Ag Social Media Consultant Opens Up About Anxiety Misdiagnosis and Lexapro Treatment

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:00:00] You can think the swimsuit competition in the Miss America system's, the dumbest thing ever. Totally fine. Let me give you my perspective 'cause I actually did it. They got rid of it for a few years and I was ticked and I did put that post on social media because look like I can pull pigs, I can drive a tractor, I can feel confident in a swimsuit. I can take care of myself and I can talk about it. And all of those aspects make up who I am.

Vance Crowe [00:00:27] I'm Steven Fairbanks, a writer and teacher from St. Louis, Missouri, and you're listening to the Vance Crowe podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're here. Today I interview Lexi Merrick Beeler. Lexi is a social media consultant. She works with some of agriculture's largest brands, including Pioneer, the Seed Company. When I invited Lexi in, I thought we were going to talk about, you know, how to run your social media, how to make your Twitter really pop, or your how TikTok works. But we really only talk about that for about 10 minutes. And very quickly this becomes one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done In this studio, Lexi opens up about her experiences both as a pageant queen, somebody that has dealt with major anxiety in her life, and we talk about things like the Catholic church. This interview is wide ranging and really compelling. I found talking with Lexi to be something that was refreshing and exciting because oftentimes people in social media or communications are kind of gray. They don't really wanna say anything, but Lexi was very willing to talk about what she believed in, what she saw, and what she thinks is happening in the future. We're gonna get to that interview in just a moment. But first, over the holidays I had a chance to do a whole bunch of Legacy Interviews. This is where I sit down with someone's loved ones to hear their life stories, to capture all the experiences that they had so that future generations have the opportunity to know their family history. What was interesting about this holiday season was we had some interesting mixtures, one of which was instead of a husband and wife couple, we had two old business partners.

Vance Crowe [00:02:07] One was really nervous about coming in and interviewing and the other couldn't get in the chair fast enough. They sat down and they talked about the way that they started their company, the challenges they faced, some of the problems and successes that they had, and then they really got to talk about what they admired in one another. What this allowed for was a rich tapestry of two people that were both widowers that normally maybe would've had a spouse to sit there and tell them, Hey, remember that story, or Don't forget this, or, you're being too modest about this part. And instead we had these two men sit and be able to describe this so that both of their families would know where their wealth came from, how hard they had to work for it, and what kind of a difference they were able to make with their company. If you're interested in having us sit down with your loved ones or business partners or even something creative that we haven't done before, go to Legacy Interviews dot com to find out more. Alright, without further ado, let's head to the interview with Lexi Merrick Beeler. Lexi Merrick Beeler, welcome to

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:03:14] Podcast. Hello Van. So nice to be here.

Vance Crowe [00:03:17] You run social media accounts for some of ags biggest brands, and the first question that comes to mind is, why would any individual follow a brand on social media?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:03:27] It's a great question, and my answer to that is, a brand represents something. And a lot of times for an individual, especially in the agriculture market, I'm just gonna be very honest, a lot of farmers sell number two corn. What makes them special? Well, there is something that makes them special, but the brand represents that specialty that those farmers bring. So I love being able to work with some of ags largest accounts, whether it be for-profit or non-profit. And really we have a unified voice that represents a farmer.

Vance Crowe [00:04:04] So when you're like helping a a brand Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:04:06] Do

Vance Crowe [00:04:07] Social media, what are you, are you writing the tweets? Are you putting the photos together? What are you doing? All

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:04:11] The above. So my favorite thing is actually seems a little bit less creative, but I love the process. So in my mind there is a framework to any social media and it can be the largest accounts to the smallest accounts to a personal account, but there's a framework that we can follow. And my specialty is putting that framework into play. So that's what I bring. If you need things written, you got it. If you need graphics pulled together, I can do that. I'll either work with a designer or I'll do it myself. Same on on the copywriting. A lot of times I'll do it myself, but if I need to bring in a specialist on a copywriter, I can totally do that. But really my specialty is following that framework to get good content out because it doesn't matter if you have one piece of good content, you need to have multiple pieces of good content.

Vance Crowe [00:04:58] What is good content?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:05:00] Good content has a lot of different meanings. Okay. Okay. So it delivers a message. It delivers a message that's important, that resonates with people, or it gives a call to action that drives further action. Either on a sales or just in like awareness or whatever That call to action deliverable needs to be based on the goals of that brand. And that company, of course, really good content would love it to go viral. Right? And I've had some tiktoks that do go viral on some of the accounts that I've managed, but actually the things that are going viral are not what selling the business. What selling the business is that overall consistency. And that's why that framework's important. And

Vance Crowe [00:05:44] What is the, when a brand hires you Yeah. How do they decide, Hey, that was a good hire. We're glad we did that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:05:52] Honestly, meeting deadlines.

Vance Crowe [00:05:55] Meeting deadlines.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:05:56] That's it. Like if, if if, if you are hired and you don't miss a deadline, a lot of times they like you. And I, I think that's part of that framework, right? Like as a creative, especially just in this field, social media can be so creative and, and marketing in general, but unless you're meeting deadlines, it doesn't help anybody. So there's a balance there. And I think my brain of the creative side, but then also the business side balances that and brings it together perfectly.

Vance Crowe [00:06:26] You know, that actually like running a business for a few years now, like that is actually the very, very core thing I care about the most. If I've hired somebody is like, did you do the thing that we agreed at the time you said you were going to? And like we can work on quality. Yep. And we can work on, like that one didn't work. But if you don't deliver something like now we've got a problem,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:06:46] You're done.

Vance Crowe [00:06:47] Yeah. That,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:06:47] That is the biggest thing. And if I'm hiring subcontractors, that's a yes or a no. And here's the other thing, you can miss a deadline, but you sure better communicate it because there's probably a reason why you're gonna miss it. And not every deadline is realistic. Right? But if you're not communicating that,

Vance Crowe [00:07:06] I think there is like a, a generational change. And like I've struggled to bring this up with young people 'cause I'm not trying to insult them, but like I find that younger people, one, they like communicating via text, but two, they like, I get feedback from people when I'm like, Hey, you know, like, could you just let me know that, hey, could you just, and they're always like, I don't want to interrupt. Oh, I don't wanna send too much. Is this like a cultural thing? Like what is going on there? 'cause it, it drives me nuts.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:07:34] Yes. I think Gen Z specifically, so that would be the generation, I'm on the cusp, I am a millennial, but I'm like right on. There is a generational shift on our younger generation that communication is lacking and confidence. Like they don't wanna be in trouble, they don't wanna do something wrong. So rather than doing anything, it's easier to do. Nothing.

Vance Crowe [00:08:00] The, you're spot on on this. Like I have a, I had a guy that that used to work for me. He was great. If I came in to give him like notes or feedback, his face would get really red. He would get really timid. And then even though it wasn't even like, it wasn't, it wasn't like you're bad, it was like, let's improve this. He was genuinely worried that I was like mad at him. And I was like, you never ha I'm never going to yell at you. I'm never going to be like angry with you. We're just going to solve problems. But that is definitely not his, it wasn't his perception.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:08:30] No. And I love working with young women. That's part of my goal as a business owner is I want to lift specifically young women up because I was there at one point in time. And my biggest, like we talk about quality, we talk about deadlines. My biggest work with the young women I hire is simply confidence. Simply just saying, you're okay. You have permission to do this, this, and this. And I do think it's a generational shift and I think we can get there by being aware of it and by the managers being aware of it. But sometimes managers, I mean it's, it gets frustrating because I don't relate, I don't understand.

Vance Crowe [00:09:08] My two biggest mentors in my life that like helped me business wise was a guy named court and then this much older man named Pete. And the thing that was the most valuable to me was that they were incredibly direct. So I went from being the middle child, like peacemaker, I can say things so that nobody's upset about it to learning like, oh, but people don't really know what I want. They don't really know how to meet my expectations. And so when these people taught me this, I started implementing it. And I have found that it does not translate with everybody in this generation. And like I found that like I'm having to change when I really feel like they should have to change.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:09:43] Yep, yep. And recently I had a coworker mention it's resiliency and it might be a little resiliency. Like that was an interesting word I wanna dive into a little bit deeper of like, you gotta be a little bit tougher, you gotta be a little bit more resilient. But I do think it's not always on that next generation too. It it's gonna take a different type of leader. Well,

Vance Crowe [00:10:05] I'm the only one that can change when I want something right.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:10:07] To be

Vance Crowe [00:10:08] Different. Right. I can ask you to change. But like particularly around that intimidation factor, like I've had to be like, I think that I'm not that direct. And then I talk with people like my guy Sean that, that I do lot of work with. He's like, you're one of the most direct people I've ever met. And it took me a while to get used to it. I don't know am am is. Yeah. I, I don't exactly know how to handle it, but it's one of those like friction points when you're working with people in a different generation.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:10:31] It's tough. It's, it's definitely interesting.

Vance Crowe [00:10:35] So young women you've hired them for, for doing work for you.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:10:38] Yep. Yep. Absolutely. So part of my passion and really my, my career right, has been advocating for young women specifically in agriculture, excuse me. Not just young women, but women in agriculture. I think that's an important part of the culture of agriculture. I grew up on farm, I am specifically focused on the agriculture industry. And I think it's important to be aware of all the different facets that make up agriculture. So when I started my own business, not only did I want to keep that as a part of my values for my myself, but in the creative business it's mostly women. So it's not like I had a, a big pool to choose. So I'm not choosing on gender, but I do love the women that are working for me in all different aspects. So whether it be my personal business on a subcontractor base or through other teams that I join and there's women on those teams already. But I would say I surround myself with a lot of rockstar women.

