Growing Our Future
Pay Attention to What You Are Good At
In this episode, Aaron Alejandro interviews Madeleine Musick, an Agricultural Science Teacher at Elgin High School and founder of Farmstead Annalise. Madeleine shares her journey from being a non-traditional FFA student to establishing a successful family-run business in the food industry. She emphasizes the importance of students exploring their interests and strengths to shape their career paths, while also highlighting the significance of time management and reliability as essential leadership skills. Aaron and Madeleine conclude by encouraging listeners to embrace continuous learning and personal growth within the agricultural community.
Story Notes:
- FFA and SAE
- Discussion on Farmstead Annalise
- Leadership and Competitive Edge
- Madeleine's Journey
- Lessons in Leadership and Career Exploration
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
In this episode, Aaron Alejandro interviews Madeleine Musick, an Agricultural Science Teacher at Elgin High School and founder of Farmstead Annalise. Madeleine shares her journey from being a non-traditional FFA student to establishing a successful family-run business in the food industry. She emphasizes the importance of students exploring their interests and strengths to shape their career paths, while also highlighting the significance of time management and reliability as essential leadership skills. Aaron and Madeleine conclude by encouraging listeners to embrace continuous learning and personal growth within the agricultural community.
Story Notes:
- FFA and SAE
- Discussion on Farmstead Annalise
- Leadership and Competitive Edge
- Madeleine's Journey
- Lessons in Leadership and Career Exploration
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast. In this show, the Texas FFA Foundation will take on a journey of exploration into agricultural science, education, leadership development and insights from subject matter experts and sponsors who provide the fuel to make dreams come true. Here's your host, Aaron Alejandro.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or whenever you may be tuning in to the Growing Our Future podcast, we appreciate you stopping by and we just appreciate the opportunity to bring this podcast to you stopping by, and we just appreciate the opportunity to bring this podcast to you. But Texas FFA we are blessed with so many incredible people students, teachers, sponsors, stakeholders, policymakers the list goes on and on, and sometimes we reach out to them and we say, hey, would you like to join us on the podcast and share your life journey, share your story, share your experiences, your expertise, your insights. And nobody's ever told us no, and today is no question. We've got an incredible, incredible young lady that's going to join us today. Her name is Madeline Muzak and Madeline is going to share her FFA story, which has led into her career story, and it is inspiring. Madeline, thank you for being with us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:So I'm excited. I got to meet Madeline this summer and I guess officially on part of a program that the Texas FFA Foundation puts together called the LEAD Experience. Lead Experience is where we take 36 teachers from across the state of Texas on a week-long leadership development experience where we'll visit about 15 locations, hear from about 60 to 70 speakers and really gain some insight that, I hope, makes us better in the classroom and makes us better as leaders. And Madeline got to participate in that, and so today when I heard her story, I said she's got to come on here and share it with you. So we're going to talk about Madeline's story. But, Madeline, the question that I ask all guests to get started is I always like to know what we're grateful for. So I would like to ask you, Madeline, what are you grateful for today?
Speaker 3:Well, I think right now I'm sure you know this season of ag teaching especially it is always extremely busy, and so I'd say right now I am extremely grateful for my team, both at home and at work. I'm extremely grateful for the fact that they can help and step in and we are just super helpful in covering for each other and stepping in and just helping where we're needed. So I'm really grateful for my team, both at home and at work.
Speaker 2:Wasn't that the truth, yeah?
