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Turning Passion into Business: Teresa Davis's Journey Running West 40 Market
Ever wondered how it would be to leave a steady corporate job and plunge headfirst into the entrepreneurial world? That's exactly what Teresa Davis did, and she's here to share her exhilarating journey with us. From maneuvering the challenging world of entrepreneurship to successfully running West 40 Market in Ankeny, Iowa, Teresa's story is a testament to passion and perseverance. She specializes in selling locally raised cuts of beef, pork, chicken, bison, lamb, and turkey, proving that you can indeed turn your love for supporting local farms into a thriving business.
Teresa's unique story is not just about launching a meat market; it’s also about the importance of networking, building connections, and standing out from the competition. Delight in the inspiring tale of how her parents bought a grocery store to save it in their small town of Green Iowa, and how Teresa has harnessed the power of social media and online sales to reach customers far and wide. Find out how she transitioned her operations in response to the pandemic and managed to grow her business amidst the crisis.
In the world of entrepreneurship, balancing work and family life is a tightrope walk. Listen in as Teresa shares how her three-year-old daughter has taught her to slow down, and the systems and automations she uses to stay on track. Discover how she navigated the challenges of managing her company without prior experience in accounting and HR, and how she’s learned to buy time by reaching out to experts. Lastly, hear about Teresa’s innovative strategies, from leveraging technology to outsourcing and delegating tasks, that maximize her time and make the most of her business. An episode teeming with insights, this is one you don't want to miss.
Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead
Ever wondered how it would be to leave a steady corporate job and plunge headfirst into the entrepreneurial world? That's exactly what Teresa Davis did, and she's here to share her exhilarating journey with us. From maneuvering the challenging world of entrepreneurship to successfully running West 40 Market in Ankeny, Iowa, Teresa's story is a testament to passion and perseverance. She specializes in selling locally raised cuts of beef, pork, chicken, bison, lamb, and turkey, proving that you can indeed turn your love for supporting local farms into a thriving business.
Teresa's unique story is not just about launching a meat market; it’s also about the importance of networking, building connections, and standing out from the competition. Delight in the inspiring tale of how her parents bought a grocery store to save it in their small town of Green Iowa, and how Teresa has harnessed the power of social media and online sales to reach customers far and wide. Find out how she transitioned her operations in response to the pandemic and managed to grow her business amidst the crisis.
In the world of entrepreneurship, balancing work and family life is a tightrope walk. Listen in as Teresa shares how her three-year-old daughter has taught her to slow down, and the systems and automations she uses to stay on track. Discover how she navigated the challenges of managing her company without prior experience in accounting and HR, and how she’s learned to buy time by reaching out to experts. Lastly, hear about Teresa’s innovative strategies, from leveraging technology to outsourcing and delegating tasks, that maximize her time and make the most of her business. An episode teeming with insights, this is one you don't want to miss.
Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the Buy Time Podcast, where we discuss everything there is to know about buying back your time. Be sure to like and follow and share with somebody who needs to buy back their time. Enjoy today's episode. Today's episode is brought to you by MobileSpot, located in Clive, iowa, a technology company offering more than just repairs certified pre-owned devices and more. You're all in IT guys can help you out MobileSpot. Enjoy today's episode. Welcome back to another episode of the Buy Time Podcast. My name is Jacob K Mead and I'm excited today because we have a special guest Teresa Davis. She owns West 40 Market in Ankeny, iowa. And, teresa, why don't you start with telling us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Sure, so I'm a mother to a wonderful three-year-old. First and foremost, it keeps me on my toes.
Speaker 1:Yes, it does.
Speaker 2:It does it does. Yeah, I have a history in working in corporate and so this was not where I wanted to go or where I intended to go. But I started the business about two years ago and run that out of Ankeny. I keep busy between that and obviously raising a kid, and so between those two things that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:Splitting a lot of time between personal life running, being a mom to kids and also running a business. And so what does your business do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we are actually all Iowa first and foremost. So we specifically have cuts of beef, pork, chicken, bison, lamb, turkey all raised on Iowa farms from start to finish. We support between five and seven Iowa farmers, depending on the time of year, and so we sell all of those individual cuts that people can come in and get. We also have about a dozen Iowa businesses that we support as well.
