Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode #40: Joel’s Tips on Marketing

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Episode #40: Joel’s Tips on Marketing · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Condense your message, know what you're about, know what your soul is, work on messaging that, get your ideal uh client articulated so you don't waste time going to people that aren't interested, and you actually target your your hit list, if you will.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you're gonna do.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have unlimited land, you don't have unlimited time.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Offer what people are buying, but simply offer them a much better product.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, everybody.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Beyond Labels.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your co-host, Dr.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Cena McCullough.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I am here with Joel Salatin with more questions for Joel.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Joel.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Sina.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we have another listener's question.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's from Peter Cushion.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what he writes.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Joel.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: My wife, brother, friend, and myself have started a small market garden style vegetable operation on a small urban lot.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: We have a few people who sell things to from church, but we're wondering how to scale up and market our farm even better.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're all under 25 years old and we're really new to marketing in general.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's demand for what we sell, but how do we effectively get the word out locally?
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: What are some practical steps to take to get good at farm marketing?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, uh well, uh Cena, you know, we we could talk about this all day.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I do I do whole uh you know marketing seminars.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just let's just uh cut to the chase.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a great question.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for Peter for asking it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um if if I may if I may pull my age rank here a moment, uh you say that that all of you are under 25.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the problem with being under 25 is called impatience.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so my my first my first take on this is you're only 25, you've only been doing this for a year.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh uh be patient and let it let it run.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: That that's that's the first thing.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, no, no business, no brand, no thing is is done in a day.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So so um, you know, uh just just stay with it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: People that asked me, you know, part of the secrets of our success, that look, I'm not smarter than anybody else, I don't work harder than anybody else.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm just more stubborn than anybody else.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just, you know, when others around us were quitting, we we just refuse to quit.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're the old, we're the old dog in the kennel now, you know.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so here we are.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll point out Joel, that's another quality which my husband says you and I share, stubbornness.
• 2:33
  unknown: Stubbornness.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, fair enough.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, you know, uh my dad used to say if at first you don't suck a seed, just suck and suck and suck and suck a seed.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, you there there's time, there's a there's a time element.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so really how do you how do you develop this market?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, first of all, you've got to produce what people want.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um often often people produce just what they want to eat.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and you know, while I love you know, weird-looking and weird-sounding uh things, uh not everybody wants that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Americans eat about what 12 vegetables, Cena, something like that.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not very many.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so start there.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Start with don't try to change everybody's, you know, uh eating from from um whatever cucumbers to kumquats, okay.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just go with the cucumbers, all right?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: At least, at least to start.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Build your core enterprise on offering what other people what people are normally eating, but it's gonna be better.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna taste better, look better, you know, uh it's gonna be a better option, but you're not you're not changing everything about their lives.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to eat, you know, uh tomatoes, it's okay to eat potatoes, all right, and and just uh grow what what people want.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, secondly, I would say um develop a hit list.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So think about who potential customers are.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what do they, what is their, what are their values?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: What do they do for recreation?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: What do they do for entertainment?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, where do they take their kids?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what age are they?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh build a profile of of your person.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Once you once you build your profile of like the the perfect customer, then then uh you know better where you're going to go.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, for example, if you're uh you know, to to like take samples, samples work.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we still on our farm, we give samples all the time.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, samples absolutely do work, but you don't want to just you know give your samples to somebody down at the you know who's buying food at the sheets uh filling station.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably not your customer if you're trying to, you know, trying to uh present a persona of a better uh quality product.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So getting your customer profile is um you know is really critical and and growing, you know, growing what people want.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, if you so um Cena, if you were going to describe the person that's interested in uh higher quality food, what what enters your mind, you know, as far as uh is it a woman or a man?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh is it a mom or not?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a married or not?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is it how old?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just just you know, um talk to me.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so in in my circles, I have a lot of people who are now trying to find this higher quality food.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And in in my experience, it is women, usually mothers, married.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason they're trying to find this higher quality food is either they're sick or their children are sick, right?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Gigi, somebody in their family is sick and they've made the connection that our conventional food is adulterated and is slowly killing us.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: They may not know exactly why, but they do know that the food is having an effect and they're wanting an alternative so they can heal themselves and heal their family.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a very, very good description.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say that it would fit, it would fit probably 80% of you know, of the of our certainly our clientele.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I expect the clientele that Peter's looking for.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So once you kind of have that profile, you know what people who you're looking for, then you know you can make your hit list and you can start uh reaching out to those people.