Welcome to the Si Farmer Podcast. Podcast where we talk farm and business marketing tactic strategy. You know, if it's farmer or marketing, we're probably gonna talk about it on this podcast. And today is no different. I was recently in Texas, I was down in San Antonio, Texas. What a what a what a pretty little city. What a, I mean, great history down there, but I was recently in Texas and I noticed something that I have always noticed about Texas is people are proud to be from Texas. I live in Illinois. I have never seen a t-shirt that says, proud to be from Illinois. What is it? Four of our last 10 governors are, have served prison terms. Yeah, it's hard to have, have community pride in Illinois, but I do. I mean, I'm not proud of that part of it, obviously, but, you know, there's, I I, I was in Texas and everybody with Texas Pride and that it's a good thing. The, but it got me to thinking, I have a dear friend who is a very successful business man, but he's also a very humble man. And the battle that goes on in our minds and in our hearts about how do we market something and show, you know, get excited about marketing our business to people and still be humble. And humility is, you know, it would seem on the surface that humility is the antithesis of marketing, but it's not. So let's get into it.

I have a love hate relationship with marketing. Really, I've gotta do what all I wanna do is

Farm. Welcome to the Si Farmer podcast. If you wanna market your farm, farm-based business or craft food business directly to the consumer, this is the place for you. Welcome to the show. Today's podcast is sponsored by Little Tractor and Equipment Company. Now, I've worked with these guys for years. These are great guys and they really care about the small farmer carry a lot of lines of products, tractors and lawnmowers and all kinds of stuff. But one of the things they carry that's really unique is they carry used coyote tractor parts. So if you run an older coyote and are looking for an engine or a transmission for, uh, an LB 1914 or something like that, check these guys out. Go to little tractor.com and click on the used parts tab. So when I was young, man, I was told by my father-in-law that I was arrogant and that hurt my feelings because I was told from the time I was a kid that that was a bad thing. And I was, I don't know that, I mean, that's just not me. At least I didn't think it was. And in hindsight, when I look at the, you know, that, that comment, I know it was said in the heat of a fight, you know, a heat of a, an argument, I'd say, not a fight, but an argument. And it hurt, hurt my feelings, but when I look back on it, I can at least understand where he was coming from because, and hear me out on this, because from the time I was a little kid, I was told two things over and over. And it seems like when you, when you hear the advice that I was given, and I, I still to this day believe that it is a healthy and honest way and approach to take in life and business and everything else. And it's, there is nobody in the world, nobody in this world any better than I am. That's peace number one. And peace number two is I'm no better than anybody else in this world. We're all sort of in this together. So, you know, you can see how one side of that piece of advice leads us to have confidence and self-worth and a and a a, at least a belief or, or that I guess that confidence you have to sit in, uh, situations or be in situations where most people would be uncomfortable. Some people would see that as arrogance. But the second part of that advice is the part that balances humility and knowing where your gifts come from and knowing where you know the source. And it, they, they, it seems to battle one another and it, it, it should, there should be a running monologue in your, your head talking about, you know, humility and pride or confidence. Um, you know, that that advice has allowed me to sit in boardrooms with guys wearing suits that cost more than my car and sit on an equal footing with'em, because I honestly believe they're no better than I am. But on the same, on that same footing, I am truly there to be of service. You know, so, you know, that that balancing act, and like I said, I was recently in Texas and it's, it, there's that community pride. And I, I, you know, I I'm, I'm always thinking, and, and I, I, I, I think to myself, what's the difference in that type of a community pride and confidence and that, that, that that feeling of belonging and marketing a business. I mean, when you market a business, you have to have that same kind of team spirit to market a business. See, if I can kind of wrap around and put this back into, when we associate pride with our business, there should be worth, and we get that from running businesses that we can be, that we, we have confidence in running businesses that we feel a sense of accomplishment from, that we have either been in service of somebody or been in service of a particular goal that we have, you know, that we have done things that, you know, I always, uh, I best advice I I think I ever give anybody is, you know, do your work in such a way that when you go to sleep at night, you go to sleep with a clear conscience. It's the best sleep remedy sleep aid there is, is that you have done the best you can. You've done it for good purposes. And when you go to sleep at night, you sleep with a clear conscience. And I know for a lot of people where a lot of guys that I know, that's tough. I had a, uh, I don't call'em a friend, but I'll, you know, I know guy who runs a business that I would never be involved with. It's a predatory business. I don't like those like predatory businesses. You know, it's businesses like tire rentals, renting tires, really, I mean, you can, you can be capitalist, but that doesn't mean you're evil. And when you take advantage of somebody, it's a bad business pr in my opinion. Now it's a successful business practice. And if you, you know, follow the wisdom of PT Barnum, you know, maybe that is, you know, maybe that's okay. But I think that, you know, we have to go about business and, and having pride go about business in such a way that we can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience. Now, if you can do that, then we start to ask ourselves about pride. How do we be proud