Alecia Stuaan: There's a lot of agriculture content out there right now. Podcasts, videos, social media, radio, everyone's talking.
Amber Stanik: But not a lot of people are actually having real conversations about what's going on in the industry.
Salem Henricks: And we kept realizing something else. A lot of the people we work with every day aren't listening to traditional ag radio like they used to.
Alecia Stuaan: They're on YouTube, they're listening to podcasts, they're watching equipment walk around videos on their phone.
Amber Stanik: So we figured if that's where people are, then that's where we should be.
Salem Henricks: And that's how this podcast got started.
Alecia Stuaan: Hello and welcome to the Parallel Path. The Parallel Path is a monthly podcast from the marketing team at Parallel Ag, bringing real conversations across the agriculture industry. In each episode, we will sit down with equipment experts, service professionals, industry leaders, and farmers to talk about the challenges, innovations, and decisions shaping the modern agriculture. From iron and uptime to technology and market trends, the Parallel Path focuses on people and ideas that keep farms moving forward.
Salem Henricks: So Livingston machinery actually is a really cool story. It was founded by Earl Livingston and his wife. They're native Oklahomans, grew up small town around here. And they opened it the first location in Chickasha, Oklahoma back in May of 1987. They didn't have a main tractor line whenever they started, and they actually grew their big business off of big balers and their 24 /7 service promise. In 1993, the company actually introduced mobile service shops and it was literally from a handmade trailer that they put together themselves. Earl laminated carts ⁓ and them out to customers all the time and told them like, doesn't matter what you need. These are our home numbers. You call us if you need something and we will show up. ⁓ And what he and his employees did. ⁓ They with three employees ⁓ and ⁓ since mergers and everything have happened, we actually have 16 different locations. patients.
Alecia Stuaan: That's fantastic. What about Ag Solutions Group? How does that play into the merger?
Salem Henricks: So around 2021, 2022, both companies were growing pretty tremendously. Solutions Group was in the Midwest, Missouri, Iowa locations. And were looking for something bigger to do. They wanted to expand. wanted to ⁓ So ASG actually operated in a similar way. They became ASG back in 2015 with a merger with Brokaw Supply Company out of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Riggins Ag Equipment was also part of that out of Missouri. And they came together in 2015 and then they joined up with what was Livingston Machinery around 2021. ⁓ And was all about both having a strong focus on supporting customers through equipment, parts, and especially service ⁓ and long-term relationships with communities. because of the things that ⁓ of the owners and all the employees really ⁓ with was making sure that ⁓ weren't just here to provide equipment. We wanted to actually make that relationship, make sure we're supporting them because ⁓ lot of when you get outside of the Midwest Southern Plains area and ⁓ you away from farm country, there's not always a lot of appreciation for ⁓ those And so our companies wanted to come together and grow ⁓ with company footprint, our employees, and just making sure we're growing those relationships every day. you
Amber Stanik: So Alecia, what was it like at ACM and how did that fold into Parallag?
Alecia Stuaan: So I was actually at ACM. joined the team in 2018 and started out as a marketing coordinator role there. But what I didn't realize was that ACM actually started in 1950 and was actually built out of ⁓ Al gas station. ⁓ So it happened was ⁓ a Ferguson, actually at that time it was Massey Harris, believe, pulled into gas station ⁓ and asked McCartney if he
Salem Henricks: ⁓ wow.
Amber Stanik: That's cool.
Alecia Stuaan: knew if he wanted to sell some tractors and Al said let me go talk to my partner and I'll be right back Al went in and asked his partner what he thought and his partner says well we don't know anything about tractors And Al walked back out and said, yeah, we'll do it. And so he started selling tractors without either one of them knowing. And the Durand location is actually right across the street from where the old gas station was. ⁓ they have just built upon it. And so Al McCartney was the original founder. And then Woody McCartney was president when we merged with Parallel Ag. And he actually had his son and his nephew at operation and the fourth generation of McCartney's actually still works at parallel. So it actually tied in beautifully with history and our background at ACM with how we wanted to grow and how we serve our customers. We were definitely very customer focused. Al McCartney believed in treating the customer right and they will always come back to you. ⁓ So they at the merger, was just the perfect blending of all three businesses come together to be parallel.
Amber Stanik: It's a really awesome story.
Alecia Stuaan: that we've gone through the history of Parallel Ag, ⁓ we should introduce ourselves. Let's start off. Salem, you're up.
Salem Henricks: Salem and I'm a nobody. No, I'm just kidding. ⁓ like make that joke a lot. So ⁓ I'm Hendricks. I'm the Director of Marketing for Parallel Ag. I've been here two years now and ⁓ I I have known Earl Livingston, whether he remembers me. I have known him since I was a little kid. He and my family, ⁓ family grew up around here. So my dad ⁓ a little bit younger than him in high school, but like they went to the same school and everything. My grandpa got all of his balers from Earl Livingston. And then when I was playing junior high and high school softball, ⁓ he me ⁓ whenever was playing. And so that was always really cool. But I stayed in the ag world. We ran a small where we had wheat and alfalfa, we had beef master cattle. My family operation was about, I could say almost down to the minute, like 17 minutes from the mothership dealership there in Chickasha. So that was really cool. But I wanted, I actually went into sports for quite a while because I thought that was gonna be my thing. And then I got to work with ESPN and Fox for a while. And I decided, actually it was suggested to me by one of my professors that I should probably go back to Ag because all of my newspaper articles to keep getting more into Ag and what's going on there. ⁓ it's kind of pushed out the door. So I got to work with ⁓ Cattlemen's Beef Association for a couple of years and then ⁓ Roundtable for Sustainable Beef for a while. And really to say there, I'm married into a family now that does cattle, commercial cattle operation and ⁓ show heifers all that. And I had to up with them somehow because I didn't grow up in the show world. so. I feel like I kind of get to do my part and stay there. So now I get to raise my three kids in the show barn and we bought our own Manitou And we bought our own Fendt now and we, my, three of my kids now have driven the Fendt and love it. And my son, at least once a week asked if he can go over to the dealership and try to drive something else. We have a lot of fun with it. Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: That's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Salem Henricks: Amber, how did you get started? Like, what's your background?
