Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Holiday planning begins now, this summer. You have a choice of how you want your holidays to go. Do you want to be frustrated and running around in emergency mode and losing out on opportunities? And really just hating life while not making the sales that are possible? Or do you want to feel really confident going into this holiday season? Having all the materials ahead of time, thinking through your marketing strategy, knowing what your promotions are, and actually enjoying your own holiday? This is possible and I am helping you do it. I am running the first ever holiday ready bootcamp. Every year, I give you a holiday prep checklist which you can go get at foodbizsuccess.com/holiday. But this year, I am doing a virtual bootcamp. Three days, we are going to get this done. Listen, when I was at Whole Foods Market, we had our holiday plan ready to go fully planned. So we could have the best season ever and I won a lot of awards for having the best holiday season. And it happens now, we need to be ready in August so that we can take advantage of opportunities and really set yourself up to make more money the season. It takes getting ahead of it so that we can say no to overwhelm and procrastination and running around in emergency mode. To get registered for this limited ticketed even, go to foodbizsuccess.com/holidayready. Right now there are presale tickets available and all you have to do is put down a $25 deposit to hold your spot. I want you to think ahead, get in front of the problem. That's what entrepreneurs do. And we take advantage of things like this that are going to hold us accountable and make us do the work. So I want you to commit to yourself, go get your presale Holiday Ready deposit down, and you're going to save 100 bucks on the whole program if you do that. Pause this, go get your ticket and then come back and here's the show. 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! Here's my question for you today. Would you be willing to bet on yourself? If you had to take $100, $1,000, $10,000, are the odds in your favor? Have you done everything you can do to make yourself a good bet? A bet by definition is to risk something, usually a sum of money. Although I would say in the case of entrepreneurship, it's also time, it's opportunity, costs, and it is growth and change and taking on a new identity of a successful business owner. And if you're thinking yeah, I think so. I want you to think about what are the odds that you will survive, thrive, be a wild success? And the odds are simply what are the chances that something will happen? I was recently at a casino up here in Colorado called, we have this area called Black Hawk, that allows gambling and it's not something I do normally. I'm not a big gambler. And in fact, I'm pretty unwilling to bet my own money on a casino, right, going to go play those games but my friend Mark really loves it. He only spends money that he's prepared to lose and he finds a lot of joy and fun in it, so fine. So we go up, that's our Friday evening. Going to hang out, haven't seen him for a while, and I find it hilarious that he loves slot machines, which I think are so mind numbingly dull. Like there's no skill, right? All you have to do is hit a button. And the odds are so not in your favor, right? And yet people pump money into those things with the hope. You know, maybe this will be my lucky day. But, you know, if we're being realistic and we're being pragmatic, I mean, the odds of you winning are very, very slim. And that's a whole other conversation about, you know, the dopamine hits, and what happens when we get addicted to gambling? But in any case, I was thinking about, you know, this concept of like, are you willing to bet on yourself? Would you take those odds? Are you going to be the one that is the success? Listen, it is tough out there right now. I've been talking to a lot of more established brands; in Colorado Food Works, we're actually reorganizing our August event to be called Truth Talk, and how to get through this hard time. Last year in September, I put together a webinar workshop kind of thing called Hard Times Ahead. Well, we are in the hard time right now. And who is going to come out on top, right? Because some will, and many will decide to quit, many will decide to close. But would you take that bet on yourself? Or would that money in time be better invested in something else, like the stock market or a different business venture? Or maybe a casino? You're going to go play the odds with Blackjack, I don't know. Last year in 2022, which again, was with my friend, Mark, I think anything that has to do with betting, that's to do with him, because he enjoys that. But we went to a Kentucky Derby watch party. And he was like, what do you want to make a bet on? You know, what horse and I had no idea, right? I just chose like, I think these three will come in this place. And I did not win. But it was so incredible that this horse had an 80 to 1 odds to win, it was last place. And the horse's name was Rich Strike, which I decided there and then I'm just going, in any future bets, I'm going to put money down on anything that has like the word rich or wealthy, something like that annex, I'm all in. But in the last stretch, I remember watching