Full Transcript

Stephanie 0:00
Are you a dreamer, and are you living your dream? Are you looking for the path to your dream? Well, I sat down with Sari today, the founder of Food Business Success, who is on her pink sojourn, and this is her sojourn, her dream of why she wanted to start her businesses. She has a few, and how she was able to use her businesses to live the dream that she wants to live, and part of these businesses, including Food Business Success, is all about helping you live your dream. So join us in this conversation where she is actually going to tell you some of the things you need to do so you can live your dream. Right now, she's on her pink sojourn, and when we were talking, she was in Lisbon, Portugal. And so the point is, get out there, dream big, and find a path to make it happen. We are here to help. Well, let's hear what Sari has to say.

Stephanie 1:00
Welcome to Food Business Success. This is the podcast for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged foods industry, ready to turn that delicious idea into a real business. I'm your host Stephanie Robbins, and for nearly 30 years, I've been building and growing brands. Now, as a coach and mentor, I help founders sidestep the most common and avoidable mistakes. This podcast is about helping you see those pitfalls before you fall into them. In each episode, we'll bring you practical advice, information, and industry experts who focus specifically on early stage brands. So you're getting what you need for where you are today. Now, let's jump in.

Stephanie 1:42
All right, hey everyone! I am so excited for today's episode. Guess who's back? Sari! Yay! Sari has been on her pink sojourn, and this is so exciting because a big part of what she does in her life is helping people in transition and building the lives they want to build. It's such a foundation for Food Business Success, as well as everything else that she does. And she is joining us from Lisbon, Portugal, and we're going to hear more about what she's done and how she's doing it, and hear where she's at. So Sari, welcome! Thank you so much for jumping on a call with us all the way halfway around the world. I love it.

Sari 2:30
Yes! Oh, hola, bom dia. As I'm learning my six words of Portuguese, but yes, it's so exciting to do this with you today, and as always, you know I'm a big believer in like I'm not just going to like tell what I'm doing. I'm going to make it very relevant to everyone listening because I think what I'm doing is very relevant for every entrepreneur to create a business that they really love.

Stephanie 2:59
Yeah, and creating what I love so much is when you decide to create a business you love. A big part of that is how you want to live your life. It's not just the product that you put out into the world; it's the life you want to live. And I just, I'm so inspired by you're doing that. You're still able to remain connected with the things that you do on a regular basis, but you're also having these wonderful adventures and being in a whole other culture with other food and language and beauty and so yeah. How did you, tell us? How did you, how were you able to do that? And, you know, what are some of the tidbits for people to think about how they might be able to do that too?

Sari 3:46
Yeah. Well, and I have to say, it's not like I just woke up and was like, "I'm going to do. You know, my life is this way now. Like it's been a years of evolving and progression, and I think even convincing myself that this was possible, like I started really small, and it's what I love about entrepreneurship and the invitation, the permission slip that it can give all of us to say what is the life that you want to create, and entrepreneurship really doesn't have rules the same way that when I worked for when I was teaching or when I was in the corporate environment. I mean, there's boxes, right? And there's limitations and constraints that are real. And so, I finally, you know, I've been an entrepreneur well, since 2016 is when I started my own businesses, but it's taken me this you know almost 10 years to like go. Oh wait, I can go live in other countries and I can go do these other things. Like it's just in the last two years that I started this particular part of my journey and this season of my life, but what happened was it was my 49th birthday in 2024, and you know we went through COVID. We did all the things, and I always said, well, I have a remote business. I could I could live anywhere. Like I'm not you know I don't have to be in Denver, but you know, you go through COVID, you go through all the things, and you're kind of just there. And for me, you know, I don't have kids, I don't, I'm not, I don't have a spouse, and so it was like, okay, where do I want to go? And I always had this dream of for my 50th birthday to go to France, and so I got serious when I turned 49. I said, "Okay, what would I have to do to spend three months next summer in France? And once I finally did the work of like, "Okay, what would that look like? What time zone? You know, how would I meet with clients? How would I still get work done? Once I did that exercise, I was like, "Why am I waiting till next summer? Let's go! I can go now. And I started with just actually moving a little bit up the road in Denver, up the mountains, because I was like, "Oh, this is scary. And then I did Costa Rica, and then I came back to the U.S. for a little bit, and then I did France last summer, and then I was just kind of hooked.

