Wild CEO Blog – March 23, 2018

Understanding Speed And Velocity: Saying "NO" To The Non-Essential
As the CEO of a fast-growing company, there are a million things I need to do… all the time.

Training, leadership, writing, emails, designing labels (I work closely with our designer), sourcing the highest quality ingredients we can find, getting better pricing on label printing or bags, answering emails—personal and business, meetings, building relationships, sales, marketing, Instagram, Ad words, new product development, sampling, testing, and even more.

We get at least five daily emails representing business "opportunities." I tended to say "yes" more often during the company's first year than "no." Now I know better.

My intuitive response to most things today is no. That's because I learned the hard way: most things don't pan out, especially the ones that come externally.
I recently heard a quote that I like: "I never buy anything being sold to me."

This doesn't mean we always say no. We have to grow, learn and test new things out. That's part of growing any business. The balancing act is one of the hardest things you do as an individual and a company.

As a result of needing to focus even more, we've had to discontinue many Wild Foods products so we can focus on simplifying operations and doubling down on our best sellers. As much as I want to offer a premium option for nearly every food and supplement a human could ever need, that is not practical.

Since Wild Foods' goal is spreading Real Food education, we need to use the best strategy to reach as many people as possible. That strategy is doing less and doing it better. Not only does that simplify things for me, the CEO, but it also simplifies things for our crew and customers.

That allows us to spend more time improving as we grow instead of just getting more significant. This will enable us to spend more time improving our acts, sourcing, testing new blends and recipes, and building out a great retail experience with our upcoming Retail/Coffee/tea experience, the first of which is to open in Austin sometime this year.

Since we all have limited time, what can you do to eliminate the unnecessary?