Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host, Sari Kimbell. I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's got to be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in and food founder journey so you can learn what worked and didn't work and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now let's jump in.

Sari 0:49
Hello and welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad you are here with me today. We're going to talk about something that nobody wants to talk about. You guys ready? We're going to talk about the necessity, the requirement, of being vulnerable. As an entrepreneur myself, and as someone who works with hundreds of founders and people wanting to start and to grow and scale their businesses, I have found that this one thing, the willingness to be vulnerable, is the key to unlocking your success and doing it so much faster. And I don't say that just to, like, put some big, dramatic spin on it. I actually really believe that. And I know for my own business, for a long time, like I did not want to do entrepreneurship because of that vulnerability piece. I'm actually a pretty private person, and I definitely can put up walls and, like, really, you know, not show emotion and put up my guard. And you might be surprised by that, but that is actually the truth of like, a former version of myself, and I knew that being an entrepreneur was going to push me and force me to be more vulnerable, right? And if you've studied any of the work of Brene Brown, you know that vulnerability is not something humans are like, yay, let's do it. I'm so excited to be vulnerable and share my whole self with you. And yet it is the thing that I want you to just put yourself in the customer shoes or the person who's scrolling on social media. When you hit on somebody who is being vulnerable, who you can tell is being authentic, who's being truthful, who's sharing, who they are. You are attracted to that person. You probably stop scrolling. You are curious. You are interested. You start to build connection in a relationship with other people through the act of them being willing to be vulnerable. And I am not saying to use vulnerability in a sleazy way, that you're like manufacturing pity or emotional connection. That's not authentic. I don't personally want to do it that way. Certainly some people do, but I think you can lean into it as a way to support the growth of your business that is very authentic, that is you sharing your message, your belief, your belief in your business, in a way that's going to connect with people. I know so much of the time we want to just lean into the features of our product, and I certainly did in the beginning days of my business, too. Like, no, I don't want to share anything about me, but let me tell you about my program and how it's going to help you, right? And I know you guys want to do that too. You're like, let me just lean into the features of my product. Let me say it's gluten free. Let me say it's, you know, makes this many servings. It's these flavors. And we want people to just make the leap of some emotional connection. And the reality is that you don't have a big brand name, you don't have millions of dollars in advertising. You have a dream, you have a belief that your product is better, is solving a problem, is helping to create delight in people's lives. And vulnerability is the way that we unlock, to create more connection with customers, to find our tribe, to find people who are aligned with us and who are become our raving fans, who are like, yes, 100% yes, I will support you all day long, even though your product is priced higher and is less convenient, right? Like, why would people do that? It's because they have a connection with you. So my challenge to you today is to encourage you in one small way to be vulnerable, to share something about you, to show up on camera, to write an email that's not in the third person, but is about you. And I know that it seems like you would be doing the opposite. You're like, I'm making it all about me. Like, people are not going to like that. But if you do it in the right way, that is authentic and that's sleazy and not trying to like, you go to love my product, because I went through this. It's like just sharing your story. People will resonate. The people who are your people will resonate with that. I can give you a couple of examples. Scott with Elevated Gains. He is so great at sending out these amazing little emails. I know he's working with Jane Hamel and who we love on the podcast, and he sends out these quick emails. Usually have a photo of him at the farmer's market or doing something in his business, and it's just a quick update. It's like, the last one I saw was like, he put it, gave out an incredible number of samples at this one farmers market. It was like, over 3000 samples. And he just shared that. He shared this little story, and he wasn't even selling anything. It was just like, here's this little update. I gave out all these samples. My arm hurts like I'm feeling it, and my obliques from all that cutting. And it was a crazy, wonderful, wild day, and, oh, by the way, we'll be there next week, right? If you're in the area. So you might think, like, vulnerability is like, I need to share my deepest, darkest secret. That's not it. It's just like starting to connect with people as a human being, right? And share little stories. I also really love it when founders will go on and do just a little bit about you, right? Like, who are you? Why'd you start the business? And don't think that. Like, well, I did that once two years ago on my first post. Nobody's going back that far. Like, do it again. Maybe do that every three months or every six months, at least once a year. People have very short memories, and we like to think that they're only thinking about us and our business. But I promise you, other people have a lot of other things that they are thinking about. So I really want to encourage you to think about what's an email I could send? It's just like a little update about us, about my family, about life, about what's going on in the world, and maybe you tie it in your product, or maybe you don't, and do a little video on social media, put something out into the world where you're sharing a little bit about you. I know you guys love it when I do it, right? And I know you love it when other people do it. So what I'm asking you to do, what I'm challenging you to do, is be brave and do it for your business. I promise you that people care. Some people will, some people won't, but the right ones will care, and they're curious, and curiosity starts to create connection. When you are willing to be vulnerable, to tell your story, to connect with people in their emotions. And it the beauty is, we're in food. There's so much available to us. We're not just selling a widget. We're selling something that has so much potential to lean into emotional conversations, to be vulnerable. And for many of you, food and your products are saving lives. So why wouldn't you be open and vulnerable and tell your story and lean into sensual language that really helps tap into emotions. And be authentic about what's happening in your business and to you and aligning people, not just with your product, but with you as a founder as well. And I know so many of you are triggered by that, and you're like, nobody cares about me as a founder. And I promise you that is not true. And if you're willing to do this, you will unlock something in your business, and you will create raving fans, people who trust you and become uber loyal to your brand and share it with others. And if you really want your business to grow, to reach new customers, to help solve their problems and to evangelize the amazingness of your product, then leaning into your vulnerability, your emotions, your story is going to be the fastest way to catch fire to your idea and to help it spread and to help other people share, like be excited to tell their friends. And if I can help support this part of your journey, to help you understand that your story matters, that people want to hear from you, and some creative ways of how we put a twist on it that makes it really engaging and exciting for people to want to read about it, to watch it, to listen to you. You are at the center of your business, and it's time to stop pretending otherwise. If you are a founder, operating unlimited resources, your business will not survive. It will not thrive on your product alone. It needs you. It needs your story. It needs your vulnerability, and it needs you tapping into all of our emotions. Are you ready? Are you ready to be vulnerable? If you are, I would love to follow along in your journey. Just reply back to our email or send me a message on Instagram or Tiktok or all the ways and let me know your handle or how we can follow along and start putting yourself out there. Let's just see if there's a shift. I would love that for you. Until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 11:04
The smartest thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to invest in a who to help you with the how to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you are ready for more support and accountability to finally get this thing done, you can work with me in two ways. Get me all to yourself with one on one business coaching, or join Food Business Success, which includes membership inside Fuel, our community of food business founders that includes monthly live group coaching calls and so much more. It's one of my favorite places to hang out, and I would love to see you there. Go to foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own food business success.