Stephanie 6:28
I love that. I love the idea of building. You know, whether it's your sojourn, whether it's your business, whatever it is, you know I love to always tell people we hike the mountain one step at a time. You took a bite, you went oh this tastes good. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to take another bite. Okay, but building to it and planning for it, and then you get to go and do and I love replicating patterns. It's such a wonderful reality of like oh it's the same thing, whether I'm building a brand, whether I'm building my life it's all and it's all the same because you're the touch point of it all. I love that. So tell us a bit about some of that planning. So you moved, and you-I love oh, Costa Rica, how wonderful! And in your journeys, are you finding things that you're able to bring back and be like, "Wow, this has really affected the way I see things and how I want to go about things.

Sari 7:43
Yeah, I think what I'm bringing back with me that you know impacts me the most, and all the travels that I've done, because the pink sojourn, which I guess I probably should explain that a little bit. Like, what, what do you, what is that? I'm wearing my pink shirt because I got to be pink, as it was kind of a download for me of like a way of seeing the world, and for me, it's become a new standard for me where I say, does it feel pink? And for me, it's a shortcut for, does it feel fun? Does it feel aligned? Does it feel expansive? Does it bring me joy, you know. Am I in my sovereignty and in my power? Am I empowering others? Am I using my gifts? So it's kind of a shortcut for me. And some of my clients that I work with one on one have adopted their own. Like it doesn't have to be a color, but like something kind of short and snappy that like means all these things, and so I actually left Denver. I rented out my condo again, and I left Denver on May 9. And I traveled in the U.S. I went west to California, and it was so great. What was so fun about that is we have members and I have clients in California area, and so it was so fun to be able to go and see them in person. And that's one of my favorite things is meeting Fuel members, my clients, like getting to see them in person. And so that was such a joy. And then I just kind of wound my way up the coast and ended up in Seattle and spent a month in Seattle with my best friend and then came over to Portugal on July 9th and then I'll be back in October so I'll be gone like it's about a six month journey that this pink sojourn that I'm on, and I think the biggest takeaway for me as I've traveled is a) it's just such a reinforcement of like, oh, I can really make things up. Like we think that society's like you have to do it this way. And you, when you have a business, you need to be, you know, in one place. You need to have this equipment, and you need to do it this way. And the more I do it, the more I'm like, no, I don't have to do it any of like, what do I want to do? What feels pink for me? And the other thing, you know, we certainly do. I've worked with Fuel members and clients outside of the U.S. You know we can certainly help people internationally, but we are focused in the U.S. for the most part, and it's such a huge thing to travel and see other countries, and I just am always so humbled and in awe of the freedom and the just that we can do businesses, we can be entrepreneurs, and we have so many resources and we have so much access. And I know it doesn't, you know. I don't want to minimize when you're in it and it feels hard, and you're, you know, you're in the U.S. and you're trying, but oh my gosh, go to another country and it's like talk about just extra, extra layers of bureaucracy, extra layers of patriarchy, and you know, if you're a woman-owned business, like there's just there are some other real obstacles that we take for granted. Like we just don't realize that we don't even have that don't exist in the U.S. You know, or a lot of that's like a mental thing, but it's given me an appreciation of like, wow, we have a lot of access and a lot of resources and the ability that you know. I talk to people and just even you know when I talk to people in other countries and they're just like, you have this confidence that you can just do it, and I'm like, yeah, why? Why not? Why wouldn't I be able to? And they're like, that's a very U.S. you know, very American, yeah.

Stephanie 12:11
And that, I mean, it is. I think it is very. I mean, we see entrepreneurs and creative people starting things all around the world, but I do think there is a uniquely American. I can do it, you know. It is figured out, right?

Sari 12:30
Building that resilient brand, doing B minus work. I mean, we were laughing as we're getting set up. Like apparently, my microphone doesn't work anymore, and so this computer and I don't have the right cable. And if you could see my setup right now, it's like on a trash. Like my computer is on a trash can and a tissue box, getting it up to the right height. Right? So I don't need things to be perfect. I just need to work. It doesn't matter.

