058 | Kara Goldin Teaches Us How to Find a Hint of Success!

058 | Kara Goldin Teaches Us How to Find a Hint of Success!

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of hint, a healthy lifestyle brand that produces the leading unsweetened flavored water, as well as a scented sunscreen spray that is oxybenzone and paraben-free. She also recently launched the podcast Unstoppable, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs and disruptors across various industries.

How did you feel the last time a massive deal went under? Did you start to tumble out of control, thinking your business was a failure?

This week’s guest, Kara Goldin, experienced some major struggles within her business in the very early stages. It was overwhelming and left Kara feeling like she’d never get to see her version of success. She even tried giving her company away to a Coca-cola executive.

Kara realized it was time to turn that all around and start celebrating the small wins that were occurring everyday around her.

When Kara was struggling to figure out how to get her drink on the shelves of conventional grocery stores, she began feeling down and depressed, but quickly turned that around by looking at her small wins. For instance, something as simple as building her list and portfolio of connections that she had.

This was enough to propel Kara forward and keep pursuing her dream of making her business a true success!

What small wins have happened this week that you haven’t even given a second thought to?

If you’re only looking at the big picture, and want to start celebrating the little wins, then this episode of Success Unfiltered is a MUST LISTEN!

Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered!

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Special thanks goes out to Kara Goldin for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode!

P.S. Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that’ll ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN!

Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:

• Michelle introduces Kara Goldin.
• Kara shares a quick synopsis of who she is and a bit about her company.
• Kara shares the first big NO she received after getting a big win of getting into Whole Foods.
• Buyer after buyer kept telling Kara NO, and it was frustrating because no one knew where her drink fit, and no one wanted to create a new category. Kara tells the full story in this episode.
• The switch went off in Kara’s head and she realized that she needed to start focusing on getting her beverage into places where other consumers might be. Trying to get into the conventional grocery stores was like beating a dead horse.
• Large grocery chains take $60 to $90 million from the soda chains, so that they get the prime real estate, which is why it’s tough to get on the drink shelves in retail.
• Kara heard 6 or 7 big NO’s before she decided to stop trying to get into grocery stores.
• The big shift happened for Kara when she realized she needed to focus on getting some small wins under her belt, which would eventually lead to the big wins.
• Book: The Score Takes Care of Itself - by: Bill Walsh
• The small wins helped Kara organize her thoughts in regards to sales.
• Kara shares the 3 big lessons she learned to help her move her in a different sales direction then she had been headed.
• A certain amount of your time in business should be dedicated to getting out of the office and meeting new people, according to Kara (I happen to agree!).
• Kara’s biggest NO before things started to turn around happened when she was about 6 months in. It has to do with creating a shelf-stable water and keeping it free from preservatives. She shares the full story!
• At one point, Kara was so frustrated she tried to give her company away to an exec at Coca-cola.
• After that conversation, she learned some great strategies just by listening to what the Coca-cola exec had to say, even though he was negative.
• Kara shares how they came to decide to pasteurize their water so that they could flavor it without preservatives and keep it shelf-stable.
• Kara’s big lesson was that you can learn from each other, even retail categories that don’t directly relate to your business.
• “Stop putting people on a pedestal. It doesn’t matter how much experience someone has, they were once where you were” ~ Kara Goldin.
• Kara believes that no matter what response you get when it comes to advice or trying to get your products out there, you should always keep your chin up and be professional. Let it motivate you to go forward and grow in other ways.
• Kara shares what she would tell her younger self.

P.S.Celebrate Your Rejections In Business! Why? Because the more you get told NO, the closer you are to a YES. True story. Rejection doesn’t mean failure. It means that you’re taking the steps that’ll ensure your success! Don’t let NO stop you. Let me show you how to keep going! Grab your copy of my FREE Checklist “5 Ways To Come Back From Sales Rejection” and turn that NO into a WIN!

Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com