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Finding Your Fit – Farmers Market Personality Types
60 Plays2 days ago
In this episode, we dive into how different personality types influence success in farmers markets and other direct sales channels. We discuss the social energy of in-person selling, the efficiency of wholesale, and the balance of CSA models. Self-awareness is key—knowing your strengths can help shape a business model that truly fits you. We also explore online marketing, vendor dynamics, and the value of hiring help. Whether farming is your business or a passion project, we share tools like the PRIMER test and the Hort Biz quiz to help you find your best market match. Tune in for insights and encouragement!
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Weather and Its Impact on Agriculture
00:00:15
Alexis
What up, true leaves? We're here.
00:00:17
Jessica
hello
00:00:18
Alexis
We're caffeinated.
00:00:18
Plant People
The tree leaves are enjoying longer days here in the K-Y.
00:00:18
Alexis
Woohoo! They're windy right now, but they are at least longer, so.
00:00:23
Plant People
It very much so.
00:00:25
Jessica
But it is sunny. but just
00:00:27
Plant People
Spring does not disappoint. It's 80 degrees one day and maybe in the 20s and thirtyties the next one.
00:00:31
Alexis
Yeah, plants photosynthesize even when it's windy.
00:00:31
Jessica
Right.
00:00:34
Alexis
That's what I tell myself, is I almost blow away outside. um But, know, how's everybody feeling?
00:00:37
Brett
Oh, wow.
00:00:38
Plant People
Yeah. It has been very windy out. Good, good.
00:00:42
Jessica
Pretty good.
00:00:42
Plant People
Good, bad better. Longer days.
00:00:44
Brett
All right.
00:00:44
Plant People
Sunnier days.
00:00:45
Brett
You know, this this time of year, the the the leaves are emerging and it's sort of a transitional period where if you're interested in identifying plants, identifying trees, it's kind of a fun little window of time of like, oh, that's what the buds on this thing look like.
00:00:45
Plant People
Pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah.
00:00:57
Plant People
It is.
00:01:01
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:01:01
Brett
That's what the flowers on this thing look like.
00:01:01
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:01:02
Plant People
i was not happy in the orchard the other day as making a site visit to an orchard looking at peach trees. And I believe the variety was contender, which is typically for Kentucky, a more winter hardy variety. And I bet you only one bud in 20 was viable.
00:01:12
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:01:17
Plant People
And I was like, oh no, I don't know if that's going to be, I'm going to have to dig more into that, but yeah, could have been a contender.
00:01:17
Brett
Wow.
00:01:17
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:01:22
Brett
Could have been a contender.
00:01:24
Jessica
I kind of like seeing the maples flowering, right?
00:01:24
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:01:27
Jessica
Because I think people don't think about those type of trees flowering, but they totally are.
00:01:28
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:33
Jessica
Their flowers are opening right now.
00:01:34
Alexis
they're so cute.
00:01:35
Jessica
bright red.
00:01:35
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:35
Jessica
once you recognize them, they really stand out.
00:01:38
Brett
Oh, yes.
00:01:38
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah. recognize them like they really stand out you know like
00:01:42
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:42
Brett
Yes.
Tree Identification and Characteristics
00:01:43
Brett
<unk> and They're like little, listy little...
00:01:43
Jessica
home
00:01:44
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:01:45
Plant People
Very delicate, delicate kind of things.
00:01:45
Jessica
yeah
00:01:47
Plant People
Yeah.
00:01:48
Brett
Well, i thought I thought it would be a good opportunity to remind people of a little acronym as far as identifying trees. And last last episode, we were talking with old Dr.
00:01:56
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:02:00
Brett
Rick Besson, and he mentioned, you all mentioned the Box Elder bug, which made me think of Box Elder, which is actually in the genus Acer, which is maples.
00:02:03
Jessica
one
00:02:10
Plant People
Mm-hmm, and the maple.
00:02:10
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:02:11
Brett
um And so the the letter acronym thing, for is mad or made if you want to include the elder box elder and maples ash and dogwood those are the trees that have opposite leaf patterns as opposed to alternating leaf patterns and so as you look and see these things if if if it looks almost like a a trident where there's a leaf coming out on one side a leaf coming on the other side and a central shoot coming out
00:02:31
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:02:31
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:02:43
Brett
It might be, it probably is a maple and ash or a dogwood.
00:02:47
Jessica
Thank you.
00:02:47
Brett
And so some people will call it mad dog. So that way the D that you remember what the D stands for, but um that was just something. And then the box elder is the other one because it's um it's a maple. So it has the same or it's in that genus.
00:02:57
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:58
Brett
So it has the same the same alternating leaf pattern. I mean, the opposite leaf pattern as opposed to alternate leaf pattern, which is that it's sort of like one on the right side and then a little further down the chute.
00:03:08
Brett
There's one on the left side and then a little further down the chute. There's one on the right side. um So as you're, as you're enjoying the spring flowers and buds and leaves and everything pushing, and you're maybe interested in learning a little more about trees, that was something I wanted to share.
00:03:21
Brett
I didn't get to share it last episode.
00:03:21
Plant People
well
00:03:23
Brett
ah Rick had a lot of great stories, but.
00:03:26
Alexis
I've heard that one as like mad buck or mad horse. Jessica, did you learn it as mad buck or mad horse?
00:03:32
Jessica
I like had totally forgotten about that until Brett started talking and it just like suddenly came back to me.
00:03:34
Alexis
Yeah. I was like, there's one more. And so um the the buck is buckeye, but you could also use horse if that makes more sense. Mad horse, because it's horse chestnut.
00:03:44
Plant People
of course just yeah yeah
00:03:45
Alexis
So it's like the other common name.
00:03:47
Brett
Because horse chestnut and buckeye are the same thing.
00:03:47
Alexis
And so i was like, yep, yep. So, yeah.
00:03:51
Brett
But you don't say um you don't see, there's ah there is a really cool buckeye up here in our neighborhood, but you don't see them around as much.
00:03:57
Plant People
no no I don't see much in Lexington no
00:03:58
Jessica
You don't, do you?
00:04:00
Alexis
Because they get a lot of sun-scald issues, so they're not something you usually see that often.
00:04:06
Brett
So they mostly grow in the dark.
00:04:08
Alexis
Huh?
00:04:09
Brett
So they mostly grow in the dark.
00:04:11
Alexis
Yeah, they're basically vampires.
00:04:12
Plant People
They grow with friends, like grow with the friends and group.
00:04:13
Jessica
yeah
00:04:13
Brett
Oh, wow.
00:04:14
Alexis
um Yeah, they grow with friends.
00:04:16
Brett
Also, Buckeye, horse chestnut, vampire tree.
00:04:17
Alexis
Vampire train.
00:04:19
Brett
Another common name.
00:04:19
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:04:20
Jessica
Yeah.
00:04:20
Plant People
Yes. And beads about us reflect.
00:04:21
Alexis
yeah
00:04:22
Brett
And it's got that's a really pretty one up up here up here. And it's ah got big ol pretty big ol leaves. And yeah, but I guess we're we're on this so southern edge maybe of some of the
00:04:27
Alexis
and
00:04:32
Alexis
There's a, is it, what's the name? ah red It's the red buckeye that has like the pink floral, like floral display.
00:04:38
Brett
mmm
00:04:38
Jessica
Yeah.
00:04:39
Alexis
And it is, and hummingbirds love it. Oh my, it's, it'll stop you in your tracks. It's so beautiful. So.
00:04:45
Jessica
A long time ago, in the early mid-2000s, when
00:04:50
Plant People
1900s.
00:04:52
Alexis
The early aughts.
00:04:53
Jessica
when i when i worked at the UK Research Farm and they had a lot of more of the ornamental plantings out there, the horticulture research farm, they had a big planting of those at the back of the farm. And they were real they were massive and beautiful when they were flowering.
00:05:03
Alexis
Oh,
00:05:03
Plant People
Oh, nice. Very nice.
00:05:07
Alexis
oh I can't believe I missed that.
00:05:07
Jessica
I don't think they're there anymore.
00:05:09
Alexis
No, they're not.
00:05:09
Jessica
and um They were near where they did all the hydrangea trials at. That was also impressive to see.
00:05:16
Alexis
Sad day.
Marketing Strategies in Agriculture
00:05:17
Alexis
Sad day.
00:05:18
Brett
Well, so mad is one way that people might feel when forced to interact with other people.
00:05:19
Alexis
But.
