Full Transcript

Sari 0:04
I'm Sari, Kimbell and I've done just about everything in the food industry. I have helped hundreds of packaged food business entrepreneurs and now I want to help you make your delicious dream a reality. Whether you want to be successful at farmer's markets, online, or wholesale on the store shelves, Food Business Success is your secret ingredient. I will show you how to avoid an expensive hobby, and instead run a profitable food business. Now let's jump.

Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is an episode I hope you come back to again and again. I feel like it's something I need to hear as well. And I know I'm gonna listen to my own words of advice and ideas. And so I want to offer this to you both as someone who is going through it right now, who's, frankly, having some bad things happen, right? Some things I did not choose. But that is part of being an entrepreneur, that is part of what we signed up for. Did you know that? Did you know that when you sign up to be an entrepreneur, when you decide to go after big dreams, you are also signing up for bigger possibility of bad things happening. It is just the way it works. Things do not always go your way. And I'm not talking about the little things, right? I mean, you guys go back and listen to the 80% rule, right? It's all about overcoming your perfectionism. putting yourself out there even if things aren't perfect. So, so there's a typo, right? So something didn't quite come out the way you want it to. But you put it out there anyway. So what right that those are those little failures that i i do think build up your confidence to fail bigger. And then there's the big fails, the adult fails, right? The things that you're like, what is happening right now, I never thought in my life, I would be dealing with this. But this is part of what do you sign up for to live a big life to expand into the best version of yourself. And that is the promise of being an entrepreneur going after your food business dream. So I cannot confirm or deny that some of these things are happening right now to me and my clients. And some of them are mistakes that I am owning up to. And there's such an opportunity for growth, for learning for me improving and becoming even more of an expert. Some of them are things that my clients have made mistakes that my clients have made and oversights. And then some of them are just outside things right?

The world happening. And we just can't control these things. They're just happening to us they are true neutral circumstances. And then we got to deal with them, right. So some of these are real, some of them are things that I have seen in the past and seeing happening to other people and going after their big packaged food dream, right. So it may be that an ingredient that is really important that you call out on your packaging is no longer available. And stores are upset and they are possibly going to recall your product until it gets fixed. And that ingredient just isn't available. It could be forgetting an ingredient or burning a whole batch. A lot of money going down the drain that's just ruined. It could be a cease and desist letter after your your brand name or your brand logo. It could be a packaging mistake after printing 1000s of packaging 1000s of bags 1000s of labels. It could be a letter from the IRS. It could be an unhappy employee that's spreading rumors that stirring up drama.

Unknown Speaker 4:53
It could be

Sari 4:55
a contract that you can't get out of without bringing in an attorney And going through, you know that that payment and that heartache there and that struggle, it could be going to a farmers market and it not being what you hoped. And you have some rough, you know, some some lack of sales and sales just aren't what you hoped that they would be. It could be a contractor not delivering what was promised or what you thought would come right the expectation whether it's a designer, or a photographer or a copywriter, or any other number of contractors have somebody you're working with for social media, right? It could be a failed kitchen inspection, a recall a true recall, right, where there's a food safety issue. It could be haters on social media that are you know, really trolling and hating on you there are negative reviews, it could be a failed batch that you don't love at your co Packer or things not getting shipped out the way you want them to, could be your product arriving broken, and not being able to figure out what is happening and how to package it better, and then having to deal with that and replace those products. It could be just being discontinued for slow sales at one at some of your key accounts. It could be upset customers, it could just be a pandemic that nobody expected. And like I said, some of these things, we could have had some foresight, if we slow down if we thought about it. And then some of them, they were just things we did not know. Or they're things that are just out of our control. So what do we do when bad things happen?

They are a part of life, but drop a little truth bomb on you that you made. Maybe like I had to think about that a little bit more. But life is 5050 it is meant to be the good and the bad. It is a false argument to try to go after being happy all of the time. And I've done a couple episodes already on feelings. But if we can manage our feelings and understand that negative feelings are going to be part of the deal. And the bigger goals you go after. And the bigger you want to live your life, the potential for bigger pain is possible, but so is the reward. And there are so many strategic byproducts that happen when you go after a big goal when you go after your dream. It's not just the possibility of accomplishing your dream, but it's who you become along the way. So I want to take this opportunity to just also talk about circumstances. And again, this might be something you're like, I gotta I gotta wrap my brain around this. circumstances are the facts, they are neutral. an ingredient is no longer produced. It is listed on my packaging, it is important to my customers, all of that is neutral.

