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Well, March Was Interesting

This morning I flipped my calendar with a definite good riddance to March. One of my Facebook friends shared a similar attitude when she said, “Well, March was interesting,” to which her friends added a barrage of colorful comments.

March was interesting, to say the least. Like many of you, the first half of my month was filled with the usual outings and obligations. The second half was nothing but cancellations. However, just before the start of my cocoonment, my husband surprised me with a day of meandering through Wisconsin’s countryside, all based on his accumulated stack of gift certificates. I’ve gotta say, spontaneities are not his norm so there was no way I could refuse. Besides, isn’t that why I’m self-employed?

I’m so thankful we did that day. What seems like such a long time ago—only three weeks actually—is now saved in my bank of precious memories. Little did we know it would be the start to a universal slowing down and spending time with those you love.

Edwin Brix Winery, Juneau
Our first stop was a scheduled meeting with an architect (we’ve been contemplating a garage addition, like, forever). We met in the upstairs loft of what once was a grainery and is now a tasting room for Edwin Brix Winery. Seriously, you have to go there—rural, rustically quaint, and so very welcoming. Plus they were just featured on Discover Wisconsin.

Wollersheim Winery & Distillery, Prairie Du Sac
Our next stop was two counties west to the ever-impressive Wollersheim Winery & Distillery. We had a nice, slow lunch in their bistro while perusing decades of family pictures hanging on the wall. We bought wines for the large Easter gathering we would host (which, of course, we now can’t) and brandy for the raspberry cordial we’ll make this fall (which we most certainly will).

Stoddard’s Meat Market, Cottage Grove
From there, we drove to the small town of Cottage Grove for a first-time visit to Stoddard’s. What a friendly shop with a drooling selection of meats! We happily spent our gift certificate and more.

James J Chocolate, Lake Mills
My husband has been married to me for 41 years, which goes to show he’s a very wise man. These two things he knows so well: 1) A woman needs her chocolate, and 2) happy wife, happy life. We made this necessary stop to James J Chocolate, a store I normally only visit at Valentines and Easter. This year I’m placing online orders. You should too, they truly are the finest!

Tyranena Brewery, Lake Mills
What’s a road trip without a brewery stop, right? Tyranena’s Headless Man has been our Friday choice of beverage for years, but always with a fish fry. Sitting down to a friendly server in Tyranena’s taproom was super fun, but alas, they’re discontinuing our favorite amber. Instead, they’ve introduced Mangy Fox, and equally tasty copper ale. We left with a growler of Mangy Fox and one of my favorites, the Chief Blawhawk Porter.

How have you been this month of March?

“Interesting” is certainly a facetious way to describe March 2020. For some, it’s been bitterly so. Local, family-owned businesses everywhere, just like these we visited a few weeks ago, are now hurting—some to the point of closing their doors. People are sick and dying. We all wonder what April will bring.

If you find yourself needing something to grab onto during this COVID chaos, please consider listening to Hope Lake Country or one of the many churches now offering online services. No matter who you are or what you’re going through, this could be a nice chance to slow down and spend time with people who care about you.

Take care and be safe!

Working Through the Madness

In just two short weeks March Madness went from being a tournament to a pandemic. It also permeated our internet with how-to wisdom, everything from the proper way to cough to productively working from home. 

The fact is, being self-employed for 15 years, I already was a sponge for the subject of working from home. And while it’s all sound advice, I’ve come to realize when it comes to our business we each must do what we’re each wired to do. 

Here are some examples.

Tip #1: Set consistent work hours
This morning I started work at 5:30 and later spent a FaceTime breakfast with my 2-year-old granddaughter. Tomorrow I may forego work until noon and spend some morning time in the sun. Obviously, I’m a highly unscheduled person. For me, freedom from routine is a necessity.

Tip #2: Keep your work and personal lives separate
Let’s be honest, this is as unrealistic as the separation of church and state (see this more applicable tip #4). Who isn’t going to take a break and throw in a load of laundry? And anyone who bakes bread knows it’s a wonderful way to work through a creative block. 

My point with all this rambling?

Yes, it’s good to be open to ideas. But it’s also important to know yourself and how you operate. Whether you’re outdoors with your hands in the soil or you’re indoors with your eyes at a computer, each of us must run our business in a way that works for us. 

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Meet The Real Estate Duo—fun-loving, highly skilled Realtors serving the Lake Country community. We’ll debut their new website soon. Stay tuned! 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Love in the Time of Coronavirus, by Regina Brett. Love could make this our finest hour.
  2. Chicken and Dumplings. Chaos behooves comfort food and no one does it better than Smitten Kitchen
  3. InstaCart: Kudos to innovative business ideas. This one’s a lifesaver, especially for the elderly during stay-at-home guidelines.
  4. Help for Small Business: The more local you go for assistance, the faster and more personal it is. This site has A-Z information.

