Hear Her story: Mysti Richardson

Her LinkedIn profile doesn’t reflect this, but Mysti Richardson’s first job out of college was … selling insurance for Aflac.

She didn’t do that job for very long — about six months — because early on she set up a sales meeting with a prospect, who happened to be the CEO of Sam Kane Beef and a friend of the family. And he happened to know of a job opening more suited to her passions and her knowledge.

And that’s how Richardson became the third employee of Nolan Ryan Beef, as its first quality control director.

“He saw me doing something that wasn't utilizing my degree and cared enough to say, ‘Let's help open a door and get her into the right type of role,’” Richardson remembers.

And “it was a really cool opportunity because it was such a unique program” that enabled her to wear many hats — grading on the line, handling out samples and speaking with consumers in retail stores, talking antibiotic use with cattlemen — sometimes in the span of a week or so.

Richardson, who earned her Bachelor’s in animal sciences from Texas Tech, has done her part to pay it forward, mentoring through 4-H. One of her key pieces of advice, which she learned from a former boss, is “know your worth.” It’s more than words: Richardson recalls a pivotal moment in her career when she was in a meeting at another company and a male executive was interrupting and talking over her.

“I finally looked at the CEO and said, ‘You hired me for a reason. You asked me to look at this from a different perspective. Hear me for a second,’”

“And I think the room just stopped. I can’t believe I stepped up and said that, and it was a very empowering moment for me,” she says.

Across her career, Richardson says she’s worked for big companies where she had to “stay in my lane” and returned to smaller employers where her duties could change by the day. At Cryovac/Sealed Air solutions, she is the retail channel director for food marketing and is glad that the company’s team is supportive of women, including by sponsoring the organization’s events, such as the luncheon at the Annual Meat Conference in March.

Richardson was at the beginning of that tradition, as well, remembering the first lunch in Dallas.

“We had a few tables and some notecards with talking points, but there wasn’t a program,” she recalls. “To see what that organization has become,” hosting 500+ at the 2026 conference, “I was just like, ‘Wow.’ I'm so excited and proud of the work that's been done with this group.”