Tag: networking

Rick & Elara Bowman – Backyard Green Films: Part 2

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Rick & Elara Bowman
agri-Culture Podcast

Episode 25.

This is “Part 2.” Be sure to listen to “Part 1” here: https://offthegridbiz.com/rick-elara-bowman-backyard-green-films-part-1

Do you use events (topic-based and trade shows) to grow your business and interact with customers? Is it worth the expense and time?

Rick Bowman is audio and video producer. Elara Bowman is a project manager and accountant. Together they have teamed up to travel country to record and promulgate the stories of incredible people and a monumental dilemma that everyone.

Here we continue the conversation we began on the last episode and dive deep into attending events and long-term goals.

Listen Now!

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Full Transcript

Rick: First off, having the film out there is to me the biggest thing.

Elara: Yes, my big thing too.

Rick: Because I feel like that will open up our audience a little bit more towards maybe wanting to listen to our podcast as well going and maybe becoming more interested in heritage breeds and seeing some of our clips of interviews that we’ve put up on our YouTube channel. Hopefully what I’m thinking with the film is that it’ll be able to venture off and be able to make another film that continues the story of heritage breeds and of farmers.

Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.

If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.

You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.

We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.

From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Looking back on just what you’ve done up until now going to events like the Mother Earth News Fair, like the Heirloom Expo, would you recommend other people plug into the same type of events?

Elara: I think it’s very individual depending on the type of business they have. And here’s one of the problems that has occurred. I mean is anybody in business knows we are going through a fundamental shift in not only the way we do business, how we do business, how we finance, how we market, there’s a huge shift. And I would say businesses have to be really really agile in order to adapt quickly.

Because a lot of storefronts are going out of business because you know, people don’t come in the door anymore. You just order it online.

You know, you might have strategic partnerships between similar businesses are completely different businesses and you really have to stay up on that in order to be able to compete with people that can.

In a way, our experience has been very similar to the animals you have to adapt to survive, you have to and you won’t make it if you don’t.

But the ones that do have might have quite a bit to offer.

So we think that businesses now have to look at your model, look at at your market and then maybe it may or may not pencil on the momentary basis, but on the long run, it might bring more to you.

So you might be a business that’s a essential oil company. Do I need to go into a fair to show my product?

I would almost say you do because it’s a scent oriented thing.

And you will get people that need to do that experiential moment and smell and or maybe touch fabric product. You have to get it out there.

Either that are you going to ship it somewhere and have people rave about it.

And then you’re going to have to do this thing where you ship back and forth. So I think it really depends on the business model.

But I think you really, you have to be able to be agile to decide the short term goal and the long term goal and it is not a cheap thing to do to go to fairs and events and things like that.

But you have to be able to say, what will that add value to my company, my product, is it in your decision?

Rick: I think it’s good to go to the fairs whether that be the Mother Earth News Fair, the Heirloom Expo, the Weston A. Price convention, any of those because most of the people that are at the fair in the same boat we are at, they are looking for their core audience.

And so I think certain fares are that core audience for a few hundred bucks to rent a booth. It’s worth it because you’re going to have people coming by.

I will say from us on a filmmaking standpoint and a podcast standpoint, we had a lot of people stopping by asking what our podcast was about, us getting to discuss what our upcoming film was about.

And I take it from the approach of I don’t know if how many people out there are familiar with the film Endless Summer.

It was a documentary about two guys that filmmaker followed.

And they served the summer going. They traveled all around the world to keep surfing. I don’t know if you’re familiar with classic.

Brian: Yeah.

Rick: So Bruce Brown, who made that film, in a way did it is grassroots. He did the film. And then he took it to the audience. He rented theaters, and showed it for one night.

And that’s the way I kind of look at the documentary filmmaking and getting it to the audience that is going to be interested in this film.

Then when we’re done with that, we will probably try to do something similar where we take it out on the road, as well as hopefully did other distribution. But get it out there to bring it to our audience.

And instead of getting stuck in there with all the other films, the thousands of films and documentaries that come out every year, and people looking to flicks or somewhere streaming, I want to take it out there to them.

Elara: I would also say that, at least in my experience, it’s a networking experience as well.

So if you’re a business and you’re thinking about going to one of these fairs, I mean, we met so many people that are interested in same things we are and a good number of them have businesses, it’s not just the consumers going anymore.

It’s almost like a huge trade show in a way.

So used to be just homesteaders that would come to one of these or at the seed fair, maybe at the Heirloom Expo, it was just a seed people and people that want some, oh, I have an animal or two.

And to me, that’s a great value. That’s why we initially went the first place to, I think, is because we have chickens and but there’s a networking value because you’re meeting people with like ideals and with businesses that are in the similar vein.

You’re making connections in a way that you otherwise might not be able to make because there’s so much information out there on the internet and there’s so much visibility anybody can start an Instagram account.

Now, anybody can start a Facebook page. But the people that are actually willing to go to a fair and walk around and talk to people, that’s a very specific niche.

Brian: Absolutely. You brought up traveling so much. And I’m sure the two of you could probably write a book on travel tips, but could you give us some off the hand, logistics that perhaps someone could use if they’re going to be be traveling to events like this?

Elara: Events or interviews?

Brian: Either one, yeah.

Elara: It’s both for us.

Brian: Kind of time all together.

Rick: Like the person you’re traveling with?

Elara: Yes.

The first thing to do is to try it as far as I’m concerned, you have to yes, like the person you’re traveling with, and hope that your marriage is solid enough to cover being with them in a car for the next two weeks.

But I would say as much as you can put in a short period of time in terms of business, as you can, that’s a huge thing.

So for us, we went to the fair in Albany, we put a an interview on the day after we were at the fair we went to buy the wheat farm and book to the gal about the her Jacob Sheeps fantastic, great experience.

It’s a little exhausting because you do two days of a fair, you do a day of a setup beforehand day, the fair.

Second day, the fair and then an interview on the third day, the fair you get there on Friday night and you set up for the fair. We have a little teardrop trailer, which is where we could have sold that thing 50 times over at the fair cuz it’s a very cute little teardrop travel trailer. Little retro one.

But you know, you set that up, you put your booth together and it takes a couple hours with that.

Preparation is really really important before you get there.

So when you do come in on Friday night, you can just go boom, boom, boom and set it up. And then you two days of the fair and then Sunday night you break it down, same kind of thing.

Put it away, make sure your stuff is together, make sure you’re not leaving anything and then get up and go again.

So as many things as you can put into one trip, you’re much better off in terms of your cost savings,

Rick: We decided that we would drive up to Albany for the Mother Earth News Fair because in our booth, we do like to have our travel trailer there the little teardrop trailer as part of the display. Because for the most part, we do drive to a lot of the interviews.

But if it is something that’s on the East Coast, or Canada, and it might be a little too far for us to drive, we have flown and when we do go somewhere like Elara touched on, I would say the biggest point is trying to maximize your trip as much as possible.

As far as for us, it’s getting as many interviews that we can film and record while we’re there. And in the short amount of time.

Elara: Yeah, so that would be the first thing is logistics. So I guess to consolidate my long and involved get your logistics down upfront.

Rick does most of our printing reproduction, he gets the booth booth items ready before he goes and he starts a month out. So that would be the first thing I would do make sure that you’re planning logistics are taking care of advertising marketing calls. For us, we have to do production, we start what two months out with that?

Rick: Lots of times at least a month to two months to get prepped for the interviews.

And when we are traveling to a trade show, again, we try to just not be going to the trade show. So we set up those appointments, whether we’re driving or flying in. And we usually try to do one or two interviews before a fair and probably filling it and do another interview or two after the fair before we travel back, plus whatever interviews or talking points that we’re trying to do while we’re at the fair.

Elara: So we did two on Thursday, we did like to think we left on Tuesday it was….drove up?

Rick: Yes.

Elara: We did two interviews on Thursday in Southern Oergan. Our actually one on Thursday when I forgot, anyway.

We did two up there a Thursday and Friday. We set up the booth on Friday night did the show on Saturday, Sunday did another interview on a Monday and then we flew out to Seattle on Tuesday and we had a friend drive our trailer back down.

So in addition to forward thinking, logistics and prior planning, planning is going to save a lot of money.

So make sure all your printing is done at home, make sure your graphics are done at home, make sure anything you have to give away in the booth is done ahead of time.

