Ep #186 They Earned their Badass Titles with Amber, Kerrieann and Genevieve

Becoming a badass CEO with a successful business doesn't happen overnight (I wish!). Instead, one day you wake up different after weeks, months and even years of stringing together small decisions and actions that are a vote for the person you want to be.

A badass is someone who follows through on what (and when) he or she says it will be done, takes action even when it feels scary and increases their capacity for failure (aka learning). 

In January, I challenged the Fuel community to a 30 day discipline challenge we lovingly 🧡 refer to as the Badass30. Founders who took up the challenge had 45 days to complete 5 small rules every day for 30 days in a row. I give extra time, because if you fail on any one rule, you start over....most people had to start over at least once. 

On today's podcast, meet the three women, Kerrieann of Good Gate, Amber of Daddy's Homemade and Genevieve of The Woolly Spoke, who are now officially a badass!

Get inspired by their stories of how this challenge changed them and their businesses. If they can do it, you can too!  

Free training with Sari - The 5 Email Fix - is on September 15. Register at https://www.foodbizsuccess.com/events

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Transcript

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Sari  
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 got 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 journey so you can learn what worked and didn't work, and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now, let's jump in!

Welcome back to the podcast. This is so fun. I'm staring at three amazing, awesome women on my screen right now. And we are having a conversation about completing the Discipline Challenge. And these three amazing entrepreneurs have our official, they are official badass completing a 30 day challenge, which for some of us, it took us longer than 30 days. But we did the 30 days in a row. So I thought we could just do a quick intro and you guys can share who you are first. And then the purpose of this is just to have a conversation about how that discipline challenge changed you and how you use it going forward in your business. So welcome, everyone.

Amber  
Thank you for having us. 

Sari  
First time podcasts for each each of them so they're going to be great. So Genevieve, let's start with you and you can introduce yourself. 

Genevieve  
Hi, I am Genevieve and we are launching the Wooly Spoke tomorrow in Northern Virginia. And we are a cotton candy company that customizes everything for your event and all of our cotton candy is dye free and organic.

Sari  
I love it. So as when this comes out, you will have beneficial launch so I love it. All right and Kerrieann, how about you? 

Kerrieann  
Yes, I'm Kerrieann. I am launching three whole grain breakfast baking mixes under the brand name Good Gate and we are hopefully going to be launching this summer.

Sari  
I love we have different stages of business for this conversation too. Which is fun. And then Amber, you're the the veteran in the group.

Amber  
Yes. Hi everyone. I'm Amber with Daddy's Homemade. We're based in Colorado and we produce all natural syrup. There's no high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients. And we use it to elevate our coffee cocktails, cooking, and so much more.

Sari  
Love it. How long have you been in business now?

Amber  
We just hit our a four year mark about a month ago. I don't think about that. Like wait, what day is today?

Sari  
It took me to about year four or five where I was like, this is working. Wait this isn't a fluke. All right, so the conversation today I'm sure we'll have all of you on that back on the podcast individually to talk about your own journeys. But we recently wrapped up the Badass 30 challenge in Fuel. And about mid January, I announced this as hey, come on board, this is an opportunity for you to create some new standards, for you to create new habits and to create more discipline as a CEO by adopting five rules that you do every single day for 30 days in a row. And we had our own thread channel in Fuel and we had a bunch of people sign up and say I'm going to do it and we have three! Three that made it in that time period. Now if you're listening and you're like I'm still doing it, keep going. But I did want to honor the people because I said by the end of February there'll be some prizes and some things going out so we did it, so congratulation! We did know you were already a Badass, you are official now. So Genevieve, you're one of the first ones to jump in. So why did that intrigue you doing that discipline challenge? 

Genevieve  
Well on the business side, I thought okay, this is going to be slightly easy because my goal is to launch in March. So if something is holding me accountable to actually do it every day, it's like a) I can meet that challenge and b) the days that I don't feel like I can even do the littlest bit, it's going to encourage me to do it. And then on the personal side, there were just things that I wanted to get back into personally for my physical, mental, spiritual and relationship well being. 

Sari  
Yeah, you had literally just signed up for Food Business Success. You're brand new in the program, and you were just like, I'm in, let's go! I loved it. You have such good enthusiasm, for sure. Amber, why did you decide to do it?

Amber  
There are many things over the last year I've noticed that I didn't necessarily like or wasn't really working. And there's lots of feelings of overwhelm. So I figured this would be a great way to try to break some habits and to try to work more efficiently and not be so sidetracked by the shiny objects. And at least get certain things done. And that's actually both business and personal.

