Importance of ag communication: practical applications from a non-professional

Shay

Foulk: Great, my name is Shay Foulk and my title is a little bit varied, but I would call myself a farmer veteran, a seed salesperson, and then I also work in the consulting industry in agriculture.

Kelsey

Litchfield: That's awesome, and we'll dig into that a little later. So Shea, you kind of just did it there, but briefly share what's on your resume. Talk about your background in agriculture and how you've gotten to where you are today.

Shay

Foulk: No, that's a great question, and I think the best way to build the resume is to do it from where you are and work your way back. So currently, uh, I call it drowning in opportunity, and there's so much in front of me. So I recently transitioned out of the military. I was in Savannah, Georgia, serving with the 75th Ranger Regiment for 4 and a half years, and I'm now just jumping into lots of different activities with the Illinois Farm Bureau the AgriSafe Network, the Centers for Ag Safety and Health, and just have a lot of different involvement in those areas. I currently work in the seed sales with my father-in-law, Menier Soybeans and Menier Seed and Service. And then the agricultural consulting that I do is with my family in Iowa.

I work with Ag View Solutions and Chris Barron Consulting on everything from transition planning, collaboration, peer group facilitation, to really dialing in cost of production for farmers and just helping them with their businesses. Before that, I was at Iowa State University, graduated with a degree in agronomy, and am from the northeast Iowa area just outside of Waterloo.

Kelsey

Litchfield: So with all your jobs, I kind of want to call you a jack of all trades because you do a lot, and I like the phrase you did, drowning in opportunity. One thing I want to ask you, just thinking of all the jobs that you have, how important is communication? Because in an overall look at it, like, you communicate every single day through those different jobs. So I guess my question is, is how have you learned to communicate in those jobs as like a non-communicator coming into communications?

Shay

Foulk: Well, you've said it several times on your podcast here that you You know, everybody's a communicator and especially in the ag industry, I've really taken a hold on that and being able to tell your story is so important. You know, like this podcast and several other conversations is if you can just have that connection with someone and tell them real stories, you know, if it's a heartfelt connection there, it makes the communication piece so much easier. And that's from seed sales to the consulting, to advocating for agriculture really is just being able to have that personal connection. That means more than knowing every last detail and, you know, every law and regulation out there.

Kelsey

Litchfield: How has storytelling helped you with your job? Like you said, it creates connection, but like not being like a journalist or anything like that, how is having communication skills able to do better at your jobs?

Shay

Foulk: Well, it 100% adds credibility to the conversation. You know, I had a conversation here this afternoon at a Farm Bureau meeting actually that you can't teach experience. And so to be able to share those stories, it really opens the door to trust, which is one of the biggest things in communication is whether the person trusts you and the credibility that you have within that operation or within whatever it is that you're speaking on. To show that you have that experience is really a huge door to opening up that conversation and being an effective communicator.

Kelsey

Litchfield: I don't think farmers ever run out of stories, to be honest. I think that's an awesome thing. Like, I always hear a story and I always learn something new from them, but they have great perspective that you just need to listen, and the perspective that they have is truly valuable. And One thing I know as an ag communicator, we like to help train and engage those, you know, not that they're non-ag communicators because everyone's a communicator like we said, but the ones that don't get formal training in college, say like I did with a degree in ag communications. So with that in mind, like, why do— I want to— I want people to understand why it's necessary for everyone to have a communication skill set? You mentioned it creates connection and trust. What are your other thoughts about why everyone needs that skill set, especially in this industry?

Shay

Foulk: That's a great question, and I really appreciate you asking that. Without the communication aspect, everything else just kind of comes to a halt. You can have the best product in the world, you can have the best service in the world, But if you're not following up with customers, if you're not letting them tell their story and getting to know their operation, it goes back to that credibility that if you have an outsider coming into an operation and saying you need this or you need that, you know, I'm going to sell you this product, it's a completely different narrative than if you go into that operation and say, hey, what are your needs? How can we help you? What is it that you need in your, in your business in order to succeed? And how that is received. So not only just having the communication in the first place, but also effective communication.

