353: Jeni Britton Bauer - How To Create A 'Craveable' Reason To Return

Jeni Britton Bauer is an American ice cream maker and entrepreneur. Jeni opened her first ice cream shop, Scream, in 1996, then founded Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in 2002. Her first cookbook, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and won a coveted James Beard Award in 2012. Jeni is a 2017 Henry Crown Fellow and has been recognized by Fast Company as "one of the most creative companies in the world."

Notes:

Leaders who sustain excellence =
- "The main thing is you show up every day. You show up and lead by example. You have to be IN IT daily."
- That develops trusts. Trusts leads to it the rest...
Jeni is a subject matter expert on the topics that matter to her: ice cream, leadership, curiosity, creativity...
"It’s not a genius idea then lots of funding, then success. It’s really more subtle than that. Blazing a slow path through a tangled jungle, learning as you go over many years. It takes time."
"I find my discipline when I find my passion. And that passion starts with curiosity. And finding the place of what I want to do is needed in the world."
How to know what your passion is?
- "There's a cross road of what you want to explore and what other people want." -- "That's entrepreneurial thinking. It's about community and creativity."
"We don't know what's possible... You've got to be out exploring and be open to new ideas."
Create time for yourself and your team to follow your curiosity...
Entrepreneurship is about a 2 way communication with customers.
One pint of ice cream tested positive for listeria but there was never an outbreak. -- They recalled 6 months worth of ice cream, destroying 535,000 pounds (or 265 tons) of ice cream, costing the company more than $2.5 million! It almost put them out of business.
“You want to say you've got talent, hustle, and guts. You want to tell that to the world, but you don't really know until you prove it."
"If we create a community, everything falls into place. Put your values front and center and merge with the community. When the community sees your business as vital, they will help you when times are tough."
“There’s nothing more important whether in the financial industry or ice cream, than trust.”
"Create a craveable reason to return" - Why would a customer come back to you? Why would someone follow you? What are you doing as a leader that makes someone want to follow you?