Anne Beiler: From Pretzels to Purpose
Anne Beiler, the mastermind behind that incredible smell wafting from the pretzel stand in your local shopping center, is joining the podcast today! So how does someone turn a family recipe and a small farmer’s market stand into the Auntie Anne’s brand we all know and love? We’re asking this and so many more questions with Anne to unpack her journey with mental health as a bustling entrepreneur.
BM: One of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about is maybe work-life balance. Whether someone’s listening to this who is an entrepreneur or is just someone who’s working their job managing a demanding career, while also having that personal well-being. What has that looked like for you over the years?
AB: I think that as entrepreneurs we don’t stop very long to take care of ourselves… I carried all of my past into my workplace. And I just want to encourage you to take care of the internal part of who you are and bring all of your deeds in the light so that you’re free then to be a businessman or businesswoman and you can give of yourself to your family and to your business to the people in your organization. It’s really important for you to be healthy and that’s what I began to do after 1994. I went for counseling for probably 6, 7 years…It’s really important to be well emotionally, spiritually, and physically if you’re going to really grow your company. And once you’re well on the inside, you can live your purpose with great joy.
BM: Thank you so much for just your vulnerability and your honesty… When there’s so much busyness and there’s so much going on that easily slips away and happens to the best of us. So that’s something I know I think about a lot—practicing the pause because that’s where we get to be honest with ourselves and really ask very honestly, “what’s working, what’s not working in my life? Where do I need to shift? Where do I need to change?” And get real honest about what is or isn’t working in our lives or in our business.
AB: And I think Brittney, another really important part to that is make sure you’re gathering really great people. People that value your mission, people that value work ethic. And there’s so many things with your purpose—that they have buy-in for your purpose. And early on, I had to learn how to delegate. That was so difficult for me because I was a die-hard doer… Learning to delegate is truly one of the greatest gifts that you can give to yourself.
There’s so many more (pretzel) nuggets in this conversation with Annie, so tune into the entire episode on any podcast streaming platform and don’t forget we are currently running 12 days of Christmas in partnership with Anne on our Instagram account.
