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Today, I want to introduce you to a concept called the Dream 100 list. This is a powerful way to accelerate the growth of your customer base. And when I first heard about it, I was really intrigued. I have been playing around with it. I want to introduce you to it. For some of you, this could be a game changer for revenue growth. Let's get started. Hey there, this is Corinna Bench and welcome to the My Digital Podcast. In today's market, it's not enough to just grow your product. You've got to know how to sell it, too.
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Welcome to the My Digital Farmer Podcast
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where we reveal online marketing strategies and
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tips to help farmers like you get
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better and more confident at marketing, learn
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how to find more customers, increase your sales, and build a strong brand for your farm.
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Let's start the show. Show. Well. Welcome to episode 365 of the My Digital Farmer Podcast. I'm your host, Karina Bench, one of the farmers at Shared Legacy Farms out in Elmore, Ohio. I'm also the founder of mydigitalfarmer.com which is all about trying to help other farmers like you get more confident in your marketing and sales strategy so that you can grow a profitable farm business. How's everyone doing today? Welcome back all of my Digital farmers back to the show. Really glad you're here. If you're new to the podcast and this is your first time checking it out, I'm so glad you're here today. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure you subscribe to the show and I always tell people to go check out my first 10 episodes to start at the beginning. If you are new to the marketing space and you need to kind of learn the lingo and learn the ropes because I stacked everything on top of each other in a very specific sequence of when I first started the show with future audience members in mind. So that's the way to begin. Otherwise you can just scroll through the archives. There are over 350 episodes now, which is just crazy to me, and find something that suits your fancy. Another way, though, to learn the ropes of marketing is to get onto my email list. I send out an email every single week that points to the podcast episode. But I also when you first join the email list, you will get an email every single, I don't know, every six days for about three months. That is an onboarding email sequence. It's designed to give you the key marketing principles, the frameworks, in a certain order to walk you through, hold your hand and help you kind of learn the ropes. I give you some free resources. I point you to people you should be following. I teach you the most important things you should know. It's really good. So again, you can get on that list by going to mydigitalfarmer.com subscribe Today's
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podcast is sponsored by my friends at Local Line. If you run a CSA or you sell direct or wholesale, or you manage both, Local Line helps you simplify your operations and scale with confidence. I love this platform. In 2025, farms and food hubs using Local Line grew their sales by 33%, average order values increased by 31% and total order count grew by 9%. That is real results across operations of all sizes. Localline brings everything together into one platform. So CSA management, wholesale ordering, access to new wholesale opportunities. They have automated inventory, barcode scanning, a box builder. They even have a pos. And that means you spend less time managing admin and more time growing your business. Switching couldn't be easier. There are no setup fees, no sales commissions, and their onboarding team will even migrate your storefront for free, taking the workload off your plate. As a podcast listener, you'll get one premium feature free for a full year when you use the code MDF2026 at checkout. So head to mydigitalfarmer.com localline all one word. Then use that code MDF2026 and you'll get that discount. Start the season strong with localline. It's streamlined, efficient and built for growth. And now back to the show.
