In this Meet the Team episode, we sit down with Kelly Bristle to discuss her behind-the-scenes role at Agrarian Solutions. With a lifetime of experience in agriculture and communications, Kelly shares her insights on teamwork, leadership, and the lessons learned from mentors, including her daughters. The conversation also explores how Agrarian Solution’’s culture has influenced the team’s success, and why relationships and work ethic matter more than job titles. Tune in for a candid, behind-the-scenes discussion.
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Scott Zehr
All right. Hey everybody. Welcome to Ruminate This with Agrarian Solutions. I’m your host, Scott Zehr. And I am excited to have one more episode in the meet the team series today with somebody that I hold pretty near and dear to myself, one Kelly Bristle. And we’re going to talk to Kelly and learn more about her and her role at Agrarian.
And again, just continuing on this theme of meet the team with Agrarian Solutions, we’re talking about our core values. if you’re listening for the first time, our core values are rise, RISE, and that is relational, integrity, strategic, and excellence.
And Kelly, this meet the team series, my goal is to highlight the men and women within the organization. Because at the end of the day, and people are probably getting sick of me saying this, B2B sales is a farce. I think it’s a joke. I think it’s a term that we use to broadly describe, like I get it, business to business sales. But what about the people?
Kelly Bristle
It’s all about the people.
Scott Zehr
It’s all about the people. And it’s funny as we’ve been talking about this. You know, there’s been a few of these episodes that have aired. I’ve spoke to people at different conferences I’ve been to throughout the last couple of months. Nutrition conferences and so on. And I share with them my, I guess my feelings about the joke that is B2B sales. And everybody says, yeah, it is a joke. And it’s become this almost stigma in the business world.
And I’ll say it again and everybody, I hope, I hope you don’t tune out cause I’m going to say this, but you show me a business that’s ever done business with another business, and I will show you the Kelly Bristley’s, the Nick Bradley’s, the amazing men and women behind the scenes that actually make it happen. And that’s what this is all about. And today I know Kelly, you probably prefer to work in the background…
Kelly Bristle
Yes.
Scott Zehr
…more than anything else. So I do appreciate you being willing to come on the podcast and visit with us. So part of the reason. I think a lot of people may not know Kelly Bristley. And in certain circles, a lot of people do know you. You have a great reputation within the AI industry for sure. But it’s because you work behind the scenes a lot.
So first question is who the heck is Kelly Bristley? And the second question I have for you is what do you find rewarding about working Maybe working behind the curtain more so than on the front lines, like in a sales role or so on.
Kelly Bristle
Okay. Yeah, I do enjoy being behind the scenes the most. That’s where I enjoy to be, but who am I, first of all, I’m a person that I put my family first, you know? So my family, whether it’s my two girls, my dad, my brothers and sisters, they’re the most important thing to me.
And then from that, I’ve built, and because of them, I’ve been able to build a very nice career in agriculture. I grew up on a dairy farm in Southeastern Michigan. So, you can say I’ve been in the industry my entire life. Grew up milking cows, doing hay, all those things. And then at the urging of my parents, I went to college.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but because of them, I did and got a degree in agriculture communications. And then after college went to work for a cooperative and I’ve been there for 35 years. I get to work with advertising communications, anything that provides support to our sales staff essentially, I’m involved in.
As well as I work with customer care and our stock owner services, which is our member owners, the cooperative. So I love the variety that I have. I love the, so the two things that I love the most about what I’ve ever gotten to do is the variety and the people. I have had some really great team members over the years. I’ve had some great leaders.
Now, no organization’s perfect. Not everybody knocks it out of the park for each individual person. But in, you know, in total that’s what it is. So I don’t know, I think, that’s me. And it’s because of that role that I’ve had that I met Agrarian Solutions 20 some years ago.
I remember being in a meeting with some of the founding members Dean Jessup, Chuck How, and they were talking to our organization about BioCycle, BioCycle plus, DTX. And you know, we’re working on developing a relationship with us. And I remember from that moment on, I have always held Agrarian Solutions in high regard.
