Launching a Better-For-You Brand with Najwa Khan
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Meet Najwa Khan
Najwa Khan is the founder and CEO of dalci, a better-for-you food brand that produces indulgent and nostalgic treats. Najwa has a background in public health and has worked in healthcare, wellness, and technology at non-profits, consulting firms, and startups. She has a Master's in Public Health from NYU and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Syracuse University.
Najwa started her journey in the food industry by accident. She was struggling to find pre-made, sophisticated, and clean treats that met her dietary needs and was inspired to start her own brand after a visit to a Whole Foods store. Najwa started by testing out recipes in her kitchen and quickly gained popularity with her first line of moist brownies and blondies.
Episode Highlights
During this episode of The Food Means Business podcast, we discuss:
How Najwa created a company around a vision for a brand in the sweet category
Where to find the education and mentorship that will help to shape and guide an entrepreneur in growing their business
How participating in a business accelerator program can help grow a business
How to overcome cultural humility and a lack of confidence in speaking about your brand
The importance of having a support system that will be there through the ups and downs of the journey
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00;00;00;15 - 00;00;24;28
Djenaba
You were listening to the Food Means Business podcast, which features the personal stories and secret ingredients behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a food business. I'm Geneva Johnson Jones, former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator Hudson Kitchen. Join our community of fellow food, business owners and subject matter experts to learn and laugh with us as we explore a startup world that's a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days.
00;00;25;08 - 00;00;30;01
Djenaba
Well, hello, Nigella. Thank you so much for being here. The food, me business Podcast. Yeah, I.
00;00;30;01 - 00;00;33;01
Najwa Khan
Know. Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here and connect.
00;00;33;01 - 00;00;51;24
Djenaba
Me to this was a long time coming. I know. I have to say, like I'm so proud of you. It's weird to say, but I met you when you were making two trays of brownies and testing everything out. And now you're in a million stories and you'll tell us all about that. But I'm just so, so excited for you, so thank you.
00;00;51;25 - 00;00;53;12
Djenaba
Congratulations on.
00;00;53;13 - 00;01;00;28
Najwa Khan
The. Thank you. And I always tell somebody, if I find a job, somebody you can call and call. How do you start a food business?
00;01;03;01 - 00;01;29;08
Djenaba
Yes, I can help you help out with that. So, yeah, so we so we met just so everyone knows, listeners know that Naja was actually one of our first clients, members of Hudson Kitchen. So we had the privilege of being a part of her journey. But I would love for you to just. Let's talk about your decision to leave corporate and actually launch your business in during a pandemic and all the other things that happened.
00;01;29;08 - 00;01;29;21
Djenaba
So.
00;01;30;01 - 00;01;48;24
Najwa Khan
Yeah, I'll be honest, it wasn't a decision. It's more like I was forced kind of into it and what I mean by that is I was at a stage in my life where I was quite lost with how I wanted to utilize my skill set and what I was passionate about. I have a background in public health. I'm obsessed with it.
00;01;49;03 - 00;02;30;05
Najwa Khan
Like I always thought that I would make these big changes in the world and cure all these things. I'm a lot more humble now, but kind of how I got into food was accidental. I really love food. I hate dieting. I love me some pasta dairy. Why I love sweets, obviously. And I just I found myself really struggling with the American way of being healthy where if you are trying to eat holistically, you don't have the time where when you're trying to understand the source of food, you have to pay crazy amounts of money or like go all over the place to find a farm just to get something natural, organic and clear.
00;02;30;25 - 00;02;50;00
Najwa Khan
And I, you know, I went on this journey way before COVID because I had a lot of health issues and I ended up being before you met me, like very, very healthy, reversing a lot of my health issues, eating clean where I stressed out and got back into like the American way of eating was when just career wise, I had to do more than a 9 to 5.
00;02;50;00 - 00;02;51;06
Najwa Khan
I know we call it 9 to 5.
00;02;51;16 - 00;02;53;12
Djenaba
But it's never it's never been a 9 to 5.
