Breaking Barriers and Building Balance

In Episode 27 of Coffee in the Barn, we continue our conversation about the remarkable Elevate Women in Ag event with Kaylee Keppy McDonell from ZinPro, who played a pivotal role in organizing this groundbreaking gathering at the World Pork Expo. Last week, Casey and Morgan shared their initial thoughts and highlights, but the event was so impactful that we couldn’t stop there.

This first-of-its-kind event aimed to empower women in the agriculture industry by creating a vibrant platform for dialogue, support, and networking. Kaylee dives deeper into the inspiration behind the event, the incredible turnout, and the lasting impact it's had on attendees. Whether you joined us last week or are tuning in for the first time, this episode is packed with insights on how such events are changing the landscape for women in agriculture.

Kaylee reflects on the significance of this gathering, which attracted nearly 50 women from various stages of life, each bringing unique perspectives and experiences to the table. The event featured inspiring speakers, including a session on the importance of color analysis in personal and professional branding, which resonated deeply with attendees.

Throughout our conversation, Kaylee emphasizes the importance of building a community where women can share their struggles, achievements, and strategies for balancing work, life, and personal growth. She shares how the Elevate Women in Ag event not only strengthened her professional network but also had a profound impact on her personal development, offering her a renewed sense of purpose and confidence in her role.

Listeners will gain insights into the challenges and opportunities for women in agriculture and how events like these can drive meaningful change. Kaylee's passion for fostering an inclusive environment in the ag industry shines through, and she hints at exciting plans for the future, encouraging more women to get involved and continue the conversation.

Key Learnings:

• The power of community and networking in empowering women in agriculture.
• Strategies for balancing professional and personal life, especially for women in demanding industries.
• The importance of personal branding and how small changes, like understanding color analysis, can enhance confidence and professional presence.
• Insights into the planning and execution of events focused on women in ag, and the potential for growth in future initiatives.

Transcript

Morgan Hart
 0:00:00
 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 Keppy-McDonnell, who works with ZinPro and helped sponsor and organize the Elevate Women in Ag event that was hosted for the first time ever at World 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 Kacee Bohlee from the event as a keynote speaker.

Casey Bradley
 0:00:38
 So welcome, Kaylee. 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 K
 0:00:55
 Yes, yes. I'm grateful we could get the word out. It was a great turnout. Obviously, we hope more and more people hear about it and we can do something again next year. But yeah, grateful you guys shared the story and got the message out there about our first

Casey Bradley
 0:01:13
 Elevate Women in Ag event.

Casey Bradley
 0:01:15
 Can you kind of give us the statistics, being the little scientific nerd here, and understand how many women and that kind of stuff and some feedback?

Kaylee K
 0:01:23
 Yeah, so we had just shy 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. Man, it was such a good Turnout as far as the right people were there the right conversations were had. I

Kaylee K
 0:01:43
 Just felt like it was overall a good turnout for our first event. I

Casey Bradley
 0:01:48
 Was gonna say the post media content from the event like wow Yes 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 Schyke wrote one article. 

Kaylee K
 0:02:08
 Yeah, Jennifer Schyke 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 have there as far as some valuable takeaways and tips and some things to take home

Kaylee K
 0:02:28
 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 yeah, it was heavily shared on social media and I really appreciate that,

Kaylee K
 0:02:49
 but I think people genuinely wanted to share their experience of the event. And that is that is certainly something I'm thankful for and thankful for the women that are sharing and spreading the word about Elevate Women in Ag.

Morgan Hart
 0:03:05
 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, I shouldn't say 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 what percentage of women were represented by those different areas?

Kaylee K
 0:03:42
 Yeah, so that's a great observation and a great question. And I do think that was some feedback that we did get back. 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,

Kaylee K
 0:04:02
 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.

Kaylee K
 0:04:14
 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 kinds 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 Bradley
 0:04:35
 I was gonna say even Zach had some good questions. Yes, absolutely. With the guy there

Kaylee K
 0:05:02
 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 don't think about those kind of things. So I think it was very eye opening. 

Morgan Hart
 0:05:18
 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 K
 0:05:20
 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 K
 0:05:48
 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 Hart
 0:06:02
 And, 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. Right. 

Kaylee K
 0:06:31
 Yeah. Or just having that 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, right shade of red. Yes. Yes.

Casey Bradley
 0:07:01
 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. Iowa Swine Day, I put a blazer on because I'm going to be taken more seriously. Good. But even with my blazer, I had a feminine outfit on and I just felt totally different. And I think in agriculture, the type of work we do and 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 not successfully well but I think I that from crystal's talk gave me a license to be more me.

