Adunate Word & Design

Uniting words & design for all your communication needs

agriculture

Winter’s Hope Brings Summer’s Bounty

It’s called the seed catalog effect. It’s when outside the January winds blow and inside we cozy up with seed catalogs, and it’s then that our green thumbs become their most ambitious. There’s something about those glorious displays of bounty that brings hope to the new year. They’re a promise that spring will most certainly come and, yes, this will be the best gardening year ever. 

Inevitably though, reality sets in—like six months later when we’re trellising those 15 varieties of tomatoes and we wonder what we were thinking when we started all those seeds.

Just Like Our Online Marketing Plans

Our January gardening plans are often like our marketing plans. How many of you made New Year resolutions for marketing your business and already have fallen behind? Rather than getting down on yourself, think in terms of the seed catalog effect and realize that maybe you were simply overly ambitious.

With all the online marketing options available today, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Website, eNewsletters, social media, blogging, podcasts, videos—goodness, how does one keep up? 

You can’t keep up. You can’t do them all. Instead, consider these three tips for establishing a marketing plan.

  1. Identify Your Target Audience (Profitable Consumer)
    What social media platforms are they using? When are they using these platforms and for what? For example, if you have a farmers market stand in a business district, chances are your customers are white collar professionals using LinkedIn. On the other hand, if most of your customers are retirees, you certainly don’t need to bother with LinkedIn. Study your customers and go online where they go. 
  2. Define Your Objectives
    What are your goals for online marketing? To educate? Write a blog or shoot videos. To establish relationships? Do Facebook and Instagram. To make announcements? Shoot an eNewsletter or a Facebook post. Research which social media platforms match your objectives and align your marketing to them. 
  3. Recognize Your Time, Resources, and Skills
    Yes, online marketing is free—you likely already have a computer, smart phone, and use social media. But it also takes time, resources, and skills. Shooting a video on YouTube takes more than posting a picture on Instagram. Writing a blog takes more than posting on Facebook. Limit your social media to 1-2 platforms you know you can handle. When you’ve mastered them and feel ready for more, add another platform using the same discerning practices. 

Looking to ramp up your marketing in 2020? Adunate can help grow your business through a unique brand and successful marketing practices.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

It’s that website time of year and this month’s feature is Hymns in My Heart, a greeting card business filled with the rich, spiritual language of hymns. We’ll be going live in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Edible Potluck: Joy Manning’s podcast for food lovers. Here she features Wisconsin heritage wheat farmer Charlie Tennessen of Anarchy Acres. Also what gadget will be the next Instant Pot? 
  2. Immigrant Wheat: Charlie’s article in Edible Milwaukee magazine.
  3. She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement: Powerful people should not silence the voice of others. A interesting read on the importance of free press and investigative journalism. 
  4. 90-Day Gospel Reading Plan: Part of the Bystander series by Hope Lake Country. I’m perpetually 2-3 days behind but sticking with it nonetheless. Paired with the sermon series, it makes for good discussion.

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Iowa Evokes Passions

Last weekend, while presenting my Marketing Your Uniqueness workshop at the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) Convention, I posed this question: “Why do you do what you do; what drives you?”

Put another way: What is your passion?

My workshop attendees were business owners, ranging from farmers selling directly to consumers, to agri-tourist operators, to farm service providers. This question was part of the 5Ws and an H exercise we did to identify their uniqueness and build an authentic brand. As important as the whole exercise is, the “why” is perhaps the most compelling. It’s the heart and soul of a business.

The workshop went great, by the way, as did the whole conference. Kudos to the PFI team who, in the midst of blowing snow and road treacheries, hosted a full house of ag enthusiasts.

—

Given that I asked my workshop attendees to examine their passions, I felt I should reflect on mine as well. It’s my 15th year in business, after all. So why does Adunate help people build their brand and grow their business?

This awesome collage was in the entry of Cafe Milo in Ames.

That Right-Brained Gene

The master creator planted in me (and my peoples) an incessant need to create, explore, make, design, research, write, plant, observe, discover, build, grow, appreciate. Admittedly, this is a bit of chaos. But I also like to think of it as creativity. I feel good knowing my myriad of ideas and pursuits helps others succeed with theirs.

God’s Good Earth

Every day I’m blessed to wake up and view God’s magnificent creation. I’m passionate about sustaining what he’s given us for the time we’re here on this earth. I’m adamant that all people be treated with the same grace he’s has shown each of us. I mean, why would we not?

