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Curiosity, Culture and Crisis with Julie Anna Potts
24 Plays2 days ago
What if real leadership isn’t about having the answers but rather about having the courage to ask better questions?
In this episode of the Cultivating Leaders Podcast, Nicole sits down with Julie Anna Potts, President and CEO of the Meat Institute, to explore what it takes to lead through transformation, uncertainty, and industry evolution. She shares her experience navigating a major organizational merger, uniting stakeholders around a bold sustainability strategy, and steering the meat industry through the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Julie Anna shares practical advice on what makes leadership work when the pressure is high.
She dives into:
- Driving purposeful transformation: aligning business goals with sustainability, transparency, and consumer trust
- Shaping culture with trust and vision: Focusing on forward momentum rather than legacy divisions
- Leading through Uncertainty: championing simplicity, clarity, and empowerment through challenging times
Julie Anna shares practical advice on what makes leadership work when the pressure is high.
Connect with Julie Anna
- Connect on LinkedIn
- Visit the Meat Institute’s website - Here
- Book Recommendation: Race for Relevance by Mary Byers
- Book Recommendation: Start With Why by Simon Sinek
- Book Recommendation: The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni
Connect with AFA
- Follow us on LinkedIn
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on TikTok
- Visit our Website
About The Cultivating Leaders Podcast
Real stories. Practical advice. Tangible growth. Join The Cultivating Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Agriculture Future of America, as we explore what it takes to lead in food, agriculture, and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or leading at the highest level, this podcast is your go-to resource for leadership that matters. Listen now and start cultivating your leadership journey.
Don’t forget to follow/subscribe so you never miss another episode!
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Transcript
00:00:02
Speaker
I never really felt like I had to find my voice because I just always felt very well respected organizations, in agriculture and in food. It's been a great group of people. And I guess I just, I can't have, i can't say enough how especially women executives in these businesses have really come to the table to say, you know, we're all in this together.
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to the Cultivating Leaders podcast, where we get inside the minds of leaders to harvest great ideas and lessons that help you grow as a difference maker in food and agriculture. I'm your host and curiosity captain, Nicole Ersig.
00:00:46
Speaker
Today's guest is a force in food and ag policy. Julianna Potts is president and CEO of the Meat Institute, where she's brought change and strategic focus to an organization representing some of the most influential players in the protein space.
00:00:59
Speaker
She launched a cross-industry sustainability initiative, led through the chaos of a global pandemic, and continues to find ways to move her team forward without losing sight of the people impacted. Juliana, welcome to the pod.
00:01:11
Speaker
What did I miss from your bio? Not a thing. That's really kind. When somebody introduces me, I'm always like, who are they talking about? That's terrific. Thank you. Awesome. So let's get started with a little bit of backstory about your career. How does someone get to a spot where you are leading an industry group representing meatpackers?
00:01:29
Speaker
Great question, because like a lot of people, it's not what I set out to do I was with a niece of mine recently at a graduation and she asked the same thing. She's a young lawyer and I was once a young lawyer.
00:01:44
Speaker
How do you how do you get there? And the the answer that I like to give is to be open to you know, lots and lots of opportunities that might happen, might come your way.
00:01:57
Speaker
And you can't really plan for when those are going to happen or maybe even what they might be. But if you're curious, I love your curiosity leader here. Curiosity captain, I think is what you said. I love that. I think being curious is is a huge part of winding up leading an industry organization as ah president and CEO when where I started many, many years ago was going to law school.
00:02:25
Speaker
Do you have a background in agriculture? Like how did you get even into this space? ah So very, very specifically, my grandmother came from a farm.
00:02:36
Speaker
My grandfather, this is on my dad's side, my grandfather's cropland, you know, from his family when he was a young boy was covered by the damming of the Tennessee River to make electricity and So his folks moved to town.
00:02:53
Speaker
And I say that because, you know, all of us came from farming at some point, but I'm a couple generations off the farm. So she would take us back there. It was a cow, calf, dairy and soybeans and corn in North Alabama.
00:03:09
Speaker
And i got to own part of that land until we finally sold it just a few years ago. I'm married into a farm family. So my husband grew up on a farm and his brother farms in Northeast Louisiana. Cotton.
00:03:23
Speaker
peanuts and rent some land for rice. So both of us from the South and really familiar with Southern crops, I didn't have any agenda in getting into food and agriculture. It really was a very fortunate accident. I came to Washington,
00:03:40
Speaker
the day after I graduated from college and I started answering the phone for a lobbying and advocacy firm that represented all these Southern crops. And that's essentially how I met my husband because he was working on Capitol Hill and I was a baby lobbyist. And so we we found each other that way many, many years ago. And both of us have worked in agricultural policy and law ever since then.
00:04:06
Speaker
Amazing. Well, so cool that, you know, it just, sometimes you never expect where you end up. You don't. So for anyone who isn't familiar, explain what the Meat Institute is and what y'all do.
00:04:18
Speaker
So the Meat Institute is a trade association in every sense of that. if If you're familiar with what we do, it is to represent businesses and front of government.
00:04:30
Speaker
And in our case, we work mostly with the federal government and all branches. So when we need to litigate, we litigate in the judicial branch. We work very closely with agencies of the executive branch, specifically the Food Safety Inspection Service at USDA. That's our primary regulator.
