July 22, 2024 • 48 mins
What if the key to building a successful agricultural career lies in a well-structured internship? Join us as we discuss the transformative potential of internships in the agriculture industry. Our guest, Dustin Toberman, president and founder of OMNI Ag, shares his vast experience and insights on how internships have evolved from informal roles to structured, skill-enhancing opportunities. Discover how involving interns in real-world tasks like customer interactions and grain trading can sharpen their professional abilities and prepare them for a competitive job market.
Learn from compelling anecdotes that highlight the significant impact a thoughtfully designed internship program can have, not just on interns, but on a company's reputation as well. We explore the pitfalls many companies encounter, such as lack of structure and meaningful tasks, and offer solutions to create mutually beneficial programs. Dustin emphasizes the importance of mentorship, hands-on projects, and feedback mechanisms in developing future leaders, stressing that interns should be integrated into both day-to-day functions and high-level meetings to fully grasp the workings of the industry.
As we conclude, we discuss the evolving expectations of the next generation of agricultural leaders and the critical role of feedback, evaluations, and exit interviews in wrapping up internships. Dustin shares strategies for ensuring that debrief sessions are productive and open, helping organizations refine their programs for future success. Don't miss Dustin's valuable insights and practical tips for enhancing your organization's internship programs and fostering the next wave of agricultural talent.
Links:
- Special $75 Pricing for Interns and other students to enroll in the GEAPS Introduction to Grain Operations Course - https://www.geaps.com/course/introduction-to-grain-operations/
- Info about OMNI Ag
Grain Elevator and Processing Society champions, connects and serves the global grain industry and its members. Be sure to visit GEAPS’ website to learn how you can grow your network, support your personal professional development, and advance your career. Thank you for listening to another episode of GEAPS’ Whole Grain podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (00:03):
This episode is meant for the ears of
seasoned professionals,individuals and teams developing
intern programs, and for thecurrent intern and the intern of
tomorrow.
Join us for a deep dive on whyinternships matter and how they
can be structured for successComing up next.
Hello and welcome to the show.
(00:26):
Welcome to the Whole GrainPodcast.
My name is Jim Lenz, your hostand producer of the show and the
director of global training andeducation at GEAPS.
We're the mission of the GrainElevator and Processing Society
to champion, connect and servethe global grain industry and
our members At GEAPS.
We work to be the globalcommunity and thought leader for
the grain industry, which feedsand fuels the world.
Thanks for listening today andfor joining the network of
(00:48):
thousands of other grainhandling and processing
professionals across the globetaking strategic steps to grow
professionally.
The Whole Grain Show will giveyou the competitive advantage to
win at work so you can makemore of an impact.
Our guest for today is DustinToberman an impact.
Our guest for today is DustinToberman.
He's dedicated his entirecareer to the agriculture
(01:08):
industry.
Raised in a family-operatedgrain business, dustin has
served in numerous capacitieswithin the grain industry and is
now the president and founderof OMNI OM NI Ag.
is committed to aligning thelong-term interests of both the
talent and employers.
We're excited to have Dustinshare insights on the show about
internships and why they matter.
(01:29):
In this episode, dustin willdiscuss a competitive landscape
for talents in the grainindustry and why internships
have become essential fororganizations.
He will reflect on howinternships have evolved from
informal programs to structuredopportunities that help identify
and secure potential long-termemployees.
Dustin will also share commonmistakes companies make when
(01:50):
designing internships andproviding anecdotes from past
experiences.
We'll also explore keycomponents of successful
internship programs, includingmentorship, hands-on projects
and feedback mechanisms.
Dustin will offer strategiesfor creating mutually beneficial
internship programs andemphasize the importance of
clear objectives and structuredactivities.
(02:11):
Additionally, we'll compare themindset and expectations of
interns today to those from adecade ago, considering
technological advancements andchanges in workplace culture.
Finally, dustin will share bestpractices for concluding an
internship, including howorganizations and interns should
provide feedback and evaluation.
(02:42):
All right, our guest for todayhas dedicated his entire career
to the agriculture industry.
He was raised around afamily-operated grain business.
Since then, he has servednumerous capacities in the grain
industry and now serves as thepresident and founder of Omni,
an organization that serveslong-term interests of talent
and employers.
(03:03):
That's why I'm excited towelcome Dustin Toberman to the
show.
Thank you for yourparticipation in Whole Grain,
Dustin.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (03:10):
I appreciate it, Jim.
Thanks so much.
I'm excited to be here and Ithink it's a great topic today.
I'm really looking forward toour discussion.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (03:17):
Awesome Now to allow our listeners to
get to know you and start theshow with a bit of positive
spirit.
Could you share with ourlisteners a mantra or success
quote that you live byprofessionally?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (03:27):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I love that you start out withthat.
I think for me, it's really allabout relationships.
I'm a big believer in people.
You hear a lot of people outthere say that I'm a people
person.
I'm a believer of people and Ithink that when you give people
the opportunity and set them upfor success, it strengthens
everyone, and I think that leadsto just success for all of us,
and so I think my mantra isgetting out there, which is one
(03:50):
of the reasons I started Omni.
It was all about helping people, and I think when that's your
mission, I think you go a longway.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (04:09):
I like that as well.
To me, people and stories ofpeople and perseverance, getting
beyond, or just seeing someonegrow up in a learning
development space for 28 yearsnow that is inspirational to me.
I think it's inspirational toothers to see people's growth
over time.
So thanks for sharing that.
I think by you describing thedepth and scope of your work
experience will contributesignificantly to the show.
As we focus on internshipstoday in the agriculture
industry, could you provide abrief overview of your work
experience in the grain industry?
(04:30):
I find it very interesting.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (04:32):
Well, thank you, Jim.
Yeah, I love to, and I love totell the story because I think
that it serves as a greatexample to both young and old
professionals that when giventhe opportunity, if you make the
most of it right, I think youcan get to where you want to be.
And that's something that Ichallenge people when they come
to OmniAg and want to talk abouttheir future.
That's something I always throwback on them right.
When given the opportunity, areyou willing to take it?
(04:53):
And so when you look back at mycareer, I can tell you this
it's not where I wanted it tobegin.
I often start with that becauseI graduated college in four
years and we all have visions ofwhat we think we're going to be
.
Working on a barge on theMississippi as a deckhand,
making $8 an hour, wasdefinitely not where I thought I
would be after completingcollege.
(05:14):
I don't think anybody would putthemselves in that position, but
it's really just the way itworked out for me and I'm dating
myself here going back a littlebit, but kind of in a time
before in ag, before they hadinternships and really didn't
get those kinds of opportunities.
You had to start from the bottomand my opportunity came as a
deckhand on a barge and becauseI wanted to break into the
industry so badly, having comefrom an ag background, I took it
(05:38):
.
And so I wound up on a barge inMississippi as a deckhand, like
I said, and really that's reallywhere my career began, and I
threw everything I had into it,whether it was shoveling the
boot pit or, like I said, youknow, loading barges, unloading
barges, and we handledeverything from fertilizer to
mulch to grain and even rock,and I threw everything I had
into it and I wanted to showthem that I could be the best
(06:00):
employee and if my mission wasto load a barge or to sweep, I
threw everything behind it and Iwanted to be the best boot
sweeper that they had ever had.
And that's the way I approachedit.
And from there I got anopportunity to go in the office
and then I went on the moretraditional path that you see
today, where I started out as alow-level merchandise bounced
around state to state, where yougrow in position and size of
(06:23):
company, and eventually made myway up to the corporate office
in my corporate career and was adistrict manager over many
facilities in North Americabefore I decided to break off
and start my own company, omniedConsulting.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (06:37):
Again, great depth and scope that
really contribute to ourdiscussion on internships.
So let's discuss the importanceof internships.
We all know the currentcompetitive landscape and what
that looks like for talent inthe grain industry.
Lots of industries areexperiencing this as well, but
some of these more rural areas.
It's challenging.
Why do you believe internshipsare becoming more critical for
(06:57):
organizations?
Additionally, dustin, how dointernships help in identifying
and securing potential long-termemployees?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (07:07):
Well, I think the first part I want to
address to that is that you'reabsolutely correct, jim, that
the war for talent is real.
It is as competitive as I haveever seen it.
In my 25 years in ag, I canrecall a time when you would
open up a position and you hadso many candidates coming at you
you know you didn't know whatto do, and the reality is is
that times have changed somewhat, where companies are out there
(07:29):
fighting right for good talent,and so I think what makes
internships so valuable rightnow is that it's going to give
you an opportunity to get ayoung person the early talent as
I would call it before they'reestablished, before they've
gotten out to the open market,and it really gives you kind of
the inside track on them beforethey hit the open market, which
is really really valuable.
Now we look at how much timeand resources it takes up from a
(07:52):
company perspective whenthey're recruiting, and so this
gives you an opportunity becauseyou are playing for keeps.
I want to stress that I knowwe're going to get deeper into
this, but the hiring moves thatyou're going to make, good or
bad, they're going to affect youyears down the road and I
ultimately believe that they arethe true factor in whether your
company is going to succeed orfail, and so there's a lot on
the line here, and sointernships give you a chance to
(08:14):
test drive that employee, andit goes the other way, too,
right, it's an opportunity forcandidates to see is this really
the kind of company that I wantto start my career with?
Right, can I see a life withthese people?
And so, with so much at stake,internships are just a great way
for both sides to learn aboutone another, to really dig deep
and find out was this thedirection that I want to go?
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (08:36):
So very valuable right now.
Thanks for sharing that.
First of all, dustin, thatbrings up a lot of follow-up
questions.
A lot of follow-up questions.
I mean it appears there is anevolution on the focus of the
role of interns and internshipprograms across many industries.
Some really elaborate programsout there, but where in the past
maybe well perhaps internshipprograms were more informal and
(08:59):
maybe a shot in the dark, canyou reflect on the historical
view of internships as moreinformal programs?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (09:06):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
We've come a long way.
You know, one of the greatthings about ag right now is, I
think, that we are gettingbetter every day, and especially
in the area of internships.
And to your point, you knowthere was a time when
internships were very informaland it really was almost treated
like a summer job and we'regoing to get more into this.
But you know, back in the day Ithink they were more used as
(09:26):
almost kind of a summer laborsituation, right, like they
bring you around as a cheapalternative to hiring someone
for so many of the jobs that weneed at the facility level.
And they've changed.
I mean, when you look at thecommitment that not only the
companies are making but some ofthese schools you know I work
with a lot of universitiesacross the country and you know
they used to be primarily forjuniors and seniors.
(09:49):
Then I slowly saw them get intothe sophomore level.
I'm even seeing someuniversities begin as early as
the freshman year.
So they are offering more andmore opportunity to students,
but not only more opportunity,but I think it's a deeper
experience, if you will.
(10:10):
Again, we've come a long wayfrom the days of hey, I need you
to go grade grain or sweep theboot or maybe measure bins to
now.
You've got students working ona bid sheet and learning what it
means to trade and to originategrain.
They're letting them get outand I know firsthand we used to
let our interns get out and meetcustomers they're having these
conversations face-to-face.
So what I would say now is isthat, from a candidate
perspective, you're trulygetting an experience and not
(10:30):
only learning about that, butyou're actually getting a chance
to sharpen your skills Becauseyou know one of the big things
we see that if there was an areathat I would say that students
struggle with, it's being ableto face.
You know a customer, a client,face to face andface and have
these conversations, theseinternships.
Now, by allowing you to get out, you're getting your chance to
make your dry run.
You're practicing so when youhit the open market.
(10:51):
That's not the first timeyou've ever had these
conversations about hey, how doI buy your grain?
I'm interested in selling youyour seed or your fertilizer If
you've taken advantage of theopportunities through these
internship programs.
