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 0:50
Hey there, welcome back to the podcast. So I recorded this episode, it would have been last Sunday from when you guys are listening. And then I found myself all weekend though thinking about you guys. I had received several emails and messages especially from my bakers, or people who use butter in their products, about the upcoming impending price increases that we are going to see in the dairy industry. And I just been thinking about this all weekend, it was rolling around in my brain, and you'll even hear in the podcast, I use this as an example to try to illustrate the point. But I was just thinking, like how can I help people? I get it, it feels like there's a lot of fear, like people are panicking. And we already went through this not that long ago, right? And it does pass, but that doesn't make the fear any less real. And so I really wanted to put something together that I felt like would really help you in two ways, right? I want something that I'm going to give you some strategy around pricing and how to manage this time and make good decisions for your business. And I also want to give you some mindset tools that I use in coaching, that can really help calm our nervous system and calm down the panic. Because when our emotions are high, when we're feeling a lot of fear, and worry, and anxiety, and overwhelm, we don't make good decisions. Our logic or reasoning is really low. And what we need right now is people managing their minds, making good decisions, and taking bold action, that really do further their business and help you to stay in the game. Not just survive, I want to help you thrive in your business. And this is not new, yes, this particular instance of inflation is somewhat new. However, there is always something. There is never a perfect, ideal, no problems happening time in your business. And what we need to do is get better with both our strategy and also our mindset. And so I have created a call. I'm not even sure what to call this. It's not a workshop. But it is, it's like almost an emergency call. And it's, I'm calling it hard times ahead, which is actually perfect for this topic of the podcast, tell yourself the truth. So if you've been hiding in a hole, your head like an ostrich in the sand. This is the time to get it out. Listen, if you have not been hit by price increases somewhere. I mean, let alone just your gas, right, to go run around and make deliveries. This is the reality. And if you're not facing it, then we're not getting prepared. And so I want to help everybody. Oftentimes when we put our head in the sand, it's because we don't know what the solution is. And so we're just like, well, if I don't see it, if I don't talk about it, maybe it won't happen. And I am super guilty of this myself. But I am committed for myself to not do that. And I want to help you to understand what's going on, to have strategies and to put a plan in place. And then also manage your emotions so that you can move forward in your business, so you can make great decisions and really step up as a leader. That's what we need right now is more leadership, more entrepreneurs really owning their business. And this is where great businesses are formed when times get tough. So to get registered, it's free. But you need to go to www.foodbizsuccess.com/hardtimes, and I will put the link in the show notes. Get yourself registered for this. This is crucial information. This is crucial strategy. It's totally free. And you will get a limited 48 hour replay when you get yourself registered. So don't miss this call. All right on to the episode I already recorded for you.

Sari 5:17
I love this time of year. It's cool in the mornings, it cools off in the evening. But it's gorgeous out right now in Denver. I just got back from my favorite Farmers Market on Sunday morning. And it was so fun. It's been a little while since I've been able to get down there. And this is one where I have a lot of clients and members and people who come to the winter market that I run. So I was with a girlfriend who's never come with me to a farmers market. And she was like, this is like walking around with a celebrity. Like, just in this market. That's it. Nowhere else. But it is so fun to be able to get to talk to people, get to try some new products, people are always so generous. We had the best ice cream from Caitlin with Pikes Peak, and we had brunch and it was so nice. So many good things, I absolutely love this time of year, I hope you're enjoying your fall. So this week's episode, this is the week, last week in September before October. So if you are in business, businesses generally operate on four quarters. So we are entering Q4 here very shortly. And here's what that means for you. We are starting our 90 Day sprint for the last quarter to really go after those big goals. And we're doing that here with you. But we're really focused on that inside Food Business Success. And we have a couple of extra calls and strategy sessions with me. And it's been so fun to do a little bit more one-on-one and group coaching. And I just love it. So for you here listening, I want you to really think about this time and get excited. Like, it's like you're in that last quarter of the big game, right? And you may not really love what you are looking at. Like you may be like, yeah, great, thanks Sari for reminding me that I'm not nearly as close to where I thought I would be or where I predicted, what I said I would do this year way back in January.

