Estimated read time: 4 mins

Oil leaks, lost replies, and no joke — if I can do it, so can you.

“Are you married ma’am because if you are I feel bad for your husband.” 

— My Quik Lube superhero who opened the shop after they closed because he felt bad for my damsel in distress a$$. 

I don’t begrudge him for that comment, though I definitely don’t feel bad for my hubs who I retired 7 years ago so that I would never have to think about mechanical things 😜 

But driving home this week I knew something was wrong. Vehicle not accelerating. Oil light on. Shiiiiiitake. What do I do? 

So I pulled over at a garage to check the oil, even though I don’t really know at all what I’m looking for — and turns out, there was less than 1L of oil left and I was thiiiiiis close to seizing the engine. 

OOPS. 

That was my 2nd oops of the week. 

The 1st was discovering that all of my email replies for the last few months have been going to the folder that shall not be named. 

😭😭😭 

Should I have checked it first thing when I noticed I wasn’t getting replies? 

Of course. Did I? NO. Can I make a bunch of excuses as to how unfair and dumb it is that Google just started taking replies from primary to s-p-a-m? I could, but I won’t. 

What I will do is cringe at telling you this just in case it saves you from the struggle fest of wondering: 

“WHY IS NO ONE REPLYING?!” 
“WHAT DID I DOOOOOO?!” 
“DO PEOPLE EVEN LIKE THIS NEWSLETTER?” 

^^Portal that I just went through and alluded to in last week’s email.

Long story short if you’ve sent me an email reply lately and I didn’t respond, that is why. 

& it seems like for now the TEA is here to stay.

But let’s talk about why I was considering killing it, even though I love this newsletter. 

Hint: it’s not about me.

The tea: the dance between destruction and staying on the damn bus

There’s a story I love from this month’s Fertile Ground book club pick Four Thousand Weeks about the Helsinki Bus Station. 

Basically, all the buses leave from the same platform and follow the same path at first. But if you stay on long enough, they eventually diverge and head to wildly different places. 

The metaphor? Your early creative work might look like everyone else’s. You’ll be tempted to hop off, start fresh, switch lanes — thinking this time, you’ll find your “thing.” 

But every time you do, you’re back at the station. 

The magic only happens if you stay on the bus. 

Keep going, even when it feels derivative. Even when it’s not gaining traction yet. Your unique expression is a few stops away — but you’ll never get there if you keep jumping ship before the route gets interesting.

Love this analogy. In full support of staying on the bus. BUT… sometimes you actually do need to get off the bus. 

Doing the wrong things for too long is not how you build momentum. 

I’ve been writing this newsletter for over a year and I love it. But if my people didn’t WANT it, it would not make sense for me to stay on the bus. 

If you’re doing the newsletter, podcast, social strategy, outreach — WHATEVA it is. You both need to: 

1. Do it for long enough that you give it an actual chance to work and for your skills to dramatically improve. 

2. Look for ongoing validation and results that match the energy you’re putting into it. 

It’s not enough to “just be consistent” you need to be consistent with the right things that actually matter. 

Luckily, it’s not all that complicated in practice. If I, who can’t even read a dipstick or do basic email troubleshooting can do it, so can you 😉

Sip on this…  

🧋Reminder: 

What’d you think of this issue of Spill the Tea?

🚌 10/10 staying on the bus — This hit deep. Practical, honest, and exactly what I needed to hear.

🥄 Like a lukewarm latte — I vibed with parts but it didn’t fully land for me.

🛠️ Check your dipstick, babe.