Sari  
And actually, I'm curious Amber, I think we had to like, did we reset some of your rules? I know I gave feedback for people. I'm like, let style that rule down just a smidge?

Amber  
No, mine were actually you liked mine. Okay. Mine, I was very specific, drinking a minimum of 66 ounces of water day. So it was a lot more than I was drinking, but not anything too crazy. I had a certain amount of minutes that I wanted to do, 30 minutes a day for reading books, you know, like that aligned with the 10 times goals and some of those mindset pieces that we've been working on and then not checking my emails from my phone unless I actually had time to answer them. So those were a few of them very specific, very measurable. Not just what I used to do with, you know, okay, I'm going to drink more water. It was great to have the more measurable goals.

Sari  
And what about you, Karianne? Why were you in?

Kerrieann  
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it took much motivation to get, you know, to agree to do it, I think, you know, I think one of my strengths is just being consistent and showing up and just doing a little bit each day. And so I was like, oh, I can do a little bit of each of these each day, I can add these little rules. But I think I also, you know, kind of very deeply knew that there were some things, like what Genevieve said that needed to change that I didn't love that I was doing and I kind of needed, it was great timing in the year, right, we just started a new year. And so it sort of ready for, you know, that friend kind of to say, you know, you and I should start going to a yoga class, I'm going to go, you should come too, you know, and it was that kind of thing that just sort of pushed it over the edge. And I was like, I mean, within four seconds, I had written my five things, because I knew very deeply that those are the things that I needed to either add or take away or change. And so for me, it was great timing and a great community to deal with.

Sari  
You know, the beginning of the year always make sense. I think we started mid January, and it's like, kind of want to give people a few, a little bit of time to come off the Holidays. But it's such a good opportunity to just reflect and say what's working here, what's not, what are some things that maybe could use a little adjustment, and just recognize and actually see them and write them down. But you can do this any time and I highly recommend, you know, I like doing a couple of these a year for myself. I think it really helps. You know, and you mentioned the 10x is easier than 2x, Amber, but like setting new standards, right, for yourself, and creating a habit, right, and doing it within this framework of a Badass 30, a discipline challenge where it's supposed to be five simple things, usually the mistake people make is that they make them way too hard. Like, I'm going to workout for 45 minutes every single day, because it has to be every day. And that's one of the biggest challenges I think for people. So I like coaching people to dial things back sometimes a little bit. 

And you had to do that with me a little bit too Sari because I had some struggles there. And you asked me to go back to, I was in the middle of reading the James Clear book, Atomic Habits. And so you had to remind me to go back and what would James Clear say and he's very big on the simplicity. And, you know, you can't just go and expect to run a three mile marathon one day when you've never been doing anything, you know, before that. Start with the smallest of things. I guess I better go back to my James Clear question. 

Right. I mean, he would say, your rule really should be like putting your shoes on, I put my shoes on. And then like, you can always make the rules harder as you go. But the whole point is not about whether you worked out 45 minutes or whether you like, whether you drink 64 ounces of water, you know, that's not. That's just a fun byproduct of what you get out of it. But really, it's creating the habit and the follow through and building trust with yourself. You will do what you say you're going to do, even when it's hard. And I know Amber towards the end, you were dealing with sickness and your family and you had started over, right? You had to start over one time.

Amber  
I started over three times. The first week was really easy. And I just kind of pushed my way through. And then life happens and got busy and different environments, and weekdays versus weekends and kids and all the distractions and all the things and by the time it came to me being sick and realizing, okay, I wasn't great when I was sick because I'm usually really hard on myself when I'm sick and not being able to get things done that I want to get done. So it'll be able to kind of have that mind shift of, okay, I can't do everything that I wanted to do. But these are the five things I said I was going to do. So let's get these things done.

Sari  
Yeah, the very base levels and then we just got to put on our shoes. And we're like, cool. I did that. She's come off. So Genevieve, how was it the experience for you? Did you have some struggles to meet your five rules? Or was it pretty easy?

I've heard all the reasons why you don't want to do farmers markets. I totally get it. But what if there was a better way? And what if you were using farmers markets more intentionally, and to actually grow your sales and make money. Danny Walsh of Peak State, a brand who did over 200 markets last year, and took two months off during the summer. And me, a market manager who works with people all the time, every day, helping them to make more money at the farmers market and help them be more successful. We are putting on an incredible workshop coming up live on March 27th. We are here to help you up level your farmers market strategy and do it with more intention and make more money. Get yourself registered to attend live, have an amazing Q&A, plus there's tons of giveaways and bonuses because you guys know I love to be generous and do giveaways, go to foodbizsuccess.com/uplevel.

