Heather K. Terry | She Owns It

Step Inside Your Consumers’ (and Competitors’) Heads by @hkterry1

February 12, 2015 by Heather K. Terry Leave a Comment

by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor

When’s the last time you stepped into your customer’s head?

You know that old saying, don’t miss the forest for the trees? The idiom that reminds us we shouldn’t be so focused on the details that we miss the big picture? Well, as it so happens, it is very easy to let this happen when you’re in business.

I’ve been so focused these past few months in my role as acting CEO of NibMor and helping to prepare our new incoming Chief Executive Officer that I lost a bit of perspec-tive about the big picture of our operation.

This intense focus I’ve had on the corporate details of the company has been extremely important, so please don’t get me wrong. But now that NibMor’s new CEO is all settled in, I am having an absolute blast. I can see the forest again, so to speak.

Since this new gentleman has come into the picture, I’ve taken on a new role in Product Development and Branding. And, in order to get my head into the game, I’ve been spending at least one day of my workweek hanging out in the aisles of stores. (It’s a rough life, ladies.)

I am out where our consumers are. I’m taking photos and looking to see what competitors are doing and how shoppers are interacting with other chocolate products in our space. I’m studying why products are selling in some stores as opposed to others. I’m watching to see what consumers are gravitating towards. I’m trying to really get into the consumer’s head to see why they’re picking up the products that they are. I can see which products are being restocked more often, what’s being picked more often, and what’s being picked least often.

Sitting in the holiday aisle is my new favorite pastime. I’ve been developing holiday items for NibMor like crazy! I have this whole new perspective into product development that you can’t get in the kitchen or in the boardroom. What could sell? What price does it have to be at to sell? What does the product package have to look like for some-one to pick it up?

This work is invaluable for NibMor. I am learning so much from competitors and consumers that it’s shocking.

Whether you’re on the shelf or off the shelf, you can get a lot of intel from your competitors by simply looking at what they’re doing-what’s working and what’s not. Now, I am NOT saying that you should go and copy what your competitors are doing. No way. But you can put your own unique spin or process on a successful program.

For instance, if you’re a service-based business and you want to offer a new health coaching service, study the website of someone doing well in that space. Look at who’s leaving comments on their blog posts. Learn from those things. Ask yourself how what that business is doing can be applied to what you’re doing. It’s not about copying; it’s about taking something that seems to be working and figuring out how to apply it to what you’re doing.

Put your spin on it!

Don’t focus on competition in a dramatic negative way, but look at what those competitors are doing and use some of this information to your own advantage.

When your company has grown to a certain point, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the operations and to lose sight of not only how consumers’ needs may be changing, but also how your competitors might be doing a better job of meeting those needs.

Take a step back and focus some of your energy on how your consumers are spending their time. It’s time very well spent!
———————————————————————————-

Celebrated health coach, cooking instructor, yogi, and author of the forthcoming book “My Life In Chocolate”, Heather K. Terry, is a true health aficionado. CEO of NibMor Chocolate, co-founder of the Gluten Free Sugar Cleanse, and a strong advocate of eating real, simply prepared, organic foods and avoiding genetically modified, highly-processed food-like objects. A graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan, Heather’s passion for food and nutrition are palpable.www.heatherkterry.com

Heather K. Terry

Celebrated health coach, cooking instructor, yogi, and writer, Heather K. Terry, is a true health aficionado. Co-founder and COO of NibMor Chocolate, co-founder of the Gluten Free Sugar Cleanse, and a strong advocate of eating real, simply prepared, organic foods and avoiding genetically modified, highly-processed food-like objects. A graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan, Heather’s passion for food and nutrition are palpable. www.heatherkterry.com

www.heatherkterry.com

Can a Woman Have It All? That Depends by @hkterry1

July 18, 2014 by Heather K. Terry 4 Comments

by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor

A morning news program I recently watched featured an interesting discussion about comments made by a high-powered female executive regarding balance of career and motherhood. This woman is the CEO of one of the most recognizable brands in the world, and she was so bold as to suggest that women just can’t have it all.

She went on to justify her statement by saying that if someone were to ask her children what kind of a mother she’d been, she wasn’t sure their response would be a positive one.

I was choking on my cereal at this point because to say that women can’t have it all is absolute bullshit. It just depends on your definition of having it all.

As a woman in the workforce who has children, if your having it all is to be a successful executive who is also there for your children, why is that such a stretch?

If your having it all is to be a Mom first and foremost and to work reduced hours until the kids are in school, why is that unattainable?

I think we are striving to be the types of mothers that our mothers were, but we simply don’t live in that world. Things are much different for us than they were for our mothers. For one thing, the workday no longer ends by punching out at 5 o’clock. It’s more often expected to be available while at home with today’s technology—something our mothers didn’t have to worry about.

