A Grateful Goodbye to Where it all Began
(Listen on Apple or Spotify. Full transcript below.)
When I set up my home office seven years ago, I had no idea it would become the birthplace of something so meaningful.
What started as an unexpected pivot - a dream job offer rescinded just days before I was set to start - transformed into a financial consulting business that would touch the lives of food founders across the globe.
In this week's special bonus episode of the Good Food CFO podcast, I opened up about moving, and leaving the space that has witnessed countless virtual conversations, strategy sessions, and moments of transformation. From Los Angeles to New Zealand, founders and friends have joined me in this room (virtually!) to work through challenges, celebrate wins, and build their dreams.
a mix of gratitude, and wanting something else
What strikes me most as I prepare to move is the complex relationship I've had with this home. For years, I was simultaneously grateful for it while yearning for something different - a feeling I know many founders can relate to. But my office has been my constant even when everything else felt uncertain. It's where I recorded over 130 podcast episodes, hosted numerous client and office hours sessions, and built a community I never imagined possible.
As I pack up my office, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who has been part of this journey. Every founder who trusted me with their business challenges, every listener who tuned in week after week, every member of this community who made this dream possible - you've all been part of making this room so special.
honoring where it all began
This isn't goodbye - it's just on to the next chapter. But I wanted to pause and honor where it all began, because sometimes the most meaningful journeys start in unexpected places.
Join me for this special bonus episode as I reflect on the past seven years and look ahead to what's next.
As always, I'll see you in the new office.
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Episode Timeline
00:00 A New Chapter Begins
02:54 Reflecting on the Journey
06:01 Embracing Change and Gratitude
08:55 Saying Goodbye to the Old Space
Full Episode Transcript
You are listening to a bonus episode of the Good Food CFO podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Delevan, joined as always by our producer, Chelsea Stier. Happy holidays. Yeah, you too. So Sarah, we're recording this bonus episode because some things are changing. Things might look a little different, hint, hint, in the new year. And we wanted to take the time to
not just talk about it, but really honor that. Yeah. So why don't you go ahead and tell us. So in my personal life, my husband and I are moving, staying in Los Angeles, but we're moving homes. And it dawned on me as we were packing things up that A, we'd be recording our last podcast episode here for season 12 and in 2024.
There are some episodes from season 13 that were recorded here, so you'll kind of go back and forth. But as I sit here right now, this is the very last conversation that I'll be recording in this room where the Good Food CFO podcast started and where my career as a consultant started. Sarah Delevan Consulting was born literally days after we moved in here, like before boxes were even
unpacked. And I'm typically not the kind of person who commemorates a change. I didn't go to my college graduation. Like, we didn't do lots of typical things like when you get married that a lot of people do. We were like, we're just gonna do the main thing, the main event and you know, and same with like, moving. Normally, it would just be like, yeah, this is something we're doing, we're moving forward. But this feels very different to me.
And I wanted to take a couple of minutes to A, share the news and B, as you said, of like commemorate and reflect on what this home and what this office has meant to me and how grateful I am for it. And also to talk about like the lack of gratitude that I had for it for a little while and what I think as a person and founder, we might be able to learn from that. Yeah.
So 129 episodes. wow. I didn't even think about that. Right here, right there in that room. Plus bonus episodes, plus YouTube videos. It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And to think that when I moved into this apartment, I had no idea that any of this would
exists and I've told this story before, but I can kind of put in a time and place now. We had an apartment in West Hollywood, California that my husband and I loved. We thought we would be there forever until we bought a house, literally loved that place and the building was sold. Very long story short, we had to move out and we had like two weeks to do it. We found this place and it was not perfect.
but it was the best thing we could find out of the options that were available. And so we moved in and I thought that I would be gone in a year. I thought we'd be here for one year. I had just accepted a job that was like the highest paying job I had ever had. It was in food sourcing. It was international. I was going to learn so much. I had left my previous job and literally as I was unpacking boxes, they phoned me and they said, have you heard the news? And I was like,
no, we just moved. don't have the internet or anything like connected. And they're like, well, we lost our funding. They were getting like a new round of funding. It was a startup. And so they said, we actually can't, we're not going to hire you. We're not going to bring you on. And I was supposed to start in like three days. And I've told the story about how like essentially that same day I had gotten an email from someone I had worked with before who was like, Hey, can you come and consult on this project? And I was like, I'm free.
I can do that because I no longer had a job that I was counting on having. Not only was it a surprise and everything was changing, but suddenly I was also unemployed. It just for me was a moment of what in the world is my future going to look like? The fact that it was all birthed in a place, I don't know, there's just something, it makes it a special
place for me. And I think the fact, you know, if you really look at it, the iterations, right, because it did start with that consulting job. Yeah. And then that turned into a consulting business. then also shortly after you felt like you had things that you needed to say. Yeah. And that turned into a podcast. Yeah.
