Rural Futures with Dr. Connie Episode 19 Featuring Marji Guyler-Alaniz

Rural Futures Institute Author

11/14/2018 Added

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[00:00:00.520]On this podcast, we talk with rural mavericks,
[00:00:03.170]futurists, and researchers to raise bold voices
[00:00:06.240]for rural people and places.
[00:00:08.179]I'm Katelyn, producer of the show,
[00:00:10.532]and I'm asking you to do your part.
[00:00:13.230]Support the Rural Futures podcast by leaving a review
[00:00:16.450]which helps new listeners find us,
[00:00:18.700]and become a sponsor by visiting
[00:00:20.870]RuralFutures.nebraska.edu/podcast.
[00:00:25.917](upbeat music)
[00:00:27.110]And so I personally hope I see young women
[00:00:30.640]taking the helm in more leadership positions.
[00:00:33.070]I mean, that's one area in the ag industry
[00:00:35.450]that is lacking behind even other
[00:00:38.055]more traditional areas of business.
[00:00:40.370]I'm a big believer of diversity.
[00:00:42.390]Diversity in anything matters in any culture, right,
[00:00:46.360]and that's what's gonna help it grow, and change,
[00:00:48.534]and be what we need for the future.
[00:00:50.995](upbeat music)
[00:00:53.140]Rural Futures, the podcast where we connect
[00:00:56.220]thought leaders and doers at the intersection
[00:00:58.800]of technology and what it means to be human.
[00:01:01.780]Every episode, we talk with entrepreneurs,
[00:01:04.035]researchers, and achievers to create impact
[00:01:07.410]for generations to come, and now here's Doctor Connie.
[00:01:12.210]Welcome back to the Rural Futures podcast.
[00:01:14.550]I'm your host, Doctor Connie, and joining us today
[00:01:17.037]is a very special maverick entrepreneur
[00:01:20.717]who's really made rural, not only
[00:01:23.030]her life, but her business.
[00:01:25.380]Marji Guyler-Alaniz is the founder and president of FarmHer.
[00:01:29.630]She's a lifetime Iowan and lover of photography,
[00:01:32.620]and through FarmHer, she shines a light
[00:01:35.080]on the female side of farming.
[00:01:37.180]Welcome to the Rural Futures podcast, Marji.
[00:01:39.840]Yes, thank you for having me!
[00:01:41.811]Well, I am super excited to have you on this podcast
[00:01:44.850]because I was one of the people blessed several years ago
[00:01:47.709]to meet you at a major women's conference
[00:01:51.660]for agriculture here in Nebraska,
[00:01:54.080]and not only that, I know you have a lot of fans
[00:01:56.960]here on our campus at the University of Nebraska
[00:01:59.310]Lincoln campus where our global headquarters is housed,
[00:02:03.160]and we get to hear about you from time to time
[00:02:05.700]through our students, and seeing you keynote
[00:02:08.840]and just following you through the years,
[00:02:11.027]I am so glad you said yes to having
[00:02:13.440]a conversation with us today.
[00:02:15.590]Well, I am happy to be here.
[00:02:17.180]I love conversations. (laughs)
[00:02:20.010]Talking is what I love to do.
[00:02:21.750]So tell us a little bit more about yourself
[00:02:24.350]and how you've sort of evolved to this point with FarmHer.
[00:02:28.644]Yeah, so a little bit about myself,
[00:02:30.960]born and raised here in Iowa, my mother's parents,
[00:02:34.450]so my maternal grandparents, were farmers,
[00:02:36.248]but my parents didn't farm, but I did grow up
[00:02:38.610]in the country, and so I always say like you could
[00:02:42.090]throw a rock and hit something agriculture related.
[00:02:45.410]There were cows there; they weren't our cows, right,
[00:02:47.190]I didn't throw rocks at the cows,
[00:02:48.577]but it's not what my family did
[00:02:50.820]but it was all around us all the time.
[00:02:53.280]I went to college for design, journalism, and photography,
[00:02:56.420]and my first job out of college was working for
[00:03:00.500]a crop insurance company, one of the largest ones
[00:03:02.440]in the United States, and I spent a little over
[00:03:05.260]a decade there, so without meaning to,
[00:03:07.490]I landed in working in agriculture right out of college,
[00:03:10.980]and that was probably my biggest awareness
[00:03:13.360]and connection to it quite honestly,
[00:03:15.785]and, you know, when I decided that I was ending
[00:03:19.210]my time there, I needed to do something different,
[00:03:21.990]I just didn't know what that was,
[00:03:23.720]then I left there in February of 2013 and started FarmHer.
[00:03:28.590]You know, it wasn't a plan that I had in place.
[00:03:31.880]I always say, I like had to push myself off that cliff
[00:03:34.440]of leaving that job, that stable, normal life job,
[00:03:38.423]to figure out what was next for me,
[00:03:40.500]and, quite honestly, it was a commercial
[00:03:43.230]that was on during the Superbowl that helped me realize,
[00:03:46.025]you know, the lack of imagery, or visibility,
[00:03:49.540]of women in this industry and a realization shortly after
[00:03:54.140]that, hey, I can do something about this with my camera.
[00:03:57.200]Now, I think that's such a great story.
[00:03:59.460]So I'm just curious, were you already kind of thinking
[00:04:02.690]about making a transition when you saw the commercial
[00:04:05.670]or was it a real sort of aha moment that you're like,
[00:04:08.530]you know what, I have this idea and I'm gonna go for it?
[00:04:11.510]So I had quit my job, literally the Friday before
[00:04:15.350]the Superbowl was on I was done with my job,
[00:04:18.220]and that's where I was like sitting there going
[00:04:20.260]what am I gonna do, what am I going to do?
[00:04:23.080]I just quit my job of over a decade.
[00:04:25.430]But I always knew that I wanted photography
[00:04:27.890]to be a part of what was there for me in the future.
[00:04:30.410]I just didn't know what that looked like.
[00:04:31.890]And my moment wasn't when I saw that commercial.