like, okay, you know, the the lead horses, the ones that everybody favored to win, we're ahead. And this horse Rich Strike powered ahead in the homestretch and it was incredible to watch. And Rich Strike won with an 80 to 1 odds. Imagine if you had actually put a whole bet down on that horse to win it all, right? The likelihood of you losing, pretty high. But man, if you win, that would have been incredible. And so when you think about your business, even though some of the odds may be stacked against you, you've never done this before, you've never even been an entrepreneur, let alone in the food space, you don't really know what you're doing. I actually want to offer you a 10 question quiz. And you guys are going to be my beta test for this because I'm actually working on something for Michael Movitz with Brandjectory because he keeps asking me, what are the traits? Like why are some people successful? Why do some people persevere? Why do some people come out on top and others don't? Can we boil that down to a quiz or a filtering system to help give him more insight as he is recommending people and working with people for VC money? And that's like the ultimate bets, right? When other people see you as good odds that their bet will pay out. Now, of course, a lot of VCs make a lot of different bets. And they understand just like when you go into a casino that you're going to lose some. In fact, you might lose a lot. But they also want to win, right? They are betting on you to come through. And so what are some of those threads, those themes that I see over and over again, of what makes for great odds if anyone was betting on you. But it has to come from you first. You have to be willing to bet on you. I hear it too often where people are like, yeah, I don't really have a product and I haven't really put any big investment in there, but I'm going to go find some, you know VC money, some angel money, and then they're going to bet on me. And that's just not how it works. You have to first be in a position to bet on yourself. And Brian with Magic Chunk, he and I were talking, I went up to Steamboat to help him out and just get some fresh air and be outside and it was so great. But we were on this paddleboard, and he was paddling, I was resting. And we were talking about who actually joins Food Business Success? Who gets inside Fuel and really takes full advantage of it? And why do many people pass it up? They have a dream, they know they want to do this, and yet they don't make that bet on themselves to join the program. Because listen, podcasts, and quizzes and the resources I give you for free, the YouTube channel, like so much, right now the book super low cost, but those things only go so far. That's just knowledge, right? That's knowledge is potential power when there's a big difference between putting that knowledge into action and ultimately, I can only help you so much with those, you need to come work with me personally, you need to get into the program, you need to get more support inside Fuel where you have access to me. And so we were talking about why do so many people kind of chickened out or say, well, maybe tomorrow or I don't know, I don't bet on myself, right? I don't think I'm actually good odds to win. And so I want to give you 10 questions that you're going to rate yourself 1 through 10. And this might be challenging to do when you're just listening, especially if you're driving or something like that. So go ahead and listen to the questions, make a mental note. And then go and get the full quiz where you can actually score yourself and get a rating. You're going to get your odds out of 100 on whether you are a good bet, whether you should go after this dream or to expand it or take the next level of risk to get your business to that next level. And so to get the quiz, go to foodbizsuccess.com/odds, and I'll put the link in the show notes, of course. So here are the questions, I'm going to kind of talk through them. And just make a mental note or write it down on 1 through 10. Rate yourself and whatever you think, whatever the first thing that pops into your mind is what you want to go with. Don't try to rationalize it. And you know, well, maybe in this circumstance, just like you know, follow your gut. Don't try to convince yourself of something otherwise. All right, here we go. So number one, this is probably one of the most important ones. They're all really important. But I see this time and time again. Are you somebody who follows through? Are you a finisher in the big scheme, but also on the every day? So do you set standards for yourself? Do you put appointments on your calendar? Do you say I'm going to work out today? Or I'm going to work on my COGs? Or I'm going to email these three buyers? Or I'm going to take samples to this place? Or you know, any number of things, right? Do you actually follow through on what you say you will do? And this is in personal and in business. So I want you to just what's your number, you know. Now this is not do you follow through with others because we're pretty good about that. But do you follow through on what you say you will do in any given day? What's your number? One through 10? Boldness, number two, do you have a muscle of taking bold action of having courage to do the hard things? Now courage