August 13, 2025 • 19 mins
This week, Doug Stephan talks with Janelle Maiocco, Founder and CEO of Barn2Door (Barn2Door.com) — the all-in-one software platform helping independent farmers sell directly to local customers. From streamlining online and in-person sales to simplifying marketing and farm management, Barn2Door empowers farmers to keep more profit, save time, and connect with buyers anytime, anywhere.
Janelle shares how Barn2Door has grown to serve thousands of farms in all 50 states, why technology is becoming essential for farm-to-table success, and how her deep roots in agriculture and food have shaped her mission to help farmers thrive in today’s market.
Whether you’re a farmer, foodie, or just love supporting local, this conversation will inspire you to think about where your food comes from — and the technology making it easier to get it there.
Janelle shares how Barn2Door has grown to serve thousands of farms in all 50 states, why technology is becoming essential for farm-to-table success, and how her deep roots in agriculture and food have shaped her mission to help farmers thrive in today’s market.
Whether you’re a farmer, foodie, or just love supporting local, this conversation will inspire you to think about where your food comes from — and the technology making it easier to get it there.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe, Proven Way to Lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. We think about what's going on
as we look to the fall and things that are
going on, solutions to farm problems, management, etc. Etc. Because
(00:22):
fall is usually the busiest time of the year on
most of the farms that I know, busiest in terms
of selling, procuring, the connection, if you will, to the
people who use what we are growing on the farm.
I've invited Janelle my o Ca, who is the CEO
of Barn to Door, whose headquarters are in Nashville and
(00:42):
actually out in Washington and Seattle as well, to talk
about what they have as a service, how they help
farmers manage the sales. I have talked on my own
farm to you or at least some of your representatives,
because I was interested in trying this when I was
doing a little bit more farm to table stuff on
the farm, and I'm contemplating going back to doing some
(01:05):
of that stuff, including having a restaurant. So I'll robe
into what you have. Let's talk about you first and
how this all get started. You grow up on a farm,
you're a farm kid.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was a farm kid. I grew up in a
farm community.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
My grandfather was a dairy farmer and a chicken farmer
in the Pacific Northwest. I'm so tucked right near the
border of Canada and Washington State, so huge dairy community,
dairy and berries. So my summer jobs were picking strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries,
you name it.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So let me just take in a side trip with
you for a second to find out what's going on
if you still do your family still have that farm
still on it? No, yep, so you've heard of late
I'm sure, and I'm not aiming at this becoming a
political conversation, but because you're there and you're from that area.
So far, the biggest problems in getting returns for farmers,
(02:02):
especially the cherry season which has all but passed us
now because we have come up with the like forty
two percent of the workforce in the country is not
legal and these people that are in this area and
all over the country need to help. But yet the
country is being I think turned upside down in terms
(02:23):
of agriculture anyway by the ice raids and that sort
of thing. I wonder if you ever thought of anybody
you know up in that neck of the woods has
had the experience that I have seen where whole crops
have been ruined.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Oh that's interesting. So well, two things.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
One, I actually moved to Nashville a couple of years ago,
so I'm actually not living there anymore. But we do
certainly understand that larger farms have a harder time, you know,
sourcing folks to work. I worked on farms all the
way through, you know, from the time I could work
all the way through high school and until I went
to college.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And I wish every kid in America had to work
on a farm. I think that would be really healthy.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That would change, that would change the face of the
country and give us our work ethic back.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Right. I agree with the one hundred percent on that, Yep.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
So I would say of the farms that we're working with, though,
were we we focus more on the family I want
to say almost the family farm, but not the not
the big, big farms, but the farms who it's their livelihood,
but they could be everywhere from going from a hobby
or homestead. Are two full time farming, but they want
to make it a legitimate business enough.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So those other people, by the way to now, those
are the people we serve. This program is aimed exactly
at that group. So you're you've found the straight way
into that barn door if you will.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, that's that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I So we're really passionate about that and I and
many of them are, you know, having lots of kids
and they're working on the farms. And so we actually
have farms in all fifty states using barns door to
manage their business because it's.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
One I mean, it's great. Just like if your chef
at a restaurant a farmer on a farm.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
At the end of the day, it's still a business,
and so you have to sort of deal with them
cans of being a business owner.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And that's really the.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Puption behind burnt to Door is to set independent firmers
all across America up for success in managing and running
a business effectively and efficiently in a way that sets
them up for success.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So we'll use the website barn the number two all
one word barn to door dot com as sort of
an outline for this conversation you can check it out
barn todoor dot com. So we'll continue with Miss Mayo
call here on this week's American Family Farmer. Elizabeth Miller
is here one of the counselors that you may be
exposed to if you go to top laws dot com, the
(04:35):
website for a Calitron. So what if we look online
right now at toplaws dot com. What are we going
to see? Elizabeth?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
You know, we have a new updated website page. If
you go to toploss dot com and you click shop
radio Sale, you'll see this beautiful new page. It's got
all kinds of information about Caldron all in one place.
