New to Rolling in Doh? 🤗 Start Here: A Mad Lib (+ Template!)

📝 Copy the Google doc to join the "Less Than Ideal Day" fill-in-the-blanks fun :)

If you are new here, welcome! I’m delighted to have you, and deeply grateful to

Substack Writers

for featuring Doh this week :)¹

The Ideal Day Mad Lib is one of my favorite templates to share with readers of Pivot and Free Time. But sometimes our ideal day doesn’t go as planned . . . for days that stretch into weeks and months and even years. 😭

No matter how short we fall of rolling in actual dough, let’s at least have a laugh: How did your last year go? Write your story using the same prompts as the ones in this post by saving a copy of the Google Doc template and filling in the blanks.

❤️ In lieu of rolling out an actual red carpet for you, my version is below! Each link points to a post from the Doh archives, in chronological(ish) order. You can also listen to me riff on a few podcasts linked from this post:

🎄Podcast Doh: 10 Stocking Stuffers 🧦🎁🎧

I

• Nearly one year ago, I hit a major dip when I got “The Ax” from my favorite licensing client.

• I didn’t know what else to do. It was the last straw after years of stressors. So I started Writing My Way Out.

• I had a hunch it could be my Getaway Car 🚘.

• So despite the Starting Friction,

• I began Telling The Story Behind Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h.

II

• My husband celebrated the move by saying 🏴‍☠️ “Burn the Boats,”

• As I lurched into Full Catastrophe Business-Building.

• I took some deep breaths, reminding myself to: 🎬 BELIEVE, Ignore the Odds, aim for 51/49, and Survive til ‘25.

• . . . and that it would okay if I end up browsing /careers after twelve years of self-employment.

III

• I wished someone would Save Me while 🧱Rebuilding from Rubble.

• Still, despite the low moments I remember thinking, 🚧 This is a Wonderful Day!

• And then immediately growing afraid that soon the other shoe would drop.

IV

• Although I had major issues with Critters and Cash Flow,

• I tried to be grateful for BBQ & BBB.

• After all, ✨“Good Vibes, Good Life.”

• While embracing the fact that my life was a Hot Mess 🍔, I returned to a mantra that served me well: There Is Only One Wish.

V

• Things started to shift as I released The Self-Imposed Pressure to Be an Expert,

• Especially when I admitted Revenue Goals Don’t Work (For Me).

• I took stock of all that happened since 2020 by conducting An Honest Accounting replete with an emoji balance sheet.

VI

• I realized I had a lot of ambiguous grief around 👻 Saying No to the Ghost of a Former Self, a podcast host interviewing my fossilized self, and the feeling that my pre-pandemic 👖 closet belongs to someone else.

• A wave of insecurities rush in, as I wondered:

  • 🧟‍♀️ Am I Running a Zombie Business?

  • Is my Favorite (Former) Client thinking, Why are you so obsessed with me?

  • Am I an 🥸 Unreliable CEO?

  • 🐌 Are you mad at me?

• At the same time, I felt a Weight Lifted.

VII

• I had an aha moment when I realized The Suspense is Terrible . . . and yet I hoped it would last.

• And that 🌊 This is Like That, after confronting my fears of fish and drowning.

• Serendipity kicked in one 👟 Strange and Wonderful Morning.

• At the peak of my overwhelm, I made a ✔️ To Do List.

• I shook off the temptation to Sail the Sea of Shiny Shoulds; reminding myself 🚬 Smoking is Essential for Your Success, They Said 🙄.

VIII

• I laughed when I realized that just like my angel-in-fur-coat Ryder, I too was 🚿 Fooled by Joyful Randomness.

• Before I knew it, I found myself 🪜 Climbing Down the Entrepreneurial Ladder;

• It was time to 🏆 Put the Podcast Trophies Away.

• Still, there was 🎤 one thing I forgot to say to my career these last four years: thank you.

IX

• As last year came to a close, I reflected on a few of the strange lessons it brought 🧐 Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow...only IF you meet certain criteria, and that 🪶 the abyss does not always become a feather bed.

• There might not be a big breakthrough, it seemed I was on a path toward 🌱 Ten Years to Middle-of-the-Pack Success.

