Full Transcript

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 to the podcast! And welcome to 2024! Oh, my gosh, we did it. We have said goodbye to 2023 and we're in a brand new year. And I don't know about you, we're all different. We all have different perspectives and our contexts are different. But I am excited for this year. I have been priming my mind. I am in fun anticipation of all the amazing things that are coming, that are happening now. And I just can't wait to see what's on the other side, like be in it, be present, but also know that I'm creating my future. Alright, I've defined it. And I am thrilled. So I am so happy you guys are here. I hope that you are feeling optimistic and excited about this year. And if you're not, that's okay, too. It's all a perspective, right? It is a mindset thing. It's like, what are you looking for? And so hopefully you can find one small thing, one little way that you are excited about 2024. So it's the second day of the year when this comes out. And you may be still in contemplation mode. Hopefully you've done some reflection on 2023, things that went really well. When clients tell me, I mean, we just haven't made any progress. It's been so hard this year. I'm like, nothing, no progress? I promise you that is not true. So hopefully you have done that deeper work of forcing your brain to go through at least quarterly if not monthly, like can you go and find one way every month that your life, your business has made progress. Because human brains, we are actually most happy when we feel like we are making progress. So let's give ourselves more of that. Because then we're going to want to keep doing more. So I always recommend going and doing that reflection, reflecting back on the year. Being really grateful. You may not be where you want to be yet, but let's celebrate how far you have come even if it's really small ways. You got to force yourself to find something. I know you can find 12 things that went well for you. So then, you might be like fired up about this year and saying I'm going to do all these amazing things. Now if you came to my 10x goal workshop, which you can still go get if you go to foodbizsuccess.com/10x. If you came to that workshop, you know that I recommend setting a bigger goal that is for a longer period out, 10x-ing it. Now we don't want an 10x in a year because what we end up doing is putting so much pressure on ourselves to get there so that we feel accomplished and good that we overwhelmed ourselves. We end up self sabotaging and then nothing happens. So it's really critical that I have found so much freedom in this and when I work with I've been doing a lot of 10x goal coaching and 2024 planning with my clients and Fuel members is like go three to five years out. Go picture the best case scenario, the most amazing life that you are living and go create a lot of emotional connection with that. Picture yourself on that vacation, picture yourself driving that car, or living in that place. You know, paying off your student loan or writing that check to your kids school or whatever it is, right? Like create emotional resonance with it. But what can happen when we start thinking about our year so you have that big 10x goal is then we just start adding, adding, adding. So I have been reading this great book called Subtract by Leidy Klotz. I hope I said his name right but he wrote this great book about the science of doing less, and how our brains are kind of wired genetically to focus on adding, adding, adding. So when you think about your 10x goal, what's probably going to happen is you think about all the things that you need to start doing. And if you start writing out those things, let's just say what needs to happen this year to get you closer to that 10x goal is that human nature, we are going to just add, add, add, add. And there's nothing wrong with addition but we want to do it with a lot of intentionality. And we also want to force the thought experiment of subtraction. The reality is, we all have 24 hours in a day, right? We all get the same amount of time, it's the great equalizer. And it is easy for us to just say, let me just do more, do more, do more. And when you look at your to do list, it is impossible. I look at people's to do lists. I'm like when you couldn't get that done in a month, let alone today or this week. And it ends up really discouraging us. And oftentimes we start sabotaging ourselves. We're rebelling against ourselves, and we're feeling unaccomplished. We're not making progress because the list is so dang long. But we rarely consider subtraction even though it is so necessary. And in fact, we actually appreciate it so much more. There's like ease and a lightness and a relaxation when we do subtract. So let me give you a couple of examples. So the example he started with was he was playing Legos with his son. And they were building a bridge. And the two towers on either side were uneven. And he just automatically went to go and add a Lego block to the base and his son actually subtract it. Like it achieves the same exact result, right? But most of us would think, let me just add another. And in that case, it doesn't really matter whether you add or subtract like the energy is probably the same. But it's just interesting that most of us would never think to subtract. He also gave a couple of other examples that they did all of these studies with people, ran all these tests. So they asked all these people to take a five ingredient recipe and improve upon it, and only two out of 90 subtracted. Which I think you know, and many of us probably cook here, we love food or bake and all the things, right?And so most of us would probably think let me what would I add? Let me add a little this, what about this, right? But let's at least consider the possibility, we don't even consider it, we just think oh, improvement equals addition. But in many cases, if we actually subtract, we actually get a better outcome for everyone, for you, for the world. We don't need to just keep adding more and more stuff into our houses, into our lives. In fact, when we take things away, there's more breathing room, there's more calm, there's more peace. They also did another experiment where they gave people an itinerary for like a tourist day in Washington, DC, and it was like a 14 hour day.