All the information about how it works to rebuilding muscle tissue,
how it's safe with medications. It's got before and after
images of real people like you and me. Those are
(05:05):
our real customers. The reviews that are on there that
are verified by a third party, so you can guarantee
that those are real people just like us who have
taken the product and trot it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Elizabeth Miller from Caltron here. Use the DOUG code when
you're doing the orders that help shout as well getting
free shipping and the best deal toploss dot com for
Caldron back on the American Family Farmer and this program,
this conversation we're having with Jenelle Mayoko is right up
(05:39):
your alley. Barn to Door is the name of the
service she runs it. You came up with the idea,
did you? Where's it? Where did the idea come from
that you should help people sell their products?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I just have a huge heart for farmers because my
grandfather was a farmer, and so was my entire community.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So I have a lot of background and farming. I
have a huge passion for food.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I actually worked in restaurants when I wasn't working on farms.
I was working in restaurants front and back of house,
actually a trained chef, and have a lot of great
chef friends. But then I ended up in technology, and
so as I was trying to source from farmers directly myself,
I was noticing that all of my chef friends, all
of my consumer friends, all wanted local food, but they
(06:23):
just struggled to figure out how to get it conveniently
or how to find the farms. And then on the
other side, I saw farmers farms failing, you know, the
farms struggling to get their food to market, and when
you have nine inten people wanting local food, it's just
it's a disconnect that needed to be solved. So I
didn't want the family farm to go away. I wanted
(06:45):
it to grow and be the future of food, and
I wanted all the people who wanted local food to
get it. And I recognized a disconnect there that I
could help with, and it just became like I had
to do it. There was no option other than to
make sure that we ushered in the ability for farmers
to sell direct and be successful.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
M Well, that's what this part. It's the only thing
that makes any sense given are we have become desperate
and disparate in terms of our understanding what goes on
on the farm. When I tell people other than a
community that is mostly suburban, although it has lots of
industry and business. The headquarters of Staples is here, TJ
(07:25):
Max is here, Bow's Corporation is here, and we have
lots of industry in business. But I happen to be
in a part of town where there are a couple
of farms that still exist, and so you try to
peddle to those people, and it's amazing what people don't
know and who comes to visit. Every weekend Saturdays and Sundays,
(07:47):
I open my farm and for those who want to
look at the website, it's Eastley E A S T
L E I G H. Eastleyfarm dot Coming and see
what's going on with the people, the guests, what they do,
how we have them spend time with the animals here
because again people just don't know that much about it.
