You Can't Read the Ingredients From Inside the Bottle
Tammy Bordeaux has been building for decades. The work she couldn't see was always the most important.
Tammy Bordeaux has been building things for a long time.
A career at National Geographic. A farmers market that became a community institution. Partnerships that took eighteen months to close and looked effortless from the outside.
She’s good at it, exceptionally good. The problem is — she couldn’t see it.
A woman named Angela stopped her mid-sentence at an event once and asked: Why do you say it like it’s nothing?
Tammy didn’t have an answer.
Because you can’t read the ingredients from inside the bottle.
This Field Note is about the work beneath the work — the invisible labor behind everything that looks like a vibe, the practice of getting quiet enough to hear yourself, and the question Tammy has been sitting with all year:
Which parts of this are actually mine?
Listen to the full story 🎧
The real work was never about adding more.
It was always about finding what was already there.
What part of Tammy’s story stayed with you?
Hit reply. Tell me.
Much love,
Lindsey
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For me it was the notion that we often cannot see and name what we are best at, or minimally we cast it off as not much because it’s just who we are.
It’s been long enough now that I can recognize it, but for me I have a gift for speaking to the heart of things. Many have reflected this back to me (before I believed it).
Love love love this! 🫶🙌