Stacy Edwards (7:05)

Thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Corinna Bench (7:08)

I want you to start out by telling us a little bit about your farm. So where you're located, what you sell, how many acres are you full time, how many years you've been at this, wherever you want to start.

Stacy Edwards (7:21)

Okay. We are about 45 minutes east of Asheville in a little town called Nebo North. In Nebo, North Carolina, we raise pastor chicken, pork and beef. We also do eggs, agritourism, and some agri education. So workshops, some seminars, things like that. We actually have about 40 acres, but we only farm on 10, and that's 40 acres located at our actual location. And then we do have a couple contract growers that actually grow some pork for us. And they have, they have several different places that they, they raise pork in forested areas. So we've been at this since about 2018. We got the gateway drug, which is chickens, laying hens and chicken math happened and then just animal math in general happened. But we got serious about like getting product to our, to our customers and teaching our customers how food should be raised about 2021. So it was kind of after the COVID period where we saw all the things that are happening, but we really didn't have any product to sell at that time. So it just more of an education thing. And then we really got serious in 2021 and it went from there.

Corinna Bench (8:48)

Well, you definitely have positioned your product as a very premium product. Describe briefly to me how, how do you get your customers interested in buying your meats and then actually turn them into a customer? Give us sort of. I know you've evolved over time and it didn't start out this way, but like, what are you doing now? Let's just lay some context for our listeners.

Stacy Edwards (9:16)

Yeah, number one, I'm, I'm like, I'm showing up, I'm talking on social media about how to cook things. Probably once or twice a week I'll be posting like what we're having for dinner. I'm, I'm, I'm kind of just, just showing up in a way, like, just to kind of get noticed and create something that's, you know, a little intriguing. Like last night I just cooked some beautiful T bone. T bone steaks and immediately started filming it and talking about how to, how to sear a steak correctly and, and all of that. So I'm just like, I'm showing up mainly on social media, but at the farmers market too. I'm very, I'm talking to everybody that comes by and, and having conversations with them and meeting them where they are. A lot of my customers are women who, you know, between 30s, 40s. I do have some, some 40 plus that are showing up for us, but they're, they're realizing that our industrial food system is broken. And specifically with meat, they know that things are getting toxic and we're, you know, all this information and misinformation that's out there. They want to feed their family better, but they're overwhelmed with all the choices and all the things that are being thrown at them. And so I really just keep it simple. I talk about, I talk about things that they already care about. So feeding their family will. Knowing where it came from and who grew it and how it was raised and then also just like avoiding junk that they can't pronounce that's, you know, I'm just, I'm talking about those things so, so they can immediately connect with me, whether it be a social media or the market. And, and the, the big thing is like listening to what they're saying back to me or how they are. They might be starting a conversation and, and realizing where they're at in their, their journey of eating healthier or understanding where their food's coming from.

Corinna Bench (11:40)

It's almost like you you probably have a few customers that you have to educate who don't know this information, but there might be a large percentage of people who have already made up their minds what they hold to be true about food. And you just parrot that back so that they start nodding their head and they're like, yes, I have alignment with this brand. Let me try them out.

Stacy Edwards (12:02)

Yes.

Corinna Bench (12:02)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (12:03)

Yeah. I kind of, I target my, my audience to, to already be questioning where their, where their food's coming from. And then I just kind of reiterate the way, the way that things are done here on our farm and how our meat is raised so that they, that it will further align with their values.

Corinna Bench (12:24)

You have a very simple, elegant homepage on your website. I did a little research before this call, and it has super clear messaging, and I want everyone to just go look at it, especially if you're thinking about redoing your website or if you are a meat producer. I'll make sure I put the link in the show notes. What? It's Edwards Family FarmsNC.com Is that right? Yes. And I want you to talk to me about, like, how did you decide what to put on that homepage? Because I noticed that first of all, the button on the header of your website doesn't even take them to the store. It takes them to your lead magnet to get on your email list, which is very, very unusual and tells me what your primary goal is. But you also, and when you actually plan to pitch your offer, but you also just have content on that front page that's really getting, I think, at, like, the frequently asked questions of your audience. So I'm just curious, how did you decide, maybe walk people through, like, what's on that homepage? What's the most important information that you feel like your customer needs to hear on the front end of this, of this relationship?

Stacy Edwards (13:44)

Yeah, first and foremost, what I, what I am and what I'm selling. So at the very beginning, you'll see, you know, pastured raised chicken, pork, and beef. And then I also specifically speak to the audience that I want to, that I, that I want to target. And that's, it's mainly moms, but I shifted it to, you know, parents who want to feed, who, who want to feel confident about what they're feeding their family. And, and that's, that's what I say that we help. I, I say, you know, helping families feel more confident about what the meat that they're putting on the table. And I, I immediately want to, to connect with them again. I want to meet them where they are so they know that our industrial food system is broken. And I want them to understand that they are not, they're not alone when they think this. It's not some crazy thing that they've made up in their head and you know, just go ahead and solidify that information. And then I just briefly talk about, I kind of nibble at the, the way that we do things and the way that things are raised here, but also that, you know, when, when we're going to show up for them with, with trust, with transparency and that essentially setting the stage for what they can expect for the rest of the website. My email list, if they talk to me in person, like I'm, you know, I'm just going to be straight up with them. We're not greenwashing here. And, and then, you know, people spend about, you got to capture somebody's attention within, within three seconds. And so I want to give them the most important information on that homepage as they're scrolling. So after I've connected with them, we're going to, we're going to talk about like what we offer. Again, they've already seen that, but those links actually do go to our store. But I, I really don't want them to buy for me when they first land on my website because there's, there are specific things that I want to go over with them before they ever purchase from me. So I am playing the long game. But it's, it's really worked out for us. There are, there's tips and tricks that I want them to try before they get our meat. I want them to try it on the grocery store meat. So if they do fail, which if I've done a good job, hopefully they won't. But you know, sometimes it does happen. But there are things that I want them to try before they ever purchase their meat. And I talk about price, price a little bit because that is an objection, that's an objection for everything. It doesn't matter what you're selling. But I want them to understand why and I want them to understand that we raise our animals way differently than what they're ever going to expect anywhere else and definitely from the grocery store. So I even talk about that in, in our, in part of my nurture sequence on my email list. And that's why I want them to, I want them to get on my email list so I can further explain that. And when they're ready to listen to, when they're first on my homepage, they're just Trying to, you know, figure out what we're doing and if this is, if this is a good fit. They're not necessarily looking for how our animals are raised at that point. So later on down the line I can talk about that. And I also talk about convenience too. We live in a convenience driven world. I mean that we have options that are convenient that again can meet them where they are. Like one of my pickup spots is in Ingles. Is ingles in Ingles parking lot. So you know, you can go and get your vegetables at at Ingles. You can go and get your butter at at Ingles. Like we can meet there, you get your meat and then you could total the meat, the meat counter there.

Corinna Bench (17:33)

You also just make it very clear you have a step one, step two, step three section that is really well written and I like kind of what you chose. So I encourage people to go look at, at how she structured it. There aren't that many elements on the homepage, which I love and I, I, I think I want to just encourage people to revisit this idea that I have to put everything in the kitchen sink in my copy and explain exactly how I'm raising the animals and, or cover cropping or taking care of the land like you don't have. You can just be very general and let people know you are a good steward.

