Six Years In: From Going Big to Doing What Actually Works

Six years ago, I opened a donut shop in Cabo San Lucas.

At the time, I had a very clear idea: go big or go home. I wanted to do everything, offer everything, and say yes to every customer. That instinct to please ran deep. Anyone who has worked at Nordstrom knows exactly what I mean. You learn early that “yes” is the safest answer, and that saying no feels risky.

So we built big.

The shop was a two-story space in a busy area of Cabo. We offered healthy smoothies, complicated espresso drinks, and a wide variety of donuts. The menu was ambitious. The space was impressive. More options felt like the right move. More reasons to walk in. More chances to win people over.

And for a while, it worked. At least on the surface.

But underneath, it was heavy. More products meant more ingredients, more training, more room for mistakes, and more decisions landing back on me. Saying yes all the time came with a cost. The business depended on constant attention, constant fixing, and constant effort to hold everything together.

This week marks six years since that beginning, and the business looks very different now.

Today, we operate out of a tiny spot tucked into a neighborhood. Not a busy downtown block. Not a flashy location. The menu is intentionally small and focused. Six frappe flavors. Two smoothies. Drip coffee. One signature donut shape.

It is easier. It is cleaner. Customers still love us.

That shift did not happen overnight, and it was not driven by a grand strategy. It came from lived experience. From realizing that complexity does not equal quality, and that more is not always better. Most of the real improvements came from removing things, not adding them.

Over time, I learned that clarity is not about doing less work. It is about doing the right work. It is about designing something that can actually run day to day without constant intervention.

Spending time on LinkedIn lately has made this contrast even more obvious to me. There is so much polished and impressive language on the platform. Sometimes it feels like everyone is expected to sound bigger, smarter, and more complex than they really are.

But my experience has been the opposite. The moments where things finally worked were not the moments where I added another offering or system. They were the moments where I paused, simplified, and asked what was actually necessary.

That lesson applies far beyond a donut shop.

It shows up in operations, in documentation, in training, and in how teams work together. When things are clear, people stop checking in at every step. When expectations are simple and well-defined, work moves forward with less friction. The business feels lighter, not because less is happening, but because less energy is being wasted.

Right now, I am in a season of openness. I am open to contract work, short-term projects, or the right role, especially where clarity, documentation, training, or operations are needed.

I do not have a shiny pitch. I do have real experience building something big, scaling it back, and learning firsthand what actually holds up in the real world.

Six years in, I no longer believe in going big just to prove something. I believe in building what works, keeping what matters, and letting go of the rest.