Speaker 1:So it's like fresh cuts too.
Speaker 2:No well, no fresh cuts. So we aren't an actual butcher shop. We don't have a fresh butcher counter. The way that we approach it is that we take everything to the locker about every two weeks. Everything's cut specific to what we have in the store. They double wrap it, it's packaged, we bring it back and we stock the shelves. So it's actually all frozen, other than, like the beef sticks, jerky, we have some grab-and-go stuff like that but it's all frozen so that people can plan ahead for meals. We also do like a lot of bulk sales. So if people want to have you know filled or freezer full, or want to buy a big bundle of meat or something like that to kind of stock up, they can do that and then basically shop from their freezer.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's important, especially if you have kids. You can go to the freezer grab what you need. My wife's always guilty of not putting the meat out the night before, so we're always like oh man, we forgot to do this. So no, that's awesome. So you own West 40 market. How long have you had it? For Two years, so we just recently celebrated our two-year anniversary. Congratulations. You've accomplished it, by the way. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two feet, that's what everybody said. They're like, wow, you're still around, like, yes, I am, I am. So, yeah, two years in, I spent about three to four months kind of renovating the place. So I've been into it for about two and a half years or so.
Speaker 1:Renovation process is sometimes awesome to see where it started and where it's at now and remember hey it used to be this way, and now we're here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a gunshot before I moved in there Really, oh my goodness. And I mean really great people that owned it, but just atrocious like carpet and orange and red balls Not up top very well.
Speaker 1:So you're like do we have to redo all of this?
Speaker 2:No, yeah, yeah, so did some work in there.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. So what got you started? What was the big spark and the idea to go about opening up West Vortie Market?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, so the meat, specifically the beef and the chicken, come from my parents' farm. So my mom and my dad moved my brother and I out to a farm when we were teenagers. So I didn't grow up on a farm, but I spent the latter part of my teenage years living on the farm and we had cows and so it kind of was just a hobby farm.
Speaker 1:You're a farm girl.
Speaker 2:You could call me a farm girl. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I lived on a farm, yes, but it was kind of basically a hobby of my dad's and we would butcher beef to basically just feed ourselves and we'd give it to people in the community, things like that. So it kind of started to grow from there when people started to ask for you know, can I get a quarter of beef or can I get individual cuts? So kind of fast forward. Then I graduated, moved down to Des Moines after college, fashion, design and merchandising so I mean I literally had no, this is, this is as far left, as right as I could have gone.
Speaker 2:So yeah. But got down with college, moved down to the Des Moines area and at the time my parents were really interested in kind of selling individual cuts and I said, well, there's nothing around here like that. Unless you know a farmer, there's nowhere to go in the Des Moines area at least at the time to where you can really get, like you can walk into a brick and mortar and get access to Iowa raised all Iowa raised meats and know exactly what farms they came from. So we started off at the Des Moines Farmers Market. It's kind of how we started to getting into it and I thought you know, let's just see if there's a market for this. Obviously there's other.
Speaker 2:There were other vendors there doing the same thing, but I did that for four seasons before COVID and kind of built a customer base there and loved it. So it was a full time vendor at the farmers market. Covid hit basically just kind of sold it out of my house. I, you know, would take calls from people like regulars being like can I meet you in the parking lot for 10 pounds a gram?
Speaker 1:I mean legit your meat seller in the parking lot. This is exactly how it went down, showed up in the brown bag. I love it. That's exactly how it went down.
Speaker 2:I was just joking to people. I'll meet you in the parking lot, you know, or I'll meet you in a dark alley somewhere, and it's. People laugh. I'm like, no, really, this is what I, this is what.
Speaker 1:I did. I'll say the product yeah.