Mom was my primary caregiver. She took care of the house, fed me, and worked all at the same time. It was assumed by my parents that she would fill the role of caretaker and homemaker and that she had to make that work around what she did to earn money. It is easy to feel like you’re not doing the mother role justice when your model was some sort of martyr.

Today, we are much more communicative with our partners. It isn’t always assumed that the child rearing is going to fall solely on mom’s shoulders.

I am generalizing here, but in many cases when a baby is born to parents who both have careers, there’s a discussion about how that new life will be integrated into the existing family dynamic.

In my case, my husband’s career isn’t as flexible as mine, so we have agreed on what compromises have to be made to work around our daughter since I don’t want to be 100% at home or 100% at work.

My having it all is the ability to be a good mom and a successful executive. My having it all means that I work from home as much as I possibly can so that I can be with my baby and to see that smile as much as possible. I often have to be able to run to a meeting at a minute’s notice so I have childcare in place just in case. My daughter is the most important thing in the world to me but that doesn’t mean my business isn’t also a priority.

In order for me to have it all, I must constantly talk to my husband about how we’ll continue to fit my work around our daughter and how he can help support my vision. I have to communicate with my business partner and other key persons in my company about the flexibility I need in order to work around my home life.

We all need to start working towards fulfilling our own vision of what we want our lives as mothers to look like because, you know what? We only get one shot at this.

The good news is that employers are becoming quite progressive. (Most will entertain the idea of mothers working from home because they know that if you give a mother 3 hours of focused time to work on something, she will do the work of multiple people!)

If your current scenario isn’t working for you, stop sitting around feeling guilty and change it!

What do you have to lose if you go to your employer and propose a solution that could help you to have it all? Ask if you could work from home a day or two a week, or even half days for the summer. Maybe your boss would be open to you bringing your baby to work 1-2 days a week—you never know!

If you can’t fit your life around your baby and that’s your having it all, you will be miserable until you sort something out.

I have seen women make a ton of different scenarios work to fit their situation. Some take the kids to work with them, some hire a nanny, and some leave work all together. There is no shame in any of those solutions.

To suggest that women can’t have it all is just completely untrue. What is true is that every woman has a different concept of what “all” is, and it is this “all” that is attainable.

It all comes down to getting good and clear on how you want to live your life and what you need to do to have it all.

I challenge you to figure out where your happiness lies and to find a way to honor that. You only have one life. Live it well.

———————————————————————————-

Celebrated health coach, cooking instructor, yogi, and writer, Heather K. Terry, is a true health aficionado. She is co-founder and COO of NibMor Chocolate, co-founder of the Gluten Free Sugar Cleanse, and a strong advocate of eating real, simply prepared, organic foods and avoiding genetically modified, highly-processed food-like objects. A graduate of The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The French Culinary Institute of Manhattan, Heather’s passion for food and nutrition are palpable. www.heatherkterry.com

Heather K. Terry

www.heatherkterry.com

The One (and Only) Way We Should Try To Be More Like Men by @hkterry1

June 13, 2014 by Heather K. Terry 1 Comment

by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor

There’s a part of me that hates the idea of writing this article. But a bigger part of me knows that it needs to be written.

See, there’s a really big elephant in the room. She’s wearing heels and carrying an Hermes bag and she is completely ridiculous, but here we are pretending we don’t notice her.

When I was an actress, it was common to see women in pretty hardcore competition with one another. The stage and the screen are cutthroat environments. That world is very superficial, and your success depends on you having the right look. It often comes down to pure dumb luck. Sure you need talent, but there’s a lot of “being in the right place at the right time” involved, too.

Actresses are keenly aware that there is always someone thinner, prettier, taller, blonder, [insert your own superlative]. . . That’s just the way it is.

When I left that world to become an entrepreneur, I was surprised to see that the same sort of competition is not reserved for entertainers.

In my personal experience, other women have not always been terribly interested in helping me succeed. I’ve approached other women in the chocolate space to talk business, and I’ve often been given a cold shoulder. Some women will say that they are interested in working together, but I get this vibe that says the exact opposite.

This always surprises me because women tend to be more collaborative by nature than men. But this trait doesn’t seem to translate to The Real World. In business, I have found men to be much more welcoming and open to collaboration than women.

Before you consider leaving too many nasty comments, I realize that I am generalizing here—not all women act this way—, but, in my experience, we just aren’t as supportive to one another as we would like to think. You know, as a gender.

When my business partner and I started our company, we had a lot of trouble at first trying to identify our roles and figure out where we each stood. There was a level of competition between us, and luckily we were both mature enough to be able to sit down and talk about it or else our business would never have gotten anywhere.

So, why are we like this? Why are we threatened by each other?

