Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Are you loving this podcast? Or do you wish there were certain things that I addressed and talked about, certain guests you'd love to see? I want to hear it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the amazing. I want to hear your opinions so that I can help create even better content in 2024 to support you. That's why I'm here. The survey takes about five minutes. And to thank you, as an added Thank You, you will be entered into a drawing for $100 and a Fuel gift box plus I'm going to do some other smaller prizes as well. The survey is open until the end of November, please take five minutes and go to foodbizsuccess.com/survey. It's completely anonymous and then you will be prompted to enter the giveaway, if you would like to. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this so that I can make Food Business Success and everything inside of that container even better in 2024. Thank you so much.

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 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! All right, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. We have a really special guest, one that will be on many more podcasts. So I want to welcome Danny Walsh of Peak State Coffee. So welcome, Danny.

Danny 2:14
Thank you for having me, Sari.

Sari 2:16
This is so cool. So fun. Danny, tell everyone a little bit about your background and what your business is. What do you do?

Danny 2:27
Sure. So I'm the founder of Peak State Coffee. We're about a three year old brand. And we've introduced the line of coffees with added health benefits for your brain, immunity, stress, all from adaptogenic mushrooms without any weird taste compromise. What sets our brand out apart from the rest is that we have infused whole bean coffee that's, you know, a very high quality sourcing, ethically sourced, sustainably grown. And with US-grown adaptogenic mushrooms, both mycelium and fruiting body, you know, and so compared to a lot of the competition in the mushroom coffee space, we've kept the integrity of a great cup of coffee. So you don't have to make a taste compromise.

Sari 3:15
And I can vouch for that. I'm drinking my Peak State Coffee right now. I love it. And because I'm a bit of a coffee snob, and I got my fancy espresso machine.

Danny 3:25
I love it. You're too kind. I'll give you the $5 later. You know, so I've been an operator for about three years. And then recently, I started supporting others as a startup strategy consultant within the space because I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way. And I like to help others avoid the mistakes that I've made, as it pertains to building a direct to consumer and ecommerce brand within this space. So those are my two worlds. But I'm excited to be here.

Sari 3:59
What month did you start in 2020? Because you launched in that year.

Danny 4:06
April was when we launched. We did a kickstarter to get our whole brand going at that time. And we had a big dilemma where we were like, should we still launch right now. And then we ultimately had this realization that everybody's locked in their house, and maybe a coffee with immune support showing up at their door isn't the worst idea. So we'll still proceed.

Sari 4:30
Yeah, I love it. So you and I actually met that fall because you came up to my Winter Farmers Market. We just moved locations and we all had to wear masks and we were indoors and six feet apart. But yeah, that's when I very first met you and I you know, I definitely remember meeting you that very first time. The very first market and you were pouring coffee. And we've you know, we haven't known each other super well. We haven't had too many conversations. But this last year, you've had a pretty incredible year, which led us to connecting more. So tell us about a few of your wins, I'm going to put you on the spot, make you brag about yourself a little bit. So tell us about some of your wins this year.

Danny 5:17
Yeah. So, you know, in 2023, it was a really big year for Peak State. Up until this year, we had really just focused on the direct consumer model, doubled sales every year. And everything that we had been doing goes right into our subscription. You know, we're really trying to grow our subscriptions, our coffee subscriptions. And, you know, in early 2023, I got the opportunity to pitch at the Expo West Pitch Slam, along with some amazing brands. And that was huge being a finalist on that stage. And then, you know, right around that time, we also pitched at the Naturally Boulder Pitch Slam and won first place. And that was one of the bigger prizes in the whole industry. So that was a huge win for us. And then soon after that, we had another pitch contest with Colorado FoodWorks. And we ended up winning Grant Of The Year at that award ceremony. And so yeah, it was a really big year for us. And, you know, really grateful that, you know, because there's a lot of pitches that didn't go that way. And it's nice when you start to see some good results. I also got to attend Expo East as a result of some of that, and pitch on the stage at Expo East. So I feel incredibly lucky that I've had the opportunity to represent the brand on some of the biggest stages in the industry this year.

