Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
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.

What kind of a boss are you to yourself? Because when you're an entrepreneur, you wear all the hats. You are the visionary, you are the maker, the employee, and you're also the boss. And I want to share with you the presentation that I did last week for Castirons Flour Power event, it was so awesome. They put together three amazing speakers, one was me. I have to say, it was a really great presentation. And they gave me full permission to replay it here for you guys because it was fun. And it really made you think and people in the comments were like, oh my gosh, this is like a therapy session, or I have tears in my eyes, like I have been a really bad boss to myself. And when we're bad bosses to ourselves, guess what? We're also bad employees. We turn around and we sabotage and we procrastinate, right? And we do all these things to avoid working for such a terrible boss. The wildest thing. Actually wrote about this whole concept in the last chapter of Key Ingredients. And I get a ton of feedback from people that are like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize you finally defined it. And now I realize why I am struggling so much and why this has been so hard. And this was a visual presentation. So just for a little bit of context, I am referring to myself in different hats. And you've probably seen me on Instagram wearing these different hats. So the gold one is the CEO. And then we have the purple baseball hat, that's the maker or the artist. That's you. That's the one that started this business that has this amazing, delicious idea. And then there's the boss, the manager that's in the like black hat, black floppy hat. What's that, sailor hat? But you can actually go on my Instagram right now and you'll see photos of this. So that's what I'm referring to when I'm referring to pictures on the screen. Without further ado, here is the presentation that I did for Castirons Flour Power event. Enjoy. Go ahead.

Hello, everybody. It's so fun. I see some familiar faces or some names. So good. Well, thank you, Castiron, for having me here today. This is so fun. I love this topic. So I love when you guys asked me to be a part of this event and teach on this. So we're just going to jump in. I know I have a short amount of time. So let's go. This is the story of probably most of you, right? You make an amazing product. You're like I make the best cinnamon rolls, the best bread, the best tarts, whatever it is, right? You make something amazing in your home kitchen. Everybody tells you, you should start a business. You start to think, hmm, maybe I should. And then you're like, yes, let's do it. So yeah, you take off your maker hat and you put on your entrepreneur hat and you're like, let's go, I'm starting a business. Great, okay. If only we could just have these two people who create a business. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we need a boss, we need a manager, we need somebody who's going to direct the ship. We need somebody who's going to like say, here's what needs to be done, and then directs the maker and helps the entrepreneur not get too lost in all of the fun visions, right? And so, this is the problem. This is often the problem when we start a food business. And so, that's we're going to talk about today, we're going to talk about how to become a better boss, how to create a better relationship with these three people. And they're all you in your business. All right, so keep your fingers on the keyboard if you can, I'd love for you to participate with me. I want you to think about maybe in your own experience, or you can extrapolate from a movie or TV show. What are some characteristics of a bad boss? I know I've had some really terrible bosses there. So I'd love for you to just put in the chat. Let me pull that up. What are some characteristics of a bad boss? This one's probably pretty easy. Oh, yeah. The first couple. All right. Yeah, I got these. Perfect. I love it. Okay, so you guys got nailed them. Micromanages or is a control freak, not clear on goals or expectations. They change their minds frequently. You're like, what rabbit are we chasing today? Or they just won't make a decision. I can do something if you just tell me what to do. You guys also had some good ones. I don't think I had but unapproachable, poor listening, disrespectful. So thinks they know everything. Impossible to please. Resistant to change your ideas. They motivate through fear. They make decisions from emotion. You're like, no, no. I know you're having a bad day but that doesn't mean like stop the whole ship, right? And they never show appreciation or celebrate wins. So yeah, you guys got, you nailed all of these. They don't like cookies. Yeah, that's a problem, too. So this is pretty common. Now, I just want you to put a one in the chat. If when you think about the relationship with your self as the maker and then the manager or the Boss, are you any of these to yourself? Are you ever a bad boss to yourself? So put a one if you can relate to even one of these things. Yeah, you can lead someone's, indecisive maybe, changes their mind