Ep #192 Routines for a Successful Season

Our brain loves a great routine and it's important that as things shift in our lives that we take some time as CEOs of our business to re-evaluate them and make decisions ahead of time to set ourselves up for success. Often we just let the seasons run us and run us over instead of setting up systems and routines that shift with the needs of the season. 

In today's episode, I share with you when to re-evaluate your routines and some practical tips for planning out a successful season so you feel in the drivers seat and make more money in your business. 

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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 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 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! 

Hello, welcome back to the podcast, you get another solo episode with me. I have a guest coming next week. But I felt like this was a really important topic to get into sooner than later because this will help so many of you, because a lot of you are probably ramping up for market season. Now, of course, it depends on where you live, it depends on whether you're even doing farmers markets, doesn't really matter. But I do work with a lot of people who do farmers markets. And so I thought this would be really useful right now. But even if you're not doing markets, this will be really helpful for you to also create intentional routines, whether that's just you're transitioning into summer mode, maybe your kids are going to be out of school. You know, there's lots of things that change in our schedules as the seasons change, as we add or subtract things from our lives. And the whole point of this episode is that we want to do routines with intentionality. And we want to make decisions ahead of time to set us up for success. And we want to reevaluate routines. I love a good routine, I have overcome my resistance, my kind of inner rebel that loves to resist, I mean, like, I don't want to routine and I actually build in free time. I have a client who, we would call it wild stallion time. And so we would actually build that time into the overall schedule, so that you do have time to not have a routine. But even that, it's a little meta, but even that is a routine. And it's feeding different parts of us so that we feel like we have what we need to be able to give to our businesses. And routines are amazing, they are there to support us, our brain loves to go on autopilot, our brain loves to be like, alright, just tell me what to do. I heard a great metaphor for this. It's like, you know, on a dirt road, how the tires, you know, the tracks form. And it's just like, you don't even really have to steer the car. You're on it. And you're just like, okay, we're just going in line with the tracks here, right? And if we can continue with that metaphor. It's amazing when that's working for you. But also having the foresight and the brainpower to say, okay, am I still going in the right direction? Do I still want to go to that destination? Have things changed? Not because they're bad or good. But just things change. We enter new seasons of our lives, whether it's metaphorically or literally new seasons. And it might be helpful to stop the car and adjust, check the map, make sure this is still serving us. And maybe we need to get out of that routine, out of those tire tracks, and get onto something else to change course, change direction that will better serve us. So that's where I wanted to go with this. I want to give you guys concrete ways that you can set yourself up for new routines and how to evaluate them. And as I mentioned at the very beginning, many of you might be starting farmers markets, or you might be switching into summer mode or both. You know, if you have families where the kids often, you know, the whole school thing really dominates our lives and their activities. And so this is a perfect time to be the CEO of our businesses and to kind of look at the whole season that's coming up and make some decisions and set up a new routine. So I want to give you some great tips that I use with my clients, my one on one clients, with our members, sharing with them how we can set ourselves up for success. It's so interesting how we just forget to do this, it is our brain on autopilot. And I went for years, just being like, well, that works. So I should keep doing that, right? But if you were in a sport, if you're a professional athlete for instance, you would have a specific season that you need to be on, you are at your best. And you would do, I would think, anyway, that you would do some pre planning for that season. You would be talking to your family and your partner about like, hey, I'm going to be playing in my sport for these months and let's set a plan. Let's look at what's coming up. Let's see how I can be supported and also how can I make sure everyone around me is supported, and things are going to shift, they're going to have to change as I go into the, you know, the high point of my season. Actually did a podcast about this on my Reinvent Podcast recently comparing it to Taylor Swift, so if you want more of this, because I was like, you know, and Taylor goes on tour, she's got to like make decisions about her season, right? And yet we forget to do this about our lives, our normal lives, we kind of forget that we are also professionals, we are running a business. And we are going to have seasons of our businesses