Expanding Your Offerings with Local Partnerships
In this episode, host James Maiocco sits down with Michelle Smith and Julie Green of Veteran's Liberty Ranch to explore how strategic Farm partnerships can help you expand product offerings and capture more local market share.
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Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go to podcast for do it yourself Farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale Buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn2Door, the number one business tool for Independent Farmers to manage their business, promote their brand and sell online and in person.
Let's dive into today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
James Maiocco: Welcome to The Independent Farmer Podcast. I'm James Maiocco, the chief operating officer at Barn2Door and your host for today's episode. As many of you know, Barn2Door helps Independent Farmers successfully sell local food directly while maximizing their profit margins at each stage of their business.
Working with thousands of Farms [00:01:00] across all 50 states, our goal is to help Farmers remove the middleman while having the information and tools to make the right business decisions. And whether you're a hobby Farmer transitioning full-time or already a seven-figure Farmer, having a system in place to manage everything can help you save time, attract more Buyers, and more importantly, ditch the office work, simplify things, and streamline your business.
In today's conversation, we're gonna get into local partnerships. And today, I'm happy to welcome back Michelle and Julie from Veteran’s Liberty Ranch. They are part of our Farm advisory network and have worked with us for several years. So I'm excited to talk with them about what it takes to find and secure local partnerships within your community to grow your customer base and increase your profit margins.
Welcome back, Michelle and Julie. Great to see you guys.
Michelle Smith: Thanks for having us back, James.
Julie Green: Yep. We're excited to chitchat about this.
James Maiocco: Yeah. Well, I know, and just doing a little pre-work ahead of time, I know you guys were already getting fired up to talk on this. Lots of lessons learned. I'm sure things not just [00:02:00] going well, but some things have perhaps not gone so well.
Uh, but before we dive into today's topic, we probably have some listeners who may not be familiar with Veterans Liberty. You guys have a really unique story. So can you guys share a little bit more about the origin stories for Veterans Liberty Ranch and how you two met too and got started?
Michelle Smith: Well, it was all an accident, happy little accident, um, is how we started.
Uh, truly, Veterans Heritage Farm was the beginning, about a decade ago and now ... That was my Farm that my husband and I still own. Um, we were just raising cows and raising kids, and, happened to need to slaughter one at one point because it was a fence jumper and he needed to go. so that kind of started it.
Somewhere along the way, I think in about 2019, I answered a Facebook ad, and I highly encourage anybody who has just an inkling to answer an ad, just do it. Just, just do it. The worst that can happen is you block the person. [00:03:00] The best thing that can happen is you form a business that is just off the charts, and that's how we started.
So Julie, why don't you talk about the ad you placed?
Julie Green: So, um, we are ... You know, I had cattle also and I was looking for a bull. I needed a bull to borrow, or lease from somebody to, you know, keep my herd going. You don't usually wanna keep a bull full time just because that's what ends up in your freezer from being a fence jumper.
So you just borrow one till the job's done and then, you know, give him back and I placed that ad I mean, it wasn't ... It was really just a question. Does anybody around me have, a bull I could lease? And I think I probably got like 400 comments or so because suddenly everybody has a bull they want you to, you know, use and lease because it's bored at their house.
And out of all of those, you know, over 400 comments- I don't know what it was, I just had a feeling, [00:04:00] um, about Michelle. I did not know her. I had never met her. Um, just something about, you know, made me wanna just tap on her name and send her a message, and I was like, "Hey, I'm... You know, what kind of bull do you have?"
Or whatever, and we hit it off from that time. It was-- we didn't immediately start selling meat, but she drove down here. We're about three and a half hours apart from one another, and she drove down here to bring a bull, um, on Christmas weekend. I remember it was like we were having Christmas parties and everything.
I met her daughter that day. We... It just really seemed really seamless. And then, so then I had her bull, so I had to k- stay in contact with her for a little bit, and then, Michelle, you can say what happened next after that.
Michelle Smith: Well, there's a crazy little story about that daughter that Julie met that day.
Julie was just one stop that day. Uh, the next stop was to sell my daughter's trophy steer. His name was Fireball, and we had sold him because he was an e- event steer. He could ride in parades and [00:05:00] take... Do pictures and whatnot, and we just didn't have any use for him. So we ultimately ended up driving about eight hours that day and sold that steer.
