Last week, Alberta Ag invited me to come and talk about farming and home delivery. Alberta Ag is the US equivalent to the Washington State Department of Agriculture. They had receive a grant from their federal government to host a workshop on CSA farming. Through a few connections, unbeknownst to myself, the workshop coordinators up there knew people down here and the people down here knew me. And voilà, Mr. Klesick goes to Canada! Incidentally, I will be speaking in Michigan on the same topic in December.
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that each of you, as Klesick customers, sent me to Canada to share about our business model and the good food message. For the last 15 (almost 16) years, we have been growing, sourcing and delivering high quality organic produce to our local community. Your support of our values and business model caught the interest of the folks in Edmonton, Alberta—so, off I went. I had a great time connecting with other health-focused farmers.
At the workshop, I was also asked to “coach” a few of the farm businesses one-on-one. I really loved that part of the workshop. Often times, business owners and farmers need a sounding board to help them reorient and be able to think through the next steps. Over an hour or two, I got to sit down with some great business/farm owners and talk about their passions, their goals and their challenges, and hopefully help them “talk” themselves through the next steps. It is really like a coaching job.
In this role as a Business Coach (consultant), I try to inspire and encourage them to follow their gut instincts after having researched the options. So in the end, I listen, observe, ask a few questions and help them simplify the next steps in the direction that makes the most sense for the talents and resources the business owners have.
These discussions were very rewarding and based on the feedback and the action steps already being acted on, I fully expect major changes to come from our meetings, not because of anything I recommended, but because I just helped them think through what was “rattling” around in their minds. The ideas were theirs, not mine. I was just able to cut to the chase and point the obvious out.
With that said, if you own a business, work for a nonprofit or manage a large department and find yourself in need of a business coach or a motivational speaker for an event or training, I would be happy to explore how I can add value to your operation or event. If after reading this newsletter and you are thinking, “Hmmm, it might be good to talk to Coach Klesick for an hour or two,” I am willing—just call Brenda at our office to start the ball rolling.