Amber Stanik: I'm Amber, ⁓ I've been with Parallel for about five years I started off as the assistant to the CEO, and then about three years ago, I got the to move in marketing. I focus more on the design and the branding, ⁓ the digital projects like our website and market materials. I have a bachelor's degree in graphic design and business. I'm originally from Kentucky. So I like grew up in the like in the ag world, but not necessarily like everyone else. I wasn't a part of the FFA. I didn't show cows. I wasn't raised on a farm. I grew up working on a horse farm, but I was not raised on a farm. I ran barrels a lot growing up and I don't know. I have two kids. I've been married for almost 17 years. That's my story.
Salem Henricks: Mmm. ⁓ that for you. Alecia? What you? ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Oh, Let's see.
Salem Henricks: ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: have a very interesting background when it comes to agriculture. I grew up on a row crop farm in southern Iowa, which was about 2500 acres. And then on top of that, my parents have some Car quest locations that they own and operate they have a show livestock show sheep. I grew up showing sheep They have a club lamb operation I sold seed for six years. I was a precision technology specialist in that time period and all of that actually just kind of beautifully melts together into working in marketing ⁓ I'm able to use my experience from selling and my background on the farm to really try and hone in and speak to the customer's voice I have been in that customer role before.
Salem Henricks: You've been in a lot of those roles before. That's impressive. Not everybody has a background like that. That's really impressive. feel like every time you start to tell us about your background or a little bit more about you, I learned something new, like every time. ⁓ first. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Hahaha
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: It. I just, I'm a vast well of secrets. some skeletons in that closet.
Salem Henricks: Hehehehehe ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓ we love skeletons.
Alecia Stuaan: Hahaha!
Amber Stanik: Give me the tea.
Alecia Stuaan: if you really wanted the tea, when we're talking about this podcast, ⁓ we tell the story of really how it came to be?
Salem Henricks: Yeah. my goodness. Yeah, may as well. May as well. ⁓
Amber Stanik: Yes, let's do it. Should we bring up the chat?
Alecia Stuaan: Promise. So in the last year, we went to the AGCO dealer marketing meeting and it was. It was actually a fantastic meeting. We got to hear from all the other dealers and we got started on a discussion about where to meet our customers. And they were talking about, well, no one's really doing traditional radio anymore. And at that point in time, we'd already been talking about starting a podcast, just us, because we're like the three stooges in real life. you know, we've got how many kids? Nine kids between the three of us. And...
Salem Henricks: generous. Too many. Too many. You have the majority.
Amber Stanik: Most of those are yours. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Most of them are mine, yes. And the majority of them are girls, so pray for us. ⁓
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Salem Henricks: Ugh.
Alecia Stuaan: And so we were talking about this and we're like, you know what? Let's just start a podcast. And we also at that point in time at that meeting, tell. We were having a dealer round table where they had some customers up front talking. They really were talking about how they wanted to be marketed to. And one of them really did bring up the podcasts. And at the end of this session, they opened it up for dealers for Q and A. And at that point in time, he had already made a comment about how at farm shows he really would like to see a service technician or another farmer or someone in that booth to really talk to who knows their equipment. No, it's really not. Because how many times do we actually get those service techs out there to see customers in a non-sales related, like, ⁓ yeah, But he made a comment about...
Salem Henricks: Which is not a bad idea. mean, not a bad idea. I know that could be very beneficial. Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: how he really wanted someone besides the 22 year old marketing girl who was there to hand out pens. let me tell you, yeah, we all ⁓ of as, know, a full team ⁓ females ⁓ ag with very strong personalities and very strong backgrounds, we kind of cringed a little bit, but I had a genuine question for him. I wasn't gonna like pick him apart or anything. I wanted to ⁓ honestly him about a,
Salem Henricks: RUN! ⁓ Hmm.
Amber Stanik: That was funny. Yes. Unfortunately.
Alecia Stuaan: podcast. And I raised my
Salem Henricks: Well, and truly at the same time, we were not the only women in the room. Like part of the truth about marketing. Like ⁓ good 60 to 70 % of the room that were there marketers for other dealers were women. So there also that. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Mm-hmm.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: and including manufacturers. Like the team, marketing team from AGCO is very female represented. So I raised my hand and they hand me the mic and he goes, speaking of the 22 year old marketing girl.
Salem Henricks: Yes.
Amber Stanik: We ride at dawn.
Alecia Stuaan: Salem, I'm pretty sure Salem like armbarred me and tried throwing her hand over my mouth because she was afraid of what was gonna come out of my mouth.
Salem Henricks: Hmm... ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓
Salem Henricks: Honestly, my immediate reaction was, of all, dangerous territory to say that to anyone on this team, because really, ⁓ have a hard time biting our tongues in general anyway, ⁓ that was, it was a bold thing to say. It was bold, but you handled it very well. ⁓ will say that you handled it very well. ⁓
Amber Stanik: I'm like, let her say it.