You've had several years towork on this and that's so huge
because again I go back to howcompetitive it is You're looking
(11:12):
for any kind of edge that youcan get in the market Having a
great internship experience isabsolutely where that begins.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (11:18):
Great response Now.
Can you sort of lead in orprovide some common mistakes
maybe some companies make whendesigning and implementing
internships?
Do you have any anecdotes orhorror stories from past?
Dustin Toberman, Gu (11:33):
experiences .
Yeah, boy, do I, jim.
I tell you, yeah, and I'lladdress a couple of those in a
second.
But I think for a company thatobviously, if you've been
working on internship programsfor years right, just three
years of experience, trial anderror you're going to improve.
And those companies that havedone it for years, they've got a
head start on the competition.
(11:53):
There are companies out there,maybe the small to medium-sized
companies, that are just gettingstarted or haven't done it
before but are thinking about it.
That's a common question I getfrom some of the smaller
companies that say listen, Irealize the value of this, but
where do I even begin?
So the first thing I would sayis that it can be overwhelming
if you look at all the thingsthat you want to accomplish, but
(12:13):
for those of you just gettingstarted, and even if you have an
established program, it reallyjust comes down to having some
structure.
Going back to what we said afew minutes ago about it being
very informal, back in the day,there was a time when you could
just show up and it literallywas well, what needs to get done
first?
Right, well, maybe the grassneeds cut.
I remember me personally when Igot started, I was filing
papers I mean for days at a time, and you talk about boring,
(12:36):
right, but nowadays they're muchmore structured.
So by the time you hit thefront door and they're welcoming
you to the team, they've got aplan, and I would say that the
most successful programs arethose that have clearly laid out
goals and objectives.
They say listen, in your timehere, in this role, in this
position, these are the thingsthat you're going to accomplish.
We're going to expose you tothis.
(12:57):
I think it's very important togive them a well-rounded look at
what they're going to be doingand what a life looks like at a
company.
So the first thing out of thegate, I would say is have some
structure.
The days of just lettingsomebody go out and do what
needs to be done, not only areyou missing an opportunity to
really test drive your employeeand to challenge them and to see
what they're capable of, whichis really what it's all about,
(13:17):
right?
I need to know at the end ofthis is this somebody that I
want to invest our future in?
Can I see them being a futureleader at our organization?
But also it's a poor experiencefor them because they're going
to go back and I can say thisthis has happened firsthand that
they're going to tell theirclassmates, their professors hey
look, I wasted all summer there.
I didn't do anything but allbut but manual labor.
And that's a bad look for thecompany and that's going to hurt
(13:40):
you going down the road,because as you try to grow your
program and hopefully get to apoint where you've got interns
looking your way, they're goingto know that you don't take your
program seriously.
And so, as much as I say it'simportant to have a structured
setup with clear goals andobjectives, I think it's just as
important to make sure thatyou're handling it in a positive
way and challenging them,because a bad experience you
(14:01):
know what they say, right, youknow, good news travels fast.
Bad news travels faster Twostories that stick out of my
mind.
And this is the real value ofwhat internships can bring.
And I get asked all the time.
You know, do companies reallytake a look at interns?
And you know, are they everreally seriously considering
them as candidates?
Absolutely yes, without a doubt, and I'm going to let you
(14:22):
behind the curtain a little bit.
We all get together when wepick the interns.
I know where I came from.
We would get together, eventake pictures, and we would have
open discussions about them andwe talk about all the things we
liked and all the things wedidn't like.
We absolutely ranked interns tosay this is someone we want to
put in a great position andreally challenge them and see
what they're capable of, becauseI rate them at the top.
(14:42):
And there's other interns thatwe say, look, we're kind of
taking a long shot, not a greatstudent, not a great resume, but
we want to see what they'recapable of.
So we talk about those thingsand you can absolutely set
yourself up for success orfailure.
Two stories that come to mind Ican remember I had a young
intern.
Obviously we had a big imprinton the river and the river is
always too high or too low itseems like it's never in between
(15:03):
and always dealt with a lot offlooding issues and when you're
dealing with that, you knowsometimes it's an all hands on
deck situation and you've got tohave people going everywhere,
and I can remember I was.
I would come and ask thisintern hey, listen, need you to
sandbag here?
I need you to go take a pumphere, I need you to take parts
up here.
This facility is slow and I wassending them all over the place
and I mean host, hotel stayseven, and, you know, run this
(15:24):
person everywhere.
Never, not once, to thatindividual complain or say, hey,
you know, I feel like I'mworking too hard.
They always said, hey, whateveryou need, I'm in the fight.
And that's such a great example,I think, of what what you're
looking for Someone that'sreally committed to the
internship and to the company,and that was a person that I can
tell you.
On the flip side of that, I canrecall a time where we had a
(15:49):
company event there's so manyinternships involved where you
have a ball game or a dinner ora company event and we had an
intern that really gotloose-lipped and took the
conversation in a really kind ofan inappropriate way, wasn't
acting in a professional manner,and that was somebody that we
decided listen, as good as yourresume looks, we don't think
that you're right for thecompany because of how you
(16:12):
handled yourself.
So, so important to remainprofessional, because somebody
is always watching.
But I can tell you what you do,how you handle yourself every
day, whether you're in theoffice or out of the office, it
matters.
The internships are real andthose that that the win are
going to be the ones that tookit seriously and acted
professional and did the bestthey could.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (16:30):
Thank you for sharing both sides of the
story.
Some examples you did allude tostructuring a program.
Structure is important.
Now, every organization isgoing to have their own unique
goals and objectives.
So maybe, kind of thinkingbroadly, maybe support those who
are putting together aninternship program, maybe have
(16:51):
when they're evaluating it, ortrying to maybe deepen the
program and provide morestructure.
So, given your experience,let's now shift to key
components of a good internshipprogram.
It's hard to ask this questionbecause everyone is unique, but
maybe, broadly speaking, whatshould the goals and objectives
(17:13):
of a well-structured internshipprogram look like?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (17:17):
Well, I think the key is that I
mentioned a minute ago aboutchallenging you know,
challenging your interns.
I think that the old days of theattitude of you know they're
not capable of much becausethey're students.
I think again, it's all aboutfinding a candidate that is
going to be a future leader foryou, and that's something that I
recommend to anyone that'slooking at prospective
candidates.
You shouldn't just be looking tofill that position or a
low-level entry position.
(17:38):
You should be asking yourselfis this someone someday that I
could see being a leader in ourorganization?
I mean, if you're reallythinking about developing talent
and retention and insidecompany culture, that's really
where it begins hiring the rightkind of individual, and this is
your chance to do that.
So, I think a structure, Ithink the key is to get them
involved, you know, withoutknowing the business
(17:59):
specifically, but getting theminvolved in the day-to-day
functions.
I think that exposing them toas many things that go on
day-to-day as you can do like,for example, you know, getting
them involved maybe at the, atthe, at the lower levels, but
also letting them shadow and bea part of the very, very top.
Now, if you're at a largeorganization, it might be
difficult for you to spend timewith this CEO.
But I think a mistake companiesmake is holding back and they
(18:23):
don't want to get them exposedor say, well, that's, that's too
high level stuff.
I mean, frankly, if I'm, if I'mwanting to challenge someone, I
want to see how they react inthese situations.
So I'm not afraid to have themsit in a boardroom or sit in
very high level meetings.
I'm not afraid to have themlook at a P&L and say this is
what it's all about.
You know, I think you want toget them involved in your
product or service.
You want to talk about howtheir entry level position or
the position that they wouldtake immediately after school or
(18:44):
after the internship how doesthat play into the larger
picture of what we do?
How does it lead to our success?
I want to show them a path ofokay, if we were to bring you on
, this is what your career pathlooks like.
I want to get them exposed toas many things, and it's all
about challenging.
I think also, a step that a lotof great internship programs
offer is getting them involvedin a project right, or giving
(19:05):
them a specific project that'sspecifically related to that
business.
And again, it's about not beingafraid to take a chance.
I think at the heart of it itcomes down to you know, your
internship program is only goingto be successful as the manager
is running it.
So if the manager, you know,has a small mind and thinks look
, these are young students, youknow, I need them for manual
(19:25):
labor, I just don't see thembeing equipped or being able to
handle high level conversations,well, frankly, your program is
going to reflect that and thetype of interns you get as you
go forward are also going toreflect that.
If you want the best and thebrightest, which I don't care
how big you are I think thatshould be the goal of all
programs you want to throw themin the mix and not be afraid to
(19:45):
challenge them and to think ofthem as one of your team, not as
an intern, and that's somethingthat's really important.
I learned early in my careerthat those that didn't take our
program seriously, it was a giftand I would begin to deny them
interns because I would say,frankly, you're not doing them
justice, you're not takingadvantage of the opportunity,
the entire reason behind thiswhole program, and so if a
(20:06):
manager was going to not take itseriously, I would then not let
them have an intern.
So I want somebody that's goingto challenge them, that's going
to get them involved inprojects, and because, honestly
and I'm a firm believer in thisthat when we've got an issue or
an obstacle to overcome, I wantmore ideas, not less.
And so you know what?
Maybe they're not a part of ourorganization, but I'm willing
to listen to their ideas.
(20:26):
Maybe they give you acompletely different perspective
, but that's how we get better,and so I want to get them
involved in as much as I can.
And so, when it comes to thegoals and the structure, I think
you have small goals and biggoals.
The flip side of that is, I alsowant interns to realize that
they need to have their owngoals, and this is something I
had a conversation with anintern yesterday that got
started.
They're asking me okay, thecompany gave me some goals, and
(20:48):
in her case, it was.
She's a merchandiser, you know,I want you to buy so many
bushels, I want you to meetclients, but I also challenged
her to have her own goals aboutwhat do you want to know about
the company?
You know, at the end of it all,you want to be able to ask
yourself what does my life looklike?
Is this going to follow mycareer path, my own personal
goals, you know?
Am I willing to relocate forthese kind of people?
(21:08):
Am I going to go all in on them?
Because you need to answerthose questions at the end of
the internship for yourself.
And so, again, I want goals onboth sides.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (21:17):
I like that you bring so much to, could
have a show just on that sortof response.
There you could.
You did touch on hands-onprojects.
I'd like to also discuss alittle bit further mentorship
and feedback mechanisms Can youtalk to those important pieces
of internship programs.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (21:38):
Yeah, it's so important.
I think that, again, I'm a bigbeliever in every.
As a matter of fact, it's oneof my company mottos that
everyone needs a career champion, and at Omni, we strive to be
those who reach out and ask.
And so I'm a big believer thatit's the people, it's your
network in your professionallife, they're going to have the
biggest impact on your career.
I absolutely believe that, andso these mentorship programs, I
(22:00):
think, are great because itreally allows the candidate, you
know, or the intern, to feel aconnection with the company.
Again, back in the day, whenthey would just throw the intern
and say you show up and youdon't know what you're going to
do for the day, and oftentimes,you know, they kind of wander
around aimlessly and it's reallya waste on everyone's time.
But I think it's such a greatidea to have somebody that's
(22:25):
directly responsible orconnected in some way to the
intern and I don't mean to holdtheir hand at, you know, all
hours of the day but I thinkit's important for them to be
doing regular checkups, to notonly challenging them but also
this is important to rememberyou know, yes, we're dealing
with young professionals and youknow they could be 20, 21, 22
years old, but they're stillstudents a lot of times and
we've got to remember thatthey're not experienced in the
professional world yet and someof this stuff can be
(22:46):
overwhelming.
And so one of the things thatI've seen as a success story is
those that have people that areresponsible for the interns and
they're doing regular checkups,not just about the day-to-day
but also asking, hey, how arethings going, how's everything
working out?
A lot of cases these interns arefar from home and sometimes
it's the first time they've beenaway from home.
Right, maybe they're going toschool locally and now the
(23:06):
internship has taken them, youknow, four or five hours away or
a 20-hour car ride away, and Ihave seen some interns that
unfortunately, it was just alltoo overwhelming.
