Ep 196 Setbacks and Comebacks

You have already overcome so much (we survived a pandemic!), but most of us fail to think of ourselves as the hero in the story and use it as evidence of what we can accomplish in our businesses.

In this episode, I explore how to turn setbacks into powerful comeback stories for your business and life. Learn practical strategies for handling challenges with self-compassion and actionable steps to keep moving forward.  Tune in for my insights and tips on how to use this simple tool to achieve resilience and success in your entrepreneurial journey.

Get the CEO checklist at https://www.foodbizsuccess.com/ceo and know exactly what to do when you put on the CEO hat 🎩 in your business.

If you would like help to create this foundation to create your own beautiful business, Master Your Business is now open for applications. We will officially start in January, but you don't want to miss the Q4 bonus classes to get your business ready!

Food Business Success is my signature program that helps you launch your delicious idea and grow it to $100K. Includes step-by-step videos, tools and 5 months inside the Fuel membership for coaching + community. And it's guaranteed to make your program fee back or I'll refund your money. Learn more at https://www.foodbizsuccess.com/program

Pick up your copy of "Key Ingredients" on Amazon here.

Check out my YouTube channel at www.foodbiz.tube for how to videos to start and grow a packaged food business.

Transcript

Sari  
Every business has 10 problems at any given time that need to be solved. And the way we solve our problems is by asking questions, and getting answers that help us to get to the next step, to get into action, and try things because we can't just solve problems in thought, we need to actually take action, and to help you get into action, to help you feel confident, and provide clarity so you know what to do next, I am hosting two free, completely Free Live Ask Me Anything sessions on May 21st and May 22nd. They are kind of divided by pre launch if you haven't launched yet, I'll take questions about that. And then post launch if you have a business and you're ready to grow it. Or maybe you have questions about whether you checked all the boxes correctly, I'll focus on those questions. And to register totally free, you go to foodbizsuccess.com/AMA2024. Get yourself registered, you can come to one or both of them. And it's a way for you to get to know me and my expertise after working with hundreds of packaged food brands and helping them launch and scale to 100k and beyond. This is a great way for you to come and ask that burning question so you get an answer and can move forward and get more success more quickly. When we get into motion and action, we see success and we get momentum. So come join me, get yourself registered. The link is also below in the description. See you there! 

