OUTdrive

CEO's have a lot on their plate, and managing finances is a critical part of running a business. Many small to medium size companies can't justify a full-time CFO, meaning this responsibility often falls on the owner. But, there are financial support options for businesses that just need a little help. After spending most of her career in varying CFO roles, Rebecca Mankin established her own company, Mankin Consulting, which specializes in helping non-profits and community health organizations meet their financial goals.

Tune into this episode to learn more about the clients Rebecca serves and the common challenges they face.

What you'll learn:

• A short background on Rebecca's career journey and path to Sedalia, Missouri
• What prompted Rebecca to start her own business
• What Mankin Consulting does and the types of clients Rebecca serves
• How Rebecca takes Mankin Consulting to market and what strategies her team uses to attract new business
• What Rebecca loves about living and working in rural America
• Some common challenges Rebecca feels community and health organizations are facing today

A visit to the Gerken Dairy Center is a tradition for many who attend the Missouri State Fair. Ice cream, milking demos, and, of course, the butter cow sculpture, are just a few of the great things you can find inside the dairy barn. But, it also serves a greater purpose: connecting Missourians with the dairy farming community. The producer-to-consumer relationship is incredibly important in agriculture, and especially in the dairy industry. Midwest Dairy works to cultivate farmer connections, ensuring that the dairy story is shared in restaurants, grocery stores, ballparks, and homes across the nation. In this episode, Farmer Relations Manager Stacy Dohle joins the podcast to discuss effective ways Midwest Dairy is working to share farmer stories through media, Missouri program partnerships, and at state fairs across the Midwest.

What you'll learn:

• Stacy's background and how it lead to her current position
• The work and goals of Midwest Dairy
• Insight on Midwest Dairy's work with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Race to the Plate partnership
• Opportunities offered by Midwest Dairy at the Missouri State Fair and what you can expect at the Gerken Dairy Center
• Effective ways to tell the farming story
• Background on the partnership with Grants Farm in St. Louis and Wonderscope in Kansas City
• The passion of Dairy Farmers

We believe some of the best agriculturists come from the state of Missouri; not just farmers and ranchers, but bee-keepers, winemakers, orchard owners, and many others, as well. The Missouri Grown program was established to share the stories and the farm-to-table experiences available across the state. As a farm kid turned Missouri Grown program manager, Taylor Tuttle has a passion for educating Missourians on all things agriculture, including the crops and value-added goods produced right here in our backyard. In this episode, Cliff chats with Taylor about the focus of Missouri Grown, where to find Missouri Grown products, and the educational opportunities provided through the Missouri State Fair.

What you'll learn:

• Taylor's background and journey from farm kid to her role as program manager for Missouri Grown
• The focus of Missouri Grown and information on becoming a member at www.missourigrownusa.com
• The educational opportunities the Missouri State Fair provides to Missouri Grown through the market and AgVenture areas
• Insight into the impact of the Missouri State Fair on the state's agriculture industry
• How to find Missouri Grown products and other ways to support local producers outside of the state fair
• What Taylor's typical day looks like during the fair and the rest of the year
• Taylor's key takeaways when it comes to marketing and connecting people to the agriculture industry

Rural Americans and their operations are what keep the world running. Just like anyone else, these business owners, manufacturers and farmers need access to reliable internet, but many rural areas lack a reliable connection or wifi. GoNetspeed, a fiber internet provider formerly known as Otelco, is out to change that. In this episode, Rick Lashley, Director of Wireless Operations and Product Development, explains the company's primary goal of running fiber to rural American communities to support their business and lifestyle.

What you'll learn:

• Rick's responsibilities as Director of Wireless Operations and Product Development
• Rick's favorite parts about serving rural America
• The purpose and focus of GoNetspeed
• The relationship between GoNetspeed and the Missouri State Fair
• Insight on why rural Americans are underserved by their fiber and how GoNetspeed fills the gap
• How to get in touch with GoNetSpeed at gonetspeed.com
• The role GoNetspeed has in Military Appreciation Day at the Missouri State Fair
• Details about how the internet and technology has changed and grown
• The role of the good people that make sure rural Americans can depend on their internet connection

Here in Missouri, there's a MO adventure for every "M-O," outdoorsmen, art enthusiasts, history buffs, foodies, sports fanatics, and everyone in between. The Division of Tourism's "Find Your M-O" campaign is part of the state's marketing effort to attract visitors to Missouri. And those efforts are pretty important, considering they produce a 13.5 billion-dollar impact. As the Director of Tourism and a lifelong Missourian, Stephen Foutes quite literally lives, works, and plays in the Show-Me State. In this episode, I chat with Stephen about how his experience and state pride combine in his role, promoting Missouri as a premier tourist destination.

What you'll learn:

• The purpose of the Missouri Division of Tourism and how important tourism is to the state's economy
• The role the division of tourism plays in the Missouri State Fair
• Stephen's typical day as the Director of Tourism and how the variety of marketing roles prepared him for his current role
• Stephen's favorite things to do around the state of Missouri
• Details behind the "Find your M-O" campaign, how it came to fruition, and the ultimate execution
• Insight on the behavior and interests of out-of-state visitors to Missouri, as well as trends Stephen is seeing within tourism, regionally and nationally
• How to find out more about Missouri tourism at VisitMO.com or at Welcome Centers across the state

We are coming up on the best 11 days of the year - the Missouri State Fair. One of our favorite parts of the Fair is interacting with the partners and sponsors who make it all possible. In this episode, Cliff is joined by Family Center Farm and Home co-owner and regional director Blake Mills and marketing manager David Swearingen. When Family Center Farm and Home opened their Sedalia location, becoming a sponsor with the Missouri State Fair made all the sense in the world for their marketing efforts.

