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 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! Welcome back to the podcast. So glad you're here with me today. I hope wherever you are on the day this comes out that you are staying warm, you are staying safe, you are doing what you need to do to take care of yourself. There is just crazy weather all around the country. And certainly in Denver, we are having very, very frigid temperatures and snow and all sorts of craziness. So just want to send well wishes out there and hope that you are taking care of yourself and staying warm. So today I want to talk about habit change. And when this podcast comes out, it is mid January. And this is relevant any time of the year. But because, you know, maybe we've had that initial like, yeah, I'm going to go and do this and create this big goal. And we set a new year's resolution goal, which you know, I am not a fan of, and you can go and learn all about that in the 10x Goal Workshop. But many of us still do it, it's a habit so to speak, right, it's natural, it's a human thing to be like, this is the year, I'm going to post every day on social media, or I'm going to get this many accounts by, you know, calling on a new account person every day, or whatever it is, right, in your business. And we started out really strong. And then the joke I like to make, which is not really a joke, but by like mid to late January, the parking lot is empty at the gym, all the machines are available, right? So we kind of weed out the people that were just in it for that quick, like I'm going to, you know, lose all this weight, or I'm going to run this marathon or whatever, and they quickly fizzled out. And so as a CEO, as a business owner, it's really important that we set up our year and our lives to using habits to support us, to help us become a better version of ourselves, and not about the goal necessarily. And I was just really listening to Atomic Habits. That's a great book by James Clear, he really is one of the most recent, but like prolific authors on habit change. So I highly recommend you go and grab that book. But I was listening to a conversation with him and Ryan Holiday. And they were talking about how important it is that you start with an identity rather than the result that you want to create. So the goal might be I want to have 10 new accounts, or I want to have 10 new orders on my website every week. That is the result. And that's where the New Year's resolution thing kind of happens is that we start out really strong. We're like, I'm going to do all this stuff to get those accounts or to get those orders. But it's not sustainable. And we haven't really created emotional resonance with the identity of the result. What does that result create for you? How does that shift who you are? So to turn it around it could be, I am a business owner who has 10 new orders a week, okay? Then it's about creating a process from that to become that person not to achieve the goal because you can achieve a goal one time, but are we actually going to achieve that goal multiple times, right? To become the kind of person, the CEO, who has 10 new accounts, who gets 10 new orders, who has X number of followers, whatever it is, then from there when we create an identity that we're like yes, I want to be that next version of myself, I want to be the kind of person who has this much in sales a week or this much in sales a month X, Y, right? Whatever your goal is. And then we say, okay, what are the habits that need to become a part of my life, things that I need to stop doing and things I need to start doing? Where do I need to raise my standards as well, right? And all of that falls under this process that we're going to create to help you become that version of yourself. And that's when we get to work and we say, here's the new identity. Here is a habit of someone who has this identity that they are probably doing or not doing. And that is where Badass 30 comes in, which is our 30 day discipline challenge that started yesterday, officially. But you can get in on it at any time through the end of February. And we are doing a challenge of 30 days in a row of five rules that you set for yourself. And these rules, as James Clear says, these become a vote for the person you want to become. They're a vote for your new identity every time you do them. And so a challenge can be really helpful as a way of resetting and forming the habit, right? Habits take time for us to solidify for them to become habits. Because you have a habit right now, I promise you, but it may not be actually getting you where you want to be going. And so sometimes it's not the actual thing that needs to change, we maybe just need to raise our standards around it. So I'll give you an example of that. Or it may be something that we do need to change, we need to start doing something differently, or we need to stop doing something. And ultimately, there are two sides of the same coin. If you want to stop doing something, you're probably going to have to start doing, put something else in its place to be successful. So I want to give you some examples of a couple of my rules that I am going to be doing for Badass as they just started I guess when this episode comes out, it will have already has started. And I have done so much work. I have done multiple Badass 30s. Shoutout to my former coach Dave Murano, he's the one who introduced me to this. And it really did help me become a new version of myself, a better entrepreneur, a better friend, a better partner, a better CEO, all of these things. And originally I did a lot of work around drinking. And that has always been a challenge for me of overdrinking or just a habit, right? Like the day is done, all the stress, all the things, and pour yourself a glass of wine. And as I've been getting older, I don't sleep so well. And the lack of sleep was really starting