[00:04:34.200]I saw that commercial and I loved it.
[00:04:36.580]God Made a Farmer, super simple, really,
[00:04:38.980]I mean it's an old speech, and powerful words,
[00:04:41.800]and still photos, but it was just striking, it was gorgeous,
[00:04:46.640]and, you know, I read an article just a few days later
[00:04:49.840]that pointed out, yeah, that was amazing,
[00:04:52.121]but where were the women, and that's when I woke up
[00:04:55.640]in the middle of the night the next night
[00:04:56.980]and thought I can do something about,
[00:04:58.390]instead of being angry about this,
[00:04:59.630]I can do something about this, and I can do something
[00:05:02.640]about this with my camera 'cause that was
[00:05:04.070]the best way I knew how at that point.
[00:05:06.200]Well, what a wonderful mindset to have,
[00:05:09.050]and I think what a wonderful testament to,
[00:05:11.304]rather than getting mad or upset and just talking about it,
[00:05:14.984]like how can we positively take some action
[00:05:17.763]and really bring some solutions
[00:05:20.050]to the marketplace that are missing.
[00:05:22.210]I just returned from a trip to Japan
[00:05:24.810]where we looked at, you know, the rural sector
[00:05:27.020]but also the urban sector and thinking about collaborations,
[00:05:29.950]but, you know, one of the things Japan, as a country,
[00:05:32.050]is struggling with is really the empowerment of women.
[00:05:35.200]You know, after I gave my first seminar,
[00:05:37.603]that was pretty much my take-home message for the audience
[00:05:40.970]is you need to empower women now,
[00:05:43.050]because without that, you're not gonna find
[00:05:45.490]the solutions you're looking for,
[00:05:47.330]but also, you need to take this rural conversation
[00:05:50.090]from one of total negativity into one of positivity
[00:05:52.723]so you can find those solutions.
[00:05:55.370]Yeah, yeah, and we can't just talk about it,
[00:05:56.840]we gotta do something, right?
[00:05:58.630]Absolutely, so tell our audience a bit more about FarmHer.
[00:06:02.150]What do you do there, you know,
[00:06:03.770]what's the sort of current mission?
[00:06:06.120]Day one, my goal with this, as a photo project,
[00:06:09.730]the way it started April 2013, was to shine the light
[00:06:12.970]on the role women play in agriculture
[00:06:14.470]and to also help people understand
[00:06:17.640]that women play a real active everyday role.
[00:06:21.660]Our mission then is still no different than it is now,
[00:06:24.490]though it's grown and changed a lot.
[00:06:26.270]So I started with this photo project.
[00:06:28.380]I was gonna photograph a handful that summer in 2013,
[00:06:31.610]and I did that, put up a website so people could see this.
[00:06:35.530]I needed people to see these stories,
[00:06:37.750]so stories as told through still images and words,
[00:06:41.840]and so it was a blog, it was a website, social media pages,
[00:06:44.637]throw it out, throw it into the world, and see what happens,
[00:06:47.718]and what happened was amazing.
[00:06:51.440]What happened almost instantaneously
[00:06:54.620]was women from within agriculture,
[00:06:56.570]from outside of this country even,
[00:06:58.770]started saying, "Yes, thank you, we need this!
[00:07:01.457]"We know we needed this, that we love this!
[00:07:03.516]"This is important, this matters!"
[00:07:05.750]And so it like poured fuel on my fire, right,
[00:07:07.980]to keep going with it, and so we got some really great
[00:07:09.900]press that fall that helped kinda just roll that ball
[00:07:13.180]a little bit further, and it's grown into,
[00:07:15.878]we started a series of events for young women.
[00:07:18.770]I think you have to empower them as they're starting
[00:07:21.730]to figure out what their roles could be,
[00:07:23.550]and show them what they could go be,
[00:07:25.820]and show them that by stories, and that's what we do.
[00:07:28.440]So we created some events for young women called Grow,
[00:07:31.373]and that was kinda the first thing.
[00:07:33.540]I started putting myself out there, asking anybody who would
[00:07:36.810]let me come display photos or talk about FarmHer,
[00:07:39.680]and I just completely overfilled my calendar.
[00:07:42.332]Obviously it started in social media and online,
[00:07:45.370]but trying to get it out and in front of people
[00:07:47.270]was like, the ball kinda kept rolling.
[00:07:49.697]Fast forward a little bit more, we start these events.
[00:07:52.410]I was approached by RFD-TV about doing a television show
[00:07:56.518]that basically took exactly what I was doing
[00:07:59.140]and creating a vision of that for television,
[00:08:01.955]so a television show that's about the woman
[00:08:04.430]who is the focal point of my camera, and her story,
[00:08:07.520]and why she does it, and what she does,
[00:08:09.630]and like a look into her daily life,
[00:08:11.260]and we've continued to expand our events throughout
[00:08:14.480]the years around the country, and we have events now
[00:08:18.150]for all ages of women, not just those young women,
[00:08:21.159]and so then we got it in a podcast in
[00:08:24.090]a Sirius XM radio show, so it's
[00:08:26.130]like we just keep adding pieces.
[00:08:28.090]Where I woulda said FarmHer, in the beginning,
[00:08:30.070]was a photo project, and then fast forward a couple years
[00:08:34.300]later and I would've said it's a brand for women
[00:08:37.020]and about women, and now I would say
[00:08:39.010]it's a brand and a media business, right?
[00:08:41.320]We create media about these women
[00:08:43.950]and we wanna put it somewhere where you can see it,
[00:08:46.720]where you can be inspired by it,
[00:08:48.220]where you can engage and connect with it,
[00:08:50.890]whether that's radio, podcast, TV, YouTube,
[00:08:54.438]you know, social media, wherever that might be, or an event.
[00:08:58.094]Well, I just appreciate all the serendipity
[00:09:01.070]that's sort of happened along the way
[00:09:02.960]but that also you've created, because I think,
[00:09:05.320]when you look back on it, I didn't grow up on a farm either,
[00:09:08.830]but my dad did, my mom did, and I think the role
[00:09:12.660]of women on farms really was a missing conversation.