(08:07):
So does the business of farm to door just talk
about products or does it help to bring people to
the farm for other reasons.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, I think that's a great marketing exercise when farmers
bring folks to the farm to expose them.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So a really important thing about.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Barnes to door is I realized early on that the
middleman was hurtful for the farmers so long supply chains
in terms of their profit margin. And the farmers I
was working with a long time ago were selling directs
so they could maximize the profit margin, sure, be able
to set their own prices, own their own relationships with
the end buyers and basically de risk their business and
(08:46):
again maximize their profits. And so we power farmers kind
of under the hood to make sure they have an
online store can manage inventory, orders, marketing, sales, finances, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
But it's under the farm's brand.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
It is the it's about farmers selling direct to their
customers in their local communities.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
But the key, the real key here is.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Empowering farmers to make it convenient for buyers because today's
buyers love to shop self serve order online. They love
it to be easy to get the food. And once
you help them usher in convenience to the buyer and
become available for self serve ordering and those sorts of
things that today's buyers expect and love, it just changes
the game for farmers. Like we just see wild success.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's not overnight.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
You have to work at it because it is a business,
but it's there's nothing more rewarding than the feedback we
get from farmers who are who are growing, who go
from drowning to like treading water and then swimming and
really feeling empowered in their business and in their local communities.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So how do you do it? A lot of farmers
listen right now, I say, Wow, this sounds great, But
can I afford it? That's the question. This is more
if you understand the language here, the verticals for you
if you're an independent farmer like I am, promotion promotion,
promotion and selling on line. So again I'm gonna tell you.
(10:11):
I guess I would say this would be the first
question I'd asked after I understand how you work, then
how do we pay for it?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, it's a subscription, So that basically means you subscribe
the same way a consumer would subscribe to a Spotify
or a.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Netflix to stream media.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
They would subscribe to burn to doors software to run
their business. And so it's a monthly fee or they
can pay annually upfront, and we've priced it so that
it can like if you're even going from hobby farmer
to full time farmer.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's it's it's affordable and it pays for itself very quickly.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We have a ton of farms that help, like even
teach classes and have We have farmers that we work
with at host office hours on our behalf. It's called
the Connects program, and they will talk all day long
about how they quickly eclipsed ROI on paying for a
barne door because it opens you up to so many
more buyers, It helps you get organized, it saves you
(11:07):
so much time. So whether it's a small farm. Some
of the bigger farms we work with think we charge way, way,
way too little, which I actually appreciate.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Right, They're just like, really.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That's all you know to run my whole business and
have marketing and grow my email list.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And the answer is yes, Like you know, clearly we
need to cover our costs.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
But for us, we try to be operationally as efficient
as we can so that we can continue to offer.
Like I said, we sort of have a low, medium
high price point for the various size farms.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yep, that sounds excellent, and you're selling me. However, I
looked at this the first time. I don't know that
I looked at it. I didn't talk to you, and
I think that I thought to him I said, well,
I don't know if this is what this will work.
When you're convincing me that it makes sense. Hold on
a secondly, having a conversation with Janelle and Myoko, and
you should be paying a lot of attention to it,
because this is the kind of thing where the cost
(12:00):
benefit again talking about Nichols, dimes and quarters here oftentimes,
which make it better for all of us to make
a few more bucks, which we all need to do.
Farming is in trouble in America because we don't have
enough people who understand what goes on on the farm.
And I don't mean to make this a lecture point,
but you hear this frequently. People just don't get it.
(12:22):
So this is a way of getting it. If you
will stand by a second, we'll continue our conversation here
Now it's a special report that I want to bring
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(13:00):
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Speaker 1 (13:07):
Elizabeth Miller is here. So what if we look online
right now at toplaws dot com. What are we going
to see? Lizabeth?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
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(13:37):
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Speaker 1 (13:54):
Elizabeth Miller from Caltrin here, use the DUG code when
you're doing the orders. That helps shout is while getting
free shipping and the best deal top loss dot com
for Caldron. Pretty compelling story here on this week's American
Family Farmer Program. I'm Doug Stephan with Jennell Myoko, who's
the CEO of Barn to Door Go to Barn to Door.
