Episode Transcript
Nina Huchthausen (00:03.502)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Makers Business Tribe podcast. My name is Nina. I am the founder of the Makers Business Tribe podcast and your host today. today is one day after Christmas. It's the 27th of the 12th. And I am way late recording this podcast. So when...
I decided I wanted to launch a podcast. It's been a year and a half ago. Then took forever to set everything up to create the processes and the tools and everything for me to do it. Then we launched, think end of March last year. And I've been really consistent all year, even when I was sick, even when
I was super stretched and stressed out during the year, but for some reason in December, I got tired. I got really tired. yeah, what I dropped was the additional time of sitting down and having interview conversations with guests, which if you have listened to this podcast before.
You know, sometimes I have guests on, sometimes it's just me talking. So yeah, guests started canceling or I had all of a sudden something really urgent that I needed to attend to so I couldn't do the recordings. And maybe this is just the third episode in December. So I skipped a couple. And over the past few days, it's been on my mind. was like, Nina.
What are you doing? Why are you not showing up? You have committed to doing one episode a week. And some people said to me, that's going to be a lot. And I said, yes, but I love this. I love doing this. I love showing up and sharing the tools, the mindsets, the skills that it takes in order to build a
Nina Huchthausen (02:26.218)
a business, product based business, but it's also very applicable for a service based business. And I love interviewing people, experts in their field, people who are going through the journey of building and growing the business and all of that stuff. However, sometimes that love isn't enough. And in December, it really hit me energetically that I realized coming to the end of the year that I need a break. I need to
take it down a notch. need to move myself from gear four and five to more of a gear two to three and move through December because I didn't want to get sick. I didn't want to burn myself out. I have clients to look after. I am running two businesses. I don't know why I decided to do that. And that will be
I will share more in another episode because 2025 will be a big year. Meena just running the makers business tribe, helping progress business get into retail and turn their business from side hustle into a full time income, but also building my own product based business again, which is cool. But so the reason why I'm sharing this tiredness and the reason I'm sharing, hey, I haven't been showing up because
The conclusion that I got to was like, it is goddamn OK. It is goddamn OK, because this was an expectation that I set on myself once a week. And it was an expectation. Or it was this idea of, well, in order for my podcast to rank better and better on Apple and Spotify and whatever, I have to show up consistently, because that's what the algorithm wants.
I do not fucking care if my body is tired because I don't want to show up and just create a shitty episode. And if my body and my soul craves to be away from the computer and pause and stop, I do it. Because at the end of the day,
Nina Huchthausen (04:52.034)
What matters to me is that I have lived a good life and that every day I enjoy it. Yes, sometimes you've got to do hard things and I do a lot of hard things at times. And sometimes you got to need to stand up just for your inner soul without thinking about external expectations that I've put on myself and the algorithm and
what other people could think that I'm not showing up for them and just say it's OK. So and I hope you guys listening to this may be also feeling really tired and keep staring or thinking about at your frequent to do list, which my friends will never ever go away. Yeah, there will always be some to do's. But if that
clouds your mind and takes you away from being present right now with your friends, your family, your babies, nature, the beauty that is around you. I give you full permission to just put that aside because it'll be there tomorrow. And that's and to me, when I just put this whole idea of, OK, you're going to be late for the podcast, but that's OK.
Because sometimes being late to the party is cool too. Yeah, because everybody's already like, hey Nina, you're finally here. And I'm like, yes, I know I'm late, but I needed it. I needed that more than being on time. And sometimes it is so damn okay to be late because time is something that we as humans have created. Yeah.
and
Nina Huchthausen (06:49.743)
Who cares? Who the fuck cares? Yeah. Mel Robbins is launching this new book. Maybe she has already. I listened to a podcast the other day. It's called Let Them. She's just so good with her titles. I think it's incredible. okay, yeah, I like the title. I haven't even read the book, but I listened to a podcast. So I kind of feel like I have an understanding, but the title is Let Them. Let it.