• So to ring in the new year, I wrote ✉️ Dear 2024: A Letter, and I even got a response 📩 From 2024.

• In my most uncertain moments, I Asked for a Sign.

• Sometimes they were unmistakable, like the 🚨 Four-Alarm Fire.

X

• Even though I gave up trying to lap the 🚓 Ghost Car,

• I knew that I wouldn’t stop Chasing the Taste of Creative Freedom.

• After all, as the kids say 🤸🏻‍♀️ Delulu is the Solulu!

• It’s normal to experience a 🚏 Creative Crossroads After Achieving Success.

XI

• Sure, my fear of failure bubbled up when I contemplated 📘 The Free Time Afterword I Never Wrote and 🌟 My Favorite One-Star Review.

• But I surrendered to the 🧺 Crumpled Laundry Piles All Over My House, and later, to Chekhov’s law of crème clothing.

• I realized that although I might be 🃏 Decorating My House of Cards and 🪂 Building a Parachute on the Way Down,

• It was time to 🛋️ Pull up a Seat

• And embrace Rolling in Doh.²

❤️

XII — Postscript: 2024 to Present

The story continues even after this post went live . . .

• Sometimes it felt like even my best efforts fell short. I AM DOING THE BEST THAT I CAN! I wanted to scream into the void.

• When friends asked, “How are you doing?” flashes of Apple’s cruel iPad commercial flickered across my mind. Crushing it! I’d say with a 😂

• A blue jay looking for a mate (or rival) by slamming into sliding glass doors seemed an apt metaphor for the down days in my business.

• As my friend Jamie put it, 🪩 “I am no longer allowing praise to be my currency.”

• As I reflected on One Year of Rolling in Doh in the summer of 2024, I imagined what my business would say if it could talk. How about yours?

• Bob the Neck Throb spoke up, too, by sending me to the E.R. with a must-heed health memo. Yes, giving up your favorite vice is good for business. I became an unlikely Hilderbabe, inspired by prolific author Elin Hilderbrand’s daily routines.

• This led to an exploration of my Flop Era, where I became a self-appointed flopologist, as an old identity floated away and the new one hadn’t fully yet arrived.

• I studied audacious creative bets by Kevin Costner and Francis Ford Coppola, unpacked my own publishing pivots, and examined the relationship between risk and regret after several people asked if I missed podcasting a year after pausing my two shows after nine years and 750+ episodes.

• Did I set myself up to fail? Is there even such a thing as failure?

• If money weren’t an issue, I’d ring a psychic for reassurance, so they could tell me what I want to hear. Sometimes, it just took a friend sending a “truly tiny something,” a talisman, to lead the way into my new identity as a writer.

• Other friends spotted hope, a stranger blessed me on the subway, I encountered reclining liberty, and three serendipity signs kept me from losing faith. I’m always listening to the magic of New York City.

• That’s the truth about how I run my business: on serendipity and surrender, for better or for worse, while leaning into the terroir of transformation.

• As Donna Tartt poignantly wrote in her Pulitzer-prize-winning novel, The Goldfinch, “We don’t get to choose our own hearts.”

• Sometimes you need to put down the donkey and bake your own cake.

• Together with fellow Dohnuts, we explored monthly(ish) community prompts like, is “just be yourself” good career advice?

• My friend MBS shared his thoughts on being a One Hit! Wonder with a mantra, “I’ve already won.” I was worried my biggest publishing success was behind me (it very well might be).

• Why aren’t you enlightened yet?! My inner critic demands, cringing at my questions.

• You know what? Sometimes, it’s okay to cry over spilled donuts.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this post, tap the heart or restack buttons below, share it with a friend, or leave a comment—I’d love to hear from you! If you’re feeling brave, share one of your mad lib sections in the comments :)

1. The blurb knocked my socks off! Big thanks again to

Substack Writers

for the kind words :)

If you’re new here, this is a (mostly) paid publication about my travails as a breadwinner and small business owner living in New York City, with lots of embedded links for your perusing pleasure. I hope it brings you as much catharsis as it has for me—you are not alone if you, too, are Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h!

2. If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to take a crack at the Less Than Ideal Day Mad Lib template yourself, with the same prompts as above.