always feels terrible. It's not a fun feeling. But it is that, it's like I'm just going to make that phone call. I'm just going to stop by that store. I'm going to make this offer. I'm going to record this reel. You have an ability to take consistent, bold action even when it feels scary. You're like yep, I can do this next thing. We have built up the courage muscle to take some risks. And I'm not talking about huge risks and talking about small ones, things that consistently push you out of your comfort zone. So do you have a habit of every day or every week taking some bold action, even though it's going to feel terrible? Number three, grit. Do you have grit? This is the perseverance even when it's hard. One of the best ways to measure this to answer this question is, if I said, you need to hold a plank for a minute, would you break or would you hang in there? Or if I extended that to two minutes, right? Even though it hurts, even though it doesn't feel good, even though you want to give up and there's no reason you can't, like there's no money at the end, it's just you have said, I will do this for a minute, or I will do 50 push ups. Or when I say I will write these 10 emails and send them even though there's nobody measuring me, there's nobody that says you have to do it. Do I actually keep going even when it's hard, even when it doesn't feel good? And that is similar to number two, but it is different. It's the ability to keep going even when you are getting negative feedback. Even when you get you know, those no's, we talked about going for 100 no's, and that is grit. You get the first 10 and then I'll say no, are you willing to keep going to number 11? And I think that there's mental and physical and I'm actually going to do a whole podcast just on grit. But rate yourself 1 to 10. All right, number four, do you have a mindset practice that helps you keep up an optimistic outlook on your success and your ability to succeed?Tony Robbins says success is 80% mental and the other 20% is just strategic. It's taking action. But first we need to get ourselves into a good headspace. We need to nurture optimism. And that does doesn't happen naturally. We are wired for negativity, we are wired to look for things that could harm us. And that's just the way we are built, right? We've got to know which berries are going to kill us. And we stay really focused on that. Some examples of this would be a daily gratitude practice, meditation, listening to positive things mostly like taking out, constraining, limiting the amount of negativity that you allow into your life. And that could be the news, that could be social media, that could be people around you. I talked about this in Episode 150 about Minding Your Mind and we as entrepreneurs have a responsibility to do that. I don't believe you are going to have true success if you are not tending to your mental state, and it is going to be so much harder, so much more of a slog if you are in negativity more of the time, if you're a pessimistic, if you are not giving people the benefit of the doubt and yourself. All right, number five, openness to new ideas and a growth mindset that you don't know everything. And in fact, that's great news that you have access and you can go tap into your ability to learn to be able to put together patterns. And that's where innovation comes is like the intersection of ideas and seeing where things overlap. And Carol Dweck does some incredible research on growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. And so this is what I'm talking about. Do you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Are you willing to say I don't know everything, and I'm not going to blame everyone around me, I am going to take responsibility, which is means that you are able to respond, and you're going to see it as like an opportunity to grow when things get hard. All right. Number six is a desire to achieve and go after big goals, 10x goals, hard and high goals. Even though there will be failures, you already know ahead of time, I will fail along the way. And ultimate success is never guaranteed. There are a lot of people who choose to just stay in their comfort zone and never want to grow. They never want to tap into their potential. They never want to see what is possible and that's okay. You don't need to but do you have a desire, just to see what you're capable of? What is on the other side? Who you will become? It's just like yeah, let's go after it because this is fun. And I just want to see what I am capable of. Number seven, the ability to break down a goal into small chunks and do the strategic work with constraint and consistency. It's easy enough to set that New Year's resolution goal, right, and be like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to launch my business in three months, or I'm going to lose this weight, or I'm going to get really strong, or, you know, I'm going to get into 200 new accounts this year. Great, you have the desire, but do you have the patience? Do you have the ability to break things down and say, let me do the strategic planning, let me do the hard things that my brain is going to resist, right? That motivational triad is like, this is hard. I don't want to break those down into actual achievable, tiny, little steps. And then you have to constrain