Everything is an Experiment!

Last year, as I mentioned in my newsletter at the time, my husband took on the project of creating a garden in our backyard, intermingling botanicals with food.

It has been an adventure.

Over the course of the last year we've experimented with all kinds of flowers, vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Some have thrived. Others...well...not so much.

First were the zinnias (one of my favorite flowers), which ended up looking like Swiss cheese a couple of weeks after planting. (Sorry, slugs, but Sluggo was deployed.)

Then we planted our garlic waaay too late. Lesson learned: plant garlic in the fall. We harvested a few weeks ago, and now it's all drying in the garden shed as I write this.

We harvested our lavender too late and didn't cut it back far enough. It withered. Dried out. Better luck next year.

Our green pole beans? WAAAY too stringy. We swapped them out for bush beans this year and they're perfect. (I may have to share the feta, tomato, and green bean salad we made the other night. Chef's kiss.)

Then there's the dog. She ate every single strawberry before we ever got to them. We haven't solved that one yet.

Side note: she's also eaten several crops of shishito peppers, and just last week we caught her stealing a jalapeño and swallowing it whole like her life depended on it. I was honestly surprised there was only poop on the living room floor the next morning and not a crispy little pug that had burst into flames.

One of our zinnia crops this year.

My spicy pug Lucy

And then there's my business.

What if I bundled a few of my services together?

What if I finally started that podcast?

What if I showed more behind-the-scenes moments instead of only the polished work?

What if I wrote newsletters in a more authentic voice?

What if I niched down even further?

Maybe my sweet spot isn't just working with female-founded businesses. Maybe it's helping creative entrepreneurs build businesses in their first year.

Who knows?

The only way to find out is to try.

And if someone unsubscribes because I experimented? They probably weren't my client anyway.

The same is true for all of us.

Whether it's your garden, your business, your career, or simply the next recipe you make for dinner, stay curious.

Try the thing.

Not as a lifelong commitment.

Just as an experiment.

Because sometimes the experiments fail.

And sometimes they become the thing that changes everything.

But you get the idea.

We try something, and either it works or it doesn't.

Whenever that happens, my husband just shrugs—or throws his hands up with genuine excitement—and says,

"Everything is an experiment."

And honestly...it's starting to stick.

My stylist thinks I should try bangs again? Why not? My hair will grow back. It's an experiment.

My robot vacuum has a mop feature. I should probably see what happens. It's an experiment.

I'm thinking about trying:

• recipes with feta (maybe I only think I don't like it because I've only eaten it buried in salty Mediterranean salads)

• chopped apples in my tuna salad

• a new shampoo that might finally tame the frizz

• a pottery class

Proof that planting milkweed works—a monarch caterpillar in our garden just one week later.