Speaker 2:But whatever I, you know, in my head I thought, gosh, there's, there's. Just I just felt like there was a really good market for it and so for me that was kind of trying to build that clientele. I worked a full time corporate job at the time, which I assumed that that was going to be my career. Never in a million years did I think I was going to actually open up a brick and mortar, but I kept kind of having this drive, maybe, or this something that was telling me there's something here Like I feel like there's, there's, there's a place for this to go. And so fast forward then to during COVID. I was out on maternity leave and obviously was everybody was, you know, at home, and I got the call and I got laid off for my job. So, yeah, for the second time, but that's a different story for a different day. No-transcript, you know, I honestly I thought this has got to be my kick, like somebody's kicking, giving me the push so direction.
Speaker 1:Don't do what you want to do. Yeah, I always want to the opportunity. I have the opportunity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I honestly don't know if I would have ever done it on my own. I don't know if I would have had been brave enough to quit a very good full-time job, Benefits, everything just had a new baby and people think I'm nuts, right and yeah. So I was like you know what I'm gonna do it and I started. I got the LLC going and scouted out some locations, you know where I wanted to kind of put my store, and Kind of went from there.
Speaker 1:So I love that and I can think back when I was first starting my business and kind of the struggles that I was going through and I like to say it's a roller coaster of emotions. What one day you think you have it and then the next day you think that you're you're failing and it's just constantly up and down, so talk to me about how you overcame those roller coaster of emotions.
Speaker 1:Did you have a support group or or who was there to kind of help you through those tough days? It said like Teresa, you, you can do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So first of all, I have I still have yet to overcome them. I don't really think you've ever do. No, you never do.
Speaker 1:It's like the coasters are as steep, it's like somewhat more down, but yes, it's something never overcome. Yeah, what kind of group did you have in place to kind of help you through that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean fantastic family and friends, first of all, people that believe in you and continue to Kind of clap for you, give you ideas, whatever it may be. People that also don't let you just give up and walk away right. People that are gonna remind you like?
Speaker 2:yes and people are gonna remind you and say, hey, remember that one time about six months ago when you were feeling kind of the same way, and then look what happened. Right, you came back from that. So I think it's important to have those kind of people. I also really tapped into a lot of small business, other small business owners. I started to kind of get out there and network and go to events or whatever it might have been, and ask around and say, okay, you've owned a business, and it was obviously no business, anything like mine, but still you're a business owner, right, and so we.
Speaker 2:Can I throw ideas out at him or be like do you think this is crazy? Or like, how do I find, how do I even find, a Place to brick and mortar, to put my store? Or do you think this price sounds pretty fair? You know, for rent, I mean who I had never rented a property, I didn't know so. So even things like that of just you know somebody that that can offer you advice, maybe somebody that's been there, I can kind of say it's gonna get better. Or yeah, these are really hard decisions, but just make it and go with it and you can always, you know, maybe just give you some encouragement those connections.
Speaker 1:You can always make a big difference to have a connection and be around other people. We've done the same thing and that way they can help you through it. They know what you're going through. You know I understand that roller coaster of emotions. It's tough. Yeah, you think what many you got this and the next many you don't yet.
Speaker 1:I still go through that myself. You know I I'm huge in the sales and I've been in the sales almost my entire life, and so when I see that we're having a low sales day, it's it's struggling, it's that's me feeling like maybe we don't got this. And then the next day, you know, we triple double our sales and so it's amazing to actually hear that story. So you, your mom and dad were they entrepreneurs, or what did they do?
Speaker 2:No, my dad's a medical doctor. Yeah, he was a medical doctor. So when I say our farm was a hobby, it truly was a hobby. Like we had, like you know, a couple random pigs, a couple horses, some cows, like we were like whatever this is, you know, and this is great, and it just morphed into what it is now. I called it a happy accident is kind of how I always looked at it. But, yeah, so my dad is a doctor, medical doctor. My mom Spent the better part of my childhood raising myself and my brother, and then she worked at my dad's office. She now so. About three years ago, my parents bought the local grocery store in our small town, our hometown and by small I mean about a thousand people on a good day Wow yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so small town, iowa, but they they bought the grocery store to save it.
Speaker 1:We're at what.
Speaker 2:Green Iowa.