Sari 6:53
Yeah, and you've had some great success. And though a couple of those winnings led to some coaching packages with you and I, so that's when we were able to connect. And this particular podcast, we're going to talk kind of keep our focus around going 10x in your business, Danny and I connected on that very first coaching call over our love of Dr. Benjamin Hardy, and his recent book at the time, it just come out 10x is easier than 2x. And we had great conversation and realize we shared a lot of things in common. And then I also offered you Master Your Business as part of your winnings. And so you have been in that program with me this fall and winter. Since we both love that book. We both love the concepts, we talk about it all the time together. And you are in his Amp Gold program, I did a mastermind with him around the 10x book coming out. So you know, I'm teaching a 10x goal workshop, it'll be actually on the day this comes out, it'll be the next day so people can still get registered. But what does it mean to go 10x for you? Why is that a useful framework in your business?

Danny 8:19
Yeah, so 10x for me, you know, as the founder, there are infinite things to do. And a lot of us get stuck in reactive mode, almost like whack a mole, you know, oh, new email that came in today. Now I'm going to spend the first half of that day thinking about that, when in fact, I should be thinking about where we want to go. And so you know, when the conventional way of thinking is, if I wanted to double my sales, I might do more of the same of what I'm doing, I'm going to try to find ways to do it all better, harder, faster. And that's sort of what happens when you try to go to 2x. But when you start to think, how could we be 10 times bigger? It forces you to drop all this minutia. And really think about what the biggest leverage points could be. And so, for me, you know, for example, realizing if I wanted to have 10 times more subscription customers than I currently have, I need to really allow my network, my customers to share the brand. So one example of trying to go 10x for me this year was starting in an influencer program to really try to get a bit of a content engine going and people sharing the brand. Another thing is, for us, Klaviyo emails are a huge leverage point because, you know, email return on adspend is something like 30 to one, which is just a really high leverage client. So focusing freeing myself up to focus on these big things. Another thing, that is the high leverage point for us is doing an equity crowdfunding campaign, which is something that we're working on. So in, you know, a really key point to 10x is how much I had to let go of, in order to free myself to think about these higher leverage points for my brand to be able to 10x. So for example, I told myself, I was not allowed to go to the warehouse anymore, no more time spent organizing the warehouse and shipping things myself, I needed to find someone who could help there and let go of that task, because that wasn't going to serve my ability to be in these high value areas. Another one was checking emails. Earlier this year, in the spring, I literally set up an auto responder for my email. And it's still there today. And I know that if I don't respond, everybody understands, because I've already told them I'm, you know, I get more emails than I can respond to, because I'm focusing on these really high value areas. Now, of course, I will respond to really important ones within a reasonable time.

Sari 11:11
You respond in mind.

Danny 11:14
Yeah. And so I think it's as much about what you let go up as it is, how you think about these highest leverage points.

Sari 11:24
Yeah. And it was really interesting, because I can't remember what your original goal was. But in Master Your Business, we do a 10x goal, and I do coaching around that. And at the time, you had about 300 subscribers. And then maybe it was like 1000, you said, I can't remember the exact number. But it was something like, oh, like, the goal is to get to 1000. And I was like, okay, let's just thought experiment, play with what would it take to get to 3000. And the idea behind 10x is so genius. And there's so much data and science and Dr. Hardy puts that all together in that book that says, you know, it's impossible. And this comes from Dr. Alan Barnard. But it's impossible unless. And it gets you thinking about what are all the things that you would have to stop doing? And what would you need to the bigger levers that you need to pull to get to 10x? And so now, and the idea is like, if you put 3000 as the goal, and it feels impossible, not like capitalised impossible, but little i impossible, like it's big. Maybe you extend the timeline, it might like a year or so arbitrary, right? We just pull these things out of a hat, like any year I'll do this, like, how do we know. So maybe extend the timeline, maybe it's three years, but it feels really fun, and compelling and juicy. And if you go for 3000, you're much more likely to get way much way closer, right? Maybe you get to 2000. But you far exceeded that original goal.

