Cultivating a Farm Brand to Connect the Community with Joelle Orem, Orem Farms
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we're excited to host Joelle Orem of Orem Farms. Listen as Joelle shares the tactics she's used to grow her Family Farm brand and how she teams up with Barn2Door to educate Farmers on brand, social media, and email marketing.
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Rory: 0:26
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rory your host. We've got a great conversation for you today with one of our Farm Advisors, Joelle Orem of Orem farms. Welcome Joelle, it's great to have you back on the podcast about a year since we last talked to you. Before we get started, for those who may not have listened to your previous episode, could you maybe tell us a little bit about your farm and how you and your family got into farming?
Joelle: 0:49
Yeah, it's great to be back, Rory. I have really enjoyed being a part of the Barn2Door family. And I know our farm has benefited a lot from just getting to take our farm to the next level. So just a little bit about our farm. So we're a fourth-generation farm. It's my husband and myself, along with his parents that are really the hands on of the operation today. It really began with his grandpa back in 1956, his grandpa was the youngest male of 11 siblings. He and his wife married and they moved to, what would have been our previous farm location back in 1956 and they purchase the farm right before his grandpa was deployed. So she was left managing the farm alongside of raising a child who was my father-in-law with the help of some close family and things. And when my husband's grandpa was able, he would scrape together some money to call home maybe every couple months or so for a 10 minute phone call. They were really determined in growing what they had and, you know, being good stewards and passing it onto the next generation. So, um, my husband and I got married in 2009 and I kind of married into this farm life and it didn't really know what I was getting myself into at the time. I didn't really grow up on a farm, but, you know, I knew the small town world and I really appreciated getting to see him and his father and his grandfather, just three of them on the farm all the time. And just watching them teach each other and the legacy that just kind of trickled down through the generations. It's been a really beautiful journey and grandpa recently passed away. So, you know, before that time, we really realized that. He wasn't going to be with us forever. And if we really wanted to take this to the next level, we needed to start paying more attention and be more hands-on and not treating it like a hobby. So we decided that we wanted to roll up our sleeves and really kind of start taking over the farm and that's really what it's looked like for the past. I don't know, 13 years or so that we've been married. You know, we've recently added to our family. We have a daughter and a son. And we've been trying to teach them the same things that we've learned and alongside of his parents. And we do mostly freezer beef. So we have beef cattle, and then we do custom hay baling. That's a really big piece of our farm. And we do also grow our own grain. So we have a crop segment of our farm as well.
Rory: 3:28
I know sometimes that can be hard as you transition from one generation to the next that can be a tough thing to navigate. Kind of who's taking ownership of the farm. Could you maybe talk about how you and your husband were able to do that with it being a generational farm? That's been around since 1956, like you said, for four generations.
Joelle: 3:47
Yeah. So stepping into this ownership role, it has not come easy. So we really had to approach my in-laws as kind of a professional angle and say, look, we're serious about this. And we really think that we can improve the farm. We think that we can make some big changes and we also want to carry on this legacy that's been left to us. And so navigating that transition has really included us being intentional. And for example, we have farm meetings and you know, every once in a while, it's, it could be every month. It could be every couple of weeks or so we'll, we'll have family farm meetings and we'll just gather around the table. We might order a pizza and the kids are running around crazy and we do farm business at the kitchen table and we have those discussions with his parents and we talk about decisions that need to be made and things that we want to pursue or opportunities that have come our way. And if we want to continue with certain operations on our farm. So, it's really been a communication piece of that transition. So. Being transparent and everybody being on the same page.