There's a lot of fluff in the industry, you know, and the seed sales business. One thing that really stuck out to me with a meeting this year is farmers don't need more friends, they need seed business partners. And to look at how the industry has developed in that, you know, you have more competitive markets, you have several different providers and all these products out there. It's hard to kind of sift through all the fluff, but if you have someone that's truly a partner in the industry and is doing that effective communication, to a lot of producers that means a whole lot more. Now there's still plenty of people that want to drink a beer and talk about seed or, you know, have a, have a quality conversation and tell stories, And that's important, but I think knowing how to communicate with your audience is such a huge piece.

Kelsey

Litchfield: And knowing who your audience is, I think too. In past interviews, I think it always comes to who's your target audience and knowing who that is. For some farmers, it's consumers. They want to communicate what they're doing to consumers in an easy-to-understand way. Some other farmers, maybe their primary audience is other farmers. So what comes to mind I think it's a millennial farmer. He has YouTube videos and his target audience is, I hear all these other farmers watching it, or maybe there are some consumers, but it helps to knowing who your target audience is. And while that sounds like a big marketing tactic, it all goes back to connecting with your audience. And I think that helps target your messaging a lot more. Which can get into social media, which we can talk about later. But do you have any other thoughts on that?

Shay

Foulk: One thing I'll say on that, that you bring up a great point. So for this podcast, you know, let's frame this up and see who we're targeting on this audience. It's other communicators, it's people in the ag industry, it's just trying to provide the most value. So the conversation that we're having today of, you know, how is someone that's outside of the professional industry doing ag communication effectively or what I would like to be thought of as effectively. It goes back to what's your purpose, what's your vision? So the vision for this podcast is to share the best information to talk about ag communication. The podcasts that we run through the consulting business, that's just to provide value to our clients and the people that we work with.

So we might not be blowing it out of the water as far as the number of listens or throughplays that we have We feel really good about it, but the importance is that our vision is to provide value to our clients, to the people that we work with, and we're accomplishing that. So I think that's another thing of effective communication is ensuring that you're giving the most value to what your end state is.

Kelsey

Litchfield: And I think some people, they have troubles identifying who they're targeting, who their target audience is, their messaging, and some points like that. And sometimes people make fun of me because they're like, all you think about is strategy, strategy, strategy. Strategy. I'm like, well, without strategy, you have no aim. You have no target. And that's what I always encourage people that I work with, with clients, is let's, let's talk this out. And it's the simple questions. Who do you want to communicate with? What's your message? Just if you're listening to this podcast right now, I just encourage anyone, just if you want to be an active voice on social media, think through these things.

And that can help you be an effective communicator, especially if you are just getting into this profession right now of being more of a communicator and wanting to connect with other audiences in this industry and out too.

Shay

Foulk: And one thing I'll say on that targeting, I really like that you brought that up. I can't take credit for this, this is Chris who I work with on the consulting, but he says, you know, if If you're in the military and you go out to shoot at a range, he goes, do you just shoot into the sky or shoot downrange? Well, no, that's not your purpose. You have a specific target. And so it's the same way when it comes to communication or your podcast or your development is you focus on a little, little itty-bitty target. What's your goal? And then you'll probably hit the paper. If you don't hit the paper, well, at least you're in the area and you can kind of narrow it down from there.

Kelsey

Litchfield: One thing that I just thought of, Shay, some people tell me when they are wanting to be more vocal, whether it's social media or telling their story, one of the— not necessarily an excuse I get, but a worry that some people have is, "There are other people just like me out there that want to communicate their story. What do I have to offer? What's different about me?" And I tell people every story is unique. Your operation can be unique, or any other factors can make you unique. And I think so many people run into, uh, well, I really don't have anything to say. What's so special about me? So kind of talk through about how you've made yourself unique through the channels that you communicate on.

