May 19, 2024 • 45 mins
Discover the secrets to building a resilient workforce in the poultry industry as Hinda Mitchell, president of Inspire PR Group, joins me, Brandon Mullnix, for an insightful conversation. Together, we unravel the complexities of not just attracting, but more importantly, retaining a dedicated team in the face of stiff competition from tech companies. We dive into the essence of becoming an employer of choice, where training and effective management become cornerstones for a sustainable labor force, especially in the agricultural sector's rural heartlands.
Feel the pulse of a company's culture through the stories of those who know it best: the employees. Our discussion shines a spotlight on the power of shared values and the importance of nurturing an employer brand that resonates with the workforce. Hinda shares her expertise on leveraging authentic employee experiences to attract new talent and the critical role of feedback in shaping an organization's identity. Get actionable advice on auditing your brand's presence, standing out in the competitive marketplace, and keeping your best talent through strategic marketing initiatives.
Wrap up with us as we reflect on the uplifting takeaways from the Animal Ag Alliance Conference, where agricultural sectors unite, demonstrating the strength of a collective voice in championing the industry's positive impact. This episode is a treasure trove of strategies and heartwarming tales that exemplify the spirit of leadership and community in the realm of animal agriculture. Join us for a journey that promises to leave you equipped and inspired to foster a thriving workforce in your own organization.
Sponsored by Prism Controls
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:28):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, brandon Mullnix, and I am thrilled to be
recording this podcast today.
Over the past couple of weeks,I have been on the road and
visiting with the poultry andegg producers, and boy am I
pumped for this episode.
Our guest today is someone Ihave known for a couple of years
.
Last week I got to hear herspeak at the Animal Ag Alliance
Summit in Kansas City and I knewI had to share her with you.
(00:51):
Hinda Mitchell is the presidentand founder of Inspire PR Group
, based out of Columbus, ohio,and she is a true blessing to
the animal agriculture industry.
Welcome, hinda.
Hinda Mitchell (01:02):
Good morning, Brandon.
Thanks for having me industry.
Brandon Mulnix (01:06):
Welcome Hinda.
Good morning Brandon.
Thanks for having me.
Well, hinda, I know it's notKansas City and there's not 150,
well, probably 250, 300 peoplein front of you today, so I
appreciate you being here andwilling to share your story.
Can you tell the audience alittle bit about yourself?
Hinda Mitchell (01:20):
Sure, Well, as you so aptly mentioned, I'm the
president and founder of InspirePR Group and we are based in
Columbus, Ohio, but work withclients across the country, and
we've been working in foodproduction and animal
agriculture for about 30 yearsnow a lot of work in internal
(01:41):
communications, labor andworkforce issues, crisis
planning, crisis readiness andwhen crisis strikes.
I'm also involved there andreally the majority of our work
is in the animal ag sector, andthen we work in some adjacent
spaces in food production, inpet food, lots of other areas
(02:01):
that are sort of aligned withour work in animal ag, but we've
been working for Farmers forabout three decades now.
Brandon Mulnix (02:08):
And you're from Columbus, ohio, and how long
have you been there?
Hinda Mitchell (02:12):
I am.
I actually have been inColumbus since I was about six
months old.
I had some journeys to otherplaces along the way, but all
roads seem to lead back toColumbus.
Brandon Mulnix (02:23):
So, Hinda, I've noticed that you have a true
passion for the industry andalso for future leaders.
You presented on building andmaintaining a workforce.
Why is that important to youand the industry?
Hinda Mitchell (02:38):
Well, our industry right now is really
facing a lot of challenges whenit comes to labor, and it's not
just about being competitive,it's about finding just enough
breathing bodies to be able todo the work that needs done on
our farms, in our processingplants, with animals, in food
packaging, all along the foodsystem.
(03:01):
Really, labor is a challenge,and so one of the things that's
really been a passion for me ishelping position employers to be
employers of choice, toposition themselves, to be ahead
of the curve in how they engagein hiring workers and, most
importantly, retaining workers.
Brandon Mulnix (03:20):
It seems like hiring is always the topic, but
I think you hit on it in.
The second part of that isretention of employees.
They do all of this work to goand find new people and
sometimes, being you know, I'vebeen at a company where I watch
this company is like hire, hire,hire.
Well, what about the peoplehere?
What are you doing for me?
And especially, you saw thataround minimum wage
(03:43):
conversations, and especiallyyou saw that around minimum wage
conversations.
You know folks were complainingbecause, hey, you know, I've
been here five years and you'rehiring people and have more
money than me, so those are areally, really big issue.
Hinda Mitchell (03:56):
And I'm really glad you're here to speak on
that.
It absolutely is a big issueand we tend to spend so much
time looking externally andthinking about who are those
next people we're going to getin the door, because in some
cases it's really an urgentsituation.
Right, we need more people tocome in and get people in and
working, that we forget aboutour team that's already in there
and we need to not overlookthat.
(04:17):
We need to invest as much timelooking inward and caring for
those folks who are on our teamas we do looking outward and
trying to find those next hires.
Brandon Mulnix (04:25):
Yeah, do you find that the folks doing the
hiring part of the challenge isthey haven't prepared those
receiving those employees forthat next step, so to speak, and
keeping that transition smoothIs that kind of one of the
challenges.
Hinda Mitchell (04:41):
It absolutely is One of the things that we are
quick to do.
Especially, there's a thoughtthat in order to keep people,
you have to keep promoting them,and that's very true.
But if you're going to promotethem into a role of a supervisor
or a manager, where they'regoing to be responsible for
other people within yourorganization, you have to give
them the training and the toolsthey need to be effective
(05:03):
managers, to be effectivecommunicators and to be that
resource to those people who arereporting to them.
Brandon Mulnix (05:10):
One of the topics that you talked about was
workforce, competition andSirius.
What do you mean by that?
Hinda Mitchell (05:17):
So, absolutely, I mean the reality right now is
that the US Chamber found inlate, late last year, found that
there were about 100 jobopenings for every 72 workers.
Now, that's every sector of theeconomy, but that's our reality,
right.
There's about a 25 percent gapthere in available workforce,
and one of the things that hashappened I've certainly seen in
(05:39):
my 30 years more recently is isthat farms and food facilities
are not competing only with thenext farm or the next food
facility down the road, butthey're also competing with
other manufacturing businesses,with other technology businesses
, and we have to thinkdifferently about the people
that we're looking for, thepeople that we're recruiting,
(06:01):
because it may not be that nextfacility like me.
It may be Amazon, it may beGoogle, it may be UPS, it may be
Facebook, you just never knowanymore.
But the reality is that we'reputting up these big technology
facilities out in more ruralareas because they too need land
, just like we do.
And when they put thosefacilities up and they start
(06:23):
putting hiring messages outthere, they're hiring a lot of
people at very competitivesalaries and it's kind of cool
to say you work for Amazon orwork for Google, and so we've
got to make sure that we arethinking about who we're
competing against verydifferently.
Brandon Mulnix (06:39):
So how does that work?
For when you talk aboutretention, how does that apply
to the retention piece?
Hinda Mitchell (06:47):
Well, what it really means is that we have to
really lean into the opportunityto be competitive in
compensation to underscoresomething that we have, that the
tech industry certainly doesn'thave, which is stability.
We have to also really rely onthe fact that we do meaningful
work with purpose, and we haveto talk about that very
(07:10):
deliberately and very frequently.
When you work in foodproduction, you are on the table
of every US household in someform or another, and that's a
really important responsibilityand that tracks through
everybody across your team.
But they won't think that way,naturally.
We've got to also help bringthem to that conversation, and
(07:33):
we've got to help them thinkabout the fact that you know, oh
, not only am I getting wellpaid, but I'm also making sure
I'm working in an industry thatis feeding the world.
And, lastly, I'm working in anindustry that, as long as people
have got to eat, I'm probablygoing to have a gig, and that's
a really good thing.
That message of stability, thatmessage of opportunity and that
(07:57):
message of purpose that's agreat trifecta for helping
people be attracted to yourorganization and then stay and
grow at your organization.
Brandon Mulnix (08:06):
It's interesting .
You know, we're from ageneration that experienced a
pandemic, where many know peoplethat lost their jobs due to the
volatility of differentindustries, like the hospitality
and the dining industry andmanufacturing.
Specifically, I came from acompany that was built on office
(08:29):
furniture and office space, andwhen there is no office
furniture and office space,there is no future in that, and
I thought it was going to be agreat long-term career and come
to find out nope, they're.
You know, me and many otherswere changed by that?
Hinda Mitchell (08:47):
No question, no question, it was.
Brandon Mulnix (08:49):
It's a different world, you know besides being
the name Amazon, why else dothey go to those places?
Hinda Mitchell (08:56):
Well, they go to those places because they're
perceived to be kind of cool.
They're perceived to besomething that you know, oh, you
know, and I think they feellike it's going to be stable
because it's such a big brand.
But big corporations, folkscome and go all the time, and so
we really have to focus onworking on our employer brands.
(09:17):
We've got to talk about thethings that we do, the kind of
employer we are, and when youthink about what your employer
brand is, it's really theentirety of your employees
experience.
It isn't just sort of do theyclock in, do they clock out, it
isn't you know what is theirdaily job function within your
organization, but it's thatentire experience and it's your
(09:39):
reputation.
That's a big piece of this isthinking about.
What do people out there sayabout you as an employer?
Right, because if you're anemployer in a community, people
are talking about you.
You can count on that.
There are people out there.
Your employees are out theretalking about you, and are you
going to like what they'resaying?
That's a big question for youand really, ultimately, are you?
