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From 1 to 1,000: How I Grew my Local Farm Customer Base
360 Plays12 days ago
In this week's episode, James and Rachel of Shenk Family Farms (NC) discuss how the Farm grew a customer base from the ground up. Rachel shares her tips for beginning a Farm business, and how to establish consistency with Buyers.
For more Farm resources, visit: https://www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction to The Independent Farmer Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go-to podcast for do-it-yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman, and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn to Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand, and sell online and in person. Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
How Barn to Door Supports Farmers
00:00:42
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm James, the Chief Operating Officer of Barnadore and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners may be aware, Barnadore offers an all-in-one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman and taking control of their own business, selling under their brand, and making sure their customers can purchase online and in person nice and easy.
Rachel's Journey: Building a Loyal Customer Base
00:01:04
Speaker
In today's conversation, we're going to dive into how do you grow your customer base from one to 1,000 customers, right?
00:01:11
Speaker
How do you build a base of buyers who can help you grow a business? And today I'm happy to welcome back Rachel of Shank Family Farm in North Carolina. Rachel is a part of our farm advisor network and has worked with us for over four years. And since becoming his advisor, she shared the wisdom on building a family farm and serving their local community. I'm very excited to welcome Rachel back and talk about going from no buyers to creating a loyal base of customers that support their family and provide a stable income.
Starting with Chickens in 2017
00:01:40
Speaker
Welcome back, Rachel. It's great to see you. It's good to see you too. We're excited to be here. Well, thank you for taking time out. I know you are busy. You have another child on the way. That's really great news, especially at this time of season. Let's talk a little bit about your farm. For those joining us for the first time on the Independent Farmer podcast, let's dive in a little bit more about your farm and how you guys got started. Yeah. Yeah. So back in 2017, so about eight years ago um is actually the year we found out we were pregnant with our first baby.
00:02:09
Speaker
We decided to raise some meat chickens and some laying hens in our backyard. At first, it was just going to be a side income, something we did for fun, but we still had other full-time jobs. But we gave the meat and eggs away, the friends and family.
00:02:23
Speaker
And everyone loved it. There wasn't any other farm raising meat the way we were at that time
First Farmer's Market: Challenges and Learnings
00:02:28
Speaker
locally. And so they told their friends and everyone was like, y'all need to start a business. So we, that following year, we started going to a farmer's market just once a month. and We started a little baby subscription program. You could choose how many whole chickens you wanted or how many eggs you wanted a month. Cause we only did whole chickens for the first few years. We kept it really simple.
00:02:49
Speaker
And then I also took a farm marketing from the heart course and that Charlotte Smith offered that kind of helped put wind beneath our sails a bit. Cause we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know how to price our products. We didn't know how to find customers that were other than friends and family that were willing to pay the price that we needed to charge. And so that kind of really helped me start to identify like our ideal ideal customer and what that even meant and start an email list. But yeah.
00:03:15
Speaker
we didn't really know what we were doing. So we were just kind of figuring it out on the fly. That's not unlike many entrepreneurs, right? Who have a passion and a desire and some encouragement from friends and family to make it a business, right? yeah Now you guys, yeah again, you said you were doing this just part time, right? That's a big step to think about going from part time to actually making it full time, right?
Importance of Consistency in Business Growth
00:03:39
Speaker
Obviously a big part of that is to be able to generate enough income to be able to support your family. Well, let's talk a little bit about the building momentum, right? Because it's one thing to do it on the side. Like you said, what were some of the first steps did that you took to actually start build momentum for your farm where you felt like you started getting some stable and income? Yeah, yeah. So it took about three years for us to go from like side income to full-time income.
