Empowering Women: Insights for Elevate Women in Ag Conference

Welcome to the latest episode of Coffee in the Barn, where we delve into the inspiring and multifaceted lives of women in agriculture. This episode, hosted by Morgan Hart and Casey Bradley, brings a unique blend of personal stories, professional insights, and empowering discussions that highlight the challenges and triumphs of balancing motherhood with a career in agriculture.

Morgan Hart and Casey Bradley kick off the episode with a warm welcome and an introduction to their experiences and backgrounds. They discuss the intersection of motherhood and agriculture, sharing their motivations for starting the podcast and their vision for creating a supportive community for women in the industry.

Elevate Women in Ag Conference

Morgan and Casey recount their recent participation in the Elevate Women in Ag Conference. Morgan shares her experience attending the social event, highlighting the networking opportunities and the impactful speech by Crystal Blynn from House of Color. They discuss the significance of dressing for success and how understanding color theory can boost confidence and personal presentation.

The Role of Women in Agriculture

The hosts explore the evolving role of women in agriculture, emphasizing the importance of support networks and professional development. They reflect on the conference's broader impact, discussing how such events foster community and mentorship among women in the industry. Casey emphasizes the need for similar events across different agricultural sectors to promote inclusivity and growth.

Personal Reflections and Lessons Learned

Casey and Morgan delve into their personal journeys, sharing the challenges they've faced and the lessons they've learned. Casey discusses her journey from a swine nutritionist to expanding her expertise to pet and poultry nutrition. She reflects on the importance of embracing one's authentic self and not being confined by traditional roles or expectations.

Supporting Women in Ag

The episode highlights the significance of supporting women in agriculture, not just through professional development but also through personal growth and confidence-building activities. They discuss the impact of mentorship, coaching programs, and how male colleagues can play a supportive role in fostering a positive environment for women.

Action Items for Listeners

Morgan and Casey provide actionable insights for listeners, encouraging them to reflect on their own professional and personal lives. They emphasize the importance of authenticity and self-belief, urging listeners to identify and overcome any limiting beliefs they may hold. The hosts also share their plans for future episodes, including discussions on work-life balance, personal growth, and professional development in agriculture.

The episode concludes with a heartfelt thank you to the listeners and sponsors, particularly Zinpro, for their support in making the Elevate Women in Ag Conference a success. Morgan and Casey express their excitement for future episodes and their commitment to continuing the conversation about the vital role of women in agriculture.

Transcript

Morgan
0:00:00
From boardroom meetings to bedtime stories, Coffee in the Barn explores the delicate dance of balancing the demands of our professional lives with the joys and responsibilities of being moms. Join us each week as we discuss the latest trends in agribusiness, share insightful interviews with industry experts, and sprinkle in some heartfelt anecdotes about the humorous and heartwarming moments that come with being a working mom in agriculture.

Morgan
0:00:28
Hi guys, welcome to this week's episode of Coffee in the Barn with Morgan and Casey. This week we have the pleasure of speaking with Kaylee Cappie McDonald who works with ZinPro and helps sponsor and organize the Elevate Women in Ag event that was hosted for the first time ever at Pork Expo. In last week's episode, Morgan and I gave our highlights from attending the event, and we have exciting news. After Kaylee's fun interview here shortly, we are going to have next week's episode featuring Kacen Boyles from the event as a keynote speaker. So welcome, Kaylee.

Kaylee
0:01:05
Thanks for having me back on the podcast, ladies. It's good to see your faces. Definitely. Can you get, obviously we introduced World Pork Expo, and I heard from some of the attendees that they signed up because they heard us on Coffee in the Barn.

Kaylee
0:01:22
Yes, yes. I'm grateful we could get the word out. It was a great turnout. Obviously, we hope, you know, more and more people hear about it and we can do something again next in next year. But yeah, grateful you guys shared the story and got the message out there about our first Elevate Women in Ag event.

Casey
0:01:42
Can you kind of give us the statistics, being the little scientific nerd here, and understand how many went in and that kind of stuff and some feedback?

