Blog – Page 13 – Hugh McPherson

24 Jul 2020

You never stop growing up.

Agritourism, Employee Management, Seasonal Business

It was Tuesday the week before we hosted our first event of the season, and it just boiled over. Farmer Hugh's a pretty nice guy most of the time, but he remains completely imperfect. I boiled over. I sharpened my words and darkened my tone. I lit into the crew of teenagers who had worked all summer getting the fun park ready. I was venting frustration I didn't even know I had on a good group of kids. External pressures and circumstances. We are all under a new set of external forces during this incredible change in circumstances with Covid-19. Without careful attention…

24 Jul 2020

You never stop growing up.

Agritourism, Family Business, Maize Quest Corn Maze & Fun Park, Seasonal Business

External heat leads to explosion. You never stop growing up. It was Tuesday the week before we hosted our first event of the season, and it just boiled over. Farmer Hugh's a pretty nice guy most of the time, but he remains completely imperfect. I boiled over. I sharpened my words and darkened my tone. I lit into the crew of teenagers who had worked all summer getting the fun park ready. I was venting frustration I didn't even know I had on a good group of kids. External pressures and circumstances. We are all under a new set of external forces during…

04 Jul 2020

Your freedom, my freedom, and our freedom.

Agritourism, Family Business, Maple Lawn Farms, Seasonal Business

Blueberries now! Wine? Every Saturday & Sunday from now on;-) Orchard & Market Hours: Blueberry Patch OPEN Mon-Sat 8AM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM The farm on July 4th - 8-5PM Winery Hours OPEN: Sat 12PM-5PM, Sun 1PM-5PM, Life on the Farm: "Your freedom, my freedom, and our freedom." "May you live in interesting times." 2020 has certainly been interesting... I'm not sure this is what the quote author meant, but this challenging time has been, and will be in the history books, a study of how we as a people responded to this crisis. This study will also be of how we managed and balanced your freedom,…

05 Jun 2020

Hugh “unboxes” REAL Sweet cherries that are coming from our friends. Read the full story.

Agritourism, Family Business, Maize Quest Corn Maze & Fun Park, Maple Lawn Farms, Seasonal Business

Reserve your sweet cherries by June 14th! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj2blfVnnas CLICK to watch the video -> See the reactions when Farmer Hugh and the kids try all the new pies, like all of them... Remember Kimmy's Cafe in Fawn Grove? They are now "Kimmy's BBQ Brought 2 U" and have joined as this festival's food purveyor! Pull Pork with an exclusive Cherry-Chipotle Sauce (on the side), Mild Italian Smoked Sausage, 3-Bean Baked Beans, Homemade Coleslaw and Honey Cornbread - all in a platter you can take home! You might want to come just for the food! Our FIRST Summer Drive-Thru Fesitval keeps…

29 May 2020

Part 3 – “Farmer Hugh gets burned at the stake.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Maple Lawn Farms, Seasonal Business

Farmer Hugh gets a rude awakening after the strawberry festival... Part 3 - "Farmer Hugh gets burned at the stake." In Part 1, we reviewed that I love to help people use data to overcome emotional distress caused by social media pain. If you missed Part 1, If you missed Part 1 & Part 2 - "Solving the strawberry supply problem." Here's the basic idea: Reviewing the data, the real numbers, is like a vaccine against future social media harassments. Once you know to look at the data, you can temper your emotional response. Then it happened to me. Part 3 -…

27 May 2020

Part 2 – “Solving the strawberry supply problem.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Maple Lawn Farms, Seasonal Business

Hundreds of Strawberry Drive-Thru Festival bakery & winery orders await pick-up Part 2 - "Solving the strawberry supply problem." In Part 1, we reviewed that I love to help people use data to overcome emotional distress caused by social media pain. If you missed Part 1, Here's the basic idea: Reviewing the data, the real numbers, is like a vaccine against future social media harassments. Once you know to look at the data, you can temper your emotional response. Then it happened to me. Part 2 - "Solving the strawberry supply problem." The current situation: Seven days from our festival, we're…

25 May 2020

Part 3 – “Farmer Hugh gets burned at the stake.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Seasonal Business

In Part 1, we reviewed that I love to help people use data to overcome emotional distress caused by social media pain. If you missed Part 1, please read it FIRST on my blog: CLICK HERE If you missed Part 1 & Part 2 - "Solving the strawberry supply problem." READ Part 2 NEXT on my blog -> CLICK HERE Here's the basic idea: Reviewing the data, the real numbers, is like a vaccine against future social media harassments. Once you know to look at the data, you can temper your emotional response. Then it happened to me. Part 3 - "Farmer Hugh gets…

25 May 2020

A dose of my own medicine tests my ‘social’ vaccine – Part 1.

Agritourism, Family Business, Maple Lawn Farms, Seasonal Business

Delicious strawberries turn into a social media nightmare, three-part series. "A dose of my own medicine tests my 'social' vaccine." If you know me, you know that I talk - a lot. I'm opinionated and freely offer advice. Beyond that, I like to ask really tough coaching questions; questions that challenge your assumptions when we talk about business. Social media is one of the most often requested topics on which I speak. Inevitably during the presentation, someone says, "We changed out [pricing/layout/packages/fruit container sizes/] and we got [bad feedback/attacked/annihilated/lit-up/crucified] on social media. I know we should never have done that.] Business coach…

25 May 2020

Part – 1 “A dose of my own medicine tests my ‘social’ vaccine.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Seasonal Business

If you know me, you know that I talk - a lot. I'm opinionated and freely offer advice. Beyond that, I like to ask really tough coaching questions; questions that challenge your assumptions when we talk about business. Social media is one of the most often requested topics on which I speak. Inevitably during the presentation, someone says, "We changed out [pricing/layout/packages/fruit container sizes/] and we got [bad feedback/attacked/annihilated/lit-up/crucified] on social media. I know we should never have done that.] Business coach Hugh carefully works through with question after question to find the real data, and most often we discover together that the…

25 May 2020

Part 2 – “Solving the strawberry supply problem.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Seasonal Business

In Part 1, we reviewed that I love to help people use data to overcome emotional distress caused by social media pain. Hundreds of Strawberry Drive-Thru Festival bakery & winery orders await pick-up. If you missed Part 1, please read it FIRST on my blog: CLICK HERE Here's the basic idea: Reviewing the data, the real numbers, is like a vaccine against future social media harassments. Once you know to look at the data, you can temper your emotional response. Then it happened to me. Part 2 - "Solving the strawberry supply problem." The current situation: Seven days from our festival, we're…