I’ve always said that they are one of the best, if not the best partner to work with. They’re not a vendor. They’ve never been a vendor to me. They were always a partner, always willing to explore ideas, always just, you know, always there and supportive and just a great group of people, even after Dean and Chuck and Bob, I think was the other founding father once they moved on.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Bob Kleinhexel. Right.
Kelly Bristle
Here we go. Yes. Yup. Yup. And I worked closer with Dean and Chuck and I don’t know why that is. Maybe Bob wasn’t in the area. I don’t know.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, I wouldn’t know. I was Bob maybe more West coast.
Kelly Bristle
Maybe.
Scott Zehr
I feel like that was the case.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah. But even after they moved on and the next group of people, you know, stepped in, I just have always felt, you know, I’ve just always felt that way that it is a great group of people. Not to mention a great product line. But you’re going to have the best product line in the world, and if you don’t have good people, it really doesn’t matter.
Scott Zehr
Oh man, that’s so true. And it’s funny as you were describing that how Agrarian has impressed that on so many different people, right? So I spent time working for an AI cooperative out here in the East coast. And Kelly, I was there seven years.
Never, never thought about, like, leaving. I, I loved it there. But I always said, like, if there was ever a company that I’d be willing to leave for, if the opportunity ever arose, it would have been Agrarian. And all of a sudden I get a phone call one day from Rob Hammacher and here we sit today, you know?
And so it’s, it’s weird how that, yeah, we, we both experienced that where there was definitely something different about Agrarian and I don’t know if we really knew what it was back then, other than just good people.
So there’s two follow ups I want to ask you staying along that line of thought. You’ve been I would say very involved within the organization because you’re an overachiever and need to have, you know, more than one job like the rest of us.
Kelly Bristle
Well, that’s mostly because my girls are growing. So.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, yeah. But um, you’ve been involved with Agrarian on a I would say a professional level for over 20 years, but more intimately over the last like three, three and a half.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
What have you seen within the last few years as you’ve worked closer with the team that either surprised you about Agrarian or was it just like confirmation of what your gut feeling was for the last 20 some years?
Kelly Bristle
I would say it was just confirmation of, and, so I, didn’t have an opportunity to work with everybody at Agrarian until the past three years. So, it wasn’t just that Dan, so Dan and Chad and Rob would have been my closest contacts really. It’s not just them. It’s everybody within the group that, you know, has the same set of values.
I think anybody that interacts with Agrarian, it doesn’t matter which person it is on our team should get the same type of level of commitment to doing the right thing, you know, putting emphasis on relationships, putting emphasis on integrity and excellence. So yeah, and I guess I should have said, you’re right.
You know, I’ve been working with Agrarian for three years. I started in one area. It’s slowly growing as Nick has asked. And I’ve been willing to say, okay. So, and it’s not because I don’t enjoy something. It’s just, there’s only so much time. And so that’s why sometimes I have to say no. But, no, the entire team, whatever my first, you know, my initial feelings about the people of Agrarian, it applies to everyone on the team. Once I got to know everybody.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So one of the other things you mentioned is some of the amazing teammates and leaders that you’ve had a chance to work with. So I’m going to kind of ask you like from a mentor standpoint, who are, you can mention them by name if you’re comfortable, you don’t have to. But, who are maybe a one or two mentors that they were very impactful on, on you more as a person, you know? Not just a career kind of thing. And what was so impactful, you know, what did they do that was so impactful?
Kelly Bristle
So I’m going to start with my parents, which probably sounds a little cliche. But I’m sure there are folks out there that can’t say their parents were mentors and that’s, you know, I feel bad for them. But our parents, my parents really, you know, they taught us work ethic, they taught us drive, they taught us honesty really helped us understand what’s really important in life.
So of course, you know, they have been wonderful mentors for me. On a professional standpoint, one of my former general managers, Gary Smith, and I’ll name him right out. He’s a phenomenal leader. I credit him for helping me grow into some of the strengths that I have, that I didn’t know I had, or I didn’t know how to use them.