Genevieve  
Yeah, it was interesting to see what was challenging and what wasn't. The business aspect was easy, because you lay it out in the Food Business Success program with a checklist. So just like my two business goals were to check something off the list or do something on my website or social media. And those I enjoy sharing with people on social media, and I also enjoy like coffee on websites so that it's easy. But on the other side of that we had three other roles. The physical role was simple. I just chose to do a workout every day, even if it was just stretching. I enjoy my relationship with God. And so I wanted to do something to help evolve that which was read every day. And sometimes that was hard. But once I really sat down I was just like, okay, a chapter a day is really only 10 minutes. So that seemed to be simple, but the most challenging one was my relationship, and that was with my husband. And that was to go the extra mile to appreciate him verbally or physically. And there would be nights where it'd be like 11:30 and I'd be like, I love you so much. And I'm trying to think of something and it was very convicting because I was like, oh my gosh, like the amount of kind words when I speak to others on social or in the chat on the Food Business Success community or to my little one, oh my goodness, like I really want that too, I want to be better about with my husband, because he's so supportive and everything and that even though it was the most challenging one during the challenge, it became the easiest one to implement post challenge. Like, that's something that now comes very naturally, even if it's just like, a detailed text during his workday of just saying, hey, I noticed you did this. Thank you so much. Yeah, that was like the best thing.

Kerrieann  
Like, good move joining this program. Benefited from this. I love that. What about you, Kerrieann? Where did you find the struggle or the challenge come up?

I like Amber said, like the first week was great, you've sort of on that, you know, okay, this is a new thing. And I just have to do these five things. And I'm doing it, you know, I'm typing in the W1, that W5, and I'm getting this and then there was one day, I think I had gotten like halfway through. And, you know, it was just a long day, it was one of those long days, and we all walked in, and we were all tired. And two out of my three teenagers went upstairs, shut their doors. And you know, it was like nine o'clock at night, I think we had all eaten dinner in the car. I mean, it's you know, people have these days all the time. And one of my rules, my personal rule was to go upstairs and tell each of my people that I love them and good night, including my husband, and I shut my own door. And I went to sleep about 9:30. And the first thing I thought about, you know, when I woke up was God, you know, I didn't do that thing. Like that was the thing I didn't do. And I think Genevieve commented like, wow, you can really see the way that this is working in your head, in your heart, you know, because you feel so much conviction, you know, for this. And you know, I live in a very, very blessed. I live in a great family. I have a great husband, three fantastic kids. And I needed to say I love you, you know, and it just it feels good to say, it feels even better to hear it. And I knew that that was something that you know, I had kind of always done, but it just sort of fallen away. Because you know, three teenagers don't always want to hear it or they're rolling their eyes or whatever it is. And so anyway, as soon as I woke up and realized that that was the one thing that I hadn't done, and that I was essentially starting over, there was no way that any of those five things were ever going to go undone just because of like that feeling of man that was not worth it. Like those extra eight minutes of sleep that I just got, that was not worth it. So that's when I started over. And I knew that I would go all the way through and get it all done on it every day.

Sari  
Do you mind if I share what you wrote here? So here's the thing about being at W29. When day 29. Tomorrow feels somehow like the end and thinking about it like that made me sad, until I realized that these rules I set for myself in January were things in my life that I knew I needed to change. In committing to the challenge, I happily welcomed a very positive identity shift. And I'm coming here proud is how on W 29. Just to say that I intend to keep going long after the finish line. I love that. 

Kerrieann  
I think it's what Genevieve's guide to like that personal thing that I change has now become like the easiest, you know, and just like the best feeling to walk upstairs and get to do that every night. That was just a great thing to change. 

Sari  
And this is about it's like, I don't care what your rules are. right? It's about how you do one thing is how you do everything. And so whether it's telling somebody you love them, whether it's drinking water, whether it's not doing something, you start to create an identity shift, right? And I responded, I said this challenge is about making an identity shift, even if it's small to become a person who trusts in him or himself or herself follows through does hard things even when you don't feel like it. It's consistent, makes growth a priority, engages with community, celebrates your wins and the wins of others, learns from failures and starts again, increases your capacity for resilience and digs deep into their commitment and determination. It's like a metaphor for entrepreneurship.

