Every time we take a leap—whether we fly to the level we want—we are strengthening our wings. But we don’t have to just wait and see what happens when we leap because it’s never good to feel like we’re stuck in mid-air for too long. The resources, tools, and people we surround ourselves with make an enormous difference in terms of how likely we are to fly to a new level.
Today on the Real Food Brands Marketing Podcast, host and Food Brand Strategist Katie Mleziva explains why now is the time to get started on brand strategy, and how a successful plan can help you go further than you ever thought possible when you test, learn, optimize and refine.
How Business Can Feel Like Jumping Off the High Dive
Katie tells a story about her daughter jumping off the high dive for the first time this year. If you’ve never tried it, it’s pretty scary! There’s always a chance you can end up hitting the water the wrong way and learn a painful lesson—and that definitely happened at the pool! But Katie shares how her daughter kept on trying and tweaking things and got more and more confident as she climbed back up that ladder over and over (and over) again until the pool closed.
As Katie says, “whatever the results end up being I truly do believe that even when we feel like we failed because something didn’t turn out the way we wanted, we are just strengthening our wings for next time.” There will always be some things you do better than others in your business and other areas where you could make some improvements. When you define and document your brand strategy, you can have a broad view to make sure that even when you fall you’re headed in the direction you want…always working to improve for next time.
To move past that stuck-in-mid-air feeling, Katie shares her brand strategy checkup. You can use it to assess and reflect and what is going well and what may need more focus or brushing up within your food business’s brand strategy. There are 25 questions and you can rank your current status one, two, or three. It’s a great way to get started taking inventory of where the strengths and opportunities with your brand may be – and get to the bottom of what might be out of sync that has you feeling stuck.
You can also get in touch with Katie for some one-on-one coaching if you want to talk through how to prioritize action based on your results.
For inspiration on this topic, Katie likes to reference a poem written a few years ago by a young Australian poet named Erin Hanson:
There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask “What if I fall?”
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?
Katie hopes you find inspiration in this idea as well as you take big leaps and find tools, resources and people to help you move through that mix of excitement and “oh boy what did I do?!” stuck in mid-air feeling to help you fly closer towards your goals each day.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!
Quotes:
“Whatever the results end up being I truly do believe that even when we feel like we failed because something didn’t turn out the way we wanted, we are just strengthening our wings for next time.” – Katie Mleziva
“The brand strategy checkup helps uncover areas of opportunity that many food business owners I talk to say is a new way of looking at their business.” – Katie Mleziva
In This Episode:
- Why moving forward in your business can feel like jumping off the high dive.
- A poem that has always stuck with Katie to push past fear of doing something new.
- Why brand strategy can guide your decisions you as you test and optimize your assumptions.
- Why Katie wants to connect with you on Instagram.
- How you can get in touch with Katie to review your brand checkup assessment.
Resources: