Happy 5th Anniversary Morning Ag Clips!
It’s a monumental week–We hit a big anniversary: 5 years!
Wow, 5 years …
A milestone. It’s amazing the rollercoaster ride it has been.
Always keeping my nose to the grind, I kept my focus on 5. Decisions were made and challenges presented themselves, but I knew we could get there. 5.
What is that crazy statistic? It always kept turning over in my mind. The small business average failure rate, by year 5, the statistic says that 50% of small businesses fail.
I felt that statistic chasing me, but failure was not going to be an option. I ran faster!
I always figured there had to be a reason for the crazy path that lead me to the Clips.
At 18, I entered Cornell University with the ambition of becoming a veterinarian. The first day I met my advisor, he said, “you are not going to be a vet.” Ouch, it stung like a bee. Maybe he knew something I didn’t? I was allergic to cats, and I hated the cold feet I got when standing on the concrete of a freestall arming cows all day.
One thing lead to another, and I realized that veterinary medicine didn’t feel right halfway through my senior year of college. So, I made a change.
I graduated from Cornell and took a job working for Monsanto. Monsanto said they wanted me to move to Minnesota, and I said, nope, I like the northeast. Another change.
Then Cargill came knocking, and I spent 2 long years as a dairy nutritionist–my heart sank every time I left my door yard. And when the phone rang, it never seemed to be good. I looked for change again.
Then, I went and helped market Echo Farm Pudding to big grocery chains. I loved working for close family friends, on a mission, and I loved getting my foot in the door at big grocers. In the end, though, it came down to too much travel, and that, too, didn’t quite feel right. Change knocked on the door, again.
So, then I thought I would try my hand at something totally different: insurance and securities … fail. I hated asking friends and family to buy my insurance and mutual funds. Too much pressure. After a year and a half, I was out of there, too. Change please.
Luckily, motherhood saved me; it was about the only place that I felt like a natural. During that time, I had my pumpkin stand, which I loved–and I also tried doing a corn maze. All I can say is, what a disaster when every fall weekend it rains! Nope, not for me. And don’t forget the alpacas I tried my hand at … we won’t go there.
And then, finally, after some major twists and turns and going down some very bumpy roads,
I found it.
On September 30, 2013, my rooster and I took flight on an adventure that has fit me like a glove: the Morning Ag Clips.
I can manage, I can be a visionary, I can sell … I can write. And I can do this all while being a mother to my children–my very first priority every day when I wake up. I just love my kids.
The Morning Ag Clips is the glove that I searched for for so many years. All the doubts that I had in my life as I travelled from one job to the other, searching for my place, were gone, the moment I signed the papers.
Those years I spent struggling, while hearing the whispers, “Why can’t she stay put in a job?” Heck, even I wondered the same thing … but I just couldn’t seem to quiet the nudge inside, the one that kept urging me to keep going, keep looking for what I needed to do. Fearless on the outside, making a change, but oh-so-scared on the inside. If only they knew…
Through all of this, what I do know is that, until you find it, you have to keep searching.
I am so grateful to be here, looking at this 5-year threshold. So many twists and turns, choices, lessons, I can’t even begin to tell you. It WILL go in a book someday. 🙂
How thankful I am for the family that I was born into, the family that I have created, the friends that I have found, and the faith that I have. They get me through every day.
So, if you, too, are on a path in your career that you know isn’t right, change paths. Keep searching. Ask for opportunity. It will find you, if you are open to it.
I will leave you with this: Every week, we have a team meeting. This week, one of my editors came in with a very appropriate song on her mind, and she made me download it immediately. She said this is it, this is the perfect song for you, for us, for the Morning Ag Clips.
And it is … “I was made for this.”
Here’s to year 6–can’t wait, so many great things to come!
With Love and Thankfulness,
Kate
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