Full Transcript

Sari 0:00
The bigger your dreams, the bigger your goals, the more support you need, not less. Every great entrepreneur knows they need experts, they need a community to help support them, and connect them to really get that momentum going. If you find yourself in that start, stop, start, stop struggle, where you have an amazing idea something you make in your home kitchen, it can be a food item, beverages, pet treats, or even body care. And you just can't seem to get it off the ground or you haven't been able to make a profit yet, I want to offer you a free workshop. It's called Whip Up A Business You Love. And in it, you're going to learn the foundational pieces of having a business that works. An idea is not enough, a desire is not enough. We need to have a foundation and a plan for your next steps. And in that workshop, you're going to get my startup checklist, we're going to talk about your product, about pricing, what that investment looks like, how to really know if you have a solid idea, or a business plan that's going to work. And I make you an incredibly delicious offer to join me in Food Business Success at the end. Go to foodbizsuccess.com. And in the right hand corner, you will see where to register to get that free workshop. And then I hope I will see you inside Food Business Success and on one of our Fuel calls very soon.

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. All right, I could not miss the opportunity to do something about love. It is Valentine's Day. And while I am not usually proponent of the, you know, Hallmark holiday industry, the greeting card company complex, you know, forces love. I was about to actually post a great interview that I'll do for next week on raising money in a small way, like how to go get the money you need early stage in your business. And I was getting ready to schedule it and I realized, oh, it's Valentine's Day. And I thought a little bit more about it and I was like, you know what, I actually do want to do something on this topic of love. And I want to talk about loving your business, writing a love note to your business. And it's so funny, I think so much of the time we work things out in our subconscious at night. If we ask ourselves, you know, before we go to sleep, like ask ourselves a question. So I actually, this was all just yesterday. And then in the middle of the night I woke up. And I was kind of wide awake, like midnight, and I had all these ideas about writing a love note to your business. And I actually recorded on my voice memo because I didn't want to forget and I was kind of awake. But then when I woke up in the morning, I was like, I don't know if that was very cohesive, like probably wasn't very good. You know, and when you are awake in the night you think you're like very alert, but really you're like actually probably not so much. But in any case, I actually listened to it today and I was like, it was actually pretty good in between the yawning of like being in the middle of the night. But what I wanted to share and some of the highlights from my middle of the night self-recorded podcast on my phone was really this idea of loving on your business, loving it like a puppy with no expectations about it, right? That it doesn't need to give you anything back but just using it as a vehicle for you to show up and to serve your customers, to give them so much of you. I know so many of you are so passionate about your products and what they can do for us. We've been talking in Master Your Business, I pose this question on the very first class, which is, what business are you in. And it's easy to say, well, I'm in the business of making granola, or I'm in the business of gluten free bread, or I'm in the business of compound butters. But what really your business is, the business that you're in is an emotion. It's about confidence, or empowerment, or hope, or safety, inclusion, delight, fun, pleasure, and ultimately, love. So you are really in the business of creating connection and creating love. And if we look at our business as that vehicle then we're more willing to show up and do harder things, right? Because when we stop making it about all about us, then there's just so much, it becomes so much bigger and so much easier. When people have a hard time selling their product, I see you got to get out of you trying to get something from somebody else. It has to be about serving other people, right? Like feeling like you have the cure for cancer, and you just know that your product is going to solve a problem for them. And just believing so hard. Now, they can still say no, right? Of course, it may not. They may not feel like it's for them. But you are so committed. And it's not about you, it's about helping them. And so I was thinking about that. And there's just being a vehicle for love. It's also just an opportunity to love something unconditionally, right? I think so much of the time we start a business, and we have all these high expectations for ourselves, and all the things that the business is going to give us. It's going to give us success, and achievement and validation, and pride and recognition, all these things, right? And money, ideally, right? We know sometimes that doesn't actually happen the way that we think that it is. That's why we do programs like what I offer. But in any case, there is this idea of like, what if you could just love your business for what it is, for what it's teaching you, for the opportunities that it's giving you? I, as in my you know, delusional midnight recording, I was just gushing about how much I love my clients. I love that I get to go and cheer Chanel on with GoodLove Foods as she pitches at Expo West and she asked me to join her because she couldn't imagine doing this, doing this really hard thing, the scary thing without me there. And because I've been part of that journey for so long, and just seeing the growth and the transformation. And so many of my clients as they have come to do this work, as they have come to evolve themselves beyond just the maker and really create a business that is self sustaining. That is a business that they love and loves them back in a way, right?

