EntreLeadership - #200: Danielle Ontiveros—The Power of Patience and Perseverance

Episode Date: May 15, 2017

If there are two qualities every small-business owner needs, it’s perseverance and the willingness to grow slowly. And this week’s featured guest could be a poster child for both. EntreLeader Danielle Ontiveros, CEO of Grab the Gold, joins us to discuss her company’s journey to becoming a national brand and how even a hurricane couldn’t stop her from building her business. EntreLeadership host Ken Coleman shares his thoughts on perseverance too, along with answering listeners’ mail. entreleadership.com/podcast Summit Digital "Swag Bag" Grab the Gold Discount Infusionsoft's Office Automation Guide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. We are broadcasting from the Music City, and this is the podcast of leaders, by leaders, for leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. This episode is absolutely jam-packed. We're going to get to some of your emails. We've got a super cool offer, a digital virtual virtual.

Swagbag. I'll tell you more about that. Our feature conversation is with Danielle Antaveros. She is the CEO and founder of Grab the Gold. She's one of you folks. This is going to be encouraging. What an amazing story for those of you who are in the process of starting something or you are on the way and you're going, man, am I going to make it? This will encourage you. And I'm going to share some of my thoughts on the tension between patience and perseverance. From my own journey, personal thoughts, things that have encouraged me, that I think I'll encourage you, and it certainly ties into the embodiment of everything that Danielle is. She is a lady who understands that tension, and it is really the key to her success. And we have some free resources coming

your way, of course, from InfusionSoft and on-trade leadership. So let's get right to it. I love it when you email us. Oh, it's time for Ken's Electronic Mail. Ken's electronic mail. You've got mail. A reminder, you can email us. Podcast at Entreeleadership.com. Podcast at Entreeleadership.com comes right to me and Eric, the producer. We love to take your questions or suggestions.

I'm going to answer a few of your questions. Rich emails in, how do you get past the burnout stage when you get into a place where it seems that nothing is working and your motivation level is low? How do you move past that? It's a great question, Rich, and I think all of us at some point in our life have felt burnout. But to get past it, I would say get through it. One of my favorite things to explain to people is the idea that if you are truly working in your sweet spot, right? I've talked about that a bit on this podcast. That is at the intersection of your greatest strength and greatest passion.

You are going to almost be burnout proof. And I say that carefully because what I define burnout as is a feeling where you just have nothing left in the tank. You don't want to get up. You don't want to go after it. Now, that's not the case when you're operating your sweet spot. You will be tired. You can certainly get tired and work yourself to mental and physical exhaustion. However, when you retreat from what is causing the mental and physical exhaustion and you re-energize and

recuperate, here's the good news. You're not burned out. I can be gone about three or four days. And Stacey will tell you this. And I'm totally unplugged from the world. About three or four days in, I'm still enjoying my vacation and I'm very present with my wife and kids. But I'll tell you, my motor is already recharged. I'm ready to go. I don't care how exhausting the road trips have been, or how much my mind has been completely engaged. So I define burnout is I've got nothing left in the emotional tank to pursue what it is that I have been doing. To me, that's burnout. You just don't care anymore. You can be super mentally tired, super physically tired, but still care passionately and deeply about what you're doing. So that's what I define as burnout. So the

big question, Rich, is, are you truly burned out? Or are you just really, really tired, and you haven't been effective? Because that's a big, big differentiator there. Okay, so you need to look in two different buckets right now. Number one, look into your day-to-day role. Are you doing things that suck energy out of your life because, quite frankly, you're not good at them, or you just simply don't want to let go? Because you could be really, really exhausted, because you're not playing in your strength zone, in your unique role.

So you need to ask yourself that. And then the other bucket you need to be looking at is, are you simply doing the work that you're supposed to be doing? This could be a much deeper discussion that I don't have time to pick apart for you. But I think you have to ask yourself, are you doing work that is in your sweet spot that you care passionately about, that you would do if money wasn't an issue? But you would still do it because you believe it needs to be done. So I think that's what you have to ask yourself. And that's how you move through.

But you can withdraw and allow yourself to recuperate. and if the passion is beating still heavily, well, then you know you're not burnt out. You were just tired. Big difference. All right, next question comes from Justin. What was your biggest obstacle you faced, Ken, when you were growing your business and how did you overcome it?

Well, my number one obstacle was me. And I'm not trying to be glib. But I was my number one obstacle. When I was leading a team, I was leading a speakers bureau that was doing about, six million gross revenues when I was in my mid-20s. And my biggest hurdle was me. Then later on, when I was running my own business, my wife was helping me.

I promise you, Stacey can tell you that the biggest hurdle is me. I'm going to try to be cute. But the reality is, we believe this strongly in Entree leadership, that the leader is the ultimate lid, the ultimate obstacle in the growth of an organization. A company cannot outgrow its leader. Period. Your opportunity is limited by your leader, not by your product or your service. The opportunity is limited by your leadership.