Alecia Stuaan: you you
Amber Stanik: full of mostly women.
Alecia Stuaan: Thank you. Thank you. I may have ranted about it online afterwards and gone semi-viral on LinkedIn for it,
Amber Stanik: Yes, I agree.
Salem Henricks: you
Alecia Stuaan: when we presented this to several leadership people within parallel they jumped on board and now we have are fielding ideas left and right about what episodes we should be doing I think In May we're going to be doing an episode about commercial hay. Like we're going to have one of our hay equipment experts on here. What else do we have going on?
Salem Henricks: We've had some of the leadership from some of the vendors reach out because they're really excited. There's not a lot of dealers that are doing this. I know I want to say it was at the Fendt brand specifically, they're wanting to be a part of something and talk some more because there's a lot of places that are doing this kind of thing. And though one the really good things that did come out of that customer panel that they had is, know, we did learn podcast or where want to get their information because ⁓ they don't have stream it live. They can save it and come back to it. They can listen. to it when they don't have good service and they're in the cab. personally whenever I was farming and I'd be baling hay in the middle of the night, I did not have service down where our fields were. So, you know, when I started baling hay at 15, even then streaming was not a super easy thing to do. Downloading music at the same time was not a super easy thing to do. So now we have the ability to do all that. It's going to make a really big difference to reach everyone like that.
Alecia Stuaan: You just made me feel really old because I didn't even have a smartphone when I was in the tractor cab, okay? It was the little analog radio that you had to dial,
Salem Henricks: To be fair, learned how to drive the wheat truck before I ever got my license. ⁓ ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: So girls tonight were talking about this. ⁓ Because I keep teasing Frankie every time we go somewhere. Like, you drive Frankie? And Frankie is our second and she is nine. I keep making a joke like, Frankie it's your turn to drive. And she goes, Mom, I can't. And I was like, listen, when I was nine, ⁓ drove a grain cart or ⁓ tractor, four wheel drive tractor with a grain cart behind it ⁓ a 30 foot bean head platform behind it down the road. If you can't drive my little minivan.
Salem Henricks: Yep. yeah, the first time I drove a stick shift, especially by myself, I was 12 ⁓ my dad sent me in the one ton. My grandparents place was a one mile section down and a quarter mile on. ⁓ ⁓ had this great big circle drive ⁓ I was like, yeah, I know how to drive it, but like not by myself. And he goes, all right, well ⁓ take off. Let's make a couple of rounds. ⁓ made ⁓ laps around circle drive. And he goes, all right, you're good. Run over to Nanny Poppins go grab X ⁓ whatever was that I needed to grab.
Alecia Stuaan: She's not for it.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: Thank you.
Salem Henricks: Like,
Alecia Stuaan: What is it with like the manuals being the first vehicles that we drive because that's what the first vehicle I drove was a manual it was a right
Salem Henricks: I can do that.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Salem Henricks: But it should be. Yeah. you don't even have to shift anymore. These tractors are fancy now. Like mine had a bad clutch and sometimes I popped a wheelie in that thing and it just happened.
Alecia Stuaan: Right?
Amber Stanik: Well, don't run into your parents' house.
Alecia Stuaan: You know? So the first tractor that we were all taught on was a John Deere 2630, which I'm not sure if either one of you know what that is. I'm sure Salem probably does. But it was, and it was a manual. It was like the three on the tree kind of manual where you had to shift back and forth. Every single one of us kids, and it had bale forks on the front of it. Every single one of us kids ran those bale forks through the shop door.
Amber Stanik: Okay, yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: got to the point where my dad didn't fix it after my brother because he knew that the other two of us were. Because how it was our shop was set up was that the fuel tanks were right here and then you just drive like straight forward into the shop doors. And so we'd pop that clutch and straight the like bail forks go straight into that shop door.
Salem Henricks: Ours wasn't hitting something ⁓ the bail spikes. Ours ⁓ who was going to run the fence with the swather. ⁓ That was like a rite passage for us. Like someone was going to run it over, guaranteed. ⁓ I think I did it and...
Alecia Stuaan: You
Amber Stanik: Hmm.
Salem Henricks: I hope she'll never listen to this. poor grandma, my dad told me one time she ran over like a hundred different times. Like tractors were not her thing, but she did it when she needed to be a part of it. Yeah. We learned, I mostly learned when a John Deere 4440 and it did its job. It did exactly what it needed to do. had a couple of cabless tractors. Yeah, they were okay. But yeah, oh, how things have changed.
Amber Stanik: Make sure to send it to her Alecia.
Alecia Stuaan: you got into the drive the Fendt the very first time I drove it and it was weird because it was literally like driving a car I don't know if either one of you have driven like no no Salem McKenzie. You cannot say that on this podcast ⁓
Salem Henricks: it felt like a spaceship.
Amber Stanik: What did she say? I didn't even hear.
Salem Henricks: I said it felt like a spaceship.
Alecia Stuaan: She said getting in the Fendt was like getting in a spaceship. breaking that stereotype! ⁓
Amber Stanik: Salem! You're in timeout.
Salem Henricks: That's what my dad said. That's what my dad said the first time. He was like, what is all this?
Amber Stanik: Wait, isn't that what that country singer said?
Alecia Stuaan: Yes! It's legitimately like... Roberts will have a cow if I leave that in here. ⁓ I am? Because then I middle named her? ⁓ middle named her?
