Shelby Zitelman, inspired by her entrepreneurial family, graduated from the Wharton School with a concentration in Entrepreneurial Management and has applied this degree to all of her jobs since. As the “brains” of Soom Foods Shelby is responsible for developing the company’s strategy, managing the finances and accounting, managing the team and overseeing contractor relationships. Shelby spends her downtime exploring kid-friendly places in Philadelphia with her husband, Dan and their two sons, Malcolm and Julius. She loves drinking beer, working out and avoiding doing the laundry.
Do you know what you’re truly passionate about? Do those passions align with your values? In THIS POST, I show you how to align your passions with your values to increase your sales revenue!
Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:
- Michelle introduces Shelby.
- Shelby shares her story of attending The Wharton Business School.
- The first NO Shelby received was completely unexpected and threw her for a loop, but allowed her to explore what her real passions were.
- This NO started Shelby on her entrepreneurial path.
- Shelby shares how she overcame that NO and how she made her first sale.
- How Soom Foods’ (Shelby’s company) most devastating NO led them to bigger and better things.
- Shelby shares the pitch she and her sisters use when approaching new businesses.
- “We want to make sure that they’re not just buying a product, but that they are buying an experience.” ~ Shelby Zitelman
- Losing a bid for a company that purchases for 500,000 pounds of tahini was Soom Foods biggest blow that was actually a blessing in disguise. Shelby shares the whole story.
- Shelby recommends that when you are new to business and young, you take time to learn from the experts.
- Shelby shares the story of being able to turn away a large distributor that services a huge part of the country because the values of the two companies didn’t align.
- Soom Foods was able to turn away some of the biggest East Coast retailers who wanted them to make a tahini dip. They did this so they could just focus on their tahini.
- Shelby shares what she’d tell her younger self.
Connect with Shelby:
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P.S. If you’re ready to align your values and passions to maximize your sales success, CLICK HERE and read this post!