Vance Crowe [00:11:43] And when you're working in social media, do you like working in social media? Is it like, is this, is it a medium that you're like, I'm really glad I'm here? Or you're just like, Hey, hey, this is the medium that needs my help.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:11:56] Honestly, no, it's, to me it is. I wouldn't say my passion is social media. Social media is the tool that helps me communicate my passion. My passion is relationships, telling stories and connecting others. Social media is that tool and, and businesses need that. So I've been able to create a business around that.

Vance Crowe [00:12:22] And so did you start off with your own business?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:12:25] No sir. It's new, new in the, in 2023. It's new. So I've always, I say I started in my, my area of business in the eighth grade when I begged my parents to get me a smartphone and we had dial up internet, right? Like it's not like we had like a computer that actually works. So getting a smartphone was way crazy. And

Vance Crowe [00:12:48] You were living on a hog farm?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:12:50] Yeah, so we have a diversified livestock and crop farm. So actually more cattle than pigs.

Vance Crowe [00:12:55] Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:12:55] And the pigs were specifically show pigs. We, in the nineties, the pork industry changed quite a bit. The pork industry really crashed. And my family got out of raising commercial hogs and niched down to specifically show pigs. And that's, that was my background and that's how I got involved in the agriculture industry.

Vance Crowe [00:13:15] And so you're living out in the country and you're begging for a smartphone and they gave in.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:13:19] Yes. And I don't know how, I think I just begged enough, we were at the Iowa State Fair at the US cellular booth and I think my mom was like, I don't even care. I'm tired of hearing you talk about it. But from there I started managing and creating social media accounts for our farm and for our show pigs. And this comes from, my mom is tech savvy. She wasn't at the time, my dad is like an 80-year-old cowboy in a 50 year old's body. So like 40 back then. No email, no social, A flip phone, right? Like we just got him to switch to iPhone a few years ago. So that became my job. And then that started my big career into social media. So when I walked into internships and a brand or a company was looking for a social media manager. Well yeah, I got tons of experience. I'm selling thousands of animals, thousands of dollars of animals, not thousands of animals online already. Oh,

Vance Crowe [00:14:17] And you were actually it was working.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:14:18] Yeah. Oh yeah. We had an awesome little business. Like we had a boar stu, which sells genetics across the country. And we sold a lot of show pigs. We won a lot of shows across the country. And I was managing all of that because my dad didn't know how to do it. We were selling livestock online actually since we've moved out of the house, it's kind of ironic 'cause now one of my clients is show pig.com which sells. That's the place you wanna sell. Show pigs online. It's like eBay for show pigs.

Vance Crowe [00:14:48] For show pigs. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:14:49] And I used it 10 years ago, but when I moved out of the house, my dad stopped doing it because he didn't know how to take pictures, edit pictures and put 'em online.

Vance Crowe [00:14:59] What are show pigs,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:15:02] Think of Charlotte's Web, you're exhibiting a pig. Simply that's, that's the process. It's, it's a little bit elevated compared to what you see in Charlotte's Web, but it is an exhibition, usually a youth show that they are exhibiting animals to a judge to win a prize.

Vance Crowe [00:15:18] Yeah. And the show industry in ag is like a fascinating thing. 'cause I've had a chance to go to some stuff and like when you're talking about commodity beef or commodity hogs, like that's one thing. And then you get into the realm of like what do they win on is not the same thing that maybe they would sell on. What is it that show pigs? Like how does somebody decide that's a, that's a winning show pig. Yep.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:15:42] So I'm also a history nut, right? So it used to be hand in hand. So the shows would be the best people would get together. They would decide on what the best market animal was. You would learn that at the show and then you would go home and raise that animal for commodity prices. So they were hand in hand. As the industry continued to grow, show pigs became its separate entity. Entity and commercial became another. There are still qualities that are important muscle a hundred percent important. Back fat, just fat overall. Like in marbling, in cattle fat in pigs. Like that stuff matters to a commercial producer and to a show pig producer. Where it became different is show pigs were able to elevate to a level that are fun. So it's size of the legs, we call that bone structure. Getting around structure is still important to a commercial producer because their pigs have to be able to walk, their cattle need to be able to walk, show pigs. It's important because that's how they're judged in the ring. They have to be able to walk. If you're not walking, you're not winning. But the size of their feet doesn't matter to a commercial producer. It's just fun for a show pig producer.

Vance Crowe [00:17:00] Oh, it's in. That's interesting. So there are qualities that you could like amp up in the show pig side that you would, there'd be no commercial value for it,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:17:08] No need.

Vance Crowe [00:17:09] So does the show pig realm change faster than the commodity?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:17:14] I would say yes. I think that's fair to say also because they're doing a lot of selective breeding on specific traits and commercial producers are doing it more on a larger scale. So the amount of pigs show pigs versus commercial pigs does not compare where I'm passionate and where I see it as a really big benefit to the industry as a whole is the show world is a great way to teach young people how to care for animals, how to work hard and how to compete. And that those are tactics that are going to lead them into their career, whether it be in or outside of the agriculture industry. But the commercial world needs to know how to care for livestock, how to work hard, and how to ultimately compete at the end of the day. Competition I think is always a good thing. So we're really funneling our youth into an awesome career.

Vance Crowe [00:18:08] Were you a competitive pig show?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:18:10] Oh yeah. I was terrible at sports. Terrible athlete. That was my sport.

Vance Crowe [00:18:15] Ah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:18:16] Yep.

Vance Crowe [00:18:16] And like how well did you do

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:18:19] Like, well like I've won multiple national shows. Really?

Vance Crowe [00:18:23] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:18:23] Yeah. And put me through college.

Vance Crowe [00:18:25] Tell me more about that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:18:26] Yeah, so my, oh and my family raised all the pigs that we showed too, which is really, I think special and really unique that I had the opportunity to do that. So from my two big shows that I won that I really wanted to win were the National Western Livestock Show in Denver, Colorado and the Iowa State Fair. Both of those animals, I have a picture of the state fair winner. His name was Philip the day he was born. My dad's holding, it's on my phone, my dad is holding him up. And the Denver pig, we also have a picture of him at a young age because we just knew they were gonna be special. You

Vance Crowe [00:19:02] Knew from when they were born you could look at 'em and be like, that's a real winner. Yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:19:06] I, I'm not going to take credit for that. My dad knew.

Vance Crowe [00:19:10] What did he know by looking at a piglet

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:19:13] Again, structure composition, body composition, size of feet just and Right. Like we can guess a lot of them are gonna be good and they won't turn out good. So it's not like

Vance Crowe [00:19:25] A for sure thing been. Yeah, there've been some false positives on that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:19:27] Absolutely. And then everything has to align accordingly. So like the judge has to like it. You might think you have a rockstar and it just doesn't fit for the judge that day. But those are my two proudest moments. And the fact that like we physically gotta raise it also, it could die. Like, let's be honest as an animal. So all the cards were right and they just all led up to the perfect, perfect situation.

Vance Crowe [00:19:49] I mean Iowa State Fair, that seems like that's like the Olympics for pigs.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:19:53] It was pretty amazing. It was my very last year. I had never won. I'd been third overall. I had like have plaques galore from the Iowa State Fair. Right. But I could never get to that very top spot and it was my very last show ever. So you age out, these are for youth shows. So a lot of these shows across the country are just for youth. So either 18 or under and 21 and under. Okay.

Vance Crowe [00:20:15] Because

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:20:16] The show industry greatly values the the values that they're teaching. And then you go on and have a career. So actually there was a TV show there, so it was captured through Farm RFD tv. I told them they could not come because I was really emotional. I had been showing there since I was five years old. The first time I stepped foot at the Iowa State Fair. I won the show at five years old, I won a thousand dollars. And then my last year at 21 years old, I won the show and I broke my sister's record from the year before and sold that pig for $53,000.

Vance Crowe [00:20:50] $53,000.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:20:52] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:20:53] Why does a pig get purchased for $53,000?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:20:56] It was purchased by a supportive business system that was able to come together through the sale champions, which is also a client of mine right now. Which is really cool to have that come full circle. But because

Vance Crowe [00:21:09] This is a business or a group of people that say, Hey, we're gonna buy these pigs Yep. As a as to provide a winning jackpot. So then they can do something with that

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:21:18] Business. Yeah. It goes to the kids. Wow. And then 25% of those dollars go into scholarship funds. So that year I sold my pick, actually I think it was $53,500. My sister's was 53,000, something like that. She was in the sale champions the year before I broke her record. I got three sisters. Forgot to mention that. So I broke her record, I won that year. And then my sister Macy, who is like total competitive rockstar bus, like collegiate, everything, she never made the sale champion. She also was close and we could never get her to that spot. But she got a $10,000 scholarship that year. So literally like my parents being a farm family of four kids, like we didn't have a college fund walking into college. But what they did was they gave us opportunities to get us through college. So that money went to our college funds.