Well, about a month later, the person that we sold that steer to reached back out to me and said, "Fireball's depressed. He won't eat. He won't do anything. I think you need to come back and get him." Well, my daughter, who was about 12 at that time said, "I wanna buy him back, and I don't want you and dad to buy him.
I wanna buy him back. I will raise the money." So here comes that bull that... Another bull, not the one Julie was leasing, but we needed to process another bull. He was solid white, not very desirable in the Longhorn world. And so we processed him, and Allison was determined to raise funds to purchase her riding steer back.
It was $5,000 that she needed to raise, and she was gonna do it $200 at a time, doing our now infamous bundle box or Rancher box. So it was a $200 meat box and had about 20 pounds [00:06:00] of meat in there. And of course, her sob story went out on Facebook and she sold a lot of her story- not so much of the boxes, but people did buy the boxes.
Julie was one of the people that bought the box, and I guess she thought I was the world's worst mother for selling Allison's steer because Julie took off with it. Next thing I know, I'm hearing from her, "Hey, can you bring a few more meat boxes down because I have friends and neighbors that wanna buy?"
So we did that a couple of times, not very much, and Allison did get her steer back. And then fast-forward into 2020, Julie still had the bull, Allison had her, treasured steer back, and we were out of meat. We had slaughtered a couple of cows at that point and filled as many of those $200 boxes as we could.
COVID hit and of course everybody's world stopped, and we were in-- heavy into the show world. So at that point, you know, we were still processing, we still had a pretty good relationship with our butcher now all of a [00:07:00] sudden you've got schools shut down.
Again, we're still not worried, but the next piece of that was the show barn shut down. Being a Rancher ourselves, we had property, we didn't have any animals at the school barn, but my kids had friends who did. There was across Wise County, hundreds of pigs primarily that, um, needed to go places.
And the thing about being a show kid with a pig in a show barn, you generally have a small backyard. They're in the show barn because they need to be in there because you don't have a place at home for 'em. And all the butchers were shut down, and so there was really no place for these pigs to go. So my kids asked me, being part of the FFA program, they did ask me if, we could help sell a couple pigs.
I said, " Sure, I'll buy one for our freezer." I posted, thinking maybe I could sell two or three pigs, and here comes Julie
James Maiocco: Got it. So this was the origin story, and then, like many Ranchers and Farmers across the country, you probably, you know, experienced an influx of demand, like especially during the height of [00:08:00] COVID, of people trying to figure out how to source beef and pork and chicken, everything.
Everybody was trying to figure out 'cause grocery store shelves were empty, right? So, well, that's great. So fast-forward to where you are today. I mean, you guys have built a fantastic brand, VLR. I mean, you guys, I assume out of that COVID experience, that's when you formed Veteran’s Liberty Ranch as a brand.
Is that correct?
Michelle Smith: Not yet.
Julie Green: Kind of in mango margaritas. I mean, that's, that's truly where it came from. We, uh, you know, h- on that, on that day that we were selling pigs, we placed over 300 FFA pigs across Texas. And so then we knew we had something. We had people wanting more. They were asking, "Where, where do you...
Do you-- can you get us beef? Can you, can you get us this? Can you get us that?" We ended up placing some FFA lambs, so now we had lamb meat. And it just kind of grew like that. We were doing a lot of just- we call it our legal pad. Like, we were writing down all of these orders on paper, paper [00:09:00] and pen.
And one day, we h- actually had a restaurant call us, and he was like, "Hey, I'd like to serve some of your beef in here." And Michelle and I-- Michelle drove back down; it was down here close to where I'm at, near Austin. We drove down there and, before we went into that restaurant, we stopped at a Mexican food restaurant and had mango margaritas.
That was the first time in my life I ever had a mango margarita. I think it may have been Michelle's first time for a mango margarita also. And they brought it out, and that was the best tasting mango margarita we've ever had. But on that, and I wish we would've kept it to this day, you know, they bring you the pile of napkins, and that napkin was sitting on the table, and we both were like, "You know what?
It's time to put our big girl pants on and actually come up with a name here and make it actually a legit partnership." By this time, we had known each other a while. We could trust each other to be on the same ch- You know, you're pretty much almost getting married when you make a partnership.