00:04:03
Speaker
um So in 2020 is when we went full-time but in those three years in the beginning it was a lot of just being Consistent so even though we were only doing the market once a month We said we will be there the first Saturday of every month and we were there when we said we were gonna be there people count on us I sent out one email a month, but I was consistent with it so people could always count on that either whether it's a recipe or just like our schedule of where we're gonna be or that kind of thing and then growing that email list I always collected emails wherever we were, whether it was at the market or there was a few times we set up at local CrossFit gyms and just shared about the farm, gave away some meat and eggs. Sometimes we didn't give anything away. We just shared about the farm and then collected emails and told them we'd send them a free recipe when they signed up, that kind of thing. And yeah, so I think the big part of gaining momentum was being consistent and then also growing the subscriptions, even though it was still just whole chicken and eggs.
00:05:02
Speaker
That was also helpful because that was an income that we could count on. So that was practically speaking, that was very good for growth. Even though it was small, sustainable growth, it was never like overnight and it was a lot of work. But but over time that subscription program grew and that was kind of like the backbone of our farm, at least in the beginning.
00:05:21
Speaker
Well, lets let's break some of those steps down because you just shared a lot of really great things that have, you know, come to fruition over several years now. Let's start with the first one, which was talked about, which is being consistent, right? You know, you said you started sending emails out to your customers once a month. You were always at the market, you know, once a month. Was there anything that was particularly challenging about that or things that were difficult or, I mean, when you first showed up at the market, did you have any idea what you were even doing?
Building Trust through Transparency and Communication
00:05:50
Speaker
ah How did you find which market you even attended? I'm just kind of curious. So funny story, our first market we ever went to, we only chose this market because it was the closest one to us. We we live in small rural North Carolina near the coast and all of the markets were about 30 minutes away from us. This one was 25 minutes. So it was the closest and it was kind of near a tourist town.
00:06:10
Speaker
So we figured that might be a good place to start. And there was no other meat or egg fenders there at the time. The first Saturday we showed up, we showed up with 80 fresh whole chickens, so many coolers of fresh chickens full of ice. And so the coolers were so heavy. We didn't even have a price sign or like a sign that said what we were selling.
00:06:29
Speaker
We had like our farm sign, but it didn't say like whole chicken and eggs. What is it? Hey, there's two farmers over there. I wonder what they're doing. all So people can see what we had. So we just had this table with like an email list sign up and like our farm sign, but yeah, the market manager was like, you might want to put up a sign that has your prices or what you're even selling. I was like, yeah, that's a good idea. I think we sold four out of 80 chickens that day. So that was a very humbling experience.
00:06:58
Speaker
um So we've grown we've grown a lot since then. So what I hear there is like, when you're going to show up at the market, a couple of things. One is start small, right? You don't have to take all your inventory. Make sure you're communicating clearly what you're buying, et cetera. So that makes sense. And then in terms of choosing that market, I'm really kind of curious. So you said it was the closest one. Have you stayed at that market? Has that market proven to be a valuable market for you? It sounds like being the only protein vendor there probably was a real advantage for you.
00:07:28
Speaker
Yes, it was. And there are a couple other protein vendors there now and we had grown to actually doing three markets every Saturday and now we've kind of scaled back and we're only going to that original market.
00:07:39
Speaker
And that's the only market we go to every Saturday because that was our most profitable, but it did take, it took some time to build up a customer base because I also didn't do a lot of marketing before we showed up. We kind of just showed up and just expected people would buy and they did not. and We had to build that trust, especially being a meat farmer. I think produce is a little different because you can have it all set out and it displays beautifully.
00:08:02
Speaker
But with meat, people are a little bit more leery. They want to get to know you first. It's a bigger investment of their money. And they just want to make sure they trust you before they buy this meat product to take home. Yeah. So it definitely took a lot longer to market our product than I had originally anticipated. Well, let's talk about building trust because this is really important,
Connecting with Customers through Stories and Education
00:08:22
Speaker
right? You did say that you were collecting emails. So even if they didn't buy from you, you still had a sign up sheet for people to give you their emails.
00:08:30
Speaker
Tell our listeners a little bit more about what you put in your newsletter. Like how did you start building trust even from those people who may have just wanted to learn more but weren't quite ready yet to spend $35 on a chicken? Yeah. Yeah. So one thing I did not have it at the first market, but I think maybe our third or fourth market, I had a collage of pictures of the farm. So people could actually see how we raise the animals. And then the next year we started offering farm tours.