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, whether it's uh you know actually names um or or or or entities like the you know, the owner of the CrossFit Gym or the local.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we we find great acceptance in the entire what we call the um uh the quack medical community, you know, all the unorthodox, um uh, you know, the acupuncturists, iridologists, uh, massage therapists, chiropractors, functional medicine, naturopaths, homeopaths, you know, the whole all that quackery medical, you know, they're they're they're great.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So so so you you've done that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, next question I would ask you is look at your look at your your system, um, how how people buy from you, your branding, your messaging, your your actual protocols, your actual um product interface, and ask your ask yourself, how hard is it to find me and buy from me?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Would I buy from me?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are there hurdles there where people um wouldn't buy for you?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: How easy are you to find?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: How easy are you to talk to, to answer the phone, to to get product?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: What I find in a lot of launches is there are a lot of glitches in um in that in that interface.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so so these hurdles, these these impediments, these impediments to access that we erect can really get in the way.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, um, you know, so think about how easy you are.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, just ask the what would I buy for me?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how easy it is for how easy is it for me to buy from me?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's I think a really, a really great question.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And come at it as if you don't know anything, you're just you're just again, you're the kind of person Cena just described.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and and you know, do is my website easy to navigate?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is it clear what I have?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is it clear how it's produced?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is it clear who I am?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Is it clear what my message is?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just um listened to an interesting um lecture about marketing uh from a guy who has started like you know six or seven businesses.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's a multimillionaire.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um he said that his whole approach is you've got to condense your brand to one word.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: One word.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: He said until you can condense your brand to one word, you're not ready to talk about it because you're you're you're gonna talk about all sorts of things, but it's not gonna be concise.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember people's attention span?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: How, Peter, you know, you're under 25.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: How long is your attention span?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is it like five seconds or six seconds?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your attention span's short.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you gotta you've gotta have your sound bites and your messaging uh clear.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the go ahead, Cena.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just jump in.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I um what you're saying right now really resonates with me.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, I'm a consumer um who also fits into that demographic you're talking about.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, healed now, but that's why I was looking for food, was to heal myself and my family.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I can tell you firsthand that I did not shop uh from many farmers because the website was too difficult to navigate.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was it was too hard that because there's so many options now available to us, especially with people now shipping food, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Even Polyface ships food across the country.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So there's so many options that you really in the short attention span, a consumer is not typically going to spend a lot of time trying to navigate your website.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna go on to the next one that's super easy to use.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the wordiness, like you said, was key.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them, it's like they droned on and on and on about it.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure the story's great.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone and all these farmers, I really appreciate them.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: They have great backstories.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're the consumer and you're now going outside of your comfort zone, right?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like you're you're now saying, okay, I'm not just gonna go to the grocery store and grab everything I need.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now this is taking me more time.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to try to piece together my weekly grocery list by going to these different farms, for instance, and I don't have a lot of time and I've got my kids and I got my job I'm doing.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna sit there and read a bunch of wording.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Even even in the grocery store, consumers are overwhelmed by the labels, right?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: The amount of words that are on the labels, and what does that label actually mean?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: What does that symbol mean?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is very confusing.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: This has been documented study after study.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So people are not gonna go to your website when they're now trying to piece together their menu for that week to feed their family and read like on and on and on about your story.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, make it really succinct.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: The key words, you have to figure out the key words of what your target is is your target consumer is looking for and make those words really prominent because also as people are getting more and more sick.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, these are like you said, 80% of the consumers, right?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Even on your farm, as people are getting more sick, one of the most common, two of the top symptoms are fatigue, right?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they're not gonna be sitting there going out reading in detail about these websites.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: So fatigue and brain fog.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna have a harder time um comprehending what they are reading.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: My brain fog was so bad when I was really sick, I could not read a book to my six-year-old, a children's book, and remember what I read.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So the brain fog is a real thing and it is increasing in our country.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: So just to keep that in mind, since we know the majority of the audience of the target demographic is in this sick category in some capacity.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just keep that in mind.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's got to be simple.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Say those, you know, those main words they're looking for, say them up front and make it so that they can just click like I'm gonna buy.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this sounds good.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: I want to buy that, click, I can put it in my cart, and it's done.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I assume I assume the book that you were reading to your six-year-old Cena was not uh the the physics of the electromagnetic universe, you know, it was it was good night, good night moon, good night uh uh tree, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, or like the choo-choo that could, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are we reading?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's that that's that's really great.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, so yeah, so so keywords and and and keep it simple.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then then the next thing is you know, you've got to be uh you've got to be perceived by your customers as what I call a food coach.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you got to be the guru, you've got to be the person with the answers.