Shay

Foulk: I think that's an awesome question to pose because a lot of people are afraid, like you said, that they don't have value or don't have anything important to share. The first thing that I'll say to that as a rebuttal, or however you want to think of it, is there is no market saturation when it comes to telling your story and to advocating for agriculture. And it's not the cheesy advocating, it's simply telling that story and having a conversation. So flying out to Las Vegas last week, I had a great conversation with the person next to me who knew nothing about farming. And all I did was spark up a conversation and say, hey, you know, where are you from, what do you do? And to be able to communicate that to them and change their perspective, you know, my target there was not to change how they feel about GMOs or about large-scale farming.

It was just to get them involved in agriculture, you know. And I think that's just so crucial there is understanding you will never completely change or saturate the market by telling your story. The second thing is, is you have to reach outside of your comfort zone, because if you are not naturally a public speaker, if you don't think that your story is important, that's where it ends. It begins and ends right there. You already set yourself up to fail. But if you just talk— now that comes with a little bit of a backside too. Don't talk more than what you actually know or make yourself seeing that you know everything about agriculture, but to share that is, is really important.

Kelsey

Litchfield: And you don't have to be on social media to share your story. Like you said, you were on a flight to Vegas and you just struck up a conversation with everyone. That's when it says everyone's a communicator in some shape or form. You don't have to be on Twitter, you don't have to be on Facebook or YouTube or anything like that. The best communicators can relate to people in person, And that's what the hopes I tell people of social media is it begins a conversation that you can have with someone in person. So on the topic of social media, I do want to get into LinkedIn because you have a very good active presence on LinkedIn. Kind of talk about how you decided to be on LinkedIn and share content there.

Shay

Foulk: LinkedIn is an incredibly crucial platform in the professional industry, and if nothing else, it's the business card of the internet. So people can actively search, they know who you are, they know what you do, and it gives you credit, that same sort of credibility of, hey, this is my background. So you asked me about my resume today. Well, your resume's on your LinkedIn profile. Anybody can go see that. But it's also an incredible way to share your story and it's completely free. Your organic reach is extremely high with LinkedIn for people that may not even be in your industry, So with LinkedIn, they have an article section to where you can actually write your own article and publish it as though it's a written article onto LinkedIn.

Well, if you were a first-time user on LinkedIn, if you created a LinkedIn profile today, you wrote an article that was halfway relevant, you could reach out and touch probably 40 or 50 people and maybe 1 or 2 of them would see, hey, this has some really good value. I like their perspective. I'm glad they shared that story. And then you begin to really build that network and not just your social network, the people that you're meeting at conventions or work and people that can reach out to you and help you with whatever it is that you're trying to do. So I found that to be incredibly beneficial and it doesn't have to be anything crazy. It can just be your thoughts. So for instance, I wrote a quick post on what my thoughts were before I headed down to the Farmer Veteran Conference in Texas a couple of weeks ago.

And just the perceptions that I have, is that going to be posted in AgriNews or Farm Futures or whatever else? No, but there are other people that understand that train of thought and like to see that you are a real person experiencing real things and understanding you have so much to learn.

Kelsey

Litchfield: I love your point there because even though, and I'll throw this out there, I know people are going to laugh, being 24 going on 25, granted I was really, really young when the internet was, um, coming around and I don't remember any of that, but it's been just in the past like 10 years, it's been so cool to watch the involvement of digital media. Like 10 years ago, you would have had to been working on a magazine to get things published. Nowadays you can publish an article on LinkedIn or a post on Facebook. And granted that does come with credibility and things like that, but it's so cool how you can do your own radio show through a podcast or, You can do so many cool things that 10 years ago you wouldn't have been able to do. I think I would love to see people take more of those things on.

Not to be overwhelmed or anything, but really utilize the tools that we have in the digital media space now because then you can create that connection and trust that we keep coming back to.