It's that simple. So I don't know what your obstacle is, but you asked me what mine was and that's what it is. And can I be honest with you? All you leaders out there, you are your organization's potential greatest obstacle. Now, you may not be an obstacle right now, but I, at time, was the biggest obstacle. That could have been in my day-to-day duties. Maybe I was a bottleneck because I wasn't letting go of something. I mean, we could go down the list of leadership mistakes and failures, but those are all symptomatic of the leader. Final question is from Christina. There are so many

experts out there. How do you know who to listen to? Who has the best advice for me? I love, love, this question, Christina. And the answer is, again, you need to turn that question inward. If I were sitting with you right now, I would say, Christina, tell me what you need to know most right now. What do you need to know more than anything else? And here's an exercise, by the way, that all of you can apply. Ask yourself once a week or once a month, sit down, get quiet and say, all right, what do I need to know more than anything else in my physical life? what do I need to know more than anything else in my professional life?

What do I need to know more than anything else in my spiritual life? What do I need to know more than anything else in my relationship life? So for me, I'm a husband and a father. So if I'm sitting down on a regular base and I'm asking myself, Ken, what do you need to know about parenting? So here's what I'm doing. I'm walking you through the exercise of it's about the need. So forget about the expert. That's a secondary question.

Now, Christina, I love the question. but it is a secondary question. So the first question you have to ask yourself is, Christina, what do I need to know? What do I really, really, really need to know? And once you define that, then you go to somebody who has what I call the two key ease. You ready for this? You need somebody who has expertise and experience. So once I know exactly what I need to know, now I need to do some research and say,

who can best answer my need. Let me tell you something, folks. In 2017, experts are a dime a dozen. I'm not interested in the latest, hottest blogger on their expertise unless they have tremendous experience. You understand what I'm saying? Here's the difference. I can go to any number of college professors who are technically experts on a subject.

But if they don't have any actual experience in living out their theories, well, that's not the best person. So, what do I really need to know who can best answer it? I've said this in my book, one question. I say it all the time to young people when they ask me for advice. The right question asked of the wrong person will still give you the wrong answer. The right question asked to the wrong person is going to give you the wrong answer. Great question, Christina.

I believe this is breakthrough stuff for people. don't ask any questions until you're absolutely certain that you know what you need to know. All right, folks, that's going to do it. Remember, you can email us your questions podcast at entreleadership.com. Hey, I told you, folks, we were going to give you a virtual swag bag. You're going, okay, Ken, I've never ever had anybody offer me a virtual swag bag. Well, hang on a second. It's pretty stinking awesome.

It is a virtual swag bag from our upcoming Entree Leadership. Summit. Now, I've been telling you about this, ad nauseum. And you know what? It's our podcast. I can tell you whatever I want to tell you. It's that valuable. So I don't have any shame in my game. But we thought, well, let's give you all something in the podcast audience, because we know that there are literally hundreds of thousands of you that aren't going to come to the event. We get that. So we thought, well, let's bring the summit to them. That's what we've done. Our team has put this together. It's unbelievable. Here's what the virtual swag bag has in it. It is going to have a downloadable version of the event guide that everybody that sits in the chairs at Summit will get.

This is speaker notes. Oh, that's like, if we give you nothing else, you should some thank you notes by the thousands. This is a great resource. But we're also going to give you some success stories from other entree leaders and things that they are doing day to day that are helping them win. So best practices, but in bite-sized nuggets, we're also going to give you multiple articles from our entree leadership team, Simon Sennick, Chris Hogan, Christy Wright, and more. And we're not done. How about the Entree Leadership e-book? The number one best-selling entree leadership book.

It's the playbook. We're going to give it to you. E-book form, all you have to do is text Summit Show. Summit Show. text that phrase to 3344, 3344, and you will get the virtual swag bag. And you need to be subscribing to this podcast on iTunes because the week of Summit, Eric the producer and Will the Engineer, have got a daily podcast coming to you from Summit.

So that's each day of Summit. You're going to get a podcast loaded that night. You wake up the next morning with a goodie bag of greatness. from the Entree Leadership Summit. It'll be right there in your normal feet. So if you're not subscribing, shame on you. You need to subscribe. I'm very excited about the conversation with Danielle Anteiros.

She is obviously a past attendee of our events. She embodies everything that we describe when we talk about an entree leader. And the thing that I'm most impressed by is her sheer will. She has mastered the tension between patients. and perseverance. I want to give you just a couple thoughts on this because this is certainly something that I have had to wrestle with. And all of us,

all of us who are on purpose have to deal with this tension on a daily basis. And I want to encourage you because some of you right now need to be encouraged. You feel like that big opportunity is never going to materialize. You feel like you're chopping wood. in the wilderness every day and you're making serious progress. You can't believe the amount of trees you're knocking down in a day,

but nobody's noticing. That's what you're dealing with emotionally. And I get it. A couple quick thoughts on those two words because they are not just words. I believe they're disciplines. Let's talk about perseverance. I got to get up every day.

I got to leave the cave, kill something, drag it back. Now, perseverance defined is a firm or obstinate continuance. I love that word, continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. Here's what I want you to write down and remember. Perseverance is a discipline of action. Perseverance is a discipline of action.