And so I was gushing about oh my amazing clients and all the members and Fuel and all of you new members, I'm so excited to get to know you better. And just how fun that is. And I was gushing about coaching and how much I love to show up and serve that way and help people suffer less and do more and tap into their potential and just the power of coaching and how it's transformed my life and I get to then pass that on and transform other people's lives who are ready and want to do business differently, get off of the achievement treadmill and start feeling more ease and fulfillment and love for their life. And I was gushing about all the opportunities. I think one of the big surprises of entrepreneurship, if you let it. It's not going to happen automatically because I know a lot of entrepreneurs who don't allow this into their lives, but one of the greatest gifts, and it just literally just, it fills my heart up even just thinking about it is just the connections both with clients, but the outside connections, the people, my colleagues, networking groups, like I just joined this amazing networking group, shout out to Julie and Network in Action. And she has pulled together just an incredible group of entrepreneurs, and they're not in the food space, there's, well, one, maybe two of us that are, but everybody else is not. And yet, I just feel so much connection and love for all of these people. And I, I love how I'm giving them referrals, and they're giving me referrals, and we're all helping each other. And we're sending each other, you know, encouragement and texts, and meeting up in person and having great connections. And the same is true for my coaching colleagues and friends that I've made as part of this entrepreneurship journey. Now, I don't think this happens on accident, I think you have to be intentional about it because it does require effort. Like going, taking yourself to a networking, now that we can meet in person, right? Like, make the time, go give before you get. Go make connections with others. Join me in Fuel where we have amazing connections with each other. Friendships are forming, they formed outside of that. Going to Fancy Food with my clients and members was incredible, right? I mean, those are the things that just fill my heart up so much. And they helped me fall in love with my business when I remember those things. So that when it's hard, when it's taking longer than I think it should, when there are issues that come up, people are upset. I'm dealing with actually a legal issue with a service provider right now. And we're going back and forth. And it's not fun. And it's kind of a lot of money. It was a big investment, and I'm unhappy, and they're bringing in attorneys and whatever, right? It's like, all that stuff can happen. But if I can lean on this love note, remember these pieces that fill my heart. I get to love my business anytime I choose no matter what's going on outside, right?Circumstantially. And that's really what I want you to know, on this Valentine's day, this day of love should you choose to. I don't think it's like the only day that you should show love, but I will just look at it because I used to be a big naysayer for Valentine's Day. Oh, what. But now I'm just like, it's just an opportunity to amplify, to put more focus on love that I'm doing every single day. But I get to choose love. Love comes. My feeling of love comes from me. It's inside. It comes from my thoughts. Think about it. Really think about this, like nobody outside of you can make you feel love. There are times even though you may love your spouse, love your kids, there are times when you are not going to be so filled with love. And that is your I know, it's easy to say that it's what they're doing. But really, it's your thoughts about what they're doing. Because think about I'll bring it back around to think about a puppy. Think about a kitten something cute, right? And he doesn't matter what they do. You just love them. Even when they're messing up. You're like, so freaking cute. I can't believe you're peed on that. I don't want you to do that. But I can't help but just love you. So I want you to bring in to your body, into your consciousness. Do it on purpose. Love your business, write a love note to your business about everything that it's giving you without you even asking for it, right? But just these opportunities for connection, I think are the beautiful, beautiful, unexpected byproduct if you let it. All right, go be friends with your customers. I'm friends with my clients. For a while I was like I don't think I'm supposed to be friends with my clients. And now I'm just like, they're amazing, right? I love my clients. I'm totally friends with my clients. And maybe not every single one of them. But there's a lot of them that I text like after we're done working, we text and we are talking personally as well, right? We can do both. Because I work with the coolest people, that's who I work with. And so of course, I want to love them. Of course I want to be friends with them. And I love it that I have all these cool people all around the country, and probably even the world that I just love. And it all is coming from my business. But I'm releasing the expectations of forcing my business to provide that, right? Making my business be something that I want it to be and really muscling it. And instead just loving it. Even in the moments when it's really hard, I can love the opportunities for growth and experience and learning and connection. And I get to choose that. And you get to choose that for your business. So I encourage you to write that love note. Or maybe you'll be like me and record yourself a love note to your business in the middle of the night. I'm going to keep that actually because I think that is a beautiful reminder for me to come back to anytime I'm struggling in my business, struggling with all this stuff. So maybe you want to record it instead of write it, keep it somewhere that you can pull it out frequently because you will definitely need to. There will be so many ups and downs along this journey. And you need to have that love note, that deep why, what fuels you, what fills you up, and what reignites the love because so much better to take action out of a feeling of love than have to and should and must, and forcing and feeling better if you just only do this. Come from a place of love, come from a place of service, and you will watch your business explode. It's the weirdest duality, right? It doesn't seem like that's how it should work but that is how it works. That's what I want to offer you today on this beautiful Valentine's Day. All right, keep this one short. So until next time, have an amazing week. And go create, go decide that you have a business that you love. And if you're not loving on your business, I know where you can go get some support and community and expertise to help you change that for good.

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.