Shay

Foulk: Here's another thing on the LinkedIn side that I'll just throw out there. If you are an ag journalist or someone that wants to write, you think you have an important story to tell, You can write an article if you wanted to. You can write an article every day for 2020 and you take 2 or 3 of them that you feel is really good and you look at every LinkedIn connection that is listed as CEO or publisher or writer or editor and target all the magazines within agriculture or whatever and just send them a DM and say, hey, here's an article, wondering if you had any interest in this or what are your thoughts? Now it might be a bit overwhelming and your return might be zero, but guess what? You're getting your name out there. And maybe you reach out to a recruiter that when you're looking for a position, they say, oh yeah, I kind of remember that name.

Or yes, no, I saw that you, you know, and it could even be shared on LinkedIn. It doesn't have to be published, but if you have someone else that's sharing that information, your distribution model there, one, is completely free. Two, you have access to an incredible network of professionals. And three, if you're doing it right, you're doing what you love, you're communicating.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Right, right. I've, I've, some of, one of my professors, or maybe it was a mentor, I can't remember, she said the same exact thing. She goes, it doesn't hurt to put those things out there and share what you love to do, whether it's video or writing or anything like that. And it's so amazing that it's free nowadays. Like, what's the worst that they say? They say no, we can't publish this, or but at least you're reaching out and putting your name out there. And that's a shout out to any college students listening right now. If I could go back to college, I would do more like writing or video. I would do more and push it out there more. Just not only as a resume builder, but to build those connections and trust with other people. Shay, real quick, I wanna get a little specific in terms of what content you create.

So do you wanna give the audience a little bit of taste of what exactly kind of communication pieces you make.

Shay

Foulk: So I referenced earlier that we do a podcast. We started this in April, uh, we just hit 105 episodes. And it's being able to take these conversations that we're having right now and put them out there to provide value. So for us, it's providing value to the clients that we work with on the consulting business and anybody else that's just interested. We want to help farmers do their job better, to be more successful, to accomplish their goals. And so putting out content on everything from agronomics to safety, marketing, transition planning, collaboration, anything that we see as value to people is something that you should just be putting out. And it doesn't have to be the best quality audio or necessarily the top person in the industry to speak on it. It's giving that value to the consumers, like I said.

Another thing that I like to share is just photos, and it's not a perfectly staged photo of a sunset over a soybean field. You know, I leave those pictures to my wife who does a phenomenal job on that end, but it's more so the daily happenings of, you know, what am I thinking about when I get in this tractor safety-wise? What are some considerations I need to have? Or, you know, putting new flashing lights on the back of a wagon, or sharing my thought process that goes into the seed cleaning side of the business. These are perspectives, you know, you've used that word a few times. These are perspectives that you can share with people out there that don't understand what a day in Shay Foulk' life looks like. And it's not, uh, it's not a flaunting, it's not an idealization of how it is. It's more so This is what I do. This is my business, and I would like to share it with you.

So content creation on that scale is very easy and very natural. The other thing that I like for the content side is I really enjoy writing. And so whether that's writing on, as I mentioned earlier, just thoughts that I have or specific topics— safety is near and dear to my heart, so I do some writing on that. Looking at writing between collaboration and transition planning and what that looks like, and then also working within multi-generations and the dynamics that go along with that.

Kelsey

Litchfield: So one question I have for you is, how do you find the time to do these types of things? Communication is a big priority for many, but I also hear people saying, "I don't have time to do all that," but yet we really need them to communicate their story out there. So what's, what's your thought on people saying, oh, I don't have time to do this?

Shay

Foulk: Right. So I have sympathy— well, rather, I have empathy for people that said they don't have time. Uh, what I will say to that is we all have the same amount of time. I've really devoted myself. Uh, we did this as a Fourth of July podcast on our edition on how transitioning from the military to now has maybe changed the perspective in agriculture. And one of the biggest things that I found is I don't make excuses for what's going on. You make the time for the things that you think are important and you make the time for the things that you want to do. Now, where I say I have empathy is I understand this stuff's scary. I mean, people are in a world that's maybe a little bit more instant gratification.