Stephanie 12:59
I so love that! I so love that image, and you know, one of my favorite words for entrepreneurs is pivot, and the idea of like, look, our goal today is to sit down and under, you know, talk about what you've been up to, and if that's what we need to do to pivot everything to get there, and that's the creative entrepreneurial thinking, and I. The other thing is something you said I absolutely love. That is, when you own your company, you get to create the life you want to live. And sometimes I think a lot of times as entrepreneurs, especially in CPG, it feels so big and overwhelming, and we're and we feel like we have so much coming at us so fast. We just have our head down. We're just answering questions. You know, I love the analogy of throwing the bricks on the path right before our feet hit the ground. Right, and people like to use the building the plane as you fly it, but for me, because I always feel like I'm running so fast. You're running. You're tossing the bricks. You're just getting it down before your foot hits the ground. But sometimes we have to just stop and say, first of all, we have to look back at the path we built and say, "Wow, look at how much I've done. But also, could I go in a different direction? Do I have to be on this path right now? Could I, you know on my own or with my family or how whatever our life is, could I take off for a couple months and still do all this? But maybe instead of working 60-hour weeks, which I really hope you're not, I really hope people are being kind to themselves and doing good time management. But maybe I work four days a week and I get to go take that extra day with my family, or maybe I do three days a week and take a couple extra days, and we're going to be in Lisbon, or we're going to go to Costa Rica, or one of you know one of my favorite places was I went to China a few years ago. It was just amazing, you know whatever. Wherever you want to be, and it doesn't even have to be international. It just anywhere you want to be. Maybe I want to go be near my family. I moved away from them. We get along great. We live 400 miles away. Maybe I want to go be near them for a month. You know, we can get along well now because we, you know, whatever that is. And I just think, I think you can translate that into so much in your life when you are running your own business, and you just can't. You don't want to forget that. You don't want to forget that. You know.

Sari 15:35
So there's a freedom to run your own business, but what I see with coaching for as long as I have, and my one-on-one clients is that entrepreneurship often what people do is actually create a prison for themselves.

Stephanie 15:50
Yes.

Sari 15:51
And I created a course in 2023, I believe, called Master Your Business, and we're not teaching this course right now, but I went through a couple rounds of it, and it was all about setting your business up with systems and processes to free yourself from the tyranny of being a solopreneur, of doing everything on your own, and the need for control like how do we figure out what's, there is a way to unlock this where you know I hear it all the time I'm sure you do too right of like well you know I'm the only one who can do it right, I'm the only one who gets the best sales at the farmers market. I'm the only one who can make it, I'm the only one who can sell it. I'm the only one. I'm the only, and so your whole life, like that, is a thought, and that's a mind prison that you've created. That you are the only one who can do it. And guess what? When you build a business like that, that is a prison. You are chained to your business forever and ever. And what I typically see is that people eventually end up hating their business. They resent it.

Stephanie 17:06
You burn out.

Sari 17:07
Because they can never leave. And they have to work 60, 70, 80-hour weeks, right, and I know this so well because this is how I started in 2016. This is what I did. I mean, I am the person that like created it, did it, saw the prison, and was like, "How do I fix this? And then I create a course and teach other people how to do it, right? That's that's why I'm a great coach. But I did it. I created a prison for myself. I was working 60 hour weeks. I was hustling and grinding. And it's not that you can just start a business and be like, I know, like three days a week. There is a certain season to everything, right? I mean, when you start a business, there's a certain commitment, and especially if you want it to go fast, right? You're going to have to commit more up front. So, but you do it with intentionality.

Stephanie 17:56
Yes.

Sari 17:56
And to your, I love the metaphor. I haven't really heard of that one. I use it. Yeah, I use the airplane one. But sometimes when we're building the road, we need to look up and say, "Where is this road going? And do I actually want to go there anymore? And how has my life shifted? How has my life changed? The seasons of my life. Where is my family at? Where was my health? My family's health? Where's my desires? Where my age? Whatever it is, right? Because we're constantly having life is shifting. We're not just building this road on like this super solid ground.

Stephanie 18:32
Yeah.

Sari 18:34
It's shifting as well. And so, intentionally looking up and saying, "Okay, is that still where I want? Like, first of all, are we actually building it for a destination that we want to go? And then, do I still want to go there, right. And if so, is there maybe you know that like just being willing to entertain? Like, do I have to do it this way or in these bricks or that direction, or is there another way to do this that maybe feels a little bit better for me, and not just you know? I mean, it's just hustle culture is so pervasive, and it's just something that I just am refusing to do anymore in my life. Hence, the feels pink.

