If Your Business Had a Smell, What Would It Be?
For me, the smell of my business when it’s going well, and the smell of joy, is somehow tied to lemons. That’s a regular everyday kind of smell that I associate with my work. And it’s the smell I hope subtly, and not so subtly (as when I write about it like this) gets communicated when someone visits my website or reads one of my books.
Tangy, thoughtful, awake and energized.
On a really great day, or when I’m blissed out and basking in the bloom of full creative flow, lemons get bumped up to peaches…but lemon is still in the background. Yum.
Here’s my favorite Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe based on one from Ina Gartner, the Barefoot Contessa. It’s easy, good for you and delicious. Exactly the way I want my life and my business to be.
Andrea’s Favorite Lemon Yogurt Cake
Mix together:
1 and 1/2 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt
In a separate bowl mix:
3 eggs, 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla and the zest of 1 lemon and 2 teaspoons juice from the lemon. This makes it really lemony.
Then add the dry mixture to the wet mixture until just mixed (not too much.) Add 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and blend together.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden. A loaf pan is best but I like it when Mike makes it in a round bundt tin too. It stays really nice and moist through the week – perfect for lunch in the middle of a lemony day.
Enjoy!
If your business had a smell, what would it be?
Recommended, if I do say so myself: A copy of ‘Money, Meaning and Beyond: 27 Unexpected Ways to Create What Really Matters for Business owners.’ It’s a business book I wrote with Tina to address everyday things like smells, and how they can impact your business. Click here for a peek at how salad bowls, a golf course, and even your sex life have something important to say about you and your work.
P.S. Just two weeks left in my first creative hiatus of 2007. How’s it going? Different from what you might think. I promise to post more about it.
I love questions like this that pop me out of my brain.
I’d say when things are humming mine smells like a fine old vines Zinfandel. A little jammy, smooth, velvety, powerful yet a nice long finish. Feels savory and exciting yet grounded and tied ultimately to the earth and cycle of nature.
If I had a business, I would love for it to smell like fresh mountain air after a thunderstorm.