Full Transcript

Sari 0:01
If it were as easy as making your product, putting it up on a website, getting it into grocery stores, or going to farmers markets to create a profitable business, we would all be millionaires. I am all in on that. But that's actually the easiest part is to make your product. The hardest part is running a profitable, stable, and even fun business. This is hard, you've never done it before, and you're making it harder on yourself by trying to figure it all out on your own. I am hosting a Free workshop next week on January 31st or February 2nd, you can get in by going to foodbizsuccess.com/launch. And I am going to help you really understand your product and your pricing and what's expected of you to run a safe, legal and profitable business because if you're not making money, you have an expensive hobby. Come join me on this free workshop, we are going to create your plan so that you are guaranteed not to fail. Come join me.

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! Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. This week is so fun. If you're listening to this on Tuesday when it comes out, then it is not too late for you to grab a seat at the free Whip Up Your Business workshop. And come and join me live. I'm gonna go live today little bit later on Tuesday and then also on Thursday. And you can also upgrade to a VIP ticket and join me on a live Ask Me Anything session on Friday. So fun! All right, today, I want to talk to you about your fuel, what is fueling you in your business to go after your big goal in 2023. If you imagine that, let's just say you're a rocket ship could use the traditional car but I like the idea. I love the little rocket emoji, right? That we are like blasting off, we're going after big things. We have a journey to go on and you're that rocket ship and you're sitting there and you're waiting to take off. Or you are maybe you've already taken off and you're in mid flight, right? But we all need fuel to get us to that next place, to get us to our destination. So I want to first just talk about a couple of quick things that I think are really poor fuel. Imagine if you were putting dirt into your rocket ship, you're not gonna get very far, very fast, right? It's just not gonna work. And yet, so many of us are putting in really crappy fuel into our tanks. And some of these are, you're in a rush, you are really in a hurry to get there. And so you're running around in scarcity and worry and hurry. And that is just terrible fuel. You're surrounding yourself with people who are critical, who are negative, who are bringing you down, who don't think you have what it takes, or they're just generally kind of Eyorres, they're downers. They see this world as half glass empty kind of people and it doesn't mean that you can't love them. But I want you to be really careful if you are surrounding yourself with these kinds of people. It's going to be really hard for you to get up and really get some momentum going as you're going after a big goal. Kind of in that same vein, you know, what other things are you surrounding yourself with as far as your environment? When I was starting my business well when I've really committed, not say when I started, when I really committed to launching Food Business Success, and really say no matter what, like I am in this. I did, I took some hard look at what was I fueling myself with? And I realized that getting up and turning on the news was not good fuel for me. So we have to be really careful. It's like, are we surrounding ourselves with negative people? Are we surrounding ourselves with the news, which is all about negativity and fear? Are we surrounding ourselves with social media, right? I've talked before about, you know, really protecting that morning time. And what you put into your environment, what you put it into your ears is really, really critical. So be very aware of negative environment or with people and other kinds of things that you're you're putting into your head. Comparison, this one kills me, I'm so guilty of it, right? And I see so many of you do this, where you are fueling yourself from comparison and not a good way. You're like, either fuel, you're comparing yourself, and that fuel is really, really poor fuel. So you're not even able to get off the couch, right? You're looking at social media, and you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm never going to be like them. How did they do it? I'm so far behind. And this year was actually pretty good. But I noticed, you know, when we go to Fancy Food, when I take my clients to Fancy Food, that there can be a propensity for people to look at comparison and really have bring it down, bring them them down, right? Where they're like, how do they do it? There's so much further along, like there's something wrong with me. Or we are really looking for outside validation, right? We're using our business to prove ourselves to other people that we're good enough, that we belong, that we're successful, that we're just trying to, you know, hey, look at me, look at my business, hey, I want you to respect me, I want you to like me. You know, if you are concerned about the number of followers and likes that you are getting, and if you not from a business standpoint, but from like a personal standpoint, if you're like, ah, I only got two likes on that, or I only have x number of followers. That is terrible fuel for you to get into action, and take the necessary steps to create a successful business. And then lastly, as far as poor fuel goes, making every problem personal. This slows you down so much. I'll tell you, it's like there's math and then there's drama, right? There's the math of the problem. My recipe did not work when I scaled it up at my co packer. And now this is happening, right? That's just math. That's circumstance, that's facts. And then we bring in all of our drama about what we make it mean, and we make it something personal. And that is just some of the worst horse manure fuel. And I guess you could say that horse manure could be good fuel. But in this particular case, this is terrible, terrible fuel, to be helping you take the next step because the faster we can solve problems and make decisions, the faster we get momentum and can really get off the ground and launch that rocket, keep that rocket in motion.

