A chat with beef advocate of the year - Tucker Brown RAB

Tucker Brown, NCBA 2022 Beef Advocate of the Year, joins TSCRA Talk host, Kristen Brown, to share about his social media platforms. A sixth-generation rancher, Brown has more than 176,000 followers on Tik Toc and 52,000 plus on Instagram and received a combine 5-6 million views per month on average. 

Brown shares how the R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton, Texas has historically hosted student tours throughout the year; however, during the 2020 COVID pandemic when the students were not traveling they decided to get creative and connect in a new way. He found that through creating entertaining videos and posts about the every-day life on the ranch he has been able to build trust with a large audience. “Edu-tainment” is a phrase that Brown said is his goal – to entertain while also providing factual information. 

Additionally, Brown talks about questions he receives and how he handles the critics. 

Transcript

Kristen Brown: Welcome to TSCRA Talk, a podcast by Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. I'm your host, Kristen Brown. Joining me today is the NCBA 2022
beef advocate of the year, Tucker Brown of the RA Brown Ranch, a sixth
generation rancher from Throckmorton, Texas. With 176,000 followers on
TikTok and 52,000 on Instagram on average, he receives a combined five to six
million views per month of his content. Tucker, thanks for joining me on the
podcast today.

Tucker Brown: Absolutely. So glad to be here.

Kristen Brown: So the RA Brown Ranch has always had a very progressive vision and been open to new ideas as well as inviting visitors into the ranch. Do you feel like through what you do with social media it's like an extension of that welcoming mindset?

Tucker Brown: Kristen, I like to think so. I think what social media has really done for us has kind of helped put a face, I mean, on the internet, that can help you trust it.
That's my hope is that it can kind of extend the ranch brand and then put a face
to it, and I think that helps build trust. There's almost a sense of trust that
followers have from somebody that they have followed for a long amount
period of time, whether it's buying products from them, buying beef from them,
but there is something about that that can add trust from consumer to
producer. And that's kind of what I'm shooting for.

Kristen Brown: Sure. So just sharing your real life. So tell us a little bit, for those listeners who maybe don't follow you or aren't on social media, tell us a little bit about what you share just day to day.

Tucker Brown: I love to share what I say the truth of the American farmer and rancher, the everyday life of what we're doing. Our places may be different than a lot of
places out there, but people are more interested now in the ranching and
farming way of life than, I don't know than ever before, but in recent history.
And whether that's some may call it Yellowstone effect or just whether it's covid
and learning about their food, there's something going on and people want to
know where their food's coming from, who's raising it, and then that cowboy
way of life. And so if they want to know about it, I want to share it and I really
like to share it. That's been the fun part. Some of it's a job just doing it every
single day, but the cool thing is that I really like sharing it and it gives me a
pretty cool opportunity to talk to people who have been separated from that,
from two, three generations.

Kristen Brown: Yeah, well, and it's neat because you share everything from being horseback to life with the interns and you put a fun spin on things. I say that really you share just kind of the everyday life. You do some fun quirky things too, but it's just a
day in the life of a rancher as well as cooking beef and the challenges that y'all
face. And you know, you talked about the fire. You showed some live updates
while y'all were having the fire at the ranch. So it's neat to see just the everyday
life, and I can tell that people love that.

Tucker Brown: Right. And that's my hope is to have some fun stuff to go along the way. You're right, I do like to have fun and be a little quirky and some cheesy stuff at times,
but that's some of the fun part of it for me. But I want it to come from a place
that's authentic, from a place that's been doing it for a long time. And that's not
because of me, but the ones who came before me. But I'm always wanting to
keep that going of keeping the ranch and the family and the family and the
ranch as we like to say. But yeah, showing the fire and maybe from the rancher's eyes, what do we see? What are we worried about? And then the fun things of when it rains and watching the wheat pop and being horseback and driving cattle. And then the
not fun stuff like fixing fences and cleaning water troughs. I think showing it all
brings out that authenticity that I'm looking for.

Kristen Brown: Yeah, definitely. Well, and like you say, so many people are so removed from agriculture and understanding what goes into producing beef as well as all of
agriculture and the products that we get to enjoy. And so like you said, building
that trust that it's a real person because I think the naysayers to agriculture
want to paint it as just these factories that are pumping out this beef. And that's
not the case.

Tucker Brown: You're exactly right that it's not factory farms. I mean, over 90% of the ranches and farms are family owned and privately owned. And I think that's what makes the ag industry so cool is that we are families. We have the same issues as
others do. I've got a little girl that loves the color pink and doesn't sleep well at
night sometimes just like somebody in the city would. And just showing that we
have the same problems that we're relatable has been really fun.
Part of that, and some people may disagree, but on my social media platforms,
I've tried to stay away from calling myself an advocate for ag. I just try to keep
those away because if I were to go to somebody's social media page, they called
themselves part of a group that I don't agree with automatically there's a wall
that goes up and I don't want to believe anything that I see. And so my hope is
that by not putting that and by putting that I'm a father, I'm a husband and a
rancher that helps kind of lower the wall and make somebody curious to look
into it more. So that's kind of the way that I've been looking at it is I'm not trying
to impress the ones who are in agriculture, but rather the ones who are
wondering what's going on.