Food, Glorious Food!

I love good food and drinks! I love the growers, the bakers, the artisans, and the makers. I appreciate their hard work and endless days. I want to help them grow their business. I want to help them succeed.

When it comes to innovation, this exhibit from the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque says it all.

Amazing Women

When we were first married, my husband and I dairy farmed with his family. This was in the 1980s (whoa, we’ve been married that long?) and the farm economy was in crisis, just as it is today. Many people, including us, quit farming.

Our family has since recovered quite nicely, thank you, and this by no means is a sympathy grab. But I often wish the local food movement was as strong then as it is now. I admire women today who’ve found ways to earn a living from home. I’m in awe of their innovative ideas; CSAs, home-based food businesses, farm-stays, so many ventures we never heard of forty years ago. I’m inspired how they work together for the good of all, not just for themselves.

It’s 2020 and I want to be like these women!

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God

Actually the passage in its entirety says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” 1 Corithians 10:31.

This puts into perspective just about everything we do, don’t you think?

So What About You? What are Your Passions?

This year are you looking to amplify your brand? Do you know who you are, what you do, and why you do it?

My monthly newsletter can help. Along with the 5Ws and an H worksheet, I’ll send tips to guide you through the branding and marketing process. Emphasis is on the monthly, as in once a month, so don’t worry about me bombarding your email.

Signup here for news you can use!

Looking Back at 2019

Isn’t this a cool tractor? It’s a 1939 Ford 9N, packing in 80 years of all-purpose, workhorse reliability. These days its main jobs are moving our chicken coops in summer and hauling wood in winter. With a bit of patience on the startup, this ol’ boy has as much get-up-and-go as the day its treads first hit the soil.

On that mark, we’re coming up on the winter solstice and I’m in full reflection mode of this past year. I smile to think how this vintage tractor was part of our family’s big year of zeroes. My husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in February. We then celebrated our 60th birthdays and our daughter’s 40th. On top of that, we’ve got a new grandbaby coming who will laud either the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. Yes, it’s been a monumental year and, no, none of us have aged at all (an obvious wink comes with that last part).

This year has been meaningful for Adunate as well. Here are a few highlights.

Workshop Presentations (aka Personal Growth)

I was proud to present workshops at the MOSES Organic Conference and the Women in Sustainable Ag Conference (WISA). Public speaking was a leap outside my comfort zone but I found it a compelling way to connect with the most interesting people. I love working with small, family farmers as they brand and market their businesses.

Meaningful Clients

In my 14 years of business, I’ve been blessed with wonderful clients doing exceptionally meaningful things. These are people who I not only work with in multitude of capacities but with whom I share great friendships. This year I was proud to add The Cider Farm and The Farmory to my list. I’ve also got upcoming projects for two very amazing clients and I can’t wait to showcase them.

An Upcoming Anniversary

Finally, as this decade comes to a close, I’m excited for 2020. It’s another big anniversary—15 years for Adunate! I’d be remiss without saying how much I appreciate everyone; from clients, to colleagues, to mentors. Thanks for being the Ford 9Ns in my world and letting me be the same in yours!

Happy Winter Solstice and God’s blessings to all!

Bees Motivate Gratitude and Giving

I’m into my fourth year of beekeeping and while I still consider myself a newbie, I do feel I’ve come a long way. For one—and an important one at that—I can now find the queen.

Finding the queen—or queenspotting, as they say—is huge in beekeeping. There are books on the subject, like this cool Where’s Waldo-style QueenSpotting, by Hilary Kearney, or #queenspotting challenges on Instagram. These are basically where I learned to spot my queens.

We all know how important the queen is. She’s the heart and soul of a honey bee colony after all, and because she’s the only one who lays fertilized eggs, she’s the prime indicator of its productivity. No queen, no colony.

But did you know the other bees are equally important?

A honey bee colony is a superorganism, meaning its three types of bees—workers, drones, and the queen—are dependent upon one another. Each engages in a specialized division of labor that selflessly supports the survival of the colony. We can liken this to Aristotle’s “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” but in plain, everyday speak, let’s just say honeybees work together for the good of all.

What great role models honey bees are for us humans!

A queen bee in her own right, this lovely lady walked ahead of me at an In Her Boots/Soil Sisters workshop. I love her message!

November is Gratitude Month and Giving Month

Inspired by my bees and in thankfulness for all my clients do for me, November is the month I pass it forward. Each year Adunate accepts two pro bono projects for greatly reduced or no cost. These are projects I strongly support and believe will positively impact God’s creation, his people, or his ministry.