00:05:25
Brett
Happy, happy is another way that people might feel, you know, sometimes if if you have to interact with people or you have to deal with spreadsheets or you have to deal with other things, maybe that makes you feel horse chestnutty.
00:05:26
Alexis
Beautiful.
00:05:26
Jessica
yeah
00:05:27
Alexis
Segue.
00:05:28
Jessica
a
00:05:29
Plant People
Thank you.
00:05:37
Brett
um But today we wanted to talk about all those different feelings and personality types and and angles on that to Instead of talking about the gardening type, like we talked about a few weeks ago, know know yourself and then know your gardening type.
00:05:53
Brett
This time around, we thought we'd do the markets and just thinking about who we are as people.
00:05:56
Alexis
Mhm Mhm
00:05:58
Brett
um And we may play some characters, you know, it could be that it's not, you know, that we're all misanthropic and don't ever want to interact with people. But but the for this podcast, we will pretend that we do.
00:06:05
Plant People
want to be the mad horse.
00:06:09
Brett
ah And just talk about some of the different market types that we feel like we, you know, could could work with based on our personalities.
00:06:15
Alexis
so Yeah.
00:06:17
Brett
How's that sound?
00:06:17
Alexis
So I like it.
00:06:19
Jessica
Sounds good.
00:06:20
Plant People
Let's go.
00:06:20
Alexis
Who wants, who wants to be, who wants to be the public lover of interacting with people and just telling them about your, yeah, Jessica.
00:06:21
Plant People
Let's go.
00:06:29
Plant People
me up for the producer that stays on the farm.
00:06:29
Jessica
I guess...
00:06:31
Brett
The professional extrovert.
00:06:34
Jessica
I guess that's me. um
00:06:36
Alexis
yeah
00:06:37
Jessica
I guess that's me from our farmer's market thing because like the the like the technology side of it, like doing that, like now like reminding myself to post on Facebook and doing all that is such a chore, right?
00:06:54
Alexis
Yeah.
00:06:56
Jessica
Yeah.
00:06:57
Plant People
yeah
00:06:58
Jessica
versus when i would sell at markets, you know, once you get there and you're after that first year and you get established, you know, you meet people, you make friends, you have your like loyal customers.
00:06:58
Alexis
yeah
00:07:10
Jessica
There's people you look forward to seeing every week. There's maybe people you don't look forward to seeing every week, but there's like, you know, and to have that interaction. And I definitely say like both my husband and myself, like the more challenging part for us is like the, know,
00:07:25
Jessica
if doing like a wholesale or doing like just advertising online versus actually talking with people, explaining like why we grow certain things or like our cattle, they eat, you know, grain and grass and hay. And why do they eat that? Or like how we raise them and telling our story kind of like face to face with people.
00:07:49
Jessica
ah Now there's a times we both like reach our limits. Yeah.
00:07:53
Alexis
Sure.
00:07:53
Jessica
And if you need a break from it, it's normal.
00:07:55
Alexis
That's normal. Yeah.
00:07:56
Jessica
But i know I've mentioned this one before on here at one point, but like there's a customer, i have no idea what his name is, but he has a Corgi and his name is Dougal. And I look forward to seeing Dougal and his owner at the market, you know, and I know, you know, I know what kind of like tomatoes he's going to be looking for, you know, those kinds of things.
00:08:07
Alexis
Dougal!
00:08:16
Jessica
So definitely I am more of that.
00:08:19
Alexis
The relationship builder.
00:08:20
Brett
what What kind of tomatoes does Dougal like?
00:08:21
Jessica
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Dougal usually just goes under the table to get out of the sun.
00:08:26
Brett
Oh, I see.
00:08:26
Alexis
That's fair.
00:08:26
Jessica
right. But Dougal's owner, he's, you know.
00:08:28
Brett
Dougal's more of the beat the B portion of the BLT probably.
00:08:32
Jessica
Yes. Yeah. So he's hoping for.
00:08:33
Alexis
Hmm?
00:08:35
Brett
I got you. see So you you don't, you um I'm going to not put words in your mouth here.
00:08:35
Jessica
Okay.
00:08:39
Jessica
Okay.
00:08:39
Plant People
Thank you.
00:08:39
Brett
you You don't, on a scale of you don't mind to you enjoy that customer service, interpersonal, in-person interaction, where would you put yourself?
00:08:49
Jessica
oh I would say I enjoy right? Like that was one of the things like when doing the market, when trying to decide, hey, do we want to grow drop off produce at like a stand, like an already established stand?
00:08:54
Brett
Yeah, I could see that.
00:09:05
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:09:05
Jessica
Do we want to grow and try to do like the auctions? Because we're not that far away from where a well-established auction is. um Or, know, building those relationships. And we learned really quickly that it what Even though markets are tiring, it's a big commitment.
00:09:22
Jessica
It's a lot. And by the end of the season, you're ready to be done because you're just tired. um It's nice building those relationships. And, you know, with building our media following, it's nice now to see some of those people that we see in person also follow us on there.
00:09:39
Jessica
But ah yeah, I would say enjoy it and building those relationships. And my husband has different relationships with different people, too. Right. And ah their personalities and they get to know our personalities or want to be involved, not in a creepy way with our family, but, you know, like wanting
00:09:53
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:09:59
Alexis
how are the boys yeah mhm
00:09:59
Jessica
you know, how are the boys, how are the updates, how's your farm, how, you know, and people who like, we only see from like May to October and don't see them the rest the year. Right.
00:10:10
Jessica
And they, you know, look forward and come and ask for updates. And, you know, there's ones we know to ask for updates. So going on in their lives and
Market Presence and Customer Relationships
00:10:18
Alexis
so market fills fills your bucket yeah oh cool
00:10:20
Jessica
yeah, it kind of fills your bucket.
00:10:23
Brett
Yeah, this is, i mean, because this is something that we we talk about is one of the questions that people ask after they've decided which crops they want to grow is hopefully in the same, you know, same session of thinking, they're also thinking about where they're going to sell it.
00:10:38
Brett
Not I've grown this and then I have a truck full of squash, where do I take it?
00:10:38
Jessica
Thank you.
00:10:40
Alexis
Now what do I do?
00:10:42
Brett
um But anyway, so when people people ask, and that's one of the things we talk about is, you know, knowing your own reaction to that type of thing, because what you're describing, the idea of going and being at market for hours, you know, and every Saturday or whatever day the week, you know, that that's an intensive social process that for some people is a great fit and for other people is not.
00:11:03
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:11:06
Brett
And so I think that that's
00:11:07
Plant People
um
00:11:07
Jessica
Right, because sometimes people ask you like tough questions like out of the blue that you can't really answer, or it might be sometimes controversial. or I've known vendors over the years that we've sold with who they are not like people.
00:11:21
Jessica
yeah they love growing.
00:11:23
Plant People
Yeah.
00:11:23
Jessica
They want to be there at the market, but it is very um challenging.
00:11:28
Alexis
Overwhelming.
00:11:28
Jessica
and
00:11:28
Plant People
It's not their forte.
00:11:28
Alexis
Yeah.
00:11:28
Jessica
It's very overwhelming to be forced to that situation.
00:11:28
Alexis
Challenging.
00:11:30
Plant People
It doesn't build them up. Yeah, yeah.
00:11:32
Jessica
Yeah.
00:11:34
Alexis
That tracks.
00:11:35
Brett
So that's one kind of big personality consideration. Who else who else has one about themself?
00:11:43
Plant People
I was thinking about this. i had to had to think a lot about this. And ah based on our conversation last week and kind of who we are and what we felt when we were producing, I i guess I could see some themes here.
00:11:56
Plant People
You know, there was cattle and tobacco, and then there was we had like a truck truck, primarily a truck route. We did sell directly to individuals on vegetables. But I made the decision early on. I was really more interested in the vegetable production.
00:12:10
Plant People
you know, I love the cattle and stuff too, but my personality lended itself to the fact that I thought on the vegetable side, I could control more variables.
00:12:10
Jessica
Thank you.
00:12:18
Plant People
And that appealed to that part of my brain that I could produce something, be efficient at it without it trying to tear down fences or try to kill me. a tomato has never tried to kill me.
00:12:28
Alexis
Thank
00:12:29
Plant People
And I saw that, that, that portion on the farm. So i always gravitated towards, um, More of the, you know, green beans, snap bean production and tomato production, watermelons, whatever.
00:12:40
Plant People
um And we made decisions earlier on. I figured out that I liked a truck route and we had, we sold directly to places, you know, supermarket chains back then. It was a little bit different process, more straightforward.
