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 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!

Sari 0:47
Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. Today's episode is going to be juicy. It's going to be so good. I am really excited to talk about this topic with you guys, because I think it's something that is going to totally free up some of the resistance and where you get into stuckness and kind of sit and dwell in the hardship, the challenges of running a business. And so we're going to get into it. This is based on Mel Robbins' Let Them Theory. So she came out with a book. I love her. But what's so weird is that I was writing a book, right? My Reinvent book, just with all the travel and everything, I don't know, I guess I and I'm not on social media very much personally, and so I just kind of like shut things off because I wanted to focus on my writing and going within. And it's so funny, because then I started hearing about her book, which came out a couple of months ago, and people were telling me, like, oh my gosh, it's life changing. It's really helped me. And so I was like, I got to read this, amazing, love her, and it's one of those things I'm like, oh, I've been doing this. I've been practicing this. This isn't some revolutionary new idea, but what I love about what Mel Robbins did beautifully is that she took ideas that come from Buddhism and Stoicism and other like have been talked about for years and years, but I love the way that she just simplified it and made it really approachable and put it into this, Let Them theory. It was really profound, even for me, who already practiced a version of this, from through stoicism and through other teachings, was already practicing this, but it actually just like, has made it so much easier for me. And so I want to share with you how you can apply the Let Them theory in your business, and really, like I said, get unstuck and stop dwelling and all the terrible stuff, all the problems that are going to happen. Welcome to being in business, right? You're just always going to have things going wrong. That's just part of it. The world is not going to behave in the way that you think it should, most of the time.

Sari 3:24
Okay, so let's get into it. Highly recommend the book. She actually goes into a lot of other areas, like adult friendship and relationships. But what I want to specifically talk about today is just the Let Them theory, and it has two parts to it, so I want to explain what that is. And then we'll talk about how you can apply it. And I'm going to use real life examples, things that I have heard from my clients and members in Fuel over the last month. I don't have to go back very far. And of course, I will keep them anonymous, but it's a good representation of just like, this is just everyday business. This is how things roll. And so some of you listening might be like, is she talking about me? Is that my situation? Well, maybe. But also I hear the same things over and over again. Okay, so what is the Let Them theory? Basically, it's so simple, it's profound, but it's simple is when things happen outside of your control, when people don't meet your expectations, then we simply say, let them. Let that supplier miss their deadline, let that store discontinue my product, let that person say nasty things on my social media, like, just let them. It's already happening, but we create all this resistance and frustration and disappointment and anger, right? We let all these big emotions and all of those well, sometimes they might be warranted. All of those things get in the way of us making progress, but this is really important, because there's actually two pieces to the Let Them theory. So there's what happens, right? And as a life coach, I teach this all the time, right? It's like we have circumstances, and that's just like things that we can all agree on, facts in the world that happen outside of our control. So something I know is affecting a number of you are the price of eggs going up, right? That is a fact in the world. And is there anything you can do about it? Maybe. But as far as the actual like, price of eggs, probably not. Okay? So that's the circumstance. So the Let Them theory would just say, let them. Let them raise prices on eggs. Stop wasting all this energy complaining about it. And then the second part of it is, let me, right? There's two parts. So we don't just like walk around and just say, well, let them, let them. It gets us into either a place of feeling like we lose our power, right? Where we're at the whim of everything around us. Well, let them. You know, it's like we get deflated, or it can take us to a place of superiority, and we don't want either of those. So the second part of it is, let me. Let them raise prices on eggs. Let the eggs be the price that they are, and then let me do something whatever is in my control. I can't control the price of the eggs, but what can I do on my side of things? So letting me like, let me take action. It's that, you know the classic like Stephen Covey, like, what is in the locus of your control? So it might be, let me find a substitute for eggs. I just posted an article in our private Facebook group about how you can use different ingredients that basically work like eggs that are plant based actually, and it could lower your cost of goods sold, right? So you might need to do some value engineering. You might need to look at raising your prices. You might need to just say, well, I'm actually going to hold here and not raise my prices, and I'm willing to take the hit for a little while. Might be a hybrid of some of those. Let me see if I can reduce the number of eggs in my products, or let me see if I can find some additional sources or partners who we can maybe go in and buy larger quantities and bring the prices down, right? Those are examples of like the let me, what can I do about it?

Sari 8:24
And I think it might be easier for many of us to do it with these things like that, that are like very cut and dry, like egg prices rising. Okay, we probably don't sit in too much angst about it, and we get to work solving the problem, where I find that we especially get hung up is around interpersonal stuff. So, you know, when we're dealing with humans. So it could be, you know, I applied for these farmers markets, and they told me that I was a shoe in, that I would get in, and then I didn't. They rejected me, right? And we spin out about it. We're like, well, they should have and they told me this, and they don't know. And like, we sit here, right? And you could spend hours or days spinning out about this, being the victim of the circumstance, being angry at them. Instead, let them. Let them reject me. Let them decide I'm not a good fit. Let them do what they already did, right? And then let me, what am I going to do about it? Let me find another market. Let me create a backup plan. Let me have a conversation with them from a calm place, not from an angry, overreactive place. Where we really get hung up. Is. All the energy that we end up spending on things that are out of our control. And I will tell you, I have been practicing this so much. I mean, being in a foreign country, right? There's just a lot of situations where I'm like, let them. Like, things just operate differently here, and I've definitely been using it with interpersonal relationships, right? It's like our disappointment, as the Buddha says disappointment comes from missed expectation. That's where all of our suffering comes from is when we thought this XYZ would happen. We thought that people would respond this way, that we have, you know, the way we want it to be, so that we feel okay, and then 99% of the time, people don't behave in the way that we think that they should. And that's where all of our anger and disappointment and all of our suffering comes from is that mis expectation. So what if we just let that go? We let them, we let them do all the things in the world that they're going to do, and then let me. What am I going to do about it? So I want to give you some examples of things like I said that I have heard recently, and we can just talk about ways that you can apply this. It's so simple, but I just, I don't want you to, like, let the simplicity fool you of like, oh, I don't need that. Just start practicing it wherever you can.