And it's like, we wrote down several names on that napkin, and [00:10:00] because Michelle's husband, um, at the time he was active military. He has since retired. My dad is a retired veteran. Michelle's dad is a retired veteran. So we knew that veterans had to be in there. And then I'm in Liberty Hill, Texas, so we thought Veteran’s Liberty.
I mean, that's where that name was born. And that brand and what we represent and just being America, community, values, all those things, it travels fast in that, you know, the logo, we're red, white, and blue. We have all of our logos on all of our trailers that we pull, uh, bags that we send home meat in. It's all over our business cards.
So, you know, now we don't even necessarily need our name- On like shirts, we just have our logo and people know who it is.
James Maiocco: That's fantastic. For those listeners who, you know, uh, if you ever have a chance to meet Michelle or Julie at a market or any type of event, you will easily spot them, uh, you know, from across the way ' they fully embody [00:11:00] the red, white, and blue and the stars and stripes.
So it's really great to see how well you guys have built such a strong and recognizable brand there in Texas. Now, you guys have had a ton of success over the last several years and it's been great to see your business grow, and you obviously start with many of the, like you said, the show pigs and the beef that you had.
So this really gets into today's topic, right? Because it's one thing, to have a, a, a steer or, or a pig that you own that you wanna sell. You guys are blessed to be in the state of Texas. What's it like the tenth largest economy in the world. There's plenty of demand. You couldn't in your wildest dream meet all the demand, right?
And so you guys, like you said, you've tapped into, uh, you know, palpable demand there in Texas. And now it's like how do you fulfill all that demand while not necessarily producing all the products, right? Like can you leverage the brand awareness and that you've built and the trust that you've built with your customers to start selling other people's products as well under your flagship brand.
So when you started to think about getting started with partnerships, how did you spot potential partners to begin within community? Who [00:12:00] were the one or two, you know, Farms or, other producers you thought about? It's like how, how did you filter them out and say, "Hey, that seems like something that would be a great complement to our core business."
Michelle Smith: I think, you know, number one is trust your gut. Is this somebody that I would buy from? Uh, is this somebody that I want to shake hands with? Would I have dinner with them? Would I have mango margaritas with them? Um, for us, you know, even the relationship that Julie and I have, it was built on trust, and we value that relationship.
So every partnership that we go forward with, we absolutely trust has to be at the center of it. We have gone through a couple of partnerships or talked to some people and just politely declined and said, "You know, that's just not gonna work for us, and that's okay. You know, we wish you all the best."
As you said, there's plenty of demand here in Texas, and the community is hungry for good meat. So there, there's plenty for everybody. As far as who we choose to partner with, it really has to be somebody that we trust, and we, [00:13:00] we do tend to look for partners that will be exclusive to us. And the reason we do that is we dictate what type of, you know, what breed of the animal.
We pay, we pay top dollar, in my opinion, for the animals that we purchase from them. We agree to be exclusive with them. For example, our partner that raises our lambs, she's the only one that raises lambs for us. So she knows that when she's got a flock that she's tending to, she's got a place at the end of the day to sell those at fair market value.
James Maiocco: Yeah, so passing the mango margarita test, number one, right? You trust them. Uh, somebody you wanna have a drink with. But then you talk about the exclusivity. What about, like, quality standards or production standards? I would assume that's gotta be something else that's gonna match the expectations you have for your own products.
I mean, is that, is that just like, that's just table stakes? Like, you wouldn't even have a conversation if that wasn't a, a starting point?
Julie Green: Michelle and I do a lot, a ton of observing. This is just- this isn't just we casually met somebody [00:14:00] on Facebook, and we're just messaging them and want them to raise our animals.
So one thing that has benefited us a lot is we are actually hands-on in our communities, so we do a lot of these Farmers markets. We do a lot of, um, Facebook pages where we're seeing stuff. And actually how we, how we came across the lamb lady, is what we call her, is we were watching other people buy from her.
So I could, I could see in this Facebook group, happened to be hers, that people... She would, she was posting her lamb for sale. And then I watched her for about a year, I think, and was just watching, like, she would post pictures of where her lambs were raised, what breed they were. I would watch how she responded to people's questions on there.
I mean, you can tell pretty quick, uh, how somebody responds to questions or answers in a, you know, when they're being asked something, what kind of person that is. That's a very good little, [00:15:00] a little tidbit of just seeing their replies, how they handle people, that are questioning maybe their price or, you know, things like that.