00;02;53;19 - 00;03;14;09
Najwa Khan
No, it's been like, oh my God, do I get home at 930? Still kind of a thing. But I just hated the fact that I had to always, always cook something from scratch or bag something from scratch to believe in it being real and being okay for me to eat. And when I walked, actually, there's the Whole Foods in Edgewater, New Jersey.
00;03;14;09 - 00;03;15;13
Najwa Khan
I don't know if you've ever been to that.
00;03;15;13 - 00;03;16;14
Djenaba
Oh, yes, I have, actually.
00;03;16;14 - 00;03;43;22
Najwa Khan
That's the location where I was inspired to start my brand. I was walking through the aisles looking for brands where I could just easily pick something pre-made that was adult based or not a kiddy snack or like an allergen free kind of thing. I wanted like sophisticated flavors. I love soft, big desserts, and all I wanted in my mind was something that I thought just would exist, which was eight simple ingredients, something clean, no sugar alcohols.
00;03;44;04 - 00;04;08;02
Najwa Khan
And I couldn't find it. And that's kind of when my tech hub, you know, product management kind of went on and I was like, hey, is there a market opportunity here? And, you know, can I bake brownies? And I was bored during COVID. I started taking out a KitchenAid and trying to bake. I had a friend who you met who shot at the time.
00;04;08;02 - 00;04;10;07
Najwa Khan
Sophia. I don't know if you remember her.
00;04;10;07 - 00;04;11;08
Djenaba
I do. I do.
00;04;11;17 - 00;04;31;17
Najwa Khan
And I just thought, you know, maybe I could test this out. Like, what do I have to lose? I never actually thought I was going to start a business. When we spoke, I thought I was testing something out. I spun up a quick Shopify website. I thought, you know, let me see what I can do. And I don't know if you remember this, but we had orders and that I didn't even have packaging for a recipe.
00;04;32;03 - 00;04;32;21
Djenaba
I remember.
00;04;32;21 - 00;05;07;17
Najwa Khan
Yes, I have to fulfill these 200 orders that I don't know how and that's what started it, that momentum. And then all of a sudden I just kept diving in deeper and deeper, asking questions, trying to learn, and then hearing people, just people that I never met, continue to order and come back and find value in what we were doing is what got me to officially say in September of 2021, I am going to launch this business, I'm going to do this that I'm going to try my hardest to learn everything about CPG and play catch up and really, really make sure that this brand gets out there.
00;05;08;03 - 00;05;28;20
Djenaba
So you did it. So I am a big proponent of like selling something before it's actually built or made it lights a fire under you because you want to be embarrassed, right? So you're going to go and do the thing and make it happen. That's that's really cool. So talk about a little bit about your background. You have a sister like how did you guys grow up and like did you bake at home?
00;05;28;20 - 00;05;33;17
Djenaba
Like was baking a thing or cooking a thing with the family? Like, give me a little bit of background.
00;05;33;25 - 00;06;06;00
Najwa Khan
So so I'm half Moroccan and half Bengali. Both sides of the family are all about food, like everything is about food. It's not about diets. It's about like indulgence. And for me, when I came here, I actually moved when I was five. It was tough for me because my parents didn't really settle in one place. So I went from, you know, coming to a new country, learning a new language, being in Queens, getting the Queens vibe, and then all of a sudden at 11, be like, now we're going to move to Long Island and you're going to move to a suburb.
00;06;06;00 - 00;06;24;01
Najwa Khan
And nothing that you wear is going to be what these kids wear. And you're going to have to fit into a new culture, a new dynamic. And for me, where my comfort was, was in social gatherings where I could connect with people and where I could find some joy. So for me, food has been very much a part of my life.
00;06;24;01 - 00;06;50;15
Najwa Khan
One thing that my family did, we didn't do dinners every night together, but we did always have like Saturday, Sunday breakfast together, like brunch. And those were big events. And with our brunches, it wasn't about eating like eggs and just it was like eating lots of carbs, even like rice and curry dishes. I remember this dish called eggs, which I love, and we also used to make sweets, so my dad would make homemade halwa.