Rory: 5:02
That can be a really tough thing with any small business, really is just navigating those transitional periods. So that's great to hear that you guys have been able to do that successfully and, and involving the generation before you, but using that to continue moving forward for your farm. You kind of touched on some of the practices that you guys use to produce the products at your farm. Could you maybe kind of dive a little more into those and kind of why those extra steps feel worthwhile to you
Joelle: 5:25
Yeah. So we really want to focus on quality. So most of our customers are people that we see face to face on a regular basis. Our entire brand has been built mainly on word of mouth and, you know, we've kind of taken it the next step with social media and email marketing and things like that. But, you know, our, customer base is mostly our local community, which is really beautiful. We really want them to understand that we feed our family the same product that they're feeding their family and that it's a good quality. If it was something low quality or lacking in flavor that would be completely unacceptable and word gets around. And, you know, we really care about our customers and we want to build that trust with them. So, you know, having a pasture raised beef is really important because. You know, it's going to be a higher quality beef and you're going to get a better product and just the health benefits of not having additives and things like that is important. I recently learned that I have an auto-immune condition and so it's, it's kind of opened our eyes to nutrition and what we're putting in our bodies and things like that. So, anytime we can avoid the big box store, we try to. Whether that's, you know, buying produce locally or go into our local grocery store and things like that. So being able to serve our customers with a high quality product and not complicate their nutrition is important
Rory: 6:55
Definitely. Could you maybe talk about how Orem farms has been able to message to potential customers about kind of, debunking some of the worries that customers tend to have around? Oh, I'm not going to be able to fit this whole half a cow in my freezer. And how you've kind of gone about messaging that to your potential customers?
Joelle: 7:12
So selling bulk beef can be tricky just because it can seem complicated. Some of the beauty of our brand. And what we've created is that almost every single customer that we have gets to talk to the farmer, they get to talk to him on the phone. He gets to walk them through the butchering process cause we do all custom butchering. So we work with local butchers and you know, our customers. are actually connecting with the butcher shop and telling them what they want and things like that. So, that can be tricky to incorporate and messaging. So what we try to do is we have an actual conversation with them and we try to explain the pricing model that we have. So for example, when you order a half a beef. It's usually going to include a brisket that weighs, I don't know, about six pounds and this makes the final cost of that really pricey cut of beef significantly less than what they would find in a big box store. So that helps them understand the value of what they're getting. And we also suggest to our customers, you know, if you have a large family, if you've got kids or grandkids, you can split that up or a gift to them part of it for Christmas or something like that. So, you know, sometimes we have multiple families pool together and share a whole cow. So that has been really valuable. and just having those conversations and not treating every customer like a follower on social media. They're, you know, they're actually talking to my husband about the process and how much freezer space they need. And we typically will show them a picture of something and tell them how many cubic feet the freezer is and show them a picture of what could fit.
Rory: 8:55
Awesome. That's really cool. And, and a good way to kind of tackle that problem. Could you maybe talk about some of the areas that your farmer has seen some growth or some progress in the past year?
Joelle: 9:04
Yeah. So areas specifically that we've seen growth is really just our presence in our communities. I think because of our move to e-commerce, you know, with Barn2Door, it kind of creates a more solid reputation for us. Because previously, you know, we were just using a little payment processor and collecting orders you know, maybe through Facebook or messaging or something like that. So because we have such a strong online presence, it's creating a solid reputation for our customers. So because of that we've really been approached by several other companies and businesses, either wanting to partner with us somehow, or a lot of restaurants wanting us to supply beef for them. They either heard about us or they tried our product and they might own a local restaurant or something. And so they were thrilled with our brand and we have officially opened up our farm to wholesale yet, but we're working on shifting our focus to be able to serve them in the near future.
Rory: 10:06
That's great to hear. That's a whole nother market that you guys are going to be able to tap into there. That's really great. What kind of steps have you taken in the past year to kind of continue to grow your brand and establish different kinds of relationships with customers?
Joelle: 10:18
So one big move that we made was to join our local farmers market. You know, a lot of farms, that's the first thing they've ever done. And that's old news to them. But for us, this is the first year we've ever done a farmer's market. And we started really small it's just once a month. We knew it would be easy to do. It was just a few miles away and it's really allowed us to position ourselves as an actual face within our community. And it's been a really great way to connect with our customers in person. So we have people walking by our table that either recognize us or they maybe knew my husband's grandfather. And they'll tell us stories about, you know, when he used to work their mail route and just really interesting stories. So it's just amazing. Cause you don't really get those conversations online. And so being physically at a farmer's market with your customers walking past you has been extremely valuable and you know, we've even heard some really great recommendations and somebody would come by and say, my daughter doesn't ever eat hamburgers at home and she loves your burgers. So, just to be able to see those smiles and stuff has been really valuable. We are also starting to explore local sponsorship opportunities in our community. So, our first sponsorship I can actually tell you about, because when this podcast is out, it will be in full view. So there's a local play cafe in our hometown that you know, it's a place where kids can go and play and the parents can kind of drink coffee. They have a really great coffee shop attached to it. And we are going to be sponsoring a little area in the play space, and it's going to be a little barn and there's gonna be a cow and it's going to be adorable. So, you know, we tried to look at where are our customers going? Where are they taking their kids? Because they're mostly families, they have families to feed. So it's been a really great partnership and I can't wait to uh, be able to cross promote with them and just see what we get out of that. And be able to give them value as well by driving some of our customers their way. And then our newsletters are actually a really big piece of growing our brand as well. They've continued to serve our customers by giving us a way to connect with them and show them kind of behind the scenes on the farm. I think those are the biggest things.