And just really, really liked her. And so I messaged her on Facebook, and I was like, "Hey, would you entertain just having a chitchat with me and my business partner?" We are great at doing multi-way calls. We love to be on calls and actually hear somebody's voice and talk to them in person, have them represent what they're doing. And, uh, Michelle and I both really, really liked her, and so we did a, um, basically kind of like a little small round first, and we're just wanting to make sure this is what our standards are. Do we like the color of the meat? Is this the size of the meat? And then, and then you can go next, Michelle, whatever you were gonna say, but that's how we found her.
Michelle Smith: Yeah. And I'll just continue on using the, the lamb partner that we have. So we did have a three-way conference call with her, um, you know, and t- chatted about how the animals are raised. [00:16:00] Um, all of the meat that we sell, we like to tell everybody, and we sincerely mean this, that everything is grass-fed, pasture-raised, vaccine-free, you know, raised on a loving Ranch or loving Farm.
I mean, that's important to us. So, you know, we talked about that on the phone with her, and really you get to be a good judge of character, especially when there's, you know, our reputation on the line. So we ask those questions and, Like Julie said, we really watched how she responded to other people, other customers. Um, so once we determined that, yes, she would be our lamb producer, we did a small batch at first. And pretty early on, I actually went out to the Ranch, and it wasn't really a pre-planned, thing. I just volunteered and said, "Hey, instead of y'all taking the sheep down to the processor this time, I'll come get them."
And so being able to pop in like that and see the flock and see exactly how they were raised and how they even catch them [00:17:00] on slaughter day, all of that's important to it would be a huge red flag if they said, "Oh, no, no, no, you can't come here," or, No, I'll do it.
Absolutely. I'll drive them in." That's a, that's a red flag. So, for every one of our partners, we've been on their land, we've, we've touched their animals, we've, we've talked to them, and we're very comfortable in how they're raising their animals, and we're willing to put our reputation and our brand on that.
James Maiocco: That's a big deal, right? Good stewardship, right? 'Cause, you know, you're-- you guys have done such a great job. You have to be protective of the brand. All the time and energy guys you've put into VLR, Veterans Liberty, you can't afford to have that tarnished by somebody who's, like you said, raising their animals incongruent with how you guys treat your animals, right?
Because your brand has a certain, again, trust with your customers. So it sounds like a, a, again, a really great partner to get started with. I'm very curious: when you think about what products to complement to your core products today, you know, I'm kind of curious how you landed [00:18:00] on lamb as, as a partner, right?
Versus, I mean, did you think about, did you survey customers? Did you have customers asking you for lamb? if a Farmer who raises rabbits, and they're good stewards of raising rabbits, are you gonna start doing that too? Like, how do you choose what you do and do not offer, right, before, you know, launching down this path? Or, or do you do testing like you mentioned, you did with the lamb, do a test production just to see if the demand is well-aligned with your current customer base? So can you talk about that a little bit?
Michelle Smith: Well, I'm gonna jump in real quick and say, yes, we are doing rabbits also. Part of it when we started adding other species, was based on our own experience. At some point, on my Farm, I personally have raised lambs, I've raised goats; we've done meat chickens. You know, I have raised all of those different species myself.
Definitely don't wanna raise all of them at once, and at this point in, in Ranching for us and running this business, we really don't have the time to raise all of those ourselves. So we really kind of started with what we were familiar with, [00:19:00] knowing that we could offer up recipes, offer up benefits of those particular proteins.
But then it gets a little fun, and sometimes it's just not that deep. Sometimes it's a matter of the butcher says, "I can get you hog head back. Do you like the heads off your hogs?" And so I slip one into Julie's freezer and say, "Go have fun selling it." Did the same thing with rabbits. "Hey, surprise.
You have 30 rabbits to sell. Go for it." So we have some fun with it, too. it is very calculated. We do listen to our customers, listen to see, you know, what they're asking for. But seriously, not, not everybody at a Farmers market is going to come up and ask for rabbit. Sometimes it's our job as a Rancher to teach them about other proteins that are available, teach them other ways to sustain their family.
What happens if all the beef in the United States just gets some random virus and there's no beef available? Let's talk about other proteins that are available, too. And really if the more hooks we can get [00:20:00] into that customer, right? And we really feed them seven days a week; the more loyal they'll be to us
James Maiocco: That's, that's really great feedback, and I, I'm excited to hear...
