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Strategic communications is so powerful to helping you mount up some of the accomplishments that may be on your list. 

If you want to broaden your reach, or put together a plan for content that engages your audience, chances are having a strategy will help you get their faster than the fly by the seat of our pants option so many of us use (and yes, I do that on some things as well so fingers pointing at me too).

If you have channels you have built, how are ways you can go bigger? If you break that down into steps to take, you may not have all of it down pat, but strategic plans evolve and get better over time! 

This 30-minute class and accompanying handout will help you get started on the way and help you chart short-term and long-term ideas that can help you reach your goals. 

The course is $20 and can be purchased/accessed here -- Let's Get Strategic! 

Wednesday, July 13

9 am CDT to 10 am CDT

Instagram can leave you feeling like you've got whiplash. One second it's going great, you're posting great content, seeing great content, engaging with folks, and your following count is going up. The next second, it feels like nothing you do is right.

Grounded and Rising is getting a small group of members together to talk through this and we wanted to give you the opportunity to join us and be a part of the Rising Conversation. Rising Conversations are a casual discussion format with a focus on sharing what works and what we're struggling with so we can work together as a community to find solutions and lift each other up. Typically, these events are only for our members, but because this topic is so relevant to so many people, we wanted to give you the chance to join the conversation.

We will be discussing what we are seeing in the world of Instagram these days and talking through some easy ways you can stay up on the latest changes....

Canva is one of the few software applications that I won't hesitate to recommend to everyone. Whether you're an individual, a small business, or a professional organization, Canva has got what you need for graphic design (even and especially if you're not a graphic designer!), presentations, documents, content creation, and more.

What will you get out of this course?

I will take you through the ins and outs of using Canva to support your outreach and communication efforts and achieve your goals. We will cover:  

• Basic Canva Functionality and Navigation
• Canva vs Canva Pro and whether a subscription is right for you
• Establishing your brand look
• How to use stock media successfully
• Keeping your content organized
• and much more

Bonus Content: You will even get the chance to watch us collaborate as a team in real-time to create a few marketing pieces in Canva! This is a fantastic opportunity to get a peek into how we use Canva to keep our team productive.

This is a...

Climate change and the impacts from it are top of mind for many consumers who use it to guide purchase decisions and more. The discussion of climate change though, well that can get complicated and tense fast in large part because it is so easy to consume one-sided opinion pieces. Knowing more about how we, in the ag industry, can be a solution to some of the issues as well as understanding how the global conversation takes place is a good start to navigating the conversation. 

Why talk with Jeff Seale?

Jeff has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and has spent decades in agricultural sciences in a range of ways from a bench scientist to working in climate policy. His current role with Regrow Ag, a startup, pulls all of his experiences together to work on greenhouse gas mitigation while talking with policy groups about why agriculture is the solution to a lot of what's happening. His role in working on climate-related issues for agriculture companies means that he can bridge...

Sitting down to chat live with The Nature Conservancy's Michael Doane to talk about one of the hottest buzzwords -- regenerative agriculture -- gives us a lot of insight into how sustainability is shifting. Consumers, with the best intentions at heart, are presented with this idea that regenerative ag is "better than organic" without the context of knowing that there are 250+ definitions of what the term regenerative agriculture even is.

Why talk with Michael Doane?

Michael works for The Nature Conservancy as their managing director of agriculture and food systems, but he came to that organization through farming. He grew up on a family farm, worked for the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, and spent years at Monsanto. Michael doesn't just know about farming, he's been a farmer and still joins his family in the operation when he can. And this gives him a unique perspective within environmental groups to help him bridge the gap and to help us understand the nuance of...

So many consumers still have this image of farmers in overalls with a pitchfork and a wagon in the back of their mind whenever they think about agriculture. Logically, they may know Old MacDonald is just a kids' song, but the archetype is embedded deep into our minds.

What consumers don't often think about with farming are things like drone swarms to control weeds in fields, measuring the health of cows by having an AI analyze milk in real time, and many of the other exciting things happening in the world of ag startups. That's just what we dove into with Tim Hammerich on our most recent LIVE session!

Tim's Background

Tim runs the Future of Agriculture podcast, which showcases the latest in ag innovations. He's spent years working with the best and the brightest in recruitment for the modern ag industry, and now he has shifted his focus to communications consulting. He's sharing his expertise in what's coming up for ag. 

Our Conversation

We could have talked ag innovations with...

Last Thursday, we got the chance to sit down and chat with Dr. Stephanie Langel, a faculty member at Duke University with a PhD in Virology who is teaching and doing research. Specifically, she studies coronaviruses and how they impact animal health and human health.

Stephanie's Background

Stephanie's background sets her apart. Her focus on farming, livestock, and the veterinary aspect of coronaviruses gives her the ability to really connect with a farmer's perspective on health and viruses. She started as a 4Her, showing livestock and milking cows. Her passion for animal care continued into college where she applied to vet school, but when she didn't get in, she decided to shift gears and study viruses. Now, she's a professor at Duke University and runs a lab that focuses on coronaviruses!

Our Conversation

This Live Session was one of our most engaging yet — members seemed to move in and questions kept coming! With Stephanie here to answer our questions and give...

Even if you have only dabbled with LinkedIn, you are probably familiar with the fact many use it during a job search and as a way to get their resume out. It's the "work" social media channel, right?

Well, yes, but there is so much more to LinkedIn than resumes and job searching. In this new 40-minute course, Janice takes you through the powerful ways LinkedIn can help you grow your influence and reach your business goals. She will walk you through:

• How LinkedIn can help you reach your business goals
• Networking and content on LinkedIn
• Underutilized aspects of the LinkedIn profile

And yes, she will also give an overview of using LinkedIn for resumes if you need a quick refresher. 

This class also includes a downloadable that will help you plan and execute your new LinkedIn strategy and an in-depth infographic that takes you piece by piece through the LinkedIn profile with all the details you need to get your profile polished up and representing you and your business in...

If you are actively cultivating an audience on social media personally or on behalf of an organization, chances are, you are trying to grow that audience. You may be asking yourself:

• Are your social media properties doing everything they can to meet your outreach goals?
• Could you be doing more with your Twitter account?
• Are there ways you can streamline your Instagram account to make it easier to use and reach more of your target audience? 
• And how do you know you're really putting out the right content to reach your audience?

Getting a handle on all of the little details can be daunting, especially if you have more than one job of running social media full-time.

For our Growth Members, don't worry. We've got your back. A Growth Membership includes an annual review of up to four of your social media properties.

We start by sitting down with you and talking about your goals, challenges, and what you hope to achieve with each property. Then we...

This past Tuesday, we enjoyed having a conversation with Adriana Martin of Adriana's Best Recipes about the massive changes that have taken place in blogging as it has evolved over the last decade.

What's shifting?

Ten years ago, blogs were all anyone was talking about.

• What are they?
• How do they work?
• Can blogging help me reach my audience?
• How can companies work with bloggers to promote their products and stories?

Nowadays, though, the conversation has shifted and part of that is due to the shifts bloggers have been undergoing. Bloggers think like entrepreneurs more broadly, and they continue to innovate. They have diversified and pursued multiple social media outlets. We don't even call them bloggers anymore. We call them influencers, and they are publishing books, landing TV deals, and much, much more.

Adriana's Path to Publishing

Adriana started her blog a decade ago and has evolved like many peers. Her path is food focused and the latest...