Vance Crowe [00:22:14] You know, the thing that strikes me is you were in high school, you're creating this social media account for boars. Like Yeah. But you're like talking about pretty adult topics. You're talking about like semen and genetics and you know, can

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:22:27] You said that word not me. That's it. That usually makes people cringe, but yes. Yeah. I mean I know exactly what you but, but if

Vance Crowe [00:22:32] You don't tell it people like, oh she's sharing boar genetics. But like you really gotta think about like, oh no,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:22:35] Like collecting semen and then shit to

Vance Crowe [00:22:38] Know how to impregnate that pig

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:22:39] To like Yeah. And then you can do that. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:22:41] So like those are pretty adult subjects for

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:22:44] A

Vance Crowe [00:22:44] Young person. Yes.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:22:45] Yes. And I think I give my parents all the credit in the world because I also say like on our farm there wasn't boy chores and girl chores, there was just chores and there was just a lot of poop to scoop. I mean, but like from a young age we were helping Sal Pharaoh, which physically means putting on a glove and getting those pigs out. We were hands-on on the farm. And then my parents also gave wait

Vance Crowe [00:23:10] For people they don't know. You're saying there's a mama pig. We're we're reaching into her and we are pulling those pigs piglets all the way out. Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:23:17] Correct. Like we don't like to do that. But when a sow has 10 plus babies, they get tired.

Vance Crowe [00:23:24] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:23:25] So we really will give 'em a hand at that point. Yep. And if they're backwards and they need to come out fast, 'cause that umbilical cord breaks and then the lack of oxygen.

Vance Crowe [00:23:35] And so you're doing this, you're doing artificial in insemination. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:23:40] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:23:41] And

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:23:41] I don't like doing that part. Usually my dad would do that part, but we could,

Vance Crowe [00:23:45] I know a shocking amount about this because the people that do Legacy Interviews talk, a lot of them have like talked, you know, these stories where dad wasn't home and the sow needs to be impregnated. So mom's out there trying to like get the like sit on the sow. Yeah. Like see

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:24:00] What's in heat. Yeah. It's,

Vance Crowe [00:24:01] It's funny because this is such a core part of some people's lives.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:24:05] Yeah. And

Vance Crowe [00:24:06] Then there are people right now listening to this that are, they're like, you reach into the pig. Like how do you get that boar ready to give the semen? Like how does that work?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:24:14] My favorite sweatshirt to wear in the city. So I lived in Des Moines right after college and loved the city of Des Moines. Like in the city now my husband and I live here in St. Louis and we live in the city. I have a shirt that says Boars on it. And it's just another brand, right? Like I love the sweatshirt, I love wearing it, especially to the gym because I just giggled to myself. I'm like, how many people actually realize what's on my sweatshirt right now i's so stupid. But yeah, like it was very normal to be told like, hey go get the alias semen that's at the boar stud. And then you would literally drive over to the Boris stud, get the thing of semen, take it back to the farm. That was normal

Vance Crowe [00:25:00] And that you would know that that was even going on. Like yeah, I was a relatively naive kid. We didn't have the internet in the same way. So I didn't get my education through that. Like there's no chance in eighth grade I could have told you like, I mean I could have like told you like kind of in general what was going on here, but definitely not in detail and putting it into photographs and trying to sell people on, I mean that's

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:25:21] Why Oh yeah, yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:25:22] Hands are dirty.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:25:23] Oh yeah. And at 11 years old, I, so all of these livestock shows, right, have like contests, speech contests, knowledge tests, skilla, hons, all these competitions. And my family's very competitive. I'm very competitive. So like I wanted to win it all. So in the show ring all, all the things, right? I took this test when I was 11 years old and it was really hard and I was terrible at it. Now I might, I like just turned 11 like three weeks before, right? Like a 10-year-old child And my, I didn't get in trouble much like my parents I think parented so well. But I distinctly remember being in trouble because I did not answer what does AI stand for correctly? It's artificial insemination. So now we talk about ai, I am like, why aren't people talking about artificial insemination all the time?

Vance Crowe [00:26:15] Yeah. Different mindset. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:26:16] You

Vance Crowe [00:26:17] Know, I remember the first time I ever, I think like knew who you were. I like, you're like, so for people that are not in ag social media, like it's a small enough world that like, you know the people that are around there, you kind of, but I remember one time I was flipping through social media and you put a post out there of you in a swimsuit and it was, it was like you being like, hey some, you can correct me on this. But it was something to the effect of they're trying to remove the swimsuit competition from pageantry. Yeah. And this is a mistake because women like the pressure of this is something that you learn to overcome, not something you avoid or something to this effect. Yep. And I was like, oh man, let's see where this goes. First of all, what was the tweet and how, how did people reply to it?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:27:01] Yeah. So I love that we go from AI into social or to swimsuit competition because this is my life. So I also grew up, remember all those competitions? Then I became the Washington County Port Queen, the Washington County Fair Queen was first runner up at the Iowa State Fair Queen contest. And then I met someone who said, Hey, you should compete in Miss America organization. And I said Bring it on. Love it. I also danced my whole entire life. So that was, I said I was an athletic, I was, I had some rhythm. I guess

Vance Crowe [00:27:39] You were a girly girl then.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:27:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh for sure. Yeah. And I think that's like a super cool aspect to how I grew up as well. And again, my parents very much supported that. Like if we wanted to quit dance, the answer was no. Or you know, you could, but like you had to do something else off of the farm as well. So I got into the Miss America organization and it was one of the best things I could have ever done and it opened my mind and I still use it to this day on whether I'm working on my blog, my business, or any aspects of agriculture in general. And I loved it. And the swimsuit competition was the best thing that could have happened to me. Because yes, I danced but I did not work out because I never learned to because I didn't play sports and I was extremely important to my confidence. I had never seen myself as a girly girl. I had never seen myself as someone who could do something that wasn't second nature because I had done certain things from a very, very young age. So the fitness competition is back at the Miss Miracle organization. I'm still involved in that organization. I help prep some local contest winners to go to state competitions. I competed at Miss Iowa for two years. The girl that I competed with actually won Miss Iowa. So I have been to the Miss America competition. I did not compete in it, but I've been there. And I just think it is such an amazing aspect that brought so many different perspectives to my life that I would've never had, including walking on stage in a swimsuit.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:29:17] They got rid of it for a few years and I was ticked. And I did put that post on social media because look like I can pull pigs, I can drive a tractor, I can feel confident in a swimsuit. I can take care of myself and I can talk about it. And all of those aspects make up who I am. And I think it's really important for young women to have all those different aspects.

Vance Crowe [00:29:40] I don't even recall How was that comment received? How was your post?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:29:45] Honestly, I way better than I would've thought. And I think that is the reason why the swimsuit competition is back. And I, I understand with body positivity, like not everybody maybe wants to be in a swimsuit, but actually most women who build the confidence and work hard to get there, no matter what size they are, didn't hate the competition. In fact, that was a lot of the favorite parts of the entire Miss America organization competition layout was that swimsuit competition. So to me it felt like because, because not all bodies are swimsuit ready, we don't want to have anybody swimsuit ready. And from my aspect, by having that swimsuit competition, it does prove that all bodies are swimsuit ready.

Vance Crowe [00:30:37] That's an interesting way to look at it.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:30:39] And, and it teaches you, I mean the year they took it out, my sister actually competed at Messiah, she was second runner up. She said those girls were eating Oreos the night before the competition. I don't care if you're in a swimsuit or not, that's not healthy. So it did make me look at what I was eating and guess what? I was eating way too much sugar. I wasn't working out. So all those things that taught me to do, to take care of myself might've been like from a outside perspective, what I needed to do to look good in a swimsuit. But actually it helped me internally more than anything,

Vance Crowe [00:31:14] Than anything. I think it's really striking that I, I mean like I can't remember any Twitter posts or anything like that from years ago. But to be able to write that down in this particular culture like that was like actually doing something like, or saying something that mattered because very easy to be like, ah, I kind, I, it was good for me but I don't want to get involved in that. And I remember being like, that's, that's cool. That's like it follows my, my belief. We've talked about this before. So for listeners that don't know this, Lexi and I meet like regularly 'cause she's incredibly creative and I find that like if we sit down for an hour I'll get done and like have new ideas for talks and new ideas for all kinds of things. But I re you and I have talked about this thing called the Peter Teel paradox where it's like, what is the thing that you believe that almost everyone you know disagrees with you on? And when you have one of those, then you're actually saying something valuable. You're not just parroting when other people. And that right there was like, hey, this is a person willing to throw out a Peter Teel paradox.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:32:13] Absolutely. And I also appreciate our time that we spend together because I think about that a lot. And as I got busier and maybe bogged down in like corporate mindset or like trying to fit in and build my life, I realized that I had lost my sense of spark that I had when I was 22 years old that at, you know, almost 30 years old, I'm trying to get back. And you bringing that post up, it reminds me like, oh yeah, I have this spark in me and you're not the only one that remembers that post. And to me it was very personal, right? Like it wasn't like I was trying to break the internet, it was just like, hey, I'm ticked and this isn't okay and I don't care who's gonna listen. But it was important for me to share that.

Vance Crowe [00:32:58] Yeah. And I think when you, as you get older, you find out, like when you're young having controversial positions can like put you in like a, oh they're kind of edgy, they're kind of fun. But as you get older, an edgier and edgier position starts meaning like, Hey, I'm gonna pay a price for this. Yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:33:13] I'm

Vance Crowe [00:33:14] Going to either it's socially people are going to outcast me, my business may suffer, there may be people that don't like what I have to say. And what you end up getting is people pretending as though they're saying things they believe, but the reality is they're saying things and in the back of their mind and with their friends and with their family, they're saying something different and like it, it distorts things. So having a, the ability to be able to articulate a, a paradox like that is very valuable.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:33:40] And being able to talk through it. Like we don't have to agree. You can think the swimsuit competition in the Miss America system's the dumbest thing ever. Totally fine. Let me give you my perspective 'cause I actually did it.