Kaylee
0:01:50
Yeah, so we had just shy of 50 women sign up for the event and some, you know, last minute had some meetings come up. Of course, during the World Pork Expo, we all know that those things happen and those things come up, but man, it was such a good turnout as far as the right people were there,

Kaylee
0:02:11
the right conversations were had. I just felt like it was overall a good turnout for our first event.

Casey
0:02:19
I was gonna say the post-media content from the event, like, wow.

Kaylee
0:02:27
Yes.

Casey
0:02:28
So can you kind of walk us through if people didn't get to attend, where are some of these articles being published? I know Jennifer Schaik wrote one article.

Kaylee
0:02:38
Yeah, Jennifer Schaik has now come out with a couple of different articles, one just highlighting the event, and then the other one she dove into just some content from some of the guest speakers and panel guests that we had there as far as some

Kaylee
0:02:53
valuable takeaways and tips and some things to take home and maybe implement in your work-life balance. So, yeah, it was she's got some marketing around it. I know people from Zimpro have shared, but again people that just attended the event felt the need to, Yeah, it was heavily shared on social media and I really appreciate that, but I think people genuinely wanted to share their experience of the event. And that is certainly something I'm thankful for and thankful for the women that are sharing

Kaylee
0:03:29
and spreading the word about Elevate Women in Ag.

Kaylee
0:03:31
Based on the people that I saw at the event, as well as some of the articles that I've read afterwards, it kind of broke down that there was people, the women that attended the event were in a lot of different stages of their lives, whether that was right away just had babies, or they're in like the, you know, preteen era, or their kids are older, or the kids are out of the house, were you able to get kind of a graph on the survey afterwards on like what percentage

Morgan
0:04:07
of women were represented by those different areas?

Kaylee
0:04:11
Yeah, so that's a great observation and a great question. And I do think that was some feedback that we did get back. You know, a lot of the panelists are moms. So naturally we talk about mom life and we had folks from all different seasons of life. So I think finding that balance, you know,

Kaylee
0:04:31
everyone's in a different season was definitely talked about, but maybe we could spend a little more time in one area versus another. But I think all in all broke down into a variety of seasons, but it was great for the younger folks to have folks in a different season, maybe the mom or post mom life, their kids are graduated and those kind

Kaylee
0:04:53
of things. So I think there was a lot of conversation no matter what season of life people were in, they had access to talk about or share experiences, or what have you.

Casey
0:05:06
I was gonna say even Zach had some good questions. Zach is a guy there.

Kaylee
0:05:14
Yes, absolutely. And you know, he kind of, from the other point of view, he's like, man, there's a lot of things, you know, as a guy, you just don't think about, right? Like, we just, you just don't think about those kind of things. So I think it was very eye opening.

Morgan
0:05:29
I know one of the, so I was only able to attend the Monday night social, but I really enjoyed the speaker that we had that spoke on the House of Color. And from that, I haven't gotten my colors done, but I'm hoping to in the future. Have you ever gotten your colors done?

Kaylee
0:05:49
I have not, and I wish I had more time during Expo to get my colors done with Crystal, because not only is she good with style and all of that, but just tying it together, colors, style, work, and how to put that together for a certain event, I am wanting to get my colors done, for sure. But it was, I really felt Crystal did a really good job of tying in topics that maybe we just don't take time

Kaylee
0:06:17
to think about or talk about or do because we're so busy in our day-to-day activity, that it was kind of nice just to sit back and see how different things are put together and what works on different body styles and types and colors.

Morgan
0:06:32
Or even just the simple tips and tricks of like wearing lipstick or things you don't think about of like wearing bracelets or things that accentuate the skinniest part of your body which is your wrists and your ankles.

Kaylee
0:06:44
Right. staple blazer in your closet, you know, as kind of, you know, a staple piece or what did she say? Red is the most universal color for everyone. Yeah. I mean, you already have the right shade of red.