Kaylee K
 0:07:41
 I love that because I do think in our industry, we are so, it's like tradition to kind of wear the same thing over and over again, or be in our little safe circle, right, of what we wear. And a polo collared shirt is kind of the staple for everyone and again, I'm glad we kind of as women had that moment to now

Kaylee K
 0:08:05
 We have permission to go ahead and do that who sets those rules nobody really so Yeah, because I think truly when it comes down to it look good feel good do good, right? Yeah So Yeah. 

Casey Bradley
 0:08:26
 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, playing 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, to go with it.

Kaylee K
 0:08:51
 Yeah.

Kaylee K
 0:08:52
 It's been such a rewarding experience 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 put it together, see it come to life, and then be rewarding for other women like yourselves. You know, this is what I gained from this event.

Kaylee K
 0:09:21
 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. From a professional development standpoint, it has broadened my network tremendously from the marketing side of it, from just touching

Kaylee K
 0:09:44
 base with people like Morgan, right, or being able to have conversation on a different level, right? 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 works for Zimpro.

Kaylee K
 0:10:02
 So, yeah.

Casey Bradley
 0:10:03
 Do you have a deeper appreciation for the marketing team in your company?

Kaylee K
 0:10:08
 Absolutely, I couldn't have done it 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 Hart
 0:10:33
 So I think this year was such a success. So how do you step up your game, per se, for next year? Like, 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.

Morgan Hart
 0:10:51
 Do you have any like insight you can give us on?

Kaylee K
 0:10:54
 Oh, Morgan, that's a tough question. You know, after an event like that, you do, you sit back and you go, okay, what went well? What can 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. But yeah, we're open to ideas. We're open to,

Kaylee K
 0:11:23
 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 and better?

Casey Bradley
 0:11:36
 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 the Zimpro 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. One of my questions I have, because obviously Morgan couldn't attend the entire event,

Casey Bradley
 0:12:10
 she wasn't the only one, right, because we had business commitments. But what is the thoughts on doing an outside of event so that 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?

Kaylee K
 0:12:30
 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 idea, 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 going to be in attendance, was kind of our first thought. Let's try it this year.

Kaylee K
 0:12:58
 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. 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, you know, tossing around some ideas on

Kaylee K
 0:13:27
 what follow up looks like from an event like this.

Casey Bradley
 0:13:29
 What are you 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? 

Morgan Hart
 0:14:05
 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 people that necessarily can't attend in person so that they can still at least like grasp the 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 I do think you would be it would be very difficult 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

Morgan Hart
 0:14:38
 you're still it's still back and forth I even though I was wasn't able to be there I or maybe that's even starting it earlier on Monday right like Monday's Monday. Right. Like Monday is already travel day for most people. So instead of leaving at 4pm, 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

Morgan Hart
 0:15:08
 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 K
 0:15:15
 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, like to hone in and just focus on this. But again, the work life balance, right? So we try to figure it out for majority

Casey Bradley
 0:15:39
 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 people I knew right but I don't know them that well Yes, and that interactive learning Component has really driven a change in my plans

Casey Bradley
 0:16:04
 of my training programs I'm putting together. I'm going to offer the option of a hybrid, one on, 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,

Casey Bradley
 0:16:24
 we do both in two days. I'm curious the response I'm going to get 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 people who we normally don't.

Casey Bradley
 0:16:43
 So ideas are how we approached the challenge because we had a, I think, what, plan a marketing event in the workshop and where keys were missing on your team. And I thought not only going through that with a team that I don't 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.

Casey Bradley
 0:17:11
 And I think that interactive 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 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

Casey Bradley
 0:17:44
 workshops and purposely putting people with people they don't work with every day.

Kaylee K
 0:17:49
 Yep.

Casey Bradley
 0:17:49
 Hear new ideas. And that was another from the day to take away from me was very essential of my business models change changing. And I 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. 

Kaylee K
 0:18:29
 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What was your overall thoughts on the working genius portion of the events?

Casey Bradley
 0:18:41
 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 liked the idea as well. Maybe that's what we outsource. And it actually brought me clarity because we were changing our business model because I don't, 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 genius, it told me why.

Casey Bradley
 0:19:00
 And it told me that I was probably on the right path of how I'm changing my business model, right? It'll 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, my weaknesses, which is good, right? Yeah, that was, I've taken a lot of personality tests and stuff. And, you know, looking at somebody who does continuing 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

Casey Bradley
 0:19:41
 and it should be done like when you're a high school age. Yep. Be like, what is, what are you going to enjoy doing? And how can you take, say, I love animals and I, you know, when I was in high school, I thought just 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 no definitely being an animal scientist researcher is probably where you want to be yeah I mean I got there in the long run but

Casey Bradley
 0:20:13
 imagine if I would have had that mindset as a senior going getting ready to go to Michigan State for my undergrad of how I would have set up my program differently and things and so I was my biggest thing I I've been recommending it to other people every time I have other people wanting to take 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

Casey Bradley
 0:20:46
 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. I imagine if we took this test, we'd find out we're probably over here at the innovator side, all of us.