Speaker 3:Wouldn't be able to do it without them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's like I tell people life's not a solo project. You know, we weren't created to be the lone ranger. No, we've got to have, and I think there's also a leadership lesson there, and that is none of us is as strong as all of us, and so, to your point, you're experiencing that and, as a, we get to be grateful for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so do it without them.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Madeline is also a former FFA member and she had what we call an SAE, a supervised agricultural experience. Now, for the people that may not be familiar because we do have a lot of listeners that aren't familiar with FFA they're not familiar with Ag Science, madeline. So let me kind of paint a picture here real quick. Ffa is a very unique organization in that we are part of public education by virtue of public law. So a lot of people don't realize that that FFA is actually part of public education by public law, realize that that FFA is actually part of public education by public law. No other organization has that title. I do not believe I think we're the only one. So when I explain that to people, here's what I say. I said think of the days when we went to college and we would go to lecture in the morning and then we'd go to lab in the afternoon. So we would go listen to a lecture about a topic and then we'd go to lab where we get to actually practice what that topic is.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that are advantageous about ag science education in the FFA is exactly that Students get to go into the ag classroom and learn about a topic and then, through the FFA, competition, speaking, leadership development, judging, contests, conventions, conferences, etc. They get to practice what they were taught in that classroom. Another component of that is they can have a supervised agricultural experience. So I take what I learned in the classroom and then I get to practice it in actual application. Okay, I say all that now to team Madeline up. So Madeline, as a student, had a very unique SAE, an SAE that has now carried on into her professional life, into her adult life, if you will. So, madeline, take us back, walk us through, go back and tell us, you know, how did you get involved in FFA, how did you get involved in ag science, how did you discover this SAE, and then tell us where it has led.
Speaker 3:So I first started in agricultural classes in FFA my freshman year of high school. I was what we typically call a non-traditional ag student, meaning that I didn't have an agricultural background. I knew nothing about ag. In fact my mom is actually the one that put me in that class and told me I was going to take it. I didn't have a choice and so I quickly jumped into pretty much everything I could do. I started, I came home, told her I wanted to show a goat, I gave speeches, I decided I was going to compete on the food science CDE team, and so that's really where my love of food came into play. And so for three, four years I was learning about the food science industry and really kind of learning about what went into food products and how they're developed.
Speaker 3:The summer before my senior year I started to. I got a job at a food processing facility and I was actually helping them make and actually package a lot of the food products where we were packaging like spices. I was making jams, chocolate sauces, packaging sprinkles that were going to go into major retail stores. So I actually got to go and be a part of those major retail stores and see how the food industry worked on the back end, and so basically before I ever left high school, I was to actually create and play with those ingredients and create recipes myself, and so, with my mother's help, we started creating jams and chocolate sauces, and our first product that Farmstead Annalise came out with was two pepper jellies. So we started with a sweet pepper jelly, a red bell pepper jelly and a hot green chili pepper jelly. We quickly grew and we added seasonings, we added chocolate sauces, we even had a buttered honey and it just quickly grew from there and carried on until my college years, and so basically that became my SAE project and over the years I learned more and more and more about what it took to own a food product business, how the food industry operated and like what a food business had to do to essentially create those products.
Speaker 3:And it all started with an ag class, and because I didn't want to be there originally and I started just by taking an ag class and competing on a food science team, so I carried on. I took those classes in college, I went to college to be an agricultural teacher and so I had the business going full time. I was full time ag education major and a full time business owner with the help of my family. By the time I graduated I was kind of torn between my two loves.
Speaker 3:I loved agriculture, I wanted to teach ag, and I knew that. But I also really loved being a part of the food industry, and I really loved my business, and so I was looking for a job close to home, and I fell upon a job listing that would allow me to teach food science and the food science pathway here in the state of Texas, and so, thankfully, I applied for that job. I interviewed and, of course, I found out a couple of weeks later that I was fortunate enough to teach food science close to home, and so I've been teaching food science in the state of Texas to students here for the last three years now, and so my job now as an agricultural teacher, in addition to my business, is to teach students high school students where their food comes from and how it gets from the farm to their plates.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love everything about your story, by the way. I just got to tell you. I wanted to ask you the question about Farmstead Annalise. How did you come up with that name? What's the story there?
Speaker 3:form of an agricultural background, because I really felt that that was where our roots were in our branding and I really wanted it to have some sort of a branding to agriculture and I wanted it to have a connection to me. So Annalise is actually my middle name.