(14:15):
Barn to Door is barn the number two door all
one word dot com to understand what their software is
going to present. You know, one of the things that
I think I would like to engineer is understanding I'm
not great at using technology. Fortunately, I have somebody that
(14:37):
is around me who's not actually here. She's out in
Cleveland and I'm in Massachusetts. But you don't need to
be there. You get the information in Omega work for you.
And I'm going to put her onto investigating this more
for me so that we can see how because I
really don't have at the moment, although my son is
(14:57):
working on a plan to greatly enhance that's what we're
doing on the farm. I just don't have the time
to do it because I got to run a business
and that pays for the farm. So the idea of
using this We have a weekend openings in the farm,
sells ice cream, and we have tours around the farm,
(15:19):
and you know, there are other things we can be
doing here for sure, but like we have that right now.
Peaches you know little things. I've got peaches on the
farm and that should be all over the website, and
yet I haven't had time to send along. The lady
that runs the farm doesn't have time either. So you
got somebody like you there just takes one week it's peaches,
(15:41):
and the next week it's maybe peach ice cream, and
the week after that it's whatever. So I'm not trying
to do this your job for you. But that's what
I'm thinking I'm hearing from you, right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I love this. So we and I'm glad you brought
that up. So we work with some incredible dairies. We
also work with ranches. We have produce farmers. We have
farmers selling whatever they sell in all their local communities.
And the neat part about that is is we actually,
I'll say it that it's on me to make it
turnkey for farmers who are like, hey, I don't have
time for tech, because the goal is to save you
(16:16):
a ton of time. I have a farm that we
work with. I loved using it as an example. They
were serving six hundred customers. They had a produce CSA
and her the mother, the grandmother actually was managing about
took her about six hours a day to go back
and forth with all the customers on logistics and orders
and everything else for the for their weekly delivery.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
When they signed up.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
For barn to Door, they went up to fourteen hundred
customers and she went from six hours a day to
thirty minutes a day because they used barn to Door.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So it's I guess.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Ironic that it's even less time in technology because she
didn't have to go back and forth with everybody. Just
the orders were easily compiled in a picklist, a pack list,
labels could be spit out.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It just made it so much.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Easier for them to have all of those orders just
readily in one place with the customers. And so you
end up making the orders and the transactions and everything's
so organized and automated that instead you're spending time with
customers talking about you know, how are your kids doing.
And so it's just it's interesting to help people understand
that automating the administrative tasks that are back office tasks
(17:23):
can actually free you up in terms of other time
and everything else.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And it is really intuitive.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Like that's on us as a software company, along with
all the other resources we provide. Farms to make sure
that it's very intuitive and easy and takes even I
mean it takes time you're managing whole business, but we
make that part of it as fast and efficient as
we can.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So barn to door dot com that's where you go
to check this out. Would you say most of your
customers are younger. I'm looking at profiles of some of
the people who talk well of your services. Would you say,
just because it's technology that gravitates, are you your services
gravitate to younger farmers?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I would say it's an absolute mix.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
We have up and coming farmers, but we have tons
of farmers that are thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and even
higher all over the board. The neat part about barna
door is you get a team. When you sign up,
you get an onboarding manager. There's daily office hours that
you can pop into. You have a support team in
real time chat, one on one coaching, and like I
(18:27):
said again, you can have there a couple times a week.
We have it where other farmers are hosting office hours
who have already had success with barnador and growing and
scaling their business.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So for us, it's like we want.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
We want you to have whatever you need, whether it's
you know, whether you'd like to listen to podcasts, read ebooks,
connect with people directly in person, you know, whatever, whatever
resources you need are there for farmers, including including Because
we have worked with farms for over ten years now,
we can tell people, hey, this is the best practice.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Right. Your online store shouldn't have four hundred items.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
People don't scroll that far, right, But if you have forty,
you're going to sell more product, right, So we can
really be helpful in that way. And we I mean,
you can tell we're very passionate. We want enter farmers
to just.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Rocket and grow and be the future of America.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
All right, farm listeners go to barn todoor dot com.