(09:59):
Do you have a value propositionas an employer and are you
delivering on that valueproposition every single day,
and that's really where we needto be focused is on that
employer brand and making thatemployee experience, that
employee engagement, everythingthat they would want it to be,
because they won't leave ifthey're feeling like they're
having a great experience, ifthey believe in your employer
(10:21):
brand and you're delivering onyour employer brand.
Brandon Mulnix (10:24):
So, Hinda, that's great if I'm the HR
department or in uppermanagement, but I'm the guy
who's working in the chickenhouse with the folks.
Why is this important to?
Hinda Mitchell (10:36):
me.
So we spend a lot of our time atwork and we need that
experience to be a good one,because, especially in the
business of animal care, wereally need those folks to show
up the next day.
And we need them to show upevery day.
And I'm sure you've heard thestories I hear them too right,
we hire people, we bring them into start their jobs.
(10:56):
They get in, they do it for acouple of days and they're like,
oh, this isn't for me, and thenthey're out.
Right, they just vanish, theyjust stop showing up because
they can go down the street andfind another job the next day,
and they know that because thelabor market is so competitive.
And so, for somebody who'sworking within an organization,
if you're a manager, you need astrong team, and reteaching
(11:18):
people skills, reteaching themhow the business works, is time
consuming, it's exhausting.
But as you bring people in, andif they stick, if they stay,
they understand what they'redoing, they become better
employees, they grow within yourorganization and ultimately
that leads to better consistency, better stability for everybody
(11:41):
involved in that organization.
Brandon Mulnix (11:43):
One of the scenarios I see, and I've
experienced once in my life, isyeah, I'll get to know if you
stick around for like five days.
If not, I'm not going to get toknow you.
Well, can you imagine being anew employee coming in and the
person that you're supposed towork for basically says for the
next five days, I could careless about you.
(12:03):
No wonder people are leaving.
Hinda Mitchell (12:06):
It's really true , and one of the things that, of
course, we talked about when wewere together last time is that
the role of managers has reallynever been more important.
We do employee surveysconsistently, and what they say
to us is I want to get most ofmy information about the
business I work for, not fromthis CEO, not from the president
(12:27):
, not from a memo hanging nextto the time clock, but they want
to hear it from their manageror supervisor directly, and so
the role of that manager hasreally never been more important
, and we know managers arereally stretched thin right now,
and so, as an employer, you'vegot to give your managers the
tools they need to be thatresource to those who report to
(12:50):
them.
We want to make sure that ourmanagers are singing the same
song that everybody else was in.
The company is, and are theyalso ambassadors for your brand,
are they protecting your brand?
And we've got to invest intraining, we've got to invest in
building their communicationskills and we've got to invest
in helping them understand justhow important their role is.
(13:13):
It's not enough to give them acouple dollar an hour raise and
say congratulations, now you'rea supervisor.
We've got to give them theresources they need to be able
to do that job.
There's a lot of great data outthere about managers right now,
when the average manager in anorganization, their number of
direct reports has increasedalmost three times over the last
(13:33):
six years.
So we're putting a lot on thesefolks, and it's no surprise that
the data says about half ofthose managers have work-induced
stress and fatigue, and sowe've got to really think about
that in a different way.
We know that one in fivemanagers actually says you know
what?
I'd really rather not be amanager If they were given a
(13:54):
choice, they wouldn't want to bea manager, and that's meant
that also half of those managersare at risk of failing as
managers, and when employeesreport to a manager who's at
risk of failing, they're goingto be three times more likely to
leave, and I don't know thatthere's any other data point
that's more powerful for therole of managers than
understanding if you report to abad manager, you are three
(14:17):
times more likely to leave.
So, as we think about thatmiddle piece those managers and
supervisors who are the conduitto those employees we got to be
better.
Brandon Mulnix (14:27):
I think one of the most important pieces of
that role is you're the liaisonand the ambassador for your team
and when your team needssomething, that is your
responsibility.
And so many times you know,through all of my years, you
know I would hear the term thekids or I'm babysitting, and
(14:48):
it's like it breaks my heart tosee a manager with that kind of
mentality because it's no, I'msupporting 10 people, I'm
building 10 people, I'm building10 people, I'm responsible for
10 careers and it's like thatownership piece in the language
you use is so important in thisarea because if you have folks
(15:09):
that come in one, you're notwilling to connect with them.
Two, you're stressed andfatigued and you don't have that
emotional energy to connect.
It's so difficult to keep thosepeople and I didn't ever like
working on a team or workingwith another manager that
referred to his people as thekids or babysitting Drove me
(15:30):
bonkers because that's the waythat people felt.
(15:58):
No-transcript and our traumacomes from our bad managers.
And there's so many littlethings.
I remember going to a companyand every time my phone rang
from my new supervisor I likewinced because it reminded me of
(16:20):
my last bad manager and the waythat the calls always went and
what a.
I'm so glad I don't have thatand I'm hoping I don't produce
that for my own team.
Let's give it.
Hinda Mitchell (16:35):
That's right.
Good managers create more goodmanagers too.
Right, you know, because wemodel the behavior we see, and
so the opportunity really isthere for good managers to help
create brand ambassadors.
Right, we talked earlier aboutyour employer reputation out in
the community, and if you aretaking great care of your
(16:55):
employees, they're going to goout and tell other people.
I work at a great place, Ibelieve in this company, I put
food on the table of everyhousehold, and we want to create
those brand ambassadors who areshouting from the rooftops
about being a great place towork.
We want them to advocate for us, we want them to protect our
business.
Brandon Mulnix (17:15):
Ultimately, yeah , if you want people to come
work with you, it's important tobe that advocate on social
media.
I remember sharing a lot aboutmy adventures here at Prism
Controls and I have to havepeople reach out.
Hey, do you guys ever have, youknow, hiring?
Do you have anybody that?
Any spaces I could come work,and what that does is it starts
(17:36):
building your pool of talent aswell, where people are like, wow
, I want to go work therebecause they feed America, they
do cool technology stuff.
If you're in my role, you getto travel a lot.
I think it's important foremployees all up and down the
spectrum to be promoting theircompany, because that does help
tell the story of your companyand it's not just HR's issue or
(17:56):
marketing.
Hinda Mitchell (17:58):
No, it's not.
And I mean I think it's reallyit's important to understand
what the flip side of that lookslike.
Too right, if somebody reallyis not believing in you as an
employer, does not view you asan employer of choice, those are
the folks who are going toleave for a small raise.
Those are the folks who aregoing to be ripe for the picking
(18:19):
from one of those competitorsdown the street because they're
not connected into yourcompany's values, they're not
aligned with your company'spurpose or they don't really
recognize that you have apurpose.
They don't have loyalty right,for them it's just a job, and
those folks not only are justnever going to be sort of
committed to you, but they alsopotentially can do you harm.
Brandon Mulnix (18:43):
In the world of keystroke media, where you're
just a few taps on the keyboardor phone away from saying the
wrong thing about your companyor about your coworkers.
Hinda Mitchell (18:54):
That's right.
Brandon Mulnix (18:55):
So sad to see when people post bad things
about their companies period.
Hey, in that presentation youcovered 12 topics about this.
Could you go through those 12topics?
Hinda Mitchell (19:10):
They're really powerful.
I'd be glad to.
So the first real step aboutunderstanding and improving your
employer brand is to reallydive in, peel back the layers of
the onion and look at it.
You've got to really audit andassess your brand.
So look at what your employerpresence is.
What does that mean?
That means, what does yourcareers page look like?
What do those glass doorreviews look like?
(19:31):
What are people saying aboutyou?
How are your employee surveyslooking?
If you're not doing employeesurveys, you better start.
You also need to really assessyour competitors and assess your
industry.
You mentioned earlier this ideaof you know the minimum wage
and where people are going andyou know we've got to be
competitive in animalagriculture.
(19:52):
We've got to make sure that oursalaries, that our hourly wages
, are competitive with the restof the industry.
And again, that's more thanjust Animal Ag, that's also
other employers within ourcommunity, within our area,
because those are folks who weare competing against.
Once you've sort of dived inand you've looked at your
employer presence externally andyou've looked at your
(20:13):
competitors and you'vebenchmarked your wages and
compensation packages, then youcan really take what you've
learned there and createrecommendations.
Here's how we can be better.
Here's how we can improve thatemployee engagement.
And then you got to act right.
It's not enough just to sort ofcreate the plan.
You've got to actually put thatplan into place and implement
(20:34):
some of those best practices forrecruiting and retaining that
workforce.
So that's the first step.
So when you learn from thatassessment, you've made those
improvements.
Then you've got to really shineup that employer brand, and
that means taking a look at whatyou say about yourself online
in recruiting ads in yourcommunity and be very deliberate
(20:58):
, not only about recruitmentcampaigns but also about
retention marketing campaignsand we'll talk more about that
in a minute because, again, weget so focused on recruiting
that we forget to think aboutretention marketing as well.
And the best way to make youremployer brand shine is to
listen to your current team.
They will give you every pieceof information you need to know
(21:20):
about what you can do to improveyour employer brand.
Another thing that is reallyimportant and it sounds so basic
, brandon, but you will findthat it's so funny sometimes
that people just don't thinkabout it but we've got to put
real people in our recruiting.
You know what doesn't recruitpeople?
A picture of your headquartersbuilding.
What does recruit people Arepeople looking happy in their
(21:43):
job, people looking like theyhave camaraderie, people looking
like they're happy to go towork each day.
And we've got to show those RPs, or real people in our
recruiting ads, in our socialmedia, in our communities and
really anywhere you mightencounter a prospective employee
, you should be showing them.
