January 31, 2025 • 45 mins
On this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast, we speak with Steve Durman, an expert in marketing, storytelling, and technology. Steve shares his journey in helping companies share their stories and marketing. Through his journey he shares the importance of taking risk and having faith when determining next steps in life. Steve was a key developer in the creation of the MYTEXASFFA website and promotional videos associated with the project. It was a great interview to hear how he became familiar with the Texas FFA and is now proud to help us tell our incredible story in an incredible way.
Story Notes:
- Meet Steve Durman: A passionate advocate for leadership development in agriculture and a mentor to many.
- The Importance of Leadership in Agriculture: Insights on how strong leadership can drive growth and innovation in the industry.
- Teamwork and Communication: The role of teamwork and clear communication in building successful agricultural ventures.
- Mentorship and Growth: Steve’s perspective on how mentorship helps young people build the confidence to lead in agriculture.
- Youth in Agriculture: How the younger generation can lead the way toward a more sustainable and innovative agricultural future.
- Sustainability in Agriculture: The importance of making agriculture practices more sustainable for future generations.
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast
Number one, thank you.
Thank you for stopping by.
I meant, when you're askingsomebody to give up a little bit
of their time, you're askingthem to give something away that
they're never going to get back.
So the fact that you're joiningus, we want you to know that,
(00:50):
we appreciate that and we valuethat.
We also appreciate the factthat we've got this incredible
platform, this technology thatwe have that allows us to bring
subject matter experts on, tobring guests on that are willing
to share their insights, theirexperiences, their expertise, to
share seeds of greatness.
You know, like we always say,if agriculture has taught us
(01:14):
anything, it's taught us.
If you want to know what thefuture is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow it?
You got to plant the rightseeds and today we've got a guy
that's going to bring some seedsof greatness.
It has been an honor to get toknow him, it's been an honor to
work with him and, I will tellyou, it's even more of an honor
that he's taking time out of hisschedule to join us.
Ladies and gentlemen, steveDerman, steve, thank you for
(01:37):
joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Aaron, thank you for having me.
It's always an honor,definitely a pleasure, to be
here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You're going to learn more about Steve.
He is the founder and creativedirector of Four man Furnace.
We'll talk a little bit aboutFour man Furnace and you've
probably seen their work andwe're going to talk about that
here in a minute.
Steve, every episode when westart, we like to ask guests the
same question.
So we start every episode withthe same question and you get
(02:05):
that question today and it isSteve, what are you grateful for
today?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Gosh, I'm feeling incredibly grateful today just
for family.
I've got my beautiful daughterTessa here at the office with me
today.
She's helping me at work.
She's incredibly talented andis able to actually legitimately
be a help here at the officeeven at 12 years old.
But definitely just feelingincredibly grateful for family
today in general my son Wesley,my wife Leandra, across the
(02:34):
board, just very blessed.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's good, I agree with you.
And the thing I appreciate,steve, steve, is how much you
appreciate your family and youvalue your family and it shows.
And I showed the kids a pictureof our family the other day and
I said look at that.
And they're like what I saidlook at that, you know.
Look, I want you to look at it.
And I kind of got a littlesappy with them and I said you
(02:59):
know, if you'd ever grew up withone, you don't understand why
this is such a precious picture.
Yeah, and so when you share afamily, I just want you to know
that that means something,because some people never grew
up with that.
And so when we get to see it,we appreciate it and we value it
.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's the one thing that we get in life
that we don't get to acquire orchoose for ourselves.
Either we're born into a familynot of our choosing, or when we
choose to have a family andcreate a family, we don't really
have a whole terrible amount ofcontrol over how that turns out
and the people that kind ofbecome a part of that.
(03:36):
So it's always a blessing.
It's also a challenge, butthrough those challenges we grow
and become better people.
So, yeah, just I'm feeling ittoday for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Awesome.
Well, good luck to those kids,and I know they're going to do
good work.
They got a good boss, so that'sa good thing.
Appreciate it, thanks.
So, anyway, hey, listen.
So for people that aren'tfamiliar with Steve Durnham or
Four man Furnace, let me givey'all a little backstory.
So several years ago we wantedto do a project, a promotional
project, to promote really whatwe see as the value of
(04:10):
agricultural science educationand the FFA program.
And those of you familiar withour show and what we talk about,
I always say if you want to bethe best, train with the best.
So if you want to be the bestat something, go find the best
out there and train with them,hang out with them, watch them.
And we had caught word of thiscompany called Four man Furnace.
(04:34):
We got word of this gentlemannamed Steve Derman and we
reached out and we started arelationship, a business
relationship, and I got to tellyou I would say this on the air
and off the air I appreciatethis organization.
I appreciate their employees,their leadership, their customer
(04:54):
service.
They are always on top of theirgame.
I love it that they listen andbecause they know this, they've
got that skill of just listeningwith eyes and ears.
It helps them create theproducts that they create, and
it shows in what they put outthere.
But, steve, I don't suspectthat you just fell into that
(05:17):
seat that you're in.
I don't believe that you justfell into being the creative
director and founder of Foreman.
Something tells me that therewas a journey that led there,
and so I was wondering if youmight take a minute and tell us
how did you get on this path tothis journey for this company,
for marketing and creative, andhow did you end up in that chair
(05:39):
?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, so I didn't fall into the chair.
I think it was equal parts,intention and equal parts.
The other half of that coin isreally just kind of going where
I was led at any given moment intime and so my background is as
a graphic designer.
That's what I went to schoolfor.
I have my BA in graphic designand graduated in the late 90s,
(06:05):
went to work at the time I wasliving in New Jersey went to
work in Atlantic City, which wasnear where I lived at the time
at a casino in their marketingdepartment, and really was able
to cut my teeth on just thisindustry that we're in creative
services for marketing andbranding and advertising and so
really learned a lot those firstcouple of years working in the
(06:26):
casino.
In early 2000, moved here to theDFW area and had aspirations of
working at an advertisingagency Back then.
To me the advertising agencylife was exciting and fast-paced
and creative and the types ofclients working at an agency
gives you access to is reallyexciting.
(06:48):
So I did that.
Middle of 2000, I landed a jobat an advertising agency.
So I'm going to fast forward abunch because there was a lot of
steps along the way there, butended up as a creative director,
an advertising agency, and atthe same time, on the side, I
was working with my own clients,kind of consulting on the side
(07:08):
and it got to the point whereboth of those endeavors were
incredibly intense and demandinga lot of my time.
And so I'm leading a little bitinto two things One, the
founding of Four man Furnace and, at the same time, how I chose
that name for the company.
So at the time we were or I wasgoing to work as a creative
(07:31):
director at a pretty intenseworking environment and then,
coming home and working afull-time job on my consulting
clients, found out that my wifewas pregnant with our firstborn
this was in late 2007 anddecided to quit my job.
Something had to give and Isaid I'm going to quit the day
(07:51):
job and I'm going to make thisconsulting thing, this freelance
thing, the main thing.
Which was really scary becausethere was no, you know, working
at the agency as a creativedirector.
I knew I had a job next week,next month, whatever Was working
on some really good clients andworking with some really smart,
(08:11):
talented people and goingfreelance.
Nothing was guaranteed.
It was quite literally a leapof faith.
It was what I believe to be theright decision, but definitely
not the easy decision.
So I knew, okay, I'm going tostart creative business of my
own.
What am I going to call thisthing?
It needs to be memorable, itneeds to attract some attention.
(08:34):
People need to hear the nameand it needs to be somewhat kind
of compelling and intriguing.
But to me, it also needs tohave meaning, and I really felt
a story from the Old Testamentof the Bible.
At the time I felt like I wasgoing through a similar
experience, and it's the storyof Shadrach, meshach and
Abednego, when they refused toworship the king of Babylon and
(08:58):
the punishment was he was goingto throw them into a furnace of
fire and burn them alive.
That was their punishment.
He was going to throw them intoa furnace of fire and burn them
alive.
That was their punishment.
And so the story says that,confronted with this, they said
to the king well, that's kind ofscary and do what you're going
(09:18):
to do.
We believe we're making theright choice and we're keeping
the leaving the results up toour God.
And that's kind of what I wasdoing.
It was scary and I believed Iwas making the right choice and
I was kind of leaving theresults up to our God, and
that's kind of what I was doing.
It was scary and I believed Iwas making the right choice and
I was kind of leaving theresults up to God, and so, of
course, the story has a happyending.
Hopefully a lot of yourlisteners are familiar.
When they were thrown into thefurnace, the king looked in to
see to ensure that they weredead, and what the Bible says is
(09:41):
he didn't see three men in thefurnace.
He saw four men in the furnace.
They were walking around unhurt, having a conversation, and
that fourth man appeared to bean angel of God protecting them.
And so I really clung to thatstory in the early years of the
four-man furnace because it wasa scary ride, like I said, and
nothing was certain, but I wasevery day going to work in faith
(10:04):
, trusting that I was doing theright thing.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
What a story.
I love it, by the way, and I'veexpressed that to Steve.