So you don’t have to make 52 runs to Staples.

Rick: Not that I’m trying to promote but, Southwest has been pretty good for the fact that when I do or when we do have to fly since two bags fly for free. That helps a lot when I’m carrying equipment not having to pay extra to check in, some of my equipment bags.

Elara: He’s got a big Pelican kit and a drone case and you know, then we have to have the it’s any gear you have it really really saves otherwise it’s what $75 a bag?

Rick: It’s about $50 per bag.

Elara: Yeah each way.

So I would definitely say, as much of that type of thing as you can do, you wouldn’t think it would cost that much. But, you know, if we took a flight every month last year and took an extra bag and went two ways, that’s $150 per round trip. So things like that is really, really helpful to think ahead

Rick: And look for airfare sales.

Elara: Yeah.

The next thing I would say is if you’re going to stay in hotels and things like that start a month or two out because they get really get expensive as you go forward. You know, you can save sometimes $100 a night by going two months out. And some of them will let you cancel closer to the start the start date.

So I would definitely say you have something like Southwest that’ll let you swap your tickets.

If you have something like refundable hotels, start way in advance and that way at least you’ve got the option. Find out if there’s people that are going to the same places that you go again, this networking at the fair thing is a great thing, we had a friend that was taking a wanted to take a trip from Seattle and drive down the coast.

So we went one way in the truck in the trailer, and he went the other. So that saved us, and allow me to get back to work two days earlier.

So use your resource pools as much as you can. And that includes things like if you feel comfortable sharing a hotel room, you just cut your cost in half. So that kind of things really important.

Brian: Fabulous. Those are all great tips.

So we talked a little bit about the events. We spoke briefly about your podcast about social media, you guys do a fair amount on social media.

Where else do you find new audiences that are there any other mediums or is it mainly a one on one thing?

Elara: The grocery store, (laughs), no, we’re not really shy people in general.

And like I said, we find life is an interesting place. So it’s not like I run down and attack people but you know, just keep your eyes open because you never know who you’re going to meet.

People are just fascinating when you start to talk to them, they’ve got such, like I said, 400 something years worth of stories we could do, because people are just interesting.

You never know who might say, oh, I’ve always wanted to know about that. And you have a business card.

Rick has been really good about that. He has business cards for our podcasts, and for our film company, and we just hand them out and say, yeah, follow us. You can’t be shy about saying that.

Rick: Yeah, I would say as you mentioned, Brian, we do have our social media accounts that we promote the film, our filmmaking and the podcasting and those ventures.

A lot of it’s word of mouth, but also being on a show like yours, that’s going to reach another wider audience for us. Just trying to get out there more and more in that avenue, whether it be another podcast, whether it be an article in a magazine.

Elara: It’s not like it used to be I don’t think it is where it, you know, it just used to be something that was very narrow in terms of your field. If you have a fitness club, you’re only going to have people that are into fitness that listen to you.

But that’s not true.

You know, you might have everybody be interested in fitness because everybody wants to stay in shape.

So in one way, shape or form, almost everybody is going to be interested in your fitness club. The same thing follows with something like this. This is food that we’re talking about. It’s also animals, its farming, its life, its culture, its people, its society.

You know, all of these things reflect who we are. And this happens to be a topic that everybody can relate to, if they eat, everybody can relate to, if they you know, if they came from other countries, you know, think about the demographic diversity that’s represented in a cow that comes from Spain.

That’s now American, the most American animal that many people think is an American Mustang. Well, that’s a Spanish horse.

That’s a mix of many different things.

So our relatable audience is extremely broad, but you have to be willing to find the things that relate in almost every single person. And it’s not this thing where it’s very, very, very narrow. So they’re finding that cross promotion among businesses is really important now, in ways that it did not used to be, you can find different areas that would not seem to relate previously, but are very definitely connected.

Commercial Break: Okay, we’re going to pause the conversation right there. What you’re listening to right now is a special edition podcast. These episodes all have to do with the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon of 2019.

At the time I’m recording this, we have learned so much about how to take advantage of events and I want you to be able to use this information in your own business.

Go to BrianJPombo.com/secrets.

We are going to be putting out helpful materials on how you can use events to grow your business.

When you go to this page, you will either see our latest programs or if you make it there early enough, you will see an email address, capture page, put in your email address and we will be sure and update you. As soon as we get these out there, you’re not going to want to miss this.

If you get in early enough, you can get a special deal. These are principles that never go away. These programs will be based on the experience of people who have written books, spoken at the events or exhibited.

They’re talking about how to use events, books, and speaking all to build your business.

That’s BrianJPombo.com/secrets.

BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.

Brian: Makes a lot of sense. So if we were to talk again, let’s say a year from now, we had you back on the podcast, what would have had to have happened over the last 12 months for you to feel happy with your progress concerning your organization?

Elara: Again, you’re asking a marital question.

Rick: First off, having the film out there is to me, the biggest thing,

Elara: Yes, my big thing too.

Rick: Because I feel like that will open up our audience a little bit more towards maybe wanting to listen to our podcast as well, going in maybe becoming more interested in heritage breeds and seeing some of our clips of interviews that we’ve put up on our YouTube channel.

And hopefully what I’m thinking with the film is that it’ll be able to venture off and be able to make another film that is continues the story of heritage breeds and of farmers in that vein, and that’s that’s to me what I hope to be coming back to you 12 months to tell you.

Elara: I think that my opinion was to be to get the film in the can and get it distributed.

I hope it comes together like we had hoped it would. My hope is also to, I gotta be honest, I really want to launch a series on this, I really would like to do it.

We have video footage, we have audio footage, we were not scared to talk to people. So we have all this great information. And the American farmer is in crisis right now.

So I would love to be able to get a wider audience and do segments of this that are not necessarily going to make it into the film where we talk about farming, we talk about food, we talk about people, we talk about diversity, we’re all kind of an amalgam of different cultures and different aspects.

And that I think there’s a broader picture right now in this country that’s being discussed about diversity.

I think the animals are a piece of it that really, really illustrates beautifully the strengths that can be brought to the fore by saying, Hey, what do each one of our individual strengths have to bring to us as a whole?

As a culture, my personal preference would be able to have something out there that does a series on this that talks about the different strengths of these animals, and why we’d have a stronger agricultural production system because of it. And why the people that farm it are stronger because of it.

For the average farmer. They’re just feisty, gritty people. They are wonderful people that they have backbones, and they are not scared of hard work.

I find it fascinating, the process by which they got there. And so it’s kind of a mirror of our animals and our migration. So I would say that and then my third thing, I love the podcast, I hope the podcast is successful.

Rick: 25.

So we’ve put out how many episodes now honey?

Elara: 25. So in a year, we hopefully would have how many more in the can we put them up every week.

52 (laughs), So yeah, I hope in a year we’d also have another 75 in the library.

Brian: So what are the obstacles standing in your way of getting all those things?

Rick: Well, besides finishing the film, and that’s not an obstacle, I mean, that’s just us getting the editing done, which we’re in post production on it right now.

I would say the obstacle is like with any artist or going back to farmer, being able to get your product out there, but get it to the people to the biggest obstacle is finding the audience.

Elara: Yeah, I think for me, just to get personal, that one of the big obstacles for me is maintaining the energy and the passion that you feel.

It’s, you know, it’s the same, but you’re in a business podcast. That’s one of the big difficulties with business as well. Maintaining the energy that you feel the excitement that you feel when you know something can be really, really great and Yet you have to deal with the everyday grind the everyday, you know, things that come up in business, the challenges.

So for instance, I love traveling with my husband.

I have a friend that laughed at us say, how can you stand being in a car with him for eight hours?

What is there to talk about?

And you know, sometimes we go across the country, and we don’t even turn on the radio because we’re busy looking at things and looking up things and talking and but sometimes when you travel, when you start to travel quite a bit, you get tired. I mean, it’s an exhausting thing.

People that have trade shows deal with the same kind of thing. So one of the big challenges for me is maintaining that excitement that I get every time I learned something new.

And every time I look at the film, and Rick has put together a trailer for me, he’s got two of them he’s we’ve got one for the film that’s a little more serious one.

And then he’s got one that he mixed for me that’s sort of like a I think it was at the time when when the little Lord of the Rings was coming out or something I said, make me an exciting trailer.