00;06;50;15 - 00;07;06;25
Najwa Khan
And you have this little song that he would sing. And I just I that's where the name Tulsi really comes from, dancing. Me I couldn't pronounce it, so I would call Cinnamon Dolce. And that's kind of where that feeling of home came from and why I named the brand. I'll see. But yeah, we used to cook. We love food.
00;07;07;08 - 00;07;19;01
Najwa Khan
My sister also loves food. She would be the baker. Actually, I'm more the I if I had to go to culinary school, it wouldn't be for being a pastry chef. Honestly.
00;07;19;01 - 00;07;27;14
Djenaba
So. So tell us. Let's talk about it. So you were you know, you worked your corporate job and then you decided to launch this business and then you got pregnant.
00;07;28;06 - 00;07;29;02
Najwa Khan
Yeah.
00;07;29;02 - 00;07;30;05
Djenaba
So let's talk about that.
00;07;31;00 - 00;07;51;08
Najwa Khan
Okay. Well, anyone listening? Don't do that. So do not do that. Yeah, I, I guess I, I was still in denial when I was pregnant that I was going to start this business during pregnancy. It early days. You saw me. I was still there. I was still being myself moving about. But then I don't think I shared this with you.
00;07;51;16 - 00;07;55;23
Najwa Khan
In my third trimester, I was told that I was high risk and then I had to be on bed rest.
00;07;56;06 - 00;07;57;05
Djenaba
Oh, wow. I didn't know.
00;07;57;06 - 00;08;16;14
Najwa Khan
And that. Yeah. So there was a lot of emotional struggle there because I wanted to be there, I couldn't be there. I had to grow this business. I had to find a way to be there, but then not also like put myself or my baby in danger. So I was. Did I break some rules? Yeah. In hindsight, was that risky?
00;08;16;14 - 00;08;37;24
Najwa Khan
Yeah. But I don't know. I was trying to balance it out and then post the baby was the bigger struggle. So excuse me. Sorry about that. So I actually and I'm I'm happy to be really transparent about this. I did go through postpartum anxiety. I never knew that that portion kind of existed. I always thought it was postpartum depression.
00;08;38;01 - 00;09;14;18
Najwa Khan
Turns out there's postpartum rage to didn't know whether. Oh, okay. And my anxiety just really, really pushed me in a way where I needed to do to all see, to feel like I had some semblance of control of myself again as a new mother. So in a way, it helped in that direction. But in another way it's 20, 2021 to 2022 has been the hardest few months, I would say, or a year of my life, because emotionally, mentally, I've been trying to stay focused while also healing myself and getting my mental health right.
00;09;14;18 - 00;09;23;23
Najwa Khan
And now I'm finally at the place where I'm like, All right, now I can get my body right and get strong again and get healthier again because I do care about all of those holistic components. Right?
00;09;23;24 - 00;09;39;27
Djenaba
I remember being so impressed. I'm like, Oh, wow, okay, she's having this baby. She's hired these employees who are fantastic, by the way, because I got a chance to work with them. I work I work with their bodies, employees. So I got a chance to work with them. So I was like, Wow, I was just so impressed by that, not really knowing the background of kind of what you were going through.
00;09;40;10 - 00;09;44;23
Najwa Khan
So behind closed doors, I was struggling. I was just trying to survive. Yeah.
00;09;44;27 - 00;09;58;15
Djenaba
And it happened. And thank you so much for sharing. And I'm so now like I'm so happy that you're in a better place. So you did all of this. I believe you also raised money during all that time as well. Can you want to talk a little bit about your your how you raised money and for the business?
00;09;58;15 - 00;09;58;22
Djenaba
Yeah.
00;09;59;05 - 00;10;18;03
Najwa Khan
I wasn't sure what avenue I was going to go down. I thought I would do like a small friends and family around. And then I realized I don't have wealthy friends. So I just started really focusing on networking and trying to meet angels that have the same vision and believed in what I was trying to build with this brand.
00;10;18;14 - 00;10;26;23
Najwa Khan
And I was lucky enough where I really connected with two individuals, one person in particular, I don't think online news.