And they packed it pretty full. It had, you know, visiting all the main monuments, going to five star Bistro, like doing all of these things, the things you have to do, right? And it was like all in one day. And it was like, move things around. And then there were things you could also add. And only one in four people subtracted anything from that and said, you know what, let's just remove this and make a little bit more space. I think he said that if you were in perfect traffic conditions, you would be in traffic at least two hours, which that never happens in DC. So it was just so fascinating that most people didn't even think to subtract, and in fact, most people actually added more stuff in. Packed the schedule even more. And think about it, you are on a vacation and you just pack it full. And you don't even have time to be present to enjoy the moment, to allow for spontaneity, right? And so, again, maybe addition is the right thing, but can we consider, what have I actually took something out. And so as you think about your goals for your business in 2024 and beyond, most likely, you're probably adding things. Like I need to do more social media, I need to update my packaging, I need to add flavors, I need to add new stores, I need to add new accounts, I need to add new customers, I should add new subscriptions, I should, you know, add, add, add, and we just keep going to addition. And I think it works to think about subtraction on a global level as far as you know, generally your activities and the strategy that you are pursuing at a high level, but also in the day to day, in the little things. So consider your packaging, consider your website, consider your social media posts, the images that you create. Often what happens, and I've been helping people in our community feed inside Fuel, people have been posting their labels, and I give them feedback and the group can give them feedback. And there's the FDA compliance piece of course, and I help people with that. But as a designer, and I am not like technically a graphic designer, but I really love it and I have a really good eye for design, what we forget is that we actually want to create more whitespace, we want to actually take some things away. And when you do that, then you're actually like easing up your eye and you're making the most important things really stand out. And yet our tendency, and somebody had posted a label, and I just really felt like oh my gosh, there's so much going on here. I can't read any of it. And I get it, we want to add this, and add this, and add this. But there's a certain like simplicity that comes from taking away, from focusing on what is the most important, and that we can find ways to talk about the other things elsewhere. But especially on your packaging, you have to do so much of your lifting, especially if you're in grocery store shelves, or selling elsewhere, right? Where you're not there at a farmers market for instance. And it's just so counterintuitive because I get it we want to add add add, we think more is better, more is better, more is better. And yet think about your own experience of looking at something that's overwhelming and crowded like, you know, you guys know I own a farmers market. And some of these booths, I'm just like, it's just too much like, I can't figure out what's going on here in that five second window that I have, you have with a customer as they're walking by to figure out what the heck you're selling. Like we don't create any ease, any blank space, white space, where we can just like, oh, I see it in between the space instead of jam packing it all in, right? And this is what happens on labels. It happens on websites all the time where it's just way too much copy, it's just too much. And think about your own self. Do you want to read all of that? No, like, let's add whitespace. Let's separate words, let's use bolding and space and size to help get across the most important things. But most of us need to take a scalpel to a lot of our copy, to our packaging, to our social media posts, to the images that we're creating. Like, there's a tendency just like let me add more, more, and more. Let me add another gif and another piece of text and another this, and another that.

