THE AMBER WEITZER PODCAST SILHOUETTES OF SUCCESS

SONDRA WALLACE | EPISODE 25 | SHOW NOTES

FEATURED GUEST

Raised in Agriculture, a very proud sixteenth generation rancher and she’s just getting started! She is passionate about the survival of American agriculture. “Telling the story of what these great people, and their forefathers, have done to provide safe and cheap food to the world. We are “grass farmers”. Grow grass for our cattle to eat and produce hay for the winter. We have a commercial cow/calf operation.”

Sondra’s “Why”- When an animal extremist physically attacked my then 12 year old daughter at a livestock show on the west coast I was able to turn off the emotion and go into the “business” mode. I was able to do so because of media training I had through the California Council of Growers Media Center in 1981. When the woman walked away after I asked her a series of questions, she had no answers for I was not ready for what happened next. The crowd around us, all non-farmers or ranchers, started clapping and cheering. They then started asking question after question. An hour and a half later I realized that the public just wanted information, not marketing.  

Over the past 30+ years she has amassed information from many segments of agriculture. She’s spent 20+ years talking to and listening to the public from around the world. If you can think of a question, they probably asked it. In 2006, even though this was her passion, she stepped away and sold the company. Burnout happens! 

CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHT

Q & A: In agriculture, for the most part they don’t really know about each other’s specialty, they are experts in their own field. In the late 80’s, Sondra invested over 120,000 hours of research for factual answers and cutting out the marketing clutter! She founded a company, called Barn Tours with experts from around the world that would travel across the nation to county fairs and livestock shows with walking tours to educate plus allow the public to ask them anything. She would and will question the “experts”, she seeks the proof in truth. So much has only been passed down without questioning the content. Stay tuned in the future for more with Sondra…including some of my favorites stories of her quests including one with NASA and the inventor!

The Box: Vaporize your Box. Get rid of your invisible box and challenge anyone on the information you are receiving. Sondra explains it like this-everyone is in a box and that is symbolic of our comfort zone with an ego inside the box. We feel comfortable with our specialty and or with the information we feel confident in. But, many times that information might not inaccurate or all out wrong that we have been taught or observed. Vaporize “The Box”, be open and vulnerable ask questions, dig deeper on your own to seek truth and not be settled in what’s placed in front of you…never stop learning.

Marketing: Chickens have earlobes! What?!? And the color of the earlobes reflect the shell color of the eggs they lay. This you need to hear again directly from Sondra! The more writing and colored ink on the packaging…means it’s going to be more expensive, so they need to sell it to the consumer in a more creative way. Marketing, marketing, marketing…don’t believe it all.

INTENTIONAL INSPIRATION

Hard Work + Passion! If you have a passion or are you passionate about something, anything? That will give you the drive for the hard work…because it will be hard work. Stay on course. People that have never had a passion, will try to divert you from your passion. Do not let anyone divert you.

RESOURCE LIST

SONDRA WALLACE

Sondra@owranchtx.com

 

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