Casey Bradley
 0:21:01
 We didn't have any cheerleaders or tenacity people pushing us. 

Kaylee K
 0:21:26
 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 Pork. And she's been, I've known her since college. We went to Black Hawk 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 and how they all bring their working genius out every time they have a new project. So who's

Kaylee K
 0:21:41
 really good at this? Who's good at that? Let's assign this. You're gonna be assigned with her. 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, Kacee, 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 a part of our program. And she's very knowledgeable and super educated in the working genius.

Kaylee K
 0:22:17
 But I loved how light that assessment was. 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. So I would encourage the majority of teams in the professional world to take that assessment for sure.

Kaylee K
 0:22:37
 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 key takeaways from that working genius.

Kaylee K
 0:22:57
 I'm glad you found a lot of value in it, Casey.

Casey Bradley
 0:22:59
 I did, and I appreciate Zinpro. 

Morgan Hart
 0:23:16
 When you go through taking those personality tests and whatnot, 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

Morgan Hart
 0:23:32
 might not have been a strength or weakness before. Yep, absolutely.

Casey Bradley
 0:23:36
 Absolutely. And I, 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.

Casey Bradley
 0:23:58
 And I looked at my life experiences, you know, in between there and I 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

Casey Bradley
 0:24:28
 my weaknesses, and things like that. And so it's just being consciously aware. And knowing that and you can take the 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 that's the key takeaway, where sometimes you may it makes it sound like oh man, we got to change our management structure

Casey Bradley
 0:24:55
 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 being adaptable and mindful of who they are

Kaylee K
 0:25:05
 Yes, absolutely. And that's one of the things I really like about the working genius. Maybe you can get them to sponsor you to you can get them to sponsor you.

Casey Bradley
 0:25:13
 I could become a licensed facilitator.

Kaylee K
 0:25:20
 Absolutely, but no I think it's kind of nice because it doesn't say you know Kylie and I were talking about it 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 yeah here's the stuff you're 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 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,

Kaylee K
 0:25:54
 here's your strengths, here's what you can work on, and, you know, here's the stuff that just drains you.

Morgan Hart
 0:26:01
 Yeah. I, we had to take some personality tests internally within all tech earlier this year too. And it was, it's not something that you always think about or that you can like, you know, you, you know who you are and like the way that you do things. But when you get like a specific word put to that action or like, you're like, Oh, I always do this,

Morgan Hart
 0:26:28
 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 in the back of your mind or just even like review, like every year, everyone's working

Morgan Hart
 0:26:43
 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

Morgan Hart
 0:27:04
 a little bit.

Kaylee K
 0:27:05
 Yeah, absolutely. That's a great idea.

Casey Bradley
 0:27:08
 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 K
 0:27:16
 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, just to highlight the overall event, it was so to see so many powerful and influential and just lady leaders in general just come together and have good genuine conversation. It wasn't about work.

Kaylee K
 0:27:48
 And Casey, you can attest, you know, it wasn't a lot about, you know, how do you do this? It was just how do we balance it? How do we, you know, strategically spend time where we need to spend time and do all the things, right? So, and I'm sure Kacee will dive a little more into that next week, but I think we had an awesome panel and I may be biased, but I thought we had just four amazing ladies that were an open book

Kaylee K
 0:28:19
 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 something away from that that they can use in their everyday lives. That is my, and was my ultimate goal for the event.

Morgan Hart
 0:28:51
 Yeah, I would just evaluate, you know,

Morgan Hart
 0:28:54
 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 gonna be

Morgan Hart
 0:29:08
 at the beginning of the year and see how currently where you're at professionally, personally right now, 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 re-evaluate in the next couple months. And as a good example, if you remember from our goal-studying work our goal-studying podcast when I were beginning episodes I said I was gonna run a 5k Morgan

Casey Bradley
 0:29:43
 I got clearance from the doctor my foot doctor that I can so I'm still gonna achieve that What I'm gonna do it I'm gonna find it even if it's on like New Year's Eve You can do it. Great, thank you Kaylee for being back on the Coffee in the Bar. . Thank You can do it. Great, thank you Kaylee for being back on the Coffee in the Barn

Kaylee K
 0:30:06
 Yes, any time, thank you ladies, I appreciate it.