They didn't feel like they hada connection, they had nowhere
to talk to and they weren't ableto handle and they left.
And it's really unfortunate onboth sides because you're
missing out on what could be agreat candidate and you really
(23:26):
never got to test drive thatcandidate.
And the flip side of that isthat they missed out on an
opportunity to maybe be with acompany that would have been a
great opportunity for theircareer.
So I think, giving them amentor.
I also think connecting internswhile they're at the internship
.
If you're fortunate enough tohave multiple interns, try to do
as much as you can to allowthem to come together to share
their experiences.
(23:47):
I know even those that are at mylevel.
That's one of the reasons thatI enjoy going to the JEEPS
conference and others like it,because it's not even so much
sometimes about, you know, theformal dinners and the meetings,
but it's just about theopportunity to come together and
share common experiences, right, we all benefit from that, and
maybe even sharing our horrorstories with a laugh, and
interns are no different.
(24:07):
If you allow them to cometogether and say you know, at a
lunch or a dinner, man, I had arough day yesterday.
Let me tell you about it.
You know I was out, you know,crop scouting and I was in a
field and the farmer didn't wantme in the field, and you know,
here's how I did it.
What would you do?
That's also part of the growthtoo.
So I think it's reallyimportant to make sure that we
also don't want to forget thatthese are young people.
(24:29):
They're humans, right, theyhave emotions and we need to
consider that also with yourinternship.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (24:52):
You thought it would be good to have
a primary person connectingwith the internships but also
give opportunities for internsto come together and have
discussions.
So that's good.
You're bringing up some reallyinteresting points of making
sure they feel like they belong,that their role is important,
their feedback is important, andjust to be able to have
opportunities to expressthemselves with the staff there
and interns, that feedback isimportant.
And just to be able to haveopportunities to express
(25:12):
themselves with the staff thereand interns, that's really neat.
And so let's get back to thatstructured piece of the program.
How can organizations designinternships to be mutually
beneficial?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (25:26):
That's a great question.
And here's a great point andthis actually goes back to the
last one talking about thefeedback.
Feedback is so important andnone of us like to hear areas
where we come up short.
But I think and I'm going touse this to tie into the next
point that I think it's soimportant that we get the
feedback from our interns.
I think a big mistake thatcompanies make is and I was
guilty of this, right, you getcaught up in your day day and
(25:48):
you forget, oh no, the intern,it's their last week, right, and
I haven't had an opportunity tokind of debrief them.
Such an important step.
I would encourage anyone thathas an internship program make
sure you take you know if it'sfive, 10 minutes, whatever time
you have you know, hopefullymore, but to really talk to that
intern and try to get as muchfeedback as they can.
Now, the pushback on that Ialways get is well, no one's
(26:12):
going to want to shareface-to-face and yes, I'm
sensitive to that but I think ifyou do it in a way that allows
them to just kind of talk abouttheir experience, you don't have
to necessarily put them on thespot and say who didn't you like
, what didn't you like about theprogram?
But if you said, can you talkabout the experience overall?
What did you learn?
What are some areas you wouldhave liked to learn more?
So how you structure it, Ithink you can break it down and
really get a picture of whattheir experience was like.
(26:34):
And then, of course, I thinkit's important to debrief the
managers as well.
You know, were you able tolearn about this person?
Do you see this person as beinga future leader in our
organization?
If you can't answer thosequestions, that's an answer in
itself, because you're coming upshort and your program isn't
digging deep enough.
So I think it's important toget that feedback and that
feedback is going to lead to howyou structure your program.
(26:56):
And I think the keys are whenstarting a program.
Again, it goes back to givingyourself some metrics and taking
a look at your organization topto bottom and saying and this
is really where it begins whoare we?
Who are we trying to serve?
What are we all about?
You've got to be able to answerthose questions because I think
if you can't answer that foryourself, it's going to be
really difficult to put anintern in a situation and expect
(27:19):
them to be able to answer thosequestions.
So I think the first step isclearly defining who you are and
what is your team all about.
Right, when do we fit in thebigger piece of the organization
?
And when you do, I think youlook at the day-to-day of that
operation and some of themetrics on how you define
success, and that's really whereyou start.
Okay, these are the things like,for example, as a merchandiser,
if I was bringing in a youngstudent that I was thinking
(27:42):
about bringing a possible earlytrader origination or
merchandiser well, I look at,okay, what's important for us.
Well, relationships are reallyimportant.
Merchandiser Well, I look at,okay, what's important for us.
Well, relationships are reallyimportant.
So, right out of the gate, Iwant to say listen, I want to
challenge you to meet as many ofour customers as possible,
whether that's through an email,a phone call, face-to-face.
I would have expectations of somany meetings per day, per week
(28:02):
.
I would challenge them to howmany phone calls are we making
right?
How many bushels are we buying?
If nothing else, it's justletting you know, hey, are they
really invested in this?
If you look back at the end ofthe week and I see that you've
made two phone calls.
You haven't met anybody.
You've bought a thousandbushels.
Well, that's going to tell methat either I've got you doing
something else or you're reallynot giving max effort that I'm
(28:23):
looking for, and that's going tobe an indication of how
seriously you're taking thisposition.
So I think I would start withthe day-to-day on.
How do we define success andhow can I expose them to that?
I get this a lot of times.
I see programs that almost gooverboard and they make it too
detailed.
Again, a little bit goes a longway.
A little bit of structure, fouror five bullet points on what
we want you to accomplish isenough.
(28:44):
It doesn't have to be awritten-out plan every day.
I think once you set them ontheir way and they set sail, the
day is going to dictate whatthey do.
And if there's somebody that's ago-getter and I've got to be
honest that's what I'm reallylooking for.
I'm looking for the studentthat is always looking for more
right.
I didn't have to give themdirection and part of that is by
design, right.
I want to give you a little bit, but I want to see what you do
(29:05):
with it and when you've gotnothing to Any interns out there
.
I'm going to let you behind thecurtain a little bit.
When you're done, always makesure that you go back and ask
for more.
Hey, by the way, listen, I'mdone a little bit early with
that task or challenge that yougave me.
I'm really looking forsomething else.
If you don't have anything, Ihappen to go through the company
website or I heard about thisperson.
Would you mind if I were to askthem if I could shadow them for
(29:28):
a while, just to see what theydo?
That's a great idea for bothsides, but you want to be
challenging them and then seewhere they take it and hopefully
they're going to come back andbe asking for more.
So a little bit goes a long way, but you want to definitely set
up some key metrics and again,with that mentor coming back on,
you know, maybe every couple ofdays, how are we doing?
Let's?
Let's have a checkup because,look, sometimes in the beginning
it can be overwhelming and youmight need to do a reset and
(29:49):
that's okay.
You know I've always believedthis that when we lose employees
or things go badly, somewherealong the way, there was a break
in communication and I thinkthat that falls more on the
manager or on leadership, thanit does the individual, in this
case the intern.
Remember, they're new, right?
They don't know what they don'tknow.
So, if you see an intern thathas maybe started to get off
(30:09):
track a little bit not maybeheaded in the direction that
you'd like them to be, that'swhy that mentorship is important
, that's why that feedback isimportant, to come back and say,
okay, listen, hey, notice thatyou're doing this.
Here's what I'd really like youto focus on.
Right, let's try to get back ontrack.
So, if you can keep them to afew areas, you know, I think
that's really the key to keepthem on task.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (30:32):
Dustin, I love so much that you're a guest
in the show.
You really laid out bothperspectives, from the intern
and also the folks who arerunning the operations that are
on site, and so that is reallyimportant and it should benefit
both parties, and I like thatyou put yourself into the voice
and character of an internbecause you know, you've had
(30:54):
interns, you know what you'relooking for.
So it's great that those whoare joining us are also interns,
and this is going to be a greatsupport mechanism for them in
their journey now and in thefuture, here as they are the
future leaders, and sostructured activities laying out
clear objectives are soimportant for internship
programs.
Let's now do a littlecomparison of today's intern
(31:18):
mindset to a decade ago or sometimeframe that you would like to
offer, because there aredifferences.
There are differentexpectations, just from the
society that we live in, thataren't, you know, necessarily
agricultural focused.
It can be, but things arechanging, things are evolving,
so a mindset shift perhaps hastaken place.
(31:39):
So, dustin, how do you believethe mindset and expectations of
interns changed over the past 10years?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (31:46):
Man.
That is such a great question,jim, because it has changed.
It is drastically differentthan when I even broke into the
to the ag game, and this issomething that companies need to
be aware of.
Again.
You know, we've always got toassess where we are, to find out
where we're headed.
And if you look at and I'm hereto tell you, I spend a good
chunk of my time traveling tothese ag organizations.
(32:07):
I'm very close, I volunteer todo a lot of mentorship, I'm a
big part of their ag businessprogram, sponsor a lot of
programs.
I do that because it'simportant for me and for OmniAg
to keep our finger on the pulseof what's going on out there.
What is the next generation ofag leaders?
What are they after?
And I can tell you this and Idon't want to alarm anybody, but
they need to pay attention it'sa lot different than what it
looked like when I came out ofschool and here's why you know I
(32:29):
use this example when I, when Ifirst started moving, I would
have gone anywhere that I wasrequired.
If you would have told me that Ihad to go overseas right To
climb it could have been in themiddle of the desert I would
have said, hey, how long do Ineed to be there?
No problem, and it was allabout compensation.
You know we looked for anopportunity.
You know at companies a lotlonger.
Nowadays it's a whole differentballgame, and that's why I'm so
(32:52):
glad that you brought that up,because, as I travel, one of the
things that I always like toask students is what is your
motivator, what are you lookingfor and as to where?
I used to say things like youknow, a great company, longevity
, building, a career,compensation.
Those were very, very importantto me.
They were, they bring to thetop three for me.
(33:18):
Nowadays I hear things like Iwant control of my time, my
family is important, location isimportant, right, I want to
have a life, work-life balance,mental health.
These are the things that I'mhearing from students today.
So it's much, much different.
I think.
As before, you know, priorgenerations, we threw everything
into our careers, evensacrificing our own self.
I mean, I'll be honest, Imissed many, many events working
in ag, because you've got to bethere when the farmer wants to
(33:39):
come out of the field, whetherI'm loading barges or trains.
My wife would have to film ourkids' events holidays.
I spent much time in the office.
Those days are over.
I can tell you that the nextgeneration of ag leaders doesn't
look at it the same way.
They're much more focused onthe specifics of what the
(33:59):
day-to-day looks like and whatdoes that do to my mental health
, what kind of time am I goingto have and what does my career
path look like.
So, how it relates tointernships.
I would say we used to look atinternships and say, yeah, well,
we're going to throw you in themix, see how you do, good luck,
right, and we'll call you ifyou're interested.
What I would tell companies nowis is that the students that
they're bringing on they'relooking for specific information
(34:21):
on okay, if I were to take thisposition, how long am I here?
What is my day to day?
How long am I going to be inthis location?
Going to be in this location?
What does it look like if I wasto transfer?
All right, what is the nextstep?
How long am I going to be there?
What is this career path?
I mean they really get specificas to where.
You know.
We used to do checkups, maybeonce a year.
This generation is looking forfeedback, like on a monthly
(34:43):
basis.
Hey, am I on track?
Where am I at?
How am I ranking with everyoneelse?
What's next for me?
What are my opportunities?
I get students all the time thatwould say you know, after being
an ag, 25 years well, how longbefore I can do what you do.
And I would have to laugh like,well, it took me, you know,
almost 30 years to get here.
And they're not even out ofschool yet and they want to know
what exactly do I have to do toget where you are?
(35:04):
And that's something that weneed to keep in mind in
internships.
So that's why I get back to howimportant it is to be
structured and giving themspecific goals.
