Friday Introduction: David Hancock of Hancock Family Farms

David's grandfather always told him if you have to put down someone else's product in order to sell yours, then you're doing something wrong. I think this is great advice. We also talked about a few other things for my weekly Friday Introduction series...

In the movie of David Hancock's life, what actor would you want to play you? 

A very young Clint Eastwood...1960s, Fist Full of Dollars Clint Eastwood. That's my guy.

And what would be the theme song?

The theme song from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What's your best piece of marketing advice?

It's like a secret to me...in my opinion, if you're marketing something, occasionally you do have to directly market your product, but sometimes the best way to sell something is to do it in a way where people don't even know you're selling anything. That's something I try to capitalize on. We have a farmers market on our farm on Saturdays. The way I market on Monday is completely different from the way I market on Friday. On Friday, I get into, "here's what I have" and what it costs, but on Monday, I don't even talk about what I'm selling. So on a Monday, I'll post a video about the farm, about a calf being born or me feeding cows and then by Friday, I'll talk about our products and hours.

People don't want to be sold stuff, in my opinion. To really be a good marketer, you want people to be in tune with you and not even realize that you're trying to sell a product.

If you had to pick one vice, coffee or beer, which would it be?

That's easy. Beer.

Tell us something we don't know.

There's two things, actually. The first thing I don't think people realize is that I'm my biggest critic.

And the second one is that I come across as being very confident in public, but by nature, I'm very timid and very shy. When I was a kid, I was so shy and so nervous...me and my cousin went to the same preschool together and my mom couldn't leave me until my cousin got there. And one day he was sick and she had to take me home and I'd been going there for a year and knew everyone. It takes a lot of work for me to be confident. I've had to make myself almost be someone that I'm not.

If you're not confident, you're not going to be a good marketer and you're not going to be good at what you're doing. So I've really had to work at that...but it gets easier. Once you see people see that confidence in you, it's not hard anymore, but it's not my nature. I never would have thought I'd get into the things I'm doing.