00:12:52
Plant People
But ah rather than work with individuals, once you know the production was done, the part of my brain wanted to be efficient. I wanted the greatest bang for buck.
00:13:02
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:13:02
Plant People
So I was not necessarily, even though I'm a bit of an extrovert, I was not in um community builder mode you know to talk ah to individuals about you know that awesome white half runner bean or mountain greasy bean that we grew, even though I enjoyed doing that.
00:13:18
Plant People
I was interested in selling 10 bushels at a time. on a truck route that was established or especially to a supermarket. I could sell a volume. So it was that part of my brain that I realized very early on that I love the efficiency portion of putting things in place and getting the most accomplished with my time input.
00:13:38
Plant People
So it's interesting. I'm an extrovert, but at the same time, I want a kind of a good return on my time ah with what I was
Risk Management in Farming
00:13:45
Plant People
doing. So I gravitated more towards selling quantity over selling to individuals.
00:13:50
Plant People
That's kind of how it translated back in the day.
00:13:52
Brett
What, how would you describe your relationship to risk?
00:13:59
Plant People
I was more averse to risk because it goes back to that factors that I can control.
00:14:05
Brett
Hmm.
00:14:05
Plant People
And I approach risk as the I measured it against the return. So if somebody had wanted to bush Blue Lake Bean or something like that, I would try that, but only a fraction of the field would go into that.
00:14:10
Brett
Hmm.
00:14:15
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:14:19
Plant People
And so um I managed risk very incrementally.
00:14:19
Jessica
um
00:14:22
Plant People
Like I would not, I would not go all in on half a field of something that I was, that I didn't know was already a proven match to our farm operation. I wouldn't do that. Yeah. That's just, mean,
00:14:33
Brett
So were you under the impression or you had the feeling that the market channels that you were going to sell to on those truck routes or you know however, that they were pretty reliable, pretty steady that they would buy?
00:14:44
Plant People
Yes. Yes.
00:14:45
Jessica
you
00:14:45
Plant People
And that's what one of the things I appreciated those I could get some quantities in my mind up front before I went out and sold those things.
00:14:45
Brett
yeah
00:14:53
Plant People
And in other words, there was sort of a commitment up front. I was just not relying on foot traffic at a market, even though that's very good. It's a different sort of thing. I could have a more of a known quantity that I knew was assured to be sold.
00:15:06
Brett
Yeah.
00:15:06
Plant People
So that that also was risk management ah in my brain. I didn't look at it at the time in my 17-year-old brain, 18-year-old brain, but that's kind of what I was doing when I reflected back on that.
00:15:17
Brett
how did How did that compare to the market and approach and outlook on tobacco?
00:15:25
Plant People
Tobacco was a very consistent producer for us. And it was, you know, a lot of people, the old saying is tobacco is what paid for the farm because year in and year out is a very consistent revenue stream.
00:15:34
Jessica
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:15:36
Plant People
Whereas, you know, there used to be more so like a cattle cycle where the price would go up and oscillate and go back down in a, fairly predictable, you know, given the amount of time cycle.
00:15:47
Plant People
Whereas tobacco, at least back then, that was, you know, many years ago. Keep in mind, that was many years ago. It was a very consistent, high value crop, high input crop, but high value crop.
00:15:58
Plant People
And i also enjoyed tobacco because of that reliability of production and income.
00:16:03
Jessica
It's going to say very reliable.
00:16:04
Plant People
Yeah, very reliable. And that, as far as managing re risk, that part of my brain, love that. ah Yeah, it was, it paid the bills.
00:16:11
Brett
And so so you ah you all at that ah this that point were selling to the co-op?
00:16:12
Plant People
Yeah.
00:16:18
Plant People
Yes. ah We, at the time, you know, you sold it more directly to the co-op. Yes.
00:16:23
Brett
Yeah.
00:16:23
Plant People
It was not under any kind of contract. And even that being the case, if you took and kind of reverse engineered the numbers back, you know, let's say 30 years ago.
00:16:26
Brett
Right.
00:16:34
Plant People
Inputs were low and the ah price of tobacco per pound was very high. So that was good. That was good times. That was good times.
00:16:40
Brett
Yeah.
00:16:41
Plant People
I mean, there's always risk of black shank blue mold or, you know, we had fields that would get that and then we would have to move that into vegetables, which I enjoyed putting the puzzle pieces together move tobacco somewhere else.
00:16:52
Plant People
But that was all just part of the part of the puzzle. And I enjoyed that as well.
00:16:57
Brett
Yeah, this kind of oversimplification, but I think one of the things is I've tried to understand the role in the development of markets in Kentucky is that So through that cooperative, Burley Tobacco Cooperative, right?
00:17:13
Brett
I'm not speaking out of turn here. the they They worked to help ah keep higher prices for producers. That was part of what they were they were trying to do.
00:17:21
Plant People
yeah yeah keep yeah and yeah and it did that for a long time yeah
00:17:24
Brett
Stabilize the market, keep prices higher. And yeah, and, and you know, the the big capital M, big market changed in big ways with the tobacco settlement and the, you know, other other major cultural shifts.
00:17:35
Plant People
yeah
00:17:39
Brett
But I think one of the things with with vegetables, especially now, is that with tobacco, you know, you you kind of in in that system, you had relative stability in the market.
00:17:50
Brett
And so you were mainly focused on fixing production issues and and
00:17:54
Plant People
Yes. You tried to control at least one side of the variable. Yeah.
00:17:57
Brett
And now the the amount of complexity that happens on the marketing side with vegetables, it's just a completely, you know, while there may be certain things that are similar in the sense that it's to it's labor intensive to produce tomatoes, it's labor intensive to produce tobacco, but the market side is so radically different that I think it's, ah yeah, and that's why I asked about risk and this understanding of risk.
00:18:02
Plant People
Yes.
00:18:09
Alexis
Thank you.
00:18:14
Plant People
It is. Well, and. With weather, there was risk in vegetables because that's a totally different thing than a row crop like tobacco or soybeans or corn.
00:18:27
Plant People
Because there's ah there's a certain amount of immediacy that you have to get in there breaker stage or you know when tomatoes get to the stage that there are a certain ripeness. There's no leeway once they have to be harvested. If you're about strawberry, even more so or or fruit.
00:18:42
Plant People
It has to be harvested when it has to be harvested, or you lose the crop. There's a little bit more forgiveness on those timelines with something like tobacco or or corn and some of the other, you know, more agricultural-based row crops.
00:18:56
Plant People
But that's where the risk came in with vegetables. My brain had to reconcile that. I was like, okay, we do have some tobacco for everybody to screw up these tomatoes or If we run into a bunch of bad weather, or we get blight on the tomatoes.
00:19:07
Plant People
So we spread our risk that way. Everything to me, you know once again, I didn't conceptualize it this way, but everything was about managing risk and kind of spreading your income streams over three big areas on our farm, our particular farm.
00:19:20
Brett
do you Do you think that the, or is that trucking route, those customers, those relationships, that process, is that still possible today?
00:19:30
Plant People
I think that it still exists. I mean, Jessica may be able to speak more to that or maybe even Alexis. I mean, our truck routes were, they worked at the time because people, it seems like they preserved a lot of food. So we could sell it a pretty good quantity at a time.
00:19:44
Plant People
People would ask for a peck a half a bushel, or they would ask for a bushel, a pretty good quantity. it was no We didn't sell anything by pound as far as snap beans go.
00:19:52
Jessica
Thank you.
00:19:53
Plant People
We sold in larger quantities. It was almost almost everybody took at least a bushel. And that's why the truck route worked. ah for us and and did fairly well and we would go on local towns and we knew our delivery routes and you know the price of gas was cheap and we kind of had factored all of that in but is that still a thing jessica i mean do people do kind of truck drop type routes uh
00:20:17
Jessica
like I don't know of any like that I think of off the top of my head.
00:20:21
Plant People
really he kind of went out of fashion a long time ago it seems like i don't know
00:20:22
Jessica
but i Yeah. When I think about...
00:20:25
Alexis
Feels like CSA kind of like...
00:20:26
Jessica
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
00:20:28
Plant People
It was like an, yeah, really.
00:20:28
Jessica
Alexis.
00:20:30
Plant People
It was kind of like an early version of a CSA.
00:20:31
Alexis
It was almost like a bulk like a bulk csa
00:20:33
Plant People
Yes, that that' that's that's kind of what it was.
00:20:34
Jessica
Yep.
