The Marketing Mentress: Business Secrets from 4H

Growing up on the ranch gave us many opportunities and even more lessons.

One of the opportunities we received was the chance to be a 4H Beef Club member and raise our very own 4H calf. We all awaited our 12th birthday with eagerness for that was the day we could officially join the Milk River 4H Beef Club! (Well, my birthday was in March, so I had to wait until the following September.)

The first day I walked into a monthly 4H Beef Club meeting, I soon learned there was more to being a member of a 4H Club than I thought. Right off the bat there were rules...Parliamentary Procedure...for all the meetings! We learned who to address and how to be heard. There was no calling out of our thoughts allowed.

There had to be a motion to discuss, a 'seconder' to that motion, a discussion, a motion to vote, a 'seconder' to vote the motion, and a vote for everything.

When I left that first meeting I thought my head would spin off! The nerve they had of voting me into a position! What on earth was a social convenor anyway? I was only 12 years old. What did I know about it?

Here's the key.

I accepted graciously and as soon as we left the meeting I peppered my Dad, who was one of the club leaders, with questions about what on earth is a 'social convenor'? He laughed and told me to look it up in our Encyclopedia. (There was no internet then.) He also suggested that I check out our Webster's Dictionary. If we wanted to research anything, those were the places we had to look.

Guess what I did as soon as we got back home? Yup! I spent the next hour and a half reading.

Once armed with this knowledge I began to plan a rock-climbing day and picnic at Writing On Stone Park for the following summer. I also thought a dance would be fun...oh but then I remembered that I was not allowed to go to dances until I was 14 years old, but a tobogganing party at our ranch would be a blast! But we had to wait for the snow. (Remember, this was September.)

One key thing I forgot was that we needed to wait until our next meeting, so we could make a motion, 'second', discuss, make another motion, 'second' that motion, and vote.

There were many opportunities as social convenor and even more lessons learned.

Being the social convenor for the club meant that everyone wanted to know my next big idea. It also meant that I had to be the one to organize all the wonderful activities.

Lots of hard work.

In later years I was elected club secretary, then club treasurer, then club vice-president, and lastly club president.

And that wasn't counting learning how to raise, feed, groom and train my 4H calf!

The secrets I learned from my 4H years have been great life lessons that I have applied to my business today.

The opportunities of owning my own business are that I get to choose when I work and where. The lessons I have learned from owning my own business are that I need to work and I need to be organized. There are opportunities to meet people every day. Owning my own business taught me that I NEED to meet new people every day, or I will not have a business.

The secrets I learned from my 4H calf have given me the base I needed to overcome and become. Overcome my fears and become more than I thought I could be.

What life lessons have you learned?

Got a LinkedIn question? Feel free to email me and I will answer it in my next blog.

Fired at Fifty: Stop Looking For Work and Discover What You Were Meant to Do.

http://bit.ly/FiredatFiftyKindle

Christine Till