The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

   BUILDING FOR THE JOURNEY   

Hey , 

How was your Thanksgiving? Actually, I'm sure for most of you, you are dealing with Black Friday / Cyber Monday chaos. So as a little mental break, I wanted to share a bit about a mindset shift that may help to put that chaos into perspective. 

This year I’ve found joy in my professional life after years of incredibly stressful times. Here’s what I learned…

👉 BEGIN WITH THE JOURNEY IN MIND

When I first started as a founder, I tried to imagine an end goal (selling my company for millions of dollars) and then worked backward to create a path to get me there.

The journey to reach that hypothetical goal was draining and deflating, leading me to some of the most stressful years of my life.

Now I optimize for the journey I want to live every day, and am much more successful because I love helping other founders and it gives me so much energy.

👉 DEVELOP A PERSONAL WHY

We’re all told to develop a mission, vision, and values for our companies, but what about ourselves personally?

I took some time to reflect and identify why I’m doing what I’m doing, and the impact I want to make on my family, industry, and the world.

This has grounded me when things get tough.

My personal mission is “to create products that enrich people’s lives while mentoring others to do the same.”

I get to live that out every day now.

👉 BUILD FOR FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

A company with a strong financial foundation will greatly reduce your stress level.

With TeaSquares, I built a business that lost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and my stress level was always a minimum of 7/10. I was in constant fear that everything would collapse at any moment.

Now, everything I do has a clear path to financial sustainability and my stress level never goes above a 3/10.

What lessons have you learned from your journey? Shoot me an e-mail, I ready and reply to everyone!

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STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

74. Founder Stories - Junita's Jar

Junita Flowers created her cookie company as a way to help herself and others heal from domestic violence, and is now selling in stores across the country, including Target.Join me for a conversation and learn why she created her company, her decision to self-manufacture with the pros and cons, and how she's planning to scale her enterprise. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

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