So if you're not getting that organic reach or the likes or the following or interaction, or you're constantly getting rejected, It's difficult and I understand that, but you, you determine your future. You know, you determine the impact that you can have based off of your work ethic. So where do I find the time? Well, I don't really have that much time, but I make, I make the time for the things that I think are important. Another thing that I'll say to that too is people sometimes hold this insanely high standard for themselves on I have to have the perfect article or the perfect production or the perfect picture to post, and you don't. You can do 70 to 80% of what you think is perfect.

You might not think it's great and you kick it out and all of a sudden it just has a huge following, or for whatever reason you hit the, you hit the consumers right, what they wanted to see at the right time, and it's probably just luck. But you know what, sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart. So just putting that out there and sharing that information, I think, is huge.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Yeah, I, I wholeheartedly agree. You make time to do those things. And one time someone told me, done is better than perfect. And I've really taken that to heart because, um, like, I, I think before we officially started this episode I told you, put on do not disturb or anything like that. But people want to know that behind the video, behind the blog, that they are real people wanting to communicate their message and they're real people you can connect with and be inspired by and be motivated by. So that's, again, we keep coming back to that trust thing that I think is at the end of the day, all this we talk about comes back to trust and that ultimately builds relationships. And that's how you communicate with others is through that app.

Shay

Foulk: One thing that I'll caveat on with the trust is making sure that you're genuine. You know, it's one thing to tell your story because you have an end state, you know, to sell seed or to do consulting, but people can really tell if you're genuine in your intentions, if you're genuine and wanting to help them or tell their story or or work with them too. I mean, if it's reaching out to a business and saying, hey, I'd really like to work with you, well, they can see right through whether it's something that you're passionate about or whether it's something that you truly want to do, to dedicate your time and yourself to. So I would say just knowing your truth and understanding that your intent is genuine and whatever it is that you decide to do, and the success will come.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Right, definitely, I agree. So kind of shifting gears a little bit, with communications and like modern media always trending and emerging, and it's hard to keep up with the trends sometimes, but you can do the best you can. How do you continue your own education in that sense? Like in the non-traditional classroom sense, how do you keep up to date as an ag communicator?

Shay

Foulk: I think one of the keys is just knowing what's important and knowing what the market is desiring. So that's with what we were talking about earlier, that if you go to the market with a product, 9 times out of 10 you're going to get rejected. But if you go to the market and say, hey, what, what can I do? What can I provide? Then the market and the consumers will tell you. So to tie that back into communication, a lot of people in agriculture probably have no idea what TikTok is, but you can get on TikTok and create a free account and share your story on TikTok and have an organic reach of like 200,000 the first time you post something relevant to agriculture. And how many times did you tell that story over probably more than anything you've done in the last 2 years on sharing your content, your distribution model?

So I think communication is just knowing what's out there Not being afraid to try new things and ensuring that, you know, if you're going to commit some time to it, just even if it's 10 minutes, say, hey, I'm going to learn about this for 10 minutes. I'm going to move on because you can get a long ways by headline reading on topics that makes you a more effective communicator because you can talk to people and talk on things.

Kelsey

Litchfield: There's— go ahead. There's a lot of newsletters or out there that I strongly suggest people research, or I can't— none are coming to the top of my head right now, but there was one in college that I subscribed to for a class that I wish I hadn't unsubscribed to because I can't remember what it was now, but it was always talking about emerging media trends. And while you might think, oh, I'll wait down the road until everyone else is on this, everyone has their own means of communication. For me, it's video. I like doing video. For you, it might be writing. For someone else, it might be something else. And it's really about finding that means of communication that fits you best because not everyone's comfortable in front of a camera. That's okay. Some people are more comfortable with keyboard and writing.

It's just all about finding your— I guess I'm going to coin the word niche communication because communication is not one size fits all. And I don't encourage people to do everything. You don't have to have a blog and a vlog and a photo series and everything like that. Just stick to what feels genuine to you in means of creating content.

