150: The Marketer and The Mennonite Farm: A Story of Regenerative Branding with Sam Ingersoll

Description:

How does a small, community-owned organic dairy, rooted in the slow-paced traditions of Amish and Mennonite farmers, compete against slick, billion-dollar brands? The answer lies in authenticity, a deep understanding of customer values, and a story that truly resonates. In this episode, Joshua sits down with Sam Ingersoll, a passionate advocate and marketing leader in the regenerative food space.

Sam shares his incredible "full circle" journey—from growing up on a farm and hating it, to an Ivy League education and the high-stakes world of tech marketing, and finally back to his roots, promoting the very principles he once fled. This conversation is a masterclass in regenerative marketing, exploring how to build a resilient brand, why listening is your most powerful tool, and how the connection between soil health and our own gut health may be the most important story we can tell.

Show Notes:

• (8:46) Welcome to Kalona, Iowa: Sam describes the unique "ecological oasis" where he works, home to one of the largest concentrations of Amish and organic dairy farms in the U.S.
• (11:14) What Gets You Out of Bed? Sam shares his passion for being a consumer advocate and how marketing regenerative products is a way to have a tangible impact on human health and the planet.
• (15:13) Building a Resilient Business: The fascinating story of how Kalona Supernatural was founded by Amish farmers and protected itself through diversification and vertical integration.
• (22:23) A 'Regenpreneur's' Journey: Sam details his personal story, from a farm in Washington to Yale, to a spam-marketing office in Pakistan, and his eventual decision to reject the conventional corporate path for more meaningful work.
• (29:25) Coming Full Circle: Sam talks about joining the board of Hungry World Farm, the very nonprofit that took over the farm he grew up on.
• (38:37) From Ivy League to Farmer's Logic: How Sam's educational journey taught him the power of asking "why" and how that same principle of observation and adjustment is critical in regenerative agriculture.
• (48:08) The Art of Regenerative Marketing: Sam reveals his strategy of slowing down, having one-on-one conversations, and building genuine, long-term relationships with customers and influencers.
• (1:08:29) The Tipping Point for the Movement: Sam’s key insight—that the regenerative movement will truly take off when consumers, particularly women, connect the dots between soil health and their family's gut health.
• (1:19:55) You're Not Selling a Carrot, You're Selling an Experience: Sam’s final advice for entrepreneurs on the importance of becoming educators and storytellers to differentiate their products and build a loyal following.

Resource Links:

• Kalona Supernatural: kalonasupernatural.com
• Hungry World Farm: hungryworldfarm.com
• Savory Institute (Land to Market Verification): savory.global
• The Arbinger Institute (Author of The Outward Mindset): arbinger.com
• Bionutrient Food Association: bionutrient.org
• Book Recommendation - What Your Food Ate by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé: Find it at your local bookstore or online.

Highlighted Promotion: Your Journey, Your Learning Lab

In our conversation, Sam Ingersoll detailed his incredible learning journey—from hands-on farm work to an Ivy League education to deep-diving into the principles of holistic management. He learned what he needed to learn, when he needed to learn it, to move his mission forward.

Your regenerative enterprise is also a journey of constant learning. But you don't have to figure it all out alone.

The regenBEE United Learning Lab is your space to grow alongside your peers. It's not a one-size-fits-all curriculum. It's a living, breathing ecosystem of resources, mentorship, and peer-to-peer support tailored to the real-world challenges you face. Whether you need to master financial modeling, develop a marketing strategy, or design a governance structure, the Learning Lab connects you with the people and knowledge to take your next step.

[Let’s learn and grow together. Explore the regenBEE United Learning Lab today.]

You’re Not Selling a Carrot, You’re Selling a Worldview: Lessons in Regenerative Marketing from Sam Ingersoll

In a world saturated with slick marketing campaigns and venture-backed wunderkinds, how does an authentic, small-scale regenerative brand survive? How does it compete when its ethos is based on patience and its story is rooted in the quiet humility of Amish farmers who refuse to be on camera? The answer, it turns out, has less to do with budget and everything to do with belief.

This is the central lesson from our recent Seeds of Tao podcast conversation with Sam Ingersoll, a marketing leader who has navigated the worlds of Ivy League institutions and Pakistani spam farms, only to find his true calling in the rolling hills of Iowa, telling the story of regenerative dairy. His journey and the strategies he’s employed offer a powerful blueprint for any entrepreneur trying to market a product that is fundamentally better for people and the planet. It’s a masterclass in what we might call regenerative marketing—an approach built not on manipulation, but on relationship, education, and a shared vision for a healthier world.

Full Circle: The Winding Path to Purpose

To understand Sam’s marketing philosophy, you first have to understand his story, which is a testament to the idea that our paths are rarely linear. He grew up on a small farm in Washington state, weeding tomatoes and hating it. He fled to the big city, earned a degree from Yale, and dove headfirst into the complex, often extractive, worlds of financial services and technology consulting. He learned the machinery of modern business, including the "black hat" tactics of digital marketing.

But this world left him feeling empty. As he described it, the financial services industry was “designed to take money out of people's pockets,” and the affluent, high-stress suburban lifestyle felt disconnected from anything real. This profound sense of misalignment pushed him to seek out something more. When he and his family moved to Iowa, he made a conscious choice to reject the six-figure salaries of his past and find work he could be passionate about.

