Thank you for stopping by!

So you want to know the longer story?  Okay, then 🙂

In my past life I was a county health inspector – you know the kind, where restaurant scores and inspection notes were sensationalized for ratings…but I digress.  Yeah, that kind of health inspector, except I mostly inspected septic systems.  Ewwww, right?

Not for me…getting paid to play in the dirt was awesome! To be fair, though, it was mostly inspecting the construction of the system before it was in use.

I loved meeting ordinary people who had no clue about the regulation process, educating them on the purpose behind the regulations and being their advocate to make sure their septic system was designed and constructed correctly and in compliance.

Being the Program Coordinator for many years, I made sure every aspect of the program ran smoothly, trained other inspectors, creatively solved difficult situations while adhering to the regulatory process and diffusing difficult conversations with property owners who were angry just having to deal with us.

I understood their point of view, that from a regulatory perspective, I essentially told them what to do on their property, when it had to be done by and how much it was going to cost.

As you can imagine, that didn’t always make me popular.

In this technical-oriented job I also did a lot of writing – land development proposal recommendations and presentations to elected officials, grant application and report writing to funding agencies, and educational materials for the public.  But even in college, I loved the researching and writing required for my Chemistry Minor.

I’m a natural writer, educator and innovative problem solver, and I thrive on finding win-win solutions, so from that perspective, I loved my job.  But, it wasn’t always easy and I know my personal relationships suffered.

Along the way, I discovered a fun and memorable way to apply personality styles to improve relationships – both personal and professional.  Getting certified as a trainer,   I began putting my skills into practice, recognizing peoples’ personality styles and communicating in their ‘language’.

It was amazing and rewarding to see people’s resistance melt, and you know what?  Those difficult conversations weren’t so difficult after all. They actually became fun!

And my writing improved immensely, too.

But being in that position you really have to develop thick skin because people don’t like the ‘regulator’ person, even if you are trying to enforce regulations and be their advocate at the same time.  So, after 20 years, it was time to switch gears and step into the regulatory consulting role.

When the buy local produce movement gathered steam with the USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative in 2009, I put my regulatory knowledge to use in consulting, educating and writing about food safety regulations and practices, bridging the gap between on-farm good agricultural practices and retail food regulations.

I’m happier.  I’m still the educator, and advocate, problem solver and solution provider, but without the regulator/enforcer hat.  That is a win-win for me!

So now I help busy people in the local foods, produce food safety and public health spaces who need copywriting, consulting and training support so they can confidently get on with serving the people they were meant to serve.

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post My Story… appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

4 Reasons to Have a Food Safety Plan

You’re busy doing what you do best – and love – growing, beautiful, mouthwatering fruits and veggies.  Who has time for paperwork, right?

I hear you!

I don’t care how good Your food safety plan is,  if it’s  IN.  YOUR.  HEAD.  it’s only good for the person who has access to it, YOU!

I hate to break it to you, but if a food safety plan isn’t documented, it doesn’t count.  Here are 4 reasons to have a food safety plan (and there are probably more):

1.   No worker can follow it – as a farm manager or operator, you can’t be everywhere all the time.

• What time of day (outdoor temperature) do you aim to finish harvesting for optimal crop quality,
• Do you have to wash and sanitize tools before harvesting,
• How to mix sanitizers.

2.   No buyer can review it – check to see how you are handling  key aspects of your farming operation.

• Crop cooling at harvest and during storage and transport to the point of sale,
• What you do if a worker comes to work sick,
• Rules on allowing pets in the fields,
• Application of soil amendments and time to harvest,
• Water quality documentation,
• Or other food safety related questions.

3.   No audit can happen – if you are selling directly to a buyer, they may want to do an informal food safety plan review and audit themselves.  Other wholesale or retail buyers may require a 3rd party audit as a part of the transaction.