No, really. I don’t have the answers. I want you to help me understand why women can’t just work together without comparing ourselves to each other or competing with each other all the time?

I expect this all stems back to when we were taught by mainstream media at age ten that we had to be the prettiest or the thinnest in order to be valued, but aren’t we all smart enough to let that go? Can’t we move on? Have we not evolved into deeper human beings?

I wonder how many amazing businesses never got off the ground because of some form of drama between women.

Can we, as women, learn how to support one another?

Can we leave that cattiness at the door and work together to help grow our businesses?

Let’s start coming up with some ways that we can support each other and build each other up instead of feeling threatened and knocking each other down. I’ll start . . .

Join a networking group for women and REALLY give it your all. I love Elevate (formerly known as 85 Broads). It was started by a couple of gals from Goldman Sachs on 85 Broadway in New York City. 85 Broads is an amazing networking group for women. There are chapters all over the place. Check it out or a similar group for women in business in your area.
Clarify roles. If you are in a business made up of other women and it’s a more competitive environment than a collaborative one, get good and clear on what each woman’s role is within the company and come up with ways that you can all help everyone else to succeed in their respective roles. Sometimes it’s overlap that leads to resentment.
Get to the root of it. If you find yourself having negative thoughts towards another woman about her success, look within and ask yourself why. Why am I feeling this way about this woman? Be aware of when this happens and just try to stop it.

The truth is, we are all part of something bigger. What if we could leave our egos at the door (maybe with the elephant) and work together to create amazing things. What if we could all collaborate together and support one another without allowing petty feelings and drama to cut ideas off at the knees?

What can we do to help each other be more amazing instead of searching so hard to find fault with others?

———————————————————————————-

Heather K. Terry

www.heatherkterry.com

Beware of Cockroaches Posing as Business Coaches by @hkterry1

May 12, 2014 by Heather K. Terry 9 Comments

by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor

You’re about to undergo an invasive operation. The procedure’s being done by a skilled surgeon with an excellent reputation. Her track record’s nearly perfect, and she’s been doing surgeries like this for years.

Fortunately for us, doctors aren’t allowed to operate on people before they study medicine for many years. Before they operate on real live humans, doctors must hone their skill on cadavers until they’re fully qualified to become practicing surgeons. (Grey’s Anatomy anyone?!)

This same basic principle applies across most occupations. You generally need to have the chops to back up whatever it is you’re doing in a professional capacity.

But have you noticed what’s been happening around les internets? There are dozens of smarmy people hiding behind splashy sales pages (in which they’ve invested a ton of cash), offering their services as business coaches.

Yet, the only business these individuals have ever run is their business coaching business. It’s shocking how deceptive a good looking website can be, convincing many people to invest 5 or 6 thousand dollars into working with the person claiming the ability to help them move their business forward.

I am absolutely sickened by these parasites who’ve taken a few mastermind classes and are calling themselves business coaches. How can you help me grow my business if you’ve never run an actual business?

These people are taking advantage of vulnerable entrepreneurs who are trying to eke out an honest living, when, really, they don’t know the first thing about what it’s like to be in the trenches as a business owner.

If you’re thinking about hiring a business coach, I want you to stop whatever it is you’re doing right now and REALLY listen to what I’m saying to you.

Do not be fooled by a pretty front. Dig deeper before you hire a business coach, and make sure of a couple of things before you waste a penny of your cash or a minute of your time (as cash and time are the most important things you’ve got!).

For starters, make sure the business coach is knowledgeable about your particular business.

I am the co-owner of a packaged goods company. My business partner and I have a wealth of experience and knowledge to share about business in this space because we’ve learned by doing what works and what doesn’t. We know about cold storage, packaging requirements, and what absolute hell it is to ship chocolate across the country.

But we would not be of any help to an online-based service provider, just as a coach specializing in online-based services would be of no help to a packaged goods business.

A great example of this is an entrepreneur who came to myself and my business partner, Jennifer Love, at one time to share her idea about starting a cashew milk company. Great idea, but we knew right away she had a product with massive spoilage issues. This product would have an extremely short shelf life, and we knew from experience that if this woman were to pursue this idea, she would be facing an uphill battle. So, we told her the honest-to-God truth and she decided not to pursue that idea. She saved herself a world of hurt by talking to the right people.

Do you think a coach who had never run a business in the food industry would have thought about this?

Do your homework.

Find out what businesses the coach has been involved in starting and/or operating. If this information isn’t available on his or her website, that’s a red flag, so call and ask for it. If the person has no experience running or starting a business, move on.

Ask to speak to some references.

Once you’ve found a business coach with experience in your line of business, ask for the contact information of three or more clients. Find out from these people whether the business coach was of help to them and whether they felt their investment in his or her services was worth it. Be sure to ask what the business coach did, specifically, to help them and what the result was. Often, when calling around for references we’re happy with the blanket, ‘It was great!’ statement. GET SPECIFIC! Money and time are on the line!

