The Pacesetter Pod

As a leader, you must make decisions. The problem is you need to make the decisions before you have all the necessary information.

Delaying your decision makes your team question your leadership skills. But deciding too quickly can cause irreversible damage to your agribusiness, your team, and even your family.

So, how do you make smarter decisions when they're soaked in elevated risk?

In today's show, you'll discover my 4 favorite "decision-making risk hacks" that prevent you from making costly decisions (without drowning you in indecision).

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

• Why being too thorough in your decision-making process backfires and causes your team to question your leadership (1:36)
• How to make big decisions faster even when the wrong decision risks your job, your company, or your culture (5:02)
• The "Impact & Probability" trick for understanding the risk your next decision carries before it sabotages your agribusiness (5:52)
• The insidious "Chicken Little" trap leaders fall into which dupes them into making incorrect decisions (and how to harness this trap to make smarter decisions) (8:47)
• How to leverage your fear of failure to help you avoid foolish decisions (without subjecting yourself to indecision) (18:22)
• 4 "Decision-Making Risk Hacks" that help you overcome your reluctance to risky business decisions (even when you don't make the best decision) (19:08)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

Agribusiness was about being the best supplier of calories in the past.

But with the global supply of food getting much more competitive, you either have to enter a price war or distinguish your offer to cater to different types of consumers.

And while the other sectors in the economy have become experts in meeting specific demands in the market, the agribusiness space still lags far behind.

On the other hand, there is a lot of untapped potential to grow your agribusiness that may even be on par with M&A integration.

And one of the best ways to make use of that opportunity is to look at the byproducts of your main offer.

In today's Episode, Ken Dallmier, Principal of DemandSideAg, shares how to open up revenue streams in entirely new markets without competing on price, and how to simplify your business ideas by saying one word more often,

Listen now!

Show highlights include:

• How "Supply Centric" thinking may make you go bankrupt (and how DemandSideAg grants you access to a growing customer base) (2:21)
• One underrated revenue stream most agribusinesses are sleeping on for over 30 years (6:50)
• Why rejecting a promising business project sharpens your decision making skills to find better opportunities (9:24)
• The "Cortez Principle" to ethically force your leadership team into opening up a new market for your business (17:02)
• A counterintuitive way trying to outwit your competition makes the market reject your offer (even if your product is far superior) (20:07)
• The scary, yet historically proven, reason agribusinesses may be the most resilient types of companies in times of crises (30:47)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here: https://moshercg.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

The difference between a successful M&A that excites your team, grows your revenue, and creates a better experience for your customers… And a failed one where you invest tons of capital and time and energy for nothing comes down to asking 3 simple questions.

Why?

Because M&As are exciting for your team. But this excitement, while healthy in doses, can become lethal if it's unjustified.

Asking these 3 key questions not only prevents you from wasting your time, energy, and capital, but it also ensures that your leadership team is aligned and convicted in the value of the M&A. And when your leadership team is aligned and motivated because of your pragmatic and rigorous evaluation, then, well, your M&A is destined to succeed with flying colors.

In today's show, I reveal what these 3 questions are, why your M&A success hinges on asking—and answering—them as soon as possible, and how these 3 questions weed out weak ideas before they devour your time, energy, and capital.

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

• 3 key questions which not only helps you improve your M&A execution, but also helps you avoid wasting months of time for nothing (2:50)
• Why watching this quick TED Talk will align your entire leadership (even when your M&A gets complicated) (4:00)
• The unoriginal, but wildly effective "Rooted Problem" trick for ensuring your entire team is on the same page during an M&A (6:01)
• Why M&As that don't answer this customer-centric question fail (and how the "reinforce the why" secret prevents this) (9:06)
• How empowering and exciting your team on your new M&A can cause costly mistakes if you neglect this often overlooked step (10:38)
• The "Steel Man" technique for making sure your M&A is actually worthwhile and profitable before you invest capital and months of time into it (11:04)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

While this saying has its roots in the military, it applies perfectly to your business.

