Transcript
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.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: Welcome to the independent farmer podcast. I am Corey, a farm account manager here at Barnsador and your host for today's episode.
Speaker: As you may be aware, Barnador all about helping independent farms make money, ditch the office work and look like a pro by getting a system in place to sell direct market under their own brand and manage orders.
Speaker: Farmers can skip the middleman and build a strong local business with recurring sales. Today, i am very happy to welcome Nick from Sweet Magnolia Farms, who is part of our farm advisory network and has recently joined us this year. I'm excited to talk to Nick about his journey to building Sweet Magnolia into the success it has become today. Welcome, Nick.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, it's great to talk to you. And just for context, for those who may not know, I referenced our Farm Advisory Network, which we call our FANS, Barn to Door's network of farmers who are basically there as resources to help other farmers. So Nick has very recently joined that network and we're super excited to have him. Nick, I want to kind of get started with the who, what, where, when, why. So why don't you yeah just open it up and tell us a little about your farm and who actually is ah is a part of your farm?
Speaker: Yeah, sure. So we are Magnolia Farms. We're in Shelby County, Alabama, just south of Birmingham. And it's my wife, my daughter, Emily, and myself that run the farm.
Speaker: And we recently relocated. We we just moved to a 71-acre track, about 60 acres of pasture. And we raise all kinds of proteins. We do pork.
Speaker: Beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, and we also do milk and eggs. Awesome. Awesome. And is it is it just you and the family right now? do you have anybody else helping out?
Speaker: No, sir. It's just us. That's awesome. And when did you say you guys got started? so probably like a lot of farms. We started homesteading in 2019.
Speaker: We purchased some land because we had some horses and we didn't want to board them anymore. We wanted them on the farm with us. And we had 40 acres and two horses and we were trying to figure out how to get all the broom sedge and dog fennel off the property. So we we landed on some regenerative farming and we kind of went from there like, well, a lot of land for two horses. So we got some chickens and pigs and cows and it organically grew from just feeding us to feeding friends and family to our passions changing from our, I was a firefighter for 12 years.
Speaker: down in Gulf Shores and our passion changed from that to to farming and and feeding people and healing people with food. Great. So this wasn't something you very much anticipated when you got started with this, when you'd originally bought the land and just had the horses?
Speaker: No, sir. Not at all. That's, I mean, it's not an uncommon starting point for a lot of our farm advisors starting out as kind of homesteaders themselves and seeing it evolve into something where you end up feeding a lot more than just your own family. So that's great. And I I know, nick you have a pretty interesting, you mentioned the horses.
Speaker: You have a pretty interesting namesake for your your farm, right? Yes, sir. so The name is Sweet Magnolia Farms, and it's ah named after my wife's horse, who she had for, i guess she she was at the barn that i was born at, and then so she's owned it for probably close to 20 years. And she would always, her name is Maggie, but her nickname for her horse was Sweet Magnolia. And so whenever we started the farm, we were throwing around names and then she threw that one out there and it stuck. And so it's we still have the horse. She's about 25, 26 years old now. And we have her, the horse's son out here on the property as well. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. And you can read about that on your guy's website, which your guy's website, like I know the Maggie has been a part of kind of your branding and everything. So that's really a really cool origin story. All right.
Speaker: So Nick kind of jumping forward here, you know, you you started the farm, like you mentioned, thinking you're just buying land, a place for the horses. So what would you say were the pivotal steps for moving from you know you mentioned your career as a fireman but the pivotal steps of becoming a full-time farm so i guess the the biggest step was we we we just felt that god was leading us from from where we were to just a completely different i guess uh setup than what we had it went from
Speaker: like I said, doing 50 to 80 broilers at a time to jump into a thousand at a time, four to five times a year and incorporating a lot more animals. And one of the big things was we had some family in Chelsea, Alabama, in the and the Birmingham area, and they had some property and they'd always told us it was Dana's parents and they had always told us if we ever wanted to do anything with it, it was here to do something with. And so that gave us an opportunity to sell our property, pay off all our debt and have some capital in order to to grow the business.
