Marji Guyler-Alaniz reached this turning point six years after starting FarmHer, an Urbandale-based business that highlights women in agriculture.

“I was traveling a lot for FarmHer business, but being part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in 2019 made me reevaluate this,” said Guyler-Alaniz, who was away from home 48 nights from Jan. 1 to April 1, 2019.

The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses teaches practical skills, from marketing to employee management. It also guides entrepreneurs as they develop a customized business plan for growth. Guyler-Alaniz knew she needed a new plan for FarmHer, which had started simply enough when she watched Dodge Ram’s “So God Made a Farmer” ad on Super Bowl Sunday 2013.

While she loved the message in that memorable commercial, she realized something was missing. Where were the women?

-Submitted photo
FarmHer appealed instantly to Lexi Marek Beeler (left), a digital marketing manager and event coordinator for PIC (Pig Improvement Company). “I met Marji Guyler-Alaniz (right) at an event at Iowa State University and immediately knew I wanted to be a part of FarmHer,” said Beeler, who became FarmHer’s first intern in 2015.

By the spring of 2013, Guyler-Alaniz created a website and social media posts to share photos she had taken of women in ag. She also made a T-shirt to promote her new endeavor, FarmHer.

“I totally backed into this,” said Guyler-Alaniz, who trademarked the FarmHer name and formed a corporation by October 2013. “I had become a business with no business plan.”

Guyler-Alaniz, a Grand View University graduate, applied her training in journalism, photography and graphic design to build the FarmHer brand through T-shirt sales, speaking engagements and photography exhibits. While she was surprised when people wanted to buy merchandise with the FarmHer logo, she soon realized that it was because FarmHer reflected their hopes, dreams and life stories.

“Our best-selling item to this day is a shirt that says ‘FarmHer: Love the land, care for the community, feed the people,'” Guyler-Alaniz said. “While I never intended to be a T-shirt company, FarmHer merchandise has been a great way to connect people.”

Market to Market helped

-Submitted photo
In the spring of 2013, Marji Guyler-Alaniz created a website and social media posts to share photos she had taken of women in ag.

launch FarmHer TV show

While FarmHer was gaining traction with a wider audience, it wasn’t a smooth, clear path to success. The fledgling company sometimes seemed more like a time-consuming hobby than a viable business in the early years.

“I must have told my husband a thousand times, ‘I’ll figure this out,'” said Guyler-Alaniz, a mother of two young children.

As word of FarmHer spread, “Market to Market” on Iowa PBS interviewed Guyer-Alaniz in 2015. That FarmHer segment caught the attention of Patrick Gottsch, founder of RFD-TV.

“RFD was looking for ways to offer more programming for women,” said Guyler-Alaniz. “This was a turning point for FarmHer.”

Shannon Latham, vice president of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds and owner of Enchanted Acres pumpkin patch near Sheffield, was featured on one of the first FarmHer TV episodes in 2016.

“Too often, women have been shown to play supportive roles — rather than leading roles — in a farming operation,” said Latham, a state representative from District 54 who serves on the Agriculture Committee at the statehouse. “I appreciate how FarmHer puts women in the spotlight.”

When the FarmHer crew filmed at Enchanted Acres, they followed Latham as she did the chores, fed the goats and hosted a field trip.

“Through video and still photography, Marji captures the essence of the nurturing, yet determined, spirt of female farmers,” said Latham, a member of the FarmHer Hall of Fame. “We’re united in a shared passion for the land and the livestock we love.”

In the fall of 2019, a retired farmer from Ohio drove to northern Iowa to visit Enchanted Acres, because he got such a favorable impression after watching Latham’s FarmHer segment.

“We keep in touch via Facebook,” said Latham, who also enjoys watching FarmHer’s TV shows and reading FarmHer stories online. “It’s fascinating to learn how diverse agriculture is across the nation.”

Podcast attracts urban,

rural audience

As FarmHer grew, it moved beyond a home-based business in 2016 into an office in Urbandale.

“It’s hard for a small business to make this commitment, but this helped us grow up,” Guyler-Alaniz said.

FarmHer continued to expand, thanks to the TV show, the online merchandise store and the 2018 launch of the “FarmHer Talks” podcast, which covers topics ranging from farm transition to FFA to mental health. The diverse subject matter attracts a diverse audience.

“It’s surprising how many people in cities listen to our podcast,” Guyler-Alaniz said.

Along the way, FarmHer also debuted Grow by FarmHer, a day-long event at universities designed to inspire young women to take leadership roles in agriculture.

FarmHer appealed instantly to Lexi Marek Beeler, a digital marketing manager and event coordinator for PIC (Pig Improvement Company).

“I met Marji at an event at Iowa State University and immediately knew I wanted to be a part of FarmHer,” said Beeler, who grew up on an Iowa farm and became FarmHer’s first intern in 2015. “I knew FarmHer was going to play a big role in encouraging and empowering people in the agriculture community.”

After her internship, Beeler worked part-time for FarmHer before joining the FarmHer team full-time after earning her degree in public service and administration from ISU in 2017. Beeler hosted a FarmHer TV segment that highlighted young females in agriculture.

Shifting to a media company

While these events helped strengthen the FarmHer brand, they came at cost.

“By 2018-2019, we were spending 80 percent of our time at events,” Guyler-Alaniz said. “The Goldman Sachs program helped me realize this wasn’t what I wanted.”

By early 2020, Guyler-Alaniz pivoted FarmHer from an events company to a media company.

“The timing couldn’t have been better, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March,” she said. “If we’d had a bunch of events scheduled for 2020, that could have sunk us.”

As a media company, FarmHer shares stories through its website, podcast, social media platforms and email. One of the most unforgettable stories features Barbara Mazurek of the Mazurek Family Ranch in Utopia, Texas.

“Barbara is often the person I mention when people ask about a particular FarmHer whose story sticks with me,” Guyler-Alaniz said. “The thing I will always remember about Barbara is her strength. She told me she was proud of being a survivor.”

After Mazurek’s husband died in a farm accident while their youngest son was in high school, she began ranching full-time and successfully ran the business for many years to come.

“When I’m having a tough time or bad day, I often think of Barbara — if she survived, so can I, so can you,” said Guyler-Alaniz, who noted that Mazurek passed away in August 2021. “A true FarmHer, she left her brand in my heart and the hearts of countless others.”

These kinds of stories inspire Beeler, who credits FarmHer with helping her grow a successful career in agriculture.

“The women of FarmHer reflect what agriculture is all about: strength, beauty, culture and determination,” said Beeler, who served as an executive assistant to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig before joining PIC. “I am forever a FarmHer fan!”

Guyler-Alaniz continues to support more opportunities for women in agriculture as a board member with Annie’s Project, a nonprofit that offers education in finances, human resources, legal risks, market risks and production risks to strengthen women’s roles in modern agribusiness enterprises.

Stories of women succeeding in agriculture continue to drive FarmHer.

“So far, we’ve visited more than 450 women in 43 states,” Guyler-Alaniz said. “There are more stories to tell.”

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