Speaker 2:There you go. Okay, I knew there had to be something that's good, so Farmstead annalise so yes very good, and so do you have other people? You said there's other people that are helping you with this kind of give us a little bit. What does operations of something like that look like?
Speaker 3:so this is a family-run business. For us, um, I'm mostly the marketing side. Uh, so most of our online running the website, running our online, anything online is me, and then anything for packaging, working with our manufacturer side of the aspects, is my mother, and so we're we're really big in the family side of the business. My little brother I have two twin brothers, they're 12. And one of them is very big wants to be a part of the business and for a short amount of time there he actually had his own line of peanut butters, so he was a part of the business for a while there and so he it's really family owned. Anytime that we would go to markets or any time that we were out and about with the business, we were almost always all there together as a family.
Speaker 2:And that's something. Think about what you just said. Like those of us that grew up in ag, science and FFA, we know that, like my kids showed livestock, so we did pigs and goats and heifers and it's a family affair. So we would like all go to the stock shows and it sounds like you're in the same business. I mean, it sounds like your SAE while it wasn't a livestock project per se, if the family participated.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we were always together. We were every weekend when we were smaller, as a smaller business, every single weekend we would load up the car and they would go with us.
Speaker 2:Wow, isn't that great. And you'd take your product to where you would take it to, like markets and we would go to farmer's markets when we were smaller.
Speaker 3:We have a couple of retail stores that we used to be in like smaller retail, like boutique stores. There were a couple of grocery stores that would carry our line when we were in Oklahoma and so we were just in a couple of different stores that would carry our line when we were in Oklahoma and so we were just in a couple of different just locations and so, for example, like the state fair would carry us during the state fair, different things like that. So it just kind of depends on like the time of year and like who has stock at the time. But I mean, there was fluctuation and a lot of it's online for us, especially in an in-person markets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, online's changed the world. By the way, it makes it easier for people to actually create a marketplace. Did you win an award? Did you win some awards with your SAEs?
Speaker 3:I won the American degree. I got my American FFA degree through my SAE, and then our business itself has won a couple of different healthy lifestyles awards. So we take a different approach with a lot of our jams. So we actually don't use a lot of water or sugar whenever we make our jams. So there are a lot of, they're low in sugar content and so we want to just make sure they're healthier for our consumers.
Speaker 2:Now see, here's the thing about this podcast, by the way. So what I tell people is I say that if agriculture has taught me anything, it's taught me that if you want to know what the future is, grow it Okay. Well, to grow something, you've got to plant seeds, got to take care of those seeds and then you've got to harvest them. And part of the purpose of the podcast is to help people understand, and your journey is a great example of what I'm about to say. You have to listen with both your eyes and your ears. You have to listen because you never know when you might learn something or when something may present itself. And I just wanted to share with you.
Speaker 2:I remember when you and I were on the lead this last summer and we were talking about this. What you just shared is what I remember about your product. I remember you telling me about how y'all are using low sugar, low water. I mean you were explaining, kind of what that little bit of a competitive edge about your product was, which I thought was really interesting. So that's what I'm saying you never know, when you share, how that could be absorbed by an audience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for example, our chocolate sauces are actually dairy-free. We wanted to ensure that individuals were able to enjoy our products. We didn't want somebody not to be able to consume our products simply because they had an allergy. So our products are simple, because you don't need a ton of fillers in order to be able to create a good product that tastes good.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wonderful, Okay. So now let's start taking your story and let's unpack some of that journey in terms of leadership development and opportunity for all the teachers, students, kids, stakeholders, whoever may be listening to this podcast. You take an ag science class. Obviously you're looking around and you're paying attention, you're looking for something to get involved with, you're looking to take action, you're looking to do something and you found this niche. You said I think I'm going to go down this pathway if, if you were talking I mean, that's kind of the neat thing about this podcast it's going to go across the country. You're going to be in a lot of different ag classrooms. If you were sharing with students right now and I know you do this in your own classroom, but let's broaden that what are some things that you would tell them about learning how to pay attention, learning how to explore, learning how to think about possibilities of career and SAE and leadership engagement? Give me some tips and give me some examples of what that looks like or how you would articulate that to a student.