(22:03):
People who look like me, right,because you don't go to a
company because I just reallywant to work in a meat
processing plant.
You go to work because youreally want to work with those
people.
And here's the other thing youstay because you really like
those people, and so that isjust so important as well.
One of my biggest passions aboutemployer branding is to make
(22:29):
sure that you, as a company, arebuilding your values into those
of your workforce.
Are your values aligned?
Do they play an important rolein your culture, as you think
about animal welfare, as youthink about the safety of your
team, as you think aboutenvironmental responsibility?
You've got to start witharticulating those values and
(22:50):
reinforcing those values, andthis is another place where
managers and supervisors play abig role, because that
consistency really matters, thatability to walk the talk and to
live those values each day.
If values are just a poster ona wall, it isn't enough.
You have to talk about them,you have to use them as a gauge
for decision making and,ultimately, if somebody isn't
(23:14):
performing up to your values, ifthey're doing work or they're
managing people in a way that isnot aligned with your values,
you've got to call them on it.
You've got to call them on it,you've got to be comfortable
doing that, because building inthose values that drives feeling
and that drives belief, andwhen we make people feel
differently, when we make thembelieve differently, that's when
(23:35):
you get those actions.
That's when you get that changedifferently.
That's when you get thoseactions.
That's when you get that change.
I mentioned, when we talked inKansas City, some work that
we've done for a company calledWayne Sanderson Farms, and at
Wayne Sanderson Farms they havea great program called Amazing
Starts With Me and that isentirely an internal
communications marketingcampaign or really marketing
(23:57):
program.
Now it's been going on forseveral years and it has four
pillars that align with thepillars of their business People
, planet, animals and food andeach quarter we focus on one of
those areas of the business andwe reinforce that to the team.
We do campaigns, we talk aboutit a lot, we build it into our
day-to-day work.
(24:18):
They see it when they come inthe door at the plant and it
really makes a difference.
Helping them be aware, helpingthem be intentional about
building onto those four pillars, reinforcing that with
regularity throughout the year,makes a huge difference for them
.
And that's a great tie-in toour fifth point, which is really
(24:38):
about purpose, and you and Italked about purpose earlier.
But what we do in animalagriculture, in food production,
it matters.
We have purpose, we have reward, we have stability.
Stories is to talk about.
(24:58):
You know, listen, sometimes,and especially today, when so
many people are disconnectedfrom a farm, it's important to
say what's going to resonatewith our next employee.
Is it agriculture or is it foodproduction?
And I told a story about mystepson who kept saying he
didn't want to work atagriculture and he didn't want
to work with chickens.
And when I said, do you want towork with one of the largest
food companies in the nation?
And he said yeah.
(25:19):
And I said, okay, go work atthat egg producer, right?
Because all of a sudden, oh,you flip that switch a little
bit, you start talking aboutfood production and putting food
on the table and eggs are inmore than 90% of American
households.
That's a big deal.
That's purpose and you've got tohelp your employees see that.
They won't necessarilygravitate to that.
(25:41):
You've got to remind them ofthat.
There's a lot of data that sayspeople like to work for purpose
and your opportunity toreinforce that and help your
employees see that is going tobe really critical.
So we talked earlier about realpeople and seeing real people
in our recruiting, and theopportunity still exists to use
(26:04):
that same tactic to help makeyour internal team the stars
Again.
People want to see people likethem.
But you know what's really great?
When you highlight an employeewho's just gotten a recent
promotion or maybe something assimple as a birthday, and you
(26:24):
say you know what?
Let's put this on our social,let's highlight this employee on
our social and you know whatthey do.
They reshare it within theirnetworks and then you get that
amplification and gee, here'ssomebody who must really love
what they do, because hisemployer is talking about how
great he is and now he'shighlighting what happened with
his employer and that's a reallygreat synergy that can make a
(26:46):
big difference, because thenyou've turned that person into
an ambassador, not just a worker, and we've got to be very
intentional about that kind ofopportunity to connect and
engage with our employees online.
Another great way to do that isto also really highlight those
employees who've been promoted,because the other thing people
(27:08):
want in a workplace is they wantthe ability to grow in advance.
And so if we are highlightingpeople on our team who maybe
started at one level but they'vebeen promoted a couple of times
you know, congratulations toJohn Jones who just got promoted
to supervisor and you know,when you start highlighting
those that advancement, then allof a sudden people go oh,
(27:31):
that's a place where I can grow,and then you win right.
Then there's anotheropportunity because people think
you're a place and believe thatyou're a place where they can
grow and make a career, not justa job.
Again, those are the people whoaren't going to jump down the
street for a dollar an hour more.
So that's a great segue intothe next point, which is we
(27:53):
spend so much time recruitingpeople, getting people in the
door, that we don't spend enoughtime investing in growth and
retention.
And people really want to seetheir path.
We have to map their careers,even when you bring somebody in
at the entry level of yourorganization, help them see what
(28:13):
the future looks like.
If you can learn thesecompetencies, if you can develop
these skills, if you areperforming well in your current
job, you have the potential toadvance into this role, and
likewise, if you're doing reallywell in that role, you have a
potential to advance into thisrole.
And point it out to people.
You see that woman over therewho's a supervisor.
(28:33):
She started out in the job youhave.
She's been promoted twice, andthat's a really powerful message
.
We've got to be able to mapthose careers, to show them that
journey that they can takewithin your organization,
because they're going to want togrow with you instead of having
to leave to grow, and that'sreally, really important.
(28:55):
Now, brandon, I'm a communicator.
That is my background, and soeverything I'm going to talk
about is going to be aboutcommunicating, and we've just
got to be good aboutcommunicating.
We got to do it, and then wegot to do it some more, and then
we got to remind them and wegot to keep doing it.
This is not a one and done.
This is not a box you can check, and we have to adapt our
(29:16):
communications to connect with avery diverse group of employees
.
You know, we can't just throwup a message in English if we
have a lot of our populationthat speaks Spanish or another
language.
We've got to be able to connectwith them and to communicate in
ways that actually will connect.
And so we've got to showcaseour employer brand in current
(29:38):
employees with the same rigor,with the same repetition, with
the same intention that we wouldgive to recruiting new members
to our team.
You have to really just keepsaying here's who we are, here's
what we do, here's why itmatters.
And communications is at thecore of that.
And back to what we talked toabout managers If we're not
(30:01):
teaching managers to communicate, we got a problem, because
that's really going to be theirrole, right, that's going to be
their role to connect with theteam, to adapt their
communication style to thosefolks who report to them.
They're the ones who canunderstand.
Oh, you know, this guy's alittle different than this woman
, this woman's a littledifferent than that guy.
And so we've got to be able toadapt on the fly and match our
(30:24):
communication style to theperson with whom we're
communicating.
It's really important.
Now it's also important to thinkabout leadership consistency,
and not only do.
We have to give those managersthe tools they need to manage.
But we've also got to make surethat, by and large, those folks
are singing the same song.
Are they reinforcing theirvalues?
(30:45):
Are they talking about purpose?
Are they in a position to bethat manager who can protect
your brand, who can createambassadors in the people who
report to them?
That means investing intraining.
That means teaching them aboutcommunication.
That means, when you're goingthrough any kind of change
management or you have any kindof information that you need to
(31:07):
communicate across yourenterprise, give those managers
talking points.
Meet with those managers andsay this is what's going to
happen.
Here are the questions you canexpect from your team.
Here are the ways you cananswer those questions.
We've got to understand thatour workers today, that's who
they want to hear it from.
They want to hear from theirmanagers, and so shame on us if
(31:30):
we don't give them the toolsthey need to actually be able to
do that.
And likewise, that ties in verywell to our 10th point, which is
about embracing transparency,and transparency means
ambassadors need information andguess what?
That's not always going to behappy, happy, joy, joy, kind of
information.
(31:50):
Sometimes we need our managersto help us communicate tough
news, and we got to be okay withthat.
But those two-way conversations, that accountability across the
organization, that builds trust.
If we are forthright, if we aretransparent, if we tell them
what to expect, if we help themsee what's in it for me, because
(32:11):
ultimately that's what theycare about right, they just want
to know how is this changegoing to affect me and going to
affect my job, and we've got tobe in a position where we can
tell them that informationtransparently.
We can reassure them thatwhat's happening, while it may
feel a little bit disruptive,it's not going to harm them in
the long term to the extent thatwe're able to give that
(32:33):
reassurance, of course, and wewant to really give them the
opportunity to feedback and askquestions, and that transparency
is really hard to deliver, butit is critically important to
workplace communications.
We've really also got to bedeliberate about helping our
team, help us, giving them thetools they need to say you know
(32:57):
what I work at a great placeI'll look at.
And again, we talked a littlebit about getting our team
members to share what we'reputting on our social.
If we're posting new jobsonline, let's ask our team
members to also post say hey,come work with me.
Now here's the kicker If theydon't like working there, if
they don't believe in what youdo, they're certainly not going
to invite other people to comeand work there.
(33:19):
So that's why all of this hasto happen together.
It has to happen togetherbecause if you haven't made this
a place where people want to be, a referral bonus isn't going
to do you any good, becausethey're going to be like I don't
want people to come and workthere, or they're going to tell
people and they're going to comeand work and they're not going
to be excited either, right?
So you need to invest in thatupfront time so that when your
(33:41):
employees go out and say, youknow what, you should join me at
XYZ company because we'rereally doing things and I've
been promoted twice already, andwhat an opportunity that is to
make them powerful, to help them, help you.