The key thing needs to be thatat the end of it, they need to
be able to paint a picture intheir mind of what it's going to
look like of a life with thatcompany.
And if they can't see it, theywon't be it.
And so if they're out there andthey say you know, I did a lot
(35:24):
of different jobs, but I just Ican't see myself in that role
because I don't know where itgoes.
I don't know where I'm going tobe in five years.
Am I going to be in the samespot?
If you haven't answered thatquestion, you're in trouble, and
so internships really need todo a great job of selling what
the plan looks like.
Hey, step one is here.
Once you achieve this, you canget to here.
And this really goes deeper,beyond internships.
(35:44):
This is about company structureand development, because, again
, this generation is looking forsomething totally different and
if they don't see it, they'renot going to do it.
But that's why internships Iknow we stress this, but the
structure is so important youneed to lay out that plan for
them because, again, if theycan't see it, they're not going
to get on board.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (36:02):
Wow, thank you for the response, very,
very thorough.
Now, another thing we coulddiscuss briefly before we
conclude this is wrapping up aninternship and what are the next
steps.
An area of focus of aninternship program that
shouldn't be overlooked is justthat very thing.
How do you wrap up aninternship, what are the next
(36:25):
steps for the organization, nextsteps for the intern Dustin,
what do you suggest as bestpractices for concluding an
internship, and how shouldorganizations provide feedback
and evaluation?
Can you discuss the importanceof exit interviews and offering
constructive feedback?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (36:41):
Yeah, big believer in all that stuff,
and I think that you know to ourpoint a minute ago.
I think that the worst thingthat you can do after an
internship is to just let themwalk away and, you know, not get
any feedback from your manager,from the candidate.
Not giving them any feedbackalso, but because, again, you
really just kind of, you know,out in the middle of the ocean
without a paddle right, whatdirection are we going to go
(37:02):
from here if we don't know howeffective our strategy, how
effective our managers have been?
What's our leadership meant tothese candidates?
And so I think that the mostimportant thing is, as you begin
to tie it up and again I get it, life gets away from us, right,
we all have other jobs besidesleading the internship, and I
say this because I wantcompanies to know that.
(37:23):
Look, as someone who used torun internship programs, believe
me, I get it right.
I'm looking at multiplefacilities, I've got flooding
somewhere, I've got projectsgoing on, I've got people issues
.
Sometimes interns are the lastthings that we want to do, but
if you're taking the time toinvest in a program, do yourself
a favor by making sure that youwrap it up, because you're
going to get more out of thatgoing forward, and so I think
(37:51):
that the most important thing isto set aside time, for you know
, I love the programs that givethe interns opportunities to
present on their internship.
I think that's a great way toend it.
It can be presenting on aparticular project, or maybe, if
they didn't have a specificproject and they were just
really involved in all differentareas day to day, they can just
give a presentation on theirexperience there, right, and
maybe talk to me about hey, whatdo you see now from your
perspective?
What does this organizationlook like?
(38:12):
Where do we fit in the bigscheme of things?
And I think that also gives thecompanies a chance to see how
they present.
So I think it's a great idea.
You're getting feedback, you'regetting information that you
can use going forward.
I do think it's a good idea forthe manager to sit down face to
face.
I know some people push backand say well, interns don't want
to open up, and I get that.
None of us like to bechallenged.
(38:32):
But I think it's a greatopportunity to come back and
give them some real feedback,because let's say that they're
early in their career you know,freshman sophomore and they're
not at the level where you'regoing to be making a final offer
.
It's important to give themfeedback so that they can grow
right.
I mean, they're taking thechance and coming out and
putting themselves in the mix.
(38:53):
I think we owe it to them to saylisten, here's where some areas
that I think you knocked it outof the park, but here's some
areas going forward I wouldfocus on and always be specific,
try to avoid getting personal,but it's like, hey, you know, I
think your communication couldprobably improve, right?
You know, sometimes there weretimes I felt like we didn't have
good feedback from you or Iwasn't getting responses right.
That's something that I would.
If you get an email, next time,don't wait a week, right?
(39:13):
Let's respond to this in atimely manner.
So I think you really need toput a bow in it.
Getting the feedback isimportant, getting feedback from
both the manager and the internand the flip side of that is, I
think, that the interns reallyneed to come back also and they
need to leave an impression,because I always say this Well,
once you walk out the door,they're going to have an opinion
of you, positive or negative,and that opinion is going to
(39:33):
either lead to an offer or it'sgoing to lead to a hey, good
luck, right, and I joke and Isay here's a mug and a pen.
We want to walk away with morethan just a nice hat, and so
something that I recommend allthe interns to do is that,
hopefully, throughout this and Imade a post about this
yesterday hopefully you've beentaking advantage of your time.
I always say that I don't careif you're at the water cooler in
(39:53):
the parking lot in the lunchline.
You should be introducingyourself to everyone out there
and taking the opportunity justto say hi, I'm Dustin, I'm an
intern here, would love to sitdown and hear more about what
you do and how it affects thebottom line.
Someday, if you've been doingyour due diligence and you've
collected a bunch of cards atthe end of it, what I would
recommend is reaching out to allthose people and talking about
(40:14):
your experience, and yes, thisis going to take some time.
You can do it via email.
Handwritten notes are alwaysgreat, but I get it.
In today's world, emails work,but it could be an email or an
intercompany message.
You want to take the time tolet them know how they impacted
you, that you appreciated theirtime and that you'd really be
interested in staying connected.
I cannot stress this enoughthat it's those connections that
are going to lead to futuresuccess for you and going to
(40:35):
help you grow in your career.
So take the time to to reachout to each and every one of
them and let them know, listen,if there's opportunity in the
future, I'd love to stay intouch and talk about it again.
So, on both sides, the way toend it is, you know, a whole lot
of communication and sittingdown and actually giving it the
time it deserves, as opposed tojust saying oh, today's your
last day.
You know, here's a cake.
(40:55):
We'll go have lunch.
Good luck.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (40:58):
Justin, you're kind of expressing why I
like the podcast form.
It's easy to share, easy tolisten.
Podcast form it's easy to share, easy to listen.
This message is perfect forthose who work in grain
facilities and those interns outthere right now or future
interns, because you'reproviding so much detail that
you can't get in just a shortarticle.
(41:19):
So share this episode please,if you could.
Dustin, your message has beenso important to the Jeeps family
, the greater Jeeps family,grain professionals all
throughout the world.
I'm just curious.
So, dustin, as I shared withour whole grain podcast
listeners at the start of theshow, you grew up in a family
operated business in the grainindustry.
(41:39):
This is what you knew from thestart, of the young child and
now all the way into adulthood.
And you're still a young fella.
Yeah, somewhat, yeah.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (41:50):
That was a real cough.
I was in shock.
Yeah, that was perfect timing.
Yeah, not to the interns, I'mso young.
But yes, believe it or not, Ican still remember my early days
.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (41:58):
Yes, yeah, and that's important.
You put yourself in theposition of these different
players and positions, so thankyou for that.
But it also brings curiosityfor my end.
Since you've dedicated so muchof your adult life to the
agriculture industry, I have toask what makes working in the
green industry so special to you.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (42:20):
Thank you for asking that and it truly
is special.
It is near and dear to my heartand it is why I do what I do.
The ag has been just fantasticto me to my life.
From my childhood it gave methe life that my parents were
able to give me Again.
I grew up in an ag family andit's continued to provide, and
that's why it's very personal tome, truly, my mission at OmniAg
(42:44):
.
Like I said in the verybeginning, I meant it.
That wasn't just an intro totry to sound good, it really was
all about help.
I believe that that there was abetter way, and I was.
I started to see this drift inthe young talent, even in my
corporate life, even before thepandemic about you know, were
they looking at ag, were westill getting the best and
brightest and I wanted to do allthat I could do to help connect
(43:06):
the best in ag to one another.
And, as I said, I believe inrelationships and people and
because what I've seen in mylife and my career in the ag
world is that when you givepeople a chance, they come
through and if you believe inthem, and that's something
that's so important to me.
I tell this story because I useit for so many different types
of presentations.
(43:27):
But the people that we have inag, I think, are truly special
because there's something inside, there's a work ethic, right,
and there's a work ethic and atoughness and it just goes
beyond the day-to-day.
It's almost personal, it's inyour blood, about just the
ability to overcome right,because in ag we overcome so
much right.
Whether you're trying to grow acrop, you're raising animals,
gosh, at the facility level, ifit's, you know the weather's not
(43:53):
cooperating, the markets aren'tcooperating, your equipment
isn't cooperating, lord knows,the river doesn't cooperate a
bunch.
You know these are thechallenges that we have to
overcome and it takes specialpeople to be successful in an
organization.
Honestly and I'm biased a lotof people from other worlds
would walk away with thechallenges that we face.
And these are just challengesthat we face on a normal Tuesday
.
And it takes special, specialpeople and that's why I'm so
(44:14):
interested in doing it and Ifeel so passionate about it.
I just I could, I could fill upan hour's worth or day's worth
on just the individual storiesthat I've seen how people have
overcome and helped one another.
And that's why and I, I, I just, even as I'm talking here, I'm
thinking about so many storiesand throughout my career where
I've just seen people rise aboveand beyond, you know, to help,
(44:35):
whether it was anotherindividual or or the
organization, and that's whyit's special to me and that's
that's why I want to continue totry to bring the best and the
brightest our way.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (44:47):
Again, you've heard it Whole Grain
Podcast listeners.
We have Dustin Toberman,president of Omni Ag Services,
as guest on the show.
Dustin, could you share someinformation on how Omni Ag
serves the agriculturalcommunity and how listeners can
reach out to you and find outmore information?
And also please be sure toinclude some information about
your podcast as well.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (45:04):
Yes, I appreciate it, Jim.
Yes, as I said it's, it's.
You can find us on the web andomniagcom and I'm all over
LinkedIn, usually making lots ofposts that we're we're in the
middle of our internship poststhat we're doing for both the
companies and the and theclients, but you can find me
there as well, you know.
Feel free to reach out to me orconnect through you know to you
through either one of thoseavenues, and I also do.
Yeah, I have a podcast as well,called Boot Pit to Boardroom,
(45:26):
that you can find on any of themajor networks the Spotify,
apple or Amazon.
Again, Boot Pit to Boardroom,where we discuss very, very
similar to what you and I arediscussing, jim, just real life
ag events and experiences, and Itry to bring on people in the
industry, much like you do, andshare those experiences, and the
whole idea is letting peoplebehind the curtain to see what
does it look like for a life inag, because I believe that we're
(45:48):
stronger by sharing thoseexperiences.
And, as far as OmniAg goes,it's really all about connecting
great people and organizations,and so we do that on the
recruiting level, but also, youknow I do consulting with
companies and helping themdevelop and design their own
internship and training programs, as well as training and
development and successionprograms.
So anyone that would have aquestion about internships or
training development or how dowe even begin to recruit and
(46:11):
where do we find the best talent, those are the conversations
that we love to have and feelfree to reach out, and I'm a big
believer that everyone needs acareer champion and OmniAg,
we're happy to be yours.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (46:22):
Wonderful.
I hope a lot of listeners cangrow their network by connecting
with you.
These are all important topicsand every organization needs to
think about this, and I knowthey are.
This is great support for that.
So, dustin, thank you forserving as guest on Whole Grain
Podcast and spending some timewith the Chiefs Whole Grain
Podcast listeners.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (46:39):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be
here.
I love this discussion and I'malready excited about our next
discussion.
All right, super.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (46:46):
Thank you so much, dustin.
All right, thank you, Jim.
Whole Grain Podcast listeners.
Thank you for making time inyour day to using Whole Grain
Podcast show for your personaland professional development.
Hey, don't forget to share thisimportant episode with your
network.
It's a great fit for not onlygrain professionals and those
developing intern programs, butalso for the interns of today,
(47:08):
for the interns in yourorganization and for the interns
of tomorrow as well.