You have to get up folks every day and keep moving. Some days it's a crawl. Let me go back a step. Some days, it's just simply standing or staying. I think of the great mountain climbers, and I've always been fascinated with these trips up Everest. It kind of has become this romanticized, ultimate journey. You get to the peak of Mount Everest. And it's amazingly treacherous.

If you've watched anything about these climbs up Mount Everest, you know, that sometimes the entire weather system changes almost instantaneously. And their progress, which is already painstakingly slow, right? Just we've got to make it to this stage, then this stage. And some days the weather is so bad, they can't even move. They simply have to hunker down. There's a great phrase. Oh, embrace the phrase hunker down.

Because some days you can't even crawl. Some days you just have to put a tent up. zip up to where only your nose and eyes are sticking out so you can breathe and you hunker down. But then the difficulties pass and you can break that tent down and then begin the arduous climb. But oh, how sweet it is when we make it. So perseverance is a discipline of action. Moving quickly, patience is a discipline of attitude. If perseverance is a discipline of action, it means that's just forward motion or, as I said,

sometimes just staying on the path, just standing firm, and not quitting. Patience is a discipline of attitude. I've heard it said that patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting, and that's really, really true. Patience is just simply a mental focus. I am going to refocus, no matter what has been thrown at me, I'm going to refocus, and I'm going to make the attitude change that I need. to keep me going.

They work so good together. They're interchangeable. I've got to persevere, but I also have to have patience in order to keep persevering. They're hand in hand. So that's what I want to encourage you with. Patience and perseverance.

You have to patiently persevere. Oh, that's so good. I'm talking to myself right now. I don't know if anybody else got anything out of it. Man, that helped me. That encouraged my heart. I hope it encourages you. Let me tell you what else will encourage.

you. A real story of a lady who had an idea and she launched and she stayed with it and now she's wildly successful. Here is Danielle Antevedos. All right folks, this is so exciting. We have Danielle Anteveros in the studio with us and this is fun because she's a neighbor. So literally where we are sitting in the Entree Leadership Studio. She's literally a couple doors now and that is fun and I met you at our last Entree Master Series. And I knew about your company. I didn't know you. And so I said, you've got to come in the studio and you were kind enough to do it. So welcome. Thank you so much. All right. So this is fun. Now, folks, we've got a box of grab the gold in here and I'm pulling one out here. And this is this right here. You open this thing up like that and you pull it out. And let me

tell you something. This is a true testimonial, okay, before I start asking questions. I discover grab the gold at our live events. One of the hats I wear here at Ramsey Solutions is I am the host of our live events. It is an intense schedule. We're on the road. You're trying to keep your girlish figure intact. And so you don't want to eat a bunch of junk. And so I discovered these in our team room one day. And I said, what does this grab the gold? And they were all like going crazy about how great it is. It's healthy. It fills you up. And here's the best part. It gives you the energy. you need. So I eat these things on the go. And when I'm coming off stage and maybe I've got to go do something else, I'm moving all the time at a live event. Very rarely get to sit down. And so I

grab the gold literally all the time. So when I met you, it was very exciting. I was like, oh my gosh, I eat this thing all the time on the road. So there it is. Full disclosure here. I'm a fan of the product. We're going to talk about your journey. So with that out of the way, because I just gush about this product, and I needed to tell everybody. Well, thank you. So let's go back before grab the gold happens. Just give me a snapshot. Maybe months, weeks before you decide.

We'll get to that in a second. But where were you at? What were you doing? I was actually a homeschooled teenager at the time when I created a recipe for this protein snack bar. You were a teenager? Yes. What? How old?

16 years old. What leads to this? What happens in your mind where you go, you know what? I'm 16 years old. You got a lot of freedom as a homeschooler because it's a very free kind of environment there. And you say, all right, I think I can create a protein bar. That happens in your head. Is that right?

Yes, I'm full of ideas. Okay. My idea here was that I didn't like breakfast foods. You couldn't feed me muffins and cereals and waffles and eggs and bacon. I just didn't like it. Okay. So I'd skip breakfast and then I'd find myself tired at lunch. Everybody does that.

Now as an adult, I know that we do that because we're busy. Right. So there weren't a lot of products on the market. This is 1990. It's not like today where there's a zillion choices for on-the-go packaged snacks. So I decided that I could create my own. And in one night I made the recipe. And I went out and started selling them the next day.

