Self-proclaimed city boy is helping farmers cultivate business

By Erin Booke

The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Nick Burton is a self-proclaimed city boy: a businessman first and a farmer second. He’s also an educator, a mentor and the kind of friend who wants others to succeed.

Burton, 39, runs Blue Collar Paris Victory Gardens in Paris, Texas, where he grows vegetables hydroponically and in soil. It used to be a nursery, but now functions as the source of his subscription-based salad delivery business, Victory Lunch Club.

A New Mexico native, Burton moved to Texas in 2001. He started a lawn and landscaping business and grew from there. The “self-development junkie” says he became addicted to business coaching, which ranges from speaker training to technical expertise to image consulting.

“Whenever I got outside coaching, that’s when my business took off,” he says. “And whenever I couldn’t afford it was when I needed it most.”

Now Burton’s the coach. Earlier this year, he launched another business, a passion project called State of the Soil. The series of virtual seminars is designed to educate farmers on business and marketing tactics. Recordings of the webinars are available anytime online for a fee, but free live webinars are available a few times a year.

As a farmer, Burton feels obligated to pass along where he has made mistakes and to give back to the agricultural community.

“Farmers are not used to having to pay for training because of the USDA and other programs,” Burton says. “But with that they are not getting great education, especially when it comes to the business side of things.”

Farming, by nature, can be a solitary career choice — and a calling for many — that’s full of trial and error and a lot of learning the hard way. Farmers are not used to networking or asking for help, and they’re driven more by pride in their work than by market demands.

“I want to give people permission to tell their story, and sometimes I have to give people permission to make a profit,” Burton says. “But a lot of these are small family farms, and if they don’t succeed, they are going to lose it all.”

Burton is all about the tough love, however. He wants to help farmers build a community full of collaboration, innovation and support, but only if they are willing. No whining allowed.

“When we didn’t have good sales, I didn’t blame the market, I blamed myself,” he says. “Many people just grow what they like, but they have to grow what the market demands. It’s not about the farmer, it’s about the client.”

Burton doesn’t advocate one type of farming, even though there’s often infighting and debate among farmers about topics such as hydroponics vs. soil. “Whenever farmers say these things publicly, they are not helping each other out,” he says. “Everyone is so passionate about what they do, but there’s no one right way to do everything. Unless you’re out there just spraying chemicals on everything, I don’t have a problem with it.”

And while Burton runs State of the Soil, he doesn’t do it alone. He has tapped others in the agriculture community to share their stories and expertise. There are about 38 speakers for 2017 (and more than 40 for 2018) who will talk about such topics as market development, funding, restaurant sales, farmers market sales, media relations, food trends, farm-to-table events, social media, photography, technology and even work-life balance. An all-access pass is $129, and you can watch the webinars anytime.

Jeff Bednar, owner of Profound Microfarms in Lucas, Texas, teaches a seminar on agricultural real estate for State of the Soil. He owned a real estate company and then branched out into real estate education before deciding to buy land and start growing. He, his wife, Lee, and his two young daughters grow vegetables, mostly leafy greens, hydroponically, aquaponically (with fish) and even vermiponically (with worms).

Andrea Shackelford, executive chef at Harvest Seasonal Kitchen in suburban Dallas, teaches a seminar on selling to restaurants and developing relationships with chefs. Tim Kelly of SunTx Capital in Dallas offers details on funding and investing. Other speakers are from across the country and around the globe.