Speaker: And that's how we kind of, jumped off into the deep end. Going from one year, we, like i was saying, we raised about 250 broilers to the the first year doing it full time, we were at about 3,000. A lot of learning, a lot of learning. Yeah, that's a huge jump. Did you guys, speaking of learning and like you a mentioned earlier, or becoming kind of a regenerative operation, did you have any early resources, whether like people you learn from or whether that was books, podcasts, specific mentors? Sure. So I called around some farms and, you know, we got some good feedback. Some people said you couldn't do it that way.
Speaker: And then there were some that were encouraging and said, it's just hard work. And they pointed us in different directions. And we, whenever we were trying to heal the land, cause it was overgrazed and it was row cropped for 15 years and then there's just been a steady stream of cows on it all the time for the last 10 years.
Speaker: When we bought the first property, we were looking into how to heal the land naturally without chemicals and fertilizers. And we found Justin Rhodes, which led us to Joel Salatin and Greg Judy, White Oak Pastures. And so reading books and lot of YouTube, we learned how to to process and cut up a pig on YouTube, how process our chickens.
Speaker: So we didn't have anybody, I guess, hands-on mentoring us, but thankful for the online resources and videos that we could watch 10 seconds, learn how to cut this part of the pig, watch the next 10 seconds, and then just keep moving on from there.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go. There you go. And those are very familiar names too. I'm sure a lot of the farmers listening right now, Joel Salatin, Will Harris, who are you know awesome resources, have books, podcasts out there. So awesome. Well, you mentioned this big jump from when you guys were processing your first batch of broilers till now. How would you say your mindset has had to kind of shift as you know you've taken these progressions and the farms become such a primary business for you? That's a very good question because initially we did do it all.
Speaker: And whenever we were processing birds on the farm, we had to realize that, which my wife Anna realized this early on, I was the one that did not. It's okay to get help and it's okay to not do it all yourself.
Speaker: So initially we were processing birds and it was just us or maybe one or two guys from the fire department had come in to help. And then when we moved up to the Birmingham area and we were running batches of 750 1,000,
Speaker: We'd have three processing days and so there was no way for us to do it. So, you know, we found people in the community that were interested and they'd come out and we'd make a day of it, you know, send them home with some meat.
Speaker: And then once we kind of scaled up a little further, we started taking them to a processor. And that has released a lot of time for us to be able to focus on growing them And, you know, making sure every, all the animals and the different enterprises are being taken care of like they should be.
Speaker: And, and for marketing and. deliveries and markets that frees up a lot of time to to interface with customers. Gotcha. Gotcha. That's great insight. Would you say like to a new farm who, you know, was getting started with this, what would you say like is the key kind of things to look for? Making that switch from when you can process it to yourself to when you should start doing, you know, bringing broilers to a processor. Our, well, I'll say what ours was whenever we were cutting up birds. So it was a
Speaker: Whenever it took 16 hours a week to process chickens and cut them up, that's when we were, we were like, that's two full days of work that we're losing ah to do it ourselves and not outsource it. And that, you know, outsourcing, it can be finding someone with the equipment that's you know, willing to do it locally for you.
Speaker: we We have to drive ours a decent ways to a processor because of the quantity. But I wish, I mean, there's times that I do wish that we still did it just because the community aspect of it, if we, you know, did the smaller numbers.
Speaker: So there's definitely nothing wrong with that. But once you go up to a full-time farm operation and you're doing three to 5,000 birds a year, that's a lot of processing to do yourself.
Speaker: Gotcha. Well, that makes total sense. So going off of that, as you have progressed, you're doing more and more, you know, kind of those first couple years of the farm. What was the fork in the road moment that led you guys to thinking, right, I think we need to go online or specifically what made you guys sign up for Barn to Door?
