OFI 568: How To Leverage More Than A Paycheck From Your Employer | FFA SAE Edition | Jessica Bahr | Randolph High School FFA

SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING JESSICA BAHR! 

So much of what we talk about on this show has to do with mindset and perspective on work.  For way too many people work is something that you have to do, and it is one dimensional.  What I mean by one dimensional is that people look at their work as something that only provides them a singular output – a paycheck.

If you shift your perspective a bit, your work can be three, four or five dimensional.  Our guest today definitely looks at her job through at least three dimensions: paycheck, learning opportunity and business opportunity.  I absolutely love coming across people like Jessica Bahr who see things differently than the bulk of the population.

Jessica grows a large garden of organic vegetables, herbs and melons.  This is part of her supervised agricultural experience at Randolph High School.  She produces more than her family and friends can consume, so she chooses to sell the excess, and this is where her project gets interesting.

Jessica has a job with a different farm, and part of her responsibilities are going to the local farmers market and helping them to sell what they produce.  It would be quite simple for Jessica to go there, do her job, collect her pay and come away from that job with nothing more than a paycheck.  But this is not Jessica’s mindset.

Jessica works for more than just the money.  She is learning about how to operate a business, deal with customers and market products.  She also has an agreement with her company to sell what she produces in her garden through their stand at the farmer’s market.  This is a win-win situation for Jessica and her employer.  Jessica gets to sell her products through a platform that she did not have to create.  Her employer gets to add products to their stand that they would not otherwise have.  Everybody wins.

Jessica’s ability to think outside of the box is what is going to make her a successful entrepreneur or very valued employee in the future.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Organic Gardening And Sales

HIGH SCHOOL: Randolph High School; Randolph, Wisconsin

MASCOT: Rockets

FFA ADVISOR: Keith Gundlach

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR JESSICA: Click on the picture below to be taken to the Randolph High School website:

Jessica’s FFA Advisors’ Email Addresses: gundlachk@rsdwi.org

Randolph High School’s Telephone Number: 920-326-2425

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack 

Where Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald Can Be Heard:

 Member Of The National Association Of Farm Broadcasters