Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
You started this business because you love your product. You love making it. You love the joy on other people's faces when you sell it to them or give it to them. And so you decided to start a business. And now the business is running over you like a Mack truck. You are wondering, when the heck are you ever actually going to make any money? When do you finally get that freedom and fun, that was the whole reason why you started this business in the first place? When will you stop being in the day to day of the business and running around like everything is on fire? Where the business doesn't work, if you're not in it. It is time for that to change. If you have proven your concept and you know this is a good idea, then it's time for you to start learning how to be the boss to become the CEO that your business requires of you to actually work, to create money and profit without you being in the day to day. And we do that through Master Your Business. Listen, you could go spend a lot more money on a MBA, and learn the same things that I'm going to teach you in this program. This is all about creating systems and processes and knowing your numbers, we're no longer going to be afraid of our numbers. And we're going to create an intentional path for your business to succeed, to stand the test of time and to work for you. We are starting a new cohort very soon. Go to masteryourbiz.co and get yourself registered. Prove to yourself that this is going to be a business that works and you are going to be the CEO your business needs.

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!

Hey there, and welcome back to the podcast, I am just having an incredible day. I am so excited to present this free training, this Thrive training that's all about building resilience during tough times. And we are in a tough time but this content, I am so freaking proud of myself, it is so good. And I am so excited to present it to many of you who are joining me. And if you want to grab the replay, I will get that uploaded. So it'll be there by the time you're listening this podcast. And you go to foodbizsuccess.com/thrive. So I'm going to be celebrating myself the effort I put into it and the dedication, the generosity that I am presenting it from with no expectation. So it's really important. And this is one thing I'll talk about is to separate our success and celebrating our success. And it doesn't equal results. It doesn't mean that I only celebrate if I get a new client or if somebody wants to join Fuel. That's not what success is. I don't reward the result because that is out of my control. I reward and celebrate my effort because that is within my circle of control. So that's what's going on in my world today. And for the podcast, I want to really clarify what a CEO is, and why you need one, why you need to become one to really lead your business and create a business that is going to be built for the long term. That is not an expensive hobby, that is not one that chains you to it, and that you create the freedom and the fun that you envision when you started this business. Remember that? Remember why you started this? You thought it was going to be so fun and create all this time and you're going to be doing your passion. And then what happens is we have a fit of entrepreneurship and we think, oh, let's do it, let's start it, it's going to be awesome. There's going to be nothing that goes wrong, and it's going to be so fun and so easy, because I'm just making my thing that I'm so passionate about. It's amazing and everybody loves it. And then you're in it, and you get so tied to your business, and you are so worried about the results. And you're not necessarily celebrating them. That's for sure that the effort that you put into it. And many of you don't even celebrate the results, frankly. A lot of my clients, I'm like, hey, hold on. Let's celebrate that win before we go to the next thing that you want to create. Because you think it'll be so much better over there. Like, wait a second, let's pause for a moment, give ourselves a high five and celebrate this win.

