Agritourism – Page 12 – Hugh McPherson

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…

31 Mar 2020

You can’t hide your way to greatness.

Agritourism, Family Business, Seasonal Business

Be the light you wish to see in your community during these trying times. "You can't hide your way to greatness." We are living in uncertain times. There is an elephant-in-the-room in every conversation. Viruses, crackdowns, lockdowns, quarantines, "it's just the flu," "It's a pandemic," should we plant and prepare. It's simply hard to know what to do. Pivot - Protect - Profit. Taki Moore is a business coach I've enjoyed via Facebook group, and he outlines a strategy for these uncertain times. Pivot: Your message, your promise, and your delivery to your customers need to change. Instead of the usual signals of happy, friendly…

03 Mar 2020

Part 3: “Conspicuous Leisure” or “Doing it for the ‘Gram”

Agritourism, Family Business, Marketing Tools, Seasonal Business

This lady routinely issues the Parent Veto. WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 3 OF 3 Hey, [[ contact.first_name | default: 'Friend' ]], Lessons from NAFDMA, the International Association for Agritourism convention in 3 Parts. Your marketing image is entrapping you.Wine, beer & food veto the “Parent Veto”[CHANGED] "Conspicuous Leisure" or "Doing it for the 'Gram" "Conspicuous Leisure" or "Doing it for the 'Gram" You noticed at the Strawberry Festival. Three 20-somethings, dressed to the nines, sauntered out to the patch with a single quart box. They were out there for hours, and came back with 13 strawberries, full…

03 Mar 2020

WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 3 OF 3 “Conspicuous Leisure” or “Doing it for the ‘Gram”

Agritourism, Family Business, Seasonal Business

WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 3 OF 3 Hey, ~Contact.FirstName~, Lessons from NAFDMA, the International Association for Agritourism convention in 3 Parts. Your marketing image is entrapping you.Wine, beer & food veto the “Parent Veto”[CHANGED] "Conspicuous Leisure" or "Doing it for the 'Gram" "Conspicuous Leisure" or "Doing it for the 'Gram" You noticed at the Strawberry Festival. Three 20-somethings, dressed to the nines, sauntered out to the patch with a single quart box. They were out there for hours and came back with 13 strawberries, full of giggles and feverishly swiping at their phones. They were "Doing it…

29 Feb 2020

The Parent Veto

Agritourism, Seasonal Business

WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 2 OF 3 Parents can Veto the children's desire to attend your event. Lessons from NAFDMA, the International Association for Agritourism convention in 3 Parts. Your marketing image is entrapping youWine, beer & food veto the “Parent Veto”Menus, food costs & quality drive profitability Wine, beer & food veto the "Parent Veto." I bet you've done it. Your kids wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and you issued what Randy White calls, "The Parent Veto." You know the food's going to be bad. NO ONE goes for the pizza. You know it's going to be…

28 Feb 2020

Part 2: “Avoid the Parent Veto.”

Agritourism, Family Business, Marketing Tools, Seasonal Business

This lady routinely issues the Parent Veto. WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 2 OF 3 Hey, [[ contact.first_name | default: 'Friend' ]], Lessons from NAFDMA, the International Association for Agritourism convention in 3 Parts. Your marketing image is entrapping you.Wine, beer & food veto the “Parent Veto”Menus, food costs & quality drive profitability Wine, beer & food veto the "Parent Veto." I bet you've done it. Your kids wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, and you issued what Randy White calls, "The Parent Veto." You know the food's going to be bad. NO ONE goes for the pizza. You know…

23 Feb 2020

Part 1: What I Learned at NAFDMA 2020

Agritourism, Marketing Tools, Seasonal Business

The utterly brilliant Bus 2 Crew pictured here at the Angel Tree, one of the largest, longest living trees in America. WHAT I LEARNED AT NAFDMA 2020 – PART 1 OF 3 Hey, Friends, Sorry I'm late! I love to recap the conference, but it's been a bit crazy with our Sunflower Mastermind Groups starting up. (SIDENOTE: Why do I LOVE the Mastermind concept and dedicate so much time to it?! Well, in the last week, our 2nd meetings, we created a NEW festival pricing structure that should lift Sunflower Festival admission revenue by 8-15%! That's the power of the group - good ideas come from everywhere,…