So he had done a phenomenal little job. And he was one of those people that could get up in front of the group and energize them, and get you excited. And, and you wanted to follow it. You just, you wanted to, you know? And he had to grow into that role. He wasn’t like that when he started.
And, you know, I watched him also grow and develop, but, yeah, he definitely had a huge, a huge impact on me. I don’t know if I would call them mentors, but I would definitely say they’re inspirational to me. And that is my girls. My oldest daughter has ventured off into her own business. And just isn’t afraid to embrace anything.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
She has a podcast now, she does some virtual training, but then she also meets one on one with people. If there’s a growth opportunity, she takes it. And such a positive person, such a positive person. And then, my other daughter is such a risk taker, you know? She a risk taker and very goal oriented.
When she was in high school, she’s like, well, I want to do this, this and this. And she did. She secured scholarships to go out of state to college. She wanted to be in New York for her career. So that’s where she’s at, you know. And she’ll say, Oh, that’s not a big deal. And a lot of us are like, Oh no, that’s a really big deal. Cause that’s kind of scary.
So they’re definitely inspiration for me to not, they helped me maybe get out of my lane a little bit. It’s pretty easy for me to want to stay in my lane. I don’t like to not be good at something. So sometimes I struggle to take on some new things like, well, like this. So, yeah.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I think your girls learned that from somebody, and I think they had a pretty good role model with you for sure. And I think you’re probably harder on yourself than what we see, because as you and I started working together a few years ago, on another training platform that we do, when you started doing some of the background work for us, you said it, you were like, I need slow bits and pieces. And you took off little chunks and you started doing it. And then when we said, “Hey, we think we’re going to start a podcast.” You were like, I’m in.
Kelly Bristle
Yep.
Scott Zehr
I’m in. So, yes, I’ve seen that for sure.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah. So as I learn things, it’s really important that our team has grace and everybody does. And we need to extend that grace to each other, whether we’re learning something new or going through something difficult. So yeah, that makes it easier for me to raise my hand on new stuff more and more often. And knowing that the Agrarian team is like that just makes it easier.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, that’s that whole grace thing is one that really hit me today where I just need to extend a little grace. It was a very frustrating thing that happened. But I had to remind myself of the Young Dairy Leader Institute training that I had. And one of the speakers, a guy named Galen Emanuel. And he put us all, like, in the room together, there was a hundred and some, or seventy some students there, and, you’re familiar with improv comedy, so the number one rule of improv is grace.
Because you’re making it up as you go. So if you, you know, if you throw out a situation and the next person, if you throw a scenario to somebody their response has to be yes and, so they can build on it. But they may be, aren’t fully understanding where you’re trying to go with the improv. And so they might get it wrong. And improv doesn’t work without grace. Cause when they throw it back to you, you have to roll with it, whatever direction it’s going. And it was a good lesson.
And I think if I look back over the years different times where I was probably harder on people that I needed to be. And not like verbally, like calling you up and chewing you out kind of thing, but you’re just like, I’m going to just not deal with that person anymore. And that’s not professional either.
Kelly Bristle
Well, and I don’t always extend a grace that, I mean, I see it as a very valuable thing. And I struggle with it because my number one strength, their strength finder is focused, which means I get a lot of things done. Because I keep people moving forward.
Scott Zehr
Yes, you do.
Kelly Bristle
So, sometimes…
Scott Zehr
And I’m, just so everybody knows, I’m one of those people.
Kelly Bristle
But we’re good. But so, sometimes, and I will get criticized for being too direct or too pushy. In my world, if I don’t keep moving things forward, we’re not going to make progress. And so while I talk about grace, Scott, I know I am no expert at it. I know that I have to work on it for myself also. But it’s part of what makes the Agrarian team so great.
Scott Zehr
I would agree with that. And if we have, if we have time before we’re done, I’ll tell a little story about Kelly. One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, you know, you mentioned the different teammates you’ve had over the years and some of the leaders. What does a successful team look like to you?
