My Interview on Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity Podcast - a podcast by Tim Young: SmallFarmNation.com

This week I was a guest on the popular Peak Prosperity podcast. It was a great pleasure speaking with Adam Taggart, who co-founded Peak Prosperity with Chris Martenson. You can listen to the episode here on the Peak Prosperity website, here on iTunes or here on YouTube.

We discussed many aspects of starting and running a successful small-scale farming business.If you'd rather read than listen, you can read the entire transcript of the episode, below.
Episode TranscriptAdam: Hello, and welcome to the Resilient Life podcast. Resilient Life is part of peakprosperity.com. It's where we focus on practical and actionable knowledge for building a better future. I'm your host, Adam Taggart. Many of those looking to live with greater resilience dream of owning productive farmland that's managed sustainably. Now, in the past we've profiled funds like Farmland LP that enable folks to become directly invested in farmland like this, but many aren't interested in simply being passive investors. They want to become farmers to work the land themselves, to grow food to feed their families and their local community. From firsthand knowledge, having in the past being a part owner of a CSA, it's rewarding work and a worthy pursuit, but it's hard. Farming demands more time and toil than most jobs out there, and mother nature's unpredictability always finds a way to up end your best laid plans. So how does one succeed at running a successful small farming operation?

Today, we're joined by Tim Young, founder of Small Farm Nation, which offers farmers proven, practical guidance for growing their farm businesses. His first and most important advice: successful small farming is 20 percent about growing and 80 percent about marketing to customers. From his firsthand experience, Tim has observed that is the business side that farms live and die by. And from my own work with small producers in California's Sonoma County where I live, I 100 percent agree with this. But most farmers, especially new ones, are undereducated and under experienced in key business skills.<--more-->Tim's mission is to correct this knowledge deficiency which is why he created the Small Farm Nation Academy, a curriculum and knowledge center that teaches farmers key skills like marketing, accounting, customer management pricing, handling insurance, sales strategy and more. Tim knows what he's talking about. He built and operates and award-winning artisan cheese business, but before doing that he spent 25 years closing large marketing deals in the tech industry. Then he founded an Inc. 500 company. He has learned firsthand which business fundamentals are necessary for small farms to thrive. Tim, thanks so much for joining us today. I think a lot of folks are going to be interested in what you have to tell us.

Tim: Thanks, Adam, it's my pleasure. Thanks a lot for having me.

Adam: Oh, gosh, it's a real pleasure. And I know that you interviewed Chris for a podcast for the Small Farm Nation, and I know that he really enjoyed that experience, so we're very happy to return the favor today.

Tim: Yeah. That was one of our most popular episodes last year. I encourage everyone to check that out. I think a lot of us really admire what you guys are doing in terms of helping people to become more resilient and take preparedness a little bit more seriously.Adam: Well, thanks. I think it's a little bit of a mutual admiration society here because we're big fans of what you're doing too. Tim, why don't we start here by giving our readers a little bit more background into how you transitioned from the world of high tech into becoming an expert on small scale farming.

Tim: Yeah. Farming's not in my background at all. I didn't grow up on a farm. I have never really, for the most part, I've never petted a cow or seen a chicken too much close up. I lived in North Georgia growing up and had seen some of that from afar.

Further episodes of Small Farm Nation

Further podcasts by Tim Young: SmallFarmNation.com

Website of Tim Young: SmallFarmNation.com