American Egg Board CEO: AI & Policy with Emily Metz

Prices spike, headlines swirl, and a humble staple turns into a cultural flashpoint. We sat down with Emily Metz, CEO of the American Egg Board, to unpack how the egg industry is rebuilding trust, boosting demand, and standing up new tools to keep farmers and consumers on the same side of the table. From a 50-year mandate to market eggs and fund research, to hands-on support for producers facing biosecurity and ransomware threats, Emily opens the playbook on what it takes to lead a commodity through chaos.

We dig into how AEB’s insights engine tracks real consumer behavior and tests messaging with a custom AI model, turning data into point-of-purchase wins and new meal occasions beyond breakfast. Emily breaks down the roller coaster of COVID pantry loading, avian influenza outbreaks, and meme-ready price swings—and how every dollar now gets judged by one metric: does it drive sales? She also walks us through the hard but necessary work of correcting decades-old cholesterol myths, then harnessing momentum with Stronger by the Dozen to meet people on personal wellness journeys, from GLP-1 users seeking protein to families chasing affordable, real food.

Looking ahead, Emily shares a bold export vision. With only 3–4% of U.S. eggs currently sold overseas, she lays out a path to a cooperative model and a new global brand for U.S. eggs aimed at markets that value safety, traceability, and performance. We also go behind the scenes of the White House Easter Egg Roll—the largest public event on the White House calendar—and how AEB uses it to tell the farm-to-table story with joy and clarity.

If you care about food, farming, or the future of consumer trust, this conversation hits the sweet spot where science, marketing, and mission meet. Listen now, then subscribe, rate, and share with someone who thinks a commodity can’t reinvent itself.

Prism Controls
Prism Controls — Farm automation & controls technology for poultry producers. 45 years of expertise.

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Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Sales - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com

Transcript

Meet Emily Metz And Her Path

Brandon Mulnix 0:28

Welcome to Poultry Leadership Podcast. I am recording this podcast from the Pacific Egg Producers Association event in Dana Point, California. There are many events across the country, whether it's regional, national, state, but I have to say, Peepa probably has the most incredible locations for their events. For the fact that where do West Coast people want to go to actually enjoy a conference? So this is always exciting to be here. Next year's Hawaii, which is always a big year for them. But I'm not here to talk about the all the amazing places I get to go to. I'm here to talk about an amazing leader in the egg industry, someone who works really hard for the entire industry, nationwide and globally. I am with the CEO of the American Egg Board, Emily Matz. Emily, welcome to the show.

Emily Metz 1:17

Thanks so much for having me. This is so fun. I'm glad we get to do it here at Peepa in sunny California. And uh I'm excited to chat today.

Brandon Mulnix 1:25

Yeah. So, Emily, can you take a moment and just tell the audience who is Emily Matz?

Emily Metz 1:31

Well, that's a loaded question right out the gate. When I find out, I'll let you know. No, in all seriousness, I think agriculture was the career that chose me, and I feel so lucky that it did. I always tell people I started my journey in agriculture. I was in college in Washington, D.C., really wanted to stay in DC for the summer and got an internship, one of the few paid internships in DC. I'm working for the Department of Agriculture. So I got to stay, earn a little money, and truthfully found a niche writing speeches for then Secretary of Agriculture, uh, Under Secretary of Agriculture Richard Raymond, who was over the Food Safety Inspection Service. And Dr. Raymond attended a lot of meetings, like this one, like Peepa, and um interacted with a lot of farmers. And I truly fell in love with farmers and fell in love with agriculture in those getting to travel the world with him. And some people might know this if you've been outside of the eustry. That period was also one of the largest recalls of all time, food safety recalls called the Hallmark Westland recall. Happened here in California, of all things. Um, huge recall for dairy cows that were going into the school lunch program. So it was bad press on bad press. And I was there during that time and just loved how all the pieces fit together with regulations and private companies and industry working together to solve a problem. Thought I was gonna come back to USDA as an attorney. That was the plan. Went to law school, specialized in food and drug law, and everything was on a hiring freeze when I graduated from law school and passed the bar. And so um ended up going to a small trade association that kind of connected its mission. Uh, Animal Agriculture Alliance connected farmers from farm to fork basically with consumers. Got to meet a lot of the other industry association leaders in that role. They were on our board and since then really spent time in every protein. So I worked for pork in an international genetics company, pork and beef. Um, worked for dairy for a really long time on the lobbying side of the house, and then came home to eggs. And I truly feel like it is home now. I've learned a lot. I can't believe I'm coming up on six years as president and CEO of American Egg Board, but I'm really, really happy to be in the egg industry.

