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If you're ready to skip the line and get the full formula on how to turn your passion into a business, I want to invite you to pick up my brand new book, Key Ingredients: How to Turn Your Passion Product Into a Profitable Business. It's available on Amazon in paperback and eBook form, go to keyingredientsbook.com or simply search it on Amazon. You know, I love a great party and I am throwing a special book launch party in July and your ticket to get in is to go and purchase a book. All you need to do is forward the receipt and I'll have the email in the show notes. This will be a chance to ask me anything about the book, about your business, about me, about writing a book, and I'm going to be doing some really fun giveaways, including giving away a four pack of VIP one-on-one strategy sessions with me but to be entered to win that, you do need to submit a review of the book as well. And all you need to do is forward your review to the same email and then you will be entered to win. Go to keyingredientsbook.com to get the link to go grab your copy, and then forward me all that info, will get you the registration link so you can join me in July for a fun book launch party.

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, and welcome back to the podcast. So happy you are here today and it has just been a wild week, I have to say. I'm recording this a week later after publishing the book and it's been so fun, and also a lot. And I've had ups and downs for sure. But I am just so thrilled that the book is out there and I'm holding it in my hot little hands. And if you heard the intro, you know that I am hosting a really fun book launch virtual party on July 6th, and the way that you can join me is to purchase a book, it's $5 as the ebook or you can purchase the paperback version. And you just need to forward your receipt to [email protected] or go to keyingredientsbook.com and I'll have the instructions there. And I'm doing giveaways there, it's going to be ask me anything, we're just going to have a party, just celebrate with all of you, and be available to you, offer any support that I can. We can talk about the book, we can talk about your business, we can talk about me. If you have questions for me about my life, happy to answer anything. And you can also be entered to win a four pack of coaching calls with me, a one-on-one VIP sessions, 4 of them. It's $997 value, it's how much you'd pay to buy that package and I'm giving one away. And the way you get that is by purchasing the book and submitting a review. So all the details are at keyingredients.com Or sorry, keyingredientsbook.com. So as I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this podcast, I've been thinking so much as I went through this process of writing a book, it was such a good reminder for me of what you all go through when you launch your business. And if you've already launched your business, I think you're going to get some good remembrances of this of like, oh yeah, I remember that. And to just see how far you have come and how much you have done. So I thought this would be really helpful in the very back of the book, I just have a thank you section, and just thanking you for picking up the book, it's been a labor of love. It's been a labor of a grind sometimes. But it's such a good reminder and an example of exactly what it's like to launch a physical product, right? And for me, it's a book, but for you, it's whatever your product business is. So as I've been working on this, I started thinking about it back in December, and committed to doing it. And then I've been thinking, thinking, thinking, and then I finally decided to start writing it in March. So it took me about three and a half months, and I'm just going to read these. There's 15 of them. So the first step that I went through is to think about it, dream about it, wonder about it. Could I? Should I? What if? And again, all of these are basically a mirror of what I think everybody goes through as a product based business. Then the next thing is ask others what they think about it, right? We go out and solicit everybody else's opinion, do you think this is a good idea? What do you think this would be like? You know, should I do this? And we go and get other people's opinions. And then from there, and that's maybe where you find me, right? You go and get my opinion on YouTube, or the podcast, or social media, or you come even and maybe even inside Fuel, and start asking these questions. Then you decide to do it and you start speaking about the business, the launch, in the present tense because this is happening. So not just like, someday I think I might launch a business, but like I am working on the business, I am going to launch this, and you start telling other people about it. Next thing you do is you start doing it. And you realize that you had all of these fantasies in your head about what it would actually be like for you to launch this business, right? You're like, this is going to be so fun. I'm going to just, for me sit down and write a book in a couple of weekends, right? And it's going to be like the movies where I'm just like, locked away and it's so