frequently, probably, afraid, makes decisions from emotions. Yeah, these are pretty common. Okay, thank you. I see lots of ones. Yeah. So the problem is, and I really believe it does start with the boss, is that bad bosses create bad employees, and bad employees when we feel like we're working, just think of your own situation. If you're working for a bad boss, these things tend to start happening. You don't trust the situation, you don't trust them, you end up procrastinating, because you're like, they're going to just change their mind anyway, or they're not going to like it anyway. So we find things to distract ourselves. We don't give it our all. I hate a bad employee, just as like, they kind of tap out, you know, bad employees afraid to take risks or try something new, they goof off. Or sometimes it's malicious sabotage, give up, checks out. So that's the downside, right? If we don't get our bad boss into check, then we create bad employees. And we're both of those things. Just the wildest part, right? So how do we create better bosses? How do we become a great boss? I think and if you'd love to put it in a chat, what makes a great boss. Now these are harder to find in pop culture, we don't have a lot of great examples of good bosses. But hopefully, maybe I know, I've had a couple of really amazing bosses that I can think back to, but put something in there, in the chat of like, what makes a great boss. So trust you, realistic goals. I'll put up some of mine. And there's not that many of them, which is crazy. There's a lot of things that a bad boss does. And there's only a couple things you have to do as a great boss. Describe a clear vision, goals, and outcomes to the employee and then allow the employee to use their amazing talents and skills to create it using your own best judgment, right? And that's what some of you guys are saying on here, right? Encourages teamwork, good communication. They get down, work in the trenches with you, guides you. They set realistic timelines for projects. This is a really important one that we do not get in our own little business world. But if you were operating your business as if it were a job out in the world, right? And I think it's important that we do that, we look at our business that way. But you would never perform well if your boss was like, hey, we're going to make a complete price adjustment. You got two hours to do that, or you got two days. A good boss sets realistic timelines for projects. They also understand the employee as a whole person, that there's family and friends and health and self care, and lots of other things going on, as well as additional projects that they've assigned. And they look at the whole person and say, let's make adjustments here and there. Let's maybe this is no longer a priority, or it looks like you need some sleep. I want you to take care of yourself, right? So really important. I think this is a really great characteristic of a great boss. And then they celebrate, they appreciate you. They say thank you. They say good job. You made progress. You moved it forward.

Thank you. And I hope you're thinking to myself, hmm, self, when's the last time I actually said thank you to myself for doing this? And because when we're a great boss to ourself, then we stay focused as employees, we stay focused on what we do best. We take bigger risks, because we know we won't get yelled at, we won't get gaslit, right? We're like, okay, let me try something new. I don't know exactly how to do it. But I know that my boss trust me, they know exactly what is expected of them. There's some safety there, again, to go take risks. But they understand like, here's the guidelines. And here's what I'm trying to accomplish as an employee. And they bring ideas and new solutions to the table. So I think this is really important that we think about, oh, if I'm a better boss to myself, then I'm actually going to be a better employee. And I think we can all attribute so Gallup is the big organizational group, talking about employee-employer relationships. And they've done this huge study with thousands and thousands of people. And they found that when people, when employees who agreed with a statement, my supervisor seems to care about me as a person, they were found to be more productive, contributed more to profit, and were more likely to stay with the company long term. And I think that all can be taken down to the level of you in your business, wearing your maker hat. That if you believe your boss, which is also you, cares about you, then you will be a more productive person, you will contribute to profit, you will stay with the company, you will stay in it. Right? And that great employees, they feel valued, they feel appreciated, and celebrate. And when you feel that way, you want to keep doing more. It's the wildest thing. It's like, I finally totally took me like five years of beating the crap out of myself to realize, hey, if I'm actually nice to myself, I'm going to get more done. I'm going to want to keep going. So let me give you four ways to become the boss you deserve. Do a P&P weekly, and I'm going to break all these down, do a Power Five daily, measure your gains, expand your boss