Uh, I wish you guys were nearby here in Nashville, 'cause I would love to buy some rabbit, because candidly, we should raise rabbits too, right? And, uh, for me, and being Italian, rabbit's near and dear to my heart. But in a lot of cultures, rabbit is not. And when people get a chance to try rabbit, man, it's a fantastic protein.
But it is also not the protein I necessarily eat, you know, four or five days a week, right? Like beef and chicken and pork are my, my standard go-tos, and fish on Fridays, right? And so like introducing the concept of rabbit, it's, it's a, again, for many people, a novelty. But like you said, you can expand people's palates, give them more options, and expand the AOV, your average order value for Veteran Serenity, right?
That's great. So when you think about entering into a partnership, I'd love to hear a little bit about, how do you strike the deal? Julie, what did you do when you guys said, [00:21:00] "Okay, we're gonna do this deal with this lamb lady." You guys just shake hands? Do you, do you sign an agreement?
Do you have an email that just goes back and forth? Do you formalize it or you just say, "Hey, like we're just gonna do this as, you know, colleagues here. We trust you."
Julie Green: Yeah. We, we are known for our handshake deals. Whenever we kind of get started and let them, you know, get them rolling, we kind of wanna, you stay in charge a little bit of how many you want them to take in.
That's really the only... You know, we don't want them just taking animals in and not asking if we need them to be taken in. So our producers, we kind of, you know, we've, we've made it where, uh, lambs, since we're on the lamb thing, she takes six of them in every... What is it, Michelle, that she takes them in? Is it every three months?
Michelle Smith: Every 10 weeks.
Julie Green: Yeah. So she takes those in. She always asks us, she's always like, "Are you ready for six lambs?" There have been times, maybe not on lambs, but maybe once on pigs, that we just weren't ready yet. We just, we did not... It had slowed down on pork for a second.
And they're under the [00:22:00] understanding that absolutely they can utilize their local sale barn and move them if they need to. So that was our, you know, our biggest thing is you just don't know what the economy's doing. But yes, we are a handshake; we are handshakers. Say
Michelle Smith: I know anybody with any sort of legal background, or quote, unquote.
Everybody's cringing right now. Texas was raised on handshakes and, uh, and on your word, and that really is our way, and that's how we chose and how we continue to choose to operate with our partners. I know that's fairly unique, and that does leave us open to some potential issues, but we think the benefits far outweigh those cons when we go into every relationship with our reputation and our word at stake.
James Maiocco: I think that's great feedback, and I'm glad you said it, 'cause I can't say it 'cause I am an attorney, and I'm not here to give any legal advice. But I will say that that's a great topic that maybe I'll do with [00:23:00] Alexi at the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. We could do a whole podcast just on how to do Farm partnerships, right?
'Cause to your point, I, I love the fact that you're in a market and in a state like Texas that does honor a handshake, and, uh, people respect that. And certainly save yourself a lot in legal fees, uh, and it keeps th- keeps life simple, right, if it-- if you're gonna go your different ways. Now, to that end, though, like when people are purchasing from Veterans Liberty Ranch, if I go to your store right now, do you guys identify the products like, hey, again, I'm coming to the store 'cause I'm a Veterans Liberty Ranch Buyer.
I get your newsletter. I saw you at the market. I saw you on social media. Great. But now, once I'm in your store and I'm purchasing, are all the products from your partners identified as Veterans Liberty, or are they identified as Veterans Liberty Ranch but produced by the lamb lady or whoever the partner is?
Do you distinguish them so they know that the product is sourced from a different producer other than you?
Julie Green: So we have under our items, we run everything under Veteran’s Liberty [00:24:00] Ranch. It is processed under Veteran’s Liberty Ranch. However, whenever we talk about them, um, where they're raised, how they were raised and stuff, we absolutely, you know, our customers know when we're talking about them and, telling about where they are. I often tell customers, "No, there is no possible way we could have all of these animals on one piece of land for Veterans Liberty Ranch, and if anybody ever tells you that, they're lying."
Like it, it's, it's not possible. So we are very open in telling them. As far as being on the website and having our inventory, it's just all Veterans Liberty Ranch. That is what our label is on it. That's what we process it under. We own the animal before it's processed 'cause we've now bought it from the producer.