Brandon Mulnix 3:48

And if I'm not mistaken, you were only 32 when you assumed this position of CEO of the American Egg Board?

Emily Metz 3:54

I was a I was a babe. I like to say I'm still 32, Brandon, so don't I'm closer now to 40 and it terrifies me. But um, yes, I was 32. So when you talk about uh imposter syndrome, I have it all the time. Um I have it, I have had it in every job I had. I became uh, I've been very fortunate to have a lot of really great, amazing mentors throughout agriculture. I became chief of staff at National Milk when I was 25 years old and was basically supervising people more than twice my age. And when that opportunity presented itself, it was a new position. Our CEO, Jim Mullerhorn, who I always talk about, he's one of my very favorite people. He wanted to create the role. And he took me out to lunch and he said, I'm gonna create this job and you're gonna fill the job. And I said, No, I'm not. I said, Absolutely no, I'm not. And he said, Yes, you are. That's happening. And we went back and forth for about a week and it did indeed happen. But my biggest fear was how are people? No one's gonna listen to me. I'm too young. And what he said is, Emily, if you show value and you earn respect, everyone will listen to you. It's not about ruling with an iron fist, it's about how you can help others around you be more successful. That's how you'll earn their respect, and that's how you'll be respected and successful in that role. And that's really stuck with me.

Taking The Helm Young And Leading

Brandon Mulnix 5:20

Well, speaking of success, Jim Dean, who was a guest last season, spent some time just talking about the tremendous organization of AEB. And then followed up Rachel Van Buskirk from the Deviled Egg Company, who you and I got to see at the UEB AEB event and all her amazing deviled eggs. She also mentioned how amazing the AEB was for her business. Can you tell the listeners what the American Egg Board is and why it's so important to the industry?

Emily Metz 5:52

Yeah, so this is our 50th year of the American Egg Board this year. It's it's uh one of the oldest, it's the second oldest uh research and promotion organization. There's 22 research and promotion organizations covering every commodity from beef and pork to dairy to blueberries to mushrooms, honey. But we were the we were the second one to be created. And what that means is all of the egg farmers came together 50 years ago and said, we want to create an entity that's gonna do the things that we're not gonna do, that's gonna market eggs on our behalf, that's gonna undertake research, like nutrition research, that's gonna help us with communications, help us tell our story. And they created the American Egg Board to do that. And so when you look at other industries like chicken, for example, when you see Purdue or Tyson or any of the, you know, Pilgrim's Pride out there marketing chicken, they're not marketing chicken, they're marketing their brand of chicken. Eggs are really different. Without AEB, there's no one pushing eggs, and I think that's such a vital role, especially right now. When, you know, as I said this morning when I was talking to the fine folks at Peepa here, when markets are down, you market. You know, I'm telling my team, this is when AEB earns its keep. This is where we demonstrate our value. But I also think AEB is so much more than marketing and demand. Surely that will always be our chief focus. But over the last few years, AEB, a little bit out of necessity and out of kind of where consumers are and where egg supply is, but also out of real industry need, has morphed into an organization that's also supporting hugely producers on their farms, doing research about bird flu and disease, doing research about sustainability, coming up with on-farm tools for producers, doing, you know, two weeks ago we held a cybersecurity training because we've had two producers this year who have been, you know, hacked and held for ransom. And when I look across our industry, there's very few of us that are probably prepared for that. Those are the types of services that AEB is providing as a collective. And that's the challenge I really give to the team is how can we be an extension of our producers on the farm? How can we help them lighten their load? Because there's the burdens on our farmers, I feel like have only increased. How do we make that easier as an organization that's working collectively for them?