Speaker: So again, the whole, oh we can just do it ourselves. We had a we made a little website. I made one night whenever I was up late at the fire department after running, doing some reports, I created a Shopify account or a a website and we were using that for a while and it just, it didn't, we had, i didn't do it right. Number one, I didn't know what was doing and I didn't want to I didn't want to pay anybody.
Speaker: I just wanted to be able to do it ourselves. And I thought that would be enough. And whenever we were we were, we had someone working on a website and actually someone from barn to door called us, but she called us and pitched it to us. And it sounded good, but I'm not someone who really likes, you know, people just calling and pitching stuff. And so, but it sounded really good. And I was like, well, I would like to know more about it. And so they called back. We talked more.
Speaker: and it just made sense. So we set up a time to to go over everything. and when we did that, we, you know, i talked to my wife and we decided to go with barn and door.
Speaker: And it was actually at the perfect timing because of the People who were creating our website, they were about to merge the e-commerce side. And so it it was at the perfect timings for them to be able to still be able to plug barn to door in. And it honestly has just been a relief because it's just so streamlined and and easy from the orders to sales and packing.
Speaker: Yeah, that's great to hear. And for reference, for those listening, you like you guys only joined Barnador in 2024. So it's still, you know, only been two years at this point.
Speaker: um So how have you seen like just in that to your jump, like what would you say have been some of the changes having that online store, the Barnador account have had on the farm?
Speaker: Oh yeah. So we would probably not have reached half of our customers if it wasn't for an online store. Just people looking on the, on Google, we have people tell us all the time, like, Hey, we're in, you know, there might be four or five hours away and they look at, look up regenerative farm or organic chicken near me.
Speaker: And we pop up and they go to our website and you know, they'll order for us to ship or they'll order and pick up at a market or one of our pickup locations. And, We never talk to them until, until they pick up. So it's definitely been huge asset to have that, the online store to where people can search it. People can do everything online and, and me personally,
Speaker: I don't have to take down orders and them in order to, in order to make sure that I remember what meat to bring, what, how many dozen eggs to bring. It's just all there online.
Speaker: Yeah, that's, that's great. And I'm sure you've had that conversation with, you know, customers that you're meeting for the first time that found you online of, especially now when so many more people are looking to buy from local farms. Maybe they're listening to a podcast for the first time or reading an article that's telling them how much better it is to, you know, buy a pasture raised chicken versus what's available to them at the grocery store. So has it, have you seen that where like you're having those conversations or people, you know, found you online and they're super excited and now all of a sudden they're a recurring customer?
Speaker: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Many times. Yeah, that's one of the coolest parts for sure. I mean, that's what I love hearing from my farms when all of a sudden they go from their consistent customer base that have been their friends and family to all of a sudden, you know, they're meeting people that they never would have before. So still staying in kind of the online space with online sales, what did you, or how did you decide what you wanted to prioritize first? Like, was it, okay, we need to get our, you know, meat birds online. Was it all single purchase items to start before subscriptions or did you guys start right off the bat with subscriptions? How did that evolve?
Speaker: So we did the single items, I think, We built out like without any, we had a little bit of merch at the time, just some hats that we had ordered. But without that, we probably had 60, maybe 70 different, you know, items that people could buy between chicken, pork and beef.
Speaker: and eggs. And then we were about to have lamb. Everything was just single items. And there were some items that, you know, we couldn't move as well on the website, like drumsticks and wings off the chicken. And some, ah some of the sausages sometimes because people weren't sure, you know, had never tried some of the different flavors of sausages that we were carrying.
Speaker: But I think Our account manager had mentioned or asked if we had tried subscriptions and, and we hadn't, and I really hadn't given any thought. i thought it would be cool, but I thought there was a lot of work to go into it.
Speaker: And we talked about it and he. He sent me some information and looked over it and it seemed pretty, it only, there was only positives to it. And we, we chose to do the farmer's choice box.
Speaker: And so we were able to add some of those items that people just were hesitant to get in there. And after we started doing that, we, we send them a preference sheet.