00;10;27;15 - 00;10;32;21
Djenaba
Here, not everybody's on a call it news and be like somebody.
00;10;32;21 - 00;10;56;10
Najwa Khan
But he really is like substack. He's my angel. Yes. He has really, really helped me understand how to build a business, even though his background in pharmaceuticals and health care, that's his background. He just really understands the framework and has really guided me through this and has given me a lot of grace to also heal in my personal life and be able to take time to be a new mom as well.
00;10;56;10 - 00;11;18;07
Najwa Khan
So I am so thankful for him. But yeah, I raised, like I said, you know, continuing to try to go down a road that a lot of people are telling me where I have to speak to hundreds and hundreds of people. I you know, I met the right person and I took a risk and I said, hey, did the two of you just want to do the whole rounds thinking they would say no, like you're crazy?
00;11;18;07 - 00;11;33;29
Najwa Khan
But they said yes. And I think a lot of luck had to do with it. I mean, it was my ability to be confident enough to ask and show them the evidence. But I do also believe that it was luck and I had someone who introduced me to the right people at the right time.
00;11;34;14 - 00;11;57;25
Djenaba
I think you were ready. I mean, honestly think the product is amazing. I'm a big fan of people that focus on one thing. And so you're happy to be brownies at this moment. And you know, you may do something else now, but like brownies and the chocolate. My favorite, this book is always I love it, but yeah I think I think it was I congratulate you for having the guts to ask that question and getting the answer that you that you actually wanted.
00;11;57;25 - 00;12;01;23
Djenaba
I think sometimes we just don't ask because the worst thing they were going to say is no.
00;12;02;02 - 00;12;10;18
Najwa Khan
Yeah. Which I thought they were. I was I was I was prepared for it. You know, when you don't feel like you have anything to lose, you know, just go for it.
00;12;10;18 - 00;12;11;12
Djenaba
Yeah. No.
00;12;11;17 - 00;12;13;20
Najwa Khan
Should go into everything. Like you have nothing to lose.
00;12;13;20 - 00;12;35;28
Djenaba
It's true. It's true because you really don't. Because you're going to learn something in the long run. It's true. It is so true. So let's talk about parenting a little bit. I always think that if I started my business earlier, I'd be would have been a different parent. My kids are a little bit older than yours, so wondering if you has it, has it informed, has entrepreneurship informed the way that you parent your son?
00;12;36;13 - 00;13;02;01
Najwa Khan
I would say so. Even my husband, I know he's, you know, has his own career, but he's very much in you know, he's been my biggest supporter, I would say. I would say yes. Even though I don't know any other way, but I pre don't see pre even being a mother. I always had this idea that I would want to have this kind of work life balance where I'd want to early days be there for my kid.
00;13;02;01 - 00;13;26;10
Najwa Khan
But still, I don't know. I, I believe that you can have it all. At the time I was schooled. Now. Now I think what I want and what I what's really changed for me is that I want to make sure my my child sees that I'm passionate about something and that I'm going to put the effort in, but that I still am not going to let that be the reason why I miss out on other important factors in my life.
00;13;26;10 - 00;13;45;19
Najwa Khan
So I'm really trying. Is is there a balance? No, no. Do I know the answer? No. But I'm trying it. And I think I think what it's doing is is showing our son that we value him, that we also value that in passion and really putting yourself out there and working for something you believe in.
00;13;46;11 - 00;13;51;04
Djenaba
Yeah. So my, my son is 20 and he was hockey's top.
00;13;51;04 - 00;13;51;26
Najwa Khan
You have a 20 year old.
00;13;51;26 - 00;13;55;00
Djenaba
I do have a 20 year old son. You didn't know that. So my son is 20.
00;13;55;14 - 00;13;56;01
Najwa Khan
Amazing.
00;13;56;01 - 00;14;14;11
Djenaba
Thank you. My daughter is 17. And but when I speak to him specifically because he doesn't live at home anymore, he's like, I'm so proud of you all the time. And so he's like paying attention. So I didn't think they were like really paying attention because I wanted to launch the business. He was in high school, so it's like now and like it makes me feel kind of good.