Brandon Mulnix 8:15

So, how does this happen? I mean, I talk, I we talk about the marketing side of it most because that's the most visible side of the industry that you guys have a huge influence on. How does this happen?

What The American Egg Board Does

Emily Metz 8:28

I, you know, I think um one of the biggest things that focused on six years ago, almost six years ago when I became CEO is I wanted to understand how people felt about eggs better than anyone else. I felt like AEB should know everyone's perceptions of eggs. And so we built an insights department from scratch and brought some really talented data analysts in to run that thing. And they live in data all day long. And what all of that insights work that we've done over the last few years really leads us to campaigns and promotions and programs that connect us directly to the consumer in a way that actually moves sales. Because that's at the end of the day what we're trying to do. And so I truly feel like AEB does know the consumer better than anyone now knows relative to eggs, not relative to any topic, but relative to eggs specifically. And so now we're really driving point of purchase. Um, you know, we're moving the needle when it comes to point of purchase. And that that's a big deal. We're connecting with them, challenging a lot of their preconceived notions about how eggs can and should be used, trying to move them out of the breakfast category. Um, we're really doing a lot of work right now around GLP ones, you know, all of those trends that are coming, we're tracking, we're monitoring, and we're engaging and we're coming up with ways to engage and drive people to every more everyday egg usage than ever before.

Brandon Mulnix 9:54

Which is interesting because the media world is constantly changing, evolving. How do you stay up with that?

Emily Metz 10:03

It takes a really concerted effort, and I think, you know, I've always been in some sort of connected role to marketing or communications pretty much my entire career in agriculture. And it's it's scary to think about how fast stuff is changing now. I mean, I lived through like the mommy blogger era, and I remember my first job coming out of law school when I went back into animal agriculture alliance. We took 10 mommy bloggers onto the kill floor of Smithfield and let them see pork production up close and personal, which if you've never done it, like that's that's a big plant. I mean, I thought I was gonna have a domino effect of mommy bloggers face down on the on the floor. But it it was that kind of revolutionary transparency that uh number one, I've always been a big proponent of for agriculture. But number two, you know, now you look at mommy bloggers, they're not even around anymore. Now it's morphed into influencers. And how are you gonna get influencers to connect with you? And people are trusting, you know, a random TikToker more than they're trusting their own real life friends and family in the flesh. And then you've got the rise of AI. I mean, it takes a really concerted effort to be on the cutting edge of technology and mediums of communication. But it's also, I think, really one of the things we're doing at our board meeting next week in San Diego is we're gonna show people we've actually built, you know, through our insights work, we've identified our target audience, the people who are most likely to increase the frequency with which they consume eggs, which is a huge goal for us. And within that target audience, we've actually constructed an AI tool that we can in real time test messaging and campaigns and visuals with by talking, basically chatting that tool. So we fed all of our insights into this platform and have created this ideal consumer, our ideal target audience. And then they react to what we give them. I mean, it's almost indescribable to be able to do that. It's crazy to me that we're able to do that. It's very scary, but it's also really cool.

Brandon Mulnix 12:19

It's just crazy because you mentioned GLP ones, you mentioned the trends and the mommy bloggers, all of these different aspects of how media's change or what the topics are. And at every point you're like, How do we get more people buying eggs? I mean, that is your number one goal is consumability of egg. Because if you have seen over six years, these numbers change for both for the positive and for the negative. What are some of the factors that have really affected consumability of eggs?