00:08:57
Speaker
So even if they never came on a farm tour, just knowing that we allowed people to come on the farm, to to see the farm, to ask questions, that kind of gave them confidence. Like, hey, they're not trying to hide anything. They are farming with transparency. They're showing us exactly what they do to raise their animals. And then also, yes, the emails, because obviously I can't be face to face with all of our customers every week. So the email list has been helpful to to get in their inbox, stay at the top of their mind. We share pictures of the animals at the farm, we share pictures of the kids, farm stories, we share recipes, we share education, like what's the difference between a conventional store-bought egg versus a pasture-raised egg? What's the difference between conventional chicken and pasture-raised chicken? How does it cook different? How do you prepare it different? Or grass-fed steaks versus grain-finished steaks? They just cook a little different. and so
00:09:46
Speaker
equipping our customers on how to use our products to make sure like, Hey, yeah, you might spend $35 on this chicken, but I'm going to show you how you can get four meals out of this one chicken. and help create that value for them. And then you can make bone broth too. And so that's another bingo. And so like making sure they're getting their money's worth out of it, getting all the nutrients out of it. That definitely was helpful because I was learning as I went as well. When we first butchered our first group of chickens, I had never clipped a whole chicken in my life. So I had to figure it out too. So that was kind of my motto from the beginning, trying to figure out how to keep things simple because I'm a simple cook. I like to eat good food, but I'm also a simple cook. So.
00:10:26
Speaker
That's kind of how I picked the recipes. like What was the simplest, quickest way, but also something that tasted really good? Well, honestly, the simple things often taste the best. And I'm married to a chef saying that. yeah i know I know for a fact that, you know like you said, you're making bone broth. Those chicken feet and the chicken heads are great for making it more gelatinous and It's really tasty. You can use every part of the bird. It's amazing and super healthy. So I'm really happy that you're educating your buyers. Now you make a really important point about attracting customers with, I love this idea of, again, bringing pictures, a collage, help people understand more about your farm when you're meeting them and online for that matter. But the other thing that you said that I thought was really provocative is the fact that by inviting people off to the farm and offering tours,
00:11:18
Speaker
you're building trust even though they won't likely necessarily come out. It's just that openness or parents of transparency, right? Talk to me a little bit more
Farm Tours: A Trust-Building Tool
00:11:28
Speaker
about that. I mean, how has that changed the nature of trust or the relationship with your customers as you've talked to them about what you guys do on your farm? Yeah, yeah. So we only offer those farm tours a few times a year. So we don't have a ton of people that actually come out. It might be like a hundred people a year,
00:11:46
Speaker
But we get customers, they're like, Hey, my neighbor came to your farm or Hey, my neighbor got something from you at the farmer's market and loved it. So I want to try it now too. So cause we live, like I said, in a small rural community. It's all relationships. People are not going to buy something from us, especially yeah a meat farmer.
00:12:04
Speaker
unless they know somebody that has already tried it and says it's good and that's maybe already been to the farm and like can vouch for what we do as farmers. Like, hey, their animals are actually outside. They don't give them any antibiotics. They don't do anything. There's no weird chemicals. They butcher their own chickens or like, hey, actually I came and helped them butcher chickens. We've allowed our customers to come. help us do that as well. And I think, yeah, even if people never actually have that personal experience, if they know somebody that did, that speaks volumes to them and they will want to try it even if they never have themself. Yeah, that is a great way to build trust, a loyalty, huge, right? Well, let's talk a little bit about other avenues to buyers, right? So going to a farmer's market, certainly a great avenue. But you also mentioned going to a local business, right? Going to, was it like a CrossFit or gym or studio? Like, How did that work out? And is that something that you've seen being able to capture people who are really into personal health and wellbeing? Has that been a great way for you to access a ah different type of buyer perhaps?