It’s got the globe spinning. And it just it’s just kind of a fun one that he put together. And every time I watch that, I just could jump. I’m so happy, I just get that excitement back.

So finding that way to maintain that excitement is it has not been a difficult thing. But I can see 20 years from now you still want to get that urge to jump. But when you find a concept that’s exciting. I hope we maintain that I think we have so far.

Brian: What question Did I not ask that you’d like to answer?

Rick: I know Elara has a lot to talk about.

Elara: Oh, I always do this not never a problem for me.

Okay, well, so, I would like to ask you do a business podcast, correct?

Brian: Yes.

Elara: So if you had to describe your podcast, how would you describe it?

Brian: Our podcast is mainly for business owners and executives and the self reliance field meaning that they have products, services, or a story behind them that promote self reliance and others. And our conversations are all to promote both business owners, people that run organizations and experts in the field of self reliance to help encourage, give practical tips and so forth all regarding business.

Elara: Okay, so that fits beautifully with the topics that we’ve been discussing over the last three years that people that we’ve been interviewing. We’ve been to the far east of the United States.

We’ve been to the west, we’ve been to the north and the south. We’ve been to British Columbia Islands in salt spring Island. We have been to the middle of the country. We’ve been to all spots.

We talked to scientists, we’ve talked to farmers, we talked to marketing people, your podcast has people that are dealing with the same issues.

I think it’s really important for everybody that’s listening to know that they are not alone.

That business and self reliance is a new frontier. Farming is an old frontier, but it is might as well be new. You know, I mean, there are so many changes.

There’s people doing farming with drones. Now there are people farming with satellites, now. It’s a whole different world. And I’m sure it gets extremely frustrating to some people to say, How do I keep up?

But I think that I would want to say that I hope they know they’re not alone. Everybody’s going through this. And that’s the one thing that we’ve learned from all the people we’ve spoken with.

They are not alone. And so in that they are part of a group. They’re there together, they’re greater than the sum of their parts.

Rick: This doesn’t pertain so much to our business.

But I would say with most of the people we’ve interviewed for them social media has been a big thing, because it has been able to I know a lot of people, not social media, but in the realm of farmers, and people that are way out in areas where there’s not a lot of population.

It has brought them closer together, and they are able to connect with people that are doing some of the similar things that they’re doing on their farm. And they get to ask them questions.

Hey, have you ever ran into this when you’ve been raising Jacob sheep, it’s a resource, it’s become a resource.

So I don’t know if this is out of left field. Maybe it is a little bit but I would say that I would like to bring up that not all social media is negative. It gets a lot of negative press.

But it can be a great, helpful communication tool and resource for people and most of the farmers that we’ve gone out there and interviewed love that fact because it allows them to stay connected to people doing the similar thing, that they are doing.

Elara: That’s one thing that Rick is really taught me that some of these things are necessary whether you’re comfortable with them or not, whether you say, Well, I was never on social media, any kind of social media, and now I am on the podcast is the host and I have pictures of myself on our Instagram accounts, our Facebook and all of that kind of thing.

But I think that in today’s age, it is absolutely necessary to have a social media presence.

And if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, see if you can get help doing it. It’s like anything else.

You don’t necessarily feel comfortable doing your whole tax return yourself. So you find a CPA, that’ll do it. It’s the same thing with social media. We have a great gal that does a lot of posting for us.

And Rick does a lot of posting for us, but our social media gal helps us in this. It’s a resource.

It’s really, really important. And frankly, you know, Rick is got about four hats he’s wearing and I’ve got about four Hats I’m wearing and we’re doing travel planning and logistics and scheduling and interviewing and research all of this, you can’t do everything.

If you can get help, and you can swing it, put it in the budget as a line item, because it’s really, really important in today’s market to have a social media presence, and it can be helpful.

It really, really can be a good resource.

Brian: Wow, those are really great points. Really appreciate the time you guys have spent with us.

What could a listener do?

Who’s interested in finding out more about backyard green films about the agriculture podcast and everything else that you guys are doing? Where would you direct them?

Rick: Well, I would direct them to our website, backyardgreenfilms.com on there. It has a link to our agriculture podcast has the trailer up there for our upcoming film tells us a little bit about what Elara and I are doing.

I would also tell people if they want to see some of our video clips little pieces that we’ve put together to go to our YouTube channel, which is also Backyard Green Films. And those are the two biggest places that you can find us. And then of course on Instagram, and Facebook, we’re there under Backyard Green Films as well.

Elara: Yeah, if you’d like to see pictures, it’s really nice. Because podcasting has become a big focus for us, as we talked about the heritage breed animals and yet these animals are really really different looking sometimes that the YouTube channel is kind of a neat thing because because Rick’s put some of our more interesting animals up there and you can see them visually.

You look at a Jacob sheep, for example, it looks like something off of the San Diego Wild Animal Park the planes out there. It’s got four horns and spots. It’s crazy looking animal. But it’s really neat.

We’ve lost that ability to look at some of these things and say, Wow, that’s a different looking animal. So yeah, I would send people to the YouTube channel for some, some visuals because some of these animals are just really interesting looking at.

Brian: Well that’s fabulous. Thank you so much. This has been an absolute delight and so much depth into what you’re talking about. We’ll definitely have you guys come back again, and be able to delve in a little deeper on some of these subjects because there’s so much meat there on the bone.

Rick and Elara Bowman thanks so much for being on the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Rick and Elara: Brian, thank you for having us. And I’m really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today.

Brian’s Closing Thoughts: Okay, so that was part of our two part series, all about Backyard Green Films. Second part, they’re dealing a lot with the fundamental shift in the ways that we’re doing business now as opposed to the old days.

I think that’s really great stuff.

I fact that you really have to be flexible and agile for success, and be willing to move where you need to move to do what you need to do. I mean, their life is a perfect example of that.

In this part of the conversation, they’ve spent more time talking about going to expos going to events.

What are your short term goals?

So a lot of their short term goals are meeting people and having conversations that they can add on to their projects, but also their long term goals, the relationships they’re looking to make over the long term.

Rick’s point, again, is on finding that core audience, really finding the people that are going to fit most with the material that he’s coming out with. Also, they’re bringing up that practical end of really keeping things organized, having really forward thinking logistics, and planning things out as best as possible. You keep from getting caught into a trap, either financially or otherwise.

And that’s really important that they mentioned how Southwest Airlines has been really helpful for traveling with their equipment that type of practical advice and ways of thinking about how to get from one place to another is really important.

Another thing they brought up is the concept of maintaining your energy for your business and keeping the passion going for what you’re doing that’s very, very important of watching out for those things that are going to drain you of your time and your energy, great points about networking.

Rick talking about social media was really important and how it’s this communication tool. And this ability to network with others that allow the small guys to be able to do things that the big guys can’t do.

That’s a very common theme that we found with a lot of the people that we talked to from the other news fairs, is finding a way to go beyond where the big guys are going. I think that type of positive attitude is the reason why have been so successful and while they’ll continue to be successful, and finally, I love when

They mentioned about getting the help you need to get your business to function in the areas that you just don’t want to do or you’re not good at. That’s so important.

And something that gets ignored so often or put off for too long is the necessity of delegating your weaknesses. It doesn’t mean hiring somebody necessarily. It doesn’t necessarily mean having somebody that’s an employee, it could be paying someone to do something short term sometimes it can be bartering, service for service or product or service or what have you.

These are all really important points and so many other great things that they brought up during this whole conversation. Like I said, this was part two, be sure and listen to part one.

Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.

That’s BrianJPombo.com.

If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on The Off The Grid Biz Podcast, offthegridbiz.com/contact. Those who appear on the show do not necessarily endorse my beliefs, suggestions, or advice or any of the services provided by our sponsor.

Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas.

I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.

Rick & Elara Bowman – Backyard Green Films: Part 1

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Rick & Elara Bowman

Episode 24.

How do you define happiness? Is it a dollar amount? Is your “cause” bigger than your “bottom line?

Rick and Elara Bowman have diverse backgrounds, but have uncovered a common passion for telling stories through modern media. Filmmaking, podcasting and social media have allowed them to explore issues and topics that engage them personally. They interview people “who love farming, science, ranching, getting their hands dirty – or are just plain interesting.”

