From Gooey to Greatness: The Recipe for Rising Strong

A ziplock bag of batter doesn’t look like a life lesson—until you watch it rise. We open with the humble ritual of friendship bread and use it as a map for personal growth: how inner strength ferments under warmth and time, how community multiplies courage, and why sharing your “starter” can nourish more than just you. 

If you’ve been waiting on perfect conditions, consider this your nudge. You’ve already survived 100% of your setbacks; that’s not luck, that’s proof. Feed your inner starter with small, purposeful actions, turn up the volume on voices that call you higher, and keep a steady conversation with God as you move. Then share what grows—because your rise will lift others too. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs strength today, and leave a review so more people can find their next one-degree step.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & One-Degree Intent
• 0:40 Friendship Bread Metaphor
• 2:30 Ingredients Within: Strength Defined
• 2:47 Vox Machina and Source of Strength
• 3:45 Three Ways to Cultivate Strength
• 6:44 Champions, Prayer, and The Call to Rise

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

You're listening to One Degree to Victory, the space where stories, strategies, and soul connect. Together we take one small step each week toward the life you know you're called to live. I'm your hostess, Nalita Hollis, and today's story and conversation just might change your life. Now, at first glance, it's just a ziploc bag full of thick, gooey, milky batter. But there is so much more and appearances are deceiving. The bread is friendship made tangible. The symbolism is that relationships, kindness, and community are like that starter. They require nurturing and giving to thrive. The story goes that Amish communities passed this starter from household to household as a gesture of hospitality, generosity, and connection. It was a way of breaking bread together, literally, sharing not just the food, but the process of making it. It begins with a sourdough-like starter, usually made from flour, sugar, milk, and yeast. The starter ferments and grows, and every few days you feed it. So after about ten days, you bake with part of it and divide the rest to give to friends. With an instruction sheet, I might add. I was fascinated by this. On its own, it looks so simple and unremarkable, but when cared for, fed, and given the right conditions, it rises beautifully, expanding and transforming into something nourishing. Life is like that starter, and the stuff inside you, those are your ingredients, your strength, transformation, understanding, faith, and freedom. Each one is essential. On their own, they may sit dormant, quiet, waiting. But when life gives you the right mix of warmth, challenge, and time, they react. They come together, they expand, they rise. A fun fact about me whether I'm watching animated movies with my daughter or an animated fantasy series, I'm not just watching. I'm seeing through multiple lenses at once. I am absorbing, reflecting, and harnessing deeper meanings without even trying. And it was during an episode of Vox Machina, the team gets separated, and Grog ends up meeting a teacher who pummels him nearly to death all the while asking, where does your strength come from? I identified with Grog. I had asked myself that same question when I was figuring out how to rise from my challenges and transform my life. I asked that question when I was learning how to harness my talents, abilities, and skills to become stronger, wiser, and free. I was like Grog. I had attributed my strength to an outside source. When that external identifier was stripped away, when my conditions for fulfillment were no longer being met, when the foundations I had built my sense of self upon began to crumble beneath me, I found myself adrift, questioning everything I thought I knew about my own capabilities and worth. This is me sharing my bread. Three ways I found to cultivate strength. First, I began to think about my wins and my achievements. At that point, I'd done everything I'd set out to do. I had become a teacher, driven trucks, gotten published. Yes. My very first publication was in a college poetry anthology entitled Ways Goose, and that must have been around 95, 96, my college days. And in reflecting on these milestones, I realized that these accomplishments were proof of my abilities, my creativity, and my persistence, the building blocks of my strength. I think it's important to understand that it wasn't the accomplishments, but it was my creativity and my persistence that was my strength, right? Every skill I had honed, every challenge I had overcome, every goal I had achieved pointed back to this. I had what it took to rise, to adapt, and to create my fulfillment. You are no different, constant listener. You have what it takes, that same inherent power within you. Like the friendship bread starter, your potential may sometimes appear dormant, waiting for the right moment to activate. But make no mistake. The ingredients for greatness already exist inside you. Your unique blend of experiences, skills, and perspectives gives you everything you need to rise above challenges, adapt to changing circumstances, and create more than moments of fulfillment. You can create a life overflowing with purpose and meaning. So I found my strength with celebrating achievements, and I find my strength in the voices of my champions, my supporters. When you can't find the inner power to cheer yourself on, listen carefully to the voices that surround you with love and encouragement. They see your potential even when you might temporarily lose sight of it. Silence the limiting beliefs that whisper doubts in your ear and raise the volume on your inner champion instead. This eternal voice grows stronger with each affirmation and recognition of your worth. Learn to draw strength from the heartfelt chance of your supporters, those friends, family members, mentors, and even casual acquaintances who recognize your gifts and celebrate your journey. Hey Mia! Their words can become the bridge that carries you through moments of uncertainty until you rediscover your own voice. Whoever they may be in your life, these champions provide the external validation that can sustain you until your self-belief fully blossoms. And finally, I find my strength in prayer. Prayer for me is more than a ritual, it is a relationship. It's the place where I lay down my questions, my fears, my ambitions, and make space for God to move. In that space, I draw the courage to keep rising, the clarity to keep choosing wisely, and the endurance to keep moving forward, glory, when my strength feels spent. On my knees in my humility is where I meet God's strength, and I find the power to keep becoming. Your strength doesn't come from perfect conditions, it comes from that core essence of who you are: resilient, resourceful, and remarkably capable. I think I've said it before. You are here today because you have overcome 100% of the setbacks you've faced. There are no losers here. Every small victory you've celebrated, these are not coincidences, but confirmations of your ability to transform difficulties into stepping stones. So I challenge you today to recognize your power, nurture it, feed it with positive thoughts, purposeful actions, and unwavering belief. And just like that friendship bread that rises, expands, and eventually gets shared with others, come on, your growth will not only transform your own life, but will inspire and elevate those around you. This is your time to rise. Allah. Take one degree forward this week, and I'll see you in the next episode.