THE TWO BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESS

Success is Letting Go of the Three Main Categories of Fear!

Greetings, my fellow entrepreneurial foodie!

Achieving success (in business or in life) is similar to the “Hero’s Journey” in films. If you study screenwriting, you will quickly find this path is composed of two parts:

1. Achievement

2. Transformation

In other words, whenever we accomplish something, along the way it changes us. Often in ways we did not expect.

Think of Luke Skywalker, taking his first step into The Force.

Luke Skywalker was not available for this photo shoot, but his understudy agreed to pose.

For us Foodies, when we get past fear and resistance, and commit to offering that first product for sale, and achieve that goal, we are transformed. Your confidence and willingness to risk, create a new you.

Now it’s easier to sell more and more.

You inch forward, take more risks, try on more products. Your conversations turn from “The Fox and the Grapes” pessimism to un-wielding optimism.

The same two-step process happens with your first farmers market. Your website launch. Your first wholesale transaction to a retail establishment.

These benchmarks may feel like random fits and starts. But…are really the template of life.

Similar to learning to eat real food as a baby (with help), learning to walk, riding a bike, first kiss, first whatever, dating, first job, change jobs, first marriage (lol), even dealing with the death of someone in your circle – is a journey.

Virtually everything you discover, learn, or do follows this two-step template (subject to doing it successfully, of course, regardless of the number of attempts.)

But FIRST, before you get to step one: ACHIEVEMENT!, you must deal with the demons whispering in your ear.

Those fear messages come in three categories:

1. Internal

   • Can I really do this?

   • Am I smart enough?

   • Will I follow through?

   • Is this a want or a need (and does it matter)?

2. External

   • Too expensive to start

   • My spouse won’t support me

   • Too much competition

   • The economy is in flux

3. Vehicle

   • Is food the right business? What kind of food business?

   • Do I need a coach or training program?

   • How do I build a website (do I even NEED a website)?

   • Are farmers markets the best place to start?

   • Should I form an LLC?

So, how to work past all those (mostly mental) obstacles?

The trick I use, and recommend to you, is to view your foodie aspirations as … a GAME!

A food business is THE most exciting game on the planet!

A game is fun, right?

Whether pinochle, bowling or soccer, you start by:

1. Finding a mentor/coach/teacher/partner

2. Learning the rules, and

3. Getting out there to develop skills.

The same is true for starting a business – mentor, rules, then skill development. At some point YOU become the expert, the mentor. You only need to know 10% more than the next person to elevate your status.

With a food business, since you are already a foodie, technical skills for numbers 1 and 3 are already pretty much under wraps, right?

Someone (Mom for me) probably got you started (#1), and you’ve spent years becoming skilled (#3), to the point you are TRANSFORMED! From cautious newbie to a cooking or baking expert, or at least a semi-guru. Your basic technical knowledge is now pretty darn good.

But, Rule 2, that big hairy, scary RULES vampire, could or would suck the confidence right out of you.

And not even just rules, but with a food biz, you are talking about MULTIPLE LAYERS of rules and regulations:

1. Starting a business

2. Running a business

3. Food safety regs

4. Cottage food laws (if applicable to you)

And you need to understand the expectations for at least three of the four (1, 3, 4), just to get STARTED!

Remember in grade school, each time someone introduced you to a sport for the first time? Dread! (Unless you were athletically “gifted”!)

Our first time “at bat” in any life endeavor, we would rather be somewhere else…but this is the first step toward mastery.

“Oh, God! I feel so stupid and uncoordinated. PLEASE don’t let me make a fool of myself, so people laugh at me!!”

But once you know the rules, remember how quickly the fear transforms to confidence? (Ok, not for every sport, probably. But, probably for the ones you enjoyed.)

NOTHING dissipates fear like knowing what to do: the rules, the regulations, the culture, the vernacular.

At some point, you helped classmates learn the game, right?

I designed the Cottage Food Business group on Facebook to help you become a FoodCrafter success story. Instead of (or in addition to) getting a coach, you are surrounded by supportive peers who’ve crossed or are crossing into TRANSFORMATON. Cooks and bakers on the path ahead of you, pointing you to solutions and options at every turn.