[00:09:17.137]They were sort of, you know, behind the scenes
[00:09:19.570]doing all this amazing work, and you brought
[00:09:22.040]it to the forefront, and not only did you bring it
[00:09:24.420]to the forefront, you brought it to the forefront
[00:09:27.140]in this amazing visual way that really demonstrated
[00:09:31.800]these women, you know, and the power they brought
[00:09:35.050]but also the elegance I think that they've brought
[00:09:37.610]to farming and the rural sector in so many different ways,
[00:09:41.036]and I think people were just so hungry, I mean,
[00:09:43.810]and waiting for that, and these women thanking you
[00:09:46.080]as testament, but I think also, you know,
[00:09:48.760]a TV show, Sirius XM radio, podcasting, and you've
[00:09:52.700]traveled internationally to capture these stories.
[00:09:56.438]Serendipitous is a good way to put it.
[00:09:58.698]You know, I think starting with something that you're
[00:10:01.590]super passionate about, and I had almost on expectations
[00:10:04.740]in the beginning, I remember telling people,
[00:10:07.090]yeah, I've got this lofty goal,
[00:10:08.540]but I wanna change the way people think about
[00:10:11.340]what a farmer looks like, or who a farmer is,
[00:10:13.390]or how they engage with that story,
[00:10:15.960]and that sounded completely crazy five years ago,
[00:10:19.034]but I think right place, right time, right message.
[00:10:23.310]You know, we're serious about what we do,
[00:10:25.750]but we like to also keep it somewhat light.
[00:10:28.380]You know, I want anybody to be able to connect with us,
[00:10:30.600]and the photography is a great way to do that,
[00:10:32.977]and that's something I'm passionate about,
[00:10:35.010]so it's like all these pieces like fell into place
[00:10:37.580]with this messaging, and we run at this really hard,
[00:10:41.650]like I get the opportunity, I am lucky enough
[00:10:44.610]to get to work 'til 11 o'clock many nights
[00:10:47.130]and we travel a lot, but I love it,
[00:10:50.133]and so running at it really hard is something
[00:10:52.820]that I love to do, and I think when you combine
[00:10:56.960]that passion and that hard work with something
[00:10:59.270]and the need for it out there, that's that right time,
[00:11:01.856]that those pieces just do fall into place.
[00:11:04.770]Like I wasn't looking for a TV show,
[00:11:07.090]but it kind of landed there, you know,
[00:11:09.280]and it took me a lot to get to the right place mentally
[00:11:13.570]to think, yeah, I can do this, but, again, you know,
[00:11:16.590]these things don't always just happen,
[00:11:19.011]and it took all of these right pieces like a perfect storm.
[00:11:24.260]Welcome to Bold Voices, our segment with rockstar students
[00:11:27.580]from the University of Nebraska who
[00:11:29.640]are making a difference in rural.
[00:11:32.053]Hey podcast listeners, it's Katy,
[00:11:34.730]production specialist of the Rural Futures podcast.
[00:11:37.450]With me today is Emily Franzen, a junior studying
[00:11:40.570]agricultural and environmental sciences communication
[00:11:43.330]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:11:45.620]Welcome, Emily.
[00:11:46.740]Hi, thanks for having me.
[00:11:48.400]Yes, and it's so nice to have you.
[00:11:50.060]Just a note to our listeners, Emily and I have the same
[00:11:52.490]major here at UNL, so we know each other pretty well,
[00:11:55.653]but our audience does not, so, Emily,
[00:11:58.280]how about you start by telling them
[00:11:59.700]a little bit more about yourself.
[00:12:01.560]Yeah, so I grew up in Fullerton, Nebraska
[00:12:04.340]which is a small town in east central Nebraska,
[00:12:06.870]and I grew up on my family's farm.
[00:12:08.300]So that's kinda where I get my agricultural background
[00:12:10.853]and my love for ag communications because my family's farm
[00:12:15.180]is the first place I started picking up a camera
[00:12:17.150]which has become a huge part of my life.
[00:12:20.140]So, let's dive a little bit
[00:12:21.090]deeper into that rural background.
[00:12:23.189]Tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up
[00:12:25.750]on a farm in Fullerton, Nebraska.
[00:12:28.540]I grew up in a community where everyone was really
[00:12:30.860]supportive of one another, and it was a really great
[00:12:32.670]community to start if anyone was looking to bring
[00:12:35.850]a new business into the community,
[00:12:37.220]so I think that's really where I got my interest
[00:12:39.730]in rural and my love for the people
[00:12:41.180]that make up a rural community.
[00:12:42.920]Now, Emily, your connection to RFI
[00:12:44.620]is through our Serviceship program.
[00:12:46.460]Talk a little bit about that and give us some of your
[00:12:48.620]major takeaways from your summer serving and working
[00:12:51.510]in a different rural community.
[00:12:53.500]Yeah, so I was placed in McCook, Nebraska
[00:12:56.210]with Sage Williams, and the two of us worked
[00:12:58.770]on creating a plan of action for the High Plains Museum
[00:13:01.410]there in McCook, and then we also worked on creating
[00:13:04.450]an internship with the Economic Development Corporation
[00:13:07.240]and then also creating the mastermind group.
[00:13:09.600]The serviceship was really challenging,
[00:13:11.190]but that was so awesome because
[00:13:13.120]there was so much growth that came with that.
[00:13:14.800]We really had to step out of our comfort zone
[00:13:16.720]and make connections within the community,
[00:13:18.740]and it was really up to us to make a lot of those decisions.
[00:13:22.049]Yeah, and how do you think that your relationship
[00:13:25.180]and experience with RFI has impacted you
[00:13:28.170]in college and then looking forward?
[00:13:30.820]My Rural Futures experience was huge
[00:13:33.430]for it provided me with really awesome connections.