Find out if you can get your money back if things don’t work out.

Ask right up front if the coach offers a money-back guarantee. Many reputable coaches will give you a full refund if you feel you were not able to move your business forward with their advice.

I believe you will get much further ahead by seeking out people who have failed in the business you’re in, and talking to them than you will by spending thousands of dollars on one of these “coaches.”

Why?

Because the entrepreneurs who have failed in the business I want to succeed in will teach me where they went wrong. They learned what didn’t work. They have perspective, and that perspective is priceless. Seek someone like that out, or someone who is successful in your space, and offer to buy them dinner, or, if you can, hire them for a consulting contract.

Hiring the wrong business coach is a waste of cash and time, and, as an entrepreneur, those are precious assets that must not be wasted, especially not on snake oil.

———————————————————————————-

Heather K. Terry

www.heatherkterry.com

Run Your Business Without Running Yourself Into The Ground by @hkterry1

April 14, 2014 by Heather K. Terry 2 Comments

by Heather K. Terry | Featured Contributor

What have you done today for yourself? Not your business, but yourself.

When I was an actor, most of the other actors I knew only talked about work. There appeared to be nothing else going on in the lives of these people.

Now that I own a company, I see that same trait in entrepreneurs. That same all-consuming obsession with work.

But the truth is, if you want to find success as an entrepreneur, and as a human being, you need to pay attention to your life.

Self-care is essential

Self-care is one of the most overlooked elements of success, and it is absolutely non-negotiable. You need to get no less than 7 hours of sleep every night. You need adequate nutrition, exercise, and plenty of water. And you also need to fulfill your interests outside of your business. Do you even remember what those interests are?

You are an intelligent person. You know it’s important to take care of yourself, yet you very well may have found yourself stuck in that business bubble—losing sight of the person you once were, and, as a result, becoming a very dull, sad, one-dimensional individual.

When I started Nibmor, I lost myself for a while. I dove into my business headfirst, thinking of nothing but work. I would work for 16 hours a day, trying to perfect a chocolate recipe. My boyfriend at the time brought it to my attention that I was working every waking minute and that this schedule could not go on.

He was right. I was headed for burnout central, and my all-consuming focus on work was not healthy for me or my relationships. Since then, I’ve made a point of taking care of Heather before Nibmor. For instance, I schedule my day in measurable chunks of time. I’ll do yoga from 6am-7am, work on social media from 7am-10am, talk to my business partner from 11am-noon. This way, everything has a hard stop. And taking care of me is like any other business commitment. “Me time” is simply an appointment with myself, and it gets scheduled in just like everything else.

I make a point of doing what I have to do in order to feel fulfilled because at the end of the day, we make chocolate—we do not solve world hunger.

When you get run down, you get sick.

Stress, lack of sleep, inadequate nutrition, lack of exercise . . . they all weaken our immune system. When you let yourself get run down and stressed out, I promise you, you will get sick. Take care of yourself or your body will force you to.

Personally, I’d rather rest every day and enjoy that downtime than spend it sick in bed. You are of no service to your business when you are unwell.

Watch out for your relationships

Worse than damaging your health, when we’re in burnout mode, we tend to push boundaries and neglect our relationships. We tell ourselves that our loved ones will understand, that our children will understand. We lead ourselves to believe that we will be forgiven for neglecting those we love for the sake of business, but guess what? That is untrue.

The only unconditional love that exists is the love a parent has for his or her child. When my husband and I said our marriage vows, we entered into a contract. If I don’t hold up my end of the bargain by making our relationship a priority, I put our marriage in jeopardy. Our love is conditional. If I neglect my daughter, guess what? She doesn’t have to grow up loving me.

Loved ones will not always understand your absence in their lives. Your marriage could end. Your children could grow to resent you. Your friends could abandon you.

And without your friends and your family, what in the world are you even doing any of this for? Is it really worth it?

If you feel like you’re letting your business take over your life, it’s time to seriously work on getting a grip on reality because this is not a sustainable lifestyle. This starts by taking inventory of your life.

Take inventory of your life.

What is your reality right now and what has to be done today to make your life more balanced?

Maybe you need to have sex with your spouse. Or go to the movies with your friends.

Maybe you have to call your mother or dance around the living room with your child.

Make time with yourself and your family a non-negotiable part of your day.

Put some scope around what you are doing. Yes, running your business is important, but you can’t serve anyone if you run yourself into the ground.

Take care of yourself in a holistic sense: spiritually, physically, and interpersonally. Your business, yourself, and your relationships will all flourish as a result.

———————————————————————————-

Heather K. Terry