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I hope you are having an amazing day. I have gotten so much done today. Do you ever have days like that where you're just crushing it? Got up early, had a focus, had a plan and just decided that I was going to approach every project as if I was playing, trying to approach it with the spirit of play, holding it lightly and also putting a container around it, saying I'm going to give this project one hour and that's as far as I get and then I'll stop. And that just has allowed me to hold it much more lightly. So I am giving this a 45 minute container. I have a one to one coaching call with a farm marketing school farmer here at the top of the hour and so I'm excited about that. I love doing that with them. So I have a very small window of time to get this done. Here we go. I'm excited to talk to you today about the Dream 100 list. This is a new concept that we're going to dive more deeply into. I Think it's going to unlock some of you and lead to some new revenue, some faster list growth. So how do I want to start? I think sometimes the fastest way to grow your farm business isn't just to find more customers. It's actually by finding the people who already have your customers. So let me explain. A few years ago, Weber Ranch, which is a meat producer out here in northwest Ohio, they were trying to grow their brand new business. They did not have a clientele, they had a great product, they were producing amazing meat. They had just moved back into the area and the challenge for them was how do we grow our customer base? How do we get our offer in front of the right people? And they we're trying to do it as fast as possible. And one of the things that accelerated their growth was partnering with an established business that already had the eyeballs of their ideal customer. They reached out to us, Shared legacy farms. We did not have a meat product. We weren't planning on producing a meat product in the future. And so they kind of cold called us. We went out and met them at their location where they were producing their meat. And we really liked them. We began a friendship with them and they eventually suggested, hey, what do you think? If we could sell our meat to your customers, would you be willing to let them know that we exist? And so this was a really smart move on their part. As I look back on that was maybe 10 years ago now. In the matter of 12 months, they grew their list, their exposure, their revenue way faster, partly because they were able to use our email list, our relationships that we had built, our trust with our customer as a launching pad and it really accelerated their growth. We had the eyeballs of their ideal customer. We had the trust. We had an email list that was full of people who care deeply about local food who would probably want their products. So when we introduced Weber Ranch to our audience, it created momentum much faster than trying to build awareness from scratch. Is anyone out there resonating with this? Are you feeling this burn right now? Well, recently this whole concept came up again during one of my one to one coaching calls that I offer inside of farm marketing school. This is something that I offer to farmers once they've been inside of FMS for three months. And I was coaching a flower farmer and she was trying to figure out how do I increase my sales, how do I sell more bouquets. We talked out all of her sales funnel. She had a lot of different outlets, a lot of different things going on, and I don't know about 20 minutes into the conversation, I remember asking her, where are people already hanging out who naturally want flowers? That was kind of a challenge question that I put in front of her, because your ideal customer already exists somewhere. And we started brainstorming. So if you're a flower farmer right now, I want you to take that question and. And talk it out right now. Maybe hit pause and see if you can answer that question. Where are your people already hanging out who naturally want flowers? And if you're not a flower farmer, then fill in the blank. What is your product? Okay. And where are those people already at? So we began brainstorming this farmer and I. And I said, what about nursing homes? Could she approach a nursing home and say, hey, when families come to visit grandma or mom or whatever, what if they had the option to bring her a fresh bouquet of flowers? Could she leave brochures there? Would the nursing home be willing to make their customers aware of this service? Could she create a simple bouquet pickup system? Could the nursing home itself become a referral partner? Then I suggested realtors. What if a real estate agent gifted a new bouquet to new homeowners as part of her welcome package? As her welcome package, and that makes the realtor look thoughtful, and the homeowner will get introduced to local flowers, and the farmer gets in front of an ideal customer? Okay, those were two examples of what I want to talk about today, which is the Dream 100 mindset or the Dream 100 strategy. Now, this idea of a Dream 100 list actually comes from the business and marketing world. It's originally taught by a marketing guru called Chet Holmes and later popularized by people like Russell Brunson. That's who I heard it from in the online business space. And the basic idea is simple. Instead of trying to market to everybody by yourself, you identify the specific people, businesses, brands, influencers. It could be media outlets that already have the attention of your ideal customer. And then you intentionally build relationships