By Kasey Brown, 2021 ACN Award Winner
Some of my favorite stories have come from the most unlikely places. One came from the bow of a boat during a snorkeling trip in Australia. In this case, it was a wine-tasting counter in Missouri. My husband, son and I were spending a weekend at Lake of the Ozarks a couple of years ago. We found a winery and started chatting with our taster. He wasn’t the owner, but a friend lending a hand during the busy weekend. That was to my advantage, because he had a daughter who was active in FFA and had an incredibly interesting SAE project. Instead of “simply” selling freezer beef from her Angus show steers, she created and marketed meat sticks.
Missouri teen Kraysen Leonard shows off
one of her Angus steers.
(Courtesy: Kraysen Leonard)
I gave him my card, and he contacted me later that week to establish contact. You know as well as I do that life happens and things slip to the backburner. He’d send me an email every couple of months, but the story just never seemed to fit in our editorial calendar.
However, a different angle on direct marketing did fit into the following October’s theme, so I set up an interview with the daughter Kraysen Leonard. She was a well-spoken high-school senior at the time, and it was a pleasure speaking with her. I whipped up the story to publish while I was on maternity leave and checked it off my preparatory to-do list.
Then-High School Senior Kraysen Leonard (center)
is surrounded by her parents at a
Future Farmers of America event.
(Courtesy: Kraysen Leonard)
Luckily — hindsight sure is 20/20 — my editor Shauna didn’t think it sat right, so she held it from the October issue. I was frustrated when I came back. I’d already told the family to look out for it! But like wine, the story needed to age, and it needed some more work.
The time away let me see necessary tweaks. Why it was important wasn’t apparent enough. I kept hearing Steve Werblow’s voice from IFAJ Boot Camp saying “Tell the story,” instead of just focusing on the facts.
The article was published in our digital publication instead. I’m grateful Shauna didn’t just push it through when it wasn’t ready. Like Kraysen, the disappointment turned into an opportunity that paid off. One major lesson from this experience — and that snorkeling trip — is to always keep your ears open. Good story ideas don’t come only when you have your notebook ready.
The article “Lemons Into Meat Sticks,” won first place in the “Economic and Management” Writing category during the ACN 2021 Communication Awards ceremony. Click here to read the full story.
ACN Member Kasey Brown is the associate editor of the Angus Beef Bulletin, manages the content of the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, and is a host and editor of the new podcast, Angus at Work. She has two young children and is involved with her local community theater in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 2021, Kasey earned the Ag Comm Network Master Writer distinction.