Conscious Entrepreneurship: May I introduce Meg Barnhart
As a young mother, Meg Barnhart found herself struggling daily to get dinner prepared for 3 children, with the additional challenge that her middle son had a complex speech and language disorder. While sharing her sadness with her best friend, Kate, she received 3 pieces of feedback that changed her life:
1) You’re not a failure
2) Get off the phone
3) Buy a Crock Pot
Over the next 16 years that small appliance, known more generally as a slow cooker, became a vehicle for change by helping her prepare delicious, healthy, home-cooked meals at a time of day that fit her busy lifestyle. It also inspired the Zen of Slow Cooking food blog, co-created with her business partner, Jane McKay. They launched the blog in 2012 to create a community for home-cooks looking for ways to bring health and well-being to their families. Using the most popular recipes from the blog as a guide, they created a line of premium, globally inspired spice blends to make it easier to produce flavorful and interesting meals in the slow cooker.
Their blends also serve as a vehicle for employment, as they partner with a local social enterprise to provide meaningful work to adults with developmental disabilities. They are committed to conscious capitalism, and their business is both a Certified Women Owned Business and a B Corp.
CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENEURSHIP — What meaning do you give this term?
Using your unique gifts to be of service to humanity. It may sound lofty, but I really believe that if we lean into the part of ourselves where we can be of service, each of us can impact society for the greater good. In my case, my personal desire to create a business for my son led to a conversation with my dear friend, Ramaa Krishnan. I told her that I knew I was meant to create a business for Doug, as I couldn’t imagine a world where he wasn’t able to shine his light. She asked me one simple question “What makes you happy?” and “I said I’m having fun with my slow cooker!” I went on to explain how my meal-time prep served as a daily time for meditation, how I loved making healthy, globally inspired meals in the morning and enjoying the aroma that filled our home. How this little device helped me bring my family together over for the dinner hour. She said I’m not exactly sure what you mean but “do that!”
CAREER — What led you to your particular career path?
I had 2 main reasons for starting the Zen of Slow Cooking. The first was my desire to help the “time-pressed” home cook bring a little Zen into the kitchen and bring their family together over simply prepared, delicious, healthy, home-cooked meals. The 2nd reason was my passion for creating an inclusive economy, inspired by my son, Doug. I wanted to create a business that could provide meaningful employment for adults who have learning challenges.
MENTORS — We all need a little help along the journey. Who has been an invaluable mentor for you? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My mother has been my greatest inspiration in life. She was fearless, beautiful and bold. Character counted for everything, and she encouraged all of her children to lean into their fears and take risks. She taught me how to climb a tree by asking me to first describe the route I would take. I particularly remember when she gave me a book about a woman who discovered later in her career that she was an entrepreneur, and founded her own company in her late-30s. When she gave me the book it included a personal note saying, “this is who you are.”
TO THRIVE — When you see yourself thriving: Do you see yourself opening up opportunities for others along the way to participate in your success, and how?
Yes — I think when people are thriving they are living in the “flow” of life and are naturally able to help inspire people to move forward and pursue their own dreams. In our business, we’ve been able to provide a path for re-entry to the workforce for a number of women who had left their careers to raise their family. Their time with our company allowed them to refresh/re-credential their skills, while our business benefited from the tremendous experience they brought, much of it from larger and more sophisticated organizations. Some have stayed to help us build our brand, while others have gone on to use their skills to set-up their own businesses.
CAUSE — What are the causes close to your heart, and you are supporting right now? Can you share a story how you got involved? How did it make you feel?
My business partner, Jane McKay, and I have many causes that are near and dear to our hearts. A primary cause for our business is partnering with a social enterprise to provide employment for adults with developmental disabilities. We are connected to that population due to my personal passion for advocating on behalf of adults with learning challenges, which comes from my experience with my own child, and seeing that there were limited employment opportunities for that population. It feels great to know that in our small way we are helping make a difference in the world.
THE FUTURE — How do you see the face of entrepreneurship in 5 years? How do companies /brands need to adapt to secure their place in the future?
