Sharing Your Passion When You Travel

I love to travel. Love it. For work or for personal reasons, I love going new places and meeting new people. And I frequently find myself with the opportunity to talk about what I do. That may be because I try to create those opportunities. No, I’m not one of those people who talks constantly to the person seated next to them. In fact I usually plug into my iPod. But I do find that showing I’m passionate about things, helps people feel more comfortable asking a question.

Luggage Tags

One of my favorite easy-to-do things is just having a luggage tag that gives a really good shout out for ag. Here’s my two favorites:

• The seal of cotton in a classic black & white adorns the red rollerbag I usually take on short trips as well as my routine briefcase. I love the look of this and the clean distinctive look grabs people by the eye. You can order some from my friend Roslyn at Cotton Specialities — her travel products including this luggage tag rock! 

• The American Farmland Trust tagline “No Farms No Food” is a good reminder too! The tagline is a great one and supporting the organization can get you merchandise with the cool tagline!  This tag rocks my camera bag!

T-Shirts, Jackets & Other Wearables

I’ve said it before…. people notice t-shirts and jackets. My “WTF Where’s the food without the farmer?” shirt certainly opens eyes and it can get people to ask questions.

I got that shirt from I Love Farmers and they have such great stuff. And groups like the National FFA have shirts like this one designed by their members encouraging you to think outside the fence! (Clicking on the shirt will take you to the FFA website.)

I frequently wear a cap or one of a number of shirts from them. I also have some from work that are fun to wear — whether its a Deltapine cotton shirt, the Dekalb winged ear or something else.  And Fastline posts a farm-related t-shirt of the week on the Fastline blog.

And I have to say, Crystal’s blog post about cowgirl/cowboy boots being a great way to start a convo with urban folks. And a way to teach me what the thing I always see in Texas is called. LOL!

Other Things I Find Work for Me

There are lots of ways to indicate you may be willing to talk about ag, including:

• Taking along the farm magazines I haven’t had a chance to read yet. Folks seem amazed when they see the cover of Cotton Farming magazine or something.
• Mentioning that you have friends that grow wheat when you are at a pasta restaurant or talking a bit about how great it is to have fresh sweet corn at your doorstep.
• That iPad… you know I wrote recently about using visuals on the go to interact with folks.

What works for you?

I’d love to hear your best travel practices for getting an easy, effective opening for telling your story about your passions while you travel.