Stacy Edwards (18:14)

Yes.

Corinna Bench (18:15)

And you can go into more detail on another page or in a blog post or in some future content they might get when they subscribe to your list. But they just need to come and see you say I'm taking good care of the soil or I'm following these practices or whatever and that's good enough for them. They're kind of like check mark box. Right. So I just, I think it's so, so well done. Are there any other objections that you feel like come up for your, your customer. You, you mentioned a couple of them. Price and convenience. Are there any other ones that you're trying to debunk?

Stacy Edwards (18:48)

Yeah, one of actually when we first got into farming, we, we started with chicken and what, what I was realizing that was people don't know how to cook a whole bird. I mean, I, I didn't, I didn't know how to cook a whole bird. I mean, my, my parents did. But why cook a whole bird when you could just buy chicken breast at the store? Right. So, so when we first started selling chicken, I actually polled all of my customers and I said, all right, we're raising chicken. It's going to cost a lot more if I have to cut this bird up. Do you want whole birds? They said, no, we don't. I said, okay. So we cut them up and. And. And at that time, we were a lot lower than what we are now, but we were still considered high. And I said, if you want the convenience like you have, you have to pay for that. And so I started to realize that, well, my chicken breasts are selling out, but I couldn't get rid of drumsticks. I'm like. So I would ask my customers, why are you not buying drumsticks? Why are you not buying the legs of the bird? We don't know how to cook them. I'm like, okay, yeah, we don't know how to cook them. Same. Our thighs actually sell a whole lot better now. But it was when we first started, our thighs couldn't sell them if it was not boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I mean, our customers didn't know what to do with them. So I knew that there was some education around that, that, you know, either they. They didn't cook them a lot, or they didn't know how, or it was too inconvenient or, you know, whatever it was. And so I started creating recipes around using those specific cuts and making sure that they're super simple and super easy to do and within, like, 15 to 20 minutes. Because, you know, I'm a mom quick. Yeah, I'm a mom. I get it. I don't have time to do any of that. So I, you know, I totally understood. So I just started creating tips and recipes around. And I would say that's probably one of the reasons that our thighs are almost. They almost go as quick as our chicken breasts now.

Corinna Bench (20:58)

Yeah. I imagine that a person who first enters your. Your world thinks that the problem is I need to know where my food's coming from. The transparency piece and the trust. And you may end up surprising them the more they're in your world, that you also deliver another transformation, right? That you empower them, you give them confidence, all. All these things that they maybe didn't even realize they wanted. And two years later, after they've been with you long enough, they can look back and do a before and after comparison, right? And be like, wow. I'm like, I like who I am now. I'm a better version of myself thanks to the education that you've provided them and that you've walked and held their hand. You really have been the guide. I don't remember. We had a similar situation in our farm when we made the switch and started teaching them how use our food. And then we saw so much excitement around our CSA before. They were throwing a lot of stuff out because they didn't know what to do with it. And that was a. That was a turning point year for us, the moment we began to invest in education. So I'm glad to hear you're doing that. I want to. I want to kind of pivot now into the. The products that you're offering in your store and the offers that you're making. I know I sent you a list of questions that you're staring at right now because you're. And I don't want you to think I'm gonna. I'm gonna go through this massive list, but I literally, to prepare, I started typing out. I was in her store, and I. I just started typing out many of the products that I saw what the price per pound was, and I'm gonna read a few of them to you just so that you kind of know, you know, what table we're playing at right now. So, first of all, you have some fun products in your store. It's not just chicken breasts, chicken thighs, the things I would typically expect to see. I wrote these first two on top because I just went through a raw dog food phase. Okay. But like something called purr and crunch bundles, which is her. Her chicken pet treat box. All right, 14.99 each. Oink and crew bundle. That's her pork pet treat box. Love that. Those are 39.99 each. Then you have the DIY chicken broth bundle, 29.99 chicken frames, 7.99 chicken hearts, 7.99 a pound. Chicken backs, chicken skin, 10.99 a pound. I. I wanted you to just comment on, like, how did you decide all of these different things that are in here? And then how did you come up with these price points? Because they feel a little bit like luxury products to me.

Stacy Edwards (23:49)

I wanted to. I wanted a fair price. And. And when I say fair, I don't mean being the cheapest product that someone could obtain. Fair, meaning I am paying respect to the. The animal and the land that we're raising it on, and that I am paying myself, my husband, and any of. Any of our contracted growers. I'm pairing them, paying them a fair price. Most importantly, I need my pricing to be sustainable. I'm not trying to be the cheapest. I'm not trying to compare to the grocery stores or even just the farmer down the road. I. I don't compare my. Myself, my pricing, my product to anyone. I don't think that I've seen anyone higher than me. And this is across the United States of America.

Corinna Bench (24:44)

Yeah, like bone in pork chops, 24.99 a pound. But you don't seem to have trouble selling that. And I'm like, what? Like, tell us your secrets. Like, just reveal it all.

Stacy Edwards (24:55)

Well, so actually, to be fair, I've created an entire spreadsheet for each one of our enterprises that has all of our, Our, our input costs, our fixed costs, our overhead costs, all the things. It is a ginormous, very overwhelming spreadsheet, if you were to look at it, you know, and not have any idea what's going on. The goal for me is, is not to be the highest price, but. But I do want to make sure that I'm in business next year so you can continue to, to feed your family the highest quality meat that you can find. And, and I really speak to that. I know that people are going to love the taste of our products. I know that they're going to feel 10, you know, a hundred times more confident when they do feed their family. I am, I am giving them so much, and if I go out of business, that's disappointing, that's frustrating because they. Now they have to do all of that work all over again. Now they have to vet their farmers and reevaluate their values, and that's a lot of work. And I don't want my customers to have to do that. And I speak to that. I tell them, where are you speaking.

Corinna Bench (26:09)

To that in your messaging? Is that something that's coming once they get onto your list and before they start to buy? You're addressing that. Do you think there is a little bit of initial shock when they see your pricing?

Stacy Edwards (26:21)

Absolutely.

Corinna Bench (26:22)

Okay.

Stacy Edwards (26:22)

Absolutely. I hear it mainly at the farmer's market, but I'm, you know, I, I can't see what people's reactions are when they do actually visit our store. But I'm sure there is sticker shock. I mean, my parents had sticker shock. My parents said, there's no way that you're going to sell ground beef for $12 a pound. And I did it in two weeks. So. Yes, absolutely. You know, but, but my parents even, even had sticker shock. But my parents are also not my ideal customers.

Corinna Bench (26:52)

Yes. Amen. And so did everyone hear that? Say that again.