Let me be late. Let others think something because they won't anyways. Like everybody's so busy with their other lives. So let it be. Let it go. Let it, whatever you make out of it, my friends. Now, apart from this, yeah, and I'm just shaking my hands right now. So invitation, just shake your hands, shake your hands. Like let it, let it, let them, let me.
Let's go. Let's have a good life. All right. Yeah, we can do the hard things again. We can do the things that make things grow again next year. But right now it's freaking chill time. Now in this episode, I wanted to do a bit of a reflection. Reflection of the year, reflection on the Makers Business Tribe clients, our people, our tribe. Yeah.
in the hopes that by you maybe sitting at the pool, driving about, exchanging your gifts for other gifts, doing whatever you're doing, yeah? And to kind of let this sprinkle into your mind to not do anything, but to put this on your list maybe when it comes to New Year's resolutions, when it comes to planning your year for 2025, when it comes to how you want to do life
next year because there were sort of seven things seven seven seven I don't know what you call it my gosh my brain's on holidays and seven flavors if you will that those amazing humans who really killed it this year who really catapulted their business forward from
Nina Huchthausen (09:17.758)
However small it used to be to wherever they've gotten it to, that hands down, these humans that really killed it this year followed, whether that was consciously or unconsciously. So there were these patterns, right? Some of these patterns I followed, some of these I fell off the wagon. That's cool. We all do.
Every single client did this consistently and bang on all year, but we were striving towards it. And we saw these as our mantras. And whether you are starting out with your business or you're kind of like, well, next year I want to grow. Next year I want to take my business to a new level. Next year I want to substantiate what I've
build, want to solidify it, I want to create more consistency, more reliability, and reduce the flippin', floppin', ups and downs, craziness, sleepless nights, feeling overwhelmed, feeling frustrated, and feeling like you're banging your head against the wall, then these are some kind of good things. Simple. They might sound simple, but they are not easy.
mantras that you could kind of stick on your wall to be like, all right, cool. I maybe I want to integrate more of these patterns in my life, but that's business, private, you name it. Anyway, it's all blurred. Anyways, so what are those? So the first thing hands down,
It's not even a negotiable and I see so many, so many brands starting off that are kind of skipping this is branding.
Nina Huchthausen (11:24.535)
Having a really thought out, looking shit hot, unique and different brand that sets your product apart from anything else that is out there is hands down such a key differentiator. I cannot even. And I do understand why.
So many people say, look, I worked on my product, whether it's a face serum or it's a piece of clothing or it's a candle or it's a supplement for many, many years. And I put so much money and time and effort in it. And now I just want to put it in the packaging and start selling it. I get it. I so get it because that is the hardest part.
coming up with an amazing product. However, a customer.
looks at your product from the outside.
Nina Huchthausen (12:39.553)
They don't know how magical that lotion is inside the packaging and how we as humans have been trained and go back to thousands and thousands of years before any human tries a new fruit and puts it in their mouth, they look at it, what does it look like from the outside?
And only if the strawberry looks like a strawberry and makes me hungry and it smells good and it feels good. Yeah, we have those internal senses. Then we try it. If the strawberry looks like a piece of poop. Yeah, I'm going to the extreme here. We as humans would not pick up that piece of poop.
In the hopes, once I put it in my mouth, it tastes like an amazing strawberry. We do not. Yeah? So even our reptile brain is designed to look for something that looks and feels and smells amazing first, before we put it into our mouth, meaning before we consume it. So once we have, no matter what product it is, you have to...
created something that you're freaking proud of and you want to give to the world, you have to dress it in a way that the outside incredibly reflects the inside and makes it amazing so that your branding and packaging creates attraction, a magnetism, a want, a hunger. Yeah.
So when I look at whatever it is that you have created that it makes me angry. It makes me want it. It makes me feel like I don't even care what is on the inside, but man, man, this looks sparkly. There is an attraction.