Speaker: And they fill out and they are requesting those items that initially they were reluctant to purchase those single items. That's awesome. That's awesome. And just for clarification, like the farmer's choice subscription. So that means you yourself as the farmer have a liberty to kind of pick and choose what's going into their subscription each week or every other week or whatever the cadence of their subscription is?
Speaker: Yes, sir. we We toyed around with, you know, different boxes that were set. But Because we were moving inventory so fast, it was it would have been difficult for us to be able to make sure, i guess, we had all that. And if everybody was wanting a breakfast box with you know a pound of bacon and a couple pounds of sausage and eggs every other week,
Speaker: it'd be hard to keep all that bacon in stock. So we went to the route of the farmer's choice and, and we choose what goes in it. But it is, you know the freshest cuts, whatever we've just processed.
Speaker: And we do take their, their likes and dislikes whenever we are packing the boxes. So everybody fills out a form. If they don't like spicy, we don't give them any of our spicy sausages or some people don't eat pork at all. So they would just get chicken, beef and lamb and turkey when we have it.
Speaker: And, We also don't have every cut of meat for every box. So some boxes may just be pork and chicken. Some may be beef and chicken. Some may be beef, pork, and chicken.
Speaker: So it's it really varies throughout the year. And there's some people that don't, you know, may want more beef than then chicken and then they might go just to ordering certain items but I'd say 90 95% of the customers who sign up for it they're flexible and they they enjoy getting kind of a surprise every month and testing their culinary skills there we go I'm sure you've introduced people to some cuts and things they wouldn't normally purchase on their own or if they were still back at just going to the grocery right Yes, sir. And then sometimes even, you know, we give them an extra five to 10% of products and what they're paying for kind of as a discount of being on the subscription. And we'll sometimes on top of that, we'll throw in some extra cuts with the recipe, you know, or cocks. No one really buys those unless they're used for a specific dish, but we'll send them, you know, a couple pounds of those or, couple pounds of shank that they normally wouldn't purchase with the recipe in there. And then some people have started requesting them. I love that. That's amazing. Yeah, i can speak to it as a consumer myself. I'm signed up on a bi-weekly subscription box from one of our local farms, the farm that I work with here. And it's the surprise element is something I really enjoy as a, you know, foodie and, you know, someone who cares about the quality of the food they're eating. But I love getting different things from
Speaker: week to week fulfillment to fulfillment uh the farm i utilize will actually send me an order reminder a couple days before each fulfillment which an order reminders and automation you can set up in barnador and they'll kind of give me an idea what's going to be in my box that week but also gives me a chance to add things on what would you nick for some of those farms who may be already with Barnador, considering Barnador, or, you know, ramping up direct-to-consumer sales in general, what would you tell them, like, as words of encouragement getting started with a subscription? Or maybe they just launched one and they're having a hard time, you know, getting those first customers on it? Yeah, so the encouragement would be just to don't don't get discouraged if you don't hit your number that you want.
Speaker: And social media is a very... key element in our side of it with getting subscribers. That's probably how we got 90% of them.
Speaker: The other 10% may have come from the markets that we, we do. One of the cool things I think knowing your farm a little bit is you guys have a pretty good split between what you do is in-person sales at markets versus online.
Speaker: I know it's, and you guys use the Barnador point of sale. So all of that's kind of rectified in the same place, but how have you been able to kind of transition the customers who you are meeting at markets to order online?
Speaker: So a big thing is we don't, you know, we can only take so much product to market. And so if they get there, you know, two hours after the market opens and we're out of stock of a certain item, like chicken breast or eggs, they're always, you know, discouraged. They're like, oh man, I missed it. They're like, does anybody else have any? And and that's when we point them to, you could always order online the week before and choose, you know, this market is a pickup location and We would have your name on a bag and all you have to do is tell us your name and we'll hand you your product.