So I went from a concept to a product to my first sale in less than 24 hours. How did it go that first day? How made you sell? Do you remember? Not many, but I learned a lot. I came home, shut the door. slid to the floor and started crying. It was tough. I had no sales experience. I just figured I was passionate. I loved this product. And I thought everybody would too. I thought my enthusiasm would transfer

to sales. All right. I want to pause the conversation for a moment for those of you out there that are listening in and you've got an idea. It's percolating. Maybe it's in the very infant stages. Maybe you've been really stewing on it. Maybe testing. But you haven't launched it yet. Maybe some of you are saying, I would love to come up with an idea and try it. Here's what I love about you and a lot entrepreneurs. And this is the story for those folks that are listening. You created something for you. And here we are years later, and it's wildly successful. There's something to this idea of creating something that you would consume. Yes. And I think that whether it's a solution, a service, a product, you have to want it for yourself. If you're creating it just to put it out in the

marketplace and make sales because you think that other people need it, there's a disconnect. It's not the same as saying, I need this and I'm going to go out and share it with other people because I feel that other people have the same need that I do. All right, so let's fast forward. So you started at 16. How many years go by to you go, okay, this is what you're, because you've done several things. When did you go full time? What were you doing? And then why did you say, all right, I'm going all in on grab the gold? Okay, so interesting story. I was making these snack bars at the very same time that I was a professional sports massage therapist exclusively for the New Orleans Saints, the football team. Who dat?

There you go. Who that? Yeah, so I was trying to do two things at once. And one thing about entrepreneurs, they're extremely creative. And we'll get to that later, but the reason I like the entree leadership is because it joins the leadership techniques with the entrepreneur. spirit. You have to have that discipline of leadership to go along with the crazy ideas that an entrepreneur has. So I was doing these two things at once, massage therapy, and then doing the snack bars. You can't do two things well at once. We've heard this over and over again, but I cannot

say how true that is until Hurricane Katrina happened, 2005, lost by home and evacuated, and there was an outpouring of love from the Nashville area. I got so many emails saying we want this to be in Nashville or a Tennessee product. Please relocate here. We love you. We want to support you. So that was my sign. Yeah, that was my sign. I moved to Nashville. I had the opportunity at that point to connect with the Titans and begin my career here in massage therapy. However, I made that critical turning point in my life and said, I'm going to focus 100% of my time on grab the gold snack bars. It's imperative to grow it. And after that, we have blown up. Month after month, year after year, double-digit growth, even through the recession.

Wow. Okay, take us back to that moment. So you moved to Nashville. You don't go with the Titans as a massage therapist. You're going all in, grab the goal. Was it just you? Oh, yeah. It was just me and a couple of friends who would help out part-time to help me make the product.

We've never done any advertising. We've never had any salespeople. It's literally just me on the phone or people trying the product and saying, hey, can our store sell it? It's very organic. Were you making it in your kitchen? At the very beginning of my mom's kitchen Right, but I'm talking about this moment here in Nashville Where are you making at the product?

Okay, no, we have our own FDA-approved facility Right, but you didn't then, did you? Well, when we first, after the hurricane, it took about six months before I could get back in business. Okay. Had to get my own a facility, checked into different options, and ended up getting my own. Unbelievable.

But it's just you and a couple of friends making the product, marketing the product, and selling it. Oh, my word. Now, how long ago was this? That was 2005. Okay. I went for 25 years being the only full-time employee in my business. Wow.

Okay, so we're going to get to where you're at now 12 years later, but I want to continue on this journey. So what worked and didn't work in those early days? So you're here in Nashville, you and a couple friends, take us on that journey when you start hiring someone, because you've kept a small team. Yes. I think people are going to be shocked, so don't give it away, okay, how many team members you have right now. But what worked and didn't work in those early days that people can learn for? from. Okay, first of all, I've never worked for anyone else. I didn't have experience to be an employee or to be a manager. I have never been managed. I've never been in a formal workplace.

Because as a massage therapist, I mean, this is a straightforward relationship here. You go in, you do the massage, you're out, and you're the whole nine yards. And now here you are running a business. Right. And I didn't have any experience. I didn't know what a manager's role was. So I had employees who said, you're a great boss because you're the nicest person, but you're a terrible manager. And I said, what do you mean? I said, you know, you're supposed to give me instructions, check back and quality control, check me. You're supposed to give me further instructions and corrective measures and then come back and check again. I said, I didn't know that. I really didn't know that. I said, I just figured if I gave you a task and told you how to do it, you would be fine.

So it's a learning process when you don't have any experience. That was a little bit tough. I think that my good nature, the way I care about people, brought out the best in people. No one tried to take advantage of me. So I had no experience managing people, but through the way I care about them, the way I pour into them, the way I show such appreciation, they would always give me their best. I think that's a great thought right there, folks, what Daniel just said. You don't have to have business school degree and management degree, all the experience in the world. If you just care for people and treat them the way you want to be treated, you're going to figure out all that leadership stuff. if you're serious about growing as a leader, you can study that and make yourself a better leader,

but you're not going to go wrong just by caring for people. That's true. Yeah, that's a great thought. Don't be scared of leadership. Care for people and learn how to lead. Yeah, that's good. All right, so give me some of the growth path. So walk us through where you were.

Again, we're back now in Nashville. Walk us through the growth. How did it happen? I would say in the very beginning, we were still trying to get back our customers from the hurricane. We've been out of business for a while. I had a great fear that we wouldn't retain our customers, that after we had been out of business for a while, we would have lost them, that they would have found another product. There was a huge fear if we could regrow the business. So luckily, we had that much support and other people who were so proud that we were in Nashville that they started sharing with other people and other friends.

