Let's Play Offense

"The moment a person becomes defensive, learning ceases." -Carlton Munson

I saw this quote in my Facebook newsfeed today and it seemed extremely fitting for what I am doing this week.

As I type this I am sitting in Washington D.C. at an American Farm Bureau Advocacy Conference. It is the first one they have put on and I must say, they've done an amazing job. I am extremely thankful and lucky for my state to have allowed me to attend. #FBAdvocacy

I have sat in many social media, "tell your story" style workshops in the last few years. If you are in agriculture, you know all about telling your story. I can quote almost anyone that has put on one of these workshops:

"We need to tell our story." 

"Only you can tell your story." 

"If you want your story told correctly, you have to tell it yourself."

This is all good advice. It is exactly what we, as farmers and ranchers, should be doing. And after you attend these workshops you leave all fired up. We gonna tell our story! Then you get home and the cows, your family, and your household knows your story already. And they don't wanna hear it again. So you're left wondering...to who and where do I tell my story?!

And you're stuck.

Then you get someone on your Facebook or Twitter or in town that says something that just blows your agricultural mind. It might even be one of your best friends. You wonder how and why they don't know your story...they don't know the science....they don't know the facts. You're thinking, "Wow...where was I on that one?" 

When you feel like you haven't done a very good job of telling your story and you get blindsided by a friend's Facebook post or a comment from someone you don't even know, the initial reaction is defensive. You immediately want to tackle whoever has the ball. Run them down and take them out. Here's the thing...this isn't football.

"The moment a person becomes defensive, learning ceases."

We cannot tell our story or make our point by being defensive. 

If we want to effectively communicate with consumers, friends, family members, strangers, we have to learn to take a step back. Take a breath. Use these great brains that God gave us to tell our stories. Not constantly spouting facts. Not using talking points. Not regurgitating information we have been given. Ain't nobody got time for that.  

Let me say, however, that facts and talking points are useful. They are amazing tools to use. They are truths. But they are the sterile operating room. They are cold things. People don't want the operating room....they want the warm and fuzzy miracle story that has people in it. They want to grasp your story and feel it. Tears, goosebumps, fear, happiness, accomplishment, love, all those things come across when you live your story. Use the facts. Follow the talking points. But make them feel it. 

Nobody wants to hear that you have a 1% mortality rate. Nobody wants to hear that you grew 171.7 bushels per acre of corn. You don't get attention with those facts unless you are talking to another ag person. Because the average person doesn't immediately know what a mortality rate is on a farm. The closest thing to a bushel anyone gets is "a bushel, a peck, and a hug around the neck" from Aunt Helen. 

The average person wants to hear about the night in January during the snowstorm when your daughters show heifer was calving. And she wouldn't get up or push and you had to pull her calf. And it was too cold so you got momma up and took baby into the house and dried her off and blanketed her next to the fireplace. How you stayed up making sure they both recovered and made it through the night. They want pictures of your 3 year old bottle feeding her. 

The average person wants to hear about how last year wasn't a very productive time, but you knew that between your faith and your family you could overcome the hardships because you have each other. That you all worked together to plant and harvest and ended up with record crops this year. 

They want to know you. Because if they can put your face with that gallon of milk, or that sweet corn, they are able to second guess what they might see on the nightly news. We have to face the fact that there are people and organizations out to get farmers and ranchers. They are strategically placing their very edited and cherry picked propaganda in front of consumers. It works. 

The reason it works is because we haven't become adept at telling our story. We are very good at jumping on the defense. We can argue facts and science. We can keep consumers at arm's length. We try to keep to ourselves the emotion and the heart. We are afraid of what someone might twist our words into, so we say nothing and we lose that round.

I am guilty. Guilty of keeping my story to myself. Guilty of being the best linebacker ever. Put me in coach...I can be defensive. And after 2 days of drilling advocacy into my head and seeing this quote, I realize we have to tell OUR stories. To everyone. 

"The moment a person becomes defensive, learning ceases."

If you are telling your story....something you are an expert in....something you are passionate about...something you own, you will not be defensive. You will be personable. You will be effective. You will be heard and understood. This story, your story, is relevant. Farmers are proud of what they do. We have a lot to be proud of. We provide (at least) one of the basic needs of human beings. We shouldn't be hiding ourselves. Come out, come out wherever you are!

I am learning to tell my story. To step back when I feel the anger and frustrations bubbling up. I take a deep breath and try to find some way to relate my story to the issue. And if I don't have a personal story, I find someone that does...and I use facts and science. But I try, and it isn't easy, to keep my frustration in check and keep it out of my conversation. 

There are many days I feel like a failure. Sometimes it slaps me in the face that my people, the ones I spend time with, don't know the truth or the facts. Take the time to poll your friends. Ask them about organic, GMO, egg production, dairy products and practices. See if you are telling agriculture's story effectively. Practice telling your story with those close to you. Tell me your story. Tell snippets of your story on Facebook, Twitter, on a Pinterest board, with pictures and quotes. Whatever method you use...tell YOUR story and tell it well. 

I share my story with y'all when I write a post. I share on my Facebook and other social media outlets. I tell my story to friends and strangers. But my voice is only one. It is (mostly) quiet. But if we are telling agriculture's story in unison consumers can't help but hear it. They can't drown it out. 

"The moment a person becomes defensive, learning ceases."

Let's stop letting it get the best of us. Stop defending and start telling honest, emotional truths. Be the person teaching not the person shutting the conversation down.