00:20:35
Plant People
And we maintained those relationships with people and we enjoyed because we had the same customers, you know, Mrs. Smith down the street, like for years and years. And they were they would call us up about the time they needed to call us and we would deliver.
00:20:46
Jessica
Right.
00:20:48
Plant People
But yeah, I never looked at it as a like a CSA, but that's kind of what it was.
00:20:50
Jessica
i I feel like that's what it's morphed into.
00:20:52
Plant People
Yeah.
00:20:53
Jessica
Because as like I was thinking the exact same thing, Alexis, that like, don't really see that so much anymore.
00:20:56
Plant People
Hmm. That's an interesting thought.
00:21:00
Jessica
And I like, you know, from a market standpoint, sometimes you have people who want to do bulk orders. But like you said, you don't want to take that risk and plant, you know, a ton of stuff and then they don't come and get it later.
00:21:07
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:10
Jessica
But I feel like those truck routes have kind of developed to those areas. CSAs or maybe that wholesale market when people want um those larger quantities or like when they're going to can beans or they're going to freeze corn.
00:21:25
Plant People
Yes. Yes.
00:21:25
Jessica
They're going to go if they don't have a direct farmer that they know where they can get that from. They can also, um you know, visit those wholesale ones because I know a lot of people who do that in our area because like I mentioned, we're close to one of those
00:21:35
Plant People
but
00:21:40
Jessica
ah markets, those auctions.
Evolution of Market Models
00:21:42
Jessica
And I know when it's like sweet corn time or green bean time, people will go down there and try to get those large quantities for when they're canning and freezing corn.
00:21:50
Plant People
oh What about boxed beef though? Now, truck routes, they kind of do did it kind of exist with like beef. It's a different thing as far as a customer kind of...
00:21:58
Brett
so So can you help me understand this truck route thing? Because I actually, this is completely, i don't i don't know exactly what you're, so is this that people are like, you're kind of going around and you have 15 bushels of beans in the truck and you roll and you you stop by their place and say, how much do you want?
00:22:04
Plant People
Gotcha. Gotcha.
00:22:12
Jessica
Thank you.
00:22:13
Plant People
Yeah.
00:22:16
Brett
Or have they already pre-ordered it? Or
00:22:19
Plant People
Both. ah Both. And people knew you'd be in a certain area in a certain parking lot on a certain day. But a lot of people we just knew to because they had calling requested a certain quantity, you know, i need three bushels.
00:22:30
Brett
Okay.
00:22:31
Plant People
ah So it was a blend of both. um But, that you know, that that was one of those things I felt like I could manage like my customer, you know, people interaction. It was kind of a middle ground between wholesale, set going to you know a big box store, and we would sell 100 bushel of beans. It was fairly straightforward back then.
00:22:49
Plant People
um And you know the intermediate between the direct farmer's market, which I don't remember doing a lot of farmer's market stuff, it was a truck route or wholesale, which was you know less customer and yeah end user interaction than that.
00:23:02
Plant People
So, yeah.
00:23:03
Brett
Yeah.
00:23:03
Jessica
Right.
00:23:03
Brett
When you can, you can sort of make all your transactions as fast as you can get along the route.
00:23:09
Plant People
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:23:09
Brett
And then once you're done on the route, you're done on the route. You're not, you know, cause at the the farmer's market, to some extent, you're sitting there waiting for people to come up and you have to do.
00:23:11
Plant People
Yeah.
00:23:15
Plant People
Yeah.
00:23:16
Jessica
right
00:23:17
Brett
Okay.
00:23:18
Plant People
Yeah. And my father had a, he had a, when he was on a farm, ah they had lots of, you know, predated me, they were on a farm, they grew a lot more fruit.
00:23:18
Brett
Interesting.
00:23:27
Plant People
And so they would go into like the, Kentucky, West Virginia, a little bit of Ohio. Like they had a lot much larger truck route, but when they would take a truck somewhere, way back in the olden days, it would be an entire truckload that they knew they already had sold into big markets, and they would do fruit that way.
00:23:45
Plant People
um
00:23:45
Alexis
Was it a truckload or was it ah actually a carriage or a wagon? Because...
00:23:50
Plant People
It's a little bit of hybrid. it was There was no, not not as an electric hybrid, but yeah, good question, Alexis.
00:23:56
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:23:57
Plant People
Yeah. Ye olden days.
00:23:58
Brett
what about What about you, Alexis?
00:23:59
Plant People
olden days.
00:24:00
Brett
Did you you come up with a your marketing relative to your personality type?
00:24:06
Alexis
Yeah, I think I'm right in the middle ah where personally, farmer's market is overwhelming um and it feels inefficient.
00:24:19
Alexis
ah for me just because it's, you don't, you don't necessarily know what it is and it it depends and it you know it depends on what you're selling. So if you're selling, you know, of flowers or you're selling, you know, lettuce or something that not as many people are buying, if you're selling, you know, bok choy, you know, you might not be getting as many sales for that.
00:24:27
Jessica
Thank you.
00:24:40
Alexis
And so the risk of the market and just the, you know, The amount of energy it took to be there and be turned on for people was too much for me. Now, I think if I think if i farmed full time and I was like not around people, ah you know, constantly and talking to people constantly, and that might change. I might enjoy that experience more. But...
00:25:05
Alexis
I appreciate, I like um like wholesale, but i think sort of that CSA route or CSA idea is a nice in-between because there is some consistency as far as, you know, in theory, you book you have all your people paid in advance.
00:25:13
Jessica
Thank
00:25:23
Alexis
You know how much you're producing for. Now, granted, CSA has kind of gone a little bit different these days in the models that are out there, but CSA, You know, still in theory, you kind of know how many people you to expect.
00:25:36
Alexis
It's the same day every week. It's the same amount every week. And you know what you're making you know on each item. And so I think that that's nice. You don't have to adjust the price or anything. It's already paid for.
00:25:48
Alexis
But you get to have a little bit more of a relationship with people. So you see their photos or um they tell you what they made with their thing this week or that they gave your bouquet to a friend because they were you know having a tough day or something. and And so you still get to build a little bit more of a relationship. You see those people coming back to you you know every season.
00:26:09
Alexis
to get a ah to get a CSA share, um but you don't have to necessarily, like, have a 20-minute conversation with them while you're trying to, like, make sales to 10 other people in line, which I think is is beautiful.
00:26:22
Plant People
ah Yeah.
00:26:24
Alexis
So it's sort of, you know, um it can still be, like, a lot of, like, work on on the computer, which can be a little bit tiring, and, you know, you really have to decide – um The money is worth the time that you put in with a CSA.
00:26:39
Alexis
I think a lot of people are coming to that realization that ah your time is valuable and you should be paying yourself for all that management time that you're not outside growing.
00:26:42
Jessica
Thank you.
00:26:49
Alexis
ah And so sometimes it's not as viable. But but I like that. It's a good in-between the risk and the personal relationships.
00:26:58
Plant People
And you mentioned something too, it probably plays into this conversation and your comments, Alexis, is that you mentioned like an outside job. You already have like a job and then you go home, you have another job.
00:27:06
Alexis
here
00:27:09
Alexis
I podcast.
00:27:10
Plant People
Yeah. Podcast is our job, but I mean, people's time availability, it it definitely plays into this and some of us personality and some of may be situation.
00:27:15
Alexis
to
00:27:19
Plant People
I mean, you know, let's not go nature nurture, but you know, yeah.
00:27:20
Alexis
Yeah. Right. And if you work, you know, a more normal nine to five job, um maybe you work where you don't get to talk to a lot of people. Maybe you're, you know, doing a lot of computer work or something. So the farmer's market is a good outlet for you.
00:27:35
Alexis
ah Totally can see that and see a lot of people who have success that way. But for me, I was just like, I cannot people any longer for this amount of money, not knowing how much.
00:27:47
Alexis
And then you have extroverts like Jessica and her husband who work with people every day for a living and still enjoy going to market and bless you people.
00:27:55
Plant People
You know, I...
00:27:56
Jessica
It's probably a bad thing.
00:27:56
Plant People
and But...
00:27:57
Jessica
We need to learn how to take breaks and self-care.
00:27:59
Alexis
Nah.
00:27:59
Plant People
but
00:28:00
Jessica
but
00:28:00
Plant People
i have I heard of Jessica's comments, you know, yes, they are people, people, but you know, there's also motivation there. It sounds like because they are people, people, uh, there's, they do well. It's, you know, there's, there's a, there's a feedback on that and there's, you know, gain on that. So, yeah. And you, you guys, uh, you know, are in bigger markets, I'm assuming. So that probably all plays into it.
