What I learned from the founder of Jenni's Ice Cream

I love to hear stories about how someone has taken a risk to pursue what they are most passionate about, and how their perseverance and focus on creating remarkable art leads to success.

This past week, Jenni Bauer of Jenni's Splendid Ice Cream fame came into our office and shared her story about how Jenni's became what it is today and also gave us an idea why the business has experienced such remarkable growth over the past 4 years, despite what some might call the worst economy since the Great Depression.

The following are some lessons that I learned that seem to be consistent in the stories of many successful entrepreneurs.

Consistency matters.

To promote a customer base or a following around what you are doing, you have to give people a "craveable" reason to return.

What Jenni found was that while many people were fascinated by the unique flavors that she created, many repeat customers came back for their own personal favorite. But, she couldn't always guarantee that she would have that flavor, since her flavors were created based on what was available in the market and on her inspiration of the day.

She soon realized that she could increase her customer base without releasing control of her creative freedom by creating some of the more common flavors consistently. This grew her customer base, which also provided her the cash flow so she would have the freedom to be daring and creative with her art at the same time.

Think like a person with pink hair.

Passion is fundamental in creating something that is just a little bit different from the rest. While consistency is important, placing your entire focus on creating a product that only appeals to the masses waters down your brand, stifles innovation, and leaves you feeling like there is nothing left of yourself in the business you built.

Jenni remains true to her artistry in frozen confections by having two dipping stations in her stores. One station is all about consistency, selling the signature flavors that her customers have come to recognize and love, such as Salty Carmel. Another station is all about art, creating masterpieces with unique and seasonal ingredients, to include flavors like Olive Oil with Sea-Salted Pepitas.

Alone is not sustainable or scalable.

Accounting, training, hiring, legalities, real estate, sales, marketing, purchasing, logistics, and the list goes on and on. At the end of the day, you still just need to make ice cream. Otherwise, none of that other stuff matters.

There are a ton of activities that need to happen in the course of running a business, and while your business is still in the startup phase you may be able to work on some of these things yourself and still deliver a great product. Keep in mind, when you're just getting started, many of these things are not important. However, as your business expands, you have to find people that you trust that are passionate about your mission and vision, and are passionate about doing the business stuff.

For instance, while Jenni still spends time in the business, she has a team of people that want to see the company grow and are able to handle the details so she can focus on the product. This allows her to continue to innovate and create, which ultimate leads to a product that people return for.

Cultivate "symbiotic relationships" with your partners and vendors.

Jenni has found a lot of success in making sure that her vendors and partners are successful. By creating win-win relationships, you know exactly what you are putting into your products, and you can better ensure the quality of your products is consistently where it should be.

Jenni buys all of the cream that she uses in her ice from a single Ohio dairy, Snowville Creamery. Jenni's uses the cream from this single dairy, and by helping Snowville to be successful, has helped to ensure that the cream that she depends on to make her product stand out from others will continue to be around for years to come.

It was encouraging to hear Jenni speak about her experiences in getting started, as well where the business is going. When you love what you do, and play with your art (and sometimes your food), you will make a difference and have more fun doing so!

Income from your art!

I read an article in Fast Company this morning where Rico Frances makes the observation that "gold has lost its prestige," and "When gold was the only store of value, it was sacred. In medieval art, gold was everywhere. Viewed by candlelight, it created a dazzling, spiritual effect. Today's world doesn't want to be dazzled by gold. We just want to know how much money it can be converted into."

Unfortunately, this is how many of us tend to view what we do with our art and our time. How can we sell a great idea to make a ton of money? How can we make our art appeal to the masses so we can make a living doing what we love? In other words, we water down our passion and put a price tag on it in the hopes that someone will be willing to pay for it.

Maybe, through our pursuit of profit and appealing to the masses we have lost the joy, beauty, and magic in creating? Perhaps, if we simply returned to drinking in the beauty of the world around us, and started again to create for the joy of creating, we would find that our art appeals to more people than we could have possibly imagined?