And likewise, your leaders haveto engage online too, right?
It's really important.
We talked about doing employeespotlights and shining the light
(34:04):
on great employees doing greatthings.
We need our leaders to comment,we need them to get in there.
We need to say you know, greatjob, susie.
You did such a fantastic job onthis.
We're really proud of you.
Our leaders have to be whereour employees are, and guess
where that is?
It's online.
We've got to meet them wherethey are, and we also have to
(34:25):
manage by walking around.
Right, in addition to beingonline, we got to be in front of
them, and so it's reallyimportant for your leadership
team to engage with thoseemployees Because, again, if we
help them, they're going to helpus.
Ultimately, at the end of theday, what is most important is
that you have to actively chooseto be an employer of choice.
(34:48):
This is not something that willjust organically happen.
You have to be very deliberatein saying we want to be
competitive in this market.
We want to create outcomes thatmatter, we want people to apply
, we want people to agree tocome and, by the way, we want
them to stay and grow theircareers here with us.
(35:10):
Folks have lots of job options.
The labor market is disrupted.
We've got a lot morecompetition than we ever had
before, especially in our ruralcommunities, and being an
employer of choice really can bethat critical differentiator
when it comes to recruitment andwhen it comes to retention,
(35:33):
starting with assessment, makingsure you know what's going on,
shining it up, making that brand, making it purposeful.
Brandon Mulnix (35:41):
The real people one really gets me I've seen
that in our social media posts,so to speak is when you have
real people there.
It's kind of why I have realpeople here on the podcast as
well.
Build that value, make sure youhave a purpose, Going back to
those.
Highlight the real employeesSpending as much time on
retention as you do.
Recruitment, communication,leadership, consistency we don't
(36:05):
like a bunch of hypocrites inleadership.
That doesn't play real well.
Your actions better match yourwords and we get into the
transparency which is socritical.
There's so much mistrust inleadership and business and you
got to build that trust and then, of course, building that team
and letting them share themessage and helping them share
the message and ultimately, it'sa choice.
(36:27):
Is this important to you?
Do you want to stop the turn?
Because I know I don't liketraining more than one person
for the job.
It takes a lot of time to getthem up to speed.
It absolutely does those Morethan one person for the job it
takes a lot of time to get themup to speed.
It absolutely does.
Those are some really powerfulthings and I really appreciate
that.
You've shared what companiescan do.
Talk about one thing thatyou've overcome in your journey
(36:47):
and how did you make it through.
Hinda Mitchell (36:49):
Oh gosh, I've done a lot of things wrong over
my career and I think I probablywas one of those folks who
really didn't have the adequatetraining I needed to grow into a
management role.
You know, in our business youstart out sort of just being a
worker bee doing the work Right,and as you grow you become a
(37:10):
manager and that means you startsort of leading account work
and you also potentially haveother people working on your
team with you.
But you know, the promotion tosort of account manager in our
world is probably not dissimilarfrom yours, is one largely
that's about sort of salary andtitle versus really giving
people the tools they need tomanage.
(37:31):
And so I would say that, youknow, I was at one company for
16 years.
I was able to grow a lot duringthat time with them, but nobody
ever really said here's howyour job is going to change now
and here's what you're expected.
Of course, I had a jobdescription and expectations in
that way, but understanding sortof.
(37:52):
You know they taught me how tobe great at PR, but they didn't
always teach me how to be greatat managing people, and so
that's a real, that's a realdifference.
And I think when I decided 10years ago or so to start my own
business and we just had threeand a half people and we've
grown very quickly.
I think we're 21 now and we'vegrown a lot over that 10 years,
(38:14):
and learning about how growingquickly, how scaling up that
fast, can impact culture, is alesson I'm still learning.
Honestly, it's something that Istill work on every day because
it's very easy to get caught upin the fray of you know we're
growing, we're growing and youknow looking at the next bright,
shiny thing and we've got totake a beat and say am I
(38:36):
connecting with the team?
And sometimes I get so busythat I forget to connect, and
that's something I'm alwaysworking on.
Brandon Mulnix (38:42):
It's interesting because, as you, you know, went
out on your own.
You mentioned three and a halfpeople.
I feel bad for that half aperson.
Hinda Mitchell (38:52):
I know right.
Brandon Mulnix (38:55):
You've grown from it and it's interesting
seeing you just where you're atin your career and how bubbly
and bright and people people arealways.
You're always talking tosomebody, Somebody is always
there, so that's a great thing.
Is there anything that we didnot cover that you'd love to
share with the future andupcoming leaders?
Hinda Mitchell (39:20):
future and upcoming leaders.
You know I think we covered alot of it, but perhaps one thing
that I didn't talk about that Icould have is if you are
somebody who wants to grow andwants to advance within your
organization and you're notgetting the tools you need,
you're not getting the trainingyou need.
There are a lot of ways to skinthat cat.
You can look online foropportunities.
You can listen to leadershippodcasts.
(39:41):
There's a great idea,self-serving perhaps.
Brandon Mulnix (39:45):
Thanks for the plug.
Hinda Mitchell (39:47):
You're welcome, but there are a lot of ways to
grow that don't have to bedependent on your employer,
although you should push hard onyour employer to give you that
training.
But if you want to grow as aleader and manager, if you want
to learn more about leadership,there are so many online
resources that you can go to andlearn from.
There are a lot of podcasts.
(40:08):
There are a lot of articlesbeing written.
You know Harvard BusinessReview writes about this stuff
all the time right, great, greatresources on leadership.
But also there are conferencesyou can go to where you can
learn about leadership.
There are online trainings youcan do where you can learn to be
a better manager, and you knowit's.
It is a two-way street, right?
(40:29):
We also, as as managers, asemerging leaders, we got to
raise our hand and say I needhelp or I want to be better, I
want to learn more.
So I've talked a lot todayabout what the employer's
responsibilities are, but assomeone who wants to grow within
an organization and I alwaystalk with my team about listen,
professional development is a50-50 responsibility I can serve
(40:53):
you up opportunities to grow,but you've got to take them, and
so if you're not taking thoseopportunities to grow, if you've
got to take them.
And so if you're not takingthose opportunities to grow, if
you're not raising your hand andsaying hey, pick me, pick me
right, then that's on you,that's on you.
Your employer cannot grow youwithout your participation, and
(41:13):
so that's probably a piece thatI should have included.
Brandon Mulnix (41:16):
Oh, what a great piece.
What a great piece.
It definitely highlights one ofmy core values of be your brand
.
If you were working as anindependent contractor or owned
your own business, such asBraden Muldeck's dot com, I am
my brand.
And so when you give us allthese ideas and you said, yeah,
that's the employer, you are theemployer.
(41:37):
And so when you give us allthese ideas and you said, yeah,
that's the employer, you are theemployer.
If you're working in managementin any level, you are the
employer at some point.
Be that brand, be the changethat you want in your company.
If you don't like the turn ofemployees, do something about it
yourself.
And it's amazing because yourmanagement will see that and
(41:58):
help you grow in that area.
Most of the time, as leaders,they don't want to add anything
more to their team.
They just don't want to add.
But when I have a team memberthat speaks up and says, hey, I
want to grow, oh man, that's thebest words I can hear out of my
team, because it really showsthat they're want to learn, they
want to grow, and I'm going todo everything possible to make
them better, because one I needsomeone to take my position for
(42:21):
me to promote, and if I don'thave that, then I'm never going
to promote.
I'm always doing this work andso be the brand.
Hinda Mitchell (42:30):
I was at a conference a few weeks ago and
they were talking a lot aboutupskilling and the upskilling.
I think we tend to look at ourbright lights who are already
advancing quickly with ourorganization and try and grow
them faster and things like that.
But the reality of upskillingis you need to start at the
entry level because as thosepeople get better, then the
(42:53):
people above them can get better, because the first levels are
taking more of those great worktasks and skills.
If they get better, then theperson above them can do more
and if they get better, then theperson above them can delegate
more and take on new things.
And it really is.
We need to think about not justupskilling our superstars but
also upskilling those people atthe entry level.
(43:15):
But also upskilling thosepeople at the entry level, those
first points of contact withinour organization, because as
they grow and develop, thatreally domino effects right up
your pipeline.
Brandon Mulnix (43:24):
There are so many rabbit trails.
I could go with thisconversation, but I do know your
time is valuable and I soappreciate it.
Hinda Mitchell (43:31):
Oh, pastor, I'm glad to be here.
Thank you so much, Enjoyed theconversation.
Brandon Mulnix (43:35):
Wow, very much appreciated.
Well, poultry Leadership,guests and listeners and growers
, I want to say thank you.
We hit a thousand downloads.
We are 15 episodes in, and athousand downloads puts this
podcast in a very high categoryand so I couldn't do this
without you.
Very much appreciated.
(43:57):
I know this episode is going totake off and it's going to be a
highlight, but one episode I didwant to highlight and I want
you to go back and listen to isepisode 11, is Emily Ellis from
the Animal Ag Alliance.
That podcast episode talksabout the event that we were at
last week and if you're notlooking into what the Animal Ag
Alliance is, you're missing outweek, and if you're not looking
(44:19):
into what the animal ag allianceis, you're missing out.
I have been to a lot ofconferences and a lot of events,
but this is the one place whereI saw dairy steers, pigs, ducks
, chickens, layers, turkeys allworking together collaboratively
to share the protein messageand it was so fun to see all of
these folks just getting awayfrom work and focusing on the
(44:43):
issues, because if we don't worktogether, it's going to
continue to erode, because ifsomething's happening in the
dairy industry and they'regetting bad press, believe me
it's going to affect the layers,going to affect the turkeys,
because it's just one of thosethings where we can all work
together to share the wonderfulthings that farmers do, the
wonderful things that, and wecan help really promote that
(45:05):
message.
