I Have Too Many Ideas. This Is Not New Information 🫠

I can turn one idea into twelve before breakfast.

This sounds like a wonderful entrepreneurial trait until you realize somebody has to actually make the twelve things.

Unfortunately, that somebody is also me.

Welcome to my current problem.

I started with tea.

Tea became well, obviously we need seasonings.

Seasonings became pantry finds. Pantry finds became gift sets. Then there were jars and bags and labels and ingredients and packaging and shipping and photography and a website and—wait, should we have this too?

Probably.

Do we need it right now?

Apparently, that’s a different question.

I’m an idea factory.

I’ve always been like this.

I can see what something is, what it could be, and about six versions of what it could become—all at the same time.

And I genuinely love that about myself.

But building Source & Savor is teaching me that every good idea does not need immediate employment.

Some ideas can sit down.

Some can wait their turn.

Some need to go back where they came from entirely. 😂

Because there’s a difference between having a lot of ideas and building something intentionally.

I’m learning that difference in real time.

So, what actually makes the cut?

That’s the question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.

Not “Could we sell this?”

We probably could.

Not “Would somebody buy this?”

Probably.

But:

Does it belong here?

Does it taste good?

Does it make me curious?

Would I tell somebody about it even if I wasn’t selling it?

Does it add something to the table—or am I adding it because my brain got excited at 2:17 in the morning?

That last question has become particularly important.

I’m learning to build in chapters.

This might be the hardest part for me.

I want you to see the whole thing.

Now.

I want the teas and the seasonings and the pantry finds and the things I haven’t even told you about yet. I want the packaging right. I want the website right. I want opening the box to feel right.

I want Source & Savor to feel like somewhere you discovered, not somewhere you happened to shop.

And when I care about something that much, my instinct is to keep adding.

One more thing.

One more idea.

One more “Ooooh, you know what would be good?”

But more doesn’t automatically make something better.

Sometimes better means knowing what to leave out.

So I’m learning to pick a handful of things, give them my full attention, make them really damn good, and then move on to the next handful.

Slowly.

Painfully.

Against several natural instincts. 😂

The ideas aren’t going anywhere.

That’s the part I’ve had to remind myself.

A good idea doesn’t become a bad idea just because I don’t do it right now.

There will be other drops.

Other collections.

Other ingredients I stumble across and immediately become obsessed with.

Other “RI, absolutely nobody asked for this” ideas that I will probably find a way to justify anyway.

That’s part of the fun.

Source & Savor doesn’t need to arrive completely finished.

Actually, I don’t think I want it to.

I want it to grow as I discover things.

As we discover things.

And that’s why I’m letting you in early.

You’re seeing the figuring-it-out part.

The changing-my-mind part.

The “I loved this yesterday and today I absolutely do not” part.

The testing.

The tasting.

The narrowing down.

And eventually, the opening of the doors.

I could’ve waited until everything was perfectly packaged and presented Source & Savor like it simply appeared one morning.

But where’s the fun in that?

Food and culture have always been about sharing for me. Passing something across the table. Asking somebody what they’re eating. Telling them they have to taste this.

So it feels right that building this should happen around a table, too.

Consider this your seat.

Just don’t encourage all my ideas.

I have enough.

For now.

— RI

Source something. Savor everything.