So our business grew. We were still at a point where we would have a couple of part-time people come in and help make the product. We started getting machinery that was, of course, debt-free paid for with our cash. Hello, we like that. Always. When we started getting machinery, we were able to produce a high-quality product still, but faster. Still handmade, but a little bit of help with the packaging, and that helped move things along. So when we could increase our output, we could increase our sales.

All right. So what I want to focus on here, kind of looking back and then in order to go forward here, when you left New Orleans and you come to Nashville and you said you were worried about retaining your business, were those online at that time? Give us a breakdown of the online versus distribution, you know, maybe some retail stores carrying your product. Where was your customer base coming from? Okay, so our customer base was about 60% online, about 40% in stores. Wow. Talking about gyms and bicycle shops and smoothie places, mom and pop stores.

and I was concerned if any of them would renew their relationship with Grab the Gold. That was a huge concern. And so we were able to get those customers back and be where we were before the hurricane within a few short months. It was amazing. And what's your model now? Well, is it still 60-40 split, like online versus what's it look like? Until recently, until a year ago, we formed a partnership with a very large grocery store. and now that accounts for a huge part of our business.

So we're growing in this grocery store in about nine states, 700 stores, just within the last year. So that accounts for a large percentage of our growth. We have a lot of people who are on our subscription program. They never want to run out of their product, so they just make sure that it gets delivered to their home. So we still have a lot of online presence, a lot of online sales, but we're really growing into the grocery and drugstore chain, a convenience store, making it accessible for every person. person to get it wherever they happen to be. All right, two-part question on the distribution with

the major grocery chain and drugstores, because that is so inspiring, you know, for an entrepreneur, certainly people that are listening here and they consider themselves to be on the very, you know, small side of things and, oh, they'd love to get distribution. Is it, A, intimidating to approach, you know, a major brand like that and say, hey, I think you should grab the gold on your shelves. And then if it is, how did you step through that? What can we learn from that process of getting somebody to carry you. The thing about it is I humanize every interaction. Okay. It's not this huge grocery chain or going to this huge corporate meeting. It's me meeting with John or Mike or Amanda. It's just me talking to a person. Love that. Sharing my story, sharing my product. I never have

anything prepared when I go to a meeting. And that may seem counterintuitive. I already know my numbers. I already know my product. What I'm saying is I haven't rehearsed anything. I'm sitting down and asking them, what do they need? What is it they're looking for? How can we help them? How can this product be a fit for them? I'm never intimidated by corporate meetings or meeting someone that's supposedly has a lot of power because I feel that if I have value, I can bring them something. I can bring value to that person. How did you handle the nose or the maybe, well, I'm not ready to meet with you. I'm just curious. I think that's always a fun thing to learn. And I think also encouraging, How did you handle rejection or how do you handle rejection?

It doesn't bother me at all and it may just be my personality type. I'm super confident, super energetic. So when someone says no, I mean a shrug is maybe the most I give it. It doesn't matter to me. I know that there are so many opportunities in life. There are so many avenues. And what I feel like is if someone says no, it's not the right timing. It's not the right fit.

I don't even go through that thought process. but all I figure is that that's a door that's maybe closed at this moment. All I need to go is just knock on these other doors and find the one that's open. And it's not a cliche. It's literally finding what is open to me at this moment. Because although that person may not see the vision or it may not even fit with what they need, I don't take it personally, it may not fit with what they need. I know there are plenty of people out there that it's exactly what they need.

And I need to be enthusiastic and excited enough to go find them. I love that. Okay, I don't want you to have to share your numbers. You know, that's private information, but I want you to give our audience a snapshot of the growth. So you can decide what the, I mean, obviously we were talking about 12 years ago, you know, when you move here. So give us a sense of how the company has grown. So back in 2005, we were just barely hitting six figures a year. And now 12 years later, now that I decided to laser focus 100% of my time on my business, We're now in the seven figures of gross revenue annually. Unreal. Now, tell people how many team members today right now do you have? We have three full-time team members. Hello. Three.

Now, Dave would love that. Dave's always telling people, you know, Dave Ram's always telling people, hey, grow slow. I want you on the cover of slow company instead of fast company that we all know so well. That is beautiful. You have really streamlined this business. Now, again, I know this business is very different, you know, than maybe some of the business that but there really is something to smart growth. What have you done intentionally or maybe it happened unintentionally but now you look back on and go,

this is key for people to understand on how to grow something like this? The thing about it is I don't add another person to our team. I don't add another cost or another expense unless it's absolutely necessary. So if we're reached a point where we can't handle all the activities that we're doing, We would either outsource or we would add a team member. But to just go ahead and say, oh, I want to have this business and I need to hire this person for marketing and this person's the manager. And you don't even know if you need that. Handle everything you can yourself until you can't.