Sari 11:36
You will be able to find tons of places to practice this. Okay, so we were talked about not getting into a desired farmer's market. What about if a buyer contacts you and says, I'm sorry, but your product's not a good fit in our stores, we're going to discontinue it? We let them and then let me learn from that. Let me find new opportunities. Let me have a conversation with them and see where could I have supported this better? Let me reconsider my pricing or my packaging or my demos or my education. It could be, and this is a common one that is so frustrating for people, especially when you haven't been an entrepreneur and you've never been in manufacturing. Oh my gosh, supply chain issues are a thing, and, you know, COVID made it even harder, and we're still having issues, and it's just always been a challenge. So late deliveries, promises made. Equipment that you know promises certain things and then doesn't or is broken. Co manufacturers, scheduling changes. This happens all the time, right? So we're going to let us do everything we can up front to make it a success, and then we're going to let them, we're going to let the ingredients be late. We're going to let the co manufacturer do their scheduling changes, and I'll let them have their delays, and then let me. What is it that I can control, and what do I need to do to inform the people down the pipeline, right? Instead of getting stuck in like, the misery of like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening to me, we're going to get out of that and say, okay, let them, drop it, and then let me. What do I need to do to let the people down the supply chain know my product's going to be late? Next it could be around marketing. Social media posts are not performing as you had hoped. You put all this time and energy into your social media. Now, if you got the Social Media Course with Kayla, you're going to learn how to do things really fast so you don't waste all that energy, and you're going to just get out there and try stuff. But if you are putting a lot of effort, and even if you're, you know, just putting a whole bunch out there, and nothing's coming back, that can be really disappointing. You're like, why am I doing all of this, right? You send out email campaigns and you're getting unsubscribes, or nobody's clicking. You're doing advertising and things aren't working the way you want, or you're getting people responding negatively on your posts. So first of all, we just let them, let them scroll past, let them, you know, let them unsubscribe, let them not click. They're already doing it anyways. And then let me, what can I do here to adjust my efforts, to try new things? To just not let it get me down and know that these things take a lot of time. Things are not overnight, and there we got to drop our entitlement that things start working right away. It takes time. This is a big one. And you know, you may have gone to like, Fancy Food, and we have Expo West coming up. I see this happen a lot around trade shows or other kind of events that you go to, where you might be around other up and coming businesses or similar products, right? Maybe you go to like a hot sauce show, and you're going to see a whole bunch of other hot sauces there, right? And we're going to start having some compare and despair. We might see similar products, like a different product, that we're like, getting a major deal, and you're like, what, my products way better than that, right? Or another company that started the same time as you, and they're getting maybe funding and going big and making all these investments and getting, maybe they went on Shark Tank, or they're a darling of the industry. What if we just let them, instead of letting it affect us and get us all down and say, why am I even doing this? And I'm never going to be successful. We just let them. We let them have their success. And in fact, let's celebrate their success. That's amazing. That tells me, because they're doing it, it's possible for you. You just have a different path. And so we're going to let them have their success, and then let me do what I need to do. Let me get back into my lane. Let me get focused on my business model, which is different. You have different goals. You have different models, like let me focus on what I do best.

Sari 16:54
And then finally, personal relationships, and this is a big one as an entrepreneur, you are probably going to be around family and friends who do not understand what you are doing. Who question your choices as an entrepreneur, who are going to be frustrated that you spend so much time on your business, who are going to be upset that you're once again at a farmer's market when there's some birthday party or some event. They like, but it's the holidays, and we want you here. And we're going to let them, let them have their opinions. Yeah, they're humans. They're going to have opinions and judgments, and they don't get it. Stay committed. Let you stay committed in your vision. Let you join a membership like Fuel or the private Facebook group and get support. Be around other entrepreneurs who get it. And we can also just let them, like, sit in like they just don't get it. They don't know, and that's okay. I don't need to convince them otherwise. I don't need their approval. And it's okay, right? I'm going to let me take care of myself and let me stay grounded in my goals and what I want and why I'm doing this.

Sari 18:16
So those were just some examples I came up with very quickly. I could probably rattle off another 50 of them, honestly, because I always say you got 10 problems in your business that you're solving at any given time, right, and probably more, if we're honest. So the benefits of applying Let Them reduce stress and anxiety, better decision making, more strategic thinking, we're going to preserve our emotional energy and redirect it into the things we can actually control that are going to keep our momentum up, and ultimately, it's going to help you become a better leader and create a better business foundation that's not built on the whim and the, you know, whatever way the wind blows outside of us. So it's time to start practicing let them and then let me in your business. Start with small things. Start with, oh, that person just cut me off in traffic. That person is driving too slow. The weather is happening, right? It's cold or it's hot, or it's raining or it's snowing. We're just going to let things happen, and then also the people around us, right? Again, it's a little bit easier to do on the weather, but harder to do with the slow driver in front of you, and we're just going to let them. We're going to let them, and then we're going to let me, in a calm, rational mindset, take action. So it's so good. I highly recommend the book, or there's a great podcast with her and Jay Shetty that I'd recommend. I love how she just simplifies all of this and makes it really digestible, really easy to use. And that's the invitation, to start using this in your business. And if you're in Fuel or the private Facebook group, then come and share that experience. Tell us where you use the Let Them theory and how it helped you. Until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 20:21
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.