Matt and Annie - Of Hoot and Annie Blog
It really amazes me how much work we do with our small, but efficient staff. We reach over 1,000 people with our tailgates, workshops & Sustainable Ag Expo. We speak, table, and participate in about 50 events every year throughout the country. We sit on committees and advisory boards on water, the environment, and sustainable ag. We put on this really cool Earth Day Food & Wine Festival. And of course we manage and administer the SIP Certification program, which involves over 60 vineyards, 27,000 statewide acres, 20 wine brands, and 3M bottles of wine.
We do this with 3 full time staffers and intermittent consultants.
Not bad, right?
But my wish list is long, my to do list is longer, and I’ve yet to find 30 hours in the day.
I’ve been crossing paths with Matt Browne on Twitter (@matthewliberty) and in real life through his Hoot & Annie Blog for a while now. Matt & Annie are GREAT people — I’ve enjoyed getting to know them as colleagues and overall cool people.
I recently looked at my wishlist-todo-list-tome and realized that I need help. (I know, I’m not always the quickest about these realizations.) But getting the right help is always a challenge. There is a lot of nuance in our work and communications. Trust me, communicating the techie ag part content to a non-techie audience is not easy. And more often than not, people struggle with this nuance.
That said, I thought, “I wonder if Matt would be interested in helping us?”
- He appreciates and supports our programs.
- He gets our work.
- He’s fun and enthusiastic about life.
- He’s real.
- I trust him.
Believe me, it is very hard to find those qualities all in one package.
I am very excited to have Matt help us with some projects that have been lingering on my list for far-too-long. You’ll be seeing Matt’s handiwork around here on the blog, and he might even tweet a bit for us (@sipthegoodlife).