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 in!

Sari 0:39
Hey there, welcome back to the podcast, really glad you're here today with me. This concept is something I've been wanting to do a podcast on for a long time. And it just seemed like things kept happening, other ones became more priority. I also just wanted to get it like just right because I know it's such a powerful concept. But you know what, when we hold on to things where we are like, I just want it to be perfect. We never actually get them out into the world, right? B Minus Work. So this may not be everything that I dreamed and hoped it would be.

Sari 1:20
But I know you guys are going to really benefit from me sharing with you this concept of the power of "and". Really powerful concept. So if you've ever seen me on a zoom call with our group coaching inside Food Business Success or if you're a one-on-one client, you know in the background of my office, there's a chair and then next to it there is a framed ampersand symbol, right? Which is the "and" symbol. And I'm sure people have wondered, nobody's really ever asked me what that means. But this concept is so powerful that I actually like framed it as a constant reminder to myself which even though I have it in my office framed, I still constantly have to remind myself. This is definitely an area that is not easy for me. It's a trap that I have, I don't know if it's like a personality thing. But I would say since I was a kid, this is an area that has always been a struggle for me. And so the concept is this, right? That two things can be true at the same time. And that black and white thinking, it's all one way or it's all another way, all or nothing, puts us in a really low state of solving problems. And so when I finally really, at least in theory, understood the concept of this, it definitely helped free things up in my life. And it helped me to do more in my business, helped my clients do more. And I'll give you some great examples. Just this idea, like can you just let that sit for a minute with you. And I'm curious, like I said, I think that there's also just certain personalities that tend towards black and white thinking versus like, the truth is probably somewhere in the gray or that two things can be true at the same time. It's a really powerful skill and it's one that will really serve you as you start your business, as you grow your business. So usually what follows your sentence, and I'm sure you can find these in your life is the word "but", right? So it's, I want to do this but I don't have the money, or I want to do this but I don't have the time. Instead if we can take the but out of it and say "and", so I want to, this was a recent example, I want to go to this event but I don't want to miss a farmers market. We need that cash flow. Went back to my client, I said, okay, how can we do an "and" situation? Let's just open our mind up to the possibility of I can attend this event and I can still have money coming in from the farmers market. How can both of those things be true? And when I offered that back to them, it was amazing. They kind of like freed something, right? It got us out of this really tunnel vision and unlock something for them where they were like, oh, what are the possibilities? How could we do both? And so it becomes a really great problem solving tool. So when you catch yourself saying X, Y, Z, I want to do this. But, right, think about what is the result that you actually want from that thing that follows the but. So, this was actually something that somebody messaged me in a DM. They said, I want to start my package food business, I want to start my sauces but I am beholden to a family business. And so I wanted to question them and say, can we put the "and" in there? I want to start my sauce business and I have obligations with my family business. How could I do both? And then start brainstorming. What if you did know? If you try to answer that with I don't know. We got to get rid of that vocabulary all together. So if you answer I don't know, go back and say, but what if I did know, right? So let's take out the "but" and remove "I don't know" from my vocabulary and then we can start to solve problems.

Sari 6:20
Or it could be something like, I want to grow my business. I'm ready to scale my business to the next level but I don't have the capital, but I don't have the money. Okay. I want to scale my business and I want to do it in the most effective least debt, money investment way, right? So then we can start brainstorming all of the ideas. Are there grants out there? Can we take on a business loan that is, you know, low interest or no interest? Can we borrow from friends and family? Can we open it up to equity, right? Are there other ways that we can bring more money to the table? I mean, I've had clients go and work Uber or Instacart just to bring in that extra cash, right? Just to relieve some of that pressure or open up to new possibilities. So how can we take out the buts? Whenever you're going to say next, I want to...but. And we're going to put in the "and" instead. So often we argue for our limitations, you know. You guys will tell me, I want to do this or I want it to be like that, but. And there's this long list of excuses, right? And all you're doing right there is you are telling me all the reasons why it's not possible. You're too old, you're too young, you don't have any industry knowledge, you have too much industry knowledge. Tech is a big one with a lot of you guys. I want to have an online business but I don't know how to run the tech. Okay, how can I run an online business and be proficient at tech? Well, there's lots of ways to learn the tech. You can hire out for it, right? There's lots of ways to solve the problem. Let's not argue for how you can't do it. I want you to advocate for how you can.

Sari 8:34
And the other tool there that I just thought of is, if you don't know the how, find the who. Find somebody else who is doing it. Find somebody like myself who can help you with it, who does know the how. Find other mentors, find Facebook Groups, find Slack groups. There are so many resources out there. So if you really don't know the how, if you're like, I really don't know how, then go find a "who" to help you with the "how". English as a second language is another one. I work with a lot of clients whose English is not their first language, right? And they're bringing this delicious food from their home country that they want to share but it's a barrier. But we don't want that to be the reason why you can't. That doesn't have to be the reason. There's that saying, right, that whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. There is a way to overcome it and it is with the power of "and".