Stacy Edwards (26:57)

Yeah, I, I don't sell to my parents. My parents are not my adult customer. Actually, most of my family is not my ideal customer. And so, you know, and at first, that was really hard for me because I was like, mom, why would you not buy our product? Like when we, when we first sold turkeys. Oh, goodness, that's not my forte either. But, but we tried turkeys. We tried Thanksgiving turkeys. And our price per pound there, again, this is before I really knew what I was doing as far as including all of my costs in there. We'd cover all of our input costs. But it gets tricky when you talk about fixed costs, overhead costs, things like that. So we were selling for $9 a pound, I think. And so our turkeys ended up being well over $100 for a turkey. I mean, we're talking 120, 150, depending on how big they were. And so I was talking to my mom about it because we were going to use one for our, our Thanksgiving dinner. And I asked her, I said, you know what? Knowing what you know now, we've been in business for a couple years and been doing things. I said, knowing what you know now about everything that, that we've done, would you still spend $120 on a Thanksgiving turkey? And. And she was like, I love you, but no. And, and I said, you know, that that's fine. There's no, you know, there's, there's nothing there. As I said, this, this proves my point that I don't market to you. I don't, you know, I'm not trying to sell my product to you. You're just lucky that I'm your daughter and you get it, you know, but. But even, you know, if, if we went out of business tomorrow, my mom's going to go right back to the store because it's a habit for her. And that's, that's one of the things that I have to overcome, too, is, is, is breaking those habits for my customer of just convenience shopping and going to Walmart where they can get their toilet paper, they can get their paper towels, they can get a new dishwasher rack or a new stereo and also purchase their meat and everything, too. So it's, it's a habit that I have to break and I have to speak to that.

Corinna Bench (28:54)

We, we have this same conversation, Kurt and I, a lot in the vegetable world that somewhere, something, someone is paying the cost so that you can have cheaper food. And right now, you know, the planet might be, or the soil might be paying that cost, and somebody someday is going to have to pay that back, right, to rebuild that soil or whatever. And so we can either pay the cost now or we can pay it later. And this is the big education piece that our culture is such that no one's talking about that. Right. That isn't the message that people are hearing or frankly want to hear. And they would rather just put off that cost to a future generation so that they can have their chicken or their vegetables at a certain cheap price. So this is, it is hard. Right? There's only a certain kind of person that is ready to hear that message. Yeah, I'm totally on board with you. And I think people who are listening, you don't need to convince them that their food is worth more. I think we, we can get in our own head though, and start to tell ourselves that I have to deliver cheap food or I have to sell it at this price, and then that. Then we start to think I'm not worth that much. They're all lies. Right. So how, how do you begin to make that shift? So talk, talk me through how you, your process for becoming a very data driven pricing strategist, in my opinion. How did you start to get comfortable with, like, you know what, I'm standing up for myself. Like, this is what I'm worth. I want to pay myself well. I don't want to, like, feel just frustrated that no one values my, values me or my work. Like, what did you have to do to get to that place and maybe talk people through what your process is for pricing?

Stacy Edwards (30:51)

It was a mindset shift. It was actually. There was, there was a last straw in our business that I told my husband. I said, there is a $2,500 coaching program that I want to be a part of and this is it. This is, this is. If, if this does not help us, then I'll, I'll go back to. I was actually, I was actually a hospice CNA before, before I had my first child. And I said, you know what? I'll go back to doing that. And, and we'll just be nine to fivers. Well, my husband's firefighter, so he's not a nine to fiver. But, you know, I can go back to, to a day job where I don't have this much stress and I don't have to worry about, you know, animals dying and things like that. Like, I can just go and work for somebody else and not have the amount of stress. I said, but this is, this is the last thing that I want to do before I call it quits. And so I invested in this coaching program and I actually got a grant to pay for half of it. So that was, that was a lot easier. It seemed more attainable at that point, but I still would have done it without the grant. And, you know, I said, this is the last time I want to spend money and not. And not make it back. Right. And so I gave myself a goal, I said, and I told my husband about it. So I made it real. It wasn't just me. And I said, I will make this money back in 30 days. I mean, I gave myself a very, very hard goal. But I also knew it was. It was right before one of our chicken processings. And so I knew that we were going to get things back in stock, so it was going to make it a little easier for me to obtain. And I made that money back in 10 days just by what I learned in this coaching program. I'm the type of person where, like, if there's something new, I want to know all about it. I go all in. That's why I have four degrees. I'm a professional student. I want to learn all the things. I don't want to feel like I'm being left out of something that's going on. So that's the same way. Yes. That's what motivates me. That's what drives me. And. And I kept. I kept watching this specific program and the specific coach, and I just said, you know, like, I gotta do this. I. I have to know that I have checked all the boxes and before I call it quits. And so, you know, I did that, and I. I. So I went. I went headfirst. I dove headfirst into this whole entire program, into our program, into our coaching, and literally changed the game for me. And I thought Austin was going to have a coronary because, you know, all this money started racking up into our bank account, and he was like, some, there's a mistake. Some, something's happened, you know, and. And. And I just. I. I learned. I learned the art of marketing. It's not something that you're born with. It's not something that's. That's taught in school. Like, you know, it's a skill that you have to develop. It's an art. And I invested time in that. And, um. And that was. That was really the game changer for me. It wasn't raising any more animals. It wasn't creating new products in my product suite. It was. It was literally investing in myself and. And understanding that my mindset was actually what was holding me back. Um, you can know all the things and you can be taught all the things, but if you can't manage your thoughts and manage your thought processes, around things, it can, you know, it's not great. And so. And so that was it. I remember our first. Our first year at the market where we were more expensive, but we weren't as high as we are now. And the thoughts or the. The looks that I would get and, like, people would be like, oh, you're really proud of your product. And instead of saying, heck, yes, I am. And. And, you know, just being excited that I am delivering a healthy product, I was like, yeah, yeah, I guess, you know, and it was just. It was more of like, I wanted to crawl back into my shell. And I felt embarrassed, and I was like, you know, I felt. I felt sorry for people that. That would. Would say, say that or, you know, talk down to me. There were. There were several people that were like, you're. You're not gonna. You're not gonna make it. Like, you're. There's no way that you could sell any of that stuff for that price. And so I was just kind of like, yeah, you're probably right. And then that. That was the breaking point of, like, well, we were. We were selling it. We. We didn't have a problem really selling it, but it was more. We had more negative interactions than positive. And when you can't, you know, if you don't know how to manage that, then that's really, really difficult. And that was something that I had to work through. Um, and now I have. I have multiple coaches, and I've taken multiple, you know, courses, and that's. That's really been the game changer for. For me personally, developmentally. And then, you know, as far as our business goes, too, and it's working on my husband as well.

Corinna Bench (36:12)

Yeah. Oh, this is so good. I can speak to that, too. I have a personal coach shout out to Rebecca, and I can bring her stuff every week in our calls, and she just helps me. She's a different voice. She's another voice that isn't the voice in the arena.

Stacy Edwards (36:27)

Yes.