Sari 7:42
And so I want to offer you this opportunity to tell yourself the truth. Sit down with yourself and have a little like, alright, let's just come to Jesus and what's going on and like, let's talk about it, right? Let's have this reckoning moment with ourselves, and give ourselves the gift of actually being able to move ahead and make solutions, create solutions and solve the problems. So it's really important when you are wearing the role of a business owner, that you're willing to sit down and really dissect your business and look at it not just you working in the business but on the business. To step back as the observer and say what's working here? What's not working? And when we think about your impossible goal, which you guys know, I love going after an impossible goal. And by definition, let me just remind you that it is impossible. And so we're purposely doing something, we're going after something that we literally probably most likely will not achieve. It stretches us and forces us to grow and get outside of our comfort zone. It's really important that we're not beating ourselves up when we do this, tell ourselves the truth, tell yourself the truth little session here. But what I want you to do is look at the facts. Write down, get a blank piece of paper, and write down all the facts, the good and the bad. We need to look at both. So X number of accounts, X number of events, this much in sales. These are facts. Like launch the business, have a social media. It's really important that we remember, you know, a lot of clients that I work with one-on-one will tell me things about this time of year like oh, I just feel like I'm not very close and I haven't done the work and nothing's happening. It's all going so slow. And I look back over our Slack history and I'm like, do you not see this? And this is why I force people, make people celebrate their wins, is because our brain forgets. Our brain is only focused on the here and now. And it's usually focused on negative things. Because it's trying to keep us safe. But our brain is kind of a-hole, right? And so it's really important that we actually go back and we remember, what are all the good things that happen? I'll show them their wins. I'm like, do you remember where we started? You were here. And now look at all the things that we have done. And they're always like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I forgot about that. So keeping a success folder will really help us speed up this process. But in any case, write down all the facts. And we're not going to worry about the drama. The drama is your, is all of the crappy things your brain tells you about what you make it mean. You have, I don't know, $5,000 in sales, and your goal was 15. That is a fact, right?

Sari 10:59
I have $5,000 in sales, I have 10k still to go to get to that impossible goal, okay? Now the drama that you bring is everything you make that mean that you are falling behind, that there's something wrong with you, that you're never going to figure this out. And our brain is tricky because it oftentimes, sometimes we get the like, you're so dumb, you're never gonna figure this out. But usually, more often than not, it's sneaky questions. So be on to yourself, I want you to just like try to step back and watch your thoughts a little bit. This is what we do a lot in coaching. As a coach, I can observe your thoughts, right? Without the drama, but you're so in it. But it's a practice to be able to notice what we're thinking. So are you thinking things, these little sneaky questions, things like, why is this always happening to me? Am I ever gonna figure it out? Am I even good at this? Is this ever going to work? Those questions, think about it, if you were to answer it, is there any way that you would ever answer that in a positive way? Most likely not. So your brain is just offering you terrible, terrible questions that you're actually not answering. And that really reinforce the negativity that you are somehow farther behind, and you're not worthwhile, and you're not enough, and you're never gonna figure this out. So catch yourself on that. And I just want you to list the facts. We're like, it's like, we're a scientist or a doctor. We just need the facts so that we can diagnose the problem and the solution, right? Until we know exactly what's going on, we can't make a plan of action. Do that, equal airtime, force yourself, set a timer for 10 minutes. This is not forever. This is not a three hour exercise. Give yourself 10 minutes, so just do a self evaluation. Where am I at? What's worked? What hasn't? What are the facts? Okay, so now we have wherever you are at and where you want to be. I want you to take full responsibility, tell yourself the truth, and take full responsibility. There's a great book called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, if I'm saying his name right. But it's a little bit intense because they are named their former Navy Seals. But the commentary, after you get past the war story is really amazing. It's a best selling book. But their philosophy is everything that happens out there, you take full and complete ownership over. We stop pointing the finger elsewhere, and we point the finger back at us. Now couple of things, we have to be very careful that we are not beating ourselves up. This is not an opportunity to beat the crap out of yourself and make you feel horrible to the point where you just want to go eat ice cream, you know, go Netflix and turn off all the lights. No. This is an opportunity to say, it's on me. And when I take responsibility for what has happened, now I can go fix it. Now I'm empowered to do that. And I want to say that taking full responsibility is not always the same as this is my fault. Outside things happen. Circumstances happen in the world, things like a pandemic, things like inflation, right? Inflation is not your fault. But where you are with your business is your responsibility in relationship to those outside things, right? Getting the account or not getting the account. How can you take responsibility? Yes, somebody else out there made a decision. Let's say somebody makes a decision, a buyer says no to bring you into the store. Okay, stop blaming the buyer because you give away all your power. When you blame others, you are a victim, you are helpless. And that does us no good as an entrepreneur. Instead turn it around and say, how can I take responsibility? How am I responsible for this outcome? I'm gonna go so far as to say everything in your life, your results, whatever they are, you have a business, you don't have a business, you have the sales. Whatever the sales are that you have, whatever number of accounts, whatever followers. Whatever it is, you are responsible, and this result is one that you are creating. It's not your kids, it's not your partner, your ex spouse, your money, your education. It's none of those things. It's not where you live, it's not how you look. And that can be a really tough pill to swallow at first, you're like, wait, come on, surely I can blame this thing for the result that I don't want for my life that I actually have right now.It feels a lot better. It seems like it'll help to blame outside things. Instead I want you to own it all. And when you say yes, all of this is on me. And that's really good news.