Speaker: And you don't have to worry about missing out on any of the products you're trying to trying to get for the week. Yeah. Yeah. I've been to a lot of markets and seen a lot of long lines. So having those, ah that ability to encourage customers to place pre-orders, I can imagine is a big deal for you and them. It's gotta be nice, you know, just having orders ready to go beforehand. Right?
Speaker: Yes, sir. And yeah, just, i mean, already having the sale done and you can talk to them a little more versus, Being on the iPad and putting in weight and stuff, it it's a little more customer friendly as well. If they put in a little work pre-ordering, it goes it goes a little smoother.
Speaker: There we go. Perfect. Switching gears a little bit, my favorite topic and a topic I have a lot of conversations on a day-to-day basis with with farmers is Marketing, which can be a scary word for a lot of, a lot of farmers, but share your experience, Nick. Like what marketing tactics have you found to work the best? Whether that's, you know, for your online sales, your in-person sales, what have you guys done? What have you seen the best results with?
Speaker: So, um, definitely social media. My wife does all that and is great at it. She puts a lot of effort in it and she has the the big ideas.
Speaker: And I just do whatever she needs so that she can get a video of animals and products so that we can, she can make reel or post it to her stories. and And then we'll get, you know, a couple orders here and there from those.
Speaker: But I would say she's she's really good about on our stories on Instagram and Facebook, just showing life on the farm, you know, the the good, the bad, and the ugly, like It's not always a great day when it's pouring rain. Everybody still has to get fed and moved. Or if you have a loss, it happens. And so people are people are bought into our farm. they They love seeing it. People come up to us all the time and like, oh, follow y'all. I love watching y'all's videos. And then they end up buying stuff if they see us at the market whatever.
Speaker: They'll place an order online. Marketing on pushing orders, whenever we get product in or if some animals are going to be processing, you know, we'll kind of highlight those animals and let everybody know this is going to be in stock and it's going to go quick. Like of those chickens, of those 800 chickens, we probably have 40 to 50 chickens worth right now. And so everybody's texting me trying to get chicken breast and, you know, we're completely out.
Speaker: So once they they've done that once or twice and they can't get them, whenever they see her post about it that we're processing them and we let them know when we put the inventory online, we've had people order for three months because they don't want to run out.
Speaker: That's really cool. So just your wife posting about just general life on the farm has actually in the end kind of transitioned to being a great way to market your products. Yes, sir. Well, that's that's very cool. And it's something i think that's kind of built in which a lot of farms don't realize. And you can probably speak to it, Nick, is people are interested in seeing what you do on a day to day basis, you know, especially people working office jobs, living in cities, living in the suburbs.
Speaker: who are pretty far removed from that farm life. So you have kind of that built-in ability to just share pictures, videos, taking care of the animals, like you said, the good, the bad, and building that following. And then, you know, when it does come time to ah promote, you can slip in a link to your online store, right?
Speaker: Yes, sir. Yeah. And like you were saying, every the people who do work in town, we we do farm tours also. and And some people have never been to a farm, never seen some of these animals that we're raising. And so, you know, the disconnect is huge between people and their food and where it comes from. And so that's one thing that Anna, at the beginning, you know, that was one of our things we would tell people is we're trying to we're trying to bridge the disconnect. We're trying to help people understand where their food's coming from in the community and let them know it doesn't have to come from these big farms and these big operations that you don't know anything about the animals that you're eating. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure you see that, that there's a growing appetite for that, right? There's a lot of messaging going on about eating local and eating from small farms, especially ones who are very open about their farm practices. Yes, sir. All right, Nick, I got some kind of quick hitters for you here. So what would you say? Like, give me your top three to five best selling inventory items.
Speaker: Loneless chicken breast, chicken tenders, bacon, steaks, and ground beef. There we go. That's not too surprising to me. All right. Another quick hitter. How do you guys package your products? Whether it's pre-orders at the farmer's market or doing deliveries or drop-offs for pickup, what kind of packaging are you guys using?
