A Move Filled With Hopes and Dreams. How did my boss react when I told him I was quitting my job to become a farmer? You're going to hear that story today. GUEST: Dr. Michael Salvatore, Superintendent of Schools Podcast Page: www.farm365podcast.libsyn.com Facebook: facebook.com/groups/Farm365Podcast EPISODE TRANSCRIPT by Lauren Thanks to my lovely wife for transcribing this episode! INTRO MUSIC Dr. Salvatore (Guest): We’re in the 21st century. Nobody leaves their job to become a farmer, especially in New Jersey. It’s unheard of. So you when you said, “Yeah, I’m going to go, I’m going to raise organic chickens,” I thought you were nuts! Support for this podcast comes from eFowl: www.efowl.com Diego (Host): Hello and welcome to the Farm365 Podcast, a podcast that will give you an insider's look at my journey to starting a small family farm. My name is Diego, and this is episode number 2! So who am I? Last fall I left the hustle and bustle of the northeast and with absolutely zero experience in farming, moved down to North Carolina, along with my wife and two kids, to become a farmer. And what is this podcast all about you ask? Well, you’ve heard the stories about how people got started in farming, you've read the books, the blogs and watched all the videos you can watch. But then what? What really happens when someone does decide to take the leap? And how exactly do they grow their business during the first year when nobody even knows who they are? Well, this is the case with us, and I can tell you first hand, it’s a little bit different than how you thought it was all going to play out. So I decided to share my journey with you! Every week you will hear scenes of real life events, stories, and the conversations I have along the way with other farmers and people in the industry as I attempt to build my farm business. And I will admit, it’s a little scary for me to broadcast my whole story to whomever wants to listen, but the best part is that you get to listen, be entertained, and most importantly, learn from my mistakes. If you have listened to episode number 1, you have heard some of my relatives’ reaction to my decision of becoming a farmer. For this episode, I had to make it a little bit more interesting, and dig a little deeper, and go a little bit out of my comfort zone, so I e-mailed my old boss and arranged for a skype interview with him. We are going to start off by talking about his thoughts during my final weeks working for him. This is my old boss, Dr. Salvatore. He is the Superintendent of a large public school district in the northeast. Dr. Salvatore: You know, I’m not a guy who counts my chickens before they hatch. Pardon the joke there, but I like to make sure I know exactly what I have in front of me, so I didn’t know if you were actually going to leave at that point. I mean, your house -- I think it closed a month or two later than it was supposed to, you hadn’t purchased a home or identified exactly where you were going to live, so I figured to myself, “You know what? This is a great dream he has, but I have a feeling Diego’s going to be here for a pretty long time." Diego: So I based my last day of work on the closing day of my house. As soon as the house sold, that was my last day at work, and we were going to be moving to North Carolina to begin our journey. However, the house took forever to close, so when the last day came, I was still working, and I pretty much worked on a day to day basis until we finally had a closing date on the house. And thinking back, from the time I gave my notice to the last day at the office, things seemed to have moved really fast. We started interviewing for candidates shortly after I told him I was leaving. We really didn’t have time to let it all sink in. All I know is that one day, I woke up, didn’t have to drive to work, didn’t have to put on a tie, or answer phones or emails, or keep schedules and schedule meetings. My job was no longer mine. All of the responsibility of my position was left in the hands of my little brother. Why am I telling you this? Because the joke around the office was, if this whole farming thing didn’t work out, I was going to kick my brother out of the job and get my job back. This conversation is going to get a lot more interesting, but right now, let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsor. Support for this podcast comes from WWOOF-USA: www.wwoofusa.org Diego: My next question for my old boss was did he see any indication of this big change coming? Did he see it coming? Dr. Salvatore: You know what? I saw that your thinking about life in general started to change, you know? That it wasn’t about a paycheck, necessarily, that it was more about your future. And that just comes as me mature, and we have children, and we start thinking about our future more. And that was a telltale sign that you know what? This lifestyle in the northeast of hustle and bustle, 9 to 5, it’s not for everybody, and you know, I did see it coming. I saw it was time for -- not only for you to change, but it actually helped me