Danny 13:04
Yeah, and for a lot of us here listening, you know, as founders, the highest value activities we need to be doing are the strategy, the hiring, the sales, and business development, selling the vision to our team, to our potential investors, to our customers, and then building the systems, right? And like, at the end of the day, if you're not doing some of those things, you're probably not operating in the areas that are going to get you to 10x. Now, there might be something I'm missing, but those are the really key ones. And so, you know, I think another point about annexing I want to share is you don't just 10x in your business, I think you also can 10x in your personal life. And that can affect your business as a byproduct. So I remember at about year three, I realized, you know, Sari, you and I will talk about the E Myth Revisited. And in that book, they talked about the primary aim, what you want your business to exist for? And I had this realization that I wanted my business to allow me to have a good life. And this was about three years in, and I needed to really start to live that. And what was really interesting was, you know, I started focusing on those things I wanted to do in my own life and doing them a little bit more in the middle of being a startup founder. The really interesting thing about that was how it started creating business results when I took better care of myself. And you know, for example, it was right before the Naturally Boulder pitch slam. I think I was on like a week long ski trip that I really wanted to take and I was so much more relaxed, and then the energy that we show up in business is totally different and the results are even better. And so I'm just thinking 10x goes beyond just your business deal.

Sari 15:01
A hundred percent. And, you know, in the workshop, I'm going to talk about how to set the right 10x goal because I think that's one area where even the book, maybe doesn't address as much as I would like, because I don't want you to just choose a goal just because it's 10x. But I want you to choose a goal because it's exciting and fulfilling. And it's a bigger life goal, right? Why do you want to? Okay, so what? Who cares about 3000 members? What does that create for you, right? What's the bigger picture? How does that fulfill a deeper why in you and that primary aim? And so I love one of my unique abilities, zones of genius is helping founders really create that 10x goal that feels really meaningful and deep why? And you and I, we did a deep dive and really drilled into that more and I love doing that with my clients, with founders. So it's important that you choose the right goal, not just what you think everybody, you know what people say you should, quote unquote, should do. And I agree 100% that how you do one thing is how you do most things, if not everything. And so if 10x in your business feel, maybe you haven't even launched yet. So you're like, what is 10x there, right? So maybe it's what can you do in your own life that has you showing up more as the person you need to become, creating more discipline, more self trust, right? Doing things in your personal life, because then you're going to show up better in your business and just as I know, one of the things that because Danny and I live not too far away from each other. I'm in Denver, he's in Boulder. And he Danny invited our Master Your Business group who are local to come and do cold plunge and do some Wim Hof breathing. So we did that in November, and it was so awesome. And I think you have such a gift for trying to share this, like the work that you did to work on yourself personally. And as an entrepreneur, and then share that with others. So thank you for doing that. It was such a great experience for us. We want to do more, we're going to do more of those Peak State experiences are coming in 2024

Danny 17:28
We're expanding beyond coffee.

Sari 17:29
Yes, absolutely. So let's talk about Master Your Business a little bit and what you got out of it, what you think others can get out of it. You are already well on your way and and have been creating processes and systems. Hopefully it was a good reminder reinforcement, you were able to share your learnings. But tell us a little bit about your experience with Master Your Business, because that will be coming up soon. Next year.