00:28:24
Plant People
Um, with people but it's just a different thing isn't it uh and it's not neither good nor bad it's just a different different
00:28:25
Alexis
Right.
Business Skills in Farming Success
00:28:31
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:28:31
Plant People
uh and they really uh brett that was a good thought when you had it's it's part of it's your personality i know people that only want to be producers and they will not do anything you know they don't want to do anything outside of that they know what they like and they stick with it and i've learned to appreciate that
00:28:47
Brett
Yeah, there's been a number of times where like so regularly I'll get ah call or or agent or somebody to reach out and sort of say, we got these people, they're interested in doing this new thing. Can we come out and talk to them or or you know get in contact with them, share with you, whatever you're going to do.
00:29:02
Brett
And generally speaking, when it's someone who is coming to this from like a retail background or a business management background or a sales background, and they're trying to figure out the plant stuff,
00:29:17
Brett
I would put my money on them being more successful as business people than someone who's a perfect grower who is not engaged in the business side at all.
00:29:24
Jessica
Great.
00:29:25
Alexis
Facts.
00:29:27
Jessica
Yep.
00:29:27
Plant People
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:29:28
Brett
Because you can, you can,
00:29:28
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:29
Alexis
We can teach you the plant stuff.
00:29:31
Brett
Yeah.
00:29:31
Alexis
Like, we have people who are specialists.
00:29:32
Plant People
I've worked with the... Yeah.
00:29:33
Alexis
It's a lot harder to learn how to post on Facebook regularly and...
00:29:35
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:35
Brett
i would I would even go further as to say that your customers are not as good will not be as good at telling the difference between a good product and a great product as they will telling the difference between okay customer service and great customer service.
00:29:37
Jessica
Yes.
00:29:49
Alexis
Yeah.
00:29:50
Plant People
The largest producer I ever worked with said, he said, i and you know, he was in the business of greenhouses and growing plants that I'm not a plant person.
00:29:50
Alexis
Yes.
00:29:57
Plant People
He's more of a process person and a business person. But he said, because the plants are an important part of the business, he said, I'm a secondary plant person, not a plant person.
00:30:05
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:30:07
Plant People
But yeah, just exactly what you said, Brett, biggest producer I've ever worked with. And it was very interesting.
00:30:11
Brett
A ton of people come to this because they love plants.
00:30:15
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:15
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:30:15
Brett
And then they want to figure out a process that will allow them to play with more plants and pay the bills and cover cover the, yeah.
00:30:15
Jessica
hu
00:30:19
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:20
Alexis
Hi.
00:30:21
Plant People
Hello. Hello, Alexis.
00:30:22
Jessica
Have you met Alexis?
00:30:22
Brett
but
00:30:23
Plant People
This is Alexis.
00:30:23
Alexis
and Hi.
00:30:24
Brett
but not i mean But I would say not not many of them are as as you know as savvy or as committed to that side of it as you all are.
00:30:25
Alexis
You too, Jessica.
00:30:26
Jessica
I know.
00:30:27
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:32
Brett
But you definitely have the more the flavor of plant person who who's making the business stuff work.
00:30:33
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:38
Brett
And I think that's great. I'm not in all saying that it can't work that way.
00:30:42
Alexis
Whatever.
00:30:42
Brett
But if you if you are so disinterested in the business side to try and be like, I just don't know why i'm I'm not good at marketing or I never put time toward marketing.
00:30:52
Jessica
<unk>
00:30:53
Brett
It's just that every time I go to do it, I fill with sadness and malaise and anxiety.
00:30:57
Alexis
anxiety and dread.
00:30:58
Plant People
and you And you don't do it.
00:30:59
Alexis
Yeah.
00:31:00
Brett
That's probably why, because you hate it.
00:31:00
Plant People
Yeah.
00:31:02
Alexis
Yeah. yeah
00:31:03
Brett
So yeah, I think that that, yeah.
00:31:03
Plant People
Yeah.
00:31:04
Alexis
Hire someone. That's what you tell them to do.
00:31:07
Brett
Yeah.
00:31:08
Jessica
Right.
00:31:08
Alexis
We should all pay for what we're good at and be paid for what we're good at. It's okay to not be good at things.
00:31:13
Plant People
how How does all this discussion we're having, we're talking about like real, like face-to-face interactions, but how do we square all of this conversation with the online marketers and dealing with all of that?
00:31:23
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:31:24
Plant People
Is that something different? Does that hit a different part of your brain? i mean, so I know you ah Brett, you guys, ah some of you guys have dealt with this a lot with online marketing. mean, is that a different sort of thing than what we're talking about here and how that plays into your personality? Yeah.
00:31:39
Brett
I think so.
00:31:39
Alexis
Yeah, I would think so.
00:31:40
Plant People
I mean, yeah, I've always been curious about that.
00:31:42
Alexis
i mean, yeah.
00:31:43
Plant People
Like.
00:31:44
Brett
I think ah alex Alexis was talking about kind of playing in that space of there's a little bit of the direct sales, like you're standing there interacting, but there's a lot that's more like sending cool emails and having your web store updated and letting people know through social media and that.
00:31:45
Alexis
and
00:31:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:31:52
Plant People
Yes.
00:31:56
Plant People
Support.
00:31:56
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:31:57
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:00
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:32:00
Plant People
Mm.
00:32:00
Alexis
Even, i mean, even wholesale, you're doing like contacts with your buyer.
00:32:01
Brett
Yeah.
00:32:05
Plant People
Yes. Mm.
00:32:06
Alexis
What do you have?
00:32:06
Brett
Yeah.
00:32:07
Alexis
And maybe they're not pretty and so colorful, but sometimes they are. I mean, depends what you sell. You know you've got to you've got to get them to buy and with like the same, you know,
00:32:20
Brett
urgency,
00:32:20
Alexis
uh what's or yeah kind of urgency that you might add you know yeah enthusiasm that you might have at a farmer's market in some ways i mean yeah if they need lettuce you've got lettuce they know you have good lettuce they don't need to see your lettuce until it shows up right but
00:32:22
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:32:24
Brett
enthusiasm.
00:32:36
Alexis
ah you know Other things, if you're trying you've got a bumper crop of some kohlrabi and you're wanting to offload it, you kind of have to you know talk it up a little bit.
00:32:36
Plant People
Hmm.
00:32:47
Alexis
You got to make it salesy. But if you're doing more direct retail, you you've got to have recipes that go with it whatever.
00:32:54
Jessica
Yeah.
00:32:55
Alexis
you know You've got to say, look how easy it is to put flowers in a vase or ah it's winter. Don't you want something pretty in your life? like There's just so much more to it without even necessarily talking to a person.
00:33:07
Alexis
um so it could be social media, emails, your website store. Jessica, how much time have you spent on your all's square and even just inputting things so that you can sell them?
00:33:16
Jessica
yeah
00:33:19
Alexis
It has nothing to do with... You know, if someone could buy it online, it's just putting all of those items into your store that when you're at market, yeah, and inventory create an inventory, um which, you know, we didn't necessarily used to do, but now it's, you know, people want to pay with a credit card.
00:33:27
Brett
To create, yeah, to create an inventory for for point of sale.
00:33:31
Plant People
Wow.
00:33:31
Jessica
yep
00:33:32
Plant People
Yeah.
00:33:32
Jessica
you
00:33:38
Alexis
And so having your inventory in there makes a difference.
00:33:38
Jessica
Right. People want to pay digitally otherwise, right? Like Venmo or Apple Pay or, you know, those kind of things too.
00:33:44
Alexis
Yeah, Venmo. Yeah.
00:33:46
Plant People
Yeah.
00:33:46
Alexis
Yeah. The amount of things when I go take my tax like taxes in and all of the W-9s that I have to like bring in because of all the methods of payment.
00:33:52
Jessica
Taxes.
00:33:57
Alexis
i mean, that in itself is like a whole other thing you add um ah to that if you're doing you know retail sales or even I've got wholesale accounts that will legitimately pay me with either PayPal or Venmo sometimes.
00:34:12
Alexis
Like if they don't have a checkbook.
00:34:12
Plant People
Suddenly, suddenly the theme, I'm starting to lean towards the business side of plant loving because you guys are adding all of this, ah all of these elements.
00:34:15
Jessica
Right.
00:34:18
Alexis
Well,
00:34:21
Plant People
Yeah, yeah.
00:34:21
Alexis
it's like marketing, right? you know And so versus if you're the kind of person who's like, I don't want to have a store.
