Entrepreneurship as a Spiral

I’ve always been skeptical of the idea of work, specifically corporate work. I didn’t grow up with a dream job in mind and the performative nature of most corporate jobs still makes me feel like 🥴 I’d been aware of entrepreneurship from a young age as my mom used to run her own bookselling business in the ‘90s. I wanted to be an entrepreneur for the longest time, but always struggled with feeling like I didn’t have the right idea.

My first job after graduating college in 2016 was an internship at L’Oréal. I honestly had never thought much about my career at the time, while everyone around me seemed to be declaring their love for investment banking, management consulting, or politics. I felt like the odd one out. But I loved perfume, skincare and makeup, so it felt like I’d landed an incredible opportunity in an industry that I was passionate about and get to experience living in New York City. That year taught me a lot about myself and about the Corporate America I’d built up in my head for so long; as my internship came to an end I felt ready to move on and call in a different opportunity.

By that time I was newly engaged and also considered moving to Copenhagen, which proved nearly impossible due to a host of residency and language requirements. Not one to be easily deterred, I applied to dozens of jobs and weathered just as many rejections. Maybe this is the time to start something of my own? I remember talking to one of my ex’s family members, who I’d known a couple of years at that point, when he told me matter-of-factly, “I don’t see you as an entrepreneur. You should just move to Denmark and teach kindergarten.” Ouch.

These remarks stung, not only because they were mean-spirited but because I felt so unseen. I knew about my entrepreneurial spirit, but what I wasn’t aware of at the time was how entrepreneurship for me was actually rooted in a deep desire not to operate completely within the extractive system that is our society.

If you ever think about doing anything that’s not in line with the dominant system, be prepared for a barrage of limiting beliefs to be hurled your way. Working through these projections from others and addressing where they live within you are part of the process of becoming. We all have to do this time and time again, especially as we’re leveling up.

Let’s fast forward to 2020. I was burnt out and uninspired before the pandemic hit, and when March 2020 came around I found myself with all the time in the world after getting laid off and filing for divorce. I stayed in Brooklyn and tended to myself, basically casting out the world except for long walks with my dear friend, Alexa, and a morning series of FaceTime calls to family. In May 2020, Alexa and I ended up at a park in Bushwick, discussing a rough idea for an online marketplace for CBD snacks and drinks. As we kept talking, the idea for Zippy Pantry emerged clearly — an online marketplace where people could shop by health benefit for all sorts of functional foods and drinks. Gut-healthy chips, teas for focus, honey for restful sleep. Years of working in the beauty industry and seeing the evolution towards a more holistic and individuated approach to health and living showed us a huge gap in the market —most of the functional food brands we were seeing weren’t in stores yet, and most people were still avoiding leaving the house. We were even named one of The Story Exchange’s Brilliant Business Ideas in 2022. We ran Zippy for three years, pivoting several times and learning more than I could have ever imagined, before deciding to pause in 2023 and focus on other ventures.

I struggled for a long time before accepting that it was time to move on and faced a lot of internal resistance. Does this mean I’ve failed? Am I not cut out for entrepreneurship after all? How could I ever be a successful business owner if I firmly disagree with most of the blueprints for success out there? What’s my own measure of success? In time I realized that every chance we take is an opportunity to grow, and even if the outcome isn’t how we imagined, the experience is still valuable and the lessons and will show themselves in time. Entrepreneurship, like time, can be a spiral, with our learnings coming back around to meet us at different moments when we need them.

I began to focus my energies on Earth work and marketing consulting to support myself, realizing how much I was enjoying working with my hands and being outside. It felt pure, generative and purposeful in a way I hadn’t felt about work in a long time.

One of my mentors, Farmer Yon, introduced me to the concept of the triple bottom line, which is a sustainability framework that looks beyond just profitability as a measure of success and also considers impact on people and our planet. Learning about this felt so much more sensical to me, because is it really successful to profit from endless extraction of our warming and screaming planet? To engage mindlessly in linear ways of production and consumption? To seek to earn more than one person could ever need or spend in 10 lifetimes? These ways are crumbling as we wake up to deeper truths about living in harmony with each other and our Mother Earth. This is all part of the new paradigm of entrepreneurship, one that the Earth is yearning for and calling forth. Sustainable businesses that embrace natural cycles, that are grounded in passion and purpose, that serve the collective rather than purely extracting or seeing people as little more than either producers or consumers. We are sovereign beings, friends, teachers, confidants, lovers, learners, dreamers, creators, and so much more. I believe in a new paradigm of entrepreneurship rooted in heart-centeredness, balance, passion, sustainability, learning, unlearning and service over extraction, exploitation and unrealistic growth.

We all have skills, gifts and passions that can be used to improve our corners of the world and enrich our lives along with those of others. I firmly believe we all have a “weird little business” in us that makes the world better and lights us up inside. I’d love to know, what’s your weird little business idea?!

While these days I'm splitting my focus between my marketing consultancy for conscious brands and entrepreneurs, baking up whimsical and gut-healthy treats with Faery Good Bakeshop, along with Earth work and Spirit-led herbalism, the foundation and experience I gained with Zippy Pantry continues to propel me forward and inspire my work. You can read a bit more about this in The Story Exchange’s follow up here.

Thanks for being here!