with them, with the businesses, with the brands, with the influencers. These are potential collaborators. They could be referral partners. They could amplify you. They're trust builders because your customers are already gathering somewhere. Right? The question that I want you to think about is where? Who already has their attention? And can you go to those people and collaborate with them? Now, a lot of times when I first bring this up with farmers, there's resistance. There is this assumption of, I don't have enough followers. Why would anyone want to partner with me? And I don't want to bother people with this request, or I'm Too small. They won't want to work with me. And I want to push back. And I want to say partnerships are often mutually beneficial. This is not about begging. You are helping someone else create a better experience for their customer. And that's a really important mindset shift. I'm so grateful that the Webers reached out to us and offered that service to us. I wasn't, I don't know, jealous. I wasn't nervous about sharing my list with them. I wasn't selling the thing they were selling. And I knew that my customers would get excited about it. I knew it would actually probably draw more people into my audience. I knew that Weber Ranch would start talking about my product to their people and we'd kind of cross promote and just in general would make a much more positive buying experience. So it was a win win. Now, we recently did this whole process all over again about a year and a half ago when we switched to a different meat producer. And that's just because Weber Ranch, they kind of moved on. One of the farmers had a hobby of flying airplanes, and he decided he wanted to become a full time pilot. And so the farm business, although they're still meat producers, it's much more scaled down. And we needed to find a producer that was going to be able to meet all the need that we had. We have a pretty big customer base. So we once again reached out to another farm, Anderson Farms in Bowling Green, and we're helping them sell their chicken and pork. And it's moving a lot more product for them because we have a huge email list and we can very quickly sell a product since we're not competing with them. Right. It's adding value to our farm. We get a commission of the sales. It doesn't compete with our products, and it makes our customers, I don't know, just. It's more convenient. They're getting everything from one location. So again, it feels like a win win. Now, the original concept is called the Dream 100 list. But honestly, I think that number feels overwhelming for a lot of us small farms. So I want to simplify it for you and turn it into what I'm calling your Dream 25 list. And I want you to sit down with a piece of paper. This is what it looks like. Sit down with a piece of paper and brainstorm 25 people or businesses, organizations, influencers, brands, media contacts that already have the trust and attention of your ideal customer. And I don't want you to overthink it, okay? Just start asking questions like where do my customers already Spend time. Who do they already trust? What other things are they buying? Who serves the same kind of person I serve, even if they sell something completely different. And then just start making categories. Local businesses, health and wellness businesses, schools, churches, influencers, online realtors, chefs, coffee shops, media personalities, gyms, boutiques, wedding vendors, other farms. Just thinking off the top of my head here, okay, the goal here is not to go and immediately pitch all of those people. The goal is just to train yourself to start seeing partnership opportunities everywhere. And then once you've made that list, circle the three relationships that feel the most natural or exciting or easy to pursue. And then simply start by building a connection with them and build some goodwill. So let me give you a few examples of Dream25 partnerships for different kinds of farms. I know I have a lot of different kinds of listeners here. If you're a flower farmer, potential Dream25 targets might be wedding venues, photographers, realtors, nursing homes, funeral homes, coffee shops, salons, and not just for women, but for men. Like barbershops, spas, Airbnb hosts, Bridal shops, event planners. Flowers are emotional products, aren't they? So where do emotional moments happen? I talked earlier about that Realtor welcome bouquet opportunity or the thinking of you flowers or the hospital gift bouquets or bouquet subscriptions at local boutiques. Right? Today's podcast is sponsored by Farm Marketing School, my monthly membership for farmers. Before we dive back into the episode, I want to speak to a very specific kind of farmer for a second. If you're a year or two into your business and things are working, but your marketing still feels kind of scattered, like you're posting, you're sending some emails, you're running promotions, but it all feels disconnected and you're not sure what's actually driving sales. I just want to say that's not a lack of effort, that's just a lack of structure. Because most farmers don't need more ideas. What they need is a system that connects everything together. And that's exactly why I built Farm Marketing School. Inside. I teach you how to actually design your marketing so that it works like a machine, a system, not a bunch of random tactics. We map out your full customer journey. We build your email engine, we create intentional promotions and product pathways so your marketing starts handing off from one piece to the next like a relay