Connect Change & Challenge

Join us for part 2 of the focus on connecting with your customers. This is a continuation of Episode 22. The conversation continues with Rick McNary, creator of Shop Kansas Farms, and Jacquelyne Leffler, a beef producer with Leffler Prime Performance. 

We talk about the benefits of going the extra mile and sending merry mail. Hear what the response was for Jacquelyne as she dropped off Christmas cards at her local post office. 

Rick also reminds us that in this case, "farmers and ranchers aren't selling a quarter of beef or a lamb. You're selling an experience. You're selling four generations, five generations of life on the farm. And to me, that's one of the most powerful selling components that farmers and ranchers have is who they are."

Find the first half of the conversation in Episode 22! For more episodes and discussion, visit: https://connectchangechallenge.com/

No matter what business you are in, you aren’t in business if you don’t have customers. In this episode, we look at the food and farming industry as our base for discussing the importance of customer service and explaining your product using your customer's words and phrasing to make the connection. The messages ring true across any industry.

My two guests, Rick McNary from Shop Kansas Farms and Jacquelyne Leffler from Leffler Prime Performance, talk about their unique experiences in the agriculture and food industry in 2020.

Rick started the Shop Kansas Food Facebook group and a website at ShopKansasFarms.com to connect those who wanted to buy food with those that had food to sell. Rick created a local food movement that now has more than 146,000 people involved.

Jacquelyne was one of those ranchers who had beef to sell. She built her business by focusing on customer service, listening to what questions the customers had, adapting her message delivery to incorporate their terminology, and has already seen tremendous business growth. She doesn't want to "out throw her coverage," but she's not done evolving her business.

Rick witnessed that while the ag industry has long wanted to educate the customer on where their food came from, the change was made when an economic driver had customers first buying their the food directly from farmers and ranchers, and then customers wanted to learn as part of their purchase.

We couldn't cut off this conversation with the great insights from Rick & Jacquelyne, so there is more coming on a bonus episode! Subscribe today to make sure you don't miss it. 

If you have feelings of losing security, inadequacy and overall anxiety, they can hold you back and keep you in a setting where you are living to work. My guest for episode 21, Steph Coombes, takes us through tips for transitioning into a life where we can work to live. Steph is a creative entrepreneur and agriculture advocate.

Steph joined me from Australia, where we swapped stories of being millennials in today's western society. She shares how her nana and great grandmother's experiences afforded her parents and now her the opportunity to find her passion in life. She is fortunate not to have survival as her primary focus in life.

She talks about being an introvert and how early in life, her fear of being noticed hurt her success. In her college years, she had the lightbulb moment where she realized her professors, or lecturers in Australia, are simply people who put their pants on one leg at a time and drink coffee just like the rest of us. Turning her fear into an opportunity to learn from experts has given her the ability to make connections and build her gypsy career.

In 2020, Steph made the difficult decision to leave a toxic work environment that provided her more money, more perks and a great living wage for a year of finding her passion and living a healthier life mentally and physically. She leaped.

Steph and I had such a great conversation that I couldn't fit it all into one episode, so subscribe to find out more about Steph and her adventures.

You can follow her podcast, Central Stations- Stories from the Outback, https://www.centralstation.net.au, or her photography at https://stephaniecoombes.com/.

Has anyone ever described you, or someone you manage, as too ________ fill in the blank? Well, I have heard: I'm too loud, too much and I think too big. So has my guest, Jenn Villalobos. In episode 20 of Connect Change & Challenge, Jenn dives into the power as a mentor of taking those who are too much/loud/aggressive, work with them individually to help them bloom and find those diamonds in the rough.

Jenn has always had a passion for solving problems and technology. Because of her interests and her drive, she's worked in roles focused on the digital and tech space with some very impressive companies, including Google in Singapore, then creating opportunities for digital startups also in Singapore. She then moved to Thailand, where she is currently working with Prudential Life Assurance Public Company as she is evolving their digital transformation. Jenn is also an angel investor, mentor and advisor working with startups.

We jump into the difference between coaching and managing. Many managers don't get formal training on how to be in a management role, and they treat the position as an HR duty vs. an opportunity to coach their team and see others grow. Jenn says, "Coaching and managing are very different things. Coaching requires a lot of self-awareness and a very clear understanding of what value you will bring. Because you may not be able to have all the answers that they are asking for, but you need to be willing to be true to yourself and be open and transparent. This approach helps the person you are coaching also feel they have an opportunity to grow."

Jenn talks about the hard decisions you have to make as a manager and important aspects of how you communicate with your team during transition times.

As someone who still works on sometimes being too excited, I hope you can uncover ways to mentor others who have the potential. They need a slightly different coaching experience. Because moving someone in the management team's eyes from too excited to excited and productive is an essential step for many in their career.

