Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host Sari Kimbell. I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's gotta be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in, and food founder journeys so you can learn what worked and didn't work and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now, let's jump in!

Sari 0:48
Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. I'm so glad you are here with me today. How is your summer going? Almost over which is wild, like it barely started. I have been having so much fun this summer. It felt like one of the more relaxed summers, one of the more, just fun and easy summers.

Sari 1:13
And I'm having a blast in my business and creating more than I thought was possible. And it's all through these tools that I am teaching you here on the podcast. This is possible for you to create a business that you love and enjoy your life. Sometimes in entrepreneurship and this was certainly me in the first few years of my business, it was all hustle all the time and it was so stressful. There is a certain amount of hustle that has to happen at the beginning. But mine lasted for a good five, six years. And it's really not until I really implemented these tools that I'm teaching you here and what we're going to talk about today that I really was able to let go and have more ease, and have more fun, and grow my business faster and easier than ever before. So it's possible for you too.

Sari 2:13
So thanks for being here with me today. On the episode today, I want to follow up with the podcast first, Three Minutes of Possibility, Episode 99. And then Episode 100, Reinvention. And so I wanted to give you that the third component of this, how to actually make it happen. How do you actually create the reinvention and create the future possibility, make it happen? It's one thing to dream about it. And I think you should dream about it a lot. I think you should hold that possibility in your mind very frequently, at least give it three minutes a day. And as much as I would love it that all we had to do was think about what we wanted, and it would just happen, that just is not the reality. And I'm all for, you know, things like The Secret and those kind of you know, let me just sit around and think positive thoughts and the law of attraction. And it'll all just come to me. I think that there's a place for that. And certainly mindset is a huge piece of my coaching practice and my own personal practice. However, I do not believe that I can just sit on my couch and think positive thoughts, and magical things, and luck, and all the things will just happen, they will just come to me. That is just not how it works. And it does require some next steps on your part. There is action required. So let's talk about what that looks like. So first, if you haven't listened to those first two episodes, I definitely recommend that you do. Here's a quick refresher. First, you have to decide, I want a reinvention. I want to create something that's never been done before in the world, to create a new you that's never existed before, you as a successful entrepreneur. So first we're going to decide on a future statement. This is that emotional resonance, the why, the thing that's going to get you out of bed even when you don't feel like it. The thing that's going to make you reach for the sky and say yes, I'm alive, I have breath in my body, I am going to take action on this future me. So a future statement as an example from a client of mine is we are the future of high end entertaining for women. And they have an amazing line of food and beverage products that are all about gathering together as women and creating really special moments. So I love that feature statement. Next, commit to a possibility to spend a little time thinking about what would I love to create, what's possible? And then you're going to actually decide and declare a possibility. And it needs to be a measurable goal that you're going to go after with all your being. So it could be, I will create a $500,000 a year in revenue business by 2025. Now, I want to just make a little caveat here of commitment versus want, something I noticed that a lot of people do is that they sit around in a lot of want, like, oh, it'd be so nice. I just want to create 500k in my business, how would be cool, I want that. But there's a very big difference between wanting something and actually committing to it. And I've done both. And I will tell you that sitting around wanting it, even if my thoughts are really high level, and abundant, and all those things just doesn't create the result that I want, as much as being committed to it. And so what I'm asking you to do is to go beyond just wanting something like it would be nice, right, you can just feel the difference. Like, it would be nice to, you know, run a marathon versus I am committed to running a marathon. And I also want to be clear here that we are declaring a possibility, right? In this case, I said 500k by 2025. But what we are committing to is the taking action and doing the work. We cannot control the outcome, right? As much as I want that outcome, I can't make it so. But what I can control are the actions, the next steps that I take. So when I say commit, I want you to commit to taking the action to make that declaration possible. We don't know, we have no idea if the actions that you take are going to create the result. It's much more likely if you're actually taking action that it's going to happen. But this is all kind of a game, right? There are no rules here. And you're going to try a lot of things, you're going to commit to taking action. And some things are going to work and some things aren't. But I want to just have you pause for a minute and because the question might come up of lik what if I don't achieve it? What if I set my goal too big and I can't achieve it? I would much rather that you make your possibility, way bigger, make it extraordinary, make it feel impossible. And I'd like for you to increase the time, because we overestimate what we can do in a short time and we underestimate what we can do in a longer period of time. Because you're going to be more likely to take bigger action than something that feels achievable. And in the striving for it, you are going to become a better person, you are going to have richer experiences. And if you fall short and you only end up making 400k instead of 500. Who cares? Are you really going to beat yourself up about that? Or if you're going to be like, dang, look at all the things that I did and stretching myself and evolving myself and growing. I'm pretty darn proud of that. And then you just make a new possibility, right? You just set a new goal. There's no problem here. So if I don't create $4 million total by 2025 but I do all the action that I can think to do and I take big leaps and I put you know I'll put myself out there. I'm gonna be really proud of myself no matter the result. Alright, so I want to give you steps, concrete action steps that I want you to take to actually create the reinvention, create this possibility for yourself. So you come out on the other side, a reinvented, a totally new you. So the first thing thing is to think about who do you need to become to create this possibility?