My areas of focus include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Agriculture & Animals
  • Architecture
  • Arts
  • Children
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • History
  • Humanity
  • Food & Drink
  • Sustainability

If your caring organization needs creative support in the coming year, click here for an application. Then, to guarantee your project’s success, be sure to click here!

My deadline for submissions is December 31, 2019. I will let applicants know of my decision in January.

By the way, did you find the queen? Here she is, that royal lady!

5 Reasons Business Cards are Still Relevant

I just returned from the Women in Sustainable Ag Conference (WISA), followed by a glorious vacation. Now that I’m back, I’m cultivating relationships with all the wonderful people I met. The business cards I acquired make this an easy task.

Which leads me to ask, what do you think of business cards? Do you still use them?

In the Be a Better Self-Promoter workshop I presented, I specifically mentioned the importance of business cards. I greeted the attendees at the door with my card and asked them to leave theirs behind after the workshop. Even though some believe business cards are dead, here’s why I see lots of life in these small, printed exchanges of information.

1. Personal Touch

Yes, technology is all around us but there’s something truly personal about giving and receiving business cards. The tactile-ness of a card says you care enough to go the extra mile and give something of yourself. When receiving a business card and you take a moment’s pause to look at it—perhaps even comment on it—it says you care about the person doing the giving.

2. Tangible Expression of Your Business

When designed well and according to your brand, a business card speaks loudly of who you are. I had my cards printed on a heavier grade of linen stock and I love how it feels in my hand. A quality card reflects a quality business.

3. Physical Reminder of Who You Are

One of my attendees approached me afterward with a question on web design. She gave me her card and wrote her question on the back so I could respond later with more information. There’s no way I would have remembered otherwise.

4. Quick Exchange of Information

When attending events, conferences or meetings, there’s no quicker way to exchange information than business cards. Yes, you could get their email and type it into your phone, but that’s certainly not as fast. Plus you have to look away from the person to do so. How rude.

5. Opportunities for Repeated Connection

The more ways we can connect with people, the better relationships we can build with them. The physical act of exchanging business cards is a wonderful debut to digital followups in the future. Those followups then become a permanent way of managing contacts. Unless they’re exceptionally creative (I am a graphic designer, after all), I don’t keep my contact’s business cards. Instead, I make a digital input and have all the information I need right at my fingertips.

Need new business cards? I’d love to help you with a great design and advice on cost-effective printing. Drop me a line!

Practicing An Honorable Harvest

Happy Harvest Moon! It’s also Friday the 13th, which, if you’re so inclined, could potentially make for a spooky night. What I think is even more interesting, however, is its relation to the autumnal equinox and its cultural tradition (I absolutely love learning new things).

According to Almanac.com, the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox (September 22-23) is the Harvest Moon. This means a Harvest Moon could occur in either September or October, depending on its lunar timing. During these shortening of days the moon rises just moments after the sun sets and gives us a sense of brighter evenings. In times past, farmers appreciated this extra light for harvesting their crops; thus the name Harvest Moon.

Isn’t the harvest season a most glorious time of year? Besides the beauty of autumn, there is just that—the harvest. All around us is the culmination of summer’s sunshine and rain, the miracle of growth, and, of course, the hard work of our hands.

The Harvest is Truly a Blessing

Author Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke of this blessing in her awesome book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. As a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation, she strives for a life of gratitude. Whether it’s the ramps she foraged from a woods in spring or the tomatoes I pick from my garden this fall, everything we consume, everything that allows us to live, is the gift of another life.

Honorable Harvest

Kimmerer wrote of the Honorable Harvest, a canon of ancient principles that govern our taking from the earth. As she lists its guidelines, I’m thinking they could well apply to sustainable living.  
  1. Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them.
  2. Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life.
  3. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer.
  4. Never take the first. Never take the last.
  5. Take only what you need.
  6. Take only that which is given.
  7. Never take more than half. Leave some for others.
  8. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
  9. Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken.
  10. Share.
  11. Give thanks for what you have been given.
  12. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken.
  13. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever.
Obviously, the Honorable Harvest isn’t a guideline just for our own taking. It’s also for our giving. In biblical times God instructed his people to leave corners of the field unharvested for the poor to glean, a practice my Latino friends say is common in their home countries still today. Here in the U.S, CSA farms add creative ways of gleaning to their calendars and community farms are dedicated to providing to food pantries. Goodness, simply sharing our garden produce with family and friends is an honorable harvest!