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Again, it's GEAPS dot comForward slash whole grain.
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(47:30):
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(47:52):
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(48:13):
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We look forward to connectingwith you.
(48:34):
Have yourself a great day andthanks for listening to Whole
Grain.
This episode is meant for the ears of
seasoned professionals,individuals and teams developing
intern programs, and for thecurrent intern and the intern of
tomorrow.
Join us for a deep dive on whyinternships matter and how they
can be structured for successComing up next.
Hello and welcome to the show.
(00:26):
Welcome to the Whole GrainPodcast.
My name is Jim Lenz, your hostand producer of the show and the
director of global training andeducation at GEAPS.
We're the mission of the GrainElevator and Processing Society
to champion, connect and servethe global grain industry and
our members At GEAPS.
We work to be the globalcommunity and thought leader for
the grain industry, which feedsand fuels the world.
Thanks for listening today andfor joining the network of
(00:48):
thousands of other grainhandling and processing
professionals across the globetaking strategic steps to grow
professionally.
The Whole Grain Show will giveyou the competitive advantage to
win at work so you can makemore of an impact.
Our guest for today is DustinToberman an impact.
Our guest for today is DustinToberman.
He's dedicated his entirecareer to the agriculture
(01:08):
industry.
Raised in a family-operatedgrain business, dustin has
served in numerous capacitieswithin the grain industry and is
now the president and founderof OMNI OM NI Ag.
is committed to aligning thelong-term interests of both the
talent and employers.
We're excited to have Dustinshare insights on the show about
internships and why they matter.
(01:29):
In this episode, dustin willdiscuss a competitive landscape
for talents in the grainindustry and why internships
have become essential fororganizations.
He will reflect on howinternships have evolved from
informal programs to structuredopportunities that help identify
and secure potential long-termemployees.
Dustin will also share commonmistakes companies make when
(01:50):
designing internships andproviding anecdotes from past
experiences.
We'll also explore keycomponents of successful
internship programs, includingmentorship, hands-on projects
and feedback mechanisms.
Dustin will offer strategiesfor creating mutually beneficial
internship programs andemphasize the importance of
clear objectives and structuredactivities.
(02:11):
Additionally, we'll compare themindset and expectations of
interns today to those from adecade ago, considering
technological advancements andchanges in workplace culture.
Finally, dustin will share bestpractices for concluding an
internship, including howorganizations and interns should
provide feedback and evaluation.
(02:42):
All right, our guest for todayhas dedicated his entire career
to the agriculture industry.
He was raised around afamily-operated grain business.
Since then, he has servednumerous capacities in the grain
industry and now serves as thepresident and founder of Omni,
an organization that serveslong-term interests of talent
and employers.
(03:03):
That's why I'm excited towelcome Dustin Toberman to the
show.
Thank you for yourparticipation in Whole Grain,
Dustin.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (03:10):
I appreciate it, Jim.
Thanks so much.
I'm excited to be here and Ithink it's a great topic today.
I'm really looking forward toour discussion.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (03:17):
Awesome Now to allow our listeners to
get to know you and start theshow with a bit of positive
spirit.
Could you share with ourlisteners a mantra or success
quote that you live byprofessionally?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (03:27):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I love that you start out withthat.
I think for me, it's really allabout relationships.
I'm a big believer in people.
You hear a lot of people outthere say that I'm a people
person.
I'm a believer of people and Ithink that when you give people
the opportunity and set them upfor success, it strengthens
everyone, and I think that leadsto just success for all of us,
and so I think my mantra isgetting out there, which is one
(03:50):
of the reasons I started Omni.
It was all about helping people, and I think when that's your
mission, I think you go a longway.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (04:09):
I like that as well.
To me, people and stories ofpeople and perseverance, getting
beyond, or just seeing someonegrow up in a learning
development space for 28 yearsnow that is inspirational to me.
I think it's inspirational toothers to see people's growth
over time.
So thanks for sharing that.
I think by you describing thedepth and scope of your work
experience will contributesignificantly to the show.
As we focus on internshipstoday in the agriculture
industry, could you provide abrief overview of your work
experience in the grain industry?
(04:30):
I find it very interesting.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (04:32):
Well, thank you, Jim.
Yeah, I love to, and I love totell the story because I think
that it serves as a greatexample to both young and old
professionals that when giventhe opportunity, if you make the
most of it right, I think youcan get to where you want to be.
And that's something that Ichallenge people when they come
to OmniAg and want to talk abouttheir future.
That's something I always throwback on them right.
When given the opportunity, areyou willing to take it?
(04:53):
And so when you look back at mycareer, I can tell you this
it's not where I wanted it tobegin.
I often start with that becauseI graduated college in four
years and we all have visions ofwhat we think we're going to be
.
Working on a barge on theMississippi as a deckhand,
making $8 an hour, wasdefinitely not where I thought I
would be after completingcollege.
(05:14):
I don't think anybody would putthemselves in that position, but
it's really just the way itworked out for me and I'm dating
myself here going back a littlebit, but kind of in a time
before in ag, before they hadinternships and really didn't
get those kinds of opportunities.
You had to start from the bottomand my opportunity came as a
deckhand on a barge and becauseI wanted to break into the
industry so badly, having comefrom an ag background, I took it
(05:38):
.
And so I wound up on a barge inMississippi as a deckhand, like
I said, and really that's reallywhere my career began, and I
threw everything I had into it,whether it was shoveling the
boot pit or, like I said, youknow, loading barges, unloading
barges, and we handledeverything from fertilizer to
mulch to grain and even rock,and I threw everything I had
into it and I wanted to showthem that I could be the best
(06:00):
employee and if my mission wasto load a barge or to sweep, I
threw everything behind it and Iwanted to be the best boot
sweeper that they had ever had.
And that's the way I approachedit.
And from there I got anopportunity to go in the office
and then I went on the moretraditional path that you see
today, where I started out as alow-level merchandise bounced
around state to state, where yougrow in position and size of
(06:23):
company, and eventually made myway up to the corporate office
in my corporate career and was adistrict manager over many
facilities in North Americabefore I decided to break off
and start my own company, omniedConsulting.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (06:37):
Again, great depth and scope that
really contribute to ourdiscussion on internships.
So let's discuss the importanceof internships.
We all know the currentcompetitive landscape and what
that looks like for talent inthe grain industry.
Lots of industries areexperiencing this as well, but
some of these more rural areas.
It's challenging.
Why do you believe internshipsare becoming more critical for
(06:57):
organizations?
Additionally, dustin, how dointernships help in identifying
and securing potential long-termemployees?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (07:07):
Well, I think the first part I want to
address to that is that you'reabsolutely correct, jim, that
the war for talent is real.
It is as competitive as I haveever seen it.
In my 25 years in ag, I canrecall a time when you would
open up a position and you hadso many candidates coming at you
you know you didn't know whatto do, and the reality is is
that times have changed somewhat, where companies are out there
(07:29):
fighting right for good talent,and so I think what makes
internships so valuable rightnow is that it's going to give
you an opportunity to get ayoung person the early talent as
I would call it before they'reestablished, before they've
gotten out to the open market,and it really gives you kind of
the inside track on them beforethey hit the open market, which
is really really valuable.
Now we look at how much timeand resources it takes up from a
(07:52):
company perspective whenthey're recruiting, and so this
gives you an opportunity becauseyou are playing for keeps.
I want to stress that I knowwe're going to get deeper into
this, but the hiring moves thatyou're going to make, good or
bad, they're going to affect youyears down the road and I
ultimately believe that they arethe true factor in whether your
company is going to succeed orfail, and so there's a lot on
the line here, and sointernships give you a chance to
(08:14):
test drive that employee, andit goes the other way, too,
right, it's an opportunity forcandidates to see is this really
the kind of company that I wantto start my career with?
Right, can I see a life withthese people?
And so, with so much at stake,internships are just a great way
for both sides to learn aboutone another, to really dig deep
and find out was this thedirection that I want to go?
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (08:36):
So very valuable right now.
Thanks for sharing that.
First of all, dustin, thatbrings up a lot of follow-up
questions.
A lot of follow-up questions.
I mean it appears there is anevolution on the focus of the
role of interns and internshipprograms across many industries.
Some really elaborate programsout there, but where in the past
maybe well perhaps internshipprograms were more informal and
(08:59):
maybe a shot in the dark, canyou reflect on the historical
view of internships as moreinformal programs?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (09:06):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
We've come a long way.
You know, one of the greatthings about ag right now is, I
think, that we are gettingbetter every day, and especially
in the area of internships.
And to your point, you knowthere was a time when
internships were very informaland it really was almost treated
like a summer job and we'regoing to get more into this.
But you know, back in the day Ithink they were more used as
(09:26):
almost kind of a summer laborsituation, right, like they
bring you around as a cheapalternative to hiring someone
for so many of the jobs that weneed at the facility level.
And they've changed.
I mean, when you look at thecommitment that not only the
companies are making but some ofthese schools you know I work
with a lot of universitiesacross the country and you know
they used to be primarily forjuniors and seniors.
(09:49):
Then I slowly saw them get intothe sophomore level.
I'm even seeing someuniversities begin as early as
the freshman year.
So they are offering more andmore opportunity to students,
but not only more opportunity,but I think it's a deeper
experience, if you will.
(10:10):
Again, we've come a long wayfrom the days of hey, I need you
to go grade grain or sweep theboot or maybe measure bins to
now.
You've got students working ona bid sheet and learning what it
means to trade and to originategrain.
They're letting them get outand I know firsthand we used to
let our interns get out and meetcustomers they're having these
conversations face-to-face.
So what I would say now is isthat, from a candidate
perspective, you're trulygetting an experience and not
(10:30):
only learning about that, butyou're actually getting a chance
to sharpen your skills Becauseyou know one of the big things
we see that if there was an areathat I would say that students
struggle with, it's being ableto face.
You know a customer, a client,face to face andface and have
these conversations, theseinternships.
Now, by allowing you to get out, you're getting your chance to
make your dry run.
You're practicing so when youhit the open market.
(10:51):
That's not the first timeyou've ever had these
conversations about hey, how doI buy your grain?
I'm interested in selling youyour seed or your fertilizer If
you've taken advantage of theopportunities through these
internship programs.
You've had several years towork on this and that's so huge
because again I go back to howcompetitive it is You're looking
(11:12):
for any kind of edge that youcan get in the market Having a
great internship experience isabsolutely where that begins.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (11:18):
Great response Now.
Can you sort of lead in orprovide some common mistakes
maybe some companies make whendesigning and implementing
internships?
Do you have any anecdotes orhorror stories from past?
Dustin Toberman, Gu (11:33):
experiences .
Yeah, boy, do I, jim.
I tell you, yeah, and I'lladdress a couple of those in a
second.
But I think for a company thatobviously, if you've been
working on internship programsfor years right, just three
years of experience, trial anderror you're going to improve.
And those companies that havedone it for years, they've got a
head start on the competition.
(11:53):
There are companies out there,maybe the small to medium-sized
companies, that are just gettingstarted or haven't done it
before but are thinking about it.
That's a common question I getfrom some of the smaller
companies that say listen, Irealize the value of this, but
where do I even begin?
So the first thing I would sayis that it can be overwhelming
if you look at all the thingsthat you want to accomplish, but
(12:13):
for those of you just gettingstarted, and even if you have an
established program, it reallyjust comes down to having some
structure.
Going back to what we said afew minutes ago about it being
very informal, back in the day,there was a time when you could
just show up and it literallywas well, what needs to get done
first?
Right, well, maybe the grassneeds cut.
I remember me personally when Igot started, I was filing
papers I mean for days at a time, and you talk about boring,
(12:36):
right, but nowadays they're muchmore structured.
So by the time you hit thefront door and they're welcoming
you to the team, they've got aplan, and I would say that the
most successful programs arethose that have clearly laid out
goals and objectives.