of a business in such a way that we are willing to talk, promote, um, you know, some people might think it's boastful to promote your business. And I struggle with that because, you know, there's the, we have to promote our businesses, I mean, in most cases, for them to be successful and for us to accomplish the things that we feel we need to accomplish. And you know, it's, I I mean we farm, I, I am, I am immensely satisfied with the way we run our farm. Do I wanna do better? Absolutely. I'm always looking to do better. In fact, I sat this weekend, I was at the, oh, the International, or I'm sorry, the International Illinois Forage and Grasslands Council. I, I, I, I now sit on the board of, of that group. And I do that not because I want to have my name associate, you know, I wanna have be on the board of directors. It's because I want to help my community. And one way I can do that is to help the, the industry at large. And so, you know, I, I think there's that struggle, internal struggle we always have was, you know, how can you promote your business and not be boastful about it and not be, you know, not not suffer? I mean, there's a reason Pride is number one on the seven Deadlies. So how do we go about business in such a way that we sleep good at night? And I, I like my sleep. I mean, I don't get a lot of it, but I, what little bit I do get? I like it. And I don't wanna go to sleep with a, with a, a, uh, uh, with something troubling me or, uh, uh, you know, cuz that's, that's stress. I don't like stress. So I, I don't like drama. I don't like stress. There's a lot of things like that I don't like. And, you know, how do we run a business and how do we market? And so the take this whole thing and talk about it for a second is how do you balance the pride of wanting to get out and promote with the, you know, not running down the, the bad life slope of being arrogant or prideful and, you know, uh, you know, so there's that balance that, and I go back to my, my, the best advice I've ever gotten from my grandma was, you know, there's nobody in this world any better than me. And you think about that and you go, and you know what? Yeah, I'm king of the world. And then you realize, now I'm just down at the bottom with everybody else because nobody, I'm no better than anybody else. My father was a very humble man, very, very humble, brilliant, brilliant man. And as a little kid, I would see him deal, do business dealings. I mean, after he was, he did a lot of stuff for during the war time, uh, as a scientist that is, that was classified. And it's been declassified now. I mean, we're 70 years, 60 years, 70 passed all the work he did. But I would see him sit in his office and I would see a woman, I would see people come in. I remember this one specific time where this woman came in who, I mean, you'd look at her and go, she's a bag lady. She was, she was very poor. And I saw my father treat her with the exact same respect, dignity that he had just shown the president of the bank who was in his office the day before. And I saw no difference in the way he treated either one of them. That's a lesson right there. He never, he didn't show the bank president any more respect, or, you know, he treated this woman who didn't. As a little kid, I thought, oh man, what can I do to help this lady? She's not doing well. I mean, she, clothes were dirty, didn't have a purse, had a bag, you know, and my dad, my dad helped her out and did what he could, but he sat in his office and treated her. And it, it had to do with, I, I think her, she had, uh, rental insurance. She was renting a place from somebody and my dad owned an insurance agency, um, treated her with the exact same dignity and respect. And I thought that was, that was one of the biggest lessons that I as a little kid, because I saw it as an ex. I saw the example he led by example. He was a, a humble man, but he also advertised his business. He also promoted his business and talked about his business and the things that he thought he did well, the things that he thought he could do and be of service to people. You know, I, there's that balancing act that we have to come up with when we market our business. I think that we need to be in a mindset when we're marketing our business. That is not, we're not trying to, you know, if you're marketing your business, you're always looking. So when we market a product, we look at that product and we look for competitive advantages. So, you know, let's say whatever our product is, it it for this discussion, it doesn't matter. Let's say we're doing, um, honey, I like honey. I don't know why I've been on this Honey Kick Lee and is a, as a product. I've got a good friend who good, one of my dear friends is he raises bees. So maybe that's why I've been, um, interested in helping him out with his, I think he has 40 supers. But we look for competitive advantages. What are the things that our product brings that others don't? So maybe there's no difference in the product, and we are really just, we're local. So that's, that's our, our advantage. So, you know, we look for those competitive advantages in our product. Well, it's, you know, raised by a local farmer, raised locally, local bees, you know, raised, you know, they, they got the, the, they pollinated local plants. So, you know, we, we look for these things to help us differentiate ourselves from other products that's not being boastful or prideful. And I, I I, I got on this because again, my friend is a very humble man, and I, I, how do you, you know, how do you reconcile that? Gotta market a business with that internal monologue of humility? And I, I, I understand it's a struggle. It is. But there, that inner conversation can also go the other way. That, you know, you're, you're really just stating facts, not, not alternative facts or alternative facts. You know, we're, we're, we're putting our, our product service business in the best possible light. Nobody goes out there and says, you know what? I'm a, you know, I'm an exterminator, but I'm afraid of bugs. I mean, you don't, you don't, that's not the way you sell your business. You tout your service, you tout whatever it is. And, and my point is, we can market, and this is something that I run in, I, I talk to people about this quite often. It's, you know, how do we market