to affect my business and my life and my health and how I just felt every day when I wouldn't sleep very well. And I knew. I think back, this is now three years ago, I knew and I didn't love it. I didn't like that those had to change. But I knew that to become the entrepreneur, to become the CEO that I wanted to become to have a business like I wanted, that my relationship with alcohol would need to change pretty dramatically. Now, there were times when I did quit for a while. But I also know that I want to be a person who does enjoy alcohol on occasion. But that's actually even harder than going cold turkey, right? And just quitting forever. Because now I'm trying to figure out where's the gray and when do I allow it and how do I not just like let the dopamine and the habit kick in and then I over drink and then I feel terrible. So I use Badass 30 multiple times to help me become a new version of myself with alcohol. And now here we are three years plus later, I can honestly say, I was thinking about this last night of just like wow, how different my relationship is. And I have become that version and it took years, it took some you know, it was Badass 30 but it was other things as well. But really seeing in my mind like what is that version? Who is that person? Who is that Sari who can drink if she wants to but it's very intentional, and we don't over drink and is totally fine walking into a networking group and not drinking? And if you had asked me three years ago, if I could do that, I would have been like, heck no, that is the worst, right? I'm an introvert. I don't always love networking stuff, I've got a lot better at it. But that was terrifying for me. And now I go to networking events all the time, and I don't drink. And I was just thinking last night, like I could have had a glass of wine, there was nothing, you know, it was a weekend night, it was no big deal. And I was just like, I don't really want to. And it's like, I almost shocked myself with who I am now. Like who am I? Who is that person? I can't believe that's me, right? And if I do ever overdrink, I'm like shocked. And I don't beat myself up about it. But I'm like, what happened there, that's so unlike me, and it's just so amazing to be on the other side of it. And so now I don't even have alcohol anywhere on my Badass 30 because it is now who I am, it is my identity, that I don't over drink, and that I am mindful about drinking and that in fact, I drink way less per week than I do drink. Which is so amazing. I'm so proud of myself. And so now I'm like raising my standards in kind of smaller ways. It's like I've dealt with all of the really big stuff. And now it's about like little things that are about quality of life, and the version of who I want to be. So let me give you an example of one that's on my list now. So TV, I say this maybe with a little bit of embarrassment, but people might be shocked at how much TV I watched sometimes, many times. It's, you know, I live alone. And so I don't have other people to entertain me. And if I'm not going out to dinner or an event, then it just feels like, okay, the day is done. I'm not drinking, I made myself dinner, but it feels like this is a way to relax. This is a way to kind of tune out the all the things around work. And I don't really know what else to put in its place either. And so it's just become a habit over the years. And it always has been honestly, I can go way way back, right where this was just became a normal thing. And it feels very, it feels self caring in many ways, like just having some time to relax. But then, do you ever notice when you watch TV and you find yourself like on your phone, or you just can't really find anything that is really that exciting, but you watch it anyway. And then at the end, you're like, I can't get that two hours back. Like I will admit that I watched all nine seasons of Suits over the course of several months. But at the end of that I was like, huh. I can't believe like when you add up the total hours that that was, you know, nine years and X number of seasons in in each year. And I was like, wow, I don't know that that is the person who I want to be. When I think about, and it's actually less about business now, I feel like I've actually created so much of the foundation that I need in business. Now I'm kind of working on more of like quality of life for myself. And I really explore this and it feels a little scary. Like, usually it's the thing that you're like, I don't want to give up my TV. It's like my Blinky. It's my comfort place. And I'm like, yeah, but do I really want to be the person who watches between, you know, two to three hours, sometimes more a night of TV? And I realized, like kind of dug in a little bit more about why? Why this was kind of hard to give up? I was like, yeah, because what else am I going to do? I don't want to just keep working. I do want to have a mental break. And so I had to think about well, what do I want to put in its place? And why is this important to me? And I have really thought about who like what is that identity of a person who isn't controlled by TV, who isn't like must do this. I'm at home. This is exactly what we do. But instead, is more selective. Who has other interests and hobbies and things to do in place of it. And I love that version of myself, right? That version of myself was more open, is probably more curious, has some other interesting activities and hobbies and interests going on. And, again, TV isn't controlling me, I'm choosing if and when to watch it. And so once I finally, like it was like, okay, I see the value in this. And I do want to become that identity. So it's not just about like, let's cut out TV altogether, you know, the goal is no TV for forever, year, whatever. And I was like, no, I don't I want it to be about an identity. And so one thing you can do is just raise your standard. So one thing I thought about, and