Founded in 1965 by Blake's grandfather, Family Center Farm & Home opened its first store under the name of Tractor Parts and Home Supply in Harrisonville, MO. Now, their business serves more than just farmers, offering something for everyone from dog owners to factory workers to interior designers. The flagship store is still open and the company has expanded to six additional locations - Butler, Rolla, Ozark, Sedalia, and St. Joseph, Missouri and Paola, Kansas.

FC Saddlery and Tack

Family Center Farm and Home

What you'll learn:

• The origin story of Family Center Farm and Home, launched by Blake's grandfather, and how it evolved into the store it is today
• Marketing strategies they use to reach their rural audience and the logistics behind the locations of their stores
• The role Family Center Farm and Home plays during the Missouri State Fair as a sponsor and the impact of fairground events on their Sedalia location
• An overview of the Saddlery and Tack branch of their business (FC Saddlery & Tack)
• The development and integration of their e-commerce presence, from their website to online ordering and in-store pickups
• Updates on Family Center's rewards program and how the change in consumer buying habits has impacted their business model
• Advice for business owners and marketing managers who are stepping into the social media world and how they can keep tabs on what is going on in the communities they serve

What makes a great marketer? Someone who is strategic? Yes. Detail-oriented? Absolutely. Asks good questions? Certainly! All of these skills are part of the equation, but they also need to be business savvy. A great marketer should be able to look at the client's business as a whole, see marketing as a piece of it, and then identify how it can better fit into the puzzle. In this episode of OUTdrive, I sit down with Callis President, Megan Hartman, to discuss how her business and entrepreneurial DNA helped build the foundation for a career in marketing.

Megan was recently named President and a partner in Callis & Associates. Megan began her career at Callis as an account manager and went on to serve in a number of account roles over the last 10 years. Prior to Callis, Megan started her business career at BluCurrent Credit Union, managing day-to-day operations of all branches. A Pettis County native and Northwest alum, Megan pursued earned a degree in business from Missouri State University.

What you'll learn:

• Megan's business background and her new role as president of the agency
• What makes a good account executive and how to get in contact with Callis
• Takeaways from the Build a Better Agency Conference in Chicago, put on by the Agency Management Institute (AMI)
• Some of the creative projects Megan's been involved with at the agency over the last 10 years
• The relationship Callis has with the Missouri State Fair as their marketing partner
• Some of the marketing strategies and emerging media she's seeing that have been the most effective
• Why developing personas is one of the most important parts of a business' marketing plan

Investing in marketing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. History has shown that marketing works when done correctly. You can grow your business by increasing your investment in advertising, public relations, social media, and online. But it also works the other way. You can decrease your sales by lowering your investment. And if you keep cutting back over time, you might cut yourself right out of a job.

Business comes and business goes, but one thing should always stay the same - and that's your commitment to marketing. Tune into this episode for a special holiday edition of OUTdrive and insight on how committing to marketing in good times and bad can help you gain a bigger share of the market.

What you'll learn:

• What successful businesses do to maintain their presence in the marketplace
• The importance of staying in front of your current customers while courting new ones
• Why you should increase your marketing spend when business isn't going great
• What happens to your market share when you stop investing in marketing
• How cutting ad dollars may save you money in the short run, but is actually creating opportunities for your competitors

They say a dog is a man's best friend, but for some individuals, their dog is a lifeline. Right here in rural America, we are privileged to have a nationally recognized organization and facility dedicated to raising, training, and placing service dogs with people in need. In this episode of OUTdrive, Cliff sits down with Kyle Cory-Yaeggi, Operations Director, and Laura Erganian, Fund Development Coordinator, from Retrieving Freedom, Inc.

Retrieving Freedom is a non-profit organization with a mission to change lives through the training and placement of service dogs for veterans with disabilities and children with autism.

The organization operates out of two Midwest locations, Waverly, Iowa, and Sedalia, Missouri as an accredited member of Assistance Dogs International. Retrieving Freedom is recognized nationally for its unique training methods and exceptional quality of its 117 service dog placements.

What you'll learn:

• Kyle and Laura's passion for the non-profit industry and how their career paths led them to Retrieving Freedom
• An in-depth overview of Retrieving Freedom, from their mission and their training program to their locations and placement processes
• Kyle and Laura's respective responsibilities as Operations Director and Fund Development Coordinator
• Some of the marketing strategies Retrieving Freedom uses to communicate with different audiences
• How being located in rural America helps them better serve clients across the country
• Details on the summer volunteer opportunities and the annual public events Retrieving Freedom hosts in their communities
• What Kyle and Laura love about living in rural America and how they would characterize the Midwest

In today's world, you can get data on just about anything. This leads to many businesses drowning in reports of thousands of rows of numbers. At Callis, we like to say that "data without action is just trivia," meaning that unless you can do something with it, it's just a number. On this episode of OUTdrive, guest and business owner JJ Reynolds shares with us how his company, Mediauthentic, works to collect better information for clients and present it in an actionable way.

What you'll learn:

• JJ's career journey into media buying and video production, and how that inspired him to chart an entrepreneurial course in marketing analytics
• The type of clients JJ works with and what the process of engaging with Mediauthentic, looks like
• The default "silo" setting most companies are in and how Mediauthentic gets them on the same page
• How JJ's analytical, curious, and creative traits led to his career path and are seen in his personal life, as well
• What JJ's average day looks like as the founder and media alignment specialist at Mediauthentic
• How a dashboard can change the way somebody thinks about their marketing
• How to simplify the process of gathering and analyzing data