Collaborations with Local Businesses
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Especially the people that might not necessarily come to the markets because only a small percentage of people actually come to farmer's markets. So we were trying to figure out other avenues to get face to face with people. And so we had some friends that owned across the gym. So we had given them product and then they were like, Hey, you want to come?
00:13:23
Speaker
share at our, they had some kind of like a Friday night events. They're like, Hey, you want to set up a booth and you can have five or 10 minutes to share about your farm and then people can come talk to you after. And that definitely has been helpful. I would say there's only a few customers that are still like buying weekly from that group, but They have told their friends and like those people have become loyal customers. And so it's it was kind of like a ripple effect, which has definitely been, been very helpful for us because we don't ship, we don't do delivery. So the in-person has been very, very helpful for us. Whereas if you are shipping or doing deliveries, maybe social media would be a better place to grow and spend your time. But for me.
00:14:03
Speaker
That was not a strength of mine, or at least I didn't feel like it was at the time. The face to face was a strength of mine, I thought. And so I felt more comfortable doing those kinds of events and talking to people and building relationships with people. And that kind of, yeah, that word of mouth just kind of grew from there.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, there's no silver bullet to building trust, right? Like a big part of this, like you said, is shaking hands, meeting people, and it comes over time, right? And putting yourself out there and being willing to talk with people, right? Which can be uncomfortable for some folks, but be surprised how many people are genuinely interested in farming and in health, especially today. I think health has become a part of the national conversation. With all the buyers that you've been able to grow, I mean, in growing a stable base of customers, You said you've gone from being at a few markets now down to just being at one market. So how have you migrated those buyers who you met in person to now ordering online for pickup, right? Because I imagine you're not giving up that income, you just probably made that income a bit more streamlined or more simplified for you and your family.
00:15:08
Speaker
Can you talk about how you made that shift and how you brought your customers along on that journey? Yeah.
Growing Customer Base through Online Sales
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah. So it was 2020 when we went full time and then COVID. And then that's when we signed up with you guys, because we wanted a more robust online ordering system, which was amazing. And so that year we ended up doing, I think we were doing two markets a week. And then in 2020, we grew to three markets every week.
00:15:30
Speaker
With two pickups, they could just order online and pick up. But those three markets, they could order online, they could shop in person. But it just got to be overwhelming administratively. It was tough and finding people to do those for us. As usually I would do one, my husband would do one, and we had a volunteer do one or we would pay her with meat. And it worked for a season and it helped us grow our customer base really well. But we just realized it wasn't sustainable long-term for us as a farm.
00:15:57
Speaker
Other farmers do like 20 markets a week and it works great for them. It just wasn't the direction we wanted to go. And so then that next year we started doing a mobile farm store. So it's basically a trailer with chest freezers with our meat. And now we have hired someone to go to both of those locations that we used to do markets at, but just a day during the week and only for two hours. The setup is super simple.
00:16:21
Speaker
You don't have to pay a booth fee. We partnered with a local business. We just set it up in their parking lot. So we do one of those on Tuesday afternoons, one on Thursday afternoons, and then the market on Saturday. And we have people that cover all of those for us now, which has been amazing. So it's definitely more streamlined. We're still offering the in-person shopping, but we have seen the online sales grow significantly. And another thing we've noticed is our revenue per sale is significantly higher online than it is in person.
00:16:48
Speaker
I think our average online sales, probably like a hundred bucks. Whereas in person, it's only like 30 or 40. And so growing that online presence and just equipping people and reminding them that we do offer the online store has been huge. That's helped grow our sales a lot because people can sit down and think about what they want to cook for the week or for the month. And then they end up buying a lot more than if they were to.
