I am thankful to have had the opportunity to speak about image building and word-of-mouth marketing at the "Marketing Made Easy" seminar in Plymouth, Ind., on Tuesday. We had a good turnout of agricultural-business owners who wanted to learn how to better inform the public of the products and services they provide. I love talking with groups like this because their businesses are literally their lives. These folks are hungry for this kind of information.

I was taken by the passion they all exhibited for their businesses. In the beginning, the coordinator asked everyone to go around the room and tell us about themselves. The first participant to introduce himself first told us his name. Then he told us about his children. Right there, I knew this group was going to be different. This wasn't just a crowd of small business owners who are in business because they thought they would enjoy it—although they are doing it for that reason, too. This was a crowd of people whose whole families were involved in their businesses.

When your business is more than just a place you go to every day, you exhibit a passion that others don't regularly experience. I believe this passion is communicated to your customers. It shows in your products and services. I encouraged them to never lose that passion, because that's what will set them apart from others in their field.