Even off the air, I thought itwas a very clever take.
And when you know thebackground and you know why that
leap of faith was so importantand, like you said, it was more
than just a leap of faith youactually felt like I'm being
(10:29):
thrown into fire.
It's something even moreincredible.
And there's a comfort thatcomes with faith, by the way,
and I think that that comfort iswhat's giving you that
foundation to take risk.
And you know all successfulpeople that I'm aware of, steve,
they've all taken risks, yeah,and they typically, if you
(10:50):
really drill down, there'salways a component of faith in
taking risk.
And so you've already kickedthis off just perfectly, because
you know what we really wantfolks to gather from this
podcast is bring on successfulpeople and what are those
elements of their journey thatmade them successful?
(11:11):
Because somebody listening isgoing to find some seeds of
greatness.
You know, like we always say inagriculture, if you want to
know what the future is, grow itGot to plant the seeds.
So we need guests like you toshare those examples.
So somebody that's listeningright now says you know, I got
to do the seeds.
So we need guests like you toshare those examples.
So somebody that's listeningright now says, you know, I got
to do a better job of that and Ican't be so afraid of the fire
(11:32):
and I can't be adverse to takingrisk that everything that we do
is risky.
I will tell you, in thenonprofit world, you know, we
don't live on production lines,we don't live on services that
we get money for.
We live on the generosity ofothers.
(11:52):
And so when you get ready tosaddle with a company and you
say we're going to go spend alot of money on a marketing
company, we were kind of inthere with you because we were
really relying on faith, that wefelt like we were making the
right decision.
We felt like there was thisincredible story of the Texas
(12:13):
FFA that needed to be told, andwe needed to tell it in a way
that we've never told it before.
And thus that's how we came toknow you and began working with
your team and that relationship.
Now, how long has thatrelationship been going on?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
We launched that program in 2016.
So I want to say we probablystarted conversations in 2015
around it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So that's what I'm years, yeah, and it's been great
, and again, I say this justbecause it's the kind of
relationship that I like.
They always answer the phoneand they listen.
We throw ideas, but I think,steve, would you say it's fair
that we listen to you too.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Oh for sure, Absolutely yeah.
You and your team are tremendousto work with, and one of our
core values here is we have twocore values.
One is do amazing work, and theother is be amazing to work with
, and we've.
I firmly believe if we can dothose two things, then, you know
, the work will come our way,because who doesn't want to work
(13:14):
with amazing people who dogreat work?
And so I think one of the whenI think about be amazing to work
with we we can break that downinto a few different areas, but
one of the things that we try tofocus on is know when to give
direction and when to take it,and I feel like your team
understands that as well.
They give us great direction interms of articulating to us
(13:35):
what the goals are for aninitiative that we're working on
for y'all, but when we haveideas or a perspective that we
want to share, in response tothat and collaborate on, hey,
maybe there's a better way to dothis.
Your team is all ears andthey're 100 percent willing to
listen and to take thatdirection.
(13:56):
So we've we've had nothing butjoy in working with you guys for
almost 10 years now.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's crazy, you know.
Let me share this.
You know, one of the thingsthat I like to talk about when
we talk about agriculture is Iremember this time where these
two young ladies this was reallyclever their school district.
Every February 2nd, everyGroundhog Day, they would send
their seniors out to job shadowcompanies, which I thought was
(14:25):
pretty clever.
So these young ladies come tomy office and they really
shouldn't have been in my office, they should have been in the
director of the Ag TeachersAssociation, because why they
were there was they want to beag teachers, agricultural
science teachers and so I letthem kind of watch what we do
during the day.
And I finally said do y'allhave any questions?
And they said yes, we do duringthe day.
(14:45):
And I finally said do y'allhave any questions?
And they said yes, sir.
They said we want to be greatag teachers one day.
What does it take to be a greatag teacher?
And I said well, it takes threethings to be a great ag teacher
.
I said number one do your job.
And I said you need to listento what I'm telling you.
Do your job If your boss saysdon't dot I's, don't cross T's
(15:05):
and staple in the top right-handcorner.
You better not dot cross andyou better staple in the top
right-hand corner.
You're going to be looking foranother job.
So number two have your ownpersonal board of directors, get
mentors, get people around you.
That will make you better.
And lastly, you got to think big.
I said because if you can'tthink big, you can't teach big.
If you can't think big, you gotto think big.
I said because if you can'tthink big, you can't teach big.
(15:26):
If you can't think big, youcan't inspire big.
And if you can't think big, thekids in your care will never be
big.
And they said, well, what doyou mean by that?
And I said, well, can I showyou?
And they said, sure.
So I took them on a routethrough downtown Austin and we
walked several blocks and I tookthem to eat lunch at a sushi
restaurant.
I love sushi, so take them tothe sushi.
(15:46):
They'd never had sushi before.
So I'm having fun watching themeat seaweed salad and squid
salad and eating sushi, and itwas great.
We get back to the office and Iasked them I said how many
performing arts centers did wepass?
And they start listing things.
I said how many museums did wepass?
They start listing things.
How many musical venues did wepass?
(16:06):
And they start listing things.
I said how many museums did wepass?
They start listing things.
How many musical venues did wepass?
They start listing things.
I said now, how often are thoseplaces open?
Well, mostly daily, some juston the weekend, but relatively
all the time.
I said now think about whaty'all just said.
All of the people that go tothis all on a regular basis.
How many of those same peoplemake a trip to the Austin
(16:30):
Livestock Show and Rodeo once ayear?
And they all looked at me andthey said I don't know.
And I said see where I'm goingwith this is.
We sometimes shake our fist atthe world and we say how come
you don't understand this?
How come you don't understandthis?
How come you don't understandagriculture?
How come you don't understandFFA?
And I'm sitting here going.
We have a responsibility oftaking our message to them.
(16:52):
And the reason that we wantedto forge this relationship with
Foreman is because y'all camefrom a background that wasn't
just agriculture and we thoughtwho better to help us tell our
story than somebody who cantranslate our story in a way
that helps other people reallyget it?
Yeah, so I just want to givethat background so that people
(17:16):
understand how this relationshipstarted, why it started, and
you can kind of see theparalleling core values that
drive Steve and his team are thesame values that drive myself
and our team and Team, ag Edtoward a message so we can tell
people about this incrediblestory of ag science and FFA.
(17:36):
Steve, have y'all enjoyedgetting to learn more about ag
science and FFA through all thisexperience?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Oh, it's been amazing .
I mean ag science and FFA.
It was really a light bulbmoment in early on in one of our
first meetings.
Like I mentioned earlier, Igrew up in New Jersey, so South
Jersey, so it is the GardenState.
There is a lot of agriculture inNew Jersey, but I wasn't
exposed to it growing up.
So learning the impact that anag science education and all of
(18:10):
the leadership developmentattributes of the FFA experience
has on pointing young people inthe trajectory of success and
leadership was really wasinspirational to me at the time.
I had young kids and really sawthe value in that, and so
learning about the programs andyou know, all of the different
(18:34):
kind of areas of focus that anag science student can go into
that will have not only arenecessary for the future of
American society but will have apositive impact on the future
of American society was.
It's been really, really cooland I talk about it all the time
with people you know when we'retalking about the future and
(18:57):
talking about concerns of foodand environment and leadership
and technology and technology asit applies to all these things,
the FFA and the preparationthat you guys are doing for our
future leaders is always a partof conversation if I'm involved,
because it's just somethingthat I've grown to love.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Thank you and we appreciate that.
Again, that's the reason why Ilike working together is you
become a conduit, you become anambassador for us to an audience
that we might always know howto speak that language, but you
can help us translate that,because in the world of FFA and
ag science, we can talk LDEs andCDEs and SREs and we got so
(19:45):
many acronyms.
We all know what they are.
The rest of the world's going.
What in the world did they justsay?
And that's why we've got tohave the right people that can
help us translate that so thatit can be assimilated by an
audience that we might not havereached yet.
Yeah, that's the value thatyour teams bring into what we do
have reached yet.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, that's the value that your teams bring into
what we do.
Yeah, and the fact of thematter is that what you guys do
legitimately has an impact oneverybody, and so it's easy for
someone like me who focuses oncommunication.
It's easy to translate thatstory in a way that's meaningful
to people, because they needfood and you know they need high
(20:25):
quality employees and they need, you know, responsible citizens
who understand how the worldworks.
And so the need is there forfor, if you want to call it, the
product that the FFA experiencedelivers, but it's really the
people.
But the need is there for thepeople and their output, and so
it's really really easy to speakto.
(20:46):
It's easiest for us to do ourjob when in selling things
because, look, I mean, at theend of the day, our job at Four
man Furnace is to help ourclients sell, whether it's an
idea or a product or a service.
And it's easiest to sellsomething when somebody feels
the need.
And part of our job for otherclients is to get them to feel
the need right, Like manufacturea need or convince them that
(21:09):
they have a need.
That maybe isn't front of mind,but the needs that the FFA,
that kids who come through theFFA program fill are felt by
everybody.
