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 farmers' 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. All right, everyone! Welcome back to the podcast. We have an awesome guest for you today. I'm very excited to jump into this topic around leadership and imposter syndrome. I'm excited to welcome Steve Haase to the podcast. Steve is the only leadership coach who started his career as a musician in the US Navy's Premier Band in Washington, DC- that is super random. He went on to join a spiritual community, meditating for hours a day while also running a software company. His journey brought him to lead teams at hypergrowth software businesses like HubSpot and Shopify, resulting in over 40 times growth. As a coach, he has worked with over 700 clients and is on a mission to help others break-free from the imposter syndrome so they can have the impact they desire. And so first of all, welcome, Steve!

Steve 1:39
Thank you so much. I am thrilled to be here with you.

Sari 1:43
I should also just mention that you and I are in the same mastermind. We both get coaching from Dave, and both work with him. And you're also a certified life coach to the same school I am certified through as well. You've actually coached me, my own personal coaching, too.

Steve 2:07
We're only humans, everyone have stuff to work on.

Sari 2:09
Love it. Well, just maybe give us a high level. Is there anything we want to spill in there? I mean, you and I were talking and I was like, I don't know, why do you want to come on my podcast? And then you were telling me about your experience with Shopify, and working with lots of CPG brands, and certainly HubSpots, an incredible software company. But you know, we're not going to talk so much about that. But I'd love for you to fill in any gaps and kind of give folks a preview of what we are going to talk about today.

Steve 2:45
Yeah, well, I'm passionate about the space because entrepreneurship is such a path. It's such a path of personal expression, of economic freedom, of having the impact that you want to have in the world. And it requires you to have the right resources, right. If you've got the right software that you can work with, it's going to make things quicker for you. If you've got the right team that you're working with, it's going to make things quicker for you. If you have the right knowledge and information, it's going to make things quicker for you. And getting coaching to understand, you know, where are your blind spots, where might you be slowing your progress down, will just accelerate all of those things. Because if you have the greatest idea, and the greatest team, and the greatest software and all of that stuff but you're getting in your own way, and not really letting those things shine, you're not going to have the success that you want. So that's what I'm passionate about.

Sari 3:43
I like to say at the center of it all, it's you, right. You is the entrepreneur and we got to fix you! And I don't mean fix isn't broken, but just help you grow into the person. Like if things aren't going well or you're getting stuck or you're procrastinating, like, it's all you! You're the common denominator.

Steve 3:57
Well, exactly. And there's also an element of who you see yourself becoming, right. If you have an idea for this food product or for the business that you want to build, but you still see yourself just as a tinkerer in your kitchen, or as you know, an employee who has a side hustle, you're never going to grow into the potential of that idea. And so a big part of it is allowing your vision to be as big as it can be and then move towards that with the confidence that you're already there. That it's at hand. That success is yours to have, that you deserve it.

Sari 4:47
Which leads so perfectly into our first topic, talking about something that is very near and dear to my heart, something I am still working on but have gotten so much better. We're going to talk about imposter syndrome. I remember, I'll just tell you a quick story. This was in the desperate times before I started Food Business Success and I had gotten a cease and desist on my business name. And things were not working, everything was falling apart and I remember there was a book about imposter syndrome that was kind of popular at the time. And it just kind of, it didn't really uplift me. It kind of broke me. Like I remember being in a hotel room, being like, oh, I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this. Like, yeah, that's me. And now, what? It kind of defined it, but it didn't really tell me to get out of it. So first of all, I guess, tell us, tell people if they never heard of that term, or if they're sort of vaguely familiar. How do you define imposter syndrome? And then let's jump into it.

Steve 6:01
Totally. Imposter syndrome is when you feel like you don't belong. When you have more responsibility than you have soft concepts to handle. And so the responsibility might be growing your company, it might be managing your team. It might even be guesting on a podcast, right. Delivering interesting things to say. But if your self concept is below your perceived level of responsibility, there's going to be shakiness inside, right? You're going to feel like, I don't belong, I don't measure up. When will they find me out? I'm a fraud. And then that filter will define all the things that are happening in that situation. Someone leaves your team, they quit or they you know, you have to let them go. If your self concept isn't up to the actuality of that task, you're going to interpret that as meaning, see, I'm a fraud. See, I don't know how to lead. And then it's a self reinforcing loop, right? It's kind of just goes in a downward spiral. You mentioned the feeling like it's breaking you. That's part of it. You know, you're guesting on a podcast, you need to have important things to say and you kind of trip on a word. Rather than, of course, I tripped on a word, I'm a human, I'm going to trip. You say, see, I don't belong and then you lose your creativity, you lose your confidence, and then you blow it! So imposter syndrome is that negative loop of....

