Hey gang,
What if everything worked out? Today finds me at the crossroads of God’s Will, Bruce Lee, and likely about how we think about the future.
I’ve missed writing, but it has been a whirlwind of Zoom calls, Mastermind Classes, Virtual Conferences, and, oh yeah, farming & building at our home farm.
I hope this finds you safe from frost damage and ready to have a great season. I’ve been thinking a lot about the future and about how I feel about the future (I know, “like whoa, man”)—more on that in a minute.
Quick update from here:
- So far, we’ve dodged the worst of the frost, and it is very likely we’ll have a peach crop this year! Last year, we should have had our newest, earliest peach, but wah-wah, frost killed them.
- We are building Mega-Slide Lane 2 for our Fun Park, and it’ll even bigger, better faster than Lane 1, so we’re looking forward to selling more combo tickets at the $19 UNLIMITED level!
- Our corn maze tower showed its age, so we chopped it up and paid for engineered new plans for the replacement allowing guests to go to the very top with stairs. In a classic case of “Penalized for trying to do things the right way,” we submitted for a permit and are now, with no tower, awaiting approval from ‘on high’ to see if we can rebuild it.
- We are replacing our Jump Pads with new, logo-ed versions from Dennis McCready and are selling our factory refurbished Jump Pads. (Message me if interested!) Jump Pads can now come in crazy colors and vinyl overlays, so we will go “full logo” for extra awesome sauce.
- Finally, we have learned so much from our Sunflower Mastermind group – new merchandise options, new suppliers, new seeds, new herbicide programs, that I’ve been enjoying just being a member vs. being the ‘teacher’ this year more than ever. It’s too late to join for 2021, but if you want to work with some incredible people all year on your festival, please keep The Sunflower Mastermind Group on your radar for next year.
- Finally, our Drive-Thru Strawberry Festival is off and selling for May 22nd. Now, if you had paid close attention to our “FutureNOW” presentation, you might be thinking, “Hugh! you said Drive-Thru Festivals would NOT work for 2021?!” Well, I did, but I always like to test things, so we are experimenting with Strawberries and NOT doing our Local Food, Peach, and likely NOT blueberry either. We have our own crops this year, and Strawberries was the ONE crop with which we could beat the market for local strawberries by a few weeks.
So, back to the original premise: “What if everything worked out.”
I was never really a fan of people who said, “Oh, that happened because it was “God’s will.” Typically, those people let the world wash over them and didn’t take action to do much of anything.
It reminds me of the story of the man who, during the flood, was on the roof of his house waiting to be saved.
A rowboat came by and asked if he wanted a ride. He replied, “God will save me!”
The Coast Guard motored and asked if he wanted a ride. He replied, “God will save me!”
A helicopter flew down and asked if he wanted a ride. He waved it off, saying, “God will save me!”
Then he promptly drowns. Upon arriving at the Pearly Gates, he asks incredulously, “God, why didn’t you save me?”
God said, “I sent two boat and chopper…”
Bruce Lee was asked how to be great fighter, and his reply was a somewhat puzzling phrase, “Be Water.”
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.” – Bruce Lee
I happen to be a believer in God, a believer that nothing God does is rooted in evil. By that belief, everything has its purpose, its place in your life. Everything that happens, you may interpret as moving forward.
I’ve had good things happen: Finding my wife, having kids, financial success.
I’ve had bad things happen: Been nearly bankrupt, crashed cars, lost my mom to cancer.
Amid the highs and lows, the most crucial reaction is to “be like water.”
This flexible, adaptable state of reaction has many different names, “Roll with the punches” – “Go with the flow” – “Find the good in everything” – “Keep on truckin'” – “Calm in the storm.” Each encourages us in any situation to fill the form of the vessel/situation into which we are poured.
So, what if everything worked out? This season, my prediction is that farms, pick-your-owns, and agritourism destinations will experience strong business growth as ‘being outside’ is viewed as the safest place for one’s family to be.
The temptation is to allow your worry and frustration with supplier delays, scheduling delays, employees, and breakdowns to boil over, creating a harsh or hostile work environment.
Allow me to release you. Business this year is going to be, in my humble predictive opinion, very good for our industry. That’s the big picture.
The challenge for you to is “be like water” as you flow and adapt to daily circumstances, so you can enjoy your time throughout the voyage on a river that is flowing in the right direction.
Have a great week,
Hugh
PS My latest experience with “Be like water?” Our original farmer for strawberries for our strawberry festival got frost damage and couldn’t fulfil our order. PANIC, right?! Now, NO BERRIES for May 1st! Turns out by delaying two weeks, I’m able to travel with my wife to pick up our daughter from college so she doesn’t have to make the trip herself. Rather kick, worry and fight, we pivoted, and found two good outcomes.
PPS You might be tired of my love for TicketSpice online ticketing, but these guys have really jumped in to service our agritourism industry. If you are holding a Sunflower Festival, particularly if you are NOT in our Sunflower Mastermind Group, you might want to check out this FREE webinar TicketSpice did for Sunflower Festivals. I’m interviewed about 2/3s of the way through:-)