And that's the way we run that. Every now and then, we do have to buy some extra chicken from one of our favorite people in the whole world, and we do put-- her label is on her chicken, and we absolutely do put produced by. Sold by Veterans Liberty [00:25:00] Ranch, but produced by her.
James Maiocco: Okay. So I'm glad you brought this up, which is, I was curious whether or not you did the Walmart model or not, right?
'Cause the Walmart model is you can put the inventory in the Walmart store, but they actually don't own the inventory. Like y- and the producer then that's why there's always falling prices, 'cause you have to get it off the floor of Walmart in a particular timeframe, right? But, you know, I know some Farms and Ranchers take a different approach.
Some Farms and Ranchers do buy the product, so they can then price it however they see fit on the, with their other products, et cetera, et cetera. Others, like truly just put it up standalone, never take possession of the inventory, just move it through their store and take a percentage of the sale. So tell me how, you know, how you're doing it.
It sounds like the former, but first off, how you're doing it and how you arrived at that decision,
Michelle Smith: So what we do is we take possession of the animal on slaughter date, I guess is the easiest way to say it. So, when slaughter date comes along, we then pay X amount [00:26:00] for, you know, seven lambs that were dropped off, okay?
We now own those lambs. They're processed at the butcher. We get to dictate what the cuts are, how we want it processed, and we get to determine the price of those. What we pay for the live animal has a direct correlation to what's happening at the local sale barn and what the market value for a live animal is.
Um, by doing that, we get to control sales, inventory, where we're gonna put the animal, and it's the final, I guess call it stamp of approval from us. When we put Veteran’s of the a Ranch label on that meat, that means that we believe in it. I would serve this to anybody in my family tonight, and that's what customers have come to trust from us.
When they see that Veterans of the A Ranch label, they know that the chickens might be raised about 20 miles from us. They know how they're raised because we're able to communicate that. But really, our customers are looking for our final stamp of approval,
James Maiocco: I think that's [00:27:00] a f-fantastic model, right? To your point, Michelle, of taking possession and ownership of the animal before it goes to slaughter. Uh, and again, not getting into the legal advice here, but generally that's gonna give you a lot better protection, uh, and the ability to be able to pass through, you know, because you've owned the animal and sell it under any auspices you see fit.
Probably gives you some flexibility. Maybe we can talk a little bit about packaging and pricing then, right? Because if you didn't take possession of the animal and you were selling under theirs and you didn't own the inventory, then you kind of almost have to sell it as a standalone product identified under their brand sourced on your store.
We see a lot of Farms do that, and there's nothing wrong with doing that. That's just a different business model. However, by taking possession of it, now you've got a lot more flexibility, right? It's like, 'cause I assume are you guys now taking that lamb and you can price it however you see fit, or sometimes are you guys packaging it in like a mixed, protein box as well, or do you sell the lamb standalone?
I mean, what has this done in terms of increasing diversity of your packaging options for you?
Michelle Smith: I'll [00:28:00] let Julie delve into the individual pieces of it. I will just say we have sold a lamb that was intact head to toe, literally fresh from the butcher. Um, you know, so s- slaughtered, cleaned, and immediately taken from the butcher for a customer.
And then generally speaking, we sell it retail and bundle it. Julie's got some great bundles that she does.
Julie Green: Yeah. We have a variety bundle that we run through our store, and the biggest selling point of that- I was just having this conversation with a lady yesterday. She's like, "You know, it's just me and my daughter.
I'm a single mom I want your variety box, and I don't, I don't wanna have to pick because if I have to pick the protein that's in there, I'm just gonna get overwhelmed, and I'm gonna go with the same thing that I always do, and I really wanna try something different." And I was like, "Oh, well, the variety box is perfect for you because we choose one of each protein, sometimes more than one of each protein.
It gets to a certain dollar [00:29:00] amount-" and so that way they're not choosing the cuts. They're opening their box, and it's like a surprise. And she said, "I love that because normally I'm not gonna go onto your website. I've always wanted to try goat, but when I go and click the button to try goat, I back out."
She's like, "If it's in the box, then I have to eat it because I know that's the meat I have in my freezer." And I, I was like, "There you go. I would give you a goat, and you would get some sort of bison cut, and you would get a pork and a lamb and beef and chicken." And so now they have all these different things, and a lot of people will do subscription for that variety bundle.
