Please read all the way to the end to see the first of several rounds of shout-outs to the food business owners who responded to my request for 1:1 discussions/interviews. I did this to ensure my programs and podcast content best serve all of you in your businesses. These shoutouts are a thank you for their time and transparency!
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When something isn’t working as planned, have you ever felt yourself slipping into reaction mode versus thoughtfully peeling back the onion to get to the root cause before you decide how to respond?
Today we’re talking about pivoting, and how doing it too often can stall your efforts to build a strong brand. Of course, there ARE times we need to pivot. It’s important to maintain a flexible mindset in business and life in general because we do need to be ready to make a change if we have a market shift, data, customer feedback, etc. that informs that decision.
However, following a mindset of “failing fast and cheap,” without the structure to know if you’re actually “failing” or just need a little optimization, I observe business owners pivoting in a way that is more like throwing spaghetti at the wall.
They often either:
(1) get sick of what they are talking about or
(2) they talk about a topic once or twice and don’t see results so they move on to something else.
I’ve been guilty of that myself in the past so as always, there’s no judgment… but it’s important to get this right because we can forget the power of familiarity bias–a cognitive bias in which people tend to rely on information that is familiar to them when making decisions, in other words, they tend to go with what they know.
With that bias in mind, we can benefit from consistency and repetition when we lean in and stand in confidence with your decision on how to position and talk about your brand. That’s the key here – making an informed decision and standing behind it.
Here’s a little real-life story about leaning into your decisions confidently. I was at my daughter‘s volleyball game, and a friend was line judging. When you volunteer as a line judge you have to make quick calls about whether the ball is in or out. I can make confident decisions all day at work, but I admit early on I was nervous about this job. However, as the game went on my friend made a few calls I would’ve called differently. She didn’t flinch when a few people in the crowd grumbled, and I realized it was all about making a decision with confidence based on what you see at the time and moving forward.
You make a call, you lean in, and then you focus on the next play.
Just like in volleyball, business decisions require confidence and commitment. You may not get every call right, but second-guessing and hesitating only invites doubt in yourself, and that hesitation can instill doubt in those around you. When you start to look unsure other people will start to question your calls.
Now, as much as I believe we need to set the strategy and lean in, again I’ll caveat that we don’t want to stay the course too long if things truly aren’t working… but knowing we’re talking about situations where it’s not necessary here are three ways pivoting too often can hurt your food business:
- It’s Not Memorable – If you pivot all the time, you’re not building a recognizable brand or message. You’re not giving people enough time to catch on to what your brand stands for and why they need you over any other option they can find. They may be interested, but if they don’t need to purchase right now, they will likely need to hear the same message a few more times and if the message keeps changing, they might not even recognize it as the same product or brand. Then you have to start the familiarity process all over again. Basically, it’s like giving people a moving target to focus on and hoping they keep up with you. Instead, we want to surprise and delight people but within the context of your recognizable brand based on your positioning and personality.
- It’s Expensive – If you are working with any team members, freelancers, or an agency to activate your plans and you are changing your strategy too often it makes them spin their wheels and leads to rework. When things are changing, they may be asked to create new graphics or product formulations instead of optimizing what they have been working on to test and learn. Simply said, it gets expensive when people don’t have a clear direction for which to apply their expertise and there are typically more iterations happening, which cost you time and money…whether a hard cost or opportunity cost of something else they could be focused on. Instead, we want to set that North Star and see every day as an opportunity to make decisions that ladder up to your vision and deliver on your plans.
- It’s Exhausting – Changing course too often can give you and your team whiplash. As the leader of your company, you do need to be a visionary, thinking about the next few moves. However, if you are always changing paths, you risk churning through ideas but not executing any of them well. A little planning goes a LONG way. You can plan by quarter to make sure your tactics are aligned with your strategies and goals, and then stop yourself from a pivot barring any credible signs that you’re on the wrong track. You can get so much peace of mind and confidence for yourself when you do the strategy and planning work. Just like in volleyball, if the points kept resetting your team would never win the game and the players would get exhausted and burn out. There may be more than one approach to win the game, but without a game plan you’re leaving too much up to chance. Instead, using your strategy to guide a cohesive plan creates a customer experience that is more memorable and keeps your team motivated.
So I encourage you to create a plan to Define, Align & Activate your brand strategy, and then LEAN IN with confidence for your own peace of mind, to manage your team better, to manage your expenses, and if you need guidance in the process, I am happy to support you.
We can start with a Brand Audit to identify how you are doing today in terms of messaging, reaching your ideal audience, and bringing your brand to life. We’ll discuss both what is going well and also opportunities to optimize. It’s a great place to start and I’d love to guide you through the process.
You can get started by visiting my website realfoodbrands.com using the link in the show notes and sending me a message if you have any questions! These spots do fill up quickly, so check out the link to my contact page in the show notes.
Now for those shoutouts…
- Kakadoodle Farms – A new-ish online farmers market in the SW suburbs of Chicago. Marty & MariKate are the farmers of the eggs and work with other regenerative farmers of meat, greens, and dairy. No chemicals. They deliver right to homes all year. kakadoodle.com
- Ray’s Cocktail Eggs – Ray’s Cocktail Eggs are hard-cooked quail eggs pickled in a tangy brine of vinegar and spices. Scott shared that they are perfect in martinis, bloody marys, or straight from the jar. Find them at rayscocktaileggs.com,
- Cassie’s Country Kitchen – Your head start to homemade. Cassie works hard to help you get healthy meals on the table without losing your sanity. No need to gather lots of ingredients or dirty a lot of dishes – just use a few pantry staples to make dinner happen! https://www.cassiescountrycupboard.com/
Thanks to each of you – I appreciate your time and insight so much.
In case nobody told you today, your work in the food industry is important and I’m so glad you’re here.
Now, let’s go shake up shopping carts!