00;14;14;11 - 00;14;16;08
Djenaba
So you're you're on the right track.
00;14;16;27 - 00;14;28;14
Najwa Khan
Doing it good. That's amazing. I don't know why, but I thought you did your own. No, I like how.
00;14;28;14 - 00;14;32;17
Djenaba
So what is one thing you miss about working in corporate America?
00;14;33;05 - 00;14;38;03
Najwa Khan
I'm. It's lonely. I miss team camaraderie and office space.
00;14;38;03 - 00;14;43;08
Djenaba
And what are you doing to kind of help yourself? Like, how have you been able to build a community around. Around yourself?
00;14;43;12 - 00;15;07;28
Najwa Khan
Yeah, not the traditional type. Like what? I mean, obviously, I'll see. My goal is to build the team and have that. But in the meantime, it's trying to connect with other people in this space. Other founders have been so helpful, especially when I'm going through my little shows where I'm like, Oh, what am I doing? It's been nice to call them and be like, Have you experienced this and just hear someone else's perspective who can empathize?
00;15;07;28 - 00;15;27;28
Djenaba
That's great. So and before we jumped on, we were talking about you kind of jumping into the business and not knowing kind of not everything you knew, kind of what you wanted to do accomplished. But I didn't really know the industry very well. What did you do? So I kind of listeners can hear from you. What did you do so you could learn the industry?
00;15;27;28 - 00;15;45;14
Najwa Khan
I did. Like, I just I, I went through the motions. Well, I was lucky I had funding early on to do this. If I did it, I probably go a different route. But what I did was I tried to talk to as many people who I felt like made it, and I did that in quotes.
00;15;46;01 - 00;15;47;01
Djenaba
Because you never know.
00;15;47;01 - 00;16;14;11
Najwa Khan
Yeah. And I didn't like take everything, you know, exactly like they said. But I tried to be inspired and learn from that as I went and I did. I made a tremendous amount of mistakes. And then what really hit me was if I'm going to really do this, is there like a master class that I could take? And that's what brought me to accelerators, and that's why I went ahead and applied to the East Coast cohort.
00;16;14;20 - 00;16;38;14
Najwa Khan
Luckily I got in and that was where I feel like I had a master course and then connected with really, really amazing mentors who still even now are helping guide me through just everything CPG related. And what I learned is there's, I thought there was a lot that I didn't know, but then after that course I realized how much I really didn't know.
00;16;38;14 - 00;16;44;00
Najwa Khan
And it's really helped shape the way I'm growing this business and how I want to grow this business.
00;16;44;13 - 00;16;53;08
Djenaba
So what types of things didn't you know that you that you learned going through that process? And I do think accelerator programs are really important to the success of businesses like yours.
00;16;54;03 - 00;17;18;25
Najwa Khan
Small things that one would think are not that critical, like your pack pack sizes. How many pack sizes, but how do you like think about forecasting like, you know, you there's this kind of like I had this idea of forecasting, but I never really thought about the implications and like, do you spend the dollars up front and then order less and keep iterating the impacts of brand?
00;17;19;06 - 00;17;34;18
Najwa Khan
Obviously, I always cared about brand from the get go. That's something you and I spoke about. But even with what I started with, I still didn't feel like it was strong. So now I'm in the market and I have this messaging and I want to change it, you know, what are the impacts there in kind of the program?
00;17;34;18 - 00;18;09;25
Najwa Khan
And the mentors really just help me put it together. What I struggled with the most is my pitch. I'm not a good formal presenter. I also have a South Asian problem of being humble. It's like a thing where you're taught culturally to never, ever talk up anything, even if it's factual, like you don't say it. And that's been one of my biggest challenges where the accelerator just pushed me every week to go in front of everyone unprepared and just pitch the brand and talk about it.
00;18;09;25 - 00;18;27;08
Najwa Khan
And they're like, Why are you freaking out? These are facts. And I think that also is the best because I believe it, but I don't know if I can say it. And those are those are the aspects I didn't realize I was going to learn and I was going to be able to practice and try and overcome.
00;18;28;00 - 00;18;47;27
Djenaba
So when you thank you for sharing that. So when you kind of started the business, what did you do first? Because I think a lot of times people people's trajectories are different. So I met a woman who she created her brand first and then she figured out what products she was going to create. What like when what kind of road did you take to kind of get to where you are?
00;18;47;28 - 00;19;08;03
Najwa Khan
Yeah, I decided to actually remember this day. I had this massive whiteboard in my, my condo. I, I what I wanted to do was identify in that sweet category that I had felt like was missing a brand and what that brand was. And if I could just take a wand and have, like a a magic moment, what would that brand be?
00;19;08;03 - 00;19;24;02
Najwa Khan
So it was really, really it was really a very high level. Like, what would I want this brand to be? Who would I want the people in the brand to be? And what is our goal? And really when I look at those bullet points, I still have the the image, like the pictures that now took and the videos.
00;19;24;02 - 00;19;44;25
Najwa Khan
And it's the board literally says, like, I want people to have the freedom to indulge. And I don't want them to have to worry about their health and just be happy and joyful. And and I started with that. And what I did from that moment was that I try to do a lot of surveys, just identify if there were other individuals out there.
00;19;44;25 - 00;20;05;22
Najwa Khan
I use SurveyMonkey. I spent my own money to just identify, like, All right, do people want sweets? Do they want them as snacks? And if they do, are they like me? Do they like brownies? Because I thought I came in with a bias. I loved brownies and I was like, If I see another cookie out there, I might like I might lose it.
00;20;06;13 - 00;20;30;08
Najwa Khan
But turns out my bias wasn't wrong. Like once I started pulling in the data to support that, turns out brownies are really popular. Like they're the top of the top three eaten snack out there in dessert out there. They also are quite popular with Americans and very nostalgic and they're versatile. People don't realize that blondies can be so versatile and and brownies too.
00;20;30;08 - 00;20;48;15
Najwa Khan
And we can there's so many unique flavor profiles. So I, I did that. I didn't think about the product first. I didn't think about the food science, which in hindsight I probably would have. But I'm actually glad I did it because that iteration and constantly trying to figure out the recipe is what made. I think I'll see what it is today.
00;20;49;00 - 00;21;18;10
Djenaba
Yeah I think that that really important because yes I think the iteration iteration is what kind of helps you get to to me to where you are for sure. So I've been asking everyone this because I, I always wonder what's, what is, what do you do to relax? And I say that I know everybody laughs. It's a true because and I know firsthand and since I have a business myself that I'm like constantly thinking about my business.
00;21;18;10 - 00;21;35;22
Djenaba
I talk about my business all the time. I talk about it with my husband. I think my daughter could pitch the business. All these things, parents, everybody, like the people could do it, right? So so I'm actively working to try to relax and do something different. I'm wondering what you're working on. What do you do?
00;21;36;18 - 00;21;56;23
Najwa Khan
Oh, so embarrassing to say. I put on Bravo and I binge watch reality TV. I just take a moment where I don't think like I need that hour where I'm watching something that just makes me giggle. And it's not about how do I scale this business or like, Oh my God, how do I produce this new like next PR?
00;21;56;24 - 00;22;20;10
Najwa Khan
Or How do I, you know, Oh crap, we're out of this SKU. Like, what do we do? Right? Kind of a thing. So that's been helping pre doll. See, I had such a regimen. I wake up, I meditate, I have my cup of coffee, you go on a long walk. I used to work out back then job. I used to do weight lifting that I come home, make like an amazing breakfast.
00;22;20;28 - 00;22;32;28
Najwa Khan
And all I'm trying to do now is just get get some of that back so I can get all of that back. But I am trying to get at least my morning meditation back now for 10 minutes. It's not what I used to be that way.
00;22;32;28 - 00;22;41;04
Djenaba
I mean, I know you're having a you know, a child, especially a small child, is challenging and it kind of disrupts their morning routine that you want to have. But I will say it does it gets better.