I got a little coaching on this myself with a friend who's a coach, and it was such a good session is that I can just raise my standard on the kinds of programming that I allow myself to watch, and kind of set parameters that say, these are the things that I value, because it's not like all TV's bad. And there are things I watch that I'm like, oh, I feel so good, that was heartwarming, or I learned something. And like, I go to bed, I'm like, hey, that felt really loving. And that felt like a great use of my time. So it could just be raising your standard and be like, I do not like reality shows generally. So I'm not going to watch reality shows, or I'm not going to watch, you know, certain kinds of programming that no longer fits into my standard. So that could be one thing. And I have, so that's part of it. And then also, that I have set for my Badass 30 that no more than 90 minutes of TV a day. And I would like two days in my week of no TV period at all. And what I'll probably do is actually as the Badass 30 goes on, like, I always recommend, if you're doing that Badass 30. Set the minutes or whatever the measurement is kind of low. I'm not saying, it is a little bit of like set the bar low, I want it to still be a little bit of a challenge. But you are going to have to do this every day. And so I want it to be something that is doable. And then as you start to get the wins under your belt, the daily wins, you're like, okay, I am now becoming a person who gets things done, who follows through, who does do what I say I'm going to do, then you can raise the bar. And you can always make the rules harder, you just can't make the rules easier. So always good to set a little bit lower of a bar, and then you can raise it from there. And so I picture myself over time being like, okay, maybe it's three days that I don't watch TV a week. And I've I had to think about okay, what am I going to do when I've just had like a really stressful day. And all I want to do is numb out and zone out and buffer and just watch some crappy television show. How am I going to handle that? And so I have started reading nonfiction very recently, I have been a kind of person who like, reads to learn. And I read so many business books and listen to so many things and podcasts and all this stuff. And I love it. I love personal development. But it just, it was really hard. Like it's not something I wanted to do after a full day's work, you know, full day of work, and then to be like, oh, this sounds so fun to go read this business book. And so I did start reading fiction. And now I'm kind of hooked. Now I've gotten books in the queue and I'm like, really loving that. And that feels really nurturing. I'm also frankly just going to bed earlier it's the winter and I'm like there is no shame, it is 8pm and I'm going to start getting ready for bed and I have this like it's called bed jet and it heats and cools your bed because like I said I'm getting older been having to deal with temperature issues and hot flashes and all these things. So this thing is amazing. And but there's like a turbo mode and it's so cold right now that I just get into bed and I read and with the turbo on and it's like so toasty warm and it's delightful. I'm like this is lovely. I also will just set up my, sometimes I would watch TV and then like, be like, oh yeah, crap, I didn't do dishes and I left stuff out. And then I would leave it for myself the next day. And now I'm doing an act of self love and self care by like let me actually clean up my kitchen and get ready for the next day, and all of that feels so loving. And it's becoming a new identity for me already. And it's only when I'm recording this day one, but I've been thinking a lot about it and starting to implement these things already. So that's an example. And you may be thinking like, well, that's just TV like, okay, what is that? Is that really going to help you in your business or your life or other things? And I am telling you, the reason why we do Badass 30, not just around business, we have a rule around relationship, we have a rule around your health, rule around your spirituality, is that how you do one thing is how you do most things, if not everything. And so by you becoming the person, this is one that a lot of members seem to have, they've been posting their rules inside Fuel, we have a channel just for this discipline challenge. But some are posting around like drinking a certain amount of water. Okay, like, who cares if you drink 100, whatever, 100 ounces of water a day, what does it really matter, but by you saying I am the kind of person who is nurturing my body, who is taking care of it, and giving it what it needs to be as highly functioning as possible. And I am starting with this water quota that you are doing it out of self love and care that you are becoming a person who is following through, who's taking care of your body. And it'll start, I promise you, it will start radiating to other parts of your life. You will start eating better, you will start answering that email that you didn't want to answer, you will start setting yourself up, hooking your future self up, you will start doing harder things. Because you're like, if I can do it in this area, I can do it elsewhere. You're building evidence that this is possible. I love that we do Badass 30, I purposely didn't want to start it on January 1st because I didn't want to be part of the New Year's resolution kind of hype that happens just naturally. We waited, we waited a couple of weeks, because this is actually the time that if you did set a resolution, you may be have already dropped it.