Amber Stanik: The hips guy.
Salem Henricks: summer.
Amber Stanik: Leave it in here. Don't take it out, it's funny.
Salem Henricks: WAH So really looking to all the different things that we're going to talk about this year. Amber, ⁓ what are you probably forward to the most as far as like episodes we've got planned?
Amber Stanik: I think what I'm most looking forward to is our employees coming on the podcast, getting parallel voice out there, specifically with Steven and Greg that are going to be on the ⁓ hey episode. ⁓ think really having parallel's employee voice put out there is really great thing. What about you, Alecia What are you looking forward to the most?
Alecia Stuaan: let's see, I get to yap professionally and get paid for it. Yes, ⁓ So I actually, been having a lot of fun coming up with the different ideas and already reaching out to different guests. I don't know, that's a tough one.
Amber Stanik: Certified yapper she is.
Salem Henricks: You
Alecia Stuaan: I'm honestly the one that I'm looking forward to is actually the one I'm going to be recording next week and that is going to be an episode about the Fendt Momentum planters and not only do I have ⁓ planter guy and a PTX precision guy coming on, we actually, got one of our customers to come on and he's going to talk about how and why he made the switch to a momentum planter and how it's working for his operation. So that's actually one of the things that bringing it all full circle and getting beyond just the parallel voice and being able to bring the relatability out to the customers I've since the moment that I've come onto parallel that I want us to be able set ourselves apart as the go-to dealership. I think that this podcast is just a way to elevate us even further. What about you Salem? Got anything specific?
Salem Henricks: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ I'm actually. I'm actually most looking forward to, think, the Women in Ag podcast that we're going to do because Kayla, Chronicles of Kayla is one of my favorite people, especially to talk about what she goes through on her daily life and everything. She has an amazing story just of her whole life, not necessarily specific to the farm, but everything else that they have going on within their family. And one of the things that she has spoken of to us a lot, and I'm really excited for her to share it, is it's not just about the equipment. sales and the relationships that she's got there, which she's very fortunate. She's friends with our general manager. They grew up together. They went to high school together and everything. And that's a super cool story. But, she specifically was telling me about one time where they were having issues. think it was with their bailer ⁓ the service tech was out there. He had come out more than once. And then the last time he was out there, he stood out there for hours, ⁓ seven eight hours in their field with them. ⁓ And just think that's a huge testament to like the whole, whole reason a company. It's how we merged. It's why we merged. It's how our companies were founded and it's how we built our business. And I think it's just really cool that now we can look back, you know, from 1950s to 1987. That was the foundation and here we are in 2026 and that's still what's getting and keeping our customers. So I'm really excited for her to say more about that because our customer supports. It's our lifeline.
Amber Stanik: Mm-hmm. I agree.
Alecia Stuaan: And especially right now. mean, the farm economy is kind of crap. And so we're sending more out in service than we are in sales. And so to make sure that even if you don't have the bottom line dollars there right now to upgrade your equipment, that we're there to keep the equipment that you have right now on your farm running to its fullest extent.
Salem Henricks: Yeah, and I know that's a lot of what we're seeing, especially these last six, seven, maybe eight months is there's lot more maintenance that's having to go into equipment and everything because ⁓ people have the money to go and buy new equipment or they're not in position where they're ready to trade in or anything like that. And so they're having to invest more in what they have. And ⁓ it's not always repairs. It's a lot of maintenance and stuff. So we see a lot of those calls right now. And, know, we've got a of people actually going into some of the service Tech trainings and they're really, really strong. are coming in. I'm really excited for them. We have some ⁓ that have been here for 20 years plus and knowledge they're going to get from them is going to be awesome. ⁓ And, what's super cool about our text is how we share regions. So we've some of our combine specialists come to Texas and to and help us out. ⁓ And we didn't have training there. And so it's really to get to see them do that and I'm excited to hear some of the other employees talk about their direct experience with that.
Alecia Stuaan: for sure, just, the coolest thing that I saw last year was I was a video from Scott Small, who's our VP of customer success, of a truck and combine that was actually loaded up from, I the Kansas location that they brought up to Wataga which is where I'm based out of, to their winter service inspection done because they didn't have the expertise down there, and ⁓ we have some of the best combine techs out there for AGCO. And so to be able, like you said, to be able to share those resources really is going to be such a dynamic industry changing relationship that we're able to provide our customers.
Salem Henricks: There's.
Amber Stanik: Mm-hmm.
Salem Henricks: There's a lot of other brands and other colors out there that may have a big network of dealers, but they don't necessarily work together among them. And that is really cool because we're not Illinois stores competing with Oklahoma stores or Missouri competing with Iowa, anything like that. Our stores, we are all one company and we're trying to make sure that everyone succeeds. And it's in our mission statement that we feed the communities around us and everything. And we take that very seriously. So it's really cool to see how we do share that. and it just ⁓ our main focus and it's awesome.
Amber Stanik: One team, one dream.
Alecia Stuaan: That's right. with I think this concludes our first episode, ladies. What do you think?
Salem Henricks: That's right.
Amber Stanik: Yes, such a great episode.
Salem Henricks: I mean, can talk forever, but I'm excited about it.
Alecia Stuaan: right, that wraps up this episode of Parallel Path. Thank you for spending some time with us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to follow the podcast wherever you listen ⁓ so you don't miss the episode, because it's gonna be great. I'm hosting. And if there's a topic or you'd like us to cover, we'd love to hear from you. ⁓ And we'll see you next time the Parallel
Amber Stanik: But not a lot of people are actually having real conversations about what's going on in the industry.
