SPOKANE —  Rob Sharkey handed his phone to a Washington FFA member, who took it and wandered the crowd with it.

“I do want someone in a blue jacket, because I feel they’re more responsible,” he said as he asked the audience for a volunteer.

As he and wife Emily spoke to nearly 1,000 Washington FFA students Feb. 5 during the Spokane Ag Show, their talk was also broadcast live on the “Shark Farmer” account on Tiktok, using Rob’s phone.

The Sharkeys also brought Washington FFA State President Emily Ryder up on stage to record an opening for their TV show, with Washington FFA members in the background.

The Sharkeys recorded interviews and hosted their various “Shark Farmer” programs live throughout the show. They raise grain in Illinois.

They host a podcast, radio show and TV show under the “Shark Farmer” name, reaching more than 2 million people worldwide each week.

Social media

Before social media, anyone in agriculture who wanted to get noticed had to be in a newspaper, magazine or television show.

“Now any of you, if you have an interesting story, all of a sudden, the entire world can see what you’re doing,” Rob Sharkey told the FFA members. “The way you’re navigating it, you deserve all the credit in the world.”

Older folks tend to say, “I’m glad we didn’t have social media when we were kids, we’d be in trouble,” he said.

“Somehow, you all have figured it out,” he told the audience. “Your generation needs a lot more credit for growing up with social media than you have gotten.”

No fear

The Sharkeys told FFA members not to let fear of failure or criticism keep them from pursuing opportunities. 

The Sharkeys used the metaphor of crabs in a pot: If one tries to escape, the others pull it back down. 

Farming and friendship groups can be like that, Rob Sharkey said.

“When you try something different, when you’re trying to succeed and lift yourself up, sometimes the people closest to you are going to be the ones who try to pull you down the hardest,” he said. “When you succeed, when you lift yourself up, it’s going to be a reminder to some people of what they’re not doing, or what they’re not even trying, because they’re afraid of failure, of being made fun of, of being pulled down like they’re doing to you.”

Giant sequoia trees, on the other hand, grow together in rocky soil, the Sharkeys said.

“Sometimes it means you have to move past certain friends, sometimes it means you have to ignore certain family members,” Rob Sharkey said. “But if you’re going to succeed and truly take yourself to the next level, then you can’t worry about the people who are trying to pull yourselves down … Learn from the trees: You need to find people who are going to help you stand up, and help you be the absolute, absolute best.”