yourself to those things. You can't just be like, oh, well, here's a new diet, or here's a new idea. Let me not, you know, let me I get halfway through and then I change course. So are you able to break down a goal into those small pieces, take small bites, and to start seeing progress and get momentum? But that is a skill, not everyone. And I mean, a lot of people who are unwilling to do that, they just want to go from zero to 100. Somehow, it's just going to happen like magic. Like, I just hope, it's just fun, it's going to happen, but they don't actually do anything, and they don't constrain themselves, and they don't create consistency. Number eight, the ability to make decisions quickly, and take the next action. So it's not just I made a decision, but it's what is the next thing I need to do? Where can I take some amount of action to kind of solidify this decision, like I am all in. Decide decisions, that means to cut off, that is the root of the word. And so by doing that, you're going to have to say no to things, you're going to have to exclude them, you're going to have to put ideas that come up on your parking lot list, right? You can't do everything, but you're going to make a decision. And then what is the next action you need to take?

I call it pulling the thread, right? Say that to a lot of people like, yeah, I think this is a thread worth pulling. Take action, take action, take action. And here's the thing with decisions that you do not change your mind unless you have new information that says yes, this is worth re-evaluating. But so many of us make decisions and then we like quickly are like, well, I just heard this, somebody on a podcast, or I heard another founder tell me I should do it this way. And it's like, no, no. You have made a decision, you are going to follow this through. And just like in the previous one, you know, you are going to constrain yourself, you're going to take action, and you are going to break it down into small chunks. But making decisions is probably one of the number one things I help my clients and members in Fuel do is like, okay, yeah, sitting in indecision is a decision. It's deciding not to move ahead, it's deciding to stay stuck. But there's that FOMO, there's that fear of regret, there's that fear of I'm going to beat the crap out of myself if I make the "wrong decision". And so nothing happens. And when nothing happens, we lose momentum, and we quit often enough. So are you able to make a decision quickly, and then take action, and you're going to have conviction? Colin Powell would say, I make decisions when we have 70% of the information. And so go and decide like, I need to get more information if that's the case, but then set a date, I am deciding by this time, I've made decisions about the information I need. And then I'm going to cut off other options. And I'm going to stay focused on this one. That you don't easily sway your decision. There has to be valid, new information that makes you change it. Number nine, do you have a purpose that goes beyond your passion for your product? I see it all the time. I see so many people come to me with a passion, right? Started with curiosity. Like I wonder if I can make the most amazing sourdough bread that's gluten free, or you know, the most amazing, incredible hot sauce or whatever it is, right? And the passion is there. That's amazing. Like, I'm so passionate about this. But we have to have something that's beyond ourselves. That is the only way we are going to truly get the drive, the Fuel, the motivation to keep going when things get hard. Listen, I've had a lot of passions for a lot of things. I used to actually be a seamstress like I would make a lot of my own clothes. My very first job was at a fabric store. And then later in college, I actually took some design classes. And I just kept upping my ability and curiosity and I had a passion for it, I would spend, you know, all weekend sometimes like it would go by in a blur, I was in such flow, that it was so fun, right? But I didn't have a purpose beyond that. It was just fun. I had a passion, I had a growth mindset. I loved it. But I didn't want to turn it into a business or a career, right? And so you can have an amazing passion for your salsa, or your coffee, or kombucha whatever it is, but do you have a purpose? Passion, even the saying goes, right, passion can be all consuming, it can tear you apart that passion, when we have a passion for another person, right? Sometimes we get lost in that. And so we need to take it beyond passion and go into purpose, has to be outside of yourself and it makes a difference in the world. Humans are designed to contribute and when you are just focused on your passion, it's actually very selfish. And it just loses the amp for you to keep going when things get hard. So it could be like, it could be very specific, like Ryan with Pup and the Pepper's about a purpose about helping animals, that his hot sauce helps, right? The sales of that, or it could be much more broad, like I want to change the way people eats when it comes to these products, or I want to bring people together for connection and creativity and solving problems. I have really been working on this, and I'm going to do an entire podcast about creating your purpose. So stay tuned. But my purpose keeps