that are busier, and some that are less busy. And on last week's podcast, I talked about giving you permission to run your business your way and that's 100% true. But when you have decided, if you're like I am doing farmers markets, or I'm ramping up this other area of my business, or maybe some of you actually, you know, I have a couple of clients who are in very hot weather climates and summer's actually your slow season. Okay, amazing. But let's make some shifts, because you don't need to just keep going, going, going at that pace. I think that's where we run into burnout, overwhelm, feeling like we never give ourselves a break. Awesome. Depending on where you're at in your season. Let's just evaluate it and do it with more intentionality and using the prefrontal cortex of our brain to make good decisions that set us up for success. So here's some tips to make it work. I'm just already going to assert that right now is a really good time to reevaluate your season that's coming up. This is a great time, we're at the end of April here and as you go into May, school wrapping up if you have kids, and just life seems to be dominated by school activities. And then also if you're going into markets. So first, there's kind of looking at it on the macro level, the big scheduling level, this is where it would be really good if you have a partner. If you have family members you need to involve in this where you look at your overall season and you define it you say, my season, let's just take farmer's markets as the example. My season starts in May 1 or whatever date that is, and goes through October 31. So now we've put, we've bookended it, and we're like, yes, here's when it starts, here's when it ramps up. And there are dates around it, there's something very comforting knowing that it will not be like this forever that our businesses do have seasonality and ramp ups and ramp downs. And that's a good thing. We do need time to rest. We do need finite time periods, it helps us to want to do the sprint, to do the work and not just feel like this is my new normal forever and ever. And so I highly recommend that you put something really fun on the calendar as a celebration of I did it. The season is now ending. If you think about like a CPA, their season is like January through April 15 or 17th or whatever that date is that the taxes fall on in that year. And so they're going to be like, go, go, go, go, go. I have a client whose husband is a CPA and we've talked about this before. It's like, we just you know, there's things you just got to get through. But you know, on that date, the next day your like, hours shift and you're able to take a little time off and maybe sleep in the next day, celebrate all of that. 

So I highly recommend putting something on your calendar. And we could have many things like this, maybe you're going to jam packed couple of weeks where you're like doing even more events and then having a rest day in there. But definitely something that celebrates that kind of marks the end of that season, right? And I don't care if that's just, I'm going to take a half day off and get outside and nature, go for a walk, I'm going to do a massage, I'm going to do a trip and do a manicure, whatever it is for you, have something that feels really fun. And I also recommend looking at your dates as far as like getting a calendar done, especially if you are in a family situation where other people might need you places like what events do you have coming up? What do you need to get on the calendar? What do you need to shift around? What do you need to say no to? What do you maybe need to find support to help you at the markets for so that you can take that day off, right? We want to plan ahead and the longer we have time to figure out solutions, the better it will be rather than, you know, this is the difference between being in just reactive mode all the time and constantly putting out fires versus being very proactive and very responsive. Being responsible for your business, for your season means that you are full of response that you are able to respond. And that's a beautiful thing, the more we can do that in our business, the happier, the calmer, the more in peace and the more you will love your business. Okay. So that's kind of high level stuff that I do recommend. But then specifically when you're making a shift, right, that let's say, now Saturdays, and maybe Sundays are going to be market days. And we need to think through what is that routine going to look like that I will be the most successful? That I'm going to set myself up for this incredible day where I can show up, I'm rested, I'm prepared, I'm there on time, I am engaged. I'm doing the generosity principle, right, the reciprocity principle, doing all the things I've talked about in the last few episodes around sales and really getting your mindset shifted in a good way to be open to sales and having great days, so much of it starts with our routines. And the reality is if this is brand new for you, if you've never done a farmers market, it's going to be messy at first, it's not going to be perfect and so we need to just give ourselves a little grace and let it be messy. It's okay if you don't do it 100% perfect. I promise you by like the third or fourth market, you will have it dialed in if you give yourself the grace, and if you also circle back and like make a plan and respond to whatever it is like oh, I should have brought that or that would have been