I’m optimistic that entrepreneurship will increasingly reflect a growing interest in our society for companies and brands that are more conscious and more intentional about how they behave and act, and what they help create in the world. We began our business as a consciously created company, and became a Certified B Corp in 2017. Today, we help mentor new business owners on how to create a conscious business structure in their companies. We believe this trend will continue as more consumers are interested in purchasing from and supporting businesses that positively impact society and the environment. There is also a growing interest in transparency and value based business, so additional certifications are becoming important.
ADVICE — What kind of advice would you like to give to an aspiring entrepreneur who feels limited due to their background or lack of resources?
I tell everyone that wants to start a business to ask themselves “Why”, and to take time to really tap into their intention. Once you have a clear sense of purpose, many barriers start to fall away. During our first year of business we bartered our spice blends to pay for work. We also put together a “kitchen cabinet” to offer us pro-bono advice — our first cabinet had an artist, a retail buyer, a brand marketing executive, a financial advisor and a former CEO of a successful brand. Their guidance really helped us make better strategic decisions, and at no cost! And — being open to the pivot is critical. In our case, we expanded our recipe repertoire to include pressure cooking when the Instant Pot came on the scene and over the past 10 months completely re-engineered our marketing efforts to creating a more robust presence online.
DRIVE — Do you sometimes feel bad for “wanting more out of life”, and if so, why? What is your personal motivation that leads you through the hardships of entrepreneurship?
Honestly, I don’t feel bad for wanting the most out of life. I’m super curious, and feel that life is something to celebrate and that time is our most precious commodity. As for my business, I truly believe in the African Proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
CHALLENGES — Entrepreneurship is very challenging. We each have our own coping mechanism. Mine is humor. What is yours? Can you share a story?
My #1 shift move is curiosity. Whenever I’m feeling stressed I ask myself why. When I’m facing resistance I challenge myself to open my mind to other possibilities. At one point a few years ago we were facing many challenges with a fulfillment partner — missed deadlines, poor communication, etc. We decided to call a meeting and without pointing fingers asked, “What could we be doing better as a business to create a more seamless workflow?” It led to a really interesting conversation, along with a new service level agreement that included us hiring a secondary fulfillment company to fill our larger orders.
INSPIRATION — Is there an entrepreneurial book or podcast that inspires you that you would like to share with our readers?
I used the following books to help craft our business: Let My People Go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia and one of the original leaders in the B Corp movement. Sacred Commerce, by Matthew Engelhart,, which helped us craft the foundation of our business. StrengthsFinders 2.0 by Tom Rath has helped us understand and better pair-up the strengths of our team. And finally, the Conscious Leadership Group (https://conscious.is/) has tremendous resources available online. We have also used the enneagram as a tool for my business partner, National Sales Manager and I to work more effectively together.
YOU — Is there anything you would like to share that we have not asked you here?
There are a few other pieces of advice I would offer entrepreneurs. One is to resist the impulse to “push through” every challenge. I’ve found that my greatest insights are often when I sit with a problem for a while. Another is to be enormously thoughtful in picking your partners. My single biggest plus is my business partner, Jane. We have seen numerous businesses flounder, not for lack of an interesting idea, but for lack of an effective working partnership. And finally, even when you have a great partnership, keep investing in it. We have used tools such as Strength-Finders, and the enneagram, to gain a deeper understanding of how we can work together more effectively, and we also take time to check-in with each other every day, which helps make our work truly joyful.
THANK YOU!
Follow Zen of Slow Cooking on Instagram.
Demee Koch about the MEDIUM interview series on CONSCIOUS ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
Conscious entrepreneurship for me is about building a sustainable business that values and respects the resources used and makes an effort of giving back to society.
I believe we need entrepreneurs to really get involved in the causes close to their heart.
This is why I reach out to entrepreneurs that aim for more than generating profit. With this interview, I aim to share entrepreneurial purpose-led passion to inspire others.
Looking forward to learn from you. Reach out to me via LinkedIn.
Demee ❤︎
