Paulsen Marketing On the Road Blog

Why We Heart Change

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 11:25:24 CDT

Guest blogging today is Clara Jacob, creative director.

“Change is your best friend,” said Greg Guse, Paulsen’s president, last week at our company’s annual meeting.

It’s tough to wrap my head around that one. My best friend is Ann. Not Change. We’ve been friends since we were three years old – steady and loyal – despite differences between us, challenges in our lives and all manner of change.

Maybe it’s just me, finally growing up, but lately I’ve noticed a lot of change. Transformations, resurrections, evolutions. It’s that time of year. The soil is coming to life, birds are coming home. I even slapped my first mosquito of the season.

Greg also recounted a quote he heard from speaker Ryan Estis at the national NAMA conference in Jacksonville, Florida, a few weeks ago – that the agency business has changed more in the last five years than during the last 95 years! Here in the creative department, the entire earth shifted when we went from sketches, typewriters and paste-ups to computers. People who couldn’t make the leap didn’t fare too well.

The truth is that survival requires change. In his book Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon quotes renowned jazz musician John Coltrane: “The real risk is in not changing.”

And in business we can create a competitive advantage by changing before others. Jack Welch famously said, “Change before you have to.”

Personally, I find change exciting. For example, I like listening to new music rather than oldies. Studies show that learning new things has a positive chemical effect on our brains.

Back to best friends: If our lives weren’t constantly changing, Ann and I wouldn’t have much to share. In fact, much of our friendship is based on our parallel yet different experiences of growing up as we ourselves change.

And back to business: Whether it’s harnessing digital, embracing big data or capturing mobile, our responses to change must be smart and immediate.

Farmer DNA, More Determined than a Protective Mama Cow

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:27:09 CDT

Guest blogging today is Krystil Smit, public relations director.

I don’t talk much about the fact that I’m a farmer. It’s not that I’m not proud of being one, because I feel incredibly fortunate that I have lived my entire life on a farm. It’s as much a part of my identity as being born a girl; so I guess the reason I don’t talk much about it is, it’s just who I am.

Because I have a “town job” here at Paulsen, I don’t get to participate in the everyday work on our farm, but I have, over the years, performed nearly every agricultural task you can think of – driving tractor, milking cows, fixing fence, hauling bales, combining, running the grain cart, feeding cattle, pulling calves, shoveling and spreading manure, just to name a few. And to be honest, I’ve loved every second of every task. Well, maybe not so much the manure gig, but it’s a necessary evil.

So when I get a chance to pitch in at the farm, I am eager and able. I’ve been getting more opportunities than normal as of late because my husband recently had back surgery, so he is in recovery mode during spring calving and planting this year.

One recent Sunday morning while checking on the cattle, my son saw a newborn calf had partially fallen through the ice in a shallow creek along the cattle yard, and the protective new mama cow was pacing with anxiety. My son and I headed out in the RTV for “Operation Calf Rescue.” The little fella’s hind legs had broken through the ice, and he was cold and shivering.

A newborn calf weighs about 90 pounds and it took me four attempts to pull him safely to dry ground. My first try, mama cow put her head down and came after me. We repositioned ourselves on the other side of the creek bed, and, from a safer position, my second try I also fell through the ice and was stuck up to my thigh in mud and water as mama cow paced nervously just several feet in front of me. Once I pulled out of the mud – and also retrieved my boot stuck in the mud – I grabbed hold of the calf and pulled his front legs until I freed his hind legs. Mama was mad again so I had to retreat. On the fourth try, I was able to pull him to safety.

It amazed me that within seconds, mama cow found a way to cross the creek, reclaimed her calf and then led him to a safer place to cross the creek again. They headed directly to warm shelter and dry bedding, and later that day the calf was thriving and nursing from his mama.

I felt a lot of pride for rescuing that calf. And while I don’t get to achieve that kind of farm satisfaction day to day, I reconnected with the passion, emotion and immense responsibility for caring for animals that livestock producers do experience daily.