romantic, right? And then it's not like that at all. Because what you realize is, it's going to take way more time and it's not always fun. We have to do some hard things, we have to do things that were uncomfortable with. So number five is dig deep and decide if I really want this, and what it's going to take to make it a reality. There's nothing fun about writing a book in the doing of it. I have to say, I really cannot be like it was not fun at all. I mean, it's fun to think about it, and what well, you know, when I have it, but the doing of it, no. Number six, say no to others, and myself on weekends and evenings to make the time for writing. Reprioritize my schedule to eliminate unnecessary or less important tasks to make space for this project. So I had to get really serious, right? I had to dig deep and say, am I really going to do this? And now I have a reality check of like, oh, this is actually what it's going to take for me to launch a book. It's going to be ,you know, I said, no. I had friends that were like, hey, you want to go to the Nuggets game or you want to go to this concert or go do this thing? And I was like, no, I can't, I don't want to. I want the book more than I want the immediate gratification and that sucks sometimes, right? I did say no. And I had to say no to myself, like I'm going to get up and, you know, I need to go to bed early. I need to not drink or over eat and I need to get a good night's sleep. And I need to wake up early and not sleep in on the weekends, right? And not go and do something else. So there were things. I'm part of a coaching group. I had to say no to that for a while. And yeah, you know, you get really serious about it. Number seven, find some expert guides who knew how to publish a book and I got their checklists and resources. So I don't want to figure all this out on my own. I want to skip the line. I want to talk with people and shout out to my friend Josh, who actually really inspired me to finally do this. In January he published a book and he gave me a copy. And I like had that as an inspiration. And I was like, okay, if he can do it, I can do it. And I'm going to pick your brain and talk to you about all the things that you did. I also listen to podcasts about publishing a book and about writing a book, like how to do it faster, easier, better. Now, in my case, I did not feel that I needed to go and like join a group or anything like that. I knew my own capacity and that I could be self disciplined. And writing a book, let's face it, is way simpler, like the steps are not that complex and there's lots of information out there. Unlike starting a packaged product business where it is complicated, and there's a lot of places to make pitfall errors, and to waste time, slow everything down. So I just want to make that caveat like go find experts and myself included, come get Food Business Success, get inside Fuel, and you will watch your progress like exponentially go faster. In fact, I'm just going to take a pause here and read something that Amber, shoutout to Amber of Daddy's Homemade Syrups, she posted in our community feed inside Fuel and she was celebrating a win, she said, we have had our best week at markets this week, I have been implementing some of Sari's suggestions, and it has been making a huge difference. Bonus, I've been collecting more emails at the events as well. I have been having so much more fun with our business again after joining Food Business Success, and found I can focus a lot better, have a much better perspective on things. And I've been able to bring my anxiety down faster and easier when a problem arises. Thank you, Sari.

Just warms my heart; thank you, Amber. And that is the importance of a guide, go faster, less confusion, less anxiety, less overwhelm, know exactly what you need to do, and see results faster. Okay, number eight, hire some outside resources to help with aspects of the book that aren't what I enjoy doing, or aren't good at, like editing and creating the book cover. So am I capable of editing my book? Am I capable of designing my book cover? A hundred percent. Some of you might, if you watch like, if you were part of the farmers market masterclass, I had, like a very simple book cover that was like that'll do. And I decided, actually wanted to be better than that, like B minus work, for sure. But I decided actually, I'm going to make some investments here and I'm going to go faster. I mean, gosh, if I had to edit my whole book, we would not, we would still be working on the book. I certainly would. So what I did was reach out to an admin, a woman Makeesha, who's helped me with projects in the past. And I said, hey, are you up for being my like, editor? And you know, I had to pay her. But it was 100% worth it to have somebody from the outside. You know, look at my grammar. You know, when you're writing, you just got to get a sloppy first draft out there. And I knew it. I know that I can be incongruent in my tenses and things like that. And so she went through and made all these changes and where she got confused, she made comments. And it really helped me to clean up the book. And then I also, no, I didn't have to pay my mom. But I also send it to Carol who did a