Danny 18:01
Yeah. So the Master Your Business Program. I think for anyone getting started, it helps you step out of this idea from merely having a product idea. Or even hopefully a product into the mindset you need to have a business. You know, I've learned through my entrepreneurial journeys, there is a huge difference between having a product and a business. And even a difference between having a brand and a business. There's a lot of people with brands who are not yet profiting. And so it helps you and you know, Sari does this in such a balanced way where you have the emotional support you need. But you also get the hard facts of reality of what it takes to do this. And a lot of the source curriculum that Sari pulls into the Master Your Business course, is some of the best out there. You know, Sari and I geek out about some of the books that we happen to have coincidentally both read that come in, but no, I mean, what I really got out of the content, even being three years in is a lot of Sari's coaching, Sari's so gifted with the ability to give you that personalized attention in the program as well. So being able to present your current problems and have somebody who can tell you how to approach them and not just get through them, but approach them as your highest self as really somebody who can be even better than we are because we're all humans and we're all often in a place of stress. And we need to come out of that and think about how we can come from the area of our highest value as we show up in our business. So working on your business, not just in your business is a really important thing that Master Your Business will help you to do.

Sari 19:54
Yeah, you nd I both read E Myth Revisited, which was the impetus for Master Your Business last year. I read that book and was like, oh, this brings it all together. This is what you know, as I've worked with founders over five, six years. This is the problem. This is where people are getting stuck. And he calls it the entrepreneurial seizure. And we were laughing, he's like, because he said, yeah, I totally had that, right, where it's all about your product, it's the passion, like, I just want to bake my cookies, I just want to get my coffee to the world. And then transitioning from, oh, wait, I got to run a business, I got to be profitable, make it all worth it.

Danny 20:39
Totally, and Sari, some of your tools you get exposed to in the program are really helpful specifically with the financial modeling and forecasting, and even Profit First, just making sure we're getting to a point of paying ourselves. To use an example, I was three years in. But if I took your course sooner, I would have avoided so for example, my co founder and I, I remember, we had fully banked on the retail model working and then pandemic kind of pulled retail away from us for a little bit while. But when we did when we did some math, to figure out how our numbers were going to work out selling into the retail channel with distributors, and chargebacks. And then what the wholesalers want to make, we were having a hard time seeing how retail would work for our business. And frankly, how it works for other businesses. And we're both really good at math. And so had I gone through Sari's course sooner, we would have dismissed retail as a viable option for us way earlier and spent a lot less time thinking about the retail channel and modeling our business out that way. So I think you can nip things in the bud and get on the right track earlier, if you join the Master Your Business.

Sari 22:00
I mean, it's really kind of two parts. It's like all the financial stuff, because I find that people are very passionate about the product. And oftentimes people going into food businesses specifically, don't have any don't have much business background, financial background, which is fine, there's not a problem. But we need to take ownership of that and realize, great, I have a great product, but my product is not the business, actually, the business, you know, is the product. We need it to work, and not just have a great product, you know, I would expect all of you have a great product, I would hope so if you're going to launch a business. But we actually need to become the CEO of our business. We need to understand the financials, and how we make decisions, making sure that is going to be profitable, at least a path to profitability sooner than later. And then the second part is really around the systems and creating processes that free you from your business. Because I am sure when you started you were like, you weren't like, let me start a coffee company and I want to work 80 hours a week and be super stressed and not have any money and never be able to do anything, right? That is not why you started a business. But that's what happens.

Danny 23:18
Yeah, I mean, so Gary Hirshberg refers to us entrepreneurs as pathological optimists. How hard could it be, sure 1% of businesses are around in the next five years and still operating. But how hard could it be? And I'll do it in 40 hours, not 80. You know, like, we're trying to do way too much and we're stressing ourselves out. So, yeah, getting the help is so important.

Sari 23:46
Yeah. And you've done such a beautiful job of creating systems and strategies. And I remember that conversation. We had your first coaching call in the spring, you know, you'd won your competitions and stuff and you were having kind of like, business conversations, and then you said, you know, I think I need a break. And you share with me like it was almost like a, like, I don't know if I should say this out loud. But I wonder if I could take the summer off. And I was like, yes, you can. Hopefully I helped give you permission to follow through. And you did. You took the summer off, which was amazing.