So please check out thatepisode, episode 11.
I wanted to highlight that Iappreciate you.
This episode wouldn't bepossible I do have to throw our
sponsor in their pr, prismControls.
They allow me to go to theseconferences, they allow me to
learn from people like Hinda.
They allow us to continue toprovide you with the content and
(45:25):
the people that I wouldn'tnormally have access to.
But because of Prism Controland their sponsorship, I'm
allowed to do that and itbenefits all of us.
Thank you, listeners, and havea great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I am your host, brandon Mullnix, and I am thrilled to be
recording this podcast today.
Over the past couple of weeks,I have been on the road and
visiting with the poultry andegg producers, and boy am I
pumped for this episode.
Our guest today is someone Ihave known for a couple of years
.
Last week I got to hear herspeak at the Animal Ag Alliance
Summit in Kansas City and I knewI had to share her with you.
(00:51):
Hinda Mitchell is the presidentand founder of Inspire PR Group
, based out of Columbus, ohio,and she is a true blessing to
the animal agriculture industry.
Welcome, hinda.
Hinda Mitchell (01:02):
Good morning, Brandon.
Thanks for having me industry.
Brandon Mulnix (01:06):
Welcome Hinda.
Good morning Brandon.
Thanks for having me.
Well, hinda, I know it's notKansas City and there's not 150,
well, probably 250, 300 peoplein front of you today, so I
appreciate you being here andwilling to share your story.
Can you tell the audience alittle bit about yourself?
Hinda Mitchell (01:20):
Sure, Well, as you so aptly mentioned, I'm the
president and founder of InspirePR Group and we are based in
Columbus, Ohio, but work withclients across the country, and
we've been working in foodproduction and animal
agriculture for about 30 yearsnow a lot of work in internal
(01:41):
communications, labor andworkforce issues, crisis
planning, crisis readiness andwhen crisis strikes.
I'm also involved there andreally the majority of our work
is in the animal ag sector, andthen we work in some adjacent
spaces in food production, inpet food, lots of other areas
(02:01):
that are sort of aligned withour work in animal ag, but we've
been working for Farmers forabout three decades now.
Brandon Mulnix (02:08):
And you're from Columbus, ohio, and how long
have you been there?
Hinda Mitchell (02:12):
I am.
I actually have been inColumbus since I was about six
months old.
I had some journeys to otherplaces along the way, but all
roads seem to lead back toColumbus.
Brandon Mulnix (02:23):
So, Hinda, I've noticed that you have a true
passion for the industry andalso for future leaders.
You presented on building andmaintaining a workforce.
Why is that important to youand the industry?
Hinda Mitchell (02:38):
Well, our industry right now is really
facing a lot of challenges whenit comes to labor, and it's not
just about being competitive,it's about finding just enough
breathing bodies to be able todo the work that needs done on
our farms, in our processingplants, with animals, in food
packaging, all along the foodsystem.
(03:01):
Really, labor is a challenge,and so one of the things that's
really been a passion for me ishelping position employers to be
employers of choice, toposition themselves, to be ahead
of the curve in how they engagein hiring workers and, most
importantly, retaining workers.
Brandon Mulnix (03:20):
It seems like hiring is always the topic, but
I think you hit on it in.
The second part of that isretention of employees.
They do all of this work to goand find new people and
sometimes, being you know, I'vebeen at a company where I watch
this company is like hire, hire,hire.
Well, what about the peoplehere?
What are you doing for me?
And especially, you saw thataround minimum wage
(03:43):
conversations, and especiallyyou saw that around minimum wage
conversations.
You know folks were complainingbecause, hey, you know, I've
been here five years and you'rehiring people and have more
money than me, so those are areally, really big issue.
Hinda Mitchell (03:56):
And I'm really glad you're here to speak on
that.
It absolutely is a big issueand we tend to spend so much
time looking externally andthinking about who are those
next people we're going to getin the door, because in some
cases it's really an urgentsituation.
Right, we need more people tocome in and get people in and
working, that we forget aboutour team that's already in there
and we need to not overlookthat.
(04:17):
We need to invest as much timelooking inward and caring for
those folks who are on our teamas we do looking outward and
trying to find those next hires.
Brandon Mulnix (04:25):
Yeah, do you find that the folks doing the
hiring part of the challenge isthey haven't prepared those
receiving those employees forthat next step, so to speak, and
keeping that transition smoothIs that kind of one of the
challenges.
Hinda Mitchell (04:41):
It absolutely is One of the things that we are
quick to do.
Especially, there's a thoughtthat in order to keep people,
you have to keep promoting them,and that's very true.
But if you're going to promotethem into a role of a supervisor
or a manager, where they'regoing to be responsible for
other people within yourorganization, you have to give
them the training and the toolsthey need to be effective
(05:03):
managers, to be effectivecommunicators and to be that
resource to those people who arereporting to them.
Brandon Mulnix (05:10):
One of the topics that you talked about was
workforce, competition andSirius.
What do you mean by that?
Hinda Mitchell (05:17):
So, absolutely, I mean the reality right now is
that the US Chamber found inlate, late last year, found that
there were about 100 jobopenings for every 72 workers.
Now, that's every sector of theeconomy, but that's our reality,
right.
There's about a 25 percent gapthere in available workforce,
and one of the things that hashappened I've certainly seen in
(05:39):
my 30 years more recently is isthat farms and food facilities
are not competing only with thenext farm or the next food
facility down the road, butthey're also competing with
other manufacturing businesses,with other technology businesses
, and we have to thinkdifferently about the people
that we're looking for, thepeople that we're recruiting,
(06:01):
because it may not be that nextfacility like me.
It may be Amazon, it may beGoogle, it may be UPS, it may be
Facebook, you just never knowanymore.
But the reality is that we'reputting up these big technology
facilities out in more ruralareas because they too need land
, just like we do.
And when they put thosefacilities up and they start
(06:23):
putting hiring messages outthere, they're hiring a lot of
people at very competitivesalaries and it's kind of cool
to say you work for Amazon orwork for Google, and so we've
got to make sure that we arethinking about who we're
competing against verydifferently.
Brandon Mulnix (06:39):
So how does that work?
For when you talk aboutretention, how does that apply
to the retention piece?
Hinda Mitchell (06:47):
Well, what it really means is that we have to
really lean into the opportunityto be competitive in
compensation to underscoresomething that we have, that the
tech industry certainly doesn'thave, which is stability.
We have to also really rely onthe fact that we do meaningful
work with purpose, and we haveto talk about that very
(07:10):
deliberately and very frequently.
When you work in foodproduction, you are on the table
of every US household in someform or another, and that's a
really important responsibilityand that tracks through
everybody across your team.
But they won't think that way,naturally.
We've got to also help bringthem to that conversation, and
(07:33):
we've got to help them thinkabout the fact that you know, oh
, not only am I getting wellpaid, but I'm also making sure
I'm working in an industry thatis feeding the world.
And, lastly, I'm working in anindustry that, as long as people
have got to eat, I'm probablygoing to have a gig, and that's
a really good thing.
That message of stability, thatmessage of opportunity and that
(07:57):
message of purpose that's agreat trifecta for helping
people be attracted to yourorganization and then stay and
grow at your organization.
Brandon Mulnix (08:06):
It's interesting .
You know, we're from ageneration that experienced a
pandemic, where many know peoplethat lost their jobs due to the
volatility of differentindustries, like the hospitality
and the dining industry andmanufacturing.
Specifically, I came from acompany that was built on office
(08:29):
furniture and office space, andwhen there is no office
furniture and office space,there is no future in that, and
I thought it was going to be agreat long-term career and come
to find out nope, they're.
You know, me and many otherswere changed by that?
Hinda Mitchell (08:47):
No question, no question, it was.
Brandon Mulnix (08:49):
It's a different world, you know besides being
the name Amazon, why else dothey go to those places?
Hinda Mitchell (08:56):
Well, they go to those places because they're
perceived to be kind of cool.
They're perceived to besomething that you know, oh, you
know, and I think they feellike it's going to be stable
because it's such a big brand.
But big corporations, folkscome and go all the time, and so
we really have to focus onworking on our employer brands.
(09:17):
We've got to talk about thethings that we do, the kind of
employer we are, and when youthink about what your employer
brand is, it's really theentirety of your employees
experience.
It isn't just sort of do theyclock in, do they clock out, it
isn't you know what is theirdaily job function within your
organization, but it's thatentire experience and it's your
(09:39):
reputation.
That's a big piece of this isthinking about.
What do people out there sayabout you as an employer?
Right, because if you're anemployer in a community, people
are talking about you.
You can count on that.
There are people out there.
Your employees are out theretalking about you, and are you
going to like what they'resaying?
That's a big question for youand really, ultimately, are you?
(09:59):
Do you have a value propositionas an employer and are you
delivering on that valueproposition every single day,
and that's really where we needto be focused is on that
employer brand and making thatemployee experience, that
employee engagement, everythingthat they would want it to be,
because they won't leave ifthey're feeling like they're
having a great experience, ifthey believe in your employer
(10:21):
brand and you're delivering onyour employer brand.
Brandon Mulnix (10:24):
So, Hinda, that's great if I'm the HR
department or in uppermanagement, but I'm the guy
who's working in the chickenhouse with the folks.
Why is this important to?
Hinda Mitchell (10:36):
me.