Kelly Bristle
It’s one, you have to be able to trust. You have to be able to trust what people say, what they say they’re going to do. And once trust is broken, it’s really hard. It’s really hard for me to give trust back. But, so you have to have trust among your teammates. You have to you gotta have some fun. You got to have some fun working together. Hopefully you have different strengths so that you can build off each other and to create something better than what an individual could do.
And I have found that the teams that I like to be involved in, they do. They include a variety of people that have different strengths. They’re people that I trust to have my back in any situation. And they’ll hold their end of the whatever it is that we’re doing. If they commit to something, they’re going to do it. So…
Scott Zehr
That’s powerful to me, and for a number of reasons. And I guess now’s as good a time to ever to tell people this story. But, when Kelly talks about her strength being focused and she’s able to get things done, and I did actually share this with Kelly so I’m not totally blindsiding her on camera. But I had a mentor, Kelly named Pete Pair, and he was my first first supervisor when I went to work for Premier Select sSres.
And I always gave Pete the credit of teaching me how to be a professional. And, as time has gone on and my roles and responsibilities have changed to where I’m not doing sales a hundred percent of the time, like customer facing sales a hundred percent of the time anymore.
We’re doing the podcast. We have another platform we do training on for some other folks, and there’s office work that I now have to do, that I hate doing. I like creating, I like coming up with the ideas for the podcast and the content. But after I have the idea, I don’t even like to put it on paper for everybody else to do their job, but I have to.
And when I don’t get it done, who does it affect? It affects Kelly. And a lot of other people, but you first and foremost is who it affects. And Kelly taught me how to be a more professional professional. And so for that, I, like I am very thankful to you and very grateful for you to have been able to impress that upon me.
Kelly Bristle
Well, you’re welcome. I didn’t mean to do it. I came through as probably direct and overbearing, but…
Scott Zehr
Yeah, it was…
Kelly Bristle
But we have a very good system because I can’t do what you do, nor do I really want to do it. And so I think we compliment each other perfectly.
Scott Zehr
We do. Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
I just absolutely believe that.
Scott Zehr
Yeah, we do. And I give Rob a ton of credit. He’s like the genie behind the curtain, so to speak. And I’m going to try like hell to get them on this podcast. But he doesn’t like being in front of the camera. But I, think he will come around. But, Kelly, do you remember going to Canada for the Agrarian sales conference, like I’m going to say 20, was it 2018?
Kelly Bristle
I don’t remember when it was, but I do remember. Yeah, you were there.
Scott Zehr
2017.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
And so, you know, the Agrarian team had gotten together over in Niagara falls on the Canadian side for their annual sales meeting. And Rob invited other people outside the Agrarian organization to attend that meeting. And it was you, Jamie Peth, myself, Jeff Hostetter, and Mark Carpenter. This is going back now like eight years.
Since then, Mark Carpenter is now our CEO. I’m working 100 percent for Agrarian. Jeff Hostetter is now a dual employee between Premier and Agrarian Solutions. Kelly’s basically a dual employee between a cooperative and us. And then Jamie Peth, she’s the one that gets, you guys met her when she interviewed me, I give her all the credit for this.
She’s the original mastermind behind the online training platform that you and I worked together on. And that’s what led into, yeah, after three years of doing that, we said, you know what, maybe we should expand our audience and this is now Ruminate This.
Kelly Bristle
Robert’s the mastermind behind that.
Scott Zehr
I find that scenario to be so interesting, the foresight for him to bring us five people there. And now, yeah, now we’re all part of the, part of the team. So it’s, it’s interesting.
Kelly Bristle
And Agrarian’s growing even more. There’s even more team members, you know? So yeah, it’s crazy how the organization has growing. It’s great.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
It’s great.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So, I asked you the question, who is Kelly? And you know, those, I think that’s kind of a fun question I get to ask everybody. It wasn’t so fun when Jamie asked it to me for my meet the team series. So, thanks for playing along.
But going, maybe a little lighter, what are some of the things you would like to do for fun? Like you are a very high performing individual. You get a lot of work done. I see emails coming from you at all hours of the night. And what does Kelly do for fun?
