As part of my series of interviews about “5 things you need to know to create a very successful podcast”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tanner Winterhof.
Tanner Winterhof is one of the founding co-hosts of Farm4Profit, a leading podcast in the agricultural sector that’s dedicated to helping farmers and farmhands increase the profitability of their operations. He has produced over 300 episodes hitting more than 1.7 million downloads, and built an online community of over 350,000 followers. Over the past five years, it has evolved from a small podcast into a burgeoning media company, complete with a newly renovated podcast studio that they also offer up for rent to support budding content creators.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
I’ve built my career around a love for farming, intertwined with a real passion for bringing innovation to agriculture. Growing up on a swine and row-crop farm in Aurelia, Iowa, I was drawn to the business side early on. I headed to AIB College of Business in Des Moines, where I got a degree in business administration and financial services. For the next 15 years, I immersed myself in the banking world, soaking up all the financial know-how I could before pivoting back to agriculture.
One big part of my philosophy is seeing farms as businesses. I always tell ag professionals to put together a team of advisors — people who know their stuff about finance, crops, marketing, and whatever else matters. I’m a big advocate for farmers and farm professionals adopting tech and data-driven strategies. The way I see it, these strategies are essential for bringing innovative ideas to agriculture and ensuring its sustainability for years to come.
It was in my time in banking that I came to realize many people in agriculture lacked contemporary knowledge on how to engage in a meaningful way with their customers. They could have all of the expertise in farming practices or agricultural products in the world, but there was a noticeable gap in their understanding of how to effectively connect or interact with their customers to create value. This was what planted the seeds for the Farm4Profit podcast — so I could provide insights and support to those in agriculture looking to increase their profitability.
Honestly, I never thought our podcast would blow up like it did. I’m just stoked that the message I wanted to share has struck a chord with so many folks, and that we’ve been able to lend a hand to fellow agriculture enthusiasts. It’s just awesome to see.