As a business leader, you may be well prepared if a plan doesn't work, and have alternative ideas you can implement.

But it's easy to lose track of the decisions other people in your business make.

And if they can't get your opinion before they act, mistakes are unavoidable.

Since you can't develop decision making skills overnight, your people need principles to anchor every decision around.

And the most effective way to do this is by setting an example, and reminding your team of your common values every decision has to align with.

In today's episode, Marc Mears, Chief Operating Officer at Ag State, shares why even short-term plans shouldn't violate your company's values, how safety performance can raise your team's decision making skills, and how to communicate a new strategy to get honest feedback within your organization.

Listen now!

Show highlights include:

• The counterintuitive way "Safety Culture" encourages your team to take more risks (5:39)
• The simple, yet difficult way to put an end to wrong decisions out of desperation (7:05)
• Why your leadership team alone may support a strategy that won't work (and who else you may need to approach to get the right feedback) (16:49)
• The "Fingerprint" method to adjust your structure for your personnel (without needing to change it too much for every new team member) (21:18)
• Why agribusiness may be the sturdiest industry to invest in right now (27:28)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

The most popular definition of leadership alignment is a fine line between productive dissent and aiding your team to operate as a group.

But like it is with most "soft" skills, no one will come to you and brief you on the state of your leadership alignment, and whether you need to change something.

Unresolved differences within your group may lead to competitiveness and people pointing their fingers at each other when under pressure.

And nothing will stress test your team more than an M&A integration.

Fortunately, it's simple to find the right fit for your leadership team once you take away the reasons to play off each other.

In today's episode, you'll discover how to overcome power games in your team, why the first days of a new team member shapes their perception of you, and the only reason to change a joint decision.

Listen now!

Show highlights include:

• Why the newest and least skilled members of your team will shape your team's cohesion the most (3:56)
• The "Us vs Them" mindset tweak that aligns your entire team to one goal (6:50)
• 3 deadly "status games" that hinder your business at best—and bury an M&A integration in the worst case (7:53)
• The insidious way nay-sayers manipulate discussions (and the only legitimate reason to change a past decision your team agreed with) (11:28)
• Need to get people to agree with you under time pressure? Remind them of this (13:42)
• How to align your new leadership team in 20 minutes or less (without drowning under horrendous new staff costs) (15:51)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

The best company you can acquire is often not the most successful.

Instead, it's more important to assess how well the seller prepares the exit.

This may sound obvious, but most M&A integrations fail because the buyer or the seller underestimate what it takes to mold a business, so it fits into the new ecosystem.

No transition will be seamless, but there are many factors that influence the success of integrating a business into another.

And the best way to figure out if an integration is worth pursuing, is by gaining more insight into the seller's side of the deal, and what the best conditions are for a successful sale.

In today's episode, Garrett Stoerger, Managing Partner at Verdant Partners, shares the best way for both sides to compromise during an M&A deal, a lesser known mistake that leads to regret one year after buying a company, and why some agribusinesses sell better than superior competitors.

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

• The general sweet spot for timing an agribusiness exit with the highest evaluation and a smooth transition (6:59)
• What the ABCD companies teach about the merit of vertical integration in agribusiness (10:52)
• How to tell if you're compromising too much for an M&A deal in an instant (18:18)
• One common, yet underrated mistake when you buy a company that reduces customer retention more than anything else (22:49)
• 3 reasons why you'll never close a "Risk Free" M&A deal (and why they're still worth pursuing) (27:46)
• Why a "Lean Agribusiness" is harder to sell (even if it's far simpler to run) (37:08)
• The "Housing Market" mistake that destroys the value of every agribusiness for sale (46:03)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

An M&A integration may fail if you ignore the culture of the company you acquire.

A business may have a similar offer in the same market as you, which makes them an excellent candidate to integrate into your organization.

But they might've got successful in a different way than you.