Kerrieann  
Yeah, and the community aspect I think was the best part because I mean, I had done things similar. Like one time I tried to do a meditation for 120 days and I made it, but I kept having to start over. And the best part about this 30 days was that I had to type into my community, whether I did or not. So it was like there is accountability there. And there's also like someone's to cheer me up. 

Amber  
That's what kept me going for sure. There was several times actually, in the beginning, and I kind of went back and forth was like, yeah, do I have time for this? And like, it's five things, we can make time for this. And then I started seeing people post about their wins. And I'm like, well, I want to do that. And same thing along the way, I was ready to give up a few times, I'm like, why am I even doing this, and then I'd see other people and it'd be, you know, getting their wins and cheering everybody on. So then I go in, and then I had my losses, and I'd go and cheer everybody else on. And then I'm like, why am I not doing?

Sari  
Which is the big metaphor for running a business and, you know, not doing it on your own, and having community and support and accountability and all those things. Because when you're just alone in a vacuum, you're kind of like, well, who cares? You know, I mean, I've done challenges too, on my own, and you're like, okay, cool, yay. Good, pat yourself on the back. But there's something extra, right? And you're going to if you want to come back and keep doing it. In this container of Badass 30. It is about the rules, right? And it's a very prescribed thing. And so you commit, but what I love is like, you can take the rules, and then expand it to new standards. And I think that's what you were talking about Kerrieann, what you wrote is like, you have some new standards, you probably all have some new standards about how you want to operate in the world, as a mother, as a wife, as an entrepreneur, as a friend. So I guess, yeah, I'd love to hear a takeaway on like, how you're taking this forward as you move ahead. So maybe Kerrieann, you can start.

Kerrieann  
Yeah, I think, you know, kind of back to what I said about it feeling like the end for a second, I thought, what a bummer. This is all ending and I was like, why would this end like all of these things made me a better mom, a better human, a better wife, a better businesswoman, a better entrepreneur, you know, better in general. So why would I stop doing them? This is not a finish line. This is now where it starts, right? And so what now can I do to sort of continue to improve in all these different aspects. And just like what Genevieve said, like, these sort of became the easy things now, right. As soon as my kids get out of the car from carpool, bam, I hit my little 15 minute headway summary. And I mean, that is just what I like my finger is like, but my babies and here's what I did. This is just now what I do. This is the standard, so and identity shots time to set that.

Sari  
I love that and it's a layering on processes, I've done more of these. And in one time, it did take me three months to finally do 30 days. So I want people to hang in there. But is that layering on process that you just raised the identity and the level of standards of who you are, and then you get to do it again. And that's what being a huge, you know, growing and contributing and as a human is all about just getting a look. Not compared to anybody else. But compared to yourself, right? Just you getting a little bit better compared to you. What about you, Amber, what are some ways you're taking this forward, now that you are officially Badass?

Amber  
A few different ways actually. It's also a great to have kids that hold you accountable as well, because on the flip side of it, one of my priorities was with the phone and the emails is trying to make sure that we didn't have not tried, let me back up. Not having the phones at dinnertime and spending that quality time with the family and the kids. And I was conscious before this challenge. I was constantly asking my preteen about not having her phone at the table, and then she busted me doing the same thing. So on the flip side, it's great for both of us because I love that I can not only do this for myself, but instill that with our kids as well and try to kind of help them prioritize some of these things in their lives as they grow and get older as well. And just being able to build on the confidence of trusting myself that I know I'm going to follow through with things and regardless of what I'm doing or what life throws my way, I'll be able to push through and kind of do the hard things even if I don't feel like it and just kind of reminded myself, you know, like you said earlier just you know, put that one shoe on or you know, do that one little thing to be able to do it and one of the quotes that James Clear said that really sticks with me is that success is the product of daily habits not once in a lifetime, not once in a lifetime transformation. So that's huge for me because I'm constantly looking at the bigger picture and trying to figure out how to do this big giant task when I really just need to take that first step forward.

Sari  
Right, break it down into small pieces. And you did a hard one, the whole, like not checking your phone in the grocery line or, you know, if you don't have time to respond because that's just a habit, right? We're just like, pick the phone up. And, you know, James Clear has some ways of like, you're almost breaking a habit, right?

Amber  
And it's so ironic because my sixth grader just got a phone this year, and it drives me nuts, but she's on it all the time.

Sari  
They're trying to keep us addicted to it.

Amber  
Oh, it's horrible, horrible. I missed old days.