Jaelmoko thanks for being here as the CEO of Barn
to Door on the American Family Farmer.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
This program was produced at Bobksound and Recording. Please visit
bobksound dot com. The American Familyfarmer podcast sponsored in part
by Caldron, which is the safe way for you to
lose weight and keep it off.
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
The Safe, Proven Way to Lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. I'm Doug Stephan. This is
the American Family Farmer. We think about what's going on
as we look to the fall and things that are
going on, solutions to farm problems, management, etc. Etc. Because
(00:22):
fall is usually the busiest time of the year on
most of the farms that I know, busiest in terms
of selling, procuring, the connection, if you will, to the
people who use what we are growing on the farm.
I've invited Janelle my o Ca, who is the CEO
of Barn to Door, whose headquarters are in Nashville and
(00:42):
actually out in Washington and Seattle as well, to talk
about what they have as a service, how they help
farmers manage the sales. I have talked on my own
farm to you or at least some of your representatives,
because I was interested in trying this when I was
doing a little bit more farm to table stuff on
the farm, and I'm contemplating going back to doing some
(01:05):
of that stuff, including having a restaurant. So I'll robe
into what you have. Let's talk about you first and
how this all get started. You grow up on a farm,
you're a farm kid.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I was a farm kid. I grew up in a
farm community.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
My grandfather was a dairy farmer and a chicken farmer
in the Pacific Northwest. I'm so tucked right near the
border of Canada and Washington State, so huge dairy community,
dairy and berries. So my summer jobs were picking strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries,
you name it.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
So let me just take in a side trip with
you for a second to find out what's going on
if you still do your family still have that farm
still on it? No, yep, so you've heard of late
I'm sure, and I'm not aiming at this becoming a
political conversation, but because you're there and you're from that area.
So far, the biggest problems in getting returns for farmers,
(02:02):
especially the cherry season which has all but passed us
now because we have come up with the like forty
two percent of the workforce in the country is not
legal and these people that are in this area and
all over the country need to help. But yet the
country is being I think turned upside down in terms
(02:23):
of agriculture anyway by the ice raids and that sort
of thing. I wonder if you ever thought of anybody
you know up in that neck of the woods has
had the experience that I have seen where whole crops
have been ruined.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Oh that's interesting. So well, two things.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
One, I actually moved to Nashville a couple of years ago,
so I'm actually not living there anymore. But we do
certainly understand that larger farms have a harder time, you know,
sourcing folks to work. I worked on farms all the
way through, you know, from the time I could work
all the way through high school and until I went
to college.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And I wish every kid in America had to work
on a farm. I think that would be really healthy.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
That would change, that would change the face of the
country and give us our work ethic back.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Right. I agree with the one hundred percent on that, Yep.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
So I would say of the farms that we're working with, though,
were we we focus more on the family I want
to say almost the family farm, but not the not
the big, big farms, but the farms who it's their livelihood,
but they could be everywhere from going from a hobby
or homestead. Are two full time farming, but they want
to make it a legitimate business enough.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So those other people, by the way to now, those
are the people we serve. This program is aimed exactly
at that group. So you're you've found the straight way
into that barn door if you will.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, that's that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I So we're really passionate about that and I and
many of them are, you know, having lots of kids
and they're working on the farms. And so we actually
have farms in all fifty states using barns door to
manage their business because it's.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
One I mean, it's great. Just like if your chef
at a restaurant a farmer on a farm.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
At the end of the day, it's still a business,
and so you have to sort of deal with them
cans of being a business owner.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
And that's really the.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Puption behind burnt to Door is to set independent firmers
all across America up for success in managing and running
a business effectively and efficiently in a way that sets
them up for success.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So we'll use the website barn the number two all
one word barn to door dot com as sort of
an outline for this conversation you can check it out
barn todoor dot com. So we'll continue with Miss Mayo
call here on this week's American Family Farmer. Elizabeth Miller
is here one of the counselors that you may be
exposed to if you go to top laws dot com, the
(04:35):
website for a Calitron. So what if we look online
right now at toplaws dot com. What are we going
to see? Elizabeth?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
You know, we have a new updated website page. If
you go to toploss dot com and you click shop
radio Sale, you'll see this beautiful new page. It's got
all kinds of information about Caldron all in one place.