Kelly Bristle
I love to spend time with family and friends. Absolutely. I, you know, let’s get together and go out and see the Christmas lights or something. My dad and I travel together and that’s really cool. You know, he had to convince me about the value of driving somewhere because I’m like, let’s just get on a plane.
Let’s just, we’ll get there and no, he did make a believer out of me. We drove out West. We saw Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse, and Yellowstone, and we were in Montana and pictures don’t do any of it what you see in person justice. And while that’s wonderful, the time spent together in the car just talking or being quiet or whatever it is, is just, it’s invaluable.
So for fun, I like to spend time with my family and friends. I like to be outside. I love the sun. Michigan is not for me, but my family for generations is here. Like we’re that family when there’s a wedding, you know? Your fourth and fifth cousins are there. As a matter of fact, there may not be a lot outside of your family pool until you get to the side that you’re marrying.
And in December our family always gets together with my dad’s brothers and sister. And so then my first cousins and then the second cousins and the third cousins, and we rent a town hall to do that. And I think that that’s really cool and special to be able to get to do that. So. And I like to travel, you know, wherever. I’ve been to London.
My youngest loves to travel internationally and she’s really good to her mom and she pulls her along on things. And so, you know, I enjoy doing that. And any chance that I get, I leave the cold weather and get somewhere, get somewhere warm. So, love to read. Yeah.
Scott Zehr
Where’s the most unique or special place you’ve traveled?
Kelly Bristle
Hmm. Well, I think London. Because aside from going to Mexico and Canada, London has been my first big international trip. So yeah, I would say that.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
I, I’m hoping to go there someday. Someday.
Kelly Bristle
It’s pretty cool.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
We’re talking about going to Christmas markets in Europe one year, like, Oh, that could be really cool.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. That sounds good. That sounds pretty cool. Kelly just to circle back to the livestock industry quickly, what do you find special about the ag industry? If you were gonna share a message to somebody outside of agriculture about us, about ag? What to you is special about it?
Kelly Bristle
Oh, there’s a couple of things. Both of them relate to people though. So, and no, Scott, you did not pay me to say these things to buy into the people, the people business. You did not.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
I believe this fully. One of the things that’s special is that you get to provide products and services or solutions to some of the hardest working, most honest and kind people there are. Everybody has a bad day. You’re going to run across a grumpy person once in a while….
Scott Zehr
Yeah
Kelly Bristle
…but it makes it, you know, when you look at the work that goes into it, the love that the producer puts into it, they, they wouldn’t be out in the cold with 5,000 cows, 500 cows, or 50 cows if they didn’t have a passion for taking care of animals and providing food and goods for consumers. They wouldn’t do it.
So what’s special is you get to serve some of the greatest people in the world, in my opinion. And then the other part of that is you get to work alongside people that are some of the best. That a lot of them have the same background or upbringing that we have are the same interests.
And so it just makes it really easy to create relationships and be excited and want to work together to make something better, so. Sometimes I think people think, how could you stay at a job for 35 years? You know, when you think about how people switch jobs. I have a best friend and she has changed jobs enough times for both of us.
But nothing is the same for me on any given day, whether it’s for Agrarian Solutions or my other work. Nothing’s the same and it changes constantly. And so imagine the change that I’ve got to see over 35 years, it was actually pretty funny. We, you know, celebrated my 35 years and we talked about what it looked like when I started.
Just in the technology side and what it is today. Yeah. You know? So, and I’m like, man, makes you sound like you’re old, but I’ve just gotten to see a lot of really cool things happen, but.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah, I would say get into agriculture if you want to be with people who care, you want to work with them, you want to serve, you know, provide products and services to them because I’ve seen some other industries. And there’s a lot of businesses that they don’t, they don’t care. A lot of other industries that don’t care. So I don’t want to be a part of that.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. And it’s interesting you mentioned that, Kelly. I was, the first part of December, I was at the New York State Farm Bureau Annual Convention and, you get to visit with, you know farmers from all different types of ag industries, from microbreweries to dairy farmers to poultry, poultry folks to whatever. It’s all, there.