Corinna Bench (36:28)

And I really value that. Like, I need a champion. I need a cheerleader in my court saying, hey, this is another way that you could look at it. I'm like, oh, let's look at it through those eyes. I like that. And you have to practice the thought. You're still going to feel the fear sometimes, but you start to get comfortable with, like, a foot in both camps, and then eventually you can step over into to just one camp of thought and stand in that power. Today's podcast is sponsored by Farm Marketing School. All right, farmer, let me ask you Something. Is marketing your farm something you actually enjoy or does it feel like a constant struggle? If you are like most farmers that I talk to, you are wearing all the hats and marketing always seems to slip through the cracks. Can I get an amen? That's exactly why I created Farm Marketing School. It's an online membership designed to help farmers like you build a simple, repeatable marketing system that actually works. Inside. You'll get bite sized, step by step projects that make marketing easier. Each month you pick what to work on, like writing better sales emails or improving your website copy, or setting up your online store. And I walk you through exactly how you should be doing it. And you're not doing this alone. Every month we have a live zoom meetup where you can ask me questions, meet other members of Farm Marketing School, get coaching and hear what's working for other farmers. It's like having a farm marketing mentor in your back pocket. This isn't some long overwhelming course. The projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days. So you're making steady progress without it taking over your life. So if you're ready to stop winging it and finally build a marketing system that brings in steady sales, come join Farm Marketing School today. Sign up for your first month and see what a difference it makes. Go to mydigitalfarmer.com fms to get started. And now back to the show. It sounds like you also with this coach though, learned the pricing strategies and we don't necessarily have to go into detail here because I know you coach farmers with what you learned there, but you, is that kind of when you started building these spreadsheets or like knowing how to even figure out what your costs were?

Stacy Edwards (38:59)

Yeah, I, I, I knew always how to figure out the input costs I knew I needed to cover, you know, the, the feed costs and cost. I've always included that. And that's usually something that I, well, I, I see in my, my farmers that I coaches, they're like, well, I'm not going to pay myself yet. And I'm like, no, go ahead and put that in because then you're going to have to jump really high when you do start to include that. Go ahead and start it. You know, even if you are paying, if you start out paying yourself $15 an hour, even though you're worth a lot more, if that makes you more comfortable, you know, do that. And that's, that's what I did. You know, I was paying myself $15 an hour. And it was also the experience that I had too when I first started out, I didn't know what I knew now, so I felt like I was still paying myself the. For the experience that I had. And so I started to figure out the input costs, and I realized that Austin was still having to work off farm. And I was like, well, something is not working out because I am full time on the farm. And, and also now, granted, he is a firefighter, so there's different things there. He does carry our health insurance. He does, you know, have state retirement. There are things that are more than just labor that, that go into our thought process there. I'm not necessarily trying to retire him. He loves being a firefighter. So, you know, but. But I do want to, you know, if something does happen, I want to make sure that my farm can sustain both of our living wages. And so I. I started to realize that, like his. We were using his paycheck to, to cover infrastructure, or if something broke, we would have to reach into our personal bank account to, to take care of those costs. And I said, this doesn't feel right. This doesn't seem like that's how it's supposed to be. And then I just started doing my research on, on how to include your overhead costs and how to include your fixed costs that every single farmer that I coach does not include. And that's, that's the part of the sustainability piece that, you know, that's. That's the reason we see farms go out of business all the time because they're not including their electricity bill to store their meat in their freezers, or they're not including the maintenance on their vehicles or the wear and tear or even fuel to go to the feed store to buy feedback to go to the market. I. I include everything in our market. I have depreciation. Yeah, you're gonna laugh.

Corinna Bench (41:27)

I'm not gonna laugh because we do that now. No, I hear you.

Stacy Edwards (41:31)

I include depreciation on the coolers that I bring to the market.

Corinna Bench (41:35)

Oh, wow. Okay.

Stacy Edwards (41:36)

Yeah, I have a depreciation calculator that I calculate every single thing that we use through now. Is it like 20 cents? Yeah. But I know that that cost is. Is. Is, you know, is in. In the price of my product. So when it is time for me to replace a cooler because it's broken or it no longer insulates or whatever, there is money there because that's. That, you know, that that's included in. And so that's one of the reasons that, you know, people look at our prices and they're like, what in the world? Like that is, that seems so expensive. And I'm like. But I am covering everything. So when a freezer goes out that I, that I store my meat in, I have enough money to go and buy one. I don't have to take out a loan for that. So. And that, that I feel like that's the key.

Corinna Bench (42:24)

I know in the pre interview we sort of talked a little bit about this, that you had a kind of a, A shift around this mindset of like, I have to do everything, and one day you realize I don't want to do everything. I want to be able to hire people to do the jobs I don't need to be doing anymore. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Stacy Edwards (42:43)

Yeah. The most the, the game changer for us as far as our, our chicken goes was. Well, number one, when I actually figured out what I was worth, I, I no longer wanted to process chicken on farm. It was, it was a time suck. And when I first, when we first started out, of course that was our only option. We were raising 75 to 100 birds at a time. And you know, the, the longer we did it, the more efficient we got. But with efficiency comes cost as far as how much am I going to pay myself. For instance, when I cut up a whole chicken, it used to take me about 15 minutes to, to part out a. Completely part out a bird. And over the years I got down to. I could cut it up in, in under a minute. Well, that comes with a cost. I'm no longer going to pay myself $10 an hour because I can finish more birds in that amount of time. So I was, I. My labor wage was $25 an hour to cut up our birds. Well, my business could no longer afford to pay myself 25 an hour. That's crazy. And so I got down into my spreadsheet and I said, you know, what are our other options here? And our bottleneck was not how many birds we could raise at a time. It was how many we could process in an efficient manner, get them into the freezer within a certain amount of time. And so we could only do so many in one day with the amount of help that we had. And so I looked at our numbers and I, you know, I, I said it's going to be cheaper for us, which means it's going to be cheaper for my customer if we take our birds four hours away to a USDA inspected facility. And because in North Carolina, we can process on farm under the exemption, but our farm couldn't afford to pay my husband And I. What we were worth to do all of that, but I could pay somebody that was, you know, a USDA inspected facility four hours away, and it still be cheaper. And that was at the point where we. We were like, all right, we can scale. We can raise more than 100 birds at a time. We can raise 350. We can raise 400 birds to make the trip worth it. And actually for the. The processing facility to make it worth it for them as well. You know, the more you raise, the cheaper it is. And you learn that as you go through and. And price things and. And all that, you know, bulk pricing, for instance, the more you buy, the cheaper it is. So when we. When we realized that, you know, I said, this. This sounds like. This sounds amazing. And then I got to thinking, why are my customers still going to buy from me if I have to, you know, send them off? So that was. That was a mindset thing for me. I said, you know, we. We kind of harped on that our birds are 48 hours old when. When they get here, and they don't leave until you. And so they get to your freezer. And that was something that I marketed. I was like, heck, yeah, I'm so proud of that. But it, you know, that was at the cost of time with my family. That was at the cost with. Of doing things that we truly didn't enjoy.

Corinna Bench (46:14)

Enjoy. Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (46:16)

And I said, why? Why? If I'm gonna do something that I don't enjoy, that I'm gonna get paid a whole lot more money for it.

Corinna Bench (46:22)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (46:23)

And so when I.

Corinna Bench (46:24)

Or I'm not gonna do it.

Stacy Edwards (46:25)

Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna go work for somebody else and. And, you know, not have to worry about all the things. And, you know, so I ran the numbers for it and I said, you know, I. I can't. I don't want to sell my product for this much money. There's always. There's always a cost to something. As we were talking about earlier. There's always somebody's going to pay for it. And at that point, it was my family. It was, you know, we weren't spending quality time together on the weekends when my parents had the availability. And I said, this isn't worth it for me. Yeah. And so we figured out, well, we can just. We can scale. This is how many birds we need. We need to take my prices. Don't. Don't change. My profit margin increases. So, you know, so this. This. This makes sense.

Corinna Bench (47:11)

Yeah. So you don't have trouble selling these products. Like, when I When I went to your website, a lot of them were sold out.

