A CEO must constantly sell the future to their team, their investors, and even themselves. When Juanny declared Mothership would become a nine-figure company, she battled intense imposter syndrome. She had to "sell" herself on the idea that it was possible before she could convince anyone else.
"I have to convince my leaders that we are worthy of being a nine-figure company," she explains. "Being an advocate for the company is super important."
The visionary sets the destination, but the path is rarely clear. It is the CEO's job to proactively identify and remove obstacles that stand in the way of growth.
For Juanny, this has meant making tough calls. "It might mean ending a relationship with a vendor that I've had for fifteen years... knowing that it's not going to serve the growth of the company," she says. It can also mean parting ways with employees whose values no longer align with the organization. Removing these blockers clears the runway for the rest of the team to execute.
The final, and perhaps most critical, role is that of the strategist. Having a vision is great, but the strategist figures out how to get there.
"That is the most fun for me," Juanny says. "I love the idea of going, 'I want to transform a thousand women's lives,' and then going, 'How?'"
The strategist looks at the impossible goal and works backward to create a roadmap. It involves looking at the P&L, analyzing market trends, and making high-level decisions that steer the mothership. By dedicating specific days of her week solely to strategy (and staying out of daily operations), Juanny ensures she isn't just reacting to the present, but actively building the future.
One of the biggest traps for entrepreneurs is "shiny object syndrome." The urge to chase the newest trend or constantly reinvent the wheel can be destructive. Juanny realized that to build a great company, she had to build great systems that people could follow.
"It really turned me from an ego-driven person... to a team player," she says. "How can I help everyone at once?"
Early in her career, Juanny was anti-establishment. She once found an employee handbook at a location she took over and threw it in the trash, thinking rules stifled creativity. Her employees taught her otherwise. They wanted structure. They wanted to know what success looked like.
Mothership now operates on simplified, clear systems. For example, the cashier role is defined by three essential steps:
"If you do these three steps, you are successful," Juanny explains. Everything else is fixable. By simplifying the systems, she ensures that she hires people whose intrinsic nature aligns with the role, rather than trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
The shift from a "me-first" mentality to a "we-first" mentality is what separates small business owners from industry leaders.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together," Juanny quotes. This realization changed everything for her. She understood that the scrappy, "take no prisoners" attitude that helped her start the business was not the same set of skills needed to scale it.
This approach creates a culture of safety and authenticity. In an industry plagued by high turnover, Mothership focuses on creating an environment where employees feel respected and trusted. Even if they leave, they often leave happy, and sometimes they even come back.
"We focus on creating safe spaces where we can allow moments of vulnerability," Juanny says. This psychological safety breeds loyalty and better performance. When employees feel good, they naturally bring their best selves to work, which translates directly to the customer experience.
Perhaps the most surprising statistic from Juanny’s journey is this: after she hired an executive coach and began focusing on emotional intelligence (EQ), her company's revenue increased by 174 percent in less than two years.
"I truly believe it has to do with emotional intelligence," she says. "At the end of the day, we're in the business of being human."
Developing EQ meant learning to trust herself and her team. It meant moving away from micromanagement and toward accountability. It meant understanding that trust is earned over time through consistency, respect, and listening.
For leaders struggling to make the leap from owner to CEO, Juanny advises kindness and self-awareness.
"I want to become a compassionate leader," Juanny reflects. "There's something elegant and graceful in being able to show compassion at scale... it means that my motivations aren't necessarily for myself."
Leading a high-growth hospitality brand isn't just about better coffee beans or smarter marketing strategies. As Juanny Romero’s story illustrates, it is about the internal work of the leader.
It is about disciplining yourself to focus on strategy rather than distraction. It is about building systems that empower your team rather than restrict them. And ultimately, it is about understanding that your business is a vehicle for impacting lives—both the lives of your customers and the lives of the people who work for you.
When you clarify your roles, invest in your emotional intelligence, and lead with a "we-first" mindset, growth stops being a grind and starts being a movement.
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