skills. Alright, so let's go into each of these quickly. All right. Every business, every entrepreneur, I like to say always has 10 problems in your business, okay, let's just accept that as fact. Maybe it's more like 20, maybe it's more like 5. But let's just say on average, you have 10 problems in your business. The biggest problem I find with entrepreneurs is that we think we should not have any problems. What? Another problem! Oh, wait, actually, they're supposed to be there, because that's what we're doing. We're just solving problems. So instead of being all caught up in another problem, let's just instead focus on solving the problem without the drama. So I like to do what's called a P&P, or problems and priorities, P&P for short. So I would love for you, if you want to really tame that mean boss and you want to become a better employee, do a P&P planning session each week with yourself as the boss, put on your manager hat. And you're going to come up with three specific problems to solve for that week, and three priorities to solve them. Now, it doesn't mean we're going to solve everything. It's not going to be you know, completely done, but we're going to take action to actually solve it. So let me take you through a couple of examples. Problem one, I want one additional farmers market this season. Priority one, research additional markets and apply for two new one. Problem two, website page needs more visuals. Priority two, decide whether to get professional photos or take them myself, and then take action on that decision. Either find a photographer and book a shoot or purchase a light box and put time on my calendar to take the photos. Okay, so now we've aligned, here's my problem, here's what I'm going to do to start solving it. Problem three, I'm not sure if I'm profitable. This is one I hear a lot. Priority three, watch Food Business Success module on pricing for profit, then complete my cost of goods sold, get feedback in Fuel from Sari and adjust my prices accordingly. All right, so now we don't have drama about the problem, we just have like, here's the next thing I'm going to do to go solve it. And Jim Collins says, if you have more than three priorities, you have none. So three, three, and only three. All right, this is how you start your week, then we're going to do a Power Five. And a Power Five is where we start taking action, things start getting done, we're going to attain the to do list because how many of you put a one in the chat if you have a to do list that's like, a mile long, right, and you just keep adding to it. And then it feels like well, I got some stuff done. But I actually added more, and the ones are rolling in. I added more at the bottom and now I actually have more to do. So I don't actually feel very successful. And when we don't feel successful, we're going to start feeling overwhelmed, we're going to start feeling, you know, just deflated, we're not going to take action. So here's the trick. And I use this with all of my clients and it changes lives, it changes businesses. So please, if you do only one thing, do this. So I want you to keep a running master list, you have your to do list, everything goes on it, okay. But that's not what we're working off of. Every day, we are going to set five results that we are going to create, that are aligned with our P&P. But we're going to get five things done. Power Five, five things, only five things, we're going to get those done, no exceptions, and I, my friends have put my head down on my pillow and realize that I did not get one done and I get out of bed and I go do it. So you do not go to bed without these five things being done. They should be related to your P&P. They should be something that moves those priorities forward and solves those problems. Or you eat a frog. And eating a frog means sending that email that you've been dreading. It's the thing that application, that sales tax thing, that you were like, I've been moving this to my next day's to do lists for weeks. Now, let's just get it done. And usually those things take like five minutes. So get something done, move your P&P forward. Write it as a specific result, not a task. And I'm going to explain that, I'm going to show you exactly what I mean by that. When completed, you are done for the day! Do a dance, celebrate, high five yourself, pat yourself on the back. You did a great job, you got five things done, that were intentional. And that move the needle forward on your business. And oops, if you want to keep going, great, their bonuses. But now we don't have the feeling of deflation. Like we just keep adding more things. We've actually got them done. We got a power five done, check that off the list. And then we celebrate that you're getting it done. You are successful, it's working. This is a mind hack. I'm not going to lie. It's not like the things that you need to do like the number is still there. But when you treat it like this, it changes everything and you will feel more successful, which will energize you and keep you motivated to keep going. But here's how it might look like based on our P&P. Identify 2 farmers markets to apply for and review their application process. Now I didn't say