Just A Little Yeast And Water... (Staying In Relationship With Your Goals).

“Feeeeed the biiiiiittttch."

I can hear the deep voice of the late, great Anthony Bourdain in my head.

I loved the audio version of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, his memoir about the rough, crass (and yes, sexist) restaurant world.

The full quote:

"‘Feed the bitch!’ said the voice on the phone. 'Feed the bitch or she'll die!'

It was Adam.

"What he wanted me to do - what he was telling me - was that he was too drunk, too tired, too lazy, too involved in some squalid personal circumstances to come in and feed his starter: a massive, foaming, barely contained heap of fermenting grapes, flour, water, sugar, and yeast which even now was pushing up the weighted-down list of a thirty-five-gallon Lexan container and spilling over the work table where it was stored."

Where are you going with this, Jane? I can hear you wondering.

Sourdough starter? Really?

Let me explain:

The “bitch” came up recently when one of the solopreneurs I work with had a busy, hectic week.

You know, one of those weeks where you have all your marketing and business tasks laid out, you're motivated and ready to go, and then…

Life gets in the way.

The dog gets sick. The kids' childcare is suddenly unavailable. The kitchen floods. The computer crashes.

"How do I keep doing the marketing consistently when things like this happen? I mean, I couldn't help it that things got offline…"

The answer?

You “feed the bitch.”

You find the absolute minimum you can do to keep the metaphorical-sourdough-starter alive.

You send one email instead of making five calls. You spend 15 minutes instead of 4 hours. You re-post someone else's IG reel instead of creating your own.

You take just enough action to maintain your relationship with your goal.

It can be hard to muster up the courage and energy to put yourself out there with marketing (or tackle other goals in your business).

It's better to do a teeny bit to maintain momentum (and keep it “fermenting”), rather than starting over after a big pause.

What's the bare minimum you can do to “feed the bitch” today?

That was a bizarre question to type out just now (and probably even weirder to read!). -But I'm hoping it is just odd enough that it'll stick, like gooey sourdough starter on your hands.

Let me know how it goes!