Speaker 2:Green Iowa so where exactly is that Green is? If you're familiar with the Mason City-ish Charles City area, it's like southeast of there, okay, so like directly straight east of Sheffield if you're familiar with that Cool, so tiny little town. So they bought the grocery store there about three years ago, basically just to save it. Nobody else wanted it. They were going to shut it down and it would have been a pretty big hit for the community and so they bought it. They put our meat in there. They sell our meat there. They still own it. So that's what my mom does now. She runs that full time.
Speaker 1:So they kind of had the opportunity and they just took it and they didn't know where it was going to go until they started.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not, no, no, and that's the kind of people they are Like. They've always been heavily involved in the community, volunteering just a lot, just doing whatever they could to keep the community going and thriving, and so that's yeah, that's what they did.
Speaker 1:That is so cool. So now you have your own store, West Forty Market, and it's in Ankeny. So where at Ankeny is it located?
Speaker 2:It's in Uptown Ankeny, uptown Ankeny Okay.
Speaker 1:So you guys open seven days a week, or what are your hours like there?
Speaker 2:Yep, so we're Monday through Saturday, so Monday through Friday 10 to five and then Saturday 10 to two, and we're also at the Ankeny Farmers Market, so you can find us there too. That's awesome, so you still have the Farmers Market.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the Farmers Market and that there's other people that do the same thing that you do. So what's something that you are doing in your business that kind of set you apart from all your competitors? Obviously, all Iowa grown but what's something else that maybe you were doing differently than anyone else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I do a lot of bundles, I do a ton of social media and I find that oh, it's so powerful.
Speaker 2:It is really powerful, and I find that a lot of farmers your traditional farmers, a lot of them don't use social media a lot, and so I think that maybe that's something that does set me apart just a little bit is that I've got a pretty big outreach from a social media standpoint. We ship nationwide, so you can go on our online store and even buy everything that we have in our store.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so cool, so you don't even need to live in Des Moines or live in Iowa or Ankeny. You can get it anywhere. Yep yeah.
Speaker 2:So we ship nationwide, and so I think that part of it too sets me apart a little bit with just having that capability of just you can know your farmer and get access to this, no matter where you live, and so I think that piece of it is big. But honestly, I tell people a lot that there's plenty of mouths to feed too. So we're all kind of in it. We're all raising the animals, we're all trying to do what we think is best in this scenario, and really I don't look at it as competition by any means.
Speaker 1:You're all a big group. We're all there to help each other and help each other along the way, because there's plenty out there for everybody.
Speaker 2:There's plenty of mouths to feed. And if the farmers don't survive, none of us, you know we're not going to be able to do it just by ourselves. That's so important. It's going to take all of us to go at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so important in business is to learn that sometimes your competition isn't your worst enemy.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:It can be. You know, if you look at it like that, you're going to go down a very dark trail. It's like your competition is there to also help you and it's helped you to, you know, branch out, it's helped you to grow. So so you, you're on Westporty Market and you mentioned that you're open six days a week, right? So what's staffing like for you? How do you staff? Are you there all the time, or what's kind of that look like for you?
Speaker 2:I'm kind of there all the time. So hey, you're just starting out, You're two years in, so I get it.
Speaker 1:I've been there, done that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm there less than what I was a year ago.
Speaker 1:So I feel like we're making progress.
Speaker 2:But you're.
Speaker 2:The timing of this is kind of interesting because my goal for 2023 was to really dive into um, to balance of time, of getting more working on the business versus in the business, um, and that was that was a huge goal of mine and so far so good.
Speaker 2:So I found somebody really great, a rock star that works at the store for me, um, about 10 to 15 hours a week and she does most of the farmers markets as well. Um, but I was, I was, it was just a happen, chance. She bought some food one time there and we happened to be talking and she was looking for a gig and she's got an agricultural background, so it was kind of just this perfect blend. But, um, so I got her in the store so that I can kind of do behind the scenes things, um, and try to kind of figure out what that balance looks like and continue to move, move the store forward, kind of evolve and all of that, because otherwise, if I'm there working all day, every day, I can't, I don't have a chance to do some of that stuff that's going to continue to move me forward and actually grow the business.
