STEPPING OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE
certified Food Service Manager and passed our state inspection while also learning that state inspections are not the time to crack jokes . I ’ ve had new opportunities to work with a graphic designer , a trademark attorney , industrial kitchens , marketing experts and a dozen or so cryptic and befuddling Amazon employees . Were there mistakes ? Ha ! Too many to recount ! But the world didn ’ t end , I only got yelled at by a few of the Amazon employees , and the whole thing has been a blast . Even the mistakes and the frustrations of working in a world I still know very little about .
Am I still outside my comfort zone ? Absolutely . Marketing still scares me , I ’ m a terrible salesman because I still don ’ t like charging anyone for my previously free products , and my busy day job never lets me feel like I ’ m giving this venture quite the time it deserves . But the product is now out in the world , on Amazon . com , in a couple pizza places and in the kitchens of a lot of people I know and quite I few I don ’ t . I love the process and it totally makes my day when someone new tells me they love The Pizza Doctor on whatever food they shake it on . I love hearing about new things my customers put it on , and there have been some surprises . Everything from cottage cheese , to burgers , to popcorn , to Bloody Marys ! know something and risk-taking is for other people ... people who know what they are doing and know their way around the business world . OK , maybe that ’ s just me and not all doctors , but I had no business training , knew virtually nothing about marketing , and why do something if I don ’ t know for sure I ’ ll be good at it ? So I stuck with my comfort zone and stayed in my kitchen .
That ’ s where things stood for years , until , in 2021 , a good friend was having none of it . He loved the product and for the 20th time asked why I wasn ’ t selling it . I gave him the excuses also for the 20th time , but this go-around he looked at me with greater intensity and a little frustration and said , “ Do you know these things are true or is this just how you feel ?” I was shocked and didn ’ t know what to say . I was being called on the carpet to really look at why I hadn ’ t for so long ever done what was an obvious next step to him , and that was the push . He was calling me out of my comfort zone , challenging me to actually look into what was possible , not what was easy and safe . That week , we formed a company , SeasoningsMD LLC , and started on what would be a yearlong journey into the unknown and probably the steepest learning curve I ’ ve been through since residency . Me being a doctor and all , we committed to making only healthy , all-natural products , without added salt or preservatives or stuff you don ’ t need . I learned a huge amount about the food industry and its piles of regulations , became a
Occasionally people jokingly ask me if I ’ m going to quit medicine when “ I make it big ” with this company , so I ’ ll end my story with the same thing I told my wife when we first kicked this off . I said , “ Hon , my business partner and I have a plan . If we get really lucky , catch some breaks , and this really takes off , I ’ m pretty sure I ’ ll be able to retire three , maybe four , weeks early .” But it sure has been fun to do something completely outside medicine just to kind of see if it can be done .
Dr . Grill serves as the Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine with the University of Louisville Department of Pediatrics and Norton Children ’ s Medical Group .
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