Kaylee
0:07:01
Yes.

Casey
0:07:02
Yes. I was gonna say the primary red is universal for everybody. I do believe I think the other shades of red goes into your color family. But I think she gave me permission to dress more feminine. And since World Pork Expo, I have bought some new clothes. Obviously, I haven't had my color done. But I was very proud. I was fine day, I put a blazer on because I'm going to be taken more seriously. Good. But with my blazer, I had a feminine outfit on and I think in agriculture the type of work we do and

Casey
0:07:43
the type of work I've done in my life hasn't lent itself favorable to being feminine and nice and you can't wear high heels and you know take care of pigs or something and do chores even though I have not well not successfully I can't. But I think that from Crystal's talk gave me a license to be more me. I love that because I do think in our industry we are so, it's like tradition to kind of

Kaylee
0:08:17
wear the same thing over and over again or be in our little safe circle, right, of what we wear and polo collared shirt is kind of the staple for everyone. And again, I'm glad we kind of, as women had that moment

Kaylee
0:08:34
to now we have permission to go ahead and do that. Who sets those rules? Nobody really. So let's go ahead and break those barriers, if you will. So, yeah, because I think truly when it comes down to it, look good, feel good, do good, right? Yeah.

Casey
0:08:53
So, obviously, I've coached you and I've gotten to know you throughout this last year. I'm curious, hosting the event and, you know, planning it and doing all that. What has that done for, in your mind, for your confidence, your professional growth, personal growth kind of what how's that empowered you or elevated you I should say It's been such a rewarding experience

Kaylee
0:09:22
to Connect with women Individually right to reach out to all these women ask them to be on the panel get to know them on a little deeper level And just in general has been such a rewarding experience to take an idea, put it together, and see it come to life,

Kaylee
0:09:45
and then be rewarding for other women like yourselves. You know, this is what I gained from this event. This is what I learned from the event. That in itself, to me, is just a sense of accomplishment, right? And just overall, like I said, very rewarding.

Kaylee
0:10:03
From a professional development standpoint, it has broadened my network tremendously from the marketing side of it, from just touching base with people like Morgan, right? Or being able to have conversation on a different level, right?

Kaylee
0:10:19
We know each other a little better, have more of those meaningful conversations outside of just work. So from a professional standpoint, just overall growth outside. Kaylee, you works for Zimpro. So yeah. Deeper appreciation for the marketing team in your company? Absolutely. I couldn't have done it

Kaylee
0:10:42
without Rachel Summers and some of the marketing team at Zimpro and just the fact that Zimpro allowed us to take an idea like this and bring it to life. To work for a company that, you know, believes in empowering women, empowering people, and giving us that platform to do so.

Morgan
0:11:02
So I think this year was such a success. So how do you step up your game, per se, for next year? I'm sure you're already kind of the wheels are turning and you're starting to plan or think of speakers or themes or Whatnot do you have any like insight you can give us on?

Kaylee
0:11:21
Morgan that's a tough question

Kaylee
0:11:23
You know after an event like that you do you sit back and you go, okay, what went well? What could we do better? What can we do next time to encourage more women to show up? You know, you kind of go through your list. We sent out a survey with some feedback, so that's super helpful.

Kaylee
0:11:47
But yeah, we're open to ideas. We're open to, you know, we're very open at this point. So I know we're a year out, but any ideas would be great. But yeah, I'm thinking of bigger and better. How can we do bigger

Casey
0:12:04
and better? I was going to say to throw this out to you and I think there's other companies who want to do this. So I'm not sure it has to just be this in-pearl event in the future. I think so many people are like, hey we needed this. I didn't hear about this. I wanted to go and you know I think bigger and better is how big we want to dream And if this is your passion, I really think it can grow it one of my questions I have because obviously Morgan couldn't attend the entire event. She wasn't the only one right because we had business commitments

Casey
0:12:41
but What is the thoughts on doing the outside of events so the women can actually come to maybe like a central location like Des Moines and invest in themselves without having to worry about does it conflict with my other business priorities of the week.