00:17:11
Speaker
be put on the spot at the market like, oh, I don't know. There's so many decisions. Because when people are put on the spot, they tend to not buy as much. Well, at the market too, I know I'm often a pack mule when I go to a market with my spouse because she wants to buy so much and you can only carry so much, right? But if you're going to pick up and you pull up with your car, it's like, Hey, great, give me the bags. And I've got the cooler in the car. I can throw a lot more into the car. So like you said, you know, you see your online sales much higher three to four times more. That's pretty consistent with what we've heard from other farmers.
00:17:46
Speaker
I think it's also a little bit of the psychology of shopping in person. I think you know when people do go to a farmer's market, you want to support many farmers that are there and not just spend all your money with one person. Whereas it's online, you just want the convenience, I'm already at your website. I'm purchasing from your store. What else can I purchase so I can just make it one less errant? Just make it convenient and easy. So that's great.
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction with Online Convenience
00:18:08
Speaker
What have you found that has been compelling for people when they purchase online? Is it fulfillment?
00:18:14
Speaker
Is it just having... You said you've gone to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday options. Is it the subscriptions? You mentioned that as well. like What are the things that people appreciate about having a consistent ordering experience with Schenk Family Farm? Yeah, I think the convenience has definitely been key. because we so We have five pickup locations now, all within half an hour from us, but it might only be within five or 10 minutes from where they live or where they work.
00:18:42
Speaker
So I think that's been convenient. They can pick up their order on the way home from work. So the convenience of the pickups, but then also just the ease of ordering online too, like they can see. How many chicken wings come in a pack? And what's the average weight of that pack? What's the price per pound? And then Barnadore gives them an estimated cost. So they pay the deposit, but then they also know like roughly what the the final charges will be as well. And then also, yeah, it's just, it's easy. They can self serve shop because before I would take a phone call and be on the phone with someone for like 20 minutes. What's this and what's in that? And what are the ingredients in this sausage and how many more packs do you have of this? And like, you know, but they can do all of that through Barnadore now and get all their questions answered.
00:19:22
Speaker
which has been awesome for them. They don't have to call me awesome for me. I don't have to take a break from whatever work other work i'm I'm doing to take those phone calls anymore, which has been a huge time saver for us. And then that's just showing them the value of it, you know, it saves you time. It saves us time. It's better for us as farmers, you know, farmers go out of business all the time.
00:19:43
Speaker
We have a goal to farm for 10, 20, 30 years. We want to make our farm as sustainable as possible. And this is one of the ways that we can do that. And as a customer, like this is how you can like partner with us to help us grow in a sustainable way. And that's been really helpful for people too. They're like, Oh, like, yeah, we want them to be around for a while. You know, there's always going to be chaos on a farm. So if you can eliminate some of the chaos, it's a win. Yeah.
Effective Communication through Weekly Emails
00:20:09
Speaker
Recurring revenue is just huge, right? Not just for the farm, but also a recurring order for the family. yeah right It's not like any of us are going to stop eating next week or the week thereafter. We're all going to continue to eat. It's just a question of who you're going to purchase your products from. I know for myself, I've got five subscriptions from farms who just either deliver or offer a pickup for me here locally in Nashville.
00:20:32
Speaker
And like you said, we've built a relationship with them. I know I can go out and do a farm visit if I need to once or twice a year, which I have done from time to time. But otherwise I love knowing and supporting another local family like yours, right? And that I'm getting a much better product. How do you stay in front of your buyers and keep them up to date? You know, you mentioned email marketing you were doing once a month. I'm kind of curious about your frequency there now.
00:20:56
Speaker
And then tell me a little bit more about social media, right? Cause I know that social media can be a little overwhelming for some farmers who sit down at the kitchen table at eight o'clock at night and it's like, all right, do I really have to do this? Right? So what are your thoughts been on email marketing and social media? Yeah. So email now, I think it was in 2020 when we went full time, I went to an email every single week.
