Michele Carlton
Owner | PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans – Pensacola
Ambassador | Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce
Pensacola, Florida
Industry: Hospitality & Consumer Experiences
Sector: Coffeehouse | Food & Beverage | Franchising
Specialties: Hospitality | Customer Experience | Community Engagement | Relationship Building | Franchise Operations | Entrepreneurship
Leadership Focus
Community-Centered Entrepreneurship | Hospitality | Relationship Capital | Customer Experience | Team Culture | Local Business Leadership
CityBox Executive Essence™
Michele Carlton represents a style of entrepreneurship built around faith, resilience, hospitality, relationships, and community.
Her professional journey has not followed a straight line.
From her first job at age 15 to business ownership, returning to college as a single mother while working full-time, operating other entrepreneurial ventures, and eventually realizing her longtime dream of owning a coffee shop, each stage of Michele’s life contributed to the leader she is today.
Her story illustrates a leadership philosophy centered on taking the first step, trusting the journey, surrounding yourself with the right people, and continuing forward even when the destination is not completely visible.
For Michele, leadership begins with showing up.
And business begins with people.
“For me, value isn’t about revenue, it’s about the relationships and the life I’ve built here in Pensacola.”
Executive Overview
Michele Carlton is an entrepreneur, business owner, community advocate, wife, and mother whose leadership journey reflects resilience, adaptability, and a deep commitment to people.
Her professional story began at age 15 as a busgirl at Annadelle’s Plantation in Covington, Louisiana. It was there that she first learned the importance of hard work, attention to detail, and taking pride in serving others well.
Those early lessons continued through a career that included working as an office manager, owning businesses, returning to college as a single mother while maintaining full-time employment, becoming a candle maker with her own company, and later operating a Vintage Market Days franchise.
Looking back, Michele sees those experiences not as disconnected chapters, but as preparation.
Each role strengthened her resilience, discipline, work ethic, and ability to continue moving forward during uncertain seasons.
Eventually, those experiences converged around a dream she had carried for years: owning her own coffee shop.
Today, Michele owns PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans – Pensacola alongside her family, building the business with her husband, Don, and son, Ryan.
Her Louisiana roots also shape the experience she has created. A self-described New Orleans girl at heart, Michele brings the warmth, energy, and hospitality of Louisiana culture into a Pensacola setting—giving the café a character that is both connected to the PJ’s brand and distinctly local.
While the franchise provides operating systems and structure, Michele believes the personality of a location comes from its people.
Her team.
Her customers.
Their conversations.
Their relationships.
And the environment they create together every day.
Why This Leader Matters
Michele Carlton demonstrates that leadership influence does not have to begin in a boardroom.
It can begin across a counter.
Around a table.
Inside a neighborhood business.
Or through a simple conversation that makes another person feel welcomed and valued.
Her leadership matters because she understands the role a locally operated business can play within the broader fabric of a community.
PJ’s Coffee is a commercial enterprise, but Michele’s approach extends beyond commerce. She has intentionally cultivated an environment where baristas become part of a family, customers become familiar faces, conversations create relationships, and the business itself becomes a place of connection.
That same philosophy informs her engagement within the Pensacola business community.
Michele believes in showing up, supporting others, contributing to the growth of the community she serves, and allowing relationships to become a form of long-term value.
Her leadership represents an important CityBox Index principle:
Economic value and relationship capital are not mutually exclusive. Strong businesses can create both.
CityBox Leadership Signals™
Strategic Orientation
People Before Transactions
Michele evaluates success through a broader lens than revenue alone.
Relationships, customer experience, employee culture, community impact, and the life created around the business are central to the way she defines value.
This orientation allows her to view the coffeehouse not simply as a place of commerce, but as a community environment.
Decision Style
Faith + Forward Movement
Michele’s entrepreneurial journey demonstrates a willingness to move before every answer is available.
She describes becoming a catalyst as taking the leap and pursuing something before it is completely figured out.
For her, the first step is often the most important.
Her decision-making combines personal faith, trust in her instincts, perseverance, and an understanding that clarity often develops through action rather than before it.