So what I've noticed over the years of working with hundreds of clients and members to help them start and scale their business, is that at the beginning, it's kind of a hot mess. And that's okay, right? You're just figuring it out, you're throwing stuff at the wall. It's fine. I want you to go through that. But there has to be a transition of going from what Michael Gerber in the E Myth Revisited talks about, there has to be a transition from the maker, where you're just so passionate about your product, and you're just in it, and you know, buzzing around with making, making, making, to really calming down and becoming a CEO. Your business needs somebody at the helm that is guiding it, that's directing the vision, and really paying attention to the financials, and paying attention to where the business needs to go for this to stay a business to stay in business, and not be an expensive hobby. So I was really curious, I actually went online and looked up some CEO, which stands for Chief Executive Officer, and I was looking up some definitions or responsibilities of a CEO. So let me just read a couple of things that I found online, the Chief Executive Officer provides leadership for all aspects of the company's operations with an emphasis on long term growth, long term goals, profit, and a return on investment. Remember we need to be striving for if not actually making a profit to be in business. And ultimately, there has to be a return on all of this energy, this time, this money, your resources that you are investing into this. I know that after a period of time, because I see it all the time, that if you continually lose money, and you are continually having to say no to other things that you want to do, and you don't have any time to actually enjoy your life, that this business will go nowhere, you will just frankly quit. Because you're like, this isn't worth it. I'm getting no return on my investment. So some of the responsibilities of a CEO are to oversee the ongoing operations of all divisions in the company. A CEO manages and directs the company towards its primary goals and objectives. And you're like, yeah, that makes sense but many of you don't actually have clear goals. And something we do in Master Your Business is we create a 10x goal. And then we create priorities underneath that goal. And then we create the activities. Many of you just do the activities, you think, oh, I should do this and somebody told me I should do that, and maybe I'll try that. And oh, this is really hard. It doesn't seem to be working right away. So let me go shift over here, right? Shiny object syndrome, squirrel! And next thing you know, you have too much on your plate, nothing's actually getting over the finish line. It's like I said, kind of a hot mess. And a CEO is really going to reign that in and they need to constrain the activities of you, which you're probably wearing all of the hats, or most of them in your business. But you need somebody, a role, probably also you as the CEO, to direct the activities of the employees. In the book that I wrote Key Ingredients, I have a chapter at the end. And one of the things I talk about that seems to resonate with a lot of people in business is the chapter is the section on being a good boss, and being a good employee. And the reality is that most of us are actually terrible employees in our business. And most of us are also terrible bosses. And we need to create a much better relationship with both of those roles so that everybody is rowing. If we're in a boat, we're all rowing in the same direction. And the CEO is really the captain of that ship. And so if you kind of feel like you're just constantly in chaos, and overwhelmed, overworked, not really getting things over the finish line, you definitely need a CEO to step into your business, you need that role in your business. A CEO also reviews the financial results of all operations, comparing them with the company's objectives, and taking appropriate measures to correct anywhere that we're off course, right? So a CEO needs to be frequently checking on what was our forecast? What was our goal that we set? And where are we on that course? And have we gotten off course? Where can we get back on course, right? It's much easier to correct an airplane, and I was reading the other day that airplanes are often like one, two degrees, three degrees off of their course all the time. And so they're flying in you to their destination. And you know, the wind and various things, I don't know, details. But up in the air, there's so many feet above, they're getting off track all the time, and they're constantly course correcting. And it's way easier to course correct if we're only one degree off, two degrees off, than when we're 10, when we're 20, right? And it's like, oh, now it's so hard to get back. And it really shakes things up, versus I'm checking in on my money regularly. And I want to offer you a little bit of a tangent here, but I'm going to offer you the CEO schedule that I put together for master your business students, that lays out exactly what you should be doing weekly, bi monthly, quarterly, and annually. Because a CEO, many of you don't know how to do that role. And so you're like, well, I don't really know what to do. So I'm not going to do anything. Or if you're like, okay, I know I should be a CEO, but you're like, just stare at the screen. And then go distract myself with something you know, with the product or get on social media, right? Lots of distractions, because you don't know exactly what you should be doing. So I am going to give you the schedule, and you can go to foodbizsuccess.com/CEO, and get that CEO schedule that breaks it down exactly what you should be doing. A CEO also ensures the company's compliance with all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and standards. And this is so important as, especially if you're a food business, right? We have food safety laws, we have so many things that we need to make sure we are following the law, and that we are in compliance. And you need time in your business to go and get this information and to make sure that as you grow, that you are ready for the next step, because it's so much harder when the opportunity comes and then you're like, oh crap, I'm not actually compliant, right? Versus let's work on it ahead of time so that we can take advantage of opportunities. And one of the things that was not on this particular job description for a CEO but I think is really important is that a CEO is really laying out, okay, we have these goals, and then they're making sure you have all the right people in the organization to actually achieve those goals. So you got to get everybody in the right seats on the bus, right? Where the bus is going in a certain direction, and that's part of the CEOs role. But then what are all the people and the roles that we need to actually accomplish our goal to get there? And so one of the things that we do in Master Your Business is create an org chart for that 10x goal. And then we're going to create what's called a position agreement that's going to outline what that role is responsible for. And so as you start to grow your business, now at the beginning, you're probably in all the boxes, right? But it starts to become more clear of like, who do I need to be on the lookout for who can help me get to the next level? And when I'm ready, here's the positions that I want to hire for. And a CEO is really responsible for nurturing, and ensuring the success of the people inside the organization that they are mentoring and that they are creating systems and processes that get things out of their head, right? Get those processes out of their head and onto paper, so that other people can be successful, and actually really support the business. So the required skills and abilities. And the beautiful thing is you don't need to know this upfront. You need to acquire them, you need to learn them. These are all learnable. You are not born with these things. And like I said, people go to fancy schools to get their MBA, but you don't have to do that. You can acquire these in programs like Master Your Business. But you need excellent managerial and financial skills, and the ability to take leadership over any business operation area. You need excellent communication skills, particularly the ability to communicate as a leader, to motivate people to get them excited to generate enthusiasm on the bus, right? So everybody's excited, and we're all pointing in the same direction working towards the same goal. And ultimately, your role as CEO is creating an organization that will grow and flourish and be sustainable in the long run. And that you are ensuring that the business gives back to you instead of just take, take, take, right? That you're ensuring that you have both the financial resources and time resources to step away from the business to enjoy the fruits of your labor. But you can't do that at the beginning, you have to become the CEO of your business and you have to do the work. All the work that AIS have set up to be a part of Master Your Business. So that at the end, now 12 weeks is a short amount of time to come away and be like I'm have mastered all of these. It's a layering on process and I try to remind people of that. We all want shortcuts and get there faster. But as you start to do this, you can create an incredible business that will thrive in 2024 by doing this work now and then continuing to learn and to grow your skills, and really honing in the business to be successful, to thrive in the long run. And we're going to be working on finishing out the year for 2023. But also doing all the things you may or may not know that you should be doing in your business, including setting up all of the financials and the forecast and creating those goals so that we know what do we need to do and where do we need to constrain and really focus our activities for 2024? So go and get that CEO schedule, I think that'd be really helpful for you to at least see what it is you should be doing. And putting time on your calendar to build in weekly CEO time. That you sit down with yourself and all of your C suites, shall we call them, right? The the Chief Marketing Officer, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Operating Officer, which may be all you and that's totally fine, but you're sitting down with your executives and you are really looking at your business from a higher level. And really working on the business, taking a moment away from the, in the business work, right? Like we need somebody directing the ship. We need to actually put in something into the GPS, otherwise Google Maps has nowhere to go. They're going to take you all around and you're not ever going to actually get there. And that is why the role of CEO is so important to create and to foster and for you to become the CEO of your business. I would love for you to join me in this September cohort. Go to masteryourbiz.co and you can learn more about it. This will be the last time that I teach it live in this fashion and so it's gooing to be a really great cohort, a great time if this resonates with you, and you're like, yes, my business needs a CEO. Now is the time because I cannot grow beyond where I'm at without this role. I would love to help you step into that role. Come join me. And 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 happened 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 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're 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.