Hear Her story: Sarah Showalter

When art meets science, sparks often fly. When they met in Sarah Showalter, the combination created an executive whose insight into both consumers and the meat supply chain informs an entire industry.

Showalter, director of consumer and business insights for the National Pork Board, has deep roots in the family farm in northern Iowa and a head for turning spreadsheets into stories. At first, she moved far away from agriculture, interning at a bank in Chicago while studying finance at Iowa State. After graduation, she worked at the firm that is now Circana, and as a senior analyst of consumer insights for ConAgraFoods.

“That's where I really got into the insights world,” she says. “I applied those analytical skills and I've taken a path from there [that combines] food and helping understand the voice of the consumer.”

Not that that foray into banking was time misspent: The internship, Showalter explains, rotated her through several departments, so she was able to learn a variety of business skills and learn what she liked.

“I really gravitated toward analyzing credit opportunities and trying to understand what would be a good deal for the bank based on the industry that maybe a customer was in or what their financial statement looked like.” Showalter’s career, whether in banking, consumer goods or food, has been spent in offices that were majority male. Her favorite tool for making room in those spaces is impeccable preparation.

“I spend a lot of time before meetings making sure I know my stuff, and so when I come in, not only do I know what I need to talk about but I've also thought a couple steps ahead to, ‘What are the types of questions I'm going to get’”, she says. “I make sure that I know data and facts that I can use to help address those.”

That credibility is foundational to her business relationships, Showalter says.

Overall, in her experience the role of women in business has evolved, especially in the insights space that boasts a relatively heavy female leadership presence, she says — “I think it’s definitely evolved in a positive way.”

The best piece of business advice she’s ever gotten?

“I was told to take chances. The worst reaction you could get from someone is they tell you ‘no’ and that's okay,” she says.

“If they tell you no, then you go back to the drawing board, and you maybe go a different direction or you run up the hill again, but you fight for what you believe in.”

And if that doesn’t work, “Other opportunities will come your way,” she says.

“Don’t sit back.”