Casey
0:12:57
Yeah and I would say that that has been a topic of conversation and a very good point. You know we originally sent out just a survey just to kind of get an idea if this was a good, you know, to see if people would be interested first and foremost. So tying it to an event like Expo, where we know women were gonna be in attendance,

Kaylee
0:13:24
was kind of our first thought, let's try it this year. And that's one of those ideas where the wheels are turning, the wheels are spinning. But then we also have folks on the other side of the fence who say, I'm a mom, I'm already committed to a week at World Pork Expo and I'm already gone.

Kaylee
0:13:39
So let's make it happen during World Pork Expo when I'm already gone for that week. So I think you get a little torn. Now, could there be some follow-up activity after an event like that? Maybe say centrally located, potentially,

Kaylee
0:13:54
you know, tossing around some ideas on what follow-up looks like from an event like this.

Casey
0:13:59
What are your thoughts, Morgan? Because I'm torn both ways too. As a mom, I don't, you know, travel is precious and away from home is hard. I mean, what is your thoughts on future follow-up activities? What sparked things in you from the event? Yeah, I really wish I was able to have joined on that Tuesday for the full day. I mean, whether there was a way to, I don't know have virtual content available for the people that necessarily can't attend in person so that they can still at least like grasp the

Morgan
0:14:34
the information that is being provided and at least be able to learn more about the speakers and the different topics that were available I Think that would have been that's one area possibly. I do think it would be very difficult.

Morgan
0:14:55
And I would say I'm torn both ways as well as, you know, if you had, say like, if it was still World Pork Week, but you had everyone come in like Sunday night and then had the event on Monday, you know, you're still, it's still back and forth.

Morgan
0:15:11
Even though I wasn't able to be there. I or maybe that's even starting it earlier on Monday. Right. Like Monday's already travel day for most people so instead of leaving at 4 p.m. maybe people leave at noon or you know just shift their schedule by four or five hours and then maybe that's a way to kind of accommodate happy medium type thing but yeah I really think trying to do it outside of World Pork Week might get to you a little difficult.

Kaylee
0:15:41
Yep, that was a lot of the feedback we got, you know, what makes sense, what's practical and, you know, in our busy lives and we're already traveling. Yeah, so that's, that's probably where, you know, you get a little torn because you do have people like Casey mentioned, you know, on this. But again, the work life balance, right? So we try to figure it out. Your majority.

Casey
0:16:04
Yeah, I'm asking because based on your interactive workshop with working genius, obviously, I did not sit with people who I work with. I sat with a friend and the people I knew, right, but I don't And that interactive learning component has really driven a change in my plans of my training programs I'm putting together. I'm going to offer the option of a hybrid, you know, recorded material and a virtual workshop, but I'm also putting in there a day-long workshop for the interactive components or a two-day where you don't watch videos on the content we do both in two days. I'm curious the response I'm going to get

Casey
0:16:57
because I can tell you from an educator and a facilitator that interactive lesson was probably the best opportunity for us to work with others and work with normally don't. So ideas are how we approached the challenge, because we had to think what plan of marketing event in the workshop and what keys were missing on your team. And I thought, not only going through that with a team that I don't

Casey
0:17:28
work with on a daily basis was awesome. But then hearing, it was the same activity for everybody else, but different approaches and different things, and how they took the learning and I would think that interact active training in small groups and breakouts is so essential to education and learning and obviously we're there for professional development but I feel like that's almost necessary in the majority of conferences and

Casey
0:17:58
meetings we have now to like okay we just got all this great information that Casey gave us But what does it mean and I think I think maybe for the future of everything even in our industry to think more about interactive workshops and Purposely putting people with people they don't work with every day. Yep Hear new ideas and I that was another