00:04:49
Speaker
And then we lobby in Congress. And so the folks who are writing the laws, we talk to them about what's good or or not good for our industry players. The Meat Institute has 330 or so general members. And the general members are the ones who do the meat packing and meat processing.
00:05:08
Speaker
processing. And the vast majority of our of our members are on the smaller side, lots of medium size and smaller and even very small, privately held, in some cases, fourth generation, fifth generation family companies.
00:05:24
Speaker
all across the United States. And then, of course, we also represent the companies that are household names and iconic brands like Hormel and Tyson and Smithfield. Many of these organizations have had a relationship with AFA, and so listeners might have even had opportunities to work in some of the companies that are that belong to the Meat us Institute.
00:05:48
Speaker
We also have companies in the Meat Institute that are suppliers of of services or equipment or packaging and things like that. And they are very, very important to the general members.
00:06:01
Speaker
They provide a lot of resources, a lot of education. And then we also have customers. So restaurants, grocery stores, and other brother-sister organizations like the Meat Export Federation are in an allied category. So All told, we have between seven and 800 members.
00:06:22
Speaker
And if I could, i would talk to each one of them annually because it's such a fantastic group. And I really, really enjoy working for them and what they do for us.
00:06:34
Speaker
as companies who provide wholesome protein. Such a great description and such a diverse group of people to represent. So, Juliana, you are leading in a space where female executives are still very much the minority.
00:06:47
Speaker
So how have you claimed your voice in these rooms and and how has that changed over time in your career? Boy, that's a really great question because it is still, i i was, before I was at the Meat Institute, I was at American Farm Bureau Federation.
00:07:03
Speaker
And so left to law practice where Farm Bureau was a client and moved into the general counsel role there. And it was largely the board might've been all male.
00:07:17
Speaker
There's a women's group representative on that board, but I can remember I was in my early thirties and i had a conversation with a gentleman who, from our board, who was a president of a state Farm Bureau. And he said, you know,
00:07:32
Speaker
you've got a really interesting place here as general counsel of this old organization and and then a seat at the table with with, you know, this, and he meant particularly male, you know, male board.
00:07:46
Speaker
And I hadn't really thought about it. I mean, that was the thing. I was so scared about doing a good job that I i never even stopped to think about that aspect of the job.
00:07:57
Speaker
But what I realized, especially working with farmers, in that case, every single one of them had children, daughters, spouses, you know, wives, sons, sisters, sisters-in-law, you know, in in the family farming arena, in the family in family businesses like we have in our smaller organizations at the Meat Institute.
00:08:21
Speaker
it's It's a very, very hands-on for everyone kind of an operation. If the the male part of that family is the one who actually is, you know, sort of the doing the leadership roles and the organizations like we have, that's where it feels like it's still so heavily dominated by men.
00:08:40
Speaker
i have never felt anything but listened to, you know, respected and well regarded people. And I guess the long answer is i never really felt like I had to find my voice because I just always felt very well respected.
00:08:57
Speaker
In organizations, in agriculture and in food, it's been ah great group of people. And I guess I just I can't say enough how especially women executives in these businesses have really come to the table to say, you know,
00:09:15
Speaker
We're all in this together. So I'll make one more point and then I know we can move on to another question. But in the last several years, the Women's Meat Industry Network.
00:09:27
Speaker
women, W-M-I-N, has come to fruition, has just self-identified people who wanted to be in this organization. And almost organically, people just said, oh, yeah, I want to be with people who are trying to do the same thing I'm doing, which is maybe a food safety position in a plant or a plant manager or someone who's leading HR in the C-suite. But, you know, ah most everybody else on the the the in the C-suite is male.
00:09:57
Speaker
it has grown to be nearly 2000 women strong in just a few years. And and and so there's a very strong influence ah within the meat industry of, yeah, we're here, we're going places, we've got careers in this industry that we really appreciate.
00:10:17
Speaker
And you know it's not an us versus them, it's a very inclusive kind of feeling, but I think that ability to reach out and and how and have a shared experience with another woman in this industry is also very valuable.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yes, yeah. That community can be so critical in helping you feel like either, hey, I'm not the only one that feels this way, or here's how I've navigated something similar. And i would I would also say a shout out to mentoring.
00:10:45
Speaker
And mentoring for me has been, you know, for many, many years, were were male i had male mentors. I mean, i I guess I'm hard pressed to think about the time when I would have had a female mentor given when I was coming up in the law firm.
00:11:02
Speaker
when I was coming up you know in Farm Bureau and other parts of my career, certainly here at the Meat Institute, I mentor others, but I also am mentored by others. And I have you know tremendous female colleagues who I would consider mentors, even though what we do is just kind of talk about ah career advice with each other.
00:11:23
Speaker
so i really, really give a huge lot of credit to the male mentors that I've had throughout my career because They were extremely helpful and a whole lot of women friends.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah. So I think so many people hear that, right? Like mentorship is so important. Give me some practical advice of how do you find those mentors and cultivate those relationships? Well, it is a big question for anybody who is not part of a group where you are actually put together with a mentor, you know, in some sort of a formal way.
00:12:02
Speaker
So I've done both. I have had sort of unofficial relationships with people who came to me or were introduced to me by a colleague or a friend.
00:12:15
Speaker
And if there's chemistry and if you click, it really is very easy to continue to get together, talk about things. And I just, that I just ask a lot of questions, really probably probing questions, except when, you know, somebody is open to talking about their career and maybe some challenges or maybe some opportunities. And it's not just the fork in the road. I'm going to take this job or that job.