Emily Metz 12:52

Yeah. So I think, I mean, last year was probably the most dramatic year. But if I look over the course of my six years in the egg industry, I mean, I came on board at AEV in March of uh 2019, which was basically the start of the height of COVID. And so when I started, egg consumption was at an all-time high. People were panic buying eggs, they were, you know, out of stock, we had massive supply chain issues. You know, the industry, I don't think, was prepared for that logistical nightmare that was presented by COVID. And so there were pocketed outages, there were shortages, there were panic buying, you know, we had signage going up in retail stores limiting, you know, the consumption of eggs. And at the same time, you know, I think one of the stats I used in a presentation, you know, banana searches for banana bread recipes went up 800%. I mean, because people were at home, they were cooking and baking. And when you're doing that, you need eggs. Like eggs are in everything when you think about it. So I that's how I started. And then you went through, you know, fairly normal years for a bit. And then we kind of had our first blip with bird flu in 2023. Wasn't as significant, but we've had bird flu basically every year since 2023, with last year being, of course, the most significant. And last year, you know, in all my career, I never witnessed anything like last year with the supply challenges we faced, the media firestorm around those supply challenges. And then, as I said to reporters, you know, just a couple weeks ago, our farmers have basically traded one crisis for another because they went from huge bird flu scares and outbreaks last year to now basically producing eggs below the cost of production. And that is a crisis, and that's not sustainable. And we know what happens if that continues, which is we lose farms. And so it is, it has been a roller coaster, I think would be the best way to describe it. But I pride myself, and it's hard, but we plan at AEB, we do a lot of planning, but we also exercise the pivot muscle a lot. And my team has gotten very used to being nimble. And I think we've made a lot of really great hires. And I think the number one thing I tell people is that if you cannot be nimble, this probably isn't the job for you. Because number one, I'm gonna change my mind. Number two, the needs are gonna change because that's how the industry is. This industry, there's never a dull moment, that's for sure.

Data-Driven Marketing And Consumer Insights

Brandon Mulnix 15:24

Well, in my time growing up, you hear, you know, gas prices, egg prices, beef prices. Those are the th three of the things that you just compare cost of living to. Yep. And on Valentine's Day, when you see jokes about he went to Kroger and pulls out a dozen eggs as a joke, a meme. Now, I'm not gonna say it's not bad marketing, because I mean it is providing the value of the egg, which you guys spend a lot of time on the nutritional value of the egg, not necessarily the cost of the egg. But I just recently talked to a farmer today. One cent a dozen for small eggs because it was gonna cost him more to dispose of the eggs, throw them away, than it was to sell them for a penny a dozen. And that was eggs that most people wouldn't even see in the store, but are there's chicken feed that went into it. There was time, labor, everything, and at no point does one cent cover that.

Emily Metz 16:21

And that that's you know, that's what keeps me up at night, truthfully, right now. Like I feel very much like a hamster on a wheel to say, this is my job. Like, this is why AEB exists, this is what our farmers expect. I feel that deeply personally, and we need to be pulling every lever we can. And I think my team probably feels like they've never been pushed harder than they are right now. But everything we do, every dollar we spend, has to be tied back to are we increasing sales? Are we driving demand? Are we growing demand? And I think that's for people who aren't, you know, didn't come up in agriculture, which I didn't either, but I feel like now after all this time, I've been in agriculture since I was 18 years old. I feel like I sort of was born into it a little, reborn into it. You know, the fundamental truth about farmers is that they're always gonna add animals. Our farmers are always gonna add birds, and it's my job to find a home for that. And I remember when I started in this industry, someone at some meeting came up to me and said, Emily, every egg's gonna sell. Right, but at what price? And I think that's what we're seeing now is yeah, every egg sells, but not at a sustainable price for the for the future of the industry. And that that's why we our ladies are focused on growing demand right now, because we have to be. That's the reality of of the situation. And it's the reality of agriculture. And I don't begrudge our farmers that I get it. We just we have to do something about it.