[00:13:35.830]The RFI staff and some of thee faculty at the university,
[00:13:38.705]but also within other communities,
[00:13:41.489]I just have all these awesome people in my back pocket
[00:13:44.110]that I know I can reach out to at any time.
[00:13:45.662]So I'd love to know what words of wisdom
[00:13:48.400]you'd want to share with our students
[00:13:50.410]who may be interested in making their lives in rural.
[00:13:53.388]So it's really important for those students
[00:13:55.670]who are maybe interested in going back to their own
[00:13:59.150]community after college to go explore another rural
[00:14:02.490]community just because each of those rural communities
[00:14:05.190]has different strengths or maybe different challenges
[00:14:07.730]that we can learn from and take
[00:14:09.760]back to our own communities eventually.
[00:14:11.510]So that's a really valuable piece I also gained
[00:14:14.030]from my serviceship over the summer.
[00:14:16.060]Well, thank you so much, Emily,
[00:14:17.420]for sharing your bold voice today.
[00:14:19.468]It's been fun to watch you grow as
[00:14:21.230]a communicator and just really as a leader,
[00:14:24.370]and I wish you the best for your future.
[00:14:26.580]Thank you so much.
[00:14:27.772](upbeat music)
[00:14:33.240]You know, I think too, you know,
[00:14:34.730]you had this vision and you have worked it.
[00:14:38.000]I mean, obviously you're still energized
[00:14:40.257]and still passionate about it.
[00:14:42.150]You're out there and you're really doing the work
[00:14:44.640]that it takes to make that serendipity happen,
[00:14:47.292]but I also am wondering, you know, as I hear your story
[00:14:51.400]and the evolution of FarmHer, you know,
[00:14:53.870]how do you lead an endeavor like this?
[00:14:56.070]How would you describe yourself as a leader in this space?
[00:14:59.680]It's interesting because, and I would always tell
[00:15:02.670]somebody else, yes, call yourself a leader.
[00:15:05.089]I can't say I've looked at myself as a leader.
[00:15:07.330]You know, internally I think we as women
[00:15:09.920]are really good about having that dialogue sometimes,
[00:15:12.760]called maybe the imposter syndrome,
[00:15:14.600]but here I am, and, you know, I think, for me,
[00:15:18.120]being the leader started with a passion about it
[00:15:21.430]versus me trying to put myself
[00:15:23.610]in a spot of being a leader about this.
[00:15:25.960]I just want to make sure people see my passion about it
[00:15:29.267]and then wanna make sure that they see the women
[00:15:31.940]who I care so deeply about, and I think that there's
[00:15:36.209]something that happens when you care so much about something
[00:15:39.292]that it elevates you to a position where you get to
[00:15:42.230]be in that leadership position.
[00:15:44.510]I mean, so that's kind of on a big scale, right?
[00:15:46.500]Day-to-day, I mean, I've never built a business before.
[00:15:49.980]I worked in the corporate world for 11 years,
[00:15:52.700]and so being the leader within a small business
[00:15:55.860]and a growing business, it's sometimes not for
[00:15:58.470]the faint of heart, and there's a lot of moving parts
[00:16:00.990]and pieces and it's a learning process,
[00:16:03.230]and I can say that I probably will never be done
[00:16:05.430]learning about my leadership as a business owner
[00:16:08.720]or as the president of this company.
[00:16:10.550]Well, and also I think you just
[00:16:12.410]have so much bravery, right?
[00:16:13.700]I mean, you're like totally daring to say, oh, yeah,
[00:16:16.450]you know what, I'm gonna go sit with those execs
[00:16:18.410]at RFD-TV and we're gonna figure this out.
[00:16:21.830]You know, I'm gonna just go do what needs to be done.
[00:16:24.652]So how do you gather up that courage,
[00:16:27.628]you know, that risk taking we talk about,
[00:16:30.229]you know, in entrepreneurship?
[00:16:32.100]How do you say, yep, so I'm gonna
[00:16:34.020]go do that and just go do it?
[00:16:36.260]You know, for me, I mean, it's hard.
[00:16:38.110]I call it big girl pants; I refer to this a lot.
[00:16:39.647](Doctor Connie laughs)
[00:16:40.480]Like something that, I love that.
[00:16:42.363]It's so much easier for me and my brain
[00:16:44.850]to be like this is a really big decision,
[00:16:46.990]this is really scary, this is gonna change my life,
[00:16:49.280]this could change the course of this business,
[00:16:51.001]I mean, it could make or break it, you know,
[00:16:53.510]it's really scary to like let the
[00:16:55.210]world criticize your third child.
[00:16:57.469]There's a lot of times where I have these decisions
[00:16:59.850]to make or these things are in front of me
[00:17:01.690]and, you know, you hear it all the time,
[00:17:03.500]fake it 'til you make it, walk in there, sit up straight,
[00:17:07.270]put a smile on your face, and it's been a series
[00:17:10.080]of not saying no, because as scary as these things might
[00:17:13.830]seem, or as big as they might seem,
[00:17:15.300]or as much as I might think there's no way
[00:17:17.170]I can pull this off, go find out about it.
[00:17:19.440]Right, when this call comes in, don't say no.
[00:17:22.340]Drive to Omaha, go sit in that meeting,
[00:17:24.619]and make sure that you share what you're
[00:17:26.300]passionate about and see where it goes.
[00:17:28.310]You could always say no at some point down the road
[00:17:30.410]if it ends up not being right,
[00:17:31.970]but I rely on my husband and I would say
[00:17:35.380]that for anybody out there, whether you have a spouse
[00:17:37.840]or somebody else in your life, you gotta have somebody
[00:17:39.890]there that you can bounce these things across
[00:17:41.979]because there's been many conversations in the middle
[00:17:45.080]of the night of me going oh, my gosh, what am I doing?
[00:17:47.340]I don't know, I don't know!