All the information about how it works to rebuilding muscle tissue,
how it's safe with medications. It's got before and after
images of real people like you and me. Those are
(05:05):
our real customers. The reviews that are on there that
are verified by a third party, so you can guarantee
that those are real people just like us who have
taken the product and trot it.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Elizabeth Miller from Caltron here. Use the DOUG code when
you're doing the orders that help shout as well getting
free shipping and the best deal toploss dot com for
Caldron back on the American Family Farmer and this program,
this conversation we're having with Jenelle Mayoko is right up
(05:39):
your alley. Barn to Door is the name of the
service she runs it. You came up with the idea,
did you? Where's it? Where did the idea come from
that you should help people sell their products?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I just have a huge heart for farmers because my
grandfather was a farmer, and so was my entire community.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So I have a lot of background and farming. I
have a huge passion for food.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I actually worked in restaurants when I wasn't working on farms.
I was working in restaurants front and back of house,
actually a trained chef, and have a lot of great
chef friends. But then I ended up in technology, and
so as I was trying to source from farmers directly myself,
I was noticing that all of my chef friends, all
of my consumer friends, all wanted local food, but they
(06:23):
just struggled to figure out how to get it conveniently
or how to find the farms. And then on the
other side, I saw farmers farms failing, you know, the
farms struggling to get their food to market, and when
you have nine inten people wanting local food, it's just
it's a disconnect that needed to be solved. So I
didn't want the family farm to go away. I wanted
(06:45):
it to grow and be the future of food, and
I wanted all the people who wanted local food to
get it. And I recognized a disconnect there that I
could help with, and it just became like I had
to do it. There was no option other than to
make sure that we ushered in the ability for farmers
to sell direct and be successful.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
M Well, that's what this part. It's the only thing
that makes any sense given are we have become desperate
and disparate in terms of our understanding what goes on
on the farm. When I tell people other than a
community that is mostly suburban, although it has lots of
industry and business. The headquarters of Staples is here, TJ
(07:25):
Max is here, Bow's Corporation is here, and we have
lots of industry in business. But I happen to be
in a part of town where there are a couple
of farms that still exist, and so you try to
peddle to those people, and it's amazing what people don't
know and who comes to visit. Every weekend Saturdays and Sundays,
(07:47):
I open my farm and for those who want to
look at the website, it's Eastley E A S T
L E I G H. Eastleyfarm dot Coming and see
what's going on with the people, the guests, what they do,
how we have them spend time with the animals here
because again people just don't know that much about it.
(08:07):
So does the business of farm to door just talk
about products or does it help to bring people to
the farm for other reasons.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Well, I think that's a great marketing exercise when farmers
bring folks to the farm to expose them.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So a really important thing about.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Barnes to door is I realized early on that the
middleman was hurtful for the farmers so long supply chains
in terms of their profit margin. And the farmers I
was working with a long time ago were selling directs
so they could maximize the profit margin, sure, be able
to set their own prices, own their own relationships with
the end buyers and basically de risk their business and
(08:46):
again maximize their profits. And so we power farmers kind
of under the hood to make sure they have an
online store can manage inventory, orders, marketing, sales, finances, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
But it's under the farm's brand.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
It is the it's about farmers selling direct to their
customers in their local communities.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
But the key, the real key here is.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Empowering farmers to make it convenient for buyers because today's
buyers love to shop self serve order online. They love
it to be easy to get the food. And once
you help them usher in convenience to the buyer and
become available for self serve ordering and those sorts of
things that today's buyers expect and love, it just changes
the game for farmers. Like we just see wild success.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It's not overnight.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
You have to work at it because it is a business,
but it's there's nothing more rewarding than the feedback we
get from farmers who are who are growing, who go
from drowning to like treading water and then swimming and
really feeling empowered in their business and in their local communities.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So how do you do it? A lot of farmers
listen right now, I say, Wow, this sounds great, But
can I afford it? That's the question. This is more
if you understand the language here, the verticals for you
if you're an independent farmer like I am, promotion promotion,
promotion and selling on line. So again I'm gonna tell you.
