In 2018, a business partner and I bootstrapped a ready-to-eat food company called Authentic Meals. We were scrappy. We bartered, leaned on our past skills, and made things work any way we could. We shared kitchen space, piggybacked on bigger companies’ deliveries, and teamed up with local gyms and wellness centers.
We had a clear vision.
We had a real mission.
And it drew people in, customers and team members alike.
And it drew people in, customers and team members alike.
Our setup was simple: delivery or pick-up only. My partner ran the kitchen. I handled the rest: sales, marketing, hiring, menu planning, nutrition, and order coordination.
If you’ve ever built a start-up, you know. It takes time. Energy. Passion. And when those run out, all that’s left is grit, and you use that.
Eventually, that grit got tested. My partner decided she was done. She wanted out. So I did what many driven people would do: I bought her out and kept going, even though I had no kitchen experience.
That meant going back into the red for a while so I could hire a kitchen manager, a delivery driver, and one more person to help package meals.
And here’s where it got interesting.
I posted the jobs. The responses came flooding in. One woman who applied said,
“I’ve been following your journey. I want to be part of this.”
She didn’t need to work. She wanted to. Because she believed in what we were building.
Our vision was working:
We are a real food meal prep company that strives to create healthier individuals, families, and communities.
Our mission was landing:
Making nourishing food accessible to everyone in our local community.
And our values? They were written down, printed in handbooks, and posted in our kitchen:
- Deliver excellence
- Collaborate and grow
- Help build our community
- Take care of ourselves and each other
After a few bumpy months, things started to flow. I even hired a food costing consultant to help set cost targets.
Then, our kitchen manager asked to meet with me. I felt the tension rising in my chest. We’d just found our rhythm. I didn’t want another bump in the road.
But when we sat down, she said something I’ll never forget:
“Carmen, I’m not sure why I’m here. You keep saying you don’t know how to do things, but you’re fully capable. And honestly? You’re not letting me do my job. You’re doing it for me.”
Oof. That hit hard.
I was working so hard to prove I could do it all, I forgot what I was actually here to do: lead.
We had the vision. We had the mission. People wanted to be part of something bigger. But I wasn’t modeling the very culture we claimed to care about.
I was leading from reactivity, not from a grounded, strategic, visionary place.
Sound familiar?
We see this often, even in the most successful companies we work with. Great values get written down, but not lived. The team feels it. The mission starts to fade. We start to over-focus on our own jobs and under-focus on our shared work and responsibility as a leader to model the values and be a bold, dynamic visionary.
After that conversation, the kitchen manager chose to leave. I supported her. I respected her honesty; in fact, I valued it because it forced me to pause and reflect.
Eventually, I decided to sell Authentic Meals was able to set my ego aside and see this experience not as a failure but a turning point in my own leadership.
So here’s our question for you today:
What are you and your leadership team modeling inside your organization?
If you’re feeling brave, share your thoughts in the comments or email me at hello@carmenohling.com.
That one answer might just lead you back to bold, clear, values-driven leadership where your mission is more than words. It’s alive.