So I change it up. They never know what they're going to get. And I've had a couple people say, they've never hated a cut, but maybe it wasn't their favorite cut. "Can you not put a pork chop in my box again?" "Sure. I'll, I'll give you a lamb chop next time. We'll see how you like that."
But the variety bundles work great with that. And then as far as our inventory goes and what we're picking and choosing, specifically with lamb, since we keep going back to that, [00:30:00] we really kind of do lamb cuts depending on the size of time of the year. So like during, uh, Thanksgiving and Christmas time and Easter, we're gonna choose leg of lamb, we're gonna choose rib racks, things that are more like for parties or kinda gourmet style things.
And then during the rest of the year, like right now during the summer, we've done lamb burgers and, and little lamb chops and some lamb steaks and things that you can make meatballs out of. Like, you know, easy, easy things like that. And so it actually becomes a lot of fun. And then of course by doing that, we have control over changing the prices if we need to put something on sale.
If we need to say, you know, maybe we're over- overloaded on lamb steaks or something and we wanna take a dollar off, we know we have that power because we've, we've had it from start to the end, so.
James Maiocco: Really great feedback, both in terms of packaging and pricing, and price control. To your point, Julie, if you need to move something, you have the ability to discount it.
You don't have to go back to anybody [00:31:00] else. You've made the decision right on the spot. And by the way, great job with mixing up your seasonal box. Again, I wish you were near by Nashville. No, no discredit, uh, Janelle and I have like four Farm subscriptions here, and I have a mixed beef box, and I get a mixed pork and chicken box, and I get, again, the mix of cuts and everything.
And like you said, I love it because, if I were on beef every time, I would always just be getting filets and ribeyes, right? And so I get a mixed beef box every month, and we get all kinds of different cuts, and it's been fantastic.
Definitely a lot more creativity in terms of the types of things we eat, and I've learned a lot through that experience. And best of all, for the Farmer and the Rancher, you get to move all your inventory.
Julie Green: Yeah. I mean, we just need to fly to Nashville again, and we'll bring you some rabbit,
James Maiocco: Well, you know, a big part of this, as you know, is selling local, right? So I'm not gonna ask you to ship it or do any of that. That's okay. If you're in town and you wanna carry it, that's great. But otherwise, you know, I'll continue to support my local Tennessee Ranchers and Farmers and vice versa.
I'm sure your, your, your Buyers are in Austin and San Antonio and [00:32:00] Dallas feel the same way about Veteran Liberty Ranch, right? So let's talk about that specifically, which is building brand loyalty and expanding and attracting more customers in a market where you're unique, right? Where you are distinguished, right?
How have you leveraged some of these partnerships to perhaps get in front of other Buyers that you haven't talked to before? I mean, do you have any other types of partners you've worked with before where you can do some cross-marketing with, or like joint Instagram or joint Facebook posts or email newsletters?
Have you guys tackled that before?
Michelle Smith: Well, kind of to this point, I'll start with the chicken. Chicken was actually one of the first contract partnerships that came along. Uh, we were selling right next to another Rancher at a Farmers market, and they were selling chicken.
And at that point, we were selling chicken from Windview Chicken Ranch. And we still buy from her to kind of supplement when we're out. Well, we would outsell this other chicken Ranch every market, every weekend, and when we would run out of [00:33:00] chicken, we would send people right next door and say, "Hey, go buy their chicken.
Their chicken is great, too. They're raising chickens just like we... You know, Sandy does at Windview Chicken, and, uh, they're fabulous. We would totally buy those chickens." Well, because we were putting our stamp of approval, right, on the next-door neighbor at the Farmers market, our customers would go, "Oh, great."
And then they would go next door and say, "You know, Michelle at Veterans of the Ranch said I should buy your chicken." That went on for about two, three months, and finally they said, " Do you just wanna buy the chickens from us, and you just sell them? Because you're obviously so much better at this than we are."
So we did. Ultimately, they became our first producer for us, and they actually switched and started doing lemonade and desserts. They just raised chickens for us, and we bought all their chickens, so everybody was happy. What happened, though, in that process is, of course, there's a lot of eyes on you at the Farmers market, customers, market managers, and other vendors, too.
And seeing that [00:34:00] relationship develop from friendly competition next door to becoming partners, it helped out everybody, right? So other vendors saw that, and they began to refer customers to us because they knew that, you know, we're the real deal. Absolutely, go buy from Julie and Michelle. I mean, they are honest people.