Speaker 1:Working on your business versus working on your business it's so important I actually teach it in a lot of my workshops that I do is how you go about buying more time, and that starts with staffing, and it also starts with understanding your value and kind of what you provide. So you know what it's going to take to replace you and, um, it's so important to have someone there that you can trust and that you can lean on. Yes, talk about how you felt the first time you let her be there and run the run the show without you being there.
Speaker 2:I mean, I get anxiety all the time. It's still, it is in it and it's almost almost feeling like guilt, to be like overcoming that guilt and that's something I teach in my workshops, like overcoming to go.
Speaker 1:People are like what guilt I'm like. You have that feeling and it's like the pit of I should be there, I should be there, and but it's so awesome that you've already done this and you're less than three years in and you're already learning this at such an early aspect in your business and it's really going to help you grow.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's going to help your staff grow too, and so you're.
Speaker 2:you have one employee right now One that works mostly hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I have. I have another girl that does a lot of my locker runs, so, like behind the scenes things cause usually those are entire day events, um, and so she'll do a lot of the behind the scenes locker runs and, hey, you can get your time back from having to do that.
Speaker 1:You know, buy your time back there and that we have time to work on something.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That that's so important, yeah, Learning it so quickly it's, it's, it's awesome to see. And so you, you can basically step out of your business. You can let it kind of run on your two years in. What's your future look like with your business? Like, where are you wanting to take this?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I ask myself that a lot. Um, you know, I would love, I'd love to open up more locations. Um, I, I. Ultimately, my big dream is I want to build my own locker. Um, that's not really feasible right now. I try to kind of go down that path or start that. Start going down that path.
Speaker 1:Challenges. It seems like my gosh, and I mean from a money standpoint.
Speaker 2:Yes, you're talking millions of dollars and, um, just a lot of. There's just a lot that goes into that. And so I thought, you know if I'm, if I'm going to grow my business, I've got fantastic butchers. We use a couple of local lockers in Iowa that do the bulk of our processing for us and, like, let them be experts in what they do, Um, and work to be a good partner with them and grow maybe the actual just retail front for right now, and so, um, I would love to continue to grow that way and actually expand and have multiple West 40 locations um support more farmers. So I look at what I do as an outlet for local businesses and farmers 12 months out of the year, right, A lot of them use farmers markets and, um, that's only just a small fraction of the time, and so I wanted to give them visibility and outlet. And so I look at it and say, if I open up more locations, that's more farmers that I can help to support and move their, move their product um a lot more for them.
Speaker 1:Supporting one another, helping other businesses and farmers. That's so important. You know, people sometimes forget that where this food comes from. They go to the grocery store and they just take it off the shelves, but comes from our farmers and that's so, so important. And so you, you know we talked a little bit about your, your staffing, and I like to dive a little bit deeper into business struggles and some struggles that you might have, not necessarily every day, but what are some obstacles that you've been able to overcome as a business owner Cause we've all been there and what's some obstacles that you might have overcome?
Speaker 2:Um, you know, honestly, for me, the my biggest obstacle is probably my personal versus my professional. So I there's just a lot going on in your personal life and that can impact my business so much I can.
Speaker 2:And I'm one of those that, um, I mean I'll throw it out there. I'm one of those that, just like freezes, you know, if I get overwhelmed in my personal life, I just I. It's almost like there's so much that's happening up here that I don't know which direction to go. Yeah, and I don't know how to start Um, so I can have like a laundry list of things to do and I just don't even know where to begin Um, because it kind of almost kind of like paralyzes me, and so I think that's been a big work. Life balance has been a big thing, um, which is also like having somebody in the store working for me. There are times where I step away and go do a podcast, which is something super fun that I really enjoy doing. Or like I'll go get my I mean simple, like I'll go get my hair done. Or, you know, I'll go eat lunch.
Speaker 1:You're strengthening your staff while you're doing that too.
Speaker 2:Cause they they know that they can run it without you being there, but you're probably still anxious like is that call going to come through?
Speaker 1:or what's going to happen here? Right, yeah, right here.