They have been traveling the country in their teardrop trailer, while grabbing footage, researching and now editing their upcoming film, “The Holstein Dilemma: Heritage Breeds and the Need for Biodiversity. “

What does it take to create a documentary from scratch, self-fund it on a budget, (while still keeping your day-job) AND cover an incredible worldwide puzzle that very few people even know exists?

Listen Now!

This is “Part 1.” When done listening to this, check out “Part 2” here: https://offthegridbiz.com/rick-elara-bowman-backyard-green-films-part-2

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

Full Transcripts

Elara: Life is a trade off.

Do you work more for the things that make you happy? Or do you take a little less and be happy just through the things that you are not buying but your producing?

Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family. If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.

You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.
We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.

From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: An experienced and innovative filmmaker, Backyard Green Films owner and Director Producer Rick Bowman has cataloged over 25 years of broadcast commercial and corporate video experience.

Rick combines skillful expertise and artistic vision to create top quality projects for clients, and has learned by experience that each project requires a special approach and solution to meet its goals.

Backyard Green Films received an indie fest award in 2012 for their documentary Hillsville 1912, A shooting in the court. As well as winning Best Documentary award at the minefield Film Festival in Los Angeles for their film, Banjos, Bluegrass and Squirrel Barker’s.

Currently, they’re in post production on their latest film The Holstein Dilemma, heritage breeds and the need for biodiversity.

A farmer at heart, Elara lives on a mini farm with her husband Rick in an Urban Oasis located in the middle of San Diego where she tends to 8 chickens, to worm bins and fruit trees galore.

She transferred this passion and life experience to backyard green films, where she is helping to produce innovative films and media for future generations. Armed with a BS in business from University of Redlands, and an impressive resume and voiceover production, project management and accounting.

Elara brings a wealth of knowledge to the production team. In her role as executive producer, she could be found diving deep into the data stream rabbit hole at late and early hours researching endless questions, new topics and new people to interview in her role as the host of the agri-Culture podcast.

Rick and Elara travel around the country in their teardrop trailer nicknamed Maggie finding interesting people to talk to and new things to see. They actually enjoy being in the car together for hours on end and put together they have clocked at least 150,000 miles in almost all 50 states.

Rick has one more to go. Rick and Elara Bowman, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Rick & Elara: Brian, thank you. We’re glad to be here. Thank you so much.

Brian: So besides what we heard in your bio is tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Elara: Where do we start with that?

Rick: I don’t know. I’ll let you go first. How’s that?

Elara: Okay, I am a currently a bookkeeper and tax preparer at a small CPA firm in San Diego, California. And that’s my, I guess my first job you would say, or my second or my third I don’t know where how are we planning those these days, babe?

Rick: Well, I don’t know if we stay on the road a fair amount of the time. And my background is in audio originally, and then I moved over into filmmaking a few years ago. With that first film, you mentioned Hillsville 1912, A Shooting In The Court.

Which started out just as a passion project for me and as time went on Elara, and I founded Backyard Green Films.

From that, we made a couple other documentaries. And now we’re working on a project that started as a Elaras passion project, but it has become mine as well.

We found out a few years ago at a Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon, about heritage breed animals. And we dove down that rabbit hole. And we’ve been going around the last about three years interviewing farmers and scientists and people that raise these breeds and know about these breeds.

That’s how the film started. And from that we started the agri-Cultural podcast a few months ago.

Elara: But we are people that find a great number of things interesting and multiple fields. And so we keep finding things that we don’t know if other people know about and we would like to share them.

So we’ve been running around the country for three years on this particular documentary. We probably have a good what 450 years of material that we’d like to cover.

Rick: Yeah, there’s an endless amount of material out there, that’s for sure.

Brian: It’s awesome that you’ve adapted such a really cool skill as creating documentary films that you can plug in whatever you want into that media source. So that’s really neat to be able to see and how did you go into that?

You said you were originally with coming at it from an audio perspective. So what led you into filmmaking?

Rick: Well, I always had an interest but you were correct to go back, I came in at from an audio perspective. I had been in the Navy, and when I got out of the Navy, I was stationed up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I went to school up there for audio recording.

And originally my passion was to go in and work in a recording studio working with bands and that kind of fell through but I did stay with audio working with them. I got a job at an audio and video production company here in San Diego, not long after I graduated from school.

That opened my eyes up to the visual aspect of it. While I worked there as an audio recording engineer and I started noodling around with doing little videos on my own, and 25 years later, that’s what I’m trying to do now, we’ve been making documentary films, and this is our fourth film that we’re working on now.

Elara: Teeny bit more equipment than when you first started, isn’t it?

Rick: That’s true. That’s true.

Elara: He’s a music buff and a film buff. So when you are into things in those realms, there are a great number of topics that come up. So he definitely has, you’ve expanded your repertoire and your interest level, but most of them are around film and what film can bring to popular culture and how they can open new worlds for people. I think, at least I’ve found you’re very interested in that.

Rick: Yes, and I think Elara touched on it earlier. We just we both find life interesting and stories interesting tonight, on the film that we’re working on right now. One of the big things to me, besides learning about the heritage breed animals is the personal stories. People are phenomenal.

Elara: That’s kind of how Rick got started. And I have I don’t know if I’ve been carried along or I drag you into new topics?

Rick: I kind of grabbed her by the hand and say, come on, let’s do this.

Elara: We both like to travel though. And so we keep finding new things that we would like to discuss with people. But I do, like I said, bookkeeping and tax prep, but my father was a doctor that was really by nature, a farmer or a rancher.

I think genetically I love to go tromping around fields of cattle and manure, growing things and dirt. And so it’s this film is definitely seem to be a natural progression toward that. And I really love research.

I don’t know if that’s the tax and the accounting thing. I’m a detailed girl so I can get lost for hours and hours, just finding interesting things, topics that I find interesting.

Brian: That’s really Great, that’s very, very cool. There are so many levels to what you guys do. I’m trying to figure out where to go first here.

And what I want to do is kind of start out at the beginning of my journey and finding you so I got to meet you at the Mother Earth News Fair that just happened over in Albany, Oregon for 2019.

You guys had a booth set up there. How did that all set up?

Rick: We’ll I’ll jump in on this Mother Earth News Fair contacted us we had gone the last two years to the Mother Earth News Fair. We had a booth last year at the Albany Fair, and then also at the Mother Earth News Fair in Kansas. And they reached out to us this year and asked us if we would like to come back and be a media partner with them.

And we said yes, and in doing that we set up a booth with them again. Plus, we were going around and filming some little short interviews for Mother Earth News Fair to put up on our YouTube channel and kind of give people out in the digital realm that don’t make it, and the internet world that don’t make it to the Mother Earth News Fair, kind of give them a inside peek of what the fairs are about.

Elara: As you know, they’re great number of different types of people that come to the fairs.

We met there. And so to us, it was a great thing to help to introduce new people to the topic, but also so many of the different aspects that are incorporated in farming come sort of come to the middle there homesteading and farming.

That was a natural, natural meeting place for us.

Is there one main goal that you were hoping to achieve by having a booth there or multiple goals that you’re hoping to get to just as far as your organization is concerned?

Well, it’s again, it’s been a progression for us. It’s kind of interesting.

We definitely would love to get more people aware of the topics. See in in filmmaking, it’s not always going to be something unless you do Spider Man two or three or a big sequel. You know, your funding is not there like it is with other things.

One of the things that we’ve been doing is we’ve been doing podcasting, and we’ve been doing segments, and we would, you know, we’re thinking, Oh, hey, you know, getting people aware of this. Is one of the ways that you can monetize your projects.

So it’s sort of a labor of love in many ways. We really feel it’s important for people to learn about these topics. And so we have been over the last couple of years, finding ways that we can maybe find a way to make this thing cost effective to where we could keep doing it.

Again, this is one of those things that many of the people that come to fairs like this or that do podcasting. They say you we don’t have to make a fortune, but we just have to be able to fund it so we can keep doing it.

And so we thought, you know what, let’s go to the Mother Earth News Fairs. Let’s go to, we’ve been to Santa Rosa and the Heirloom Expo. We’ve been to a couple of these different events and we found that people are really really interested in the topic, but they don’t find out about unless you get the news out. So that’s one of the big purposes that we’ve been doing is trying to raise awareness.

And if I may add, Brian, to answer your question a little further is, we felt like the Mother Earth News Fair and the Heirloom Festival would be reaching our audience that would be interested in our documentary and our podcast.