Nina Huchthausen (14:57.473)
Because if we can achieve that, then that means whether you are selling your product online or offline or both, your product number one stands out from all the other comparable products in your category. So if you are selling a lip balm, the way it looks, packaging and the brand in itself, so the fonts, the colors, the logo, everything together,
that orchestration.
of everything that you have created on the outside, it creates an attraction to me and that my brain zooms in on that, that my eyes open itself up, that my body moves towards it. And that creates more white noise.
And it's so important, it's so important because if you have worked so hard on creating, this amazing lip balm, why would you put a potato sack on top?
Nina Huchthausen (16:10.605)
And doing yourself such a disservice and making your life now incredibly hard for people to want to try it out. Because I do not buy a lip balm in a potato sack. No matter how good it is, you would have to talk to me all freaking day to be like, Nina, this is the most amazing thing. This is the most amazing thing for me to choose yours over a lip balm that looks freaking shit hot. Yeah. Now, of course.
What looks freaking shit hot to me, Nina, might be completely different to you, might be completely different to all the other humans out there. That's them. That's why point number two.
Nina Huchthausen (16:55.459)
Those tribe members that really nailed it and killed it in the marketplace, they were super, super clear on who the product is for. What we call a favorite human. You could call it your customer, your target audience, doesn't matter. But it should be, should be super clear on who the product is for.
Where do they live? What is their income bracket? What do they do? How do they live their life? What are they attracted to? What do they love and want and create more of? And what are their pain points? What are their challenges? What are the things that they just trying to solve in their lives? Whether that is a mental struggle, it's a physical struggle, whether that's a pain, whether it's a fear.
What are those? The clearer you are on that, the more you can take all of that information into consideration and lean against when you are creating your branding, your packaging, your story, your visual appearance, your social media, your podcast, your stories. Because really,
With any product that we bring to the market, with any service we bring to the market, we are here to serve and solve problems and challenges and fears that people have. And we are here to create and support, to help people live a better life, to feel better about themselves, to create more beauty if they're longing for beauty, to create more safety if they're looking for safety, to...
create more confidence and power, to create more strength, to create more whatever that is they are craving. So the more you know who the product is for, who you are doing what you're doing for, and you put yourself into service of that, of solving the pain that you're here to solve, of serving the want and the longing and the gap.
Nina Huchthausen (19:13.656)
that sits in between where the consumer is or your favorite human and where they want to be. The more things will fall into place for you because you're not coming from the place of me. I have created. I have people now buy it, but it's the other person. You're leaning your arc, creating backwards. You're creating for me.
You're putting me, Nina, the consumer, first, and you're constantly looking at what are they needing? What are they wanting? What are they loving? What are they hating? What is it? How much money do they have available? How do they live their life? What are their limitations there? How can I serve? And then you respond and serve in response, create in response.
Take a product off the market in response because it's not needed anymore.
And then you dance with the consumer, with your customer, with them and serve to them in response. And that's really where the magic occurs. And if then you're branding and you're packaging, if me Nina is your consumer, if that then fits like handing glove, my gosh, I want it in my life. I want it in my life.
Nina Huchthausen (20:46.905)
So maybe I just pause right here because I'd love for you to write that down. So you can do a little checklist and say, OK, cool. Maybe you have a product. Maybe you don't have it yet. Well, if you are at the very start, amazing. Then make sure that once you have created it, or even, before you're creating it, first thing, get really, really clear on who you are serving, your favorite human.
and start mapping that out. Now, by the way, I've recently launched a book, The Wholesale Success Blueprint. If you get that, I'm talking you through that in the chapter. And there's also some templates that you can download and worksheets that walks you through this step for you to create, first thing, your favorite human. But that's on the site. It's linked in the show notes.
So number two, so number one, favorite human, number two.
work on your brand. Yeah. Figure out in response to your favorite human what your brand should reflect and mirror to them. What should it look like, feel like, how should it talk like, what is the...
