Sarah K Peck is deliciously insightful

Her work reminds me of Mutton Sukka, a dry mutton curry.

Ghee Roast. Pepper Fry. Mutton Sukka. Kosha Mangsho. 

They have different names and nuances in flavour, but at the heart, it’s one dish. Goat meat, slow-cooked with tempered spices in a dry gravy until it’s fall-apart tender.

Mutton Sukka by Licious.in

Paid parental leave. Flexibility working. Sharing domestic labour. Resting while also being a parent and business owner. These are all like those mutton dishes too. 

Big, nuanced ideas that, at the heart, have one common focus. 

And in my opinion, no one brings them together quite like

Sarah K Peck

does.

Finding Sarah’s podcast was like frying onion and garlic

I remember being deeply tired when I first came across Sarah’s podcast Startup Pregnant (now called Startup Parent). I had woken up six times the night before to breastfeed my four-month-old. And after spending the day in an endless cycle of feed-change-snuggle I managed to go out for a walk alone. 

So, of course, my mind chose that time to worry about my catering business. I hadn’t blogged in weeks. The few catering orders we got were just enough to pay my team of two. Not me. That magazine had still not paid me. How do I find us a new kitchen premise when I have a baby chained to my breasts?

I do similar catastrophising when I’m frying onion and garlic in a pan. 

As an Indian, I normally slice up some onions and start frying them in sizzling hot ghee with a dollop of garlic paste before I’ve even decided what I’ll cook. I’ll remove my two masala dabba’s (boxes) and then mindlessly stare into the pan. When it’s all about to turn golden delicious I panic. Okay okay, I need to decide what I’ll make tonight, right now!

Image courtesy Serious Eats where you’ll find this detailed article on why you should add garlic after the onion.

I randomly searched for “business mom” as I neared the end of the block. What popped up was Sarah’s episode on ‘Why You Really Need to Drop The Ball’ with Tiffany Dufu. Tiffany shared, “Our current definition of excellence is faulty, and it’s based on nonsense. It’s based on very old-school expectations that no person in today’s world could possibly meet.”

I was hooked.

That single episode helped me lean into what’s turned out to be my single biggest lesson on motherhood: dropping my standards. Not every Sunday lunch I make, or every day I spend with my children needs to be a masterpiece. 

What Sarah has built with WWC is what you get when you slow-cook mutton. Magic. 

After three years of listening to Startup Parent - and recommending it to every new mom - I joined Sarah’s premium community, Wise Women’s Council (WWC)

I thought I was joining a leadership incubator, but it wasn’t that. I thought I’d learn about managing a business better, but I learned much more. The women in that community became my safe space, my cheerleaders. And when Auckland shut down - along with all the childcare - for close to five months in 2021, it was my link to sanity.

Sarah reminded me why we go low and slow by design.

1. First, marinate the meat.
   Where Sarah taught us how to engage with one another.

2. Then you add some spices.
   Sessions where we covered everything from rest to building wealth to marketing sequencing.

3. Just the right amount of heat.
   Those intimate Voxer sessions with other members

4. You wait.
   Indulge in the member-only private podcast

5. More attention. Stirring everything every twenty minutes
   Feel deeply heard in multiple community sessions

6. The meat tissues break down into lip-smacking unctuousness
   That final session, where people told me why I was awesome for SEVEN minutes.

WWC goes on for nine months and I still felt like it was too quick.

Most of the time, it feels like nothing is happening. But you end up with lusciously tender meat that falls apart with the sharp nudge of a fork. How I felt at the end of WWC. Like someone had cared enough to help me extract the very best of me.

A Bengali Mutton Sukka often has more masala. Image courtesy Gastronomic Bong.

A good Mutton Sukka burns slightly as it goes down, then warms you right up

Like Sarah’s points of view. 

Take her recent essay on what to say when people get bad news. On reading the title, I had all sorts of bad nostalgia for how I had (not) shown up for the people I love. But Sarah’s practical and empathetic stance helped me learn what I should and shouldn’t do the next time it happens.

A reminder to “let the feelings be what they are and not try to fix anything.”

Everything she writes has a spiky point of view that shifts my perspective. 

Like the spicy Mutton Sukka, I love to eat. The concentrated heat of clove, fennel, chillies and cardamom paired with the rich umami of the meat can feel like “whoa!” on the tongue, but then it goes down and you feel its delicious heat spreading through you. 

Just like there are many Sukka variations - Konkani, Bengali, Rajasthani - that give me the warm mum’s hug feeling - there are over 200 podcast episodes and over 400 essays from Sarah you could dig into. The one I keep returning to? This one on forming adult female friendships. 

Now go hit Subscribe on

Startup Parent

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P.S.

Sarah K Peck

you once told me on a call that your love language is food. Therefore, I couldn’t think of a better way to honour your talent than to compare it to a dish I’d rather not share but will share for the greater good of society.