Brandon Mulnix 17:52

And it's that partnership with farmers that I think sometimes goes unnoticed because you don't realize that most farms can't market to the level that a commodity like eggs has to market to. I mean, I want to talk about one of the biggest things you've overcame in the last what, I think it was announced last year when eggs became world health food. I haven't heard anything about that recently, but that's got that's a big deal after growing up with eggs are bad and they're gonna kill you. How did this happen? How did you go from being part of this, taking a product that was bad for you because of some crap study that somebody decided to do to now it's recognized as a world health food?

Emily Metz 18:37

Yeah, I think it's been an incredible journey, and I think so much of that journey has been founded in the science that A B has done before and during me, frankly, to get good scientific studies funded and completed that show that there's no link between egg consumption and dietary cholesterol. But that has taken years of concerted effort. And then even once we had the science, it was undoing all of the misperceptions that exist. Frankly, a lot of that in the medical community who made that link and who thought when people came in with high blood pressure or high cholesterol or heart disease, they were telling them to reduce your egg consumption. And so we had to undo that through a very concerted effort of getting doing educational, frankly, going to conventions for doctors and presenting the studies and having our egg ambassadors and nutritionists and dietitians that we work with present the studies within their community and getting those people, you know, on television and doing partnerships on, you know, things like the Today Show and all of mainstream media to educate about cholesterol. And I finally feel like we really turned the table on cholesterol. And I remember one of the things my team really pushed on was there's all these great attributes from a health perspective of the egg. And I said, guys, we can't talk about the positive until we address the negative. It's the elephant in every room. And so I really felt like we needed every single dollar from a nutrition marketing perspective to go in to correct the misperception of cholesterol. I feel like we finally have made a significant push there. We've seen significant results. We do a lot of tracking of consumers. The amount of people that think that cholesterol and eggs are linked is now significantly reduced, reduced by over three-quarters of what it was just three years ago. That's huge. Now I feel like we can make a huge push on the positive, and that's what we're doing. We just launched our Stronger by the Dozen campaign, which is really about meeting people on their personal wellness journeys because what we've learned is health looks different for everybody. And eggs can play a part of a lot of different healthy lifestyles, a lot of different wellness goals. And we want to make sure that eggs are connecting on that very personalized level with people on their wellness journey. But I think to your point, like there's so much positive momentum behind eggs right now from a health perspective. You know, the UN, the FDA coming out with healthy, the eat real food movement, which has eggs at the top of the pyramid. Like, we're just rocking and rolling. And we it's basically our job now not to screw it up, truthfully. Like, we just got to keep moving forward in a really positive way, leveraging every bit of momentum we've got.

Brandon Mulnix 21:29

And that momentum doesn't just stay here in the US, though. If I'm not mistaken, you guys as a group have really worked hard at spreading that message globally through getting momentum, and that helps open doors to sell some of these eggs. Can you describe what that looks like to take eggs outside the United States?

Media Shifts, Influencers, And AI Tools

Emily Metz 21:50

This will be the hill that I die on. Um, and and it's gonna happen. Like, if there's one thing I want to do for this industry, it's this. I think partly because I'm Competitive eggs, our industry on average exports about three to four percent of its production. That's a very low percentage compared to what other commodities do. You know, you look at dairy, they're exporting over 35% of their production. You know, exports saved the pork industry. I mean, the pork industry was on death's door here in the US, and exports saved the pork industry and the farmer dollars coming back into it. And now they're exporting close to 40% of their total production. You know, beef is somewhere around 20, and we're stuck at three on a good year. And, you know, when I go overseas and I've spent a lot of time on trade missions looking at how we can start to move that number up, how can we start to build relationships? I get bombarded with people who want US eggs because our competition on the global market is Brazil, it's China, it's Ukraine. They're not producing eggs the way we are. They're not as safe, they're not as traceable, they're not as transparent, they don't perform as well. And the people that want the countries that want eggs like Japan, like South Korea, like Singapore, they know that. They know that about US eggs. The biggest challenge we've had with exports is how do we convince our producers to come to the table and buy into the idea that there's opportunity for them overseas. And we've got some ideas we're working on, not all of which I'm ready to share, but I think there is merit in when what AEB is doing is trying to explore a cooperative model that could market eggs internationally as a collective so that that risk wasn't borne by one producer or one operation. And I think there's there's real benefit to that. We're looking at how we can do that, but I think that's that's our biggest hope for international. And then I think secondarily, you know, we will be launching this year a global brand for US eggs. The US can carries a big um halo effect, especially in some of the countries we're looking at in Southeast Asia. And so we need to have kind of a brand ready to go with the hopes that we're gonna really drive export growth globally here over the next, you know, five to ten years and see that number, that three to four percent. I mean, the stake I put in the ground is to grow that by 10% over the next five years. So we've got ambitious goals and I want to hit them.