Vance Crowe [00:33:52] Well I have probably a controversial position that I think that, and you, I don't know where you're gonna be on this.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:33:59] Guessed

Vance Crowe [00:33:59] Disagree. I'm pumped. I feel like there's been a bunch of stuff about mental health with agriculture and I believe that it is very easy for Grifters to come in and be like, we're gonna raise money to help people in farming out that are harming themselves. And I don't think they're helping.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:34:20] I agree.

Vance Crowe [00:34:21] Whoa. All right. So this isn't a Peter Teal paradox? No. Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:34:26] I don't know what the answer is though. So that's where I'm kind of stuck on that. But I do think mental health is a concern and I don't think raising money for it, it's gonna do a dang thing.

Vance Crowe [00:34:39] It seems almost cynical.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:34:41] Yes. When

Vance Crowe [00:34:41] Brands do it. Yes. When they're like, we've donated money to a, a fund to help farmers to help our customers not kill themselves or something. Right, right. Like there's something deeply cynical about it. It's, I can understand a brand wanting to do something that's helpful and be associated with doing something that's helpful, but there's something kind of dark about donating to suicide funds or things like that. It's

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:35:03] Like they're trying to be reactive rather than proactive. Okay.

Vance Crowe [00:35:07] And

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:35:07] I'm a really, I really believe in proactiveness, not reactiveness now. I appreciate those who are actually doing something. Like there are some amazing nonprofits that I think are amazing and I know they've probably done a lot of good, but as for like brands and companies to getting involved, maybe we should try to solve the problem versus being proactive. Oh, excuse me, I can't even say the word. Being reactive to the problem.

Vance Crowe [00:35:36] Yeah. I one time heard a veterinarian come in and talk about to, to a group of farmers being like, Hey, I know what it's like to watch these cows die and know that the treatment that you're gonna have to do is gonna make your farm bankrupt and you know, all these things. That seemed to me to be like a very helpful thing for somebody to come in and be like, this is what is really happening. I have seen this, this is what we went through and maybe that's what these organizations are doing. But I, there's something really dark about that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:36:07] Okay, so let's get into like nitty grittiness. Right. And I don't even think you knew like opening up this world because I haven't talked about this, which is hilarious because I just go on and say maybe it's a little hypocritical. I don't know, maybe it's just that I need to get my spark back and work on it. But I have struggled with anxiety big time. Turns out like I was diagnosed with asthma in like high school. I wasn't flipping asthma, it was anxiety.

Vance Crowe [00:36:35] No kidding.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:36:35] Yes.

Vance Crowe [00:36:36] Wow.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:36:36] I had an anxiety attack in the doctor's office and she came in and said, I'll give you an inhaler. Okay, yeah. That's gonna help a lot ma'am. Thank you. But it wasn't like, it's not her fault I guess, but it technically was 'cause she was the doctor. But turns out I didn't get diagnosed or treated for it until I was planning a wedding and getting ready to move. And it was actually my sweet husband that was like, are you okay? Like, no, I'm not okay. Like what is going on? And I will credit the Miss America organization, I have to do yoga. That was one of my things like I have to do in order to get my anxiety under control. And I wouldn't have figured that out if it wasn't for me taking on a workout routine while I competed in Miss America.

Vance Crowe [00:37:24] Wow. The

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:37:25] Other thing is, is I take a daily medication.

Vance Crowe [00:37:28] Oh, very interesting.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:37:29] And I am very apt to tell personally that I take that and it has been the best thing I've ever done in my life. And I'll joke like with people who are like, oh, I'm struggling with anxiety. I'm like, God, and, and big farmer is not a bad thing. So

Vance Crowe [00:37:45] Can I ask what Yeah. What medication you take?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:37:47] Yeah, I'm on Lexapro. Okay. So it's generic, but yeah, so that's my daily.

Vance Crowe [00:37:53] And how, how does it work? Do you know like what it does to make you feel better or feel not? No, no. It just works.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:37:59] Yes. Now the great thing is, is I did find a doctor that explained it all to my, I still have his notes and actually if I ever like second guess or think through it, I will go back and look at 'em. So it, Lexapro is for anxiety and depression. I wasn't showing signs of depression at all, but it was the lowest dose that I could start on. And I was scared to death fans. Like I was against it for years because I, I didn't need it. Oh, I didn't need it. Right. Like I'm not that bad. Yeah. I needed it.

Vance Crowe [00:38:33] And what did it change when you got on it? It,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:38:35] My moods are here and every time I got on a plane I swore it was gonna crash and I don't think that anymore, which is the nicest thing to think of.

Vance Crowe [00:38:45] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:38:45] So rather than like giant roller coaster and mood swings of like literal like bad thoughts, I'm a worrier. I'm still a worrier. Like I can, I can come up with all the worries in the world. I think honestly like had I not been on it, I look at starting my business and I think it would've been a lot harder for me to take the jump. And I just think it's been, it's been the best thing. I don't like planning a wedding and moving at the same exact time. Were super stressful and it just made it a lot more enjoyable and it made me take a deep breath and not think about all the bad things that were going to go wrong.

Vance Crowe [00:39:25] And when you start on a medication like this, does it start with the goal of I'm gonna get on it to level me out and then get off of it? Or does it not matter?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:39:33] Great question. So how it works, and I should probably, okay, when you say how it works, it, you don't wanna go off and on because that can cause irregular irregularities in your brain and, and the chemicals that make up your brain and it can actually make you like physically sick and not feel good. So the goal is eventually is you could get off of it, but they want you to stay on for at least six months. And now every year I go back once a year and if it's not harming then I'm just gonna stay on it because I've just felt a big difference.

Vance Crowe [00:40:14] And your family and your husband that knew you before and after Yeah. What, what has been, what have they reflected back to you?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:40:20] I'll tell my husband like, it's the best thing I've ever done. And he's like, I can't tell a difference. Oh

Vance Crowe [00:40:24] Really?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:40:24] Oh, he has no clue.

Vance Crowe [00:40:25] Wow.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:40:26] And he knew me way bef way well before, I mean we were a month from getting married, but then like yeah, he, he has no clue. And I'm like, are you serious? I can tell a difference. My friends can't tell a difference. I don't

Vance Crowe [00:40:40] Have any scope for like what sort of changed does that do? Right. Because in my mind this is as powerful as like smoking a joint or something. And I think about myself being like if I were high, high or or like yeah that that inebriated all day that I would be a literal different person. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:40:59] Like

Vance Crowe [00:41:00] The person that they're interacting with would be different Yep.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:41:03] Than

Vance Crowe [00:41:03] The person I was before. Is it not that?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:41:06] And that was a big worry of mine is because I didn't wanna be a different person.

Vance Crowe [00:41:10] Right.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:41:10] Like I loved the way my brain worked and the way I thought and literally like my doctor described it, I think there's a piece of paper written like on that piece of paper like, here are your highs and lows. Like if you can get like in a rut where you don't wanna do anything, then that's not helping you. And if you can be like so upset because you're so worried about everything that can go wrong that's not helping you. So really where your brain levels out is, it just keeps it a little bit more consistent. So yeah, like I can still get in bad ruts, I can still get really super creative highs. Like it, it didn't impact at all. It just makes me a little more level I feel like, and a little like I'm able to actually, you know when we talk about like reactive emotional like

Vance Crowe [00:42:01] Yeah. When

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:42:02] You're mad like I'm not gonna attack as much as I wanted to because I can actually step back and evaluate the situation versus like, I would take everything personally. I would overthink everything. It was just like not a good anxiety situation. I was also eating too much sugar. I was coming outta college where I probably drank a little too much to be a healthy normal human. So yeah, it just like really helped level it all out. But I've never posted that on social media.

Vance Crowe [00:42:33] Well I mean I think that it's really important because I get into my own like world on how I feel about this and I have this feeling that one day we will look back on medical birth control and we will say,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:42:46] Get me started on that one.

Vance Crowe [00:42:47] We were literally changing the minds of women and we're doing it to such an extent that even something as simple as what they smell is different and that smell and sexual attraction and all of these things are important. And so I look at like if I have this feeling on birth control, then like the, something like Lexapro is even more scary to me.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:10] Okay. So what I think is probably a challenge is rather than solving the root cause, we just prescribe more and more on top of it. I was on birth control.

Vance Crowe [00:43:25] Did it change your, the way you saw the world?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:27] Oh yeah, it's, it made me freaking crazy.

Vance Crowe [00:43:29] Really?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:30] Oh my acne, it gave me such bad acne and I think that those mood swings were worse, my cramps were worse, my mood swings were worse. So rather than taking off birth control, what did I have to get? I had to get Lexapro.

Vance Crowe [00:43:45] Oh.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:46] To balance that out.

Vance Crowe [00:43:47] Whoa.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:48] Right. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:43:49] Clearly

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:43:49] I'm not on birth control anymore 'cause I'm pregnant, but I can handle being pregnant at this point in my life. So when I went into my doctor, I, I had been asking for a while like, is it okay if I'm still on Lexapro being pregnant? And the answer is yes. I've had a knock on wood, I've had a lovely pregnancy. Like there's not been, you know, we were watching New Girl last night and like they were making fun of Cece being like crazy pregnant woman. I, I haven't been, which has been wonderful, right? Yeah. Like and I think part of that reason is because I am able to control my emotions a little bit better because with pregnancy everything gets heightened. I mean, I'm not saying I'm like perfect.