Sari 7:33
Yeah, I know for me, I really showed up, but you know as a business, like talk about exposing all of your weaknesses, all of the things, right. I think as humans, as adults we tend to get out of our discomfort and pushing our growth as you can get to a certain age, certain level, as an adult, and then you are like, I just want to stay doing things I'm comfortable with and I'm good at, right, things I'm going to be successful at. And then you decide to start a packaged food business, and all of a sudden, you're gonna find yourself way out of your element. Right? And that, like you said, that kind of gap, I guess, between I want to be a business owner, have a profitable business, and I'm not that person yet. So where do we go from there? Help us, Steve.

Steve 8:36
Right. So the foundation of it all is your vision. Vision will get you. It's what got you started and it's what will get you through all of the things. There are so many ways to make money and starting your own business is not like a slam dunk way to do it, right. There's a reason that you say, hey, I want to do this packaged food business. It's not just to make money. It's not just to have a team, it's not just to have your products on the shelves of Whole Foods or wherever you envision them being. You have a vision, there's a passion that you have. And so when you're in that situation, maybe you're pitching the idea to big investor or a big company, whoever it might be, and you feel that sense of what am I doing here? I don't belong. Coming back to your vision and realizing I'm the one doing it. Like the reason I'm here is because I wanted to do this. It's my passion, it's my vision, that will give you something stronger than those voices of self.

Sari 9:41
Yeah. Because you do you have to be willing, right? Dan Sullivan talks about commitment, but it first requires courage, right. And so we have to have courage to go out on that limb, to get out of our comfort zone and to try to create something bigger than ourselves and that's why I love working with this group of entrepreneurs around food because food does have, you know, unlike maybe consumer like electronics or starting some other kind of product based business but there's so much passion, and there's so much built into food around community and health, and creating these memories and experiences. I think that's where a lot of the vision comes from, is people see not only their product on the shelf, but people enjoying it, and loving it, and creating experiences. So I do think that's probably what people need to tap into is that bigger why, right?

Steve 10:49
Absolutely. Because you're going to have the roller coaster, right. The roller coaster is waiting if you're not on it in a major way already. And it's that bigger why, that vision that's going to sustain you through the ups and downs of any business but particularly when you're the boss, when you are in charge of motivating others, whether it's an investor, a retail chain, a distributor, anyone that you need to motivate, a potential team member, or current team member, like the source of that motivation is going to come from your own vibration.

Sari 11:26
Yeah, so you hold on to that tightly. And I will say that's probably why the book was terrible getting me out of it. But I did, I created a vision that was like, I know the people I want to help. I know I want to create something like I'm going to give it one last shot. Go all in. And I really held that vision of creating a program and something that you know, was affordable for bootstrappers, bootstrapping entrepreneurs, but would really help them bridge that gap, at least with knowledge and expertise. And now, I offer the mindset piece as well with Food Business Success and Coaching. But I think it leads to like, so what do we do with, we have the vision and then what are some of the tools that we can dig into some more? Because I found life coach, you know, I found the Life Coach School in that process and started stepping into who I wanted to become. And now I help other people step into who they need to be, right. The CEO, the salesperson, like putting on all the different hats that are way outside of your comfort zone. So what are some some tactics and strategies, some things that you tell people to do once they have that vision clear?

Steve 12:54
So once you have your vision clear, you create the picture of yourself living it. Because everything starts with a thought. If you just think about the technologies involved for you to be listening to this podcast that Sari and I are recording right now, like it's insane! And it all started with someone saying, wouldn't it be cool if? I have this idea. So everything begins with a thought and in order to turn that thought into the real world stuff that changes the way that we live, you have to follow it up with action. And the thing that's going to have you following it up with action is your own belief in the inevitability of it coming to fruition. You have to see the end zone in your mind so clearly and vividly that it's like, it's not even a question, like the rest of the world will question you. They'll be like, I don't really see it. You're like, dude, have you not seen it?

Sari 13:59
It's amazing! This is the best sauce! The best granola!