00:12:43
Speaker
It's how do you build your brand? You know, how do you build how people trust you and, and think about your work ethic and how do you advance your career at the appropriate rate?
00:12:58
Speaker
How do you know when you walk into interview that you're going to be asking all the, you know, as many of the right questions as you can. And sometimes with those of us who have been a little further along in our careers, we've stubbed our toes or we've seen others stub their toes. We can offer a little bit of advice.
00:13:18
Speaker
And so I do that really on a regular basis. But the other part is formal. And so the Women's Meat Industry Network I mentioned has a formal mentoring. It's kind of like ah a dating service online.
00:13:33
Speaker
And i believe the last time I checked, there 200 plus pairs of mentors in that program. And I am personally mentoring a couple of young professionals.
00:13:44
Speaker
And then I would say a lot of our organizations in agriculture have young leader or emerging leader programs and people can go and maybe there isn't a formal mentoring situation, but going through You know, those relationships with, say, if you were in a young young person's group in some place in food, those are great resources there to kind of connect you with people.
00:14:09
Speaker
Most everyone I know who is, you know, in a mature position in their in their career journey loves to connect.
00:14:20
Speaker
and and share. Yes, absolutely. I think you said a couple things there, which is where people stumble. One is the chemistry piece of it. And if the chemistry isn't there, then forcing it is not fun for either party.
00:14:33
Speaker
and it's okay to be like, this just isn't the right thing and move on. And then the other thing I'm going to plug in here, because you did not, the Meet Institute does have an Emerging Leaders Program. For anyone who is a part of it or in the industry, I can speak firsthand. It is a wonderful experience.
00:14:48
Speaker
It is, and my hat's off to both the emerging leaders who've come through and also our staff here who make it such a wonderful program.
00:14:59
Speaker
We just had the group in for a fly-in, and everybody was you know really, really effective talking to their member of Congress or or staffs, and that was ah a lot of fun.
00:15:11
Speaker
But that is has a component to it that has a formal mentorship, And I just get really good feedback from the mentors wanting to do it again and again because they get so much out of it, too. i Love to hear that.
00:15:24
Speaker
OK, so let's shift to your career at the Meat Institute. When you started at the Meat Institute, what was the culture like and what did you notice needed to shift? The Meat Institute had just merged with, well, the two organizations had just merged to create the North American Meat Institute. We have since changed the name to just the Meat Institute.
00:15:49
Speaker
So I asked the question of my predecessor, how far would you say the group has come? The group of members, the staff, you know, are you like 80% of the way there? Because it was three years after the official merger.
00:16:04
Speaker
And I was expecting something, you know, like close to done. And he said, oh, maybe 50%.
00:16:11
Speaker
So I would say that the biggest cultural issue, and I don't think it was as much a staff issue. It was more on the membership side where that there were two groups or maybe even three but subsets that had belonged to different organizations that had their own cultures. And some people wanted or tried to look backward, like, you know, what we had before that we don't have anymore, or, you know, this is the way we used to do things. And this is the way I want to do things going forward. Well, that's not really, um we don't, we're not really staffed for that anymore. And so there was a bit of
00:16:54
Speaker
me just saying we aren't going to look backwards. I wasn't here. I don't know who belonged to which organization or the other. i don't care. yeah as a staff person, if you came from one or the other, i just know we have a lot of work to do.
00:17:10
Speaker
The meatpacking industry is always under a tremendous amount of pressure from you know all kinds of stakeholders. And so I looked at the ability to bring people together under sort of common a common strategy. And that strategy was we all have to reach out to consumers more We have to earn consumer trust.
00:17:35
Speaker
We have a lot of you know challenges. let's let's Let's work on those things together. And so that is what you all know of as protein packed, P-A-C-T, for people, animals, and the climate of tomorrow. And it really has been a big strategic movement within the industry to build trust in the products that we produce and the way they're produced.
00:17:56
Speaker
That was really something that got us onto a different conversation within the membership than which organization did you belong to? and you know, what are we doing or not doing that we did before?
00:18:11
Speaker
That was helpful. And so I really appreciated how quickly some of our board members and some of our staff provided me with the support that I needed to be able to kind of you know, move us along in that direction.
00:18:28
Speaker
For anyone who has witnessed it, I feel like it's been an incredible change and complete shift and getting people with different diverging priorities and all of that on the same page is not an easy feat.
00:18:40
Speaker
A lot of times when you're trying to change something, especially an entire organization, you face resistance. So how did you get that buy-in from your stakeholders to make these big leaps forwards?
00:18:52
Speaker
It definitely takes peer leadership. So building a consensus is not just the CEO of the Mead Institute and the staff of the Mead Institute saying, okay, follow us. Here's what we're going to do now.
00:19:11
Speaker
it It definitely requires leaders within the organization that my, I used to call them my EF Hutton's, you know, the people that everyone listens to that have influence on the board, really giving them the environment and the, and the opportunity and the, you know, the programming to say, i believe this is the direction we want to go So I would say very much in a membership organization, whether you're representing individuals,
00:19:43
Speaker
or or companies giving people that feeling that the members were run the organization. The members are the ones who decide which way we go and what we need to do. They pay us dues and we we implement.
00:20:00
Speaker
However, they can't start with a blank slate. So you give enough of a framework and then you take input and then you massage the framework and then you get input and then you massage the framework and then you get input.