Sari 10:08
And if you guys follow me on Instagram, you saw a couple of weeks ago I was posting, we did some reels with one of my clients, Povocar of Sabashi Foods. And 13 months after us working together, we finally had our first production run. And it was so fun. I was just an amazing experience to be there and be part of it. I'm so honored for that. And I was talking with Provocar, during the runs, and as we were kind of hanging around, sometimes waiting for things to happen. I said, you know, this really is a reinvention for you, what do you think about that, like, you are going from your current career in medicine, to you are now officially becoming an entrepreneur. And this could be one or the other, or it could be, I'm still in medicine and I'm an entrepreneur, but there is a Reinvention. Like he's going from the single career to now I have these two things. And so we were talking about that, and he was like, yeah, I see that like this is a reinvention. And so I was asking him after we wrapped up and we went and celebrated afterwards and I said, who do you need to become to create this possibility, to create the goal that you have for yourself with Sabashi foods? And he was a little bit stumped. And that question, if you've never heard it before, can be, your like, um, I don't know what you're saying, what are you asking me, Sari? And so he was a little bit stumped. He's like, I don't really know how to answer that. And I said, who are some entrepreneurs that you admire in the world? And so that would be my question to you. If you're like, I don't really know how to answer that. Who do you look up to in this industry? And it doesn't have to be somebody in food, it could be an entrepreneur anywhere, but go find. If you don't have one, go find a couple of entrepreneur heroes that you want to look up to, that you're like, wow, I just really liked their attitude, I like what they're doing, I like how they're doing it. And then study them, dissect, you know, what it is about them that you are attracted to? That you admire? Because there's lots of entrepreneurs out there. And some you're gonna be like, really admire, and be all in on and some you're gonna be like, that doesn't feel like the kind of entrepreneur I want to be. And so go find a couple of folks, go listen to some podcasts, interviews, you know, How I Built This is a great one. Next week, I'm talking to Justin of Justin's Nut Butter, and that's a super fun conversation. So you might listen to that one. You might even listen to some of the guests that have been on this podcast before maybe Sarah with Third Bird Collective, or April and Earl of Better Than Provisions, or Brian with Barfly Salsa, or Ryan with Pup in the Pepper. Oh, my gosh, there's been so many cool interviews. Go and listen to these people talk and kind of start to do us, you know, almost like a research project. Like, what do I like about them? What traits do I think that they would need to have to do what they are doing in the world? And it might be traits just to give you some examples of like, they're disciplined. They put themselves out there. They're trying new things. They're not afraid to look like a fool, or to put the, you know, to try new things, to be rejected. They seem to show up for themselves, they seem to honor their word. It seems like they are, you know, striving for bigger things. They're, they have a good mindset about them. They, they they're really positive. They're always helping other people. And these are just some ideas. But you need to do that work and say, what is it about these people that I look to who I think are successful? And what is it about them? Like who are they in the world? So that's the first thing is to think about, who do you need to become to create this possibility? And what you're going to find is that there's probably a gap there. Somebody else has created the business and the success that you want. And they're doing it one way and you're doing what you're doing over here. And you don't have that yet. And so there's a gap and we don't be beat ourselves up about that, what we start to solve for it when we say, okay, if who I need to be is super positive, but I'm not. Then we just say, well, how do I get a little bit better? How do I start making progress towards that? So it's just really good to start writing down who is it that you need to become? And kind of have this picture in your mind of you in 2025, for instance, and this possibility that I've been using. Who are you then that you are not now? So that's the first thing. The second thing is to use the who not how strategy, what's going to start happening is you're going to be like, okay, I declared my future, I made a future statement, then I declared my possibility, I committed to taking action. And now I'm overwhelmed with the how, how do I do this, right? Your brains gonna want to start solving for it. And it's gonna freak out because it feels really hard. You've never done this before. Of course.