00:34:22
Plant People
yeah yeah
00:34:23
Jessica
right
00:34:27
Alexis
i don't want to you know i don't want to do a lot of that other stuff. You might have a roadside stand. And so like that plays into you know what what is your market? How much time do you want to put in? And you know maybe you just let your neighbors know and you're in a busy road.
00:34:41
Alexis
So people stop and they put cash in the box and they take their tomatoes.
00:34:43
Plant People
Yeah.
00:34:44
Alexis
And so You know, that is also an outlet that has none of those extras, but you it's not dependable. Right. And so um your risk is higher, but the inputs you put in are so much lower that it probably balances out um versus, you know, going to a farmer's market and putting in all that inventory.
00:34:53
Plant People
yeah
00:35:04
Brett
Yeah.
00:35:05
Jessica
Right.
00:35:06
Brett
I think one of the things that people people tend to think sometimes is that that marketing is like this magic that they haven't figured out the incantation to yet.
00:35:15
Alexis
no
00:35:15
Brett
And it's really not. I mean, there are people just like Alexis's thumb is multiple, multiple shades greener than mine. People who are natural, you know, actually all everybody on this podcast, God, why do I hang out with plant people?
00:35:28
Brett
You all, your all's thumbs are green.
00:35:29
Alexis
yes it's the guy who has beautiful bonsais outside i was like you know a lot about plants you grow
00:35:29
Jessica
but she grew it I was like, would you grow a blonde size? Like, i was like, Brett.
00:35:33
Brett
Yeah, but. But I've learned, I learned a lot of that from you all. So there's people who, who are naturally or, or they're, they have an inclination to be better or worse at certain things. But overall, the people who are really good at marketing and maybe have a knack for it also have put a ton of work into it.
00:35:50
Alexis
learn skill.
00:35:51
Brett
And, and you just, you just continue continually working on it.
00:35:51
Plant People
Yeah.
00:35:54
Brett
You're continually pushing it.
00:35:55
Plant People
The harder you work, the luckier you get. Yeah.
00:35:57
Brett
And I think something that.
00:35:57
Alexis
I think with marketing, it's consistency
00:35:58
Jessica
Yeah.
00:35:59
Plant People
Yeah.
00:36:00
Jessica
yeah
00:36:01
Alexis
is ah is a big thing.
00:36:01
Brett
Yeah.
00:36:02
Alexis
Like, you know, not sorry, Brad, I didn't mean to interrupt your thought there, but it's, you don't necessarily have to know exactly how to do it, but if you keep showing up to do it, you'll get feedback.
00:36:05
Brett
that's okay.
00:36:14
Alexis
Like with social media, it's instant, right? Either people are liking it or commenting on it.
00:36:17
Plant People
Yeah.
00:36:19
Alexis
um And it's getting out and being seen by people or it's not like you can get pretty immediate data back these days from that. And even your email list, like you send an email out, you can see how many people opened it in the first place and how many people are clicking the links, you know, so you know that adding a picture and putting the link onto the picture made a difference.
00:36:35
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:36:39
Alexis
And so you can get this immediate feedback, but you have to be consistent about it. And so, you know, i think that's the biggest thing.
00:36:45
Brett
do what What about that do you find the easiest and the hardest
00:36:52
Alexis
Um, I would say the, yeah, I would say the hardest is like some, sometimes during the year, if you're a very, you know, what you do is very seasonal.
00:36:53
Brett
based on your personality?
00:37:02
Alexis
And so if it's winter, it can be like, well, what do I want to talk about? What do people want to hear? Like how much, and then, you know, worried about being salesy.
00:37:09
Jessica
Yes.
00:37:11
Alexis
I've always worried about like, I don't want to be, feel like a used car salesman and always be posting about sales.
00:37:12
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:17
Alexis
But then when you think about, I heard a statistic and, you know, don't quote me, but it was something around like only 10% of what you post is seen by a person at a time. And so they, even if you just posted about, you know, your sale on freezer beef, you know, on Monday,
00:37:34
Alexis
Probably 90% of the people who maybe follow you on social media or even get your emails didn't see it on Monday. So you posting about it on that Friday or Saturday is not is not the repetitive, annoying thing that you think it is.
00:37:48
Alexis
Yeah.
00:37:48
Brett
Your customers aren't seeing and your content as much as you are.
00:37:48
Jessica
you
00:37:50
Alexis
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:37:52
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:52
Alexis
So your customer probably hasn't seen it. So like posting about that more. So kind of getting into that mindset was hard. The easiest thing is sharing, she just sharing the journey.
00:38:02
Alexis
i think um for me, it's just like people just want to know what you're doing. And so like once I got it in my brain that anything I shared, because what I do is so different than many of the population out there, same with Jessica, I'm Again, we surround ourselves with similar people.
00:38:17
Alexis
So it's easy for me to think that like, well, everybody knows I'm doing seeding right now because everybody I know is seeding stuff right now.
00:38:19
Jessica
ah
00:38:23
Jessica
Right.
00:38:24
Brett
yeah
00:38:24
Alexis
No, most of my customers are not seeding, which is why they buy from me.
00:38:25
Plant People
Yeah.
00:38:28
Plant People
Yeah.
00:38:28
Alexis
And so just once I like figured that out, it was like, oh, just share what you're doing right now. And then it became way easier. Yeah.
00:38:36
Jessica
Yeah. That's Alexis and I have talked about this a lot over the years because same thing about like, put do you put a sale on there?
00:38:37
Plant People
um
00:38:40
Alexis
and
00:38:44
Jessica
You know, if you advertise that or not, or just like the,
00:38:45
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:38:48
Jessica
keeping in mind, like we have baby calves that are being born right now. All of our cows are like, do you have babies all right now? Like, well, I see baby calves all the time.
00:38:59
Jessica
And like my neighbors see baby calves all the time. But then like, you know, do most of our customers see baby calves? Right. To think about.
00:39:06
Alexis
I drive by baby cows every time and every day when I see the baby cows, I go, look at baby cow.
00:39:06
Jessica
this
00:39:11
Alexis
Like, show me your babies.
00:39:11
Jessica
Right. so You're right about just like posting the journey, you know, because I think we take for granted what we're around all the time that we think it's not something, not that it's not special, right?
00:39:17
Plant People
yeah
00:39:24
Jessica
But like, yeah, yeah.
00:39:25
Alexis
It doesn't feel as special to us as it does to our our customers.
00:39:30
Plant People
is it
00:39:30
Alexis
And when in doubt, post a picture of a corgi because...
00:39:33
Plant People
Post it up. I mean, that instantly says cut flowers, corgis.
00:39:35
Alexis
always a good one.
00:39:38
Plant People
And it's weird. we We have folks in our, I'm trying to think of the people that grow flowers in my county. Most of them have corgis. I don't know why that's a thing.
00:39:46
Alexis
it's It's a thing. It legitimately is a thing.
00:39:47
Plant People
I don't know if it's a package deal or they're just so close to the ground. They can help you cut the flowers off at the ground level. I don't know, but I have a question for Brett and Alexis today. We're talking about ah personality types and how that relates to production and markets and things.
00:39:58
Jessica
Thank you.
00:40:02
Plant People
um You guys, in dealing with you know all spectrums of of producers around the state as on-campus folks, as specialists, ah is it is it ever hard to reconcile two personality types? And by this, I'll set up the scenario.
00:40:18
Plant People
You have one person that's there for the social aspect, and they happen to grow some things. And they are just there for the people. And they'll price it at whatever level.
00:40:28
Plant People
They don't care about input costs. So that is person A. Person B is there as a regular
Managing Competition and Workforce in Markets
00:40:34
Plant People
farmer's market producer. They have weighed the risk and reward and have done the analysis. And they are there.
00:40:40
Plant People
They've priced their product based on input costs and all of these other factors. I mean, is there any reconciliation at a market for these people that have such different objectives? One is wanting to do one thing and one is wanting to do another.
00:40:53
Plant People
i mean, is that a real thing or did I just make up a unique scenario that has never existed?
00:40:58
Brett
No, Ray, that literally happens all the time.
00:41:00
Alexis
a
00:41:01
Plant People
I mean, yeah.
00:41:02
Brett
So I'm not, I mean, i'm I'm serious.
00:41:03
Plant People
No.
00:41:04
Brett
I know I said it kind of in a funny way, but yeah, so...
00:41:05
Plant People
yeah
00:41:07
Brett
In some cases, person a the person who doesn't really care, they're retired, they maybe have money already, they are just doing this for fun to stay active, or perhaps they have a bunch of children and they're able to raise stuff without any labor costs.