And then our producer, like I said, went on to do lemonades and desserts. Well, anytime people ask for chicken, of course they would refer us. So a lot of our partners will do that. They will definitely spread the word and refer customers to us a lot of times. The lamb producer post, you know, tag us on Facebook with inquiries about who has the best lamb around, and she'll post Veteran’s Liberty Ranch and she'll say something to the effect of, "I happen to know where those lambs grow and you're gonna get the best meat."
James Maiocco: That is absolutely fantastic, right? Like by entering into these partnerships, you're getting another voice out there who's gonna go out and represent and redirect people to Veterans Liberty, right? And we all know everyone's got the [00:35:00] wallet. It's not like I'm gonna eat... I mean, I eat a lot of steak.
I do like beef, but it's not like I'm not gonna eat chicken or I'm not gonna eat fish or what have you, right? I mean you already own the customer, why not expand the option to capture more wallet from somebody who wants to buy from you anyways, right? Like I often tell, you know, Farmers and Ranchers, like the average person, just one individual spends $500 a month on food, right?
If you had a family of four, now you're talking $2,000 a month. How much of that $2,000 are you capturing, right? If you're not capturing, a good chunk of that, 'cause typically 60% to 70% of that is just proteins, right? And so that's a lot of wallet to capture, right? So there's this partnership that you guys are entering into, well done, not only in terms of branding, but cross-marketing, right?
Really great job. I hope that Farmers and Ranchers who are listening to this podcast today are getting inspired 'cause you guys are a really great example that many Farms could chat with, uh, through our Connect program. I know we're about running out of [00:36:00] time, but I wanna make sure I give you both an opportunity to share one last piece of advice that you would give to Farmers who've never done a partnership, who are thinking about doing it.
Maybe something to avoid, right? 'Cause I'm sure you know maybe you've had some partnerships that haven't worked out, and maybe something to absolutely do that you've seen has worked really well.
Michelle Smith: Um, I'll go with the avoid. Avoid not taking ownership of the inventory. Do not ever take someone else's inventory and be responsible for it, and then try to sell that or not sell it, and then try to take it back to, you know, that person. So for example, if I'm just gonna sell for you on consignment and I'm gonna take 200 pounds of meat and go to a market and then I bring it back to you, now that opens up a whole can of worms of, well, this particular package is not sealed anymore, and this one, why did you sell it for a dollar less?
So absolutely take ownership of the inventory before, before you move on
Julie Green: I would say just always [00:37:00] watch and vet the people around you. Just keep your eyes open and I just feel like good thing-- you know, good things happen when you're watching. Make sure you get yourself out there to actually do things. Can't find it all just behind a computer screen. It's not going to come to you; you've gotta go to it.
So just be always have your eyes open and ready.
James Maiocco: Yeah. And I loved the, the example earlier. Even go, go see them on the day that they're having to round up the animals. See how they treat the animals when they have to get them into the trailer, you know? Uh, it's not easy to do that, but you can do it in a way that's re- still respectful of the animal, right?
And that makes a big difference on the stress of the animal going to slaughter. well, guys, really great feedback. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. I wanna extend my thanks to Michelle and Julie for joining us on this week's podcast. You can learn more about them and Veteran’s Liberty Ranch on Instagram at @veteranslibertyranch.
Uh, you can also find them on Facebook and also at their website. At Barn2Door, we're humbled to support thousands of Farms and Ranches across the [00:38:00] country, like Veterans Liberty, and delighted to offer services to help them and other Farms like yourself ditch the office work, make more money, and look like a pro.
We talk every day with Farmers, and it is a pleasure to chat with any Farmer who is needing assistance. You know, we offer assistance every day of the week if you wanna talk to somebody live. And if you wanna talk to Farmers like Michelle and Julie, we have a connect program too, for all Farmers who are members of Barn2Door who can talk to them, 'cause we believe wisdom comes from good counsel, from many advisors.
Thank you for listening to us today. Thanks for tuning in. If you wanna learn more, go to Barn2Door.com/learnmore. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you next time on the Independent Farmer podcast. Take care.
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn2Door, we are passionate about empowering Independent Farmers to build a thriving business. To all the Farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow [00:39:00] amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country.
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