Speaker: So for the market, we're just using a plastic bag. We haven't transitioned over to paper. We tried for... a couple weekends but we had a couple people they were about to get in their car walk into the market that their meat fell out so from it being a little wet and it was warm it was a warm summer day so sweating some um and then but we still just used you know the t-shirt bags that say thank you on it and If it's anything over you know five-ish pounds, we'll double bag it. Our subscription orders, we don't use any plastic bags we have. We bought some nice reusable cooler bags with our logo on it, and we package them in that and zip them up and deliver them that way. We do a system where we drop off the bag and pick up their other empty bags from the last month so we don't have to unload it into a cooler. They don't have to worry about being there and
Speaker: So they just set the bag out that morning and we we pick it up and we drop off another one. That's awesome. Save yourself some costs that way too. All right. Nick, what would you say best advice for just your one quick snapshot, best advice for moving products?
Speaker: You know, whether that's just a marketing tactic thick of sending out a MailChimp newsletter, order a reminder, post it on social media, one quick, you know, tactic you would tell a farm to utilize.
Speaker: I would say social media. If it's going to be online, if it's in person, you know, just be honest with the customers. That's the biggest thing. Perfect. Great answer.
Speaker: Looking down the line a couple of years, what goals does Sweet Magnolia have for the future? To not run out of beef or chicken and to and to be able to employ one or two people full time. There we go. So looking to get some full-time farm help?
Speaker: Yes, sir. We have people interested and we had a part-time employee for a while, but we whenever we had to buy a ah new place, whenever we moved in December, you know we had to kind of take a step back from that. but There's people that want to help.
Speaker: There's people that want to work. And that's, I mean, that's kind of how you know you're taking those next little steps. Like I've know spoken with so many farms about that, who it's just, you know, complete family endeavor. And then, you know, they've reached the point where, okay, we're going to be able to hire a farm hand or we're going to be able to, you know, go out and find a college intern who's going to help us with social media and email marketing. So That's ah that's great that you guys are you know starting to inch that way.
Speaker: All right. Well, we got ah just a few minutes left, Nick. So do you have any final advice for farmers looking to get started selling direct?
Speaker: They're looking to scale their farm business. Any final words of wisdom? So for the the people on the fence of starting, I would say do it. There's nothing more satisfying than being able to produce your own food, number one, but also...
Speaker: Be able to change the lives of other people because we've had countless people say, you know, they were at the at a point of they didn't know what they were going about food because they couldn't. They were sick. They couldn't eat the stuff from the store and they couldn't find anybody locally that was raising clean food.
Speaker: And those stories are what what keep you going, of course. So I'd say just just do it. Start small, though. And in those that are wanting to take the next step, I would say have a plan because we did not initially.
Speaker: And there was so many moving parts that i I did not know or did not anticipate. So definitely have a plan and maybe even just. reach out to other farms that are doing it and, and ask questions.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome. That's great advice. And I think sharing your story, like you've mentioned what, you know, you kind of originated off of of sharing the why behind your products and building that connection with your customers so they can know where their food comes from and see, you know,
Speaker: no pun intended, how the sausage is made. I think that's incredible insight for for our farmers. That's what you know customers, especially in today's market, want to see.
Speaker: All right. Well, Nick, I want to extend my thanks for joining this week's podcast episode. You can check out more and go follow Sweet Magnolia Farms on their Instagram at Our Sweet Magnolia Farms. Again, that's at Our Sweet Magnolia Farms. Here at Barnador, we are humbled to support thousands of independent farmers across the country. We are delighted to offer services and tools to help farmers make more money, ditch the office work, and look like a pro.
Speaker: We literally talk all day every day to farmers and farmers working with Barnador can go to office hours daily or schedule one-on-one meetings with team members like myself for consulting on their business.
Speaker: We exist to support farmers like Nick. If you're an independent farmer just getting started or interested in selling direct, or if you want to simplify your business or build up your local customer base, please visit www.barnador.com. barnador.com slash learn dash more. Thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
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.
Speaker: For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodore.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.