Then get someone and have them do 10 different things. You know, you don't need to have all these fancy titles and I didn't have a business card for the first 15 years. You know, it's just do what you can by connecting with people, having people. people help you networking, having the people internally do as much as they can. Now, do you have anything else that you offer besides grab the gold? No, that is our, that is our flagship product right there. And it's the only product. Yes, it's a chocolate peanut butter snack bar and we are coming out with another flavor. Okay. After 27 years. That's where I'm going. You were just talking about keeping the team small, not hiring just to hire. You didn't try to grow too fast. And think about

this, folks. She only had one product for 27 years. Now, just now. You're wildly profitable. And now you're coming out with a second flavor. Yeah, one product and one flavor. My idea, everybody's like, why don't you make this and why don't you make that? The thing about it is do one thing and do it well and keep doing it until it doesn't work. Well, it's still working. I can just go on with this. Yes. But this major retailer I'm talking about has said, we want you. Your product outsells every national nutrition bar on our shelves. Why do you think that is? Because people love the taste, first of all.

Second of all, they connect to the story. The story is about starting something that you believe in. It's America. It's starting your own business, overcoming hardship, persevering through everything. What's the engagement with the story? Because folks, I'm looking at a box right now, okay? And so as I look at this, nicely done, you can see the brand right here, grab the gold, the tagline, energy, never tasted so delicious.

Then you got some descriptors here. Instant and sustained energy satisfies hunger and cravings, pre-post workout, fuel, healthy on-the-go snack. That's the Ken Coleman connection is the healthy on-the-go snack. That's where I engage. And then there's a picture of you, the lightful headshot down there on the right bottom corner. It says created in a single night in 1990 by then 16-year-old Danielle Antavera. So you just said it's delicious, right? And then secondly, they are connecting with the story.

is this the only way they see the story where they're perusing a major grocery store chain? Because I'm just thinking, I have ADHD. You know what I mean? I'm just like, you know, robocop. You know, remember who looked through and scan everything? That's what my life is like. You know, d-de-de-de-de-d-de. I'm looking around.

And so if you're on the aisle of a grocery store, how does this stick out? I don't know if I'd see it. So how are they engaging with the story? Because it's clearly working. People are engaging with the story because of other people. I'm not out there telling the story. The packaging is telling a little bit of the story. story, but it's people telling our story. I love it. That's so nice. I mean, when you hear a great

story, don't you want to share it? Oh, all the time. That's what you do. Yeah, I take other people's great stories and I kind of make them my own. That's what you do. Yeah, I don't completely steal them, you know, you've credit where credit is due. No, so this is fun. All right, so now, what's the second flavor? You just told, can you tell us? Sure, it's crunchy peanut butter. Crunchy peanut butter, and the existing is a, it has some peanut butter in it. It's chocolate peanut butter, so the going to be how different, because I know what I'm talking about here. I know what I eat right now. How's it going to be different? It's going to have a little bit of different ingredients, but the main thing is you'd be surprised how many people don't like something sweet or don't like chocolate and peanut butter together.

As hard as it is to imagine, some people just want like, you know. Oh, yeah, so it won't have any chocolate in it. It's just going to be crunchy peanut butter. Right. It's not the same bar with a chocolate removed, though. It's a different bar. Absolutely. And a little crunchier? Yes. Kind of chewy right now, but it's going to be crunchy. I'm going to hear a crunch. Yes. Well, it's a shame you didn't bring the product in because I, I could eat it on the microphone, and people really like that, I think. I'm joking. I don't know if you people like that at all.

All right. So now, how did you discover Entree leadership? I'm curious about this. Right. So the events staff from Dave Ramsey purchases snack bars for their live events. Samuel Smith might be your champion. Samuel Smith is the one who comes over to our place since we're next door to you. And he buys Grab the Gold for the team.

It's absolutely true. Yes. By the way, Eric, the producer, Will the engineer. Have you guys had Grab the Gold? gold yet? I see him back there. Oh, Will punished his. It's gone. Okay. But have you had one, Eric, the producer? Oh, so Eric, you love them too. All right, very nice. Okay, go ahead. I interrupted because I wanted to know. Folks, these guys are literally sitting behind the glass looking at us, and I wanted to make sure. So when Samuel Smith would come to make his purchase, I wanted to meet

him and talk with him, he would ask me, he said, do you ever get involved in any of our events or anything that Dave Ramsey does? And I said, you know, I've been debt-free my whole life in business, and personally, just don't believe in acquiring debt. That's the way I was raised. That you don't purchase something unless you have the money for it. It seems completely logical and common sense to me. So I said, well, you know, I haven't engaged with anything with the Dave Ramsey brand because I am debt-free. That's not all we have to offer.

You know, we help small businesses learn how to be larger businesses, how to have leadership, how to create a way for you. And he started bringing me books every time he picked up, grabbed the gold. That's awesome. So how many events have you been to? I know you came to the latest entree master series. Have you been to any events before that? No, that was my first one. Oh, that's fine. That's fun. Yes.

I know. I remember meeting you on the last day. Like, the room is clearing out, and you come up and you're so nice. I mean, this lady is ebullient. If you don't know what that word is, look it up. By the way, that's another word you can use, and you'll really impress people. I like to do that, Danielle, from time and time give people a word. It's one of my favorite words, but she has an ebullient personality.

