It’s OK To Look Back

Featuring Alex Hill, founder of Just Add Hot Sauce and soon-to-be cookbook author

Jul 15, 2026

The New Moon was in Cancer yesterday. I’m told it was all about finding peace with the past.

I’ve always been inclined to “look back.” As of late, I’ve decided that’s more than allowed — as long as it’s productive.

I look back to audit. I also look back to celebrate.

Because I’m proud of the numbers since launching Stella two years ago:

34 guests
1 virtual event
5 giveaways
LOADS of perspective on topics ranging from career pivots to brand building to important inner and outer relationship work

I look back to remember I created something from the ground up. The seeds for Stella were planted while I was on faculty for the Columbia Publishing Course during the summer of 2023. Supporting a room full of future media professionals who spent a week mocking up impressive publications made me want to own something myself. To point at a thing and say: I built that.

A lot has happened since. Stella was my anchor through a pivot from full-time to freelance, a move across the pond, and some deep identity recalibrations. It’s been my outlet. Reading through the content has helped remind me of the things I released, the things I took on, the things that shaped me without me even noticing at the time. How did I feel pre-Stella? What did it feel like to hit publish on the first episode? What did burnout feel like then, compared to how I feel now?

Reflection is a productive mixture of nostalgia and reckoning. It earns its keep if it moves you forward. Done right, it has nothing to do with regret or regression.

It’s simply a reason, a reminder, to raise the bar.

In the words of Vogue writer Marie Bladt, “Before you continue building even more, make sure that what you are building rests on roots deep enough to support everything that is yet to come.”

Which brings me to Stella’s latest featured guest…

Stella Podcast: The (Hot) Sauce To Building Community

Featuring Alex Hill

Stella’s latest podcast guest is the incredible Alex Hill, founder of Just Add Hot Sauce and soon-to-be cookbook author. I asked Alex to reflect on who she was 10 years ago, and her answer was refreshingly honest — exactly the kind of vulnerability that has become her platform’s throughline. Nine years into building Just Add Hot Sauce, she’s learned that food is the medium for the beautiful community she’s built around making people feel less alone in their kitchens, their breakups, their bad days. Her cookbook releases Spring 2027. In the meantime, listen to our conversation below, where we also dive into her thriving business model (including a buzzing Substack), and so much more.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST EPISODE