Sari 16:32
Even though on the surface, you're like, that's terrible news, Sari. Because if it's always my fault, or if it's always something I have to take ownership for, then crap, that doesn't feel good. Here's why it's great news because if it's all on us, if it's our responsibility, and we created it, then we can do something about it to change it. This is the think, feel, act cycle that I talk more and more about. That your thoughts. So there's a circumstance, right? There's inflation, there are pricing prices in the world. I have some clients who have been sending me some information and prices are about to really skyrocket on their raw materials. This is a circumstance, that is not your fault. Okay? Now, what is the thought you have about it? If your thought is, oh, my gosh, this is going to kill me, I don't know how I'm going to survive this. This is terrible, I should just give up now, your feeling is going to be something like defeated and hopeless, your action line is going to be terrible, right? You're either not going to do anything, or you're going to do things out of fear and scarcity. And the result you're gonna get is one, you're probably not you're, it's like the opposite of what you want to create, right? It's either going to be, you don't have a business at all. Or it's a really challenging business because your thoughts are so negative about it. Now, I'm not saying we go to daisies and rainbows and say amazing, I'm so glad prices are going up. But a thought, I want to offer a different thought could be okay, business owners have challenges and this is mine. And I wonder how I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to start making a plan now. I'm capable, I figure things out, I can do hard things. I want this business enough to figure this out. And you see those thoughts. It's maybe not like excited, but you're like determined and committed and a little bit of grit, right? And that is going to lead to very different actions, which are going to create very different results for you. So we get to own it all. And that's really great news. A great question to ask yourself when you do not like the circumstances, the facts, right? Is this question, you're gonna hate this, I'm just gonna warn you, because I hate it when my coach forces me to answer this question. But it's the best question that you can ask yourself is how is this for me? So for example, I was working with a client this week. And she is, they're really, its partners, but they're really growing their business and they self manufacture. And her particular role is around the HR and employees and working with the staff and training and whatnot. So they've brought in a bunch of new employees, and she's been working on onboarding and trying to create a manager role so she can step out a little bit. And so she tried some things and came back and it's not working. She had a couple of people quit on her. There was some a lot of drama with the other employees. There was some batches that got screwed up and had to be thrown away. Yes, that still happens even when you've been in business for a while. So she was giving me all of her circumstances, right? And she doesn't love these circumstances, of course, who would? However, when I said, how is this for you, right? Our brains do not like to answer that because we only want to think about all the negative things, of course. But when you force yourself to think about how could this be good for me? That is where the magic is. And as we've talked about it more, she could start to see like, oh, I'm so glad that this is happening right now on a small scale before I have now 100 employees. I'm just dealing with it with 12, right? Like, I get to put into practice and make changes as a manager. And I get to do it with a small group of people, people who I know. And I get to work with somebody like myself to help with foundational work so that all of these things will be better as we grow. This is also a big opportunity. And in a very positive way I think, to step into leadership, to step into being that CEO, that COO of your business, and taking on a more leadership role, which is what has to happen when you start taking on employees. It's just part of the game. And so asking yourself, how is this for me, right? And you can do that with anything. Let's say sales weren't what you would expect it at a market or a pop up, or costs are going up? How is this for you? I can come up with a half dozen reasons why. But I'm curious what your brain comes up with. Your brain only wants to see the negative. But if you can find three to five things, it will give you so much power to reframe it and start taking action from there. Oftentimes, when we do this, tell yourself the truth exercise. Much of the time, it's not as much on outside circumstances. But it's actually more about ourselves. And it's probably things like I'm not really being consistent. I'm not following through. I'm not doing what I say I'm going to do, right? I'm not asking for support. I'm trying to do this all by myself. And so I want to encourage you, again, we are not using this as an exercise to beat ourselves up. This is a way for us to stop, pause, assess the situation, be brutally honest with ourself. And then we can create a solution. So if you're finding yourself that you're just acting in a vacuum, that you're, you know, you're not quite sure you're in indecision all the time, you're not making decisions, that's another one, you aren't being consistent, you're not putting things on your calendar, and then following through. Usually, it's just a lack of action. If this sounds like you, and you want help with this, come join me inside Food Business Success. It's a no brainer, one time lifetime access price, and three months inside Fuel, which is our amazing membership, where you can come and get support from me. Get support from fellow foodpreneurs for doing this work. Our group coaching calls are some of my favorite places to be where it is just amazing. This community. People are jumping in and helping each other, they're having conversations offline, businesses are growing, people are feeling more confident, and having fun in their business, and figuring out how to actually make money, how to be profitable. So all we're doing here is finding the gap. But we got to know where we are. And then we want to look at where we want to be. So as you're looking ahead to this Q4, and you want to really turn it on and go after that big goal, that impossible goal. Do this work. Sit down, tell yourself the truth, assess it, and then create a strategy. And if you need help with strategy and problem solving, I got you inside Food Business Success. Until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 24:41
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!