consider what my values were as well. I think his perception was right on. I was ready to make a change. Despite loving my job, I wanted to spend more time with my family and step out and do something for myself; do something I would enjoy, that would involve a dream, that would involve an entire family to accomplish it, and that was to start our own farm. As my conversation with Dr. Salvatore went on, I asked him the million-dollar question; what really went through his mind when I told him I was going to drop everything and pursue my dream of becoming a farmer? Dr. Salvatore: Well, I thought you were joking because we’re in the 21st century. Nobody leaves their job to become a farmer, especially in New Jersey. It’s unheard of. So you when you said, “Yeah, I’m going to go, I’m going to raise organic chickens,” you know, I was supportive, but I thought you were nuts! I thought you were crazy! I said, “You know, what are you going to do? You’re going to eat chicken for the rest of your life? You’re going to sell chickens? I mean, what kind of lifestyle is that?” So I really thought you’d be back within a month saying, you know, “Can you fire my brother and give me my job back?” That’s what I thought you were going to say. Diego: That’s interesting. Even he thought I was going to ask for my job back. Well folks, let’s take a break from that conversation and make things a little bit more interesting, and allow me to introduce a brand new segment of the show I would like to call, “No Farm Done.” Just like many other professions, there are many terms used in sustainable agriculture that other people may not be familiar with, so whenever I have an opportunity to talk to folks who haven’t done any farming, like my guest, Dr. Salvatore, I am going to ask them to define a terminology used in the industry, and if they get the answer wrong, they will hear a rooster crow. But again, it is just a game, so there is no farm done. Diego: So here’s a question. Are you ready? Dr. Salvatore: Oh, I’m ready for this. I haven’t studied my farmers' almanac in a while, but I am ready. So go ahead, bring it on. Diego: What is a chicken tractor? Dr. Salvatore: A chicken tractor is a tractor you use to transport the eggs to the farm market. (Roster Crows) Diego: Oh, no! That’s our rooster. That means that is the wrong answer. According to Wikipedia, a chicken tractor is a movable chicken coop, lacking a floor. Chicken tractors may also house other kinds of poultry, and most chicken tractors are a lightly built A-frame, which one person can drag around the yard or pasture. Dr. Salvatore: You wouldn’t want to call it a mobile home for chickens, because that’s too obvious. Diego: He has a good point there. But as my conversation with him comes to an end, I asked him if he has any tips for me on my new journey as an entrepreneur. Dr. Salvatore: Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. To accomplish your dreams, you’ve got to stretch far and wide, because it doesn’t happen all with farming, you’ve got to do it all together, that’s why you’re doing this podcast, you’ve got to get yourself out there in all aspects of farming. So you know, just make sure you have what you need to survive out there, Diego. I get worried about you, you know? Diego: As far as getting myself out there in all aspects of farming, I think I am. I’m actually probably doing too much. This podcast is one of the things that I’ve been trying to implement into our farm enterprise, and I am just so excited to have this show, but at the same time, I would like to generate some income. Why not be compensated for the time I spend creating this show, editing the episodes, going out there to get the interviews, and also, to be able to upload this podcast to a host website, which costs money. So if I can get those things taken care of, it’s a win-win situation. I wanted to reach out to companies that I believed in, that had a mission that was aligned with my vision, and I told them, “I am starting a podcast. This is what it’s going to sound like. Would you like to sponsor it?” So not only was I trying to sell advertisement on air time, but at that point, I was selling thin air. But regardless of sponsorships, I wanted to make sure that I had a podcast that was going to document my journey, and to help my audience to learn more about what it’s really like to start a farm. So with that said, thank you for being a part of this podcast, and visiting the sponsors' websites. You never know if you're going to find something that’s of value to you, and at the same time, you’re going to be helping me and my family as we try to make ends meet here at the farm. Well, I’m probably telling you too much information at this point, more than you want to know, so what I do want to get to is how I went from having a concept to securing sponsorships. I actually recorded a call with a potential sponsor. It all started with a cold email introducing who I was, and what my idea was, and I did get some replies, which led to phone calls. Now you may not be selling sponsorships, but yo
