FoA 350: How to Get the Word Out in Ag with Sarah Mock and Travis Martin

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Magnetic Ag Newsletter: https://magnetic-ag.com/

"Farm and Other F Words" https://bookshop.org/p/books/farm-and-other-f-words-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-small-family-farm-sarah-k-mock/16922376

Imagine Content and Consulting: https://newsletter.imagine-content.com/

"AEI.Ag Presents" podcast: https://aei.ag/podcast/

"Agtech - So What?" podcast: https://www.agtechsowhat.com/

One important change to agriculture that we probably don’t talk about enough is the changing ag media landscape. Farmers and those of us who work in agriculture traditionally would read industry publications and listen to farm broadcasters on the radio to get ag information. Those programs were funded by agribusinesses who new they had a fairly captive audience. Well as you know all of that has been turned on its head in the past 20 years. Now companies can have much more direct contact with their target audience, whether that’s a potential customer, a trade association member, a potential investor, collaborator, or any number of important people you might want to interact with. That’s awesome, right? But it also means ther are no more captive audiences. You have to earn attention. And that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. 

After years of interacting with those of you who listen to this show, I know that for the most part you have an honest intention to improve the future of agriculture. In order to do that you absolutely will need to know how to get the word out there. That’s what today’s episode is all about. 

Sarah Mock joined me back on episode 210 to talk about the future of ag media. She jokes that she is slowly working her way through every job in ag, having worked for USDA, RFD-TV, Farmers Business Network, and others. Today she’s an independent contractor who does research, content, journalism and a number of other interesting projects in agriculture including producing podcasts like AEI Presents and Agtech, So What? She is also the author of two books that I personally recommend: “Farm and Other F Words” and “Big Team Farms”. 

Travis Martin started his career in agribusiness, and ended up finding his love for marketing while working at Elanco. Since leaving the company in 2018 he has worked for a variety of agtech companies in both full time and contractor roles, including a couple companies you’ve heard on this podcast like Leaf Agriculture and Advanced Agrilytics. In 2020 he started a weekly newsletter called Magnetic Ag that really is different from just about any content you’ll see anywhere else in agriculture. Still going strong, over 12,000 people read Magnetic twice a week. That led to Travis staring his own content and consulting business for agricultural clients called Imagine Content & Consulting. 

I’m very lucky to have Sarah and Travis on the show, and I really think this topic and their advice is important for all of us, no matter whether you see yourself as a creator or not. One quick clarification before we jump in. This was recorded in December of 2022, so when we say “this year” - we mean 2022.