They're just front of mind forbusiness owners and leaders and
community and people who areconcerned with where food comes
(21:30):
from.
And so it's easy for us to tellyour story because the need is
there and you guys do such agood job at scale of filling
that need.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That's awesome, thank you, you said something I'm
going to piggyback on what youjust said, cool.
So one of the things I like toask the kids is I say, tell me
about your business.
And the kids will look at meand they say, well, I don't have
a business.
I said, yeah, you do, you're it?
What time do you open?
What kind of customer servicedo you deliver?
(22:02):
Are you articulate?
Can you sell me?
And you know one of our greatsponsors, carlos Guerra.
He always says no show, no tell, no sell, and he's always
talking about cattle.
And if you can't show thecattle and you can't tell me
about your cattle, you'll neversell your cattle.
Kids, you know they're ourbusiness, they're our future.
(22:23):
You said it, they're our future.
They also represent our brandand one of the things that I
think I've seen organizationstake very lightly, very lightly,
is their brand and they don'tput enough time and effort into
creating what their brand is.
And I've been fortunate throughmy career to sit through
(22:46):
several of those.
I got to sit through thedevelopment of CEV Multimedia
and I got to watch CEV createits initial brand.
I didn't watch that brandevolve into ICEV.
I got to watch La Quinta gothrough their rebranding and
their starburst and I'll neverforget getting to watch that.
(23:08):
I got to watch MahindraTractors when they did some
rebranding of their messaging.
But there's a lot that goes intobrand.
There's a lot that goes into acompany's, an organization's
brand and what I wanted to askyou is is how important and this
goes back to the individualthat's the reason why I'm
(23:30):
bringing this up it goes back toyou're your own business.
You're your brand.
Everybody that knows me onsocial media knows I'm the live
your brand guy.
Live your brand.
What you post, what share, whatyou engage with, that's your
brand.
Steve, as a marketingprofessional, how important is a
(23:53):
brand and what thought processgoes into creating the creative
of a logo of a brand?
So how important is the brandand how important is it to put
that into an image like the NikeSwish or the Texas FFA
Foundation?
Give me an idea.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, I always say the kind of analogy I use to
disambiguate even what is abrand, because that word means
different things to differentpeople and I always what I tell
clients who come to us forbranding is your marketing is
like asking someone out on adate and your brand is why they
say yes.
(24:28):
So your brand essentially whatyour brand is about it and
develop your brand tocommunicate to the market what
(24:51):
you're about and communicate tothe market what they should
believe about you.
I think so many companies leaveit to the market to define what
their brand is.
They'll just create a greatproduct, offer a great service
and kind of let the chips fallwhere they may when it comes to
the brand, which could be greatif you have a great product or a
(25:11):
great service and then you'redefined by that.
But it's hard to get people totrust handing their money over
for what you offer without abrand.
Like I said, your marketing isasking someone out for a date
and the brand is the reason theywould say yes or say no.
So the importance of a brand Idon't think can be overstated,
(25:36):
because it is the promise, it'show you communicate your unique
value to the market.
If it's done well.
(25:59):
You can very quickly andsuccinctly educate your highest
value customers about what youoffer and why they should want
it in 15 seconds.
To me, a brand is more than alogo.
A logo is just a very.
It's an important but smallpart of a branding project that
we do.
Your brand is understanding whoyour consumers are.
It's understanding what theirgoals are as it pertains to your
product offering or serviceoffering.
It's understanding the needsthat they have, both kind of
(26:23):
felt needs, their higher orderneeds that maybe they can
articulate as well.
It's creating a messagingplatform that includes the
hierarchy of how you talk aboutwhat you do, includes the tone
of voice or the copy style inwhich you communicate, the voice
(26:45):
, the tone of voice or the copystyle in which you communicate,
and then it also includes yourlogo and color palette and fonts
and other visual assets.
I think what a lot of peoplethink of when they think of a
brand is the logo, and a lot ofpeople go to the Apple logo or
the Nike logo or some of theseiconic logos that are so great
because they're so simple andthey're so easily recognizable.
(27:06):
But one of the litmus tests Ialways give our designers when
we're creating a piece for aclient is if you cover up the
logo, can you still tell thatit's for that client?
So you mentioned La Quinta.
La Quinta was one of ourclients for a long time.
It's actually, I think, how weconnected was La Quinta was a
supporter of the Texas FFA andwe were doing work for La Quinta
(27:27):
, and so that's how kind of wewe found ourselves in the same
sphere of influence and so whenwe were creating assets for La
Quinta, we'd cover up the LaQuinta logo.
And can you still tell that thatadvertisement is for La Quinta
if you cover up the logo?
If not, then it's not awell-branded piece, because the
colors and the fonts and thephotography and the tone, the
(27:49):
headline, how it reads, theemotions that it's conveying,
all are part of the brand, andso branding is incredibly
important.
I mean, just get back to thesimple question that you were
asking.
Branding is incrediblyimportant.
I mean, just get back to thesimple question that you were
asking.
Branding is incrediblyimportant because if you do it
well and if you do itstrategically, you're not
(28:09):
leaving your brand up for themarket to decide what it is.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That right there, steve, what you just shared.
For a lot of our kids right,for a lot of the young people
that listen to this, for them,the most prominent place of
their brand right now is onsocial media, yep.
And so what I tell them is isthat, you know, consistency
creates credibility.
So, first thing is, in my world, what I like to say is you know
(28:38):
, make sure your profile pictureis consistent.
That way I know I'm talking tothe right person, because if it
looks different, I'm alwaysquestioning is this the same
person or I'm not really sure?
You're making me guess at stuffand I don't want to guess, I
want to know.
And then, secondly, what youlike, share, comment on all of
the things that you engage with.
That becomes part of your brand, like you said.
(28:58):
So when I take your image away,I could see a comment and I
could go oh, I know, that'sSteve, it's talking about cars
and really cool stuff.
But you know, I think you're onto something there and I hope
people heard that thatconsistency creates credibility
and you want to create a brandthat's known for its consistency
(29:19):
, and that consistency is thetone.
It's what we see.
If I hear somebody giving me aspeech about things that's
inconsistent with what they'reposting on social media.
It's going to be harder for meto reconcile those two.
So I think there's a lot ofgenius in what you just shared,
and I hope people really take amoment and drill down and listen
(29:41):
to that, because that wasreally good advice that you just
shared yeah, I think your, youraudience too, they would.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
you know there are exercises you could go through
to to show how what you'resaying lack of consistency, or
when a brand is, uh, appliedconsistently, you can spot
inconsistencies.
They stick out like a sorethumb.
So if somebody were to see afake Nike ad that had the Nike
(30:13):
logo on it but very clearly hadthe wrong messaging, even though
it has the Nike logo on itbecause that brand is so well
applied, they could spot a fakefrom a mile away and they
wouldn't trust it because theyfeel like that's not on the
(30:33):
brand.
Somebody just slapped a Nikelogo on a fake ad or whatever.
So you're absolutely right,it's that it's trusted brands
that are are consistently kindof stewarded through through all
of the communications, in allof the different channels in
which they, in which they appear.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Wow, Zig Ziglar.
You know I love Zig quotes, I'ma big Zig fan and Zig and Tom
Ziglar have said that if theyknow you they'll listen to you,
but if they trust you they'll dobusiness with you.
And I believe that you buildthat trust through consistency.
I believe you build that trustthrough relationship, through
(31:18):
consistency.
I believe you build that trustthrough relationship and I think
that you know, like you said,we either take charge of our
brand or we leave it up tosomebody else to determine what
our brand is, and we may notlike how they interpret our
brand.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yep.
Well, and how are they going todo it, too?
You have to think to yourself.
They're going to do it by howyou most consistently represent
yourself.
Think to yourself, they'regoing to do it by how you most
consistently represent yourself.
So you are branding, whetheryou're doing it on purpose or
not.
We're all in the business ofcreating a brand, and if we're
leaving it up to others todefine or to articulate what the
(31:53):
brand is, what they're going todo is look for how do you
consistently treat others, howdo you consistently show up, how
do you consistently dress, howdo you consistently speak, and
that's going to be what yourbrand is.
So, yeah, I mean, the idea ofbeing consistent in the things
(32:13):
that are important to your brandis really really important for
individuals as well as forcorporations and companies.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Absolutely, and that's kind of where I was.
This is why I wanted you on theshow right here, because you're
a professional in marketing,you're a professional in
creative development and you'reyou're helping us understand as
individuals.
You know, it's like I tell thehigh school kids.
If we could get to every eighthgrader and tell every eighth
grader do me a favor for thenext four years, find something
(32:44):
that you're passionate about andtalk about those for three.
Three things for four years.
Just talk about those things.
Let that be your brand, andthen, when you get to college, I
want you to do the same thingfor the next four years.
Find three things that you'rereally passionate, interested in
, talk about those.
I guarantee you, when you getready to graduate from college,
you won't have to look for a job, because your brand will be so
(33:12):
well known and so consistentthat somebody will say that's
who I want working here, becausethat's how they're going to
promote my brand, going topromote my brand.