Steve 14:05
It's so vibrant in my mind. It's so present in my mind. The way you do it is you make the future vision more real to you than the current reality. Or you could call it living into your future self. You could call it visualization. You could call it manifestation, whatever it is, like you're pretending so hard that the world has to follow up on.

Sari 14:30
Because your brain is amazing. Your brain doesn't know the difference, right? Like maybe a tangible way for people, we use this example a lot in the Life Coach School, but you're going on vacation and you're going to Hawaii or Mexico or Europe or wherever and you are visualizing yourself there, like you're seeing yourself on a beach and it's so real, right? The tastes, like using all of your senses to get there, too. I think is really important, building your vision and the anticipation and like, you totally believe that, that is going to happen.

Steve 15:09
Yeah. When you read about great leaders, Steve Jobs, for example. We talked about his reality distortion field. Like when you're talking to Steve Jobs, he would bring you into a space of possibility where you're like, of course, we're gonna make phones that can do that. And of course, you know, we'll find the glass that's strong enough to do what you're talking. Of course, that's gonna happen! And then when you're done talking to him, you're like, what the hell did I just agree to?

Sari 15:36
Wait, what? But maybe what just came to me is like, you know, you mentioned Steve Jobs. And it's like, I think people immediately go to like, yeah, but that's Steve Jobs. Like, he's special, right? And so I think within imposter syndrome is that, like, who am I? Who am I to do this? And I think some of us maybe grow up with better support systems in our families and maybe you grew up around other entrepreneurs so it comes more natural. But let's say for most of us, we don't grow up around that and we don't see people taking risks and really going after big dreams. And so, oh, do you see that like that kind of unicorn syndrome? Like, yeah, but they're an anomaly. They're something special.

Steve 16:29
For sure. And that's why you get coached because the question, who am I? I mean, you can answer it and you can answer it with something really big and positive, but usually it presupposes, I'm no one so who am I to pretend to do this thing? And so then you just notice the feeling that that creates of self doubt, right? Because like, if we just answered the question, with the feeling, with the thought that's creating the self doubt, you're gonna be at, I'm no one or I don't belong. All those things we started with the imposter syndrome, I can't do this, I don't know what I'm doing. The way you're going to recognize that all is the feeling of self doubt, the feeling of loss of motivation. And then from there, you can actually just kind of unpack it, like, what is my self concept? What am I believing here that's actually creating this energy that's causing me not to make that phone call, not to put together the deck, not to hit the streets and start knocking on doors? The things that you know you should be doing to move your business forward are generated by a feeling and that feeling has you emerges from a belief. And so then that's what we start with the belief work of, see yourself as that entrepreneur who has built the company.

Sari 17:55
And I definitely remember questioning that, who am? Like, I don't know, I don't know how to do online courses. I don't know, do quote coaching or who am I to do this, right. But I kind of kept just being like, I'm going to be really uncomfortable here. And you go, you get that first client and the second one, you're like, maybe I do know what I am doing. But it still creeps up. And even now, right, three years, four years later. So it's just something, I think it gets easier. And I think you can catch it sooner. But you're right. I mean, it all starts with the thought and I've done a podcast on like, using your feelings to drive your action. And so recognizing it does come from a thought and if your thought is, I'm no one then you're gonna self doubt and then your actions are going to be limited, if any, right?

Steve 18:55
Yep. And what else you should do is, I shouldn't say this, but I'm gonna say, turn off your social media. Stop comparing how great everyone else's life and successes.

Sari 19:08
Yeah, oh my gosh.

Steve 19:11
Right. Like, you know what you need to do to grow your business. Just go do that. Turn off all the distractions, right. Part of the old persona is like, well, I'm a consumer, I'm sitting in my chair, I'm just gonna have fun and enjoy my life. That does not line up with yourself as this badass creator of your visionary business. So become the person who is going to break down all the walls that they need to. And, you know, the the sense of being an imposter will fall away.

Sari 19:41
Yeah, it's such a balance between consuming and action, and it's easy to fall into, I'm just going to consume and especially if you notice that you're going into that spiral of like compare and despair and who am I like, shut it off! I mean, I consume a lot, but I also take a lot of action. I hardly am on social media personally but I consume, you know, inspiring podcasts, and business, motivational, coaching stuff that, like, gets myself confidence, helps me grow my self confidence.

