Full 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 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. We are back, back, baby, and better than ever. I am so excited to welcome you back to the podcast, this new season of the podcast, to welcome Stephanie Robbins to the podcast and to Food Business Success. We're going to get into a little bit about what Stephanie's going to be doing and talking about the future of Food Business Success. All right, welcome everybody to the podcast. We are back, back, baby, and better than ever. I am so excited to welcome you back to the podcast, and to welcome a very special guest, and more than just a guest, someone you're going to be hearing from and seeing a lot, and so very excited for this new phase of the podcast, this new season of the podcast, to welcome Stephanie Robbins, to the podcast and to Food Business Success. So, hi Stephanie.

Stephanie 1:46
Hey, it's so great to be here. I'm so excited.

Sari 1:49
Yes, so we're going to get into a little bit about what Stephanie's going to be doing and talking about the future of Food Business Success and the podcast, but I want to share with you that Stephanie Robbins joined Food Business Success back in January, and she is our president and chief go to market officer, and really excited that she wants to bring the podcast back. You guys know it's been six months, I did a last episode at the end of 2025 and was rolling it down, and shared with you a little bit about my journey, and needing to take some time, and realign, and we're really excited. I'm excited that you're bringing the podcast back, Stephanie.

Stephanie 2:34
I am too. I love this podcast. I think it's been so amazing, the information, the practical advice, the depth of expert, and I'm so excited to be part of it, and to be able to continue the legacy of that.

Sari 2:50
So we thought about this podcast as like the kickoff of the next season, the next life cycle of Food Business Success, and I'd love to share a little bit about your background and who you are, and where we're taking the program, but secondly, we talked about how important, like sharing the message about as an entrepreneur, like taking time to realign your business, to realign yourself, to evaluate it, and to be willing to evolve it, and to change it, and how you started, you know, your business, like I started five years ago, or more than that, seven years ago, how you started then, like the business needs to change and evolve with you as you grow and change, and so I think our second, you know, purpose of this welcome back podcast is to, you know, share that message and share a little bit about what I did to get back into alignment and to bring in a wonderful partner in the business. So, sound good?

Stephanie 3:37
I love that. I love the idea of being able to share the Food Business Success journey for all the founders in our community to be able to see in real time how it's going to unfold, how this change, this pivot, this growth, this whole new chapter is going to come around and and how in the process both you and I are creating the lives we want to live, which is so important and so dear to me. One of the reasons I wanted to work with you, of course, was because so much of what you've built is around helping people actually create the life they want to live, and that to me is inspiring.

Sari 4:41
Yes, creating a business you love and that loves you back, and when you feel out of alignment with that, so maybe I'll just go and kind of share the story, like go back and do the time machine here, go back in time, but you know, last fall I came back from my travel and I really thought, like, okay, I'm going to get going, like I've taken enough time, let's go, and I just could not. I just didn't want to. I didn't have the energy for it. I was starting to resent my business, and it sucks to wake up every day, not maybe not every day, but many days, and say, I don't want to do this, you know. None of us get started businesses because we want to wake up feeling that way, right? Usually we leave our job, because we're feeling that way. But the reality is, is that as we design our businesses, that how I did it seven years ago, and five years ago, when I started the podcast, it was all me. I was wearing all the hats, and I outsourced a little bit here and a little bit there, but it was still me, like running the marketing show, doing all the content, you know, scheduling podcast hosts, editing the videos, all the things, and I just reached a point where I was like, I can't do this by myself anymore, and I got to a place where I was like, it either is going to go away, I need to just, you know, be grateful for it, and call it complete, and close that chapter of my life, or I need to call in somebody that can help support and is in alignment with me and the vision and sees the potential and that's I got really really clear I think if I was going to say to anyone who's maybe feeling a little entrepreneurial burnout or wondering like can I keep doing this, or maybe feeling some resentment is I worked with a coach, I got really clear on what needed to shift. What did I want to keep doing? What was my zone of genius, and where were the places in my business that I just was feeling drudgery? I was feeling exhaustion. I was like, not excited, right, and that all comes across like if I'm going to do a social media post or a podcast, if I'm in resentment and burnout, like it's not going to be worth the energy, right, because you guys are going to be like scroll past that, right, and so I did the work, started putting out the call within my networks, looking for a partner, and I was very clear, it was like it's got to look like this or it's nothing, right? And I was willing, I'd like release the attachment, and we got connected through a mutual friend who I've known since I pretty much started Food Business Success, and he's been a real champion in my life, and yeah, shout out to shout out to Wave and Dean, and he said, I know that I got the perfect person, I just met her, and we started talking and having conversations and started building that trust and relationship, and so much of it was me being willing to be honest about like here's what I'm willing to do and here's what I'm not, and if you're a fit to fill in the gaps, right, then we can keep it even moving forward, and I'm really proud of myself for being willing to do that, because there's so much ego that can get wrapped up into like it's my face and I got to keep this up and I can't let the people down and right but nobody wants me showing up trying to coach you as entrepreneurs if I'm hating my business it's not going to work out so.