00:20:14
Speaker
And it really is about taking their ideas and pushing a little bit further and a little bit further and a little bit further and constantly rechecking your hypothesis that what you are doing is exactly what the members want you to do.
00:20:29
Speaker
And so that was, um it took, ah it took some time, but we had a pandemic, you know, in the middle of that. So we were really fortunate that there was a ah wonderful staff person here who kind of took a lot of what we had developed in the first year that, that I was on board and ran with it while we were dealing with a bunch of us were dealing, you know, daily with the issues of the pandemic.
00:20:57
Speaker
If he hadn't continued to kind of iterate on what are the goals that are important for us to build? How do we collect data from our members to show consumers that we are making progress in all of this?
00:21:11
Speaker
How do we define the kind of resources we need to bring to the table? So if people are going to make progress in animal welfare and environmental impact and those kinds of things, we're giving them the tools that they need.
00:21:23
Speaker
And if he hadn't been doing that while we were over here fighting fires, you know, we wouldn't have been as ready. But once we came out of the pandemic, we were sort of, we were off and running.
00:21:35
Speaker
We put together like a a report and a conference and the things that are tangible that allow people to see, yeah, this is this is a thing. Like this is something the industry is doing together to move ahead.
00:21:48
Speaker
But more than anything, it was amazing. Again, the word culture, it was a cultural shift in the organization that started with the leadership and we just took some time to move it along. And I couldn't be prouder of of what the industry has accomplished in doing that.
00:22:06
Speaker
I think anytime you are trying to create change like that, when you're embarking on something new, you have to say no to other things, right? How did you navigate what things to cut and what ah maybe necessary endings needed to happen as well?
00:22:22
Speaker
There is a wonderful book that I think was published by the Association of Associations, ASAE, that came out in 2011 or 12. The whole premise was for associations, you can't keep doing all the same things.
00:22:39
Speaker
and expect that you're going to be able to move the organization or your industry forward. There was a great blanking on the the name of the book right now, I'll come up with it later, but really have to focus on what is your leadership telling you that they value the most?
00:22:57
Speaker
And if everybody values everything the most, you haven't really given them the tool to say, no, no, no no I value this this the most because you're forcing me to rank all of these things in ah in a one, two, three, four, five. So we we forced some conversations around if you had to give up something, you know, something's got to be the last on the list.
00:23:20
Speaker
But ultimately, when we decided to make the switch, you know, and really add something to what we were doing, not take anything else away in terms of advocacy. Protein Pact had to find new funding.
00:23:34
Speaker
And this is where I come back to how wonderful it was to use some common challenge like consumer sentiment and bring people together around that. So we ultimately added to resources rather than deciding to to take things away.
00:23:51
Speaker
It's still important to take things away. You can't keep doing everything that you've always done. And so we are a much better staff now at retiring committees maybe that aren't working or meetings or other resources that aren't working. That too, you know, just takes some practice.
00:24:08
Speaker
And I would go back to that sort of forcing yourself if you are in an organization or even in your own budget, you know, if you force yourself to rank things one to five or one to 10,
00:24:22
Speaker
you might be giving up your Starbucks or something if you can't afford to do everything. I have loved the opportunity that we've had to get sponsors engaged on Protein Pact because those folks that I mentioned that provide services or equipment or packaging or audits or what have you,
00:24:46
Speaker
they have come to the table to help support the activities for Protein Packed in a big, big way. And we have we really, really have gotten a lot of, I think, new revenue in the organization to support a lot of those activities.
00:25:01
Speaker
Not an easy feat either. Well, no, it's not. But it's also, you know, you have hit a nerve, you know, within an industry when so many people are interested in what it is we're trying to accomplish. And what we're trying to accomplish is building and maintaining trust.
00:25:19
Speaker
And we're doing that through influencer communications and, you you know, industry work on gathering data. So Meet Institute Reporting, we internally gather data from our members and have spent years now, you know, helping them see what excellence looks like, not because we say so, but because their peers say so.
00:25:40
Speaker
And then being very transparent with with customers, their buyers and consumers. And when when people do come to the table and they understand and they say, this is voluntary, like we're not forcing anybody to do this.
00:25:54
Speaker
It's because the industry recognizes how much value there is in the supply chain to have this information and be able to supply it to customers, investors, you know creditors and and everybody.
00:26:08
Speaker
So, Juliana, the challenge and the the problem that you are trying to solve is is not a small one. And it is one that so many, I would say, other industry organizations, and this is not to just like have ah tried to solve or that we have gone after in many ways.
00:26:24
Speaker
And I think the challenge for any leader who's trying to create change, right, that. the amount of voices and people and input and opinions on on how to get there and what to do.
00:26:35
Speaker
How have you all successfully dealt with that never-ending loop of feedback and still been able to make progress? Oh, that's one of my favorite questions of of anything. Like it's really, really about governance.
00:26:52
Speaker
You know, it's about governance and leadership. I do believe that if you have the right oversight of what it is you're trying to do, you can cut through all of that background noise and make decisions with the right people at the table.
00:27:13
Speaker
So in addition to putting Protein Pact in place, we had, you know, through peer members of the board, people who had been on the board for a long time, had particular interest in what we were trying to do, set aside time running a ah big company to do this as part of their industry leadership.
00:27:35
Speaker
We have a governing body within the board that is just for Protein Pact. so Every single thing we do, we have them at the table saying, you know, yes, this is the direction that we we need to go.