That search led him to Kalona Supernatural, a small organic dairy company with deep roots in the local Amish and Mennonite communities. It also led him to a deeper understanding of the regenerative movement. A pivotal moment was watching Allan Savory’s famous TED Talk, which, in Sam’s words, “blew my mind.” He saw in regenerative agriculture a practical, hopeful solution to the climate crisis, a way to improve human health, and a path back to the community values he’d experienced as a child. In a moment of beautiful synchronicity, he even joined the board of Hungry World Farm, the nonprofit that had taken over the very farm his family had run years before. He had come full circle, armed with the skills of a modern marketer but animated by the timeless values of stewardship and community.

Building a Resilient Brand: The Kalona Supernatural Model

Sam’s story is intertwined with the equally compelling story of his company. Kalona Supernatural wasn't born in a boardroom; it was an act of survival. In 2004, a group of small Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers were getting crushed by a market that favored massive, industrial operations. Big distributors didn’t want to drive their trucks down winding country roads to pick up milk from a 35-cow herd.

So, the farmers pooled their resources to build their own bottling plant. But as Sam points out, the Amish, with their intentional separation from technology, were ill-equipped to run a modern food processing and marketing business. They partnered with an “English” neighbor, an entrepreneur named Bill Evans, who understood the need for a more resilient structure.

What they built is a lesson in ecosystemic business design. Instead of a single, vulnerable entity, they created a group of interlocking companies that buffered the core creamery from market volatility. They started:

• A milk brokerage business to sell surplus milk when supply outpaced demand.
• A bulk organic ingredient company to serve other small manufacturers.
• Their own trucking and distribution company to control their own logistics and avoid being at the mercy of outside carriers.
• A nonprofit, the Kalona Regenerative Network, to share their knowledge with others.

This vertically integrated model allowed them to thrive even when faced with immense challenges, like a venture-backed competitor who raised over $80 million to essentially copy their innovative cottage cheese and dominate the market. While their sales initially dipped, their authenticity and the deep story of their integrated community allowed them to bounce back stronger than ever. Their survival wasn't an accident; it was a result of intentional, regenerative design.

The Art of Regenerative Marketing: Listen First, Sell Later

This brings us to the core of Sam’s work. How do you market this deep, complex story with a tiny budget and a primary commitment to values over volume?

Sam’s approach is a radical departure from the numbers-driven, high-pressure tactics of conventional marketing. It’s based on a simple, yet profound, principle: deep listening. "We listen to the people," he says, "because the customer is reflecting something very real for them. They're scared. They're angry. They're desperate for their health."

Instead of treating customer complaints as an irritation, his team sees them as an opportunity to understand the human being on the other end of the line. This philosophy is baked into their process. As Sam revealed, if you engage with their content online, you might get a direct message. Not a sales pitch, but a question: “We saw that you like this and you care about this issue. What about these things that we do might be most important to you on whatever journey you're on?”

This is the outward mindset in action. It’s about building relationships, one conversation at a time. It’s a slow, patient process—the marketing equivalent of cover cropping. You won't see the immediate ROI on a spreadsheet, but you are building fertile ground for long-term loyalty and explosive word-of-mouth growth. This strategy is directly responsible for growing their Instagram following from 6,500 to nearly 20,000 in a year, not by buying followers, but by earning them. As Sam notes, this long-term investment in relationships has led to powerful influencers promoting their products for free, simply because they believe in the mission and were supported when they were just starting out.

The Narrative That Will Tip the Scales: From Soil Health to Gut Health

Every movement needs a powerful, unifying narrative. While regenerative agriculture can be explained through the lens of carbon sequestration or biodiversity, Sam believes the story that will truly bring it into the mainstream is more personal and visceral.

“Our movement will take off,” he predicts, “when women ages 25 to 55 connect soil health to gut health.”

This is the critical link. It reframes regenerative farming not as an abstract environmental issue, but as a direct investment in the physical and mental health of our families. It’s the answer to the chronic diseases, mental health struggles, and general malaise plaguing so much of our society. The science is catching up, with researchers at institutions like the Bionutrient Food Association and authors like David R. Montgomery beginning to quantify the superior nutrient density of food grown in healthy, living soil.

Sam points to the imbalanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the modern diet—a direct result of industrial agriculture—as a key factor in the chronic inflammation that makes us vulnerable to disease. When we eat food from depleted soils and grain-fed animals, we are literally building our bodies with subpar materials.

This is the story that cuts through the political polarization. It doesn't matter what your voting record is; everyone wants their children to be healthy. The challenge for regenerative marketers is to convey this message with empathy and evidence. Sam suggests a three-pronged approach:

1. State the facts: A carrot is not a carrot. Explain the science simply.
2. Share the stories: Amplify the testimonials of people whose lives have been transformed by changing their diet.
3. Invite the experience: Encourage people to simply try it for themselves and observe how they feel.

A Final Word for the Builders: Passion, Patience, and Pedagogy

Sam’s final message for his fellow regenerative entrepreneurs is a powerful synthesis of his life’s lessons. He urges us to remember that passion alone isn’t enough; it must be paired with the patience and grind to build resilient systems. He also stresses the need to build teams with complementary skills—the visionary needs the operator, and the operator needs the networker.

Most importantly, he reminds us that in this movement, we are all educators. “Farms can't just farm,” he insists. “Regenerative producers can't just produce. They've got to be educators and storytellers.” You aren't just selling a carrot; you're selling an experience, an investment in shared values, a glimpse of a healthier world. This is the work—to not only practice regeneration but to translate it into a story so compelling that the world has no choice but to listen.