Stephanie 8:39
I just love your story of intention and coaching, like it's so important for everyone to know when we need to have a coach and how to put that intention out there, and the irony is I was doing the same thing on my end, I had sold a business, ironically a business that wasn't in consumer packaged goods that I had purchased while I was getting my own snack food company up and running, and it was a business I had been trying to sell it for about two years, and I was in that same spot of, I didn't want to do it anymore, but you don't get to quit your own job when you own the company, but anyway, I had sold it about, well, about a year ago, and I was putting my intention out there, not quite sure what I wanted to do. I was doing some fractional work, and that's fun enough, but it wasn't really feeding my soul. Love coaching, love teaching, love helping people get to where they want to go, and yeah, I met Wave, and we sat on a panel together. We happen to live in the same town, and we became instant friends, and we're talking. And then he looked at me, got your email, literally like the day before he and I met for coffee, and came to me and said, I have something you need to look at, and we talked. Talked, and we looked, and it was, but it was so, so out there in the universe. I had just said, I'm not sure what I want, and I'd been working with my coach as well, but I'm not quite sure what I want yet, and I'm open to something I haven't thought of, and all of this came in it, and it checks all my boxes of what I love to do, where I like to be, what I like to work on, and help people with. So, it was so.. if anyone.. if anyone has a great takeaway, like the takeaway from this, I think, is just put that intention out there. What is it you want to do? Where do you want to be? You know. And then I always, I guest lecture at and and in business school, and and one of the things I tell early founders is lean into your strengths and find good people for your weaknesses, right? So finding someone to come in and do the things you don't want to do, that doesn't mean you're not good at it. It doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just means why do the things you don't want to do when you can find someone who can do the things you want to do. And then I also find partnership to be so.. I love collaboration. I do my best work when I can collaborate with people, when I can toss an idea out there, and I can get ideas back, and that for me is always exciting. So.

Sari 11:26
It ggives me goosebumps, like I remember Wayman saying, like, I just met this woman, and she's looking for an opportunity, and I'd love to, for you to share a little bit about your background. I know you've shared in a couple social media posts and whatnot, but I mean, the beauty was, is like, oh my gosh, this woman has 30 years of CPG experience, working with big brands and also her own brand, and it's just like, oh, this fit just feels so aligned, it just is like, wow, it's it's a puzzle piece coming together, and I think some of it for me is, you know, I've never been one of those people that like loves group projects or anything, because I'm always the one that like does more and takes responsibility, and then you got the slackers and all the things, so I think entrepreneurship has always appealed to me, because I'm like I get to make the decisions, it's all up to me, right, but seven years later, and on, in, you know, fast forward into my business, it's like it can't all be up to me, and there is, it's kind of deciding that to believe that there's a different way, it doesn't have to be the group project model where everybody gets the A, but only one person did the work. It can be a real collaborative, you know, filling in the gaps on our skill sets, allowing ourselves to be in our zone of genius to actually evolve it and accelerate whatever endeavor you're doing that, there is a version of partnership that is that way, and I think I finally got to a place of like it's got to be this way, but I don't have compromise, there's no room for compromise in this, where I'm just like saying yes, even though I want to say no, or vice versa, so it's like both of us being very clear about what our who we are and what our true intentions are. How we want to show up.