[00:17:49.000]Right, but I go with my gut and I try to make sure
[00:17:52.400]that I've found out all the information that I can
[00:17:55.280]and that I'm making the best decision for me and my family
[00:17:58.560]and for what I think makes sense for FarmHer,
[00:18:01.820]and gosh, so far it's worked. (laughs)
[00:18:04.219]It can be scary.
[00:18:05.600]At one of our I Am FarmHer conferences last year,
[00:18:07.803]I stood up in front of them and I said, you know,
[00:18:10.900]today, my big girl pants, I had to put on this pair
[00:18:13.010]of leopard print pants today because for some reason
[00:18:15.940]they made me feel super powerful that day,
[00:18:18.310]like I got this, and these are my big girl pants today.
[00:18:21.220]So sometimes they're just like feeling good about yourself
[00:18:23.895]when you go in somewhere and knowing that you can sit up
[00:18:26.330]straight. and then like feel a little bit proud,
[00:18:27.920]and put a smile on your face.
[00:18:29.460]I have to, you know, have a few pair in my closet as well,
[00:18:32.620]and maybe there's just so, there's a product there
[00:18:34.892]that I think a lot of women are needing,
[00:18:38.060]many times because it is super uncomfortable
[00:18:39.953]to have to do these things, but I still love
[00:18:43.334]that you're like okay, I'm putting these big girl pants on,
[00:18:46.630]I'm gonna go do this, and it's gonna happen,
[00:18:48.593]and yeah, can I say no later, but I'm at least gonna
[00:18:51.069]say yes, I'm gonna dare to say yes at this point in time
[00:18:54.092]to explore this and see what the possibilities are.
[00:18:57.372]Especially with the TV show.
[00:18:58.730]I was like, I don't think this is
[00:19:00.880]something that I can pull off.
[00:19:01.920]I don't know, I'm already working
[00:19:03.120]what feels like 80 hours a week.
[00:19:05.010]I've got little kids at home,
[00:19:06.170]like how can I travel the country and do this,
[00:19:08.820]and I had all these reasons that seemed like a good reason
[00:19:11.450]to say no but I'm so glad I didn't because
[00:19:13.452]all the pieces tend to fall into place.
[00:19:15.950]Well, and I appreciate that you bring up your husband
[00:19:17.960]and that mastermind that's so important whether it's
[00:19:20.150]with a spouse or somebody else,
[00:19:22.550]but I am gonna go there because I think this is also
[00:19:24.740]an important question our audience would like.
[00:19:27.170]How do you balance all of that?
[00:19:29.840]I mean, you are a mom with young children,
[00:19:32.060]you are married, you're running a business,
[00:19:34.610]a growing business empire.
[00:19:36.810]What advice would you give people around that?
[00:19:39.070]If I look back over my life, I've always felt like
[00:19:41.900]there's this like golden spot of balance
[00:19:45.052]that I'm going to get to.
[00:19:46.620]You know, I've been the full-time working mom
[00:19:48.240]in the corporate world, I've been the stay-at-home mom,
[00:19:51.870]I've been the stay-at-home mom trying to build a business,
[00:19:54.053]I now have an office that I can
[00:19:55.920]come to and kids are in school.
[00:19:58.140]None of these areas has given me that like
[00:20:01.196]golden nugget of balance that I thought maybe it would.
[00:20:04.610]What I have learned is making sure
[00:20:06.530]that my family comes first always.
[00:20:09.220]You know, when I'm thinking about making these decisions,
[00:20:11.080]I go, okay, I love FarmHer and I love being able
[00:20:14.310]to shine the light on these women
[00:20:15.290]and celebrate who they are, but if I can't be me,
[00:20:18.272]I mean, I get one shot at my life too,
[00:20:20.593]and so I try to always keep that front and center,
[00:20:23.730]and having those discussions with my husband
[00:20:25.494]about can we do this, you know, there's a breaking point
[00:20:28.476]to everything and what's it gonna take for us to do this.
[00:20:32.177]It's always a juggle.
[00:20:33.910]I have learned I have to run almost everyday,
[00:20:36.951]I have to do something physical to like let,
[00:20:40.950]there's a lot of anxiety that builds around this
[00:20:42.910]in balancing all of it, like 400 balls that you're
[00:20:45.340]juggling in the air, and sometimes some of 'em drop
[00:20:48.230]and that's frustrating, but having a support team
[00:20:51.140]around you and figuring out how you can mentally take on
[00:20:54.460]that load and deal with it, and, for me, like I said,
[00:20:57.437]that's running, and I would say over the last year,
[00:21:00.733]I've hit that almost breaking point a couple times.
[00:21:03.510]The first season of the TV show, 26 episodes of a TV show,
[00:21:06.970]basically 10 weeks traveling away from home
[00:21:09.070]doing something that I have no idea
[00:21:10.800]what I'm doing got to be too much.
[00:21:13.000]I have set up rules for myself.
[00:21:14.914]If I travel this week, I am not gonna travel the next week,
[00:21:18.970]you know, like ways that I can manage this,
[00:21:20.930]and unfortunately, it does mean that me saying no
[00:21:23.150]to a lot of things that I would love to say yes to,
[00:21:25.660]but that's just the reality of if FarmHer's gonna get to be
[00:21:29.181]FarmHer, then I gotta do that.
[00:21:31.540]Yeah, I mean there's a lot of power in saying yes,
[00:21:33.310]but I think there's also a lot of power in saying no,
[00:21:35.350]especially as the business grows
[00:21:37.581]and, you know, people want you.
[00:21:39.440]I mean, they want Marji, right?
[00:21:41.682]No, you're really a persona now.
[00:21:43.700]I think that people are really clamoring to be a part of
[00:21:46.583]this growing movement, and I know our students get very
[00:21:49.659]excited about just being able to see you
[00:21:51.950]and spend time with you, but the family element
[00:21:54.920]is really real, and I think for the first time in history
[00:21:57.762]we're in this dynamic of what does it look like
[00:22:01.060]to have dual working couples but also like
[00:22:03.885]what are our kids learning.