So we spend a lot of our time atwork and we need that
experience to be a good one,because, especially in the
business of animal care, wereally need those folks to show
up the next day.
And we need them to show upevery day.
And I'm sure you've heard thestories I hear them too right,
we hire people, we bring them into start their jobs.
(10:56):
They get in, they do it for acouple of days and they're like,
oh, this isn't for me, and thenthey're out.
Right, they just vanish, theyjust stop showing up because
they can go down the street andfind another job the next day,
and they know that because thelabor market is so competitive.
And so, for somebody who'sworking within an organization,
if you're a manager, you need astrong team, and reteaching
(11:18):
people skills, reteaching themhow the business works, is time
consuming, it's exhausting.
But as you bring people in, andif they stick, if they stay,
they understand what they'redoing, they become better
employees, they grow within yourorganization and ultimately
that leads to better consistency, better stability for everybody
(11:41):
involved in that organization.
Brandon Mulnix (11:43):
One of the scenarios I see, and I've
experienced once in my life, isyeah, I'll get to know if you
stick around for like five days.
If not, I'm not going to get toknow you.
Well, can you imagine being anew employee coming in and the
person that you're supposed towork for basically says for the
next five days, I could careless about you.
(12:03):
No wonder people are leaving.
Hinda Mitchell (12:06):
It's really true , and one of the things that, of
course, we talked about when wewere together last time is that
the role of managers has reallynever been more important.
We do employee surveysconsistently, and what they say
to us is I want to get most ofmy information about the
business I work for, not fromthis CEO, not from the president
(12:27):
, not from a memo hanging nextto the time clock, but they want
to hear it from their manageror supervisor directly, and so
the role of that manager hasreally never been more important
, and we know managers arereally stretched thin right now,
and so, as an employer, you'vegot to give your managers the
tools they need to be thatresource to those who report to
(12:50):
them.
We want to make sure that ourmanagers are singing the same
song that everybody else was in.
The company is, and are theyalso ambassadors for your brand,
are they protecting your brand?
And we've got to invest intraining, we've got to invest in
building their communicationskills and we've got to invest
in helping them understand justhow important their role is.
(13:13):
It's not enough to give them acouple dollar an hour raise and
say congratulations, now you'rea supervisor.
We've got to give them theresources they need to be able
to do that job.
There's a lot of great data outthere about managers right now,
when the average manager in anorganization, their number of
direct reports has increasedalmost three times over the last
(13:33):
six years.
So we're putting a lot on thesefolks, and it's no surprise that
the data says about half ofthose managers have work-induced
stress and fatigue, and sowe've got to really think about
that in a different way.
We know that one in fivemanagers actually says you know
what?
I'd really rather not be amanager If they were given a
(13:54):
choice, they wouldn't want to bea manager, and that's meant
that also half of those managersare at risk of failing as
managers, and when employeesreport to a manager who's at
risk of failing, they're goingto be three times more likely to
leave, and I don't know thatthere's any other data point
that's more powerful for therole of managers than
understanding if you report to abad manager, you are three
(14:17):
times more likely to leave.
So, as we think about thatmiddle piece those managers and
supervisors who are the conduitto those employees we got to be
better.
Brandon Mulnix (14:27):
I think one of the most important pieces of
that role is you're the liaisonand the ambassador for your team
and when your team needssomething, that is your
responsibility.
And so many times you know,through all of my years, you
know I would hear the term thekids or I'm babysitting, and
(14:48):
it's like it breaks my heart tosee a manager with that kind of
mentality because it's no, I'msupporting 10 people, I'm
building 10 people, I'm building10 people, I'm responsible for
10 careers and it's like thatownership piece in the language
you use is so important in thisarea because if you have folks
(15:09):
that come in one, you're notwilling to connect with them.
Two, you're stressed andfatigued and you don't have that
emotional energy to connect.
It's so difficult to keep thosepeople and I didn't ever like
working on a team or workingwith another manager that
referred to his people as thekids or babysitting Drove me
(15:30):
bonkers because that's the waythat people felt.
(15:58):
No-transcript and our traumacomes from our bad managers.
And there's so many littlethings.
I remember going to a companyand every time my phone rang
from my new supervisor I likewinced because it reminded me of
(16:20):
my last bad manager and the waythat the calls always went and
what a.
I'm so glad I don't have thatand I'm hoping I don't produce
that for my own team.
Let's give it.
Hinda Mitchell (16:35):
That's right.
Good managers create more goodmanagers too.
Right, you know, because wemodel the behavior we see, and
so the opportunity really isthere for good managers to help
create brand ambassadors.
Right, we talked earlier aboutyour employer reputation out in
the community, and if you aretaking great care of your
(16:55):
employees, they're going to goout and tell other people.
I work at a great place, Ibelieve in this company, I put
food on the table of everyhousehold, and we want to create
those brand ambassadors who areshouting from the rooftops
about being a great place towork.
We want them to advocate for us, we want them to protect our
business.
Brandon Mulnix (17:15):
Ultimately, yeah , if you want people to come
work with you, it's important tobe that advocate on social
media.
I remember sharing a lot aboutmy adventures here at Prism
Controls and I have to havepeople reach out.
Hey, do you guys ever have, youknow, hiring?
Do you have anybody that?
Any spaces I could come work,and what that does is it starts
(17:36):
building your pool of talent aswell, where people are like, wow
, I want to go work therebecause they feed America, they
do cool technology stuff.
If you're in my role, you getto travel a lot.
I think it's important foremployees all up and down the
spectrum to be promoting theircompany, because that does help
tell the story of your companyand it's not just HR's issue or
(17:56):
marketing.
Hinda Mitchell (17:58):
No, it's not.
And I mean I think it's reallyit's important to understand
what the flip side of that lookslike.
Too right, if somebody reallyis not believing in you as an
employer, does not view you asan employer of choice, those are
the folks who are going toleave for a small raise.
Those are the folks who aregoing to be ripe for the picking
(18:19):
from one of those competitorsdown the street because they're
not connected into yourcompany's values, they're not
aligned with your company'spurpose or they don't really
recognize that you have apurpose.
They don't have loyalty right,for them it's just a job, and
those folks not only are justnever going to be sort of
committed to you, but they alsopotentially can do you harm.
Brandon Mulnix (18:43):
In the world of keystroke media, where you're
just a few taps on the keyboardor phone away from saying the
wrong thing about your companyor about your coworkers.
Hinda Mitchell (18:54):
That's right.
Brandon Mulnix (18:55):
So sad to see when people post bad things
about their companies period.
Hey, in that presentation youcovered 12 topics about this.
Could you go through those 12topics?
Hinda Mitchell (19:10):
They're really powerful.
I'd be glad to.
So the first real step aboutunderstanding and improving your
employer brand is to reallydive in, peel back the layers of
the onion and look at it.
You've got to really audit andassess your brand.
So look at what your employerpresence is.
What does that mean?
That means, what does yourcareers page look like?
What do those glass doorreviews look like?
(19:31):
What are people saying aboutyou?
How are your employee surveyslooking?
If you're not doing employeesurveys, you better start.
You also need to really assessyour competitors and assess your
industry.
You mentioned earlier this ideaof you know the minimum wage
and where people are going andyou know we've got to be
competitive in animalagriculture.
(19:52):
We've got to make sure that oursalaries, that our hourly wages
, are competitive with the restof the industry.
And again, that's more thanjust Animal Ag, that's also
other employers within ourcommunity, within our area,
because those are folks who weare competing against.
Once you've sort of dived inand you've looked at your
employer presence externally andyou've looked at your
(20:13):
competitors and you'vebenchmarked your wages and
compensation packages, then youcan really take what you've
learned there and createrecommendations.
Here's how we can be better.
Here's how we can improve thatemployee engagement.
And then you got to act right.
It's not enough just to sort ofcreate the plan.
You've got to actually put thatplan into place and implement
(20:34):
some of those best practices forrecruiting and retaining that
workforce.
So that's the first step.
So when you learn from thatassessment, you've made those
improvements.
Then you've got to really shineup that employer brand, and
that means taking a look at whatyou say about yourself online
in recruiting ads in yourcommunity and be very deliberate
(20:58):
, not only about recruitmentcampaigns but also about
retention marketing campaignsand we'll talk more about that
in a minute because, again, weget so focused on recruiting
that we forget to think aboutretention marketing as well.
And the best way to make youremployer brand shine is to
listen to your current team.
They will give you every pieceof information you need to know
(21:20):
about what you can do to improveyour employer brand.
Another thing that is reallyimportant and it sounds so basic
, brandon, but you will findthat it's so funny sometimes
that people just don't thinkabout it but we've got to put
real people in our recruiting.
You know what doesn't recruitpeople?
A picture of your headquartersbuilding.
What does recruit people Arepeople looking happy in their
(21:43):
job, people looking like theyhave camaraderie, people looking
like they're happy to go towork each day.
And we've got to show those RPs, or real people in our
recruiting ads, in our socialmedia, in our communities and
really anywhere you mightencounter a prospective employee
, you should be showing them.
(22:03):
People who look like me, right,because you don't go to a
company because I just reallywant to work in a meat
processing plant.
You go to work because youreally want to work with those
people.
And here's the other thing youstay because you really like
those people, and so that isjust so important as well.
One of my biggest passions aboutemployer branding is to make
(22:29):
sure that you, as a company, arebuilding your values into those
of your workforce.
Are your values aligned?
Do they play an important rolein your culture, as you think
about animal welfare, as youthink about the safety of your
team, as you think aboutenvironmental responsibility?
You've got to start witharticulating those values and
(22:50):
reinforcing those values, andthis is another place where
managers and supervisors play abig role, because that
consistency really matters, thatability to walk the talk and to
live those values each day.