Salem Henricks: And we kept realizing something else. A lot of the people we work with every day aren't listening to traditional ag radio like they used to.
Alecia Stuaan: They're on YouTube, they're listening to podcasts, they're watching equipment walk around videos on their phone.
Amber Stanik: So we figured if that's where people are, then that's where we should be.
Salem Henricks: And that's how this podcast got started.
Alecia Stuaan: Hello and welcome to the Parallel Path. The Parallel Path is a monthly podcast from the marketing team at Parallel Ag, bringing real conversations across the agriculture industry. In each episode, we will sit down with equipment experts, service professionals, industry leaders, and farmers to talk about the challenges, innovations, and decisions shaping the modern agriculture. From iron and uptime to technology and market trends, the Parallel Path focuses on people and ideas that keep farms moving forward.
Salem Henricks: So Livingston machinery actually is a really cool story. It was founded by Earl Livingston and his wife. They're native Oklahomans, grew up small town around here. And they opened it the first location in Chickasha, Oklahoma back in May of 1987. They didn't have a main tractor line whenever they started, and they actually grew their big business off of big balers and their 24 /7 service promise. In 1993, the company actually introduced mobile service shops and it was literally from a handmade trailer that they put together themselves. Earl laminated carts ⁓ and them out to customers all the time and told them like, doesn't matter what you need. These are our home numbers. You call us if you need something and we will show up. ⁓ And what he and his employees did. ⁓ They with three employees ⁓ and ⁓ since mergers and everything have happened, we actually have 16 different locations. patients.
Alecia Stuaan: That's fantastic. What about Ag Solutions Group? How does that play into the merger?
Salem Henricks: So around 2021, 2022, both companies were growing pretty tremendously. Solutions Group was in the Midwest, Missouri, Iowa locations. And were looking for something bigger to do. They wanted to expand. wanted to ⁓ So ASG actually operated in a similar way. They became ASG back in 2015 with a merger with Brokaw Supply Company out of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Riggins Ag Equipment was also part of that out of Missouri. And they came together in 2015 and then they joined up with what was Livingston Machinery around 2021. ⁓ And was all about both having a strong focus on supporting customers through equipment, parts, and especially service ⁓ and long-term relationships with communities. because of the things that ⁓ of the owners and all the employees really ⁓ with was making sure that ⁓ weren't just here to provide equipment. We wanted to actually make that relationship, make sure we're supporting them because ⁓ lot of when you get outside of the Midwest Southern Plains area and ⁓ you away from farm country, there's not always a lot of appreciation for ⁓ those And so our companies wanted to come together and grow ⁓ with company footprint, our employees, and just making sure we're growing those relationships every day. you
Amber Stanik: So Alecia, what was it like at ACM and how did that fold into Parallag?
Alecia Stuaan: So I was actually at ACM. joined the team in 2018 and started out as a marketing coordinator role there. But what I didn't realize was that ACM actually started in 1950 and was actually built out of ⁓ Al gas station. ⁓ So it happened was ⁓ a Ferguson, actually at that time it was Massey Harris, believe, pulled into gas station ⁓ and asked McCartney if he
Salem Henricks: ⁓ wow.
Amber Stanik: That's cool.
Alecia Stuaan: knew if he wanted to sell some tractors and Al said let me go talk to my partner and I'll be right back Al went in and asked his partner what he thought and his partner says well we don't know anything about tractors And Al walked back out and said, yeah, we'll do it. And so he started selling tractors without either one of them knowing. And the Durand location is actually right across the street from where the old gas station was. ⁓ they have just built upon it. And so Al McCartney was the original founder. And then Woody McCartney was president when we merged with Parallel Ag. And he actually had his son and his nephew at operation and the fourth generation of McCartney's actually still works at parallel. So it actually tied in beautifully with history and our background at ACM with how we wanted to grow and how we serve our customers. We were definitely very customer focused. Al McCartney believed in treating the customer right and they will always come back to you. ⁓ So they at the merger, was just the perfect blending of all three businesses come together to be parallel.
Amber Stanik: It's a really awesome story.
Alecia Stuaan: that we've gone through the history of Parallel Ag, ⁓ we should introduce ourselves. Let's start off. Salem, you're up.
Salem Henricks: Salem and I'm a nobody. No, I'm just kidding. ⁓ like make that joke a lot. So ⁓ I'm Hendricks. I'm the Director of Marketing for Parallel Ag. I've been here two years now and ⁓ I I have known Earl Livingston, whether he remembers me. I have known him since I was a little kid. He and my family, ⁓ family grew up around here. So my dad ⁓ a little bit younger than him in high school, but like they went to the same school and everything. My grandpa got all of his balers from Earl Livingston. And then when I was playing junior high and high school softball, ⁓ he me ⁓ whenever was playing. And so that was always really cool. But I stayed in the ag world. We ran a small where we had wheat and alfalfa, we had beef master cattle. My family operation was about, I could say almost down to the minute, like 17 minutes from the mothership dealership there in Chickasha. So that was really cool. But I wanted, I actually went into sports for quite a while because I thought that was gonna be my thing. And then I got to work with ESPN and Fox for a while. And I decided, actually it was suggested to me by one of my professors that I should probably go back to Ag because all of my newspaper articles to keep getting more into Ag and what's going on there. ⁓ it's kind of pushed out the door. So I got to work with ⁓ Cattlemen's Beef Association for a couple of years and then ⁓ Roundtable for Sustainable Beef for a while. And really to say there, I'm married into a family now that does cattle, commercial cattle operation and ⁓ show heifers all that. And I had to up with them somehow because I didn't grow up in the show world. so. I feel like I kind of get to do my part and stay there. So now I get to raise my three kids in the show barn and we bought our own Manitou And we bought our own Fendt now and we, my, three of my kids now have driven the Fendt and love it. And my son, at least once a week asked if he can go over to the dealership and try to drive something else. We have a lot of fun with it. Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: That's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Salem Henricks: Amber, how did you get started? Like, what's your background?