[00:22:06.350]I'm really glad now to see both my daughter and my son,
[00:22:09.481]you know, thinking about how they can work together
[00:22:12.730]and it's not just a husband or a wife, you know,
[00:22:15.320]it is really a collaborative process
[00:22:17.122]and everybody should be able to
[00:22:19.470]do well in a family including the kids.
[00:22:22.690]I've changed a lot of my thinking around now
[00:22:25.210]from trying to get rid of the mom guilt
[00:22:26.740]into thinking about, you know, there is still a lot
[00:22:30.060]of that but it's also like what experiences
[00:22:32.205]are you giving them that are different than what I had.
[00:22:34.790]You know, being gone in Japan for 10 days was a long time
[00:22:37.980]and my son was, he didn't handle it well,
[00:22:39.950]but then he's now very interested in traveling,
[00:22:42.760]and he's trying to look at the Japanese characters
[00:22:45.223]and figure them out, and so I think there's also good
[00:22:47.805]that comes out of some of those challenges.
[00:22:50.810]Yeah, I agree with you.
[00:22:52.880]Who I am, this is the best thing
[00:22:54.730]I think I can do for my kids is to show them
[00:22:57.310]me running after a dream and still trying
[00:23:00.020]to make sure I balance my family, you know,
[00:23:02.167]and not doing it all perfectly 'cause nothing is perfect
[00:23:04.560]in this world and making sure I communicate that to them,
[00:23:06.700]but, you know, like I don't know, I don't know
[00:23:09.910]the best answer to this but when I left my job
[00:23:12.642]in corporate agriculture, one of the things that I hold
[00:23:15.303]very dear was I want my kids to see mom doing something
[00:23:19.210]that she cares about, and I believe fully in the power
[00:23:23.220]and necessity of insurance, don't get me wrong,
[00:23:25.890]but it wasn't what I was passionate about,
[00:23:28.560]and I just kept thinking how can I tell them
[00:23:31.122]go run after your dreams if I'm sitting in an office
[00:23:35.610]working for a paycheck, just literally working
[00:23:38.080]for that paycheck and not wanting to be there anymore?
[00:23:40.510]How can I say that on one hand
[00:23:42.270]but expect them to do that on the other?
[00:23:44.100]It's this balance that I try to keep in front of me,
[00:23:46.290]and I have had somebody approach me after I spoke
[00:23:48.205]in an event once and they said,
[00:23:49.767]"You left your job so you could spend more time
[00:23:51.847]"with your kids but now it appears
[00:23:53.387]"that you're gone all the time."
[00:23:55.020]And I said, "Well, (laughs) I am gone a lot,
[00:23:58.797]"but, you know, I mean, it's a balance in life
[00:24:02.127]"and, you know, they're learning a lot of valuable things
[00:24:05.527]"about different ways that you can look at working
[00:24:08.657]"and at pursuing a passion or pursuing a dream too."
[00:24:12.890]Well, and I think in your case,
[00:24:13.723]they're really looking at how can I live anywhere
[00:24:17.310]I wanna live, really embrace my passion, and grow my path,
[00:24:21.500]and that's something at the Rural Futures Institute,
[00:24:23.550]we're really excited about helping people understand,
[00:24:26.861]you know, if you're connected and if you have a talent
[00:24:30.680]or passion, you can live in a rural community
[00:24:33.560]and really pursue your dream.
[00:24:34.393]You know, you don't have to move
[00:24:36.341]to go do that, and I think you're just such a great example
[00:24:39.490]of somebody who has done just that.
[00:24:41.200]You know, they've taken their talent, they've made the hard
[00:24:43.630]choice of leaving a job they didn't want
[00:24:46.180]and that steadier paycheck to say, you know what,
[00:24:48.600]it's worth the sacrifice, I'm gonna do this,
[00:24:50.956]and I think it's also now, that's how you see people's
[00:24:54.660]dreams pay off is because they did make those
[00:24:57.079]what seemed like difficult choices at the time
[00:24:59.562]to really go full out and take that risk.
[00:25:01.976]I think there's a lot of truth in the fact
[00:25:04.010]that there's not reward if there's no risk.
[00:25:06.980]Big was scary.
[00:25:07.950]I always say I hope that's one of the biggest decisions
[00:25:10.390]I make of my life because it
[00:25:12.360]changed our lives in a massive way.
[00:25:14.261]I make about the same that I made my first year out
[00:25:16.970]of college (laughs) income-wise.
[00:25:18.821]You know, that's a decision of mine, you know,
[00:25:21.770]of how I run the business, but it'll all be okay.
[00:25:24.581]If this is what you want, then you'll
[00:25:26.900]figure out a way to make it work.
[00:25:28.890]You're an example of what we need more leaders to be.
[00:25:31.461]You're actually walking the talk.
[00:25:34.050]You aren't just talking about it, you're doing it,
[00:25:36.170]and I think people are really starting to see through
[00:25:38.860]a lot of that where people are just giving out random advice
[00:25:41.734]but they're not really backing it up with
[00:25:43.855]how they live their life, and I'm so excited that,
[00:25:47.018]you know, here we have on the Rural Futures podcast
[00:25:49.920]an example of a leader who's like, you know what,
[00:25:52.140]I'm not just talking about it, I'm doing it,
[00:25:54.710]and I'm doing it with a family, I'm doing it,
[00:25:57.150]I'm still married, I'm raising my kids, I'm running!
[00:25:59.738](Doctor Connie and Marji laugh)
[00:26:00.870]I'm still maintaining who I am as a person,
[00:26:03.757]but I can make it all work.
[00:26:05.978](bright music)
[00:26:08.416]Alright, Marji, I'm gonna ask you to put on your futurist
[00:26:10.930]hat now and I'd love to know a little bit more
[00:26:13.800]about what major changes you see.
[00:26:15.952]I think, especially as broadband internet expands
[00:26:20.490]in rural areas, we're gonna see even more digital,
[00:26:23.456]and you're just gonna see this
[00:26:25.700]continued expansion in agriculture.