So that's why I say thatconsistency and understanding
that is so important to both aperson, an organization or even
our companies and we work withsome great brands, by the way.
We work with some great brandsand we enjoy getting to work
with them.
I remember when we got the giftfrom Ford Motor Company to
(33:35):
build our building in AustinTexas we got the gift from Ford
Motor Company to build ourbuilding in Austin Texas there
was a book, probably this thick,just on the branding of the
oval, on the building of what wecould and we couldn't do.
So that's how serious brandsare, that's how much those
brands are worth.
And, to your point, steve,what's more valuable than your
(33:59):
own personal brand?
Yeah, so these tools, thesesuggestions, these ideas that
Steve and we're sharing throughthe show, those are those seeds
that you can plant that willgrow a strong brand.
They'll grow a brand that canopen a lot of doors of
opportunity.
(34:20):
Let's talk about leadership fora minute.
Sure, because you're a leader,I would say.
You've been around leaders.
You've traveled the country,You've been exposed to a lot of
different types of leaders.
You've been in businessmeetings with leaders.
If, in your experience, youcould condense some of that down
and tell young people here arethree leadership tips what would
(34:45):
you tell them?
What would be three tips onleadership you would share with
FFA members?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
The first tip would just be to listen.
I think good leaders listen, andthat's not to say that they let
the voice of other peoplenecessarily influence the
decisions that they make, butthey listen to you mentioned it
earlier, aaron mentors or yourpersonal board of directors.
They listen to their employees,people who have their finger on
(35:14):
the pulse of the day-to-day.
And they listen to the market.
They understand what's going onin their industry, what the
future may hold, you know,staying relevant, whether it's
through continuous learningopportunities or podcasts like
this one or other types ofindustry voices that they're
paying attention to.
So I think listening is areally the first thing that
(35:36):
jumps to my mind, and partiallybecause I've seen it modeled and
partially because a lot of theless than stellar leaders that
I've observed.
One of the first things I'venoticed is they don't listen.
Nobody can say anything to them.
They get defensive or theybristle when somebody does
something they don't like.
(35:57):
Get defensive or they bristlewhen somebody does something
they don't like, so they don'tgenuinely have an open mind or
an open ear to differingopinions.
So good leaders listen, I thinkalso, good leaders have a
vision for the future.
They see a direction andthey're willing to take steps in
that direction.
I liken this to kind ofsomething that I learned when we
had our first child was thisidea of a flexible routine, and
(36:19):
I think good leaders have aversion of that flexible routine
.
So the flexible routine that welearned with children is, like
you know, there's a generalmodel when you have a newborn
infant.
It's sleep, play, eat, sleep,play, eat, and it kind of is on
repeat for the first nine monthsor so.
But you need to be flexiblewith that.
Right, there's a pattern, butyou can break the pattern a
(36:42):
little bit and still be fine,and it's good because it keeps
you sane, but it also keeps thechild kind of in the zone of
having their needs met in theway they need to be met.
And so I think in business it'svery similar to have that
flexible path forward, thevision for the future that can
be influenced by market dynamics, it can be influenced by
(37:04):
technological innovations, butyou know you've got a direction
because you can articulate it toyour team and they can rally
around it, which builds thecamaraderie and builds the
environment in which people cansucceed and know what's expected
of them.
And then the third part isprobably accountability, I think
being accountable to yourmentors, being accountable to
(37:30):
your own moral code or promisesthat you've made or commitments
that you've made, and beingaccountable to the team that
you're leading, because, at theend of the day, your job as a
leader is to make your teamsuccessful.
It's not their job to make youa success.
It's your job to make them asuccess, and so you need to be
(37:52):
able to say hey guys, I'm sorry,I messed up, I made the wrong
call here.
Hey guys, I'm sorry, I messedup, I made the wrong call here.
Or I know I said I was going todo this and I fell short, and
that's on me because I eitherover-promised or I
under-delivered.
So I think accountability isalso incredibly important for a
leader, and there's probablymore attributes of leadership
that we can talk about, butthose are the three that really
(38:15):
come to mind right now those arestrong, by the way.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And what's interesting is you bring guests
on and you ask them thatquestion and you start finding
these common denominators.
Yeah, and you know one of theones that you said is they say
listen, and they don't mean justwith your ears, they mean with
your eyes too.
Pay attention, because younever know what trend you may
spot ahead of somebody else.
(38:41):
And, like you said, vision.
I tell people all the time theone thing I've learned about
leaders that I've worked with isthey're visionaries.
And if you can't communicatethings where they can see
themselves as the hero of thestory, if you can't communicate
things where they can see howthey can be part of the solution
or be part of a positiveoutcome, it's hard for them to
(39:03):
unpack it and understand.
Why am I here, why do you needme involved?
But if you can show them thatvision and help them understand
it, they want to be part of it.
Now, I believe it's biblical,by the way, as a matter of fact,
of it.
Now, I believe it's biblical, bythe way, as a matter of fact,
in 1985, when I ran for stateFFA president, I took the stage
(39:24):
with the quote the Bible sayswhere there is no vision, the
people will perish.
I'm Aaron Alejandro with avision for the Texas FFA, and
that was in 1985.
And here we are today and we'restill trying to create visions,
we're still trying to findopportunities for the people
that are going to follow in ourfootsteps.
And then, lastly, I love it,accountability.
You know there are some peoplethat you know you got onto me.
(39:46):
Well, I got onto you because Icare about you.
Exactly, I got onto you becauseI want you to have
responsibility, and when I giveyou responsibility, I need you
to know I need to hold youaccountable for that, just like
I hold myself accountable forthat.
So that's excellent, steve.
I wrote them down.
Listen, vision andaccountability Good stuff, thank
(40:09):
you.
Well, listen, you know timeflies when you're having fun,
and here we are.
We've just about wrapped up thetime that we have set aside for
another episode of Growing OurFuture.
We appreciate you taking time,steve, to come by and share with
us, but you don't get out ofhere without the fun question,
(40:29):
and everybody on the podcastgets a fun question.
So here's your fun questionve.
Tell me what is the bestconcert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
oh, gosh uh, best concert.
I've ever been to.
The most memorable concert.
I think it was because I wasyounger and a little bit more
impressionable.
Early in college I went and sawno doubt at the electric
factory in philadelphia.
I was living in southern NewJersey at the time, so it was
only a 40-minute drive, but thiswas before they were big.
(41:00):
So this was a small venue,standing room only, and it was
crazy.
It was, I mean, like nothingI've ever been to before.
It was insane.
It was like a crazy party.
That was the concert I've beento.
It maybe not have been the bestmusically, but, from just
making memories, I went therewith my cousin and some friends.
(41:20):
It was a good time.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Isn't that great.
I love it.
I love asking guests thatquestion because when you look
at the spectrum of guests young,old, male, female, different
backgrounds, differentexperiences it's fun to hear
what music we like, to hear theexperiences that we've had.
(41:42):
And you know, I think sometimeswe overcomplicate things.
I tell people all the timepeople don't change, they never
have.
You can read the Bible andyou'll find pessimists and
optimists.
You know, you'll find sinnersand saints.
And guess what?
Fast forward to 2024 and guesswhat?
You find Pessimists andoptimists, sinners and saints.
(42:03):
People don't change.
I think individuals can change,but I don't think people change.
And I think sometimes we lookso hard for that silver bullet
when really the same thing thatmotivates, inspires you, is the
same thing that motivates,inspires me, yep, the good song,
the good movie, good book, andI, you know, family, friends,
(42:24):
incentive.
And I find the same thing workswith my kids, yep.
So I think a lot of times we weget so caught up in looking for
the magic bullet but it'sreally not there.
Sometimes it's in the simplestthings.
Yeah, off there.
Sometimes it's in the simplestthings.
Let me tell you about the noDoubt concert I dated myself a
little bit there, I think I knowwho no Doubt is.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Anyway, steve, thanks so much for coming by and
sharing.
Thanks so much for the workthat you do.
If y'all are not familiar withFour man Furnace, I'm going to
put the link in the comments,but if you want to see some of
their work, go to themytexasffaorg website.
Go to mytexasffaorg, click onour stories and watch four
(43:10):
videos.
These are award-winning videos.
Go, check these videos out.
They were written, helped,directed by Steve, his team and
some other collaborators, butthey are outstanding and they
have an incredible evergreenshelf life to them because of
the way that y'all designed them.
So we appreciate that andyou'll just see some of the
(43:31):
incredible work.
And then, when you get toForeman's website, you're going
to see some of their incrediblework, not just with the Texas
FFA but with other clients.
Steve, thanks again for joiningus.
Thank you, aaron.
For everybody else, thank youfor stopping by.
You know time is the only thingwe get to spend.
We can't save it, we just getto spend it.
(43:53):
And guess what?
You spent a little of your timewith us and we want you to know
that.
We appreciate that.
We appreciate again theplatform where we get to share
guests like Steve and theirinsights with all of the
incredible audience that we haveand we appreciate you Again.
