Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
It's a tough time out there to be starting or growing a business in this industry. And as a CEO, you have a responsibility to add to your toolkit to increase your resiliency. And to help you do this, I am offering a free live class, a training on resiliency. It's called More Than Survive, Thrive. Just because it's a tough time does not mean you have to suffer. In fact, you can come out on top and really make the most of this time to benefit you and your business. So join me by going to foodbizsuccess.com/thrive and I will see you there.

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!

Hello, everyone. Thanks so much for being here on the podcast with me today. First of all, I just want to celebrate a big milestone a huge win for the podcast. Every week, I get an email from the platform that I upload it to. And they say here's how many people downloaded the podcast. And this week, it jumped considerably, we blew the previous record way out of the water. And so I just want to say thank you to everyone who is listening, some of you must be binge listening. We had over 1000 downloads of the podcast last week. And it just makes my heart so full to know that people are out there finding this and that it is helping you on your journey. And if you are new to the podcast, I would so appreciate you taking just a moment to go over to, you can rate it on Spotify with five stars. Or you can go to the Apple podcast app and leave a review there that is so helpful to help more people just like you find the podcast. And if you know me at all, you know I love to celebrate wins. It is actually what's going to help keep us going. So I am celebrating this huge win with you because I could not have done it without you listening. So thank you. Today I want to talk about making your business more resilient and less fragile. I have been having so much fun getting ready for the upcoming training, which is tomorrow. It's called More Than Survive, Thrive. And you can still get in, if you go to foodbizsuccess.com/thrive. And this training is all about how do we create more resilience? How do we get through tough times? Because it is a tough time right now if you are a small business. There's just a lot going on outside of our control. And then there's a lot going on, that's just way more personal than like the economy, right? But things that are affecting you personally and how do we, as business owners, as CEOs, start to create more resilience and actually do what is called the opposite of fragile. It's called anti fragility or becoming anti fragile. And this word was first coined by an author, his name is Nassim Taleb and he wrote a book called the Anti Fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder. Now, I'm not going to lie, this book is big. It's very dense. He is a professor, a former trader, he is very intellectual. So you get the benefit here, you can certainly go read it, but I'm going to give you some of the highlights here and just give you some food for thought to think about how can I make myself and my business less fragile, and in fact, go beyond resilience, go beyond robustness and become anti fragile. So to help explain this concept, I'm going to actually read just a small part from the prologue of his book. So he writes, some things benefit from shocks. They thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder and stressors, and love, adventure, risk and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it anti fragile. Anti fragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resist shocks and stays the same, the anti fragile gets better. I was sharing this concept with the mastermind that I run for female founders and trying to explain it and it's a little bit challenging to wrap your mind around, you're like, maybe I can see that but I need clear examples. And I found this really great drawing kind of a cartoon that described all four of those pieces. So there was fragile. And you can think I'm surely that makes sense, right? If I drop a wineglass off of my balcony, on the eighth floor, it is going to break. It is fragile, right? Whereas if I drop something that is robust, let's say, a weight that I have, looking around my place here. I have weights here. I dropped that off, that's robust. It's probably not going to dent or get broken. It's going to withstand the shock. But it kind of just drops with a thud. And then we have resilience. So if I dropped a tennis ball off of my balcony, and then that ball would bounce, right? It still stays a ball, it doesn't change shape, but it bounces back quickly. And it's able to, you know, continue on in its life and its world. Now, it gets a little bit challenging to use an inanimate object, like a tennis ball or wineglass when you're talking about anti fragility. And so I was trying to think of how you could do this, because it's really better for organic environments, things that are alive, like our bodies, like our economies, or social networks. But the closest thing I can come up with is, if I were to drop, let's say, I had a sunflower, like a plant. And if I were to drop that plant over my balcony, it probably wouldn't break necessarily. But let's imagine that it had the seeds in there, and it actually becomes better. The seeds pop out, and it starts to grow possibly even in a hostile environment. Maybe it's not a very great soil that it lands on. But potentially, it actually gets better that it changes in a way because of that shock, that stress to it. It actually grows and flourishes and becomes better for it. One of the best examples that we can use to demonstrate what anti fragility is, is in our bodies. So let's take our muscles and