The Back Story

Once upon a time… in Sedona

Every new business needs a plan for success. Consulting businesses are no different. So… this story begins with a plan.

Throughout his career, Jim has always been a natural teacher and trainer. He has spoken to groups from 5 to 5,000 all across the world. Without exception, they appreciate his ability to present complex concepts of calf nutrition, management, and health in a clear, understandable manner. Whether he’s speaking with workers on the farm or researchers at an international conference, Jim always seems to find the right words to make his point – clearly and understandably.

One favorite presentation for producers and calf specialists alike was the “what’s wrong with this picture?” presentation as in the image. This is the title slide of a presentation made at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in 2012. The presentation was simply a series of photos taken on dairy farms and each identified some important issue or problem from which other producers could learn. No charts… no graphs… no complicated theories. Just “here’s what I saw and what’s wrong with it?”. It was a “smashing success” and Jim was called to repeat this type of presentation year after year.

Fast-forward to 2024 and Jim was preparing for retirement and the opportunity to do more “fun” things. Rather than simply “stop” and spend time by the pool or beach, Jim really wanted to continue helping producers and their advisors to improve calf management. Of course, beginning a “new” business as a consultant seemed the right approach.

Planning for Calf Notes Consulting

Having worked in the dairy industry for many years, Jim recognized the need for professionalism in any effort as a consultant. It just wouldn’t do to create a consulting firm without a proper mission, vision, and goals for success. His experience with strategic planning, business development, and providing services to customers led Jim to begin developing a business plan for his new firm “Calf Notes Consulting, LLC”.

Early planning on his own allowed Jim to prepare drafts of a mission — “To Help Calves Grow“. And a vision: We recognize the need for accurate, useful, and actionable information to improve calf raising globally.  Therefore, our goal is to increase the availability of information on Calf Notes.com used to improve calf health, nutrition, and management. By 2027, we strive to influence the growth of half of all dairy calves raised around the world.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
— Benjamin Franklin

With the early ideas jotted down, it was time to prepare a formal business plan. Earlier in his career, Jim participated in a strategic business planning session for a new division of the company for which he worked. The new division was focused on new products based on antibody technology for young dairy and beef calves. Jim collected his team and asked them to prepare for a planning conference in a location that was beautiful but also allowed the work to be done. The team decided on Sedona, Arizona. The “vibrations” of this magical place were most conducive to the work and the team developed their plan over about three days.

Jim decided to repeat the planning meeting, but he also wanted to get some outside experts to provide input and advice on plan development. So, a small group met in Sedona to develop this new enterprise – Calf Notes Consulting.

The initial ideas that Jim brought with him were challenged, debated, and finally a concensus was reached. To steps to achieve this ambition vision needed defining and refining. While Calf Notes blog was well known around the world, there were many other communication channels that could be used to reach the target audience. Naturally, the idea of video presentation was considered. The world is rapidly transitioning from the written to the spoken word, especially when it comes to training and demonstrations. So, we began preparing some examples of how Calf Notes might transition to the modern era.

Calf Notes Consulting, LLC
Helping Calves Grow

Our first approach was to try the “Tik-Tok” approach – super short, funny, and not so technical videos to entertain and inform.

They were a disaster! The entire team agreed that it’s difficult to impossible to make the important points that needed to be made in a 60 second video. Further, Jim isn’t a great comedian or dancer, so the entertainment value just wasn’t there. And… it just seemed a little stupid… As a scientist and teacher, the idea of more fun than education just didn’t work for any of the team.

What’s Happening is born

After some trial and error, we agreed on a strategy to follow the “What’s wrong with this picture” idea. We would leverage photos or video to make an important point to the audience. We agreed that some entertainment would be great, but the intention was to leave an actionable message. Let’s make sure the people working with the calves can DO SOMETHING with the information presented.

Fast forward a few months and a list of the first 15 episodes of “What’s Happening?” were outlined. These were shared with the team and the feedback was positive. After a couple of test episodes, tweaks were made, followed by recording the first 8 episodes.

And More in the Works

Our strategic planning session set the stage for more initiatives for Calf Notes Consulting. We believe that Calf Notes Consulting will be the umbrella for many calf related resources — Calf Notes, What’s Happening?, and more to come.

We hope you enjoy What’s Happening?. And… stay tuned for more great things to come!

“A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.”
— Rosabeth Moss Kanter, American sociologist and Professor at Harvard Business School