How Laura Wilson Turned a Tractor Cab Video Into a Six-Year Media Career

Pre-Order Laura's book: https://bravebooks.us/products/rogers-hay-day?srsltid=AfmBOorOdGgK8CQcJj3-cmdUUpff1fkL-fswYbQGRo6uFtsGOI_7M1O3

Check out Laura on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LauraFarms

Takeaways:

Laura Wilson explains how Laura Farms started in April 2020 when she propped her iPhone in her tractor cab during planting season, and how that first video's viral moment turned into six and a half years of content and a real revenue stream for her farm.Laura breaks down the practical side of building a farm-based media brand: her weekly YouTube posting schedule, hiring a part-time editor, filming everything on an iPhone with DJI mics, and the brand partnerships, like her multi-year relationship with Chief Industries, that now help pay down her land debt.Laura and Amanda talk about her new children's book, Roger's Hay Day, published with Brave Books and distributed through a partnership with FFA, releasing October 9 and designed to plant a love of agriculture and reading in the next generation.In this episode of The Heart of Rural America, host Amanda Radke sits down with Laura Wilson, a fifth-generation Nebraska farmer and the creator of the YouTube channel Laura Farms. Laura explains that her channel started almost by accident in April 2020, when COVID sent everyone home and she propped her iPhone in the corner of her tractor cab to document planting her first crop as an official partner in her family's operation. The video went viral, and what began as a way to give homeschooling families a window into rural life has grown into six and a half years of content across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and more.

Laura and Amanda dig into the entrepreneurial side of farming: how Laura started with a $100,000 beginning farmer loan from the FSA at 18 years old, backed by little more than babysitting money and a dirt bike, and how brand partnerships like her multi-year relationship with Chief Industries have become what she calls her off-farm job, helping her pay down land debt and stay a full-time farmer. She shares her simple production process, an iPhone, a couple of DJI mics, a part-time editor who has freed up 15 hours a week, and pushes back hard on the excuse that people don't have time to share their own story: how you spend your days is how you spend your life.

Presented by Bid on Beef | CK6 Consulting | CK6 Source | Real Tuff Livestock Equipment | Redmond RealSalt | Dirt Road Radio | All American Angus Beef | Radke Land & Cattle

Use code RADKE for $10 off your next All American Angus Beef order at www.BidOnBeef.comSave on Redmond Real Salt with code RADKE at https://shop.redmondagriculture.com/Check out Amanda's agricultural children's books here: https://amandaradke.com/collections/amandas-booksLearn more about Bulletproofing Your Direct-To-Consumer Beef Enterprise: https://amandaradke.com/products/bulletproof-your-beef-businessResources for producers: the USDA Law Fair website and americanlandandlegacy.org