So just ask yourself, are any of those happening for yourself, right? That you're in a rush, you're surrounding your environment, you're surrounding yourself with people and outside influences that are negative, or just kind of have that more negative bent and get you into, gets you into scarcity and fear, right? If you notice that's coming up for you when you hang out with certain people, or you watch or listen to certain things. You got to stop it. You are on a mission. We are trying to get to some impossible goal, right? Like going to the moon, that was impossible for a very, very long time, very long time. And that's exactly what we're doing, right, and so we had to be very mindful of our fuel. If you are comparing yourself to others, that compare and despair. If you're using your business to prove to others, using it as a validation vending machine, that is a problem because when you're up, you're up. But if somebody doesn't approve of you, then you've lost all of your momentum, all of your fuel. And if you make every problem personal. So let's talk about the things that I really want you to fuel your goal with, to fuel your life with. So first, it has to be a product that you love and believe in. That's just my personal opinion. Now, I know that there are people who do start businesses, who don't necessarily love the product, like they want to start a laundry mat, and they're like, it's not like I love laundry, I just see an opportunity in the market to start a laundry mat, like there's a hole here that I can serve. Now, I would ask, does this person love being an entrepreneur, love business, right? But for you, especially when it comes to food, if you are just starting, like I love working with people who've never been an entrepreneur before because I think the, you know, my laundry mat example, is for somebody who's already done a business out of passion, and then they learned how to be an entrepreneur. And now they're in love with entrepreneurship, not just their product. But to start, I do think it's really important that you are totally in love, and believe in and have so much passion for your product. It's going to really help you with the fuel of your why, right? When things are not going as fast as you want or as easy as you think that they should, you know, what is that deep why that's fueling you to keep going? I want you to have a fuel of a desire to learn and be curious about starting a business. I see it so clearly how people come and start working with me and the people who I know in this industry and, you know, people I talk with, like you and you're listening right now is that you make something amazing in your kitchen. You make that salsa, or that coffee, or that cookie, or that skincare product, or a pet treat. Anything in your kitchen that you're like, this is amazing, right? But all you want to do is make your product. That is an easy thing to continue. You just keep making your product, keep sharing it with the world. But it's a completely different thing to want to start a business. You're needing to trade your maker hat with the entrepreneur hat, right? Yes, you will be a maker probably in your business. But you actually need to step into the role of a manager and a CEO much more frequently. And a lot of that comes from first, like you don't know how to do that, you've never done it, and that's okay. But first, it just is about like, I'm curious to learn about what it's like to run a business. Instead of saying, I'm bad at numbers, I'm terrible at technology, I don't know what I'm doing. I hear that so often from people in Food Business Success, and I'm like, hey, let's not argue for our limitations. Let's just get curious. And like, what if you actually enjoyed learning those things? Because you had to learn how to make your product. At one point, you didn't know how to do it. Whether you know, it doesn't matter if your grandmother taught you or if you invented this recipe recently, at some point, you didn't know how to do it. And so you put in the time and you have the curiosity and you learn. And now we just have to take that same curiosity, the same openness to learning and put it on top of your business. You already know how to make your product. But now you need to know how to run a business. So it first starts with desire. And then I would say there is that positive mindset piece. So just like the opposite of surrounding yourself with a negative environment. It's looking at your environment of both what's outside of you, physically and circumstantially, what you're putting in your brain as well as what's inside, like what are you putting back out? And so things like your environment, for sure. There's that saying that you are the product of the five people you most surround yourself with, who you hang out with the most. And so being really conscious of that as you're starting a business, as you're doing this work. That being really aware of who you are surrounding yourself with. And I would just encourage you, if you find yourself not being around, maybe the most helpful people is how can you then put your yourself in the room with more people who are helpful, who do have a positive mindset. So there's things like your outside environment, we talked about news or social media like limiting that stuff, starting your day with meditation or prayer, gratitude, journaling, really thinking about creating that juicy, delicious vision of you in this business, and like getting really clear on that, creating a clear vision. And then, of course, what you read and what you listen to. All very, very important. So that's kind of your positivity environment that you're nourishing. And that is fueling you for sure. It's also the words that you're saying, right? I talked about earlier, but are you saying things? Are you fighting for your limitations? Are you saying I don't know how, I've never done that before, I'm terrible at money, I'm terrible at technology, I don't know what I'm doing. This is horrible. It's never going to work, there's something wrong with me, you gotta catch those things, that is fuel. And we have 60,000 thoughts in a day, and most of them are going to be negative. And a lot of them you're not going to catch. But we got to start creating, raising our level of awareness, becoming an observer, and purposely planting positivity around us, right? Putting things on your mirror, sticky notes, when you hear things that are uplifting, things that remind you of that deep internal why you are doing this.