00:27:52
Speaker
That comes with a lot of staff support, right? We create the opportunity for them to do that. Then we also have to understand where we're going to stub our toes. now Where are we going to reach out to folks who disagree with us? And and so we we do a lot of that, a lot of outreach outreach.
00:28:10
Speaker
a lot of ah building awareness of what it is we're trying to do. And that's within the industry. You know, it's not surprising that people who work in maybe some of the subject matter areas that are covered in what we do that really don't want to have anybody kind of touch their business. Like I... Get out of my sandbox.
00:28:29
Speaker
Just get out of my sandbox. Right. And so we've we've tried really, really hard to bring people together to understand We're trying to make all of this easier and better and lift, you know, all the boats rather than adding another survey or another, you know, sort of responsibility to them.
00:28:50
Speaker
We've had our moments. And so it's just, it's, we can never take for granted that people get it, that people really understand, but it's Over the several years, I mean, there's been a lot more participation, understanding, less sort of detractors out there because it really is, again, it's a an industry voluntary effort to improve, you know, to get better for the purpose of of our consumers, their trust and their comfort.
00:29:21
Speaker
We want to give them the opportunity. to enjoy what they enjoy. We know from annual meat conference just a few weeks ago, i guess back in March, that 98% plus people going into a grocery store still walk out with animal protein in the market basket.
00:29:40
Speaker
Like that's pretty darn wonderful. And millennials who now, you know, are ah huge segment in cooking at home, lots of that having to do with inflation and other things, they, as a matter of 62, 64 percent, don't we holt hold me to the exact number, you know, were increasing the units of meat they bought over 2024. You know, that was the biggest cohort was millennials in growing more meat consumption, meat demand.
00:30:17
Speaker
So we have a huge you know place in the psyche. We have a huge place in people's desire to eat healthfully with more protein. So that's a wonderful thing. How do we answer the folks you know on any number of these challenges, whether it's food safety or animal welfare or environment, that want to tear that down? We have answers and we have data. And the best way to do that credibly is with data, data and science.
00:30:45
Speaker
What advice would you have for anyone who is trying to push through change on how you know when to say, thank you so much for your feedback. We're going to keep moving anyway. Or like, hey, we really need to slow down and listen to these detractors.
00:31:00
Speaker
You're hitting some excellent, excellent and very hard questions. You want everybody to love you. You know, you want everybody to say, oh my gosh, this is the best idea I've ever heard.
00:31:10
Speaker
i can't wait to help you with it. And when that doesn't happen, it can be it can it can both feel like rejection and it can also feel like, well, they just don't understand.
00:31:21
Speaker
I think the biggest thing you can do is listen really, really carefully to the people who are offering different ways of thinking about things.
00:31:33
Speaker
Weighing the relative importance to the overall, you know, is always a very, very tough thing to do in any issue in a trade association, because sometimes an individual company's desire might have to fall to the good of the of the whole.
00:31:50
Speaker
and If you have been transparent enough, if you've had enough, I call it socializing conversations, you know, you socialize the ideas. Hopefully, hopefully, you know, even if you don't go a direction that someone has has provided for you in feedback that they understand they were heard.
00:32:12
Speaker
And in a lot of cases, we try very, very hard to bring those considerations to the board you know, well, here's where we landed, but we heard this, this and this, or in this case, you know, to the protein pack committee and then and then if we if needed to the board. So I guess as staff and as ah as a leader of staff,
00:32:36
Speaker
We listen and we do a lot of calibrating, but when it comes down to we've got to make a decision and reject someone's input, then then having officers or a chairman or governing committee or or the board is where we go.
00:32:52
Speaker
And that's been very helpful helpful to us, you know, because we have tried to maintain that alignment on at the leadership level. I think what you're talking about is a lot of the overlooked work of just connecting people and different minds and thought processes. It's not fun. It's not easy. It's a lot of time on the phone and tough conversations but where someone who is listening to this, who maybe hasn't done that work might seem like, Juliana, that just sounds like playing politics.
00:33:20
Speaker
What would you tell someone who maybe has that kind of reaction? Yeah. Yeah. The biggest change that I have seen in engagement by individual board members or individual, you know, um representatives of companies, they may be government relations, it may be lawyers, it may be food safety, subject matter experts.
00:33:43
Speaker
The biggest change is when you ask someone to participate for input and you ask for them to serve on a committee that is advising the organization on the direction. And I mean, we have had such great input and leadership from members who say, you know, maybe they could have sat on the sidelines before, but when When you have a finance committee, a nominating committee, ah strategy committee, a protein pack committee, it is a lot of work to keep all of these different governance entities going.
00:34:23
Speaker
But my goodness, it facilitates an impressive amount of engagement. And then these are the folks who are just as likely to answer the question if someone is saying, well, well why did we do that?
00:34:39
Speaker
Sometimes it's other members of the board who are answering. They're not just looking at staff because they feel responsible. So yes, there are politics in everything we do, small p, um because you need to reach out and touch people, need to understand who they are, what they do, what their companies do, how they like to be treated. And and I feel very comfortable that whether you call it politics or just relationships,
00:35:07
Speaker
It is just about relationships. The bigger answer is asking people to get involved. Shockingly, when they do get involved, it really paves the way for just tremendous alignment around direction.