Kristen Brown: Yeah, I love that. And it makes you very relatable. And on that note of having the goal of being relatable, building trust, with social media, there are
opportunities to share products with your followers. Tell us your thoughts on
what they call influencing and being a brand rep.

Tucker Brown: As it's gotten more serious. I love marketing. I love selling. I love having
relationships with people. And as I'm posting and as it's become more of a job,
that's also something that I'm looking for of the brands that I represent,
This transcript was exported on Mar 29, 2023 - view latest version here.
whether it's my ranch brand, whether it's the brands that I'm wearing, whether
it's the saddles that I'm riding, the bits that I'm using, the boots that I'm
wearing. That all means something in today's social media world.
There's a value to that that probably the ag industry is one of the later
industries to go towards that. So that's in my mind. I mean, as a person that
takes it as a business in doing what it is, when it gets this big and this amount of
views that I'm really proud of, those are things I have to keep in mind. What
does this business think? I want to be authentic. I only want to rep the brands
that I would use every day, help make the cowboy way of life easier. So those
things are always in the back of my head when I think of marketing and
protecting the brand that I'm trying to build.

Kristen Brown: Sure. Well, and again, I think that goes back to the trustworthiness and that authenticity that is at the core of what you're doing. It sounds like that you want to be a hundred percent behind whatever you're sharing, that there's no smoke
and mirrors to it.

Tucker Brown: Right. There's a lot of people on social media that get paid to say things. And I would be lying if I didn't say that I have some sponsors that I show throughout my social media. But I am really particular on who I partner with because I want it to be somebody that I used before starting social media. That I use them
because I like them, not just because they pay the most. And I think that my hope is that that adds more trust to the people who follow, again, just some authenticity to the page. And I'm not always trying to sell something. I mean, the reason I started is because I wanted to, we've seen agriculture fight this uphill battle of false advertisements and people worried about unsafe things in their food. And I'm in it every day. I'm like, look, I'm raising what my family is eating. I want it to be safe too, and I see it. So that's kind of why I got into it and wanted to share it. And all this other stuff just kind of came with it. And it's been kind of fun to weave and wind those roads of how to protect myself through this and who I need to watch out for. Kind of a new
world or me. But it's been pretty fun.

Kristen Brown: Well, I love to hear that. It's so interesting how really in the past, I don't know, 20 years, 10 years and even five years, how the way we consume information has changed and the way we shop has changed. I know me personally, I have those people who I trust and it has changed the landscape of not only
communication, but consumerism and how we go about our lives.

Tucker Brown: That's just whenever you think of a Instagram post or a TikTok video that can get hundreds of thousands of views, the ability to reach people and get them to view something and hopefully trust the product is changing. And in the past five
years has been the most change ever.

Kristen Brown: Sure. Well, and it's neat because one of the products is just beef and the ranching lifestyle. And, so one thing that I know you've talked about, and tell me
if I'm saying this right, but edutainment like education and entertainment
meshed together. Talk to us about that component. And again, we've already
kind of touched on it, but let's dive into that specific component.

Tucker Brown: Edutainment. I love the word because it's exactly what I'm shooting for. What keeps people watching videos is entertainment. That's why people go to their phone to whatever social media platform, they're looking for entertainment or
to learn something typically. And if I'm wanting, man, there's a lot of people
that post really great facts about beef and statistics and what's right and what
the facts are. The people we're trying to reach are not searching what are the
safe facts of beef? It's the people who are kind of questioning it and probably
already think that they know what we're trying to tell them. So if I can entertain people, if I can get them to see a video, be entertained, and then in that video I have some education but they're so entertained that they stay through the video and want to see more. That's my goal is that they see it and they're like, "Oh, I didn't know that." And that gets them a little curious to go to my page and maybe see some other videos that are more factual, more educational. But the entertaining and educational ones, it's an art that I'm learning and having a lot of fun with.

Kristen Brown: Well, that's very neat, very neat to hear. So one component of Instagram at least is being able to post a question box. And I know you do that if you're going to be on the road, have some car time when you're not driving, hopefully. But tell us about some of the questions that you get.

Tucker Brown: The questions are really funny to me because to ag people, these are questions, a lot of them, I would never ask another rancher just because in ag there are some questions you ask and some you don't, like your mama tells you. And if
you ask it, you get slapped, that's part of it. Some of those questions may be, a
lot of them that I get are, how many acres do you own? How many cows do you
have? And things that I might not necessarily share, but I try to make it a funny
answer of say something like, "I have more cows than Yellowstone" or "I have
just enough acres to keep me busy, but not enough and wishing I had more."
Never really giving an answer, but just something kind of cheesy or a little Smart
Alecy that kind of goes with my personality. Some other questions in there, there are some good ones when people start asking about cattle health or how do I treat something? Or what do I look for in a sick animal? That's when the questions are very, I mean, they really want to learn something. Whether they've watched my video and said, "Hey, I saw your video on doctoring a calf. How did you know it was sick?" Those are the questions I want. Because I enjoy talking about it and it gives me a good
opportunity to answer a question that probably more than one person wants to
ask, but didn't know they wanted to ask it until they went through that and saw
the question. Those are the ones that I have a lot of fun with.