Casey
0:18:20
From the day to take away for me was very essential of my business models change changing and I would prefer to do in-person workshops on the education front because new ideas come out and you learn from different people in a different way. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I am. What was your overall thoughts on the working genius portion of the events. I have made every one of my employees take it. So I paid for them to take it. Obviously, I did not retake it because I took it with you. I have my results. From a leadership perspective, it made me realize what we're missing on the team. And I like the challenge of going to get new business I like bringing a new product to market but once it's in the market and established I don't get as lit on fire and going through the working

Casey
0:19:28
genius it told me why and it told me that I was probably on the right path of how I'm changing my business model right you know help more up front. Bring the solutions and seeing if they work or not. And understanding that's my zone of genius. And then, you know, on my team, I have people who have my week, you know, looking at somebody who does continue education, professional development, mentoring as a part of my life and who I am. Out of all of them, I think that was the most important one should be done like when you're a high school age.

Casey
0:20:14
Yeah. Yep. Be like, what is where are you going to enjoy doing? And how can you take, say, I love animals. And I know when I was in high school, I thought being a veterinarian was the only way I could go to college and work with animals Well, if I would have had that working genius done I Could have had somebody a career counselor say well now definitely being an animal scientist researchers probably where you want to be Yeah, I mean I got there in the long run But imagine if I would have set up my program differently

Casey
0:20:54
and things and so I was my biggest thing I I've been recommending it to other people and I was talking to an old client about it and I said you know I think and we left on good terms but it wasn't in part of the industry I really wanted to work in at the time and I said I think I know why we probably weren't successful for each other as much as I hoped. And that's because we were all too much alike.

Casey
0:21:23
I imagine if you took this test, we'd find out we're probably over here at the innovator side, all of us. There isn't how many cheerleaders or tenacity people pushing us.

Kaylee
0:21:34
Well, it was so funny how that came to life. So putting the panel together and one of the panelists is Kylie Denise from she's originally from Colorado lives in Oklahoma works for Oklahoma Court and she was she's been I've known her since college we went to Blackhawk Junior College together and have always looked up to her and admired her and she was sharing a little insight on what they do with their team

Kaylee
0:22:04
and how they all bring their working genius out every time they have a new project. So who's really good at this? Who's good at that? Let's assign this. You're gonna be assigned with her.

Kaylee
0:22:15
So she was sharing information about that. Then I knew it was really meant to be a part of the program when I mentioned it to our keynote speaker, Casey, who you guys will have next week on the podcast. And she said, I am trained in working genius as a facilitator. So then at that point, I just knew it was totally meant to be that that needed to be

Kaylee
0:22:41
a part of our program. And she's very knowledgeable and super educated in the working genius. But I loved how light that assessment was. And again, like Casey was saying, it's very brings awareness around kind of some strengths, weaknesses, what you're good at, those kinds of things.

Kaylee
0:23:00
So I would encourage the majority of teams in the professional world to take that assessment for sure. I think, I think it, like you said, can enlighten you on why maybe some things don't work or jihad may be near as well and Why you work better with others? So yeah, I think there's some good insight there some some key takeaways from that working genius

Morgan
0:23:24
I'm glad you found a lot of value in it Casey. I did and I appreciate some pro 

Morgan
0:23:51
When you go through Taking those personality tests and whatnot. It's it's interesting to see, you know, at different stages of your career, or different stages of your life, how most of the time, it doesn't really change, because it's just kind of true to who you are. But in some areas, you might get like stronger and weaker, depending on your skill set, or whatever your job might be at that time, that might help enlighten those different areas that might not have been a strength or weakness before.

Kaylee
0:24:03
Yep, absolutely.

