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 gotta 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 journeys 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 0:48
Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Glad you're here with me today. Today's topic came up in not one but two client calls this week. So I always know that other people need to hear it too. I've been thinking a lot about how I want to share this topic anyways. So perfect timing, let's do it.

Sari 0:46
Today, I want to talk with you about courage because courage is required for you to launch and grow your food business. And I want to give you some tools and strategies that you can implement pretty quickly. And in really small ways that will help build that courage muscle, which ultimately creates confidence. And so that's really the most important thing is that courage actually does create more confidence in you, which is what is required to really get to that goal that you have. I want to just say first that courage never feels good. I think that we have a myth especially in our Western culture, and maybe even American culture, of this myth of like, the firefighter running into the burning building, or somebody hiking Mount Everest or something like that, that courage is like this amazing emotion. And it's kind of idealized and just like, yeah, I'm courageous. And I will tell you from experience that courage never feels good. If you follow me on social media, you know that back in July, I went skydiving. I was really doing a good job managing my mind like, you know, did the training, got the suit on, did all the things, got in line with the airplane, connected to my tandem flight instructor skydiving instructor. And we got on the airplane like all the things, right? And then we go up in the air and I'm just like, I'm breathing, like, okay, this is fine. This is fine. Like, I'm good. And then people start jumping out of the plane. And I was last. So I don't know, there was maybe 12 of us on there. So people start going overboard. And then I see my best friend, Trisha, start to go out. And I like she looks back and I'm just like, she's gone, you know. And so everybody falls off the plane and my instructor is like, inching me forward, you kind of straddle these benches, and you know, we're connected. So he's behind me, it's a little awkward because you're attached to this other person. And so you just kind of keep inching your way forward on this bench and towards the plane. And we're going and going and I get just almost right to the end of that bench. And fear really kicks in and I'm looking around, I'm looking at that door. Everybody, like the last person besides me has gone off the plane out the door. And everything in me just wanted to say heck no! What are you kidding me? I was like, no, I mean, it was a physiological response of like normal people like should not be jumping out of airplanes. You know, this is not what we should be doing. It's kind of that survival mechanism.

Sari 4:56
I really, I had this moment of like, this is courage. This feels terrible. I felt like I wanted to run. I was like, no, but I just was like, all right, I'm gonna keep going, like I had every faith that I would end up alive on the ground. But that moment of like getting to the end of the bench, standing up being I mean, in some ways, I mean, I was literally being pushed. But I mean, I could have said, no, I don't want to do this. But I was like, just took some deep breaths and was like, I was terrified at that moment. And then, you know, next thing I know, we're hanging out the door, the wind, the ground in front of me. And then we just go and we fell, right? You kind of fall out, you don't really jump. That moment. I just, it was so interesting afterwards. That was the moment I kept replaying in my mind and it was actually a little traumatic. It was like, if you've ever been in a car accident or something like that, that moment when you realize like, this is bad, something is happening. And your body goes into that fight or flight mode, right? To protect you. It was the same thing. I just kept looping back on that. And I just thought, oh my gosh, like that is courage. That it feels terrible in the moment. And so I want you to just sit with that for a minute. Because it's important that we know what that feeling feels like inside of our body. Knowing that courage does not feel good. It kind of gives us a little bit of a break. It helps us relax and be like, okay, I get it. I have my own back here. And of course, courage feels terrible. You know, I've looked been looking for an opportunity to share that experience with you. And I guess just to finish it, gaff fell out of the plane, and then you kind of do your like, they call a banana. Like what you're kind of arching your back. And you're supposed to scream on the way when you first fall out. They want you to like scream, not out of fear but out of practicality that like the wind, you're falling so fast, 14,000 feet. And I think we fell for about a minute, freefall. And so your fall, you know, the air is coming so fast at you that oftentimes people will hold their breath because it's hard to breathe in. But if you scream and you breathe out, your natural bodily response is to breathe in. So I was screaming a lot. Just if you ever decide you want to go skydiving just know, the one thing that really surprised me was the ear popping, right? Because you're falling at this tall, very high altitude and then very quickly, changing your altitude. So just know like, the popping was real. It was a little bit painful. But then and because this is a school, they want you to do everything yourself, if possible. So I was looking at my altimeter. And then when you get to, I think it was 6000 feet, something like that. That's when you pull the cord. So I pulled my own cord. And then you kind of jerk as the parachute catches, which isn't very comfortable either. But after that, the instructor adjusted my straps and I was almost able to like sit in this harness. And then from there then you kind of take the ride down, right? And he was helping, I was like steering and we I did get a little nauseous. I will have to say, I did ask for the wild ride. I figured if I'm gonna do this, let's go all in but I will say the wild ride made me a little nauseous. So and then yeah, you just kind of float down and I was really nervous. The only thing I was really nervous about actually before I started was the landing, like how do you land?