00:21:17
Speaker
And I try and do it the same day and time of the week so people know when it's coming. And that's been helpful. And I also try and do the majority of those relational, like trust building emails, like telling a story, recipe, how to step-by-step guides, education, that kind of thing. and then try and keep sales emails, maybe just like 25% of our emails actually a sales email like, Hey, focusing on this particular product. And so that's been helpful for us because if you're just constantly sending out sales emails, it kind of socializes people to just glance over it or just delete it because it they might not see the value in it as much as like a relational kind of something that actually like helps them. But also I like the updates. Like for instance, we have a holiday market this weekend, which is kind of out of norm.
00:22:05
Speaker
It's something that I definitely want to remind people of. And I have made the mistake of sending out a relational email and then being like, Oh, just a reminder, we're going to be at the market. They're going to miss that update. So I try and separate them, still do the relational email. And then maybe the day before that market, send out a very short email, like three sentences. Hey, just a reminder, this market is tomorrow. This is the time. This is why we're excited to be there. Something like that.
00:22:27
Speaker
If I try and put too much information in one email, a lot of it gets missed. So I try and break up those relational versus the updates. Or at least I've been trying to more. I'm on your email list. You do a very good job writing your emails. Yeah, absolutely. I follow several of our farmers.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, you do a very good job keeping your email clean and simple, clear call to action. You don't have to scroll real far, real deep. And I don't have to read a book when I open it up. I know it's going to be three to five sentences with a clear CTA and maybe a few more sentences and some beautiful imagery. So yeah, you do a really great job being clean and crisp. What about the social media side?
Engaging Customers with Social Media Stories
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So I am still freaking out social media. In an ideal world, I used to like have a plan where I would plan out three posts a week.
00:23:12
Speaker
That just never really worked for me. Where I thrive is just our stories because that's something that I can keep up with. So I will just take videos throughout the day, kids on the farm, cooking, maybe something that has nothing to do with the farm. That's just our family because people, when they're making a purchase from us, they're supporting us as a family. And so people want to see all aspects of our life, just not the farm. And so I try and just take those little clips and then once a day, I'll just go in and upload them all.
00:23:40
Speaker
I won't really do many captions and just keep it simple so people can still see us in stories and they're just staying connected to us. We're staying at the top of their mind. And then whenever we have like a big update, I'll put reminders on there like, Hey, mobile farm store tomorrow. Hey, the holiday market's tomorrow. But again, I've been doing that in stories and I haven't been doing as many posts. And I don't know how that affects our algorithm.
00:24:02
Speaker
I would like to be more consistent with the posts, but for right now the stories have been great and people were applied to those. And then I start conversations back and forth with people through those. And then I sometimes use it to only a couple of times a year. I'll do a big push like, Hey, we've got this many farm family subscription boxes available. If you want to, yeah, sign up by this day kind of thing. And I'll do like some education. I'll show a picture, a video, of an example of what comes in a box, but i I don't do those as often as just the random happenings on the farm. People really enjoy those. And that's where the conversations happen. And then eventually they end up asking, Hey, what are your pickup locations? Or Hey, tell me what your subscriptions are about. Like, how do I do that? What does that mean? Do I have to commit? If I'm out of town, what happens? Cause we live near a military base. So people are always traveling.
00:24:49
Speaker
And then yeah, tourist towns, people always traveling. They're always concerned. If I'm not there, what's going to happen? Are you going to throw away my needs? And eventually I ended up building just a landing page because I was answering the same questions over and over. So I did that. I built a page like with all the information, all the pickups, the schedule, frequently asked questions, pictures of what comes in the box, whether you get the 12 pound or 24 pound, an example, like of exactly what they might get.
00:25:15
Speaker
what happens if I'm out of town, that kind of thing. And so that now when people ask, I'm like, Hey, here is all the information. If you still have any other questions, please reach out. I'd love to to help you. And that's been a huge time saver as well. Just a place to point them to that most likely will answer all of their questions before I have to respond to 20 questions manually.
00:25:36
Speaker
That's great. We often say the same thing to folks internally when they're running into challenges or issues. Hey, did you look on the internal Wiki and read things yourself before asking a question? Because, you know, if the questions have been asked before, most times there's going to be some documentation around it and there's going to be a quick self-serve response that you can get to the answers you need to.