our bones. Our bones actually need stress, they need shocks to our system to get stronger. If you were to put somebody up in space for a period of time, their bone density actually weakens because there's no shocks to it, there's no jumping, right? Where it like, stresses out our bones inside. And there's no real muscle building either. And so, on earth here, when we are lifting heavy weights, when we are jumping, when we are creating stress in our environment, our body not only responds by getting stronger to actually lift that current weight, it actually gets even stronger, it goes beyond what we are currently lifting to lift just a little bit more. So if you were to lift, let's say a 40 pound barbell, at first, maybe it would be hard for you to pick up. But over time, you would start to build muscle and your body would actually adjust to be able to pick up maybe 42 pounds, because it says oh, I see I need to get strong enough to do this, and a little bit more. So it's a really great example of that word anti fragility that we're going. We're not fragile. We're not just robust or resilient, where we're like, yeah, I can lift exactly 40 pounds. It's actually because of the shock, because of the stresses we're putting on our muscles and our bones, we actually can lift more the next time. And the whole point of this and I want to bring it back to your business and you as an entrepreneur is that many of us try to put our heads in the sand and try to not look or even think about what could go wrong. But the reality is, is that there is stress in our environment, there is randomness, there is chaos, there are things that are going to happen, big and small, that are way out of our control, but we have nothing that we can do about it. And yet, most of us don't want to acknowledge that and becoming anti fragile, is recognizing it, accepting it, and actually leaning into it. We know that when the stock market dips for instance, there's opportunity there, because most people run around and get scared and go sell off their stock. And if you're smart, and you're patient, and you recognize that there will be ups and downs, you can actually take advantage of it. The traditional term is like, there's blood in the streets, that means everything's on sale. And so being a smart investor, recognizing that there's going to be shocks to the system, and you're prepared. Now, the same thing is true in your business, recognizing that it's actually the challenges, it's actually the stresses to your business, and everything going on around you that is going to help you become a better business, a more profitable business. It's going to help you thrive if you stop trying to pretend that it's not happening, or that we just got to, like brace against it. And maybe we just batten down the hatches, right? We don't do anything, we're robust. Or maybe we do a little bit more resilient. But how can we move to be more anti fragile. And the way that we do that is by preparing ahead of time, by looking at the hard things, by shoring up our practices, both personally. So maybe it's like, I know that I need to take care of my health and manage my stress and manage my mind. And so I'm going to do those things ahead of time before there's harder things, we're going to get better with the small things, right? And then we're going to be more ready for the big things. But we can definitely do it in our business as well. We can manage the money, we can really understand what's going on. Where is money coming in? Where is it going out? We can start to make better decisions now when there's less consequences. I know everybody here many of you listening want to be big businesses, I work with people all the time and like, I want to be like that. And sometimes I shake my head and I'm like you don't want that.

Or you think that you do. You think it's going to be so easy. But I also know the inside of those businesses, and I know how challenging it is. Just because you get to a certain size, you make a certain amount of revenue, the problems actually just get bigger. And so if you don't start building up your antifragility now, then it's unlikely you will ever even get there, let alone be able to stay at that place, and really create a business that is going to thrive, that you love. So I want to invite you to start thinking about what are the standards? What are the disciplines that I need to instill in my business now to protect myself against the randomness, the chaos? I mean, most of us did not see the pandemic coming, and the shocks, the aftershocks that have come from it. Now if we had actually, many of us gotten ahead of our business, if we knew our cashflow, if we were making smart decisions. If we understood the processes and systems and we were being the CEO of our business, there actually might have been advantages, opportunities to take advantage of. But most of us were pretty surprised by it, right? And then it's like, oh my gosh, like we're hopefully not fragile, but it's hard. We're bracing against it. We're trying to be robust but it is not an easy thing. And hopefully you did not start a business or you do not want to become an entrepreneur because you think it's going to be easy because that is just not the case. Little reality check there. It's not going to be easy. And so anti fragility comes from the acceptance, from the awareness, from leaning into it taking ownership of what you can control now. And you may not be able to get to anti fragility but you can start to take steps now to be less fragile, to start building in more resilience. And that's exactly what I created Master Your Business for. And Master Your Business is open right now for our September cohort. We are going to be starting