Amber Stanik: I'm Amber, ⁓ I've been with Parallel for about five years I started off as the assistant to the CEO, and then about three years ago, I got the to move in marketing. I focus more on the design and the branding, ⁓ the digital projects like our website and market materials. I have a bachelor's degree in graphic design and business. I'm originally from Kentucky. So I like grew up in the like in the ag world, but not necessarily like everyone else. I wasn't a part of the FFA. I didn't show cows. I wasn't raised on a farm. I grew up working on a horse farm, but I was not raised on a farm. I ran barrels a lot growing up and I don't know. I have two kids. I've been married for almost 17 years. That's my story.
Salem Henricks: Mmm. ⁓ that for you. Alecia? What you? ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Oh, Let's see.
Salem Henricks: ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: have a very interesting background when it comes to agriculture. I grew up on a row crop farm in southern Iowa, which was about 2500 acres. And then on top of that, my parents have some Car quest locations that they own and operate they have a show livestock show sheep. I grew up showing sheep They have a club lamb operation I sold seed for six years. I was a precision technology specialist in that time period and all of that actually just kind of beautifully melts together into working in marketing ⁓ I'm able to use my experience from selling and my background on the farm to really try and hone in and speak to the customer's voice I have been in that customer role before.
Salem Henricks: You've been in a lot of those roles before. That's impressive. Not everybody has a background like that. That's really impressive. feel like every time you start to tell us about your background or a little bit more about you, I learned something new, like every time. ⁓ first. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Hahaha
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: It. I just, I'm a vast well of secrets. some skeletons in that closet.
Salem Henricks: Hehehehehe ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓ we love skeletons.
Alecia Stuaan: Hahaha!
Amber Stanik: Give me the tea.
Alecia Stuaan: if you really wanted the tea, when we're talking about this podcast, ⁓ we tell the story of really how it came to be?
Salem Henricks: Yeah. my goodness. Yeah, may as well. May as well. ⁓
Amber Stanik: Yes, let's do it. Should we bring up the chat?
Alecia Stuaan: Promise. So in the last year, we went to the AGCO dealer marketing meeting and it was. It was actually a fantastic meeting. We got to hear from all the other dealers and we got started on a discussion about where to meet our customers. And they were talking about, well, no one's really doing traditional radio anymore. And at that point in time, we'd already been talking about starting a podcast, just us, because we're like the three stooges in real life. you know, we've got how many kids? Nine kids between the three of us. And...
Salem Henricks: generous. Too many. Too many. You have the majority.
Amber Stanik: Most of those are yours. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Most of them are mine, yes. And the majority of them are girls, so pray for us. ⁓
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Salem Henricks: Ugh.
Alecia Stuaan: And so we were talking about this and we're like, you know what? Let's just start a podcast. And we also at that point in time at that meeting, tell. We were having a dealer round table where they had some customers up front talking. They really were talking about how they wanted to be marketed to. And one of them really did bring up the podcasts. And at the end of this session, they opened it up for dealers for Q and A. And at that point in time, he had already made a comment about how at farm shows he really would like to see a service technician or another farmer or someone in that booth to really talk to who knows their equipment. No, it's really not. Because how many times do we actually get those service techs out there to see customers in a non-sales related, like, ⁓ yeah, But he made a comment about...
Salem Henricks: Which is not a bad idea. mean, not a bad idea. I know that could be very beneficial. Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: how he really wanted someone besides the 22 year old marketing girl who was there to hand out pens. let me tell you, yeah, we all ⁓ of as, know, a full team ⁓ females ⁓ ag with very strong personalities and very strong backgrounds, we kind of cringed a little bit, but I had a genuine question for him. I wasn't gonna like pick him apart or anything. I wanted to ⁓ honestly him about a,
Salem Henricks: RUN! ⁓ Hmm.
Amber Stanik: That was funny. Yes. Unfortunately.
Alecia Stuaan: podcast. And I raised my
Salem Henricks: Well, and truly at the same time, we were not the only women in the room. Like part of the truth about marketing. Like ⁓ good 60 to 70 % of the room that were there marketers for other dealers were women. So there also that. ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: Mm-hmm.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: and including manufacturers. Like the team, marketing team from AGCO is very female represented. So I raised my hand and they hand me the mic and he goes, speaking of the 22 year old marketing girl.
Salem Henricks: Yes.
Amber Stanik: We ride at dawn.
Alecia Stuaan: Salem, I'm pretty sure Salem like armbarred me and tried throwing her hand over my mouth because she was afraid of what was gonna come out of my mouth.
Salem Henricks: Hmm... ⁓
Amber Stanik: ⁓
Salem Henricks: Honestly, my immediate reaction was, of all, dangerous territory to say that to anyone on this team, because really, ⁓ have a hard time biting our tongues in general anyway, ⁓ that was, it was a bold thing to say. It was bold, but you handled it very well. ⁓ will say that you handled it very well. ⁓
Amber Stanik: I'm like, let her say it.