apply because we want to be sure that I can actually do it that day. We don't want to put too much on our Power Five. We want to be sure it can be done. And again you on a roll and you get everything else done and you want to apply, awesome. But let's like give ourselves a little bit of room here for life, right? Evaluate your budget for photography and decide on amount to spend. Watch pricing for profit module in Food Business Success. Review sales tax for the month and file sales tax report. Send email to current market requesting a different location. Okay, so these are just some examples, things that I see and know about. But notice that I put these as results, right?By the end of today, I will have done XYZ. Okay, let's move on. I know I want to be mindful of time. So we're going to measure your day gains daily. Again, a total mind hack. This is everything. Write the things you did that move your business forward. So every night you're going to write three things. Watch COGS video in Food Business Success, decide on a budget for photography, stayed focus for an hour on the farmers market research and application process. And then write three things you will do tomorrow, complete one COGS formula in Sari's spreadsheet, order photography supplies, apply for one farmers market,

Then you feel like a success. You're going to start noticing. This is gratitude. This is feeling good. This is priming your brain for the next day on all the things you're going to get done. It's a time saver. When you've already decided the day before what you're going to get done tomorrow. You wake up going like, let's go. All right. And when you're celebrating, you feel good. You're making progress, you're winning. So becoming a great boss. The fourth thing is learn to be a better boss, right? Self Compassion daily. So important. Okay, you all said one that you do some mean things to yourself at the beginning. So you're not on camera. Right now, I want everyone to raise your hand and I see you, Mark. So arm up. I want you to pat yourself on the back. Just take a minute. Take a breath. Sometimes I'll put my hand on my heart. Thank you. Thank you for doing this hard stuff. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being a great boss, thank you for being a great employee. Tell yourself thank you. Don't go it alone. If you go it alone, it's the hardest and least fun way. And it's why most people quit. Because if you're not having fun, you're not going to want to keep doing it. So come and learn more business skills. And it's so amazing. We have all the tools in Castiron that help us get a leg up. But there's a lot more to learn. And we want to start loving our business as a business. Join a community for accountability and for learning and for growth. And I want to welcome you and make an invitation to you that Fuels my membership with group coaching and Q&A. And you'll get your questions answered. And you'll feel supported. So those are the four ways and we need to wrap up, do a P&P weekly, Power Five daily. Measure the gains, expand your boss skills, and give yourself a little love. Somebody said made me tear up a little bit. I know we're so mean to ourselves. We're the worst bosses ever. I love it. So he said this is therapy. Yes. We all can be so much nicer to ourselves, right? So your work going forward is how do we become a better boss to ourselves so that we also were better employee. So we want to show up, but we don't sabotage the whole thing. And we're not procrastinating. Oh my gosh, the dishwasher and doing laundry was never so attractive as when I started being an entrepreneur, right? Like, I don't want to do this, this is hard. And then I'm going to beat the crap out of myself, we can change it. And so I really would encourage you to try one of those tools, go get the book. And thank you. That's I'll wrap up there. And I'm open if anybody has questions for me. All right, your mission should you choose to accept it is to become a better boss to yourself today, this week, what's one thing you can start doing? What's one way you can actually support yourself to cheer yourself on rather than beating the crap out of yourself hoping you will get motivated to do it right this time, quote unquote, perfect, out of fear, that just doesn't work. So for everyone listening, lift up your hand, raise up your arm, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a hug. Put your hand on your heart. Say thank you. Thank you for doing this hard work. And if you would like extra support, and really get the answers and the expertise, we are changing lives. Our coaches inside Fuel are incredible. People are getting answers to their questions fast. And when we get answers your questions, we solve our problems faster. And that's all you're doing. Being a great boss, being a great employee is you just solve problems faster. The faster we solve problems, the faster we have a successful business that actually pays us back, pays us a salary. And I'm on a mission to help 2000 entrepreneurs create businesses that pay themselves back. Come join me inside Food Business Success. Get inside our membership called Fuel. And let's go. 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.