evolving. And I noticed when I tap into that, I have so much more energy and drive and fuel to keep going, even when I'm getting a lot of no's, even when I'm failing. So do you have that purpose? I think one of my very early podcasts was called you know, what's your why? And that just cannot be more true that you need a bigger why? And then last, are you involved in a community? Do you have support from mentors and other people doing this hard work? And beyond just like I'm a member of a community, do you actively participate? Do you ask for help and do you give it? It's not enough to just show up and like passively participate. I will tell you that the members who show up every time and ask their questions and support each other and respond to threads in our community feed, they are getting so much more momentum going. And they are getting their questions answered. They're able to make decisions, they're moving ahead faster. And I've been doing a lot of research into what makes entrepreneurs successful over each other like one over another, why do some fail and some succeed. And this is probably I put it last because I actually think it is one of the most important things to success that increases your odds greatly. And sometimes we just think I need to stay in my own little bubble and it's scary to put yourself out there. But this is one of those things that will, it is rocket fuel for your business, to be involved in a community to get support to have a mentor to have experts, advisors in your corner. But you have to give as much as you get. Okay, so you answered all of those questions. You gave yourself a score from your gut 1 through 10. And now you have your odds. I and you can go get this quiz at foodbizsuccess.com/odds. But let's say you answered you know, you came up with a score of 40. Well, you have a 40 to 100 shot, that that's a 40%, right? Would you bet on yourself with a 40%? Probably not. Here's the best news ever though, is that all of these are learned All but one, the desire, the innate desire, but I even think that you can add to you can expand, you can increase and learn how to do it. All of these can be improved. And that's what I actually told Michael when we were talking about this, he said, you know, I kind of see this as like an inner and out and I said no, I actually think that if somebody came, you know, let's say you came back with a 70% score. That if you are willing to have the growth mindset to say how do I improve? I'm willing to get a coach. I'm willing to join a membership and a community, I'm willing to create a mindset practice, right? The willingness to increase your odds to get better at these actually tells me so much more about you. And that I would actually take that bet if you were somebody who increased from 70% to 90%, because you are willing to make the changesou. You're willing to be patient and say, okay, let me not just my ego, right, let me not just zoom ahead and then get pissed off like, why do you think I can't be successful? And be like, no, let me learn. Let me grow, help me, get help. I sometimes think about my clients when I'm coaching them, or later on, I'll be thinking about them. And I think, would I invest in them? Would I place a bet, put money down and say, I believe in you the odds what I see. And it's basically these 10 questions I'm answering, I've been answering in my mind without actually writing them down. But I can now have something I can look at and say, would I take that bet? And I can probably think of about 10 or 15 that I would say, yes, 100%, I would take that bet. And I will tell you none of those things hinge on the product alone. In fact, the product is maybe 10% of what I would base my willingness to put money down, to put money on that person, that founder and their business. The rest of it is all of this stuff that I just went through. So I said at the beginning, times are tough right now, the truth talk of it is that it is challenging to scale your business, to go to the next level. I actually don't think it's as challenging to start it, but know that you are getting, you're starting at a challenging time. And that's okay, because why not get started now, and then be ready when the market shifts, when things change, which they will, they always do. But if you are working on growing your business, making it more profitable, it is a challenging time. And because it is challenging, because there are circumstances like inflation, which is driving your costs up and consumers are being more discretionary about what they spend their money on and holding more of their money, because it's going to other things because of this price increases in inflation, that there is more competition than ever. And what we're seeing in the stores is creating even more challenge of buyers and stores placing bigger demands on people. We also know that VC money has dried up a lot, right? I mean, it's all connected. And that's okay. We have gone through dips as a country, and we always increase even more on the other side, there is a trajectory upwards, if you look at a graph, even when we go through periods of recession, and dips and our economy, and that's what this is it will change. And so are you truly in? Are you placing a bet on yourself? And are you working on the things that are in your control.