Vance Crowe [00:44:32] Yeah. And that's the crazy thing about birth control, right? You're telling your body, Hey you're low grade pregnant. Like you're literally, you're in like day two or three of pregnancy, right? Yes. I think something like that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:44:40] And you're on, I started birth control for my acne at age 16. Wow. I was on it for 10 years. Wow.

Vance Crowe [00:44:46] That's

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:44:46] Not okay. Yeah. So I would like to get off Lexapro at some point in time, but at this point in my life it was more important for me to be mentally consistent and keep my body at a consistent pace that was working for me versus having a child and growing a child and then changing everything on top of that. I also don't know this for postpartum depression, but I have done a lot of research that actually the Lexapro that I'm on should help with postpartum depression. And I know that's a very serious concern for a lot of women after

Vance Crowe [00:45:28] They had children. Oh. 'cause that is legit you that that postpartum depression, that is something that they should be telling men about a lot more because you have a woman that just like her hormones are flying around. It's crazy. And like the thoughts going on in her mind. I mean how much can you control your own thoughts? Very little. Yeah. But you're now throwing in waves of that like women talk about, I thought I would hurt my own child. Right. I couldn't, I couldn't, you know, drive into town anymore. I became agoraphobic like is a high price to pay to go through the hormone swing of having a child.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:45:59] Absolutely. And then you look at it like women that don't have supportive spouses or family around or going like trying this alone. Like my husband is able to take a lot of time off of work but he's actually not going to be able to because of his demanding job. So I'm like, we're not touching anything. Right. Like we're just gonna be in coast mode. So that's why I'm still on it to be very honest with you. And part of the reason why I haven't put it out into the world, like a typical thought process that I would is because I would rather have a one-on-one conversation versus I don't need sympathy. And a lot of times when you post something on social, especially about mental health or especially about anything like

Vance Crowe [00:46:44] Oh I know health wise 'cause the opposite when you say something Yeah. Negative about birth control or Yeah SSRIs, people come outta the woodwork to be like, it's

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:46:51] Like they're like offended like,

Vance Crowe [00:46:53] You want me to be dead? Like I'd be dead without this.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:46:55] Yeah. Like

Vance Crowe [00:46:55] So this is a very good conversation for me because anytime I've put this out in social media, the conversation has not been

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:47:02] Productive. It's not positive. Yeah. And that's really why I haven't put it out there because I'd rather have a conversation about it. And again, it's the same thing about like pageants and agriculture and now mental health. Like I'd rather you just know my personal opinion because I don't know everyone's opinion and I like we're able to have a better conversation about it.

Vance Crowe [00:47:23] Yeah. And I think that that's something that people like you absolutely need to hear what other people went through so that when you're going through it Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:47:32] You're

Vance Crowe [00:47:33] Like, oh okay. Like Christmas time is great if only because if you go to like a community Christmas gathering, you now see the other people that you view as like professionals that are sharp and well put together. Yeah. And they're worn down and their kid is like laying on the ground screaming and you're like, oh, like

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:47:52] Your

Vance Crowe [00:47:52] Life is difficult too. Yes. Like you, you like don't, you know, because when you just see people from afar, you don't get to know like what kind of challenge. I think even talking with my siblings over Christmas about like, you know, they couldn't get their kids to go to sleep and they had to sit outside and hold the door 'cause the kid was coming out and you're like, oh, I thought I was the only one that thought I might have to lock my child in her room. Like

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:48:14] Yeah,

Vance Crowe [00:48:14] Thank goodness for talking to people. But if you spend too much time on social media and that's the only interaction you have, you views on things, I think one can't be clarified by other people. And two, I myself become more extreme in my views. Yes.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:48:31] And when you asked me earlier if I like social media, I, and I say it, it wasn't my passion, it's simply because I see it as a tool. Right. I still think social media is not replacing human conversation and it's really important to have human conversation and that's, there's some things that don't need to go on social media 'cause I don't know how to get it across correctly. And that's okay.

Vance Crowe [00:48:54] It's funny you said that about the human communication because I realized that as I started doing more Legacy Interviews Yeah. I use Twitter way less. And I think it was because like I was living in a world where a lot of the communication I did now I've had all these great conversations, I've heard all these stories

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:11] And you're good.

Vance Crowe [00:49:12] And so like the number of times I post on Twitter is way, way down.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:16] I actually walking in here was just thinking that I don't even think I'm logged out. Like X logged me outta Twitter and I don't think I've posted a tweet in over a year.

Vance Crowe [00:49:25] Oh.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:26] And I was on, that's probably how we met was Twitter.

Vance Crowe [00:49:28] Yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:29] I

Vance Crowe [00:49:29] Think so.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:31] I just don't use it anymore. I don't need to. I'll get on, I'll scroll. But yeah, my, my usage specifically on Twitter has gone down a lot.

Vance Crowe [00:49:44] So you mentioned earlier that a lot of the people that are in social media are women.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:49] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:49:50] Why do you think women are drawn to this particular field more than men?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:49:54] I, that's a good question. In communications in general, it's a, it's a female dominated field and I think it's an opportunity. I do think, like I said, I advocate for women on, that's just part of my values. But that doesn't mean always equal and that doesn't mean that we can't look for the qualities that each, each gender brings because they do bring different qualities. And I think that's amazing. So actually I just gave a speech a few weeks ago that was about imposter syndrome. But rather than women, like we've talked about the confidence and, and having imposter syndrome rather than letting that take over them, using it as a gift to bring a different perspective to the table, specifically in the world of agriculture. And females can do that. And I think females in general have been drawn to the communications world because in my mind I see more females being having that creative mindset. I think there's certain skills that females brains are naturally able to take on and it just has naturally gone into the world of social media and communication.

Vance Crowe [00:51:16] Yeah. My wife is an engineer and I'm the communications person. So I think in a lot of ways, like I went to find the opposite, right? Yeah. 'cause I was like the just highly like blah, blah, blah talking

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:51:27] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:51:28] And have lived in the world of, of communications and it is a lot of women. Yeah. And I have a hypothesis Yes.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:51:36] That

Vance Crowe [00:51:36] I believe that the women that are in it, another way to say this is I believe that college party girls actually rule the western world. And that the way that this has all occurred is that the person that is in communications oftentimes a partier, right? Like I was in communications, I was in college, right? So these are often like people that they both get their central satisfaction from being an extrovert and being around people and also like communicating and talking and figuring out how to frame things and make it beautiful. They get brought into corporate America.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:52:10] Yep.

Vance Crowe [00:52:10] And in corporate America, there are people that are like, I am a heads down, I'm going to work relentlessly hard. I'm just going to do my work to make my company grow and grow and grow. Now we need somebody that can communicate. What should we do? Well, let's hire some communications people who are most of the communications people, college party girls that come in and reflect their ideas about the way the world works. And they bring ideas into corporations that are more about empathy and getting people to get along. And so this becomes the first, they, they just believe it themselves and then they start embedding it into the work and then it starts spreading out and, and they're the ones that are the spokesperson and running the channels. So I believe that so much of what is going on in the western world is dominated by college party girls.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:52:59] I am dying laughing because that's the best thing I've ever heard. And I feel like I am not a good guest right now because I'm agreeing with you. You're making my period Teal Paradox is hard. Yeah. The problem is is I agree. I completely agree. It's not a problem. Heck yes. And my number one, I love talking to students. That is like, I use social media as a tool. Like I've said, my number one value and my number one goal in life is to simply connect people. I'm a relationship person. Vance. I ruled the bars. I did not miss a day. And you know what? I could go and drink a glass of water and rule the bar. Like it wasn't the substance at the bar, it was the people at the bar.

Vance Crowe [00:53:43] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:53:44] And my number one advice I give to, I talk to a lot of like new college students and then graduating college students. And I hire a lot of 'em. Like I said, go to the bars, go socialize. It is the best thing you could do. And that is my, and my husband was the same way, which is hilarious because he is an introvert. But in that college setting, him and I went to the same college. He was a senior when I was a freshman. We did not cross over at said bars because I did not go underage because I didn't have an older sister and I didn't have a good enough fake. And I tried one time and I got kicked out. So I never went back underage. So we never met until after college. But we loved the same establishments. But him and I, the best connections we got outta college were a hundred percent at those bars.

Vance Crowe [00:54:32] And I think that there's a whole bunch of engineers or people that are, you know, building things that they're like, what, every moment I spent at the bar kept me from getting an A on my physics test or you know, the, the science lab or whatever that was.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:54:45] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:54:46] And but what do you think about my, like this is what is driving culture. Yes. Because like, I mean this on a very

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:54:51] Deep level culture.

Vance Crowe [00:54:52] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:54:52] Yes. I a hundred percent agree because every company I've come into and leave, like I've, I've been to three different companies and left them. And I would say if you went back to those people, it wasn't the work that they miss. It was the attitude that they miss and the culture and the connection and the excitement that you build at a company. And it's simply because I think this is another, you're a woo girl.

Vance Crowe [00:55:17] What do you mean?

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:55:18] So there's the five, like there's a strengths test that I can't even remember Cubby does, I think, and Woo is one of those strengths. And I am a woo girl through and through I was a cheerleader in high school. I was the, you know, like excitement in my sorority. I was, that's just who I am. And that's a phrase that I've heard multiple times is, oh, you're, you're a woo girl.

Vance Crowe [00:55:45] Like enthusiasm or bringing like attention to things that you like. Yeah. Yeah. You're

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:55:50] Just like a pump up person. Like, I wanna pump you up because you pump me up and then it's gonna pump the whole room up and that's the kind of room I wanna be in.