The Honorable Harvest is something we can apply to all areas of our lives. Wouldn’t it be cool if it was as much an autumn celebration as, say, commercial holiday-ism in our stores?

Expanding Our Octoberfest to Minnesota

We certainly love our local brews. However, a few weeks ago my husband received a birthday gift of assorted Oktoberfest beers from outside our WiscoBeer realm. They say it’s good to expand your thinking, so in preparation for our upcoming Octoberfest Brewery Tour we’re “working” to expand our palettes. Yes, sigh, it’s a tough, tough job.

This year we’re also expanding our brewery tour. In addition to our annual celebration of sipping and scenery, we’re including the Women In Sustainable Agriculture (WISA) Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.

What a great conference this will be—fabulous women from across the country gathering to exchange ideas, find resources, and network. I’m super proud to be amongst them and presenting the workshop Be a Better Self-Promoter. Do join us!

But For Now, Let’s Talk Beer!

The Mississippi River region is truly glorious in October. After sampling the Twin Cities’ great selection of brews, we’re heading downstream to Fountain City, a cozy community nestled between the river and Wisconsin’s towering bluffs. Here we’re planning a few days of river exploration, state park hiking, and, of course, more sampling.

So Many to Sample

To the delight of beer enthusiasts everywhere, the number of craft breweries continues to grow. Each year as I plan our tour the number of venues seems to have doubled from the year before. Most interesting is the creative entrepreneurship of these small businesses; like, for example, the symbiotic partnership between taprooms and food trucks, which is a tasty win-win for breweries, food trucks and customers alike.

This all leaves us with a hardly-unfortunate dilemma: With so many breweries in Western Wisconsin/Eastern Minnesota, how does one choose? I’ve decided to prioritize our sampling to 1) interesting ambiance (I do like my historic architecture, you know) and 2) if the brewery was featured in Taproom Travelers videos (again, gotta love that creative entrepreneurship).

Promo of My Own

In the spirit of practicing what I’ll be preaching at the upcoming WISA Conference, may I present my 2019 Octoberfest Brewery Tour poster!

Each year as a personal exercise, I design a poster commemorating our tour (check out more of them here). This keeps me in touch with the industry and brings an added element of fun to our travels. Posters are great keepsakes for any event.

Perhaps you have an event you’d like to promote? Or maybe a new line of beverage you’d like to brand? Drop me a line!

Out and About with Fermentation Fest

News flash!

Fermentation Fest event guides are hot off the press and heading out to exciting venues throughout Wisconsin. This 24-pg, can’t-miss guide is bubbling with interesting articles, art, class listings and city map—all the ingredients necessary for two weekends of culture convergence at Fermentation Fest. You don’t want to miss the Fest or the guide!

I’ve got to say helping promote Fermentation Fest is one of my favorite projects of the year. It’s a melding of interests, from food and art, to agriculture and travel. This means artists, chefs, poets, foodies, farmers, cheesemakers, brewers, musicians, performers, and so many more people all come together for an autumnal celebration of good life. I’m very proud to design for it, very honored to be part of it.

In the weeks ahead I’ll be delivering guides to various venues (I love promoting my clients!). Check back to this page often for an updated listing of where you can find them. And don’t forget my social media because I’m also big on featuring interesting venues.

Here’s where I’ve been so far. Yep, all the way to northern Wisconsin!

#GetYourFermFestGuide2019Here

Listed in order of cities are venues where you can find Fermentation Fest guides. If you’re not in these areas, check out the Fermentation Fest website or join the mailing list.

Deerfield Coffeehouse, Deerfield
Milwaukee Street Traders, Delafield
Fitchburg Public Library, Fitchburg
Sequoya Public Library, Madison
Willy Street Co-op East, Madison
Willy Street Co-op North, Madison
ZuZu Cafe & Market, Madison
Willy Street Co-op, Middleton
Good Harvest Market, Pewaukee
Roots Coffee Bar, Oconomowoc
Soleil Lune Yoga Center, Oconomowoc
Firefly Coffee House, Oregon
The Chocolate Caper, Oregon
Landmark Creamery, Paoli (Belleville)
Stevens Point Area Co-op, Stevens Point
Cafe Coco, Washburn
South Shore Brewery, Washburn
Tribeca GalleryCafe & Books, Watertown
Downtown Grocery, Wausau

See you at Fermentation Fest in October!