As I write this, another winter storm is upon South Dakota. With last fall’s Winter Storm Atlas still on the minds of cattle producers in this region, the present unrelenting winter we’re experiencing and many baby calves on the ground right now, I can only imagine the anxiety – similar to what that mama cow exhibited for her calf – that livestock owners are feeling. I know one thing; farmers and ranchers will risk it all to save one animal. The heartfelt gratification is worth it. And, it’s just who they are.

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 09:33:51 CDT

Guest blogging today is Mark Smither, VP, strategic director.

I am 50 years old. In advertising years, I am probably closer to 70. I have experienced a career’s worth of deadline-induced stress and sedentary-related weight gain. This is what happens when you choose a profession that requires staring into a computer screen eight hours a day.

When I was a younger man, I would smoke a pack of Marlboro lights, eat a couple of jelly-filled donuts and wash it all down with a gallon of bitter, black coffee just to get my engine started. By the time I was 30, I had managed to stop smoking. However, I never could give up the sugar and caffeine.

At the half-century mark, I realize that I can’t continue to repeat the same bad habits and expect to remain productive. I need to change—for my clients and colleagues, for my friends and family, and for myself.

Today, our VP, Digital Services, Sara Steever, gave me a self-help book entitled, Younger Next Year. I don’t know if this was just a coincidence or an intervention, but either way I am grateful.

The book, written by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D., draws on the very latest science of aging to show how men 50 or older can become functionally younger every year and continue to live like 50-year-olds well into their 80s. I have to admit, I am intrigued.

Although I haven’t read the book yet (I just received it a few hours ago), I did come across these seven simple rules for living a long, productive life. They seem to make a lot of sense.

Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.
Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.
Spend less than you make.
Quit eating crap.
Care.
Connect and commit.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to step away from my computer for a while. I think I hear an elliptical machine calling my name.

Five Cool Agriculture Instagrams

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:46:00 CDT

Guest blogging today is Katie Levitt, creative director.

Instagram is the great photography equalizer. Its forgiving filters allow even (ahem) the most clueless amateurs among us – myself included – to take an okay shot now and then. And it’s a wonderful way to appreciate and share the day-to-day beauty all around us. If you’re an Instagram fan like me, check out these awesome ag-stagrammers:

1. Instagram.com/agrowlife

2. Instagram.com/farming_northamerica

3. Instagram.com/farmpicsdaily

4. Instagram.com/godmadeafarmer

5. Instagram.com/luckycharmsandbeer

Twelve Hours of I-29 Inspiration

greg.guse@paulsenmarketing.com (Greg Guse) — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 07:54:10 CDT

Guest blogging today is Bryan Bjerke, public relations director.

I had the privilege of judging the PR entries for the national Best of NAMA competition this past week. It meant a trip to Kansas City, which meant some drive time. I enjoyed the opportunity to put in six-hours-each-way of windshield time on the drive from Sioux Falls to Kansas City. That’s a lot of windshield time. And a lot of time to reflect on both wide-open spaces and the role agriculture is playing in the world these days.

On both the way down and the way back, I noticed how many semis were moving up and down I-29 hauling grain. It’s a reminder of how grain marketing has changed. Thanks to the huge increases in production, along with significant increases in storage capacity, grain marketing and transport is now, more than ever, a year-round proposition. And the impact the grain markets have on our economy has grown along with it, providing ongoing work and economic impact for both rural America and our overall economy.

Once I got off the Interstate and into Kansas City, I had a chance to marvel at the scope of agriculture through the work of public relations professionals and their work. Best of NAMA showcases the work of advertising and public relations, and this year’s public relations entries showed the increasing scope of agrimarketing, from traditional work involving annual reports and newsletters, to the latest digital advances. There were so many innovative and inspiring ways to tell important stories about farming, farmers, agribusiness and rural life, that it left me tired but inspired by the work and the subjects of that work.

I was honored to be one of the judges for all this work, but even more honored and inspired to be part of an industry that is amazing in its scope. From grain marketing to rural/urban food dialogues, from fertilizer to satellite imagery, many of the true renaissance people today are deeply involved in American agriculture. That insight alone was well worth twelve hours on I-29.