They say listen, in your timehere, in this role, in this
position, these are the thingsthat you're going to accomplish.
We're going to expose you tothis.
(12:57):
I think it's very important togive them a well-rounded look at
what they're going to be doingand what a life looks like at a
company.
So the first thing out of thegate, I would say is have some
structure.
The days of just lettingsomebody go out and do what
needs to be done, not only areyou missing an opportunity to
really test drive your employeeand to challenge them and to see
what they're capable of, whichis really what it's all about,
(13:17):
right?
I need to know at the end ofthis is this somebody that I
want to invest our future in?
Can I see them being a futureleader at our organization?
But also it's a poor experiencefor them because they're going
to go back and I can say thisthis has happened firsthand that
they're going to tell theirclassmates, their professors hey
look, I wasted all summer there.
I didn't do anything but allbut but manual labor.
And that's a bad look for thecompany and that's going to hurt
(13:40):
you going down the road,because as you try to grow your
program and hopefully get to apoint where you've got interns
looking your way, they're goingto know that you don't take your
program seriously.
And so, as much as I say it'simportant to have a structured
setup with clear goals andobjectives, I think it's just as
important to make sure thatyou're handling it in a positive
way and challenging them,because a bad experience you
(14:01):
know what they say, right, youknow, good news travels fast.
Bad news travels faster Twostories that stick out of my
mind.
And this is the real value ofwhat internships can bring.
And I get asked all the time.
You know, do companies reallytake a look at interns?
And you know, are they everreally seriously considering
them as candidates?
Absolutely yes, without a doubt, and I'm going to let you
(14:22):
behind the curtain a little bit.
We all get together when wepick the interns.
I know where I came from.
We would get together, eventake pictures, and we would have
open discussions about them andwe talk about all the things we
liked and all the things wedidn't like.
We absolutely ranked interns tosay this is someone we want to
put in a great position andreally challenge them and see
what they're capable of, becauseI rate them at the top.
(14:42):
And there's other interns thatwe say, look, we're kind of
taking a long shot, not a greatstudent, not a great resume, but
we want to see what they'recapable of.
So we talk about those thingsand you can absolutely set
yourself up for success orfailure.
Two stories that come to mind Ican remember I had a young
intern.
Obviously we had a big imprinton the river and the river is
always too high or too low itseems like it's never in between
(15:03):
and always dealt with a lot offlooding issues and when you're
dealing with that, you knowsometimes it's an all hands on
deck situation and you've got tohave people going everywhere,
and I can remember I was.
I would come and ask thisintern hey, listen, need you to
sandbag here?
I need you to go take a pumphere, I need you to take parts
up here.
This facility is slow and I wassending them all over the place
and I mean host, hotel stayseven, and, you know, run this
(15:24):
person everywhere.
Never, not once, to thatindividual complain or say, hey,
you know, I feel like I'mworking too hard.
They always said, hey, whateveryou need, I'm in the fight.
And that's such a great example,I think, of what what you're
looking for Someone that'sreally committed to the
internship and to the company,and that was a person that I can
tell you.
On the flip side of that, I canrecall a time where we had a
(15:49):
company event there's so manyinternships involved where you
have a ball game or a dinner ora company event and we had an
intern that really gotloose-lipped and took the
conversation in a really kind ofan inappropriate way, wasn't
acting in a professional manner,and that was somebody that we
decided listen, as good as yourresume looks, we don't think
that you're right for thecompany because of how you
(16:12):
handled yourself.
So, so important to remainprofessional, because somebody
is always watching.
But I can tell you what you do,how you handle yourself every
day, whether you're in theoffice or out of the office, it
matters.
The internships are real andthose that that the win are
going to be the ones that tookit seriously and acted
professional and did the bestthey could.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (16:30):
Thank you for sharing both sides of the
story.
Some examples you did allude tostructuring a program.
Structure is important.
Now, every organization isgoing to have their own unique
goals and objectives.
So maybe, kind of thinkingbroadly, maybe support those who
are putting together aninternship program, maybe have
(16:51):
when they're evaluating it, ortrying to maybe deepen the
program and provide morestructure.
So, given your experience,let's now shift to key
components of a good internshipprogram.
It's hard to ask this questionbecause everyone is unique, but
maybe, broadly speaking, whatshould the goals and objectives
(17:13):
of a well-structured internshipprogram look like?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (17:17):
Well, I think the key is that I
mentioned a minute ago aboutchallenging you know,
challenging your interns.
I think that the old days of theattitude of you know they're
not capable of much becausethey're students.
I think again, it's all aboutfinding a candidate that is
going to be a future leader foryou, and that's something that I
recommend to anyone that'slooking at prospective
candidates.
You shouldn't just be looking tofill that position or a
low-level entry position.
(17:38):
You should be asking yourselfis this someone someday that I
could see being a leader in ourorganization?
I mean, if you're reallythinking about developing talent
and retention and insidecompany culture, that's really
where it begins hiring the rightkind of individual, and this is
your chance to do that.
So, I think a structure, Ithink the key is to get them
involved, you know, withoutknowing the business
(17:59):
specifically, but getting theminvolved in the day-to-day
functions.
I think that exposing them toas many things that go on
day-to-day as you can do like,for example, you know, getting
them involved maybe at the, atthe, at the lower levels, but
also letting them shadow and bea part of the very, very top.
Now, if you're at a largeorganization, it might be
difficult for you to spend timewith this CEO.
But I think a mistake companiesmake is holding back and they
(18:23):
don't want to get them exposedor say, well, that's, that's too
high level stuff.
I mean, frankly, if I'm, if I'mwanting to challenge someone, I
want to see how they react inthese situations.
So I'm not afraid to have themsit in a boardroom or sit in
very high level meetings.
I'm not afraid to have themlook at a P&L and say this is
what it's all about.
You know, I think you want toget them involved in your
product or service.
You want to talk about howtheir entry level position or
the position that they wouldtake immediately after school or
(18:44):
after the internship how doesthat play into the larger
picture of what we do?
How does it lead to our success?
I want to show them a path ofokay, if we were to bring you on
, this is what your career pathlooks like.
I want to get them exposed toas many things, and it's all
about challenging.
I think also, a step that a lotof great internship programs
offer is getting them involvedin a project right, or giving
(19:05):
them a specific project that'sspecifically related to that
business.
And again, it's about not beingafraid to take a chance.
I think at the heart of it itcomes down to you know, your
internship program is only goingto be successful as the manager
is running it.
So if the manager, you know,has a small mind and thinks look
, these are young students, youknow, I need them for manual
(19:25):
labor, I just don't see thembeing equipped or being able to
handle high level conversations,well, frankly, your program is
going to reflect that and thetype of interns you get as you
go forward are also going toreflect that.
If you want the best and thebrightest, which I don't care
how big you are I think thatshould be the goal of all
programs you want to throw themin the mix and not be afraid to
(19:45):
challenge them and to think ofthem as one of your team, not as
an intern, and that's somethingthat's really important.
I learned early in my careerthat those that didn't take our
program seriously, it was a giftand I would begin to deny them
interns because I would say,frankly, you're not doing them
justice, you're not takingadvantage of the opportunity,
the entire reason behind thiswhole program, and so if a
(20:06):
manager was going to not take itseriously, I would then not let
them have an intern.
So I want somebody that's goingto challenge them, that's going
to get them involved inprojects, and because, honestly
and I'm a firm believer in thisthat when we've got an issue or
an obstacle to overcome, I wantmore ideas, not less.
And so you know what?
Maybe they're not a part of ourorganization, but I'm willing
to listen to their ideas.
(20:26):
Maybe they give you acompletely different perspective
, but that's how we get better,and so I want to get them
involved in as much as I can.
And so, when it comes to thegoals and the structure, I think
you have small goals and biggoals.
The flip side of that is, I alsowant interns to realize that
they need to have their owngoals, and this is something I
had a conversation with anintern yesterday that got
started.
They're asking me okay, thecompany gave me some goals, and
(20:48):
in her case, it was.
She's a merchandiser, you know,I want you to buy so many
bushels, I want you to meetclients, but I also challenged
her to have her own goals aboutwhat do you want to know about
the company?
You know, at the end of it all,you want to be able to ask
yourself what does my life looklike?
Is this going to follow mycareer path, my own personal
goals, you know?
Am I willing to relocate forthese kind of people?
(21:08):
Am I going to go all in on them?
Because you need to answerthose questions at the end of
the internship for yourself.
And so, again, I want goals onboth sides.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (21:17):
I like that you bring so much to, could
have a show just on that sortof response.
There you could.
You did touch on hands-onprojects.
I'd like to also discuss alittle bit further mentorship
and feedback mechanisms Can youtalk to those important pieces
of internship programs.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (21:38):
Yeah, it's so important.
I think that, again, I'm a bigbeliever in every.
As a matter of fact, it's oneof my company mottos that
everyone needs a career champion, and at Omni, we strive to be
those who reach out and ask.
And so I'm a big believer thatit's the people, it's your
network in your professionallife, they're going to have the
biggest impact on your career.
I absolutely believe that, andso these mentorship programs, I
(22:00):
think, are great because itreally allows the candidate, you
know, or the intern, to feel aconnection with the company.
Again, back in the day, whenthey would just throw the intern
and say you show up and youdon't know what you're going to
do for the day, and oftentimes,you know, they kind of wander
around aimlessly and it's reallya waste on everyone's time.
But I think it's such a greatidea to have somebody that's
(22:25):
directly responsible orconnected in some way to the
intern and I don't mean to holdtheir hand at, you know, all
hours of the day but I thinkit's important for them to be
doing regular checkups, to notonly challenging them but also
this is important to rememberyou know, yes, we're dealing
with young professionals and youknow they could be 20, 21, 22
years old, but they're stillstudents a lot of times and
we've got to remember thatthey're not experienced in the
professional world yet and someof this stuff can be
(22:46):
overwhelming.
And so one of the things thatI've seen as a success story is
those that have people that areresponsible for the interns and
they're doing regular checkups,not just about the day-to-day
but also asking, hey, how arethings going, how's everything
working out?
A lot of cases these interns arefar from home and sometimes
it's the first time they've beenaway from home.
Right, maybe they're going toschool locally and now the
(23:06):
internship has taken them, youknow, four or five hours away or
a 20-hour car ride away, and Ihave seen some interns that
unfortunately, it was just alltoo overwhelming.
They didn't feel like they hada connection, they had nowhere
to talk to and they weren't ableto handle and they left.
And it's really unfortunate onboth sides because you're
missing out on what could be agreat candidate and you really
(23:26):
never got to test drive thatcandidate.
And the flip side of that isthat they missed out on an
opportunity to maybe be with acompany that would have been a
great opportunity for theircareer.
So I think, giving them amentor.
I also think connecting internswhile they're at the internship
.
If you're fortunate enough tohave multiple interns, try to do
as much as you can to allowthem to come together to share
their experiences.
(23:47):
I know even those that are at mylevel.
That's one of the reasons thatI enjoy going to the JEEPS
conference and others like it,because it's not even so much
sometimes about, you know, theformal dinners and the meetings,
but it's just about theopportunity to come together and
share common experiences, right, we all benefit from that, and
maybe even sharing our horrorstories with a laugh, and
interns are no different.
(24:07):
If you allow them to cometogether and say you know, at a
lunch or a dinner, man, I had arough day yesterday.
Let me tell you about it.
You know I was out, you know,crop scouting and I was in a
field and the farmer didn't wantme in the field, and you know,
here's how I did it.
What would you do?
That's also part of the growthtoo.
So I think it's reallyimportant to make sure that we
also don't want to forget thatthese are young people.
(24:29):
They're humans, right, theyhave emotions and we need to
consider that also with yourinternship.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (24:52):
You thought it would be good to have
a primary person connectingwith the internships but also
give opportunities for internsto come together and have
discussions.
