Anne-Marie Faiola is CEO and Founder of Bramble Berry Inc. as well as her “side-hustle” BestDayEver.com. Her soap business started as a hobby and high school side job and then turned into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Anne-Marie quit her job as a correctional officer at the age of 20 and returned to making soaps until she found her next “real” job. Today, Bramble Berry Inc. has years of steady growth and success. Today Anne-Marie has her retail store, a manufacturing facility, two high traffic blogs, a youtube channel, and multiple social media pages. With a love for business and the energy to keep growing, Anne-Marie has her website bestdayever.com. Best Day Ever is about meeting you where you are, designing your best life, and encouraging you along the way with classes, podcasts, blogs, books, challenges, and more. It’s about arming you with the tools to make every day better than the last.
“Success doesn’t happen overnight,” she says. “It’s a trudge of baby steps each and everyday”.
Shownotes:
[2:34] — Always been an entrepenarial person, young age bred Russian Dwarf Hamsters, starts an in-house cooking business, was a freelance piano player for a ballet studio, and then finally both making soap at age 16 and selling it at craft shows and home parties.
[4:11] — After 9months I quit my job as a corrections officer and started selling soap, which was meant to be a stop gap until I found a “real job”.
[4:28] — The Soap stuck!
[5:24] — Went back to school and got my Nutritional Therapy degree, to launch the brand Best Day Ever, Fitness and coaching brand, always got a side hustle.
[6:22] — Quit job as corrections officer- the thought process: "I quit my job to sell soap….no one in my life supported that! I was throwing away a private education." Was told, “you could do this for 3 months until you get a real job”
[7:38] — Had the hopes and optimism but didn’t have the plan, "Focused on putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the day."
[8:22] — Started her MBA, at the age of 27, to learn HR and Accounting, and PM
[9:56] — I mostly just buckled down and JUST DID IT!... I mostly had a “delusional optimism in myself and the possibilities”.
[11:03] — What looks like success takes (at least from the outside) so much longer than you think, and running the business back then and right now is little baby steps everyday, it’s a trudge, its not these giant, you summit the peak and then you can sit back….it’s the small little things you do. When it’s compounded over time is when it looks like success!!!!!
[12:43] — Everyday I blog at soapqueen.com and I have soap queen tv on youtube….and best day ever was from my experience of working with small business owners and listening to where they’re struggling, its not the struggle of making soap its the struggle of “ok I’ve got my business but I’m tired all the time, and is that all there is, and I‘ve gained 15 pounds and things aren’t going well for me at home but I have my business and side hustle but I’m not happy”
[13:51] — You need the base of health and wellness to keep the hustle. Which is where Best Day Ever comes from, it’s a network to draw from for support with health challenges, daily emails, tech related things to help keep you on your goals, and the blog at best day ever.
[15:00] — soupqueen.com practical posts, everyday
[16:02] — Everyone’s life is different, my life isn’t the model to follow. But in terms of discipline and willpower I:
A. I say no to a lot
B. "Habit based life-style instead of relying on willpower, my evenings and mornings are structured the same….There is no ambiguity for me…the less decisions you have to make about little things allows you to make big decisions and make them well!And it doesn’t deplete your willpower."
C. Control media in-take, read a lot-info junkie but I don’t watch tv, I don’t want to live in someone else’s life.
Excited About
[20:22] — Fired up: The stuff we do as a family 😃 Since having children my business has grown 3 or 4 times in size. Only focus of the important things…which mean’t delegating more….that’s when I allowed everyone else genius to come into play and propel Brambleberry to the next level.
[21:33] — Having a family increases and enhances my business life, it doesn’t take away from it
Practical questions people ask before on boarding
[23:21] — You still need the discipline pre-built.
[25:00] — 4hour work week by tim farris but he provides tips for outsourcing and getting more done by delegating more.
Where to start in the habit based life style:
[25:49] — Comes after you know where you want to go, from where you want your business to go and where you want your life to go. Comes after the 1 year goal, then the quarter, then the month. So you first have to know where you want to go before you know what you need to get there.
Recommendations:
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
Success Principles by Jack Canfield
Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle Laporte
Podcasts:
Connect:
@brambleberry
@yourbestday365
Launching Out:
[32:21] -- “Having an idea and taking baby steps every single day towards that idea. It is not a big movement it’s the small incremental amount of movement every single day. and keeping that on, so it’s not so much about launching as it is about trudging, every single day."
3 Key take-aways
- You need the base of health and wellness to keep the hustle, living a habit based life-style instead of relying on willpower,
- What looks like success takes so much longer than you think, running a business is little baby steps everyday, it’s a trudge….it’s the small little things you do,
- Only focus of the important things…which means you'll delegate more….allowing everyone else's genius to come into play; taking your business to the next level.