race, instead of you running every leg yourself. And we do it through 30 day project builds. So you're not just learning about marketing, you're actually finishing things. You're actually building the marketing assets in your marketing machine. Your sales funnel Your promotions, your lead magnet, your weekly email rhythm, all your marketing assets. And that's when the shift happens. Marketing starts to feel lighter, the flywheel starts to spin. Sales start to feel more predictable, and you finally feel like, okay, I'm on the right track. I know what I'm doing. If that's what you've been longing for and what you've been missing, then I want to invite you to join Farm Marketing School. Just for a month. Come inside and see what it's all about. You can learn more@mydigitalfarmer.com FMS and now back to the show. Okay, if you're a vegetable farm or a CSA vegetable farm, potential Dream25 targets that you could go after to help you sell your vegetables or your CSA shares. Gyms, chiropractors, wellness clinics, dietitians, homeschooling groups, churches, local chefs, meal prep companies, food bloggers, fitness influencers, breweries. I wrote that one down. Coffee shops. Again, healthy food fits naturally into any kind of health ecosystem. So who is already serving health conscious families? Oh, doctors offices might be another one. So I was thinking about partnership examples like CSA brochures at the gym. You could have chef demos, you could have wellness challenges, homeschool farm tours, or just talking to different wellness doctors. I know I. I work with a lot of functional medicine doctors who are more likely to heal with food. And so I know a lot of those kind of live online. That might be another place you could go. All right, meat producers, potential Dream 25 targets. I brainstormed a list for you. Crossfit gyms, carnivore keto influencers, fitness coaches, freezer companies, butcher shops, hunting stores, chiropractors, men's groups, grilling stores. Okay, and then some of you are wedding flower farmers. And so I, I had a list of this, too. Potential Dream 25 targets. Wedding planners, venues, bridal boutiques, photographers, bakeries, makeup artists, DJs, rental companies, event coordinators, Airbnb hosts. All of those vendors are potentially influencing the wedding space. All right, do you see this? So wedding industries are network industries. One referral can create many referrals. Remember, you're not just selling flowers or meat or vegetables. You are entering in an ecosystem. So what is that ecosystem? Who are all the different players in that ecosystem? So I want you to brainstorm that list, and that's actually a really fun process. When I began it, I was like, wow, there are so many potential sources here that are untapped that could really accelerate my growth. I mean, I could continue to try and get Customers one by one through social media or asking my customers to refer. And I do that. But what if I found a collaborator and just pitched. Just ask them. They could say no. But I try to build a relationship and see where that goes and maybe they help me get 5 or 10 all at once with a simple couple of emails. Maybe I even pay them a little bit of money to send a promotional email based on the number of subscribers they have. And they're willing to send an email for a little bit of money. Doesn't have to be a lot. And now that might open up some doors that could be money well spent. All right, so how do we actually build these relationships? Once you've identified, I don't know, the top three that you want to pursue, you can just go for it and pitch right away. But I would encourage you to start with building a relationship first. And Weber Ranch did that. They were so classy about it. They just wanted to meet us, they wanted to see our farm, they wanted to tell us about their business. But they didn't pitch us on that very first meeting. Kind of hinted at it, but they didn't outright ask. So here are some ideas for how you can begin to enter their ecosystem and show that you're genuinely trying to get to know them first. And things like following them online or commenting genuinely on their, on their content. When you share some of their content or share their work, maybe you even could buy from them, actually try out their product so that you know that it's good. It'd be terrible if you recommend it to other people and then you're like, oh, actually don't like this product. You could start referring customers to them so that that business starts to hear the name of your brand over and over again. You could send them appreciation emails or invite collaboration in a very slow way. So this is a long game. Sometimes it might take a few months, but it can really reap some major rewards. When someone trusted introduces you, there is this trust transfer that happens and it happens really quickly, right? So when I sent an email out to my email list and had a picture in there of us touring the Weber Ranch farm place and started talking to them about how we were really excited. We met these really, this really cool couple and they're, they're doing grass fed chicken and pork and we're thinking about doing a collaboration like that sort of email going out to the people that love us, that trust transfers really fast. It doesn't take long for them to be like, oh well, you vouch for them then they must be good. And people will buy faster when someone they trust recommends you. They'll buy faster when someone familiar introduces your brand and validates you. So you're borrowing trust. And that's why partnerships can accelerate growth