Today, Jen Sincero is a bestselling author and stunningly successful life coach. As she mentions several times in her You are a Badass at Making Money book, she was once an instructor in a businesswomen’s training program in Los Angeles. At the time, she was an overworked freelance writer in the process of reinventing and radically changing her life.
I, too, was an L.A. freelance writer who stumbled into this businesswomen’s group looking for maybe a story idea to pitch to magazines. I attended the training sessions as a participant-observer and Sincero was our instructor.
I knew her circa 2007, when she was only two years into her transformation. I didn’t get to know her terribly well, but I remember being very impressed. I saw a spark, a mighty intellect and a wise soul.
When the program ended, I lost touch with the students and instructors. A few times in her book, Sincero refers indirectly to Amy Swift, who led the program. Swift did so as director of the L.A./Orange County chapter of the national Ladies who Launch entrepreneurial group. Swift hired Sincero as an instructor and she (Swift) also opened the door for me to write profiles of leading businesswomen for the national organization. Like Sincero, I’m grateful to Swift for employing me.
In 2017, as I dedicated myself fully to my book, I entered a new world that has exposed me to so many things I’ve never seen before. In this context, I stumbled across Sincero’s book. I wasn’t paying an iota of attention when she released her first You are a Badass book in 2013, which became an astronomical success. I was in another world and oblivious. When I somehow got wind of the 2017 book, I connected the dots and recognized that I was Sincero’s student a decade ago.
I have now listened to the audiobook at least a dozen times. I traveled from D.C. to Portsmouth, N.H., last year for the singular purpose of attending Sincero’s book tour. The eight-hour train ride plus 90-minute bus ride was wholly worth it. More Sincero Kool-Aid, please.
This brings me to the food metaphors and cookie consumption.
As a full-time food journalist, I think about food around the clock. So does Sincero. I was so struck by the number of food references in her book that I endeavored to count them.
By my reasonably accurate count, the 269-page You are a Badass at Making Money book contains 123 references to food, food establishments (coffee shops, restaurants) and food expressions (“whole hog,” “oyster of awesomeness.”) This doesn’t include the numerous references to drinks and bars. It also excludes cooking-related accessories (potholders, salt and pepper shakers, wooden spoon, meat cleaver, vegetable peeler) and appliances (electric can opener, dishwasher). Though I didn’t count these, Sincero cites the kitchen several times to mean an actual house room and a metaphorical space, i.e., “imagination is the mental kitchen where we cook up two types of make-believe.”
My radar is particularly attuned to dessert references, which include ice cream, gelato, doughnuts, blueberry pie and cookies.
The cookie pictured here is not just any cookie. It’s a Sprinkles cookie. Sprinkles is a visionary cupcake bakery founded in 2005 that more recently added cookies and ice cream to its menu. (And pizza!) Candace Nelson, the company owner and founder, is an acquaintance of Swift’s. Swift invited Nelson to speak to our L.A. Ladies who Launch group at a time when I was writing about cupcakes. Needless to say, I was hyperattentive, watching the podium so closely that I can’t recall if Sincero was in the audience. I’d wager a bet she was. That moment was a turning point for Swift, an accomplished writer, consultant and branding/media strategist unto herself. This was Swift’s last activity on behalf of Ladies who Launch. She unaffiliated in order to branch out on her own and form her Smarty company. Sincero would approve.
Now that I’m deep in cupcake book mode, I realize how valuable it was to be in that room with all those women, especially Nelson of Sprinkles. I have memories. You’ll read them in my book.
The next Sprinkles I’m visiting is in Houston. The trip is part of my Cupcakes and Blue Sky tour to research my book. In true Sincero spirit, I’m advancing my book even though I’m still in the process of finding an agent and landing a book deal. (Inquiries welcome. My About page outlines my book premise; proposal on request). To paraphrase Sincero’s “book lady” company name, I am writing my damn book. (Also: #amwriting – with acknowledgment of Sincero books in podcast episode 85).
The “write your damn book” phrase comes from the name of Sincero’s writeyourdamnbook.com. When you register for her book proposal class, confirmation comes under the subject line, “Welcome Future Bestselling Author.” Thanks, I take that literally.
I’m also fond of this Sincero quote.
In the next two weeks, I’m hitching my rocket to airplanes bound for the Texas Gulf Coast and Twin Cities. I’m coming to share cupcakes and conversation with you, so please accept my invitation to the cupcakery table. Here’s the catch: you have to tell me where we’re going. With one exception, I haven’t secured the venues yet. I have faith that the answers will appear. You know your town better than I do, so take my survey to advise where. See the linked pages for details. (April 17 update: See you at the Buttered Tin on April 18).
All of this happened in true Sincero spirit. I needed to figure out how to sustain the national tour I spontaneously began in January. The only travel I’m used to is the train from D.C. to New York. One day in March, I decided my tour had to hit the road at least quarterly. I needed a spring destination. I spontaneously thought of a friend I could maybe visit in Texas. The next day, I had a plane ticket to Houston. Then the airline sent a limited-time offer that seemed too good to be true. I had one day to come up with another destination to use this irresistible offer. Where am I going? Wait, didn’t I recently get an email about another Sincero tour? Suddenly I’m in possession of a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Rockets engaged.
I’ll see you at the April 17 Sincero tour stop in St. Paul. Then we’ll have cupcakes the next day. This is uncharted territory for me in so many ways. I’ve never been to Texas or Minnesota. Whee!
Sincero is coming to my neck of the woods at the end of the month. See you in Baltimore on April 27 and D.C. the next day. Never too much of this Kool-Aid. If any Sincero followers want to meet up for cupcakes, I can arrange that. Get in touch.
To tie a loose end, here’s the context for the opening cookie metaphor. In the chapter entitled “Your Inner Wealth,” Sincero lists “celebrate” as one of the “best ways to get it on with your big beautiful self so you can start making some money around here.” The “celebrate” edict is, “If you get a new client, if you get up the nerve to ask someone out, if you get the job, the house, or the last cookie, celebrate.”
And here’s what happened when Sincero joined the Ladies who Launch group.
“One day a friend told me about an entrepreneurial think tank that helped women launch their own businesses. The old me would have instantly passed up this opportunity for fear of spending the money to join only to sit there, week after week, looking like a boob with zero ideas for a business. Yet even though it cost a lot of money for me at the time, and I had no idea how it could lead to me making any money, something about it just felt right. […]
As I sat there listening to all these women brainstorming their ideas, I still had no idea for a business of my own, but I realized I’d be awesome at helping them figure out what to do with theirs. To make a very long story short, I asked the lady running the group if she needed any help facilitating, she hired me, I began my first foray into coaching, which led to me starting my own business as a coach, which led to me making mad money, which led to me sitting here writing this book.”
Note to Sincero: allow me to name drop our mutual LWL connections. I was a student in 2007 when Elena Schuber was also an instructor. I think our sessions were in Orange County.
I’m also in the transportation sector, for which Sincero shows a respectable obsession. I’m guessing there are equally as many transportation references, if not more. Sometimes they intersect with food references, such as the line about intuition telling you to “look behind the toaster for the car keys you’ve spent half the afternoon searching for.”
Cheers to Sincero, rocket launches, cupcakes and blue sky. Bring it on.
Andrea Adleman | Cupcakologist 