Stephanie 13:23
I love that, and in the world of just kind of like in the world of business planning, that's so important, right? We've got our goals, we've got them aligned. If we're not aligned, we work through to alignment, and that's always the better path, is you know, there's the old saying, do you want to be married, do you want to be right, or do you want to be married, and it's like, well, I want to be married, I want to get to the writing, an answer that works for everybody, and I have found, I also believe in, just for more platitudes, I believe in the saying that the motivated group beats the lone genius every single time, and so when we can come together, and maybe you want to go left, and I want to go right, and we're like, well, wait, let's look at this, and we're going to work through what left looks like and what right looks like, we're going to work through if there's other options, and then we get a path, and all of a sudden we're like, wow, this is even better, this is so much better than what I thought it was, and that to me, that to me is where magic happens, that to me excites me. That's where I get my goosebumps, like, oh, we have this, we came up with this, and, but, yeah, so to answer.

Sari 14:27
But yeah, tell us a little bit about your background.

Stephanie 14:30
So I have been in consumer packaged goods for 30 years, I've been primarily in marketing strategy and innovation during that time with mostly fast growing emerging brands, so everything from pre revenue with my own brand up to about 150 million with brand well we were owned by private equity, so we had 3 billion in backing, but we were only 150 million, and everything in between, and I've actually, I've actually worked in tech and local-based businesses as well, so just having that wide variety of business and strategy and building and marketing and thinking through the whole business plan process. I've got my MBA, and I actually still really good friends with a lot of my fellow students in my cohort, and so we talk a lot, and then and I have a another podcast that I do that just gets into the philosophy of how to make a great brand, it's the things that I think about, and that could put a link in for Thursday lunch, that's called Thursday Lunch, and it's really about the philosophy around how to create great brand and what to think about when you're building a brand, and so these are the things I tend to think about, you know. I am one of those geeky people who loves to read certain business books, although if they're not good, I put them down very quickly. That was the other cool thing, is you and I've been reading a lot of the same books and getting excited by the same books, and I love that, and so for me, I get very excited by emerging brands. By I love the CPG industry, I love grocery and consumer goods, but I absolutely love that magic of coming up with an idea of doing something better than what's already on the market, whether it's a better product itself, whether it's sustainable, whether it's, you know, 1% for the planet, whatever that is, but it's better than what's already there, and then bringing that forward, because not only do you create wealth for small people, which is amazing, instead of big brands, but you're also pushing forward a better system, a better food system, a better world, a better sustainability, all of the stuff that comes with this mission-driven concept that these emerging brands have that are in their own way making changes in the whole industry, so the big companies have realized in the last 20 years how much share they're losing to the entrepreneurs, and so they're making changes, so they're really, we tiny little emerging brands are actually affecting change, and then also a lot of times the emerging brands really become the innovation for the big brands, because you innovate, you can take chances, you can launch your brand, and then maybe you sell to them, or maybe you inspire products with them, and that inspiration then also grows a category, it elevates the whole system. So, all that stuff, I know, I just geek out on all of it, all that stuff just, it excites me. It's so fun to see. It's so fun to be a part of, and then really quick, my original, my undergraduate degree was in teaching. I was going to be a high school English teacher, and so all of these parts have come together by meeting Sari, by joining Food Business Success, because I've always loved teaching, I've always loved helping people find what they need to move their knowledge forward, and get moving forward, and it's always excited me. So, for me, I just feel like this is right where I belong. It's very exciting to share.

