Owner and founder of Solterra Strategies, Stacie Jacob, was recognized as an outstanding community leader as the Sweet Art honoree in Paso Robles, California. Jacob, alumna of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, brought her talents in art, public relations and hospitality to Paso Robles. She continues to play a pivotal role in transforming the town into a cultural and tourist destination.
Receiving the award inspired Jacob to reflect on the impact of her public relations and marketing firm, Solterra Strategies. It also reaffirmed her sense of responsibility to the community. She explains that her persistence in showing up, listening and being willing to ask hard questions has contributed to her success as a leader.
“We have to hold ourselves accountable and ask those questions to be able to figure out how we're going to move forward,” she said.
Jacob strives to present herself as a hardworking, thoughtful individual who cares at all levels. She works to create interesting legacies for herself as well as her community. “What we all have is the legacy that we're building, and what we take with us is a pretty important component. I believe in that journey,” she said.
Jacob’s legacy resides within the communication and PR industry.
The communication field interested Jacob early on, leading her to work at her local newspaper, the Tri City Tribune. Each month, she had the opportunity to produce a feature section. These experiences, along with her passion for agriculture, stemmed from her childhood participation in 4-H and led her to pursue agricultural journalism. She credits her collegiate experience as a foundational element of her success as a business owner.
Jacob explained that she always assumed she would go to UNL. Though she was stepping into the hustle of a large university in a big city, the transition felt natural. “It is always daunting when you come in with 25,000 students when you are there for your freshman year,” she explained. “I still felt like there was some familiarity with the campus, particularly East Campus.” The university had long felt like a second home, thanks to the many times she had already visited the campus growing up.
Throughout her collegiate career, Jacob had several key mentors that helped her reach the success she now has. Terry Meisenbach, her academic advisor, was one key influence who aided her in navigating her college and professional careers. Jacob was also a part of the Livestock Publications Council that offered a mentorship program. It was through this program that she met Cheryl Oxley, with the Angus Journal, who introduced her to the public relations side of the Angus Association.
This connection opened the opportunity for Jacob to learn about issues and crisis communication. A year later the Livestock Publications Council provided another connection that would bring Jacob to her first job at FleishmanHillard in Kansas City, Missouri.
After graduating in 1998, Jacob moved to Kansas City, which was the next big leap in her journey. In her new position, she worked as the assistant account executive where she learned more about working with clients to promote their brand. Jacob had the opportunity to work with Ocean Spray Cranberries in her early career and aided them in structuring their team. She explained that though the downsizing process was difficult to partake in, she found that the communication skills she had gained from UNL were the tools that led to an effective transition period.
“Understanding clear communication and being able to give people resources and help lead people using those basic core communication skills have really served me extremely well all throughout my career,” Jacob said.
After a while, Jacob began to seek a position to broaden her impact, eventually leading her to Seattle, Washington. Jacob became the first ever public relations director for the Washington Wine Commission. She had never anticipated going into the wine industry, but when a colleague from Nebraska encouraged her to take on the position, she decided to move.
“It felt like moving to the moon,” she explained. However she was excited and ready to move on and move up. Here, she was able to work with both the growers and the winemakers, helping to unite and cultivate the wine industry. After spending four years in Seattle, a position in California revealed itself as the next new venture for her career.
Paso Robles, a town on the central coast of California, welcomed Jacob to the community. This smaller town is agrarian based and community motivated, mirroring the culture of Jacob’s Nebraska home. She joined the Wine Country Alliance, working to promote agritourism in her new community for the next seven years. Jacob explains that this period of time sparked a passion for promoting those around her, by using her unique skill set to benefit the individual and the community as a whole.
“There’s nobody helping a lot of people out as it relates to marketing and public relations,” said Jacob. This realization led to an idea that would spark her own business. “What if I was independent from the Alliance, and I could help a lot of people and a lot of clients fulfil their goals and still help a lot of small businesses?”
This idea was the impetus behind forging Solterra Strategies.
Solterra Strategies is a public relations organization that designs brand strategies and marketing solutions. The company’s story resides in the origin of its name. Jacob explained that she took the words Soleil and Terra, meaning sun and earth, and combined the two into Solterra. The name nods to her background in agriculture and spotlights her company as a base for business growth and cultivation. After nearly 14 years of building this dream up from the ground, she now has a team of 10 people who work with her.
Jacob believes that less is more, and she intends to incorporate this ideology into her business model. Jacob’s long-term goal is to return to her roots and champion diversified agriculture in her home community. However, the target focus for Solterra’s current season is on agrotourism and wine’s place in agriculture.
“When I think about where wine fits in the world of agriculture, it's about value-added ag products,” she said. Her experiences in the wine industry will lead her to support other value-added agricultural products that have the power to revitalize local communities. She went on to explain how the brand of local companies impact the community as a whole.
Jacob’s appreciation for art and its effect on the community has also played into her passion for the wine industry. Jacob explains that she thinks of wine as nature’s art form. She compared the curveballs that nature provides beginning in the vineyard, through the production process, to the same kind of shifts and changes that artists run into.
“I truly do see wine as nature's expression of art that comes through in the glass that we get to enjoy every single day,” she said.
Jacob also plays an active role in Travel Paso, the destination marketing organization for the community where she now lives. The love she has for her community paired with her passion in communication and PR continues to catalyze her dedication to promoting the wine industry.
“For Paso Robles,” she said, “we don’t exist without wine.”
Success has found a presence in the life and work of Jacob, and she advises those who want to follow in her example to optimize their efforts and resources. “Say yes,” she advises. “When you say yes to the invitation, you don’t actually know who you’re going to meet or what that’s going to lead to.”
She encourages people to listen more and talk less and to work on finding balance in their life and schedule. She explains that she took on this way of thinking during her senior year at UNL. She went on to say that college provides an opportunity to expose students to diversity that may not be offered at any other time. “If you’re not a sports person, go to that volleyball game because it will follow you,” said Jacob.
Stepping out of a comfort zone, she observes, is exactly what can lead students to meeting life-changing connections.