Cara Harbstreet, Street Smart Nutrition, joins me for episode 19 of Connect Change & Challenge. We dive into the uncomfortable zone and talk about how important it is to take a step back and evaluate how we approach situations and hurdles. This approach is essential for us to consider in our personal and professional lives.

Cara is a registered dietitian who focuses on intuitive eating and helping her clients have health at every size. She discusses her path to realizing that her personal biases and privileges afforded her different experiences than some of her clients.

We also dive into how this realization also played into Cara's focus of race and how she could improve her understanding to serve her professional purpose.

When it comes time to take on challenges we discuss the importance of accountability partners and keeping your values at the forefront of your personal and professional growth.

Listen to the full episode to gain insights from Cara's experience, and remember to give yourself the grace to grow and evolve.

We live in a world that often focuses on where you are today and the next step in your career. Our lives have become so focused on our jobs that it's many times how we start the conversation in social settings, "so what do you do?" Why is our answer to this question our career or our job title? Can we instead ask, "How do you spend your days?"

My guest for episode 18 and I dive into this and so much more. Dr. Nancy Yen Shipley is a podcast host, speaker, motivator, advocate for women and a board-certified orthopedic surgeon based in Portland, Oregon.

Highlights of this episode include Nancy found herself in the 6% of orthopedic surgeons who are women and working to empower other women in male-dominated industries. Additionally, we discuss the need for "he for she allies". Men who support the need to have more women in the room.

We transition into a discussion on how we balance being feminine and confident.

For more podcasts and insight articles, check out https://connectchangechallenge.com/.

To find Nancy's podcast exploring women's outlook in a male-dominated industry, The 6% with Nancy MD, visit https://www.nancymd.com/podcast/.

Goals, we've all set them, and we've all broken them. But if we don't have goals, it's hard to have a defined endpoint. If we face a boulder, we set a goal and plan how to conquer it. We dive into this and more with today's guest, Rhianna Campbell.

After selling a multimillion-dollar real estate business she built herself, Rhianna is now a real estate coach. She has big, hairy audacious goals for herself and her career.

Rhianna has found herself many times, clearing the next hurdle and continuing to strive to see her success.

To find out more about Rhianna, visit https://properplanning.realestate/.

Find out more helpful insights into personal-professional development at https://connectchangechallenge.com/

When we think about prosperous individuals, we may use these words to describe them: strong-willed, problem solver and determined. But my guest for this episode, Naomi Blohm, helps us uncover three new phrases we should consider as guiding principles: trust, authenticity and vulnerability. 

Here are questions that came up in the discussion and I believe professionals should consider:

• Are you truly listening to your customer's needs? Or are you assuming what your customers need before they ask? How are you enabling them to make a more informed decision?
• Are we looking to educate individuals or engage them? One is a more effective long-term approach to learning.
• Do you show others you know everything but forget to show them you are willing to learn?
• Are you vulnerable to others? If not your customers, to your inner circle? If not, are they the right people you should be surrounding yourself with in your personal and professional life?

Naomi Blohm, from Total Farm Marketing, is my guest for this episode and is someone who is continually pushing me out of my comfort zone and has built her career on living her truth and building trust. 

For more discussion and to hear more episodes, visit http://www.connectchangechallenge.com/ Also, don't forget to leave me a review and a rating if you liked today's episode. 

There are days where we can't wait for the day to end and others that you need that extra 25th hour to get everything done on your list.

Many of us have struggled with managing personal and professional commitments. How do you fit it all in, and what is driving what times up your time?

We dive into these questions and more in Episode 15, where my guest Anna Dearmon Kornick shares her personal experience and tips she uses working with her clients. 

If you want to hear more from Anna, you can listen to her podcast; It's About Time: https://annadkornick.com/blog/51.

If you have ideas for future topics you'd like to tackle, please email me at [email protected] you can also find more podcasts and discussion topics at connectchangechallenge.com.

I'm joined for episode 14 by Danny Ghitis, a life coach how focuses on helping others with burnout. Danny knows firsthand what it's like to experience burnout, but he also has seen the power of recognizing the issue and now helps others through their burnout trials.

We discuss that naturally, we are social creatures, and the changes in 2020 have given us all a shift in our personal and professional interactions. We have shifted to a stationary workday in front of the computer with little in-person communication with others. If you have children schooling from home, you interact with your coworkers while also balancing your kids' interactions with online school. Many changes in how we socialize and interact can all lead to a tunnel headed to burnout.

Find out how the Tazmanian Devil from the beloved Looney Tunes has to do with our natural inclination to strive for control. Danny recommends that when we are trying the hardest to grasp for control, we may need to let go of control and seek outside help.

Don't worry; this episode will not leave you feeling overwhelmed and burned out. Instead, you'll leave with challenges to take on burnout and find ways to find your new normal amongst all the changes of 2020.

Find more from Danny at https://www.fullframecoaching.com/

Find more articles and podcasts from Stacy at: http://www.connectchangechallenge.com/