Danny 24:28
Yeah, you know, I've been inspired by, you know, Tim Ferriss, for example, with the four hour workweek, as well as Yvonne Shannara with Patagonia. And I think they both reached a point where they were about three I don't know exactly, but somewhere between three and five years into their businesses. And, you know, I remember Yvonne Shannara just said, I'm done with Patagonia. You can have it and he basically gave it to a young girl who didn't really even like to wear shoes. And she became the CEO for a while. And he went off and went climbing. And for Tim Ferriss, he went off and went traveling. And he realized that if he had built his business correctly, it was going to keep operating even without him. And so for me, you know, I had just finished listening to a different podcast episode with Rob of Mor Kombucha. Now, he had taken a little vacation and everything worked out. And I said, I think I'm at this point where I want to give myself a summer sabbatical and have the systems in place and the people in place, so that I can recharge myself to show up as a better leader and to prove to myself that this business is operating, and I have built a systems that are going to allow it to so I think being able to step away is something that everybody should do sooner than they think, to prove to themselves that they can.

Sari 25:55
Yes, and I did that this summer, it wasn't a full summer, I'm working on that, working up to that. But I did two weeks where I, like, did almost zero work, and the business was still here, and it was still running, it still worked. And that was pretty amazing. And I think, you know, I think Master Your Business works for anybody who's already in business, if you feel like you're kind of drowning in it, you feel like you couldn't take a vacation or take time off without it falling apart. You aren't sure if you're making money. But you aren't sure what the future of this looks like. But you know, I've had a number of founders that have done that program, say, oh, I wish I had done this sooner. I wish I'd done this early on in my business because you have to untangle a lot of bad habits. And there's more work to do. So it is ideal if you already have a business, and you have some sales, you know, or you're just about to launch and you can start building the systems earlier on, then start layering on as you get more complex, right? Because the longer you're in business, the more complex your business usually gets, right? Thank you for that conversation. You know, it is open to get on the waitlist. So I hope people consider joining in January. And that's a really good segue to talk about the who, you know, who not how strategy, another one that comes from Dan Sullivan, and that Benjamin Hardy wrote a book about to kind of bring that concept into our lives. But you and I also love this strategy and talk about it a lot. And you are going to be a huge who for me in my business. But I'd also love for you to talk about how you have used, we'll get into that in a minute. But how have you used the who not how strategy to free you up? Because that's really what we want as a business is probably freedom, right?

Danny 27:57
So I think getting to a point from feeling like you're out of control, a lot of people say busy is out of control was something that I needed to do for myself. And so one exercise that I did was I kept a sticky note by my computer. And over the next couple of weeks, I would just write down every unique activity that I saw myself doing for my business. So I'm just talking about something really simple, like not time tracking, I'm just talking about. Okay, I noticed that I'm checking emails, I noticed that I'm checking my Shopify analytics, I definitely found that I was spending a disproportionate amount of time on some low value activities, and not enough on the high value activities. So yeah, kind of getting an idea of what are all the things that I'm doing, and then also thinking about what are all the things that I should be doing? And then I had a big list. And with that list, and I credit, Elliott V. And for this one, he said, make two columns, you know, when you're thinking about how to find your who's not how's, make two columns and put everything in the left high value, everything on the right low value. And what that means is what are those things that you are uniquely good at, you uniquely need to be doing for your business and that you uniquely love. And then on the right side, it's one of those things that are lower value if you didn't do them, but somebody else did, it would be okay. The things you don't love, you know, for me, it was like graphic design, and I would try to do it in Canva. And it would come out like B minus every time and I just let go of it. So yeah, spending some time, I would say just like spend some time and do that exercise and make your two columns and try to delegate or automate everything that's in that right low value column. And think about whether you could use an AI or a software to do either can you eliminate the whole task entirely or can you automate the task? Or can you find somebody else who could be trained to perform the task? And if the latter of the three, could you come up with a bit of just the easiest, you know, process for them to follow just to get started. And so that's kind of exactly what I did to do this process for Peak State. And it's been great. So letting go of spending time in the warehouse, checking emails too much, checking my analytics too much. And instead focusing on these highest value, things like fundraising, sales, collaborations, building systems.