Innovation That Really Works

Some of the most remarkable and memorable products, services, and movements have started with a common strand. Accidental innovation.

When the 37Signals team started BaseCamp, they weren't working on building a project management software product that would change the way that people think about web based project management. They were starting their own design business and needed a way to manage the projects that they were working on. The problem was, the project management software that existed did way too much. So they built their own. Now, they have a company that offers many products based on the platform that was born out of their own need.

Algae Venture Systems wanted to find a new way to grow and process algae because it was too expensive. Along the way, they found out some interesting things about what they were working on and how it could solve energy problems too.

Putting a ton of effort into planning the next great product is rarely useful. It is better instead to build something that scratches an itch that you have. Maybe someone else will have a need for what you have built too. Even if they don't, at least you will have something that meets your need.

Start building something. Maybe along the way, you will discover something that changes the scope and perceived limitations of today.

Limited By Design

Many of us often try to game the system. It is what we do in order to stuff more activity into our busy lives. Unfortunately, gaming the system often doesn't yield the results we would hope for or expect.

Honestly, it doesn't matter how much we try to game the system. The truth remains that our time on earth IS limited, and not only is it limited, it is limited by design.

Limited time forces us to decisively choose and show those around us what, and sometimes more importantly, who is really most important to us. Essentially, how we choose to spend our time is the true comparison of who we say we are and the person we really are.

For instance, we can say that we love God. But, if we fail to spend time with Him, our actions don't match our talk. We can say that we love our families, but if all they ever see is an empty chair, won't they question what we say is most important? Time is limited, and sometimes we have to make tough choices about how we are going to spend it.

Which is why it means so much when someone chooses to spend their own time with us. Haven't the richest times in your life been the times filled with people that care for you enough that they spend their time with you, helping you to grow, learn, and laugh? Are they not the times when someone has comforted us in a hard time, shared in our time of success, or simply listened when we were in need of another perspective?

Even when there was no apparent gain for them, someone has invested something in you they can never get back. The truth is once you decide how you choose to spend your time, you can never get it back. It is gone, and never again can you walk in those exact seconds and minutes.

Perhaps, God ultimately wants to see how we react when faced with the finite before He allows us to swim in the depths of the infinite.

What are you really telling those around you is most important in your life?

Gaming the system...

Sometimes, it seems like there is simply not enough time.

Our lives are full of so much restless activity! Of course, there are some things we have to do. (I personally believe this list is a lot shorter than most people think it really is.) There are some things we choose to do, and then there are the things we would love to do, if only time permitted.

In an effort to get more done in less time, we try to game the system. We spend lots of time and money on fancy time management systems, go to day long seminars learning how to best put our rocks in a bucket, and spend hours crafting daily plans attempting to account for how and where we are going to spend our time down to the minute.

Few will ultimately put any of these plans into action, and of the few that do manage to start, many will abandon their plans when real life floods over them.

Some of us try to game the system in other ways. We go to bed late and get up early, seeing sleep as a mere inconvenience. Often, the sleep that we are missing out on is filled with gallons of caffeinated beverages.

I have been, and to some extent, still am both of these individuals.

What does all of this gaming cost us? An article on WebMD points out that chronic sleep deprivation results in reduced performance, alertness, quality of life, and can even lead to heart attacks and strokes!

What about the schedulers and optimizers among us? Are they ruled by the schedule, becoming frustrated, angry, and guilty when real life enters into the mix? Oh, and it does, to be sure. There is our way, and then there is God's way. We may think we can plan for everything, but we don't have His vision, therefore we cannot. Period.

Are you spending hours planning for and micro-managing life, and if so, are you putting your plan into action? Do those around you see you as energetic and creative, or do you simply look tired?

It is time to drink in the complete fullness and beauty of the life, time, community, and world we have been given!

How are you going to spend your time today?