We can't control the outside circumstances, the only thing we can control is what's in our circle of influence, the things that we are able to respond to, and to support you, especially in number 10. But it will support you in all of them. I'm doing something I said I would never do. But that's what we do as entrepreneurs, we're going to pivot, we're going to see what do people really need? And how can I show up and offer them what I think is the most incredible offer? The thing that will help them make decisions, that will help them to say I'm ready to start or I'm ready to scale or maybe not. And that's okay. So I am opening up our Fuel membership to everyone. You don't need to purchase Food Business Success first. I do think some of you will get in, and then you'll decide to go ahead and start and then you should absolutely because it is so necessary to have the tactics and strategies and the what to do. But first, let's come get the knowledge, the coaching, the support of those communities. And to support you even more, what I'm going to do is offer a mindset only call in August, September and October, it's going to be a bonus call to what we normally do, which we always have three calls inside Fuel. Plus a VIP call if you want to upgrade to VIP to help you get through this tough time. It is right now, it's happening right now. I want to support you with the coaching piece, with the mindset piece. So you're going to bring a decision you need to make Should I start this business or not? Should I get packaging now? Or wait? Should I go to a co packer or not? Whatever decision you need to make right now, bring it because we know that if you can make decisions faster, you will get the momentum that starts to carry you, that helps it feel more fun and more at ease. Come with places where are you getting stuck in perfectionism or worry about judgment, I do a similar call inside Jordan's group Foodbevy, where it's bring your biggest problem. And I recently coached a woman who was like her biggest problem was I'm just not posting, I'm not making the outreach and putting up the posts that are more to my like closer networks of people. I'm feeling really afraid of judgment and what will people think of me and it's not perfect, and specifically on LinkedIn, like using her network to help grow her business. And so we coached on that. And we talked about what is your bigger purpose? Get out of your passion. And just you, you, you. And think about the people who need to hear this, who want to hear it, who want to be sold to, who want to support you in any way. And so that's a huge one is how do we get outside of our perfectionism and worrying about judgment? And then where are you noticing that you are procrastinating or that you're ruminating, that you are stuck, you're not moving ahead because something is holding you back. This is that mindset piece. And it is 80% mindset my friends, a 100%. So I am opening up Fuel, it is $57 a month, or you can get an annual membership that you save $114. So you get 12 months for 10. And I'm also going to throw in a bonus of the Create More Time bootcamp which has so many strategies for how do we actually create time for you to work on your business. We can't do that, all the strategies, all the checklists, all the what, won't help you get there. So to take advantage of this to join Fuel to start making an investment in that support, in community, in having an expert on your side, go to foodbizsuccess.com/fuel, and you'll get all the details there. It's a monthly membership so you can cancel at any time. But bet on yourself. Take a small investment of $57 a month. And let's see what's possible. Get the support that you need from me and a community because I want you to increase your odds of success. Wherever you scored, it can always get better and I promise you nobody's going a 100%. So come join Fuel, get inside. This is the rocket fuel for your business. And this is the thing that will help you get over your fear of failure and to increase your confidence in your self and your ability to do this. I want you to increase your odds so that you are willing to place a bet on yourself. Until next time, have an amazing week!

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.

Hey there, you're still here. How fun is that? If you want more, go and grab the book off of Amazon Key Ingredients: How to Turn Your Passion Product Into a Profitable Business. This is an actionable guide with step by step instruction on how to start or scale your product business. I also give you a special link so that you can access some book-only resources. So what are you waiting for? Head over to Amazon or go to keyingredientsbook.com for more information.