really useful. Make notes and then fix it. Be responsible for fixing and creating solutions for what did not work. I have known people, I have seen it and my own farmers market where people don't make adjustments ever and every market they show up like a hot mess. And I'm like, this is fixable. One time I get it, right, two times, all right. But like we should be fixing these things and creating really powerful routines that serve us so that we can go kind of in that autopilot for the season. And get our tires in those ruts and just go and barely even have to steer. And it's a beautiful thing when it works for you, when it's helping you. So let it be a little messy, but do commit to solving the issues like writing them down. We always think like, oh, I'm going to remember this later. And then a week later, we didn't write it down. And then we totally forget. I've done this a lot. And now like my note in my phone, that note app is my one of my favorite tools. I use that all the time. It's searchable. Just have a farmer's market note in there that you're like, oh, should have done this. Oh, let's fix this for next time. Like we always think that we're going to remember because it feels really important in the moment but your brain can only hold about it's like five to nine things at any given time and I promise you it will get filled in by other things and a week later you will have either forgotten altogether or you'll be like, what was that, there was something I was going to do, what was it? And so I get it, that happens. But let's just try to get ahead of it and make those notes. So do that. I really believe a routine starts at night, it actually starts the day before you do the day of activity. And so looking at your routine as a whole thing, it's not just the day of, we actually will set ourselves up the day before to have a really great successful day. And I'd like you to do if you've never done farmers markets before, do a pre run, please do set up your tent on your lawn, or wherever. Get it all set up, go through the process, see where you get stuck. When we're in the moment and things aren't working, we're going to start getting really anxious, and then our problem solving brain just shuts off and makes it worse, that's when our anxiety goes up. And we can start getting really flustered and things. Little things that don't work, turn into big things that don't work, and it affects our whole day. And so, do a little pre run to a dry run, please, and start making notes of like, ooh, what do I need to learn here? How could I make this better? All that good stuff. But I guess I wanted to go back to doing the thing the night before. So things like, you know, looking at your schedule, like maybe if you have a farmers market the next day, like staying out late the night before is probably not going to serve you very well. Like how can you have great routines around your bedtime, you're eating your phone, I mean, my phone pretty much shuts down at 8pm. I have to work at it to get access to it. And I highly recommend it. We need to shut off our phone, and all of that anxiety provoking information that comes in. We need to be winding things down, we need to be mindful of what we're eating and drinking. We need to be mindful of, you know, our bedtime and what we're engaging in the conversations so that we can have a really great day the next day, we need to set ourselves up for success. I call it hooking your future self up. Can you put out your kit ahead of time? Can you pre pack the car? Can you get your shoes out and your outfits and all those things that you need? Can you have your food ready? Can you make it easy for yourself in the morning with your beverages and your lunch and all that stuff? Do it the night before. Oh my gosh, we always think like, I'll just do it in the morning. But like it never works out as well as we hope it will. We never have as much time as we hope. And you know, every now and again, we accidentally hit snooze. And next thing you know, we've shortened the amount of time that we have. So it's a great routine definitely starts the day before. I love checklists. I am a little bit obsessed with checklists, if anybody's listening that has been a Master Your Business, you know how much checklists are a lifesaver, literally they're lifesaver in hospitals and flying situations, right? Pilots have checklists. And yet we kind of think that we're like, oh, like I know it, it's in my head. All the things that I need. And I actually read a whole book, I don't think I've read the whole thing. But I listened to a good chunk of the book called The Checklist Manifesto, entire book about checklists, who knew? But how easy they are and yet we avoid them for whatever reason. But what if you actually did the thinking ahead of time, not when you're tired and trying to barely function. But you're like, I have a checklist. I've run through this. So it's the meta skill of like doing the pre run, doing the trial, and documenting what are all the things that you need, build the kit ahead of time, have a checklist of what goes in there, go through each time. There's a reason why pilots who are flying airplanes, these giant things in the sky with lots of bodies on them run through checklists, right? Even if they know it, of course they know it, they've done it a million times. But that doesn't mean that you know, we don't have less than optimal days. And so let's have a checklist. Let's not force ourselves to work harder