Sari 16:10
Why do you think you would know the how? You don't know the how yet and you will not know the how until you have done it. I will not know how, I do not know how I will create a $4 million business by 2025 until I have done it, period. Until that moment, that it adds up to $4 million. I don't know how. And so I like the strategy of who, because the how is super overwhelming, right? And I get anxious, and I get overwhelmed. And then I freak out and I start procrastinating and buffering and all the things. So instead I say who could help me? Who could help me know the next thing? Like, what is, where's the gap? Okay, if I'm not very disciplined, but I think that an entrepreneur, a successful CEO needs to be disciplined. Who do I know who could help me just get a little bit more disciplined or learn about this. Or if I want to get into a store, or get onto wholesale, who do I know who could teach me a little bit about this, or who might have a connection? And last week's podcast was so good, it was all about this, right? Getting outside of our small circle, starting to build our connections and those spirals. And Lee did such a phenomenal job telling us all about that. How to build our connections, to strengthen relationships, and to be able to use those to take these next steps that I'm going to talk about. Who can help me? And just be open to it. Your brain likes to go to work for you. It likes to solve problems. So give it a problem it can actually solve. Who else could help me, right, Sari could help me. I know people inside Fuel are doing amazing things inside our program. Maybe some of those people could help me. Maybe there's Facebook groups that could help me. If I don't know anybody personally, I need to start thinking outside of my little circle, and get out of there and start making bigger connections. So the Who Not How strategy. And there's a great book called Who Not How that I highly recommend. But that is one of my favorite strategies, especially if the how starts feeling really overwhelming. So that's the second step. The third is that you are willing to be wrong about yourself, about the way the world works, about others, we have to be really open in this reinvention process because we are creating something, a version of you that has never existed before. And so if we're going to hold on to our beliefs so tightly, there's no room in there for reinvention. The tools for reinvention are not in your past. We know the results that the past has gotten you. That's fine. There's no problem with that. But if you want a bigger possibility, you know, this next level of yourself and your business, then we have to be open to learning new things and seeing the world from a new perspective and trying new things and just just being open to like, okay, I'm wrong about that. Maybe I'm wrong about how I've always thought about myself of being such a loser or making poor decisions or always messing it up. What if I'm wrong about that? What if I'm wrong that everyone around me thinks I'm such a failure or I think I'm such a failure. That's just one place to start. What if I'm wrong that I am not enough? I'll just throw in another little, like, mind blowing thought that I've been really focusing on this summer is, what if there are no shoulds or shouldn'ts?What if we dropped those words from our vocabulary. And instead, we just focus on what is. So instead of getting caught up in the drama of life shouldn't be happening this way, this should be going faster. This shouldn't be doing this. Right? There's lots of shoulds, we should on ourselves a lot. And I want to offer a new way of thinking where, what if there is no should or shouldn't in life, it's only working out the way it's working out. And that this is the reality that we have. And such as being open to little things like that, and just getting curious and questioning it. And if it's serving you, if you're getting the result that you want, by all means, keep thinking it. But if it's not, then be open to new ways of thinking, new ways of being. And then number four, maybe the hardest part because up until now, that's it's been a little passive, right? What I would call passive action. Okay, I can write down some things, I can do a study and what CEOs that I admire doing, I can write down all these who like who's can help me. And okay, I can be open, let me think about that, I'll be curious and open to new perspectives and ways of thinking in the world. Now, number four, the hardest part, taking massive action. And massive action just means that we are actually kicking the ball down the field, we are doing something. And so usually what action looks like is that we are making an offer, we are asking for something in exchange, right? And so that we have passive action, which is like, all the strategizing, all the things in our brains, and then we have the actual action that end up with a result in the win or the loss column, we need a W or an L for it to be massive action.