And so we had fun talking, and I said, I've got to get you in studio. But I want you to, you were sharing a few things. and this is not an event commercial, but this audience, trust me at this point, what did you walk away from? You're already crazy successful. What did you walk away with

and start implementing from that week of an amazing conference that we put on? I'm so proud of it. But what did you walk away with? The first time that I was scheduled to come to the Entree Leadership Master Series, I had our production manager quit

just days before. Oh, no. So I had to take on those responsibilities. It was too short to fill the position. So I had to reschedule. You're not going to believe this. Two days before this last event, the Entree Leadership Master Series, the same position, the production manager, different person,

says, I'm going to have to leave this job because I have a better offer. And I said, what is this? I keep getting these obstacles in my path. So I said, I completely understand your position. You have to provide for your family. I always want you to do what's best. But I need some time to think about this. I had the decision at that point.

Do I stay and put out the fires in my business? Try and talk him down off the ledge and disdain. Do I try and start interviewing people to fill that position? Or do I go to the Master Series? My thought was this. If I learned one thing and only one thing that could help me, even in the next year, not short term, but long term, then I should attend the event. So I made that decision and just said, I have to let go of this issue, this problem.

I have to focus on myself. And I even messaged him and I said, you know what? I can meet with you the evening of the first day of my event. He said, no, go and learn what you need to do. I really need for you to do this. He was supporting me saying, I'll put my issues on hold for you. Wow. So what I learned from this event helped me with that situation.

I was able to go right back after, I mean, within minutes of leaving the master series. And I talked to him and I said, you cannot be replaced. You're an amazing person. You're trustworthy. You're honest. You have integrity. You have an amazing work ethic. There's just so many things, you know, I want you by my side.

I can never replace you. So here is the amount of money that we can pay you. We can give you a substantial raise. But this is what I learned from Entree leadership is I said, you know what? I have this vision for this company. I want to grow, and I want you to be part of it. I want you to be by my side. And as we grow, I want you to be able to implement your ideas.

I want you to be the leader standing next to me, running your whole division, your whole part, your responsibility. And I want that to be yours. But I want you by my side. and he said the money was what I needed for my budget. The vision that you just told me, how you want me to stay by your side, how you want me to grow with your company,

that vision is what I needed to stay. Wow. So you get, I mean, he gets rewarded, you're rewarded, you get one of your best people with you and,

oh, you're going to grow together and it's going to be a lot of fun. Yes. Wow. So, so that was the issue. And so take us back because you learned that during EMS.

What was that light bulb part of teaching where you went, this is what I've got to do? What were we talking about? Okay. So it was profound. I didn't realize that as an entrepreneur or as a leader, I should be expressing my vision. And I didn't realize that. It's in my head and I thought everybody else knew it. And Chris Hogan drilled that again and again.

If you're not saying it over and over again to your team and telling them what your vision, is. If they can't start repeating along with you word for word, you haven't said it enough. And I pour into people. I show appreciation, but I'm not showing them how they're part of the whole vision. I'm showing them how they're appreciated for their daily tasks, their activities, but not how they're part of a big, big picture. And it just dawned on me that I was lacking as a leader and that I wasn't bringing out the best in them. I wasn't bringing them along. with me. And when I went back to my team again, minutes after finishing, I was able to tell them, you guys are on board 100% with this business. I am so thankful. I couldn't ask for better team members,

but I'm not the leader that you deserve. And what I learned over at Dave Ramsey's building, what I learned about Entree leadership is that you deserve a better leader. You guys are doing everything I've asked for, but I feel like I haven't been there for you. I haven't asked you what your goals and visions are, how that aligns with the company. What could you do that would make you excited and pour into the business more? I mean, now I have more help. I'm spending more time with them. I'm not being so isolated.

And I thought it would take more time to spend time with them. But it's actually very rewarding. Yeah. Wow. How did they react when you first kind of, whether it was, you know, there's only three full time. So when you shared it with them, what was their reaction? And I mean, like, physically. emotionally, I mean, give us a snapshot.

If you can remember, take us back. Give us a little polaroid. My mind was blown. I said, I have the best team members. You guys always do what I ask and more. You're always asking for more work. You're trying to take more off of me. And we'd all met up in the hallway.

And they all had tears in their eyes. And they said, you know, you're the best. We do anything for you. And it was just that moment of me being vulnerable and saying, I haven't been everything. I could be, and that's my fault. And I see that, and I know how to correct it. Everybody was hugging, you know, they said that we're here for you. And I said, I know, but I haven't been here for you. And I made a commitment to myself that day that I wouldn't take on too much. I know as an entrepreneur,

you think that you're powerful, you can surmount any summit. But I didn't want to take on too much of it. I just made small commitments to myself and take baby steps. Just show up every day in the office. Don't isolate myself so much. Ask them what they like about their job. We made some changes right away that day. I said, what are you doing that you don't enjoy doing? And everybody said what they are. And someone else said, I can do that. They traded responsibility so quickly. There were things that people were doing that didn't fit with their job description, didn't make any sense for them. And other team members picked them up. Wow. All right. So we could talk forever, and you're such inspiration and I know folks are already better for this. They're encouraged and you've equipped

them too with some things. But let's reward them. I think this is the best energy bar there is. It's really fantastic. We grab the gold all the time. So how can our audience, what can we do for these folks? How can they first get in touch, give them the web address so they can go buy it? But let's do, can we do something special for them? What can we do? Let's do this. Go to the website, grab the goal.com. Okay. And put in code Entree, E-N-T-R-E, for a 25% discount off your first purchase. Wow, there we go. Whatever the purchase is.

