My $700,000 trip.

Spring has sprung and it's a great time to get out of the office and be with clients, new and old, as they prepare their businesses for a new season entertaining guests. What a great experience: 7 clients in 7 days, 6 states, 6 hotels, 5 cars, 8 airports, 1,000s of miles.

Why bother with all the hassle of travelling? I'm a bit "old school" in that I really like to meet clients face-to-face even if we can do all our work remotely. It occurred to me as I boarded the last plane home that I might have just made a $700,000 trip.

Experience first hand. I've found that Google Map and Street View and TerraServer are awesome tools for working on client layouts. Nothing, however, replaces standing in the field with your client talking through his/her vision. I absolutely love site planning! I've seen so many farms over the past 15 years, I can 'feel' the right layout. We always plan the site to minimize labor requirements, encourage ancillary purchases and maximize throughput. You just can't put a monetary value on ease of operation and you can't site plan from a satellite.

Look people in the eye. I'm a fun guy, but I'm really serious about what we do. Clients need to see that, not just hear it on the phone, but see it. I'm fully committed to each of them, individually. That's real nice, but it's only real when they see it in my eyes. I, too, need to look them in the eye to see if they are serious, or if they are living a fantasy. I can smell lack of commitment. I can see through fluff. I can't always see it over the phone.

We live in a world of electronic communication, of email, of voicemail, of text messages. We are, however, human beings wonderfully made to communicate with more than voice alone. There is magic in the connections made between people in live, person-to-person conversation. There are ideas, thoughts, inspirations that cannot be duplicated over the phone. You get more when you work things out together, in person.

Uncover the real reasons "why." To bring two college-graduate kids back into the business. To enhance a profitable business unit. To bring the family farm back to profitability. To be able to quit a part-time job and be on the farm full-time.  To educate non-farm guests about agriculture. To keep the family farm going for the 4th generation. To diversify and stabilize family income. To support three, close-knit families and provide a better future for 9 young children.

What an amazing, powerful list of "reasons why"! Together we uncovered the kind of motivation gets you up in the morning to go do it all again. After being cooped up in my office talking to people on the phone, the ability to to get out and learn the true, honest reasons why these families joined our family of maze operators was just awesome... and humbling.

I asked for this responsibility and now I have it. After being with my clients face-to-face, I'm so fired up I can hardly stand it, but there's so much more work to do now. I feel like I've been adopted into 7 new families. That's 7 new farm families which means, as Grandmother McPherson used to say, "If you don't work, you don't eat." Being part of farm family definitely carries different responsibilities, doesn't it? Now that I know them personally, it's a different level of commitment for both of us.

As I boarded that final flight home to my family, I thought of the incredible journey to visit my clients' families, old and new alike, over the past week. With our designs & plans and their hard work implementing, it might just have been a $700,000 trip. $700,000 in new, on-farm income to support some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

I can't think of a single thing I'd rather do with my life.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

PS I actually visited 8 farms when you include my impromptu visit to Mesilla Valley Maze and the Lyle family. Anna (my dear friend from NAFDMA), Steve and two of their daughters welcomed me with all of "15 miles worth" of notice. I knew the town name sounded familiar and it didn't occur to me that I'd be driving past Anna's farm until I was 15 miles away. That is why I love NAFDMA (the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Assoc.) Everyone is so friendly they'll take you in, give you a tour, and feed you (Thanks!) even on short notice :-)