Stephanie 19:21
And I so admire that that the I'm not going to do. This is my life I get one, and I'm not going to do it that way. I think of there's a saying, and I I try not to do too many of these you know platitude sayings, but it's don't forget to make a life while you're making a living, and I do like that one because I think for a lot of people they go into entrepreneurialism, they go into starting their own business. Always hate that too. You don't really go into entrepreneurialism. You have an idea. You want to start your own business. You want to do your own thing. You're not even thinking in terms of entrepreneurial. You're just like cool. I'm going to do this, but you do that because you do want a better life for yourself. And then, the thing people don't realize is how much work it really is. But being intentional, building, as you were saying, building the systems, building the tools, building the processes, so that you don't have to be chained to it, and I want everyone to walk away remembering it's a mindset. It's not a reality. It's a mindset, and that's a big part of what you do as a coach. It's a big part of what I do as a coach. It's a big part of why Food Business Success is here is to help people build their resilient brands in a way that allow them to live the life they want to live, this is important. This isn't just words we say. This is so dear. It's for me. It's so much of why I wanted to be here. Why you know, and so I just find it very inspirational. Your pink sojourn, your saying what I say no to, right? People hear this all the time. Okay, you've got your to do list, what's your don't do list, but they don't really understand how to create a don't do list. It's like, no, I'm going to say no to this. I'm going to say no to sitting in a at a desk for eight hours a day. I'm going to say no to needing to do everything now. I'll be honest because I came from corporate. Well, I've been an entrepreneur since I don't know 2020, but I had been in corporate life before that. I've never had the energy to be a micromanager. I've always been the kind of manager that really tries to give people enough space to do things, so I'm really good at letting go, and have processes for how to let go, how to let people do what they need to do, give them the space to make mistakes, to learn from it. They feel comfortable coming to me with their mistakes. Usually, they come to me and say, "Hey, we messed this up, but here's our solution. And those are processes for letting go. So, when I became an entrepreneur, being able to empower employees or partners to be able to do things was easier for me than a lot of people. But you don't want to be, when I was in business school. We talked about what they called the octopus manager. This is the manager who has so many arms. They have an arm in everything, and that, like you were describing, that's just burnout. And how sad you've built your company, you've got this brand, you've got this product you want, you've got this whatever it is, and that's where I think if for anyone who is enjoying the podcast, think about how well you're living your life, and if you're living your best life, oh my gosh, I want to hear from you. I love it. And if you're sitting there thinking, "Yeah, I need that", we're here for you.

Sari 22:53
Yes, we can help you. And it is a mindset. I mean, that's the first step: is becoming like, oh, there's different ways for me to do my business, and there's also a set of skills and strategies and tools to help you to do it. Like you don't just say, "Oh, I'm going to let go of control, and then you want, you know, you don't set these foundations up. And I, and for anybody that's like, "Well, that's good for you. You have a, you know, an online business. I need to be at the farmers market or you know I need to be visiting buyers or whatever. I want to remind people that I also have a farmers market that in you know when I decide to go to Costa Rica and start this travel stuff, I had to get really. That was part of the process of I used all the tools I was teaching in Master Your Business, and I was like, okay, like I can't be there to run it. I don't want to be there to run it anymore. And I know enough. I know enough about the business and what I want it to look like, and I have all these tools, so I'm going to just apply everything I'm teaching to this. And guess what? It worked, right? Like and it's still it's all you know. It's ever evolving, and the market's shifting and changing. But the tools, the processes we set up in there were things you know communication tools, things that we use with you and I with our team, but it's also like there are shifts, there are leadership skills that you need to learn. It's about becoming a CEO. It's about becoming a leader in your business, and not just doing all the octopus things and doing all you know a million things everywhere. It's also am I putting on my CEO hat, stepping back, evaluating why do we do this and what's the point of this and what am I really trying to achieve here and to systematize things to make a process, to define the results that we're creating ahead of time, and those are all like the magic. That's the secret sauce. And for me to go to Costa Rica in the Fall of 24, that was the first time. Right, I was terrified. I was like, I had a Winter Market, and I left. Like I think I went to two markets maybe, and then I left, and I was like, "Is this all going to fall apart, right? Because I'm a control freak too, just like all the other. You know, I'm a high achiever. I'm a perfectionist, but I apply the tools, the B minus work, all of these Master Your Business tools that I put together, and when it was like, oh, it's a Saturday, the market's happening, and it's operating without me. And you know what? It actually operates better without me. When I go there now, I mess it all up. They're like, Sari, go, go, just go. Yeah, you're you're. What are you doing? Why are you back here? Get away! It's the best. And like, money just was coming into the account, and I was paying the people to do the work, and things were working, and it was just like, wow, this works. Like the things that I've been teaching, it works, and then I just kept. So when you find out it, when you realize it works, then you keep wanting to do it more and more. And so everything that comes across my desk for the market or for with working with you in Food Business Success is like, okay, you know, even like the webinar you're you're setting up. I was like, let's stop and here's the process, right? And here's how we can systematize it, and here's how it can be easier for next time. And you know, asking those questions of like, why are we? What is the result we're trying to create here? And not just doing, doing, doing for doing sake and rebuilding.