Stacy Edwards (47:19)

Yes. And to be fair, we're kind of at the end.

Corinna Bench (47:22)

I know. Fair enough. Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (47:23)

Yeah.

Corinna Bench (47:23)

But. But I don't think that's a bad thing to go to a store and see things that are grayed out and not available. As a consumer, that creates scarcity. Right. It's like, oh, I need to take action if I. The next time this opens up, because it looks like this is a popular farm. Right. So is part of the reason you think that your. Your pricing works and your. Your customer is okay with it, do you think there's a little bit of that, the fact that you don't have product all the time is that. That you are able to create scarcity? Do you think that's one of the reasons why the price feels okay emotionally for someone eventually?

Stacy Edwards (48:02)

Yeah, I think so. I wouldn't say that's the number one reason. I really. I truly do think it's because I show up consistently. You know, through email marketing. I show. I've. I have people that sit. Sit at their desks on Fridays at noon because that's when my weekly email goes out. That. That. Wait for that. But I do. As far as, like, new people coming in, I do. I do think that that is. That that is a part of it. They're like, well, their product must be really good because they never have any.

Corinna Bench (48:34)

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm. I'm bringing that up just to the. To the audience listening. Like, there. There's a. It's a fun little dance. You got to find that line. But I do think that's one of the factors going on here, that that's helping your consumer be okay and supportive of. Of this elite luxury kind of product. Are there ever products that you've had to discontinue because the numbers just didn't work out. Like, you just were like, I'm not raising that. You chuckled about turkeys earlier. Like, did you decide.

Stacy Edwards (49:05)

Yeah, a lot of it had to do with. With the price that we were gonna have to charge for our turkeys. Again, it was one of those things that we didn't really feel joy from. Turkeys are. Are. Can be difficult if you're raising them on pasture. They're not the brightest things, but. But price. What was one. I. I did have to work really, really hard to establish the value of what our Thanksgiving turkeys would be, and we were only raising them once a year, so. So there, again, you know, there's. There's a cost associated with only Doing something once a year.

Corinna Bench (49:40)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (49:40)

And I just didn't. It just wasn't something that, that was enjoyable for us. We realized we could raise twice as much chicken on the same amount of pasture that we had our turkeys, and that the chicken felt like a more attainable price. You know, the pack of chicken breasts felt more attainable than $120 Turkey.

Corinna Bench (50:04)

Yeah. Well, and this is also where you're looking at order frequency. Right. And average order value kinds of metrics. It's like, well, if I can get twice as many chickens on that same pasture, like. And chicken is something people buy all the time. Like, let's just work that, that flywheel.

Stacy Edwards (50:20)

Also, you know, organ meats don't sell very well individually. And that's why we created our, our pet treat bundles. And now I have a hard time keeping organs in stock. I have a customer that comes every single week to the market and she buys our. Our pork. Our pork pet treat bundle, which has a heart, kidneys, a tail, ears, and three pounds of bones in them. And she buys that every single week for the two giant schnauzers that she has. And she says, this is the greatest thing in the world. But if I had all that listed out, I'd never sell it. And I still sell it for that. I think I take a couple dollars off, but I, I still sell it for the same amount as if it were all, you know, kind of all combined. I do take a little bit of it off just because it is a less desirable product, but just by bundling that. I have people all the time.

Corinna Bench (51:15)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (51:16)

That are. That. That are like, this is the greatest thing ever.

Corinna Bench (51:19)

Your actual online store. It goes on and on and on. Like I'm thumb scrolling. I'm like, wow. And one of the things I wanted to point out that I actually think is really cool and I wanted to see if, if this is helping you. You have a lot of categories in the store. And I am, I am going to read this because I, I actually typed them all out. Normally I'm. I'm used to going to a store and there might be like six to seven categories. You have like 40, maybe 30 or 40. So here they are. Everyone listen. In this order. Chicken, Pork, Beef, Eggs Bundles, Sampler Bundles, Bulk Pork Shares, a Chicken Club category. Subscription Options, Seasoning Blends, Cooking Tools, Customer Favorites, Steaks and Chops, Ground Meats, Sausages, Slow Cooker Faves Easy Weeknight Faves, Breakfast Essentials, Pan Searing Favorites, DIY Bone Broth Grill Master Faves, Barbecue Essentials, Soup and Stew. Faves, collagen boosting faves for the risk takers, bones and organs, DIY skin care, farm events workshops, swag gift ideas for the pets. That should be higher. I'm just kidding. Even a category called Meat rabbits live. Now, what's curious is that you have. If I were to go out and like, count the number of products you actually have, it's a set number, but you're showing them in multiple categories so that a customer. It's kind of like going through Amazon. Like, you just, you keep seeing the same one. Like, it'll repeat it so that you just keep scrolling. And so I had that sensation as I was reviewing the website and researching for today. And I kind of think this is brilliant because you find other ways to put the same product in front of them. You just package it in a different category to make the customer think about it through a different lens. And I'm just wondering if. When did, when did you come up with this idea? Did someone coach you to try this? Do you see that it actually helps? Just comment on this strategy.

Stacy Edwards (53:26)

Yeah. So I initially started out with customer favorites, and I was realizing that I had a lot of customer favorites. And I said, well, this doesn't really help me group products into a certain category. And so then I started to create recipe books that I would use as lead magnets back when. And I, I noticed that, like, I would create recipe books around the same kind of theme. So things that worked well in a slow cooker or easy things that you could throw in a, in a pan. So I was creating these themes around these recipe books and I was like, why can't I just put this as a product category? That way if, you know, my customers are big, huge fans of throwing things in a crock pot, that these are all the products that work well in a crock pot. Same with, you know, on the grill or, you know, if you are barbecue and like, these are, these are our best products for barbecue. And so I was kind of creating these themes based on the way that people were cooking. And I started doing that and I started to go into the. The. The. For the risk takers. One is my favorite because I threw in all the, all the organs, all the random bones or the, the different cuts, beef tongues, oxtail things that aren't very popular. You know, when you think of meat, you think of ribeyes or pork sausage or chicken breasts. But I really wanted to, I, I want my customer take risks. I want them to. And this is something that I coach in in my email sequences I want them to try new things. I don't want them to just be stuck with the plain old chicken breast or the steak or, you know, whatever. Like, I want them to explore. And so I said, you know, I kind of came up with the idea of, like, let me just put this into product categories. And what I'll actually do is, like, in my email sequences, I'll link to those product categories. That way they don't have to go through the entire list of products that I have it. This is just. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about things that, you know, you may not think about every single day, that you can cook that are delicious. And here's. Here are those products. And that. That works really, really well. I do that in social media, too. You know, soup and stew season, I'm like, these are all of my customer favorites as far as soups and stews go. Like, this is the. These are the products that we use for soups and stews. And I can link to that. And it goes specifically to that category and shows all of those products. You know, collagen boosting is, like the big thing now. Like, let's boost our collagen. And I'm like, eat all of these bones. Put these bones or these chicken feet in your stock that you make, and, you know, you automatically get a boost of collagen there. So that was kind of the idea around that. And then our sausages sell very, very well. And there are some people that will just want our sausage. And I was like, you know what? Let me just create a category. They can check that category, and it shows all the sausage flavors that we have, and it's super easy for them. So what I'm trying to do is create something that is convenient and that is easy for them to buy. So if they know that they're going in, they want to buy steak, or they want to buy a pork chop, I have a category for that. They don't have to scroll through all the pork to find it or even use the search bar. Like, that's. That's too complicated, too. So creating those. Those categories is more of, like, an easy filter way. Like, I know I'm looking some for something specific. Here's a category for it. Boom. Add to cart. And then they're done. Rather than scrolling through all of the. The things. And. And now that you mentioned, you know, you were scrolling through it and it was showing up multiple times, I'm like, oh, well, that wasn't even, like, my plan, you know, because People have to see something, what, seven times before they, they decide to take action. That wasn't even that. That's just a bonus. You know, somebody is gonna just be curious and scroll through that. They're seeing it consistently. So I'm glad you pointed that out. That was not.