Sari 18:41
I was a middle school teacher for for a couple years, so if I can teach seventh graders, we can teach adults how to start a packaged food business, and I love that we both share that passion for fatigue, for learning, and for teaching, and I think that's what you want when you're working with people in to help you in your dream fulfillment, right? As you want to go find people, I think you know, sometimes I meet people who have started big brands, and a lot of times people want to go mentor with, you know, somebody like a Justin, right, or like, you know, CTE foods or something like that, and the reality is not everybody just because they did it, they don't know how to like break it down into the pieces, and they don't always understand, like they're too far along, they don't understand like where you're at and all the little things, you know, I have a client who was just asking me the other day, she's like, do I need recall insurance, and do I need this and that, you know, because she's talking to a co-packer that only works with giant brands, and it's like, no, we're not at that level yet, and I think that's the wisdom and expertise we bring, is like, understanding the startup stage, you know, that that just an idea, 300k to 500k is our sweet spot, and we don't need to, we're not the people necessarily that are going to be like, I'm going to help you go, you know, exit to Coca Cola, like, but it's like finding the right experts and the right mentors at the right time in your business, and I think we love to teach.

Stephanie 20:25
I think that's so important. I talk to people a lot, and they want to write, they want to work with that ex-Coca-Cola person, because they came from that blue chip company, and that's great. They probably did great work at Coca Cola, but if they've never understood what it means to not have all the people, that support, right, you don't have a data analysis, you got an analyst, you have to figure out that you don't, you can't even afford the report, so where do you get free data, right? You don't have a slotting fee, so how do you, if you want to go to retail, get into retail, you don't have the, you know, the runway to go to retail, so what do you do instead? All of that, I don't like the term scrappy because it's overused, but truly all of that scrappy. Yes, and been there, I feel like, like we've been there, and, and then, and I mean, I've built big national brands too, so I know that path, but it's that, it's that initial part that is, so I think so opaque, if you haven't been in it, and if you've been in a blue chip brand, that's great, you know. No, no disrespect to the people growing and building those huge blue chip brands. Getting into startup though, is a really different mindset.

Sari 21:53
And we just.. I love that we love our people so much. So, all of you listening, we love you so much, and we love that you have these delicious ideas, and you are considering entrepreneurship, or you're wanting to grow, and you and I really bring a nice marriage of, you have experience in big retail, some of those big retail brands, you also have experience in your own food business, and being on Amazon, the e-commerce, and in retail, and doing your own, which is not, you know, I don't.. I never.. I started like a tiny little.. anyway, you can go back and listen past episodes, there's a story in there, but I never really started my own brand, and so.. but I have all the farmers market experience, the direct to consumer, and then some direct to consumer, so we overlap there, but you're going to bring so much more to the program around retail as well, and so it just, we just bring even more to the program. I'd love to just touch on how we're changing, like what we are updating right now, in case people are wondering, you know, what's changing and what are we doing? So, in 2019 I recorded the initial program, which was originally called Food Business Success, but then we renamed it to Launch and Grow, because we have other programs as well under the umbrella. So, we have that initial program, Launch and Grow, and I've added different things. I've updated parts of it, but when Stephanie came on, I said, "Listen, we don't really have anything to sell. I don't feel like this is six years, seven years old. It doesn't even have AI in it, like it's just me talking to the camera, and it needs to be updated, right? And that was actually one of our areas that we initially were like, I think it was a good test for us to say, are we going to stay in our integrity of what you know, this true partnership, right? And because it was like, well, okay, Sari, you can go re-record everything, and I was like, ah, no, no, I'm not. I did not sign up for that, right? That's why we're here. That's why we have a partner, and ultimately us having that difficult, challenging conversation of saying, like, I don't want to spend hours and hours creating new content, even with AI, and even with, you know, you know, seven years later, I know so much more, and I can speak about it, but we're also, we also don't want it to be all centered around me, you know, as the face of the business. Now we have you, and we have other experts, and we're really changing the positioning of how we're, you know, it's not just the Sari show. So, as we talked about it, I love that we actually innovated and came up with an even better way of doing this next, you know, Launch and Grow 2.0 or the next version of it. So, do you want to share a little bit about how you've restructured the program?