Rory: 12:43
It sounds like you guys are doing a lot to connect with your community. Could you maybe talk about how you've continued to establish your farm within the community and, and sell your products specifically locally?
Joelle: 12:53
Yeah. So with Barn2Door, we're able to use you know, our online presence. Not only to sell our product, but, you know, we can really tell our story through our blog and things like that. Something else that's been really valuable in connecting with them locally is that we can allow for pickup of products. So, we will allow customers to pre order their beef and then they can pick it up at the farmer's market. So that's been a really great way to sell locally because it kind of takes the guesswork out of it and selling local through the farmer's market with a pickup option has been a lot easier for those customers that maybe don't want to commit to buying an entire, you know, half a beef or something. And they don't have to deal with the butcher and things like that. It also gives them a really great way to try our product and see if they like it.
Rory: 13:45
That's great. So you are one of the instructors of Barn2Door's, Social Media, and MailChimp academies. And for people listening, you can find those at Barn2Door.com/academy. What are some of the topics that you cover in those courses and that you utilize on your own farm, social media and email marketing.
Joelle: 14:02
Yeah. So the Barn2Door academy has been really fun to teach. It's just a really fun cohort of other farmers that are trying to roll their sleeves up and do this marketing thing together. So I think that a lot of times farmers are, we feel like we're left out because you know, we're kind of a very specific niche of industry. And so, creating messaging. Is a little bit less corporate feeling or a little less formal you know, it's kinda tricky. So the academy really teaches you how to establish your brand's values and that key messaging that you want to incorporate, and that's different for everybody. So, we give you a really good framework that will help you kind of weave your key messages together with kind of, an approach of, you know, keeping consistency with your message, but also not forgetting to ask for the sale. So, something we teach us the three E's and that's Entertain, Educate, and E-commerce. You know, there's kind of three categories of content that you're pushing out and communicating to your customers. And that's going to break up the messaging a little bit for your customers. So they're not always getting the same message over and over. And then, you know, we really talk a lot about best practices and, you know, going live on Instagram, kind of getting over that weird hurdle and really getting rid of some of the fear behind, how do I look like I know what I'm doing if I don't know what I'm doing. So the beauty of the academy is that a lot of the farmers are in completely different stages of their marketing. And so we have a lot of really beginner farmers that maybe they've just opened up their Facebook profile or just started an Instagram account all the way to, you know, I've been doing this for a while. I just want to be better at it. And what's really nice is because it is like a live class. It's not just a recorded webinar. We really dive deeper and answer a lot of questions that people have. And what I often find that are farmers are sometimes taking over the class a little bit and working with each other. And it's just really beautiful because of the level of collaboration that happens.
Rory: 16:19
Could you maybe talk about some of the early mistakes you made? And kind of going about that engagement process?
Joelle: 16:24
Yeah. So some of the mistakes that we've made are just you know, maybe pushing out there what we think our customers want to see or, or hear about and not listening. So, you know, I might create a whole bunch of content that I think is really great, but it doesn't perform very well. Once you look at the analytics and some of the insights on that. So being able to kind of step back and know how to read the insights and see what's performing well is going to not only help your content, but it actually helps you with your business too. We're actually looking at expanding our cattle into a whole nother breed, just because of some of the response we've gotten on social media. So, not listening to our customers is probably been a big mistake. So, which is funny because it's such a social platform.
Rory: 17:16
No, that's, that's great advice though. Definitely being adaptive and, and sometimes, you know, you think content is going to be a slam dunk, and then there's just not the response you were hoping for, but being able to adapt to that and kind of grow and do better the next time is the important part. So could you also maybe touch on a little bit about how your approach to social media and and to email marketing has kind of changed or developed in the last year?