final edit. She is a former elementary school teacher. So you know, sometimes you don't have to pay people and she did it just because she wanted to and help me out. But you need outside help. You need to get out of you and what you're capable of. And yes, I could have done it. I do have design skills. But I said, you know what, I'm actually going to invest in getting a nice photo. And I knew exactly what to do and where to go and where I could get that done fast. I actually reached out to a photographer and Christopher, my graphic designer and said, hey, what do you guys think of this cover? I got feedback. I was like, yeah, I want a real photo, a new one. So I just booked it, made the investment. I could get it done really quickly. I then hired a designer on Fiverr who knew how to create covers, that's what he did. And so I didn't have to think about it, I don't have to be like what size is it need to be and all the things, right? I just sent him the things and done. And he was able to do some really cool stuff. He actually Photoshop some products in here that I didn't have at the time when I did the photo shoot, which was really fun. So I was so happy with it. And believe me, you know, none of these were huge investments, but it was 100% worth it. All right, number nine book is almost done, but agonize over the last details and start delaying because there's probably more research I need to do to launch a book properly. And I am overcomplicating it. I know you guys can relate, we talk about this in Fuel a lot, especially when somebody hasn't launched, but I know they are ready, and they're just dragging their feet, right? They're doing the like, I'm scared. I mean, really, I was like, I'm kind of scared to put this out in the world. And you want to like there is a point where you're just like, it's good enough, let's just get it out there, I can always make it better. But honestly, I give people a push a lot of times, and as a coach, I can take a step back and be like, alright, Sari, you just got to get it out. Like it's close enough, right? So number 10, decide it is ready. It is B minus work, I actually think I would call this B plus work. And it's getting better. I have uploaded a new versions of it and just made it better and better. But it is, we'll call it B minus B plus work, and I just need to do it. I can always go back and make it better as I learn more and get feedback. But in the words of Seth Godin, it's got a ship. So number eleven, I decided on a date and an action plan to launch. The simpler, the better. Because I was reading all this stuff. Alexandra Watkins, who's doing our Create a Tasty Name workshop coming up and she's an author. And she sent me this amazing list of all the things you should do to launch a book. But it's also overwhelming. And that's where I was getting kind of buffering and that like I should do this and I should, should, should. And I just decided I don't want to launch that way. I don't want to launch overwhelmed and overcomplicated. So I'm going to pick a couple of things and it's fine. I can keep working on it. I don't have to do it all at once. I can keep chipping away at it and I get to decide what I want to do. It's my business, my book, no rules, you guys get so caught up in like all the shoulds. There are no rules, you get to do it how you want to do it. Number twelve, manage my mind that others will have opinions and could and probably will vocally share them. Because I have created something in the world that is real and open to be judged. And I think that's why we delay, right? It's like it's got to be perfect so that nobody has a negative opinion. Listen, no matter what, and how do we even know if it's perfect, but when you launch. People will have opinions. That's what people do. We have opinions, we have thoughts about things. Now, some people love to take it upon themselves. And I am sure you will find some grammar errors, misspellings, you know, typos, whatever, it's fine. And if you want to take the energy and tell me about it, okay, it's not a problem. I'll take the feedback. And I might make the change. I might not. I appreciate it. But I also am like, you've got other stuff to do. How about you go worry about your business instead of criticizing the thing. Again, feedback is fine, helped me make it better. But sometimes I think we like to just nitpick at other people so we feel better about ourselves. And ultimately, you know, as Brene Brown, it's actually not Brene Brown, it was Theodore Roosevelt that said, you know, I only want to take feedback from people who are in their arena, basically, like, if you're in there, and you're doing the hard things of being an entrepreneur, a 100%. But if you're in the cheap sheet seats, just, you know, gawking and using your energy for that. I'm like, no, thank you. But nevertheless, it is scary and I was pretty terrified actually, when I finally was like. I had a call with a coach friend of mine, the Friday before I launched and I was like, I was like, I'm really scared. She's like, why? You know, and it's because people can judge this. Like, it's not just me talking about it anymore. It's going to be a real thing in the world. And she's like, okay, like, I know.