Kristen Brown: Sure. And well, I think that probably also is an indication that you have people who aren't fellow ag producers following you and viewing your content. So
that's exciting. Even the questions that you're not supposed to ask that you're
getting asked those because they don't know. They just don't know. You sit
down on an airplane and that's like one of the first questions when you say that
you live on a ranch and you're a rancher. "Well, how big is your place?" That's,
even though it's an unspoken, you don't do it, an indication of your audience.

Tucker Brown: And that's the audience I'm going for. There's a lot of things that I could talk about and I hope I have some good stuff that people in ag like and some ag
jokes. Because I have a lot of friends in the ag industry, and those things that I
find funny that other ag people would find funny. But the people that are the
most interested in the beef world that I'm trying to reach, that have the most
questions, typically aren't the ones in Throkmorton, Texas, or they're in the
metroplex areas, they're in Dallas. I have a large following out of those areas.
Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are my top three cities of followers. I hope
that's the trend that continues, is that big city following of the group I'm trying
to reach.

Kristen Brown: Yeah, that's exciting. Now, a question that I always have for people who put themselves out there on social media is have you had many naysayers or have
you been attacked through social media in any way?

Tucker Brown: Yeah, there's always, it's 98% good and 2% bad. And me being a people pleaser, at first that was hard for me to swallow because that's what I focused on. So
many people would be like, "Oh, I love the video. This is hilarious. I love the
facts." And then a small amount of people would hate on the video or hate on
me or say that I'm not a real cowboy. And for a little bit that hurt my feelings. I
love to be liked by people and have good connections with people and be kind.
And after a while it's like, "Why am I upset with this? They don't know me. I'll
never see them. And I'm confident in my ability as a rancher, a cattleman and a
cowboy." So thankfully there's never been any in-person hate. The keyboard warriors
really don't bother me. And I do get some of those from time to time, whether
it's animal rights activists or somebody that says they have a bigger ranch than I
do. It happens and it's a part of it. And thankfully I've gotten some thicker skin
over it. But I did have to learn that that was going to be a part of the scenario of
putting myself out there that was going to be part of it.

Kristen Brown: Sure. So I would be remiss if I didn't mention your title as The Seedstock Superpuncher. Do you feel like that was kind of a point that really got your
name out there more, kind of that parody with Dale Brisby. Talk about that a
little bit?


Tucker Brown: The Seedstock Superpuncher was kind of the Easter egg that started it. It was covid, we didn't have as many groups of students coming in that we normally
spend quite a bit of time with. And so we had a little extra time. And Dale Brisby
had made some really funny videos and I liked them. And so a friend and I
started doing that. And that it was funny to people in the ag industry who
understood what Dale Brisby did and that we were making it a parody and
having a lot of fun with it. And when it started sharing and people calling me
that, they were like, "Oh, look, it's The Seedstock Superpuncher." And it made it
pretty fun. I was like, "Ooh, I should do that more." And the big part that at that
time, the big part for me was when I got a message from Dale Brisby that said,
"Hey, I like your video." I was like, "Oh, I've made it. I did it. I'm big time." But for somebody that is as talented at marketing as Dale Brisby is to have the approval meant a lot to me at that time and still would today if he were to say the same thing. But that was, you're right, that was kind of where it started of just putting the toe in the water on making some fun videos in agriculture. And whenever you get some
encouragement from people who like the videos like that, it just kind of pushed
me to do some more. And then, holy cow, here we are.

Kristen Brown: Yeah. Well that's awesome. As we come to a close, do you have any parting comments or pieces of insight that you'd like our listeners who, fellow ranchers, what you would like for them to know about social media?

Tucker Brown: In agriculture social media doesn't have, when you see somebody with their phone out on their ranch, our history says that's not what's right. Thankfully, my
family has been really helpful and supportive of that and helping me get to
where we are today. And at first it's hard because you are putting yourself out
there with social media, but the cool thing is that we're in God's country every
day with the cattle on a thousand hills in some of the coolest parts of the United
States doing what we love and people want to see it. And we have the
opportunity with a little device in our pocket, through just a phone, to take
some cool pictures and share. The cool thing is we get to share literally the
truth, that we're taking care of the animals, we're feeding them, keeping them
alive, and that we get to feed families across the world.
There's no smoke and mirrors in what we're sharing. It's all the truth. And if it is
smoke and mirrors that we need to look at our industry. But the cool thing is it's
not, and social media has been a great way for me to try to build the trust up
from the consumer to the producer because they want that. They hear all this
information. And the latest research says that if a consumer is looking for
information, the top two people that they listen to and trust are a veterinarian
and a rancher. And if they trust us and we have the truth to tell, social media is
a great platform to share that and reach a lot of people.