Vance Crowe [00:55:58] Well, I I didn't know how you would take this theory. I, I brought it up once on the podcast before and it really angered some women that were not college party girls. And my whole point was, you're also not the person in a corporation. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:56:12] That's

Vance Crowe [00:56:13] Like, why don't we do this new idea? Yeah. Hey, everybody's into this thing. Why don't we try this? Hey, why don't we frame it this way? Yeah. And when you look at it over a, a long arc of 20 or 30 years of college party girls driving the communications departments of the major corporations. Yeah. That means they are driving the conversation of the global world, really. Yeah. They're nor at least the western world.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:56:34] And we need both. It's okay. We don't need everyone because I didn't like waiting in line at the college bars. Right. Like I don't want my whole college in the bars because I wanna get into them. But also my younger sister, I, we'll call her a grandma, right? Like old soul grandma, she is 22 years old. She's gonna graduate this year, practically a four point and a biology degree, gonna go to med school and she's getting married. She'll text when she goes to the bars because she wants us to be proud of her. So we joke, 'cause there's four of us, right? The three, we were very social, number four, not social adult. She could be a hermit, but we need her because she is like super smart and she's gonna do something good in her company too. But don't put her on the social committee. She she's not gonna do it.

Vance Crowe [00:57:30] Yeah. I don't

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:57:30] Put her on the comms department, not her strength.

Vance Crowe [00:57:33] I think when I was younger and I made this realization, I had a judgment about it and I was like, this is not good, this is bad. But now I've just come to the realization of like, this is just the way that it is. And that people should understand that so much of culture is driven in this way that I think is kind of hidden if you've never worked in that environment well

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:57:53] And I guess sitting here I could be like offended that you would call me a college party girl, or

Vance Crowe [00:57:59] I thought you might be. So I was a little nervous about that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:58:01] Really? Yeah. Oh, well thank you. I don't get offended very much, especially, I don't know. You can, you can judge me. I don't care. And the podcast listeners can judge me, but at the end of the day, like I wasn't unsafe. I didn't break any laws. Knock on wood. I've never been arrested.

Vance Crowe [00:58:19] Well, and you are driving exactly to the beginning of the podcast. The, the direction the, that the company is going and like what should we do? Yeah. How should we present? Who are we trying to reach? How are we gonna reach them? What is it? Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:58:30] And I think part of me, okay, maybe here's our paradox. Like part of me pushing and like my, my spark that I have and like pushing a little bit is like I also hardly Ms. Church on Sunday. And that was very important to me too. That goes back to anxiety, yoga, medicine, church on Sundays. Like those are my three things to like keep me in my mindset what

Vance Crowe [00:58:51] Kind of church

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:58:52] I grew up Catholic.

Vance Crowe [00:58:53] Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:58:54] So that consistency and that tradition was very, is very important to me. And I hardly missed. So some people who are very good Christians would probably look at me and think, well that doesn't make, like if you were at the bar Saturday night, that doesn't make you a good Christian. Well I didn't break any laws. Like I didn't break to any sins. Right? Like

Vance Crowe [00:59:14] Yeah. I've always thought like if Jesus was really worried about people drinking his first miracle probably wouldn't have been to turn a bunch of water into wine. Right.

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:59:21] That's, that's my thought. And like I just wanna do what makes me happy. And I also want young people to know like you can do you and people might judge you. And that's okay.

Vance Crowe [00:59:35] Well, since you mentioned Catholicism, I'm gonna bring up another like hypothesis I had like for a couple weeks off for the holidays

Lexi Marek Beeler [00:59:41] Bunch. You're, you're thinking I love it.

Vance Crowe [00:59:43] But I believe that there is a massive schism coming to the Catholic church that will be a global schism that, that it will actually break apart. And we will have a western church in an eastern church. There'll be the Roman Catholic church and probably the American Catholic church. And do you wanna know why I think this? Yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:00:01] Tell me.

Vance Crowe [01:00:02] So I grew up in a, in a Catholic church in a small farm town in central Illinois where my parents were one of the, they they got together with a group of friends and they brought a Catholic church to this town. And it was of of the like much more liberal mindset of like we are not talking about the crucifixion, we're talking about risen Jesus. We are not honoring the tabernacle. We are trying to include women and allowing girls to betar servers. So my parents were very much a part of this movement. They were post Vatican ii and where I grew up in central Illinois is in the Peoria diocese. And eventually the bishop that was there left and a new one came in and this one was a lot more conservative. So all of a sudden the risen Jesus that they had was taken down and they put a bloody crucifix up. Right Now all of a sudden there's iconoclastic statues of Mary and a place to do adoration, which in the liberal movement, this is not going on. And I've seen this build and build and build, particularly in places like the Peoria diocese and Springfield diocese. I went to Catholic church with my family for Christmas and the priest gave cer celebrated the mass with his back to the parishioners. Which really, which is something that happened in the nine pre 1960s. So like after Vatican two they flipped it around and the priest spoke to the, to the audience. But the, but in the past it was always, you are doing this with the Eucharist in front of him and this is all towards Jesus and so you can do it.

Vance Crowe [01:01:35] It was never changing the rule of saying you couldn't do it. It just was like, it just went away. Well this priest who was like, I don't know, maybe late twenties, early thirties, I believe he is a part of a big movement going on in the Catholic church, which is the only people still joining are going to become ultra orthodox. They're going to follow every single rule and they're going to start slicing out the cafeteria Catholics. And that this is going to create a schism that Rome is not down with. The Pope right now is doing things like we're gonna potentially bless gay unions. You know, I don't know if you saw that Notre Dame University, their sister school, St. Mary's, which is an all girls school, they tried to say we're gonna start letting trans women in. And people freaked out. But they were, they were all set to do it. Yeah. So there's a movement going on where one side of the church is trying to liberalize and the other side is saying, no, no, no. In order to stay strong we're going to become more orthodox.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:02:30] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:02:31] And the schism is coming.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:02:33] So few thoughts on that. You know, that's actually happening right now in the Methodist faith.

Vance Crowe [01:02:38] I didn't know that.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:02:39] The United Methodist church has physically split into two.

Vance Crowe [01:02:42] Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:02:43] And the reason I know that is because I loved my Catholic upbringing. It was fantastic. It was a very positive space. I served on the altar. I got a card with 20 bucks in it when I graduated high school, thanking me for my time serving on the altar because I didn't think anything of it. Right.

Vance Crowe [01:03:06] Like

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:03:06] That was just what you did. And I loved it. So I was very involved in the church also small town, 500 people. There is one Catholic church, two Casey's and a casino.

Vance Crowe [01:03:18] Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:03:19] And maybe a Methodist church, but I never knew anyone who went there.

Vance Crowe [01:03:22] Okay.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:03:23] It was wonderful. I also have some pretty big beliefs that don't align with what the Catholic faith is supposed to align with. But walking into that church, I have never felt like I was shamed or going to hell for thinking about that. And the priest we're also 20 minutes from Iowa City, which Iowa City is known to be. It's where the University of Iowa is housed and it's known to be a very liberal mindset. So I don't know if that helped a little bit, but it just was always a very welcoming space. Moving to St. Louis, I've really struggled with finding a church that I felt the same way at. And one of the things I always loved about the Catholic faith is that you could walk into a church and feel the same thing through all of the churches. And actually as an adult right now, I'm not feeling that in this diocese. And I've really, we, we've actually not gone to a Catholic church here in St. Louis because it wasn't, it wasn't a good feeling. My husband is not Catholic, he was not raised Catholic. We were married in my Catholic church. We did not do mass. We were married by the deacon that I grew up with and it was the most beautiful ceremony I could have ever asked for. And he agrees. And his family who also is not Catholic and part of my family is not Catholic. It was the best ceremony we could have ever asked for. So walking in here, I have a big problem with women not being able to be involved in mass. Like that's not how I was raised.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:04:54] I never thought of anything differently. So we've started going to a Methodist church in which we love very different, but they still do communion every Sunday. They still practice. It's actually very similar, just more better music. 'cause our music back home was terrible. Not terrible, but it just like

Vance Crowe [01:05:13] Wasn't Yeah. They playing songs that you rotate throughout

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:05:15] The

Vance Crowe [01:05:15] Year. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:05:15] Like there was no drums, no guitar. Like now there's drums and guitar. It's almost too good at this new church 'cause I'm a bad singer. So I'm like, can we just sit down and like listen to the songs? I don't wanna like stand up and sing every time. But it's wonderful, right? Like that's a good problem to have. But they have recently said that actually based on gay rights, the United Methodist Church is splitting in two and our pastor believes in something differently than another side, another sector of the Methodist church. So it's not just the Catholic church. And it's concerning to me because I believe our country's already really divided. And I think this is only gonna make it worse and make it more extreme because by surrounding yourself with people that don't agree with you, you actually become more respectful and have a wider mindset. And like you and I can sit here, although on this podcast we're not agreeing or we are not disagreeing on a lot of different things. We probably do in some aspects. And that's okay because we're sitting here having the conversation. If I'm only surrounding myself by extremists in my values, I'm not getting other perspectives at all. So part of the church, but this isn't what organized religion stands for, is I think different opinions are okay. And letting one person decide what everyone's supposed to think is actually a really toxic way to think. But that's what organized religion is.