It just, I cannot tell you, this is so much more than a product, this is that mental game, right? It's not about, just like think about like an Olympic athlete. Yes, there has to be talent there, a 100%. And so I don't know, I'm just gonna take it. I'm gonna make some numbers up here. But let's say it's like 25% is really raw talent. The rest of it is coaching and mindset and practice. And failing and getting back up and learning and growing. And managing your mind, managing the negativity, really focusing on the positive. And then I want to just address that physical piece, right? That inner nourishment, that is going to give you more energy, more fuel, to do more in a day, to do more in a week, in a month, in a year. And that those are things like the food that you consume. So many of you are in this industry because you make a better for you product, a food product. And yet sometimes what, you know, we maybe make this amazing thing over a year but we're putting a lot of junk in our body. And so being really aware of what it is we're putting in our bodies, the sleep that we are getting, the movement that we are getting, all of these things are going to contribute to your creativity, your problem solving, your energy level, right? Just your general mood and well-being. So we have to guard this so carefully as entrepreneurs, so much more important as an entrepreneur because you don't have a boss, you are the boss. And if we are not like being really aware and really disciplined with these things, we're not going to show up for it's like you're wearing all those roles, right? The maker and the technician, the manager, they're not going to show up when they're under fueled, right? And we miss out, we slow ourselves down. So really important to look at that physical space. And there's lots of resources on how to change that if you find yourself not having the energy that you want or not sleeping well enough, right, those kinds of things. And I think there's something really special about entrepreneurs. Just in this last year, I've really started to make a shift in my messaging of like, yes, I explained how to do it. And I give you strategy and expertise. And you know exactly what to do to have a safe, legal profitable package business. But what I'm realizing more and more is that you can have the most amazing seriously the most killer, the most awesome product, it could be so cool, so different, so unique, solve all these problems. You can have all the money that you need, every bit of it and more to go create this amazing product. You can have all the time in the world. But if you don't have this desire to like challenge yourself to see what's possible, to learn and be curious and grow, to like really push your limit. Entrepreneurship will push you to your limit. Guess what? If you're in it, if you're all in, you're gonna keep pushing past your limit. You're gonna see what you're capable of, like whatever your current upper limit is right now, entrepreneurship will push you there. And if you decide to hang in there and keep going, you will push past it, right? You will push past what you thought was possible for you and your life. And it is an amazing thing. I've done it in my life and I watch my clients and members do it in theirs. But it is hard. And if you don't get the tools, and the strategies, and the help to manage your mind, and keep pushing, get out of your comfort zone, do hard stuff, push out of that upper limit. There's this. And it actually is with a rocket ship, right? So when a rocket takes off, it needs all this fuel, right? Tons of fuel to get going to get that momentum. And it's just like burning so much fuel. So all these things that I just talked about, we got to have all of that going for us. So much of that is mental, there's a little bit of physical and a lot of mental. So we're pushing, we're pushing, we're getting momentum. And it's a lot of work. And we are pushing ourselves past our limit. It's terrible in that cockpit, right? Where people it's like hot and shaking. And I mean, I just can't even imagine, right? Gravity's pushing down on you, it's going to be so uncomfortable if you are an astronaut. And then if you can keep going, if you can keep pushing, you get past mile 62, all of a sudden, it just becomes easy, becomes effortless. Now, I'm not saying that that's exactly how it's going to be in your business that you reach a point where it's just like, I don't have to do anything. In some ways, we're constantly having new, you know, miles 62s, new limits that we're breaking through, but it does get easier. But that first time, this first time you are going after your big dreams, you are pushing yourself beyond what you ever thought you would do. Most of the people I work with were like me, or are like me, where I was like I'm not for, this is not for me. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur, that looks like a lot of work. And somehow I found myself with a deep enough why. And was willing to learn and to grow and to figure out how to be uncomfortable and keep going. So that you just have to have this really deep desire to change, to evolve. You will be a different version of yourself on the other side once you push past that upper limit. It will get easier, I promise. And then lastly, and I just cannot put enough emphasis on how important this is. I see this, I see. I mean, I meet so many entrepreneurs, right? So many people, both in this packaged product space like turning your packaged handmade product, or turning the handmade product that you make in your kitchen and turning it into a packaged business. I meet so many of you online, on social media, on calls, at shows, in person networking events. And I also meet, I also just work, you know, I'm surrounded by a ton of entrepreneurs in general. And I will say one of the best things, the things that will support you the most in your journey is to surround yourself, get inside a community. Be a part of other people's journeys and have other people be a part of your journey. Worst thing you can do, if you want to slow yourself down, waste a ton of time and