Written By: Karoline Comiskey Olsen, Feb 28th 2024
Satisfied has been operating for soon-to-be 2 years, our team has grown from one to five and I wake up feeling so grateful and happy EVERY single day.
Does that mean every day is GREAT? No. Absolutely not. The truth is that I have on average one catastrophe day per 2 weeks. Sometimes more frequent and sometimes less frequent. These days are less frequent than before which means that I am working in the right direction. If you are curious about these days, stay tuned for a post about “How I avoid BURNOUT as a marathoner, entrepreneur, and coach.”
One thing I know for certain is that I have found my thing. I have combined my business degree with my love for fitness, health, wellness, and food. This passion fuels me through all the self-doubt, all the NOs I get when pitching, the imposter syndrome I struggle with too OFTEN.
An important life lesson I have learned is to NOT JUDGE who you are. Reflect on if you are proud of that person. If you are, stand by it. If not, change things and be proud of your changes. That is what I am doing. Showing my true authentic self online despite judgment and despite “Janteloven” (“the Law of Jante”, at its simplest, describes the way that all Norwegians (and in fact, other Scandinavians too) behave: Putting society ahead of the individual, not boasting about individual accomplishments, and not being jealous of others (https://www.lifeinnorway.net/what-exactly-is-janteloven/) telling me to not promote myself and despite how I have been raised – to not be loud or public. I believe that if I want to make a difference, I need to have a loud voice.
So if you are following my entrepreneurial journey you know that I have chosen the budget route as far as financing Satisfied goes. I experienced how much time and energy went into fundraising at Joymo.tv (https://www.joymo.tv/, the start-up I worked at for 1.5 years). The leadership was exhausted and that reflected on the employees. There was pressure that I believe fostered stress instead of passion. For Satisfied I want PASSION to drive us, not stress. The downside with not having money is slower growth. There is the obvious drawback that competitors can come onto the market and take away our market share. This is what I am less scared of. First of all, Satisfied has a very unique product that is surprisingly hard to replicate. Yes, our ingredients are out there, but the exact formula took me 5 years to develop. The freezing element makes it expensive to ship and that means the barrier to entry is hard which will discourage competitors. How are we preventing competitors from entering our market? Building a STRONG brand! Brand is everything in CPG as far as my understanding goes. I might be wrong. Time will show. My money and time are mostly going into branding. This is why I spend so much time on social media. I want to grow an audience that trusts ME and what I stand for. Then trust Satisfied as Satisfied is my company. I am excited about starting a YouTube channel where I can show more of myself and what I stand for. How I think about running, nutrition, and life in general. My YouTube channel is already up and running, you can follow it here.
The biggest drawback with choosing the budget route is the financial stress I am causing my employees. Seeing them manage school with Satisfied, having to get another job on top of Satisfied. Seeing them doubt if it will all work out. That is for sure the hardest part. Stress is something I deeply want to avoid as it is something I have suffered from for way too long. Stress drives our society to productivity, and I am so tired of that. For years I have been looked at like A GO GETTER, STRONG AND CAPABLE because I have overworked my body and use stress to get things done. Now I work very hard to not let stress drive me, rather passion and recovery. Does the latter sound strange? To give some examples, in college I would be exhausted earlier in the day which led me to not be productive and feeling like a failure. Later in the day when I finally got energy I would work out and then get a new burst of stress energy (feeling upset that I had not been productive earlier) and sit for many hours working hard. Did I get things done? YES. I even convinced myself that I was a night owl and that this was just the way I worked best. NOW, I get this “stress energy” at night and instead I take some deep breaths and add what I need to do to my to-do list and then if it's urgent and important, I add it to my to-do list for the next day. I wind down – without being productive – and go to bed early. I prioritize sleep over working. I do not act on that “fear of not getting things done tomorrow so I need to do it tonight” feeling. I trust myself to do it tomorrow and am simply prioritizing my health first. You might think, well you are your own boss so you can do that. While that is true, I will tell you that I did this while I was getting my MBA too. I do this even though I have others relying on me. I want to lead by example and trust myself to do the work early in the morning when it is urgent. I think it is all about habit building and changing your routine. At the end of the day we all have the same 24 hours in a day. It is just about how you organize them.
LEAD BY EXAMPLE is something I took away from working at my previous start-ups and from my MBA. This means I set the example for how I want my employees to act. This means Satisfied as a team sets the example of how we want others to act. The truth is that when I was working for others, I wanted to change the culture. I wanted to challenge the norm. I saw starting my own businesses with HEALTH as the number one value as the way to do so. When an employee is burnt out and I can put my stress of needing something done from him/her ASAP away, THAT is a WIN for me. I know it is not how most businesses work, but it is how I want Satisfied to work. To me, building Satisfied is about so much more than protein muffins. It is about building a community of passionate, empathetic, well-structured, intentional actions, collaborative, creative, curious, and selfless people.
Thank you for supporting us on our entrepreneurial journey <3
Stay Satisfied ☺