Sari 22:35
I learned about this concept from Tracy Goss in her book, The Last Word on Power. And it's been a really powerful tool. It's something that I have really been intentionally employing this summer. And the results have been amazing. And the transformation has been amazing. And I will tell you though that there's not wins all the time. So here's what she talks about is that we need to be making bold requests, and they should be Win Win requests. So much of the time, we just make requests of people, especially when we want something right, like somebody in your network who could help you and we make a request where we're like, it's one sided, right? And I've done this a lot, I had to kind of have a moment of like, ohh, yeah, I've done that a lot. Where I have asked people for something without thinking about how could I word this? And how could I structure it to be a win win request? And sometimes it's just a turn of phrase, it's a little bit of the way we change the phrasing. But sometimes it's actually that I'm going to do something for you. I'm going to offer you something in exchange. A win win request is something that is going to move you forward, you are committing to yourself and your possibility when you make this request. And it doesn't even matter if the request is accepted or not that there's power in you just making the request. And when you make requests that you are going to commit ahead of time that it doesn't mean any thing about you, one way or the other. If you get a yes, it doesn't mean that you are worthy. And if you get a no, it doesn't mean you are not worthy. You just are and it's just we're just kind of playing a game here. We're just getting a score. We're getting data from losing and we're getting a okay that worked. Let's keep doing more of that. And some of you are probably like got a pit in your stomach when you're like she wants me to actually go out and make requests.

Sari 22:45
I have to go make offers, win win offers. I have to go and talk with a buyer and ask them if they will carry me in their store. And I'm going to make it a win win, I'm not just going to say, hey, will you give me shelf space? I'm going to tell them all the reasons why it's a win for them, and how I'm going to be an amazing partner and set it up for success and guarantee sales from their store. And they would be crazy not to bring me into their store.