Stay safe everyone. May God protect you and keep you well.  

Celebrating Fat Tuesday with Sense of Place

You know how you walk into a local bakery and the aroma of fresh baking fills your soul to its deepest depths? That was my husband and me this last weekend as we followed the Wisconsin Foodie trail in Sheboygan. Stepping into the first bakery was an aaah-romatic indulgence of Paczki. Coming upon the second was a heavenly whiff of hard rolls before we even walked through the door. Oh, how I swoon.

Good Smells, Good Marketing

They say good smells are good marketing. In truth, tapping into all the human senses is good marketing and our weekend getaway was a perfect example. Think cozy lights welcoming us as we arrived at our B&B. Or a friendly hubbub at the local foods cafe. All of these absorbed together created a memorable image of Sheboygan, an image which, jargonly speaking, can be referred to as “sense of place.”

Defining Sense of Place

Sense of place is the impression we get from a place. It’s the look, the feel, the sounds—it’s the complete physical and emotional lens through which we experience a place. 

When it comes to your business, sense of place is equally important. It’s an element of your brand. Whether it’s your venue, your website, your logo…they all evoke a sense of place.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR SENSE OF PLACE?

What I’m Working on This Month

I was proud to participate in an upcoming toolkit called “Amplify Our Voices: Connecting Organic Women Farmers with the Media.” It’s put together by Renewing The Countryside and coming out soon. Join their newsletter! 

What I’m Tuned Into This Month

  1. Paczki Day! Everyone is Polish on Paczki Day, so Happy Fat Tuesday to all!
     
  2. Gastrophysics, Charles Spence. A little science-heavy for my right brain, but interesting nonetheless. Eating is multi-sensory, meaning there’s truth to Good Smells, Good Marketing. 
     
  3. “At Berea College, Students Craft a Bright Future, Tuition-Free,” Are you a maker deciding on colleges? Interesting article from an equally interesting magazine.
     
  4. The Corner Table Podcast: Food Photography, A beef farmer recently lamented that the food photographer he hired altered his meat presentations, leaving them inedible. Yep, sorry, but I bet they looked tasty good in the photos. I’m suggesting he listen to this podcast.

Who Owns a Name?

Last week The Cap Times ran an interesting story titled ‘We Are A People.’ It’s multifaceted to say the least and I was surprised it didn’t evoke more conversation.

The story talks about Kickapoo Coffee, a fair trade, organic roaster from southwestern Wisconsin. But first, let’s explore a bit of geography for those unfamiliar with this part of our state. Kickapoo is the name of a 126-mile river winding through a unique bioregion known as the Driftless Area. Both the river and the region are beloved, like really beloved, by those who live there and those who visit (myself included). Naturally every other business and its offshoot has incorporated Kickapoo into its name. And why not? Why not celebrate the land where your business has its roots, right?

Except Kickapoo is also a group of people. They’re a sovereign Indian nation who once lived in this area—before they were forcibly removed, that is— and the Kickapoo River was, in fact, named after them. This brings us the question of who owns a name.

And the subject of Kickapoo Coffee.

Last year Kickapoo Coffee decided the Kickapoo name was not theirs to take and they announced they were rebranding the business. “The decision to use their name, and to continue to roast under it, was an act of appropriation,” said co-owners TJ Semanchin and Caleb Nicholes. “In an effort to right that wrong, we have decided to change our name.”

How Should One Feel?

White privileged woman that I am, it’s hard to know what to think about this. I’m ashamed that throughout history those of European descent have mistreated indigenous people everywhere. I feel it’s unconscionable that it continues today. Really, who do we think we are?

Yet, I grew up singing, “I’m from Owosso, down where the Shiawassee flows.” My hometown is named after Chief Wasso of the Ojibwe tribe (also known as Shiawassee and Wan-dor-gon-ing Indians). It’s beside the Shiawassee River, in Shiawassee County, which is named from an Ojibwe word meaning “sparkling waters.” It’s within the state of Michigan, also named from an Ojibwe word meaning “large water.” Being born and raised in Owosso, can I claim a regional pride the same way Kickapoogians do in Wisconsin? At what point does a heritage become one’s own?

Business and Legal Considerations

Choosing a business name can be hard. Changing a business name is even harder (think mega-expensive and time consuming). Yes, there are the usual considerations like descriptiveness, emotional connection, and domain availability. Add cultural awareness to that list and it definitely becomes a lot to think about.

“Indigenous rights is a really interesting aspect of intellectual property law. It impacts copyright, trademark, and patent law,” said attorney Erin Ogden in her comment to the story.

Your Thoughts?

Some have called Kickapoo Coffee’s rebrand a PR ploy. Others say they’re conceding to a trendy need to absolve ourselves of the guilt our white forefathers laid upon us. Still others applaud Kickapoo Coffee for showing cultural sensitivity and respect to others.

As I said, this is multifaceted. What do you think?

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!

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!