Sure. All right. I'm telling you, get a couple boxes for the office. See what happens. You're going to get a 25% discount. Yeah, I mean, I'm telling you. Eric the producer and I, we grab the gold all the time. Will the engineer, you had your first one today, and you love it.

Okay, all right. So there you go. But here's what's great. This is going to help people. It's good stuff. just so grateful for you hanging out with us today and coming at this thing and going, hey, here's where I was. This is the journey.

Here's what I've learned. It's really great. This is what Entree leadership is all about. At the end of the day, this is fun. I mean, it's our job to come alongside of men and women like you and add value, walk with you, help you do what you do best, and you're killing it. So we're really excited to hear the story, how it finishes out. What are you dreaming about?

Before I let you go, what are you dreaming about? I'm dreaming about seriously where what I learned at Entree Leadership Master Series is going to take me. And I'll just say this about it, is that plugging in through social media, plugging in through podcasts, all of this is great. This is coming from me. Please attend the event. I mean, the event changes you. I didn't have to make a list and change myself. I walked out of there a change person. I was speaking differently, acting differently, had a different mindset. Folks, I'm going to tell you something. This lady is amazing. Ebullient is the word for you because that is a synonym for my friend Danielle and the company is great. She's doing it the right way.

They got a new product coming out. When does that hit the streets? In October. In October. Okay, so there's a little bit of time left. All right. Again, the product is grab the gold grab the goal. Grab thegold.com. She gave you a very generous offer. If you want to try it out, just enter the code Entree at grabthegold.com and try it out. You know what? If you don't like it, blame it on me. All right? There you go. That's really simple. So fun stuff. Hey, thank you for hanging out with us. We've got to stay in good touch since you're two doors over, right? Absolutely. And I want to know what's happening. And this is a great story. And maybe, just maybe we get her to an event. And she can mentor some people. You know, who knows what. So anyway,

Fun stuff. Thanks for being with us. Thank you, Ken. I hope you enjoyed that story. Danielle has become a great friend of our organization, and that was not hype. We really do have boxes and boxes of Grab the Gold around our live event green rooms, and they are tasty, and they keep me going. And I promise you, there's very few of you listening in to this podcast who have a more rapid schedule than I do. I promise you that. Eric, the producer, gets exhausted sometimes just looking at my schedule as he tries to find a time to do interviews.

So trust me, this Grab the Gold stuff really works. It's not a bunch of hype. And it just so happens that we love her and her story, so we have no problem bragging on her brand. And let me just tell you where to go, grabthegold.com. Grab thegold.com. Speaking of somebody else we love to brag about because they're the real deal, it's InfusionSoft, and they bring you free resources every episode,

and we thank them for that. This week's tool, Infusion Soft's Automation Guide. So this is a great theme here. talk about Danielle. We talked about the journey when you feel all alone. And we have a lot of solopreneurs, if you will, that are listening into this episode. And the reality is, sometimes you just get bogged down in work that's zapping your time and zapping your energy and you need a breakthrough. And how do you do that? Automation. And Fusionsoft has an automation guide that will help you. They're experts in this. Listen to this. They did some research and found

that 68% of business owners spend their time managing daily tasks in their business instead of focusing on strategy and goals, just to name two for an example. So they've got an e-book, and they're calling it the Infusion Soft Automation Guide. They're going to help you automate routine communication, administrative tasks like data, entry, billing, paperwork, the stuff that can literally suck your energy dry. They'll also help you with appointment scheduling, follow-up, employee hiring, and training, and so much more. haven't taken advantage of this this month, you need to. Infusionsoft.com slash office dash automation.

Infusionsoft.com slash office dash automation. And if you don't want to type that out, Eric, the producer's got you taken care of. You can go to this episode show notes at ontreleadership.com and click on the link in the show notes. Wow, folks, I'm looking at my show notes here, and it says here, This is our 200th episode. I am just a small part of this podcast, thrilled to be a part of it because of how amazing you, the listener, really are. I meet so many of you as we are traveling about the country doing our events. And I say this every time I put my hand on my chest, and those of you've met me can verify this. And I look you in the eye and I say, thank you so much.

We do it for you. We're honored to serve you. And that's really true. So thank you so much. And would you do two things for me? Subscribe if you have not and then tell your friends. This is a free resource. iTunes makes it easy.

The Entry Leadership website makes it easy for you to share an episode. If it has touched you in some way or fired your soul, send a little one-line note with a link. We would appreciate it. We want to help so many more people. And you are our greatest marketing tool, and we appreciate that. So on behalf of Eric the producer, our engineer Will Rudder, and the entire Entree leadership team, thank you for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon.