Full Transcript

Sari
The end of the year is quickly approaching. And I want to invite you to get the End Of Year Checklist that I created for Fuel members and Master Your Business students. You can get this exact same checklist for free at foodbizsuccess.com/endofyear, all one word. And I am also offering a limited number of deep dive 90 minute or three hour sessions. If you're local in the Denver area, we can do it in person or we do it on Zoom. Imagine walking away with decisions made clarity about your goal, what it's going to cost you as far as your time and your resources, making decisions and having an action plan. You are feeling confident heading into 2024. If you would like to get one of these Deep Dive sessions, go to foodbizsuccess.com/DeepDive.

Sari
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, and welcome back to the podcast and welcome to November! Here we are, two months left in the year. What is happening? Oh my gosh, I feel like it was just January. And here we are. Last Monday we had a Bonus Fuel call and it was a mindset call and we got talking about feedback. Someone was asking some questions about their logo, we were talking about packaging. And I see people talking about, you know, hear people asking me about how to ask for feedback usually around their logo, their packaging, or their actual product, you know, the taste, the look of it, the price, that kind of thing. In fact, I just did that for a Fuel member, she sent me product and a survey link and fill that out, and that can be really important. But once the product is launched, once the business is live, there's a different kind of feedback that I would say most, if not all, but most entrepreneurs really avoid this. We kind of stop asking for feedback because we're kind of afraid of having to change or we're afraid of the answer. And we're already doing hard things. We're doing uncomfortable things. And so it makes sense. You're like, I'm just getting it out there. I don't know that I really want anybody's feedback. But when we get the right kind of feedback, this is what helps us to grow. This is what helps us to speed things up, to get better faster. And I realized that I have also been avoiding it. I've been reading, actually listening to Adam Grant's latest book called Hidden Potential, highly recommend. He's been on some podcasts recently as well and you can hear him talking about a lot of the concepts in the book. But he talks about three character skills that really unleash hidden potential. And I heard him talking about this on a podcast and he's like, oh, and you can go and get this quiz and see which of these skills you're the best at and which one you could improve on. And so I went and you can go take the quiz too. It's at adamgrant.net and it's the Hidden Potential Quiz. And in the book, he was talking about the three, which are imperfectionist and this skill knows when to aim for the best and when to be satisfied with good enough, discomfort seekers refuse to let feelings of awkwardness, insecurity, and embarrassment stand in the way of growth and then sponges absorb useful information and filter out less relevant perspectives. So in the book and the podcast I listened to, I was getting really cringy about the whole sponge thing, about asking for feedback and hearing, you know, potential criticism. And I leaned into that, I was like, huh, I wonder what's going on there? Like, it made me realize, yeah, I probably don't do that. In fact, I may actively avoid that. And so I took the quiz and sure enough, my strongest character skill lies in being an imperfectionist, which I do like to say, I'm a recovering perfectionist.

Sari
I have gotten so much better at that as a recovering perfectionist of just putting myself out there. And my least developed skill is becoming a sponge. And it says, for example, you might pick a task and ask several people how you can improve, then filter the information you receive based on their expertise. Are they credible in their domain? Familiarity? Do they know you well enough and care? Do they want what's best for you? And I read that I was like, dang it. Of course. All right. What's going on here, I wanted to kind of, you know, explore this a little bit more because ironically, developing, you know, having the skill of imperfectionism, that I do a lot of stuff, I just put a lot of stuff out there. But I also don't really want any feedback. Interesting. And that means that sometimes links are wrong in my emails and sometimes there's typos. And sometimes the email, you know, isn't the right one or, like things go wrong. There's a lot to managing an online digital business, honestly. There's so many things that could go wrong. And I'm just like, okay, we're just moving ahead and we'll fix it if we need to fix it. But I also don't really want to hear your feedback about it, for better or for worse. And so as I was investigating this for myself, and thinking, okay, how could I lean into this, because I'm also really good, I have been practicing a lot, especially this year about leaning into discomfort. And I do find leaning into physical discomfort is a great way to help you build mental discomfort. And in the last, you know, year and a half, I've jumped out of an airplane, I've walked on fire. And now I have done a cold plunge, we recently did a cold plunge with a group of Master Your Business students, which was so fun. And I regularly take cold showers. And I've been leaning more into grit physically. And that has all helped me to increase my ability to be uncomfortable. So I am willing to be uncomfortable. And it is very uncomfortable for me to ask for feedback. But as I read more in the book, he explained that it makes sense that we're afraid to ask for feedback and not all feedback is helpful. Oftentimes when we say, can I get feedback? What happens is we have cheerleaders, or we have critics, and neither one is very helpful. You send them your logo, or you send an email. And everyone's just like, oh, it's so great. I love it. You say, hey, can I get feedback on my website in there? Like, it's amazing. Not super helpful, right? It doesn't help you improve. And then the flip side of that is all the critics and a lot of times, this is what we're most afraid of, right? I'm going to put up that reel, and somebody's going to question it or be critical. Or I'm going to send that email. Right? We're so afraid of that critic. And those do happen, you know, when you get your first or second hater, it doesn't feel great, but you can also kind of lean into it as an entrepreneur. When you get those haters, that means you're actually doing something right because not everybody should love what you do. Not everybody should love it, you know, and critics actually show that you are making a bigger impact because you're reaching more people. And you're saying something that is inspiring, quote unquote, hatred or critique, and which also means that there are people who are loving it as well. And so that kind of feedback isn't really all that helpful. And I think that's what a lot of us do because we're afraid of what people are going to say. Like I said at the beginning, we're afraid that we might actually have to make changes if we actually got good feedback. So cheerleaders just make us feel good about ourselves. And we have to question like, am I only looking for somebody to just be a "yes" person and be like, it's amazing, you know. Maybe just acknowledging that that's what I need right now, I just need some shoring up and confidence building. But if we really want to get better, we actually need to ask for feedback a little bit differently. And what we actually really need, Adam Grant says, is coaching. And we need coaches who are going to, you know, not tear us down with criticism and attack us personally, but we actually want people to coach us up to say, you know, here's what's great, or here's the things I would change. And, you know, I like to think I'm an excellent coach most of the time, I'm sure I can always get better. But I try to offer people that feedback. Now, sometimes people are not ready for it. And oftentimes I try to ask for permission, like do you want feedback on your website? Do you want feedback on this email? And usually people say yes, but sometimes I question like, are they just placating me? And I really want you to be like, yes, I want this kind of coaching, I want this kind of helpful feedback to get better. But he actually says, you know, if you don't have a coach, or if you're trying to get the best kind of feedback, that the best thing to do is actually ask for advice. So not to say, hey, can I get feedback? Ask for advice and be specific. How could I improve this email? How could I improve my About Us copy?