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? Foodbizsuccess.com/fuel

Imagine like when you see something that you're like, I just get it. It's usually because it's actually been simplified. And there's so many great quotes, right? I mean, Picasso talked about that it was about the elimination of the unnecessary. And there's the quote about perfection is not when there's nothing left to add, but when there's nothing left to take away. And so how can we really see like, what do we need to take away and maybe that every day is of our business, but then for you and your schedule, you cannot do all the things, I promise you that you are thinking that you have to do all at once. And so can you look at it as a whole and say, what can I subtract? Where can I create some whitespace here? Where can I create some downtime? Are these things all necessary? And I promise you, if you're willing to look at them through a filter, and I teach this in Master Your Business where look at the filter of is it high effort, high impact? Is it low effort, high impact? Or sometimes we have a lot of things on our lists that are high effort, low impact, and also low effort and low impact. And yet we probably spend a good amount of our time in those spaces because it either feels really, like we're accomplishing a lot. Yeah, look at me. Look at all the things I'm doing. And so we feel like we're getting gold stars, you know, the pats on the back, like I'm doing this hard thing, or I'm doing like for instance, you packing up your own shipping to send out for ecommerce when you're at a certain scale of business. To me that is a low effort, low impact activity, like yeah, it doesn't take very much effort to pack orders. But you're also taking time away from doing the more important work, when that's something that can easily be outsourced. The same can go for production. There's lots of areas in your business where we stay in the easy thing, because we feel like yay, look at me, I'm getting so much done. There's accumulation, right? Now there's boxes, and now there's product and I did all these things, and oftentimes, you know, subtraction, by definition, when you subtract things, you have less to show for it. Even though it could be making way more progress. So the truth of matter is that it is psychologically pleasurable to add things, to go shopping, to bring things in. Let me add more text. Let me add more drawings. Let me add, add, add, and it is painfully more psychologically painful to subtract. There's something called loss aversion that once we have something we don't want to lose it and there is that dopamine hit of like adding, adding, adding, right? And so oftentimes we need to reframe. The best way to do is to reframe subtraction. And that is not that you're losing something but instead what are you gaining? So if you want to have a beautiful, sustainable fun business that's profitable and that actually gives you free time, freedom of time, freedom of money, freedom of purpose, freedom of relationships. If you want those things from your business which most people don't go start a business to go work 80 hours and never have any free time and never have any money. I know that's not why you are starting a business. And sure at the beginning, we're going to have to hustle a little bit but that's exactly why I teach Master Your Business, and little hint that I will be opening Master Your Business up again soon. So go get on the waitlist, go to masteryourbiz.co. Get on that waitlist, you'll definitely want to be on it. There's a special offer that I give you if you're on the waitlist. So if you want to create a business that you love, that you are able to take time off, that you are able to have freedom, that you are creating money and profit and serving the world and helping people in whatever way that your product helps people. Then we have to do, we're going to have to say no to things. We're going to have to subtract. And the best way to do it is to reframe it to say, here's what I'm getting. Here's what I want from it. And so I'm willing to say, let's cut out everything that's not that. Right? That is a distraction. That is perfectionism, that slowing me down is the low effort, low impact activities. I'm willing to cut those things out, or outsource them to be able to create what I want. Marie Kondo did it with, she did a great job of reframing this concept with it's not to get rid of all the things you hate and get rid of all the clutter, it was only keep the things you love that spark joy, because this is the person, this is the identity that you want for yourself. You want to walk into your home and have it feel spacious and clutter free. And that every drawer you open either has something that sparks joy, or serves a purpose, right? And everything else is gone. And if you think about it, in that terms, you can probably feel like oh yeah, that's the kind of place I want to live in. I don't want a bunch of junk that just clutters up my life. And yet we do it to like, it's just part of human nature. We think if we add, add, add, like survival of the fittest, right? And kind of all of those evolutionary things that say, more's better, keep adding. And yet, we have so much more available to us when we subtract. You'll have more energy to focus on the high list things, the high effort and the high impact things, you will enjoy your life more, you will have space to have self care, and for relationships with others. And it'll make the whole thing so much more fun. So as you are considering your plan for 2024. Of course, I would love to support you in Fuel. But I really want you to look at your list and say what are all the things that I think I need to add? And ultimately, on the flip side what has to go? If I'm going to do, if I decide like maybe listen to the podcast with Yash with Saral, or last week's with Kayla around social media, you're like, I am going to start doing influencers, or I'm going to start doing social media in this particular way, then what is it that you're going to have to let go of? And sometimes that is physical things like activities, like I am not going to be able to spend money in this area or spend time on these things. But it also might be things like I'm going to let go of perfectionism, I'm going to subtract perfectionism and start doing B minus work. So consider creating a subtraction rule. Maybe anytime you add something new onto your to do list, you also need to remove something, I promise you, I know we love to think that everything is urgent and important, but it's not. And the tyranny of the urgent, right, that overtakes all of the really important priority work, that's going to really move your business forward. So maybe it's a subtraction rule, just like I kind of have that for my closet, right? If I buy something new, then I need to look at what needs to go because at some point the closets going to bust open. And that's no fun. I want to be able to see what's going on in my closet. And the same is true for your own life. And oftentimes, we kind of wait for external things to happen like a pandemic that forces us to subtract a lot of things from our lives for a temporary time. Or it could be an illness, or it could be you know, something that's happening to somebody around us that we love. It could be you know, inflation or your weather event or something like that. So oftentimes we wait to remove things until or maybe what's burnout, right? You just have done too much that you're finally like I am done, like physically, emotionally done and you burn out. But that doesn't have to be the case. We can do it more strategically. We can do it intentionally. And I highly recommend as you consider all the things that you are going to do this year that you also start looking at what are you going to stop doing? What are you going to remove? What's unnecessary? What can you outsource? What does not even need to happen?

So that is what I have for you today as you are heading into 2024 I would love for you to come join us inside Fuel or go get on the Master Your Business waitlist. And if you think about adding something like Fuel or Master Your Business, I want you to do it with full conviction and like I am showing up, and then look at what am I going to have to remove? I need to make time for that on my calendar. I don't want anybody signing up for things and not using them, I want you to get so much value out of it. But it does take intentionality to say, okay, well what am I going to cut out, maybe you have a full time job. And you're like, well, I'm going to have to cut out my lunch and eat at my desk, or I'm going to cut out some perfectionism in my full time job and lean on my team so that I can delegate a little bit more and free up some other time. Or, I'm going to need to get some support with my kids so that they can get home from school so that I can be on a call or I can do this work. This is the work of being a CEO of running a legit business and being a true entrepreneur. All right, I hope you do this work, go do the reflection work and then do this subtraction work. 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.