(10:11):
I guess I would say this would be the first
question I'd asked after I understand how you work, then
how do we pay for it?
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, it's a subscription, So that basically means you subscribe
the same way a consumer would subscribe to a Spotify
or a.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Netflix to stream media.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
They would subscribe to burn to doors software to run
their business. And so it's a monthly fee or they
can pay annually upfront, and we've priced it so that
it can like if you're even going from hobby farmer
to full time farmer.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's it's it's affordable and it pays for itself very quickly.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
We have a ton of farms that help, like even
teach classes and have We have farmers that we work
with at host office hours on our behalf. It's called
the Connects program, and they will talk all day long
about how they quickly eclipsed ROI on paying for a
barne door because it opens you up to so many
more buyers, It helps you get organized, it saves you
(11:07):
so much time. So whether it's a small farm. Some
of the bigger farms we work with think we charge way, way,
way too little, which I actually appreciate.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Right, They're just like, really.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That's all you know to run my whole business and
have marketing and grow my email list.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And the answer is yes, Like you know, clearly we
need to cover our costs.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
But for us, we try to be operationally as efficient
as we can so that we can continue to offer.
Like I said, we sort of have a low, medium
high price point for the various size farms.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yep, that sounds excellent, and you're selling me. However, I
looked at this the first time. I don't know that
I looked at it. I didn't talk to you, and
I think that I thought to him I said, well,
I don't know if this is what this will work.
When you're convincing me that it makes sense. Hold on
a secondly, having a conversation with Janelle and Myoko, and
you should be paying a lot of attention to it,
because this is the kind of thing where the cost
(12:00):
benefit again talking about Nichols, dimes and quarters here oftentimes,
which make it better for all of us to make
a few more bucks, which we all need to do.
Farming is in trouble in America because we don't have
enough people who understand what goes on on the farm.
And I don't mean to make this a lecture point,
but you hear this frequently. People just don't get it.
(12:22):
So this is a way of getting it. If you
will stand by a second, we'll continue our conversation here
Now it's a special report that I want to bring
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Speaker 5 (12:38):
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(13:00):
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Speaker 1 (13:07):
Elizabeth Miller is here. So what if we look online
right now at toplaws dot com. What are we going
to see? Lizabeth?
Speaker 4 (13:13):
If you've got a top loss dot com and you
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about Caldrin on in one place. With this new website,
we have free gifts with every single purchase of Caltrin,
so that's really awesome too. And then one other thing
I really wanted to hit on today too. I know
a lot of these weight loss shots are really popular
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And one hundred percent you need caltren because Caltrin is
(13:37):
going to help you retain the lean muscle, rebuild lean muscle,
keep your energy and metabolism boosted. And then it's also
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Speaker 1 (13:54):
Elizabeth Miller from Caltrin here, use the DUG code when
you're doing the orders. That helps shout is while getting
free shipping and the best deal top loss dot com
for Caldron. Pretty compelling story here on this week's American
Family Farmer Program. I'm Doug Stephan with Jennell Myoko, who's
the CEO of Barn to Door Go to Barn to Door.
(14:15):
Barn to Door is barn the number two door all
one word dot com to understand what their software is
going to present. You know, one of the things that
I think I would like to engineer is understanding I'm
not great at using technology. Fortunately, I have somebody that
(14:37):
is around me who's not actually here. She's out in
Cleveland and I'm in Massachusetts. But you don't need to
be there. You get the information in Omega work for you.