Alecia Stuaan: you you
Amber Stanik: full of mostly women.
Alecia Stuaan: Thank you. Thank you. I may have ranted about it online afterwards and gone semi-viral on LinkedIn for it,
Amber Stanik: Yes, I agree.
Salem Henricks: you
Alecia Stuaan: when we presented this to several leadership people within parallel they jumped on board and now we have are fielding ideas left and right about what episodes we should be doing I think In May we're going to be doing an episode about commercial hay. Like we're going to have one of our hay equipment experts on here. What else do we have going on?
Salem Henricks: We've had some of the leadership from some of the vendors reach out because they're really excited. There's not a lot of dealers that are doing this. I know I want to say it was at the Fendt brand specifically, they're wanting to be a part of something and talk some more because there's a lot of places that are doing this kind of thing. And though one the really good things that did come out of that customer panel that they had is, know, we did learn podcast or where want to get their information because ⁓ they don't have stream it live. They can save it and come back to it. They can listen. to it when they don't have good service and they're in the cab. personally whenever I was farming and I'd be baling hay in the middle of the night, I did not have service down where our fields were. So, you know, when I started baling hay at 15, even then streaming was not a super easy thing to do. Downloading music at the same time was not a super easy thing to do. So now we have the ability to do all that. It's going to make a really big difference to reach everyone like that.
Alecia Stuaan: You just made me feel really old because I didn't even have a smartphone when I was in the tractor cab, okay? It was the little analog radio that you had to dial,
Salem Henricks: To be fair, learned how to drive the wheat truck before I ever got my license. ⁓ ⁓
Alecia Stuaan: So girls tonight were talking about this. ⁓ Because I keep teasing Frankie every time we go somewhere. Like, you drive Frankie? And Frankie is our second and she is nine. I keep making a joke like, Frankie it's your turn to drive. And she goes, Mom, I can't. And I was like, listen, when I was nine, ⁓ drove a grain cart or ⁓ tractor, four wheel drive tractor with a grain cart behind it ⁓ a 30 foot bean head platform behind it down the road. If you can't drive my little minivan.
Salem Henricks: Yep. yeah, the first time I drove a stick shift, especially by myself, I was 12 ⁓ my dad sent me in the one ton. My grandparents place was a one mile section down and a quarter mile on. ⁓ ⁓ had this great big circle drive ⁓ I was like, yeah, I know how to drive it, but like not by myself. And he goes, all right, well ⁓ take off. Let's make a couple of rounds. ⁓ made ⁓ laps around circle drive. And he goes, all right, you're good. Run over to Nanny Poppins go grab X ⁓ whatever was that I needed to grab.
Alecia Stuaan: She's not for it.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: Thank you.
Salem Henricks: Like,
Alecia Stuaan: What is it with like the manuals being the first vehicles that we drive because that's what the first vehicle I drove was a manual it was a right
Salem Henricks: I can do that.
Amber Stanik: Yeah.
Salem Henricks: But it should be. Yeah. you don't even have to shift anymore. These tractors are fancy now. Like mine had a bad clutch and sometimes I popped a wheelie in that thing and it just happened.
Alecia Stuaan: Right?
Amber Stanik: Well, don't run into your parents' house.
Alecia Stuaan: You know? So the first tractor that we were all taught on was a John Deere 2630, which I'm not sure if either one of you know what that is. I'm sure Salem probably does. But it was, and it was a manual. It was like the three on the tree kind of manual where you had to shift back and forth. Every single one of us kids, and it had bale forks on the front of it. Every single one of us kids ran those bale forks through the shop door.
Amber Stanik: Okay, yeah.
Alecia Stuaan: got to the point where my dad didn't fix it after my brother because he knew that the other two of us were. Because how it was our shop was set up was that the fuel tanks were right here and then you just drive like straight forward into the shop doors. And so we'd pop that clutch and straight the like bail forks go straight into that shop door.
Salem Henricks: Ours wasn't hitting something ⁓ the bail spikes. Ours ⁓ who was going to run the fence with the swather. ⁓ That was like a rite passage for us. Like someone was going to run it over, guaranteed. ⁓ I think I did it and...
Alecia Stuaan: You
Amber Stanik: Hmm.
Salem Henricks: I hope she'll never listen to this. poor grandma, my dad told me one time she ran over like a hundred different times. Like tractors were not her thing, but she did it when she needed to be a part of it. Yeah. We learned, I mostly learned when a John Deere 4440 and it did its job. It did exactly what it needed to do. had a couple of cabless tractors. Yeah, they were okay. But yeah, oh, how things have changed.
Amber Stanik: Make sure to send it to her Alecia.
Alecia Stuaan: you got into the drive the Fendt the very first time I drove it and it was weird because it was literally like driving a car I don't know if either one of you have driven like no no Salem McKenzie. You cannot say that on this podcast ⁓
Salem Henricks: it felt like a spaceship.
Amber Stanik: What did she say? I didn't even hear.
Salem Henricks: I said it felt like a spaceship.
Alecia Stuaan: She said getting in the Fendt was like getting in a spaceship. breaking that stereotype! ⁓
Amber Stanik: Salem! You're in timeout.
Salem Henricks: That's what my dad said. That's what my dad said the first time. He was like, what is all this?
Amber Stanik: Wait, isn't that what that country singer said?
Alecia Stuaan: Yes! It's legitimately like... Roberts will have a cow if I leave that in here. ⁓ I am? Because then I middle named her? ⁓ middle named her?