Corinna Bench (57:33)

Yeah, well. And it also, it also makes you feel like, wow, this place sells a lot of stuff because you. It just keeps going, which is a little bit of an illusion because, I mean, you do have a lot of products, but.

Stacy Edwards (57:44)

Yeah, but it also, to play devil's advocate there, because we do have a lot of products. I didn't want to overwhelm my customer either.

Corinna Bench (57:52)

No.

Stacy Edwards (57:52)

And with decision fatigue.

Corinna Bench (57:54)

Yeah. So the fact that you have ca categories, that's what I wanted to just summarize. Here. You are acting as a curator. It's almost like you're the librarian. You've decided fiction, not like you've given them the categories so that all they have to do is go to that bookshelf and just shortcut the process. So you're saving them time by making your recommendations, coming up with what the categories could even be. I think that it helps. Like, do you have customers ascending through all these products? We talk about the ascension model in for a marketing school, but like, is that happening where a person. Your gateway, your gateway drug, I think you called it at the beginning of the episode was chicken. Right. Is that where they start and then they eventually start leaping all over the place and, and increasing their order frequency, the amount of stuff they're buying?

Stacy Edwards (58:39)

Yeah. I actually do have a road map for them. Anybody that comes to me and asks me, you know, hey, like, what's, what's your best product? I'm going to steer them to something that they're already familiar with cooking. So that's either chicken breast, ground beef, or ground pork. And I would even say at this point I actually stir them to my pork patties that are already pre pattied.

Corinna Bench (58:59)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (59:00)

Because we actually get a lot of questions that are like, what do I do?

Corinna Bench (59:04)

Yeah, yeah.

Stacy Edwards (59:05)

And so I'm like, take the patties, take a pound of ground beef and take some chicken. I actually am creating a bundle for that specific thing where they get to try the best of the farm. And it's something that's super simple, that they're already used to cooking. So the chances of them failing is very slim. And then I actually have a post purchase customer journey that they go, that they go through. And no matter what they bought, everybody goes through this. But I talk about cooking A whole chicken. Making your own chicken broth, making your own beef jerky. I talk about making snacks with chicken skins and pork skins.

Corinna Bench (59:50)

So now they're going to buy those chicken skins.

Stacy Edwards (59:52)

Yes.

Corinna Bench (59:53)

Which I would never think about doing until you teach me what I could do with them.

Stacy Edwards (59:56)

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so. And so I have all these milestones that I want my customer to meet, and a lot of that is going through. Like, I do have one for slow cooking a Boston butt roast and making pork for the whole week. You know, like I talked about earlier, just to just, you know, to get those Boston butts out of there.

Corinna Bench (60:17)

But, yeah, I love that you have a roadmap, and I want people listening to think about what would your roadmap look like? You get to decide, but it should be based on your experience. What are you noticing? How does your customer typically use the product? Where do they typically start? What is the next obvious step? That feels like a good leap forward, but not too overwhelming. Right. You have to give some thought to this. And there's some trial and error, I'm sure, and feedback that you get from your customers. This sounds like a longer sales cycle. You told me earlier that I'm in this for the long game.

Stacy Edwards (60:50)

If.

Corinna Bench (60:51)

If the goal is to turn a customer into somebody who's spending X amount of money because they're buying this many times a year, this many different product lines, categories, whatever, how long do you think that takes to. To get someone to graduate to that level?

Stacy Edwards (61:08)

I am still collecting my data on that because I have these outliers. I had one. One particular customer who joined my email list, and three days later, she bought a bulk pork share or put. Put her deposit down for actually two bulk pork shares. And I was like, I have to know who this woman is. I got to know why she did this. Like, where did she see me first? Is this, you know, so I'm still collecting my data on that. But. But what I am. What I am seeing is, you know, if they are making a purchase with me, it's. It's usually they've. They've seen me on social media, they joined my email list, and it probably, depending on what season we're in, that's another thing that I'm noticing. If we're in prime time season, which is just about to happen, we're about to be restocked with everything I. The conversions happen a lot sooner.

Corinna Bench (62:02)

Yes.

Stacy Edwards (62:03)

But if I'm in, like the lull of the season, you know, we're entering the end of winter and a hurricane Happens and we lose half of our product to. You know, I'm seeing that if I don't have a lot of things that. To actually purchase, I'm doing more relationship building. And then again, I'm kind of. I'm kind of just getting them. Getting them ready to buy when things do come into. Come into season and come into. Come into stock.

Corinna Bench (62:34)

What are some of the offers that you are sending people? I assume you have a weekly or a fairly consistent email conversation. What are. Give me a few examples of offers that you extend to people throughout different times of the year.

Stacy Edwards (62:49)

Yeah, so right now I have an offer going on for our chicken club, which is our monthly chicken subscription. And this is. I had to create this so I could basically guarantee chicken breasts to my customers because I, you know, if they sell out, they sell out. I'm done. But if you sign up for. For chicken Club, I framed it to where you're going to get at least one pack of chicken breasts every single month.

Corinna Bench (63:14)

And you save it for them, right? Yeah, yeah, It's.

Stacy Edwards (63:17)

It's safe for you. So if you don't see it on our online store or you don't see it at the market, like, you're still getting your chicken breasts, because we would. We would have people that were actually frustrated, and so. So much so that, you know, Austin and I kind of had look at each other. We were like, we got to do something. Like, these people are like, they're. They're gonna go somewhere else. They're gonna go back to the grocery store. And I just worked so hard for these people. Like, I. I don't want to do that. I want to disappoint. So when I'm. When I'm able to, you know, be able to offer that, then. Then, you know, that's. That's something that we did. And people are like, heck, yeah, I will do it just for the chicken breast. And they get all kinds of other cuts, too. And, you know, I send a recipe book out every single month with the specific chicken cuts that are in there. You know, so it's a lot of fun. But. But, yeah, that was. That was the offer that I pitched to them. Like, hey, if you want to get guaranteed chicken breasts every single month, and sometimes there's two packs in there, it just depends on what month we're in, you know, But. But this is. This is the way to do it. Another offer that we just got done promoting was our bulk pork shares. We only do that once a year. I've trained my customers to know exactly when that happens. And we sold out of our, sold out of our bulk pork shares in six days this year and we opened deposits in March and they don't get their product until October.

Corinna Bench (64:43)

So that's awesome.