00;22;41;21 - 00;22;44;17
Najwa Khan
I keep saying they.
00;22;44;17 - 00;22;54;19
Djenaba
Get bigger, it gets better. It's all good. So what's the one piece of advice that you could give to someone that wants to leave their day job to start a food business.
00;22;55;29 - 00;22;58;15
Najwa Khan
So many.
00;22;58;15 - 00;22;59;05
Djenaba
Pieces of advice.
00;22;59;07 - 00;23;31;29
Najwa Khan
Yeah, one. Well, I actually was thinking about this recently, and I do wish that somebody was there early on to glamorize entrepreneurship. Not that I don't want people starving. I just I just I think a lot of people don't realize that in every industry there's not the people don't start on the same starting line. And I think we all watch the trajectory of people who are probably starting way ahead.
00;23;32;11 - 00;23;59;25
Najwa Khan
And that's a great thing. I'm not faulting anyone. Everyone has their own advantages depending on what they do and disadvantages. And I feel like we just glamorize it. We also really, really do put down people who are entrepreneurs when they do need a break, when they do need to like take care of other things. Yeah. Or if they're not made of money, need to find a way to survive and pay their bills.
00;23;59;25 - 00;24;14;07
Najwa Khan
I think I saw on LinkedIn the other day, I won't name names. Somebody say that if you take a salary and you're starting a business, then you're in the wrong business. You're not a founder, you're not an entrepreneur. And I thought, well, people have bills.
00;24;14;07 - 00;24;14;28
Djenaba
They do.
00;24;15;03 - 00;24;39;20
Najwa Khan
Yes. People put their whole life savings into bootstrapping what they started. People have really bad credit card debt, like they have mouths to feed. That's not them being greedy. That's them trying to be strong. And I would tell someone who really wants to start something, don't try to follow any path. There's nothing that anyone else I would sit down and think about what are my strengths?
00;24;39;20 - 00;24;56;02
Najwa Khan
What are my weaknesses? What do I bring to the table? Don't, don't get nervous if you don't know an industry. I know. But be prepared to learn. Be prepared to ask and be prepared to have low lows and high highs and surround yourself with people who will be there for both, not just one or two them.
00;24;56;28 - 00;25;09;00
Djenaba
That that's excellent advice. You're right. There are low lows. And and I it's for sure sometimes in the same day, sometimes in the same hour.
00;25;09;00 - 00;25;12;01
Najwa Khan
Yes, yes, yes.
00;25;12;26 - 00;25;25;24
Djenaba
So as you know, at Hudson Kitchen, we have a bell that we ring. We have our money bell. And I wanted to ring it for you. And if you could tell us something that you are celebrating right now, either personally or professionally.
00;25;26;11 - 00;25;41;13
Najwa Khan
Yeah, I would say I'm I'm so proud that Dancy has nationwide distribution. Yeah. And that this this summer, we had our first six figure month.
00;25;42;01 - 00;25;44;18
Djenaba
Wow. Amazing. Congratulations.
00;25;44;18 - 00;25;48;29
Najwa Khan
Thank you so. And, you know, now I have to keep it up.
00;25;49;10 - 00;26;01;27
Djenaba
Yes. I don't doubt that. You will. You will, for sure. So, Nigella, thank you for being here. Please let our listeners know where they can find you and learn more about Darcy.
00;26;02;14 - 00;26;21;03
Najwa Khan
Yeah. So the best place to get exclusive deals and learn more about dances, dancing dot com and sign up for our newsletter. If you're interested in learning more about just different holistic health facts and food facts and also get good deals by the Brownies.
00;26;21;03 - 00;26;39;28
Djenaba
Well, thank you so much. The Food Means Business Podcast is produced by Hudson Kitchen. It's recorded and edited at the studio at Carney Point. Our theme song is by Damien de Sands, and I'm your host, Nabil Johnson Jones. Find out more about Hudson Kitchen by visiting the Hudson Kitchen dot com or follow us on Instagram at the Hudson Kitchen.
00;26;40;07 - 00;26;46;13
Djenaba
Listen below and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time.