00:35:22
Speaker
What I hear you saying is invite them into the arena. It's very easy to have an opinion from the cheap seats, but man, do the conversations and opinions and thought processes change when you have been pulled into the arena, the one who is doing the work, all of that.
00:35:37
Speaker
That is right. and And what goes along with the risk is for some people, you do lose. You lose control, control. We never have control, right? You lose a little bit of control by saying, you know, OK, committee, this is what we're talking about today. And in the end, I'm asking you to make a decision on this.
00:36:02
Speaker
And, you know, maybe in my mind, i have asked them to make a decision and I've given them options A, B and c In the course of a two hour meeting, you know, we might come up with but d E and F. And that's scary if you're not able to, you know, have the relationship in the room where you can say you could do that. But here's here's how I see it. Here's how I think that would play out.
00:36:32
Speaker
And that comes from really, again, knowing your members, knowing your people in this, I would put this in the same category at work. You know, if you have colleagues at work, you need to kind of understand where people are coming from, listen very well, and then not be afraid to say, i disagree with that. And here's why because all of us, when we work in tandem with each other, we work in groups.
00:36:57
Speaker
We're not always going to get our our way or our first choice. And so being able to really kind of zig and zag with your board members once you've invited people into the arena, as you said is really important.
00:37:11
Speaker
I want to touch on something. you you almost went here, but I think a lot of people think like, okay, you're president and CEO. You are the ultimate decision maker. What you just said is that sometimes you also have to sacrifice your own opinion or your own personal thoughts on how this should go, especially if you're going to lead that way of bringing so many people into the conversation.
00:37:30
Speaker
hundred percent, yes. i feel the same way with my colleagues here on the Meet Institute staff. My version of ah statement or my version of a strategy for a particular advocacy event or whatever, I offer it up if I'm asked, or I might offer a, this is directionally the way I think we should go.
00:37:55
Speaker
But it would be soul crushing if you went off and did that. And then I got to say, no I want to do it this way. i think that there is a real value and and people call it empowerment or whatever you want to call it. But really what it is, is it's like people have to know me well enough to know that I got an opinion about everything.
00:38:15
Speaker
But I don't I don't think that I'm right. i don't think that I'm right. I just think I have an opinion. and if you want to ask me what my opinion is, I'm going to tell you. But that doesn't mean that I don't want everybody else around me.
00:38:32
Speaker
Many, many times, i don't know several important facts about what we're dealing with. And so it does take some time in a staff for people to trust that, that trust that just because you know, I threw something against the wall doesn't mean that you can't say that is not a good idea and we're not going to do it that way.
00:38:56
Speaker
It's very important to me that people who are on the job doing the things they're doing closest to say our trade advocacy or something are the ones who are ultimately making a decision and I get to have input.
00:39:11
Speaker
And that's the way I feel about our our committees too. I know where I want things to go, but my job is to, again, create that environment for the best decision making. And when I see somebody going off a cliff, I can step in and say, don't think we want to do it that way, but but what about this?
00:39:31
Speaker
I love it. I mean, it's a lot of it is governance and a lot of it is sort of diplomacy, but again, it comes back to relationships and being willing to be completely wrong.
00:39:43
Speaker
ah Whenever you need to be, i embrace that. it's not a it's It's not a problem. We don't get anywhere unless we throw crazy ideas up against the wall. Yes.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think it's refreshing to hear that, too, of just being like, hey, we're going to be wrong sometimes, but being unafraid to still have a voice in the room. Share it anyway. One of the things I want to ask you about, Juliana, is leading through the pandemic, because I think your ability and your experience leading through crisis is something we can all learn from.
00:40:13
Speaker
Obviously, the pandemic now feels a little... long ago, but for anyone who doesn't remember, it was a very not fun time to be a meatpacker or to be in the meat business during the pandemic, right? Not only were meatpackers trying to figure out when they could be open, when they could shut down, dealing with staff members who were ill, it was supply chains were completely wrecked and in how we provide meat to our customers.
00:40:38
Speaker
Talk about you and your team's approach during that time, how you navigated such a volatile environment. it In some ways, it feels so recent.
00:40:48
Speaker
You know, as you were talking, I'm starting to feel like that PTSD feeling you get when you're like, oh, yeah, I remember that like it was yesterday. We had a lot of calls. So back in the beginning of 2020.
00:41:02
Speaker
You know, we were still on conference calls all the time. We didn't have Zoom. We didn't have Teams or we didn't use it like we do now. So there was a lot of squawk box.
00:41:13
Speaker
Three of us really, there were others, but the three of us who really kind of weekly had big phone calls where we were like, okay, here's what we got for you this week.
00:41:26
Speaker
And we would have hundreds of people on the calls and they depended on us. to tell them maybe there weren't clear answers, but they depended on us anyway to tell them our best guidance on what we could do.
00:41:41
Speaker
So that was our general counsel at the time, Mark Dopp, who had been working in the industry for 30-something years and was a very trusted resource and new regulations but you know backwards and forwards.
00:41:57
Speaker
Then we had a public health expert who is an animal science PhD, but happened to get her master's in public health. And so her knowledge and her connection with people at CDC and others was invaluable. So even though there were lots of other people involved, it was the three of us who had these weekly calls that I think were, was, I still hear today from members how important it was just to know that if they were having problems with something, we were there to listen
00:42:28
Speaker
and to pass on their stories directly to to the federal government or questions sometimes. Remember, we we did't we didn't know about masking. We didn't know about social distancing. We didn't have shields. We didn't know how anything transmitted. We were still washing our groceries when we got them home.