Speaker 3:I think it's really important to pay attention to what you're good at. For example, a lot of people push college right away and, as ag teachers especially, we know that trades are one opportunity for our students. Or there's scholarships for trades, or there's different opportunities that are available to our students that don't absolutely need a four-year degree, and there's so many different opportunities for our students that don't require them to go that route. And so I think, as students and what I push my students is they need to look at what they're good at and what they're interested in, because so many of my students are struggling to understand where they fit in their path. It's their own path and they're looking for their own interest, and so in this time, especially right now with all of our different CTE courses, they have the opportunity to explore all those different career opportunities. They have the opportunity to earn some of those certifications, earn some of those certifications, earn some of those, take internship opportunities.
Speaker 3:There's opportunities for them even now as high schoolers. For example, even in FFA, we have internship opportunities. Even with the foundation, they have internship opportunities. There is so many things that they can do, whether it's in the welding path, whether it's in a communications pathway, whether it's somewhere else completely. Even in the food science pathway that I'm in, we have different opportunities for them that don't necessarily require college, and so there's so many different things that they can do, but it starts with them understanding what they're interested in, what they're good at. They can do, but it starts with them understanding what they're interested in, what they're good at, and part of that is where they're at in their classes, and so they need to start there.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, you said a lot of really good stuff right here. Madeline, I just want to say you really did Number one I love what you said. You've got to pay attention Okay, pay attention. You've got to pay attention OK, pay attention. But then you've got to take action. You've actually got to initiate. It's it's not going to fall in your lap. You're going to have to initiate. You know the fact that you are on this podcast, the fact that you got on the bus this summer, the fact that you decided to sign up for that lead experience, that that, right, there is a great example for the students and, matter of fact, to be honest with you, that's one of the reasons that we wanted to do it.
Speaker 2:We're glad and we encourage teachers to participate in the teachers conference. That's a great professional development for teachers, but we wanted to give teachers something else, another opportunity for personal development. But you've got to take advantage of it. You've got to say I'm going to do it. And, like you said, once you start paying attention, you start identifying things that you might be interested in. You've got to go out and do them. And I do agree with you. By the way and I'm hearing this more and more from sponsors, from people that I would consider mentors, business people there's no question that a college education can be of assistance, but the access to information technology and opportunity is probably greater today than ever before, so it's not necessarily the only way anymore. Now. There are many ways that you can find a career and find success later in life.
Speaker 3:And I think part of the issue as well and I've realized this is not every teacher will sit there and have that conversation with them, or maybe not every adult will sit there and have that conversation with them, because I had a conversation with a student just a week ago, because I had a conversation with a student just a week ago and they were having a conversation with me about careers that weren't necessarily related to agriculture. But I can still offer advice and still offer pathways that they can take, and I think they have to know that they can ask for advice and guidance, and they need to know that they can just ask and sometimes they don't, and they don't even ask for help, or they need to go to their career counselor or someone who can ask for help, and I think that's part of sometimes they're just not sure where to go.
Speaker 2:Well, if you remember when you got on the bus, everybody got a resource manual. Well, if you remember when you got on the bus, everybody got a resource manual. One of the first words when you looked inside that resource manual is the word question. And we asked you what is the root word of the word question? It's quest to go on an adventure. And we told you we want you to go on an adventure all week long, we want you asking questions and, to your point, we want students to do that. We want students to go on an adventure. Ask questions. Ask because you may gain an insight or you may gain some information that can help you say that's the turn that I want to make or that's the direction that I want to go. But if you don't ask, you might be relying on limited information. But asking exposes you to more information. Is that fair?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. So let's think about this. Here's another thing that I like to share with students. I said you know there are over 3,000 high schools in the state of Texas. Now think about that 3,000 high schools, including Elgin, right. So 3,000 high schools. Every one of them are going to have a graduating class. Every one of them's got students that are going to be getting out looking for a job, scholarship or an opportunity. So my question is always this what's your competitive edge? What's what separates you from all the other students? Now, personally, I believe ffa can give students a competitive edge. Right exploration, asking questions, can give you a competitive edge. I'm just curious in your world and in your experience and what you share with others, what would be some things that you would share with students that can give them a competitive edge?