And not figuring out these differences may draw out the integration process, increasing the risk of failure.

On the bright side, including culture in your integration plan helps you improve your own company's culture by getting insight on how another successful company manages its daily processes.

In today's episode, you'll discover how to bring two different company cultures together with the least possible friction.

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

• How acquiring a competitor may make your current personnel miss the deadlines for their projects (1:16)
• Can you define your company's culture? Here's how to turn it from a vague idea into a clear objective (4:22)
• The quickest, yet imprecise way to figure out which parts of an acquired company's culture you can adopt (7:04)
• The "Public and Visible" method to unify people from 2 different companies under one new company culture (16:35)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

One of the fatal mistakes agribusinesses make is focusing their strategy around their margins.

Yes, it's true that your business depends on the value it creates in the economy.

But some of the best strategic decisions you can make may stunt your short-term earnings. That's okay, because they lay the foundation for much higher returns right after that.

How?

By giving the people in your business more leeway to fail. It sounds scary, but this is how you unlock unprecedented growth in your agribusiness.

And the quickest way to achieve that is by letting your salespeople tweak an offer based on the customer they have in front of them.

Giving up control can lead to several "bad deals", but creating free space for new ideas is what drives the ability to iterate and achieve better results.

In today's episode, Steve Becraft, President and CEO of Southern States, shares how to deal with setbacks, why defeatism destroys your margins more than a hurricane, and how refusing to solve interpersonal problems improves teamwork.

Listen now.

Show highlights include:

• The simple, yet difficult way to cultivate accountability in your business (without people pointing their finger at each other) (2:08)
• Why stunting your short-term margins may accelerate the growth of your business (8:17)
• How to prevent conflicts among your personnel by doing "nothing" (12:54)
• The "Hierarchy-Independent" accountability framework to prevent rivalries between teammates from forming (18:50)
• The 70/30 split for a healthy balance between shooting for high goals and staying realistic within your budget (27:30)
• Why you shouldn't plan with money you don't have (even if high returns are almost a guarantee) (29:46)

For more about Joe Mosher, go here:

https://moshercg.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemosher/

M&A integration is a process where nothing may happen for a long time.

And then everything happens at once.

But this can go 2 ways.

Either you enter a lucrative market, or you can scare your customers away into the arms of your competitors.

The reason?

During major change, your teammates have to take more responsibility

because you need to focus less on the day-to-day, and more on the integration process.

Not distributing responsibility to the right people in the right way may cause a chain reaction of having to iron out mistakes instead of creating value for the business.

In today's episode, you'll discover the most important skills for effective leadership during M&A, how to find them in your existing personnel, and 2 helpful resources for integration leadership.

Listen now!

Show highlights include:

• The "Set Up" problem that makes even the best business leaders fail at integration (1:35)
• 5 ingredients of a successful integration leader (4:51)
• How trying to improve your integration can make you go bankrupt (and what to do instead) (8:25)
• An underrated leadership mistake that may kill your integration plans (9:41)
• How most agribusinesses diminish the success rate of an integration to please the people who hate it (11:01)

No matter how well you run a farm, working with the wrong middleman can diminish your margins.

And the process of buying, storing and selling agricultural commodities is one if the least understood.

This is a threat to every agribusiness, since there are many middlemen who can't meet the needs of either side of their customers.

Fortunately, what makes a good middleman is obvious once you know it.

In today's episode, Robert Geers of Michigan Agricultural Commodities shares the decisive skill of successful middle market grain handlers. And how to get referrals for new business partners.

Listen now!

Show highlights include:

• Why regional grain handlers get the best margins for growers (even if the big players pay for the best talent) (2:06)
• How to convince an agribusiness to refer new customers to you of their own accord (5:07)
• The "Advisor" method that makes a farmer trust your ability to maximize their profits (10:33)
• Why "Basis Eyes" are the greatest asset of a middle man in the agricultural business space (and how you can get them too) (16:00)