A Winner's Mindset: Influencing the Market vs. Letting the Market Influence You

Over the last several months I have had numerous conversations about how tough the ag market is right now.

There is no doubt it is difficult. Commodity prices are compressed, prices for various inputs and equipment are higher and growers are scrutinizing every dollar they spend.

But in those same months I have talked with founders and agribusiness professionals who are still growing, still winning new business, and still hitting their numbers in this current environment.

I often ask what individuals that are growing are doing to see success. Often, what they are doing is simply having a bias for action. Those that have a bias for action tend to have a consistent mentality, too: they view their actions as shaping the outcome, rather than viewing themselves as victims of the market's circumstances.

They ask "what can I do to influence the market?" rather than "what is the market opportunity giving to me?"

That difference in mindset changes what a company does every day, how they approach their customers and enables them to make incremental wins on a daily basis that comound this year, and into the next year.

Two compelling studies outside of agriculture illustrate how far this goes even beyond agriculture and business.

The first is a 2014 study on "placebo sleep" by Draganich and Erdal. Participants in the study reported how well they slept the night before, then were hooked up to equipment and given a fake readout of their sleep quality. One group was told they got above average REM sleep. The other group was told they got below average REM sleep. The readouts were random, and had nothing to do with how the participants actually slept. The group told they slept well performed significantly better on cognitive tests than the group told they slept poorly. Assigned sleep quality predicted performance, meaning, what the participants were told affected how they performed — their actual environment or situation didn’t influence performance, what they were told did, meaning their mindset around the situation influenced how they performed.

The second is the 2007 Crum and Langer study of 84 hotel room cleaning attendants. One group was told their daily work of cleaning rooms already met the Surgeon General's recommendations for an active lifestyle, with specific details on the number of calories burned per task. The control group wasn’t told anything. Neither group changed their actual behavior.

Four weeks later, the informed group showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, and waist-to-hip ratio. The control group showed no change.

The finding is aligned with the sleep study, and it matches what I see in commercial success with agribusinesses: the story people believe about their situation changes their results, even when the situation itself has not changed at all.

If a belief about last night's sleep can change cognitive performance, and a belief about the physical demands of cleaning hotel rooms can change health outcomes, a belief about the market can absolutely change how an organization sells, launches, and competes in the market.

I enjoy reading articles where individuals in the industry share their perception of the market. Not only can you learn about the market itself, but you can learn how these agribusiness leaders, and their company, think about the market.

In a 2024 CropLife article, representatives from biological and specialty nutrition companies were asked how the year was looking for their businesses. The answers from BW Fusion and NACHURS were divergent (emphasis mine):