Sari
How could I improve, you know, this product or this packaging? Another way to do it, and I really liked this one is asking for scores. So decide ahead of time, you know, when you're putting a product out there, especially if you're doing pre printed packaging, that really needs to be 9.5 out of 10 versus post on social media, that really only needs to be like a six, 6 out of 10. So first of all, decide, you know, what is that number that you need to get to before you're going to publish or go to print or something like that. But ask other people for scores and ask them for one thing that you can improve upon. So if you're having somebody look at your website, maybe you're like, it needs to be an eight before I hit publish, and make this live into the world. And ask people for their score. What would you score this 1 through 10? You can let them know I'm going for an eight. And then depending on their answer, most people will never give you a 10. Let's say you're coming back with sixes and sevens, asking them for what is one thing that would help make this an 8 or a 10, right? That can be way more useful than just saying can you give me some feedback on my website? You can tell like that just isn't super helpful. You're going to get critics or cheerleaders. And then the last thing when we're thinking about getting feedback is that he talks about this in the framework of being a sea sponge or a sponge. And that sea sponges, they absorb, right, they take in a lot. Taking feedback, taking advice, taking comments. It's really important that you filter the feedback and the comments through what I got back in my quiz results where they say, filter it based on their expertise. Are they credible in this given area, the familiarity with you, and what you are going after, who you are as a person, what your goals are, those kinds of things. And care, do they want what's best for you? And I think that's a really important piece to remember because when we are showing a bunch of people our logo, or asking for feedback on our website, are we actually getting feedback from people who are a target customer? You're grandma is not your target customer. We have to take her feedback what she says with a grain of salt, right? We have to measure it out and decide does that that mattered to me and what I'm trying to accomplish? So context really matters. And a lot of it, we do this a lot with our product and our logo and things like that. But as you continue on with your business, as you really step into entrepreneurship, I want to really encourage you to ask those questions framed in that way, what advice would you give me? How could I improve? What's one thing? Ask for scores, and get specific feedback, you know, really ask for something measurable, something that will really actually help you. All of this is leading up to, I decided to put together a survey, never done this before, never asked for feedback this way. And I'm trying to really frame it around what they are suggesting, right? Around asking for scores, asking for advice. I want to learn what I can do to help you better like what kind of topics do you want to hear about on the podcast? What do you want to learn more about? Where are you struggling? If you're a member in Fuel, how can I show up better? How can I serve you more? I've always frankly been pretty terrified of the critique and the criticisms because like I said, I'm willing to be an imperfectionist but I kind of don't want to hear about it. But now I do. I'm inviting it, I'm welcoming it. And I would really love for you to take a minute and fill this survey out. And to do that you go to foodbizsuccess.com/survey. And as a thank you, I am giving out a Fuel box, a Fuel gift box that we're doing this holiday season, and $100 Visa gift card because I want to make it worth your while. I want to say thank you and I'll probably do some other smaller prizes in there as well, because I love doing giveaways and being generous. And it is going to take a couple of minutes. But it is going to help me become so much better. So I'm willing to be uncomfortable. And I'm also going to be framing it through filters, right? If you are a Fuel member, and we are working together in Fuel, or we're one on one, relationship coaching, or you're in Master Your Business, I'm going to take that feedback, even I'm going to weigh that more. And of course, I want to hear from you even if you're not because I want to learn how I can serve you better on the podcasts and the YouTube channel and my emails and the workshops and things that I do. But I am committed ahead of time to saying I'm not going to make it mean anything about me personally, this is about growth. This is about improvement, and tapping more into my potential to serve you. And I also want to encourage you to do the same in your business. If you already have a business launched, could you start asking some of these questions instead of just getting in your comfort zone, right? It's just easy to kind of just do the status quo. But consider if you're in Fuel come and ask me. Ask those questions of me. I am your coach and ask those questions of others, right? Hey, could you look at my About Us copy? Or could you look at my homepage? Could you look at this email series, and let me know exactly where you're getting lost or what's confusing, what you don't like about it? Can you give me a score? Be willing to hear what other people are thinking. This could be the key to you getting lightyears ahead of where you are now, making things so much easier if you get out of your own way and let others share with you what is going to work even better. This could change everything. And I'm willing to do it and I want to challenge you to be open to doing it for yourself as well. Please take five minutes and go to foodbizsuccess.com/survey. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you. I really appreciate your constructive advice and scoring and feedback, means so much to me. All right, until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari
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. Just a reminder that you can come work with me inside Fuel for just $57 a month. You get to ask me questions on our group calls and we have our community feed that you can get support from me and the community. Stop sitting around in confusion and doubt and slowing yourself down. Fuel is the fastest way to light things up and get some momentum in your business. It's the best way if you aren't sure if this is for you to come and ask me your questions, to get the answers, and stop spinning out in overwhelm and anxiety to get those questions answered by me. And then once you are launching or have your product, then you have community, then you have additional support. The learning never ends. It's not like you launch your business and then you have no other questions. You just have new questions, you have new problems to go solve. So come join me in Fuel, 57 bucks a month. What are you waiting for? Foodbiz success.com/fuel