Steve 20:19
Absolutely. So we talked about kind of the mindset things, the how to shift that over time. Another thing that's really going to help with developing as a leader is to never fail again. The other way to think about it is if you fail your way to success. So the thing that slows people down and trips them up is when they think, oh, this is a failure. Therefore, I'm a failure, therefore, this whole thing won't work. And so that is, that's part of the downward spiral of imposter syndrome, you're like, well, look, I failed, obviously, see, it's true.

Sari 21:06
Right, proving that's true.

Steve 21:11
But instead, if you take a failure, let's say, you wanted to sell a certain amount at a fair that you're at, or your launch of your online store, new launch of a product on your store, anything like that. And you miss your numbers. You miss your numbers by 50%. What is the $1,000 learning that you can gain from that event? If you just say, oh, that sucks, never doing that again; or my marketing person totally blew it, you're fired. You miss the opportunity to grow, right? And so as a leader, shifting your mindset from, I hope this works, I hope I don't fail into something's gonna happen and I'm gonna learn from it. You almost even want it to not work in a week, right? That's where the learning is. If you're like, hey, I tried this thing and it succeeded wildly. You didn't necessarily learn anything like it could fail the next time and you certainly didn't become any stronger.

Sari 22:18
A student and a client inside Food Business Success who sent me a TikTok, I should put it up on our Facebook too. But it was about a quote from Michael Jordan about, you know, all the shots he's missed and all the games he's lost, right. But like, we would look at Michael Jordan be like, he's the most amazing player in basketball. But recognizing that every great, every great entrepreneur, every great person, like who's doing amazing things is failing. They're failing forward, right? Still way around it. Sorry.

Steve 22:57
You're gonna get dirty, right? You're gonna get dirty, you're gonna get all messed up. And that's where you have to come back to your vision, like, why are you doing this? You could work at a bank, you could go work somewhere, lot of ways to make money. But instead, you put yourself in the ring to do this thing.

Sari 23:15
Yeah, I love that. So let's talk about, you wrote in here about culture of accountability. So how do we use that to help us kind of overcome or move through, maybe we never overcome imposter syndrome. But we can move through it a lot quicker.

Steve 23:37
If you want to create a great business, you need to have great people on board. And you're not always going to know if someone is great. Maybe you're working with a distributor, working with a vendor, maybe it's someone directly on your team that came highly recommended, your conversations were all good. And then you start getting rumblings. Order is botched, people are complaining about working with the person that's on your team. So then this is your moment as a leader. What do you do about that? As humans, we tend to want to not rock the boat, right? People pleasing is a very easy place to go. You're like, well, it's going to be safer. I just don't say anything. Safer for the moment but what's actually going to happen is you will never create a great business. I was talking to a leader just this morning, who was talking about how he over the course of years wound up with the best. He is the CEO of a plumbing company. We have the best plumbers in all of Seattle. They're on our team, we have the best, and also the contractors that we work with are the best. Why? Because I fire the ones that don't work out like the ones that are not the best, they don't stay. The contractors that are like, you know, rumbling on the frontlines and aren't doing great work. We don't rehire them. So it's going to be a process, it's going to be something over time. But you as the leader, need to keep your standards uncomfortably high. In order for your vision to become manifested, you need to hold the standards high. If you imagine it like like a little baby, right? This is like a little baby, you want to take the best possible care of that little child. And so you're not going to feed them the junky food or the you know, crappy formula, like, hey, I'm going to get the good stuff, I'm going to have really good care of this baby, right. But in your business, you're like, oh, I don't want to rock the boat there and I don't want to have that difficult conversation. I'll save some money by going with that person over there. But ultimately, you're just slowing it down, you're having this, you're making it harder for your vision to really come true. So you create a culture of accountability by holding yourself to the highest standards, and being willing to be uncomfortable to do that with everybody else. In the spirit of partnership, and in the spirit of creating something great together, right? That's what the reality distortion field is for. It's like, we're gonna do this incredible thing that no one has done before. We're gonna change the world, even if it's just the hot sauce. Our hot sauce is gonna change the world, right. And so you maintain that vision and you do it by keeping yourself and those you work with, you know, at the highest level.

Sari 26:41
So how do you use. I mean, we talked about we're in the same mastermind or a program like Food Business Success, where you have a group and group coaching, how do you recommend using accountability in that way? I mean, it's one thing to hold ourselves accountable, which can be really challenging sometimes.