than we need to on the day of, let's hook ourselves up the day before, let's have checklists, and then the day of it's like when you're preparing for a trip, you know, and I actually am this week that I'm recording this, and I have a checklist of like all the things and yeah, of course, the dishwasher is on there and close the blinds and lock the doors. Very simple things. And yet, when I'm in the, you know, the fluster, I'm trying to get out the door for a morning flight, it's going to be really useful to have done the thinking ahead of time. So create your checklists. And Danny and I created one for you. And there's a bunch of resources inside the Farmers Market bundle. And we put together a whole bundle where you get the Farmers Market jumpstart course and all that goes with that, and you get the Uplevel course. And there's already checklists built out for you. So helpful of us, thank you. And so just have that stuff in advance, do the thinking ahead of time and you will be so grateful, your future self will be thanking you for that. So do that thinking ahead of time. And then like I said, just make it easy and fun. Find places where there's friction, that day of, you know, again, it's going to be a little bit messy. But you're there, you notice something, maybe you talk to your neighbors, you're like, oh, that's a really great idea. Like, go buy that thing on Amazon or wherever that's going to make your life a little bit easier. Instead of trying to remember to bring sunscreen and bug spray, and you know this or that, just go buy an extra one and have it in the kit, let's find the places where there's friction and places where you have to spend extra energy, and just create something that makes it really easy turn key, get the additional chargers, you know, whatever is going to help support you to have a better day. And when you're feeling supported by yourself, I promise you, you're going to show up in a much better attitude and a place of service, a place of fun. And it's just going to be a much better use of your time and your resources and you're going to have a better day. The last thing I want to offer is like a daily morning routine that can fit into these kind of new routines, maybe around a farmers market schedule, things like that. And it is so important you guys as a CEO, I mean, there's so much research around the benefits of having a morning routine that involves a little bit of meditation, some journaling or reading some, you know that spiritual filling yourself up, getting yourself grounded, a little bit of body movement, taking care of your body and your soul before you ever start a workday. And I actually have several routines that I can modify. So I have my like, here's on the perfect day, here's what I do. And then here's the days like for instance, I have a couple of mornings where I do this very early Pilates class. And so I've modified my morning routine. So I still get in the pieces that I know are going to really set me up for a great day. But they're just shorter. It's a shorter meditation. It's a shorter writing exercise, right? And I just make sure on those mornings, I really set myself up, already have my tea ready to go and some of those things so that I can get out the door quickly. And so if you don't have a morning routine, that's like an everyday thing, I highly, highly recommend that you start something. I know I've done some podcasts, I will need to find them on ideal morning routines. I know I've talked about it multiple times. But a couple of hints with that. Do not, do not, do not check your phone for anything, for texts for social media for emails, anything, ideally in the first hour. If not, if you have to. But try for at least the first 30 minutes where you just do not engage with your phone, like for me, is my alarm. So I turn it off but I'm not sitting there checking anything. It is the worst way that you can set your day up. It turns on anxiety in your brain. It gets you focused on things that you can't really take care of in that moment. And you lose the opportunity to really ground yourself in your intentions and your purpose for that day to set yourself up for success. So do not. Please, please, please do not scroll in bed get out of bed. Start a morning routine build this time in. I don't care what season you're in, have 10, 20, 30 minute morning routine, that you get to make some decisions about the day and feel really grounded. And I just talked about things that you could include in there. All right, I hope that was helpful to remind you that now's the time to look ahead to make big, you know, look at the whole season with dates and obligations and start and end dates and all and kind of, there could be some middle milestones or smaller things in there as well. Then look at the actual routines that need to happen, that need to change, right so that you can get out the door on Saturday morning for that 8am Farmers Market with as little stress and drama as possible to set yourself up for success. And lastly, start or modify your morning routine to fit into whatever that new farmers market routine looks like. I would love to hear how it goes. Use all the tools that we provide inside Fuel and the programs that we offer if you have those. And cheers to you and having an amazing market season if that's part of your business model. And 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 foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own Food Business Success.