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Michelle Weinstein, AKA The Pitch Queen, is the host of Success Unfiltered, which features an array of unique and inspiring guests. She talks to all kinds of innovators and achievers, including multi seven and eight figure entrepreneurs, Shark Tank veterans, authors, performers, and investors.

Her guests share their most intimate stories, no holds barred. It’s the raw and vulnerable stuff that you don’t always hear about, like major rejections, epic failures, and unrelenting setbacks.
They share their most inspiring stories of overcoming adversity, never giving up, and achieving success beyond their wildest imaginations.

She created this podcast to help entrepreneurs realize that they are NOT alone. Everyone who has attempted something epic has had their share of setbacks, failures, and NOs. By sharing unfiltered stories from extraordinary individuals who overcame hardships and ultimately achieved their version of success, her hope is to inspire others to stay in the game and hold out for their own dreams.

Her mission and goal is to inspire rising entrepreneurs to break through barriers, overcome obstacles, and make a bigger impact in the world. It’s her passion to show people how to take action, own their value, and grow their top-line revenue. You CAN build a successful and flourishing business and make a global impact by doing what you love, and Success Unfiltered will inspire you ever step of the way!

https://www.thepitchqueen.com/podcast-success-unfiltered/

Mar 20, 2019

095 | Evan Delahanty Shares How to Make Your Own YES in Business

Evan Delahanty is the Founder and CEO of Peaceful Fruits, a social good snack startup that employs people with disabilities to make healthy, delicious, rainforest-friendly fruit snacks. Peaceful Fruits has been featured on NPR and ABC’s Shark Tank and is focused on scaling sales and production after a successful pilot. Prior to launching, Evan graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School (2003), Cornell University (2007), and then worked in operations management before serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Amazon interior of Suriname, South America.

When Evan came back to the United States after serving in the Amazon with the Peace Corps, he knew that he wanted to find a way to bring back a small piece of his experience to his friends and family - or really, anyone who would have it.

That’s when Peaceful Fruits was born. Ethically sourced, 100% fruit snacks, NO processed crap - it was a shoo-in! Everyone wants that, right?

The funny part was, Evan was met with a lot of NOs - but not from his target audience! They loved it.

Evan spent a lot of time working on the Peaceful Fruits brand. He had a story to tell, and couldn’t wait to share it.

However, manufacturing was another situation - NO one would co-pack his product. In fact, Evan called at least 180 manufacturers, digging deep on Google, hoping to find someone who would believe in Peaceful Fruits as much as he did, and take a chance on a small fruit snack brand.

Then, Evan made his own YES. Tune into this episode to hear how he did it!

My guest on this week’s Success Unfiltered, Evan, had to learn that sometimes you’ll hear a lot of NOs before you finally find a way to make your own YES!

If you’re feeling discouraged by how many NOs you’ve heard, then this is a MUST LISTEN episode of Success Unfiltered!

Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered!

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Special thanks goes out to Evan Delahanty for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode!

Everyone Gets Rejected In Sales. It’s what you do AFTER the NO that counts! I’ve got 3 ways that you can turn a NO into a win (and maybe even a future YES)! Grab my guide to surviving rejections in business and making them work for you right HERE!

Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode:

  • Michelle introduces Evan.
  • Evan is this month’s Shark Tank guest.
  • Evan shares a little about who he is and what he’s created.
  • The biggest NO that Evan experienced happened on the manufacturing front. He shares the full story in this episode.
  • Evan called 180 people to pitch manufacturing his fruit snacks
  • When no one would work with him, Evan went and made his own fruit snacks in a local restaurant’s kitchen at 2 a.m., when they weren’t using it.
  • When Peaceful Fruits began to grow, Evan said YES to hiring the best team ever!
  • Peaceful Fruits employs people with particular disabilities, like Down’s Syndrome and Autism.
  • Evan employed developmentally disabled people, creating fair wage jobs for his team.
  • “You see that early adoption, you see those people starting to get excited about it. That tells you, you've got to keep swinging to try to find a way to make more.” ~ Evan Delahanty
  • After appearing on Shark Tank, Peaceful Fruits was contacted by Sendik’s Grocery chain and it took almost a year before he met with them.
  • The first month in Sendik’s didn’t go quite how Evan had hoped. He shares exactly what happened in this episode.
  • “You must control yourself and not act on your first thought.” ~ Evan Delahanty
  • Evan appeared at many of his own demonstrations, due to the size of the company, and found that he had to say YES to his ideal client and “toughen up” when people who were not his target audience said NO to his product.
  • Evan knew that he had people interested in buying his products but if they can’t see the product on the shelves, no one is going to buy. Evan shares how he remedied that.
  • Follow up with stores carrying Peaceful Fruits was key - as Evan followed up and made sure signs and point of sale systems were set up, sales increased and more people learned about his brand.
  • Getting into Whole Foods would be a dream for Evan, but he knows his company wasn’t quite ready when they had their first opportunity. Evan has learned that by waiting he and his company would be in a better position the next time around.
  • Evan shared what he would tell his younger self.

Connect with Evan Delahanty:

Everyone Gets Rejected In Sales. It’s what you do AFTER the NO that counts! I’ve got 3 ways that you can turn a NO into a win (and maybe even a future YES)! Grab my guide to surviving rejections in business and making them work for you right HERE!

Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com