Sari
And I guess even back up a little bit is the who not how strategy really tight like you need that strategy to go 10x? I think the problem and I'll talk about this in the workshop, the problem when we go 10x is that oftentimes, like, if we're like, okay, my goal was this. So like, one of my clients was like, I want to get 10 accounts this year. And I was like, it's way too small, like wholesale accounts. And so I said, what have you had to get 100. And if we don't incorporate the Who not How strategy, we see that new goal that 100, and we think, oh my gosh, I'm exhausted just thinking about it, I can't work that much harder. But the beauty of combining these strategies is, you can't go 10x without who's, without moving beyond just yourself. It can't just be you. You cannot physically work hard enough, there are not enough hours in the day. And it forces you to think about who else can help me with this? Who do I need? What would be true if I could make this happen and make it easier is actually, conversely about working less not more? That's the wild thing.

Danny
Yeah, I mean, 10x, what's so beautiful about it is it forces you to think completely differently than if you were just trying to do 2x like you have to drop everything and say, oh, I need to collaborate with a celebrity or I need to find a huge organization to partnership with. It forces you to really drop the things that aren't going to get you there faster.

Sari
Yeah, I need to stop packing my own orders in the warehouse. And I need to stop. And when we did our Deep Dive, you know, you have done a really good job of outsourcing a ton, you have people that write your email for you, you have people that help you with, you know, some of the graphic design pieces and the projects and things like that. And you have a lot of talents. And we're going to talk about that for sure. But you have a lot of talents already around the software and the coding and kind of putting the backend software systems into place. So those things come really easy for you and those things you can do yourself, although I did challenge you to say maybe you shouldn't be doing all of those things.

Danny
And that's fair.

Sari
But it's a process you don't I think what people they hear the who not how strategy, and they think, oh my gosh, I can't afford this. And, you know, how can I drop everything all at once? And it's like, no, no, it's not all the things all at once. It's understanding here all the things that aren't in my zone of genius that are in my drudgery zone, and saying what's one thing I could start, right? So layering on process.

Danny
Totally and you need to put the who's in place, I'm sure somebody listening has a really great recipe for, you know, let's say a cookie, and they don't want to let go of being the head chef of making that cookie, because they love to make sure that the quality is there, right? But you have to realize that you need to quality control every aspect of your business, you need to make sure that the hirings going well, that the customer service is going well, that the the way that your finance department, even if that's you is spending its money. So you need the quality control all of that. So take that OCD quality control and realize that you're not bringing that to all the places it needs to be when you're stuck as the technician only doing the one thing that you think that you need to do.

Sari
Yes, I love the technician that comes from a E Myth as well. But it's an I think a lot of people say at the beginning, I just want to make my cookies, I just want to make my salsa. And that actually becomes pretty boring pretty quickly. And a lot of times people need to outsource that in some way, whether that's a co packer or whether that is bringing on help and you did that where you now have somebody that's making the coffee to your specifications. It's getting done the way you would want to but you're not in there every day roasting coffee. And I love you have done such a tremendous job with your farmers markets because you do a number of farmers markets all over Colorado. And you do not work any of them as a dedicated staff member. And so tell us a little bit about how you put together because I think there's maybe brings it all together and can show people like, because we know the farmers markets work really well for you. You shared with me a statistic, a stat that you pulled that was like, oh, a lot of you know, high percentage of people who get introduced to us at farmer's markets become subscribers. Plus, it's a nice little cashflow piece to your business. But it's a really great example of like it is a 10x strategy. But you don't have to do it yourself.

Danny
It's only 10x If you don't have to do it.