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and so so uh that means you're gonna have to, yeah, you're gonna have to become a bit of an expert.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to read uh and know enough that you're able to answer questions about well, why this variety, why not that?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: What differentiate differentiates you from farmer ABC down the road?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh all those kinds of things.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: You you've got to how do you use this?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh recipes, you know, those kinds of things.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Be be the food coach.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um offer, offer what they would never get at the if you're if you're in produce, if you're doing vegetables.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um what what does the average person not receive at the Walmart produce counter?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: They don't get they don't get coached on how to use it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Recipes, favorite, favorite things that they're you know, if you really want your kids to eat squash, man, here is the recipe, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to get your kids to eat, you know, those kind of things.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: People love that, and and and you'll never get that from Walmart.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Next is sell the why, not the what.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: We farmers, we love to talk about what we do.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: But in fact, most people like to talk about what they do.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the first thing?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You meet somebody at a at a social, you know.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Joe.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Bill.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, next question is well, what do you do?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, and and so we're you know, our our vocations define us, our vocations affirm us.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of the next uh step.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Your customer doesn't want to know what, your customer wants to know why.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I come to you?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I patronize you?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I care about you and not somebody else?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and so um answering the the Simon Sinek uh wrote the book, you know, that you start with why.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he has this little concentric circle, you know, where where um um everybody knows what they do, some people know how they do it, but very few people know why.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and and yet in marketing, you've got to go the opposite direction.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta start with why, um, go to how, and then you end up with what.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So start with why.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then you know, uh another little element of this is variety.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um the hard part, the hard part is getting a customer.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Once you have a customer, hey, I like your tomatoes.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, can I get can I get green beans?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Can I get snap peas?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can I get uh uh you know arugula?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know anybody would ask for arugula, but anyway, you know, can I get can I get uh something else?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, well, I do too, uh, in in um in in in in metered amounts, okay?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So so um so the the point is that that you you become uh a cornucopia, all right.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So so think about how you can take that customer and create a one-stop shop.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you're not gonna ever be like Walmart where you can get your oil change, diapers, and bananas all at the same stop.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I get that, but we can begin to develop um other, you know, uh well, there's an old saying that that the person that makes the sale owns the customer, and so you want to be uh you want to be perceived as meeting as as touching as many needs of the customer as you possibly can, which um I would suggest think about other people in your area.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe there's a beekeeper you can offer, offer your your your apiarist friends honey.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe there's uh sourdough bread, you know, you could offer that.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh here at our farm, you know, we we collaborate with a dozen uh food and fiber artisans in the area um who who we you know who we vet and uh believe in.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so a person can come and literally eat, you know, out of we don't produce everything, but we offer everything.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so you take those, you take that customer uh network that you have and you develop a supply network on the back end.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, if you were uh Peter, if you were very, if you were near to us, I would say, uh, yeah, start with your you've got your little urban, your little urban lot and your gung-ho, you're young, you got entrepreneurial savvy.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how about uh offering some polyface meats to your vegetable customers, you see, and now you're offering a larger uh cornucopia of options for your people.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know where you live, but uh, but you know, uh that that's the kind of thing.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most successful uh produce outfits have been outfits that that that that expand into everything from a local soap maker to um you know to uh noodles, baked items.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the the whole panoply, you know, meat, uh, dairy products.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we now collaborate with an A2A2 grass-based dairy near us and offer all of their uh cheeses and milks.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and people people love that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: They they can they can get more things.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, those are those are just some kind of uh ideas as you as you move forward.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, condense your message, know what you're about, know what your soul is and the why, work on messaging that, get your ideal uh client articulated so you don't waste time going to people that aren't interested, and you actually target your your your hit list, if you will.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh narrow uh you know, do what you're gonna do.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You you don't have unlimited land, you don't have unlimited time.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So do do better what the market's used to.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Offer what people are buying, but simply offer them a much better product with the support services, um uh, you know, about about new nutrient, you know, about the nutrient ability uh and you know, cooking uh preparation, things like that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then and then as things develop, you get your little core customers of you know 25, 30, 50 families.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then you can obviously add additional things at margin and become kind of this this uh one-stop shop developing a brand and uh look the the the the holy grail in marketing is you want people to completely depend on you.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um you you don't want independent customers, you want totally dependent customers who can't imagine living without you.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you want.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you get to that point, that's the holy grail.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, well said, Joel.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was that was great.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was like a weekend of marketing seminar condensed into like a 30-minute segment.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's so much great new, great information there.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I appreciate the question being sent in as well by Peter.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and once again, um, if you anybody else has any questions, please feel free to email them in, handsoffmyfood at 1791.com.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, thank you, Joel, once again for sharing your wisdom.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we can't wait to see everybody next week.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Bye bye.