And I'm going to put her onto investigating this more
for me so that we can see how because I
really don't have at the moment, although my son is
(14:57):
working on a plan to greatly enhance that's what we're
doing on the farm. I just don't have the time
to do it because I got to run a business
and that pays for the farm. So the idea of
using this We have a weekend openings in the farm,
sells ice cream, and we have tours around the farm,
(15:19):
and you know, there are other things we can be
doing here for sure, but like we have that right now.
Peaches you know little things. I've got peaches on the
farm and that should be all over the website, and
yet I haven't had time to send along. The lady
that runs the farm doesn't have time either. So you
got somebody like you there just takes one week it's peaches,
(15:41):
and the next week it's maybe peach ice cream, and
the week after that it's whatever. So I'm not trying
to do this your job for you. But that's what
I'm thinking I'm hearing from you, right Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I love this. So we and I'm glad you brought
that up. So we work with some incredible dairies. We
also work with ranches. We have produce farmers. We have
farmers selling whatever they sell in all their local communities.
And the neat part about that is is we actually,
I'll say it that it's on me to make it
turnkey for farmers who are like, hey, I don't have
time for tech, because the goal is to save you
(16:16):
a ton of time. I have a farm that we
work with. I loved using it as an example. They
were serving six hundred customers. They had a produce CSA
and her the mother, the grandmother actually was managing about
took her about six hours a day to go back
and forth with all the customers on logistics and orders
and everything else for the for their weekly delivery.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
When they signed up.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
For barn to Door, they went up to fourteen hundred
customers and she went from six hours a day to
thirty minutes a day because they used barn to Door.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So it's I guess.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Ironic that it's even less time in technology because she
didn't have to go back and forth with everybody. Just
the orders were easily compiled in a picklist, a pack list,
labels could be spit out.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
It just made it so much.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Easier for them to have all of those orders just
readily in one place with the customers. And so you
end up making the orders and the transactions and everything's
so organized and automated that instead you're spending time with
customers talking about you know, how are your kids doing.
And so it's just it's interesting to help people understand
that automating the administrative tasks that are back office tasks
(17:23):
can actually free you up in terms of other time
and everything else.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And it is really intuitive.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Like that's on us as a software company, along with
all the other resources we provide. Farms to make sure
that it's very intuitive and easy and takes even I
mean it takes time you're managing whole business, but we
make that part of it as fast and efficient as
we can.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So barn to door dot com that's where you go
to check this out. Would you say most of your
customers are younger. I'm looking at profiles of some of
the people who talk well of your services. Would you say,
just because it's technology that gravitates, are you your services
gravitate to younger farmers?
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I would say it's an absolute mix.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
We have up and coming farmers, but we have tons
of farmers that are thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and even
higher all over the board. The neat part about barna
door is you get a team. When you sign up,
you get an onboarding manager. There's daily office hours that
you can pop into. You have a support team in
real time chat, one on one coaching, and like I
(18:27):
said again, you can have there a couple times a week.
We have it where other farmers are hosting office hours
who have already had success with barnador and growing and
scaling their business.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
So for us, it's like we want.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
We want you to have whatever you need, whether it's
you know, whether you'd like to listen to podcasts, read ebooks,
connect with people directly in person, you know, whatever, whatever
resources you need are there for farmers, including including Because
we have worked with farms for over ten years now,
we can tell people, hey, this is the best practice.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Right. Your online store shouldn't have four hundred items.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
People don't scroll that far, right, But if you have forty,
you're going to sell more product, right, So we can
really be helpful in that way. And we I mean,
you can tell we're very passionate. We want enter farmers
to just.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Rocket and grow and be the future of America.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
All right, farm listeners go to barn todoor dot com.
Jaelmoko thanks for being here as the CEO of Barn
to Door on the American Family Farmer.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
This program was produced at Bobksound and Recording. Please visit
bobksound dot com. The American Familyfarmer podcast sponsored in part
by Caldron, which is the safe way for you to
lose weight and keep it off.
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