Stephanie 24:57
Yeah, I'm so excited by it, and I have to say, I mean, having you front and center for all this time has been amazing, and everything you built was so amazing, and I feel like now with an idea of growth, this is where growth, what growth looks like, like you know, so thinking in terms of your own packaged good too, like you get to a place and then it's time for growth, so what's going to change, and so what we're doing is one of the things I love is, you have brought in some industry experts at portions of Launch and Grow, and so for this new iteration, we've brought in experts throughout the program, so we're really interweaving them in, and it allows for the founders in the program to get familiar with experts who are doing certain things that they might need, and then they've got access to that person or that expert to be able to create even more support and foundation. So we've expanded the curriculum for Launch and Grow, we've split it into three modules, really. So, we've got our executive module, which really gets into what you need to do and think about as an executive, as a leader, as thinking like a CEO, or thinking like a boss. And then we've got our product section. What do you really need to understand about product? I mean, everything: product development, safety, production, everything in there, and then, of course, sales and marketing. Now that we're thinking like a boss, we've got our product, we're making it safely. How are we going to sell it? How are we going to make money? What does that look like, and what is the roadmap and the strategic plan that we can create to be successful at every turn? So, what are the.. we go into what the pitfalls are of a lot of brands, so that we can avoid them, so that our founders can walk their path with confidence and know where they're going, how they're going to get there, and who to call if they're not sure. And I feel like it really.. it's an amazing new program, but it also couldn't be what it is if we didn't have the amazing program that it, it sprung forth from, and there are pieces that we've pulled from the original program as well that are still in there, because it's still such a great program, and so I'm super excited for Launch and Grow, and in general, we're looking at additional growth for Food Business Success. We've got more fun stuff coming, we'll talk about later. Just our little teaser is the very much question mark of, well, what comes next if I've grown my business to that 200,000 to 300,000 in Launch and Grow. So, just as a teaser or hint, that's coming up at probably towards the end of the year.

Sari 27:42
And I want to give a shout out to April as well, who is still on our team, and I think the three of us, and I love that it's women run, and we're running this, you know, like bosses, but one of the beauties of the three of us is like I tend to be a little, I'm not, maybe not as organized. If anyone's been around me, they know, like, I have my own organization, but to others they're like, what is going on here? So April is like really supporting us through the update of the program, and creating consistency, and the step by step, and the, you know, the fluidity of the program. And so I want to give a shout out to April for her support as well, because Stephanie's really heading up the direction and getting all the experts. It's kind of like a master class, a little bit, right? And I love that the modules are much shorter, you don't have to listen to me for an hour to try to glean the thing that you needed, right? So the shorter modules, easier to understand. There's a lot of consistency. You created a great vision. I help support it with some recordings. You brought in all your experts, so it's a really, you know, something to be really proud of. So, thank you for your work on that. And I know when this episode comes out, it will be, I think, available in the world, so very exciting. Yeah, I love the way we put it all together, and it'll be live when this podcast comes out. And so, if you want to get the details, and you want to get some good, juicy stuff, and get on our email list, or learn about the program, just go to FoodBizSuccess.com and there'll be a place right there on the homepage for you to start learning about and getting to know us, and if you're feeling like, yeah, this is the time, I really do want some support, you know? I want to just not be like throwing spaghetti at the wall or trying to figure out this out on my own. It's the new program is just fabulous, so I'm very excited about.

Stephanie 29:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. It's going to be.. it's a great program. I hope everyone will come and check it out.

Sari 29:48
Yeah, and we are keeping Fuel, which is our membership, and so if you join us, if you get Launch and Grow, you'll get access to Fuel for a period of time and. And that's our amazing membership. I'm still coaching. The beauty of this is like my zone of genius is coaching, teaching, right? And I basically said to Stephanie, like, that's what I want to do, and she's like, great, I'll do everything else. I'm like, amazing. So Stephanie's taking over all the operations, all of the marketing. I'll still be, you know, she's directing me now, which is great.