If values are just a poster ona wall, it isn't enough.
You have to talk about them,you have to use them as a gauge
for decision making and,ultimately, if somebody isn't
(23:14):
performing up to your values, ifthey're doing work or they're
managing people in a way that isnot aligned with your values,
you've got to call them on it.
You've got to call them on it,you've got to be comfortable
doing that, because building inthose values that drives feeling
and that drives belief, andwhen we make people feel
differently, when we make thembelieve differently, that's when
(23:35):
you get those actions.
That's when you get that changedifferently.
That's when you get thoseactions.
That's when you get that change.
I mentioned, when we talked inKansas City, some work that
we've done for a company calledWayne Sanderson Farms, and at
Wayne Sanderson Farms they havea great program called Amazing
Starts With Me and that isentirely an internal
communications marketingcampaign or really marketing
(23:57):
program.
Now it's been going on forseveral years and it has four
pillars that align with thepillars of their business People
, planet, animals and food andeach quarter we focus on one of
those areas of the business andwe reinforce that to the team.
We do campaigns, we talk aboutit a lot, we build it into our
day-to-day work.
(24:18):
They see it when they come inthe door at the plant and it
really makes a difference.
Helping them be aware, helpingthem be intentional about
building onto those four pillars, reinforcing that with
regularity throughout the year,makes a huge difference for them
.
And that's a great tie-in toour fifth point, which is really
(24:38):
about purpose, and you and Italked about purpose earlier.
But what we do in animalagriculture, in food production,
it matters.
We have purpose, we have reward, we have stability.
Stories is to talk about.
(24:58):
You know, listen, sometimes,and especially today, when so
many people are disconnectedfrom a farm, it's important to
say what's going to resonatewith our next employee.
Is it agriculture or is it foodproduction?
And I told a story about mystepson who kept saying he
didn't want to work atagriculture and he didn't want
to work with chickens.
And when I said, do you want towork with one of the largest
food companies in the nation?
And he said yeah.
(25:19):
And I said, okay, go work atthat egg producer, right?
Because all of a sudden, oh,you flip that switch a little
bit, you start talking aboutfood production and putting food
on the table and eggs are inmore than 90% of American
households.
That's a big deal.
That's purpose and you've got tohelp your employees see that.
They won't necessarilygravitate to that.
(25:41):
You've got to remind them ofthat.
There's a lot of data that sayspeople like to work for purpose
and your opportunity toreinforce that and help your
employees see that is going tobe really critical.
So we talked earlier about realpeople and seeing real people
in our recruiting, and theopportunity still exists to use
(26:04):
that same tactic to help makeyour internal team the stars
Again.
People want to see people likethem.
But you know what's really great?
When you highlight an employeewho's just gotten a recent
promotion or maybe something assimple as a birthday, and you
(26:24):
say you know what?
Let's put this on our social,let's highlight this employee on
our social and you know whatthey do.
They reshare it within theirnetworks and then you get that
amplification and gee, here'ssomebody who must really love
what they do, because hisemployer is talking about how
great he is and now he'shighlighting what happened with
his employer and that's a reallygreat synergy that can make a
(26:46):
big difference, because thenyou've turned that person into
an ambassador, not just a worker, and we've got to be very
intentional about that kind ofopportunity to connect and
engage with our employees online.
Another great way to do that isto also really highlight those
employees who've been promoted,because the other thing people
(27:08):
want in a workplace is they wantthe ability to grow in advance.
And so if we are highlightingpeople on our team who maybe
started at one level but they'vebeen promoted a couple of times
you know, congratulations toJohn Jones who just got promoted
to supervisor and you know,when you start highlighting
those that advancement, then allof a sudden people go oh,
(27:31):
that's a place where I can grow,and then you win right.
Then there's anotheropportunity because people think
you're a place and believe thatyou're a place where they can
grow and make a career, not justa job.
Again, those are the people whoaren't going to jump down the
street for a dollar an hour more.
So that's a great segue intothe next point, which is we
(27:53):
spend so much time recruitingpeople, getting people in the
door, that we don't spend enoughtime investing in growth and
retention.
And people really want to seetheir path.
We have to map their careers,even when you bring somebody in
at the entry level of yourorganization, help them see what
(28:13):
the future looks like.
If you can learn thesecompetencies, if you can develop
these skills, if you areperforming well in your current
job, you have the potential toadvance into this role, and
likewise, if you're doing reallywell in that role, you have a
potential to advance into thisrole.
And point it out to people.
You see that woman over therewho's a supervisor.
(28:33):
She started out in the job youhave.
She's been promoted twice, andthat's a really powerful message
.
We've got to be able to mapthose careers, to show them that
journey that they can takewithin your organization,
because they're going to want togrow with you instead of having
to leave to grow, and that'sreally, really important.
(28:55):
Now, brandon, I'm a communicator.
That is my background, and soeverything I'm going to talk
about is going to be aboutcommunicating, and we've just
got to be good aboutcommunicating.
We got to do it, and then wegot to do it some more, and then
we got to remind them and wegot to keep doing it.
This is not a one and done.
This is not a box you can check, and we have to adapt our
(29:16):
communications to connect with avery diverse group of employees
.
You know, we can't just throwup a message in English if we
have a lot of our populationthat speaks Spanish or another
language.
We've got to be able to connectwith them and to communicate in
ways that actually will connect.
And so we've got to showcaseour employer brand in current
(29:38):
employees with the same rigor,with the same repetition, with
the same intention that we wouldgive to recruiting new members
to our team.
You have to really just keepsaying here's who we are, here's
what we do, here's why itmatters.
And communications is at thecore of that.
And back to what we talked toabout managers If we're not
(30:01):
teaching managers to communicate, we got a problem, because
that's really going to be theirrole, right, that's going to be
their role to connect with theteam, to adapt their
communication style to thosefolks who report to them.
They're the ones who canunderstand.
Oh, you know, this guy's alittle different than this woman
, this woman's a littledifferent than that guy.
And so we've got to be able toadapt on the fly and match our
(30:24):
communication style to theperson with whom we're
communicating.
It's really important.
Now it's also important to thinkabout leadership consistency,
and not only do.
We have to give those managersthe tools they need to manage.
But we've also got to make surethat, by and large, those folks
are singing the same song.
Are they reinforcing theirvalues?
(30:45):
Are they talking about purpose?
Are they in a position to bethat manager who can protect
your brand, who can createambassadors in the people who
report to them?
That means investing intraining.
That means teaching them aboutcommunication.
That means, when you're goingthrough any kind of change
management or you have any kindof information that you need to
(31:07):
communicate across yourenterprise, give those managers
talking points.
Meet with those managers andsay this is what's going to
happen.
Here are the questions you canexpect from your team.
Here are the ways you cananswer those questions.
We've got to understand thatour workers today, that's who
they want to hear it from.
They want to hear from theirmanagers, and so shame on us if
(31:30):
we don't give them the toolsthey need to actually be able to
do that.
And likewise, that ties in verywell to our 10th point, which is
about embracing transparency,and transparency means
ambassadors need information andguess what?
That's not always going to behappy, happy, joy, joy, kind of
information.
(31:50):
Sometimes we need our managersto help us communicate tough
news, and we got to be okay withthat.
But those two-way conversations, that accountability across the
organization, that builds trust.
If we are forthright, if we aretransparent, if we tell them
what to expect, if we help themsee what's in it for me, because
(32:11):
ultimately that's what theycare about right, they just want
to know how is this changegoing to affect me and going to
affect my job, and we've got tobe in a position where we can
tell them that informationtransparently.
We can reassure them thatwhat's happening, while it may
feel a little bit disruptive,it's not going to harm them in
the long term to the extent thatwe're able to give that
(32:33):
reassurance, of course, and wewant to really give them the
opportunity to feedback and askquestions, and that transparency
is really hard to deliver, butit is critically important to
workplace communications.
We've really also got to bedeliberate about helping our
team, help us, giving them thetools they need to say you know
(32:57):
what I work at a great placeI'll look at.
And again, we talked a littlebit about getting our team
members to share what we'reputting on our social.
If we're posting new jobsonline, let's ask our team
members to also post say hey,come work with me.
Now here's the kicker If theydon't like working there, if
they don't believe in what youdo, they're certainly not going
to invite other people to comeand work there.
(33:19):
So that's why all of this hasto happen together.
It has to happen togetherbecause if you haven't made this
a place where people want to be, a referral bonus isn't going
to do you any good, becausethey're going to be like I don't
want people to come and workthere, or they're going to tell
people and they're going to comeand work and they're not going
to be excited either, right?
So you need to invest in thatupfront time so that when your
(33:41):
employees go out and say, youknow what, you should join me at
XYZ company because we'rereally doing things and I've
been promoted twice already, andwhat an opportunity that is to
make them powerful, to help them, help you.
And likewise, your leaders haveto engage online too, right?
It's really important.
We talked about doing employeespotlights and shining the light
(34:04):
on great employees doing greatthings.
We need our leaders to comment,we need them to get in there.
We need to say you know, greatjob, susie.
You did such a fantastic job onthis.
We're really proud of you.
Our leaders have to be whereour employees are, and guess
where that is?
It's online.
We've got to meet them wherethey are, and we also have to
(34:25):
manage by walking around.
Right, in addition to beingonline, we got to be in front of
them, and so it's reallyimportant for your leadership
team to engage with thoseemployees Because, again, if we
help them, they're going to helpus.
Ultimately, at the end of theday, what is most important is
that you have to actively chooseto be an employer of choice.