And we felt like those would be the people coming in and might be interested in seeing the film hearing a podcast. That would be a good grassroots way to get the word out.

Brian: If you had to describe that ideal person, your ideal audience or eventual customer who that person be?

Rick: Boy that’s kind of throwing a dart because going around the United States and up to Canada, the last three years, we have met so many people that come from all different backgrounds that are farmers.

Elara: But also don’t you think it’s something that not everybody knows about because everybody has such label shock. They’ve got label fatigue, the consumer, the average consumer knows about organic and free range and pasture based and, you know, natural, although these labels, they get put on food, but they don’t have any idea of all of the rest of the variables that go into the mix.

So, you know, people don’t really understand that it takes different resource requirements for different foods, it takes different resource requirements to raise animals in different ways.

And it’s not all going to be a label related thing. And since small farmers are having such a really hard time now, and a lot of them are getting to retirement age, I think the average farmer still what 58.

So, yeah, so it’s really important for people to understand the components that go into their food.

It’s kind of been something where this applies to everybody. And we may start out with a target thing, but for instance, at the last Mother Earth News Fair, we met as many people as we wanted to interview as we did that we wanted to tell about our podcast.

So for us it is, the sky’s the limit with the people that we want to talk to and that we want to learn from. And it’s all avenues, all walks of life because we all eat, and we all consume so it probably doesn’t answer your question what your target audiences.

But I think I would have to say if I had to pin it down, people are interested in where their food comes from more and more these days. So I would say that would be our target audience, people that are, that want to know how this animal is raised?

Or where it came from?

Or where their vegetables are grown out?

And so I would say that would probably be the closest thing I could say to our target audience.

Brian: Absolutely.

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They’re talking about how to use events, books, and speaking all to build your business.

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BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.

Brian: And going off of that point, you know, we’ve been talking around it a little bit, but why don’t you tell us a little bit more about what the concept is of heritage breeds and biodiversity and what the topic that you guys are going into with the Holstein Dilemma?

Elara: Well, there are many, many breeds out there that are not utilized commonly in agriculture. We’re not saying that one breed is better than the other, but most people don’t know that.

Our agriculture has become very much a monoculture. You know, if you have a beef cow, it’s probably an Angus, if you have a dairy cows at 85% of them are Holstein. If you have a meat chicken, it’s a Cornish cross.

And most people don’t know that our production has become really, really narrow in terms of the animals that we use.

So heritage breed animals are for the most part breeds, that a lot of them have history to them. A lot of them have, you know, thousands of years of history that are a part of what has gone into making these animals.

A lot of them are have different characteristics than the average agricultural animals. So they might have pest resistance that’s been developed over time in a certain place.

For instance, the Texas Longhorn is an animal that is sort of an amalgamation of different influences.

But it came over from the Spanish I believe, did not, yes, the Spanish cattle, so they came to Florida, and then they dispersed from there some went, they were doing beef production and Hispaniola big economic influence of the time.

But then because there were no fences a lot of these animals either get loose or they’re taking place to place and they adapt over time to the conditions of the location. So as you can imagine, the Longhorn would be very different when it arrived as a type of Spanish cow a certain type of breed with certain characteristics.

When it gets to Florida, either the strong ones make it or don’t, from the ones that have a heat tolerance or pest resistance that got past the size of Volkswagen bugs in Florida. So as that cow moves to a different location like Texas that’s very dry and has brush and sagebrush and has different maybe different tix and different different things that impact its ability to survive. It evolves.

When you put a couple hundred years into this….couple hundred years later, you have a very different cow in Florida than you would have in Texas.

And they look different and they react different.

They have different heat tolerances, they have different food requirements, and different productions.

This is something that we are starting to lose because now we are expecting animals to do the same thing or to produce at a very high level, but they’re only going to produce under certain conditions for the most part.

Or they’re going to maximize production under certain conditions. So our heritage breed animals are not necessarily ones that are used in the main production lines that we use now. But they have characteristics that are developed in certain places in certain locations that are really helpful to us.

And so if they want to be able to use the heat tolerance of a Longhorn, they have to have a Longhorn that will allow for that it has to still exist. If we don’t have an economic viability component to them, we’re not going to have Longhorns in 100 years because all we’ll have is a Holstein or an Angus.

Anyway, this applies to all the different if it’s a chicken or cow or pig. There are animals that had developed over thousands of years that are going extinct because they’re not commonly used in production.

Rick: Just to add to that, I don’t think a lot of people realize that even just are the world 8,000 livestock breeds that we have out there 21% of that are in danger of extinction. And every time we lose one of those animals gone, and we’ve lost that biodiversity, the best I could sum it up is maybe, like what’s happening right now.

In the Amazon, you know, they say that is the lungs of the world. And if it’s burning up, are we going to be able to breed there might be something one of these animals can contribute, that we don’t know right now that we might need in the future.

Elara: Yeah, it’s in our self interest to keep these things alive. Because we’re in such a rapidly changing climate and economic climate as well, that you never know, you can’t really predict which kind of components are going to be necessary in the future.

But you do know that if you at least save the pieces, you have the ability to put them together in a different way in the future.

If you put them all on the same cake, then you only have the same kind of cake from here out. I think many people don’t know that many parts of our history are really closely tied with agriculture.

If you think about the milking Devon. That’s a really interesting cow. It came over in gosh, one of the farmers we interviewed, his family came over and brought the Devon’s over 1630 I think?

Rick: 1635.

Elara: 1635 little red cow it’s a good milker good for it’s a good oxen. Animal pulls a plow a really good clip, try purpose or quad purpose animal actually, milk, beef, oxen and gosh, what’s the other one? I forget.

There’s another component there besides the fertilizer that they produce. But there’s only 1,200 of them, I think left overall.

Rick: And they came over from Devon, England. And there’s no more milking Devon’s in England.

Elara: They’re gone.

Rick: They’re gone. Now, they’re called the American milking Devon because they don’t have them anymore over there. And there’s only about 12 or 1,300 here in North America.

Elara: But why would you have a Devin when you can have a Holstein that produces, you know, two or three, four times the milk and that’s the problem that’s occurred is, that the other animals are just not having an economically viable path for the future.

Rick: And from what I heard to in our studies our research, a lot of these animals fell out of favor after World War Two. And understandably, we have to feed the planet.

But what we’re trying to say, and we’re not trying to say we don’t need large ag, we do to feed the world.

But we don’t want to give up on these animals as well, because we need the biodiversity. They are important too.

And so for small farmer, they are great.

They got a lot to offer.

Brian: It’s such a very interesting topic, and then you could take it in so many different ways. I’m sure the editing process is going to be difficult with all the interviews and so forth that you guys have gone through.

I can only imagine you could probably make five movies out of the same topic.

Elara: Yes, we have. You’re hitting a marital topic here.

We keep finding things that we think are fascinating and I keep saying honey, honey were imposed, that means we’re supposed to start cutting now.

Rick: If you’re not careful, you end up with a four hour movie, which I don’t think most people want to sit down and watch 4 hour movies. But, as you yourself know, editing is an important process.

Brian: Yes, that’s right. And taking it back knowing kind of the background of this topic, knowing your customer and everything, and you were discussing monetizing the whole project.

I saw that you sell DVDs. Is that your main source of monetizing for this or is there are there other forms that you’re using?

Rick: Your thing for when we finish this film?

Brian: Yeah. How are you making this lifestyle possible for yourself?

Elara: Well, okay, so here’s the accountant speaking. Yeah. I don’t know if this makes me a bad account. We have self funded this.

Brian: Yes.

Elara: Because we think it’s an important topic. So the decision that we made was based on informing as many people as we could, we would love to continue to do this.

I work for person that’s really understanding about bigger picture ideas and about a triple bottom line and how you might want to leave the world a better place than you found it.

We don’t just have a fiscal bottom line, we have a quality of life decision that we’ve made, that we’re going to make this film and hopefully continue to do it. That said, we would like to figure out how to be able to continue to do this in the future.

And to bring this to a larger audience, because we think it’s a really important topic, and we think they’re a great story.

So that’s sort of where the monetizing comes in, is that we’d like to continue after this to be able to continue the process and to keep bringing stories to to light because the world’s a really fascinating place.

But we have the ability because Rick has his own business and he has a video business that the equipment portion of this is something that we’ve been able to handle.

He already has the equipment for his production company. And so we’re able to do it in a way that’s more cost effective.