Nina Huchthausen (22:15.183)
How can we create real magnetism to the consumer that you are looking to serve? And make sure that you are working with a kick-ass brand strategist and designer who can translate your visions and the needs and wants of your consumer into something that looks shit hot. I know it's super easy to just feel like, AI can do this for me. I can just grab something off Canva. Yes, you can.
hand to heart, think is 90 % of us humans, we cannot turn it into something shit hot. And just think if you're thinking about look, we're talking about an investment between five to 10 grand. If that opens you all the doors for your brand to kick fricking off, that is money so well spent, you can 10x that so easily. And at the same time,
If you don't, you can really put yourself into years and years of struggle. It is not even funny because we buy with our eyes first. Yeah. And if you're looking to get your product into retail, which again, in 2024, 80 % of all revenue made in the health conscious product space was made in retail offline.
20 % was online, 80 % was offline. So absolutely, you want to get your products into retail show so people can see it, experience, feel it, touch it. Retail is looking for products that look shit hot, that looks different. Because when we browse, we look for something that looks unique and different. So you got to do that. You got to do that right. And if you're kind of like, yeah, my brand is good, but I could do more this year.
That's what I would prioritize. Get your product shit hot dialed up, because it will open up doors. It will help you get your products explored. Yeah. If you don't believe me, have a look at our Instagram. Have a look at some of the brands that are working with us. Now, we're not brand designers, but we're working on the strategy level to help them get set up.
Nina Huchthausen (24:41.486)
There's some really shit hot brands and trust me, the ones that you're like, man, these are shit hot. They're killing it in the marketplace because of the looks and it's crazy. And I know sometimes we're like, but what about the insight? What about the park itself? The branding opens the doors for people to experience that after I've experienced it. Then of course, because of the experience, I will probably keep buying the product if it's an amazing experience, but the branding.
will always create that magnetism for me. Keep coming back to your product. Because remember, there's so much competition out there. And when we are in shopping mode, oftentimes we go for the looks. And we are like, well, this looks cool. Maybe I try this toothpaste this time or that toothpaste this time. Not because I'm so keen on the ingredients. Probably, yes, of course, I don't want to add shit in my body, but because of the looks.
And hand to heart, you've probably done that a million times before. Sometimes you were disappointed because like, it's not as good as I thought it was because the packaging bamboozled you. So that you really need to take to heart. Point number three.
And I kind of mentioned this already, but.
those tri-membered groups that are doing super well, create, they see themselves in the business of creating friendships, of creating partnerships, of creating connection, real connection with the people they are serving. And that is not just the people, the consumers that are ultimately buying the product and hopefully falling in love with it.
Nina Huchthausen (26:37.903)
falling in love with the brand, but also with people that they are partnering and collaborating with, because they might have the same audience, but different products, as well as retailers, as well as distributors, as well as anyone else in their supply chain. They are not just seeing it as a business transaction, but they are looking to create friendships. They are talking to each other like friends. They are reaching out. They're cold calling them as
Hey, you are already my friend. We are on the same mission. They're not just seeing customers, consumers, retailers, stockists, whoever as a means to an end, but are really creating the connections and conversations around them, wanting to understand them, wanting to see how can I support you. Now, here's an example.
And maybe this is something that you haven't really thought about before.
But any retailer out there, anyone who's providing a service or a product or an experience to someone, they started from the point of, want to create something amazing for someone. I want to help. I want to serve. I want to solve. A Whole Foods store. Yeah? Your favorite Whole Foods store. Just go there in your mind for a second. The Schumann.
who had the strong desire to open up a whole food store. They probably came from that sense of, want to bring the most amazing health creating, promoting products together there is and create some real alternatives to some of the shit that's being sold in other supermarkets. They had a mission, they had a vision. They are here to help
Nina Huchthausen (28:40.876)
people live a better life. And they've decided to do that by building a brick and mortar store. That is their vision. That is their mission. That's why they're getting up every day. That's what drives them. Now,
If you think about you, you have a very similar drive too, because your product is also here to serve, to solve, to support, to create more magic for us. At the end of the day, we are all here to create more ease, to create more health, to create more fun, to create more ease. And if you remind yourselves of that, them and I,
We have the same mission. have the same driver. We want the same things that is deeply connecting. So rather than reaching out to a retailer and can be like, hey, I got this new sunscreen. This is the price. Please, please take it. Help me grow my business.