Like we say in agriculture, ifyou want to know what the future
is, grow it.
(44:13):
That means you've got to plantseeds.
You've got to put them in placein your life.
As Steve said, they're part ofyour brand.
Make sure you're planting thegood stuff so you can harvest
the good stuff.
And until our paths cross again, everybody go out and do
something great for somebody.
You'll feel good about it andguess what, along the way, you
just might make our communitiesa better place to live, work and
(44:37):
raise our families.
Until we meet again, everybodybe safe.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast
Number one, thank you.
Thank you for stopping by.
I meant, when you're askingsomebody to give up a little bit
of their time, you're askingthem to give something away that
they're never going to get back.
So the fact that you're joiningus, we want you to know that,
(00:50):
we appreciate that and we valuethat.
We also appreciate the factthat we've got this incredible
platform, this technology thatwe have that allows us to bring
subject matter experts on, tobring guests on that are willing
to share their insights, theirexperiences, their expertise, to
share seeds of greatness.
You know, like we always say,if agriculture has taught us
(01:14):
anything, it's taught us.
If you want to know what thefuture is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow it?
You got to plant the rightseeds and today we've got a guy
that's going to bring some seedsof greatness.
It has been an honor to get toknow him, it's been an honor to
work with him and, I will tellyou, it's even more of an honor
that he's taking time out of hisschedule to join us.
Ladies and gentlemen, steveDerman, steve, thank you for
(01:37):
joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Aaron, thank you for having me.
It's always an honor,definitely a pleasure, to be
here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You're going to learn more about Steve.
He is the founder and creativedirector of Four man Furnace.
We'll talk a little bit aboutFour man Furnace and you've
probably seen their work andwe're going to talk about that
here in a minute.
Steve, every episode when westart, we like to ask guests the
same question.
So we start every episode withthe same question and you get
(02:05):
that question today and it isSteve, what are you grateful for
today?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Gosh, I'm feeling incredibly grateful today just
for family.
I've got my beautiful daughterTessa here at the office with me
today.
She's helping me at work.
She's incredibly talented andis able to actually legitimately
be a help here at the officeeven at 12 years old.
But definitely just feelingincredibly grateful for family
today in general my son Wesley,my wife Leandra, across the
(02:34):
board, just very blessed.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
That's good, I agree with you.
And the thing I appreciate,steve, steve, is how much you
appreciate your family and youvalue your family and it shows.
And I showed the kids a pictureof our family the other day and
I said look at that.
And they're like what I saidlook at that, you know.
Look, I want you to look at it.
And I kind of got a littlesappy with them and I said you
(02:59):
know, if you'd ever grew up withone, you don't understand why
this is such a precious picture.
Yeah, and so when you share afamily, I just want you to know
that that means something,because some people never grew
up with that.
And so when we get to see it,we appreciate it and we value it
.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's the one thing that we get in life
that we don't get to acquire orchoose for ourselves.
Either we're born into a familynot of our choosing, or when we
choose to have a family andcreate a family, we don't really
have a whole terrible amount ofcontrol over how that turns out
and the people that kind ofbecome a part of that.
(03:36):
So it's always a blessing.
It's also a challenge, butthrough those challenges we grow
and become better people.
So, yeah, just I'm feeling ittoday for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Awesome.
Well, good luck to those kids,and I know they're going to do
good work.
They got a good boss, so that'sa good thing.
Appreciate it, thanks.
So, anyway, hey, listen.
So for people that aren'tfamiliar with Steve Durnham or
Four man Furnace, let me givey'all a little backstory.
So several years ago we wantedto do a project, a promotional
project, to promote really whatwe see as the value of
(04:10):
agricultural science educationand the FFA program.
And those of you familiar withour show and what we talk about,
I always say if you want to bethe best, train with the best.
So if you want to be the bestat something, go find the best
out there and train with them,hang out with them, watch them.
And we had caught word of thiscompany called Four man Furnace.
(04:34):
We got word of this gentlemannamed Steve Derman and we
reached out and we started arelationship, a business
relationship, and I got to tellyou I would say this on the air
and off the air I appreciatethis organization.
I appreciate their employees,their leadership, their customer
(04:54):
service.
They are always on top of theirgame.
I love it that they listen andbecause they know this, they've
got that skill of just listeningwith eyes and ears.
It helps them create theproducts that they create, and
it shows in what they put outthere.
But, steve, I don't suspectthat you just fell into that
(05:17):
seat that you're in.
I don't believe that you justfell into being the creative
director and founder of Foreman.
Something tells me that therewas a journey that led there,
and so I was wondering if youmight take a minute and tell us
how did you get on this path tothis journey for this company,
for marketing and creative, andhow did you end up in that chair
(05:39):
?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, so I didn't fall into the chair.
I think it was equal parts,intention and equal parts.
The other half of that coin isreally just kind of going where
I was led at any given moment intime and so my background is as
a graphic designer.
That's what I went to schoolfor.
I have my BA in graphic designand graduated in the late 90s,
(06:05):
went to work at the time I wasliving in New Jersey went to
work in Atlantic City, which wasnear where I lived at the time
at a casino in their marketingdepartment, and really was able
to cut my teeth on just thisindustry that we're in creative
services for marketing andbranding and advertising and so
really learned a lot those firstcouple of years working in the
(06:26):
casino.
In early 2000, moved here to theDFW area and had aspirations of
working at an advertisingagency Back then.
To me the advertising agencylife was exciting and fast-paced
and creative and the types ofclients working at an agency
gives you access to is reallyexciting.
(06:48):
So I did that.
Middle of 2000, I landed a jobat an advertising agency.
So I'm going to fast forward abunch because there was a lot of
steps along the way there, butended up as a creative director,
an advertising agency, and atthe same time, on the side, I
was working with my own clients,kind of consulting on the side
(07:08):
and it got to the point whereboth of those endeavors were
incredibly intense and demandinga lot of my time.
And so I'm leading a little bitinto two things One, the
founding of Four man Furnace and, at the same time, how I chose
that name for the company.
So at the time we were or I wasgoing to work as a creative
(07:31):
director at a pretty intenseworking environment and then,
coming home and working afull-time job on my consulting
clients, found out that my wifewas pregnant with our firstborn
this was in late 2007 anddecided to quit my job.
Something had to give and Isaid I'm going to quit the day
(07:51):
job and I'm going to make thisconsulting thing, this freelance
thing, the main thing.
Which was really scary becausethere was no, you know, working
at the agency as a creativedirector.
I knew I had a job next week,next month, whatever Was working
on some really good clients andworking with some really smart,
(08:11):
talented people and goingfreelance.
Nothing was guaranteed.
It was quite literally a leapof faith.
It was what I believe to be theright decision, but definitely
not the easy decision.
So I knew, okay, I'm going tostart creative business of my
own.
What am I going to call thisthing?
It needs to be memorable, itneeds to attract some attention.
(08:34):
People need to hear the nameand it needs to be somewhat kind
of compelling and intriguing.
But to me, it also needs tohave meaning, and I really felt
a story from the Old Testamentof the Bible.
At the time I felt like I wasgoing through a similar
experience, and it's the storyof Shadrach, meshach and
Abednego, when they refused toworship the king of Babylon and
(08:58):
the punishment was he was goingto throw them into a furnace of
fire and burn them alive.
That was their punishment.
He was going to throw them intoa furnace of fire and burn them
alive.
That was their punishment.
And so the story says that,confronted with this, they said
to the king well, that's kind ofscary and do what you're going
(09:18):
to do.
We believe we're making theright choice and we're keeping
the leaving the results up toour God.
And that's kind of what I wasdoing.
It was scary and I believed Iwas making the right choice and
I was kind of leaving theresults up to our God, and
that's kind of what I was doing.
It was scary and I believed Iwas making the right choice and
I was kind of leaving theresults up to God, and so, of
course, the story has a happyending.
Hopefully a lot of yourlisteners are familiar.
When they were thrown into thefurnace, the king looked in to
see to ensure that they weredead, and what the Bible says is
(09:41):
he didn't see three men in thefurnace.
He saw four men in the furnace.
They were walking around unhurt, having a conversation, and
that fourth man appeared to bean angel of God protecting them.
And so I really clung to thatstory in the early years of the
four-man furnace because it wasa scary ride, like I said, and
nothing was certain, but I wasevery day going to work in faith
(10:04):
, trusting that I was doing theright thing.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
What a story.
I love it, by the way, and I'veexpressed that to Steve.
Even off the air, I thought itwas a very clever take.
And when you know thebackground and you know why that
leap of faith was so importantand, like you said, it was more
than just a leap of faith youactually felt like I'm being
(10:29):
thrown into fire.
It's something even moreincredible.
And there's a comfort thatcomes with faith, by the way,
and I think that that comfort iswhat's giving you that
foundation to take risk.
And you know all successfulpeople that I'm aware of, steve,
they've all taken risks, yeah,and they typically, if you
(10:50):
really drill down, there'salways a component of faith in
taking risk.