But you know, as you as I’m sure you know, and the long run, that’s not the easiest thing to maintain, because you have to keep buying equipment. So that’s sort of the thing…

Rick: But I will jump in as the non-accountant, filmmaker.

Brian: Yes.

Rick: And I will say that I want everyone to see all my films, and I want to monetize them.

And by doing so, I do have a contract with a distribution company for our last film we did in that are ready to distribute this one as well for us MPD out of Philadelphia. And also, we are hoping to talk with some different broadcasters in the future to see if we can sell this film to them, that way to have it shown, whether that be a cable channel or a network channel of some sort.

Elara: Yes.

Brian: Excellent. Well, that’s great news and it’s really cool that you’ve been able to stretch things out, look at the big picture and see things beyond just the bottom line and also be able to fit it in with your current lifestyle and be able to work it through that, that’s really great.

Elara: You know, it’s sort of an interesting thing that people that we speak with the interviews we’ve done, we have probably went at about 80 interviews that we’ve done over the last three years.

It’s not an uncommon thing now for people to want meaning in life. And this is one of the decisions that many of the farmers have made.

Most all of them have full time jobs, they have other jobs to be able to support their ability to do what they do, because many of the heritage breed animals aren’t going to make money in the same way that a large scale production facility is.

And so they kind of keep this alive by working somewhere else. We sort of feel a little bit of a kinship to the farmers that we speak with.

But we also understand that if you can make the the process the project, the animal whatever economically viable and self sufficient on its own, it’s better for the longevity in the long run.

You can always make it because you’re not always having to putting money into something and not get it out.

Rick: I’ll just throw in there.

One of our interviews is with the actress Isabella Rossellini. I don’t know if you’re familiar.

Brian: Oh, yeah, sure.

Rick: But she has a 28 acre farm in Long Island, New York, and has really gotten into the heritage breeds she raises heritage fried chickens and turkeys, and a pig as well.

And she told us when we interviewed her that farmers are like her as their artist. And all they want to do is be able to, they’re willing to give up certain things to live the lifestyle that they want to live.

Just like an actor, a singer, a painter, farmers are the same way on your life decision.

Brian: That’s very insightful, if you don’t hear it described that way very often. But I grew up working on the family cattle ranch. I totally understand that concept. And it’s not just true of people from an agricultural background.

But so often we’ll take artists and put them off to the side and say, well, they’re doing it out of a passion but really many people in many walks of life are doing it out of a passion and finding a way to make money along the way.

But it’s part of that lifestyle.

It’s part of discovering the life that you want a life with meaning a life with a cause, and being able to weave that in with with reality. And that’s great.

Rick: Yeah, I agree with you. 100%. And I think most people, if they’re doing something they like, they don’t care if they don’t have a million dollars in the bank and live in a big house.

They’re living their life, and they have a passion for what they’re doing. And that’s all that matters.

Elara: And there’s something to be said for that. The trade off, you know, you go to work and some people might work 10 hours a day to earn enough money to buy the things they want.

So they can take two or three weeks off a year and do the thing they want for two or three weeks a year.

I am of at least for me personally, I would rather make a little less money in life and have the quality of life on the longer term and on a daily basis.

So I know that I come home and I look at my chickens and I dig in the garden and I do all of those things.

That’s worth taking an extra half an hour a day and having that just the moment of Zen, I guess it’s called, because it’s it life is a trade off.

Do you work more for the things that make you happy?

Or do you take a little less and be happy?

Just through the things that you are not buying, but you’re getting, but you’re producing?

Rick: And I would say, if you looked at most farmers out here, I don’t really see any monetarily rich farmers.

Elara: Oh, no.

Rick: But I see them rich in their life of what they’re doing.

Elara: Do you have a garden? a vegetable garden or trees or anything?

Brian: Yes, yes.

Elara: Okay. So you know that joy that you get when you go out to the plum tree and you stand there underneath it and you pick a ripe plum, and you you take a bite out of it and it’s dripping down your chin is the best thing you’ve ever tasted.

And you say, I made that.

Well, you didn’t make it but you know, you grew it. You helped it along it tastes better somehow.

I don’t know how that is, but it is.

And there’s, it’s absolutely one of the best decisions you can ever make.

Brian: Really great points, really good.

This conversation we’re having as part of a mini series, all regarding people, both previous to the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, and afterwards talking to people that we met there.

And so just to wrap up that idea of the situation with you being there, you were in Albany, and then were you also going to be in Kansas this year. Also, we’re not for sure if we’re going to make it to Kansas this year or not.

We haven’t got that on the calendar yet.

Elara: We’re in the post production phase. And my husband tells me that’s the that the filming has been the easy part. So yeah, so the next month or two or three, we really tried to focus on making sure that you know, we have the animation in place when we have a lot of the music composition, writing and music.

So there’s a lot of things that have to happen in the next couple months to get it to come together.

And I have learned from him it is the really tough part of the process. So we did quite a bit of travel. I mean, last last year we traveled every month, I think.

Rick: Yes, more every month.

Elara: Some months, a couple places, and sometimes it’s on the road.

And sometimes it’s in the air we have we had companion status last year, which saved us with the Southwest, but really does take a toll and catching up when you come back is a really hard thing to do.

So we sort of made a decision that in the post production period, we’ve got to focus on it.

So where we think we might minimize some of our travel this fall just to get going in the can.

Brian’s Closing Thoughts from Part 1, with Rick and Elara Bowman: We’ve broken this conversation with Rick and Elara into two parts. This is only part one.

I want to talk a little bit about what they said here, but be sure and listen to part two.

We met them at the Mother Earth Mews Fair. I really like how they’re discussing how you’ve got to find an expo that meets with your ideal audience for your message, your offer your service, you’ve got to find the ones that really fit in, right.

And they had attended and they had picked out the Mother Earth News Fair specifically, for that reason.

That’s something to keep in mind yourself when you start looking for any form of event to plug into make sure that truly fits into what you’re looking to get out of it. One thing that’s really clear here is their amount of passion for what they’re doing.

They found something they enjoy doing, they’re passionate about, and they’ve been able to build a business around it, and at the same time, be able to continue making a living on the side. So this is only part of their life, but they’ve been able to build into their life without giving up anything else. I think that’s really cool.

And that whole concept of balancing things out and timing things just right how they talked about their travel plans and fitting in all the other objectives that they’re looking to get while they’re traveling.

That’s great.

It fits in with a lot of the other conversations that we had the one with Scott Smith, the one with Uncle Mud.

Lots of the people we talked to talk about how they’ve turned their business into a lifestyle and they’ve built it around their ideal lifestyle.

That’s something you always have to keep in mind. It’s not just about a number at the end of the day on how much you’re looking to make. It really needs to fit in across the board.

Like I said, there’s so much more conversation coming up.

Be sure and listen to part two, and I’ll see you over there on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.

That’s BrianJPombo.com.

If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on The Off The Grid Biz Podcast, offthegridbiz.com/contact. Those who appear on the show do not necessarily endorse my beliefs, suggestions, or advice or any of the services provided by our sponsor.

Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas.

I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.

Janice Cox – Natural Beauty for All Seasons

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Janice Cox
Natural Beauty for all Seasons

Episode 015.

Do you take FULL advantage of events? Do you challenge yourself to meet new people and focus on new opportunities?

Janice Cox is a leading DIY natural beauty and skin-care expert from Medford, Oregon. She is the author of several books including Natural Beauty from the Garden, Natural Beauty for All Seasons, and Natural Beauty at Home.

She’s a member of the International Herb Association, the United States Lavender Growers Association, and the Herb Society of America.

Janice brings an bright energy into everything she says and does. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Listen now!

Find out more about Janice Cox: http://www.janicecox.com

Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/

 

Full Transcript

Janice: I think I said this to the fair director, the world would kind of be a better place if everybody acted like they do it Mother Earth News Fairs because you have all walks, all backgrounds. There’s urban people, there’s, you know, country people, but everybody gets together because they really do want to learn and share and grow ideas.

Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.

If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.


You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.

We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.

From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.

This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure, life off the grid.

Brian: Janice Cox is an author and leading DIY natural beauty and skincare expert. She is a wife, mother and grandmother and loves creating her own bath and body products.

She’s also a freelance magazine writer and beauty editor for Herb Quarterly Magazine. Janice is a member of the International Herb Association, the United States lavender Growers Association, and the herb Society of America.