00:42:46
Speaker
So it was a very, very, very tumultuous time of lack of of of information. Then we sort of, and we kept going with those, but then we sort of hit that time where many, many government entities were making decisions about whether companies could operate or not.
00:43:04
Speaker
And so you you didn't have just a ah federal intervention. You might have had a ah public health person in a local community or a judge or state public health folks or the governor. i mean, it was just all across the board. The perception problems that some of our meatpacking plants had because of the nature of ah the workforce being, in a lot of cases, from immigrant communities that were that were very afraid just like everybody else, but also in some cases we're already hanging very close together. So one of our members said at one point, I think I have a third of my workers that are sick.
00:43:45
Speaker
A third are afraid and they're just not coming to work. And another third are here, but they're not the people I need on this, at this part of the the line or, or fab fab whatever.
00:43:56
Speaker
And so it was, Every day felt like, you know, we were putting out fires and getting as much information as we could to the government and from the government.
00:44:07
Speaker
And i would say all along, i was worried that I didn't know what I didn't know. So i was in the position of, you know, having a lot of this responsibility and I felt very good about how we handled a lot of it.
00:44:24
Speaker
But I had only been in the meat industry for a little over a year at that point. and And it was quite intimidating, you know, to again, ask ask questions that, you know, maybe I should have known the answers to, but you were just in in the moment, we were trying so hard just to get what we needed.
00:44:44
Speaker
And ah whether that was PPE, whether it was additional ah encouragement for people to get back on the line, animals were backing up, you know, consumers were freaking out with, you know, it was, it was the whole thing. So I would say the industry overall bounced back incredibly quickly, given that by September, October of 2020, nothing was perfect, but the major slaughter facilities had gotten mostly back up to running enough where they were taking care of the animals that had
00:45:19
Speaker
that had that they had to, you know the throughput was was back closer to what it needed to be. um Yeah, it i the management of that particular crisis made me learn a few things. One is, if you are going to be on camera, if you're gonna be doing stakeouts in your driveway, you know ah get somebody to help you.
00:45:45
Speaker
figure out the technology, the makeup, the you know the what have you. that's i'm I'm only partially kidding. Recognize that every single thing we did during that time, if we were sending somethingy something to the government, if we were sending something internally just among ourselves, down the road, we were subject to congressional subpoenas. We were subject to anybody in government getting through FOIA, through freedom of Freedom of Information Act, anything that we were doing.
00:46:19
Speaker
And so that was not completely shocking to me, but I had never personally had my emails dumped into the public record like that. So we all learned, you know, a lot, a lot from that. And then I'd say a third thing, and I really, these are just sort of silly, but, you know,
00:46:39
Speaker
being able to have some kind of relief release valve during those, you know, and whether that's your kids, your pets, your exercise, um other people who are under the gun with you that you can, you know, just have an internet or a zoom beer or something, you know, that was really, really, really important because the pressure was, was really intense.
00:47:07
Speaker
And then when we were, you know, somewhat out of it, we kind of had to celebrate. And that was really important too, to give everybody the sense that we survived. We didn't have to let anybody go.
00:47:19
Speaker
ah industry itself probably wasn't feeling quite as, as a chipper as we were, you know, on the staff about where they sat just yet because restaurants, you know, obviously didn't come back online for a really long time.
00:47:34
Speaker
But when we look back and when I talk to members today, they really pulled together, we pulled together, and we got through it as an industry. And I'm very, very proud of what we accomplished getting through the pandemic.
00:47:45
Speaker
Did you ever have days where you wanted to quit? huh Yes, I did. But there was no quitting. There was no quitting. There never is quitting.
00:47:56
Speaker
Never quit. Obviously, you know, people leave jobs and people have difficulties in families. You know, people do things where they have to move on. And that's not what I'm talking about.
00:48:12
Speaker
I'm talking about you make a commitment. You are in the moment of, of dealing with really, really hard things. You cannot, you can't quit. And that's the way i feel about my, my career, you know, that there have been lots of times when things were so tough that I was like, I just, I can't work here anymore. I'm, I'm, I'm out, but I hadn't learned everything I needed to learn, or I hadn't,
00:48:42
Speaker
completed something I needed to complete. I hadn't fulfilled a board term that I needed to fulfill. You know, there are things that are like not comfortable and you kind of push through.
00:48:53
Speaker
and I will tell you even the worst experiences i would say have made me tougher, stronger in my sense of instinct and intuition and willing to take greater risks.
00:49:06
Speaker
m Oh, even that one alone, that's worth it. And I think that's what you just illustrated is you got done talking about it a terrible time, ah admitting that like, yeah, there were days you you wanted to throw in the towel.
00:49:19
Speaker
But I also just heard you say how proud you are of the work that happened during that time. And very proud you wouldn't have that that knowledge or that like, I would say that even that proof, right? They're like, hey, I can do hard things if you hadn't pushed through.
00:49:31
Speaker
So I love that that story. And the thank you for answering my random deep question of, hey, do you ever want to let it go? i You were asking the best questions. I mean, these are really, really spectacular questions. I think you have um you have a gift for putting the really hard stuff into a good question.
00:49:52
Speaker
Oh, thanks. Well, there are things I just want to know. Speaking of questions, let's move into rapid fire. So ah let's just try to do these as quick as you can. um One sentence or one paragraph is maybe what I'll say.