Steve 27:02
So the way you create accountability is you agree ahead of time on what the outcome should be. And then you check in along the way if it's, you know, something that has kind of milestones, how's it progressing? Where do you need help? You know, are we on track? Because accountability means that the person you're working with, maybe it's a team member, they own it for themselves. But the only way to own it is you start in the beginning and you say, all right, what should this look like? Here's my vision. You're the expert, you're going to be doing the work. Where do we line up here? Let's sign off on when done looks like. And then as you go, it's are we on track? What more support do you need? Are you overbooked? Are you over scheduled? Are you under trained? Are you under motivated? Like along the way you're going to see, is this person the one who is going to deliver that results.

Sari 28:02
Way I see it is like using a coach, right? Getting a coach that you create that contract together. You're like, this is eyes entrepreneur to the coach is like, here's what my deliverable is, I want you to help hold me accountable, right? Getting accountability increases your likelihood of success, by like 95%. It's crazy. So having that piece of accountability, I mean, a lot of my people are like, I don't have a team. It's just me. And I almost looked at it like, great like, okay, put on your your salesperson hat, put on your marketing hat, but on your production hat, like you are potentially your team of five people but all rolled into you. But that's part of being a CEO too, it's like, I'm going to hold each of these things accountable that I need to help move my business forward.

Steve 28:59
That's absolutely the key. I'm glad you talked about roles because it's true. When it's just you by yourself, you're like, oh, I have so much to do in my business but then you're not thinking about as the CEO. The big shift from startup solopreneur to CEO is not the size of your team. It's how you think about each activity within your business.

Sari 29:24
And being really effective and productive and also being a good boss yourself. That's kind of a tangential but I've recognized sometimes I'm like, I am the worst boss to myself. I have gone years without giving myself any time off and working weekends. And then when something does go wrong, I just beat myself up. Beat the crap out of myself. Like, let's be a good boss to ourselves.

Steve 29:53
That's brilliant. This is your chance to practice being a CEO before anyone else feels the consequences of your learning journey.

Sari 30:03
Oh my gosh. All right. So, accountability, I love that it's so important than, you know, I do the Badass 30 Program and Food Business Success and offer that and have a podcast. And I think that's such a great way to start building trust with yourself. Because I think accountability is such a big word. And people don't really know how to hold themselves accountable. It's definitely a muscle. So getting an outside person, like a coach or program that will help, I think is is one way to do it, sort of impose the outside force of putting money down or having people that you've told, and you've committed to. But it is, it's super vague for ourselves, like, you know, if we say we want to lose weight, or we want to eat better, or you know, save a certain amount of money and then we don't, we're like, oh, all right. Kind of reinforces our failure or like imposter syndrome, right?

Steve 31:06
True. It's also important though, as you think about accountability, just to explore the root of it, which is to account. Oftentimes, accountabilities like this finger pointing, better do what you say kind of thing. But if you actually account for your activities, for your momentum, you're actually gonna find a lot of positive things too. So it's important when you think about accountability, to not just say, hey, let's whip everybody into shape. You know, let's get this train moving. But actually, they're like, hey, you're doing great. Look at all the stuff you created. That's amazing, right? Like everybody loves feeling like they're making progress, and being able to take it to the next level. And so the way to take it to the next level is usually not through telling yourself that you screwed it up and that you're, you know. The way to take it to the next level is by saying, look at how much I've created, look at how much momentum I have, look at what a badass boss I am. Let's take this thing to the next level, right? Because then you're motivated rather than...

Sari 32:21
Yeah, celebrating your wins. That's so important and I do that within our mastermind, we do that, one of my favorite parts. I have clients who, you know, we do fax or messages or Slack and Facebook Groups and celebrating our wins there. I mean, I just had a client that they had a big stretch goal for their month sales, and they exceeded it by like, almost 50%, which was amazing. And it was just so fun to check in all throughout the month. And I always encourage them to like, you got to document that, you know, you gotta like mark those moments because when you're in, when you are dealing with setbacks, which we'll talk about next. You know, that is so important to go back and revisit and have that evidence of success that you have figured it out. Super important. Let's talk about setbacks, because that never happens, right?

Steve 33:23
Only for losers.

Sari 33:25
And to be clear, I think what I heard you say with failure is like don't fail in that. We reframe failure as just learning, right? We're on our way to success. So it's a reframing. It's not that you're never gonna have setbacks or that should be the goal.