Sari
Yes, exactly. Because you physically could not be at that many farmers markets.

Danny
I could not figure out how to clone myself. I tried. I asked scientists I couldn't do it.

Sari
So Elon Musk, come on, get with it.

Danny
Exactly. So yeah. So I mean, I don't need to speak about the merits of farmers markets. But I can. I mean, but for us, you know, this year, I had to ask myself, what if I couldn't go to any market, because every time I was planning on being at a market on every Saturday and Sunday, something might come up like a staff couldn't show up or forgot something. And I realized the best thing I could do was be a resource to help my sales team thrive and free myself up to be able to do that, to train them, to support them, to help them grow and progress as salespeople. So I just made a spreadsheet of all the events. And I hired people that I could assign names on to those unique events, and then focused on making sure that they felt supported in their ability to do their job, and to succeed. So it was a very different approach this year. But that's how we had an easy time putting those in place for farmers markets.

Sari
And you created processes, you created strategies for success. So people knew what success look like. You did some great incentives. And you shared all of your model on a Fuel call recently. So hopefully, you know, if you're listening, get inside Fuel, and you can go to the November 30th call and learn more about your strategies for setting up farmers markets and your staff to be successful. But I think it's such a good example of who's, finding your who's, setting up systems, processes. And it is a 10x strategy, but you can't be doing it. Absolutely, it doesn't work that way. I just would love to share with people because hopefully by now you're listening. And you're like, yeah, Danny knows this stuff. Especially around and to be fair, I mean, your skills, and your zones of genius are around the direct to consumer, the e commerce model, you're have a great subscription website set up that's thriving, and growing Klaviyo, Shopify. And you do a little bit of wholesale, but that's not your primary sales channel by any means. But what I realized and talking with Danny, and as he was showing up in Master Your Business and like, wow, like, it's such a great example. And as you said at the top of the podcast that you're starting to do some consulting and working with early stage emerging brands. I was like, why don't we partner? Let's be have you be a who, in my business, and a who to help people get even more value who are in Fuel and in Master Your Business. Because my 10x goal is to grow Fuel to 2000 members, which feels wild. It's not capital I impossible, but it definitely feels impossible. And I am committed because it serves all of you. You're going to get more value, the larger the program grows and the more connections, which is a huge part of the Fuel community is the connection with each other. But I can't do this by myself. I can't get to 2000 members just me working. And so we met last week. We're still fleshing out all the details, but I am so excited that you are going to be bringing your value into my programs. And you are going to be who to a lot of other people. And it's so perfect because you're like I don't want to go create a whole other program. There's lots of programs out there, and I'm just so excited. So I'd love for you to share anything you're excited about. I know working with me and in Fuel and we're going to be putting together some really great execution workshops and some coaching consulting packages with you. So anything you want to add to that?

Danny
Yeah, totally, I think just excited to be able to help others as a founder. I think every time a service provider consultant has offered to help me with Peak State, I just asked them, like, is there any sort of return on the investment? Because right now, we're running out of money, we got to pay attention to our money, you know, what's the return on the investment? And they can never guarantee that and, you know, the types of ways I like to help founders are, where can we save you more money? Like, where are you spending too much, and what are the areas where you can grow your sales are the things you're not even considering doing that you should be doing to grow your sales. So hopefully, through our collaboration, the types of advice that I can help people with have to do with really saving money and making more money, as well as executional health, everybody's under resourced, and sometimes we get hung up on some things we can't get done. Because it's not in our strengths area. And so having somebody who can just help you execute, I think, is what all of us founders need sometimes. So excited to be collaborating, Sari. Yeah, it's really I can't wait to see what we can do together.