Vance Crowe [01:06:38] I think orthodoxy is and and liberalization are completely natural processes. And that if we were to go back and look in time and just speed time up because information moves so much faster. So if we think of time as information, when people couldn't write, they couldn't share an idea from one place to another information, therefore time moved very slowly. But now time moves very, very quickly. Right? Yeah. Because information moves quickly and I think that it is inevitable that there is always a group of people that are saying, let's be more open. And there's people that are saying, let's be more closed. And in particular as the more open breaks, most of the cultural norms of what's going on, then the people that are somewhere in the middle are like, do I want to go into the unknown? Right.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:07:26] Or

Vance Crowe [01:07:26] Do I want to go to the known? And that's what the Catholic church is going to try. And the Orthodox Catholic church is gonna try and offer them is we will tell you who's in and who's out. We will tell you what the right rules are and what aren't. And for a lot of people that are afraid, this is gonna be very, very comforting. Yeah. This is gonna be like, hey, we don't believe in women being men and going into locker rooms or something.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:07:50] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:07:50] And so now you can be around a bunch of people that think that and you know, so again, this is one of those things where I don't have like a, I don't have a valence on it. I'm not like happy or sad about it. I just think like that's happened and I think it's gonna happen a lot faster than what people think.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:08:08] I also think based on tradition, like what do you do? Like if and when we move to southeast Iowa, which is our goal based on like some of the thoughts of the Catholic church, like if I don't agree with it, but I wanna go to church there because I enjoy the church, am I following a path that I shouldn't be following or am I joining something that is tradition and comforting and ultimately I know is good people?

Vance Crowe [01:08:36] I have this argument with my, in my mind all the time. So my wife is a very sweet woman, goes to church every Sunday and takes our, our oldest daughter, the youngest one is like too loud or whatever. But that's coming soon. And like there are aspects of that that I'm really grateful for because I think that a lot of my grounding, a lot of the stories, the memes that are in my brain about what's the right way to behave and what's the right thing to do are there, but I also like, hey, there was a bunch of pedophilia that was coordinated, or at least like, yes, not stopped by the leadership. Are we all just gonna pretend like that didn't happen?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:09:16] Like it's okay.

Vance Crowe [01:09:17] So like there that, and like I could go into the nitty gritties of like the doctrinal differences, but like I don't feel like I can go there and I certainly would really struggle to go and just sit there and be like, I'm supporting my wife and daughter by sitting here, but I don't believe it because what am I telling my daughter?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:09:34] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:09:35] So like, but I want them to have those things. So I try and read them bible stories of which I like struggle to believe are divine, but they're also very helpful. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:09:44] When

Vance Crowe [01:09:45] It's just you, it's one thing. But as you're finding out now

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:09:48] Bringing a human,

Vance Crowe [01:09:49] Then you've got this whole nother layer of like, what do I, what do I believe, not just for me, but what do I believe for the future?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:09:55] Well, and I think this is another thing and I think gets into political parties and everything of like, I don't have to agree and, and actually, you know, we talk about how I was raised and, and probably did a lot of adult things early, but it didn't seem like adult things. It was just really good lessons. But because of the conversations about semen and, and pulling animals and then also a lot of time spent in the truck, I have a great relationship with my parents where we're very, we're able to talk through things and also not agree on things, but still have a legit conversation. And one of the things that my dad and I do not agree on is the Catholic church right now because he lives where he grew up physically lives where he grew up, the church is where he grew up. And it's, it is a very important place for me. And his point is, well if you, if you, okay, let me think how he says this. If you base your actions on not agreeing with all of the things, you will never find a place where you actually fit.

Vance Crowe [01:11:03] That's very true.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:04] And I agree.

Vance Crowe [01:11:05] Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:08] Yes, yes. Right. Like I, so I could find a different church in which we have here, but I still don't agree on all of the things. I pull out parties as

Vance Crowe [01:11:19] Catholic. Doesn't it feel a little like going to Fisher-Price? Like somebody when you go to another service that is not Catholic, you're like, yeah, you guys are doing this, but not the real way.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:29] Yes. But

Vance Crowe [01:11:29] The real way is this other way. Even if you're like, I don't even if you're like me and you're like, I don't believe in that, that's not my thing. Yes. I still go to another service and I'm like, yeah, well that's kind of the,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:39] I kind of like

Vance Crowe [01:11:39] Pretend that's a plastic way.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:40] I don't really know if we should have drum sets at church. Like I struggle with that. Yeah, it's great,

Vance Crowe [01:11:48] But it's not the Catholic

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:11:50] And, and it's not what I'm used to. And I'm okay with taking that time and that piece in my head and taking that hour. Actually we talked about naming pigs or like we talked about pigs and a lot of our pig names came like, amen, hallelujah. Like these were

Vance Crowe [01:12:08] Big bores, right.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:12:10] That we sold a lot of semen on and we, it was literally a joke. Like my dad would name his animals at church every Sunday and we never missed a Sunday because that man needed to go name some more animals. But you do a lot of thinking and, and faith is very important to me. And I think when it comes down to it, I want to raise a child that has its ability to make its own opinions, but I think still exposing to other opinions is a really good way to form those opinions. So I dunno what the answer on faith is, and I dunno what we're gonna do. You

Vance Crowe [01:12:43] Get your child baptized.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:12:45] I want to, yes. And I want to simply because my world is a world of gray. I'm in marketing communications, I can twist anything, right? Like I can, I can go down rabbit holes. My husband's world is very black and white. So if we think of things in the black and white sense, I really wish like religion and politics were stripped down a little bit and everyone kind of got to themselves. So like in my mind there is like original sin and, and to be baptized, like yes, I would love that because that is very simple in my mind. And, and that is okay. And like let's just, let's just original

Vance Crowe [01:13:25] Sin. You're not gonna fit in anywhere in these Protestant. I know. You're like, you got no hope.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:13:29] I know. Like, yes, it it exactly. Right.

Vance Crowe [01:13:32] And,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:13:33] And just like, I'm just in, in life right now. I think, I'm just trying to think things very simple like black or white because I could get myself spun up on, on the greatness in life a lot.

Vance Crowe [01:13:45] So you're in the midst of working with these companies and these brands. What's going on in ag that people that have got their heads down, either they're not in ag at all or they're just working hard, what's coming in this world that people don't expect

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:13:59] What's coming in this world? I think technology is here to stay and what's coming in this world is a little bit frightening to me is we are in a place in life right now where the American dollar is all over the board. Right. Interest rates, economy, et cetera, et cetera. I am worried about, not worried about in my family. I'm the sixth generation on both sides. So my mom comes from a century farm and my dad comes from a century farm. Very uncommon. My century

Vance Crowe [01:14:37] Farms are those farms that have been in existence for over a hundred years in the same family,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:14:41] Correct? Yes. And, and not like the family moved and took a farm with them. Like the same piece of land has been in that family for a hundred years. So I have that on both sides. I am so lucky to have both grandparents, they're all four are close to their eighties, not all four in their eighties. My grandma would tell me that that is not true, but they're close to their eighties and passing that down is real and passing that down and wanting for this baby to be the seventh generation is real in my mind. And again, that comes back to tradition where it's the biggest challenge is how do you actually make that pencil out? Because land prices a lot of land. My grandpa bought for 1200 an acre to 1800 an acre, maybe $3,500 an acre. And we're looking at 12,000 to $16,000 per acre. And

Vance Crowe [01:15:39] That's today because by next month it could be more, right? Absolutely. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:15:43] Absolutely. So for my husband and I to buy that piece of land, it will cost us over a million dollars. And the margins in agriculture do not deliver that back. We both work in the agriculture sector where we benefit from farmers every single day. We are getting paid from that, that farmer. So we're taking advantage of the other side right now. But if we were to actually go home and farm, which we have the opportunity to do, the earning potential is a challenge. So learning how to make that happen and there's no right answer, but figuring out how to make that happen is really stressful right now.

Vance Crowe [01:16:28] Yeah. I think that it's the only way out is through creativity because yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:16:32] In

Vance Crowe [01:16:32] The commodity game you will always be driven to the most efficient, like the, the efficiency horizon where you're like with the, the market will squeeze every single penny out of it so that the producer doesn't get it. That it's just like they can shave it down as much as they can.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:16:48] Yep.

Vance Crowe [01:16:48] So that's why I interview people like Zach Smith who does stock cropper, Jason Mal. I'm gonna have a guy named John Kemp on Okay. Are

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:16:55] You familiar

Vance Crowe [01:16:56] With him? So he's an Amish guy that like does all this stuff on regenerative farming. Whoa. And my immediate reaction to regenerative farming is this is a communist plot. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:05] To try

Vance Crowe [01:17:05] And change farming. But I read his stuff and I don't think he's, I,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:09] It's like pretty cool.

Vance Crowe [01:17:09] He doesn't seem like a commie to me.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:11] Okay.

Vance Crowe [01:17:11] But I think that that's the only way through it. But what this is going to mean is there's going to be a narrowing, I think you've always had to be smart to be a farmer. Yep. Now it's going to be on a very, very different level. Like Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:22] Like

Vance Crowe [01:17:22] There is going to be no more like we just worked harder than other people. Yeah. It,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:27] It's

Vance Crowe [01:17:27] Going to be not just like we had to be more creative or we had to be smarter with our You have to be dramatically smarter. Yeah. And be able to dramatically try things that are radically different than what other people are doing in order to survive in this like world where the government is so devaluing our currency that yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:45] Only

Vance Crowe [01:17:45] The biggest players will be able to own land.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:17:47] A hundred percent. And at the end of the day, I've always said that farmers are actually Democrats who think they're Republicans because the amount of dollars that the US government sends to farmers is wonderful. So there's still like that, like crop insurance is government subsidized. Most farmers are borrowing money from a farm credit system, which is a bank which is ran by the government.