Speaker 2:But I think that that's been really important for me, and by doing that and kind of stepping away just a little bit, giving myself time to kind of clear my head, I'm so much better in my business, I can make better decisions, I can think more creatively. Um, and so I think for me, like that's been, I mean, on top of just learning, you know HR and accounting and all the other things that go into it- All the million hats you have to wear.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's mine, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I really think that that that balance is so tricky and, quite honestly, like I'm, I'm grateful for my child, especially being three years old, as challenging as it is, because if I didn't have her, I know I'd be there 24-7 and that's not healthy, you know 100% and I was in there.
Speaker 1:I was in that predicament Before I had my kids. I was at my business constantly and spending a lot of time in my business, and not that I regret that. But I realized now how much time I spent in there and when I had kids, something went off and a light came on that said I need to change this.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna be at work all the time, 24-7, like you said, and I could be. I'm that kind of guy that could. I love working, I see my results and it's important to know that. And the funny thing about kids is they teach you a lot. So I was just saying a couple days ago, like my three-year-old, she accidentally fell down steps because we were out hiking. And she accidentally fell down steps and she looked at me and said it's okay as long as you get back up. And I loved hearing that from her because it's something I've been telling her. Like in my business I struggle and sometimes I feel like I'm failing and I get knocked down and I tell her don't forget, if you get knocked down, get back up. Can you relate like? Is there any stories you can think of?
Speaker 1:maybe with your daughter what she's done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me personally, she forces me to slow down. She forces me to step away from it and yeah, she's the same way. Our kids are probably getting along really well. She'll fall down and stand back up and she'll look back and she'll be like it's okay, I'm okay, mom.
Speaker 1:I'm like okay okay.
Speaker 2:But I think a lot of that translates and you can probably relate it translates to my business right, where it's a don't panic, it's okay, and so I think I take a lot of that from her and just the importance of stepping away and just having moments right, of not being so ingrained in what I'm doing or like everyone. I mean I catch myself on my phone when I'm with her right, and she'll be like hey, mom, come play with me. It's like you're right, I need to put my phone down.
Speaker 1:I need to step away from this. It's almost hard to because I need to send this email.
Speaker 2:I need to check in with the tour, just need to do this one more thing, but that just turns into 16, 20 minutes. Yes, like you're looking at where the time go.
Speaker 1:It's so important that you're okay. I'm trying to get better at that myself. And when my daughter comes up to me and is like dad, play with me, and I'm like just a minute, I stop, put my phone down, I say, what can I do, honey? How do you? What do you want me to do? And it's so hard. And it's so rewarding to be able to see that our kids long for our attention. They want to spend time with us. And it means that you're doing a great job. So, great mothering right there.
Speaker 2:So I try, and it forces me to also be better with my time during the day when I am at the store.
Speaker 1:Oh, it does.
Speaker 2:So there's days where I'm a single parent to her and so there's days where you know I have to leave at exact time a certain time to go get her. Like I don't have someone to kind of fall back on for that, and so those days are very it's. I know when I get to the store at eight o'clock in the morning after I drop the crop, you have a list of tasks that need to get done.
Speaker 1:It's like start knocking those off because I need to get them done. That's the biggest things I teach in some of my business. Coaching is a lot of people will have this long list of tasks and they don't know how to accomplish them all. They say at the end of the day well, I didn't get. I didn't get none of this done, and normally it comes to down to distractions or it comes down to not knowing how to implement a particular task or system to be able to get those tasks done.
Speaker 1:So, do you have systems and automations in place in your business? Do you have anything that kind of helps you get things done that you say you're going to get done?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a alarm clock on the wall that I set time and I'd be like all right, 20 minutes. Do not touch your phone, do not do all these other things so powerful, because our phones are just a distraction you pick it up on just going to send an email and then you find yourself on Instagram, TikTok. You're like what's?
Speaker 1:going on. It's because your mind's just into the go there, yes, so I honestly do.