And we were discussing the one night a little bit of how agriculture has changed, but I, one of the things that I mentioned is the perception of agriculture to the public. And, I think it’s lost on people sometimes that, and you, hit the nail right on the head, like the passion that drives these folks is unreal.
I think I’ve shared this sentiment before, but there’s two industries that our country can’t survive without. We wouldn’t be a country if we didn’t have our military to defend us, and if we didn’t have agriculture, if we didn’t have farmers, we wouldn’t have anybody to feed those soldiers.
And what I think is so cool about whenever I get a chance to talk to veterans or active duty soldiers, I’ll share that sentiment with them. And I usually ask the little gotcha question, who’s more important? Are men and women in the military always say the farmers. You know what the farmers say? The military.
Kelly Bristle
The military.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. And you know, the drive and commitment to make something, a healthy product. I think there’s, we could go into a long discussion of food quality in our country. But a lot of the, I think a lot of the degradation of the quality of our food from a health standpoint comes from people that care about making money.
And oftentimes it’s somebody that’s in between the person that’s growing the food and the person that’s consuming the food. So we don’t want to get too far into the weeds on that today, but yeah, thank you so much for saying that. It was on full display that first week of December where all these farmers getting together and, and just the room was alive. Yeah, it was cool.
Kelly Bristle
I can only imagine. We didn’t even say a thing about the knowledge. And how the knowledge level has to grow every day. And the challenges that the producers face. And I mean, they’re the ultimate multitasker. And from environmental issues, to production issues, to reproduction, to crops. It’s just, it’s crazy to think how much they have to know.
And, you know, so being an ag, hopefully you can become a trusted partner to them. And provide them with information that they need or help them with the data that they have, so that they can do the things that they need to do and make the decisions they need to make.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. So, you know, as we wrap up, Kelly, I want to ask you this. If you had the opportunity to talk to somebody, maybe one on one, is thinking about getting into the ag industry. What are a few things that you would tell them to keep in mind as being kind of like keys to success for having a long successful career in ag?
Kelly Bristle
I would say, first of all, I think and even for myself, ag is so much bigger than just the producers we work with at Agrarian. You know, we work with dairy, beef, poultry, swine. That’s a big sector, but there are so many other sectors. So I would encourage anyone to look at all the different sectors that are out there.
You know, whether it’s a winery, whether it, you know, there are a maple business, whatever it is, it all falls into agriculture. And do some legwork and learn about some of these other industries. So I would say that that would be part of it. I would also say as you’re looking at organizations to join, meet their people and find out you know, are they the kind of folks that I could see myself hanging out with?
Not that that’s what you would necessarily do, but If you’re not comfortable around them it’s probably not going to work out the best because we spend a lot of time with the people we work with. We have to be comfortable with them. So spend time getting to know folks in the organizations. Ask questions of other people in the industry. Hey, you know, I’m thinking about going to work for Agrarian Solutions. What, what do you guys know about Scott Zehr? What do you know about Jeff? What do you know about Rob?
You know, ask some questions and find out what other people have to say. I think that that goes a long way, you know, don’t get hung up on, well, I just want to work here. I just want to go to work for this company. This is the best company in the world, whatever it is. Well, If their values don’t align with yours that could be problematic. So, you know, take the time to do that.
Scott Zehr
That’s a pretty, pretty big mouthful right there though is. I think that’s, you know, what you’re basically telling us is take time to get to know who you’re going to work for and not what company you’re working for. Right.
Kelly Bristle
Yes.
Scott Zehr
The people.
Kelly Bristle
So many times I think folks, but, but it’s different for everybody and that’s okay. But don’t get hung up on your title. Don’t get hung up on your title. It’s okay to have a goal and want to be director of marketing or the chief financial officer, whatever it is. But don’t get hung up on that.
If you find an organization that you like, you see that it has the people that you want, the type of people that you want, it’s serving the type of customers that you want, and the job looks like it’s something that you would be interested in, but maybe it’s not your ultimate goal. Well, go ahead and do it.