Shay

Foulk: And the other thing I'll say on that too is the point I hit on with market saturation earlier is just because Facebook is popular doesn't mean that there aren't 100,000 50+ farmers out there that are reading the local paper. Every day. So if you want to be a, you know, communication person in agriculture, write for your local paper or be on Facebook or make a satirical Twitter account that talks about ag issues and have true interaction on there and see what kind of feedback you get. You know, I think the opportunities are endless. And you want to talk about niche, you know, find your niche.

Kelsey

Litchfield: I always think, and I'm not going to speak on behalf of all ag editors, But I know many are always looking for perspective from whether it's a farmer or a salesman or— I know when I was doing a little bit of journalism, we were always looking for like monthly guest columns or things like that. And it goes back to being your credibility, of course, but then, oh, they see, oh, a farmer's writing that. Like, I know I'll relate to him or her in some way, shape, or form. So I strongly encourage people that are listening out there to get in contact with your local newspaper editor, even radio or something like that. I know they're always looking for content, especially from a perspective of someone out in that actual industry.

Shay

Foulk: And one thing I'll say on that too, that leads into collaboration. So one thing that we do in the consulting is we actually facilitate peer groups. And that peer learning among farmers is huge in the industry because you're not talking with the neighbors and worrying about, well, what do they think about my operation? Now you can sit down with people that are from different states, completely different industries, and gain an insight into what you're doing. So to relate that to ag communication, whether that's LinkedIn or the podcast that you listen to, I know conferences are huge in ag communication because you're just sharing ideas and stories. Why not have that in a little bit more of a formal setting?

Why should you not have ag communication peer groups or peer networks that it may not actually be physically meeting up, and maybe you do a conference call once a month and say, hey, this is what's working in my area, this is what I'm doing in my industry, you might want to look into this, right?

Kelsey

Litchfield: Right. Um, I also work in the Chamber of Commerce world, and we're about to initiate, um, these circles for small business owners for them to give them a place where they can talk through ideas, brainstorm, talk about their problems and solutions and things like that. And I think it speaks so heavily to what people need nowadays. They just need someone that understands what they're going through and then maybe offer advice or tip or something to get them through that problem or just to celebrate too. We sometimes, we can forget to celebrate our successes with one another as well.

Shay

Foulk: And sometimes in agriculture you get to be a very lonely island out there because you're doing things online and you're making phone calls and you're not going to the local meetings because you either know the information or you don't have the time for it. And so to just establish that network and have that physical, you know, personal interaction, I really think is important too for mental health as well.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Right. Big shout out to AAE. I do want to say that, or the Ag Comm Network that supports this podcast. They're a great membership association. For you to talk with other ag communicators as well. Shay, real quick, I know we're running out of time, but that doesn't mean we can't go over because we can do what we want, right? Yes. I want to talk about real quick, as an ag professional, like we said, not formally trained in communications, but you're doing a great job in communicating your story. What is your perspective of what industry can do, do better at in terms of communication?

Shay

Foulk: I think I've hit on it a couple times, but truly going to the market and figuring out what they want. There's a lot going on in industry, whether it's different accounting systems or different products or distribution models, of people trying to say, here's the answer, instead of figuring out what people actually need. And where they get caught up in that is it creates confusion for the farmers and for the other communicators out there, and it's pretty ineffective. So I think from a communication standpoint of finding out what your target is and, and focusing in on that, I think that's one of the most important things that an industry can do.

The other thing is, if you're not doing a podcast, if you're not creating content If you're not getting ready for the digital age and the next generation, you might as well write it off as being finished by the end of the decade because this stuff is not slowing down. Mm-hmm. You know, everything's getting faster. Everything's getting a little bit more complex, but at the same time it's getting convenient and easier to use. So you need to teach yourself. You need to be constantly learning in this area. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that you shouldn't give it a try.