[00:26:27.640]In my area of expertise, I think you're gonna see more
[00:26:30.700]and more women enter into this space.
[00:26:33.020]Obviously at colleges around the country,
[00:26:35.810]degree programs in agriculture have expanding numbers
[00:26:38.940]of young women, they're gonna be flooding in that workplace.
[00:26:41.398]I'll describe what my hand looks like.
[00:26:43.870]Like, make a tight fist and then expand
[00:26:45.690]all of your fingers out as fast as you can.
[00:26:47.637]I hope that that continues to happen,
[00:26:49.790]yeah, five fingers, boom, that what we're seeing now
[00:26:54.130]continues to expand and increase because
[00:26:56.780]people need to eat, the whole world needs to eat.
[00:26:59.640]This is not going to contract, what we need in agriculture,
[00:27:03.840]and so I personally hope I see young women
[00:27:07.380]taking the helm in more leadership positions,
[00:27:10.057]and that's one area in the ag industry that is lacking
[00:27:13.700]behind even other more traditional areas of business.
[00:27:16.973]I am a big believer of diversity.
[00:27:19.110]Diversity in anything matters in any culture, right,
[00:27:23.070]and that's what's gonna help it grow,
[00:27:24.980]and change, and be what we need for the future.
[00:27:27.550]This is one of the big questions we get
[00:27:29.530]from a lot of our young female students,
[00:27:32.150]not just in agriculture but in the tax sector,
[00:27:34.458]you know, throughout a lot of sectors,
[00:27:36.540]how do I graduate and go into the workplace
[00:27:39.557]and then be successful in this space?
[00:27:42.290]You know, we even see this in higher education.
[00:27:43.920]That's why I have so many pairs of big girl pants, right,
[00:27:46.400]I mean, you know, most of our higher level decision makers
[00:27:50.130]are men, and so thinking about what that looks like
[00:27:53.570]and how the workplace is changing, I mean, it's happening,
[00:27:56.500]it's a very slow speed, I think equity and pay
[00:27:58.770]is still 200 years out that some studies have shown.
[00:28:01.860]Hopefully we can start moving a little faster on that,
[00:28:03.960]but I do think that future is diversity
[00:28:07.090]in not just gender but in so many other ways,
[00:28:09.550]and leaders have to really be willing to embrace it
[00:28:12.700]and leverage that so great innovation can happen.
[00:28:15.516]I think back to who I was at that age
[00:28:18.070]and it can be so hard, and we stand up there
[00:28:20.620]and we say you can go do whatever you want,
[00:28:22.260]and I will tell you, you can go do whatever you want,
[00:28:25.040]but it may not always look like
[00:28:26.640]the way that you think it's going to.
[00:28:28.700]It's tough sometimes navigating, especially as a young woman
[00:28:31.360]in these very male-dominated cultures,
[00:28:34.750]and I don't mean that bad against any man.
[00:28:36.590]I've had great men as mentors,
[00:28:38.040]but it can be super super tough.
[00:28:40.096]We talked about families, and that balance,
[00:28:42.560]and that juggle, you get to a point where you go
[00:28:45.170]is this worth what I'm giving up on this side?
[00:28:48.730]I mean, there's a lot of decisions that I think
[00:28:50.580]women have to make, and so, you know,
[00:28:52.290]flexibility in workplaces matters so much
[00:28:55.580]to keeping that diversity there because I always think
[00:28:58.580]if I woulda had the ability to be more of the mom
[00:29:01.280]I needed to be and keep that corporate job,
[00:29:03.220]I might still be there, I might not either,
[00:29:05.500]because, like I said, that passion thing matters too,
[00:29:07.729]but it's really important to me.
[00:29:09.970]I have a team of all women here,
[00:29:12.465]not because that's the only people I hire,
[00:29:14.990]but those are the only people who have applied
[00:29:16.540]for jobs at FarmHer up to this point.
[00:29:18.746]They're committed, and they're talented,
[00:29:20.580]and they're awesome, and making sure they know
[00:29:23.000]that I will give them that flexibility in however
[00:29:25.680]they need it to manage their life
[00:29:27.330]along with this job is super important,
[00:29:29.180]'cause there's a tipping point, right, and it gets hard,
[00:29:32.186]but there is a path for these young women
[00:29:34.870]and that's one of the things at these Grow events,
[00:29:37.300]we love to get strong women, people like you,
[00:29:40.200]people who are doing really cool things,
[00:29:42.370]and put them up on the stage and remind them, like,
[00:29:44.592]you can go do this and we're gonna connect you
[00:29:46.910]with the people who can be those support systems for you.
[00:29:50.387]Well, I think it's great for them to see
[00:29:52.110]role models making it happen, you know?
[00:29:54.150]I've had a lot of great male mentors as well
[00:29:56.830]but very few female mentors which is frankly because
[00:29:59.270]there just weren't enough out there,
[00:30:01.009]and I'm so glad to see that changing now
[00:30:03.460]because I think in some ways it's really hard
[00:30:05.530]to get the full mentoring that you need,
[00:30:08.613]that support system you need if you don't have people
[00:30:11.090]who sort of have those same values
[00:30:13.780]or the same ideas as you, and we see research stating
[00:30:17.200]that, you know, women are leaving the corporate sector
[00:30:19.220]and other sectors like universities, for example,
[00:30:21.660]in droves because they aren't getting the support they need.
[00:30:24.380]They don't have the flexibility they need.
[00:30:26.313]I think that's why they're seeing entrepreneurship
[00:30:28.680]as a viable solution, but they also need to grow
[00:30:31.600]those businesses to be successful in a way
[00:30:34.389]not just that works for their family
[00:30:36.390]but to be financially viable as well.
[00:30:38.890]So I'd love to explore with you a little bit about
[00:30:40.890]the future of FarmHer in general.
[00:30:42.600]Whenever people ask what I want the future FarmHer
[00:30:44.910]to look like, I want to keep operating in the space
[00:30:47.910]that we're in and I want to expand all of those areas.