our business when we're, we're shy or we're, you know, reticent to be in and put ourselves in, in a very public space for whatever reason we feel vulnerable. We, we don't want people to make fun of us or laugh at our pictures or, you know, these things. And I say, you know what? I don't have a lot of concern for what other people think I'm doing the best I can. And that allows me to have confidence to put those, you know, heck, I'm sitting here in front of cameras right now, and I'm not really a public speaking kind of guy. I, you know, you have to overcome fears. And when we are marketing a business, if we are shy, reticent to be in public, or we are, you know, we, oh, I don't want to, I don't want to do that. You know, um, we have to overcome that. And overcoming that is, you know, I, I go back to my grandmother's advi, my grandma's advice is, you know, there's nobody in this world any better than you are, and you're no better than anybody else. And so that allows, I think that, that, that puts us in a place where we can balance the having confidence and pride and self-worth with humility and grace. And when we market, now, again, you, you'll hear me talk about it, the marketing in a lot of instances should be a four letter word, because there's a lot of marketing that is predatory. It goes after weakness. And we use numbers to determine that. I mean, it, it, it's, it, it, it's a, it's a field of business that is, it's a balancing act, not a balancing act. For me, it's, you know, I just won't do it. But the, you know, when you, you look at what you're trying to do, the true goal of marketing, I've said this before, is to put the right, right product or service in front of the right person when they are looking for that product or service, making sure that when somebody goes out to look for a product, whatever your product or service is, whether you're farming or you're, whatever it is you're doing, that they can find you and then reminding them that you're there. So being active in your business and being engaged, and, you know, that's why social media, we're reminding people we're here and we're active and we're doing stuff. So when you're ready, come on out, we will help you out. And I think there's that balance that has to be struck between that, you know, between that mindset of, I don't want to do this because I'm not a, I I'm not that type of person to be in front of, you know, to be, you know, the used car salesman, you, but it is okay to market your business and promote your business, even win, you know, you are shy or reticent or, you know, you're humble. And we, we all should be humble, but we should also market our business because, you know, we're, we're doing, we're doing good work. And understanding, understanding that balance and always having that running mon monologue in your head. Or, you know, why, why am I doing this? Am I doing this for the right reasons? Am I trying to help people? Am I trying to run a good business? Am I trying to be a good man? Am I trying to be a good husband, father, or son? And where do all, you know, all of these gifts that you have, whether it's a talent or a, a mind that can retain information. You know, I have a lot of people say, you know, you're lucky to have the, the ability to remember and the ability to recall data. And, and I, I, I, it's just a gift. I mean, I, I, it's not like I worked hard to get this, it was given to me and remembering where I got it, that's pretty important. And remember that humility that comes in doing that allows us to also stand up and say, yeah, I'm confident. I have self-confidence, but I also have humility. And balancing those two things is, you know, it's a challenge sometimes, but it should not stop us from marketing our business. Marketing doesn't have to be evil. Marketing is a good thing. It's a good thing when you're bar when, when you're trying to grow your business. It's a good thing. But it, like everything else, it can be used in a bad way. And what we try to teach here at SI Farmer, and what I have always tried to give and the advice that I give people in companies is a good way to go about marketing your business. It's very easy to take the, the slippery slope of following the numbers without consideration for other factors. And, you know, that leads us to the, you know, there are, it's, it's easy to market a business if you don't have, if you don't have a moral compass, if you don't have, if you have no concern for humility, if you have none of these things, it's easy to market a business. It really is. And I would, I would make the, the argument that in the end, you're doing yourself and your business a disservice by marketing your business in that way of just chasing the numbers. Because those numbers represent real people. And if we don't stay mindful of that and stay, stay in that mindset of when we are acting, when we are marketing our business, we're marketing to real people. Those numbers represent real people. And are we treating those people? Because I truly, truly believe that when we do business in an honorable way, that we are doing the best marketing for our business, that we can, that that can be done. When I shake somebody's hand and say, I'll do this. I do my best to do it, because that is a great form of marketing. It's not only the right way to do business, it's a great form of marketing. When you say you're gonna do something, you know, do it. So, you know, I, I kind of went, kind of went down this path today of understanding the difference in, you know, being prideful and arrogant and confident and assured. Two different things. And just remember when you go, when you get ready to put your business on social media, or you get ready to post a post your social media post, remember that balance and just ask yourself one quick question. You know, why am I doing this? Is this a good thing for my customers? Is this a good thing for my business? And if I do this, can I sleep at night? Because again, doing things the right way, living the right way, all these things, they're the best sleep aid you can have. And if you, you know, if you can answer all those, all three of those questions with a yes, you know, then you're probably pretty, pretty safe to get it done. So with that, I will let you go. Have a wonderful day. Good luck and God bless.