Nina Huchthausen (29:49.675)
Why not reach out and say, hey, dude, I love you, shop. my gosh. It brings me so much joy.
The way you're setting this up, the way you are creating your ranges, deeply inspiring. I don't even know how much time that would take. And I'm in deep awe because every time I step into your shop. You know, a couple of hours can go by and browse them. I love it. Thank you for doing it. Because it's a huge job managing thousands and thousands of screws and keeping all the shelves full and
creating products that are relevant to me, all my freaking God. Making it about them, making it about them and showing them gratitude, showing them that you're deeply appreciating what they do or assumes. And then ultimately positioning your product that you have created this product to help them out.
Because without you, without your products, without anyone's products, their shelves would be empty. They wouldn't be able to serve their customers, number one. But they also wouldn't be able to make a living. They wouldn't be able to run a profitable venture. There is a symbiosis between you and them. The mission and the vision connects you at a huge level.
They put themselves into the position serving the consumer. You put themselves in the position, you might be serving the consumer at markets and events, but unless you are a stockist, you don't serve the consumer on a brick and mortar level in a shop. That's what they do. But you are here to serve them so they can serve the consumer.
Nina Huchthausen (31:52.535)
without you reaching out, without you sharing with them what you got, what they could put into their shelves, it will be much harder for them to find you. And it'll be a lot more effort for them to then reach out and establish the connection. So what you're doing is a huge help for them to have an easier life and for them to be unique and different and for them to attract all these wonderful humans into their shop every day.
And if you remember that, and if you put yourself into the shoes of, my gosh, they are doing amazing things. Let me serve them so they can do an even better job. And if you also see them as your target audience, as your consumer, as your favorite human, and keep reverse engineering when you create your products, your range, your branding to make sure that they are loving it too.
You'll be winning so big time. And what you're also doing is you're reducing this fear of reaching out. Because they see this show many times that people are shying away from getting into retail because they are afraid of building human connection. Because they think, my gosh, if I just sell my product online, then I don't need to talk to anyone. I don't need to fear the rejection.
But what is that when you have your website online and nobody buys? That is silent rejection.
Nina Huchthausen (33:30.594)
But figuring out your product, figuring out your market, figuring out your pricing, your offering, and building, and at the same time, building your virtual relationships, that's what ultimately gives you so much more guidance and support and help in getting your products into the hands of consumers. It is invaluable. And if you see these people as friends,
as people that are on the same mission, as people that are just people, that struggle the way you struggle, and probably even more than you struggle, and that have the same fears, that cry the same tears when things don't work out, that bang their heads against walls, the same as you.
Nina Huchthausen (34:22.136)
then I think life will get so much easier for you. Just be like, all right, all right. Have a good time when you build those partnerships, those relationships with people, and just have fun. Put the formal conversations aside. Put the formal emails aside. Put the stiffness aside. Have fun with people. And if they don't want to have fun, that's OK, too.
But if you're staying in the fun stage, if you're staying in the embracing, connecting, let's create magic together space, that's B2B or B2C, you are going to win the hearts and minds of thousands and thousands and thousands of people.
Nina Huchthausen (35:08.119)
for sure. I see it every day. Yeah. And by just me talking, it also reminds me like, let's have fun.
That's a fun. And fun, friendships, partnerships will get you through anything and everything that life throws at you. I didn't put that down as a separate point, but putting on your vision board or on your wall, I have a pretty white wall here. Yeah, behind me. I still haven't put key things there. I'm gonna put those key words here because fun.
is such a powerful ingredient to unlock our creativity, to unlock solutions, to move through shit.
and embrace the hard parts and love the good parts even more and allow you to stop and dance and to wiggle.