Casey
0:24:05
And the only thing I think we're missing out on all these tests, because I'll use an example, when I went to Combeck, after my undergrad, I took the personality test and make all their new hires go through it. And then I took it again when I got hired as a PhD animal scientist. And they said my personality is very rare that it totally changed and I looked at my life experiences, you know, in between there and I

Casey
0:24:32
would call myself more adaptable. And I think some of these tasks yet don't show us if we're adaptable in certain areas. And I've always tried to use my weaknesses, I want to be consciously aware of that or things I don't like to do but always work on how can I overcome that now as a leader where who can I can pull on and my weaknesses and things like that and so it's just being consciously aware and knowing that and you can take the

Casey
0:25:06
mindset well this is who I am and they're just gonna have to deal with it or hey I know I'm weak here but I can overcome that weakness with this strength. And I think that's a key takeaway where sometimes you may it makes it sound like oh man we got to change our management structure, we're gonna hire differently, blah blah blah. And I think it's just how are you open about working with people and having your team be an adaptable and mindful of who they are.

Kaylee
0:25:35
Yep, absolutely. And that's one of the things I really like about the working genius. Maybe you can get them to sponsor you

Kaylee
0:25:42
to

Casey
0:25:44
But no, I think it's kind of nice because it doesn't say you know Kylie and I were talking about it

Kaylee
0:25:48
And she's like it's kind of nice. It doesn't say like you're not good at this. This is just the stuff that you know, or yeah, here's the stuff you're really good at, but here's the stuff maybe we can work on. But here's the stuff that's just too much for you, you know, at this time, like, like you had mentioned, it's just, it's not a, hey, you suck at this. I mean, just putting it bluntly, but yeah, it's kind of like, you know, here's your strengths, here's what you can work on. And you know, here's the stuff that just drains you.

Morgan
0:26:31
Yeah, we had to take some personality tests internally within Alltech earlier this year too. And it was, it's not something that you always think about. Right. Or that you can like, you know, you know who you are and like the way that you do things.

Morgan
0:26:48
But when you get like a specific word put to that action or like, you're like, oh, I always do this, but here's a specific word to describe that. It kind of enlightens it a little bit and makes you a little bit more aware. And I think it's always something to just kind of have

Morgan
0:27:07
in the back of your mind or just even like review, like every year, everyone's working on their New Year's resolutions or, you know, we're six months into 2024 now, like, what have you accomplished since the beginning of the year? And I think it's just one of those things that as you're personally growing or develop, professionally developing, you should just look and review at those things just to kind of refresh your mind about it a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great idea.

Casey
0:27:28
Well, anything else that you want to highlight, Kaylee, from the event? Are you planning content? I gave your boss some ideas for homework for Kaylee.

Kaylee
0:27:45
Yeah, so we have we have some ideas in the works here in the next couple months on potentially some follow-up activity. So I will leave you with that little tidbit. You know, strategically spend time where we need to spend time and do all the things, right? So, and I'm sure Casey will dive a little more into that next week, but I think we had an awesome panel

Kaylee
0:28:39
and I may be biased, but I thought we had just four amazing ladies that were an open book book and all excel in their careers and all excel as moms and all excel and yet they were just so vulnerable and open on some things. So I'm just again it was a very rewarding experience and I'm thankful for the event I'm thankful for the follow-up and the marketing afterwards but that truly people took

Kaylee
0:29:12
something away from that that they can use in their everyday lives.

Kaylee
0:29:15
That is my and was my ultimate goal for the event. Yeah I would just evaluate you know we're six months almost eight months no we're way past six months we're almost eight months into the year when at the time of recording this I guess maybe just evaluate where you originally thought you were going to be at the beginning of the year, and see how currently where you're at professionally, personally right now,

Morgan
0:29:44
and how that corresponds to six months ago or even a year ago, and see what things you might need to put in place to either get back on track to where you want to be, or choose a different direction and reevaluate in the next couple months. And as a good example, if you remember from our goal setting works, our goal setting podcast, when I were beginning episodes, I said I was going to run a 5k Morgan, I got clearance from the doctor, my foot doctor that I can. So I'm still going to

Casey
0:30:16
achieve that. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to get it done this year.

Kaylee
0:30:28
You can do it.

Morgan
0:30:30
Well, great. Thank you, Kaylee, for being back on the Coffee in the Barn.

Kaylee
0:30:34
Yes, any time. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, ladies. I appreciate it.




Transcribed with Cockatoo