She will be speaking at the remaining Mother Earth News Fairs for 2019 in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. Janice, welcome to the Off The Grid Biz Podcast.

Janice: Thank you for having me. This is fun.

Brian: Sure thing once you let everyone know besides what’s in your bio, just tell us a little bit about who you are what you do?

Janice: Well, I am kind of a DIY beauty. I’ve just always had a passion I grew up my dad was a farmer. My mom was a home mech major. So I kind of grew up in a DIY environment anyway. And I’ve just always had a passion for body care products.

Now growing up, we lived out in the country, so I couldn’t run and buy things. So we had to craft things. And I had to use what was on hand when I first started out, people really liked my recipes. Because you could save a lot of money, which you still can.

Today, I’ve noticed that my message is kind of shifted, where it’s people are really concerned with the products and the ingredients that they’re using on their body. And so knowing what goes into even the commercial products that you’re buying, because there’s a lot of great products out there helps with your overall wellness.

I mean, I’ve seen people change their health, you know, just in the ingredients they choose. So that’s kind of a little bit of where I’ve come from, I started out just making this stuff for fun, then I was saving money.

And now I’m really looking at it as a whole wellness part of your health regimen.

Brian: Excellent. So how did you end up here?

What’s your life story to this point, what brought you to this field?

Janice: I was a mother. And so I wanted a career that I could do with my family and also so I had the passion for making my own products.

We used to live in Australia before we moved back to the United States where beauty products and do yourself things are just super popular.

So I had a collection of recipes from family from history books from just travels. And when we came back to the US, my husband went and bought me some soap that I liked using in Australia.

And he kind of complained about the price of it and said, You should just learn to make this yourself, which was nice. I mean, he said it in a nice way. So I thought, you know, there was really a need for this, you know, so I put together all my recipes.

It was my first book was called Natural Beauty at Home and that was back in the 90s.

Now I’ve written four books and for a variety of magazines, and it’s just become a career that I am lucky because I got to do it at home with my family.

Brian: Awesome.

We talked a little bit about your books. Can you tell us more about the books you have?

Janice: Well, my books are written cookbook style, and so if you can read you could make body care products there’s a variety of things I have like thousands of recipes so you can make shampoo and a stringent bath products cleansers you know if there’s a commercial product you’re using.

Chances are you’ll probably be able to make one out of one of my books and they’re a little bit like muffins like once you get down, say the cleansers, you can then just kind of play around with the ingredients. So if you’re somebody that really likes rosemary or really likes mint, then you can adapt it to your own and your skin too.

So I kind of give people the tools but they’re really in control. They’re the manufacturer of their products so they can make them any way they want and tailor them to where their skins at that’s kind of nice to you have the control of in the winter, you might need more oil in the summer you might not need as rich of a product.

Brian: So what led you to write books to begin with?

Janice: I guess if I didn’t really start out to write books, but I wanted to share recipes. So that was an easy way to share my recipes with people is to put them all into like a cookbook, that they can easily get at the store.

Brian: Got it?

Did you enjoy the process?

Janice: I like meeting people. I think what I like about the writing, writing is kind of a solitary process, but it’s very creative. So I like that.

But I also like it when I go out.

The best compliment I can get is when somebody comes up to me with my book, and it’s just all marked up and used. It has oil stains. I love that.

And then a lot of times I learned from my readers, they will send me you know, like we like this, but have you thought of using jojoba oil? Or have you thought of, you know, doing this with rose petals?

And I like that part of it. So yeah, it’s just I just like everything about it.

Brian: That’s great.

Janice: It’s a good career.

Brian: So you’re slated to present at Mother Earth News Fair, you’ve already presented at the earlier ones.

What are you going to be covering in Albany?

Janice: Okay, in Albany because this is my second round of Mother Earth News Fairs and my second Time in Oregon.

This year, I’m taking ideas out of my book, Natural Beauty From The Garden, which is all plant based recipes. How to enjoy your plants that you might have or your neighbors might have in a new and different way as in body care products.

I also have a book coming out at the Oregon fair for the first revised edition of Natural Beauty For All Season. So that’s a lot of gift giving ideas.

What we’re going to do up in Albany is we’re going to have I’m going to give a talk on garden beauty.

We’ll talk about all the different plants that you might not have thought of using like parsley.

It makes a nice cleanser or roses, you know, you can also use in the bath or you know, just common plants that you have. And then we’re also I do a talk on lavender, lavender has been very popular now as a plant.

And so we’re doing a whole lavender for health and beauty and on Sunday we’re doing a lavender breakfast, where I’ve teamed up with the Oregon lavender association which represents all the farms and growers in the state.

We’re going to talk, we’re gonna have some farmers there. We’re gonna have some plants there.

We’re going to make a whole breakfast with lavender inspired dishes like a quiche and scones and we’ll have lavender coffee.

And we even have a sampling of lavender mimosas.

Yeah, so you get in early to the fair and you can have your lavender breakfast and then go off and enjoy everything else.

And then I’m going to do a hands on workshop that day, I work with Mountain Rose Herbs out of Eugene, and they’re sponsoring the ingredients that we’re going to use and we’re going to make some baskets at a newspaper and then fill them with about six different body care products.

We’re going to make a soap and a cleanser and hairspray and I’m trying to think what some summer those roll on perfumes.

I mean, it’ll be really fun. People last year, I did this, and it’s about two hours and we do make a lot of things but people really enjoy it and it kind of takes on a life of its own.

Brian: Very cool.

So what do you hope people are gonna get when they walk away from your presentations, what do you hope they get out it?

Janice: My mission is to make people better consumers.

That’s really where I’m at right now, in my career. I think a lot of people will buy things and they don’t necessarily read the ingredient label.

And there’s a lot of good products out there. There’s a lot of things that you’re spending a lot of money on, and which is basically water, or salt.

I’m teaching people how to read a product label, and also realize what the ingredients are not all ingredients are bad.

I’m not down on, you know, natural beauty products, which is not really a regulated industry in this country. I mean, in other countries, they’re very, like Canada and Europe.

I mean, there are products that, you know, they have like lists of thousands of products, I think our list is maybe 11 that can’t be in body care products.

So and anybody can say natural on their label, and it might not necessarily be natural.

I’m just trying to teach people how to read a label, know what they’re using, if they want to create their own chances. Are they have things already at home or in their garden that they can do that.

And so I’ve seen people, you know, people live like a healthy lifestyle or even a gluten free lifestyle, but they don’t think about what they put on their body every day.

I kind of say what goes on you goes in you, because they’ve proven that 25% of the ingredients in your skincare products goes directly into your bloodstream. I mean, that’s why nicotine patches pain patches birth kit works so well through our skin, because things go directly and so by looking at the your body care products.

I mean, there are people like I said, gluten free, and they’re using a shampoo that has gluten in it. So there you go, you’re not really getting anywhere.

Brian: Yeah, good point.

Commercial Break: Okay, we’re going to pause the conversation right there. What you’re listening to right now is a special edition podcast. These episodes all have to do with the Mother Earth News fair in Albany, Oregon of 2019 at the time I’m recording this, we have learned so much about how to take advantage of events and I want you to be able to use this information in your own business. Go to BrianJPombo.com/secrets.

We are going to be putting out helpful materials on how you can use events to grow your business.

When you go to this page, you will either see our latest programs or if you make it there early enough, you will see an email address, capture page, put in your email address and we will be sure and update you. As soon as we get these out there, you’re not going to want to miss this.

If you get in early enough, you can get a special deal. These are principles that never go away.

These programs will be based on the experience of people who have written books, spoken at the events or exhibited.

They’re talking about how to use events, books, and speaking all to build your business.

That’s BrianJPombo.com/secrets.

BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.

Brian: Why are you going to these Mother Earth News Fairs and putting on presentations?

What do you hope to achieve personally for your business?

Janice: Well, I’m kind of a super fan of Mother Earth News anyway. So besides whenever I don’t know, I might have a reputation because I also go to the classes, I also go to the talks, and I just love everything about it.

It really is an event where the things that you read in the magazine can be inspiring, but also you will up your skill level for sure.

Or maybe be exposed to something that you might not have. I took a class last year on growing mushrooms and I hadn’t even thought of that, that I could do that at home and you know, and now I have some spores, you know, out in my yard under my oak tree.

