275. The Fastest Way to Avoid Costly Retail Mistakes

0:00Welcome to day three. Surround yourself with trusted advisors and experts. If you're building a food brand, I want you to hear this clearly. You are not meant to do this alone. Founders in our industry often carry the entire weight of the business on their shoulders. Product development, sales, marketing, logistics, finance, fundraising, retail execution, branding, investor conversations, all while trying to keep the company alive and growing. No wonder so many feel overwhelmed. But here's the good news. Surrounding yourself with the right mentors, advisors, and experts is one of the fastest, most effective ways to accelerate your growth.

0:34protect your runway, and level the playing field with the most sophisticated brands. Let me explain. When you step into the world of retail, whether natural, conventional, or online, you're entering a game with defined rules, established expectations, and incredibly high stakes. Trying to learn everything on your own takes years and costs a tremendous amount and avoidable mistakes. But with the right advisors, you collapse time, you gain clarity, you avoid costly missteps, you grow faster, smarter, and more sustainably. Today's episode is about building a strategic network that will help support you, challenge you, and guide you as you scale.

1:11Why you need advisors now, not later? Founders often tell themselves, I'll bring in an advisor once you grow a little more, or I'll bring in a mentor when things calm down. But things never calm down. And waiting only makes the climb steeper. Running a business is challenging, even in the best conditions. And there's a harsh reality that most programs in Natural don't tell you. Most of the training available to small brands is not enough to compete with sophisticated systems that big brands use. One of the biggest advantages largest CPG companies have is that they invest heavily and continuously in personal development for their teams.

1:47When I worked for Unilever, I went to advanced training sessions every single month, sometimes for several days at a time. Negotiation, advanced strategy, marketing, time management, leadership, category management. Those trainings were better than any college course I ever took. They shaped how I think, how I lead, how I problem solve, and how I support brands today. And they were incredibly expensive, far out of reach of most emerging brands. That's a big part of why I created the 30-Day Series, the Bulletproof Your CPG Brand Podcast, and the Retail Solved Resources. My goal is to raise the bar in natural so you compete with the big brands without having their budget.

2:25This is how you get that competitive advantage. Founders are being told the wrong story. In day one, I mentioned episode 115, success equals brand strategy plus execution. In that episode, we unpacked how many founders unintentionally become full-time fundraisers, not operators, not strategists, not brand builders. The industry constantly pushes the story that the only way to grow is to raise more money, hire more outside partners, hand over your sales strategy, and hope they make it happen. But here's the problem. You count outsource strategy. When you hand your broker, your distributor, your agency, the keys to your brand, you're placing the future of your brand in people that handle dozens of brands at a time.

3:09And they will use exact same playbook for all of them. Their cookie cutter strategies will not differentiate your brand. Their KPIs don't always align with your goals. Their priorities don't always reflect the unique shopper that buys your product. You need to own your strategy. You need to set the vision. You need partners who execute, not dictate. Advisors help you do that. That philosophy is what led to one of my most popular articles ever published in Natural Food Merchandiser. The idea that brands should write their own strategic roadmap and then direct brokers the same way they would direct their internal sales team.

3:44That article opened doors to keynote stages, industry publications, and ongoing conversations about how brands can create powerful systems at scale. It resonated because it was true and because founders were desperate for someone to tell them you don't have to hand over control to grow. Why mentors, advisors, and masterminds are a game changer? You've already heard me say running a brand is hard. There's too much to learn and too little time to learn it. But here's the opportunity. Mentors have already made the mistakes you haven't. Advisors have conquered the mountain you're climbing. Mastermind peers help you see what you can't see yourself.

4:21They shorten the learning curve. They hold you accountable. They expand your network and they give you perspective. They remind you that you're not alone. In Natural CPG, where mission-driven founders genuinely care about the rising tide lifting all boats, you'll find experts who are eager to help. Networking groups like Natural Network, local meetups, masterminds, and industry events are full of people with deep experience across operations, finance, sales, category management, supply chain, innovation, retail, and beyond. But here's a quick word of advice. Don't make the conversation all about you.

4:57When you're meeting experts, ask about their journey, their wins, their failure, their biggest challenges, how they solve problems, and what they wish they knew earlier. Their stories will educate and inspire you far more than a standard pitch. And once they feel heard, they'll naturally ask about your brand. That's when the relationship becomes real. How to choose the right advisor. You shouldn't choose the first advisor who offers to help. Treat this like hiring a key strategic partner, someone who aligns with your mission and your values, understands your category and shopper, has the skills you're missing, has the track record of execution, listens, challenges, and holds you accountable, understands the difference between your customer and your competitor's customer.

