BET ON YOUR SELF

By Jennifer Peters

When I started Just BE in 2017, I couldn't get a loan. I couldn't get an investor. I had friends that told me I wasn't just nuts, I couldn't do it. I had potential landlords tell me no way they would rent to someone who didn't have experience in the industry & to go get a job at a restaurant.  

I was also in a low place. I had lost my former partner to Cancer, after I had learned that he had been having an affair for sometime, and I completely changed my social friendships and circle. I had my car stolen, I had to sell off all my assets in England in a flash sale and I was in a lawsuit over a shareholder dispute at my former firm. Suffice to say, it was "good times." The death of something in your life, is inevitably the birth of something else.  

So even in the lowest of lows, in a precarious financial situation I had never been faced with before, I took a bet on myself. I opened the restaurant on about 6 credit cards, a high interest equipment loan and a belief that I would be able to figure it out. I put a ton of my own money in after the flash sale of my sweet London home, and I worked day and night to make it work.  

I dove into a major healing period. Honestly, I often refer to it as: “I went asleep for a year to go into myself so deeply”, waking up transformed. I took full accountability for BEing in a situation where I ignored signs of unfaithfulness. 

Honestly, I ignored more signs that that which ultimately contributed to so much suffering, including mourning of the loss of a partner, while simultaneously angry and upset, while simultaneously seeking peace with the entire process and, and yes, with the man. There's no playbook for that, but we have to own up to our own ways that we show up in those situations, the choices we make, regardless of why we make them at the time.

Equally, I was exiting as a director/shareholder in a Company and that was not taken well by the firm I had helped to grow. Fear does funny things to people and a dispute started. Frankly, the woman I am today would never have allowed the final outcome of the negotiation of my shares. We make choices, we suffer, we act small, we suffer. But it was an excellent teaching and that is a gift in and of itself. 

When the pandemic hit, I literally thought "If I can get through that, I'll get through anything" and I rode COVID relatively well. I continued to bet on myself because I believed I could steer the Company through it.  

Now, we are expanding - in this strange economic period. Inflation & labor hikes are battling businesses. Interest rates are high and distribution channels are  wonky at best. And guess what? I'm betting on myself again.  

I've taken bullets and I'm still standing. I don't quit - instead, I bet on myself even in the face of all that questions if I should continue to. It's not like every day I don't have fear - or doubt - or question if I'm “good enough” - but I move forward through those moments.

I have venting sessions with friend and other owners - because we all have times of frustration and questioning, but I still wake up and bet on myself. And I bet on my business - EVEN when I'm frustrated, doubtful and damn right pissed at whatever happened for the day. 

You can bet on yourself too. Because honestly, the landscape will never look “perfect” and void of any element of risk involved. 

Don't give up on yourself - yes, you may have doubt. Yes, you may question. Yes, we will stumble. But if you're not going to bet on yourself, who else will?  

So - let's go Boulder. I'm ready. We got this. 

If you're interested in being an investor in our current Capital Raise that will support the Boulder location and the expansion of our tortilla production, click here to arrange a call - You can place a bet on me, because I promise you, I bet on myself xxxx

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