Sari 5:03
That sounds horrible. But you either slide in on your butt or sometimes you can land on your feet but we just slid in on on my butt. So the landing was actually very easy. Interestingly, I didn't know how it would feel after, right? Like I was very curious about that. If I would feel like I can do anything, I can conquer the world. If I can do that, I can do anything. And it wasn't that at all. In fact, it was more like, yeah, that's what I do. That's what we do here. We do hard things, we do things that scare us, we push ourselves. And like yes Sari, you're just kind of a badass like, of course, you jumped out of an airplane. So it was interesting because it felt very aligned in my life. Like, I do hard things a lot. I put myself out there a lot. And so, yeah, it was interesting, because Trisha's daughter was more in the like, wow, if I can do that, I can do anything, you know, being in her late 20s. And maybe it's just being older. But also being an entrepreneur, you have to take a lot more risks. And that's something I've really worked on the last few years is pushing myself in that way. So anyway, that's kind of the full wrap up of the skydiving, my skydiving experience. And then, as I was talking with my client this week, he is one of my favorite clients because he, you guys are all my favorite. But he really like absorbs some of this mindset stuff that we talked about. I mean, we talked about action and look at pricing, and we're looking at co manufacturing, and what are we going to do there. And so there's a lot of action going on, and next steps and all of that. But we do end up spending a good amount of time on some of this mindset stuff. And as we're getting closer to this being a reality, he came to me on the call and said, you know, I am starting to get really nervous about having product and actually having to go out and sell it. And I said, yeah, I totally understand that, I get that, like many of you, most of you, I would think are creating a business because you're really passionate about the product, and you're passionate about your mission. That makes sense. And then when you do the real work of the business, you're like, oh, I can't just make my amazing product. And it's just going to magically sell, I have to show up on social media, I have to go make offers to people, whether it's at a farmers market or a store, or a restaurant, right? Whatever it is like, you're going to have to put yourself out there. And that fear of rejection and judgment is real. It's not easy especially if you're not used to putting yourself out there like that.

Sari 9:56
I know some of you guys, you know, a lot of people I work with, it's about half and half. Half the people I work with are amazing. They're already kind of innately good at sales. And you can go back, I had a whole sales series. I think back in October. It's around Episode 61 through 64, there's sales, a bunch of podcasts about sales. So I think those would be very valuable to you. But you know, you'll hear Brian from Barfly Salsa talk about doing sales. And that's just something that comes really natural to him, he's already in a job where he does sales anyway. So he's very practiced. For many of you, at least half maybe even more. Many of you are not so inclined to sales. And, you know, maybe you're just more introverted, or you just don't really have a skill set around that, something you've had to do in your in your life and your work. It's scary. It's like, you start seeing the door of the airplane, right? You're inching forward in your business. And then you're getting like, oh, I have a product, it's labeled, I have the manufacturing figured out, I have the license, I know where I'm gonna go with this, I have the Sell Sheet, whatever it is, and you're like.

Sari 14:11
Now I actually have to get up and do something, jump out of this plane. And I said to him, you know, courage never feels good. And we talked about, you know, you're going to be in the parking lot ready to go in and approach that potential account and you're gonna feel horrible. Like let's not think that it feels good that you're going to feel amazing, you're going to be like "yeah, I'm so excited to go and have this conversation" at least at the beginning. If it's not something your practiced at and he's like, yeah, you're right, I can see that. And so we kind of talked about like, what are you going to do in that moment when, you know, everything in you is going to want to turn around and get back in your car and says, screw this, that's too hard. And so I wanted to give you a couple strategies because he asked me, he's like, so what can I do to overcome this? Like, how do I actually get through that courage and the feeling, right? Actually employ courage. So I want to offer you a couple of the strategies that we did together. So the first thing we did was, okay, your brain is telling you that this sales thing is really foreign. You've never done it before. It's really scary, like you have no idea what you're doing. And what we actually did was say, okay, where are there examples in your life where you have shown courage, where you have felt determination, where you have been committed, so even when something was hard, and even when you didn't know what you were doing, you did it anyway. And we came up with three on our call, but I said, I want you to go back and find 10 examples. And they can be big or small, right? Like, one of them was, you know, when you started your college education, like, you don't know what you don't know yet, like you're learning and you're gonna have to put it into practice and make mistakes and fail and put yourself out there. And the determination and the courage that is required to go from just starting school to graduating school. And so I want you, if you're like, yeah, I'm doing hard things is really scary, how do I build that courage muscle? I want you to think about past examples and force your brain to answer again, they can be small, they can be way back to your childhood. You got on that roller coaster that was really scary. You ask somebody out, right, you're determined to make that person, your spouse, or whatever it is, right? Like, there are other places in your life. And what we can do is borrow that and and kind of, you know, equal airtime like your brains gonna say you don't know how to do this. But like, actually, here's 10 experiences, 10 places in my life where I have demonstrated that, where the why was strong enough that I was willing to feel terrible in the moment. Take that deep breath, and do it anyway, right? Get up and maybe do a speaking gig, right? Or even in class, if you had to do public speaking, like, that's a big one for people. But where were you willing to be rejected? Where were you willing to be judged? Because, I mean, honestly, you know, the why is so important. And that's what we talked about. Next was what, you know, what is going, what thought is going to create that feeling of determination. And we talked about, you know, determination, commitment, doesn't necessarily feel super positive. In my body, it's like, in my gut, and it's like, grit. It's strong and solid. And I'm just like, I'm doing this, no matter how I feel. It doesn't matter if I'm inspired. It doesn't matter if I want to do it or not. I'm doing it anyways, no matter what. And so, tapping into some thoughts that create that feeling of determination because determination is going to help you move into courage, and be willing to do the hard things. So thinking about some thoughts, like, I can do hard things, I always figure it out.