And so you've already kickedthis off just perfectly, because
you know what we really wantfolks to gather from this
podcast is bring on successfulpeople and what are those
elements of their journey thatmade them successful?
(11:11):
Because somebody listening isgoing to find some seeds of
greatness.
You know, like we always say inagriculture, if you want to
know what the future is, grow itGot to plant the seeds.
So we need guests like you toshare those examples.
So somebody that's listeningright now says you know, I got
to do the seeds.
So we need guests like you toshare those examples.
So somebody that's listeningright now says, you know, I got
to do a better job of that and Ican't be so afraid of the fire
(11:32):
and I can't be adverse to takingrisk that everything that we do
is risky.
I will tell you, in thenonprofit world, you know, we
don't live on production lines,we don't live on services that
we get money for.
We live on the generosity ofothers.
(11:52):
And so when you get ready tosaddle with a company and you
say we're going to go spend alot of money on a marketing
company, we were kind of inthere with you because we were
really relying on faith, that wefelt like we were making the
right decision.
We felt like there was thisincredible story of the Texas
(12:13):
FFA that needed to be told, andwe needed to tell it in a way
that we've never told it before.
And thus that's how we came toknow you and began working with
your team and that relationship.
Now, how long has thatrelationship been going on?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
We launched that program in 2016.
So I want to say we probablystarted conversations in 2015
around it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So that's what I'm years, yeah, and it's been great
, and again, I say this justbecause it's the kind of
relationship that I like.
They always answer the phoneand they listen.
We throw ideas, but I think,steve, would you say it's fair
that we listen to you too.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Oh for sure, Absolutely yeah.
You and your team are tremendousto work with, and one of our
core values here is we have twocore values.
One is do amazing work, and theother is be amazing to work with
, and we've.
I firmly believe if we can dothose two things, then, you know
, the work will come our way,because who doesn't want to work
(13:14):
with amazing people who dogreat work?
And so I think one of the whenI think about be amazing to work
with we we can break that downinto a few different areas, but
one of the things that we try tofocus on is know when to give
direction and when to take it,and I feel like your team
understands that as well.
They give us great direction interms of articulating to us
(13:35):
what the goals are for aninitiative that we're working on
for y'all, but when we haveideas or a perspective that we
want to share, in response tothat and collaborate on, hey,
maybe there's a better way to dothis.
Your team is all ears andthey're 100 percent willing to
listen and to take thatdirection.
(13:56):
So we've we've had nothing butjoy in working with you guys for
almost 10 years now.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's crazy, you know.
Let me share this.
You know, one of the thingsthat I like to talk about when
we talk about agriculture is Iremember this time where these
two young ladies this was reallyclever their school district.
Every February 2nd, everyGroundhog Day, they would send
their seniors out to job shadowcompanies, which I thought was
(14:25):
pretty clever.
So these young ladies come tomy office and they really
shouldn't have been in my office, they should have been in the
director of the Ag TeachersAssociation, because why they
were there was they want to beag teachers, agricultural
science teachers and so I letthem kind of watch what we do
during the day.
And I finally said do y'allhave any questions?
And they said yes, we do duringthe day.
(14:45):
And I finally said do y'allhave any questions?
And they said yes, sir.
They said we want to be greatag teachers one day.
What does it take to be a greatag teacher?
And I said well, it takes threethings to be a great ag teacher
.
I said number one do your job.
And I said you need to listento what I'm telling you.
Do your job If your boss saysdon't dot I's, don't cross T's
(15:05):
and staple in the top right-handcorner.
You better not dot cross andyou better staple in the top
right-hand corner.
You're going to be looking foranother job.
So number two have your ownpersonal board of directors, get
mentors, get people around you.
That will make you better.
And lastly, you got to think big.
I said because if you can'tthink big, you can't teach big.
If you can't think big, you gotto think big.
I said because if you can'tthink big, you can't teach big.
(15:26):
If you can't think big, youcan't inspire big.
And if you can't think big, thekids in your care will never be
big.
And they said, well, what doyou mean by that?
And I said, well, can I showyou?
And they said, sure.
So I took them on a routethrough downtown Austin and we
walked several blocks and I tookthem to eat lunch at a sushi
restaurant.
I love sushi, so take them tothe sushi.
(15:46):
They'd never had sushi before.
So I'm having fun watching themeat seaweed salad and squid
salad and eating sushi, and itwas great.
We get back to the office and Iasked them I said how many
performing arts centers did wepass?
And they start listing things.
I said how many museums did wepass?
They start listing things.
How many musical venues did wepass?
(16:06):
And they start listing things.
I said how many museums did wepass?
They start listing things.
How many musical venues did wepass?
They start listing things.
I said now, how often are thoseplaces open?
Well, mostly daily, some juston the weekend, but relatively
all the time.
I said now think about whaty'all just said.
All of the people that go tothis all on a regular basis.
How many of those same peoplemake a trip to the Austin
(16:30):
Livestock Show and Rodeo once ayear?
And they all looked at me andthey said I don't know.
And I said see where I'm goingwith this is.
We sometimes shake our fist atthe world and we say how come
you don't understand this?
How come you don't understandthis?
How come you don't understandagriculture?
How come you don't understandFFA?
And I'm sitting here going.
We have a responsibility oftaking our message to them.
(16:52):
And the reason that we wantedto forge this relationship with
Foreman is because y'all camefrom a background that wasn't
just agriculture and we thoughtwho better to help us tell our
story than somebody who cantranslate our story in a way
that helps other people reallyget it?
Yeah, so I just want to givethat background so that people
(17:16):
understand how this relationshipstarted, why it started, and
you can kind of see theparalleling core values that
drive Steve and his team are thesame values that drive myself
and our team and Team, ag Edtoward a message so we can tell
people about this incrediblestory of ag science and FFA.
(17:36):
Steve, have y'all enjoyedgetting to learn more about ag
science and FFA through all thisexperience?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Oh, it's been amazing .
I mean ag science and FFA.
It was really a light bulbmoment in early on in one of our
first meetings.
Like I mentioned earlier, Igrew up in New Jersey, so South
Jersey, so it is the GardenState.
There is a lot of agriculture inNew Jersey, but I wasn't
exposed to it growing up.
So learning the impact that anag science education and all of
(18:10):
the leadership developmentattributes of the FFA experience
has on pointing young people inthe trajectory of success and
leadership was really wasinspirational to me at the time.
I had young kids and really sawthe value in that, and so
learning about the programs andyou know, all of the different
(18:34):
kind of areas of focus that anag science student can go into
that will have not only arenecessary for the future of
American society but will have apositive impact on the future
of American society was.
It's been really, really cooland I talk about it all the time
with people you know when we'retalking about the future and
(18:57):
talking about concerns of foodand environment and leadership
and technology and technology asit applies to all these things,
the FFA and the preparationthat you guys are doing for our
future leaders is always a partof conversation if I'm involved,
because it's just somethingthat I've grown to love.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Thank you and we appreciate that.
Again, that's the reason why Ilike working together is you
become a conduit, you become anambassador for us to an audience
that we might always know howto speak that language, but you
can help us translate that,because in the world of FFA and
ag science, we can talk LDEs andCDEs and SREs and we got so
(19:45):
many acronyms.
We all know what they are.
The rest of the world's going.
What in the world did they justsay?
And that's why we've got tohave the right people that can
help us translate that so thatit can be assimilated by an
audience that we might not havereached yet.
Yeah, that's the value thatyour teams bring into what we do
have reached yet.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, that's the value that your teams bring into
what we do.
Yeah, and the fact of thematter is that what you guys do
legitimately has an impact oneverybody, and so it's easy for
someone like me who focuses oncommunication.
It's easy to translate thatstory in a way that's meaningful
to people, because they needfood and you know they need high
(20:25):
quality employees and they need, you know, responsible citizens
who understand how the worldworks.
And so the need is there forfor, if you want to call it, the
product that the FFA experiencedelivers, but it's really the
people.
But the need is there for thepeople and their output, and so
it's really really easy to speakto.
(20:46):
It's easiest for us to do ourjob when in selling things
because, look, I mean, at theend of the day, our job at Four
man Furnace is to help ourclients sell, whether it's an
idea or a product or a service.
And it's easiest to sellsomething when somebody feels
the need.
And part of our job for otherclients is to get them to feel
the need right, Like manufacturea need or convince them that
(21:09):
they have a need.
That maybe isn't front of mind,but the needs that the FFA,
that kids who come through theFFA program fill are felt by
everybody.
They're just front of mind forbusiness owners and leaders and
community and people who areconcerned with where food comes
(21:30):
from.
And so it's easy for us to tellyour story because the need is
there and you guys do such agood job at scale of filling
that need.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That's awesome, thank you, you said something I'm
going to piggyback on what youjust said, cool.
So one of the things I like toask the kids is I say, tell me
about your business.
And the kids will look at meand they say, well, I don't have
a business.
I said, yeah, you do, you're it?
What time do you open?
What kind of customer servicedo you deliver?