Speaker 3:So I think part of giving yourself the competitive edge is that first of all, you have to want it. Okay, there's a lot of students that aren't going after or even desire that competitive edge, and so you do have to want that competitive edge. You have to have that desire to set yourself apart. But part of having that competitive edge is just being yourself, being unique. You need to go after the things that interest yourself. You need to go after things that are going to make yourself successful in your own eyes.
Speaker 3:So for me, that was going after owning my own business, which, in many people's eyes, yes, that is successful, but when you look at, maybe, the financials of owning a business, some people might say that's not really successful. So I think being having that competitive edge that really depends on the eye of the beholder. And so, as a student, they need to go after the things that seek or work for, what they want down the road, what interests themselves, whether that's earning some certifications that work towards their career path, finding a mentor that aligns with their career goal, with their career goal, even just making connections that will help them get into the trade school, college, or even just getting a job that they want. Those are the things that are going to help them down the path. And so I think, having that competitive edge I think part of that's just being yourself, but also you have to want that, you have to desire to have that competitive edge and you have to have the desire to win.
Speaker 2:I really like what you just said, madeline. Another thing that I like to hear I asked the students, as I said, tell me about your business. And they always look at me and they say, well, I don't have a business. I said, yeah, you do, you're it. I said are you good customer service? Are you show up on time? Are you customer friendly? Do you deliver a good product?
Speaker 2:Whether you like it or not, you are your business, and successful businesses have to have margins. If you don't have margins, you won't be in business very long and life's the same way. You got to have a competitive edge and you got to want it, and you know, when you said that, I thought of the old adage. It says that we're really only in competition with our own best selves. So if I can improve today better than I was yesterday, you know that's like.
Speaker 2:You know I've been doing this a long time, but it's like I'm not satisfied. It's like you know I've been doing this a long time, but it's like I'm not satisfied. I'm like I'm still looking for ways to improve, ways to grow, and I heard a statement one time that says when you're green, you grow, but when you ripe, you rot. I don't want to rot, I just want to keep trying to be green, I want to keep growing, I want to keep learning and, to your point, it's an inborn, it's a personal reason that I think that I want to improve and I think, to your point, students have got to want to improve, that you've got to be in competition with your own best self.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Are there any leadership skills that really stand out to you that if you were to tell a student here, you might try this? What would those be?
Speaker 3:I think the biggest one is time management. I think that's the one that I see that high schoolers struggle the most with. The biggest thing is their calendars. They are so often. I mean you can easily put that on your phone. You can easily have an app. I mean, if you're a paper person, you can have that on your phone. You can put it in a paper calendar. I mean whatever works for you.
Speaker 3:But showing up on time, showing up to something that you committed to being where you said you're going to be is so important. As a teacher, I feel like I'm constantly trying to track down students that said that they would be somewhere. Or I asked them like are you able to come to this place at this time? And they're like well, I got to check with my parents. You're in high school. It's about time that you're able to tell me what your own schedule is. And, as someone who is about to go off to the world, time management and understanding what your commitments are is super important. Also, just making sure that you're showing up on time and just making sure that you are committing and following through on those commitments is really, really important.
Speaker 2:Well, that is good stuff right there. It's a little thing, but listen, what did we talk about a while ago? Competitive edge. That little thing could be your competitive edge. That little thing could get you a promotion. That little thing could make you more money. That little thing could make you more money. That little thing could open up a door of opportunity. It sounds like a little thing, but really it could become a big thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, this is really good. We've covered a lot of ground here and you've done a very good job of kind of helping put some of these things in perspective for competitive edge, for leadership development. Anything else you'd like to share about? Do you think there's opportunities for kids in agriculture? Do you think that there's opportunities out there? I think a lot of times kids get a little disheartened. They hear all the noise in the world and they think you know why, try, you know. But I think there's a lot of opportunity out there. What would you say?