Stacy Edwards (64:45)

Yeah, that's been really, really awesome for us. Whereas before we were just kind of like, oh, we have an extra hog, like, let's sell this, you know, and now people know exactly when, when it opens up and they're, you know, they're ready to buy. Another thing we do too is like a sausage sampler because we do have quite a bit of flavors of different sausages. We have different, the way that they're formed. Like we have some patties, we have some links, we have some breakfast links, you know. And so I created a, actually several different sausage samplers. Like one you can just get our link, one you can just get our bulk grounds. And then one you can, you kind of mix and match. Like you kind of get the best of, best of all of them. And so because that's, that's a buyer's, you know, a decision fatigue that they have, which one am I going to try? And I'm like, well, don't worry about it. Just get our bundle and you can try them all and then figure out which one do you like the best. They usually like all of them and they'll just continue to buy the sausage samplers just. Just to get them all.

Corinna Bench (65:44)

Yeah, I was going to say just, just to bring us back to that earlier conversation, that product shows up in the pork category, the bundles category, the sampler bundles category and the sausages category. At least there's probably a few other ones. So yeah, it's brilliant.

Stacy Edwards (66:01)

Yeah. So, and then, you know, speaking to the, the pet treat bundles too, that's a, that's an offer that I throw out. Throw out as well. One that's actually not product oriented. It's more purchase oriented that we do is we do punch cards. And so sometimes my offer will be specifically like at the market will be, hey, you get a double punch on your punch card. And so if they, they punch, you know, if they have enough punches and they get like a $10 off their next purchase or whatever it is. And so, so that's been a lot of fun. And then another one that's not really product oriented is if they do actually purchase specifically at the market, we do like a fun and engagement spin the wheel kind of deal. And one of those is they get a free sticker. So we have like all kinds of stickers that, that we sell so they get a free sticker. We also do seasonings. We do our own seasoning blends and they get a free seasoning. And I actually created that product line not to create another enterprise, but to use it as an incentive for things like this. And I also use it as, like, I give out samples. Every single purchase. They get some kind of sample that I, that I've created. And so I kind of was like, well, what if people actually like this? Then I have to have something for them to buy. And it's actually, it's worked out really well. I mean, it's one of those things that it doesn't take a whole lot of time, it doesn't take a whole lot of extra money to build and create. And it's something that extremely complements our product. And so it's just a win, win all around. But that, that's another kind of offer that I throw out to them. And it's something else that I can talk about consistently. When I do talk about my product, I can increase that order value because they bought a $8 seasoning along with their $20 pork chops, you know.

Corinna Bench (67:51)

So you have an affiliate program, kind of an affiliate offer too, don't you?

Stacy Edwards (67:56)

Where I do, yeah.

Corinna Bench (67:57)

What does that look like?

Stacy Edwards (67:58)

We. So any, any one of our customers can be an affiliate for us, but we, yeah, our customers that were already talking about us, that were sending us referrals, I said, you know, like, I want to take care of you guys. I want to make sure that I'm taking care of those people that are taking care of me. And I said, I created little business card type deals and all of my affiliates have their own affiliate coupon code. And you know, they can give this code out or they can give this card out to whoever they refer. And if, if they come in and buy and they use that, that specific code, it goes towards my, whoever has referred them. And, and that's worked out really well for us. You know, I think if people are talking about you and they're bringing you customers, that, that, that should be a rewarded behavior as well.

Corinna Bench (68:51)

Yeah, that's brilliant. What's your email or your platform that you're using? Is it Grace, Grace Cart or.

Stacy Edwards (68:57)

I was, I was using Grace Cart for our website and our storefront and we recently switched to Local Line.

Corinna Bench (69:03)

Oh, okay.

Stacy Edwards (69:04)

For our subscription options.

Corinna Bench (69:06)

The one that I was looking at was a Local line store. Oh, wow. Okay, cool. That was really nice.

Stacy Edwards (69:13)

Thank you. Thank you.

Corinna Bench (69:14)

I didn't even realize I was looking at Local Line. I'm Asking this question. There are podcast sponsor. I'm like, well, she's probably going to say it's not Local Line, but that's okay because it was a really good site. I want people to know about it. And now you're telling me it's Local Line, so better.

Stacy Edwards (69:27)

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. It's. Our storefront is Local Line. And actually, the website that comes with Local Line is the one that we currently have right now.

Corinna Bench (69:35)

Awesome. All right.

Stacy Edwards (69:36)

But. But yeah, so not.

Corinna Bench (69:39)

Not trying to pitch Local Line right now legitimately. That's awesome.

Stacy Edwards (69:43)

I highly recommend.

Corinna Bench (69:44)

They are. They are awesome. Awesome to work with. Okay, we have to wrap this up. This has been so good. But I know that you have so many marketing lessons. I see you. You're in for a marketing school. I see you in the trenches. You're trying all kinds of things. Sometimes they're going super. You go super intense. I can tell you're having fun, you're taking risks. I know not everything always works out, but you're willing to just try it anyway. Like, what are some of the big takeaways that you've had along the way in your journey? Let's share one or two.

Stacy Edwards (70:19)

Yeah. I'd say the. The thing that has really been successful on all fronts is to know exactly who my audience is. I. I, you know, at first, I would just talk to everybody. I didn't know who. I just. People.

Corinna Bench (70:35)

Everybody eats.

Stacy Edwards (70:36)

Yeah, everybody eats, but not everybody's willing to spend, you know, $20 a pound on chicken breasts. And so once I. Once I fully realized, like, exactly who I was talking to, and I just got that by talking to the people who were already buying from me.

Corinna Bench (70:50)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (70:51)

And changed my marketing and changed my copywriting to speak to those.

Corinna Bench (70:56)

And your mindset. Right. Like, you had to get into that space where you were like, okay with that.

Stacy Edwards (71:00)

Yeah, yeah, that. That was. That was the thing that worked really well for us.

Corinna Bench (71:07)

That takes a while too, doesn't it, to figure out. Yeah. Who that person is. Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (71:13)

Yeah. And I will say, like, well, I joined Farm Marketing School because, again, I'm a professional student. But I also, like, I wanted to. I'd been following you for several years, so I listen to your podcast all the time. So much so. So much so that my. My children know your intro by heart. Sing it. Okay. And so I actually joined Farm Marketing School. The pivoting point for me was, like, I was caught up on all your podcasts, and I'm like, what else can she teach me? And what else Is there. If there's a farm marketing school and she's given out all this information on our podcast, I can only imagine what's going to be inside there. I saw that shift as a consumer and know that that's the value that I could add to my customers as well. But yeah, and I like, I'll say even though I, at first I thought I knew who my ideal audience was, that was something that I worked on with my coach and everything. But I realized that that also shifts over time. And so I actually, you know, did the, did the project for, for knowing your audience and came up with it. I slightly different audience and I started to speak to that audience that I had learned from what I'd learned in, in that specific project. And I started to attract more of those buyers that were actually who, who was spending, you know, who was spending the, the most. They're buying the most product, spending the most money. So that, that was interesting. And I just like, I appreciate the, the way that farm marketing school is set up and, and the projects are set up because I'm a very step by step learner. Okay. I need all the steps laid out for me and then I can go and I can kind of create whatever I want. But that was, you know, that was the moment for me that I, you know, realized that, well, I'm just, I just want to learn all the time.