00:41:13
Alexis
um
00:41:14
Jessica
Right.
00:41:26
Brett
There's a lot of various examples of how that plays out. And in some cases, it's just a matter of ah not wanting to change.
00:41:35
Jessica
Thank you.
00:41:36
Brett
you know That farmers markets in particular, you know we have these price reports that we do.
00:41:40
Plant People
Yeah.
00:41:40
Brett
One of the ways that we encourage people to use these price reports is to have a market but market like that like that particular farm, County A's farmers market to have a conversation internally in County A to say, look, this is kind of what these going prices are.
00:41:57
Brett
And we this is the conversation or this is the math that we've done on how much we can sell stuff for. And we really are, you know, having problems with the under undercutting, which is ah the the way that it's perceived.
00:42:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:42:06
Jessica
Thank you.
00:42:07
Plant People
yeah
00:42:08
Brett
And unfortunately, there's not a ton of great recourse to to address that other than talking through it and providing information and sharing. um But it can be pretty frustrating and it can be something where, ah you know, as far as ah allowing people to come to the to the market, is vendors are, there might be discussion there about, but but a lot of markets are trying to add more vendors all the time.
00:42:20
Alexis
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:42:26
Plant People
Yeah.
00:42:32
Brett
And so they're the idea of turning away just because their prices are lower is a problem.
00:42:33
Plant People
yeah
00:42:36
Plant People
And I've never thought about that as in terms of personality, but when you suggested the content for today, I guess kind of some of that may go back to personality, right? Like different objectives. And it's interesting when you suggested that. Never once thought about it in those terms that the person that's losing money, that may not be their objective to begin with, and which may go back to their personality. Yeah.
00:42:56
Brett
Totally.
00:42:56
Plant People
It's interesting angle. That's a really interesting angle to me. And I know markets try to deal with that in different ways. It seems like like setting price floors or you know there's probably different strategies, but it seems like there's a reconciliation that you know has to be acknowledged at some point.
00:43:05
Brett
Yeah.
00:43:11
Brett
It definitely causes a ton of tension.
00:43:13
Plant People
Hmm.
00:43:13
Alexis
Yeah.
00:43:13
Brett
i would say I would say undercutting and reselling are the two biggest...
00:43:18
Plant People
Hmm.
00:43:20
Brett
hot button issues in a lot of farmers markets.
00:43:21
Plant People
Yeah.
00:43:22
Jessica
Would confirm.
00:43:24
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:43:24
Brett
Yeah.
00:43:24
Plant People
Well, like in the reselling, maybe that may be ah the motivations. I'm just assuming that that's going to be different than the person's there for the social aspect. I mean, because reselling scenario, which sometimes is acceptable and sometimes not, depending on the market, like reselling may be a way to mitigate risk, manage risk, because you just purchase a product and sell it for a higher price. And, you know, you count the difference. Is it worth your time?
00:43:49
Plant People
Whereas the social seller is just there for the community. So yeah, personality types.
00:43:54
Jessica
Thank you.
00:43:54
Plant People
It's a very interesting filter to apply to this conversation. It really is.
00:43:58
Brett
Yes. And I mean, even from the market side, the reselling can have value and be harmful.
00:43:59
Plant People
Yeah.
00:44:04
Alexis
Yes.
00:44:05
Brett
You know, if you if you have if you have a bunch of vendors who aren't going to have much of a robust offering until mid-June, and you want to capture that farmer's market audience when they're thinking about food in May or April even,
00:44:06
Plant People
Yes, yeah absolutely.
00:44:22
Brett
resellers can fill out your product line for a little while until the stuff comes in.
00:44:26
Plant People
Yeah.
00:44:26
Brett
And yeah, there's all kinds of, but ultimately for me, it's about agreement and transparency and all of those, like those making sure we're following, we're setting the rules that we want to have and we're following and making sure that people are following those rules is the main
00:44:33
Plant People
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:44:33
Alexis
yes
00:44:41
Jessica
right.
00:44:41
Plant People
Yeah, if it's consistent across the board and, you know, there's a certain amount of fairness and like you said, that keyword transparency, this is a kind of market we are and this is what we do. I mean, there's and there's lots of different types of markets, no good or bad, no judgment in my comments there.
00:44:54
Brett
Yeah.
00:44:55
Plant People
It's just that. Are you being true to what you say you are doing what you are?
00:44:58
Alexis
Yeah. Transparency in your marketing, whatever style of market you enter, i think will go a long way, whether it's, you know, wholesale ah buyers or retail buyers in any form or fashion, just being transparent.
00:45:02
Plant People
Yeah.
00:45:03
Jessica
right
00:45:04
Plant People
Yeah.
00:45:15
Alexis
Again, tell your story, but also, you know, if it's some why you priced it some way, you know, what this is why my product's better because and you're being transparent about, you know, your pricing and things like that. And I think that that goes a long way, um no matter what personality type you are.
00:45:32
Plant People
Now listen, Alexis, if I'm here for the vibe of community, you just really threw some heavy stuff at me.
00:45:38
Brett
and
00:45:38
Plant People
I'm just here for the positive vibes for the flowers.
00:45:41
Brett
Yeah.
00:45:41
Alexis
it
00:45:41
Brett
And one thing I would just call back to that Alexis mentioned and you and you kind of hinted at it, ah Ray, is part of the growth of business
00:45:42
Alexis
yeah
00:45:50
Brett
business hopefully will eventually involve hiring an employee of some sort or bringing in some sort of secondary help.
00:45:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:45:59
Brett
um That could be that maybe maybe if you're a ah couple or a family, maybe it's a family member or a spouse or something, but it could be somebody else. And it was i heard this, you know, very, it's pretty straightforward. And anybody who's been around this world for a while, it's like, no, duh, this is a great, ah good piece of advice. But The recommendation was to hire people to do things that you hate or that you are bad at.
00:46:24
Alexis
Yep.
00:46:25
Brett
And I think that that that's not really a strategy if you're trying to get started or you're not really in a place to hire someone or bring someone in. But though for instance, for me, if i were if if farmers markets was just going to be part of my business, does it fit with everything else that I was doing?
00:46:37
Alexis
thank
00:46:41
Brett
then I would have a tendency, i as soon as I possibly could, i would be hiring someone to go to the physically go to the markets and handle customer service and sales as soon as possible.
00:46:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:46:50
Alexis
yep
00:46:51
Brett
Because that is not, I could limp through it, fake it till I make it. People who know me, people who have only interacted with me for like one to two hours would be like, oh no, this guy's this crazy extrovert.
00:46:56
Alexis
Immediately, yes.
00:47:05
Brett
But they don't see that after that when I go somewhere and
00:47:05
Plant People
and
00:47:08
Alexis
Crash.
00:47:08
Plant People
Yeah.
00:47:09
Jessica
Right.
00:47:09
Brett
wilt into the nearest you know surface.
00:47:10
Plant People
Your battery is drained.
00:47:12
Brett
So, um yeah.
00:47:12
Alexis
Yeah.
00:47:13
Jessica
And that we immediately hired someone to revamp and make all of our labels and all of that stuff for us.
00:47:19
Brett
Yep.
00:47:20
Jessica
Because for me, that was just like, I i can't.
00:47:23
Alexis
Sure.
00:47:25
Jessica
It was too much.
00:47:25
Brett
Yeah.
00:47:25
Plant People
Well, and I know you, you know, and this is another point.
00:47:26
Jessica
Yeah. so
00:47:29
Plant People
I know Jessica that you could do that because you're like all of you guys on here are super talented, but so much of it is it goes back to personality. The more we have this conversation is in, it's not about intelligence.
00:47:37
Brett
Yes.
00:47:40
Plant People
It's about interest and what builds you up.
00:47:42
Brett
Yes. Yeah.
00:47:42
Jessica
Right.
00:47:43
Alexis
Well, and interest in like what is the best value for your time?
00:47:43
Plant People
Yeah.
00:47:46
Plant People
Yes. Yeah.
00:47:47
Jessica
Right.
00:47:47
Alexis
You know, you're the business owner.
00:47:47
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:48
Alexis
You should be making more money than anybody in theory than anybody you hire. So if I'm making $30 an hour, I should be doing work that's $30 an hour work.
00:47:59
Alexis
And I'll pay somebody else to do my $15 an hour work.
00:47:59
Brett
yeah
00:48:02
Brett
Yeah.
00:48:02
Alexis
So whatever.