And to just live every day like it's the best one. Like it's the best one. Every day is different. We know this. Sometimes we feel good, we feel bad. But with a sprinkle of fun, so much more is possible. We move our minds from impossible to possible. So, so much easier if we take everything with a dose of fun, everything with a dose of lightness. Yeah.
Nina Huchthausen (36:49.238)
And the guys and girls and humans that are really crushing it, they do it with fun. They let go of the grind. They let go of the hardness. And fun eats fear for breakfast. Sometimes there's also fear, yeah? But the fun makes the fear just a little bit lighter, OK?
Nina Huchthausen (37:18.425)
Then the next point, the next point that I can testify so much, so much and any of my tribe members who had a hard time with this one listening to this, I know you've spoken about it and next year 2025, we make it a lot more about focus.
Focus, my friends. Focusing on a few things. This is a big one. A really, really, really, really big one. you've probably heard this a thousand times. Focus, focus. You got to focus more. And it can sound really hard. And I think for some people, focus could also be, but then, you know, fear of missing out can creep in.
And because there is so much noise, there's so we can, if we're not careful man, social media can really mess with our brains and we think we need to do a thousand things. So cut that off. Because if you look at any successful person in life, they do not do a thousand things. They do not. Nobody who can move forward...
in life does a thousand things to do a few things and a few things well. So yes, it's such an age old concept, but hands down, the favorite, the, the, the, the, the, tribe members that move their business forward.
They focused on just a few things and got those few things right. And with focus also means that you can put more time into the few things because you're not diluting your time across a million things at the same time. Because the time is the only resource that is scarce on this planet. We only we each or just have 24 hours in a day. That's it. No matter how rich you get.
Nina Huchthausen (39:38.592)
No matter, no matter how much time is a scarce resource. I'm a mom. I never run two businesses. Got a partner. I got a hobby. I need to sleep. I need to eat. Need to do so many things. What about you? Think about your life. Yeah. There's a million things that you need to do so you only have finite time. So.
the more you can really decide before the year starts, what are the key things you're going to focus on? The key marketing channels, the key sales channels, the key products that you're going to need to sell.
Yeah. And stick to it. And then slice your time wisely into the marketing and sales channels and into the few banger products that you're going to sell. And just go for it. Go hard at that.
and put some protection on you that makes sure that you keep saying no to the things that you didn't say yes to at the start of the year and go hard and remove distractions. That's when you go places. You can test it out. Sit in your car and don't decide where you're going to go. And any traffic light that you get to, you're going to make a decision again. So how about left? How about right? How about?
backwards. If you keep asking yourself that at every traffic light you go to, one of the chances you're going to get anywhere, you won't.
Nina Huchthausen (41:27.31)
So the more you can cut out and decide, OK, for the next three months, I'm going to go straight, or I'm going to go 90 degrees, or I'm going something, something. Predetermine that. Have key goals that you want to achieve, and have the key channels determined that you're going to put your time into. You will go places, and you will move forward. Or you will gather a whole bunch of learnings of what does not work.
so you can make better decisions when you reflect and refine your plan.
Nina Huchthausen (42:08.078)
Focus, honestly, is absolutely crazy. Now, how much should you be focusing? So it really depends on your brand and your product. in one of our next episodes, I'm going to talk you guys through the key marketing and sales channels that we see will really crush it in 2025. So you can then pick and choose wisely. Yeah. But we really just want to choose
to maybe three channels across sales and marketing and just focus on that. Yeah. Because when we focus, can create, we can practice, practice, practice a lot. We can learn, learn, learn a lot and we can master a lot. If we do 10 things at the same time, we get very little time to practice. We get very, very little time to understand and learn and we have
We probably can't master it. And then it's shit in, shit out principle. So even without you knowing, what am I going to focus on? As I said, it's 27th of December. You don't need to know this right now. You want to chill. But if you're like, all right, cool, I'm going to make a choice to focus more on a few things and cut out the shit that doesn't matter. Listen to my next episode, then we talk through the channels.