But yeah, there’s things like that that you will discover. I don’t know.

I like going to the fair. I like the magazine, I like meeting people.

It also energizes me and gives me new ideas for articles that I can write. And you know, so because I speak at other events also, not just Mother Earth News.

So a lot of times I might be working on things like lavender, or like my loofahs sponges, I did a lot on loofah sponges.

And then I ended up doing a webinar for Herb Society of America. And it really helped me because after a year of talking about loofahs sponges and with people about loofah sponges, you know, it turned into a really nice class.

Brian: Oh, that’s great. Who are you most hoping to reach with your presentations, both, you know, in person, and in your speech at the event. What was the ideal person you’re hoping to connect with?

Janice: Well, I don’t know if I have a type. I think everybody has skin and hair and is concerned about their health and wants to keep their body in good shape.

So I think anybody that’s concerned with health, wellness, and just wants to have a good time, you know, learning something new. And, you know, even making the workshop this year.

We’re gonna even focus on things that you could make and give as a gift or put in your farm shop if you’re somebody that’s already has products, so things like that. So anybody I’ll talk to anybody.

Brian: We have a lot of business owners, executives that listen to the show, because we kind of look at the entire self reliance field from business perspective. So do you think that it’d be worthwhile for them to plug into events like this?

Janice: Oh, definitely, definitely. Because the thing that’s nice about it, it’s a small, very intimate event.

In a way, I think a lot of things happen even outside of the booth outside of the talks outside of the workshops. I’ve seen people networking and getting together, you know, and even, it’s funny, there’s businesses there like I there was one, it’s a chicken company, but the people that are either the customers or new customers, they’ll get around that.

And they’ll just be like, these big, almost like a mini conference, about a product or about a skill, I’ve seen that a lot of people will go just to network.

Brian: Yeah.

Janice: And it’s you know, people are very open to talking about products and sharing ideas and even helping you improve yourself.

I think I said this to the fair director, the world would kind of be a better place if everybody acted like they do at Mother Earth News Fair, because you have all walks, all backgrounds, there’s urban people, there’s, you know, country people, but everybody gets together because they really do want to learn and share and grow ideas.

Brian: Awesome.

How did you end up becoming a presenter to begin with Mother Earth News? Did you reach out to them? Did they reach out to you How did that happen?

Janice: I asked them.

Brian: Yeah.

Janice: See there I go. I’m a super fan.

So I did, I asked them, I read the magazine. I’m a subscriber.

And then I saw the fairs advertised, I had never been to a fair contacted them and said, you know, this is what I’m about and it fits perfectly with what you’re about. And I would love to be a part of your event.

Lucky for me, they said yes. And they’ve let me in and they still keep letting me show up.

Brian: So do you have any logistical tips for other people that travel?

I mean, you’ve got to travel a lot to go to these. Do you have any logistical tips of things to keep in mind if they’re either speaking or presenting or putting on an exhibit or anything like that, and these both these fairs or any type of events like this?

Janice: I’ve gone to all the fairs and I would say, you want to really make the best of your time so I would come the day before. And if you’re working, if you can kind of walk right everybody’s setting up but you get a feel for the layout.

You also can go online, I usually go online right now you can print the whole fair brochure and schedule and see all the speakers and I see a lot of people that will show up with that already highlighted.

So they kind of make the most of their day because some of these workshops are like an hour or two hours, and so you want to make that, then you’re going to see what you want to see.

I mean not to say you, you don’t really want to be to planned out because sometimes things take on a life of their own. I mean, I’ve gone to, you know, Uncle Mud’s stuff about making a pizza oven.

And I wouldn’t have maybe thought of doing that. But it just turned out, I had that time open.

So you have to come, but you can plan ahead of time online.

And then also, I would stay close to the fair because I think that’s kind of nice, because you can kind of come and go easily, and just be open.

I would say the best thing is to come with a good attitude, and be open to maybe what you might discover. I know that there’s a lot of these stories and maybe you’re coming up to the fair for the first time you might meet somebody.

I met a guy in Maryland that he has a very successful chimney cleaning company, and he wouldn’t have ever had that company. If he hadn’t been a magazine reader gone to the fair learn some skills. And now this guy, you know, that’s all he does is clean chimneys. But he said He owes it to Mother Earth news fair, which is kind of

Brian: Yeah. Nice. Yeah. What else Haven’t I asked you that you think would be good to talk about?

Janice: I don’t know, I think I’ve told you about how, you know, you want to take good care of your skin and hair, keep it clean, full of moisture and protected from the sun. I think I’ve told you, you want to go up to the Mother Earth News Fair with a good attitude, and open to learning something new and even talking to somebody new.

A lot of times, I used to have a game if I went to an event, I try and meet three new people.

And I think going to the fair, maybe discover three new booths or talks would be good.

I don’t know just have fun. It’s, you’ll see and well, maybe I’ll have to come back up here because we kind of live by each other.

Brian: Yeah.

Janice: And do a post fair.

Brian: Oh, that’d be great.

Love to have that for sure. So what could a listener that’s interested in finding out more about you checking out your books, everything else, where’s the best place for them to go?

Janice: They can go to my website. JaniceCox.com and because you can send me an email, ask me questions. My books are available pretty much everywhere. They’re on Amazon. They’re Barnes & Noble, you know, any bookseller has the books.

But if you want to speak to me directly, you can just go to my website. It’s JaniceCox.com and I will talk to you.

Brian: Awesome. Awesome.

Janice, thanks so much for being on the show. Really enjoyed having you here. We’ll definitely have you back.

Janice: Oh, I hope so. Thank you. See you at the fair!

Brian’s Closing Thoughts: Janice is such a ball of energy. I’m so glad we got to meet in person.

She went through so much in that short period of time where we were talking that I’m just going to point out just a few things.

Janice follows along with that process of learn, do teach. Here’s a person that enjoyed learning these ideas so much. She automatically got out and started teaching other people how to do the same thing. But she said she soon switched Instead of just helping people to save money, she started showing people how to focus on health and all natural items really focusing on the quality life.

And that could be a different market that could those can be different people, she may be able to charge higher pricing for those type of items versus just playing to people to show them how to save money. These are things you have to consider when you’re letting your business grow.

What market are you playing to?

What needs wants desires are you attempting to fulfill in your customer base, you have to know who you are, what you’re good at what you aren’t good at because she’s a people person.

She learns from her readers. She relates back to people directly, she realizes that she enjoys being in large crowds of people. In a previous episode, we were talking with Andy Brennan. And while he enjoys teaching and being around other people and doing everything that goes along with being a speaker, he is initially an introvert, he tends to need some alone time to be able to recharge.

These type of experts have been doing it long enough that they know themselves and if you know yourself, you’ll know what you’ll be good at and not good at, and you’ll be able to focus in your strengths.

And like I always say, you focus on your strengths and you want to outsource all your weaknesses.

Janice puts a lot of focus on collaboration to a lot of great tips when it comes to going to events, attending events, both as a spectator and a person that’s going on business.

She plans things out, but at the same time, leaves things open enough to be able to have things happen on their own.

Another thing I want to point out is that she lets her niche or niche expand out so that it not just fits within a bubble. I mean, she has this entire book on creating gift ideas and you flip through this book.

These are not super hard to do. These are simple concepts, but can really create an impact.

If you’re looking at making your own gifts from scratch like this, her focus on skincare on all natural skincare. She’s taken her niche, and she has expanded it out to areas where it normally would not go. And she talks about it in a way that other people don’t talk about it.

This allows her to really stand above and beyond. You’re going to hear Kirsten and Christopher Shockey in a later episode discuss the same concepts.

Overall her super fan attitude about Mother Earth News and the Mother Earth News fairs is pretty contagious. I love that line.

I wish everyone in the world acted like they do at the Mother Earth News Fair. And once again, she has a huge focus on just having fun, just like we heard from Frank Hyman.

There’s so much more I wanted to get into with Janice and I’m happy she lives so nearby where I am in Grants Pass, Oregon so we’ll definitely be hearing from her if not at the fair, definitely after the fair.

Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.

That’s BrianJPombo.com.

If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on The Off The Grid Biz Podcast, offthegridbiz.com/contact.

Those who appear on the show do not necessarily endorse my beliefs, suggestions, or advice or any of the services provided by our sponsor.

Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas.

I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.