September 26th. And it is 12 weeks for you to really start to put into place to really own your business, and start to build in the padding, and the processes and the systems for you to be able to calm down, and to really know that you have a solid business plan. That everything is there for you to be able to go to the next level. Because when we try to get to some new level, and this happens so much, I see it so often, is if we're on shaky ground, right? If our foundation is not strong, and then you try to go to a next level, you try to get into that big account, you know, you have a big grocery store, it's like, yes, we want you, but you don't have your systems and your financials and the CEO level work done, it will fail, it will crumble. I've seen it over and over again, I used to do this for Whole Foods Market, helped people come on board, and unfortunately, I would see businesses fail because they weren't ready, because they didn't have a solid foundation. And I see it all the time where people don't want to do that work. And so I'm inviting you to force yourself to do the work of working on your business, not just in it. Because that is what a CEO does. And if you do not have anybody acting as a CEO in your business, it will not last very long. It is probably an expensive hobby. All progress starts by telling the truth. So tell yourself that truth first, that you're like, I don't actually know my money. Here's how you know, if you do not look at your money, at least once a week and know what is coming in and where it is going. And whether you are profitable then you need to come and join me in Master Your Business. If you got hurt and could not go to a farmers market, or let's say you won the lottery, and you could not go to the farmers market, would somebody be able to by reading a document or watching a video be able to set up and be as successful as you without you there. These are the kinds of foundations that we are going to do and we're going to finish them because you may not have ever done them for 2023. And we're going to get ready for 2024. So that you come out and you're like, heck yes, I am the CEO. And we are going to go big, we're going to 10x this thing next year! And I'm also going to share with you that this is probably the last time that I will record and teach live. And so all of these lessons will be recorded. And then the format of Master Your Business will change next year. So come take advantage of the format. You get to hang out with me each week, you get live teaching, you get live coaching. We have an incredible group of entrepreneurs who have product based businesses who are already registered. And finally, I mentioned earlier in this podcast that I have a mastermind that we kind of beta tested this year with five women. And it's been so incredible. And these women are doing amazing things. And I'm not saying it's all because of that, I'm saying that they are out there doing the hard things, being the boss of their business, being the CEO. And I know that the work that we did in Master Your Business has really helped to contribute to that good solid foundation. And so I will be running another mastermind in 2024. But you have to have gone through Master Your Business first because I need you to have those foundations and the principles so that we can hit the gas and go. So if any of those things appeal to you and you're saying yes, I want to become more anti fragile, I want to be less fragile, for sure. And I want to build up resilience in my business to be able to thrive to whether whatever comes our way, then Master Your Business. Do it now. Do not put this off, go and get registered masteryourbiz.co. 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. Maybe you like sitting around in confusion and overwhelm and doubt, but I sure don't, I want to skip the line experience. I want to get inside a community with an expert who knows how to help me and understands my problems, and gets me answers fast so that I can make decisions and keep moving forward. I also want someone to hold me accountable, and keep me focused on my business and moving it forward and limit the life distractions that happen for all of us. And I want to be surrounded by a community of other entrepreneurs who understand what it's like. It helps me to not feel so alone and so overwhelmed in what I need to do to put myself out there and possibly be judged or rejected or laughed at, and all the crazy stories that our brain makes up when we start to do something uncomfortable when we get out of our comfort zone. That is why I am for a limited time opening up the Fuel membership as a standalone product so you can go and just get the Fuel membership. I have people ask me all the time, I've already have a business, I'm already launched. How can I work with you? How can I get information and feedback and community? Well now is your chance. It starts at $57 a month and you can cancel at any time. So come and take a small risk that has potential for huge payouts to skip the line and get yourself into action and get yourself results so much faster than just spinning out on your own.

I see the difference that it makes in entrepreneurs who come to the calls, who get coaching, who connect with community. We have members in there that are constantly reporting I tried this, I did this I got this advice and I am increasing my sales, it is working.I'm going faster than I ever thought possible. And studies show that you are 95% more likely to actually achieve your goals when you get accountability and support. Don't put this off, go to foodbizsuccess.com/fuel and get inside. I look forward to meeting you in Fuel and we are going to add some rocket fuel to your business.