Stephanie
Although we're very much in partnership, very much, because I come to Sari, and I'm like, hey, I'm thinking this, what do you think, and very much in partnership with everything, but, yeah, the goal, yes, but the goal was, and it excited me to be able to say, okay, you want to, if that's all you want to do, what do I need to do, so you can do that, because I like all the back end stuff.

Sari
So April's still coaching as well. And then Stephanie's also, you're doing, we're actually adding an office hours, which is a really cool thing. We've never had that before, so that'll be with Stephanie, and then you're also doing the VIP call, so we're bringing in experts, and so Fuel's just like, like the members who've been in there get all the great benefits of that, and then new people that come get to experience the expanded Fuel membership, which is really, I think you can get, I've certainly have purchased a lot of online courses, I'm a learner, I love doing that, but there's something like when you're really truly serious about making this happen, is like being in community, being able to ask your questions in real time, not have to go hunt for it in a video, or like, you know, things come up that you're like, where does this even fit, how do I do this right, and having people available to respond to you very quickly, and I'm so excited, like I'm heading to fancy food, and I get to meet a bunch of members in person there, and we have a number of people who are exhibiting for the first time, and it's just so fun. I just absolutely love our members and fuel, and I'm something that I'm just like so proud of.

Stephanie
I think that is one of the most important pieces is the community that you get, that support, I think of it as starting a company you need three really solid things beyond your idea, right, so you need your idea, but you need that education, so whether you have it, whether you need to gain it. In our case, of course, join Launch and Grow, and get the education. You need some level of coaching or expertise, some kind of, as Waven would like to say, another shout out to Waven, who connected us as Sherpa, right? Someone who can help you navigate that path, and how you're going to get there, and then I think you really need community of founders. You need to be able to connect with people who are on the same path as you, and you can actually see when sometimes you feel like, gosh, I can't believe this is taking so long. And then you talk to other people and go, oh well, it's not taking that long, that's how long it takes, right? Or I don't really understand how this works, and you go on, and we have our channel, think you know, like a Slack channel, but very contained with our founders, and you say, hey, I don't understand this, and all these people come in and go, oh, well, here's how we dealt with it, here's how we dealt with it, and obviously April and Sari and myself also come in and say, have you thought about this, and have you looked at that as well, and being able to build that, that is, that's the difference between really being able to get where you want with your brand and taking it seriously, and just hoping. I think of it like typing hunting and pecking versus just typing it out, right? Although I get amazed with how well my son can use his thumbs on his, on his phone.

Sari
And taking your business seriously, but also having more fun, right? It's like, what are we doing here if we're not having some fun? And so that's a big part of my ethos, and you know, it's about heart, it's about having fun, and meant to be a very safe and welcoming space. So, well, we could go on and on, but you know, this is our first episode back after six months after I officially ended the podcast, but we always reserve the right to come back, so I am officially handing you the baton, and you are going to be heading up the podcast. I'm sure I'll be back on future episodes, but Stephanie is really taking on the leadership of the next phase, the next evolution of Food Business Success, and I could not be happier.

Stephanie
I'm so excited, and thank you for that. And yes, I want everyone to know Sari is never far away, and food business success could not be what it is, or continue to grow without Sari's participation, and so she's always here, whether you see her or not. She's trust me, she's here right next to me all the time.

Sari
I may be in a completely different country, but I'm here, probably in the world, but.

Stephanie
Well, I'm excited. We're going to continue with what Sari built with this podcast. It's going to continue to be practical advice. It's going to continue to have amazing experts and great stories, and really usable, reusable information that founder can take away quickly, and hopefully enjoy in the process, because it, like you said, if you're not having fun, what's the point? And I hope to see everybody here on the next episode.

Sari
Amazing, thank you, Stephanie.

Stephanie
All right, thanks, Sari. Take care.

Sari
All right, I'm going to do my sign off for the last time. 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.