5:43You want a diverse advisory bench, not five sales experts or five finance experts. Think cross-functional. Sales, marketing, category management, operations, finance, product, go-to-market strategy. This is how big brands structure their boards, and it's how they continue to iterate, improve, and stay ahead. You deserve the same advantage. Why accountability matters more than advice? Great advice is helpful. Accountability is transformative. When you work with an advisor, don't just brainstorm ideas. Put each idea in a clear strategic plan. Ownership, timeline, milestones, KPIs, follow through.

6:19Then let your advisor hold you to it. This is how lofty dreams turn into measurable progress. This is how founders build discipline. This is how brands escape their perpetual chaos cycle. And when accountability becomes a habit, your entire team, internal and external, begin to perform at a higher level. This is where real scale begins. Day three action item, build your strategic support system. Today, I want you to identify three to five experts you admire or trust. These can be industry peers, mentors, consultants, or advisors. Reach out to them. Ask for a brief conversation. Focus on their story and not yours.

6:58List the skill gaps in your business. Where do you need guidance, sales, category, finance, retail? Identify whether you need a mentor, a mastermind, a paid advisor, a functional expert, an advisory board. Commit to building your advisory board bench this quarter. Write it down. Add timelines. Begin today. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, guide you, and hold you accountable. It's one of the most overlooked and most powerful drivers of sustainable growth. In closing, you don't need to do this alone. You're building something remarkable, but you're not expected to know everything.

7:32None of us did. I certainly didn't. My edge came from expert training, mentorship, and decades of learning from the best leaders, founders, and strategists across the industry. You deserve access to the same level of support, and that's what this 30-day journey is designed to deliver. Tomorrow on episode 276, we'll get hands-on, and we'll talk about how to build a retail-ready sales strategy that doesn't break your budget, so that you can go into any retailer meeting confident, prepared, and in control. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. Share this series with another founder who needs support, clarity, and encouragement.

8:06And download the episode's guide. We rise by helping each other. And when you surround yourself with the right people, the climb becomes clearer, faster, and a whole lot more enjoyable. You've got this, and I'm here to help every step of the way. For additional inspiration, listen to the following podcast episodes. Episode 196, Leveraging Wisdom to Unlock Leadership and Brand Growth with Brad Barnhorn. Brad Barnhorn is one of the most celebrated, recognized, and influential advisors in our industry. He shares a wealth of information in this podcast episode. And what really inspired me is how he talks about when he works with brands, how he helps them, holds them accountable, and how he acts as a sounding board.

8:45You can learn a lot from Brad. And then listen to episode 81, Passion for Real Food Strategy Success, with Greg Fleischman of Foodstirs and Pre-Early Righteous Brands. Greg does a phenomenal job at telling stories about foodstirs, how their product was created, and how they leverage advisors to help them grow and scale. More importantly, he also talks about companies that he advises for how he works with those brands as an advisor and how he mentors others in the industry. You're going to learn a lot from Greg. Episode 46, Community is the Magic Ingredient Behind Every Brand's Success. Alex Hannafin with Naturally Boulder and Outline Start Foods.

9:23This is exactly what we've been talking about this entire series. The secret of your success is the community you surround yourself with. Now I'm going to be talking later about how you want to build a community around your brand at Loyal Shoppers. We'll save that for later. But for now, we want to focus on the community that helps support your brand. The community of fellow entrepreneurs that are on the same journey, on the same path that you are that can help guide you and inspire you. The same group of entrepreneurs that have some of the same challenges that you do. And what's best about working with them is that you can get a different understanding or flavor of some of the different ways you should be thinking about the problems you're trying to solve.

10:03I'll bet that if you talk to different people in your group, they're going to give you a lot of ideas that you haven't thought of yet. Tip of the day, you are not alone. Find a trusted mentor and or advisor. Join a mastermind group that educates you, inspires you and holds you accountable. Thanks for listening. This episode has a company video with illustrations and additional information that I can't share in an audio podcast. You can watch it at retailsolved.com slash 30 day challenge. You can get the show notes for this episode by going to retailsolved.com slash session 275. And tomorrow's episode is how to set yourself up for success in business today.

10:40This episode will build on today's conversation. Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Want more sales? How to profitably scale a food business today, tomorrow, and beyond. Here's this week's free downloadable guide. The 30-Day to Prosperity Workbook is a companion to the 30-Day Challenge. This retail solve blueprint will teach you what you need to know to confidently grow and scale your brand, build a connected community of loyal evangelists, and multiply your brand's impact, sales, and profits. Every slight improvement means more runway for sales growth, higher brand evaluations, better terms when negotiating with investors, fuel for more innovation, greater support for mission-based causes, and much more.

11:19Thanks for joining us today. Please reach out and share your most pressing questions, and I'll do my best to get you the answers that you need on future episodes, including expert advice from CEOs and industry thought leaders. Comment, leave your questions, and get this week's free downloadable guide and the show notes at retailsolved.com slash session 275.