So that's good.
You're bringing up some reallyinteresting points of making
sure they feel like they belong,that their role is important,
their feedback is important, andjust to be able to have
opportunities to expressthemselves with the staff there
and interns, that feedback isimportant.
And just to be able to haveopportunities to express
(25:12):
themselves with the staff thereand interns, that's really neat.
And so let's get back to thatstructured piece of the program.
How can organizations designinternships to be mutually
beneficial?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (25:26):
That's a great question.
And here's a great point andthis actually goes back to the
last one talking about thefeedback.
Feedback is so important andnone of us like to hear areas
where we come up short.
But I think and I'm going touse this to tie into the next
point that I think it's soimportant that we get the
feedback from our interns.
I think a big mistake thatcompanies make is and I was
guilty of this, right, you getcaught up in your day day and
(25:48):
you forget, oh no, the intern,it's their last week, right, and
I haven't had an opportunity tokind of debrief them.
Such an important step.
I would encourage anyone thathas an internship program make
sure you take you know if it'sfive, 10 minutes, whatever time
you have you know, hopefullymore, but to really talk to that
intern and try to get as muchfeedback as they can.
Now, the pushback on that Ialways get is well, no one's
(26:12):
going to want to shareface-to-face and yes, I'm
sensitive to that but I think ifyou do it in a way that allows
them to just kind of talk abouttheir experience, you don't have
to necessarily put them on thespot and say who didn't you like
, what didn't you like about theprogram?
But if you said, can you talkabout the experience overall?
What did you learn?
What are some areas you wouldhave liked to learn more?
So how you structure it, Ithink you can break it down and
really get a picture of whattheir experience was like.
(26:34):
And then, of course, I thinkit's important to debrief the
managers as well.
You know, were you able tolearn about this person?
Do you see this person as beinga future leader in our
organization?
If you can't answer thosequestions, that's an answer in
itself, because you're coming upshort and your program isn't
digging deep enough.
So I think it's important toget that feedback and that
feedback is going to lead to howyou structure your program.
(26:56):
And I think the keys are whenstarting a program.
Again, it goes back to givingyourself some metrics and taking
a look at your organization topto bottom and saying and this
is really where it begins whoare we?
Who are we trying to serve?
What are we all about?
You've got to be able to answerthose questions because I think
if you can't answer that foryourself, it's going to be
really difficult to put anintern in a situation and expect
(27:19):
them to be able to answer thosequestions.
So I think the first step isclearly defining who you are and
what is your team all about.
Right, when do we fit in thebigger piece of the organization
?
And when you do, I think youlook at the day-to-day of that
operation and some of themetrics on how you define
success, and that's really whereyou start.
Okay, these are the things like,for example, as a merchandiser,
if I was bringing in a youngstudent that I was thinking
(27:42):
about bringing a possible earlytrader origination or
merchandiser well, I look at,okay, what's important for us.
Well, relationships are reallyimportant.
Merchandiser Well, I look at,okay, what's important for us.
Well, relationships are reallyimportant.
So, right out of the gate, Iwant to say listen, I want to
challenge you to meet as many ofour customers as possible,
whether that's through an email,a phone call, face-to-face.
I would have expectations of somany meetings per day, per week
(28:02):
.
I would challenge them to howmany phone calls are we making
right?
How many bushels are we buying?
If nothing else, it's justletting you know, hey, are they
really invested in this?
If you look back at the end ofthe week and I see that you've
made two phone calls.
You haven't met anybody.
You've bought a thousandbushels.
Well, that's going to tell methat either I've got you doing
something else or you're reallynot giving max effort that I'm
(28:23):
looking for, and that's going tobe an indication of how
seriously you're taking thisposition.
So I think I would start withthe day-to-day on.
How do we define success andhow can I expose them to that?
I get this a lot of times.
I see programs that almost gooverboard and they make it too
detailed.
Again, a little bit goes a longway.
A little bit of structure, fouror five bullet points on what
we want you to accomplish isenough.
(28:44):
It doesn't have to be awritten-out plan every day.
I think once you set them ontheir way and they set sail, the
day is going to dictate whatthey do.
And if there's somebody that's ago-getter and I've got to be
honest that's what I'm reallylooking for.
I'm looking for the studentthat is always looking for more
right.
I didn't have to give themdirection and part of that is by
design, right.
I want to give you a little bit, but I want to see what you do
(29:05):
with it and when you've gotnothing to Any interns out there
.
I'm going to let you behind thecurtain a little bit.
When you're done, always makesure that you go back and ask
for more.
Hey, by the way, listen, I'mdone a little bit early with
that task or challenge that yougave me.
I'm really looking forsomething else.
If you don't have anything, Ihappen to go through the company
website or I heard about thisperson.
Would you mind if I were to askthem if I could shadow them for
(29:28):
a while, just to see what theydo?
That's a great idea for bothsides, but you want to be
challenging them and then seewhere they take it and hopefully
they're going to come back andbe asking for more.
So a little bit goes a long way, but you want to definitely set
up some key metrics and again,with that mentor coming back on,
you know, maybe every couple ofdays, how are we doing?
Let's?
Let's have a checkup because,look, sometimes in the beginning
it can be overwhelming and youmight need to do a reset and
(29:49):
that's okay.
You know I've always believedthis that when we lose employees
or things go badly, somewherealong the way, there was a break
in communication and I thinkthat that falls more on the
manager or on leadership, thanit does the individual, in this
case the intern.
Remember, they're new, right?
They don't know what they don'tknow.
So, if you see an intern thathas maybe started to get off
(30:09):
track a little bit not maybeheaded in the direction that
you'd like them to be, that'swhy that mentorship is important
, that's why that feedback isimportant, to come back and say,
okay, listen, hey, notice thatyou're doing this.
Here's what I'd really like youto focus on.
Right, let's try to get back ontrack.
So, if you can keep them to afew areas, you know, I think
that's really the key to keepthem on task.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (30:32):
Dustin, I love so much that you're a guest
in the show.
You really laid out bothperspectives, from the intern
and also the folks who arerunning the operations that are
on site, and so that is reallyimportant and it should benefit
both parties, and I like thatyou put yourself into the voice
and character of an internbecause you know, you've had
(30:54):
interns, you know what you'relooking for.
So it's great that those whoare joining us are also interns,
and this is going to be a greatsupport mechanism for them in
their journey now and in thefuture, here as they are the
future leaders, and sostructured activities laying out
clear objectives are soimportant for internship
programs.
Let's now do a littlecomparison of today's intern
(31:18):
mindset to a decade ago or sometimeframe that you would like to
offer, because there aredifferences.
There are differentexpectations, just from the
society that we live in, thataren't, you know, necessarily
agricultural focused.
It can be, but things arechanging, things are evolving,
so a mindset shift perhaps hastaken place.
(31:39):
So, dustin, how do you believethe mindset and expectations of
interns changed over the past 10years?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (31:46):
Man.
That is such a great question,jim, because it has changed.
It is drastically differentthan when I even broke into the
to the ag game, and this issomething that companies need to
be aware of.
Again.
You know, we've always got toassess where we are, to find out
where we're headed.
And if you look at and I'm hereto tell you, I spend a good
chunk of my time traveling tothese ag organizations.
(32:07):
I'm very close, I volunteer todo a lot of mentorship, I'm a
big part of their ag businessprogram, sponsor a lot of
programs.
I do that because it'simportant for me and for OmniAg
to keep our finger on the pulseof what's going on out there.
What is the next generation ofag leaders?
What are they after?
And I can tell you this and Idon't want to alarm anybody, but
they need to pay attention it'sa lot different than what it
looked like when I came out ofschool and here's why you know I
(32:29):
use this example when I, when Ifirst started moving, I would
have gone anywhere that I wasrequired.
If you would have told me that Ihad to go overseas right To
climb it could have been in themiddle of the desert I would
have said, hey, how long do Ineed to be there?
No problem, and it was allabout compensation.
You know we looked for anopportunity.
You know at companies a lotlonger.
Nowadays it's a whole differentballgame, and that's why I'm so
(32:52):
glad that you brought that up,because, as I travel, one of the
things that I always like toask students is what is your
motivator, what are you lookingfor and as to where?
I used to say things like youknow, a great company, longevity
, building, a career,compensation.
Those were very, very importantto me.
They were, they bring to thetop three for me.
(33:18):
Nowadays I hear things like Iwant control of my time, my
family is important, location isimportant, right, I want to
have a life, work-life balance,mental health.
These are the things that I'mhearing from students today.
So it's much, much different.
I think.
As before, you know, priorgenerations, we threw everything
into our careers, evensacrificing our own self.
I mean, I'll be honest, Imissed many, many events working
in ag, because you've got to bethere when the farmer wants to
(33:39):
come out of the field, whetherI'm loading barges or trains.
My wife would have to film ourkids' events holidays.
I spent much time in the office.
Those days are over.
I can tell you that the nextgeneration of ag leaders doesn't
look at it the same way.
They're much more focused onthe specifics of what the
(33:59):
day-to-day looks like and whatdoes that do to my mental health
, what kind of time am I goingto have and what does my career
path look like.
So, how it relates tointernships.
I would say we used to look atinternships and say, yeah, well,
we're going to throw you in themix, see how you do, good luck,
right, and we'll call you ifyou're interested.
What I would tell companies nowis is that the students that
they're bringing on they'relooking for specific information
(34:21):
on okay, if I were to take thisposition, how long am I here?
What is my day to day?
How long am I going to be inthis location?
Going to be in this location?
What does it look like if I wasto transfer?
All right, what is the nextstep?
How long am I going to be there?
What is this career path?
I mean they really get specificas to where.
You know.
We used to do checkups, maybeonce a year.
This generation is looking forfeedback, like on a monthly
(34:43):
basis.
Hey, am I on track?
Where am I at?
How am I ranking with everyoneelse?
What's next for me?
What are my opportunities?
I get students all the time thatwould say you know, after being
an ag, 25 years well, how longbefore I can do what you do.
And I would have to laugh like,well, it took me, you know,
almost 30 years to get here.
And they're not even out ofschool yet and they want to know
what exactly do I have to do toget where you are?
(35:04):
And that's something that weneed to keep in mind in
internships.
So that's why I get back to howimportant it is to be
structured and giving themspecific goals.
The key thing needs to be thatat the end of it, they need to
be able to paint a picture intheir mind of what it's going to
look like of a life with thatcompany.
And if they can't see it, theywon't be it.
And so if they're out there andthey say you know, I did a lot
(35:24):
of different jobs, but I just Ican't see myself in that role
because I don't know where itgoes.
I don't know where I'm going tobe in five years.
Am I going to be in the samespot?
If you haven't answered thatquestion, you're in trouble, and
so internships really need todo a great job of selling what
the plan looks like.
Hey, step one is here.
Once you achieve this, you canget to here.
And this really goes deeper,beyond internships.
(35:44):
This is about company structureand development, because, again
, this generation is looking forsomething totally different and
if they don't see it, they'renot going to do it.
But that's why internships Iknow we stress this, but the
structure is so important youneed to lay out that plan for
them because, again, if theycan't see it, they're not going
to get on board.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (36:02):
Wow, thank you for the response, very,
very thorough.
Now, another thing we coulddiscuss briefly before we
conclude this is wrapping up aninternship and what are the next
steps.
An area of focus of aninternship program that
shouldn't be overlooked is justthat very thing.
How do you wrap up aninternship, what are the next
(36:25):
steps for the organization, nextsteps for the intern Dustin,
what do you suggest as bestpractices for concluding an
internship, and how shouldorganizations provide feedback
and evaluation?
Can you discuss the importanceof exit interviews and offering
constructive feedback?
Dustin Toberman, Guest (36:41):
Yeah, big believer in all that stuff,
and I think that you know to ourpoint a minute ago.