You will go places. Yeah. Great Dr. Sue's book out there. All the places you will go. Yeah. He will talk about that too. Can highly recommend it. I'm reading it pretty much every night with my baby.
And the last point, let's get to the last point, okay? Because I know we wanna hug our babies, we wanna do stuff. Me too, yeah, I'm gonna go to the beach soon. The last point is process.
Nina Huchthausen (44:12.397)
And you will be like process. my gosh, that's boring process. my gosh, I'm not good at that process. That kills my creativity process. might have so many aversions on processes. Yeah, cool. At the end of the day though, and it comes back to time. If you have finite amount of time. Yeah, and you know this for yourself.
Before I even talk about business processes, just want you because I think we can all relate to this. Yeah.
in your kitchen. Okay, let's say it's dinner time. And for dinner time, we're gonna need to make some meals and then we have to wash up and tidy up. Yeah, I would assume we will need to do that. So if you are someone in your kitchen, was really tight processes and how you make meals and how you tidy up and all that stuff, you get done pretty fast, right? If you have no idea what you're doing,
You can waste hours and hours in the kitchen. The kitchen can turn into a freaking minefield. Yeah, your food is burned or really doesn't taste any good. And you know, it takes you until 10 PM to tidy up.
Nina Huchthausen (45:31.287)
So I hope maybe you are one of the first ones. Yeah.
or you are a second one, doesn't matter. But this is just a super simple life example where if you have some processes in place and you know how to, what the key steps up in order to make your steak, your salad, your veggies, you'll be done fast. So you need less time. If you have a process in place and how you stack your dishwasher or how you clean your dishes or
However, you do the after eating process until you can then chill, play with your kids or get them to bed or whatever. You'll be done fast. So you save time.
That time, you think about in your business, if you have five hours a day, if you have processes in place for the things that you need to do every day, every week, every month, you save yourself so much time, number one, so much brain capacity. And if you think about my kitchen example, you will also be so much better at the outcome.
when you have a process in place. Because if you know how to cook your steak and what the steps are and how long each side you need to cook it for, will be a really good steak. If you're just fricking winging it and like burning the shit out of it, then turning it down and then, you know, the fricking alarm goes off over that stuff, it will not be a good steak. And it is the same in business.
Nina Huchthausen (47:16.04)
If you, every single time you make your product, you're kind of winging it and it takes you forever to set up your station and make the product and pack things away. If you, every month kind of sweating about, I even have all of the ingredients to make my products? Because you don't have a process in place on how you track the amounts of ingredients that you need in order to make one candle. Or you don't have a process in place when people order.
And it takes you forever to put the packages together. then you trying to figure out every single time how to send an invoice or when it comes to your social media every time you sweat there for hours on what to do and when to do it and how to do it. And you don't give yourself time to practice and master and just refine the steps and then hold yourself accountable to the steps. You waste time.
The output is going to likely be shit or subpar to what you could do if you had a process. Yeah. And also this whole thing will feel like a fricking nightmare. And if you do not believe me, look at a part of your life where you don't have a process in place. You're probably shying away from stuff. It's probably not very good what you're doing. And it's just not enjoyable. So really what processes do.
They save you time, they make things more enjoyable. You can cruise through the thing. You can sip more piña colada by the beach. And ultimately, time that you're saving to create a much better outcome, you can then use it for something else, whether you invest it in your business again or you invest it in your family time. You invest it in yourself to get another paddock here. You invest it into a walk. You invest it in just doing a meditation.
It is such a disservice when you decide to run your business like a shitshow because ultimately you're paying for it every single day by having less time available to do other things in your life that you enjoy. You, without processes in place, it is really hard to scale a business. have not seen a business that can scale without processes because in order to scale, you can do things faster, more effectively. And you will not be able
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to hire any people because they don't know what to do. They don't know when to do it. They don't know how to do it. And it's really hard for you to train anyone and make them successful without processes in place. Without processes, really, you're just getting yourself stuck into something that is not enjoyable, that will burn you out, and that will never create the lifestyle and the life and the time that you're looking to create. It's that simple. And that's what I see.
every single time with tribe members that are really good at creating processes, following and keep carving out time. And I see it with those don't want to it. know, the later meetings that are then last minute at the post office that are missing deadlines that are just really frustrated when it comes to tech, tax time, all of the things and it's short term thinking.
