Turning a Need Into A Platform
Getting to the place where I was confident that I could handle conversations with people in agriculture took me a really long time. And I have seen it so many times in the years since. I can't help but wonder what ag could accomplish if we helped people get their feet under them early. But I also know it would be expensive and time intensive for any company to bite such a big project off.
But creating a program that could work well across companies, organizations, crops and livestock, etc? That could make a real difference! So I've spent years considering how to do it, talking to dozens of people about what they think would be needed.
Grounded in AgTM is what I wish I could have tapped into and/or provided as I hired people at various companies.
And then, we started working on it. And everyone we taked to understood why it offered so much potential. And dozens offered their years and decades of experience to help as advisors, experts, sounding boards, copy editors and more!
Years of thought (and decades of experience in the industry) shaped months and months of hard work, fun travel and more hard work by me and the team at Grounded Communications. It all comes together in courses, community and a framework that can help the diverse range of people engaging in agriculture get grounded.
And thanks to an amazing network I've built something far greater than an individual possibly could. And Georgia and Molly on the Grounded Comms team made major contributions as did a team of interns!
- Janice Person, founder of Grounded in Ag & Grounded Communications (LinkedIn profile).
The Grounded in Ag Team
There are two team members who worked for months through lots of changes and questions. They will help maintain an active community and work on updates, marketing, etc.
Molly Atkins
Molly has lived alongside agriculture most of her life, growing up a professor's kid in College Station, TX, but she didn't manage to learn much about ag until she was an adult, so she knows what it's like to play catch-up. She's spent several years providing support to corporate blogger outreach and training programs, where she found her passion for talking to folks about food and how it's grown. She is currently living the expat life in The Hague, Netherlands with her husband, two daughters, and her Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.
Georgia Woodall Starnes
Georgia grew up in rural North Carolina. Her ag background was talking & listening to all the farmers that gathered on box crates at the country store she worked at in high school. In her career, Georgia was a professional service leader for a Fortune 500 company leading a global team of 150+ including customer service, project management, operations, and engineers. Her experience onboarding new employees and ensuring they understand the products has helped as we built these courses.
Tapping Expertise Across the U.S.
With the range of topics to cover in agriculture, we needed to tap a network of people working in the space. We've asked individuals from throughout the US to help us understand the basics of topics as diverse as family farm operations and environmental footprints to cash flow and regulatory processes. We dive into crops and livestock too, talking with farmers and other experts into specific topic from diversification to the range of sciences at play and animal care or the challenges crops face.
Meet our experts.
Our Advisory Board
Throughout the planning process, we consulted a broad range of individuals in agriculture, adult learning and other fields. A core group of those people are on our board of advisors that offered input throughout planning and content creation process. We appreciate the expertise they offer! And share the photos and bios -- hovering over the hotspot will show their bios & clicking will take you to their LinkedIn profile or other site.
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