Farm4Profit Podcast

How to Get the Best ROI From Conference Season

Episode Summary

We tackle a health insurance question and then talk with FBN's Charles Baron. Our conversation revealed tips for getting the most information and return on your investment from attending conferences, meetings, webinars, and lunches etc...

Episode Notes

Getting the most out of conferences and webinars

• Introduction
  • Subscribe, Rate, Review, Follow, Share
  • Text 515.207.9640 / E-mail farm4profitllc@gmail.com
• Answer questions
  • What are health care options available for farmers and farming families?
• What’s working for Ag – listener or farmer feedback
• It’s not a waste of time if you uncover something valuable?
  • It starts with a mentality.  If you start your day or anticipate the learning session to be a waste of your time you might as well just stop now and don’t do it.  The power of emotion is so hard to overtake that you will probably have a pour experience.
  • Find an accountability partner to attend with.  This is a strategic decision. You will get less value attending if the person or group you are there with don’t have the same motivations of you to learn something new.  On your way there or before it starts talk about goals you want to achieve before it’s over.
    • A topic you want to hear and why
    • A networking opportunity to connect with (politics, royalty, and technology) 
    • Busting a myth
  • Strengthen your advisory team.  Why not invite someone to attend with you who also knows the ins/outs and strengths/challenges that your farm faces daily.
  • Don’t waste the breaks.  Yes, stay hydrated and don’t go hungry, but seek out new relationships and target those who can bring value to your farm.  If meeting people is uncomfortable for you then your accountability partner should be one with a skill to help introduce you.  Each attendee there is probably there for the same reason, to get a benefit from the meeting. Meeting you could be their biggest take away, so don’t hold back!
  • Find a sponsor.  We are talking ROI here.  This podcast is all about making your farm more money.  Yes if you invest in yourself that can generate more revenue, but why not get the education for free?  Think of it as a scholarship. -----Suggested places would be salesmen (seed, fert, equipment) or an accountant or your banker!
    • ProTip- If you have a question you want to ask out loud or the end of the presentation write it down.  If you don’t write it down you one, stand a change of forgetting it and two, usually are distracted by trying to remember the question that you don’t hear what is being shared currently.
    • ProTip- Take notes, but do it on two different sheets.  Write down the items you find value in during the presentation.  Then at the end of each presentation write the one or two biggest takeaways on a separate piece of paper or document.  This then allows you to get straight to the important information in the days following.
  • Before you go home take one (maybe two) things that you want to implement on your farm and create a rough plan for how you will do that.  Do you still need to learn more? Who will you need to learn more from? Where do you go to buy it? Are there others you need to educate? And so on. 
• Summarize
  • It starts with your mindset.  Just because the conference or webinar is free doesn’t mean it will be worthless.  The vice versa is just because you pay $400 per ticket doesn’t mean there will be automatic extreme value.  The better you are at setting goals before you go into the learning session the more you will get out of the event. (share personal example).  Once you are there, minimize your distraction and make the most of your time. Once you grab a nugget of valuable info make a plan of action to add to your farming operation.  Hopefully you are then able to boost your farms profitability by the knowledge you gained. 
• Challenge
  • What is something on your 3-2-1 plan you need to learn more about?  Is there an annual meeting you have always attended coming up? Take one of those areas and begin setting the mindset for learning, setting goals, and boosting overall profitability.
• Conference Update
• Submit questions and topic suggestions