00:25:56
Speaker
I really love the fact that you are sharing so much information on stories because I think a lot of times people romanticize being on farms and farm life, but it really does draw people in closer when they get to see the videos, the quick snippets, right the quick chores or things you're doing or gathering eggs with your daughter, right those type of things. It's pretty special.
00:26:15
Speaker
And I think like you said, it's really going to depend on your buyer type. Some people look more at posts, other people look at reels, but ah clearly what you're doing is working quite well, Rachel. So congratulations and well done. so Well, hey, before we wrap it up, because I would love to continue this conversation, but I know you're a busy mom and you got other things to do on the farm. But I'd love to find out for me if there's one or two other things you'd want to share in terms of your wisdom, looking back on this journey you've been on. Anything else you wanted to share before we sign
Building Farmer Relationships for Support
00:26:44
Speaker
off?
00:26:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think just connecting with other farmers, maybe one that's five years ahead of you, one that's right, kind of where you are. And then maybe even one that's a little further behind that you can help because I think in the farming community, it's it's honestly really special. Once we started like opening ourselves up to building relationships with other farms, cause you know what's scary in the beginning and you're like, Oh, I've got to tell them like everything I'm doing wrong and please help me. It's been nothing but a blessing. Like we've learned so much from other farmers.
00:27:14
Speaker
And obviously every farm is different and every farm is going to operate differently, but it's cool to see what other farms are doing to maybe bounce ideas off of, maybe get inspired to do something similar or even just to like give you the confidence to like, Hey, I know this is what we need to do. It's really big. It's really scary. It's like a change and just kind of gives you that confidence to take that step forward and do what you know you need to do for your farm or in whatever season of life. You know, when like us were having another kid, I had to hand off some more responsibilities and that was scary, but just knowing, okay, how do we hire people? What does that look like? How do I be a good leader of a team kind of thing and just having those other farmers to connect with and just to kind of help you along.
00:27:57
Speaker
has been really huge for us and then yeah like having someone you're pouring into too because you might think you don't have it all figured out and i mean we never really do but you still have a lot to offer those people that are behind you as well and like that kind of can help boost your morale at least for me like i'm someone that always struggles with like being confident in my decisions is this the right thing is it not but like knowing that your little bit of experience it has value and it can help someone else too it can help put wind in your sails to Keep pushing forward with your own farm and knowing that like you are a business owner for a reason. And with any changes that come, you're going to be able to tackle them and make decisions and tweaks and adjustments as you need to, because yeah, you're the only one that knows your farm like the way that.
00:28:42
Speaker
The animals are managed. You're the only one that can do that for yourself. There's no cookie cutter farm. And so you've got to build that confidence in yourself to know that like, you're the only person that can make those decisions. And yeah, you might mess up and that's okay. Then you can go back and make some tweaks and adjustments and go from there. But yeah, just having those relationships with other farmers, I think it's really important.
00:29:04
Speaker
great feedback. Wisdom comes from many counselors, right? And if we're all in this race, and obviously, I know I pray for perseverance every day to keep running the race because it's just a lot of work, right? And like you said, everyone's at a different timeline on that journey, right? And so I really love your suggestion too to also pour in and invest in other people too. So that's really, really well said. Well, I want to extend my thanks to Rachel for joining us on this week's episode.
00:29:29
Speaker
ah You can check out more of Rachel and their farm on Instagram at shankfamilyfarm. That's one word at shank s h e n k family farm. Here at Barnadore, we are humbled to support thousands of independent farmers like shank family farm all across the country and delighted offer services and tools to help farmers access more customers, increase sales and save time. If you're curious to learn more about Barnadore, you can go to barnadore.com backslash learn more.
00:29:58
Speaker
And I wanna thank you for joining us on today's episode and we look forward to seeing you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:30:14
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn to Door, we are passionate about empowering independent farmers to build a thriving business. To all the farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country. For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodoor dot.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.