A Year on The Farm

“Find meaning and joy in the work you do, not the work you wish you did. Finding fulfillment in work is never about pursuing your idea of what your “purpose” is. It is always about infusing purpose into whatever it is you already do.” ―?Brianna Wiest

It’s my one-year anniversary at The Farm – and I just finished Brianna Wiest’s 101 “Essays That Will Change The Way You think” – great book if you’re looking for some inspiration. Like a lot of people in our industry – for a lot of reasons – we move from company to company but we never leave AV.

Maybe we want more money, a better job title, a different job role. Or we move, we have kids, we get burnt out, our bosses leave, new bosses come in, our company gets sold, our company goes under.

Whether we left on our own accord or by somebody else’s, circumstances change, and we do our best to adapt. I’m damn lucky I got to begin my career in the AV industry at a company that basically invented the term “company culture”. (Hint, hint Rob Sheeley Thomas Mingo ) I was spoiled right off the bat. I experienced first-hand the magic you can create when you mix great people and great culture. ?

Since then, I’ve worked for and with AV integrators, manufacturers, manufacturer reps, consultants, non-profits, and start-ups. I’ve made wrong turns, right turns, driven up mountains, slid down hills, crashed into walls and in some cases burned to the ground.

During this time, I learned a lot about myself – some good, some not-so-good. Around 2021 or so I decided to go through a personal values exercise and determine what was most important to me. (Thanks Jeff Stoebner for making us read Built on Values ) I needed to figure out where I ‘fit’. Turns out companies aren’t the only ones who can define core values. After some research, I ended up with authenticity, curiosity, empathy, integrity, and humility. I now had my five non-negotiables – I just needed to find an organization that aligned with what made me tick.

I started looking. I even looked outside of the industry. I interviewed with a frickin’ candle wax company. I didn’t care if I worked in B2C, B2B or B2LMNOP, I wanted to work with a company that shared my values. I could have been selling pickle jars, I didn’t care as long as the people were my kinda people.

Then John Hood called me to entertain the idea of joining The Farm. I said when the hell can I start? And that was it. I didn’t even mind I’d be taking a bit of a pay cut because I knew it would pay back in dividends (side note – I’ve taken a pay cut at EVERY job I’ve ever truly enjoyed and left making tens of thousands of dollars more).

I go to work every day and work with people I like. I actually like them. And they’re brilliant (it’s intimidating sometimes how brilliant they are). They’re good at what they do, and you can tell they enjoy what they do. And I believe they enjoy what they do because of the people they do it with.

Ideas are encouraged. Creativity is celebrated. We share our successes. And when we fail, we pick each other back up, brush it off and start over. John and the entire team – which includes programming and operations all the way to sales and service – built an environment second to none. And it’s fun. My coworkers are some of the funniest, most ridiculously un-PC people I’ve ever met, and I love it.

We’ve almost doubled in size in the past year – in revenue, employees, and geography. We’ve lost some product lines and gained others. We hit the accelerator on our services division. We bought a building. We launched two software platforms. We refreshed our brand and launched a new website. We named our chicken. There hasn’t been one second that I’ve second-guessed my decision to become a Farmer. It sounds so cheesy, but I’m cheesy – so there.

I’ll close with a note my friend Tim Hennen sent me a few months ago. “Not many people are as lucky as you are to buzz around like a bee and contribute to and experience other people’s companies and cultures like you do.”

It’s true, I’m lucky. Cheers to another year.