—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Mitzi Perdue has had a lifelong fascination with what it takes to lead the best life. She got to watch up close and personal how her father co-founded and was President of the Sheraton Hotel chain, and she also got to watch how her late husband, Frank Perdue, built his father-and-son chicken company into a company that today employees 21,000 people.
Both men had tremendous focus, they had a penchant for action, and they had wide-ranging interests which led them to see opportunities that others missed. They were also men who developed tremendous talent stacks, and when they needed to learn a new skill, they made the time and took the effort to learn the new skill.
Mitzi’s professional career includes being a former rice grower, past presidency of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women, and as a writer, in the 1990s, her nationally syndicated column, “The Environment and You,” was the most widely syndicated environmental column in the US.
Mitzi is a businesswoman, author, and a master story teller. She holds degrees from Harvard University and George Washington University, is a past president of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women and was one of the U.S. Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi. She currently writes for the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents and hosts EarthX TV’s show, The Pen and the Planet. Her nationally syndicated column, “The Environment and You,” was the most widely syndicated environmental column in the US.
Most recently, she’s authored Tough Man, Tender Chicken: Business and Life Lessons from Frank Perdue. The book made #5 on Amazon’s Business Biographies, out of a field of 20,000. She’s also the author of, I Didn’t Bargain for This, her story of growing up as a hotel heiress.
In addition, Mitzi the author of more than 1800 newspaper and magazine articles on family businesses, food, agriculture, the environment, philanthropy, biotechnology, genetic engineering, and women’s health.
She was a syndicated columnist for 22 years, and her weekly environmental columns were distributed first by California’s Capitol News and later, by Scripps Howard News Service, to roughly 420 newspapers. For two years she was a Commissioner on the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.
Mitzi also produced and hosted more than 400 half hour interview shows, Mitzi’s Country Magazine on KXTV, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, California. In addition, she hosted and produced more than 300 editions of Mitzi’s Country Comments, which was syndicated to 76 stations. Her radio series, Tips from the Farmer to You, was broadcast weekly for two years on the Coast to Coast Radio Network.
Mitzi just returned from the Ukraine War, invited by General Andriy Nebytov from the Kyiv Regional Police. He invited her after reading her piece Human Trafficking on Ukraine’s Border to see this trafficking in person. She saw abductions happening, powerless to act, as traffickers controlled the region. She describes what she saw. This episode isn't graphic, but sober. We'd prefer to live in a world without what she described, but I believe if it exists, better to know about it than not. She also shares what we can do to help and how, in particular helping the charity she created.