(22:02):
Are you articulate?
Can you sell me?
And you know one of our greatsponsors, carlos Guerra.
He always says no show, no tell, no sell, and he's always
talking about cattle.
And if you can't show thecattle and you can't tell me
about your cattle, you'll neversell your cattle.
Kids, you know they're ourbusiness, they're our future.
(22:23):
You said it, they're our future.
They also represent our brandand one of the things that I
think I've seen organizationstake very lightly, very lightly,
is their brand and they don'tput enough time and effort into
creating what their brand is.
And I've been fortunate throughmy career to sit through
(22:46):
several of those.
I got to sit through thedevelopment of CEV Multimedia
and I got to watch CEV createits initial brand.
I didn't watch that brandevolve into ICEV.
I got to watch La Quinta gothrough their rebranding and
their starburst and I'll neverforget getting to watch that.
(23:08):
I got to watch MahindraTractors when they did some
rebranding of their messaging.
But there's a lot that goes intobrand.
There's a lot that goes into acompany's, an organization's
brand and what I wanted to askyou is is how important and this
goes back to the individualthat's the reason why I'm
(23:30):
bringing this up it goes back toyou're your own business.
You're your brand.
Everybody that knows me onsocial media knows I'm the live
your brand guy.
Live your brand.
What you post, what share, whatyou engage with, that's your
brand.
Steve, as a marketingprofessional, how important is a
(23:53):
brand and what thought processgoes into creating the creative
of a logo of a brand?
So how important is the brandand how important is it to put
that into an image like the NikeSwish or the Texas FFA
Foundation?
Give me an idea.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, I always say the kind of analogy I use to
disambiguate even what is abrand, because that word means
different things to differentpeople and I always what I tell
clients who come to us forbranding is your marketing is
like asking someone out on adate and your brand is why they
say yes.
(24:28):
So your brand essentially whatyour brand is about it and
develop your brand tocommunicate to the market what
(24:51):
you're about and communicate tothe market what they should
believe about you.
I think so many companies leaveit to the market to define what
their brand is.
They'll just create a greatproduct, offer a great service
and kind of let the chips fallwhere they may when it comes to
the brand, which could be greatif you have a great product or a
(25:11):
great service and then you'redefined by that.
But it's hard to get people totrust handing their money over
for what you offer without abrand.
Like I said, your marketing isasking someone out for a date
and the brand is the reason theywould say yes or say no.
So the importance of a brand Idon't think can be overstated,
(25:36):
because it is the promise, it'show you communicate your unique
value to the market.
If it's done well.
(25:59):
You can very quickly andsuccinctly educate your highest
value customers about what youoffer and why they should want
it in 15 seconds.
To me, a brand is more than alogo.
A logo is just a very.
It's an important but smallpart of a branding project that
we do.
Your brand is understanding whoyour consumers are.
It's understanding what theirgoals are as it pertains to your
product offering or serviceoffering.
It's understanding the needsthat they have, both kind of
(26:23):
felt needs, their higher orderneeds that maybe they can
articulate as well.
It's creating a messagingplatform that includes the
hierarchy of how you talk aboutwhat you do, includes the tone
of voice or the copy style inwhich you communicate, the voice
(26:45):
, the tone of voice or the copystyle in which you communicate,
and then it also includes yourlogo and color palette and fonts
and other visual assets.
I think what a lot of peoplethink of when they think of a
brand is the logo, and a lot ofpeople go to the Apple logo or
the Nike logo or some of theseiconic logos that are so great
because they're so simple andthey're so easily recognizable.
(27:06):
But one of the litmus tests Ialways give our designers when
we're creating a piece for aclient is if you cover up the
logo, can you still tell thatit's for that client?
So you mentioned La Quinta.
La Quinta was one of ourclients for a long time.
It's actually, I think, how weconnected was La Quinta was a
supporter of the Texas FFA andwe were doing work for La Quinta
(27:27):
, and so that's how kind of wewe found ourselves in the same
sphere of influence and so whenwe were creating assets for La
Quinta, we'd cover up the LaQuinta logo.
And can you still tell that thatadvertisement is for La Quinta
if you cover up the logo?
If not, then it's not awell-branded piece, because the
colors and the fonts and thephotography and the tone, the
(27:49):
headline, how it reads, theemotions that it's conveying,
all are part of the brand, andso branding is incredibly
important.
I mean, just get back to thesimple question that you were
asking.
Branding is incrediblyimportant.
I mean, just get back to thesimple question that you were
asking.
Branding is incrediblyimportant because if you do it
well and if you do itstrategically, you're not
(28:09):
leaving your brand up for themarket to decide what it is.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That right there, steve, what you just shared.
For a lot of our kids right,for a lot of the young people
that listen to this, for them,the most prominent place of
their brand right now is onsocial media, yep.
And so what I tell them is isthat, you know, consistency
creates credibility.
So, first thing is, in my world, what I like to say is you know
(28:38):
, make sure your profile pictureis consistent.
That way I know I'm talking tothe right person, because if it
looks different, I'm alwaysquestioning is this the same
person or I'm not really sure?
You're making me guess at stuffand I don't want to guess, I
want to know.
And then, secondly, what youlike, share, comment on all of
the things that you engage with.
That becomes part of your brand, like you said.
(28:58):
So when I take your image away,I could see a comment and I
could go oh, I know, that'sSteve, it's talking about cars
and really cool stuff.
But you know, I think you're onto something there and I hope
people heard that thatconsistency creates credibility
and you want to create a brandthat's known for its consistency
(29:19):
, and that consistency is thetone.
It's what we see.
If I hear somebody giving me aspeech about things that's
inconsistent with what they'reposting on social media.
It's going to be harder for meto reconcile those two.
So I think there's a lot ofgenius in what you just shared,
and I hope people really take amoment and drill down and listen
(29:41):
to that, because that wasreally good advice that you just
shared yeah, I think your, youraudience too, they would.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
you know there are exercises you could go through
to to show how what you'resaying lack of consistency, or
when a brand is, uh, appliedconsistently, you can spot
inconsistencies.
They stick out like a sorethumb.
So if somebody were to see afake Nike ad that had the Nike
(30:13):
logo on it but very clearly hadthe wrong messaging, even though
it has the Nike logo on itbecause that brand is so well
applied, they could spot a fakefrom a mile away and they
wouldn't trust it because theyfeel like that's not on the
(30:33):
brand.
Somebody just slapped a Nikelogo on a fake ad or whatever.
So you're absolutely right,it's that it's trusted brands
that are are consistently kindof stewarded through through all
of the communications, in allof the different channels in
which they, in which they appear.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Wow, Zig Ziglar.
You know I love Zig quotes, I'ma big Zig fan and Zig and Tom
Ziglar have said that if theyknow you they'll listen to you,
but if they trust you they'll dobusiness with you.
And I believe that you buildthat trust through consistency.
I believe you build that trustthrough relationship, through
(31:18):
consistency.
I believe you build that trustthrough relationship and I think
that you know, like you said,we either take charge of our
brand or we leave it up tosomebody else to determine what
our brand is, and we may notlike how they interpret our
brand.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yep.
Well, and how are they going todo it, too?
You have to think to yourself.
They're going to do it by howyou most consistently represent
yourself.
Think to yourself, they'regoing to do it by how you most
consistently represent yourself.
So you are branding, whetheryou're doing it on purpose or
not.
We're all in the business ofcreating a brand, and if we're
leaving it up to others todefine or to articulate what the
(31:53):
brand is, what they're going todo is look for how do you
consistently treat others, howdo you consistently show up, how
do you consistently dress, howdo you consistently speak, and
that's going to be what yourbrand is.
So, yeah, I mean, the idea ofbeing consistent in the things
(32:13):
that are important to your brandis really really important for
individuals as well as forcorporations and companies.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Absolutely, and that's kind of where I was.
This is why I wanted you on theshow right here, because you're
a professional in marketing,you're a professional in
creative development and you'reyou're helping us understand as
individuals.
You know, it's like I tell thehigh school kids.
If we could get to every eighthgrader and tell every eighth
grader do me a favor for thenext four years, find something
(32:44):
that you're passionate about andtalk about those for three.
Three things for four years.
Just talk about those things.
Let that be your brand, andthen, when you get to college, I
want you to do the same thingfor the next four years.
Find three things that you'rereally passionate, interested in
, talk about those.
I guarantee you, when you getready to graduate from college,
you won't have to look for a job, because your brand will be so
(33:12):
well known and so consistentthat somebody will say that's
who I want working here, becausethat's how they're going to
promote my brand, going topromote my brand.
So that's why I say thatconsistency and understanding
that is so important to both aperson, an organization or even
our companies and we work withsome great brands, by the way.
We work with some great brandsand we enjoy getting to work
with them.
I remember when we got the giftfrom Ford Motor Company to
(33:35):
build our building in AustinTexas we got the gift from Ford
Motor Company to build ourbuilding in Austin Texas there
was a book, probably this thick,just on the branding of the
oval, on the building of what wecould and we couldn't do.