Kelsey

Litchfield: I strongly advise people if there's like an emerging media trend out there, new social media, talked about TikTok earlier, get in touch with your local— if you have a magazine editor, they're always a great resource, or a radio host or someone in farm broadcasting, like they are great resources to have in terms that have had communication formally trained, not all of them, but they, they are immersed in that media industry where they can be a resource for you as you're learning to be better in the communication space. And like you said, it's ever-evolving. No one knows everything. It's so tough to keep up with nowadays. But like you said, if we can work together and teach others and engage others about what's going on out there, like you said, the peer-to-peer I think we can all rally together and move forward in this ever-changing media space.

Shay

Foulk: One thing that I'll make a note of here, and this isn't to boost your ego or anything, but I really enjoyed this podcast and the distribution of information. You know, for me to sit in the combine for 8 hours and just go through a bunch of the podcasts that you had done and then do the same thing a week later. You want to talk about professional development and learning from your peers and what can the ag communication, you know, network be doing better. This has been a phenomenal role. So to you and the team that is behind this supporting this, I really appreciate what you've done with the podcast and whatever the future holds there. I just want to, you know, thank you for the time and effort that you put into that.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Thank you. It's fun to see things like this evolve. Like, for people that don't know, I just wanted to be kind of behind a microphone more because I have a broadcast background and wasn't currently doing that in my current job. And I also— AAEA, Livestock Publications Council, they have an annual conference every year called Ag Media Summit. And I'm like, why aren't we doing these types of— not necessarily workshops, but seminars— why aren't we doing these around the year instead of just in the summertime when that conference happened. So that's where I saw a, um, a need or problem. And that's how I came up with this podcast. That's what I'm thinking of right now. Like you just said, go to the market and people coined this as find your white space, which is what no one else is doing. Um, and that's how I think things will grow and that's how you'll communicate with people.

That's how you target them because they see that need with you. And they want to listen in. So it's all coming full circle right now. So Shay, real quick, I do want to do a little plug for the Ag View Pitch Podcast. So can you tell everyone briefly about the podcast and how that project came to fruition? I want to give everyone an idea of how you had this project idea and where it is now.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about finding your white space, I would say The white space that we filled with the Ag View Pitch is we had Duane Lowry, a market analyst, join on with the Ag View Solutions team. And we wanted to say, how can we most effectively distribute this information? And we had, you know, Duane does a fantastic newsletter that goes really deep into specifics and technical data that's in the market, but we wanted to have higher-level conversations that would benefit farmers because, you know, Chris was getting 3 to 4 phone calls a day on, hey, what do you think of the markets, or what should I be doing, which is great. We thought, how can we better communicate this so that when clients and farmers call us, we're answering more specific questions that can really help their operation?

So we saw that white space, we saw the opportunity with the podcast, and we thought, we know nothing about podcasts. I'm not an ag communicator, I never took a class on this, but I basically just sat down for 2 and a half days and dedicated my time to that, figured out how to do a podcast, hopped on Anchor, and, you know, 3 days later we had our first podcast. And so now we're at 100 episodes. That was this April. And just continuing to provide whatever, you know, our clients or the farmers out there are telling us that they'd like to hear more on, and also distributing information. Because if you're in an area of expertise in your industry and there's something that people need to know more on that they're not familiar with, you need to bring that to them. So like in the safety side of things, people aren't talking about safety in agriculture to the extent that we think it's important.

And there's other risk management strategies, whether it's the marketing or knowing your cost of production or making timely agronomic decisions. There's so many experts out there that through the podcast we were able to reach out to. So If, you know, if you're involved in farming or someone is interested in your family that you think would benefit, like you said, Ag View Pitch, we're on all the podcast platforms. You know, we'd love to hear ideas too from anyone out there on what we should be talking about.

Kelsey

Litchfield: I just— this is me like nerding out a bit, but I just think it's so cool how anyone can do a show, can write a blog. And I know we've already talked about this, but just seeing people seeing the need and going after it through digital media. It's just, there's room for everyone to put out their story, to put information out there, credible information out there. I think it's a cool thing to watch evolve, and I just wonder where the next 10 years will go in terms of information and creating content. I think it's an exciting space to to be in right now.