money, have it be miserable, and constantly be in fear, doubt, overwhelm and confusion is to do it by yourself. I don't care if you can figure it out on your own. Yes, you are a smart, capable person. I am sure you can figure it out on your own. But that is literally the hardest way. And there's so much more effort and so much bigger obstacles that you have to overcome. It's already going to be hard, right? We're already going to have to overcome all of our BS, all of our drama, all of the baggage, plus just all the things out there in the industry, in the world. We're already going to have to overcome all of that. And the fastest way to really get momentum in your business and really make the stick, and to feel like this is fun and that you're making progress is to be a part of a community, to get guidance, to have a coach, to have other people who are on the same journey as you. It just fills my heart when I think about both for myself when I finally stepped into a community, and now I'm part of multiple communities. It changed everything for me, my business has sped up 10 times, a hundred times faster than it was. It's so much more fun for me, I have people I trust that I can go to for anything. And then being a part of a group is just incredible. There's this energy that uplifts you and makes you feel more excited, more motivated, more inspired. It's just an incredible experience. And then I watch it inside Fuel, which is very appropriately named. Thank you, Janine, for the help with that name. I love the name of our membership group inside Food Business Success. It's called Fuel for a reason. Because it fuels you, it is the exact fuel. This is the rocket fuel that you need to get past that mile 62, to get out of your comfort zone, to do the hard things. And to do it with the best information and tactics and strategies and things that you don't have to go figure it all out, you can skip the line. I'm going to tell you exactly what I've seen work, and others are going to tell you what they even have done that works. And the best thing is supporting each other and celebrating our wins together. After our Fancy Food Show this year, we had a text channel going on with all of us who had gone and they're still sharing their wins. It's so fun. It is so incredible. And we're also doing it in Master Your Business. We have a channel just for celebrating wins. And it's so fun to see it in the moment but I love that people just keep doing it, right? There's like this high that gets that happens. And then when you see other people doing it, and then you're doing more and you're like, yeah, we're all just like feeling so much better. Listen, you will not want to keep going if this feels terrible. We have to purposely set this up, this whole entrepreneurship journey to have progress, to have momentum, to see results. Not the big giant results, those will come but the small daily wins. The place where you can share your wins with other people who get it. They're on the same journey as you. So you feel less alone. You're not making decisions in a vacuum. You're getting information like solid direction, based on industry and based on what's working, based on government rules, right? Like I cannot tell you how many people just kills me when I talk with them and I'm like, they want to wait to join Fuel and they're like, I don't know, I'll just wait till I'm further along. And I'm like, oh, you're killing me. You're like it just hurts my heart. And then later they come to me and they say, I so wish I would have joined. Now I just found out from you Sari or this group that my labels are wrong and I'm throwing a $1,000 worth of labels in the trash, right? Or I wish I had known XYZ, I would have done it differently. And I know sometimes you just don't know till you know. But I mean, seriously, the fastest way to do this, the funnest way to do it, is by getting into a community. And if it's not my community, totally cool, go find another community. I cannot urge you enough to go and put this fuel in your tank, you will see progress faster, you will get momentum, you will keep taking action, you will feel supported. It's just this like spiral up, right, where you're on a roll. It's so much less frustrating, you're going to have support, and you're going to be able to skip the line. And let's just not forget that when we have accountability, that we are 95% more likely to achieve our goals. And by accountability, I mean saying it out loud, and asking others for support and holding you accountable. Here's my goal. Here's how you can help hold me accountable. And that's exactly what we do in Fuel, which is our membership inside Food Business Success. So what are you doing to fuel your goal? Are you using the right fuel? Are you using dirt? Or are you actually using high quality rocket fuel to get you to that big goal you have for your business in 2023? Food Business Success is now open. I would love for you to come join me inside to join this group of amazing entrepreneurs doing the hard work. You belong here. And you deserve to give yourself the best chance of success. I know how badly you want to do this business, how much you want it to succeed. Why not make that next level investment of a CEO? That's what we do as CEOs is we invest in support and in community. I encourage you to really take this list of the fuels that are probably dragging you down, that are keeping you on the ground, not getting you left off, as well as looking at where can I make changes, small shifts in my life to get even higher octane? Those additives that when you put those in your fuel, when you put that fuel in your tank, it is lift off. It is pushing you beyond what you thought was possible. It is getting you closer to your impossible, amazing big goals that you're setting for yourself. I want that for you so badly. I want you to be able to get everything you desire this year and beyond. This is your pitstop, go fuel up. Until next time, have an amazing week!

 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 foodbsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own Food Business Success.