Reader,
Let me tell you about cupcakes.
Before I left my corporate career at Boeing, I built a baking business called When Cookie Met Cupcake.
In the beginning, I worked entirely from other people's recipes. The ones from my decorating classes, others I found in cookbooks, and even on dedicated cupcake blogs.
They got the job done, but they were everyone else's recipes, not mine.
So I started experimenting, ran taste tests with trusted people, married their feedback with my own growing expertise, and eventually developed my own classic vanilla bean buttercream. That icing became my signature. People still ask me for the recipe, and I still don't share it because it became truly, distinctly mine.
Here's why I'm telling you this...
Almost all of us build our businesses the same way I started baking.
We borrow. We take the courses from celebrity entrepreneurs, adopt someone else's proven framework, and even model our growth on what worked for someone we admire.
In the beginning, that makes sense. You don't need to experiment with every ingredient when you're learning to bake.
But you're not a beginner anymore.
You have decades of experience and a point of view shaped by everything you've built, and at some point, the borrowed framework that served you so well starts to feel a little friction-y.
That grindy feeling is information. It usually shows up long before it ever appears in your revenue or operations, and it's almost always telling you you've outgrown the recipe you've been using, and it's time to start writing your own.
I wrote about how to recognize when you've hit that ceiling in a successful business, what it costs to stay stuck in that place, and how to start building something that's actually yours.
You can read the full post or listen to the episode by clicking one of the buttons below!
When did you know it was time to build your own recipe?
xo, Jess
IMPORTANT UPDATE!!
If you've been considering the Built to Last Egypt Retreat, the doors officially close on July 17!
The Built to Last Egypt Retreat - October 18-31, 2026 - Cairo. Luxor. Aswan.
Two Spots Remain!
The Social Impact Roundtable - 3rd Wed, Monthly
The next Social Impact Roundtable is tomorrow, Wednesday 6/17 at 9am Denver mountain, and we're going all in on how to navigate the current times, run a business that makes a meaningful impact while making money, and how to embrace our roles as the CEO!
This is a free event, so please join us for the next conversation! Registration is required and you can do that here.
RESOURCES
Why Isn't It Working
Your brand new guide to diagnosing what isn't working in your business and why it all feels so heavy and misaligned. Grab it here!
Is Your Most Important Work Still Ahead Of You?
Take the quiz and find out. It takes three minutes and it will give you language for what you've been experiencing.
Podcast Appearances
I've been talking a lot lately about alignment, big ideas, impact, and how we bring it all together into a business that allows us to thrive. You can catch all of those here!
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