00:50:05
Speaker
What is one leadership tool that you cannot live without? My executive assistant. And I mean, she keeps me out of trouble.
00:50:16
Speaker
And I love her dearly. What is something people often misunderstand about leadership? that That leaders have all the answers. Leaders don't have all the answers and never do, never will. There's always more information to learn. And you can't can't expect to know everything when you have to make decisions and sometimes very hard decisions.
00:50:38
Speaker
What is one professional moment that still makes you proud? Oh, boy. um i got recognized... This is a little self-serving. i got recognized by the Women's Meat Industry Network as most impactful woman of the year.
00:50:53
Speaker
And i have never had anything like that. And to have recognition by your peers and particularly my female peers in the industry was really special.
00:51:04
Speaker
I loved it. Incredible and well-deserved from even just the stories you've told. Thank you. What is a leadership tool or resource that you recommend? Could be book, podcast, anything.
00:51:14
Speaker
I love the Simon Sinek book, Start With Why. I mean, that is really has had a huge impact on me. And there's also the last name Leanne Sione, I think, the four obsessions of an extraordinary executive.
00:51:29
Speaker
And it's ah it's sort of told in a fable form. but it's really helpful in reducing to some pretty simple kinds of thoughts about how being a leader of a group of people, it doesn't matter where you are. it doesn't matter what level you are. They're just certain things that keeping it real, ah keeping it real, keeping it simple, understanding and what you are about.
00:51:54
Speaker
And I have read that book and offered it to people many, many times, but both of those, the Start with why and four obsessions are two of the things that I give to people all the time.
00:52:05
Speaker
Love it. I'm a big Lencioni fan as well. So that's a good recommendation. What is one mistake or habit that you hope the next generation of leaders leaves behind? Any sense that there is a program, rule book, definition, that anything, you know, it's helpful to read things. I just gave some interesting recommendations.
00:52:28
Speaker
I have lots and lots of things that I've read over the years. I just think that we overcomplicate things a lot of the time, whether it's, you know, our performance review process or some sort of policy or procedure.
00:52:42
Speaker
i think simple, really simple, plain language Anytime we can speak plainly and simply is best. And I think sometimes leadership, people think you need to sound really erudite in order to be, there's a big there's a big word for you. You need to sound really, really important and smart.
00:53:05
Speaker
The next generation already seems to me to throw a lot of that stuff out the window. And I like that. I think being a little ah little more real real in our interactions is is good.
00:53:18
Speaker
Yeah, good one. Okay, so we love hot takes at AFA. So bold and unconventional opinions. What is a hot take that you have about leadership or the future of agriculture?
00:53:31
Speaker
I'm gonna take the future of agriculture. i think that there will be more people, more young entrepreneurs coming into the food and ag space i know what people say. I've been in agriculture and food for, you know, 30 years now.
00:53:54
Speaker
I think we are going to see entrepreneurs doing things in food and ag that we have not yet even seen and that it will be a draw unlike we have seen in the past.
00:54:06
Speaker
And some of that is because of the attention that we are seeing now with Make America Healthy Again. Some of it is because people just love food and it goes sort of with everything.
00:54:20
Speaker
I think agriculture is more connected now to the customer than it ever has been. and the more that we can cement that connection in people's minds, the more attractive, I think, agriculture of all types, very diverse, you know, will will be. So I think we're going to see more young people coming in um to our food and ag space than most people think.
00:54:47
Speaker
I like it. What an incredible prediction to think about. Well, I believe, I believe when I see people, i will mention this. So I met some sisters at the annual meat conference. I think they said they are fifth generation pork producers from the mashoff families.
00:55:09
Speaker
They are the taking what their family history has been. and they have started a company called Lottie's Meats and they are bringing natural sausage you know into retail.
00:55:25
Speaker
And i just i thought their marketing was genius. I thought their product was delicious. And they have this business they're building with this incredible family story to back it up. And I think we're going to see a lot of that value add coming into traditional agriculture and really that closing of the gap between the customer and the farm.
00:55:51
Speaker
I know we work a lot on that, but I think it's i think we've we've all put in an incredible amount of effort and I think we're seeing the results. everybody's talking about food and ag right now.
00:56:02
Speaker
Oh, awesome. And it gets me excited about the future of agriculture. Me too. Oh, well, Juliana, we love to build bridges at AFA. So where can people connect more with you and learn about you and what you do at the Meet Institute? i love that.
00:56:16
Speaker
I am always open to meeting new people and having opportunities to connect. I'm on LinkedIn. i interact with folks there a good bit. Find me at the Meet Institute. I think we still have all of our contact information is on our website.
00:56:31
Speaker
I am very happy to connect via email. really reach out to me with questions about the industry, networking. We didn't even get to networking, but networking you know is always a big question when you are a young professional. like How do I network? What do I do? Well, network with me. Let me know what you're doing. And if there's any way I can connect you with people who are in your field or people you would like to meet, I'm always happy to do that.
00:56:58
Speaker
Well, thank you so much, Juliana. I have so appreciated hearing your stories, learning from you. I'm sure our listeners feel the same. We appreciate your time today and thank you for joining us on the Cultivating Leaders podcast.
00:57:10
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Cultivating Leaders podcast brought to you by Agriculture Future of America. you've been here before, you know we value feedback as a gift. Please leave us a review and let us know how we're doing.