so fast. I really want you to consider doing this. For some of you who are starting out right now, you're still in the early stages, year one or two of your business, and you're like, I don't have enough customers. Oh, my friends. Collaborations is such an easy way to jumpstart your customer base. I think we sometimes forget how. I don't know, discouraging it is those first couple of years when you're getting started and it just feels like a slog and you can't get people interested. I mean, you slowly grow your list and you slowly get new customers, but it feels so slow. You've got 25 people that are buying from you, and you're like, okay, that's it. How do I get to 50? How do I get to 100? And one day? Either whether you do this accelerated path or you do it the slowed, steady way, like, one day you will get to, let's say, a hundred customers. One day you will get to 500 customers. I know you can't even imagine that right now, but one day you'll get there, and it will feel so much easier. It will just feel different than it feels now. When you have kind of the wind beneath your wings and you've got a certain number of people that are buying from you, you just show up differently. You show up with confidence. You aren't afraid to do the work. You're more willing to do the work. You bring a different energy to the work of selling and producing because you just know that you. That you've got people that like it. And so I want to help you get over this initial hump of just trying to get to that magic number, whatever it is for you. For some of you, it's 50. For some of you, it's 100 customers, where you're suddenly going to feel lighter about the whole process, the whole production process, the whole sales process, when you have that validation of a certain number of customers. So how can we get you there faster? Because, man, it is an energy drain to be in that place where you're like, no one likes my stuff, or that's not actually true, but you just feel that way. Right? Okay, so here's. Here's your homework assignment. I know 100 feels overwhelming, so I didn't want to say think of 100 names. But originally that's what Russell Brunson said. Your dream 100 list is to come up with 100 potential collaborators. But I just want you to create a dream 25 list, okay? Some combination of 25 people, businesses, brands, organizations, media outlets, could be influencers, potential referral partners, however you want to think about it, okay? Ask yourself, who already has the attention of my ideal customer? And then which three could I begin building a relationship with this month? Not pitching yet, just relationship building. Okay? That's your assignment. So maybe the next level of your business growth isn't hiding in some, like, better Instagram strategy. Maybe it's hiding in a relationship that you just haven't built yet. What if there is a key collaborator that if you took a little bit of time to invest in that, it could be a huge lever, like, huge lever that powers you forward in ways that nothing else could. I just love this idea so much, and I wanted to introduce it to you so that you could start thinking through the lens of growing your business through collaboration. The farm businesses that grow quickly are often the ones that stop trying to do all the marketing alone and operate in a silo instead. They're reaching out, they're networking, they're looking for ways to pull the lever and accelerate their growth, and that's through collaboration. So think about your Dream25 list. I hope this idea sparked some interesting. I know that you can come up with at least three and reach out to them, and this may be something that creates all kinds of energy in your brand. All right, that's all I got for you today. If this episode sparked an idea for you, I would love to hear who is on your Dream25 list. You can send me a DM, go to Instagram ydigitalfarmer, or share this episode in your stories and tag me and let me know who's on your Dream25 list. What did this episode make you think about? And if you want help turning these kinds of ideas into an actual marketing machine for your farm business, I want to welcome you into my farm marketing school community where we are working through strategies like this. We do it every single month together. It's a amazing community. I love it so much and it's really powerful to be inside of there in the main season while you're actually running the business, because you can come in and get an idea and go implement it in real life time in your business and manifest something that you need to have done now. So I encourage you to come in and just be a part of this support group. I have all kinds of amazing resources and projects in there to help you build your marketing system so you can learn more@mydigitalfarmer.com FMS Today's show notes can be found at mydigitalfarmer.com 365 if you like today's episode, please go leave me a rating or a review. I do love to read those so much. They're really encouraging. So thank you all of you who are doing that. You could also just share the link with someone else of this episode. Help me expand my reach so other people know that there is a resource like this to help them get better at marketing. If you want to get on my email list, remember that's free. I've got stuff to send you to make your marketing better. Go to my Digital Farmer.com subscribe and look at that. I got this job done in the container I gave it. So I've got 10 minutes to go till my OneToOne call. You guys have an amazing week. Thank you so much for joining me. And remember, I believe in you. Bye bye. Sam.