Spain is one of my other passions. I fell in love with Spanish food, coffee, and culture when I was living there twenty years ago. One Sunday afternoon in 2002, I was first introduced to paella, one of Spain’s most famous dishes. I was staying with a Spanish host family, and Pepita, my host mother, informed me that we would be having paella for lunch one afternoon. I watched as she spent hours in the kitchen preparing the required ingredients such as the vegetables, the meats, the stock, the spices, and then crafted and combined them all together in her own special way to create this wonderful tasting dish.

When I took my first bite, I was hooked. I fell in love with paella that day.

Over my five month’s living in Spain, as well as frequent visits back for the last 20 years, I have enjoyed many paella’s, each with their own unique touch and flare, but I always remember and have enjoyed Pepita’s the most. Although many other paellas contained the same ingredients as Pepita’s, many others lacked the personality, uniqueness and passion that she brought to cooking hers. After all, Pepita had spent 40 years perfecting her paella cooking skills before she served it to me that day in 2002.

When I was getting ready to move back to the United States, she shared her recipe with me. This recipe was given to her by her mother, and had been passed down through the generations to her. I have spent the last 20 years perfecting, tweaking and adding my own personal flare and style to my paella. It has been an honor to take this recipe and continue to have its legacy live on while being able to add my own touch to it.

A few questions and challenges for you to consider:

• Are you ensuring that you possess the key ingredient list and are following the basic recipe for your business? (again click here to read last week’s blog). A paella cannot be cooked without rice. A business cannot grow without marketing.
• Do you have a “Pepita” to show you the recipe that she has followed for 40 years, meaning do you have a mentor? Somebody who has been there and done that. Somebody who can give you the recipe.
• How does your business taste? What do you uniquely bring to your business in terms of culture, passion, values, and your own personal touch? How can you get your customers, your team and the people your business serves and touches to fall in love with your company, and keep coming back to it?
• Are you being patient? When I cooked my first paella, it was not that great. I had never before executed on the recipe and its basics. Good things take time! A great business takes time. Many entrepreneurs want their business to taste like Pepita’s paella but have neither spent, nor are willing to spend, decades perfecting their craft.

I hope these questions challenge and encourage you to grow an amazing and excellent tasting business that many fall in love with.

Speaking of recipes, many of you have been asking for my recipe, so here is where you can get it:

To receive my recipe for Spanish paella, go here to register for my free business development tools. This recipe, which is available as a video, will walk you through the process of making a tasty and amazing paella from Spain.

Along with this recipe I will send you many other business building resources including my Back to The Basics free video coaching series, my Become an Award Winning Company workbook, a leadership language survey and the couple of videos where I dive deep into my years of building my businesses and growing in my leadership. I hope all these resources serve you, your business and your life.