Like I'm going to go to the gym seven days a week. And now you're like, I did two. And you're beating yourself up about it. And so this is a really great opportunity to come restart, you know, you're not back at square one, we're not going to beat the crap out of yourself, we're just going to start new. And if you do want to participate, anybody can go and grab the rules, you go to foodbizsuccess.com/badass30. And you can grab the rules there. And inside Fuel, we have our channel where we are sharing our wins each day, we're sharing our rules and getting feedback around that. And we're there to support each other and cheer each other on because we are 95% more likely. 95%, that's almost 100%, to actually do the thing that we want to do by getting outside accountability, by saying it out loud, and asking for support. And so we have our own channel, and we're doing this work, I'm doing it right alongside of you. You post your wins daily. And if it's a loss, it's okay. You do start all over again. So get your losses out early. Learn from them, how are you going to do it differently so that it's not a loss, but then post the loss, what you're going to learn, how you're going to do differently, and then start over. It's not a problem, you're further along just because you're trying it, just because you're in the game. And we have fun prizes that you'll be entered to win if you do get 30 days in a row. When you do, I should say, because you are a Badass. And when you get 30 days in a row and you're inside Fuel, you'll be entered to win some really great prizes, including some $100 mini grants that I am so excited to offer from our microloan fund. And to wrap up, I want to just talk about how you can be more successful once you have your rules, because I think this is really important. We make these rules a lot of time or a resolution if you will, but we don't actually create processes and systems to help us be successful in them. And so we just think that somehow we're going to be magically become different people than who we've ever been. And if we don't actually create systems and foundations to help us be successful, it's highly likely that you'll just completely forget one day and you'll be like, how on earth did I forget this? But you will, I promise you. And so we need to design the process to be successful. And researchers in this area, say it's actually more important for you to think about the process when it's the worst day, when you are feeling crappy. Maybe when you're sick, or when you're traveling. And you have these five rules, how are you actually going to get it done on the worst day? Not on the best. We know that you can do these five things when you're feeling amazing, and everything's going right. But how are you actually going to do it when things are not going as easy? When it's not going right? And it's important to also think about designing your rules, like look at the calendar and say, what travel do I have? What are things that could come up? Where are the obstacles that could happen, and design ways that you're going to still be able to achieve that rule every day, those five rules, even when the circumstances aren't optimum? James Clear talks about designing the process for home court and away court, right? That when things are optimal, then do it amazing. And when things are suboptimal, when you're on the way, you know, the away team, the way court that you're like, okay, minimum, that's again, why I recommend doing kind of a smaller baseline. It's like, we design these things for all optimal conditions. And that's not the way life works. So, for instance, I am going to Fancy Food Show with a group of clients and members inside Fuel. And so I want to think about the TV probably won't be a problem at all, right, in that situation. But I have some other roles that might be more challenging to complete when I'm in the middle of traveling and the show and you know, things that are outside of my normal routines and context. And so I'm going to design think ahead and say how am I going to deal with this? And how can I still get a win and achieve the, sometimes it's even just about what is the spirit of the rule, right? And I still consider that a win, that you're achieving the spirit of the rule. So set yourself up for success, like make these rules. And then what people do I think, is just put them away somewhere. And I'm like, no, grab the worksheet that you can get at the website. Grab the worksheet, write them down, post them up, somewhere, you can see it. Put sticky notes on your bathroom mirror, put reminders, recurring reminders on your phone, that's what I've already done. I set up recurring reminders every day to remind myself I'm doing this. Because it's new. It's a new habit, right? I need to support myself. And you can see that this would be really useful as a tool. When you do it with small things, then how do you change habits in a bigger ways, right? To go and deal with your cashflow, to go and put yourself out there with buyers or put yourself out there on social media. But let's start small and create systems and really set ourselves up for success. Also, you could put stuff on your calendar, actual calendar appointments that are like, like I'm doing a minimum of five minute self compassion break in the middle of the day. So I'm going to put that on my calendar, that five minutes. And it's going to be on my calendar to remind me oh, yeah, I'm doing this. Like, let's just remember that we have, we're human and we have human brains. And we are overcome, we have to overcome our motivational triad that's trying to keep us lazy by not exerting any energy that's trying to avoid pain and seek pleasure and habit change for the better. It's none of those things. All right. So I hope that's useful for you. Go get the rules, come participate with us, get inside Fuel, you'll get a special offer to join us in Fuel when you go and get those Badass 30 rules. And even if you don't come and join us in Fuel, I'd love to hear from you and how it goes as you start to create a new identity of who you want to be in this 30 Day Challenge at the end. All right, 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.