And then we have our thoughts about it. It is a letter that says cease and desist based on your your logo or your your brand name that is neutral. Some people could argue that it is not that big of a deal that these things happen all the time. I was talking to an entrepreneur, friend of mine who's like, has a big business. He's doing amazing things. And we were talking about this and I was like, I just like I'm dealing with attorneys, and I'm doing like things that like these are big things right? And he said, you know, you haven't made it in business until you've been sued. was like, ah, I don't know if I'm signing up for that. Do I really wanted to sign up for that? I'm not sure I'm working on that. I'm like, and it's just so interesting that he would not consider that to be a negative thing. And that just proves that it's really our thoughts about it, not the circumstance. Knowing that a cease and desist letter a recall an audit, write a letter from the state telling you your taxes. You know, you need a tax license even though you don't it could be really challenging person to work with at your county, state or local level that is not being very kind, frankly, on helping you work through some of the issues with your product. Again, I will neither confirm nor deny these things may or may not be real. Like I said, circumstances are truly neutral. And the best thing we can do, the best lesson we can learn in life is to separate out what are the facts, and then we get some power over our thoughts about it. So even labeling things as problems as bad as issues, right, can have a lot of can lead to a lot of negative thinking about it. And what do you do when you're thinking negative thoughts, right, when you have a belief that this is bad, then you're going to have negative emotion, you're going to take actions that probably don't serve you and move you forward, you're going to feel like you are at the whim of this that you are a victim. And none of that feels good. None of that moves you forward. Like I said, this is what you're signing up for.

You're signing up for the wins and the losses. And if you didn't know that already, that I want to invite you to choose this, to know that going into this there will be problems, there will be things that you have to deal with, there will be circumstances that you do not like that feel like they are happening to you. But that is just part of the deal. And are you willing to be all in on negative emotion? Are you willing to fail forward? As you grow as you evolve as part of the formula to success? Or are you blaming the outside circumstances? Are you blaming everything around you? I have some people I'll be honest, inside Food Business Success that they show up on our calls, and they just they want to blame everything around them. Right? The the license, the kitchen, the meat, right that I'm not doing enough for them. And I want to ask you to get really, you know, be honest with yourself, are you blaming outside circumstances, you lose all of your power? When you blame outside circumstances? What if you could show up as resourceful? What if you believe that these things are happening for you? And they're an opportunity to learn to grow to evolve? Are you picking yourself back up again? And trying again? Like I said, Are you blaming everything else around you? I want you to strive to be awesome. Not to fail ahead of time, because you are scared of failing, right? Like if you have a big dream. And you're like, I don't know, if I want to go after that. I don't know. You know, I have this amazing product, I have my salsa, I have my bread, I have my cookies, I have my kimchi, I have my kombucha whatever it

is that you're so passionate about. And then you say, Well, I'm not willing to go after it because I'm afraid of failing, all you're doing is failing ahead of time you were feeling the negative emotion that you are so afraid of ahead of time. Show me one person who has achieved great things and not ever failed, right? It doesn't exist. And I think I truly believe that everyone is capable of being successful, whatever your goals are. I don't think everybody needs to be, you know, the next, Justin's nut butter, right? But you can be successful in whatever your dream is. Do you believe in your vision? If you do if you truly do, why would you allow yourself to give up, we need to practice failure, resilience, that is what is going to build us up to deal with the really hard things, the big things, the adulting things.

So I really encourage you to practice those little things. That's why I want you to do the small confidence builders. The putting 80% work out there. So I want to circle back kind of on a little tangent there. But Hello, Ray rant pep talk. That's what I'm here for. Right? That's what I want this podcast to be like when bad things happen. I want you to come back and get this pep talk. Get this reading mindre that you can do hard things. Really when circumstances happen that are outside of our control that are feel like they're happening to us that we're interpreting as negative. Ultimately, we got to think about what are we making this mean about you? When you get that cease and desist letter if you get it? What are you making it mean about you? And I will tell you from experience, I got that cease and desist letter. And it wrecked me. I almost gave up. I was on the floor, having panic attacks. I almost accepted a job. Right, a job that actually is very similar to what what I am doing now. But I wouldn't, gosh, I just think back like, what if I had accepted that job, the hundreds of people that I have helped and Food Business Success would not be where they are today. Chanel would not be launching good love foods this week, with so much confidence that she is amazing, and that her product is amazing. And that she is ready to go. That all of these products, I mean, I've actually had three launches this week. And I'm so proud of everyone. It's like the coolest thing in the world that these people are launching successfully, their dream and they're doing it. And I have been able to help them in their journey. It's such an honor for me. And I'm so grateful to my past self that. Yeah, it was a little rough. That was up to date. That was one of the worst things that had ever happened to me, I interpret that I my thoughts about it. Were so negative, I made it mean so many negative things about me that I was a complete failure, that I would never figure it out that I should just give up now. But I, after a little bit further, come on.