Sari 19:01
You know, if you're religious, you know, God is always looking out for me, always takes care of me, or the universe. And so coming up with some thoughts of like, even just, I am committed, I believe in my why strong enough. You can't have such a strong why. And I have a episode about that early on in the podcast but creating, developing that hard strong why is going to be everything to you sticking with this and feeling determined and committed and moving into courage. So those were the first two and then we said, I said he said well, how can I make this easier? And so in addition to finding examples in your life where you have been committed and determined and felt courage and did it anyway, feel the fear and do it anyway. And then really getting intentional about the thoughts that you're thinking. And I would write them on post-it notes, put them around, one post, that note I have on my computer right now is I can handle this, I can handle anything. So those are the first two and then in to really start building up the muscle of confidence and courage, what I challenged him to do is for the next nine days, to do small acts of courage, things that are fairly low risk. And what we want to do is start taking some bolder action in small ways because we increase our willingness to say, oh, if I can do that, I can do this. So some ideas were go to your coffee shop, or the cafe or the restaurant that you, you know, you go to, and ask them for a discount, or ask them to come to your meal. It's, there's going to be a sense of courage in the moment, right? But it's fairly low risk. And, you know, I said, well, what's the worst that could happen? And he's like, oh, she, you know, he or she would laugh at me, or kind of give me a weird look. And I said, yeah, that's really the worst that would happen. I mean, they're not going to throw coffee in your face or anything. And sometimes, every now and again, they might say, yes, but you're expecting a no, right? You're not expecting a yes. And you feel the fear and you say the awkward thing, and you're willing to kind of be uncomfortable in the moment, you're gonna say, hey, can I have this on the house today? And then you're gonna stop talking, you know, I can explain why. And they're gonna say whatever they say, and you're gonna realize, like, oh, I can handle this. Another example and this is such a small thing, you might be like, oh, some of you might not think that this takes any courage at all. But sometimes I'll see someone at an event or, you know, wherever I'm at, and I'll see like a woman who has great shoes, or great hair, whatever that day. And I like want to say like, hey, I love your shoes. And for whatever reason, it's like, stuck in my throat. And so forcing myself to be a little awkward and make, like, all I'm doing is telling her a compliment like that shouldn't be hard. But it does feel like I'm putting myself out there, she could look at me and, you know, be like, oh, whatever, something I don't know, I don't know why that scares me a little bit. But those are, you know, those are places where I'll just like force myself to make, you know, say that compliment or to walk up to somebody, you know, on the street, who has a sign out, like, give them money.