• You can’t write a plan at the time of harvest, when you are negotiating a sale to a wholesale or retail buyer
• Not documenting an existing written plan’s practices (with receipts, SOPs, log sheets, water test results, etc) on what you did during the growing season

4.   No proof can exonerate you during an outbreak – if your farm’s crop(s) are identified as potentially being part of a suspected outbreak, you want to quickly be able to clear your farm’s name from suspicion.

Fine Tune Your Food Safety Plan

The good news is that you probably already have good agricultural practices in place on your farm.  Maybe it just isn’t written down in a food safety plan.  You probably even have some informal documentation happening in various forms – pocket-sized notebooks, email receipts and the like.

With the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) produce rules finally in effect, the earlier in your growing season would be a good time to see how your existing practices measure up.  That way you can start the season off on the right foot.

I would hate to see you miss out on a sale because you don’t have a food safety plan.

If you need help reviewing your existing plan or documenting your food safety practices better, let me help.

So YOU can get on with growing that beautiful produce!

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post 4 Reasons to Have a Food Safety Plan appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

According to the National Restaurant Association’s What Hot 2016  Culinary Forecast,  these are the 4 top produce trends, including their rank.

#3    Locally Grown Produce

#26  Heirloom Apples

#30  Organic Produce

#31  Unusual Herbs

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post 4 Top Produce Trends in the Food Industry 2016 appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

Engaging the Multi-Generational Workforce

Not only is an engaged workforce profitable for the employer and share holders, but it is also a satisfying place for the employee to work. Whether employees specifically seek out the ‘contentment’ component, the majority of employees leave because of the lack of workplace satisfaction.

Where you find organizations that are considered Good Places to Work, you find engaged employees, and usually a sizeable percentage of them.

Most employees don’t become engaged on their own. If an organization wants to increase employee engagement, they must be an engaged employer.

An engaged employer expresses several observable characteristics: strong, authentic values that they operate by, an overwhelming demonstration of trust, fairness, and mutual respect for all, and a clear reputation for understanding and fulfilling promises and commitments.

Click HERE to get instant access to the free paper.

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post Paper: Engaging the Multi-Generational Workforce appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

Choosing the right consultant can be challenging.  You want someone that has experience, industry knowledge, and of course, innovative ideas.

No one likes to send their staff to ‘canned’ training programs, hoping they’ll walk away knowing how to apply what they’ve learned.  And it doesn’t matter how good the presentation – if you don’t know how to use it – it doesn’t help your organization much, and you go away feeling frustrated.

Same thing goes with hiring a consultant. You need someone who has some experience in your field.

Experience in Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement

We have experience in regulatory compliance and enforcement environment; understand what it’s like to tell people what they can or can’t do with their property, and know that every decision costs them money.  We’re also familiar with working with consultants, engineers, contractors and property owners, all experts in their field, and with differing levels of technical understanding.  In this environment it’s important to connect with people the first time.

Community Coalitions

We also know how to work with community coalitions and  stakeholders who each have a part in defining the look of a community.  All participants of a community coalition bring expertise and experience with them.  They have specific areas of focus and interest and are oftentimes passionate about them.  Understanding this and helping everyone communicate their best can be challenging…and rewarding.

Why Us

Happy People Enterprises is a Copywriting, Consulting, and Training company for small businesses, organizations and government agencies who understand the value of relationships.

• Copywriting

Copywriting is a normal part of most businesses, whether you need whitepapers, case studies, annual reports, blog posts, SEO website copy or something else. We are experienced in a wide variety of Business to Business copywriting products.

• Consulting

Happy People Enterprises  is experienced in FSMA  and GAPs produce safety, local foods and public health consulting for both private sector and government agencies.  Check out our consulting capabilities for more information.

• Training 

Happy People Enterprises provides off-the-shelf and customized training and development programs, to businesses, organizations, and government agencies.  We go to you, works with your staff and helps them work with real-world problems.  We develop specific training and development programs customized to your needs.