Speaker 2:I will sometimes set myself time and I'll just take two tasks so I get rid of my long list and I'll say OK, there's two things on here that I absolutely have to get done in the next 30 minutes. And I'll break it down that way, because long lists yes, I have long lists. But that also paralyzes me and overwhelms me. So especially when you get thrown off from that long list and then you're like, to your point, I didn't get anything done today, you feel just so defeated where, if I just take OK, two things, that's all you got to do in the morning, boom, done, right, and then I can start moving on. But then it's like I feel accomplished because that short little list that I really absolutely had to get done is done. And then I start to kind of check in everything else Do some of the most important things that you need done right away.
Speaker 1:Something I did and my wife has actually been really good at helping me accountable to this is I sometimes will go in the day and I have a list of things I want to get done and something that comes up that absolutely needs my attention. I have to handle that and then at the end of the day I look at my list and maybe there's only one thing on there that I got done. I go to her and I tell her I'm feeling defeated, I didn't get this done. She goes well, what else did you do? Put everything else that you did today on that list. And I do that. And then she's like now, check, mark them off. And then you start check marking them off and you can see that, wow, I actually did accomplish something.
Speaker 1:So I always like to try and get done what I have to, but there's going to be times something comes up, especially with kids. That can be hard. Sometimes you never know what can happen. You always want to be there for your kids and that's awesome that you are there always and learning that at such an early aspect in your business. So we talked about your staffing, we talked a little bit about your obstacles, but what would you say some of your biggest struggles are right now in the business. Is there anything that you can think of that comes to the top of your head, that you're struggling with in your business.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I would say struggle. I think it's just still figuring it out, still learning.
Speaker 1:We're always learning, always learning, always learning.
Speaker 2:For me, a lot of I'm not an accountant, I'm not HR. This isn't the background that I have, and so some of that is challenging for me because it takes me longer to grasp it. I don't always I have to reach out to, maybe multiple people, or I have to pay for resources, which I hate. I'm like oh, why don't you know accounting, teresa? Come on, you have to pay somebody to do this.
Speaker 1:Hey, you're an expert in your field. You're an expert in what you do, and sometimes it's OK to reach out to someone else that's an expert in another field. There's another way that you're buying time. You're buying someone else's time to be able to do something that you're not an expert in, so it's good that you're doing that.
Speaker 2:So I think that those are probably just kind of almost everyday struggles. Those are always kind of there For me right now. It's what's next? It's how do I grow and I know I'm just two years in, and so I'm not talking like how do I open up 14 shops tomorrow it's just how do I continue to progressively grow and keep up with demand as my business grows. It's a how do I pivot just a little bit, or which direction do I go and making those decisions? There's gonna come a point in time where just my parents beef Aren't going to be able to keep us up. Yeah, they can't supply me with enough beef to keep up with With where I intend to go in the next year if we continue on the pace that we're on, and so that's a okay. So how, what does?
Speaker 1:that? Where do we go? Where do we go for this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can't just come up with you know more cattle overnight either. So it's yeah, it's a. How do I then source from other farmers? But also be careful, because the quality is, it's so important and the people the reason why people come back is because of the quality and because they know where it's coming from. And so it's like you know you have to, you have to scale, but at like little, tiny increments of like I don't know it's hard, it's kind of hard to explain, but it's a. I can't just come up with one farm that can supply me with everything and I know everything's gonna be perfect every time.
Speaker 1:You don't want to scale too quickly, where it just collapses everything. Yeah make sure you have the structure systems in place. Absolutely. That's awesome that you're sharing that and it's great that you understand that growth is important and everything that you want to do to get there and that's. It's so cool to be able to talk to somebody. It's two years in and has this great mindset you know mom and having kids and being able to split your time between work and personal life as you said that is.