[00:30:50.583]Keeping women at the forefront, and who they are,
[00:30:53.430]and what they do, and celebrating them
[00:30:56.150]is always going to be the nucleus of what we do,
[00:30:59.248]but I want to continue the expansion of that TV show
[00:31:02.830]and the audience who might watch it
[00:31:04.930]and hopefully weave it into maybe a non-ag audience
[00:31:08.740]at some point because I think that matters.
[00:31:11.070]So there's great power in that for agriculture
[00:31:13.320]and talking to people who care about food,
[00:31:15.270]or who buy food, or who hopefully eat food, you know,
[00:31:19.010]three times a day, I think that that matters.
[00:31:21.472]It's so important to me that we continue this expansion
[00:31:25.880]of who sees what FarmHer is.
[00:31:27.740]I think it's so important for agriculture,
[00:31:29.750]and it's important for the future of our business too.
[00:31:32.510]I mean, it just needs to keep happening.
[00:31:34.660]If we have all these things coming at us all of the time
[00:31:37.540]and it's one of those things I'm like,
[00:31:39.270]you have this balance as a small business,
[00:31:40.760]like we're still a very small business
[00:31:42.470]with a handful of employees, can we do it
[00:31:44.730]and can we do it well, and balancing that expansion
[00:31:47.509]with the need that's out there is exciting
[00:31:49.829]and something that I hope we get the chance to keep doing.
[00:31:53.620]Yeah, I think that's where we align so well,
[00:31:56.040]because, you know, the Rural Futures Institute,
[00:31:57.730]we're like, you know, if you just keep talking
[00:31:59.160]to rural audiences, we're missing the greater opportunity
[00:32:02.647]for that collaboration, for that innovation,
[00:32:05.130]and the increased understanding that really happens
[00:32:08.469]between partnering with whoever wants to come to the table
[00:32:13.240]to make things better, not just for rural
[00:32:15.030]but for urban and our global society.
[00:32:17.860]We hear so many conversations where people just stay
[00:32:19.808]so insulated in their space, and I think they're missing
[00:32:23.370]out on so many opportunities to do some amazing work
[00:32:26.840]that affects not only them but others as well.
[00:32:29.480]It really creates kind of this new global world
[00:32:32.340]that humanity is needing to see evolve.
[00:32:35.540]I couldn't agree with you more.
[00:32:36.400]I mean, it's just if agriculture is going to be able
[00:32:39.430]to feed the people of the world,
[00:32:41.660]then those conversations and those interactions
[00:32:43.930]need to occur in different ways than
[00:32:45.770]what we've always done in the past,
[00:32:48.070]and many different ways of course,
[00:32:50.350]and so making sure that that wall isn't there
[00:32:52.700]of who we talk to and how we talk
[00:32:54.320]to them is super important.
[00:32:55.830]I want anybody to be able to walk into one of our events
[00:32:58.656]and to leave feeling like you have a place
[00:33:01.670]and like you have a voice wherever you're gonna go
[00:33:04.350]and whatever you're gonna do regardless
[00:33:06.360]of if that's agriculture or not,
[00:33:07.650]and I think that that's one of the keys, right,
[00:33:10.410]is making people feel welcome and connecting with them.
[00:33:14.740]And I think there's just such an urbanization
[00:33:17.148]of agriculture in the food system right now.
[00:33:20.453]You know, people are very interested in growing food,
[00:33:24.210]knowing where their food comes from,
[00:33:25.890]and, you know, there's more, you know, growing even
[00:33:28.670]happening in urban centers as vertical agriculture
[00:33:31.570]becomes more prevalent and prominent,
[00:33:33.590]so how do we all lend a hand in making this happen
[00:33:36.750]so that it's not an argument,
[00:33:39.890]we're not fighting over territory
[00:33:41.660]or a small pie but rather we're growing the pie
[00:33:44.300]and the possibility, and I think this is a great time
[00:33:47.870]for people working in the ag sector to really explore that
[00:33:51.050]and I'm glad to see people like yourself
[00:33:53.280]really leading the charge and paving the trail
[00:33:55.560]that it's gonna take to make that happen.
[00:33:57.958](bright music)
[00:34:00.940]As we close this conversation,
[00:34:02.860]I'd love to know what parting words of wisdom
[00:34:05.010]you have to share with our audience.
[00:34:07.238]If I look at what I have done over the last few years
[00:34:11.720]and what FarmHer is and what it means to me,
[00:34:14.120]the best thing I can say is if you are passionate
[00:34:17.670]about something, I would figure out a way
[00:34:20.120]to share that with people because you just never know
[00:34:23.510]what the path will be in front of you,
[00:34:25.318]but if you don't share that passion and spread
[00:34:28.470]that passion, then you'll never know what could happen,
[00:34:31.440]so use that passion for whatever it may look like.
[00:34:34.572](bright music)
[00:34:36.897]Okay, Marji, where can people find you?
[00:34:39.217]FarmHer.com has everything that we do.
[00:34:41.940]You can find our events, you can see clips of the TV show,
[00:34:45.150]read the blogs, check out the podcast, all of those things.
[00:34:48.530]So it's just www.farmher.com.
[00:34:52.960]Excellent, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
[00:34:55.600]We appreciate your advice and insights.
[00:34:58.530]Thanks for listening to Rural Futures with Doctor Connie.
[00:35:01.640]You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
[00:35:03.870]and Instagram at Rural Futures.
[00:35:06.219]Next up, you'll hear about the future
[00:35:08.840]of early childhood education and workforce,
[00:35:11.137]water sustainability to feed the world,
[00:35:13.755]and combating weapons of mass destruction, wow!
[00:35:17.710]We're thankful to partner with our sister institutes
[00:35:20.038]at the University of Nebraska for this special episode
[00:35:22.737]that features their executive directors
[00:35:24.875]talking about leadership and research
[00:35:27.400]in some of the boldest areas for a thriving future.

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Rural Futures with Dr. Connie Episode 19 Featuring Marji Guyler-Alaniz

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