Programs are presented in a positive, affirming environment that acknowledges the worth of every individual and every personality perspective.  Our training programs offer a fun-filled, interactive experience – we help you immediately apply what is learned. Programs are customized into half-day, one day or two day long trainings, depending on your desired outcomes and objectives.
For more detailed information on why you should book your training with us, see 5 Reasons to Book Your Training with Us.

Contact Pam  for a free consultation, or to find out more about how Happy People Enterprises can help your business, organization or government agency.

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post Experience in Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

What sets us apart?  That’s a legitimate question.  You can choose from many training options

While our approach to training isn’t common, it is very effective…and that’s what you want.  Fun, entertaining and experiential learning activities, are all combined in each program to help it sink in.  Here are 5 reasons to book your training with us:

 1. You’re the Host.

Training is done at your facility. Not paying us for meeting room rental fees and refreshments is a huge savings.  That means more of your money is going to training your staff.

2. The Per-Person Cost is Low.

In fact, by using your conference room, the cost is low enough that you can afford to train your whole staff rather than sending a few people off site.  That’s more effective because they all represent your company to the public.  And it’s very difficult for people to come back and train the rest of the staff on what they just learned.

3. Training is Customized to Your Needs.

Nothing is worse than evaluate the adequacy of training based on a summary; send some people off site and then find out the training didn’t quite meet your expectations. The trainer didn’t understand your industry, couldn’t relate any of the techniques to your day to day activities and now your people have to make the leap of trying to adapt what they learned to what they do.

4. You Get Immediate Take-Away Results.

Not only are you taught proven principles, but through experiential learning activities you are given the opportunity to practice what you’re learning. Hearing information is one thing, applying it during training is another.

We know people absorb information differently: some are visual, some auditory, others by doing and still others by discussion – or any combination!  It takes a while for us to learn just about anything new – just like learning a new language.  You hear it, and then promptly forget to implement what you just learned.  You need the repetition to help make it stick. Training programs use these layers of learning to help reinforce the new skills.

5. Access to Powerful Online, Interactive Tools.

After most training programs you’re on your own…and that’s a cold and lonely place to be.  Not with us.  As part of your training, you get content rich training materials that you can refer back to as you learn to implement the techniques.  You also have online, interactive resources at your fingertips to help you with communication issues as they come up.  Access these whenever you need a quick reminder of how to use the principles to get the results you’re looking for.  And you can always call us back for one-on-one consulting for specific problems that crop up.

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post 5 Reasons To Book Your Training With Us appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.

Oftentimes, the very qualities that attract us to our spouse are the ones that drive us crazy!  Probably most of us know this already.  Here’s a question for you:  what’s your communication quotient (CQ)?

What’s Your  Communication Quotient (CQ)?

Just like an IQ is an indicator of your intelligence level, your communication quotient (CQ) measures your knowledge level regarding communication styles.

And just like your spouse (or child, parent, sibling or whoever is important in your life) the same thing happens in the workplace.

Communication differences, misunderstandings and the related stress can all lead to an unpleasant work environment and high employee turnover.

As a manager or business owner, not knowing your CQ is  costly to the bottom line.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  People are predictable once you understand their natural ways of communicating, reacting to stress, how they are motivated, and other communication characteristics.

Learn to make the MOST of your natural communication style and how to adapt to the communication style of others to have effective, gratifying relationships, both professionally and personally.

Adult-Learner Focused

This CQ  is the principle behind all our off-the-shelf and customized training and development programs.  We also utilize active, adult-learner delivery styles to provide participants experiences in applying newly acquired skills.

To learn more about we can help you and your staff, contact us.

And if you want to know more about the metrics of Employee Engagement, and the strategies to improve yours, claim your copy of our  Engaging the Multi-Generational Workforce paper NOW!

Pam

Pam offers experienced, professional, freelance B2B copywriter, consultant and trainer services primarily on produce safety, local foods, and public health topics.  She writes all forms of B2B content on other topics, too, and helps clients develop a content strategy to meet their goals. She also writes on

happyrealwomen.com

The post What’s Your Communication Quotient? appeared first on Happy People Enterprises.