Steve 33:43
Absolutely. So within coaching, one of the fundamental activities of coaching is separating thoughts from facts. And setback goes in the fact line. But there's no such thing as a factual setback. I mean, you know, maybe if you're like, hey, I want to create 100 of my products, and then a batch of 50 went bad. You're like, oh, well, that's a factual setback because I was at 100. You know, I was at 50 and now I'm at zero. But even the idea of setback, it's literally just a thought because in that example, like I created 50, and then you know, they went bad so now I'm at 0. You could also just say that was learning, right? So the factualness of this was a major setback, it starts to lessen. I'm not saying hey, you need to just gaslight yourself into thinking that everything's all wonderful. But like, when you think about life, we often feel like it's easy to be attracted to the negative and so you know, if a batch goes bad, you're like, oh, this is horrible. But like, what are some ways in which it's good? I learned about, you know, safely packaging my stuff. Before I get really big and make it, I noticed it before I shipped it and people got sick. Like, there's a bunch of ways in which that fact of 50 has been spoiled, can be a positive thing for your business.

Sari 35:28
I actually did have a client who, she ruined a whole batch. And it was a lot, like she did a full batch of product and she handled it so well. You know, and I was like, what did you learn? And she's like, well, I learned by switching out ingredients, that I start with a smaller batch size. And I learned that I can get past this, right. This doesn't have to be the end of the world and it doesn't have to slow me down for as long as maybe used to. Have compassion and be in the moment, be like, yeah that sucks and here's what I learned, and we're gonna move on.

Steve 36:14
Absolutely. And you spoke about your kind of, you know, dark night of the entrepreneurial soul moment. You know, in mine, this wasn't on my entrepreneurial journey, it's part of my corporate journey. I got fired from my role at Shopify, about a year ago now. And man did that suck! I was just like, a kind of kick to the gut, that pretty much anyone feels if you get fired from your job. And the space that that opened up in my life, was to become a coach full time. And now, that's what I'm doing. And so you kind of look back at that moment, you're like, you know what, there is definitely a perspective in which that was the best thing that ever happened.

Sari 37:01
Yeah, it's so true. I mean, I'm sure we can all help everybody can go back and say, find those moments, where it seemed like the worst thing that had happened. I know, I've been laid off twice. And, you know, the job's not worked out that I thought would be amazing or relationships. And so hopefully everybody can go back and find a moment or two where it was like, yeah, that was for the best. And as we get older, right, it's just about having more and more experience and perspective, to be able to get through the negative emotion faster. And that, you know, something bad happened, you're like, yeah, but there have been times where, like, bad quote unquote, right? Something happened and I have gotten through these things before, and sometimes they even turn out more amazing because of it.

Steve 38:00
Absolutely. And so then having the presence of mind to experience the kick in the gut, that you know, batch going bad or a deal going sour or whatever it feels like in the moment, but having the presence of mind to just have some space around it. Like confidence in your own resilience. And there is a concept that we use a lot at Shopify, that's very appropriate here. There's a book by Nassim Taleb called Antifragile. And the concept is, we use this all the time at Shopify, the concept is the opposite of fragile is not robust. The opposite of fragile, anti fragile, there's no word for it, it's anti fragile. So if something's fragile, it's you know, crystal glass and you drop it on the ground, and it breaks. If something's robust, it's, you know, a wooden glass, you drop it on the ground and it doesn't break. If something's anti fragile. There's no glass that's anti fragile, but like you, you drop it on the ground, it breaks and then when it heals, it's even stronger. So like your bones, right, your human body, your muscles, you stress them, you kind of break them down. When they heal, they get even stronger. And so as you create your business, you create your systems, have your mind towards, if I were to just throw a monkey wrench into this, how could it become stronger? That's the kind of anti fragile thinking that will prevent you from from hitting any permanent roadblocks. Right? And so that's the idea with overcoming setbacks and having that resilience is if you think of yourself as an antifragile entrepreneur, than any of these things, I needed broken bones along the way, are actually just there to help you become a more robust resilient entrepreneur.

Sari 39:59
Yeah, I love that concept. I haven't thought about that concept in a while. But there was definitely a few podcasts I listened to about that and so good. And I remember just being like, this is such a helpful concept. And because it is our scars and those wounds, right, and the things that helped shape us as people, I mean, we all think we want this like perfect, easy life, but that'll be so boring.