Sari 9:43
The other thing that the power of "and" does is it can really free us from the "shoulds", right? Stop shouding on yourself is what I say to a lot of my clients and myself. That you can be having the best day and the worst day at the same time. Has that ever happened to you? I will tell you, for me it just happened recently. I was having the most amazing day with a client, we were running his bars. You know, we were doing the trial run and everything was coming together. And it was just like eight months of all of this work. And it, you know, it's all working. And it's amazing. And the bars are working. And it's so great. And they taste amazing. So I'm in this like, great day, you know, just high energy. Just so proud and so grateful. And then at the same time, I checked my email and I had made a mistake, I had kind of gone a little overboard in an email and I was getting some really negative feedback. Oh, it goes so far to say hate mail. But there were people upset with me, right? And I was having emotions of embarrassment. And you know, maybe some guilt or some shame, was kind of trying to figure out what was going on in there like that white hot face, you know, where you're just like, it's like little, you know, you don't like to be judged. You don't like people saying bad things about you or, you know, saying all these horrible things. So it felt terrible. And I just, I kind of sat there, I took a minute and I walked out of the room we were in and I just thought, wow, this is some kind of incredible that I can be having these feelings of joy and pride and satisfaction. And at the same time, I'm also feeling embarrassment and humiliation and rejection. It's like, it's so interesting! And if we can just make space for it, it kind of helped lessen the negative side of it, right? I was still able to be in the positive and I even told my client, we had a celebratory dinner. And I told him that I had one of those days, that was an "and" day that I was the, you know, a very fun kind of the best day and the worst day at the same time. And he was like, really? I would not have guessed that! He didn't seem to, didn't, you know, it didn't show at all. And I said yeah, it's because I'm allowing it to just be there like, oh, I can allow that negative emotion to be there and it doesn't have to ruin the good day. And I'm gonna deal with it tomorrow and process the emotion but I can kind of just carry it around almost like a heavy purse. And it can just be there. And I can feel kind of negative at the same time. So it was actually a very freeing for me. That wasn't my dream situation by any means but I could allow both to be true.

Sari 13:08
And another one I was thinking of like in the food business is that you can receive no's, right? You can receive buyer no's, customer no's. And you can still be really excited about your product and your business. And you can still be determined and motivated, right? We don't have to shift our whole emotional experience based on a no. And so I hope that there's some ways that this is translating for you that will help kind of, it helps to like lessen some of the negative things that come up, right. And it really allows ourselves to go to more solution oriented questions to be raised our kind of our vibration, our motion, to just be a little more graceful and forgiving, and not get ourselves so locked into it's all black and white, or it's all one thing or another. It just opens ourselves up to options. And I was thinking about some food brands and food concepts too, right? Like there's a lot of creativity when we go to the "and". I think in art that would be a really good place to look, right? Like you know the foundations of art. And then you're able to say what if I combine this and this? And then you have a new art form, right? So with food I was thinking of like peanut butter and chocolate, right? Peanut butter and chocolate, who knew that that would be like the greatest combination in my opinion, on the face of the earth. Or sweet and savory, right? Or healthy and taste great. Or gluten-free and taste great, right? I have a lot of clients in Food Business Success that are doing, you know, really interesting gluten-free products or healthier products, good better for you products. You know, that have the "and" in them. And so we're doing this all the time when you're in the kitchen, potentially. But we need to translate it into you as an entrepreneur. And the reason why, so I think it's really good to just kind of summarize and say, why does this even matter? Well, the faster we can move through the negative stuff, right? The faster, because you're always gonna have problems, right, problems are forever. Every business has 10 problems that they're dealing with all the time. The problems just change, the problems magnify, they get bigger as you grow bigger in your business. So knowing that problems are always going to be there, we don't have to make them so big, right? We don't have to go to such dramatic places where it's the black and white thinking.

Sari 16:13
You know, I mean, I've had a lot of clients especially with packaging, right? Like we're struggling with supply chain issues or a packaging is misprinted. Or your co-packer is, you know, really struggling. And you're having trouble there, right? Like we're all dealing with problems but we don't need to be like, the packaging was misprinted so everything is ruined, right? It's like we so quickly want to go to like such a dramatic place. And if we can soften it up and say, okay, the packaging was misprinted and how can we make this work for now? How can we solve the problem? How can we get better packaging next time? Or how can we resolve this for this time, right? Any of those things, we can open ourselves up so that we can become more resilient, more resourceful. The best entrepreneurs is not that they don't have problems, they just get really good at moving through the problems much faster, and becoming more resilient, and they don't stay in the mud, right? The mud and the muck of all of that negative emotion where you make it the worst thing in the world. Everything is falling apart. It'll never work, right? We go to those super negative places in our brains and our brains are just wired that way. So we need to be able to catch it. We need to have tools to catch it and say, no, wait, wait, this isn't the worst thing in the world. I've gotten through hard things before. I've done tough stuff and I've survived. I've figured it out. So I can do it again, right? So the power of "and" I think is just one of the best concepts in entrepreneurship. If you can allow this in, like put a sticky note, right, and just put the word "and" somewhere where you work because problems are always gonna come up, always, always always. And they help us grow. And they serve us. They help us evolve. They help us step into the entrepreneur that we are meant to be, the person, the human. And I think would really also help you in your relationships too, right? Like, I find it super helpful to use the word "and" when I think of, when I'm, you know, having an argument with somebody or they're not following my manual of what I think a mom should do, or a sister should do, or a friend should do. It really helps to put in the "and", right? They're acting this way and I still love them. And they're a really good human, right? And we're just going through a tough time. This concept is a game changer. This can be a huge difference, make a huge difference in how you approach your life and your business. So I'd love for you to head over to the private Facebook Group and share with me how you're going to use this. What is one situation right now that you can turn from a "but" and argue for your limitations to an "and", and start looking for solutions. And if you want to take this to the next level, if you want one-on-one support with me, you can get it inside Food Business Success, go to the website foodbizsuccess.com and just apply on the homepage. Or you can work with me one-on-one as a business coaching client. I would love to talk with you about either of those options. And until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 20:08
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 foodpreneurs. 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 foodbizsuccess.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!