When People Pleasing Ends Badly

We last left off with me wanting to overcome objections we were receiving because freeze drying was still new to the Amazon grocery crowd.

I came from sales and people pleasing was my superpower. Repeat customers would wait for me even if it cost them hours or days. That's how I outperformed peers month after month, year after year.

Then came Nature's Wild Berry and the crucial lesson I was about to learn. What made me a terrific salesman is not what would make me a great business owner. Your greatest strength in one area can be your greatest weakness in another. Instead of taking affordable next steps to solve the real problem, I went into please everyone mode and committed to our most expensive blunder to date.

Enter Barely Bears, our version of miracle berry melts. Boy did Juliano and I think we were clever. It was fun to say, fun to design, fun to talk about and it completely confused everyone. What did it mean? Who was it for? How was it more expensive? Why was it not gummy?

Next week I will get to the retailer who took interest but today’s takeaway is simple. We could have educated the market on freeze drying by answering 1question. Instead we tried to please everyone and created way more education to do, which pulled us off mission.

Look at the products stealing focus from the flagship you built your brand around. Those SKUs are meant to please everyone else. Great if you are a salesperson, a waste if you are a founder. Making everyone your target market means you do not have a target market.

Now for this week’s taste test.

Recently launched Pacific Soul Inc. sent me a variety pack and I went straight for soursop and yellow dragon fruit. I am a sucker for both because they grow right next to the miracle fruit in Florida and I have been eating them with the berry for almost a decade.

The texture was perfect. Freeze drying is an art form and Carolina Ramirez-Nogales nailed it. Soursop was sweet and citrusy with a creamy finish. Dragon fruit was bright, sweet and refreshing. I recommend trying both at the same time.

Then I chewed Nature's Wild Berry and let the pulp coat my tongue for 30 seconds. When it turned sweet I went back in.

Ay caramba. This was candy store delicious. Balanced, not too sweet but noticeably different and totally crave-able. I could not pick a winner so they both get gold. Together after the berry, it made me think magic is real and it ships nationwide.

If you have ideas for what I should try next drop them in the comments so we can keep the fun and discovery going.

As always there is a hidden alphanumeric code in this post. Spot the odd word with a number, enter it exactly as written and save 20 percent for the next 48 hours. Thanks for reading and for riding along.

- Hank