I gave I really committed to going all in on this and give it one last shot. And I'm so glad I did. Because I wouldn't be here recording this podcast for you now. Are you guys know I get a little emotional times. But I am so grateful. I want you to look back on your past self and be like, I am so grateful that you showed up. I'm so grateful that you took the action. And if it's signing up for Food, Business Success, great if it's finding another mentor, great, but be proud of yourself that you showed up and you did some hard things, you took some hard steps you committed you went all in. And the other thing is now that I've gone through that once it took me a month to recover. And if that happened again, or all the stuff that's happening now, it's not taking me a month to recover. I know that I will get through this. I know that I can figure it out. And that's failure, resilience right there. That is me building a muscle that sometimes bad things happen. And I can get through it. I can do hard things and I can figure it out. And that's what I want for you too. So back to what are you making it mean about you, you have a choice in how you're going to decide to believe about these things. These things are an opportunity, when bad things happen is an opportunity to recommit. recommit to the thing, think the thing that is happening, that is giving you the opportunity to practice failure, resilience, right? To practice feeling negative emotion and doing it anyway to moving forward to opening yourself up to possibility and solutions and becoming so much more. A colleague of mine, Doug Helbig, which we did a podcast A while back about growing a million dollar brand. He's the VP of sales for alter ego. And he has this great he had this great line that he shared with me that that they use when they are experiencing, you know negative things in their business, whether it's a staff meeting where not everyone agrees or there's an outside circumstances happening. He says that they they use this term or this phrase, what feels like friction is actually polish. And I just love that.

I think it's such a great way to think about that when those bad things happen when challenges come up when obstacles come up. Ultimately obstacles problems with mistakes. They Reveal weaknesses in our business. And that's okay. If we can fix the tiny crack now and think that it came up, then we have a much more solid foundation going forward. I love Byron Katie's quote, and I'm probably paraphrasing a little bit here. But she says, when you argue with reality, you only lose 100% of the time. And one thing that I have found, and you may find yourself in this situation is that when bad things happen, you want to argue with reality. You want to go back in time, and you spend time and regret and shoulds and judgment. Why didn't I know better? Why didn't I see it? And believe me, I've spent some time there this month as well going, gosh, why couldn't I have seen that? Why didn't I catch that? You know, why, why, why? Why? Right. I should have I should have I should have. And Monday morning quarterbacking, right? We would have done it differently? I don't know. We have no idea. It doesn't serve us at all, to look back and say we should have done it differently. We could have, we would have, we ought to like I wish regret does not serve us looking back and saying we would have done it differently does not serve you and moving ahead and taking back your power. It is what it is it has happened. And now how are we going to deal with it? How are we going to find solutions that we have no idea could actually make it better? I think my business became better. Because I had to deal with the cease and desist. I changed my business name. I re you know reinvented myself to some extent I created Food Business Success. I am better for that challenge. And you are better for it because I wouldn't be here, right? So I want to encourage you when bad things happen. If you're sitting in regrets, and you're sitting in shoulds, go ahead, have a little pity party for give yourself a time limit. I'm

going to feel bad about this for one day or one hour one week. And then move ahead, take action, change your thought about it. Make it a positive, embrace it as an opportunity for growth and get to work. You could be better for this. We don't know the how right the how greed this is happening for you. How do we know? Because it is happening? Because it is reality. It is the neutral circumstance of what is happening. Now you get to go decide what you're going to make it mean. And I want to encourage you to choose better thoughts to choose thoughts that say I can figure this out? This is for me. Good. Well come from this. How is this for the best? Spend time asking yourself better questions, instead of why am I such a loser? Or why can't I figure this out? Or why is this always happening to me? Why didn't I see that? Your brain loves to give you answers. It loves to answer questions. And when you give it shitty questions, you're gonna get shitty answers. And I just really want to emphasize that it is you're only going to get a shitty outcome.