Because oftentimes, people are I'm not good at setting up processes. It's like, no, you're lazy in not setting them up short term. And you're really going to keep suffering through the shit. But I do not want to talk anyone down who is running the business of the shit show. My full intention is to motivate you to be like, all right.
All right, Nina, yes, I heard you and I've known this for many years. This year I will take action. This year I will change it. This year I will be more rigorous with my time. I put more boundaries up on how much time I give to my business. And because of that.
Nina Huchthausen (51:25.87)
So we'll now create some processes. Now, what the key processes are specifically when it comes to retail is also in my book. If you want to read it, I'm not going to talk about much. But I put the link in the show notes because, it will save you so much time also for processes. A big, big, big, big, big, big process that we hands down create with
All of our tribe members in that I am so stubborn about is process and toolkit on how to reach out to retailers, build that relationship, get them to say yes, and nurture and grow that relationship for consistent reorders. As well as the operational processes, the technology that you need, how you reach out, how you follow up, what to say, when to say it, all of that are processes. And the more you have
created that from the start, set up, mapped out, and you follow it. Oh my gosh, you can do this stuff so fast and so effectively. It's not even funny. But if you keep winging it, because you don't want to set it up at the start, because we have all these excuses, you will make your life very hard.
make yourself like very hot. So it's really now this choice, hey, because all the points that I just mentioned, like, yeah, maybe the key question to really ask is like, how do you want 2025 to feel? Do you want to feel easy? Or do you want it to feel whatever it's
gonna happen, let's go for it, let's figure it out and mumble jumble through it and maybe create some unnecessary hardship. If you want it to feel easy, if you really like man, 2025, I wanted a year of ease and growth and success and high five, do these things, get really clear on your customer, your favorite human, who you are serving on a B2B and B2C.
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Get your branding and packaging really dialed in, shit hot, let it stand out, create a unique and amazing offering that people get attracted to.
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Think about your customers, consumers, your retailers, your stockers, your partners, as real friends, people who have the same mission that you want to connect with, that you are serving. You are doing it for them.
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Attack everything with fun, play everything with fun, enjoy everything with fun.
Focus on a few things that you want to invest your time into, that you want to master, that you truly believe will move your business towards the goals that you have created, because you always need a target. I fully talked about targets, but to me, it goes without saying. If you don't know where to, you're never going to get to Rome, because you've never said you want to get to Rome. So targets are everything. Then you can focus.
And last one, create some simple and easy to follow processes that you love. Yes, you have to practice them. Maybe at the start, it's not easy to follow them. But if you're leaning into the process, the process is always the fastest path to getting shit done and getting shit done at a really high level that meet your standards.
Nina Huchthausen (55:17.549)
That's how you create ease. That's how you create fun. That's how you go places. All the places you will go is what Dr. Seuss says in his amazing book. And if you want to go places in 2025, this is the formula that I didn't create, but this is what people have followed and did magic with in 2024 so many times. Whenever I'm doing this, I go places.
Whenever I'm all over the place and do too many things and don't have processes in place and don't treat people as friends and all that stuff, I can tell you life is hard. If you want easy, let's go for it guys. And with that, I love you and leave you enjoy the pool and enjoy the family do all the cool stuff. And
See you in the new year. Watch out for the next episode. In the next episode, I will walk you through 2025, our top marketing and sales channels that you want to put attention to and how to choose them wisely because we want to create focus and we want to create processes. We want to choose those ones that your favorite humans are loving and using and...
Nina Huchthausen (56:35.703)
That's it. Have a wonderful day guys. Bye bye.