Steve 40:29
Right. It's like I started with, if your first attempt is a home run, how much did you really learn? It's not like you have to earn your success through struggle, because you shouldn't want unnecessary struggle. But it's also, I mean, it's almost the only way, right? How are you going to create something new if you don't, you know, create some failures along the way, right? The size of your pile of failures is what will determine the size of your success.

Sari 41:07
Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh, I think maybe how I look at it is that failure is gonna happen, right. That is a circumstance in the world, like batches will burn, we'll make bad decisions, we won't get you know, we'll apply for Whole Foods or a big account, and we won't get it. And then, but I think, then what we do is we layer on the suffering of our thoughts and our emotions, right, we layer on the, I'm such a horrible person, and I can't believe you did that and you're such a screw up, and all the negative self talk so many of us do. And so we layer on all of that and that's where the hardship is that we create as entrepreneurs. Things are gonna happen, we're gonna have to adjust. Pandemics are going to happen and then we have to adjust to them, right. But it's how we think about them that sort of determines the quality of our experience.

Steve 42:17
And it's such an amazing thing, like, as an entrepreneur, the fact that you are taking steps to create something that doesn't yet exist for reasons that are near and dear to your heart is a remarkable thing. It's extraordinary and acknowledging that courage and that audacity to create something in this great big world of so many possibilities, like you're one of the people who are doing it. That's huge.

Sari 42:50
Yeah. To answer that, you know, who am I to do this? Who are you not to do it? We need your products in the world. I mean, you listen to any past entrepreneur of any food brand, and they went through the same thing, like who am I, I'm just, you know, Justin's. I'm just a hippie making almond butter in my fridge for my roommates, and I take it to the farmers market, right? Like, who are you not to become a global nut butter brand? Like why not? Why not you? I love it. I get so passionate about, because I just want this for everyone. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. I mean, most people who listen to this podcast or listen to my YouTube channel, or, you know, have this thought of like, what if I created this, most people won't actually follow through, because it's damn hard, and it's uncomfortable, you're gonna feel negative emotion. But I want this journey for everyone, because the person you become is just so good, if you let it.

Steve 44:12
Yeah. And when you do that, you're stepping into a leadership role. And leadership is how we change the world. And that to, like you mentioned, entrepreneurship, it's a spiritual journey. It's a personal journey. It's a path of so much growth. And it certainly provides you with endless opportunities to self-reflect and to grow and to do things even better, but not from a place of anything being missing or being deficient right now.

Sari 44:42
Yeah, so good. Well, Steve, tell people where they can find more about you. I know you have an awesome free course people can join. We'll put the link in the show notes, but tell us a little bit more about you and how people can find you or work with you.

Steve 45:00
Yeah, thanks Sari. Well, I have a free course on breaking free from imposter syndrome goes deeper into some of these topics. It's a five day email course. So you'll get some of those little pointers there and insights and a little bit of self-reflection work to do there. My website is over at hypergrowthcoach.ca. I'm here in Canada. So, yeah, hypergrowthcoach.ca. And if you want to work with me beyond that free course, then I do have some openings for one-on-one clients as well.

Sari 45:32
Awesome. So good. Anything else you want to offer us are things you, I didn't ask you, but I should have or a little nugget you want to leave the audience with?

Steve 45:45
Yeah, I think technology distribution channels, all the nuts and bolts of business are really important. I love to geek out about that as well. So if there's some element of ecommerce or brand growth leadership, you can hit me up over at Instagram, I'm at @SteveHaaseCoach there. But the most important thing really is, who you are as a leader? Because if you see yourself as an antifragile, resilient leader with a vision, you're gonna figure out the channels, you're gonna figure out the software, you're gonna figure out the distribution, all that stuff will come into place, but it will not move until you step into that vision for yourself.

Sari 46:35
So good. Love it. Thank you so much for being here with me today. Steve. It's been. It's been a pleasure and so fun to connect with you in this way. So I really appreciate your time today.

Steve 46:45
Thank you, Sari, same here.

Sari 46:48
Oh my gosh, that was so good. I get so fired up about this. And if you want help, either as a group coaching for accountability inside Food Business Success, that's always a great option or come work with me one-on-one inside business coaching. And let's just see how far we can go together. And until next time, have an amazing week.

Sari 47:20
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