And then that podcast turned into another business and a community and a membership and all the ways in which we have built here for people to connect to each other, to you, for them to learn and build confidence in the ways in which they run their business.
Sorry, getting emotional. I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't either. The ways in which they build their business.
Now I've lost my train of thought. Thanks, emotions. Perhaps that's why I typically don't commemorate things. I think for me, I was thinking about it this morning as I was getting ready, there's a bit of fear in it. Anytime there's change or you're taking a step or a leap into something new, there's some fear around that. Pausing to go, okay, everybody, I'm-
doing this thing, can be very scary, but also there's the reflection and memory and emotions that might come along with the change. And so I'm assuming I'd have to talk to a therapist about it, but I'm assuming that has something to do with why I normally don't do it. But the other thing I wanted to talk about in regard to this, and we'll talk more about kind of the changes and stuff, but as I kind of mentioned, I thought we'd be in this house for a year.
I never, and my husband said this for the first time recently, it never felt like home. This room though, always did. This room. Normally people say the kitchen is the center of the home. You as a personal friend of mine, we have spent many hours in the kitchen in this home. There's a lot of love there amongst the people who've been in that kitchen, a lot of meals shared, but it had nothing to do with the space it was all about.
people. There's something about this room for me in this house. This is my favorite room. That's the chair that I sit in to journal in the morning. That's the chair that I sit in to read, to write podcast episodes quite often unless I'm downstairs on the couch. There's a beautiful sky and trees out here that I will remember that view. I love this room. I've always loved this room. I also think that that's really
interesting. I've been trying to move out of this house in my mind for seven years. And I've at once been dissatisfied and grateful all at the same time. And I think there's something to talk about there, especially as people in general, like founders who might relate to this. like, we always want to be
striving for the next thing or always moving toward the future. For me, it's really hard to not be there and to go, okay, I'm not where I want to be physically, but there are things where I am and in this moment that I can be grateful for. I don't know. It's like a strange dichotomy and it's also a challenge because that didn't exist every day.
and then to finally be at a place where it's like, okay, now is the time to move and to move on is very, very exciting. And the only thing that gives me pause is leaving this room. And leaving where this all started. So how do you take that room with you? Well, literally all of the furniture is coming with me.
Okay, very good. So we're going to, I'm actually going to try to make it look, yeah, look somewhat similar. You may find this funny. I mean, my favorite color is gray. I wear gray a lot. the place we're renting next has gray walls. And I was like, it's meant to be, it's like home. So it'll be a little bit of a different color wall situation, but we're going to try to make it look the same, you know.
And I'm going to show you guys around the house too a little bit. There are some little treasures around that are kind of sweet that I want to share with people, but it's going to sound different. It's going to look different. And that's also an interesting thing to think about is like, what will change? What will the next iterations of the business be like there? You know, and I don't know. And it's, I'm excited about it though.
Yeah, that's exciting. Yeah. So how do we say goodbye? That's a good question, actually.
I think I'm going to have a moment in the room before we go. I think I want to say thank you to everyone who has worked with me one-on-one, who has listened to or watched this podcast or watched a webinar. mean, okay, this is where I get emotional. Other people make this possible for me to do. I had a passion and a desire to do something.
And it can't be a thing unless people want you to do it and say, Hey, I recognize you as someone who maybe can help me or that I want to connect with or whatever. And that is overwhelmingly.
to overwhelming to think about. There are so many beautiful people who have been in this room with me virtually over the last seven years from downtown Los Angeles to Virginia, to Minnesota, to Alaska, to Hawaii, to Ohio.
Maine, the number of, to Australia and like New Zealand, we've, massively different time zones, right? Like Emily, who I'm thinking of, she literally made the comment when she was on the podcast, I've seen the changes in the office, like, cause it, how it evolved into its current iteration, and to think about,
the connections that I have made and that people have wanted to make with me professionally, personally, and how just grateful I am for all of them. mean...
This moment of reflection recording this bonus podcast episode is a way, I think, for me to pause and remember everything that has happened so far in this business and in this podcast and in this room. Yeah. And an opportunity to also say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the last seven years and being able to fulfill the dream of having my own business, being my own boss.
working with two of my best friends in the world and loving it and being able to leave this room and continue to do it in a new space is like really, really exciting and beautiful to me. So thank you and I'll see you in the new office.
We're kicking off season 13 with a brand new episode on January 6th.
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