So what I want to encourage you is to ask yourself better questions? How is this for the best? How is this going to evolve me? What good will come from this? How will my product or my business be better because of this? And then make yourself answer. Right? I've had to come up with those answers and say, now I'm going to know better now I'm going to have all this extra wisdom and experience that I can give to all of my clients in Food Business Success. How amazing is that? What good will come from this? These are questions that open yourself up to possibility that start to crack the door to focusing on solutions, accepting the reality and then moving forward with solutions that this is for you. I've been rereading a book by Ryan Holiday called obstacle is the way and man if you need this is like one that I just I'm going to keep around and I've been highlighting. I don't know the last time I bought a physical book but this is well worth it. Just to be able to highlight and refer back to I just want to read a couple of quotes because I think this is what it's all about. And He just really summarizes what I'm trying to say. when bad things happen, this is not necessarily a bad thing, we can turn that obstacle upside down to simply by using it as an opportunity to practice some other virtue or skill.

Even if it is just learning to accept that bad things happen. Or in a practice humility, problems, as Duke Ellington once said, are a chance for us to do our best, just our best. That's it not the impossible to do great things, we need to be able to endure tragedy and setbacks. We've got to love what we do and all that it entails good and bad, we have to learn to find joy in every single thing that happens. So what I want to leave you with, is to encourage you to decide ahead of time, first decide that you are all in on the 5050 that you are willing to feel negative emotion. Welcome to life, my friends, like negative emotion is part of the deal. And for me, when I just accept it, and allow it, instead of resisting reacting or buffering, it's actually not nearly as bad as I've made it out to be in my mind. But emotion, negative emotion is part of the deal. As well as amazing highs, there is nothing like getting that first sale, or launching your webstore. And getting those first orders, it is truly phenomenal. And the other thing I want to encourage you to do is to decide ahead of time, what you are going to make bad things mean about you and your business. I was talking with a client, we're just getting her product out the door first time, it's very scary for her, I get it like you are putting yourself out there, right? You have this product that you are so proud of right that you you've been sharing on a small scale and getting feedback. And of course, all your friends and family tell you how much they love it. And then you put yourself out there online, right? And you open yourself up to criticism and to judgment into feedback. And hopefully you get a lot of positive feedback. But there is very possible you are going to get negative feedback. And she said, I'm just so nervous about what people are going to say what if everybody hates it? And I told her, I said, Yeah, what if? What if you got hundreds of emails back that said, This is terrible? decide now, what you are going to make that mean? How you are going to handle it? Are you going to keep trying? Are you going to learn from it? Are you going to grow and evolve? Or are you going to make that mean, you're a total failure, and you should just give up now. And if we make that decision ahead of time, and we plan for the worst case scenario, it's pretty likely that, you know, maybe you're gonna get one or two or five emails, maybe you're gonna get even more. But not everyone, most likely, but it could happen. Are you willing to feel that negative emotion if it happens, decide now. And don't make it mean anything about you do not beat yourself up, you're going to make that decision ahead of time. I just can't

emphasize enough to you guys how amazing this journey is and how much I would love to help you in the journey to help you avoid some of these big mistakes. Because of my learning and because of my experience. The rewards are infinite. They are amazing. And you are choosing to have bigger, badder things potentially happen. Are you all in? I hope you are I hope this helps you next time. Bad things happen. And you can go back and listen to this. And it's a little pep talk to help keep you going. Until next time have an amazing week.

Are you ready to start that delicious idea that you make in your home kitchen or grow your existing packaged food business and take it to the next level? The most successful food business entrepreneurs have support, guidance, focus and accountability to help them make it happen quickly without wasting time or money. Plus, I think starting your packaged food business should actually be fun. Food Business Success is your secret ingredient to creating your food business dream. Please don't go this alone. Check out the private free Food Business Success Facebook group to connect with other food printers. Get your questions answered quickly, share your wins and receive special training and tools I only share inside the private community. Just search for Food Business Success on Facebook, or get the link in the show notes. curious about how Food Business Success can help you. Head over to Food Business success.com and fill out the application to see if you're a great fit for the program. together. Let's make your food business dream a reality.

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