Joelle: 17:39
I think in the past year? We've, learned more about our customers and because of that, we've been able to tailor our content more to them and less to who we're trying to get, to become our customers. So, you know, we might have an idea in our mind who our customer is, but then we learn it's somebody completely different. And so, being able to communicate to that specific customer, it changes and it can change over time as well, especially when you're adding new products and things like that. So, I think something that's really changed for us is kind of gaining the confidence to show our faces more. So I think in the, in the very beginning we felt like we had to have this really big professional look and we wanted it to look like we had teams of people working on our farm and things like that. But through the conversations with our customers and things, we've really learned that they enjoy talking to us. They enjoy the phone calls with my husband and you know, although he can't do that forever because once we grow, you know, he's only got so much time in the day. They really find value in knowing who's behind the scenes and who's doing the work and the names of the people that are raising their food. So that's kind of something that we've just developed is the confidence to be ourselves and show them like, Hey, we're a family just like you and you know, I have kiddos running around in the background and stuff like that so.
Rory: 19:05
Yeah, definitely not always as put together as, as it might seem. So you kind of touched on the three E's that you guys cover in the academy with social media. Could you maybe talk about some of the key things that farmers could learn if they sign up for that MailChimp Academy?
Joelle: 19:18
Yes, the MailChimp academy is full of really great information. So. It's really easy to, to jump in the MailChimp and just create an email, but there's so much more to it. And every single day, I'm learning more and more about MailChimp. And what's really great is I think the Barn2Door team has become certified in MailChimp. So your farm account manager will be able to help you. One-on-one if you have questions, but the academy is going to teach you a lot about how to check your email health and see how your emails are performing, that you can actually see a dollar amount that your email has generated. And that's been huge for us. Because you know, our first newsletter that we sent out, I thought, what's the point nobody's going to read this. And then I sell the dollar amount that it generated. And I thought that is worth my time for sure. So, learning how to include your products in your emails is helpful as well as being able to put a promo code in there or see which customers are purchasing through your emails and things like that. So it's really robust and you're only going to get it if you're immersed in it with the academy.
Rory: 20:36
There's a ton there on MailChimp. And I think that the academy does a really good job of kind of breaking things down. I think you guys do a really good job in the academy of kind of simplifying that and MailChimp does a great job making it easy to understand and track. So You touched on the newsletter and kind of being able to see the dollar amount behind that, but is there more you could go into there?
Joelle: 20:54
Yes, MailChimp helps us save time by not having to retell either our customer process or you know, some of those things that you find yourself repeating over and over. This is a really great way to, to communicate, you know, in one shot. So you don't, you don't have to keep repeating over and over to every customer that you're talking to, maybe about how to order things like that. We also had Barn2Door, create a buyer video for us, which has been really helpful because it shows how to go on our website and place an order. And go through that process. And so that's something that we've put into an email and been able to push out to our customers and say, look, it's, it's really easy, we promise. So, email marketing has been helpful in just, you know, being able to tell those stories that maybe you don't have the time to talk about on the phone or taking your list kind of through this path about you know, our farm and you know, follow us around our farm. And, and then the next email, you know, you can build a little bit more value about your practices and things like that.
Rory: 22:02
Why should farmers sign up for the Academies?
Joelle: 22:04
Yeah, farmers should definitely sign up for the Barn2Door academy? Because it's very rare that you are in a, I will say a room full of other farmers, and they're not just farmers in your community, they're all over. So, you know, we have people way over on the other side of the United States that, you know, I'm learning so much just about what they're doing and the ability to be able to connect with them and talk with them about the same topics and things like that, I think is extremely valuable because you're not just being fed information. You're actually in a collaborative environment where you can ask those questions and I've even had farmers reach out to me just personally through Facebook or Instagram and say, Hey, what do you think of this? Do you mind taking a look at an email I just created, and would you mind jumping on a phone call or something like that? You know, It's a network that we're creating and I have students that I still keep in touch with just because they've been really helpful to me. And I hope I can be helpful to them.
Rory: 23:07
Staying top of mind with customers takes a lot of time. So could you maybe talk about what are some of your biggest time saving tips for maintaining an active social media channel and staying top of mind with your customers?