Vance Crowe [01:18:16] Not technically, but Yes.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:18] Not ran. Okay. Sorry.

Vance Crowe [01:18:20] But the, the thing that the government does with that is yes,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:22] There

Vance Crowe [01:18:22] Are no depositors into the farm credit system.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:24] Yes.

Vance Crowe [01:18:24] So the US government plops money there and they say give it out.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:27] Yep.

Vance Crowe [01:18:28] And you just can't lose money. That's what you're not allowed to do.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:30] Okay. Not ran connected

Vance Crowe [01:18:32] Very deeply, deeply connected

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:34] To

Vance Crowe [01:18:34] The government. Yeah. A hundred percent. And that's 45% of all the lending done in all of farming is through farm credit.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:18:40] We're big farm credit and I love 'em. They're great, they're great humans too. Like they, they know agriculture as well. So it's super interesting of like how government systems are intertwined into the agriculture industry. But I don't wanna advocate for that to change either because it's how it's been and like, good grief, we've gotta change enough on the farm in order to bring seventh generation and even like next generation back home, home full time. Like I need everything else to stay the same so I can get my things in order so I can figure out how to do it. And building my business is going to help that. Like, I can now work wherever I want to. And being home on the farm is actually a huge benefit to me because I am ingrained in the day to day yet does my business need to subsidize me, keeping my land running? And I think that's the big question because that ultimately is kind of how it's gonna have to be at this point. Speaking

Vance Crowe [01:19:42] Of your business, like now that people have gotten a chance to, to know you like it, I actually typically don't like social media people for, for brands, but you and I have like really developed a, a good working relationship. Tell people about your business. What is it that you offer? Who hires you? Why do they hire you?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:19:58] Yep. So this spring I, I kicked off LMB consulting. So what LMB consulting does is we are a marketing consulting company for agriculture businesses specifically. We have a few different options. So I talked about that framework on social media. So I can introduce your company to that framework and I can implement it. I have a team underneath me that can help keep up the monthly management on that framework of what is social media, get your company, have a successful social media pages. So that is one aspect of my business. The other direction that I can go is you hiring me as a consultant specifically. So when I work with Pioneer Seeds, pioneer Seed specifically hires as a person and Lexi myself does the work for Pioneer seats. So there is implementation on that end. The other side of the business that I have is speaking opportunities. So that's, that's my heart. That's what I love to do. And it comes down to connecting with people. So working on that aspect is

Vance Crowe [01:21:04] Another Yeah. That's what we talk about a lot. What do you like to tell

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:21:06] About? Yeah. And you've been like amazing in that aspect. 'cause again, imposter syndrome, right? Like it's so nice to, to hear from another person who's doing it very successfully.

Vance Crowe [01:21:17] W what do you like to talk about?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:21:19] Great question. Vance. Like we've talked about this before. The two things that I am covering is specifically talking to women and their imposter syndrome and how they can use that as a gift rather than as a a deter. And then the other side of things is specifically using social media, but not in the way that you would think like telling your story out the window. Let's talk about how to actually use social media to make relationships, not to go viral on social media because that's not the way that you're gonna build a relationship. What

Vance Crowe [01:21:55] Do companies care about? Are you talking are you talking to companies at that point or are you talking to individuals at that point when you're speaking that way about relationships?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:22:03] Relationships would be individuals.

Vance Crowe [01:22:05] Individuals.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:22:05] Yep. So actually a lot of my business right now where I want it to go is more individual basis because that's what fills my cup up. I love working for most of my clients are actually corporate clients and that's, that's my jam. But I love that aspect because they bring a team of really talented individuals. So at the end of the day, the individual relationship is what I value. But corporate companies are putting together strong teams of individuals. So I do enjoy working with corporate companies as well.

Vance Crowe [01:22:42] So you are gonna have a child.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:22:44] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:22:44] And 20 years from now, that child will be, you know, a young adult. It's

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:22:49] Weird. What

Vance Crowe [01:22:50] Do you think the world will look like when they're an adult?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:22:54] I'm a hopeful person. I am a dreamer, right? So I think a lot of people would say, oh, the world's going to hell. And maybe it is, but I don't wanna believe that. I truly think that we will see in the next 20 years a ro a lot of resolutions or spinoffs like we've talked about in church, in politics. I think there's gonna be a revolution of change because I think people of my age and my generation are tired of trying to be put into buckets that they actually don't fit in in either bucket. So I think there will be some revolution, meaning

Vance Crowe [01:23:31] Like I was presented, I can either be a Republican or a Democrat, but I'm not either of those. Or I can be conservative or liberal, but the, the world is much more

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:23:40] Nuance. Be Catholic or Protestant.

Vance Crowe [01:23:41] Okay, I

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:23:42] Can be rural or urban, I could be corporate or entrepreneurial

Vance Crowe [01:23:48] And it'll be some sort of a hybrid mixture in the,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:23:50] I think so I think we're ready for that. That's what I wanna see. I feel like that's where I live is right in the middle of a lot of things and I really hope that then the more people I talk to, the more people are right in the middle. There's just nothing that represents them.

Vance Crowe [01:24:06] Do you have a sense if, I know you're not finding out whether it's a boy or a girl, but do you have a sense for which one's life would be easier?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:24:13] Mm. Okay. Well I think it's a girl so tuned, like stay tuned.

Vance Crowe [01:24:19] You intuitively think it's

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:24:21] Gonna be, I intuitively think it's a girl for quite a few reasons. Life easier. Typically I would say a male's life would be easier, but I actually think it's the decade of the woman. I think with the Barbie movie, I think with and, and I come from that perspective, not because I ever feel like, I mean there's always comments from men, right? But some of my greatest advocates and greatest friendships and greatest learnings have come from men. And it's from me being able to either ask what I need for or being able to take those learnings and put 'em into action. And I think females will continue to be able to do that and men will be able to lift them up and work together to, whereas I'm actually really excited for the future of our young women. Okay. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:25:15] Interesting. And,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:25:16] And this is a whole nother aspect that I think as we get into leadership, a lot of our leadership and our Fortune 500 companies right now, there's 11% of those Fortune 500 companies are led by women. And I don't think it's because women aren't talented enough. I think it's just because of the age and the experience that our women in leadership have. We haven't gotten to that point yet where we're getting, we're getting more women in leadership because it wasn't normal.

Vance Crowe [01:25:47] There's also something like biological about that too. Like my wife is smarter than me, is hard, more hardworking is like just more capable. But once the two girls came along, like her interest in in succeeding in that domain, like she wants her business to succeed, but she could care less about being in charge. Like she wants us to be financially stable Yeah. And raise the children. And so there's a bunch of that that I think in popular culture we don't talk about very much. Yeah. But like I've watched my wife go from being like on the executive track at advanced weapon manufacturing companies and her being like, this, I, I'm good. I don't want that at all. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:26:27] I actually feel that. And I've felt that, I mean, over the past 20 weeks. Right. And it's, it's weird. I don't, I can't speak way because

Vance Crowe [01:26:35] It's a radical shift in, in the way you were to

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:26:38] Holy cow. Yeah. And like even talking to my husband who is like my biggest cheerleader and vice versa for him too, right? Like, we are together and there's been a client that I travel for that I actually had to let them know that I'm not going to travel for them anymore, therefore I don't think I can do the job well, therefore I can't be their person anymore. And it broke my heart to do that. And he, he very kindly said, did you not think this would happen? I was like, no, no. I was gonna strap that kid on my back or you were gonna stay home with it. And I was gonna go and guess what? I don't wanna do that anymore. And I've not even met the child yet. Like, we're due the end of May. We have some time. But right away I got that, that instinctual, instinctual feeling that was like, I need to listen to this now. I still think I can accomplish my goals and be the person I want to be and use that as a skill or as a, as a gift or as a, something to lean into. But I don't wanna be the road warrior that I was because I want to spend Christmas with my family for not the day of Christmas, but the week of Christmas. And I want to be at goodness, I hope we don't have any athletic children, but we will. I hope we do too. But like, I don't wanna be a baseball ball mom, but I will be a baseball.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:28:10] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [01:28:11] As gonna say you would be a baseball mom. Yeah.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:28:13] My husband played a lot of baseball and I did not. And that was like baseball were summers in Iowa, which is super interesting. So that was my pig walking time. So I really didn't go to a lot of baseball games growing up and I'll be a baseball mom.

Vance Crowe [01:28:30] Well, Lexi, this has been a great conversation. If people wanted to find you, obviously it's not on Twitter, but where, where, where should people go to find you?

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:28:40] Yeah, so my handle on Twitter and we, we can connect on Twitter, I'll, I'll, I'll join the platform again, but Twitter and Instagram is Lexi Merrick Beeler altogether my business website is lmb consulting.co. I'm co not.com. And I also have a blog love lexi.co. So that is targeted for young women and then the business is the business side of things and social media is all encompassing. So I, I like to be all over the place. I would love to connect, like I've said, I'm a relationship person so Well

Vance Crowe [01:29:15] I am certain that some of the listeners will, will reach out to you. This has been a great conversation. Thanks for coming on.

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:29:21] Well thanks for having me. It's fun to record this. You and I talk like this, like

Vance Crowe [01:29:24] This all the time. Yeah,

Lexi Marek Beeler [01:29:25] All the time. So yeah, this was wonderful.