Brandon Mulnix 24:15

Well, I can't wait to start hearing the quote USA, USA, USA.

Emily Metz 24:20

Having fun.

Brandon Mulnix 24:21

Well, speaking of patriotism, I want you to share what goes on with our White House every year on Easter.

Emily Metz 24:29

This is a long-standing tradition, and I'll be honest, it's uh it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. The egg board has been involved for over 40 years with the White House Easter egg role, and that involvement has taken on a number of forms, but we really focused on all right, if we're gonna do it, let's do it, let's own it. And so we had the opportunity to sort of lay that groundwork uh with the previous administration, and then that's carried through to the Trump administration now, where AEB is kind of the lead partner for the Easter egg role. So not only does a farmer donate the eggs every year that are used on the lawn, but we have a massive exhibit and activity center called our Hend Home, where we take people on the journey from farm to all the way to table and really educate them on what goes on on America's egg farms. This year, uh, thanks to Highline, we have live chicks coming to the lawn. I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous about that one. I feel like there's a lot that could go wrong, and it's my job to ensure that it doesn't go wrong. But this is the biggest event that the White House does. I don't think a lot of people know that. This is the biggest public event that the White House does every year. It outranks 4th of July, Christmas, all of that. So there are the most people come to the White House for the Easter egg roll. It's a lottery system. When I got this job, I was living in DC and had lived in DC for a long time. And I had friends coming out of the woodwork to say, hey, can I get Easter egg roll tickets? Like day two of the announcement coming out. Like that's how popular this event is. And especially for people in kind of the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, it's a really sought-after event to get to go once in your lifetime. And it's a lottery system for tickets, and it just carries a lot of gravitas. No other protein, no other commodity gets that level of attention or access that eggs does during the White House Easter egg world. I mean, the egg is in the title. And so I think for us, we want to make sure we're using that as an opportunity for storytelling about egg farmers, about eggs, using it as an opportunity to discuss current events in the industry, and using it as an opportunity to remind consumers that eggs bring a lot of joy to your celebrations like Easter, and those celebrations wouldn't be the same without eggs. And so it's it's fun, it's exhausting. Uh, this year we're blowing it out even more than ever before. We're gonna have a whole week of events leading up to Easter, and then after Easter uh starts National Egg Salad Week. So we're doing a kickoff educational luncheon on Capitol Hill the day after the Easter egg roll to celebrate National Egg Salad Day and really work to engage kind of congressional members and staffers and agency personnel in DC to educate them about egg farming. We're working with United Egg producers on that. So it's gonna be a jam-packed week. And if you'd like to come, please get in touch with the American Egg Board because we'd love to have farmers and allied industry there volunteering, or just if you want to come, it would be nice to be able to say we have a really strong showing of industry for the Easter egg roll.

Brandon Mulnix 27:40

And how do they reach out and get a hold of that information?

Emily Metz 27:43

So I'll just give my email address. You can email me, your shocker. Here we go. But I do love to hear from people. It's just emets emetz at a b.org, and we'll get you all the registration information.

Brandon Mulnix 27:56

That's crazy. That's that's taking a risk out there. You're gonna you're gonna have a don't abuse it. Well, Emily, um, as we kind of conclude, I really appreciate your time here doing this, but I want to give you an opportunity to speak directly to the up-and-coming leaders in our industry because I see your passion, I see how hard you work for this industry. What can you share with them as up and coming leaders in our industry?