Joelle: 23:20
Well, first of all, I will say that it is difficult, especially for farmers because we, you know, we're very busy and it's not just a desk busy. You know, we are physically moving around and we're doing a whole bunch of physical work and running back and forth and it can be really tricky. And so I think the biggest trick for me has been batching. If you're going to incorporate photos in your posts or your emails, you know, spend an afternoon while you're in the pastures, taking some photos and then split them up and, you know, sprinkle them throughout the rest of the year or something. Another thing that's been huge for me is just scheduling posts. So I use a thing called Planoly which allows me to plan out my content ahead of time. And I know that there's other ways to do this, and we actually talk about this in the academy. So we kind of get a little bit more deep in how to actually schedule your posts and how to make things easy for you. But being able to kind of load. My content ahead of time and then schedule it to go out has been helpful. I won't say I've always been the best at doing that, but it's definitely been a great tool. And then really doing monthly newsletters for us has been great because it's on the calendar. We know it's there and it's one easy thing that we can just do. You know, I can do something once a month. So, if you can't post regularly on social media, you can at least get a newsletter out.
Rory: 24:54
That's great advice. As if having one social media account wasn't hard enough or time consuming enough to handle, you have another brand on top of your farm brand, called Tractor Heels. Could you maybe just talk about what Tractor Heels is and how you've been going about growing that brand over the past year?
Joelle: 25:10
Yeah. So Tractor Heels is something I have been kind of doing in the background, of course. I'm busy and it kind of gets neglected often, but I've really tried to kind of bridge this gap between rural and professional. So what I'm finding is that a lot of women that are in the farm industry or they have a farm or, you know, they're a farmer's wife they kind of take on this role as a business owner automatically. When you're selling produce or you're managing orders for beef, you're doing a whole bunch of things that maybe you didn't expect to do, or you know, maybe you have a side business on top of your farm. Like a lot of farmers, that's not what they do a hundred percent of the time. So there's really this gap of you know, these women that are trying to raise babies and they're trying to manage meetings, you know, and establish their presence online and things like that. And they're kind of dipping their toe into this professional world, but then they're putting boots on and walking in the mud to go help with the cattle or something. So, it's a big gap that I think could use some encouragement and some resources. And so what I'm really trying to do is build a community of these women, where we can kind of, cultivate our dreams together and create a network of, you know, rural business women that can kind of help each other and our farms.
Rory: 26:40
Could you talk about how your experience has been with Barn2Door thus far?
Joelle: 26:45
Yeah. So barn doors really evolved quite a bit from the time that we started. I think that the biggest thing for us is having a person that I can just ask a question very quickly. I have access to an actual person. So my farm account manager it's Miranda and she is great. And, you know, , I know her by name and I can talk to her. And it's really something that you don't find a lot of times is that personal level of help. And so having that support has been helpful, but also every like time I look Barn2Door is coming out with a new integration or a new partnership or something that is going to make our website better and our e-commerce better and our customer experience better.
Rory: 27:29
So just maybe as a final question to kind of wrap things up what are some of your goals looking ahead for the next year at Orem Farms?
Joelle: 27:36
So next for us, we have a few things in the works right now. Some of them too early to talk about but one of them is we're looking to kind of diversify our product, offering. So right now we're really limited to freezer beef. And like I said, we do custom hay, which isn't really a big piece of our farm, especially right now. But we have customers asking for other products and other proteins. And so we're looking at expanding. I'm not sure what that looks like just yet. But you know, we might expand our cattle breeds, like I said earlier, and we really want to stay at the top of the market. I think. It can be difficult to navigate competition as a farmer because we are so community minded and we think competition is terrible and we don't want to have competition. So I think, you know, looking at what you would consider your competition and say how can I stay focused on the customers that are loyal to us and do what we're doing, but do it better than we did in the past. Customers really see that and it's like a magnet they're drawn to you for some reason and just keep working on that reason that they're drawn to you and kind of put those blinders on and just focus on what you're doing, right. And just keep doing it better.
Rory: 28:52
I went to extend my thanks to Joelle for joining us on this week's podcast episode here at Barn2Door, we are humbled to support thousands of farmers across the country helping farmers like Joelle, who implement sustainable agricultural practices and support their local community. For more information on Orem Farms visit, OremFarms.com to learn more about Barn2Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm. Go to Barn2Door.com/resources. Thank you for turning in. We'll see you next week.