Sari 23:07
Just those small ways where, you know, could you help somebody carry their groceries to the car? Those things are going to force you out of your comfort zone. And even though likely they will be well received, there's still a little bit of courage that you have to demonstrate. And so think about ways in your life that you can put yourself a little out of your comfort zone, feel a little, you know, you're gonna feel that butterflies and that little bit of nervous energy, and you're gonna take a breath, and you're gonna do it anyway. Right? And so think about areas in your life that you could practice that and I would encourage you to say for the next week, I'm gonna do something every day. And another option is like social media, right? For some of you like doing a reel is a great act of courage. And so that could be another one or making an offer to somebody, right? But again, we want low stakes things. We want things that are no matter what the outcome like, okay, you do a reel and you get zero likes like okay, so what? Don't make it mean anything about you. Celebrate that you overcame, and you did it anyway. And it's not really about the likes or the comments. And then lastly, what we talked about was reframing it. I said what if, so we talked, we went through the model, right, and determination was in our feeling line. You know, the circumstance was just sales. We need to do sales in the business to actually make money and then thoughts were around like I figure this out. I can do hard things, some of those thought created a feeling of determination. And then we talked about the actions that we're going to take, right? And those actions are going to require courage. And then we said, you know, what is the result that we want to create? And we actually work backwards. So we started with the result. And so we said, you know, we want to get 160 orders to move his product, this initial round a product out. And it was like, okay, great. And I said, I'm gonna tweak that a little bit, and I'm actually gonna make the results that you also need to get a hundred no's to sell 160 units of your product. And he was like, I know. But in order to get the result of 160 yeses, I want you to reframe this to say the goal is actually to get 100 no's. That we're not going to make it mean anything if we get a no, because a no actually means we're making progress to our goals. We actually want to celebrate the no, like, yes, that's one more no. Like put a tally mark and keep going. How fast can I get through the no's so that I can get the yeses? I said, what if I guaranteed you that you will get 160 yeses, but you have to get 100 no's. Now we can say, oh, the no's are part of the goal. They're part of the result that I need to create. So let's go do that, right? And so having a strong why, that's going to keep you motivated and determined. It's gonna be really helpful in this. But knowing that the goal is first to get the 100 no's, because that will open you up. So those are some strategies I wanted to offer. You don't have to go jump out of an airplane. But challenge yourself to do some kind of scary things. Maybe it's, I don't know, getting on a scooter. We did that with a group of friends. I've ridden them before, I don't particularly love them. But you know, that was an act of courage for some of the girlfriends I was with to get on one of those scooters in Austin and ride around, right? So just little things like maybe you put on rollerblades or you, you know, even take a bike ride to somewhere you've never been.

Sari 27:42
All those things are going to require some amount of courage. So let's start building our courage muscle, I challenge you to do seven days of a bold action that forces you into a little bit of courage. And I'd love for you to report back in our private Facebook group. And let me know how that Confidence Challenge went. And if it helped you to feel courage, and do it anyway and realize that you're not going to die, because that's all you know, your brain is trying to protect you, your brain is trying to say, do not jump out that airplane, do not approach that buyer, do not make that offer, do not put yourself on social media because we could die. We could be rejected, which leads to ostracization, right? We could be judged, we could be kicked out of the group. It all makes sense. And having a little compassion for ourselves like yeah, I'm a human being, of course, I feel this. And I'm going to do it anyway. I will tell you one other thing that I think can be very helpful to help you get through the courage and into confidence. And that is expertise and knowledge. But not just like the Googling around and hoping it's the right thing but like actually knowing that this is the right information that you're doing it correctly. And you have a guy that has done this before. Which of course I would offer is me when you're just starting out. And Food Business Success was designed to really give you the step by step especially around logistics and legal and setting up your foundations. That's exactly what I was built for. And then one on one coaching can really help be a guide and help you skip the line in this industry as you want to grow and scale. And when you know you have the right information and you have an edge, right, you have an advantage. You're already feeling more confident. It's like when you're running a track race which I don't run, but I was reading about this, that the people who are on the inside track, so they're further along, that they, even though it's the same distance that everybody's running, there's a perception and a confidence from a lot of people when they are in that, that part of the track that's further out, there's probably a real name for it. In any case, knowing that you have your own back and you have the right information, and you can just jump ahead and have a guide can be a real confidence booster. You still have to take the action required, and do the work and do some of the hard courage stuff. But it does help it to be a lot easier. And this is the perfect time to get that support because next week, we start our impossible goal program. That will be four months. And it's really about sprinting, doing that goal sprint for this last quarter of the year. So September, we're going to set you up with how to achieve your goal workshop. And I'm going to give you all of the strategies, the five steps that I use to achieve big impossible goals. And I work with my clients on as well. And it's so great to walk away with a goal plan. But guess what, courage is required. Because now you have to go take action. You're gonna have to take massive big action where you're making offers and putting yourself in, quote, unquote, harm's way to be rejected. And then we are building in work time and accountability. When you have accountability, you are 95% more likely to actually achieve a big goal. So this is really key. So we're gonna be having check in calls as well as our monthly group coaching calls inside Fuel.

Sari 31:56
So if you've been thinking about joining Food Business Success, now is the time. I would love to see you on that call and help hold you accountable and give you the tools and ideas and support that you need to go after that impossible goal. And to help you create the courage through your thoughts and your emotions, to go and do those hard things. That's what it's all about. That's entrepreneurship in a nutshell. Until next time, have an amazing courageous week. Go do something hard!

Sari 32:33
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.