I think that the worst thingthat you can do after an
internship is to just let themwalk away and, you know, not get
any feedback from your manager,from the candidate.
Not giving them any feedbackalso, but because, again, you
really just kind of, you know,out in the middle of the ocean
without a paddle right, whatdirection are we going to go
(37:02):
from here if we don't know howeffective our strategy, how
effective our managers have been?
What's our leadership meant tothese candidates?
And so I think that the mostimportant thing is, as you begin
to tie it up and again I get it, life gets away from us, right,
we all have other jobs besidesleading the internship, and I
say this because I wantcompanies to know that.
(37:23):
Look, as someone who used torun internship programs, believe
me, I get it right.
I'm looking at multiplefacilities, I've got flooding
somewhere, I've got projectsgoing on, I've got people issues
.
Sometimes interns are the lastthings that we want to do, but
if you're taking the time toinvest in a program, do yourself
a favor by making sure that youwrap it up, because you're
going to get more out of thatgoing forward, and so I think
(37:51):
that the most important thing isto set aside time, for you know
, I love the programs that givethe interns opportunities to
present on their internship.
I think that's a great way toend it.
It can be presenting on aparticular project, or maybe, if
they didn't have a specificproject and they were just
really involved in all differentareas day to day, they can just
give a presentation on theirexperience there, right, and
maybe talk to me about hey, whatdo you see now from your
perspective?
What does this organizationlook like?
(38:12):
Where do we fit in the bigscheme of things?
And I think that also gives thecompanies a chance to see how
they present.
So I think it's a great idea.
You're getting feedback, you'regetting information that you
can use going forward.
I do think it's a good idea forthe manager to sit down face to
face.
I know some people push backand say well, interns don't want
to open up, and I get that.
None of us like to bechallenged.
(38:32):
But I think it's a greatopportunity to come back and
give them some real feedback,because let's say that they're
early in their career you know,freshman sophomore and they're
not at the level where you'regoing to be making a final offer
.
It's important to give themfeedback so that they can grow
right.
I mean, they're taking thechance and coming out and
putting themselves in the mix.
(38:53):
I think we owe it to them to saylisten, here's where some areas
that I think you knocked it outof the park, but here's some
areas going forward I wouldfocus on and always be specific,
try to avoid getting personal,but it's like, hey, you know, I
think your communication couldprobably improve, right?
You know, sometimes there weretimes I felt like we didn't have
good feedback from you or Iwasn't getting responses right.
That's something that I would.
If you get an email, next time,don't wait a week, right?
(39:13):
Let's respond to this in atimely manner.
So I think you really need toput a bow in it.
Getting the feedback isimportant, getting feedback from
both the manager and the internand the flip side of that is, I
think, that the interns reallyneed to come back also and they
need to leave an impression,because I always say this Well,
once you walk out the door,they're going to have an opinion
of you, positive or negative,and that opinion is going to
(39:33):
either lead to an offer or it'sgoing to lead to a hey, good
luck, right, and I joke and Isay here's a mug and a pen.
We want to walk away with morethan just a nice hat, and so
something that I recommend allthe interns to do is that,
hopefully, throughout this and Imade a post about this
yesterday hopefully you've beentaking advantage of your time.
I always say that I don't careif you're at the water cooler in
(39:53):
the parking lot in the lunchline.
You should be introducingyourself to everyone out there
and taking the opportunity justto say hi, I'm Dustin, I'm an
intern here, would love to sitdown and hear more about what
you do and how it affects thebottom line.
Someday, if you've been doingyour due diligence and you've
collected a bunch of cards atthe end of it, what I would
recommend is reaching out to allthose people and talking about
(40:14):
your experience, and yes, thisis going to take some time.
You can do it via email.
Handwritten notes are alwaysgreat, but I get it.
In today's world, emails work,but it could be an email or an
intercompany message.
You want to take the time tolet them know how they impacted
you, that you appreciated theirtime and that you'd really be
interested in staying connected.
I cannot stress this enoughthat it's those connections that
are going to lead to futuresuccess for you and going to
(40:35):
help you grow in your career.
So take the time to to reachout to each and every one of
them and let them know, listen,if there's opportunity in the
future, I'd love to stay intouch and talk about it again.
So, on both sides, the way toend it is, you know, a whole lot
of communication and sittingdown and actually giving it the
time it deserves, as opposed tojust saying oh, today's your
last day.
You know, here's a cake.
(40:55):
We'll go have lunch.
Good luck.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (40:58):
Justin, you're kind of expressing why I
like the podcast form.
It's easy to share, easy tolisten.
Podcast form it's easy to share, easy to listen.
This message is perfect forthose who work in grain
facilities and those interns outthere right now or future
interns, because you'reproviding so much detail that
you can't get in just a shortarticle.
(41:19):
So share this episode please,if you could.
Dustin, your message has beenso important to the Jeeps family
, the greater Jeeps family,grain professionals all
throughout the world.
I'm just curious.
So, dustin, as I shared withour whole grain podcast
listeners at the start of theshow, you grew up in a family
operated business in the grainindustry.
(41:39):
This is what you knew from thestart, of the young child and
now all the way into adulthood.
And you're still a young fella.
Yeah, somewhat, yeah.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (41:50):
That was a real cough.
I was in shock.
Yeah, that was perfect timing.
Yeah, not to the interns, I'mso young.
But yes, believe it or not, Ican still remember my early days
.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (41:58):
Yes, yeah, and that's important.
You put yourself in theposition of these different
players and positions, so thankyou for that.
But it also brings curiosityfor my end.
Since you've dedicated so muchof your adult life to the
agriculture industry, I have toask what makes working in the
green industry so special to you.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (42:20):
Thank you for asking that and it truly
is special.
It is near and dear to my heartand it is why I do what I do.
The ag has been just fantasticto me to my life.
From my childhood it gave methe life that my parents were
able to give me Again.
I grew up in an ag family andit's continued to provide, and
that's why it's very personal tome, truly, my mission at OmniAg
(42:44):
.
Like I said in the verybeginning, I meant it.
That wasn't just an intro totry to sound good, it really was
all about help.
I believe that that there was abetter way, and I was.
I started to see this drift inthe young talent, even in my
corporate life, even before thepandemic about you know, were
they looking at ag, were westill getting the best and
brightest and I wanted to do allthat I could do to help connect
(43:06):
the best in ag to one another.
And, as I said, I believe inrelationships and people and
because what I've seen in mylife and my career in the ag
world is that when you givepeople a chance, they come
through and if you believe inthem, and that's something
that's so important to me.
I tell this story because I useit for so many different types
of presentations.
(43:27):
But the people that we have inag, I think, are truly special
because there's something inside, there's a work ethic, right,
and there's a work ethic and atoughness and it just goes
beyond the day-to-day.
It's almost personal, it's inyour blood, about just the
ability to overcome right,because in ag we overcome so
much right.
Whether you're trying to grow acrop, you're raising animals,
gosh, at the facility level, ifit's, you know the weather's not
(43:53):
cooperating, the markets aren'tcooperating, your equipment
isn't cooperating, lord knows,the river doesn't cooperate a
bunch.
You know these are thechallenges that we have to
overcome and it takes specialpeople to be successful in an
organization.
Honestly and I'm biased a lotof people from other worlds
would walk away with thechallenges that we face.
And these are just challengesthat we face on a normal Tuesday
.
And it takes special, specialpeople and that's why I'm so
(44:14):
interested in doing it and Ifeel so passionate about it.
I just I could, I could fill upan hour's worth or day's worth
on just the individual storiesthat I've seen how people have
overcome and helped one another.
And that's why and I, I, I just, even as I'm talking here, I'm
thinking about so many storiesand throughout my career where
I've just seen people rise aboveand beyond, you know, to help,
(44:35):
whether it was anotherindividual or or the
organization, and that's whyit's special to me and that's
that's why I want to continue totry to bring the best and the
brightest our way.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (44:47):
Again, you've heard it Whole Grain
Podcast listeners.
We have Dustin Toberman,president of Omni Ag Services,
as guest on the show.
Dustin, could you share someinformation on how Omni Ag
serves the agriculturalcommunity and how listeners can
reach out to you and find outmore information?
And also please be sure toinclude some information about
your podcast as well.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (45:04):
Yes, I appreciate it, Jim.
Yes, as I said it's, it's.
You can find us on the web andomniagcom and I'm all over
LinkedIn, usually making lots ofposts that we're we're in the
middle of our internship poststhat we're doing for both the
companies and the and theclients, but you can find me
there as well, you know.
Feel free to reach out to me orconnect through you know to you
through either one of thoseavenues, and I also do.
Yeah, I have a podcast as well,called Boot Pit to Boardroom,
(45:26):
that you can find on any of themajor networks the Spotify,
apple or Amazon.
Again, Boot Pit to Boardroom,where we discuss very, very
similar to what you and I arediscussing, jim, just real life
ag events and experiences, and Itry to bring on people in the
industry, much like you do, andshare those experiences, and the
whole idea is letting peoplebehind the curtain to see what
does it look like for a life inag, because I believe that we're
(45:48):
stronger by sharing thoseexperiences.
And, as far as OmniAg goes,it's really all about connecting
great people and organizations,and so we do that on the
recruiting level, but also, youknow I do consulting with
companies and helping themdevelop and design their own
internship and training programs, as well as training and
development and successionprograms.
So anyone that would have aquestion about internships or
training development or how dowe even begin to recruit and
(46:11):
where do we find the best talent, those are the conversations
that we love to have and feelfree to reach out, and I'm a big
believer that everyone needs acareer champion and OmniAg,
we're happy to be yours.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (46:22):
Wonderful.
I hope a lot of listeners cangrow their network by connecting
with you.
These are all important topicsand every organization needs to
think about this, and I knowthey are.
This is great support for that.
So, dustin, thank you forserving as guest on Whole Grain
Podcast and spending some timewith the Chiefs Whole Grain
Podcast listeners.
Dustin Toberman, Guest (46:39):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be
here.
I love this discussion and I'malready excited about our next
discussion.
All right, super.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS/Host (46:46):
Thank you so much, dustin.
All right, thank you, Jim.
Whole Grain Podcast listeners.
Thank you for making time inyour day to using Whole Grain
Podcast show for your personaland professional development.
Hey, don't forget to share thisimportant episode with your
network.
It's a great fit for not onlygrain professionals and those
developing intern programs, butalso for the interns of today,
(47:08):
for the interns in yourorganization and for the interns
of tomorrow as well.
You can catch all Whole Grainpodcast episodes by going to the
GEAPS dot com website.
Again, it's GEAPS dot comForward slash whole grain.
You can also catch the show onyour favorite podcast app, such
as apple podcast, google podcast, amazon music, spotify, pandora
(47:30):
.
There's a bunch of them outthere, dozens of them.
It's a great way to connect aswell.
Our young show has connectedwith grain professionals from 72
countries.
While you are on the podcastapp, hey, don't forget to leave
us a five-star rating and acomment.
That really helps people findthe show much easier.
The Whole Grain Show is aproduction of GEAPS, the Grain
Elevator and Processing Society.
(47:52):
The Grain Elevator andProcessing Society is the
largest organization dedicatedto advancing the grain handling
and grain processing industry.
Be sure to check out GEAPScomthat's G-E-A-P-S dot com.
The Whole Grain Podcast offersa terrific opportunity to
spotlight your business.
If you and your organizationwant to sponsor an episode and
(48:13):
be a featured guest, pleasereach out to me.
Director of Global Education atJeeps and host and producer of
the show.
Additionally, if you want tohave audio ad featured on the
show, we can help you as well.
Just reach out to me.
My email is James at atjeepscom.
J-a-m-e-s at G-E-A-P-S dot com.
We look forward to connectingwith you.
(48:34):
Have yourself a great day andthanks for listening to Whole
Grain.
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