Because every day we’re interviewing with our employer. Every day, Scott, I’m interviewing with Agrarian Solutions. Every day…
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
…I’m making an impression, a good one or a bad one. And as we do a good job, we can grow our responsibilities. And that’s really what’s most important. And if you focus on growing your skill sets and your responsibilities, your title will come. If it’s really important to you, you will get the title that you want. But I see too many people get hung up on the title and I often, very seldom, actually, not often, very seldom, will you hear me say what my title is?Cause it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.
Scott Zehr
No.
Kelly Bristle
I’d rather explain to you what it is that I do.
Scott Zehr
Yeah.
Kelly Bristle
You know, I like I’m behind the scenes. I try to provide the support that’s necessary so that the people out front can be successful. And when they’re successful, then I feel like I’ve been successful.
Scott Zehr
I’m glad you brought that up because that was something, when I started out of my professional career in 2013, I was an AI technician. Well, that doesn’t sound very fun. Doesn’t sound like a sexy kind of job. And, it’s not. But if you take the approach, if you buy into that job title stuff, had I bought into like, I was an AI technician. My job description was to AI cattle and the original AI artificial insemination.
But that was my job description. What wasn’t reflected in the title was the things that you don’t have to go to college to take to your job or take to your career: the attitude, the work ethic, the being a good person, the caring, and the trusting.
And because I took that approach and didn’t worry about the job title yeah, I’d be hard pressed. And it wasn’t all me, like I had a lot of good mentors, as I mentioned, but, that first job I had in industry that was way more than just breeding cows.
They’re, you know, I was involved with making genetic selection criterias and picking out the next generation of studs for the bulls that we’re going to breed cows to. Those are decisions that impact that farm on the dairy and or beef side for years.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
And it’s not easily undone and you can call it an entry level position all you want, but it’s anything but, but if you, yeah, if I know people, I worked with people that I’m just an AI tech or…
Kelly Bristle
There’s not such thing.
Scott Zehr
I’m just a this or just a that. I’m glad you brought up the title thing because that’s something that I think, you know, we, oh, you look across the table and the fancy CEO title or whatever.
Fun, quick story. I have my maple business that we have up here. We have three owners and, we were looking at getting some lending here recently. And, they asked for the titles of the owners. And I’m like, well, we’re the owners. Okay. Well, who’s, who manages the day to day business? Oh, that’s me. So you’re the CEO. I guess I wouldn’t consider myself a CEO, but…
Kelly Bristle
But if you need me to be on paper, sure.
Scott Zehr
Yeah. Cause it, doesn’t matter at the end of the day, we all just do whatever we have to do to get the job done. And yeah.
Kelly Bristle
Yeah.
Scott Zehr
So, great advice, great advice.
Kelly Bristle
I have great respect for so many of those, of the folks who have the titles. That may be you know, somebody doesn’t want, well, I don’t want to be an AI technician or I don’t want to be a DHA specialist. That’s not fancy enough or special enough. Those folks are in the trenches every day. They’re doing things like you said, that are making an impact for years to come. They got to think on their feet.
They got to know farms the same. I mean, it’s just, it might be the way somebody starts in a business, but it’s so much more than that. So yeah, make up your own time. If titles are important, just make up your own. But be, you know, interview every day, do the things that help you grow as an individual and help you be successful, the company that you work for be successful, and the customers that you serve be successful.
Scott Zehr
That’s the mic drop moment, everybody, right there. Kelly, I’ll take you off the hot seat. And everybody, if you, found value in today’s call, share the episode with a friend. I think Kelly had some really great insights and some of the things she talked about that I’m going to say they’re probably going to be reels on Facebook and Instagram, and Linkedin, Youtube for us.
So. Yeah Kelly, appreciate you taking time out of your day today and again, if you found value in today’s podcast call, share it with a friend, hit the share button, type in somebody’s phone number, send it to them, maybe it’s a young professional in the ag space, or not even in agriculture, like, that advice, that applies to anybody that’s out there looking you know, to make a move in their career, so.
Kelly Bristle
Yes.
Scott Zehr
With that, Kelly, I thank you very much and we will talk to everybody again next week.
Kelly Bristle
Great. Thanks, Scott.
Scott Zehr
Thank you.