Shay

Foulk: And if you had told me a year ago that I would be writing or posting on LinkedIn or doing podcasts, I probably would have said you're crazy, but it's just, it's how it's developed. And to realize the importance, you know, like you said, once it's come full circle or you have that light bulb go off, it's like, yes, this makes sense. Why am I not doing this?

Kelsey

Litchfield: Shay, do you have any advice for anyone out there that's wanting, whether they are in ad communications right now or they're looking from the outside in, what's your advice to them on, um, just being in communications in general and sharing your story?

Shay

Foulk: I mean, don't be discouraged. We've said it several times here that there's so much opportunity out there. There's opportunity to find your white space. And the other thing too is you don't have to have your own podcast. You don't have to write your own articles. There are a million different positions out there to where you can be successful. If you're the number 2 or number 5 or number 7 in the company, that's providing value. And if that's what you like to do, if that's your truth, if that's what you're genuine about and that's how you help the team, then absolutely go for it. There's a lot of pressure out there of everybody has to be an entrepreneur. Everybody has to succeed in their own industry, which is phenomenal if that's your path and that's your calling. But for so many people, it's that team environment and having that structure and quality leadership.

That if you're heavily involved in ag communications or you're still in college and, you know, the world's in front of you, like I said at the beginning, drowning in opportunity, right? Find something, run towards it, and get that experience because you can't teach experience. So just start doing, start doing things. And, you know, don't be discouraged if you don't have the best feedback initially or you're not getting enough likes on your LinkedIn articles. If you're genuine, if you have a truth, and if you're good at it, it'll come.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Drop the mic. That's a really good note to end on. Um, I started this podcast, um, and people would ask, oh, how many followers, how many subscribers? I go, none of that really matters because I'm doing what I came here to do, and that's just to create content in just hopes of one person listening. And getting something from that podcast. I don't care how many likes, follows I have. I just want to put it out there for the world and whoever, and my target audience, of course, go back to that strategy. But just hopes that someone out there, this is going to impact their career, or this is going to introduce them to someone or create connection or something along the lines of that. It's just, it's what I came to do. And I'm, I'm excited to see where this podcast will go.

Shay

Foulk: Well, and on the safety side, what we say is just one. You know, if you prevent just one injury, if you save just one life, if you save just one farm money as a result of what you're doing, then it's worth it. It's worth the time that you spent and to chase after it and to know that you went down the path and not question whether you ever should have. I mean, that gives you a peace of mind that's hard to compare.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Yeah, definitely. Shay, where can people follow your work and connect with you online?

Shay

Foulk: So you can either connect on LinkedIn as we mentioned earlier, and that's just Shay Foulk. You can look us up at agviewsolutions.com. The seed business is Minear Seed and Service, and there's several other platforms that we're connected to. I encourage anybody listening to follow along at the Ag View Pitch if you have any interest there. And just look forward to interacting with anybody that gives us a listen.

Kelsey

Litchfield: Perfect. Shay, thank you so much for being my last official guest as a host. Um, I know when you reached out to me, I know we're on the same wavelength on many things, and it's just, it's, it's been a great, um, time to have you on this podcast and just talking about communication in general and why it is important and still will forever be important to have this skill set.

Shay

Foulk: Well, Kelsey, thank you. Everything that you've done with ag communications, and looking forward to watching your next chapter here. Thanks again for listening, everyone. If you would like to hear more content from Ag View Solutions, listen to our other podcasts such as Dad's Wisdom or our current Harvest Series. Ag View Solutions works as an integral part of operations like yours side by side for farm profit management, business collaboration and structuring, facilitating industry-leading peer groups, and coaching and consulting tailored to your farm's unique needs. We know that no two farms are the same, and we are here to help make your farm be the best it can be. You can learn more at agviewsolutions.com, email us at agviewpitch@gmail.com, or call Chris Barron at 319- 533-5703. We really look forward to talking with you.