I know. It's tough to let it go and just, you know, courage never feels good, right? And we got to erase the myth of like, I don't need to feel ready. I just need had to decide it's ready. And so I told her on the call, it was like, all right, next Tuesday, or no, I said, Wednesday, it's going out. Wednesday is the date. So I committed and it's so helpful to have an accountability partner and I told some people, I'm like Wednesday, Wednesday's the date. So, number and this goes along with it. Number 13, decide that even if it only helps one person, it is worth it. I can handle all of it, I can do hard things. So that's part of like managing my mind and making the decision and setting a date. Number 14, I'm ready to hit publish but there's a glitch. I keep getting an error message that I can't figure out how to fix. I spent hours on chat with Amazon and the other company working through the issue. It's frustrating and comical that I am so close. And now I have this issue. But I am not giving up no matter what. And this is so often happens, like, we're so close, and we're like ready to go. And then there's something you know, Health Department issue, there's something with the website, something's broken, something's not working right. And it may delay it, which it did, because I didn't launch until Friday. And I made some decisions. So the issue was that I bought like an official barcode with like the people who, it's kind of like GS1 for your products, but it's called Bowker, for books. So I like bought the ISBN and the barcode and spent the money, right? Made the investment and then it would not, Amazon would not accept it. And there was something, it's like a mismatch in the title but I was copying it. And I was on chat and all the things. And I'm so frustrated. And it was, and I just realized I'm like, okay, is this really important right now? Is it really important that I need this official barcode when Amazon will just assign me a barcode? I was like, let's just do that, right? And it did delay me. And I was like, that stinks. But this is actually better, right? If you think about a lot of times, I will challenge people say like, how is this for you? And so it allowed me to make the book better. I made some updates. And it was just a grind. It was a process. Every time I uploaded the book to Amazon, it was like a 20-30 minute process to go through, review it and then be like, another change, right? So it wasn't fun. I definitely feel like oh, man, there's like two days in my life I can't get back. But I work through it, right? And I'm not giving up, this is going into the world. And then number 15 finally is celebrate the dedication, the self-discipline, and the commitment it took, and that I am now a published author. I'm assuming I got through the hoops at number 14 because you're reading those. How cool is that? And it is, it's so amazing, I have been a part of so many people's launches. And it's so fun to see the transition of like going from just an idea and all the work and all the hard things and problem solving to like, I have a product in the world. It's so cool. It's so fun. And you know, you'll see on the cover and on the back, like all the products that I have been involved in, and so many of them I've helped from just an idea to a real business. And as I'm thinking about it now, I probably should go back and add a 16th and that is now the real work begins. Okay, I got a book. Great. Okay, you have a product, amazing. Now, you thought that was the hard part? No. Now you have a baby business that you need to go and work. You need to go get a hundred no's, you need to ask people for support, you need to go and show up and make offers. You're going to, like the real work actually begins now. So this was really fun to think through and I've just over the months I've just been like making mental notes of like, ah, I got to remember this. This is so similar to launching a business, just like you guys. And I hope that was the fun to kind of think through of like, yeah, that's my experience, right? And now I go get to work. When you actually have the product and you're launched. Your support means so much to me. I really appreciate for everybody who's already went and grabbed the book. It's been incredible. I love all the texts and the messages that are coming in. It's been pretty incredible week. And in fact, Ryan from Pup and The Pepper. He just texted me, I just checked it after I recorded this because I thought I was number two in a category on Amazon. And he just sent me an image that said, I am number one for new releases and starting a business. How amazing is that, right? I am celebrating that, that was my goal. And I just want you to remind you that life is 50-50. Just because I'm number one now, which is so fun to say, definitely me putting that on the website, it doesn't mean that I'm not struggling or that that's going to be like a permanent state forever, right? There's going to be new challenges, new things that come up. Life is 50-50. And I'm going to enjoy it and celebrate it now knowing full well there's going to be some down moments as well. And I have to just tell you, this is for all of my students and clients in Master Your Business because we've been reading 10x is easier than 2x. So my goal has been to sell 100 books in June. And I was actually thinking this morning. I'm like, come on, Sari, we got a 10x that like, what if my goal is to sell 1000 books, but we just extend the deadline a little bit. So 1000 books by the end of summer and then I start thinking bigger about what do I need to do to actually sell 1000 books, to get 1000 books in people's hands to help them. So I just want my 10x-ers to know I'm doing it for myself as well. And if you've already purchased a book, please go and leave a review again. Reviews really help the algorithm even just going and saying start a food business or start a business and finding the book and clicking on it is a simple, free way to help me out. I really appreciate it. All right. Thanks so much for tuning in today. I hope to see you at the book launch party. It's going to be really fun. I have so much good stuff to give away. We're going to do Fuel boxes, we're going to do a Fuel membership. I'm totally available to answer questions for you guys if you have anything you want to know. And I hope to see you there. Go buy the book for the receipts. All the information is at keyingredientsbook.com All right, 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.