Introduction Of Natalie Ingle
Rob Cook: Good afternoon. I’m Rob Cook, director of Business Development for Bamert Seed Company. I’m here with Natalie Ingle, who is our communication liaison, which that title probably doesn’t do justice to everything Natalie has to handle, a little during the day. But Natalie, can you give us a little bit of about your background, where you come from and how you got here?
Natalie Ingle: I grew up in Olton, Texas, so not too far from here in Muleshoe. I grew up, my dad is a cattleman, so I grew up on a feedlot. I was around cattle my whole life. So that’s kind of how I fell into like the agriculture industry, I guess you would say. I went to Texas Tech, I got my communications degree there, and while I was there, I did a little bit of work at Sorghum, got to see a different part of the agriculture industry as far as farming goes. We didn’t really do a lot of that growing up. We focused more on the cattle and when it came, to feeding them, we had other farmers that did that for us. So that was fun seeing that. And then coming here and seeing a whole different side to the agriculture industry and seeing how grass grows. It’s kind of a, I’ve got to see all different parts of the agriculture industry and it’s been great.
How Does Your Background Help You Serve Customers?
Rob: Yeah, very varied and yes, seeing a lot of that, different knowledge and experience with you. So how do you think that best helps you serve customers, in your role? So, so, being the, the point of contact, with every customer that calls in, basically you’re kind of that first point of contact and then helping ’em through the process. How do you think those experiences have helped you with that?
Natalie: Oh, I think they’ve helped a lot. And then, you know, just I learn something new every single day, so just learning from all of these guys here, it’s really grown my knowledge to be able to help our customers As soon as they call in, I have more to offer them before I pass them along to one of our specialists. Or I can answer a few of few of their questions, if they’re a little more simpler. So I feel like it’s really helped.
What Surprised You About Bamert / Industry?
Rob: Great. So what surprised you most about the company and the industry when you first got here?
Natalie: Well, to be basic, I just never really thought about how grass grows. You know, you see grass everywhere and you don’t ever think that someone has to do the same thing that they do with corn or cotton. They have to get that seed, they have to harvest that seed to sell the grass, you know, even when you buy grass for your lawn, you don’t even think about it until you work at some somewhere like this or in this industry. And you just get to learn so much.
Rob: There’s a, there’s lots complicated industry, isn’t it?
Natalie: Yes. So I think that’s really just what surprised me the most is just shifting my mindset of, how grass has grown.
What Do You Enjoy Most About Your Job?
Rob: So what do you, what do you enjoy most about your job?
Natalie: That I get to do something different every day. There’s always new things that pop up and I’m always learning. So I mean it really, it’s fun to get outta bed in the morning and come to work cuz I know that, there’s something new I’m gonna learn.
Rob: That’s great. We gotta keep learning, right?
Natalie: Yes.
What Does A Typical Day Look Like?
Rob: So a little bit to that point. You’ve got one of the more varied jobs in the organization, you cover up, you got your hands in a lot, a lot, a lot of the different pots here. So give us a breakdown. I know there’s not a typical day, but just so the viewers kind of understand what you do from day to day. Gimme a breakdown in your typical day.
Natalie: Well, I am the one that’s gonna be answering all of your calls, so whenever you call, more than likely you’re gonna be hearing my voice. So along with answering calls, I’m the one that does a lot of our accounting. So whenever you send in checks, um, I’m the one that’s putting those in, and updating the accounts. Anytime someone’s wanting to start a line of credit with us, I will be doing that for them. All of our online orders that come in, I’m always putting those in, fulfilling those. So I do everything to deal with HR. So when we have employees come in and we get new employees, I’m gonna be dealing with them and helping them on board and getting everything set up for them. So a lot of our social media posts are coming kind of from me and along with a few others.
We approve those, we make sure that we have the best content, the best pictures that we’re relaying our message correctly, to all of y’all so that y’all know what’s going on. What types of seed to get that kind of stuff. As far as social media goes. Yes. So I also write a whole lot of blogs. So the things that y’all see on our website, if you go to our website, there is a blogs tab and a lot of those on there, are things that I put together. Now I get a lot of that knowledge from the guys here. They help me a lot and then I just kind of write it all out so that y’all can kind of understand. I like to try and keep things very simple, because that’s kind of where I came from and what I like to, how I learn best. And so we try and keep things simple so that y’all kind of understand more about the industry and how it all works here at Bamert.
Rob: Great. You also, I think help viewers on it, social media and our other outlets understand the culture of Bamert some too, don’t you? Yes. And do a lot to help foster that.
Dynamic Of The 3 Parts Of The Company
Rob: So, okay. So again, from your perspective, we, you know, we think we’ve got the company’s divided up in three different section. We’ve got production, the warehouse, and sales. So talk about a little bit about how you see that dynamic about how that all plays together in those groups coming together and then what value they bring to the company. Those pieces bring us to the whole.
Natalie: I wanna start by saying it’s really fun talking to people about my job and saying that I work at a seed company and them thinking that it’s just your basic cotton, corn, sorghum. And then I tell them no, like it’s grass. And then we go into a lot more detail. And I get to tell them about every specific thing. You know, it’s, Bamert does all of that. So we start by harvesting and then after harvesting it goes and it gets cleaned and after cleaned it comes here and we ship it out to y’all. Everyone works so well here and I think it’s been what’s, it’s, what’s so great about coming and working here is that everyone gets along. Everyone’s on the same page and everything is very smoothly run. So as soon as something gets harvest, it gets to go and go into the cleaner just to get that really nice, clean, good quality seed out so that we can ship the best thing to our customers. And I think that that’s just really nice to have that dynamic going on.
What Are Common Questions You Get?
Rob: I agree. There’s a lot of moving parts. Yes. So you, you talked about being able to explain to to folks, you know, what you do. So what are some of the questions when you, you know, when you, when you, you tell your friends or tell people in your network? Yeah, native seed company, that’s what we do.
Natalie: I think it may be a younger generation thing too. But I think a lot of people don’t think about where grass comes from, you know, so to kind of explain how we make that, how we turn it into a bag that we sell for you to plant in your pasture and your yard and your project that you have going on. I think they’re all a little mind boggled as was I when I first started working here. But I think a lot of their questions are just a little more basic, like how, how is it done? How do you, find what specific seed is great for each region or a specific soil type? And so I think it’s just kind of basic questions like that that a lot of people have that they ask me. Some of ’em I know, some of ’em I don’t know. Sure. Some of ’em still learning.
What Excites You About The Future Of Bamert?
Rob: Yeah. I found that’s not a general generational goal either. Everybody’s kinda like, I have the same type of questions, so, so what excites you most for the future for Bamert Seed in, in your role in the company?
Natalie: In my role, I think it would have to be expanding online, and in stores. So whether that be selling, on Amazon or selling in certain other platforms and then maybe even just getting into feed stores, stuff like that. Getting to design the bags, getting to see, all the fun design changes and I think that’s super fun to me.
Rob: Awesome. Yep. I’m looking forward to that too.
Natalie: So I think something that’s really good that our customers get value out of it is as soon as I answer that phone and get to talk to them automatically, I’m getting them over to a specialist. That specialist is getting them a quote or their order placed as soon as possible and then it’s going over to our shipping department. And our shipping department is so good at what they do. Our order fulfillment is amazing. They get everything out super quickly. And I know that that’s a big demand right now and I feel like that’s not something that we’re slacking on at all. Bamert is really good at making sure that you get the seed when you need it.