Corinna Bench (73:20)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (73:22)

But I could, you know, even, even with my audience, even though I already knew my audience and I still, still did the project and still worked through it. Now I worked through it in like 10 days. I know they're supposed to be worked through in like 30 days, but there again, I, you know, I just had to know.

Corinna Bench (73:40)

I had to know it is possible folks to accelerate. It is speed. Listen.

Stacy Edwards (73:46)

But it was, you know, it was still eye opening. There was still something to learn. Even though I already knew who my audience was, I still got, you know, real, real specific with it.

Corinna Bench (73:58)

Yeah.

Stacy Edwards (74:00)

So. And I would say like, you know, something else that's, that's, that's really done well for us is like just studying copywriting. And so you're obviously a really good copywriter. And I was, I'm pretty sure I have like three emails that are subscribed to your email list because I go in and I actually study, study the copywriting techniques. But as far as like, what hasn't worked well for us, like the, you know, everybody, it's great that we can learn from other people's mistakes is like trying to sell all of the things that we are capable of selling and that our customers want something. That I found myself kind of falling into a trap was my customer would say, oh, well, I want this, I want that, I want this, I want that. And, you know, we'd create that, and then, you know, we wouldn't sell a whole lot of it. And specifically, what's happening now is, is we have dairy cows and we raise our beef on our dairy cows so people know that we have access to raw milk, and they want it and they want it really bad. But I can't justify selling raw milk because when I ran my numbers, because I know my costs, I would have to sell it for right now at $30 a gallon, and that's before I build any kind of infrastructure or anything like that. And I mean, I, I, I can, I could probably sell a few gallons at $45, but the majority of the people that want raw milk right now are not going to be able to, to justify buying 45 a gallon.

Corinna Bench (75:36)

Yeah, well, and even if you could charge them, to your point, like, if you don't want to, like, if energy don't go there.

Stacy Edwards (75:44)

Yeah.

Corinna Bench (75:45)

Like, money is not the only thing that we should be thinking about as far as how we compensate ourselves. Like, there needs to be joy. We need to have margin for family and energy and whatever it is that fills you up. So I love that you stood your ground and you're like, this is business by my design. And I get to say no. Yeah, I get to say no.

Stacy Edwards (76:05)

And another thing is, like, I actually enjoy milking cow, and I don't want to put that pressure on myself of having a business around it to where it's no longer enjoyable.

Corinna Bench (76:16)

Yeah. Love it.

Stacy Edwards (76:17)

So, and I think that's, that's the key piece, too, is like, you know, farmers may get into farming because they really enjoy it, and then they realize, well, I need to make some money and how do I do that? And then, you know, before they know it, they're, it's, it's still not. And it's completely overwhelming, and there's no joy in it anymore.

Corinna Bench (76:36)

So is there anything else that you want to make sure you say before we wrap up?

Stacy Edwards (76:43)

Yeah, I am very, very passionate about farmers making money because there's this stigma in society that farmers don't make money. And, and I, I don't like, I don't like following the rules, so I definitely want. And, and it's possible. And, but, but you kind of have to have somebody in your corner to coach you along, like myself. So, you know, finding Somebody that's a mentor or a coach that has either been through it or understand it is, was really the game changer piece for me. And then if you get really obsessive like me, you have nine coaches and, and you just keep going. But I, I will say it's, it's the best, it's the best money that I've ever invested in myself and my business. I mean, it spills over into my family too. The way I parent my kids. It, you know, so, so definitely investing in, in yourself is, is the key piece.

Corinna Bench (77:38)

I have a feeling, Stacy, that you are going to become one of those mentors for future farmers. I know you're already kind of coaching some people. I'm going to give you a chance. Now, we didn't necessarily talk about this before, but if you want to, like, I'm assuming, can people work with you if they, if they want to. And this, this podcast will be on here for many, many years. So people, you might get calls or five years from now. But like, is this something you're open to doing now? If people want to just do a, you know, a quick call to see if you'd be a good fit?

Stacy Edwards (78:10)

Yeah, Yeah, I have a link. It's one of our click link quick links on the very bottom, our website that says Coaching with Stacy or Coach with Stacy. And that will, that will take you to the contact form.

Corinna Bench (78:22)

Okay, that.

Stacy Edwards (78:23)

And then we can, we can kind of go over and see what, see what the needs are and see if we'd be a good fit.

Corinna Bench (78:28)

Have a discovery chat. Discovery call. Okay, well, we'll make sure. What is the name of that link again? It's the website.

Stacy Edwards (78:35)

Yeah, it's Edwards Family Farms.

Corinna Bench (78:38)

NC.com North Carolina for North Carolina.

Stacy Edwards (78:42)

Yes.

Corinna Bench (78:42)

Sounds good. I will put the link in the show notes for everyone so that you can find that more easily. Is there anywhere else you want to send people to if they want to follow you and see what you're doing?

Stacy Edwards (78:54)

Yeah, we're on Instagram and Facebook. I actually have two different types of content on Instagram and Facebook. If you're more of a farmer or homesteader, Instagram is where it's at. Or if you want all the fun recipes, Facebook is, is where I show up there. All the fun tips and, and tricks there. But yeah, and then what are the.

Corinna Bench (79:12)

What are the names of those?

Stacy Edwards (79:14)

It's Edwards Family Farms and see.

Corinna Bench (79:16)

Okay, same thing. All right, I'll put those links in.

Stacy Edwards (79:19)

The show notes and then join my email list to get all the, all the fun stuff. Insider. Insider tips and tricks there too.

Corinna Bench (79:27)

Yeah, I almost, I, I tell people do this all the time. Like get on people's email lists that are doing. I have a lot of people on my email list that I know are farmers who are just seeing what am I doing.

Stacy Edwards (79:36)

I'm one of those feel free to like.

Corinna Bench (79:38)

Yeah, feel free to like, I don't want to say steal it, but like what? Copy it? Like watch, watch the process. Like that's a great idea. I'm going to write an email about bone broth or whatever.

Stacy Edwards (79:47)

Right?

Corinna Bench (79:47)

Like just see how other people are doing it and that's how you learn. How you learn. Yeah. Just follow the people who already know what they're doing. Find a guide, everyone. That's the moral of this last part of the episode. If it's not Stacy or it's not farm marketing school, find someone that can guide you and make that investment. I think it's important. Well, thanks again for being on the show and good luck this season.

Stacy Edwards (80:11)

Thank you too.

Corinna Bench (80:13)

See what I mean? Wasn't that a great interview? It was so hard to figure out what to cut out. There was even more left on the editing room floor, if you can believe that or not. Thank you, Stacy for coming onto the show. Really value your partnership in for our marketing school and I'm excited to continue to work with you in the future. I think we have have some plans we're brewing up together. Today's show notes can be found@mydigitalfarmer.com 311. If you like today's episode, please go leave me a rating or a review on Apple podcast. It does help other people find out about the show. If you want to get onto my email list and learn more marketing wisdom, you can subscribe@mydigitalfarmer.com subscribe I'm also on Instagram at my digital farmer. I show up there with a marketing tip or a mindset coaching moment from time to time to help keep you on track in your business and keep you in a good mental space. I'd love to connect with you there. Thank you so much for joining me today. You guys have an amazing week and remember, I believe in you. I'll see you next time. Bye Bye.