00:48:03
Brett
and they don't have And they don't have to worry about some of the things. They get to kind of do their thing and go and go home.
00:48:06
Alexis
Exactly.
00:48:07
Plant People
yeah
00:48:07
Brett
and
00:48:08
Jessica
be done.
00:48:08
Plant People
Yeah.
00:48:08
Alexis
Yeah.
00:48:09
Brett
But I think that that, you know, and if you're, but if you get into this and you realize that everything about the business side is just a total pain and you're not making any headway,
00:48:21
Brett
I don't know that that those are the most frustrating conversations because it's kind of like, you hate this.
00:48:24
Plant People
Wow,
Balancing Work and Personal Life in Farming
00:48:28
Brett
ah
00:48:28
Jessica
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:48:28
Brett
You're putting a lot of energy into something that's making you really miserable and like, yeah,
00:48:29
Alexis
Yeah.
00:48:29
Plant People
why are you doing this?
00:48:33
Plant People
Yeah.
00:48:33
Alexis
It's okay to have a hobby that isn't like a job.
00:48:36
Brett
yes. yes
00:48:38
Jessica
um
00:48:38
Alexis
And that's hard for me to say as who I am as a person. So it's okay to have have a hobby or it's okay if you just like to be outside, you just like to grow things, go work for someone else and be like, hey, I'll start all your seeds.
00:48:52
Alexis
There are so many people out there who would love to pay you to start seeds for them and to
00:48:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:48:58
Alexis
you know, go through and harvest Brussels sprouts and, you know, because they're going to handle the business side.
00:49:00
Brett
Yeah.
00:49:03
Alexis
And so you don't always have to be, you're, ah you are your own boss in the way of you get to decide what you do. And, and that's great. Yeah.
00:49:11
Plant People
So as Brett said, know thyself and know what you can, cannot do. a lot of times we can do a lot more than we're interested in.
00:49:19
Alexis
Yeah.
00:49:19
Brett
yeah
00:49:19
Plant People
But it's, ah and we, I guess everybody kind of does the weights and balances. You know, that's a very personal thing, which we put the personal and personality, I guess.
00:49:29
Brett
Yeah. And if you, if you really hate your job, like you're, you're not farm job, then maybe doing some of the things that you're not particularly interested in for your own business is preferable to how much you hate your job.
00:49:29
Plant People
Yeah.
00:49:31
Jessica
Thank
00:49:41
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:49:41
Brett
You know, so like I'm going to quit my job and I'm gonna go do all those things. Okay. That's great. But if, you know, to, to sort of bring on misery, just because you're trying to make money off of something that you're otherwise interested in, have a hard time, hard time promoting that. Uh,
00:49:55
Alexis
So we're giving you permission to follow your gut instincts here and, you know, do the market that works for you, do the business style that works for you.
00:50:08
Alexis
ah And so if you if you needed that, sometimes we all just need that from a random stranger. We just need to to to be given permission.
00:50:14
Brett
Yeah. Zero, zero percent chance that I could do what Jessica or Alexis do.
00:50:19
Plant People
Yeah, no, no, I could not do that, could not do that.
00:50:20
Brett
Zero percent, less than zero. What's less than zero?
00:50:23
Alexis
No.
00:50:25
Brett
It's a, it's a like testament to, to endurance, to interest, to passion, to all those things. And and so, and I just know that about myself and I'm, I'm good with that.
00:50:31
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah. Know thyself.
00:50:35
Alexis
no
00:50:36
Jessica
You're thyself, yeah.
00:50:38
Alexis
we're we're bringing We're bringing some culture. we're bringing our culture back to the hort culture um episode.
00:50:43
Brett
Hmm.
00:50:44
Alexis
And ah I think that's great. But, you know, throwing in some marketing thing there. So as you as you go through that and maybe want to try some new things, this is a good opportunity to just gauge yourself.
00:50:54
Brett
ah will I'll plug a couple of CCD publications that are related to this.
00:50:58
Alexis
Thank you.
00:51:00
Brett
So there's one that we have that's called What to Think About Before You Plant.
00:51:00
Alexis
yes
00:51:04
Plant People
Mm-hmm.
00:51:05
Brett
And that one's just kind of an overview of basically thinking about marketing before you put plants in the ground, you know, where you're going to sell, how you're going to sell it.
00:51:08
Jessica
Thank you.
00:51:12
Brett
And I think the things in there that are the most useful are on the last few pages. Well, there's middle and then the last few pages, there's some charts and they will compare farmer's market to CSA, to grocery, to wholesale.
00:51:25
Brett
And it'll tell you like how much product mix you need, what, how strict are the quality standards? You know, some of them are medium, some of them are high, some of them are, um How much ah volume is expected, that sort of thing.
00:51:35
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:51:36
Brett
So that gives you a sense of what these what these market types are like.
00:51:38
Plant People
Thank you.
00:51:39
Brett
So as you're thinking about markets, that might be a place you want to go. And then the other place is there's ah a publication. It's relatively old now, but it's called the Primer, P-R-I-M-E-R.
00:51:50
Brett
which is ah a kind of a personality test. um I forget what the the it's like for evaluating a market channel or a enterprise. It's like profitability, reliable risk.
00:52:03
Brett
Interest is one of the things actually to so raise point. ah The PRIM ER stands for something.
00:52:10
Alexis
it's E is enthusiasm
00:52:13
Brett
Enthusiasm.
00:52:13
Alexis
and
00:52:13
Plant People
Amazon market is, what is Amazon market?
00:52:15
Alexis
M is maybe market and R is – I always forget what the R is.
00:52:15
Brett
and is for
00:52:15
Plant People
i forget.
00:52:18
Alexis
But, yeah, that's it's really great because it's, like, an easy kind of worksheet for each letter.
00:52:18
Plant People
I do too.
00:52:23
Alexis
And it just asks you the right questions where ah to really help you gauge, you know – I don't know.
00:52:28
Plant People
Yeah.
00:52:29
Alexis
I feel like it's, like, an old-school Cosmo quiz a little bit for – like, those of you who read, like, ah magazines where there's quizzes in the back.
00:52:31
Plant People
It's a good one.
00:52:33
Brett
Yes, definitely.
00:52:37
Alexis
It feels like that. It looks like it will be really boring. Okay, I'm going to, like –
00:52:41
Brett
Who's your ideal beau? He's like tall, dark, and handsome, and rich is my answer.
00:52:43
Alexis
yes
00:52:44
Plant People
What's your ideal bean or
00:52:47
Alexis
yes then farmer's market might be for you um but yeah it it kind of feels that way it's an yeah it's easy to work through so like don't let the boring looking first couple pages like influence you one way or the other
00:52:51
Jessica
Thank you.
00:52:52
Brett
More of a gentleman farm. Yeah.
00:53:00
Brett
yeah
00:53:03
Brett
It's a, it's a kind of a way to get at some of this that we're talking about of like these, this is whether you're not, you this is a good fit for you or not. And then the other one, it's not about market types, but the Hort Biz quiz we've talked about many times before, but it's another place to just go and get a sense of where you stand as you're making these decisions.
00:53:09
Plant People
Yeah.
00:53:17
Brett
But, um, We'd always just and we wouldd always encourage you to reach out to your county agent, get in contact with them, make sure they know what you're thinking and they have they'll have some thoughts and then um you know can direct you to one of us. And um yeah, happy to support support those decisions and just figuring out the the right fit.
00:53:36
Brett
Because some i've seeing people go into markets and they have expectations that are very different from realities or they're very different from what they thought things were going to be.
00:53:44
Jessica
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:53:45
Brett
is really hard. And so the more that we can do that on the front end and think through this and make sure it's what we want to do, the better, the better off.
00:53:52
Alexis
More successful you are faster.
00:53:52
Brett
think everybody will be yeah, and and you might you might avoid a thing that's a real pain.
00:53:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:53:54
Alexis
yeah
00:53:58
Brett
And that means you're happier. And that's a win, too. So
00:54:03
Alexis
Well, cool. Yeah. So ah we'll we'll link those ah in the show notes. You can, of course, always contact us on social media, on Instagram at Hort Culture Podcast.
00:54:14
Alexis
ah You can also shoot us an email. We all receive that email when you send it. So if you have any you know, thoughts or questions or ideas for future episodes. If you want to be a guest, let us know.
00:54:27
Alexis
And we'd love to have you. But I believe that's all for now, folks. We hope you go out and enjoy some sunshine and drink some water because after all, you are just a house plant with feelings.
00:54:38
Alexis
And we hope that you ah will join us next time for another episode. See ya.