Sari
You know, I'm a big fan of the Win Win Win strategy, or it's a win for me and win for you. And ultimately, the biggest win is for the members and people taking advantages of the services. And, you know, I do find, because a lot of times, you know, again, food founders, you make amazing products in your home kitchen. But you may not be particularly tech savvy, or sales savvy, or email savvy, social media, all that stuff. And that is one thing I think you and I both share in common, but you bring some new skills around Shopify and around Klaviyo. And it's like, sometimes founders just need that, you know, get into my Klaviyo, you flip one button, you set this one thing up, and then they're off and running, right? But they get so hung up, they just, it's like this huge block, and they're like, I can't do it, then we know, email has a huge conversion rate, you're going to be working with Serral on influencers stuff. So you're gonna have a front row seat to that. And so one of the things we talked about was just like, we just really want to help founders, you know, not just get the strategy, but like, execute and get something done. Move it forward, get your question that one question answered, that helps you keep going. And we don't know exactly what that's going to look like. But we are both committed to figuring it out and putting together some group options so that it can be more affordable, and we can learn from each other and have Danny really helping us get it done. You know, the one thing Danny challenged me on the other day, we were at a holiday party together, he said, are we too similar? And it was a good question like, and so I'm here to say, you know, to commit to we will challenge each other, and not just be yes, people to each other. But it wasn't, I thought about it more, I'm like, well, it is really important to me that anybody I'm working with, especially in my program, is going to have a similar foundation of mindset stuff. And then we can challenge each other.

Danny
Yeah, no, I was thinking about it, too. Part of my personality type is to always just challenge with other devil's advocate opinions. So don't take me too seriously.

Sari
It was a good question. But even just bringing, you know, male, female, I've never started a packaged food business. But I bring a ton of industry experience with my whole foods and, you know, retail, and sales, and then you bring, you're going to bring all of this experience of being an actual founder of doing all the ecommerce stuff and doing it really well. So I think it'll be a great balance. I agree. Alright, so this is your time to share a little bit more about Peak State, and what would you like us to know? How can we support you?

Danny
Yeah, I'd love any brutally honest feedback about what I've built that Peak State, you know, with the products, you know, if you go to peakstatecoffee.com, you can try a free sample there. And it's technically of trial to a subscription. So you can just cancel it right away if you if you're not ready for a level of commitment like that. But no, I would love any feedback on the website, on the products. I'm proud of what we've built, but I know that I can always receive feedback. Yeah, I'm starting to help other brands, so excited. And then as we structure how I'll be helping out in Master Your Business, hopefully, I'll be able to let you know the ways that we can work together.

Yeah, you'll be in Fuel more and helping out, we have a mastermind running for graduates of Master Your Business. So you guys will see Danny a lot more. And I want to have him more on the podcast as well. And just offering his unique perspective, giving you guys more strategies. I know that's what you guys are asking for. And the feedback that I got for Fuel and my programs is just more more strategy, more expertise. So we'll definitely be bringing Danny back, he'll be a regular on the podcast going forward. So anything to leave off with around 10x? And going forth into 2024?

Yeah, for for Peak State as I challenged myself to think 10x, we're going to be looking at big collaborations potentially with some nonprofits, things like that, to find ways to share audiences. Yeah, I think 2024 is going to be a great year for all your programs, Sari, for everybody here listening. I'm very optimistic about 2024.

Sari
I am too I'm really excited. Actually, I'm fired up. So part of that is our recent new collaboration. So I'm excited. And I also get to coach you in your business and help you go 10x so it's going to be really fun.

Danny
We have a symbiosis.

Sari
Yes, absolutely. So thank you so much, Danny, for being on the podcast talking about going 10x and sharing your valuable, valuable experience and wisdom. It's been a pleasure.

Danny
Likewise, thank you for having me, Sari.

Sari
All right, that was amazing. I hope you got so much out of that. And be sure to get yourself registered for the workshop. You go to foodbizsuccess.com/10x. And the link will be in the show notes as well. And the replay will be available for 19 bucks. So if you're listening after the 13th, you can go and grab that replay, be really a great investment as you're heading into 2024. 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.

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? Food bizsuccess.com/fuel