Sari 25:27
You guys definitely have to listen to next week's episode with Justin because he talks about this a couple of times over and over again. And he had to do this, like, it's so good, you have to listen. I'm going to make requests of people on social media, or I need money. And I'm going to go ask some people make some requests of people that are win win to come and support me, right? I'm gonna go put some offers out there. And I'm asking you to think big about what are all the opportunities, what are all the places that you could make big bold offers and requests of people. And the problem is, is that we usually stay pretty small. And most of us don't like making requests of each other. Because we feel like then, like, we will owe them or they're doing us a favor. And I love what Tracy says, I'm just gonna read this part here. If you don't think you need to make requests, if you don't need to ask anybody for anything, you are playing a very small game. You are also playing a small game if you only make the requests you think will be accepted, rather than for what you actually need. So go big, think about what request, get a little wild, get a little crazy, the bigger the better. I have been making a lot of win win requests of people this summer to go and present in their groups some of these coaching tools to pitching and requesting that Justin came on the podcast, right? That was a bold request. I was like who what would be interesting, what would be fun? What would I like to do with this podcast? And he came to mind. And I took immediate action to say okay, and I use the who strategy. Who do I know who knows Justin? And make a request of them and then I made a win win request of Justin. And he said yes. But I've also had a lot of people either not respond or say no, I didn't make it mean anything about me. And honestly, I was so proud of myself that I decided to do it. I made the offer. I sent the email, and just that I did it. And who cares if it's a no. And I like to think it's a no for now. One of the people who came back with a no, it was hard. It was a really like, I was really scared to put it out to her. And I was scared to make the request. And she said no, it's not a good fit right now. And I said, okay, and I was fine. I was like, I'm really proud of myself for doing that. And it's a no for now. And I even responded, I said, we will someday. All good, we're good. And I have a whole list that I brainstorm. I have two pieces of paper of all these people. And once I started going brainstorming, right, I was like, oh my gosh, I know this person. And what about this person? Oh, what about that, and then that? Like, there's been all these things starting to click, right? But that's how we get momentum. We have to start with little things. But we have to start taking action, we have to make requests and offers. And there needs to be a clear yes or no or no for now. We need to be open that we are not, you know, trying to talk somebody into this. We're not forcing them. This is a request that they have the freedom, the complete freedom to say no. If you turn it around to say, well? The game that I'm playing is actually to get the no's, right? But if the game I'm playing is I need to get 100 no's, then the faster I can get those no's the better. And they don't mean anything about you. This last step is the hardest part. And it's going to require you to stretch yourself. It's going to require you to put yourself out there and it's scary. You think you're going to feel terrible getting a no but first we decide ahead of time that a no doesn't mean anything about you. And that what you were doing making the request is like, to me it just feels like you're kind of opening things up. You're greasing the wheel, and by putting yourself out there, you don't know if it's going to be a yes or no, but I'm telling you, and I can say this from experience is that all of a sudden, then I'll get a random email from somebody else who was like, oh, I was thinking about you. Would you want to come do this for me? And I'm like, what? Where did you come from? Yes, of course, I cannot tell you since I've been making these requests. It's like the the universe is just like, shaken open. It's like, things are coming loose. Because I'm putting myself out there, I'm putting my possibility and my commitment. And I really believe that God, the universe is responding. And just because it doesn't happen over here, the way I thought it should go, it's just happening the way it is. Other cool things are happening because I'm showing my commitment to my goal, to my future possibility. And then the last thing I'll leave you with around this taking massive action, I really want to encourage you to choose a guide. If you are really serious about reinventing yourself into an entrepreneur with a successful business, you need a guide, you need a coach, you need a mentor, you need somebody who has been there before. You would not go climb Mount Everest without a guide, without learning from people who have been there before. You would not go train for a competition as an athlete without having a coach. You would not go after a big, you know, learning a musical instrument without having an instructor, a teacher, a guide, you don't know what you don't know. And there is something about signaling to the universe that when you make an investment in yourself, you're like telling the universe, you are serious, and we're getting to work. And this is happening. I am committed, I'm taking action. So this is an action step for you to go invest in a guide. And I would love to be that coach for you. But I'm not the only coach out there, I just know that it will happen so much faster. And with more ease. And more fun, more flow, when you have a guide. And as a follow up to that is that go find community, just like we talked about last week with Lee, get a guide. And ideally, if they have a community like I do inside with Fuel, then come join us there. But there's also Facebook groups, there's networking groups, I do it all.

Sari 32:49
I cannot tell you how much faster it has gone for my business to grow my business, when I found a guide, invested in a coach and invested in contributing and deciding I belong in a community, literally, my world has exploded. And I see it happen when when clients and members show up inside Fuel. And commit to being part of that community and giving as much as they are taking, they go so much faster. So if you really want to, like 10 times the massive action, like if you're gonna take the action, put some fuel behind it, which is exactly why I called it my membership, Fuel, my community. Let's go put some fuel behind it, and really make it count. All right, that is your reinvention in a nutshell, from possibility to the actual decision to reinvent yourself, and who you want to become what you want to create. And then here's the things you need to do to create it to make it a reality. We want to go from possibility to inevitable. And this is the strategy, who do you need to become? Do a case study who can help you be willing to be wrong and get curious about yourself and the world. And then take massive action. How do we know it's working? You're getting wins or losses, and you just keep going. You've committed to taking the action no matter what, no matter the results. You're gonna go out there and make win win requests. You're going to get wins and losses. You're going to learn, you're going to get data, you're going to keep taking action. You're going to find a guide and you're going to join a community. Welcome to your reinvention. That's it. That's the recipe for success. That's all I got for you today. Until next time, have an amazing week!

Sari 34:55
The smartest thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to invest in a who to help you with the how, to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you are ready for more support and accountability to finally get this thing done, you can work with me in two ways. Get me all to yourself with one on one business coaching, or join Food Business Success which includes membership inside Fuel, our community of food business founders that includes monthly live group coaching calls and so much more. It's one of my favorite places to hang out and I would love to see you there. Go to foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own Food Business Success.