So that's how serious brandsare, that's how much those
brands are worth.
And, to your point, steve,what's more valuable than your
(33:59):
own personal brand?
Yeah, so these tools, thesesuggestions, these ideas that
Steve and we're sharing throughthe show, those are those seeds
that you can plant that willgrow a strong brand.
They'll grow a brand that canopen a lot of doors of
opportunity.
(34:20):
Let's talk about leadership fora minute.
Sure, because you're a leader,I would say.
You've been around leaders.
You've traveled the country,You've been exposed to a lot of
different types of leaders.
You've been in businessmeetings with leaders.
If, in your experience, youcould condense some of that down
and tell young people here arethree leadership tips what would
(34:45):
you tell them?
What would be three tips onleadership you would share with
FFA members?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
The first tip would just be to listen.
I think good leaders listen, andthat's not to say that they let
the voice of other peoplenecessarily influence the
decisions that they make, butthey listen to you mentioned it
earlier, aaron mentors or yourpersonal board of directors.
They listen to their employees,people who have their finger on
(35:14):
the pulse of the day-to-day.
And they listen to the market.
They understand what's going onin their industry, what the
future may hold, you know,staying relevant, whether it's
through continuous learningopportunities or podcasts like
this one or other types ofindustry voices that they're
paying attention to.
So I think listening is areally the first thing that
(35:36):
jumps to my mind, and partiallybecause I've seen it modeled and
partially because a lot of theless than stellar leaders that
I've observed.
One of the first things I'venoticed is they don't listen.
Nobody can say anything to them.
They get defensive or theybristle when somebody does
something they don't like.
(35:57):
Get defensive or they bristlewhen somebody does something
they don't like, so they don'tgenuinely have an open mind or
an open ear to differingopinions.
So good leaders listen, I thinkalso, good leaders have a
vision for the future.
They see a direction andthey're willing to take steps in
that direction.
I liken this to kind ofsomething that I learned when we
had our first child was thisidea of a flexible routine, and
(36:19):
I think good leaders have aversion of that flexible routine
.
So the flexible routine that welearned with children is, like
you know, there's a generalmodel when you have a newborn
infant.
It's sleep, play, eat, sleep,play, eat, and it kind of is on
repeat for the first nine monthsor so.
But you need to be flexiblewith that.
Right, there's a pattern, butyou can break the pattern a
(36:42):
little bit and still be fine,and it's good because it keeps
you sane, but it also keeps thechild kind of in the zone of
having their needs met in theway they need to be met.
And so I think in business it'svery similar to have that
flexible path forward, thevision for the future that can
be influenced by market dynamics, it can be influenced by
(37:04):
technological innovations, butyou know you've got a direction
because you can articulate it toyour team and they can rally
around it, which builds thecamaraderie and builds the
environment in which people cansucceed and know what's expected
of them.
And then the third part isprobably accountability, I think
being accountable to yourmentors, being accountable to
(37:30):
your own moral code or promisesthat you've made or commitments
that you've made, and beingaccountable to the team that
you're leading, because, at theend of the day, your job as a
leader is to make your teamsuccessful.
It's not their job to make youa success.
It's your job to make them asuccess, and so you need to be
(37:52):
able to say hey guys, I'm sorry,I messed up, I made the wrong
call here.
Hey guys, I'm sorry, I messedup, I made the wrong call here.
Or I know I said I was going todo this and I fell short, and
that's on me because I eitherover-promised or I
under-delivered.
So I think accountability isalso incredibly important for a
leader, and there's probablymore attributes of leadership
that we can talk about, butthose are the three that really
(38:15):
come to mind right now those arestrong, by the way.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And what's interesting is you bring guests
on and you ask them thatquestion and you start finding
these common denominators.
Yeah, and you know one of theones that you said is they say
listen, and they don't mean justwith your ears, they mean with
your eyes too.
Pay attention, because younever know what trend you may
spot ahead of somebody else.
(38:41):
And, like you said, vision.
I tell people all the time theone thing I've learned about
leaders that I've worked with isthey're visionaries.
And if you can't communicatethings where they can see
themselves as the hero of thestory, if you can't communicate
things where they can see howthey can be part of the solution
or be part of a positiveoutcome, it's hard for them to
(39:03):
unpack it and understand.
Why am I here, why do you needme involved?
But if you can show them thatvision and help them understand
it, they want to be part of it.
Now, I believe it's biblical,by the way, as a matter of fact,
of it.
Now, I believe it's biblical, bythe way, as a matter of fact,
in 1985, when I ran for stateFFA president, I took the stage
(39:24):
with the quote the Bible sayswhere there is no vision, the
people will perish.
I'm Aaron Alejandro with avision for the Texas FFA, and
that was in 1985.
And here we are today and we'restill trying to create visions,
we're still trying to findopportunities for the people
that are going to follow in ourfootsteps.
And then, lastly, I love it,accountability.
You know there are some peoplethat you know you got onto me.
(39:46):
Well, I got onto you because Icare about you.
Exactly, I got onto you becauseI want you to have
responsibility, and when I giveyou responsibility, I need you
to know I need to hold youaccountable for that, just like
I hold myself accountable forthat.
So that's excellent, steve.
I wrote them down.
Listen, vision andaccountability Good stuff, thank
(40:09):
you.
Well, listen, you know timeflies when you're having fun,
and here we are.
We've just about wrapped up thetime that we have set aside for
another episode of Growing OurFuture.
We appreciate you taking time,steve, to come by and share with
us, but you don't get out ofhere without the fun question,
(40:29):
and everybody on the podcastgets a fun question.
So here's your fun questionve.
Tell me what is the bestconcert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
oh, gosh uh, best concert.
I've ever been to.
The most memorable concert.
I think it was because I wasyounger and a little bit more
impressionable.
Early in college I went and sawno doubt at the electric
factory in philadelphia.
I was living in southern NewJersey at the time, so it was
only a 40-minute drive, but thiswas before they were big.
(41:00):
So this was a small venue,standing room only, and it was
crazy.
It was, I mean, like nothingI've ever been to before.
It was insane.
It was like a crazy party.
That was the concert I've beento.
It maybe not have been the bestmusically, but, from just
making memories, I went therewith my cousin and some friends.
(41:20):
It was a good time.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Isn't that great.
I love it.
I love asking guests thatquestion because when you look
at the spectrum of guests young,old, male, female, different
backgrounds, differentexperiences it's fun to hear
what music we like, to hear theexperiences that we've had.
(41:42):
And you know, I think sometimeswe overcomplicate things.
I tell people all the timepeople don't change, they never
have.
You can read the Bible andyou'll find pessimists and
optimists.
You know, you'll find sinnersand saints.
And guess what?
Fast forward to 2024 and guesswhat?
You find Pessimists andoptimists, sinners and saints.
(42:03):
People don't change.
I think individuals can change,but I don't think people change.
And I think sometimes we lookso hard for that silver bullet
when really the same thing thatmotivates, inspires you, is the
same thing that motivates,inspires me, yep, the good song,
the good movie, good book, andI, you know, family, friends,
(42:24):
incentive.
And I find the same thing workswith my kids, yep.
So I think a lot of times we weget so caught up in looking for
the magic bullet but it'sreally not there.
Sometimes it's in the simplestthings.
Yeah, off there.
Sometimes it's in the simplestthings.
Let me tell you about the noDoubt concert I dated myself a
little bit there, I think I knowwho no Doubt is.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Anyway, steve, thanks so much for coming by and
sharing.
Thanks so much for the workthat you do.
If y'all are not familiar withFour man Furnace, I'm going to
put the link in the comments,but if you want to see some of
their work, go to themytexasffaorg website.
Go to mytexasffaorg, click onour stories and watch four
(43:10):
videos.
These are award-winning videos.
Go, check these videos out.
They were written, helped,directed by Steve, his team and
some other collaborators, butthey are outstanding and they
have an incredible evergreenshelf life to them because of
the way that y'all designed them.
So we appreciate that andyou'll just see some of the
(43:31):
incredible work.
And then, when you get toForeman's website, you're going
to see some of their incrediblework, not just with the Texas
FFA but with other clients.
Steve, thanks again for joiningus.
Thank you, aaron.
For everybody else, thank youfor stopping by.
You know time is the only thingwe get to spend.
We can't save it, we just getto spend it.
(43:53):
And guess what?
You spent a little of your timewith us and we want you to know
that.
We appreciate that.
We appreciate again theplatform where we get to share
guests like Steve and theirinsights with all of the
incredible audience that we haveand we appreciate you Again.
Like we say in agriculture, ifyou want to know what the future
is, grow it.
(44:13):
That means you've got to plantseeds.
You've got to put them in placein your life.
As Steve said, they're part ofyour brand.
Make sure you're planting thegood stuff so you can harvest
the good stuff.
And until our paths cross again, everybody go out and do
something great for somebody.
You'll feel good about it andguess what, along the way, you
just might make our communitiesa better place to live, work and
(44:37):
raise our families.
Until we meet again, everybodybe safe.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
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