Amber Stanik: The hips guy.
Salem Henricks: summer.
Amber Stanik: Leave it in here. Don't take it out, it's funny.
Salem Henricks: WAH So really looking to all the different things that we're going to talk about this year. Amber, ⁓ what are you probably forward to the most as far as like episodes we've got planned?
Amber Stanik: I think what I'm most looking forward to is our employees coming on the podcast, getting parallel voice out there, specifically with Steven and Greg that are going to be on the ⁓ hey episode. ⁓ think really having parallel's employee voice put out there is really great thing. What about you, Alecia What are you looking forward to the most?
Alecia Stuaan: let's see, I get to yap professionally and get paid for it. Yes, ⁓ So I actually, been having a lot of fun coming up with the different ideas and already reaching out to different guests. I don't know, that's a tough one.
Amber Stanik: Certified yapper she is.
Salem Henricks: You
Alecia Stuaan: I'm honestly the one that I'm looking forward to is actually the one I'm going to be recording next week and that is going to be an episode about the Fendt Momentum planters and not only do I have ⁓ planter guy and a PTX precision guy coming on, we actually, got one of our customers to come on and he's going to talk about how and why he made the switch to a momentum planter and how it's working for his operation. So that's actually one of the things that bringing it all full circle and getting beyond just the parallel voice and being able to bring the relatability out to the customers I've since the moment that I've come onto parallel that I want us to be able set ourselves apart as the go-to dealership. I think that this podcast is just a way to elevate us even further. What about you Salem? Got anything specific?
Salem Henricks: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ I'm actually. I'm actually most looking forward to, think, the Women in Ag podcast that we're going to do because Kayla, Chronicles of Kayla is one of my favorite people, especially to talk about what she goes through on her daily life and everything. She has an amazing story just of her whole life, not necessarily specific to the farm, but everything else that they have going on within their family. And one of the things that she has spoken of to us a lot, and I'm really excited for her to share it, is it's not just about the equipment. sales and the relationships that she's got there, which she's very fortunate. She's friends with our general manager. They grew up together. They went to high school together and everything. And that's a super cool story. But, she specifically was telling me about one time where they were having issues. think it was with their bailer ⁓ the service tech was out there. He had come out more than once. And then the last time he was out there, he stood out there for hours, ⁓ seven eight hours in their field with them. ⁓ And just think that's a huge testament to like the whole, whole reason a company. It's how we merged. It's why we merged. It's how our companies were founded and it's how we built our business. And I think it's just really cool that now we can look back, you know, from 1950s to 1987. That was the foundation and here we are in 2026 and that's still what's getting and keeping our customers. So I'm really excited for her to say more about that because our customer supports. It's our lifeline.
Amber Stanik: Mm-hmm. I agree.
Alecia Stuaan: And especially right now. mean, the farm economy is kind of crap. And so we're sending more out in service than we are in sales. And so to make sure that even if you don't have the bottom line dollars there right now to upgrade your equipment, that we're there to keep the equipment that you have right now on your farm running to its fullest extent.
Salem Henricks: Yeah, and I know that's a lot of what we're seeing, especially these last six, seven, maybe eight months is there's lot more maintenance that's having to go into equipment and everything because ⁓ people have the money to go and buy new equipment or they're not in position where they're ready to trade in or anything like that. And so they're having to invest more in what they have. And ⁓ it's not always repairs. It's a lot of maintenance and stuff. So we see a lot of those calls right now. And, know, we've got a of people actually going into some of the service Tech trainings and they're really, really strong. are coming in. I'm really excited for them. We have some ⁓ that have been here for 20 years plus and knowledge they're going to get from them is going to be awesome. ⁓ And, what's super cool about our text is how we share regions. So we've some of our combine specialists come to Texas and to and help us out. ⁓ And we didn't have training there. And so it's really to get to see them do that and I'm excited to hear some of the other employees talk about their direct experience with that.
Alecia Stuaan: for sure, just, the coolest thing that I saw last year was I was a video from Scott Small, who's our VP of customer success, of a truck and combine that was actually loaded up from, I the Kansas location that they brought up to Wataga which is where I'm based out of, to their winter service inspection done because they didn't have the expertise down there, and ⁓ we have some of the best combine techs out there for AGCO. And so to be able, like you said, to be able to share those resources really is going to be such a dynamic industry changing relationship that we're able to provide our customers.
Salem Henricks: There's.
Amber Stanik: Mm-hmm.
Salem Henricks: There's a lot of other brands and other colors out there that may have a big network of dealers, but they don't necessarily work together among them. And that is really cool because we're not Illinois stores competing with Oklahoma stores or Missouri competing with Iowa, anything like that. Our stores, we are all one company and we're trying to make sure that everyone succeeds. And it's in our mission statement that we feed the communities around us and everything. And we take that very seriously. So it's really cool to see how we do share that. and it just ⁓ our main focus and it's awesome.
Amber Stanik: One team, one dream.
Alecia Stuaan: That's right. with I think this concludes our first episode, ladies. What do you think?
Salem Henricks: That's right.
Amber Stanik: Yes, such a great episode.
Salem Henricks: I mean, can talk forever, but I'm excited about it.
Alecia Stuaan: right, that wraps up this episode of Parallel Path. Thank you for spending some time with us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to follow the podcast wherever you listen ⁓ so you don't miss the episode, because it's gonna be great. I'm hosting. And if there's a topic or you'd like us to cover, we'd love to hear from you. ⁓ And we'll see you next time the Parallel