(34:48):
This is not something that willjust organically happen.
You have to be very deliberatein saying we want to be
competitive in this market.
We want to create outcomes thatmatter, we want people to apply
, we want people to agree tocome and, by the way, we want
them to stay and grow theircareers here with us.
(35:10):
Folks have lots of job options.
The labor market is disrupted.
We've got a lot morecompetition than we ever had
before, especially in our ruralcommunities, and being an
employer of choice really can bethat critical differentiator
when it comes to recruitment andwhen it comes to retention,
(35:33):
starting with assessment, makingsure you know what's going on,
shining it up, making that brand, making it purposeful.
Brandon Mulnix (35:41):
The real people one really gets me I've seen
that in our social media posts,so to speak is when you have
real people there.
It's kind of why I have realpeople here on the podcast as
well.
Build that value, make sure youhave a purpose, Going back to
those.
Highlight the real employeesSpending as much time on
retention as you do.
Recruitment, communication,leadership, consistency we don't
(36:05):
like a bunch of hypocrites inleadership.
That doesn't play real well.
Your actions better match yourwords and we get into the
transparency which is socritical.
There's so much mistrust inleadership and business and you
got to build that trust and then, of course, building that team
and letting them share themessage and helping them share
the message and ultimately, it'sa choice.
(36:27):
Is this important to you?
Do you want to stop the turn?
Because I know I don't liketraining more than one person
for the job.
It takes a lot of time to getthem up to speed.
It absolutely does those Morethan one person for the job it
takes a lot of time to get themup to speed.
It absolutely does.
Those are some really powerfulthings and I really appreciate
that.
You've shared what companiescan do.
Talk about one thing thatyou've overcome in your journey
(36:47):
and how did you make it through.
Hinda Mitchell (36:49):
Oh gosh, I've done a lot of things wrong over
my career and I think I probablywas one of those folks who
really didn't have the adequatetraining I needed to grow into a
management role.
You know, in our business youstart out sort of just being a
worker bee doing the work Right,and as you grow you become a
(37:10):
manager and that means you startsort of leading account work
and you also potentially haveother people working on your
team with you.
But you know, the promotion tosort of account manager in our
world is probably not dissimilarfrom yours, is one largely
that's about sort of salary andtitle versus really giving
people the tools they need tomanage.
(37:31):
And so I would say that, youknow, I was at one company for
16 years.
I was able to grow a lot duringthat time with them, but nobody
ever really said here's howyour job is going to change now
and here's what you're expected.
Of course, I had a jobdescription and expectations in
that way, but understanding sortof.
(37:52):
You know they taught me how tobe great at PR, but they didn't
always teach me how to be greatat managing people, and so
that's a real, that's a realdifference.
And I think when I decided 10years ago or so to start my own
business and we just had threeand a half people and we've
grown very quickly.
I think we're 21 now and we'vegrown a lot over that 10 years,
(38:14):
and learning about how growingquickly, how scaling up that
fast, can impact culture, is alesson I'm still learning.
Honestly, it's something that Istill work on every day because
it's very easy to get caught upin the fray of you know we're
growing, we're growing and youknow looking at the next bright,
shiny thing and we've got totake a beat and say am I
(38:36):
connecting with the team?
And sometimes I get so busythat I forget to connect, and
that's something I'm alwaysworking on.
Brandon Mulnix (38:42):
It's interesting because, as you, you know, went
out on your own.
You mentioned three and a halfpeople.
I feel bad for that half aperson.
Hinda Mitchell (38:52):
I know right.
Brandon Mulnix (38:55):
You've grown from it and it's interesting
seeing you just where you're atin your career and how bubbly
and bright and people people arealways.
You're always talking tosomebody, Somebody is always
there, so that's a great thing.
Is there anything that we didnot cover that you'd love to
share with the future andupcoming leaders?
Hinda Mitchell (39:20):
future and upcoming leaders.
You know I think we covered alot of it, but perhaps one thing
that I didn't talk about that Icould have is if you are
somebody who wants to grow andwants to advance within your
organization and you're notgetting the tools you need,
you're not getting the trainingyou need.
There are a lot of ways to skinthat cat.
You can look online foropportunities.
You can listen to leadershippodcasts.
(39:41):
There's a great idea,self-serving perhaps.
Brandon Mulnix (39:45):
Thanks for the plug.
Hinda Mitchell (39:47):
You're welcome, but there are a lot of ways to
grow that don't have to bedependent on your employer,
although you should push hard onyour employer to give you that
training.
But if you want to grow as aleader and manager, if you want
to learn more about leadership,there are so many online
resources that you can go to andlearn from.
There are a lot of podcasts.
(40:08):
There are a lot of articlesbeing written.
You know Harvard BusinessReview writes about this stuff
all the time right, great, greatresources on leadership.
But also there are conferencesyou can go to where you can
learn about leadership.
There are online trainings youcan do where you can learn to be
a better manager, and you knowit's.
It is a two-way street, right?
(40:29):
We also, as as managers, asemerging leaders, we got to
raise our hand and say I needhelp or I want to be better, I
want to learn more.
So I've talked a lot todayabout what the employer's
responsibilities are, but assomeone who wants to grow within
an organization and I alwaystalk with my team about listen,
professional development is a50-50 responsibility I can serve
(40:53):
you up opportunities to grow,but you've got to take them, and
so if you're not taking thoseopportunities to grow, if you've
got to take them.
And so if you're not takingthose opportunities to grow, if
you're not raising your hand andsaying hey, pick me, pick me
right, then that's on you,that's on you.
Your employer cannot grow youwithout your participation, and
(41:13):
so that's probably a piece thatI should have included.
Brandon Mulnix (41:16):
Oh, what a great piece.
What a great piece.
It definitely highlights one ofmy core values of be your brand
.
If you were working as anindependent contractor or owned
your own business, such asBraden Muldeck's dot com, I am
my brand.
And so when you give us allthese ideas and you said, yeah,
that's the employer, you are theemployer.
(41:37):
And so when you give us allthese ideas and you said, yeah,
that's the employer, you are theemployer.
If you're working in managementin any level, you are the
employer at some point.
Be that brand, be the changethat you want in your company.
If you don't like the turn ofemployees, do something about it
yourself.
And it's amazing because yourmanagement will see that and
(41:58):
help you grow in that area.
Most of the time, as leaders,they don't want to add anything
more to their team.
They just don't want to add.
But when I have a team memberthat speaks up and says, hey, I
want to grow, oh man, that's thebest words I can hear out of my
team, because it really showsthat they're want to learn, they
want to grow, and I'm going todo everything possible to make
them better, because one I needsomeone to take my position for
(42:21):
me to promote, and if I don'thave that, then I'm never going
to promote.
I'm always doing this work andso be the brand.
Hinda Mitchell (42:30):
I was at a conference a few weeks ago and
they were talking a lot aboutupskilling and the upskilling.
I think we tend to look at ourbright lights who are already
advancing quickly with ourorganization and try and grow
them faster and things like that.
But the reality of upskillingis you need to start at the
entry level because as thosepeople get better, then the
(42:53):
people above them can get better, because the first levels are
taking more of those great worktasks and skills.
If they get better, then theperson above them can do more
and if they get better, then theperson above them can delegate
more and take on new things.
And it really is.
We need to think about not justupskilling our superstars but
also upskilling those people atthe entry level.
(43:15):
But also upskilling thosepeople at the entry level, those
first points of contact withinour organization, because as
they grow and develop, thatreally domino effects right up
your pipeline.
Brandon Mulnix (43:24):
There are so many rabbit trails.
I could go with thisconversation, but I do know your
time is valuable and I soappreciate it.
Hinda Mitchell (43:31):
Oh, pastor, I'm glad to be here.
Thank you so much, Enjoyed theconversation.
Brandon Mulnix (43:35):
Wow, very much appreciated.
Well, poultry Leadership,guests and listeners and growers
, I want to say thank you.
We hit a thousand downloads.
We are 15 episodes in, and athousand downloads puts this
podcast in a very high categoryand so I couldn't do this
without you.
Very much appreciated.
(43:57):
I know this episode is going totake off and it's going to be a
highlight, but one episode I didwant to highlight and I want
you to go back and listen to isepisode 11, is Emily Ellis from
the Animal Ag Alliance.
That podcast episode talksabout the event that we were at
last week and if you're notlooking into what the Animal Ag
Alliance is, you're missing outweek, and if you're not looking
(44:19):
into what the animal ag allianceis, you're missing out.
I have been to a lot ofconferences and a lot of events,
but this is the one place whereI saw dairy steers, pigs, ducks
, chickens, layers, turkeys allworking together collaboratively
to share the protein messageand it was so fun to see all of
these folks just getting awayfrom work and focusing on the
(44:43):
issues, because if we don't worktogether, it's going to
continue to erode, because ifsomething's happening in the
dairy industry and they'regetting bad press, believe me
it's going to affect the layers,going to affect the turkeys,
because it's just one of thosethings where we can all work
together to share the wonderfulthings that farmers do, the
wonderful things that, and wecan help really promote that
(45:05):
message.
So please check out thatepisode, episode 11.
I wanted to highlight that Iappreciate you.
This episode wouldn't bepossible I do have to throw our
sponsor in their pr, prismControls.
They allow me to go to theseconferences, they allow me to
learn from people like Hinda.
They allow us to continue toprovide you with the content and
(45:25):
the people that I wouldn'tnormally have access to.
But because of Prism Controland their sponsorship, I'm
allowed to do that and itbenefits all of us.
Thank you, listeners, and havea great day.
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