Primary Influence
Relationships
People sit at the center of Michele’s leadership philosophy.
Customers, employees, fellow business owners, Chamber relationships, family, and members of the community all contribute to the ecosystem surrounding her work.
Her leadership influence is therefore highly relational rather than transactional.
Leadership Strength
Creating Belonging
One of Michele’s most distinctive leadership strengths is her ability to make people feel welcome.
She has cultivated an environment where hospitality is not simply customer service—it is part of the culture.
That experience extends from the team behind the counter to the customers entering the café and ultimately into the broader community surrounding the business.
Executive Signature
Approachable Entrepreneurship
Michele’s leadership presence is warm, accessible, community-facing, and deeply personal.
She combines the discipline required to operate a business with an entrepreneurial style that leaves room for conversation, fun, personality, hospitality, and human connection.
Leadership Environment
Family + Team + Community
Michele does not describe leadership as an individual pursuit.
She credits her ability to remain active in marketing and the community to trusting her team, including her son Ryan, who manages the day-to-day operation of the café.
She describes her baristas as becoming like family—a team that works hard while also laughing, enjoying one another, and contributing to the atmosphere customers experience.
For Michele, culture is not separate from operations.
Culture is part of the operation.
Selected Leadership Milestones
First Lessons in Hospitality
Began working at age 15 as a busgirl at Annadelle’s Plantation in Covington, Louisiana, where she learned the importance of hard work, attention to detail, service, and taking pride in doing a job well.
Professional Development
Worked as an office manager while continuing to develop the organizational discipline and people skills that would later support her entrepreneurial career.
Education & Resilience
Returned to college as a single mother while working full-time, reinforcing a leadership foundation built around discipline, perseverance, and continuing forward despite difficult circumstances.
Entrepreneurship
Built experience through multiple business ventures, including operating her own candle company.
Franchise Ownership
Became a franchise owner of Vintage Market Days, adding franchise operations and business ownership to her entrepreneurial experience.
Longtime Dream Realized
Eventually fulfilled a longstanding goal of owning a coffee shop through PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans – Pensacola.
Family Enterprise
Built the PJ’s Coffee business alongside her husband, Don, and son, Ryan, creating an enterprise Michele views as part of her family’s shared legacy.
Community Leadership
Expanded her influence beyond business ownership through active involvement within the Pensacola business community and service as an Ambassador for the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce.
CityBox Magazine Cover Star
Featured as the April 2026 CityBox Magazine Cover Star in “More Than Coffee,” documenting her entrepreneurial journey, leadership philosophy, and commitment to building community through hospitality.
Meet CityBox Magazine Cover Star Michele Carlton
More than coffee. More than business. Michele Carlton’s story is one of resilience, faith, entrepreneurship, family, and the power of genuine connection.
As owner of PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans – Pensacola and an Ambassador for the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, Michele has created more than a neighborhood gathering place—she has built a business rooted in hospitality, relationships, and community. Her journey from working her first job at 15, returning to college as a single mother, building multiple businesses, and ultimately realizing her dream of owning a coffee shop reveals the experiences that shaped the leader she is today.
Read Michele Carlton’s CityBox Magazine cover story and discover the woman, journey, and purpose behind “More Than Coffee.”
Michele Carlton: Brewing Connection. Serving Community.
Michele Carlton’s CityBox Magazine cover story, “More Than Coffee,” explores a leadership journey shaped by resilience, faith, entrepreneurship, family, and community. From her early experiences in hospitality to building businesses and ultimately realizing her dream of owning PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans – Pensacola, Michele’s story reflects the power of perseverance and taking the first step.
Today, she is creating more than a coffeehouse. Through hospitality, relationships, and community engagement, Michele has built a place where people feel welcomed, connected, and valued—while continuing to make an impact throughout Pensacola’s business community.
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Changemakers.
CityBox Index™ is an AI-native leadership intelligence platform documenting & connecting the executives, founders, physicians, innovators, and civic leaders shaping America's cities.
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