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 Kimbelll, 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, and welcome to the podcast. This is a solo episode. And I'm really excited to record this one, I double and triple check that I have not done a podcast on this concept, and I was really surprised because I use it all the time in my coaching. So without further ado, after almost four years of the podcast, let's talk about setbacks and writing your comeback story. In any business, in any life, we're going to have setbacks, there's just no getting around it. And I would argue that when you become an entrepreneur, you are putting yourself out there to have more setbacks, you are risking something, you are being bold, you're taking big action, you have to muster courage. And so there is more opportunity for failure. I like to say and I'm repeating what others have said that the road to success is paved with failures. We have to fail a lot to be successful in our business. And so of course we're going to have setbacks. And some of us are going to experience really big, intense setbacks. It could be a bankruptcy, or even death of a loved one, or a lawsuit or something of that magnitude. And then most of us, many of us experience just kind of ongoing setbacks, there's always going to be something that comes up, whether it's a denial for a market or it's a trademark issue or something's going wrong with your packaging, or you get no's from buyers like on and on. You're going to get price increases from suppliers or co packers. The list is huge. It's just part of having a business. And it's so fascinating, I noticed when I'm coaching each week that I feel like members and clients, there's always a theme, and last week seemed to have a theme of setbacks, of people coming to the calls and sharing what is going on their business and having some setbacks and so I get the opportunity to coach them through that. And if I was recording this podcast a couple of years ago, I probably would have just jumped right into, well, how is this for you and let's write your comeback story, which I'm going to get into what that is. But as I've matured in my own coaching, and discovered, learned about other aspects of how to really set you up for success and to work through difficult setbacks, I would actually start with compassion. So when you have a setback, let's just observe it, let's see it for what it is and let's not try to rush to feeling better. It's okay to feel disappointment. It's okay to feel frustration, sadness, grief, anger, all those emotions are okay, they are legitimate. And it is actually much better to pause, notice it, name it, observe the emotion, it's not going to hurt you. Emotion is just simply energy in motion in your body. And yes, sometimes it feels like I'm going to die. This is the worst thing ever. Whether it's your heart raising, your throat feeling tight and constricted, your chest feeling heavy, your stomach, like having that drop or even nausea. But I promise, even just taking a couple of deep breaths, I love to put my hand on my heart. And just talk to myself as if I was my best friend, as if I was the love of my life, which I am. So I'm going to talk to myself and I encourage you, when you have a setback to put your hand on your heart, talk with yourself in a kind voice, recognize that these things are happening to everyone, you're not alone. And comfort yourself, say I'm really frustrated, I can see that, it's totally normal. Of course, I'm frustrated. I know I'm not the only one experiencing price increases or denial of a market, and that's okay, I can handle it. Let's just feel it, you're going to be alright, we're going to get through this, but it's okay to be frustrated. Let's calm the nervous system down first, let's process the emotion. And then we can get into getting to the other side, getting reinvigorated, building resilience through a comeback story. So first step is self compassion. Then take five minutes and write your comeback story. Think about the greatest stories that you have read, that you've listened to, you've heard that they always have a setback, it would be a really boring story if the story was just like, she started a business with a great idea and then was a millionaire. The end. No hardship, no obstacles to overcome, what a really boring story. And that's just never the way it goes. And even when you listen to what seemed like overnight success stories, they never are. It's like a 10 year overnight, you know, a three year overnight success. I love listening to founder stories on like how I built this or something like that, because you're going to hear time and time again all the setbacks that happen, even in my interview with Justin a couple of years ago of Justin's Nut Butter, he talked about the big recall, and it was a million dollar recall. That was a huge setback, one that I do not wish on anyone, and yet he got through it. And so a really great tool is to write your comeback story. You are the hero of your life, hero of the story. And what are you going to make out of this? What is the meaning that you're going to make out of this setback and write it as if you are the hero. You are Luke Skywalker or Katniss Everdeen. You are the hero who is overcoming these big obstacles, these setbacks. And so write it from like, here's what happened and here's what I did to overcome it. And here's the end that I'm creating. Oh my gosh, here's what I did to overcome this. And on the other side, I created the amazing new product. I got into new stores. I got into a different farmers market. I overcame the trademark dispute and came up with an even better logo and better branding. All of these things are here for you to help you grow, to help you get better, to create contrast, and often because I see it a lot, what's on the other side is better. But first we need to recognize it, we need to honor the emotion, feel it, don't try to shove it down. Don't try to get to unicorn daisies and rainbows first, feel it through self compassion. And then just sit down for five minutes and write your comeback story. You will feel more energized, you'll feel ready to take on whatever's next. And from that, you can say what is the next thing I can do? I love a good friend of mine, Kristin Graham, who I had on the podcast, she has the mins, what's the most important next step? So if you think about out of your comeback story writing, okay, what's my mins? What's the next thing I can do? Maybe it's coming into Fuel and posting the problem, asking your question, or it might be going and watching a module in Food Business Success that's on this specific thing. Or it's coming onto a group coaching call or maybe you schedule a one on one call, you go and find who's who are going to help you overcome the problem so much faster, because you have a setback that you maybe don't know how to deal with. It's something new. Surprise! Welcome to entrepreneurship, my friend, where we just solve a whole bunch of problems over and over again, a brand new things that keep coming our way. That is basically entrepreneurship in a nutshell. And that's exactly why I did the Ask Me Anything which were so great. It's why I offer Fuel as a place to come and get your questions answered. We got to go find who's, we got to go start talking to other people, it's going to speed things up so much faster. So I would encourage you as you think about what's your mins, your most important next step, to go find a who to help you solve the problem. Overcoming setbacks is just the name of the game. And if we can step back, write that comeback story as if we were the hero of our own lives. It's going to generate so much more positivity, resilience, courage, and motivation to keep going. And what I've noticed over the years is it's not the quality of the idea. It's not even the money you have. It's not the time you have. It is your ability to stay in the game to get back up every time there's a setback, to keep going. It is a game of longevity and staying in the ring more than it is any other circumstance. Those things help. No question. Having more money can be helpful, having more time can be helpful. But I have had people in my membership and inside my circles for years, and the arrow is pointing upwards and to the right, it's always going up. Now may not be going as fast as they want. But they're hanging in there. They're staying in the game. They keep growing and evolving and getting through their setbacks. And I want to encourage you to use this tool of writing your comeback story every time you experience a new setback, and then go get support. 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.