Speaker 1:That is one of the hardest things you can possibly do is is make sure that you're there for your kids, but make sure that you're growing your business and so your employees that that's there today rely a lot on sales. Did you teach him any sales processes? Is that something that you, that you're familiarized with, or is it just more? Hey, this is what we need to sell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she, fortunately, the girl that works in the store a lot, does have a little bit of a sales background, so she's at least able to, like you know, communicate with people and it's very natural, and so that I honestly I think that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:That's so important the natural communication. Yes and actually generally willing to help someone get the best deal or actually get the best product.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So you know, I think that she's she's great at that. You know, the one thing that I've that I've really been focusing on is how can I, how can, how can I give her more Responsibility, how can I get her more invested in the business by feeling like she has a role, like she plays an important role. It's not just standing at a counter and ringing people up when they come in, and so there's there's things that we have on our list and she's, you know, texting me earlier saying I put these New Father's Day bundles together for the weekend. You know, what do you think of these? And so I've kind of got her working on some of that kind of working for me and keeping things moving forward while I'm away doing other things. So I think that that's important. So you know, but yeah, you're general so something's getting done while you're.
Speaker 1:It's so cool is watch to be able to put things together. Yes father-day packages that's, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And she feels invested and that to me, you know, in my my I managed people in corporate for for years and so I always felt like if they, if they feel like there were something like they're invested in it, you give them responsibilities, you empower them with these things, they're they're gonna work even harder for you and they're gonna want more for you and your success. They're gonna be part of that right. And so I think that that's really important for for me and and Kelly working at the store is how do I empower her to make her feel like Her opinion matters and her feedback matters and she's helping me grow that like together, she and I are growing the business right and I want to keep her around, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds like Kelly's a great employee. It sounds like she knows what she's doing.
Speaker 2:Yes, she loves her job.
Speaker 1:I mean just hearing that she's, you know, texting you and ideas and coming up with things for the store and for the business sounds like she really wants to grow with you. Yes, and that's that's super important to have someone, yeah, be able to do that, yeah. So, yeah, we talked a little bit about your struggles and in staffing, and so if somebody wanted to know a little bit more about you, a little bit more information, how could they get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was gonna say me personally, or me, me professionally. Let's either way.
Speaker 1:I let's say they love your business advice. How could they hear about you or what's your business Instagram?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, so we've got obviously social media, instagram, facebook or West 40 market all spelled out, all one word, so you guys can find us there. I love when people message me. I do the same thing if I relate and kind of connect with somebody on social media, no matter where they live, like I'll message them and be like I love your content or can you give me some advice on this thing, you know, or something like that the connections are so powerful.
Speaker 1:Absolutely one little connection you might not think goes goes anywhere in a year later that person's messaging you back. Yes, I'm experiencing that myself and I have people that message me and I've never even heard of and they're saying hey, thank you so much for this inspirational video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where did that come from?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's it's amazing to see how powerful social media is yeah so are you on your on tiktok or? I try tiktok so you're trying it, then that's what matters. You guys try things you don't necessarily know how to do, especially in business.
Speaker 2:It's true, I have a 16 year old, a friend of mine's daughter that comes in and works just a couple hours every week and you know she watches my daughter doing the tiktok dance, and she does. I'm like okay, here's my phone, teach me how to tiktok I'm not good at it.
Speaker 1:I am. I'm like, what am I doing? This right? What button do?
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, what's wrong. Do I add how do I dance? No idea. So that's amazing.
Speaker 1:At least you at least you know, hey, I. This is an area I need to focus on, and you're on Instagram, facebook, facebook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we have a pretty big audience on both of those and again. So we've got our website that people shop from you can. You can order on there to pick up in store, or we ship, like I said, nationwide. But yeah, I mean you can connect with us at any point in time on either one of those platforms, or email us or stop into the store, whatever so that's so awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you coming on the podcast and yeah, about yourself and sharing about your business and your struggles and how you've overcome it, most importantly, like how you've gotten to a point where you're able to buy some of your time back, and that's being able to step away and work on your business versus working in it. And you're two years in and you've already gone to this point, and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you should feel accomplished there. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1:This is another episode of the buy time podcast with Teresa Davis, the owner of West 40 market. If you need any help business related or you're wanting to buy your time back, check out buy time podcast calm. We have more episodes with other great guests and if you just want to work with me personally, jacob K me calm, click on the link apply. We'll be happy to connect until next time. Thanks for listening to today's episode. My name is Jacob K Mead and until next time.