Demand Swings, Bird Flu, And Pricing Pain

Emily Metz 28:24

Sure. You know, I think so much. Um I've wrestled a lot with kind of how I've approached things, and uh I'll share really candidly that um I never thought I was gonna get this job. You know, you mentioned that I was 32 when I got the job, when I got recruited for the job, and I truthfully thought that I was kind of the candidate to make the candidate profile look very balanced and well-rounded. I thought that I was the throwaway candidate. I never in a million years imagined I was actually gonna get the position. And it was a really rigorous interview process, and I wanted to go through it mostly as a learning process. So that would be the first thing I would say is take every opportunity and run with it. My biggest regret to this day is when my former boss said, You're gonna be chief of staff, me not saying thank you so much. I appreciate you. That's what I should have said. Like, you need to take every opportunity that comes knocking on your door and run with it. So that would be the first piece of advice. The second piece of advice is because I didn't think I was gonna get the job, I was fully me in the interview process. I was, I'm incredibly direct. If you ask my staff, I'm very direct. Everyone always knows where they stand with me. I'm very ambitious. I don't shy away from it. I'm loud, I'm boisterous, I'm opinionated. I tell our board all the time when I think they're wrong. I tell our board all the time when I think we're playing it too safe or when the industry could do better. And I, you know, as one of my board members said, Emily's ambitious, but she's ambitious for the industry. But I was that way in the interview process. You know, I told them point blank that if they wanted the steady Eddie CEO, I was not their girl. I was gonna be the burn it down and build it back up and change it a million times, CEO, and they needed to know that. And in all honesty, I never thought they were gonna go for that, but they did. And so my second piece of advice was get really comfortable in who you are, know who you are, and don't compromise it because if you compromise for something or for someone or for a job, you're never gonna be happy, and they're not either. And so be who you are, know who you are, know what your values are. My values are gonna be different than yours and different from 10 other people's, but know what matters to you most and then stick to that. And then I think the third thing would be um, as a young leader, don't feel age is just a number, you know. I got asked today by someone, you know, are you 40 yet? And I said, no, and don't wish that on me. And I think people sometimes have this preconceived notion of like, oh, well, with age comes knowledge and experience. That's true for sure. But I also think with experience comes experience. And, you know, take advantage of every opportunity, be yourself. And age is just a number. So don't feel like you don't deserve something just because you're young.

Brandon Mulnix 31:22

Listeners, I hope you picked up on the master class and young leadership here because Emily did not have a lot of time to prepare for this today, and she just nailed it. So, Emily, just thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you for what you do for the industry. Um, it's always a pleasure when I get to see you on the itinerary. I know that you know, we're gonna have one exciting, sometimes like like spur of the moment type presentations, like um last year, I think, at this event. And so how never know how you can adapt, overcome is amazing. So thank you so much. Cultural Leadership Podcast listeners. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Please do me a favor, share this podcast with your friends, family, and other upcoming leaders in the industry. Sharing these stories is how we grow the podcast and make sure others know there's a resource out there to help them develop. It's hard to find resources sometimes, and I just this is one easy way you can share it with others. And before I go, I can't end the podcast without thanking our sponsor, Prism Controls. This show simply would not be possible without them. I'm at this event because of them. They sponsor this podcast because they truly believe in growing great leaders. And sharing knowledge is valuable for the future of our industry. For the past 45 years, they've been the leader in environmental controls and constantly evolving their technology to help farmers sleep better at night, knowing that they have the technology to feed the world. And like Emily, and the goals to feed the world, that is one of Prism Controls' founding missions is to help feed the world. So please check them out. Prismcontrols.com. Reach out to their team, reach out to me, bmolniks at PrismControls.com, and tell them that you're a listener of the podcast. Say thank you for the sponsorship and let them know that they're doing the right thing by supporting the show. Thank you again for listening. Have a great day.