Speaker 3:I think there's so many different opportunities within the agricultural pathway as a whole. I mean, if you think about it, there are. I mean agricultural. The agricultural industry feeds us and there's always going to be a job there. But in addition to that, there's always new innovations in agriculture. There's always going to be new jobs created within agriculture, and so there's always going to be an opportunity there as a whole.
Speaker 3:So, whether it's within plant science, food science, agricultural mechanics, animals, anything really that you can think of, there's going to be an opportunity there. So, whether they want to be entrepreneurs and work by themselves or they want to work with a company, whether they want to work in a lab, in a field, I mean, the opportunities are endless and students really have so many different chances and so many different opportunities there alone. I mean they might think that agriculture is just farming in a field, but it's so much more than that and I know that in just my few years in the field alone and just three years in college, I had so many different experiences in college just within agriculture and so many different things that I was able to learn, so you can do so much more with an entire lifetime.
Speaker 2:I agree, agree with you. I've had an incredible life and it has spanned the country, but it all is that common denominator it all was rooted in agriculture and it grew. All these different opportunities, all these different pathways, all these different experiences, it's what brought our paths together. So, to your point, you just never know where. If you'll just explore, you never know where it may lead you yeah.
Speaker 2:Madeline, thank you so much for taking some time out of your schedule today and sharing with us your journey through Ag Science Education FFA, your journey into creating and becoming an entrepreneur and creating this incredible product through Farmstead Annalise, and bringing your family and all of us along on your journey. Thank you, too, for what you do in the classroom. You know I tell people all the time ag science teachers that they're a different breed. We appreciate all educators okay, we do. We need math teachers and science teachers and history teachers.
Speaker 2:But I got to tell you anybody that knows an ag science teacher, you know they go a little bit beyond just that. So, not only teaching a science which is always changing, they're teaching a science that has an international component to it, a science that has plant, animal, environment, natural resources conservation, a science that has policy and advocacy, a science that has older consumer needs, younger consumer needs, a program that has SAEs and LDEs and CDEs and all the acronyms that our teachers are involved with. So, Madeline, thank you so much for taking on that responsibility and pouring into our kids, because you're going to make Texas better, You're going to make Elgin better, You're making our state and our country better, and I just want you to know how much we appreciate you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right. So just so you know, every guest gets one last fun question, so I got to ask you a fun question. So what is the best concert you've ever been to?
Speaker 3:Oh boy, I would say I haven't been to many. I'd say the best concert and sadly I think it's probably the last one I went to, was the Cody Johnson concert that I went to in FFA in high school.
Speaker 2:So Wow, yeah, that was a good show, though, wasn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was a good show.
Speaker 2:So you're going to be in good company. By the way, so here in the near future, cody's supposed to be coming on this podcast. Okay, so when he comes on, I'm going to tell him that one of his fellow podcasters said that it was the best concert. So be watching, because you may get a shout out from okay because of your comment okay, I will all right.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen. Madeline, thank you again for being with us. Thank you all for tuning in to the growing our future podcast. Like we say, if agriculture's taught us anything, it's taught us that if you want to know what the future is, grow it. Well, to grow that future, you got to plant the right seeds, you got to harvest them, you got to take care of them, you got to share them. Today, madeline gave us some seeds of greatness. Listen and take those seeds, plant them in your life, put them in place, take care of them, harvest and then share. So until we meet again, go out and do something nice for somebody. You'll feel good about it. And guess what? Our homes, communities, neighborhoods, city, state and country will be a better place to live, work and raise our families because of it. Everybody, take care. We'll see you down the road.
Speaker 1:We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Growing Our Future podcast. This show is sponsored by the Texas FFA Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen agricultural science education so students can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and leadership in a global marketplace. Learn more at mytexasffaorg.