COTTAGE FOOD BUSINESS now with an active and growing membership approaching 40K members!

Business really is just a game. Get excited. Learn the rules and try it on. You can always bail, if not for you. In the meantime, feel the adrenaline, your heart pumping.

Master the rules at each level, jump in, and go from Achievement to Transformation. Rinse and repeat. It becomes easy. And addictive.

Fortunately there are sooooo many resources today, at all levels of food biz development.

NEVER STOP LEARNING:

• YouTube

• Facebook Groups/Pages

• Other social media

• Guru’s/Trainers

• Courses

• HELPFUL food inspectors with printed resources and recommendations

• Blogs/websites

• Massive retail and wholesale marketplaces you can tap into

• Etc. – It’s all there, only 14 inches from your nose with a Google search

While turning your foodie adventure into a game is my TOP recommendation, there are others:

1. Never stop networking

   • Make a list of everyone who might affect your success

   • Contact in person (best), phone, email

   • Use a simple, “Hi, I just wanted to meet you. This is what I hope to do (elaborate). Suggestions?”

   • Develop industry friendships and professional contacts

   • Your Net Worth becomes directly related to the size of your NetWork

   

   Your NETWORK becomes your NET WORTH!

2. Never stop building time-saving “systems”

   • Production

   • Marketing

   • Vending

   • Bookkeeping

   • Social media

3. Fertilize your subconscious

   • Self-guided meditation

   • Mindful meditation

   • Prayer-God

   • Brainstorming with peers/friends

   • Brainstorming with a yellow pad, white board, or in MS Word

You become and attract what you think about…

Of course, little things can help too! E.g. a supportive spouse, positive self-talk, and creating balance (and fun) in your life. But even without those, you can (and WILL) win at the game of business.

For me, most fun in life comes from entrepreneurship. I get to play Business Owner (THE most fun game on earth) and get rewarded financially. (Shhhhh, don’t tell!)

No such thing as “work” in the traditional sense, when you wake up every morning and realize that today (Oh! Goodie!), I get to play in my very own business! The one I created!

Ask yourself every morning, with anticipation, what accomplishments might I reach today? What sales will come in? And what challenges await my creative solutions?

In fact, jump out of bed, and yell, “What is Spirit bringing me today??!!”

The MONETIZATION CHEF looks forward every morning to what the new day brings in his food business endeavors.

(One favorite right now for me is to wake up, log in to the Cottage Food Business FB group, see the questions, see who joined and even offered up their email address for my Cottage Foodology Substack Newsletter. MAKES MY DAY! PS Thank you.)

And this, my foodie friend (sigh), brings us to the close of what I hope is a motivational discussion.

I’ve offered my best tip(s) for feeling the fear … and launching/growing your food business anyway.

You are a budding or practicing hero superstar in the game of foodies in business.

I will continue to email you, one to three times a week, with semi-random, helpful marketing, business, and success tips.

(Unsubscribe any time if I am not creating value for you!)

And of course, I will notify you about training and development programs, business services, and funding options courtesy of my doppelganger, The MONETIZATION CHEF.

Blessings, and I hope we can become friends and peers, working together in the coming months and years.

I love and respect you, my sister/brother in FoodCrafting. Let’s take the world by storm, profitizing the incredible sensory miracle known as “taste.”

With the Food Freedom movement, our time is here.

Don’t die with your recipes still bottled up inside you…

This poor woman was too scared to take her wonderful recipes to market… so they died too, without entertaining the palates of the world.

After all, why not get paid for doing what we love? Deciding NOT to offer your foodie wares for sale, is robbing all those future friends of your sensory treasures.

And if eating too many tasty foods is a sin, I am looking forward to hell. One of the reasons I am short for my weight. (Or is that horizontally gifted?)

Taste test everything you can, for a rich, full life… regardless of where you end up! NO REGRETS!

(Lips smacking, just thinking about all the wonderful goodies you make, now and in the future!)

Sin-certainly yours,

Mal Dell
The MONETIZATION CHEF
”Cooking Up Success for Foodies!”

PS COMING SOON! A spreadsheet bookkeeping system for cottage foodies, a Schedule C tax prep course, and a business startup course! All geared to YOUR needs.