Stephanie 26:59
So instead of rebuilding, we now have a process. You know why? There's a couple things I love that you just said. One, you call it the B minus work. I call it the progress over perfection.

Sari 27:16
Yeah.

Stephanie 27:16
I love that. I also love the planning that you know you build the planning and you talked about it early on. You looked at what you wanted to do. You put that together. You moved. You made changes. You took the steps, and then it builds. You know, and and I think for people to recognize you when and this is something I do in my own coaching. When you are feeling overwhelmed, you stay in the facts, you build a path, and suddenly you're just it's one bite at a time. It's one step at a time. Whatever analogy works for you, and that's how you get there. The other thing I think is really important, and this comes up in a lot of my coaching clients is being a CEO, thinking like a CEO. It's elevating yourself to that place of saying, "All right, I'm looking at the whole landscape. Where are we, and where do we want to go, and now how do we get there? And it's to your point, you don't have to be place bound, even when you have a place bound business. You just have to put the stuff in place, and I love that. So before we go, one, I want to say thank you so much for taking time with us. I know your time zone is so different than ours, and is there anything else you want to make sure people think about? People know about your journey or anything like that. Any last words for for our entrepreneurs and our dreamers?

Sari 28:53
I would just encourage people to dream. I'm sure I've done podcast episodes in the past about this, but one of the biggest things aha's I had when I first became a coach was how scared we are, for myself included. I was so scared to dream, to even think, like to even get curious or be like, "What if I could do this? What if I could travel? What if I could create a business that I could do this because we're so scared of feeling disappointed, right? The the fear of being disappointed of like if I allow myself to dream the you know this impossible dream, and then it doesn't happen, I will be so disappointed that I will, that I would rather just never have the dream in the first place, and that you know hurts my heart as a coach. And so, if you are considering, if you are in entrepreneurship, I want to encourage you to dream the dream. Dream the impossible dream. Write it down. Have some fantasy times of like, what if you know? What is something down the road a future thing where you're just like, oh man, if I, the best business would be the one where, you know. I'm selling at farmers markets and online and in retail, but I take three months and I go to the mountains with my kids, or you know, I do. I'm a coach for my kids' little league, or whatever. Like, dream the dream, and then I promise you. I mean, what I'm so good at, what you're so good at, is like we help people like map it out, and again, it doesn't happen overnight. This wasn't just like a oh, I should go travel, and then it's like immediately happened. But be willing to dream, be willing to think about what is it I really want. What would be so cool? Like get out of the typical just like I just want to replace my salary, and like why? What do you want from that? What if you could replace your salary, and like now you have more time and you have more freedom supposedly that you think you're creating with your business? Why? What would you do with that? What cool thing would you do? Like dream, allow yourself to do that, and then go find support and resources to help you do it, because again, just because I had the dream, I still needed to go do the work and use all the teachers and mentors and tools and resources to create the businesses that could operate without me, and I had to do the mindset work about letting go of control, and you know framing things in ways that I still got the results I needed. It maybe wasn't the way I would have done it, but who cares? Like you're doing a great job. You know, do you do everything the way I would do it? No, but the work is happening, and things are happening. It's great.

Stephanie
I so love that. I hope everyone walks away recognizing how much is real and how much is in their own minds. Everything in your mind is real, but it can also be rewritten. You know, and you can. I love that. Dream big. That's our message. That's our takeaway. Dream big and then make a path to do it, and then go and do it. As somebody who has dreamed big, and I have won, and I have lost, and I have won again, and it comes and it goes, it's the best ride of your life. It is so worth it, and you're going to go places you thought you were going to go, and you're going to go places you had no idea you're going to go, and that discovery is amazing. I love that. Well, I wish you all the best in all of your travels. I love being able to check in with you. Unlike everybody else, I do get to check in with Sari on a regular basis and hear what she's up to, which is why I wanted to talk about this today because it's so exciting. And so, thank you so much for taking time out and enjoy your adventures. We'll wait for more more video postcards.

Sari
Thank you. Yes, this is fun.

Stephanie
All right, and everybody out there, dream big and have an amazing week. One of the smartest things you can do as an entrepreneur is invest in a who to help you with the how to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you're ready for more support and accountability to finally get this done, you can work with us in two ways: get a coach all to yourself with one-on-one business coaching, or join the Food Business Success Community, 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 toward your own food business success.