Sari  
Dings and buttons and red flashing things and dopamine hits. But I love that you're trying to be more intentional, you know, you all are moms. And it's like, trying to like, when I'm being a parent, I'm present. When I'm with my family, I'm present. And then when I'm in my business, I'm present. And I'm focused. I think a lot of times when we're with our family, we're thinking about the business or when we're doing our business or thinking about our family and feeling guilty, you know, and, and so even I think your habits were about kind of creating a little bit more of a distinct separation there.

Amber  
It's hard to separate all the things. Little habits is huge. On both website of the personal and the business life. Yeah.

Sari  
What about you, Jeremy,

What are you taking away from this? Now you're officially in business. 

Genevieve  
Officially. Yeah, that's so exciting. Um, yes to like, distinguish the different hats. But also, for me that it really focused on the whole person, that there was a role for different aspects of my life. And as an entrepreneur, on a new adventure, and as someone who has sometimes had very low moments in my life, like, the last 30 days, yeah, we're challenging him. But that's something that I can come back to, because I felt very whole, every day felt very full, even if it was ending at midnight, just to get it done. And so, like moving forward in the valleys of life, like I can think back, oh, yeah, I had those 30 days, just come back. What were the five things? I think that's for anybody, whether you're listening to this as an entrepreneur, or just thinking about becoming?

Sari  
Yeah, that's beautiful. I love it. Because I mean, kind of what I just said, like, sometimes we're like, I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm here, but you're a whole person. And we need to make a business that we want to create a business that works for us in our life, and we can show up. Like, at least I don't want to be the person that's like never available for the rest of my life, because I'm an entrepreneur. And yeah, we can see that like how you do one thing is how you do everything. And so it's creating good habits across your life,  not just in business.

Amber  
Creating that balance for sure.

Sari  
I think we need to purposely, at least for me, I can get a little bit carried away with entrepreneurship, and I don't have kids. So it makes it even easier to get a little carried away. But you know, where I'm just like, all business and remembering more whole people. We need all of it to fill the bucket. I keep it full. Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I just thought it'd be fun to wrap up, you know, that challenge. And if anybody wants to get the rules, you can go to foodbizsuccess.com/badass. I'll double check make sure we'll put it in the link in the show notes for the link and you know, I recommend people can do it anytime. And if you're in fuel, you can just be like I'm starting and we'll both cheer you on. Yeah, we'll celebrate you anytime. But I like to do these usually twice a year as a group as well. So because it is fun to have that group aspect of it. Is there anything you want to want to leave withour listeners as we sign off here?

Genevieve  
Go for it, be a baddie. 

It's just totally worth doing. Absolutely worth doing.

Amber  
And it doesn't matter what time of year or if it took me two months and I barely finished before your deadline, Sari. Sounds like ah, like okay, I've counted down the days okay, I can do this before deadline. No matter what happens, just don't be afraid to start over and keep pushing through.

Sari  
You now have evidence that you can do our things you can do it when you don't feel like it, you have this thing to lean on. And guess what, there's going to be a lot of things thrown at you in your business that are challenges, that are obstacles. And I swear being an entrepreneur is mostly doing things that are hard, and that you don't necessarily want to do in the moment and you do them anyway. 

Amber  
And like those hard things from the challenge. Were not bad. And there might be things in life that feel hard and are seemingly bad. So it's like.

Sari  
What are some hard things that we can balance out? That's right, let's do it a little on purpose, because then we're building the muscle of resilience. 

Amber  
That's a really an increase creases, your resilience to whatever might be thrown your your way and being able to just take, take one challenge, no matter how small or how big at a time, and push through and be successful.

Sari  
All right, well, I really appreciate you making time in your your day. I know you are super full, have full lives with your business and your family. So it means a lot to me that you made time to show up today and encourage others to do the same in their business. 

Kerrieann  
Thank you so much for having us.

Amber  
Thank you.

Sari  
Well, that was amazing. I had so much fun cheering those women on and everybody who participated and who is still going, if you're listening and you are still going keep it up, you can still post your wins. And if you want to join us, if you are inspired by this, and you're like I need that accountability, I need that support to make sure I get this stuff done. Like I said, being an entrepreneur is basically signing up for doing a lot of things that you don't want to do in the moment and hard stuff that you got to figure out. And so you might as well get a community and a group and people around you that speed things up and celebrate you and that you have some accountability for and towards that will help you push through when things get hard. So you can come join us go to foodbizsuccess.com. And then on that page, you'll see how you can join Food Business Success, or if you just want to get into Fuel so you can be part of these conversations, you can start there as well. All right, until next time, have an amazing week. 

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 got to 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!