The Weekly Crunchwrap 🌯

Welcome to Week 1 of my learning to Live Más! 🎉 Will everything in here be about Taco Bell? No. And that is my biggest regret.

🌊🔊🎶 Baja-Blasting This Bop

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💡 Bright Bites

Tasty truths + tiny triumphs worth a shout.

• Clearing My Plate: The start of this Substack marks the end of three years at a truly transformative & deeply user-focused big tech company. Together with an insanely dedicated team & best-in-class partners, we had the honor & privilege to help hundreds of thousands of users build & grow their businesses. It was an exciting new adventure for me, too - one that tested the tools I’d collected from fifteen years with my first employer while introducing me to new ones thanks to the new team of bright, kind and generous folks around me. Eighteen years in tech sales offered countless opportunities and lessons beyond what I’d ever dreamed or imagined possible: financial stability, world-travel, energizing friendships, and no dull days.

  But - a lot like the year I turned eighteen - I couldn’t shake a sense that where I’d been wasn’t where I was meant to stay anymore. Like my high school, hometown, and track team and music groups - my company had been a wonderful place & opportunity, and it would continue to be for others, but it just wasn’t for me anymore.

  At first, I tackled this feeling like a motivation problem to solve, wrestling with shame at the idea of quitting something, someplace and some people I really loved. One day when I’d filled up an old notebook with many of these thoughts, plans and hacks to get back on track, I unwrapped a fresh one, and it struck me: my leaving would makes space for new things - including new people with fresh eyes, fresh energy, and all the motivation I couldn’t indefinitely muster. This helped me see that bailing out wasn’t just an ending - it was an opening. For the business, the team, and for me, too.

  So, I finally leapt.

  This week, I’m celebrating the leap away from the familiar into the unknown. Welcome to the space where I’ll be working out what is next. One post at a time.

• Room to Bloom: Unseasonably warm weather enticed us to plant early. Six to eight flats (I stopped counting after the planned four) and at least three trips back to the garden center (to remedy my perennial purchase mistake of too many plants, too few soil), I stood in the driveway sweating over the precise and perfect mix of flowers for each pot & spot in the yard. I laid things out to maximize the right contrast of colors & height before digging in: orange with purple, yellow with pink, spillers with thrillers. I crammed as many little seedling into each pot as I could, only to accidentally blast away tons of their first little blooms as I tried to water-in the too-full planters.

  Turning to my photo albums for evidence the poor plants would recover from this rough start, I was stunned at just how full everything was by the end of the season. I’d forgotten just how much and how fast the flowers grow when they are free from the plastic flat, watered gently, and given some space to take root. My takeaways:

  • it’s wild how much we have in common with plants… we, too, can grow in unexpected & beautiful ways in the right environment: water, sunshine, fresh air, and some space to take root.

  • that I should stop trying to force oh-so-many things into one pot/hour/place!

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💥 The Crunch Zone

Chewing through tough stuff & things that are stuck.

• Learning To Sit Still: I like to feel progress. I’ve thrived on the move. I’ve lived and also loved to work. When a teammate described me as ‘dynamic,' I blushed. But something started to shift mid-panini while I was hermiting at home: I learned that even I am subject to Newton’s First Law. For the first time I could remember since curling up with snacks & cartoons after morning kindergarten, I started to settle into being still. And it scared the shit out of me.

  I’ve since had time and help to see the difference and reward of rest (actually letting yourself be at ease… not only disconnecting when I was on a plane with bad WiFi, which was my main ‘recovery’ strategy from 2009-2020), rotting (tried it! learned some things), and a refresh (breaks, shifts, or space that make space for clarity). My real ‘job’ for the next bit is learn my go & rest modes and better notice which I’m in versus which I need. My gem-of-a-coach, Emma, suggested reclaiming my calendar and filling it with the things I want to use this time for - including rest and downtime, learning and building.
  

  → Next Step: Time-block my physical calendar with things I’m genuinely excited about (classes, catch-ups, quiet time with coffee/book or a meandering walk with my dog). Then check back: What did I do? What didn’t I do? And most importantly - what can this teach me?

• Unpacking The Coat Closet: Taking the Scout motto to heart, I’ve always aimed to be prepared for whatever the day might bring. I’ve most embraced this philosophy to face the Midwest’s greatest unknown: the weather. As a result, I’ve amassed an outerwear collection that rivals the racks at REI. Our tiny coat closet has been overstuffed and functionally out of order for longer than I can remember. I’ve been able to get rid of items that don’t fit, but I continue to stumble into spin-off projects that I simply must complete before I can actually unpack and sort what’s left. The result is a closet crammed with everything we could ever need - but nothing we can actually access.
  

  → Next Step: Don’t they say naming a problem is the first step to solving it? It’s me… Hi! 🙋‍♀️Between this & the planters, I’ll start with an refreshed awareness that I tend to misjudge how many things to pack in/ put together / take on. Now let’s see if that kick-starts improvement - or more online shopping to self-soothe the shame.

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🧠 Food for Thought

Snack-able idea links, quotes, or memes.

• A colleague’s thoughtful-as-always criteria for knowing when it’s time to step away from work

  Have enough, have had enough, and have a plan.

• Consider Emily Amick’s juicy invitation to make this a Jam Girl Summer

  You wait until the fruit is ready. You sit with it. You let it get messy and sticky and hot. You take what's in season, and only what's in season, and you preserve it.

• How Japan’s most famous author uses routine to spark creativity

  Haruki Murakami: “The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running, the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be.”

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🍽️ Next Week’s Main Menu

Forward-looking focus + light accountability.

🧂 Flavor to Savor

Something to chew on & relish.
Savoring the sunrise for as many clear days & early starts as possible.

❤️‍🔥 Soul Sauce

A move to spark, deepen, or reheat a connection.
Making the rounds with friends in New York next week!🗽

🌯 Taste Test

One new thing I’m trying—bite-sized, crunchy, bold, or soft-launchy.
Starting in a creative writing workshop with the incredible Emily J. Smith!✍

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🙏Thank you for sharing this bite with me!

Quick FAQ:

• Why is this Taco Bell themed? Because Taco Bell is perfect and I am not.

• Why doesn’t this come out on Tuesday? Because I firmly believe tacos should not be contained to just one day of the week. They are for everyone and every day.

• What is your go-to order at Taco Bell? Cheesy Gordita Crunch with black beans.

• What is your favorite food? Pizza.

Looking forward to your reactions & questions in the comments or DMs, and appreciate any shares or subscribes to grow the crew!